by Kylie Chan
‘Three ships against fifty peaceful Nimestas,’ Shiumo said. ‘The cats are such cowards.’
‘Fold us onto the ships and we’ll disable them,’ I said.
‘There are five cats on the surface harvesting the Nimestas. We have to go down there first,’ Shiumo said.
‘How many cats on the ships?’
‘At least a hundred on each one,’ Shiumo said.
‘All right,’ General Maxwell said. ‘Surface first, then we’ll deal with the ships.’
We gathered around Shiumo and she folded us into the water. A group of three cats in spacesuits were firing at an enormous Nimestas. It writhed in agony, bleeding greenish-yellow into the water. Two more cats were cutting up another Nimestas while it was still alive, tearing into its head with energy weapons.
Don’t throw the bombs, I broadcast to everyone. They may harm the Nimestas, and the cats are wearing suits.
So how do we do this? Shiumo said.
I studied the situation. ‘Can you disable their suits without killing them?’ I asked Marque. ‘So they get a face full of chilli?’
‘No,’ Marque said over my suit’s comms. ‘You can’t have one without the other. If you disable their suits, the water pressure will kill them before they drown.’
Everyone back to me, Shiumo said. I know what to do.
‘What are you –’ Marque began, but we gathered around Shiumo and she folded us back to her ship.
She disappeared, and returned with a cat; then rapidly returned with four more, one at a time. ‘Throw the chilli!’ she shouted as the cats fired on her. Their weapons’ beams bounced off Marque’s energy shield. ‘Cover them with it!’
‘That won’t do anything,’ Marque said.
We threw the bombs anyway, spraying red chilli powder over the cats’ pressure suits. Marque was right – it did nothing. The cats fired on us as well, and Marque protected us.
‘I can’t hold this shield for long,’ it said. ‘Shiumo, what were you thinking? Fold them back to the surface. We’ll find another way.’
Shiumo disappeared, and reappeared behind one of the cats. She lowered her head and concentrated as she reached towards it with one claw. A half-centimetre-wide hole appeared in the cat’s suit as she manipulated space in four dimensions, then closed again. The cat screamed and fell.
Shiumo folded to the next cat, and created a hole in its suit as it spun to fire on her. It quickly fell too.
The three remaining cats concentrated their fire on her, and Marque protected her.
‘Marque, give me a weapon so I can fire back,’ I said.
‘No need,’ Shiumo said, and folded behind another cat. She raised her claw to put a hole in its suit, but the hole was too big; it tore a chunk out of the cat’s back. Shiumo released the hole, and folded to the next cat. A hole appeared in the air next to the side of the ship, and blood pumped out of it.
‘Shit,’ Shiumo said, and the hole disappeared.
She put a small hole in the suit in front of her, sending its occupant screaming to the ground, then folded to the last cat. She put her claw up to make the hole, and a small spherical piece of flesh – looking like red muscle and spongy lung tissue – appeared in front of me, then fell to the ground with a wet splat. Shiumo tried again, and the cat screamed and fell, bleeding from its nose.
‘Marque, help!’ she said, and collapsed, her sides heaving with effort. ‘I think I put the holes inside them.’
‘They’ll survive until we return them to their homeworld,’ Marque said.
‘We need to deal with the cruisers,’ I said. ‘Shiumo, are you okay?’
‘My whole face hurts,’ she said. ‘My eyes! How can this stuff get into a spacesuit?’
‘Your four-dimensional stupidity probably made your suit leak,’ Marque said. ‘That was such a risky thing to do – you could have killed all of us. Do you need a rinse?’
Shiumo sneezed loudly. ‘Yes, please! It burns.’
Marque doused her with the white slurry, and she shook her head. She went to one of the cats on the ground, touched its shoulder, and they disappeared.
‘Stand by, she may need you,’ Marque said. ‘If there isn’t enough chilli on these cats, you’ll have to go into the cruisers and throw some bombs around.’
It’s working, Shiumo said. They’re falling down around me. She reappeared, put her claw on another of the prone cats, and folded it out. This is the first time I’ve actively fought them. It feels good to help my loved ones and put these damn cats in their place.
She took the last cat, and reappeared. ‘There’s one more ship. I’ll fold you into it, and then we need to give those poor Nimestas medical attention.’
‘I have a sphere on its way to the surface. I’ll give them emergency treatment until you can fold them up here,’ Marque said.
‘To me, everyone, and I’ll take you to the cruiser,’ Shiumo said.
‘Form up behind me,’ the general said. She kneeled next to the locker holding the bombs and thumbed the fingerprint scanner to secure it.
‘What are you doing? There’s still one ship full of cats,’ Shiumo said. ‘They’ll destroy the planet if we don’t stop them!’
‘As far as we’ve seen, you dragons are creatures of your word,’ the general said. ‘We want your word that you will halt your reproductive conquest of Earth, and stop your dragonscales from uncontrolled reproduction.’
There was a bright flash of light – the remaining cat cruiser was shooting at Shiumo’s ship.
‘Can’t this wait?’ Shiumo said. ‘Only my mother can make that promise, and in the meantime the cat cruiser could blow up the planet and kill the Nimestas!’
‘Pass our message through to your homeworld and obtain agreement from your mother,’ the general said. ‘Or we won’t help you.’
‘The humans are the only ones capable of handling the chilli,’ Marque said. Its voice gained an edge of amusement. ‘You have no choice; you have to agree to their terms. It doesn’t matter how primitive they are; you can’t afford to breed them out of existence.’
Shiumo tapped the side of her neck. ‘There, I passed the message on. Now let’s go!’
‘We need confirmation that the Empress agrees to our terms,’ the general said. ‘Not just your word. A message from her.’
‘I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try,’ Shiumo said, and tapped her neck again.
A dull brown dragon in a spacesuit appeared in front of us with a Marque sphere. It sneezed violently. ‘What the hell?’
The sphere projected a message from the Empress. She was sitting on a shady balcony of white stone, surrounded by a number of different aliens. ‘I agree to your terms,’ she said. ‘Now please save the Nimestas!’
‘You have what you wanted, humans,’ the brown dragon said. ‘You have no idea what you’ve just set in motion. The entire Empire is watching. Now go save our Nimestas dragonscales.’ She disappeared.
General Maxwell thumbed the contact point on top of the storage locker. It opened, and she passed the bombs around.
‘Remember,’ she told Shiumo as we all put our hands on her. ‘You can’t fight the cats without the chilli. And to use the chilli you need us.’
‘Let’s go,’ Shiumo said, resigned. ‘My mother’s going to kill me when I get home.’
After Shiumo had dropped all the cat ships back in their home system, she returned us to Scaleshome. A platoon of UN troops in their distinctive sky-blue combat dress were waiting for us, with a small group of dragonscales girls standing nearby and watching with curiosity. The pepper on us hit the girls, and they shrieked and attempted to run away, but fell to the ground before they could get very far. Marque lifted them and carried them towards the medical centre.
‘That answers that question. We’re the only ones who can deal with the cats,’ General Maxwell said to Shiumo.
‘I can see that,’ she said. ‘My mother really is going to kill me.’
The commander of the UN troops step
ped forward and saluted us as we removed our protective equipment and Marque doused it in the neutralising slurry. ‘Secretary Park is with Admiral Blake,’ she said. ‘Come this way.’
‘Admiral Blake can take over,’ General Maxwell said. ‘I’m retired – this was just a one-off. I’m not needed any more, and we have an agreement from the dragons to halt the reproductive assimilation.’
‘Secretary Park would still like to thank you. All of you,’ the UN officer said.
We went into the meeting room. Richard was sitting to one side broadcasting raw, grief-stricken fury, but didn’t speak.
Maxwell sat across from Secretary Park and nodded to him. ‘We made the dragons agree to stop their reproductive assimilation program. I suggest Shiumo carries a diplomatic delegation to the dragon homeworld as quickly as possible so they don’t have time to back out.’
‘Where are Zianto and Hanako?’ Shiumo said, then raised one claw. ‘Never mind. They probably took off. Hanako’s already in enough trouble for screwing up her previous First Contact.’
‘They suddenly had other places to be,’ Park said. ‘Princess, will you take us to your home planet to seal the agreement?’
‘I have to. I’m responsible for this.’ Her voice became small. ‘This is all my fault.’
‘We’re giving you a way to defend the Empire against the cats,’ I said. ‘You’ll be a hero.’
‘I don’t think my mother will see it that way,’ she said.
‘I want you to act as ambassador, Charlie,’ Secretary Park said to General Maxwell. ‘After Choumali and Alto, you’re the most experienced in dealing with these aliens, and you’re also our toughest negotiator. You’ve worked with the dragons, and used the pepper bombs. You’re the best choice.’
‘I’m retired, Brian,’ she protested. ‘Surely someone else can do it?’
‘You are absolutely the best person for the job,’ he said.
‘I would prefer Earth’s representative was someone more … diplomatic,’ Shiumo said.
‘See? Even the dragons are scared of you,’ Park said.
‘I’m a soldier, not a diplomat!’ Maxwell said.
‘Oh, come on, Charlie, you haven’t stopped complaining about how boring retirement is. You’re going to love every minute of this,’ Park said amiably. ‘We need you. Do it.’
Maxwell’s expression became wry.
Park turned to me. ‘Major Choumali, you’ll accompany the ambassador’s delegation as her psi, along with a couple of UN guards and the team of specials trained in the use of the pepper bombs. You’re going straight to the dragon homeworld.’ He studied Shiumo. ‘Will you take them, Princess? The other two dragons have disappeared.’
‘I’ll take them,’ Shiumo said, resigned. ‘My scales haven’t stopped tapping since we took out those cat ships. Everybody’s so excited that we finally have a way to deal with the cats without full-on conflict.’
‘They need to go now,’ Park said. ‘Are the dragons ready for their arrival?’
‘They’re ready,’ Shiumo said. ‘I’ll take –’
She stopped as a couple of UN guards entered the room. They were holding a large aluminium locker at least a metre tall.
Shiumo’s eyes widened. ‘Is that more pepper bombs? I doubt you’ll be allowed to take that many –’
‘It’s a gift for the Empress,’ Park said. ‘A selection of seventeen different types of seed potato.’
Shiumo’s eyes became even wider. ‘Hot damn! She’ll love it.’ She turned her head on her long neck to look at Park. ‘Can I have some potatoes too – as a reward for taking your delegation?’
‘Come back at the end of the negotiations and we’ll see what we can do,’ Park said. He rose. ‘Now if you don’t mind, we’d like to have this done as quickly as possible.’
Oliver raced into the room and skidded to halt, nearly hitting the potato locker. ‘Take me too! I want to show the dragons that not all cats are bad!’
‘Good idea,’ I said.
‘No,’ Shiumo and Marque said in unison.
‘Why not?’ Oliver said.
‘Oliver, the cats have attacked many planets at the edges of the Empire,’ Marque said. ‘The dragon homeworld is full of refugees, sheltered by the Empress herself.’
‘There are people on Dragonhome who have lost entire families, clans, whole planets to cat attacks,’ Shiumo said. ‘They would see you, and see all they’ve lost. They’d kill you on sight.’
Oliver subsided. ‘I want a chance to show them I’m different.’
‘We’ll put the word out around the Empire that you exist and that you’re working with us,’ Shiumo said.
‘Maybe I’ll make a documentary about you,’ Marque said. ‘The Empress will want to meet you – but going to Dragonhome is a really, really bad idea. Even I can’t guarantee your safety.’
‘All right,’ Oliver said, resigned.
I hugged him, and he pulled me close. ‘Do us proud, Mum,’ he said into my ear.
I pulled back and put my hand on his face. ‘Not as proud as I am of you, son. Look after your brother.’
‘I will.’
‘I’ll bring the pod down to carry you all,’ Shiumo said. ‘You’ll finally see Dragonhome, dear Richard.’
Richard’s face was rigid with restraint, but his emotions were full of betrayal. He took Shiumo’s scale out of his pocket and held it out to her. ‘You lied to me. Since the first day we met, you lied to me. You came here with the intention of wiping us out, but you pretended you were helping us.’
She looked at the scale for a long time, then up at him. ‘The breeding program was humanity’s idea.’
‘Stop lying to me! This was your plan all along,’ he shouted. He shoved the scale at her. ‘Take this. And. Never. Speak. To. Me. Again.’
‘I still love –’ she began, but he tossed her scale onto the floor and stalked out before she could finish.
‘This is all going so wrong,’ she whispered.
‘Dragonhome. Now,’ Maxwell said.
Shiumo disappeared to collect the pod from her ship.
‘Good luck, Charlie,’ Secretary Park said. ‘I know you can do it.’
34
When we were all on Shiumo’s ship, she asked us to sit around her table so she could speak to us.
‘Before we proceed, I have to explain about goldenscales,’ she said, quiet and cowed. ‘My mother will assign you one as a liaison to help you with the protocol on our world. Sometimes a second-generation dragon isn’t the colour of either of its royal parents; it’s just plain yellow. We call these dragons goldenscales to make them feel special, but they’re generally limited in talent and ability to fold. They love helping people so they act as personal assistants for us. Please be kind to your goldenscales. We love them dearly and want to protect them.’
Without another word she folded onto the nose of her ship, and carried us to the dragon homeworld. It appeared larger than Earth, with more land mass, which was covered in green vegetation that contrasted with its yellow and red deserts, and smaller oceans.
Shiumo reappeared next to us. ‘We have to disembark onto the orbital network. I can’t fold any closer than this. Follow me.’
She led us to the rear of the ship, and Marque opened a door for us that led out onto a receiving platform in a dome-shaped room. Its transparent ceiling showed space above us, with the dragon planet taking up half the sky. Gravity was set at Earth-normal. A tunnel, also with a transparent ceiling, led out of the room.
A small moon was visible near the station. It was difficult to make out its exact size, but its surface wasn’t rock; it was a viewscreen of glowing dots that scrolled the message: Welcome, representatives from Earth.
‘Is that an artificial satellite?’ I said.
‘I suppose it is, in a way,’ Marque said. ‘It’s me.’
A brilliantly golden dragon entered the room with a Marque sphere floating above her. She was smaller than the other dragons, only a metre and a ha
lf long. She bowed her head. ‘Greetings, Ambassador Maxwell. I’m your goldenscales assistant. I’ve taken the name of Miko in your language.’
‘This is where I leave you,’ Shiumo said. ‘I have things to do.’
‘I’m sure you do,’ Maxwell said dryly. ‘You can run, but this will catch up with you.’
Shiumo turned away to return to her ship.
‘Oh, and Shiumo?’ Maxwell said.
Shiumo turned back.
‘Don’t bother trying to win Alto back. You’ll just be wasting your time.’
Shiumo lowered her head and went back into her ship.
‘Keep an eye on our emotional states,’ Maxwell said quietly to me. ‘If we start sounding controlled, we need to get out of here.’
I nodded to her. ‘Ma’am.’
‘Welcome to Dragonhome,’ the goldenscales said. She turned and gestured with one claw. ‘Allow me to show you to the space elevator that will carry you to the surface. The Empress herself has rooms waiting for you in her palace.’
I walked at Ambassador Maxwell’s shoulder, my empathy at full sensitivity. The five specials we’d brought, all with pepper bombs secreted in their armour, followed us; and the two UN guards with the locker of seed potatoes brought up the rear.
Miko guided us through the tunnel further into the orbital station. The lower walls and floor of the tunnel were a shiny opaque black, with matching black ribs that curved between the transparent upper walls and ceiling. The network of tubes connecting the stations was visible, and surrounded the entire planet.
We walked for nearly half a kilometre before coming out into an enormous room where it seemed all the corridors met. The ceiling was so high it was almost invisible, and the walls were similarly distant. Planter boxes held colourful alien plants between walkways and fountains, and there were white dome-shaped dragon buildings in the centre of the space, with different species of aliens strolling between them. The buildings closer to us were smaller, only one or two storeys high, and appeared to be shops and restaurants with tables set out among the gardens. A stunning variety of species were visible, sitting on a range of chair types around the tables, or reclining on soft mats on the ground. The buildings further away stretched all the way to the ceiling of the room, twenty storeys above.