The effects of the sedatives had begun to wear off in the time that the medical team predicted. Rawn had awoken, submerged and breathing-masked, and had a chance to
understand what was happening and adjust to the situation. He had floated comfortably for a while in the heated water, and the medical team had talked to him through a communication unit in the breathing mask and apprised him of his condition and everything that had happened and would happen.
Rawn calmly accepted their prognosis and waited patiently with the discipline with which he had been trained until his caregivers were ready to remove him from the tank. While submerged and waiting, he had also wondered about the human mediate whom he had rescued from Lacerta Five and whether he would see her again.
He soon had his answer. A couple of lower-ranking Knights entered to set up the ropes that would partition off a part of the room. They paused and bowed warmly to him as they entered, and Rawn nodded back to them from inside the tank. Once they were gone, the medical team and others began to file into the room. These included someone that Rawn guessed was the current Alpha Dragon from the sash that he wore across his chest, and a female closely accompanying him who must have been the First Dragon.
A pair of strapping Knights escorted these two inside, and the four of them took their place on one side of the room. Dame Sienna and some other Mentors were the next to come in, and they stood on the side of the room opposite the Alpha and First. Then, a small crowd of other people entered behind them and started to fill up the space behind the ropes, and that was when Rawn spotted her.
She was easy to pick out, with her AI floating over her shoulder like those of the other members of the press, but even without it, Rawn could not possibly have missed her. Before she took her place behind the ropes near the Alpha, she sent a smiling look in his direction that somehow made the water around him feel even warmer. Then, she called to the leader of the planet, who acknowledged her, and the two of them began to talk. Of course, she was a journalist, and she was on the job. Rawn was sure he would have ample opportunities to talk to her in the days ahead.
The water was made to drain out of the bottom of the tank. As soon as the water was at the level of Rawn’s hairy chest, the overhead devices automatically withdrew the breathing unit from his face and lifted it away. The tank quickly emptied itself, and two vertical seams appeared in the transparent cylinder. The medics efficiently removed the section of the tank created by the seams and bore it to one side, while Rawn, healed and completely naked, took a deep breath and stepped out into the room to the sound of thunderous cheering.
The medics were back immediately with a towel that they wrapped around him while Rawn looked across the little throng of privileged admirers and nodded and smiled a little smile of
appreciation at them, letting his eyes come to rest, at last, on the woman near the Prime Couple at one end.
She had seen him naked. Given that weredragons were encumbered with even less body shame than humans of this day and age, it really wasn’t an issue. It was of no consequence that anyone at all had seen him naked, but it seemed to matter just a bit that she had seen him that way.
Rawn found himself hoping that she liked what she saw, especially down below his waist. There was no reason she wouldn’t. As a weredragon and a Knight of Lacerta, he was desired by women—and not a few men—everywhere he went, and he frequently had pleasing company in bed. Perhaps it was only that this Joanna Way was the first woman of a world known to him that Rawn had seen in a decade and a half. Perhaps that was why it seemed to matter that she
appreciated the sight of him out of armor or anything else. After not being in the company of any descendant of Earth for so long, Rawn was pleased to be a welcome sight to so many, but especially to Joanna.
The two Knights who had brought in the ropes returned with a ceremonial cloak reserved for dignitaries to wear on the most special and solemn occasions. They draped it over Rawn’s shoulders, and he fastened it, then dropped the towel. Clad in the cloak now and letting it fall in such a way as to hide the part of him that called particular attention to itself, Rawn faced his admirers and let their applause and cheering slowly subside while the Knights and the caregivers stepped quietly away. As silence gradually fell over the room, Rawn knew that it was time for him to say something to his people and his world for the first time since he’d disappeared.
“My friends,” he began, “my fellow Knights, my Mentors, our Alpha and First Dragons, people of Lacerta and Earth and our allies…I thank you for your welcome. I knew the day would come when I would look into faces such as yours and see the fellowship and good will that you now express for me, and I thank you. At the end of a long and arduous trip, through which I faced isolation and danger and, at times, peril, the looks on your faces now are the best reward I could have.
You knew that I was lost. You may have believed me to be dead. There were times I nearly was. But there will be time enough to tell those stories. I am now home, returned to the world that I love and the space that I have been proud to defend. And soon, I’ll rejoin the ranks of the Knights and stand and fly again with my brethren as I loved so well. For now…thank you for your welcome. You have my respect and my love.”
At the end of his little speech, as the applause welled up once again and became an
almost tangible thing in the room, Rawn sought out Joanna’s face again and found her smiling a smile that he was pleased to know was just for him. She nodded subtly and approvingly at him, and in the midst of plaudits and accolades from a crowd of people, including the leader of the planet, somehow, it was her approval that meant the most.
His caregivers came to lead him from the room and off to quarters that had been prepared for him in one of the towers of the Spires. Rawn let them usher him away from the cheers and the clapping, but as he went, he cast a look back over his shoulder at Joanna to take her smile with him.
CHAPTER FOUR
It was an unusual thing to see an Interstar Fleet star shuttle sitting on the stage floor in the auditorium of the main dome of the Spires. But then, the purpose of this mass briefing was, in itself, unusual.
The auditorium seats were filled with every Mentor of the Knights and the Corps of
Lacerta, plus members of the Ruling Aerie and the highest-ranking officials from every city and settlement on the planet. They had not been told why they had been called to the Spires. They had been told only that it was of the highest importance and the most secret nature, and the Knights had imposed the tightest security around the event. The hushed tone and the muted voices in the great round room made the veil of secrecy around this gathering feel almost like a physical, literal thing.
Out onto the floor, in front of the spacecraft, stepped a slender man over fifty years of age, who had let his hair recede and thin because his mind was on too many other things. He looked up into the rows and tiers of seats and smiled a cordial but thoughtful smile. The hushed voices lowered themselves to whispers and silence as Dr. Jacques Phifer began his address.
“Gathered officials of the Knights and Corps of Lacerta and the governing bodies of the colony, welcome to this formal briefing on the results of Project Mythos, which we believe will be of the greatest import to the effort to stop the encroachment and incursion of the Chimerians into our quadrant, and preserve the lives and security of all our worlds.
I said ‘results’ because that is what our work has produced: definitive, tangible, effective results. And if I say so myself, powerful results. Results that will make all the difference for us in the battle we are waging against an implacable foe.”
Dr. Phifer let his gaze rest for a moment on a side entrance to the auditorium. There he found his colleague and assistant, Dr. Sewall Sabian. About twenty years younger than Phifer, Sabian was a man of dull blond hair, broad shoulders, and stocky build, with narrow, piercing eyes. When Phifer, a genetic engineer from Earth, submitted his proposal to the Interstar League and Fleet for a radical method of com
bating the Chimerians, he had not known what to expect.
His idea called for the project to be set up on Lacerta and for the recruitment of a Lacertan
volunteer. He had not known how the dragon people would react, whether they would take the proposal seriously or want to flog a human scientist with their dragon tails for daring even to suggest such an idea. It was radical, it was audacious, and it might even have been seen as presumptuous.
To Phifer’s surprise, after the proposal went through channels in the League and the Fleet and was submitted to the Ruling Aerie and the Spires on Lacerta, not only was his project accepted, but the League even suggested a research and development partner, Sabian, whose work on gene therapies with diverse species had attracted a considerable reputation.
Phifer was not sure, at first, he even wanted to work with a partner. He was afraid another
scientist, especially a younger researcher with Sabian’s already impressive record, might be
unwilling to take the role of an assistant in Phifer’s project. He was relieved to find in the
intense and driven younger man a colleague who took on the work with enthusiasm and helped to speed things along once the project got going. The look that passed between Phifer and Sabian now was one of quiet satisfaction and subtly restrained excitement at the fruition of their
labors. They were about to make galactic history.
“As you’ve been briefed,” Phifer continued, “the goal of the Mythos project has been to create an advanced squadron of Lacertan Knights—advanced and, indeed, enhanced. The
recipients of the treatment, who will be selected from among the finest young members of the active Knighthood, will be endowed with powers surpassing all other Knights and all other peacekeeping personnel in the Interstar League.
I chose to work with Lacertan Knights because the inhabitants of this colony are all already
endowed with a specific mutation: the inborn power to morph their physical form from humans to bipedal dragons. I was inspired by the Lacertans’ dragon nature and by the oldest, most
pervasive myths of the planet Earth. In the mythology and folklore of our ancestral planet,
dragons were feared for the power that they alone of all creatures were said to possess: the
power to breathe fire.
With this power, the legends said, they brought terror and destruction onto the lands where our ancestors lived. These stories today, so many centuries later, are understood to be just that—stories. But I set out with the hypothesis that through the manipulation and splicing of genes and the careful guidance of artificial mutation, I could create, in real weredragons, the powers attributed to the beasts of myth.
My project required a test subject of the physical and psychological strength to withstand a
series of reversible genetic alterations until we arrived at the final, successful mutation. The
subject has passed through the genetic beta testing with the most auspicious success and is ready to demonstrate that success for you today. It is now my greatest honor to present to you Sir Rawn Ullery, Knight of Lacerta.”
The side entrance where Dr. Sabian stood slid open, and onto the auditorium floor stepped Sir Rawn, newly minted Knight, just nineteen years of age and clad in a simple silver armor skin. He had just passed his final initiation into the Knighthood after three years of training. He had come to the attention of the Mythos Project because of the speed with which he had passed through the training and the natural aptitude for battle that he had demonstrated from the very beginning.
He had caught the attention of all the Mentors and quickly become the most watched pupil of the Spires. Not even twenty years old, he was an arresting specimen. The strength and vigor seemed to sing in his muscles as he moved. The commitment to his world and his duty appeared to shine in his features and his eyes. Everyone he had met since submitting himself for training had sensed something special, something almost magical about him. There seemed to be no one else on all of Lacerta who was more truly born to be a Knight than Rawn.
Sir Rawn strode over to the human with whom he had worked for so many months. He looked down at the shorter Dr. Phifer with a noble kindness, with almost the look of a child for a loving parent. A bond had formed between the young Knight and the scientist from Earth. Rawn had taken Phifer’s work to heart and given his all to the project. And he had not disappointed.
Phifer touched Rawn gently on one arm and said, “My boy, this is the day when
everything we’ve done, all the work and all the sacrifices, pay off. Are you ready, son?”
“I’ve been ready from the beginning, Sir,” said Rawn.
“There’s my boy,” Phifer said, and gave Rawn’s arm a small, doting squeeze.
Phifer returned his attention to the seats. “And now, it’s my honor also to introduce the man who has been instrumental at every step of the way in speeding this project along to its most auspicious conclusion. He’s the most brilliant and capable researcher I have ever met, and has exceeded my expectations in realizing the Mythos Project.” Gesturing in his assistant’s direction, he called, “Please join me, Dr. Sewall Sabian.”
At Phifer’s call, Sabian stepped forward from where he stood and joined the leader of the project and their subject. He gazed up at the people in the seats with a cordial, quiet nod and a soft smile.
“Thank you, Dr. Phifer,” said Sabian. “It’s been my pride and my honor to join you in this project. Together, we’ve brought a new power into the galaxy, one that will serve the greatest cause.”
“Well said,” Dr. Phifer acknowledged proudly. To the men and women in the seats, Dr. Phifer continued, “Sir Rawn’s enhanced powers will operate only when he is in his dragon form.” Then, to the young Knight: “Sir Rawn, if you please…?”
The scientist took a couple of steps back. Rawn, facing the tiers of seats, gave only the most slightly perceptible shrug of his powerful shoulders, and at once, his human shape gave way to the dragon with neck outstretched, wings unfurling, and tail curling out behind him.
“And now, Sir Rawn,” said Phifer, almost theatrically, “show us your fire.”
A heavy exhale from the armored weredragon produced serpentine wisps of smoke from his nostrils. He reared back the mighty, horned head on his python-like neck, opened wide his mouthful of sparkling dragon fangs, took a deep breath, and breathed out more heavily. At once, from his reptilian jaws leapt a column of blazing yellow-orange flame. The response was even more dramatic than even the hint of theatricality in the scientist’s command. A vast chorus of gasps welled up in the auditorium.
The onlookers leaned forward or backward in their seats, clutched the arms of their chairs incredulously, or leapt to their feet. Gasps turned to a few shouts, and a heavy murmur and buzz of excitement filled the space.
Phifer looked to Sabian and found the corner of his assistant’s mouth turned up in a
triumphant smile that said, we’ve got them right where we want them.
Rawn ceased his blazing exhale and lowered his head to face the gathered luminaries in the seats again. Tendrils of smoke poured from his closing mouth and his nostrils. He huffed slightly, allowing himself a moment of pleasure in his own performance.
Containing his own pleasure, Phifer addressed his assistant. “Dr. Sabian, would you care to continue from here?”
“Thank you, Dr. Phifer,” said Sabian. To those assembled in the seats, he carried on where Phifer had left off. "Sir Rawn's flame is of variable intensity and focus. It can express as a jet of fire, as you've just seen. It can also express as a wide burst to cover an entire area, or a concentrated burst upon a single target. And it can be focused even more tightly to become a torch capable of cutting metals and other compounds of weapons-grade strength, as you'll now observe."
As Sabian spoke, two drones floated into the auditorium from another side entrance, each one equipped with grappling arms that carried a sheet of metallic, or metallic-ceramic, plating of
the type that the scientist had described. The drones positioned themselves roughly four meters from where Phifer, Sabian, and Rawn stood.
“And now,” the younger scientist announced, “Sir Rawn will demonstrate the potency of his powers as I’ve just described. Sir Rawn, if you will…”
Rawn stepped past the two researchers and stood facing the two sheets of material
suspended from the drones’ robotic arms. He focused his attention on one, took a deep breath, and lunged his neck forward, opening his mouth wide. A mighty gout of flame welled up in his dragon maw and reached out like the massive tendril of some fiery Kraken. It enveloped the first metal-ceramic sheet and sent feelers of searing fire crawling up and down the surface of it. In a matter of seconds, nothing was left of the metallic sample but the small portions of it still grasped in the arms of the drone, which floated away as if afraid to face what had destroyed its cargo. On the stage floor lay a molten heap of matter that had been Rawn’s target.
Rawn pivoted his dragon neck to the other sample suspended by the other drone. He inhaled deeply again and shut his formidably fanged mouth until his jaws lay only slightly open. He concentrated and exhaled again, and once again, he gave forth his fiery breath. But this time, it came as a narrow, concentrated jet of flame. It struck one edge of the floating sample and immediately burned through it, cutting a notch in the material.
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