* * *
The living decks were in chaos due to the strange purple and blue lights that had been spotted writhing through the hull as if they had not been six feet of specially treated trilininium and force shielding. Taul sighed as he yet again assured the Quarters Officer that they did indeed know what the lights were and that for now everyone was best served to remain calm, or as calm as anyone could get after having a stardragon’s coils slither through them while in the shower... She hadn’t said that was what had happened, but based on the sketchy description of what had brought the problem to her attention shortly before her husband had screamed about being ravaged by a huge snake, he could imagine.
He was not the only one trying to maintain order. Propulsions had been having a fit about the ship no longer moving. Power crystals were mysteriously singing and glowing in previously unknown patterns. Hydroponics had been overtaken by mysteriously lush growth in the short span between their last jump and four tetches ago. Whether that was going to be good or bad no one was certain.
The stardragon materialized in the Captain’s chair, then sniffed at the closed m’larh mug. It smelled of roses and cinnamon, caffeine, something dark and musky, sweet-something, and chica bean. “That depends on if you like plants.” She answered Taul’s thought with a twitch of her tail while flipping open the lid, just before sticking her snout in. “You want to have good healthy things that you know you can eat while learning new plants, I assume.”
“Well, yes...” Taul nodded, his fist clenching at how this being had invaded his mind and taken over their ship as if it were her personal territory and their existence was her whim.
“Good.” She looked at him sternly. “‘Magic’ is real. Your continued existence is indeed my whim. Don’t make me change my mind after I told your Captain I would show you the way to a new home.” Raelmaz paused a moment, tilting her now crystalline head slightly as she regarded him. “Of course I could crystallize you and just take the rest there. You could be a reminder in a town square that my kind is real and a warning as to what can happen if my generosity is mistreated.”
The captain materialized in the transport pod and stepped down to the floor, nodding to all of them. “Lady Raelmaz, how do we get to this planet that you say would be suitable?”
An electric frisson spread over the crew. A myriad of emotions assaulted Raelmaz as they spread and she could feel the waves of it spreading through the ship even though word had not yet passed to the other various passengers. That there still could be secrets with connections like that puzzled her.
She drew him to the navigations consol, mentally overlaying her hands on his and gently bumping aside the confused Navigations Officer. Zentaur balked slightly at the control, but not enough to annoy her. He was a being less used to sharing, after all. Under her guidance his fingers moved across the keyboard and programmed the sequence she needed. Closing her eyes she simultaneously brought up the rudimentary model she had drawn for him and shared it with the others.
“This is where we are,” A glowing dot appeared on the ‘map’ on one layer. “And this is where we need to be.” Another dot appeared. She changed the view slowly and superimposed the course they had been under. A blue dot appeared on a planet an appropriate distance from a sun in that vector. “This is where you will go.”
“Well and good.” Taul crossed his arms, his blue robes shifting with him. “But how are we getting there? Our drives can’t manage a jump like that. We span distance and they need to build a charge.”
“You’ve already managed one such jump by hitting a weak point in the fabric of space-time at just the right time and velocity. You won’t need drives this time though. I will be taking you and it will be very easy as I’m already bonded with the crystal archive. Unless you fight me of course. I can’t say what might happen to you if you struggle mid phase.” Raelmaz preened her wings meekly, looking mildly at Taul and smiling.
Zentaur looked between the two, feeling the conflicting emotions running through the stardragon regarding him, though unsure why he was feeling and knowing her thoughts more clearly with every mili-tael.
“Perhaps you’re evolving.” Raelmaz answered while shooting him an amused glance. “Someone should warn your passengers that I will be embracing them again, to avoid what happened last time.” She looked over a claw pensively.
Zentaur gave an order to his Communications Officer, and soon his voice was carrying through the ship. “Please prepare for another jump. We are being guided to a haven, finally. Stow everything quickly and stand by. Our guide says that she will be ‘embracing’ us. This is the entity we felt before. Do not fight her.”
“It would actually be better if you embraced back, or at least opened to me. The more fear you have the harder it will be for me to bring everyone.” Her words to the entire ship followed on the heels of the Captain’s, sonorous and smooth.
She allowed them a short time to prepare before spreading out once more and filling the ship...and each of the passengers, wrapping around them as if they were tiny grey mice in the hands of long gone children in some other plane of existence. Some opened to her more than others, Taul the least. There she found irritation that the voyage would be reaching an end. Ultimately that didn’t matter. There were other functions where he could fill an important role once landed.
Now she took breath for all of them, synchronizing their hearts and lungs. So many minds were there to harmonize that she had to fall back on arcane purification chants in a dead language. If they focused on the words, which they did, then it would be easier to thread them all through. Raelmaz began to hum and tone, pulling their vibrations up forcibly, allowing more to figure out how to latch back onto her. There was hope yet then that they could relearn forgotten gifts and avoid what had killed their very first world.
She had to dance, and soon.
Finally she had them all in alignment and called on the crystals. Side by side she activated them, and they danced with her to build the energy needed to push through. It had been long since she had felt so full. She could hear the stars around them sing, and she called out to them in joy. Perhaps a prospective mate would hear and be awakened by her cry to take care of other needs.
The wall burst. The needle pressed through. The thread followed her and the fabric rippled with her. The universe condensed to a point as they sped forward. Then the point exploded yet again, and she forgot about the tiny beings she held within herself as she swam the current toward the star that called back to her, shivering in excitement. The tiny mice within screamed in pleasure and agony with her at the burst.
A planet’s gravity caught at her like the talons of a male, and she curved around it as a memory tore to her consciousness. There were little ones she had to ensure nested before she could search out a mate. The urge to create lessened slightly, but not fully. Carefully she brought the ship into orbit and disengaged.
A planet of green and blue shone in the light of a white star, orbited by 9 other planets that were its siblings, and having triple moons. White clouds swirled over the face. Raelmaz smiled, she could already hear the crystals in the planet communicating with those onboard the colony ship and exchanging information. The exchange would ensure that any terraforming that needed to be done would go smoothly. Even better, there was no creature already occupying the niche that these little ones would need.
Raelmaz laughed and condensed herself again on the bridge, this time in a form standing upright on two legs, great wings folded on her back, and clasping a spear in her hand. She was transluscent as ever, and unrobed, as a stardragon had no need of robes. Scales were enough for her and always would be. “Behold Voyagers. Name and care for your planet well. If you do not take care of it, remember that I may not be so kind next time.”
Zentaur had fallen in the course of the jump, overwhelmed by the myriad minds that he had been merged with temporarily and the speed, then her withdrawl from him.
“Sir, our sensors are picking up that the at
mosphere has an Oxygen mix that is breathable. Temperature readings are good as well.” One of the women from the consoles reported with flashing teeth and bright eyes.
Zentaur smiled. His people would have a home planet. Then his heart fell, and he closed his eyes. What could he do to repay this being that had been kind despite her feelings toward them? Stranger yet, he felt a loss. Surely she would leave. Why did he feel such loss at the thought? He opened them to find Raelmaz regarding him with a guarded expression.
“Perhaps, Zentaur, you may be a little too open... I shall stay for a time then.” She sighed. “I will have a short responsibility to ensure that you are safely established here.”
His heart loosened from the knot it had shrunken to and he drew a breath. “Thank you. Lady Raelmaz...would you like to accompany myself and the first exploration team? Since you brought us here it seems fitting.”
“Then descended the Heavenly Parents and stirred the waters together with the Celestial Spear...” She quoted quietly from a legend they would have not even heard, smiling wryly. “I will go with you. That’s always the way it seems to start with your race.”
The End
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