Space Dragon Allepexxis

by C. K. Pershing

  “Now I’m scared about what will happen if we don’t like it,” Casten said.

  “I’m not worried.” Behlen said.

  After about another twenty seconds of standing in a weird kind of silence, a chime sounded and Behlen said, “We’re here.”

  The doors slid open and Paress was greeted by the site of a colossal room so big that it could fit multiple sports arenas. He didn’t think such a building was even possible considering the relative scarcity of support structures for the ceiling.

  They stepped out on to a floor that Paress realized was about five levels from the ground floor. The effect was like a giant balcony looking out over a huge courtyard. There was a beautiful brass railing running the length of the walkway in front of him and beyond that, sitting in the center of the cavernous room was an immense black mechanical dragon.

  With an excited inhale of air Paress and Casten both ran forward and leaned out over the railing. They looked at each other grinning then back at the dragon. Behind them, Paress heard Behlen say, “Well?”

  “Is that it?” Paress asked. “Is that really #25?”

  “It is indeed.”

  “It’s…a dragon!” Paress breathed. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but a dragon wasn’t it.

  “And it’s huge!” Casten said.

  “True on both counts,” Behlen said. He turned to Jil. “Get the rig.” Jil saluted and ran off.

  “Francescan Imperial Star Navy Hyper Battle Machine #25, christened Allepexxis,” Behlen said proudly. “It’s the first, and only, Hyper Battle Machine to carry the rank of Apex Destroyer Weapon.”

  “What does that mean?” Paress asked.

  “That’s something you’ll learn only if you turn out to be the actual pilot. I have to keep some mysteries here, you know. It keeps things exciting.”

  A small thrumming sound could be heard coming up from below and Paress was about to lean over and look down when Jil’s head, then the rest of her body followed by a small flight platform came up so closely in front of him, he almost fell backwards. Apparently, this was the “rig” Behlen had sent Jil to fetch.

  The hovering platform was a circular shape with a railing going around it. Jil stood at a small podium at the front where she used controls to pilot the small craft. She brought it up to edge of the level Paress, Casten, and Behlen were standing on and docked it. Behlen opened a section of railing on the floor and rig and the three stepped on. Jil eased the rig away from the upper floor section and set it on a course for the Hyper Battle Machine.

  As they got closer, Paress could see teams of workers scurrying around the dragon performing various tasks.

  “It’s been so long since we last had a candidate, they’re making sure everything’s up to task for your attempt,” Behlen said. “We can’t have the whole thing fail because somebody forgot to lubricate the joints or something.”

  The black dragon seemed to grow even than bigger than expected the closer they got. It was on all fours and laying down, but still was incredibly massive.

  “The length of the tail gives it an even greater sense of size,” Behlen said in answer to Paress’ unspoken thought. “From tip of snout to tip of tail is precisely 1,000 feet if measured in a straight line. The unfolded wingspan is 2,200 feet total.” His smile was cold. “When this thing is standing upright with its wings unfurled. The shadow it casts alone…it looks like the dark destroyer of worlds. Who knows? Maybe it is…”

  They were close enough now that Paress could see that the huge red Orennis Leaf insignias weren’t #25’s only markings; there were a multitude of warnings and other information stenciled in white and red all across the Machine’s armor. Jil took the rig on a course around #25 so that Paress could see the multitude of thrusters on its back and leg armor.

  Behlen pointed at the thrusters. “Along with having jump capability, all of these boosters coupled with an ultra high-performance repulsor drive should make this one of the fastest, if not the fastest, Hyper Battle Machines in normal space ever built. It should be able to run rings around most starships and fighters in normal space.

  “Hyper Battle Machines have always been able to move much quicker than their mass would seem to indicate. It’s part of their Blessing. But if the calculations about #25 are correct, this Machine will be pretty much bending reality with how fast it can move.”

  “Wow…” was all Paress could say about the thought.

  At Behlen’s direction, Jil landed the rig about twenty yards in front of the Hyper Battle Machine. They all stepped off and followed Behlen up to the dragon’s snout. The way the whole thing was laying flat on the ground gave the impression that it was sleeping, which, Paress supposed, it was. He knew that Companions had to actually wake Hyper Battle Machines up from their shut-down state.

  A tech walked over to them and bowed. “Doctor, everything is prepared per your instructions, we can start anytime.”

  “Excellent,” Behlen said. He turned to Paress and Casten. “Okay guys, you’re on. #25 has a clean key thanks to The Sisters.” Paress noticed a slight shiver from Behlen when he mentioned The Sisters. “So you two will have to be keyed as the Space Knight and Companion. Which God knows, I hope this works because I really don’t feel like dealing with those weirdos to reset the key after another botched synch.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. The Sisters?” Paress asked.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Casten said.

  “Thank you for that,” Behlen said. “I always feel like if I talk about them too much, they’ll suddenly appear. So yes, you can fill in Paress.” He paused a moment, seeming to collect his thoughts. “Alright, Casten, you stand here. And Paress, you go here.” He positioned the two boys next to each other directly at the tip of #25’s nose.

  From this close, Paress couldn’t see anything of the Hyper Battle Machine other than a black wall of metal in front of him. On further inspection, the color wasn’t solid black. There were tiny specs of gold mixed in.

  Behlen noticed Paress’ attention and said, “This Machine isn’t painted— well, aside from insignias and markings. What you’re looking at is its actual skin. The gold is part of its heat ablative armor. It helps against the high heat output the Machine produces and has the additional benefit of deflecting light beam weaponry. Of course, it carries shields, but this helps it survive whatever gets through the shields.”

  As Paress nodded, Behlen took Paress’ right hand and placed it flat against #25’s surface. It was so smooth as to almost be slippery, which seemed odd to Paress considering the surface’s matte finish. Behlen stepped back and checked some notes on his data pad. He walked back over and moved Paress’ hand about an inch to the left and turned it slightly. “Don’t move,” he said. He turned to Casten. “You should know what to do.”

  Casten looked confused for a moment and then sudden understanding flashed into his eyes. “Hey, I actually do!”

  “It’s one of the core parts of your being a Companion,” Behlen said. “Your deep mind and body will always know what to do with Hyper Battle Machines.”

  “Yes…” Casten said, and then suddenly stepped forward and took Paress’s free hand in his.

  “Paress, when Casten puts his hand on #25, you’ll feel a shock,” Behlen said. “You have to keep steady and not remove your hand. Okay? This’ll be the only time you’ll have to do this because from then on #25 will be keyed to you. Understand? Don’t remove or change the position of your hand.”

  “Yes sir,” Paress said, hoping he wouldn’t screw up. He glanced at Jil, who flashed a big smile and nodded, then he looked at Casten.

  “Don’t worry, we’ve got this,” Casten said.

  After a moment, Paress nodded. “Right.”

  Casten squeezed Paress’ hand confidently and turned to face the Hyper Battle Machine. In a loud clear voice, he called out, “Hail! I greet thee, the 25th Hyper Battle Machine of The Francescan Imperial Space Knight Arsenal, Allepexxis! Having been called upon to serve His August Majesty,
Gaius Sanctus Siegfried Francesca II, Emperor of the just and noble Francescan Star Empire, and Protector of the Solemn Seal of the Promise of The Ancients; blessed be his name; I present thee the Space Knight Paress Siffrid Handrel and Companion Casten of Machten Atelier. We come to you in the hope of achieving the Trinity of War. We ask that you open your heart to accept us in this Trinity as we shall do the same with you. And thus, with the pact sealed, we may bring terrible and just retribution upon the enemies of the Emperor and the Ancients. With our intent clearly and heartily spoken, I say unto thee…awake!”

  Casten’s free hand shot forward and starting with his pinky finger, each finger pressed against #25’s skin in turn. As he did so, Paress could feel the hand holding his starting to heat up. When Casten’s thumb pressed against the skin, Casten suddenly spread his fingers and slammed his palm down, tilted slightly to mirror the angle of Paress’ hand.

  Paress was suddenly overwhelmed with a shock as blue lightning arced from #25 to Casten, through Casten’s body and hand into Paress, and through Paress, back into #25, completing a circuit. Paress gritted his teeth as the lightning and pain grew in intensity. His ears were filled with a deafening explosion.

  “Hold on, Paress!” Behlen shouted. “You’re almost there!”

  After an excruciating couple of moments, there was a loud bang as the electricity settled into a smooth flow and it seemed to Paress that there was a golden halo of light formed in the space between him and Casten, and #25. Inside the halo, Paress thought he could see some kind of scene playing out, as if the halo was a window into some kind of movie… or other reality. But just as soon as he thought he could focus on something, the halo flashed blindingly and was gone, taking the electricity and noise with it. After it was gone, Casten let go of Paress’ hand and took his other hand away from the Machine.

  “You can let go now, Paress,” Behlen said.

  Paress did so and was happily surprised to see that both his hands were unharmed. “Did it work?” Paress asked, looking over at Behlen. He was shocked to see Behlen bathed in red light.

  “Come and see,” Behlen said with a smile and waved him over.

  Paress and Casten walked away from the tip of #25’s nose to where Behlen was standing off to the side. Behlen pointed and Paress saw that the dragon’s eyes, dark and lifeless before were now blazing a red hot intensity. The black diamond-shaped slit in the center of the eye opened slightly and swung down to regard Paress and Casten. Paress took a step back, feeling like a mouse suddenly noticed by a cat.

  “I thank thee for heeding my call, oh mighty weapon of the Emperor’s wrath,” Casten called out. “This humble Companion welcomes thee to functionality and will do his utmost to facilitate your righteous victories in partnership with the Space Knight in the battles to come!”

  “It’s okay,” Casten said, turning back to Paress. “I knew right away he accepted us. Come on.” He took Paress’ hand again and led him over to stand near #25’s eye. Paress suddenly noticed Casten’s other hand smoking.

  “Hey are you alright? You burned your hand…”

  Casten waved the hand quickly to disperse the smoke. “It hurts, but not so much. The pain’s already going away.”

  As they got nearer to the eye, it followed them. At first he was scared, but his fear started to go away a he realized that #25 was looking at them not with malice, but curiosity.

  “He’s as interested in us as we are in him,” Casten said. “I can pick up certain…feelings? Signals? Well, something. It’s like there was a part of my brain I wasn’t using that I ever noticed. But now I am and it’s kinda cool. Weird, but cool.”

  “Allepexxis,” Casten said to the Machine’s eye looking down from above, “Thanks for joining our team. We’ll do our best.”

  Maybe the dragon was satisfied with Casten’s words, or maybe not; for all Paress knew, they were being ignored when the eye swung up and went back to its neutral position. Casten seemed pleased, though, so Paress hoped for the best.

  “So far, so good,” Behlen said. “Out of eleven teams, you guys are only the third team to get this far. The rest have just gotten silence. If #25 has awoken, you’ve at least gotten past whatever initial testing system it has built in, so you’re on the right track. Very good.”

  He steered the boys away from #25’s head and down past the neck, coming to the upper torso. He nodded to Casten, who, still holding Paress’ hand walked over and placed his own against Allepexxis’ skin. They stepped back as the huge dragon raised itself slightly off the ground, allowing enough room for a large blast door on its chest to open above them.

  “Normally, we’d need a synch rig connected to a port so that Casten could get you guys all synched up while you sat in the cockpit,” Behlen explained. “But luckily, this machine has a backup Companion cockpit that Casten can use to get everything taken care of. Let’s get you situated and I’ll explain more.”

  About twenty minutes later, Paress was sitting alone in the Hyper Battle Machine’s cockpit. He was strapped into the seat looking at the darkened view screens surrounding him. After Behlen and Jil had helped him get familiar with the the basic layout and seat adjustments, they’d left to do the same for Casten. After that, they exited back through the tunnel that linked the cockpit to the outside world.

  Warm, dim backlighting filled the cockpit with a cozy glow and Paress felt like the temperature inside was welcoming. Also thanks to the perfectly comfortable seat, he couldn’t help but yawn and feel like he could fall asleep in such a relaxing place. A small window opened on one of the smaller view screens with Behlen’s face inside surrounded by a purple banner that read “Doctor Jeddeg Behlen, Francescan Imperial Space Knight Arsenal Staff”. Moments later, Casten also appeared, with a white border that said “Mechanism Casten, Francescan Imperial Star Navy Space Knight Companion Rank SSS.”

  “Okay guys, we’re all set. Paress, go ahead and close everything up,” Behlen said.

  “Yes sir.” Paress flipped the entry switch Behlen showed him earlier from “All Open” to All Closed”. The blast door leading into his cockpit slid down with a hiss and locked into a place with a satisfying thud. According to a small diagram that flashed on his screen showing a cutaway view of the entry tunnel, a series of other blast doors closed leading out to the main exterior blast door which duly closed. He and Casten were now sealed inside.

  “Very good,” Behlen said. “I’m sorry I can’t be there with you, but Hyper Battle Machines work best with their cockpits ‘clean’. Anybody other than the members of the team trinity is, for lack of a better term, an infection to the system— especially during this phase of the initial keying process. But don’t worry, I’ll be here the whole time and I’m just outside the main door.”

  On one hand, Paress was reassured, but on the other, he felt that he didn’t need reassuring. This Hyper Battle Machine’s cockpit felt like a place he was always meant to be in, almost like a fetus in the womb…

  “Paress, when I say so, a crosshairs will appear on your main screen. I want you to try to clear your mind of everything and concentrate only on those crosshairs. While you’re doing that, Casten is going to focus his mind on synchronizing your conscious and unconscious thought waves with #25’s main computer. He’s also going to establish your current dimension profile and set up a connection between it and the Machine’s standard dimension profile, as well as its other dimensional profile. After that, it’s up to you.”

  “Yes sir,” Paress said, not quite understanding everything Behlen said, but trusting that the man knew his business. “What do I do?”

  “Well, you’ll take the main control sticks in your hands. When you do, you’ll see a series of circles come on your screen. They’ll each have an arrow inside. You’ll want to always make sure the arrows point up. They’re going to spin around on their own and you’ll use the sticks to bring them back to the ‘up’ position.”

  “Okay,” Paress said, “I understand.”

  “Well, hold
on…” Behlen said. “Unfortunately there’s more to it. This is where everybody else has failed. After you manage to hold the circles in the ‘up’ position for seven seconds, eight more smaller circles will appear around the first two. While you continue to hold the first two in position, you’ll also have to keep the other eight in position too.”

  Behlen paused to let Paress take that in before answering the unspoken question, “You’ll do that by turning the eight small knobs on either side of you facing the sticks. There are four on each side surrounded by a yellow circle. Do you see them?”

  Paress looked down and after a moment, saw the small knobs surrounded by yellow that Behlen described. Then he noticed even more knobs surrounded by other colors stretching out and away from there, circling around to behind his seat.

  “Don’t worry about the other ones for now,” Behlen said. “Just pay attention to the yellow ones.”

  “But if I’m using my hands to hold the sticks and keep the big circles straight, how do I turn the…” Paress began. And then he understood. “My telekinesis,” he said.

  “Right,” Behlen said, smiling. “Very good. Remember when I told you that this Machine needs someone with the right abilities to pilot it? Now you see what I mean. This isn’t a case of brute telekinetics. This is about control. It’s very important. I think you’re the one who can solve this.”

  “But why is this Machine designed like this?” Paress asked. “Other Machines don’t need such a crazy set of controls, right? Why this one?”

  “Because this one is much more complex than the other ones,” Behlen said. “#25 was built to such exacting standards of fine control that part of the reason why it’s so deadly isn’t just because of the amount of power its weapons put out, but the ability to deliver that power at such a high level of precision.

  “There are some Machines who also have precise controls, but then they have helper systems to try to handle those things instead of the pilot. So the Machine never reaches its full potential because it’s just making assumptions about what the pilot wants to do. But #25 is one of The Seven, so its possibilities are even more amazing and it would be terrible to restrict its potential. So it’s sat here all this time waiting for the right person.