by Hall, Andrew
‘What do you think?’ she said, looking over at the dragon. ‘It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?’ a bright white eye blinked open on the grey mound, and the creature raised its head to look over at her.
‘Do you think?’ she asked it, scratching her arms. Dwelling on her next fix. ‘I mean what are you, anyway?’ the dragon raised its head and yawned wide before curling back up again.
‘Machines don’t yawn,’ Tabitha mumbled to herself. ‘But… animals don’t have cockpits.’ There had to be some animal in there somewhere. She wanted there to be some animal in there. A longing for companionship, probably. And besides, she’d already made up her mind really. It was animal to her; one thing left in the lonely world with a personality to reach out to. Tabitha got up and walked over cautiously, looking the dragon in the eyes. It stared right back, watching her approach. It looked like a rubbery lizard impersonating a shark; sprawled out in the sand with all the graceless menace of a basking crocodile. Tabitha reached out a black hand towards it, and heard a deep rumbling growl from its throat. It stared. Tabitha didn’t flinch as it growled louder; a crackling buzz that she felt in her chest like nightclub bass. She looked it right in the eye, stepped closer still, and placed her hand on its big flat shark snout. Some feeling filled her up then, and quickened her breath. She felt current coursing out of its skin and into hers, racing her heartcore. A new high. When she staggered back and the ringing faded from her ears, the dragon wasn’t growling any more. Tabitha felt a tingling in her hands and feet, like pins and needles. Her body went numb, and she dropped down onto the sand. She didn’t feel her hunger any more though, biting away and cramping her stomach like it usually did. The new feeling was small at first; tickly tingles like feathers and tinsel on her limbs. But in a couple of minutes it was a strong sensation, like someone was pressing their warm skin against her hands and feet. Tabitha raised her metal hands up and felt energy flowing into her. She looked at the dragon, which had lost interest and gone back to sleep in the sand. Tabitha stared at nothing, trying to place the feeling. This energy wasn’t coming to her from the creature, or from her core. It was coming from the sky. Tabitha looked back at the dragon, staring in disbelief.
‘I think you just made me solar powered,’ she mumbled.
Walking for a while down the beach, Tabitha felt a new kind of rested strength. It was like nothing she’d ever felt before; a renewing current flowing into her, as unconscious and gentle as breath. Her hunger was gone. She’d left her base layer by the waterfall and taken to wearing just her underwear; it was far too hot out here for anything more. Walking in the lapping waves and stopping to stretch out on the hot sand, she focussed all her thought on soaking in the sunlight through her hands and feet. It felt weird at first, a strange tingling. But once she’d learned the feeling and how to control it, she felt the sunlight pour into her skin. Energy massaged her muscles. If she’d ever felt this good before, she couldn’t remember it. It felt like all the light in the sky had wrapped itself around her where she lay, like a blanket or a breeze. That was the only way she could think to get her head around it. It felt like a cool drink and a warm hug; like good sex and a morning stretch all at the same time. For a few brief moments, she saw the sunshine very differently. Like a revelation. The world around her paled away; only the sun mattered. Lust. White lances of sunlight pierced the sky; shining down celestial from a god-reactor with a megaton halo. Holy light. Divine fusion. Tabitha felt the tingling light reach into her body and moaned, gasped, climaxed. Mouth gaping, she rolled her eyes to the sky in orgasmic prayer. Shivered with a deep warm wholeness she’d never known before. One last wave of pleasure came rolling and rushing and crashing through her body, and she floated feather-light back to waking life. Tabitha dropped out of her daze; saw the sky shining blue again. The sun was… just the sun again. She sat up in the sand. Saw the beach, the island. She remembered now. She felt strange and new; electrosexual. Over to her right the dragon slept on. The breeze swayed the palm trees and tickled through the leaves; the sound gave her tingles. The sky above looked deeper than the sea. An electrical eternity, stretching up into endless space beyond the blue. Tipsy and sated, Tabitha got to her feet and staggered dishevelled down the beach.
A little later she waded out into the shallows, and floated on her back with nothing but the blue sky to see. The salty water lapped at her lips; filled her ears in whispering glugs and trickled out again with the tide. The water felt warm, floating her hair and soaking her underwear. Gulls called overhead as the sun fed her skin. Bright turquoise water glowed all around her; shimmering life-blue in the light. Tabitha slept peacefully on the beach that night, warm and free and thoughtless, curled up under a million clear stars in a light-marbled sky.
42
Tabitha woke up with a confused scowl the next morning. She sat up and looked around. White sand covered one side of her face; she brushed it off with a rough black palm. Slowly it all came back to her; alien invasion, end of humanity, flying a dragon to paradise. She questioned her sanity as she sat there on the beach, shaking the sand from her hair. But the dragon was definitely there, a big grey hill by the tide. Curled up like a giant lizard, drinking in the light of the rising sun. Tabitha yawned and lay back, and stretched out on the sand. It was a good, long, lie-in kind of stretch that she could feel in her shoulders. She sat up, looked around at the beach, and idly took a handful of silvery white sand. She watched it whisper through her fingers in silky waterfalls, and thought about the thrill of flying again.
Back inside the dragon’s cockpit the controls seemed to respond to her much faster. Tabitha even found herself slipping into the creature’s vision straight away. The wings, the movement, the motion of its flight… they all seemed to fit better. She felt a connection.
A leisurely flight over the island showed Tabitha just how small it really was. Beyond the beach and the waterfall was nothing but thick forest, and the steep mountain looming up near the island’s centre. It was much the same around the far side of the island too; thick tropical forest, jutting rocky shore, and lots of birds flocking away in terror at the sight of them overhead. There was no village, no harbour that she could see; not even a wooden shack. There was nothing in the sea around the coastline either, save for a couple of dolphins further out. It looked like she was completely alone here, and clearly the aliens hadn’t made it this far.
Tabitha flew back around the steep mountain in a wide lazy circle, and already she could see her familiar beach in the distance. It was strange how she felt so much in sync with the creature; like her mind and its body worked as one. Suddenly she jumped out of her seat in shock, and let the ship glide to a stop and just hover in the air. Flying high over the island just then, with the warmth of the sun beating down on them, she’d felt something. Happiness. Except it wasn’t hers. It came from the dragon.
‘Dragon, fly away,’ Tabitha called to it across the beach. She wanted to test this weird connection between them; to see if they could understand one another better. To see if she didn’t have to be in direct control for it to respond. Down the beach the huge animal just sat there staring, blinking its white eyes.
‘Dragon, take off!’ Tabitha commanded, as if she were casting a spell. She even added a sweep of her hand for effect. Nothing. ‘Up! Go! Fly! Er… verbal command! Fly away!’ no response. Tabitha sighed in defeat and walked away down the beach, thinking. An idea hit her. Turning back to the dragon, she put her hands to her temples and thought about it taking off into the sky. With a few deep breaths, she tried to blank her thoughts out and just picture the dragon taking off, or her taking off. It didn’t work. She clapped her hands at the creature with a steely clank. Nothing. She ran towards it waving her arms, trying to startle it, but there was no reaction. She tried to mime taking off, and patted its wing for encouragement. It just watched her. She tried to think back to the cockpit, and the purple glowing symbol on the bony console. The maker’s logo, or whatever it was. Tabitha mulled it over while the
dragon stared at her. When she crouched down and traced a shape in the wet sand the creature craned its neck and peered over to see. It was the lotus symbol from the console, with the mystery mark inside it that looked like a fallen seven. Maybe that was the key to communicating with it.
‘Seven?’ Tabitha tried, pointing at the glyph in the sand. The dragon watched her with interest. ‘Seven?’ she tried again, pointing to the symbol nice and clearly. ‘Seven, fly!’ she called out. ‘You’re Seven, this is you!’ no reaction. The dragon just looked at her, looked at the sand, and lay down again. Tabitha sighed and walked over to it, and put her black hand on its grey snout. Except for the colour difference it was practically the same rough skin.
‘Please. I need you to fly,’ she said. But the dragon made no response. It simply stared with luminous eyes; circles of light that could just as easily have been cameras as windows to a soul. The waves washed against the white sand beside them in an endless tumbling whisper.
‘Why did you feel happy, when we were flying before?’ Tabitha asked it quietly, stroking its warm snout with a rasping sound. ‘And how come I could feel it too?’ she felt its warm skin against her hands; maybe it was the electric current she could feel. Whatever it was she liked the sensation. Her hands had long since lost all feeling for everything else, but she could feel her touch against the dragon’s rubbery metal skin. She felt its deep warmth, like a rock in the summer sun. She put her face to its side while it slept, and it felt hot against her cheek. It smelled like summer metal; like oven-hot cars parked in the sunshine. Huge thick scales interlocked all down its body like stone paving slabs. She felt its breath rise and fall. Heard it breathing, big and deep. But nothing she did could bring her closer to it. There was more to the creature than just idleness and aggression; she was sure of it. It wasn’t just a weapon of war. There were feelings and personality in there just waiting to be opened up… except she didn’t have a clue how to bring them out. Maybe more than anything she needed to feel like she wasn’t alone in the world. Like someone or something shared her feelings and knew what it was like to be a monster. Sighing in defeat Tabitha slid down to the sand, lying down by the dragon’s side. The sun disappeared then, as the dragon arched its wing around to give her shade. Looking up in surprise, Tabitha grinned at the realisation. The animal’s nature was coming out regardless of her, in its own good time. Laying a hand against its side, Tabitha curled up and dozed off smiling in her living metal cave.
Familiar skins hung limp from branches that were claws. Spiders filled the dark with shrieks and human wails. Tree-thick tentacles reached up for her from a deep abyss, dragging her screaming into a gaping mouth of white flame. Waking up dizzy and dry-mouthed from her nightmare, Tabitha crawled out groggily from the shade of the dragon’s wing. Stretching and wandering down the beach, she felt an unearned hangover sinking its claws into her. It was different though. It didn’t feel like blood withdrawal, and it couldn’t be the aftermath of booze; it could only be dehydration. The hot bright beach was a stinging daze, surreal when she thought back to all the rain and tarmac where she’d grown up. A bit of rain would be nice.
After a few good gulps from the cold pool, Tabitha stretched her back and looked around the clearing. A bright beetle on a bush popped its shell open and flew by. Birds whooped and called in the thick forest, hidden by a million leaves glowing emerald green in the sunshine. Tabitha looked around lethargically, inspecting her pink sunburn.
‘It’s too hot,’ she grumbled, almost a whisper, as if she didn’t want to offend the island.
Tabitha dived down into the sea with a muffled warping rush. The white sand of the sea bed stretched off into a blue-green eternity. The water’s surface rippled and shifted like a dancing mirror a few feet above, glowing white in the streaming sunlight. Kicking her black feet, Tabitha swam down to the bottom and ran the lazy sand through her fingers. She’d expected to see fish around; there was nothing. Maybe too many nature documentaries had made all that wildlife seem a little too close and immediate. After all, it took months to film all those animal shots; she couldn’t just expect to see teeming life all around her. Something tapped against her leg then, something rough. Tabitha freaked out and shot back for the surface, kicking out to get away. She swam for the shallows and tumbled back onto her bum, chest-deep in the sea. There it was again, whatever it was, bumping against her leg. Tabitha looked down and saw a wide grey shape in the clear water. Another drifted in beside it, vague under the rippling surface. A stingray poked its snout out from the water, flapping gently against her hands.
‘Hi,’ Tabitha said uncertainly. She seemed to be holding the ray from beneath. Its dark eyes peered out from two bumps on its flat head; a friendly grey fishpuddle that rippled and flapped against her.
‘Look at you,’ she said, smiling, stroking her hand gently along its back. It was almost like a dog. The second ray splished up at the surface, investigating. Tabitha tried her best to split her strokes evenly between them.
‘You’re just a pair of little attention seekers, aren’t you?’ she said happily, leading them out into deeper water. Tabitha put her head back under and swam down to the sand a few feet below. The rays swept around her, flapping their sides in slow motion; angelic splats in the clear blue. Tabitha swam back up and gasped for air at the surface, and wished that she had some diving gear to stay down longer. Not that it mattered that much; her new friends promptly came back to her at the surface. She gently fended off a ray’s advances as it bumped against her face, and gave it a soft kiss on the snout. It only seemed to want more though, and the other ray pushed in for attention too. For the first time in a long time, Tabitha laughed.
She felt in a better mood as she dried out on the beach, wiggling her black toes against the white sand. Her damp hair dried stiff from the salt water; tickly blood-red curls draped down beside her neck. She flicked her claws out and combed it through. Strange how much more contented she felt now; she was amazed at what a little animal interaction could do to lift her spirits. At least she had some friends here now. She smiled at the thought. A curiosity grew in her though, as she got to her feet and stretched on her tip-toes. An urge to know more about the dragon, still basking on the sand. She watched it resting. Had the thing gotten darker? She could’ve sworn it used to be a paler grey than that. If she could find out more about her ship and what it was, maybe it could tell her more about what she was becoming. She wasn’t strictly human any more, she knew that much. She still looked like one, but there was no getting around her hands and feet. Or her heart. Maybe she was something else now; a new species. If she was feeding on sunlight then she had more in common with the dragon now than she did with other people. She clung to the idea of her ship as another castout, to fend off the loneliness. And it’d probably gone rogue itself now, since she’d kind of taken ownership of it. It was the one thing in the world that wasn’t trying to hunt her down and kill her. Well not any more, anyway.
Sinking down into the cockpit, Tabitha’s rummage for truths did little to enlighten her. The strange bony console remained a mystery, solid and unmoving like a marble ribcage. There weren’t any metal panels in here that she could remove and look underneath; more like rubbery scales that she didn’t want to pull on in case it hurt. Studying it from the outside there weren’t any engine parts that she could get to, wandering around the dragon’s sides as it watched her. No pipes or components in sight. Its jets were just rows of scales that could tilt open, like vents or gills. Everything was organic, and all of it connected like a living thing. What about the cockpit though? Something had to have built this, she told herself. Built a living thing around a ship, or engineered some bizarre hybrid. It was strange, though hardly shocking. She’d seen plenty of bizarre things already. But this ship was a masterpiece. And, considering the seat and the controls, it was designed to be flown by something like a human. She thought back to the dark figure she’d seen with the Ghosts, out on the field beyond the castle. The watcher during
their war.
Fumbling around the cockpit, Tabitha discovered two containers concealed under the seat. She found a strange water dispenser tucked behind the chair in the back wall, and slurped at the cool filtered flow gratefully; it felt like it was coming from some huge tank or sac in the ship’s body. There was a handle down there by the seat too, which she guessed from the bright warning symbol was possibly a control for an ejector seat. She thought better of trying it to find out, and turned her attentions back on her new finds. The containers were black and ridged, and made a strange squelching beep when she pushed at them with her fingers. Both containers slid out from the base of the seat then, and Tabitha’s face lit up with a smile. She had some new toys.
The dragon kept a sleepy white eye on Tabitha as she carted the two boxes out onto the beach, and spread their contents out on the sand.
‘You’re so lazy,’ she said, turning to the dragon. ‘Is that all you things do, when you’re not flying around blowing everything up? You just snooze on beaches?’ the dragon closed its eye and breathed deep by way of response, and went back to sleep.
‘Fine,’ she sighed, turning back to her new toys on the white sand. ‘Ooh, it feels like Christmas!’ Tabitha rubbed her hands together with excitement, adding a sharp grinding sound to the birdsong and the tumbling waves. The first box held a folded slab of scaly fabric, probably padding. Tabitha set it aside in favour of more exciting prospects underneath. She took out something sleek and scaled, shaped like a fish without a tail. Closer inspection caused the top to peel back into a spout, and she sniffed at the contents. No smell. She poured it into her hand; it looked like water. She looked back at the dragon; looked around the beach while she thought about it. Daring herself, she took a sip and waited for something to happen. It didn’t have a taste. She waited a bit longer for something to happen to her; tutting a tune as she looked around at the beach. Just water then.