Empire of the Dragon

by David L. Golemon

  “Dragon’s Fire has so many benefits to our peoples. Do you know, your experiment this morning as explained to me by my husband, is only the tip of the spear. The exhaust of the mineral that propels an object at such a high rate of speed, creates more of the mineral. Instead of consuming, the residual leftovers of the mineral actually doubles and triples in nature. If you could recover your steel table from, well,” here she giggled like a school girl, “space, or wherever it vanished to, you would find double or triple the amount of the mineral used for propulsion. An amazing recyclable material that, as of right now, many of our scientists cannot explain.”

  “Wait,” Ryan said as if he got the whole of the science as explained thus far. “Dragon’s Fire?”

  Sarah rolled her eyes.

  “Yes, it was named that by my ancestors. I think you can imagine the horror they must have felt the first time someone actually got this material too close to a fire, thus the name,” Lee answered for his wife. Ryan saw that the mention of the name made Li Zheng smile even broader.

  “As I was saying, there are properties far beyond that which you witnessed. For example, can you imagine chemotherapy without the side effects of radiation. I have done the tests in Europe, it works. Can you also imagine developing the human brain to use much more of its potential? Why Master Li Zheng can use—”

  “Again, you’ll have to excuse my wife, she tends to get overly excited about her work with Dragon’s Fire.” Lee shot her a warning look.

  “It’s all right, I think we saw a little of that this morning,” Sarah said as she slowed enough for Lee and his father to catch up with the group. “Didn’t we, Master Zheng?” Sarah crooked her eyebrow. “What would your brain scan say? Fifty, sixty percent of your brain? It would have to be at least that for your abilities of Air Bending, correct? You send your young people out into the world to learn just what it is you have here, don’t you?”

  “Whoa, wait a minute,” Ryan said with his hands up in the air. “Air Bending?”

  “Oh, that’s right Jason, it was Air Bending that ate you for dinner tonight. I forgot you missed the excitement this morning when you and Charlie were lost. Master Li Zheng lifted up half the desert floor this morning just to protect us. I believe he can do much more than that.”

  The three Shangri-Lasians just stood and listened to Sarah’s story.

  “You mean you’re a mythical Air Bender?” Charlie Ellenshaw asked with his wide eyes amplified by his thick glasses. “An actual Elemental of legend? I thought the water dragon was more like a David Copperfield thing.”

  Li Zheng smiled and then half-bowed to Charlie, before gesturing that they should continue walking. The group moved into the mouth of a cave with two young men standing guard. Sarah saw that they were only sort of guarding it because they were playing handheld video games on two small devices. They stopped when they saw their Master approach, and quickly stood up. Ryan gave the Dragon masks and clothing a wide berth as they entered the large cave.

  “Does everyone here have the elemental, or air bending ability?” Anya asked.

  “To one degree or another, yes,” Li Zheng answered. “But the proficiency in Air Bending springs stronger in my bloodline than others. My ancestors discovered this place over three and a half thousand years ago. The secret was kept until the original Li Zheng and his mother were captured by Qin Shi Huang a thousand years after that.”

  Charlie leaned in to Ryan. “The first Emperor of China. Boy, this is a history lesson, wouldn’t you say?” Charlie’s sharp elbow jabbed Jason in the ribs, resulting in a watery ‘squishy’ sound.

  “Why have you kept this a secret for these many thousands of years?” Professor Birnbaum asked, as he continued to keep a close eye on Professor Anderson.

  “Many have tried to find out the secret, but we have an ability to cloud men’s minds,” Li Zheng said.

  “Like The Shadow,” Jason volunteered, then lowered his head when Sarah gave him that look again.

  “I used to love that radio program, yes, very much like The Shadow,” Li Zheng, said giving Ryan a chance for a return smirk in Sarah’s direction. Then Jason’s face went slack as he had just caught the ‘radio’ aspect of the conversation and he stopped in his tracks. “You mean you heard recordings of the radio show, The Shadow, right? I mean, we’re talking about the 1930s.”

  “I’ll explain later, fly-boy,” Sarah said with a knowing smirk.

  “Can this ability be used by outsiders?” Birnbaum asked, continuing his line of questions as they found themselves delving deeper into the cave system under the mountain.

  Charlie Ellenshaw was just about the only one to notice that they were being led somewhere dark and dank. Anya also felt her hackles rise when she too noticed.

  Silence met the Australian’s enquiry.

  “I have studied the impact that the asteroid has had on our people. We, as a group, are never ill. The cancer rate is at zero and our life expectancy, with respect to my father-in-law, who is much different, is near twenty-seven percent longer than the planet’s normal.”

  Anya saw the way Mei Sung deferred to Li Zheng. “Just how old are you, Master Zheng?” she asked.

  “At dinner, Master Zheng told me he was a small boy when he went to the White House and met President Wilson’s wife,” Sarah said, retelling the story as told by the old man.

  “That does it, I’m sitting at the adult table next meal,” Ryan said, not exactly joking.

  “That’s why he knows everything about us, is that it?” Anya asked.

  “My father was in on the creation of the very charter your organization abides. He believed that one day we would need the assistance of outsiders.” He turned to his son. “You see my boy, we all have our moments of rebellion against our ancestors. Even myself.”

  “What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

  “While we choose not to bring in outsiders and bless them with this other-worldly power, we do try occasionally to assist the world in other ways. For instance, regardless of what my young people believe, we were heavily involved in the war against the Grays. Do you think that the British government just happened upon an ancient archeological site in Antarctica by chance? Out of the thousands upon thousands of square miles of frozen earth, do you believe it was sheer luck that an expedition uncovered an ancient extra-terrestrial battleship under the ice?”

  “You mean you led them there?” Anya asked.

  “Not myself, no. I had three graduate students enrolled at Cambridge. They all specialized in sonic recording of ice covered geology, thus, they hinted at something buried under the ice. This led to your amazing plan against the Gray invaders.”

  “But you could have assisted the planet in other ways with just your abilities of Air Bending. Do you realize that millions upon millions of men, women and children, plus the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, died in the Gray assault?” Sarah asked, growing angry at the old man’s flippancy about his abilities and his not sharing it with the rest of the world.

  “I know of where your anger springs, Captain McIntire. I know you lost very close friends in the war. One very special small, green friend as I have come to understand. But you must understand, what we have hidden in these mountains would make the assault by another world pale in comparison if this ore and its possible science fell into the wrong hands.” He held up his palm when Sarah started to protest. “Perhaps you will understand when I show you what is really the true secret of the Gobi.” He gestured for the group to follow his son through a giant hollowed out portal of stone. “Please, this way.”

  Ryan pulled on the ecstatic Charlie Ellenshaw’s arm and the others waited. He was looking wildly at the darkened area beyond the portal.

  “Deep, dark, dangerous, and everyone is just willing to walk right in there?”

  “Mister Ryan, that is what we do,” was all crazy Charlie said as he smiled and started to follow the others.

  As they neared the portal, four men stepped out from the darkness. The
se men were not what they were used to seeing inside of the magical city. These men were wearing desert camouflage fatigues, or BDU’s, and each carried an automatic assault rifle. These guards were not smiling and were most definitely not as accommodating as the other citizens of Shangri-La.

  “Here we will ask that if you are carrying anything that could cause a spark…matches, a lighter, anything, please give them over to the guard. Also, any electronic devices that may produce a static discharge.”

  Each person was checked. Even the old man, his son, and his daughter-in-law.

  “Now, shall we show the outsiders what they have come to see?” Li Zheng asked as he gestured for them to step through the ancient portal to another time, another world.

  “For someone who refuses to allow the world to know about Dragon’s Fire, he sure does put on a performance, doesn’t he?” Lee whispered to Sarah and Anya. Mei Sung smiled and nodded her head vigorously as she also knew her father-in-law very well.

  Before the last two men entered the long, dark tunnel that had been carved out of solid rock many thousands of years before, Professor Birnbaum pulled Anderson aside. “Now, I don’t know who you work for exactly, I only have Sarah and Anya’s word for it, but if you make a wrong move inside there, I will kill you myself. I may be just a slow-witted Aussie, and the only one in this group that isn’t a bloody spy, but make no mistake, this is science and if you do anything to endanger us learning from this, I’ll crush your bleedin’ skull,” the large man said as he smoothed out Anderson’s collar from where he had grabbed it.

  “Is there a problem?” asked Sarah, who had lagged behind when she had noticed their absence.

  “Just explaining to our Russian friend here the consequences of embarrassing us westerners in there.”

  “Professor, steer clear of him. This new threat this man poses is something we are yet to fully grasp in our business.”

  “Me? I’m just a bloody pussycat.” With one last hard look at Anderson, Birnbaum moved off.

  “Keep that backward man away from me,” Anderson said as he rubbed his throat.

  Sarah fell into step with Anderson as they followed the others. “What is your real name? I mean, Anderson just isn’t cutting it any more. It’s a little ridiculous at this point to keep your real identity secret, isn’t it?”

  “In my world, Captain, names mean nothing. It’s what you believe in. I believe in my cause. My country’s cause. The name Anderson will suffice for now.”

  “We witnessed your country’s cause in the Atlantic last month.” Sarah stopped in the darkness of the tunnel and placed a small hand on Anderson. “Professor Birnbaum would be the least of your worries if you cause trouble here. The odds are that this secret will be buried with us when all is said and done, and no matter what they decide, your group must answer for the murder of your own sailors on the Simbirsk. Our organization now have the smartest men in the world that will see to it you and your asshole cronies are held accountable.” Sarah smiled and then patted Anderson on the arm. “In other words, behave.”

  Anderson held back a moment, and then followed.

  They saw Li Zheng stop in the darkness ahead. They heard what sounded like a giant gate being raised in front of them. The group continued forward, not seeing anything to their front. When the noise stopped, Li Zheng waved his left hand and then twirled his fingers in front of him. Before anyone realized what was happening, the underground world came alive with brilliant light. Not one person in the group of newcomers were able to believe what it was they were seeing. They were standing on a ledge, they had no idea they were even near, in the dark and, after walking through the largest steel gate any of them had ever seen in their lives, were astounded. A thousand feet down was the Dragon’s Fire asteroid. Again, they watched as Li Zheng swung both arms this time and the roof of the expanse of cave came alight with a greenish illumination. Li Zheng had excited the ore to give a glowing cloud of light that covered the entirety of the asteroid. It stretched for what looked like miles. The ancient celestial body was gigantic. It was covered in green mold and even had small trees and bushes growing from its exposed surface. Anya tugged on Sarah’s arm and pointed far below.

  “Yes, it is only partially exposed.” Li Zheng gestured to his son and daughter-in-law to continue as he sat on an outcropping of stone. To Sarah, it looked as if his magic with Dragon’s Fire had taken something out of the old man.

  “We estimate that the Dragon’s Fire asteroid came to Earth long before life sprang up on the planet. A billion years possibly. Its impact created these mountains and, over the eons of time, became buried deep beneath the Gobi. My wife has advanced the theory that it very well could have assisted in multi-celled life to be created on a world where no life existed.”

  “I don’t bloody well know how modern science is going to take to that theory. To discount five thousand years of research into how life started here, may cause trouble in our simple world,” Birnbaum said, stepping forward to get a better view of the asteroid.

  “How much Dragon’s Fire do you estimate is here,” Anderson asked with a glare from Sarah, Birnbaum and Anya.

  “We have excavated a mile down and finally found the initial impact point. So, based on measurements, the best we can come up with is that the asteroid is four-point-six miles long and three wide,” Mei Sung said as she gestured toward the expanse of green ore. “The weight is unmeasurable.”

  “The silver streaks in the mineral, what are they?’ Sarah asked as she had never seen any natural or unnatural mineral with the brilliancy of colors before.

  “Ah, the very dangerous aspect of Dragon’s Fire,” Professor Lee said as he stepped forward. “It is a very strange mix of the purest silver I have ever examined, and mercury. Naturally occurring. For many years, the ancient emperor thought the mercury was the key source of our people’s powers. Thus, he filled his tomb and many monuments with the killer element. We still do not know how many thousands of workers Emperor Qin Shi Huang killed with this foolish theory. It’s not like the silver that naturally occurs here.” Lee reached down and over the ledge and felt for something. He stood back up and held out his hand, so the others could see. The material looked to be some form of moss, or even mold. Sarah started to reach for it and then she hesitated. “It’s safe. It grows on the green sections of the asteroid. My wife has the theory that this may be the very first extra-terrestrial life ever to arrive on Earth.’

  “It feels like…like…cotton,” Sarah said as Anya, Charlie, and Birnbaum each felt the moss Sarah held out to them.

  “It has,” Mei Sung looked at her father-in-law and he nodded his head only slightly for her to continue, “a vitamin content that we just cannot identify. It provides a growth factor for life that is astounding. Our food comes from deep underground near the bottom of the asteroid. We planted simple foodstuffs, like rice. There is so much water below that we have surmised that the Dragon’s Fire body smashed into an inland freshwater sea when it came down. The rice grows nearly out of control. Corn, sixteen times the size of normal ears. And wildlife. That is one of the reasons we must keep control, as Master Zheng says, and one of the few points upon which my husband agrees. When animals feed off the mold that grows from the asteroid, they become enhanced in size and intelligence. Very problematic if this ever gets into the wild. As of now we can control the aggressiveness of what Earth elements live below, but if this product escapes our control, that could mean a war with an out-of-control ecosystem, and a war that would make the Gray invasion pale in comparison.”

  “Are you saying we have monsters down there?” Ryan asked as he leaned over the edge and looked down.

  Professor Lee smiled at the uncomfortable way Ryan asked about the life in and around Dragon’s Fire. “Insects, small rodents, the usual cave dwelling life you would find in most cave systems the world over.”

  “Excellent,” Ellenshaw said as he joined Jason at the ledge. He placed his hand on Ryan’s arm to steady himself and Jason j
umped, angry that Charlie almost unbalanced him.

  “Uh, where is the light disappearing to?’ Birnbaum asked looking around.

  “Unlike in the city above, only my father’s power has the ability to alight such an expanse of area. He is growing weak. We must leave before the light is completely gone. Please, follow me.”

  Mei Sung and Sarah, with Anya helping, assisted Li Zheng to his feet.

  “His weakness is only temporary. He will regain strength with rest. The elemental action this morning, added to his illumination of the caves and Mister Ryan’s little encounter with the waterfall, has drained him. He will recover just fine. Now, we must hurry.”

  Just as Ryan stepped back from the ledge and just seconds before the light from the mineral content of the cave vanished completely, Charlie Ellenshaw let out a scream as his Pith helmet went flying off his silvery hair as a large amount of wind flew past he and Jason. The unexpected wind was so powerful that Ellenshaw lost his footing and fell. Just as Ryan reached down to help him up, the giant bat flew past once again. This time there was more than one scream as they saw the local animal life for the first time.

  “Jesus!” Jason yelled as he and Charlie stood and then made a dash for the gate.

  The bat came down on the very ledge that they had been standing on. Its wingspan was close to sixteen feet. The teeth were razor sharp. But that wasn’t what scared everyone, so much as the bat’s color profile. The fur was white, and the eyes were pink in color. The giant hissed and flapped its wings to steady itself on the small ledge. Before they realized it, the four guards they had seen earlier rushed past them and covered them as they escaped from the cave. Soon, the guards came back, and the giant gate was once more lowered.