History
Part 13. Order to Return
One year had passed on DT, a few spaceshuttles had landed expanding the dragon population from 6 to 350. The first mating flights had been held recently and a few clutches lay in the AIDEN's, closely monitored by Iyru and Fairlight for signs of life.
Tasrin sat in the radio room, nervously awaiting contact with earth. One satellite
toured around Cyatri and soon her sister satellite around the earth would align, making contact with earth possible.
"Who would have thought we'd get this far?" Tasrin asked to no-one in particular.
Siggie, sitting on the chair beside him certainly did not answer.
"Had you seen the weddings coming when we left?" he asked, "I don't think I would have even liked Enid without being here.
I think Fairlight is behind all of it.
Siggie looked disturbingly angry.
"Ok, ok, I would have liked her wherever we had been without this whole ordeal. You're such a romanticus
Siggie. Lighten up."
From the other room Fairlight looked amazed at Tasrin and carefully nudged Enid to the door.
"I can't believe it. You broke him down!"
"I didn't break him. I'm a psychologist. I helped him find the solution within himself." she smiled, "I had to dig deep though."
"Earth to Cyatri Base. Are you there?"
Tasrin jumped to the microphone and answered: "Yes."
Enid returned to sweeping the floor. She enjoyed cleaning duty more than listening to the longwinded reports asked from them. Truth was the world of dragons still was far from known. Not only area, weather and individual had an influence on the dragons it seemed. more obscurer things had also shown their consequences, only recently a batch of eggs in the desert had hatched into a strange kind of new dragon. If there were more possibilities even in a place so monotone as a desert, who knew how many different species they could record. The possibilities seemed endless.
Fairlight on the other hand, Enid noticed, was busy listening to the transmission. She always had been interested in the politics, to meddle Enid supposed.
"Listen." Fairlight suddenly said, her face a strange blend of disturbance and
disapprovement. Enid straightened and uttered a tiny surprised cry when she followed the transmission. Fairlight nodded when she saw Enid grasp the meaning of this particular transmission.
***
"They want us to destroy all evidence of the mission?" Iyru called out.
Tasrin nodded, still looking greyish from the shock. "All dragons, all eggs and all constructions we have made. All side-effects we might have produced."
Fairlight pointed at her small ghostwing fluttering around her and inwardly felt her heart shrivel at the thought of abandoning that other side-effect she was so close to achieving.
"Worse they're disposing of us as well." she said.
"They're going to kill us?" Enid asked worriedly.
"There are other ways to get people out of the way." Tasrin said, "I'm assuming we'd be stationed on some abandoned planet to study the breeding habits of snails. Well the scientists, I'd probably be sent into deep space with a nice thank-you note and a 'Hope you don't return!' attached to my head."
"What about the books?" Knux asked, suddenly looking week enough to faint on the spot.
"They expect us to burn those first. And you'd be lucky to get even close enough to smell paper for the rest of your life."
"They can't seriously want us to kill the dragons." Iyru said, "Have they even listened to our reports? These are sentient beings!"
"Oh they have listened." Fairlight said with a dark expression in her eyes, shadows seemingly covering her face, "The military has no need for beings with moral issues."
"That nicely sums it up." Tasrin sighed.
"I'd rather die." Knux suddenly said, leaping up to make a stand. "I'd kill before I'd allow them to touch the dragons, the books."
"We all would." Enid said, "Sit down and help us find a solution."
"I see only one." Tasrin said with a somewhat grim expression on his face."
"Desertion." Fairlight beat him to saying it.
"Exactly."
"Wouldn't that just make them send people to dispose of us?" Iyru asked.
"We'd have a fighting chance with the dragon's abilities." Tasrin answered slowly, "At least we won't let them get away with it."
"But the dragons don't fight. Won't fight." Knux stated, "Every test until now has given that to be true."
"Those were hypothetical situations, Knux." Iyru said, "Their survival depends on this."
"Besides we can bluff." Oisin said, "The occasional teleporting swamp or storm-drawing lightning might convince them not to mess with them."
"Not to mention poltergeists messing up their ships." Enid laughed, looking at Kalhar trying to get in by willing the doors to move, "They open the other way!" Enid called to the dragoness.
"I believe Kalhar will eagerly fight." Tasrin said.
"Charming hothead." Enid smiled, not making it clear which of the two she meant.
"That still leaves us with one problem." Knux suddenly stated.
"What problem?" Fairlight asked.
"How are we going to convince the others to stay with us."
"They are free to leave." Iyru said, "Without dragon."
Enid gasped, "You know what happens to people who betray their dragons." The first shipments of candidates for the eggs had not always been respectable humans. Some of them had caused problems beyond what they had expected.
"They go mad." Fairlight said, "Who says that wouldn't happen to us if we kill our dragons? I'd say that is the ultimate act of betrayal;"
"I never even considered doing it..." Iyru said, "I can't even imagine it."
"None of us can." Knux said, "It would be like burning an entire library..." he trailed of.
"But still we should offer the riders the choice." Tasrin said, "As someone once put it to me nicely: 'This should be a democracy'."
Enid smiled, "He's right."
***
Fairlight sighed when the moist warmth of Cohuchi Isle hit her. The scents of the rich plantlife reached her and she took in a deep breath. This was home and she would never leave it.
"Come this way." Thio said, leading her to one of the larger beaches of the island. His bright green shirt made him blend in with the rest of the isle, but made him stand out everywhere else on Cyatri. Fairlight had once tried to slip something into his coffee and though he had poured the cup away, he had been left wondering what she had been supposed to do.
"I heard something about what you're going to talk about."
"Word travels quick." Fairlight answered, "I guess we have the dragons to thank for that."
"You have my support." Thio said.
"Thanks." Fairlight said, climbing on a makeshift stage on the beach where the crowd of bayriders and candidates had gathered. All over the planet Iyru,
Oisin, Tasrin, Enid, Knux and she were spreading the word of the message and their intent to thwart it. Fairlight doubted they might all put it exactly as she did and she pitied the people that got stuck with Knux to explain the message to them, but she hoped the
message would come through.
"We're gathered here today to discuss the message most of you will already have heard about." She started, "The military wants us to stop the project, to quit what they call a waste of money. They want us to kill the dragons." gasps rose from the audience. Fairlight smiled and let the silence raise the tension hanging in the air, "They want to kill our bonds. Our friends, our family as if they were animals!" she was shouting now and was more than pleased to see the angry faces in the crowd, "They want us to leave this place and return. Well I won't! The military holds no power over me. They call it desertion, I call it rebellion!"
Fairlight let the audience roar a bit before she opened her mouth again. She spoke softer now, giving her words
weight: "However you are allowed to leave. We won't stop anyone following orders."
The crowd was dead-quiet, waiting for anyone wanting to get out. No-one stirred. Fairlight felt certain no-one would. She only hoped the others were as
successful as she was in their areas.
***
"How did it go?" Oisin asked when Iyru
returned from her trip around Cyatri, talking to every dragonrider community she could find. She had laid out everything plain and simple and still... a few tears blurred her vision.
"Two decided to leave." she said, "Those poor dragons."
Hugging her tightly, letting her cling to him Oisin tried to comfort her. "It was to be expected that not all of them would think the same as us."
"I only hope they feel pain before they die." Iyru said, her voice a muffled whisper.
"They will." Oisin said as if stating a fact, "If there is justice in the universe they will."
"How did the others do?" she asked because she had to, not because she wanted to know.
"With your two there's a total of 10 dragons abandoned. Knux feels he has let us down because three people decided to leave." Oisin shrugged, "I know he can be stuffy and boring when he talks about books, but no-one in their right mind, no-one good, would leave. Anyone of us would have had troubles there."
"Fairlight wouldn't have."
"That's not true." Oisin kept telling her.
Knux suddenly spilled out from the main buildings, his eyes red, fuming with anger, marked with grief. "I know what to do now." he just said. Iyru wondered what had changed him so. She could hardly believe this person had been her lanky,
naive lab assistant at one point. He had grown, they all had.
"What are you going to do?" Iyru asked.
"Nothing you'll regret in the morning, I hope." Oisin added.
"I need to protect what is lost." he stated, "And I know where to do it."
"We haven't lost anything yet." Iyru said, her voice quavering a bit as she spoke.
"We might lose it." Knux insisted, "There needs to be a back up. There just has to be something in case the main base gets nuked."
"Not a very pleasant suggestion." Tasrin said, stepping from the shadows in front of the lighted building, "But I agree. We are vulnerable."
"Not to mention we need to take care of those abandoned dragons. they might die." the way he said it, Knux almost appeared to be hinting he was the sole one who had have abandonings.
"You're not to blame for those." Enid said.
"But I can make it right." he said, "I have to. I cannot go through it again."
"Again?" Enid asked, but Fairlight interrupted her. "A very good idea Knux. Find a secluded spot to nurse the abandoned dragons in. I fear that if this comes to fighting there might be more dragons and riders lost soon."
"I also want to construct a library there." Knux said.
"The so called back up." Iyru asked.
"Indeed."
"I think it's a good idea." Enid added, "But where?"
"Kethoda Isle." Knux said without hesitating.
Tasrin looked estranged at Knux, "You won't exactly face easy conditions up there."
"It's almost impossible to penetrate without a dragon to bring you." Knux answered.
"True, but planes might work too."
"I keep forgetting there are such things as planes." he said.
