Chapter 5 (Interlude)- Void Dragon Mother
In the void of space, Honored Rider Eric Franklin floated, one hand on his dragon Starglider’s sleek white scales. Eric felt Starglider’s unease as the void dragon let out a silent cry. Not even dragons could roar in space, but space dragons had developed the ability to send signals. What the void dragon emitted was not a message but a blast of signal only detectible by the senses of a space dragon or the electronics built to mimic the ability of dragons.
Beside him, Honor Rider Steve Johnson rode his red star dragon, Flare. As the signal from the void dragon died down, Steve’s voice came over the comm, cutting through the silent aftermath. “I’ve never seen a void dragon. I didn’t think they came this close to the star systems.”
Eric shook his head, “They normally don’t. Then again, you’ll never see a void dragon coming if they don’t want to be seen, but for some reason, this one wants us to know.”
He paused, licking his lips, “Monitoring stations recorded its movements. Tracing back the origin they confirmed its housed in a wrecked shipping freighter. It's been venturing out further each day.”
Steve responded over their comms, “You think it’s looking for something?”
“There was a report of a new dragon rider with an egg. A scavenger had it tied up in his ship’s cargo before it bonded him. He had to drift back to the station because the back of his ship was crushed. The station logged the egg as a black dragon, recording it as a black sky dragon.”
“You don’t think… a void dragon egg?”
“The station assumed it was a sky dragon because a scavenger stealing one after hundreds of failed attempts seemed impossible. The timeline adds up, with when the void dragon started moving erratically.”
Steve sighed, “So what does the federation want us to do?”
A third boisterous voice came over the comm, “Grab the other eggs, of course!”
Eric looked behind him at the battle group of Federation ships trailing behind them. The battle group consisted of an Aegis Heavy Cruiser, an escort of Echo Light Cruisers with top-of-the-line deep-space sensors, and a light carrier with a dozen fighters.
The Aegis Heavy Cruiser was a newer model with four fusion cores that powered a five-layer aura shield. The aura shields mimicked the barriers dragons created around themselves as a layer of protection. The ship didn’t have much in the way of speed or firepower, but it was one of the few ships in the fleet that could withstand a direct hit from dragon plasma fire.
“Captain Martin, you are here to provide support. We are tasked with stopping the void dragon from venturing further towards the star system. Not going endangering lives on a fool’s errand to steal eggs.”
“Bah, nothing can get through a five-layer shield. We had a Neutron test the shields, and there wasn’t a single scratch on the ship.”
The Heavy Cruiser’s engines flared, and it started drifting forward.
Eric had his comms blast across all frequencies, “This is Dragon Rider Eric Franlin. All ships are to cut power to engines and maintain their position.”
A series of acknowledgements sounded off for all the ships, except for Captain Martin’s ship.
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“What are we going to do?” Steve asked.
“The void dragon will shred anything that gets close. Once the Captain sees sense, we will make a swipe towards the freighter, then leave.”
“You want us to go along with the captain’s plans?”
“No, that’s a death sentence. We just need to bluff. If she thinks we are going after her eggs, she’ll pull back.”
Eric slid into the mechanized saddle. The straddle strapped him in and pulled him flat against Starglider’s back. His jaw tensed as he saw the void dragon take notice of the Aegis Heavy Cruiser and change course to intercept the ship.
A sleek black form crashed into the translucent barrier around the ship with so much force that it pushed the ship back two miles. The shields warbled under the power of the void dragon’s claws but remained firm. Seeing its claws wouldn’t end the threat, the dragon opened its maw, spewing a dark, smoky substance. It flowed harmlessly over the shields, but any floating debris nearby began to visibly disintegrate.
Seeing the ship unharmed, the dragon trashed its tail and claws as it let out its frustration. The dragon pulled back onto its hind legs, and Eric could feel it gathering power. The dragon launched a black swirling sphere. The ball shot out, sticking to the shield as though attracted to the surface. The first layer twisted and shattered. The scene replayed two more times before the attack fizzled out.
“Captain, you need to get back now.”
“You saw, the time of the void dragon and other horrors of deep space has passed. With our superior technology, dragons will soon be obsolete. Don’t worry, I will make sure your contributions are noted when I deliver the eggs.”
The void dragon didn’t let out another signal blast or thrash against the shield in impotent rage. It went completely still, and its eyes began glowing red. To his senses, Eric could feel the void dragon gathering a tremendous amount of energy. The gravitational blast felt like the blast of plasma fire he was used to sensing, but this was a hundred times stronger.
“Steve, we need to go now.”
“But I thought we were going to wait.”
“The void dragon is about to unleash something terrible. When it hits, we need to divert the dragon’s attention, or it will hunt down the escape pods.”
Eric felt the increase in gravity as Starglider accelerated forward. As he was passing the ship, he felt it. An explosion that looked like a tree the size of continents, with countless thick black branches skewering through the ship’s shields effortlessly and slicing through the ship.
The void lightning lasted for a second. Once it faded, what remained of the once magnificent ship was nothing but the shredded remains spewing the remnants of the engine cores into space.
A series of warnings and distress calls littered the comms as escape pods began flinging from the crumbling vessel. The void dragon began soaring through space, biting, slashing, or piercing anything that moved, like a cat chasing fleeing mice.
“Faster Starglider!” Every moment, the void dragon was killing dozens, if not hundreds, of Federation soldiers. Eric made it all the way to the freighter, and then the void dragon disappeared, only to slide around the ship with its teeth bared.
“Its here, we need to retreat.” Eric and Steve began racing away. The void dragon let loose one of the gravitational balls. It snagged onto Starglider’s shield.
‘Drop the shield now. If it adheres, it will kill us.’
After decades of working together, Starglider dropped the shield without any hesitation. The ball of concentrated void energy began to trail after the dragon, but without the shield, it had nothing to adhere to. The sun dragons flew away as the mother void dragon glared at them.
Eric watched the void dragon, making sure it didn’t decide change its mind about attacking them. Behind him, Steve and the squadron of fighters funneled the escape pods onto the carrier. It would be a tight ride home, but with no planet nearby for the escape pods to navigate to, there wasn’t much of a choice.
“Hey Steve, there’s something that’s been bothering me.”
“Something has been bothering you, besides the terrifying dragon?”
“Yeah, if the salvager got one of its eggs, I understand why it was venturing out further. What I don’t get is what pushed the void dragon this close to the system. We rarely see them.”
“You think something is terrifying enough to scare away a void dragon.”
“There must be. It makes sense we would see a void dragon mother because she would flee to protect her eggs if there’s a chance they could be harmed. If something was scary enough to push a void dragon out, our trouble might just be beginning.”
“What do you think it could be?”
“I don’t know. Sun dragons don’t fare well in the abyss between systems, but if we are right about having our first void dragon rider, we might have just what we need to find out what’s going on. We need to go to the draconic academy.”
