The standoff lasted until Alton rolled over, revealing a piece of metal embedded into his stomach. He grabbed desperately at it, but his fingers were too wet with blood. Paco hesitated a moment longer before quickly holstering his gun and starting towards the man. The princess lowered her own gun and spared Alton a pitying glance before reaching into her belt. She pulled out a small vial filled with blue liquid. She motioned to Paco, getting the gunslinger’s attention again. She tossed the vial to him, pointed at Alton, and then mimed taking a drink with her hand. He frowned at her before going over to work on getting the piece of shrapnel out of Alton. While he did that, Nakoda, being Nakoda, ventured over to the princess and gently touched her arm. “Hello, ma’am, I’m Nakoda Drake, Rider of the Wing! Nice to meet you!”
The princess frowned down at him.
“I don’t think she understands you,” Lilian told Nakoda. She looked more intrigued by the princess than apprehensive. She definitely didn’t look worried for Alton’s sake. “Or she may be mute.”
The princess turned to look at the girl as she talked, holstering her weapon as she did so. I then noticed her spot the pod where she’d been kept prisoner. A thought seemed to strike her. She hurried across the ruined room and knelt beside the pod. She then stood up and turned around, now carrying what looked to be a silver egg. She pressed her hand to its side. The metal making direct contact with her hand illuminated with that same blue energy. A series of clicks then filled the room as the egg unfolded itself, transforming into a metallic silver dragon the size of a large cat.
It took to the air and hovered without needing to flap its wings. It spun around to face the princess and then nuzzled her cheek, making her smile. She spoke to the dragon in a language I didn’t understand and, judging by everyone else’s reaction, neither did my companions. The dragon turned and directed its tiny, glowing blue eyes upon Nakoda.
Analysis, halfling, a male voice spoke directly into my mind. Everyone else, especially Nakoda, jumped. Some form of warrior. Verdict: likely harmless.
The princess nodded and seemed to ask the dragon a question. For everyone else’s sake, I think, the metal creature continued to speak in all of our minds. The duration of our forced hibernation estimated at six-hundred–thirty-seven years.
The princess’s eyes widened in shock. She then pointed towards one of the panels located by the doors. The dragon immediately flew over mine and Turtle’s heads and landed upon it, sinking its metal feet into the wall. The center of its chest split open and worm-like appendages squirmed out and integrated themselves into the panel, forcing it to light up. System analysis ongoing. This could take a few minutes. Your patience is appreciated. It then opened its mouth and began making a simple yet catchy tune.
Curious, Turtle and I ventured over. “So,” I said carefully, “what’s your name?”
The music immediately stopped as the dragon turned to regard me. This unit’s designation is Chrysocolla Chalcedony.
Alton suddenly coughed violently. He sat up, drinking desperately from the vial the princess had given Paco. Salim also knelt by him, placing a healing hand upon his shoulder. I noticed the blood-covered shrapnel lying next to him. Cleaning his bloody hands with a rag, Paco ventured over to also study the dragon. “Interesting craftsmanship,” he murmured.
The dragon continued to look at me. Curious. Probability of donkey-unicorn-hybrid is strikingly low. Running calculations…Expected probability of a creature such as you existing at any given point in time is point seven three repeating.
“Lilian,” said Lilian to the princess while gesturing to herself. She then said words in various different languages. Something in my mind clicked as she said something that I knew wasn’t common, but my mind was still able to translate as, “What’s your name?”
A look of relief befell the princess’s face. She also gestured to herself. “Hello, Lilian. I am Sapphire Requiem.”
“Oh!” Nakoda cried. “I can understand you!…Wait…I can understand myself?”
“You’re speaking in Celestial,” Lilian informed him.
“Oh Desna, I’m a genius!”
Lilian actually snorted with laughter at that. “Or it’s more likely that you’re an aasimar.”
“Oh! Yeah, Ali told me that once. It means ‘angel touched’ right? Cool.” Nakoda turned to Sapphire. “Hello, again, Miss Sapphire!” He gestured to the rest of our group. “We saved you. You’re welcome! But now we need your help because…we don’t know what’s going on or where we actually are.”
“You’re all currently on my transport ship,” she replied, speaking directly to him and Lilian, the only two besides me who understood her. “We crash-landed here…Well, if Chrys is correct-”
I am, Chrys said.
“-over six-hundred years ago.”
Nakoda pointed straight upwards at the pods above. By some miracle the explosion hadn’t woken up any of their occupants. “So these pod things are supposed to put people to sleep and make them ugly? Why?”
Sapphire followed his gaze and frowned deeply at the more mutated prisoners. “…They’re supposed to make the cargo easier to transport,” she said, sounding more like she was talking to herself.
Error, error, Chrys suddenly called out. Sapphire hurried over to the dragon. Chrys’ eyes lit up and released twin streams of pale energy. They converged together into a flat map. I could only assume that it showed our current surroundings, the ship. Onyx Requiem is offline. Yet data logs show constant use of her clearance code to access or emergency lock certain entry points of Vessel F469999.
“Onyx,” Sapphire repeated, looking as if she were struggling to pin the name to a face. “Chrys, show me Onyx’s last known location.”
A blip of light immediately showed up on the map.
“She’s directly above us then,” Sapphire murmured. “In…the bridge…?” She turned around and looked straight up. I followed her eyeline and spotted a line running across the ceiling directly over the third platform. If we went up to it, it’d likely open up, allowing us to access the rest of the ship.
A ripple of movement caught my attention. Salim’s shade had flown through one of the nearby walls and returned to its master’s shoulder. “Our scuffle set off the other creatures,” Salim said. “They’re all slamming against the glass. So far they’ve only managed to make cracks little bigger than a hair, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to stop until they break in. The cracks will get bigger, converge, until…”
Looking troubled, Lilian relayed the information to Sapphire, though with considerably more tact. Sapphire matched her expression before looking down at the ruined platform that still lay across the floor. “We’re going to have to move this,” she said. “To make things easier to access the goods on all three levels and the exit above, there is a smaller platform that rises.”
“On it!” Nakoda immediately ventured over and tried to lift the platform. Within seconds he was completely red-faced and trembling. I caught Turtle’s eye. Together we went over to help the halfling, but it eventually took all of our combined strength just to be able to push the platform out of the way to give us access to the circle located in the center of the room. Despite the threat of mutants bursting in at any moment, we decided to take a short break. This also allowed Chrys to “run a full system diagnostic.” Whatever that meant.
He seemed capable of multitasking so I tried making conversation with him while the others caught their breath. “Chrys, so you know what a unicorn is?” I asked cautiously.
Yes, he said, tilting his head slightly in my direction.
“Um, are there any organizations who…kidnap unicorns?”
Probability of relevant information low due to six-hundred years of stasis.
My tail drooped a little. “Alright…Turtle! Come over here! Meet our new friend!”
Turtle ventured over. “Yeah? What’s up?”
“This is Chrys.”
“…’Kay.”
“Say hello to Chrys.”
“Hello to Chrys.”
Chrys’ head spun around unnaturally so that it was fully facing Turtle. Classification: dinosaur. Ankylosaurus. Noted intelligence is higher than expected. Suggests mutation of some kind.
“Ooh,” Turtle said.
I looked between them, only for a thought to suddenly strike me like a thunderbolt. My heart thundered in my chest as I said to Chrys, “Chrys, you can talk to me.”
Chrys turned his head back in my direction. Yes.
I whirled around to gesture to the others, more specifically Nakoda, with my front hoof. “And you can talk to them!”
Yes.
“You can talk to them for me?!”
That is 100% doable.
I was now fully trembling with anticipation. But more than that, hope. “I need you to talk to Nakoda for me, please.”
Chrys released the panel and took to air. Still not bothering to flap his wings, he flew over to hover by my brother’s head. Turtle and I followed close behind. Nakoda looked up from the Shadow-jerky he’d been eating courtesy of Paco. “Oh, hey, how’s it going, guys?”
Unicorn-donkey requests a conversation, Chrys informed him.
“Oh?” Nakoda looked over at me. “Yeah, Don? Ooh wait! Sapphire!” Sapphire had been sitting a short distance away, speaking with Lilian. She looked over to Nakoda. “Come over here! Meet my brother, Don!”
“They’re not actually related,” Lilian told her as they both walked over. “…At least, I don’t think…”
“Hello, Don,” Sapphire said to me with the same tone of voice you’d use with a small child. It was clear that she didn’t think I understood what she was saying, and was only speaking to me so as to humor Nakoda. “Nice to meet you.”
I ignored her, speaking directly to Chrys. “You need to tell him what I say next exactly. Okay. Nakoda, I saw the creature that took your father and my mother. It opened a gate in…space and time or something. It was big and white and had tentacles for a face, and it spoke in our brains. And it had an army of witches throwing fire and everything and it said it wanted to break everything and wanted to kidnap everybody.” I hesitated before saying to Chrys, “Chrys, this is for you. I’m not sure if you know any monsters with a squid for a face, but if you can help, please.”
Chrys passed the message along. My brother’s jaw dropped, and Lilian’s eyebrows shot up into her hair. Salim and Paco looked interested, while Alton eyed Nakoda sympathetically. Sapphire furrowed her brow, looking frustrated, but didn’t speak.
“Okay!” Nakoda finally squeaked. “Cool! Cool that we can actually really talk now, Don! I love you. Uh. Lilian!” He tugged down the cloth around his forehead enough to let the wound show through. “We’ve finally got a lead!”
Lilian touched a finger to her chin and her eyes furrowed with thought. “…Not a devil, I think.”
“Obviously not,” Salim scoffed, earning him everyone’s attention. “It was clearly a moon-beast that took your parents.”