Chapter 1

Hello to everyone that decided to read this little writing exercise, this story is very different compared to botched. i am writing this to help improve descriptions. i want to thank rouge for helping me with proofreading. so let me know what you think.

 

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“Why did I think it was a good idea to take a double shift?” I sighed, sitting in my empty medical bay. “I mean there are only a thousand people up, why do you need a full time medical personnel.” I leaned back in my chair and stared at the bleached white ceiling, waiting for the ships clock to tick 17:00.

“This sucks,” I mumbled while spinning around in my chair, “I have been out of stasis for only three months and I have done everything I need to for the next seven.”

“Well, I guess I will do the weekly inventory and diagnostic for the second time this week to pass the time,” I decided. I got up from my well used chair and entered the main treatment bay.

“Ok, diagnostic scanner,” I said to myself as I started the device’s system diagnostics. I stood there as I watched the results scroll over the page before the screen lit green and declared itself in perfect condition, “Check.” I moved and tested each of the biosupport beds, powering them on and making sure each of them linked to my biomonitor implant.

“Why in the hell can’t they fix bed seven permanently,” I cursed as the diagnostic returned the results. “This blasted thing is back to saying that I am reptilian, and I’m pretty damn sure I’m not.”

I finished checking the rest of the beds after filling out the work order for bed seven. I had just started to inventory the consumable compounds and supplies when the familiar voice of the ship’s AI rang throughout the intercom system.

“Ship wide announcement, the current time is 1700, main shift has ended.”

“Thank god” I cheered; quickly tossing the checklist in my small office and grabbing my tablet. I left the medical bay and headed towards the closest mess hall. I walked through the steel corridors of the massive ship hoping to run into another crew member working in this section of the ship. My hopes were dashed when I entered the empty eating area. I walked up and activated the food synthesizers and waited to see what was on the menu for today. It only took a few minutes before a plate of warm mashed potatoes and some square meat chunks covered in gravy popped out of the large device.

“Meat cube surprise… again, I know this is one of the less inhabited zones but can’t you allocate some better food here once in awhile.” I grumbled as I took the tray from the synthesizer and headed towards one of the tables. I plopped myself down at one of the tables and ate my meal. I pulled out my tablet in between bites and put in a request for a book from the ship’s database.

A familiar ping rang throughout the mess hall, indicating that download was complete. I tapped a few things on the device and pulled up the new book.

“What the… The Drakes Guide to Caring for a Wyrmling, why does this book even exist and who in the dark void is Tanis?” I shouted as examined the book’s title on my tablet.

“This must be Frank’s doing,” I grumbled, as I placed my pad down “He must still be pissed about constantly repairing bed seven; I know my name is Drake but this is going too far, for his sake this book better be interesting.”

I read the oddly detailed book on ‘reptilian rearing’ as I tried to distract myself from the bland mystery meat I was eating. I eventually choked down my meal as I got to the chapter about caretaker selection criteria. I turned off the tablet and put it back into my pocket. I placed the tray in the auto washer and headed to back to the med bay. I wanted to abuse one of the few places that had a hard light holographic system installed to watch some more movies off the database. I finished the day after watching another superhero movie and turned in for the night.

 

—–

“Doctor Drake please report to the medical bay.” The annoying voice of the ship’s AI woke me. I rubbed my eyes as I quickly glanced at the clock showing 0400. I quickly threw on some clothes and ran across the hall entering the medical bay, a little glad for the excitement.

“So what seems to be the problem?” I asked as I ran through the door. I stopped and quickly looked for the emergency but froze as I realized that the room was empty.  Confused, I did a double take, looking for anything out of place when I stumbled upon a strange black egg sitting on bio-bed number 7 with a note attached to it.

Dear lesser drake,

I, Fractlix, a primal dragon; first progeny of the draconic god, call upon the lesser drake to guard my progeny, as my lair is threatened. I call upon the protection clause of the Draconic Convent to have you guard him as is the duty of our lesser kin. Keep him safe and you will be rewarded as covenant demands.

Fly safely,

Fractlix

“What the hell!” I swore examining the egg; half expecting this to be some childish prank. I cautiously picked up the egg and took it to the diagnostic scanner to see what kind of abomination I have here, though I was pretty sure this was Frank’s fault. He was always fabricating creatures in the biosynthesizer and dropping them off here to mess with me. I placed the egg in the bio scanner and swore as I cut myself on one of the egg’s scale-like protrusions. I tapped in a few commands into the computer and stood back as the device sprang to life. A few minutes passed before the scanner returned to its deactivated state and displayed the results.

“What do you mean scan failure,” I swore at the stupid machine, tapping for it to try again. After another failed attempt, I picked a gene analyzer out of the biocart and powered it up.

“If you want something done right, do it yourself,” I mumbled as I placed a gene analyzer on top the egg. I waited while the machine cycled but I barely stopped myself from smashing the darn thing as three short beeps signaled a scan failure.

“Whatever this abomination is, I will deal with it tomorrow” I grumbled; grabbing the egg out of the scanner. I walked over to one of my specially modified bio-isolation hoods and placed the blasted thing in one of the wells.

“Gaia, activate bio-hood 3 for possible class II biohazard.” I stated after I closed the hood’s shield.

“Command acknowledged Dr. Drake,  sealing isolation bio-hood three for a possible class II biohazard. You will be alerted if conditions in the hood change.” Gaia mechanically repeated; a loud hiss pierced the mainly quiet bay as clamps sealed the hood.

I left the med bay after washing my hands and returned to my room still annoyed over Frank’s little prank. I shucked off my clothes and returned to the blissful embrace of sleep.

———————————————————————————–

I woke up the next morning to my blasted alarm and grabbed a towel as I headed into my personal bathroom.

“I am so glad that I count as senior staff,” I said as entered my personal bathroom. It only took a few seconds for me to shuck off my cloths and I entered the shower. I stood under the nozzle and just stayed there as I enjoyed the kind  warmth of the water. After a few minutes, I begrudgingly turned off the stream and started to dry off.

“Gaia, are there any patients on my schedule today or is it still clear?” I asked the ship’s AI as I got dressed, preparing myself for another wonderfully interestingly boring day.

“Dr. Drake, you have no scheduled appointments today but you do have one scheduled appointment tomorrow at 1600 hours with, bio-technician Astrid Steller. The appointment is a 72 hour post bio-contaminant exposure checkup,” Gaia droned just as I finished throwing on my shirt.

“It has been about a few days since her last accident, hasn’t it,” I muttered as I brushed my teeth.

I reentered my bedroom and grabbed my tablet, I slipped on my shoes right before i headed to breakfast. I tried to fully wake up as I walked through the familiar metallic halls. Just as every morning I grabbed a plate from the synthesizer; a scrambled egg like stuff and some mystery meat links and plopped myself down one of the tables.

“It might be worth the hour walk to eat at the central mess, the food must be better than this mystery food like stuff…” I sighed as I ate, reading the ‘dragon’ rearing guide.

“Dr. Drake, please report to the medical bay, activity detected in bio-hood two,” Gaia informed me through my tablet.

I jumped out of my seat leaving the rest of my uneaten food on the table and headed towards the medical bay wondering what horror Frank managed to cook up this time.

After a few short minutes I entered the medical bay and walked directly towards the bio-hood. “Gaia, is there any biological data available?” I asked as I checked the hood’s seals.

“No biological data available,” the AI responded.

I grabbed my black bio-isolation suit, its slick material shining slightly under the lights of the room. I quickly donned the protective clothing, remembering a previous abomination which exuded a skin-penetrating diuretic; it really pissed me off.

After fastening the last seal, I sealed off the area around the bio-hood’s rim and waited to see if I could finally pin all the crap on him to get him kicked off his shift early. After a few minutes of watching the black egg wiggle around, a chunk broke off revealing several cobalt, reptilian scales hidden beneath.

“Gaia, show all biological data.”

“Please wait…” Gaia replied. A few seconds passed before the AI responded, “Please call for maintenance, biological sensors probably malfunctioning: no data available.”

“Well that’s not helpful,” I muttered as the creature started to emerge. I began to activate the decontamination system when a loud squeak pierced the silence, jarring me to a stop, my eyes glued to the emerging creature.

I was captivated by the strange creature as a pair of tiny wings poked out of the breaking shell. I ran through all the different families of the Reptilia order to figure what I was dealing with, but was interrupted when an angular snout poked out of the shell and started to look around,  its eyes sweeping the room with a strange intelligence. I could feel sweat run down my back when its large reptilian eyes locked onto mine,  appraising me.

I jumped back a bit when a series of growls rumbles spewed out of the little reptile.

“Well look at that, maybe this isn’t from Frank…” I mumbled as I watched the little thing stare at me expectantly. I walked over to the computer station and tried to find the closest species to this little creature. I was just pulling up the database when a loud thump interrupted my train of thought. My eyes darted to the hood.

“Aww look at the little guy, he’s trying to get through transsteel.” I chuckled watching his feeble attempts to claw his way out. “I’m sorry little buddy but my wealth of experience is against you, I had that hood upgraded with the strongest material I could requisition to contain Frank’s pranks.”

The little guy stopped and started to stare at me.

“What will you do now,” I asked the new born as the computer combed through the possible matches. After about a minute the computer binged. I looked and read through the text twice not able to believe my eyes.

“What do you mean, the closest parent of this creature based on morphology is a dragon?!” I yelled at the obviously malfunctioning computer. I sighed as I sat down on one a stool. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Well it is better to put you out of your misery…” I sighed again as I looked at the little guy. “Computer activate,” I started to say as it bumped the glass, “come on, you think you can open it?”

“Opening bio-hood two” Gaia droned as two loud thunks popped the seals, “No, not you, you stupid computer!” I yelled as I ran to try and re-secure the hood but before I could even get close, the supposed dragon slipped out, and before I could blink it launched itself towards my face.

“Oh god!” I shouted as the under evolved chicken with way to many teeth smacked into my face. The oversized lizard’s claws dug into my face as fangs tried to pierce my thick skull and my head bounced off the floor.  

It was all a blur of fangs and claws until a loud roar ripped through the normally quiet medical bay. I started to pass out as more and more blood poured from my wounds, the pain dragging me towards unconsciousness, but it all stopped as something warm eased the pain.

I blinked a few times to wipe the blood from my eyes, trying to find the thrice blast ball of claws and hate. “Where did the claw marks go?” I asked myself while I examined the partially damaged suit.  “No more pain at all, but some blood in the eyes… contact hallucinogenic?

I finished examining the suit and moved to stand up when I noticed a seven foot tall version of the scaled ball standing regally, its cobalt scales glittering under the cool overhead lights, the smaller dragon standing behind it .

“What the hell is that?!” I swore as the thing seemed to examine me. I just sat on gripped by fear as the creature moved its large angular head, and its fangs, closer and closer to me. I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for my demise.

“Rut are do” the creature rumbled.

“What?” I squeaked still waiting for the thing to eat me.

“What are you doing, you are a drake. Not weak snack.” The creature replied; I could feel the creature’s hot breath against my skin.

Taking a deep breath I took a look at the large reptile like thing, “I’m not a drake, my name is Drake,” I sighed, parroting the response for what seemed like the thousandth time ?

“No, you’re a drake; the magic would not have worked oth… son of a slime! That whelp lied!” The creature roared. “I will kill that son of a wyvern.”

“It’s not your fault.” The creature sighed after a moment, its tail rubbing its large snout.

“The short of the matter is this, I need someone to take care of my little one as my I have many enemies around my own lair. The spell that I purchased from another, soon to be skinned, dragon was supposed to send my little one to a lesser drake but apparently the spell thought you were close enough. Would you be willing to watch over my little one?” It asked with the most pitiful looking face that a thing like that could manage.

I just sat there staring at the large rep… Dragon. I am impressed Frank, I don’t know what crap you had it produce but it is powerful and guided.

“Don’t worry, I will reward you for your efforts and I won’t recruit you clawless.” The larger dragon added, still somehow looking pitiful but mostly terrifying.

“Sure…” I muttered placating the frightening dragon, “I mean, either this a a really bad trip or there really is a large dragon sitting in front of me meaning there is no other way that I will get out of this alive,” I muttered to myself, figuring that the answer would come in a second.

“Perfect, you’ll be a great father, whether you like it or not!” The dragon beamed, “Now I need you to stand still while I give you the tools necessary to rear my little boy.”

“Wha-,” Was all I managed to get out before a single glowing claw pierced my stomach. Pain.

“A scaled shoulder, more strength, maybe…” was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

————————————————————————————————————————-

“Wake up, not-a-drake!” someone yelled, shocking me awake.

“What happened?” I moaned as pain shot through my aching body.

“Mom… fixed you,” a young sounding voice replied; as I tried to get a bearing on what happened.

“What does that mean,” I replied not comprehending what it was saying as I somehow managed to sit up, despite my aching head and muscles.

“You aren’t so… squishy and… pray like anymore,” it replied from somewhere behind me.

Ignoring the comment I fought against the massive headache as I stood up from the bio-bed and stumbled towards the apothecary. I rummaged through the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of liquid, labeled (rs)-2-(4-(2-mythylpropyl) phenyl) propanoic acid. I grabbed one of the injectors and loaded it with the drug. I quickly pressed it onto my bared arm and after a quick prick, sweet relief started to flow through my veins.

It only took a few minutes before the pain faded enough that I could think again.

“So, not-a-drake, when is food gonna be ready, I’m hungry,” the voice asked. I swung around and the only other living thing was the small dragon, a rather sinister grin plastering its face.

“You can talk now?” I asked dumbfounded.

“I could always talk, you just didn’t know… draconic… is I think what you would call it.” The dragon replied, “So like I said when’s dinner?”

I just woke up, headache was still there but receding, and there was blood on the floor… either there has been a weird party in my med bay or I have really been speared by a giant lizard. Wow, that sounded like I was off my rocker.

“Gaia, what is the current time?” I asked the AI. First, deal with the talking and hungry  scaled beast.

“The current shipboard time is 1834.” The AI chimed in response.

“Well you’re in luck it seems that I can still get something to eat, but we need to see if we can get two servings. Worst comes to worst I will need to use the tissue synthesizer to get you something to eat.” I said; I turned around and locked the apothecary and before I realised it, the little dragon landed on my shoulder.

“Well let’s go, I am a growing dragon and I have to eat to keep healthy or something like that.” The dragon stated as he settled on my shoulder. “Onward to nom noms!”

“Weren’t you… hatched less than half a day ago?” I asked the over intelligent lizard.

“True dragons aren’t like you lesser creatures, where you have to learn from scratch. I inherited a lot of knowledge from my mom,” the lizard huffed proudly.

“Well excuse me,” I muttered as I briefly reconsidered ending the pompous lizard.

“Lets go, not-a-drake, I am starving,” the lizard urged.

“Fine but there are a few ground rules that need to be laid down so you don’t get spaced.” I said, staring the oversized gecko. If I had to deal with it, better start now.

“What would that be, o mighty protector? I mean, how could a weak species, like yours, launch me, A DRAGON, into outer space?” the dragon smugly replied.

“Considering we are on an interstellar colony ship, crossing the dark space between the stars, it would be literally as easy as opening a door. But that is beside the point, you over evolved chicken. There are resource rules that have to be maintained so our stocks don’t deplete, and we survive the trip,” I started to explain, “which means that I have to get clearance for you to eat. While I can fudge the numbers somewhat, I need to do more work to get you fed.”

“What is an interceller colony ship?” the dragon asked, missing everything after by my guess.

“Ok three rules, first listen to what I say as there is typically a good reason for it. Second if you eat you work, while there are several ways I can trick the system into increasing food allocations most of them involve people thinking that I gave birth. And while not exactly uncommon now it will raise questions when people ask to see you.”

“Did you say give birth? While I might have hatched yesterday, I am pretty sure that you are not female,” the dragon interrupted.

“Aww, look at the lesser species thinking in terms of gender locked biology. We figured out how to deal with that little social concern centuries ago, but it will involve a C-section.” I patronized, a smug smile plastering my face.

“Third rule is to keep close to me as other people might mistake you as a loose bio-experiment. If they do, they will either return you to the creature lab or the bio recycler, which would be… unpleasant to say the least,” I finished explaining, my face still containing the smile.

Leaving the dragon to ponder my words, I shooed the lizard off my shoulder as I removed  the remains of the bio suit and hung it. I then  grabbed my tablet, and right before I left it jump back onto my shoulder and we left the medbay.

We walked down the hall as the dragon took in his new environment of steel and plastic.

“Wow there is so much metal here ! No even in mom’s memories there is so much metal,” the dragon faded as we continued towards the mess area.

“What is this place?” The dragon asked as we entered the mess hall. “This is one of the many tertiary mess hall scattered throughout the ship. I often come here, the closest secondary mess is more than an hour’s walk away,” I replied as I headed towards the dispenser. After pressing a few buttons to get a larger ration, the tray popped out loaded with more food than normal.

“Wow,” I heard the dragon mouth from my shoulder, “so you don’t even need any money to get the food. It just gives it to you?”

“No, the ship’s AI keeps track of all thawed personal, so when it detected that I was trying to get food it took it out of my ration allotment. Limited resources here, remember ?” I replied as I grabbed the tray and took it to the nearby table.

“Oh,” The dragon replied as he jumped from my shoulder and glided towards the table in the corner. He perched himself on the chair and watched me as I grabbed an extra plate and a clean set of utensils. I sat down eyeing the dragon as I grabbed a few pieces of synth meat off my tray and placed on an extra plate.

“Here, it smells like synth chicken.” I said as I placed the plate in front of the dragon.

“Synth chicken?” The dragon dubiously asked as he inspected the mystery meat patties, “Does it taste like normal chicken?”

“Everything tastes like chicken if you ignore the flavor enough,” I chuckled as I shoved a chunk of the mystery meat in my mouth. It was in fact chicken this time. I tried not to laugh as I watched the little dragon poke and prod the meat patties as he tried to decide on whether or not to eat it. After I had consumed over half of my meal he flicked his tongue and faster than I could see half of the meat had disappeared into the tiny maw.

“Well that is different.” I said, stumped, dropping my fork.

“What? Have you never see a dragon eat before?” He asked after swallowing the meat.

“Considering you are the first dragon I have ever met and it is your first meal… no I haven’t,” I sarcastically replied.

“Don’t stare at me while I eat,” he flatly stated before the rest of the meat also vanished into his mouth.

“By the way,” I said after an uncomfortably long silence, “what should I call you?”

“Well while you were passed out like a shivering goblin my mother named me Ras’kavashrith,” he said, while spouting a bit of fire. “And the burst of flame in the middle is important,” he said; his chest puffed out a little bit.

“Well that might be a problem,” I replied. He eyed me curiously for an instant before I gave in. “I can’t shoot flames, and it would be bad if we trigger the ship’s fire suppression system.” I flatly explained.

“I guess you can’t help not being able to shoot flames. It would be a pain in the tail to teach you fire magic, but not out of question in the future…” the dragon started to mumble,  seeming to space out for a second, “Well, then you can call the closest approx meaning of my name in your unevolved language… Tim?”

“Tim it is.” I replied barely managing to hold back a smile.

 

 

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