When Ramoth came out of between she hadn't expected this. The room was large, like the images of the Yokohama Ruth had once shown her. Behind her, a huge console of hard light, just above it a panoramic viewscreen displaying the vastness of space. The air here was a little cold, sterile. Nothing smelt right, and she could hear her Lifemate, Lessa, shouting in her head faintly, wondering what was going on but she tuned the human out so she could focus.
And focus she did, upon the massive metal, leather-cushioned couch in front of her. Resting upon that couch was a dragon, one whom she'd been wanting to meet for the longest time, ever since the human cradled in the dragon's forepaws had taken her away from her home, away from Pern. This was a dragon she knew so well. This was her kin. This was her flesh and blood! This was,
"Vyth," the dragon stated coldly, the strange helmet-with-lights on her head blinking gently as she spoke, "my name is Vyth." Ramoth smothered a startled squawk, because her hatchling's voice hadn't sounded in her thoughts; it had come from a silver collar wrapped about her neck! From that collar, two tubes wound gently up about her neck to enter her nose!
As Ramoth looked on, her beloved daughter took a breath, and the Queen heard the soft hiss of air from two tanks beneath her wings, on either side of her body. "It is a mixture of gases similar to the air that you can breathe normally," Vyth stated matter-of-factly, "but concentrated such that my undergrown lungs can process it. I will not need to be breathing it for too much longer; just until my lungs are properly sized. My human is working on this, among other things… Mother."
A shiver passed though Ramoth at the coldness of her daughter's voice as Vyth extended a wing to touch something on the console-of-light. Almost immediately Ramoth noted that the wing her daughter used was not normal. It didn't seem like the wing of a Pernese Dragon as it seemed far too large, had far too many joints, and should not have bent the way it did. Steeling herself, Ramoth spoke. ~Daughter… I am so sorry! I tried to save you, I truly did; I begged my Lessa to aid you, to help crack your shell and bring you into the world-~
"—but they did nothing!" Vyth hissed in reply, her faceted eyes whirling red. "Their traditions state that they don't help small, malformed eggs they think aren't worth saving! Fortunately, my human is not them, and possesses thinking far more modern. It didn't take much effort on his part, either: an awl to break open my egg, a pill he made me eat that expanded in my stomach into a meal just enough to satisfy my blind hunger, and then an adaptive Gaspack when he saw that I was having trouble breathing-"
Vyth crooned softly, lowering her head to nuzzle, lip, and lick at her one – the human she adored in all of the vastness of space that was her world now – and said human moved to hug her head fiercely and whispered something to her that Ramoth wasn't privy to hear. Then, "—so simple for my David," she continued, "so easy for his kind. More, and better, cybernetics followed – genetic enhancements for my mind and body, living cybernetic wings in place of the organic ones I was supposed to have but never did—"
Thought filled the gaps that words never could, and – connected to her daughter as she was – Ramoth saw it all; all of the painful but ultimately rewarding, and life-saving surgeries that her daughter's one had booked her in for, at the finest, the best, medical facilities he could find. "—and ultimately," Vyth stated with finality, "the neural implants that allow me to be the Navigator and he the Pilot of this ship." Ramoth again heard the hiss of air as her daughter breathed in her specialized air from the tanks at her sides.
This... isn't how I wanted things to happen, at all... Ramoth thought, sadly. She'd been hoping for a happier reunion with her daughter - that her daughter might be overjoyed to see her - but instead, Vyth seemed so very cold and, dare she say, indifferent to her. Ramoth had wanted her daughter to return to Pern with her, to perhaps meet her Father, Mnementh, and others of her kind, but the chances of that happening - if it was ever going to happen at all - seemed remote. Before she could speak further with her daughter, however, the a male voice filled the room. "Base calling SpaceTrans Freighter 'Dragonflight' 4501, how copy?"
It was the Pilot, David, who answered the query as Ramoth looked on. "Solid copy, Base, proceed."
"Report status, Pilot; we've noticed you've called all-stop. What's going on out there, David?"
"Status normal, but... we've got a visitor. Another Dragon - Vyth's Mother, in fact - dropped out of N-Space right here in the cabin. Requesting temporary VOS-flag whilst we deal with this, how copy?"
"Solid copy on temp Vehicle Off Service-flag," the male voice at 'Base' replied, "but you know the Boss ain't gonna like this. Flag applied."
Vyth's expression darkened even as David seemed to take this in stride. "Yeah, yeah; look, y'know the Boss never likes anything we do, right?" he replied. "The only reason he keeps us on at all is Vyth's timing and N-Space nav skills - thanks to her, we've never missed or mucked up a delivery run - that and he likes to brag about how his company has an experimental dragon/human delivery team. Fuckin' tub of lard..."
"I hear that!" Base replied, chuckling. "Look, I'll tell the Boss-man there's a temporary fault in the R-Space nav system; that should get you some time. Just do whatever you need to do to get back on sched, copy?"
"Solid copy, Base," David replied, "we'll be back on track soon. Dragonflight 4501 clear."