Disclaimer: All familiar ideas are not mine (and athingofvikings helped me refine a couple of world-building details); you know what to expect.
Feedback: Appreciated as always.
The Doctor's Dragon
If there was one advantage to the Doctor's long experience navigating the TARDIS's shifting interior corridors, it was that it made it even easier for him to make his way through smaller ships like this one. It was slightly harder to navigate the corridors with Sullivan walking alongside him, but after a couple of attacking Drationans were forced back by blasts of scalding hot water from his new associate, the Doctor was prepared to put up with the 'inconvenience' of a large dragon following him in exchange for the extra protection.
After a few moments of heading for the centre of the ship, the Doctor was relieved when he found himself standing in what could only be the bridge of this ship, with a series of simple-looking controls, along with a few symbols that jogged something in the Doctor's memory that he couldn't entirely place.
"Well," he glanced back at Sullivan with a tentative smile, "at least this confirms that we're not dealing with something unfamiliar, although that doesn't exactly help me narrow it down…"
Stroking his hands cautiously over the controls as Sullivan let out a curious murmur, the Doctor smiled when his tentative telepathic contact triggered a response from one set of controls. Placing his hand more firmly on it, the Doctor hoped that this wasn't going to be as unpleasant as his attempt to 'communicate' with the Waro a couple of bodies back; machines shouldn't be as dangerous as the insane anger of the Waro, but there was always the possibility that the Drationans had included a few security protocols…
As he felt himself probe further into the controls, the Doctor grinned in relief as he took in the scale of his new access to the system. He wasn't sure if it was just because he had a more open mind than the Drationans or because they were comparatively inexperienced with this kind of technology, but it seemed as though they hadn't even bothered to install any kind of psychic firewall on this ship's systems.
It took a little time for the Doctor to confirm what systems the Drationans were using to control the dragons, but once he'd found that, he quickly turned his attention back to the matter of deleting the ship's records. His fingers flying over the controls while his mind raced through the database, the Doctor had soon taken in some of the key details of the Drationans' research on the dragons to satisfy his own curiosity and deleted the main drives of the information. It was possible that they had some off-network back-ups, but considering the lack of firewalls the Doctor doubted the Drationans had the technological knowledge to create more detailed copies of the data elsewhere.
Of course, there may be more files back on their homeworld that were just copied over here, but without whatever they were hoping to get from the Dragon Eye and the dragons themselves…
As the idea occurred to him, the Doctor slipped a subtle telepathic virus into the psychic systems; it was just a subtle nudge, but if he had identified the source of this technology correctly, that should be enough to transmit a corruptive signal back into the original database if the Drationans tried to upload the data back into the ship from their other computers.
The files cleared, the Doctor moved his hands to the dragon control system, quickly probing his way through the network. As far as he could determine, the Drationans had adapted a telepathic transmitter that was already in this ship to focus on the dragons, incorporating some of their own psychic technology and adapting it for their own minds; there were even references to a particular few species of dragon capable of controlling other dragons. Recalling some of the Riders' tales about the large dragon that they had defeated on their first major confrontation with their dragons, the Doctor decided not to analyse that too closely and focused his efforts on tapping into the signal.
If I understand how this works, it should be possible to transmit my own signal before I have to shut this system down… and it couldn't hurt to give him a chance to stretch his legs again…
Diving into the battle waging outside the ship, Turlough had no idea how he'd ended up getting involved in this. He appreciated that Alcatraz had evidently been eager to join the other dragons as they charged at the three flying giants, but the idea that he had anything to contribute to this mess…
When the large bone-white creature that the Riders had identified as the Screaming Death let out a loud roar that sent the twins and their two-headed dragon heading for the ground, the Trion exile didn't even stop to think when he sent Alcatraz charging towards the larger dragon. His strange new ally launched a flaming rock at the other dragon that forced the Screaming Death downwards, leaving Alcatraz free to fly into position above the Screaming Death and then drop downwards to strike his larger opponent on its head.
"Nice!" Ruffnut called over at Turlough as she and her brother righted the Zippleback and the two-headed dragon flew away once again, now spreading a cloud of green gas behind them. Turlough was about to ask what they were doing when the Quaken charged through the gas cloud and was sent flying backwards as the gas was exploded by a spark from the dragon's other head.
A shot from below drew Turlough's attention to the ground, but he soon established that it was just the Drationan forces, now shooting desperately up at the fighting dragons as though they had some desperate hope that they would be able to recapture the dragons. Turlough wasn't sure if the weapons just weren't that strong or the dragons were that powerful, but it was clear that their attacks weren't making much difference; anything that did manage to hit the larger dragons didn't make much of an impact on their hides, and the Riders' own dragons managed to avoid the attacks with relative ease.
"What are those things?" Tuffnut looked incredulously at the energy weapons even as the Zippleback made a desperate spin in the air to dodge the latest shot.
"What they are isn't important; just don't get hit with them!" Turlough yelled, as he sent Alcatraz into a dive that knocked a few of the Drationans down.
I don't know if I'll go back to Trion or settle down somewhere else, but whenever I move on from the Doctor, I'm definitely finding somewhere I can talk about advanced technology without messing with history or confusing everyone else…
"Good call!" Astrid called out as Stormfly fired a few spine-shots at another group of attackers. "Spread out and keep hitting them hard; they can't take us all!"
"That's my kinda plan!" Snotlout yelled, as Hookfang launched a blaze of fire at another group, scattering the Drationans, a few falling to the ground with screams of agony. "Snotlout, Snotlout, oy oy-OW!" The shortest Viking grabbed his arm as a laser bolt skimmed him, nearly losing his balance on his dragon before Fishlegs and Meatlug repeated Turlough's attack, diving down to knock the attacking Drationans out of the way while Hookfang flew out of range-
"ENOUGH!" a loud voice yelled, followed by a powerful blast of golden energy from the ground that almost struck Hiccup and Toothless. The six Riders quickly paused mid-flight to take a closer look at the source, revealing that Nicarlet had joined his forces on the ground, the top of his staff glowing gold in a manner that made it clear that was the source of the last attack.
"Do you think this will achieve anything?" Nicarlet yelled up at the Riders with an indignant glare. "Your dragons are our creatures-!"
His rant was cut short when a dark blue figure dashed in from the side and sent Nicarlet sprawling off to the right just as the Deathsong fired a blast of amber at him. The amber just missed the Drationan leader and his 'saviour', but it soon became clear that Nicarlet wasn't going to be allowed to go free when he found himself with a different blue dragon glaring down at him, along with the fawn-clad Rider on its back.
"What you need to realise, Nicarlet," the Doctor said as he sat astride Sullivan, staring coolly at the Drationans' leader as the other Riders flew desperately around above them, "is that everything moves on; just because you created the dragons doesn't mean that you control the dragons."
"Doctor," Nicarlet glared at the Time Lord. "You think that this makes any difference?"
"No," the Doctor replied. "I just choose not to let you die because it's easier to negotiate with a known party than have to worry about finding someone else to talk with when you're dead."
"The dragons are ours; I will not-!"
"These dragons are free creatures who do not deserve to be taken from this planet just to fulfil your own plans," the Doctor retorted, placing a hand on Sullivan's neck as he looked at the Drationan leader. "You cannot just take them from this planet-"
"We created them; it is our right-!"
"Nobody has the right to make living things do anything," the Doctor said, glancing back as the assembled dragons continued to fight, the wild dragons lashing out at both the trained dragons and the Drationan soldiers trying to capture them, barely restraining a wince at the Screaming Death's latest roar. "Your plan was ambitious, but you should have contented yourself with the scale of your original achievement; all you've achieved by coming back here is show yourselves to be fundamentally petty individuals who can't appreciate the true scale of your own victory. If you had left the dragons to flourish on your own, this would have been the most remarkable feat of genetic engineering I've ever witnessed, but as it is, you undermined that plan for your own petty ambitions-"
"ENOUGH!" Nicarlet yelled, raising his staff as though about to fire another blast at the Doctor, only for Sullivan to grab the staff out of Nicarlet's hands and break it in half with a firm bite.
"I think that's enough of that," the Doctor smiled in satisfaction, patting Sullivan's neck as Nicarlet glared indignantly at the Time Lord. "If we could just-"
As other the Drationans started to fire in the Doctor's direction, Sullivan took to the air once again, launching a last blast of hot water at Nicarlet before turning his attention to the ongoing battle. The Tide Glider soon focused on weaving his way through the aerial battle, launching a series of scalding hot water blasts at the three large dragons to force them into the more dangerous fire-blasts from the other Riders, but the laser blasts from the Drationans made it hard for any of them to really focus on the task of taking down the larger dragons.
"There's too many of these things!" Turlough yelled desperately, as a laser blast nearly skimmed Alcatraz's wing. "We have to-!"
A loud and unfamiliar roar filled the air, followed by a blast of fire that struck the Riders as resembling a strange mix of their own dragons, before a shape crashed into the area that had been used as the dragon cages just a few moments ago. The Riders only just had time to realise that the shape that had crushed the cages looked like the Drationan fighter they'd shot down earlier before the source of the roar was soon revealed as a new dragon landed in the middle of the battlefield, as long as a Monstrous Nightmare but with a bulk that put those watching in mind of a Snafflefang, glaring at the three large dragons with a ferocious gleam in its eyes.
"What the Hell?" Snotlout said, the battle suddenly paused as all combatants stared at the new arrival. It had the hard hide of a Boulder-class dragon, but it was a deep blue colour with an intermittent smoothness that put those watching in mind of a Tidal dragon rather than a Boulder. The creature had a wide but pointed mouth that resembled a strange mix of a Night Fury and a Monstrous Nightmare, a line of spikes on its back that resembled those on a Zippleback apart from being sharper at the top, and a 'frill' of bony spikes around the back of its head that looked like a Deadly Nadder's. Its tail and neck were of a reasonable length without being as long as the Nightmare or Zippleback, its teeth were sharp without protruding significantly, and it had a faint ring of spines around its tail that resembled a Nadder.
"What in the world-?" Fishlegs began uncertainly.
"Kamelion!" the Doctor grinned in understanding.
"That's Kamelion?" Turlough looked at the Doctor incredulously as he brought Alcatraz up into position beside Sullivan.
"Remember, he's composed of block transfer computations rather than physical matter up to a point; he might remain human-sized for the most part, but he can become larger if he needs to," the Doctor smiled, as the new dragon swept its tail to knock the nearest Drationans off their feet. "When I sent him a telepathic signal from the ship, I must have subconsciously given him information about the Riders' dragons; he's manifesting as an amalgamation of all of their best traits based on my own impression of them."
"And that's safe?" Turlough said, remembering to lower his voice as the other Riders looked at the new arrival in shock. "I thought he was still-"
"True, but for the moment, my mind's still in sync with the dregs of power from the telepathic matrix the Drationans were using to control the dragons," the Doctor explained with a smile. "Their own natural telepathy was too weak for them to tap it properly, but with a bit of concentration I was able to boost my existing link to Kamelion enough so that I'm able to temporarily overwhelm every other signal here; for the next couple of hours, nothing can break my link to him."
"That's… good," Turlough nodded tentatively as he watched the dragon-Kamelion unleash a powerful blast that looked like a flaming rock at the remaining dragon cages, smashing them with a force that put Turlough in mind of a meteor strike.
"Oh yeah!" the twins yelled as Barf and Belch released a new wave of gas and sent a new wave of Drationans flying backwards. While Turlough and Alcatraz joined Fishlegs and Meatlug in firing smaller flaming rocks at their enemy forces, Toothless, Stormfly and Hookfang released a new wave of fire at the three large dragons in the air. Another blast of water from Sullivan left the three dragons with damp heads, followed by another powerful burst of flame from Kamelion's new form that forced the dragons down.
"Wow," Fishlegs said, looking at Kamelion as the hybrid dragon looked solemnly at the three fallen large dragons. "That is… incredible."
"Where did that thing come from?" Tuffnut asked.
"I'll explain later," the Doctor said, before turning his attention to Nicarlet, who was glaring up at the Doctor with the cool indignation he was used to seeing from those foes he defeated without killing. "In the meantime, I believe we have things to talk about?"