Chapter 5

Metal fabrication, micro hydraulics and electronic control systems were more to Blues liking because of all the experience he had gained living and working back at the Railgun complex. But now the young man needed to try and pick up all the ins and outs of working with wood, and it was not easy. For Abigail the situation was even more difficult; she was accustomed to programming computer controlled manufacturing systems. Calla had already picked up some skills from working with her father, but she still had a lot to learn. Every day though they continued to create more pieces of rough furniture for the underground room that was also their night time prison, while also farming and generally helping out.

After a few days, the three settled into life at the mountain refuge camp, and had even been permitted to venture outside the wall that closed off the canyon. On the outside they would go hunting, fishing and collecting wood for crafting and fires. Many conditions had been put on this small freedom; only one of the three was permitted outside at any one time, and there must always be at least two other chaperones to keep an eye on them. Gran figured no member this tight little group would try to run away without the other two and she was right, but Calla soon realised she could use this fact to their advantage. And so one night in their locked room, she told Blue and Abigail her plan.

"Our best bet for getting out of here is to take advantage of the regular safety drills."

"Good start, but how?" Blue asked.

"Cast your mind back to the dawn of time, then fast forward to our first day here" Calla whispered.

"Oh... funny girl" Abigail smirked.

"Calla; master of droll comedy" the young girl smirked and then revealed her plan "I noticed when the emergency safety drill happened last week, some guys with clipboards checked off each person as they entered the tunnel, so they would know if anyone was missing. Therefore the first thing we have to do, is be sure we're all checked off."

"Won't be easy to escape if we're trapped inside and surrounded by entire population of this place" Blue noted.

"I admit getting out of the tunnel un-noticed will be the tricky part, but I think I've worked out a way" Calla gave a sly grin.

"We're listening" Abigail leant in.

"Two things to remember; firstly the initial check as we enter the tunnel, and secondly the outer wall guards are the last ones inside."

"Okay but... so?" Blue shrugged.

"So we have to be the last of the general population into the tunnel, just ahead of the wall guards. If we can get checked off and stay at the back of the line as everyone heads deeper in, we can peel off somewhere and hide. If we manage stay out of sight near the entrance, the wall guards will pass by with the clipboard guys, and then we can make a run for it. There'll be no one else outside, so we should get a good head start."

"But they do full roll call when everyone is gathered deep inside the tunnel" Abigail noted.

"Yes but that head count took a long time to do; so by the time they get organised and get it finished, we will be long gone" Calla nodded smugly.

The room was quiet for short time as the Dias siblings gave Calla's idea due consideration.

"It might work" Blue noted "but if it doesn't, you can be sure Gran will keep us firmly locked up in the future."

"Then we have to make sure we get it right the first time" Calla declared.

The plan sounded risky but well thought out, so they all agreed they should try it. Even though they had managed to make their room a little more comfortable with basic handmade furniture and a few scrounged items, all three found it difficult to close their eyes that night as each one ran through the plan in their minds. Over the next few days they made the one simple preparation needed; although the inside of the tunnel was wide enough for the freight trains it was originally built for, it was not made to look pretty inside and had rough walls with rocks protruding in many places. Blue took advantage of this and hid the dirty old tarpaulin he had been sleeping on, under a small alcove in a dimly lit section the tunnel wall. With this one prop in place, all they needed to do now was to wait for the right time.

'

'

The best place inside the Railgun Complex for briefing a large group, was the main staging area where the capsules, payloads and boosters all came together for assembly before being launch into space. The wide expanse allowed a high number of people to fit inside comfortably, and the high ceiling made for better communication. And so, a few hours after the arrival of April Dias, the scientists and engineers of the Railgun Complex, along with the population of the nearby town of Padang and many of the refugees from the fleet that had originally brought Calla, all gathered together to hear the latest bad news.

"If everyone would please take note of this map" Sarah pointed to the large projection on the back wall.

"Here we see the general area covering a distance of about forty kilometres around the Railguns underground entrance. All the former defence weaponry from the tanker has been recovered from Padang and placed in these strategic points; two Phalanx Guns placed back on the stern of the tanker, two at the top of the entrance ramp, one at the bottom of the ramp, and the last three at hidden points along the road, which has also been booby trapped along the way back here. We also have two Surface to Air rocket launchers but only five rockets between them. Finally there are six handguns and three rifles, all with limited ammunition" Sarah noted.

Everyone in the room listened nervously. The Railgun Staff only had a very small amount combat training, and that was about twenty years ago, and they never had any reason to use it before. And as for the people of Padang and the refugee fleet, they had always been more concerned with survival than battle.

"Is that going to be enough to defend the base?" one of the engineers wondered.

"There was a time when I thought so, but now..."

Sarah took a step back and looked to April Dias who sat nearby. Struggling to get out of her chair, the heavily pregnant woman stepped forward to speak.

"Most of you know me but for the more recent arrivals, I'm April the mother of Henry Dias, or Blue Dias as you all know him. If we can have the next image on the screen please?"

With a slight flicker, the map changed into the image of several small black dots on a sea of blue.

"These were taken from the MTV Starcruiser only a few hours before my daughter Saffron and I left the ship to return here. We have every reason to believe this is the long feared attack force lead by Commander Neville Sage; a rather nasty man who once tried to kill my husband and oldest daughter. He is also suspect in many shady operations and assassinations, both here on Earth as well as on Mars, stretching back over twenty years. Ever since he was exiled to Earth a few months ago, it has become clear that he will stop at nothing to get himself off this planet, and back to the relative safety of Mars."

"And we have to stop him?" another person asked.

"Stopping him would be wonderful" Sarah interrupted "but if you look closely, you'll see something quite disturbing in the middle of Sage's fleet. When our ship the One and All returned from the US, the acting Captain Jack Sumner informed me that the raiding ships were mostly quite small and nothing to be overly concerned about, but it looks like Sage has been busy."

"You may have noticed this ship near the centre of the fleet is much larger than the others" April noted before asking for the next image.

"Here we see a slightly closer shot showing that this is some kind of warship, probably a destroyer or light cruiser. It appears to be under tow by these three smaller ships."

There were a few light laughs from the assembled group and a few even made sarcastic comments about how worried they were by this broken ship.

"Actually we should be worried, considering the size of those deck guns" Maynard Linwood realise what others had missed.

"And indeed we are" Sarah agreed "Originally we assumed Sage would either try and land near the tanker, where the phalanx guns would pick off his ships while they were still a few hundred meters from shore, or he would land in the bay south of Padang where he and his raiders would encounter our traps all the way back to the Railgun entrance. But even though his warship is not able to propel itself, it doesn't really have to. All he has to do is get that ship close and those deck guns could easily pick off our phalanx guns before coming into range and then he could move it in closer to shore and shell the entire area around the beach, enabling him to land virtually unchallenged."

A short silence followed Sarah's words until Maynard asked the obvious question.

"Is there any way we could stop that ship before it gets here?" he asked.

"I'm sorry but... no" Sarah admitted "The only way would be if we could attack by air or from underwater but we have neither aircraft nor a combat submarine, so we've come up with a different plan."

The entire room leant forward in anticipation until Sarah spoke again.

"We surrender... and give him what he wants."

'

'

The sun was low in the sky and would soon sink below the skyline of the western mountains, covering the prison like settlement in a veil of depressing shadows. Blue and his escorts were on their way back to the outer wall with the weight of a seven meter cut log pressing down on their shoulders. If they could just get it back to the saw mill before it got too dark, they could relax knowing the day had been a success and they could leave the work of cutting it up into usable lumber until tomorrow.

Back inside the walled compound, Abigail and Calla had been put to work inside one of the green houses. Although it was still a very different environment for Abigail, the greenhouse still had a familiar feel about it.

"We had places like this back on Mars you know" she said to Calla "but they were much bigger of course because we had no other source of food. No forest to hunt in, no rivers full of fish..."

"And its making you feel very emotional and homesick isn't it?" Calla noted.

"No... not really" Abigail replied "it's just..."

"Being here IS making you very emotional... isn't it?" Calla repeated.

"Oh... um yes" Abigail suddenly realised what Calla was suggesting and acted appropriately.

Even though their situation was far from perfect, Abigail had been feeling very calm lately. The initial shock of being taken prisoner had passed and she felt sure it was only a matter of time until they escaped or someone came to rescue them. Abigail felt sure her parents would become aware if she, Blue and Calla did not get back to Sumatra in a reasonable amount of time, and Max DeGroot could also be relied upon to get word back to Sumatra eventually somehow. He probably wouldn't go himself because he certainly would not want to be far away from the Heirs of Berk.

But changing her mood to suit Calla's plan came quite easily to Abigail as she purposely began to think of never seeing her family again, of waiting years before finally being married off against her will and living out her life in this cold and bleak place. Soon her breathing became more erratic and her eyes began to water. Her lips started to tremble as she whimpered and sobbed, drawing the attention of those around her.

"What's wrong with your friend?" someone sneered.

"She'll be alright" Calla replied as a few other people looked on disapprovingly "Just give us a minute."

Calla put her arm around Abigails shoulder and led her out of the greenhouse. To the people inside, the young girl appeared to be comforting her distraught friend, but the truth was something quite different.

"Well done; you're quite the actress" Calla noted.

"I trod the boards on Mars more than once" Abigail smiled to herself.

"Huh?" was Calla's only reply to the revelation.

"It means I've been in theatrical productions; we do have some culture on Mars" Abigail explained.

"Okay whatever" Calla said dismissively "but for now I need to talk to you about our escape plan."

"What about it?" Abigail wondered what else needed to be done.

"I hate to say this but... it's not going to work."

W-what... why?" Abigail gasped.

"The plan should get us outside the wall, but it would only be a matter of time before they ran us down and dragged us all back here" Calla revealed.

Abigail could feel her heart beating faster. Their escape plan had given her a level of hope and it had just been ripped away from her.

"What are we going to do? We have to tell Blue as soon as he..."

"No! Blue must never know" Calla insisted.

"But... but why won't..?"

"If you'll give me a chance, I'll tell you" Calla declared and lowered her voice even more.

,

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The last few days on the rocky island had been good to the small dragon. The birds mostly left him alone and the fishing was good. After eating the best parts of a particularly large salmon, he decided the time had come to move on. So he stood up, raised up his rear haunches and stretched out his legs and wings, following his stretch with a quick shake. Then with one bound he jumped up on a nearby rock, crouched down and leapt into the air. The birds of the island followed the deep sound of the dragons beating wings and as soon as they were sure he was well and truly out of sight, a few of the braver ones crept forward and began to feast on the remains of the dragons fish breakfast.

The dragon had made a habit of exploring the area and so based on his past movements, they all felt sure he would not return for a few hours at least, maybe not until the end of the day. What they did not know was that the small fire breather did not plan to return at all.

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Caution: Minor Spoilers Ahead ! (nothing major)

I often wonder if anyone is frustrated with this series of stories because it is so far into the third book, and there has been very little dragon action. The reason is before I started writing, I decided I did not want to write anything like 'One day, a boy walked into a cave and found a dragon' as that was just too simple. With delusions of grandeur, I wanted to come up with a more epic story that would see the Dragons return be a major event in the history of Earth. That's why I decided to combine it with another major event, the near destruction of the planet and a desperate need to colonise other parts of the solar system (with a few James Bond style villains thrown in to make life difficult).

Knowing that the Creswell books and film would end with the dragons leaving their human pets, meant there was plenty of scope for an eventual rediscovery (unless the story ended with dragon extinction and none of us wanted to see that). Fortunately for me (and all other HTTYD fans), the third film could not have been better for a story like this. I'm sure many other FanFic writers will also be able to use what the films left us with and come up with some cool stories.

Rest assured that dragons will not just pop back in at the end of the next story, they will have a major part later in this one, and be in almost all of the next.