Another story from the Stronger universe. Let me know if you want to know what happened when Adara returned home. Enjoy, Samdagger.
Adara and ALIE
Adara was now in her thirties, her daughter had just impressed Arath, a gold dragon at Atlantis. Her other children would be put to the eggs when it was their time. Both of them couldn't wait to become a dragonrider. Her wife Anya was off checking on the weyr down in Yujleda territory and Adara was at a loose end. Raven and Murphy had the weyr running smoothly and with the new dragonriders under Bellamy's tutelage, they were good too.
"Why don't you go to Pern to see how they're doing after the end of threadfall?" Roma said to her.
"That's not a bad idea," Adara replied.
"It'll get you out of the weyr," Roma told her, having noted that she was staying around the weyr for some reason.
"I'm here because my daughter's just impressed. I guess I'm kind of hovering, huh?"
"Yes! Go and check out Pern. Don't come back for three days. Give Makana some time to figure things out on her own, Mama Adara!" Roma joked.
"Alright, alright! I'll go!" Adara said.
"Good. See if Naran's doing okay," she asked. Naran was her oldest son. He'd impressed a brown called Ucanith. He was on Pern as part of a team researching what animals they could bring to Earth and which could do well on Pern. Adara smiled.
"Fine, I'll go in the morning!" Roma nodded and headed out of the room and down to the weyrling barracks.
"I've done as much as I can, Makana. She's going to Pern for three days tomorrow."
"She is! Outstanding!" Makana said. She'd been planning her mother's birthday party. She'd soon turn 38 and she wanted to celebrate it. Most people didn't celebrate their birthdays other than congratulations from their closest friends and families. Makana had been talking to Trina who had read about the birthday parties of old. Makana had decided her mama deserved something special but with her around, Makana knew nothing would be kept secret.
"Three days?" Makana asked for confirmation.
"Yup."
"Alright! As soon as she's gone, we need a meeting to organise it all."
"I'll be there," Roma said. "I'll also go get Clarke. I think she'll enjoy planning it with you."
"Good, gotta go, Bellamy has us doing extra flying lessons. This spatial awareness stuff is weird. Dayson got tested out for the puddlejumpers the other day."
"There's quite a few of the new generation who can use them," Roma said.
"New generation? Is that what you call your children?"
"Sorry, kid, but you are the new generation," Roma said, smiling at her. It was a light-hearted argument between the two generations. One who knew another place to live and one who knew nothing else.
"Alright, gotta go before Bellamy shouts at me." She led Arath through the corridors and onto the dragon deck. Roma followed her and watched as Bellamy led them through several exercises. She smiled in remembrance at when she had to do them. Now, it was done without thinking about it. She sighed and moved off to return to work.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Adara mounted Inkalith and was handed up the supplies she'd thought to take to Pern. She fastened them to the clips and buckles and then gave a quick salute to Murphy before giving Inkalith the instructions to take off. Once they reached the right height, Adara gave Inkalith the image of the garden and they went there.
"Wonder if this garden would be destroyed if ALIE carried out her plans?" Adara said, more to herself than Inkalith.
"We won't ever know, we'll be long dead before she comes back." Adara mentally nodded to herself and gave the correct location for Pern. Inkalith disappeared from the garden and came out of between high above a mountain range.
"That's odd," Adara thought, it didn't look like Benden should.
"Inkalith, are we at the right co-ordinates?"
"No, we are back on Earth, but I don't recognise the dragons talking to me." She seemed quite distressed.
"Where are we?"
"Above the old Mount Weather," Inkalith replied.
"Land, please," Adara said. Inkalith landed and Adara stayed on her, looking around her. It was completely different to what she remembered. They'd left the mountain doors open and the ground was left as it was. Now, though, the land was all flat and the door was closed but there was something different about it. Adara pondered on the difference. It was a different door! It was built the same with metal, but it was a slightly different colour. It also should have started to rust but this door looked pristine!
She pushed her senses out and found the mind of a dragon.
"Hello?" she mentally called out.
"I am here," the dragon replied.
"Who are you?"
"Bufrenth."
"I don't know that dragon's name," Adara said.
"Neither do I," said Inkalith.
"Who is your rider?"
"J'dren, but he is injured."
"Where are you?"
"Trapped under this mountain."
"How?"
"J'dren wanted to explore and he got stuck so I went to him and now we're both stuck."
"How old is J'dren?"
"He's only 18. We impressed three years ago."
"So you are capable of teleportation. Why don't you just teleport out?"
"I don't want to leave J'dren."
"Have you called for help?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"J'dren knows he'll get in trouble if he does. He knew he was not supposed to come here."
"Alright, but we do need to call for help, Bufrenth."
"Okay."
"Which weyr do you belong to?"
"Lima Weyr."
"Lima weyr? We don't have a Lima weyr," Adara said.
"Lima weyr was founded only two hundred years ago."
"Two hundred?! What year is it?"
"I do not know."
"Ask J'dren how many years have passed since the nuclear war that devastated the world." There was a short pause and then Bufrenth answered.
"He doesn't know. We mark the passage of history from when dragons came to this world almost a thousand years ago." That shocked Adara.
"A thousand years? That's impossible!" she said.
"Why?" asked Bufrenth.
"Because I'm Heda Adara of the Dragonkru and my dragon is Inkalith." Adara could feel a sense of awe from the dragon.
"You are the first?"
"First what?"
"The first Heda, the first to have a dragon."
"No, well yes. I'm Heda Adara, first Heda of the Dragonkru but it was actually Raven who impressed first."
"With Zillith."
"Yes."
"He is one of my ancestors," Bufrenth said.
"I'd think by now you would be descended from all of them - well the golds and males."
"Yes. The family lines are kept for historical information."
"Alright, we're getting off track here. Who's Heda of the Dragonkru overall?"
"Vernika, rider of gold Alruketh of Atlantis Weyr."
"Okay, I'll get in touch with her to help you out, okay?"
"That would be good. J'dren is getting weaker." Adara closed the link and then reached out for Alruketh.
"Alruketh? J'dren and Bufrenth are trapped inside Mount Weather. Can you come and help get them, please?"
"Who's talking to my dragon?!" a voice said.
"Heda Adara kom Dragonkru, rider of gold Inkalith."
"That's impossible!"
"Come to Mount Weather and find out. J'dren is injured and needs help."
"On our way. I'll bring a rescue party." Adara acknowledged her and closed the link again.
"Bufrenth? They are on their way."
"Thank you." They waited for a few minutes until a group of dragons appeared overhead. They spiralled down and landed not too far from the doorway. Adara saw a blonde woman dismount from her gold dragon. She was tall, slim and had an energy about her that reminded her of Raven. Adara also dismounted.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Adara," she replied.
"That's impossible! You lived nearly a thousand years ago!"
"I know. I was supposed to be on my way to Pern to see how they were doing after the pass was over but I somehow came here."
"You timed it?" the woman asked.
"Timed it? What's that?" The woman looked shocked.
"You don't know what timing is?" Adara shook her head.
"Never heard of it."
"Timing is when a dragon moves through time as well as space."
"Like the garden?"
"Almost, but it's confined to the planet you're on."
"But I was in the garden when I came here?" Adara asked, confused.
"I don't know what to tell you," the woman said. "I'm Vernika, I'm one of Raven's kids." Adara smirked. "I'll tell you about it but first let's get the rescue team inside the mountain and help the youngster and his dragon." Adara nodded and stepped back, letting Vernika instruct her people.
Once they entered the mountain, Vernika and Adara stayed outside.
"Okay, quick history of where we are right now," Vernika said. "I'm currently the Heda of the Dragonkru. All Hedas are in charge of Atlantis, it's considered the premier weyr. We have 120 weyrs spread out throughout the world."
"Shit!" Adara said. "We only had eight!" Vernika smirked.
"That's what a thousand years of progress gets you." Adara grinned.
"Yep, that's definitely Raven!" Adara said. Vernika grinned too. "Hell, now you look like Monroe!"
"Another ancestor."
"So what else?"
"The Commander title is no more. It was incorporated into Dragonkru when the last Commander became a dragonrider by accident. Commander Aranya was only supposed to witness a hatching, but the lone gold decided she was her new rider. When you decreed that anyone who becomes a dragonrider automatically becomes Dragonkru, it was decided that the Kongeda became Dragonkru too. This entire land is now Dragonkru. Actually, most of the world is as well. We still let them use their old names for places and people who aren't riders or part of a weyr are still called by those names, but everyone lives by the Dragonkru ethos."
"Wow! I never envisioned this when I made that rule. I was just trying to stop the clans from trying to influence their people. I had to make the decision to stay out of Kongeda politics because they were still new in the Kongeda. There were still fights that happened and we had to keep out of them." Vernika nodded.
"The histories are still part of teaching new riders. Those first riders are almost revered as Gods and Godesses."
"Shit! I don't want that, Vernika! We were just a bunch of scared kids who accidentally impressed our dragons. We were only there to watch a hatching and suddenly there's a bronze standing in front of Raven screeching at her to look at him. I had to yell at her to impress him. She did. Then it was Atom, Monty and Jasper and after that, it was a flood of dragons until they'd all impressed offworlders!"
"Wow!" Vernika said. "To hear this first-hand is marvellous!"
"It's nothing special, Heda, we were just lucky enough to impress! You have no idea what it was like coming back to Earth with baby dragons. We didn't have a weyr and we had no clue what to do either! Several riders and weyrfolk came back with us to help us dig out and alter White Oak to serve as a weyr until we could build a proper place. A few weeks later, Atlantis turned up and between Commander Lexa and I, we made it the new home of the Dragonkru. Back then, we still had ALIE to contend with. ALIE! Fuck!"
"What? What is it?"
"You said it was almost a thousand years since dragons first came to Earth?"
"Yeah?"
"ALIE said she'd come back to see how we were doing and to decide if we needed to be culled again and if she needed to start chipping people again." Vernika's eyes widened.
"We've lost so much of those early days, Adara. We know of ALIE, but you dealt with her when you decommissioned those nuclear reactors."
"Not quite. She said she'd awaken again to check on us after several centuries. I had Sam and Raven design a program to upload into her mainframe to delay that until a thousand years had passed. Has she shown up?"
"How would we know? From the histories, she couldn't show herself unless at the island - that's still off limits, by the way."
"No, she may need to chip someone."
"A rider?"
"I don't know. She may but not know what that would do to the bond between rider and dragon. We know that if a rider is chipped, they won't care for their dragon. I thought that maybe if the dragon suicided from lack of care, the rider wouldn't care until they became unchipped, then they'd suicide in shame."
"How do we stop that?"
"I don't know, but maybe I can go to the island and take someone who doesn't have a dragon with me. It may be the only way to communicate with her."
"We need to talk about this some more, but right now, Alruketh says they are bringing out J'dren. Bufrenth will 'port out when he's out." Adara nodded and they turned to the door where the group brought out a skinny young man on a stretcher.
"J'dren?" Vernika said. The young man looked at her.
"Heda Vernika," he said, nodding his head.
"Let's get you to Atlantis and get you healed,"
"Sha, Heda," he said. Bufrenth appeared a little way off and came over to see his rider.
"I'm sorry, Bufrenth. Next time, I'll listen to you about the dangers of exploring on my own." Vernika was pleased to know at least the dragon had tried to stop him.
Adara went to him and looked him over.
"He's got the same injury as Tomika did. Fractured ankle with a pinched nerve."
"Tomika?"
"One of the hundred," Adara replied.
"Not a dragonrider though," J'dren said, almost dismissing the name.
"Hey! Don't do that! Tomika is a friend of mine and without her, we couldn't look after our children or dragons properly. She runs our creche."
"Creche? What's that?" J'dren asked.
"It's where we put our very young children while we're busy with our dragons and whatever work we need. All three of my kids have stayed there when we needed to do other things." J'dren nodded.
"So she was an integral part of the Weyr?" Vernika asked.
"Yes. All my people are important to me. Not all of them are riders, but all of them are part of the weyr. Pascal is one of the cooks and keeps us fed, Trina is our seamstress and makes our clothing." She looked at the patches on their jackets. "She was the one who designed the patches you still use," Adara pointed out. J'dren blushed.
"Just because they aren't riders, doesn't mean they are not important. Do you know who Clarke Griffin is - was?"
"Yeah, she was the Dragonkru's first ambassador."
"Wrong, Clarke was Dragonkru's first envoy. We decided that she should use another title because ambassadors came from the clans and were part of the kongeda. Dragonkru weren't, so we needed to differentiate between us. It made the clans realise that we were neutral."
"I apologise," J'dren said.
"Never assume that because they don't impress, that they are not good enough. Dragons chose, not humans. It doesn't mean the person not chosen is useless and unworthy, it just means they were destined for other things."
"Like what?"
"Like being the Commander. Commander Lexa was there when we were impressed and she wasn't chosen. Neither was Clarke, Charlotte, Maya or Saben along with some others."
"But Charlotte and Maya became riders?"
"Yes, but not at that impression. In fact, neither of them were candidates, they were chosen from the stands."
"Really?" J'dren said, impressed.
"Really. Now, let's get you to the healers." Vernika nodded.
"If you'll follow us, we'll take you there." Adara knew the way, but she just nodded and followed them when she got the destination. Good job she did, it had changed in the thousand years between them. They landed on the dragon deck - that name had not changed - and a med team came out for J'dren. Vernika sent a messenger to Lima Weyr about him.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
"Come with me," Vernika said. She led Adara into the dragon weyr. It hadn't changed all that much. The names of the corridors were still there, but one thing that had changed was the amount of space available. Now that the reactors had been shut down, the city was no longer needed as a fallback for the clans and more dragons lived there. All five arms of the city had dragons living in them. Adara was embarrassed to know they had named each deck after one of the first dragons. The dragon deck Adara knew was now Inkalith deck, with the others being Zilith deck, Pelanth deck, Vadith deck and Fargoth deck. One name for each dragon colour.
"Okay, I'm a little embarrassed about that, the others would be humbled except for Raven, she'd grin like a loon to know one of them is named after her dragon." Vernika grinned.
"I think I'd have liked Raven!"
"Oh, she would like you! If there's someone to bask in her glory, she'd do it!" Vernika laughed.
"Okay, come through to the conference room and we can talk."
"Not your office?"
"No, my twic's in there working."
"Twic? You kept the designation?"
"Sha. After hearing the story, Makana vowed to keep it. She did."
"My daughter?"
"Sha, she becomes the leader after you. Don't worry, you step down instead of dying."
"Good. I hope I did a good enough job so that she had a smooth journey. I don't want to know everything, I may change some things by accident if I did."
"Understood," Vernika said. They sat down opposite each other at the head of the table.
"Alright, do you know why you came through time to now?"
"No, but Inkalith and I were having a conversation about whether the garden would be destroyed if ALIE followed through on her plans."
"So you may have had a stray thought running through your head when you tried to go to Pern?"
"I may have. I honestly can't remember. I thought I gave clear images to Inkalith. I know I couldn't have given her images from here, I didn't know them." Vernika nodded.
"Okay, we can guide you so you go back to your time and Earth when it's time for you to go." Adara nodded.
"Thank you."
"So, about ALIE. We only know that she was a threat to the entire world, but after you shut the reactors down, she seems to have been forgotten about by most people. Only the Heda's know of her and that's only because there's a book they all have to read. It's like a history book. Each leader can add something to it to add to it, but nothing is to be taken out of it. Each leader must read the entire book before they are invested as the Heda of the Dragonkru."
"Who started the book?"
"You did."
"When?"
"Around 20 years after you became dragonriders."
"That's about now. Well, now for me. I'm about to turn thirty eight and I became a rider at 18." Vernika looked pensive.
"Maybe you started it after you go back to your own time." Adara nodded. She must have done, she hadn't thought about it before.
"Alright, that's one thing I know I must do," Adara said. "I think I need to go and find ALIE's island to see if she's become active again. Do you have patrols over the island?"
"Not exactly. We fly around it rather than over it, though the Floukru may know more."
"Floukru is still around then?"
"Yes, even though they are all Dragonkru now, when they are in their home ranges, they are still known by their old designations."
"So how are Skaikru doing?" Adara asked, wanting to know about her old people.
"They're now part of the Trikru clan. A couple of hundred years after your time, the Heda of Skaikru asked his people if they wanted to become Trikru as they were really the owners of the land they lived on. Now, after a couple of centuries, any lingering resentment of others has gone. No-one knew of another place to live and most of them couldn't even name a single Ark station, let alone know which ancestor came from there."
"200 years? That seems like a long time, but then again, I could name several of them who would hold grudges that long if they could and those ones would definitely influence their kids in that direction too!" Adara said.
"Skaikru were just as stubborn as any other clan," Vernika said, shrugging. Adara nodded.
"What about Azgeda?"
"Ahh, that's a special case. We left them alone for three hundred years before we flew over their volcano. We did that for several months before we even set foot on their lands. They still had the other pass out of the volcano, so we dropped information about us into their caldera. They made contact after a few more months and we opened a dialogue. They eventually became another clan of the kongeda again - well, Dragonkru. We now number quite a few Azgeda riders as well, including several descended from King Roan."
"And Queen Nia as well, Vernika. That mad, psychotic queen was Roan's mother." Vernika's eyes grew wide.
"We never knew that!"
"They may have been trying to hide the fact from you."
"The story we got was that she adopted him."
"Nope, definitely a biological child," Adara said.
"Well, it doesn't change anything as far as I'm concerned. It's now seven hundred years since that happened and the Azgeda are a peaceful people now. Each clan provides us with goods and things as well as trade goods we can take to other parts of the world. Since we've become multi-national and international traders, the world's in a better shape than it was before the war. We deal fairly with each other. Anyone who doesn't is soon ousted from either the trade delegation or their clan. People want to be fed and clothed, not used as pawns in a power struggle."
"I'm pleased to know that the direction I and Commander Lexa were trying to move the clans into, has paid off. We became a go-between for trade deals because of our neutrality. We could go to any clan - bar Azgeda - to help them in times of need like weather disasters or earthquakes. We had one of those not long after we became dragonriders. It was not a nice thing to do, but we were neutral and we had the fastest way to and from a disaster zone," Adara said. Vernika nodded.
"We still do that, but we also go up to the Go-Sci ring and check the weather satellites from there once a month."
"You do? What about the air problem?"
"Oh, Raven figured that out. She had Sam and Radek make the parts to fix the problem and then went up with Zilith, found some old spacesuits with air tanks already filled, climbed into one and fixed the problem. Then she just turned one of the turbines on and that provides enough air for the ring."
"Did she and Sam keep up the engineering and mechanical lessons?"
"Yes, along with Emori."
"Emori? Murphy's Emori?"
"Yup, she was one of Raven's most promising students. She eventually took over the training of the new generations." Adara grinned.
"Alright, that stays with me, but I can guide Raven to fix the problem. Now, back to ALIE. We need to find out if she's become active again. Could you ask your dragons if there's been anything unusual happening near the island lately? Maybe contact Floukru and ask them the same thing?" Vernika nodded.
"We can do that," she confirmed.
"May I check Atlantis's computers?"
"Why?" asked Heda Vernika.
"Because once we'd dealt with ALIE, Raven and Sam wrote a couple of snooper programs. They were uploaded into ALIE's main computer in her house. In basic terms, anyone trying to access ALIE's computers will set off an alarm here at Atlantis. I want to check to see if anyone's been there and tried to tamper with it." Vernika nodded.
"Alright, I'll have T'dan escort you to the main computer banks. He's one of our best computer techs." Adara nodded.
"You do know that I know where to access the computer from? I just need to access those computers out there," Adara said, pointing through the door.
"Oh, I keep forgetting this was originally your weyr."
"It's no problem, but I do need access."
"We changed the codes a few hundred years ago when one of the young ones who wanted to become a rider and wasn't chosen, decided to take his anger out on the weyr. He destroyed a couple of computers and wrote a virus and uploaded it into Atlantis's database." Adara moved through the door and up to one of the computers. Two of the technicians there moved to intercept her but Vernika waved them back. Adara accessed the programs she needed and read the files.
"These haven't been corrupted!" Adara said, sighing in relief. She began searching through the data logs for any sign of tampering with the computers on ALIE's island.
"We got lucky. There's no sign of anyone trying-" She broke off when an alarm rang out and Adara's eyes were drawn back to the screen.
"Shit!" she said, fingers flying over the keys as she attempted to figure out what was happening. She opened the mic and then spoke to the island.
"ALIE?"
"Yes? Adara of the dragon people? That is impossible. A thousand years have passed since I shut down," ALIE said.
"There is a way to travel through time - well, there is for me."
"How?"
"Sorry, ALIE, but that information is classified."
"What do you want?" ALIE asked.
"To make sure you don't try to destroy the world once more." Gasps from around the room sounded in Adara's ears, but she held her hand up for silence.
"I do not want to, but your numbers have grown."
"A thousand years of having babies does that, ALIE," Adara said.
"Have you learned your lesson about hatred and fear?"
"Not completely but we have learned not to be afraid of change. We are still a young race and we are still learning. We will always be learning, ALIE, that is part of the nature of humanity."
"Along with violence and arrogance," ALIE added.
"True, but without something to learn from, how do we learn? History shows that lessons learned in the past need to be reinforced with each generation. They may not believe what we tell them so they have to learn it for themselves."
"I understand," ALIE said.
"Do you?" Adara asked. "Do you understand us or are you just trying to make us believe you do. You were never programmed with emotions, ALIE. You've never understood them, but it's what drives us. Yes, we can be violent and bigotted, but we can also be kind and gentle and compassionate."
"But not always."
"No, but we try to reason things out first rather than go in with all guns blazing. Do you remember how I made contact with you last time?"
"Yes, Otan was the vessel through which we talked."
"Otan became a dragonrider, ALIE. Munyith showed him how to live with the deformity he was born with. With the dragonriders, he found a family that didn't judge him and a lifemate who loved him for himself."
"He is also one of my ancestors," Vernika said.
"I imagine we all are. Makana is probably one of them, correct?"
"Yes, but you are not her biological mother."
"No, but it doesn't mean she is any less of my daughter than her birth mother," Adara said.
"True, and we don't make that distinction either except for who we are related to in the past."
"It doesn't matter who is blood related to whom, we are all family," Adara said, shrugging. "All the first gen riders - in fact, all the hundred - are my brothers and sisters."
"What does that have to do with ALIE?" Vernika said.
"Nothing, other than love transcends everything else," Adara said. "Otan became a more peaceful man when he impressed with Munyith. He even said that if he had stayed in the City Of Light he wouldn't have been as happy as when he impressed Munyith. If you'd destroyed the world and had everyone in the City of Light, he would have missed out on the best thing to happen to him." ALIE was quiet as she thought about everything.
"If he had been in the City of Light, he would not have known of another way of life," she countered. Adara shook her head.
"Not according to Otan. He has said that even if that happened, he would have known on some instinctive level that something was missing."
"How?"
"Human nature," Adara said. "ALIE, sometimes we just know something without knowing how we know. I have the ability to heal by touch alone but I don't know how. I'm not going to analyse why, but I will use it when needed. I don't use it all the time and anything that isn't life threatening, I don't use it."
"I do not think I will ever understand humans," ALIE said.
No, you're a computer, ALIE. No computer could ever understand us, we are the most complicated computers ever to evolve. Our brain power is phenomenal and cannot be replicated by a machine, no matter how sophisticated it is."
"There are more people in the world now but I do not find the violence that marred your generation."
"Our dragons have mellowed us out, ALIE. It started before our last encounter. When we impressed our dragons and brought them to Earth, we realised that if wars broke out, we could not fight in them otherwise our dragons could die. We did not want that so we became Dragonkru and were neutral to the clans and peaceful. As more and more clans had riders among us, they too became peaceful. Now, nearly a thousand years since that time, all the world lives by our peaceful ethos. There are a handful of people who still fear something they do not understand, but on the whole, we are a peaceful species. We also know that we have to limit our population and we will. How many people in the world so far?"
"One point eight billion people," ALIE said.
"So, from just under seven million to 1.8 billion in a thousand years is fairly good going on our part, ALIE. In a thousand years, we could have had 4 billion people by now."
"So you have been limiting yourselves?"ALIE asked. Vernika stepped up.
"We have. We have a limit of three children only. There are some overflow but only because of multiple births. My sister has four children because her last pregnancy was with twins."
"We are doing our best, ALIE and that's all we can do. I do not condone killing people just because they went over the allotted number of children. That's what happened on the Ark. Octavia Blake was a second child and had to be hidden to save her. Once she was discovered at 15, her mother was killed as per the laws of the Ark. Every crime was a capital crime. You got caught and you died. Children were no exception. We were put into prison until we had legally become adults and then we were executed for the crimes we committed." Vernika gasped to hear that.
"We never knew," Vernika said. "So much has been lost to history, Adara. Our story starts with the dragons. Whatever happened before that is lost. The very first story is of D'bor accidentally coming to Earth."
"The Ark was a space station - or rather thirteen separate space stations that Earth had just before the war. Once the bombs started flying, several crafts took off from the ground and went to the stations. Each station took in the survivors and then they waited until the bombs had stopped. Their radiation detectors and scanners found the Earth was too irradiated to live. The levels they had said that no-one could have survived the war. The only humans left were those on the space stations. They decided to join together for mutual protection. Only one station wouldn't join, Polaris."
"Becca's station," ALIE said.
"Yes. Somehow, she escaped the destruction on the station and she went to the ground and became the first Commander. In space, after the destruction of the station, the others joined together and after a few years, they captured broken parts of Polaris and integrated it into the Ark. For the next 97 years, the Ark was left to fend for itself, never knowing humanity did in fact survive. A new world order came about and in my time, the Commander was the leader of twelve clans spread throughout the eastern half of the old USA. From the arctic circle to the tip of the Florida Keys, from east coast to the Mississippi River."
"And those left on the Ark?" Vernika asked, fascinated by the story.
"96 years after the war, it was found that the air turbines were failing. There was nothing they could do to fix them either. Jaha - our leader up there - decided that more draconian measures were needed to make sure they survived. Several 'accidents' were arranged where compartments were accidentally opened to space. Anyone in those sections were sucked out into the vacuum of space and died." Adara took a deep breath. "But it wasn't enough so he decided that all the child prisoners should be sent to Earth. One hundred child criminals off the Ark meant more resources for them and another month of air for the others."
"What about you?" Vernika asked.
"I was one of them. I murdered the man who raped and killed my mother. In fact, I became their leader because Clarke didn't want the job. It was a natural progression for me to become the Skaikru leader when they came down as well. It was hard because they were scared of the ground - it was so alien to them - but with my people helping me, we got it done. Of course, once we went to Pern and impressed our dragons, we had to set up another tribe. We could not involve our dragons in any wars the clans got involved with, they could have died, so we kept out of the Kongeda's political problems."
"You founded the Dragonkru, didn't you?" Vernika asked.
"We did. Anya could have been the leader, but she deferred to me. I was voted in as our leader and we all made decisions on how we should act, what we needed to learn from the Pernese and what we didn't need to learn. We had to find everything eventually. We had no weyr at first. We had no resources either. Every single thing we needed in a weyr, we didn't have, from riding clothes to oil for our dragons, from weyrs to learning to fly. We needed to find a way to do it all - from scratch. It was hard, very hard, but so far, we're doing okay."
"More than that, Adara. Your way of doing things became the way all the weyrs do things. We still do." Adara blushed.
"Well that could be more of Jill's doing that mine. She was the one who established the second Weyr, Panther Bay. Whatever she learned from the Atlantis weyr, she implemented at her weyr. She's the one who started that off, not me. I never told her how to operate her weyr, she did that herself."
"Jill kom Dragonkru, rider of gold Linamarth," cited Vernika.
"You know them all?" Adara asked.
"The first riders are revered by all of us," Vernika said. "All twenty five of you."
"Twenty seven," Adara corrected Vernika.
"Twenty seven? We only have twenty five names," she said, shocked they'd gotten it wrong.
"We can sort that out later," Adara said. "Let's get back to ALIE." She turned back to the computer.
"ALIE, what are your intentions?"
"I need to make sure that the world is now peaceful."
"How?"
"I need someone to help me."
"No," Adara said. "No more chipping people, ALIE. You chip a rider and you kill them both. A dragon cannot live without it's rider and any rider who loses their dragon while under your influence will suicide once free of you, most likely in shame at the neglect of their lifemate. Our dragons are the most important thing to us, even our families. Our dragons come first, every time."
"What of your families?"
"They understand." Vernika said. "We've all grown up surrounded by dragons."
"We didn't. We grew up on a spaceship that was nothing more than a dictatorship masquerading as survival. Getting sent to the ground was the second best thing to happen to us."
"And the first?" asked ALIE.
"No dragonrider would ever ask that, ALIE. Our dragons are the best thing to happen to us. My relationship with Anya and my children are tied for third."
"I still need to find out if you have become peaceful or if you still intend to destroy the world."
"Actually, you don't. No dragonrider would ever do anything to destroy the world and we won't let anyone else do that either," Adara said.
"How can you stop them?" ALIE asked.
"We exile them," Adara said. "We did that with several groups early on who wouldn't play nice with either the clans or our dragons when we got them."
"Where?"
"All over the world on islands. Some were exiled to Easter Island and some to Bermuda. I have no doubt that in the future, we'd find more islands to use for exile."
"Err, we did that. We turned both islands of New Zealand into a giant prison. The entire place is just one giant prison. We drop people off there any time they've been deemed too unsafe to leave roaming the lands," Vernika said. Adara smirked.
"Once upon a time, Australia was used as a penal colony by the British about 400 years before my time. That's not that far from New Zealand." Vernika nodded.
"ALIE, you don't need to check, just take our word for it. If we were going to destroy the world, we would have done it by now. As far as we can ascertain, we destroyed all the missiles we came across in clan lands and anyplace we went after that." Vernika nodded.
"My predecessors also looked for those weapons. We have had no more reports of weapons of that calibre for almost 800 years."
"Understood," ALIE said.
"So unless you've got some stashed away somewhere, there are no weapons that can destroy the world once again."
"I do not."
"Then your job is done ALIE. We are behaving and have become a more peaceful species - with the help of our dragons."
"I will shut down for the final time and set the self-destruct for the lab. Goodbye."
"Wait!" Adara shouted. "We need to make sure that no-one is anywhere near your island when you do that. Dragonriders can go out and warn fishing boats and people to evacuate the area." Vernika nodded and turned to the nearest dragonrider.
"Send N'lon's group to the Floukru and Ar'ten's for any people in the area." The rider ran off.
"How big will the explosion be?" Adara asked.
"I will keep it localised to the island," ALIE said.
"With respct, ALIE, but you cannot promise that. Any explosive can be mishandled and with over a thousand years, any explosives could be either useless or contaminated."
"Yes, but I only have that self-destruct. I do not want those chips or that machinery ever found and used by humans."
"It was dangerous enough in your hands," Adara grumbled.
"It was. I thought it was necessary at the time."
"Glad you realise you don't need them now. Will the City be destroyed too?"
"Yes."
"Then wait for three days and then you can set it off at dawn."
"Understood. Goodbye, Adara, leader of Earth." The communication was shut down by ALIE.
"Leader of Earth?" Adara said, turning to Vernika who blushed.
"It was the title we came up with several years after the last of the original dragonrider had died."
"I was in no way, the leader of Earth. I was only the leader of the Dragonkru. Commander Lexa wasn't the leader of Earth. There was no individual who was ever the leader of Earth."
"Not then, no, but by three hundred years after dragons came to Earth, the leader of us then WAS the leader of the Earth. Every Dragonkru Heda is the leader of Earth."
"And everyone's okay with this?" Adara asked, skeptically.
"Most people. Those who don't have dragons and have no real interactions with us, still see the Dragonkru leader as Earth's leader. It's no different from you being the Dragonkru leader and Lexa being Kongeda's leader. Each place has its own leader but has someone higher than them." Adara nodded in understanding.
"So what now?" Adara asked.
"We wait for three days to see if this ALIE does destroy her island," Vernika said. "In the meantime, can you explain who is missing from our lists of original dragonriders?"
"If I can. I can tell you who is who and which dragon they have, but I don't know how two are missing from your lists." They moved off to the conference room to try to figure it out.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Okay, so far, Drew and Arnith are missing. Arnith's a bronze," Adara said, scanning the list. "And Ash is also missing. Ash has a blue dragon called Vinilath. Why they are missing is anyone's guess."
"Anything special happen to them?" Vernika asked.
"Not so far," Adara replied.
"Alright, it'll remain a mystery for now. I'll add them to the roster."
"What roster?"
"The roster of original riders and dragons," Vernika explained, pointing in the directions of the messhall closest to the tower. "Come on, I'll show you," Vernika said, leading the way. Adara followed behind, intrigued at just what they'd done.
In the mess hall, Vernika led Adara over to the far wall where she saw plaques with each of their names on it with their dragon and colour. Saxon and Lakota were fascinated by the picture of Adara with Inkalith when Adara was right there in front of them.
"Why?" Adara asked.
"To honour you. Without you, we would not exist. Most of us dragonriders are descended from several of you. As you surmised, we can trace our ancestry back to you."
"And we could provide you with our parents' names and any ancestors we know of," Adara said. Vernika nodded.
"I will make sure that two more plaques are added. Drew and Ash will not be forgotten again!"
"Mochof!" Adara said, still looking at each plaque.
"We wish we knew what they looked like," Vernika said wistfully.
"You should be able to. Most of them would be on the cameras in Atlantis at some point. Check the memory banks for them." Vernika's eyes grew wide.
"I never thought of that!"
"Well, we have three days before ALIE self-destructs. Let's do that now." They went into the conference room. Adara automatically went to the head of the table and sat down. Vernika smirked but didn't correct her. She sat to the right of Adara.
Adara's fingers were flashing over the console in front of her as she searched the archives for each member of her original group. She sent one picture to the main screen in the room. Vernika looked at it.
"Raven," Adara said. Vernika was interested. Another picture joined it. "Monroe."
"These are kids!" Vernika said.
"That's what we were then. I think the oldest of us who impressed was Anya at 26. Most of us were between 15 and 22."
"Why?"
"Because we we're kids at the time. Remember, we were convicted child criminals who were supposed to die before we reached 18 years. We didn't want to die so we found a way to get to the ground and to live with the clans. We were only on the ground for a year before we impressed our dragons."
"I keep forgetting that part," Vernika said. "We know intellectually that you were young, but seeing them looking so young is completely different." Adara nodded and pulled up thirty images.
"The last three are Tomika, a non-rider, but very indispensable to the Weyr. Our youngest member of the delinquents is Charlotte, or Charlie as we call her. She was 13 when we came down and 15 when she impressed. The last one is Pascal, one of our cooks and also a non-rider. All of my people were essential in some way, even the ones who didn't impress. Some didn't want to, some tried but were never picked. All of them were my people no matter where they lived or what they did for a living."
"Can you put names with each of the riders, please?" Vernika asked. Adara added the names.
"The ones in brackets are their other names."
"Meaning?
"Take Monroe. That's her last name. Her first name is Zoe but she doesn't like it so she decided to go by Monroe. At the moment - in my time - she is Monroe kom Dragonkru, rider of Green Hanath. On the Ark she was Zoe Monroe, Factory Station."
"This is fascinating!" Vernika said. Adara grunted.
"You wouldn't say that if you had to deal with Raven full-time!" Adara said. "For being one of the oldest of us, she can act like a hyped up kid at times!" Vernika laughed.
"I've one of them myself. Good job he's not in charge of anything!" Adara chuckled.
Vernika turned to the pictures once more.
"You know, I think it's time for new plaques. Ones with their pictures on them. Something we can actually see what they looked like. Descriptions don't do them justice."
"Maybe when I get back, I'll have the place scoured for a camera and take pictures of them all with their dragons. Would that do?" Vernika beamed.
"Perfect! Look for those pictures now."
"Huh?"
"Well, if you've done it in the past, they should be in there now." Adara took a minute to get her head around it. It was weird to think that something she'd just thought of was in the system and had been for almost a thousand years! She checked for anything to indicate where she would have hid them. If they hadn't found them, Adara must have put them under a special password and probably got Raven or Monty to encrypt them.
"I have no idea what they'd be under if you haven't found them yet," admitted Adara. Vernika sat down and thought about it.
"If you'd put the info in the journal, we'd have it by now, so it must be something to do with this place in this time."
"Yeah, I think I'd have put some kind of time limit on it or something." She looked for any file that had a time delay on it and had not yet expired.
"Got it!" Adara said, having found only one. "Err, I think you need to open it." she said.
"Why?"
"Because I would have made it so only you could open it." Vernika looked over her shoulder and grunted.
"You put it under my name," she said.
"Don't know many others here and I don't think J'dren is in a high enough level to access this database." Vernika grunted. She moved to another console and tried to figure out how it would be encrypted. A thousand years apart would need something from both of them.
"Mount Weather!" Vernika said. She tried various passwords to do with Maunon and 1000. She finally broke it with Mount Weather 1 thousand."
She opened the file and saw many more pictures than the original riders.
"Thank you!" Vernika said with relief.
"No problem. Now all I have to do is go back and come up with the idea!" Vernika chuckled before she called another dragonrider into the room. Several minutes later, a much older man came in. He had the shoulder patch of Atlantis and a bronze dragon.
"You called for me?" he said.
"Yes, come in, K'ban. This is Heda Adara kom Dragonkru, Rider of Gold Inkalith. She came a thousand years into the future to see us."
"A thou-" K'ban stared at her.
"Hello, K'ban, rider of bronze Yaborth."
"Hello," he said, still a bit dazed.
"K'ban, Adara has opened an encrypted file from her time. It has the pictures and names of all the original dragonriders and some others. We missed two of them. Drew, rider of bronze Arnith and Ash, rider of blue Vinilath."
"How could we miss two?" he asked, puzzled.
"No idea. We need new plaques for them all. We now have pictures of them as well so I want you to organise for the new plaques to be made and how they are designed. I want their pictures with their names and dragons underneath."
"Sha, Heda," he said, bowing. He had a look of awe on his face.
"Atom and Roma?" he asked. Adara pointed to the appropriate pictures still on the screen.
"Those are my ancestors?" Vernika nodded. "Is it okay if I have some pictures taken of them for my own quarters?"
"Fine by me, K'ban," Vernika said. "In fact, I may do the same." Adara smiled. She could see the entire Weyr getting pictures of their ancestors. By now Adara bet most of them came from most of the first riders. She would be surprised if Atom and Roma were the only ancestors of K'ban.
"Alright. What now?" Adara asked Vernika. The current weyrleader of the entire planet turned to her.
"We'll find you quarters. At the moment, the original weyrs are not in use. We use them for visitors and we have none other than you right now."
"Then can I have my old quarters back?" Vernika grinned and nodded. K'ban downloaded the images to a tablet and left to begin his new job. Vernika led Adara out of the conference room and down towards the dragon deck.
"I take it K'ban no longer does most duties because of his age?"
"That's correct. He has always had an eye for design, but when he impressed his dragon, he gave us his all. Now he's slowing down, we're looking for things he can still do so he still feels like he's part of the weyr."
"I dread to think of what happens when we get too old to do weyr duties. Maybe we need a weyr they can retire to. Somewhere it's warm most of the time!" Vernika smiled. She wouldn't tell Adara that that was exactly what she implemented when she got back. They still used one of the Hawaiian Islands for a weyr for the retired riders and dragons too old to perform.
"Can I be cheeky and get a picture of you and your dragon? It'll be fun to poke Raven with it!" Vernika laughed.
"Alright, but only us and remember, you cannot tell them everything. Just tell them you accidentally came here, met me and talked to ALIE and that ALIE's shut herself down and destroyed everything on her island."
"I will, but Raven's gonna keep pushing it. I'll show her your picture and tell her you are her direct descendant and the leader of not just the Dragonkru, but the entire world. That should have her preeening about her descendents!" Saxon and Lakota came to Adara's shoulders after having been visiting other fire-lizards.
"Heda, do you have a fire-lizard?"
"No, unfortunately, I've not been impressed by them." Adara looked puzzled.
"Impressed? Dragons inpress but humans can choose if they want a fire-lizard."
"I think something must have been lost in translation somewhwere. We get a batch of fire-lizard eggs and we wait for them to hatch and offer some food, but we don't have anyone in mind when we do. We just hope one of them will take food from us. The other fire-lizards also have food and most choose food from their own kind," said Vernika.
"No, that is not how we got ours - well I did, but the others had a fire-lizard egg in front of them and they had food in hand when the fire-lizard began cracking the shell. Once the one in front of them had hatched, they gave them their first meal, making sure they don't choke becuse they seem to inhale their food. I was helping Charlotte with hers and had grabbed a handful of food. I told Charlotte to offer the food and make sure he didnt choke. She got the idea and began feeding him. I felt a tug on the meat in my hand and turned around to see two fire-lizards eating the food I'd gotten. No-one else was paying any attention to them so I fed them and I now have two fire-lizards hatched the same day as Inkalith." Vernika was fascinated.
"So we can influence the eggs?"
"Not really, but if you have one in front of you as it's hatching and you feed it, then it will be bonded to you and you alone. You have to make sure other people aren't trying to entice the one you are trying to bond with as that confuses the fire-lizard and they won't take food from you."
"So if we find a nest of twenty eggs?"
"You need twenty people or you need enough people to take care of them. Remember, I've got two only because no-one else was trying to feed them and they would have starved if I hadn't. Their bonding was accidental but I don't regret it. It was hard work trying to deal with all three and be leader of the Dragonkru and learn how to be a rider, all at the same time, but that's where Raven, Murphy, Bellamy and the rest were invaluable. They could take on a job when I needed to look after those three. Sometimes, I did the same when they needed time with their dragons." Adara shrugged. It was how they got things done back then.
"There's another batch ready to hatch in a couple of days. Can you help us bond with them?"
"Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem. How many and how many people?"
"Well we've been letting as many people try as we can. Sometimes it's twenty people for six eggs." Adara shook her head.
"No, that would confuse them, with that many people trying to get them to feed from them.
"There are twelve eggs."
"Then pick twelve people only. I won't say the fire-lizard will pick them but it is better to have one on one interaction and concentrate on only one fire-lizard per bonding. If they want another one later, they can. Fire-lizards are empathic so they can read your thoughts. Anyone who has a disruptive personality would not be welcome, neither would anyone who just wants as many as they can get. Try to find people who want a companion and not a trophy. If a person doesn't look after them, they are likely to go between, just like a dragon would. The bond is different to an impression as most people cannot talk telepathically with a fire-lizard, but companionship comes a close second and they get loved in return." Vernika was nodding, taking on board each point.
"So no-one with a mercurial temper, meglomanic tendencies or aggressive about things?"
"Yeah, that about covers it," Adara said with a smirk.
Vernika led her down to her old quarters. Adara stepped inside and looked around.
"Not much has changed in a thousand years," Adara said. Vernika blushed.
"Well, once ALIE was dealt with, the dragonriders decided to spread out and this was left for visitors. This room was locked and not opened to any visitors. Dragonriders would come in once a week and clean it, but it was left alone as your weyr." Adara sighed.
"You've got to let go of the hero worship, Vernika. We are just ordinary people."
"Not from our point of view, Heda Adara. You were the first of us."
"And we were still humans first. We tried, failed, got up and tried again. We still do. My daughter Makana has just become a gold rider herself. I have no idea which weyr she'll be assigned to nor how high she'll rise. I'm betting you do. You've already said she leads after me but what else she does is up to her and she will fail at some of them. Human beings are masters at failing and then picking themselves up and succeeding where a lot of others would fail. We are all human and we have all failed at something. Hero worship puts them on a pedestal and people are shocked to find we can fall off it. You may think I'm something special, but I don't. What I've done and will do is because I must, not necessarily because I want to. What does your history say about what happened in Mount Weather and how did we deal with it?"
"Mount Weather was where some of your people lived. We know there was something bad mixed into it all, but not the whole story."
"Mount Weather was inhabited by people who were never exposed to solar radiation nor the radiation from the bombs. They could not leave the mountain without a radiation suit otherwise they'd die. They found out that the local people could walk around without needing the protection of a suit and tried going out to meet them but they died. Those left inside wanted to know why so they kidnapped several of them. This was before the clans were as they were when we came down. Now, they found that the locals' blood could help them survive and make them a little stronger. They began kidnapping them and then taking their blood and putting it inside themselves to live. A local could only give about 8 lots of blood before their body could not metabolise the radiation anymore and when that happened, they threw them down a hole to the underground tunnels. Thrown away like trash!
"When we went down, we made contact with the Commander and her people and they told us what was going on. We made plans to enter the mountain secretly and get the clansmen out. We found out that the civilian people had no idea it was going on. The leaders and military told them that it was a breakthrough in medical sciences that allowed their blood to be taken out of their bodies and filtered through a machine before being put back into them again. We decided to save as many civilians as we could and had our people move them into the quarantine area which had a separate air supply. After that, we opened the doors for the Commander and her people and began letting the clansmen out of their cages. Back then, they were still warlike and to be honest, I don't blame them for taking revenge and killing those they knew did it to them."
"What about your dragons?"
"This was about a year before we went to Pern. We were on our own. We stopped the mountain men and saved some of them. I'd bet that some of your ancestors were former mountain men as well. I know there were several that could become dragonriders in a few years' time." Vernika pursed her lips as she thought about it.
"There is so much still missing, Heda Adara. We may never know it all."
"Is there a place in Atlantis you haven't looked through yet? Somewhere that is still locked or something?"
"There's a large chest we haven't opened yet, but it was listed as clothing so we haven't bothered unlocking it yet," Vernika replied.
"Where is it?"
"In the training room on this deck."
"And no-one uses it now?"
"No. We put it in a corner and have other stuff piled on top of it." Adara grinned.
"Maybe I'd better go have a look at it so I know what to make when I get home." Vernika was startled.
"You mean-?"
"Until you look, you'll never know," Adara said. Vernika grinned.
"I think I'll wait until you've gone. Wouldn't do to give you ideas of what to put into it!" Both of them laughed as they made their way to the training room.
Adara looked the chest over very carefully, even asking for a tape measure and something to write the details down on. Once finished, she stood up.
"I think I'll use the same code you just figured out to crack the encryption on tht file," Adara said. Vernika nodded. She was itching to open it and find out all the things they'd lost through time, but knew she had to wait until First Heda Adara kom Dragonkru had gone home. She knew she would have trouble seeing her as anything but the first Heda, a woman who led by example, organised an entire new clan, got peace with the other cllans and became friendly enough for others to join her clan through their dragons. Vernika had a thousand years of tradition to fall back on, Adara had nothing other than what the Pernese riders could teach them. Every single dragon rider since Adara had died basically worshipped her. Adara was right though, she was just an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary would hve a hard time letting that go, but she had to try. Pedestals were for vases, not people.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Three days later, Adara went up in a puddlejumper piloted by Jarmis, a young man whose father was a dragonrider in Italy and his mother was a rider from Brasilia. Adara shook off the memories of just how many weyrs they had now.
"Jarmis, stay far enough back from the island to stay out of the blast zone," Adara said.
"Sha, Heda," he replied. Adara had been told that both Gonasleng and Trigedasleng were still used by non-dragonriders. They had abandoned the word English as it referred to a country that was no more. England was now part of Britain. All of England, Scotland and Wales was now one country called Britain. Northern Ireland was now incorporated back into Ireland. There were two weyrs in Britain and one in Ireland.
They stood off from the island just as the sun began to peek over the horizon.
"Standby," Adara said.
"Sha," Jarmis said. He was making sure the ship was ready to move at a secon's notice. He had no intention of being caught in a blast that was bigger than it was supposed to be.
Seconds later, there was an almight explosion that shot almost a hundred feet into the air. Jarmis moved them back slightly and increased the magnification on the scanners. The entire island had disintegrated and parts of it were now raining down on the ocean around it. They watched until the smoke and dust had settled.
"Take us there," Adara asked softly. Jarmis moved them slowly enough they could escape another explosion. They worked their way around the island first before moving closer to it to see how much damage there was.
"There's nothing left!" Jarmis said in awe and astonishment. They saw the ocean lapping at the little bits of island left. There wasn't enough land left to pitch a tent on, let alone rebuild the island.
"Do you know how to make the jumper waterproof and go underwater?" Adara asked.
"I do," Jarmis said as he pushed buttons. "Hold on, this will be a little bumpy," he said as he put them on a gentle slope into the ocean. They turned the jumper to see the island from underneath and saw the rock was crumbling. Jarmis backed them off and they watched as the rock disintergrated and tumbled back down to the ocean's floor. There was nothing left to even indicate where the island had been.
"Take us back to Atlantis," Adara said quietly, humbled at the power of the destruction.
Once back, she went to see Vernika to report her findings.
"Well?" the current Heda of the Dragonkru asked.
"The island is completely destroyed. There's nothing to even indicate where it was. You'd better send out rescuers to Long Island and the eastern coast near there. No doubt tsunami's have been created." Vernika nodded and headed to the command centre to issue orders. There was a flurry of activity as more jumpers were launched as well as wings of dragons.
"They'll deal with any fallout," Vernika said, coming back into the conference room. Adara nodded silently, not really acknowledging Vernika's words.
"You okay?" Vernika asked.
"I will be. It's over, it's really over!" Adara said, both in awe and relief.
"It is," Vernika said.
"We did it, world is now safe. Now is the time to start living."
"We were already doing that because we thought you'd already dealt with her," Vernika pointed out. Adara smiled.
"Then maybe it's time for my people to start living. I do believe we have a new generation to breed. Can't wait to find out who Raven chooses as the baby daddy!" Vernika laughed.
"Well, Luna's her co-parent, but that's not a secret, is it?"
"No, it's not. I do know that Monroe and D'bor are expecting a child. Probably your ancestor." Vernika nodded.
"I think it's time for me to go home and make a chest, hide it in the training room and you can find it as soon as I leave."
"Can't wait! God, you have no idea how hard it is not to go peek at the contents!" Adara laughed.
"Get me a photo of you with Raven's portrait. I really wanna tease her with it!" Vernika laughed as she nodded.
"I'd like to give you something to take back with you but I can't think of anything," Vernika said.
"We don't really need anything, Vernika. I know I won't forget you, nor this time."
"And we will write into the books about your time here and that you finally defeated ALIE."
"Then that's all the thanks I need," Adara said, getting up. Both Dragonkru Hedas walked out to the Command centre and watched as the jumpers reported the damage the tsunami had done.
"Sorry about that," Adara said.
"Not your fault. It's just another thing ALIE did to hurt the world!" Adara nodded.
"BY the way, do you still have contact with Pern?"
"We do. There's not much contact though, just mostly ceremonial visits to keep contact with their Earth Weyr."
"Yeah, but you have way more than I have!" Vernika nodded her acknowledgement.
"Anyway, Weyrleaders Carlin and G'mil of Benden are the current weyrleaders of Pern. We visit them every five years or so and they do the same."
"It's nice to know we haven't lost touch with them. I was a bit worried that after they'd dealt with thread, there was nothing to keep us talking. We are established and no longer need Pern's help. We are totally self-sufficent. We've found a combination of various fish and berry oils work for the dragons so we don't overfish one species, the numbweed was successfully planted onto several of the Caribbean, Hawaiian and Polynesian islands and we have facilities do make the numbweed for us and we have a stable population now, all intent on peace."
"You did good, Heda Adara."
"We did. How are those fire lizard eggs coming?"
"Probably hatch today," Vernika said.
"Do you have your candidates?"
"I do and yes, I'm one of them."
"I think I'll stay and supervise and then Inkalith and I need to be away home."
"Then we'll just-" Vernika broke off when both of Adara's fire lizards began to hum. They both rushed down to the hydroponics lab where they had the eggs on a table by the heaters. Everyone else was there.
"Keep out those who are not candidates!" Adara ordered. Everyone else was herded out and the candidates sat around a table.
"Anyone care which egg they get?" Adara asked.
"I'd like a bronze," one man said.
"No, I mean have you picked out any eggs yet or are you okay with me just handing them to you?"
"Oh, I've no problem with that," he said. "Do you know what colours they are before they hatch?"
"Only gold. Every other colour is unknown until they hatch." Adara began handing out the baskets to each of them and showed them how to take the egg out of the basket and lay it on the sand. They all did it and then Adara handed out the bowls of chopped meat that was on standby.
As the humming intensified, Adara starting givingthem instructions.
"Everyone, grab a handful of meat. When it hatches, feed it and tell it to slow down on eating so fast, you don't want them to choke. They are so hungry when they first hatch, they seem to inhale the food. Make them chew it first. Talk to them in a gentle voice, coax, don't demand." Everyone was nodding, but keeping their eyes onthe egg in front of them.
Suddenly an egg cracked and a blue fell out, creeling in hunger.
"Feed him!" Adara ordered. "No! No-one else tries. Let her feed him herself!" Adara said. The young woman fed the little blue fire lizard.
"Don't worry, there's plenty of food. Slow down, little one," she said. Another egg cracked and a bronze fell out in front of Vernika. She began feeding him, a look of awe and delight on her face. More and more hatched until there was only one left. It rocked a bit and then stopped. It rocked a bit more and then a frantic tapping could be heard inside the egg. It sounded like the fire lizard was having trouble breaking through the shell.
"Help it!" Adara said. "Help it out of its shell!" The man in front of it backed away.
"No! I don't want it!" he yelled and walked away from the table, pacing around at the back but not trying to help the fire lizard. Adara leapt to the table, drew her knife and began tapping on the shell with the hilt of it, trying to break the shell. Eventually it broke and a small black fire lizard fell out.
"A black one!?" Adara said in surprise. The black fire lizard snatched some meat from her hand and began gobbling it down as fast as she could. Adara sighed. Three? What was she supposed to do with three? Vernika looked over now her bronze was replete and snoring on her forearm.
"Thought you said there weren't any other colours among them?"
"According to their shell colours, there wasn't. The shells have speckles on them. This shell is covered in almost black speckles. Definately not a fire lizard colouring I've ever seen!"
"Well, when you mix all the colours together, you get black," Vernika offered.
"Not in dragons otherwise all dragons would be black and so would the fire lizards." Adara was shaking her head as she fed the unusual fire lizard.
"Well, it's yours now," Vernika said.
"And I still need to go home today. I'll need something to wrap him..? Him?" Adara had a look. "Her. I need something to wrap her in. She's weak and cannot fly right now."
"We've got some thermal blankets you can use," Vernika offered.
"Thank you," Adara said with relief.
"Why is she black?" Inkalith asked.
"I don't know, Inkalith. She was just born that colour."
"We can ask Z'lan," Inkalith replied. Adara nodded and mentally agreed with her gold dragon.
Once all the fire lizards were asleep, Adara told them exactly what to do and when. She couldn't stay and guide them, it was up to them to look after their companions. Lakota and Saxon were watching the small fire lizard with interest.
"What's with them?" Adara asked Inkalith.
"They are interested in another colour. She is unusual."
"We'd better get home, Inkalith. We've been gone longer than three days."
When everything was ready, Adara and Vernika walked out to the dragon deck - Adara refused to call it Inkalith deck! - and stopped by Inklaith.
"Well, this is it," Adara said, sad she would not see her new friend again. Vernika nodded, equally as sad.
"Mount up, Heda," Vernika said. Adara handed her her black fire lizard, mounted and then Vernika handed it up to her. Saxon and Lakota settled on her shoulders.
"Oh, can you tell J'dren that Tomika's first child became a dragonrider? Just because she wasn't one, doesnt mean they cannot have dragonrider children."
"I will," Vernika said. "Good luck, Adara, First Heda of the Dragonkru," Vernika said, moving back.
"Hey, what's your fire-lizard's name?" Adara asked,
"Phineas. I think it means bronze coloured," Vernika replied. "Yours?
"I haven't decided yet, but I want something unique!" Both Heda's laughed before Adara tightened the riding straps, and tucked her new fire lizard into her jacket a bit more.
"Farewell, Vernika, current Heda of the Dragonkru, and leader of the world!" Adara said with a grin. Vernika laughed and then Inkalith launched herself skyward, reached high above the city and then disappeared. Vernika sighed and headed back to the command centre, thinking some part of her had been diminished in some way. She made sure everything was running smoothly and then she went to the training room and dragged out the chest.
She input the code and opened the lock. Vernika took a deep breath and, with shaking hands, opened the chest. There, inside, were several binders. She took out the first one and opened it. She smiled to see a painting of Adara with her golden dragon and three fire lizards around her. Lakota was perched on Inkalith's head with Saxon on one shoulder and a black on the other. She read the inscription below. Heda Adara, First Heda kom Dragonkru with her gold dragon Inkalith and her fire lizards, Lakota, Saxon and…Vernika.
She turned the page and laughed to see Raven holding the picture of herself and grinning, pointing to the picture. The inscription underneath made her laugh as well. 'My kid! Leader of the entire fucking world!' That one was going up in her quarters. The next picture had Raven with her dragon Zillith. Vernika turned the pages and saw several people and their dragons. The other binders were the same. The last one though, had pictures of people who were not dragon riders, but were part of the hundred, including two who died before they even knew dragons existed.
At the bottom of the chest was another book, just like the current one. Adara had sent one more book for the Heda's to write in. Vernika was pleased, the first book was almost full. She pulled it out and opened it to see another picture, this time it was of a portrait on the wall - of herself.
Two Heda's chose to honour the other in their own way - a thousand years apart. Seems both of them had a piece of the other, after all.