Hello, it’s the second Sunday of the month and this is the April instalment of my little story.
Maria ponders the existence of a secret base.
Chapter three – Maria
Maria got to their feet, muscles stiff and complaining after so long in high altitude flight, head whirling from the burst of radio waves and mostly empty stomach threatening to empty itself all over the chilly stones of the landing pad. They turned their back, allowing Lah-Shar some privacy to shift. Maria grimaced as his bones and muscles made a cracking, slurping sound. They heard her friend growl quietly with the pain and irritation that shifting caused and felt a moment of distress for their friend.
Maria brushed down their coat, before resetting hat, gloves and scarf in a reflexive action that helped distract from the noises and consequent burst of empathy they felt. It was rotten for Lah-Shar that she couldn’t help, but Maria didn’t know what to do, other than to give him the privacy he asked for and to offer painkillers when necessary. Practical love. A ‘pop’ and soft squelch signalled the final shift into his basilisk form; eight feet tall, bipedal reptilian with a prehensile tail, vestigial wings and fluffy ears that Maria always wanted to play with.
Maria felt two taps from Lah-Shar’s tail on their shoulder; he was ready and wanted her attention.
“Pick your bag up, Junior Assessor, it looks untidy.”
The words came out accompanied by growls and barks. Maria found it harsh and felt it scraping across their nerves, although as far as she was concerned, Lah-Shar was the best speaker of human languages, especially Avelon Medlish, around.
Pjang-Nich, the Academician they had been summoned to see, said something in the Superior Dialect of Ran-Ning, a collection of sounds and thoughts that Maria mostly didn’t catch.
“And hello to you too, Elder.” Maria said, as they shuffled their feet to regain some circulation.
The next string of sounds was high-pitched and reminded Maria of an angry rodent. They covered their ears and squeezed their eyes shut, pain rocketing across their brain. When Pjang-Nich stopped speaking Maria carefully uncovered her ears and opened their eyes. They looked towards Lah-Shar for a translation.
‘She says “Watch it, Junior, or I’ll sack you.” But the tone was purple-blue, so I think she was joking.’ Lah-Shar’s mind voice was warm and comforting, as he wrapped his tail around Maria’s shoulders. Maria was grateful for the comfort, as anxiety started to settle in their stomach and throat.
“Can we get inside? I’m cold, hungry and really want to know what is going on.” Maria pulled away from Lah-Shar, to walk towards the nearest set of doors into a building. At this point any building would do, just to get out of the cold.
Maria looked back at Lah-Shar; his tail was flicking in irritation. She recognised that particular pattern, since they caused it often in their training. It was possible They’d missed some nuance of the communication from Pjang-Nich. She usually missed some of the nuance in any conversation, but interspecies was even harder than human. Looking towards the Academician, Maria noted the orange tinge to her ear frills. Ah, she was angry. That made more sense, since Pjang-Nich wasn’t known for her sense of humour.
“This way, is it?” Maria smiled at both of the star-dragons, teeth bright in the early light, and pointed towards the doors.
“No,” Lah-Shar growled, “Follow the Elder.”
Maria shrugged, turning to look directly at Pjang-Nich, “Well, Elder?”
With a flick of her tail, Pjang-Nich turned her back on Maria and Lah-Shar to lead them into the building. Maria grinned at her back.
They pushed through a heavy metal door into a hallway with metal walls and floor, illuminated with an eye searing white light. The sound of footsteps, booted and clawed, echoed along the corridor.
‘Hello, sensory hell.’ Maria heard a brief burst of laughter from Lah-Shar at that thought.
The corridor seemed to angle slightly downwards into the tundra; Maria pondered on the logistics of building and maintaining a base out here, so far from anywhere. They’d have to go underground to preserve warmth and the structure would be less visible, should anyone be looking. There was probably a hydroponic farm and protein plant turning amino acids into protein cakes somewhere in the structure; food supply runs would cause comment if they were too frequent.
‘Why does IGASS need a secret polar base?’
‘We don’t ask questions like that, Ria. We’ll be told what-’ This time the tone was sterner. Lah-Shar must be worried. His mind-voice got a steel edge to it when he was anxious and trying to hide it.
Pjang-Nich interrupted, looking over her shoulder and bark-whistling, “Come along, we don’t have time for you to saunter, human.”
‘She really doesn’t like humans, does she?’ Maria laughed at the flick of Pjang-Nich’s ears. So, the respected Elder was listening to their conversation. ‘Some people are so rude! Someone’s broad parents never taught them not to eavesdrop, clearly.’
Lah-Shar guffawed, in as much as a basilisk throat can guffaw. It sounded more like the death rattle of an Ent with a severe respiratory infection. Pjang-Nich flattened her ear fans against her head but continued walking, ignoring the comment.
Doors opened automatically as the Elder approached them. Maria thought for a moment the old star-dragon would lock the doors and leave the pair of them stranded in the blinding tunnel, but they all passed through safely. They passed through several more sets of doors, travelling always downwards and in a straight line. As far as Maria could tell. They were getting overwhelmed and impatient. Or, being overwhelmed by the sensory flooding of the light, the noise, being hungry, and tired, they were expressing that as feelings of impatience and anger. Why couldn’t they just stop, sit down, eat and nap?
As they were pondering rebellion, imagining just collapsing on the floor and refusing to move a step further until the lights were turned off and they were fed, the Elder led them around a corner, into a side corridor, and then left through a smaller door that led into an office.
It was blissfully quiet, dim and there was coffee! Maria ignored protocol and dashed around the large table that dominated the room to collapse in a chair and pour herself a cup of the black nectar. Normally, she’d drink tea, but at this hour and after being awake so long, stronger caffeine was needed. They added milk and sugar to the coffee, before gripping the mug and leaning back in the chair, eyes closed. Maria slipped off her boots and closed her eyes to sip the drink.
“Take a seat, Junior, pour yourself a drink, get settled in. We’ve got a lot to discuss.” Pjang-Nich snarled the words.
Maria looked over at her, “Thanks, I have done. Is there food?”
The Elder’s skin slowly pulsed from yellow to red.
‘Oops,’ she thought, ‘I’ve pushed it too far this time.’
Maria put the mug down, stood up and bowed to the dragon.
“Thank you for your hospitality, Elder Pjang-Nich.”
Maria took off her coat and outer gear, piling them with their bag on another chair, and waited for permission to sit.
Pjang-Nich’s skin settled into an pale yellow, mollified by the act of contrition.
“You may sit, Junior, and yes there will be food. Soon. We have much to discuss.”
Maria nodded and dropped heavily into the chair, which scraped and squealed across the metal floor.
‘Carpet would definitely be an improvement in this room.’
Lah-Shar blew a breath out of his snout, ‘You’re really pushing your luck right now, Maria.’
“So, what’s the job?” Lah-Shar asked.
At last, Maria thought, answers. And more coffee. She drank from the mug and waited.
For all of the chapter see this page.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 