A small round drone with a single camera inside, plasma pistol emitter next to it, and translucent green fairy wings floated off the floor in the fabrication room. The camera port made it look like an eye with shimmering wings, which Ryan found amusing.

Anton patted the eyeball drone, “Behold! My Wizard’s Eye!”

Becky smiled as she cradled her broken arm, “Finally something with a good name.”

Anton scowled, “Hey! All my names have been awesome.”

Becky shrugged, “If you say so… Anyway! I suggest we scout out the city for now. Until my arm heals and Chie recovers, we should take it easy.”

Anton shook his head, “I think we should use it to keep an eye on Luna. No tellin’ what’s out there.”

Ryan had noticed Anton was a lot more cautious after getting attacked by the shrews, “I like that idea.”

Becky nodded, “Yeah, me too. Until we repair Luna’s sensors we’re blind in most directions.”

Ryan checked his camera at the Usual Breach where a cougar slept after it had climbed in when Ryan landed, “Good thing you put a plasma pistol in it. We can use it to get the cougar out of the Usual Breach.”

They hadn’t needed to use the Usual Breach at the moment, so they’d just left the big cat there hoping it would leave on its own.

Anton sighed, “Yeah, and I’ll get ta repairin’ it after I make a couple more drones.”

Becky looked around the room, “Where’s Mayu? She’s still locked up in med bay? Chie’s resting in her room, so she could have come.”

Ryan checked on Mayu to see her still working on her latest project, “Yeah, ever since we found those fairies she’s been really motivated.”

Becky turned to the door, “Is she trying to find an antidote for the shrew poison?”

Mayu was being really secretive, but he got bits and pieces of what she was doing, “I don’t think so. She’s mostly studying fairy DNA and the nanites they had.”

Becky smiled, “It’s good to see her motivated.”

Anton put her hand on the Wizard’s Eye, “Let’s go chase out a cougar!”

Ryan opened the door to the fabrication room, the hatch to the deck below, and the airlock door, “I’ll go around the outside, don’t want it slipping through the blast doors.”

Anton took her hand off the drone and Ryan started moving it.

Ryan had landed Luna in a large clearing. Several times he had to scare off animals and other creatures with the particle beam. The plasma cannon was better at the task, but it also started fires, so he’d switched to the particle beam.

The plasma beam was also great for hunting as it didn’t damage the meat thanks to the high accuracy.

The Wizard’s Eye wasn’t fast, but it easily made it to the Usual Breach.

The cougar didn’t wake up as the Wizard’s Eye noiselessly approached it.

Ryan made a hologram of the large green dog next to the cougar and recreated its bark.

The cougar startled awake and ran as soon as it saw the dog.

Ryan chuckled, “That was easy.”

Becky sighed as she watched the cougar run towards the forest, “At least there are some normal animals around.”

Anton shook his head, “Naw, I was hopin’ they were all weird cool animals.”

Ryan started patrolling the area around Luna with the Wizard’s Eye, “Looks like some birds made a nest in one of the turret mounts.”

Anton turned to the pile of parts for the next two Wizard’s Eyes, “Once we finish these, we should repair the breach and turrets.”

Becky nodded, “Having the sensors all online would be nice too.”

Ryan started printing sensor parts, “Repairy McRepair Face can’t fly in gravity so it can’t work on the hull anymore, but I can start working on replacing the parts for the sensors that are inside.”

Anton knelt next to the parts and pulled a welding tool from his belt, “Sounds like a plan!”

The two got to work building Wizard’s Eyes.

Two days later, Mayu called Anton to med bay.

Anton scratched his head as he approached med bay, “You still haven’t found Wizard’s Eye Three?”

Ryan was currently using Wizard’s Eye Two to search the area they’d lost contact with it, “Nope. I’ve looked everywhere. Something must have moved it or eaten it.”

Anton stopped when he entered med bay, “What the…”

Mayu was working on something at her workstation, stood up, and gave a slight bow, “Good morning.”

Anton’s attention stayed on the cylinders similar to the ones Mayu had used to grow his replacement organs. Except these five were larger.

Each cylinder held partially grown humanoid figures about a meter tall, give or take. At the moment, they were mostly bone and the circulatory system, but some organs and muscle now grew in the usual places.

Mayu turned to the cylinders, “I am wanting your help.”

Anton walked to the cylinders, “With what?”

Mayu raised her finger to her lips, “Can you keep a secret?”

Anton grinned, “I love secrets! Sure!”

Mayu looked skeptical, “I need your help with…”

Ryan knew what Mayu was up to now, so he turned his attention back to Wizard’s Eye 2.

It was getting close to the city and dangerous creatures were now scarce, so he wondered what could have happened to it.

He guessed it could be a resident of the city, but he had seen no people yet. Still, if it was a person who had taken out Wizard’s Eye 3, his best bet was to head towards the city.

He finally found some people when he neared the outskirts of the forest near the city.

Two villagers foraged through the bushes. One was an older child, a human boy, and the other a middle-aged woman.

 The woman, probably the boy’s mother, wore a chiton over a long-sleeved tunic. The colors were a muddy brown and green, which made Ryan think she was… not of the wealthy type.

The boy wore a simple short-sleeved tunic and breeches.

The boy spotted Wizard’s Eye 2 first and pointed at it, saying something in a language Ryan didn’t recognize.

The woman grabbed the boy and started pulling him away as she raised a metal rod towards the drone.

Ryan had expected this kind of reaction, considering the many dangerous creatures that roamed the forest.

He got an idea. He’d seen several bushes filled with berries deeper into the forest. If he could get them to follow him, maybe he could befriend them.

Ryan considered making a hologram of a person, but he felt that would scare them even more than he already had, so he backed off and bobbed up and down then, side to side.

The woman still seemed suspicious, and the two left.

Ryan didn’t follow them, and took a different route towards the city.

Not much later, he exited the forest and came upon vast fields of wheat with a few other crops here and there. 

Most fields had at least one person tending to them, many with more.

He could also see the occasional field with farm animals.

Ryan looked around to see if anyone conspicuous was making their way back to the city, but didn’t see any. 

Ryan found a tree in an empty field and propped the drone into the highest branches, where he could watch the edge of the forest.

Once nightfall came, he decided he should head back into the forest. If anyone had stayed in the forest, they would probably set up camp with a campfire. If they did, it would be easy to find using IR. 

Now, with the cover of night, Ryan raised the drone several hundred meters into the air and searched the forest for possible IR emissions from campfires and found several.

He descended towards the one nearest to where Wizard’s Eye 3 disappeared.

There he found a group of three individuals.

Two were large men, each eating some sort of meat. The third was a man too, but was slimmer and had pointed ears. 

Was that an elf?

Each individual had doffed their armor and was talking in the same language he’d heard the mother and son.

The elf stopped mid-bite and jerked his head towards the drone. He then reached for a metal rod similar to the one the mother had.

The rod was about as long as the elf’s forearm and had a jewel near the hilt. It made the one used by the mother look pathetic.

Once the elf pointed it at the drone, the end started glowing.

The other two men jumped up and grabbed their weapons, one with a sword, the other a hammer.

Ryan pulled the probe back just in time for a bolt of lightning shot from the elf’s rod to miss the probe.

Ryan had seen no remnants of Wizard’s Eye 3, so he left to check on another campfire.

Each time he was met with the same greeting even if they were sleeping. 

Somehow, at least one of the group would spot the drone and attack, or at least point their weapons at it.

Ryan felt he wouldn’t find Wizard’s Eye 3 at any of the remaining camps so headed back towards the city.

While that was happening, the others started waking up.

Becky was first up.

Ryan felt like telling someone what he’d found so he didn’t wait for her to get ready for the day, “Hey Becky!”

Becky groaned, “What’s up? It’s still early.”

Ryan started showing Becky holograms of what had happened during the night, “I got some closeups of the people from this… uh world.”

Becky sat up and studied the images, “They’re human?”

Ryan brought up the pictures of several elves, “And elves.”

Becky shook her head and smiled, “This place really is full of mythical creatures and races, huh.”

Ryan replaced the images of elves to that of the rods, “And ‘magic.’ These rods and some of the swords can shoot out lightning or fire, or throw rocks. Probably more, but I didn’t want to lose another drone so....”

Becky crossed her arms, “None of them tried to talk to you?”

Ryan replayed the scene of his meeting with the first group, “No idea. I don’t know their language. But I doubt it. The Wizard’s Eyes look like monsters so it makes sense they would attack it with what’s out there.”

Becky furrowed her brows and pursed her lips, “So, we need to go there ourselves?”

Ryan thought about Mayu’s project Anton was helping her with, “Anton is working on something that looks more friendly.”

Becky slipped from her bed and left her room, “I better get back to work on repairs.”

Ryan informed the others of the same thing as they woke up.

Not much later, an enormous shadow appeared above Luna.

Ryan looked towards it with Wizard’s Eye 1 and the turret.

Just as Wizard’s Eye 1 looked up, Ryan saw a giant flying lizard swoop down and pluck it from the air.

Ryan was about to fire at it, when it stopped mid air and studied Luna.

It was a dragon. Luna was being studied by a dragon!

The dragon was a brownish green and about half the size of Luna, and he got the impression that this thing’s thick scales put the green dog’s toughness to shame.

Ryan got the feeling that if he fired at it, it would only make things worse. 

The dragon studied Wizard’s Eye 1, then landed next to Luna and sniffed.

Ryan turned on the FTL and moved them to the top of the dome, near the airlock.

Ryan called a meeting.

Once everyone arrived, including Chie and Mayu, he pulled up a hologram of a dragon, “I found out who destroyed Wizard’s Eye 3.”

Becky gasped and became excited, “A dragon!?”

Anton had much the same reaction, “Cool! A dragon!”

Sashae wasn’t nearly as excited, but looked interested, “Dragon. Very big.”

Chie was hard to read, especially with the bandages on her head, “I am curious what it wanted with our drones.”

Anton waved his finger at Chie, “Because dragon’s love shiny and rare things. I bet it saw our drones and knew how rare and awesome they are.”

Chie thought for a moment, “If that assumption was true, why would it destroy them?”

Anton shrugged, “We can ask it?”

Becky waved her hands, “Um… as cool as dragons are, I’d rather admire them from a healthy distance.”

Ryan searched for the dragon and found it flying towards a small mountain range to the southwest of the clearing they’d been in, “Looks like it already left. Think it lives in those mountains?”

Chie nodded, “That would make sense.”

Anton nodded enthusiastically, “Yep! Let’s watch it and see where it lives. Maybe next time it leaves we can go steal its treasure!”

Becky face palmed, “And have an angry dragon hunting us down trying to get its treasure back?”

Anton shrugged, “Okay, maybe we can wait until Luna’s patched up.”

Becky shook her head vigorously, “Thanks, but no thanks! That thing is almost as big as Luna...”

Anton sighed, “Yeah. Okay.”

Ryan brought up a live video feed of Wizard’s Eye 2 watching the fields. He didn’t care about fighting dragons at the moment, “Now that we only have one drone left, what should we do with it? I’ve been listening to the locals and trying to learn their language, but now we don’t have one to watch Luna’s blind spots.”

Anton glanced at Mayu, “I’ll build some more after I’m done with what I’m doing now, but I can’t promise those’ll not get eaten too.”

Becky thought for a moment, “Can’t we stay up here?”

Ryan checked Luna’s fuel reserves, “Sure, but leaving the FTL on constantly uses a lot of fuel even if it's just to keep us in one place.”

Chie turned to the feed with the dragon, “Perhaps we should find a landing spot that places the city between us and the mountains.”

Becky nodded in agreement, “Yeah. I doubt the dragon will fly right over the city.”

Anton shrugged, “Or just go around it.”

Ryan noticed the dragon’s head turn towards them and then it changed course and headed for their way, “It found us. I’m going to go low and use the forest to keep us from its view. I guess a spot that’s hard to view from the sky would be good too.”

Anton pointed towards the dragon, “Just shoot it with the particle beam cannon. I bet it can’t attack us from this far.”

Ryan remembered the green dog, “Dude, the particle beam barely worked on a large dog, I bet the dragon won’t even notice we hit it.”

Anton shook his head, “Yeah, but that was with a barely charged shot using just hydrogen”

Anton wasn’t wrong, “True, but I’m with Becky on this one. If we can’t kill it, we’ll just end up with a pissed off dragon chasing us.”

Anton raised his hands in defeat, “Right, it’s not worth risking Luna.”

Chie tapped her chin, then spoke, “Perhaps we should seek aid from the city? If we land on the outskirts and walk in they might not view us as a threat.”

Ryan liked that idea, “Let’s hide from the dragon for now, then once I learn some of their language we can ask them for help?”

Becky nodded, “Sounds good to me.”

Anton shrugged, “As long as we don’t get eaten by a dragon I’m fine with whatever.”

Chie nodded her agreement.

Mayu nodded, “I am thinking this is okay.”

Ryan found some rock outcroppings on a small rocky island near the coast northwest of the city, “I think this spot should work.”

Everyone nodded.

Ryan jumped next to the rock outcropping.

Anton hurried towards the mess hall’s door, “I’m going to get back to work.”

Mayu waited a moment then left too, “I will be going too.”

Becky sighed, “A dragon of all things…”

Chie smiled, “Indeed.” She rubbed her temples, “I should get some more rest.”

Becky studied Chie for a moment, concerned, “How are you feeling?”

Chie grabbed her crutch, “A bit of a headache, and my leg aches, but much better.”

Becky looked a little relieved, “Okay, let me know if you need anything.”

Chie nodded and the two left.

Ryan went back to his observations of the farmers, moving about carefully as subjects moved out of audio range.

He noticed several armed groups come and go throughout the day. Most averaged three members, but the occasional two, five, or six weren’t uncommon. Most wore full armor of varying quality and type, but due to his lack of knowledge, he couldn’t be sure what was good or not.

Early the next morning someone caught his eye.

It was an elf girl heading into the forest by herself.

He had seen several peasants enter the forest alone before, but most of them only went in far enough to gather wood, herbs, or food. This girl wore light armor that only covered her vitals, where everyone else had entered with every inch of their bodies covered in armor. She also had a sword, but Ryan wasn’t sure if it was sufficient or not.

The thing that caught his attention was her ears. He’d already gotten used to the occasional elf, but she was different. Her ears were four times longer than any other elf he had seen. He wondered if it meant something, as her clothing appeared of higher quality than the peasants.

Ryan also wondered why a young elf like her would go into the forest alone with such inadequate armor and ended up following her. It wasn’t because she looked very cute. 

Still, he knew she would be safe if she didn’t venture too far into the forest, she would be safe…

The drone jerked and slammed into the ground. 

Ryan immediately got damage signals from two of the four fairy wings and knew there was nothing he could do to move it now with them damaged.

He couldn’t see what had hit it, but soon, several figures gathered around the fallen drone.

A helmeted figure leaned over and studied the drone.

Ryan saw eyes through the helmet’s opaque visor and saw slitted eyes like a cat’s.

Someone behind the drone picked it up.

None of the figures spoke as they took the drone towards the city.

Ryan noticed the elf girl was watching with interest, but soon went out of view as the drone’s captor turned towards the city.

The drone’s captors were fast and moved noiselessly through the fields and homesteads easily before entering a building.

The figures placed the drone on a pile of damaged metal items such as swords, armor, and rods, then left after spending only a few more seconds studying it.

Ryan tried moving the drone, but only rolled it off the pile, where another wing became damaged.

Ryan made an announcement over his crew’s comms, “Hey guys… Uh… Wizard’s Eye 2 just got captured.”