Earth
Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies
August 13, 2019
17:22 PDT (20:22 EDT)

We couldn’t see anything but a bit of land and the open ocean. Omar would be checking the area before anyone else went through, so he proceeded through the portal. As soon as he got to the other side, a shield formed around him. He took a quick look around, and then just stood there.

“What is he doing?” I asked.

“Scanning the area. If there is anything within a kilometer of the island, he’ll let us know,” Yuki answered.

After a few minutes of waiting, he raised his hand and motioned us forward.

“I’ll go first. Jonathan, you follow behind me, and girls follow behind him,” my mom said, while turning towards the portal. “Let’s go.”

She went through with her firearm at the ready. Like Omar, as soon as she was through, a shield formed around her. I followed with my sisters behind me, and Yuki followed behind us. Each of us had put up our shields, and as soon as Yuki came through, the portal winked out.

“Why have you brought so many people?” a female voice asked shortly after the portal closed. It seemingly came from everywhere at once, but when we turned, we couldn’t see anything. I tried reaching out with my mind, and couldn’t sense anything either.

“We didn’t know whether or not this was a trap. I still don’t know that it isn’t, actually,” my mom shouted.

“You don’t need to shout. I can hear you quite clearly. This is no trap, I assure you. Why are you searching for a dragon?”

“We wish to make a trade, which is why we offered so much gold for a dragon to contact us. We weren’t expecting you to also have a Precognition Skill Gem in your possession.”

“What could a dragon have that you would be interested in paying so much for?”

“I’m not comfortable releasing that information without being face to face. Here is how serious we are about making a trade, however,” she said. When she was done speaking, stacks of gold bars appeared on the ground beside her.

“Very well, I am coming down.”

At that, we all looked up and could see a shape circling above us. After a moment, it drew its wings in and executed a very steep dive. As it got closer and closer, I was amazed at its size. I couldn’t tell how big it was since all I could really see was its head and it’s body, but it looked huge.

When it was about five hundred feet off the ground, its wings flared out with a very loud noise, and it continued to glide in a large circle before landing in front of us. Now that it was on the ground, I could see that it easily had a wingspan of at least two hundred feet, and from head to tail, was probably close to that as well. It just stood there for a moment, before it slowly started to shrink in size. A minute or two later, a seemingly young human woman was in her place, and she was walking towards us. As she got closer and closer, I could have sworn I had seen her from somewhere.

She stopped about ten feet away. “Greetings. My name is Selalea. Now, what interest does the Adventurer’s Guild have in dragons?”

“Greetings, Selalea. My name is Alexandra. The people with me are Omar, Yuki, Aleena, Lucille, Alexis, and my son, Jonathan,” my mom replied, pointing to each of us. “Have you ever heard the term ‘Scyftan’?”

She thought for a moment and then nodded. “I have, though I do not know what it refers to. The first time I heard the term was roughly thirty-four hundred years ago. Over the years, I have heard it less and less. What does that have to do with why you’re searching for a dragon?”

“Everything. You are looking at seven Scyftans. We are a race of shapeshifters that first arrived thirty-four hundred years ago. The first twenty-three hundred years were spent researching Earth. Eleven hundred years ago, more of us arrived after an event on our homeworld forced us to flee. A few decades after we arrived, we created the Adventurer’s Guild to help get humanity back on track.”

“Your people created the Adventurer’s Guild?” she asked, sounding surprised. “We had always assumed that humans finally came to their senses. Are you saying this isn’t the case?”

My mom shook her head. “No. They would have continued delving into dungeons while neglecting all else. As to why we’re here, and willing to offer so much gold; Scyftans have the ability to scan creatures, allowing us to shapeshift into that form whenever we would like to afterwards. Omar, is it clear?”

“It is. Nothing within a kilometer of the island, and no satellites are focused on us.”

“Thank you. Jonathan, ladies, would you please give Selalea a demonstration?” she asked, looking at us.

I nodded and began shapeshifting into my Seotross form. I couldn’t see what my sisters were transforming into since they were behind me, but I was able to see Selalea’s eyes grow wider, especially when I started getting so much bigger, and an additional set of arms grew alongside my regular ones.

“As you can see, my people are able to shapeshift into many different forms. There is one species on Earth that has always eluded us. They always have incredibly strong shields, and tend to be reclusive.”

“You’re referring to dragons.”

“I am. About one thousand years ago, a member of my species made a bargain with a dragon. The dragon said that if the woman brought an amount of gold equal to her body weight, the dragon would allow herself to be scanned. We’re hoping to make a similar bargain.”

“What is involved in this scan?”

“Every creature we’ve come across has a small area of their brain that contains all the information about their species. When we scan someone, we enter the part of the mind that this information is stored in and transfer a copy to our own minds. With this information, we’re able to know exactly how the species’ body works, and transform into a version if it at will. A scan takes very little time, and does not harm the individual. If you agree to allow us to do this, you should be able to keep track of where we go in your mind, and follow what we do.”

“What stops a Scyftan from going somewhere other than where that information is stored?”

“You can keep track of any of us at all times. Besides that, it is extremely taboo to enter parts of someone’s mind if they do not wish you to be there. If someone is caught doing this, the punishment is death.”

“That is not enough for me. I am one of the oldest of my species, and as such, I know a great many things. Any of those things could likely be learned by you before I could react and eject you from my mind. I do not know you, and do not trust your people. Yet, at least. That does not mean the answer is no, just that I will not be doing it. Does it matter how old a dragon is for you to scan them?”

“As long as the brain is fully formed, we can scan them. It doesn’t matter if they’re a newborn or ancient.”

“Very well. I will allow my youngest son to be scanned for ten gold bars for each scan. He is only four years old, very much a child, and doesn’t have any sensitive information. That being said, if any harm comes to him, our species will be at war.”

“I can agree with that. Another Scyftan can shield the entirety of his mind except for the part we need to scan. This will ensure his safety. I’m not about to plunge our two species into a war. There will be a lot fewer Scyftans on Earth in about six months anyways.”

“Now that makes me curious. Why would Scyftans be leaving Earth in six months?”

“Earlier I told you that Scyftans originally came to Earth around thirty-four hundred years ago, which is when you first heard of them. Those Scyftans were scientists that were studying the planet. Two thousand years after they first arrived, a coup took place. Our king and queen were slain, and others were forced to flee. The young man, and three young women standing behind me are the children of our king and queen. In six months, we’ll finally be heading back home to depose a tyrant.”

“I see. This may change things.”

“In what way?” my mom asked.

“Am I correct in thinking that the big furry man standing behind you is now the King of your people?”

“He is the rightful king, yes. Why?”

“Then I will make a bargain with him,” she said. Looking at me, she continued, “Jonathan, is it?”

I tried to talk and remember I couldn’t. I did the only thing I could do, which was nod, and then started shifting into my human form.

“He just learned how to transform into that form this morning, and can’t yet speak in it. He’s shifting back into his human form. Girls, you can shapeshift back into your human forms as well,” she said, looking over to them.

“What did he shapeshift into? I have never seen anything like it.”

“A species native to our homeworld, called a Seotross.”

I was finally done shapeshifting, and walked to stand beside my mom.

“Nice to meet you, Selalea.”

“You as well. Should I call you King Jonathan?”

I rapidly shook my head. “No, thank you. I’m not a fan of the whole king thing. Jonathan is fine.”

“Jonathan, then. The price for allowing your people to scan mine is the relocation of my species when you depart.”

“Relocation?” I asked, totally flabbergasted. “What makes you think we have that capability? Why would you want to leave, anyways?”

“I know more than I initially let on. I know there are well over one hundred thousand, if not many more Scyftans on Earth. If most of those will be gone in six months, then that means you have a way of transporting them all off the planet. Earth is too small for humans and dragons to coexist any longer. It used to be that we had the entire planet to ourselves before humans evolved to the point they are now, while continuing to breed like rabbits. Many older dragons are content to sleep for years at a time, while younger dragons are chafing at the rules. They want their freedom back, and that won’t happen on Earth without a lot of bloodshed.”

“Why do you think that it won’t happen without bloodshed?”

“Humans have always hunted dragons whenever we were seen. It used to be that they weren’t a threat to us. Now they are a threat since they have access to modern weapons, and are able to reach levels that used to be impossible. Right now, humans think dragons are nothing but myths. If we showed ourselves, we would be hunted endlessly, and would force us to defend ourselves. That wouldn’t be good for humans, or dragons.”

“How many dragons are we talking about?” my mom asked.

“Approximately eighty thousand or so, not including the five hundred sixteen thousand and two eggs as of our last count.”

“Over five hundred thousand eggs?!” I exclaimed. “Why so many, and how big are they?”

“Necessity has driven us to store our eggs in certain conditions so they do not hatch. There is simply not enough space, or food for another five hundred thousand dragons on Earth. Thankfully, a fertilized egg can go tens of thousands of years before hatching when conditions are right for it. They are roughly beach ball sized.”

“I’m assuming they can’t be placed in dimensional storage, which means a lot of cargo space is needed for them.”

She nodded. “Living organic matter placed in dimensional storage quickly becomes dead organic matter.”

“Can you give us a few minutes to talk about this? I need to get another person’s thoughts before I can agree to your proposal.”

She nodded again. “I will wait here.”

“Thank you,” I said, turning towards the rest of our group.

[What do you think about her proposal?] I asked my mom.

[I didn’t think the situation is as bad as she says it is. I can see where she is coming from, though. If most dragons are even half her size, they must go through a lot of food, and need a lot of space. Unless they remain in human form most of the time, which I doubt. Even then, they would still need to eat the same amount of food in their human form.]

[Do you think we should accept it?]

[I think we should give it some serious thought. I got the sense that Selalea is very strong, equally as strong as Yuki, Omar, or myself. We could probably defeat her by working together, but it wouldn’t be easy. Now an individual human might not be as strong as Yuki, Omar, or myself, but they would have a massive advantage in numbers. That isn’t even including the massive stockpile of weapons they have.]

[If we say no, then in a few years, a war much, much worse than World War Two could engulf the planet. If we say yes, then we may gain a powerful ally, as well as make it a lot easier to man the ships on their way to Earth right now.]

[I didn’t even think about that. If even half of them can crew the ships, then it will be significantly easier. Do we really want to give them that much trust, though?]

[I don’t think they would abuse it. They don’t seem like bad people at all, they’re just frustrated with their situation.]

[I’m going to create a link between you, Tich and myself so we can discuss it. He’ll let us know if we can make it work. Over five hundred thousand beach ball sized eggs will take up a lot of space.]

I concentrated for a moment, reaching out to Tich up on the moon, and established a connection to him before adding my mom to it.

[Ah, Jonuth, Tesze, what can I do for you?]

[I trust that you were briefed that we were meeting a dragon?] my mom asked.

[I was. How did that go?]

[It’s still going, actually. That’s why Jonathan contacted you. Selalea, the dragon we’re meeting with, gave us a very interesting proposal when I let slip that many of the Scyftans on Earth will be gone in six months or so.]

[Oh? What kind of proposal?]

[The dragons want to be relocated to a planet they don’t have to share, like they do with Earth. Apparently there is tension amongst the younger generations and the older generations. She basically stated that sooner or later, a war will spark between humans and dragons,] I cut in.

[If we agree to this, we also may be able to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. In return for transporting them off the planet, and to a new one, they’ll allow Scyftans to scan them. Paying with gold, we would have been able to have maybe one thousand Scyftans scan dragons, which would have been invaluable. Now, we’ll be able to have every Scyftan that is interested scan a dragon, though we might restrict that, somewhat,] my mom continued.

[You said two birds.. what’s the other one?]

[I was getting to that next. Apparently the dragon population is at around eighty thousand. I was thinking that we conscript as many as we can as part of the agreement. Even if it’s only half.]

[That still puts a huge dent in the amount of people we need to recruit. Yes, I see what you mean,] Tich interrupted.

[If we trained them on the new ships, is there any way they could turn them against us?] I asked.

[Not a chance. Abi will be tied into all six hundred ships. If she sees them trying to take over a ship, or ships, she can lock them down.]

[Well, that’s one concern we had. That isn’t the biggest one, however,] my mom said.

[The biggest concern is how to transport the five hundred sixteen thousand and two beach ball sized eggs they’ve been preventing from hatching,] I explained.

There was nothing but silence coming from Tich.

[Did you hear me, Tich?]

[Hmm? Oh, yes, I heard you. I was just processing what you said. Five hundred sixteen thousand and two beach ball sized eggs? How big is a beach ball, anyways?]

My mom and I looked at each other and shrugged.

[I don’t know, maybe a foot and a half in diameter?] I said.

[We’ll likely have issues storing that many eggs, since they can’t be put in dimensional storage. The ships on the way are warships, and have very little cargo space available, outside of the dimensional storage. We could split them up between all the ships, but I don’t think the dragons would want to put them at risk. There are two alternatives I can see as well. The first is we see if Kor can’t pull some strings and have a cargo ship configured to transport livestock sent. It shouldn’t take more than one or two. If that doesn’t work, then the other alternative would be to strip down a lot of the ships we have up here and configure them to carry the eggs. Even then, it might be tight.]

[How many eggs do you think the three transport ships could hold if they were stripped down?]

[Maybe fifty thousand eggs, each. It would take a lot of time to do that, though. Even if we started now, it would take us working around the clock for a few months to get them ready. Having a cargo ship or two sent would make it very easy.]

[I may have a solution. One moment,] I said. I concentrated and added Abi to our conversation. [Abi, have you been monitoring?]

[I have.]

[How much more would you have to grow to accommodate the amount of eggs they claim to have?]

[I could easily do so now, Jonathan. I have done some calculations. When allowing for sufficient padding to help prevent damage to the eggs, four hundred and fifty eggs could be fit into a single shipping container. As such, it would take exactly one thousand one hundred forty-seven shipping containers to carry all of the eggs.]

[That may seem like a lot of shipping containers, but it is not. Consider this: the largest container ships are able to carry over twenty one thousand shipping containers on a ship four hundred meters long, and sixty meters wide. I currently dwarf container ships, sitting at six hundred eighty-two point five meters long, one hundred ninety five meters wide, and ninety-seven point five meters tall.]

[I hadn’t thought about that at all,] Tich said. [Abi could easily transport them all in a very short amount of time, and wouldn’t delay our plans. Hell, we could load all the eggs, find the dragons a new home for them, and be back to Earth in less than a month.]

[So we can make this work. Do we want to do it, though?] I asked.

[The pros greatly outweigh any cons there might be. Dragons are very strong, and could grow into very good allies if allowed to expand,] Abi said. [Perhaps when Kaldrus is dealt with, they can be one of the first races to join the new Protectorate.]

[I agree with Abi. It is too good of an opportunity to pass up. Not only will it make it easier to crew the ships on their way to earth, but it will also make Spectres a whole lot stronger. Their camouflage or whatever it is is particularly interesting,] Tich added.

I looked at my mom and she just nodded. [Alright, looks like we’re doing this, then. Abi, can you make your way down to our location without being detected?]

[I sure can. I’ll be down in a few minutes. Tich, can you open the hangar doors, please.]

[I’ve given the order. They should be opening now.]

[Thanks, Tich, Abi. I supposed we should give Selalea the news.]

We said goodbye and closed the connection. My mom and I turned back to Selalea and saw that she had taken a seat on the stacks of gold bars while she waited. She stood back up when she noticed us approaching.

“Have you come to a decision?” she asked.

“We’ve decided to agree to your proposal, with a couple of conditions,” I replied.

She frowned at that, before responding. “What conditions?”

“There are only two. The first is that I’m allowed to see at least one of the chambers containing the eggs. I’m assuming you don’t have them all in one location, so they can’t all be destroyed during an earthquake or some other disaster?”

“You are correct. Why would you need to see the eggs?”

“I would like to see them for myself, as well as see how they’re stored. One of our people has done rough calculations based on the size you gave us, but it would be better to see how you store them.”

“Very well, I agree. Only you will be permitted, however. What is the second condition?”

“There are a large number of spaceships enroute to Earth, a gift from a friend of my father. They don’t yet have crews assigned to them, and your people could help a lot in getting them all manned.”

“My people know nothing about spaceships.”

“Neither do humans, who will make up the bulk of the crew on each ship. We only have a few months to quietly recruit almost one million people to crew the ships. Your people could help a lot. If you agree to both of those conditions, we can have your elders, and all five hundred sixteen thousand and two eggs transported to a new planet within a month.”

“A month? How can you transport them so quickly? When I proposed the deal, I had assumed it would have to wait until after you take your throne back.”

[Please ask Selalea to have the dragons gliding over head move out of the way, please. I wouldn’t want them to splatter against my shields,] Abi said, before I could respond.

[How many are there?]

[Thirty-seven, flying at different altitudes, all circling the island.]

“The reason we can transport them so quickly just arrived. She informed me that there are currently thirty-seven dragons circling the island. Can you please have them either land, or move a kilometer or so away from the island?”

She looked shocked that they were detected, but nodded. She looked up, breathed in, and let out a roar so loud, and so deep, that shouldn’t have been possible from someone so small. It had all of us clapping our hands to our ears to block out the noise. When it ended, dragons started appearing in the sky, and were quickly descending down to the island. When the dragons had all landed around the island, Abi lowered her shroud, revealing that she was hovering just above the ocean. She was a lot bigger now than she had been this morning.

“Selalea, meet Abi. She’ll be transporting your people, as soon as an uninhabited planet is decided upon. She’s the fastest ship we know of.”

“Why do you refer to it as ‘she’?”

“Abi is a sentient crystalline lifeform. She is the ship.”

Selalea looked at the ship in wonder.

[Abi, have you configured the ship yet to store the eggs?]

[I just finished before I let you know about the dragons that were gliding above the island.]

[Awesome. Mind forming a door so we can show Selalea how you’ll be transporting them?]

[Sure, one moment.]

“How about we show you the initial plan Abi has come up with for transporting the eggs. She’s making a door directly to the cargo bay.”

“Making a door?” she asked, looking at me.

I nodded, “Abi can change the layout of the ship, as well as grow in size. On her way down here, she was creating a cargo bay to store the eggs. Most ships you’ll find have dimensional storage for storing supplies rather than a cargo bay. That is the case because it doesn’t take up any more space than the anchor for the dimensional storage. We would have had to purchase a new ship, or extensively modify a bunch of ships to be able to carry the eggs. Abi can do it without any trouble.”

By the time I finished explaining it to Selalea, a large opening had appeared in the side of the ship. Just from my vantage point, I could see a large room with cell guides, similar to those you might find on a container ship. Cell guides prevent containers from moving around on a container ship, and they would serve the same purpose here.

“Come, and Abi will go over her plan. Your insight will be valuable.”

As we walked over to the ship, a gangplank grew out of the ship, and extended onto the island. Upon walking inside, I had a new ship schematic downloaded to my mind. I had initially thought that the room would be too small, but wanted to make sure it would be a snug fit. The room is about forty meters long, fifty meters wide, and twenty-six meters high. The cell guides are included in the dimensions, and are about two feet thick.

With those dimensions, the room is big enough to hold six rows of containers stacked twenty wide, and ten high, enough for twelve hundred containers.

“Abi, meet Selalea, Selalea, meet Abi.”

“Greetings, Selalea. It is nice to meet you.”

“Hello,” she said, looking around to see where the voice was coming from.

“You said that dragon eggs are the size of beach balls. Is that size consistent with all of them, or is that the average?” Abi asked.

“That’s the average size. Some are bigger, and some are smaller, though not by much.”

“On average, that means a dragon egg will be around forty centimeters in diameter, then?”

“Around there, yes.”

“Perfect. I’m sure you’re familiar with shipping containers that are used to transport most goods around the planet?”

“I am. Is that how you’re thinking of transporting them?” Selalea asked.

“Yes. It seems like the easiest and most secure way. I have estimated that eggs can be stacked in eighteen rows stacked five wide, and five high. That would come out to four hundred fifty eggs per container, requiring one thousand one hundred forty-seven shipping containers. That would leave fifty-three extra shipping containers if it turns out we can’t fit four hundred fifty eggs per container."

“I like it, but there is one concern. What do you have in place to stop eggs from being scrambled should the ship hit something, or something hit the ship?”

“Once everything is loaded, I will activate stasis that encompases the entire room. With stasis active, it will be as if time has stopped inside the room. There is no risk of them being scrambled, as you put it. Just to be safe, I will have a backup generator installed that will immediately continue powering the room, should my own power be disconnected somehow.”

“Stasis will not damage the eggs?”

“They will not. Jonathan and his sisters actually spent over fourteen hundred years in stasis as babies before finally being taken out.”

“I see. I don’t have any complaints, and I doubt any dragon would, either. Our eggs are suspended from the ceiling so they don’t get damaged or destroyed in case of an earthquake. Stasis seems like a more elegant solution. I have to bring this up with the council, but when is the earliest we can start?”

“Do you see any of the council members putting up any resistance? I would say that we could start on Monday, but may want to wait until they’re all on board.” my mom said.

She shook her head. “They won’t put up much of a fight about this. Many of them think they’ll be stuck on Earth until we come up with the technology to leave, which is why they sleep so much. I think the council members will jump at the chance to leave Earth and finally see their children and grandchildren hatch.”

“How about you meet with them and let us know what they say. If they approve, then you can give me a short tour, and we’ll begin preparations. How many dragons can we expect to help crew our ships?” I asked.

“Almost all of them. Most of the elders, and all the egg-tenders will be traveling with their eggs. There are only a few very young dragons, so I’d say maybe seventy-eight thousand.”

“That many? We were thinking it would be about half of that.”

“Dragons live a very long time, and we usually remain quite active for the majority of our lives. You can count me among one of those seventy-eight thousand.”

“Perfect. Well, how about we complete the trade we initially came here for, and then we can start making plans?”

“That is fine with me, though I will still not allow myself to be scanned. Luckily my son is here, so you can scan him.”

She led us back outside of the ship to where the gold was still stacked. She looked over to the smallest dragon, and called him over. He’s still pretty big, at perhaps ten meters from head to tail, but nowhere near as big as his mother. The young dragon ran over and stood beside her.

“This is my son Ilnod,” she said. Looking at him, she explained what was going to happen. “I want you to lower the shield protecting your mind. These people are going to scan you by entering your mind for a short time. They say it won’t hurt, but I want you to tell me immediately if it is uncomfortable, alright?”

He nodded his huge head up and down.

“Okay, you can begin.”

I closed my eyes and reached out as I had before. I was able to sense all the dragons around me, and Ilnod was the only one who didn’t have a shield up. I slowly entered his mind and navigated to where the information I needed was located. It didn’t take very long at all, and within a minute, I had what I needed. I left his mind as gently as I entered, and opened my eyes.

“Done,” I said. I moved back a short distance since I didn’t know how big I would be, and began shapeshifting into a dragon.

It took much, much longer than it took with any other forms, and I could feel my mana being drained almost as quickly as I could generate it, to help fuel the transformation. After about three minutes or so, it was over, and I was looking over everyone. I couldn’t tell how big I was, but I knew I was at least two times bigger than Ilnod, who was looking at me with wide eyes.

[So, how do I look?] I asked everyone.