Aldine hops through the open airlock, and I follow right behind her. Given the state of the battleship, it is best not to test the limits of the airlock’s seals. It works well enough though and the outer door locks itself without any issue.

  As artificial gravity is restored, Aldine topples over, dragged by the weight of her ballast bag. Even in the low grav environment of a battleship, 250 pounds of mass are a bit much for a dainty miss... even one at “the top of her class.”

  “Sorry, forgot to warn you. You’ve to be really careful when entering gravity fields. We’re going to leave our bags here. Airlock 229-D76. Save this place in your suit’s location tracker. We’ll pick them up on the way out.”

  She pulls her hand back and leans against the wall.

  “Are you OK? It’s been quite the dive!”

  She looks straight at me. She’s beaming:

  “That was awesome! I can’t believe you can move like that without flight suits!”

  “You did real good, you know.” I mean it, too. “We should get ready to open the inner door soon.”

  “It is ready,” she says, moving her hand to the release lever.

  “I mean us. You understand what is going to be behind this door, right?”

  Her smile fades.

  “Yes, I know.”

  “The kinetic impact was incredible, I don’t think there’s anyone still alive in there. Are you sure—”

  “I am coming with you.”

  Well, it’s not like she’s never seen corpses and these aren’t going to be any worse than the poor bastards trampled by the knights from this morning...

  “We can cover more ground if we split up.”

  “That’s your plan? Search manually? Forget it. We’re back on a ship and I am in charge here.”

  “That’s not what—”

  “Come. We just need to head for the bridge. We can track everyone’s status from the console.”

  She pulls on the inner door lever and the door slides smoothly.

  “Just have to find the—”

  I turn on my helmet’s headlamp and flood the scene with light. Corpses are strewn about, limbs pointing at odd angles. Floor to ceiling, blood’s been sprayed everywhere. It’s mostly dry, except for small puddles on the floor. Looks like an entire unit had waited by the airlock at the ready. They stood no chance. The attack slammed them all up into the ceiling. They bounced around the corridor walls before settling down in weird piles on the floor. Aldine doesn’t scream, but she moves close to me, as if I could protect her from the carnage before us. I feel like throwing up too, but I steel myself and I grab her hand.

  Together, we make our way forward. I don’t bother checking the bodies. No one’s alive here. The only potential survivors are pilots strapped in control chairs, and... knights inside mecha armor. My heart sinks. Do they have knights in here? What will they do when they see us? They kill civilians for sport. What will they do to intruders on board one of their battleships? Either way, it’s too late to worry about that now.

  We make our way through the corridors in silence. Everywhere is the same. Corpses, corpses, and more corpses. It’s hard to believe all of this happened in a single instant, a single swipe of a dragon’s claws. Seen through the dragon’s eyes, it was a clean, elegant attack. A beautiful strike at an enemy. Inside... not even horror holos show that much blood, it’s almost beyond comprehension. I’m starting to understand how sheltered I’ve been from true devastation. The worst I’d seen was knights murdering a few dozen people at a time. Younger, I witnessed a mine shaft collapse, but I didn’t see the aftermath, only a tunnel that was no longer there, and people who didn’t show up for dinner that night. This is something else entirely. I can see them all, in every detail.

  There are signs and markings on the walls of the ship, but I’ve no idea what they mean. Thankfully, Aldine does and she takes the lead through this gory mess.

  “We’re close,” she whispers. There’s no one to hear us, but somehow whispering feels appropriate. We scale the emergency stairs, trying our best to avoid the bodies covering the steps, but it isn’t always possible. I walk on someone’s face, whatever remains of it anyway. I have to and so I do. Am I a knight now? I’m going to be sick, but Aldine pulls me forward. She's tough.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The battleship is gigantic, and this bridge is by far the largest I’ve ever seen, with dozens of control stations, battle screens, and comm units. There must have been close to a hundred people on the bridge, but no one’s standing or moving. Silent as a grave. A mass grave.

  “Anyone alive?” I yell. “We’re rescue. Answer if you can hear us.”

  No reply. Here too, corpses litter the floor of the cabin. Death found the top brass as easily as it did the cannon fodder down by the airlock.

  I head for the pilot seats. There are five of them, and their bodies are intact, heads still encased in their battle helmets. They aren’t moving though. I make to grab one of them, but Aldine shakes her head:

  “They are dead already.” She points to a solid red light on their helmets. “Should have known. They are plugged directly to the ship’s systems and fully integrated with its circuits. Destroying so much so fast probably fried every neuron they had.”

  I check for a pulse nonetheless. She’s right. They are as dead as everyone else, only cleaner.

  “Someone? Someone here?”

  A faint whimper, very faint, more feeling than sound.

  “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “Help!”

  Louder this time. There’s no doubt.

  “Hold on,” I scream. “I’m coming.”

  Aldine looks confused.

  “Come! Someone’s alive.”

  Without waiting for a reply, I scramble to the back of the bridge. There’s a back door. Locked.

  “Where are you?”

  “Here. Trapped!”

  “Stay right where you are, I’m coming for you.” I scream back as I look at the control panel. The door’s equipped with a fingerprint scanner.

  “We have to open this door.”

  I can’t contain my excitement. After all that death, we’re finally rescuing someone.

  “The captain’s lying over there.” Aldine points to the central station. She’s looking at me strangely: “but I still don’t hear anything. Are you sure you don’t have implants? That’s crazy good hearing. Those bulkheads are soundproof, you know?”

  I can detect a tinge of worry in her expression; worry that I snapped. I’m hearing voices now... well, one voice. But I’m sure it’s real. As real as Aldine’s, so make that two voices. I head over to the captain’s body.

  He fared no better than the rest of his crew. His skull broke, the left half of his face caving in upon impact. His spine’s shattered and his right arm’s twisted at odd angles. The radius bone broke cleanly and tore through skin and fabric, sticking out of his uniform at an odd angle. Dead. There’s no helping him, but whoever is still stuck in his cabin is alive, and I need the captain's finger to open the door.

  The captain was a large, solid man in his early fifties, but picking him up is no issue. The battleship only maintains minimal gravity to facilitate troop movements. That’s probably why their bodies are all in such a terrible condition. Weighing only a quarter of their normal weight, they’ve been flung around and bounced against every hard surface in sight. I drag his remains to the door with little difficulty.

  As expected, his fingerprints open the door into a wide room with a plush yet functional design. Lights turn on as soon as we enter, revealing a comfortable study with a large desk and several bookshelves. Books —actual books!— are strewn about on the cabin’s floor. A star chart covers the desk, but it’s only decorative. Must be well over a century since anyone plotted space jumps by hand. The captain had been fond of antiques, and he had the wealth to indulge. The books alone are worth a fortune.

  Can’t see anyone though.

  “Here!”

  I look around in confusion. The room is big, but not so big someone could hide. Yet I can’t see anyone. Is my mind playing tricks on me?

  My eyes catch a large chest made of a dark brown material I’ve never seen before. It comes up to the middle of my thigh and is twice as long. Someone could hide in there, theoretically. A small someone.

  “I'm here.”

  I yelp in excitement as I fiddle with the weird latch holding the chest closed. Aldine’s helping me remove the straps.

  “Don’t move.” I say as I open the chest and pull back a thick piece of fabric.

  Under it, the shimmering gleam of a dark blue surface of hard metal. Not exactly metal. Something even harder, yet softer, all at once. It feels surprisingly warm to the touch.

  “Is that what I think it is?” My voice is barely a whisper. Aldine’s mouth is wide-open with shock. She doesn’t say a word, transfixed, but I don’t need an answer. Not really.

  Before me lies the single most precious object in the Galaxy.

  A dragon’s egg.

  “Let me out!”

  I can feel a wave of urgency radiate from it.

  A pushy dragon’s egg.

  I lift it carefully and sit down, placing it on my knees. It’s heavy, but it just feels right, so comfortable, so... I cradle the egg in my arms and lean my head on top of it. The universe and my worries fade away into nothingness.

  There is nothing, nothing but me and a small being in my arms. A little girl with translucent night-blue wings.

  She looks at me with her great blue eyes and says:

  “Papa.”