NaNoWriMo: Day 27
As usual this took longer than expected, and ballooned past the 1667 word count. XD Though I have to let out my excitement that this post officially took my Dragon Flyz fic past 50,000 words! We're in novel-length territory for the first time, folks! ^__^
A quick note: Holly belongs t lovelykitta and Ilona belongs to strongheartmaid. Go read their stuff, folks! Seriously.
Homeland Part Two: Terra Firma
nbsp; Miriam was close to giddy as she secured her rebreather and helmet tight around her face. Finally satisfied that there were no openings that would allow spores from the Alayas flowers to enter her lungs and deposit their neurotoxin straight into her bloodstream, she gathered her sample case and joined the team ready to disembark the Aristotle
Looking around the peaceful summit of Mount Alayas, it all looked so harmless and beautiful. Hard to believe that months ago humans and mutants had been driven to the brink of insanity by the neurotoxin contained in the indigenous flowers' spores. Hopefully today would be the end of that nasty business.
nbsp; “We’re here to make history, friends,” Iranda said, addressing their small team that had come over on the Aristotle
*****
Miriam remembered that it had all started a few weeks after Iranda’s return to Airlandis. She had been in her lab, of course, still eager to crack the genetic code of the Alayas flowers and potentially engineer a variety that wouldn't make people hallucinate. But her luck had been just as poor as when she had first started. Oh, she had sequenced the flower's genome ages ago, but whatever sequence coded for the neurotoxin eluded her. It was certainly no help that Joshua had repeatedly denied her petitions to take the Aristotle and study the flowers in their natural habitat. Miriam wasn't the only scientist on Airlandis who wanted to get back to Alayas, either; she knew for a fact that Eleazar wanted to return and finish his geological survey. Hell, Summit had volunteered to accompany them in case anything went wrong.
nbsp; Still, "The Voice of the Council is one," she muttered with mild disgust. More like Joshua's voice was the only one that mattered.
nbsp; Miriam was pulled out of her reverie by a light knock on the door frame to her lab, and smiled when she saw it was the purple-haired healer Ilona.
"I've come to return the research materials I borrowed from you," Ilona said with a smile.
nbsp; Miriam pushed her goggles up onto her thick brown dreads, and beckoned the girl in with a wave. "You only borrowed them two days ago! There's no way you could have gotten through a hundred bits of Lasser in that amount of time; he's dry reading of the first order," she added with a chuckle.
Ilona shrugged, setting down the memory cubes on Miriam's desk. "Actually, I found him fascinating. Kept me up half the night. His theories about genetics and healing factors were of particular interest."
Miriam replaced the cubes in her data storage library, before grabbing another few out. "Then you'll want to follow up with Klausen's work exploring human versus Dramen biology. The sections that delve into where Dramen physiology moves off from human is fascinating - I think you'll be glad you read it the next time you have any Dramen patients. The anecdotes of how she got her samples are wickedly funny, too."
nbsp; "Thanks," Ilona replied. "Though I hope I don't fall asleep with my head on the holo-terminal again," she added with a chuckle.
nbsp; "Glad I'm not the only one," Miriam said.
nbsp; The two women talked for a few more minutes before Ilona looked at her chrono and said she was due for a shift in sickbay soon. Before she could leave, however, Iranda appeared in the doorway.
nbsp; "Well, I'm awfully glad you're both here," the senior scientist said, giving Miriam and Ilona a broad smile.
nbsp; Miriam was still amazed every time she saw Iranda in the flesh. And that she looked hardly any different from the time she had been lost eighteen years ago; the Starship Explorer must have some damn good skin treatments (something Miriam made a mental note to explore further).
nbsp; Once the hubbub had died down at Iranda's return (and the collective panic at her war announcement had subsided), Summit's mother had returned to the University and thrown herself into preparations for Dread Wing's eventual strike. Miriam was glad to have her mentor and her boyfriend's mother back. The woman was a dynamo.
nbsp; "Miriam, Ilona, I want you both to meet Holly," Iranda said, shoving a young, curly-haired brunette toward them. "She works in the Dragon Department, is wicked good with organization, and I may or may not have accidentally made her my temporary assistant," Iranda said with a grin.
nbsp; Miriam rolled her eyes, but was smiling, "When you perfect the process of making someone an accidental assistant, do forward me the paper - I could maybe use one of my own." Turning toward Holly, Miriam extended a hand, "Nice to meet you," she said.
nbsp; "Likewise," Holly replied, taking the hand. Ilona similarly greeted her.
nbsp; Once everyone had found seating (no small feat in the cramped, cluttered lab), Iranda addressed them all, "I've brought you all together because I am in need of your expertise for a mission. As you may know, I brought back technology from the Starship Explorer that allows for terraforming in at least limited amounts. When I found the files on Mount Alayas, I knew it would be the perfect test site."
nbsp; Miriam snorted. "Good luck with that. I've been after Joshua for months to let me mount an expedition back to Alayas."
nbsp; "The toxin prevents anyone from going back without scads of equipment," Ilona explained.
“Rebreathers and dragonator helmets should be enough for us to function, even if only for limited periods of time,” Iranda replied. “And as I understand, the Aristotle has quite a good air filtration system for long periods belowclouds.”
Miriam nodded. “That’s true - equipment isn’t necessarily the issue, though. You still haven’t solved the Joshua issue. And if I remember correctly, Aaron wasn’t wild about returning either.”
Iranda smiled, placing her hands on her hips. “Leave my husband and the Council to me. In the meantime, let me review each of your assignments when we move forward. Miriam, I want you to continue your genetic research on the flowers; I know that with live samples your task of isolating the DNA coding for the toxin will be much easier. Ilona - I want you on hand to monitor all vitals and health of the crew. And Holly, your task is possibly the most important - we’re all going to wear neural monitors, and you must carefully monitor them for any exposure. Orak and I will use the terraforming equipment to genetically alter the flowers DNA once our analysis is complete.”
Miriam saluted. “Aye aye, Captain.”
*****
nbsp; “I don’t know how she ever got the clearance,” Summit sighed, digging next to Miriam in the soft earth of the mountain. “I half think she must have taken a wind jammer into the Council Meeting to get that approval.”
nbsp; He got up from their crouched position and stretched, looking around at everyone working at different points on the plateau. The orange, deadly flowers waved lazily in the cool breeze. It was beautiful up here on Alayas - Summit had almost forgotten how achingly lovely a paradise this mountain could be for humanity.
nbsp; His breath felt warm and humid inside the helmet. “You know, I envy Cifex not having to wear all these contraptions. Inspired decision to bring him along on this mission - at least one person here is immune from going crazy.”
nbsp; "He wasn't keen on leaving Apex behind, though," Miriam said, securing a few of the flowers into an airtight sample kit.
nbsp; Summit looked down at his girlfriend and smiled. "I can't say I'd be pleased at being pulled away from you if we'd been apart for almost a year either. Those two have earned a little bit of happiness, I think."
nbsp; Miriam smiled back at him. "According to Holly, Apex's mental sensitivity puts her at a far greater risk if she returns here before terraforming is complete, though. The hallucinations would be a hundred times worse for her, or any of the Dragonators who can communicate with more than one dragon."
nbsp; Miriam stood up and brushed the dirt from her flight suit. Summit picked up the sample case, and they made their way back to the Aristotle. Once inside the ship, he and Miri went through the standard decon procedure that Ilona had set up and supervised, including blood tests and a mental evaluation. It was a long, tiring procedure just to exit the ship and return, but Summit would go through anything to not experience those hallucinations again.
nbsp; "So, how are mother and Orak coming with their end of the preparations?" Summit asked Miriam as they finally sat down for a bit of lunch in the lounge, joined by Ilona, Holly, Eleazar, and Aaron. There had been some discussion whether it was wise for Aaron to take extended leave of his post as Commander of the Dragonator Corps, but the man would absolutely not be dissuaded from accompanying his wife on this important mission.
nbsp; "Unfortunately, their end of things is contingent on my research," Miriam answered. "The live samples are exactly what I needed, though. I really feel like I'm getting close to finding the genes that code the neurotoxin."
nbsp; Ilona spoke up at this point. "I know Miriam could bioengineer a single flower, but I'm still unsure of how that equipment is actually going to change an entire ecosystem."
nbsp; "You must remember that the technology Iranda brought back from the Starship Explorer was designed to make whole worlds abitable," Aaron said. "It uses a matter-energy conversion matrix to build flora and fauna suitable to the colonists based on a combination of the available building blocks and elements that can be introduced from stored information. I confess my skepticism and incomplete understanding of it, though."
nbsp; "So simply changing one plant should be simple for such a device, then," Eleazar said.
nbsp; Summit shrugged. "I'm just hoping the amber generator system Orak rigged will supply enough power."
nbsp; "Oh, it'll supply enough power all right,” Orak’s gruff voice came from the entrance to lounge. “You don’t need to worry about that.” He and Iranda joined the rest of the team in grabbing a bite to eat.
nbsp; “The new power extraction method we’ve been testing is working great,” Iranda added. “Almost thirty percent more power per crystal!”
nbsp; “And the Explorer’s tech isn’t proving to be unwieldy to connect to our power sources?” Aaron asked.
nbsp; Orak shrugged. “Well, it’s not easy if that’s what you mean. But you know I like a challenge.”
nbsp; Iranda giggled. “I think the most challenging part was getting you to leave those reactors on Airlandis!”
nbsp; “Which reminds me I need to get my daily report from those rivetheads you forced me to leave in charge. We’ll be lucky to find a city at all when we get back,” Orak grumbled, getting up and depositing his clean plate in the food replicator for reprocessing.
nbsp; “When this mission is a success, maybe that problem can be alleviated,” Iranda said.
*****
nbsp; Aaron sat at the controls of the Aristotle, what would be central command for the operation. Around him were Ilona monitoring the team’s vitals and Holly monitoring neural activity. “Team One, are you ready to begin?” he asked.
nbsp; “We’re ready, dear,” Iranda replied through the comm system. She, Cifex and Orak were manning the terraforming array on top of the ship, getting ready to send out the pulse that would hopefully transform Alayas into a habitable home.
nbsp; “The array is fully charged, and there are no fluctuations in the power level. My amber reactor appears to be working quite nicely,” Orak added.
nbsp; A smile tugged at the corner of Aaron’s mouth. “Very good, Team One. Team Two, what is your status?”
nbsp; “We’re monitoring the mountain and the genetics of the flowers,” Miriam replied. “Now that we finally isolated the right gene, I’ll know the minute it’s changed.” Miriam and Eleazar were down in the lab watching Alayas for any signs of geologic stress and to make sure the flowers actually changed for the better after the pulse was activated.
nbsp; “Acknowledged, Team Two,” Aaron replied. “Be sure to notify us at the slightest transformation. Now, Dragon Flyz Team One, are you in position?”
nbsp; “We’re ready to rip some air, father!” Peak replied before Z’neth could properly answer.
nbsp; Z’neth face appeared on the view screen. “In case you wanted a real report, we’re in the designated positions.” Aaron nodded. The Dragon Flyz had been called in for the last part of the operation and were equipped with sensors that would guide the beam of the terraforming array, making sure that the entire mountain - all the way to where it disappeared in the Warp Winds - would be covered.
“We’ll keep the communication channel open, so each team please update as we go along,” Aaron said before taking a deep breath. “Commence Operation Homeland,” he finally said.
nbsp; “Bringing the array online,” Iranda said. “Power building - fifty, seventy, ninety, one hundred percent!” she said. “Dragon Flyz - here it comes!”
nbsp; Blue light cascaded like a wave from the array on top of the Aristotle, moving outward from the central point. Aaron saw Z’neth, Summit, Peak, and Apex activate the sensor modules, drawing boundaries for the energy just as they had practiced. The wave stopped as it came in contact with the sensors.
nbsp; “Is everything stable Iranda?” Aaron asked, letting out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.
nbsp; “Yes. The wave pattern appears to be holding, and no power fluctuations are noted,” Cifex answered.
nbsp; “All dragonator life signs are stable,” Ilona added.
nbsp; Holly chimed in as well, “The dragons appear to be unaffected by the terraforming wave as well.”
nbsp; Aaron nodded. “Proceed with Phase Two of the operation.”
“We’re beginning our descent,” Z’neth said. While Summit and Peak held two of the sensors in a circling motion around the top of the mountain, Z’neth and Apex directed Riptor and Blaze Wind toward the Warp Winds. As the dragons disappeared from Aaron’s sight, the energy wave followed them down past the plateau’s edge.
All was deathly quiet for a few minutes while the two dragonators did their work before Apex came on the screen. “We’re at the base of the Warp Winds, Father!” she yelled above the gale-force storm howling beneath their dragons.
“Iranda, are you ready to proceed with Phase Three?” Aaron asked.
“I’m beginning the countdown to terraforming,” she replied. “Five, four, three, two, one.” On the last count, the blue light began to increase in intensity and move in a vortex pattern around Alayas
Aaron’s vision turned a shade of cerulean, and it felt to him as though the sky itself was covering them. “Eleazar, Miriam, I need a report!” Aaron said, breaking his short reverie.
“The mountain is stable - no apparent geologic stress,” Eleazar answered.
“The flowers are actually…changing…” Miriam said, her voice filled with awe. “Their genetic code is being rewritten as we speak. It’s too early to tell the full extent of the changes, though,” she almost whispered.
The energy cloud continued to brighten until Aaron was forced to put the blast shields down over the main windows.
“The array will need to continue its work for at least another hour,” Iranda said over the comm. “Dragon Flyz, are you all right to stay in your current positions?” she asked, concern for their children coloring her voice.
“We’ll be all right, Mother,” Aaron heard Summit say. “You can count on us to see this through.”
That hour was the longest and most horrible in Aaron’s recent memory. His children out there, exposed to potentially harmful effects of the terraforming ray. Still, he could help but feel their bravery did them credit, and made him proud. When Iranda and Orak finally gave the call to shut down the array and for the dragonators to return to the plateau, Aaron let out a deep sigh.
“All teams, give me a report,” he said.
“We went through ten ambers powering this gizmo,” Orak grumbled, “so I hope it worked!”
“All vital signs of Dragonator One appear normal and healthy,” Ilona said with a smile. “Though I recommend a full workup when we’re done here.”
“Seconded for the dragons as well,” Holly said. “Though all my neural scans are negative for the toxin.”
“A relief indeed,” Aaron said.
“The mountain is stable and geographically unchanged from my first scan,” Eleazar said. “The natural springs made it through as well, which is a relief.”
“I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Miriam said. “The flowers’ genetic code was not only stripped of the gene coding for the neurotoxin, but has been rewritten to produce a compound that I can think of having a number of wonderful medical applications.” Aaron heard cheers reverberate across the comm line, and couldn’t resist smiling himself.
“We’re going to set down on the plateau, Father,” Z’neth said. “It’s our job to test safety for potential inhabitants.”
“I’ll be monitoring you for the slightest change,” Holly said.
“Be careful, my dears,” Iranda added.
Aaron opened the blast shields in time to see Riptor, Blaze Wind, Sky Fury, and Wing Storm land in front of the Aristotle. He was a bit dismayed to see Peak pull off his helmet almost instantly and roll around in the tall grasses, but thought he might do the same if their roles were reversed. Aaron didn’t want to get his hopes up too greatly in case this turned out to be another disappointment, but hope burned inside him.
“No change in their neurotoxin levels,” Ilona said.
“Or their neural activity,” Holly said. “I think it might be safe for us to go outside, sir.”
Aaron nodded. “Ilona, Holly, take remote consoles with you just in case. I want everyone still on the monitors. And Cifex,” he added. “As the only one immune, please keep an eye on all of us.”
“Acknowledged, sir,” Cifex said. Aaron stifled a sigh - that boy was still entirely too formal around him.
Iranda, Orak, and Cifex climbed down the ladder from their perch with the array, and were joined by Eleazar and Miriam from the lab. Aaron floated toward the loading bay doors, trailed by Ilona and Holly. “Z’neth, we’re opening the doors,” Aaron said through his vox box.
Orak activated the control, and the bay doors began their descent. Aaron caught a floral whiff as fresh air seeped into the cargo hold. Iranda moved to stand beside him, clasping his hand tightly
“All for this moment, my love,” she whispered. When the doors had finished opening, they were greeted by the smiling face of their children amid a sea of orange blooms waving in the breeze.
“This is a momentous moment, friends,” Aaron said, looking at the faces of those around him. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, and his voice grew thick with emotion. “We have taken the first step on our journey to heal and reclaim Earth for humanity. Let Alayas be an example - a shining beacon of hope to those that follow. Let it proclaim that humanity has learned a hard and bitter lesson, and come through all the stronger.”
Aaron’s children grabbed him in a tight hug, and the old man thought his heart could barely contain the joy he felt.