3

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This time the curtain rose on a very different scene. If dreams were flame, only ash was left to dance along the precipice. Charred rubble, a few miserable structures, and rusted scraps of metal were strewn over a lifeless landscape under an orange sun. Like a graveyard, ruined starships and weapons of war rose out of the barren, violet dirt. Some were of Lytrik design similar to carnivorous dinosaurs, large mechanical lizards with spines and claws that could conduct an electric current. Their remnants, in ways, resembled metal skeletons. Others appeared to be green saucers with protruding weaponry and engines in sharp cones: the Raydaytion fleet. All were burnt-out shells of their former glory.

Greasy grey haze blotted the cold indigo sky; Sayth felt it slither over his exposed skin, stinking of oil and rotten eggs. Except for the distant rumble of storms, all was silent.

“A long destroyed and abandoned facility recently reactivated. Altnexxis was previously detected in the area. We’re here to find out why,” Sayth said, tasting the foul air in his mouth.

“I cannot accustom to travel by sylver. So sudden yet marvelous a tool. In TriCora, we make use a palace highway that opens to different lands. You, too, remember. Such takes both time and distance. Sylver is so far in an instant.” Spiral coughed.

‘We should communicate telepathically from here out to avoid breathing the atmosphere.’ Sayth projected his thoughts to Spiral. ‘There’s decay here too.’

Spiral eyed faintly glowing neon blue streaks on an alien battleship hull, careful not to touch them. No materials, organic or otherwise, were safe from the schism.

‘Here’s the other half. See the glowing pink scraps?’ Sayth lifted the half ton of metal with his gloved hand and placed it to overlay the blue. Solid material of one side fit perfectly with the illuminated scars of the other, yet they never bonded. Both were glowing ghosts of signature residue only partially tangible, like a multilayered jigsaw puzzle. He dropped it with a deep vibrating boom.

‘Indeed,’ Spiral thought, pulling her white coat closed. Her tail ran between the flaps in the back and swayed anxiously from side to side. She surveyed the scene; all around was found the fire-flayed mark of war. ‘This place. A horrible fate befell those present. Who were they?’

‘This moon belonged to the Lytrik, a race that warred for hundreds of years with the Raydaytion. Eventually, the Raydaytion overwhelmed them and destroyed their planet. In another system, that is. When that happened, the Lytrik ended up drifting down the sacterrian currents to Earth, where they engaged in war with humans. Thus, forcing the formation of the United Earth Alliance. Within months, the Raydaytion hunted them down and joined in the three-way, triangle war. As guardian dragon of Earth, I intervened with a little favor for the Raydaytion and got them to ally with the Alliance. Saved the Earth that day. Sure, the political climate’s frosty with little trade or cooperation, but the Raydaytion leave us be. Earth was terribly underdeveloped in technology and would also have been destroyed otherwise,’ Sayth thought.

‘Of what nature was the favor?’ Spiral asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘It’s a long story. We should focus on finding why Altnexxis came here with the blatant decay,’ Sayth thought, peeling a rusted triangular door off one of the larger buildings.

‘A hint, perhaps?’

‘Regicide,’ he replied, entering.

Although difficult to tell in their dilapidated state, Lytrik structures favored pyramid and trapezoid designs as opposed to the rectangular cubes of Earth. Interior equipment and furniture compensated by angling one side down diagonally to match the slanted turquoise wall. Watery sunlight crept in, catching the rare, polished surface.

Before Sayth had a chance to examine the technological displays, Azalyske showed a message on the inner lenses of his glasses. A snakoth approached. Sayth knew these well as monsters created by the Ogigah wraith Oth and the primary reason guardian dragons were armed with sylver.

‘What should I do?’ Spiral wondered, having been given a similar warning by her sylver.

‘Hide and observe. Fortunate, we were communicating telepathically; the snakoth doesn’t know our exact location,’ Sayth thought as he stepped outside.

A dusky veil of silence covered the land, like a bride who turned away from her own ceremony. Any means of detection short of sylver would have missed the snakoth entirely, and even that could only find blips. It drew near, hunting them; that was all he knew.

Sayth keenly eyed the adjacent compound and hillside of grey, rusting scraps. Searching for anything, any disturbance in the contour. Nothing.

On the distant horizon, storm clouds poured acid rain. A faint, winding wind stirred small puffs of dirt and particles. Seconds passed, maybe minutes. Maybe not. Azalyske’s sensors and Sayth’s sharp hearing couldn’t produce a trace.

Waiting, watching—there, now! Wasting no time, the beast sprung from the right, slashing its sickle tail blade of red crystal. Sayth rolled under the seven tons of black muscle. Snakoths were in every way designed to be perfect killers. A single eye was hidden behind a protective crimson crystal over two rows of needle-sharp teeth. Its snaking neck flowed into a centaur body with forearms and six-fingered hands capable of wielding weapons. Every appendage featured black talons or razor-sharp organic crystals. The monster stood over four meters tall and nine long from eye plate to tail blade.

It jumped again on powerful haunches and slashed with extended claws on its front legs, vaulting off scraps like a shadow flitting across the wall.

Sayth skillfully dodged under as only one with a century of experience could. He’d rather be lucky than good, any day of the week. But he wasn’t lucky; his luck ran dry to the point of being stalked by a mad god, framed for the destruction of a planet and potentially even the universe ending. And there were none better. But in all his expertise, he never lost respect for snakoths. They carried the most powerful poison in existence and could wipe out entire battalions.

Sayth sprouted a black dragon tail and caught the snakoth’s neck as it flew by, slamming it into the pavement. He quickly surveyed the area. The oily ground was slick, but snakoth claws prevented them from slipping. Ruined piles of war machines, most burnt unrecognizable, cluttered the battlefield.

‘Azalyske, scan the rubble and see if there’s anything I can use,’ Sayth thought.

The snakoth rolled and fired a spear of dry blood-red energy from its eye; Azalyske flowed into a sylver blade and deflected the blast into the sky. Sylver was an unmatched weapon but one Sayth preferred not to rely on. Lining across the universe was taxing enough for its energy.

Azalyske informed Sayth that the sump of a Lytrik raptor mech contained large quantities of flammable lubricant. The snakoth let loose a blood-curdling shriek and fired another blast, which Sayth deflected again. He needed the beast to charge. It adopted a ground approach, pivoting sideways with its massive tail blade extended.

Sayth backed against the rubble. The tail swung diagonally down like a sickle to wheat. Sayth leaped, kicked off its face, and fired a blast of energy from the half orb on his glove into the engine. A bladed tail and six wings sprouted from his back, keeping him airborne. Sharp black scales grew all over, and he took dragon form. The engine exploded, knocking the snakoth down. Sayth dropped through the flames, curled his tail around the beast’s torso, grabbed the head, and snapped its neck three hundred sixty degrees, killing it. His pupils briefly opened to x shapes as it died. He backflipped away as the corpse thudded limp to the greasy ground.

‘Thank you, Azalyske. We’re clear, Spiral.’ Sayth projected his thoughts to her as his tail and wings retracted. He resumed human form as fluidly as he left it. The battle lasted a mere seven seconds.

From the triangular entryway, she emerged. ‘Your tail blade is the same as theirs,’ Spiral observed. Sayth shrugged.

‘Snakoths are monsters most potent. They move fast as we and the biological weaponry; I would have aided you. A guardian dragon I am as well.’ Spiral raised her voice in his head.

‘Yes, I don’t doubt your abilities, Spiral, but snakoths are special. They carry liquid ghate as poison in their tails. Ghate is literally the step in which a being exits this life and moves to the next. Even their blood holds its essence; a single drop would cause you and entire fields to die. Not that there’s much life left on this moon. That is why I had to snap its neck with great care. Guardians train for years before they’re ready to fight them,’ Sayth explained.

‘Of what had you been hurt? I should have assisted!’ Spiral declared.

‘Don’t worry about me; I’m the best hunter there is.’ Sayth grinned. ‘Now we know what scared Altnexxis away. Let’s see what he was looking for.’

‘Alright, but next encounter, we work together.’ Spiral frowned and followed Sayth into the factory. They’d been seeing each other off and on for a year now in TriCora and Spiral apparently knew better than to pursue a dead end. He was stubborn, but not unreasonable when presented with the appropriate facts.

The complex interior of the factory was in as sad a state as anything else on the moon. Beneath the rust and metal shavings, a blue, green, and dark violet color scheme peered through. A few live wires seemed the only indication of reactivation; they oozed and sparked of electrified gel. Holes in the ceiling, previously melted metal, and faint radiation waves told a story of how the building was destroyed by a ship. Ground troops never entered.

Sayth could barely piece together the facility’s function. Some sort of chemical plant based on mustard-colored stains and broken glass equivalent. Scraps and broken furniture, consoles, three-legged chairs with holes in the back for tails, bottles, knickknacks, whirls, and wires were scattered across the large room.

It was dim and dusty, but their eyes allowed sight in low light. Spiral fiddled with this and that as Sayth had Azalyske scan for energy signatures. The area seemed powered by geothermal energy, a source not present in the small moon’s core. He determined the structure spanned much deeper than it seemed.

‘Were they reptilian, the Lytrik? Heat it seems designed into the light fixtures,’ Spiral asked.

‘Indeed, they were,’ Sayth replied, eyeing a flat triangular bulb that survived in the ceiling corner.

‘Tell me more of them.’

‘Foremost, they’re extinct now. The Lytrik were advanced enough to colonize their solar system and travel the stars. They lived in a monarchy heavily oriented around classes based on breeding. Irritating creatures, off the record, they could be real black holes,’ Sayth explained while Azalyske scanned a layout of the area.

‘Black holes, how?’ Spiral asked.

‘It’s a lot of little things. Hard to explain. You really had to be there. They just, you know. Well, never mind. Scans indicate a chamber directly below us. I’m going to phase through the floor and find a way down,’ Sayth said.

His body became shadowy and transparent as he dropped through the cold metal floor. Deep below, he emerged in a chamber lined with six-meter-tall translucent vats of sky-blue gel. They cast nets of an aquamarine glow over the dark room. A well-concealed laboratory. Unlike the above level, the equipment was intact, although seemingly abandoned in a hurry. He located an elevator with a violet triangular door and had Azalyske send it up. It creaked and scraped through rusted metals.

Seconds later, Spiral exited the returning elevator. ‘Your phasing is quite fantastic of a feat. Can other guardian dragons perform this as well?’

‘No, just me. I’m literally transferring my body partially into another dimension. It’s how I first arrived in TriCora. To avoid slipping through entirely, I can only do it for a few seconds,’ Sayth said, observing the scenery.

‘You intend to gloss that morsel of information over?’ Spiral eyed a bubble in one of the vats.

‘Indeed, I do,’ he replied. ‘The Lytrik weren’t reptiles when they arrived in Earth’s gravitational field. To survive drifting down current in space, they’d transferred their consciousness into a bioelectric gel. It’s a primitive version of how our signature energy remains constant when we change form. Upon arrival, they constructed weapons and mechs from satellites and junk orbiting Earth, which led to war. This appears to be where they conducted conversion experiments.’

‘This is fun! Machines, correct? Tell me more of these constructs and this signature science. As is my understanding, they were not animated like the machanakun of TriCora. I wish to learn all about it! As with this device, a series of semiconductors, correct?’ Spiral asked, examining a panel beside the elevator. She fiddled with it a bit and managed to activate the ceiling lights. They were warm and orange, fitting for cold-blooded creatures.

‘Correct and good work. It’s not easy to activate alien technology,’ Sayth commented.

‘It was no effort. A child could produce such effect,’ Spiral replied, blushing.

‘If that didn’t work, you could always use your sylver to hack it.

‘On the topic of signature sciences, they’re a significantly more advanced and understood version of what you call magic in TriCora. Sorry but it’s true. Essentially viewing the world with the proper signature filter reveals everything is uniquely signed. It works on a level largely untapped here in the dimension of Rainbow’s Wane, except by dragons. Human technology hardly makes use of it besides reading the sacterrian currents. Through signatures, we’re able to recognize the unique energy, spirits, and souls that normally can’t be seen or interacted with. All signatures are visually represented by a color of the spectrum. TriCoran technology works exclusively on this principle. It’s like learning to run before you can walk.

‘Most of the technology in Rainbow’s Wane doesn’t use signatures. Although the Lytrik consciousness transfer is more accurately transferring soul signatures to a medium while in a dormant state. Their machines are powered by electrical gel and cybernetic technology. They efficiently were able to cannibalize the machines of Earth and convert them into their own weapons of war without working on the signature level. That way is significantly easier and less precise, mass-producing weapons rather than treating each as an individual project.

‘It’s all about applying electromagnetism and the principles of engineering to form moving parts. The Lytrik were masters at it. You remember our talks about that, of course.

‘Azalyske, see if you can’t get a lock onto the thermal signature, will you?’

‘Yes, indeed. Fascinating this. Your dimension’s science has developed a level much greater in advancement than ours. Now while you work on that, I wish to explore this treasure trove of alien technology.’ Spiral wandered the hexagonal chamber, periodically glancing at the vats to make sure they hadn’t stirred. The room was clean of dust and noticeably less rusted than the previous. On the violet floor were strips of yellow light running across it at sharp angles. No walls were visible, as the entire exterior was covered by cylindrical vats. The ceiling glowed orange, like the sun, and featured a system of ventilation with pipes and grates.

She examined various instruments and monitors, tubes, and switches. Blue beakers, microscopes with a single large lens, and all manner of cybernetic tools. They were laid out on floating green tables in the center, triangular like everything else. Silence slunk eerily over the chamber, and a faint chemical odor followed.

Meticulously Spiral studied the amazing alien world but an inclination grew in the back of her mind. Facing the bubbling blue gel, her slit pupils opened wide and round. The desire blossomed to the point of distraction and she had to ask, ‘Would it be permissible to dip my tail in the liquid?’

‘Why?’ Sayth asked.

‘If one wants to get a feel for the water, there’s truly no substitute for dipping one’s tail,’ Spiral explained.

‘I wouldn’t,’ Sayth replied, to which Spiral’s elf-like ears drooped. ‘Azalyske indicates this facility is run on suspiciously abundant geothermal energy.’

‘Do you suppose it is to the touch warm?’ Spiral mused.

‘The source isn’t the core but can be pinpointed,’ he continued, entranced inside his glasses’ display.

‘I do wonder if it’s viscous and would cling to my tail. As branches break to snow, then no means I would have of cleaning it,’ Spiral thought, glancing at her twitching tail.

‘A mere three meters down and, um … I’ve lost my train of thought,’ Sayth mumbled.

‘The subterranean power source you were locating,’ Spiral offered.

‘Right, it’s almost directly below us. A crystal not more than a few decimeters long. It’s powering the entire base.

‘You know what? Go ahead and dip your tail. This is obviously a failed experiment. Besides, we’re guardian dragons; nothing will happen to us.’ Sayth looked at Spiral fidgeting with her tail.

She smiled and jumped to the top of the vats. From there, she slowly lowered the tip of her tail blade into the thick blue gel.

‘How is it?’ Sayth asked.

‘Warm.’ Spiral shivered with excitement. ‘When a cub I was, my tail went into everything, hollows, streams, lakes. My sisters and brothers would leap in the water without a care, but always, I dipped my tail. Of times I miss them. But do not let me distract from your investigation.’

‘Right, the crystal. Azalyske drill down and retrieve it.’ A sylver pole extended from Sayth’s hand and bore through the triangle-tiled floor with a buzz. Violet shavings and yellow gel spilled out. Sayth squinted, carefully guiding it down based on readings in his lenses until … a loud cracking and red light bellowed from the ground!

“Svitch!” Sayth jumped up and grabbed Spiral. Instantly Azalyske wrapped around and lined them high above the moon. From space, they watched as a bright red explosion broke apart the moon’s surface sending shock waves and debris hurling toward the stars. In the void, they couldn’t hear the blast but felt it like a tsunami. Chunks of rock and metal flew past them as the red light dispersed. Violet dust rolled across the moon’s surface.

‘I seem to have fractured it,’ Sayth thought.

Spiral nodded nervously, her hair and tail bushy from the shock. They stared at the massive cloud below. Surely, it hid a crater the size of a small country. The concentration of energy in that crystal was unimaginable. It must have been what Altnexxis was after, but why?

They floated in silence, watching the dust spread. It covered half the small moon. Sayth noticed Spiral clung to his chest. He started to embrace her but stopped. She was only with him now because Mr. Rhyme had mistaken them for a couple. They weren’t, and Rhyme was wrong about the universe ending; he’s crazy. Sayth pulled away and straightened his coat, which floated in the barely applicable gravity. ‘Well, we couldn’t have made a worse mess.’

Then, as if cued, Azalyske picked up an alert signal. It was a private line used only to inform him the Earth was in danger; Sayth was the guardian dragon, after all. Details flashed on his glasses.

‘Spiral, I got a call. Mr. Rhyme’s on Earth. Damn it! He has to be there to get to me. An Ogigah like him could be devastating,’ Sayth thought.

‘I understand. Let me aid you. You’ll need help,’ she replied, still shaking from the explosion. Sayth nodded.

Before they departed, he sensed a pure red signature flying through space. He summoned it to his hand, a surviving shard of the crystal he’d punctured. It appeared not unlike a ruby splinter but was glowing and hot to the touch. Out of curiosity, Sayth pocketed it. His dragon scale coat was most certainly fireproof. Azalyske once again lined them across the universe.