Pathogenesis: A White Warning
Chapter 6
A White Warning
© Searska GreyRaven
_This is part of a rather lengthy series. It has heavy dark horror elements later on. If you aren't a fan of the sci-fi horror genre, move along. If you are under 18 or you shouldn't be looking at this sort of thing, move along. If you have objections to graphic violence and adult themes, move along.
If, however, you love the idea of tentacles, alien parasites, vore, mind control, transformation, and hard-core weirdness...Let me introduce to you -- Pathogenesis!_
(This part includes heavy plot development, some mild violence, and sci-fi weirdness. And dare I say, one of the few truly clean chapters of the series.)
Chira's ears flicked, jangling her many earrings and waking her. She blinked, and belatedly realized that a proximity sensor was beeping. She shook herself, fluffing her fur and untangled herself from the blanket. Logan still slept on the bench across from her, his coveralls tossed haphazardly over the side. Chira's ship was built like a yacht, complete with a working bathing unit, kitchen, and a bedroom in addition to all the luxuries one could want in space. And while her ship had two other guest rooms, neither Logan nor Chira particularly wanted to be alone.
Chira twisted her lips wryly. Nothing had come of it except some friendly cuddling. She wondered if Logan was one of those types. She sighed. It would be such a pity if he was...
The holo-screen was blinking urgently.
"Alright, I'm coming." Chira muttered. "Visual on Prox two." The screen in front of her blinked to an image of a ship approaching from behind. Chira squinted at the image.
"Enlarge." Chira ordered, and the screen shimmered. When the picture stabilized again, Chira examined the approaching ship.
It was like nothing she had ever seen before. It moved with the sinuous grace of a serpent rather than the undeviating line of a warp-powered engine. The ship glinted in the starlight as if its hull had been carved from ice. Giant white wings waved gently against the hull, and the tail of the ship trailed out like a comet behind it. The ship must have already seen Chira's vessel, because it was flying straight for them. She could just make out what appeared to be bright yellow eyes along the sides of the ship's nose. Chira pinged it with her radar.
"How is that possible?" Chira murmured. The returning scans showed the ship to have an organic hull. Not even the cetaceans had completely organic ships, and they had been working at it for decades. Organic material broke down in the cold and radiation-laced void of space. It had long been believed that if the cetaceans couldn't do it, than it couldn't be done.
"How is what possible?" Logan yawned from behind her, pulling on his coveralls. Chira pointed at the screen.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" she asked. Logan rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked at the screen.
"No, I haven't. Looks like a croc ship, but I've never seen a white croc ship before. What is it?" Logan scratched his ear.
"It has an organic hull." Chira said. Before Logan could reply, a growling voice came over the com unit.
"Chiropteran vessel, you are in a restricted zone. You must change course immediately."
Chira bared her teeth at the console. Her wings flared angrily, knocking Logan back a step. She pressed the button to open a channel.
"Approaching ship, identify yourself and your authority to turn away an explorer vessel." Chira replied.
"This is your last warning. Break course, or you will be destroyed." The voice rumbled.
"Fine, they want me to break course, I'll break course." Chira muttered. She plugged herself into the captain's chair and turned off the autopilot with a thought. Logan had just enough time to strap himself in before Chira whipped the ship around. As Chira's sensors locked onto the odd ship, she could have sworn she saw its yellow eyes blink.
"Deactivate your weapons systems or I will do it for you."
"What the Void are you?" Chira demanded.
The ship didn't respond.
"Are you a draconic vessel?" Chira asked. "Because if you are, we have business with the dragons."
"The dragons do not have business with the chiropterans, nor any other who is not draconic. You lie. Leave this place immediately."
Chira snarled. "I am no liar. We have to speak with the dragons, and we are not leaving until we get an audience with them. It's important."
"Nothing is important enough for the draconic clans to break their silence. Now leave. I won't tell you again."
"The existence of the mammalian people depend on us talking to the dragons, you pompous son of a bitch. Now you either let me pass, or tell me who to talk to about a mind-controlling parasite." Chira growled.
"No such thing."
Chira took a deep breath before responding. "It is real, and it's infested several people already. But if the dragons really are ignorant of it, than I guess there isn't any reason for me to be here. And I thought your kind was all-knowing. I should have known it was all just an exaggerated myth." Chira said savagely. She cut off the transmission and began to rev her warp engines. A moment later, she felt a ringing in her ear and grinned. The strange ship was trying to hail her.
"Yes?" Chira asked with a feral grin.
"There is a habitable world ten minutes from here at your maximum warp. I'm sending the coordinates. Meet me there." The transmission abruptly ended, and the white ship flew away with a flick of its shimmering wings. Chira glanced at the coordinates and smiled.
"That could have gone better." Logan commented. Chira laughed.
"My father taught me that when negotiating with someone who has no reason to listen, give them a reason to listen." Chira replied. She tapped in the location and the ship thrust forward.
"How did you know that was a draconic ship?" Logan asked.
"I guessed." Chira replied. Logan didn't reply, but Chira had a feeling he was shaking his head in exasperation.
Ten minutes later, just as the white vessel had said, Chira saw a small world with an acceptable oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, though its surface was covered in ice. It was a moon to a gas giant, and the boiling red clouds contrasted sharply with the frozen moon. Chira followed the last of the directions sent by the white ship and landed. Her ship shuddered and its feet locked onto the icy ground. Chira checked the sensors, but she could find no trace of the white vessel.
Before Chira could do more than unplug herself from the ship, there was a knock on the hull door. Chira looked at Logan and took her blaster out of its pocket in her vest.
"Visual of Prox three." Chira commanded. The screen shimmered, giving her a look at who was knocking on her back door.
It was a dragon. A white dragon, and a small one at that. He was no larger than Logan, and covered in bright, white scales. His wings were neatly folded along his back like sails. There was a large, ivory horn on his nose like a rhino and his powerful forearms were crossed over his scaled chest. Knife-like talons clicked against his scaled hide impatiently.
"I think he wants you to open the door." Logan whispered.
"Let me do the talking." She said with a wink and opened the door a sliver.
"Yes?" Chira said.
"You said you had business with the draconic clans. I will listen, and if I think you are worthy, I will allow you to enter draconic space." The white dragon said. His voice was a throaty growl that reminded Chira of cracking ice. She nodded, and allowed the dragon inside her ship. He looked around, as if appraising the value of her vessel, before turning his attention to Chira.
"Do you have a place to sit and talk?" the dragon asked.
Chira nodded. "This way."
She led the dragon and Logan past her quarters and into a very small kitchen/dining area. She sat down at the small table and gestured for the dragon to sit. Logan lingered in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest and an unreadable expression on his face. The white dragon looked at the chair, and a faint look of disdain crossed his features. But it passed quickly, and the dragon settled down. He wrapped his tail around the chair and set his claws on the table. Chira winced when the talons nicked the plastic.
"Speak, chiropteran, and I will listen." The dragon said, flicking a forked tongue in Chira's direction.
"There's a parasite attacking the mammalian clans. There's nothing in the collective archives about this thing, and we need to know how to stop it. We though the dragons would be our best chance for some answers." Chira said.
"What, exactly, does this parasite do?" he asked.
"It makes a network of roots under the skin and taps into the nervous system. It lodges itself in the reproductive organs and forces the host to breed for it." Chira said. A small crest rose on the dragon's head, and Chira took that for a sign of concern.
"It's only on one planet now that we know of, but we have reason to believe that this thing is being aided by another clan." Chira said. The dragon's crest rose higher. She was reminded of an alarmed cockatoo.
"Who, exactly, do you think is spreading this parasite?" the dragon asked.
"The squids. We think they are infecting their prisoners of war." Chira said. The dragon blinked. He sat still for a long moment before responding.
"This...parasite is known to the dragons. But seeing as this is part of an on-going war that the dragon clans have refused to involve themselves in, I cannot help you." The dragon said. He held up a claw before Chira and Logan could protest.
"I cannot help you because I am only a guardian. The outer reaches of our combined territory are patrolled by both the White Dragon Clan and the Mercury Dragon Clan. The dragons you must seek are much deeper inside draconic territory. The Seat of Elders has changed claws several times since I last opened my wings in my world's sky. I cannot tell you exactly where to go from here. But I can tell you who will know." The white dragon sighed. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his pupil had gone from a dilated circle to a vertical slit.
"The one you seek will not give you your answer easily. He is ancient, and holds an ancient grudge. He is the oldest of the Chromatic Nation, a black dragon. His name, when he was known to your clans, was simply Ebony." The white dragon said.
"We have a star chart of this part of space, but if you could tell us how accurate it is, we may be able to find this Ebony sooner." Chira said. The white dragon nodded and gestured to the door.
"If you have such a map, I would like to see it." He said.
They went back into the bridge and Logan popped the data crystal into the drive. A moment later, a star chart appeared on the screen. The white dragon's eyes slowly dilated again as he looked at the map.
"Here," he said, pointing. "I remember that he loved these swamps, and when he wasn't in the Elder's Council, he was to be found here." Logan made a note of the coordinates.
"Is there anything else we should know?" Chira asked. The white dragon cocked his head to the side in an oddly bird-like motion.
"Only that we haven't seen one of your kind in a very long time. Many things have changed since our two peoples last spoke. Good luck. I do not envy you." The white dragon gave the pair a slight bow and turned to leave.
"Wait!" Chira said. The white dragon paused. "What is your name?"
The white dragon blinked slowly, surprised. "My name? Why do you want to know my name?" he asked.
"Because you helped us, and it's important to me." Chira replied. The white dragon looked at her and broke into a rumbling laugh.
"You couldn't pronounce my name if you tried, chiropteran, but I can give you a close translation. You may call me Vega." He said.
"I'm Chira, and this is Logan." Chira said. Logan nodded.
"You are the first beings I have communed with in over a decade. It saddens me that the first creatures I meet have such grim tidings. I will remember your names, and should I cross paths with another of my kin, I will tell them what we have spoken of. Perhaps, if you cannot convince the Elders of the danger, another dragon could. May Tiamat stand between you and harm, and all the empty places you may walk." Vega opened the door and was gone. Chira glanced outside to watch him go, but Vega had vanished. A few moments later, the massive form of the white dragon ship erupted from the snow and flew away. Chira shook her head. He couldn't possibly have gotten to his ship and powered up the engines so quickly.
Could he?
"That was fast." Logan commented.
"A little too fast." Chira replied, furrowing her brow. "You don't think..."
"Nah, dragons can't really change their size and form. Can they?" Logan asked.
"Never a dull moment." Chira replied with a wry look. "I should send a message to my father. He's going to love this. His daughter is taking his newest luxury space ship on an unauthorized mission through draconic space." She traced a finger along the edge of her captain's earring and gave a resigned sigh.
"Well, there is good news." Logan said, smiling.
"What's that?"
"I'm here to share the blame." Logan said with a wide grin. "And you know how raccoons have a reputation for getting into trouble."
Chira laughed and, having nothing else to say, set a course to the swampy home of Ebony.