To Slay a Dragon

To Slay a Dragon
Written: 2006
Synopsis: A pair of astronauts find themselves fighting a dragon for all humanity.
----------



The balance shifted. The very eddies and currents of the oceans reversed, and in the center of the Pacific, a gargantuan whirlpool opened up. There was a horrible crack as the sheer force of the water sundered solid rock. Islands were sucked down into the massive horror. The Solomons were the first to go, the Fiji, then Tonga, and the Marianas. Hawaii lasted a second longer, then it too disappeared into the void. Australia sank, and the western part of California snapped off into the abyss. And then, from inside the cataclysm, it rose from the depths. Its blue scales glittered in the light. Its talons flexed, ready to rend and tear. As it cleared the water, it unfurled leathery wings and bellowed forth a terrible roar. The dragon had risen


***
D+0. Space Station ST321
***


Jason McNamath stared down at the destruction. "I told you so," said George.

George had, actually. It had been only twelve days ago when George had said, "If you activate this device, a giant whirlpool will open up in the Atlantic and a long-forgotten dragon will rise from the depths." Admittedly, he had guessed the wrong ocean, but he had still been mostly right.

"You were right. Now what do we do?"

"We fight."


***
D-17 Days. Arcite Laboratories.
***


"Are you sure this will work, Jase?" George and Jason were walking through the long white corridors of the laboratory.

"Of course it will. You've seen the data, why won't you believe me?"

George spoke hesitantly "It's not that I don't believe you, but...."

"But what? We're saving the world, George. We'll be heroes!"

"You and your heroism! You place too much faith in ancient texts. A barely translatable work taken from an ancient pyramid is no basis for a scientific experiment of this magnitude!"

"And why not?" Jason stopped and turned on his friend, "People are dying, George, and this might be able to stop that. Can you stand by and let them suffer when we have the chance to save them? Anyway, what do we have to lose? Earth is a barren wasteland. Everyone's been evacuated for years now, except for people like us."

"I still don't like this, Jason. But let's go ahead."

"Thanks, George. It'll work, trust me on this."


***
D+1 minute. Space Station ST321
***


"We have to evacuate the station. Get to the shuttles," said George.

"Look at it, George! Isn't it magnificent?" Jason stared through the viewpoint in rapture.

"Dammit, Jase, yes, but it's going to kill us! Run!"

"Run... yes.. right..." Jason wrenched his head away from the viewport. "I'm okay. Let's go."


***
D-12 years. Parkway North High School. Earth.
***


"Blast it, nothing works anymore!" Jason punched the air angrily.

"What's wrong, now?" sighed George. People rushed past them in the halls, racing to classrooms like a herd of cattle heading for the slaughter.

"Nobody believes anymore," lamented Jason, "No honour, no courage. No minds. Look at them, George. Watch them in the halls. What's the point to it all?"

"I would like to point out that we are in the halls heading to class as well."

Jason dodged a football player who wasn't paying attention to where he was going. "And that's the worst of it. But it doesn't really matter. It's our last year, we'll get out of here, and then..."

"And then what?"

"I don't know. In the stories, the hero always slays the dragon, gets the girl, and lives happily ever after."

"Sounds good."

"But there are no dragons anymore."


***
D+6 Minutes. Solar System.
***


The two shuttles, white, pristine, and bristling with armaments, blasted away from the space station. Jason toggled a couple dials on the console. A small screen began showing what was happening behind him.

The whirlpool had disappeared, and the dragon was looking about at its new environment. It glanced upward, staring straight into Jason's eyes.

"No! It's a camera! It can't see me!" protested Jason to no one in particular. The dragon leapt upwards, away from earth, with a speed matching the shuttle's. With a single swipe of it's claw, it shredded the space station, barely pausing in its pursuit.

George's voice crackled over Jason's intercomm, "It's following us already. Was that part of the plan?"

Jason keyed his own transmitter. "No, but we can deal with it. We'll lose it in the asteroid belt. Switching to manual controls."


***
D-5 Days. Arcite Laboratories
***


"You don't care, do you?" asked George.

Jason screwed a bolt on the gigantic contraption. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You don't care if this summons a dragon. You just want to kill one. You've always wanted too."

Jason tightened the bolt a few more times than was absolutely necessary. "Listen to me!"

"This will work," exploded Jason "Dragons don't exist, dammit!" he hurled his wrench across the room where it hit the wall with a smash. "Stop talking nonsense! Get to work!"


***
D+8 Minutes. The Asteroid Belt
***


"You sure about this?" said George, "Flying into the Belt on manual? You're crazy"

"It'd have to be crazy to follow us," replied Jason with a smile.

"Always Star Wars quotes with you, isn't it? But this is different! Our lives are at stake!"

"Got a better idea?"

"No, but -"

"Then stop arguing. Here goes nothing."

Jason guided his shuttle into the ring of rocks. Weaving and twisting, he dodged the space debris. Checking the monitor, he saw the dragon behind him smashing though the rocks. He glanced up just in time to yank the ship out of an asteroid's path. He dove down under another rock but found himself trapped between three more. He pulled a trigger, sending a pair of missile shooting from the craft's wingtips. The front asteroid exploded in a shower of fragments and Jason flew through the cataclysm. Shooting out of the flames, he saw no more rocks. He had cleared the belt. He keyed the transmitter.

"I'm clear, George. You alright?"

George's voice came through clearly. "I'm green. You look a bit singed. Are you stable?"

"I'm ok. Lemme see, engines are down to 99.7%... nothing that bad. Looks like the rocks at least slowed it down a bit. Let's keep to the plan."


***
D-3 Days. Arcite Laboratories.
***


Jason and George sat at a small table. George had an ancient-looking book in front of him.

"I agree," said Jason, "that we should be prepared for all eventualities. I still think you're crazy, mind you, but better safe then sorry."

"Alright. It seems that the monster gets bigger with each summoning. The first summoning occurring almost 8,000 years ago in Albion." said George, looking at the book.

"And how did they kill it?"

"Actually, they didn't. It was so small and mostly harmless so they left in the local lake. The next one, the one using the book we are, was in the time of Narmer in Egypt. It seems they hurled rocks at it until it fled."

"Right. This is helpful. If I ever meet a dragon, I'll be sure to remember 'throw rocks at it.'" said Jason sarcastically.

George glared at him. "The most recent was almost 2000 years ago, in Nicomedia. That one they stabbed with a lance, and tamed it before killing it."

"That sounds a bit more effective. So what will we do?"

"That's the problem," said George, "The dragon seems to grow exponentially with each summoning. If my calculations are correct, our dragon will be the size of Australia."

"Australia," echoed Jason. "Well, we can still throw rocks at it. Not likely to miss a target that big," he joked

"That's my idea." said George seriously, "We just need bigger rocks. Something almost planet-sized."

"Like Pluto?"

"Exactly. If my theory is correct, that will cause it to revert to the next smallest size, and then our missile launchers can easily take care of it."

"Works for me. Of course, you're still crazy."


***
D+18 Minutes. Pluto.
***


"It's starting to catch up again," muttered George.

"S'okay, we can make it. Say, how does it breathe in space?"

"I don't know, it's a magic, I guess. Ask me later when I'm not frightened for my life."

The two shuttles maneuvered to the dark side of the dwarf planet as the dragon closed.

"Almost there...." muttered Jason, "almost there...."

"Hey!" say George, "What'd I say about quoting Star Wars?"

"Oh yeah. Fire!" Jason reached over a pulled an exceptionally large lever. Metal doors slid apart on the underside of the shuttle and a gigantic missile was lowered out on a crane. Then, jets ignited and it flew away into Pluto. George's shuttle did the same, and the two projectiles hit simultaneously.

The explosion shredded off half of Pluto. Knocked askance from its orbit, Pluto hurtled sunwards, straight into the dragon. The monstrous beast bellowed in anger as it tumbled head over heels. Waves of energy coursed over it as it began to shrink.

Jason pulled the trigger as fast as he could, sending missile after missile into the magical reptile, creating a series of silent explosions until he was out of ammo.

"You think we got him?" he asked.

The smoke cleared, and two yellow eyes stared at him through the viewport.

"I guess not," said George, "It is smaller, though."

It was true; the dragon was only about the small size as one of the shuttles now.

"I'm out of weapons," said Jason.

"Me too," echoed George.

There was silence. Neither spoke, and the dragon continued to stare. Then the dragon exiled a gout of flame.

Jason slammed on the thrusters and dodged, as did George. "Move back sunward!" yelled Jason, "We have to lose it!"


***
D-5 Minutes. Space Station ST321
***


"This is it," said Jason, "the day the galaxy will rejoice!"

"Or the day the galaxy trembles in fear," muttered George.

"This will convert the nuclear-blasted Earth back into fresh farmland to feed the hungry!"

"Or awaken a dragon that will kill us all," said George, "Are you sure about this?"

"Of course." Jason pressed the button.


***
D+26 Minutes. Near Earth.
***


The two rockets cleared the belt and blew past Mars with the dragon right on their tail.

"What'll we do now?" yelled George over the communicator.

"Slingshot around the sun and head for Alpha Centauri for backup!" shouted Jason.

"The dragon's too close, it'll catch us!"

"Who said anything about us? I'll hold it off!" Jason began to turn his shuttle around.

"No! You'll be killed!" yelled George.

"Then I'll see you in hell!"

"Quoting Star Wars to the end," whispered George, "Good bye, Jason."

George watched on his monitor as Jason's shuttle blew past the dragon. The creature stopped and turned around. Jason tried to go past it again, but the dragon's talon tore the shuttle clean in half. George shook his head, slowly, and began to make the calculations for the slingshot.


***
D-12 Years. Parkway North High School. Earth.
***


"How can you make a name for yourself?" aksed Jason over lunch. The commons was crowded, and the dull roar of countless converstaions occuring simultaneously almost drowned out his words, "You can't go into politics without being a hypocrite, and you can't go into sports or movies without having your life scrutinized by random people and haivng every flaw blown out of proportion."

"Yeah, that's a problem, isn't it?" agreed George.

"It's not like the good old days," said Jason, "When all you had to do was slay a dragon."


***
D+27 Minutes. Wreckage of ST321.
***


All you have to do is slay a dragon. Jason woke up. It was cold in space. The dragon had torn through his ship, but he had managed to get suited up just before it decompressed. His checked his a gauge on his wrist. He had two hours worth of air.

Looking around, he noted he was in a floating scrappile. A nearby spar said ST321 on the side, and he realized he was in the wreckage of the space station. The broken spar, he noted, was rather pointy on one end. It couldn't actually work, could it?

"Hey dragon!" he yelled. He knew there was no sound in space, but the dragon was a magical being and Jason had the feeling it could hear him anyway.

It did. The beast turned and stared at the floating human. Hunger glinted in repitlian eyes as it moved in for the kill.

Jason pushed off a piece of debris as a gout of flame rushed past him. A talon swipe just missed his head, and he lunged out with his spar. The sharpened debris plunged into the dragon's chest.
White energy shot out from the point of impact and spread across the dragon. The beast began to glow, brighter than the stars, brighter then the sun. Jason shielded his eyes with one hand, but kept holding the spar. Then the dragon collapsed in on itself, massing at the spar's point into it was just a ball of light. Then it leaped away. Jason dropped the spar.

It hit the Earth's atmosphere and dispersed across it, falling down on the forsaken planet. Brown continents began to turn green. The ocean spat forth fallen islands, and those two grew lush with life. The polluted waters turned a bright shade of blue. The Earth was alive again.


***
D+6 Days. Alpha Cenaturi Colony New St. Louis.
***


"You were right, Jason. It worked," said George, "And you killed the dragon too!"

"Slew," said Jason, "You slay dragons."

"Whatever, you're a hero now, Jason!"

"I guess I'll live happily ever after now, then, huh?"

"Well..." said George, "That's the thing. Seems everyone in the area with a monster problem
wants the "Dragon-Slayer" to come help them."

"Figures. At least life is a bit more interesting now."


***
D+7 Days. Earth.
***


It awoke in the water. Fish swam in small circles around its head, and it snatched one in its powerful jaws. Bones snapped as the flippered denizen disappeared into an unnatural maw. It recalled, in its tiny brain, a vague image of two white fish that had hurt, and there had been another thing, something small. This thoughts quickly dwindled away, replaced by a more vital concept. Hungry. It swam after another fish.