Carmody and the Electric Dragon

Evermore Apartment, 10th District, Pan City

“Hi Sarah, welcome home sweetie” called out her mom from the kitchen as she dropped her bags on the living room floor. Her little sister Carrie gave her a brief wave then went back to her game on the datapad, something involving Unicorns and Magical Girls. Sarah flopped down into her usual spot on the lounge, idly wondering if Stanley had ever met any Unicorns. Or Magical Girls.

“Oh Sarah, couldn’t you at least put the bags in your room” her mom said fussily and without waiting for a reply picked up the offending items and took them to her room.

“Thanks mom!” she called out to her retreating back. She turned to her sister, still engrossed in the game. “Where is the Evil One?”

Carrie pointed at her with an index finger, not looking up from her game. “Right there” she added.

Sarah sighed grumpily. “I meant the other Evil One”

“Oh, Brent is at a Scout meeting with dad” Carrie answered. “You’ll be safe for another hour at least”

“Cool. In that case I am going up to the roof garden” she announced. Her mom came into the room and she told her the plan.

“What about unpacking all those dirty clothes from your overnight course?” her mom asked.

“I’ll do it later, promise” Sarah assured her and both mother and daughter recognised this for the outright lie that it was.

“Okay, but remember dinner is in an hour. Have you got your phone?”

Sarah paused halfway to the door and felt for the cold dead lump of plastic and metal that used to be her phone. It was in her pocket as always, so she quickly flashed it at her mom and tucked it away again.

“Sure have” she said, which in one respect was absolutely true.

She walked quickly to the elevators and pushed the Up button. An elevator duly arrived and she got inside, pushing the button for the roof top. As it rose swiftly, she wondered if Stanley was there yet.

It had become a custom for them to meet in the evenings on the roof of her residential tower. The residents had constructed flower gardens, vegetable patches and some patios to sit under for the benefit of all the occupants. As a kind of a cover story, Sarah had taken up gardening so she had a reason to come here at odd hours.

The overseer of the tower resident’s association had been overjoyed to have such a young person join the gardening group. In return for a small two meter by three meter lot in the main garden beds, all Sarah had to do was attend the weekly group meetings.

So far, out of four meetings she was meant to attend she had gone to exactly none. There were a number of messages from Mrs Leong on her phone about this, but since her phone was now ruined that was no longer a problem. At least, that was how Sarah viewed the matter.

Sarah greeted a couple of the other residents who were pottering about in the late afternoon light and went to her designated plot. With a critical eye she examined her struggling cucumbers, lettuce plants and solitary strawberry bush. For some reason, she found that plants did not just grow by themselves. Rather they needed constant watering, weeding and fertilising.

In her view, nature really ought to lift its game. If a plant could not thrive without her constant intervention, surely the whole world was doomed?

“Are the strawberries ready to eat?” asked a deep voice from close by. She turned and regarded her friend Stanley, perched on a concrete wall that shielded the main ventilator stacks for the building.

“Not quite” she admitted. “I had a couple that were nearly ripe, then some rotten bugs ate them. Seriously, we are forty floors above the ground. How does a bug even get up here?”

“It is an enigma” agreed Stanley, nodding his long head sagely. Then he waited, a smile exposing his tooth filled mouth.

“Ah, what’s an enigma?”

Stanley chuckled to himself. “It is a mysterious thing, something difficult to understand”

“Ah, like Eric” Sarah mused aloud. She left her small bedraggled collection of plants and sat with her back to the same wall Stanley was perched on. His long tail wound down and laid on her lap while his head watched over her.

“What is hard to understand about Eric?” her friend asked, his voice soft and gentle in her mind. He purred a little as she carefully stroked his tail, making sure she only moved her hand towards the tip, avoiding the razor sharp barbs on the sides. When you pat a dragon, you need to be careful where you put your hands.

“I still don’t know if he likes me or Carmody” she said. “Or if he likes either of us at all?”

“Hmm” pondered the dragon, small puffs of steam escaping from his nostrils. “You have spent a lot of time with him since he came to the school. Has he not said anything?”

“Not exactly” she replied evasively. There had been that one time in front of her building, but he had said he liked both her and Carmody. That surely did not count!

“Anyway, most of the time we are all together, either in class or at AURA meetings. We never get any time alone”

“I see” Stanley mused. “So you want time alone with Eric so you can declare your feelings for him?”

“Hell no!” she replied. “I just want to know how he feels about me”

“So you want him to like you, but you don’t like him?” Stanley asked for clarification. “Human courtship is very confusing”

“It sure is” Sarah agreed. “At least when you are only twelve going on thirteen. I bet it is heaps easier when you are an adult”

“I am sure of it” agreed Stanley, who thought everything was bound to be easier when you were older.

“Hey Stanley, how do dragons let someone know they are interested in them?”

“Oh, it is very easy” he said, perking up considerably after the talk of complicated human relationships. “There are some differences between the different Clans of Dracoris, but it all comes down to the Dance”

Sarah snorted loudly and Stanley twitched his tail in annoyance.

“Yes, the Courtship Dance” he said frostily. “The dragon locates their intended partner, perhaps offers a suitable gift, then commences the dance. It can be very moving to see a young Dracoris trying to woo their beloved, all the shimmies and wiggles, the tail snaps and head sways. If the Dracoris accepts the proposal then they begin their own dance, the Dance of Agreement”

“Uh-huh” was all Sarah could say at the thought of two dancing dragons getting all horny for each other. “What happens if the one being proposed to isn’t interested”

“Oh, that is easy. They just hold up one foreleg and say ‘No thanks’”

Sarah burst into laughter and Stanley joined her, the sound of her laughter carrying across the rooftop.

“So I just need Eric to dance for me” she said once her giggles had subsided.

“Yes, then you can hold up your hand and tell him ’No thanks””

Sarah snorted again, then fell into a silent contemplation. Her friend looked down at her and wished he could help with this, but it was something she needed to work out for herself.

The girl looked up at her dragon friend, his head dark against the dusky sky. His bright blue eyes met her blue-green ones.

“How does the Dance of Agreement go?”

=====

Curtis Testing Field, Outer Wall, Pan City

Miss Abrams loved to fly. It was the dream of humans since time began to soar and dive through the air like a bird. As a high Grade Levitator she could do all of that and more. Her personal speed, unaugmented or streamlined, had been clocked at over 100 kilometers per hour. She could carry up to sixty three kilograms of additional weight, be that a person or equipment, without significantly reducing her performance.

“You need to go faster” said Jericho-Two in her earpiece and she muttered an unrepeatable reply. She glanced at the airspeed indicator on the heads up display of her helmet, set in the right hand corner of her visor. It said she was currently achieving one hundred and twenty three kilometres per hour.

Like a woman shaped missile she soared without a sound over the broad runway carved into the open countryside. Only the rush of the night air over the streamlined flight suit she wore betrayed her presence, the advanced optical and thermal camouflage system hiding her from all but the closest of inspection.

She reached the end of the runway and looped up into the air, rolling over backwards as she sent herself racing down to the starting point. Lower and lower she willed herself, barely needing to think about using her Ability after so many years. At a scant meter and a half above the centre line painted on the tarmac, she flashed towards Jericho-Two and his research team.

Miss Abrams flew past the team, sending a gust of air through their midst and swirling the white coats of the scientists and engineers.

“Much better, Miss Abrams” Jericho-Two said over the communications link. “You reached one hundred and thirty two kilometers per hour that time. Please land and we will run a diagnostic on the suit”

“Copy that” she replied and circled back, taking it slower this time. When she reached the huddle of men and women alongside their vehicles she slowed and dropped gently onto her feet. Once she had touched down, technicians rushed over to connect diagnostic devices to the access points, making her feel like she was being made into some kind of pin cushion.

The school teacher popped open her helmet and shook her braided hair loose, handing the lightweight helmet to one of the technicians. He smiled at her and she smiled reflexively back, sighing on the inside. If he followed the trend of the other two male and one female technicians so far, he was going to ask her out on date in the near future.

Such was the curse of being an attractive, young woman she knew. With any luck he would not be assigned to her next test run and would forget about asking her.

Jericho-Two walked over to her, his blonde hair standing out in the portable floodlights positioned around the field. She fixed a smile on her face as he got closer and hoped this run would be good enough.

“A new personal best” he declared once he was in earshot. “You have outdone yourself, Miss Abrams”

“How about you call me Sofia?” she asked. “I get enough of being called Miss Abrams at school every day” She looked at the Avatar, only a little shorter than herself, and wondered if he had ever actually dated a regular human. He was kind of handsome, in that aloof and calm way he had.

“Of course, Sofia” Jericho said and clicked his fingers, sending the technicians scurrying away. Once they were alone, in a relative sense, he began walking down the runway. Sofia took the cue and followed him, walking easily in the flight suit despite the small probes sticking out at odd angles from various locations. It was not the first time she had to do this.

“How did you find the flight displays?” he asked her.

Sofia thought for a moment. She would be required to log an extensive report later for the researchers, but Jericho always wanted to hear her immediate impressions, while it was still fresh in her mind.

“The night vision and laser guidance package worked very well. The details are crisp in the display and it is easy to switch modes and overlay them. I felt a little stiffness in the finger controls for the life support though. It took a few seconds longer than I expected to vary the oxygen flow to my helmet”

“Hmm, the finger controls are an unfortunate compromise” he admitted. “The system was originally designed for direct interface with an internal processor”

Sofia laughed softly. “We keep coming back to that, don’t we. But if I had an internal processor, I would lose my ability to be a Levitator. You know those kinds of implants are impossible for an Awakened”

Jericho stopped walking and looked up at the night sky, seeing the drifting clouds cover the face of the waxing moon.

“I always wished I could fly” he said out of the blue. “Unfortunately my very existence is reliant on the processor inside my head”

“You can always use one of the powered flight packs they have for the Emergency Rescue teams” Sofia suggested.

“They are far too noisy and have limited duration in the air” he said flatly. He fixed her with his gaze, shielded even at night behind the dark glasses he always wore. “That is why we are developing these infiltration suits that can operated by Levitators”

Sofia nodded her head. “I know that. Just remember though, I am only helping you test these suits for the very generous amount of money you are paying me. I won’t be some kind of secret agent for your organisation”

Jericho regarded her carefully.

“What secret organisation would that be? I have several of them in operation”

“The one that Eric is part of. The same one you seem to have recruited half of my students into”

“Oh, that one” Jericho replied in his calm manner. “Are you sure you don’t want to join them? They could really do with some adult supervision”