The Dragon’s Secret Baby (Secret Babies #1)

CHAPTER 1

Dean

I stared at the image of Kristoff Alpert that I brought up from the memory of my comm glass, promising him as I’d done so many times since his death, I’ll be the leader that you taught me to be. I’ll find a way to get the world out of trouble. It’s all up to me. I won’t let you down.

Whom was it I was really talking to? People, both mine and humans, had given up their beliefs in spirits and the afterlife by the time we left Earth and set out to colonize other worlds. I knew there was no spectral “Kristoff”

out there watching and listening. The man who taught me everything he knew about running the Komodo II colonies now lived only in my memory. In a way, I was talking to myself. The promise that I’d made to Kristoff, I’d really made to me.

I felt the subtle vibration of the slipcar grow still, and I looked up towards the front seat, where Ben and Steve, the two guards, sat and one of them piloted the craft. The car gently came to a hover over the pavement of our destination, and on both sides of the street, local constables held back the gathered crowd of people who had come to see our arrival in Wyvern. It was natural they’d be out here to greet the leaders of the colony, especially after everything that had happened in Hydra.

Stating the obvious, Garret, sitting beside me, announced, “Well, here we are and there’s a good part of the local population.”

Nodding, I smiled and waved to the crowd along with Garret while, according to protocol, the guards got out first. While Garret and I waited, Ben and Steve encouraged everyone to cooperate with the constables and help maintain order—as enthusiastic as everyone was to see us—while my Vice-Councilor got out and got ourselves registered and settled in at the Wyvern Inn. Later, they would escort us across the street to the Wing and Claw Tavern for a bite to eat. Frankly, neither Garret nor I expected we had anything to fear from the people who had turned out for us. None of the public on Komodo II bore us any resentment or animosity. There weren’t any political grudges against us. Those kinds of things, if they happened at all on this colony planet, were always very minor and easily settled matters. They’d always be over as quickly as they started. However, it was still an official protocol that wherever the Colonial leaders went, they had at least two guards as escorts, because one never knew what might happen when we went traveling. Once Ben and Steve gave us the all-clear, Garret and I stepped out from the hovering vehicle and onto the street of the town square of Wyvern, and smiled warmly at the loud cheers and thunderous applause at our appearance.

Again, we waved, and as we did, I turned and got a first look at the surrounding town. The general architecture of Wyvern was vaguely Medieval-looking, in contrast to the space-traveling civilization to which the colony planet Komodo II and all planets of the Solar Union belonged. The buildings were mostly round towers and geometrically shaped buildings that looked wrought of wood, bricks, and quarried stone, though they were of course artificially fabricated out of spun carbon compounds and carbon-ceramic materials. Ivy clung to the walls of some of the buildings. Trees, gardens, and shrubs were planted about the streets, and the sleek vehicles parked along the curbs served as reminders of where we really were and when it really was.

As my eyes moved among the cheering people, they most often rested on the women. I could sense which ones were human. Female humans were my favorites. I had known many and expected to know many more. The same was true of Garret, and for the last several years Garret and I had known our women together. It was the way of many Drakes, much to the satisfaction of those with whom we spent our time. In fact, women commonly sought out Drake males, who were both men and dragons, as partners, and of those, many were more than happy to know the attentions of two or three at a time. There was an old adage that men like me had done much to prove over the centuries. The only thing better than a Drake man is more than one.

Still and all, the company of local women was not why Garret and I had come to Wyvern. Taking in the sights and sounds around me, I had the terrible image of what might at any time come rearing its head over this little community like some mythical dragon from ancient Earth legends, its eyes glowing with evil, its fanged mouth spewing mighty jets and bolts of fire at everything in sight. The reason we were here had appeared in so many places on Komodo II, both settled places with towns and villages, and places in the wilderness. It was huge and hot, a spinning thing filled with menace and destruction. And wherever it went and wherever it touched, charred and smoldering death lay in its wake. Behind my confident smile of leadership, I could see this thing looming over Wyvern, see the panicking crowds and hear their screams. I could see luminous death lancing out from above, things exploding and spinning into blazing shapes that disappeared into the ravenous, attacking force. I could see the huge black clouds of acrid smoke growing taller than the trees. And the darkness and the terrible stillness that would then fall over everything.

The people’s excited faces and cheering voices told me what they were thinking. They saw me not only as the political leader of the planet, but as the hero of Komodo II. They expected me to see to it that what happened in Hydra, the Capital of our world, and in so many other places, would not happen here. They expected me to be the one to make sure that what had struck so many other parts of the planet would not reach out from the sky to blast and blaze the life from Wyvern. I was here to stop the blinding death, and stop the awful night from falling.

And I was every bit determined to do exactly that—for them, and for the memory of the man who’d been my mentor.

Out of the front door of the inn strode a tall, lean, red-haired woman wearing a tight jumpsuit: Hestia Franklin, the Town Councilor, leader of Wyvern. She had been waiting in the inn to come out and make an appearance when our car pulled up. Her face lit up with a welcoming smile, she waved to the crowd and walked over to Garret and me. She shook our hands warmly and told us how proud she was to meet us and how happy the people of Wyvern were to host us. “You showed great courage, great heroism, against the disaster in our Capital,”

she said to me. “You’re a great leader.”

I took the compliment in stride with a simple “thank you”

and told her how beautiful the settlement looked. Hestia Franklin was a human woman, and quite an attractive one herself, though I refrained from bringing that up now. The remark would have felt out of place.

One group of people was allowed to come through the crowd and talk to us directly: the media. News agents from here in Wyvern and from other parts of the planet, as well as floating Newsfeed drones transmitting through hyperspace channels to other planets, were all cleared to come up and ask questions and record answers. The questions came fast and furious.

”Councilor Penrod, what brings you to Wyvern while the rebuilding of Hydra is still in progress after the last energy storm?”

”Do you think there’s a possibility that the next storm will strike here? Are you here to help the people of Wyvern prepare?”

”Will you be discussing safety and readiness measures with the Town Councilor while you’re here, Councilor Penrod?”

Garret and I took the questions as they came at us. “The rebuilding of Hydra is in great hands with architects and engineers back there,”

I said. “We’ll honor those we’ve lost, including my predecessor Kristoff Alpert. And we’ll come back better and stronger.”

”When we meet with the Town Councilor,”

Garret said, “we’ll be going over in detail what happened in Hydra and make sure the public here in Wyvern has no reason to be anxious. Everything will stay under control.”

”We still can’t predict where on the planet, or when, the energy storms will strike,”

I said soberly. But then, with confidence, I added, “every Colonial community on Komodo II has been briefed on how we protected Hydra, and we’ll be making sure everyone knows how to use that information. Our visit here to Wyvern is because this is the nearest major settlement to Hydra and we want our neighbors to be watchful, but not alarmed about what happened to us. We just want everyone to be able to continue with their lives with as little apprehension as possible.”

Our answers seemed to satisfy both the crowd and the media, and the impromptu press conference was over, thankfully, as quickly as it started. Once again I thanked Ms. Franklin for the hospitality of Wyvern and waved to the crowd. Neither my friend nor I was really in a state of mind to give answers—not so long as we were actually here looking for them.

***************

Ben and Steve ushered us inside the Wyvern Inn and got us to the front desk, where the check-in process for us and for the guards who’d be lodged in the room directly across from us went efficiently. Garret and I would be occupying the largest suite at the inn. The place was not designed for dignitaries or high-ranking guests, but our suite was spacious and comfortable, with elegant area rugs, its own fireplace, its own full bath, and two large picture windows at one side. Two dragon-size beds lay in an “L”

formation from each other. One was parallel to the fireplace and faced the big, sturdy wooden table and chair set at the opposite end of the room. That bed was separated off from the other one by a stone partition. The other bed faced the fireplace. We decided that I’d take the fireplace-facing bed.

Once we’d set down our bags, Garret went and pulled up a chair at the table while I sat down at the foot of the bed, and I let out a good long exhale, sounding every bit like a man shouldering the weight of the world.

“This is a pretty looking place,”

Garret remarked. “It’s not the kind of place where you’d expect a secret that could save the world to be.”

Cocking an eyebrow, I said, “I still wish Maurice could have told us more about whatever it is we’re looking for. His sensitivity to energy sources was good for helping the colony find the best places to make settlements. It helped to pinpoint all the best geothermal energy spots. But this ‘energy anomaly’ with an energy flux pattern similar to the storms—it’s not a lot to go on.”

”But it is electromagnetic in nature,”

Garret recalled. “So what we need to find is an electromagnetic anomaly. This town is such a ‘normal’ kind of place that any kind of anomaly here will stand out like a swollen wing. If we look long enough, we’ll find it.”

Slumping my shoulders and rubbing my chin, I half-murmured, “What the hell does an ‘electromagnetic anomaly’ look like?”

”If something is out of place,”

said Garret, “we’ll know it when we see it.”

Nodding slightly, I replied, “We’d just about have to.”

We had a moment of thoughtful quiet. Then I looked up and over at Garret and said, “I’m hungry.”

”So am I,”

Garret replied. Tilting his head at the doorway, he said, “Over to the Wing and Claw, then?”

We got up together. “Call Ben and Steve,”

I said. “Let’s go.”

***************

The Wing and Claw was as cozy, welcoming, and friendly-looking an establishment as you’d ever see. It had brick walls and pillars, a central bar, and an inner kitchen and grill. There was a fireplace as big as the one in our suite across the way. It had dining tables and gaming tables. Amusingly, over in one corner sat a mechanical dragon machine like the mechanical bulls in ancient Western bars on Earth. I guessed that on certain nights, patrons, human and Drake would come in and compete to see who would last longest on the bucking dragon. Those times must be fun, I thought. It was a shame Garret and I were not here for fun and games like that.

When we walked in, led by Ben and Steve, all heads turned in our direction and more greetings were called out. I wondered if perhaps we should have stayed in our suite and ordered something, but Garret reminded me, “No, we’re not here to stay in a suite. The more we get out, the more of a chance we have to find a clue to what we’re looking for.”

I accepted Garret’s reasoning and waved cordially to the patrons of the tavern. At the same time, a smiling brunette with wavy hair and a roundish sort of face and body came out from behind the bar.

”I’m Brenda,”

said the brunette. She motioned us to one corner of the dining area. “Welcome to Wyvern, Mr. Councilor, Mr. Vice Councilor. Let me seat you and I’ll be right with you.”

Brenda led us to our table and stepped away. We all tapped the edges of the table to make the holographic menus appear. It was while we studied the bill of fare at the Wing and Claw that I heard another voice—a woman’s voice that made my spine tingle, among other things, with familiarity.

“Welcome to Wyvern, Dean,”

said the voice.

Garret and the guards were startled to hear me addressed by my first name. I was stunned just to hear that voice—here, now. We all looked up in the direction from which this new greeting came, and sure enough, there she was. Much as I’d easily found the words to talk to the press, my voice completely failed me at the sight of her.

She stood with her hands on her hips, blonde hair falling over her shoulders, a riveting gaze in her sapphire-blue eyes, every curve and contour on that body just the way it had been eight years ago. She hadn’t changed a bit. Neither did my response to the sight of her. The blood rushed where she had always sent it.

”Noelle!”

I blurted, rising to my feet, Garret and our guards doing likewise.

Garret looked from the blonde to me and back again. “Noelle?”

he wondered aloud, before I sensed that he realized there was nothing to wonder about. She was a female, she was human, and we were obviously more than well acquainted.

“I heard you were here,”

said Noelle. “I was busy, so I couldn’t come out to greet you earlier.”

Bewildered, I said, “Busy…?”

”This is my place,”

Noelle said.

”Your…?”

I was startled again. My voice cut off.

“I worked here for a while. Then I won a Colonial Development Grant and took the place over when the last owner retired.”

Garret, subtly looking Noelle up and down and knowing the history we shared, said, “The old Colonial Surplus was put to good use, I guess.”

”Excuse me,”

I cut in, scrambling to remember my manners. “This is…”

Noelle stopped me. “Your Vice-Councilor, Garret Brande, of course.”

”And our guards,”

I motioned to the other two Drakes with us. “Ben Bowden, Steve Rendon. Everyone, this is Noelle Sayers.”

”Nice to meet you, guys,”

she said before returning to the earlier subject. “I’ve done all right, thanks.”

Her hands were still on her hips, eyes moving between Garret and me. She was subtly taking the measure of him the same as he was of her. My measure, Noelle knew as well as it was possible to know.

”Looks like you’ve done very well,”

I replied. “But you mean, you’ve been here all this time, not even a whole day away by car? All this time? Noelle, it’s been eight years.”

There was an edge in her voice now. She set her jaw and her eyes narrowed slightly. “I know exactly how long it’s been, Dean.”

”It’s been eight years of not a word, Noelle,”

I said. “I couldn’t reach you. Your comm codes were all cut off and you didn’t respond to any of my comms. Noelle, if I’d known you were right here, not even a day away, I would have…”

”You would have what?”

she stopped me. “Gone dragon and just come flying over here? Why?”

My memories were now so strong, it felt as if only eight minutes had gone by, not eight years. “You know why.”

I could hear the memories and the pain in my voice, and from the way one corner of that beautiful mouth went crooked, so could Noelle.

“Of course,”

she said. “That’s exactly why. That’s what you were always best at, wasn’t it? That, and learning how to administrate and govern. I was sorry to hear about Kristoff.”

”Thank you,”

I said. “He always liked you.”

”I know,”

replied Noelle, and I caught a note of bitterness in her response. “I always liked him. You weren’t the only one he encouraged, you know. The difference is, I listened to him.”

My heart felt heavy at that. “I know. I should have listened too. After you left, he told me I should look for you, try to make things right.”

”But ‘right’ for you and ‘right’ for me were two different things, weren’t they, Dean?”

Feeling helpless, all I could offer for a response was, “We were kids, Noelle. You think differently about things at that age.”

Noelle frowned, took a deep breath, and took a step closer. A reddish pink hue flushed into her face, a color that came over her in so many of our closest moments together. But it was another feeling that now reddened her beautiful features—a feeling that I could tell had been with her in all the years since we last saw each other.

“Really?”

Noelle said. “That’s funny. You say the years make us think differently, when I’m thinking the same thing now as I thought back then.”

”What’s that?”

I was stupid enough to ask.

Her answer did not come in words. It came in the fast, hard crack of her knuckles across my jaw in a swing that I never saw coming. I felt only the effect of it—the smash of her fist on my face, and the sudden feeling of flying back and down, and landing hard.

My vision was wobbly, but I heard Garret calling out my name in shock, while Steve Rendon said sharply to Noelle, “Stay right there! You’re under arrest for assaulting the Prime Councilor!”