Ender's Egg, Chapter 1

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Deviation Actions

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 I COULD NOT SUBMIT THIS THE NORMAL WAY. SO I AM PUTTING IT IN THIS WAY INSTEAD. I HOPE IT ISN"T TOO BIG.

  “Space… The wonder of man since the fall of the first night. That night, over a millennia ago, when man first saw its darkness and depth, when the first wish was made on a meteor, when man became one with the universe. That wish, the wish to go to space, and to soar like the birds, changed the course of the future forrrreeeevvveerrrr…….” The movie whined to a stop as the power on the large space cruiser went out. Large generators coughed and sputtered, before roaring to life. Sirens blared and men ran to their battle stations. In his room though, Ender lay in his chair, in a deep sleep. His half man, half dragon body slumped in the chair. He did not stir at the alarms, at the calls for reinforcements, or even at the whistle-crump of a high power particle beam being fired into the door lock.
Men rushed into the room and dragged Ender to his feet.
“Huh… What? Hey! Who are you?!” He yelled out, and then suddenly he was again asleep. The injection into his arm would normally keep him out for two hours. Plenty of time to move him over to the next ship. The two men carried him out into the hall and tossed him onto a cart, which trundled along towards the docking port at a command from one of the imperial soldiers. 
The cart passed many scenes on its path, an anthro fox fighting two of the armored imperials. Two droids falling to the floor as they were blasted with intense waves of power from an EMP gun. Two imperials were tossed out of a room by a growling, fur-covered beast known as a Yazik. It stood 8 feet tall and was covered with dull green fur. Two red eyes glowing from the thick matted fur completed the appearance. Two more men quickly subdued the Yazik with a tranquilizer gun. It fell to the floor and was tossed onto the cart.
And so it went. The loud whistle-crumps of blasters, the yells and shouts of the rebel crew as they were overpowered by the cruel efficiency of the imperials.
Ender woke with a start. He was still on the cart. Though the drug had indeed worked, his body produced chemicals that fought the drug. It helped him now. He staid low on the cart, until he came to the still unbothered section of the ship where he had hidden his dragon egg. He jumped up, looked around, and then dove into the room as the door opened. He closed it behind him a second too late. A guard had seen him, and was at the door in seconds. He jammed the door and then ripped up a panel of the floor. Outside, the soft purr of a charging power cell became louder.
Ender reached down into the hole had had made, grabbed the egg, and held it close. Then, at the command from outside to open the door, he did so. There was no hope of getting away, but maybe, if he gave himself up, then at least the egg would survive to hatch someday. Unless, of course, one of the men reached out to grab the egg. Then he would kill them all. Four guards stood outside the door, blasters leveled at his head. Ender slowly strode out of the room, the egg held firmly against his chest. An imperial reached out to grab it, and Ender, swung his tail around, stabbing the man through the heart with its barbed tip. Two of the other guards let off a shot each from their rifles, but the great bolts of light bounced harmlessly off his sides, flying back to and and striking the imperials who had fired. The other guard, realizing his position, turned and ran.
Ender growled deep in his throat and then tore off in another direction. Though the blasts had not done much damage to his scales, they had still burned, and the scales around his legs were stiffening. His run became a straggling jog as he reached the bank of escape pods. The first three were gone, blasted away by lasers, but the fourth was still there. Ender climbed inside, closed the door, and punched the ignition button. The pod’s engines fired, blasting the tiny craft away from the captured ship.
The craft was small, only about 15 feet long, and had two sets of two wings. Two near the middle, and two near the back, with one vertical wing between the back wings. Small fins on these wings made the craft maneuverable in the denser atmospheres of E-type and J-type planets. It was powered in space by four side mounted Ion engines. In an atmosphere, or in the thicker strands of space around the edges of the universe, two rear-mounted rocket engines were used. The craft also had four wing mounted and two nose mounted laser cannons, and underneath was an Ion Cannon. The Ion Cannon would fry the electrical instruments of anything that the orb of power hit.
Ender flipped on the cloaking device, which made the craft both visibly and radar invisible. He took the controls, punched the throttle, and sped away from the two craft. After they were only two distant dots in space Ender sighed in relief. He flexed his wings, stretched his arms, and then found the medical kit. He applied some scale relaxor to his legs and then wrapped the damaged scales in gauze. Then he looked down at the egg.
It was soft gold in color, with green and blue tints. The egg had been a present from his captain for doing such a good job on the ship’s defense systems. And now I am on the run from my job. He thought to himself. Then he shook his head. He had been told to guard the egg with his life. That was what he was doing. He did not know what species the dragon would be, or what gender, all the captain had said was that the hatchling the came from it would help to end the war, one way or another. The captain had never told him how to take care of it, or how to make it hatch, that was a mystery left for him, but he decided that heating the egg would work, and so he had began work on an incubator for it. He had put it in a storage cube.
A storage cube would take any amount of matter and compact it down into a singularity that you could cary in your pocket…. My pocket… Ender thought, and suddenly he was reaching into his back pocket for the small cube. He was amazed that it had not broken, and even more amazed, to find that, while digging for the storage cube, he had found half a K-ration bar. It was a food supplement that, though it did not taste all that great, could last him months. He took a small nibble of it and instantly felt the warm feeling of the rehydrating meal fill his stomach. He rubbed his belly softly and then activated the auto-pilot. He turned the storage cube on and scrolled down on the holographic screen until he found the incubator. He pressed the accept button and the small machine materialized in front of him, along with the bag of parts and tools he needed. As he began to work on the incubator, the warm feeling of the scale relaxant began to sink in. It was a long process though, for he took time to double and triple check every part and wire. After only a half-hour, he put the incubator back into the cube, set computer coordinates for the distant planet of Begak, the center of the rebel alliance, and pulled back the hyperdrive lever.
As the engines whined and the blue phosphorescent glow surrounded the craft, Ender leaned back and closed his eyes. The stars became hyphens, and then long streaks as his craft raced the very photons it hid from, and then leapt into hyperspace. The trip would take about 7 hours, and he intended to get all the rest he could. With a last glance at the controls and the strange, mutated shapes of hyperspace, he rolled over, pulled the army grade space blanket over his body, and fell asleep.
It was a fitful sleep; he was awakened twice as the army cloth snagged on his gauze wrappings. He would then sit for then minutes, un-wrapping and re-wrapping his legs. In the end, after the third time, he sighed and put the blanket away. He only had half an hour left in Hyperspace, and it would only take a few minutes to get permission and land on the rebel planet…
The space battle had long since ended, and, strangely enough, it was a rebel victory. A new recruit, only a year in the alliance, had been mortally shot in the arm, and he wasn’t going to survive the wound without medical help, but he had limped his way down to the gun room, manned one of the ion cannons, and fired it full power into the cockpit of the imperial destroyer. The bridge was blown to pieces as the huge orb of electricity hit it, and every circuit in the ship was fried. Without communications, the battle droids sent into the ship shut down, and this left the human imperials nearly helpless. It had only taken five minutes from the time of the cannon fire for the rebels to capture the last imperial sent aboard.
An Avor, avian in form but human in resemblance, had found the Anthro fox in the gun deck and, though the wound was so bad, he had survived until now. The Avor knew many different medical remedies, being a doctor. She had a field ready in moments, and by the time it had charged up, she had her operating tools ready. The Anthro fox was light, and the Avor lifted him into the field. She set up an IV and inserted the needle into his arm. The sedative worked quickly, and she was able to tie off the damaged blood vessels and muscles, zap the wound with an anti-bacterial ray and pull it together with biodegradable staples.
After only five minutes of being found, the Anthro fox was being helped to his feet, the wound in his arm covered in synthetic skin. His fur had been scorched around the wound, and it would not grow back. While the Anthro fox and the Avor made their way back up through the ship, others were helping the wounded, cleaning away the dead bodies, and looting the imperial ship for supplies and information.
It was a well known lesson that war was cruel, and that many people would die in it, but nobody was able to explain the disappearance of Ender. They had searched both ships and come up with nothing, other then the three dead guards outside the storage room. The guard that had been stabbed tested positive for Ender’s DNA, but he was nowhere to be found. During the attack 3 of the escape pods had been destroyed before they could help anybody, but the fourth had received a launch signal.
From the Imperial vessel the rebel crew got hold of repair parts for the weapons systems and engines. They also got extra supplies, power cells for blasters, and explosives. The most important thing that was taken though, was not a weapon, not in the normal sense anyways. It was a data chip that had the Imperial code radio frequencies. The rebels could now tap radio transmissions from Imperial ships, and break messages that they received.
Meanwhile, back aboard Ender’s escape pod, he was currently in contact with the rebel force’s landing center.
“This is Dragon 1 to base, I repeat this is Dragon 1 to base requesting landing pattern. Over”
“Base one to Dragon 1, what is your pin number and security clearance? Over”
“Pin number is 22548071. Security clearance alpha. Over.”
“Roger Dragon 1. Cleared for landing on runway 5. I repeat, Cleared to land on runway 5. Over.”
“Thank you ground control. Over.” Ender put the radio down and took the controls, turning his craft into a sharp dive to enter the atmosphere quickly. As he descended into the atmosphere two patrol craft joined him, on on each side. They guided him down to the runway, which was one of many at the rebel base. Ender deployed the landing gear on his craft and got ready to pull the throttle back when a loud alarm went off in the cockpit. The gear had stuck halfway down. Ender growled in frustration and pressed the button again… With a grinding thunk the gear fell off completely, smashing to pieces when they hit the ground. Ender immediately pulled up away from his approach and took the radio again.
“Dragon 1 to ground control, I have lost my landing gear. Get a safety crew out here, I am going to belly land it. Over.”
“Ground control to Dragon 1, Stand by until crews are in place. Over.”
Throughout the hangers and base alarms began to blare. Emergency crews rushed to get equipment and fire gear. Ender pulled out of his climb and pulled away from the runway, so that he could come in at a slower rate. The two Patrol craft pulled away, waving their wings in a salute. As Ender went to wave back, another alarm began to go off in his craft; the fuel tanks were empty. Ender roared in frustration this time. The gear must have torn the fuel lines when they ripped off.
“Dragon one to Ground control, Mayday mayday mayday. Fuel is out, coming in for emergency landing now. Over.”
“Emergency crews are in position Ender. Bring it in nice and easy.”
Ender could see the crews frantically spraying fire resistant foam on the runway. Ignoring the alarms, he pushed his craft into a slight dive, trying to gain some energy so that he could make it to the runway. Otherwise there was a 50 foot cliff at this end, which was not at all soft. 500 yards till he was clear, and airspeed was dropping fast. Ender did not bother to deploy the flaps, knowing this would only slow him further. 300 yards now, and the craft seemed to not be moving at all. 200 yards… 100… 50 yards now… Ender pulled back on the controls and closed his eyes. With a great jerk his craft’s tail snagged a power line at the end of the runway, which slowed the craft even more. Letting go of the controls, Ender covered his head and wrapped the egg in his wings.
With a large thud and the scream of metal tearing against the ground the craft touched down. The left wing bent back and one of the engines was torn open, so that coolant and parts went flying through the air. The craft ground to a stop and Ender looked around. Suddenly he knew something was wrong. Heat was building up quickly around him. Grabbing his bag of stuff and then egg, Ender reached down and pulled the ejection lever. The cockpit was blasted off the craft and Ender’s chair was rocketed out and away by the rockets under his seat. A parachute popped out from the back of the seat and Ender brought it down away from the craft as emergency vehicles rushed to the  scene to put out the now roaring fire erupting from the engines. A medical team rushed over to Ender and helped him out of his chute. He stood up and swayed momentarily before blood could get back to his head, since the G-forces of the parachute ejection had caused all his blood to rush downwards. One of the medics grabbed his arm and made him lay down on a stretcher. Ender groaned as he bent his legs and back to do so. Then everything went black….
Ender woke a few hours later in the base’s state of the art hospital wing, with an IV in his right arm. The bluntness of the light radiation hitting his snout from overhead meant that it must be night, and the lights were turned down. He raised his head a few inches and tried to look around, but something was covering his eyes and head. As he tried to move though, a nurse bustled over. She  was an Avor like the one on the rebel ship, though not as tall. Taking a wet cloth from the tray next to Ender’s bed, she pressed it to his face, and the molecular change caused the wrappings over his eyes to disintegrate. The bandages around his head staid firmly in place however, and judging by the feel of things, he had had part of his skull regrown.
“Ender? You all there?” The Avor asked. Ender saw that the name tag on her vest said ‘Luna’.
“I-I think so..” Ender mumbled. His throat was dry, and it seemed as though he had bit his tongue in the crash, for there was an aftertaste of blood in his mouth. Luna reached over to the tray again and picked up a cup of water. She pressed it to his lips, and Ender drank, feeling it restore his throat to normal. After drinking about half the cup he rested his head back on his pillow.
“What happened Ender? You were supposed to be on the Galactica. How did you end up here?” Luna asked as she adjusted the IV and turned the heat up on the bed field just a bit.
“Imperials happened.” He growled softly at the word. “They knew that we would be there. I don’t know how, but they knew. They were waiting for us when we pulled out of Warp at sector 20356 Bravo.”
Luna turned a knob on the side of the bed to let it contour more with Ender’s body. “Alright Ender. Get some rest now, and then you can go tell the commander what happened. Don’t worry about the egg or anything either. It is all right here.” She patted the tray, and Ender saw the egg laying on it. With a small nod he accepted the pill that Luna was holding out to him, and after taking it, entered into a deep, restful sleep that lasted a few hours.
“I don’t understand it much better then you do Ender. How would they know where we were?” The commander asked. He sat back down in his chair and put his hand on his chin. “All of our transmissions are coded, and encrypted with keys that only a rebel would have.”
“Perhaps, sir, one of our outer cells have been captured? We have not heard from Sector 2807 Alpha in over three weeks now.” Ender replied, looking into the commander’s eyes.
“It is possible… We will have to send out a scout craft to search the area. In the mean time, how are you getting along with that egg?”
“Well sir. I would be doing better if I knew how to hatch it. Right now I am trying to make an incubator for it, but I don’t know if it will work. I also don’t know what species it is. Food should not be too much of an issue, but I don’t want to have a dragon that is going to stand 25 feet tall fully grown stuck on a ship.”
“No. No I guess not. For right now I guess all you can do is try to incubate it. Once it hatches we can find out what species it is and decide where to go from there.”
“Sir?”
“Yes Ender?”
“Sir, thank you again for the egg. But why did you pick me?”
“I picked you Ender, because you are part dragon yourself, and your more dragonish instincts should take over when it is time. I trust you Ender, and I know that this was a good decision. Nothing would make me happier then to see this wish come true. Besides Ender, you are the only one here that wanted anything to do with dragons, and had any background in taming them.”
“Yes sir. That is just what I was about to ask. How will I tame my dragon and do my duties at the same time? It has been a hard month already, and I can’t stop going out there to stay and tame a dragon.”
“There is a way Ender, and I know you will figure it out. You always followed orders to their best extent, so I am ordering you to hatch the egg and tame this dragon, secondary to battle actions, but just as important. Nothing more about it for the moment. How are you feeling? You took a hard hit in that crash.”
“Better sir. It still hurts a bit around the joints, but nothing I can’t deal with. Those scales will take some time to grow though. They were fused together from the laser blasts on the ship. By the way, how did we win that?”
“From the report I got, one of the men got down to the cannon bay and fired the Ions into the bridge of the Imperial ship. The bridge was completely blown apart and every wire in the ship had been fried. The battle droids shut down and our crew was able to clean up the rest of the live crew. One of the things that we got back through the report was our new weapon. They found a com-log with the encryption codes and transmission frequencies of the Imperial fleet, so we can track all their movements. Unfortunately, our radio dishes and receiving antennas are not able to use the huge frequencies that the Imperials are using. Our men are working on better equipment and other parts they got from the Imperial flag ship. We can get it working, but it will take time. For now, we still don’t know what they are doing.” 
“Okay. Well, now we know how to attack them as well. It seems like the bridge shields are too weak for a full side on attack with the Ion cannons. If we can train our crews to position the ships that way, we could win more of these battles, and it would be less strain along the entire work force.”
“You reason well Ender, but we already have the men on it. They are running through it in the simulators.”
“Good. The more practice we have with that, the better for our crews. I suppose they got the shield frequencies for the Imperial ships as well?”
“Yes, that is another thing we recovered. The men are setting the Ion cannons on our ships to pass through those frequencies. With luck, we should be able to knock out their shield generators with the Ion cannons and then be able to use the lasers to stave them off. We are not sure if it will work yet, but that is part of the simulation that the men are setting up for our crews.”
“Alright then. Is there anything else sir?”
“Not for now, Ender. Just keep that egg safe….”
“Yes sir. Thank you sir.”
As Ender turned and left the office his mind began to wander back to the incubator. He felt that it would work, but there was a new problem. How was he going to power it? After thinking about it on the way back to his room, Ender decided that he would have to build a transformer to bring the power from the phased panels in the walls down to a safe amount to heat the egg at the correct rate. He would also need a quick-start backup generator if the power was to go out, and it would have to contain a phased ground jack and an EMP shield. That would take a few extra hours or so, but he could do it.
Reaching his room, Ender put in his security code and entered it, closing the door tightly behind himself. Then he went over to his workbench, picked up his storage cube, and took the parts he would need to finish the Incubator and its power supply. He used his multi-tool to screw two induction heating plates into the machine and then to connect the wires with a solder. He put on a power switch and a temperature control. Setting the completed incubator aside, Ender took out some wires and an iron core from a transformer he had taken apart a few weeks earlier, and began to wrap the wires around it. Then he added the other important components; resistors, power leads, capacitors, and a small circuit board intended to become cold when current flowed through it, so that the transformer would not overheat. He attached two of the power leads to the incubator, and attached the other two to a set of phased power jacks. Setting this entire construction on the table in one piece, Ender pulled on his gloves and threw the switch on the incubator. The lights in Ender’s room dimmed for a moment at the sudden power draw, but they quickly resumed their normal brightness, and when nothing started to smoke, Ender felt relieved. His set up worked. Holding his hand over the heating plates, he could already feel the heat that would soon be heating the egg.
Now Ender began to search for parts to make a backup generator. He had nearly everything; magnets, copper wire, phased jacks, a harmonics power crystal to amplify the signal, a small electric motor that could run itself indefinitely once it had begun to turn, and still turn the generator, and a capacitor. The only thing he didn’t have was the automatic starter that would turn the generator on when the power failed. So Ender turned the incubator off, exited his room, and proceeded down to the equipment bay, bringing the parts he had and some credits incase he needed to pay for the switch.
Two floors down, a female voice called out behind him. “Hey, hey Ender!” Turning, Ender’s heart leapt for joy. It was Juli, his girlfriend. 
“Hi Juli.” Ender said, his tail wagging slightly. “How did you ever get time off with all that medical research?”
“Oh please Ender. You know I haven’t had anything to do for the past month now. The new discovery of  the Munis plant has healed every sickness we have put it to.” Juli replied, crossing her arms slightly, and looking at Ender in a way that made it seem she was seeing right through him. “But what are you doing down here anyways? I thought you didn’t like needles?”
Ender smirked softly and leaned against the wall. “I didn’t come down to get a shot, or anything like that. I am heading to the salvaging plant. I need a field converter automatic double-pull single-throw for a backup generator.”
“Can you say that again, in English?”
“I need a switch that will automatically turn a generator on if the power fails.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place? I have a spare one from that medical droid I built last year. You can have it.”
“Really? Well then. This will save…” Ender began, but Juli interrupted him.
“If you can come clean out my lab space… You left your laser display down there and it came on and set half my stuff on fire. So you get to repair the equipment..”
“It… It did?” Asked Ender, feeling his high spirits plummet.
“Yes.” Juli replied scathingly. “I had just finished an experiment on a new antibiotic too, and now it has been fried.”
Ender sensed danger in her voice. “Okay, okay. I will go fix it.” He said hurriedly, trying to keep her under control. The last time she had gotten this mad at him, he had spent the next few days in the infirmary, recovering from acid burns, and he felt no pleasure at the though of those fangs in her skull spraying him again. He put his cube away and hurried down the hall to her laboratory, dodging a mail droid and two nurses on the way. When he reached the lab he ducked down and approached the laser set at countertop height. When he reached it, Ender snuck his hands up around the back of the device and found the power switch, which he turned to the off position. The lasers powered down, and Ender stood up, looking around at the wreck that had been part the medical research facility. The walls were turned black and scorched where the lasers had burnt into them, and there was a beaker set on the counter in which an ugly green solution was boiling… and the machine taking readings on it was chirping a positive with every tube… 
“What?... How?” Juli mumbled, pressing a button on the machine to run a new scan. It took about ten seconds, and after it was over the machine chirped another positive.
Ender did not notice, he was trying to move the laser equipment out of the way to demolish.
“Ender.” Juli called. “Ender! Come here! Leave that alone.”
“What now?” He mumbled, fearing an acid attack.
“Ender… Your laser boiled the solution and changed the compound… It is positive.. The antibiotic is clear.” Juli sounded stunned, amazed. Ender looked at the sample and then recoiled away, pulling Juli with him. This was because Ender’s extra sensitive nostrils could not take the scent of the liquid. It smelled awful, like rotten eggs and ozone.
“Ugh…. Somebody get me a gas mask…” Ender groaned, gagging and leaning against a wall across the lab. Juli shook her head and went back over to the testing machine, putting corks into the tubes to stop the scan and seal the smell inside. Juli herself disliked the smell, but she had learned to ignore it. Ender though, continued to gag until the air refreshment system was able to clear the room out.
“I.. I wouldn’t take that to save my life… Even with an injection. Phew.” Ender mumbled when he was able to breath again.
“Well well well… Our brave little hero crash lands his spacecraft on the runway, completely ruining the plane, but he  won’t take a little shot? How depressing.” Juli teased, extracting some of the liquid into a syringe and turning to Ender with it, who recoiled at the sight and cringed away from the needle.
“Please… No…. No needles.” He whimpered, shivering at the sight of it.
“Oh come now… You won’t feel this a bit.” Juli replied, coming closer. Ender was trapped in the corner, unable to get away…
“Ender?... Ender… I know you can here me.”
Ender’s head ached, and his limbs felt like lead. His eyes creaked open, and he moaned. Somebody was kneeling next to him, pressing what seemed to be a cup into his hand. The scent was of peppermint, and Ender’s senses cleared instantly. He sat up and shook his head.
“Yeah… Sorry about that.” Juli mumbled. “I guess it was too much. You are safe from that virus now…. But it also knocked you out.”
Ender shook his head again, smirking. “Oh ho… Our lead biological scientist can’t even properly ration out the injections she gives.”
“Very funny..” Juli muttered, tossing the syringe into a bio-hazard container. “We need some way to dilute the solution. We can’t have everybody who takes this stuff start collapsing afterwards. Too much of a health risk.”
“Why do I have to be your guinea pig for this?” Ender muttered, getting up and holding the back of his head.
“Because your blood is an effective natural anti-venom. You can’t be poisoned.” Juli replied, putting the chemical sample in a centrifuge to spin it out and see what all it was made of. “Oh by the way. Drop by my room later today and you can have that generator plug thing.”
“An FCADPST 9000.” Ender growled, liking to get engineering terms correct.
“Yes, one of those. Adios amigo.” Juli marched him out of the infirmary and saw him back to the turbo-lift.
Back in his room, Ender sat down on his bed and picked up the egg, knowing that for right now that incubator worked. He set the egg in the heating chamber and turned the little machine on, watching the temperature hold a steady 120*F. Being half dragon, he had a natural instinct about these things and set it to that temperature earlier. He watched the egg for a moment and smiled as the off-color spots on the egg began to glow. The egg was heating, and by the way the spots were glowing, the egg might even hatch as soon as the next month.
Sighing in relief, Ender lay down on his bed and simply watched the egg. He could get the generator parts later. He pulled the scratchy blanket up over his body and closed his eyes. The bed field sensed his presence and automatically dimmed the lights to what might be pitch black to a normal human or most anthros, but to Ender was the equivalent of a night sky lit with a bright moon. Ender’s body naturally began its sleep cycle when it sensed that he was laying down, eyes closed.
Pain… Considerable pain… This was what Ender felt when he woke up. He had fallen out of bed and smacked his face off his shelf. He curled up and howled in pain. The sound would have easily carried through any normal wall and traveled about a mile beyond, but these walls were sound proof, so nobody could hear him. Something collide with the side of his head, causing a fresh web of pain to rack his body. Over his second howl of pain, Ender heard a high-pitched squeak of laughter. Looking around, he ducked just in time to avoid a second playful attack by the dragon hatchling. Ender groaned again and, holding his snout and forehead in his paws, sat up. The hatchling immediately leapt into his lap and curled up, purring softly.
“What?... But… how?” Ender groaned, dazed and in extreme pain for the third time in two days. His tired mind could not register how the egg had hatched so fast. Meanwhile, the hatchling was cleaning the last of the egg shell from its’ scales and wings. Ender carefully picked up the hatchling and set it on the bed. It purred and nuzzled his snout softly, then began to claw at the soft sheets. “Hey! Cut that out, I need that to sleep on.” Ender tried to stop the hatchling, but it ran up his arm and sat on his shoulder, licking its lips happily and playfully barring its miniature fangs.
Ender sighed and sat down on the bed. Then he saw a glint under the covers and understood. It wasn’t after the sheets, it wanted part of his ration bar. It must have fallen out of his pocket in bed. He picked it up and took a nibble of it to make sure it was good, then held it out for the hatchling to nibble.
Instead, the hatchling snatched it our of his hand and ate the entire thing. It must have been at least two weeks worth of the dehydrated food supplement, and the hatchling didn’t seem to have even noticed. It licked its lips and then burped, breathing a small jet of flame across the room. Ender couldn’t help but start laughing, and once he had, it was hard to stop. His head still hurt, and his ribs ached from laughing, but he couldn’t stop. Finally he calmed down and, still chuckling softly, he picked up the hatchling and nearly fell over. The hatchling might not have shown that he had just gained 200 pounds of food, which would last the hatchling nearly a month before he would need anything to eat again, but Ender sure felt it. Ender stood up and shook his head. “That was a bit much, don’t you think?” He asked the hatchling, and got a purr of content in return. Ender sighed and grabbed his scanner, passing it over the hatchling’s snout, down his back, and off the tip of his tail. The scanner would check for viruses or other bacterial infections, as well as telling Ender what gender and species of dragon he had. The hatchling was a male, which would not be hard to work with. Females, when reaching maturity, would destroy the entire ship in search of a mate. But a male would be easy to handle. There were no infections. It was not usual for dragons to become sick, or ever die really, so they had so populated their home world that there was no possibility of landing a ship long enough to wave hello. It took a skilled teleporter crew and a brave but thin creature to go down on the dragon planet. Other wise that creature might find itself either as a meal, or a toothpick…
The scanner did pick up all of the food that had just been rehydrated inside the hatchling, however, and he began to chuckle again. Two weeks of food down the drain. He shook his head and looked again. There was a tiny spike growing in the hatchling’s tail. It looked like there would be a tail spike later on for this dragon. Tail spikes proved useful weapons, as they could go through pretty much anything. Ender set the scanner down and looked at the species. It was a Drakun low-lander, meaning that it preferred warmer climates and valleys. This wouldn’t, as Ender preferred his room to be about 80*F at all times. The bigger problem would be the valleys. The base was all underground, really, but the landing strip and hangers were on top of a flat range of mountains, and it was generally about 65*F outside. The hatchling would not like that. He then got out his book on dragons and turned to this species.
“Can eat up to 500 pound of food in one sitting at birth.. That explains that, then.. Scales are normally green or tan, dark brown in the case of river species. Tan.. Hmmm.. You come from a lowlands desert. Often make their homes underground, where they store food and precious gems. Largest size is 15 feet long, 8 feet tall.. That’s not too bad… At full maturity can go for three months without food after eating 5 deer’s worth of meat. That should be easy enough. Around the age of 3 years they will be large enough to swallow a human whole. Not bad, not bad… Hmm… Three years, eh?” He looked down at the hatchling and smiled. “In three years remind me to let you eat me.” The hatchling purred softly in reply and then curled up to get some rest. “Sleep… can rest for up to 16 hours a day. I wouldn’t say no to that myself.”
Ender laid back and yawned, closing the book. When he covered up with the army grade sheets, the hatchling snuggled next to his head and fell asleep on his pillow. Ender watched him for a few minutes before rolling over and falling asleep.

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