Caveman Alien's Riddle - Calista Skye Page 0,75
us, especially the tribes. We’re not sure if we understand why. Not completely. It seems strange. Right, Delyah?”
Our leader nods. “Right. They seem so weird now, the slayers in the army. They used to be all about honor and doing the right thing. Now, they seem to have other and less worthy concerns. Well, they’re only human. Humanoid aliens. Close enough.”
I drain the cup and look around for the pot the booze came from. “You’ve all been sitting tight here ever since?”
“The dragons are surrounding us,” Beatrice says, refilling my cup. “We can’t go out. Kyandros and Aragadon are the only reason they haven’t broken in here and invaded Bune, itself. Those two have been extremely busy keeping their compatriots away. And they’re not as strong as they could be. They may have wives that give them strength, but they also need hoards to be at their most powerful. They spend most of their time in human form.”
I take a big sip. The alcohol isn’t really helping my mood, after all. “They do?”
“More and more time as men,” Delyah says. “Less and less time in dragon form. Whenever they come back after a patrol, flying around, they’re exhausted and have to rest for hours. And even then, they can’t get much rest inside here. This place was built by their enemies, and they strongly dislike it. Almost as much as they dislike being this close to each other.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to realize how lonely dragons can be,” I agree. “There’s no trust.”
“We have a lot of guns and gunpowder,” Heidi says, kissing her child on the head. “But against dragons, those aren’t effective, after all. They’re mostly to scare them. We’d need cannons to really hurt a dragon. To be blunt, if the dragons attacked us now, we would lose.”
I touch my hand to my forehead, but there’s no soreness there anymore. “About those guns. The barrels should be strengthened. Mine blew up in my face.”
“Yeah, we saw it on the ground,” Beatrice says, stroking unruly black hair out of her face. “And we had the same thought. But the nearest forge is in the village, and it would need to be rebuilt before the guys could repair the guns.”
Delyah picks another strand of grass and twirls it around the first. “The dragons abhor this spaceship. But its walls aren’t totally dragon-proof. We know that. If they want to break in, they can. It’s only a question of time before they do. By all rights, we should get in the escape ship and pull the Eject handle. But damn it! We were the best village on the planet! We showed both the cavemen and the dragons a thing or two about how to run a civilization. Are we going to give up on that? I think some of us are willing to fight for this planet and the future.”
“It’s our home as much as anyone else’s,” Heidi says. “But things are not looking great right now. If the Plood are here, and Jennifer’s dragon will go to Earth and conquer it, then we’ve never been in worse trouble. Going back to Earth might feel like coming from the frying pan and into the fire if it’s been invaded. And both Kyandros and Aragadon say that the ship seems to be in working order.”
I drain the second cup of booze, not feeling the least bit better. “Have they checked that recently?”
Delyah looks up. “Why?”
“Because according to Caronerax,” I say carefully, “the Plood think the escape ship won’t work.”
She frowns. “Do they say why?”
“I didn’t ask.”
She thinks about it. “The Plood are by far the most advanced civilization we know about. If they are a civilization, I mean. But they can abduct people with beams and they can travel light years through space in a matter of hours. We know nothing about their capabilities, except that they appear to be breathtakingly advanced.”
“And they may have done something to break our escape ship,” I ponder. “With some kind of advanced weapon. Right after they got here, which I think was recently. They must be aware of Bune, anyway. They must have checked it out when they arrived.”
“Definitely,” Beatrice agrees. “Can we get our dragons to check it again?”
Delyah gets to her feet. “Now we have to. Yeah, this day isn’t getting any better. But I’m really happy to see you in good shape, Jennifer. You did good! Actually, you did great. Riding a freaking bobont? Are you nuts?”
She reaches down and squeezes my