Thrax

Amlax moved in again, and their battle became another dance of lunges and parries, thrusts and blocks.  Thrax hissed at his foe and bared his fangs, defying the ache in his hip and the burning sore on his wing.  Amlax kept lunging, and Thrax kept blocking, until Thrax took another tactic.  He lashed out with his tail again, this time sending the scaly appendage unfurling upward to connect with Amlax’s staff and wrap around it in a constricting grip.

 Amlax bellowed in protest, pulling and wrestling to pry the weapon from the dragon’s grasp.  Good, Thrax thought.  Keep grappling with my tail and leave me enough of an opening…  And while Amlax struggled furiously with Thrax’s tail, the Knight again lifted his blade like a spear—and drove it hard and deep into Amlax’s shoulder.

The sword of energy sank into Amlax’s shoulder with a hiss almost as awful as that of a dragon.  Amlax shrieked an inhuman cry and pulled back hard against the grip of Thrax’s tail.  Thrax pulled the blade from the alien’s shoulder and unwrapped his tail.  He leapt back, ready to make another stab at his pained, maddened foe.  Amlax staggered away, making a furious rumbling sound, and toppled onto the floor, dropping his weapon and clutching at his wounded shoulder, bellowing with rage.

The spectators jumped  to their feet.  Thrax divided his attention between the fallen Amlax and the members of his crew, certain that the lot of them would now come charging from their seats at him, bracing himself to slash and hack his way through an oncoming wave of livid Scodax bent on avenging their Captain.

That was when the ship’s clarion sounded again, and everyone in the chamber froze, confused.  The shouts and roars of the Scodax suddenly cut off as they eyed one another and their fallen Captain, who even now was starting to pull himself up from the floor, clutching at his shoulder.  A disembodied voice from unseen speakers echoed in the chamber: “Armada self-destruct is engaged.  Destruct in ten alyews and counting…”

Now the voices raised again, this time filled with shock and dismay.  Thrax eyed Amlax as the alien Captain found his footing again and saw him as shocked as his crew.  The Knight was not sure what was happening.  Did that voice actually say, “Self-destruct”?

Amlax bellowed out more loudly than ever, “What madness is this?  Who gave the order for self-destruct?  Report at once!”

Vendass stepped down from the seats and joined his Captain.  The third-in-command was touching and watching a device on the sleeve of his uniform that fed holographic symbols and pictures into the air.  “Captain,” he said in a dire voice, “the self-destruct command was fed into one of the optical ports.  It is the irreversible self-destruct code in case of capture of a Scodax vessel.  And, Captain, there is more.  Look…”

At a touch from Vendass, a series of holo-images large enough for everyone in the chamber blossomed into the air.  Before the disbelieving eyes of the Scodax, it showed the corridors of the ship filled with androids battling fully-armed Knights and Corps of Lacerta.  Energy bolts flew, and powerblades swung in every direction.  Bodies went flying and falling.  It was a total, all-consuming melee.

Through clenched teeth, Amlax rumbled, “What is the meaning of this?  Where is my second?  Where is Venar?”

Gravely, Vendass replied, “Commander Venar has been found unconscious in a conference room with two decapitated androids.”

Now seething and murderous, Amlax faced Thrax.  “You filthy son of a traua!  What have your miserable people done?”

“I can’t guess,” said Thrax.  “But your time grows short.”

“And yours grows shorter!” the alien Captain roared, lunging forward at the dragon. 

Thrax reacted instantly.  In his mindless fit of wrath, Amlax had failed to pick up his weapon again.  It was now only a maddened and unarmed Captain against an armed dragon Knight.  As he’d done before, Thrax spun away from Amlax’s charge, but this time, as Amlax lunged into the space where Thrax had been, the Knight brought down the hard, blunt hilt of his blade directly onto the base of the back of Amlax’s neck.  With a deep, heavy sound like a gulp of air in reverse, the Captain of the Scodax careened onto the floor and crumpled there, motionless.

Seeing his Captain laid low, Vendass bared his teeth and raised his hands to Thrax with fingers clenched.  He clearly intended to seize the dragon Knight by the throat and choke him to death where he stood.  Snarling, “You vicious, presumptuous, bestial pounit…”  He advanced on Thrax—and the dragon man nimbly swiveled his powerblade around and presented its glowing point to Vendass, stopping him in his tracks.

Holding Vendass at blade point, Thrax suggested, “I should think that at the moment, you’d have more pressing concerns than my trouncing your Captain.”

Vendass snarled incoherently and backed away from Thrax.  Casting his gaze at the seats, Thrax wondered again whether he would have to offer his blade to Vendass’ crew mates.  The other Scodax stood in a mix of confusion, wrath, and fear.  Then, the sound of the door sliding open made them all turn to face it.

Into the chamber poured a charging group of nine armored Lacertans with powerblades at the ready.  At their lead was Meline, and with her, a woman carrying a bolt rifle.  Thrax swiveled his dragon neck to see the new arrivals and blinked his dragon eyes at the armed figure at Meline’s side.  For a moment, he could not reconcile the woman he had come to know so well with the woman running into the chamber with the dragons, not until she called his name.

Agena cried, “Thrax!”

She broke into a run for him and flung her free arm around him, little caring that she was embracing his dragon shape.  Thrax likewise threw his free arm around her, utterly perplexed but relieved in spite of it all that she was unharmed.

Agena parted the embrace and looked into his dragon features.  He was the handsomest dragon and the most welcome sight ever to greet her eyes.  Thrax asked, “Agena, what have you been doing?”

“Looking for you,” she replied.  “We have to get off this ship now.  We started the countdown for self-destruct.”

“So I heard,” Thrax said.

Stepping over to them, Meline added, “And we’d all best shake a tail.  That countdown is still running, and nothing will stop it.”

Nearby, the other dragons who had come pouring into the chamber were holding the Scodax at bay with their powerblades.  Thrax took note of them for a second, then asked Meline, “What about the civilians?”