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A New Family Ending

Dramatis Personae

Family of 5 (Colonists)

• Ataksak (Mother) 41

• Negafook (Father) 42

• Nanook (elder son) 22

• Pinga (daughter) 22

• Asa (adopted son of Pinga) 4

• Silla (younger daughter) 8

Other Cast

-Nathan (Alpha den Historian, Colonist) 235

• Alessandra (Alpha den Healer, Colonist) 215

• Diana (Daughter of Nathan and Alessandra) 102

• Apollo (Son of Nathan and Alessandra) 102

• Carol (Adventurer, Colonist) 218

• Riku (Soldier, Colonist) 240

• Mazu (Daughter of Carol and Riku) 102

• Sylvia (Alpha den Technician, Colonist) 212

• Gregory (Alpha den Architect, Colonist) 230

• Sekhmet (Daughter of Sylvia and Gregory) 102

• Anath (Daughter of Sylvia and Gregory) 29

• Noctis (Geneticist, Colonist) 293

• Overseer (Colonial General Administrator) 304

A sharp ping resounded in my head startling me awake as the other three with me were rudely awakened by the clarion call of the beacon summoning all to the commons.

We all stirred, yawning widely as we rose and streeeetched ourselves out. Ata stopped to sniff over her nest of children before joining our procession out into the open were we all spread our wings to give those a chance to stretch as well. Moving to launch ourselves aloft we were stopped as Pinga roared at us.

Stopping with an awkward hop and aborted flutter of our wings I and my mate looked back. A furious Pinga was staring at us with an angry visual display. Asa had his head pressed into her flank where he was silently crying as his one wing raised feebly to feel the air currents around us.

Our feathers and wings flattened with our mortal shame. We motioned with our heads for Pinga to take the lead which she did so with the tiny youngling. As we walked Ataksak had a private conversation with her eldest that she included me in to.

What are you planning to do with Asa, my daughter?

_ _ Her answer was as terse as it was final.

I will raise him as one of my own.

_ _ With those words, our family grew once more. Asa, orphan of Echo den. Now, adopted child of Pinga.

The tiny thing struggled with his limp to keep up with Pinga but resolutely refused to be carried. Without even letting him know what was occurring we all slowed to allow him to comfortably keep pace with us, as we slowly made our way to the commons. Overhead, clouds of dragons passed us headed in the same direction. Soon enough we reached the end of the path as the gargantuan sloping amphitheater came into view. There where noticeable gaps in the surrounding crowd as a number of dragons from every den had eschewed coming.

Thinking on it, I realized it made sense as the recent events at Echo had made clear that our security wasn't as inviolate as we had thought. Of course some would remain behind to act as guards. Although given what had happened at the ruined den, hopefully they had the sense to call for reinforcements before initiating contact.

Ata nudged me. Mazu has relayed to me our new security measures. Her father has consulted with Sylvia, and Gregory, along with the Soldiers in each of the other dens. They have decided to deploy orbital Gungnir Spears from the supply sphere in orbit. Those that remain at each nest are not to engage in the event of attack, only to act as relays to give targeting information. There will be no smashed eggs today.

_ What are these Gungnir Spears I keep hearing about?_

_ In my training I learned of them. I never bothered to mention them before as we never had use for the knowledge until now. But they are a very simple and reliable weapon system against anything on or near the surface. They are kinetic darts. 20 kilograms of tungsten with a laminated ablative coating. Fired by compressed helium from orbit. Anything, and I mean anything, struck by them will die. Unheard and unseen, there is no warning. We really don't need more advanced weaponry such as energy based platforms. There are no peer level aggressors within a megaparsec of us. And for them we have the United Collective Navy. _

Doing the math quickly in my head I was stunned Ata, are they crazy? Those things could hit the ground with 30 mega joules!

_ _ She shrugged. Yeah, you don't want to be too close. That's about the equivalent of 7 kilograms of high explosive. Never mind the fact that they'll be travelling at 1.7 km/sec.

I hissed in dismay at her nonchalant dismissal. Pretty soon I will be on the front lines and could be directly exposed to the effects of those darts.

Relax. It would take more equivalent explosive than that to do what Sekhmet did to the stone right in front of you not three days ago. Look our family is here.

I looked up and spotted the titanic form of Mazu heading towards us along with the raised heads of Nanook, Silla, Apollo, and Diana. Our children and their mates. Our family. I looked around the theater and saw their parents and siblings looking on.

Catching my eye they all acknowledged my thoughts Gregory, Sylvia, Sekhmet, Anath, Nathan, Alessandra, Riku, and Carol. All echoed my sentiments. Our family.

_ _ We made our way over to where Alpha den reposed along with our children. As we arrived the others welcomed us into their midst. Except for Riku, who kept his distance from Sylvia and Gregory while Sylvia cast distrustful glares back at him, they entangled themselves with us.

A powerful feeling washed over me as the connection of seventeen dragons manifested itself. Together we form a new family. We welcome each other as the children of each family bind one to another. In time the children of these new unions will bind our den to the children of the other dens. In time our new family will expand. In time, those of Prithvi, will form a family bound by common relation. In time, family will be all that there is.

_ _ Our shared thought dissolved as we began to nose each other gratefully. Happy, in that after all that had transpired in the mere week that we had been here of our new bonds. That we had come out the other side, enriched beyond all measure, by the formation of our new family.

Movement from outside our circle of bliss caught my attention. Just outside the new family a forlorn Noctis lay watching us with watery eyes. Upon catching sight of my attention the agitated sweeps of her tail stilled and she turned her head away from us. Surya broke from his embrace of Sekhmet and approached his mother to nudge at her mournfully.

Her form remained motionless, and Surya visibly sagged before lying next to her to look at her sadly.

Alessandra spoke to me wirelessly. She's been like that since she awoke from the tranquilizers. No one has been able to get a word out of her. Neither through her connection nor aloud. I am no mental physician. I can heal her body, not her heart.

_ _ I looked on with sorrow as Surya lowered his head to nudge it under her own. This attempt at comfort she allowed listlessly. Her eyes open and unfocused through her veil of tears.

The sound of an incoming message from the interplanetary comm. Terminal caused all heads to raised and look towards the center. Except for Surya and Noctis.

Stand by for arrival. Please clear the landing platform.

All heads craned to the sky but there was no sphere to be seen. A tolling noise began to be heard as the air stilled. My feathers and those of my family began to stand on end as tiny bursts of static electricity arced from one to the next. Electricity began to dance over the scales of Nathan.

And then a black orb formed upon the landing platform as discharges of energy skittered along the platform in radiant directions. Impossibly, a lone, human figure emerged from the ebony orb wearing a non-descript jumpsuit. It was the Overseer.

He looked around at all of us, as we looked back at him with stunned expressions on our scales. Then he looked down and stretched out his tunic to examine it before looking up at us again. "What? Whatcha looking at? I don't see any ketchup stains."

He started laughing and pointing around at all of us before bending over to brace his hands against his knees. "You should see the looks on your snouts! I'd betcha ya'all never thought you'd see me again! How'd you like my entrance? Impressive right? It's my retirement gift. Skip travel. Cost the output of the star outside Administration three seconds energy."

A sharp inhalation of air could be heard into the silent vacuum that followed his comments. All heads turned to the formerly catatonic Noctis as she rose with disbelief emanating from every one of her scales. Before she began to creep forward, as if she was afraid that a sudden movement on her part would dispel the illusion of the one in front of her.

"W... William? Is... Is it really you?"

All of the folksy good humor dropped from the Overseer as his face softened and genuine fondness entered his voice as he responded quietly. "Hello Sam, it's been a while hasn't it?"

A lane quickly opened between the two of them, as they slowly walked towards each other. Their eyes never leaving those of the other, until they met halfway to each other.

"For 160 turns, I have waited to see you again Sam." He raised his hands to her as she lowered her head. "Look at you. You're just as beautiful as the last time I saw you."

"Will... William. I never thought I'd see you again. After all this time? How?"

Before answering he pushed the sleeves of his tunic up on both arms. Revealing black scales from just below his wrists and up his arms.

"This is my retirement Sam. I can think of nothing that I want more than to spend the next few thousand turns. The rest of my life. With the only one I've ever loved."

As if not believing her own eyes, her own ears, she cautiously reached out with a paw to draw him close where her tongue flickered briefly caressing his face. Tears began to fall from both of their eyes. "William... I... I..."

Finally believing what was right in front of her. She placed a paw on each side of him and began to nudge him fervidly as her tail swept the ground behind her and her wings rose up and then forward to hide themselves both from sight.

Not a sound was heard. Sometimes, it is best just to shut up, and enjoy the beauty of love. The beauty of family.

Author's Notes: And there it is. Another chapter in the saga of Prithvi. As one more family is added to the fold, and the possibility for another begins, we get a deeper look into this new world. Next up for these scaly critters will be the much talked about expedition to enter Roc Territory and reclaim the remains of Echo den. Another tentative idea is to follow up on William and Sam (short for Samithra) AKA Noctis.

Looking back on this one, I think that I was able to flesh the world out significantly more than I had in On Colonizing. Part of that is the consequence of moving away from the journal based layout involving lots of time skips. But also because that I hope that my skills as a writer have improved. Any attempts of my own to assess my abilities inevitably collapses into self puffery. So I leave it to you the readers to tell me if I'm making steps forward or backwards (or just remaining static) in conveying my stories. But I know one thing, I'm still unsure of my ability to close out a story. They remain feeling too abrupt and artificial for my liking. I tried something new here though, so let me know how it reads. (I.E. did it feel so excessively sweet you could feel a cavity developing?)

I'm going to take a break from this story line for a bit going forward. As I have three distinct stories back on Earth in the Age Of Thumper that I want to pursue for now. One involves the AI computer (this one will be intense), one involving Jasmine (sarcasm and willfulness abounds), and the last centered once more on the Schwartzkopf family (more lighthearted and informative about the chaos resulting from Zero Day).

So I hope you had as much fun reading this story, as I had in writing it.