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Hello everyone,

This is my first attempt on writing a story and publishing it on sofurry. However, there are already eight chapters in german, my native language, but only this piece in English. Translation was heavily supported by google as well as www.dict.cc and after that, Picklessauce69 proofread and edited it.

So if anyone would like to help translating, I would be very thankful.

You can contact me via [email protected] or pm. This is only the first half of chapter one so there's far more to come.

First Contact

He was Dexter, a member of the dragon species. As be woke, his first thoughts told his brain he was terribly cold and his body shook. He could see his breath despite the dim lighting and the difficulty he suffered trying to distinguish the silhouettes of the surrounding. Everything looked very purposive and plain, nearly geometrical. Big braces hinted that this all was designed to keep someone imprisoned.

When he shifted to attempt to get up he noticed that he was wearing some kind of metal rings around his wrists and ankles. The leashes fit very tight and rubbed with every attempt at motion. They felt especially cold, despite what one would assume after he had already been wearing them for a while. Meanwhile he could see more clearly and his sight fell through the metal of the braces onto a console, equipped with broad displays and many switches. Centered in front of it there was a seat. Everything looking like that of a control room or cockpit. Though none of it was in operation,and except for a faint whirring it was completely quiet. Above him there was a broad panoramic window though the only view through the panes of glass were darkness darker than the darkness that he sat in. Each to the left and right of the cockpit there was a door, both of them were closed, but from the left emanated a green glimmer whereas the right one was illuminated with red light. In addition on the outside beneath his cell, which was placed in the back part of the room, were two passages that lead to a further section in the rear.

After he had observed everything closely, he began the process of asking himself how he came here and how he could get away. The only thing he could remember was being sold by his owner and hoping for a better home. That night he was picked up and thrown into a box.

Suddenly, a sequence of strange sounds tore him from his thoughts, followed by vibrations under the floor on which he sat. It sounded like the waking of gigantic machines and then in a split second the room was lit, bright light filling his vision, dazzling him and forcing his eyes to adapt. He recognized some lamps on the ceiling that made every single detail of the room show up in their cold-white light. All the changes had frightened him greatly and Dexter was glad that everything got quieter once more. The displays on the console now turned on and showed texts and diagrams made up from foreign symbols which he had never seen before. Now he was sure, that it had to be some kind of shuttle in that he was caught. At first he believed that it was the anxiety which caused him to feel warmer, but then he noticed how his environment was brought to a more convenient temperature. He took a closer look around and could find neither a bed nor something to eat or a water dispenser in his cage. Everything looked very improvised like it wasn't designed that way at first. He still suffered intense pain sported black and blue marks all over his soft, greenish dragon skin and the shock stick burnings were distinctly visible.

As a servant of the lizards he was accustomed to bad treatment. If nobody would come to take care of him he would just perish here alone. He eventually got up, at first suffering from slight difficulties to stay upright but made it to the door and rattled it. There was no lock and it was massive. No chance for him to escape, and no weak points in the cages build neither or floor or ceiling.

He decided to wait, since the shuttle was obviously preparing for the arrival of a pilot. He sat down on the floor, laid his tail tightly around him and leaned his back against the cool wall at the rear of his cell. He carefully touched the collar with his fingers, it was smooth exactly like the gyves, without any lock that could be loosened.

While he was taking a closer look at it, one could hear the muffled sounds of steps in the distance which were rapidly coming closer, then the noise of an opening bulkhead. The sounds were now so close that one could clearly distinguish that it were two persons. The left of the two front doors opened with a loud pervasive rolling sound and a male lizard in uniform, so big that he had to cower a little so he did not knock his head, entered the room. He looked very scary, with different ranks on the suit, a shock stick at the belt and a little shiny device in his hand. He was followed by another very young, also male lizard, but with lower rank and smaller figure. He didn't look quite as dangerous though he was also armed.

Dexter didn't move and observed inconspicuously what happened.

The big lizard turned to the young and said: "Here is your assignment, it contains all necessary information, everything else is classified." He gave him a storage card and then added:

"Before you take on your journey I'll demonstrate to you the functions of the new, improved shock-leashing-system with what your prisoner is secured. Don't hesitate to use it."

"Yes sir general !" he answered, as he took the little device and said: "A detailed description is available in the ships computer, the vital thing is when you push this button here, your convict is immediately paralyzed by high voltage. It is also very suitable for punishment of misbehavior." It became clear to Dexter why there were no chains on the leashes.

"Prisoner, get up !" the general snarled at him. He immediately followed the instruction and placed himself in the middle of the cell, because he didn't want to tempt him. But it was futile, without any hesitation the general pushed on the remote. Dexter uttered a loud, painful whimper when the current flew through his body.

Before he collapsed and hit the hard cell floor, he could catch a quick glimpse at the young lizard recruit. To his surprise, he couldn't see pleasure but only bare horror and even compassion in his face. Not so the general, he was amused by Dexters suffering and the way he was shaking. Obviously, the feeling of absolute power over a living being pleased him. Dexter was still gasping for air. Meanwhile the young lizard tried not to show anything to his superior and took the remote. Dexter had never seen a lizard before that reacted this way. He was still fighting the spasms when the general directed some last words to the young pilot:

"Execute your assignment according to the regulations and do not talk to the prisoner, feed him only as much as implicitly required. Do not deviate from the given route, you will be awaited at your destination." The pilot nodded and the general left the shuttle with heavy steps. The door closed and locked itself behind him.

The pilot put the remote into a little tray and inserted the storage card into a slot in the console. On one of the displays a map of the stars appeared, another showed more text and diagrams. The lizard took his place in the seat and began the start sequence. Dexter observed exactly what he did, the way he entered parameters only by touching with his fingers and how he ordered the computer to do a system test via speech control. The young pilot was nervous since he lacked experience with the systems. The big window, through which one couldn't see before, now turned transparent and unveiled the view to a big, brightly lighted hangar in which other shuttles were located. Dexter only had a short time to pay attention to the ground personnel and the different vehicles in the hangar area, then the vibrations in the ship were noticeable again.

The vehicle started to move slowly. A big airlock appeared in front of them which opened itself like magic when they approached. Stars and planet Edrion were visible. Dexter had spent his entire life down there, but he had never seen it from space. It looked gorgeous as the sun bathed it in orange-yellow light from the side. The shuttle accelerated a little and flew a half-circle around the station, it was huge an everywhere was brisk ado. After they had gotten further away, the lizard activated the auto-pilot and told the computer to warn him if any issues should occur. Then it put its shock stick aside and took a little diary from one of its pockets.

He took off his shoes and put them in one of the many storage spaces. Then he started to write in the little book, his long tail striking gently to the ground again and again as he wrote. While Dexter had an abysmal hatred for the lizards and usually terrible fear of each of them, he had a hunch that this one would be somehow different. He could be wrong but he hoped that he was not. After a while, the pilot stopped his writing and put the book back in his pocket. He got up quickly and Dexter lowered his gaze as he walked past through the rear doors. He returned after a short time with a large package that he then unpacked. Inside were different-colored packages, carelessly printed with bar codes and numbers. He took out two of them, a blue and a yellow one and shoved them through the bars into the cell. When Dexter hesitated The lizard looked at him and said: "The blue one is water and the yellow one is food." Dexter nodded and picked up the yellow package. He opened it and when he tasted the contents, he found that it tasted bitter and had a slimy consistency. It was downright disgusting and he had trouble not spitting the foul nourishment out.

But his hunger was so great already, that he finally licked out everything completely with his sharp tongue. The pilot watched him quietly all the time while he was eating and began to write in his little book again.

Dexter tried to wash away the bitter taste with the water and then watched as his capture also took a yellow pack from the box. He opened it and smelled it before he carefully tried a bite. Dexter immediately noticed that the young pilot had to find this stuff probably just as awful and wondered why he instead didn't simply get a staff-ration.

"The water helps with the bitter taste." Dexter whispered.

"What did you say?"

Dexter thought that he would regret his remark after that and began to tremble when he said pleadingly, "Please, no more electric shocks, I know that I must not talk to you, I'm sorry."

The pilot looked at him blankly, and took a packet of water. "No, it's all right. I was told that this food would be created just for your kind and you'd like it." Dexter looked at him and shook his head very carefully.

The lizard opened the pack and drank some of the water. Then he sat on the floor in front of the cell bars, and said: "According to the rules I may not talk to you, but we 're facing a long journey and I think we can make an exception. What's your name?"

"Dexter." He answered hesitantly.

"My name is Nikki. They told me that I should beware of you and that you are very dangerous, but to be honest, you're looking more like i scare you to death."

Dexter looked a little perplexed because he was not sure whether the lizard perhaps only played with him. He dared and said, "Yes that's True, but I'm glad that you do not make so much use of the shock-collar as the General"

Nikki was surprised at once, it was unpleasant for him, because he thought to have hidden his thoughts well enough. "So you noticed it ?"

Dexter slipped closer to the fence, and said: "Yes, it even looked as if you felt compassion"

Before Nikki could respond, there was a loud harrowing bang and both creatures winced. The lighting interrupted and an alarm sounded, then the very relaxed computer voice said: "Warning, error in the environmental control system, heating and cooling functions are no longer available. See the operation log for a damage report." Nikki jumped up and rushed over to the command console. Frantically he tapped around on the screen and tried to figure out what had happened. When he finally found the manual of the shuttle among the many files he muttered: "That was close, but we can still continue our flight." Dexter immediately thought about how cold it would get again without environmental controls, he hated the cold.

Nikki went back to the rear area and Dexter heard him in the distance as he rummaged around for a while and then finally came back with two large emergency blankets. He shoved one of them through the grid bars. "Here, you do not have to be cold, according to board manual it will probably soon get very cold in here." Dexter took the blanket from him, and laid it down on his lap. "Thank you very much." He said in surprise. He had not expected that much caring since his past experiences with Nicki's kind was torture.

After Nikki had calmed down, he sat down in front of the cell and began to talk: "During my training, I once had to carry out a repair in a power distributor and there was an electrical discharge. It was terrible, my hand and my entire arm were hurting for days. When I saw this before, I just had to think about this accident. Nobody should have to suffer such pain on purpose. I'm sorry, I should have stopped him." Dexter was speechless and really overwhelmed not to have been mistaken in his gut reaction to Nikki.

Meanwhile, the lizard looked down at Dexter and said: "Would you tell me where you got the stains and burns from ?"

Dexter' s gaze fell as he spoke "This was my owner, he hit me almost every day and gave me electric shocks."

Nikki got a slightly incredulous expression on his face and asked: "Your Owner? But why? What did you do?"

Dexter sighed: "I have always done everything he wanted me to and tried to be good, but to no avail. He did it because he liked it, I could see."

Nikki stood up slowly and then asked: "He was also a lizard, wasnt he?"

"Yes." Nikki hesitated for a moment and then said:" I don't wanna use you in order to satisfy my curiosity, but would you mind telling me of how you became a slave?" Dexter noted that his opposite afterwards was ashamed to have asked this very personal question.

He finally redeemed him. "Its okay, it will do me good to tell somebody." He leaned back and began: "It was a normal day on Edrion and I was sitting in class at school. We were all happy about the upcoming weekend when suddenly the alarm rang throughout the building. No one knew what was going on and everybody talked all mixed up. Our teacher was informed via their headset that something bad was imminent. They tried to get us all out of the building but on the way out, we already ran into armed troops. Then everything happened very quickly, they we were shocked unconscious using their shocksticks. I dont remember anything until I woke up in a box later. Then I was told that from now on I would be in service of the lizards and was committed to my former master. That was nearly a year ago and since then I have neither seen my parents nor my friends. The whole thing happened two days before my 14th birthday. "

Nikki was visibly shocked and after a brief pause he spoke, ashamed: "I didn't know. I always thought our people only used criminals and outlaws as workers. Now I understand why you were so afraid of me. I hope you do believe me, but I don't blame you if you hate me as much as any other of my kind, it would only be fair if you kill me for what we did to you." He ran a tear over his face and slid deep into the chair in front of the command console.

Dexter was also very upset at the sight of a lizard that almost cried, it was then clear to him how sensitive his counterpart seemed to be. He was fascinated that Nikki believed and didnt question his story at all. Dexter was almost too young to be a prisoner but he also could have trumped up all this. He got up, seized with both hands to the cell grating and said quietly: "Why should I hurt you, you have treated me well and you would not deserve it. Its not your fault. Its seems that you're good at heart and I'm really glad that I've met you here." Nikki was surprised at the understanding of the young Dragon and touched at the same time. He wiped the tears from his face and although he was not sure whether Dexter was serious about what he said, the pain slowly vanished from his chest.

Dexter reflected for a moment and then tried to lighten the situation a little bit: "How old are you? There can't be much difference between our ages."

Nikki stopped short and then said: "In a few weeks I will turn 15."

Dexter was a bit surprised. "Madness, despite that you are allowed to fly a large spacecraft like this on your own?"

Nikki smiled slightly for the first time and then said very humbly: "Well this is my first mission and I am still a bit uncertain. I hope there isn't anymore to go wrong."

It was slowly getting cold inside the shuttle and Dexter wrapped himself in the emergency blanket. "As you will know, us Dragons got to do this from time to time - you know ..." He shyly pointed between his legs.

Nikki leaned forward and said: "We also need to do that, it is not a problem. We even have a shower on board. This is a long-range ship of the delta class, there is actually almost everything one needs."

Then he turned his chair to the console and entered a combination of characters, then the computer voice was heard again. "Warning, observe instructions for dealing with prisoners." Then the cell door was unlocked.

Nikki went over to the cell door and opened it. Dexter looked at him quizzically. "Don't you want to restrain me or at least take the remote control with you?" Nikki reflected for a moment. He was clear that it could be dangerous to give too much freedom of movement to his prisoner. Dexter looked so honest and although he was warned by him, he took the risk. "I'll dedicate it to you what you want to do to me, because my life is not of value any more."

Dexter felt that the young lizard was really convinced about what he said. "Why do you say that again? I've already told you that I do not hate you for what others have done to me. You are not at fault."

Nikki got a little louder and had a desperate expression. "You can't know this. In school they have taught us the most terrible things about your kind. And when I got recruited by the military, I had to train for missions that can not be surpassed in cruelty. Although they were only simulations, I wasn't able to sleep at night anymore.

Then there were the rumors about the resistance. It was claimed there were groups that work against slavery and for equal rights because it is unright. And although I've always wanted to see one of you dragons in person, I did ultimately doubt it. I was almost convinced that you are, like it is told to us," - he lowered the volume of his voice - "inferior and worthless. And now you are facing me an are so kind and tell me that all the rumors are true. I should have acted back then already." Nikki lowered his gaze.

Dexter looked very incredulous and said: "You know very well that you could not have done this. On the contrary, it certainly was not safe to be interested in the resistance at all. I admire that you have persevered and stayed true to your convictions. If you had given up, then we might most likely not be talking to each other at the moment."

This recognition did some good for Nikki because of the lizards in the military, it was not usual to be rewarded at all.

Then Dexter added: "and I'm sorry for what happened to you."

Nikki looked up: "No, no that's nothing compared to your suffering. And I have to thank you that you previously have not taken the opportunity to attack me. "

Dexter looked kind to Nikki and said, "It's all right. . I think we both have been over much, "Nikki said," If you agree, I would like to get to know you better and learn more about your kind. I think that i also have to tell a few things."

Dexter looked over to Nikki kindly and said: "That would be very interesting."

"Come, I'll show to you the rest of the shuttle."

Dexter came out and followed him through the passageways to the rear. Each of his footsteps could be heard clearly because his claws had become a bit too long. They entered a long corridor with indirectly illuminated ceiling and doors on the left and right, and now and then a couple of access hatches in the floor and ceiling.

It looked very purposeful like always. "At the very end of the corridor, there's the machine room with the fusion reactors. Here to the left are the quarters and the meals area with supplies." Nikki said and opened one of the doors. It was a simple room with a table and a chair, a computer terminal and a bed. There were no decorations or amenities, not even a window. It seemed as if the lizard heads did not care if their crew members felt comfortable. "The bed looks uncomfortable and where is the blanket?"

"Yes it is, and there is no blanket, only one pillow. They say that everything has been optimized." Nikki went through another door on the side of the room and led Dexter into a bathroom.

It was equipped with a shower and a sink, there was a small mirror and a stack of towels. In addition, there even was a new boxed set containing a toothbrush, cotton buds and cleansing lotion. "The toilet is behind the door over there." Nikki pointed across the room. "You are welcome to use the shower and everything you find here."

"Really?" Nikki nodded, and Dexter began to take off his shirt. "Thanks, I wasn't able to shower properly since a long time ago."

"Please take your time and enjoy it, I'll get us some decent lunch until then. "The door closed behind Nikki as he left the room. Dexter took a moment to look around, then he took off his ragged pants and shirt. He was glad to finally get rid of the filthy rags. He didn't own any more clothes, and was now standing completely naked in the small room.

To be continued...