There Be Dragons Judd sat at his terminal and studied his latest find. “What have you found now,” called his girlfriend Tara. “A map showing where a dragon lair was.” “What?” “This is an account from the Middle Ages talking about a dragon razing the crops around here, and the valiant heroes who defeated it.” Tara smiled and rolled her eyes. “What are you going to do with that?” She was well used to his unusual interests. “It’s a lovely day, and this “lair” isn’t far from here. Would you like to check it out?” “You can’t be serious. You don’t believe that there is anything to that do you?” “Of course not. But did you have anything else to do? If you like we could stay here.” Tara smiled. Judd knew full well that she detested spending hours on end at the library. She got bored looking at books all the time instead of doing something. “OK, you win lets go a dragon hunting.” They jumped into Judd’s trusty old Mazda and drove to the nearby river. Walking to the site of an old mill they worked out where they were on the map and went to the ominous lair. “Some great dragons lair, all I see is a normal hill.” Tara was satisfied, it was an enjoyable drive to get here but she was keen to get home and start dinner. “Fair enough, hey what’s that?” Judd peered into what appeared to be a badger hole. “Be careful, you don’t want whatever lives in there to bite you.” “Hey hand me a torch will you?” Tara scrambled around in Judd’s pack and came up with his maglight. “It’s quite big on the inside, and look at this,” Judd pulled away some of the weeds and soil and exposed old brickwork. “This is an opening that has been walled up! I think we might have found it.” Judd was flushed with excitement. “You’re not telling me you think that there is a dragon do you?” Tara was on the verge of laughing at him. “Of course not, at least not in the winged fire breathing variety. God knows what it really was but most legends have a cornel of truth to them.” “Maybe we should go and get some wooden stakes, just in case hey?” Tara wished she had a camera to record the look on his face. Judd didn’t dignify her jibes with a response, besides everyone knew wooden stakes were for vampires not dragons, and instead set to clearing the accumulated rubbish from the old wall. It only took a couple of minutes before he realised that the original wall must have stood completely exposed for some time, the tingle of excitement returned. “Why would you be the first to open this up if it is this great dragon lair?” “I would say that at first people would have stayed away, probably out of fear of these dragons or whatever and also out of fear of the church. I forgot to tell you that some where in the text it talked about this place being cursed and any who came here would be excommunicated.” Tara stopped at that and fixed him with a serious look. Judd knew she was a church going Catholic and took her religion seriously. “I do doubt that a twenty first century pope would go around excommunicating people on the say of a Middle Ages text. But your reaction is the proof that the threat of excommunication would keep people away from here for long enough, and after that it would have been dismissed as old superstition.” “So if you don’t believe that this is a dragons lair why come here?” ”The book was talking about these dragons laying waste to the area, carrying off people, firing crops and the like. I would say that it was a local band of robbers or something. All the fire breathing and flying side of it came later as they tried to make the “slaying” look even more impressive.” By then they realised that they had cleared quite a big opening. The mortar that held the bricks was crumbling and Judd realised he would be able to clear a big enough opening fairly easily. After only a few blows with a hammer he had made the original hole big enough to crawl through. His torch revealed a sizeable opening behind. After crawling through Judd looked around and was amazed, what had seemed like a cavity behind the wall was in fact the opening to a tunnel that curved away from him. “There are no creepy crawlies in here. Come on through I think you will be surprised.” Tara pushed through his small rucksack and squirmed through herself, in the process getting her shorts and tee shirt marked, not that she minded getting a bit dirty sometimes. “Wow, this may really be something, I wasn’t expecting anything like this.” Looking around they saw the thick dust that had settled, and tracks made by some small animals that were calling this place home. “Let’s go exploring.” The maglight beam illuminated the far wall and swept around the corner as the pair started walking along, the first corner revealed only a short passageway and then another corner; they were quickly away from the feeble illumination from the entrance hole they had made. It was always the same, a ninety degree corner a low passageway and then another corner. Each passageway was on a slight downhill slope. They were slowly going round the base of the hill and down to whatever was below. Their footsteps sounded loud. After three corners they saw something lying on the ground, bending to examine it Judd saw it was the hilt and part of the blade of an old dagger. Rust had claimed most of the old weapon. “I’m not so sure that this is still a good idea. This place is giving me the creeps.” Tara voiced the concerns going through his own mind. “We’ll just go around the next corner and see what is there then we can call it a day, ok?” “Ok” Just as they walked up to the corner a light appeared on the far wall, as if someone had turned on a TV. Judd’s heart was in his mouth as he poked his head around the corner to see a knight in armour standing at the end of the next passageway. At least a picture of a knight, Judd could see dust motes falling the light of a projector that was recessed in the ceiling. A sound buzzed for some seconds before clicking off. “Well I’ll be buggered. This was a prank.” Judd was relieved that they seemed to have been taken for a ride. As they walked closer the image started to wave its arms at them. It looked comical to them, a buzzing sound pin pointed a speaker on the wall above them. Something about the speaker didn’t look quite right, but Judd shrugged it off. When they walked closer still the image drew its sword and took a ready position, then disappeared. “Ok, you can all come out now.” Silence greeted the announcement. “Who would have gone to this much trouble for a prank?” asked Tara. “I don’t know, want to find out?” “Lets.” The pair walked further, after another two corners they came out into a large room. The maglight couldn’t illuminate the ceiling above them. They walked further into the room and several lights came on, showing the size of the room. Judd realised that the entire hill was hollow. There were many consoles and other pieces of gear but most looked as if they were smashed. Tara gasped and Judd spun to see her looking at a strange craft parked to one side. The craft was unlike any he had seen before. Two large bat like wings were held high, as if it was on the verge of flight. A stubby cylindrical body was supported by four legs that were obviously articulated and ended in viscous looking claws. At the front of the body was a short neck ending in a globe that looked just like the FLIR cameras he had seen on police helicopters, but this had two nozzles under the camera eye. The entire thing was a bright green, looking closer Judd could see the flanks were dented and scratched. The whole thing was the size of a small plane. “Oh my god, what is it Judd?” “Unless I miss my guess we are looking at what started the dragon legends.” That is correct. Judd and Tara spun at the voice and realised that it didn’t come from anywhere, they didn’t really hear it. It was just there in their heads. “What was that?” I am the gatekeeper. Judd and Tara just looked at each other. Tara eventually got up the courage and asked, “What is a gatekeeper?” I am an artificial intelligence program that is designed to run this base. “How are you talking to us?” I am sending signals directly into your brain. These are then “heard” by you. I am sending this information directly into your language centres; you are in effect translating it yourself. “What is this base? Who built it?” called Judd. This was a temporary base used by survivors of a space ship crash whilst they repaired their craft. “You mean aliens?” That is correct. Please do not be alarmed there are no living aliens here still, I am all that is left. I mean you no harm. “If that is the case how come we found you in a place that was the lair of dragons that attacked this area?” When our craft was first damaged we landed here and asked the local people for help. They mistook us for creatures from your mythology; they thought us talking to them without sound was the work of one they called Lucifer. They feared us and attacked out of fear. We were able to scare them off without hurting any, but they knew that this is where we were based. Some members of our crew decided it would be easier to stay here and enslave your people than repair our craft and try and journey home. They used the craft behind you to try and terrorize your people into working for us. We were able to eventually stop them, but by then it was too late. The people knew we were here and wanted the attacks of what they called “dragons” to stop, hence they attacked the ones they thought were killing them, the simple pictures and sounds that had always protected us failed. We were caught by surprise as they rushed in, there was a viscous fight and they killed all of our people. Eventually when they had killed all of us they left. They destroyed as much as they could but wouldn’t take anything, believing it cursed. They then sealed the entrance. “So this is a space craft?” asked Judd, looking at the strange flying machine. No that is stored in another place. Would you like to see it? “Yes,” answered Judd and Tara together, somehow Judd just knew they would be home late for dinner.
Copyright © 2000 Scott Jones |