The Birthday Present

By Dana Sterling

Chapter 1 – The Discovery

Altair VI, a decent enough world to live on. Scientifically and technologically advanced, as a member world of the Federated Sentient Planets, they still managed to import some rather quaint artifacts from Earth. Like the restaurant Akadeanna Kestrel was now sitting in, enjoying lunch and a respite from her university studies into ancient societies. Its name was just as quaint as the establishment… Applebee's!

Akadeanna had done her research on the place. First established back on Earth in the year 1980 in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, it had managed to survive through good times and bad (like the Covid pandemic of the early 21st century). It had managed to survive exportation across the stars to the worlds humans now called home and was beginning to make inroads on some non-Terran worlds. Akadeanna had to admit. The food here was pretty good!

She was perusing some intel about the latest Talent tower that was going up on Iota Aurigae when a rather large shadow fell across her table. Looking up, she spotted four Space Marines grinning at her. The look they gave her made her skin crawl… except for that cute one standing discreetly in the rear. Sighing, she set her fork down. So much for lunch!

"Can I help you?" she inquired, dabbing some barbeque sauce from her lips.

"You're that Perny, right?" the lead Marine asked.

"The what?"

"You've been to Pern!" he snorted, his personal estimates of Akadeanna dropping a couple of notches.

"I have," she admitted, taking a sip of her soda. "So?"

"The dragons!" the second one jumped in, fidgeting in his excitement.

"What about them?" Akadeanna was becoming annoyed with this one.

Maybe it was the 'pathing energy he was radiating; scattershot and totally uncontrolled. Akadeanna turned up her personal shields to compensate.

"You can actually ride them?!" the third exclaimed, his own excitement growing.

"If they allow it," Akadeanna admitted. "Why? What's any of this have to do with a bunch of Space Marines?"

Glancing at the silent one in the rear, she asked, "Nothing from you? Your companions seem pretty excited about the Pern dragons."

"They've heard a lot of rumors about the place," he remarked, squarely meeting her gaze. "There was a recent incident out in that region, and the FSP is sending an expeditionary force to secure the area and make certain no further dangers exist."

"I see," Akadeanna remarked.

She remembered that incident well. Akadeanna had had to call in a lot of favors to get a travel permit to go to Pern following that Kleevi attack. If it hadn't been for their Prime… and their dragons, the rest of the systems making up the FSP would've been caught up in a war even worse than the Nathi conflict. In her mind, it made sense what the FSP was doing, but it rankled that some of these military types could only think of the dragons. They just didn't understand.

"Have you ridden them?" the quiet one asked.

Intelligent, not overbearing, Akadeanna liked this one. Smiling, she nodded.

"What's it like?" the first one asked, nearly drooling with excitement.

"Very personal," she sighed, recalling her first flight, "and very exhilarating."

Glancing up, Akadeanna saw a couple of fighter craft zooming by. Pointing at them, she said, "Like strapping into one of those only not having any of the vessel's protective skin around you. Completely exposed. You have to be strapped into the dragon's harness or you'd go flying the moment one of them takes off."

Meeting their gazes, she added, "And the jump between? At least eight seconds of total sensory deprivation and bone-chilling cold. Most first timers never get over the terror."

That statement caused several of the Marines to gulp, looking about nervously. The lead one merely snorted.

"You lyin', girl?" he growled, looking like he was ready to punch her lights out.

"Maybe," Akadeanna shrugged, taking a long sip of her soda. "Then, again…"

"Gunny?" the third Marine asked, his voice betraying his fear.

Glaring at Akadeanna, the Marine Gunnery Sergeant merely huffed before hurrying off, the other two following. That the fourth one remained behind annoyed her a little. "What do you want?"

"To say thank you," he replied, bowing slightly to her, "for not pounding those three with your TK."

Akadeanna gasped. "How did you…"

Grinning at her surprise, he said, "Corporal Vance Benden, 85th Space Marines Brigade." Winking, he added, "I'm also a T6 telepath and T4 telekinetic." Giving Akadeanna an appraising look, he added, "I've a feeling you're higher than that… especially if you've flown on Pern dragons."

"I might be," she off-handedly commented.

She could feel him probing her shields but he didn't press it.

"Look, I've gotta run," he told her, glancing at his watch. "Do you eat here often?"

"About once a week," Akadeanna admitted. "I get tired of my own cooking at times."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," he grimaced, recalling some of his own failures.

The girl giggled briefly. Either she was a damned good telepath reacting to his memories of his past culinary failures, or she was just commiserating with a fellow disaster of a chef.

"Will I see you again?"

"You know something, corporal," Akadeanna surprised herself by saying, "I think I'd like that!"

"Great!" Corporal Benden sighed, smiling. "Catch ya later then!"

Akadeanna watched as he hurried off, waving to her as he disappeared around a corner.

"Well that was interesting," she sighed to herself, resuming her interrupted lunch.

The meetings became more frequent, Corporal Benden seeking Akadeanna out whenever he could. He was pleasant to be around, and she found it easy to talk to him… even about her doctoral work on ancient civilizations. One weekend when the two of them were free, they put together a picnic lunch and took a ground skimmer up into the nearby Altairian hills to relax, talk, and get to know each other better.

Vance was intrigued with her studies of Pern, how colonists from such an advanced civilization as the FSP had quickly devolved into a rather strict feudal system of government. He was especially disturbed to learn that his ancestor, Admiral Paul Benden, had been one of the leaders of the budding colony.

"But, Vance, don't you see?" Akadeanna tried to explain to him. "That's the whole point! They were trying to get away from technology, to develop a society that was more agrarian than they were accustomed to. Given the hardships of Threadfall, it follows that they would be more concerned with their survival than expending energy and resources to maintain their technology. They didn't want or need it! That's why they had come to Pern in the first place… to get away from technology. It was only when the descendants of the original colonists had finally grown weary of Threadfall that they turned to the knowledge their progenitors had left behind in AIVAS and used that newfound knowledge to bring about an end to Thread…"

"By using the explosive capabilities of the colony ships' power cores to blast the planetoid," Vance finished for her, "diverting it away from the trajectory that would take it through the Oort Cloud, preventing the planetoid from dragging any more Thread spores into the path of Pern, and eventually sending the planetoid spiraling into Rukbat, forever removing the vector that brought Thread to their world in the first place."

"Yes!" Akadeanna sighed, smiling at his understanding.

"I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it was for them to relearn all that science and technology," Vance muttered, shaking his head in disbelief, "much less how they figured out how to use it to solve their problem with Thread! It's stunning!" Turning to Akadeanna, he added, "That's going to make one hell of a doctor's thesis, Akie!"

Akie, his pet name for her. In spite of herself, Akadeanna smiled.

"Did you get to ride the dragons a lot during your stay planetside?"

Akadeanna shook her head. "Between dodging Threadfall and speaking with all the different representatives of hold, hall, and weyr, I had very little free time. Before I knew it, my visa had run out, and I was forced to return home."

"Do you miss it?"

"A little. I get back there from time to time. Since that Kleevi incident, the FSP has been staying in close contact with Pern, helping them to reintroduce the technology their ancestors could only dream about."

Looking up, Vance uttered a dark expletive. Leaping to his feet, he dusted off his uniform, glancing frantically about. He'd been so intrigued by their discussions that the sun had actually set!

"Bloody hell, I've stayed away too long! If I don't get back to base and quick, they'll report me as AWOL!"

"Then we'd better get you back to your base," Akadeanna told him, looking up into his kindly smiling face.

At her words, something massive moved out of the nearby shadows, enormous opalescent eyes that twirled and regarded him with intense scrutiny. Vance stumbled backwards, gasping as the creature stepped out into the light.

"A dragon?!" he hissed, absolutely bug-eyed to be seeing an actual Pern queen. "How? Where?"

And then, he remembered what she had told him. "Your doctoral studies on Pern! You were there… for a Hatching?!"

Smiling as she stepped up to her lifemate, Akadeanna nodded. "I didn't want to frighten you."

We didn't want to frighten you, Akadeanna's dragon silently added, glancing first at her rider then at him.

Vance slapped his hands over his ears, his eyes threatening to pop from their sockets. "I heard her! By the stars above, I heard her!"

"Well, of course you did, silly," Akadeanna chuckled, clapping him on the back. "Didn't you tell me you were a T6 telepath? Given that metric, I'd've been surprised if you didn't!"

It's nice to finally meet you, Vance, Akadeanna's queen said to him. I am Vornath.

"A rider!" Vance whispered, staring in awe at Akadeanna's queen and then at her. "You're a dragonrider!"

"And if we don't hurry," she admonished him, tossing a riding belt to him from her dragon's saddlebags, "you're gonna get in trouble!"

Vance made fast work of putting on the riding belt. He was a little nervous about following Akadeanna up to sit astride the immense dragon that was her lifemate. She made sure he was firmly belted in before giving her dragon the signal to take off.

Vance leaned into the leap, absorbing the launch almost as well as an experienced rider.

I have the fix, Vornath rumbled.

"Then get us there, my heart," Akadeanna implored her dragon.

In the blink of an eye, the threesome vanished from the skies of Altair VI. Seconds later, they appeared above the courtyard just outside the barracks where Corporal Benden was staying. Akadeanna and her dragon had just taken wing and vanished between when a shout just behind him nearly gave Vance a heart attack!

"Benden, where the bloody blue hell have you been?!" Gunny

Sergeant Dorslin roared, snarling at the wayward corporal.

"Sorry, Gunny, won't happen again," Vance responded, snapping to attention.

Gunny Dorslin looked like he was about to say something further but then just huffed to himself and stormed off out of sight.

Thanks, Vornath, Vance quietly sent, smiling up at the brilliant moon above. And please pass on my appreciation to your rider!

Will do! Akadeanna's queen replied. We'll see you again!

"I hope so," Vance sighed, heading into his barracks for some well-earned sleep.

Many possibilities lay ahead. Corporal Vance Benden was determined to give it his best. Now if he could just Impress a dragon…