1 A DRAGON, AT THE END OF SPACE
A DRAGON, AT THE END OF SPACE
"My lord Orion, please save us. We are being attacked by a Zomok", Kawi rushed into my tent to plead with me.
Kawi was the chief of the Kamini village who took me in after I mysteriously fell from the skies into this world of Ouamua after my world was destroyed by an Event that engulfed the entire Solar System.
My Artificial Intelligence assistant that I called Sara helped me learn the Kamini village's language through her observation of their speaking and expressions.
Sara was the most advanced technology of the 23rd century Earth that I came from. In my previous world, most humans were enhanced with AI assistance controllers like Sara, and she was my only friend.
Kawi and the villagers had the impression that I came from the heavens and was a prophet or deity that came to save their village, so they treated me with reverence.
"My lord, the Zomok wants us to offer him a damn bloody sacrifice, please help us whack that bastard", Kay a young warrior suddenly said to me.
Kay was one of the best warriors in Kamini village and a foul mouth.
He was in charge of my safety in this village, so I spent a lot of time with him, learning the language of this world from him and the manner that he used them.
But fighting against a Dragon was beyond Kay or anyone else for that matter, at least as far as the villagers were concerned.
But I wasn't just any of the villagers. I was sent from the Heavens to aid the Kaminis, according to the villagers' expectations.
"I'll see what I can do. Bring me to the sacrificial altar", I said to him.
Kay quickly brought me to the middle of the village.
-----
The villagers roamed the village frantically, with their spears and shields in their hands, as if they anticipated a fierce battle.
A sprawling stone altar dominates the center of the village, standing tall and imposing. Crafted from weathered obsidian, the altar's surface was etched with intricate, serpentine patterns that seem to writhe and coil when observed closely. The dark stone glistens faintly, reflecting the ethereal light of the stars above in the sky. The altar's edges were adorned with grotesque carvings of dragons, their fierce forms frozen in a perpetual state of menace.
I investigated the commotion and found a long pole in the middle of a raised altar platform recently assembled in the middle of the village, with a woman tied to it.
"Please help me I don't want to die", the woman pleaded with us.
The woman cried and pleaded for my help so instinctively I went to release her from her inhumane treatment, but as I walked toward her.
Looming nearby, breeze whispered through the forest, carrying with it a hint of smoke and incense, mingling with the faint scent of damp earth.
"Unknown object incoming", Sara sounded an emergency warning as I noticed a small flying ship approaching me.
No, it wasn't a vehicle that came but a winged animal about 30-meters in width, with bright red eyes and scaly skin and a head that resembled an alligator, that pumped smoky flames out from its nostrils and large opened mouth.
This was the Zomok that the villagers feared who extorted human sacrifices from them.
----
"What the hell is that creature?" I asked out loudly.
After being around Kay for some time, even my spoken language mimicked him.
"That is the bloody Zomok", Kay said to me in anger and hatred for the creature.
In the distance, an otherworldly roar reverberates through the sky, carrying with it a surge of raw power. The Zomok, drawn by the offered sacrifice, began its descent from the heavens, its majestic wings casting dark shadows over the village.
"Vrooosssh"
As it flew toward me, Sara detected a heat signature built up inside the creature's mouth, as a fiery flame soon blasted out of its mouth.
Instinctively I held out my hand to activate a Force field, but my generators were gone, so I had to elude it. I lost all my equipment after I came to this world.
So, Sara calculated the motion of the incoming flame and its momentum and determined the appropriate maneuvers I should take, as I jumped to avoid the flame.
However, I couldn't evade the flame completely, but I procured the most positive of outcomes and avoided the most intense portion of the heat, but the fiery blast did cover part of my shoulder in flames.
Fortunately, the little flame that seared me did little to my skin which was non-flammable and resistant to fire, so I simply brushed it off.
Sara made more calculations to counter the creature, but it wasn't necessary after all, as it soon became apparent that the target of the creature wasn't me, as the creature swooped down from the air to grapple the woman tied to the pillar which I planned to rescue and took her away.
----
There were no precedents where a creature could breathe flames from its mouth but from Sara's observations, the creature had lungs filled with compressed gases such as methane or hydrogen, which were probably instrumental to its ability to fly.
When the compressed gases mixed with organic napalm stored in a unique gland, were propelled through its mouth, which acted as a furnace of some sort, together they ignited the mixture to project an intense jet of flame.
Sara documented the creature's images and scans and reported her summary in her logs, and she found the closest comparable records from her database to the creature, was a resemblance to the Dragons from Earth's mythological past.
The villagers called the creature "Zomok" in the native Ouamuan tongue but in my language, I'll just call it a "Dragon".
"There are high concentrations of refined Neutronium inside the Dragon's heart", Sara informed me suddenly to my surprise.
The oddity was that the Dragon who attacked me had Neutronium within it, which was strange because Neutronium wasn't known to grow on biological matters on Earth. It was only found on the comet that I was researching in the Heliosphere of the Solar System.
The discovery was quite fortunate for me because since I reached here, the fuel in my fission reactor was almost depleted. And there appeared to be no way for me to replenish the fuel.
Neutronium was the fuel that powered my body's fission reactor, and it was fortunate for me to find them grown organically in this world.
With some modifications, I could use organic Neutronium found here to power my body's reactor.
---------
The Dragon that attacked me was a frequent offender who visited the village every few months to capture villagers for food or pleasure, and soon the Dragon was due to return.
"Please our holy prophet help us defeat the Zomok", Kawi and the villagers pleaded with me again.
The Dragon was the single greatest threat to the livelihood of the Kamini villagers and there was no one to turn to except a strange fella who fell from the skies.
"I'll see what I can do", I replied to Kawi.
After I fell into the Kamini village, I became a freeloader who was given free food and lodging without any payment. It was time I paid for my stay here.
Besides, it was the first time that I experienced my friends who needed my help. On Earth, I've never received friendly requests from friends who needed my help because we are discouraged to have social relationships.
I wanted to help my newfound friends.
"Killing the Dragon is easy with your phasers", Sara said to me.
Where I came from all humans were enhanced with bodies that were made from nanomaterials that were both tough and enduring.
So, my enhanced skin and muscle gave me strength and agility, far surpassing normal humans.
My skin could also protect against cuts up to A9 protection which could withstand a force of a 6-kilogram cut.
Also, I have equipped numerous scanners in my body that could detect infrared, ultra-violet, x-ray, radar, Neutronium radiation, and a myriad of other indicators which enabled me to observe my surroundings clearly and precisely.
The question that remained was how to kill a fire-breathing 30-meter large creature without any of my armaments.
I lost all my equipment when I fell into this world.
If I had my equipment with me, a single phaser would disintegrate the creature, but all my equipment was gone as I fell from the skies.
So, I couldn't deal with the Dragon all by myself. With my equipment all gone during the trip here, I was left with the only choice: to make my own.
--------------
Judging by the apparatus and utensils around the tents and camps, I concluded that the village wasn't technologically advanced, but they were industrious and orderly, and their leader was intelligent and capable.
"I need to make some weapons to fight Zomok", I told Kawi, the village chief.
"We will do everything that we can for you", Kawi replied to me.
The villagers complied with my requests without many questions. I was after all the savior in their mind.
I ordered the villagers to cut trees and melt iron, and we built several large Ballistae about 10 meters in width, together with hundreds of iron pikes to be used as Ballistae bolts.
To my surprise, the villagers were actually quite intelligent and they produced the weapon from my plans almost perfectly.
The smiths also forged several 5-meter-long iron lances with a double hook protruding from the head that could be used to snag and pull, and in jest I named the lance Dragonslayer, to commemorate the Dragon we were about to kill.
"What kind of darn weapons are these?" Kay asked me.
"They would be the weapons that will slay the damn Zomok", I replied to the best warrior in Kamini village who had never seen such strange weapons.
The Kamini villagers were used to their long pikes and spears that they used for hunting.
"These are the weapons of the Gods", Kawi said to the villagers as they knelt to the Ballistae that I made for them, and they danced and prayed.
------
The appointed time came for the Dragon to collect his due from the villagers.
But this time we have a surprise for the Dragon.
When the Dragon came again, I stood on the usual sacrificial platform altar with my back to the pole in the middle and pretended to be the Dragon's latest dessert.
"Swooooossshh"
When the Dragon swooped down to grapple me, I quickly grabbed the Dragonslayer beside the pole, and jumped toward the creature, and pierced its wings with my long lance.
The Dragon tried to free itself as it flapped its wings and propelled into the air, but the double hooks on the lance latched onto its wings firmly.
My Dragonslayers were tied to iron chains and fixed to the ground. The Dragon was trapped by my Dragonslayer that locked him to the ground with chains.
"Wroossssshh"
The Dragon breathed his flame on the iron chains that locked him. Although the iron was burning from the flame, the flame hasn't reached the iron's melting point.
"Argghhhhh"
Without waiting for the Dragon to free himself, I quickly grabbed another Dragonslayer to pierce his other wing.
With both double-hooked lances that chained and securely anchored the Dragon to the sacrificial platform, I jumped away from the Dragon's dining table to let the rest of the team do their work.
The Ballistae that I hid around the sacrificial platform locked onto the beast's position.
"Swish..swish..swish"
Suddenly Ballistae bolts were fired repeatedly at the Dragon.
The Dragon's skin was tough and armored.
Ordinary arrows would hardly dent the skin of the Zomok Dragon.
But what we shot at the Dragon were Ballistae bolts that were light weight pikes that were pulled by a mechanism that drew an output of force far greater than the average bow.
Eventually, even the Zomok Dragon was pierced by hundreds of our bolts until the beast resembled an angry porcupine with erected quills and fell onto the platform motionless.
The villagers were still fearful of the Dragon even when he was down. It took the passage of time to convince the villagers that the Dragon was indeed dead.
When the Dragon was ascertained and certified as dead, we moved to the platform to recover the corpse, and I carefully carved open its belly to locate its heart.
There were tiny nano-bots within my body which were in effect my body's construction crew.
In this case, they acted much like the blood which brought nutrients to the body but instead, they went into the Dragon's heart to retrieve the organic Neutronium inside the creature for my use.
"Hula…hula…hula…bom"
As my hands were absorbing the Neutronium particles from the Dragon's heart, the villagers thought I was making an offering to the heavens and my ritual demanded a sacrament, so they joined me in dance and chants, as I offered the heart to the sky and the Gods.
