Bonded at: Star City Dragonry

I-57v4n was found by a group of... fleshbags. It was clear that they'd located him in the middle of his 'storyline' - he was scraped and dented, but somehow still functional. His fierce glowing blue visual processors focused on them and ... knew them. As friends. He could not explain why this buxom female, and her two oddly similar male companions seemed friendly. They spoke to one another in a quiet language that I-57v4n knew to be an ancient version of Basic. He had a codec for that. Once he used it, their speech turned from garbled nonsense to vivid language.

"He's not even got any wet parts, Baeris," Vanya was saying. Doc Sanger of Carramba shook his head and nudged his tall dark partner.

"He's waking."

"I ... Am." I-57v4n said. His voice was synthesized but it still had a quality which they caught as their own. Baeris took that moment to grin widely, displaying her big white dental units. The 'bot Sanger tilted his head, and felt a strain on one of the servos. Nanobots were sent from their dwellpocket in his chest, and soon it was good as new. The gold dent in his chest could wait. "I have always wondered why we appear in this form," he said to Baeris. "It is clear to me that our ancient history has been adequately preserved in our kind. You are humans," he blinked carefully at Baeris and Crazy Doc. Then he turned to Vanya, "you are ... perhaps not human. Humanity created my kind in their image, and we have preserved that for generations."

Baeris glanced at Vanya and Crazy Doc, with a superior look. "I would say more than adqeuately," she replied. "I am Baeris, this is Vanya Sengihr, and Crazy Doc Sanger."

"Is that not a title?" I-57v4n asked. But Baeris hadn't even flinched when she spoke the odd name. I-57v4n tilted his head, blinked again, unsure.

"We have a lot of explaining to do," Vanya said.

"Not really," Crazy Doc spoke. "We're different versions, different dimensions versions of one person. You are one of us."

"That is clear to me, yes," I-57v4n said, nodding. His neck worked smoothly now, so the nanobots were sent in a hazy cloud to do their repair work on his chest cavity. Within minutes, the gold and flexisteel dent was smooth again. "I am designated I-57v4n." He pronounced it that way too - but the Crazy Doc gave a bit of a chuffle at that.

"Why do you laugh?" the 'bot said.

"Because your name is 13375p34|< for Istvan." And he said it that way too - Baeris wasn't quite sure she wanted to know. Vanya rolled his eyes. The hacker language was one they all conquered on Zekira a couple times, as computers came and went in popularity. Everyone had to be leet sometime in their history it seemed.

"Isst-van," the bot said, and nodded. "Yes. I see." Then, abruptly, he turned and looked up behind him. There was nothing - had he heard something the others didn't?

"Are you being pursued?" Asked Vanya. "We heard nothing but none of us picks up radio frequencies."

"I did hear something. Someone."

"I bet we know who," Crazy Doc muttered. He extended his hand, "come on, come with us. Leave this place, at least for a while. We've got things that will change your situation."

"Radically," Vanya asserted. He squinted into the distance and yes, there up in the sky was a hovervehicle of some kind. Flat bottomed, yellowish.

"I will come, but we must finish this, he and I." I-57v4n said flatly.

"You can finish it better," Baeris said, "once you've rested and seen what we have to show you."

I-57v4n looked back at her, and she could have sworn that his immovable face - handsome though it was but frozen in time and without possibility of expression - had sneered.

"Look," Crazy Doc said, "we've all had to fight him. Realize that in most universes, he's already killed us. We're trying to keep that from happening to you."

The bot stood straighter, and then nodded. "You are correct, of course. He would terminate me eventually. Though I am stronger and certainly process better. Why is that?"

"That's a question we've been trying to answer for decades," Vanya said, as he rounded up their group while the hovercraft searched above.

***

They'd landed on a flat, dark terrain. From above it merely looked like it was part of a circular hole, but I-57v4n insisted that it was the top level of a facility. One which he'd run away from, but had been moved while he was away, and was now disused and abandoned. There were remnants of old machinery, things which almost looked like skeletons and body parts - if only they were organic. Nothing on this world seemed organic any longer, save the trio of Sangers, and their dragons.

Well, two dragons, and one on loan from someone else.

"You've got to get your own dragon," Vanya muttered to Crazy Doc as they mounted up. Since Ruarth was the biggest of these three, putting tiny Dulath to shame and only about a notch bigger than Sixth, the Zekiran offered to take I-57v4n back to the Healing Den.

The bot Sanger was apparently confused, but he saw how the wings of the dragons flared, and glanced back at where J-0n8y3r was still scanning the ground. "These ... animals... will fly us to safety?"

"They'll do better than that," Vanya smiled. "Now hang on to me, I know you can keep your balance on the ground like we all can, but flight is something that every one of us takes a little differently."

"I have been on that hovercraft more than once," I-57v4n said, and the hollow tone of his quiet vocal modulation told Vanya volumes. Of course he'd tried to escape. He'd also been captured more than once, too.

But the hovercraft was nothing at all like the feeling of strong sinue and muscle pulling bone and leather skin up into the air. The powerful stroke of Ruarth's first wingbeat was enough to jar I-57v4n into a stiff position, but then he took his cue from Vanya. Relaxing in as much as a steel and plastic creation could, the bot leaned when Vanya leaned, took every detail in via many of his external processing units.

He could memorize how to fly just by sitting there, of course. He saw the female Baeris and her minty golden green dragoness leap into the air first, followed by the blue dragon Sixth and Crazy Doc, they circled and went into a holding pattern while Ruarth got into the air.

He is heavy, the dragon bespoke, and Vanya nodded.

Yes, but he's one of us, and if you complain we'll have to go back to lifting practice.

No - no, that won't be necessary of course, my rider... Nope. Ruarth got a grip on himself, and they flew into the sun.

Over this world, the sun still rose and set. But the devastation that the humans had wrought across it was obvious. At first glance there were huge cities, domes where the machine people lived. But then on close inspection those were surrounded by what used to be skyscrapers, twisted metal and stone landscapes. Was it Earth? It might have been but now it was 34r7|-|.

"We're going to teleport now, to our home," Vanya said. "Do not let go of me until we are there."

"Yes," I-57v4n said, and gripped slightly stronger. The two other dragons vanished from sight - and while the hovercraft was gaining on the last dragon, Ruarth too vanished.

***

"I have no words to describe what just happened," I-57v4n said. "Could you ..."

"We teleported," Crazy Doc Sanger said, "through space, and time. And dimensions, I suppose. Here we are," he waved his arm into the air and indicated the cement walls and rough-hewn stone chambers of the Healing Den, "home again. This is the Healing Den, it's where Baeris makes her permanent home, and most of us Sangers can call sanctuary if we need to."

"I used to have such a sanctuary," I-57v4n said, quietly.

"What happened to it?" Vanya asked.

"J-0n8y3r destroyed it, and the lines that worked there."

"He does that," Crazy Doc said, annoyed. "We'll send you back when you're good and ready, I," they turned into the hall where most of the resident dragons lounged around, where their riders played games or worked out, did their crafts, or just watched tv. "But for now, you're going to get to know some of us, and we're going to figure out where to send you before going back home."

***

They decided upon a place that was in a space station, and appropriately enough, a place where one of the Alabaster team had a dragon clutching. The big queen Qutteth had some undisclosed number of eggs on their sands, and it was said - though how that rumor got started was a mystery - that there were going to be altered eggs.

"Altered?" Asked I-57v4n.

"Cyborwared," said Crazy Doc. "Adding machine and computer parts to organic bodies. We've done it here, but only to people, not to dragons."

"If there's one for you anywhere," Baeris said, "it will be at Star City."

They gave him instructions, which he memorized simply by looking. Nothing could escape his memory. There were things he wanted to forget - things which Vanya and the other Sangers (a good number of them were there at any given time, it appeared, and they all welcomed him) indicated that if they could, all of them would forget.

But then, who would they be, if they didn't have those things inside them?

"Teachers," I-57v4n said quietly to himself as they flew off to Star City, "inventors. Programmers. Runners. Leaders."

"Yes," said Cynonix, who had offered brown Ishioth as a larger transport to Star City, "that is who we'd be, but then we wouldn't be 'us'."

"I shall think on this, but I would still prefer to have been left alone by J-0n."

"We all wish that..." Cynonix said, and they teleported in.

He would find himself gazing at the windows of certain businesses often. Some for clothing, but he needed no clothes. Perhaps he'd get a cloth robe or something to make himself seem more organic, later. What he really wanted was one of the little bot cats or birds or flitters. The organics loved them. They could be very handy. He'd seen organic animals around too, but there were many here that were entirely created from plastic and wire and metal and glass.

Like himself.

So before the hatching occured, before the distinct humming of the dragons announced their kin's arrival, I-57v4n went back to one of the shops. Hesitating, he hovered at the door. When another customer came out, grinning widely and carrying a package that seemed to hum, the droid Sanger made his metallic mind up. He'd have to go in.

When he entered the store, I-57v4n was 'stunned'. The place was amazing, filled with parts and pieces, it looked far more like 'home' than he could have imagined. Memories came flickering across his databank, when he made one device and J-0n destroyed it, made another and hid it away... If he had tear ducts, he'd have watery eyes.

"Tskch'kkhatch fkchatt 'k'kt?" The .... person ... at the counter asked, I-57v4n was hesitant to wonder what in the world - any world - it was. But then a flying droid with a burnished auburn hull came swooping around into the room.

In a metallic voice not unlike K-4r3n's back at AR, she said, "may we help you today?"

Every component in I-57v4n's brain lit up. He translated the next statement halfway before the fem-droid did, and when the caretaker of the shop, Archimedes, said, "well don't stand there all day, we've got other customers to tend," I-57v4n stepped forward and said, in the same language as the anthro-insect, "I am here to buy a pet!"

That shut the fem-droid up, for half a moment. "Well I can see when I'm not needed," she said and almost seemed to spark on the way back into the other room. I-57v4n could detect her on the other side of the wall, listening in.

The bug-person behind the counter narrowed his eyeparts, and commented, "that's a first."

"I learn quickly, and languages and code are a specialty of mine," the droid Sanger said. "This place is... wonderful. I build replacements, children, machines... Back home," he was almost wistful. If he knew how to be.

"Do you now?" Archimedes said, clicking his mouthparts in ways that no human could decode.

I-57v4n could hear the little noises, the palpates and mandibles sliding around. "I did, anyway," he said. "I was very good at it, too."

"Well I've already got two assistants, don't need any more." The Mantis said, turning a bit. I-57v4n noticed a small humanoid bot dusting, pausing only for a moment to almost glare at him.

"I - I do not mean to imply that I am better than your services," the Sanger said quickly. He realized a social faux pas when he performed one. Maybe.

"Well, what kind of pet did you want, then?" Archimedes said almost in a huff.

"I... I do not know." I-57v4n said lamely, he would have gulped and blushed, had he been organic. "I do not know because I have never been allowed to have one before. I wish to, I feel lost."

"Then get a dog!" The fem-droid in the back called out, and hurriedly 'looked busy' as though nothing had been said.

I-57v4n glanced at the models that were shown and on display. The 'dog' version... It was attractive, but there was something faintly bothering the droid. "I ... do not think I am much of a 'dog person'. Nor do I feel like a flying-insect, no offense intended."

If Archimedes took offense, he didn't say anything.

I-57v4n pondered the other available units. There were sketches and advertisements for several that hadn't made it to the showroom floor, but while they intrigued him, the 'mini dragon' anyway, they were not available and wouldn't be for some time to come. And he wanted a pet - not a hovering eye, like the fem-droid assistant.

"The feline," I-57v4n finally said, "but does it come in black?"

"It could," Archimedes said, pulling out a book filled with information. He gazed down it, two of his hands occupied with flipping pages while the others alternately preened his antennae or tapped on the countertop. "It would cost you."

I-57v4n jolted a bit, knowing that he had no real income here. "What would you ask for in trade?" He asked. A momentary battle of wits with the mantis brought out that he was in need of certain scrap parts, and some finely scored memory chips.

"If you come back with that, I'll start work on the bot. Not before." Archimedes closed the price list book with a flourish, and that seemed to close the deal as well.

I-57v4n assured him that soon, he'd be back with those things, and he left the shop with a new kind of life to his step.

***

His journey around Star City eventually led him to a kind of parts depot. At least it didn't cost anything to sift through that stuff. He'd tried to pick up a couple parts elsewhere only to find that they were still connected to someone or being used as 'art' or something. Weird. I-57v4n's experiences here were certainly fleshing out his knowledge of how society worked. He hoped that this would allow him to return home and ... perhaps change the way things were.

Perhaps he would create a new K-4r3n and 3-n6311, they would have their 'offspring' K-y13.

I-57v4n shook his head a little, an expression that he'd picked up from being around so many organics. It was folly to think how much he could do while he was here. He had to bring home a dragon, first. He had to do that.

He poked around the depot for usable parts, and found a good number of clean, almost unused looking ones. The memory cards were harder to locate, but they too were here in this stash. At least one worked very well, he tested it by running a tiny fibercord from his power source and listening in on the results.

Then, with his trade goods in hand, he re-entered the Emporium where the mantis-man and his odd companions worked.

"I have brought the parts you asked for," I-57v4n said in his synthetically deep voice. He had picked up some inflections from the humans, but in the Mantis 'tongue' it was almost gone anyway.

Archimedes looked through the pile of goods, at first clearly trying to find fault with them, but then seeing it was all useful. He nodded, his carapace shining under the shop's lighting.

"Then I will get started on this. Your FCD, you said you wanted class A?"

I-57v4n nodded again. "I would not deny its choices."

"Might run away," Archimedes commented.

"That would be its choice, then. It would be my duty to make its life with me better than without."

"Ooooookay. And teleparts? With a cat'bot?"

"I require extra eyes and ears, when I am to return home. My dragon will be --"

"Wait, wait," Archimedes made a very human like gesture with four of his hands, "you're standing to bond?"

"Of course," I-57v4n said, "that is why I am here at Star City."

Archimedes' eyes blinked, and then he got back to his paperwork. "... Teleparts."

"Can they defend themselves?"

"They've got claws, like felines," Archimedes said. "I don't know if I could install a laser pod on a feline unit, they're kind of small."

I-57v4n nodded. He refrained from actually saying that he could make one that small and functional, perhaps he'd do it later, himself. He would be performing any repairs needed on it, anyway, once they got home.

He was feeling something odd in his processing unit. It was not unlike that which he felt the moment that he reached the Healing Den - it was hope, mixed with excitement. He was getting his own pet!

"Now, this will take some time. We'll contact you at your dorm, if you're staying at the dragon bonding zone." I-57v4n indicated he would be. "You might have a dragon by then, but don't forget we're making your FCD."

"I cannot forget," I-57v4n said. "Thank you very much, I look forward to picking it up."

He heard the mantis and his fem-droid talking about him as he exited, but he did not care. Let them talk. He would have a pet now!

***

Before anything else could happen, perhaps two days later, I-57v4n heard that rumbling hum that told of hatching eggs. If he had a heart, it would have skipped a beat. This excitement was overbearing, as was the press of human and humanoid flesh on all sides.

He had found himself a robe in the meantime, but he didn't feel like wearing it. How would his dragon know what to look for if he were cloaked?

It turned out, that the dragon would know regardless. They all knew.

Since this clutch had been widely experimented upon, with many eggs put into the labs and altered, I-57v4n was almost convinced that he would be bonding here. But what would it be like? And when?

It was somewhat into the hatching, I-57v4n did not know how many eggs there were, so he refused to let himself do a running ratio of hatchings per eggs, that a pair of them broke open at once. A female cream, unaltered, and a darkly colored bronze.

The bronze had a tail that was cyborware rump to end. He looked out with intelligent eyes, pausing now and again as he looked over the candidates. He was more listening in to things. Wavelengths.

This dragon had built in Teleparts, clearly. Because he walked up to I-57v4n and sat, gleaming. He made a beautiful noise with his real voice, to attract the Sanger bot's attention, and then spoke directly to him via the electronic brain.

Testing... 1, 2... Iy-five-seven-vee-four-en, that's you, right? Can you hear me alright? Hey... can I call you 'Iy'? I'm Odypyth, though I suppose you could call me... 0-c1ypy7h, if you'd prefer call numbers.

The Sanger bot would have widened his eyes if he could, but the plastic on his face limited what expressions he could give. Using the same frequency as the dragon had, he replied, Of course you can call me Iy, 0-c1ypy7h. I am pleased to have you as my bond.

That is good. Now I need to eat. If I go home with you, you'll have to feed me.

I-57v4n knew that, but wasn't sure how he was going to do it. There was very little in the way of organic life left at home. Perhaps the Healing Den will allow us to dine there, regularly. He replied, and the dragonet seemed happy with that. They were about to leave the sands for that first meal, when the big nonhuman recordskeeper stopped them and asked the name.

"0-c1y..." He said, "I mean Odypyth." The recordskeeper was happy with that, and they were allowed to move on.

Iy, I think that you've been hurt too much. I will make sure that you will not be hurt again. You can take the time to make your inventions again. The dragonet stood up with bloody meat still shining on his teeth, I will stand guard.

"Thank you, Odypyth. When my FCD model is built we ... will almost be like a family."

Odypyth seemed to purr with pleasure at that.

When he was done eating, Odypyth gazed oddly at I-57v4n.

May I have one?

The Sanger 'bot's blue ocular units switched from one mode to the next, trying to reflect the thought within his processors. They walked toward the newly bonded's dorms.

"Have.... one... what?" He asked as they arrived. His dorm was now fitted with a dragon-sized 'couch' and feeding area, and since I-57v4n's needs never included bathing or eating himself, that space was more effectively used for the dragon's own needs.

A pet. An FCD - feline cyber droid. Your memory told me what you have done to get one, may I have one?

I-57v4n tilted his head in a human-like gesture. "I would have to go back and order it. There would probably be an extra charge..." But the thought of digging through another yard worth of scrap was actually something he sensed the dragon was excited about. It would certainly be something he'd be doing once they got home, so all the practice he could get, right?

"Tomorrow, when you have rested, I will see if we can go to the Emporium again. I do not think that the first one is done yet, they seemed very busy last time I was there."

You like being busy, Odypyth said. I am sleepy now... will you watch over me?

"As you will when you grow," I-57v4n said. He touched the smooth soft skin of his dragon. His sensors told him that the skin would need regular bathing - now he knew he would get some good use out of that robe he'd bought. It would keep him dry!

Odypyth roused early enough, before any instruction classes or demands from the Dragonry required them to be present. So I-57v4n and Odypyth set out to the Emporium again. The dragon could read the 'bot's memories, but he wasn't very good at sorting through them in any kind of order.

When you escaped, weren't there other people? To rescue?

"Rescue? 0c1ypy7h I do not think rescuing other people was on my mind at the time." He sighed. "I suppose that makes me a bit of a coward, but I knew the odds of my survival in that situation, and they were not good."

Then I will balance them! I will make them even better!

"You will do an exemplary job, once you are grown."

I am tired of walking, the dragonet said. His tail was dragging on the metal floors, and I-57v4n picked him up effortlessly. Thank you.

They arrived at the shop, it wasn't busy yet but there were people outside in the area, going about their own business. Archimedes looked up with his oddly shaped head and tapped his fingers on the counter by the dozen.

"We haven't finished your unit yet." He said curtly.

"I know, I realize that it has only been a short while. Look," he proudly held up the half-sleepy bronze, "I have bonded at the dragonry!"

There was the oddest feeling in I-57v4n's processor. It was ... pride? A good healthy dose of it. How could anyone expect someone like him - an entirely synthetic person - to bond an organic creature like his dragon?

"I see," The mantis-man said. "And.... can we help you today?"

"Yes, you can, I hope," I-57v4n said. "0c1ypy7h - Odypyth, he knows that I am expecting an FCD. And... He wants one." The now-slumbering dragon clung on to the 'bot's shoulder instinctually, his metallic tail wrapped around the human droid's waist. "I know that sounds a bit... odd. But if I could get two, instead of just one, and call it his, I believe he would be satisfied."

Archimedes blinked a couple times. "You want to buy a cyborpet for your dragon."

"Essentially. Yes."

"You won't have time to go out and get more for trade, do you have any actual money?" Archimedes' one pair of arms reached for the order book.

"I have a little, I suppose that I could send for more, my ... my friends at the Healing Den would bring me some."

"Then what is it you want this time?" The artificer asked, with what might be a smile on his mouthparts.

"To be different, perhaps a shade of grey, not white - there is very little left on my home that is white. Grey and static would fit in better." I-57v4n actually pondered another aspect, but realized that he would hardly be worth his word if he chose a class B instead of A, for this second pet. Hypocracy wasn't something he wanted to practice. He requested that it also be of the more independant thinking version, with teleparts to help everyone keep properly in touch.

Then they had to get back to the dorms - their first class together would be starting soon, and neither bot nor dragonet wanted to miss it. Of course, the dragon was a bit sleepy ...

It was after a busy day training with the flight masters - stretching wings and flapping hard enough to almost get off the ground - that I-57v4n recieved a little capsule message on his dorm's reciever. It listed only an address and a time, but he knew the significance of those numbers!

"The pets are ready," he said mostly to himself. O-c1ypy7h was snoozing in the sunlamped dragon room just down the hall, which opened up onto the training dome. Iy decided to slip away silently and retrieve his new pets, and surprise the dragon with them when he woke up.

Being around humans and near-humans was doing the 'bot a huge amount of good. At least, in his ocular processors, it was. He was what they would call 'more relaxed' and 'happy' for the first time in his life. Yet there was always a dread forming in the back of his processor, it was that he would some day have to return to his home world and put a stop to J-0n's slave ring.

"The best way to do that," he said to himself in a rather cheerful metallic voice while he made his way through the busy street, "is to collect these pets and be able to surround him."

The door buzzer sounded but it was to a busy room that Iy entered. All three attendants, Archimedes and his odd created assistants, were busy with customers. I-57v4n stood quietly in the corner, watching the others retrieve their goods, trade, or barter for their own bots.

Finally there was a lull, and Iy stepped forward. "I recieved the message that I was to come here, are the comissions ready?"

"They are," Archimedes said in his own clicking-and-ticking tongue. He pulled a small device from the counter, and pressed a button. Then, shortly, two feline units came walking out of the back room.

Together they were dark and darker, both entirely to the specifications of Iy's request. One, the black one, walked along the counter emulating a feline entirely. It came to Iy's side, looked the 'bot Sanger over, and bumped its head onto his shoulder.

"I believe that means it likes me," Iy said. If he could, he would smile. The other, the static shaded one, acted a little more aloof until I-57v4n turned to look at it. "It is all right, you will be guarding my dragon, he needs someone to tend when I am busy."

"I am supposed to think that's a good thing?" Asked the droid cat.

"I ... hoped it would be." Iy said. "If you do not like us, you do not have to stay with us. But we will be the only way you can find repairs," he looked at Archimedes and would have winked - he dimmed one eye a bit to that effect. "And power sources if you run down."

"It would be mutually acceptable to me and this dragon, then," the cat bot decided, "so I will accept."

"You've got some guts, giving these things free will, they're meant to act like cats - ever meet a cat?" the red-domed floating assistant commented, in her metallic female voice.

"I have not, but I believe that these are acceptably within the parameters I have studied." Iy said. "Will you like to walk with me, or would you rather I carry you back to my dormatory?" He looked at the pair of feline droids. "It is a fairly long walk, and it is busy outside. I do not ... want you to get lost."

"You paid good money for us," the black feline unit spoke for the first time, "I would hope you'd want to keep us close. I will walk first, and then I will be carried. That is good for both of us. We have not been outside our birth place yet."

The static colored one made a harrumph noise but did not object to being picked up and carried halfway to the dorms. Both units were wide-eyed and alert, they were doing their job and feeding back information to I-57v4n as they walked.

"I enjoy this relationship already," Iy said, performing a very human-pet action and stroking the exterior of the silvery-static colored feline bot. "Now, we will enter quietly. O-c1ypy7h does not know I have been gone."

Both feline droids assumed slinky positions near the ground and began to explore the dorm. While it was the black one that found the dragon's part of the den first, it would be the static colored one that walked in proudly and proclaimed, "you are the dragon I have been assigned to protect. I would like to see where we will be resting in our down time."

If the other cat had thumbs, it would have aimed one at the static grey bot and shrugged.

Odypyth looked up with surprise, and then his metallic tail slithered around and thumped the floor. I am ... you - got me a feline! I had almost forgotten that we were waiting for them!

"I would not expect you to remember everything, after all you were only just hatched when we visited the Emporium."

The cat bots got used to the pair of Istvan and Odypyth, and chased each other around the dorm. Just like cats.

You should now ride me, he commented. He was clearly wanting to make sure everything would work perfectly when they got home.

"It's a good idea," I-57v4n said, "though I must admit that I am a bit... excited? At the prospect."

One or two of the humans nearby glanced at him doubtfully at that, but the Sanger bot didn't notice or didn't respond to them.

"The riding harness is not comfortable for you, is it?"

Not really but I will adjust. It is not a problem.

I-57v4n climbed to the side of his nearly grown dragon, who crouched down a bit for him to get into the harness. With a little difficulty, since he had joints that were exposed and paneling that could catch on things, I-57v4n settled himself into the harness and got used to the oddity of riding again. It had been nearly a year since he'd ridden a dragon, but it came back to him as quickly as accessing that memory card.

We will try to lift off, Odypyth said, and I-57v4n nodded. He clung to the neck of his beautiful bronze, and they bobbed into the air for a moment, then landed again. You are heavy!

"Well I carried you for almost the first whole month of your life, O-c1ypy7h, it's only fair that you carry me for a bit..."

After another couple months worth of training, eating, and growth, it looked like the silver-tailed bronze was ready to teleport home. For the moment, that meant to the Healing Den. I-57v4n was not quite ready to go back to his home world. He wanted to show off the beautiful bronze he'd bonded first!

Do not forget our cats!

"I cannot forget them," I-57v4n said, "They are always recharging on my lap when I sit down."

"You like it when we do that," purred the black one, 1k4 (or, Ika) said. His static colored twin 1k5 (Iks) agreed with a mechanical purr.

But I-57v4n sensed something new in the mind of his organic companion. It was as though he wished he had something else, a token of rememberance of this place.

"We will probably come back, Odypyth," I-57v4n said. But that did not for some reason satisfy the dragon.

He looked around and then saw a brightly colored alien girl walk by his rider on the platform nearby. I want that! I want to have one of those lumi-things!

I-57v4n knew what he had just seen from the image implanted in his head, but he turned to look with a strange silence at the girl anyway. Her skin was covered in glowing light, it was pretty.

"I think I know what to do," I-57v4n said.

That afternoon they returned for the last time to Archemides place, and asked about lumiwear.

"You've got your hatching token, don't you?" Asked the mantis in his typical fashion. I-57v4n nodded. "Then let him browse the goods. Most of these I can put together shortly. Won't take a moment."

In the back of the shop, where an open area fit for dragons to rest was placed, Odypyth looked over all the different things he could have attached to himself. I do not want claws, or spines - you might get caught on them and the cats will not like those. Oooh but what about that? I think these will do nicely!

I-57v4n indicated to the shop keeper what his dragon wanted, and within the hour, Odypyth came from the back of the shop proudly displaying his new 'duds'. His wing sails had been emblazoned with eye-like markings.

Butterflies use these! I will use them to confuse your enemies! He fanned his wings and the light strobed around. I-57v4n was sure that he was right. That would keep them guessing.

With everything he had bought - which was surprisingly a sizable amount of junk and parts, clothing and souvenirs - packed and ready to go, I-57v4n, the cats Ika and Iks, and Odypyth bid farewell to Star City at least for a while.

Their return to the Healing Den was quick, and celebrated!

"I do think we should get going," I-57v4n said with a sigh. "But if you would really like to go back, we can do that. We shall leave the cats here, they do not take well to teleporting."

"That is right," said Iks, who was sitting on a pile of supplies. His black companion was asleep on the chair that I-57v4n would use. "We will wait for you, we only want to travel once."

Then can we? O-c1ypy7h tilted his head and I-57v4n nodded.

They went back to Star City just for a bit, a brief visit. They'd seen another batch or two of eggs hatch and bond, but were busy learning the ways of flight. Now, Ody wanted to just look around the place. As a dragon he was a well-respected member of society. As an artificial, the Sangerbot was as close as he could get. The halls were built mainly for bipedal traffic, but were wide and tall, and the dragon was quite adept at keeping his horns out of the ceiling and his tail out of traffic.

"It is busy today," I-57v4n commented. "There are quite a number of new dragons here."

They watched, but did not quite comprehend what was happening. A large number of eggs had hatched, that bore mutt-mixes as well as the dangerous xeno-dragons. Colorful, talkative, these dragonets seemed to be milling about until someone or other picked one up or allowed it to follow them away from the grounds.

"This is quite strange," I-57v4n said.

I liked it when we were the center of attention, O-c1ypy7h said, turning his head side to side. All eyes were on the hatchlings, of course. But they are kind of cute.

If the Sanger bot could smile he would have. They were indeed adorable mutts. But, eventually there were fewer and fewer, so attention waned. I-57v4n looked around to see some announcement board, while his dragon began to walk toward their take-off point to exit.

Please do not go, said a voice very clearly in both Odypyth's and I-57v4n's minds. I would like to come with you, if I may...

"Who... said that?" I-57v4n said, cautiously. He'd rarely heard other dragons or voices in his mind, his processors thought it was a female voice though. Not like O's.

It is I, M-1d0r1d0|<17h, her voice got louder as they approached. I-57v4n walked down a ramp, while O-c1ypy7h remained on the ledge above. He tilted his head down though, to sniff at her.

She was copper colored, brightly orange body, with grassy green wing sails and markings. A very striking girl indeed!

"Would you like to come with us?" I-57v4n asked politely. The dragonet, Midoridokith in human tongue, nodded once. "Then I will carry you. Have you eaten?"

I have, but I will grow hungry again soon.

"We can feed you," I-57v4n asserted. Some of those supplies they were to carry with them had a portal that would be openable over a lake, where Odypyth could fish. He loved fishing, it was so completely different than anything he could do even while at the Healing Den. So he would be fishing for them both.

Proudly, he flared his wings when Midoridokith asked how they were to go. I will be flying us. It will be cold but your skin is dragon skin - you will not feel it much.

Thank you, she said, and pulled her long tail around I-57v4n's waist as he picked her up.

"The cats will be angry," he said.

Why would they be angry? They will enjoy her!

"They will think that they are not as valuable to me any longer, but they will see - they will have a new friend to guard."

I-57v4n looked into the keen eyes of his new dragon, a companion that he hardly expected to have at all, and smiled inside.

***

Midoridokith grew quickly, in the strange world of I-57v4n's home. He had set up a place near a lab, with a broken building overhanging it, something that looked as though it would topple any minute. But it was structurally sound, sturdy enough for the dragons to land upon or even lay in.

Midoridokith was sleek, learning to fly from her elder companion. She learned to run and hide, from the cats. From I-57v4n she learned devotion and attention. True, the cats were a bit stand-offish at first. But then they also noticed that her wing sails were nice to hide under, her skin was warm, and she seemed to enjoy their company as much as anyone's.

They would play hide and seek, honing their senses to this environment. If J-0n came near, they would know. It would be a while before he showed his sensory clusters though. They had time to play while the female grew up.

Name: Midoridokith (M-1d0r1d0|<17h)
Gender: Female
Colour: Copper Green
Breed: Mutt - unknown parentage
Size: Medium (originally 18' but unknown whether that was head or shoulders, so it's head now) 9' s / 33' l / 40' ws
Powers: Winged Flight
Teleportation
Telepathy
Firebreath?
Personality: a cautious, but strong willed female. She makes decisions for herself, but is not afraid to go with the group or listen to I-57v4n's instructions. She is playful, to a point. When she knows there is work to be done, that is what gets done first and foremost. But after the work's put away, she will call the cats and chase them around with glee. She is interested in Odypyth as a mate, but is not quite old enough to know that yet.
Cyborware: None available.