Starship Armstrong - Season 1

Part 52 - Dragon Slayers (I)

While the core worlds had been rebuilding after the Reunification Wars for a little more than a decade, large swathes of what was once the heart of human civilization still lied in ruins. There were even still sectors in the core too dangerous for civilian space traffic, where autonomous weapons still waged the last echoes of the conflict.

The Armstrong was cruising through one such quarantined sector of space, on it's way back out to the periphery after an unexpected trip to Mars.

Captain Littlecrow was in no mood to play it safe. In fact, she was spoiling for a fight. The area of space the Armstrong was in was quarantined due to the presence of a particularly nasty piece of Reunification War technology nicknamed "the dragon". This was the dragon's territory, and unsuspecting ships here were like to be destroyed and cannibalized for parts.

The dragon was essentially a self-piloting warship of a type commonly seen during the Reunification Wars, albeit a particularly advanced specimen. They were dangerous and unreliable, and some of the really nasty ones were still around.

What set the dragon apart was a "learning" central computer of the same type as the Armstrong. This made the weapon capable of not only making repairs with pieces of it's victims but also making improvements to itself. Active for almost a century, the dragon had been making significant upgrades the whole time to both it's combat effectiveness and computer systems. It was now bristling with almost every weapon imaginable and terrifyingly intelligent. It's stealth systems almost meant it could stalk it's prey like a lioness.

It was programmed to kill everything except members of a civilization that was wiped out 60 or so years back. That meant that now, for all intents and purposes, it was programmed to kill everything.

The Captain had dealt with too many morally ambiguous situations lately. What she really wanted was some guilt-free stress release. So she deliberately took the Armstrong through the dragon's territory. She was baiting the thing.

Cleaning up this kind of thing was the purview of the Military Fleet, so hunting around for it was right out, but she could still try to provoke it on the way to her actual mission.

"Captain, I'm reading an usual heat signature," said Marceaux, his voice like sweet music.

An unusual heat signature? Like a cloaked weapon venting it's heat sinks?

"Well let's go see what it is," said Captain Littlecrow, unable to suppress her grin "Lieutenant Guildenstern, set a course for that heat signature. Shields up until we know for sure what it is."

"You're not fooling anyone," said Mitzner "You know exactly what it is. That's the whole reason we're here isn't it? We're hunting dragons."

"It's irresponsible," said Gibson "This is not covered by our mandate. It is a military matter."

"Don't listen to that black hole over there," said Mitzner "This may be the single greatest idea in the history of human space travel. Let's go slay us a dragon. We'll be legends."

"That's asinine," said Gibson "We're Foundation explorers, not Viking raiders. We shouldn't base our decisions on what will make people sing about us back in the mead halls."

"Your objection is noted, Commander Gibson," said the Captain.

"That's your way of saying you're going to do what you want anyway, isn't it?" asked Gibson.

"How perceptive of you," said the Captain.