The Drakonians traveled from the Alpha Draconis system, and they came because they saw the birth of a new planet. It was a rarity for anyone to see it happen, but Scientist Lira saw it from her telescope while on a shift in the observatory.
Scientist Lira specialized in Astronomy, a very important specialty for an interstellar species such as the Drakonians. In its entirety, the Drakonians had conquered three planets before the current Drakon 4 and were on the lookout for another one because their resources were diminishing quickly.
There was a lot of fear as to what would happen to the Drakonian’s if one wasn’t located soon. As advanced as they were, creating renewable resources had never been easy and often they never yielded the outcomes that the Drakonian’s wanted. It seemed easier just to find a new planet with ample resources and claim it as their own, but so far finding a new habitable planet proved to be more difficult than ever before.
Lira tapped her claws against the table. She pondered, was this more difficult than before? She was born and sorted on Drakon 4 and she only knew what she learned of Drakon 1 through 3 through the extensive history files they kept on the Space Storage Drives that were accessible on all their interconnected devices.
What if Drakon 5 could not be found? What if there were no habitable planets left? With this in mind, Lira searched with the telescope to faraway places they had not looked at and marked them in her journal as she went. It was nearing her break time and she had yet to find anything conclusive until she looked upon an area in space that emitted a white-hazy light, similar to Ox milk.
It was known as the Milky Way. She had read about it in the history files. The last time that the Darkonians ventured to that sector they had a humiliating battle with the Lyrans, superstitious race that believed in an all-powerful god.
Lira sniffed, stifling a laugh, the Drakonians had a history of that too, but it ended on Drakon 1. They had no need for “god”, they had the royals, who descended from the first Dragon, as he was known in the annuls.
It was said that he came to Drakon 1 and created the ancient Drakonians. And he died. Some god to die…
That was when she saw it. A star in that region ignited and large masses began to orbit around it. Quickly, Lira began to scan, sending their nearest satellites to look for a suitable planet amongst them. There had to be one.
She decided to take her break, feeling that she had now found the lead her people were looking for. She even felt a bit gitty, her black toe claws clacking as she subtly skipped down the gold plated upper deck walkway. Instinctually she closed her eyes and hummed, not aware of where she was going, and she just about bumped into her coworker Scientist Geb.
Scientist Geb was a biologist, specifically he was trained in genetics and happened to be a lead genetics engineer on Drakon 4. When it came to planetary expedition, he was expected to cultivate the planet and create domestic creatures to help in planetary conquest. Anything was possible with a little genetic manipulation. Introduce a new option in the food chain and watch the science happen.
They could even use the eggs from local fauna and manipulate them into entirely different species and watch them progress in a matter of minutes. Even change adult animals into something else entirely in a matter of months. Easier to take an egg and alter its genome than tamper with fully grown specimens, but one had to make due with the resources available.
Scientist Geb was carrying a stack of folders containing research on past Drakon planets. He was bored, and though they had taken samples from planets and engineered them into new viable resources for Drakon, he wanted something new to tinker with. Most of the old were long extinct, mutated beyond recognition from it’s original form, but it was still fascinating to read about and even dream about, specifically how he may have improved the resource from the very beginning.
Both Scientists collided and toppled to the floor, irritated and embarrassed that they would run into each other so deliberately.
“Watch where you’re going!” they shouted at each other, eyes narrowed and heads tilted downwards. Lira’s head bobbed a little; a nervous twitch when she got angry or felt threatened. Her tail swayed back and forth as they stared into each other’s eyes, waiting for the other to submit and apologize.
Geb was relentless. His head bobbed and his tail swished, making a whistling noise. His nostrils flared as he grunted. He pushed himself off the ground.
“Pick those up!” He gestured to the scattered files on the ground.
Lira, wanting to just take her break, fought the urge to bite his exposed neck. Her tongue flicked out. She relented and scooped up his files before picking herself off the floor.
“Keep your eyes open! I hope you’re not daydreaming at the telescope. You know the severity of our situation don’t you?” Scientist Geb pointed to a clock that hung on the cafeteria opening. It was what the Drakonians called a doomsday clock, counting down the end of their civilization. Lira squelched a smile. She wasn’t going to tell him anything. She couldn’t if she wanted to. Though her findings looked promising, she wouldn’t have confirmation for at least another hour.
She nodded. She didn’t want to waste energy with an audible reply.
He whipped his tail close to her face before he continued down the hall to the biology wing.
Lira was not a fan of Geb’s, though she admitted he did good work. She would need to keep herself grounded as the Drakon satellites did their work, but the thought of a new planet was able to put a spring back in her step.
The cafeteria queue was full with Drakonians of different factions, except for royalty, they were busy leading their nation. A faction was assigned after primary school, where every Drakon took the Skills Assessment, otherwise known as the sorting test. Royals, white Drakonians, didn’t have to take the test as they were perfect in every aspect and simply took the reigns of Drakon as the elders aged out.
Every Drakonian was born green (except the Royals; they were perfect), but after the sorting test, they would be genetically modified into the color of their faction.
Scientist Lira, was in the faction of Scientists and therefore was a yellow Drakonian. Scientists were those who received the highest scores on the sorting test. Just below the Scientist faction was the Officer faction; they led the vast Drakonian military and were indigo color.
Next were the orange Engineers and Tradesmen, then the violet Non-Commissioned Officers, the red Manual Workers, the blue soldiers, and the green Civil Servants. These were all fine to speak to, but one tended to stay within their marked color.
Scientist Lira grabbed a tray of food, specifically a sandwich made with stagmira meat, her favorite. She saw her usual break mates sitting at their usual table. Fellow Scientists Quarxley and Hydracollis, both subject matter experts in their scientific fields.
Scientist Quarxley was head of the physics department and Scientist Hydracollis was 4th chair in the chemistry department. The three often made times to meet with each other for break as the job was very individually focused. Everyone had a function and goals to complete, often leaving little to no time for social priorities.
Scientist Lira sat down and smiled. The other two were deep in conversation and didn’t seem to notice her arrival.
“I’ve found a new planet!” She said this as quietly as her excitement would allow, and it was just loud enough to grab their attention.
“Are you sure?” said Quarxley as she settled her used table ware on her tray. “The odds of that are 1 in 60 billion.”
“Well the Drakon race has been very lucky, since this is our fourth planet,” Hydracollis drank the rest of his stagmira milk.
“I saw it happen,” Lira instisted. “A star just ignited.”
Hydracollis’s eyes grew, “You saw a star ignite? You sent the satellites right away, correct? Data from that would help the Chemistry department greatly. We could possibly create our own stars!”
“But you said you found a planet? Just because a star ignited doesn’t mean there’s a planet, Lira,” Quarxley leaned back in her chair.
“Okay, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself,” Lira said, “But it was so amazing! My telescope just happened to be pointed in the right direction…”
“Lira! You sent the satellite drones, right? This is big news!”
“Yes, I sent them. Though specifically I sent them to the neighboring planets.”
Hydracollis sunk in his chair. Then stood up. “How long ago? I’m going to fix this.” He jumped out of his seat and jogged out of the cafeteria towards the Astronomy wing.
“Hydracollis! Your tray! Never mind. Idiot.” Quarxley picked up his tray. “Let’s go. I’m intriqued by your findings.”
“I haven’t even eaten anything yet!” Lira’s stomach growled as she shoved the sandwich into her mouth and galloped after her fellows.
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