"Commander, Commander," the second Zdiek screamed as he ran up and down...

The ship's captain was watching his giant screen with the live images from the probes. But he wasn't looking at the images from the old base.

His daydream interrupted, he turned to Zdiek...

Breathless, "Commander, don't you think it's strange, torches lit around the base... fire... and the torches are new.

Raptors were hidden, yet the animals weren't unnaturally frightened by the probes which are inaudible, the scans all the time ignored by the animals. Their reaction was bizarre, like a tribe.

It's as if they own the whole territory, no other species.

Which is abnormal..."

Yamato: "You're not second best for nothing I see. Good deduction. "

He took a pause and then resumed: "The planet is inhabited. We don't know anything and obviously the only evidence is here. Survivors maybe... we'll send in the settlers and instruct them to look for any trace of civilisation and a rescue mission is in order. If there are survivors, we'll rehabilitate them. If they're natives, we'll limit contact so we can analyze their civilization or culture.

If they are isolated individuals, they will be treated as shipwrecked.

We'll see once we have more information."

The captain withdrew from the deck to go to his office and update his logbook.

A day passed.

My females began to hunt and I inspected my territory. I loved the little ones and wanted to play with them all the time. They were scared but would quickly form groups to hunt prey larger than themselves.

I watched two cubs that had captured a small herbivore. A psittacosaurus, I think...

In an instant it was torn to pieces

From an early age, they knew how to hunt by instinct. Small but formidable.

Seeing what the little ones were capable of, I didn't dare imagine the adults.

After Vicky and I walked around the base, we went for a swim at the beach.

I was happy, but inside me, there was a touch of anxiety.

I feel like I'm forgetting something important, but what?

I think I'm hurting. But what?

Then, suddenly, the birds fell silent and flew away.

The insects shut up and all the little animals living in the tunnels ran away.

A few seconds later there was a tremor, small and inconspicuous, followed immediately afterwards by a huge shaking.

The ground shook and the mountain seemed to swell.

Then the silence and the pain in our heads. We couldn't hear anything anymore.

Nothing more, only the excruciating pain that threw us all to the ground.

The next moment, a terrible explosion...

The top of the mountain had just exploded, followed immediately by a pyroclastic cloud.

"Iiiiiiiiiii"

Fled the rocks that rained like bombs. Luckily the rocks didn't reach the base.

Like a cone, sheaves of washing were sent up to the sky. A pyroclastic and fiery flow of fire descended from the slopes of the mountain. All the vegetation disappeared, leaving only rocks and boulders in place.

The tip of the mountain was cut off and only a cone remained from which smoke and lava came out under very high pressure. The sky quickly filled with black smoke and lightning bolts sprinkled the cone and the smoke.

The east was terrible, like a crazy blowtorch.

The raptors all stuck against me and Dantinne, frightened, asked me "What is it?"

Me: "Mommy who protects us ... Eeeeh ... you speak? How is it possible?"

The grunts were structured, of the draconian primordial ...

Dantinne: "It came like that, alone."

I started thinking... Mom's words... my poison. Lickings and my adventures... yes, that's it.

Dantinne had changed and when I turned around, I saw those I had contaminated and those who were not ... they were afraid and two groups were formed. The raptors began to talk to each other. And a slight hubbub, like a room full of people, began to form.

I became frightened. I had my people in front of me... my blood relatives.

The raptors were evolving into dragons.

Or at least a pseudonym...

Dantinne: "You know, I love you ... this is the first thing I wanted to tell you."

Tears fell. Tears of happiness.

I squeezed her between my paws.

A thousand and one questions were asked and I had a thousand more.

Dantinne: "Sometimes you look sadly at three piles of stones. Why?"

"I think of my first mom and my first two friends here, two nice carnosaurs... eaten by dilos..."

She licked my neck and rubbed against me to reassure me.

"What will become of us? I'm afraid... I'm afraid... ". Asked me Dantinne.

"We are a family now ... there is no reason to separate from each other. You'll all become like me."

And I bit my hand and a little blood spilled. All the raptors licked a few drops of my blood and I thought strongly of a new family, a tribe. Vicky was contaminated too.

The volcano had a huge plume that rose to the sky and the ashes fell back into the sea.

The plume carried abrasive particles and no matter what the technology, a turbine in an airplane, shuttle or rocket engine, all engines were equal in terms of wear and tear.

If a shuttle flew through these clouds, the abrasive effect, like a sandblaster, would quickly take out the turbine blades, bearings and simply the deflectors.

Even with a selective force field, the volcanic dust would melt and clump together into a kind of cement or glue, promising a crash to the unwary.

Yamato: "Yes, I saw the eruption. It's near the old port but it doesn't matter...the eruption will eventually stop on its own.

Let's get the Colonial ring ready. Have all the colonists and all the personnel ready. "

Zdiek: "What about the passageway, the black hole?"

Yamato: "Later, every moment counts now. "

Zdiek: "Protocol and procedure must be respected. One must initiate the portal at the beginning. That way if something goes wrong, there's no danger."

Yamato: "What if the problem happens here? A previous expedition has disappeared and worse all traces have been erased, replaced by another reality. But I've made the data reappear. Do as I say and all will be well."

Zdiek: "Yes, commander, but I must insist that you endanger the lives of the colonists."

The commander did not answer and turned his back on his mate, visibly irritated and unwilling to enter into arguments. He was the commander and his orders were to be carried out. That was the way it was.

Meanwhile...

After my raptors had tasted my blood, I had collected some pots found in the underground a little earlier, and there were colored greasy earths, white, blue, and a feathery ornament, looking like rays of sunlight held together by a red ruby.

One by one they introduced themselves, Dantinne, then the 4 females and the 2 males, Vicky and about ten newborns. I then applied war paint to their cheeks and foreheads, saying to each of them: "You are my brothers and sisters. We are the people of this world. This world is ours."

Dantine then painted my face with white around the eyes, blue on the arches and on the chin and she put the crown of feathers on my head.

We turned towards the volcano and thanked our goddess earth for protecting and blessing us.

I didn't realize it but I was like a lycanthrope, being the alpha and the other lycans my subjects. The power itself was terrible.

The raptors becoming dragons and absorbing my knowledge through draconic magic and having access to the knowledge of dragons, a kind of common, species-specific instinctive knowledge, turned to me.

"Don't be afraid to know, your lives will be more interesting now and you will all become stronger. But, like me, you've had missing relatives, remains of bones, parents, children.

Let us mourn them and give them a burial. This will be your first act as intelligent creatures. Burying your dead distinguishes us from animals."

The raptors went to look for the remains of their missing relatives and threw them into a pit filled with wood and branches and I blew fire.

Everything caught fire and we all huddled together in front of the fire.

They did not flee from the fire, but rather lay down in front of it, accepting the gentle warmth of the fire.

The next day they made a cairn and placed blocks of stone one on top of the other, each stone being the memory of a loved one or someone who had disappeared. The pile was huge. I didn't know that raptors had had so many killed or sick members... It was pitiful to see.

I put 3 stones, much less than the others ... Dantinne cried loudly and I let her mourn her tribe.

Surprisingly, the raptors loved fire and we all fell asleep around a fire.

The raptors loved paintings and we started looking for ingredients to make some more.

Naturally, we liked ornaments and jewellery and we made our first necklaces from the teeth of our prey. The bigger the better.

The little ones now played instead of hunting, but they hunted anyway.

The base was now our home and we started inspecting the equipment.

We found tools that were lying around, computers, maintenance equipment and generators.

I had a vague idea of how it worked and I could read the manuals and safety instructions.

The base was a petroleum centre with a mini refinery to produce fuel and the tanks still contained a good deal of fuel.

I also realized that the fire by the tanks was really not a good idea.

So I explained the danger and we were careful with the flares.

As the place was known because it was visited by a probe, it was not safe to settle here permanently.

So we settled at night in the caves and troglodyte holes near the network of tunnels of the other extinct dragons.

I had a thought for them.

I wondered what they were like and what had become of them. And what Mother must have thought of them.

Eyes closed and lying near Dantinne, I was struck by a vision, no, a call. Weak and microscopic but obvious.

I saw a huge green dragon.

She looked me in the eyes: "Help, we're trapped by Electrons...black hole...comet...They block thoughts...Akulatraxas...don't activate the...KRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

I had a headache... we were cut off... Was it a dream or what????? No, it was too serious. Mom....Mom??? Where are you? Akulatraxas... grandma????