tushanshu | Video 001

[Amelia is sitting straight up, looking directly at the screen. Hands folded in front of her, the very pose exudes authority; this is a woman who knows she is of rank.]

I am Captain Amelia of the Terran Royal Navy, lately returned from an expedition to locate the lost trove of the infamous pirate Nathaniel Flint, and more recently rather unceremoniously drenched in a tub of water and informed that I am to be engaging in a conflict against a malevolent entity of which I have not heard until today.

[A measured pause. Her tone indicates she is more irritated by the idea of fighting someone else’s war, rather than the prospect of combat itself. Or perhaps it is the drenching she is cross about.]

I do not care for being brought here against my will, especially if I do not know the how of it. These kedan are maddeningly unhelpful when questioned on such topics. They tell me that time has been stopped in my universe, which, if true - highly doubtful, of course - is of some relief. But if I am to stay here for an extended tenure, there are important questions that I must have answered. This…

[and here she pauses for a moment to pick her words. Amelia is not given to superstitions regarding the summoning of a monstrous being simply by speaking his name, but the kedan were very adamant about not saying it, and this has been a rather strange day. Best to not risk it, then.]

...M-fellow. I'd like to know more about him. If I have indeed been brought here to fight a war, then it is imperative that I know what I shall be dealing with. In addition, is it true we are riding on the back of a giant turtle?

[This last question is accompanied by nearly palpable disbelief.]

[The next pause is not one of calculation or thought, but of expectancy. Amelia’s waiting for her answers, and it’s only after the silence has gone on for a few seconds that she realizes replies will not be instantaneous.]

That’ll do, for the moment, so as not to overwhelm you.

[It’s a save, but she says it like it was always planned that way. She nods her head once at the screen, just ever so slightly.]

That is all.

[end transmission]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

But are they not called--rockets, if they travel through space? [The specifics of the twentieth century and onward are still a little vague to him--probably because they are so many of them here.]

Yes, that is correct, at least in England, and in most of Europe, as well: intolerable as I find the situation, I suppose we are after all at war. [Beat.] But in China they have so many dragons that no-one would dare to attack them anyway, and there the dragons have rights as any sentient citizen might, and are employed as they will, and can choose their own companions.

No, they are still ships. I don't see why they should be called anything else.

[Amelia's ears pick up at the mentioned difference between draconic treatment in China and elsewhere.]

You do not have the same rights as other species in your own nation? [The concept is, frankly, quite foreign to Amelia, and it shows in the edge of confusion in her voice. Yes, there are differences among the peoples of the Terran Empire, but not in how they are treated as citizens.] But you are clearly sentient!

[A faint snort.] Of course you would come to such a conclusion: anyone who has spoken to us at length, or spent any significant amount of time with us, would say the same. But it is another matter entirely to persuade people of our sentience when they will not so much as come near us, or permit us in their cities.

[Amelia mulls over this for a moment before speaking again.]

Admittedly, a dragon appearing in a city would be cause for alarm within the Empire, but you are clearly more eloquent than the beasts of the Calyan Abyss. [Okay, yes, she does understand avoiding contact with space dragons, but they don't talk and are certainly not sentient.]

I do not see why you would tolerate living in a nation that refuses to recognize your kind's intelligence.

[He has learned, over time, to be philosophical about this sort of thing, distressing as it is.] One hears of dragons here and there, from other worlds, and they are all so very different: some of them are not capable of speech, at all, and some do not even have forelegs, but there is no such variation among the humans who have arrived. I wonder why that is? [And, seeing as it is his turn to be curious:] And what sort of Empire is this, pray?

Well, it is difficult to bear, of course, and it would be very nice to live in China, but my captain should never consent to it, so long as there is a war on, and his loyalty is to the King; and besides, one cannot make things better for other dragons by simply leaving.

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