After everyone is seated, I tap my crystal glass with my golden fork. The ticking sound brings everyone's attention to me and I clear my throat. I slide my finger down my wrist com activating my home security to ensure absolute privacy in the dining hall.
"My mates, you already know my life's work has been in searching for a cure to the plague. My brother Sysko is an Admiral in the Draxos Space Navy. He contacted me several days ago asking me to look into a discovery he’s made. You must swear this information will not leave this room,” I say, looking to each of them. They each swear to me before I continue. “Sysko has discovered a planet with beings who have recessive dragon genes."
"What does recessive dragon genes mean?" Uri asks.
"It means there is a tiny part in some of them that is dragon."
"What does this mean for your work? For our race?" Donte asks me, his eyes shining like multifaceted emeralds.
"Activating genetic regulation requires a specific protein. Identifying the protein that will activate the recessive dragonoid genes could potentially end up helping to turn human females into dragons.”
"Why would Admiral Sysko bring this problem to you?" Uri asks me.
"I am one of the leading geneticists of the Draxos and Sysko’s sister."
"I don't think it was right for him to ask you to take on further work in the middle of a mating ritual," Uri bites out.
"I pledge my service to your quest, My Queen," Reese says, placing his hand on his heart.
"Thank you, Reese,” I say.
"You can count on my help as well," Donte says as his huge body sweeps into a bow.
"And me," Mika says. "I'll always be by your side."
“Saving our race from extinction is indeed a noble quest,” Flume adds.
"I’m the only one who objects to our mate getting even more distracted?" Uri says, slamming his fist on the table.
"Can I count on your cooperation, Uri?" I ask him, exhausted.
"Of course, you can, Joon, My Queen," he says. “It’s not like I can stop you.”
"I found reference to a book of myths and legends that contains a story about genetic regulation experimentation on an unidentified species. This book is located in a distant library."
“Are you kidding me?” Uri grumbles.
“You promised you’d help me.”
“Where is this library?” he asks.
“At the outermost reaches of the Draxos systems. It is called Remotis and is highly fortified.”
Uri rolls his eyes and groans. “Of course it is.” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe the rest of you want to allow our female to travel into such danger.”
"You can't go alone," Reese says. "You must have protection."
"I will take one of you with me. And since I have spent individual time with each of you, I will take Donte with me as it is now his turn to spend time with me again."
"I would be honored to escort you, My Queen,” Donte says.
"Very well, we leave immediately. This can't wait any longer. My brother has tasked me with this mission and I do not intend to fail him, Donte," I say. "We’re taking my speeder, and I'm driving."
Chapter 18
I climb behind the wheel of my new passenger speeder, provided to me by the moon of Arcadia. Being the White Queen of my home world has its advantages. Donte sits beside me and takes up most of the space in the front seat.
I smile at him and he glances back, giving me a warm smile of his own. With that, I lift off from the landing strip and propel upward through the atmosphere of Arcadia and into space.
"Where exactly is this library of yours?" Donte asks me.
"It's at the edge of the Beta 2 system," I say. "It's going to take quite a while to arrive."
"Are you sure you’re up for this right now? Travel to Beta 2 requires a warp jump, and the system is sparsely populated."
"Yes,” I say, accelerating my ship as we move into the solar highways of the Draxos system.
Warp speed travel is prohibited within the system, so we can’t jump until we reach the edge. A huge cargo ship passes in the other direction. My new speeder is designed for interplanetary transportation and moves through the solar highways at a good clip.
After traveling most of a day to the edge of the solar system, we finally make it to the outer rim. There we can warp jump into the Beta 2 system. I prepare the warp drive, and look up at Donte before I activate it.
“Ready?” I ask him.
“I could ask you the same thing?”
“Five, four, three, two, one,” I say before activating the drive.
We jump into warp, the sensation still like being stung by a thousand honey wasps in the most sensitive parts of your body. The space outside the ship folds in on itself and we hurtle through the center crease.
My ship pops out on the other side and I can finally breathe after feeling as if my chest had been compressed flat.
“Are you okay?” Donte asks.
“Yes. You?”
“Yes.”
I flick my finger over my dashboard, bringing up a three-dimensional map of Beta 2. The library is on the large planet of Agartha located behind an asteroid belt at the center of the solar system.
We travel through the system at a good speed and make it to the asteroid belt some time later. The belt is thick and is moving at a mind-boggling orbit speed. I don’t see any way through.
“Let me help you,” Donte says. “I have a kind of sixth sense with stone. I can maneuver us through.”
I give the controls of the ship to Donte, and he begins to drive through the spinning asteroid belt. I grip my handles and grit my teeth. The rocks are coming close to my ship. Finally, we make it out onto the other side of the belt, safe and sound.
He maneuvers the speeder toward the planet of Agartha, and I start my scan to locate the library. I find the location and we traverse the planet to land on an ancient, cracked airstrip outside the front entrance of an ancient building.
We exit the speeder after donning protective masks for oxygen. Walking across the crumbling airstrip, we reach the front entrance of a small building in the barren gray landscape. Donte finds a scanner that opens the first portal and allows us into decompression chamber. He activates the decompression and the room fills with oxygen. We are then able to take off our facemasks.
Beyond the next door, an ancient librarian, who must be at least 200, sits behind a computer terminal wearing a brown rustic robe. "How may I help you?" he asks, eyeing us both suspiciously.
"I am Joon D’fray, a geneticist from the Arcadia Academy. I've been tasked by my brother Admiral Sysko D’fray to find information about a race called humans on a planet called Earth. I have followed clues to this library to find a book called Tales of the Ancients."
"I can't allow you inside. This library is closed to all visitors."
"But we've traveled all day."
"You should've called ahead," the librarian says, his aged hand reaching out to grasp a cup of black tea. He takes a sip and seems to forget we are there.
"There must be something that we can do," Donte says. "This mission is of great importance. It could be the answer we need to finally save our people from the plague."
"Save our people from the plague?" the librarian croaks, raising his bushy eyebrow.
"There is a hope," Donte says.
"I still can't let you in without an official recognition from the senate."
"I am a chief minister in the Senate," Donte says, folding his arms over his massive chest.
"So you say," the librarian says.
"Would you like to see my identification?"
"I still need an official recognition from the Senate and that would require a vote of at least three.”
Donte puts his hand on my shoulder and looks into my eyes. "Let me take care of this," he says as he flicks his finger over the communication device on his wrist.
"Do you have network access here?" Donte asks the librarian as he tries to
send messages back to the Draxos Prime system.
"No," the librarian grunts. "Not for unauthorized visitors."
"I'm trying to get in touch with the Senate so they can vote on an official recognition to allow us into the library. We're going to sit around here all day until we get the network access we need. It's up to you."
"The Bones of the Gods know that I don't want visitors sitting around here all day long. If you can get an official recognition, I will allow you into the library.”
The librarian flicks his finger over his terminal dashboard and Donte’s communication device blinks, indicating it now has network access.
It only takes Donte a few minutes to get a vote from his fellow senators and an official recognition is sent directly to the librarian’s communication portal.
"I have the official recognition. I can now allow you access to the library,” he says.
"Thank you for this, Donte," I say with a sigh.
I feel like an idiot for running off without even checking on access rights for this library. We walked through a sliding door into an elevator and take the it far below ground. When it stops, the door slides open to reveal the library proper. My jaw drops at the vast space beyond.
It seems to go on forever, reaching out in three directions beyond the horizon. I turn and activate a communications device inside the elevator.
"Do you have a card catalog or an organizational system that we can access?" I ask, pressing the old-fashioned com button.
"No. I do not upload information onto the network. I do not interconnect our digital databases. And I do not allow my physical texts to leave this location. I also don’t allow fools to know the extent of our data banks." The com goes silent.
"What a jerk," I say.
Chapter 19
Donte and I wander through the stacks of physical books, with no direction and nothing to go on. I read the titles on the ancient spines. Most of the books I see are on technology and mathematics. Nothing on myths and legends. I turn to Donte after several hours of searching and shrug.
"Maybe this was a false lead," I say.
"There's so much here."
"The librarian is being a tool,” I mutter. “He’s just mad we interrupted his busy life of doing nothing.” Donte and I come to what seems like the center of the library. "If we could just get our information organized, maybe we would have a more accurate impression of our history and our race… And our future,” I muse. “I’m so angry at this mess I could scream.”
Donte takes my hands in his and draws me to him.
"You're very passionate," he says in a low voice. "I admire how driven you are by your mission."
"What does my drive matter if I can't find what I'm looking for?"
"The Senate has agreed to keep information disconnected from the mainframes. We have concluded that keeping data separated is the best way to keep it safe."
“We are doing our best to maintain our information in case of another attack. As you know, creating backups has taken centuries, with the cyborgs ability to gain access to our databases evolving all the time. The firewalls on our mainframe work constantly to prevent viral attacks. Attacks happen a million times a day. Do you realize how hard it is to protect what little information we still have connected?"
"I know all this very well. I’m just frustrated. We traveled all this way."
"There is hope, My Queen, that someday we will be free of the cyborg threat, that all of our histories will be restored, that the plague will be cured, and that females will again be equal in population and in strength to males.”
“Our species is in decline. We in the Senate understand this. It is a tragedy for us all. And that is why we need passionate young Draxos like you to remind us of what is possible," he says, gazing into my eyes as he holds my hands.
Knowing he respects my mission tears my heart out. I’ve spent so long hiding in the shadows, feeling as if I didn’t match up to other girls. Being so passionate about my mission had always felt like a curse when I should be studying the finer points of the mating ritual or how to run a household. To hear my oldest, and most well-respected mate tell me he admires my passion sends me into a frenzy of unexpressed emotion.
I'm so overcome that I throw myself into his huge arms. He wraps me in his embrace and holds me tight, grasping the back of my head as he pulls my mouth against his.
Our kiss is long and passionate, the heat rising in my core as my sex dampens. I feel my nipples prick against the thin fabric of my nanotech dress. Donte moves his hands over my body, sliding down my back and gripping my ass. I groan under his kiss and I know that I need him, now, in this dusty dim library.
Donte picks me up and carries me to an empty table. I sit on the edge with his massive body between my legs. He slides his fingers into the seam between my breasts and pulls my wrap dress open, revealing my naked flesh. Kneeling before me, he sucks my nipples into his big mouth, flicking them with his hard tongue.
Groaning, I throw my head back. Donte pulls me to him, and I feel the hard mass of his manhood press against my hot and hungry sex.
I can feel the depth of his thrall and the hunger in his soul. I know I need him, now, research be damned. All I know is I want him. I want to feel him. I want to know him. I want to be opened like a flower and never be the same again.
I grab at his pants trying to tear open the fabric. He deactivates his nanotech clothing and stands naked before me. I look at him with amazement. His shaft is so thick and long it startles me. I use both of my small hands to slide up and down his rock-hard cock.
He pushes my dress back up my thighs to my waist and kneels between my knees. With his hand gently clutching my throat, he dives his tongue into my pussy.
He licks greedily, opening my desire until I’m gushing and moaning for him. He pushes one soaking wet finger inside me, over the pleasure inside my channel. I groan, my nipples tightening with need. He pushes his finger deeper and licks my outer pleasure buds with his stone hard tongue.
I groan so loudly it echoes through the library. I bite my lip, forcing myself to be quiet. The last thing I want is for the grumpy old librarian to catch us and kick us out.
I don't care about the library or anything else except the feeling of Donte's tongue on my sex. As the climax hits me all at once, I let out a gasp and stare at the dark ceiling above me.
Donte stands between my legs, his phallus massive and hard as a granite pillar. He angles it toward my wet, quivering opening. As he presses the tip between my folds, my mouth drops in surprise. I am a young and healthy female dragon, my body should easily accommodate a male of my race.
But this is my first time, and his size shocks me. His huge phallus spreads me open and the feeling of being entered, as my channel grips his cock, is so overpowering, I close my eyes and bite my lip with a squeal.
He holds me still and slowly rocks in and out of me, opening me enough to take him further and deeper with each motion of his hips. He thrusts deeper, pushing the walls of my channel open to accommodate him.
My feet rest on the edge of the table. My legs spread wide and my ass barely holding on. With one final thrust, he sinks inside me with a growl. His emerald eyes stare into mine and he cups my cheek in his hand, kissing me gently on the lips. All I can do is mewl and hold on to him as he moves in waves in and out of my body.
I am glad it is Donte who was the first to enter me like this. He brought me here, he let me drive, he got me into the library, and now he is teaching me the ways of love. If this trip was for no other reason than to let him inside me, then it was well worth the time.
His cock is so huge it presses every single pleasure button inside me. I come to climax with a screaming explosion in my body and mind. Donte squeezes my breast as he speeds his rhythm, pounding his pelvis against mine over and over, driving me from one climax to the next as I gush moisture around his massive cock.
He grips the back of my head, threading his fingers through my hair as he pulls my mo
uth to his and releases his semen inside me. It comes with such a potent hot rush that it forces me into another climax. We throb together in the cold dark library, our breaths mingling and our hearts pounding in rhythm.
With a kiss to my forehead, Donte slides away. He then gathers me up and holds me gently for a long time. I rest my head against his massive chest, feeling satisfied and safe. I've never experienced such pleasure and didn't realize it was even possible. After I straighten my clothing, I look up at Donte and smile.
"Should we get going now?" I asked with a shrug.
"We still haven't found the book," he says.
"I don't think we’re going to find anything here."
"What about that chamber over there," he says, pointing to a single room that is created inside the labyrinth of stacks.
There is a single book on a table with a light shining over it. I shrug and decide I might as well check it out.
We walk hand-in-hand to the chamber and I slide inside, sitting at the chair pushed up to the desk. I read the title of the book.
Tales of the Ancients.
"By the Bones of the Gods, this is it!"
I begin searching through the pages. Most of the stories are older versions of the myths I've known all my life. But then I come to a chapter that is titled Explorations of the Ancients. In that chapter, I find the story of what appears to be how the gods came to the planet Earth and mated with humans when they were still quite primitive.
Inside what is written like a parable is a detailed description of a mating ritual between a human and Draxos using what appears to be genetic regulation. I look it over multiple times, not sure what I'm reading. Excitement bubbles up inside me and I jump out of the chair.
"I think this is it," I say giddily.
"What is it?"
"There's a description of a mating ritual, with a species that resembles humans. It's similar to the Draxos mating ritual we use now, but the human mate is changed into a dragon during the mating through genetic regulation. The primary protein for activation of the required transcription factors appears to be…the semen of a fated mate!” I say, running my finger over the text. “But the genetic expression is not completed until the mating bite transfers saliva proteins directly into the bloodstream of the human. Then the ritual is complete and the human is transformed into a dragon.”