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That Dragon Boy

Chapter 1

Rymber woke to the sound of his room's buzzer going off. He reached over and tapped the off button. His ear hummed a little as the ear-com came on. "Current time is 0500. Report to Dr. Kate's office at 0510 sharp. Confirm." The voice was always clear and sharp. Too much so to be a human's. But he didn't care. All he cared about was his next task. Rymber opened his eyes and replied, "Confirmed." There was a short delay as the link was broken and he flexed his body's muscles to warm them up. His room might as well have been a prison cell, but the door was always unlocked, incase they needed him to leave immediately.

Rymber sat up and tested his sight by focusing on the planner tacked to his room's side wall. The words read 'Wake Up at 0500. Testing Alpha at 0545. Breakfast at 0645.' and so on. He looked outside his door and listened as others roused in their slow, pitiful way. His way was by the book. Everything was by the book. That was what his mentors had told him before he had been moved to this new section of the base. He didn't much care for the sounds and smells, but it was closer to the barracks and training rooms.

The computer at the deck across from him came on and began to go through setup so he got out of bed and walked over. The screen read 'Please enter user number.' He reached out and typed hastily in his new ID number. The base hardly ever used his birth name, just numbers. When he hit enter, the screen loaded his data files and had him confirm is ID again. Annoying that they had him do it twice. Like he could mess up! Finally the screen buzzed black and white and his personal and base records came up. Dr. Kate was always having him type some strange things about how he felt and give info about everything he did. It was a little weird to him to have to talk about his feelings, seeing as how he barely knew what they were.

The morning news com opened up with the national anthem and Rymber stood for the few minutes it played. It was ten seconds late to start this morning. As it ended, the time was announced to be 0504 and the regular news about the war against the "Rebels" began. They had taken a few minor points on the border which Beta team would go and take back today. And as always, the "Imperials" had won another many victories. He sat back down and finished his morning report about the transfer to his new room. The clock was reading 0507, so Rymber logged off and put on his 'specially made' clothes. Since he was about six foot ten, he needed a larger set than the rest. He grabbed his ID tag and key card as he headed for the door. He almost forgot his battle knife, but turned back and grabbed it from under his mattress.

His room door closed tightly behind him as he jogged down the long hallways of his new sector. Some more active units were already up and walking towards bathrooms, but most just remained in their quarters. The ceiling was a blast-proof plastic glass that let in some of the sun's warmth and light. The rest of the building could have been solid concrete or steel. This was Alpha base so they got the cleanest, most luxurious living quarters of all the rest of the bases. He took a left at the central chamber and heard a few shouts from some of the maintenance crew. "Morning snake!" He didn't have time to find out who had spoken, so he kept jogging to the research wing. Rymber stopped at the access point and pulled out his key card and swiped it. A red light on the panel turned green and the doors slid open. He walked through and scanned the large circular room for Dr. Kate's office door. There were many different devices on pedestals around the room. Some were large and others were very small. He judged most of them to be old robots from the earlier ages of the Impire. In the center of the room, a humongous, holographic Earth levitated and spun slowly.

Rymber finally noticed her door on the far side of the room. It was tall and wide so that her projects could be wheeled in or out. As Rymber had found out, Dr. Kate worked in bio-engineering and brain studies. She had asked to work at the base so her research could more easily be tested and undisturbed and was granted it due to her work showing signs of a possible way to end the war quickly. Her current project was top secret and only top officers even knew what she was doing. Rymber guessed it had something to do with him, but never had a chance to ask. She and her assistants were always testing his senses and giving him physicals. They always explained to him that he was "unique," so they needed to test his abilities in comparison to other "normal" humans. Now at the door, he wished he could finally know the truth, but Rymber never felt it appropriate to ask Dr. Kate. He pressed the door's keypad and heard a few faint ruffling sounds inside. Then the door opened.

Dr. Kate was small for her age, then again everyone seemed small to him. And he was only ... how old was he? Fourteen, yes fourteen. It seemed odd to him that he was virtually younger than his entire new unit. She had an aged look to her that made her appear older than he believed her to be. She smiled and looked him up and down. "Good morning Rymber! Glad you could come." She turned around and said, "Please come in and take a seat." He was curious as to what the smile meant. And nobody else at the facility called him by his birth name but her. So he stepped in and looked at the chair she had meant. It had been made just for him. It was tall and had a spot to rest his tail on. He usually just stood during meetings because other chairs where too difficult to sit in. Rymber sat down, but didn't rest. He had knew better than to be caught lounging around.

Dr. Kate sat at her desk and tapped a few keys. "So how is the new room? I heard it is smaller and colder than our room was." She looked up waiting for a response. "It's fine. It has everything I need." He replied. "Humph. I don't like you down with the general's personal favorites. They are about as happy as I am with you bunking there." She seemed stressed and angered about something, but Rymber couldn't read emotions very well. "If the general wants me there, then that's where I'll be." He said unsettled. She gave him a long look and typed more keys. "I know you will. But that isn't what I called you here for. Today starts your first series of real tests. Knowing you, you'll probably find them no more difficult than your training. But I need to be sure you are in top ... condition for the general's tests. If he sees you succeed, he'll have to accept my project as a success. If you don't, then ..." She looked away and grabbed a data chip from one of her desk's drawers. "Here download this into your HUD. It's some last minute changes I had made for your visor." She walked over and plugged it into the side port of his visor. The screen went green for a second and returned to normal. He eyed a new icon on the bottom right and it opened up. His display changed color to different shades of blue and red with a cursor target that followed his eye movement and displayed distance and air speed. "It's an infrared heat and target detector. It works at all distances up to 21 kilometers away." He closed it and looked her in the eye. "Thank you Doctor." She smiled faintly and he felt a little warmth from it. Odd. Dr. Kate walked to the side door to his check up room. Rymber stood and walked to the door and proceeded through.

He was accustomed to these physicals since he had gone through them every day. Stripping and having someone else examine him became normal after many years. They were always checking his blood pressure, brain activity, muscle growth, skin toughness, and hundreds of other strange random things. A few times they had taken some of his white hair or dark grey skin. Another thing he didn't get was why she measured his tail and snout dimensions. About a year ago, strange things started growing on his back, arms, legs, and chest. Now they were as large as half-dollars and as hard as steel. Dr. Kate said they were "scales" and that he would start to get a strange taste for metals. She had been right of course. Nowadays, he consumed about a pound of iron or steel at each meal. After they checked his cardiovascular health and examined his eye coordination, they were done. He put his clothes back on and hooked up his visor again. Dr. Kate and Rymber walked out of the physical room silently. Finally she looked up from her holograph and said to him, "You seem to be doing very well. You appear to be slowing down on growth and are healthier than any other person at this facility. Though I still have no idea what the two bulges on your back are, it seems not to be cancer or any other problem. You'll need to trim your claws soon and your teeth aren't the cleanest things. But your baby teeth are almost all gone now." He nodded his head in acknowledgement. She looked at her clock above her desk and frowned. "You should be off then. It's almost 5:45. Remember what I told you, Rymber." She looked like she was holding back something, but didn't continue so Rymber turned and walked towards the door. At the last second, she reached out and grabbed his arm. "And Rymber ... be careful." She voiced silently. He nodded and walked back out the office's front door.