Upon Celestial Tiger: Chapter One

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A small, fast space yacht. The last owner named it Celestial Tiger.

Three small bedrooms (with bunks), one bathroom. Very small storage hold. combined dining/living area. Everyone's going to hate each other by the end of this road trip.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f11/19/46/08/46/small_10.jpg

"Strange in what way?" Ethan asked quietly. "Traumatized? Hostile? Something else?" He'd seen a lot of different slaves in a lot of different situations over the years, their behaviors came in lots of happy varieties.

~~

Sawna shook her head then sighed "It's like she's hiding something from me, blocking me from seeing what has her freaked out. I am not sure." She said then looked to the doorway again with a frown. "When she was asleep, I would of sworn I heard someone else, but it was just us there."

"Blocking would be normal in a trained magic user. People do that a lot in self defense, or so I've heard." Ethan frowned. "Someone else though? That's less normal."

Swarm coalesced to listen into Sawna and Ethan's chat. Some of them had decided to watch Starr carefully, she was being a bit... odd.

"Are we sure she's starr?" "Keepers are shape changers too" "maybe they did something bad to her?" "maybe she heard too many of her kin crying for help?" "Lots of dragons in that keep, so many slaves." They chittered amongst themselves.

Sawna shrugged then nodded "She is Starr, at least as much as I can tell." She said softly.

Starr had changed to her dragon form once alone, looking to the door then curling up. She knew Swarm was there, but she wasn't going to kick them out.

Ethan frowned at the idea that this might not be Starr, but nodded at Sawna's reassurance. "Let's assume for now that this is Starr. The other dragons would have noticed the difference in her mind if this was an impostor, right?" He considered Swarm's other suggestions, "It's very likely that they tried to do something to her mind, and it's possible they succeeded. Or the telepathic link to the slaves might have done this, I can't imagine that would be enjoyable at all."

~~
Tala considered that. "Perhaps we had best not name a planet at all. Should someone intercept the message, the piece of scum named Matthew should certainly betray us for wealth."

"Maybe she needs space" "Maybe just time." "maybe more serious problem." "we should ask the new dragon, maybe she has some ideas?"
Swarm suggested.

The rest of them settled on the wall and watched Starr sleep, remaining quiet.

---

Luka nodded. "The Terrans are supposed to hate slavery, but I don't trust them not to just look the other way if a slaver showed up." She chewed the protein bar thoughtfully. "What would they recognise that an outsider wouldn't be able to make sense of? "

Starr wasn't asleep but she had covered up with the blanket, hiding away. For a while, it was like she couldn't stay still but she settled after several minutes. Swarm would likely be able to hear another mind in the room now, though no one else could be seen.

~~~
"That's what I am saying, there is no mention of a planet, just a 'remember this place' mentioning Matthew, though we could use one of the others instead." Rigel said with a shrug

Ethan nodded. "It could just be that Starr needs time to herself, but if Sawna's hearing voices in Starr's head, that's not a good sign. I'd say put her in anti-magic cuffs, but she might snap from the stress of being in cuffs, and she could still be dangerous."

~~
Tala nodded. "As you see fit, Rigel. If it seems to be dangerous, we can always change our plans."

Swarm chittered uneasily at the other mind, unsure what to make of it.

--

Luka nodded.

Starr fell asleep soon after, still 'hiding' under the covers. Swarm might be able to get one or two under to see her, if they wanted to try.

~~~
Rigel made the note then looked to the girls before reading it aloud. "Hey friends, we got what we were after and want to see you. Come to where we left Matthew at." It was short and vague so he hoped it would work.

"Can you hear anything, Swarm?" Ethan asked, just in case there Swarm's telepathy worked that way. What did he know? He didn't have telepathy.

~~
Tala nodded. "Good. Send it so they may know where to find us."

Rigel nodded and went to send the message and bounce it off some other places to hide the source and where it was going

Swarm chittered. "Maybe, there's another mind, not sure." "We could try to talk to it?" "might make it aware we sense it though." "could be hostile?" "Maybe not." "maybe spy?" "maybe not."

---

the few with Starr just watched her blanket nest, they weren't about to risk getting squished.

"It could be dangerous to contact it," Ethan said with a frown. "We should take this to the captain."

Swarm bobbed up and down. "the sooner we get her home the better, the others can help." "the medics can investigate." "the half shifter is a telepath, perhaps he will be better able to figure out what it is." "our telepathy is not strong enough, too passive, we cannot infiltrate another's deeper thoughts." "We cannot read surface thoughts, only detect their presence." they explained.

"Some minotaurs are telepathic," Ethan said, "Maybe Tala is. Who wants to get her?" He would have yelled but, you know, that would wake up Starr and probably freak her out.

"We shall." Swarm volunteered, going to do just that.

Tala looked around as she noticed Swarm. "Greetings, Swarm, how do you do?"

"Captain Tala, we have need of you." Swarm declared.

Luka frowned and set her drink down. "What's going on?"

"Starr, she has another mind within her, a passenger? We are not certain. She has gone to sleep under many blankets. Ethan thought you should be made aware."

Tala snorted in concern. "This is worthy of investigation. I shall come at once." She'd head for Starr and Sawna's room, pausing to look to Ethan and Sawna. "What is known of her condition?"

"She's nervous, and doesn't want to talk, and has a voice in her head," Ethan said.

Tala glanced to Sawna. "Do you have anything to add to that?"

Luka followed, worried for Starr.

Sawna shook her head "She does seem to be tired and has some other presence is there, but I don't know if that is dangerous."

Tala nodded and knocked on the door. "Starr, may we converse?" She said rather loudly.

Ethan winced. Right, maybe this was a stupid idea.

"Do we have any scanners? Maybe they did something to her?" Luka frowned. Bastard Keepers, who knew what those monsters had subjected the star dragon to. Certainly they'd doped her up. Yuck.

Starr snorted awake and raised her head then had to fight the blanket to get where she could see again "What?"

Tala opened the door and came in, looking at the star dragon under the blanket. "I have not seen you recently, and I should. My crew report that there is a presence in your mind that is not you." She sniffed the air a bit, because that was what you did when someone was acting strange.

Ethan facepalmed. Yep, no caution, just going straight to the point. Nice work, Tala.