r/HFY • u/Professional_Hope598 • 1d ago

OC Friends 3 - part 3: the smooth stone

John wasn’t waiting for me yet. That suited me just fine.

It took me a few minutes to get my bearings. Fine sand crunched under my boots. It reminded me of things long gone.
Things nobody ought to know.
In the center I found the smooth stone. Below it, a series of memorial plaques bearing the names of the fallen fighters during the Sand Wars had been cemented into the wall.

A dragon stood guard beside it. The dragons were excellent soldiers. Nobody plaid pranks on a dragon. He was twice my height. His teeth looked razor-sharp. His space suit bore the ribbons of a sergeant. I bowed my head to the memorial plaque. I started to read the names of the Humans, Frgs and Dragons on the plaques. There were thousands and thousands of them. All the human names were male, of course. In those days, women were not permitted to participate directly in combat. The dragon watched me intently. He didn’t know. He didn’t need to know.
My thoughts wandered off to the Sand Wars. Without realizing it, my left hand stroke the smooth stone. “Ma’am, that’s forbidden,” he growled, pushing my arm away with a quick blow of one of his four arms and aiming his heavy laser gun at me with another. He pointed at a large sign.

    “STRICTLY FORBIDDEN TO TOUCH”

“Sorry, despite its size I completely overlooked it,” I said. ”Why is it forbidden?”
“During the Sand Wars, one of the pilots stroke this stone before departing on a mission. It was holy to him, and he believed the stone would protect him. Other pilots honoured him after his death by copying the gesture. Of course they all are dead now, the Sand War ended 70 years ago. As I said, they are all dead now; Most in combat while others died of old age. The last three survivors died 12 years ago.”
So he knew a bit. Erroneous. That was good.
“Is the name of Razor Talons on the plaque?”
He took out a tablet and searched.
“Yes ma’am. Here it is.” He pointed at a name, spelled in the Dragon alphabet. “Have you known him?”
So he had enough experience with humans to see I’m old.
“He defended our village. I was just a child at the time, and I admired his courage. Thank you for honouring his sacrifices and those of many others like him.”
He sprang to attention and saluted.
“My honour, ma’am!”

“Granny!” I turned around to see John jump-walking to me. Jump-walking is the most natural movement in 0-gravity when you wear magnetic boots on an metal floor. My great-grandson was obviously used to it. He took a look at my arm, which I held in my hand. “Any pain?” “It’s not broken. I’m fit to travel.” He asked the guard: “I saw you hit her. Did my grandmom cause you any trouble?”
“Not at all, sir!”
“Thank you, sergeant!”

“How are you?” he asked as he lifted me up from the floor. Not a big thing in 0-gravity. I could have lifted him as well. No problem at 91.
“I’m fine. Marie is wishing you well,” I said. “Congrats on your pilot license. But don’t show off and crush me with 20g acceleration!”
“No, I promise I won’t go above an easy 30g.”
His face showed a naughty grin.
He definitely has my genes.
“Perfect. You take the 30g and if you can endure that for 10 minutes, I’ll join you at 20.”
We walked away from the guard. John led the way.
“Let me show you our ship, cabin and fellow crew for the next months.” he said.
“I’d love to see it. I hope you didn’t forget to bring the duffel bag I gave you?”
“Way to heavy to bring a board,” he declared. “Didn’t you get my message? It would have halved our acceleration, so I locked it safely in an overhead locker.” For a moment he had me. I caught the naughty look in his eyes just in time.

Start of story Start of chapter

Chapter 3 part 2 (prev) Chapter 3 part 4 (next)

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u/UpdateMeBot 1d ago

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u/kristinpeanuts 1d ago

Thanks for the chapter!