Chapter 13- Opportunities from Accidents

  Time slowed around Jett as the golden dragon took up his whole vision. He thought about having Layla roll to the side, but Kyle would be caught. He didn’t have the grip to pull his friend to him, and Kyle was too far away for Jett to push him out of the way. Then he thought about kicking off his saddle. It would work if he weren’t tied down. It would take him precious seconds to undo the strap.

  So he grit his teeth, ready to take a full tackle from a truck-sized dragon. Then, at the last moment, he heard a faint roar as something large slammed into the golden dragon. Jett didn’t waste the opportunity, pulling Kyle into the saddle and strapping him down.

  Kyle roared out, “Castledrive!”

  “Layla, back to base now!”

  Jett looked behind to see the gold dragon in a complete panic as a smaller brown dragon ferociously attacked it. Castledrive was incensed that his rider was attacked. He would not relent until it was known that his rider was not to be hunted.

  “We have to go back for him!” Kyle pulled Jett’s shoulder.

  “No, he will be fine. Once he sees you're gone, he will follow. Plus, if he stopped now, the other dragon would catch us. He’s giving us the chance to get you to safety.”

  Kyle looked back at his draconic friend. The gold dragon was starting to fight back, but Castledrive summoned forth plasma fire. Not quite the beam most space dragons could summon. He was still too young, but it was enough to cause the gold dragon to rethink the fight. The plasma fire wasn’t lethal, but without an aura shield, the gold dragon’s scales were deformed in places.

  Layla beat her wings, trying to push against the outer layer of the atmosphere for just a little more speed. Jett continued looking over his shoulder the whole way. The gold dragon circled, following back to base, but kept a distance. Castledrive made sure of it, biting or roaring if the other dragon got too close.

  Once they were back at the launch port, Jett undid himself and Kyle from the saddle. Then he noticed the crowd around him looking on with astonishment. He couldn’t help the grin until he saw Professor Waldin glaring up at him. Something about that frown erased any feelings of triumph.

  For the next hour, Jett was dressed down by Professor Waldin, the port administrator, the principal, and even a few faces he didn’t even know. He mostly sat quietly because, as much as he got yelled at, his sponsor was yelled at twice as much, but Honored Rider Franklin never so much as batted an eye. He was the picture of calm throughout the whole process. Jett wondered what was going through his head. Was he safe from the fallout, while Jett would get kicked out and face the wrath of the government?

  After the principal finished with them, they walked out of the administration building to the waning light of night. Jett was about to head back to his room when his sponsor tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Hey, let’s go get something to eat. On me.”

  Jett didn’t feel much like eating but went along anyway. They headed to a restaurant where his sponsor asked for an out-of-the-way table. The waitress led them to a secluded booth.

  “Alright, kid, I know that was rough, but you did a good job of holding it together. It would’ve been twice as bad if you hadn’t.”

  “I don’t get it. Were we not supposed to be there or something?”

  “Kind of. It was a perfect storm. We needed to return once they started their practice flight, but that leaves a lot of gray area. They should’ve made sure the field was cleared, the port admin should’ve barred us if there was a risk, and so on. Everyone is more worried about making sure they are covered.”

  “No one will get in trouble?”

  “Nah, they are going to throw you under the bus to preemptively quell any blowback.”

  Jett tensed, “Does that mean… I’ll be expelled?”

  His sponsor snorted, “They are worried some dragon rider’s parents will get angry and cause trouble. If they expelled you, the government would come and start doing investigations. That is the last thing they want.”

  “What will they do then?”

  “Probably suspend you for a week. It sounds worse than it is. They’ll bar you from classes and doing any more practice riding during that time.”

  “So I am stuck here in my room for a week?”

  That question made Rider Franklin grin. “Well, it just so happens I have a task for you.”

  “A task?”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Yeah, what is it you used to do before? Salvaging? Well, I have a ship I want you to investigate.”

  Jett blinked, “You want me to leave for a week to go salvage a ship?”

  “More exploration, but you are welcome to keep anything you could sell on the open market.”

  “That makes it sound like you think there is something in there that I couldn’t sell on the open market.”

  “Well, you did find a dragon egg last time. The truth is, I don’t know what you will find. I will be there if it gets hairy, but I need to find out what happened.”

  Jett’s drink arrived, and he started sipping as he gave it some thought.

  “I will need some supplies; my last run destroyed a lot of my gear.”

  Dragon Rider Franklin raised an eyebrow, “Supplies? What are you thinking?”

  Jett started mentioning a list of items, from a new exosuit to the ship he was shopping for. After two minutes of going through the list of items in his head, his sponsor cut him off.

  “I will give you half a million credits to grab whatever you need in the next two days, then we are off.”

  Jett’s jaw dropped. Half a million like that. It would take him at least a year, probably years, to earn that much, and even then, more than half would go to operating costs.

  Dragon Rider Franklin grinned, “Don’t look so surprised. We do the thing others can’t. If you don’t have at least a few million credits in your bank account in your first month as a dragon rider, you are doing something wrong.”

  “Now, I’m getting a bit concerned. How dangerous is this ship that you would drop half a million?”

  “Truthfully, I don’t know, but you are a dragon rider now. Dangerous is relative. You can take hits and hit back harder than any normal human. If that is too much for you, your dragon can definitely take it. I will be there too. So what do you say?”

  Jett rubbed his chin. “Alright, but I have one more condition. I want to take a crew with me.”

  His sponsor frowned, “I don’t think this will be that dangerous, but there are security concerns. We can’t take any of your friends from your days of salvaging.”

  “Actually, I had some others in mind. A few of the students.”

  “Alright, send me a list of names. I will need to do some background checks and NDAs. Tell them it’s a field trip, but none of the other details.”

  Jett rolled his eyes, “I don’t even have the other details.”

  “Then it should be easy!”

  After dinner, Jett headed back to his apartment. The lights came on, and Angie greeted him.

  “Hello, I hope today has shown you the error of being a dragon rider. I have a letter of resignation prepared for you.”

  “Hey Angie! No, not today. I actually need you to start shopping for a few other things.”

  “Joy,” Angie said sarcastically.

  “-including a few upgrades for yourself.”

  “Give me the list, and I will have those parts in your shopping cart in seconds.”

  Jett chuckled before verbally listing off the items.

  “Those sound like items for salvaging, not being a dragon rider,” Angie said when he was done.

  “Yeah, my sponsor wants us to check out some damaged ship. He is giving me half a million credits to prepare.”

  “With half a million, I could get a better housing and-”

  “Spending money on upgrading you is always a win, but we are going to bring some others with us. Hence why I need multiples of the equipment.”

  “We could meet in the middle, and I could order a few security drones.”

  Jett thought back to his time in the training center, then shook his head.

  “Tempting. It might be worth it in the future.”

  Jett spent the next hour with Angie ordering parts. The hard part wasn’t finding what he needed. He already had access to the funds, and with half a million credits, he could purchase everything he needed and more. The issue was that he only had two days, which meant the supplies needed to be at the academy in one day.

  In the end, he found most of what he needed. A few parts, such as shield modules for the exosuit and half the upgrades for Angie, weren’t going to make it in time. After all his purchases, he still had about two hundred thousand credits. He planned to make some adjustments after this mission.

  Now he just needed to recruit his team. He went to sleep dreaming about storming a ship and making millions of credits.

  The next morning, he sent a message to Bill, Ashley, and Amanda. They had classes in the morning, but they had a short window around lunch. The four met in the cafeteria.

  “So, you are the one who caused the stir?” Bill asked.

  “What did you hear?” Jett asked.

  “That some psycho dragon rider taunted all the first years and caused their dragons to chase him in outrage. When we heard the story, we knew there was only one person who would cause that much trouble,” Amanda said between mouthfuls of her lunch.

  “That’s not how it happened, but I got suspended all the same. However… my sponsor has a mission for me. One, I want you to go on with me.”

  All three of his friends froze.

  “A mission?” Bill asked.

  “Yeah, a field trip.”

  “Where is it?” Ashley asked.

  Jett scratched the back of his head, “Actually, I can’t say. You will receive NDAs soon. I need you to sign those.”

  Amanda’s eyes sparkled, then she grabbed Jett, “Wait, we are going on our first mission with a real dragon rider. Do you know how rare this is? I can’t believe we are going to meet your sponsor.”

  Jett flinched as he wanted to say he was a real dragon rider, but he stayed silent.

  “Thank you for recommending us to your sponsor. We won’t let him down.”

  Jett blinked, “Oh, um, it’s actually my mission. He’s just going to supervise.”

  Amanda scoffed, “You are telling me you completely ruined the first year’s flight, got suspended, and he thought it would be a good idea to give a complete newbie command of a mission?”

  “Hey, I’m not that new.”

  All three of his friends gave him flat looks.

  “You are a first-year student at Dragon Rider Academy. How much experience could you have?” Ashley asked, and it stung that she was the one who said it. Normally, she was the most reserved. It was a good metric of how outrageous they thought his claims were when she started acting incredulous. It seemed his friends still didn’t believe him that he was a salvager before joining the academy.

  “I have experience.” But it sounded weak even to his own ears.

  Then he shook his head, “Regardless, I need to know. If you want to go, my sponsor will need to issue exceptions for you to miss the course.”

  “There is no way we are missing this,” Bill said.

  “I’m in,” Ashley added.

  “There’s no way I’m not going. You need me.”

  “Good, we will need to meet tomorrow to do a few practice runs.”

  “I have top marks on the training course for the hopefuls; I don’t need any practice,” Amanda said.

  “We need to so you can get used to your new gear.”

  “New gear?” all three of his friends asked together.

  Jett smiled, “I will see you tomorrow.”

  Then he got up and walked away.

  “Where are you going?” Bill asked.

  “To recruit the last member of our squad.”