The Awakening

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley. But now you can have a dragon in your valley. And by valley I mean your-“

“Jun-i-per! Really?” My best friend and co-worker, Lou, chided me.

“What?” I asked innocently.

“What? What is that we need to get this done. Mr. Hammond told us that we need to have this nailed down perfectly for the client in the morning and if we don’t…” She dramatically slid a finger across her throat.

“We are not going to get canned. He can’t fire us, we’re the best associates he has. Who else would he give this crap work to?” I rolled my eyes at her.

“It’s not crap and yes, he can and he will. Anna, in billing, told me that-“

“I don’t want to hear what Anna in billing has to say. Besides this whole project is a load of BS. Ever since the so called ‘awakening’ we haven’t seen hide nor hair-no. Scale or fang. No, no. I have a better one. Tail or-“

“Juni, I love you, but shut it.”

“Love you too, Louie.” I smiled sweetly at her. “But seriously, ever since the alien dragons landed in the valley and Earth found out we’re not the only intelligent beings in the universe, we haven’t seen or heard from our benevolent benefactors.”

It was true. About one year ago, a massive spacecraft was discovered on a telescope at a remote research facility. That massive spacecraft was headed straight for us and the world panicked.

Straight up end-of-the-world panic. No-more-toilet-paper-at-the-store, panic.

Global leaders had many disagreements about the best course of action but we were sitting ducks. We hadn’t developed technology as advanced as whatever was on the approaching craft. We had no space defense system.

So what happened? Nothing. The panic died down and people moved on. Media purposely started covering anything but space and the spacecraft. There was a small faction of the population that was still in a panic and tried to get the word out that “Hey, we should do something!” but it was no use.

Fast forward to three months ago when, surprise, the spacecraft entered our atmosphere and chilled out above everyone for a bit. It circled the globe while it was chased by this or that country’s air force but it never defended itself and it never landed.

By the time governments stopped throwing everything but nuclear weapons at it, the spacecraft had suffered no damage and it had halted it’s world hovering over the United States.

A small convoy of ships had left the mother ship and landed in a valley in Colorado where the occupants exited the craft and promptly turned into dragons.

Honest to peanuts, straight out the fairy-tales, dragons.

They started out in a human form and then, bam, dragon.

It was…spectacular.

According to several sources, including my eighty year-old Nana, they were very attractive in their human form, highly intelligent, meant us no harm, and oh yes, were very attractive. Thanks, Nana.

They met with the President of the United States and we were informed that the dragon aliens would be staying and helping us out with the multitude of problems we were having on Earth and they only wanted a place to stay.

I wasn’t buying it.

“You know, not everyone does nice things to get something out of it. Some people just like doing nice things. Maybe these dragons just really like the valley.” Lou speculated.

I snorted. “They could come hang out in your valley.”

Lou laughed, “Shut it, you.”

“If they’re so selfless, then why are we on this project?” I pointed out.

“It’s just a PR push. They need to be seen in a good light so people like you stop being so hard on them.” Lou reasoned.

“But, Lou, really?” I picked up the paper given to us by our boss, Mr Hammond. “They want young, attractive people with no family ties to come to their ship and hang out. This doesn’t sound like a PR party, it sounds like the start of a horror movie to me, for alien experimentation or something.”

“It sounds like something you should go to!” Lou exclaimed.

“Lou. Alien experimentation.” I glared at her.

“Juniper.” She glared back, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“Yeah, because my life will be ended as soon as I take this opportunity.” I deadpanned.

She sighed. “I just think it would be really cool to be on the mother ship. Very few people are going to see it. I can’t go because of my brother, but maybe you could go for me and tell me all about it? The government has guaranteed the guests’ safety. Besides, I went on that date with Chad in college pretending to be you and you remember how awful that was. You owe me.” She fluttered her eyes at me and gave me a pouty face.

She was really good at the guilt trip and she had a point about Chad. I did owe her for that and despite my hesitance and speculation of the new alien race, I did want to see what was going on in that mother ship and see an alien dragon close. And if the government officials would be there to make sure we’re all alive and not experimented on…

“Fine, I’ll go. Now let’s finish this up so we can get out of here.”

Lou squealed and leaned over the table to give me a hug.

“You’re going to have so much fun, I know it!”