“Didn’t explode at all,” agreed the Second Under secretary, head bobbing violently as he stood on the other side of the deck. “Always an excellent start to any aeronautical undertaking.”
The First Undersecretary grunted, pulling his short white beard thoughtfully. “Perhaps it would be best to have Lemborgamontgoloferpaddersonrite pilot the next mission as well, since he has the edge in experience, delusions or not. His fever’s gone, and with a refresher course or two on the next model, he could-”
“An admirable idea, I agree,” said the Second Undersecretary, nodding again but with less enthusiasm. “Perfectly admirable except for the minor fact that Lemborgamontgoloferpaddersonrite checked himself out of the Primary Downslope Trauma Center this morning and submitted his vacation request. I am afraid he is already gone.”
The First Undersecretary stared at the Second in astonishment. “Gone? He’s gone? Where to? Cancel his request! Bring him back at once! He’s our senior technojammer pilot! This is mutiny!”
The gnome standing on the other side of the desk winced. He knew this next part wasn’t going to be easy. “I agree completely that it is certainly akin to mutiny, as he didn’t even wait for the vacation request to go through its normal seventy-eight-week period of approval before he left for the harbor at Xenos, where he has undoubtedly caught a ship by now.” He handed his supervisor another sheet of paper, which the First Undersecretary read after locating the spectacles on top of his head. “Perhaps, though, it is for the best, as he still seems to be caught up in his, um, delusions, rather like your third cousin.”
The First Undersecretary groaned and let the sheet fall from his fingers. “Off to the north to the home of the dragons, taking only six changes of clothing and a khas set. I see your point. Very well, call up the dormitory and have the students gather in the auditorium in two hours to pick a pilot for mission number twenty-nine. We’ll draw straws, as usual.”
The Second Undersecretary shouted, “At once!” and darted from the room. The First Undersecretary glanced at Lemborg’s vacation request once more, then wadded it up and tossed it into the crate with the other papers. “We’ll get this technojammer thing right eventually,” he muttered, and went on with his paperwork.
Aurora’s Eggs
Douglas Niles
In an age when stars were born and dreams began, the gods of light and darkness gave to the world their children, the first dragons. These regal serpents soared in the skies over Krynn, numbering but ten in all-five favored daughters of Paladine, and five more bold sons of Takhisis.
The dragons of the Platinum Father were creatures of light and goodness, formed of the metals that brightened and gave strength to the world. They were gold and silver, brass and bronze and copper. Females all, the quintet of serpentine sisters made their lairs in the west of Ansalon and dwelled there for countless eons, singing praises of Paladine among the vast swath of peaks that would one day be called Kharolis.
Arrayed against them were the five sons of the Dark Queen, wyrms of implacable evil arrayed in the colors of their matriarch: red, blue, black, green and white. They spread wickedness and destruction in the name of Takhisis, each serpent a blight of chaos and waste upon a great section of the world. Ultimately, like the daughters of Paladine, these chromatic dragons settled, making their lairs in the great mountains of central Ansalon. This smoldering, volcanic region would later be known as the Khalkist.
For the better part of an era, the number of the ten dragons remained constant. ancient beings, they did not age beyond their full maturity, but neither did they procreate. Naturally, Paladine and Takhisis each wished for wyrmlings born of their mighty offspring, that all Krynn might be populated with dragonkind.
But for the timeless millennia of prehistory these godly efforts failed, until at last the world came to a cusp of growing history, and ogres and elves came forth upon the land. Each of these folk laid claim to realms, allying with the mighty wyrms or taking them as foes. They worshiped the Platinum father and the Dark Queen, but called them by new names-Paladine was E’li to the elves, and the ogres knew Takhisis as Darklady.