Sarah and the Steam Dragon
Chapter 1

A note on Dates and Measurements

With the COVID-19 virus still impacting the world as I write this, my fictional world is greatly affected by its own Viral outbreak in the year 2020. For the survivors of the new world, many refer to 2020 as V-Zero, and subsequent years as V-01 onwards.

The current year of the stories is 2046 AD, referred to as V-26 by many of the characters.

As for measurements, I personally use both the Metric and Imperial systems, depending on which is more convenient to the task at hand. The Pan Oceanic Special Zone officially uses Metric measurement, but like me many characters use a mix of Metric and Imperial when describing lengths and distances. My apologies if any reader replaces that confusing.

Locations

I have set the Zone in the northernmost tip of Queensland, Australia. It was because I wanted somewhere warm, wet and mostly uninhabited, but still close to Asia and the Americas.

The actual physical location of Pan City is somewhat arbitrary. My world is not our world anyway, with a different history and in this case different geography. The peninsular the Zone occupies has Gulf of Carpentaria to the west and the Coral Sea to the east,.

Pan City itself I have sited in a bight on the east coast, the Great Barrier Reef running in a vast line some distance offshore. Much of the Zone is untouched country, barely inhabited, just like the real world. In mine it is guarded by Clone soldiers, AI driven drones and overwatched by Orbital weapons platforms.

If there is any dodgy physics or biology you think is wrong, it probably is. This is a piece of fiction after all.

Please enjoy!

Paul Mitting

Prologue

The Emissary

High above the city of lights, a hole made of utter darkness appeared like a wound on the face of the night sky. It pulsed with an unnatural energy, pushing back the air that surrounded it. The Emissary pulled itself through the opening like a maggot crawling from rotten meat then spread wings formed of the same darkness.

It shivered in the moonlight, hating even the pale brightness of that satellite. The creature scented the air, seeking its victim. Far below, towers of humans rose from the city, full of the life it hungered for.

Like the corpse of a dying bird it dropped from the sky, aiming for the first life it would take. The man was at the rear of a building, watching the night sky, when it fell upon him. He gave one short scream and then he was filled by the darkness.

No one saw him fall or saw the blackness that pulsed over his flesh and crawled inside his mouth and nose. Perhaps no one would have cared. It was a big city, full of millions of people. The loss of a single man to the darkness would hardly be noticed.

Above this scene, the hole in the sky rippled once more. A dark shape darted through, long and lean, sharp spikes and talons just visible along its body. It surveyed the world it found in confusion and made to turn back, but the hole in the sky puckered and vanished.

With a cry of despair, the dark creature circled the city in vain, lost and alone.

=====

10th District Junior High School

Monday, October 1st 2046 AD

(Twenty Six years after the Viral-Bomb)

Sarah Evermore was a NOMA. All the other kids in her Junior High School knew it and the mean ones reminded her every day.

NOMA. It meant No Measurable Ability and in Pan City it was the worst insult you could say to somebody. Worse than calling them a Ginger, or an Idiot, or even a Tomboy. Sarah had been called all of those at some point, which was weird as she was actually strawberry blonde and quite smart.

Sarah did admit to herself that the Tomboy claim was valid. Right now she was wearing the school uniform for the boys, not the girls’ one her mum always wished she would wear. The school let the kids pick for themselves what uniform they wore, so long as it was an actual uniform. Some of the boys in her class liked to wear the girls’ uniforms too, and that was OK. It was a pretty progressive place here in Pan City.

But to be a NOMA was to be less than average. The 10th District Junior High School was where parents sent their kids to be Awakened. To reveal their special abilities and train them up. Abilities like Pyrokinesis, Levitation or Telepathy.

The tests all showed that Sarah had the potential to be Awakened. Yet unlike so many of her classmates, she had not developed any ability so far. She was a NOMA and in this school that was not much fun at all.

Today was Testing Day, when all the kids in her class with Awakened abilities went to the nearby Awakening Centre to see how much their powers had increased. Snotty little Angelina from her class was already a Grade Two Telekinetic, and she was a month younger than Sarah. The injustice of it all made Sarah scream with frustration.

So much that she had indeed screamed as Angelina had stuck her tongue out at her as they left the school, calling Sarah a “NOMA, NOMA, smelly little NOMA!” Then the other kids took up the chant and Sarah had run away from them. It was either that or start punching them, but that would get her Detention.

Which is why she was here, sitting on the roof of the main school building. She was not supposed to be up here, but it was a quiet place where she could be alone. Where no-one would call her a NOMA. She sat on the ledge that ran around the rooftop, kicking her legs and looking out over Pan City.

It was a great view from up here and she could see all the way to the harbour. Out there she could just make out the bulk of the Fortress, the place where the Guards who protected the Zone all lived. There were lots of big towers all around her, some for people to live in like her family did, and others full of offices like her dad worked in, programming and stuff.

Her Junior High School was laid out in the shape of a huge letter C below her dangling feet, gleaming glass and concrete rising up four stories from the brightly paved courtyard. She was seated on the south wing rooftop, the main school entrance being in the centre of the giant C and the north wing facing her. Splashes of colour adorned the buildings too, an attempt by the builders to make it look warm and welcoming. Instead of the boring place of learning it really was.

“This spot has the best view in all of Pan City” said Sarah to herself and grinned happily.

“It certainly does, girl child” said a deep voice to her right.

Sarah nearly fell off the roof in shock, which would have proven her teacher’s right when they had warned her about coming up here.

“Who said that?” Sarah yelled angrily and looked about her. There was no-one there next to her, nor on the sloping metal roof behind her. She was all alone.

There was a drift of steam wafting about, maybe from one of the roof vents. That had to be the cause, Sarah was certain. But who had spoken to her just now?

Sarah stood up and narrowed her eyes, focussing on the spot she was positive the voice had come from. Tighter and tighter she screwed up her eyes, looking deep into the steam drifting past. Then with a snap it came into sight.

It was big, a long scaled creature the length of her dad’s new electric car. There was a long tail, four legs with sharp looking claws, a big body with spikes running along its back and a head like a lizards’ but with two horns and sharp teeth.

Sarah gasped and stepped backwards, losing her balance and toppling slowly over the edge of the roof.

“Oh great,” she thought “I am going to fall to my death at school and that rotten Angelina will clap her hands in delight”

A clawed foreleg shot out and grabbed her left wrist in a painfully tight grip. Sarah was balanced right on the edge of the roof, her toes just touching the ledge, her heels in space.

“I don’t think girl children can fly” said the creature, looking at her with his immense pale blue eyes, the pitch black pupils focussed on her own blue-green eyes.

“I don’t think I can fly either” agreed Sarah, terrified out of her mind. Partly because what looked like a dragon had her hand gripped so tightly, partly because she was hanging four stories above the concrete paving of the school courtyard.

“Can you see me, girl child?” asked the dragon, giving her an inquisitive look. Wisps of steam came out of its nostrils and mouth as it spoke to her, still holding her on the brink of falling.

“Um, yes of course I can see you” admitted Sarah, her mind starting to function again. “Could you please pull me back to safety?” She risked a quick look downwards and it was definitely a long, long way to the ground from here.

“I will be happy to do so” the creature agreed and gently pulled her by her wrist upright until she was standing squarely on the ledge once more. Sarah breathed a huge sigh of relief and flopped down onto the roof ledge, sitting cross legged and facing the strange creature.

It turned itself, putting its body lengthwise along the ledge and facing her. This close up she was able to feel the moist heat emanating from the creature as it breathed gently, kind of like being in a steam bath.

“Thank you for saving me just now” said Sarah, knowing it was important to always be polite. Especially to giant lizards with sharp teeth and claws who could talk.

“You are most welcome, girl child” said the beast. “You are the first human I have encountered in this world who was able to see and touch me. I could not let you fall without asking how this was possible”

It leaned its long neck forwards, bringing its head right up close to Sarah’s own. The steamy breath was very warm now, yet it smelled sweet like flowers. It was very pleasant in fact, despite how close its long mouth was with rows of sharp looking teeth.

“So how can you see me, girl child?” it demanded. The big blue eyes blinked slowly and fixed her with its regard.

Sarah had fought lots of bullies in her time. Being a NOMA kind of made that something she dealt with every day at school. So there was no way she was going to be frightened by this creature.

“First off” she replied primly, “My name is Sarah, Sarah Evermore. It is not ‘girl child’ so I will thank you to address me properly”

“Secondly” she added, ticking it off her fingers, “I have no idea how I can see you. I am not even sure you are real, since you look like a Dragon, and Dragons do not exist”

The dragon reared back, a look of surprise on its face, and gasped in horror.

“Of course I exist!” It demanded. “I am positive I have existed far longer than any clumsy girl children have been around” Sarah was certain the creature had an aggrieved look on its face now.

“Dragons definitely exist in my world” It added. “Which I must say is a much better world than this one. Mine has lots of lovely woods and streams to play in and nice warm caves to sleep in at night. Not like this awful place, with only sad little canals to splash in and hardly any trees at all”

It dropped its head on the ledge, the scaled snout sitting just a hands breadth away from where Sarah sat. Sad little puffs of steam snorted out of its nostrils, filling the air once more with the scent of flowers.

Sarah looked along the length of the dragon, noticing how it had blue scales along its sides, fading to white as they went down to the belly and darkening to black along its spine. Its claws were clean white like polished bone, but the horns and spikes on its head and back were shiny black.

“You are a very pretty dragon” said Sarah, trying to lift its spirits. It rolled its eyes to look up into hers and whuffled softly, sending more steam drifting upwards.

“Do you think so, girl child?” it wondered. “My mother always told me I would grow into a handsome Dracoris Vapora but I thought that was just motherly love”

“My name is Sarah” she reminded the dragon, getting rather annoyed at being called a child all the time.

“Ah yes, Sarah Evermore” said the dragon. “Since we are on a personal name basis, perhaps you should call me Stanlevitariously the Third, son of Marlevitariously the Eighth”

“So you are a boy dragon?” asked Sarah. He was blue after all, so maybe girl dragons were pink?

“Of course I am a boy, girl child...I mean...Sarah Evermore” he responded. He eyed her keenly, looking her up and down now as he lifted his head.

“How old a girl child are you, Sarah Evermore?” he asked her.

“I’m twelve years old” Sarah answered. “If you don’t mind, can you just call me Sarah? You don’t need to keep calling me by my full name. That seems kind of weird”

“My apologies, Sarah. In that case, you may use the short form of my own name” he said. “Please call me Stanley”

Sarah erupted into laughter and had to grab the side of the ledge again to stop herself falling off. Her laughing went on for a while until she realised the dragon was rearing back, regarding her with an angry glare in its eyes. Two streams of white steam were pouring from its nostrils and a long red tongue was poking out at her, flicking angrily in the air.

She wiped her eyes and bowed from the waist, suddenly meek and apologetic.

“I am very sorry, Stanley (sniff, giggle)” she went “It is a wonderful name and you should be very proud of it (snort, gasp)”

Stanley relaxed a little and lowered his front legs back onto the ledge.

“Thank you Sarah” he said solemnly, “It is indeed a proud name among my kind. I am but a young Dracoris, scarcely one hundred of your years old, but I hope to live up to the name I was given by my mother”

Stanley stopped talking suddenly and looked over Sarah’s shoulder. He shuffled back a few paces and the spines along his back lifted upright like an angry cat, his tail rising straight up.

“Who is this woman that can fly?” demanded Stanley, his eyes wide and unblinking.

Sarah turned and saw it was Miss Abrams, her English teacher who was also her home room teacher at the school. Miss Abrams was tall, with dark brown hair, pale brown eyes and a pretty face that had all the classroom boys in love with her. She was also a Grade Three Levitator and she was hovering a couple meters out in the air, giving Sarah her most stern look.

“Sarah Evermore” she scolded, “What have I told you about climbing on the roof!” She levitated over and landed gently on the roof ledge next to Sarah. “It is very dangerous and if you fell from here you could be badly hurt”

“Sorry Miss Abrams” said Sarah, not wanting to meet her teacher’s eyes. She had indeed been told many times not to climb up here. Having nearly fallen off just a short time ago, she was beginning to understand what her teacher meant.

“I was just talking to Stanley about stuff” Sarah added contritely and looked over at the dragon. He was watching her teacher with interest, his head tilted to one side like a confused puppy.

“Who is Stanley?” asked Miss Abrams and looked around the rooftop. “Is there another student up here with you?”

“No, not a student. It’s Stanley, that dragon just here” Sarah said and pointed helpfully at Stanley. Stanley looked at her and leaned down to sniff her finger. A snort of steam escaped and blew flower scented air over Sarah and her teacher.

“Sarah, please be serious” said Miss Abrams. “There is no dragon here because such creatures do not exist. If they did, I would be able to see it too” Her teacher took Sarah’s hand and lifted her to her feet.

“Now please come with me. You are late for English. Just because the other students are off at the testing centre does not mean you get to skip class”

Saying this, Miss Abrams gripped Sarah in a tight hug and stepped off the ledge. The two of them floated gently down to the ground like a feather. As she flew, Sarah lifted her eyes back to Stanley, who was watching her descent with great interest.

On the ground, Miss Abrams released Sarah and told her to hurry off to class. Sarah waved up to the rooftop and then dashed inside the main building. Miss Abrams looked up to the rooftop as well, a wondering look on her face.

She touched her cheek, where she had felt the gust of warm moist air and smelled flowers. There was nothing up there that she could see. With a shrug, Miss Abrams turned and followed Sarah to her class.

=====

The classroom was nearly empty and Sarah sat by herself at her desk near the windows. On any other day there would be thirty other students in here, all studying English hard under Miss Abrams. Today there were just four of them and the teacher, going over last week’s lessons as a revision.

Sarah sighed, as all the classes would be like this today. No new work because all the Awakened students were at the special Centre next to the school, trying out their powers and showing off to each other. Here it was just the NOMAs and Miss Abrams, being bored and left out of anything exciting.

She idly scrolled through the lesson plan on her datapad, all about nouns and verbs, thinking about her encounter on the rooftop. It can’t have been real she told herself, over and over. Miss Abrams had not seen anything, and she was a Grade Three Awakened. If there had been a real dragon on the roof, surely someone as smart and talented as her teacher would have seen it.

Sarah sighed again and slumped in her school seat, looking out of the window. It was getting dark outside as rain clouds rolled in, making the window into a mirror. She looked at herself and wondered what other people saw.

To herself, she looked like any normal girl of twelve. She had short blonde hair, tinged with a little red, blue-green eyes and dimples in her cheeks. Her height was average, neither tall nor short and she was of regular size, not fat or skinny. Just a standard young girl, so she thought to herself.

So why did she stand out so much? Why did the other kids always pick on her? She was not the only NOMA in her class, and her school had hundreds of kids like her with no special Abilities. Sarah was beginning to wonder if it was something else about her that made her the target of so many taunts from classmates like Angelina.

She could not figure it out. Maybe she was a dummy after all?

Tap, tap, tap went the claws on the window and Sarah screamed in sudden shock. There was a dragon hovering in the air just outside, his blue eyes watching her intently.

“Sarah!” called Miss Abrams and rushed over to her desk. “Are you alright?”

Sarah looked at her teacher with wide eyes and then pointed out the window.

“He’s right there, Miss” she babbled. “He’s just outside the window”

Miss Abrams stood next to Sarah and peered out into the dark, rainy view over the school courtyard.

“There is nothing out there, Sarah” she finally said. Miss Abrams looked down at Sarah’s shocked face and smiled with genuine concern. “Was it the dragon again?”

Sarah recovered herself and noticed the other students were all watching her intently. This had turned from a boring English lesson into something way more exciting. She hung her head and shook her head no.

“Sorry Miss” she said quietly. “I must have been seeing things in the rain”.

“That is OK, Sarah” replied her teacher. She turned to the other students and announced that instead of revision, how about they play some word games? Everyone perked up at that, even Sarah, as she was actually pretty smart and was good at these games.

The rest of the lesson passed quickly, the incident forgotten. Miss Abrams was a dedicated and talented teacher and she got them all to concentrate on what was in the room and not outside. Even Sarah forgot what she had seen until the end of the lesson, packing up her datapad and her bag to head to the next class.

Tap, tap, tap on the window with one shiny white claw went the dragon. Sarah looked at him still hovering outside and stood close to the window. “Go away” she whispered and without waiting for a reply grabbed her stuff and left the classroom.

=====

The next class was Maths with Mr Ishikawa. He was from Okinawa in Japan originally and had moved to Pan City five years ago. He was only a little taller than Sarah, with short dark hair, brown eyes and a stern face. He was also a Grade Two Telekinetic, just like the dreaded Angelina.

Sarah’s only consolation in his class was that Angelina used to be teacher’s favourite since she was a fellow Telekinetic. That all changed when twelve year old Angelina got upgraded to the same level as Mr Ishikawa. It must have been a bitter pill for him to swallow, seeing his young student rise to his own power level so quickly.

She would likely become a Grade Three or even Four by the time she graduated from Junior High. Mr Ishikawa had to be at least thirty years old Sarah reckoned, which to her seemed ancient. He would never get to a higher Grade now, doomed forever to be a simple Grade Two.

Still, that was better than being a NOMA thought Sarah with a sour grimace.

The Maths class was more revision, going over the algebra and geometry lessons from last week. It had been boring the first time Sarah had learned it. Now it was taking boredom to whole new heights and she sat dejectedly in her seat for the whole class.

She even looked across the classroom to the windows, but all they showed was more rainy skies and the lights of towers in the distance. No flying dragons to distract her from the sheer tedium of Mathematics.

At the end of class it was morning break, so Sarah and her fellow NOMAs filed quietly out into the school corridors. With the rain coming down, she could not go outside to the courtyard or playground. She had no friends to talk to either, with her only two friends at the Testing Centre today.

They were Lilly, a red headed girl who developed Teleportation as her ability, and Achmed, a dark haired boy who was a Scanner. Both of them were still only Grade One, but their abilities were highly sought after by businesses and government agencies. They were already considering scholarships being offered to them for their future education and careers. Sarah tried hard not to be jealous of her friends as she only had the two of them. It was hard though, even harder when they were both at Testing and left her alone at school.

With nothing better to do for her fifteen minute break, Sarah decided to go down into the school basement. This was strictly off limits to all the students, yet the rooftop was too and Sarah was up there all the time. Making sure she was not being watched, Sarah went to the access door for the basement. It had a security pad next to the door that could be opened using a special card or by entering a four digit code.

Of course, Sarah did not have one of the cards. They were only carried by the Janitors and certain teachers who had reason to do down into the dark depths below the school. What Sarah did have was really good eyesight and an excellent memory for things she was interested in.

One day she had seen the head janitor, Creepy Bob, forget his card and had to punch in the code by hand. It took him a few goes and he had been so engrossed he had not seen Sarah lurking close by, watching from around a corner. He was saying the numbers out loud so when he finally got them right, Sarah committed them to memory.

She punched in the code and the door opened for her. So easy she thought and slipped quickly inside, making sure the door was closed behind her. A small landing was here with a stairway leading down to the basement. Small lights flickered to life as she entered, illuminating the bare concrete steps. With a burst of excitement she ran down the stairs and paused at the corridor junction they lead to.

Three long corridors led from here, running deep under the school that squatted above ground. To her left was the one that led to the trash compactors, cleaning supplies and other boring janitor kinds of stuff. The one directly ahead lead to the school’s power supply room and computer stacks. Definitely of no interest to her.

The right hand corridor though lead to storage rooms used for old gym equipment, props for school plays, that kind of thing. Plus the most interesting room of all, the Lost and Found room. This included all the items confiscated by the teachers and never returned. That was the direction Sarah headed in, keeping a watchful eye out for Creepy Bob.

This was his domain after all, the one place in the school where he ruled supreme. His name was not really Creepy Bob, that was just the name all the students (and a few teachers) called him. Never to his face of course as that would be way too scary. His real name was Robert Crepsley and he had been at this Junior High School since it was first opened nearly twenty years ago.

School legend said he had been found buried in the dark ground when they first dug out the basement. The builders did not know what to do with him and he would not leave, so they made him the head Janitor. He had lived here ever since, never leaving the school grounds.

Sarah did not believe the legend was entirely true, but she did know he had his own private room set up in the basement. It had a bed and a TV, a small refrigerator and even a closet full of his smelly clothes. She knew this because she had found it during one of her many explorations, skulking about in the dim corridors like one of the rats that Creepy Bob was always setting traps for.

She crept stealthily along, planning on checking for anything new in the Lost and Found, when she heard heavy steps and the creak of Bob’s janitor cart coming up behind her. Sarah panicked for a moment, then dived into one of the storage rooms. It was filled with long forgotten boxes on dusty shelves and she pulled the door almost fully closed, just peeking out from a narrow slit.

The storage room did not have automatic lights so she crouched in the darkness as Bob and his cart squeaked past. He had a large sack stuffed into the bin on his cart and as it passed Sarah could swear she saw the sack wriggle, like there was something alive inside. Then it was past and Sarah was about to leave when she heard more footsteps on the concrete floor, following Creepy Bob.

With her eye pressed to the opening, she saw a man walk past her hiding spot. He was tall and forbidding, the one teacher in the school whom she did not like at all. It was Mr Albright, her Physics teacher. He was a NOMA just like Sarah, but he was stern and mean to everyone in his classes. Even the other NOMAs, which hardly seemed fair.

His nickname amongst the students was Mr Not-So-Bright, hardly true since he was very smart, but he had a dark personality. Everyone agreed the only person in the school he got along with was Creepy Bob, even though he was always ordering the janitor about like his personal slave.

Mr Albright was responsible for the Lost and Found room and any item he confiscated was guaranteed to never, ever be returned. He was probably down here to check on his treasures, making sure they were all safely locked up where no child could ever play with them again.

Sarah listened carefully, trying to determine if it was safe for her to escape back upstairs. The next class would be starting soon and she needed to get out of here.

“Make sure they don’t get loose” she heard Mr Albright say, his voice echoing down the corridor.

“They won’t” responded the raspy voice of Creepy Bob, “I got them tied up nice and tight in my sack” he assured the teacher.

“Put them in the usual spot for now” Mr Albright said. “I’ll deal with them at lunchtime”

Sarah felt distinctly uneasy at these words, wondering what exactly was in the sack she had seen. Or maybe who was in the sack, came the even grimmer thought. The two men moved further off and she heard a door open and close, so she bolted to the stairs.

She made it back to the ground floor without any cries of alarm or a hand grabbing her from the shadows. Sarah breathed a sigh of relief as the bell sounded for next class to begin, bringing fellow students bustling along the school corridors. She had made it back in time without being caught and joined the others as she made her way to class.