The airlock doors opened with a barely audible hiss, the atmospheric pressure here was too low. Talisa came out first. Leaping onto the sun-hot stones, she took a few steps towards the darkening distance, almost completely destroyed inner castle.
"You asked why dragons don't like to remember these ruins," she said in a low voice. - I can tell you a story. Believe it or not - it's up to you.
The alien approached, his suit shining unbearably in the sun.
- I'm all attention, - the translator buzzed lifelessly on the radio.
The dragoness slowly walked towards the ruined building, the alien walking beside her.
“There is a legend that many thousands of years ago, we lived in a completely different world,” Talisa began. “Not on another planet, but in another world. Are you familiar with brane theory?
-Of course.
-Then you should know about the Multiverse predicted by this theory, an infinite series of virtual "membranes", that is, Universes that differ only in tiny fluctuations of world constants.
-I know.
Talisa was silent. The dark brown stone slabs under her paws were covered with a fine network of cracks, but on the whole, erosion did not touch them much.
-According to legend, somewhere here, - she circled the ruins with her wing, - our "membrane" touches the neighboring one. Although such words, of course, had not yet been invented in those days. Ancestors said "Gate of the Worlds".
The tip of the silver dragon's tail twitched nervously.
-The world we used to live in was inhabited by more than just dragons. And one of the unknown races began to exterminate the rest. According to the legends, we fought to the last warrior, but the hour came when only a few women and a bunch of frightened children remained of the dragon race.
She lowered her head.
Sources differ on what happened next. The Kauran epic claims that a half-bird, half-lion, entwined with lightning, descended from the sky and opened the Gates to a new world for a handful of survivors, - Talisa nodded at the mountain range in the distance. - This hypothesis received strong support after the discovery of griffins on Ayatta, but there are too many ambiguities in it. A completely different explanation is given by a stele found in the Land of Dense Herbs; it is over twelve thousand years old, which is an absolute record; more ancient monuments of dragon writing are not yet known.
The winged one twitched its tail.
- The deciphered claw says that about seven thousand years before the creation of the stele, a “stone pillar” collapsed to our planet, from which cruel “sons of the stars” appeared. They brought us dragons in cages, like animals - it is not entirely clear from the text for what purpose, either for devouring, or for fighting in arenas. Another thing is surprising: both on the stele and in the Kauran epic, which is at least three millennia younger, the subsequent events are spoken about in the same way...
Talisa gritted her teeth.
-From a neighboring world, or from an ancient starship, but the enemy followed us to a new home. This fortress we call Kagg was built by them. From here, punitive detachments were sent to hunt for dragons trembling in the forests and caves, and the bodies of the dead were brought here.
The dragon stopped. The alien froze nearby.
"Thousands of bodies," Talisa said quietly. - Already in modern times, when excavations began here ... We ... You see, dragons have only one absolute law, dominating all of us from hatching, so absorbed into the blood that we simply cannot imagine its absence. Dragons don't kill dragons. It is the foundation of our culture, the cornerstone of our thinking.
She swallowed.
-The cemetery discovered in the ruins of Kagg literally turned inside out everything that is sacred to us. Not only bronze chains and the remains of cages were found here, but even decorative items made of dragon bone, can you imagine? Talisa shuddered. “Civilization was shocked. We have never thought before that for creatures of a different biological species, atrocities that are absolutely unimaginable to a dragon may seem quite normal ...
The alien raised his finger in a gesture of attention.
-Question.
-I'm listening.
“The story you have told perfectly explains some of the mysteries we encountered in dragon society. First of all, the presence in heliocentric orbits of a whole swarm of extremely powerful laser batteries, including Sol-1 with a flash energy sufficient to evaporate the planets. Previously, we considered these batteries meteor protection, and excess power - a consequence of vigilance ...
Talisa smiled weakly.
-You're right. The main purpose of the satellites is, of course, the control of asteroids, but in reality, how to explain ... - she sighed. - ... in general, we are so calmer.
The stranger crossed his arms over his chest.
- Allow me to extrapolate thought? I believe the series of interstellar probes you sent out in the last century had a dual purpose. You want to find the planet where the "stone pillar" was launched from, am I right?
Talisa stopped. She was silent for so long that the alien stepped forward:
You don't have to answer if...
"No, I will answer," the dragoness said coldly. Yes, we want to find them. Just not to destroy. The absence of repeated contacts for almost twenty thousand years is already capable of telling a lot about the fate of the mysterious "sons of the stars." We are much more concerned about the brothers and sisters left there. I remember you said that the word "Motherland" does not necessarily mean a location in space; Well, in this case, by Motherland we mean a specific place. The place where, according to the legends, our family originated. A place where the winged can still languish in cages.
Talisa turned abruptly to the stranger.
“And I really, with all my heart hope that you are not from there,” she said measuredly.