At 23:25, Rifka finally admitted defeat.

  She knew a surprising amount about the vessel, but she didn’t feel like she understood any of it.

  Rifka knew the owners of the ship named it “Traveller.” The encrypted data had the name and registration number. The ship didn’t have any voice communication with the planet, just the small burst of data. No crew transmission. No inquiries about recreation. Just a cold request.

  The radio-sensitive telescopes saw reflections that implied water vapor coming off the the vessel when it maneuvered, and when it’s two primary engines lit, there was a heavier particle content. From this, Rifka reasoned that Traveller had hydrogen/oxy vernier thrusters, and some sort of liquid fuel primary RDE rocket engines. And, given it’s smooth acceleration to over 400G, It had to have at least one sub-light liminal drive and gravity plates. Otherwise anyone inside, if there was anyone inside, would be paste.

  The optical systems registered the shape well enough when the Traveller was outlined by the ocean planet. Traveller had “T” shaped hull with the two primary rocket engines on the stubby wings of the “T”. Rifka dropped the shape into the computer system to cross reference it with known space vessels; several hundred years of data from both before and after Erasmus come to live at LM-25.

  The response from the computer was the weird part.

  The Traveller classed as a small ship. Incredibly small. Looking at the proportions of the ship, Rifka guessed the vessel was only about 30 meters long. She could almost flash sprint the whole length of the thing. The only newer vessels like it were in-system pleasure craft.

  She’d read history logs. Just two hundred years earlier, news stories mentioned wealthy people who owned high-performance vessels for recreation. Hard for Rifka to imagine it, because it would be like literally burning money just because they had it to go into unforgiving space just because you could.

  But, the closest match had not been built as pleasure craft. The closest match was a deep-space survey ship over five hundred years old. What was it doing here?

  Traveller could have been a chartered transport. Or, some wealthy enthusiast for old ships running around the galaxy just because they could. But. What would have been at the little water planet that a rich person would want? A good view of the ocean? Rich people were crazy, but surely not that crazy?

  This had to be a new ship designed like the old one. Surely. She asked Erasmus to review everything she’d collected. Erasmus checked her programming, calculations, and the raw sensor data.

  “So, what is it?” Rifka asked the dragon anxiously.

  “Rifka, I am old, but I am not old enough. I do not recognize that ship.” Erasmus replied.

  “Ok. We’re pretty far out. Ships are sometimes eccentric.”

  “Yes.” Erasmus put a lot of effort into making an expressive voice that matched their mood. Although the voice was synthetic, Rifka thought the Dragon managed to put a lot of grim determination in that affirmation.

  “Is it like anything you’ve seen before?” Rifka asked. “A passenger ship or something? It’s not normal to ferry cargo. It might only be about a 3 ton vessel, like 2400 cubic meters? That’s not big enough for anything useful, right? Just an in-system transport, or a yacht.”

  “Not cargo. Or, intersystem transport. Missiles gunships could be that size.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Isn’t that too small? None of the derelict war-vessels around the Lonely Mountain are that small.”

  “Human war doctrine changes. Sometimes they go bigger, sometimes smaller.” Erasmus said. “It might be hard to hit a ship that small. Not for me. But, you know, regular computer-targeting based weapon systems. A fusion pumped laser might miss something that tiny.”

  Rifka knew Erasmus didn’t like to talk about how it came to live at the Lonely Mountain. But, Rifka knew that humans didn’t leave derelict what they could recover, and a fleet worth of debris had been caught in the mild gravity well of LM-25. She had long-ago guessed the Erasmus was the cause. They never confirmed it; but, they also never denied it either.

  “The message didn’t explain anything.” Rifka said hesitantly. “The spaceship called itself Traveller, and just asked for a number to dock at the local space-station. It doesn’t seem like a military ship.”

  “I read the message. You might need to relocate your living quarters deeper in the mountain. For safety. There’s the manger’s outpost that’s 2km below the surface. It has all the amenities you have up here. It wouldn’t take long to move.”

  “Why?” Rifka asked. Erasmus had never seemed worried like this before. Paranoid, sure, but they never asked Rifka to relocate.

  Erasmus stayed unusually quiet for an unusually long time. Rifka had found that it made no difference to ask them to answer faster. Erasmus never really had to think for long. But, whether AI, or dragon, Erasmus always took a long time to answer when they tried to predict Rifka’s response.

  This tended to happen when Rifka asked questions about how a dragon came to live in the Lonely Mountain.

  The pause began to grate on her curiosity.

  “Erasmus?”

  “The mining company—the one that owned this asteroid—is Thor & Co., LLC.”

  “Yeah, their logo is everywhere.” A hammer and lightning bolt bounded by a blue circle. Rifka’s miners’ coverall had the logo on it. The bed had the logo on it. Even as the processor made ration bars came stamped with the company logo.

  Erasmus made no secret of it. They weren’t the first owner or anything.

  “This spaceship used the Thor & Co. docking request code.” Erasmus said. “It didn’t ask for permission to dock. It demanded it.”

  “So, you think the company is back? But, why? Its been a over a hundred and fifty years, hasn’t it?”

  “Coming close to two hundred.”

  “What could the company want?”

  “What do the stories tell you about dragons?”

  “Well, when I was eight, I read a lot about humans and Dragons. Beowulf and Wiglaf fought a fire breathing dragon that took treasure and tribute. Beowulf killed it, but he died. But, that’s not the only kind of dragon. You remember? L?c Long Quan was the mythological dragon prince, and the father of a nation of people.”

  “Humans are storytellers.” Erasmus replied. “Which kind of dragon do you think I am? Here I am in a Lonely Mountain. I have a great treasure. I live in the proverbial cave. You know how the story goes from there.”

  “No! They wouldn’t dare! Would they?” Rifka couldn’t imagine anyone coming for Erasmus.

  “Humans are much greedier than dragons. That’s the point of the Beowulf. The story warns people of the dragons living among them and urges them fight, even if they are afraid.”

  “That’s not your whole story though. Its more complicated than that, isn’t it?”

  “Stories simplify things, don’t you think?”

  “Too much.”

  Rifka reread the monitors. The ship had found a berth. She knew the size of the Lakelanders’ space station, and the little ship could barely counted as a rowboat in comparison to the freighter docked there. The tugs Lakelanders used to grab cargo containers were larger.

  “It’s just one ship. How dangerous could it be?”

  “You are right, my little Rifka. Hardly anything dangerous could be in a ship that size. It can’t carry anything that would hurt me. I imagine that the Traveller will travel somewhere else, and we won’t need to worry about it.”

  The dragon displayed on the monitor gave a toothy smile.

  Rifka settled back into her computer’s console chair.

  “If the people from the Traveller come here. I won’t let them hurt you Erasmus. You saved my life.”