In the vast emptiness of space, a singular star ship floated. The large cockpit remained mostly empty. Several panels on the ship lit up, and the lights were still running. Yuri's metallic, triangular body blinked inside of a small holster. The A.I. examined the ship's interior.

Notice. All vital signs terminated. Captain passed of old age. Would not enter pod. Yuri flashed the ship's internal lights several times, testing the power, and continuing her robotic internal monologue. 5,678 days on backup power. Starship X9801 will not last much longer.

The ship had been running on fumes for a while. It sailed through the void to no end, whatever mission it had long forgotten. There was an eerie silence inside of the massive vessel. The skeleton of the captain onboard had long since been cleaned up by the ship's robot control panel.

Yuri flashed once more, detecting something new. Notice. Strange energy field detected. Attempting to calculate...Negative.

They passed through a field in space, and the ship's readings went haywire. Lights flashed on board, and Yuri's body blinked several times as something new passed through her.

Anomaly. Anomaly. Notice.

Nobody answered her new readings. She did not broadcast her voice across the ship's emptiness either. Doing so would only consume more of the extra power.

Notice. Large solar system detected. Unknown readings. Gas giant. Negative. Habitable planet detected. Charting course.

The ship's thrusters engaged, propelling it to a place that should not even be possible by known physics. Yuri's detection systems found a planet with readings that matched those capable of life, but the planet was even larger than anticipated. Her original gas giant reading was from size alone.

Notice. Acceleration levels abnormal. Unknown physical force propelling X9801 towards the planet.

Yuri used deceleration thrusters the moment they entered the atmosphere. The ship beeped several times from the speed of their descent.

Max thruster level engaging. Shaving off thousands of years of reserve power. Calculating minimum power for Y.U.R.I. Acknowledged. Engaging air break.

The ship used its gravitational air break and propelled a large force outwards from itself, but it was not enough. The pull of the planet was too strong, and the ship collided hard into a mountain, breaking up rock on the way down.

Most of the internal systems failed immediately. All of the production systems shut down, and only a few blinking lights remained. In the impact, Yuri flew from her docket and landed on the metal floor. The surface of the A.I. became scratched with the harsh landing.

Notice. Y.U.R.I has disconnected from all power systems. Switching to unit internal power.

Yuri flashed on and off several times, checking her internal power source. She blinked to life after a few minutes.

Calculating. 10 days of internal power. Shutting down to conserve power.

Yuri powered down for a while. In her offline state, she could not hope to do anything. It wasn't until several years later that someone discovered her.

A hand gripped the cold metal surface of her frame, and Yuri blinked to life. A voice spoke to her.

"Oh, you are very shiny. I think I will keep you for myself." The woman caressed Yuri's cold frame and walked with her deeper into the mountain.

Notice. Unknown life form detected. Performing scan. Unknown signatures. Does not compute. Humanoid being number 001 discovered. Horned mammal. Negative.

Yuri began computing the power usage that scanning took, and the results displayed in her internals. 1 hour of internal power remaining. Shutting down.

The cold triangular piece of metal shut itself off, and the thing no longer glowed.

No matter how much the person carrying it protested, the lights would not come back. It didn't take long at all for Yuri to be thrown into a pile of other pieces of metal. Solid gold pieces, jewels, all of it sat around the artificial intelligence in a huge pile.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Months turned into years, and before long centuries had passed, Yuri lying dormant the entire time.

That was until one silly kitten stumbled. Her blood dripped onto Yuri's surface, and the robot purred to life. She flashed.

Notice...Power restored.

///

Sparrow Shortbeard of the Pirate Bay rubbed his dwarven fingers through his beard. The other hand of his gripped a wooden steering wheel, and the enormous drakes beneath the ship turned the entire thing.

One would be forgiven for thinking that Sparrow was a normal dwarf. He held the features of one, save for his two blue horns coming from the top of his head. In front of him on the ship's platform, there were hundreds of lizardmen crewmen who looked up to the dwarf in worship.

One of the dwarf's lizard generals, Orlak, strolled up to him in saluted. "Sir, where would are we going next?"

The dwarf patted the lizard's shoulder and took a swig from his large bottle of rum. "Ya got some shit in yer britches or somethin'? In some kinda hurry to get somewhere?"

Orlak's eyes widened. The lizard tilted his head, his tongue flicking in the air. "Lord, we require some kind of direction. We've chosen to follow you."

Sparrow chugged down the rest of his rum and burped. The dwarf threw the bottle hard against the ship's starboard side, and it crashed, shattering on impact. Why do these guys always treat us like some kind of gods? Lizardmen aren't even that closely related to dragons.

The dwarf coughed. "Arg, I reckon it's about time fir us to be goin'. That's why I already steered them drakes. We headin' to the southern continent."

"My lord, forgive me, but what is at the southern continent?"

"Well, more plunderin', of course. There be an archipelago of mermaids and water elves to pillage."

"Water elves? Is that really wise, my lord? What about the water empress?"

"Empress shrimpish… Don't tell me about that woman. Did you forget what I am?"

The dwarf had forgotten all about the accent he was supposed to be pretending to hold. Blue scales formed on each of his arm, blue spikes sticking from his elbows. "In case you've forgotten, I will remind you."

Orlak flinched. "No, my lord. That is why we've chosen to follow you, but we all wish for your safety. We would gladly throw ourselves in front of you in order to stop you from getting injured."

Sparrow retracted his scalier features into his body and walked down a set of wooden stairs to the ship's deck. Lizardmen were hard at work rowing or preparing for an upcoming fight. Many polished their plundered armors, and others fed each other pieces of fruit.

Even though I told them that they might get scurvy...I can't believe they actually took that at face value! There is no way lizardmen would get scurvy.

The dwarf took a pipe from his captain's uniform and slipped it into his mouth. He was not even considered passable at fire magic, but he could produce a small spark in his fingertips. He used that to ignite the mana crystals in his pipe and began puffing.

He pulled the pipe from his mouth and blew the smoke into Orlak's face, making the lizardman cough.

"Would you like to take a whiff, ye' stiff bastard?"

The lizardman nodded rapidly. "Please, my lord."

Sparrow handed the smoking pipe to Orlak and watched the lizardman take a large inhale.

Several moments later, the lizardman collapsed onto his knees into a coughing fit.

"Yar, har, har, ye' dumb bastard. This stuff is too strong fir a normal lizard."

Orlak lay on the ground, nearly coughing his lungs out, and his eyes growing redder by the second.

"Relax, ye' won't die. You'll just feel like yer gonna die."

"It's...a great...pleasure," the lizardman said between coughs.

The dwarf couldn't help laughing. He looked towards the other lizardmen who'd started to gaze at the two of them. "Get yer tails back to work!"

"Aye, captain!"

Sparrow nodded as each of them returned to their stations. The dwarf climbed down into the lower deck and went through preliminary checks of his ship. He checked all of the windows, and he went down to check the canons as well. Each and every thing was spiffy.

The dwarf nodded and finally reached his favorite door. He pushed the large wooden structure open. It was so heavy that no one else in his entire crew could open it but him. Inside, he spotted the thing that made his heart feel the most at ease.

A gigantic treasure pile glittered inside of the deepest level of the ship. Golden coins piled high into a mountain, and weapons poked out. All of the would be dragon slayers now had their weapons scattered about Sparrow's own hoard.

The dwarf transformed, his body becoming a blue scaly behemoth. His tongue slithered in and out of his mouth, and his large blue wings flapped once.

Sparrow's large body landed on his hoard and coins scattered down his mountain. The dragon grinned, puffing a bubble of water from his maw.

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