After discovering a habitable planet while on a space exploration mission, a team from the crew of the space ship have shuttled down to the surface. They spend several days exploring and discover a very ancient castle. As they start to explore it, they are captured by it's occupant. They manage to send off a distress signal before all their weapons and communication devices are taken by the creature. A second team is sent down from the ship to try and rescue the first team. Not knowing what to expect, every turn is frought with danger and the unknown can be very frightening. One of the Privates and the Captain have separated from the group and are exploring some of the chambers on their own. The Private, in his enthusiasm, has gone ahead of the Captain and runs into the creature. The creature seems to have some kind of hypnotic effect on the Private, but the hold is only temporary, and the Private is able to break the spell and flee from the creature. He runs into the Captain in the next chamber just before the creature can capture him. Seeing the Captain's weapon, the creature stops dead in his tracks and stares at the two intruders. 'And what happened to your weapon?' asks the Captain as they both stare at the creature. 'Sorry, Sir. I can't explain it. A strange urge came over me that I could not resist. I took off my holster and lasgun and set it down on the floor in the next chamber. Then, out of nowhere, this creature appeared. Scared the devil out of me I might add. Can't tell you how relieved I am you are here now, but now what do we do?' 'Strange looking creatures. I don't wish to hurt you. I merely have taken your fellow creatures to observe them. I will gladly release them back to you for, oh, lets say, a pile of gold?' 'Captain! It speaks our language! Now what do we do?' 'We try to negotiate. Well, creature. Back on earth, we had a mythical creature similar to you in appearance. We called them, dragons.' 'Yes. You may call me that as well. It feels right.' The Captain seems impervious to the Dragon's hypnotic spells. This the Dragon finds most curious and a little annoying. He is very curious to learn more about these creatures and humors them in their rescue efforts of their fellow crew members. He takes the Captain and the Private back to where he has their ship mates locked up. The Captain and the Dragon haggle back and forth and arrive at an agreeable ransom amount. Back on the ship, the Captain has the chief science officer create the amount of gold requested by the Dragon in their replicator machine. He could have given the Dragon any amount of gold he had wanted, but he somehow sensed that it wasn't the gold the Dragon wanted, but just the thrill of the bargaining process. The gold is delivered and the Dragon releases his prisoners, unharmed. Then he gives them all much information about this strange planet. He isn't the only Dragon, for the entire planet is inhabited by them. They don't have a very large population, but each one controls vast territories. They have legends that mention the humans, as the walls in his castle showed, but none of them had ever seen one in the flesh before. Much more is learned from this expedition and it is determined that a trading agreement can be made between the humans and the Dragons. They establish diplomatic relations and decide to exchange delegates. As the years pass, a great partnership is forged between the earthlings and the Dragons for they both benefit from trading items scarce on each other's planets. They go on together to explore more of the galaxie and bring more planets into their group. Life is good! M4 and Millenium dragon characters. Rendered in Poser 6. Postwork in PS7. Thank you for taking a peek! Your support is greatly appreciated!