Name: Sean (left) and Shawn (right)

Gender: Male / Female

Age/DOB: mid-20s, unknown stardate

Origin/Species: Human Space world, probably not Earth

Family: unknown but they did have 'a large family with lots of siblings'

Other: They will definitely want to eventually settle down but with whom? Where? The ship is their permanent home, it's not like they would willingly ground themselves to a single planet

Height: 5'9" / 5'7" Build: both siblings are evenly built, not remarkably muscular but definitely fit and healthy

Hair: black, Sean's is kept as a modest afro and rarely lets it get longer than shown, but also not much shorter even if it's freshly trimmed. Shawn's is long when straightened, to her shoulder blades, but is almost always kept up in braided designs and very well cared for (even on a foreign world!)

Eyes: Bright brown, large, perceptive; over high jolly-looking cheeks, and both have expressive brows

Appearance: darkly brown skinned with attractive faces; full lips and broad, somewhat flat noses; they choose to wear snug flight-suit under armor below their normal CC uniforms, and both seem to prefer flat-heeled shoes rather than the slightly elevated boots on others. Both of them have rich, full laughs, and singing voices that could land them gigs if only they'd expand to more than karaoke nights on the Caledrus.

Genetic Abilities: It's very clear that their family has a history of being genetically engineered to a modest degree, since they have much stronger boosts to their health, as well as their speed of reflexes and accuracy of manual tasks, they were virtually designed to be pilots. Their family members have assorted similar tweaks, but use them for art, music, and sports as well as more formal professions

Enhancements or Augmentations: they both have a Sub Ether implant, allowing limited but permanent access to any given SE wavelength including their home ship, star ports and space stations, and basically anything that would require complete and secure comms. Coming in on a ship in distress they will be the first to know. They do also have Babel Fish for translation, but generally rely on their wits and their dragons now for communication with non-English speaking races

Skills or Profession: Pilots - Sean, the guy, is a hotshot showoff of a navigator. Shawn, his sister, prefers a more sedate methodology to her piloting but gets places quickly and safely. They both can perform those duties in a small shuttle craft, individual speeder bikes, ground vehicles, helicopters, as well as fighter ships and full cruise liners. When push comes to shove they could easily pilot and move the Caledrus not just the Cherry Cream, into safer territory should the need arise. Of course they are relied upon now with dragons to escort travelers and visitors to and from exploration events and off-ship sites.

Personality: Twins, about as opposite as a pair sharing the same genes can get. Sean is energetic and likes to learn about everything 'right away'; Shawn is more methodical and will rehearse her moves before committing to a flight, but that flight is going to go off without a hitch in either case! Both of them are big blues fans, and have a huge stock of old Earth music in their quarters.

Events or History: entered the space program on their homeworld and wound up being recruited fresh out of piloting academy classes, by Captain Arnold, about 4 years before dragons happened

"Do you think we need to bring the music?" Shawn asked, holding up a chip which contained half their collection of blues.

"Well, we've got our battery packs, why not?" Sean replied, packing away another set of clothing. "We're going to be gone a while... I wonder how it's going to be, being apart from the guys this long."

Shawn nodded, and put the chip and several others like it into a soft package which would protect it from any magnetic or elemental sources. "Weird, yeah. It's been so long."

"We've only been on board four years, sis," Sean laughed. "But it's going to be a big change. We won't be using ship board computers and stuff..."

"Well, it can't be that bad," Shawn said, "if the people of this planet live this way. It's not all that hard, is it?"

"At least there's indoor plumbing..." Sean muttered.

"It won't be like going into the freaking stone age, Sean!" Shawn laughed harder. "Now come on, I'm done packing, and Woodstock needs us up front. We've got to escort the others to their places."

Eventually the group dwindled down to a couple pairs of Cherry Cream officers, and Woodstock told them they'd be best off being dropped off while they could. Otherwise, they might stay on.

When they got to the planet, and Woodstock guided the ship into its "small" size format and down between mountains, they got their first look at this Weyr called Cincanta. It was fantastic, even more beautiful than its images suggested.

And the dragons flying in the skies were amazing. Strong winged and bodied, with long tails and lovely bright skin. Shawn and Sean were convinced more than ever that this place was for them.

They were dropped off near the bottom of the Weyr's bowl, where they were greeted by some of the local folks. Brought up into the weyr's lowest caverns, where the kitchen staff and non-riding folks stayed, then through the higher caverns and hallways, the pair looked on in wonder.

"Did you ever think we'd be doing this?" Shawn whispered, as they looked at the trio of dragons conversing with their riders on one of the inner ledges overlooking the bowl.

"Not in my wildest, sis." Sean muttered back. "But here we are and I love it. I wonder when we can meet the leaders and ask about standing?"

"You're looking at them," said a woman who had apparently been overhearing their conversation. She approached with a friendly smile, "Actually I'm the weyrwoman Second, but our Weyrwoman is out for the moment. Please, come up near our dragons, they'd like to see you."

Amazed, the twins walked behind the weyrwoman and looked at the dragons. They were large, tall and so real!

One of them began sniffing at the pair, a big brown. The dragon turned to one of the men standing around and he approached. "Well, I guess that letter we got was right - we were expecting you. And I think we should make some room in the weyrling barracks for you."

"The clutch has yet to hatch, silly," said the other rider, whose green rested quietly nearby. "But we've got some room. I'll go show them." She helped drag their bags to the weyrling barracks and helped the twins settle.

"Now, you're going to need to be studying all this information..." The green rider unloaded a chart of dragon anatomy, a book with flight gear and tactics, and other things. "You probably won't be needing these," she looked over the threadfall charts, "since I know you're going to be leaving us when your bonds are grown."

"Wow, you said when," Shawn said, awed, "not if..."

"Well there is always a chance that you won't bond at the first clutch - but there will be another soon enough after it." She said, punctuating it with a nod.

With a little relief Shawn started looking at the books. The green rider left them to their devices. "Dinner will be soon, you've been shown through the dining halls, right?"

"We have," Sean said, "and besides, we're pilots! We can find it!" He grinned widely.

"Then you'll do great." She said, and shut the door behind her.

***

Over the next few days, and weeks, the pair studied the dragon chart, got to see some of the dragons in the infirmary, helped talk about tactics and speeds of attack - their piloting skills would come in handy for that! Even if they were not considered for fighting training, they certainly did know how to get a bunch of students interested in how to fly in formation.

They got the class to run around down on the ground with far more enthusiasm than the weyrling master could get them to do. Even the dragons watching above started to flutter a little, knowing their drills by heart and seeing them in action by the two-footers down on the ground seemed to get them excited too.

Spending their days working with the other candidates and young weyrbrats seemed to be something they really liked, too. The twins had a way with younger kids, being from a big family had something to do with that.

Eventually... The eggs would hatch. But they were having so much fun, the pair might not even notice!

They did notice when the rock hard eggs began to tremble. Their mother was apt to tell everyone to get into their robes, long before they really began to hatch. But they were ready and that's what counted.

The group of bonders all gathered quickly, and the queen with her attendant Alskyran mate (who welcomed them graciously) looked proudly on as the eggs began to shatter. The first of the clutch came out and bonded.

Then a pair of happy looking dragonets broke shell. One a green, the other blue. They were both almost the same size, which made the green big, the blue smallish. They strode over to their new bonds - Shawn chosen by the green, Sean by the blue.

Do you think we will fit in? Asked the blue. His green sister seemed to be asking the same question of Shawn.

"You'll be a great addition to the crew, Pitoth," Sean grinned, and looked over to his sister.

"Aelironth says that she can't wait," Shawn returned. "Cincanta was a good decision." At the final remark, both of the hatchlings grinned happily and shot off towards where the tables of food had been set up.

Because they had studied and re-read everything so many times, it was almost like the classes they all had to attend were repeated for the twins. They learned now what it was like to communicate with only their minds, how it felt to have an itch coming from a dragon's skin. Why it was important to keep that skin soft and moist with oils - because the itching (Sean discovered after a day he'd forgotten his scrubbing duties) was almost unbearable for both dragon and rider!

I am compelled to look up, Aelironth bespoke to Shawn. What is that thing in the sky?

"Oh that!" Shawn exclaimed happily, "that's the big ship, Caledrus. They're just waiting for you to get a little older."

Sean nodded in agreement. "Then we've got to get you both up into the ship. You'll like where we can go in the ship!"

Pitoth crooned happily, and Aelironth echoed him sweetly.

When will we get to see the ship? Pitoth bounced with eagerness. We have learned to fly - is that not enough?

"Not yet," Sean said, pulling the harness off his overexcited blue and tossing a glance at his sister's green who also seemed to be pleading with her rider.

"I swear," Shawn laughed, "those two - they're growing so big, will they even fit on the ship?"

"I've gotten word from some of the others who've bonded, and ... yeah, they'll fit." Sean said. As they walked from their ledges to grab something to eat after their day of sweep riding, it looked to Shawn that her brother seemed a bit sad.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Well," he said, with a sigh that told her volumes, "we will be learning to teleport soon. That's dangerous but I know we'll both be able to handle it, and Pitoth wants to try it the moment we're able."

"And?" Shawn said. "I don't see that as a problem. Aelironth will do it just fine too, she's always looking at things and memorizing them. She's got the whole flight path tagged."

"Well then, see," Sean said, "then we're going to have to go home."

Shawn stopped walking, her brother took another couple steps before he turned and paused himself.

"That's not a bad thing, bro," Shawn said, "but..." Puzzled, she wondered why she was so worried. Not so much worried, but ...

"Looking all maudlin, I see," said the weyrling master, "you're going to head up to that ship soon, huh?"

"That's the word," Shawn said, grasping at a mug and hiding her face with it as she drank deeply. She wasn't that thirsty, but she was blushing.

"The dragons want to see it, first hand," Sean supplied. "But we're going to make them wait a bit more."

"And once we teach you how to go between you'll be able to visit us whenever you wish, even if that ship isn't floating over our weyr, isn't that right?" He asked, smiling.

"You've been talking to someone on the ship," Sean said, and the weyrling master nodded. "Well that's okay. As long as you're not keeping some weird secret about it, we're fine."

"No secrets. A lot of people come and go from weyrs. You get used to it." He sighed, and then walked away in silence himself. The pair of twins knew just how he felt...

After learning their basics, after grasping all that they could for normal activities such as feeding schedules and mating flight issues, formation duties for the fighters versus those who would be relied on for other duties, and at last how to teleport properly to the right spot in the right time, the dragons and their riders were ready to head up.

Up to that ship that still hung distantly in orbit, but how? How had it been there the whole time?

"Improbability," Shawn commented, "probably, I think."

Her brother chuckled and nodded, "been there the whole time at least the bits when we noticed it."

We could fly to it! Aelironth excitedly gave a little trill.

"Absolutely not," Shawn corrected the green, whose coloration - like her brother's - had grown superbly brighter over time. It didn't dim the green's enthusiasm, even if she wasn't going to get to spread those big wings.

It is above the world, too high to breathe, her brother's blue commented. I remember the lesson but I know the view too! From your memories!

"That's right!" Sean patted the big blue on his muscular neck. They would be in flight before teleporting, a safety measure for everyone involved. But it also afforded them the last view of the Weyr that they'd grown up in for the last year and a half.

With a final, longing and happy look at the Weyr, the twins and their dragons circled higher and higher, until Shawn got a message ping on her sub-ether implant. "We're in range, they said they've cleared the main loading dock."

"Then we have our location," Sean replied, yelling over the wind. Together they imagined how that deck looked from an angle that only a small craft could reach, just under the lowest cabin floor and just behind the dry-dock fittings.

The dragons teleported flawlessly, though with some relief from their riders' minds. There was always that remote possibility, just... best not to worry!

What is a 'dry' dock? Why is it on a ship in space? Both dragons were intrigued but could only stand the area right around the ship's magnograv shield, and could not go back out far enough to view it from space.

"I.... I think it's a long story, Pitoth," Sean said, "we'll look it up once we're settled in again!"

For the moment then, they all got reaquainted with everyone and noticed there were a lot of dragons in one space now! A flight dome was being constructed, how that was possible was - oh yeah 'improbability'...

Common Features for both dragons since they are clutch siblings:

Features: Pernese-Alskyran, hide skin, high solid body on long muscular legs; four legs with 5 fingered (thumb+4) forefeet and 3-toed hind, all with very large curved claws; two leather wings with three visible fingers and long wrist thumb all similarly clawed; head is angular, with nobbled eye ridge, headknobs, and high crest starting at forehead and going to shoulders, a gap, and soft ridge along entire spine to tail end; spaded tail; note that their Alskyran parentage is also basically Pernese but shows different color ranks, as well as gender swaps possible for all ranks
Coloration: note, they start out medium as hatchlings, and their hide fades in weyrlinghood, but becomes extremely vivid at adulthood - this may carry in their offspring in different ways
Origin: Cincanta Weyr Clutch 9

Lineage

Dragon of Sean

Name: Pitoth (PIT oth)
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: medium for a blue, around 10'6" s / 40' l / 70' ws
Colors: Blue, a pearlescent almost teal, aquamarine through turquoise-blue shade along his life; darker crest
Powers: Winged Flight
Teleportation local, long-distance, precise temporal, Nexus
Telepathy
Telekinesis
Unassisted Firebreath, may carry Assisted in Pernese offspring
Other Info: Eager and willing - and able - to perform any duties that his rider has in mind. Curious, and fun loving

Mates and Descendants

Dragon

Name: Aelironth (AY luh ronth)
Gender: Female
Size/Shoulder/Length: large for a green, 9'8" s / 38' l / 65' ws
Colors: Green, Pearlescent emerald at hatchling, through celadon green, and becomes very bright grassy-emerald at adulthood, though she actually 'prefers' the paler shade...
Powers: Winged Flight
Teleportation local, precise ong-distance, temporal, Nexus
Telepathy
Telekinesis
Unassisted Firebreath, may carry Assisted in Pernese offspring
Other Info: Intelligent and observant, but definitely enjoys exploration and long flights over unusual worlds

Mates and Descendants