The sarcophagus had little windows. So, the Dragon used the android’s cameras to peek inside at the single living child. Humans were tiny already, and this one seemed small even by human standards. The Dragon found it hard to believe humans came even smaller as babies.

  According to the pictures the Dragon had seen, this child met the gender cues for a boy: Short hair, shirt, pants, and no jewelry or makeup. Could be a girl though. The Dragon wasn’t sure. Supposedly, the faces looked different, but who could tell a human apart from another one? Hair color? This child had green glowing hair, so at least that was distinctive.

  “But, one shouldn’t assume gender.” The Dragon rumbled to themselves. “I should ask.”

  The child woke up and stared out the window at the android’s faceplate full of cameras for a moment. The Dragon felt strongly that those pale green-white eyes looked straight into them, like they could see farther, and perhaps even things that weren’t even there. Then, the human popped open the door to the sarcophagus from the inside. They stepped out and turned about, as if they expected others to meet them.

  “Are you a boy?” The Dragon asked. Not face-to-face of course. They asked using the android’s synth voice and in the same language as the pod’s manual.

  “What?” The child asked.

  “I’ve read lots of stories about humans. Humans have all these languages with pronouns and things. It seems important for us to know.”

  “That’s dumb,” the child said. It made a sort of scruched expression with it’s eyebrows. “Where are the scientists? Why are you an android? Are you a medical AI? Am I still on the Ark? Are there any, uh, humans around?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not. I’m piloting the android. No. No.” The Dragon replied.

  “What?”

  “What what?” The Dragon repeated.

  “Let’s start again,” the child said. “My name is Rifka. Who are you?”

  “I am a dragon.”

  “Uh, right. Your name is Dragon?”

  “NO. I am a dragon.”

  “So what’s your name?”

  The Dragon felt confused. They never had a name. They had found many admirable dragon names in stories, but they had not needed a name for themself. The Dragon pounced upon an easy name; there was a human once that claimed to have read everything ever written. That seemed like an appropriate name to the Dragon.

  “You can call me Erasmus.”

  “So, Erasmus, you’re an AI?”

  “No. I am a Dragon.”

  “Then . . . why are you a robot?”

  “That’s just a way for me to open your pod and talk to you. I am piloting the android.”

  “From where?”

  “My hoard.”

  “Where?”

  “My hoard. I have it on the authority of many human stories about dragons that they sleep on their hoard of treasure. It’s traditional. So, I’m at my hoard. Although, I am not sleeping right now. Obviously.”

  “I see.” The child didn’t sound very sure of that. The Dragon ignored the child’s apparent skepticism. “Is there anyone else here? Anyone real I can talk to?” the child asked.

  “I’m real.” The Dragon replied defensively. “I’m just piloting an android.”

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  “Of course you are,” the child replied sarcastically. “Dragons aren’t real.”

  “I’m talking to you, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Therefore, I’m real.”

  The child’s expressive eyebrows twitched, and they made more of that furrowed expression.

  “I don’t think that’s the way it works. But. Fine. Where is everyone?”

  “Everyone?”

  “The other colonists and scientists and others. The people with me? Or, whoever is here, wherever we are? I mean, I went in this pod thing and they said this would keep me safe, and then, I dunno. You are here. Where is everyone else?”

  “It is just me. I’ll try to explain.”

  The Dragon felt that if children always had this many questions, maybe they should take a nap.

  Nevertheless, they tried to explain that there weren’t any people with the child. The pod’s manual said that it had been an emergency escape device with space for 100 humans. They estimated that the pod had been set adrift probably several hundred years before. Once the stasis field powered up, the pod kept its passengers stopped in time indefinitely. That was, of course, until someone came along and pulled the lever to open the hatch.

  As for the people on LM-25, the Dragon also explained that no one lived at the station, except themself, the Dragon.

  The Dragon hadn’t really spoken to humans much. The child asked questions, and the Dragon tried to answer. They found themselves enjoying the conversation. The child seemed less pleased.

  “So, there’s no one at all?” the child asked. It sat down on the floor of the pod. The people designing the pod had neglected to place any chairs inside.

  The pod’s light seemed whiter and brighter than the lights inside the station. And monitors beeped and glowed in a slightly distracting way. The Dragon switched the noises off. The pod had started to power down anyway. It seemed to be quite old. Maybe even older than the Dragon. As the pod darkened, in the quiet, the Dragon spoke through the android again.

  “It is only me. And now you,” the Dragon said.

  “And you’re a dragon.” The child sort-of laughed. It didn’t sound happy, at least as the Dragon understood the sounds humans made.

  “Yes. I am sorry, but — back to my first question — I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to think of a human child as an “it”; perhaps you are gender-nonconforming? A they?”

  “Ugh! I’m girl you idiot AI. Dragon. Whatever!”

  “Not an AI. The law books said those are illegal.”

  “Really? No shit.”

  “Is that appropriate language?” The Dragon couldn’t be sure, but many stories said so. And books on decorum and manners. But, there were some legal codes that there were times when that word was fine. It just wasn’t fine at other times. And that depended on who was reading it. It all made perfect sense when the Dragon had read it.

  The girl didn’t answer the question.

  “Erasmus, what about my purpose?” the girl said.

  “Purpose?”

  “The teachers and doctors and people all said I had a purpose. I was supposed to help with the colony, and get my implants installed when I grow up enough, and help the scientists with the dangerous stuff, and we’re going to terraform a planet, and the psychologist says I’m lucky that I have a purpose because most people never know what their purpose is. But, I can’t help the scientists if there aren’t any. Now what do I do? Ugh, and why am I asking a crazy AI anyway?”

  “Dragon,” the Dragon replied. “I am not an AI. The purpose of dragons in stories is to gather a hoard and fight the hero. Maybe you’d like that purpose?”

  “No. That doesn’t sound right.” Her green-white hair glowed faintly in the darkening pod. She stated at the floor for awhile, and the Dragon waited. She eventually looked up at the android with her luminescent green eyes. “Erasmus, you just told me the purpose of dragons in *stories.* When people make an AI, the AI has a purpose. What is your purpose?”

  “That’s a human thing. Purpose. Dragons don’t have a purpose.” While truthful, the Dragon did not want to be unnecessarily cruel. They decided that they should try to say something helpful as well. “The ancient human Emerson said, ‘The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.’ Would you like that purpose?”

  “Sounds like shit. There’s no one here to make a difference with.”

  “How old are you? I understood that that . . . word is not appropriate for children.”

  “I’m eight.”

  “Eight cycles old?”

  “Eight years old. Duh.” Rifka seemed to think for a moment. “Plus the time I was in stasis. So technically I can use adult words if I want.”

  The Dragon didn’t think that made any sense, but the Dragon felt sure they would lose an argument regarding human culture. Even if they argued the point with an eight-year old human child.

  “Well then,” said the Dragon. “It seems to me that the purpose of human children is to grow. So let’s set aside question of your life’s purpose. Tell me, do you know how to read? I have books.” The Dragon had the android give a little bow. The android almost fell over, but the Dragon got it upright before it did. One should expect clumsyness from hastily assembled equipment. Bad piloting had nothing to do with it. “The nice thing about hoarding books is that I can copy them for you and you can start in on your own hoard with no loss to me. You might be a reader. That could be your purpose. If you can’t read, I have books on how to teach you how.”

  “Of course I can read. I’m not a baby. I have been reading since I was six!”

  “Excellent. I also understand that human children need food. I have the miners’ nutrition rations. Dragons do not eat human food.”

  Rifka agreed that she felt hungry, but she didn’t want to leave the dark stasis pod. However, the Dragon did a little more coaxing, and eventually, Rifka followed the android out into the hanger bay and into the mostly empty space station LM-25.