Foreword: and here, alas, ladies and gentlemen, we reach the end of our journey. But fear not, for one ending is another beginning...

EPILOGUE Part II

Daenerys (IV) & Daniel (XI)

The last month had been a quiet and solemn one for Daenerys... ever since that painful 'UN hearing', ever since she was told that Lord Kovacs could no longer uphold his pledge to put her on the Iron Throne for reasons she could not understand (why not? His mother was the high queen of the Sky-People, was she not?). Well, Lord Kovacs was gone now, left for another world, and instead a host of new faces had taken his place – the great Sky-People ship they called "Joseph Conrad" had arrived a few days ago, and the colony of Autumn's Frontier seemed busier than ever. And life continued on much as it had these last few months that she had lived amongst them.

But deep down, Daeny had decided firmly that she was not over yet. Far from it. She was the last blood of Old Valyria, the Last Dragon, and one day, she would take what was hers with Fire And Blood. And if Lord Kovacs could no longer serve her, perhaps she would have to find other allies more willing to pledge themselves to her cause.

But that would all have to wait. Right now, there was one small matter that required her more immediate attention. Well... alright, it wasn't exactly a very small matter... and she was rather afraid of it too if she was being entirely honest with herself...

"Mrs. Targaryen, the doctor will see you now," spoke the nurse on duty, the one named Deanna, as she entered the waiting room.

With great effort, Daeny struggled to her feet, helped by Irri. She had been told the birth was overdue, and the doctors would now have to induce it. "Khaleesi," spoke Irri in the Dothraki tongue, "I must come in with you! To receive Khal's child! To help Sky-Woman healer!"

Daeny smiled weakly. "Thank you, Irri. I... I think the Sky-People have this all taken care of... but... well, I do need my Khalassar with me, and you are all I have left."

"Not all," replied Irri, reassuringly.

Helped both by Irri and by Deanna, Daeny made her way into the hospital ward...

"So... that's it then?" asked Daniel, "that's Dr. Garrett's big project?"

"This? This is just scratching the surface!" laughed Robin Van Der Merwe, "this, good sir, is the Thaumic High Energy Laser, or THEL for short... which is actually a misnomer, since it's not actually a laser."

"So what is it then?" inquired Daniel, apprehensively.

Dr. Sean Duff replied: "we're kinda still working on the name, but some of the team back on L0 suggested 'Thaumic Energy Amplification Stimulated by Electromagnetic Radiation' or 'TEASER'. The folks in marketing definitely thought it had a nice ring to it."

"No, what is it?" asked Daniel, again, "like, how does it work? The Sparknotes version, please."

"Think of it rather like a funnel," spoke up Dr. Savage from his workstation. He and Dr. Hyneman had arrived just last week from L0 together with the parts of the THEL, and had spent these last few days overseeing the assembly of the device. He continued: "using artificially created microthaumic fields, it gathers any thaumic energy flowing into it and focuses it into a single beam less than a millimeter across."

"I saw the photos from those THEL tests you ran over on L0, and I can tell you that beam looked a lot thicker than 'just a millimeter across'," said Daniel.

"Actually, the beam looks a lot thicker than it really is because it's ionizing the air around it," explained Dr. Hyneman, "but basically, adding to my colleague's point, what we're going to do is create a burst of thaumic energy inside this chamber by setting off the warpstone samples we brought. Now, that stuff is dangerous; you need robots to handle it and even then it's deadly! Fortunately, we found that those lunar samples from EE-L4-M1 seem to provide some sort of stabilizing agent to prevent a runaway thaumic reaction. Combined with the naturally occurring background thaumic energy concentrated in this area, we're hoping to induce a controlled burst of magic that will then be channelled through the THEL and focused into a pinpoint beam."

"So that's why we're holding the test down here in these catacombs?" asked Daniel, looking around him at the thick stone walls and ceilings that boxed in this confined area.

"Preciseleh," explained Engineer Niall Donnelly, "Site B5467 is not onleh rich in 'natural thaumic energeh', but we're also 40 meters below ground, which means that just in case somethin' goes wrong, we just blow the charges and boom! We bureh this whole place under tons o' rock and that'll fizzle out the reaction."

"Yes, while we're standing here," muttered Daniel under his breath.

Dr. Savage continued with the exposition: "we have here nine banks of nine electrorunes each, arranged in a circle. These are runes constructed from an iron, cobalt, yttrium, platinum hyperalloy; when we run electricity through them, they emit micro-thaumic fields we can then use to bend and direct the flow of thaumic energy released. We then use Artifact Zero as a further focusing implement and..."

"Wait, hang on," said Daniel, checking over the blueprints on his holo-tablet again, in particular, the tiny and seemingly insignificant ring-shaped artifact hovering in the center of the main firing chamber, held in place by electromagnetic fields. He frowned. "Uh... is that what Teller's team on L5 went to such lengths to recover? That little thing?"

"That 'little thing' is Artifact Zero and yes, it is highly thaumically potent," cautioned Dr. Hyneman, "we recommend not touching it. We have a couple members of the team in rehab after they came into contact with it."

"Look, this is all pretty impressive," said Daniel, a little doubtful, "but are you sure this is gonna actually, uh, work?"

"According to the lore," explained Sean Duff as he consulted the notes on his holo-tablet, "the kind of ceremony we're about to attempt usually requires some kind of blood sacrifice or voodoo type black magic. But we're hoping to bypass that requirement entirely by just sheer brute forcing magic into those artifacts and hoping Garrett's Law is with us today."

"Garrett's Law?" Daniel raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yes!" winked Dr. Savage, "you know how in physics, they say you can destroy anything in the universe by simply hitting it with enough force? Garrett's Law is a variation wherein we believe that you can do anything to anything as long as you throw enough magic at it!"

"Honestly," added Robin, "we have no focking idea what's gonna happen when we light up this baby like a Christmas Tree, but I know for a fact whatever it is, it's gonna be spectacular!"

"Ah yes, the scientific method at its finest..." muttered Daniel.

"Totally!" replied Savage, oblivious to Daniel's sarcasm, "well, that's how science has always worked: smash atoms and shit together and blow stuff up and see what happens! When they detonated the first atomic bomb back in the 1940's, some folks thought it was gonna, I dunno, incinerate the entire Earth's atmosphere. But they went ahead and dropped it anyway. FOR SCIENCE!"

"Well, I sure hope we're not gonna incinerate this planet's entire atmosphere, or tear a Negative Space Wedgie in the fabric of the material universe. I think it's fair to say that would ruin everyone's day," muttered Daniel as he stole one more glance at the other end of the large underground chamber they were all standing in at the moment. There, atop one of the stone altars, there sat three large, round, football sized objects that Fred and VENI had once recovered hoping they would be an adequate replacement for the loss of Specimens WW01, 02, 03, and 04. Well, today was the day to find out...

"Alright, let's get to work then," declared Daniel. The rest of the team gathered there all nodded in agreement, and began putting on their safety goggles. Red lights began to flash and alarms sounded. Daniel took his position behind his workstation located behind the protective barrier, and spoke into the microphone, his voice amplified throughout the rest of the complex: "attention all personnel! Please clear the testing zone! THEL Test will commence in t-minus five minutes and counting!"

Daenerys was in agony.

She had been told before that the Sky-People has miraculous drugs and methods of delivery that would have made the whole affair completely painless, but she had turned them down; if she was going to bear a true conqueror of worlds, she wanted to be brave and resolute, to give birth the way as was intended by nature.

Well, right now she was really beginning to regret the decision.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" she screamed, "EEEEEEEAAAAAGGHHHH! AAAAARRRRRHHHH!" By now, her skin was pouring with sweat and blood and other fluids in droves. She writhed again, feeling as if her child were clawing and biting its way out of her...

"C'mon! You can do this!" coached the doctor, firmly, "Push! C'mon! Look! I can already see... oh... that wasn't on the ultrasound..."

Daenerys didn't know if the screaming she heard next was hers or the babe's or someone else's entirely, only that her mind and vision began to blur and blank out, into nothing but flames and stars and dazzling bolts of light and maybe some of the starfire of the Sky-People they called 'plasma'. And that was when she started to hear the myriad voices in her head...

"You don't want to wake the dragon, do you?"

"Moon of my life! If this is a dream, I will kill the man who wakes me!"

"NO ONE HARMS MY SISTER! I NEED HER ALIVE!"

"Oh what a day, WHAT A LOVELY DAY!"

"Lord Kovacs, please do SHUT UP for once!"

"This place, Khaleesi, is something I have only ever heard about in the old tales."

"Yeh, where we almost got, y'know, eaten by zombehs!"

"We spend enough time there, working on Fred and Daniel's little science fair project."

"Are we to believe the natives just started fighting amongst themselves of their own volition?"

"No One... I am No One! Just kidding..."

"These Sky-People must be crazy..."

"Daeny? Listen, I'm so fucking sorry about everything and..."

After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, the whisperings of stars, and the taste of ash in her mouth.

TTTTZZZZSSHHZZZZTTTSSSSZZZZZSSSTTTTZZHHHHZZTTTSSSS ZZZZ...

The loud humming and brilliant white light filled the room as the continuous beam surged forth from the focus point and struck the target zone, small arcs of lightning crackling and fizzing all about it. Nothing much else was happening.

"We're now at 8 MegaThaums and climbing!" remarked Kelly, "8.1! ... 8.2! ... 8.3! ..."

"MOAR POWAH!" shouted Dr. Savage.

"I'm givin' it all she's got!" shouted Niall in his Scottish accent as he and Kelly struggled with the power regulators and switches at their workstation.

"Then engage RESERVE POWER!" shouted Dr. Hyneman. Niall hesitated at first, but followed through all the same, and activated the backup generators. The humming and sizzling and crackling sounds intensified, the light growing brighter by the second...

"We're now at 10 MegaThaums and climbing!" remarked Kelly, starting to sound concerned, "11! ... 12! ... 13 MegaThaums!"

"Just to be clear, we're talking rate, not total energy output, right?" piped up Sean.

Somewhere behind them, one of the surge capacitors exploded. Not a very big one, but enough to startle everyone. All over Daniel's workstation, red warning lights began flashing. He took immediate action. "Shut it off!" he shouted, "SHUT IT OFF NOW!"

Niall and Kelly didn't need to be told a second time, and immediately pushed the big red emergency shutdown button. The power supply was cut off; the beam dissipated at once, and the monitor screens showed that any excess thaumic energy was now being safely redirected and vented elsewhere. For a second, the entire test chamber fell silent and motionless, the only thing moving was the smoke and fumes rising from all of the overheated machinery and...

That's when Daniel saw it. Upon the stone altar there lay the three artifacts. One of them, the black one, had cracked in half, revealing nothing. But the other two had cracked open to reveal... Daniel gasped. They were moving. Alive. They were no larger than pigeons, but there was no mistaking just what they were.

Dragons.

Goddamn motherfucking baby dragons!

"Good work everyone, looks like the test was a success!" smiled Daniel, relieved.

"One of them is dead," pointed out Kelly, sadly, as she looked at the broken black egg, only smoke rising from it.

"But two are alive, that's a 66.6666 to the infinity % success right there!" smiled Dr. Savage.

To be honest, Daniel was just relieved they didn't end up incinerating everyone standing there in that room in the process. He then continued: "this is great! Hyneman, make sure we have all the data saved and encrypted and then relayed over to the team on L0."

"On it," Dr. Hyneman replied as he got to work on his holo-laptop.

"Aww, they're so cute!" remarked Kelly Adams as she strode closer for a better look at them, "what do we do with them?"

"Well," began Dr. Duff, consulting his notes on his holo-tablet, "if Draco westerosensis is as intelligent as Draco ulthuanensis, they'll imprint on the first, living creature that they see and... um... yes, as they seem to have on you."

Kelly cooed and giggled as both of the two baby dragons, the white one and the red one, saw her and began chirping and calling out to her, seeming to mistake her for their mother. She reached out to pet one of them...

"Kelleh, we hardleh been together fer that long an' ya alreadeh wanna adopt?" laughed Niall as he joined her side.

Daniel rolled his eyes. Oh bother...

"Uh, sir?" came the voice of Robin, looking up from his workstation, "we're getting in reports of... well, you might wanna take a step outside and take a look at it yourself."

Oh? Now this is mildly disconcerting... Daniel and the rest of the lab staff quickly followed Robin out of the main chamber and back up the access tunnel, out to the surface. It was then, as they emerged from the tunnel entrance, that the group was greeted by a most wondrous visage before them. Up in the sky above them, a brilliant streak of red light glowed and shimmered brightly. All across Outpost B, workers and other employees milling about had dropped whatever they were doing to gawk and marvel at the sight.

"Uh... what is that?" asked Daniel, amazed (and a little terrified too).

Niall checked his holo-tablet. "Accordin' to our satellites, it appears that the waste thaumic emissions from our THEL 'ere are interactin' with some kinda sudden local spike in thaumic activiteh." He paused. "No doubt caused by, ahem, the birth o' these dragons 'ere."

"Contact the other labs," commanded Daniel, "see if L0, L3, and L5 are reporting any similar phenomena." Niall nodded.

"It's beautiful at least!" remarked Kelly, enamored by the brilliant display of light and color.

"I said it would be spectacular!" chimed in Robin as he reached down for his MyPhone to snap a selfie with the great vista before them.

Daniel heard his own MyPhone buzzing. He answered it quickly... and was stunned with what he heard. When he hung up, he turned to Niall and Kelly and Robin. "Uh, well, it looks like we've had a 100% success after all. We've found the third dragon."

Daenerys was in a daze, just exhausted from everything. She lay back in her bed in the hospital room, Irri faithfully by her side.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Targaryen!" came the voice of Doctor Chakwas as she entered the room, carrying something most precious in her arms. Taking great care, she walked up to Daeny's bedside and laid the little bundle into her waiting arms.

Daeny looked down and gasped. It was... a perfectly healthy and normal babe, with her own violet eyes but Drogo's copper skin, and, she could see, small flecks of hair black as midnight...

The doctor continued: "I'll just leave this paperwork by your bedside so you can fill them out when you're ready, and then we can issue a birth certificate. But... first, I must ask, have you thought of a name for your daughter?"

Daenerys looked down at the baby girl that lay snugly against her breast, and stared intently into her eyes. She then looked across at Irri, who simply shrugged. Finally, she turned back to face the doctor. "Yes," she began, firmly, "Drogana. Drogana Targaryen."

"That is a lovely name," remarked the doctor as she quickly wrote it down on the device she was carrying. She stayed a few minutes more with Daeny, making sure that she and the babe were all well and healthy, and then she excused herself politely and left.

For years afterward, whatever else happened, Daenerys Targaryen would always remember this moment as one of the most beautiful in her life, as mother and child embraced one another, and as she turned to look out of her window and beheld it all ... the colony of Autumn's Frontier, the countless Sky-People gathering about, and above them all, the brilliant and mesmerizing pillar of red light that stretched across the skies above, reaching out to the infinite stars and worlds beyond.

FINIS

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