It's Getting Hot

The water should have been the easy problem.

On Tajss, nothing is easy.

Sarah wakes to heat, stale air, aching muscles, and another day inside the ancient city of Draconov. The dome keeps the twin red suns from burning everyone alive, but it cannot fix the crowded dorms, shrinking food supplies, miserable baths, failing systems, or the political rot growing among the human survivors.

Rosalind is trying to hold the city together.

Sarah is one of the few people trusted to see what others miss.

When Gershom's camp vanishes from the dining hall and rumors begin to twist through the survivors, Sarah is sent to look closer. What she finds is worse than selfishness. Gershom has supplies he should not have, followers who look away when questioned, and access to the one thing every person in Draconov needs most.

Water.

A working fountain should be a miracle.

In Gershom's hands, it becomes power.

With the city already strained by hunger, heat, and old divisions from ship life, Sarah has to report what she knows before one man's ambition turns survival into a weapon. But Tajss has more surprises waiting. The Tribe arrives at the city gates, bringing Zmaj warriors, new alliances, old suspicion, and the first real chance that humans and Zmaj may survive better together than apart.

And while Rosalind negotiates with Visidion, Sarah catches the attention of a massive Tribe warrior who makes her wonder whether the wall between City and Tribe is as solid as everyone believes.

By nightfall, Draconov has water, a newborn baby, a fragile new alliance, and trouble boiling beneath every victory.

On Tajss, hope always comes with teeth.

It's Getting Hot is a Red Planet Dragons of Tajss short story set between Dragon's Kiss and Dragon's Capture. It is a slice of life short story that expands the world of Tajss.