THE DRAGONS
When standing on all fours, a typical full-grown dragon is about 3 times as tall as a human. They are quadrupedal with four legs, opposable thumbs on the front legs, and two or four wings, and can reasonably be expected to remain in the air for at least several hours at a time (and that's the low limit for sick or malnourished dragons). They are warm-blooded despite being reptiles, though they are slightly more vulnerable to being influenced by temperatures than humans (for example, a dragon in extremely cold conditions may become more sluggish, but not to the point that they can't function). They are broken up into a slew of sub-species, all of which share the above traits.
Some dragon species can breathe fire, but no dragon sub-species have inherent fire resistance. There are a few other 'inherent' abilities like ice breath, a venomous tail stinger, breathing underwater, and silk-weaving. Also, some of them have 'superpowers' of sorts that are not normal for their sub-species due to circumstances of birth or genetics, such as super-hot scales, mind-reading, future sight, or the ability to communicate with plants and accelerate their growth.
By some fluke of convergent evolution, they ended up as social creatures with emotions, thought patterns, and psychologies nearly identical to humans despite having started at the top of the food chain rather than the middle.
They do know that some humans exist on the planet with them, but in their minds, humans are prey creatures noteworthy for making little metal daggers and wood/stone dens for themselves. They are technologically and socially behind the dragons, and the dragons have absolutely no clue that other, crazy-advanced humans are hanging around up in orbit. The realization that there are humans up on a metal palace in the heavens who have unlocked the esoteric secrets of trapping and harnessing lightning, traversing sections of the sky where the air is thin enough to cause a dragon to suffocate, and giving traits from one creature to another is going to come as a big shock to the dragons.
THE HUMANS
The humans abandoned earth in favor of a space station in earth's orbit for a time due to an incoming extinction event, and the dragons evolved and took the humans' place in the grand scheme of things while they were gone. During this time, the general difficulties of space forced them to revert to an authoritarian government. They've begun to scout out the earth to see if it's habitable or not. They are still up on their space station, and have not revealed their existence to any humans or dragons on earth yet.
Human technology stagnated during their time in space due to resource-conservation measures, but still managed to reach near-futuristic levels. They have reliable spacecraft (that are sadly not capable of FTL travel), holographic projectors that can be paired with motion sensors for a 3D interface or used to cloak a ship from view, tiny chip-like implants that can monitor vitals and brain activity, several dozen 30-foot tall mecha similar in appearance to Fortnite's B.R.U.T.E.s that can outclass a typical dragon in raw strength, and experimental Directed Energy Weapons that are actually fairly practical as weapons if a tad unreliable. However, they still walk around, mainly use weapons that utilize bullets as ammo, and are reliant on hydroponic gardens for food and mining ice off the moon for water. They haven't changed much, aside from limited forays into genetic engineering; they have yet to figure out how to make entirely new DNA, but they can 'map' known DNA patterns from one organism onto another organism OF THE SAME SPECIES, which allows them to cure genetic disorders.
Note that the humans are capable of communicating with the dragons through a 'translation device', despite the fact that neither of them is capable of speaking the other's language, but as a general rule they don't bother communicating.
The humans have a pretty distinct technological advantage over the dragons, but the dragon's abilities might tip the power balance back in the dragon's favor, and the humans are aware of this. And this is added to by the fact that there is only a quarter as many humans up on the station as there are dragons down on the surface.
THE SITUATION
The dragons quickly perked the human's interest. For one, they are, much like bees, able to fly despite the fact that conventional physics tells them that their wings wouldn't allow them to. Plus, they'd really like to figure out how to get some of the dragon's abilities (anyone in favor of getting Telepathy?).
Now, to get these abilities, they need to map dragon genes onto their own genome, and to figure out how to do that do that, they need to do some experimentation. And the human in charge concluded that the most efficient way of going about that is to kidnap live dragons seemingly at random from the planet alien-abduction style, bring them up to their space station, and subject them to horrifically inhumane medical experiments that often leave the dragons dismembered, traumatized, and/or dead. Some humans on the station objected, but those who did were quickly and violently silenced.
But, naturally, the humans who objected weren't the only ones who didn't approve of this. The dragons, much to the shock of NO ONE EVER, wouldn't go quietly to this grisly fate. After quite a few escape attempts, one of which ended in the dragon opening an airlock and spacing itself along with a slew of researchers, the humans came up with a fairly reliable system to ensure the dragons didn't escape.
THE HUMAN'S SET UP
The humans outfit each dragon they kidnap with metal clamps custom-tailored to fit each dragon; one on each foot, one on each wing, and one around the neck. The inside of these clamps has a texture meant to maximize friction with a dragon's scales to ensure the dragons can't get them off while also allowing them to not be too tight to restrict blood flow. These clamps can be hooked up to 'dock' ports, allowing the humans to secure a dragon to an operating table without first removing the clamps. These ports can also serve as a valve that, when hooked up to a cord, can accept various substances into compartments within the clamps, where they can then be injected into the dragon via needles in the clamps. The clamp around the neck also features components that allow it to monitor a dragon's vitals in addition to tracking the dragon's location, letting the humans know if a dragon isn't where they're supposed to be. The collar doesn't have a visible antenna, by the way.
When not brought out for testing purposes, each dragon is kept in a sound-proofed and airtight chamber with no gravity or light to see by, the goal being sensory deprivation. The dragons are kept suspended in the center of the chamber via cords that hook up to the clamps. These cords also supply the clamps with a sedative drug that helps ensure the dragon doesn't try to escape. Moreover, each chamber has an independent life support system, letting the humans do some tests such as the effects of pressure, temperature, and certain gasses without taking the dragons out of the chamber.
Should a dragon shrug off the sedative while in the chamber, they simply cut the oxygen content of the room down to levels that render them unconscious while they up the dosage. When they are sure the dragon won't be shrugging off the sedative anytime soon, they return oxygen in the chamber to normal levels.
And now, my question. What flaws might this system have, and how might a dragon escapee exploit them? I'm basically asking what kind of circumstances would allow a particularly clever or really lucky dragon to get out of the cell and evade recapture. Note that the station is very large and old, which means that there are decrepit sections a dragon that has escaped its cell and gotten its neck clamp off could hide in.
EDITS:
The dragon telepaths are limited SOLELY to reading surface thoughts from other dragons and emotions from humans. No Xavier-level telepaths or mind-slavers, unfortunately.
