Ash certainly lived up to its name.

  The enormous dome surrounding the city had a series of ‘open air’ parks and cafes near the edges, basking in some of the rare ‘natural’ sunlight… which was little and far between, usually augmented by lights built into the dome itself.

  The land outside was barren, rocky, and grey, with piles of dirt, ash, and dust that blew into heaps with the constantly changing wind patterns. It was hard to believe this place had ever been anything more than a dead world… that there had once been a time people could walk its surface without a mask, back before the Second Galactic War.

  The bright green grass of the open parks under the dome was so incredibly different from the dull grey rock outside it was hard to imagine; and the drift of ash forming against it didn’t help.

  Kyle shook his head, looking out at the terrain for a moment… before turning back to the table.

  For the first time in years, the team was back together in the real world. Thor, Sherry, Barry, and Elise. There’d been other friends, when they were younger, and it seemed after they’d died, Kyle hadn’t really been able to make that sort of connection with anyone else.

  They were older. Adults. But still the same people he remembered. He’d talked to them just a month before online, even joined them on a raid; but that was just a digital world. Not the real people.

  Granted… technically… these weren’t really them. But clones.

  For Thor, it was pretty obvious. He’d sculpted himself out, perfect. Tan, fit, with long blonde hair. Kyle didn’t like admitting he was attracted to him, and wouldn’t say a word in that regard, but he was.

  Sherry looked exactly like he would have imagined. A too-thin, too-tall teenage girl, all grown up into a too-thin, too-tall woman. If the seven foot height wasn’t enough to make it obvious, knowing the tell-tale signs he could make out the membranes on her eyes that would shut with an abrupt pressure change, keeping her sight when most people’s eyes would burst.

  And of course… Barry and Elise. The powerful, dark-skinned young man a far cry from the scrawny kid he’d been, and Elise just looking like the same red-haired, green-eyed girl as he’d expected. Unlike Thor, while they looked great, they also looked natural. Normal.

  Like they’d had the clones actually based on their genes instead of sculpted.

  “Okay then. I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you down here. And picked a cafe with a privacy screen. And brought a portable jammer.” He nodded at the tiny box he’d set on the table after they ordered their food.

  “And while part of it is just wanting to see you all again… part of it is to do with my plans going forward. What I’m about to tell you is classified top-secret by the Empire. They will literally kill to keep this secret, and are probably assuming my mom will keep me in line… because they don’t really understand her at all. So. If you don’t want to hear it, now would be a good time to back out.”

  Sherry chuckled. “At least it would be your fault we died instead of mine this time.”

  Barry sighed. “Damnit, my turn was supposed to be next. I’m still in.”

  “Same.”

  “Always.”

  The group looked at each other, then at Kyle. Sherry smirked. “So, whats the big secret?”

  “Dragons. There’s giant space-faring monsters out there, and the Empire has been keeping them secret for a long time. Probably other living, breathing, space-critters, and they’ve been researching them and using them to make new technology.”

  They all stared at him for a moment. Thor spoke up first. “That… you realizes it sounds a bit crazy, right?”

  Kyle shrugged. “Its why their ships have such a weird, organic, look to them, and how they came up with that ablative anti-laser covering that everyone has their own off-brand versions of now. The thing was damn near immune to lasers, and I had to use that birthday present my mom gave me to kill it.”

  He smirked. “And not only do I have pictures of the one I killed from the Harbinger of Sorrows sensor logs, I slipped an egg out of the system strapped to a comm buoy, so I could come back and get it later. I’ve got proof I can show you, and if you want, proof you can touch later.”

  Thor blinked. “...Show me.”

  Kyle glanced around for a moment. Checked the jammer he’d set in the center of the table… and held out his comm unit… showing the picture of the monster; mostly covered with its thick black scales, with its glowing yellow-orange internals exposed in a couple of places.

  “That hole right there? One of its eggs hatched and ate its way through the mom. Ended up crawling onto an Empire ship. Crazy dangerous, even as a newborn.”

  He shut it back off after giving them all a look. The waiter was approaching with a tray, and started setting their food down. As the plates went out, they all just stared at him, thinking… and when he stepped away, Sherry shook her head.

  “...Why? Why would they keep it secret? I mean, its cool, and maybe it was the source of some of their tech. But they’ve had it for centuries now. Hell, they had that armor during the first galactic war. If they’d revealed it then, it wouldn’t have mattered.”

  “Thats what I wanna know. There’s gotta be more to it. Does their blood make some crazy fuel source? Do they have an FTL drive that can emerge right inside a star? Nobody trusts them after all the shenanigans with lying about how the drives worked at the beginning. Another coverup, and another one they kill to maintain?”

  He stopped. “Oh, and that’s another thing. They wiped out every mining colony in the system I killed that thing in. Blamed it on pirates. So whatever the reason, its worth killing over… and risking another war.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Thor leaned forward as he started cutting up his steak. “...How many is everyone?”

  “Over a thousand. Enough that if it had established itself as self-sustaining, the system could’ve legally claimed ownership, but it wasn’t there yet. Usual BSE thing. Unwanted Alliance slaves and people from one of the overpopulated hubs desperate for a way out. Good, decent people just hoping for a new life.”

  Elise traced her fork through her pasta as she studied the dome overhead. “....If they did it this time, they did it others. All the reports of pirate attacks on that side of their border… some, or even all, might be this. Or just discouraging people from moving in.”

  “Yup. So. I want to re-jig the Sapper. Better sensors. As sneaky as I can make her. Go on and do the surveying I’d planned on, look for cool and interesting things, yes. But also…. Look for dragons. Or whatever else they’re hiding.”

  Elise blinked. “Sneaky. You know that’s not really a thing, right?”

  “At close range, no, it isn’t. You make yourself look like a rock, and you try to point all your heat in a direction nobody is. But you make the hull right, and gear it up properly, and you can get pretty close. There’s an independent shop that sells to the Republic mostly, has a hull plating that can make you mostly invisible from all but one direction, so long as you stay more than a light-second or two out so the telescopes don’t pick up distortion from the stars. Its expensive, but I put in an order for a few hundred thousand credits worth.”

  “..A light second. So… far enough that the only things you can use are lasers and missiles. Against folks who have extremely laser-resistant armor and great point defense.”

  Kyle sighed. “The idea is to get in and out without getting spotted. Besides…. I probably won’t even find anything. It might be all I end up doing is bringing an egg and a story to the dubs. But… if I do find something…”

  The group nodded. Thor spoke back up. “This could be important. And valuable. Maybe start a war. Maybe make us rich. Maybe save the lives of the next group of colonists.”

  “Yeah, my mom is already on that bit. She’s putting together a patrol that will handle hazard reports in the region, and keep it quiet with less lethal force. We can probably call them for backup if we need it, but they’re getting paid to keep the secret… so they won’t help us expose anything.”

  Thor blinked. “...Less lethal? From the woman who bought you a nuke for your birthday?”

  “Not wiping out every living thing and blaming it on pirates.”

  “...Yeah. Less lethal.”

  Kyle looked around. “So anyways. When I went out, the Empire planted an agent in the crew I hired… and I ended up having to kill her. So I honestly don’t trust anybody I don’t know to come with me next time… I don’t want it to turn out the same way. The crew I worked with last time all got NDA software built into their implants, so they can’t help. So. There might be one or two locals; students who I worked with and kinda know. But… otherwise I’m just gonna do like I planned. Go out alone, and rig the Sapper up to be crazy automated.”

  Sherry nodded. “Well. I don’t know about the rest, but I’m in. Exploration, conspiracy, monsters… it sounds exciting. Real danger, real everything. Don’t get me wrong… defending the High Keep from the forces of darkness is fun. But deep down, we all know its fake.”

  Thor studied her for a moment, and nodded. “I want to be here for the next raid. It might not be real, but it still earns us real credits, and I don’t feel like being supported by Sherry and Kyle’s families. After that? I’m in.”

  Barry and Elise glanced at each other… and nodded. “Same.” Elise chuckled. “We can do this, all together.”

  Thor looked thoughtful. “We should take refresher courses. In these bodies. We all grew up on starships. We know how things work. But its been a while. Honestly, I’d figured that we’d swap out, some of us stick with the guild and some go with you… but this sounds genuinely important, not just having fun out there exploring. I think we should all go, at least at first.”

  The group nodded.

  Thor paused… and grinned. “Oh, and I confirmed that he’s Bi, by the way. Or, at the very least, Thor-sexual.”

  Kyle blinked, staring at him for a moment. He was too shocked at the comment to even be embarrassed.

  Sherry chuckled. “Yeah, it was interesting. We met up with one of his classmates, who was getting her pilot’s license at the same time, we all celebrated. One drink too many and bam…. Confusing but fun night afterwards.”

  Elise gave a slow nod, looking across the table at him. “Well, I’d have liked to be there. To watch, if not participate.”

  Kyle sighed. “It was honestly a surprise. I’d only really been attracted to girls before. Maybe one or two exceptions. Is that normal with ya’ll?”

  Thor chuckled and raised both arms, stretching his biceps. “Of course. People can’t help but be attracted to me. I’m just that amazing.”

  Sherry wrapped an arm around Kyle’s shoulder, giving him a partial hug. “He’s just being an ass. Me and Barry are mostly a couple, but I like girls, too, and he likes some guys. Less the new version of Thor than the old one.”

  He blinked. “Ohhh. I thought Barry and Elise were a thing.”

  “They were, but that changed after a while. Me and Barry used to joke that we could never get together because of the way our names sounded together, and Elise… She kinda had a crush on you for a bit, but then..” Elise smacked Sherry on the shoulder.

  “Now that’s not polite.” Elise pretended to be irate… but chuckled. “No… honestly, there’s something about living in a virtual world, where nothing has consequences unless you want it to, that makes it so much easier to do things than in person.”

  Kyle nodded. “Well. I don’t really know what to say about any of this. I always just had a crush on Elise, and figured she and Barry were a thing, and was… you know what, that’s neither here nor there. We can figure this out later. For now… We still talking the three-month timeline? I’m gonna be ordering some parts shipped in from out of system, and want to make sure we can all be ready then.”

  Thor glanced at the others before nodding. “Well, I know for you, it was just something you joined to be with us, but the raids are how we make most of our money, though it isn’t all that much.. And we don’t really need much. Or at least, we didn’t. Right now we’re just putting these bodies into suspension most of the time, but we’ll probably want to get apartments and all that. Technically, I’d only been using this body for like a day when I met you on that shuttle.”

  “Huh. Do you want to stay with me, out at the salvage yard? I’ve been renting the same room for a few years now, and space is vacuum cheap out there.”

  They all looked at each other. Elise grimaced. “That place has light-minutes of lag. Don’t get me wrong, after the raid that would be just fine; we’ll have to be offline for longer than we’ve been in years to go with you. But… couldn’t you stay somewhere closer, and fly out there day to day?”

  “I mean… for the next few months I’m gonna be working on the Sapper, and thats where it is, and all the parts to fix, or upgrade, it. I can pass messages back and forth any time, and I certainly don’t mind coming back fairly often, but… if I fly out and back every day, that’s quite alot of time. It might take me more than three months to get done.”

  Elise chuckled. “Real-world travel times suck. Real-world build-times suck. I wish we could just do like we do in the game and teleport, and use summons to just build stuff in a snap.” She tried to snap her fingers.. And blinked. “...I need to re-learn how to snap my fingers….”

  She looked at the rest of the table. “Its so weird having a real body again. I thought I’d just be able to do all the same stuff without trying, but this is gonna take some getting used to.”

  Sherry shook her head. “Well, anyways. The food’s getting cold. Lets eat. We can just hang out for a bit before Kyle heads back off to dig through junk piles and make us a ship by welding it all into one giant blob.”