Dreamless sleep, silence flooding through the darkness. Time slipped by like a memory long forgotten, broken suddenly by a single chirp as the communication system activated. "Wake up Neira, mission orders received." The computer announced in its almost bored synthetic voice. Lights inside the capsule activated, a gust of frigid air blowing past her as the canopy slid open, rotating into the floor. Neira shook herself to both work out the stiffness in her joints as well as to bring her mind up to speed. She took a moment to examine her reflection in the polished metal of the bulkhead, her blue fur contrasted by the orange markings running down her spine and over her right eye as well as the white fur covering her belly. 

Glancing down at the display before her, Neira frowned. They had been assured that their previous stop would be the absolute last before a much needed stop off for repairs, restocking, and the ever important rest and relaxation needed to replenish nearly a four month jaunt through deep space. The readout however, was less than promising. 

Nearly a week early she had been woken up, and for what? Repairs on yet another long range interstellar networking and communications facility on yet another no name planet in the middle of nowhere. She growled to herself, padding over to stand beside another sleep chamber. She keyed the release, calling out to the occupant. "Wake up Mesh; we have one more job before they bring us home it seems."

A soft click followed by a gentle rush of air preceded the opening of the second pod; a green dragoness with two purple stripes down her spine stood up and shook herself awake. "Come on Neira, quit joking around and let’s just get out of here. I'm tired of this tiny ship..." She looks around, her frustration turning to annoyance. "Oh, damnit! You have got to be kidding me! Another bloody repair job? I thought we were supposed to be on a direct flight back home."

Neira watched as her counterpart marched around the tiny cockpit, ranting while she checked the controls and limited supplies that remained. She shook her head and stepped over to the landing pod, strapping herself into one of the couches before calling out to her partner. "Hey Mesh, you going to talk the ship to death or get in here so we can get to work and get off this rock and back on the road home?"

Ducking down against the couch, Neira barely dodged as a wrench went sailing over her head, Mesh cursing just out of line of sight. "Right, blame me for everything! The least you could do is help me load all these tools. Unlike you I need tools to repair the machines down there, not just a computer interface." Mesh returned to view, lugging a large tool box into the ship and securing it with a tie down harness. "Ok princess, take us down." She quipped, as she strapped into her own couch to prepare for launch.

The trip to the planet was spent in silence, luckily for the two dragonesses, it was a short trip. Entering the atmosphere, the pod finally began to spout out specifics on the conditions on the surface. Atmosphere breathable, if a little thin compared to earth standards, temperature hot but tolerable, gravity slightly higher than that of earth as well, gravity well malfunction... Neira cursed and lashed out to grab the emergency handle, the pod lurching as the emergency parachutes were deployed then again as they filled and abruptly slowed the freefall of the pod to a more or less sane speed of descent. Finally, just before impact the braking thrusters kicked in, reducing their speed even further though the landing was far from perfect as the pod all but slammed into the sand a few dozen yards from the landing zone leaving a small crater. 

"What in the hell Neira, I thought you knew how to pilot this thing." Mesh complained as she examined her display screen. Luckily for the two of them, the ship didn't appear to have been damaged in the rough landing but they were now dangerously low on reserve fuel. Neira glared at Mesh, her heart racing from the sudden rush. "At least we made it down in one piece; the gravity well didn't fire off. I had to use the emergency chutes and, by the way, it is your turn to repack the bloody things." She gave Mesh a grin in triumph before turning to her own monitors, the readouts were anything but promising. 

Mesh scowled, it was her damn turn to repack the chutes. She had thought she had gotten away with it the last time, agreeing to take turns with the annoying duty so as not to have to mess with the blasted things the last time they had to use them. "Fine, I'll work the chutes but what in the bloody hell could have happened to the gravity well? The readings on the ship said it was fully operational before we launched." She unstrapped herself from her couch and stretched, wincing as her shoulder joint gave a twinge. "Guess I owe ya one that we didn't get banged up any worse than we did, good reflexes Neira. Oh, and from the display we don't need the suits either, so at least we can be somewhat comfortable this time around."

Neira unfastened her harness, checking on the tools before unfastening the harness from the toolbox. "I'm going inside to check the station logs, find out just what happened to the gravity well. I'll bring your tools inside, hurry up and join me after you finish with those chutes ok?" She picked up the toolbox, not waiting for a reply before keying open the door. A sudden rush of hot air and sand greeted her as the door began to open, the door sticking at the 3/4 mark. Neira rolled her eyes, thinking to herself as she squeezed out of the pod 'Does anything work properly on this damn ship anymore?' Heading into the station, finally free of the blowing wind and sand Neira set the tools down inside the door and padded over to the computer display.

Back on the ship, Mesh watched as Neira walked off with her tools. She was glad not to have to carry them into the facility, they were bloody heavy but still she had to deal with those parachutes. Exiting the pod, Mesh was able to climb up to the top of the roof, the parachutes blowing in the wind as she began to fold them up and repack the emergency devices into their respective compartments. Just as she finished, she heard Neira's voice broadcast from the station's loudspeaker. "Mesh, you need to get in here and see this."

Walking into the station, Mesh glanced around the room. The first thing she took notice of was her tools piled neatly beside the door, followed by the rather large display monitor that Neira was working on, data of all sorts flooding the large screen. "What did you find out? Can we fix this thing with what we have left or do we need to call the company and get another ship out here? Of course, another ship could take weeks, even months knowing the company."

Sparing a glance in Mesh's direction Neira gave her a disgusted look before turning back to the screens. "No, it isn't anything like that. Quite the opposite actually, there is nothing wrong with this station except well..." She trailed off, motioning to the screen in defeat. Mesh moved closer, taking a look for herself. "You really need to learn to finish your sentences Neira; otherwise I'll have to become a mind read... What in the hell Neira?! This is... It is impossible, that’s what it is! This planet has three suns, three! There is never night here and the area is practically swimming in solar collectors. How could the power be gone? What the, even the reserves?! I'm surprised with these numbers we are even getting power to run the machinery, much less the terminal and beacon we landed on."

Neira shook her head and pulled up another display, the reserve power meter for the station was steadily climbing but was still dangerously deep into the red zone. A few more keystrokes brought up the log of the system's power and there was when the two of them had another surprise. Less than a week ago, a massive power drain had impacted the station, draining all the power out of the capacitors, including the reserves in an instant. A spike of unknown energy was recorded deep in the desert for an instant before the system rebooted from lack of power. When the system came back online, the anomaly was gone and power was once again climbing in the reserve batteries. A maintenance call was issued to correct the problem.

Mesh sighed aloud. "Well, that explains why we are here and why the station reported no issues when we checked the system from the ship. Now then, about that gravity well generator..." Pulling up the requisite data, Mesh's ears drooped as she read the displays. "Of course, it would have to be the same anomaly again wouldn't it. Can't be something simple like an exploded pump or a meteor hit to the dish." Neira laughed, she couldn't help it. "Well, if you wanted work then you are out of luck. This place will be back up and running on its own in a day, two tops. However, we do need to find out what is causing that power drain and put a stop to it or else we will be back out here every week for the rest of our lives answering false alarms."

Tapping a few commands into the system Neira accessed the drone log for the two incidents, a drone having been dispatched both times the anomaly appeared to investigate. The first log showed no useful data, the anomaly remained on sensors for a few seconds before vanishing into nothingness. A sweep of the area came back negative so the issue was logged and never reported, pending investigation by the repair team. The second report however had more interesting information. The anomaly again lasted for only a few seconds, 20 at most before another energy reading took its place. The new energy signal was much weaker but remained at the location for over 2 minutes before taking off in a south eastern direction, away from the station at high speed, gaining altitude. The drone, upon reaching the spot of the anomaly reported faint traces of biological as well as energy signatures.

Neira shook her head again, reading over the report for the second and third time before speaking. "Don't ask me how, but I think we are no longer alone here Mesh." Mesh glanced over at the displayed data, frowning. "Wait, what? You mean something actually came in through... through THAT?! No way, that's just not possible unless..." Now it was Neira who spoke up into the sudden quiet. "Careful Mesh, you are catching my bad habit of cutting off my thoughts mid-sentence. Now then, what has you so worried?" Mesh had a data pad out and was pulling up something, her attention on the device as she replied. "I heard about some research on energy particle transportation being attempted, but the results were deemed too dangerous for complex life forms. Here it is, seems the scientists on earth are still working on the problem but no breakthroughs have been made in the last few years."

Keying up a list, Mesh pointed to one of the items listed. "Seems they have a Syther in the warehouse for exploratory use, I'll borrow that along with a few search drones and see what this thing is while you get the gravity well up and running so we can go home." Mesh stood up, stretching before heading outside again and into the warehouse. The Syther was where it should be, much to her surprise. The older model Syther hover jet sat inside a cocoon of preservation plastic, its quad rotors surrounding the small cabin. Releasing the seal on the plastic, the material fell off the vehicle easily enough. Stepping into the cabin, Mesh was again surprised to see that the vehicle was not only connected into the station's main power but that there were also solar cells along the wings for in-flight refueling. 

Mesh sat down on the control couch, keying the system to standby and listening as the magnetic drive began to spin up to speed, the rotors beginning to turn. "Damn, it still works." She exclaimed to herself, completely surprised that something like this would have been left behind. Checking the communication panel, she keyed up the station. "Neira, can you hear me? The Syther is powered up and ready to go and I have two of the drones slaved into the system to help with the search. I'm going to head out now unless there is anything that you need from me."

Neira's voice came clearly over the communication system. "Sorry Mesh, I know you were ready to go but from the logs here this place is way overdue for a maintenance check and overhaul. Mind taking care of that while I take the Syther and locate our mystery guest? Promise I'll make it up to you later once we finally get home. Deal?" Mesh sighed and turned off the power, climbing out of the Syther and heading back into the main station. "All yours Neira, I'd rather be in here workin on these old machines anyway. Easier to understand what ails them than some alien thing flying around out there in the desert."

Shaking her head, Neira climbed into the Syther, starting up the engines and running through the preflight checklist. "Seriously Mesh; you don't have to be so obvious about it. I know you like flying and to pass up this opportunity is probably killing you inside. Just hope you don't take it out on the machines, not like I can fix them near as well as you do anyway and the software seems to be intact so there is really nothing else for me to do here." She talked to herself as she ran through the checklist, everything showing optimal condition. Taking a deep breath, Neira held it a moment before letting it out and setting the coordinates on the GPS to the location of the last sighting of the anomaly, heading out to begin her investigation.

Darkness, silence, a sense of falling then solid ground beneath his feet. Sounds of wind, the sensation of sand blowing across his skin as vision returned, the world slowly coming into focus as a loud ringing assaulted his ears. Koby folded his earflaps down to try and avoid the sound, waving a claw in the air before him and pulling up the display console, his lab coat blowing in the stiff wind. A few key presses later brought up an invisible barrier that blocked out the wind, another few keystrokes and a display screen opened up before him, the readings all showing critical. 

Getting straight to work, Koby's claws flew over the virtual keyboard as the display changed to show him the wavelength of the portal he had just emerged from, the readings showing a disturbing amount of fluctuation. Adjusting the values, Koby watched as the wave form stabilized, the output from the portal now almost unreadable on his displays as opposed to the gigantic outwash of power that was there before. Koby pulled up the readout on the mobile emitter, the outwash of power had drained the internal battery by 80% leaving him with only 2 days of reserve power at optimal use. 

Shaking his head Koby pulled up another program, a large machine materializing beside him. Reaching into the pocket of his lab coat, Koby pulled out the tissue samples he had brought with him and placed them into the machine. High power lasers began to dance over the first sample, slicing it into microscopic bits as the scanners determined the rate of decay as well as locating any damage to the cellular structure comparing the sample to one of the others as well as the scans made before the trip through the portal. Moments later, the sample was gone, vaporized by the machine as pages of data flowed onto yet more virtual monitors beside the unit. 

Koby set the next sample case into the machine, starting the process again and looking over the results from the first test. "Hmmm, begin log recording first gate travel galactic star date 17243.24 acting scientist Koby reporting. The trip through the gate was uneventful, lasting roughly 9 seconds from emersion to exodus, sensations of touch, sound, sight, taste, and smell all blanked during transition and returning within moments of exodus into foreign location. First scans of living tissue samples pose no adverse effects of gate travel, pending second test phase and prolonged exposure testing in the future. Preliminary scans of foreign destination seem accurate, temperature listed as 134 degrees with humidity set at 0.08%. Second phase of tissue sample testing confirms initial assessments. First exodus scan revealed abnormal power leaks, drain on primary power for mobile emitter noted and logged. Adjustments have been made to correct this anomaly and further power loss is at regular operating levels."

Waving his claw through the air, Koby finished his entry and shut down the scanning equipment, the samples having all been reduced to a vaporous state by the laser bombardment. Closing his eyes, Koby focused on the sounds coming in from outside the barrier, the sensation of the heat beating down on his body and the smell of the sand around him. One deep breath later, Koby opened his eyes again, calling up his basic terminal and removing the lab coat, watching as it faded away as it slipped from his claws. Looking again at the barrier, Koby closed his inner eye lids and watched as the familiar sight of the air currents, heat waves, and up drafts overlaid his vision. The thin membrane would protect his eyes from the sand at the same time providing the added visual depth to see the currents in the air. 

Unable to contain himself any longer Koby shut down the barrier, feeling the sand blow across him again as he stretched his wings, letting the air currents play over the sensitive membranes. He laughed, he couldn't help it. Years had passed since he had been able to fly in anything other than sub-arctic temperatures, the planet the station inhabited in the void being far too cold outside the dome that surrounded the facility and even that space was limited to only about a mile of usable warm flying space. Pushing off with a powerful leap, Koby let the air currents lift him up to a cruising altitude before taking off along one of the upper currents, the warm dry heat of this place reminding him of his days back on Krul so many years ago.

Minutes passed as Koby let the winds carry him across the desert, luxuriating in the familiar sensation of flight that he had forgotten how much he missed. A sudden beeping sound shook him back to the present as a monitor opened up before him detailing a surprising new discovery. Long range scans had detected not only signs of civilization but also signs of life that had not been reported by the preliminary scans. Adjusting his heading Koby began to make his way towards the complex, curious as to what he would find upon arrival.

Back at the station, Mesh inched her way beneath one of the large solar batteries as she grumbled to herself. "Of all the things that could have gone bad, why did it have to be the one part that wasn't accessible from the maintenance hatch? I mean really, who puts an access panel on the base of something like this anyways?" She stretched, reaching for the latch release on the panel. "Come on, just a little further... damn this low clearance, why couldn't they have built this thing with more room to work?" Finally she managed to get the hatch off, the worn out part falling to the floor with a rather unsettling sound of breaking glass. "Oh, great. Just great! What else could go wrong?" She reached down beside her and picked up the replacement part, careful not to cut herself on the old broken one as she began locking the new piece into place.

Mesh reached down to her tool belt, grumbling again to herself. "Great, now where did that wrench go?" A voice, muffled by the tiny enclosed space drifted to her ears. "Here you go, is this what you were looking for?" An object bumped against her paw and she grasped the wrench, mumbling again as she returned to tightening the part into place. "Thanks Neira, you wouldn't believe how much of a pain in the ass the designer made this thing. And to think they actually expected someone to be able to perform maintenance in this tiny space!... Hey Neira, could you pass me the welding torch? I'm going to patch up some of these welds while I'm stuck under here."

Her mind deep into her work, Mesh only barely registered the feel of cold metal pressed against the side of her arm as the torch was passed to her beneath the battery housing. Sparking the flint, the light of the torch gave off an eerie glow as she dove into the guts of the casing from below, shoring up a number of sloppy welds the original installer had made in their rush to finish and move on to the next job. "You know Neira, with all these long term installations you would think the installers would take more pride in their work. I mean, if I hadn't been here who knows when these welds would have failed, then think of the damage that could be caused by..." She paused a moment, then turned off the torch. "Um, Neira? I thought you went out looking for that thing in the desert, when did you get back? How long have I been working here anyway?"

The voice came again, distorted by the housing but somehow much more chilling this time. "Well, according to the timer on the console here at least a half hour since I got here. Oh, and don't be alarmed but who is Neira?" Mesh set the welding torch down carefully, taking a moment to collect her thoughts and take a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. "It’s ok, nothing to worry about. I'm sure it is just Neira playing a practical joke, trying to get back at me for what happened on the last stop. I know I apologized to her but she can be so begrudging, yeah that has to be it." She thought to herself, getting up the nerve to work her way back out from under the battery housing, calling out as she did so. "Ha-ha, very funny Neira. I swear, if you are waiting to douse me with a bucket of water or something so help me I'm gonna make you wish you never came back here. Joke's over ok? I got lots of work still to do here..."

Finally able to see out from beneath the casing, Mesh stopped and took a moment to glance around the room. At first glance nothing was out of place, no trap waiting to be sprung and no sign of Neira either. She worked her way the rest of the way out from under the machine and rolled over to stand up, shaking off the dust from her fur and wings before stretching and looking around in annoyance. "Ok Neira, enough games. Quit hiding and come out already."

From off to her left side, almost directly beside her Mesh heard an unfamiliar voice. "Sorry, but I don't think Neira is here right now. Is there anything I can do to help? I'm pretty good with a wrench when the opportunity arises." Mesh took a few quick steps in the other direction, turning to face the voice ready to react to any situation that might arise. Standing just a few steps away was a reptilian creature, it seemed to be watching her curiously, no visible signs of aggression and no weapons to speak of that she could identify aside from the obvious claws and teeth. Taking a deep breath she let it out slowly before speaking, clearing her thoughts as she ran through her options. "Who are you? Where did you come from and what did you do with Neira?"

Alarms blared as the Syther again threatened to fall from the sky, plummeting down into the swell before catching the air currents again and managing to lift back to cruising altitude, the sensors screaming about erratic weather patterns and other phenomena as Neira fought with the controls to keep the craft headed in the direction of the beacon on the GPS. "Seriously, I'm going to have a good long talk with Mesh when I get back, this thing is flying as though the gyro stabilizer wasn't even attached! Every little gust is blowing me off course and now I'm falling into downdrafts that the system can't seem to locate until I'm right on top of them!" She punched the couch in frustration, another sudden dive momentarily sending her heart into her throat before the system corrected itself for the hundredth time. 

Neira growled at the windstorm, pushing the Syther forward towards her destination. After what seemed like hours but in reality was only about 20 minutes the storm suddenly ceased, the calm winds a welcome change to the rollercoaster ride prior. Neira checked the heading once more then relaxed, watching as the data from the sensors finally began bringing back useful information. High concentration of reptilian DNA present at the destination, energy readings normal or at least what amounted to normal on this rock. A single energy source left a trail to the east, a good possibility that whatever came through the energy earlier headed off that way in a vehicle of some sort. Neira began to trace the energy path, the sensors picking up no life signs at the initial site this was the only thing she had to go on. 

Following the trail, Neira could figure out no obvious direction to the trail almost as if the vehicle had been blown about wherever the winds seemed to take it and... Wait a moment, the direction changed. Neira studied the new pattern, a nearly straight path as opposed to the almost lazy movement before. The new path headed back towards the south... directly back to the facility... and Mesh! She keyed up the radio, calling out over the communication system. "Mesh, come in. I'm not sure what it is but it is headed directly for you. Mesh, do you hear me?" Neira slammed her paw against the controls, sending the Syther into overdrive as she headed back towards the station. "Please let nothing happen to her, let me make it there in time."

The creature before her seemed to think about the questions a moment then replied. "Well first off my name is Koby; I was born on the planet Krul and have been living recently aboard a temporal research station. I'm guessing that isn't what you wanted to know however, and since you are the first being I have seen since my arrival here I can't tell you where this Neira is either." Koby turned to look at the battery casing, tapping on it with a claw. "Curious material you are using here, a plastic polymer blend?"

Mesh blinked at the reply, surprised first that the creature could speak a language she knew and again at his near whimsical attitude towards what was for her a first encounter. She had done her research back at the academy, and there were no records of any creature fitting this description. Bringing herself back to the present she decided to take a chance and approached the casing as well. "Yes, it is a plastic of sorts that was designed to withstand the climate here on this planet. I'm actually surprised you could identify the difference since it is visually the same as any other plastic."

Waving a paw through the air before him, Koby called up his console and began running an analysis of the material. His claws dancing over the keyboard before him as he worked, the voice that spoke up beside him made him jump with surprise. "What are you doing? Do you have some sort of virtual connection?" Mesh asked, watching as Koby's claws seemed to be typing away on some unseen keyboard, the motions easily recognizable from her watching Neira work for hours on end. "Strange, I don't see any interface link on you, how are you receiving your data stream?"

Koby laughed, he couldn't help it. "I'm sorry... um, what was your name? I'm not used to working around others and began using my interface to examine the material here out of habit. It must look awkward, me typing on the air now that I think about it. Oh, and about the interface well... I guess a virtual HUD would be the closest example I could give. You see, I'm not actually here but asleep back on the station and this is a dive program that allows me to work in virtual reality when I pass through the gate."

Mesh blinked, frowning as she listened. 'Virtual reality?' that was just theory at best, and as far as she knew that technology was still decades away, especially on a scale such as this. She reached out and poked the creature with a paw, seemed solid enough to her. "I don't buy it, how could something virtual be solid? That kind of technology just doesn't exist. You are going to have to prove to me without a doubt what you are saying before I can believe you."

"Challenge accepted." Koby replied, bringing up his interface and loading one of the creation programs, designing a small platform and placing it in the air before him, 6 feet off the ground. Mesh watched as a solid block of what appeared to be metal suddenly appeared in the air, floating above the ground without any obvious supports. She shook her head, staring at the platform, the dimensions roughly 3 feet by 3 feet by a quarter inch thick. "How are you keeping that up there? Shouldn’t it be falling from gravity?" Mesh asked, still staring at the obviously impossible plate that hung in the air, making sure that she wasn't underneath it if it decided to finally fall from the sky.

Koby looked over at the platform, then added a ramp of the same material a foot wide leading from the floor up to the platform. "There, feel free to climb up, it is quite safe and I assure you that it will not fall. I affixed the platform in my virtual space so as long as I stay within 20 yards or so, it should remain constant here." Koby then flapped his wings, lifting off the ground to land on the platform for emphasis, jumping up and down. "See? Completely solid."

Mesh looked up at him dubiously, taking a few steps over and poking at the ramp. "Humph, feels solid enough but I still don't trust your magical structure. Things like this don't just pop out of thin air. It has to be some sort of trick and I'm not falling for it."

Shaking his head, Koby keyed a few lines into the system, the ramp vanishing as three round orbs appeared and began circling around Mesh at a distance of roughly 10 meters. After a few moments, they retreated before vanishing into nothingness as Koby went to work on his keyboard once again. "Hmmm, going to have to change the skeletal structure of the rig a bit, but it should work. Ok, how’s this then?" He backed up on the platform out of sight.

Mesh waited for a minute, staring up at the platform until with a grumble her curiosity got the better of her. "Ok, fine I'm coming up but you better not be trying to trick me." She flew up, keeping far away from the platform just in case the creature decided to lunge out at her. The lighting below cast dark shadows onto the top of the platform, a dark form seemed to be sprawled on the top in the darkness but from this distance Mesh couldn't make out what it was. "Don't you move now, I'm going to come closer and see what it is you wanted to show me. Not that I believe you or anything, got that?"

Moving closer, the form on top of the platform began to take a familiar shape until... Mesh gasped as she fell, recovering just before she hit the ground from the shock of what was up on the platform. "No way, there is just no way. What sort of trickery is this?" Koby crawled over and peered over the edge of the platform, his form now mimicking that of Mesh. He gave her a playful grin as she scowled up at him, having landed safely on the ground below. "Sorry, but I couldn't resist. The look on your face was priceless though, well worth the wait."

Koby carefully jumped down off the platform, landing near where Mesh was standing then looked up at the platform. "Hmmm, a bit higher than I had thought it was. Sorry for startling you but does this at least prove a bit of what I was saying? I can take another form if you wish, though I would prefer to just look like me if that is fine with you."

Neira landed the Syther outside the station, leaping from the cabin and bolting inside. "Mesh; why in the hell haven't you answered any of my calls? What have you been doing in here?" She spots Koby standing beside one of the battery casings and walks towards him angrily. "Seriously Mesh, what could be so important that you can't take a moment to key up the radio?" Koby turns to face Neira, cocking his head to one side. "Oh, you must be Neira." He turns again to look back behind the casing as Neira continues forward. "Mesh, I'm not in the mood for jokes. That thing was headed straight here from what the Syther was telling me and is possibly still around here somewhere... What’s wrong with your voice? Did you swallow a frog?"

Mesh stepped out from behind the casing just then, causing Neira to take a few surprised steps backwards "What in the, what is going on here?! ...Mesh?" Shaking her head, Mesh pushed past Koby and walked up to Neira. "First off, the comm unit hasn't gone off. Second, that THING is already here, as you can see. Third I'm not sure what it is, but it is claiming to be a virtual reality program or some rubbish like that. Either way, you are better with technology than I am, so you deal with him." Mesh then storms off outside, leaving Neira standing there with a shocked and confused expression plastered across her face.

Turning back towards the intruder, Neira is again surprised to see a brown reptilian creature standing where the Mesh-clone had been before. Overwhelmed, Neira sat down hard and tried to bring reality back into focus. "Ok, Mesh is outside and I'm in here with... Something! Keep calm Neira, just don't panic and everything will be fine. Mesh wouldn't have left you alone with anything dangerous... Would she?" Neira tried to calm herself down, speaking aloud the thoughts running through her head at a mile a minute. From over by the battery casing, another voice joined hers, speaking softly. "Don't be afraid, I'm not here to hurt either of you. I'm just an explorer that wandered here by accident. Yes, I am a hologram as I tried explaining to your friend outside but she didn't seem too keen on that idea even after I tried to prove it to her."

Shaking her head, Neira decided to take things one blow at a time and let the rest drop off. First thing first, the creature standing a few feet away. She looked over and put on her bravest expression, failing miserably and instead looking worn out and tired. "Ok, so you say you are an explorer right? Did you come from that energy burst earlier?... A hologram, yeah that would explain quite a few things especially the lack of vital signs when I scanned the building on approach though that technology just doesn't exist where we come from."

Koby sat down as well, leaning back against the battery casing and went through his introduction again. "My name is Koby, I came here from a temporal research station and though I'm not exactly sure who your people are I can safely say that your particular species hasn't been encountered by the people who built the outpost. I myself am a sort of adopted member into the team and the last surviving member. The image you see before you is a holographic representation of what I look like back in the lab and initial scans of this planet had revealed no sentient life signs."

Neira listened to the whole story then let out a breath she had forgotten she had been holding. "So what you are saying is you came here thinking the planet was empty. Not too surprising since your energy source knocked out all the power to this station both today and about a week ago as well. My people do not have the technology to create a hologram, much less one as obviously sophisticated as yours and we haven't even begun to think about temporal research. You say that you are the last survivor from your station or whatever? What killed off the rest of your group?" She backed up a bit, fearful that perhaps some unknown virus or plague may have been the cause.

Shrugging his shoulders Koby looked up at the ceiling. "Time killed them, they all got old and eventually died. Roughly 380 years ago our supply lines became disrupted and we stopped receiving anything from outside. It was at that point that the scientists began this project hoping to be able to create a doorway that would lead them home. Sadly, none of them survived long enough to see it work. I kept working on the device and now I can finally leave the station and explore places outside of the temporal pocket we were trapped in. Never expected to meet someone new on my first trip though, how did you two get here and are there others around?"

Neira shook her head, again relaxing and taking a seat once more, this time leaning against the door frame so as to be a bit more comfortable. "It is just the two of us, we came here on a mission to repair the damage caused to this outpost by unknown events. We actually arrived here only a few hours ago honestly and now that we have met you, we know what caused the problem and the system seems to be recovering. Mesh was attempting to do some minor repair work while I went out searching for well... You actually, but I'm getting off topic. Why did you want to go exploring on a deserted desert planet? I'm sure there were plenty of other more hospitable places you could have chosen to go."

Koby again shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, this was the first place the doorway opened up on and I never modified the targeting program. That, and because it was deserted I knew that I could run tests without the worry of harming anyone who currently lived there on accident, like the backwash from the door did to your power systems. I have fixed that problem, so it shouldn't happen again so no worries there either. Finally, this planet reminds me of my birthplace and it was nostalgic for me to come here. That’s about it really, aside from gathering astrological data and attempting to pinpoint my location relative to known space."

Mesh returned to the building, looking first at Koby then over at Neira before sighing and slumping down on the opposite side of the doorway. "Well I guess we are all buddy buddy here now huh? So Neira, do you believe anything this thing is saying? Also, I did a check of the Syther's comm system and there is no way you could have contacted me, none what so ever." Neira glared at Mesh, her frustration turning quickly to anger. "What do you mean there was no way? I was yelling at you the entire trip back here!" Mesh giggled and pointed out the door. "I mean something snapped off the antenna, so no matter how hard you tried you couldn't get any messages out from there thus why I never received any of your calls. What the hell did you do to the Syther anyway to cause that much damage?"

Neira closed her eyes, shaking her head to try and clear away the headache that was building there. This was not the time to be joking around, even if this Koby was just an explorer they still had to explain him in their report though she did kind of deserve it now that she thought about it, having yelled at Mesh the way she did earlier. "It was a sandstorm, was inside it before I knew what happened then had to ride it out until I reached the other side, too much disturbance to set down and wait it out. I guess that was when the antenna could have been lost and with all the warnings going on I guess I just missed the one about the fault in the antenna line. Sorry Mesh, I was wrong to yell at you but you do need to understand that I was only worried about you."

Waving a paw in dismissal of the subject, Mesh turned her attention back to Koby. "So, you really are from another place? I find it hard to believe but with everything I have seen today and all that you told me and Neira here well..." She trailed off, turning back to look at Neira for support. Neira for her part was still coming to grips with everything. "Ok, just for a minute here let’s agree that everything you have said is true. That would mean that not only are we not alone out here, but that our entire race is decades if not millennia behind the technology race. What dangers should we look forward to and just how close are we to this advanced society that you claim to represent?"

Koby waved his paw in the air, pulling up his console again as Neira stared in surprise as he began typing on the invisible keyboard. "Well, according to the position of the stars that I have scanned into the system here, I'd say the odds of meeting with the same group that found me and built the station is slim. Even with their technology, they would still need to travel for hundreds of years to reach this far out so nothing to worry about there. Also, of the 700 plus races that the alliance encountered only a small handful were overtly hostile so on average the odds of running into an aggressive race would be extremely slim. If you had a star chart I could get a better fix on the location we are at here and give you more definite numbers."

Neira watched as Koby worked on his system, trying to figure out how such a technology would work. At the mention of a map, she picked herself up and moved over to the computer in the corner, pulling up the local star chart as well as one for the region where they would be headed next, their home. "Well, here are a few that we have access to, the bulk of the star charts are not on the local server but these should help a bit. This one is the area we are in now, and this one here is where we come from. Perhaps you could visit and learn more about our people? Just um, don't mention that you are a hologram to anyone, I doubt anyone outside the repair crews would even understand what you were talking about."

Koby nods, standing up and scanning the offered maps into his system before letting the computer compile the information. "Ok, seems like it would take about 253 years 4 months and 11 days to go from here back to the nearest outpost moving at 7 times the speed of light. Yeah, I doubt they will be here any time soon." He looks at the other map again, running a few more calculations. "Hmmm, I think I could adjust the targeting computer to reach that general area but would take me a few tries to get the exact location into the system. Once repairs are done here would you like to come and visit the station while I attempt to narrow down the location? It has been over 300 years since we had visitors after all."

Glancing over at Mesh, Neira thought about all she had just heard. The thought of visiting a temporal station excited her, that sort of technology wasn't even in the science fiction shows yet much less actual development. On the other paw, she did have to think about Mesh as well and the safety of the mission. She contemplated the risks and made up her mind. Giving Mesh a subtle nod, she turned back to look at Koby, who was still engrossed in the readouts on his invisible screens as well as the data she had pulled up on the main monitor. Before she could speak however, Mesh made her opinion known.

"I'm not saying I trust you at all, and I'm not too comfortable with the idea of blasting myself all over space either but it seems Neira here has already decided she wants to trust you and so I have no choice but to go along and keep her safe. However, before we go through any portals or the like I want you to prove to Neira that it is safe." Mesh sighed and walked off, muttering to herself as Neira watched her go. "Don't worry about her, she will be fine. She isn't used to being the one not in control of the situation and she just needs time to come to grips with all you have brought here. Please don't take it personally."

Koby smiles and shakes his head. "Oh, I know how she feels. I was the same way when I first learned there was more to the universe than the planet I was born on. Still, she wants me to prove to you that the transfer will be safe and the only way I know to do that is to let you look through the data that I collected on live samples I brought with me on my first pass through the gate. Unfortunately to do that will use up most of the power I have left and your power systems aren't compatible to provide my system with more power so once we do this, you will only have about 5 minutes to make your decision before my power levels drop to a point where a stable doorway back will be risky at best. Think that will be enough time to get the proof you need?"

Neira blinked, her expression shocked. "Wait, you mean I can see into your virtual world? How would you do that? I mean, aren't the screens visible to your eyes only?" Koby nods, then pulls up a program. "I have a system that allows me to enter this virtual space and using my virtual space I can replicate that same system so that you can access the network. Unfortunately it will draw a lot of power and I already lost a fair amount when the doorway malfunctioned on this end. If we do this it needs to be soon and will have to be a short trip into the system just to get the information you need."

Checking his power reserve, Koby set up the program to create the virtual interface platform, ready to start the program on Neira's command. Neira didn't hesitate for more than a few moments, the idea of being able to enter such a system too big an opportunity to pass up. "Ok, what do I need to do?" She asked, slightly nervous but also quite excited as well. Koby started the program, a metal pad appearing in the middle of the room along with a stand holding a metal band covered with wires. "Ok, 5 minutes starts now, lay down next to the stand and I'll hook you into the system. Once the halo is in place to access the system all you have to do is think sleep and you will wake up inside the system."

Neira walks onto the platform, the metal surprisingly cold beneath her paws for something that didn't exist moments before. A tingling sensation began to wash over her as she lay down against the cold surface, Koby moving over and placing the ring onto her head and adjusting a tension strap to hold it in place. She closed her eyes and imagined falling asleep, even though such an act was the last thing she wanted to do. Suddenly she felt disoriented, opening her eyes to see herself lying on the ground hooked into the machine with Koby standing a few paces away looking directly at her, his body surrounded by floating screens and keyboards. "Ok, you made it into the system. Don't worry; the system is right now projecting your thoughts into a virtual copy of yourself. I don't have time to explain much more, we need to act fast here."

Taking a careful step forward, Neira poked at her body lying before her. She could feel where she was pressing, as though a phantom force was pressing against her but the sensation was distant. Koby watched curiously for a moment as Neira explored the out of body sensation, at the same time he brought up the relevant data onto his screens and set them to display in a fixed position where Neira could easily read them. "Ok, here is the data I collected on living material traveling through the doorway. From the rate of decay and lack of cellular degradation I would place the safety rating at 88% based on the samples I brought with me. Unfortunately I would need to run more tests to get a more accurate baseline. The only reason I don't give the safety rating a higher percentage is due to the lack of long term study of the effects of travel through the doorway."

Pulling her attention back to the job at hand, Neira glanced over the information on the screens. The amount of data was overwhelming and she had to admit to herself that it would take her weeks even months to truly identify what all she was looking at but from what she could piece together the system was safe to use and from the data there shouldn't be any lasting side effects from the jump either. She shook her head and looked back again at the form of her body sleeping on the ground, still amazed that such technology could exist and marveling at the rare chance to get a 3rd person look at herself and see what her eyes were incapable of. A chime rang out suddenly, shaking her out of her distracted thoughts. Koby activated a program on one of his screens as the world seemed to melt away, her vision fading to darkness. Moments later Neira awoke, picking herself up off the ground and stretching out of habit before turning to face Koby once more.

"Well, I'm more than convinced. How much time do we have before your power reserves are too low to open this doorway?" Koby looked at a display that Neira now knew to be floating inches away from his face. "The power on the mobile array is down to critical levels, I have maybe 2 more hours of power before I can no longer open a doorway and return to the station. We will need to get back to the entry point and open a doorway in the next hour if the two of you want to return with me to the station. I am going to shut down all secondary systems here, that should give us at least a few more minutes." He keys a few lines of code into the system and shuts down the creation program. As he does so, the plate he had created earlier in the air winked out of existence, its occupant yelping in surprise as she fell to the ground from her perch where she had been watching all that was going on beneath her. 

"Mesh! Are you ok? What were you doing up there anyway?" Neira asked as Mesh picked herself up off the ground where she had fallen, dusting herself off with her wings. "It doesn't matter." She replied, a note of frustration in her voice. "Besides, we are on a schedule and I already got all the tools packed up while you two were playing with his toys. If we are going to go we may as well do it before anything else goes wrong." Neira and Mesh boarded the Syther, their argument cut off from Koby's ears as the door closed and Koby led them around the sandstorm to the site where he had first set foot on the planet. 

The pair landed their craft and Koby waited for them to disembark before starting up the return sequence. A doorway opened up before him, an archway similar to the one in the lab forming around it until the image of the lab beyond stabilized. Koby motioned for the others to enter first, having to keep the emitter on this side to hold the doorway open while they passed through to the station. Neira went through first, walking through the doorway as though she had done such a thing a hundred times before, Mesh hesitating a half second before cursing under her breath and following after.

Following after the other two, Koby arrived back in the room he had left from no more than half a day ago, the readings on his power levels showing less than 45 minutes of power left on the battery that should have lasted him a good 3 days. He made a mental note to upgrade the power supplies in the mobile systems as well as possibly adding a backup emergency power pack. Now however, he had guests to deal with and part of him was wondering where Ed and Patch had wandered off to.

Walking over to the door to the room Koby came to a realization, turning to look at his guests he frowned slightly as he keyed the panel on the wall that would open the door. He had never thought about it before, but moving around the station would be a bit difficult for his guests as they walked on all fours and would have to climb up against the wall to access the control panels and read any displays. He shrugged and decided that if changes needed to be made he would deal with that as it came about. "So, welcome to my home. If you will follow me, I need to get the system starting on the alignment and recharge this mobile array. If you look across the hallway you will see the main control room where I do most of my work. Feel free to head inside, I'm already there and will be with you shortly."

The two dragonesses watched as Koby walked into another doorway, vanishing from sight. Neira glanced at Mesh then shrugged and stepped over to the indicated door, placing a paw against the frame for balance as she reached up to press the activation button the same way she had seen Koby do before. The door slid open silently, the room beyond filled with monitors and computer interfaces. In the middle of the room was a large metal pad and on that pad slept a now familiar form. Mesh stepped into the room first, leaping towards the figure on the pad only to yelp in surprise and jump back as the sensation of placing her paws onto the pad caused her whole body to tingle with energy. 

Koby sat up, opening his eyes as he removed the halo from his head. He glanced over at Mesh who was sitting shaking her paws to get the invisible pins and needles out of her fur then over at Neira in the doorway. "Welcome to my home, it is good to finally meet you two." Placing the halo onto its stand, Koby walked over to a small black pad off to one side and sighed as he stepped onto it, the rubber absorbing the stored electrical charge and draining the sensation from his body. "Mesh, come here and step on this black pad, it should fix the sensations you are feeling there."

Mesh frowned but did as requested though she waited for Koby to back away first, still wary of the stranger. Moments later the sensation was gone and she looked over at where Neira was studying one of the large displays. The monitor was running through all the collected data on the planet they had just come from, everything from weather patterns to data on the materials used at the facility all the way down to scans of the two dragonesses that the system had been able to pick up. Smaller screens below and beside the largest one were also assessing the astrological data provided, adding their information to a massive star chart that spanned most of the galaxy they inhabited. 

Neira stared at all the data, totally engrossed and unaware that Koby had stepped up next to her and was watching her reactions to the data with curiosity. "So, you seem impressed. Was it everything you expected here?" Shaking her head Neira managed to pull her gaze away from the screens and the massive data flow scrolling past them. "It is beyond anything I had ever thought possible; your system here must have a massive CPU attached to it. Can't say I wouldn't be interested in taking a peek either just out of sheer curiosity." She returned her attention back to the screens, totally engrossed in the data.

Koby watched her for a few minutes, then sat down at the keyboard and began typing in commands. One of the smaller screens began displaying the image of a small solar system from Neira's map, zooming in on one planet as Koby began asking Neira questions about the destination that she wanted the next doorway to open up at. It took them a while, but after only two probes they managed to reach an isolated spot on the surface near the city where Neira and Mesh were to land in 3 weeks to finally receive the time off they had so richly earned. 

Neira looked at Koby then back at the display of the familiar territory on the monitor. "Are you serious? This is a live image coming through the camera of a virtual probe that is actually on my home right now. That is just amazing, I mean with this technology we could get our work done and not even need to cart around all those tools nor sleep the weeks and months it sometimes takes to go from one stop to another. I know, the technology is too advanced for our society and it would be abused by those who control everything but the thought is still nice. Besides, by the power readings here we would have to use everything we can produce on a planetary scale just to open one of these doorways." She glanced around, a hint of worry suddenly creeping into her voice. "Um, where is Mesh..."

Glancing around the room Koby shrugged his shoulders, motioning to the doorway back into the hall that was still open. "My guess is she got bored watching us and went exploring. No worries, I already locked down all the dangerous places or places that she could accidentally cause damage so she should be just fine to explore." He glanced over at Neira and the two of them looked at each other then over at the door, Neira standing up and taking a hesitant step towards the exit.

The silence is broken by Mesh's voice coming closer from down the hallway. "Hey can you hear me in there? Look what I managed to find! It's uhm ... Don't know, it was driving around so I sat down on it and now it is taking me somewhere!" Mesh passes by the doorway riding on one of the cleaners and dripping with water, still chatting away. "I found it after I got some berries from that one ... Plant room! ... While I was snacking a loud noise came and then there was water everywhere but those berries were REALLY good, totally worth it!" She passes by, craning her neck trying to keep in view as she continues talking, her voice starting to trail off down the hallway. "Uhm ... where is this thing going anyways? I hope it is as good as that last place." Her voice disappears down the hallway as she continues talking, Neira and Koby looking at one another before bursting out in laughter.

"Ok, now I was not expecting THAT! What was that thing anyways?" Neira asked as she regained her composure. Koby shook his head and pointed to a similar device sitting off to one side of the room. "They are cleaning units, that one over there is waiting for us to finish here and leave the room to begin its work. The one Mesh is riding well; they are programmed not to interfere with anyone doing work and will stop and wait until the area is clear. However they have a blind spot, they do not detect when something is on top of them and have been known to vanish carrying drinks, food, tools, and other such items that were temporarily left there when the area became clear for them to return to work. It seems that Mesh is now sitting in that blind spot and the unit is just working its way back towards... Yeah, we better follow it."

Neira follows Koby down the hallway, up a ramp and down another hall before she spots Mesh sitting outside a door, her nose pressed against its surface and tail moving like something possessed. Mesh glances over, her eyes wide as Neira approaches. "Oh my gosh Neira, you would not believe what they have in here! It is just amazing I can't wait to get in there and look around and oh I wish I could just take it apart a little to see how it works and it is just so awesome it’s awesome." Mesh continued to ramble as Neira glanced at the plate over the door and chuckled. "Well, let’s take a look then, no touching though, just a look."

Mesh pawed at the base of the door, anxious to get into the room. "Aww, you're no fun Neira. I just wanna take it apart a little..." Neira looked over at Koby apologetically. "No, it isn't ours and you don't know how to fix it if you break it. Besides, the sign says central core so I doubt you would want to get shocked by what is powering this place." Mesh sighed and lay down on the floor by the door. "Fine, I'll just look but you really know how to take the fun out of things Neira." Koby moved to the door and keyed it open, then typed in the security code to remove the barrier that had knocked Mesh from the cleaning unit when it continued on its way to clean the core chamber. 

The large round room was filled with machinery, a railing around the central area kept the curious and the absent from falling into the gaping hole there, a central column that was the computer core descending from the ceiling all the way down to a place too far below to see. Neira glanced over the edge and whistled, the sound echoing off the smooth walls. "Wow, how far down does it go?" Koby shook his head and kept an eye on Mesh as he replied. "Well, the specs say the core is just that, a core. It descends from the top floor all the way down to the power plants some mile beneath this room but the computer core itself is only a few yards tall and all accessible from the lower platform should maintenance need to be done."

He followed Mesh with his eyes, grinning as she came to a stop exactly where he predicted she would. Koby let Neira examine what she could see from there and walked over to Mesh. "So, you like the automated repair facility? Looks like one of the cleaners is going through maintenance." He exclaimed as he watched Mesh as the machine tore into the smaller unit, replacing old components and cleaning the grime from the inside of the device before reassembling it and sending it back on its way to work in another part of the facility.

Mesh sighed, watching the cleaner move off until it was out of sight. "I really wanted to take one apart, but I guess watching it done will have to be good enough for now." She continued to explore the room as Koby explained what each of the machines was used for, Neira joining them after a few minutes. Finally a beeping at Koby's side caused the group to stop. "Well, looks like the system is recharged. I know you two probably don't want to go back to that ship of yours but if you don't get home then how will you show me around your planet? Besides I doubt you want to be late checking in with your progress reports." 

Neira nodded and waved a paw to silence Mesh's complaints. "Yes, we will need to go then, but it would be nice to be able to come back here again once we have more time." The three dragons headed back towards the control room, Mesh stopping along the way to stare at one of the doorways. "I didn't know you were in to art. That is an amazing piece by the way, where is it taken from?" Koby returned to look into the room, a frame surrounding the image of a bright sunny day with a lake in the background complete with rolling grassy hills perfect for picnics. "Um Mesh, that’s a window."

Neira and Mesh both stared at Koby, slack jawed in shock. "Wait, this place is on a planet?! We thought it was a space station inside a temporal bubble!" Koby looked at the window and laughed, he couldn't help it. "Yes, this is a station inside a temporal bubble, but there is a whole planet outside too. What, you thought only the facility would fit inside temporal space? The bubble is small, only a few million miles in diameter but we have a planet, a small artificial star and even a tiny moon." Neira pried her eyes away from the view. We are coming back here; there is no question on that one. Promise me we can come back some day."

Koby nods and leads the visitors back to the gate room. "Sure, let me go grab something and then I'll be ready to go." He walks out of the room, the door shutting behind him. Minutes later he returns, again wearing the array and a white lab coat. "Shall we head back? I will see you two off then head back myself, don't want to miss our reunion on the planet and I want to get a few readings before you two arrive. Don't worry; I will try my best not to cause a scene."

Both dragonesses wanted to protest and demand at least one more day but they also knew that any great delays would jeopardize their vacation time and they both now wanted to see how that would play out. Heading back in the Syther Mesh and Neira discussed all they had learned and made the unanimous decision that in their reports it would be an unknown glitch in the system that had caused the power drains and no mention of Koby would be made in any of the reports. Who would believe them anyways?

Back at the landing pod Mesh and Koby looked over the damage and using materials scavenged from the parts locker repaired any parts that would be critical to getting the two dragonesses home to their ship. Koby waved as the two prepared to launch off, watching as the gravity drive hurled the small vessel up and out of sight before heading back himself.

Neira sighed, setting their course to dock with the ship and the long journey back to their home. Mesh seemed lost in thought; her tool box fastened to the side of the pod again along with... what was that thing under the strap there? Neira checked the timing and unfastened her restraints just long enough to retrieve the small round device that looked almost identical to the one that Koby had been wearing! She looked over the surface and managed to find a small switch on one surface. Pressing it pulled up a virtual monitor complete with a small communications array! A message was written on the screen before her. "Enjoy your trip; I'll see you on the other side. Don't let this get confiscated; it will only react to your DNA so nobody else can access it. Hope to hear from you two soon."