Eventually, the world kind of fades out, and we're back in the “waiting room”... that very dead starship bridge, stuck in the moment of transition between The Drift and the prime material pne.

  “Ah, good, you're here,” Ferdinand smiles, the constantly shifting rainbow light pying over his face and suit.

  “We're going to need to change a lot of things around…” I start.

  “Not a problem at all, as you're all still alive. Go for it!” He is all smiles.

  I'm enjoying being back in my real body as I sit down to work… it's a pity the Infiltration Skin isn't avaible for several more levels… hmm.

  We start with the ships: We switch the “combined” ship out for an Explorer, basically the default PC ship, with a cloak, high end sensors, reasonable shields, a specified manufacturer (to save two points on the luxury accommodations), an Industry (so we can make UPBs while in transit and have aome real money when we arrive wherever) and a Fuel Synthesizer (so we can produce our own fuel, of course). That leaves us with two avaible expansion bays for cargo or ter items. We have no weapons and barely any engines on the ship, but the pn is to not even let anyone target the ship.

  For the sub-ships, we switch to the Tug base frame. Each has one empty expansion bay (to match the empty expansion bays in the merged ship, so cargo doesn't get spaced), but they're intended for battle: The Tug is the only small ship that can take a heavy starship weapon… and that is on the turret, so it can fire in any arc. On these, we maximize the engines, go with the second best direct-fire weapon in the css for that turret, and spend all the remaining points on shields and a powerful core to support it. The merged ship is meant to be lived in with stealth and maintenance items; the split ships are for fighting.

  For us… we don't want to get rid of the immunities and such from our race, so we settle for some refluffing: Our eyes glow slightly now in shades matching our eye colors (rather than being clouded over), and we have elongated canines… more of a vampire cast to us, now.

  We all generally continue with our existing builds, although I do some tweaking: A customized Martial Tradition grants me the base pilot Sphere and the Companion Vessel talent, plus all firearm Proficiencies and - most importantly, proficiency with the Poison Ring from Dragon Magazine: It's a weapon worn as a ring (and looking like one), which means social events are a go, because that's my new base form from Spirit Bde. I also shuffle some talents around… my summon comes with two level appropriate weapons I can charge up via the Tech sphere, so she comes with a Vortex Pulse Rifle (ranged sonic damage and works underwater) and an Aufeis Frost Maul (cold damage in melee). The altered talents I drop into being a better pilot (which will also help my minion, as a third level spirit bde can share talents with the wielder… and a ring doesn't interfere with holding other weapons), flying supernaturally (and the Biped mech suit takes speeds from the wearer), and being healthier in general…. and when I don't need the extra movement type (or need a different one), that is via my Moldable Talents from the Spheres Arcanist, so I can swap it out quickly. The other Moldable Talent I set for Destruction, using the Energy Focus and Shape Focus Sphere-specific drawbacks to grab Explosive Orb (makes the bst affect a radius and allow a reflex save rather than requiring an attack roll… just one square, but more by spending a spell point) and Stone Bst (so the damage is non-magical and all three physical types)... I also get Empower Spell from an exploit… so if I don't mind going through spell points like they're water (which I don't mind, as I can recharge them between fights), then I can cruah folks for a decent amount of damage a few times per fight (and then fall back to a little better than the weapons my summoned minion uses) while my summoned minion fights. For my gear, I add a Conjuration Implement to the mix, so that my minion gets a bonus to most rolls… which will be useful, I'm sure. I also restyle my Biped suit to look something like a dragon (it will be flying regurly, so why not?). For the party mech, we use a Wavecrasher base frame; Phantoms for the individual mechs. The Phantoms get Auger legs while the Wavecrasher gets heavy biped legs. Each of them gets a ser rifle and a frost spear for their weapons. The Phantoms focus on stealth and mobility, while the Wavecrasher focuses on weapons and durability. None of them fly this go-round, but meh, that's okay: The Phantom frames can teleport short distances, which we can use to wreck all kinds of havoc… most notably for now? Get through the dome where we're going.

  When we're done, we all nod, and get back to the ship… which is now considerably roomier.

  “Let's see how it turned out, eh?” I smile.

  We take a tour… there's now six stations on the bridge, and most things are twice as big each way; after all, we went from a ninety foot ship to a two hundred ten foot ship… this includes our now two-story individual cabin apartments… seriously, these things are bigger than many houses at this point, because doubling in all three dimensions multiplies the volume by a factor of eight, and the ceilings for the office, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen didn't get any higher (the living room did… it's now practically a ballroom). Still, each apartment has one office, one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, and one bathroom. I can't store anything not out of my inventory here, though: The associated space on the split ships is going to be little more than a cot.

  The hallways are much rger; they could probably accommodate the smaller mechs (retively smaller: They should be like twenty feet tall, although I haven't seen the new ones yet). The mess hall now looks more like a room in a fancy restaurant… nice chairs, a full sized kitchen, and a high end Culinary Synthesizer… basically a food replicator. None of us eat, but we might want to replicate some tasty things we remember. There's a shared washroom as well… two showers, two toilets in stalls, two sinks with mirrors… basically a locker room like one might have at a small public pool, minus the actual lockers: In case of guests, I suppose. Engineering is much rger, to accommodate the bigger engines and power core… almost makes me feel like I'm on The Gambit from Trek Wars. There's the Industry… with six workstations, one per crew member… the fuel Synthesizer which practically runs itself… and the two cargo bays, with our mechs strapped down as cargo.

  Nice… “How about we try splitting the ship up, and tour the small ones, too?” Alice suggests when we're done.

  I shake my head, “Nah. I would rather not spook the Spectra by having two ships appear out of nowhere.”

  “Also, we should make money while we're able, as we CAN now,” Brenna signs.

  “Sure…” Charlene considers, “it is bonus cash that we will actually be able to spend, isn't it?”

  We settle in and get to work during the flight, taking turns watching the bridge and working the Industry. I use my summoned minion (who is effectively permanent at this point) as a carrier most of the time, getting used to my new perspective as a ring, lending my skills to the creature, and directing her telepathically. She gets my Spheres talents as I like now - which means full ranks in Piloting as well - plus five skills at my ranks from the Share Skills Arsenal Trick. I go with Survival, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Profession (UPB production), and Stealth… mostly because all of the other skills I have are Intelligence based, and I have a Mindless companion. I trade out my Moldable Talent used for Flight to boost her Wisdom when inside… because she already has a boost to Dexterity, and all the skills I'm sharing are either Dexterity or Wisdom based: Eventually she'll be better at them than I am (and she already is for the Dexterity based skills, thanks to the mech suit).

  Several days into the trip, Charlene uses the ship's intercom: “All hands, we got something weird here.”

  I head to the bridge, and find I'm the st to arrive… no big deal. Charlene is handing the pilot role off to Alice as “I” sit in my chair, using a spell point to borrow the minion's body and make it my own for now (she's immune to mind-affecting effects, but can voluntarily accept a spell anyway). Oh, hey… I'm actually breathing now… huh. Hmm… I should get a male summon… ter. For now, I man the scanners.

  “About a one mile diameter bubble,” I start, “Looks like the Ethereal pne… and we have movement.”

  “How about we go exploring?” Alice considers, “I could use a distraction.”

  Charlene coinsiders, “The Ethereal is basically the nd of ghosts. Lost souls that can't move on, but can't return, either. Lots of incorporeal undead, basically.”

  “Which mostly harm living creatures, which we aren't,” Brenna signs, “we could have a field day forcing them to move on with violence.”

  “Low risk experience, huh?” Alice shrugs, “Let's do it.”

  I nod as Alice directs the ship to the edge of the bubble while I use an exploit to switch the Wisdom boosting talent for my minion over to one granting flight: It will keep us from getting lost in the void if we get separated, and my Destruction setup over to use Blinding Bst (because it works better on undead). We park the ship (there's very little concern about it being stolen, after all: We'll just get it back the next day), and head out.

  My minion is almost immediately attacked by a collection of blurry abstract shapes, packed with spinning fragments of brilliant colors. The force field I picked for my mech colpses under the creature's touch; I block, my Hardness stops the rest, saving my minion from taking damage. We all open fire, of course. Four on one… plus summons and pets… and we end up running after all of the summons and pets are down, and we're into our real health (not just stamina) when we're taking hits.

  Fortunately the beast doesn't pursue… I think it only cares about living creatures.

  “Oookay…” I take a breath, having turned into my humanoid form to continue the fight… before we ran, “Let's get out of here.”

  We run the engines and get going, spamming healing spells to fix the real health (specifically Necromantic Revitalization; both Brenna and Charlene have it, and I refill their spell slots), and take a ten minute rest to spend Resolve to restore Stamina (and I repce the Resolve points).

  Then we run an after-action analysis: Alice starts, “So… where all did we go wrong?”

  “Maybe we could have taken better advantage of range?” Charlene comments.

  “Nah,” I shake my head, “No sight lines. You can't see past sixty feet on the Ethereal pne, and that's charging distance.”

  “Maybe the mechs?” Alice adds.

  “They're huge… that would have just exacerbated the sight lines problem; we wouldn't have been able to gang up on it,” Charlene frowns.

  “We got cocky,” Brett signs, “and acted like we were invulnerable when we really aren't.”

  “So… let's not go actively looking for trouble, then?” Alice suggests.

  “That will have to do for now,” I shake my head, “as we're still just third level.”

  As we start to go our separate ways through the ship, Brenna catches up with me, and signs, “So… I could use a little stress relief; as you're in your meat form until we're out of the Drift anyway, how about you and me…”

  I look my friend up and down: Her now glowing emerald eyes stand out on her face, complimenting her round chin and slightly puffy lips, framed by her auburn hair. “Sure; your pce or mine?”