Zander had faced Entoma on fallen worlds, stood tall in the Assembly chamber against those who tried to push him down, and gamed their system, coming out as the sole Human in the universe, equal to any Assemblymember. He’d even had to fight dwarves in clan duels, expanding his own clan when he defeated them, yet that wasn’t what he was proudest of.

His family had come together for a massive wedding with all the women he loved. Veldiami had finally reached the lust stage of her life cycle and married into the large family; she was the last to join them, but had folded smoothly into their dynamic. Lavella even opted to leave her company with Aspis— her second at Maverick— so she could stay on Dreams. With all of them gathered together, their joy only grew.

Fractured Dreams had even grown, going from her old, remodeled hull to an Assembly cruiser. That had brought its own complications, but everything eventually worked out. A bigger ship meant a larger crew, and their time at Assembly Hub was spent filling out some officer positions, as well as pilots to bring Dreams up to a full fist.

With those slots filled out, Dreams was given missions and sent back out, not to fight Entoma, but to set up the communication buoys that Zander had suggested to the Assembly. They’d allow far faster communication across Assembly space and help notify everyone if the Entoma attacked another world. However, Dreams’ primary mission was to focus on the mysterious signal that’d been detected in a remote system.

Zander had a few worries about the signal mission. He’d seen far too many space horror sci-fi movies to think this was going to be a simple thing, but he would wait to pass judgement until they found out exactly what was happening. Maker made plans and contingencies for everything she could think of, but until they got there, it was all guesswork.

Whenever they did finish with the tasks they’d been given, they’d be returning back to MX Hub, one of the edges where Entoma were the biggest threat and where missions to kill them would be far easier to find. But there were things that had to be done on MX Hub, too. People had left some unfinished business behind, and it would take time to clear that up before Dreams went back out into the black to face even more Entoma.