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The New World

Chapter 1: The new world.

"Set condition green! System charge is at 95%, all passengers stand by for transport. T-minus, 5 minutes!"

The operators went through the motions like they did with every transport, but they still behaved as if they were under a microscope. While they were not, they were certainly being watched. When it came to matters of interstellar transportation, the powers that be took no chances. Automated systems watched the operators, secondary operators watched the systems, and finally administration watched those operators as well.

It could be taxing on the nerves to be under so many thumbs all at once, but it was one of the reasons the job carried so high a pay grade. One of the many operators looked up a moment from his screens to see that all the people and cargo were in place on the gigantic transportation pad, and that not a thing was outside the safety ring. The gigantic machine really was a marvel of modern technology, its use and development spanning decades of hard labour and research.

When humanity first reached out with early rocketry to span its own Solar System, everyone involved soon realized that speed was a factor. Sure they could build comfortable warrens on the Moon, and pressure dome cities on Mars. The trouble was that it took weeks to get from one point to another, and even basic communication had time lags of over half an hour.

While stumbling through research on faster ships, scientists wound up coming up with a kind of hyperspace transport. At first, they mounted the huge machines on space ships, and launched them through the void to get from one point to another in a matter of seconds. But one bright young lad had a brilliant idea one day. Why not simply transport your payload from one planet to another, without using a ship? The process was theoretically the same, you would just have to make a large pad to be the focal point of the jump, rather than building it around the mass of a ship.

Early models took one person or cargo container at a time, and had a very limited range. As the years passed however, the design was improved upon again and again, leading up to the current model in use today. Now up to ten thousand people and all the cargo and supplies they would need to create a new colony could be sent all at once. More people or cargo could be sent if that's all that was going, such as the facilities dealing with routine travel between existing ports of trade.

The Moon and Mars had such large use gates, as did two recently set up in other solar systems. Today would be the first step towards setting up a third extra-solar colony. The initial colonists were carrying their own meagre possessions, plus an assortment of temporary shelters to be used until they could build proper residences on the other side. The planet selected for them was very near to being Earth class, needing only a few decades of Terraforming to make it fully habitable. Until then, they expected it to be a little too cold to live anywhere north of the equator.

"T-minus 1 minute, everyone remain stationary until you've cleared the gate! Happy trails!"

It was tradition for the operators to say goodbye to everyone, as most of them would never return. It would be years before they had even the smallest of gates built up on the other side, and longer still until regular passenger travel was established. For the vast majority of colonists, it was a one way trip. They were leaving to start fresh anyways, so most wouldn't want to come back even if they could.

The remaining seconds ticked away on the clock, and finally the great transportation engine kicked into high gear. Massive stores of energy flooded into the systems that made the machine function, and the pads contents vanished in a blinding flash of light. Within a second it was all over, there being nothing left on the pad at all. Even the air that was within the pocket went along for the ride, creating a brief wind inside the facility as the vacuum was filled.

"Transportation complete! Passengers are on their way. Estimated arrival, 30 seconds."

Distance was still a factor even with these extra-spacial jumps. Inside the system a jump was made almost instantly, but the farther you went out, the longer it took. For the passengers the jump was instant, but for everyone else time still ticked by second by second.

The operators were beginning to pat one another on the back for yet another job well done, when alarms began sounding. Red warning lights sounded off all across the board, and people rushed back to their stations to see what had gone wrong. A strong gravity field had been detected between the two transportation points, and it was throwing the theoretical "beam" of transport off its axis.

As they watched in horror, the computers calculated a different trajectory entirely, one that wound around the strong gravity field again and again, before vanishing entirely. One of the administration directors spoke through the intercom, demanding to know what just happened.

"Well spit it out lads, where the hell did our passengers just go?"

The lead Astrophysics tech looked up from his station, pushing up a pair of goggles containing small video screens within. He looked both vexed, and quite sad all at the same time.

"Sir, preliminary data suggests our hyperspace beam intersected the gravity well of a Black Hole, and was taken within. Previous data did not suggest a hyperspace beam could be deflected or absorbed by such a spacial event, but apparently we were wrong. Sir, they're gone."

Everyone present looked grave. It was the single most devastating accident in the history of hyperspace transports. Theory and practice would have to be re-written, and they would definitely have to look out for such problems in the future. The boss whom spoke up nodded his head slowly, removing his hat and holding it over his chest with grief.

"Very well. Make a note of it in the Log. Passengers lost, transport failed."

The flags outside the main transport hub of Earth hung at half mast that day, and stayed that way for weeks on end. Eventually the bugs from such problems were ironed out, and no more transports were ever recorded lost due to gravitational forces.

The passengers of that failed jump are recorded as lost in transport, and presumed dead. May they rest in peace.

---

A bright sphere of light exploded over a wide expanse of grassland, in the late evening light. Passengers and cargo hit the ground far harder than they were informed to expect, many of them falling flat on their faces and bruising themselves in the process. Cargo containers fell over and made all kinds of noise, sending up cries from nearby plots of forest as slumbering animals were scared half to death.

Everyone extracted themselves from the piles of people and equipment, groaning and looking over scraped elbows and bruised egos. The jump leaders quickly did a head count of their respective groups, and reported to the commander and chief. Out of 100 groups of 100, all were present and accounted for. No serious injuries to report, no obvious damage to transported facilities and equipment.

Their mission commander quickly gave out orders to set up shop for the evening, and continued on with his business at hand. He summoned a deputy to enter notes into their log, to be used later for official history and mission statistics. Home base liked to know how everyone sent out to the stars fared, after all.

"Commence recording. Transport successful, at estimated 21:30 hours local time, via Earth Standard. True local time to be determined after appropriate measurements are taken. Location not confirmed, as equipment and star-charts have yet to be unpacked. Will produce follow-up report ASAP."

That done, the commander and a few men went looking through the mess of shipping containers to find the star charts, and finish their log for the night. Then everyone could get into their temporary shelters, and get some much needed rest. Though with the excitement of the trip still fresh in their minds, it was doubtful many would sleep.

It took a few minutes of searching, but finally they dug out the charts and sensor pads. Those with the skills to do so began comparing where they were to where they were supposed to be, and right away noticed something was amiss.

One of the techs spoke up.

"Sir, this isn't our assigned destination. The stars are all wrong."

"Are you sure, son? Check again."

The tech shook his head, already rolling up the star chart.

"I already did check twice. We're definitely not in another solar system. Any first year scientist would know these stars. We're still on Earth!"

The tech pointed over the commanders shoulder. There, bright as day, was the friendly face of Luna, shining brightly as it rose over the low hillside and trees. The commander shook his head, figuring that explained the rough landing. The transport must have been aborted, and they landed in some unpopulated area, like a national park.

"Well, that does it I suppose. Break out the short-wave communication gear, and try to raise HQ. Tell them the transport was a failure, and to come pick us up."

It might be months or even years before they were rotated back into an active transport group again. They would need to go through quarantine all over again at the least, and that would take weeks. After all, they didn't want to infect their new home with any unwanted life.

The tech soon came back with a bemused look on his face.

"Sir, there's no reply from HQ. There's no reply period, not from the communication satellites, not from secondary base, or anything. Just dead air. We're on Earth, but everyone is gone. What the hell is going on?"

The commander took the little communications computer and tried himself, and did indeed get no reply on any frequency or band. There was nothing at all, not even background hum from nearby electrical sources. He was shocked to say the least, but there was nothing to be done about it for now. He gave additional orders to set up for the night, and told the other people present not to go shooting their mouths off. Let the people get some sleep, and they'd deal with this problem in the morning.

That done, everyone erected simple tents that would be re-used later in their more fixed temporary lodgings. By midnight everyone was laying down trying to sleep, or simply resting in their beds. It didn't take long for everyone present to be asleep, safe in their new home.

Chapter 2: We're not in Kansas anymore.

The next few days were hectic to say the least. The larger temporary structures were being erected, little more than Quonset huts with small rooms branching off from a central hallway. Each one held about 50 people, and contained sanitary and cooking facilities for each. In total they had brought along 200 of the things, and each one could be put together by a handful of people in a few days. They were really quite something in terms of cheap and efficient temporary lodgings, or even permanent structures if need be. Rooms were little more than fold-down bunk houses with small closets and a single window, but they served their purpose well.

After the first two days, the mission commander decided it was best to tell people of their situation. They were on Earth, but yet they were not. The colonists were instructed to treat this as a new world until they could figure out exactly what was going on here, because the sky certainly told them they were back home.

So they went about their business, setting up their huts, scouting the area for useful building materials, setting up the hydroponic farms, and other needed tasks. Their training and the simulations estimated that they would have a fully self-sufficient colony ready within 2 weeks, based on the terrain and temperatures they were expecting to find themselves in. Building on a grassland of the North American frontier proved to be considerably easier. As such all was built and ready to go within 11 days, and most of the colonists were simply taking a moment to relax and enjoy themselves. Light towers were erected, a perimeter fence had been built to keep out unwanted animals, and the recreation department was busy trying to get some fun and games going for all involved.

On day 12 of the mission, the town leaders held a general meeting, and outlined plans for both work and festivities. Everyone who came along on this little trip already had a specific job in mind, and only minor changes were needed to get everything running smoothly in their new location. There were mines to be dug, timber to be felled, fish to catch, animals to round up and husband. That taken care of, the new town had a party, and they named their outpost New Manchester. Their official designation was to be Outpost 13, but they felt this name was more appropriate. The fact that more than half of the colonists were from the old UK might have had something to do with it. The party lasted long into the night, as happy people went about their lives as if they never left Earth.

---

High above the valley floor of the newly created town, various large and strange creatures sat with paws crossed, tails wrapped around themselves. They had seen the curious people arrive in a flash of light, and had spent the last few days coming and going as well as watching. The creatures were large, looking like gigantic reptiles with long tails and large wings. Anyone with half a brain would recognize these creatures as Dragons of Earth legend. Apparently in this strange new world, they really existed.

A many-horned black dragon turned his head to a green companion, and gestured in the direction of the Town.

"Well, it seems that lot is here to stay. They've sure set up shop in a hurry. What do you think we should do about them?"

The green blinked down at the town for a moment, then cocked his head to the side while answering.

"Do? I don't really see as we need to DO anything. They're not on our property, and they're not hurting anyone. Hell, I don't think even anyone owns any land out here. I certainly don't, and I neither do you as far as I last checked."

The black grunted an affirmative, and settled down with his head laying on crossed paws.

"Well the others have surely made it back to Central by now, and are likely making their reports. How do you figure that lot got here anyways? They just went poof, and there they were. Couldn't have been Magic, must have been some fancy off-world technology. Heh, boy will they be surprised when they find out this planet is inhabited."

The green laughed, a deep rumbling noise that went on for a while even after he finished.

"Yeah, I bet this is going to be all kinds of fun. Remember the last group that landed here? They sure picked up and left again in a hurry. Must have not liked Dragons."

The two snickered for a while over the experience, exchanging tales of mirth and joy. Eventually they got bored of just watching from a distance, and decided to go have a look for themselves. Sure, they didn't have orders to go stick their snouts into these other creatures business... But technically they didn't have orders NOT to either. That was good enough for this particular pair, as they flew down the hillside and advanced on the town with speed.

A few colonists looked up as great shadows blocked out the light of the moon for a while, but didn't see anything much. Two great thumps on the ground got everyone's attention however, and all eyes turned when two large snouts with glowing eyes poked into the light of the towns standing lamps. The party froze, and somebody managed to turn the sound system off as everyone simply stared at the two gigantic Dragons looking down at them. In turn, the two drakes looked right back, before the green fellow cracked a toothy grin and said hello.

The booming greeting sent many the weaker minded sort running for their huts, while others simply fell down on their backsides in shock. The command crew managed to prevent themselves from showing too much outwards shock, and went into administrative mode. They had all of course been trained in first contact protocols, just in-case they were the lucky group that first found other sentient life out in the stars.

While they got their ducks in a row, the black raised one eye-ridge and looked this way and that at the assembled group of folks.

"What, are you little guys hard of hearing or something? We said HELLO. No need to be rude, sheesh."

Evidently the two Dragons were quite good at ignoring slights against their person, as by that time the vast majority of people had ran screaming for their huts, and had bolted the doors. The commander chose that time to clear his throat, and take one shaking step forwards.

"Uhh, ahem. Greetings, fellow sentient beings. We are interplanetary travellers from distant space, sent here to colonize a new world. Somehow we wound up back where we started however, but this obviously isn't our home planet. I see you two speak our tongue, how might that be?"

The green took over as Mr. First Contact, clearing his long throat and shaking his head-fins a few times for good measure.

"Well hey there. So you think you're from here? Obviously not, we've never seen your kind before. You must have a home planet that just looks a lot like this one. And we're not speaking your language, you're just hearing it like that. One part magic, one part technology. Don't ask me how it works, we have the little things implanted in us when we're very young. So you're colonists eh? Well, welcome to our planet. There's plenty of room to go around, so unless Central has some objection, I guess you're free to stay."

The commander took a moment to process this rather cordial if blunt welcome, and finally just smiled and extended his hand up to the great reptiles.

"Nice to meet you. The name's Stewart, I'm the mission commander for this little trip of ours."

The two drakes got the idea of what he wanted, and extended a single large paw each in return. Sure one of their finger-like digits was bigger than his arm, but it broke the ice. Freshly shaken, the two Drakes went on to make further introductions. The Green was named Bazz, and the Black had a name so long most people gave up on pronouncing it. He went by his nickname instead, namely Brok. Bazz and Brok were travelling merchants apparently, moonlighting as scouts for their "Central" service. Business was slow right now, so they were making some extra coin flying around looking at things.

"We're probably going to get one hell of a nice finders fee for locating you lot. Sure we'll have to split it up with the other three that flew home already, but there will be more than enough to go around. Speaking of which, you should probably expect official envoys from Central in a few days. Its about a weeks flight back home from here, and they left 8 days ago."

Stew thought it over, removing his uniform hat and rubbing at his eyes with fatigue. Just what had they been transported into here? This surely wasn't the mission they'd all signed up for. Still, they were stuck here for now, so they'd just have to make the best of it.

"Envoys eh? Well alright, I'll get everyone else used to the idea. We don't want them running off all the time they see one of you... Dragons is it?"

Both Bazz and Brok blinked, then smiled their toothy and somewhat disconcerting smiles.

"Oh, so you've heard of our kind? Yeah, we're Dragons alright! What are you folks called again?"

"Humans."

"Humans eh? Never heard of you. Weird, that you know of us like that. Where did you hear of us?"

The commander went into detail about how their kind appeared in their literature, fiction, myth, and everything in between, going back as far as history was recorded. They had no explanation for it, just that people figured Dragons existed, even if nobody had ever seen one before now.

"We can't explain it, we just knew about you as far back as our early texts go."

The two big drakes agreed it was quite strange, but decided to just leave it as a curiosity and go about their business. After all, it was getting late and both of them were quite sleepy. With a few more idle chatter out of the way, everyone decided to turn in for the night. The two Dragons took shelter a short distance away up against a wind-break of trees, vanishing from sight in the gloom. The commander and his staff shared a brief laugh over the turn of events, and shared relief that the giant creatures were friendly.

With some pre-planning of expected company out of the way, everyone decided the party really was over, and went to bed. There would be more meetings to be had in the morning, nerves to soothe, and warnings to be issued. After all, nobody wanted some random hot-shot to suddenly freak out and do anything hostile to the native rulers of this world... wherever it was they were!

The following days were going to be interesting, that much was certain.

Chapter 3: Company's Coming.

The following morning helped ease the minds of the colonists, as they could now clearly make out their guests. Gone were the frightful images of two toothy monsters peeking in out of the darkness. Instead, Bazz and Brok simply looked like relatively friendly creatures. Bazz had a head full of frills and fleshy looking spines, which flopped this way and that as he moved his head. He also sported a beard of sorts, also made out of the same fleshy material. He had a long line of little spines running down his spine, all the way to the tip of his tail. Crowning the end was a little spade, a lighter shade of green than the rest of his scales.

Brok on the other hand mostly just had the horns, the rest of his black scaled body devoid of any markings or patterns. His tail lacked a spade, but was thicker than that of his green companion. Both of them were pudgy around the middle, sporting fairly developed swells of guts that hung between their rear legs. Each was perhaps 25-30 feet tall at the shoulder, and around 80 feet long including their rather large tails. On both of them, the tails made up over half their body length. The pair also sported equal sized pairs of wings, and what looked like improvised clothing. Around the trunks of their necks and upper torsos, were large belts of a sort, making a rigging vest for each Dragon. They had large pouches mounted on them all, easily within reach of their dexterous front paws.

The colonists soon saw that they could either rear up on two legs for a short time and get at the pouches, or just lay down and take the weight off their front paws. They were a friendly bunch too, and only the most xenophobic and paranoid couldn't deal with them for extended durations. Fortunately thanks to the screening process all colonists went through, nobody with more than a passing upset or dislike for potential alien life was let onto a colony mission. After all, you wouldn't want some rabid moron trying to shoot anything that wasn't Human.

The two Dragon guests entertained those whom wished to listen with stories of their various exploits trying to sell swampland a few years back, plus other half-brained schemes such as trading around grasslands, trying to buy and sell ore from a mine, and even trading cattle. They weren't the most successful of business-dragons, but they at least managed to break even each time. They stood to make more money this season doing scouting work, so here they were! After all, a Dragon has to eat.

They explained that pretty much every other flavor of Dragon looked the same, and carried the same kind of proportions in terms of height and length. The ancient ones got larger of course, but that took centuries. The only real difference after scale colour were things like frills and horns, but even that varied with the individual dragon.

Over the next few days the towns two guests coached them on what to expect from the team Central would send out. It would be fairly informal, mainly just getting to know the colonists again, looking around, setting up land ownership rights and ironing out law, that kinda thing. Nothing really to worry about. They figured the best thing to do in such cases was to try and accept any colonists onto their world as a new nation, within their global society.

This suited the colonists fine, as the vast majority were starting to like these large scaly giants, and could see themselves getting used to having them around on a daily basis.

The envoys arrived within the week, flying in over the hills and landing with a few barked greetings on their way down. It was a small party, consisting of two golden dragons and a blue one, all of the same general construction of Bazz and Brok. They were brief in introducing themselves as official envoys from Central, and immediately went into business.

The Humans were officially welcomed to Terra, and invited to stay as long as they wished. Trade could be set up at any time once both parties got to know one another, and of course saw what everyone had that the others might want. Laws were simple and much like those on earth, mainly consisting of not doing anything that would land you in prison. Government was lax, there was no grand tax, just a cut off the top of major business deals and trade routes. All in all, things were simple, rules were lax, and people were generally left alone to enjoy their lives. Central just existed to deal with any major problems, and keep things running smoothly enough to keep everyone happy.

Business done, the 5 dragons once again switched over to chatting about every little thing, from where the Humans really came from, to what the weather was like today, or how they thought the Quonset huts were lovely. Stew explained that the structures were temporary, until they could erect proper buildings like what they lived in back on Earth, and the other colonies. At that, conversation fell to technical matters again.

The Dragons were interested in what materials would be needed, what kind of construction methods they'd use, where everything went, and so on. They made helpful suggestions, namely indicating that it would be a good idea to make larger spaces between buildings, and perhaps even have some that were big enough inside to hold Dragons too. After all, its mighty hard to interact with other people when you can't even take a walk through town.

This led to days of drafting, engineering research, and everything in between being bounced from one species to another. If nothing else, these Dragons were proving to be a helpful bunch. And to top it all off, nobody could sense a single drop of duplicity at work. They honestly just seemed eager to please, friendly, and willing to help out in any way they could. It was a fairly natural trait for the Dragons apparently, likely caused by their very long lifespans. They lived for hundreds if not thousands of years, so why not be jovial about it? They had all the time in the world at their claw-tips, so they might as well help one another.

As one final welcoming gift, the colonists were presented with a map of the world they found themselves on. It was quite large, being in Dragon scale, but still usable. It showed Earth plain as day, with all its details, minus the odd change here and there. One continent or another looked slightly off scale to what they remembered, and a few major lakes were different. Other than that, it was very clearly the same map they'd use back home.

The map was hung up in the city square, with two big dots on it. One showing the location of Central City on the west coast of what the Humans would call California, and the location of their new town. It was located smack dab in the middle of the Canadian prairies. They were curious to see no borders defining what they knew as countries back on their Earth, it was all just open ground. The Dragons explained that they had a unified planetary government, so they saw no need for breaking up the land on their maps. It was all one planet, so they left it like that.

As the evening wore on, the 5 dragons retired wherever they could find open ground around the town, and were soon snoring softly. The colonists followed their example, and eventually all was quiet once again. Life was definitely getting a lot more interesting for all involved. Both parties had interesting new creatures to enjoy, and they fully intended to do just that.

---

Life continued for all the residents present on this strange yet familiar world, and time continued to pass as it always did. Within months the colonists were breaking ground on a proper town, clearing grassland and levelling terrain for what would come after. The Dragons were helpful in getting local mines in operation, located just far enough away so as not to be an eyesore or a source of local pollution.

Fortunately due to their location in the world, they had an abundance of local Titanium and Iron ores close at hand, which could come in very handy with their construction methods. They carried with them plans to build smelters and refineries at the mines themselves, then transport finished ingots to the town proper for use. They also had plans for their buildings of choice, namely pre-fabricated high rises made almost entirely from Titanium. Certain alloys would be used to further strengthen the inner structure, but titanium sheets used as outside walls would make buildings that would stand practically forever.

Two large shipping containers were broken down slowly but surely, revealing large cargo vehicles within. Each one operated on the relatively new anti-gravity engine system, which left the trucks hovering a few feet off the ground at all times. The system was practically passive, so even with the trucks off they would still float there all by themselves. They were quite easy to drive, and had atop them large flat decks that could be converted into sealed containers with relative ease.

The trucks went to the mine site within a day or two of their being brought online, and were used on a daily basis to ferry people back and forth from the town. It took months of labour intensive building, but soon they had the mines online, and were producing ore. The mines were largely automatic, requiring only human operators to keep them running and issue orders to robotic systems. The smelters and forge kicked into high gear almost right away, filling the sky with a dull glow as their inner fires went to work breaking down the rocks into usable metals.

It took a few weeks to get everything running smoothly, but soon the trucks were delivering neatly stacked piles of Titanium and Steel ingots to the town. For now they simply stored them in warehouses, while they went to work building processing facilities. Great heaters and presses did their thing soon after, and the factory began to churn out everything you could ever want to build a high-rise with.

This went on for months, and the months stretched out into years. Trade was established with the distant city of Central, located on the other side of the Rocky Mountain range. The Dragons wanted some of the metals the Humans were producing, as they'd never found a good way to make use of things like Titanium. They were also interested in the food being grown in local hydroponics bays, as not all of it was fully native to the area.

In turn the Humans got gold coins for their troubles, the main source of currency in the Dragon empire. They could use these to purchase whatever they wanted from any business they found, be it trade goods, technology, labour, food, lodgings, you name it! They were informed one day during their early constructions that the Dragons of Central had been made fully aware of their existence, and had deemed their presence a likely source of more business. Apparently a few hotels were being retrofitted with human sized beds and the like, as well as adding human food to the menu. Similar things were happening in the distant city, as the Dragons got ready for what they hoped would be an influx of interesting tourists.

The two transport trucks really couldn't be spared for such long journeys, but fortunately they brought along a few passenger vehicles for good measure. They were little more than two hover-buses, but they did the trick. Once the important work had started, vacations were arranged for non-critical personnel. It was about a 2-3 day drive over the mountains, as there was no road to follow. The Dragons thought the idea of "roads" was quite novel, as they'd never had the need to build any. This of course made sense, as large creatures with wings hardly needed roadways. Their entire system of transportation was based on personal flight. This of course led them to be quite interested in all the novel concepts the Humans came up with, from bicycles to cargo blimps.

Everyone who returned from Vacation always had cheerful stories to tell, always mentioning the great sense of welcome they felt while in the company of all those Dragons. They were all a really friendly bunch, and all too happy to separate the travellers from their gold coins. There were after all many fun things to do and see in Central, so nobody really minded coming back broke.

During this period of construction, the science team that came along for the ride finally figured out just what the hell had happened to them all. Data from the trip had been recorded of course on one of their small computers, but the things were practically operating on one lung compared to the super computing systems located in their HQ back on earth. It took forever to process the data, then make any sense of it. But finally, they came up with an answer. One of the techs brought it to the commander shortly after they'd confirmed it.

The commander, or Mayor as he was now known, looked over the results with interest.

"So we were all sucked into a Black Hole? Why the hell aren't we dead? Not that I'm complaining mind you..."

The tech, a fellow by the name of Edward if the Mayor remembered correctly, shrugged and gave more details into his report.

"That's the funny thing about black holes sir. We're still not 100% sure just what the damned things do. Its long been theorized that mater falling into them is never fully destroyed, and that all sorts of things relating to time travel could happen. We obviously didn't get sent back in time, but we did land on a different earth. My theory is that due to our state of being as a hyperspace beam at the time, combined with the effects of the black hole, we were ripped out of our universe entirely, and wound up in this one. We ARE on Earth sir, just one existing in a different dimension. One where obviously these Dragon fellows evolved instead of humans as the dominant race."

Mayor Stew nodded his head with thought, knowing just enough about the higher sciences to know that this fell within the realm of possibility. It was one of the elements of String Theory, if memory served.

"So, that's that then. We're on Earth, or Terra as the Dragons call it. Makes sense, as most of us call it that too. And from what we've learned of their science and research into space exploration, even the solar system is the same here. I suppose even if we eventually built our return hyperspace portal, we'd never make it home."

Tech Edward shook his head, wiping at his brow somewhat as he let out a mild sigh.

"Nope. As far as I can tell, it was a freak accident that we landed here at all. We could have just as easily been destroyed, or shown up on Mars. Or maybe even in space itself, gasping in the void. We would have to start from scratch when it came to this kind of transport, finding first how to transport ourselves between dimensions. I doubt that will happen in our lifetimes, Sir. We're here to stay."

So that was that. Life went on however, and so did the colony. It was 2 years from their landing when the first permanent structure came online, and it was a thing of beauty. The tower stood all silvery grey in the morning light, the sun reflecting off its many windows. It was a cylindrical structure, built up around a central bank of elevators and emergency stairwells. Much of the technology within hadn't changed much since humans started making high rise buildings centuries before. Everything was just modern however, so it worked better.

The huge structure was 50 stories tall, reaching over 500ft into the air. Even the Dragons were impressed with the final result. Their population was much lower than the humans of earth on the whole, so they never really built that far up. Where a human story was 10ft however, one of theirs was at least 40. It gave them room to raise up their heads without bumping the ceiling, and move around with comfort. In turn, most of their buildings were rarely more than a few floors tall. They had trouble making structures that were open enough to be useful, but strong enough to support their weight. The Titanium traded to them was changing this however, as now they had a strong yet light enough metal to support even the great tonnage of a dragon.

Each floor of the human tower had room for 50 people within, in various styles of unit. There were single bedroom units, doubles, triples, and even 4 bedroom models for small families. Most couples didn't have much more than 2 children anyways, so it was rare that more space became needed. At 50 people per floor, and 50 floors per building, each grand tower held 2500 people. When they had landed, they had 10000 people, some of them young children of families. Since then more people had become married, entered into clan style groupings, or other complex arrangements. More children had been added to the collection, so they were up to 10,616 as of the last census.

A total of five towers were planned for now. They hoped to have them all up and running well before there were too many people to fit in them all. Folks were all to eager to get out of the temporary Quonset huts and into the towers, as they were considerably more comfortable. Plus with housing people into efficient towers right off the bat, they were saving on many problems down the road. Food was grown right there in the town, so little to no transport was needed to get it to hungry mouths. Nothing was farther than a short walk away, so private transit or mass transport wasn't required. Each tower had a system of gardens and open green spaces built around them, with a large squared of walkway making the final border. The other 4 towers were in various stages of construction, the work going as fast as materials could be transported to them.

The other 4 towers were built quite a deal faster than the last, as several Dragons had become interested in the work, and offered their services. Having somebody who could reach almost 60 feet into the air was very handy on a construction site. Titanium beams were fixed into place much faster with their help, and with more accuracy than even their cranes could accomplish.

In the 3rd year of New Manchester, the Dragons came over the mountains with a surprise for their human friends. They had studied all manner of old earth history, and had built a new form of transport (for them anyways) that worked well with their established method of getting around. It was spotted coming out of the west at a good clip, stopping work as people paused to look and laugh, pointing and enjoying the sight of the massive craft. It was an airship of sorts, a gigantic balloon held in place by titanium strips, all anchored down to a huge open topped cargo platform. It was wedge shaped at the front, and had little wings to the sides to help keep it stable in the air.

At the rear were two large jet turbines, combined with four smaller jets strapped along the balloon rigging. It seemed to be making fairly good speed as well, and by the looks of it was big enough to hold even a good number of Dragons. The big scaly critters were all to happy to show off their new toy as they landed it gently just outside the human town. The vehicle was most certainly gigantic, the working platform alone over a hundred feet wide, and 400 feet long. The blimp above was larger still, three times as long as the platform it carried, and more than twice as wide. It was filled with Helium of course, and with the aid of some human-style anti-gravity plating on the bottom of the platform, served to make a very agile and useful flying machine.

It didn't go as fast as an old style aeroplane, nor anywhere as fast as their air-to-space transport ships back on Earth, but it was definitely the fastest thing on this planet right now. The transport vehicles the humans brought along had a maximum speed of 100 kilometres per hour, and the dragons flew at about 25. Their huge airship however could reach speeds of about 250 km/h. It was a big improvement to say the least, as a trip from their town to Central would be cut down from days to 8 hours. It would most certainly do, for now.

Bazz and Brok were amongst the dragons riding their new airship, which they had named "The Enterprise" after reading far too much human science fiction. Many the human present had a chuckle at the name, but let it ride. After all, they had been naming things "Enterprise" as far back as anyone could remember. The two travelling merchants informed the town that they were part owners of the airship, and would be setting up transportation services between here and Central. For a fee, of course. It was run like one part cruise ship, one part public bus. One gold coin would get you a trip to central, and back again. A bargain! You'd also get a meal on the trip as well, namely consisting of whatever was being cooked.

They wanted to hire a few of the colonists as well to be staff on the transport, both to work in the galley and to attend to human passengers. Who better than a human to assist other humans? The Dragons were all to willing to help out in that respect, but their large paws had trouble doing small tasks like put together a cheeseburger. At least not one that was in a human scale. They were all too happy to make such things at Dragon size! The expanded waistlines of their two dragon friends were clear evidence of that.

In total, the airship could carry several hundred humans and a few dozen dragons back and forth wherever they needed to go. 10 colonists who would otherwise just be tending warehouses or sweeping floors signed on to work with the airship crew, all that was needed for now. Their payment was food and lodging in Central should they desire it, plus a rather nice stack of coins at the end of each week. The colony was sad to see them go, but not overly surprised. After all, they had settled an inhabited planet, so cross-species interaction was to be expected on this level.

It continued for a while, and by the time the 2nd tower was up and running, over a hundred people had moved across the mountains to live with friends and family, plus the Dragons. Their cultures were getting along just fine, and almost every human had gotten completely used to having the gigantic flying lizards around all the time. The Dragons were quite happy to have the humans around too, as it was leading to new ideas, new technology, new food, new entertainment, and new interactions. It was working out well for everyone!

Chapter 4: A fistful of Bubbles.

Former colony tech Edward was spending some quality time in his quarters, located in one of the still used Quonset huts located outside the tower complexes. Over the years as people moved out, walls and spacers had been removed providing the remaining inhabitants more room to themselves. His private apartment took up a full quarter of the semi-cylindrical hut, affording him windows on two sides, plus several skylights above.

It also gave him more room to work on this and that, engaging in hobbies both practical and more nutty in nature. At heart he was a scientist and a chemist, and after a few years of colony related duty he'd finally been let go to do his own thing. Lately he'd been working on recreating various substances he had helped develop back on Earth, before signing on with the colony. He was a young kid then, fresh out of university and working his way up in the science world. Now he was 30, and building a better cleaner.

He had always enjoyed keeping himself and his living quarters clean, and had assisted on many projects creating new solvents, paints, soaps, and other such hygiene products. His two favourite projects by far had been making a self-foaming bath soap, and a similar liquid for use in bubble-blowers for children. Even after centuries of bubbly fun, people on the whole still never got tired of a simple floating soapy sphere.

At present, he was giving his re-created bubble-bath solution a test drive, namely by relaxing in a large metal tub he'd scavenged from the old public bath house. A generous amount of the liquid soap had been poured into the warm water, and the stuff had frothed itself up into a thick lather. To top it all off, the reaction was randomly spitting out several small to moderate sized soap bubbles, which floated around the washroom randomly.

He so enjoyed relaxing in a tub full of suds, something he'd only recently been able to do again. Years of stand up showers or public swimming had gotten boring, and he longed to simply lay back and float with a thick lather. As he relaxed there bathing also in the sunny glow from his overhead skylight, he both saw and felt a shadow pass overhead. Everyone was used to that by now, as anything from an Airship to a Dragon might be flying over their town, casting a shadow as they go.

This shadow didn't move however, and the chemist opened his eyes. There staring back at him was a familiar face, namely Bazz the Green they'd all met so many years ago. The large Dragon flicked the skylight open and stuck the tip of his snout in, taking a deep sniff of the soapy smells coming out of the bath.

"Well hey there Ed, whatcha got there? Looks like you're swimming in white paste. Sure smells nice though."

Any shock from the encounter was lost somewhere in the back of his mind, as he was quite used to the big pudgy green fellow poking his head in from above. While his skylight wasn't big enough to let the dragons whole head inside, it was definitely big enough to say hello through. Plus the Dragons had a different opinion on things like privacy, so they tended to poke their noses into just about anything. Nobody really minded however, they'd gotten used to it all over the years.

Ed playfully splashed a hand full of thick suds up at his green friend, the mass plopping on the tip of the Dragons big snout with moist dripping results. Bazz extracted his head with a snort, crossing his eyes to look at the faintly bubbling splatter of soap suds, smiling with oh so many teeth showing.

"Now you've really caught my interest. Just what is this stuff? I've not seen anything like it before. It seems to be reacting with itself on my snout here."

He flicked up a claw and wiped it off, sending it splattering over the side of the Quonset hut. Ed laughed, and told the big dragon to wait a moment, as he got himself out of the bath. Moments later he emerged clean a dry, still smelling strongly of the bubbly brew. Strongly to the Dragon, at least. The former tech went into detail about what the stuff was, how it cleaned people off, and how it was fun to play around with or relax in. Bazz agreed that it looked amusing, and wanted to give it a try for himself. Unfortunately there was no way at all for the big fellow to fit in the bathtub, so that was out for now. Ed had an idea however.

"Hmm, you want to give it a try eh? I'm surprised you lot never made your own "soap" over the years. We've had it for untold centuries. But I guess those scales of yours don't need much work to keep clean. Give me some time to work on the problem, and I'll see if I can let you have some bubbly fun of your own, OK Bazz?"

"Sure thing Ed. And yeah, I've never even heard of this Soap stuff before now. Must have never caught many of you cleaning yourselves before. I know you like your privacy when you're naked. Though I don't know why, we're naked all the time."

The two spent some time simply chatting to one another, talking about various differences in culture, exchanging ideas, and finally ending with Ed being invited to come visit Bazz's place yet again in Central. He'd been there many times over the years, and each time proved to be amusing.

Eventually Bazz flew off for lunch, leaving Ed to ponder just how he was going to turn this new idea to his advantage. Like everyone else present, he rather enjoyed making a few extra coins. Weekends in Central were the stuff of legends, especially if you had some extra gold to throw around. That day he hired the services of a work crew to dig him a large squared off pit, to which he told them was going to contain a swimming pool.

When it was all done, the trench was 50 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 20 feet deep. Just large enough he hoped, to contain one adult dragon. They would have to lay down to get fully within, and coil up their tail to boot, but they were quite talented at doing so. Over the next few days, he had the open pit lined with concrete, and tiled along the edges to make a smooth surface to lean up against. For his own use, he installed a single ladder in one corner so he could get in and out of the large pit without difficulty.

The rest he was able to handle himself, dishing out what extra gold he had on hand to purchase water heaters, power supplies, pumps, and a larger access to the civic water supply. A week later, his little project was finished. Namely, the worlds first Dragon-Wash station. He had the area fenced off just to mark his ownership of the land, and hung up a sign saying he was open for business. Bazz of course was his first customer, and gladly forked over one gold coin to have himself a bath. The giant tub was already full of warm water and Ed added a good litre of his bubble fluid to make it froth up for his friend.

The result was several feet of thick soapy suds, bubbling like crazy from random points, sending soapy suds as large as a foot in diameter drifting this way and that in the wind. Bazz climbed into the mass of water and soap froth with a happy sounding rumble, laying down within and resting his head on the tiled outer rim. He coiled his tail into the water along his legs, and smiled with bliss as his body completely vanished beneath the bubbly blanket. There were large brushes and whatnot at hand if he wished to give his scales a scrub, but for how he was content to relax and feel the suds work their way over his back and neck, bubbling and filling their air with its wonderful scent.

"Ooo... This is indeed rather enjoyable. I can feel it tingling all over my scales, and it smells so wonderful. I can see why you enjoy this so much."

He spent a full hour in the bath, randomly talking to Ed between just randomly rumbling with bliss, swishing his tail-tip this way and that. He rather enjoyed the big bubbles being blown out of the mass as well, snorting at the odd one after rolling onto his back, going belly up in the water. When he was done and the tub was drained, a big moving fixture of pipes wheeled their way over the tub and dragon within, and sprayed him down with clean water. The suds were rinsed away, and Bazz was left standing there cleaner than he'd ever been in his life. His scales looked a lot brighter too, shining in the light and making his colour far more pronounced.

He drip-dried quickly, his watertight scales doing their work rather well. He thanked his friend via pressing his snout up against Ed's chest, purring like a truck engine and receiving a hug in return.

"That was definitely pleasurable. I'll have to recommend it to friends back in Central. I'd suggest expanding your operation if you could, as one tub is hardly enough for millions of potential customers. Hmm, I'm always looking to get into more markets. How about we become partners? Brok pretty much runs the airships these days anyways, so I can focus more on this. I assure you you'll make more gold than you know what to do with!"

Ed was just happy to share his bubble-solution with those that would enjoy it, and agreed to go into business with his dragon friend. Sure enough, for the next few days he always had one Dragon or another wanting to use the bath, some just for fun, some as a quick way to clean off after helping out at the mines, or building the fourth residential tower.

Ed spent most of his time setting up a miniature chemical factory to mass produce his bubble soap, so he had enough to sate the needs of so many happy customers. Many the human resident caught wind of what was going on as well, and bought smaller jugs of the stuff to use in their own private baths. Bazz meanwhile had a second tub built next to the first, then a third, and within a few weeks had 10 of the things all lined up in neat rows. Dragons liked company, and definitely didn't mind bathing with others around. The fences were dropped, and instead a large concrete pad was built all around the site. After a month it was common to have a few dozen Dragons laying around in or out of the tubs, waiting their turn or playing with the bubbles blowing around while friends had a bath. One gold coin still got you a bath, and they decided to set a time limit of 2 hours max per user. That seemed fair to all involved, and most were quite happy to languish in the suds for their full time limit.

Other entertainments were erected around the Dragon-Wash site, such as a large Tri-V screen which projected 3d images for all to watch while they bathed. The humans had a wealth of old movies and television shows to broadcast, so the Dragons were entertained. A few food stalls set up in the site as well, staffed by Human and Dragon alike, both parties eager to make a few extra coins in their day.

Ed came up with another idea, and presented his newest pet project to Bazz one day. It was a scaled up version of a very old Earth child toy, namely a jug of watered down bubble fluid and a wand with which to blow bubbles. He had the wands made out of metal instead of plastic, so they would hold up better in the grip of a Dragons forepaw.

Within minutes there were bubbles floating around all over the place, some several feet in diameter. Bazz was thrilled with the new toy, and delighted in just laying around blowing bubbles and playing with them for hours on end. Ed took this as a success, and put his toy on the market. It didn't take long for the simple toy to catch on, and soon it was all too common to have hundreds of huge soapy bubbles drifting through the air, passing between the towers and popping on the trees in the distance. It caught on big in Central too, and both Ed and Bazz had trouble keeping up with demand. They were forced to hire several other people to make the things, and ship them out almost as fast as the big bottles could be filled and sealed.

10 bottles and a wand sold for 1 gold, and tended to last for a while as long as the user wasn't overly fixated on his bubbly fun. Some of the more obsessive lot had taken to swishing their bathwater around in their muzzles, so they could blow their own bubbles for the fun of it. The soap didn't seem to affect their digestive systems at all, so nobody told them to stop. It was common practice to have little games around the baths, namely seeing who could blow the biggest bubble, or who could make theirs float the farthest before bursting. Good fun was had by all.

By the time the fourth tower was completely finished, it was nearing the 7th year of their settlement on this alternate Earth. The 5th tower went online during a ceremony marking their official seventh year anniversary, and many the party kicked off afterwards. The Dragons of course helped by making literal clouds of bubbles float every which way. People could only laugh when a bubble larger they they were drifted by, or bounced off the back of their heads.

Ed and Bazz both were turning a tidy profit on a regular basis now, the operations basically running themselves with a minimum of supervision, or outside assistance. They turned their attention to a new idea they'd both had, to expand their business further. The Dragon-Wash in New Manchester had been expanded over the past year to 30 full tubs, but even that wasn't enough. Dragons were making the airship trip from Central just to have a bath, so they figured a local source would better suit their needs.

30 tubs was more than enough for the dragon population of the human town, as only a hundred or so had decided to settle down in the area. Central however had 25,000 dragons living in it, covering an area about the size of San Francisco. Ed moved in with Bazz for the time being while they did their thing in Central, the dragon having long since built human sized guest quarters in a loft above the main living space of his warehouse-like house.

They selected an unused plot of land around one of the many Central districts, basically a big open field full of rocks and scrub. They had quite a surplus of gold by now, so it wasn't hard to hire some Dragon labour to help clear the place out, and get it ready for digging. They had a lot of work to do, so they got to it with zeal.

---

For weeks they worked on their latest project, Bazz supervising work crews on site to dig a gigantic pit, while Ed lead a team of both humans and dragons to rig up thousands of feet of piping, boilers, and other assorted machinery. At the main site, a trench much like their usual Dragon-Wash pits was dug into the earth, but on a vastly larger scale. After weeks of Dragon powered digging, they wound up with a giant rectangle cut into the soft coastal dirt.

Several feet of reinforced concrete was poured into the huge pit, making a secure floor that would carry the weight of a small lake, and all the dragons within. More tiling was built around the entire perimeter, plus concrete slabs and metal piping sticking up into the air here and there. The result was the biggest pool anyone had ever seen, measuring a thousand feet in length, 500 feet wide, and 20 feet deep. You could build 4-5 standard football fields inside its borders!

Lining the bottom and sides of the great stone void were countless rounded nozzles, all connected to a maze of water pipes running under the stone. It all ran to a warehouse like structure built off to one side, containing many boilers to heat enough water to fill such a huge pool. Soap tanks were added as well, rigged into the water flow to dispense just enough to keep up generous foamy layer. The free standing pipes were soon finished into large open-air showers, so dragons could rinse off the soapy foam when they wished to leave the giant bath-tub.

It took most of a day to fill the huge tub, and it was mid-evening after 3 months of work when they finally opened for business. Unlike the personal tubs back in the outskirts of New Manchester, this mammoth tub could hold 400 dragons at once. Plus they could come and go as they pleased, provided they paid to get in of course. Little booths sat around the perimeter of the huge concrete slab bordering their improved Dragon-Wash complex, happily taking 2 gold coins per dragon to get in. Many visitors from Central had enjoyed a soapy bath over in the human town, so they gladly forked over the extra coin to enjoy the company of so many other bathing dragons.

Within a few days it was quite common for there to be several hundred dragons in the tub all at once, floating around, swimming, playing games, blowing bubbles, splashing, or cleaning themselves with large stiff brushes. Most stayed for an hour or two, showered up, and went off to do whatever else it was they did in a day. Some even came back later to hop in the tub yet again. It was safe to say that Ed had gotten the Dragons hooked on yet another vice, if the continued sales of his washing and bubble-blowing soap was to be any indication.

It only took a month for the two partners to turn a profit on their new mass washing station, and they celebrated by going to a combined human/dragon dining establishment in the higher-glass section of Central. Bazz enjoyed a dragon sized cheeseburger, while Ed chowed down on a smaller portion of a popular dragon dish. Said dish consisted mainly of various kinds of meat and fish all fried up with onions and other strong flavoured veggies. It was basically a stir-fry, with slightly different flavors. Many drinks were enjoyed by both that evening, and they eventually retired to their living quarters with a happy buzz.

After making sure the business was pretty much running itself, Ed went back to New Manchester for a while, to check up on the first Dragon Wash. The trip on the airship was pleasant as always, and he spent most of the time sitting up on deck with a few travelling Dragons, chatting about this and that. One of them even had a big bubble-jug and was happily letting the speed of the airship do the bubble blowing for him. As a result, there was a trail of large wobbling soap spheres following them the whole trip.

It made for quite the entertaining display.

Once they landed in town, Ed was pleased to see that pretty much everyone had moved into the 5 master towers, and life was going grand for all. The parks were in bloom, people of both races were playing in the open fields, and work continued in the mines as usual. Most of the Quonset huts had been torn down and used for scrap metal. All that remained was his hut, now empty of all but his quarters, and a few others belonging to people whom had also gone on extended trips to Central. He was welcomed back to town warmly by those he knew, and went to his business site to see how the place was doing. Almost all the tubs were occupied, and many the dragon waved and said hello as he approached.

They all assured him that the place was still a hit, and he tarried only to make sure there was enough soap being made to go around. As the sun went down, he settled into his bunk inside the Quonset, and looked out his skylight at the evening stars. He really did love it here on this Terra, and also enjoyed the company of all his friends. He'd made so many since he arrived here, most of them in the dragon category. Perhaps he'd wind up being one of the many people who moved out of town entirely, and went to live full time in Central. There was just something about having the happy energetic giant reptiles around that made life even better. It was a positive influence.

He went to bed content, but not really sure weather he felt at home or not. Something seemed to be missing. A big green something that liked to play with bubbles and snored in his sleep. Bazz meanwhile was experiencing similar thoughts, wondering when Ed would be back, or if he should move out to the human town to be closer to his friend. He had responsibilities in Central though, which prevented him from doing so. After all, he still had his paws in the airship business with Brok, and had to contribute there as well as the Dragon Wash business. He too went to bed wondering just what was missing at home, content but subconsciously aware that his little pink-skinned pal was absent.

A day or so later Ed had made up his mind, and closed his affairs around town. The former administration team would be sad to see him go, but he really wasn't needed. Besides, it was a short trip to visit anyone there who never made it to Central. He spent the morning turning over general control of the first Dragon-Wash station to local employees, and made arrangements for his cut of the profits to be sent via courier to Central every month.

That done, he boarded the afternoon flight out of town, and by evening was landing in Central. As he got off the airship, he found Bazz there waiting to get on. The two greeted one another warmly, with many the nuzzling and nose-rubs exchanged.

"Bazz! Fancy seeing you here, I was just on my way to your place."

"Heh, I was just coming to see you. I'd gotten used to having you around after all, and I was growing bored."

Ed chuckled, and patted his large friend on the flank. Together they travelled back home, the trip made faster by Bazz picking up Ed in one large forepaw, and flying them there. Once landed, Ed mentioned his intention to stay in Central from now on. Bazz was overjoyed of course, and invited the fellow to move in with him. It was agreed upon, and the two happily went inside their house for the night. Bazz had big plans for his small friend, though he kept them to himself for the time being.

The next day Brok came to the Dragon Wash station, having yet to give it a try. He was greeted by the business duo eagerly, being an old friend and a welcome site. They let him go in for free, and were soon chuckling on the sidelines as the big black brute slid into the warm water and suds. He was clearly enjoying himself from moment one, if all the rumbling and purring were to be any indication. He lowered himself fully into the morass of white fluffy suds, wrapping his tail about his person as he went.

"Oh boy, you sure were right about this. Its so warm and tingly. I should have accepted your offer to give this a try months ago..."

Bazz and Ed both simply sat together on the pool edge, enjoying the company of their friend, and sharing his enjoyment of the bubbly bath. What happened next would be talked about for quite a while to be sure, dragons being the chatty sort that they are. Brok stretched and sat down on his rear-end in the tub, keeping his forepaws deployed to keep his neck and upper torso partially out of the soapy waves. A brief look of shock crossed his scaly features, then a look of pleasure slowly crept over his muzzle, followed by his tongue lulling out to one side.

"Rurrrrr...."

Was all that escaped his snout. Ed and Bazz both were going to ask what was going on, but they soon saw for themselves. As they watched, Brok's already ample underbelly began to swell, filling up like a balloon from some unknown source. It only took a minute or so for their black scaled buddy to blimp out so large that he was practically sitting completely upright, forepaws hugging against a giant swollen blimp of his gut. His tail was rubbing at it eagerly as well, as he continued to bloat and swell. Ed figured he must have sat down on a water jet, and he was being blown up like a big soapy water-balloon!

Once the big fellows belly got bigger than he was, he tipped forwards into the soapy water and came off the water nozzle with a cork-like sound. He was panting rapidly and clearly aroused as can be, if looking under his tail was any indication. Ed hadn't seen much of this particular bit of dragon anatomy in his time here, but there it was, clear as day. Brok was so aroused that his wang looked like it was about to explode, and with a few quivering sloshing movements upon his own bloat, it did just that. He went off like a cannon, making quite a mess of his own ballooned belly, and the water immediately around himself as well.

Some dragons got out of the water and showered off, not wanting to get all filthy with another dragons ejaculate. Others still kept their distance, while the more amused came closer and poked at the bloated dragons gut, wobbling it around and making the swollen fellows arousal even worse. Ed put his palm over his face briefly, chuckling somewhat. Bazz meanwhile was on his back laughing loudly, tail swishing this way and that.

They had to boot everyone out of the water, cleaning up the mess Brok had made while also letting the bloated mass of dragon deflate himself. It took some hours to sanitize that corner of the pool, but Brok helped so it was all good. He seemed to be trying to hide a little purple blush around his muzzle features, giggling to himself and swishing his tail around, still clearly aroused with the situation. Bazz poked him with the tip of his tail spade, chuckling at his friends bliss.

"So, did you enjoy your bath?"

"I'll say! Does that kinda thing happen often? Boy, I'd not had a good release like that in months. To think none of us ever thought up that kinda fun before... I had no idea a fellow could be blown up like that, oh boy..."

He broke off in a fit of rumbling with drool running out the corner of his maw, eyes rolled up in the back of his head as he went over the experience again in his mind. Bazz and Ed looked at once another, then slow toothy grins broke over both. Perhaps they'd found yet another source of income. Brok went off for the night walking a little funny, still engorged down south and clearly enjoying himself.

It was a week or so later that another site was opened next to the main Dragon Wash facility, built within a big warehouse. It could only hold a dozen dragons or so at a time, but it had a more selective purpose. A sign outside the more secluded facility proclaimed the place to be the "Dragon Fill" station. Inside the place was divided into several walled off rooms of dragon proportions, each unit containing the equipment the place was now becoming infamous for. Each user was provided with a large hose to be inserted in the rump, and was blown up with their filling of choice until they touched all four walls. Various tests were taken to find an optimum size for all Dragons, and they settled on about 150ft in diameter. Any more and they started to get uncomfortably tight. Bazz and Brok both most certainly enjoyed these testing sessions.

Users could be pumped up with air, water of various temperatures, or soapy water from the pool complex. The latter seemed to have an amusing side effect, namely giving the user bubbly belches and other gassy emissions for several days after a filling. Not as many Dragons were interested in this little kink as they were in just enjoying the big bath, but those that attended more than paid for the place to be open.

Ed confessed that he rather liked the looks of what went on inside those private filling chambers, but was of course unable to partake. Bazz filed this little tidbit of information away for later use. The familiar Green and Black dragon duo both were regular users of the filling stations, happily being bloated up to such gargantuan proportions, the pleasure of expanding alone enough to send them into fits of orgasm. Fortunately more overhead showers and liberal allowances of bubble-soap helped even the most potent dragon clean up after his or herself when they were done, emerging smelling both of rut and bubble-bath.

Bazz took Ed downtown one day to see a few dragon scientists, and speak about various subjects. This wasn't a big surprise, as many the Dragon of science had wanted to speak to humans about their various achievements in technology. The dragons had attempted a space program once almost a century back, but they quickly realized that they lacked the materials required to make a ship large and strong enough to carry a dragon into orbit, let alone anywhere else. They knew even with the humans coaching them on building something like the hyperspace gates, it would be decades more before they themselves actually understood such advanced technology, yet alone how to properly implement it.

For now, it made more sense to try their paws at rocketry again. Several human scientists held lectures at the great Central university, standing on a podium in-front of hundreds of Dragons, telling them all bout fusion engines, titanium alloys to make light yet strong ships, and other old tricks they used to use when flying around their immediate space sector.

The dragons Ed went to see were more interested in biology however, namely human biology. They wanted a chance to see what made them tick, look them over more closely, and take detailed images. Cutting Ed to bits was of course out of the question, so they satisfied themselves with full body scans and countless pictures. They had begun to see that their physiology was remarkably similar, what with relatively exact organ layouts, number of each organ, placement, function, names, etc. Their brains worked the same, their hearts and kidneys worked the same, lungs processed the same gasses, digestive tract did the same thing. On a dragon, it just happened over a larger area, and on a different scale.

They were mainly curious, because they had some experimental protocols they wanted to test on willing subjects. Evidently they started research on species re-assignment the first time they had been visited by extraterrestrial life, some centuries past. In total, they had received two visits from beyond the stars, and both had left not long after meeting the Dragons.

So with a combination of intense genetic modifications, and a little arcane magic, they had deduced a method to alter another being into a Dragon, and back again if they so chose. The base idea was some wild scheme to try and turn the first somewhat hostile race of aliens into Dragons, so perhaps they'd calm down and see that they had nothing to fear. Their attempted proposal of this idea started a shooting war.

The second guests didn't even give them enough time to say hello, before they turned around and ran for deep space. Now the humans were here, and most of them seemed to rather like Dragons. Many like Ed, liked them perhaps more than the average. And with the similar body makeups, they figured it wouldn't take their bio-tech department much work to do something wacky like turn Ed into a Dragon.

Ed was shocked to say the least, as he was sure such a thing just wasn't possible. But he remembered his frequent longing to join in the fun of his scaly friends, even if it was just flying around under his own wing power. Or splashing around in the big bubble-pool. Or perhaps having a go at the filling station...

As his mind drifted over to more perverted possibilities, Bazz nudged him with his snout, and gave his most friendly of smiles.

"Go on, we both know just how much you've been wanting this over the years. Only now, its not just a day-dream. We can make your fantasy real, all you have to do is go with the nice Doctor here."

Ed figured he really didn't have nothing to lose, as he'd let himself be all but fully assimilated into this alien culture he'd found himself trapped in. Only now it was if he'd finally come home to something greater than he'd ever thought possible. He grasped the offered paw of the Doctor, and let himself be led away into a back room. If nothing else he thought, he'd be helping these wonderful creatures see if their experiment would work.

---

Days later Bazz was summoned to the science and medical offices yet again, to come and claim his friend. He hoped all went well, and was really not sure what to expect. After all, this was their first attempt at changing one species into another, so they really had no idea how it would all go. A strange Dragon was laying down on a giant sleeping pad surrounded by medical personnel, the large fellow being poked and prodded, measured and examined by tender claws.

He was a golden brown from tip to tail, with the hint of a lighter tan underbelly mostly hidden by the cloth on the pad. He had much the same arrangement of fins, and frills that Bazz did, complete with a wide spade on the tip of his ample tail. The only main difference other than colour was a pair of whisker-like growths poking out of the side of the Dragons snout, and four horns sticking out of the top of his head.

One large golden eyelid slowly opened at the sound of the other Dragon approaching, and a bright blue eye focused on the Green's arrival. A weak yet toothy smile passed over the face of the slumbering dragons face, before the eye shut again and he commenced snoring loudly. The surrounding scientists smiled to themselves, patting one another here and there and putting away their instruments. They turned and saw Bazz waiting their patiently, sitting down on his rear flanks like a good Dragon.

His doctor friend came up and sat down before him, smiling merrily with all fangs showing.

"The procedure was a complete success. Nothing too drastic happened that we couldn't deal with, and your friend was spared most of the discomfort. It was likely quite painful during periods that he was awake, but we kept him asleep as much as we could to spare him the pain. He's merely resting now, his body very weak from the change. He should be ready to leave under his own power after a few days. We're just going to need to teach him how to move all his extra limbs."

Bazz nodded, and smiled over at his sleeping friend. He was quite glad to have been able to arrange this grand change, as no doubt it would really make Ed happier in his life. If nothing else, he could enjoy many more years of life than he'd get as a human. Those poor fellows had the unfortunate habit of dieing after a century or so. Dragons meanwhile just went on for thousands of years, if not longer. Some of the ancients were so old, that nobody really knew just how long they'd lived.

Some days later Bazz heard a scratching thump at his front door, and a golden snout poked its way inside. He was about to ask whom this stranger was, when he remembered the new face of Ed and smiled.

"Ed! You're back! Welcome home buddy, I see they got you in good shape."

Ed nodded his large horned head, his movements somewhat clumsy as he was still getting used to this new limb arrangement. He had yet to learn to fly, so he simply walked home. His tail twitched and wobbled around all on its own, as his body learned to balance itself all over again. He looked tired from the long walk, and was pleased to find that his old human sized loft had been replaced with a new sleeping pad on the floor, and other such dragon-sized items.

"Mmm, its good to be home. I'm glad you talked me into this, everything feels so much more interesting now. I can hear better, I can see better than I ever have, smells are nicer, everything is just so great."

The two spent some time simply laying side by side in a sunbeam, chatting about this and that, while Ed rested. That evening they made a trip out to the Dragon Wash, and Ed enjoyed his first full-size soak with all the other critters. They all greeted him as a new friendly face, not knowing just what had happened to the co-owner of this successful business. Bazz and Ed kept it quiet for now, at the request of the scientists who had developed the process. After all, they meant to make some money off of it.

While Bazz was soaking in the tub and playing around with Brok, Ed snuck off around the other side of the facility, and went into the Dragon Fill station. It was with great glee that he hooked himself up to the hose, and began swelling up like a blimp full of bath-water. Already belching large soapy suds, he steadily rose up off all four paws on his growing bloat, member turgid and pressing hard into his inflating underbelly.

Before he even reached the four borders of the private unit, he'd gone off like a cannon several times, and found himself laying there atop his own bloated mass, panting and bubbling in a state of bliss. He stayed that way for at least an hour, before the large roll-away door slid up and revealed the smirking faces of Bazz and Brok.

"So, enjoy your first time buddy?"

Ed sighed blissfully, bubbles spraying out of his mouth and nostrils, while his tail swished around. He hugged at his bloat with all four paws, firing off yet another load out behind himself, much to the amusement of his two scaly pals.

"Guys, I think I'm going to like it here."

Afterword:

Terra is a wonderful place to live. Two dominant species share the planet and its resources in perfect harmony, without any discontent or problems to write home about. The main human settlement of New Manchester contains over a hundred thousand people and Dragons, living in great cylindrical towers or lower-rising half domes that the Dragons called home. Its industry fuelled a thriving economy and provided raw materials for a booming space-race operating out of both Central, and a few other Dragon cities the world over. A space station had long since been established, and the Dragons had even built themselves a home on the moon, and Mars. With populations of both races still growing, it was only a matter of time before they'd actually need the off-world space.

Ed, Bazz, and Brok all shared a large dragon-scale house of human design on the outskirts of Central, complete with their own private bath house and filling station, which saw lots of use. Over the past century, all three of them had taken a mate once or twice, which usually lasted for a few years. In the end they wound up living together in the most recent of years, and had built up this new place to share the company of one another.

They had thought about getting involved in the great outward expansion to the stars, but Ed realized that everything he wanted was right here. Bazz and Brok didn't really care where they lived, so long as they had their friends along for the ride.

So the three still live on, making a great income indulging the kinks of a fair junk of the Dragon and Human population. Species re-assignment became the latest thing a few decades after Ed made the change, and now it was fairly regular for the two races to switch themselves up every now and again, and either stay that way or go back after a while. Ed never wanted to be a human again, and that suited his two companions just fine.

Welcome to Terra, come visit us sometime!