Arick and his sister Coelestaad were born minutes apart - he was first, but never made a deal of that unlike others of his breed. Generally speaking they came in pairs, sometimes triplets, but very rarely single births. So in that regard, he and his sister were very normal. Their family was upper-middle-class, they had a nice house on the edge of a development overlooking a beautiful lake, and mountains in the background topped with snow were visible from almost any part of the home. Their father was a computer engineer, their mother was a nurse.

The pair attended typical schools, got better than average grades but never stood out too much. They were the very essence of "bored rich kids". That was probably why they became criminals, before their 15th birthday.

Like most other Nynali, the pair took after their opposite parent: Coelestaad was a whiz with computers and electronics, and Arick's interest in... medicinals... was notorious. But what they both did above and beyond those things, was perform music. Nynal had been contacted by the Federation only a decade or so before they were born, and was still somewhat in flux regarding many of the laws that they had to institute. Thus, there were still reasonable numbers of people who enjoyed or even performed musically.

That they had to do this in private settings was not really a big deal. But to explain it to the young kids, to try and get them to understand that they just weren't allowed to make that kind of noise... it hurt. So in rebellion not just against their bored lifestyle but against the idea that anything musical was 'bad for you', Coelestaad and Arick became part of a movement against the Vocorr and the Federation.

Sometimes, Arick's drug dealing would get them narrowly missed - he'd arrange for pickups and transfers, payments and deals, right before or after a musical underground meeting.

Sometimes, Coelestaad's 'tinkering' with security cameras and audio left a bolder trail than the thumping, noisy rhythms found in seedy alley-accessed bars.

Yet still, they managed to avoid most entanglements. Their parents weren't exactly thrilled with their behavior, but neither did they forbid it. In fact the one time that the school Vocorr agent came to their home to root out their 'bad kids', both parents fervently promised and swore that they'd been home all day, look at the great homework scores, how could any kid making trouble somewhere be that good at math?

It wasn't until later that the pair realized how much danger they were putting their family in. Not just their immediate ones: every Nynal family was quite extended and like their multiple forearms often grasped in numerous directions at once. If these two kids got arrested by Vocorr, the whole rest of their extended family might be in danger of being investigated or just outright arrested for whatever imagined causes the Federation had.

After all, they were getting more and more used to seeing people being made an example of, around there. So by their 16th birthday, Coelestaad and Arick decided that it would be for the best if they simply disappeared. They were old enough to leave home anyway, Nynali children grew fast and attended school constantly until around then. But since they hadn't gotten their formal profession training yet, they'd have to wander about and get whatever work they could.

Or, they could simply go the direction that Vocorr insisted they were headed: straight into the heated underbelly of the criminal world.

***

Arick's hair was mussed up, his shirt torn, and his lip was bleeding.

"Oh. That didn't go well, did it," Coelestaad said and tsked her tongue while dabbing at her brother's split lip. "I'm assuming you didn't get the money."

"I didn't get the money, no." Arick said. "I did take a chunk out of his shipment though."

"Probably why he beat you up and stole the rest," Coelestaad said.

"No, I mean after he ran for it and the cops came." He tried to grin and winced, but held up a pair of vials which contained a vivid purple liquid. He'd started the night with seven of them, Coelestaad expected him not to have any left by now. It was a good source of both money and entertainment after all. "They went after him because he was shouting. Disturbing the peace, go figure."

Coelestaad chuckled a little and then bid her brother sit still while she tried fixing his wounds up. Their 'business' had been slow to start but eventually rolled out a good profit. It was true that they stole the first batches of this drug, but it was easy to manufacture once they got a good idea of what was in it. Coelestaad electronically had shipments come to various locations around town, duping the people that lived or worked at those locations. Then, Arick assembled the various powders and liquids into the potent drug that was popular among many different kinds of groups. Even offworlders liked it, though some claimed it left them with a huge hangover, and others... well, they didn't want to talk about that one guy who absorbed it through his skin and wound up almost literally melting.

But all this while too, they were setting aside money for themselves. They didn't live in any kind of extravagance, like they'd seen on videos. Some dealers, assassins, whatever other kinds of horrible criminals that made lots of money - they'd set themselves up with a very visible home and obnoxiously bad attitude. Let them, was Arick's claim: if they're being so visible they're the ones Vocorr and the cops would go after. Not a pair of quiet, affable kids that always saluted when Vocorr bigwigs paraded past and paid for their meals and left moderate tips.

They weren't attracting attention to themselves for their money - but they did attract it for their goals.

Eventually, they wanted to head offworld. Where could they go? Anywhere that thought music was acceptable, that was the top priority. But it was getting harder and harder to locate those - Coelestaad had been trying for weeks but without success to contact the last offworlder that she knew had been involved with the night-time parties.

It would have been nice if they could get money for their performances, aside from the few coins and creds that got tossed their way into the jars or whatnot that people brought with them. Jam sessions with them beating out rhythm as others came with flutes, guitars, anything that didn't necessarily need to have a bunch of other equipment to lug around. Their own drums were generally improvised anyway, any container would do. When they were children, they'd used the real thing, and had sticks and other tools like cymbals and such - but now... Those things were a distant and fading memory.

They knew they had to keep that memory alive, somehow.

That somehow came to them in the form of a single mental 'ping'. Wait for us, here, it said. She said. So they did. They packed up what little they had, got into their cobbled-together truck with it, threw a tarp over it all and sped off to a particular locale. It was strange, Arick thought later - they came to this spot knowing exactly where to be, but they'd never been there, and they only saw it through this person's mind from above. Telepathy was a marvelous thing.

Coelestaad and Arick had arrived to the rounded top of what may have been an old watershed, but it was long since covered with ground and layered with 'nature'. Their culture had always been big on that - repurposing things that they left behind. There was always two of everything, on Nynal. There were two engines - above.

And a third, far more powerful one, but that was the stardrive. The Firefly-class ship dropped downwards in the night, pretty quietly at that. It would have room for their truck, their stuff... them.

The tall, feline telepath exited the ship first, even though she wasn't armed and wasn't the captain. She gave a warm welcoming bow, and said with a grin, "we're in need of some drummers. Do you know any?"

***

Arick concentrated on being the ship's doctor for a time. Since he was unusually adept at analyzing and chemistry, he stocked the infirmary with things they found on various planets and everyone trusted him to know what he was doing with them. Sideshow in particular, since he was the one most often in scrapes and getting injured. Arick had to read up on the Leld's physiology, but that wasn't too difficult. Soon he was adept at patching everyone up, if they needed it. And, of course, getting them high if they wanted it.

Arick and his sister never insisted of course. They supplied people on Nynal who sought them out, not the other way around. They were no pushers. And since the rest of the crew understood the need for some down time, everyone, even Morrel the captain, joined in. They never left the ship unattended, however. And though he was usually 'over the legal limit' as was Coel, they functioned perfectly well on their own level, and soon the ship was being handled in wider shifts.

Brantian enjoyed bobbing his head to the beats that Arick made, warbling in his odd almost-avian way. Ija-Djon's tail shifted in time with it, even Sideshow tapped his feet.

They played for whoever would tune in, on whatever world was safe enough to land upon or orbit. The Galactirock was now their home - they'd made it to the stars!

***

Eventually the Galactirock played host to an excellent young Human girl with experience in stringed instruments. They'd helped out another group of Humans and then... went back to discover that the Solos had paired up with dragons. Ija guided them to a place through the black hole that the Solos lived near, into another universe. So many people that they'd met of late could move through dimensions. They'd have to see about getting the ship fitted for 'portal' technology, some time soon.

When they watched proudly as their friend Zeets found her adorable moptopped dragon, the G'rock crew knew they had to find their own dragons too. Once more the Solos came in handy, as their dragons almost always gossiped about where eggs had been laid or where a mating flight had taken place. Thus, they were introduced to a place called Sanctuary, where, wide-eyed, the group saw some of the most tremendously beautiful dragons they could ever have imagined.

It was Arick who called it - this place would be for him. There were others, there would be plenty of dragons to go around (if the way the Solos dragons jabbered about eggs was true) so this was his turn.

He'd have to learn more about how to care for such creatures. But then again, weren't they shapeshifters? That was a rare talent at best out in the galaxy, how would it affect their physiology? He was aching to know!

***

Though it had taken some time, things at the Sanctuary finally settled down a bit, and Arick realized that the time had finally come. He was never much for paying attention to the background of political intrigue here, but "something" had gone on. Not sure what. Didn't matter to him, he'd found friends among the little hatchlings and the Novos as well. After all, he was a musician. They always had some kind of groupies.

(from bonding)

Arick didn't have his drums with him for the bonding. He couldn't help it, though -- he was tapping out percussion beats on his knees as he waited to see if anyone had chosen him. He grinned when the bright little Piralan that had been so shocked about his "outlaw" status headed his way, holding a scroll.

"So you'd better get me to learn the triangle or something," he told Arick, proffering his chosen scroll. "So I can come be an outlaw along with you. Don't tell my mom, though."

Arick laughed and grabbed the scroll. When the light died down again, he didn't have to say out loud that they'd set up Oester Tenari with his own set of drumsticks the moment they got back to his ship.

"Triangles are for nubs," Arick laughed. But it was to the shiny objects - those and the cymbals, cowbell, and tubular bells - that the dragonet was attracted. They did make a very pleasing sound, and over the next few months Oester got the hang of several of them.

He was particularly enamored of the gong. Arick was way too proud of that.

"I will have to dig up more of these," Arick told Oester, who nodded enthusiastically. The bells he already wore on his long ears (nets of them, of tiny size) rang in their sparkling, tiny way and he nodded even harder. Arick decided that he'd have to work on composing something that would use those things even if it drove the rest of the crew crazy.

Perhaps, because it would.