She had been Human once, long ago. But after two centuries of cryogenic storage, and tremendous experimentation with certain drugs, the woman who had been was no longer. Once, she'd been merely a navigator for a starship line. Not those little planet-to-planet hoppers, nor shuttling goods here and there. She had been involved with the creation of certain faster-than-light drives which could be guided by strong psionic minds. So she was put on the big ship, a passenger luxury liner that was more like a small city than a large ship.

From the outside, the ship was beautiful and impressive. A lot of people spent time shuttling around cruisers like this, after all, in and out of atmosphere. Of course, this ship was far too massive to land or even hit a true terrestrial gravity well. Gas giants suited it nominally better for it could syphon many useful elements directly off of those.

From the inside, the Avalon Wayfarer was all the more stunning. With tall, airy hallways and huge secure windows along the outer hull, and all the trappings of a modern archology further inside; the huge engines were nestled at the rear and surrounded with all manner of equipment designed to keep the passengers safe and the starship functional. Pools, gambling casinos, restaurants and the like all dotted the interior. There was a pair of grand viewing stations, a trio actually if one counted the Navigation room itself.

Only the Shipsinger was allowed in that room unless she deigned to open it to visitors. She spent almost all her time in it, meditating or plotting the next course, or just listening to music. All manner of music from Earth, TerraNova, SciPac, dozens of alien and human worlds. She'd had time to absorb it all, in her long cryogenic stages - awake, but not. Off and on, of course, not two hundred years consecutively!

But that was more than two centuries before now. Since then, somehow, she'd maintained her body and slowly changed from being a fair-skinned blonde to an oddly armored appearance. Her skin, dimming into a faintly metallic steel color. Her hair, twining into platinum-metal shades. She claimed to have blue-green eyes, but since she now never removes her interface goggles no one living has even seen them. She was tall, slender, healthy looking aside from no longer quite being human.

She also became rather more ... arrogant than she had been. But that is understandable, of course, because of her tremendous skill. The ship she pilots endlessly responds to her commands, and hers alone. Shipsinger never slept, only taking in a meditation state now and again. On rare occasions, however, she had been known to re-enter cryosleep, but that ended decades ago.

If the speed at which the ship traveled could be said to be instant, she slowed it down considerably by throwing it all around the known universe to get from one port to another. Fortunately for her, no one even asked for the nav logs any more, by the time her performance-navigation became the reason people took trips on the Avalon Wayfarer.

And it was clear to the owners of the ship (some seven generations later - their ancestors had hired the Shipsinger) that they were making a hefty profit: Shipsinger (only known by that name for over three hundred years) did not demand payment of any kind for her services. In fact letting her pilot was all she really asked. Of course, if she did ask for anything people scrambled to get it for her.

Shipsinger has not set foot on an actual planet most of her life. Born on Earth, but that was about it. The last time she walked in actual gravity was perhaps 150 years ago to assist a foundering transport ship.

But why 'Ship Singer'? Why not 'Pilot' or 'Navigator'? Because she sings. The entire ship moves with her mind, and she prefers to guide it to the beat and drive of a good song. Space music, tablas, classical, Narvidian nature recordings... Anything which resembles a good tune to show off lights to, is one that she would choose to navigate to. As the passengers would arrive, she would greet them individually or in groups. Some people didn't recognize her, but those who did were almost reverent. From them, she would get an idea of what kind of flavor to add to their journey. Some might not enjoy it as much as others, but then again some folks actually were there for the gambling, swimming and getting to their destination... How droll.

It had been almost thirty years since anyone needed to service the engines on the Avalon Wayfarer. Whatever Shipsinger did to herself, apparently she was able to extend it to the ship. Things still needed to be cleaned and repaired day to day, but the navigation system and the massive engines didn't.

Whether the engines were needed is another question that is best not asked. In point of fact, the engines had not needed repair because they hadn't been used in ages. At least, not for the massive job of trucking across the galaxy. Once her performance ended, Shipsinger allowed the ship to maintain its own course using the real engines and the old-style gravity sims.

During the performance... The whole ship was vivid with sounds, and those who choose to remain in the observation domes or the sides of the ship with large windows got a huge lightshow. A tune with a steady pulsing beat? A neutron star flashing would be the return point. Sweeping violins could use young forming star systems still surrounded with gas. Percussive keyboards - a stint outside the galaxy at such high speeds that even billions of stars become mere dots going by. The tune sounded 'red' - there are gas giants ready for that duty. Watery chimes? The collapsing nova right over there would do fine.

Along with the ability to move a ship the size of the Avalon Wayfarer through space, Shipsinger's raw knowledge of the stars themselves is certainly unparalleled. How did she know where to find that last nova? Or that singularity that has an event horizon worthy of a concert? That is her business. To know, to know the exact place to be at the right time, every time.

***

"This is an honor, actually," Shipsinger said to the tall, pale-skinned woman coming aboard. "I never thought I'd actually meet you."

"Eh, I figured it'd be nice to sit around and watch someone else's show instead of making mine for once." Lightshow said. Another of these weird one-name-that's-also-a-title women. A mutant from her world of Zedd, a woman with only two arms instead of their normal four, but her own psionic command of light and sound was very strong.

They walked up to the Navigation room, together. That even surprised the crew.

What surprised them more, was the huge, colorful dragon which followed them.

"Hey, hey, wait, you can't - there's no pets!" Someone shouted, and Lightshow turned with a nasty look in her eye. But then she realized that Sholusoilseth, her dragon, had neglected to put on her size-adjusting gear.

"Oh darnit," Lightshow said, and stomped over to the dragon. That dragon stood at least as tall as the observation window, and was quite long nose to tail. Shipsinger turned and her eyes went wide. "I told you, you've got to keep it on!"

"It is uncomfortable," the dragon muttered, but suddenly wasn't so huge any more. In fact, more the size of a large dog, which the steward was highly disinclined to shoo away after how big he saw it could get.

"My dear, that's... a dragon." Shipsinger said.

"Yep she sure is! Sholu, say hi to the Shipsinger!"

"That is the one you keep talking about," the dragon announced, and then padded up to Shipsinger. "Hello, my rider is enfatuated with you."

"Her work, Sholu!"

"Uh huh," Sholu said, and butted up against Lightshow's leg. "Where are we going?"

"Deep space," Shipsinger said. "There is something calling to me. Going to go see what it is. Come on," she beckoned. They went up to her private navigation chamber, which sat at the top bow of the ship. From there, very little interferance from the rest of the ship's bulk could be heard or felt. Both women did feel it, the ship was alive with people and machines.

Once everyone had gotten aboard and were settled into their chambers for the exit from the space station which docked the huge ship, they had a few hours to check out the food and drink, dancing and whatnot.

The conventional engines cut out after a bit and the ship drifted gently away from the station, and the trip began.

***

Lightshow had never seen such intensity on a performer - not even herself caught on camera. When Shipsinger lapsed into a silent, staring pause, Lightshow gave her room and watched.

Since they were in the observation and navigation dome, they could see almost everything except that which the ship blocked below and behind them. But for whatever reason, Lightshow firmly believed (and was correct in thinking) that Shipsinger didn't need to see, to know what it looked like behind her. Or anywhere, perhaps.

A long, quiet pause later, was broken by an electronic harpsichord note. It was silent for a moment, then a distant patter of drums - electronic - drew attention to themselves. It was then that Lightshow realized the ship was moving, but also that she didn't feel it moving, more she knew it was because the light coming from distant stars was pulsing in time with the music. It got more quiet, then a strangely familar humming sound dominated the airwaves: it was almost like a ship's engine, but it was music.

Slowly, small noises filtered in, and showed up on the distant solar horizon as sparkling remnants of exploding stars. An expectant bass note continued the whole time, and more loudly the 'chchchchch' engine sound came up. It was actually altogether spooky when the noise stopped, leaving the bass and the eerie flute-like attempts at a melody. The light dimmed and grew when a faint wind-organ note broke through, yellow-orange starlight from below.

Abrupt white comet dust passed once, then again, while the pipe organ sunrise illuminated the room. Smaller fragments of the comet broke off, splattering brightly while the music spurted into delicate riffs.

Lightshow almost thought it might have been a guitar sound, once, which was manipulated to bring a little more melody in, more keyboards, more raw sounds - and the light began to strobe.

Another harpsichord played this time, but now contained an actual melody. Lightshow was entranced - as was the entire sentient population of the starship - as the music grew more complicated and the lights flickered in time with the sound.

How the ship could be in three places at once, no one but Shipsinger knew. But when the lower bass line turned into a long throbbing contrast to the harpsichord, they all could tell that the ship was being drawn between the orange star and another younger, more quickly spinning one. They circled it, passing a gigantic gas planet, then a smaller one which they lingered around. Shipsinger oriented the craft so that they weren't actually seeing the star, but instead were treated to a long, soaring crest over the blue-green storm-tossed gas giant. They passed through it's upper atmosphere, and came out the other side with another glimpse of the star beyond.

Lightshow was already crying, joined probably by a good two-thirds of the 'newbies' on the ship who had never seen such things before. Most interstellar travelers got a view of a passing comet, or saw the flicker of faster-than-light travel in the big domes on expensive ships.

But they had never been traveling this fast, never been in the heart of a dark nebula at the same time as being on the fringe of a young galaxy - Shipsinger had taken them to intergalactic space during this journey, the single guitar wailing was shown with the center of a swirling galaxy billions of light-years away.

It got quiet, but not entirely so. The blips and squeeks of the music timed with small quasars or a spare comet... then a large, clearly terrestrial planet came into view. It was entirely possible, Lightshow realized, that Shipsinger had brought the planet to them, because she'd never seen something this big, or this lovely before, from space.

Was it their journey's destination? It appeared so, but the pacing of the softly flowing music in the ship said it would be quite a while before they'd be near enough to see if this world was even inhabited.

All this time, too, Shipsinger was outside the ship. How she'd gotten there, Lightshow hadn't seen. There was evidence that she just moved straight through the steel glass dome. "That's why your skin is like that," Lightshow whispered, and Shipsinger turned to look at her from outside, with a grin. She nodded, and turned back.

Opening her arms, the music crested as the yellow-white glow of the star nearest was eclipsed by this world they rode over. They were in the atmosphere almost before they realized it, but it was so high, this world was at least the size of the small gas giant they'd been past earlier. And Lightshow realized that the first ten minutes of this musical journey had merely been a preview. The ship entered the top layer of clouds, white and purple, leaving a trail behind it.

The planet was young. It was in fact, volcanic still, and ...

"Those are volcanoes?!" Lightshow gasped as they pounded out hot sparking lava distantly below - against the blackness of the ground, they looked just like stars themselves!

As the descent wore onto the ship's exterior, dragging it slightly, Shipsinger fought it, drums exploded in a tattoo less military and more renegade. That long hard guitar sound was joined by softer keyboards, and the clouds were yellow, tearing at the ship's navigation towers and leaving vibrations in their wake.

Everyone on the ship was holding their breath, almost for five minutes. Guitar riffs blended with a drumming from electronic sources, cosmic bubbling was shown off below - or was it above - the ship was upside down now - by the vastness of an ocean broken only by steaming under-surface volcanic eruptions!

Most people didn't know that when they entered the atmosphere of any given planet, their ship was often upside down. But then, this was no ordinary ship - and it was not exactly going to achieve planet fall. Not on a world this big, anyway. Rocks were actually visible as they moved at supersonic speed past huge valleys and broken terrain. Were they headed up now? Mostly... to a peak covered in snow but blasted by the high winds deep in the atmosphere.

They cleared it, of course, just in time to see the world flip over - Shipsinger righted the craft and headed back into the skies, the stars visible as bright, hard white light. Then - like a dolphin, she plunged it back down through the bright purple skies once more, before trailing out into the blackness of space again.

"You buzzed a planet," Lightshow breathed. "I can't even believe we survived that..."

But she was speaking and Shipsinger hadn't come back into the room. Outside the dome she saw Shipsinger ... and something else.

A great silvery-white ... dragon!

So you have come to see me at last, the dragon spoke mentally to Shipsinger. He was huge, probably at least the same size as Lightshow's dragon. My name is Arasta, would you like me to accompany you?

Shipsinger gazed at the green, shimmering eyes before her. She nodded, this trip was well worth it. The undulating motion of the dragon's wings was like breathing, he took in everything he needed to just resting here by the planets.

We've got to get my ship back to where it was going, Shipsinger commented, Can you keep up?

It was more a challenge than a question, for it was clear that this creature could easily match the speed which any craft - even Shipsinger's Avalon Wayfarer - could reach.

Although this guy doesn't look very technological, he is! His species are, in fact, so advanced that they scoff at the idea of spaceships, preferring instead just to fly through space as they are. He has an internal chip that allows him complete and total control over his breathing, so he doesn't have any problems when flying through a vacuum.

But obviously his body still needs a way to keep on living, and that's what his wings are for. Cosmeticly, they look like part of his body, but they're actually large sails that gather cosmic radiation, particles, free-floating hydrogen and weird little space-dwelling microbes, converting them all into energy and nutrients which are fed into his body via the tines of the 'wings'.

However, he's quite capable of flying through space, air or water without use of these wings. He does this with very, very advanced Telekinesis, which are either a natural trait of his species or one they've genetically altered themselves to have. Either way, when he's on a planet, he floats around above the surface, rather than slithering on the ground. No walking, obviously, due to overwhelming lack of legs... The fins along his back are completely natural, acting like a dorsal fin to keep him balanced when he's flying somewhere with an atmosphere or water.

From Nexus dragon exchange, October 2006, by Shiolar.

They had been together for the greater part of two years, when Arasta pinged Shipsinger.

Yes? You've seen something, I almost thought I saw it too... what is it? She asked, and gently the great static-colored space dragon drifted into view.

It is a world with dragons, but not like me.

"Hm," Shipsinger said, and logged the Avalon Wayfarer in for a 'quick break'. Meaning: she was taking her ship where she wanted it, instead of where it was being paid to be. The crew braced themselves when it hit ftl, but she wasn't going on a musical romp just now. She pointed the ship in the direction that Arasta indicated, and focused her energies on "being there".

There is someone here, I ... shall I take us there?

Shipsinger left her post, locking the ship into a distant orbit. She felt confident that this area of the galaxy was reasonably safe. Magis Prime - the name sprang into her mind from elsewhere - was home to some unusual dragon life. Shipsinger clung gently with one hand to Arasta's dorsal spine, barely as tall as the longest of them along his sinuous body. She could of course keep up with him personally out here in unprotected space - but she would want his protective wake when they entered the atmosphere below.

It occurred to her that this would be a momentous occasion for her as well as whatever they discovered: she remembered the pull of gravity now, she recalled why she hated it.

They flittered around a lush and lovely place - and then, caught sight of a mesa high in the peaks, as though a pointed mountain top had been sheared away and flattened. It was an obvious meeting place, so they headed toward it. Good thing they did: for it had a certain creature upon it, one which was sending for them to come.

She bowed, lowering her horned head to the ground and not quite touching it to the dirt. "Greetings, I am sorry that I pulled you out of your way but... I heard you passing by once before. I was curious."

Shipsinger was speechless, for once. The creature was long-legged, graceful like a deer but completely not a mere terrestrial animal. Especially when she added, "I like your ship, and your nanites are extremely clever," she addressed them both.

Can we keep her?! Arasta mentally exclaimed, and Shipsinger burst out laughing. It seemed that the female, whose name was well hidden even after they became friends and travel companions, could not just read what they intended - she was as intimately aware of the movements of space and matter as Shipsinger was.

She was taller than Shipsinger at the shoulder, by at least another foot - and she had the tingling, ringing sensation of an antenna as it picked up its favorite frequency from a satellite above.

"I love your little moonlets!" Shipsinger said, giggling as several of them moved around her as if to investigate. "Would you like to come explore with us?"

"I would love to," she replied.

What are you called? Asked Arasta, who seemed rather smitten even though they were all but impossibly incompatible.

"You may call me Cynosura," she said, happily. It was an apt title, for one who'd attracted the attention of such star-travellers!

Name: (personal unknown) given name Cynosura
Gender: Female
Type: Cosmos: Physics
Main Color: Bright Blue
Secondary Color: Ice Blue
Marking Color: Indigo
Size: 7'8" at the shoulder
Abilities: Vocal Speech, Telepathic Speech, Universal Awareness, Technical Knowledge, Gravity

Origin: Magis Prime

Shipsinger, Cynosura and Arasta traveled - in and outside of the great ship Avalon Wayfarer. Cynosura kept mostly to herself, traveling the ship's corridors with interest but generally at 'night' when there would be few people to encounter. With her help, too, they journeyed farther and to stranger places than ever. Shipsinger was constantly tempted to leave off her money-making ventures, just to travel and see these sights without the bother of people.

But then, people were also interested in her travels, scientists and explorers themselves. At one point, the Avalon Wayfarer met up with an improbably improbable craft called the Caledrus, which was powered by something Shipsinger could only chuckle about. Their ship was full of dragons, interesting people, hitch hikers and astrophysicists and all. Maybe it was that the improbability field rubbed off on the Wayfarer, or maybe she was just suitably inspired, but Shipsinger hired out her craft for a much bigger, bolder journey than ever.

They traveled through the galaxy, but then also, past it, way past - the edges of black holes which littered the darkness of intergalactic space. There, to everyone's amazement, they found another dragon.

She was young by their standards, perhaps a few hundred years old, yet her mind spoke of curiosity, there had never been other creatures so bold as to come near her black hole! She remained popping in and out to see whether the ship was still there, while the scientists aboard fell over each other to take measurements and get images.

Arasta was held in the influence of the ship, kept from being crushed into nothingness by Cynosura's power. The pale colored starborn dragon ached to go closer, but didn't dare.

"I have to say," Cynosura commented to Shipsinger, "that she is much better suited to Arasta's advances than I am, wouldn't you say?"

Shipsinger stifled a laugh, "I would say so, they're almost the same size, and they're all snakey. I wonder if they could even breed together though..."

Perhaps they'd find out - Celerity, as they called her, kept following the ship as they made their rounds, and eventually she helped them locate other smaller wormholes that were reasonably 'safe' for interstellar travel.

Name: unknown, they call her Celerity, for she is able to cross great distances in seemingly no time
Gender: Female
Species: Type B Gravity Wyrm
Powers: Cosmic Entity: Gravity wyrms exist in the vacuum of space and do not need to breathe or eliminate waste, and can feed on any matter or energy captured by their black hole. Gravity has such a negligible effect on them to consider wyrms immune to its pull. As such, they can "levitate" in any environment.
Gravity Well: Gravity wyrms can create an intense gravitational pull centered nearby or on themselves. This ability increases with their age and size, culminating in the implosion that some supermassive wyrms use to birth new black holes upon their death.
Stellar Song: The five senses of a gravity wyrm are intertwined so that they perceive what they call the Stellar Song, observing all things in a far more encompassing manner than ordinary creatures do. They can taste light, hear color, smell sound, see flavors, etc. in addition to their senses working the "normal" way.
Telepathy: The ability to communicate mind-to-mind.
Wyrmhole Travel: Gravity wyrms can traverse vast distances by utilizing the wormholes that connect one black hole to another.
Size: 37 meters

Adopted from monthly giveaway September 09 from Xenoqueen's Gravity Wyrms in the Nexus