"I don't see anything out here but space dust," Todd said, into his small microphone. The pickup on the mood-guitar was more than enough to supply his voice to the others via deep space connections.

"You don't have to see anything," said Cathy off to the cluster-side of the area, "but what do you FEEL?"

At that, Todd smiled a bit. He felt perfect. Wonderful. Alone, yet he knew that once they started playing millions or perhaps even billions would be hearing his hands caressing the strings of this wild instrument.

"I feel great. Let's start with something upbeat."

Off to the dark-nebula area, Pat started clicking his drumsticks together, and they erupted into a brief, quick surf-style instrumental, just to get their blood pumping. It felt better than any jam session that any one of them had been to in their lives. Like they'd first learned to play.

Todd smiled, and felt his guitar-thing hug itself closer to his waist. He still wasn't all that sure what to call it, it wasn't a proper instrument, the way it squirmed around like it was alive or something. But it felt like it wanted more. So he caressed it, with hands long-used to moving across strings just like those. The strings were actually softer than he expected, not like the hard wires of an electric guitar or anything. More like... almost furry. What he didn't know was that they were vibrating slightly already, undulating at a frequency that allowed the odd device to curve around its master.

Todd let a long series of notes chime out from the instrument, found a pure beat coming from Pat, and nodded gently with it. It sounded like a love song - like a proud recitation of how good it was to be alive - like...  nothing they'd ever played in their lives, only it was perfect then and there. First time, flawless.

Several minutes later, the Solos stopped playing. "It sounds like this will work," Todd said. "I wonder if the guys on the ship heard it?"

A moment after that, Todd got his answer, in the form of a static-ridden transmission from the Galactirock. "That was so totally rad," said the drummer Arick. "Do it again!"

They heard in the background a bit of laughter, and the captain's deep voice. "It came through loud and clear, Solos. Congratulations, you're live. If you enter the grid it'll turn on. Once you leave, it's off. Get it?"

The others chimed in, and Todd added a nod. The grid: an invisible lattice of gravity and air that somehow existed right out in deep space. Something like a tesseract or a black hole or worm hole that kept them all together at the same time as seemingly light-years apart. But it was live, real time, no lag, not even like being in an auditorium. No echo, which slightly disturbed everyone including Todd.

"So we're still live, then," Mike said, "Let's go kids. One more for the road."

"I think he means the song," Sara Corsair laughed. "I can handle that one!"

***

Since the locale of this odd network could never be reached safely by Imperial Vocorr ships, the Solos continued their concerts for several weeks straight. First playing almost a random set or two, then by the end having agreed upon what tunes to play so that each of them would get equal billing. Hard industrial, space pop, even songs in Japanese and Spanish came to them and they shared with the galaxy.

They could no nothing less. And, they could do no wrong in the eyes of the other oppressed musicians who heard them.

They could not provide a "venue" for a concert, that was the one problem with this network show of theirs.

Until one night (or was it day? Which sun or star did one turn to for that? Not that any one of them were close enough to tell, and they had not been planet side for months) a pair of flashes in the darkness attracted Todd's attention. He and Corsair had been drinking and playing 'truth or dare' in the privacy of a nearby asteroid mine, but then something alerted them to a presence.

Todd left the security of the mine opening first, and he quickly beckoned Sara (who called herself Solo Two, as he was One. The others? They would have their numbers if they wanted them!) who scrambled to her feet.

Upon the shattered rock, balancing over a steel girder which was nearly invisible against the black of space beyond, stood two ... Dragons. That's right.

"Well what the hell is this?" Sara asked, but Todd smiled and grasped her hands.

"They have riders," he said, and tossed his head. Sure enough, there were riders upon each of the dragons. One was male, the other female. The male was tall and blue, like his dragon, while the woman was stately and proud looking - and her silver dragon nudged her toward the pair of Solos. The woman's deep crimson cloak fluttered behind her, though there was no wind.

"You were right... How in the world?" Mystic asked, but then just shook her head when the blue man was about to speak. "Never mind. They're perfect. There are more of them but I think we're about out of eggs..." She finally glanced over Todd and Sara more formally, and the pair of dragons nosed their way forward too.

The static in Todd's ear broke his awed silence. 'Todd, what's happening there? We're getting readings we don't understand...' said someone from the ship which was circling just beyond the black hole's range.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out... This is just too fab..." Todd said, turned to Sara and kissed her deeply. "They've got dragons..."

"I can see that, sweetie," Sara said, turning a little red because they'd never actually gone past first base... "Why are we 'perfect?'"

Todd turned to Mystic, and wagged his eyebrows. "We're gonna find that out too..."