A call from Earth, from Professor Prabhakar back at the University of Europe, interrupted her communion with the Dragon. She was no longer soaring around Mercury but instantly back in the grey, plush, bland interior of the shuttle. Screens on the bulkheads showed the sky outside darkening from blue to inky purple as they gained altitude.
She had known Prabhakar for a couple of years now. Colleagues in the Xenozoology department, they had become close enough friends. She could imagine him sitting there in his study, surrounded by an explosion of papers and books, his window looking out over the rooftops of Manchester. Prabhakar had little time for modern technology. He would be unaware of the more intimate link in her mind to Vulpecula. The Aether-Dragon, on the other hand, would be able
