"Oh, what's this?" Kolya cocked her head as she and Donovan entered the observation lounge.

"Just a little friendly competition." Cora smiled and waved. "Feel free to join in."

"Are those antiques?" Donovan pointed at the laptops and game consoles on the tables, one in front of each of the crew members seated there. Cora, Dylan, Grishnag, and Zilaka sat at one table. Nishara coiled up on the floor at the adjacent table with her lower arms braced on its surface, while Syala sat across from her and Ayastal sat on the floor. Lorkis coiled up across from Ayastal in a pose similar to Nishara's. A pair of laptops and two other consoles occupied the empty table to their right.

"Replicas," Cora said. "Dylan looked up the specs to be sure they'd be accurate to the time from which he was taken through one of those rifts before we all met."

"If you've seen any of the interviews we did after we found our way back to civilization," Dylan said, "you know we were trapped in an advanced simulation after we were abducted. Basically, we were forced to fight in a series of combat scenarios, and kept dying over and over." He shivered. "It was so traumatic, I expected it to put me off of playing video games, but luckily it didn't. Gaming was pretty much my life before I was stuck into that simulation, so it was a relief when I was able to get back to it without developing PTSD."

Kolya nodded and made her way over to the vacant table, glancing at their screens as she passed them. "I was a bit of a gamer before I left Earth, but they were all modern -- three-dimensional images in a holofield or full-sensory immersion. More recently, I admit I used the sensory-immersion ones for personal … um … fantasies. Because of this." She motioned at her face as she took a seat in front of one of the laptops, and Donovan sat across from her. She continued in a slight rush, as if eager to move on from a sensitive topic. "I'm glad your experiences in the simulation didn't ruin your hobby."

"I'm thinking it's because we know going in that it's not real. Which is easy because it's only on a small screen in front of us." Grishnag tapped a button on her controller and chuckled at something on her monitor. "We were all convinced the simulation was real, at least until Cora figured out what was really happening."

"And I'm just fascinated by … well, everything around me, but especially these games." Nishara motioned with her upper-right hand at Zilaka, Ayastal, and Syala. "We grew up on worlds which had barely started to emerge from the stone age. I've seen a lot of vids showing people similar to us being fearful of advanced technology, but we've embraced it."

"We're slowly learning to fit in," Syala added. "For me, every moment is an adventure. Even after several months on the station, I'm still seeing things I could never have imagined before."

Zilaka nodded. "As horrible as the simulation was, it led us to each other. If it hadn't happened, we wouldn't be together now."

"True." Dylan smiled, leaned over, and kissed her. They kept their lips pressed together for at least ten seconds. Cora grinned and Grishnag thrust her arms up.

"Woo!" She seemed to notice something all of a sudden and glanced up at the controller in her left hand. She gasped and yanked her finger off one of the buttons. "Oops!"

On Cora's screen, a rocket streaked out of nowhere and drilled into the helicopter Ayastal's character was piloting. The chopper ripped apart in a huge explosion and the debris tumbled to the ground. Grishnag's eyes opened wide and she clamped her other hand over her mouth.

"Well." Ayastal stared at her screen for several seconds and finally sighed. "You've killed me."

Everyone else burst out laughing. Grish put her controller down and buried her face in her hands, but couldn't help joining in the laughter.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to pull the trigger."

Ayastal shrugged and laughed softly.

"Well, this looks like fun." Kolya pondered the laptop in front of her. "I was wondering what we'd do to pass the time after lunch. This seems as good a way as any."

Donovan picked up his controller. "I've never tried this before, so I hope I don't make too big a fool of myself."

"We'll go easy on you." Cora smiled and glanced at the others. "We'll start a new mission so you won't have to jump right into the middle."

Kolya poised her fingers over the keyboard and mouse. "What game is this, anyway?"

"Grand Theft Auto Online. Well, an updated version linked into the ship's intranet." Dylan grinned. "One of my favorite entries in the series, and the one I'd just started playing when I passed out and woke up surrounded by my future wives and a ton of other aliens."

"The start of a beautiful relationship, eh?" Kolya grinned.

"Pretty harrowing at first, but yeah, it turned into something wonderful." Dylan glanced around at the other females and smiled.

Cora made a kissy face at him and turned back to Kolya and Donovan. "Want to create your own characters or just use the ones Peter and Mila made a while ago?" She motioned at the formerly vacant table with her left hand.

"I'll go ahead and use one of theirs if that's okay. Faster, that way."

"Me, too," Donovan said. "Let's rock."

"Okay." Cora glanced at Dylan. "Wanna pick a mission, honey?"

"Let's see." Dylan pondered his screen for a few seconds and made a selection. "We'll split into two teams. One team will pick up a package and try to deliver it to a drug dealer. What the package is, should be self-evident." He chuckled. "The other team has to stop them, steal the package, and deliver it to their own dealer."

"Nice. We get to play less than upstanding characters. I'm having fun already." Kolya rubbed her hands together as her avatar appeared on Cora's screen -- Mila's character, a huge, muscular, bipedal dragon with emerald skin, tight shorts, and a tank-top. The dragon was joined by Lorkis's snake anthro avatar. "Donny, which one's yours?"

"Looks like I'm the chunky shonari girl." Donovan chuckled as Peter's avatar appeared on the screen.

"Hmm, you've got nice boobs, then." Kolya held her hands up for a moment and moved her fingers as if groping a rack. Donovan burst out laughing.

"I'd rather play with yours, though."

"I'd prefer that, too."

He blushed and tugged on his collar, and she laughed before focusing on her screen again.

Cora, Grish, and Dylan entered the game, standing near their own vehicles.

"We're on the same team." Lorkis smiled at Kolya. "Just as I hoped."

Donovan cleared his throat loudly and walked his character over to the hotrod-red Mustang stand-in parked beside Kolya's character. "You wanna drive, or shall I?"