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with the dragons out there.”
    Mike spoke up, “Speaking of the dragons, we may have more problems.”
    Joel looked at him, “What do you mean?”
    “Sorry Joel, I didn’t mean to steal your thunder.”
    Joel smiled, “no problem, Mike.”
    Mike looked at Everett.  Everett nodded.  Mike looked at Ed.
    Ed spread his hands, “You sound like you have something you want to tell us.  Go ahead.”
    “Thanks Ed,” Mike continued, “Well, Matki just came back from a scout outside.  He thinks this dragon, the Ancient, is different.  He doesn’t know what’s going on, but he doesn’t like it.”  Questions were blurted out across the room.  He held up his hands to slow down the verbal onslaught, “No, I have no idea what’s going to happen.  But based on what Matki told us, I just have a bad feeling.  No, I don’t know if the dragons are intelligent.  I know they can be very cunning.”
    “But, they can’t get past the wall, can they?” Ken asked.
    He looked at Ken, and answered, “I don’t know if or how they can get past the wall.”  He hesitated for a moment, “But I’m telling you, something’s up.  We need to make sure that the mechs are prepped, and everybody needs to carry their weapons.  I don’t want anybody caught flat footed if there’s an attack.”
    After the announcements about their species dying out, and the possible attack of dragons, the meeting was much more subdued.  The meeting continued with situation reports from the different teams.  The news was just as bad from everybody else.  Hank told the group that supplies of materials for fabrication were running low.  Michelle confirmed the problem with supplies when she told them that they were running out of precursor chemicals to make spider silk materials.  The only good news was that they could always make the graphene monomolecular fibers.  Carbon was everywhere.  As long as they had electricity, which wasn’t a problem since they had the quantum battery, they would be able to make the carbon fibers.
    The three amigos were finding other engineering projects that could be useful, but they were doing triage to decide which would be more beneficial and could use the materials at hand.  Some things just couldn’t be made because they didn’t have the necessary materials or manufacturing capabilities.
    Mike reflected on what he was hearing.  They could get there, but it would take time.  They needed to explore the larger world to find the elements needed.  They needed a place for a larger fabrication facility.  And they needed to be able to search for food, or, if possible, find a better location for agriculture.  Primitive life really sucked.  Back on old Earth, the more primitive life sounded good.  Now reality proved that romantic view wasn’t as appealing when you had to give up air conditioning, refrigeration, medicine, and electronics.
    The meeting finished and everybody broke up to go back to their individual projects.  Mike stood up, stretched, and thought about the ancient dragon.  He didn’t know what he’d seen in the dragon’s eye.  He hoped he was wrong, but he had a bad feeling that he wasn’t.
     
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Chapter Two
    He woke when the light in the room switched on.  Mike groaned.  He’d only been asleep for a few hours.  He put his arm over his face to block out the light.  A shadow fell on him.  The break this afforded him was momentary, though.  His cot rattled as someone kicked it.
    “Suck it up, buttercup.  You gotta get up.”
    Mike groaned.  He knew that voice.  He looked down at the bottom of his cot.  A behemoth stood there, partially blocking the light.  Mickey, the self-styled ‘Beast of Brooklyn’ was considerably leaner than he had been.  Still he was bigger and stronger than anybody else, even Murph.  God alone knew what he had in his genetic landscape, but whatever it was, it was big.  Mike’s money was on bear