A: Bright Ideas

Adrian Koine, inventor, engineer, scientist, one of the brightest minds of his generation, was out of ideas. He resisted thumping his head against the wall, mostly because it would attract unwanted attention.

Right now he didn't know what had made him even get involved with the Dragon. Both Brendan and Rafaela had warned him, each in their own way. He had known that her race could live for centuries longer than any human from his own System for several years before meeting her… again. 

And there was the trick, the catch, the rub, that made mockery of his own boasts. When he had laughingly propositioned Prince Brendan a decade ago, claiming that gender was a choice, he had never really expected to face the same challenge himself. Not exactly the same, though he couldn't quite decide whether that was fortunate or unfortunate.