Dylan's Crew

Summery:  Sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a faithful crew.  They started aboard a salvage ship, the old Eureka Maru.  They boarded on a salvage job, a salvage job.  But space, it started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed.  Were it not for the work of its faithful crew the Andromeda would been lost.  Ship set sail on this unlikely of all missions.  With . . .

A/N:  That was supposed to be the Gillian's Island theme, horribly messed up I know.  Where is that 3- hour tour part?  Why did the Howells have so much stuff anyway?  Also if I were on a desert island I wouldn't have wasted time building so many houses.  The professor would have been forced to live with the rest of the men.  Anyway as it says in the other summery, this was written because of the great response I got to the last paragraph of "Stranded".  I hope you like this one too.

Disclaimer:  I own nothing and am getting no money, but you probably knew that.

Dylan sighed as he thought about his situation.  They certainly were a motley crew. Here he was, a man from 300 years in the past who had betrayed by a Neitzchien under his command now had another Nietzchien in his crew, as well as an engineer who had been tortured by Neitzchiens and seen his family killed by the Maggog. Who now worked with a Maggog and had a tolerance and even a friendship with him based on all the time they had spent serving on a ship with a purple girl who's past was fuzzier than a lifesaver you find at the bottom of your purse and a woman who treated her ship like it was her child.  Now that woman had given up her command, probably one of the most important things in her life, to serve on a ship whose computer walked among them. 

            Dylan thought about his crew, the whole wacky bunch had just stopped the destruction of an entire planet.  It had taken the help of every member of the crew.  Dylan had to admit, this wasn't the crew he would have chosen.  They all had quirks that probably wouldn't have fit in with a typical High Guard crew.  Of course, he had to admit it was a different time.  He'd grown up with his parents, on the paradise planet of Tarn Vera.  He'd gone to school, attended the High Guard Academy, become an officer, and was engaged to be married when it had all ended.  He couldn't imagine being buried in bills and debts like Beka. Growing up wondering things like, "Who's going to die today? Am I?" like Harper. This different time bred different people.  Still, this crew had become his family, very fast.  Now, he really, really knew every single member of his crew.  300 years ago, when a crewman had a cold the idea of calling Captain Hunt was laughable.  He was the captain over thousands.  Last week Harper had a nosebleed and Dylan had gone down to check on him. Not that he would trade any of them for anything, not even Tyr.

Trance was a mystery; but a sweet, kind mystery at least.  They didn't know her species, powers, or past.  All they knew was how she was, innocent and in love with life.  He supposed that's all they needed to know about her.  But he doubted what they saw was all they got.  She was vague, but it was clear she still had some cards hidden up her sleeve.  She seemed almost clairvoyant, not that she would really admit much.  But, at least her motives were clear.  After himself, Dylan thought Trance had the most faith in a revived Commonwealth.  She wanted a world free of many of the problems in this new time.  She wanted a happy place and believed in a perfect universe. As soon as she heard the distress call she insisted they help.  She was sure they could save those people.  It had been her simple idea to simply not let the sun go nova.  Amazingly, that's what they wound up doing.

Rev was a puzzle.  He was a Maggog; he's a Wayist.  He was suffering, denying his natural impulses, because he had what many Maggog don't, a conscience.  He was so at peace with the universe, Dylan envied him.  That's why he went to the monk for guidance so often.    Rev had a selfless, charitable nature Dylan had been sorely missing in this new time. He was only selfish enough to work towards atonement.  Atonement for what his nature had made him do, and atonement for his unrepentant brethren. Rev had a serene, believable nature that had calmed the panicking populous better than Dylan ever could have.  

Harper.  How the hell did he do it?  How?  He had lived a nightmare surrounded by death and misery for 20 years.  He had seen his family horribly killed, been right there and seen it.   He had watched Nietzchiens loot and ravage his home. Watched them take his neighbors for slaves.  They had tortured him.  In his short life he had already been tortured.  Tortured by the best tormenters in the galaxy.  Dylan didn't know the specifics of Nietzchien torture, but he knew Nietzchiens and knew they had to be the best. He couldn't even imagine living through what Harper had.  What was Harper doing now?  Well, this morning he built a device that stopped a sun from going nova, a concept that yesterday was completely unheard of even trying. He would never add to Harper's swollen ego, but he thought Harper was a genius. Now, he was down in the machine shop, laughing and flirting with Trance while he took a break from fixing some gizmo. Harper's reasons for staying were probably based on the 3 hots and a cot.  Of course, he also went where Beka went, she'd saved him from some dirty backwater planet, possibly Earth itself, perhaps some other dingy spaceport, and he was loyal to her for life. Maybe he didn't believe in the Commonwealth yet, but who would blame him? But, Dylan could see him softening to the idea. How did he do it?  How did he live with the nightmares and memories but just keep going on?  How did he keep from curling up and falling apart?  He was strong.  A lot stronger than anyone gave him credit for.  A survivor, he just kept going forward.  

Beka had grown up with her father; living hand to mouth, waiting for the big pay off that never came.  She had her own business, but given it up to follow his dream.  It seemed to him that Beka liked the idea of the Commonwealth, but wasn't too sure it would work.   She was a great captain herself.  She cared about her ship and her crew, and got 100% loyalty in return.  She was with him now partially because of her love for the Maru, partially because of her loyalty to the promise she had made, and hopefully because a part of her believed they might be able to make the universe better. It was her superb piloting today that had allowed them to get close enough to the sun without being destroyed themselves.  He could see the concentration on her face as they just barely avoided skimming the sun's molten surface.   She may not have attended High Guard flight school, the best there was, but she was one of the best he'd seen.

Tyr was almost as much of a mystery as Trance.  Why was he here?  What were his motives, his true intentions?  Dylan knew they were whatever was good for him, but why did he stay?  He was without a pride, something devastating to a Neitzchein.  The Neitzcheins were a people who valued family above absolutely everything.  Tyr doesn't have a family.  He was a mercenary, a high price mercenary at that.  But he had left that venture, with the money it provided and the chance to impress a Neitzchein female, to stay on Andromeda.  Where he had pretty much no chance of finding a Neitzchien wife.  Unless Beka secretly had some Neitzchien friends to introduce him to, Tyr seemed cut off from that option.  But he stayed. He seemed blunt enough, but he was hiding some plan.  Hunt was glad he did stay; his weapons skills were better than those of the Andromeda's original weapons officer.  It probably came from all the practice he got.  Today, in an expert display, he shot the retrofitted torpedo into the very core of the sun, keeping it from going nova and saving an entire population from destruction.

They were an odd bunch. They would never salute, stand and announce his arrival.  He couldn't even see them calling him Captain Hunt.  They went AWOL and made demands to be picked up.  They all had flaws and problems his old crew never had.  But, they did save an entire world, so he'd have to cut them some slack.