Disclaimer: Andromeda and all the characters from the show belong to
Tribune and Gene Rodenberry et al. You can just assume that all the
characters you don't recognize from the show belong to me. I would list my
characters, but I'm afraid it might give away part of the plot, so you'll
have to read the whole thing to find them all. MUAHAHAHAHA!!! Sorry. Don't
mind me, I just got a little carried away there.
Author's Note: Okay, so this is my first Andromeda fan fic. I know it's not exactly the best, but a lot of the Andromeda fan fics that have shown up here lately are kind of lame, although I really like the Gillian saga (Those fics are written by Cherubino, in case you were wondering). Please r/r but flames are for roasting marshmallows and I'm all out at the moment, so don't flame 'til I say I've gotten more, okay? Anyway, here's Chapter 1 of my masterpiece. Enjoy!
*******************************************************************
"GET – OFF – MY – ASS!!!!" Captain Izobella Porter hissed at the Drago Katzov ships on her scanner and she maneuvered her High Class Gallan Stealth Warship in and out of a shower of missiles. She smacked her palm on the launch button and added "PRONTO!!!" immediately before 4 of the 6 ships tailing her exploded and disappeared from her scanner. Her superior smiled turned into a frown when her ship rocked from the impact of one of the remaining ships' missiles.
"Izzy!" called a female voice from the doorway, "The Slipstream drive is down and there is no way in hell I can fix Shielding Systems 3 and 4 without your help."
Izobella sighed and replied, "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this…Jak, I'd prepare for a nastiest battle of your life if I were you." She slowed her ship to a stop and waited.
"So, shall I take your stopping as surrender, or would you prefer to have your beautiful ship boarded and have you and your friend there die slow, painfully, messy deaths?" the tall, dark Neitzschean pilot of one of the Drago Katzov ships said as his face popped up on the comm. screen.
"I was leaning more toward the second option," Izzy answered, "but we don't plan on dieing.
"Nobody ever does," the Neitz laughed wickedly and broke the comm. link.
Izzy locked the door to the command deck and opened her enormous weapons locker. She pulled out a dozen 10 in. double edged knives and stuck six into each of her knee-high black boots, a gauss gun was shoved into its holster on each of her hips, and a set of 3 ½ ft. Ancient Egyptian style swords were crossed on her ankle-length-black-leather-jacket clad back under a large iron shield. As she turned to face the not-yet-broken-open door, she paused, reached out for a jewel-handled ceremonial dagger, and at the last moment, decided to hide it under a secret board in the locker instead of tucking it into the back of her mid-thigh length black skirt like she usually did.
"You ready, Jak?" she asked.
"Let's rumble!" called the young woman standing by the weapons locker on the opposite wall.
"Bring it on!" Izobella yelled at the top of her lungs, as she turned to face the door.
*******************************************************************
"Dylan, I'm picking up a transmission," Andromeda told her Captain.
"Can I get a visual?" he asked.
"No, it's voice only," was the AI's reply.
"Good enough," Dylan said.
"Mayday! Mayday!" a woman's voice filled the Command deck, "I don't know if anyone will ever get this, but if you do, I am Captain Izobella Porter of the Esse Quam Videri and I have been attacked by the Drago Katzov. My engineer and best friend is dead and my ship is barely functional. If you have it in your heart to help a stranger in need I can assure you will be rewarded. Porter out."
"Well, that was certainly interesting," Dylan said to no one in particular.
"So…are we going to be our usual do-gooder selves and go searching for her?" Beka asked.
"Why not?" Dylan replied, "Rommie, please locate the Esse Quam Videri and set a course for it."
"Aye, Captain," Andromeda replied, "ship located. ETA is 2 hours."
*******************************************************************
Andromeda had found the Esse Quam Videri and pulled it into Docking Bay 6, and now Dylan, Harper, and Tyr were wandering around inside looking for Izobella with gauss guns and force lances drawn in case there were still Dragons creeping in the shadows. Tyr was stalking silently down an empty corridor when, all of a sudden, he heard a squeak above his head and a knife blade was pressed against his neck and he felt someone's hot breath by his ear.
"Who are you, Neitz?" a female voice asked in a menacing voice, "Why are you here? Did you hear that your little friend failed to kill me and come to finish the job?"
"I am Tyr Anasazi of the Kodiak Pride out of Victoria by Barbarosa," Tyr stated in an even tone, "and I can assure you that the Drago Katzov are no friends of mine." The knife blade was removed and a tall redhead swung down out of the air vent.
"Forgive me," the woman said, "I've had too many unpleasant encounters with Neitzscheans in the last few months to no be suspicious when one just waltzes in not trying to kill me."
"I would be on my guard as well, so you are forgiven," Tyr said, "I'm assuming you are Captain Izobella Porter."
"Indeed, I am," Izobella replied.
Tyr tapped his comm. button and announced, "I found her."
"Yeah? Well, I found her friend and I haven't touched her or anything, but it looks like we're too late," Harper answered, "What the…? Holy shit! AHHHHHHHHH! There's a giant cat chasing me!" A gauss gun was heard, followed by a deafening roar.
Izobella's head almost bugged out of her head as she turned and ran down the corridor, shouting, "Artemis! Leave him alone! He's one of the good guys! Remember the last time you got shot? Remember how much it hurt? Stop it!" Tyr ran onto the Command Deck of the Esse Quam Videri just in time to see a Black Panther pounce on a screaming Harper and then Izobella ran across the room, dived, and tackled the Panther. The pair rolled around in a roaring, growling mess for a few moments before they collapsed on the ground, Izobella laughing lying there laughing and sweating, with her chest heaving and Artemis purring and licking her fur, trying to make it smooth again. Izobella managed to control her laughter and stood up, then glanced over at Harper, who, half thinking she was insane and half trying not to piss his pants in fear, was looking at her with the strangest expression on his face, which caused Izzy to burst out laughing again.
"Artemis, have you seen Dante recently?" Izzy asked the panther, earning her another strange look from Harper. When Artemis shook her head back and forth, Izobella added, "Well, then can you go find him?" Artemis nodded and turned to leave.
"Are you aware you were just talking to a giant cat and she listened?" Harper asked.
"Yeah," Izzy replied with a chuckle, "she's a smart cat."
"So, this is Captain Izobella?" Dylan asked as he walked in.
"The one and only," Izzy confirmed, "and you would be…?"
"Captain Dylan Hunt of the Andromeda Ascendant," Dylan stuck out his hand, which Izobella shook, "I see you've already met our resident Neitzschean, Tyr Anasazi, and my Engineer, Seamus Harper."
"What are you talking about?" came a slightly perturbed female voice from outside the door, "he's my Engineer."
"Hey, Boss," Harper greeted Beka when she sauntered in.
"You guys were taking too long and I heard Harper scream like a little girl, so I decided to come check it out," the blonde Captain explained after receiving a dubious look from Dylan, and then she turned to Izzy, "Are you aware that there is a dead Neitzschean in the doorway? I almost tripped and broke my neck."
"Jeez, nice to meet you, too," Izobella chuckled.
"Oh, sorry," Beka apologized, "I'm Captain Rebeka Valentine of the Eureka Maru and Acting First Officer aboard the Andromeda Ascendant."
"Once again, nice to meet you," Izobella repeated, this time with a bit more genuine sincerity, "you didn't happen to see a big blue and green bird on your way in, did you?"
"Ummm…not that I recall," Beka said.
"Did it happen to look anything like this?" Trance asked as she walked in with a big blue Macaw perched on her shoulder."
"That's the one," Izzy smiled and stretched out her wrist, which the Macaw hopped happily onto, "Dante, what have you been up to?" The brightly colored bird ruffled its feathers and squawked loudly then tilted its head and looked at Izobella quizzically.
"Don't play dumb," the feisty redhead ordered, "I promise they're not bad. They won't bird-nap you and stick you in a zoo or do tests on you just because you're smart." The Macaw just squawked dumbly and was rewarded with a glare.
"Oh, all right," it finally said in perfect common, astonishing all of the Andromeda crewmembers, "and I suppose that if they tried anything fishy, you would have their asses strapped to the hull of your ship while trying to navigate uncharted slipstream portals."
"Yeah…but I haven't done that for years," Izzy said, with a straight face, "It's so…What's the best word to describe it?...messy."
"It…it talks," Beka stuttered in disbelief.
"I would say that he's very well trained, but I would be lying," Izobella grumbled, "he's the rudest creature in all the know worlds."
"You've never actually strapped people to your ship in space before, have you?" Harper whined apprehensively, "That was just a joke, right?"
"Maybe not," Izobella replied with a mischievous glint in her eye, "but, then again, maybe I did. Maybe nobody will ever know, except me."
"She didn't," Dante said in a matter-of-fact voice,
"Oh, you just have to ruin all of my fun, don't you?" Izzy snapped.
"Yeah, all the more fun for me," the bird replied.
"Dante, my patience is wearing thin and I'm hungry," she hissed as she brought the Macaw perched on her wrist right up to her face and pulled a skewer and a lighter out of one of her jacket pockets, "I'll tell you what. You have 5 seconds to get out of my sight before I make a rotisserie dinner out of you." She glared and Dante jumped of off her wrist and flew off.
"Bitch!" he squawked before he was out of hearing range.
Izobella put her head in her hands and groaned, "I'm sorry you guys had to meet that little brat on such a bad day. He can be such a sweetie when he wants to be, but he denies his emotions and they come out as some of the most annoying things sometimes. Ugh, and you've already been treated so horribly for people who are trying to help me. I mean really, I almost slit Tyr's throat, Artemis attacked Harper, and you're all probably completely disgusted by Dante's behavior. I'd understand and wouldn't hold it against you if you left me to die."
"We wouldn't do that," Dylan assured her.
"I know," Izobella admitted, with a sheepish grin.
"Oh? How's that?" Dylan asked.
"You don't come off as the type of guy who would just leave an innocent person to die. Hell, you don't even come off as the type of guy who'd leave a guilty person to die."
"Beka," Dylan ordered, still contemplating what Izzy had said, "Would you please escort Captain Porter to her quarters?"
"Sure," Beka replied, "Follow me."
*******************************************************************
"Well, this is it," Beka announced as she opened the door to one of the guest quarters.
"Wow. Not bad," Izobella murmured, "It's about 4 times as big as the Captain's quarters on the Esse. I mean, she's not a bad ship, but she's a stealth warship, so she's got to be small. There isn't a whole lot of room for big quarters. The crew and guest quarters are even smaller than mine. Jak didn't complain, though. She just loved the thrill of traveling the universe and saving everyone's ass with her best friend. I'll have to get in touch with her brother and tell him the bad news. He'll want to come and say goodbye to his baby sister and probably take her home and bury her with the family. I should probably talk to her older sister, too. She already knows what happened, but she just won't accept that her little Munchkin is gone." Izzy pressed her lips tight together, but they still quivered, and Beka noticed it, but then the surprisingly emotional redheaded Captain must have noticed she was being watched like a hawk and her face turned to stone, revealing nothing.
"I'll leave you alone for a while," Beka said, "but if you'd like to spruce the place up a bit, the old crew storage areas are full of things that I'm sure Dylan would let you use."
"Wait," Izobella looked up at Beka, "Do you think Dylan would be okay with it if I had a visitor?"
"Probably," Beka admitted, "but you should ask him. He tends to surprise you by disagreeing if you do things without his knowledge."
"Okay," Izobella replied, "could you thank Captain Hunt for me? I didn't get a chance."
"Sure," Beka smiled and left.
************************************************************************
"I think she's nuts," Harper admitted.
"She seemed to be hiding something," Tyr said, "I don't trust her."
"Not a lot of people trust you, either," Beka snapped, "it doesn't mean she's bad. I like her just fine, but when I showed her into her quarters, she started talking to me and she said something that disturbed me. It wasn't even an unusual thing to say, she just said it in the strangest way."
"What?" Dylan asked.
"Well she said that she'd have to tell Jak's brother about what happened and that he'd probably want to collect the body and bury it with the family," Beka explained, "but what disturbed me was when she said Jak's sister already knew but wouldn't accept that her "little Munchkin" had died, she just said it in the weirdest tone."
"Give her a break," Trance reasoned, "it's my understanding that Jak was Izobella's best friend. Wouldn't you be upset if your best friend just died?"
"What was that sound?" Harper, who had stopped paying any attention to the conversation after his addition to it, asked.
"I do believe our guest just got something more to mourn about," Tyr said.
"I'll be right back," Beka said as she stood up and left Dylan's office.
************************************************************************
"Are you okay?" Beka inquired when Izobella let her in, "We could hear you cursing from Dylan's office."
"Jak's brother is dead," Izobella said, her face yet again an expressionless mask.
"Oh," Beka tried to sound sympathetic, "Maybe I could get Dylan to give her a High Guard style funeral."
"She hated planets almost as much as I did," Izobella reminisced, "I suppose if I buried her on one, even the one she was born on, her soul would haunt me forever. Launching her into space sounds more like something she would want. Thanks."
************************************************************************
A few days later the crew of the Andromeda lined up in front of Jak's open casket. Jak was dressed in her favorite outfit and she looked murderously beautiful, even in death. The door open and Izobella strode slowly across, with a poor attempt at a calm look on her face. She kneeled by the casket and stared at her dead friend for a moment and then stood and placed a black rose on the body's chest and placed a dead hand over it.
"Jakelyn Porter…my engineer…my friend…you were always by my side, and for that I am thankful. Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful," the redheaded Captain whispered, before closing the casket lid and stepping back out of the airlock. The door closed and Izzy watched through a window as Jak's casket was launched into empty space.
"Goodbye, my little Munchkin," Izobella whispered as she spread a hand against the cold glass, and Beka felt for the daring female Captain as she finally understood her unease from a few days before: Jak had been Izobella's sister.
************************************************************************
…………and this is where I leave you hanging! Don't glare at your computer screen and hiss under your breath "Ugh! You evil thing! Don't stop now, right when you get to the interesting part!" It's not like it was the computer's fault. If you're anxious enough to bitch at an inanimate object for simply doing what it's programmed to do, then just review and I'll post more. I've got it all typed up and ready to show you, but I wont take the time if I don't feel my wonderful writing skills are appreciated here. 10 reviews = 1 more chapter, or just a couple of REALLY GOOD reviews = 1 more chapter, Flames = no more! Hell, if I get EXTREMELY pissed off by flames, I might even take away what I've already given you! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Author's Note: Okay, so this is my first Andromeda fan fic. I know it's not exactly the best, but a lot of the Andromeda fan fics that have shown up here lately are kind of lame, although I really like the Gillian saga (Those fics are written by Cherubino, in case you were wondering). Please r/r but flames are for roasting marshmallows and I'm all out at the moment, so don't flame 'til I say I've gotten more, okay? Anyway, here's Chapter 1 of my masterpiece. Enjoy!
*******************************************************************
"GET – OFF – MY – ASS!!!!" Captain Izobella Porter hissed at the Drago Katzov ships on her scanner and she maneuvered her High Class Gallan Stealth Warship in and out of a shower of missiles. She smacked her palm on the launch button and added "PRONTO!!!" immediately before 4 of the 6 ships tailing her exploded and disappeared from her scanner. Her superior smiled turned into a frown when her ship rocked from the impact of one of the remaining ships' missiles.
"Izzy!" called a female voice from the doorway, "The Slipstream drive is down and there is no way in hell I can fix Shielding Systems 3 and 4 without your help."
Izobella sighed and replied, "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this…Jak, I'd prepare for a nastiest battle of your life if I were you." She slowed her ship to a stop and waited.
"So, shall I take your stopping as surrender, or would you prefer to have your beautiful ship boarded and have you and your friend there die slow, painfully, messy deaths?" the tall, dark Neitzschean pilot of one of the Drago Katzov ships said as his face popped up on the comm. screen.
"I was leaning more toward the second option," Izzy answered, "but we don't plan on dieing.
"Nobody ever does," the Neitz laughed wickedly and broke the comm. link.
Izzy locked the door to the command deck and opened her enormous weapons locker. She pulled out a dozen 10 in. double edged knives and stuck six into each of her knee-high black boots, a gauss gun was shoved into its holster on each of her hips, and a set of 3 ½ ft. Ancient Egyptian style swords were crossed on her ankle-length-black-leather-jacket clad back under a large iron shield. As she turned to face the not-yet-broken-open door, she paused, reached out for a jewel-handled ceremonial dagger, and at the last moment, decided to hide it under a secret board in the locker instead of tucking it into the back of her mid-thigh length black skirt like she usually did.
"You ready, Jak?" she asked.
"Let's rumble!" called the young woman standing by the weapons locker on the opposite wall.
"Bring it on!" Izobella yelled at the top of her lungs, as she turned to face the door.
*******************************************************************
"Dylan, I'm picking up a transmission," Andromeda told her Captain.
"Can I get a visual?" he asked.
"No, it's voice only," was the AI's reply.
"Good enough," Dylan said.
"Mayday! Mayday!" a woman's voice filled the Command deck, "I don't know if anyone will ever get this, but if you do, I am Captain Izobella Porter of the Esse Quam Videri and I have been attacked by the Drago Katzov. My engineer and best friend is dead and my ship is barely functional. If you have it in your heart to help a stranger in need I can assure you will be rewarded. Porter out."
"Well, that was certainly interesting," Dylan said to no one in particular.
"So…are we going to be our usual do-gooder selves and go searching for her?" Beka asked.
"Why not?" Dylan replied, "Rommie, please locate the Esse Quam Videri and set a course for it."
"Aye, Captain," Andromeda replied, "ship located. ETA is 2 hours."
*******************************************************************
Andromeda had found the Esse Quam Videri and pulled it into Docking Bay 6, and now Dylan, Harper, and Tyr were wandering around inside looking for Izobella with gauss guns and force lances drawn in case there were still Dragons creeping in the shadows. Tyr was stalking silently down an empty corridor when, all of a sudden, he heard a squeak above his head and a knife blade was pressed against his neck and he felt someone's hot breath by his ear.
"Who are you, Neitz?" a female voice asked in a menacing voice, "Why are you here? Did you hear that your little friend failed to kill me and come to finish the job?"
"I am Tyr Anasazi of the Kodiak Pride out of Victoria by Barbarosa," Tyr stated in an even tone, "and I can assure you that the Drago Katzov are no friends of mine." The knife blade was removed and a tall redhead swung down out of the air vent.
"Forgive me," the woman said, "I've had too many unpleasant encounters with Neitzscheans in the last few months to no be suspicious when one just waltzes in not trying to kill me."
"I would be on my guard as well, so you are forgiven," Tyr said, "I'm assuming you are Captain Izobella Porter."
"Indeed, I am," Izobella replied.
Tyr tapped his comm. button and announced, "I found her."
"Yeah? Well, I found her friend and I haven't touched her or anything, but it looks like we're too late," Harper answered, "What the…? Holy shit! AHHHHHHHHH! There's a giant cat chasing me!" A gauss gun was heard, followed by a deafening roar.
Izobella's head almost bugged out of her head as she turned and ran down the corridor, shouting, "Artemis! Leave him alone! He's one of the good guys! Remember the last time you got shot? Remember how much it hurt? Stop it!" Tyr ran onto the Command Deck of the Esse Quam Videri just in time to see a Black Panther pounce on a screaming Harper and then Izobella ran across the room, dived, and tackled the Panther. The pair rolled around in a roaring, growling mess for a few moments before they collapsed on the ground, Izobella laughing lying there laughing and sweating, with her chest heaving and Artemis purring and licking her fur, trying to make it smooth again. Izobella managed to control her laughter and stood up, then glanced over at Harper, who, half thinking she was insane and half trying not to piss his pants in fear, was looking at her with the strangest expression on his face, which caused Izzy to burst out laughing again.
"Artemis, have you seen Dante recently?" Izzy asked the panther, earning her another strange look from Harper. When Artemis shook her head back and forth, Izobella added, "Well, then can you go find him?" Artemis nodded and turned to leave.
"Are you aware you were just talking to a giant cat and she listened?" Harper asked.
"Yeah," Izzy replied with a chuckle, "she's a smart cat."
"So, this is Captain Izobella?" Dylan asked as he walked in.
"The one and only," Izzy confirmed, "and you would be…?"
"Captain Dylan Hunt of the Andromeda Ascendant," Dylan stuck out his hand, which Izobella shook, "I see you've already met our resident Neitzschean, Tyr Anasazi, and my Engineer, Seamus Harper."
"What are you talking about?" came a slightly perturbed female voice from outside the door, "he's my Engineer."
"Hey, Boss," Harper greeted Beka when she sauntered in.
"You guys were taking too long and I heard Harper scream like a little girl, so I decided to come check it out," the blonde Captain explained after receiving a dubious look from Dylan, and then she turned to Izzy, "Are you aware that there is a dead Neitzschean in the doorway? I almost tripped and broke my neck."
"Jeez, nice to meet you, too," Izobella chuckled.
"Oh, sorry," Beka apologized, "I'm Captain Rebeka Valentine of the Eureka Maru and Acting First Officer aboard the Andromeda Ascendant."
"Once again, nice to meet you," Izobella repeated, this time with a bit more genuine sincerity, "you didn't happen to see a big blue and green bird on your way in, did you?"
"Ummm…not that I recall," Beka said.
"Did it happen to look anything like this?" Trance asked as she walked in with a big blue Macaw perched on her shoulder."
"That's the one," Izzy smiled and stretched out her wrist, which the Macaw hopped happily onto, "Dante, what have you been up to?" The brightly colored bird ruffled its feathers and squawked loudly then tilted its head and looked at Izobella quizzically.
"Don't play dumb," the feisty redhead ordered, "I promise they're not bad. They won't bird-nap you and stick you in a zoo or do tests on you just because you're smart." The Macaw just squawked dumbly and was rewarded with a glare.
"Oh, all right," it finally said in perfect common, astonishing all of the Andromeda crewmembers, "and I suppose that if they tried anything fishy, you would have their asses strapped to the hull of your ship while trying to navigate uncharted slipstream portals."
"Yeah…but I haven't done that for years," Izzy said, with a straight face, "It's so…What's the best word to describe it?...messy."
"It…it talks," Beka stuttered in disbelief.
"I would say that he's very well trained, but I would be lying," Izobella grumbled, "he's the rudest creature in all the know worlds."
"You've never actually strapped people to your ship in space before, have you?" Harper whined apprehensively, "That was just a joke, right?"
"Maybe not," Izobella replied with a mischievous glint in her eye, "but, then again, maybe I did. Maybe nobody will ever know, except me."
"She didn't," Dante said in a matter-of-fact voice,
"Oh, you just have to ruin all of my fun, don't you?" Izzy snapped.
"Yeah, all the more fun for me," the bird replied.
"Dante, my patience is wearing thin and I'm hungry," she hissed as she brought the Macaw perched on her wrist right up to her face and pulled a skewer and a lighter out of one of her jacket pockets, "I'll tell you what. You have 5 seconds to get out of my sight before I make a rotisserie dinner out of you." She glared and Dante jumped of off her wrist and flew off.
"Bitch!" he squawked before he was out of hearing range.
Izobella put her head in her hands and groaned, "I'm sorry you guys had to meet that little brat on such a bad day. He can be such a sweetie when he wants to be, but he denies his emotions and they come out as some of the most annoying things sometimes. Ugh, and you've already been treated so horribly for people who are trying to help me. I mean really, I almost slit Tyr's throat, Artemis attacked Harper, and you're all probably completely disgusted by Dante's behavior. I'd understand and wouldn't hold it against you if you left me to die."
"We wouldn't do that," Dylan assured her.
"I know," Izobella admitted, with a sheepish grin.
"Oh? How's that?" Dylan asked.
"You don't come off as the type of guy who would just leave an innocent person to die. Hell, you don't even come off as the type of guy who'd leave a guilty person to die."
"Beka," Dylan ordered, still contemplating what Izzy had said, "Would you please escort Captain Porter to her quarters?"
"Sure," Beka replied, "Follow me."
*******************************************************************
"Well, this is it," Beka announced as she opened the door to one of the guest quarters.
"Wow. Not bad," Izobella murmured, "It's about 4 times as big as the Captain's quarters on the Esse. I mean, she's not a bad ship, but she's a stealth warship, so she's got to be small. There isn't a whole lot of room for big quarters. The crew and guest quarters are even smaller than mine. Jak didn't complain, though. She just loved the thrill of traveling the universe and saving everyone's ass with her best friend. I'll have to get in touch with her brother and tell him the bad news. He'll want to come and say goodbye to his baby sister and probably take her home and bury her with the family. I should probably talk to her older sister, too. She already knows what happened, but she just won't accept that her little Munchkin is gone." Izzy pressed her lips tight together, but they still quivered, and Beka noticed it, but then the surprisingly emotional redheaded Captain must have noticed she was being watched like a hawk and her face turned to stone, revealing nothing.
"I'll leave you alone for a while," Beka said, "but if you'd like to spruce the place up a bit, the old crew storage areas are full of things that I'm sure Dylan would let you use."
"Wait," Izobella looked up at Beka, "Do you think Dylan would be okay with it if I had a visitor?"
"Probably," Beka admitted, "but you should ask him. He tends to surprise you by disagreeing if you do things without his knowledge."
"Okay," Izobella replied, "could you thank Captain Hunt for me? I didn't get a chance."
"Sure," Beka smiled and left.
************************************************************************
"I think she's nuts," Harper admitted.
"She seemed to be hiding something," Tyr said, "I don't trust her."
"Not a lot of people trust you, either," Beka snapped, "it doesn't mean she's bad. I like her just fine, but when I showed her into her quarters, she started talking to me and she said something that disturbed me. It wasn't even an unusual thing to say, she just said it in the strangest way."
"What?" Dylan asked.
"Well she said that she'd have to tell Jak's brother about what happened and that he'd probably want to collect the body and bury it with the family," Beka explained, "but what disturbed me was when she said Jak's sister already knew but wouldn't accept that her "little Munchkin" had died, she just said it in the weirdest tone."
"Give her a break," Trance reasoned, "it's my understanding that Jak was Izobella's best friend. Wouldn't you be upset if your best friend just died?"
"What was that sound?" Harper, who had stopped paying any attention to the conversation after his addition to it, asked.
"I do believe our guest just got something more to mourn about," Tyr said.
"I'll be right back," Beka said as she stood up and left Dylan's office.
************************************************************************
"Are you okay?" Beka inquired when Izobella let her in, "We could hear you cursing from Dylan's office."
"Jak's brother is dead," Izobella said, her face yet again an expressionless mask.
"Oh," Beka tried to sound sympathetic, "Maybe I could get Dylan to give her a High Guard style funeral."
"She hated planets almost as much as I did," Izobella reminisced, "I suppose if I buried her on one, even the one she was born on, her soul would haunt me forever. Launching her into space sounds more like something she would want. Thanks."
************************************************************************
A few days later the crew of the Andromeda lined up in front of Jak's open casket. Jak was dressed in her favorite outfit and she looked murderously beautiful, even in death. The door open and Izobella strode slowly across, with a poor attempt at a calm look on her face. She kneeled by the casket and stared at her dead friend for a moment and then stood and placed a black rose on the body's chest and placed a dead hand over it.
"Jakelyn Porter…my engineer…my friend…you were always by my side, and for that I am thankful. Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful," the redheaded Captain whispered, before closing the casket lid and stepping back out of the airlock. The door closed and Izzy watched through a window as Jak's casket was launched into empty space.
"Goodbye, my little Munchkin," Izobella whispered as she spread a hand against the cold glass, and Beka felt for the daring female Captain as she finally understood her unease from a few days before: Jak had been Izobella's sister.
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…………and this is where I leave you hanging! Don't glare at your computer screen and hiss under your breath "Ugh! You evil thing! Don't stop now, right when you get to the interesting part!" It's not like it was the computer's fault. If you're anxious enough to bitch at an inanimate object for simply doing what it's programmed to do, then just review and I'll post more. I've got it all typed up and ready to show you, but I wont take the time if I don't feel my wonderful writing skills are appreciated here. 10 reviews = 1 more chapter, or just a couple of REALLY GOOD reviews = 1 more chapter, Flames = no more! Hell, if I get EXTREMELY pissed off by flames, I might even take away what I've already given you! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!