Tyr's Dream
By Anastashia

Content Warnings: PG

Central Characters: A Tyr story

Spoilers: Takes Place After "All Too Human", Spoilers for "Immaculate Perception"

Disclaimer: Andromeda characters belong to Tribune Entertainment

EPISODE ONE:

Perhaps there was something to be said for having a cleric aboard. A thought that never would have occurred to him before...

"Before what Tyr?" he said to himself as he mused on the experience, remembering the bitter cold as the water first poured over him, and then the change, the warmth, the sustenance almost; he turned toward Reverend Behemial's quarters.

He paused again as he stood before the door, his hand poised to knock, "This is insane!"

"Talking to yourself Tyr?" said the Andromeda hologram as she popped into existence beside him.

"Engage privacy mode!" he glared at her.

"Privacy mode engaged, Acting Weapons Officer Tyr Anasazi" said the hologram as she popped out of existence again.

He turned back to the door, now that he knew he was really alone the hesitation reared it's ugly head again. Something inside of him wanted to do this, but just as strongly, something else was holding him back.

He raised his arm and balled his fist, moving it toward the door, but dropped it back down again.

'This is ridiculous!' The hand came up, he knocked.

Rev Bem sat on his prayer mat in the center of his quarters. He was deep in meditation. The experience with Anasazi had troubled him. So violent an act; restore him to life again it did, yet still so violent an act. He was troubled.

He gradually came to awareness of a knock on the door and rose to open it. Anasazi was standing there, the look on his face clearly told the same story. Tyr was troubled about something too.

Tyr looked into Rev's eyes for a brief second, then back down at the deck between them. Rev stood quietly for a moment. This wasn't like Tyr at all. Anasazi was sometimes quiet, but he normally went at things head on. Yet now Rev knew something was holding the Acting Weapons Officer back. Something that quite apparently disturbed him greatly.

Finally Rev ventured to break the silence, "It seems you have something you want to say to Me, but don't know where to begin."

Anasazi looked up at him, momentarily his face showed confusion but then he shrugged, "I have a question." He sighed, partly in exasperation with himself, partly in confusion, but at least now it was out.

Rev stepped to the side and motioned Tyr into his quarters sealing the door behind them. "I venture this is going to be a long evening, please make yourself comfortable." He gestured to the low platform on the side of the room.

Tyr turned to look at him, then briefly away again, his voice was low and hesitant as he said, "Far from comfortable." He lowered his head and stood there for several moments as the tension in the room assailed them both.

"It concerns your experience on Machen Alpha." Rev said it quietly, but it was not a question.

Tyr whirled on him, "Don't presume because..." he started angrily and then shook his head negatively and turned away again, dropping his head. "But I came to you didn't I?" Again it was said quietly, with a tinge of confusion, hesitation.

He turned back to Rev and walked past him to the platform the magog had earlier indicated. He sat cross-legged on it and leaned forward his elbows on his inner thighs. "You believe in an afterlife, no?" Now it was a conversational tone.

Rev walked closer and looked directly at Tyr. "and by an afterlife you mean...?"

Tyr blinked and looked away again for a minute before bringing his eyes back to Rev. "Well I was 'dead'," he struggled to get the word out, "yes?"

"To all intents and purposes, but then what is death? What did you feel?"

Tyr blinked again and waved the air in front of his face as if to negate Rev's question. He looked off to the side again, dropped his voice. "You're not going to make it easy for me, are you?"

"Did you want it to be easy?"

It broke the tension and Tyr let out a partially strangled laugh, "Perhaps not" he said with more conviction. "When the water first began to flow over me I was cold and...and," he struggled again to say it, his eyes coming briefly to Rev's again, "and not a little afraid."

The hint of a smile passed ever so briefly over Rev's face. 'Yes, something has definitely changed Anasazi.' he thought for not the first time in the last few minutes.

"I expected a last memory of bitter cold, but instead there was... a warmth. It wasn't specific, but it was there. I remembered. How could I have remembered if..., I was dead." It was said as if he was trying to convince himself, Rev continued to sit passively. This had to come from Tyr, if it wasn't from him he would never believe it.

Tyr also sat passively, not quite sure where to go with it, what to say, how much to reveal. He pulled one of his knees up to his chin, letting the other leg slide out, that foot touching the floor. Wrapping his arms around the ankle resting on the platform he was again not lookint at Rev. In fact it was now almost as if he was having the conversation with himself, as in fact he was. "It wasn't only warm...it was...light." He stopped and appeared lost in thought for a time before glancing back down to the floor and then up at the magog, meeting the other's eyes again.

Rev finally decided it was time for him to say something substative. "The divine makes itself known in many ways, yet there is a history among your people, and here I speak also of your human ancestors, of just that sort of manifestation. Were you aware of it's presence?"

Tyr's eyes grew wide, and he almost jumped back in shock. "Presence? No presence." But this time his voice betrayed him, for Rev could tell there was little truth in this statement.

"Are you so afraid to depend on anyone or anything that you attempt to deny it even to yourself?" Rev's voice raised in exasperation. "You are alone and you, Tyr Anasazi, do not want to be alone. You are alone because you are afraid to open yourself to the possiblities. So you sit there closed and afraid to take a chance, when taking a chance is the only choice you have."

"I am not afraid!" He roared it, and made to stand up as if to leave.

But as he did so the magog placed his hand upon the Nietzschean's chest and, though it appeared gentle, applied enough pressure to force Tyr back to a seated position on the platform. "You are afraid of your destiny Tyr Anasazi! Do not be. You have it within you, here," he placed his finger over Tyr's heart, "and here." He indicated his own temple but his meaning was clear. "Tell me what you saw." It was an imperitive that brooked no refusal.

"The Presence was the...the progenitor...the prophecy!" If his eyes had been wide some moments ago, they were now wider still.

"The prophecy...?" Rev prompted.

"Dylan knows, but I've never told any of the others of you, have I? Nietzscheans believe that the progenitor will rise again, re-incarnated in a Nietzschean who is his genetic replica."

"and that is why what is in hanger bay 15 is so important to you."

Tyr's eyes once again grew wide and he turned away, said it quietly "So I have no secrets here then."

Rev stiffled a laugh, "bulkheads have ears."

Tyr's smile was one of surprize now. "The Captain's quarters?" The rest of the question went unspoken, the implication was clear. "It was a dream, and in the dream." He struggled as if to remember a clouded memory. Suddenly what had only been a whisper in his mind, a fleeting impression was very clear. "My first born is to be a son!"

The smile that spread across his face was partial compensation for Rev. It thanked him for his actions in the rescue of Tyr and Harper on the worldship in a way that perhaps Tyr would never know. A small lessening of the sting of his own guilt, but a lessening nontheless.

Suddenly Tyr's entire body seemed to tense, "and my son..."

"is" prompted Rev, now understanding also.

"to be the new progenitor." said Tyr, the timber of his voice as shakey as his memory of when he had first viewed the visage of the progenitor. "My son." It was a whisper, but one of shock, then recognition and utter delight.