Title: First Step
Author: Anastashia
Content Warnings: PG
Central Characters: A Tyr story
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Andromeda characters belong to Tribune Entertainment
Claimer: Alera belongs to me
Copyright: (C) 2001 by Ayn Enterprises
Characterizations are the invention of the author. Author holds claim to all story ideas as original. No part may be used without permission of the author. All rights reserved. Please contact if you wish to archive.
Just a little something that started to grow in my head while I was on vacation. Another one with a mate and a child started there also but it may take me a while to get it written

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First Step.

Tyr moved ever so slightly in the corner of the bar. She'd stopped in the entryway from the lobby. Although it was the best hotel in the capital city, there was still a seediness to this bar, and he truly wondered if she would enter. There was something about her that intrigued him. Her skin was the color of his own, her eyes as brooding, hair as amazingly dark, even longer than his. Only hers was not braided, instead a clasp first held it at the crown of her head. Vertical ringlets fell from there to another clasp at the nape of her neck. From there the curled tendrils fanned out across her back, reaching fully to her hips.

She was dressed in layers. Her skin appeared entirely covered in a layer of steely blue. It clung to her legs like a form fitting glove above the simple white leather calf-high boots. The fit was similar on her upper arms, but flared at the elbow before the strangely rippling cloth was caught again at her wrists. Over the blue was a simple sleeveless sheath of see through mesh, the color barely less blue than the form fitting suit underneath it. It was gathered at her waist by a belt of silver chain, it's lower edge ran irregularly from mid hip on her right to just below her knee on the left. Finally, the entire outfit was topped by a sleeveless leather vest of the purest white that stopped at her waist.

One edge of the vest was tooled in the same brilliant blue as the body garment, but even with his enhanced Nietzschean vision Tyr could not see the pattern. Although those things could always be deceiving, she appeared to him to be in her early twenties. Her gaze swept the room, as she did so he stepped further back into the shadows, remembering the assessment he had made earlier as he had entered the room. There had been no other Nietzscheans there when he had entered, none had entered since, but he'd known in a heartbeat, despite her attempt to hide it, that this was a Nietzschean woman.

She'd turned away and entered the adjoining restaurant. Despite the seedy appearance of the bar, the restaurant was a fine establishment and he momentarily cursed this morning's choice of clothing. Remembering that he'd been admitted the night before however, he'd quickly ordered a glass of fine wine, the bar was seedy but the available libations not necessarily so he had learned. Picking up his own drink he had rapidly crossed to the restaurant and watched as she'd been seated. As the hostess had returned to the front he'd used his eyes to indicate the young woman. The hostess had raised her eyebrows, but rapidly assessed him and nodded her head.

Although her back was to him he noticed with approval her alert posture as he'd approached the table. Giving it a wide berth he'd returned to it so that she could see him. He placed the glass of wine down in front of her and smoothly slid into the seat opposite. Placing his own drink on the table he'd lifted his head to her allowing just the hint of a smile to play about his lips. But as he finally got a better look at her face something made him stop. This was a young, beautiful Nietzschean woman, but something about her face stopped his urge to go into full display mode like he'd hit a brick wall. He gulped, and saw a quizzical look come into her eyes. Obviously not the next reaction she had been expecting either.

He'd picked up his own drink and took another sip, but too quickly. Putting it back down again he'd looked away as he felt a touch on his hand. Her head was tilted to the side as he looked back at her. By some unexplained but mutual consent they exchanged only first names. Hers, he learned, was Alera. Once again something tugged at the back of his mind but he couldn't put a finger on it. So he asked her the obvious, while avoiding the most important. What was she doing here, but not more about who she was.

She told him of her father's position in local government on Elvos, another world in the system they were currently visiting. She had gone to university here on Trevur, completing her studies that spring and had returned for a summer graduate conference which was just wrapping up. There was an excellent chance that she would continue her graduate studies in xenobiology here. He shifted uncomfortably as she spoke. As Dylan had targeted this system for Commonwealth membership Tyr had studied the Human/Nietzschean interaction. She had told him her father was a government official on Elvos, but Nietzscheans avoided Elvos, the atmosphere of interspecies cooperation being more liberal among the majority human population of Trevur. Yet despite that she did not seem to be displaying it, he knew she was Nietzschean.

They'd decided to have dinner together and shared a pleasant meal. When his turn to speak came he'd told her of Dylan's quest and his role in it. Somehow though, against his better judgement, he'd allowed her to draw him out and she'd gotten the truth of his earlier profession from him. He'd realized it with a start. Again the confusing disquiet played in the back of his mind and he decided perhaps he'd spoken with her long enough. He'd nodded and reached across the table to help her up.

Again something about her reached into his inner core. The graceful movement, the tilt of her head as she rose, it screamed at him. He racked his brain, and then froze as the tooling on the edge of her vest came clearly into his view for the first time. The markings were the personal anagram of Helena, his father's second mate! His mind flew back, who had been with child on the eve of the betrayal some 20 years ago. The girl before him, had just finished university!

"Tell me your name and your lineage," he said it with an urgency that he had never used before. She looked at him, startled.

"Alera Vengren. My father is Avern..."

"NO! Tell me your name and your lineage!" This time he held her left hand fast, reached down, unfastened the button at her wrist and rolled back the sleeve, revealing her bone spurs beneath it. Her eyes were wide now as she tried to pull away from him, but he would not let her go. Quietly he said to her, "Tyr Anasazi, out of Victoria, by Barbarrosa, Kodiak pride."

He saw the shock of recognition flame in her eyes. "Alera Anasazi, out of Helena..." she looked down, her voice choking.

"By" he prompted.

She could only manage a whisper, "Barbarrosa," which was followed even more softly by 'brother" as she threw herself sobbing into his arms. Tyr held her, stunned himself, not wanting to believe, almost not able to comprehend. As he looked up, his face covered in shock he saw Dylan, Beka, and Rommie enter the restaurant. He decided to face it head on. He pulled back from her and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks. Turning to the others, who were now standing just behind her he introduced her matter-of-factly, "my half-sibling Alera." The rebuilding of Kodiak pride had begun, in quite a different way then he had anticipated.