Something to Do

by CadetDru

Work-in-progress. Beka's point of view, dealing with her Uncle Sid coming back into her life. First person narrative. Song lyrics throughout.

Title: Something to Do: 1 or CadetDru's Beka-Fic Section Alpha.
Status: Work-In-Progress, Currently
Spoilers: Cui Bono, The Pearls That Were His Eyes, The Ties That Blind, Ouroboros, Fear and Loathing in... gah. I'm tired of typing ep titles!
Feedback: Yeah. Right. Please? Here's the email.
Disclaimer: Andromeda is property of several entities, including Tribune. Stupid Tribune. Title comes from song of same name by the Ramones, only I shortened it 'cos I'm lazy. You should just be glad I decided against "My Dark Life" yet again.
Archival: Heh, yeah. Sure. Whatever. I'm fairly cynical about archival, since no one's expressed an interest in the last year…
Notes: Beka p.o.v. Apologies to Viridian and Juls, who are now incorporated in my pantheon of muses. Also, I might not have told you this, but writing about Beka's mom is HARD. I have nothing to work with. Nothing. May or may not be slash.

The Original Song:

Hanging out all by myself.
I don't want to be with anybody else.
I just want to be with you.
I just want to have something to do
Tonight

---

I stood on the Maru, looking, again, at the weapons and the bar. "A devil on one shoulder. An angel on the other," I said to myself.

"Two devils," I heard Harper mutter. He started messing around behind the bar.

The codes on my ship were hard-wired in. I'd tried changing them once, before Harper came aboard. After, I didn't really think about Sid or Rafe trying to take my ship. Rafe wouldn't dare come near the Maru back then. Probably because people thought Harper was Rafe. We didn't dispute it; Rafe didn't either.
Harper changed that for me. He'd been taking my baby apart for two days, just now finished with the rewiring. The new code was vocal, "Harper is my love god." Improbable, but hard to crack.

He poured himself something that was probably a heavy depressant. He'd been sucking down coffee like… Well, it's Harper. He'd had a lot of coffee.

"It doesn't have to sound sincere, y'know," he told me. "Which one's the angel?" I glared at him. "You said Sid claimed he kept the sharks off ya…"

"Harper--"

He kept talking. "--and you thought it was your dad's ghost keeping you safe--"

I interrupted again. "Harper--"

"--So, really, the angel would be the one who really protected you, right? And since Sid is such a nice guy--"

"Seamus," I groaned.

With a completely straight face, he said, "Ba ba bapa ba ba bapa, I wanna be sedated."

I laughed. "Go sleep."

"Here?" He looked down at the floor, gesturing frantically. "And I can't, I just had some more coffee."

I thought he'd had enough of that. It must've been iced or something. It didn't look like the blend he'd been drinking…

"Sleep, boy," I said, trying to get through that spiky blond head.

Harper wrinkled his nose at me. "You sound like Tyr."

Uh. Yeah. "Tyr tries to get you to sleep on his ship?"

"Tyr doesn't have a ship, Beka," Harper said patiently.

"His quarters then?" He yawned. A completely fake yawn, of course. "Sleep, child."

"And now you sound like Dylan!" He was too strung out. "When ya gonna do the infamous Beka impression?"

"HARPER!"

"Mm, yeah, there it is. 'Beat on the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat--" He looked around. Frantically, almost. "I'm not done yet, Beka. I need to fix your baby first."

I couldn't argue with that. I started to go through some of my files.

Tyr walked onto the Maru. Again. He kept dropping by to suggest ways Harper could make the ship better. Like a "push here to take over the universe" button.

"We're a happy family, we're a happy family," Harper sang as he leap-frogged his way through my ship.

Tyr arched an eyebrow. Harper had been fairly… normal… when Tyr had last graced us with his presence. That would've been before the second rush of adrenaline had hit my boy.

He slipped under Tyr's arm and past me. "What are the new codes?" Tyr asked the whirlwind.

"You don't want to know," I said, completely sincere.

"You can guess," Harper suggested, with a look that made me want to run away very quickly.
I mean, I'm sure he and Tyr would make an adorable couple. I was standing between them, though.

"He needs sleep," I told Tyr. I considered adding that Harper had said something about Tyr… No. I didn't want to know.

"You have no faith in the boy's abilities," Tyr said. He was trying to get Harper to hand my ship over. Right.

I glared at Tyr. "He's going to kill himself if he stays up any longer."

Harper didn't say anything. Harper wasn't moving. I couldn't hear him jumping around for the first time in several hours. Tyr was staring at something behind me.
I spun on my boots. None of those things was good.

Harper was leaning against the wall now, staring at the floor. "The floor's… dilating," he said, blinking a lot.

"No, it's not," Tyr and I said in very different tones. Tyr was dry. I was worried.
Harper needed sleep. Badly.
Tyr and I took Harper back to the main parts of the ship-- the Andromeda. I wanted Trance to give him an once-over, make sure he was still okay. Dylan found us, followed us.

Harper slipped away before we got to Trance. He was down a ladder by the time Dylan moved out of my way. Well, my way and Tyr's way. He'd been in the middle of a pep talk for me when Harper had slipped away.
Lucky Harper. So the three of us had to run and find him. Tyr and I glared at Dylan as we ran.

Harper was tapping away at a console on the wall when we found him. He hadn't had enough time to hook up his dataport. Dylan was on one side of me. Tyr stood on the other. Devil, Angel.
Harper was singing along to his music.

Tyr and Dylan exchanged a look around me, in front of me. Then they looked at me, which was somehow worse. Harper noticed them. Maybe he could sense the shadows. Maybe it was our big clunky boots. Maybe he has eyes in the back of his head.
Whatever it was, he looked up.

His face lit up when he looked at Tyr. Uh. Yeah. Creepy. "Tyr! Hmm. Hold on…" He did something to the console. Harper winked at me as he worked.

This whole runaround had been a game with him. He was playing Tag with Tyr and me. Hide and seek. Something. It was just a game.

Which meant Dylan could live.
The song changed.
"'When I start movin', you see a blur. Get hooked on me baby, there ain't no cure. I've always been able to laugh at fate. Two brown eyes filled with hate.'"

"Your song." Harper made elaborate gestures towards… nothing, really. The console was in the other direction entirely.

Tyr blinked. "Thank you." He didn't understand.

I did. Well, a lot more than Tyr or Dylan did. Harper used to blast his songs across the entire Maru between runs. He explained the symbolism behind each of his songs to me. Each. We had a lot of down time.
The song was "Main Man." Sort of mercenary-like, and… it is very like Tyr.

"Do I get a song?" I asked, despite the voice in my head saying, "Rocket, we don't wanna know."
I asked myself why my conscience suddenly sounded like Sid. Ehh. I didn't really want to know that, either.

"Will you change your name to Judy?" Harper asked me. He was still wired. Very wired.

"Judy is a punk."

"No," I snapped. "Harper, go to sleep. Now."

"'Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment,'" he quoted at me.

I couldn't quite interpret that for a moment. Shock. He was going to go into the Andromeda's system. When he's actually physically wired, he can delay sleeping for even longer. I knew he was going to do it. I grabbed his arm before he could start that.

"I will tie you to your bunk in the Maru if necessary, Seamus."
His little face just lit up again. I knew him too well.

Dylan coughed. He was the only one who hadn't gotten that look onto Harper's face in the last ten minutes. Of course, he was more worried about me doing something to my traitorous uncle than about Harper's precarious health… If he tried to cop another feel, I would kill him.

I closed my eyes and tried not to act like my dad, like Sid, like my brother. Why was that thought nagging at me? Rafe was far, far away. Sid wouldn't…

No. Rafe and Sid wouldn't talk to each other. This was ridiculous. Sid wouldn't send Rafe here, to talk to me about my dad… our dad. No. Not going to happen.

I had to focus on Harper. He needed sleep. He had reached that point-- I knew he had-- that point where he doesn't realize how damn tired he is.

"Harper," I said, opening my eyes again. "You and I are going to go back to the Maru now. We're going to finish the work you started on it. Then we are going to sleep for a long, long time."

"Separate bunks?" he said, trying to be coy and seductive or something. It didn't work. It's Harper. It was a tired Harper, even. He wasn't really putting out an effort.

"Yes. C'mon." I still had my hand on Harper's arm.

Dylan brilliantly said, "Harper, you should sleep." Tyr and I just looked at the guy.

"Maru?" Harper said.

I nodded.

---

When Sid was on the ship-- on the Andromeda, not my ship-- I couldn't stop to think. My dad was an addict. That's why there is a bar on the Maru. I don't drink, smoke… if it weren't for Sid, I'd be completely straight, as Harper puts it.
Sid and my dad are perfect examples of typical spacers in the Long Night. Sid made it big, Dad… didn't.

Harper was humming. I'd tucked him into my bed on the Maru. I was sitting with my back against the bed. I didn't trust him to lie the hell down. "You know--" I started. "Wait, why am I talking to you? Sleep, damn it." He faked a snore. I laughed. He made me laugh. "Wired little freak," I muttered.

"You didn't tie me up," he whined.

I closed my eyes and pushed my fists into them. "You know, Tyr and Sid and my brother Rafe have many disturbing similarities."

"Yeah, we're all Nietszchean."

"That's--" I opened my eyes. I moved to stare at him. "Did you say 'we'?"

Harper sat up. I glared at him. "Beka, darling, wonderful Captain, you and I and Tyr are forming a psychotic little pride over here." I snorted. I couldn't help it. He was so obviously full of himself. "I'm serious, Beka. You and I are as ruthless, as cunning, as willing to blow up our enemies as the nice psycho Ubers. We're…" He shrugged. "The Long Night affected…" He shrugged again. "I've been thinking a lot, okay?"

"And singing."

Which set him off to singing again. I knew it would. "'I'm my main man. Always ready for whatever's gonna happen.'"

I sat down next to him. "You're trying to get me to tie you up."

He grinned darkly. "Is it working?"

"Sorry. I need sleep too." I laid down. My back hurt, my chest hurt, my arms hurt…

"Beka?" Harper asked. He was confused. I could tell that much from his voice. My eyes were closed.

"I'm tired, Harper."

"I figured out your song."

"Good night, Seamus."

"'Somebody Put Something In My Drink.'"

I lightly punched his shoulder. He laughed.

"What's your song?" I asked, opening my eyes and rolling onto my side. It was obvious he wasn't going to let me sleep until we'd talked for a bit.

A shadow passed over his face. "'The KKK Took My Baby Away.'" Oh. God. His family on Earth, his cousin… I hated Dylan. The shadow passed. "Or 'I Wanna Be Sedated.' Depends."

---

I dreamt that Sid took my ship. I dreamt that Dylan helped him. I woke up when I got to the weapons locker.

I had a numb feeling in my right arm. Harper was curled up on top of it. His toolbelt was digging into my right hip. His boots were pressed against my shin. He groaned and stretched and hit me in the jaw. The things I put up with for this boy…

"Oh, hey Beka. I just had the most wonderful dream."

"I did too."

"Were you wearing black leather in yours, too? Wait, why am I in your bed?" Well, he was back to normal at least.

"Because you needed sleep."

"Yeah, I guess I did, but now I need a Sparky." He jumped out of my bed.

"For breakfast?" I said, trying not to yawn. I felt a little better. My bra was digging into me. I could barely feel my arm. This was still better.

"Yeah, I need it. The withdrawal is kicking in and it's kicking my ass. The coffee did nothing for me. It just fueled my Ramones obsession. I was internalized. It sucked. I need to shower. You wanna join me?"

I started ticking off sentences on my fingers. "You don't need a Sparky. The coffee just hit you. You weren't that internalized. I'm not showering with you. And… I'll grab you some clothes while you shower."
He looked better. He'd look better showered and dressed and generally cleaned up.
"Floor dilating?" I asked, sitting up on the bed. I felt dizzy. I needed hours and days more sleep.

"No, it's back to normal. Beka, you should really get that fixed."

I laid back on my bed. "I'm going to kill Dylan," I announced.

Harper called, "No, you're not. You'll make a deal with Tyr and Trance. Actually, just ask Trance. She'll be sure to have some great ideas of body disposal." I rolled my eyes. "Beka, if you have a problem with Dylan, you should talk it out with him, captain to captain."

"Shower."

"Yes, Mom."

I'd woken up on the wrong side of my tired engineer. I needed more sleep, the kind of sleep where I had no dreams or red marks on my side. I didn't have time for that, though. "Harper, I'm either going to kill Sid, kill Dylan, or fly the Maru into a sun."

He pouted at me. "You can't fly it into a sun after I fixed it for you."

"So an accident it is," I said, mostly to myself.

"Dylan won't appreciate your veiled attempts of homicide. Your uncle's not so bad; he honestly thought you were blackmailing him." Harper shrugged.

I fixed Harper with a look. "There's nothing honest about him."

"He cares about you. He helped you keep your ship."

"Right."

"He's honest about being a sleaze."

"You're right. He is. Can we not talk about him any more?"

"Sure." Harper was unconsciously doing his hurt puppy impression.

"All right, I'm going to go grab some clothes for you."

"Why can't I go to my own room on the Andromeda and shower and get my own clothes?"

"Because we still have work to do here. And I don't want you to tell Rommie about my plans for Dylan." Harper had been trying to drink some Sparky when I said that. He started coughing. "Shower." He nodded.

I knew Harper would take his time showering. I decided to take his advice, and talk to Dylan. I took a little bit of time to think about what I could say.

Dylan's like a father to me. Like Dad was, and Sid, even. Dylan might not be a drug dealer or a junkie, but he's as delusional as one. He doesn't call me Rocket. I would kill him if he ever said "sorry, Rocket." Dylan Hunt being a third father wasn't going to keep me from shooting him.

Another reason, any reason would do. Like Harper. Like the way he continually let Harper down, broke his promises… No. Harper'd kill Dylan himself if he wanted Dylan dead for that. So. I wouldn't interfere there. Same with Tyr. And with Trance. Trance wanted Dylan alive, for whatever reason.

Captain Terrific was in his office.

"What's the new code?" Dylan asked, in response to my strained "hi." He was so very subtle.

I lied through my teeth. "Harper hasn't finished rewiring the Maru yet." I should've felt bad for lying. Not really lying, though. He needed to finish the booby-traps designed to prevent Dylan or anyone else from planting any more bugs on my ship.

"All right," Dylan started. No, no, no.

"You're not going to put any more hidden devices on my ship, Dylan," I said. I managed a smile. He didn't say anything. I paced his office a little.

"Was there anything else, Beka?"

"Just wanted you to know the blondes are awake again." He smiled thinly. Possessively, even. I was being paranoid. Sid had shook me up again.
"Sid's honest about his evilness. He knows he's selfish and probably going to hell. You're too busy Doing The Right Thing For the Good of The Galaxy. Doesn't matter that the Good of the Galaxy is directly affected by whether or not it benefits Captain Terrific. Time travel to save your ass from a black hole is fine. Time travel to save Earth isn't. Now, even now that the Commonwealth has been established yet again, you still want to be able to be the sole judge of what's the Right Thing For the Good of the Galaxy."

"I've been betrayed by my second in command before."

"I'm not Rhade! I'm not Nietszchean, I'm not High Guard, and I'm not sleeping with you!"

He sat up straighter when I said that. "You're not what?"

"Nietszchean. High Guard. Sleeping with you." The last one pissed him off. "I talked with Rommie." Dylan blinked at me. I hastened to add, "I mean, she told me about you and Rhade. Not that she forbade me to sleep with you."

None of the words coming out of my mouth were helping. In fact, every last one was making the situation much worse. Harper calls outbursts like this "putting my foot in my mouth." Takes talent with boots like mine.

"Are you about done?" he said, icily.

I wanted to throw myself out of an airlock. There was nothing he could do to me that would make me feel worse. Actually, there was. He could be actually hurt by my words. But it's Dylan. He's insane. He wouldn't.

"No. One more thing. You hurt me, I'll kill you. You hurt Harper; I'll kill you. You hurt Tyr; I'll kill you. You hurt Rommie; I'll kill you. You hurt Trance…"

"I get the idea," he interrupted. He was leaning back in his chair. Any damage my words had done had just glanced off him.

"No, you don't. You're so thick-headed--"

"How could I hurt Rommie? Harper can fix her body---" Dylan said. No. He wasn't that oblivious.

"There. Right there. That's how. You stupid--" I sighed and stopped. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. None of this matters."

"Beka--"

"Hell with it. Hell with you." I walked out, and instantly started to ask myself if I was really that mad at Dylan himself. Maybe I was madder at the idea of Dylan, reshaping the universe, or maybe the idea of Dylan as yet another father figure in my life. Maybe yelling at Dylan was just something to do, to spice up my day. I started to punch the wall, then stopped. Pulled the punch. I was running on auto-pilot. My shields were down. It's always bad when my ship's in better condition than I am. "Sorry, Andromeda."

She popped up in hologram form. "It's all right."

"No, it's not. I'm mad at him, not at you. I shouldn't take things out on you or Harper… Crap."

I ran to his room. A couple of holograms popped up here and there. Andromeda was watching me. She was letting me know she was watching me. I rummaged through Harper's clothes, trying to find him a decent outfit. Black pants, gray shirt… perfect, considering we still had work to do on the Maru

He was drying off when I got back. I tossed him the clothes. "You ready to get back to work?" I asked, turning my back as he got dressed.

"Sure thing. You get me some Sparky?"

"I know you have some stashed here."

"That won't be enough," he said. He sounded muffled. He was nearly dressed, then.

"It will have to do, Seamus."

"Fine, fine… I'm decent, now."

I turned to look at him. The shirt was tighter than I'd thought it would be. "Sure you are."

He smirked at me. "Working now?"

"Yeah." We worked in silence for a bit.

"Ba ba bapa ba ba bapa…" I was the one singing. Harper grinned at me, and started some new music.

"No offense to your vocal talents, of course," he murmured my way.

It opened… It was cool. "That's not the Ramones."

"Beka, you are brilliant and oh so right."

"I hate him," I commented dully.

"Do not. 'Working our fingers to the bone, 'cos nobody loves you when you're gone,'" Harper sang along with the woman.

We were in the push-everything-back-together stage. Any left over pieces meant we had to start all over. Damn hard-wired codes. Damn Sid. Damn Dad. Damn Dylan.

Harper and I worked for a while. He didn't sing along for a bit. "'I cracked a piece of broken glass… Coughing up feeling just for you. To find something real to hold onto. But there is a hole inside my heart. Where waves of my love come tumbling out.'"

I liked this song. It was slow and mellow and very unlike Harper's usual taste of music.

"'You say that all the good is gone. That I have forgotten who I am. Free as a bird, wild as the wind. Somehow I cannot let you in.'"

I laughed. I couldn't help it. The new security codes, coupled with that last line…

"'Somehow, somehow, somehow…'" Harper smirked at me.

Footsteps approached. Big, stomping ones… The footsteps weren't from Rommie. It wasn't Trance. It probably wasn't me, unless some time travel thing had happened again or was going to happen or… I hate time travel. It definitely wasn't Harper, even a time-traveling Harper. Who ever it was, they were being too quiet.

Tyr would've announced how he could've killed us by now. Anyone else would have killed us. So. Dylan. Had to be him.

A new song started. "'Gabba gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us.'"

I looked at Dylan. Harper smirked at me. He'd assigned this song to Dylan. "Pinhead."

I sang along with Harper. "'I don't wanna be a pinhead no more, I just met a nurse that I could go for.'" I think there are a grand total of three lines in the song.

"'D-U-M-B, everyone's accusing me.'"

"What was your mother's name?" Dylan asked.

Harper and I exchanged a startled look. "Who ya asking?" Harper said.

Dylan gestured idly. He was mimicking Tyr. He sucks at that. "Either of you."

"Why?" I asked. There was a lump in my throat all of a sudden. I still didn't know how to deal with Dylan. The angel and devil on my shoulders had some ideas. The devil suggested shooting him, while the angel said I needed some Flash. Two devils, Harper had told me.

I turned to face Dylan. The lump in my throat was being washed away by refreshing rage. "After what happened on Earth, you have no right to ask anything about Harper's family. I don't want to talk about my family, any of my family." I was on edge. More than I'd been in his office.

Dylan was… startled. Not scared or sorry or anything useful like that. He was just startled. "I didn't realize--" He didn't realize. He has met my brother and Sid. And Captain Terrific still didn't realize this might be a sore point for me.

"My father was a junkie, my brother's a con artist, and Sid took care of me for most of my childhood. If I wanted to tell you about my mother, I would. I don't. Get off my ship."

"Beka--"

"We have work to do. You don't know my ship like I do. Get off."

He didn't leave. Shocked, that's what I am. Harper switched songs. Nice instrumental intro on this one. Same kind of feel to it. One of these sounds like the other sounds all the same.

"'We're a happy family, we're a happy family, we're a happy family, me, Mom, and Dad.'" I lightly smacked Harper upside the head.

"They're random!" he protested.

"'We ain't got no friends, our troubles never end, no Christmas cards to send, Daddy likes men.'"

I smacked him again. Harder, this time. "Hey, is it my fault your family fits--"

"Yes," I interrupted.

"New song?"

"If you don't mind."

Harper went through a few before settling on "Beat on the Brat." He smirked at me.

"'Beat on the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat, oh yeah…" we sang together. The Maru crew use songs, in addition to the wide assortment of hand gestures, looks, and postures, to communicate our secrets to one another… That's how I know the hidden meaning behind Harper's collection. Some of the stuff-- like "Beat on the Brat"-- is just comic relief. Harper was not offering to hit Dylan with a bat.

"Beka--" Dylan started.

"Do not interrupt the song, Dylan," I said, not snapping at all.

"'She went away for the holidays… Said she's going to LA… But she never got there, she never got there, she never got there they say…'" Harper's song. He wanted me to talk to Dylan, I guess.

I stopped ignoring Dylan. I wasn't really doing anything useful. "Okay, you can interrupt." I'm so gracious.

"Why don't you talk about your mother?"

I winced. "Couldn't you just punch me in the stomach or something?"

He ignored it. He was off in the righteous tangent of the… righteous. "Beka, I want to know--"

"I don't care what you want. I don't want to talk about her. Or my dad. Or Sid. No, you cannot feel me up again. Get off my ship. Now."

Dylan glared at me.

I was about to cry. "Please," I added. He left.

"I need to be alone," I told Harper after a bit. He nodded. "I'm sorry--" I started.

"I understand, boss." He smiled weakly at me. He doesn't like talking about his family either. Damn Dylan.

I wanted to retreat in my happy place. My happy place can go through slipstream, be a submarine, and a jungle gym for Harper.

It's my home. And since it is my home, and since I retreat there-- along with my friends-- I get attacked there. My friends get attacked there. That's why Harper and I were finally changing some of the old codes, to stave off further attacks. It wouldn't work. Sid wouldn't be able to steal my ship, but he had thoroughly pounded it into my head that it was only my ship because he wanted it that way.

I showered and changed my clothes and thought too much.

I stared at the mirror. I changed my hair color to its natural one: red.
"Hi Mom," I said to the reflection. I didn't have any pictures of her. I knew I looked like her. I just… knew. Sid never told me that. Rafe did. Sid didn't talk about Mom. Dad rarely did. Rafe did, when we were little. She was a red-head. She was a spacer. She'd had two kids, by Ignatius Valentine.
She was my mommy.

I stared at that reflection, at the only picture I've ever seen of her. Tears started to burn at my eyes. I flipped through some more hair colors. Black, brown, green, lime green, blue-black, red-black… The nanobots have to go through red to change.

I'm not my mother. I know that. I'm nothing like her. I'm more like Dad. Dad before Flash, I mean. I keep my promises. I'm not like Rafe or Dad or Sid… I keep my promises, every time… I did. I used to. I broke one, a while back… I ruined Dylan's birthday. Damn it. I'm just a junkie like my dad. I was so perfectly straight for so long. Sid had to go and wreck it for me. Sid, not me or my dad or Rafe or Harper or Dylan or anyone. Sid had those drops poured into my eyes. But I have to forgive him, because Dylan told me so. Sid made me into my dad. Nah. I'm not my mother or my father or my brother or my traitorous uncle or Dylan Hunt. Thank the indifferent gods for that.

I settled on the shade of blonde I always wear.

"You look good like that," Harper said. He was standing behind me. He moved so his reflection was in the mirror too. He was still on the Maru. I should've known that. I was too distracted. Much too much distracted.

Harper still had his little music player attached to his tool belt. "'But she never got there, she never got there, she never got there they say…'"

I smiled at him through the mirror. I didn't want to turn around. I didn't want to do much of anything at the moment..

"He really hit a nerve, didn't he?" Harper said dryly. I nodded. My fists were clenched. "I didn't even know you had a mother," Harper added. I smiled thinly. "I'm serious! You don't talk about her. Rafe hasn't, any of the times I've met him… Sid wouldn't shut up about your dad or you when he was cheating me at cards… but he didn't mention her, either. So, you're not alone in the not-discussing her area. "I can't say that I know where you're coming from. Well, I can, since I'm currently standing in the ship where you were raised…" He shrugged. "I respect you, I respect your privacy, and if you don't want to talk about your mom, that's fine by me."

"Good."

"So. What'd she look like?" Harper was standing just behind me now. I was still staring at myself in the mirror. I turned my hair red again. "Transition color?"

"No, this is it. Mom, this is Harper." Harper waved at the mirror. "I am so going to shoot you."

"Sure you are, boss." He ruffled my hair. Harper ruffled my hair. I jumped him. I mean that in a completely non-sexual way. I just grabbed his arm to get him to stop that and he tickled me and I couldn't stand for that.

Literally. I couldn't stand. We fell to the floor, me on top of him. He was still tickling me. I tickled back. I pinned him to the floor. I wrapped my legs around his. I hadn't put my boots on yet, which made that a little easier. Harper helped me pin him. I slipped his music player off his belt, and into a pocket of mine. "Did I squish you?" I said, between fits of laughter.

Harper jabbed his thumb into my ribs for that. "I remain thoroughly unsquished. You know, you're not so good at the brooding, boss. And as much as I'm loving these Tyr impressions of yours--"

I pulled back a little. I was still tangled around him. "Tyr's pinned you to the floor of my ship?"

"What? No! Eww."

I sat up. Well, I let go of Harper, rolled off him, and then sat up. "You like Tyr…"

"No, that's you. I'm the blond with good taste."

I laughed. "You, you are making fun of my taste--"

"Yes, the irony is suffocating. As I was saying… Don't brood or I will be forced to take extreme action."

"Getting your skinny ass kicked is extreme action?"

"Making you laugh until you choke on your lungs is extreme action." Harper pulled himself up. I'd managed to rumple the tight gray shirt I'd picked out for him earlier. "You're just lucky my killer reflexes didn't kick in."

"Lucky," I agreed, sincerely. I stared off into space for a second. "Quit making me laugh."

"Eh, I won't make you any promises there. I'm just so damn cheerful and uplifting." Harper was on his feet. "So why are we dawdling on reassembling the Maru?" I shrugged. "To make Dylan think about all the reasons why he should be kissing your ass and-- hey, can I have pictures if he does?"

I got up. "No. Where are my boots?"

"Got me, boss. I'll let you tidy yourself up. Wouldn't do to have rumors about us spreading around."

"Yeah, then Tyr definitely wouldn't be interested in you."

Harper made cheerfully obscene gestures as he walked off.

I sat down at the mirror again. A brief tickling interlude, and I was all set to brood. Right. Really. The devils on my shoulders were debating. Daddy the drunk junkie and Sid the successful, slimy businessman. To carry this metaphor much too far, a little Dylan was sitting on my hair… No. Three of the major influences in my life. Harper and Tyr and Rev… they just don't count. Harper's like a little brother to me. Tyr's… something. Rev-- and Trance-- is far beyond my understanding. Dad, I get. Sid, I… I don't get him. He needs my approval, my love even. I don't get that. He's nothing to me. Dylan's a psycho. I've been working under him… Which brought to mind images of me being pinned under Dylan as he tickled me. Damn Harper. Again, no. I've been working for him for a while now.

I got my gun. I walked through the corridors of Andromeda. I had borrowed Harper's music player. Liberated it, even. He'd understand, when he found it missing. "'Ba ba bapa…'" I wanted Flash. Very badly. I'd be strong. I'm strong.

"This is me being strong," I told Tyr.

"Hello to you too."

Tyr was staring out at the stars, and studying a painting of his. He wasn't actually, you know, painting. I walked up to Tyr. Right up to him. I leaned my head against his arm. I started babbling, softly. "How much would it cost? The Commonwealth's been established. My uncle's not leading it. That's good enough, right? The universe has been sufficiently shaped…"

"No," he said simply. He shrugged a little. My head rolled off his arm.

I stepped in front of him. "Nothing overt…"

I was still holding my gun in my right hand.

"No. There would be objections." He turned back to his work., picking up a brush. "'I'm my main man. Always ready for whatever's gonna happen.'" Tyr was singing Harper's song. Harper was influencing Tyr. This was either very cool or very scary. I settled for an even mix of both. The fact that Tyr didn't realize he was singing made me laugh. It didn't seem like Tyr to leave himself so vulnerable, to allow himself a chink in his armor like that. So, even the funny part was scary. Tyr looked at me briefly. He smiled as he sang, "'I'll fight you to the bitter end, and then I'll screw your little girlfriend…'" So Tyr knew what he was singing. Harper is such a good judge of character.

"Where is Trance?"

Tyr smiled. "Somewhere."

"Interesting painting," I said truthfully. There were lots of reds and blacks and oranges. "What's it called?"

He added a stroke near the top. "'Domination'."

"So it's either the bitter death of all of your enemies, or some sort of Nietzschean mating ritual I don't want to know about. Kay." I laughed. I flipped on the music player. Musical intro that I knew. I really knew it. This was Harper's warning song. I left so Tyr wouldn't hear me sing along. At least, I wouldn't see the expression on his face as I sang.

"'You're a fine one, oh yes you are. You're a fine one, just like me. And we're friends now, oh wouldn't you say. We've been friends now, oh haven't we? Stay at home tonight, if you know what's good for you. I can't say more. It would be telling. For if you don't, what will become of you. Just isn't worth any king's shilling.'"

Pretty straightforward lyrics. Makes me think of a double cross. Which makes me think of Sid. Which, at that moment, made me think of Dylan. I understand that Dylan feels responsible for the Fall, for Rhade's betrayal. He was betrayed by his lover. That hurts. I know how much that hurts. I know too damn well. I'm responsible for anything that happens on my ship. Dylan feels like he's responsible for anything that happens. Period. Goddamn megalomaniac jerk. I felt sorry for him. He'd lost everything. The Commonwealth was restored, but all he really had of his former life was his ship. The memories of betrayal on the ship had to haunt him, though. I knew what that was like.

I walked into Dylan's office. He was sitting behind the desk, looking pensive. He was brooding. He was thinking of more intrusive questions to ask me about my family. "We need to talk," I said. Yeah, yeah, that phrase sucks.

"Hello, Beka. Your hair--" My hair. He wasn't trying to talk about my hair. No way.

"What about it?"

"Red?" he said, confused. I cringed. If it was still red, then it had been red when I was talking to Tyr…. I took a breath. Kept my eyes closed. Changed the color. Dylan wasn't expecting that. The open mouth kind of gave that away. "What did you just do?" he asked, in shock or awe or something.

"Oh. Right. My dad put nanobots in my hair, so I can manipulate the color. The happy Sid-blackmailing side effect is now null and void. I'm a natural redhead." I was trying to avoid talking about my family. I closed my eyes again. "Blonde better?"

"Yes," he said, too quickly.

"Right, your blonde fetish…" I made the mistake of opening my eyes as I said that. The look on Dylan's face made me laugh.

Dylan was confused. "My what?"

I bit my lip. "I'm going to walk outside, and come back in."

"All right…"

I actually did. The hologram popped up in the corridor as I stared at the door. I was trying to think of what to say to Dylan. "Is everything all right?"

"Perfect." I turned my hair purple. After the blonde fetish comment and the fact that Dylan now knew that I knew about him and Rhade… blonde seemed kind of bad. Purple is the opposite of yellow on the color wheel. All right, I chose Trance's old color. I missed seeing it. Purple's fun. Purple's the anti-blonde.

I took a deep breath. Walked back into the lion's den. "Dylan, we need to talk." He didn't say anything this time. Just stared at my neon follicles. "With words. Stop staring at me!"

"Nanobots?"

"In my hair. Yes. My dad made them for me, after Sid left. Sid knows my true hair color. It's one of the reasons I want to kill him."

He got up from his chair. Finally. "I thought you didn't want to talk about your family."

Why is he so perceptive sometimes, and so completely oblivious the rest of the time? It's his unique talent, I guess. "I don't," I said.

"Why purple?"

"Why blonde?" I shrugged. "I just like the color. We need to talk about other things, though." I'm not as egocentric as some other captains. I don't like everyone talking about me. I don't even like talking about me, not like this.

"If you want to apologize…" he started.

I just looked at him. "I don't."

"You compared me to Sid," he none-too-gently reminded me.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"You said you were going to kill me." He was getting mad.

I nodded again. "Yeah."

"You ordered me off your ship." Oh, yeah, Dylan was definitely mad.

I nodded yet again. "Yeah. I did all of that. I'm not going to apologize, because then you'd think you were right and I was wrong."

"You're not wrong?"

"I said I'd kill you if you hurt Harper or Rommie or me. I'm not going to apologize for that. I'm going to do that. As for the rest of it… I'm tired. I'm pissed. You made me protect the man I hate the most. Your priorities are very skewed, Dylan. That's not new or anything. You not being able to see the forest for the trees isn't new either."

Another phrase courtesy of the Harper. The Harper is good. The Harper is taking over my head.
I was settling into a scary pattern of wiring the Maru, teasing Harper, and arguing with Dylan. Sometime simultaneously. The middle one was the only thing worth keeping.

"Dylan, I don't want to argue with you."

"So apologize."

I blinked. No way. He didn't say anything either. I just stared at him. He did not interrupt me to tell me to apologize to him. Even Dylan "Black Hole" Hunt wasn't that stupid. He couldn't be. I was raised by drug dealers and murderers. If I want to apologize, I apologize. If I want to kill, I grab my gun or the nearest schmuck. I was already holding my gun. Dylan Hunt doesn't have the brains of Trance's plants.

I just gave him the look. Not the Look, the angry look that threatens much talking and blackmailing and that kind of stuff. I gave him the look I've been working on since I was a kid. The look that promises an accident not connected with me in the near future.

I just stood there, staring at him. Dylan wanted me to be the one responsible for our disagreements since… well, since he told me I'd be helping keep Sid alive. I feel responsible for things I've actually done, set in motion, or somehow affected. Trance's grape-flavored self claimed that the things I did were helping to shape her one perfect possible future. That is just the best pickup line ever. Harper's never tried it, I don't think….

Dylan and I were still staring off as I wondered about things like that. My hand was on my gun. "You won't shoot me," he said coldly.

"Of course not, Captain," I said, barely managing to keep the smirk off my face.

"Andromeda?" Dylan said, summoning his protectorate AI.

I cut in, "Andromeda, could you send Rommie in here? Captain Hunt doesn't feel safe alone with me."

"Why not Tyr or Harper?" she asked. She wasn't petulant or put out, just curious.

"If he doesn't safe with me, those two will not help."

"Beka---"

"I'm sorry, Dylan," I said, as insincerely as you'd like. I was still holding my gun. I was good, just walked out.

Harper and Rommie were waiting for me in the corridor. "Is he in one piece?" Harper asked.

I shrugged. They glared. "For now." Something shifted in Harper's face. He stared past me, at the door. "I didn't shoot him. I didn't do anything to him. Didn't even lightly maim him. Really."

Rommie was even more blunt: "Why won't you apologize to him?" Again, she wasn't put out or anything; just curious.

"Because he's wrong." I sighed. "Dylan brought up some parts of my past I really don't want to talk about."

"Your mother."

"My whole family. And now he won't drop it."

"Sid--"

"No. I don't need to apologize to Dylan. It's not like I shot him or anything." I didn't look at Harper as I said that.

"Right. I'll just pop in and knock some sense into his head," Harper said, in a tone that told me he expected to find Dylan's head splattered across the desk. Pop in, he did. Good. Help me set up my alibi.

Rommie looked at me. "Do you understand why we had to give Sid another chance?"

"Yes. Because no one knows Sid like I do. After all he's done, he can fool everyone else. Rafe's just like him. They're blind to one another… Why do I keep talking about them?"

"Because you need to," Rommie said calmly.

I didn't snap at her, ask her what she'd know about family. Her crew is her family. I'm a spacer. I get that. It's deeply ingrained in my genes, et cetera. She's lost her family, many times.

"So I need to. Should I talk to Sid?"

"Maybe you should holster your gun first, so his guards don't attack you."

My fingers were still clenched around the grip of my gun. Still. It was my comfort object of choice.

Harper walked back out to us. Dylan was behind him. I turned away, started to walk. I felt twelve, but I didn't want to hear more from Captain Terrific.

Rommie walked beside me. Harper followed us. I stopped after a while. "You get stupid when you're in love," Harper said.

I blinked at him. He was unrelentingly loyal to Dylan after the hell that had happened on Earth, and I was the one stupidly in love. "I do not. I'm not in love. Your hair looks like a badly-mangled brush." He just smirked. "You really have no right to pick on anyone's love life, Harper."

"Do you admit that you get stupid when you're in love?"

"Never." He pounced me. Hugged me, squeezing me so tightly my breath burst out of my mouth. He was loyal to me too, when he had every right to never speak to me again. I've done things to him, said things to him… He was so cute. I groaned, though. "My ribs hurt," I said, by way of apology.

"What happened?" Rommie asked, as I pushed the Harper off me.

"Harper attacked me earlier. Well, I jumped him and then he attacked me."

"And we slept together," he helpfully added.

"You what?" That was not a note of jealousy in her voice. The warship's avatar wasn't interested in my engineer. Her engineer. She wasn't interested back. Tyr was more interested… Yeah. He was.

I smiled at Rommie. "These things all made more sense on the Maru."

"I should hope so." She was… amused? Jealous? Confused? She was staring at my purple hair.

"Nanobots," I explained. I was too busy plotting the death of one Captain Hunt to get into the details.

"Cool," Rommie said, nodding. Harper was really rubbing off on her. That would make it easier for me to take over command once poor Dylan was shot in the back by those wicked mercenaries my brother had hired. Framing Rafe might be over the top, though…

Rommie went back to the Maru with Harper and me. Score one for Valentine.

Harper and I bounced around. Well, I sort of shuffled my weight from foot to foot as he jumped off and onto things. Rommie asked him to stop. And he did, because she's one of the people he's completely devoted to. All right, we're all the people he's devoted to. I don't get why, and I think Trance and I are the only ones that even think about it. Trance uses it against him when she wants to.

Harper started a shadow puppet competition with me, solely to amuse Rommie. I was winning.

"It's a bunny rabbit," Rommie said, after a while.

"It's an evil alien," I patiently explained.

"With those ears?" Harper said. They were ganging up on me. "I know a bunny when I see one."

"Rommie..."

"It's a bunny."

"See!"

"The bunny's going to become a hand and smack you now."

"So you admit it's a-- ow!" He seemed surprised that I did what I said I would.

"The ALIEN will continue to smack you if you don't stop."

---

Sid called me on the Maru. That meant he was somewhat nearby. Not good. "Rocket…" he started.

"Don't--" I stopped myself. There was no point in telling him not to call me Rocket. He just did to either annoy me or reassure himself. Or both.

"How have you been?" he asked, full of fake concern.

"Busy. What do you want?"

"Captain Hunt called me. I thought you should know. And I know you don't trust me, Rocket--"

"I don't trust you. I believe you, but I don't trust you."

Harper interrupted. "Beka? I, uh…" I looked up from the screen. Harper was shifting nervously. "The codes weren't the only things hardwired in."

"Are we going to explode?"

"No! Nothing like that. Just a monitoring device."

"Take care of it, then." I turned back to Sid. "Rocket… You love him."

I knew he didn't mean Harper. I shrugged. "I have very messed-up ideas about love."

"I wonder why. Ignatius and I tried so hard to raise you right."

"I'm going to reach through the screen and shoot you."

"Why don't we have a meeting on neutral ground? You, me, Captain Wonderful."

"Captain Terrific," I corrected him, with a mouthful of sarcasm.

"You have pet names for each other already." Sid's usually condescending tone was just dripping with "what a cute couple." As long as he didn't actually say those words, he could live.

"All right. Neutral ground," I said, trying to unclench my teeth.

"What neutral ground? Sid owns everyone," Harper said, popping up with tools in his hands.

"Fix," I said curtly, waving him away. "I'll talk with Sid." Harper relented a little.

"Your ship's about five hours from a space station," Sid said, knowing a bit too much for my taste.

"What's its name?"

"Neutral Ground."

I blinked at Sid. Harper poked me in the shoulder. Rommie went through an amazing array of facial expressions. "Yeah, okay, sure. How many people can we bring?" Me in a room alone with Sid and Dylan could only lead to unfortunate fatalities that I tried to stop, which is why my fingerprints would be on their necks and weapons.

"One."

Okay, I could deal with that. "How many will you bring?"

"One."

"I'll talk to Dylan. You're monitoring us, so just call when we get there. Bye." I disconnected. "We need to find him," I said to Harper and Rommie.

"Dylan?"

"Yes."

We'd gotten out of the Maru, into a corridor on the Andromeda… And a hologram popped up in front of us. I was walking behind Rommie and Harper. Rommie seemed surprised. Weird.

"Hi," I said. I'm an idiot. Harper and Rommie stepped closer to opposing walls. They basically cleared a path for me. "Did Dylan call Sid?"

The hologram processed my question. That took no time at all, of course. "There was a call, but I can't tell if Dylan made it or if Sid did. Dylan was researching Sid and your family at the time."

"Great timing," I muttered.

"Sid could be monitoring Dylan too," Harper said, shrugging.

"Sid can't have put any monitoring devices on me…" Andromeda said. She knew what that implied. We all did.

"Where's Dylan?" I asked the nice hologram. She popped up a map for me, with arrows and a "you are here" sign and a moving dot indicating Dylan. "Wow. Thanks. "

"He's being intrusive," Rommie said; the android that had snuck up behind us instead of the hologram. "He had no right to do that, Beka." Both of them were annoyed at Dylan. People were actually on my side instead of his!

So, yeah, it had to be a delusional little dream of mine: Harper and Rommie on my side, instead of Dylan's. It couldn't last. I'd take full advantage of it while it did, though.

Dylan was waiting for us. "Well. You two have fun." Harper took Rommie's arm.

"Harper! Stay." Dylan was on the verge of begging.

"No, that's okay, really… I need to go finish repairing the Maru. Got to clean out all of Sid's bugs so he can't do this again."

"I'm helping," Rommie added. She and Harper raced off.

I watched them run. I smirked at Dylan. "My uncle wants to meet with us."

"I know."

"Neutral Ground Station."

"I know, Beka," Dylan said again. "Your uncle gave me directions."

"So I'm piloting?" He nodded once. The trip out there was boring. Docking, talking with station security, the whole thing was boring. Dylan and I dragged Tyr along with us, onto the station.

A very cheerful, very pale brunette girl met us on the station. "Hi! I'm Elle! I'll be your guide."

"Take us to Mr. Profit," Tyr directed her.

Girl looked at me. I nodded. She smiled wider. Dylan looked at me, completely confused. I figured that either the girl was under orders from someone to listen to me because Sid had briefed her; someone else had told her to only listen to me; or she thought the nice lady with purple hair would be her friend.

Sid was in one of their conference rooms, staring out at the stars. "Thank you, Elle." She didn't say anything. Her smile was gone. She left. Hell, she ran. Tyr cast a meaningless glance at me.

I didn't care. I'd noticed someone else by the window, looking out at the stars. "Rafe!"

"Rocket!" my brother said.

I glared at Sid. He smiled, innocent as ever. "I'm trying to help, Rocket. You have to believe that."

"I believe you… I just--"

"--don't trust me," Sid finished. He smiled at me, tenderly. "I've never had a family of my own," Sid said, in a burst of emotional something. "Rocket and Rafe are the closest I've come. If anything happens to either of them, I will hold you personally responsible, Captain Hunt." He looked at me for most of this speech. Still smiling tenderly my way, Sid pointed a gun at Dylan. Rafe arched an eyebrow my way, not wanting to interfere with our uncle or my captain. My large captain with the control of our large ship. Rafe was calculating how to best use everything to his advantage. I was too. I can admit that.

Dylan didn't draw. The insanity, you see. He just smirked at Sid. "I have witnesses. I'll live."

"Meh," Tyr said. My poker face crumbled. I smirked. I grinned. I almost laughed. No one else had seen it coming. Tyr still thought Dylan was insane. He had for quite a while, being a reasonable man.

"No one takes advantage of my niece," Sid said, harshly. What a laugh.

"Only family can do that," I said. Rafe grinned. Valentine Smarter; I don't think so. Proving my point, Rafe decided he'd be on Sid's side until Trance or Tyr or I moved to do something. He pointed a gun at Dylan. Tyr pointed his force lance at Rafe. We were now Valentine and "Profit" versus Anasazi and Hunt, with one Valentine abstaining from the shooting match.

I was suddenly feeling very "kill them all and let the Divine sort them out." Sid addicted me to Flash. Rafe takes advantage of the fact that I have some precious few qualms about fratricide. Dylan's insane and insensitive and if Sid killed him, I could be in charge of the Andromeda. Tyr's all right, I guess. He had a gun pointed at my brother, though. I couldn't decide if that was good or bad. Sid raised me. Rafe's my brother. Dylan has his moments. Tyr's very pretentious.

"Beka, do something," Dylan snapped.

"Why?" I blurted, pacing my way around the tangle. I didn't get in the way of anybody's line of sight. "This seems like a pretty tight situation to me. Dominoes lined up, ready to fall…" I was still feeling the sleep dep.

"Are you really that fickle in your moral alignment?" Dylan said, still staring down Sid's gun.

"Yes. " I pointed my finger at each in turn. "Megalomaniac murderer, murdering conman, conman, paid murderer…"

Dylan looked offended at "megalomaniac." Tyr, Rafe, and Sid gave me looks of pure, unadulterated "Yes, I am, what's your point?" I love my family. They're absolutely insane. Tyr wasn't included in the feeling of family. He's a little too rational to fit into the Valentine Clan. Dylan would get along just fine.

"Dylan, that whole moral high ground of yours was dug out from under your boots before the Fall. Don't condescend to me about my moral alignment."

"Your uncle's trying to kill me."

"Yeah," I said, pointing out the obvious with a pro. "My brother too. It's a sign of affection, a family bond." Sid laughed contemptuously. His ego's nearly as bad as Dylan's. "Look at it this way, when they pull the trigger, Tyr will waste Rafe and possibly Sid."

"That doesn't comfort me," Dylan gritted through his teeth.

It wouldn't comfort me either, if I was in that position. Oh right, I was. Sid did try to kill me, torture me, drug me. And then Dylan made me forgive him, for the good of the Commonwealth. If Gaheris Rhade showed up on the Andromeda, I sure as hell would keep him away from Dylan. I'm a decent human being like that.

"I promise to give you a much nicer funeral. Well, than Rafe; Sid's will be overdone. Everyone will want to make sure he's really dead."

"Beka!"

I pulled out my gun, and placed it on Dylan's temple. Tyr holstered his. Rafe and Sid followed his lead. I had the situation now. "Yeah?" I said, keeping my voice soft and low.

Dylan looked at me. Tried to implore me with his eyes. "Beka--" he said again.

"Stop it." He was trying to use puppy eyes on me. I'm not one of those bimbos he picks up that is so easily swayed. Gun. Head. The only thing those eyes were convincing me to do was pull the trigger.

"You wouldn't kill me," Dylan said, not really sure about that. The fear in his eyes spoke volumes.

He was right. I wouldn't. I couldn't. Between my brother and Tyr I'd be blackmailed within an inch of my life. Sid would try to adopt me as Rebecca Profit. Tyr or maybe Trance would end up in charge of the Andromeda. Rommie would make a better captain, but she has that whole "I need a heart" thing going against that. I took my gun off his temple. Dylan didn't need to know why. Let him think whatever he wanted. If he was smart, he'd decide I was trying to trick Sid and Rafe. Which sounded like a really good idea.

I aimed my gun at Rafe before anyone could do anything. Dylan didn't even have a chance to blink. He did exhale, a little loudly. "Be good," I told my brother.

"Rocket--" Rafe started. The ghost of a smile flitted across Sid's smug lips.

"You know what being good means? It means not calling me that."

"Truce," Rafe declared.

"Fine." The Valentines were now synchronized. Rafe looked to Sid. I glanced at Tyr. We got impassive nods. "Okay, so. I'm hungry. Where's your cooking staff?" Last part was directed at Sid. I actually turned my back on Rafe and Dylan and Tyr to ask him this. It's because I trusted them. Also, the wall behind Sid was really shiny and reflective. And I hadn't fully holstered my gun.

I spun back to Dylan. Dylan stared at me blankly. I was focusing on him. I knew Rafe and Tyr would be doing the same. Sid was the only one who really understood me, as much as it pains me to admit it.

My hand was on my gun. So, naturally, Dylan decided to lecture me. "Your morality--"

"My moral compass has been distracted by the large shiny magnet of you doing whatever you want to make yourself feel better, while you look down your nose at me. Yes, I know you're taller than me. Shut up. I'm tired. I'm angry." I shrugged, and fully drew my gun. "More importantly, or maybe adding to those factors, I have a gun pointed at you. Be quiet. Be good. Be good and quiet and stop talking to me. Because, as I said, gun."

"Beka--" Dylan said.

"Rocket--" Rafe said.

"Rebecca--" Sid said, probably realizing I was going to shoot the next person to call me that.

"Shut up. All of you."

Tyr arched an eyebrow at me. Tyr was staying quiet. Tyr was proving his genetic worth and ensuring I wasn't going to kill by demonstrating that he understood that I meant what I was saying and that I'd only leave as many witnesses as could keep their mouths shut. Or his mouth shut. Tyr's so smart.

I holstered my gun. "We're leaving." Tyr's eyebrow did a weird little dance on his forehead. Dylan blinked and looked at Sid. Sid looked at me. Rafe looked at me. I was practically the center of attention. "We'll come back in a bit. With more people. And we'll meet in public some where. Some place with lots of witnesses…"

"Sounds like a plan," Tyr said flatly. "Mr. Profit, Mr. Valentine…"

Sid smiled. "Mr. Anasazi. Have you ever considered a career change--"

"Later, Sid," I snapped.

"I know this wonderful restaurant here on the station--"

I glared at Sid. He stopped talking.
We went back to the ship. All was well until…

"Sid just tried to kill me!" Dylan yelled.

Knew it was coming. I shrugged. "So?"

"So you're on the side of the person who tried to kill me!"

"Yeah! How's it feel?" Dylan glared at me.

Tyr laughed. I just grinned. "You can't be serious," Tyr told Dylan.

"I am." Dylan looked so… petulant… when he said that. The universe revolves around him, you know.

"I wasn't going to shoot you. I was trying to win Sid's trust," I said, falling in love with Tyr as he continued to laugh. Dylan didn't feel so kindly inclined towards Tyr. He stormed off. Tyr and I were left alone to plot. "I feel like beating the stuffing out of a punching bag," I told him.

"I feel like advising you," he said softly. "You should take Harper with you next time. He can deal with Sid."

I leaned against the wall of the corridor. We were never going to get out of the corridor. "I don't want Harper to make the wrong move… I know Sid…"

"Harper will be fine. He's a survivor."

"Hardly seems like you to sing Harper's praises, Tyr."

Tyr waved away my words. "He can be foolhardy. He listens to his emotions a bit too much. But he always has a plan, and he always considers every variable. He doesn't underestimate his adversaries. He is less distracted than… well, you or I or…"

"I get the idea."

"He's willing to face the anger of his adopted family to keep them safe. If he were Nietzschean, he'd have many wives by now. "

I couldn't resist. "More wives than you?"

"No."

"But you don't have any. How is less than that 'many'?"

Tyr sighed. "He'd make a good father."

"And husband?" Tyr made an idle gesture. "Would you die for him?"

"Nietzcheans do not sacrifice themselves for…"

"Kludges?"

"He is not a kludge. He is almost Nietzschean in his ruthlessness to protect those that he cares about. His loyalty alone shows him for what he is."

"And that is…?"

"A remarkable man who is grossly undervalued by you and the rest of this crew. You and Trance manipulate him, the ship is disappointed that he isn't Captain Hunt, and Hunt himself can't be bothered to think of the boy."

"And Harper loves Dylan."

"You noticed that too?" Tyr said, the faintest hint of irony creeping into his voice.

"He loves all of us. Or he did…"

"Grossly undervalued."

"I heard you the first time."

My conversation with Tyr left me a little… unsettled. I left him to sing Harper's praises to the ship. Rommie could appreciate that a little better than I could. I picked a random direction-- up, down, or sideways…

I found Trance. She saw me, and turned on her heels. Just like that, she was running from me. She had to know something about what was going on.

"Trance, you been hiding from me?" I asked, cornering her in the corridor.

She didn't say anything right away. "Your hair's purple," she said, after a very uncomfortable few seconds.

"In memory of a friend." That led to some more awkward seconds. I cleared my throat, and said, "Can, uh… Can we talk?"

"About your uncle or about Dylan?" she said, tilting her head a little. Yeah, she knew exactly what was going on. If only she'd let me know… or if only I could trust her.

"About my uncle and Dylan," I said, looking at the wall behind her.

"Are they dating?" That little question led to even more awkward moments; this time with me staring at her and trying not to think about that.

"Dear God, I hope not," I said finally. I shook my head. That didn't get rid of the pictures she'd planted in me. I leaned heavily against the wall behind me. "Sid tried to kill Dylan, and he doesn't get off on that."

"Which one?" I glared at her. "Don't worry. Dylan isn't Sid's type."

"How would you know? You've met him once, and that wasn't even you. That was your other self." The Trance I liked, I added in my head. Trance shrugged. Evil thoughts swarmed through my head. "You didn't meet him again? You and my cyborg future self…" She looked away. "What happened?"

"That future is gone. It will never happen." She hesitated, looking at me and then away. "I made sure of that."

"Yeah, that's great." I lightly punched the wall behind me. "Really great."

Trance took a step closer to me, looking into my eyes. "Your uncle means well, Beka."

"That's great. I don't care. He's not family…" She just looked at me. "Okay, okay, he let me keep the Maru. And he raised me. So, he's family. Doesn't matter. He is ruthless."

"And you're not." I almost snapped at her, but she actually meant it. She wasn't thinking like Dylan does, not about me. "You don't need to worry about that, Beka. You could never turn into your fathers."

"My… what?"

She just shrugged. "Your brother--"

"You've never--" I paused, and interrupted myself, "That's it. I'm not playing any more."

"Playing what?" she asked, pretending to be innocent. Uh-huh, yeah. The girl worked for me before, during, and after her time traveling game. She is not innocent. None of us are. I didn't answer her. I looked at her. "You should talk to Harper, Beka."

"Why?"

"Harper can help."

"How?"

She shrugged.

I walked away.

She followed me. "There are no alternate universes, you know," she said, quite conversationally. "There are only possibilities, chances to be taken and choices to be made. The future is shaped by our actions."

"By yours, Trance. Not by mine."

She ignored me. "There is one perfect possible future, one glimmering spark of light. I'd do anything to make it happen."

"You'd die for it," I said, dryly. Trance didn't notice. She was hop-skip-jumping further and further away from what I was saying.

Her needle skipped further off my track. "We all must do what is necessary. They didn't listen--"

"Who?" I asked. I didn't expect an answer. That was good, because I didn't get one.

Something jarred her. She was back in the groove. "You should talk to Harper." Yeah, she was in the groove. She was skipping.

"I will," I said, hoping she'd snap out of the record thing.

I found Harper in my room. Somehow, that didn't surprise me. I hadn't been exactly expecting him, but… I wasn't surprised. He was lying on my bed. "Captain, my captain, how are you?"

I stood beside him. "Did you hear?"

He nodded once. "Tyr told me. Dylan told me. Sid told me. Rafe hasn't told me yet, but I'm sure he will soon. So," he said, rolling off my bed, and onto his feet, "did it feel good to be the one in control?"

I shrugged. "I wasn't going to shoot Dylan," I muttered.

Harper nodded. "You'd shoot Tyr next, right? Take care of the witness and ensure that you're captain?" He was mostly kidding.

"I wasn't, Harper. Trust me. I know I've said a lot of stupid things lately, but… Well, you and Rommie would kill me."

He smirked. "That's not it. You're a good person, Beka. You couldn't kill in cold blood."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I'm Saint Valentine."

"Beka. You're a good person. You wouldn't kill Dylan."

I idly took a step away. "Funny how you seem to think those two go together." He smiled. It wasn't a happy smile. "I told Sid we'd go back to the station."

"All of us?"

I shrugged. "Sure, why not? Let's go round up the victims."

"Witnesses," Harper corrected me.

It was pretty easy to talk Tyr and Trance and even Dylan into a second trip. We called Sid, and arranged to meet him at some restaurant on the station. No problem, no hitches, everything was running smoothly. Only Harper wanted Rommie to come, too.

As we were leaving, she called up a hologram of her other self. "You'll be all right on your own?"

The hologram just looked at her. "Yes."

"Call me if anything goes wrong," Rommie said. Tyr shot me a look. I shrugged.

"Can we go?" Harper said.

"You have a crush on Sid, don't you?" I teased. Harper and Tyr shot me a multitude of looks.

We got there early. A table had been reserved, by Sid probably. That Elle girl was our waitress or hostess or something. Harper liked her. A lot, and very obviously. Rommie got jealous, and moved so she was sitting between Harper and me.

"Assassin," Tyr declared. It was such a set-up

"Who?" Trance said, taking the bait like a good little girl.

"Our waitress. She must be."

"Why?" Trance said, enjoying her role of straight man.

"Mr. Harper is attracted to her."

"Hey!" Harper protested.

"Interesting point," Dylan murmured. He was taking Tyr seriously.

Tyr and I laughed. Harper put an arm around Rommie's shoulders, and one around mine. "I am not," he pouted. We both pushed him away. Gently. He pouted some more. Then he started to sing. "The cheap and evil girl dances if you're worthy. She teases every twirl. She's deviously dirty, yeah. And you fantasize about the ample… milky thighs you'd like to sample… vocalize to her example…'"

Trance and I chimed in at, "'deep illegal sighs, oh it's a scandal…'"

I laughed. Trance and Tyr laughed. Rommie just looked at us. Dylan looked for Sid.

Sid and Rafe walked in together. Sid was blank. Rafe was not happy. This was either very good, very bad, or indicative of the fact that he hadn't eaten yet. We have weird instincts, us Valentines. Harper counts as a Valentine. He has since… well, not since I met him because that was Bobby at work. After that, soon after… Family ties get fuzzy where the Valentines are concerned. My parents started it. Genetics mean nothing, aside from a little engineering done here and there. Family isn't blood.

No, it is blood. Family is the people who would kill for you, die for you, be an alibi if you need it. A willing alibi, rather. Sid's family, damn him for it. He took care of me and Rafe when Dad couldn't. He kept us safe long after Dad's death. It had to be him keeping the Maru in my hands. The Divine was probably busy then.

Rafe and Sid sat down at the table. "Captain Hunt," Sid said with a smile.

"Mr. Profit," Dylan said.

Harper and Rafe glared each other down.

Sid smiled at Harper. "You know, Mr. Harper, you and Beka remind me of Ignatius and myself." My jaw dropped. I could feel it. My hand instinctively went to my gun.

I looked at Harper. He was confused and intrigued and asking questions. "Which is which?"

Trance interrupted: "But they don't have children yet." The awkward silence set in. Sid's smile was frozen on his lips. Cryogenically frozen, I thought. He looked like a corpse.

I stood. "I'll be right back." I tried not to run from the table, tried to start breathing again, tried to suppress the urge to shoot everyone at that table. Rommie followed me. Probably because if I shot her, she'd be mostly okay. I went out to the corridor of the station, just outside the restaurant. "Leave me alone," I snapped at her.

"What's wrong?" she asked, ignoring me.

"I'm going to shoot someone."

"You can't shoot Sid. I won't let you shoot any of my crew."

"Our crew," I corrected her.

I looked at Rommie. She smiled. "And you wouldn't shoot your own brother."

"Not in cold blood, but it's Rafe. I just need to wait half an hour."

"So wait. And eat. You haven't eaten since--"

"You've been spying on me?" I interrupted.

"You tried to shoot Dylan."

"Self defense," I muttered, kicking at nothing.

"He didn't threaten you."

"Kept Sid and Rafe from shooting us," I said with a shrug.

Rommie took my hand, and led me back into the restaurant. I felt like a little kid. I quietly took my seat at the table. They would pay. All of them. Harper and Rommie and maybe Tyr would get away with small pranks. Everyone else would seriously pay.

"We ordered for you," Tyr said, dryly.

"Good food?"

"Expensive food," Harper said, which really didn't answer my question. It did make me think of an equally important one…

"Who's paying?"

"Your uncle," came a much too eager chorus from my Andromeda family.

"Why?" They shrugged. Sid shrugged. The awkward silence kicked back in.

Elle the station guide and waitress and maybe assassin bounced in front of us. She had the drab gray clothing everyone seemed to wear. Probably a uniform, judging by the subtle but not too different variations. It was layers of gray, the same dull shade. She had too pale skin that showed her veins and arteries and capillaries; too dark hair; and too muddy eyes. She moved gracefully/clumsily. Like she expected the gravity to pull out from under her at any moment.

She bounced/leaped/crawled her way over to some guy who had the same corpse-like skin. "Hey, Cor? The temperature?"

"Too cold?" She nodded. He gave her half a shrug. "Profit's request."

"Okay, cold? Is bad. Environ-systems. Power." Her voice? Was monotone, and really quite annoying.

"Elle? Shut up. Fine. Perfect." Her little friend had the same kind of monotone inflection, punctuated with those weird little almost questions.

"Spacer's instinct. Lack of heat. Lack of power."

"Okay, quiet. Now. Everything? Is fine."

She gestured wildly at me, at Sid, at Dylan. Subtly, though. If I wasn't already paying attention, I wouldn't have noticed. "Guns."

He gestured to a console. "Paid."

She shrugged, and cracked her knuckles. That meant something too, from the pissed look on his face.

"Beka," Sid said, snapping me back to the table.

"What?" My question was not monotone. It was more of an angry, annoyed, put-upon type of thing.

"It's not nice to eavesdrop," he said, in that sanctimonious tone he always uses.

I glared at him. "I'm not nice. Must've been my lousy upbringing." Someone kicked me under the table. Judging by the angle… "Rafe!"

"Don't be a punk."

"I'm a punk?"

"A punk rocker?" Harper asked, pouncing on that irresistible set-up.

"Sheena is a punk rocker. I'm just a captain," I said to Harper. While I'd had my tantrum, some kind of drink had been put in front of each seat. It was a nice dull yellow color. Juice, I hoped, as I drank it. It tasted citrusy. I'd probably live.

I looked around the silent table. Dylan was confused. And Tyr, and Rommie... Trance grinned at me, which made me scared. Rafe ignored Harper. Harper ignored Rafe.

Sid ignored everyone except Trance. He glared at her, really. "You're wrong, you know," he said, breaking the silence.

She pursed her lips, arched her eyebrows, and leaned forward on the table. The twins were more heavily made up than usual. Between Trance's new fashion taste and Rommie's usual choice of acceptable variations of High Guard uniforms and even Tyr when he wears that metal thing; I was feeling, I don't know, old-fashioned in my plain black leather.

"Am I wrong?" Trance asked Sid, in what I hoped and prayed was a threatening tone, instead of a seductive one.

"They do have a child," he said, turning away from her and the twins.

Then everyone stopped breathing for one long second. Well, Rommie doesn't breathe, but she had that same hesitation of movement. "We have a child?" Harper said, his voice breaking into pieces.

Sid gestured towards Rommie. "A beautiful daughter." He beamed at us.

"'Ba ba bapa," Harper said, flatly. My thoughts were scattered. My head hurt too much to think straight. The meaning sunk in, though. Harper wanted a sedative. I smiled thinly at him.

"Rommie isn't our daughter."

"She's older than us," Harper muttered.

"Adopted daughter, then," Sid said, airily. Elle approached, with a basket of different kinds of bread. "Ah, Miss Elle. I trust the meal will meet my specifications." She nodded once, biting her lower lip. "Good," Sid said, loading the word with as much venom as he could. "I'd hate to be disappointed with your services." Threat. Definitely a threat, but not even one he felt was worth his effort.

Tyr and Dylan didn't seem to see anything wrong with this behavior.

"Be nice to the waitress, or suffer the consequences," Trance said.

"'Rock on, gold dust woman," I muttered. Elle smiled at me.

Harper picked up the song from there: "'Well, did she make you cry, make you break down, shatter your illusions of love? Is it over now, do you know how, pick up the pieces and go home?'" He sipped at the citrus drink. "I need coffee."

Everyone started talking at once.
"The hell you do," I said.
"No," said Tyr and Rommie and Dylan, in very different tones of voice.
"That would not help," Trance said levelly.
"Why?" said Rafe.
"All right," said Sid. "One coffee. And I think the temperature is a tenth of a degree too warm." Elle opened her mouth to say something. She closed it, probably thinking of how much cash Sid had already paid. "Is tipping required here?" he added, conversationally.

"No..." she said, her voice trailing off as she realized just what kind of guy my uncle is.

"Good," he said, turning away from her.

She clenched her jaw a few times, her fists doing the same. "Anything else, Mr. Profit?" Her voice was a hollow imitation of her earlier fake cheerfulness.

"Not at the moment, dear."

She took a deep breath, smiled so broadly it looked like her lips would crack, and left.

Harper watched her walk away. When she was out of sight, he... changed, somehow. "What did you mean by that comparison?" Harper asked Sid. He had a crush on my uncle. And he was genuinely curious about my childhood, the little punk.

"Con artist partners," Rafe said flatly. He never did want to think about Dad and Sid. Not that I did either, but I wasn't in denial about it.

"Partners. Family."

"Lovers?" Tyr asked.

Harper turned to me, trying to be smooth. "No," I said, shooting him down before he fully opened his mouth.

"Well, there you go," he said to Tyr.

"That's not what I meant," Tyr said, looking at Sid. He was judging my uncle and my dead father.

"Shut up Tyr," Dylan said. He was thinking of Rhade. The awkward silence came back, as we drained our glasses.

Elle returned. She balanced plates and plates of food, carefully setting them down in front of us. She had a fake smile plastered to her face, one that became real now and then.

"Ah, such decadence," Harper said, digging into his food with a fork. " Such wealth. Such-- wait, did she just check me out?"

"No." Tyr arched an eyebrow at Elle, then turned to Harper. "Your children would either be exceptionally graceful, or prone to broken limbs at all times."

Harper shrugged. "We could take that risk. Rommie needs siblings."

"Ew!" Rommie said, almost shrieking. She kept her voice low enough not to draw outside attention. "You are not my father."

"Teenage rebellion," Harper said to Sid. "Not that I want to be her daddy..."

I opened my mouth to say several bad jokes. Then I remembered I was homicidal, not suicidal. I contented myself with: "You're becoming a very sick and desperate individual in your old age, Seamus."

"My what?"

"If Harper's old..." Dylan began.

Sid beamed at me again. At us. "No," I said, softly. "We're nothing like you were." I lapsed into memory, into daydreams, into questions I didn't want to ask.

"I could run a DNA test, if you'd like," Rommie offered, quietly, for only me to hear.

That startled me into being alert. "What?" I muttered, not sure what she had just offered. It sunk in, fast. She thought Sid was... My real father? A relative of mine? I didn't know. I didn't care. "No. God, no. Please, no. No."

"Beka?" Dylan said, noticing my distress. Captain Oblivious at work.

"Thank you, Rommie," I said, recovering a little. "That-that won't be necessary."

Sid half-shrugged. "To answer Andromeda's unspoken questions: If I had any biological ties, any genes in common with Rafe and Rocket; I'd have taken them away from Ignatius when I left."

Rafe didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. My eyes met his, and then we both stared at our plates. Rafe was the first to speak. "Mom was gone. Sid and Dad raised us. Sid left Dad. Sid had to leave us with Dad. Sid's all we have left. We.."

"I..." I began, at the same time. I smiled at Rafe.

He smiled back. "You want to tell the rest, Rocket?"

Rafe waited for me to say something about our childhood, about Dad. About Sid. I let him wait.

He talked. "Rocket and I owe Sid a lot."

"You seem to think I won't shoot you," I said dryly.

"I'm sorry. Beka and I owe Sid a lot."

I slammed my elbow onto the table, slammed my forehead into my open palm, and looked to my crew for help.

Harper sipped at his coffee. Elle must've brought it with the rest of the food. I didn't notice. "Mmm, strong." Everyone had been served beverages. Except me and Rommie. Of course. Poor Elle. I had the juice, at least...

"Rocket, you must try some of this wine," Rafe said generously. He reached across the table to hand me his glass.

I handed the glass back with my free hand. Only spilled some of the wine. "Die far, far away from me," I said, using that same generous tone of voice.

"You always did take after Sid," he said, trying to get a rise out of me.

It worked. "Shut up, Rafe."

"Maybe you're his child..." Rafe said. That wasn't new. He'd told me that before. Stupid little punk brother of mine.

"I'm warning you," I said, through clenched teeth, "I'm three seconds away from fratricide."

"Rebecca!" Sid chastised me. "In front of witnesses? You were raised better than that."

I nodded. "Dad raised me."

Rafe rolled his eyes as he sipped his wine. "Dad didn't raise us. Sid did, until he couldn't take any more of Dad. Dad almost took over, but failed."

"And what a wonderful job he did too," Harper muttered.

"You just had to let him have coffee," I muttered to no one in particular. I sat up in my chair. I poked at my food. It was some kind of breaded... thing.

"It's dead. You can eat it," Rafe said. I looked up. Yeah, he was talking to me.

"What do you want, Rafe?"

He shrugged as he took a bite of his food. "I'm just here to get my ship."

I glared at him. "No, Rafe. The Maru is mine."

"Because Sid lets you have it." Rafe smiled.

"Right. Sure. Whatever. So what do you want, Uncle Sid?"

"I want you to be happy, Rebecca." I changed my hair to plaid about then. "Hm. Brings out your eyes," is all Sid said. No one else said a word about it. I didn't care.

Tyr raised his glass to Sid. "Interesting Pride you have, sir." Sid smiled. No one else did. I still didn't care.

"She's drinking Sparky," Harper said, out of nowhere. He ruined a perfectly good silence with it, too.

"Who?" Dylan asked. He hadn't seen our harried waitress approach a table by ours. She had a can of Sparky Cola in a pocket on her leg. That has to be breaking some kind of regs on the station. That stuff is dangerous.

"Elle?" Tyr asked, knowing the answer to his question as usual .

Harper nodded, lecherously adding, "I want."

"Sparky? Elle?" Rommie asked, not looking at Harper. She was focused on Dylan. Ick.

"All of the above..."

"You want a Pride of your own," Tyr accused Harper. Harper just shrugged.

We got quiet again. I eavesdropped on the table. It looked like a bunch of black market guys having a meeting. Five of them. "Sweetheart," one of them said to Elle, "it's too cold."

"Mr. Profit requested the temperature change."

"Change it back," a different one said.

Elle smiled thinly, meeting my eyes. She knew I was watching her. She turned away from me. "Mr. Profit paid for the temperature change. Unless you can meet his offer, I'm afraid the room will stay as it is."

Sid whistled. Elle's eyes went wide as she turned to our table. She was in that happy "can't kill him; paying customer" mode. "Could you cool down the room just a smidgen more?" he asked, in that infuriating, ingratiating tone of his.

"Sure..." Elle was staring at me. Which meant that in a few moments, everyone was staring at me. "Your hair..." she began. I blinked. Then I changed it to my usual blonde. Elle's face fell. "Plaid's cool." I shrugged. She glanced at Sid. "I'll go change the temperature, Mr. Profit."

"Thank you," I said. I smiled. Elle flounced her way off to the kitchen or somewhere. She was running away from us, again. She had a bit more control this time. Harper watched her run away. Tyr smiled at me. "What?" I asked, fearing his response.

"She likes you," he said. His voice was starting to sound just a bit too much like Harper's.

"Tyr. Shut up," Harper said, so I didn't have to.

I actually started to eat my meal. No sense in letting good food go to waste.

"Beka, we need to talk," Dylan said.

"We've been talking. Try the green thingy."

"Salad," Rommie said.

"Yeah, that."

Dylan wasn't amused."Beka."

I looked up. "What?"

Dylan looked at me. "We need to talk."

'So you keep saying. So talk."

"Not now." He couldn't just let it drop like a normal person. No. That would make things easier for me, just a little less awkward.

I dragged him out to the corridor, just to shut him up. "I think you should have Rommie run the tests," he said, in a hushed tone. Yeah, like it would matter.

I blinked up at him. "The... tests. The DNA tests?" He nodded. "No!"

He looked around to see if anyone was listening. "Beka--" he started.

I had to interrupt him. "Sid said it himself. No biological ties. He's-- Just leave it alone, Dylan. We wouldn't be here right now-- and I wouldn't want to kill you so badly-- if you could just leave it alone." He leaned closer to me. "I said 'kill', right?"

I pushed Captain Badtouch away from me. "Dylan. Have you heard of personal space?"

He had the decency to look ashamed. "Beka. I know your uncle upsets you. I just... Have you ever considered that he might be your biological uncle? A brother of your mothers..." Dylan paused before adding, "or your father's?"

I looked at him. And looked at him. My hand innocently crept towards my gun as I gawked at the sheer mountain of stupidity before me. "No. Let's go back."

The shady guys who were obviously up to no good and probably didn't even tip glared at me and Dylan as we walked back.

"Truce still on?" I asked Rafe as I took my seat.

He considered a moment. "Until I get a better offer."

"Good to know. Might need to act on it."

"Say the word, show me the cash--"

"Your loyalty is touching," Tyr said, flatly. He didn't approve of my brother. Aw. I was starting to warm up to Tyr. Again.

"You Profit?" the biggest shady guy asked, approaching our table. He asked Dylan.

"Or now. Now is good."

"I'm Profit," Sid said with a smile.

"You?" the big guy sneered.

Sid stood up. Sid's tall. "Yes. Can I help you?"

The thugs stepped closer to Sid. I got to my feet. I'd decided to cut the boys down a bit. "We outnumber you. We're smarter than you. Sit back down at your table before you get hurt."

The look on those boys' faces was priceless. Three of them started talking at once. "Was that a threat?"
"You wanna fight me, Blondie?"
"Little--"
Other two just looked at me.

"I don't want to fight. Sit down."

Trance stood. Rommie and Tyr did too. Dylan stayed seated, darting glances at them in his special "wait, you're still alive?" way. The big bad boys sat down. So did we. The brief interlude of threatened violence blended nicely with the overall unspoken atmosphere.

I got a rush, telling off the stupid punks. There's that rush of freedom, just before the memory of all the consequences kick in. That quick adrenaline surge that makes you feel like you can do anything you want. Repercussions are for losers. Rules are for those who get caught. I've lived most of my life riding that rush. It's not true, of course. You get caught up in anything like that-- adrenaline, Flash, anything-- and someone you love can get hurt. Major buzz-kill.

Because then you remember that there is a consequence for every damn thing you do. Everything you don't do. Everything you kind of wanted to do but the cops were on your tail so you got out of there fast. Everything you even thought about doing hits you in the back of the head. "Sorry, Rocket" pops into my head at times like that.

I sat at the awkward table. Thinking about the rush of freedom, about my ship. About Flash. About Dad. About Sid. About everything.

I didn't cry or anything. I didn't get sad or suicidal. I got pissed.

Trance started singing. "'But I believe in peace. I believe in peace, bitch. I believe in peace.'" I taught her that song. Her other self, I mean.

Dylan glanced at Trance. He didn't know the name of the song. Didn't know that somewhat-less-cute Trance was threatening poor little Elle.

Rommie tapped her fingers on the table. She was still staring at Dylan.

"Beka, how does that song go?" Trance said, slyly.

I grinned. I sang. "'So I want to kill this waitress. She's worked here a year longer than I. If I did it fast you know that's an act of kindness. But I believe in peace. I believe in peace, bitch. I believe in peace..'"

"We're going to get escorted out of here by security," Harper murmured. I kicked him under the table.

Dylan put two and two together, arrived at pi, and decided that was close enough to berate me. "Beka, remember our talk?" he said, moving in his seat so he could focus his steely gaze on me.

I speared some of Harper's food on my fork. "Which?"

"Your moral compass--" Tyr and Harper and Rafe laughed, cutting off Captain Terrific's lecture. Ah, family.

"I told you," I said between bites. " The giant magnet distracted it."

"Yes, Brain, but why do the fish people hate AquaMan?" Harper said, out of nowhere. He was looking at me so earnestly.

The effect of his stupid little statement on our table-- and the thugs'-- was just... incredible. Everyone blinked, looked at Harper, looked at me, and did it again. The shady boys did it too.

Sid leaned forward. "Is that code, or has the caffeine burned out your synapses?"

Harper shrugged. "The latter." He took some of the food off my plate. "Punk rocker..."

"Ah, such a shame," Sid lamented, as he leaned back in his chair. "Beka deserves a husband with all of his brain."

The silence had a different tone this time. It was like a heart stopped between beats. That's because my heart stopped beating. The thugs were waiting for us to tear ourselves apart, divide our slightly higher numbers into something easier to handle. At the rate we were going, they wouldn't even have to do any work.

I didn't look at Tyr or Harper or Dylan or... anyone but Sid. I glared at Sid. "No."

He just smiled.

I swallowed my bile. "Harper and I aren't--"

"Yes, of course not, Rocket." I shrugged, and took a bite of my food. "You two do make a cute little couple," Sid added, evilly. He was trying to ruin my appetite. It wouldn't work. I'm not that easily disgusted.

"We're not," Harper said, softly. He had that dangerous glint to his eyes that he sometimes gets.

Sid looked at him. Sid really looked at him. Sid gave Harper the sort of look Harper had been giving poor Elle. I choked on the food in my mouth. Appetite ruined.

I managed to swallow my mouthful without tears coming to my eyes.

Sid continued to look at my engineer.

"'Rain, rain on my face. Hasn't stopped raining for days. My world is a flood. Slowly I become one with the mud,'" Harper began, looking my way.

The Maru crew-- the real crew even if it's the wrong Trance-- knows how to pack a hell of a lot of meaning into an innocuous statement. I picked up the song: "'But if I can't swim after forty days . And my mind is crushed by the thrashing waves. Lift me up so high that I cannot fall... Lift me up.'" Harper first let me hear that song a few months after I met (saved) him. He never told me what it meant to him. I just kind of picked that up.

The awkward silence returned. Rommie was staring at the table of thugs.

Sid kept looking at Harper. "You overrode my codes?" he asked. Harper nodded. Sid smiled. "Seamus, you remind me of Ignatius when I first met him."

"He's nothing like Dad." I paused. I grabbed Rafe's wine glass, and took a drink. "And that would make me you, by your earlier analogy."

"Rocket--"

I glared at Sid. "Yes?"

"I gave you the ship. The least you could do is lend me your engineer--"

I stood up so fast my chair almost fell over. "We're done." Everyone followed my lead. Sid settled the bill. Harper briefly flirted with Elle. I ran out of there-- again. The thugs gestured for Elle to come over to them. I saw that much before I got out to the corridor. Harper was right behind me.

First, I made frantic hand gestures to the ceiling, the floor, the walls, everything. Then my lips tried to make sounds as I choked on rage. Eventually, monosyllables like "you" and "he" and "Gaaaaah!" and "ew" and "BAH!" surfaced. Harper feigned ignorance until I said, "You're Satan. He's Satan. Trance is also Satan, but, you guys take the cake..."

He shrugged and smiled and said,"Makes my crush on Tyr look far more benign, doesn't it?" I returned to frantic hand gestures at that. "You are like Sid," he added.

I managed to vocalize, "Don't ever say that to me--"

"--or you'll dump me back on the trash heap where you found me?" Harper's voice was sharp and dark. It was like a knife blade in a back alley of some seedy dive. It was like the looks those thugs were still giving us. Harper wasn't done. "You keep saying Dylan and Sid are alike. Dylan just doesn't acknowledge it. You and Captain Terrific have a few common traits, you know..."
Harper paused, and swallowed. When he started talking again, his voice was lighter. It was just as sharp, though. "Your dad was no angel, Beka. You have two demons sitting on your shoulder. It's not your fault, but you do take after the guy. Maybe that's why I like him. Maybe it's that he cheats at cards, like I do. Maybe I'm plotting a subtle intrusion into his business affairs."

"Harper...."

"I'm a big boy, Beka."

"Yeah, that's the problem. I liked it better when you looked twelve. If someone was interested in you, I could shoot them for being demented."

Harper smiled. "I've grown up?"

"No. You're not more mature, either." He stuck his tongue out at me. I leaned against the wall, feeling very tired again. "Where is everyone?"

"They're still inside."

"So we have to wait?" Harper nodded. "Eh, fine."

Harper and I stood in the corridor of the station, waiting for our people to come out. Harper's nothing like my dad. He keeps his promises. I do too. At least, I try to. Harper tries. We both try so hard, but things happen and it doesn't always work out. All right, so Harper's sort of like my dad. That's okay. That's perfectly healthy. That's probably why I consider Harper to be family. I've seen the connection before. I just didn't let myself put it into words. Express the thought, figure the person out; and then they leave you.

No, what disturbed was that Sid must've thought I was like him. It was just plain wrong, on so many levels. The highest level had to be the fact that Sid seemed to be attracted to my Harper. It was funny how that "my" kept slipping into my thoughts.

"Think they've started a fight yet?" Harper asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Probably."

"Think we should go in?"

I sighed. "Yeah, probably."

Our people were still at their table. Awkwardly staring at the punk group of wannabe thugs. I took it upon myself to break up the awkward silence.

"You want something?"

They didn't answer.

"Thought so." I turned to Dylan and Sid. "We're leaving now." Tyr, Trance,

"Name your price, Seamus," Sid called, as a parting shot.

"You couldn't afford me."

Sid sighed. "I'm sure that's true. Elle, dear. I need a console."

Elle popped up out of no where. "Right this way, Mr. Profit." She led him away.

"Bill taken care of?" Harper asked Dylan.

We walked outside, into a group of people. They were pissed. Not all together.
"We can't leave," one bitched to another, over my head.
"Why?"
"Haven't said. Doors are locked."
Guns cocked, deeper in the group.

"What the hell?" Harper muttered. Elle ran past him. She was followed by some others in the drab uniform. She went up to a console. Banged the hell out of it. Cursed a little, in tones/words I didn't understand. She started talking to people, quietly. They dispersed a little, then drove back in towards her.

Trance, Harper and I pushed through the growing crowd to figure out what had happened. Elle was in the center. She had an overdramatic more-in-sorrow-than-anger look plastered to her face. "There has been a security breach. I'm afraid that the station authorities have asked our visitors to stay until the situation is handled."

"'Asked' implies we have a choice," I said, quietly. Elle turned to look at the men and women coming down the corridor. They wore the same sort of uniform as her, just with visible weapons. I nodded once. "How much?"

She let a quiet laugh slip between her chewed lips. "Not me."

"Cor?"

She smiled for a split second. "Higher. Lower, but higher. Wish I could help fix the breach." She shrugged. "Unauthorized."

Three of us nodded. Trance started to sing: "'I look at all the lonely people.'"
I blinked. She wasn't. She couldn't. I would let her.
And yet she did it anyway. "I look at all the lonely people... Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been. Is it her dream?'"

Elle looked up. Smart girl. "Trance--" I said, hoping to cut off any musical outbursts.

Harper tried to make nice with Elle. She wasn't game. She looked at me, kind of wistfully. "Your ship. Maru?"

I placed the wistful look. It was of the "hey, can you give me a ride to the next station, it's not that far and I can help you out, really" variety.

I gave her my own more-in-sorrow smile. "I need to talk with my people," I added, referring to a dozen things at once. Trance nodded. Harper pouted.

Dylan was scoping out the wannabe boys. Observing them. Tactically. In a completely non-sexual way. "Those men--" Dylan started

I cut him off: "--are undoubtedly working for my uncle. If they weren't when we walked in, they will be soon."

"Everyone has a price," Harper said, briefly slipping into his own personal darkness.

"Poor, sweet Elle has to answer to Sid until he leaves the station because he's paying for her to adjust the temperature to his exact specifications."

Harper picked up my thread. " Sid's got money. Money is one of the forces that moves the Universe."

"The Maker," Trance said.

Harper shrugged off her words."Drugs. Guns. Beer."

"Ba ba bapa," Tyr sang softly. He blinked.

Harper jumped to hug him.

"Drugs?" Trance suddenly asked me.

I shrugged off her question. "Anyone want to know why we're still here?"

"Security breach and blown conduits on the upper level of the station," Rommie said mechanically. Which isn't as redundant as it sounds.

"Remind me again. What am I good for?" I asked Tyr.

"Getting me in trouble," Dylan said dryly.

"Rebecca," Sid called. The wannabe thugs were closing in on us.

I ignored him, and focused on Dylan. "Like you don't do a good job of that yourself."

"You always seem willing to help me."

"Yo! Valentine!" Sid said, making me look up as he walked over. Nice.

One of the wannabe-flunkies said: "I knew a Valentine once. Real prick."

"Ignatius, Rafe, or Beka?" Sid asked before I could, you know, kill him for his stupidity.

"Sid," the flunky-in-training said. I suddenly loved the guy.

"He's not a real Valentine," I explained.

"And you are?"

I nodded. Threw an arm around Harper. "Kill me," I whispered in his ear.

"So you know my uncle?" I asked the new thug-of-my-dreams. He wasn't bad-looking... Blond hair. Nice eyes. No. Bad Beka. I still had my arm around Harper anyway.

"Could say that. What's your name, pretty?"

"Rebecca," Sid said with a tone of "we've been over this."

Punks nodded, confused. "Thought she was a redhead," the one who looked to be in charge-- big blond-- said.

"Easily changed," I said, flipping through colors before settling on light blue. Trance and Harper nodded their approval. "So you wanna tell me how you know my name and preferred hair color?" They didn't answer. "Sid?" He wasn't any more forthcoming.

Harper plucked at my elbow, dragging me aside. "Beka, be cool."

"I am cool."

"Be calm, then."

"You saying I'm not calm?"

Harper eloquently arched an eyebrow. "Give Sid a break."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

I snickered. "Brilliant reasoning."

Harper murmured. "You cut your deceased father all the slack you can give him, and give Sid nothing but tighter knots on his rope."

"He let my dad hang."

"Yeah. He stopped enabling the guy. He tried to help you and Rafe." I started to say something, but the determined look on Harper's face made me stop. "Sid's not perfect, far from it, but neither was your dad. It's why Sid did stick around as long as he did."

"To use my dad."

"Like you use me?" Harper asked, with that almost-there smile. "Nah, not like that," he added, answering himself. "I should be so lucky.."

"All right. You're right. Can we stop having this conversation now?"

Harper nodded. "We need to find a way off this station."

"Or we could wait for the security breaches to be fixed," Sid said. He had all the time in the galaxy. He was paying for it, but he could afford it. We probably couldn't.

Elle walked over to us. "I'm terribly sorry for the delay, Mr. Profit," she said. It was the most insincere statement I'd heard in a long time. "We hope this problem will be fixed within the hour."

"I certainly hope so," Sid said. He nodded towards the thugs.

"I don't like being held hostage by anyone," one of the punks said. Loudly. He was trying to attract attention. It worked. Everyone crowded in on us.

"This is not a hostage situation!" Elle yelled. Her patience had obviously gone to hell and back. She seemed like she knew better than that. She took a breath before continuing: "There is a breach in part of the integral systems of our station. There is a difference, I assure you."

"If this were a hostage situation on the station's part, she would be asking for ransom," Sid said, trying to mess everything up, like usual. "The continued docking fees would hardly count."

She wanted to hurt him, kill him maybe. She was turning white, then red. She wasn't the only one pissed off. I mean, besides us. The thugs were drawing their guns. All of them. Nobody seemed too thrilled with the fact that Sid was getting premium service, and they were second class at best.

Everyone else-- especially the visibly armed people-- started talking louder.

One held his gun up high. "Next person to speak, dies." That shut everyone up, fast. Dylan did the heroic thing. Shoved Harper behind him. At least, I think he was going for heroic.

So of course Trance piped up: "Twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go; I wanna be sedated. Nothing to do, no where to go; I wanna be sedated. Just put in a wheelchair, and get me to the show. Hurry, hurry, hurry, before I go loco. I can't control my fingers, I can't control my toes. Oh no, oh oh oh.'" I can't believe they let her go on for that long. Sure, she was mostly hitting the notes, but...

They shot her. Yeah. Poor Trance. Right in the heart, if she'd been human. Just above the neckline of her leather top. Didn't even muss her clothing. We'd all cleared a space around her when she was singing. Anyone with a brain could see it was coming. She hit the wall hard.

"She's dead!" Harper screamed, moving around Dylan. Again, he mouthed at me. Tyr, Dylan, Rommie, me, Rafe, Elle, and the assorted other schmucks were shocked or pretending pretty well.

"Think she had some cash on her?" Rafe said. He didn't know. Shmuck.

"One way to find out," Harper said, kneeling next to the body.

She grabbed his arm as it cames toward her formely inert body. "Harper, you're not picking my pockets."

"Early! We didn't even pull anything yet..." Harper tried to get her to let go of his wrist. "Too early for rigor mortis. Lemme go.

Trance did. Nice girl. She tried to pop back up. No one can do that, even the formerly purple pixie. She was just shot in the chest. Not that she necessarily had a heart there.

Harper held out his hand. She took it. I shook my head. They're insane, you know.

Trance glared at the guy who shot her. She started singing again, as she walked towards him. " 'I'm not your senorita. I am not of your tribe. In the garden I did no crime....'"

He punched her, right in the mouth. Her lip looked swollen, but wasn't bleeding. She punched him back. Hard. Someone bled, from some bone that cracked; either her knuckles or his lips and teeth. From the looks of it, his lips and teeth. "I don't like being killed," she said. "And, I don't like you."

Dylan and Tyr had cornered the rest of the thugs, with the help of the rest of the milling crowd and the station workers. Elle stood apart. She was waiting for something. A signal of some kind; an opening maybe.

Cor walked over, with five armed guards. "The situation under control, Elle?"

She glanced at me. I nodded. "Yeah, it's fine, Cor. Arrest these men." She pointed at the thugs. "They attempted to incite a riot."

"Murder, as well," Sid said.

Cor looked sharply at Elle. She looked at me. It took me a second to realize she knew that I was supposed to be in charge of Trance. "No dead people here," I said easily.

Cor nodded at Elle. "You can take care of this," he said simply. His armed companions rounded up the thugs, and took them away. Everyone else backed off a bit.
Elle was still looking at me. "Your ship," she said softly. She still wanted out. Probably more than before.

I nodded. "Depends, but..." Her face fell. "Yeah. Sure." I gave an easy shrug. So we picked up some spacer chick. No big deal. She gave me a briefly radiant smile, before falling back into troubled worry.

"Where do you want to go?" Harper asked her. He catches on faster than most. Captain Terrific was hopelessly lost.

"Anywhere but here."

He laughed. "Not anywhere."

"Anywhere," she said again. Her voice was firm. She knew what she was talking about.

Harper wanted to test her anyway: "Earth?"

"If I could do some good there, yeah."

"Spacers don't do too well there. What's your story, anyway?"

Elle relaxed a little, slouching her way out of the military-type stance that was pushing her breasts towards Harper's eager face. "I was born on a station. Not this one, not as nice… a geosynch deal around some planet no one's ever heard of. Basic, really. I hitched a ride out of there when I was fifteen. I've been waiting tables ever since. My parents were part owners in a place like this on our station. Never even been on a planet."

"You don't want to go to Earth then."

Elle looked him over. "You're from there?" He nodded.

"As interesting as this is," Sid said, "I would like to talk with you, Elle."

Her pale face somehow drained of blood even more. "Of course, Mr. Profit. I'll be with you in just a moment, sir," Elle said, slipping her arm through mine. "I need to discuss a few technical details with Captain Valentine first." She could handle Sid better than me. She led me aside. "I'm not looking for a free ride. I've worked on ships like the Maru before."

"You went over the specs?"

"Sid did, on my network." She shrugged. "Same thing. I want out of here as soon as this whole thing is over with, and I think you do too."

She was right. "You telepathic?"

Elle smiled. "I wish." She squared her shoulders again, and turned to Sid. "Ah, fuck," she muttered, barely moving her lips. She was getting even paler. She had to have circulation problems or something. Her blood didn't seem to move, except to go away from her face and extremities. If we had the backing of the Andromeda I could take on another crew member with a weak constitution. If we didn't, we'd have enough problems.

Harper's loyalty was split. He loved me. He loved Dylan. Both of us had been horrible to him. Trance looks out for herself and us. She'd find some way to manipulate us all to where she wanted us. Nothing Dylan or I could do would change that. My splitting from the ship would change her plans, maybe. Tyr would... I had no clue what Tyr would do. He'd be Tyr. That's all I could be certain of. Rommie would stay with the Andromeda out of necessity.

"What the hell am I going to do?"

"She's coming with us?" Harper asked. I gave him a small nod. "Cool."

"Very," Trance said. The bullet hole was mending. Maybe. I try not to stare at the shelf too much. "She didn't ask me anything."

"Too stupid to join us," Tyr muttered.

"I'd think that was something pretty smart, really," Harper said, giving Trance a sideways glance.

"I think she'll fit in rather well," I said to Harper, smiling. He smiled back at me. Everyone was smiling. Everything was fine.

"Oooh, can I keep her? I'll feed her and water her and hug her and squeeze her and clean up after her and get her a shiny leash." I looked at him. "Kidding! Mostly."

"Leather leash," Elle said, walking up. "Captain Valentine," she said, tensing into the pseudo-military stance again. Girl had been trained well.

"Beka, can I talk to you?" Dylan commanded me, ruining the moment. It should've been a question. It wasn't.

I ignored him, looking at Elle instead. "I need to discuss the arrangements with Captain Hunt before we can finalize anything."

Elle nodded, and looked at Dylan. "Everyone!" she said, raising her voice. "In light of the ordeal you've all gone through, free drinks courtesy of the station!" That cleared the hall out fast. Elle led them all inside. Tyr and Harper were the last to walk in. They eyed everyone going in, making sure no trouble started again. Sid and Rafe blended in with the crowd, somehow.

Dylan glared at me. I steeled myself for another lecture.

"You can't just invite some random girl onto my ship," Dylan started.

"She's not random," I said.

"She's not useful."

"You do it all the time," I said, slipping into my immature child mode. "Every time you want to impress your piece of the week--"

He cut me off: "That's..." He stopped. I grinned. "That's not the point." He looked away.

"Elle's perfect--" He glanced at me. "Okay, she's not perfect. Far from it. She'd fit in well, though. She wants off this station. She's saving our collective ass right now. She could work for us."

"That's true..." Dylan was almost to my side of things.

"So why don't you get your head out of your ass and see things my way?" Diplomacy. Eh. Dylan glared at me. I grinned. Wide. He shook his head. "Elle's not looking for a free ride. Hell, she has a better attitude than I do."

"Maybe I'll replace you with her," he said, almost smiling.

"Nah, you have a weakness for blondes."

He glanced at my hair. I decided to turn it platinum blonde. That got another eye roll. "I do not."

"Yes, you do."

"That is not the point."

"Enlighten me, Captain. What is the point?"

"Trance died," Dylan said solemnly. As if her corpse was at our feet.

"It's Trance! She deliberately pissed them off so they would shoot her. She resurrected her damn self."

"That isn't the point," he said, again. He gritted his teeth this time.

"She wants out. She's saved our ass. She'd work for us." Dylan shook his head. "For me."

"You'll keep her on the Maru?"

"I'll leave the Andromeda

Dylan smirked. "Because of this girl?"

"Because Sid tried to kill me and--" He rolled his eyes. "No. Not because of Elle. Because of you."

"When?"

"I don't know yet."

"So you're giving me an ultimatum? If I don't let Elle join us, you're leaving..." He shook his head. "With who? Besides Elle."

"Smug little prick..." I muttered, under my breath.

"Little?"

"Compensating." Cheap, stupid, low blow.

"That's not--"

"--the point?"

"True."

"It's true?" I said, trying not to laugh. Juvenile and stupid of me, but oh so fun.

"It is not true," he said, almost bursting some major blood vessels.

"Mmm-hmm. With the force lances and the--"

"Beka!"

I smiled. "Free drinks."

"You know, if she quits they'll make us pay for the drinks."

"Us? Trance was killed. They can't make us pay."

He rolled his eyes at me. Again.

They were dancing.
Trance and Rommie were dancing, sort of together as they sang Trance's song. "'Things are getting desperate when all the boys can't be men. Everybody knows I'm her friend. Everybody knows I'm her man.'"

Elle was sitting at a table with Harper, watching them move. She wasn't paying much attention to poor Harper. He didn't notice though. He wasn't paying all that much attention to her, either.

"Why are they singing?" Dylan asked no one in particular.

"It's the dancing that concerns me more," I said. Harper smiled broadly.

"I told them you were considering..." Elle gave me a shy smile instead of finishing the sentence.

Dylan gave me a sharp look. "You're not going through with this," he said, with all of his usual tact. It was his turn to get the sharp look stabbing him through the eyes. Harper and Elle delivered it. My gaze was blunt and smooth, like a large object to the head. "Beka--"

"Dylan," I said, cutting off all further conversation. "Why?" I asked Harper, knowing that he would decode the message correctly. He'd come up with some good reasons for Dylan's continued existence.

"Lawlessness is behind us," was all he had to offer me though.

"Fuck. My ship fixed?" Harper nodded. "Great. I'm going for a little trip."

"Can--" He stopped. He swallowed. "Never mind. Have fun. Don't get yourself killed."

"Harper--"

"Be possessive of me. Toss me aside. Bye Beka."

"Harper, you're coming with me."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Then stay. I'd like you to come with me. Elle is. Trance may be..."

Sid and Rafe were starting our way. "You'll tell me the rest later?" Harper said, not really asking.

Tyr joined the dancing. I stifled a laugh. Dylan did not.

I decided to sing: "'When I start moving, you see a blur. Get hooked on me baby, there ain't no cure.'" Harper smiled and nodded.

"Flash?" Rafe said.

I winced. "No... I mean, that's not--"

"Whatever you say, Rocket," Rafe said.

I rolled my eyes, tossed my hair, and reached for my gun. "Get out of my life, now."

"Since when do you know where to tell people to get off? You just slug them until they run like hell." I glanced at Harper. "Here, allow me to demonstrate." He ducked behind Dylan.

"That's not running like hell."

"Yeah, that's another part of you not telling people to get off. I have to stick around."

Trance and Rommie were still singing, as they performed an intricate dance with Tyr. "'In my heart, in my heart, I have done no crime. If you want inside her, well, boy, you better make her raspberry swirl."

I sat and watched the pretty. Dylan and Rafe and Sid and Harper were alternating between the pretty and the pissing off Beka.

"You should feel bad, leering at family like that," Harper said, demonstrating how easy it is to piss me off.

"Tyr's not family. He's crew," I pointed out.

"Rommie's family," he countered.

"I think I hate you."

"What are you talking about?" Dylan asked, butting in as usual.

" On a ship like the Maru crew and family are the same thing. On the Andromeda things get more complicated."

"What difference does the ship make?" Dylan asked, with that wide-eyed pseudo-innocence he gets from time to time. I hate that.

I ignored his blatant ignorance. The ship's avatar understood this basic fact of life. She wouldn't be insanely dancing if she didn't. I made a note to ask her about that. I decided to be generous, and explain to Captain Oblivious: "Tiny ships force everyone on them to become family. You have to trust them, completely. That's not entirely true on the Andromeda. Situational trust comes into play there."

Elle nodded. She got it too. Dylan was still confused.

"I'll explain it when you're older," Harper said in his most patronizing tone.

Dylan glared at Harper. Elle smirked. "''You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we all want to change the world. You tell me that it's evolution, well, you know, we all want to change the world.'" Dylan glared at her. He wasn't threatened by the pale/dark girl. He just really disliked her. "'But when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out?'"

"So, you don't want to blow things up with us, then?" Harper said.

Elle closed her eyes. "'You say you got a real solution, well, you know, we'd all love to see the plan. You ask me for a contribution, well, you know, we are doing what we can.'" She opened her eyes. "What things?"

"Can't talk about it here."

"The walls have ears," Rommie said, sneaking up on Harper.

"Yeah," Harper agreed, jumping a little. "It'll have to wait till we get back to the Andromeda."

"The walls don't hear there?" Elle asked, too innocently.

"The ears are mine," Rommie said.

"We can go to the Maru," I said.

"Sid bugged it," Harper and Dylan and Trance said together.
"I'll take care of him, Beka," Trance added.

I merely arched an eyebrow. Dylan actually said something: "What do you mean, Miss Gemini?"

She tried to smile cutely. It didn't quite work. Harper snickered. "You're not cute enough to get away with murder any more, my formerly grape goddess."

It's amazing how an over-the-top compliment from Harper can make anyone pissed. Trance glared at Harper. She turned to me. "I need to go change the fate of the universe. I'll be back in a day or two. Cover me?"

"Yeah, okay. You owe me, though."

"Sure. I'll meet up with the Maru when you get supplies."

Sid and Rafe shot me interested glances; looked at each other; then wandered towards... not there.

"The Maruisn't going anywhere," Dylan said.

"Of course it is," Trance said, still shooting for innocently-cute and hitting scary-as-hell. "Beka, Harper, Elle, and I have to meet with Sid next week."

"No," Dylan said.

Trance started to roll her eyes, but settled on shaking her head. "I'm going to work the details out with Sid. Beka needs this. We all do. This could change the course of the future."

"What could?"

"Ensuring the future--"

"Does anyone know what she's talking about?"

Trance leaned forward to whisper in Dylan's ear. He watched her chest, of course. She leaned back again. "Sam Profit is a very influential businessman. Beka should take him for all he's worth."

Harper smiled thinly. "Makes perfect sense to me."

"What about Rafe?" I asked.

Trance waved my question away. "That'll happen later."

"Okay, now you're just being silly."

Trance did roll her eyes that time. "Dylan. Sid wants Beka and Harper. It'd be best if he thought he was in control. If they're on the Maru, he will."

"What happened to the walls having ears?" Tyr asked me. I shrugged. "Am I invited on this insane and unspecified expedition?" he asked, as Sid and Rafe returned.

I clapped him on the back. "I'm not the one planning it, but... sure."

"Even though I am not... Family?"

I grinned. "Yeah. Be ready to leave in... two hours."

"One will suffice. Assuming we get off here in that time."

"You're leaving, Rocket?" Sid asked me.

I nodded. "Trance will fill you in on the details. We have to get ready to go."

"Is your ship fixed so soon?"

"Yes," I said, through clenched teeth.

"Commendable job, Mister Harper," he said with a scary smile.

"Okay, we have to go get ready. Trance, we'll be in touch?"

She smiled cheerfully. That she could pull off, at least. "Of course."

"Great. Elle, we'll help you get whatever you need first." I stood. Tyr, Elle, and Harper did too. So good to be in charge...

Elle led us to her quarters. "We should be able to leave by the time we get back," she said, apologizing in a roundabout sort of way about the long walk.

She changed her clothes from the almost flattering grey to layers and layers of black. The style was a mixture of what I wear, and Harper. With her coloring, though, she just looked more dead.

Harper smirked at her clothing choice. "I like it," he said, before giggling.

"Living Dead Girl," she said, doing something weird in her throat to make her voice gravelly. Harper giggled some more. She was staring at me. "I love your hair. I've tried to change mine. Never could afford to do it right."

I shrugged. "Present from my dad." I settled on my natural hair color, without too much effort. "Mom's contribution..."

Elle smiled wider. "I'm the perfect genetic combination of my parents."

Tyr arched an eyebrow at that. Of course he'd be interested.

I nodded. I didn't want to compare family lines any more. "You ready?"

"I'm always ready," she said, patting the bag slung over her shoulder. "I keep my stuff packed for emergencies. Always have."

"No such thing as home?"

"No sanctuary there. And, I'm not much on keeping material possessions. Had my stuff thrown out of an air lock once."

"Trouble on the station?"

"You could say that. Intensely bad breakup. She didn't--" Elle stopped, and coughed. "It's over now. Ended badly a few weeks ago."

"You really want to leave the station?"

"Rebound away, you mean? Yeah. I want out."

"Why us?"

"No offense to you and yours, Captain; but you're just the best way out right now. Nothing more. Ready to go?"

"We're always ready," Harper answered for me.

Continued here...