Missing scene for Deep Midnight's Voice
Don't owe anything about it...
Aliens
Rebekkah Valentine was annoyed. If Dylan Hunt didn't start taking his „acting concerned" more seriously, their new acquaintance would never buy their story. Instead of concentrating on fanning her some cooling and fussing about her, he seemed more inclined to forget all about the entire mission while talking to this Tori-woman. Here we go again, the Eureka Maru's captain thought while firmly grabbing Dylan's hand and moving it about to remind him of his more important duties.
Dylan Hunt was annoyed. Here he was in this forrest reminding him of his beloved Tarn-Vedra with this enchanting creature kneeling by his side, yet instead of enjoying himself a bit he had to put up this stupid act with Beka Valentine, while two Nietzschean Alphas were somewhere nearby, roaming through the neighborhood.
There was something about that Tori-woman that Beka found irritating. She frowned, trying hard to figure out what it was. And then she knew: it was Dylan, the way he acted around this stupid girl like a foolish schoolboy. Oh, she'd seen him smitten before - with Molly, Sascha, Erin and with so many others. This time though it was different: he was behaving in a careful, cautious, serious way like he hadn't since... since... She threw a furtive glance towards the young lady: by the Divine, those delicate features, the dark hair and the even darker, enormous eyes, as well as the well-bred, pleasant, temperate manners doubled by scientific curiosity and enthusiasm... Sarah! He was acting around her like he had been the last time around Sarah. Beka felt herself slowly getting angry. She had not been particularly fond of Sarah and what risks she had made Dylan take upon him - to no avail, by the way. And she wasn't particularly fond of Captain Hunt's current naive reminiscence of his lost love either. But before she could step forcefully into action to prevent him from whatever stupidity he was contemplating, the leaves on the right side parted and out came someone Beka found far more suitable as a communication partner. He looked quite impressive - and Henry... oh well, Henry was such a pretty name!
There certainly was something about this Henry-fellow Dylan found irritating. He didn't like his manners, didn't like the way he took charge of Beka nor the way he looked at her. What Dylan disliked most though was the way Beka looked at him. From the very minute Henry had stepped forward, his otherwise cool XO had almost started purring., allowing this guy to touch her just about everywhere to check on her (Check on her, ha! the captain of the Andromeda Ascendant thought, while he felt himself being pushed out of the way). He was a doctor, Henry, in astro-physics or what they thought around here to be astro-physics. But he had informed them that he had some basic knowledge of anatomy - female anatomy presumably as Dylan supposed sarcastically, luckily refraining from protesting out loud as he remembered that there was nothing really wrong with Beka. But then he got distracted in his gloomy musings about how this chap looked like some younger version of Abel. A hand was softly touching his arm and looking down he found himself gazing once more into a pair of dark, soft eyes.
-
The four of them had finally settled down on unstable camping stools around a small fire, slowly sipping on some bottles with a liquid reminding Beka and Dylan of Harper's beloved Weißbräu. The conversation moved in circles around comets, stars and tourism, with the two Commonwealth officers carefully avoiding going into detail on anything concerning their alleged personal history.
„So, what do you think?" Tori asked, dreamily looking back and forth between the sky and Dylan. „Are there any others out there?"
Seeing Henry's amused expression, Beka rolled her eyes, too. Evidently Dylan was less inclined to do so.
„I don't know," he shrugged. „Anything is possible."
„Don't mind him!" Beka teased, smiling at Henry. „It's just one of his strange moods." She deliberately ignored Dylan's annoyed glaring. „He is nothing less than a dreamer, but from time to time he likes pretending otherwise..."
Tori seemed disappointed. Sighing a bit at her somewhat discouraged expression, Dylan carefully placed his bottle on the soft grass.
„I do not alone believe in the existence of aliens," he then said, smiling at the young woman. „I even believe that they have been living among us all along," he added, „strange beings who have long ago fled their galaxies, coming directly down to us." With a broad grin towards Henry, Dylan continued lazily: „They look almost like us, but they are prettier and prefer eating salads to eating burgers." His eyes shifted to Beka: „I've known such an alien for quite some time now. It speaks a foreign language sounding almost like mine, but I still can't understand it. It means 'no' when it says 'yes', thinks itself nice when acting cool. 'See you in five more minutes' is less of an appointment and more a sign of a disturbed relationship with time. I'm afraid that when it landed its spacecraft and took its first steps on our planet, it somehow lost its sense of logic altogether. Because, you see, it doesn't place much trust in thinking, preferring by far to let itself be guided by absurd emotions." Sighing anew Dylan then concluded: „It's not exactly easy to live with this strange creature from that galaxy far, far away. Yet in spite of having absolutely nothing in common with it, I still like it a lot; in some respect it is a beloved enemy that I would like to trust..."
He laughed good-naturedly, joined by both Tori and Henry. Her eyes dancing with laughter, Beka took a sip.
„What about you?" she heard Henry inquiring. „Do you belive in the existence of aliens?" Beka looked at him.
„I do not alone believe in the existence of aliens, I even think that they have been living among us all along," she answered, nodding lightly at Tori. But then she pinned her eyes firmly on Dylan's face. „Those aliens have been banned from their home, when they finally realized there, that they were taking much more than what they were giving in return. They came to us and have adapted to our planet; and now they look almost like us, just not so pretty. They aren't cute, they're rarely at peace with themselves and others and they're mostly not very reliable." Placing her bottle away, she continued: „I've known such an alien for quite some time now. It speaks a foreign language that sounds almost like ours, but it's not too comfortable with it. When you try to speak with it, it soon gets distracted. And though it claims to think a lot, in most cases it's not the brain it likes to use. There might have been some mutation when it first came to us; it doesn't like to read, hardly ever writes and lets itself be guided by bundles of hormones..." It was Beka's turn to sigh. „It's not exactly easy to live with this strange creature from that galaxy far, far away. Yet in spite of having absolutely nothing in common with it, I still like it a lot; in some respect it is a beloved enemy that I have trouble understanding..."
„This could be the reason, why we fight so much," Dylan said grinning broadly.
„You mean, we all come from different stars and just met here to reproduce?" Tori asked incredulously laughing. It clearly didn't fit with any of her ideas.
„It would explain a lot," Henry agreed, taking Beka's hand.
„Like why you're so difficult," Dylan teased, his eyes shifting from Tori to Beka, „and why one cannot understand you..."
„Or why you look so funny," Beka's tone matched his, while her eyes moved along from Henry to Dylan, „and why it is so hard to figure out if you are all right..."
Jumping to his feet and stretching his long legs, the captain of the Andromeda reached for Tori's hand.
„Now, that we've cleared all that, maybe we should get going..."
„By all means," said Beka, standing up as well. „I feel much, much better..."
Looking at her from the other side of the fire, Dylan nodded smilingly.
„Yes, I thought you might..."