Title: A Bad Day, Followed by Another Bad Day, Followed by 88 More Bad Days
Disclaimer: I own nothing and am getting no money
Rating: PG
It had been 3 months. 3 months of searching for his crew. 3 months and 1 day ago everything had been different. He'd had his little but loyal crew, and they were going to restore the Commonwealth and save the galaxy from the Magog invasion. The next day a delegation of Neitzchiens came on board and by the end of the day had sold most of the Andromeda crew into slavery.
Trance hid on Med deck. She'd asked Rommie to show her what was happening in the negotiations as she rushed to finish the latest batch of Harper's medicine. She was supposed to be there, fostering good will, but she was running late. She saw the negotiations turning ugly, saw Harper bolt from the room. Without sound to the images Andromeda was showing her she couldn't tell what exactly was happening, but the good guys were losing. "Where's Harper?' she asked. The image shifted to Harper jacked into the computer, "What's he doing?" She asked the invisible AI
"Blocking access to my systems"
"What's going on?"
Andromeda didn't answer, she couldn't, and Harper had locked her up behind so many doors it was going to take a genius to find her. Trance knew something bad was happening and curled up behind the instrument tray just in time. Angry Neitzchiens stormed through the door growling and obviously looking for something.
Confident the room was empty the leader, Cano jumped up on the bed. Trance slowly inched back and squeezed between the wall and a computer panel. She still had a fine view of he invaders. "Ship!" Yelled the Neitzchien. Nothing happened, Andromeda was still lost.
Another angry Neitzchien came in the room and stood in front of his superior. It was the second in command Mithell. If this new fellow had been observant he would have noticed the crooked computer panel and may have investigated. Luckily Mithell was far from alpha male.
"The ship won't respond, we're locked out of every system"
"Really? I couldn't figure that out," sneered his commander
"No sir, with respect, we know why the ship won't respond. We found the little human interfacing with it."
"I assume the situation was dealt with"
"Yes sir, he's been taken care of"
"Not damaged excessively I hope. The kid has a port, he'll bring in 100 thrones easy."
"No sir, the mudfoot is fine- just a little bruised"
"Good take him to the ship with the others" the second guy nodded and turned to leave
Cano then laughed. "Shame about your lineage if your father hadn't been such a weak disgrace Mithell you might be able to give the orders one day." With his back to the leader he grimaced and left, leaving the alpha alone.
Cano stood up to leave as well. This is when Tyr arrived. He came through the door like a bull, knocking down the intruder. They scuffled for a few minutes and Trance crept out to help. Cano stumbled back into the bed and Trance hit him with the first heavy object she could lay her little lavender fingers on. It happened to be the leg of a maintenance bot that Dylan had brought to Med Deck looking for Harper to get an explanation on why it was laying in the middle of a hallway. Harper hadn't been there so the captain had just left it next to the bed.
Unfortunately being hit with a robot leg did not knock the Neitzchien unconscious; it just made him even angrier. Fortunately, Trance did have another angry Neitzchien on her side. Tyr took the leg from Trance and slammed it into this opponent's face. Blood gushed from Cano's nose and his head slammed back against the side of the bed. He went limp and sagged to the floor.
"Take care of him," sneered Tyr with disgust as he went to the computer terminal against the wall to get a report on what was happening with the Neitzchien vessel. Trance proceeded to tie Cano tightly to a chair. Tyr banged the computer at what he saw. Andromeda's sensors were the only thing responding after Harper's tinkerings and he did not like what they showed.
"What's happening!" Trance asked
"They're leaving. Apparently they decided not to wait for their leader here" Tyr gestured to their unconscious guest
When Cano came to about an hour latter he found himself bound and being stated down by Trance. Pressing a button on the little box in her hand she said, "He's awake"
"On my way" came Tyr's growl. Tyr was not in a good mood. On top of having the rest of the crew kidnapped the damn little professor really had locked up the computer. There was no way the Neitzchiens could have gone storming around the galaxy with a High Guard Warship. They had been dead in the water, and weaponless. It had taken Tyr 2 hours to get the weapons partially charged, there was still little sign of Andromeda herself. They didn't even have communications within the ship. That's why they were using the little radio's Trance had found in a pile of gizmos Harper had been working on just before the meeting with the Neitzchiens.
"Hello" smiled Tyr
Cano spit at him, Trance kicked his chair over with an effortless flick of her foot. Now Cano was on his back looking up at Tyr. In a perfect good cop/ bad cop maneuver Trance jumped from the table she was perched on. "You don't want to see this little girl"
"Come on Tyr, be nice. I'm sure he'll tell us what happened to the others"
"Never, you prideless nothing. You won't get the better of me"
"You won't get the better of me," mocked Tyr "Please! You our laying tied up on our deck. You can't even get off the floor if we don't help you"
"Tyr!"
"Listen to your little purple friend there, Kodiak. You don't want the trouble that will follow this"
"They do seem like such a loyal bunch, as they left you here for me to do what I wish to you. Just tell me where they took the others and maybe I'll let you live." The last part of his sentence was practically a low growl.
"I don't want to see this" Trance said and sauntered from the room. If a Netizchien had ever looked afraid it may have been the look on Cano's face at that moment.
It was dark. Dylan couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Rev, with his Magog night vision assured him everyone was present and accounted for. The fight had not gone well. He'd let his guard down and Beka wound up in a chokehold at gunpoint. Harper bolted, Hunt had thought he was going to do something stupid like throw himself at the Neitzchien to try and save the woman to whom he was so loyal. Luckily he had kept his thoughts straight and apparently set up a system to at least save the ship from being used by the Neitzchiens. Well, that's what he figured from the rantings of the Neitzchien who had dumped the unconscious Harper with the rest of them. Using Beka's life as his bargaining chip Mithell had led the rest of the crew to this dark cargo hold. That had been a while ago, it was hard to tell exactly how long, but it felt like a while.
As the captain, it seemed like he should be saying something, doing something to get them out of this. Unfortunately he had no idea what to say to his invisible crew. Beka was fuming. It was possible that she was pacing. When they had first arrived she had been announcing what was going on. Growing up and living her entire life in space she could feel the engines. She knew when the ship left Andromeda, when they entered slipstream, about how fast they were going.
"This sucks" came her disembodied voice "I can't believe this is happening! I mean, were depending on Tyr, who may have left us, and Trance to save us!"
Trance had never made it to the meeting. Dylan really hoped she had found a place to hide and was keeping out of sight until this blew over. Tyr had been in the room when the betrayal occurred. He'd led one of the aggressors into the hall and hadn't been seen since. There was a report that one of the escape pods had been launched, that the Neitzchien had saved himself at left the others. Dylan didn't buy that. Tyr had gone against self-preservation to protect Andromeda and her crew before, and Dylan didn't think his pride would let himself be scared away by a band of dishonorable Nietzchiens. His genes would reign supreme.
He was about to say something when Harper's moan from somewhere in the dark, announced he was waking up. There was a sharp intake of breath as Harper found himself alone in the dark.
"We're here Harper" Dylan said
"Great Boss, Now all we need is to not be here and everything will be fine." Harper's wish came true almost immediately. The door opened, flooding the cargo bay with light.