When You Wish Upon a Star
"Well, for those who don't believe, no explanation is possible. For those who do, no explanation is necessary."
Dylan froze the image, and returned his gaze to Trance. The alien refused to meet his, just staring at the floor.
"That's what you said," the captain murmured, gesturing towards the hologram. One showing Trance as she'd been on the bridge a few weeks ago, just after Empyrium. After Rev had been returned, and changed, and when she'd responded to Rommie's assertion that miracles were just a form of scientific phenomena. "Explanations. Either not possible, or not necessary."
Trance nodded. "That's what I said."
"Good, so we're being honest." He leant back in his chair. "So tell me Trance, the pyrians, your people – was you not explaining not possible, or not necessary?"
"I…Dylan, I, I mean, the way the future-"
"Don't," Dylan snapped. "Don't start Trance. The pyrians declared war on the Commonwealth, no matter what their diplomats might say. Casualties are in the thousands. And from what little you've told me, it's all because your people chose to back another horse."
"I can't order my people what to do," said Trance.
"No, you can't," Dylan said. "But as long as you're part of this crew, I can tell you what to do. So tell me – is what you haven't told me not necessary? Or not possible?"
This time, Trance didn't answer.
And it was enough to let Dylan swirl in his thoughts. Samsara. A planet destroyed, hundreds of thousands displaced, thousands dead, a battered fleet, and the knowledge that this whole thing was a bloody game of Go to some race he'd never seen, nor cared to right now. Their own insanity to try and create a front to oppose a different kind of insanity that was the magog and the Abyss. The Worldship bearing down on the Known Worlds while the inhabitants of those worlds played a spitting game.
And he'd had enough. God damn it, if the bastard did exist, he'd had enough. Had so much that he'd been quite willing to order Trance to report to him, and order her to give him answers. Even in the knowledge that no answers would come to him.
"I'm still waiting," he said.
And still, she didn't answer.
"Fine," he said. He picked up a flexi. "I've had it. Far as I'm concerned, you-"
"Dylan," she ventured. "I did tell you about the-"
"Only after Tyr made you," he interrupted, looking at the figures – ammunition expenditure, repair costs, an assignment to Venceremos. He couldn't help but smile bitterly at that – it would be a chance to give Vice Admiral Kosugi a piece of his mind. And unlike Trance, there was a chance that the bastard would actually listen to what he had to say.
"Dylan…for what it's worth…" Trance began. "I honestly can't explain what happened to Rev."
"Do you think I care?"
"Yes," she said softly. "Because Rev's your friend. And mine. And I'd like to think, after everything…we're still friends."
He lowered the flexi, not sure how to answer. Friends. Beka, Harper, even Tyr were friends of his. Rev would always be his friend, even after his departure from the Andromeda. But Trance?
"Dylan?"
But Trance had always been a mystery. He'd liked her, he knew that much. The old, purple her, and up until recently, the new Trance. The one who looked human, but was as alien as her old self.
"I don't know," he murmured. "Friendship is based on trust. And right now…" He sighed, tossing the flexi across his desk. "I don't know if I can trust you."
"Dylan," she said, and he could see her trying to keep her composure. "I honestly can't explain what happened on Empyrium. A brown dwarf being hit by asteroids? Coming near the planet? The planet that Rev just happened to be on? That it somehow made him not a magog? It…" She paused. "It's as if he wished upon a star."
"What?"
"Wishing upon a star," she said. "You know, the song?" She cleared her throat. "When you wish-"
"Don't," Dylan said, rubbing his eyes. "I don't want to hear any songs."
"But it's just like the story, or at least, how Harper described it. I mean, he was drunk at the time, and I think he'd just come from…" She trailed off. "Point is, it's based on a wooden boy. Who wishes upon a star, and becomes real."
"Sounds like a fairy tale."
"It is a fairy tale," she said. "And that's why it's a miracle. And that's why I can't explain it."
Dylan met her gaze. A gaze that was far more confident and assured than it had been over the past few minutes. It was strange, really, that Trance admitting her own ignorance was the most at ease she'd been, as opposed to purposely keeping him in the dark.
And Dylan suspected that would keep on for awhile, if not indefinitely. Trance, the glowing, golden girl. Keeping him in the dark more than anyone else. At least Tyr's deceptions could be chalked up to basic Neitzschean (heck, even human) motivations. At least Rhade had told him why he'd betrayed him before trying to kill him. Least Rev's absence from Andromeda was something he could understand.
"Fine," Dylan said. He returned to the flexi. "You're dismissed."
He didn't check to see if she saluted. He knew what the answer would be. And he suspected that if he tried getting the same actions from Beka or Tyr, they'd break his arm.
"It was a miracle though," he said, before Trance exited. "Least I can't dispute that."
"Yes," Trance said. "One might say that Rev's dreams…that they all came true."
And she smiled. And Dylan couldn't help it.
He smiled as well.