Disclaimer: Andromeda isn't mine, please don't sue me. The most you'd be able to get would be a couple CDs that I listen to while writing fanfic.

Author's Notes: I don't care if everyone is against it. I am a Dylan/Beka fan and proud of it! Anyone else who likes Beka/Dylan can join my Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beka-dylan We talk about the show and share fanfiction.

From A Time Long Gone

By Erin_Cale

Part 1: From a Time Long Gone

"Hello?" A hand waved in front of Dylan Hunt's face, snapping him from his thoughts. "Dylan are you all right?"

Dylan looked at his first officer. "Yeah. I'm fine." He returned his gaze to the starscape. "Just thinking."

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

Dylan considered his answer for a moment before replying. "You know that it's been a year since I last saw Sarah."

"Yeah."

"I just- I don't know. I haven't been thinking about her as much as usual and I'm feeling a little guilty about it, I guess."

"Dylan." Beka moved closer, almost touching shoulders with him "It's not your fault if you're healing and moving on."

"Still, I can't help feeling guilty."

They stood still for a moment, each contemplating something different. Finally, when Beka had just opened her mouth to speak-

"Dylan, I'm detecting a spatial rift opening 1 lightyear away."

"On our way." Together Dylan and Beka left for Command, the door to the obs. deck closing quietly behind them.

***

"Boss, this isn't your everyday spatial rift." When Dylan looked at Harper questioningly, the shorter man explained, "This thing has particles in it that are basically twisting anything that goes into it. There are a couple other things too; energy streams that nobody's ever seen before and this." Harper held out a misshapen piece of metal.

"What is that?" Beka asked, coming closer to observe it.

"A piece of hull that had to have belonged to a Systems Commonwealth starship." He turned his prize over, revealing a portion of the Systems Commonwealth icon.

"Harper, there are lots of relics from the Commonwealth," Dylan said.

"But- and this is the kicker- the hull this came from was cleaned with an inefficient cleaning solution that stopped being used less than 25 years after the Fall."

"So are you saying that this rift is not only spatial but also," Tyr paused dramatically, "temporal?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"A vessel is exiting the rift," Andromeda warned. Her avatar looked confused. "It's Commonwealth, or at least used to be."

"Can you identify it?" Dylan asked.

Rommie was quiet for a moment. Finally she said, "It's the Starry Wisdom."

"It's pretty messed up though," Harper added.

"Are there any lifesigns?" Dylan asked urgently.

"Yes, some. They're all in Command."

"Trance. Harper." Dylan rushed out of Command with Trance and Harper following close behind.

***

The scene aboard the Starry Wisdom was not a pretty one. Crewmembers were either merged with walls or lay in unrecognizable lumps on the floor. The walls themselves looked as if they had been partially melted and on a couple occasions the trio had had to squeeze through a passage where the walls had suddenly grown too close to the other side.

Trance gasped in horror when she got her first glimpse of the interior of the former Commonwealth starship. Never in her life had she seen such absolute destruction. It was only made worse by the discovery that the lumps had been living beings before entering the phenomena. To try to get her mind off of the scene around her, she concentrated on the back of Dylan's head.

"How much further to Command?" Dylan asked.

"According to the scans we took before we left, it should be the first left after the next corner."

They rounded the corner, immediately greeted by the sight of a formerly-living being merged with the wall.

"Weird," Harper said, trying to ignore the way his stomach was rolling. "The door's untouched."

"Untouched but won't open," Dylan remarked as he tried to open the door using the misshapen control panel on the left. "Harper, do you have that laser saw?"

"Of course. I figured we'd need it so I stopped by my workshop on the way to the Maru." Harper produced the desired item with a flourish and went to work cutting the doors. After a few minutes they were able to push the doors open and for the first time since coming to the Starry Wisdom they were able to breath a sigh of relief. Inside they found that whatever crewmembers had been on Command when the ship entered the rift were relatively untouched.

"Sarah!" Dylan exclaimed, rushing over to where she lay on the floor, bleeding from a head wound.

Trance confirmed his worst fears. "We need to get her back to Andromeda as soon as we can."

They quieted as Dylan picked Sarah up carefully. He had just started out the door when someone groaned a dew feet away from him. Dylan made a motion with his head, indicating for Harper to check.

Harper moved cautiously towards the sound. The person moaning was a dark-haired man who had fallen onto his stomach. As Harper turned the survivor over, he noticed the bone spurs sticking out of his forearms.

"Uh oh," Harper muttered. The nietzchean's eyes flew open and he had a force lance in Harper's face before anybody could react.

"Who are you and why are you on my ship?" he growled.

"Why Khalid you're getting paranoid in your old age." Dylan said, still standing by the door.

"Dylan?" Khalid's face swung towards the other captain. "Yours is the last face I'd expect to see here."

Dylan smiled sadly. "Actually it's the other way around."

One of Khalid's eyebrows rose in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Welcome to 300 years into your future."

***