4. Assumptions – brief

Beka led the way displaying a detached, self-assured, at-ease way while walking Thalia towards her quarters.

"What about your luggage?" she inquired politely, thinking this to be as good an opening to a casual first scanning of her unknown mother as any.

"Just let someone fetch the few things I need from the Star of Nephtis," Thalia replied in an uninterested tone.

The blonde nodded.

"Where is it to be found?"

"Oh, all over the place; I'll make a list of what I need…"

The captain of the Eureka Maru frowned.

"You don't have it together in a case then?"

"Oh no!" her mother exclaimed. "It's… well, everywhere really. You see, Nephtis is my private barge."

Goodness! Beka had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. Private barge! Who does she think she is, Cleopatra?

"I… see," she remarked dryly.

Surprised and slightly amused, Thalia looked at her from the side.

"Well, it is much easier that way; whenever I have to leave on a mission like this, I don't need to lose any time packing and unpacking stuff…"

"That you would, of course, be doing all by yourself…" Beka remarked ironically.

"That I wouldn't do all by myself, but that would still cost time. Supervising the ones meant to do one's work is time-consuming, too. Don't you think?"

"I wouldn't know," her daughter replied with a sweet smile on her lips, that just stopped short of her eyes. "You see, I never had someone doing my work to supervise."

"Touché," Thalia acknowledged, slightly bowing her head.

"Anyway," Beka continued in a conversational tone, "if you already have a list, I can pass it through to Andromeda, she'll take care of everything else…"

"Thank you," the older woman replied, holding out a flat data-pad to her. "As a matter of fact, I do have one."

Taking it from her, Beka stepped up to one of the monitors integrated into the bulkhead at the intersection of four corridors and inserted the thin crystal into it.

"Andromeda!" she said.

"Yes, Captain Valentine?" The monitor lit up, showing Andromeda's face.

"Could you please have those items fetched from the Star of Nephtis and brought over to the senator's quarters?"

"Aye, Captain."

"Thank you, Rommie," Beka replied, finishing the brief conversation. "Shall we continue?" she asked, resuming the walk." By the way, in case you need anything else while onboard, don't hesitate to address Andromeda directly. You will find her very helpful and solicitous."

Thalia of Oudekerk had watched the short exchange with mild, yet undoubtedly surprised curiosity.

"Captain?" she asked lowly.

Beka threw her an amused glance.

"What?"

"Your ship," her mother said. "She is calling you 'Captain'."

"Well, I am a captain…"

"Yes, but your captain…"

"…is the captain," Beka interrupted her. "I am his XO and otherwise the captain of the Eureka Maru. I do as he tells me onboard the Andromeda, he does what I tell him when we're on the Maru…"

"Sounds complicated…"

It is, Andromeda's core – monitoring the conversation held in her main corridors – thought, but preferred to keep silent.

Beka shrugged.

"We manage…"

"Yes, I bet you do," Thalia replied, slightly stretching the words, receiving a weighing look from her daughter.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing," the fragile looking woman dodged the question. "But I have to admit: your captain surprises me," she continued with an affable smile.

Beka kept her distance – and her guard, refusing to let herself be lured in by the charm. Se kept quiet. A little disappointed to not be questioned on her remark, Thalia drew a deep breath:

"I mean," she began anew, "I was told he is nice, but I would not have expected such a… regular chap/gentleman farmer kind of fellow…" she concluded, chuckling lightly.

Beka couldn't prevent herself from laughing up.

"Tell me," she asked in a voice lightly trembling with suppressed amusement, "did you just insult him?"

"I don't know," Thalia offered. "Did I?"

Beka stopped her stride, looking at her with an appreciative gleam in her eyes.

"I just had this vision of Dylan up to his elbows in dirt, kneeling in Hydroponics, a straw hat on his head, obeying Trance's orders."

"Trance?" her mother asked.

"Never mind," Beka brushed her off, "you will meet her later… Anyway, since you were already told that he is so…" she had to chuckle briefly, "nice – what were you expecting?"

Thalia smiled dreamily.

"I don't know," she admitted, "maybe someone… a bit larger than life?"

"What, like them?" the pilot laughed, her head indicating the two men following them in respectful distance.

"No, not like them," the older woman conceded. "They're not larger than life, they're just…" She seemed to be searching for the right word.

"Big?" Beka suggested helpfully.

Thalia nodded with a grin.

"Yes, big."

"Does it accomplish anything? I mean: is it working?"

"What do you mean, Becky?"

"Your pretty boys over there…"

"Pretty boys always work…"

Go figure, Beka thought amazed. Looks like we do have at least some things in common…

They had in the meantime reached the guest quarters.

"This is your suite," Andromeda's XO informed the senator. "On the left and right of it are the quarters of your escort, unless of course you prefer…" She left the sentence unfinished.

An amused glimmer in the depths of the dark eyes, Thalia of Oudekerk shook her head.

"No, thank you. It is perfect that way." The two men received her curt nod and retreated.

"Right," Beka concluded, all of a sudden eager to get away and be for a while on her own, "should you need anything else: you can always contact Andromeda. We are a bit short-handed at present, most of the crew is planet-side for as long as we are in dry-dock and the ones onboard are actually engineers assigned just to perform their tasks relating to overhauling the ship and don't really know their way around to help you. You will have to rely on the Maria-bots. So it may take a while, but Andromeda is usually very efficient, even under such circumstances." She offered Thalia a flexi. "These are the codes to everything in your quarters, along with the schedule…"

"The schedule?"

"Well, yes…" the young woman drawled. "The investigation? I set the first questioning of me and Lieutenant Commander Rhade for this afternoon at 15:00h. I thought that would give you enough time onboard to accommodate yourself…"

"Ah yes," Thalia interrupted. "I actually would like to meet you all, if you don't mind…"

Beka frowned.

"Us all? Rhade and me were the only ones who had anything to do with it at all. Dylan had already taken his leave…"

"Well, you see," her mother interrupted her, her voice sounding apologetically and determined at once, "this for instance is already something I would like to see cleared…"

"What do you mean?" Beka asked with narrowed eyes, stepping aside from the doors to let her mother pass.

"There is information that he was still onboard when the order came to start testing those lances and that he only left afterwards…"

"Now hold it right there!" the Maru's captain exclaimed, but then tightly pressed her lips together in a rushed attempt to not lose her temper. "Captain Hunt, Lieutenant Harper and Lieutenant Trance Gemini," she then said, stressing their all ranks, "had nothing to do with it…"

Thalia smiled thinly.

"I'm sure you're right. Still: this IS an investigation. So, do you think you can arrange it for them all to be there? Please?"

For a moment the dark and the blue eyes locked in silent contest. But then Beka's face relaxed and a polite smile appeared on her lips.

"But of course, Senator… We will all meet you then. If you will excuse me now?"

Her mother nodded.

"Certainly, my dear. And don't worry, Becky: this really is only a routine inquiry. You don't have anything to fear from me and neither has your captain. This is of course strictly off record and speaking as your mother…"

It took Beka by surprise.

"I beg your pardon?" she asked unbelievingly.

Thalia watched her with a warm, fond expression on her face.

"Well, I AM your mother, dear… As your captain mentioned, we may have a lot of catching up to do – and this business to take care of, but that doesn't mean that…"

"Doesn't mean that what?" Beka cut in sharply. "That we can't squeeze in some bonding? After almost 25 years?"

"I am here to help, Becky. "

"Help? Help with what?" Rebekkah Valentine withdrew a few steps, as if wanting to put some distance between her and the older woman, scrutinizing her sharply. "Are they again after Dylan?"

Thalia furrowed her brow.

"'They'? Who would 'they' be, Becky?"

Beka shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know… The Collectors, the Abyss, the Templars, the Genites, some triumvir or other, one of our… 'esteemed' Nietzschean allies…"

The Commonwealth senator mustered her intensively.

"You really are worried," she finally concluded. "And you're fond of him… And you do not trust me! But you can, you know… You can trust me on this one, you can trust me with Rhade, with yourself, with Dylan Hunt…"

Beka stared at her, baffled.

"I'm not big on trust," she then informed her curtly.

"You seem to be trusting at least someone," Thalia replied. Beka laughed up:

"Dylan? I KNOW Dylan,…" she hesitated, but then added ironically: "Mother! I know him about as well as I know myself – and most of the time I like him a hell of a lot better. You on the other hand I do not know at all… If we would have met on some drift or other, I wouldn't even have recognized you. Trust you? With myself, with Rhade, with Dylan? I don't trust Dylan with Dylan, much as I may trust him with everything else…"

"Yes, for all I've heard," the senator admitted, "you…"

But before she could continue, Beka interrupted her rudely:

"I don't care what you heard. 15:00h, Senator. We'll all be there."