Chapter 3 (Regroup)
"I got here as quickly as I could, Dylan. Is everyone else here?"
Dylan looked at his former first officer. She was still as slim as the day they had first met, but there were lines on her face that hadn't been there then. The years of warfare between first the Magog, then the Collectors and later the Dragans, the Kalderans, and the Pryians had taken their toll. She had seen too much combat and had too many of her Buccaneers die.
"You're the last one, Beka. Congratulations on your lottery winnings by the way. Do you need some time to rest or do you want to get started right away?"
"Thanks, Dylan. It's a lot more than the Commonwealth gave me when I mustered out." There was a hint of anger in her voice.
Dylan forced himself to meet Beka's gaze. "I tried, Beka. I really did, but the retirement board wouldn't budge. You were never officially sworn in as a member of the High Guard, so they refused to authorize your pension."
"I know you tried, Dylan, and I know where that anonymous gift came from too. Tell the boys and girls thank you for me. It kept me going until I got my shipping company established. Now that I'm filthy rich I can pay them back."
"It was a gift, Beka They'd be insulted if you tried to give it back. I'll have Andromeda send them your regards though." He made a mental note to himself to give Harper a warning. Beka didn't need to know that he had sent her old engineer to Mobius shortly before Beka's transport arrived, with some very specific instructions to give to Andromeda regarding the lottery Dylan knew Beka was addicted to. "Let's go inside and meet the others."
The living room was crowded. Trance and Evie were sitting in the rooms two overstuffed easy chairs while Harper, Dr Jackson and Rommie were clustered around the room's stove. Harper was holding his hands over the stove. Arkland, like Mandlebrot, was a considerably warmer planet than Broughton. Leaning against the wall, a drink in hand, was a middle aged woman Beka didn't recognize. After studying her for a minute the memory of the woman returned. She was Lt Heiyu who had served for a short while aboard the Andromeda. In the doorway leading to what, judging from the odors of cooking wafting out of it, Beka surmised was the kitchen, stood an attractive looking teenaged girl with shoulder length brown hair in which a large number of small metallic objects had been woven.
"Beka!" exclaimed Evie as she levered herself out of the chair and held out her hands to her old friend. "It's so good to see you again." As she got up Beka nearly did a double take. She had known through correspondence with Harper about his work on artificial wombs and of Evie's pregnancies, but it had never sunk in at the emotional level till now when she saw the pregnant android. Evie looked older than Beka remembered her. After a moment Beka decided that she must be deliberately aging her appearance so Harper wouldn't feel uncomfortable with an ageless wife while he was turning grey.
"Hiya, Boss," said Harper walking over to her. He was wearing a sky blue shirt with a gaudy print of purple and yellow flowers on it. Beka's features split into a wide smile. Some things about Harper would never change. He gave her a quick hug. "It's good to see you. You're looking good. Figured out what you're going to do now that you're rich?"
"Not yet Shorty; I'm still trying to get used to the idea. You're looking good too. Still teaching at the university?" Harper did look good, his taste in clothing aside. He was older of course, but there was a calmness to him that had been absent during his years on the Andromeda and later at the Mobius weapons development laboratories. He had always been confident about his abilities as an engineer but now he seemed confident about himself. Beka reminded herself to tell Evie that she had done wonders for Harper.
"It's good to see you again. Captain Valentine," said Dr Jackson. As he spoke Trance got out of her chair to stand beside him, and this time Beka did do a double take. Trance's tail was back, and was in the process of wrapping itself around her lover's waist.
"Daniel, missed it so I grew it back," explained Trance noticing Beka's reaction and where her eyes were focused. As she was speaking Dr Jackson put his left arm around her shoulder, and Beka did her second double take in as many minutes. Dr Jackson's hand, now draped possessively over Trance, was missing three fingers. Only the index finger and thumb were present.
"I didn't duck in time," he offered in way of explanation.
"I told Daniel that while we are here we would see about getting his fingers regenerated," added Trance.
"I think we can arrange for that to happen," said Dylan who had come over to join the conversation..
"Beka," added Rommie, "I don't think you've seen Andy since her parents took her off me when she was an infant. Why don't I introduce her to you?" She waved her hand in a 'come over here' gesture to the girl, who walked over to the two women with an embarrassed expression on her face. She was accompanied by a jingling sound as she walked and Beka realized the metallic objects in the girl's hair were bells. She also suspected, noticing the somewhat exasperated look on Rommie's face, that Andy and Rommie did not see eye to eye on Andy's choice of hair styling.
"Beka, this is my goddaughter Andromeda. Andy, this is Captain Beka Valentine my old first officer, and one of the best slipstream pilots in three galaxies."
Beka held out her hand, but to her surprise the girl didn't take it, rather she placed her hands together chest high, fingers pointing up, and nodded briefly her chin touching her upraised fingers. "I'm pleased to meet you, Captain Valentine, Uncle Dylan and Aunt Rommie have told me all about you."
"Whatever they told you was probably a lie, and it's Beka not Captain Valentine." Beka was gong through some mental calculations in her mind and coming up with a big zero. The girl in front of her was in her mid teens, but the Andromeda that she remembered had been born over 25 years ago.
"Mom and Dad put me in a stasis chamber shortly after I was born," explained Andromeda upon seeing the puzzled look on Beka's face. "Chronologically I'm almost 27, but biologically I'm only fifteen."
"I see," replied Beka. Mentally she was berating Andromeda's parents. She was aware of the practice. The idea was that a woman could have her children when she was best able to bear them and then thaw them out so to speak when she was best able to afford to raise them. She saw the logic but considered the practice deplorable.
"Now that we're all here," announced Dylan a drink of his own in hand, "Commander Heiyu will let us know what she's found out about this lawsuit. I would've liked to have given you all some time to catch up with Beka first, but the Commander needs to catch the next courier flight back to Mobius where she'll be helping us from there. So she'll give us a briefing now before she leaves."
"Thank you, Admiral," answered Heiyu. "I made some inquires and I found the source of the lawsuit. It originated with a Keith Lawson living in Cornwall."
"I think a talk with Mr. Lawson might be in order," said Beka, murder in her voice.
"You'll have to hold a séance if you want to talk to him then,"said Heiyu.
"What do you mean?" asked Trance, her tail still wrapped around Dr Jackson's waist.
"Keith Lawson died five years ago," answered Heiyu. "The address listed on the complaint turned out to be a vacant lot."
"Then who started the complaint, and why, and why now?" asked Rommie.
"I can't answer the why or who yet," said Heiyu. "But I've called in all my markers from my friends and coworkers in the Intelligence community, and people are trying to get answers to those questions. As to the why now, I suspect that it took this long for the knowledge of your present whereabouts to reach interested ears." At Dylan's puzzled look she gave her old commanding officer an apologetic look and continued.. "With all due respect, Sir, you're old news. To most of the Commonwealth you're something they read about in histories. I suspect that outside of Cape Breton even most of the inhabitants of Broughton don't know that you live here."
"How the mighty have fallen," murmured Beka but there was no malice in her voice only sadness.
"It was Admiral Tanaka, who planed the assault on the Magog world ship and orchestrated our strategy during the Nietzschean Wars, Beka, not me," admonished Dylan gently. "We served under him, not the other way around. I may have been the one who started the New Systems Commonwealth, but I only started the job, others took my place and continued the work. And I was happy to relinquish my spot to them.. It's only fitting the they be remembered not me."
"It's not as though you've been forgotten, Beka," consoled Trance. "It's just that people tend to remember the men and women who win wars better than they do those who win the peace."
"You haven't exactly been forgotten militarily either. Beka," added Heiyu. "When the Andromeda was operating as a raider behind the Nietzschean lines during the second war, you had as much as a quarter of the Nietzschean fleet searching for you rather than confronting my father. And your ground assault on Sarvong's Anvil is now a case study at the Academy on Mobius."
"Just as long as they spell my name correctly in the history, books then," replied Beka. "And congratulations on your promotions Commander."
"Rommie," interjected Dr Jackson. "In you letter you said you wanted to fight this out. Andy is three years away from her majority. Is there anyway you could delay the case until then? Then it would be a non issue. Why are you so insistent in letting it go to court? It won't help you and you might just loose."
"If it were that simple Dr. Jackson I would but it isn't," answered Rommie. "Andy is in all ways that count my daughter, and I'll fight anyone who tries to take her from me, but this isn't really isn't just about me and Andy. It's about all AI's and their place in the New Systems Commonwealth. This is the first case like this involving an AI in the New Commonwealth so what ever the outcome, it will set a precedent that will be followed for years to come in the courts. If I win it may be the first real step towards real equality for all the AI's in the New Commonwealth. But if I don't fight it will encourage other attempts to erode the freedoms we worked so hard to obtain, and it won't be long before AI's are little more than slaves again. So you see I can't run from this fight I have to meet it head on."
"I knew you were going to say that Aunt Rommie," put in Andromeda who had up to this point been quietly listening to the adults' conversations.
"Why is that, Andy?" asked Rommie.
"You know that phrase that you always use. You're a warship and you don't like to run from a fight."