9. Ancient traditions
Man Ka-Lupe straightened out his dinner jacket, lifted his eyes clearing his throat, and then found himself staring voicelessly at the sight the opening doors revealed: the space behind them was almost a ballroom, a at least 50 m long hall that seemed however not more than 10 m wide, which made it look somewhat like a gallery, too. The walls were adorned with enormous panels in richly gilded frames, reminding of huge mirrors, with small, elaborate tables adorned with flowers and art objects of all sorts beneath them. It looked like a room more appropriate for a museum rather than a warship, an impression strengthened by the fact that the panels changed their appearance as soon as one came closer, revealing slowly altering holographic portrays of all sort of people Ka-Lupe knew nothing about.
"Wow!" he exclaimed lowly.
Coming over to greet him, Harper and Trance laughed up under the mildly amused gaze of Tyr Anasazi.
"Impressive, huh?" the engineer grinned, outstretching his hand.
"Good evening, Marshall!" Trance spurted out at the same time, flashing a charming smile at their guest.
Taking the young man's hand Man Ka-Lupe nodded lightly, smiling back at her over the Terran's head.
"Miss Trance, you look lovely! Good evening, Mr Harper. Mr Anasazi..."
"I'm glad you accepted this invitation, Marshall," the Nietzschean made his opening. "I would have hated to see you leave without an opportunity for the two of us to get a bit better acquainted."
"Indeed," the Marshall nodded, "so would I. However, we seem to be a couple of people short. Am I too early?" he asked with polite concern.
"Nah," Harper irreverently dismissed his objection. "Rommie is on duty, Beka has sent word that she's been delayed – and Dylan's always late..."
"He is?" Ka seemed surprised. As did Trance, who threw a questioning look at the engineer, who was for once wearing a sumptuous, if somewhat oddly scarlet-coloured, velvety jacket. "Strange, I never noticed..."
"Yeah, I call tell ya'," the younger man began to elaborate, "Andromeda's auto-chef is regularly close to getting completely fried for having to delay state dinners for hours..."
"Well, let's hope this doesn't happens tonight," Dylan's friend expressed good-naturedly.
"Don't worry, I'm sure Mr Harper has it all under control," Tyr Anasazi offered.
"I'm sure," their guest agreed with a smile.
"So," Harper rejoined the conversation, lightly rubbing his hands against each other, "shall we shorten the wait by taking a closer look at the gallery?"
"By all means. I didn't even know there is something like this onboard the Andromeda." Man Ka-Lupe sounded impressed and delighted.
"It is reserved for only the very grand occasions," Trance elaborated. Their guest's eyebrows rose inquiringly.
"You just had several ceremonies held onboard over this past week," he ventured.
"The really very, very, very grand occasions..." the golden girl stressed with a puppy-eyed look on her face, reminding Harper of her old, purple self. It was endearing and didn't fail to leave the desired impression.
"I see. I'm very honoured," Ka-Lupe told her, bowing lightly down to her.
"Look, you're Dylan's friend and now you're Beka's sweetheart," Harper began apologetically, "and I've been... well, a bit nasty with you over the past days..."
"No, Mr Harper really, I understand," the older man interrupted him.
"You do?" Tyr queried with a surprised undertone. "In that case, you are more gracious than most of us here onboard..."
They had meanwhile passed along the first panels and came to stand in front of one of the central ones. The shifting flow of images stopped, displaying the hologram of a huge, proud Nietzschean.
"My great-great-great-great grandfather," the Kodiak informed him.
"The panels are programmed to show the lineage of all crew-members currently serving on the Andromeda, and they also store visuals of all former crew," explained Trance. "They recognise the DNA-pattern of the ones standing right in front of them and then focus on that person's family."
"A most ingenious ancestral portray gallery, if I ever saw one..." the Marshall murmured admiringly.
"It sure is, designed by yours truly..." Harper couldn't resist to brag, stepping closer. As he approached the panel, the image changed again, showing now a slim, almost delicate man wearing a coat similar to Harper's. Man Ka-Lupe turned smilingly around to face him.
"One of yours, I presume?"
"Oh yes, Count Andjzey Zelasny Lutoslawsky. He was a Polish aristocrat, the first one in my mother's family to moved to Boston." The Terran sounded proud.
"A count!"
"And an inventor!" Harper told him further. "He came up with an idea for intelligent fabric, that never gets old or dirty or shabby... Developed a new line of clothes... Made a fortune with it, too."
"Ah, a designer. I noticed that you're wearing a similar jacket. You must be a traditionalist..."
"Nah," Harper fended off, "no traditionalist, I'm just poorly paid: it's not a similar jacket, it is the same!"
"Goodness! It must be ancient!"
"It is. About 1752 years old. Like I said, intelligent clothes... If you'd be wearing such a coat and I would get bored with your conversation, I could sit down and have a good talk with your jacket..."
"A... provocative thought," Ka-Lupe admitted, not sounding the least bit provoked by the young man's slight impertinence. "Boston, Earth?" he then asked, after a moment of silence.
"Precisely."
"Go figure. That's where my family started out about 500 years ago," the Marshall said.
"Hey, whaddaya know?" Harper exclaimed. "Maybe my folks and yours knew each other..."
"I doubt that, Mr Harper. There were no rich people on my side. My folks used to be cops, not counts."
"Oh," the engineer said sheepishly. Then, with an engaging smile: "And now you're a VIP and I am keeping two ships past their prime together... Well, that's how life wags!"
The hologram of the Andromeda Ascendant flickered up next to them.
"'Past their prime', hm? Why, thank you, Harper!" she sharply remarked.
"Oops, Rommie. I.. I meant... after so many battles and..." he stammered under her stern expression, his voice eventually fading out.
For a moment the ship glared at him severely, then showed a slight pout.
"I see. None taken," she concluded, disappearing just as abruptly as she had showed up.
"Oops indeed," Man Ka-Lupe said into the silence.
"She... she'll get over it."
"Maybe you could offer her one of your ancestor's old designs to make up..." the other man suggested.
"They were all lost."
"A pity."
"He had to leave Boston in a hurry after killing three men," Harper explained.
"What an interesting figure!"
"Yes, isn't it? But he was no murderer. He... killed them in duels, you know."
"I beg your pardon?" the Marshall exclaimed incredulously. "What did they have any duels about?"
"Well, a woman, of course. Back in those days men didn't use to fight over other men, you know..."
Man cleared his throat.
"Yes, well," he meant, still in a puzzled tone, "but..."
"He lived shortly after the Caspic Wars that had decimated especially the female population."
"I know, still... A duel?"
"Why not?" Tyr Anasazi cut in. "Previous to that and due to the... shortage on females separations and divorces were the rule of the day on Earth. Statistics show that after they took up again the old tradition of duels, divorce rates dropped in numbers. Considerably."
"Probably because the number of both husbands and lovers also must have dropped considerably," Trance considered aloud.
"Well..." Tyr shrugged, conceding the point.
"Still, it does seem like a good idea, especially in view of the latest developments in all our lives, doesn't it?" asked Harper, throwing Man Ka-Lupe a challenging look. Silence fell, while the Marshall scrutinised the shorter man as if trying to determine whether he had lost his mind.
"Mr Harper," he finally said crisply, "you're not seriously suggesting for you and me to fight a duel over Beka?"
"And why not?" Harper replied in an aggressive tone. "I mean, by the looks of it you are a decent man. You wouldn't dream of coming here and say... steal my nano-welder, Rommie's avatar, one of Trance's plants, Tyr's punching-bag or Dylan's Go-board. However, when it comes to stealing Beka away from us..."
"Mr Harper, I am not stealing Beka," Ka-Lupe cut him off. "Besides, the others all seem a lot more relaxed on the matter."
All three Andromeda officers looked unconvinced.
"Really?" Harper mocked. "You should've talked to Dylan."
"I did talk to Dylan about it, and I could notice that he didn't seem to mind."
"You might want to notice a bit harder," Tyr suggested mildly, crossing his arms on his chest and meeting Lupe's slightly inquiring gaze head-on. After another moment of silence the Marshall shook his head in disbelief.
"You're serious," he stated to Harper. The engineer nodded. The older man sighed. "I don't suppose we could settle this with a... nice game of Go or something?"
A thin smile appeared on Tyr's lips: this could have come from Dylan.
"We could," Harper grinned, "but that would not be really in keeping with tradition. Besides: just imagine me telling Beka that I challenged you to fight for her in a duel and you preferred to win her in a board-..."
"Yes, all right, all right!" his opponent hastily threw in. "I still think it crazy, stupid, primitive and barbaric."
"But very impressive," Trance dreamily inserted. "Not that I approve of..." she then hurried to make clear upon seeing all three men eyeing her in surprise.
"Good thing you feel that way, Trance," Harper told her.
"Why?"
"Because we need seconds for a proper duel. I can take Tyr and..."
"Seconds?" Ka-Lupe echoed. "You don't suggest now that for a proper duel I have to fight you while Trance fights Tyr, or do you?"
"No, we're merely needed to assist you," Tyr explained. "See to it that the two of you stick to the rules."
"What rules?"
"First of all: what weapons do you choose?" the Kodiak asked.
"Forcelances, not extended," Harper answered immediately. Man Ka-Lupe threw him a pensive look.
"You really thought this through..." he murmured. "Why not extended?"
The young man shrugged:
"Less exhausting."
"Right," Tyr agreed. Two lances appeared out of no-where in his hands. He held them out for the two other men to take them, who complied silently, both starting to check them. "Now go take your places back to back in the middle of the gallery. Trance and I will join you. We stay there, you two move towards the ends of the room, fifteen steps each. I'll be counting them loud for you. When you reach the end you turn around, Trance counts to three, you shoot until first blood is drawn. That's it. If you shoot sooner, you'll be charged with deliberate assault and battery or even – should one of you kill the other – with murder."
"We're under Commonwealth-law," Ka-Lupe objected. "If one kills the other, there'll be a murder-charge no matter what rules we follow..."
"A win-win situation," Harper commented dryly. "In that case we'd both be heroically going to our deaths for Beka."
Man Ka-Lupe rolled his eyes.
"Great. I can't believe I'm doing this..."
"If you gentlemen are through with talking to each other now..." Tyr snarled sharply. And, as both men fell silent and took their positions: "Good. Now start walking. 1... 2... 3... 4..."
