Author's Note: Ahha! finally the next chapter is up! Hope you enjoy. It's got a bit more dialogue than usual but I think that's a good thing in this case

Chapter 9

Hyperion

Matt Horner carefully stepped over a fallen console lying on the bridge of the Hyperion as he made his way over to the head of the repair crew working on the control center. The second in command of Raynor's Raiders had been through quite a lot in the last few weeks, not the least of which was losing his commanding officer, but he strived to keep it bottled up from the crew. If he wanted them to maintain their own composure, they needed to see him as they always had: cool, calm and collected. The damage caused from the Zerg ambush had been nearly catastrophic, including serious damage to their warp drive. Executing the emergency warp that they did damaged the shut off command and as soon as they dropped out of warp space the engine began overloading. The crew chief Rory Swann was forced to pull the plug on the entire set up, pulling power from the still engaged drive and frying half the electronics in the engine compartment including Swann's own mechanical arm which had to be repaired and the burns he suffered still hadn't fully healed. But the ship and crew were still alive and as long as they remained as such they would continue to fight. The repair work rapidly ate through the stored minerals they had and Horner ordered dropships of SCVs out to every nearby asteroid and planatoid to harvest whatever minerals they could and bring them back for repairs. Unfortunately the nearest asteroids were mostly simply rock with the occasional mineral deposit and not a single rich mineral vein. Just one of those and they could probably finish repairs on the ship but until they found one they were forced to continue searching further and further out. The Hyperion's sensors still weren't repaired so the dropships where having to search the old fashioned way, using their short ranged sensors on each individual asteroid.

Horner tapped the repair chief in charge of bridge repairs on the shoulder and the chief pulled his headset down from his ears before turning toward the commander. "Yes sir?"

"Any luck on the sensors?" Horner asked, gesturing towards the still sparking system.

The repair chief shook his head. "Not really sir. We're still digging glaive wurms from the exterior sensors and the console here has the majority of its components fried. It seems a wurm got lodged in one of the sensors and caused a feedback that multiplied back through the matrix until it hit the console."

"Any way to prevent that from happening in the future?"

The chief nodded. "I already mentioned to Swann we might want to add breakers into the repaired controls and he OK'd it as long as it doesn't delay the repair any."

"And will it?" Horner asked.

"Not more than the few minutes it takes to install. One of my mechanics designed a separate unit that works on all the controls and all you have to do is place it between the power coupling and the console."

Horner nodded. "Good work, any estimate on time left on repairs?"

"Well, that is the one bit of good news I have. As soon as the crew finishes pulling wurms from the system and once I get enough materials I should be able to repair it in just a few hours. Any clue when our next shipment of supplies is coming in?"

"Afraid not. But I'll put your request to the top of the list. Once we get these sensors set up we should be able to harvest minerals faster," Horner said. "Anyways, keep up the good work. Let me know if you need anything else."

The chief nodded and replaced his headset, calling orders into the mike as Horner walked away. Horner left the bridge but only made it to the next corner before having to lean against the wall as a wave of exhaustion caught up to him. He had been going almost non-stop ever since they dropped out of warp-space and had only managed to catch a catnap here and there between giving orders or receiving information. I'll just close my eyes for 30 seconds and then I have to keep going. Horner thought to himself as his eyes drifted closed. Some time later he felt a hand quietly begin shaking him and his eyes struggled to r- open as he realized he was now lying on a bed, surrounded by various equipment in different stages of repair. He looked around before locking eyes with the man shaking his shoulder, Rory Swann. Horner blinked a few times before he began struggling to sit up but Swann kept his hand on Horner's shoulder to keep him in place. "Now hold up just a minute sir. You need to rest just like every other Terran here," Swann said.

Swann was a stocky man but with only one good arm. During his early days as a Kel-Morian miner on Meinhoff he'd started his own mining operation as made quite the initial profit. However, dirty politics taxed his business into the ground and official complaints had no effect leading the businessman to become a revolutionary against the Combine. Unfortunately his little band was no match for the military might of the Kel-Morian forces and the miner's revolt was stomped on hard, costing him an arm and many friends. It was soon after that Raynor and Horner picked up on the distress call and moved in for a rescue with the Hyperion, liberating Swann and as many of his fellows as they could. With his business destroyed Swann had nothing left and his obvious innate understanding of technology made him an obvious choice for the ship's chief engineer.

"I'm fine, I promise," Horner said as he tried to sit up again.

Swann chuckled as he kept his hand in place. "If you're fine why did I find you collapsed in a corridor? When was the last time you even took time to eat?"

Horner paused and thought for a moment, "I guess it was breakfast yesterday. Had a doughnut…or something."

Swann nodded and let Horner sit up. "That's what I thought. You're lucky it was me that stumbled over you instead of some of the men. A collapsed commanding officer is not the sign of a healthy situation," Swann lifted a tray of food and a glass of water off a nearby flat surface, a broken monitor of some sort, and handed them to Horner. "Now eat and then we can get to work."

Horner took the tray of sandwiches and nodded his thanks. "How long was I out?" he asked as he took a bite out of one.

Swann shrugged. "Not sure how long before I got there but considering no one had bothered causing a ruckus about it I doubt long. I "helped" you down to this room where I spend some late nights working on repairs and set you up on the cot here that I have for those days where I don't feel like going all the way back to my own quarters. I told the crew you were catching some shut eye and if they had any problems that they could wait."

Horner looked over at Swann. "Some of those problems can't wait."

"We're still flying, aren't we? And you slept like a baby for almost 12 hours so I think they can wait."

"12 hours!?" Horner exclaimed as he set the food aside and began to climb up to his feet.

Swann stood in front of the commander and prevented him from standing up. "Hold it cowboy. Damn you're almost as bad as Raynor sometimes…you need rest and food. So eat that damn tray and then I'll let you get back to work but not before then, understand?"

Horner looked at the large figure of Swann standing over him, his new metal arm looking ready to hold him to his word and sighed. "Fine, you win," Horner said as he pulled the tray back over. Swann harrumphed and sat back down on his stool to pick up a small unit and began working on it with his tools.

Horner surprised himself and ate the entire tray of sandwiches and downed the water. Even more surprising to him was the fact that he still felt hungry like the food had simply restarted his appetite. Finally he set the tray aside and stood up as he headed for the door, stopping just before it opened and turned to Swann. "Thanks, Rory. I owe you one."

Swann chuckled. "Nah, you got us out of hell alive so call it even."

Horner smiled, "I think I'll head to the mess and get myself a little something more and see how the men are doing. Good a place as any to let people to know I'm back on my feet." Swann nodded and turned back to his work as Horner went out into the corridor and down the hallway towards the mess hall. He had only made it halfway to the next corridor before an alarm began ringing throughout the Hyperion.

"What the hell?" Horner turns around and sprints back towards the bridge, dodging around crew members and half repaired consoles and almost colliding with a marine making his way to the armory. Eventually he made it to the bridge and and began calling for updates.

"Sensors came online a few hours ago and I set them to sweeping the area," the repair chief from earlier reported. "They just picked up a class-10 Zerg flyer entering the area."

"Class-10? A Leviathan? Damn…a whole swarm could be in that thing. What are our defenses like?" Horner asked another operator.

"Nowhere near functional sir. I can get forward batteries online but that's it and the defensive matrix is still fried. We're sitting ducks, sir," he reported as he frantically accessed the weapons console.

"Damn…Scramble fighters. Use Vikings to keep enemy flyers at bay and use Wraiths to snipe any high-priority targets that get near," Horner called. As the gathered crew began battle preparations the comm sparked to life and a familiar voice crackled out of the speakers.

"Now hold on, son. There's no need for that," Scarcely believing his ears Horner slowly turned around to face the console and almost collapsed at the face that greeted him. Jim Raynor in the flesh.

"Jim! I thought you were dead!" Horner said as he stepped up to the console.

"Takes more than an errant swarm to kill this tough old bird. Believe me, I tried," Kerrigan steps into the picture with a smile on her face.

"Sarah too? I'm glad to see both of you alive and well but we have issues. A Zerg leviathan has just entered the system and is heading straight for us. We need to get you on board and secured as quickly as possible," Horner began running over sensor logs to see where their ship was.

"Yeah…about that. Sorry son but we're actually on board that Leviathan." Horner slowly looked back at the communications screen and took in the background behind Raynor and saw the unmistakable signs of the interior of a Zerg vessel.

"Uh…sir? You mind explaining a bit?" Horner asked, confusion plastered on his face.

"How about over a bottle of whisky in the Hyperion's cantina? Been so long since I had a proper drink not sure I know what it tastes like anymore," Raynor said with a grin.

Horner paused for a minute before standing up straight and looking Raynor in the eye. "Sorry, sir, but I can't compromise the security of this ship. You arrived aboard a Zerg vessel with a person who has…ah…been known to twist people against their wills. I'm sorry but I can't allow you aboard until I can guarantee the safety of my crew. Sir."

Kerrigan looked down, understanding how Horner must feel, but Raynor simply laughed. "That's my boy! Good answer son. Things have changed since I left and I'm glad of that. It seems like you've grown up even more than I expected. Guess that happens when you think your commanding officer is KIA." Raynor stopped laughing and smiled at Horner. "Well how should we go about this? Alright how about this: You send over a dropship to bring us in, meet us in the hanger, and do whatever tests you deem necessary there to prove that we're who we say we are and not under external control?"

Horner thinks for a minute and then nods. "I can agree to that. You understand that I'll have to have a marine squad keeping eyes on you until we're sure you're…safe?"

Raynor nodded. "Understood. See you in a bit." The communication dropped and Horner leaned back against a nearby console, keeping himself from simply collapsing from the shock. Jim Raynor was alive. After all the time Horner had spent accepting the fact that he was truly gone here he was showing up again. Damn, you simply can't kill that man… Horner thought affectionately. He lifted himself back up and killed the alarm still ringing throughout the ship and activated the interior comm system, or whatever parts of it were working. "This is Matt Horner speaking, everyone is to stand down until further notice. We may have good news soon so keep up the good work."

Horner closed the channel and turned to a young brunette officer sitting, as stunned as he was, at a partially working console. "Jessica, would you mind getting a marine squad and a dropship prepped for me in hanger 6?" Horner asked her. Jessica Hall nodded and began punching commands into the flickering console in front of her.

Horner calmly walked down the corridors as he made his way to the hanger, lost in thought. His thoughts cycled through belief, denial, and disbelief not willing to accept the evidence of his eyes and ears. Crewmembers stepped out of his way as he came through as if sensing his mood and not wanting to cause him any more problems than he already had. Rumors spread through the ship fast and by the time he reached the hanger he could already hear people discussing the possibility of Raynor being back and how happy they were about that. He knew it shouldn't bother him but was it really that bad with him leading? He had only commanded for a few weeks but he thought he had done the best he could yet here everyone was happy at having Raynor back.

Horner shook the dark thoughts out of his head and made his way over to the prepped dropship and the marine squad, once again assuming his command presence and began giving orders to the marines.

Raynor and Kerrigan had been busy on their end as well. Raynor had gone and pulled Yohan away from his most recent research project he had started involving Izsha. Yohan's curiosity as a scientist seemed to take precedence over any worries he might have about dealing with the Zerg directly so he had spent quite a bit of time in the nerve center asking Izsha questions about various items including the driving force behind the swarm and what allowed the Leviathan to travel through warp space as easily as a Terran battlecruiser.

Kerrigan on the other hand had spent time clearing the "landing bay" of the Leviathan of as many Zerg as possible. She didn't want to give the Terrans anything to shoot at in case one got an itchy trigger finger. Eventually Raynor, with Yohan in tow, joined her in the area and Izsha informed her a Terran dropship was on its way. Kerrigan began to get nervous as she realized she was about to board a ship full of people who most likely hated her for simply being alive and she mentally curled in on herself as if to protect herself from their stares of hatred already. A warm arm slid its way around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug.

"Don't start fretting already, darling. I'm sure we'll bring 'em around to see how normal you are with the two of us," Raynor said, indicating himself and Yohan.

Yohan stepped forward and nervously smiled as he blinked behind his glasses. "Indeed. You are most certainly not the same as you were back...when you were not yourself...and in the time I've spent with you two I hope we have become…comrades if not friends."

Raynor clapped Yohan firmly on the back, almost knocking the older man over as Kerrigan smiled at the older man. "Of course you're our friend, Chuck. You saved our lives and there's nothing we wouldn't do to pay that back," Kerrigan said. The interior opening of the landing area spread out and allowed a Terran dropship to make its way through to land in the middle of the cleared open space.

"Our ride's here. Time to get going," Raynor said as he stepped forward, leading the party of three towards the Terran vessel. As they approached, the ramp came down and a solitary figure appeared at the top of the steps dressed in a commander's uniform. "Matt? Where are the marines?" Raynor asked, surprised at seeing his friend come alone to a Zerg ship.

The young man stepped down the stairs and up to Raynor, giving a nod to both Kerrigan and Yohan. "I told them to keep an eye on us once we got back. You wanted me to perform a test to see if you were who you said you were, so here it is. The current commander of Raynor's Raiders is in your own territory. My expectation is if something was going to happen, it was going to happen after they had me so I decided to cut to the chase. Seeing as how I'm still alive I'm cautiously optimistic that you are who you say you are after all."

Horner reached out a hand for a handshake and Raynor took it gladly, pausing before puling the young man into an embrace. "God, it's good to see you Matt." Raynor stepped back as Horner fought back tears at the sight of his commander back alive and well.

"Welcome home, sir," he said as he motioned them toward the dropship, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Raynor led the three of them aboard with Yohan taking up the rear. Matt stopped Yohan at the bottom of the stairs and looked into his eyes. "You look familiar. Have we met before?"

Yohan paused and blinked a few times before responding. "Not that I know of, young man. But my name is Chuck Yohan. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Pleasure is all mine. Welcome aboard," Horner responded and Yohan kept going up the ramp with Horner behind, closing the hatch behind him before making his way up to the controls. He powered up the engines and got them turned around, facing towards the exit which opened at a command from Kerrigan and they made their way out into space.

Raynor took in the state of the Hyperion as they approached, whistling at the signs of damage still covering the exterior. "If the inside is anything like the outside you must have had your work cut out for you trying to repair all that damage. We didn't have much left in storage if I remember correctly so you must have been mining the surroundings bare to get any kind of repair work done."

Horner nodded as he lined the dropship up with the entrance to the hanger. "Yes sir. We've even expanded to nearby planetoids in an attempt to locate more valuable deposits of minerals. The local asteroid field is practically depleted. Nothing but hunks of space rock now."

"Would you like some drones to come over and help with heavy lifting?" Kerrigan asked casually. The question threw Horner and he almost spun around to look at her, only being stopped by the fact that they were coming in to dock and he had to keep his eyes on the front.

"Nothing personal, Sarah, but Zerg simply showing up in the sector sent the ship into a panic. Having them on board is just asking for a disaster. Pardon my bluntness but it's risky taking even you aboard. If your appearance wasn't so much altered from that of the Queen of Blades I might not be able to do so at all without the crew rioting."

Kerrigan nodded as she looked out the front glass and into the hanger bay, noticing the various repair crews mostly standing around as if waiting for something. Another idea occurred to her "If you are low on materials the Leviathan has quite a large amount of them stored aboard and we can have them shipped over if you wish."

The dropship set down on the hanger floor with a slight bump and Horner powered of the engines before he responded. "That could help. We'd have to send dropships over to gather the materials since any Zerg nearing the Hyperion might cause a panic of its own. Currently the majority of the dropships are out scouring for materials but we can set up a transfer schedule once they return."

Kerrigan smiled, glad to be able to offer assistance. "Make sure you pick men who won't be too bothered by being aboard a Leviathan. It's certainly quite the experience for a first timer."

Horner grinned in spite of himself. "That it is indeed. I almost couldn't go myself. I'll pick out the teams personally and make sure we won't have much of an issue as the transfer goes along." Raynor let out an amused chuckle and Horner turned to look at him, confused. "Something funny, sir?"

Raynor simply chuckled again. "Not at all, I'm just happy to see you taking charge. Not a single question asked of anyone and you made decisions and gave orders instead of offering them as suggestions to your superior. I always knew you had it in you and I'm glad to see it. It's you young ones that are the true face of this revolution after all."

Horner paused for a second and realized Raynor was right. He hadn't bothered asking anyone for commands and had simply given orders and made plans, even with his CO sitting next to him. "Sorry sir, I didn't mean to try usurping your command. It's just become a habit over the past few weeks."

Raynor shook his head. "Don't apologize son. You've done well keeping this band together over the years and these past few weeks showed you have what it takes to lead this outfit so I feel secure knowing that I have such a strong commander ready to take my place once all this is through."

"I'm honored, sir. But hopefully I can hold off on the mantle of command a bit longer now that you're back. It's not as fun as it's cut out to be."

Raynor laughed as he stood up and opened the hatch on the dropship. "You're telling me. Now then, I'll let you take care of setting up the transfer since you know what situation the various crews are in but I'll want to double check the teams you send just to be sure." Raynor poked his head out of the ship and almost ducked back inside as he was greeted by a wave of cheers from the surrounding crew. A bit stunned Raynor stepped down to the hanger floor and began greeting as many of the crew members as he could before Horner hurried him and the other two off around a corner and out of sight.

"They'll never get any work done with you out there so let's get you somewhere work doesn't need to be done. How about that drink?" Horner asked as he began leading all of them down the corridor and into the cantina. The four enter the cantina and they each order drinks, Yohan simply asking for water while the other three get their alcohol of choice. Raynor with his whiskey, Horner bourbon, and Kerrigan simply a beer. They begin talking and Raynor explains to Horner how he and Kerrigan crash landed on Braxis and fought their way through the snow and into the doctor's town, mentioning the fight with what they later found out were Ursadon and the subsequent over usage of stimpacks that almost killed him.

When Horner found out that Yohan had saved both Raynor and Kerrigan he turned to address Yohan directly. "The Raiders owe you a debt of gratitude, my friend," Horner turned back to Raynor, "You know, our chief medical officer died in the attack so if it's ok with you we could give Dr. Yohan a commission."

Raynor chuckled. "Well Chuck? What do you think?"

Yohan nervously cleaned his glasses as he responded, "No no, thank you though. I'm more of a researcher now than a doctor afterall."

"Well what about working down with Stetman? We have some interesting Zerg and Protoss specimens sitting down there that Stetman could use some help on I'm sure," Horner suggested.

Yohan looked over at Horner, intrigued. "Well that's not something you get to work on every day. Perhaps someone could point me in the direction of the lab so I can meet up with this Dr. Stetman?" Raynor called a female tech over from the bar and asked if she would escort Yohan down to the lab. The tech agreed and the two of them departed, leaving Horner, Raynor, and Kerrigan at the table.

As the older man left the other three returned to talking about their experiences since parting and were soon joined by the crew chief Rory Swann, who sat down at their table with a thud and ordered himself a pint. Pretty soon after Swann appeared various crew members who wanted to see for themselves that Raynor had returned and that the former Queen of Blades was back to looking like her old self began filing in. It didn't take much time for the cantina to fill and the comforting thrum of voices welcomed Raynor back like nothing else ever could. Swann pulled a stack of cards from a pocket and began shuffling on the table.

"How about a few rounds of poker?" Swann asked.

Kerrigan looked around for something to use as currency. "What will we use as chips?"

"Drinks. Whoever wins gets a drink of his or her choice paid for by the other three." Raynor suggested.

"Sounds good to me since we're all off duty until tomorrow. Let's get going." Horner said, taking his jacket off and resting it on the back of his chair. Swann began to deal out the cards and the four friends lost themselves in their game, laughing whenever someone managed a bluff or a straight up cheat with Kerrigan laughing as much as anyone else. Crew members began to come over and cheer on their various commanders and offering new stakes on certain hands, the brunette bridge officer even managing to steal a kiss from Matt Horner after he lost a round.

The hours dragged on and rumors began to spread as the various crews continued repair work, rumors saying that maybe the Queen of Blades wasn't so bad after all. Some of the crew even began to stop referring to Sarah Kerrigan as Queen of Blades and instead actually called her by her name which caused more crew and soldiers alike to all stop by the cantina even if just for a minute to check out the situation for themselves and to form their own opinions. Unfortunately not everyone was of the same mind. Even more people claimed Raynor was under Kerrigan's Zerg influence and that pretty soon all of them would be, and that was just one of the conspiracies that cropped up. As the night cycle on the ship began the four friends were well into their drinks and losing focus, Raynor and Swann drinking three for every one of Kerrigan's and Horner's . Eventually Raynor and Swann both wobbled over to the bathroom at the same time and a slight scuffle ensued as they couldn't both fit through the door at the same time. A tipsy Kerrigan giggled at the sight before turning back to Horner who was sporting a grin himself.

"So tell me Matt, do you think the Queen of Blades has reformed?" Horner was taken aback by Kerrigan's sudden pointed question and struggled for a response.

"Well, I believe in the commander and the commander believes in you so that's good enough for me. If he says you're an ally then I will believe him as long as there is no evidence to the contrary. And so far all I've seen is you have quite the skill at poker," He responded after a minute and with a chuckle.

Kerrigan smiled. "Thank you Matt. It means a lot to have your trust. I don't think you realize just how much Jim values your opinion. If you didn't believe in me I fear he might follow along the same path," Kerrigan paused as Raynor returned to the table and began to sit down. "Oh no you don't big fella. You've had enough to drink. Time to go to bed," she said as she climbed to her own feet and guided Raynor towards the door. As they were leaving she turned back to look at Horner and smiled her thanks again before disappearing down the hallway.

Horner sat there for a few more minutes until he realized that Swann didn't seem to be coming back and he groaned as he struggled to his feet and saw his drunken companion lying on the floor in the bathroom, fast asleep. "Of course…" Horner muttered but grinned inspite of himself as he knelt down to help the large man back to his feet and got him moving towards the door. With a wave at the bartender Horner guided Swann to his quarters before trekking down to his own and getting himself ready for bed. Horner looked in the mirror of his attached bathroom and couldn't help but think that maybe tomorrow would bring a refreshing change for the weary crew of the Hyperion.