"This is the one part of Andromeda I could've done without seeing again," Rhade commented as he allowed Dylan to help him onto one of the beds on Andromeda's Med Deck. Given the current situation, this was the best place for him to be right now, he knew. Accepting that didn't mean he had to like it.
As for his family, they would be given proper quarters. Harper was seeing to getting them settled after which the engineer was going to give them a tour of the ship. As much as he wanted to spend what time he had left with his children, Telemachus was still self-conscious about letting them see him struggling too much, especially Artemis. He'd much rather be settled before the children came to see him on Med Deck. This was allowing for that to happen though Rhade had wondered if it would work. He was sure Artemis was going to be upset about being separated from him right away. Rhade had underestimated Harper though. Having witnessed the little girl's earlier reaction to being separated from her father, the engineer had spent the trip from Tarazed piquing the girl's curiosity about the ship. By the time they had reached Andromeda, Artemis was more than ready to tour the ship, even if her father wasn't accompanying them.
Rhade was thankful for that. His children were under enough emotional stress through all this. Anything that helped alleviate that, was welcomed.
"Believe me, this isn't the way I'd rather have you return to the ship myself," Dylan told him even as approaching footsteps drew their attention.
Telemachus felt confusion as he spotted the approaching figure. Though the woman coming toward them had Trance's facial features, the young woman had purple skin and a tail. The tip of the tail twitched as if the woman was nervous.
"Have we met?" Telemachus asked.
"Yes and no, Telemachus," the woman replied. The voice and the way in which she spoke were definitely reminiscence of the Trance he had known.
"That doesn't really help," Rhade muttered. "Maybe the doctor's were wrong and the poison is affecting my brain already."
"No, the poison is not affecting you in that way yet," Dylan commented.
"Harper might have something to say about that observation," the ship replied.
"You're not helping, Andromeda," Dylan replied even as he tried to figure out a way to explain Trance's new appearance. Or was it the old appearance? At this point Dylan wasn't sure himself.
"Telemachus, this is Trance," Dylan said, deciding that trying to figure some things out just wasn't worth it.
"Trance wasn't purple?" Rhade commented, cringing slightly at the abruptness of the words. "It's a pretty shade on you though," he added, hoping the compliment would soften the words.
Trance smiled. "It's fine," she assured him. "I'm sure its confusing, but I am Trance."
"The Trance you met was a future version of this Trance," Dylan informed him.
"I switched places with myself to help bring about the perfect possible future that hadn't come to be in my future self's time," Trance said. "We accomplished that."
"Except that it wasn't really you, was it?" Rhade asked.
"In a way it was. It just wasn't this version of me."
"I think I'm getting a headache," Rhade replied, not sure he wanted to even put the effort into figuring it out.
"Believe me, I've felt that way myself plenty of times," Dylan commented even as he helped Rhade lay back on the bed. As helpful as she had been on many occasions, Trance was still an enigma that one was better off not trying to contemplate too much. It was better just to accept her as she was. Though perhaps that, was true about most people.
"I guess the details aren't really important," Trance said, a smile on her face. "However, I'm glad to be back. The future I walked into was not pretty and I like pretty things. It's much nicer here."
"At least for some of us," Rhade muttered.
Trance reached out and took Rhade's hand. "For you too. It might not seem like it right now but after a storm there is usually a rainbow. You're just stuck in the storm right now, but you're not alone. I see a rainbow in your future, Telemachus if you can just weather the storm."
"Weather the storm, huh. Seems like I've been doing that for a long time," Rhade said as he looked up at the woman standing next to him. Though he couldn't explain it, he felt a wave of peace come over him and something in him told him that she spoke the truth. ~Just like the Trance I knew, ~ Rhade thought.
"Some storms can last a long time," Trance agreed. "Now, do you mind if I run a few scans. Your medical records have been sent up from Tarazed but I'd like to see where we are for myself."
"Go ahead," Rhade told her. "I've been poked and prodded so much lately that I'll probably barely even notice it."
Trance just smiled as she started running her scans.
Rhade glanced over at Dylan you had moved to the other side of the bed but was still hanging around.
"You know that you don't have to hang around. I'm sure you have better things to do than to hang around here."
Dylan shook his head. "No, I can't think of anything pressing. Harper is getting your family settled, Bekka is taking care of getting the medical research team transferred to Andromeda, and the Home Guard has the investigation on Tarazed under control. Andromeda, what about you? Do you require my assistance while we're in orbit of Tarazed?"
"Of course not, Captain," the ship's AI answered sounding mildly annoyed.
"Looks like you're stuck with me, Mr. Rhade," Dylan commented.
"Could be worse. It could be Harper,"Rhade replied, though the words didn't sound very convincing.
Resting back against the pillow, Rhade closed his eyes. For the first time since this had all started, he felt at ease. Maybe things would work out. Perhaps they wouldn't. Either way, Rhade knew that he couldn't be in better hands.
"And this is the Command Deck," Harper said as he led the Rhade family onto Andromeda's Command Center. While Riley and Sirius were following Harper, Artemis was currently perched on the engineer's shoulders.
Jillian followed the group quietly. She wasn't really interested in the ship, as impressive as it was. She'd rather be with her husband. However, it was a relief to see the children excited about something after the ordeal of the last week. She wasn't about to bring their experience to an end any sooner than it had to end.
"Wow," Artemis exclaimed from her perch on top of Harper's shoulders as she took in the sight. Having never been on a ship before, the Command Deck of the Andromeda Ascendant was quite a sight for the five-year -old.
"This is so cool," Sirius said, echoing his little sister's amazement. Though he had been to Argosy Station on a school field trip, as had Riley, even then he had only seen simulators not the actual bridges of the ships.
"Harper, did Captain Hunt authorize our visitors to be here?" Rommie asked, as she turned from where she had been standing at the engineering nest.
"He told me to give a tour and he didn't specify that anything was off limits," Harper told the ship's avatar.
"Fair enough," Rommie acquiesced. Like Dylan, she had come to accept the senior crew's lack of military discipline a normal operating procedure. She was sure if Dylan had an issue with Rhade's family being on the Command Deck he would have issued specific instructions.
"Artemis, this is Rommie. She's the ship's avatar I was telling you about," Harper told the little girl as he walked toward where Rommie was standing.
"You're a robot?" Artemis asked, clearly in awe of Rommie.
"Yes, though I prefer the term android," Rommie replied.
"Children don't touch anything," Jillian said from her spot just inside the door to the Command Deck. The instruction was directed to her two older children who had approached one of the stations currently manned by one of the lancers stationed onboard Andromeda.
"We won't," Riley and Sirius replied even as the lancer started telling them about the controls at the station.
"Do you have feelings?" Artemis asked Rommie, unfazed by the exchange between her mother and her siblings. Right then she only had eyes for Rommie.
"My programming allows me to experience loyalty, joy, fear, and love. So in simple terms yes, I have feelings though they're not quite the same as my biological crew would feel."
"Can I touch you?"
"You may," Rommie replied taking a step closer to Harper as Artemis reached out from her perch.
Artemis placed her hand against Rommie's cheek. "You don't feel cold," the little girl commented. In her childlike way, it was clear Artemis was comparing Rommie to other machines she had interacted within her world and had expected her to feel cool like most metal objects.
"I am designed to fit in with the human crew that I interact with the most. Therefore I appear, act, and feel like a human to other biologicals. Even my hair would feel like your hair. You may touch it if you would like."
Artemis moved her hand from Rommie's cheek to the android's hair. "Cool," the little girl exclaimed as she gently let Rommie's hair fall through her fingers. "Would it hurt if someone pulled it?" she asked as she withdrew her hand.
"It wouldn't. I don't feel pain like you would, though I do appreciate you asking that question instead of trying it to find out," Rommie told her.
"And you built her?" Artemis asked, looking down at Harper, with an expression akin to hero worship.
"I built her body and did the programming, using the ship's artificial intelligence. However, Rommie's personality has developed on it's own through how she processes her experiences just like you. For example, what happened the first time you touched something hot."
"It hurt and I never did that again."
"Exactly. Rommie takes her experiences in, evaluates them, and learns things from them just like that. Those experiences are now a part of her and makes her different from the ship's AI."
"You can say that again," the holographic Andromeda said as she appeared next to Rommie. "She's much too emotional."
"Sometimes emotions lead to a better decision," Rommie countered, looking at her holographic counterpart.
"And sometimes it just clouds your judgement."
"Perhaps it is time we continue the tour, Mr. Harper," Jillian interjected, nervous about taking up too much time of the ship's personnel's time, as well as being anxious to check in on her husband.
"Of course," Harper replied, looking over his shoulder at Jillian. He could see the worry on the woman's face.
"Will I get to see you again?" Artemis asked Rommie.
The ship's avatar smiled. "I will make sure to come visit you during your stay on Andromeda," Rommie assured the child.
"Okay," Artemis said. "Bye, Rommie," she added, waving to the android as Harper turned to continue the tour.
Rommie waved back to the little girl as her holographic counterpart looked on with a stern expression. When Harper and the Rhade family were out of sight, the holographic version of the ship's AI spoke up.
"You're too soft," the hologram said.
"Better than just being a bunch of light particles," Rommie told the hologram as she turned back to the station she was manning.
After a quick sound of annoyance, the hologram evaporated.
Finishing the story, Rhade closed the book he had been reading from. When Artemis didn't make a request for another story, Telemachus looked down at his side to find that his daughter had fallen asleep.
"I'll get mom to come get her," Riley said as she and Sirius got down from the stools they had been sitting on.
Jillian had slipped out to lie down for a bit while their children enjoyed some time with their father. She and Telemachus had both felt okay with the children making the short trek to the quarters the family had been given alone, especially seeing as Andromeda would know where the kids were. They hadn't anticipated Artemis falling asleep during the story though.
"That won't be necessary," Dylan said, speaking up from the spot he had been standing for the last half of the story.
"I didn't realize you were there, Admiral Hunt," Rhade said, surprised by the other man's presence.
"I stopped by to see you before I turned in for the night, and you were reading to the children. I didn't want to interrupt," Dylan told him as he reached the bed. Reaching out, he took the sleeping child from Rhade who held her out to him. "I'll be back shortly," Dylan told him, which made Rhade think there was more to Dylan's presence than just stopping by.
With Artemis in his arms, Dylan started toward the door. Riley gave her father a quick kiss on the cheek before following.
"So what do you two think of my ship?" Dylan asked the two older children as the left the room.
Rhade smiled though he didn't catch the children's answer as they left the room. If nothing else, at least being onboard Andromeda meant that the children would be well looked after. His former crewmates would look out for them as would the ship.
Leaning back against the pillows, Rhade started up at the ceiling. Not for the first time, he wondered how much longer he had with his children and with his wife. There was absolutely no feeling in either leg now as the poison continued to spread. He hadn't bothered asking how the research was going, because he didn't want to know. His plan was to make the most of what time he had with his family. He planned on passing on to his children life lessons, both now and through recordings that he was making for them to view in the future. The one thing he didn't want to happen was for his children to forget him.
The sound of the door opening drew him from his thoughts. Glancing toward the door, Rhade saw that Dylan had returned.
"Jillian is getting Artemis tucked into bed. She never even woke up," Dylan said as he crossed the room. He reached out and grabbed one of the stools as he passed by. "Guess the events of the day wore her out," he commented as he placed the stool near the foot of the bed and sat down.
"All the kids could talk about this evening was the tour Harper gave them, especially Artemis. She informed me that she now wants to be an engineer when she grows up."
"I'm sure Harper would love hearing that."
"Chances are he will. She already wants to know when she'll see him again," Telemachus told him. "You know Jillian made the comment that being an engineer would be safer than following in my footsteps and all I could think about was how much trouble Harper managed to get into during the short time I knew him."
Dylan chuckled. "That kid's been getting into trouble from the moment I met him. However, he has also managed to get us out of trouble about as many times so I figure it's an okay trade off. The question is, how do you feel about Artemis taking that path."
"She's young. I figure she'll change her mind more than once by the time she needs to seriously make that decision. If being an engineer is what she wants to do, then I'm okay with that. I just want my children to be happy."
"From what I've seen, more parents need to think that way," Dylan acknowledged. "You're a good father, Telemachus."
"I've tried," Telemachus replied quietly. "So, what brought you down her in the first place?"
Dylan smiled. "Always direct. It's something I've always liked about you, Rhade," he admitted. "However, yes I did come here to give you an update from Tri Lorn. Apparently the Home Guard located a camouflaged ship a good distance from Argosy. Theory is, whoever attacked you at the debate came on that ship which is why its still on planet. The shooter wasn't able to get past the heightened security yet. The ship is of Mandau Pride makings. Tri Lorn believes the Nietzscheans are trying to further destabilize the Commonwealth."
"But no Mandau Pride ships have been in the area since the Battle."
"True, but the Sabra-Juguar did have ships in the system. Their brief incursion on Tarazed space could have simply been cover for that ship to make it to the planet undetected."
"At least we figured out what that skirmish was about," Telemachus said.
"And we'll figure out who was on that ship and bring him to justice," Dylan said. "Captain Falcon plans on leaving the ship untouched for now, believing that if the shooter does get past patrols, he we eventually make his way back to the ship if he believes the ship hasn't been discovered."
"A sound strategy."
"Apparently you trained him well," Dylan said getting to his feet. "I'll let you know if I get any more updates," he said, before reaching out and laying a hand on Rhade's shoulder. "Hang in there. We're going to figure this out," Dylan told him, giving Rhade's shoulder a squeeze.
