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Interlude:
That bastard. That sneaky, Nietzschean bastard. How had he not seen it coming? His feelings had been quite well hidden, but it wasn't like he was impossible to read. But he hadn't felt anything except curiosity and sometimes a little bit of surprise from him. No signs of such a backstabbing, that's for sure. But that's what had happened. Ironic, in a way. There was a time when he'd thought Pitch had done the same thing. And he'd tried to kill him for it. Well, what could he say, he didn't take betrayal too well.
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Chapter Ten: That which might be guilt
"What do you mean they got him?" Trance shouted.
Tyr took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm.
"It did not go to plan. I will contact Dylan."
He walked up to the communications console and opened a channel to the Andromeda.
"Plan? What was the plan?" Trance said.
Tyr just ignored her. Dylan's face appeared on the screen.
"It is too late," Tyr told him, "Milon decided to take off on his own even after I told him to wait for me. The Vertexans have him now."
"Too bad," Dylan said, "have you got the supplies?"
"Not yet."
Through the front window of the ship, they could see a shuttle taking off, heading straight for the Vertex.
"Well, continue as planned and we can discuss this when you get back," Dylan said.
"What? We have to go after them!" Trance said.
"We'll discuss it later," Dylan said again, "Dylan out."
"Tyr!"
Trance marched up to him, staring at him with a desperate look on her face.
"You made a deal with those… people! They tried to shoot down the Andromeda, they called Milon a slave and you made a deal with them! You used Milon as some kind of pawn in one of your sick schemes!"
"It was not a 'sick scheme'! We were supposed to go out prepared. We were supposed to take their leader and find out all about this… channeller machine."
"Yeah, and we weren't suppose to lose Milon! It's all your fault! You always do this! Everything has to be so secret and so hush-hush and only you know what your plans are! If you had just told us we wouldn't have let him go! But maybe that's what you wanted? Maybe those people paid you and you just don't want us to know about it! I know you, you're sneaky, you could very well have sold him out and now you're trying to fool us as well!"
She was screaming at him now, her voice almost breaking. So Harper had been right then, she was obviously infatuated with the young man. Well, there was nothing Tyr could do about it right now; she would just have to get over it. And stop shouting at him. Soon.
"Now you're trying to tell me that you won't go after him either! You heard the way that… Morgan talked about him! We have to save him…"
"Quiet!" Tyr roared.
Trance jumped back. Harper twitched a little where he was standing, leaning against the railing around the pilot's seats.
"Now we will go and get those supplies, then return to the Andromeda and then, maybe, we can talk about this. Is that understood?"
Trance just made a sour face and turned around, storming out the door. Harper gave Tyr a look that was not exactly happy either, and then turned to follow Trance downstairs.
The trip to the repair shop was not a merry one. Trance refused to even talk to him. Harper did not say much either, which under any other conditions would have been a welcome change. When they returned to the Maru with the goods, it was already starting to get dark again.
"Listen Trance, I think Milon will be fine," Harper offered, "I'm sure he can take care of himself."
She gave him a pale smile, but did not say anything. Tyr thought to himself that this would probably not be the best time to bring up the information Lillian had given him about the plan to open a hole in the dimensional wall and bring though a demon to wipe out the population of Earth. As he'd thought earlier, it was all in the timing.
All was quiet on the bridge of the Andromeda as Tyr finished telling the rest of the crew what Lillian had said. It was not quiet for long.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Trance said.
"What do you mean?" Dylan asked.
"Well, we have to go after them! We're not just talking about one man anymore, even if I think that's more than reason enough, but if what Tyr says is true," she made a angry grimace, "the whole of Earth could be in danger!"
"Yeah," Harper said, "there's no way we can just stand by and twiddle our thumbs while they break the rules of reality itself and my beloved homeplanet becomes a snack for some horror from another dimension! And even if they can't actually do it, which I very much doubt seeing there's precious little you can't do with the right kind of machinery… heck, we can't just abandon the poor guy like that! Not after it was us who let them catch him in the first, well the second, place! Am I wrong? No, I'm not."
"So you suggest we go back all the way to a planet that has no strategic value to us, to launch a battle we have no idea if we can win, in order to save a man we know nothing about?" Dylan said.
"When have you even been scared of battles you don't know if you can win?" Beka filled in.
"You're on their side?"
"There are sides now? But, yeah. I think we owe it to the guy to try."
"I can't believe we're even having this conversation!"
Trance had tears in her eyes now.
"If it was one of us they took, would you not come after us?"
"He is not one of us," Dylan said.
"But he could be! You could ask him to join the crew! He's an empath, imagine how useful that could be in your diplomatic negotiations!"
"He is a what?" Tyr asked.
Trance gave him an almost hateful look and said:
"He's an empath. He can sense people's feelings. Providing the people in question have feelings of course!"
"Take it easy Trance," Dylan said, "You might be right about Milon having possible value as a crewmember, but there is still so much we don't know about him. We don't know who he is, we don't know if we can trust him…"
"We know we can't trust Tyr, and he's still here!"
"Trance! Well, I have heard everyone's opinion except yours, Tyr. What do you think?"
Tyr though about it for a minute. It was true that there was little strategical gain in a rescue mission like this, the question was; was there that much to lose? They had no immediate pressing engagements, Earth was about five days' travel away, they could stay out of sight of the Vertex… it was when they got there the problems might start. Still, Tyr could not escape that small, nagging feeling in his stomach. That feeling that just might be guilt. And Milon might very well prove to be a valuable asset to the crew if he joined. He had seen the boy fight. Once Tyr had made him understand that he had not betrayed him, Milon would not be a bad person to have watching his back. And Tyr could not deny that he had developed a certain… fondness for the boy.
"I think it is worth a try," he said.
Harper and Beka smiled. Trance wiped a tear from her face and took a deep breath. Dylan shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, seeing as the decision is unanimous… I guess we're going back to Earth."
Interlude:
That bastard. That sneaky, Nietzschean bastard. How had he not seen it coming? His feelings had been quite well hidden, but it wasn't like he was impossible to read. But he hadn't felt anything except curiosity and sometimes a little bit of surprise from him. No signs of such a backstabbing, that's for sure. But that's what had happened. Ironic, in a way. There was a time when he'd thought Pitch had done the same thing. And he'd tried to kill him for it. Well, what could he say, he didn't take betrayal too well.
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Chapter Ten: That which might be guilt
"What do you mean they got him?" Trance shouted.
Tyr took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm.
"It did not go to plan. I will contact Dylan."
He walked up to the communications console and opened a channel to the Andromeda.
"Plan? What was the plan?" Trance said.
Tyr just ignored her. Dylan's face appeared on the screen.
"It is too late," Tyr told him, "Milon decided to take off on his own even after I told him to wait for me. The Vertexans have him now."
"Too bad," Dylan said, "have you got the supplies?"
"Not yet."
Through the front window of the ship, they could see a shuttle taking off, heading straight for the Vertex.
"Well, continue as planned and we can discuss this when you get back," Dylan said.
"What? We have to go after them!" Trance said.
"We'll discuss it later," Dylan said again, "Dylan out."
"Tyr!"
Trance marched up to him, staring at him with a desperate look on her face.
"You made a deal with those… people! They tried to shoot down the Andromeda, they called Milon a slave and you made a deal with them! You used Milon as some kind of pawn in one of your sick schemes!"
"It was not a 'sick scheme'! We were supposed to go out prepared. We were supposed to take their leader and find out all about this… channeller machine."
"Yeah, and we weren't suppose to lose Milon! It's all your fault! You always do this! Everything has to be so secret and so hush-hush and only you know what your plans are! If you had just told us we wouldn't have let him go! But maybe that's what you wanted? Maybe those people paid you and you just don't want us to know about it! I know you, you're sneaky, you could very well have sold him out and now you're trying to fool us as well!"
She was screaming at him now, her voice almost breaking. So Harper had been right then, she was obviously infatuated with the young man. Well, there was nothing Tyr could do about it right now; she would just have to get over it. And stop shouting at him. Soon.
"Now you're trying to tell me that you won't go after him either! You heard the way that… Morgan talked about him! We have to save him…"
"Quiet!" Tyr roared.
Trance jumped back. Harper twitched a little where he was standing, leaning against the railing around the pilot's seats.
"Now we will go and get those supplies, then return to the Andromeda and then, maybe, we can talk about this. Is that understood?"
Trance just made a sour face and turned around, storming out the door. Harper gave Tyr a look that was not exactly happy either, and then turned to follow Trance downstairs.
The trip to the repair shop was not a merry one. Trance refused to even talk to him. Harper did not say much either, which under any other conditions would have been a welcome change. When they returned to the Maru with the goods, it was already starting to get dark again.
"Listen Trance, I think Milon will be fine," Harper offered, "I'm sure he can take care of himself."
She gave him a pale smile, but did not say anything. Tyr thought to himself that this would probably not be the best time to bring up the information Lillian had given him about the plan to open a hole in the dimensional wall and bring though a demon to wipe out the population of Earth. As he'd thought earlier, it was all in the timing.
All was quiet on the bridge of the Andromeda as Tyr finished telling the rest of the crew what Lillian had said. It was not quiet for long.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Trance said.
"What do you mean?" Dylan asked.
"Well, we have to go after them! We're not just talking about one man anymore, even if I think that's more than reason enough, but if what Tyr says is true," she made a angry grimace, "the whole of Earth could be in danger!"
"Yeah," Harper said, "there's no way we can just stand by and twiddle our thumbs while they break the rules of reality itself and my beloved homeplanet becomes a snack for some horror from another dimension! And even if they can't actually do it, which I very much doubt seeing there's precious little you can't do with the right kind of machinery… heck, we can't just abandon the poor guy like that! Not after it was us who let them catch him in the first, well the second, place! Am I wrong? No, I'm not."
"So you suggest we go back all the way to a planet that has no strategic value to us, to launch a battle we have no idea if we can win, in order to save a man we know nothing about?" Dylan said.
"When have you even been scared of battles you don't know if you can win?" Beka filled in.
"You're on their side?"
"There are sides now? But, yeah. I think we owe it to the guy to try."
"I can't believe we're even having this conversation!"
Trance had tears in her eyes now.
"If it was one of us they took, would you not come after us?"
"He is not one of us," Dylan said.
"But he could be! You could ask him to join the crew! He's an empath, imagine how useful that could be in your diplomatic negotiations!"
"He is a what?" Tyr asked.
Trance gave him an almost hateful look and said:
"He's an empath. He can sense people's feelings. Providing the people in question have feelings of course!"
"Take it easy Trance," Dylan said, "You might be right about Milon having possible value as a crewmember, but there is still so much we don't know about him. We don't know who he is, we don't know if we can trust him…"
"We know we can't trust Tyr, and he's still here!"
"Trance! Well, I have heard everyone's opinion except yours, Tyr. What do you think?"
Tyr though about it for a minute. It was true that there was little strategical gain in a rescue mission like this, the question was; was there that much to lose? They had no immediate pressing engagements, Earth was about five days' travel away, they could stay out of sight of the Vertex… it was when they got there the problems might start. Still, Tyr could not escape that small, nagging feeling in his stomach. That feeling that just might be guilt. And Milon might very well prove to be a valuable asset to the crew if he joined. He had seen the boy fight. Once Tyr had made him understand that he had not betrayed him, Milon would not be a bad person to have watching his back. And Tyr could not deny that he had developed a certain… fondness for the boy.
"I think it is worth a try," he said.
Harper and Beka smiled. Trance wiped a tear from her face and took a deep breath. Dylan shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, seeing as the decision is unanimous… I guess we're going back to Earth."