Trance reached the station and docked the slipfighter. She walked down the corridor and reached a junction. She examined the possibilities and took the left. She made her way through the crowds of people and found who she was looking for. A Than sat on a bench away from the crowds. Trance walked up to the Than and asked "Excuse me. Are you the person who is selling that ship over there?" She pointed in it's direction. The Than nodded and they began negotiating on the price.
********************
A few hours earlier on the Andromeda...
"Dylan! Dylan! Wake up!"
Dylan grunted. "Huh? Wha? Oh, what is it Rommie?"
"Trance just left in a slipfighter."
"What?!" Dylan was fully awake now. "Why didn't you stop her?"
"She got out before I could close the hangar doors." The hologram replied.
Dylan got out of bed and put on some clothes.
"She left a message. Shall I play it?"
"Of course, Andromeda."
Trance's face appeared on a screen. "Hello Dylan. I'm sorry I had to leave so quickly and on such short notice but I have no choice. I'm needed somewhere else. I won't be returning to the Andromeda so I would like to thank you for your kindness. You have been a wonderful friend and a fine Captain. I hope you succeed in restoring the Commonwealth." A tear ran down Trance's cheek. "Goodbye." The screen went blank.
Dylan shook his head. He couldn't understand it. "When she left she sent me a transmission with the name and the co-ordinates of a station that she was going to so we could pick up the slipfighter."
Dylan turned to face the hologram. "Change your course. We're going to that station."
********************
Trance stood in her new one person ship. She took a deep breath and strapped herself into the pilot's chair. She left the station and entered slipstream. She made four slipstream jumps before she reached the system she wanted. She checked the sensor screen. Yes, this was the right system. She stood up and moved towards the window near the back of the ship. She stared out and saw the system she had first entered when she had come into this world. She remembered how scared she had been. She had heard the stories the first explorers told when they came here about 300 years ago. She had heard about how this world was torn by war and she was afraid she had escaped one war only to enter into another. Though no war could be as bad as the one she had left behind. The war on her planet was a civil war. She shook her head. 'Don't think about that. It's over now.' She gazed at the stars, taking her last look at this world. She moved away from the window and sat in the pilot's chair again. She entered slipstream for the last time. As she traveled she watched for the place that would take her home. The only way someone could see it was if they had her ability to see the possibilities. She saw it and made a hard turn right, a turn which most people would consider suicide because it headed straight towards the wall of the slipstream. She then turned upwards into a opening and entered her world. A world inside the slipstream.
A small crowd of people ran up to her ship as she got out, yelling greetings in her own language. Her mother appeared out of nowhere. "Mother!" Trance gasped and then realized no one could understand her. She then repeated herself in her own language. Her mother hugged her as if she would never let her go. "My dear Trance. I'm so glad you're safe. I was afraid you might be killed by those monsters on the other side."
"They're not monsters Mother. They were in the middle of a war. Just like we were."
"Please don't talk about war Trance."
A small hand gripped the bottom of Trance's T-shirt. She looked down and saw a small child that she didn't know. The child looked up at her with bright blue eyes. "You dress funny." The pale blue skinned child said to her. The crowd laughed. "This is the way we dress on the other side." Trance replied.
"Come Trance. We'll take you home." Her mother said and led her away. Trance looked around at the familiar surroundings of her home. The dark blue sky and the purple ground. Everything in her home was a form of purple, blue and maybe with a hint of white. The colours of the slipstream. The only thing that wasn't those colours were the plants. They had fascinated Trance when she was very young because they were all different colours. She bent down to see a flower that only grew here. "Trance do you still love plants?" Her mother asked.
"Yes. They're pretty."
Her mother smiled. "Come my darling. Your father has been waiting for you."
"You said he was sick. Is he alright?"
"Today is one of his better days."
"What's wrong with him?"
Her mother shook her head. "I don't know dear."
"Could I help him? I'm very good with medical stuff."
"Of course darling but no one knows what his illness is. Half the village is sick with it."
They reached the house. Trance's mother opened the door and they entered. Trance look around in surprise. Almost all of the furniture was gone. The carpets were worn away. "I know it looks different but you get used to it Trance. We had to trade with the others for food and clothes."
Trance nodded and headed for her parents room where she had heard the most dreadful coughing. She opened the door "Father?", she said tentatively.
"Trance?", her father replied. Trance ventured closer. "Trance!" he said and took her in his arms and hugged her. She smiled for the first time since leaving the Andromeda. "Father. I missed you."
"I missed you t-" a huge coughing fit prevented him from finishing his sentence.
"OK. Take it easy. Let's see if we can figure out what's wrong with you."
"No one in the village knows Trance. How could you know when you've been away for so long?"
"Well I've treated alot of diseases over the last few years. One of my friends has a dodgy immune system. He catches almost everything he runs into." She smiled thinking about all the times Harper had ended up on Med. Deck and all his moans and complaints.
"Your friend?"
"Yes, my friend. His name is Harper. He's an engineer."
"I thought I warned you about the people on the other side."
"Yes but these peo-"
"They're dangerous Trance. They're vicious and uncaring."
"How do you know? Because of some stories you heard from the people who went there over 300 years ago?!" Trance said defensively. "My friends are kind. They're trying to restore the Commonwealth."
"The what?"
"The Commonwealth. It was destroyed in the war over 300 years ago. It was a peaceful society. At least that's what Dylan and Rommie told me."
"Dylan and Rommie? Are they more of your 'friends'?"
"Yes."
"How many more 'friends' have you?"
"Well there's 14 on Andromeda not including me but Tyr and I aren't really friends. Well, we are but we're not. You know?"
"No I don't know."
"We watch each others backs and look out for each other but we don't know that much bout each other."
"Do the others know about us?"
"No. I didn't tell them anything about myself. It made things kinda awkward at times though." Trance didn't dare admit that she'd told them she could see the possibilities.
"It's for the best Trance. We don't want those.... people here."
Trance nodded. She was to afraid to tell them where she was from anyway. They would be killed if they came here.
