Authour's Note:
Hey everyone, I'm
sorry that it took soooo long for this chapter to come out… you didn't actually
think I gave up on it did u? :P
Well, whatever,
thanx for all your reviews, they've been a major booster to my self-esteem.
And here's a little
more insight into the life of Aiden (I have gotten quite attached to this
character) and it's a chapter that most Tyr/Beka fans should like.
Thanx for all your
support, please review!
-KiaLee
Part IX
The days passed on the Andromeda, and nobody noticed the
budding relationship between Tyr and Beka. Nobody, that is, besides Aiden.
The girl seemed to know exactly what was going on between
Beka and Tyr, and it was beginning to unnerve the Nietzchean greatly. Then one day he was just unable to stand her
knowing glances at the two, and confronted her about it.
The girl was lying on her back, the top half of her body
wedged under the main control junction for the ship. The exact same position that she'd been in when he'd first laid
eyes on her. Hopefully the results of
this confrontation would be more in his favor than the last had been…
Tyr walked close to the girl, who didn't even bother
extracting herself from the hole she had made in the wall.
"Aiden," he said, kneeling down nest to her stretched-out
form.
"Hi Tyr," she responded, still not bothering to give up her
work long enough to look at him.
"Aiden," he said again, hoping to grasp her attention for
more than a second this time.
"I'm still here Tyr, it's kinda difficult to go very far
when you're in a wall."
Tyr grinned in spite of himself. The girl had spirit, he had to give her that.
"I need to speak with you, girl. Now please extract yourself from the wall."
He heard Aiden give a small snort, her small hands curling
under the panel above her, and pulling herself out, sliding herself along the
floor.
When she was completely out of the wall, she sat up and gave
Tyr a mocking salute. "Yes sir,
sergeant Anasazi, sir!"
Tyr tried to hold back his smile, but the girl's good nature
got the best of him. The grin slipped
into her view for a second, before he was able to wipe it from his face, as
though it had never been there at all.
Aiden arched an eyebrow at him, a silent invitation for him
to continue with what he had sought her out for. Tyr took a deep breath and began the only way he knew how…
"You really should mind your own business girl."
She laughed. "You
came all the way down here, dragged me away from my very important work of
fixing the ship, just to tell me to mind my own business? God Tyr! You can come up with a better reason to talk to me than to tell me
that."
"Okay," he said, leaning closer to her in his crouch. "How did you know about Beka and I?"
She raised her eyebrows. "That's what this is about?" she asked, dumbfounded. "Okay Tyr, that little piece of information,
the fact that you and Beka are together well, it kinda comes with the territory
of being from the future."
He stared into the girl's eyes, amazed. "You knew about Beka and I before you even
got here?"
"Well yeah," she said, grinning. "I was actually starting to get worried that you two weren't
together yet, I mean, if you weren't together in the next couple of months…"
His eyes narrowed as the girl trailed off. "What do you mean 'if we weren't together in
the next couple of months'? What are
you talking about?"
Aiden tried to force back a grin, running her fingers
through her long hair.
"Tyr, in less than a year from now, if I've got the dates
right, Beka's gonna have your baby…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dylan stood on the Command Deck, talking to Aiden over the
communications system that she and Harper had fixed over the last few
days.
"Do you think that you'll be able to reinstall Rommie's
personality program now?" he called into the air.
"You got it, Dylan." Aiden's voice called back. "I just need Harper's help to get into the
network. Don't worry though; I should
have her up and running by the end of the day. Aiden out."
Dylan sighed with relief. Not having Rommie near him had been a living hell for him the last few
weeks. He mentally scolded himself for
never truly appreciating what he'd had, until it had been taken away from
him. Rommie was no longer just a
machine to him, despite the fact that that was all she was supposed to be,
allowed to be.
Those rules didn't matter any more, not to him. For the first time in his life, he wanted to
go against his protocol and training, and just give into his feelings for
Rommie.
Nothing else mattered anymore…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So what does 'Aiden' mean, anyway?" Harper asked her as
they sat in the small corridor inside Andromeda's walls, preparing for her to
fix Rommie's personality program.
The girl looked up at her father.
"It means 'sapphire' in mom's language," she said, and then
smiled. "Well, it does when she dumbed
it down enough for you to pronounce it, anyway."
"Hey!" he said, defensively, but his smirk showed through.
"And as a human name, it means 'little fire'. I guess you guys always knew I'd be
trouble…"
Harper grinned. "Well, you had to take after me somehow, and I guess that's as good a
way as any."
Aiden laughed, handing one end of the wire to Harper, who
inserted it in the ship's main power grid.
"Mom always told me that you'd never changed, and that you
probably never would. I guess she was
right."
Harper looked at Aiden, tilting his head to one side.
"You never told us what time you're from, Aiden. Just how far in the future are you from?"
Aiden looked up from her work and smirked at Harper. "Is this your twisted way of asking 'how
long until you get any action?'" she laughed.
Harper managed to sputter out a weak attempt at denial, but
then looked up from his work to see that the girl was grinning mockingly at
him.
"Hey!" he sputtered, laughing. "Oh God! You really are my kid…"
Aiden smiled. "You
know it."
"Twenty-two," she said. Harper looked at her, confused.
"What?" he asked, staring at her with a confused look on his
face.
"Twenty-two years. I'm from twenty-two years in the future."
A large grin suddenly passed across his face. "So not a long wait for Harper getting some
action then."
Aiden took one look at Harper, at the smile on his face, and
instantly burst out laughing.
When she finally stopped laughing and was able to catch her
breath, Aiden remembered what they were here to do.
Still smiling, she leaned back against the wall, reaching
behind her neck and pulling her long hair back, revealing the neuro-port.
Holding her hair away with her right hand and clutching the
plug in her left, she gave a small smirk.
"Well, wish me luck," she muttered, plunging the end of the
plug into the port. Her eyes started
twitching, then closed automatically as she collapsed back against the wall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beka had been walking around the ship, looking for Tyr, but
the large Nietzchean was nowhere to be found.
The blonde woman was beginning to lose hope in her search,
and walked into the hydroponics garden. She had entered with the hopes of finding Trance, and asking the young
purple girl if she knew where Tyr was, but what she found made her forget that
plan entirely.
There, sitting under the large oak tree, was Tyr. He was staring into the flowing water of the
stream that lay before him, completely oblivious to anything else.
Beka slowly walked closer to him, a little concerned. Usually Tyr was so aware of everything
around him, and he had yet to even notice her presence. He suddenly stiffened, his gaze darting from
the water to her face as she neared him, then relaxed, nodding softly in a
silent greeting.
She came to a stop beside him, crouching down so that she
was closer to his eye level.
"I've been looking for you," she said softly, meeting his
dark eyes with hers.
He held her gaze. "You've found me."
Beka's brow furrowed as she studied his face. Something wasn't right…
"Why were you hiding out here?" she asked, then, seeing him
bristle, suddenly realized that she could have chosen a better wording for her
question.
"I wasn't hiding," he snapped, his gaze shifting back to the
stream that flowed before him.
"I was thinking."
Starting to lose her balance, Beka pulled herself down into
a sitting position, facing him.
"About what?" she asked, then was suddenly unsure as to
whether she wanted that question answered. He'd been avoiding her all day, and now he was acting so distant… she
was afraid that he'd started having second thoughts about them being together.
His eyes lifted and met hers.
"About the future."
Beka sighed. "You've
been talking to Aiden, haven't you?"
He nodded, continuing to hold her gaze.
"What did she say?" Beka asked softly, trying to hide the
slight tremor in her voice. She tore
her eyes away from Tyr's, staring at the ground, suddenly afraid to meet his
gaze.
She hadn't realized just how close she was to Tyr until she
felt the back of his fingers touch her cheek.
His hands themselves were rough, calloused from all the
lifting and training he did, but they had gentleness within them that she had
not expected. He stroked her cheek
softly, letting his hand slowly slide down until her fingertips rested at her
chin.
Lifting her chin with those gentle fingertips, he forced her
to look at him. The gaze he fixed upon
her face was so tender, that she found herself unable to look away.
"Apparently, the girl knows about us, she always has. She knew that we would be together even
before we were together."
Beka leaned the side of her face into his soft touch, and he
opened his hand, cupping her cheek.
"How is that possible?" she asked, internally chiding
herself for acting like a lovesick teenager whenever Tyr touched her.
She didn't like the way she acted when she was around
him. She was so used to being the
strong one, the one who always had control over her emotions… but whenever Tyr
so much as touched her, all her resolve melted. Every time he was near her, she would lose a little more of her
self control over the emotional barriers that she had been building around
herself for years.
It was only a matter of time before those barriers crumbled
down around her feet… and he seemed to know it.
As though he'd been reading her mind, he sent out another
strong attack against her ever-weakening barriers. Before she knew what was happening, he cupped her face fully with
both of his large hands, and brushed his lips against hers.
Beka sighed and leaned into his kiss, bringing her hand to
rest on his neck, pulling him closer.
If there was one thing about Tyr that could be described as
soft, it was his lips. They were soft
and warm, pressing against hers urgently.
Beka felt his hand move back from her face, burying his
fingers in her hair.
After a moment she felt his lips leave hers, and she opened
her eyes to see his eyes gazing at her face.
"The girl told me about the future—our future."
Beka stared up into his eyes. "What do you mean our
future?"
Tyr leaned over and kissed her softly once more, then pulled
back again. His arms moved down to
around her shoulders and waist, holding her close.
"I mean that, in the future, the time Aiden came from, we're
together. She says that we've been
together since before she was born."
Beka looked up into his eyes, unable to find her voice.
"She told me many things about her time, about Dylan's
NewCommonwealth, about Rev's adoption of wayward children in his attempts to
make amends. She told me about Trance
and Harper, and about my new pride… my wives, my children… and our children…"
Beka gazed at him, her eyes searching his face, trying with
all her might to grasp the things he told her.
When she was finally able to speak again, she reached up and
traced his strong jaw with her fingertips.
"Tell me what she said…"
End Part IX