Following Big Brother - Chapter One: Prologue

Disclaimer:

I don't own Dylan, Beka, Harper, etc.  I'm not using this for money.  Yatsa, Yatsa, and Yatsa.

Claimer:

I own the Kem-mari Rue-el, Dymanna Rhiain, and any others not of the Andromeda Universe.

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Following Big Brother

Chapter One: Prologue

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            Three hundred years ago, the Andromeda Ascendant and it's captain, Dylan Rhett Hunt, were sent into suspended animation.  Perched on the edge of a black hole, the AG field clashed with the hole's gravity field.  A freak accident.

            And what Captain Hunt didn't know was that I, Dymanna Rhiain Hunt, had been following him.  In my own craft, built by the hands of my brother and I, the Kem-mari Rue-el, I followed him during the fight.  He was my only brother left, and I was damned if I wasn't going to make sure he came back alive.  But as his AG field clashed, so did mine.

            Now, in the year 10087 CY, both my ship and the High Guard ship Andromeda have been awakened.  As weird as that may seem, my brother and I are now trying to restore the Commonwealth.  Although, Dylan doesn't know that I am helping.

            Staying in stealth mode since day one, I've stayed 'underneath the radar'.  Rommie and I came to a little…compromise during one of my late night sneaks onto the ship.  She understood my reasons, and I understood her logical terms to the contract, of sorts – as long as I stay healthy and uninjured, Dylan would be unaware of my presence.

            That's how it has been for one year.  But unfortunately, I got sick, and my own avatars are unknowing of what to do.

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            "Dylan…"

            "What?"

            "Dylan…"

            "What?"

            "Dylan…"

            "Okay, Manna, now you're just being a pest."

            "Why do you have to go back to Tarn-Vedra?"

            "Because that's were I have to be." Dylan answered his fourteen-year old sister.  Dymanna was somewhat of a quandary in the Hunt home, she was both wise and childish, but no one could bring themselves to teach her to be anything else.  He had often compared his little sister's strawberry-blonde hair to her fiery spirit and her green eyes to the sereneness she carried about her at the same time.

            "Don't they realize that you have a teenage sister that needs her ship completely finished first?"

            "Actually, they do.  But I have to get back there tomorrow because I have work."

            "Really…well, then you know me.  I'm gonna follow my big brother."

            "Just promise that if you end up seeing a High Guard vessel, you won't send them into a slipstream chase that I'll get in trouble for."

            "No problem." Manna stared at her brother, "You and Sara are going to be happy together."

            Dylan sighed, "Are you sure that you're okay with her, Manna?  I know you say you like her, but sometimes…"

            "I like her, Dylan, she's nice.  I guess I'm just jealous.  I love you too and I almost never see you unless I'm sick or someone dies.  She gets to see you so much more." She pursed her lips together, "I guess I'm mad at the High Guard, too."

            "Why?"

            "Because you joined them before I was born so we never got the chance to do all the normal stuff siblings do."

            Dylan nodded, "But there'll be time for everything after mine and Sara's wedding.  I'll be around more.  I promise.  We have time to get everything right, Manna."

            "Dylan?  Are you alright?" Beka asked, as she walked past him in the corridor.

            "Hum…Yeah.  Just thinking." He replied, turning the corner smartly and heading toward Ops deck.

            She stood there for a second, 'Must be an interesting thought.'

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            "Manna…Are you okay?" Dylan asked, laying his hand on her shoulder.  She shook it off violently.  He looked down at his feet and smoothed away an imaginary wrinkle in his uniform before speaking again, "Manna, please talk to me."

            "You left.  You knew that we had just lost Devin, and you still left.  And you only came back when you heard Daniel died." She said, her voice barely above a whisper.  Her back was to her only brother left, her eyes trained out the window at the thunder and lightening and rain.  Her face was tear-streaked from the tears she had shed for her younger brother.

            "I had to go, Manna, you know that."

            "Don't.  Don't call me Manna.  You don't have the right."

            "Why?"

            She turned around to glare at him, "You knew how long it took Mom and Dad to have more kids.  The twins were miracles.  You knew that.  Devin died when he was six months old and the day after, YOU LEFT!" She screamed the last part, more upset at him then she had ever been, "You knew and you left."

            "I had…"

            "To go.  I know.  It's B.S., Dylan!  You left because you couldn't handle thought that Dev was gone.  And now Danny is gone!  And tomorrow you'll leave like you always do, so just leave me alone.  I'd rather forget that you exist then have to know that you can't handle your job – because that's what you're doing.  You, Dylan Rhett Hunt, can take life.  You can, and you are supposed to be able to handle it.  But you can't.  We just lost both of our brothers within a year, and you just go running off to Sara and Andromeda and the High Guard because you don't want to deal with it.  So just…leave me alone." She finished, and walked past him, her shoulder contacting his as she went by.

            And those were the last words that were ever said between the two.

            "Dylan…I didn't mean it…I didn't…mean…it!" Dymanna sobbed through her fever-induced slumber.

            "Dymanna…" Kymberlie, the avatar for the Kem-mari, called, as the now sixteen-year moaned again, "Come on, Manna.  Wake up." She cajoled.

            "She's not up yet?" Danka, another avatar, asked, while walking into Manna's cabin.

            "No.  I'm starting to get worried.  Her temperature's up to 105.2, she's starting to get dehydrated, and…"

            Danka stared at the AI before her, "We have to tell Dylan.  Manna can't stay like this.  If she has this fever for too long, she may never wake up."

            Kym sighed, "You're the one who knows how to get a hold of Rommie." With that, Danka walked away – or more like ran – to contact the other AI.  She wasn't going to allow Manna to die – not when she had come so far.

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Cassie Jamie

noahXfiles@aol.com