Part 2

Disclaimer:  I still own nothing, and I still have no money

After leaving Med Deck Trance headed for the engine room.  They needed Rommie back on line and she was just as likely as Tyr make that happen.  She sat next to the computer console where Harper worked most often on Rommie.  This was just awful.  He was gone, and Dylan and Beka and Rev were gone.  In a way Rommie was gone too because they couldn't communicate with her.  Trance had found her avatar; hoping she was still functioning and that maybe she could help fix herself.  Unfortunately, Rommie was lying in a heap in the hallway outside the engine room. 

She closed her eyes and concentrated.  She had to think like Harper to get past his security measures.  She moved to put her hand on the control panel but found it on a can of Sparky Harper had left behind the boxlike panel.  Sighing she popped the top and took a sip.  The bubbles tickled her nose and she giggled.  Regaining control she took a deep breath.  "This is serious.  I am Harper.  I am a genius.  I like Sparky cola."  She took another sip, giggled one more time and closed her eyes.  "I am trying to protect the ship. Neitzchiens betrayed Dylan again and they are going to be a very powerful force with Andromeda at their command.  I can't let that happen."  She was surprised how quickly these thoughts were coming to her. 

She looked at the box; it seemed to want some sort of code.  Continuing to think like Harper she figured it would be a number.  Numbers were harder to figure out than words as passwords but Harper had a good mind for numbers.  She put in the most obvious code number, his birthday, but the panel just gave her a little shock.

"Harper!" she scolded despite the fact he wasn't there.  "That wasn't very nice".  She closed her eyes again.  Maybe it was some other important day in his life.  When he left Earth?  When he found Beka?  When they found the Andromeda?  They all seemed like perfectly good passwords.  The day his mother died?  Was she even dead, maybe she was living happily in some old age home somewhere.  She took a deep breath and took another sip of Sparky. Harper didn't talk about Earth so she had no idea of the date he left.  She was about to type in the day they found the Andromeda when she glanced at the can.  "Think like Harper" she told herself.  She knocked back the last of its contents and turned it over.  As she expected there was an expiration date printed on the bottom of the can.  She typed it in.  Sure enough it was the password.

Holo-Rommie appeared in front of her.  "Oh Rommie I am so glad to see you!" squealed Trance.  "Dylan, Beka, Rev, and Harper were all taken away!  We need to get them back"

            Rommie shook her head, Harper had her so tied up she'd given herself a headache. 

"I'm trying to get the engines on line.  It should only be another few minutes." 

The door slid open and Rommie appeared next to her other self.   " I am also checking subspace channels for news that might give us a hint as to where to begin our search."  Tyr strode into the room, flexi in hand. 

            "They were meeting" he threw the flexi at the hologram, who easily caught it.  "With these slavers. There was to be an auction.  Our comrades are probably with one of these people now." Holo-Rommie blinked out of existence and Rommie took the flexi and went off to see what she could find out.

"What about Cano?"  Trance asked

            "He's in a torpedo tube taking the scenic route to civilization." Rommie nodded. 

            "He is currently moving away from us at 0.0000001 light years per hour.  He should reach a habitable world in approximately 3 weeks."

            "Why didn't you kill him?"  Trance added quickly, 'Not that I wanted you to, it just seems a little un-Tyr-like."

            "Knowing the humiliation he will feel by being defeated by a prideless Neitzchien and a purple pixie, in addition to being abandoned by his own men, this is a torture death should not deprive him of."

            "Oh so you're not going soft" he glared at her "No, you're defiantly still very scary" she squeaked