Disclaimer: See the first part.
Author's Notes: See first part.
Part 2: Surprise and Sacrifice
The two High Guard captains stood in Andromeda's med bay surveying the wounded from the Starry Wisdom. The doctor, who had been the first treated, was helping Trance take care of the others. Sarah lay on one of the medical cots, among the most critically wounded.
The doctor from the Starry Wisdom, a young man with an impressive store of medical knowledge, looked up from his place at Sarah's side.
"We've run out of acetylcholine."
"What?"
The doctor, a young man named Brandon Lewis, held up an empty vial. "We're out."
Trance and Dylan looked at each other in horrified recognition. The last acetylcholine had been used to treat Dylan's headache the day before.
"How long do we have?"
Beka entered the room as Lewis carefully answered, "I can slow the deterioration so that we have a day, two at the most."
Beka looked from Dylan to the doctor and back again. "For what?"
"We have two days to get the acetylcholine we need to save Sarah."
Beka turned towards Sarah's cot. After a moment she said, "I can get to the Schopenhauer system and back in a couple of hours. They don't have too much as for medicine but they'll have that."
"Do it." Beka nodded, said something to Trance about one of her plants, spun on her heel sharply and left. Trance looked after her in confusion but soon went back to her work.
"Who was that?" Khalid asked, having noticed the way Dylan's eyes had followed the blond woman since her entrance into the room.
"My first officer Beka Valentine."
"She seems nice." The last word was unfamiliar in Khalid's mouth but it was the only description he could find for the subject of their discussion.
"She is. And she's a really good pilot, one of the best I've ever seen."
Khalid made a non-committal noise and turned back to face Sarah. "Dylan..." he started. "I believe there is something you should know about Sarah and I."
"What is it?" Dylan asked, not wanting to know but knowing that he would anyway.
"We're married."
Dylan let out the breath he had unconsciously been holding. After a moment he said, "That's good. I'm glad that she's moved on and I'm glad that she has you."
"Are you sure?"
"If I said no, would it matter?" Dylan looked at his friend with a smile on his face and laughter in his eyes.
"No." Khalid smiled in return. "Besides, it looks like you've set your sights on a certain blond first officer."
Dylan's face darkened a little but before he could think of a reply Khalid changed the subject. "Have you figured out what happened to my crew?"
"No." Dylan observed the various crewmembers from the Starry Wisdom tending to their companions. "Harper's still trying to figure out why Command was the only area unaffected."
Khalid was silent for a moment. "The last thing I remember was that we were trying to install a shield generator that Sarah had come up with. Anything that has the signature of the ship that the generator is installed on will pass through but anything else will not."
Dylan thought of something. "Tell me more about this generator."
"We were installing it on..." Khalid's voice diminished to a mere whisper. "Command. And I remember that the rift opened shortly after we turned the generator on. I ordered the crew to keep the shields on because they might be our only defense."
"But that doesn't explain why Command wasn't affected like the rest of the ship."
Khalid was quiet, searching his impressive Nietzchean memory for anything else. After a second, his face paled. "The shield generators burned out most of the a.g. generators on the lower decks. The ones on Command would have been next but the shields failed first. By that time, we had passed through the rift. Then I must have been knocked unconscious because the next thing I remember is your engineer turning me over."
"So something about the reaction between the gravity generators and the shield generators kept you from being killed?"
"Apparently."
Trance and the doctor finished with one of the critically wounded crew members and moved her to a separate cot before turning to their next case. Khalid, watching them, said, "So the rift was opened by our turning the shields in the first place. Then when I ordered them to keep the shields on, it was probably just exacerbating the problem. So I am responsible for the deaths of over 500 people, my people." Khalid said it calmly, as if he was stating a fact instead of blaming himself.
"Well you couldn't have known what the reactions would do." Both of the captains looked up from their conversation when Trance spoke to them.
Khalid nodded in acknowledgement but turned back to Dylan. "My leg is bothering me. If you will excuse me, I think running for a few decks would help."
"All right." Dylan knew better than to mess with Khalid when he was in one of his moods. He just hoped that when Khalid eventually did end up in the gym he didn't wear out the training dummy.
***
Beka closed the channel to the Andromeda and sat down in her chair aboard the Maru. She had been so close to him, then Sarah had to show up. Was the universe only content when it was torturing her? Now he'd probably want to marry her. Then she'd be left alone again.
She pushed the depressing thoughts out of her head. In slipstream, she couldn't have any distractions. She ran through a pre-flight check of all systems then brought the Maru out of Andromeda's docking bay carefully.
Once she was far enough from Andromeda she transited to slipstream. It took a little under an hour to reach the Schopenhauer system and land on the middle planet. She made sure that the entrance command codes were activated and stepped out the Maru.
Outside she found a lush planet with efficient buildings dotting the landscape. The Nietzcheans that saw her either stared at her or ignored her completely. Obviously, those who stared at her recognized her from the signing of the Commonwealth charter less than a year before. She chose to ask for directions from a female Nietzchean who was watching her intently.
"Do you know where I can find the hospital?"
The woman nodded once and pointed in the direction Beka was heading. "Turn right just before the square and go straight down the street."
"Thank you." The woman seemed to ignore her and return to whatever she had been doing inside her home. Beka just continued on her way.
After ten minutes Beka spotted the square the woman had mentioned. In it a couple of well-built Nietzcheans were pounding each other. Surrounding the square were spectators waiting to see who would win and who would end up never receiving the chance to pass on his genetics. Beka spent a moment watching them before turning and going down a side street. At the end of the street she found a small building with a sign that declared it to be the hospital Since there wasn't a line waiting outside Beka walked right on in. Inside she found that most of the patients were small children with trivial injuries. She looked around for an adult and, finding only one, decided to ask about the medicine. She walked up to the Nietzchean.
"Do you have any acetylcholine that I could trade for?" Beka asked.
"I am not the doctor," the Nietzchean replied in a curt manner. Beka was this time pointed to a door across the room. "You'll find him in there."
Beka followed the directions and soon found herself entering a barren room with little other than a desk, a chair and flexies scattered all over the place.
"What can I do for you?" A booming voice asked from behind her, making her jump. She whirled around to find, to her surprise, a striking human male. He flashed a dazzling smile as he noticed that her lack of bone spurs. "You're not Nietzchean."
"No. I'm Beka Valentine-"
"I'm James Trent. So you're from that High Guard starship, the one trying to restore the Commonwealth."
"Yes, I am," she admitted reluctantly. She didn't like admitting who she knew when she didn't know the person she was admitting it to.
"And what can I get for you?"
"I need some acetylcholine."
"Of course." He turned and started walking towards another door in the room.
Now Beka was confused. "Aren't you going to ask for payment?"
"No. A small gift to a great cause." He opened the door, which turned out to be the entrance to a closet. He drew a bottle from one of its shelves and closed the door. Turning back to Beka he asked, "I was just about to take my lunch break, did you want to have lunch with me?"
"No, thanks. I have to get going."
"I see," he answered, trying to hide his disappointment.
"Thanks again."
The doctor smiled and opened the door for Beka. She smiled, then left without looking back. The doctor strolled up to the Nietzchean and whispered, "Knock her out and bring her back here."
The Nietzchean nodded and ran out to find the human woman. Trent just smiled even wider.
***
