Disclaimer: See the first part.
Author's Notes: See first part.
Part 3: Going Home
Dylan paced around Command, trying not to let his worry show but doing a horrid job at it. Beka had said a couple of hours at most. It was now going on five hours since she had left.
"Don't worry Dylan. She'll be fine."
Dylan looked over at Trance wearily. "I hope so. I don't suppose any of your premonitions told you something about her not being able to find any medicine there and having to go somewhere else."
"No. I think that Schopenhauer has the medicine."
"But...?"
"Dylan, we're getting a message," Andromeda interrupted their conversation.
"Let me hear it."
The image of Andromeda on the forward screen changed to that of a man. He was sitting in the Eureka Maru with Beka tied up in the background and two Nietzcheans watching her.
"Hello Captain Hunt," the man said. "Well, I don't suppose there's any need for preamble. Beka has told me all about the Starry Wisdom and until I get that ship, you won't get your first officer back." There was a pause as the man thought of something. "Oh yes, Beka said that you might decide to ruin all the systems onboard. So I'm telling you now; if the technology is unusable then she'll die." The man grinned in an arrogant manner then the link died.
"But that," Trance said.
***
"So you want me to rig something up so that this thing will fly a short distance. Then install a sensor jammer on it so that he won't be able to see it. Then fix the shield generator. Have I got everything?" Harper asked.
"That's it."
"Okay Boss. I should have it ready in thirty minutes." Harper left Command and Dylan turned back to the forward screen. "Andromeda send a message back to that man. Tell him we'll meet him here." Dylan pointed to system not too far away. "Since we can't slipstream with the Wisdom he'll get there about the same time we do if we leave as soon as Harper finishes his work."
"Sending message."
"Trance, any thoughts?"
"About what?" she replied.
"How this will turn out."
Trance looked away. "I can't say."
Dylan sincerely hoped that that meant it would turn out all right.
***
Beka woke up to the sound of hard shoes walking across the hard floor. She looked over from her bed to see that Mr. Trent was back with his Nietzchean guard. He was never alone with her anymore since that little escape attempt where she had succeeded in knocking him unconscious and had only been caught by a guard he had kept at the Eureka Maru.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"You're in the isolation ward. It's for those unfortunate people who catch highly contagious diseases. Nobody comes in here besides us." He gestured to his backup. "However, I came to tell you that we're leaving soon. I just wanted to know if there was anything else you left out about your captain, the Andromeda or the Starry Wisdom."
Beka paused, appearing to debate about answering. Finally she said, "The Starry Wisdom has a new type of shield generator onboard. The slipstream drive was damaged in the first testing but as long as you have those shields up nothing can pass through."
"How badly damaged was the slipstream drive?"
"Not really bad. I'm sure that the Andromeda's engineer has it fixed by now."
"Good." Trent gestured to one of the brutes behind him. "Take her. We're leaving."
The Nietzchean picked her up and swung her over his shoulder. Beka fought against it but found she could do nothing. She sighed. It was gonna be a long trip.
***
"They just exited slipstream," Andromeda reported.
"All right. Disconnect the cables to the Starry Wisdom and back off."
Andromeda was silent as she followed his orders. "The Eureka Maru is docking in the Starry Wisdom."
"Harper, are you absolutely sure that everything is all set?" Dylan asked for the hundredth time.
"Yeah. I even cleaned up the hallway from the docking bay to Command so that they'd think that they were entering a normal ship."
"Nice touch."
"Thank you."
***
Onboard the Wisdom, Beka watched for her chance to escape. She saw it when the group entered Command and Trent placed his gun on the floor to inspect the shield generator. Beka shoved him out of the way and immediately Dr. Trent found his own gun under his nose.
"I am going to leave and nobody is going to follow me. You can have your ship, I don't care, but I'm leaving."
She backed out of the room and closed the door behind her. Then she turned and ran as fast as she could towards the Eureka Maru.
***
Dylan watched anxiously as the seconds ticked by. "She should be out by now."
"Don't worry. She's Beka; she'll make it," Harper said, trying to sound confident but failing miserably.
"The shields aboard the Starry Wisdom have been activated," Andromeda reported.
"Any sign of the Eureka Maru?"
"None."
Almost immediately, the same type of rift opened up in front of the Wisdom. The once mighty ship disappeared into the rift within a few minutes. After devouring it, the rift collapsed in on itself, leaving no trace of the ship that had just been there.
"Beka," Dylan whispered.
***
