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Reloaded Chapters One and Two. Fixed typos and annoying box things that are where
the punctuation should be. Apologize profusely. Hope this one's better.

Also, I just figured out I'm as in the dark as you are on how this story is going to end,
or what's going to happen from here on out. It should make for an interesting ride.

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CHAPTER THREE: TALKING TO THE UNIVERSE





"How in the hell does killing Beka help this perfect possible future you keep talking about?"

A lot about Trance had changed, so much that there were times when Dylan didn't know who
he was really dealing with--not that he'd ever really known to begin with. But despite all that
was different about her, her love for nurturing plants had remained. Dylan had no problem
finding her amid the gardens she was cultivating. She had been in the process of watering
some ferns taken from Earth when Dylan had stormed in and demanded an explanation for
Beka's death. He'd actually said it, and the moment those furious words left his lips, he felt
himself slip further into the hurt, numbness and fury.

Trance stared at him, her expression blank, for a long time after he shouted the question at
her. "What are you talking about?" She asked at last.

Dylan wanted to shout at her some more, but all the fight had left him when he'd been forced
to face the cold, hard facts of reality out loud. As he watched the worry flood Trance's pallid
features, he realized that she was every bit as in the dark as he was. The water she was
pouring went unchecked and began to overflow from the pot.

"Dylan?" Her voice was shaking with fear. "Did something happen to Beka?"

"You--" He was back to being at a loss for words. He shook his head, tried again. "You mean
you don't--"

"Dylan, what happened?"

He jumped back as she reached out to touch him and nearly stumbled over his own footing.
He wanted to trust her, to believe that the worry he was seeing and the confusion he was
hearing were real. He didn't know what was real with Trance anymore, wasn't sure he ever
had.

"Sit down," she said, indicating a bench-like structure nestled amid a sea of greenery. "You
look a little shaky. What happened to Beka?" she asked again as he sat.

Unable to come up with a place to start, he pointed at the trail of water pouring onto the floor.

"Oh!" Trance exclaimed, startled by her mistake. So startled that she dropped the rest of the
container. The water hit the floor and splattered in all directions, some of the drops making it
as far as the toes of Dylan's boots.

"Sorry!" She began searching frantically for something to clean up the mess.

"Trance!" The urgency in his voice stopped her. She turned back to him. "Leave it for a
minute, okay? Listen, um," he didn't know how to begin to tell her. "Beka--she didn't say
anything to you about going anywhere?"

Trance shook her head, a gesture so simple in its innocence that for an instant she was the
blonde-haired, purple-skinned creature with a tail he'd first known. "I haven't seen very much
of her lately. Actually, I was going to track her down as soon as I finished here and ask her
what's up. Why? What was all that about Beka getting killed?"

Her bright, wide eyes were brighter and wider than usual. She knew something was wrong.
He doubted he was doing a good job of conveying an image of normalcy.

"Dylan, what happened to Beka?"

"She took the Maru," he made himself say. "She, uh, she had Harper blindside Rommie's
systems so she could sneak out undetected. He's not sure where she went, but it's um, we
think maybe it was some kind of salvage run."

"Must have been something important if she didn't want you to know about it," Trance said
quietly.

Dylan nodded his agreement. "She slipstreamed to Centauri, which is a pretty big Dragon
junkyard. After that, I don't really know what happened."

Trance's mouth had fallen slightly open. She closed it long enough to swallow hard. "What
do you *think* happened?"

Dylan drew a sharp breath and wiped his eyes to make sure he wasn't crying without is
knowledge. He wasn't. Not yet. "The Dragons left a nova behind. It detonated. Beka--" He
closed his eyes, practically seared them together. "The whole Centauri system was destroyed.
Rommie can't find any trace of her or the Maru."

"Then she got away," Trance said, as though that was that and there was nothing more worth
saying. She didn't believe it, though. Dylan could tell she was every bit as shaken as he was.
Her disbelief quickly faded to outrage.

"You think I had something to do with it?" She demanded.

Dylan shook his head. He didn't. Not now.

"You came in here yelling at me like I knew something you didn't. Like I had something to
do with it! Dylan, I would never--"

"I know," he tried to interrupt.

"Apparently you don't!" Trance shouted down at him. "Beka's my friend. I would never do
anything to hurt her."

"Trance--"

"Because I came from the future, this is my fault?" Tears that sparkled like diamonds fell
from her eyes. It was a sight Dylan did not know what to do with, one that made him want to
abandon the fragile control he held over his own emotions. He could imagine the old Trance
crying, but he could not reconcile the tears with the older, paler, more hardened, more
*war-like* creature before him

"I didn't mean--"

"Shut up and listen to me!" The strength and authority behind the order ensured that Dylan
could do nothing but. "Did Beka ever tell you what happened after we figured out Harper's
tesserac was working? When things were going a little crazy?"

"You were attacked by Kalderans," he answered, annoyed. This was nothing new, and
completely irrelevant.

"We were," Trance agreed, "and in the middle of it all, Beka and I ran into our future selves."

"So?" Grateful as he was that they were concentrating on Beka the way he was determined to
think of her--alive and well and fighting her way out of a difficult situation--he couldn't
understand why Trance was so determined to persist with this particular story. The trouble
the tesserac caused was what had started this whole mess to begin with.

"So it was ourselves from a long way into the future. A long way. And if Beka and I saw our
future selves, then that means Beka's going to have to be alive to become her future self."

Dylan refused to believe that as well, comforting as the hope was. "But what if you changed
that when you, when you did whatever you did? What if helping Harper and sacrificing Huhn
was enough to throw the future off balance enough to put us where we are now? How do you
know that anything you're doing is helping?"

"I don't," Trance said tightly, anger roused by his last question. "All I know is that the future I
came from wasn't nice, and that anything that happens as a result of my trying to change that
future is better than us ever winding up there."

"Even losing Beka?" He asked the question almost as an insult.

Trance grew somber, lowered her eyes in consideration. "Yes," she said at last. "Even losing
Beka."

Dylan rose from the bench with such fury that he sent one of the plants crashing to the floor.
That was all he needed to hear. Of course she'd had something to do with it. Of course he'd
never get it out of her. He was so livid that he'd settle for putting a hole through a wall.

"But you don't know that that's happened yet, do you?" Trance asked, the question stopping
him before he could storm out. "And if the past that you and Tyr saw on the Andromeda
during the tesseracs really happened, then we have to believe that the future Beka and I saw
on the Maru happens as well. Which means Beka's still alive somewhere. You have to
believe that."

Dylan wasn't sure what he believed, not anymore. He'd believed that Beka would always be
there for him. She'd even agreed to lead his mission to unite the Commonwealth should
anything ever happen to him. He'd gotten so used to her presence and to her survival ability
that he had come to take her presence for granted. *Never again,* he vowed. He'd never take
any of them for granted again. Beka least of all. He'd always known he was growing attached
to her. What he had never realized was how strong that attraction had grown. He--

Was it possible?

"You love her," Trance said. Those words, spoken out loud. nearly startled him out of his
skin. He could do nothing but stare at her stupidly.

Trance shrugged, offered a slight but quirky smile. "We've all been through a lot together, so
it's only natural that you should."

Dylan exhaled slowly, quietly, gratefully. She hadn't meant the words in the way that he was
quickly growing to think they should be meant. He loved Beka. The thought made no sense
in his mind but, at the same time, ages had passed since something had felt--and sounded--so
right. Elsbeth had been a fling, a much needed sexual release. Molly, the tour pilot he had
kidnapped and enjoyed a brief romance with, was the closest he'd allowed himself to grow to
anyone since Sarah. He'd thought they might enjoy a longer affair, but his travels and her
military training had left them in communication less and less often.

But Beka?

Beka was his colleague, his comrade-in-arms. She'd blown him up with a nova. He'd
pretended not to undermine her authority every time they were on the Maru. They'd been
through some bad times together. And some inexplicably strange times. And some
incredibly good times. Conversation had always easy, fast and witty, but he would have to be
blind, deaf and stupid not to notice the increasing amounts of flirtation and
double-entendrees. They'd been growing a lot closer lately.

But love?

He never would have thought it possible. If she was still here, and still fine, he never would
have entertained the idea. Or, if he had, he would have convinced himself that he *was*
losing his mind.

She was gone. Possibly forever. That possible, permanent loss had left Dylan with a
sensation he had not felt since he lost Sarah. He had lost crew, friends, allies, comrades and
indeed, even love. While the possible and all-too-probable loss of Beka fit easily into the first
four categories, it fit most easily, and naturally, into the last. He loved her.

He was not going to accept the fact that he'd lost her without having the chance to tell her so.
Not until he saw her lifeless body with his own eyes.

He left Trance without a good-bye or another word, running like a madman back toward the
command deck. Rommie's bodiless voice warned all aboard to brace for slipstream.

"Cancel that order!"

"Sir?" Rommie's voice echoed through the corridor.

"Where's the location of the nearest system?" Dylan demanded, pushing his pace to the point
of losing his coordination.

The reply came almost without pause. "Centauri has a sister system, Sarentia. It's a short slip
from our present location."

"Set a course!"

"Dylan, the place is overrun with Dragons. We'll be attacked the moment we exit the
slipstream."

"Then tell Tyr to prepare for offensive actions!"

"Dylan" Rommie insisted, "I feel I should remind you that we've already given the Dragons
more than enough reasons to hate us. Not to mention I get battered every time I go up against
them. I enjoy putting them in their place as much as you do, but I'm not in any shape to go
head-to-head with their fleet."

"That's why I have Tyr manning the weapons. He won't let anything get close enough to hurt
you."

He could almost hear the corridor scoff. "What's in Sarentia that's so important? I thought we
were looking for Beka."

"We are!" Dylan called back. The moment Beka sensed trouble, she would have
slipstreamed out of Centauri and bailed to the nearest system. Beka was like him, she never
accepted defeat. There was no doubt in his body that she was lying low in Sarentia until she
cold formulate a plan to get her hands on whatever she'd been after in the first place. She'd be
okay, he'd find her, and he'd tell her exactly how he really felt.

With any luck, he'd find that perfect possible future after all.


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Up next: Andromeda takes on the Drago-Kazov pride.