EASE MY MIND
Chapter Nine: Gravity of the Situation



"Have you lost something, Captain Hunt?"

Both Dylan and Beka turned at the sound of the unexpected voice. Each reached instinctively for their primary weapon, and each froze before they could draw it. Rhylar stood at base of the lowered cargo ramp, weapon trained on Dylan, who posed the closest and thereby most immediate threat. Behind him, a well-armed squad of Drago-Kazov ensured that both Dylan and Beka were properly covered. Among them, Lt. Mobia Cha-Ming, bruised, bloodied and ready to shoot regardless of whether or not she was ordered to.

"Damn it," Dylan swore. He had been so utterly focused on Beka and her frantic search for the fragment that he had never heard the approaching footsteps, not even at the dead run they had to have advanced with. He cursed himself again for allowing himself to so easily drop his guard, making a mistake not even the most junior of High Guard trainees would have made.

"No," Beka said, returning to her feet, somehow managing to sound incredibly aloof despite ominous warning sounds of the weapons arming. "See, you've got my ship tied up without my authorization, and I was trying to max out the thrusters to break your binds."

"Sarcasm has never appealed to me. Miss Valentine, I presume?" Rhylar tracked her every twitch through his weapon's sights.

"*Captain* Valentine," Beka corrected, thickening her cockiness. "Hey, I'm just doing my job, here by trying to escape, same as you're doing yours with the whole pointing guns at us thing. Surely, you can respect that?"

"That's enough," Dylan softly warned as Rhylar barked words to the same effect.

"So what do we do?" Beka risked a glance over her shoulder at the mechanics of the thrusters, as though the fragment would materialize from the air around them. "Just let them take us hostage?"

Dylan nodded to the blasters aimed at them. "For now, that's exactly what we do." He arched an eyebrow and nodded to the ground. *And let them take us to where we can access the controls to release the Maru.* Beka regarded him in skeptical confusion for a moment. As she turned her attention back to the Nietzscheans who held them at gun-point, he detected the slightest nod of understanding. He could tell by her scowl that she did not approve, but there was no other option. He would just have to hope that Tyr jumped the gun after all, because he doubted seriously that they would survive whatever time was left of the half-hour deadline.

"Secure them!" Rhylar ordered. A quartet of soldiers rushed forward, cuffing their wrists behind their back before strapping on a pair of leg irons that would make any attempt at a hasty retreat all but impossible.

"These are new," Dylan observed as they were ordered by one of the quartet to march off the ship, only to have Rhylar ordered them stopped as they exited the Maru. Dylan feared the worst, that they would be executed on the spot, but Rhylar merely disarmed them of their obvious weapons, then ordered them patted down for others. The Nietzschean performing the frisk stopped short of his High-Guard boots, which had been specially designed to hide a force lance. He almost laughed outright at the oversight, but had sense enough to keep his face set. After three hundred years, he'd have thought they'd be onto the trick by now. Then again, he seriously doubted that the Dragons had encountered very many High Guard officers since the fall of the Commonwealth, and it wasn't like the bonds had left him with easy access to the weapon. It would take quite a feat of acrobatic maneuvering to reach it. As he pondered how he could do just that when the moment presented itself, he and Beka were ordered to proceed back in the direction of the Command Center. They were forced to take the lead, all the better for the others to shoot them if they tried to escape.

"They're called Pulsars," Beka said, jerking her head to indicate his cuffs. "The latest in Dragon technology. If you try to slip out of them or open the lock without the correct key, they shock you so hard that sometimes, they pretty much kill you."

Dylan winced, but something conniving and familiar in Beka's eyes told him that there *was* a way to escape that she wasn't telling him about. She wouldn't dare risk telling him, either, not with Rhylar and his squadron trailing so close behind.

He spent the rest of the march back to the command tower admiring Beka's handiwork. The way she had crash-landed the slipfighter was nothing less than a work of art, ensuring that most of the fighters in the immediate area had either been rendered unable to fly by direct damage or unable to take off because of the debris trail across the deck. The Maru, however, had suffered no such damage or restrictions. The only thing preventing her from flying to freedom were the security bonds, which they would hopefully be able to deactivate once they were inside.

Dylan had known that they would more than likely not be lucky enough to be taken onto the main control deck. Still, he could not help but feel an extreme disappointment as he and Beka were led to a private interrogation room. Rhylar ordered the squad dispersed to aid with the clean-up as a pair of guards shoved the duo into hard seats.

"Oh my--" Beka shut her mouth abruptly, stifling the rest of her breathed comment. She glanced quickly to see if Rhylar, who was posting guards outside of their room, had heard the declaration. Dylan looked too, decided he hadn't, and set to finding out what had left her so stunned. He found it on the middle of the table between them. A very old-looking part of a piece of machinery. Again, he checked to make sure Rhylar's back was still turned and nodded to it. Beka nodded back.

"So you've seen it, then?" The sounds of Rhylar's boots on the hard floor echoed even the small room. He was eyeing the fragment, a curious, almost dementedly delighted expression on his face.

"Of course I've seen it!" Beka snapped before Dylan could come up with a feasible story. "The question is, why are you yanking the parts out of my thrusters? I thought you Dragons had enough power and influence to not have to go stripping freighters for spare parts."

"Do you think I am that easily fooled?"

"Who's fooling you?" Beka shot back. "I've repaired every nut and bolt on my ship at some point or another. Believe me, I'd know if anything weird showed up."

"Our preliminary analyses indicate that this isn't some run-of-the mill object, as you are so determined to have me believe, Miss Valentine."

Beka merely shrugged. "So I revved her up a little. You have to if you want to survive these days. What's it to you?"

Rhylar leaned forward over the table, his face coming dangerously close to Beka's unwavering eyes. "The Engine of Creation. You've heard of it?"

Dylan felt his breath catch and wondered if Beka's did the same. She merely stared at him for a moment, then laughed outright. The blatant defiance made Rhylar recoil. He raised his hand to her, but did not strike. Dylan clenched his fists. The Dragon captain would pay for that one.

"You want me to believe that my reverse valve is part of a mythology thousands of years *dead*?" Beka exclaimed, making the question sound as though it was truly the most ludicrous she had ever heard. "You're a *Nietzschean*! I didn't think you guys bought into things like that."

"We didn't," Rhylar said, "until our analyses could calculate neither the age nor the weight of this component. Tell me where the other fragments are, and I'll consider granting you a merciful death."

Beka laughed again, more outraged than before. "Other fragments? Look, unless some repairman three galaxies back broke down this Engine thing and implanted it in the Maru for spare parts, I have no idea what you're talking about. From where I'm sitting, you're starting to sound just a little bit nuts."

This time, Rhylar did not halt nor pull his strike. His fist cracked across Beka's jaw, sending her sideways out of her chair and sprawling onto the floor. Blood flowed from her mouth as she struggled to fight back, only to cry out in agony as the Pulsars delivered a shocking burst through her entire body. Still on the floor, she curled up in pain.

*That's it,* was the last thing Dylan remembered thinking. Restraints be damned, he leaned back, pulled his feet up as close as he could bring them and just managed to get his fingers around the grip of the force lance. He jerked the weapon free and threw himself out of his chair, twisting his body as he fell so that he could fire a shot at Rhylar. The Dragon captain was thrown backwards against the nearest wall by the force of the blast before collapsing into a lifeless heap. At the sound of the shot, the pair of guards posted outside burst through the doors. Dylan had to roll out of the way of their fire. He was not fast enough. One of the blasts sliced through his leg, drawing blood and an incredible rush of pain. He forced it aside and managed to aim up at one of the guards. He fired, but not before the other one had trained his weapon on him.

A crashing across the room diverted the remaining Dragon's fire. Beka had slammed her feet into her chair with all her strength, sending it sliding across the small room with a great amount of noise. Dylan took advantage of the distraction and took down the third guard.

"Reverse the charge on the force lance," Beka shouted at him before he could ask if she was okay. She maneuvered so that her back was to him and had extended her arms as far from her body as possible. "It'll short-circuit the cuffs."

*It could also kill you,* Dylan thought, fumbling for the control switch to reverse the polarity and turn the power to its lowest setting. Footsteps approaching at a dead run pushed aside any thoughts of scrambling for Rhylar's body and hoping to find the deactivation switch. He craned his head to see Beka over his shoulder and prayed that his aim was as good backwards and restrained as it was on a normal day. He could not stop himself from closing his eyes as he fired. He heard the bonds splinter, followed by Beka's swearing.

By the time he opened his eyes to see how badly he'd hurt her, she was springing to her feet, only to dive for one of the guards. He was, Dylan noticed as he wondered what she was doing, one of the members of the squad who had disarmed him. With her free hands, she searched him until she came across the one of the force lances that was programmed for her usage. She reversed the charge quickly and blasted herself free of her leg irons.

"Hurts like hell," she warned, taking aim at him. She fired, twice in quick succession. Her warning about the pain could not have been more accurate, but Dylan found himself climbing to his feet a moment later.

"Where's Harper when you need him?" Beka was muttering to no one in particular. Dylan wondered why she would want Harper in a situation as potentially deadly as their was until he realized that the engineer could probably come up with some long-distance way to releasing the Dragon's hold on the Maru. Where *was* Harper when they needed him?

"Now what?" She asked as the approaching Dragon footsteps loomed closer to their position. She had already grabbed the fragment from the table and was awaiting their next move.

They didn't have time to wonder. The entire cruiser seemed to rock beneath their feet, accompanied by the sound of a thousand cannons unleashed. The Drago-Kazov were under attack on their home territory. Dylan almost laughed with delight. There was only one place that kind of fire-power could have come from, and its timing could not have been more perfect.

"Tyr!" Beka exclaimed, throwing her arms open to the sky in gratitude. She followed Dylan's lead by restoring her force lance to its regular setting, then took off after him down the hall, blasting the advancing and all-too-close Nietzscheans who opened fire on them as well. They ran blindly and for their lives, Dylan scanning every corridor they zipped past for any signs of where the mechanism might be to release the Maru. Though they had missed the force lance in his boot, the Nietzscheans were smart enough not to label their important areas.

"We're going to have to figure out how to free the Maru ourselves," he shouted over his shoulder to Beka. They would absolutely be killed if they did anything other than bolt back onto the landing dock, where they could take cover amid the debris as they made their way back to the Maru. And hope the Tyr and Rommie would take out the opposition without accidentally taking them out as well.

Rommie must have had a sure lock on both the Maru and their ever-changing position, because her fire tore through the hangar deck as they ran, the deadly close-range weapons always a safe distance behind them. Despite the fact that every Nietzschean on the carrier wanted them dead, they reached the safety of the Maru without further incident of injury.

"Captains Hunt and Valentine!" Tyr's sharp voice was already paging them through the comm link as they boarded. Beka reached the control panel first and returned the link, slamming her open hand down on the button with so much force that Dylan was surprised it did not break.

"How did you find us?" Her voice was filled with disbelief, but Dylan doubted she had ever been so grateful to see Tyr in her life.

The Kodiak's face appeared on screen. He was smiling. "Tell Captain Hunt that those tracking nanobots he implanted on us work both ways."

"Nano--" Though she had found about the tracking devices the hard way--during their battle against the Magog worldship--Beka still had a tendency to forget that they could be tracked. Judging from Dylan's reaction to her disappearance, she had a feeling he'd forgotten as well.

"Eureka Maru, you are cleared for take-off." Tyr was obviously enjoying his new position as the Andromeda's acting captain.

"I can't take off!" Beka shouted into the comm link. "They've got us locked down! We have to find the release!"

"Actually, a manual over-ride will be much faster."

"Tyr, there is no manual over-ride. We have to go back!" She started to bolt off the ship to do just that, but Tyr's next words stopped her in her tracks.

"I have a faster solution."

"Hold on to something!" Dylan shouted across the small deck. "He's going to shoot the bonds off!"

"He's--" Beka's eyes widened in panic and fury as she turned from the comm screen to Dylan and quickly back again. "Anasazi, I mean it, if you bust up my ship--"

She did not have time to finish. The Andromeda appeared from beneath the decks, its colossal form hovering in front of them as Tyr zeroed in the proximity weapons.

"He's really gonna do it!" Beka exclaimed, the words barely having time to escape her lips before the Andromeda opened fire. Dylan closed his eyes as he tried to cement himself in place, feeling every shot that pelted the binds and rocked the Maru to the point of shaking him from his foundation. He could hear Beka shouting, swearing more than likely, but he couldn't make out the specifics of her words over the almost deafening noise. She was probably shouting about the landing gear being decimated, which was precisely what he was worried about, provided the ricochets didn't literally blow the floor out from under them. This was the stupidest idea he'd ever heard of.

The rapid fire ceased and Dylan opened his eyes in time to watch his ship fire her reverse thrusters. As the Andromeda began to move slowly away from the cruiser, the force of the thrusters slid the Maru backwards from its hangar, almost into the remains of Beka's crashed slipfighter.

"At least we're free," Beka said, already running emergency diagnostics, "and I can't believe I get to say this, but nothing important is broken. We'll probably have to replace a few parts once we're on the Andromeda, but everything's in working order for now."

That was when Dylan remembered that the stupidest ideas had a tendency to work.

"Strap yourself in," Beka said, settling into the pilot's chair. "Let's fire this baby up and get out of here before they figured out what happened and start giving chase."

It was the best suggestion Dylan had heard in a long time, and he was more than happy to oblige.
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Ah, yes, happy endings all around, in true Andromeda fasion. But what of Dylan's newfound and as-yet undeclared affections for Beka? One more to go and it's already been written. It will be here soon, as long as the server stays up. Promise.