Scission: Signs
"Trance, how is the Prime Minister?" Dylan asked as he led Orgo to an examination table.
"She's recovering quickly. Her red blood cell count was very low but there doesn't seem to be any brain damage" She tossed him a quick glance. "Did you find out how they escaped?"
"Yes. According to the Ambassador here, Beka and Tyr rescued them. Rommie is scanning for escape pods."
"Good. The odds were two million and three hundred forty thousand to one that they'd make it." Dylan's face wasn't as expressionless as he hoped because she blurted out, "not that I was counting" and quickly turned to examine the patient diplomat.
Dylan was in a considerably lighter mood by the time he walked into Command. His people were still aboard an active alien vessel, but just knowing they were alive was enough for now.
"Dylan!" Harper's face appeared on the main vid screen. "Look." He switched them to the external camera and showed the command deck, a view of the bodies clustered like asteroids outside a forward airlock. "This has to be it! I can't get any internal reading. The ship has enough power to block my scans." The young man's face reappeared, "I'm going in!"
"Harper! Harper wait! That's an order. I'll be there in just ten minutes."
"Captain, as acting first officer I must object. I will go." Rommie stood at ease, her face unreadable, only her eyes searching his face gave away any emotion.
"We must object too," said Charlemagne Bolivar as he and Zhukov Pashtun entered command.
"Ah," just what I need the Ubertwins as Harper insisted in calling them, "gentleman."
"You see Captain," Bolivar studied his perfectly manicured nails, "we've grown rather fond of you and I am sure that neither we nor the Andromeda would like to lose you on a fool's errand."
"And we wish demolition to start immediately," Zhukov said by way of greeting. He reacted not at all to his superior's show of whimsy.
Dylan sighed and looked at Rommie, who was still eyeing him coolly. He nodded his acquiescence. And she departed without a word. "Harper informed me that the ordinance team expects a degree of control?"
Charlemagne nodded. "My Chief informed me of that as well." He turned his languid gaze to the view of the alien bodies outside the airlock door. "Good news is it, Captain?"
"It would seem." Dylan zoomed the fighter's cameras, giving the Nietzschean's a better look at the alien bodies. "Hold on Harper. Rommie has launched and is on her way."
Bolivar pursed his lips and waved a graceful hand at the screen. "Seems a gratuitous display.'
"Yes. It does seem to fit the style of a certain acting Weapon's Officer I know. There is no one like Tyr for living a trail of bodies in his wake." Dylan continued to study the scene as Harper slowly maneuvered along the vessel's hull.
"Look! More" Harper's face again appeared on screen. He had reached an aft airlock. "Ah, Captain. I am getting low wavelength EM radiation off the hull, so some systems must be up. Still weird that this is the only one. This has to be the one!"
Harper's fighter edged closer too close for Dylan's comfort. "Stay out of defensive weapons range! Patience, Mr. Harper."
Soon another slipstream fighter flew into Harpers visual range. "Captain, I'm going in. Harper, covering fire."
"Rommie no-" said both Dylan and Harper, simultaneously.
The avatars face appeared on the main vid. "Dylan, Orgo said that Tyr's shoulder was hardly damaged by the alien gunfire, he didn't even mention internal defenses. It is unlikely the ship has energy for external defenses if it didn't use automated defenses on an internal enemy."
Dylan watched the impassive face on the screen for a second. He sighed. "Enter firing distance and test your theory."
Rommie's face disappeared and was replaced with a view of her fighter moving in confidently. She positioned herself near the airlock and launched a magnetic bow cable, mooring the fighter. "Permission to go aboard."
Out of options, Dylan ran his hand through his hair. "Permission granted." He could have sworn that Rommie looked smug as she signed off. Despite the fact that the Avatar had grown into her own person, her base personality was a warship and the next best thing to blowing the enemy out of space was to attack it from the inside.
The fighter looked small from Harper's bow cam. Dylan couldn't help but gasp as Rommie's cockpit opened and she glided unprotected out into space. He watched her work on the airlock for several seconds before he realized he had been holding his breath.
"I'm in, captain," said the Andromeda as Rommie disappeared inside the airlock. "I'm getting readings. Most of the life forms are concentrated at bow and starboard. I'm picking up two faint humanoid readings also at starboard. That has to be Beka and Tyr."
Dylan was so focused on Rommie that he hadn't been watching the engineer. A quick glance told him the second fighter was now moored beside of the airlock. It took him a moment to pick out Harper's EVA suited form working its way between the alien bodies toward the door.
"Eeooah! Damn that's disgusting - looks like a hobgoblin."
"Where do you think you going, Mr. Harper?"
"To give Rommie back-up. No way I'm going to sit here and watch her go in there by herself. Gah!' Harper flailed his way forward using the mooring line.
Dylan ran his hands over his face; his lack of control over the situation was the ultimate frustration. Why couldn't I have nice well-trained lancer brigade? Because that well-trained lance Brigade followed orders and abandoned ship. He sighed.
"I am losing signal, Captain." Andromeda's visage was hard edged.
"Wait! Harper's coming, Rommie."
"I told him to wait outside," Rommie's voice crackled over the comm.
"Well he take's your orders about as well as he does mine."
"I'm in, Boss."
"We will lose communication once I seal the inside airlock door," stated the Ship.
The Captain nodded. "Be careful."
The Andromeda's image just raised her eyebrows at him.
