Scission: Fate
They had lain entangled in each other like the last survivors of a shipwreck while the second tide of passion ebbed away.
"Tyr, I-"
"Beka, listen to me. I do not want to undermine what we have shared. It went beyond what I expected, but I need you to understand me." He rolled onto his side. She reached out and stroked him. Tyr caught her hand and brought her knuckles to his lips and kissed them. "There is little likelihood we will both survive this. So I admit to being completely selfish in this encounter. Yvaine made me see that human women could all too easily tempt me. I was in denial during that dinner we had so many eons ago and I wish to apologize. I must trust that Drago left interbreeding open for good reason." He reached out and touched her cheek. "I also wished to take a memory of you should I be the survivor.
"I will not deny I have respect and . . . affection for you. But I must look logically beyond this temporary hormonal affliction. And see it as the greatest chance that part of me will survive. Only one of us may make it. I may well be the last Kodiak and it is my duty to see that it lives again. I know that in saying this I add to you burden should you be the survivor, but I am trusting in your nature and your Valentine 'luck' to succeed with my dream.
"So I ask you, please, Beka that should I not live, have my child and teach it what you know of me and take him to Olma and Yvaine on Midden's southern continent. My journal will explain. It is in the infirmary on level eight."
Beka ran her hand down his chest, and looked into what could be called desperate on a Nietzschean's face. "Tyr . . . I don't think it could happen. I've a-"
"Type z contraceptive implant. Yes, I know."
"How-"
"For a deceptive creature, Trance Gemini is not good at hiding her records. I could almost believe she left them for me to find." He smiled just a corner of his lips quirking up. Beka thought she saw fondness hiding in his features. He again stroked her hair, as if memorizing its texture, "But that is neither here nor there. She should have warned you to read the fine print. It is not effective against Nietzscheans. I know that this should count as a breach of trust on my part; even now as we lay here my nanobots are destroying the apparatus that blocks their target. My sperm can last ten days in a human. It is programming that goes back to Musevini."
Beka started to speak, but he placed a gentle finger to her lips stilling her. "Guilt is unproductive. I have enjoyed my time with you and I must admit that I have thought about you in this way for some time. At first, I believed the attraction was because you were the only viable female in my more intimate association. Or because you had a passing resemblance to Freya. Now I am not sure that is so."
Again he treated her to a small smile. "I believe our child will have a good chance at survival with you as its mother. That as it may be I warn you that there will likely be little of your genetic structure that will make it into our child. Nietzschean genes were designed to be dominant. But please Beka promise me."
This is so unfair. Tyr must know how she had come to feel. He was too perceptive at times for his own good and for anyone else's for that matter. She tried not to look at him; she knew if she met his eyes she'd be lost. She'd do anything for him when his arrogance washed away exposing that exquisite vulnerability beneath. She wondered if anyone but her had ever been treated to it.
He ran his hand along her back and up to cup her head. The gentle touch guided her eyes to his and it was there she saw that openness beseeching her to follow his will. So unfair. She wasn't stupid and she felt she did know Tyr. Knew him well enough to know that this was as close to an 'I love you' as she might ever get. The words seemed cold but for the care and passion he'd shown in his touch and the look on his face as he explained his motivation. When does Tyr explain anything? He normally just takes and expects you to be grateful he didn't take more.
"Tyr-" he opened his mouth to speak and she laid a finger on his lips as he had done to her, "hear me out. I am not Nietzschean and I have no wish to be. I am happy with what I have become. I will not go planet-side and happily produce babies. It is not my style. If we do this you will make me a promise that when we survive this you will not pressure me into leaving the Andromeda." She could see protest forming on his face, but fought it with 'the look'. The one she could always trust to get her crew hopping into action.
She pressed him on the chest and he complied by rolling onto his back. Even with his feet against the wall he still had to bend his knees. She slid across him, until she straddled him. The empty holsters at his hips pressed uncomfortably against her bare inner thighs. She laid down on him her arms crossed on his chest and continued to stare him down,
He must have reasoned it was best to give on this now in order to gain her cooperation. He nodded. She gave him 'the look' again.
"I promise, Beka."
She nodded, gaining seriousness. She gathered her pants up and search through the pockets until she pulled free the beautiful strip of Than silk. She reached back and expertly removed a knife from Tyr's boot. She wept silently for her prize scarf as she used the knife to cut it into two uneven lengths. She replaced the knife. "I don't know if this appropriate given I'm human, but I want you to have a reminder of my promise to you."
His eyes grew wider as she pulled his arm closer and tied the blue silk firmly above the curve of his left bicep. There were the ghosts of tears in his eyes as he helped her tie the smaller piece around her own far slimmer arm.
Beka climbed further up his chest and kissed away the thoughts of tears in his eyes. "I promise you, Tyr Anasazi, that I will do everything in my power to protect our child. I will teach it all that I know of you. I will follow your instructions and go to Midden."
When he spoke his voice was raw. "It is very important that you go soon. She will give you a serum that will become the child's colony of nano-bots. Olma is truly a Nietzschean Matriarch so do not trust her. You will have to take . . . measures to insure her of your status as my wife. Also, do not tell anyone where you going it could put you and them at risk. No one not even Dylan."
She nodded and he seemed content with it. He reached up and stroked the silk on her arm. "It is Than."
Beka nodded. "It seems so ominous now. That week we were at Kyoto Drift, I found it at a stall in one of the more 'select' markets." She looked down at him, "Trance pointed out to me. I loved it, it was perfect, but so expensive that I nearly talked myself out of it until Trance said how it looked so good on me, and how I should treat myself more often and my crew less." She faltered at the thought of her crew. "If I die will you keep an eye on them? I don't think Harper will take it well. It might be best to take him to Rev's retreat for a while."
In the six years that the Engineer had been with her she had developed a sheltering near maternal love for him. In some ways she felt like she had adopted a teenager with old man eyes. He had loosened up in the last year. His humour more sincere as his place onboard the Andromeda and their lives seemed more continuous and stable.
She nestled into Tyr's bare chest and cried silently at the thought of the loss of the Andromeda and her crew. This is precisely why I should never get attached to people. The pain is unbearable.
Tyr's hand was at her hair again. "Do not repeat that you heard this from me. You have to hope that they are alive. It is something that you can hold onto. I do believe in fate. It was not chance that made the Kodiak the protectors of the Progenitor's remains. We were destined to be the source of his reincarnation. How can I not believe when I have seen it proven before my very eyes. Chance is not what brings so many events back to our enigmatic crewmate, Trance Gemini. I would not be surprised if she knows as much about this timeline as she did the one she left."
That was something to think about. So was what had come to rest against her ass. His lips parted as she rubbed against it. He looked faintly surprised that she was instigating another encounter. "What surprised I can keep up with you?"
"This is not a competition, Beka."
"Who said it was? Besides I thought you Nietzscheans lived for competition. Wouldn't sexual stamina prove you a worthy husband as combat proved you a worthy father?"
"There is no need. A Nietzschean woman usually only seeks the furthering of her genes. Given the strength of our sperm and receptiveness of our eggs, one performance of coitus is all that is really needed. A second only needed on the same occasion to insure the exchange-"
Beka kissed him to stem the tide of academia that threatened to destroy their hard won mood. "Well as a human I'm not so easily satisfied. Once you so tactlessly reminded me that human's screw for a variety of reasons. The main one is for the sheer pleasure of the experience. Another is to bond a couple together."
Tyr looked like he was about to launch into another bout of cultural studies, so she raised herself up and sat back down on him. She squeezed her eyes shut as she was filled and stretched again. She was sure that given a lifetime with this man she would never get used to his sheer size. She looked up at him; his lips were still parted in amazement.
Beka's eyes flickered involuntarily to the display above his head and she noted the neighbouring ship had nearly cleared the safety zone. The small measure of peace she had attained broke within her. The path she kissed up his chest became desperate, all the playfulness gone. She attacked his lips demanding his passion. The force of her strokes went beyond pleasure to near pain. Tyr groaned under her fierce display, wrapping his arms around her stilling her agitated movements, and turned them over. Changing their rhythm to a gentler pace than what had made up their previous two encounters.
But the desperation of her kisses sank through his calm and he picked up the pace. The eye in the storm they had found was nearly at an end making them cling to each other. Release wasn't sought, only continuation and contact.
Just when it seemed that conclusion would be impossible in the suffocating pain of loss, it hit her -- the blinding pleasure that seemed so wrong when she was about to face death alone, without her friends or this man who could put her though such extremes by his very presence.
She again clutched at him as the spasms swept through her body. He panted hotly into her neck and moaned something that could have been her name.
At that moment, they were hit; the ship rolled with it like it was riding a breaker. The pod rocked in its mount and stilled.
"What was that?" Beka twisted to glance at the panel over her head.
"That was likely a concussion wave from a bomb. They are starting to demolish the fleet."
He slid his hands along her as if reluctant to let her go, but the moment was gone and back were the more immediate needs of survival.
Beka felt a moment of clarity, of certainty. "Tyr stay with me." She stayed his hands where they were refastening his pants. "I'm going to survive this. I can feel it."
"The chances of either of us surviving are greatly increased by us separating and leaving in two pods. It's the logical solution."
"Screw logic Tyr! Trust my instincts. They have saved me and my crew's bacon every time." She touched his face willing him to comply.
He looked almost ready to believe, then shook his head. He fastened his pants, and slung his holster around his hips. Swiping the precipitation from the door viewport, he checked the corridor, and opened the hatch. Tyr hesitated looking out into the cold dark of the ship, before turning back into the warm low-lit life pod.
Beka watched him her breath shallow, waiting to see if he had changed his mind. He reached for her gathering her to him pressing her tightly against his chest. He smelled her hair and she looked up to meet his eyes as he brought his lips to hers. This was good-bye.
After a brief second he pulled away and ducked out the door. She watched helplessly as he closed and sealed the hatch never again meeting her eyes. Tears welled up as she continued to stare out the now blurry viewport.
The tears fell silently as she drew on her pants. Her eyes were drawn to the panel that flashed an orange 'good to go.' She drew the back of her hand across her eyes and took a deep breath. Alone again. Well Rocket you've done some of your best work alone. Bust a butt.
She sat cross-legged in front of the forward viewport and flipped out the joystick controls. A few taps on the window turned on the heads-up-display. The blocking ship was well in the clear and the stars beyond shifted in and out of reality. She punched the large orange button that was now glowing and her pod was released.
Tyr's pod pulled out in front of hers then swept off ahead. Beka watched it as she angled her own trajectory away from the body of the alien fleet. Her pod bleeped signalling it was about to activate its pre-programming.
Her pod was hit and flung forward as another concussion wave hit. She fought the controls to keep the pod level to one plain. Ahead she saw Tyr's craft spiral out of control. A small slipstream gate opened, his pod hit it and bounced out of sight. He'll never make it. He could exit anywhere! Her chest tightened as her own portal opened drawing her helplessly away.
Slipstream ended as abruptly as it began. The autopilot took over leaving the sticks dead and useless. With nothing to occupy her, Beka drew herself into a ball and cried.
