Meanwhile back on Andromeda
The Andromeda had spent the last two days being piloted in and out of Slipstream by Beka whilst slowly making their way back to Sintii. Tyr and Harper had spent the past two days analysing or at least trying to analyse the video that gave them the last few images of Dylan trying to find out anything about the people that had done that to him only to come up empty. Trance had spent them in Hydroponics watering and talking to her flowers. Rommie had spent the two days talking to her ship-self trying to get back in her good books, she knew that it would be impossible to get Andromeda to forgive her as she could not forgive herself, she was however trying her hardest to get her to like her again. Everyone looked up from what they were doing as Beka's voice came over the ship wide com "We are approaching Sintii space everyone to command." Everyone stopped whatever it was they were doing and made their way to command, the day they had been dreading was tomorrow. But before that they had to make contact with the Conclave and give them all the information they had about these people that had tortured Dylan and warned them of a great cataclysm that was approaching.
Beka was standing at the pilot's podium exhausted, she had had very little sleep in the past two days, she had piloted almost non-stop back to Sintii. She had wanted to get there as fast as she could and didn't trust anyone else to do it for her, it had been a very bad decision as it had almost made her resort to using Flash again. The only reason she didn't was by a sheer act of will, that and out of respect for Dylan. But it had been a close call. She piloted the ship through the outer system heading for Sintii Prime the seat of power for the new System's Commonwealth as she approached she contacted Traffic control and asked for permission to move into orbit. She received permission and started to take the Andromeda in. The rest of the crew came on deck just as she reached geo-synchronous orbit and allowed Andromeda to take over.
"So Boss have you contacted the Conclave yet?" Asked Harper as he came to stand next to her
"Not yet Seamus, I figured I'd wait until you were all here before doing that" she replied
"Well now that we are here can we get on with it?" Mumbled Tyr
"Yeah Bek, you know how these bureaucrat types work, they tell you to wait a minute and before you get your answer your dead from old age" quipped Harper
"Well I'm hoping that we might get priority access considering the news we have"
"Maybe..."
"Oh well here goes" Beka said before taking a deep breath and opening a channel to the surface "This is Beka Valentine of the Star-Ship Andromeda Ascendant, I was hoping we might be able to arrange a meeting with either the First Triumvere or the full Conclave. We have some information about Captain Dylan Hunt's death that we believe might be interesting to you." She finished and turned back to face the rest of the crew "Now all we have to do is..."
"Incoming Transmission from the surface" Andromeda said before putting it up on the view screen they watched in stunned silence as a Human woman's face appeared and said
"Attention Beka Valentine and crew of the Andromeda Ascendant. Permission granted for an audience with the First Triumvere. Appointment time is 2 hours, please be punctual" and with that the woman shut off the communication and left the stunned crew of Andromeda staring at a blank view screen
"Well that was easy" said Beka "everyone meet on the Maru in 1 hour ready to go down to the planet" and with that she left the bridge
"So what do we do for an hour?" Harper asked after Beka left
"I don't know about you but I'm going to the gym to do a short workout." Tyr said as he left command
"What about you Trance?"
"Oh I guess I'll just go back to Hydroponics and make sure all my plants have enough water for the next few hours. What about you Harper what are you going to do?"
"I don't know maybe I'll just stay here and keep Rommie company whilst she does her shift"
"Thank you Harper. But I'd prefer to be alone for a while if you don't mind?"
"Sure no probs Rom-Doll, I'll just go hang out with Trance in Hydroponics if that's ok with you my Sparkly Purple Babe?"
"Sure ok Harper, I can introduce you to some of the new plants I got" she said as she took Harpers arm and started to drag him off
"Uhhh... I think I'll just go back to the machine shop and work on a few things" he said trying to find a way out of the predicament he had gotten himself into
"Don't be silly machines and stuff don't compare to flowers. Flowers are so pretty whilst machines...." they were the last few words Rommie heard before the doors to command shut them off. She could listen to the conversation if she really wanted to but for now she was content to just look at the star charts that were shown on the VDU's and wait for the hour to pass.
===============================================================================
Two hours later on Sintii
Beka had landed the Maru about 20minutes ago not too far away from the Triumvere's office so they didn't have very far to travel. Sintii was not a very pleasant planet to be on, while the Perseids were marvels with technology, they didn't have much ability in the way of arts, so most of the buildings were the same. With the exception of the new council chambers and the Triumvere's office that had been designed and built by outside architects. The Andromeda crew made their way through the hoards of people directly towards the Triumvere's office. They reached the office in 10minutes so they were still early, and because they were early they had to sit in the office and wait for the Triumvere to finish off what ever business she had to attend to. They talked quietly amongst themselves and before they knew it the 10minutes were up and they were shuffled into the office. They made their way towards the table at which a lady was seated, this lady was fairly young looking even though she was well over 50 years old she didn't look any older then 30. She was a human from Ne'Holland her name was Madam Constance. She looked up from her desk that was covered with paperwork and smiled at them
"Welcome, at last I get to meet the famous crew of the Andromeda Ascendant. I have been waiting for this day since I first became Triumvere, I just wish it could have been under better circumstances"
"As do we Madam Triumvere" replied Rommie who always took charge of any diplomatic events that Dylan was not at, which meant that she would now be in charge at all diplomatic events
"Please call me Connie, all my friends do"
"As you wish Madam... Connie" Rommie replied with a slight smile
"Good. Now that's settled what is this information we would find about Dylan's death that you thought we would find interesting?"
"Well two days ago we were in the middle of an uninhabited system coming to terms with Dylan's loss when we got a message from the same man we gave you information about before."
"Ahhhh yes... The android that goes by the name of Mat?"
"Yes that's the one, anyway we received another message from him with the following video footage attached to it. I must warn you Connie the images you are about to see are very, very disturbing" Rommie hesitated as she was about to activate the holographic transmitter they had brought with them
"Thank you for the warning you may begin" as the film started running the First Triumvere turned very pale and looked like she was going to vomit, but to her credit she watched the whole thing and listened to every word said. When the transmission finished Rommie turned the device off and waited for the reaction, it was roughly what she had been expecting "Ragnarok? What does that mean?" Rommie quickly explained it to her. When the explanation was finished the Triumvere said "This is not good, I'm glad you bought this to our attention. I will contact the council immediately and call for an emergency session of the conclave, leave the recording here and go and relax. Tomorrow will be a very emotionally draining day and you will need a good night sleep tonight to cope with it."
"Thank you First Triumvere Constance, if you don't mind we will just go back to Andromeda now and await your decision" after seeing the nod in the affirmative the crew of the Andromeda turned and left the room. They headed back towards the Maru so they could return to Andromeda and wait for tomorrow to arrive.
The Andromeda had spent the last two days being piloted in and out of Slipstream by Beka whilst slowly making their way back to Sintii. Tyr and Harper had spent the past two days analysing or at least trying to analyse the video that gave them the last few images of Dylan trying to find out anything about the people that had done that to him only to come up empty. Trance had spent them in Hydroponics watering and talking to her flowers. Rommie had spent the two days talking to her ship-self trying to get back in her good books, she knew that it would be impossible to get Andromeda to forgive her as she could not forgive herself, she was however trying her hardest to get her to like her again. Everyone looked up from what they were doing as Beka's voice came over the ship wide com "We are approaching Sintii space everyone to command." Everyone stopped whatever it was they were doing and made their way to command, the day they had been dreading was tomorrow. But before that they had to make contact with the Conclave and give them all the information they had about these people that had tortured Dylan and warned them of a great cataclysm that was approaching.
Beka was standing at the pilot's podium exhausted, she had had very little sleep in the past two days, she had piloted almost non-stop back to Sintii. She had wanted to get there as fast as she could and didn't trust anyone else to do it for her, it had been a very bad decision as it had almost made her resort to using Flash again. The only reason she didn't was by a sheer act of will, that and out of respect for Dylan. But it had been a close call. She piloted the ship through the outer system heading for Sintii Prime the seat of power for the new System's Commonwealth as she approached she contacted Traffic control and asked for permission to move into orbit. She received permission and started to take the Andromeda in. The rest of the crew came on deck just as she reached geo-synchronous orbit and allowed Andromeda to take over.
"So Boss have you contacted the Conclave yet?" Asked Harper as he came to stand next to her
"Not yet Seamus, I figured I'd wait until you were all here before doing that" she replied
"Well now that we are here can we get on with it?" Mumbled Tyr
"Yeah Bek, you know how these bureaucrat types work, they tell you to wait a minute and before you get your answer your dead from old age" quipped Harper
"Well I'm hoping that we might get priority access considering the news we have"
"Maybe..."
"Oh well here goes" Beka said before taking a deep breath and opening a channel to the surface "This is Beka Valentine of the Star-Ship Andromeda Ascendant, I was hoping we might be able to arrange a meeting with either the First Triumvere or the full Conclave. We have some information about Captain Dylan Hunt's death that we believe might be interesting to you." She finished and turned back to face the rest of the crew "Now all we have to do is..."
"Incoming Transmission from the surface" Andromeda said before putting it up on the view screen they watched in stunned silence as a Human woman's face appeared and said
"Attention Beka Valentine and crew of the Andromeda Ascendant. Permission granted for an audience with the First Triumvere. Appointment time is 2 hours, please be punctual" and with that the woman shut off the communication and left the stunned crew of Andromeda staring at a blank view screen
"Well that was easy" said Beka "everyone meet on the Maru in 1 hour ready to go down to the planet" and with that she left the bridge
"So what do we do for an hour?" Harper asked after Beka left
"I don't know about you but I'm going to the gym to do a short workout." Tyr said as he left command
"What about you Trance?"
"Oh I guess I'll just go back to Hydroponics and make sure all my plants have enough water for the next few hours. What about you Harper what are you going to do?"
"I don't know maybe I'll just stay here and keep Rommie company whilst she does her shift"
"Thank you Harper. But I'd prefer to be alone for a while if you don't mind?"
"Sure no probs Rom-Doll, I'll just go hang out with Trance in Hydroponics if that's ok with you my Sparkly Purple Babe?"
"Sure ok Harper, I can introduce you to some of the new plants I got" she said as she took Harpers arm and started to drag him off
"Uhhh... I think I'll just go back to the machine shop and work on a few things" he said trying to find a way out of the predicament he had gotten himself into
"Don't be silly machines and stuff don't compare to flowers. Flowers are so pretty whilst machines...." they were the last few words Rommie heard before the doors to command shut them off. She could listen to the conversation if she really wanted to but for now she was content to just look at the star charts that were shown on the VDU's and wait for the hour to pass.
===============================================================================
Two hours later on Sintii
Beka had landed the Maru about 20minutes ago not too far away from the Triumvere's office so they didn't have very far to travel. Sintii was not a very pleasant planet to be on, while the Perseids were marvels with technology, they didn't have much ability in the way of arts, so most of the buildings were the same. With the exception of the new council chambers and the Triumvere's office that had been designed and built by outside architects. The Andromeda crew made their way through the hoards of people directly towards the Triumvere's office. They reached the office in 10minutes so they were still early, and because they were early they had to sit in the office and wait for the Triumvere to finish off what ever business she had to attend to. They talked quietly amongst themselves and before they knew it the 10minutes were up and they were shuffled into the office. They made their way towards the table at which a lady was seated, this lady was fairly young looking even though she was well over 50 years old she didn't look any older then 30. She was a human from Ne'Holland her name was Madam Constance. She looked up from her desk that was covered with paperwork and smiled at them
"Welcome, at last I get to meet the famous crew of the Andromeda Ascendant. I have been waiting for this day since I first became Triumvere, I just wish it could have been under better circumstances"
"As do we Madam Triumvere" replied Rommie who always took charge of any diplomatic events that Dylan was not at, which meant that she would now be in charge at all diplomatic events
"Please call me Connie, all my friends do"
"As you wish Madam... Connie" Rommie replied with a slight smile
"Good. Now that's settled what is this information we would find about Dylan's death that you thought we would find interesting?"
"Well two days ago we were in the middle of an uninhabited system coming to terms with Dylan's loss when we got a message from the same man we gave you information about before."
"Ahhhh yes... The android that goes by the name of Mat?"
"Yes that's the one, anyway we received another message from him with the following video footage attached to it. I must warn you Connie the images you are about to see are very, very disturbing" Rommie hesitated as she was about to activate the holographic transmitter they had brought with them
"Thank you for the warning you may begin" as the film started running the First Triumvere turned very pale and looked like she was going to vomit, but to her credit she watched the whole thing and listened to every word said. When the transmission finished Rommie turned the device off and waited for the reaction, it was roughly what she had been expecting "Ragnarok? What does that mean?" Rommie quickly explained it to her. When the explanation was finished the Triumvere said "This is not good, I'm glad you bought this to our attention. I will contact the council immediately and call for an emergency session of the conclave, leave the recording here and go and relax. Tomorrow will be a very emotionally draining day and you will need a good night sleep tonight to cope with it."
"Thank you First Triumvere Constance, if you don't mind we will just go back to Andromeda now and await your decision" after seeing the nod in the affirmative the crew of the Andromeda turned and left the room. They headed back towards the Maru so they could return to Andromeda and wait for tomorrow to arrive.