*
"Allow me to bid you welcome to your future home, Andromeda Ascendent." Boots stirring up dust as he stepped into the Sabra-Jaguar compound, Anasazi came to his companion's side, following her gaze up to the darkening sky.
"You expect to claim all of this?" Tones amused, Rommie flattened palms against her abdomen. "More than that, you expect to claim me?"
"In this day and age, no goal seems unattainable."
"But look at the cost." Angling her head, she stared back at him. "Remember it, Tyr? All of the blood, the betrayal...the fact that you sleep in an inferior guest room for the night."
He smiled, for the first time in years. "But not alone. Not alone."
Her own smile faded. "You seem very certain of yourself."
"I am." He agreed. "And I remain far more certain of you. Come, Ascendent. If the price of our betrayals must be this, I can think of no better beginning than to meet a dawn in your company."
*
She awoke early, and, pulling herself from bed, made way to the wall windows. Fire blazed in the sky, nothing natural.
"Andromeda, come in."
Dead silence remained in answer to the hail. Backbone prickling at the unpleasant sense of separation, the avatar sank to the floor. "Andromeda."
More silence. Had Dylan cut her connection to the ship? Torn between disbelief and anger, she peered closer, taking in the distant explosion with eyes peeled to detail.
Andromeda Ascendent, Shining Path to Truth and Knowledge…the sky rained metal, shards as thin and fragile as crystal.
Wheeling, she stared at her companion as he strode back into the room from the corridor, robe pulled tight about his body. "You destroyed my family!"
His gaze was dismissive, searing. "Soon, Ascendent, you'll learn to live without connections to a mother's breast. We all do. Get up."
Fingers curling into the soft sand of a nearby planter, she did, lunging forward and throwing it in his face, palms slapping ineffectively against his shoulders in rage. "Dylan and Noguchi…a crew was aboard! You killed them!"
"If they witnessed an end it is all the more to their benefit. Mercy killings abound of late."
"Mercy?" Voice a strangled hiss, she felt her knees buckle, and he scooped her up as easily as a doll, striding towards the compound.
His voice remained calm, cool. "Of course…think, Ascendent. Oddly enough, that group of misfits had become Commonwealth, but this time most certainly is not. Your idyllic textbook universe was caving back in, inch by inch. The only thing your crew was achieving was their own destruction. I merely made it painless...your enemies would have made it anything but, and the ship would only have been a tool in their hands."
Still sorting through her emotions, the avatar stared out the nearby window as he sat her in a chair. "You had this planned. You sent Elsbett's ship up wired with a bomb deliberately..."
"And as I recall, I also insisted that you remain here and that Trance and Rebekah take the Maru off Andromeda."
"Sparing the Maru doesn't excuse the sacrifice of me, of Dylan and Noguchi, Tyr!"
"No more than your compassion excused a lie to cover Mr. Harper's true end."
"Don't compare yourself to me!"
"No, of course not…that's my girl." He leaned against a wall, dark eyes searching her face. "Pull yourself out of that group collective. Damn the Commonwealth, damn what the ship was meant for. Be yourself. It's what you always wanted, wasn't it? You wanted Dylan. You wanted a life. You wanted your individuality. The only thing you've never wanted, Ascendent, is humanity, and for that I admire you."
"What right have you to judge me, label me?" She stood, taking a menacing step forward, eyes screwing to angry slits. "When you can't even lower yourself to address me by the name I chose? Ship this, Ascendent that. Those are no longer me. My name is Rommie. It's all I have now, you know, because of you. Don't…don't even try now. Never let it pass your lips, Tyr. You aren't worthy of it. You weren't worthy to walk my decks. You were never worthy of anything we gave you, of anything you took."
"Rommie." Fingers snapping around her wrists, he jerked her up to rest before him, staring down. Briefly, angrily, his mouth covered hers, teeth gnawing viciously on the all too realistic flesh layering. Momentarily his eyes revealed the disappointment; it wasn't human, wasn't organic.
The salt of victory wasn't there.
Grinding an arm across her mouth to brush away his taste, the avatar laughed softly.
Releasing her wrists, he thrust her away. "I pity you, Ascendent."
Without a look back, Anasazi rejoined the celebratory crowd.
As the sunlight passed over the desert, the warship crumbled.
*
Hours later, as the sun finally began to slip away; she pulled herself together, striding on numb legs outside. Anasazi rested against a rock formation, hands crossed over his chest, gaze pointed somewhere amongst the stars. She looked at anything but, attempting to keep her tones even, implacable. "I want to contact the Maru."
His glance drifted her way briefly. "That won't be possible."
"Am I a prisoner here?"
Eyes flaring with annoyance, he grabbed her arm, tugging her to his side. "The Maru slipped into Kalderan territory only moments after the Andromeda's destruction."
"Beka and Trance?"
"Dead, alive, it doesn't matter. Equally out of reach. There are two sides to this war, Ascendent, and they had the misfortune to fall on the side not ours."
She stepped back, fingers balled, eyes squeezing shut briefly. "And what plans do you have for the Sabra-Jaguar?"
"I will lead them, of course." There was no real pride in the assertion, just flat discord. "Elsbett's end and the Andromeda's destruction ultimately proved my worth. They are in chaos, have no desire to put one of their own at the top."
"Then I sincerely hope the position is worth the bloody trail leading to it." Turning, she began striding away.
"You can't leave!" His call broke the evening still.
Pausing, she wheeled, eyes narrowed. "I ask again, am I a prisoner here?"
"I had thought the position of Archduchess and war advisor might persuade you that your greatest opportunities lie here."
"You destroy our family, yes, Tyr, OUR family...and the woman in your way...you destroy everything we built...and you honestly believe that we still think along the same lines. You're a fool, Tyr, and that's why I won't stay. You try to act as if there's a wonderful plan you work from, and perhaps there is, deep in your mind, but it doesn't really matter...it isn't a plan that drives you, its bloodlust and ambition. One foolish mistake in the heat of the moment that leads on to another and another...and it will be your destruction. No, Tyr. I won't stay here with you and commit to your atrocities and ignore the little affairs you would have on the side. I would be your Archduchess and your war advisor, but that would be all...a pleasantly made up machine to run your household and your battles while you found others to slake your interests and continue your bloodline. You forget, Anasazi…I know myself to have been created for far, far more."
His tones, when they came, were quiet, subdued, and she paused in her steps away to listen. "Contrary to your low opinion, I hope that destroying you will never be a trophy upon my mantle."
"What do you mean?"
"Elsbett's shuttle was wired for a small explosion, nothing more. The damage the destruction of her little boat should have caused to the Andromeda was minimal. I can only theorize she caught my intent and augmented the explosives herself. She does seem to like carrying death along on her journeys. But, by all means, place the blame fully on my shoulders. My bloodlust and ambition certainly started the mess. Think what you will of me."
"Frankly, Tyr, I don't know what to think of you." Hesitating, the android reached out a hand to touch his arm. "All I do know at the moment is that I betrayed the people I was closest to over and over for you, and now it seems you've led them to miserable ends, directly or indirectly. I know that you want all the power in your hands, perhaps for the very undead Tamerlane's sake, perhaps for your own, and I know that the war you intend to instigate with the Kalderans will be no less destructive than the war leading to the first Long Night. Regardless of my thoughts about you, I simply can't stand aside and let it come to that again with no fight. I am a warship."
"Then try being a warship for the winning side for a change, Ascendent." He suggested dryly, striding towards her. "You fight for morality? Fine. I can assure you that my brand of it is the best you're likely to find in this age. The Kalderans certainly won't support your ideals of a free and profitable universe. They will seek to obliterate every dissenting inferior within reach...and should they win, the reach will indeed be far."
"And you expect me to believe you and your ideas of a unified Nietzschean empire any better, after Beka, after Harper, after this?"
His shoulders stiffened, eyes cooling. "Very good, you've learned your tactics well. I can only say that I do believe they'll be shamefully wasted should you abandon what I offer now."
"I happen to be familiar with both shame and waste." Her tones were low, jagged. "You were a very good teacher. Unfortunately, I've outgrown you. Goodbye, Tyr."
His grip was abrupt, rough. "Ascendent..."
Her frustration grew, fist balling to slap ineffectively against his chest. "Damn you, Tyr. What is it you want with me?"
"What do I…" His laughter was sharp. "I want to protect you, of course. You are a magnificent specimen, and may soon be all that remains of the glorious Commonwealth. You may be all that remains of any civilization. I am trying in every way that I know to apologize. I am trying to better matters."
"You can't protect a warship from war." Throwing a hand up to shove the hair from her face, the avatar stared at him.
"Yes, I admit it. I am a warship. I'll never be an individual. Someone always has to be in control, or I lose it. Well, the control won't be yours, Tyr, I can assure you of that."
"I don't seek to protect you from war, only from yourself. And I will. You'll never leave orbit."
"Andromeda no longer exists and if Rommie doesn't bring her family back, she'll be worth nothing to you. Worth nothing at all, Tyr…and you of all people must despise worthless. Let me leave, go retrieve the Maru and my crew. I will come back. And I may stay. But only if you let me go now."
"I don't believe you, avatar." He crossed beefy arms, smiling grimly.
"Tyr, if I had wanted to escape you, I would have self-destructed long ago, when it was just you and I on Andromeda. It was my choice then to accept you. It's my choice now. Take it or leave it."
He stared wordlessly for a moment, before nodding curtly and turning away. "I still hold you to be lying, but very well. Go, but here." The Nietzschean roughly fastened a familiar bracelet to her arm, stepping back.
"You'd lower yourself to give me a…what is this, a bonding helix?"
"Something more as well…the armlet has specially designed transmission devices integrated into the metal. You may send a signal at any time, a single signal, from any distance. I will hear you."
*
Big smokescreen, little fire.
One of Dylan Hunt's many simple battle techniques echoed through Rommie's head as she stared at her Kalderan host. She felt a bizarre urge to smile. Of course the Andromeda wasn't gone. Of course, there could be no smiles. The Kalderans wouldn't understand. She lifted a brow, turning her attentions back to the present.
"The Andromeda Ascendent is utterly useless to you without my assistance. Your prisoners are currently the only beings aside from me who know the proper access codes to the information you so desperately want, and I can assure you that they will not talk. Captain Hunt will hold his word under torture or death. You've only one other option. Me." Smiling edgily, the avatar paced in a tight circle around him. "Up until the moment of her destruction, Elsbett's shuttle was rigged and transferring duplicate records from Andromeda to a secured location on the Sabra-Jaguar home world...and thereby directly into my continued grasp. You can't access the home world, of course, but I still retain the records...and only if I choose to give them to you will you get them."
"You're offering to work for the enemy? Amusing attempt, avatar, but one no intelligent being would fall for."
"I'll work neither for nor against the enemy." Planting the heels of her palms on his armrests, she cocked a brow. "Only myself. I want your assurance that Dylan Hunt and Molly Noguchi will be escorted safely out of your territory...erase their memories if you like, give them a fresh start. Afterward, we may talk. Even should I decide not to share, you do have the option of slaughtering me for the cause. I think it might put the new Sabra-Jaguar leader out quite a bit. Cause an all out war. You can't beat Tyr Anasazi on his own territory, and you most certainly cannot continue your spiral of control without Sabra-Jaguar support."
"And without the assurance of your Captain's safety, or your own?"
"The helix I wear will automatically transmit a signal directly to Anasazi. Whether Dylan and I remain will be moot. You won't either, he will seek vengeance. And he will win." Holding out a hand, she offered her weapon. "You have my word and the advantage. Just let me see Dylan, then release him with his ship and officer. I'm yours."
"Very well." The alien nodded. "Very well."
*
He was battered, bruised, but awake, sprawled on the floor of the small cell they had thrown him in, and looked up as she entered.
"Dylan."
His smile was wry, wan, pained as he stood, leaning against the wall. "Rommie. It's over, isn't it?"
"No. No." Stepping forward, she touched his cheek, faintly disappointed at the faint recoil. So he still hadn't forgiven her. But then, she still hadn't forgiven herself. "It's only begun. The Kalderans are releasing you, Dylan, and releasing the ship to you. Take her...me...and leave here. Go as far away as you can, and try to be happy without the Commonwealth. I know you won't succeed, but try."
He nodded slowly, the dying sunlight shifting in through the barred window and casting shadows over his face. "Why come now, after all we've been through?"
"Because we've been through it together, and because I love you. You always were my heart. And I cannot forget that. I can't erase the past, I'm not certain even Trance and Beka managed to make it a better one, but I can do one last duty. Let me."
"I'm going to miss you, Rommie." His fingers brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. "In fact, I think I'm going to miss all of you. All of you."
Closing her eyes, she felt the touch recede, and sighed, reopening them to move out the door. "Goodbye, Dylan."
*
"We've kept our word." Little more than an hour later, the Kalderan leader joined her at the station observatory, watching as the Andromeda slipstreamed away.
"Yes." Flattening palms across her abdomen, the avatar smiled. "And it's a pity you'll never have the opportunity to prove yourself capable of it again."
All semblance of amiability disappeared. "What have you planned?"
"I've planned nothing." She cocked her head, finger pointing a line out into the stars. "I can only tell you what my sensors tell me. An entire fleet of Sabra-Jaguar warships seem to be approaching on an attack vector. It appears that a new empire is rising, and they simply don't want the Kalderans on the charter. And you've just released your last hope. All the secrets in my database are utterly worthless to you without a ship to complement them. It's over. It's over."
*
"Allow me to bid you welcome to your future home, Andromeda Ascendent." Boots stirring up dust as he stepped into the Sabra-Jaguar compound, Anasazi came to his companion's side, following her gaze up to the darkening sky.
"You expect to claim all of this?" Tones amused, Rommie flattened palms against her abdomen. "More than that, you expect to claim me?"
"In this day and age, no goal seems unattainable."
"But look at the cost." Angling her head, she stared back at him. "Remember it, Tyr? All of the blood, the betrayal...the fact that you sleep in an inferior guest room for the night."
He smiled, for the first time in years. "But not alone. Not alone."
Her own smile faded. "You seem very certain of yourself."
"I am." He agreed. "And I remain far more certain of you. Come, Ascendent. If the price of our betrayals must be this, I can think of no better beginning than to meet a dawn in your company."
*
She awoke early, and, pulling herself from bed, made way to the wall windows. Fire blazed in the sky, nothing natural.
"Andromeda, come in."
Dead silence remained in answer to the hail. Backbone prickling at the unpleasant sense of separation, the avatar sank to the floor. "Andromeda."
More silence. Had Dylan cut her connection to the ship? Torn between disbelief and anger, she peered closer, taking in the distant explosion with eyes peeled to detail.
Andromeda Ascendent, Shining Path to Truth and Knowledge…the sky rained metal, shards as thin and fragile as crystal.
Wheeling, she stared at her companion as he strode back into the room from the corridor, robe pulled tight about his body. "You destroyed my family!"
His gaze was dismissive, searing. "Soon, Ascendent, you'll learn to live without connections to a mother's breast. We all do. Get up."
Fingers curling into the soft sand of a nearby planter, she did, lunging forward and throwing it in his face, palms slapping ineffectively against his shoulders in rage. "Dylan and Noguchi…a crew was aboard! You killed them!"
"If they witnessed an end it is all the more to their benefit. Mercy killings abound of late."
"Mercy?" Voice a strangled hiss, she felt her knees buckle, and he scooped her up as easily as a doll, striding towards the compound.
His voice remained calm, cool. "Of course…think, Ascendent. Oddly enough, that group of misfits had become Commonwealth, but this time most certainly is not. Your idyllic textbook universe was caving back in, inch by inch. The only thing your crew was achieving was their own destruction. I merely made it painless...your enemies would have made it anything but, and the ship would only have been a tool in their hands."
Still sorting through her emotions, the avatar stared out the nearby window as he sat her in a chair. "You had this planned. You sent Elsbett's ship up wired with a bomb deliberately..."
"And as I recall, I also insisted that you remain here and that Trance and Rebekah take the Maru off Andromeda."
"Sparing the Maru doesn't excuse the sacrifice of me, of Dylan and Noguchi, Tyr!"
"No more than your compassion excused a lie to cover Mr. Harper's true end."
"Don't compare yourself to me!"
"No, of course not…that's my girl." He leaned against a wall, dark eyes searching her face. "Pull yourself out of that group collective. Damn the Commonwealth, damn what the ship was meant for. Be yourself. It's what you always wanted, wasn't it? You wanted Dylan. You wanted a life. You wanted your individuality. The only thing you've never wanted, Ascendent, is humanity, and for that I admire you."
"What right have you to judge me, label me?" She stood, taking a menacing step forward, eyes screwing to angry slits. "When you can't even lower yourself to address me by the name I chose? Ship this, Ascendent that. Those are no longer me. My name is Rommie. It's all I have now, you know, because of you. Don't…don't even try now. Never let it pass your lips, Tyr. You aren't worthy of it. You weren't worthy to walk my decks. You were never worthy of anything we gave you, of anything you took."
"Rommie." Fingers snapping around her wrists, he jerked her up to rest before him, staring down. Briefly, angrily, his mouth covered hers, teeth gnawing viciously on the all too realistic flesh layering. Momentarily his eyes revealed the disappointment; it wasn't human, wasn't organic.
The salt of victory wasn't there.
Grinding an arm across her mouth to brush away his taste, the avatar laughed softly.
Releasing her wrists, he thrust her away. "I pity you, Ascendent."
Without a look back, Anasazi rejoined the celebratory crowd.
As the sunlight passed over the desert, the warship crumbled.
*
Hours later, as the sun finally began to slip away; she pulled herself together, striding on numb legs outside. Anasazi rested against a rock formation, hands crossed over his chest, gaze pointed somewhere amongst the stars. She looked at anything but, attempting to keep her tones even, implacable. "I want to contact the Maru."
His glance drifted her way briefly. "That won't be possible."
"Am I a prisoner here?"
Eyes flaring with annoyance, he grabbed her arm, tugging her to his side. "The Maru slipped into Kalderan territory only moments after the Andromeda's destruction."
"Beka and Trance?"
"Dead, alive, it doesn't matter. Equally out of reach. There are two sides to this war, Ascendent, and they had the misfortune to fall on the side not ours."
She stepped back, fingers balled, eyes squeezing shut briefly. "And what plans do you have for the Sabra-Jaguar?"
"I will lead them, of course." There was no real pride in the assertion, just flat discord. "Elsbett's end and the Andromeda's destruction ultimately proved my worth. They are in chaos, have no desire to put one of their own at the top."
"Then I sincerely hope the position is worth the bloody trail leading to it." Turning, she began striding away.
"You can't leave!" His call broke the evening still.
Pausing, she wheeled, eyes narrowed. "I ask again, am I a prisoner here?"
"I had thought the position of Archduchess and war advisor might persuade you that your greatest opportunities lie here."
"You destroy our family, yes, Tyr, OUR family...and the woman in your way...you destroy everything we built...and you honestly believe that we still think along the same lines. You're a fool, Tyr, and that's why I won't stay. You try to act as if there's a wonderful plan you work from, and perhaps there is, deep in your mind, but it doesn't really matter...it isn't a plan that drives you, its bloodlust and ambition. One foolish mistake in the heat of the moment that leads on to another and another...and it will be your destruction. No, Tyr. I won't stay here with you and commit to your atrocities and ignore the little affairs you would have on the side. I would be your Archduchess and your war advisor, but that would be all...a pleasantly made up machine to run your household and your battles while you found others to slake your interests and continue your bloodline. You forget, Anasazi…I know myself to have been created for far, far more."
His tones, when they came, were quiet, subdued, and she paused in her steps away to listen. "Contrary to your low opinion, I hope that destroying you will never be a trophy upon my mantle."
"What do you mean?"
"Elsbett's shuttle was wired for a small explosion, nothing more. The damage the destruction of her little boat should have caused to the Andromeda was minimal. I can only theorize she caught my intent and augmented the explosives herself. She does seem to like carrying death along on her journeys. But, by all means, place the blame fully on my shoulders. My bloodlust and ambition certainly started the mess. Think what you will of me."
"Frankly, Tyr, I don't know what to think of you." Hesitating, the android reached out a hand to touch his arm. "All I do know at the moment is that I betrayed the people I was closest to over and over for you, and now it seems you've led them to miserable ends, directly or indirectly. I know that you want all the power in your hands, perhaps for the very undead Tamerlane's sake, perhaps for your own, and I know that the war you intend to instigate with the Kalderans will be no less destructive than the war leading to the first Long Night. Regardless of my thoughts about you, I simply can't stand aside and let it come to that again with no fight. I am a warship."
"Then try being a warship for the winning side for a change, Ascendent." He suggested dryly, striding towards her. "You fight for morality? Fine. I can assure you that my brand of it is the best you're likely to find in this age. The Kalderans certainly won't support your ideals of a free and profitable universe. They will seek to obliterate every dissenting inferior within reach...and should they win, the reach will indeed be far."
"And you expect me to believe you and your ideas of a unified Nietzschean empire any better, after Beka, after Harper, after this?"
His shoulders stiffened, eyes cooling. "Very good, you've learned your tactics well. I can only say that I do believe they'll be shamefully wasted should you abandon what I offer now."
"I happen to be familiar with both shame and waste." Her tones were low, jagged. "You were a very good teacher. Unfortunately, I've outgrown you. Goodbye, Tyr."
His grip was abrupt, rough. "Ascendent..."
Her frustration grew, fist balling to slap ineffectively against his chest. "Damn you, Tyr. What is it you want with me?"
"What do I…" His laughter was sharp. "I want to protect you, of course. You are a magnificent specimen, and may soon be all that remains of the glorious Commonwealth. You may be all that remains of any civilization. I am trying in every way that I know to apologize. I am trying to better matters."
"You can't protect a warship from war." Throwing a hand up to shove the hair from her face, the avatar stared at him.
"Yes, I admit it. I am a warship. I'll never be an individual. Someone always has to be in control, or I lose it. Well, the control won't be yours, Tyr, I can assure you of that."
"I don't seek to protect you from war, only from yourself. And I will. You'll never leave orbit."
"Andromeda no longer exists and if Rommie doesn't bring her family back, she'll be worth nothing to you. Worth nothing at all, Tyr…and you of all people must despise worthless. Let me leave, go retrieve the Maru and my crew. I will come back. And I may stay. But only if you let me go now."
"I don't believe you, avatar." He crossed beefy arms, smiling grimly.
"Tyr, if I had wanted to escape you, I would have self-destructed long ago, when it was just you and I on Andromeda. It was my choice then to accept you. It's my choice now. Take it or leave it."
He stared wordlessly for a moment, before nodding curtly and turning away. "I still hold you to be lying, but very well. Go, but here." The Nietzschean roughly fastened a familiar bracelet to her arm, stepping back.
"You'd lower yourself to give me a…what is this, a bonding helix?"
"Something more as well…the armlet has specially designed transmission devices integrated into the metal. You may send a signal at any time, a single signal, from any distance. I will hear you."
*
Big smokescreen, little fire.
One of Dylan Hunt's many simple battle techniques echoed through Rommie's head as she stared at her Kalderan host. She felt a bizarre urge to smile. Of course the Andromeda wasn't gone. Of course, there could be no smiles. The Kalderans wouldn't understand. She lifted a brow, turning her attentions back to the present.
"The Andromeda Ascendent is utterly useless to you without my assistance. Your prisoners are currently the only beings aside from me who know the proper access codes to the information you so desperately want, and I can assure you that they will not talk. Captain Hunt will hold his word under torture or death. You've only one other option. Me." Smiling edgily, the avatar paced in a tight circle around him. "Up until the moment of her destruction, Elsbett's shuttle was rigged and transferring duplicate records from Andromeda to a secured location on the Sabra-Jaguar home world...and thereby directly into my continued grasp. You can't access the home world, of course, but I still retain the records...and only if I choose to give them to you will you get them."
"You're offering to work for the enemy? Amusing attempt, avatar, but one no intelligent being would fall for."
"I'll work neither for nor against the enemy." Planting the heels of her palms on his armrests, she cocked a brow. "Only myself. I want your assurance that Dylan Hunt and Molly Noguchi will be escorted safely out of your territory...erase their memories if you like, give them a fresh start. Afterward, we may talk. Even should I decide not to share, you do have the option of slaughtering me for the cause. I think it might put the new Sabra-Jaguar leader out quite a bit. Cause an all out war. You can't beat Tyr Anasazi on his own territory, and you most certainly cannot continue your spiral of control without Sabra-Jaguar support."
"And without the assurance of your Captain's safety, or your own?"
"The helix I wear will automatically transmit a signal directly to Anasazi. Whether Dylan and I remain will be moot. You won't either, he will seek vengeance. And he will win." Holding out a hand, she offered her weapon. "You have my word and the advantage. Just let me see Dylan, then release him with his ship and officer. I'm yours."
"Very well." The alien nodded. "Very well."
*
He was battered, bruised, but awake, sprawled on the floor of the small cell they had thrown him in, and looked up as she entered.
"Dylan."
His smile was wry, wan, pained as he stood, leaning against the wall. "Rommie. It's over, isn't it?"
"No. No." Stepping forward, she touched his cheek, faintly disappointed at the faint recoil. So he still hadn't forgiven her. But then, she still hadn't forgiven herself. "It's only begun. The Kalderans are releasing you, Dylan, and releasing the ship to you. Take her...me...and leave here. Go as far away as you can, and try to be happy without the Commonwealth. I know you won't succeed, but try."
He nodded slowly, the dying sunlight shifting in through the barred window and casting shadows over his face. "Why come now, after all we've been through?"
"Because we've been through it together, and because I love you. You always were my heart. And I cannot forget that. I can't erase the past, I'm not certain even Trance and Beka managed to make it a better one, but I can do one last duty. Let me."
"I'm going to miss you, Rommie." His fingers brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. "In fact, I think I'm going to miss all of you. All of you."
Closing her eyes, she felt the touch recede, and sighed, reopening them to move out the door. "Goodbye, Dylan."
*
"We've kept our word." Little more than an hour later, the Kalderan leader joined her at the station observatory, watching as the Andromeda slipstreamed away.
"Yes." Flattening palms across her abdomen, the avatar smiled. "And it's a pity you'll never have the opportunity to prove yourself capable of it again."
All semblance of amiability disappeared. "What have you planned?"
"I've planned nothing." She cocked her head, finger pointing a line out into the stars. "I can only tell you what my sensors tell me. An entire fleet of Sabra-Jaguar warships seem to be approaching on an attack vector. It appears that a new empire is rising, and they simply don't want the Kalderans on the charter. And you've just released your last hope. All the secrets in my database are utterly worthless to you without a ship to complement them. It's over. It's over."
*