"Dammit!" Ineffectually slamming her good hand against a console, Beka Valentine turned, mismatched eyes sweeping through her ship. "Trance, what the hell is happening?"
Trance appeared around the corner, golden skin tinged with the faint sheen of sweat that indicated excitement, heels bouncing lightly on the floor. "Beka, the tessarat machine is working."
"Now?! We're in the middle of a battlefield! Can they even see us with that thing on?"
"I don't think so." The alien shook her head.
"Well, I sure as hell hope we're as insubstantial as invisible, because we're dead in space." Valentine snorted, rising from her seat and jabbing a finger to point over Gemini's shoulder. "And what's that?"
"What?" Turning, Trance let a brow slowly rise. "Monsoon season somewhere?"
"Aboard my ship?! Again?!"
"Well, calm down, it's gone now, Beka." The alien patronized. "We'll just go check it out. Everything looks normal again."
"I hear Kalderans."
"Kalderans?" Even Trance looked unnerved. "We're being boarded? Oh, Beka, that isn't good. Too many factors are interacting at the same point..."
"We'll just go check it out." Her companion agreed curtly, pulling a gun from the weapons locker. Hesitating, she paused at the door. "And Trance, I hope your machine is doing its job and I never see you again."
"Oh!" The gold alien shrugged, lips curving into a fairly dangerous smile. "I hope to see you looking a lot better."
"Thanks." Beka muttered, waving her artificial arm. "I go one way, you go the other. Got it?"
"Got it." Trance headed off down the corridor at a fast run, hair swinging.
Shuddering at the advancing noise, Valentine sighed, and prepared for war.
*
Trance Gemini was feeling better by the blow. Swinging an arm out to capture a keening Kalderan, she shook the creature lightly before kicking him away. He fell with a notable thump to the deck, glassy-eyed. Tugging her blade free and turning for more, she focused her mind, all traces of earlier sportiveness gone. And that was for Beka, and this is for Rommie...then, senses aching, she whirled. "Behind you!"
"Trance?!" A very much better looking and understandably stunned Beka Valentine peered at her, the girl at her side gaping. Oh, me, she thought, quickly reconciling the long forgotten differences, and smiling.
"Beka, I'd forgot how beautiful you were."
"Uh...thanks." Beka murmured, as her companion pushed forward.
The younger version of herself stared. "You're...me. From the future."
Trying to wipe the cat with the canary smile that inevitability came to her face with victory, Gemini stared at her younger self, smiling tenderly, repeating familiar words. "More or less."
"Did everything turn out the way it was supposed to?" The other looked so nervous, so agitated.
Trying for gentleness, Trance sighed. "No, things are bad, and they're getting worse. I made a lot of bad mistakes."
Again.
"Are we going to lose?"
"At best, we're not going to win. You know what we have to do." Not that it would make matters any easier on either of them.
"Is it the only way?" Her doubts seemed to be mirrored.
"There is one perfect possible future, but I haven't seen it yet."
Beka cut in from the side. "Um, could someone provide me with a translation please?"
The younger girl turned, facing her companion with a shy smile. "Beka, I have to go. But don't worry, I'm not really leaving, I'm just...changing. Everything will be okay." Turning back to give her older self one last shy glance, the purple being began to walk away, disappearing.
"Where did she go?
The older Gemini squared her shoulders. "She didn't go anywhere. She grew up. She's me. Let's go."
*
It's over, it's over.
Gripping the cold metallic railing before her, Rommie watched the sleek Nietzschean fighters soar over Kalderash. A building there, a bunker there…residential complexes, public parks. Abandoned fields, well-traveled transport expanses. Mentally, her mind catalogued every strike. They were leaving nothing to chance.
The Kalderan Minister had left moments ago, for safety, she presumed, though doubting there was such a thing. It was war, and the warship within her reveled in it.
Eventually, solitary steps clanged up the narrow staircase. She smiled. Of course he hadn't trusted her to return. "It's almost as if you read my mind, Tyr."
"I was hooked up to the slipstream often enough." The Nietzschean paused just behind her, releasing his weapon to just one hand and encircling her helix bound forearm with the other. His lips moved ever so slightly over the crown of her head, and she closed her eyes. His chuckle was soft, victorious. "Come, Archduchess Ascendent, lets get you home."
*
"Breathe vacuum, Kaldie." Thrusting her last casualty into the Maru's airlock and flushing him out, Beka Valentine glared daggers through the view ports, dropping her weapon and sliding down into the pilot's chair. It was quiet, too quiet. Where had they all gone? Just disappeared? Had Trance made it? And Rommie and Dylan and all of them...Kalderash was minced, that much sensors told her. But where was the Andromeda?
"Um...Beka?" The familiar voice from around the corner made her bolt upright.
"Dammit, Trance, don't tell me it didn't work..."
"It...it worked." A very young, very purple Trance moved around the corner, both hands extended, a faintly bemused, faintly appealing smile on her face.
"Trance." Struggling to take it in, Valentine ran her flesh hand across her face. This new arrival was almost more painful to see than her own future counterpart had been so long ago. She wondered if her Trance had thought the same about the pretty, deborgified Captain Valentine.
"Oh, Beka." Shaking off her fears, the young Trance dashed forward, alternately hugging and patting, babbling and examining. "She didn't warn me it would be this bad, and she should...I should...have warned you, but...oh, Beka!"
"I'm...glad to see you." Squeezing her eyes shut, the older woman fought back tears, lowering the hand to stroke the lavender skin. "Boy, am I glad to see you."
*
Open air Kalderash was a mess of steaming metal and acrid smoke. Pausing by the entrance to Tyr's requisitioned craft, Rommie took in the horizon, unable to completely erase the final vestiges of regret. There had been innocents destroyed. There always were. Glancing over her shoulder, she shook off the brawny hands nudging her further into the craft. "Tyr, did you leave anything intact?"
He shrugged, following her gaze. "I'm afraid it was leveled."
"Good."
"Good?" Faint bemusement flashed in the tired, proud eyes. "Somehow, Andromeda, that sounds very unlike you."
"Well." Rising on her toes to press her own lips to his, she smiled dangerously. "With nothing left there's nothing left to suffer under your madman's thumb, Anasazi. Come, Tyr. Let's go home."
*
"The Kalderans are gone." Finally pulling back from the awkward hug, Trance Gemini hurried over to a console, alternately taking readings and glancing up at the view port. "And Nietzschean fighters are retreating too."
"Can they see us yet?" Beka nudged her aside.
The purple alien shook her head. "I think the singularity might be working with the tessarat machine to obscure us. But I don't know for how long, the tessarat machine is still going...and Beka, I'm reading the Andromeda."
"Can you get a channel?"
"I can try." Delicate purple fingers flew over buttons and switches. Trance looked up, nodding. "I think so."
"Andromeda, this is the Eureka Maru." Leaning over the console, Beka searched the scattered debris with both eyes and equipment. "Andromeda, do you hear?"
"This is the Andromeda." The familiar, if curt voice cut through. "Am I to assume you plan assistance?"
"I never liked the non-avatar you." The cyborg muttered lightly. "Andromeda, listen to me. I need status reports. Dylan, Rommie, ship. In that order, please."
A brief pause ensued, before the voice came again, slightly more civil. "Dylan is off ship."
"That isn't possible. Surely Rommie didn't let the Kalderans keep him." Trance piped up, eyes darkened with concern.
"No, she did not." Andromeda agreed. "He was returned unharmed. Ensign Noguchi is currently en route through the armada in a shuttle. However, an outer hull breach required a space walk. Dylan went. The droids and bots are...out of order."
"All right." Beka rubbed her forehead with a metal finger, wincing at the scraping sensation. "Rommie?"
"As far as my sensors can tell, she is unharmed...but not aboard. My avatar has elected to return to the Sabra-Jaguar with Tyr Anasazi…if one can use free will in the same sentence as Anasazi."
"Damn that android, and damn him." Valentine swore lightly. Then, after a long moment of dead silence, the redhead met the glance of her companion, jabbing the communications panel. "Andromeda, where'd you go?"
"One moment..." Andromeda fell from distraction to something very like her avatar's brand of horror. "Beka, sensors read a singularity!"
"What do you mean a singularity…as in an event horizon singularity? That isn't possible, we're nowhere near any charted black hole...Trance, what did you DO?"
"I didn't do anything!" Trance stepped backwards, raising both hands. "At least not this me, and not that I know of."
"Oh, you..." Beka turned back to the channel. "Andromeda, call Dylan in immediately and high tail it out of here. We'll follow."
"That won't be possible." Andromeda responded in turn. "Beka, Dylan lost his tether."
"Oh, no." Trance uttered softly.
"What is it with him and black holes?!" Her companion demanded, slamming her cyborg fist down on the console. Gathering her nerves, she once again pressed a thumb to her forehead, considering. "Trance, your teleportation device, can you activate it?"
"Beka, it isn't safe..."
"We're not sending a person. I want you to send the tessarat machine over there to Andromeda. The Maru has more flexibility, and I don't want to risk that thing hurting it. Sorry, Andromeda."
"Unnecessary." Andromeda cut back in. "Just haul him to safety, Beka."
"I will. I will." Moving to the storage locker, Beka fished out the specially altered EVA suit she'd caved in to for her arm. With Trance's help, she was in it quickly, and connected the towing cable securely. "Ready. Trance, I want you to go teleport that damned machine and be ready to reel us in."
*
"Beka!" It was long moments later that Trance came across urgently through the EVA helmet. "We have to slipstream now, the tessarat machine is unraveling Andromeda's systems...she's going to drift into the singularity! You have to hurry..."
"Crap." Wrestling with the tangled cables, Beka squinted through the visor, once again cursing the implants. High technology, bull. Sighing, she rested her visor against Dylan's for a moment, peering in desperately. Was he even still alive, in there? Could he be? Could she live with cutting him loose not knowing?
No, she concluded, gripping his line hook more strongly and pulling it as close to her own as possible. The switch would have to be fast, before they both floated away from the tow cable. She maneuvered the free, glove-clad human hand to her suit, unfastening the link quickly and forcing it onto his hook. "Bet you weren't that easy to dress as a kid." Captain Valentine muttered, staring out around them.
Closing her eyes briefly, she sighed. "Trance, I've disconnected myself from the tow line and hooked Dylan on. Trying to pull us both in will take up too much power and time, so I'm going to let go. You pull him in and do what you can...after you slipstream away. I know you don't like to, but you can do it."
"Beka, the black hole will suck you in and tear you to pieces." Trance seemed upset, but calm. Maybe the old command bark she'd used on the Maru so long ago still worked.
"So I'll get a real up close and personal tour." Beka put more steel in the tone. "Look, Trance, I'm ready to go wherever this damned universe wants to send me. I'm cyborg, and I always hated cyborg. They give me the creeps...I give myself the creeps. Dylan could never be accused of not liking himself. I figure the universe needs that arrogance about now. Go, Trance. Get the hell out of here. Please."
Turning her head away, she peered into the expanses of the hole, unwilling and unable to bear the pain of seeing her ship and family leave without her. Within seconds, Dylan began to drift back in towards the Maru, and soon enough the slam of the airlock echoed through the helmet speakers.
"I got him, Beka." Trance said unnecessarily, tones devoid of all cheer.
"Then go."
"Beka..."
"Damn, Trance, go!" Fighting the tears that threatened her one eye, Valentine all but shouted the order.
"Yes, yes, we're going." A flurry of activity filled the speakers, before Trance finally settled down and spoke. "Beka, I'm in the pilot's seat now, and about to start the slipstream."
"You're never going to forgive me for this, are you, kiddo?"
"No." Gemini agreed. "And neither will Dylan."
"Then don't tell him. For God's sake, Trance, don't tell him. Protect him."
"I will." The little voice got smaller. "I will. Goodbye, Beka."
"Goodbye, purple monkey." Lifting her metal hand in mock salute, Beka finally turned her head to see her ship slipstream away. All alone now, Valentine, she chided herself.
"No." Another voice cut through the speakers. Andromeda, Trance must have jury-rigged the EVA channel. "Not alone."
"Andromeda, I can't think of anyone I'd like to meet my just rewards with more."
"Rewards are never just, Beka." The prim tones responded. "Only our deserved punishments."
"Okay, so I was asking for that."
"No, you weren't." Andromeda hesitated. "Beka, I estimate the time of my destruction to be within the next two minutes. I could attempt a series of smaller detonations in order to move closer to your location...."
"It beats being turned into a spaghetti noodle by black hole suction all alone." Trying to keep her tones light, the former first officer watched her ship straggle closer. Andromeda finally stopped, facing bow to nose with her crewmate. A small sigh echoed through the speakers. "Thank you, Beka."
"There's nothing for it." Closing her eyes, Valentine sighed, and allowed the pulling forces to erase all other thought.
There was peace. And it was good.
*
Fire and brimstone…Rommie had never identified with the ancient Earth phrase before. Unfortunately, she thought, changes seemed to be abounding.
Slipping from beneath Tyr Anasazi's arm, she pulled a sheet around her body in a ridiculous front of modesty; probably one Dylan had instilled, and moved towards the colossal expanse of windows to the rear of the Sabra-Jaguar leader's suite. The dawn was scarlet, blazing heat and light. She curled a fist and slammed it into the nearest window, marveling at the durability of the material and the facade of weakness it offered her.
"Ascendent?" Tyr moved up from behind, a hand snaking out to halt a second attack, voice atypically concerned.
"It's the ship. I...it...is gone. I can tell."
"I'm not certain what you want me to say." He appeared genuinely startled, and perhaps, perhaps a little regretful.
"That it wasn't in vain?" Sweeping past him, she moved off to dress.
"I happen to be doing the best I can with a very unpleasant situation." He pointed out curtly.
"Then do more." Pausing in the wardrobe doorway, she looked back. "Tyr, just find out if any of them made it."
"My best." He echoed, not very reassuringly, pulling on his own garb and striding out into the hallway.
The avatar slid to the floor and cried.
*
"Rommie…Rommie, listen to me. Rommie, I need you. Rommie! I know you can hear, you never stop hearing. Fine, be that way. I'll just sit here and be quiet too. Rommie...how can you be so quiet? How can you be so empty?"
The litany showed no signs of stopping. In fact, it seemed to be repeating with little breath between, a considerable endeavor for any non-artificial intelligence. It also seemed to be directed to provoke response, preferably acknowledgment. The Andromeda Ascendent's avatar released a small sigh. It had worked.
Opening her eyes, she allowed the optical setup a moment to adjust to the sunlight pooled bedroom she and her companion were seated face to face in. Within seconds, the shadows abated, and Trance Gemini came into clear view, smile burgeoning, arms flinging out to pull the android in for a hug. "Oh, Rommie." Trance prattled.
Wrong. Odd. Rommie frowned, disengaging the arms and glancing down at them. "This isn't right. You were gold the last time I saw you. And you had long outgrown litanies."
"Yes, well." Delicate purple hands clasped, dark eyes shining with understanding and pleading warmth. "You see, that was my future self. I come from the past."
"What? Again?"
"Oh, you wouldn't know, would you? I'm so sorry, Rommie, but so much has happened, I barely understand it myself, I hope the other me does, but in the meantime I'm stuck here trying to help everyone and what a mess it is, Rommie."
"You can say that again." The android gingerly touched her face, feeling for damage.
"I was so afraid they had done something bad to you, Rommie, when you wouldn't speak to me..."
"Trance." She cut in swiftly. "Did Dylan survive?"
"Yes." Trance nodded urgently. "I saved him, and he's going to be okay, Rommie, after he gets treatment, he's just a little out of it. He..."
"No, don't do that." Still trying to fit all the drifting pieces of her universe together, Rommie shook the girl's shoulder as the small lavender chin began quivering. It had been years since she had seen any weakness of that sort in Trance Gemini, and she frankly did not feel up to readjusting. "I don't want to hear any more. Listen to me, Trance. I have no clear idea how you got to your future, nor do I really feel like thinking too deeply on it, but I do want you away from this particular locale."
"But Rommie, if I go..."
"Trance, if you stay you'll only have very bad possibilities to choose from. That's a promise." Losing her patience, the avatar glared.
"Not necessarily..."
"I didn't ask you to pick amongst possibilities, Trance. Now I mean it, go. The Maru is still intact, isn't it?"
The young Trance bit her lip. "It's bad, Rommie. We've lost a lot of important equipment already, and the AI program we installed from Andromeda's file copies is gone."
"Gone?" For a bare second, Rommie was numbed. Despite her newfound freedom from feeding off a ships energy, she had felt...connected...to some part of her former ship as long as the AI program had been on the Maru. All of the years as a self-contained android personality hadn't quite prepared her for the idea of completely losing her sisters.
"Gone." Trance confirmed with the blandness only a creature who died and repeatedly came back could ever muster.
"The Maru still works, but without personality. Beka wrestled the systems into working before I changed places with the other me, but now she's dead, and I don't know how long I can keep her work up..."
"Great." The android muttered. "Bring the Maru down, Trance. We can store it. I'll provide you with a new vessel if you want. Call it a gift of my little empire."
"An empire?" Trance sat back, eyes widening. "Rommie, what did you do?"
"Very simply, Trance, I joined hands with Anasazi."
"Oh, Rommie." Trance breathed, staring at her friend. "Why?"
The android stared ahead, voice modulating to pure coldness. "He betrayed us. He betrayed the Commonwealth, he...he betrayed Harper, and Dylan, and Beka. But he has everything I need, and...we do work well together. I trust him to adhere to my wishes as far as he possibly can."
She sensed more than saw Trance reach out, a small purple hand stroking her shoulder. "Tell me the whole story, Rommie, about what happened to everyone."
"I can't."
"Of course you can...just think of me as your child...waiting for a bedtime story."
"Trance, even were I able to have children, I most certainly wouldn't use my past as slumber notes." Straightening back up, Rommie sighed again. "Not that the standard applies. I'm a machine. Children will never happen. And he knows that as well, yet it doesn't matter, if only because of Tamerlane. With his bloodline practically secured, Anasazi can afford his negligent little...dalliances. Pets. He need not expect anything critical of them, or respect them." Briefly, her eyes shut, head thrown back to bump against the pristine metal wall. "I want you to go, Trance. Take Dylan and somehow escape this. Tyr and I'll be combining the prides under Tamerlane's name and, hopefully, a Commonwealth charter, as best as I can, but it will take time, and more blood. I don't want yours and his amongst it."
The sharp, thick voice of a guard cut in from the doorway. "It's time."
"Time? For what?" Trance moved between them, large eyes flickering with apprehension.
Rommie shook her head slightly. "I suppose its time to be recognized as consort to the new Nietzschean leader, Trance. Bloody ascension, but one I can only hope will someday lead to the Commonwealth Dylan wanted so much."
"No." The purple being broke out. "Rommie, you can't let them...they'll ruin you."
"If they do, I deserve it." Standing, Rommie cupped the seeming child's face in her hands, meeting the dark, infinite eyes.
"Trance, you've already helped me far more than you can ever understand simply by being here...both at this hour and at this time in your past. That future version of yourself has an agenda, and I trust her explicitly with it, because she's you. She won't fail a third time. Whatever happens here, everything will be better in the new timeline she creates, it has to be. And that's all I need to know. You don't worry about me. You worry about yourself, and take care of Dylan."
Stepping back, the avatar nodded to the guard and followed him out the door. And somehow, she didn't look back.
"I will, Rommie. I will." Trance promised softly.
*
Trance appeared around the corner, golden skin tinged with the faint sheen of sweat that indicated excitement, heels bouncing lightly on the floor. "Beka, the tessarat machine is working."
"Now?! We're in the middle of a battlefield! Can they even see us with that thing on?"
"I don't think so." The alien shook her head.
"Well, I sure as hell hope we're as insubstantial as invisible, because we're dead in space." Valentine snorted, rising from her seat and jabbing a finger to point over Gemini's shoulder. "And what's that?"
"What?" Turning, Trance let a brow slowly rise. "Monsoon season somewhere?"
"Aboard my ship?! Again?!"
"Well, calm down, it's gone now, Beka." The alien patronized. "We'll just go check it out. Everything looks normal again."
"I hear Kalderans."
"Kalderans?" Even Trance looked unnerved. "We're being boarded? Oh, Beka, that isn't good. Too many factors are interacting at the same point..."
"We'll just go check it out." Her companion agreed curtly, pulling a gun from the weapons locker. Hesitating, she paused at the door. "And Trance, I hope your machine is doing its job and I never see you again."
"Oh!" The gold alien shrugged, lips curving into a fairly dangerous smile. "I hope to see you looking a lot better."
"Thanks." Beka muttered, waving her artificial arm. "I go one way, you go the other. Got it?"
"Got it." Trance headed off down the corridor at a fast run, hair swinging.
Shuddering at the advancing noise, Valentine sighed, and prepared for war.
*
Trance Gemini was feeling better by the blow. Swinging an arm out to capture a keening Kalderan, she shook the creature lightly before kicking him away. He fell with a notable thump to the deck, glassy-eyed. Tugging her blade free and turning for more, she focused her mind, all traces of earlier sportiveness gone. And that was for Beka, and this is for Rommie...then, senses aching, she whirled. "Behind you!"
"Trance?!" A very much better looking and understandably stunned Beka Valentine peered at her, the girl at her side gaping. Oh, me, she thought, quickly reconciling the long forgotten differences, and smiling.
"Beka, I'd forgot how beautiful you were."
"Uh...thanks." Beka murmured, as her companion pushed forward.
The younger version of herself stared. "You're...me. From the future."
Trying to wipe the cat with the canary smile that inevitability came to her face with victory, Gemini stared at her younger self, smiling tenderly, repeating familiar words. "More or less."
"Did everything turn out the way it was supposed to?" The other looked so nervous, so agitated.
Trying for gentleness, Trance sighed. "No, things are bad, and they're getting worse. I made a lot of bad mistakes."
Again.
"Are we going to lose?"
"At best, we're not going to win. You know what we have to do." Not that it would make matters any easier on either of them.
"Is it the only way?" Her doubts seemed to be mirrored.
"There is one perfect possible future, but I haven't seen it yet."
Beka cut in from the side. "Um, could someone provide me with a translation please?"
The younger girl turned, facing her companion with a shy smile. "Beka, I have to go. But don't worry, I'm not really leaving, I'm just...changing. Everything will be okay." Turning back to give her older self one last shy glance, the purple being began to walk away, disappearing.
"Where did she go?
The older Gemini squared her shoulders. "She didn't go anywhere. She grew up. She's me. Let's go."
*
It's over, it's over.
Gripping the cold metallic railing before her, Rommie watched the sleek Nietzschean fighters soar over Kalderash. A building there, a bunker there…residential complexes, public parks. Abandoned fields, well-traveled transport expanses. Mentally, her mind catalogued every strike. They were leaving nothing to chance.
The Kalderan Minister had left moments ago, for safety, she presumed, though doubting there was such a thing. It was war, and the warship within her reveled in it.
Eventually, solitary steps clanged up the narrow staircase. She smiled. Of course he hadn't trusted her to return. "It's almost as if you read my mind, Tyr."
"I was hooked up to the slipstream often enough." The Nietzschean paused just behind her, releasing his weapon to just one hand and encircling her helix bound forearm with the other. His lips moved ever so slightly over the crown of her head, and she closed her eyes. His chuckle was soft, victorious. "Come, Archduchess Ascendent, lets get you home."
*
"Breathe vacuum, Kaldie." Thrusting her last casualty into the Maru's airlock and flushing him out, Beka Valentine glared daggers through the view ports, dropping her weapon and sliding down into the pilot's chair. It was quiet, too quiet. Where had they all gone? Just disappeared? Had Trance made it? And Rommie and Dylan and all of them...Kalderash was minced, that much sensors told her. But where was the Andromeda?
"Um...Beka?" The familiar voice from around the corner made her bolt upright.
"Dammit, Trance, don't tell me it didn't work..."
"It...it worked." A very young, very purple Trance moved around the corner, both hands extended, a faintly bemused, faintly appealing smile on her face.
"Trance." Struggling to take it in, Valentine ran her flesh hand across her face. This new arrival was almost more painful to see than her own future counterpart had been so long ago. She wondered if her Trance had thought the same about the pretty, deborgified Captain Valentine.
"Oh, Beka." Shaking off her fears, the young Trance dashed forward, alternately hugging and patting, babbling and examining. "She didn't warn me it would be this bad, and she should...I should...have warned you, but...oh, Beka!"
"I'm...glad to see you." Squeezing her eyes shut, the older woman fought back tears, lowering the hand to stroke the lavender skin. "Boy, am I glad to see you."
*
Open air Kalderash was a mess of steaming metal and acrid smoke. Pausing by the entrance to Tyr's requisitioned craft, Rommie took in the horizon, unable to completely erase the final vestiges of regret. There had been innocents destroyed. There always were. Glancing over her shoulder, she shook off the brawny hands nudging her further into the craft. "Tyr, did you leave anything intact?"
He shrugged, following her gaze. "I'm afraid it was leveled."
"Good."
"Good?" Faint bemusement flashed in the tired, proud eyes. "Somehow, Andromeda, that sounds very unlike you."
"Well." Rising on her toes to press her own lips to his, she smiled dangerously. "With nothing left there's nothing left to suffer under your madman's thumb, Anasazi. Come, Tyr. Let's go home."
*
"The Kalderans are gone." Finally pulling back from the awkward hug, Trance Gemini hurried over to a console, alternately taking readings and glancing up at the view port. "And Nietzschean fighters are retreating too."
"Can they see us yet?" Beka nudged her aside.
The purple alien shook her head. "I think the singularity might be working with the tessarat machine to obscure us. But I don't know for how long, the tessarat machine is still going...and Beka, I'm reading the Andromeda."
"Can you get a channel?"
"I can try." Delicate purple fingers flew over buttons and switches. Trance looked up, nodding. "I think so."
"Andromeda, this is the Eureka Maru." Leaning over the console, Beka searched the scattered debris with both eyes and equipment. "Andromeda, do you hear?"
"This is the Andromeda." The familiar, if curt voice cut through. "Am I to assume you plan assistance?"
"I never liked the non-avatar you." The cyborg muttered lightly. "Andromeda, listen to me. I need status reports. Dylan, Rommie, ship. In that order, please."
A brief pause ensued, before the voice came again, slightly more civil. "Dylan is off ship."
"That isn't possible. Surely Rommie didn't let the Kalderans keep him." Trance piped up, eyes darkened with concern.
"No, she did not." Andromeda agreed. "He was returned unharmed. Ensign Noguchi is currently en route through the armada in a shuttle. However, an outer hull breach required a space walk. Dylan went. The droids and bots are...out of order."
"All right." Beka rubbed her forehead with a metal finger, wincing at the scraping sensation. "Rommie?"
"As far as my sensors can tell, she is unharmed...but not aboard. My avatar has elected to return to the Sabra-Jaguar with Tyr Anasazi…if one can use free will in the same sentence as Anasazi."
"Damn that android, and damn him." Valentine swore lightly. Then, after a long moment of dead silence, the redhead met the glance of her companion, jabbing the communications panel. "Andromeda, where'd you go?"
"One moment..." Andromeda fell from distraction to something very like her avatar's brand of horror. "Beka, sensors read a singularity!"
"What do you mean a singularity…as in an event horizon singularity? That isn't possible, we're nowhere near any charted black hole...Trance, what did you DO?"
"I didn't do anything!" Trance stepped backwards, raising both hands. "At least not this me, and not that I know of."
"Oh, you..." Beka turned back to the channel. "Andromeda, call Dylan in immediately and high tail it out of here. We'll follow."
"That won't be possible." Andromeda responded in turn. "Beka, Dylan lost his tether."
"Oh, no." Trance uttered softly.
"What is it with him and black holes?!" Her companion demanded, slamming her cyborg fist down on the console. Gathering her nerves, she once again pressed a thumb to her forehead, considering. "Trance, your teleportation device, can you activate it?"
"Beka, it isn't safe..."
"We're not sending a person. I want you to send the tessarat machine over there to Andromeda. The Maru has more flexibility, and I don't want to risk that thing hurting it. Sorry, Andromeda."
"Unnecessary." Andromeda cut back in. "Just haul him to safety, Beka."
"I will. I will." Moving to the storage locker, Beka fished out the specially altered EVA suit she'd caved in to for her arm. With Trance's help, she was in it quickly, and connected the towing cable securely. "Ready. Trance, I want you to go teleport that damned machine and be ready to reel us in."
*
"Beka!" It was long moments later that Trance came across urgently through the EVA helmet. "We have to slipstream now, the tessarat machine is unraveling Andromeda's systems...she's going to drift into the singularity! You have to hurry..."
"Crap." Wrestling with the tangled cables, Beka squinted through the visor, once again cursing the implants. High technology, bull. Sighing, she rested her visor against Dylan's for a moment, peering in desperately. Was he even still alive, in there? Could he be? Could she live with cutting him loose not knowing?
No, she concluded, gripping his line hook more strongly and pulling it as close to her own as possible. The switch would have to be fast, before they both floated away from the tow cable. She maneuvered the free, glove-clad human hand to her suit, unfastening the link quickly and forcing it onto his hook. "Bet you weren't that easy to dress as a kid." Captain Valentine muttered, staring out around them.
Closing her eyes briefly, she sighed. "Trance, I've disconnected myself from the tow line and hooked Dylan on. Trying to pull us both in will take up too much power and time, so I'm going to let go. You pull him in and do what you can...after you slipstream away. I know you don't like to, but you can do it."
"Beka, the black hole will suck you in and tear you to pieces." Trance seemed upset, but calm. Maybe the old command bark she'd used on the Maru so long ago still worked.
"So I'll get a real up close and personal tour." Beka put more steel in the tone. "Look, Trance, I'm ready to go wherever this damned universe wants to send me. I'm cyborg, and I always hated cyborg. They give me the creeps...I give myself the creeps. Dylan could never be accused of not liking himself. I figure the universe needs that arrogance about now. Go, Trance. Get the hell out of here. Please."
Turning her head away, she peered into the expanses of the hole, unwilling and unable to bear the pain of seeing her ship and family leave without her. Within seconds, Dylan began to drift back in towards the Maru, and soon enough the slam of the airlock echoed through the helmet speakers.
"I got him, Beka." Trance said unnecessarily, tones devoid of all cheer.
"Then go."
"Beka..."
"Damn, Trance, go!" Fighting the tears that threatened her one eye, Valentine all but shouted the order.
"Yes, yes, we're going." A flurry of activity filled the speakers, before Trance finally settled down and spoke. "Beka, I'm in the pilot's seat now, and about to start the slipstream."
"You're never going to forgive me for this, are you, kiddo?"
"No." Gemini agreed. "And neither will Dylan."
"Then don't tell him. For God's sake, Trance, don't tell him. Protect him."
"I will." The little voice got smaller. "I will. Goodbye, Beka."
"Goodbye, purple monkey." Lifting her metal hand in mock salute, Beka finally turned her head to see her ship slipstream away. All alone now, Valentine, she chided herself.
"No." Another voice cut through the speakers. Andromeda, Trance must have jury-rigged the EVA channel. "Not alone."
"Andromeda, I can't think of anyone I'd like to meet my just rewards with more."
"Rewards are never just, Beka." The prim tones responded. "Only our deserved punishments."
"Okay, so I was asking for that."
"No, you weren't." Andromeda hesitated. "Beka, I estimate the time of my destruction to be within the next two minutes. I could attempt a series of smaller detonations in order to move closer to your location...."
"It beats being turned into a spaghetti noodle by black hole suction all alone." Trying to keep her tones light, the former first officer watched her ship straggle closer. Andromeda finally stopped, facing bow to nose with her crewmate. A small sigh echoed through the speakers. "Thank you, Beka."
"There's nothing for it." Closing her eyes, Valentine sighed, and allowed the pulling forces to erase all other thought.
There was peace. And it was good.
*
Fire and brimstone…Rommie had never identified with the ancient Earth phrase before. Unfortunately, she thought, changes seemed to be abounding.
Slipping from beneath Tyr Anasazi's arm, she pulled a sheet around her body in a ridiculous front of modesty; probably one Dylan had instilled, and moved towards the colossal expanse of windows to the rear of the Sabra-Jaguar leader's suite. The dawn was scarlet, blazing heat and light. She curled a fist and slammed it into the nearest window, marveling at the durability of the material and the facade of weakness it offered her.
"Ascendent?" Tyr moved up from behind, a hand snaking out to halt a second attack, voice atypically concerned.
"It's the ship. I...it...is gone. I can tell."
"I'm not certain what you want me to say." He appeared genuinely startled, and perhaps, perhaps a little regretful.
"That it wasn't in vain?" Sweeping past him, she moved off to dress.
"I happen to be doing the best I can with a very unpleasant situation." He pointed out curtly.
"Then do more." Pausing in the wardrobe doorway, she looked back. "Tyr, just find out if any of them made it."
"My best." He echoed, not very reassuringly, pulling on his own garb and striding out into the hallway.
The avatar slid to the floor and cried.
*
"Rommie…Rommie, listen to me. Rommie, I need you. Rommie! I know you can hear, you never stop hearing. Fine, be that way. I'll just sit here and be quiet too. Rommie...how can you be so quiet? How can you be so empty?"
The litany showed no signs of stopping. In fact, it seemed to be repeating with little breath between, a considerable endeavor for any non-artificial intelligence. It also seemed to be directed to provoke response, preferably acknowledgment. The Andromeda Ascendent's avatar released a small sigh. It had worked.
Opening her eyes, she allowed the optical setup a moment to adjust to the sunlight pooled bedroom she and her companion were seated face to face in. Within seconds, the shadows abated, and Trance Gemini came into clear view, smile burgeoning, arms flinging out to pull the android in for a hug. "Oh, Rommie." Trance prattled.
Wrong. Odd. Rommie frowned, disengaging the arms and glancing down at them. "This isn't right. You were gold the last time I saw you. And you had long outgrown litanies."
"Yes, well." Delicate purple hands clasped, dark eyes shining with understanding and pleading warmth. "You see, that was my future self. I come from the past."
"What? Again?"
"Oh, you wouldn't know, would you? I'm so sorry, Rommie, but so much has happened, I barely understand it myself, I hope the other me does, but in the meantime I'm stuck here trying to help everyone and what a mess it is, Rommie."
"You can say that again." The android gingerly touched her face, feeling for damage.
"I was so afraid they had done something bad to you, Rommie, when you wouldn't speak to me..."
"Trance." She cut in swiftly. "Did Dylan survive?"
"Yes." Trance nodded urgently. "I saved him, and he's going to be okay, Rommie, after he gets treatment, he's just a little out of it. He..."
"No, don't do that." Still trying to fit all the drifting pieces of her universe together, Rommie shook the girl's shoulder as the small lavender chin began quivering. It had been years since she had seen any weakness of that sort in Trance Gemini, and she frankly did not feel up to readjusting. "I don't want to hear any more. Listen to me, Trance. I have no clear idea how you got to your future, nor do I really feel like thinking too deeply on it, but I do want you away from this particular locale."
"But Rommie, if I go..."
"Trance, if you stay you'll only have very bad possibilities to choose from. That's a promise." Losing her patience, the avatar glared.
"Not necessarily..."
"I didn't ask you to pick amongst possibilities, Trance. Now I mean it, go. The Maru is still intact, isn't it?"
The young Trance bit her lip. "It's bad, Rommie. We've lost a lot of important equipment already, and the AI program we installed from Andromeda's file copies is gone."
"Gone?" For a bare second, Rommie was numbed. Despite her newfound freedom from feeding off a ships energy, she had felt...connected...to some part of her former ship as long as the AI program had been on the Maru. All of the years as a self-contained android personality hadn't quite prepared her for the idea of completely losing her sisters.
"Gone." Trance confirmed with the blandness only a creature who died and repeatedly came back could ever muster.
"The Maru still works, but without personality. Beka wrestled the systems into working before I changed places with the other me, but now she's dead, and I don't know how long I can keep her work up..."
"Great." The android muttered. "Bring the Maru down, Trance. We can store it. I'll provide you with a new vessel if you want. Call it a gift of my little empire."
"An empire?" Trance sat back, eyes widening. "Rommie, what did you do?"
"Very simply, Trance, I joined hands with Anasazi."
"Oh, Rommie." Trance breathed, staring at her friend. "Why?"
The android stared ahead, voice modulating to pure coldness. "He betrayed us. He betrayed the Commonwealth, he...he betrayed Harper, and Dylan, and Beka. But he has everything I need, and...we do work well together. I trust him to adhere to my wishes as far as he possibly can."
She sensed more than saw Trance reach out, a small purple hand stroking her shoulder. "Tell me the whole story, Rommie, about what happened to everyone."
"I can't."
"Of course you can...just think of me as your child...waiting for a bedtime story."
"Trance, even were I able to have children, I most certainly wouldn't use my past as slumber notes." Straightening back up, Rommie sighed again. "Not that the standard applies. I'm a machine. Children will never happen. And he knows that as well, yet it doesn't matter, if only because of Tamerlane. With his bloodline practically secured, Anasazi can afford his negligent little...dalliances. Pets. He need not expect anything critical of them, or respect them." Briefly, her eyes shut, head thrown back to bump against the pristine metal wall. "I want you to go, Trance. Take Dylan and somehow escape this. Tyr and I'll be combining the prides under Tamerlane's name and, hopefully, a Commonwealth charter, as best as I can, but it will take time, and more blood. I don't want yours and his amongst it."
The sharp, thick voice of a guard cut in from the doorway. "It's time."
"Time? For what?" Trance moved between them, large eyes flickering with apprehension.
Rommie shook her head slightly. "I suppose its time to be recognized as consort to the new Nietzschean leader, Trance. Bloody ascension, but one I can only hope will someday lead to the Commonwealth Dylan wanted so much."
"No." The purple being broke out. "Rommie, you can't let them...they'll ruin you."
"If they do, I deserve it." Standing, Rommie cupped the seeming child's face in her hands, meeting the dark, infinite eyes.
"Trance, you've already helped me far more than you can ever understand simply by being here...both at this hour and at this time in your past. That future version of yourself has an agenda, and I trust her explicitly with it, because she's you. She won't fail a third time. Whatever happens here, everything will be better in the new timeline she creates, it has to be. And that's all I need to know. You don't worry about me. You worry about yourself, and take care of Dylan."
Stepping back, the avatar nodded to the guard and followed him out the door. And somehow, she didn't look back.
"I will, Rommie. I will." Trance promised softly.
*