This story is set back in the beginning of season one. Rommie is getting used to her new Avatar and runs into some simple diversions within the corridors of the ship.
I've noticed over the three seasons that Rommie has some amazing moves of her own when battling on board Andromeda. She had to practice those moves didn't she?
As always I hope you enjoy and I look forward to the reviews. Thanks to Hope for Love and Shaz for reviewing my first Andromeda fic.
Let me know what you think…
The Trouble with Rommie
The Andromeda Ascendant floated quietly through the wash of a large comet speeding along its course to an unknown destination. It caught Rommie's attention some time before it passed and out of sheer boredom she ran the gamut taking in every piece of data she could get from the passing beast.
"It's beautiful isn't it?" Reverend Bohemial Fartraveller asked as he walked onto the bridge. Rommie had been monitoring his approach with sensors and wasn't surprised to see him.
"It is actually." The Android Avatar said. "I was just admiring its path. Its potential is absolutely chaotic yet its path is logically and mathematically sound."
"The arc is so simple." Rev Bem said. "Yet at its end it will destroy a world or crash into a sun and die in a glorious inferno."
"Chaos seems so simple sometimes." Rommie said. "Why does it have to be so complex other times?" She asked. "The comet has a destructive force that would decimate an entire planet in the space of seconds. We stand here though and watch it as if it were harmless and something of beauty to be admired."
"And you are wondering how the children of the guard station could cause such destruction? Rev Bem asked. Rommie nodded.
"It doesn't make sense." She said. "I know what I know, but the avatar gives me a new way to look at things. There are new influences and experiences to explore. I know Nova bombs are useless in the end but I see the necessity for them. I realize that fighting solves nothing but I believe in the glory of battle. I understand the kids were just surviving in the only way they knew how but I don't know how they could not feel the suffering they caused."
"There is never suffering where there is no feeling or learned emotions." Rev answered.
"I have learned no emotions. I was born yesterday as it were and yet I can see the futility in such a course." Rommie said.
"You've been born with all the knowledge and experience this ship has in its core memory. That is a heavy burden to bear." Rev Bem said. He turned with a smile and headed off the bridge. Rommie turned the ship and followed the comet's path for a while until it disappeared into the black.
Rev Bem was right. Harper made her the ship's avatar from the specs he found on the space station but in just being Harper he tweaked until he had achieved a level of near perfection. Maybe that level was what he perceived to be perfection, but it was close enough. She had a lot to learn.
It was indeed quiet out here in the black. Rommie turned and took in the bridge. She had stared out over this very room for so long. Every day answering questions and running systems and doling out gig after gig of data to the crew and the Captain. She had actually stopped paying attention to everything and only monitored priority channels and systems.
Now. Now everything was different. She was standing at ops, actually standing at ops and not looking out over the area through her sensors and visual displays watching ops. She reached out with the same fingers that had been dancing over the buttons just a few minutes ago and gently brushed her fingertips across the panel. The sensation was incredible. The slightest touch of her finger sent sensations she had never felt before racing through her arm and into her cerebral nodes. She brushed her hand over the display and across the panel a second time feeling the cool metal, experiencing it.
Her fingers danced lightly across the lights and buttons and as she stood there, alone on the bridge, she let her fingers wander up over her other hand and slide along her arm. The polymers Harper created for her skin was remarkable. She let both hands drift over up each arm until she was gently squeezing her shoulders. She was reveling in the sensations these explorations were giving her.
"What are you doing?" The Andromeda hologram asked. She had a look of concern mixed with confusion on her face.
"I… umh, I was just…" The Avatar stammered. "Feeling. I was feeling things."
"Feeling? You mean touching?" Andromeda asked. "While monitoring, I've seen the crew do that on occasion. What use does it serve?"
"Its not so much serving a purpose as it is gaining knowledge. I've never had such sensory control before. Harper is an amazing engineer. He has a gift." Rommie said. She let her hands drop to her sides and looked at the hologram. "I can see your pixels."
"I understand." The holo-matrix said.
"I don't think that you do. My eyes are different from your visual receptors. I can see things just as humans do." Rommie said.
"Can you also see heat patterns and thermal patterns…" The holo asked. It was refocusing on its face alone. A huge vision of Rommie's perfect face glowed from the flat panel.
"I can and I have other capacities with my vision as well such as focusing to extreme range and effective magnification. Harper did a good job."
"We left the Captain's chosen course eleven minutes ago. In Sixty seconds, we will require a full day to return to the chosen trajectory and arrive on Kirk's Drift two days later than expected. We can make that delay a half day if we adjust and reset course now. 45 seconds…"
"Return to designated course. I'm going to explore the ship." Rommie said turning toward the bridge doors. "I will monitor. Contact me if you need anything."
"The Captain expects you to stay on the bridge when the crew is bunked down for the night. Where are you going?" The holo asked. No answer came as the bridge doors closed behind Rommie.
Outside in the hall Rommie's eyes darted back and forth for a short few seconds before she closed her eyes to run calculations. A wispy holographic display filled the air just in front of the Avatar and waited for her to open her eyes. She did a minute or so later and Rommie was staring at her own pixels.
"What are you doing?" The graphic asked. It accessed the files Rommie just encrypted. "You're not thinking…" It asked. Rommie didn't stick around to listen.
She jumped and was immediately standing on the roof of the corridor hanging down looking at her upside down holo. She started to walk. "I was thinking about what I said to those kids from the station. In a sense it is true. Out there, I may not be a god, but in here… inside of Andromeda I am. This ship is my universe."
"This ship is MY universe." The holo corrected the Avatar.
"I AM YOU!" Rommie said and took off at a trot along the roof of the corridor. She adjusted her stride and ran down the wall for a few feet before swinging her path along the normal floor and back up the other wall to stand steady on the roof."
"Are you having fun?" Rommie's hologram asked.
"Actually, I am. If you link in and help instead of mocking me, maybe we could practice in case the ship ever gets overrun."
"The Captain would never let that happen."
"The Captain doesn't always have that choice. There are only six of us here now and we are a very large ship." Rommie said. She flexed her legs and pushed toward the natural floor spinning to land on her feet. Without hesitation, she jumped again and landed back on the ceiling in a defensive squat.
"What purpose could this actually serve in combat?" Andromeda asked.
"Surprise. The enemy won't be expecting it." Rommie said. "Try to keep up." She called taking off at full stride along the ceiling following corridor after corridor. After about five minutes of running she stopped and sat down into a traditional cross-legged position. She appeared as a weird adaptation of Rhodan's Thinker.
"What is it now?" Andromeda asked appearing below Rommie and looking up at the Avatar.
"I was just thinking about being overrun." Rommie said.
"You sound like you want that to happen." The holo said.
"No. Not at all. But we've never been overrun that I can remember and since Dylan has been my Captain, we've never really been in danger." Rommie said. The holo continued
"Are you forgetting an annoying system called Haphaestus?" The holo asked.
"No, but that was different than a straight up battle. We were facing off against ten thousand ships and Dylan made the only choice he could. We faced ten thousand ships and we survived." Rommie said. She was obviously proud of her Captain.
"It is three hundred years later in our time-line." Andromeda pointed out.
"I'm not thinking about that. I'm thinking about scenarios for the six of us to fight Neitzscheans and Magog. It's been three hundred years. What if the Perseids have developed a military?" She asked.
"The Perseids?" Andromeda asked. "Are you serious?"
"It's a chaotic 'verse out there. Logic would dictate…"
"Logic would dictate that to a warship and a warrior but not to a society of scientific minded researchers." The holo said. "Someone is coming." Andromeda announced winking out. Rommie didn't move waiting to see who was coming down the hall.
Trance turned a corner and walked toward Rommie's position. She watched the small childlike being yawn as she walked slowly past the android. She waited for Trance to notice her but the girl didn't and continued walking to a ladder twenty feet from Rommie's position. Rommie smiled thinking her location had gone unnoticed. The purple girl dropped down the tube but her tail remained attached to a bar five rungs above the floor. She poked her head back up through the hole.
"G'nite Rommie." Trance winked. She smiled and giggled before dropping completely and soundlessly out of sight through the tube between floors.
"Well so much for not being noticed." Rommie muttered.
"What did you expect?" The holo asked as it reappeared.
"I don't know what I expected. This is all new to me." She said as she launched herself down along the floor and back up to the roof moving in a kata from some ancient fighting style she found in her databases. Her movements were smooth and she flowed as water down the corridor bouncing from wall to ceiling.
"These are pretty barren corridors. Without crew in them they are just gray and shiny. An Avatar wrapped in black leather is easily noticed." The holo explained hoping Rommie would give up this ridiculous behavior.
Rommie pulled her force lance and extended it to full size. She used it as an aid to her practices as she fought her way down the hall striking down invisible invaders. She heard a clanging down a far corridor. Her sensors identified Harper picking up a vid-sheet he dropped trying to retrieve one of his tools dropped as well reaching for the sheet. She remained on the ceiling and ducked down a side corridor from where Harper approached.
He was completely oblivious to her.
"Couplings seem to be working fine." He muttered. "I don't know where the carbon scoring came from." He continued as he walked. Occasionally he would punch the sheet and new specs would come up. He fumbled with the sheet a few minutes. "I have no idea what that's all about. Have to make that a priority."
Rommie followed behind him walking softly in full stealth mode watching the engineer that created her Avatar. He was mumbling and working and seemed delirious in his happiness to be the sole engineer on board. She marveled at his ingenuity. His eccentric demeanor allowed for erratic behavior and an attitude that far overstepped its bounds but at the same time, when the pressure was on… he was the best man for the job. She followed him all the way to his corridor before she turned and headed a different way.
He stopped then as if noticing he was finally alone. "Rommie?"
"Yes Harper?" The hologram asked.
"Were you… Never mind. G'nite." Harper said stepping into his quarters.
"Good night, Harper." The holo said. Along the far corridor, Rommie smiled.
She walked along until she found herself near the gym. It was loud inside. Tyr was growling and clanging around a set of weights. He was pushing himself which is the nature of his people. She watched for a few minutes. Of all the crew he was the weakest link.
His strength had nothing to do with it. He is strong and proud but at the same time he is strictly on this ride for his own personal goals. He has his own agenda and would require watching. Rommie had no doubt that he would fight to the finish for his own survival but would he do it for the crew? She did not know. Self-preservation aside he was still a formidable warrior and with the right attitude could very easily lead an army of men.
Yes he would require watching. Dylan would do that. She would do it for Dylan.
She moved on practicing her control over the interior atmosphere. She took a running leap and dove across the corridor floating at a slight angle from one end to the wall on the curve at the other. She twisted and spun into a crouch launching along the other corridor in a similar dive. The sensation of flight felt almost pure to her. Controlling the gravity of the situation would prove difficult in a battle situation when the ship was running internal defenses and monitoring the crew against a large force. Using it against a small boarding party with just the six of them could prove to be the advantage she needed. Any advantage she had would benefit Captain Hunt.
She flew around the corner dropping into a defensive crouch and launched herself directly into Dylan. Together they rolled head over heels down the corridor until Rommie was able to gain her feet and pull Dylan into her arms and stand him up.
"CAPTAIN!?!" She said. Obviously stunned and embarrassed, she stared up into his eyes not realizing she was still holding onto him.
"Rommie?" Dylan asked. "What the hell are you doing?"
"I was, I mean… I, uh…" She stammered. The realization hit her that she was very close to him. She could feel his body pressed against her and she realized she liked that feeling. He was solid. He was large. He was a man. She tried to stop herself but her hands slid across the muscles of his back and she enjoyed the texture of them.
"Rommie?" Dylan asked again. She snapped out of her state and stepped back three steps. Dylan stepped forward one but stopped himself. That small step did not go unnoticed by the Avatar.
"I'm sorry. I was experiencing… things." She said. "It's the new body, Captain. I've never had this Avatar before and the sensations and abilities are taking me some time to get used to."
"You were flying a minute ago. How did you do that?" He asked.
"The gravity controls are under my command. I was using them, manually controlling them so I could…"
"Fly?" Dylan asked. "You can fly?"
"In a sense." Rommie said. She stepped back a few more paces and jumped to the Ceiling, ran quickly past Dylan and dropped to the floor behind him. "I have figured out that I am in essence a god on board this ship. I can control the atmosphere for myself."
"Just yourself?"
"I'm afraid so." She said. She really had no idea but didn't want to let Dylan know just yet.
"That's too bad." He said. "It could provide a serious advantage in the right situation."
"That's what I was thinking."
"That's my favorite warship." Dylan said. "Aren't you supposed to be on the bridge?"
"I was, I mean I am. I…" She stopped and looked down at the floor.
"You're monitoring?" He asked. She nodded.
"Good. I'll be on the bridge in a few minutes. As you were but no more crashing into me when I'm not expecting it."
"Yes, Sir." Rommie said. "Captain?"
"Yes Rommie?"
"Thank you."
"For what?" Dylan asked.
"You're my Captain." Rommie said. "I couldn't have asked for a better one." She said. Dylan smiled
"I couldn't have found a better ship." Dylan said.
Reverend Bohemial Fartraveller found Rommie on Obs deck staring out over the stars as they passed by. She was monitoring and knew they would be going into slipstream soon. Dylan was bored and wanted to fly his ship. She turned and smiled at Rev Bem.
"How are you doing today?" Bem asked.
"I'm better. Things seem to be easier." Rommie said. "There are a billion questions though…"
"The universe is still chaotic in nature." Bem said. "I imagine that you understand that a little better now than before."
"We are meant to be here although it isn't always clear why." Rommie said.
"The Divine has a plan for every single being in its universe. Sometimes that plan is to simply exist. Other times the being has a greater task."
"Is the chaos a being unto itself?" Rommie asked.
"You will have to ask Chaos."
And there you have it. Like I said, she had to practice those moves at some point. An Android Avatar would be able to collect and interpret the data pretty fast I'd think. One night of practice is enough. She is a warship after all, battle hardened and full of strategy and tactics. What's a little polishing going to hurt?
Let me know what you think.