Face the Music, part 3

Dylan chased the fleeing Rommie out of the main building and into the gardens beyond. He lost sight of her as she entered a maze, but continued to call out to her, "Rommie! Look, Rommie, we need to talk, ok?" A voice to his right called back, "What's to talk about? I'm going to end up just like Pax! Just like I knew I would!" Dylan followed the voice, trying to find Rommie in the maze. He wished he'd brought his forcelance with him: he could have used its built-in scanner to find her.

The rest of the crew waited on the balcony overlooking the gardens. Tyr could just about make out Dylan's voice, but not well enough to tell what he was saying. The big Nietzschean turned to Beka, "Maybe we should return to the Maru, let them sort it out between them?" Beka was taken aback, "Well, well, well Mr Anasazi: I never took you for the romantic type!" Tyr glared at her, "I mealy believe that being round a emotionally unstable Avatar why could rip your arms from their sockets is not a good survival trait." Harper sighed, "Ahh, the Tyr we all know and love to hate."

Dylan was hopelessly lost in the maze, and no closer to finding Rommie, "Rommie, we really need to talk about this face to face!" "Ok then." The voice came from just behind him and made him jump. He span round to find Rommie standing less than a meter away from him, tears filling her eyes. He tried to put a hand on her arm, to comfort her, but she pulled away, "What do you want to talk about?" Dylan sighed, "About what happened. I need to know how you feel about me." Fresh tears welled up in Rommie's eye, "I, that is, Andromeda has loved you since before The Fall. She never said anything because there was nothing she could do. Then Harper built me. I am Andromeda, the ship made flesh, and I have the same emotions and feelings as my main AI, but with me there was always the possibility of acting on them." Rommie sat down on a bench, hugging herself, "After the busyness with the singularity and the teleporter, I knew that your dedication to the Commonwealth was stronger than any attachment to another person. I tried to bury my feelings for you: the incident with Gabriel was part of it. Andromeda knew that, and tried to tell me, but I didn't want to believe her."

Dylan sat down next to Rommie, trying to take in what she had said, "I knew that you had feelings for me, but I never knew how strong they where. I mean are!" Rommie nodded, "Well, I could always get a job acting if I needed to." She moved further along the bench, away from Dylan, "And now it's all out in the open, there is only one course of action open: you have to dismantle me." Her statement shocked Dylan, "What makes you say that?" Rommie turned to look at him, her eyes full of pain, "High Guard directives concerning AI and superior officers: It's ether that or you have to re-boot Andromeda's AI. I won't have her suffer for my mistake." Dylan shook his head, "What mistake?" Rommie sobbed, "Falling in love."

TBC