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Chapter 2

Trance took a step closer to the girl and held her hand out. 'It's ok we're friends.' Slowly the girl lifted her head, her eyes wild with fear; she shifted her gaze to the fast approaching Nietzscheans and grabbed Trance's hand. Harper helped her to her feet and they slid away as the impact of gun shots exploded around them.

'We won't let them find you.' Trance promised as they reached the Maru once again. Harper ran straight for the bridge eager to escape the Nietzscheans who were hot on their tail.

'Let's get out of here,' he said with a sense of urgency and pushed the engines to accelerate as fast as they would let him. Trance sat the girl down and noted how thin she looked; her clothes were ripped and covered in dirt. Her long mud plastered hair covered her face, Trance gently placed a hand on her arm but she withdrew it and sank further into the chair, pulling her knees to her chest. Without warning the ship rocked to the side almost causing Trance to lose her balance. 'Oh great,' whined Harper. 'Incoming Nietzscheans. Let's see if they're so confident around Rommie.' with that he fiddled with the controls pushing the engines even further, trying to out run them before they could damage the Maru even more, 'Beka will kill me' he thought.

The Andromeda Ascendant drifted aimlessly in space, waiting for the parts Trance and Harper were collecting for her. Beka paced around the command deck.

'I should have gone with them.' she whispered angrily to herself.

'I'm sure they're big enough to look after themselves,' Dylan Hunt replied as he walked on deck. 'Even if they are a little late.' he added.

'Dylan,' Rommie's sleek face appeared on the main screen. 'The Eureka Maru is requesting assistance; they're being pursued by a Nietzschean battle cruiser.'

'What have they done?' Tyr said strolling in to join them.

'Rommie open a comm channel. This is Captain Dylan Hunt of the Andromeda Ascendant break off your pursuit, please.' Tyr shook his head.

'That'll never work.' He said looking at Dylan, then turning to the view screen he warned, 'this is Tyr Anasazi of Kodiak pride, break off your pursuit or we'll blow you out of space.' The view screen flickered to life and the image of a rather large muscular Nietzschean dominated the screen.

'Tyr Anasazi,' he snarled. 'And Captain Hunt, that ship has something belonging to me and I want it back.'

'Well, Mr?' Dylan started but the Nietzschean cut the comm link.

'Dragons.' Tyr muttered.

'Their ship is retreating,' Beka reported then added, 'for now.' They looked at each other for a moment before heading towards the docking bay.

'Mr Harper,' Dylan called as they greeted Trance, Harper and their guest leaving the Maru. 'Why did we just have to chase off some Nietzscheans and who is this?' he said spotting the girl.

'Hey don't look at me, Trance here thought it'd be fun to.' Trance stepped in front of him.

'Dylan I know how much you like helping people and I just couldn't leave her to those nasty Nietzscheans. They were going to kill her, we had to stop them.'

'Whoa Trance, do you mean to say that the two of you fought a group of Nietzscheans and won?' Beka said astounded.

'Well not exactly boss, we kinda distracted them and ran.' Harper replied.

'They said you had something of theirs, care to enlighten me?' Dylan asked. Trance and Harper looked at each other. The girl who had been hiding behind Trance lifted her head and spoke.

'They want me.'

'Why?' but before she could answer, Trance felt the hands on her shoulders slip. She turned to catch the falling girl, and lowered her to the floor.

'Rommie, prepare the med deck.' Dylan ordered.

'Yes Dylan.' came the reply over the intercom. Dylan picked the girl up and hurriedly made his way towards med deck. Harper took a step to follow them but Beka placed a hand on his chest.

'No,' she said. 'You fix my ship and if I see any evidence that you got my ship fired upon, you'll be cleaning it out for a year.'

'Yes boss.' He said meekly, knowing she wouldn't really make him do that, would she?

The girl lay on a bed while Trance scuttled around running tests. 'She must be about seventeen' Dylan thought 'but she looks like a child'. Beka stood at the foot of the bed cautiously watching over the girl.

'She fainted from dehydration, malnutrition and exhaustion.' Trance announced.

'Classic signs of living on a planet over run with Nietzscheans.' Beka said.

'Oh.' Exclaimed Trance, who was looking at a flexi.

'What?' asked Dylan. She handed him the Flexi, shocked he passed it too Beka. Trance lifted up one of the girl's arms; it was badly cut down one side.

Confused Dylan said 'She's a Nietzschean.'