TITLE: Chapter Three - Control
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Andromeda series, I'm just borrowing.
NOTES: Ooh lovely lovely words of kindness, thank-you muchly! Enjoy the next installment!
CHAPTER THREE - Control
"It is the most awesome and terrifying thing that so much can change in a solitary moment."
- First line of the Belesen Accounts
CY 907
^~*~^
Beka was so engrossed in what was happening in the operating room that she barely noticed the doctor exit and approach her.
"Miss Valentine?"
Beka was startled. "Oh, yes, what's going on?"
"We managed to restart his heart, but the wound was severe. I'm afraid your friend is in a coma."
Beka was shocked. A coma wasn't death, but it was hardly good news. "A coma? Wh...Will he wake up from it?" She asked, on the verge of panic.
"There really isn't any way to tell. I'm very sorry." The doctor said.
Beka said nothing for a while. "Is he stable enough to go back to Andromeda?"
"Well I wouldn't recommend it but...."
"He needs to be home." Beka interjected.
"Of course." The doctor smiled compassionately and left Beka alone.
Dylan joined her soon after. After inquiring about Harper's condition he told Beka about how he had been getting on.
"The tapes from the corridors have been messed up by some idiot in the monitoring room. They're sorting them out now. Druan is insisting the Enyan and Setrinians will pull together to help find the shooter. They consider this a great 'opportunity' to work in unison."
"What?" Beka said, appalled. Her friend was lying there near death and the idiotic colonists were still having a ball? Unbelievable. "Let's get off this damn rock and go home."
^~*~^
"I've trapped my avatar in a section of corridor on deck 6." Holo-Rommie told Tyr and Trance.
"This program she was talking about. Could it be some kind of virus?" Tyr suggested.
"Sabotage?" Trance said, still rubbing her throat. "No-one has been onboard in weeks."
"It could easily have been on a time delay." Andromeda said. "If so, it could have been planted at any time."
"Wonderful." Tyr said sarcastically. "If your avatar has been compromised it's safe to assume that you could have been as well."
"It is possible." Andromeda admitted.
"When Harper gets back he can check you out." Trance reassured.
"Good timing. The Maru has just left Autriva."
^~*~^
Trance appeared on the viewscreen of the Maru where Dylan was piloting the ship. "Trance, we have a situation." He told her.
"What a coincidence." Trance grimly replied.
^~*~^
The Maru docked and Dylan and Tyr met Tyr and Trance in med-deck to exchange stories. The atmosphere was tense as Dylan relayed all the information he had. "Druan will contact us as soon as he gets any information, but I'll go down to the planet to co-ordinate the investigation after we've sorted out the problem with Rommie. What exactly is the problem with Rommie?"
"She said a program was taking over her neural pathways and she couldn't shut it off. Then she suddenly tried to strangle me. Andromeda has her secured on deck 6." Trance replied, though her mind was on Harper. She had made him as comfortable as she could, but medically there was little that could be done. Harper was in a coma and he might never wake up.
"Let's go and talk to her, see if she's regained control." Dylan suggested, but before they could leave Holo-Rommie appeared in the room.
"Dylan, my avatar is accessing my systems from a control panel, she's trying to introduce whatever that program was into my systems."
The others broke into a run.
^~*~^
"Rommie goes nuts and the only person skilled enough to fix her is in a coma. You thinking what I'm thinking?" Beka shouted as she ran beside Dylan to deck 6.
"I'm thinking we need to get to Rommie before she turns the entire ship against us." Dylan replied.
"That's what I was thinking." Tyr said from behind them.
Andromeda's voice came over the comm. "Dylan, it's too late I can't...can't stop...."
Suddenly the lights flickered. Dylan and the others stopped. "Andromeda? Can you hear me?"
The silence that followed served as their answer and the whir of the internal defences coming online evicted any doubt that was left behind. "GET DOWN!" Dylan yelled as the firing began.
Trance and Beka dived behind one wall and Tyr and Dylan behind another. "Okay, this isn't good." Beka shouted.
"What do we do?!" Trance asked.
Before anyone could answer Andromeda's voice once again came over the comm, but no-one was prepared for what she was about to say. "Preparing to fire on Autriva colonies."
"What?!" Dylan exclaimed.
"We have to get to Command and try manual override!" Dylan shouted.
Getting to Command was not exactly a walk in the park, since Andromeda's internal defences wouldn't stop firing upon the four crewmembers, but they made it relatively unharmed. Just as Dylan approached the main console, Druan's face appeared on the screen.
"Captain, I'm transmitting the data we have to you now, I - " Druan began, failing to notice that Dylan was a little busy.
"Druan I'm afraid I'm gonna have to get back to you." Dylan said, working furiously to try and regain control of Andromeda. He cut Druan off and tried entering his code.
"Andromeda, stand down your weapons, authorisation Hunt 45 Beta 9." Dylan tried.
Andromeda's image appeared on the screen next to the main viewer. "Authorisation denied. Firing."
^~*~^
End of chapter three
^~*~^