Echoes of future past, part 19

Beka and Harper where working on the Maru's engines when Ryan found them, "Anything I can help with? I did grow up on this ship." Harper looked at Beka, who nodded, "The slipstream lens needs replacing: the old one is warn and might give out under high-G manoeuvring." Ryan nodded, and made his way to the quartermaster's office to get a replacement.

Harper turned to Beka, "Are you going to keep up this coldness towards him until we leave, and you risk never having the chance to tell him how you really feel?" Beka put down the wrench she had been using, "I don't know how I feel Harper: I'm still getting used to the idea of being pregnant, and of somehow having my grownup son walking around, seemingly intent on killing himself on some half-baked attempt to alter his past." She took a deep breath, "You'd have thought that hanging around with Trance would have prepared me for this sort of thing, but it's still to strange for me to understand. I look at Ryan, and I see bit's of Tyr, bit's of me, bits of you and Rommie, and I can't help feel that I should have been there to see him grow up."

Sighing, Harper cleaned his hands on a rag, "I wasn't going to tell you this, but I asked Ryan how you died." Beka looked at him, a slight hint of fear in her eyes, "And?" Harper sat down on the deck next to Beka, "He told me that you where giving birth to him as the Magog attacked, and that it was only the fact that you where in medical that saved you and Rommie. When Command was destroyed, you made the decision to make a run for the Maru. You where making your way to the hanger deck when you ran into me." He swallowed, "It was just after that that the Magog fired another point- singularity round and a support-beam fell on you. Rommie and me tried to move it, but we couldn't. You grabbed me and handed Ryan over, telling me to keep him safe. Then you died. Rommie and me made it to the Maru and got away moments before the Andromeda exploded."

Beka looked more than a little shocked, "That's how I die?" Harper shrugged, "That's what happened in Ryan's timeline: his coming back here changes things. You could die today, you could die then, you could die fifty years from now. Who knows? Well, maybe Trance. Anyway, you had more of an impact on his life then I think you give yourself credit for. I kind of know how you feel about his state of mind: I like the guy, and I've kind of gotten used to having him around, and I think that this 'rational- transaction' stuff of his is crazy, but it's his decision to make." Beka nodded, "Ok, I get what you're saying: I'll talk to him."

Ryan was just finishing with the slipstream lens when Beka walked in, "I need to talk to you." Ryan put the calibrator and turned to face her, "Ok: talk." Beka took a deep breath, "I'm still having trouble with the whole 'you're my un-borne son come back to change the past' thing, but I am getting used to having you around, but you seem intent on killing yourself, and that's driving me crazy. Tyr thinking it's a good idea makes it worse." Ryan sat down next to his mother, "Believe me: I wish my life had worked out different, and now I have a chance to make that happen. My farther doesn't think that this is a good idea, he just understand where I'm coming from. Don't blame him for my actions." Beka nodded, putting her arms round Ryan, "Just make sure he comes back in one piece."

TBC