Echoes of future past, part 37

Harper jogged into medical and stopped next to Beka, trying to get his breath back, "Hay, boss: I just went to get tools I'd left on the Maru, and it's gone. Andromeda won't tell me where or who took it." Beka's face fell, and she ran outside to the nearest com-unit, "Andromeda!" The AI's face appeared on-screen, "Commander." Beka's face was red with rage, "Where's my ship?" Andromeda's face remained neutral, "I do not know." Beka leaned in closer to the screen, "I am still acting captain of this vessel, and you will answer me: who has taken my ship, and where are they going?"

Andromeda blinked, "Trance Gemini as your ship, but she did not say where she was going." Beka was getting angrier and angrier, "Well what did she say?" Andromeda met her gaze, "She said, and I quote, 'I may be able to bring Rommie back, but you will have to do exactly what I say, no matter what anyone else says, even Dylan.' She then took the part of the Engine of Creation that you recovered on Shintaida and left."

Harper blinked, "I thought that it took three of you to lift that thing!" Beka nodded, "It did, but this is Trance we are talking about: you never know what she's capable of. How soon until our slipstream drive is fully repaired?" Harper scratched his forehead, "About 12 hours, give or take 2. That PSB may not have hit, but it gravitational pull ripped one of our slipstream regulators out of alignment: It's only by a combination of luck and your skill that we made it this far without it overheating or exploding." Beka nodded, "Get to it: I don't like being dead in the water."

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Trance felt her way through slipstream, trying to find the hidden rout that would take her to the rendezvous point. Beka had complained that the rout to Tarazed was a rabbit hole, but it was nothing compared to this. Beka liked to think that she was the best slip-pilot in the known worlds, but compared to Trance's people, she was strictly amateur: Humans lacked the senses required to pilot slipstream flawlessly, but even Trance had to admit, Beka was still one of the best around.

The Maru exited slipstream with a shudder, and Trance was greeted by a sight she had hoped never to see again: the huge WarShip floated in space, blotting out the stars for miles in any direction. A swarm of smaller support ship's buzzed around it, like minnow around a whale. The Maru's control panel lit up as hundreds of targeting systems locked on, and voices filled the radio, demanding identification.

Trance took a deep breath, "This is War-Leader Del-Rak of the House of Chellran: prepare a landing bay, and inform the council that I demand an ordinance under the rules of martial law." The radio went silent, and an iris opened in the side of the ship, indicating the landing bay. Trance smiled slightly as she guided the Maru into the docking port: the battered old cargo ship was probably lest advanced, and newest, ship in the fleet.

She gently landed the Maru, and then walked back to the crew quarters. She lifted Rommie off of the bunk and gently laid her on the grungy, then placed the box holding the last missing part of the Engine of Creation at her head. Trance took a moment to straighten her uniform before pushing the AG stretcher to the airlock. It opened with a hiss, revelling an honour-guard dressed in uniform the same colure as her own lined up outside. The familiar blue form of Flux stepped forward, "The council have rejected your summons, and further more, have relieved you of you rank and position as military leader of our people. I am sorry, old friend, but I have orders to place you under arrest."

Trance stalked forward, "You will go, personally, to every member of the council, and tell them that if they are not in the council chamber within the next ten minuets, I will take this fleet apart molecule by molecule until I find them. Do not believe for an instance that I was fooled by that trick you pulled on the World Ship: I know that the council ordered you to assist the Spirit of the Abyss in injuring Rommie, and that you where responsible for our not returning to the Andromeda in time to save her. Thing have change 'old friend', I have changed, and neither you, these guards, or the dammed council, have the power to stop me now!"

To Be Continued