SITN 19

Author's note: I know, I know, it's been a long time between chapters. If anyone cares, I've had Ren fests, one fashion show, and some emergency sewing for others to eat up my time. (The fashion show went very well however, even if I am saying so myself)



Dylan straddled the first unoccupied barstool he saw and ordered a Jovian Sunspot. He was furious. How dare Tyr bring up Rhade to him? As if there was any similarity between the two, other than their racial heritage.

Of course, that was the problem, wasn't it? That whole Nietzschean mindset was enough to drive him crazy. Why couldn't he have a nice normal crew, one that followed orders, didn't have personal agendas, wasn't tempted to eat other crewmembers, wasn't purple, and wasn't trying to kill him off to take his ship?

"So, how'd the 'talk' go?" Beka slid into the open space beside him and cocked an eyebrow expectantly.

"It went..as well as could be expected." Dylan gritted his teeth as he added 'a crew that respected his privacy' to the list.

"Since I don't see any blood or scorch marks, I'm assuming you stopped short of trying to kill each other, which means it went better than I expected." Beka teased cheerfully before tossing back her drink.

"You really thought we were going to go at it?" Dylan pulled the little plastic sword out of his drink, sucked the bits of fruit off, and stabbed the air with it for emphasis.

"Actually, I did. The testosterone was off the charts. The way you both were thumping your chests and grunting, I figured it was inevitable." Beka raised her empty glass and caught the bartender's eye, signaling she needed a refill.

"I was not thumping my chest, or grunting." Dylan protested.

"Sure sounded like it to me." Beka raised one eyebrow, disbelief blatant in her tone.

"Ok, so maybe I was a little short with everyone. But in my defense, I feel I should point out we were nearly been killed by a band of Nietzschean mercenaries." Dylan slung his arm out, nearly stabbing Beka with the plastic blade he still held.

"And." Beka prodded, knowing there was more to it than that. That sort of thing was actually becoming pretty common, scarily enough.

"And Tyr. Being Tyr." Dylan stabbed the tiny sword through his drink napkin.

"What does that mean, exactly? Tyr being Tyr." Beka gave Dylan a penetrating look.

After being a Captain for so long, it was difficult for her to take the backseat and let Dylan and Tyr continue to butt heads. If they had been crewing for her she'd have insisted they straighten it out. Unfortunately she didn't have the position or authority on Andromeda. Being first officer seemed to mean that she was to mind the store, and occasionally be nominally in charge of certain missions. Any suggestions she made about them settling their differences and come to an understanding, or at least a better working relationship, had been shot down faster than an Inari trading vessel in Drago-Katsov space.

Dylan looked up from shredding his napkin. "I suppose you think I was being an ass."

"Yes I do. You know, considering that you came from a time when Humans and Nietzscheans lived together, I would have expected you to be able to see Tyr as an individual. Instead you act like he is the Nietzschean stereotype, and incapable of being anything other than arrogant, self absorbed, untrustworthy, who only watches out for himself. Sure, Tyr will make a virtue out of necessity if he can. I'm not averse to getting something for myself out of a deal either, but you don't see it in the same light." Beka pointed out, wondering if she was getting through to him.

"That's because it is different. You would never do anything that would put the ship or crew at risk." Dylan protested.

"What about Hegemon's Heart? Or how about my Flash addiction?" Beka gave two glaringly evident examples of what she meant.

"You haven't touched Flash in a long time. I'm proud of you for defeating the addiction. What about Hegemon's Heart? You succeeded admirably in making the switch." Dylan smiled as he remembered the kiss she'd used as a cover to pass him the Heart.

"Dylan, I'll be a Flash addict until the day I die. One moment of weakness and I'll be taking it again. If Tyr had been the one taking Flash, you wouldn't have been anywhere near as supportive. You know it, and I know it. As far as the switch you say I handled so well, Hawkins made me a sweet offer. I was tempted to keep the real Heart and take him up on the deal. It had great fringe benefits you know." Beka paused as the bartender returned with her drink.

"I know that you are far to strong willed to be defeated by a drug. I also know that however tempted you were during the entire business with the Heart, in the end you did the right thing. You would never have left with Hawkins. You don't make deals with unscrupulous characters, unlike Tyr." Dylan shook his head, Beka was really clutching at straws in her attempt to paint Tyr in a better light.

"When you met me, I was trying to steal your ship out from under you for a Nightsider. My brother wrote the book on being unscrupulous, and my Uncle Sid edited the damn thing." Beka took a sip of her drink and examined him over the rim. Dylan was deep in the throes of denial, and she didn't understand why.

"Beka, you were the first person to suggest that they leave the ship. I've seen Andromeda's logs. As far as your brother and uncle are concerned, you are not responsible for your family. That's not something you get to choose." The look Dylan gave Beka clearly said he didn't understand why they were having this discussion.

"Ok, so I can't pick my family. Well, neither can Tyr. Hell, he can't even talk to his family because they're all dead. You know, that's one thing you two have in common. You've both lost everyone and everything you ever knew in a single day, your entire lives were destroyed by betrayal. I know Tyr admired you in the beginning for the way you refused to let your circumstances break you, but you've done everything in your power to destroy any camaraderie that could have come from his admiration."

"Admiration doesn't mean anything except that he'll feel doubly proud of himself for defeating a worthy opponent." Dylan shot back.

"What has Tyr done to make you think he'll betray you? He hasn't done a damn thing wrong." Beka threw up her hands and wondered why she was even trying. She got the same reaction every time.

"Only because it is not currently in his best interest to do so. Tyr is always looking at the long game. If I hadn't made contingency plans, he'd have done his best to see me dead. Remember how the Mandau Pride came after us shortly after we left Topeka Drift?" Dylan paused to see if Beka was with him.

"Yes, we had been on a supply run for parts. The Andromeda had been badly damaged from the battle with the Worldship." Beka nodded, not seeing where he was going with this, but willing to listen.

"They were after Tyr because he didn't hold up his end of some deal they had made, or so they said. But the first thing Tyr did once he had been left unobserved was to clean out the munitions locker and take it to his 'enemies'. For a long time it was a move that didn't make sense to me." Dylan paused to highlight the amount of thought he had devoted to the issue.

"You and me both." Beka agreed. She had been livid when she'd discovered the cabinet cleaned out, but her first thought had been that Tyr was using them in a high-risk endeavor to destroy the Mandau on his own. He tended to sneak off and take care of business he knew Dylan was too principled to handle. Especially business that would come back and bite them in the ass otherwise.

"For a while I thought he had decided to use them to distract the squorms, but there is another possibility. What if they were supposed to kill me? Tyr appears totally guiltless over my demise. He uses the Magnetic Accelerator to slingshot the Maru back into space, where Andromeda sits dead in the water. He promotes himself to captain. If Andromeda objects to Tyr taking over, he has the best chance he'll ever have of defeating her and either wiping her core or having her rewritten." Dylan snapped the tiny blade off at the hilt as he drove it into the scarred surface of the bar.

"You really think Tyr arranged all of that?" Beka looked at him in shock.