Author's Notes: Just thought I would warn you in advance that this chapter is rather long. I apologize, but I'm sure you know how it goes when the inspiration kicks into high gear.

Chapter Six: Aftermath

"What's so funny?" Beka asked as Dylan laughed softly.

"Rommie," the Captain replied. When the android looked up at him quizzically, he hurried to explain. "I mean, Beka and I are suited up in so much protective gear that a nova couldn't get to us, and you're walking around out here in the cold and vacuum of space with nothing but your uniform on."

Rommie shrugged. "Yes, well, not having to breathe does have its benefits every now and then."

"So does not feeling cold," Beka added. "My sensors are saying it's absolutely frigid in here."

"Oh, I can feel it," Rommie said. "It just doesn't affect me like it would you or Dylan."

"Yeah, I don't care what anybody else says, Rommie," Dylan piped, "I think you're pretty useful to have around."

Rommie just rolled her eyes.

"Well, doesn't look like there's anything of much use here in the hangar bay," Beka changed the subject as she studied the datapad in her hand. "The slipfighters are obviously gone, and I don't see any other equipment, except for some spent fuel cells over in the corner there. If there's anything still intact, it'll be farther into the ship."

"We should head for the command deck," Dylan suggested. "If there's any information on what happened to her and her crew, it'll be there."

"I'll take point," Beka volunteered. She started toward the main corridor that led from the hangar, with Dylan and Rommie close behind.

The ship was entirely dark; the only illumination came from the lights in Dylan's and Beka's EV suit helmets. Shadows played and danced along the walls of the corridor they entered, giving the whole place a decidedly sinister feel. Small pieces of debris floated about, sometimes bumping into the walls or against the sides of their helmets. The ship had no gravity whatsoever; the only thing that kept the three from floating were the magnetic clamps in their boots. Scorch marks streaked the walls of the corridor, and in some places, holes opened up into dark places beyond, which their lights could not illuminate.

"This is really creepy," Beka whispered softly over their comm units. "It's like finding the Andromeda all over again, only no lights and no AG."

"And no crew," Dylan added. He stopped as they started to pass what had been a door into another compartment. A huge hole had been blasted through the center of it; the ragged edges of metal had been warped and melted by something. He ran a gloved hand along it. "This is battle damage," he said. "Whatever made this hole was pretty powerful."

"You think the Valkyrie was boarded?" Rommie asked.

"How else would an interior door end up like this?" Dylan replied. "And these scorch marks. Some of them are from force lances. Whoever destroyed the Valkyrie Hammer didn't just want the ship dead. They wanted something that was on the ship, as well. Beka, did your contact mention anything about finding dead crewmembers while he was here?"

Beka shook her head inside her EV helmet. "No, he didn't. He was more interested in getting hold of her astronomical data, but I thought it was odd he didn't say anything about coming across some bodies."

"Most of them probably ended up in space," Rommie supplied. "I'm detecting at least sixteen different hull breaches ship wide. Most of the interior would have been exposed to open space."

"But wouldn't emergency bulkheads have sealed those off?" Dylan asked.

"Not if there was a system-wide failure."

"I guess we'll find out," Beka said. She fell silent for a moment as she studied the schematics on her datapad. "Come on, I think command is this way." She started off down the corridor, then took a left turn at the next one.

They ascended a pair of ladders onto higher decks, then followed Beka down another set of passages. All along the way, there were signs of extensive fighting: scorch marks on walls, ceilings, and decks; holes blasted through doors or bulkheads; chunks of metal and wires floating aimlessly about.

"Looks like the crew put up quite a fight," Rommie said.

"Sounds a lot like High Guard," Dylan agreed. "They would have resisted every step of the way."

"Too bad it didn't do them any good," Beka commented from ahead of them. They glanced up toward her voice. "I think I just found command," she added slowly.

Directly in front of them was a large set of double doors. The metal doors themselves had been blown away, lying in twisted ruin in the corridor. Beyond was a room that Dylan recognized as a High Guard command center. Or at least part of one. The entire far side of the chamber was missing. Instead of bulkheads and viewscreens, there was only open space and the stars beyond.

Trying not to feel sick, trying not to imagine what had happened to any crewmembers that had still been in here when the explosion happened, Dylan stepped through the doors onto the command deck. "I'm beginning to wonder if we'll find anything left intact at all," he breathed. "Whoever attacked the Valkyrie Hammer did a pretty good job of messing things up."

"This might explain the lack of emergency bulkheads," Rommie said as she followed Dylan into command. "If the AI got fried by one of these explosions, the emergency backup systems might not have had time to respond. Especially if the breaches were simultaneous."

"Hey, I think this terminal is still working," Beka said from behind them. They turned to see her studying a station not far from the ruined doors. Its screens were cracked and scorched, but it otherwise seemed intact. "It's got no power, but one of our extra battery cells should do the trick."

"Rommie, see to it," Dylan ordered. "I just want to take a look out here..." His voice trailed off as he walked toward the massive hole that looked out into space. He stopped a few feet from the edge, and looked down to see the length of the frigate spread out beneath him. It was a good twenty-meter drop from the command tower to the next deck below. Getting a good grip on a protruding piece of metal with one hand, he leaned forward into empty space and looked around. "Wow," he breathed. "Up close, you can really see the battle damage. The Valkyrie took a beating."

Beka stepped up next to him. "Somebody had a grudge to settle," she commented. "Looks like some of this damage was created after she was disabled."

"Yeah, well, in this universe, simply being High Guard is enough for most people to want you dead," Dylan replied. "But I would like to know what she was doing when whoever did this caught up with her. They wanted something from her, else they wouldn't have boarded."

"Captain," Rommie said from behind them. "I've gotten power restored to the terminal. I was right. The AI has been fried. If we're going to get any information out of her memory cores, I'm going to have to go in and get it myself."

Dylan and Beka joined her at the terminal. It was lit up, flickering every now and then, and without an AI to direct it, its screen was a blank blue.

"Just be careful," Dylan warned her. "Make sure there's no hostile programming in there before you try to access it."

"Understood," Rommie replied. "Just give me a moment." Placing her hand on the access pad next to the screen, she closed her eyes and went still and silent. It took more than a moment. For nearly a minute, she didn't move or make a sound. Finally, she removed her hand from the pad and opened her eyes slowly. "There's nothing there," she said.

"What?" asked Dylan. "What do you mean there's nothing there?"

"Everything's been erased. The AI, her memory core, backup programming, basic ship functions, everything. There's not a scrap of data left in there."

"That's why they came on board," Beka said suddenly. "They didn't want anybody who might find the Valkyrie later to know who they were, or why they wanted her and her crew dead."

"Or what she was doing when they found her," Dylan added softly. "This is beginning to get a lot more complicated that I had planned for."

"Dylan, remember after we found the Pax Magellanic and I told you to throw me in the brig if I ever mentioned going after another High Guard ship?" Beka asked.

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you do it this time?"

He shrugged. "Because, like you, I'm too curious for my own good."

She nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of."

"So I take it we're not done here," Rommie put in. "I'm all for finding out what happened, but I don't know where else we would look. Whoever attacked the Valkyrie did a thorough job."

"Let's head deeper into the ship," Dylan suggested. "Who knows; we might find something."

"I'm beginning to wish I had brought Trance along after all," Beka muttered. "She would know where to look."

The three carefully made their way out of command, and started in the opposite direction of the one they had come from. Away from the light of the stars and the system's brown dwarf, the interior of the ship started to get very dark again. No matter how high he turned up the intensity of his lights, it seemed to Dylan that he could never see more than a few feet ahead. Strangely, he found himself hoping that all of the crew had died before the ship lost power; it would have been a terrible way to die, alone in this utter dark, being hunted by a ruthless enemy.

He led the other two down several different corridors. As they went, they poked their heads into various compartments and rooms. Everywhere, it was the same. Everything of any use had been taken or destroyed. It seemed that the fighting had raged everywhere. Almost every bulkhead and door had battle damage. In some places, massive explosions had torn through decks and ceilings to create gaping holes that spanned several levels of the ship. They carefully made their way around these, sometimes forced to backtrack and find another route.

Finally, they found their way blocked by a large set of double doors. They had been scorched and burned until they were almost solid black, but they held firm.

"This is what I was looking for," Dylan said as he played his lights over it.

"The slipstream core," Beka breathed. "Of course. If anyone survived to make a last stand, this is where they would have gone."

"Looks like the intruders tried to get through here," Rommie said, "but I don't think they were successful."

"Any way you can get these doors open, Rommie?" Dylan asked.

The android set her case of spare battery cells and other equipment down next to an access panel. "Just give me a second." She pried the panel off and started pushing aside wires and tubing. She pulled out a cylindrical part and tossed it aside, then pulled a battery out of her case and snapped it into place. She crossed half a dozen different wires, and, as sparks flew briefly, the doors started to grind open. They stopped after moving only a meter or so. "That's the best I can do," she said. "The bulkheads to either side are warped from the heat of the attack. That's as far as they'll go."

"Good enough," Dylan said. Turning his lights up as high as they would go, he started into the dark slipstream core. Beka and Rommie were close behind. He stopped just inside and looked carefully around, using his lights to try to find a safe route.

To their left, the catwalk that led to the main control center of the core and been blown away. The one to their right seemed shaky, but it held when Dylan stepped carefully onto it. As he advanced out over empty space, he couldn't see the long drop below him, or the vast maw above him, but he could feel it. It was almost as bad as staring into a black hole. Overhead, he could sense the massive bulk of the generator arms that would have powered the frigate's slipstream core. They were cold and silent now.

He reached the main catwalk and started toward the control station that he knew would be near the middle. Behind him, Beka started onto the first catwalk, unwilling to try her weight combined with Dylan's at the same time. Rommie stayed near the doors, as if standing guard.

Dylan had almost reached the control station when he stopped suddenly. He crouched a bit, trying to get his lights to focus better on what he had seen. "Uh, ladies?" he said slowly.

The catwalk shifted with a creak as Beka approached from behind. "What is it? What do you see?"

He didn't turn toward her, but ran his lights along the length of the leg sticking out from behind the control center. "I think I just found one of the crewmembers."

Beka winced inside her helmet. "Or what's left of one, anyway."

"Stay here; I'm gonna take a closer look."

"Yeah, right," Beka retorted. "What do you think I am, a wuss?" She started after him.

Dylan didn't answer; all of his attention was focused on the body ahead. As they neared, he could see it was a Human female. She was wearing a scorched and tattered High Guard officer's uniform, and gripped in one lifeless fist was a fully extended force lance. However she had ended up dying, it was obvious she had been in the thick of the fighting.

"The Captain?" Beka asked, her voice breaking into his thoughts.

"Could be," Dylan replied as he crouched next to the body. "I don't see any kind of rank insignia. The atmosphere in here must have been lost shortly after she died. Her body's perfectly preserved."

The catwalk shook slightly as Rommie started toward them, but the two Humans didn't look up.

Beka knelt on the opposite side of the body, leaning over it face as she studied it. "It doesn't show any signs of decompression. I'd say she suffocated in here."

Dylan bit back a curse. "They couldn't get at her with a direct assault, so they overrode life support controls and took away her oxygen. As if she would have lived much longer in here anyway."

"They were cowards, whatever else they –" Beka's words cut off suddenly as one of the fallen woman's hands reached out to grab her by the lower edge of her helmet, pulling her close.

Her eyes snapped open, only instead of being human, they were black as obsidian. "This is your last warning," she hissed. "Get off my ship."

Her grip suddenly loosened, and Beka nearly fell backward in her haste to move away. "What the heck!" she exclaimed.

Dylan pulled out his force lance, but the body had already gone still again. "Okay," he said slowly, rising and backing away. "That was... weird."

Beka brought a hand up to her neck, as if making sure that she wasn't missing anything. "I've heard of the Bokor taking control of people who have just died, but High Guard crewmembers who have been dead for three years is something entirely new in my book. And what did she mean by our last warning? I don't like the sound of that."

Dylan glanced to his left as Rommie arrived next to him. "She's not dead, Beka," the android said. "She's the Valkyrie Hammer's avatar. She's an android, like me."

"I thought you said the AI had been erased," Dylan protested.

"She must have found away to isolate herself from the virus," Rommie replied. "Her own programming seems intact, but after three years without a reliable power source, she's running pretty low on energy. She's conserving it; that's probably why she's not proceeding to kill us right about now."

Dylan took a few steps closer to the prostrate android as a sudden idea occurred to him. "Rommie, do you think it's possible that she's got copies of her memory core in her own processors?'

"It's likely." She looked to Dylan doubtfully as she started to realize what he was intending to do. "But she would need a stable operating platform before she could do any sort of data transfers."

"Like a new ship?"

"Yes. Why, what are you thinking?"

"Well, I doubt two avatars on one ship would get along too well," Dylan replied thoughtfully, "so that would rule out the Andromeda." He glanced at Beka and grinned. "Haven't you always wanted a new AI for the Eureka Maru?"

Beka caught on to what he was thinking and grinned back. "Oh yeah."

"Would it work, Rommie?" Dylan asked.

Rommie shrugged. "It might. But Harper won't be back for several days yet, so I can't be sure how long it would take, or even everything that would be involved in the process."

"I think we can handle it," Beka replied. "Come on, let's get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps. Rommie, you'll probably have to carry her. No offense, but you androids weigh a ton."

Dylan patted Rommie on the shoulder as she looked crestfallen. "Like I said, useful to have around," he grinned.

Rommie just gave a sigh of exasperation as she knelt to pick up the fallen android. "It's so nice to be needed," she said sarcastically as she rose and started to follow the others out of the slipstream core.