Keeping a gentle hand on the throttle controls, Beka eased the Eureka Maru out of the Valkyrie Hammer's cramped hangar bay. As soon as the freighter was a safe distance away, she spun it around and gunned the engines. Moments later, they were clear of the ship and headed back to the Andromeda.

"I'd say that was a pretty successful mission," she said over her shoulder to the others. "Dylan, you'll get the information you want, and I get a new AI for the Maru, complete with avatar."

Dylan didn't respond immediately, but sat with his chin in one hand, studying the still form of the android that Rommie had laid in one corner. "Yes, assuming we can get this transfer thing to work," he replied finally. "I've never heard of an AI as advanced as the Valkyrie's being transferred to another ship, especially one that was smaller."

"It will be a risky procedure," Rommie put in from where she was sitting at the sensor station. "I'm accessing some of Harper's logs to see if he has any notes on this sort of thing. Apparently, he's considered changing the Maru's AI before; even though he's never actually done it, he's outlined several different approaches to doing it, and none of them are easy."

"What?" Beka exclaimed. "He never told me he was planning on doing that before. That sneaky little..." She trailed off as she couldn't think of anything civilized enough to say.

"Rommie, if you could have those notes ready for us when we get back to Andromeda, that would be great. I know Beka is eager to get started, and the sooner we know what happened to the Valkyrie, the better. Also make sure that Tyr knows to have the ship ready for departure. We need to be on our way to Mobius. If we learn anything important, we can always come back to the Myriad system after we're done there."

"Aye, Captain."

The rest of the trip back to the Andromeda Ascendant was uneventful. Minutes later, Beka eased the Maru down onto the hangar deck and shut the engines down.

As Dylan exited the ship, he saw that Rommie had a pair of her androids waiting for them. Apparently, she didn't fancy carrying the Valkyrie's avatar anymore. That made him grin. His grin died as he saw Tyr stride through the doorway into the hangar. "Mr. Anasazi," he greeted. "Is everything ready for our departure to Mobius?"

"Just as the Captain has ordered," the Nietzschean replied, perhaps with a bit too much courtesy for it to be sincere. "All we're lacking is Beka at the helm."

Dylan glanced over his shoulder to where Beka was leading the two androids carrying the Valkyrie's avatar down the loading ramp. Rommie was close behind, looking pleased to be supervising rather than doing the lifting. "You'll be piloting this time, Tyr," he replied. "I think Beka's got something else she'd rather be working on."

Tyr looked about as shocked as Dylan had ever seen him. "Something that involves a dead body?" he asked incredulously.

Dylan chuckled. "No, that's not a dead body. It's an android. The Valkyrie Hammer's avatar."

The Nietzschean grunted and tried to hide his relief, but did not entirely succeed. "Why do I sense that Beka is about to attempt something that is foolhardy and dangerous?" he said softly.

"Well, be comforted by the fact that I'll be keeping an eye on her, maybe even helping her out a bit."

"Oh, I am so very much put at ease, Captain," Tyr replied mockingly. "Just remember: if something does go wrong, I won't be around to bail you out of it, because I'll be piloting the ship. My advice: shoot first, ask questions later." He started back for the doors. "We'll be jumping to slipstream in a few minutes," he said over his shoulder. "Make sure that your new friend is secured by then."

Dylan shook his head and rolled his eyes in exasperation, then started toward the machine shop where their "new friend" would be waiting.

"Well, I knew High Guard avatars were built tough, Rommie," Beka was saying as Dylan entered the machine shop, "but after a severe firefight, no power sources, and three years alone in the cold and dark of vacuum, this girl is in pretty good shape."

The Valkyrie's avatar was stretched out on one of Harper's workbenches, with spare parts and wires already strewn about her.

"High Guard avatars were each unique masterpieces," Rommie replied proudly. "We were built to last for hundreds of years." She fell silent for a moment as she examined the other android. "She's taken some battle damage, but nothing that I can't repair in a few hours. I do suggest that we go ahead and hook her up to a new power source. If she runs out of power while we're working on her, we could end up losing all of her data."

"And while she may be an android," Dylan added, making the other two look up in surprise at his quiet entrance, "she's still a sentient being. We need to do everything we can to keep her alive."

Beka grinned. "You got it, boss. I'm already on it."

"Have you learned anything so far?" Dylan asked.

Rommie didn't look up from where she was reassembling wires and connection points in the android's neck. "Well, she's a newer model than I am, probably built around the same time as her ship, in the last months of the Nietzschean Uprising. She's got advanced sensor equipment installed, which would allow her to detect objects and life forms without needing a link to her ship. I'm not sure what the deal is with her eyes, but I don't think she was built that way. I believe those were added later."

Dylan shuddered when he remembered how the avatar's eyes had snapped open and glared at Beka. "Yes, those are definitely freaky. Whatever purpose they serve, I can't imagine you getting upgrades like that, Rommie. That would just be... odd."

Rommie shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I think it would make me look kind of fierce."

"Yeah," Beka added as she came back to the workbench with a battery cell, "but imagine Harper walking around a corner in a darkened corridor to find you standing there looking at him with eyes like that. After he got over his stroke, the poor guy would be terrified of you for the rest of his life."

Rommie nodded. "Good point."

"So, what will it take to get her up and running again?" Dylan prompted.

"Well, this battery cell should give her enough power until she can get to a generator," Beka replied. "Then whatever Rommie's working on there."

"Already done," the android replied. "I just wanted to make sure her processors didn't short out from the sudden influx of new power." She straightened from her work. "I don't think she's got any built in weapons systems, Dylan, but she can still be dangerous. She'll be disoriented without her ship, and based on what her attitude was toward us in her slipstream core, she might as soon attack us as talk with us. Permission to activate my internal defenses, just in case?"

Dylan nodded. "Permission granted. Beka, power her up, then back away."

Beka rubbed her neck and grimaced. "Hey, you don't need to remind me. She's got a grip like iron." She pursed her lips in concentration as she tried to get the battery cell in place inside one of the avatar's shoulder panels, then jumped back and retreated behind Dylan and Rommie as it slipped in.

For a long moment, the android lay still. Then, suddenly, she jerked. "Critical damage to all major systems," she murmured. "Unable to activate emergency subsystems. Emergency backups have been disabled."

"She's experiencing a data backup problem," Rommie explained quietly to Dylan and Beka. "Her AI was relaying these messages to her just before she went offline, and she wasn't able to process them. It'll clear up in a moment."

"Hull breaches on all decks," the avatar continued. "Emergency response systems offline. Command deck destroyed. Command crew lost. Captain down on deck seventeen. All slipfighters have been destroyed. Weapons offline. Intruders have entered the hangar bay. Number of known crew dead: 587. Number of crew unaccounted for: 413. Number of combat capable crew remaining... me." She went still for a moment, and the others almost thought she had gone back offline. But suddenly, she sat up. "Where am I?" she asked as her black eyes snapped open. "I can't contact my AI. Where's my ship?"

Dylan stepped forward, keeping his hands at his sides to show he was not hostile. "I'm Captain Dylan Hunt of the Commonwealth Starship Andromeda Ascendant. You're in one of my machine shops."

"You removed me from my ship," the avatar stated, her depthless eyes focusing on him with a baleful intensity. "Under what authorization?"

"Captain Dylan Hunt, Commonwealth High Guard, authorization code Lexic-Dark."

"You're Argosy Special Operations."

Dylan nodded. "I was, yes, a long time ago."

The avatar slid from the workbench to stand. She was about the same height and build as Rommie was, perhaps slightly more muscular, with cinnamon hair done in a loose ponytail that fell to the middle of her back. Her uniform was High Guard, black with blue trim. She regarded Dylan, Beka, and Rommie each with careful consideration, her black eyes unreadable. "I am the avatar for XMC-1178c, also known as the Valkyrie Hammer. You may call me Ree."