"Trance?" Dylan asked softly.

The Avatar held her hand up in a wait-a-minute gesture and Dylan watched as she moved closer to the young woman who looked a lot like her.

"So you didn't just cross realities, you crossed time as well?"

The woman who claimed to be Trance's daughter nodded in answer to her mother's question. "I had to. The Abyss has almost completely destroyed my reality. Of the ones I could get to, this reality had the best chance of being your 'one perfect possible future'. I came to give you a better chance at surviving that attack so you can stop the Abyss."

"I haven't had you yet," Trance said softly.

"You never will," Trance's daughter answered. "You had me when you were purple. I won't ever be born in this reality. And my name is Alura."

"Alura," Trance tested, smiling, "after my great-grandmother." Alura nodded. "You're Nietzschean."

Alura glanced down at her own arm spines. "Yes. Well, only half, of course."

"And your father?"

A cloud seemed to pass over Alura's face at that. "He's dead, and I'd rather not discuss him. He raised me, but... Let's just say that it's not important for you to know about him."

"Okay, if you don't want to talk about him and he's dead here anyway, we don't have to discuss it."

"Thank you for understanding."

Dylan watched the interplay between mother and daughter, then glanced at Telemachus. His Nietzschean Lieutenant was watching Alura with open interest, studying her face and occasionally glancing at her arm spines. When the conversation between mother and child lulled, Telemachus took a step forward and cleared his throat. Alura turned her head to look at Telemachus, sweeping him from head to foot with her gaze before inclining her head slightly.

"Telemachus Rhade, out of Majorem by Rhade."

Alura opened her mouth and closed it again before saying, "Alura, daughter of Trance Gemini."

Dylan knew it wasn't the standard Nietzschean greeting, but Alura wasn't a standard Nietzschean.

"Are you at least going to tell us what Pride you're from?" Telemachus asked.

"No."

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Her answer was short and brooked no argument. For a moment, Alura felt bad about being so abrupt, it wasn't Telemachus Rhade's fault that her background wouldn't inspire warm fuzzy feelings in the crew. But it wasn't her fault either. She hadn't chosen what and who she came from. Alura turned back toward Dylan and smiled.

"Captain Dylan Hunt of the High Guard warship Andromeda Ascendant. It is an honor to finally meet you."

She stepped forward and grasped the inside of his forearm. Although she could sense his surprise, both at how strong her grip was and that she had used this ancient variation of the handshake, Dylan completed the physical greeting before he seemed to realize what she said.

"We hadn't met in your reality?"

"I was born on the Andromeda and I assume you may have seen me a few times as an infant, but I was raised mostly planet-side, away from the immediate danger inherent to being a member of your crew."

"Well, then, I'm glad to finally meet you too."

Dylan smiled warmly at her, and Alura knew it was because her mother had so easily accepted who she was that Dylan now accepted her. Trance was important to Dylan, although just how important in this reality Alura wasn't sure. Since Dylan didn't show any signs of being upset that Trance had given birth to someone else's child, it was easy to guess that they didn't have a physical relationship. Or maybe they just hadn't reached that stage in their relationship yet.

In her reality, Trance had decided to remain by Dylan's side and die with her love in the fight against the Magog rather than leaving to find another way to destroy the Abyss. They had both died when she was ten, which was the main reason she had never met Dylan until now.

The holograph Andromeda appeared beside Dylan. "Captain, Harper has slipstream back and all the Magog on sensors are dead."

"Thank you, Andromeda. Tell Beka to take us out of here before we get any more uninvited guests."

"Aye, Captain."

Dylan turned back to her, and Alura was slightly embarrassed to be found biting her lip nervously. Dylan smiled gently at her, letting her know that his uninvited guests remake didn't apply to her. Alura took a fortifying breath, hoping she wasn't about to ask too much of this man.

"Captain Hunt..."

"Please. Call me Dylan," he interrupted.

"Dylan." She took another breath. "I would like to ask if you could possibly drop me at the nearest repair drift. I have money for whatever you deem is fair compensation, but my ship isn't going anywhere until I can build a replacement core. It will have to be a place that rents rooms since I can't stay on the ship without a life support system, but that shouldn't be too hard to find, right?"

"Harder than you'd think," Telemachus answered her. "Especially now that we can't go to any of the Commonwealth-run repair drifts."

Alura nodded, "I had forgotten about that."

"Don't worry about it," Dylan said. "You're welcome to stay onboard as long as you need to."

"And I'm sure Harper could help you put together a core, I don't think even he knows how many components he has down in engineering," Trance told her.

Alura thanked them both.

Rommie, who had remained silent until that moment, asked, "Why doesn't your ship have an AI? When I scanned the ship, there were traces of an inactive one."

"I had to turn Danny off and store his backup in a plastic container so he wouldn't be erased. I can't reinstall him until the ship is running again."

"Danny?" echoed Rommie.

"Short for Dance Among the Stars," Alura explained.

"Well," Dylan said, "Rommie and Rhade, the two of you should get back to the bridge. Tell Beka that Trance and I are getting Alura settled."

Rommie and Rhade acknowledged Dylan's orders and left the hangar bay. Dylan turned to Alura and smiled.

"Why don't you get your things from the ship, we'll find you a room, and then Trance and I can give you the grand tour."

"Thank you, Dylan."

Alura went into the Dance quickly and got the bag she had already prepared for this eventuality. Passing a hand over the trunk she would have to have help with, she glanced around the area, making sure there weren't any obvious clues anywhere as to where she had built the Dance and where she had lived since she was fourteen. There were none, and she sighed with relief. She didn't know how anyone in this ship would react to that knowledge, and she didn't know them well enough yet to risk it.

"Ready?" Dylan asked when she came back out.

"Yes, there's a trunk and my plants that will need to come out, but this is all I need for now," she answered.

Dylan smiled and glanced at Trance, "Is an affinity for plants part and parcel of being an Avatar?"

Trance smiled, "Most of us like plants."

"We'll have Andromeda send some of her bots to get your other things once we've found you a room," Dylan told Alura.

"Thank you again, Dylan," Alura said sincerely.

"You're very welcome, now, on with the tour."