Child of the Sun Chapter 5, an andromeda fanfic

Author's Note: Italics signify thought or emphasis.

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After completing his morning rituals of washing up and stretching, Telemachus Rhade formulated a plan to move ahead in his decision to learn more about the newest member of the Andromeda's crew. It had been a week since Alura had saved them from the Magog. She had settled in quickly, the disruption to the way that things had been done in the months he had been onboard minimal. She wasn't an official member of the crew, but she occasionally helped Harper with engineering problems, and she often worked with her mother in the medical bay.

The only time she had sought him out had been when she had delivered her startling apology. She had only been on the bridge once when Dylan had given her the grand tour of the Andromeda, and Telemachus occasionally wished she had been given a task to accomplish there so he could see her more often. As it was, they sometimes passed in the halls and were usually in the mess for meals at the same time. There was no way he would be able to get closer to her if things continued this way. Telemachus decided it was best not to examine his immediate and strong need to know her better.

"Andromeda, please locate Alura."

"Alura is currently on the observation deck," the usually stoic holographic female reported.

Telemachus raised an inquiring eyebrow at the perplexed look on the AI's face.

"It is unusual for someone to be in my systems that has only one name."

Telemachus smirked. "What about yourself?"

"No. I am the Andromeda Ascendant. Two names. My android is listed as Rommie Harper."

"Mr. Harper's idea?" Telemachus asked.

"Yes. I have been meaning to ask Dylan to change that."

"Well, if it really bothers you, you can always list her as Alura Gemini. She is Trance's daughter after all."

Andromeda nodded thoughtfully. "I will ask Trance if she would not mind."

"Oh, and Andromeda, be careful about changing how the android is listed. Harper might 'accidentally' make one of your systems go haywire."

The holograph grimaced her understanding and disappeared, and Telemachus left his quarters, heading in the direction of the observation deck. He wondered for a moment if he should have asked the AI if Alura was alone, but then dismissed the notion. Trance and Dylan were the only ones who really used the room other than in an official capacity, and they were both on duty right now, Dylan on the bridge and Trance in medical.

The observation deck had a door that only shut in emergencies such as a hull breach, so he walked right through the large arch that made up the doorway. Telemachus paused a few feet into the room to study the woman before him. She was dressed in a black cotton tank top and slightly loose fitting black cotton pants. Her feet were bare, and he was fascinated to note that her toenails were silver, just as her fingernails were. Her dark blue hair was pulled up into a ponytail. She was standing with her feet shoulder width apart, her knees slightly bent. Her body was turned slightly away from him, her head turned to her right.

Alura's right arm was extended straight out from her shoulder, her palm perpendicular to the floor. Slowly, her left hand journeyed across and beyond the front of her torso in a pushing motion to join her right hand. Together, her two hands rose above her head and then faced each other to push down and outward until they reached waist level. He continued to watch her slow, graceful movements until her soft voice reminded him that he was not the only one in the room with a Nietzschean's heightened sense of awareness.

"It's impolite to stare," she told him, a hint of humor lacing her voice.

Telemachus ignored the accusation, as he was sure Alura meant him to. "What are you doing?"

Alura dropped her arms and turned to look at him. "Exercises to focus my mind and body. It's a variation of Tai Chi, an ancient Chinese martial art form from Earth. But it doesn't really work when I'm being watched."

"I apologize," he said, dipping his head in a small bow. "I will leave you to it."

"No."

Telemachus looked askance at her and thought he saw her blush, the slight warming purple against the light blue of her cheeks. It was most becoming.

"I meant that there is no need. I could not concentrate even before you came in. Someone used to do the routine with me. I haven't been able to achieve perfect focus since I've been on my own..."

"You're not alone now," he interrupted.

A muscle jumped in her jaw and she would not meet his gaze. When she simply shrugged, he decided to let it go for now.

"I simply meant that I will leave if you would like to use the room yourself," she finished.

"Actually, I came to ask if you would like to spar with me."

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It was Alura's turn to dip her head, and when she looked up at him, her eyes were happy. "I would be honored."

Nietzscheans, especially the males, did not offer to practice with other races. They were, of course, very serious about staying in shape, and what good would come of sparring with a member of a lesser race? Even one who was part Nietzschean? Once the bloodline was polluted, you were no longer considered a true Nietzschean. Some looked at it as even worse, an abomination, something not meant to exist. There weren't very many part-Nietzscheans, and those not terminated before birth or killed right after were usually sold into slavery, treated even worse than the kludges, ordinary humans. Even her teachers had refused to work directly with her, recruiting human slaves to do the exercises with her instead. Her father had never objected. Sometimes she had wondered why he hadn't killed her when she was born.

Telemachus hesitated, and Alura's eyes clouded over. She had thought he was different. Had she been wrong? Had he just remembered what she was? Looking down at her blue-and-silver-skinned hands, she didn't see how it was possible to forget.

"Could you teach me first?"

Her head came back up. What could she possibly teach him that he would want to learn?

"Tai chi?" she asked.

Telemachus nodded. "Perhaps if you had someone to do it with, you could once again achieve your focus. We can do a trade. Before each of my duty shifts, we can combat train for an hour and practice Tai Chi for another hour."

"I would like that very much, if you're sure it wouldn't be too much trouble."

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Telemachus wondered again about Alura's father. Had the man, whoever he was, truly treated her like a second class citizen, or worse? From all of his observations thus far, he was sure it was true. And what about her mother? The Trance Gemini he knew would not let anyone be treated that way, let alone her own flesh and blood. Alura was an amazing woman, no matter what race she was, and he was determined that she would soon believe it herself. But something told him to go slow with her, to let her accept things in her own time.

Realizing she was still waiting for an answer, Telemachus smiled. "I believe we will both benefit from this."

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Alura walked to her room, lost in thought. Telemachus had given her his duty schedule an hour ago and they had agreed to start their arrangement the next day. In a way, she was nervous. She had worked out nearly every day of her life, but she hadn't sparred with a Nietzschean since before her father had died. She had only been eleven at the time. Was she good enough to keep up with Telemachus? She could only wait until tomorrow to find out.

"Alura!"

Alura blinked and stopped walking. Someone had been calling her, more than once she was sure. She turned around and smiled gently when Harper caught up, slightly out of breath. She must have been walking very fast.

"Yes, Harper?"

Harper held out a flexie to her and she took it. On it were plans to block off some of Andromeda's memory from her main systems to enable them to activate another AI without risking the second AI taking over the ship.

"Rom Doll thought you might be able to better check the damages to the Dance if Danny could help her with the scanning," he said when he caught his breath.

"Thanks, Harper, but there's no need to use any of Andromeda's systems for that. Danny has an emitter that works separate from the Dance. I was just waiting for a better time for you to help me, you've been so busy this week."

Harper made a sweeping gesture with his arm as they started walking down the hall again. "Thanks to you, I'm all caught up, at least until the next disaster. Everything else is just special projects I work on when I have the time. We could get started now if you want."

Alura nodded, "Okay, we'll just swing by my room and pick up Danny first."

Harper nodded and slid the flexie into a pocket of his pants. "What had you so caught up before?"

"I'm supposed to begin training with Telemachus tomorrow and I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up."

"Nietzscheans," Harper muttered. "No offense."

It was not the first negative remark she had heard him utter about Telemachus or Nietzscheans in general.

"You grew up on Earth, didn't you?" Alura asked, suddenly remembering the main reason Harper didn't get along too well with Nietzscheans.

"Yeah, after the Magog killed or made incubators out of most of my family and friends, the Drago-Katzoff enslaved the rest."

They had reached her room and Harper followed her inside.

"You must not have been a personal slave," she commented as she opened a drawer under the bed, pulling out a device about the size of her palm.

"Nah, I was a worker. How did you know?" he asked.

She peeled back the edge of her right leather gauntlet at the wrist, revealing a scar that could only have come from the manacles worn by a household slave. The scar was a solid line occasionally marred by dots and slashes that came from the metal wires and spikes inside the outwardly pretty cuffs that were tightened by a remote button whenever the slaves' master felt like punishing them.

"You were a slave?" Harper asked in shock.

Alura nodded, "I was sold after my father died. If you think that's bad, you should see the scars on my back."

"I can't believe you were a personal slave and you're still making friends with Rhade. I don't know how I'd stand being on the same ship as him if I were in your place."

Household slaves took the brunt of hatred and abuse from their masters since their work wasn't as physically difficult as that of workers. If someone limped or could only see through one swollen eye, it wasn't as detrimental to the workforce if all they were doing was cleaning and cooking.

"Telemachus doesn't own slaves," Alura said gently. "He doesn't really look down on humans, either, otherwise he wouldn't be on this ship."

"You have a point there," Harper relented. "But if he does ever hurt you, let me know and I'll... well, I'll have Dylan beat him up for you."

Alura laughed and Harper smiled. The sound was infectious, a lot like Trance's laugh. But he hadn't heard his dear friend laugh in a very long time. Not since she had been young and purple.

"Did you ever have a tail?" Harper asked suddenly.

Alura laughed again. "No, I have always been as I am now. I should stay this way since I'm only half Avatar."

"Just thought I'd ask. Your mother used to love her tail and I've always been afraid to ask her what happened to it."

Alura smiled. "She outgrew it. The future she came back from was very violent and having a tail would have only gotten in the way, so she willingly chose not to include that attribute in her transformation into a full adult."

"How do you know all this? Do Avatars just know how it works?"

"I don't know if they do," Alura shrugged. "I'm not a full Avatar so I don't have the same abilities."

"Then how did you know about Trance? I thought in your reality she never stopped being purple."

Alura grinned. "I asked her."

Harper rolled his eyes. "Is that the emitter?"

"Yes."

"Then let's go check out the Dance." Harper paused. "Was it just me or did that sound like something from an ancient Earth teenie bopper movie?"

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Alura laughed again as Harper had hoped she would. They talked as they walked, Harper pleased to find that Alura knew a lot about ancient Earth pop culture. When he asked her where she got her information, she told him about the man who had bought her from her Nietzschean master and freed her. Hank had been from Earth, too, and had been obsessed with anything to do with it from before the time that Nietzscheans had existed and other species were known about.

They reached the hangar and walked over to the Dance, picking up flashlights Harper had already placed outside the open door in the Dance's side. Harper turned on his light, but Alura simply moved easily through the dim interior, obviously completely confident of every inch of her ship. Within a couple minutes they were in the room that housed the power core.

Alura set the emitter down and pressed a button at the bottom. The figure of a human male appeared in front of them, dressed much as Alura was. All in black with no insignia or other design that would help identify where he was from. Harper was surprised to note that he couldn't see through Danny. He was decidedly modeled after a human, which somehow didn't surprise Harper. Danny was average looking, about the same height as Alura with blue eyes and light brown hair. He also perpetually looked as if he were about to laugh. The holograph smiled at Alura.

"Glad to see you made it out of that mess, C..."

"Danny!" Alura barked. In a calmer tone, she continued, "May I introduce Seamus Harper, chief engineer of the Andromeda Ascendant."

"The Dance Among the Stars," Danny said with a flourish. "Are you going to help her get me up and running again?"

"That's the plan," Harper answered. "What were you going to call her?"

Alura sent Danny a stern glance.

Danny's blue eyes danced. "Captain, of course, what else would I call her? I guess now that it's just me and her she doesn't want me to be so formal. Is that it, Alura? "

"Mm-hm," Alura murmured. "Now, Danny, we need you to check the extent of the damage. Am I going to have to replace slipstream or did it turn off in time? Are there any other systems that need more than just the power turned back on?"

The holograph gave an almost human sigh. "Give me a minute."

Danny became translucent and a small connector attached itself from the emitter to the control panel Alura had set it on. Exactly one minute later, the metal data transfer wire zipped back into the emitter. Danny became solid looking again and smiled once more.

"Good news, only the power core appears shot. As soon as you build me a new one and rip the old one out, along with that EM converter, I should be running just fine."

Alura sighed and smiled. "Good, now turn back off, we don't want to fry your emitter with you still in it."

"The Divine forbid," Danny said. He waved and disappeared.

"Why did he go translucent when he was scanning the system?" Harper asked as they made their way back out of the ship.

"It takes a lot of power for him to appear corporeal. The emitter's power supply can only handle so much at once."

Harper nodded. "I don't suppose you were the one who built the emitter?"

Alura shook her head. "No, that I had to pay someone else to do. Cost a lot, too. I do have a spare you can take apart if you want."

"Seriously?"

They were off the Dance now and had returned the flashlights to a locker in the corner of the hangar.

"Consider it the payment for helping me with the power core. I would like it back when you're done, of course."

"Thanks."

"Sure," Alura said. "I'll bring it to the mess at dinner."

"Okay, I'll see you then."

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Preview: The crew of the Andromeda talk about their guest and Alura and Telemachus wrestle ;) !