Child of the Sun Chapter 12, an andromeda fanfic

Author's Note: Italics signify thought or emphasis.

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"You know that Tyr stole back the Progenitor's body from the Drago-Kazov Pride and that Dylan now has it locked up in one of the storage rooms, right?" Trance nodded and Alura continued, "What you may or may not know is that Tyr's DNA was altered to match the Progenitor shortly before he left the Andromeda. It's why he was able to unite all the Prides against the Commonwealth. But if he had tried to use the DNA from the Progenitor's remains for the procedure it wouldn't have worked. He needed live tissue."

"Then how..." Trance began.

Alura cut her off. "He used Drago's DNA. Drago Anasazi, son of Freya, is the genetic reincarnation of Drago Museveni. If he lives to adulthood, his destiny will be to unite the Nietzschean people. But not as a force against the rest of the universe as our father believed, but with it, for it."

Trance looked shocked, but she found her voice. "No wonder you wanted to protect him."

Alura shook her head. "That has nothing to do with it. Sometimes I don't think the Nietzscheans deserve to be saved from their current path of self-destruction. They don't deserve the gift that Drago will bring them. I saved Drago because he's my brother, and because I love him. I'm adopting him, and from now on, I will be his only family. I will make sure he has the life he wants to have, not one that is chosen for him."

"Of course, I didn't mean to belittle your feelings for him."

Alura shrugged dismissively again. "If that was all you wanted to discuss, I really should go relieve Telemachus. He has done enough for me already. I'm sure he wants to get back to his free time with Beka."

"That wasn't all of it," Trance said.

Trance let the comment about Telemachus and Beka slide. That was for her daughter and Telemachus to deal with.

Alura waited.

"Do you know the circumstances surrounding your conception?" Trance asked nervously.

"You mean the fact that you were drunk and I was a mistake? Yes, I know."

Trance looked disturbed. "Did I tell you that?"

All the light seemed to vanish from Alura's eyes. "No. My father took me from you before I was old enough to remember anything you might have said to me. The people in charge of training me from the age of five often talked about me as if I wasn't there. I found out a lot from them. When I was twenty I found what was left of the Andromeda and retrieved some of her memory files. They confirmed the story."

"Didn't I ever get you back?"

"You never tried."

Trance opened her mouth, but Alura continued on.

"I was angry with you for that for several years, but when I began hearing tales of the adventures of the Andromeda and her crew, I realized you probably left me with my father because you thought I would be safer. You must have felt that a ship was hardly the place to raise a child, especially a ship that seems to go looking for trouble. By the time my father died, everyone on the Andromeda had been dead for at least two years. And in any case, Nietzscheans are known for protecting their offspring at any price. You had no way of knowing my father would come to think of me only as a pawn and not a child." Alura finished softly, "I forgave you a long time ago."

Trance moved forward and embraced her daughter. After a moment, Alura hugged her back. Some of the tension went out of Alura's body and she shook slightly. Trance knew the only reason Alura didn't break down and cry was that she now had Drago to look after. She had to be strong for the boy who had been her brother and would now be her son.

When Alura eventually pulled away, Trance told her, "I will talk to Dylan about you and Drago staying for awhile. I'm not ready to lose you again."

"Thank you, Mother," Alura said.

"You're welcome, Daughter," Trance responded.

Alura hesitated and held up a viewing device. "I have the recording of what happened if you want to see it."

Trance's brows drew close together in a frown.

"Don't worry," Alura said. "I didn't record the intimate bits, just how it came about."

Trance shook her head, "That's not it, I was just... concerned about seeing a different version of me. I never had those kinds of feelings for Tyr in this reality. I cared for him, of course, but not that way."

Alura opened and closed her mouth before saying gently, "You didn't in my reality, either. Just watch."

Trance reluctantly took the device and held it in front of her. Moving to stand beside Trance, Alura pressed a button and said, "Play vid file TGTA01."

"V-file TGTA01 confirmed, commencing play," a tinny voice responded.

Trance watched as the screen came to life, showing a setting very familiar to her. Obs deck.

XX Begin V-File TGTA01 XX

Tyr was standing in the middle of the room, staring out the window at the stars, a bottle with an amber liquid in it half-empty in his right hand. A fairly large decorative cuff was hanging in his left hand, and Tyr was unconsciously caressing it with his thumb. He took a swig of the bottle's contents and heaved a sigh.

Purple Trance came into the room, a concerned look on her face.

"Here you are, Tyr. I could feel your pain even from the Maru."

Tyr glanced at the purple alien, then turned his gaze back to the window. Most likely realizing the gruff Nietzschean wasn't going to share as easily as that, Trance spoke again.

"What's wrong?"

Tyr took another swig of his drink and turned toward Trance, "If you are going to stay you have to drink too, little one."

Purple Trance smiled at the nickname and took the bottle when Tyr held it out to her. She sniffed the opening, her nose wrinkling from the strong alcoholic fumes.

"Drink it or leave," Tyr grunted at the look on her face.

Trance shrugged and tipped her head back, swallowing a fairly large gulp. She gasped as the liquid hit her throat. When she caught her breath, she took a smaller sip and handed the bottle back to Tyr, who smirked.

"Sit," the Nietzschean commanded.

Trance did so, almost falling over. She giggled, but covered her mouth when Tyr glared. The Nietzschean moved to sit beside her, and Trance pulled her tail out of the way just in time. She opened her mouth to berate him for the close call, but snapped it shut at the tired, sad look on his strong features.

"Have you ever left a loved one behind?"

"Yes," Trance answered softly, covering her mouth when a hiccup threatened to escape.

"A mate?" Tyr asked, his voice bitter.

"No," Trance said. "I have never been married."

"I have been married to Freya six months today, and I haven't seen her for nearly as long."

"I'm sorry," Trance said, knowing the words were inadequate.

There was a jump in the footage and in the next scene Tyr had his arm around the slender purple alien, who was leaning heavily into the muscular man's side. They both turned at the same time to say something to each other and nearly bumped noses. Trance giggled and one corner of Tyr's mouth lifted momentarily. His gaze fell to her rosy lips and stayed there.

Trance reached out and lightly combed her fingers through Tyr's dreadlocks. "I like your hair."

Trance giggled, but the sound was cut off when Tyr leaned further into her and kissed her, moaning her name gruffly in the moment before their mouths met. Her small hands rested lightly on his broad shoulders and his strong arms crushed her to him, moving caressingly over her back.

XX End V-File TGTA01 XX

"It was a one time thing, you were comforting him, and it went too far," Alura said after the device turned off. "You both agreed it was better just to be friends the next morning. A month later you told Dylan how you felt about him and the two of you began a relationship. When Dad found out you were pregnant a couple months later and that Dylan wanted to raise the baby as his, he decided it was time to leave the Andromeda. Two months after I was born, Dad came back and took me."

"I still can't believe I would have just let him leave with my child," Trance murmured.

Alura sighed. "You did, I have that vid file as well. Of course you didn't really want to, but Tyr was my father and he did have rights, and basically he pointed out how dangerous it would be for me on the Andromeda."

"And I just... handed you over?"

Alura bit her lip, admitting quietly, "Not until he threatened to fight for me. The Andromeda was no longer a welcoming place for him, and he was willing to go up against everyone on board to take me. When you realized how strongly he felt about having his daughter with him, you gave in."

Trance's eyebrows rose. "So he did care about you."

"At first," Alura allowed, sadness flooding from her.

But Trance knew that now was not a good time to make Alura relive more sad memories, so she let the moment pass in silence. When her daughter had pulled herself together emotionally, Trance smiled.

"I'll let you get back to Drago now, I need to go speak with Dylan."

Trance turned to leave, but Alura stopped her with a hand on her arm. There was a touch of nervousness in her gaze, and Trance wondered if there would ever be a time when her daughter would feel completely at ease on this ship.

"You can tell Dylan."

"Tell him what?"

Trance had a feeling she knew, but she wanted to give Alura an out if she really didn't want Dylan to know where she and Drago came from.

"Everything," Alura confirmed. "I know your relationship with him now is based on honesty and trust, and I don't want to be the reason that gets messed up. I'm not here to make anyone's life harder."

"You're not doing that, you've been a great help to all of us."

"I'd like to keep it that way," Alura said simply.

Trance smiled, "Thank you, then. I don't like hiding things from him."

Alura smiled back. Trance turned to leave again, but as she reached the door Alura added one last comment.

"Tell him the other truth as well, it's the most important truth he'll ever know."

Knowing exactly what her daughter meant, Trance threw a sad smile over her shoulder.

"I don't think he's ready to know that truth."

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The red-and-gold Avatar left the room. Alura waited a minute to compose herself completely before following suit. It had gone much better than she had expected, but it had still been a lot to get off her chest.

Entering her temporary quarters, which were too small to share with Drago for any significant length of time, Alura smiled when she heard Telemachus telling Drago a Nietzschean folk tale. The older male was sitting across from Drago on the one chair in the room. He had removed his jacket and force lance holster and placed them on a high shelf.

Drago was sitting on the edge of the bed, listening intently. When Alura sat down beside him on the bed after putting the vid player on the table, he moved onto her lap, his concentration on the story never wavering. Telemachus finished and Drago clapped appreciatively.

"Thank you for all your help, Telemachus. We wouldn't have made it out without you. I don't know how I'll ever repay you."

"You're more than welcome. And you have nothing to pay me back for. Everyone on this ship has owed you his or her life since the first time we met. And I helped you because I wanted to, not to pay you back or to earn a debt from you."

Alura smiled her acceptance of his statement. "We'll be okay now. You can get back to whatever you had planned with Beka. I know today is your day off."

"What would make you think I had plans with Beka?"

"This morning. You brought Beka to our session and asked if she could join us." Alura glanced down at the top of her brother's head. He was listening intently, and she felt guilty for a moment about biasing him against the other woman, but he was an intelligent child. He would have picked up on her animosity sooner or later. "If all this hadn't happened, I don't know how I would have gotten out of it. But now that I have Drago, I won't have time to teach her anyway."

"Alura."

She looked up and met his eyes.

"I didn't invite her, she asked. I still feel uncomfortable saying no to anyone who has seniority on this ship. I have to prove that I'm a good soldier who will follow orders. I would never invite anyone to join our sessions." Telemachus paused and looked at Drago. He got up from his chair and approached the child in a crouched position. "Except, maybe, a certain little boy."

Suddenly Telemachus was tickling Drago. The little boy laughed hysterically and slid off Alura's lap and onto the floor. Alura watched the older male tickle her brother, smiling at the happy sounds. Just before it reached the point when her brother would be all tickled out, Alura slid off the bed and knelt beside Telemachus. Instead of tickling her brother, she moved her fingertips lightly over the Lieutenant Commander's ribs. She caught him off guard, surprising a laugh out of him.

When Telemachus started to reach for her, Drago got up and tackled the two adults. All three of them ended up on the floor, Alura and Drago slightly on top of Telemachus. Brother and sister teamed up and resumed tickling Telemachus. Laughing, he put an arm around each of them and tickled them back.

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Trance went straight into Dylan's quarters, knowing he would be in the office that was the front room of the Captain's quarters, waiting for her. Once the Dance Among the Stars had been on its way back to the Andromeda, she had left the bridge without a word. He would be expecting an explanation from her. He had no idea how much Alura had given permission for Trance to reveal.

When she walked in, Dylan looked up and smiled at her. Trance smiled back, but her smile faded when she noticed the fear in his eyes. What did Dylan have to be afraid of? Evidently noticing her hesitancy, Dylan cleared his throat and motioned for her to sit down across from him.

"So, was she able to retrieve who she went down there for?" he asked.

"Yes, her half-brother, Drago. He's a very cute little boy."

"Is he half-Nietzschean as well?"

"No," Trance said softly. "He's full-blooded Nietzschean. Do you remember Freya?"

"I never met her, but vaguely. Orca Pride, Tyr's wife for a short time, the one he..." Dylan trailed off for a minute. His handsome, rugged face paled. "Tyr is Alura's father?"

Trance nodded timidly, not meeting his gaze head on, instead watching him carefully from under her lashes. He stared through her in shock, sinking all the way back in his chair. She quietly skimmed over the circumstances of Alura's conception, skipping the relationship with Dylan that Alura had told her about. No sense making it any more odd.

Dylan blinked and leaned forward in his chair.

Not giving him the chance to banish Alura and Drago from the ship before she had her say, Trance began to speak rapidly, "Alura is adopting Drago and now that the Dance is fixed she'll leave if that's what you want, but if she does, I probably will too, so we'll need to find a way to stay in contact if you have need of me later. If you do let them stay, at least for awhile, they'll need a bigger room, and really, it isn't their fault that Tyr was their father and the Andromeda is really one of the safest places in the galaxy right now with the worldship on the move and I don't think having Drago onboard will be a bad thing. He seems like a very sweet boy and..."

To Trance's surprise, Dylan's hands reached across the table and clasped hers tightly, stopping her stream of speech... and thought. Her lips parted and she lifted her head to look at him fully. Love was shining at her from his light blue eyes. Trance felt her heart beat faster and heat rise in her cheeks. Maybe Dylan already knew the most important truth of all.

"I don't want to lose you, Trance," he said softly, a plea in his eyes.

Or maybe not, she thought as she answered. If he really did know, he wouldn't even consider losing me a possibility.

"No matter where I am, Dylan, you'll never lose me," Trance assured, her voice as soft as his had been.

Until Dylan was ready to tell her that he loved her, it was better that he didn't know how strong her feelings for him had always been. They had a very good working relationship now, and a strong friendship and trust as well. It would just have to be enough for now.

Dylan leaned back in his chair again, but this time he was fully focused on her. "Would you really go with them?"

Trance looked away for a moment, fighting a sudden need to cry. Why did she feel like she was letting him down? She would certainly come running if he needed her for anything. He had a whole crew now, it wasn't as if she were leaving him alone. But the thought of not seeing him everyday, of not walking the halls or talking or just sitting in companionable silence, hurt more than she cared to admit.

"I don't know," she finally answered honestly. "But I'd rather not have to make the choice."

How do I choose between my daughter and the man I love? she thought.

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Dylan sighed after a minute of silent thought. "All right. They can stay."

Trance's head snapped up and she stared at him. "You mean it?"

"Yes. But if something happens that makes me think their safety or the crew's is in jeopardy because they're here, they will have to leave."

Trance jumped up and Dylan stood, assuming she was rushing off to tell Alura the news. To his surprise, she came around the table and threw her arms around him. Dylan closed his eyes to savor the sensation and hugged her back. She pulled back slightly and gave him a dazzling smile. The joy in her brown eyes was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.

It was impossible to tell which of them moved first, but their lips touched only briefly before Trance pulled back, darker color than normal tingeing her cheeks.

"Thank you, Dylan," she said softly and was gone.

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Dylan walked from his suite in the main living quarters to Alura's room in the guest corridor. He had decided to go ahead and have his own talk with Alura when Andromeda had informed him that Trance had gone straight to the Maru from his quarters. He knew Trance retreated to her old room there when she was feeling particularly emotional. He just hoped she wasn't regretting what had happened between them.

Trance had looked slightly embarrassed when she had left his office, and Dylan had had to compose himself for a few minutes so he could think of their very brief kiss without a silly grin on his face. Trance had come to mean a lot to him, but he had always felt he wasn't enough for her, even before he had learned what she really was. So he had never made a move or shared his feelings with her. The thought of her leaving the Andromeda certainly put a new spin on things.

Dylan was abruptly dragged from his thoughts when he realized he had almost passed Alura's door. He had just raised his arm to knock when the holographic Andromeda appeared beside him, a mischievous smile on her face.

"No need to knock, Dylan, I don't think they'd hear you anyway."

Curious, Dylan shrugged internally and simply walked straight to the door, knowing Andromeda would open it for him. When Dylan entered the room, he found a heap of three laughing Nietzscheans on the floor. Smiling, he cleared his throat. All three of them looked up at him, Telemachus looking at him upside down from his position on the bottom of the pile.

"Alura, I came to ask if you and Drago would like to join me for dinner."

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Drago launched himself off of Telemachus and stood in front of Dylan. "Can Telemachus eat with us too?"

Dylan smiled at the little boy who reminded him strongly of Tyr, at least in looks, and answered, "Of course."

You don't have to, Alura mouthed down to him.

Telemachus mouthed back, I want to.

Alura smiled at him, and then, realizing their faces were awfully close together and she was still lying half on top of him, she quickly got up. She noticed Dylan watching them with interest and blushed.

"We were just playing," she defended, not enjoying the feeling of defending herself to a parent figure.

"Is playing allowed?" Drago asked, concern tingeing the question.

The Matriarch had limited their playtime when they were young. Alura wondered for a moment how little playtime he had been allowed without her. Her mind flipped back to his room on Midden. There hadn't been a single toy. Their father had brought them a few during each of his visits in her reality. Why hadn't Drago had any?

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"Playing is definitely allowed," Dylan responded. "I myself like to play basketball."

"What's that?" Drago asked, curious as to what game an adult human male, and a famous warship Captain at that, would play.

Drago studied Dylan Hunt as they walked to the cafeteria, Alura and Telemachus behind them. He kept his attention on what the human was saying enough to absorb all of it, but internally he wanted to ask Dylan about his father. Olma and his guards had sometimes mentioned the High Guard Captain as someone who knew his father well. Now that Tyr Anasazi was dead, Alura, himself and another, older female - who chose to live in exile and tried to pass as human in order to survive - were the last of the Kodiak Pride.

When he and Dylan reached the cafeteria door, Drago glanced behind him. Alura immediately smiled at him. Telemachus did too, though not with as much love. But affection was evident in the male Nietzschean's gaze, and Drago wondered if it was because of his sister's choice to adopt him. Were she and Telemachus going to marry? That could make Telemachus a part of the Kodiak Pride and his adoptive father. Drago liked the idea.

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Preview: The next chapter will show everyone else's reaction to the news. Also, Alura and Drago get new quarters.