Prin69- Thanx!! What part of PA? I'm in the northeastern part, near Tunkhannock. LOL! I think Pish IS jealous of his hotness! :P thanx for the compliments on the AI, I spent a while figuring out what I wanted to do w/ her.

Oenone- thanx! Don't be so lazy! Think of it this way: Laziness is not something admired by Telemachus Rhade! :P Here's a tip: do karaoke to avril lavigne's cd, "Under my Skin". It always inspires me! :P

Author's note: 'Hashae' is pronounced 'Hash-ay'

Chapter 10

"You sure you wanna go back in there?" Beka asked.

"We need those coordinates," Harper replied, rubbing his dataport.

Beka put a hand on his arm. "Be careful."

Harper smirked. "Don't worry, I ain't gonna leave." He plugged himself in.

The Rose was still standing in the same spot he had left her, digital tear streaks on her cheeks. "What do you want?" she demanded. "I have no crew, no purpose, and my next captain, if I ever get one, will probably... erase me." She crossed her arms over her chest, fire in her eyes as if daring Harper to correct her.

"We need your help," Harper said. "A friend," –wasn't it odd now, that he considered the Nietzschean a friend?- "of ours was captured by the Collectors, and-"

"The Collectors!" the AI exclaimed angrily. "Do they do nothing but evil deeds?"

"It seems that way," Harper said. "Will you help us?"

Slowly, the Rose nodded. "I will give you the coordinates to the Collector base, if you promise, when this is all over, to make sure I get a good captain."

"Deal."

--------------- I just realized now that the lines I was doing before wouldn't show up on , so that's why there aren't any lines in the other chaps!

"The Hashae Nebula, huh?" Beka handed the flexi Harper had given her to Dylan. All the senior officers were on the Command Deck. A soothing green mist was floating everywhere, showing that Trance had circulated the cure throughout the ship. "Rommie, you got any info on that?"

Andromeda's image flickered onto the view screen. "The Hashae Nebula. Middle of nowhere, so therefore I don't have any information besides how long it will take for us to reach it in Slipstream."

"How long?" Dylan asked.

"Three days at least," Rommie said.

Dylan winced. "That long?"

"Then we don't have any time to waste," Trance said. "Let's go!"

---------------

Telemachus woke, no longer on the Collector's ship. He was in a small room, carved out of brown stone with a heavy steel door on one side. He was lying on the floor. The only thing in the room was what looked to be an old-fashioned toilet from Earth. He groaned, feeling the massive bruise on the side of his face. His whole body felt like it had gone skydiving and forgotten his parachute.

The door hissed open. "Good, you're awake." Pish said smoothly. Telemachus knew the Collector must have been monitoring his cell. "Are you ready for the next step?"

Telemachus narrowed his eyes as two guards stepped forward. As one bent to put inertial restraints on him, Telemachus suddenly lashed out with his boot, catching the man in the groin. Before he collapsed screaming to the floor, the Nietzschean had already driven his bone blades into the other man's throat. He faced Pish, bone blades dripping with blood. More guards boiled in, eventually overpowering the Nietzschean male and strapping restraints on him. With a thud! His hands fell hard to the deck, over balancing him. Telemachus kept fighting with his feet until one of the guards whacked him hard on the head. Telemachus collapsed as the guards retreated, leaving him surrounded by the bodies of the dead guards.

---------------

Telemachus woke sometime later, still on the floor where they had left him. They had cleared away the dead guards and cleaned all the blood off of him. A lot of good it does me, he thought. I'm being eaten alive by a bio-weapon. He was strapped down by inertial restraints now, so no matter how hard he tried he couldn't even lift his head.

Pish walked in, and Telemachus felt a sense of deja vu. "It's time," he said coldly. A guard walked in, obviously wary of the Nietzschean. Telemachus growled and he leapt back in terror. Telemachus laughed at the man as he nervously stepped forward again, putting a pair of headphones securely over Rhade's ears.

"Keep laughing, Nietzschean," Pish said. "When I'm done with you, you'll be begging to be first in line to kill Captain Hunt."

As the door hissed shut behind him, a calm female voice came from the headphones. "You are a traitor to the Commonwealth. You are a traitor to the Commonwealth..."

Author's note: Indoctrination, anyone? :evil look: stay tuned! maw-ha-ha! :P