Part 12

Rommie's POV


My fingers leave a trail in the fine dust on top of Trance's computer console. I really must turn up the filters in here. Trance just stormed out. She continues to surprise me. Her unnatural strength reminded me once again that she is far from human. What was she doing? What did she type? Damn, the screen is blank but for the cursor.

I slide into her seat and access the terminal. I will discover what she did. It's a violation of official privacy protocols and an invasion of a friend's personal privacy, but damnit, she acted so strangely. One can never tell when a biological lifeform is compromised. They are so delicate. My primary duty is to my ship, my self, to my captain, to the mission. I must access this terminal even if it means Trance never forgives me, even though it saddens me that she didn't just tell me what she was doing and save me the moral struggle of this decision.

**Entering terminal. Sorting codes.** My eyes close as the coding speeds past me.


~*~

"Andromeda! We're coming in hot!" Dylan's voice held a bright edge of terror. "Navigation and steering inop! Everybody, brace for impact!"

The Eureka Maru zooms toward my hanger bay.

**Deploy Maria bots with medical equipment and standard crash rescue equipment. Deploy crash capture netting in hanger bay to catch Maru and minimize damage. Run announcement.**

"Code Red. Code Red. Imminent crash in hanger bay 12. Prepare for systemic damage and fire. Code Red. Code Red...."

~*~

**Accessing internal link.**

"Andromeda, it's Rommie. What is wrong?"

"The Maru was damaged on the planet. Navigation has gone out. They will crash."

The conversation lasts less than a second, but already, I'm sprinting for the hanger bay. With Trance gone, I am their only hope of medical attention.

There is an explosion. The concussion slaps me through the air like a cat hitting a mouse. I slam against the bulkhead. There is no pain. I must reach the hanger bay. Are they hurt? Dead? Must reach them.

The inner door is stuck. Debris lies against it. Smoke. Sizzling. Blood. I detect blood! Must get through the door!

With a screech it yields to my fingers. I will get to them. Dylan? Dylan? If he's dead....

The Maru is mostly intact. The emergency net caught them and prevented horrible destruction. The cockpit has damage. It hangs open. I cannot see them. Must get inside.

**Accessing Maru computer system. Door controls. Maru, open your doors.**

Click. Whir.

The doors open. The stench of blood is strong.

"Dylan?" I call. There is no response. Fear bayonet's my internal sensors. "Harper? Tyr?"

"Rommie?" Andromeda asks. "Progress report?"

"Mild damage to the hanger bay and to the front end of the Maru."

"And?" She sounds worried.

"I haven't found them yet."

A groan. I detect a groan. I follow it. Harper lies against a bulkhead near the door. There is blood on his face. His arm appears broken. I kneel and cup his chin.

"Harper? Harper open your eyes and look at me."

"No, Ma," he slurs. "Too big a party las' night."

I wipe the blood from his face. He has a shallow cut to his forehead. "Harper, it's Rommie. Listen to me. The Maru crashed in the hangerbay. You have a cut on your forehead that will bleed a lot but isn't dangerous. A Maria will take you to medical to scan you for concussion. Your left arm is broken. The bot can start the repairs on that but it will take several days to heal. Do you understand?"

His eyes open, squinting in pain. I can see his pupils are normal -- a very good sign. He will recover soon from the blow to the head.

A Maria followed me into the ship. I motion her to gently carry him out. He's been through so much in his 27 years, that I want him far from any danger. The Maria takes him out past her sister bots who are spraying the tiny fires and salvaging the debris.

"Hey, wake up," someone whispers from the cockpit.

I gasp and crawl over the debris that rushed inward from the cockpit during the crash. There is less interior damage than I expected. I bent a steel strut up from the floor back into it's vertical position and proceed. A pinging sounds behind me. A door opening?

I proceed to the cockpit anyway. I will investigate the noise second.

The cockpit is a disaster. Smoke. Sparks. Wiring and transparent aluminum from the viewport lay in a tangled mess.

Suddenly, Dylan's head pops up, pale, dirty with smoke, spotted with blood. I can't help but cry out and laugh in relief. He is alive!

"Dylan!"

"Help me, Rommie. My leg's ... trapped. There's blood pooling in my boot. And Tyr... Tyr's unconscious. He has a pulse. Don't know what hit him." His words are labored. His heart races. His breathing is fast, shallow. He is injured.

I crouch down at Dylan's feet. His right leg is caught in a web of thin metal poles -- too strong, too sharp for a biological lifeform to move. "Hold still. This will take a moment." One of the needlelike poles has pierced his thigh close to the artery. If he moves, it will sever the artery and he will bleed to death in moments. I bite my lower lip and decide not to tell him. There isn't time. I snap them one at a time, as quickly as I dare without moving them. He groans in pain.

"Hold on," I order him fiercely. "You won't die."

"She wasn't there," he mumbles. His face is too pale. The tiny poles are slick with his blood. They slip in my fingers. "I lost her. First Sara, now Beka. I lost her. She wasn't ... there." His voice is fuzzy. His eyelids flicker.

"Stay awake. CAPTAIN! Stay. Awake. That's an order!" He's bleeding too much. Dying.

His eyes snap open. He takes a deep breath. I cut the last pole. It still protrudes from his thigh. If I move him, it will cut farther and sever the artery.

"Dylan, I have to pull the metal from your leg or it might kill you during the move. Do you understand?"

He nods. "Do it now. I'm just ... so ... tired. I'm sorry, Beka. I'm sorry ... never told you I --"

I pause, the shreds of my shirt in my hands as I tear it into bandage strips. He never told her? His pheromones fog the air and I know what he never told her. Tears sting my eyes. He doesn't love me. He never will. "Dylan!" I roar. "Stay awake! Do it for Beka! You have to save her!"

His eyes open, blue a sea of unfocused black.

I yank out the pole. He screams. I shove in the bandage, stopping the blood flow. He is awake, staring wildly about the cockpit. As I wrap the field dressing around his thigh, Tyr stirs beside us.

"Don't move, Tyr. I haven't assessed your situation yet."

"Assess yourself, ship."

I grin. Tyr is fine. "Injuries?"

"I've sustained worse in the exercise room."

"Good."

"I am, however, trapped. This damned restraint harness will not release."

I lay Dylan back in the clearest spot I can find, then scurry over to Tyr. Time is important were mortals are concerned. Tyr's hair covers his face as he tries to open the restraints.

"Allow me." I snap them with one yank. The buckles are twisted. When he looks up at me I take an involuntary step back. His face is scored with tiny cuts, a swollen mass of bruises, nose obviously broken and bleeding. Debris must have hit him head-on. "Tyr, your face..."

"Will heal. I have minor injuries. A broken nose, bruised ribs, tiny cuts from the broken view port. All minor and annoying." He stands, towering. His head sticks out through a hole in the demolished cockpit. "We have to find Beka before those bastards kill her."

Dylan gasps in pain behind us, but he is on his feet.

"Let's go," he growls through teeth gritted in agony."

"Tyr, help him get to Medical. I'll follow shortly. I need to investigate something."

"Something more important than --" his words trail off as he shakes his head, looking disgusted. He slips an arm under Dylan's and around his back, half-carrying the human out of the corpse of the Eureka Maru.

"Rommie." It is Andromeda.

"Yes?"

"The fires are contained."

"The Captain has injuries that may necessitate his being sedated."

"Rommie. I ... will have to cordon you off from my main systems."

"Why?" I pause in my search of the rear of the Maru.

"I feel ... strange. A self diagnostic shows some strange coding in my mainframe affecting navigation and sliproutes."

"Origin?"

"The terminal in Trance's quarters."

Damn. "So that's what she was doing -- keeping us from following her."

I turn and start toward the airlock. I must get the crew healthy -- fast.

Suddenly, something leaps out at me. I glimpse red eyes and dark scaly skin before sharp fangs sink into my shoulder. I toss the creature aside and whirl to face it. It's too fast. It slaps me across the chest, burying a spike protruding from its elbow deep into my chassis. Its image flickers before my eyes as my vision is compromised. It has hit my main power unit. I will be useless until my backup generator can power up and reboot my systems. I hope it doesn't kill me. I'm sorry, Dylan, that I've failed you again.

The last sound I hear before darkness falls is Andromeda's voice calling, "Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert."