Note from Dragon- This story is still going, I will continue to update as it comes. And thanks to the great reviews so far.

Part 21

Try's POV

"Fools, I was surrounded by fools." The Gorgonyte reeked of treachery. The rebel clan story
was an obvious lie; but Dylan had decided to trust the beast. Worse, he had ordered me to
interrogate it; and he meant me to gather the information gently before depositing the creature in
a confinement cell.

The thing was intelligent enough to look concerned that Dylan had left its questioning to me. Its
red and black eyes widened as I lifted my weapon and took aim. "So," I drawled, "tell me about
your shops' signatures. If I don't like what I hear, you start losing limbs."

"Your Captain no say you can hurt me," the beast whined.

I backhanded it, sending it flying backwards a few feet before it hit the med lab wall. "Do I look
like an obedient lap dog to you?" I responded. "You didn't answer my question. Better try
harder if you expect to live long enough to reach confinement."

"Tyr," Harper exclaimed, hopping from the table and grabbing one of my arms.

My eyes never left the alien as I said, "you may find recalibrating the sensors difficult with two
broken arms little man." As his hand dropped, I continued, "Perhaps you should gather your
equipment and find your way to the bridge to make preparations. I'll meet you there when I finish
with the prisoner."

Moving toward the door, Harper said, "Tyr, we need him."

"No child, we don't," was my cold reply as I ordered the andromeda to lock the door behind him.

"Ships make signatures fifth dimension," the creature began, all the while its four eyes searched
for an avenue of escape from me.

"No kidding," I smiled, "Tell me more."

"Combined circuts, organic, inorganic. Biologic mask sensor track." As it spoke, I moved to
the opposite side of the treatment table from it, opened a cabinet and took out a small hypo-
injector. I inserted the instrument into the medical treatment equipment and entered a password
that bypassed normal medical protocols.

"Just need modify sensors to search for biologic residue in the fifth dimension," the Gorgonyte
continued, its eyes darting back and forth as it watched my preparations warily.

Apparently fear of me improved its ability to speak rather than hampering it, just one more little
clue that it lied.

As I tapped my instructions into the computer, the hypo filled with a saline solution. Then I
added a radioactive marker. When the beast eventually betrayed us, I'd have no trouble tracking
it. The piece de resistance was the bandage I planned to use to cover the injection site. I pulled it
from my belt and placed it next to the hypo, both out of the creature's sight. My own design, the
adhesive contained an explosive compound. Set to my vocal patterns, the tiny sonic trigger
would detonate when I whistled at a specific pitch.

"What modifications did you have in mind?" I asked it while I worked.

"You give hand scanner. I show," the manipulative critter demanded.

"Sure," I grinned, pulling a spare scanner from a drawer. In one hand I held the scanner; in the
other I concealed the hypo-injector. I handed the scanner to the Gorgonyte with a word of
warning, "If I don't like what I see, you die."

While I watched, it entered code rapidly, reconfiguring the hand scanner in only a few minutes.

"Thank you for your cooperation," I said when it finished, patting it hard between the shoulder
blades as I did so to hide the feel of the hypo. "Look's like you've got an injury, I said when it
winced. "Let me put a bandage on that." Pretending to pull it from the drawer, I activated the
trigger on the explosive patch and slapped it across the creature's spine.

I smiled again, showing the beast my own teeth as I took it by the arm and walked it briskly to
confinement where I placed it in a maximum security cell.

Quickly I copied the information it had provided to a second hand terminal. Then I brought the
original to Harper who was pacing the bridge nervously.

"It's about time," he complained, "what took you so long?" Brushing his attempt at bravado
aside, I told him to stop complaining and get to work.

When it became obvious that Harper was having difficulty integrating the alien modifications with
Andromeda's circutry and my impatience was distracting him, I took the opportunity to return to
my quarters where I tried to locate the tracking signature from the slipfighter Trance had taken.
The only signals I could get were intermittent and garbled as if the signal were masked or the
transmitter damaged.

Finally I combined the intelligence I had copied from the alien with the tracking program. The
results surprised even me. I discovered not one; but many ships' signatures. "Rebel clan my ass,"
I muttered to myself, "Looks more like an entire fleet."

I secured a few additional weapons about my person before leaving my quarters and visiting the
torpedo bay where I replaced several batteries of standard torpedoes with modified cluster head
models.

Finally I headed back toward the bridge only to have the ship tell me to meet Dylan and Harper in
the AI core.

When I arrived, the two were moments away from erasing Andromeda and replacing her with
Harper at the Gorgonyte's urging. As usual, they ignored my warning and persisted in their
decision to deliver a crippled warship into the midst of the enemy. The prisoner was almost
beside itself with glee. Unwilling to be party to this idiocy and not wanting to permit the captive
an opportunity to learn the AI access code, I grasped the alien's arm and dragged it with me to
the command deck.

Shoving the Gorgonyte into a corner and ordering it to remain still, I proceeded to separate
weapons functions and helm control from the rest of Andromeda's systems. I had just finished
when the lights dimmed, Andromeda's face disappeared from the main screen and Dylan and
Harper entered command.

I had to give the little man credit. He was a fool; but he had guts. The strain of sifting through
the Andromeda's sensor data showed on his screen image; but he didn't quit.

I watched the captive closely as we entered the Tellemyte system. While it was distracted by
Dylan's questions, I connected the scanner containing my tracking program to the weapon's
console. Didn't want to blow up Beka and Trance when I took out the rest of the fleet.

I paid close attention to the Gorgonyte's targeting instructions and did the opposite. Since
weapons were on manual, the rest of the command deck inhabitants remained blissfully ignorant
of my preparations. When the alien fleet surrounded us, I was prepared. It didn't realize it yet;
but the beasts overconfidence was going to allow me to exterminate them all. I locked and armed
a spread of the cluster torpedoes I had loaded earlier.

As Harper reported receiving Trance's message and our arrogant alien prisoner slipped into a
conduit, Dylan took a few shots at it with his force lance and missed. Rattled, he abandoned the
helm momentarily and ordered Harper to take it, forgetting apparently that Harper was
overwhelmed just trying to maintain sensor information flow.

I ignored Dylan's order about defensive fire and launched a barrage of cluster torpedoes at the
thickest concentrations of ships, being careful to avoid the ship carrying the remains of Trance's
slipfighter. "Stay away from my weapons console Captain," I sneered, "and get back to flying this
ship. Or do you really think that Harper is a more capable pilot than you in a situation that calls
for instant and experienced reaction?"

A jury-rigged Rommie appeared and ordered Harper out of the ship's matrix. Bad choice piled
upon worse choice as Harper complied and Rommie tried to reboot the ship's backup AI in the
midst of combat. If I hadn't decoupled weapons and helm, we would have been helpless.

I fired another spread of modified torpedoes. Half of their fleet was destroyed; but the reboot
wasn't going well. The alien code acted like a virus shutting down connected systems a few
moments after they reactivated. Harper struggled to keep the shields up while rommie tried to
filter out the corrupt code. Once again at the helm, Dy;an fought to keep the ship out of the path
of enemy fire.


"Dylan, I've isolated the ship carrying Trance and Beka," I revealed.

"Good work," he sounded surprised, "continue to fire upon attacking vessels."

I nodded. Did he really think I intended to stop?

"Rommie," Dylan called, "do we have Andromeda back yet?"

"Not entirely," she replied, "I'm still working on it."

"As soon as we do, open a comm channel to the ship holding Trance and Beka and demand its
surrender," Dylan ordered.

Andromeda's face appeared briefly on screen and then flickered off again.

"I think Rak'han has accessed a computer console somewhere," Rommie admitted, "As soon as I
remove the problem pieces of code, someone reenters them."

"As I launched another barrage I asked her, "do we have internal comms?"

"Intermittently," she responded.

"Next time they are up, tell me immediately," I demanded, "and broadcast what I say to the whole
ship."

"Why," she snapped petulantly, "I have enough to worry about without catering to your whims
right now."

"I don't have time to answer your questions now," I retorted as I fired again, "just do as I say."

"Do it Rommie," Dylan ordered, "Our paranoid security chief has clearly been preparing for the
worst."

A few moments later she called out, "internal comm channel open shipwide."

I whistled.