Part 22

Dylan's POV

From the helm, I almost jumped at the high pitched whistle eminating from Tyr. Inside I settled for a painful wince and then a quick look over a my weapon's officer. What the hell was he trying to do? However, any explaination was quickly cut off with Rommie's sudden announcement.

"The interference has stopped. I'm reinstating Andromeda AI."

Andromeda appeared on the screen and Harper fainted almost simultaneuously, causing confusion as no one knew what to do. I wanted to go over and help Harper, Beka would kick my ass if anything ever happening to the little guy, but at the same time I had to stay at the helm.

"Rommie, check on Harper." I ordered.

I watched as she walked over to Harper and then knelt down beside him. "He's should be fine in a couple of hours." She glared at me for a second. "That was a really risky thing you let him do, Captain."

I couldn't do anything but nod. I had known the risks and I had judged them acceptable. Gullible, Gullible, Gullible, I said to myself in a silent tirade. If Tyr hadn't done whatever he did, things could have been a lot worse.

I turned back to Tyr only to be interrupted by Tyr's sudden, "Captain!"

I whipped back to look at the screen and saw a ship explode infront of us just in time. If the ship had gotten any closer, we would have had a major problem.

"Do I need to remind you we are in the middle of a battle." Tyr almost yelled at me from across the bridge.

"No you don't, Mr. Anasazi, just keep firing." I made sure that this time my eyes stayed glued to the screen. Dodging a few more ships, I watched as Tyr finished off 3/4 of the alien fleet.

"Andromeda, open a comm channel. There bastards are going to surrender now!"

I heard a muttered, "Not likely," coming from Tyr but chose to ignore it. I would ask him later what and how he knew about this aliens but right now I needed to get to Beka and Trance.

"Comm channel open." Andromeda replied quickly having her image replaced with that of the alien armada.

"This is the Commonwealth Starship Andromeda, to the Gorgonyte fleet. You will surrender now." I didn't bother to offer the cliched or die for the majority of the fleet had already lost there lives to whatever they wanted to achieve. Silently I hoped that they were smart enough to now when to surrender.

"Recieving message from Gorgonyte fleet." Rommie announced.

An alien, much like the one we that was currently on our ship, appeared on the foreward viewscreen replacing the armada. "We will not surrender." The creature said hiss. "It is our way to fight till the very end, our soldiers have been trained to die, have yours?"

I stopped for a second at the fluidity of the alien's speech. His common was impeciable, the exact opposite of Rak'han. I mentally added in another lie that our 'guest' had perpetuated while on the ship.

"We believe in diplomacy over war, but so far you have offered us very little choice. You are presently confining two of my officers, you have attacked your ship, and you have an officer on board that was until very recently trying to sabatoge my ship."

The alien looked impressed for a second. "And did Major Rak'han succeed?"

"Thankfully no." I said strongly.

"Pity." The Gorgonyte replied. "It would have brought such an easy solution to all of our problems. As it is Captain, I can not surrender any more than you can. We have only kept your officer, Beka Valentine, because of the gravity of her injustice toward's my people. As for your other officer, if she behaves she may be returned to you. For your sake hope she does." With that the alien disconnected the comm channel.

"Captain, their weapons are locking on to us." Rommie's voice rang through the silence.

"Damn it. Why can't anything ever be easy. Tyr target the ships, but just disable them."

I watched as Tyr made short work of the alien armada. Then suddenly the unthinkable happened. Every ship exploded in a long chain that finished off the fleet. I covered my eyes with my hands to protect from the brightness of the explosion. When it was over, one word was on my lips. "Beka."

I watched with stunned silence as the rest of the crew, what was left of it looked out on to the reckage. It was absolutely desolated. No life could have possibly survived. I'm so sorry. Beka, Trance, I'm so sorry.

Rommie jarred me out of my thoughts with her sudden announcement. "Captain, I'm detecting one slippoint opening. It's one of the Gorgonyte ships, they're preparing for slipstream."

"Damn it, go after them!" I shouted.

I watched as Rommie and Tyr busily went to work. Here we go again, I thought just as I turned back to the helm.