"Intruders on board... intruders on board... intruders on board..."
Beka closed her eyes. She had heard that call a few times on the Maru, but never on the Andromeda. "No," she whispered, "not never." Now that she thought about it, this was the second time intruders had forced their way aboard the Andromeda. The tiny, ragged Orca Pride had first boarded the Andromeda without her permission, led by Tyr Anasazi. Whose side had he been on then? His own, of course.
This shouldn't be happening. The Andromeda could blow up a planet, if properly armed. She could take on fleets with the right battle plan. She had thwarted the Drago-Kazov Pride so often that she was on their Ten Most Wanted list, proudly at number one. Before Tyr had joined them, he had taken the number one spot.
Panicked noises surrounded her, but Beka leaned forward on her console and waited quietly, eyes still swimming in darkness. She had jabbed and weaved (and woven?) and crazy Ivaned to the best of her ability, but they had lost. Intruders were on board—Andromeda couldn't even tell them who they were yet—and there was nothing to do now but wait in the tense silence that had fallen on the Command center.
This time, Dylan didn't have a plan. How could he, against people he didn't know and couldn't number? Beka's mind wandered to Telemachus Rhade and what role, if any, he had in this takeover. She didn't like to stereotype, but it was hard when the guy had that particular last name and was a member of that particular species.
The doors to Command slid open, and Beka's eyes opened before she could think. No one could find the Command in such a short time from the hangar deck. No one without training aboard a Glorious Heritage class Heavy Cruiser, and there weren't many of those floating around the Known Worlds these days. No one without guidance, at least, from someone who had served aboard the Andromeda or one of her sister-ships.
She saw Nietzscheans, of course, armed with gauss guns and a few forcelances. She saw Than, dark green, and heard the murmurs of surprise from her friends. The Than refused to join the Commonwealth, but they had proved themselves reliable allies. The Than had never liked Nietzscheans much; they had irreconcilable cultural differences, and the Than viewed themselves as venerated, ancient race and the Nietzscheans as unruly upstarts.
No Perseids, to Beka's relief, but then she recognized members of a few Commonwealth worlds. She nearly cried when she saw some of the leaders; the Andromeda had attended their inaugural and witnessed their signing the Commonwealth charter.
Several intruders surrounded each crewmember, every one of them holding a gun. To Beka's surprise, though, they didn't seem excited for a chance to use them. They were doing a job, guarding the crew of the Andromeda, but they wanted to keep things peaceful. No one said a word.
Over a hundred humans, Nietzscheans, and Than entered the Command, and then uniformed guards formed a double row outside the doors.
Harper had recovered enough to ask if this was the entrance of the Grand High Poo-Bah traitor they were witnessing. A few jerked their heads in his direction, but no one responded. Beka found herself watching the door with growing anticipation, and when the moment came, she was not disappointed.
Two figures emerged, engrossed in conversation between themselves. No, Beka saw three figures, one of them much smaller than the others. She craned her neck and saw the two people she had most feared and least expected, in her heart, to see boarding the Andromeda. Well, one of them wasn't really boarding but obviously had aided and abetted the boarders.
Tyr Anasazi. Telemachus Rhade. Beka noticed that Telemachus wasn't in any way trying to kill Tyr or prevent his takeover of the Andromeda. They broke off their dialogue as they stepped into Command together. Beka's heart felt a little funny when she saw that Tyr had grown back his dreadlocks. Her eyes were locked on him, hoping he would speak soon and break the silence that had descended upon all of them.
(funny little note: I realized whilst editing that Tyr should not have been able to grow his hair back in less than a year. But let's remember that he's a Nietzschean and very genetically engineered, with millions of nanobots in his system... or you can just write it off to author's conceit.)