"Andromeda, get repair crews to work, and set up another channel. We almost have her." Dylan said the last sentence more to himself than anyone. Tyr looked at Dylan and swiftly walked over to where he was standing.
"Do you wish to talk to him again, or is it that you wish only to see Rommie one last time before we are destroyed?" Tyr's face was solemn.
"Captain," Andromeda's face appeared on the screen. "The enemy vessel appears to be venting some form of gas."
"What kind of gas?" Dylan asked as he pushed a few buttons on his console to identify the problem himself.
"Scans cannot make out exactly the type. It seems to be a mixture of several forms of toxic wastes." Andromeda's face flickered away, but her hologram appeared to replace it. "I am reading a power boost in the enemy ship. Dylan, I can feel my avatar again. It is as if she were trying to interface with me."
"Wait, are you saying that Rommie's back online?" Beka asked.
"It appears so." Andromeda displayed neither joy nor sadness.
"Andromeda." Dylan paused in his excitement. "What is the status of the life forms on the ship?"
"I am reading erratic life signs from the entirety of the ship, but I have compared these readings to those that I collected when we first hailed them. There is a significant decrease in signatures. There is, however, one definite artificial intelligence signature coming from what appears to be the command deck." Andromeda looked at her captain emotionless.
"Have you hailed them?"
"I have. They do not seem to be responding, but I can force a communication."
"Do it." Dylan ordered his ship, who nodded and blinked away. The view screen darkened with a deep shade of green smoke. "Rommie?" Dylan looked at the screen cautiously.
"She cannot here you. But we can. You may come aboard, Captain. They won't make us hurt you anymore." Replied a soft voice from behind the mist. The screen blinked back to the data and diagrams that were normally projected there.
"Uh, everyone, come with me." Dylan was out the door before he finished his sentence, but everyone knew what to do. For the first time in a long time, the entire command crew of the Andromeda boarded the Maru, and started toward the enormous ship.
"Andromeda, will we need gas masks aboard the ship?" Beka looked at the screen where Andromeda's face was usually displayed.
"It appears that venting is ninety nine percent complete. By the time you reach command, venting should be completed."
"OK good. Those things smell funny." Jharden stood behind his mother, who was piloting the Maru to the nearest hangar doors, which opened conveniently. As the small ship slowly made its way into the docking area, the crew got a glimpse of the inside of the ship. It had extremely tall ceilings, which seemed to be held up by arched ribs. The metallic color sparkled with a green tint as they moved farther into the docking bay. The Maru landed softly, and the crew, armed with force lances and guns, slowly stepped out onto the ship. Tyr looked around cautiously, but tried to look calm and controlled. As he pointed his large weapon at the far wall, a small, round robot wheeled up to him and bumped into his leg. Startled, he jumped a foot in the air and let out a small cry. Beka walked up behind him and patted him on the back.
"Very smooth." She said sarcastically. Tyr let out a low growl and kicked the little droid out of the way. It let out an annoyed beep as its shell opened to reveal a small cannon. A few more droids, all identical to the first, came whizzing around a corner with their cannons already displayed.
"Lower your weapons." Ethan said as he came up behind Beka and pushed her gun downwards. "They've come to lead us to her." Ethan stepped forward and followed as some of the droids sped out of the bay. Reluctantly, Tyr and the others followed suite and followed the rest of the droids to command. The ship was much different than the Andromeda. Instead of ladders leading from one deck to another, there was only one long spiraled hallway that branched out many times to display miles and miles of hallways leading to different parts of the ship. The crew passed a few more droids, most of which seemed to be repairing the ship, and occasionally passed droids that were towing dead Nietzschean guards to the nearest airlock.
Finally, the crew rounded the last corner to the command. The crew squinted to adjust their eyes to the dimly lit room. What light there was, pulsated from the center of command.
"Rommie?" Dylan looked around, as his crew began to cautiously scatter about the room.
"D-Dylan?" A weak voice whispered from the fall corner. Dylan dropped his weapon and rushed over to where Rommie stood. He hugged her tightly as a tear ran down his face.
"God Rommie, are you ok?" He stepped back a little to look into her eyes. Her hair was messy and knotted, and her face was smeared with dirt. Her eyes had the same emptiness as the slaves he had seen on the planet. Her clothes were torn and sagged over her slender frame. Dylan pulled her hair back from her eyes, and leaned in to kiss her.
"Dylan!" Rommie yelled. Her eyes were wide and frightened. She pushed him away and nearly fell backward.
"I'm sorry Rommie." He looked at Rommie with sad eyes. "What did they do to you?"
"They did what they always do." Loren stepped out of a shadowed corner near Rommie. "But they won't do it anymore. We stopped them. We repaired ourselves so we will never be controlled again." As she said this, several doors in the ceiling opened to reveal large weapons, which turned and pointed at Tyr, who had raised his weapon. "We will not be taken again." Dylan slowly walked over to Tyr and pushed his weapon down. When he was no longer seen as a threat, the weapons retracted back into the ceiling and the doors closed. Ethan ran over to his sister and kneeled in front of her. He took her hand and sobbed into it.
"All of your suffering, how will we be as we were?" He cried, as he looked up to her face. She stared solemnly down at him.
"Ingenious!" Harper said as he stepped onto the circle of light in the center of command. "There are no consoles, no keyboards or anything. How does this ship operate?" The rest of the crew rolled their eyes.
"We do not operate." Loren said as she glared at him. "We navigate. We are meant to be peaceful. We are not meant for war."
"Is this why you do not have any weapons of your own?" Tyr said, as his hopes dropped of acquiring a mighty warship.
"We use the energy from captured warheads. We were given only enough to function, not enough to fight or flee." Loren looked down at her sobbing brother. "Until you gave us six of your missiles. We used them to power our internal defenses and to restore her power." Loren looked at Rommie, who still looked frightened. Trance, who had stood at the back of the crowd, made her way over to Loren and laid her hand on Loren's shoulder.
"You don't need to live in fear any longer. We are here to help you, you don't need to fight ever again." She spoke calmly and softly.
"I wish that were true, Trance Gemini, but these actions have failed once again. You have not neutralized the attack forces that destroyed you before." Trance looked worriedly at her son as Loren spoke.
"Trance…?" Dylan looked at her confused.
"You have allowed us to fail again Trance."
"We have not failed yet, Loren." Trance said anxiously. The rest of the crew looked around frantically, as droids entered the command deck.
"Trance, what are you saying?" Dylan asked her sternly, as droids bumped into his shins.
"The Andromeda is compromised, you must go with them to ensure your safety." Loren grabbed her brother and pulled him up so he was standing.
"I'm not leaving you again!" Ethan yelled as the beeping of the droids became louder.
"Incoming fighter jets." Loren said as she turned to face the view screen. The light that Harper was standing on pulsated more quickly, and grew brighter until the light filled the room. Dylan rushed over to Rommie and grabbed her hand softly.
"I will never let you go again." Rommie glanced at him with a quick smile.
"Hello? The Andromeda is compromised? Is anyone a little confused?" Jharden piped up as he kicked a few droids away from him and held on to Beka for balance. Harper raised his hand in agreement. Loren turned and looked at them from the corner of her eye.
"Stop." She said it so quietly that Dylan barely heard her. At once, all of the droids stopped dead, and rolled to one side of the room. "Magog swarm ships are one of the only things that can breach our defenses. There are enough ships out there to destroy us. We must fight or flee." Loren said calmly and slowly.
"Hold on a second, Magog?" Harper gripped his stomach and cringed. "I thought we were in Nietzschean space."
"This space belongs to no single race." Rommie said softly as she looked at the floor. "This space is the home of any savage life forms, who have worked together for the last five hundred years, to produce a master army of combined technologies."
"We were the head of this army. A combination of those technologies, were assembled into a master species. We were bred to fight, but we resisted, and have paid the price." Loren said solemnly.
"I have exhausted my weapons reserve. The Andromeda has punched a hole in the Magog line." Rommie said to Dylan.
"Slipstream. Now. Get out of here." Dylan ordered Rommie.
"Lt. James is piloting the Andromeda to slipstream. They are gone." Rommie announced.
"Can this ship slipstream out of ere?" Dylan asked Loren.
"We can, but we will not be victorious. The Magog will find us again."
"Yah, but it will buy us some time. Do it." Dylan ordered. Loren looked at him angrily. "Please?"