Dylan looked at the small bell sitting in the palm of his hand. Then he looked up at Doyle, Beka, and Rhade all staring at him. He contemplated the bell further, then looked at the others again. Yup, definitely still staring at him. What, did they think he secretly knew all the answers and was just holding out on them? "Well I don't know anything more about this bell now than I did last year, but what do you say we let Harper run some tests on it?"
As no one had a better idea they all entered the machine shop. Harper was busy working on the Engine, moving back and forth between it and a half dozen monitors. Despite the fact that he never stopped talking he managed to give the impression that he wasn't even aware of Trance's presence in the room. She smiled at the others and motioned them over to the workbench she was sitting on.
"I have another puzzle for you Mr. Harper."
Harper looked at the bell Dylan placed on the table. "Hey, I had forgotten all about that. Man I wish we still had access to those Archives, I wouldn't mind getting 3-D with some of those Holonovel babes. Wait just a minute, are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"
"God Harper, I hope not!" "I would never presume to think the way you think Mr. Harper." "Harper please, that's just gross."
Apparently they were not. The engineer made an exasperated noise, "Jeez people, give me a little credit. Archives, All Systems Library, ringing any bells, pardon the pun? That compressed copy of the Special Collections from the All Systems Library that we pulled from my head after that Perseid tried to fry my brain? I gave it to Trance after that super hot Abyss chic tried to seduce it away from me! I would bet my last credit, if I had any, that it could help us figure these things out."
As one they turned to Trance, and waited.
Trance squirmed a little under everyone's stares. "Uh, yeah, I don't really remember what I did with that. Maybe I destroyed it? Or put it somewhere where I…..wouldn't…….um…..forget it? But you know what would really help us I think? Those Mithas crystals. So Doyle how is the work on the Mithas crystals coming?" Trance was remembering more and more about her previous life, including important skills like how to switch topics rapidly.
Doyle attempted to dodge the question. "Mithas crystals?"
"Yeah. Mithas crystals. Vedran guides to the system. The ones they hid for safety. The ones half the Seefran system is after. The ones I almost died to get!" Beka was just a little emotionally invested in the crystals.
"Of course, those Mithas crystals. Well in the excitement of, everything, I kind of……….forgot about them? They are incomplete after all, so they are of limited value. And Dylan never really intended me to figure them out, right? They were just makework to force Andromeda and I to get along. Right?" Doyle looked around, hoping someone would back her up. No such luck. "Hey stop looking at me like that, I don't see any of you solving those crystals either. Anyway, they don't have the information we need most; how to get out of this system. Even if we get the slipstream drive working we can't use it without knowing where we are. If we head blindly into slipstream we could get lost forever." Such depressing reminders did not improve anyone's mood.
Trance did feel a little guilty for getting Doyle in trouble. A random thought occurred to her. "I was wondering, this is Tarn Vedra right? And Beka figured out the Mad Perseid's route to Tarn Vedra from that diary Harper and I, uh, recovered? So why don't we just follow the route backwards to someplace we know?"
"'Cuz Trance that trip almost killed us. Several times in a variety of ways even. Uh-uh, no way, we not trying that again. Better a live Harper on Seefra than a dead Harper back in our universe."
"But we don't have to follow the whole route, just back a step or two, until we know where we are!"
Rhade shook his head. "It won't work Trance. You can't follow the same route backwards; slipstream routes are more like wormholes than terrestrial streets."
Beka was looking at Rhade as if he was an alien. "What are you talking about Rhade? I know you can't follow the same route to and from a place, but what's all this about wormholes?"
Dylan got in on it too. "Yes Rhade please elaborate. I had no idea you were an amateur physicist as well as a mercenary for hire and all around good guy."
"Funny Dylan. Wormholes only allow travel in one direction. At least they only allow matter to travel one way, radio waves and energy like that can go both ways." Now everyone was staring at Rhade as if he was an alien. Beka's eyebrows were raised so high they looked like they were trying to escape her face, Harper was slowly backing away, Trance was trying to calculate the likelihood that Rhade was possessed by something (79.84 Approximately.), and Dylan had a look of pity on his face, as if he had just realized that Rhade was barely clinging onto his last marble. "Never mind, not important, doesn't apply to our situation."
"Rhade are you feeling ok? You didn't eat any of 'Today's Special' did you? Because you know what makes it special…." Beka couldn't help but be a little curious. And concerned. She had risked death or worse to eat at Harper's bar that afternoon too.
Rhade rubbed the back of his neck, "Actually I am feeling a little strange but good. The only way to describe it is almost god-like, though…"
The others didn't allow Rhade to continue any further. A chorus of groans, snorting laughter, and comments of "Just normal Nietzschean delusions of grandeur" and "Are you granting requests today?" bounced off the walls. Rhade looked around, realized there was no way to recover the situation and did the only sensible thing. He ignored them all and walked away. Quickly.
A/N2: Yeah, I admit it, I did it. I put apparently random SG:1 references/allusions in one of my Andromeda fics. And I made up lies (I think) about slipstream to do it. It could've been much worse – that little bit was originally intended as the genesis of an entire chapter where all the actors that have been on both shows made appearances on Seefra as their SG alter egos. But there are just too many!
Oh, also, I know this isn't really the best way to end a story. I do have an idea for another chapter in mind, but it wouldn't end the story any better and it's arguing with me anyway so… :) Hope you all enjoyed!