Oenone: ok! you updated! I happy! I read it but I'm REALLY busy so I can't review right now. :( see, I'm SUPPOSED to be working on my saint report (catholic confirmation: don't ask) so I really have to rush! I'll review as soon as I have less school work. HA-HA, Rommies! that's good! YUCK! STAR TREK IS BLEGH! and that's all I have to say about that! :P
Prin69: what world outside fanfic? :P jk, jk. huh? I don't get whatever you were trying to say with your whole 'Entire' thing, but that's ok, cause I'm easily confused! oh, a few of my friends from school that I told about your fanfic gave me a list of thing that you should do to that allison bitch: hang her in the machine shop by her thumbs and play really loud hip-hop with flashing strobe lights, use chinese water torture, have Rhade puke on her, Harper torture her with the nano-welder, starve her for a while and then force-feed her so she gets fat (or, as Emmy put it, becomes a lard-ass!), throw things at her, then when you are all done torturing her, stick her in an EVA suit and dangle her near a black hole, occasinally reeling her in just a little then letting her go again until we finally drop her in the black hole! A-MEN! thanks to Emmy and Sam for helping me with this! :smiles innocently: and that's all we have to say about that! :P
Jamieson Z: I was doing the same scene from everyone else's point of view, so bacically (aw, crap I did it again! I spelled basically wrong! AHHH!) the whole gaheris-trance-dylan thing took place before Beka and Telemachus got to command. yes, I know, confusing!
Mo Cat: HI, MO CAT!! sorry, just felt like yelling 'hi' at someone! I'm glad you think it's as good as the other ones! :) me happy!
vampiregirl081: ok, I hurried just for you! :P
Iara: ha-ha, GAHERIS! I love him! feel free to e-mail me (its at the bottom of my bio. PLEASE follow the rules I put next to it so mommy doesn't murder me!) Thanks!
Malgenan Princess: sam, I take that as an insult! :P
DancingQueen: Don't you just LOVE him? grr, but that louisa...
midknight-kat01: :P I'm such an evil person to the crew!
A/N: ok, I decided I'm going to have a little contest: see if you can guess the mystery pairing I'm going to have. I'll have two clues each chapter, and whoever guesses right will get something special... :)
1st clue: I DON'T LIKE SLASH! so it will be between a dude and a chic!
Chapter 3Telemachus woke in the Med Bay. Again. He groaned loudly, feeling a sharp pain in his lower back.
"It's just the nano-bots repairing the damage to your spine," Trance said, walking over to him. "You're lucky; if you hadn't been on Andromeda where I could fix you, you could have been paralyzed for life."
"Beka?" Telemachus asked, accepting a glass of water from the gold alien.
"She'll be fine," Trance responded, smiling. "But she'll have a terrible headache when she wakes up."
"Tell me about it," groaned a voice as Beka sat up. "What happened?"
"The PSB blew out our Slipstream Core," Harper said, walking over to Beka. "Literally, the drive is gone."
"Dylan wants you and Telemachus to take the Maru," Gaheris added from where he was overseeing one of the patients.
"Soon," Dylan added, walking into the Med Bay, a massive burn across his face. "I don't like being dead in the water like this."
Rommie followed soon after. "Dylan, I have the casualty reports; forty-seven, dead, including Lieutenant Karaki. One hundred and fifty-two wounded, twenty-eight of which are in critical condit-"
Dylan held up a hand, expression of pain flashing across his face. "Later," he told her. "I don't want to deal with that now."
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Gaheris stood in front of Trance as the latter was tending to one of her patients.
"Trance, am I becoming material?" the Nietzschean asked. "I was able to grab Harper."
"I honestly don't know," Trance responded, running a scanner over the unconscious Than.
"But you have a theory," Gaheris countered, handing her an injector, with which Trance gave a shot to the Than.
"When Terla introduced her magic to this universe, it made you visible," Trance stated, moving onto the next patient. "Most likely her magic disrupted the delicate balance between life and death that you were formally inhabiting."
"I'm being returned to life," Gaheris said slowly, looking at Trance.
She turned away from his penetrating eyes. "It's just a guess, though," she added, shrugging one shoulder.
Realizing he would get no further answers from her, Gaheris turned to leave.
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Telemachus limped into the Maru to find Beka already in the pilot's chair, readying it for takeoff.
"Took you long enough," Beka said, turning around and noticing that Telemachus was leaning on a console to support himself. "Hey. You alright?"
Telemachus straitened with a grimace. "I should be fully recovered by the time we reach the drift."
"Maru, you are cleared for departure," Andromeda announced. "Hurry back."
"As soon as I can," Beka responded, hitting the Maru's thrusters and roaring out into space, jumping into Slipstream.
"So, what roiling cesspool of thievery and corruption are we heading to this time?" Telemachus asked as Beka piloted.
"Pierpont Drift," Beka replied. "What do you have against drifts, anyway?"
Telemachus grimaced. "Long story," he said. "How long will it take to reach the drift?"
"'Bout three days," Beka said, glancing back. "And, uh... lose the academy pinhead look, would ya?"
"We're back to calling me an 'academy pinhead'?" Telemachus asked, raising an eyebrow. "Alright, I'll go change."
------ (A/N: I've been looking for an excuse to make Rhade dress up like Season 5, and I finally got one! HOORAY!)
Beka landed the Maru on Pierpont, listening to the hiss of cooling machinery.
"We're finally there?" Telemachus asked, walking toward the cockpit. He had spent most of the time they were in Slipstream sleeping, trying to accelerate the healing of his back. When he was awake, most of the time Beka was asleep, getting ready for the next amount of time in Slipstream. Thinking back, Telemachus couldn't remember a time when he was more bored ever in his life.
"Yeah, we're..." Beka trailed off, turning around as Telemachus ducked into the cockpit. She could feel her heart beating faster, and she had to remind herself to breathe.
Telemachus was wearing tight brown leather pants and a dark gray skin-tight shirt. He had traded in his force lance for a Gauss gun in a holster slung low around his waist. He had let his neatly trimmed goatee grow into a beard that framed his cheeks, and he had also let his hair grow into a brown mop on his head. He had slipped brown leather gauntlets that matched his pants over his bone blades. Telemachus looked every inch a Nietzschean pirate.
"Yeah, yeah, we're there," Beka said, turning away realizing she had been staring. She felt a slight blush rise into her cheeks as she knew he had noticed her staring, as well.
"Did I loose the 'pinhead' look?" Telemachus asked, barely contained amusement evident in his tone.
Beka made a face as she pushed past him, shaking her head to make her hair chestnut brown with blonde highlights. "Let me just get some make up so I don't look like Beka Valentine," she said, opening a drawer in the wall.
"So, what is your natural hair color?" Telemachus asked, following her and leaning against the wall behind her.
"I can't tell you that," she replied, pushing aside different bottles in her search for make up.
"Why not?"
"Look, if I never told Harper, I'm not telling you," Beka said somewhat sharply, applying sparkly ruby-red eyeliner to her lids.
Telemachus changed the subject. He might not know much about human women, but he knew when to not push a topic. "You never wear make up," he stated. He motioned to the drawer. "Where'd all this come from?"
"Trance," Beka responded absently, applying purple mascara.
Telemachus's confusion doubled. "Trance?!?"
"Back when she was still purple," Beka said understanding Telemachus's confusion. She quickly dabbed red sparkles around her face, then standing, said: "Let's go."
"Wait," Telemachus said, stopping her by putting a hand on her arm. "What am I going to call you while we are there?"
"Uh, Bek-" she started, then understood what he meant. "Well, we can't be known as Beka Valentine and Telemachus Rhade," she said, thinking.
"Telcontar Alkatran and Kara Nul," Telemachus supplied. He smiled mischievously. "I also have a cover story."
---------
"Names?" a bored Perseid customs officer asked. He looked up at the Nietzschean and human.
"Telcontar Alkatran," Telemachus replied.
The Perseid jabbed his pointer at Beka. "And she is?"
"Slaves do not require names," Telemachus said haughtily, stroking Beka's arm.
Beka quickly adapted to the unexpected part, leaning against Telemachus and smiling sweetly at the Perseid. "If you think you can match what he paid for me..." she hinted, batting her eyelashes.
The Perseid muttered "Nietzscheans," under his breath in a tone of disgust. "Enjoy your stay on Pierpont Drift," he announced with a fake smile, waving them through.
"Slave?" Beka demanded in a harsh whisper.
"It worked, didn't it?" Telemachus said, threading his way through the crowded streets.
A female Nietzschean teenager stepped in front of them.
"We don't have time for alms, kid," Beka said, walking past her.
"I don't your money," the girl said, in a tone of voice Beka knew all too well. Her face briefly changed color, taking on a dark gray tone before morphing back again.
"Terla?" Telemachus asked incredulously.
"No, the elf-prince of Shilmista," she retorted, smiling. "Yeah, it's me."
"We need a new Slip drive," Beka said. "Know where we can get one?"
Terla smiled. "Come to my office," she said, motioning with her hands for them to follow her.
A/N: 2nd clue: it isn't the obvious Beka/Telemachus! HA-HA! ok, I'll be giving out free characters for my next fanfic, that I think will be called "Slipfighter Chronicles." If you want a character, it will be either a crewmember on the shuttle (three open slots) or one of the Slipfighter pilots (BIG cool part!). make sure you give me your character's name, race, and call-sign. (eg, a name used on the radio that pertains to your character.) ok, I all done now!