Reviews:
Prin69: I sorry!! Telemachus will not be in the next 2 chapters because everyone hated chapter 6! I PROMISE he will be in chapter 8, though, because I already have that typed, and it should be uploaded by this afternoon! DON'T HURT ME!! I REALLY was planning on him being in the next chapter, but then I had to redo chap6, so, I SORRY!
Jamieson Z: yes, it did go fast, so that's why I wrote this. ENJOY!
Oenone: I only found out recently that Beka and Gaheris were togher in the Unconquerable Man, so that's why there was no tension. ok, I think I got your character right. Cynthia Valerie, human (Earth)- Oenone (?) that's how you want it? cause this is really the last chance to change it.
vampiregirl081: there'll be more this afternoon!
eris: as you can probably tell, I've got my hands full w/ Beka/Rhade and Trance/Rhade, so probably nothing w/ Dylan!
Iara: like I said in the e-mail: new chappie!
DancingQueen: HA! I walk into things a lot, too! Rhade Rhade Rhade!! I love him too! sounds rather reminiscent of my romance life, too! :P
Christieanne-Anna: I think this chappie will help explain this.
A/N: a lot of people thought I went too fast w/ Gaheris/Trance, so this chappie will replace the other chapter, which is now chapter 7. I worked very, very hard on this because I hate it when people don't like what I do. :( I got over it, though, and wrote this. enjoy, all you evil, mean people!
Chapter 6 (v2.0)
Gaheris walked out of the service conduct, thinking. What would it be like to be alive again? How would he be able to remain on board Andromeda if everyone hated him? He had no rank, no position, and few allies. Deep in thought, Gaheris paid no attention to the wall in front of him, planning on walking through it like he usually did. Next thing he knew he was sitting on the floor with a feeling he hadn't felt for four years. Pain.
"Rhade, what are you doing?" Andromeda asked, hologram appearing behind him. "My walls are solid."
"But I'm usually not," Gaheris murmured, looking at the wall with a look of dumb wonder on his face. He placed his hand against the wall and pushed hard. His hand remained flat against the wall, not going through.
"You are alive now," Andromeda stated, crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you going to do with your new life?"
Gaheris stood up and faced the hologram. "Between you and me," he said. "I have no idea. I can't be First Officer again, obviously. Beka holds that position. Only a handful of people know I'm here, and I find it hard to believe that Dylan would announce over the ship-wide that Gaheris Rhade has returned to be once again amongst the living." He sighed. "I really don't know what to do."
Andromeda's brown eyes watched him thoughtfully, not judgingly. "If there was one thing Gaheris prided himself on, it was his ability to read eyes and facial expressions. He was almost certain he saw a hint of something- pity?- in her eyes. "Perhaps I have misjudged you," she admitted. "I may come to regret this later, but unless you do something stupid, I'm on your side."
Gaheris blinked in surprise. "Are you saying you trust me?"
"No," Andromeda said bluntly. "But I don't not trust you, either. Your own actions will determine whether or not you can be trusted. I will tell you what a small step toward regaining my full trust is, however."
"That being?"
"Stop calling me 'Ship'," she said. "I have a name."
Gaheris frowned and nodded. It went against everything Nietzschean to think of a ship as a person, but he needed all the allies, and yes, friends that he could get. "Very well, Andromeda," he smiled wryly. "It's good to serve with you again."
Andromeda smiled. "I'll see what I can manage with Dylan," she said, and then disappeared.
With one more friend on his side, Gaheris turned and walked down the corridor, and his polished black boots rang off the metal grating. It was a sound Gaheris had not planned on hearing again.
Harper was running full speed down the hall and smacked straight into Gaheris. "Ow!" he exclaimed, falling backwards on his butt. He looked up at Gaheris, who hadn't budged an inch from the impact. "Hey, I didn't go through you," he noticed. "Huh?"
Gaheris laughed and extended his hand to help Harper to his feet. "I am alive again," he told Harper.
"Wow," Harper breathed, taking the offered hand and noticing an ugly looking black scar on his hand. "What happened?" he asked, pointing.
Gaheris looked at it and grimaced. "Echoes of the past I'd rather forget," he said softly.
Harper hesitated then patted Gaheris's shoulder. "Do ya wanna help me with my new project?" he asked awkwardly, feeling sorry for the Nietzschean who was so obviously out of place.
Gaheris smiled down at him. "Thank you, Harper, but no." He appreciated Harper's concern, but the Machine Shop wasn't on of his favorite places. "I'll go get something to eat."
"Okay," Harper said. "But if you need someone to talk to..."
"Nosy," Gaheris accused Harper, grinning.
Harper smirked and continued walking down the corridor.
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Gaheris sat in the Mess Hall, pushing around lumps of meat with his fork. The Mess Hall was empty, and if Gaheris closed his eyes he could still picture the old crew bustling about, their voices filling the air. Because of him the old crew had abandoned ship, and now his name was hated throughout the entire new Commonwealth.
Gaheris opened his eyes and sighed, suddenly feeling very alone. How could he ever fit in with the new crew? He was having trouble being accepted by the senior officers, and he knew all of them. He spooned some stew into his mouth thoughtfully. Stop with the self-pity, Gaheris, he ordered himself. It's a counter-productive emotion. Betraying the Commonwealth happened six years ago for you. Gaheris decided to focus on enjoying his first meal in four years, closing his eyes and savoring the slightly spicy taste.
With that strange sixth sense Nietzscheans have, Gaheris knew someone else had entered the Mess Hall. He opened his eyes to see Trance sliding into the chair across the table from him. He nodded in greeting, pushing his empty bowl to the side.
"I was just wondering if you needed someone to talk to," Trance said, smiling slightly. "I know what it's like to know everyone on board ship with out being trusted."
Gaheris remembered back to when he was a ghost, observing Harper and Dylan's negative reactions to Trance when she had literally come back from the future. "Yes, I suppose you do," he agreed. They lapsed into silence. Gaheris was more perceptive then one would think of a Nietzschean, and he could tell Trance had something on her mind. "What is it?" he asked. "I can tell you want to say something, spit it out."
Trance was visibly uncomfortable. "You don't have to answer if it's too personal, but I was wondering," she hesitated. "Did I do the right thing? Holding you back from death and trapping you at the borderline between life and death?" She looked at him beseechingly. "You're the only one who can answer that for me. Was I wrong to disrupt the natural order of things?" She smiled resignedly. "I guess I'm asking you to be my conscience."
Gaheris grinned. "You want a Nietzschean to be your conscience?" He lifted his arm with bone blades extended to emphasize his point. His expression turned serious. "On the face of it, I want o immediately say 'yes, you did the right thing' because it saved my life. But when you factor in that I was supposed to die for the greater good," that phrase almost stuck in his throat, but he pushed ahead. "And then factor in that people are not usually brought back from the dead..." he sighed, shaking his head. "There is one thing I learned while I was captain of the Andromeda for two years: 'right' is not defined by logic." His deep brown eyes remained fixed on hers. "Do you think you did the right thing?"
"I'd like to think so," Trance replied. "But my people... they were not pleased. I know have two scouts monitoring my actions, ensuring I do not do something my people would consider... foolish."
"Like what?" Gaheris had to ask.
"Like using my powers in an unconventional way again," Trance said. "My people... they do not want change. And then there are the stories..."
"What stories?" Gaheris questioned.
"Well, one of the first avatars to leave the Home-"
Gaheris raised a brow. "'Home'?"
"I can't tell you that," Trance responded. She started over again. "One of the first avatars to leave the Home to explore the larger universe, Celestial Taurus, fell in love with a human. Celestial had a daughter and a son, and she lived happily with her husband.
"When my people found out, they were furious and demanded Celestial stand Trial," he tone of voice indicating that 'Trial' was something more horrible than the name suggested. "When she refused," Trance continued. "My people grew even more outraged. They sent 'extermination teams' to kill her husband, kidnap Celestial and force her to watch as they severed her children's link with their suns and killed them." Her voice grew softer. "Celestial did not survive Trial."
Silence. Gaheris leaned across the table. "And you are afraid the same thing will happen to you?"
Trance nodded. "Does that seem silly?"
Gaheris thought about it. "It's been four years," he said. "And your people already confronted you. I would think if you were going to have to stand Trial," Trance winced, "they would have made you do it already."
"But they weren't planning on you returning to life," Trance noted.
"But my being returned to life was through no action of yours," Gaheris countered. "I don't see how they would blame that on you when you didn't have anything to do with it." He thought about the story she had told him, and suddenly thought he saw a hidden message. "Are you planning on having children with any humans?"
Trance flushed and stuttered, which was a very un-Trance-like thing.
Normally Gaheris would have thought the sight of a flustered Trance highly amusing, except that he felt like he had found something Trance would rather him not know. "Trance?" he asked slowly. "Why did you save me?"
Trance coughed, and said something Gaheris thought he'd never hear Trance say. "Uhhhhh..."
Gaheris got up to put his tray away. When he turned around, Trance was gone, and the door was hissing shut behind her.