Iara: good luck w/ your exams!
prin69: oh, love ya! so happy you like it!
Maglenan Princess: Sam, the monkeys came for me and wouldn't leave me alone! I have to go Rhade-hunting tomorrow, I ran out of time.
L.C. Brotherton: I would never waste a Rhade! Just ask my buddy Sam: I'm going Rhade-hunting on E-bay tomorrow, HOORAY!
Jamieson Z: eeee, 40 hours, no sleep? you poor girl!
Dancing Princess: gotta go samancha!
For vampiregirl081
Chapter 20
Telemachus stood alone in the Obs Deck. He clenched the railing and gazed out into space, maybe hoping that if he stared long enough the slipfighter with his sister would jump out of Slipstream. He focused on one area of space and took a deep breath, held it for four beats, then slowly let it out. He had found references to this breathing exercise in several old Earth manuscripts, and after repeating it a few times he already felt calmer and more relaxed. He heard the door hiss open, and he lost count of the breathing exercise. The muscles in his back tensed up again.
"Hey. You okay?" Beka came around behind him, draping her arms over his shoulders and resting her head on his collarbone.
"I'm worried," Telemachus admitted as Beka started massaging his stiff muscles.
"About what?"
"Atlanta, or I suppose she's known as Jade now," Telemachus said. "I thought she was dead for all this time, then I speak with her on the radio. Then she's sucked into a Slip portal to who-knows-where, and-"
"You're afraid you won't hear from her ever again," Beka finished.
Telemachus nodded, then looked over his shoulder and smiled gratefully at Beka. "That feels good."
"Good. It was supposed to," Beka responded with a touch of dry humor. "Don't worry about your sister. Rommie already has plotted their most likely course, and as soon as the shapeshifter gets here with our Slipstream drive we're going to head out after them." She patted his shoulders. "Let's go for a walk or something."
"When is Terla supposed to get here with our Slip drive?" Telemachus asked as he and Beka walked down the corridor together.
"Soon," Beka replied, threading her way through a group of people who had just come off duty. "Then Harper just needs to align it with the rest of the Slipstream Core."
"Sounds complicated," Telemachus noted. "One of many reasons why I never became a mechanic."
"What's another one?" Beka asked.
"Whenever you have a problem you can't just shoot through it like you can in the High Guard." Telemachus answered. "And I didn't like the uniform."
"You're out of uniform now," Beka noted.
"What?" Telemachus looked down at what he was wearing. "So? I'm off duty. And you never wear a uniform, anyway."
"I meant the hair and the beard," Beka clarified.
Telemachus shrugged. "Until I get a direct order, I'm keeping it," he told her. "And I like my hair this way."
"It's very sexy," she said, and her smile was more than friendly.
"How sexy?" Telemachus whispered in her ear.
Beka ran her tongue over her lips suggestively and hit a button on the wall next to a door, revealing the interior of her quarters. The she threw herself at him, forcing her tongue through his lips with an animal passion reminding Telemachus of a Nietzschean. Beka slowly pushed him into her quarters, and Andromeda shut the door behind them, respectfully engaging privacy mode.
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"Feel free to do that more often," Telemachus breathed in Beka's ear later.
"Oh, don't worry, I will," Beka replied, rolling over to kiss him again. "Now that I got you, I'm not letting you go."
Telemachus laughed and pulled her close, once again telling himself how lucky he was.
"You never answered my question back on Pierpont," Beka said.
Telemachus kissed her bare shoulder. "And what would that be?"
"Are you going to make me share you with other women? Rhade, do you have a wife and children back on Terazed?" Beka felt his body tense up next to hers. "Just tell me the truth. Yes or no?"
"Not anymore," Telemachus admitted softly, sadly. "I had a wife and three children."
Beka was shocked. She had never imagined Rhade had children... but then she caught a word. "What do you mean, 'had'?"
"They're dead," Telemachus replied shortly. With that he rolled out of bed and started pulling his clothes on.
"Rhade, wait," Beka called as he opened the door and disengaged privacy mode that Andromeda had been kind enough to activate. Telemachus didn't answer; the door hissing shut behind him.
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"Andromeda, where's Rhade?" Beka demanded. She had grabbed a red satin bathrobe because it was the middle of the sleep cycle and wasn't worried about anyone seeing her. Now she was standing in the hall outside her quarters, and Andromeda was being very tight-lipped.
"Commander Rhade asked not to be disturbed," Andromeda's hologram repeated.
"Don't make me go searching through every one of your goddamn rooms," Beka threatened.
Andromeda remained impassive, standing with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Goddammit, Andromeda!" Beka exclaimed, stamping her foot in an uncharacteristic display of temper. "I just want to know where the hell Rhade is!"
"Why?" The hologram asked calmly. A passing crewmember coming off the night shift looked oddly at Beka, standing in the middle of the hall in a bathrobe arguing with the hologram, then shook her head and moved on.
"I think I upset him," Beka admitted. "And I wanted to find out if we can still salvage our relationship."
"Salvaging is what you're best at, isn't it," Andromeda noted.
Beka decided to take that as a compliment. "Will you please just tell me where he is?"
The hologram disappeared. Just as Beka was about to scream in frustration and probably wake up half the ship thinking there was a Magog attack in the process, Andromeda's voice came floating through the corridor. "Obs Deck," she said. "But you didn't hear it from me."
A/N: Will Beka and Rhade be able to salvage their relationship, or will echoes of his past force Rhade away from Beka? Stay tuned... :P