Beka woke about an hour later lying face down curled on her bed hugging her pillow after crying herself to sleep. Hearing a beeping, she slowly sat up as she sniffed and rubbed her red eyes. Slowly taking in a deep breath, followed by two more.
"What?" She asked Andromeda in a sleepy, aggravated tone.
A hologram of Andromeda popped into as the beeping ceased, the idea that a message was waiting for her already conveyed.
The hologram looked at her, in an almost sympathetic tone as if she really didn't want to relay the message. "Telemachus has sent you a message, would you like me to play it for you now? It is time coded, so you will have to view it in the next few hours, and then send back a reply."
She finished off gently seeing the look on Beka's face. She really did like Rebecca; she was a valued crewmember and always treated Andromeda very well. And keeping the first officer sane did always tend to be useful as well.
Beka gulped as the words she just heard slowly sunk into her head. No, no, no, no, no, oh hell NO. She did not want to hear about whatever he had to tell her. Especially if that, that, that SLUT was with him when he recorded the message. Okay, so maybe she really hadn't looked into the fact that his people had multiple wives aspect of it, but really, could he be that insensitive? She always thought, before with Tyr and now with Rhade, that they would discuss it. Basically him saying he would only have her and her agreeing to only have him and if that didn't work then she would yell, cry, and threaten to leave him. And if all else failed, go to a bar or club with the whole crew and then shamelessly throw herself on some guy and let him see how much he likes to share.
Beka took a deep breath and looked down at the bed as she fiddled with her crumpled confronter.
A hologram of Rommie appeared. "If you want Beka, we can just tell you what it said, if that would be easier for you." She told Beka gently, concern shining in her eyes.
Normally, if anyone hurt a member of her crew, she would wrap her slender fingers around their throat and squeeze the life out of them. However, since it involved another member of her crew, and she liked Rhade, she might just set off the internal defenses outside of his door and turn off all his hot water and break his coffee maker.
He may be a member of her crew and fond of him, but Beka was still one of her best friends.
Beka looked up tears starting to shine in her eyes, "Could you?" she asked quietly.
The two holograms shared a glance at Beka seeming so fragile. Over their faces washed concern and worry for Beka, and anger at Rhade.
How dare he hurt their Beka. Loyal first officer, amazing friend, advice giver, ass kicker, and dirty joke maker.
Granted, they could simply look into his room and see his side of the story, to be fair, but he had not taken privacy mode off in his room from last night. For all they knew, he was fornicating with that Allison girl right now.
Although, they could look up everything in Allison's history and share any and all bad details with Beka to make her feel better.
Breaking their eye contact they looked back to Beka, still sitting on her bed looking more vulnerable then they'd ever seen her.
Andromeda was the one to answer her. "He sent a message asking you to join him for dinner in the Ob.s Deck. He's going to cook dinner for you. He wants you to pick the food that will be served, whatever you like he will cook for the two of you. And would like to talk to you about the relationship between the two of you. He says what you saw earlier was not what it seemed to look like. The dress is formal. And he would like you to send a reply as soon as you have decided." Andromeda paused, "He asks you to please say yes. That is all."
"Tell him, tell him, for me, that, that I will, I will come. I'll go. Rommie, can you send your avatar down here to help me pick out what to wear, and Andromeda, can you stay in hologram form. I know that Trance is busy, there was a message waiting in my room for me when I got here from her saying she'd explain why she's holed up in her room later. But I could really use some girls right now."
"And what about for dinner? What do you want to cook?" asked Rommie.
Beka thought about it. She wasn't all that hungry, and didn't think that she'd be able to eat anyway. She really didn't feel like meat, and she wasn't too fond of vegetarian food, all turtle food if you asked her. But she was allergic to seafood, and Rhade hated it, that was out of the ques-
"How about seafood?" Beka asked with a huge smile.
