And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. –Friedrich Nietzsche
Falsely Lost
Tyr closed his eyes in hopes that the carnage he had just seen would disappear into the depths of his mind. Instead the scene of his mother being shot repeatedly floated across his mind. He opened his eyes quickly to stop the scene from continuing, but the scene of Belachina fighting against a man twice her size appeared. The one female beside his mother that he really loved was probably dead.
Tyr snapped open his eyes and looked around his surrounding to ground himself in reality. It had been years since he had that dream about his family's murder. He rose from his bed and wondered what follies Dylan Hunt was going to do today. He made his way to the galley barely registering Trance walking beside him. His mind kept going back to Belachina fighting that Drago-Kazov with nothing more than a knife.
He ate his food with a small registering that Trance was babbling about something.
"Attention everyone the Captain would like everyone to report to the command deck immediately."
Tyr dropped his fork and raced to the command deck. He walked into the command deck to see a very familiar person on the screen talking with Dylan.
He stopped in tracks and said "Bela?"
The woman's face smiled recognition as he walked closer into the room.
Belachina exited slipstream much to the chargin' of Avis. She unhooked her seatbelt and headed toward the galley.
She paused by an intercom and said "Hey Avis, how are things goin' back there?"
"Just fine as they can be for a ship this old," replied a female voice with an odd twang to it.
"That is certainly no way to talk about me," said a cross female voice.
"Hey Hekate, Avis really didn't mean anything she said."
"Oh, I'm sure she didn't," Hekate said sarcastically.
"That is a total lie and you know it," said Avis.
"Ladies, I don't mean to interrupt, but I think we need to hold a meeting, pronto."
Bela arrived in the galley just as Avis was sitting down. She took a seat next to her friend and waited for Hekate to appear. Bela cleared her throat, and a hologram of a Caucasian woman appeared. The hologram had long, braided dark brown hair with brown eyes. She was wearing a pair of dark red pants, and a red tank top trimmed with gold.
"Ladies, as you know the little encounter we had with those pirates did heavy damage to my hull. We are going to have to get repairs done sooner or later, because if we don't I'll simply start breaking apart."
"Is there anything I can do right now to get this ship to a drift?" asked Avis.
"The closet drift is the Chile drift, and that's several slipstream jumps from here."
"I'll take that as we're dead in the water," said Avis glumly.
"Now hold on, Avis. Kate is there any sort of temporary repairs that Avis can?"
Kate raised her eyebrows skeptically.
"Kate, I need to know if there is anything Avis can do to get us to Chile drift."
Kate frowned and appeared distracted.
"Captain, there appears to be a ship not far from here."
"Good, we can just ask them for help."
"I don't know if that's a good idea."
"I hope to hell they aren't pirates," said Avis.
"What's the problem, Kate?"
Kate paused before saying "The ship appears to be an old High Guard vessel."
"Kate, don't take this personally but I think your sensors are screwed up, again," said Avis.
"They are not," replied Kate indignantly.
"Ladies, I don't mean to interrupt but as captain I'm going to contact them."
Kate looked at Bela with disbelief.
Suddenly the ship came alive with beeps and lights flashing.
"Bela, that ship is hailing us. Should I respond or would you like to?"
"Stall them 'til I get up front. Avis, I want you to get Hekate up and running as much as possible in case we've got to make a fast exit," ordered Bela as got up.
"My captain will be with you shortly. Please remember to leave your visual on as my captain likes to know who is speaking. Thank you for your patience," said a pleasant female voice.
Suddenly a woman with dark brown skin and brown eyes appeared on the screen. Her deep black hair was pulled away from her face in two French braids. She was wearing a dark red tank top that had a strange symbol sewn on the front.
"Hi, this is Captain Belachina of Hekate's Wheel, and who am I speaking to?"
"This is Captain Dylan Hunt of the High Guard ship, Andromeda Ascendant."
Dylan was about to say something when the female voice spoke, "See, I told ya so."
"Shut up, Kate. I'm talking with the nice captain," ordered Belachina with a hint of irritation.
"Kate?" said a puzzled Dylan.
"Yeah, Kate, which is short for Hekate, is the ships AI."
Dylan looked at the woman skeptically.
"Kate, show the kind captain who you are."
Suddenly there was a hologram of a woman wearing a uniform very similar to Andromeda appeared next to Belachina. The hologram gave him a smug smile and then disappeared.
Dylan turned his head when Tyr said "Bela?"
The woman's face brightened as Tyr walked farther into the room.
"Tyr, it's been ages. I haven't seen you since………." She said trailing off.
Tyr nodded his head in agreement.
"Captain Hunt, I would like to have your permission to come aboard your ship?"
"Permission granted."
