A/N Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Please keep on doing so.
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What the hell! Okay maybe it wasn't such a good idea to make them fly us out of here, what keeps hitting us? I thought this planet didn't have any large-scale defence systems. Then again it wasn't meant to have a huge maze of an underground base in the middle of the desert.
"Can't you avoid any of these missiles Dylan, the Maru isn't a High Guard ship you know!"
"I wasn't the one who got angry for no reason and decided not to fly the ship was I? Don't worry though I'll soon have your precious ship back to Andromeda, the missiles aren't that powerful."
He knows that isn't the point, I don't care if the weapons barely leave a scratch, its sill my ship being fired upon. And angry for no reason, the nerve. I wonder if I can persuade Rommie to turn off his hot water, or persuade Harper to program her to shut off his hot water hmm.
"There we are I told you we would make it back safely."
Idiot…
"Beka please don't stare at me like that again,"
How about his coffee maker breaking down too…
"Especially don't smile like that."
Captain Terrific doesn't seem to be able to live without a proper coffee. That will teach him to be so damn perky about hails.
"Harper what's wrong with Beka she's looking at me weirdly?"
"Uh oh. I'd stay out of her way for a few days, you've made her real mad, she's definitely planning something."
"I'll just go then. Come up to the bridge when you… can look at me without seeming predatory. We still need to find out why this happened."
Why we? I rescued them. Single-handed I might point out, how come I need to help? I probably should though; they are my crew and if I don't Dylan will do the puppy dog eye thing. Damn he'll do the puppy dog eye thing if I stop his coffee. Why does he have cute puppy dog eyes? Hey Rommie's still here maybe I can talk to her about no hot water in his cabin. Nope she's leaving too I'm surprised she hasn't already figured out the whole dilemma in that huge brain of hers.
"Try the red capsules instead of those tablets, they're much better for PMS."
Even Rommie noticed, I must be bad this month. Alright I can do this smile, nicely, and go and find out who is trying to kill you this time.
We've been at this for two hours. Nobody on the planet is answering our hails and the files on the computer are so heavily encrypted that even Harper and Rommie haven't been able to crack them yet. Oh I stand corrected the fact that Harper came barrelling towards us at 50mp must mean they've finally got something.
Harper couldn't breath so Rommie's hologram popped up.
"I would have come immediately but Harper didn't want to 'spoil the surprise'. The base seems to have been built by the Hadr's government and had been receiving payments which stopped a couple of years ago. The payment suddenly started up again a day after we arrived at this planet, two weeks ago. It involves huge sums of money and the balance is added to every third day."
"Do you know what the money is going towards or what the facility does?"
"Not as yet this code is very difficult and breaking it is a slow process."
It must be hard if that's all they've got so far there must be an easier way than this. Was there nothing in the way the Hadr acted that gave us any clue? All they seemed to do was call us up at all hours to drone on in monologues. That was it I quickly checked over the logs again. There was always a slight undercurrent of code transmitting with the image and I had assumed it was some security issue but when I compared it to the last time we had heard from the Chief Ambassador I saw that though it started off the same it soon changed slightly and shifted, something none of the others did.
"Rommie look, what does this coding mean?"
"Analysing. I am not completely sure but it seems to affect my AI slightly."
"Could this be what made your memories of the crew disappearing seem sketchy?"
"It could, it's a definite possibility."
"So why use it this time why not all the other times that they have talked to us. Andromeda can you please analyse the differences between each time the Hadr have called and tell me the most important things that set this time apart from the rest."
"Why don't we just go and talk to the Chief Ambassador about what happened down there."
"He could have just been an innocent bystander, Beka. We mustn't jump to conclusions."
Innocent my ass, I still haven't forgiven him for making me stay on command for what seemed like hours.
"There are many small differences between the conversations but the main thing that stands out is this is the only time that all of us have appeared on the screen so the only time that the Hadr knew were all on the bridge. This could be the reason as there doesn't seem to be any other significant anomalies."
"So like I said why don't we just go down and talk to the ambassador?"
He's giving me that look I'll be in for a speech about how everyone is innocent until proven guilty etc, etc, etc. I bet that the fact I was the one who worked this part out has flown straight out of his mind. I know he will see I'm right eventually though.