I would like to thank squid for the heads up on my error with chapter 13. I had uploadedin error a chapter from another Andromeda story I'm working on. I apologize for the confusion. Here's the real chapter 13.
Chapter 13
"What do you mean one of your relay towers is down!" Beka questioned in a loud voice.
The bald man on the other side of the counter remained nonplussed as he attempted to calm the blonde pilot. "I'm sorry Madam but our engineers are busy working on repairing the relay tower now.
Beka was in no mood to be calmed right now. "How long until the relay tower is fixed?" she asked with irritation.
"It should be up by tomorrow. Is there anything else I can help you with?" the bald man in an official looking uniform asked, trying to move her along. His video screen was beeping, showing that incoming transmissions were being received.
The blonde pilot glared at the official but bit her tongue. "No, there is nothing else you can help me with. Thanks anyway." Beka turned without even bothering to wait for a response from the official. She decided to head down the street to the courier office she had seen on her way to the relay station office.
When Beka arrived at the courier office she had to take a number and wait for an employee to call out her number. Beka practically pulled the ticket machine off the wall when she tried to remove the ticket with her number.
Beka Valentine paced the local courier office, waiting for her number to be called. She had already been sitting for the last half hour and needed to move around now. Just as Beka was about introduce herself to the clerk using a gauss gun, her number was called.
Beka spent a few minutes going over the instructions for delivering her message to the Andromeda. When Beka paid extra thrones for a quicker delivery the clerk behind the counter assured the blonde pilot that the message would get there the next day.
Having finished her necessary errands for now, Beka returned to the Maru. The blonde went about fixing a sandwich grabbed a bottle of soda from the overhead cabinet.
After chewing a bit of her pork sandwich, she opened the bottle and took a swig of soda. It was days like this that Beka Valentine wished she drank alcohol. But she had sworn off all alcohol and drugs after seeing her father suffer from Flash addiction.
Trance waited in her "room" keeping an eye on Horatio the flower which sat on the floor next to her cot. He was starting to come around and be back to his normal, healthy self.
"You look like you're feeling much better Horatio. That's good. I won't let Siegfried hurt you again," the purple girl promised. She left Horatio the flower to sit in silence as she lay back on her cot.
As soon as Trance closed her eyes she saw visions of the possible futures again. The visions weren't any clearer than her last ones. There was a difference since this time however. Harper was in her vision. All the purple pixie could make out was that Harper lying on a table bleeding.
Trance shook her head to rid herself of the unwelcome vision. "No not Harper again," she pleaded in her mind as a tear dropped onto her bare right knee. Trance wasn't going to lose both Beka and Harper. She knew she had to get away from Siegfried and this time he wasn't going to distract her with a flower.
That evening Marco returned and brought Trance to a small room the same size room as the one she had just left. Like Trance's room there were no windows. The room was empty except for a wooden table and a chair in the middle of the room.
Trance saw only two things on the table; a small glass of water and an electric box with electrodes attacked to it with wires. The purple girl was scared at first but she composed herself for what was to come
Dylan called the remainder of his crew together on the Command Deck. He had just received word from Beka via courier. Harper and Tyr strolled in together. Rev had already arrived and was involved in conversation with Dylan.
"I called you all here because we've received word from Beka," Dylan began. "She's had a delay in catching up to Trance."
"How much of a delay?" Tyr asked with his usual calm air.
Dylan caught a worried look from Harper out of the corner of his eye before turning to the tall Nietzschean. "She was following a tracking beacon from the ship that Trance had rented but lost the signal."
Harper nearly pounced on the High Guard captain. "What? How could Beka lose a tracking signal? I've seen those tracking beacons and it's not easy."
"Little Professor, the purple girl has been around you long enough to have picked up a few tricks of the trade, so to speak," Tyr offered.
Harper couldn't believe Tyr was blaming him for the signal being lost. "Oh so it's my fault? Okay, fine then I'll go meet up with Beka and help find Trance."
Dylan put up a hand stopping the engineer as he was preparing to turn and leave. "Not just yet Mr. Harper. Beka's on a small planet called Crimea right now waiting for a relay tower to be repaired. She is perfectly capable of handling the problem on her own and you're needed here to finish up Andromeda's repairs. Besides, you are still recovering from your injuries."
Harper half expected one of Andromeda's forms to suddenly appear to concur with her captain. "Then can I leave to meet up with Beka as soon as I get all of the repairs finished?" Harper almost pleaded.
"If Beka hasn't found Trance by the time you finish the repairs then I will consider authorizing you to assist Beka," Dylan relented, although he wasn't through with the eager engineer. "But not before then. And I mean not before you are completely finished with the repairs to my satisfaction."
"Okay Boss, I get the point," Harper whined. "Did Beka say what happened to the tower?"
Dylan shook his head. "No, she said nobody saw fit to give her that information. They just assured her it would be finished as soon as possible."
"When did she send the message?" Tyr questioned quietly.
Dylan checked the time record on the flexi containing the executive officer's message. "The time stamp says yesterday morning."
Tyr's expression remained unchanged from the serious one he had shown the whole meeting. "Beka must have paid a good sum of money to get that message here so soon. Perhaps the relay tower has already been repaired."
"Let's hope so Tyr," Dylan replied, surprised at the Nietzschean's apparent optimism.
"Did Beka say which relay tower was down? Maybe I could go and help the guys repair it?" Harper suggested, hoping he could at least do something useful in finding Trance.
Dylan looked down at the young engineer with a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry Harper but Beka wasn't given much information. She said she it was like pulling teeth to get just the basic information form the company that owns the towers."
Harper's shoulders slumped in resignation. "Well, I guess I'll get started on Andromeda's repairs if you don't need me on Command any more."
"Go ahead and start the repairs Mr. Harper. I'm sure Andromeda is anxious to be up to 100," Dylan replied. The engineer immediately trotted off of Command.
When Harper was out of earshot Tyr unfolded his arms from across his chest. "Do you really think that Trance will be found if she does not wish to be?"
The High Guard captain arched an eyebrow in curiosity. "Tyr are you suggesting that Trance is holding back some of her capabilities? That the relay tower going out of commission was more than a coincidence?"
"I am suggesting Captain Hunt that Trance is more than she appears," Tyr replied mysteriously. The Nietzschean decided to leave the High Guard captain with no additional information. "I'm assuming your briefing here regarding the status of Beka Valentine's search for Trance is finished."
"I'll keep your suggestion in mind Tyr," Dylan said before watching the Nietzschean's retreating back.
That evening Harper was in his quarters on the Andromeda with privacy mode set. He had worked double fast to get as much of Andromeda's repairs completed. It would take another day, even for a genius like Seamus Harper, to complete the rest of the repairs. Harper decided he had to leave some of the repairs incomplete but made sure he finished the most necessary of the repairs done. The remaining repairs left were minor and would be easy for Tyr or the repair bots to finish.
Harper now was in the middle of packing some of his belongings. He grabbed a can of Sparky and took a long swallow before setting the can back down on a surfboard sitting on the floor. Harper now double checked to make sure he had everything he felt he would need. In his nylon backpack the engineer had packed a knife, his spare connector for jacking in along with a few other goodies.
There was no way the engineer was going to wait to begin his search for Trance, his sparkly, purple pixie.