CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Unrest
"Wings were broken, Heaven fell
Send the angels back to hell."
'Ring of Fire' verse 6:7
CY 1641

Dylan entered Command, his mind still running over his conversation with Harper. "Okay Rommie, let me hear the distress call."

Andromeda obliged and played the message. Having heard it herself, she knew it wasn't going to get a pleasant response from Dylan. The audio began. A breathless voice, barely distinguishable from the background noise of what sounded like fire burning began to speak. "Help me please...oh god...please, god please he's going to - " The message was cut off.

"Is that the whole message?" Dylan asked, disturbed by what he had heard.

"Affirmative," Andromeda replied. "The message originated from the Thalia system."

"That's near the Dovien system, where the Nietzscheans were headed," Dylan realised, though he was unsure of what that implied.

"It could be coincidence."

"Or it could be a trap," Dylan returned. He dwelled on the possibilities for a moment. "Alright, we don't have much of a choice," he sighed. "But let's assume the worst. Get weapons on standby. Get Beka, Tyr and Rommie here but...don't disturb Trance and Harper," he added. Part of his reasoning was that Trance could be in the middle of an operation and he didn't want to disturb her. The other part was to keep Harper from knowing they could be going to face the remaining Nietzschean crew.

Harper arrived in med-deck with Ana in tow. He had mixed feelings about going to get the inhibitor removed. It should have been an easy decision. After all, it served as a constant reminder of what he had been through, and what he had lost - not that he particular needed another one. But there was also the matter of going under the knife. Harper had never liked medical procedures, even if someone he trusted like Trance was performing it.

Trance smiled when she saw Harper. She was glad to have him back, despite the conditions it had been under. Unlike the others, she didn't want to push him into talking about anything he didn't want to. However, he seemed to be looking worse than he had when she saw him earlier. "Did you see Dylan?"

"Yeah I saw him." Harper walked over and sat down on the bed at the far side of the room. He deliberately didn't sit on the same bed he had woken up on two days ago. Just looking at it brought back the memory of waking up and finding his powers had left him.

"Are you okay?" Trance questioned. He probably got a lot of that lately, but there was no surprise there.

"Yeah, I'm good," Harper replied automatically.

"Are you sure? If you're worried about the procedure to get the inhibitor out, it's a simple procedure," Trance explained, laying out some equipment. "I just had to create a few new tools to work with." She noticed Harper wasn't really concentrating. The room probably brought back memories. "And clearly that's not what you were worried about."

Harper noticed Trance's tone and shook the daydream he had slipped into. "Sorry I was thinking about...sorry."
For a moment Trance thought he was about to open up, but once again her hopes were quickly dashed. "That's okay." She smiled and decided to keep things light. "How's Ana doing?"

"Okay," Harper answered. "I've been teaching her the basics, the layout of the ship, people names and stuff but I can't seem to get her to expand her personality. I've been trying to get her to understand that she has choices, emotions, knows right from wrong but...it's just not working."

Trance was pleased Harper had something to concentrate on other than recuperating. Working on Ana allowed him to work with his hands again, something he had to get used to again after having such advanced mental abilities. Whether he knew it or not that was a big part of his recovery. "Well Rommie didn't develop her personality overnight. It took time," Trance told him.

"I know, but I've been working on her non-stop, I'd just like some sign that she's actually taking any of it in." Harper sighed looking at Ana, who was standing in the corner, not doing much of anything. "So this procedure..." he said, returning to the reason he was there. "Will it hurt?"

"Of course not," Trance assured. She was well aware of Harper's dislike of pretty much any kind of medical operation. "It's actually so safe it's best if you stay awake during the procedure."

"You're going to be digging something out of my brain and you want me to stay awake?"

"You'll have the proper anaesthetic," the golden alien replied obviously. "You can trust me, you know that, right?" she said more seriously.

"Yeah I know," Harper told her. "Alright so...when is this going to happen?"

Trance finished setting up. "I can start as soon as you're ready."

Harper taken unawares. "What, like, now?"

"Whenever you're ready," Trance repeated.

"Gimme a couple of minutes?"

"Take as long as you need."

Tyr was the last to arrive in Command after being briefed on the situation. He wasn't happy about the possibility of walking into a trap but on a on the other hand he did have the urge to find the remainders of the Dovien-Genghis pride and rip them to shreds. No enemies got away from Tyr Anasazi alive.

Beka was just pulling out slipstream as Tyr took the weapons station.

"We're on the outskirts of the Thalia system. The distress call is no longer being transmitted," Andromeda reported.

"Any sign of the origin?" Dylan asked, his nerves still on end as he prepared for the worst.

"A ship is within sensor range...It's The Barbell. She's dead in space. Minimal power readings and..." Andromeda paused.

Rommie, who was checking the readouts simultaneously was just as swayed by what she saw. "Captain...you're not going to believe this," Rommie told him, in disbelief herself. "There's only one lifesign onboard."

Dylan knew bad things came in threes but this was ridiculous.

End of Chapter Twenty-Seven