A/N: I saw 'The Unconquerable Man' for the first time this morning! YAY! (yeah, I know, with all the Gaheris fics I have, you'd think I'd have seen it by now!) I need to know if my Andromeda reviewers still miss me. :( I'm still working on my Star Wars fics, but I'm starting to plan out Fallen Angel Pt. 2 (if anyone still cares)!
Okay, so ummm... review. please?
90 Seconds to Live
By Jade Rhade
"Captain." Andromeda's holographic form appeared in front of him. They were in orbit around Terazed.
Dylan slowly looked up from the picture he had been gazing at. "Yes, Andromeda?" No matter how many times he saw the man in the picture, he always got the same hollow ache in his chest.
Gaheris Rhade. His best friend turned traitor. On their eve of being assigned to the Andromeda, when this picture had been taken, had Rhade already been considering killing his captain?
The Abyss had been defeated, the Magog Worldship destroyed. But after everything Dylan had discovered this year, he still would never understand his best friend's motives.
"I've found something in the holographic memory," she said, looking at him. "Taken shortly before we entered the event horizon. Ninety seconds."
"What is it?" he asked, putting on a happy face for his AI.
She hesitated, a rare thing for her to do. "It concerns Gaheris Rhade."
Silence.
"Would you like me to play it, Captain?"
Dylan slowly nodded. "Onscreen."
-xXx- five years earlier (three hundred eight) –xXx-
"It's in your hands, now," Trance stepped back and gave him a sad smile of encouragement before tesseracting away to the future he had just left.
Gaheris Rhade, former captain of the Andromeda Ascendant, stood on the deck of the ship he had taken command of two and a half years earlier. He was back to change all that, and he set off at a brisk pace.
Marching toward his death.
I die to ensure that the galaxy is a better place. What being can honestly claim that his death will cause the perfect future? Gaheris knew that he should feel honored, but all he felt was a hollow weight in his stomach.
80 seconds.
"Commander!" he barked, seeing his younger self.
The double stopped and looked around, confused at hearing his own voice. His eyes widened as Gaheris shot him, and he collapsed to the ground, instantly dead.
Gaheris knelt over his own body. I have killed myself, and am now going to desecrate my own body. The universe has a sick sense of humor. He quickly removed his own clothes and replaced them with the painfully familiar red-and-beige Commander's uniform. Then he dumped his twin's body out a nearby airlock.
60 seconds.
If I keep thinking about what I am about to do, I will not be able to do it. Even now he could feel the temptation to just stand here and wait for the event horizon. Would he really endanger the perfect future by surviving? He could almost hear Trance's whispered voice speaking to him. Yes. This is what he had to do; it was his destiny, and he would do it.
He remembered an ancient Earth song Rev had taught him, and began to hum it in his head to take his mind off of what he was about to do.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
He has loosed the fateful lightning where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He is sorting out the hearts of men with his terrible swift sword.
His truth is marching on.
45 seconds.
He shot Refractions of Dawn, pointed the forcelance at Dylan, and paused for two fatal seconds, then shot.
Doing so, he guaranteed his own death.
Glory, glory, hallelujah...
-xXx-
Dylan stopped the recording there. This was his second time seeing it, this time on the Command Deck with the rest of his crew. He looked around at the others.
Harper looked shocked, Beka looked sick, and Rommie was emotionless. Rhade stormed from the deck without a word. After a quick glance at Dylan, Trance followed him.
"Telemachus, stop," she ordered calmly.
Rhade stopped and spun around to face the Avatar. "Why didn't you tell me?" he growled, brown eyes flashing.
"Tell you what?" Trance asked impassively.
"Don't play cute with me, Trance!" Rhade took two quick strides toward her and held his bone blades to her throat, muscles visibly straining as he restrained himself. "You could have told me that my ancestor wasn't a traitor! You should have told me."
"Why?" Trance asked, still with an air of indifference. "What purpose would it serve you?"
"It's the truth!" Rhade exclaimed angrily. "Everyone in the entire universe refers to him like scum! Do you know what it was like, growing up as his genetic reincarnation? Do you! By not telling us, you dishonor his memory in the eyes of others!"
"He knew he was a hero," Trance said softly. "That was enough for him." Without another word, she walked away.
Rhade was left with his arm out, bone blades extended at the empty air. He growled, turned, and slammed his fist against the wall, then began to walk toward the slipfighter bay.
"Rhade?" Andromeda's hologram appeared as he did his preflight test inside the slipfighter. "Where are you going?"
"Terazed," he bit out.
"You have not gotten authorization from Captain Hunt."
"I don't need his authorization. Not for this."
"What are you going to do?"
Rhade hesitated. "To speak with my ancestor."
Rommie frowned and opened her mouth, but Rhade cut the transmission and took off.
-xXx-
Rhade knelt in front of the ebony marble mausoleum that held his ancestor's body. There were no carvings adorning the stone's surface, just a rendering of the symbol of the Commonwealth engraved on each of the four sides. On the front in block letters it simply read:
COMMANDER GAHERIS RHADE
KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY
"Hello, Gaheris," Rhade whispered to the tomb. "I realize that many people on this planet consider you to be a hero, but do not understand what you've done to deserve the title." He hesitated, then continued.
"I do not claim to understand everything you went through, but now I have an idea of what you went through. I know you are not the kind of person who would want sympathy from me, but I wanted you to know that you have my respect."
Rhade took out a laser cutter from the pack he had brought with him and began to carve a saying in block letters on the face of the tomb. When he finished, he stood, saluted, and left.
COMMANDER GAHERIS RHADE
KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY
HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON