"Sometimes the most dangerous evils come from within."

Unknown

AFC 27

Beka sat at a small table, her feet propped up on a nearby chair, watching Tyr lift weights.

"She's just so... I don't know... Innocent?"

Tyr took a deep breath before pushing the weight back up.

"And I guess, I guess I see myself in her."

He brought the bar back down to his chest. "I see you have grown attached."

Beka frowned. "I mean, she's... I don't know... happy?"

"And?" He heaved the bar back up.

"And it's just, in a galaxy with so much anger and uncertainty, she's... just so, so innocent."

He pulled the bar back down to his chest. "I think you may be mistaking innocence for naivety."

She rested her head on her hand. "Maybe."

Tyr set the bar back on the stand. "Having second thoughts about sending her away?" He took a small hand towel and began wiping off sweat.

"No. I mean, she can't stay here. This is a warship."

"Hmmm."

"And, I don't know, maybe, someday, if I find the right guy. I'll have one.

"A valid goal to be sure, but I never quite thought of you as the settling down type."

"Well I don't want to be like some Nietzschean bride and squeeze out a litter ... I'm not even saying I want to get married but a child might be nice, you know?"

Tyr nodded and tossed the hand towel on the table. "It's all yours," he said as he left the room.

"Thanks." she said absentmindedly but she was in no mood to work out. Her mind was reeling too fast. She pulled the computer out of her pocket and began accessing the files Harper copied from Shadow amongst the Stars, but the screen was tiny and it was hard to gain anything substantial from it. She sighed and decided she'd hook it up to the computers in the command deck. A bigger screen might just do the trick.

As she walked toward command deck she heard a light mumbling coming from Hydroponics.

It was most likely Trance, who practically lived in Hydroponics. "Trance?" she called as she entered the room.

Inside she found Trance leaning on the edge of a reasonably large potted shrub staring at the branches.

"Trance?" Beka called again.

Trance blinked but did not turn to face her.

Beka shook her head. "Don't tell me you're mad about earlier. It was nothing personal."

Trance stood upright and turned to Beka her eyes boring into Beka's own. Her voice was sharp. "If you think I'm upset because you disagreed with me than you don't know me very well at all."

Beka frowned and walked over to Trance but she turned back to her plant. She touched a light pink bud tentatively with her hand. There was a long pause before she spoke again. "I have seen one future, I can ...feel... others. I just, I just wanted to fix it. And I know it was her. It had to be. The more I thought about it, the more I knew..." She put her head down for a moment before lifting it. She wasn't so much mad or sad as pensive. Contemplating everything and what went wrong. Trying to find a way out of this mess. Trying to find the road to the perfect future from this point.

"Trance, is it at all possible that your nerves are what brought you to that conclusion?"

Trance peered at Beka in confusion. "Huh?"

"Like you said, you were alone- your friends half- dead. So isn't it possible that you blamed it on the child because it made things easier on you?"

Trance stood upright. "I suppose it's possible. I suppose it could have been something else. I mean, anything's possible."

Suddenly it dawned on Beka. "Like a virus?"

Trance eyed Beka searchingly. "Virus?" The edge of her voice sharpened. "What virus?"

"Rommie's sensors are on the fritz."

Trance's eyes widened. "That's why we couldn't detect slipstream before. That's why we didn't know who they were. I need to speak to Harper."

Trance left the garden in a hurry headed toward Harper's machine shop.

Beka followed behind her.

Trance didn't even bother to knock when she entered and Harper looked up from his work clearly startled by the abrupt entrance.

"Where's the fi.."

Trance cut him off. "Why didn't you tell me about the virus?"

"Excuse me?"

Trance shook her head in annoyance. "The virus. Andromeda's virus."

"Should I have?" Harper asked, obviously still confused by the confrontation.

"She thinks the virus may be what caused the 'unknown foes' to find us...or will cause them to find us or...whatever." Beka's voice was calmer than Trance's.

Harper shook his head. "I hate to burst your bubble ladies, but that's one farfetched idea."

"How so?" Trance's voice was still edged. She seemed to favor the virus idea.

Beka's expression conveyed the same question.

"As you well know, the majority of viruses we have encountered so far have either been enacted to a) severely take over the Andromeda or b) severely cripple her..."

"Exactly." Trance interrupted.

"Let me finish. All this virus has done is briefly damage internal sensors. So far the only thing the Andromeda can not do is tell life signs, and it only seems to be the child's."

"That's odd." Beka voiced.

Harper shook his head. "Not entirely. Andromeda's life monitors are split into two separate files. This is due to the fact that adults and children are often not alike and therefore many things differ between the two. Now they don't necessarily need to be separated but the sub-filing allows Andromeda to read it faster."

Now Trance was confused "Why would a virus only infect that?"

"Well, I think it's a tapeworm."

"Tapeworm?" Beka questioned.

Harper nodded. "It's a virus that essentially only grows up until diagnostic is run."

Trance put a finger to her mouth in contemplation. "So essentially this virus could've grown to cripple the whole system?"

Harper nodded. "Normally this particular virus doesn't get that chance but, theoretically, I suppose it's possible."

Beka pondered the information for a moment before speaking. "You said the diagnostic was run this morning but can you tell me exactly when you started it.

There was a brief pause before Harper spoke. "I suppose around 10:50?"

Beka nodded. "Ten minutes after Dylan left."

Trance was confused again.

"The Anarians." Harper stated.

"That explains why they were so eager to pick Dylan up. They needed an excuse to get on the ship."

Trance shook her head. "But that makes no sense. If they wanted to get on the ship then they could've held the whole meeting on the ship."

Harper shook his head. "No. Had they held the meeting on the ship they would've been monitored much more closely. You know the kind of diplomatic disasters we've had on this ship. And Andromeda has cameras everywhere."

Beka nodded. "And they would've been first suspect. By merely picking Dylan up it would be much harder to finger them for this."

Harper nodded in agreement. "To enact the virus all they needed was the keypad that opened the airlock. They could've done that in minutes... before Dylan got out there."

Trance furrowed her brow. "Why would the Anarians have done that in the first place? We've never been down there before. They couldn't possibly have a vendetta with us yet."

"No, but the Dragons do." Beka reminded her. "Most likely the Dragons found out about our expected visit and the Ambassador bargained with him for us."

"And how did they track us before? Does this tapeworm have a built in tracker."

Harper shook his head. "No. But they could've easily set one up near the airlock."

"So, what has been done so far? To fix things?"

"I've isolated the Internal Sensors and compared a recent backup of Rommie..."

"All internal sensors?" Trance interrupted. "Was that really necessary? You said the virus was a tapeworm. You said it couldn't grow after the scan. So why did you need to block it off?"

"It was merely a precaution. I am not one hundred percent positive that it is a tapeworm." Harper said a little defensively.

"And Internal Sensors include slipstream."

"In a way, yes. They contain slipstream events before anything is actually in view."

"So even though the virus didn't damage those two files you blocked them off."

Harper nodded. "Yes. I did."

"That may also be the reason we couldn't detect our enemies. You had the sensors blocked."

"Excuse me?" Harper took her words as an accusation.

Trance's mind was spinning. "Is there any way, any way you can isolate them even more?"

He wrinkled his brow. "It doesn't quite work like that..."

Her words had quickened, as did her breathing. "Then will you un-isolate it?"

"Un-isolate it? Remove the firewall? Trance, I'm not sure it's a tapeworm."

"Harper, please."

Beka shook her head. "Trance, I think the firewalls are a good idea."

She closed her eyes for a moment. "Please, if the virus begins to grow you can put it back up. Would you please just trust me? I am the same old Trance. I really am. I just want to keep you all safe."

Harper frowned. Beka looked at Harper tacitly showing that she felt it was his decision. It was several minutes before he finally answered her. "Fine. I will remove it. But if anything else gets damaged it'll be you sifting through all these files to find it."

Trance breathed a sigh of relief and gave Harper a full-hearted embrace before scuttering out of the room.

Harper shook his head but there was a smile on his face.

Beka eyed him curiously.

"Hey, I'm almost hoping the virus does spread. I don't wanna sift through piles of information for all eternity."

Beka laughed and shook her head. "Good ol' Harper."

"One of us is going to have to tell Dylan... and I vote you."

Beka rolled her eyes. "How gracious of you to give me that honor."

"Hey, I have to de-install a firewall."

"I feel for you" she retorted sarcastically. "The removal of four little chips must be so taxing."

"Ah, it is"

"Andromeda" Beka called.

Within seconds, Holo-Rommie appeared before her. "Yes."

"Can I have a location on the Captain."

Holo-Rommie closed her eyes for a moment. "I believe he is on the command deck- talking to the Ambassador or Sintu-Anaris."

"Thank you" Beka said absentmindedly as Holo-Rommie disappeared.

Harper furrowed his brow. "You think Dylan already knows?"

Beka shook her head. "I doubt it. This has to just be coincidence."

Harper shrugged and as he grabbed the plug off of the counter and plugged in to Andromeda's VR matrix.

Beka headed towards Command Deck.

When Beka reached Command Deck, Dylan was just finishing up with the Ambassador. When he had finished he acknowledged his First Officer's presence.

"Why were you talking to the Ambassador of Sintu-Anaris?"

Dylan was a little taken aback. "What? No hi? I was checking to see if the child's parents had indeed been killed or if they were just taken into custody."

Beka's eyes narrowed. She was thoroughly annoyed. He told her he trusted her to do this and now he was sticking his nose into it. And after that lecture about trust. She was fuming. "And?"

Dylan dismissed her accusing stare. "They have no records of anyone being red flagged or smuggling or using fraudulent currency."

She shook her head "And you believe that?"

Dylan looked her right in the eyes "Why shouldn't I?"

Beka's reply was almost smug. "We have reason to believe the Sintu-Anarians are behind Trance's future events."

Dylan furrowed his brow. "Excuse me?"

"Trance's accusations toward the child were caused by paranoia. We believe the underlying cause is a virus."

"A virus?" Dylan's voice hardened. "Andromeda has a virus and no one bothered to even tell me? Oh, I guess I would've figured it out when the ship just stopped working."

Beka put a hand to her forehead. "Look, the virus isn't that serious- or so we believe."

"Oh, a virus that supposedly causes the destruction of my ship and the near death of my entire crew isn't serious?"

Beka rolled her eyes. "The virus is called a tapeworm. It only grows until the diagnostic which, in the Andromeda's case, was early this morning. It didn't have much time to grow and only a few files were corrupted. Apparently a sub branch of life sensors was the only thing ruined which was, most likely, why Rommie thought the rogue ship was abandoned. With only a few files corrupted the virus couldn't have been installed long before the diagnostic."

"Well when, this morning, was it run?" Dylan questioned.

"No more than twenty minutes after you left in the Anarian cruiser."

Dylan nodded, his face like stone. "So the Sintu-Anarians installed a virus on my ship."

Beka nodded. "We believe so. We think they enacted it from the control panel on the airlock."

"Any thoughts as to why?"

"We believe the Dragons caught wind of our negotiations and to avoid conflict the Ambassador agreed to give them us."

Dylan nodded. As Tyr pointed out it was in the Ambassadors character to give into the Dragons pressure.

"We also believe they planted a tracking device somewhere in the airlock."

Dylan nodded. "Well, then, I guess we have work to do?"

Beka put her hands on her hips. "Actually I was hoping we'd slip out of this system first."

Dylan cocked his head at her. "You just told me there was a tracker on this ship. What good would slipping do?"

Beka grasped the back of her pilot's chair with her hand keeping her gaze focused on the captain. "I suggest we lie low... somewhere other than here."

"Are you suggesting we leave the Andromeda? I am not going to leave my ship to be blown apart."

"Fine. However, you can't deny that it's better to go down in a large friendly system- that way we may actually have a shred of hope for escape, or at least fixing this bucket of bolts if it gets fried. Better to be shot in a crowded room than a hidden closet. And if you haven't noticed" she gestured at the main computer screen pointing to the eerie copper ball that was Sintu-Anaris, "Sintu- Anaris is the only inhabited planet in this system. Definitely a closet."

Dylan glanced at the screen thinking the proposition over. He shook his head. "We should find the tracker first. Once we find it, and destroy it, then, by all means, slip wherever you want."

Beka shook her head. "If the Nietzscheans do attack..."

"Don't you think slipping would be giving them an invitation?"

Beka wrinkled her brow composing a look of confusion mixed with disgust..

"Right now they don't know that we know their game but they still have the upper hand. The moment they sense that we're fleeing they're going to come after us."

Beka shook her head. "I highly doubt it. The fact is- they don't know what we know. They may take the slip jump as a perfectly normal action. And if there is a tracker why would they attack us right away if they can always find the ship again? I say we slip, at the very least, into the Radula system."

Dylan gave an agitated sigh. "Beka, I understand where you're coming from. I don't want to get ambushed any more than you do, any more than Tyr, Harper, or Rommie do, but there is also another reason I wish to remain here for the time being. Lest we forget, there is still the matter of the child onboard and, before this "preordained battle. " takes place, I would like to find her a home. Every clue, every minute piece of information that could help her is contained in this system."

Beka glared at him. "I thought the child was my problem."

Dylan's face hardened in retaliation to her tone. "I did too."

"Excuse me?" She took her hand off the chair back and advanced almost menacingly toward him.

Dylan remained where he stood. "How much time have you spent with her? Watching her? How much time have you devoted to finding her home?"

Beka glared at him "It's being taken care of."

Dylan shook his head. "Yes, by Harper who, as I recall, wanted nothing to do with it."

Beka frowned. She cast her eyes down to the floor but slowly returned them to meet Dylan's eyes before she spoke. "Point is: It's being taken care of."

Dylan frowned.

Beka's voice was tinged with anger and guilt. "And for your information, I was coming down here to try and find her home, but, low and behold, I come down here, and captain terrific is doing it for me." She pulled Harper's foldable computer out of her pocket and tossed it haphazardly on the control panel in front of him. "I don't think you trusted me to handle this." she accused.

Dylan frowned, annoyed at himself for saying what he did, and the two stood in silence for a moment. "I was trying to help."

Beka closed her eyes and turned from him. "Let's go find the damn tracker."

She left the room, Dylan following a few seconds after her, both with a heavy air of defeat about them.

Break BREAK break Break Break

"Scan completed." Andromeda's voice called over the sound system of the Machine Shop.

"Good, uh, good. So, how bad's the damage?"

"Damage?"

"Uh," said Harper tinkering with some wires in his pet project a ship camouflager that he had simply named a ship cover. He picked up the soldering wand. "How many new files?" He set the soldering wand back down.

There was a brief pause. "Two thousand, eight hundred, and seven..."

Harper looked up at the ceiling towards the sound. "You've gotta be friggin' kiddin'"

"eight...nine...ten..."

"Stop adding files!" he yelled. He looked back down at the ship cover. "Please let the virus spread," he said to himself.

He stopped briefly and walked over to a small refrigerator stashed in a corner. He pulled out a sparkly cola and after a swig returned to the counter. He was startled to see Emily peeking tentatively over the counter. He eyed her for a moment. "I thought I put you to bed."

She gave an embarrassed smile. "I couldn't sleep. And since... well, you said... when you couldn't sleep...soo I...uh, ya."

Harper's expression faded to an amused smile. "I guess you can stay...until you get tired," he added.

He set the sparkly cola down and once again began tinkering with his pet project.

As he worked she eyed all the trinkets on the counter. She picked up a cylindrical object. "What is this?"

"That", Harper glanced briefly at the object, "is a Force Lance." He jerked his finger away, from his project, shocked by rouge wire.

"Force Lance?" She ran her fingers across the object and shifted it from hand to hand tentatively. "What is a Force Lance?"

Harper walked over to a cabinet and retrieved a larger wire. "Um", he began almost absentmindedly, " a Force Lance is a weapon that uh, has smart bullets. And it's capable of electric shocks, usually directed at people who's DNA is not keyed in. And, uh, it opens up to be, um, well, a really big stick."

She set the forcelance down. "Why wasn't I shocked?"

He glanced up at her again. "Well, I'm working on it so I disabled that lovely little feature."

"Oh. So it's not yours?"

Harper shook his head. "Nope. It's Dylan's." He set down the soldering wand and picked up some wire cutters and a pair of magnifier lenses.

The child looked from Harper back to the Force Lance. "Why don't you have one?"

She walked over to him and peered under his elbow at the ship cover.

It was a few moments before he answered, "Well, I'm not highguard. And personally..." His eyes widened. He had just screwed up part of the wring and fried part of the circuitry. " I prefer something less... ancient."

He hopped over the counter and grabbed a small piece of metal from a table buried under a ton of equipment and spare parts- remnants from the game.

The child eyed the Force Lance curiously. "What is a 'high guard'?"

Harper grabbed another tool and began to work the piece of metal, trying to redesign the chip that he had just fried. The child's question remained unanswered.

"Mr. Harper?" she attempted again.

Harper didn't lift his head but he did acknowledge her. "Hmm?"

"What is a 'high guard'?"

"High guard?"

The child nodded even though Harper wasn't looking at her.

"Well I'm uh, I'm not really an expert on highguard. All I know is they uh, worked for the... the Commonwealth."

"Commonwealth." the child repeated to herself.

"Ya... it was the, uh, the largest reigning governmental body out there... but eventually the uh, Nietzscheans, the Nietzscheans defeated it at the, at the Battle of Witchhead."

"Nietzscheans? Witch head? Wait, who was defeated, the Commonwealth or the Highguard?"

Harper picked up another strange looking tool. "Both."

"Oh so... so Mr. Dylan is highguard?"

Harper nodded. "And this baby," he motioned around him with the tool, "the Andromeda, was one of the pride of the fleet."

"Thank you, Harper." said Rommie as she entered the room. "I just came to ask you why you removed the fire wall? I'd give you the benefit of the doubt and say you had already found the abnormality but, seeing that the firewall was removed before the scan was completed, I highly doubt it."

Harper set the tool down and looked at Rommie. "It was a personal favor."

Rommie's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me? Since when does my well-being get thrown aside for a personal favor?"

"Rommie, you're fine. The firewall was merely a precautionary measure." He turned back to his work.

Rommie sighed. "So what prompted the discussion about the Andromeda?"

The child smiled at the avatar. "Mr. Harper was telling me about the High Guard and the Commonwealth."

Rommie eyed Harper curiously.

He looked up at her and shrugged. "I told her what I know, granted all I know are fragments."

"Well, the Commonwealth was near three hundred years before your time." she said sympathetically.

"Three hundred years?" The child was confused. Then how could Mr. Dylan be high guard."

"Well," Rommie began. "He was frozen in time on the event horizon of a black hole?"

"Event horizon?"

Harper set his project down again. "Think of the event horizon of a black hole as a stagnation point in time."

Rommie nodded. "And the black hole itself is called such because it's gravitational pull is so strong that even light cannot escape it. The A-G field kept us from falling into the black hole. Had that been the occurrence we would've essentially, been..."

"Squished to death." Harper finished for her. "Don't forget Sarah's little push."

Rommie shook her head. "Harper, that has nothing to do with the three hundred year freeze."

"Hey, had she not pushed you, you'd still be frozen." He turned to Emily. "Dylan and our lovely little Andromeda were frozen on the edge of a black hole. One little push and three hundred years later and we were able to get them out. The Maru pulled the Andromeda out like a tugboat. That's the story."

"Thank you, Harper." Rommie retorted sarcastically.

"The Andromeda, uh... you are a nice ship." the child directed to Rommie.

The avatar preened. "If you'd like to learn more about the Andromeda, I'd be more than happy to take you on a tour."

The child's face lit up at the suggestion.

Harper looked at Rommie. "Tour?"

Rommie rolled her eyes. "Yes. You know, where you take someone around... to see things?"

He grimaced. "You're just going to let her wander around the ship?"

Rommie looked him in the eyes. "No, Harper. She'll be with me. Look, I used to accommodate a crew of four thousand. I think I can keep an eye on one little girl."

"Children are different than trained High Guard soldiers."

"Harper, if it's going to be an issue, why don't you just come with us."

Harper looked from Emily to his project and finally back to her. "Fine."

"Alright then." Rommie stepped out of the room. Harper, child in hand, trailed just behind her. "The Andromeda Ascendant was the 10th ship of the Glorious Heritage heavy cruiser line. It was designed in the Newport News Orbital Shipyards above earth. Anyway," she continued, "my keel was laid in CY 9768. Construction was flawless- my features state-of-the-art. My AI unit- me, if you will- I was designed in Tarn Vedra which also happens to be the birthplace of our captain. I was commissioned by Vedran Empress Sucharitlcul XII and High Guard Admiral Kostanza Q. Stark, along with some various other important people.

As a Glorious Heritage class cruiser I had several duties such as interplanetary combat, disaster relief, and refugee support." She looked to the child. "Keeping up so far?"

The child, an amazed and intrigued glimmer in her eyes nodded.

Rommie turned to Harper.

"Modest aren't you." Harper retorted.

"Can I help it if I'm one of the pride of the Commonwealth fleet," she shot back with a grin.

"Just continue."

"I am 1301 meters in length, 325 meters in height, with an inertial mass of 96,408,878 kg."

She entered the Observation Deck and as Harper and the child peered out the large window into the vast expanse of space continued. "I can house over 4,000 crew members and I am equipped with System Search Sensors, Hyper Spectral Advanced Imaging Sensors, and an Electronic Support measure suite."

The child turned for the window back to Rommie clearly more interested by what she was saying. Harper was amazed at her attentiveness.

"I am also equipped with 40 ELS missile tubes, 12 PDL 150 Mw turrets, 12 AP cannons, 36 RF-42 Centaur tactical fighters, 76 RA-26 Shrike Strike Fighters, a 12 AF/A-29 Phoenix Atmospheric Attack Craft, 16 Es-155 oracle Heavy Sensor/attack drone, 8 Es 14 Janus light sensor attack drones..."

"Okay, we get it. You're one bad babe." Harper interrupted.

Rommie looked down her nose at him. "I wasn't finished."

"I'm sure she gets the picture."

"Actually," Emily said softly, "I find this all fascinating."

"You find her rattling off a weapons list interesting?"

The child frowned. "Is that wrong?"

"Of course not," Rommie informed her. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, 18 Es 14 Janus light sensor attack drones, 6 radiating counter measure generators," she smiled broadly. "1 AI command control entity, OM-5 standard Offensive Kinetic Kill missiles, DM-5 Standard Defensive Kinetic Kill Missiles, PM-6 Star Arrow smart Anti-ship Missiles, PM-6L Smart Anti-Ship Missiles, PM 6L-11 Strategic Star Arrow Multiple Independent Kill vehicle Variant. and a SA PM-6111 Strike Arrow Surface attack Variant."

"This isn't exactly a tour," said Harper through a yawn. He was eager to get back to his project but wasn't about to leave Emily alone. That's why he had put her to bed in his quarters. Then he knew exactly where she was and that there was nothing in there that could hurt her.

"I'm getting to it. This," she gestured around herself, "is the Observation Deck."

"Pretty self Explanatory," said Harper.

"Fine, then we'll move on." She turned to the child. "You've seen the Medical deck and the machine shop so I will show you the Hangar Deck."

The child lay in bed staring intently at the ceiling. She had been drowsy after the tour but after a single hour of sleep she was wide-awake again. Since then she had just lay in bed- thinking- sorting all she had learned- consolidating it, but now she just felt bored. She picked up an engineering manual- one of the few things Harper had scattered about in this room. She leafed through it visually taking in the pictures. She didn't bother to actually read it.

She wanted something to do, but the engineer, whose room she was occupying, was no doubt working or asleep. The tour had tired out the usually jumpy Harper, and she couldn't shake the feeling that he had not enjoyed it as much as she did. She didn't want to bother him again. She had taken up nearly his whole day.

But he had not been the only one to take her in. There was the woman- Ms. Beka. She was the one who had taken the girl in, even if she had not seen her much since. Perhaps Ms. Beka was still awake. The question was, if Ms. Beka was indeed awake, where was she?

Emily set the manual down and tossed the covers off of herself. She decided she would go find Ms. Beka. Rommie had shown her the whole of the Andromeda and she had little fear of getting lost because of a near photographic memory.

As she walked down the long corridor of doors numbered in Vedran she heard a noise coming from one of the rooms. She looked for the origin of the noise. Where the noise was there had to be life or so she assumed.

She finally was assured she had discovered it's origin and, after opening the door, she boldly stepped into the room. She had little apprehension of doing so. As of yet, she had met nothing to fear on the Andromeda, with the exception, perhaps, of the orange lady, who hadn't seemed like the friendliest of persons.

But once she had stepped inside she stopped short. This wasn't Beka. In fact, she had not yet met this man.

Tyr sat propped comfortably on his bed, his ankles crossed, leafing through an ancient book. He could see the child out of the corner of his eye but he continued to read.

Emily was unable to tell whether he saw her or not. She was about to offer some sort of greeting but he spoke first.

"Shouldn't one so young be in bed?" He moved the book down an inch to get a full view of her. She was one of the few who looked him straight in the eyes.

"I take it you are not going to leave." Tyr said as he lay his book upside down beside him to hold his page. "What would you like?"

Emily wrinkled her brow putting unusual creases in her smooth child-like skin. "I was looking for Ms. Beka."

"Well, I am not Ms. Beka." Tyr replied shortly.

The child eyed him curiously. "No... Who are you?"

Tyr wrinkled his brow. She was either very tenacious or not very bright. "That was a bit abrupt."

The child frowned and shook her head. "No, I mean..."

Tyr sighed and interrupted her. "I know what you meant. You and I have not yet met."

The child smiled and nodded. She took a few steps closer to the bed and brazenly sat down upon the edge. "I am Emily."

Tyr allowed her advance. Her intrusion on his space was still very minute. "I am Tyr Anasazi."

The child put her finger thoughtfully to her lips and eyed the long protrusions on his fore arms. "You are not like the others... your arms are... different."

Tyr's expression faded into a patronizing smile. "That's a keen observation. I am a Nietzschean."

The child wrinkled her brow. "Nietzschean?"

"Homo invictus," he stated bluntly

She looked at his chest and arms. They were bare. Tyr usually removed his shirt at night for better comfort. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. "Are all Nietzscheans as big as you?"

Tyr's bemused expression faded into an amused smile. Her child-like charm had penetrated his hard Nietzschean shell.

"Survival of the fittest." he stated.

Emily smiled at him. There was another long pause before either of them spoke and it was again the child who broke it. "Do you have any games?"

Tyr was a little taken aback by the question. He shook his head. "Do you know what hour it is? In all responsibility, I should return you to Harper."

Emily pouted. "But I'm not tired."

Tyr gave a light laugh and shook his head. He was sure he could prove otherwise. He just needed a mentally strenuous game to do so. He grinned slyly. "Okay. How about a game of 'Go'?"

The child's eyes lit up at the prospect of a new game. "Sure! How do you play?"

Tyr's grin widened. "I'll show you."