A/N: Once again, thanks to those of you who reviewed and thanks to those of you who have followed the story this far. This is the beginning of the end. This story was a joy to write and I hope you all enjoyed it.

"You may no be able to save them all, but the true hero will try to."

Senator Gorgia

CY 8862

Harper crawled carefully though a conduit Rommie following closely behind. He had been instructed to fix the shields if at all possible. "You know, this is stupid. If there's no power on the ship than there's probably not going to be enough to bring the shields back up."

A missile hit the ship hard sending the mechanic into a wall.

"Harper," Rommie said sternly, "The hull has sustained so much damage, I can't fix it myself. We have no other choice and I've put a lot of effort into closing down broken circuits. With your assistance it is possible to reroute the unused energy to the shield."

Harper shook his head. "Possible- but unlikely. Our only real hope of survival is that bomb."

Rommie sighed trying to subdue her irritation. "Yes, but we have no control over that bomb and with the forward drives obliterated in the first fifteen minutes we can't go anywhere. This is at least better than sitting on command deck waiting to die."

When they reached the necessary control panel Harper pried a large rectangular panel off and tossed it haphazardly across the floor. Another heavy blast shook the floor despite the fact that they were deep inside the ship.

Harper stumbled but retained his balance. The avatar didn't even wobble. She scrutinized the engineer for a moment. "Harper is something wrong?"

Harper rolled his eyes. "You mean besides our impending doom?" He moved a wire into a different port. "Reroute circuit 320E to pass through port DE263A."

Rommie closed her eyes for a moment but when she opened them she continued. "You are exhibiting the normal levels of adrenaline." She grinned sarcastically, "that dry wit of yours, and yet..."

Harper took a sharp intake of breath. He rested his head on the conduit. "It's all my fault."

Rommie eyed him quizzically. "What is your fault?"

"All of this. No matter what happens now, someone is going to die."

Rommie frowned and placed a tentative hand on Harper's shoulder. "You couldn't have foreseen that."

Harper looked at her. "I shouldn't have sent her away. I should've protected her."

"Harper, you did what needed to be done at the time. That's all you can ask of yourself. That's all anyone asks of you. Sometimes people die."

Harper eyed her quizzically.

She eyed him solidly. "Did you forget what I am? I am a warship, Harper. You try to save everyone, you try to find peaceful solutions, and in a perfect universe everyone would be spared. But people die. You don't mean for it to happen, but it does and you can't let it hinder you."

"But she was just a child. I sentenced an innocent little girl to death."

"Harper..." Rommie put an arm around his shoulders "We are still alive. And we still need you. We need you to fix the shields."

Harper frowned. "Reroute circuit 26B08 so that is runs through port BL9CD."

Rommie closed her eyes.

"Reroute 7222Z so that it runs through port BCL299."

Harper rerouted several more wires in attempts to attain enough power. He took a deep breath. "Try that."

Rommie closed her eyes for a moment and then frowned.

Harper frowned with her. "Great. We may all die anyway."

BreakBREAKbreakBreak

"Beka!" Trance called. "No! It can't end like this!" Beka winced and opened her eyes but only for a moment.

Trance supported her head. "Come on, Beka." she pleaded. "We have to get out of here. I really don't wanna have to fly this thing, but if I have to I will."

Beka opened her eyes halfway and muttered, "Don't touch my ship."

The ship took another hit. "Stop denting my ship!" Beka called aloud as she regained her bearing and attempted to get them out of there. She sped through the mesh of ships as fast as possible but before she could escape the timer sparked the bomb and the Head Ship blew.

Fire thrusted the Maru forward and Beka gripped tight at the controls trying hard as she could not to get stuck in a spin or worse yet, get incinerated.

BreakBREAKbreakBreak

Dylan eyed the screen. "Finally, something good."

As per the plan several of the ships were incinerated along with the Head Ship, however those who had survived turned their attention toward the Maru. Without the shield keeping them in a tight block formation they were free to tail the ship.

"Incoming Transmission." Motherboard Rommie called through the command deck speakers.

Beka's face appeared on the screen and Dylan almost gasped at the sight of all the blood covering her neck.

The Maru had barely survived the blast and both it's crew members looked shaken. "Help." was all Beka said before she clicked out.

Dylan turned to Tyr. "Ready?"

Tyr nodded and immediately began firing.

Several Drago-slipfighters broke off from the Maru and returned their attention to the Andromeda. The rest of the ships were aiming at Beka and it was likely she could not survive the barrage without their help but the Andromeda was barely hanging on by a thread.

Dylan frowned. "Keep helping Beka."

At close proximity the missiles did even more damage and with each shot sparks flew across the command deck.

BreakBREAKbreakBreak

"Come on!" Harper yelled, slamming his fist above the panel. Harper moved another wire and a shock sent him flying into the wall.

Rommie crawled toward him and attempted to prop him up "Are you okay?"

Harper shook off the pain and tried again. "Please, work." he muttered as he continued rerouting circuits.

Rommie closed her eyes. She opened them and smiled. "Shields at full power."

Harper's face lit up and he jumped on Rommie.

Rommie indulged him and hugged him back but her hand came in contact with something wet and sticky. She held it up to the dull glow of the emergency lights.

"Harper, this is blood." She crawled behind him and saw that his shirt was drenched with it. "We need to get you to Med Bay."

Harper turned from her. "I'm fine."

Rommie eyed him solidly. "Let's go."

She helped him out of the conduit and them put her arm around his neck. Holding his shoulders carefully she helped him to Med Bay.

BreakBREAKbreakBreak

Trance gave a sigh of relief. "We're alive." Beka gave a strained smile. "Dylan," her face appeared on Andromeda's main screen, "We're coming home."

Dylan and Tyr greeted Beka at the airlock and assisted her to Med Bay. Harper was already sitting there on a bed, Rommie bandaging his back.

Beka sat down beside him. She smiled at him and he sighed. It was all over.

After they were bandaged, and the nanobots inserted, the others left them.

Harper had faded from the high of relief. He was distraught that Emily was really gone now.

Beka recognized his pain "I miss her too." she said softly.

Harper forced a half-smile.

Beka carefully took off the gold necklace and placed it in Harper's fist.

He eyed her quizzically.

Beka closed his fingers over it. "She may be gone, Harper," Beka put her arm around Harper's shoulders "but we are all still here. All thanks to you."

Harper sighed sadly. "I know."

BreakBREAKbreakBreak

"I can assure you, Captain Hunt," the Ambassador of Sintu- Anaris replied in transmission. "I had nothing to do with this. Once, I found out who the contact was I had him swiftly executed."

Dylan nodded slowly.

"The fact that you completely annihilated your attackers is amazing and due to the fact they were not of the Dragons fleet it is unlikely that the rest of the Dragons will ever know of the events of today. Thus, I am obliged to help you get your ship up an running."

Tyr eyed the Ambassador solidly. "So he's finally grown a spine."

The Ambassador gave Tyr a sarcastic smile but held his tongue. "When you do finally, have a joint fleet, we will most assuredly join your Commonwealth."

He clicked out.

Dylan shook his head.

"It all worked out." Trance said softly.

Dylan smiled at her. "Was there ever a doubt?"

Trance gave smiled back. "I knew it was possible... but then again, anything's possible."

The End.