Title:Blood and Tears
Disclaimer: Andromeda doesn't belong to me; it belongs to Tribune. This was written for entertainment only and no money has been exchanged (unfortunately).
Spoilers:None
Rating:PG-13
A/N:Okay, you have Fwe to thank/blame for this. She gave me an idea and somehow this grew out of it. It's set early S2 and from Rommie's POV.
All the great things are simple,
And many can be expressed in a single word:
Freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy,
Hope.
Winston Churchill, Earth
Chapter 1
I can remember it all so clearly, now, at the end. We were just having fun. Never realising that everything would soon be over. I never saw the tragedy coming until it was too late, and in that, I failed them.
"Thank you, Mr. Ambassador," said Dylan, ever the diplomat, "the evening has been wonderful. Now, we really must be going back to our ship. No, not even one more dance. We'll continue talks tomorrow then? Good night."
"I never thought we would get out of there, I don't think I could stand to wear this dress for any longer," complained Beka lightly.
"I'm with you there, Beka," said Harper, "I think this tie is starting to get tighter. Mind you, I'm not complaining about all the cute girls."
"What, you mean the ones who always seemed to be slowly sidling away from you?" Beka laughed.
"Yeah, real funny. They just can't appreciate my genius."
Tyr let out something which sounded suspiciously like a snort and even Dylan and I were smirking.
"You could wait until we're at least back to the Maru before you start complaining. This planet could be very useful to the commonwealth. The Passetlitten have an amazingly stable economy and government." Dylan said, but he was still smiling.
"Uh, boss? You're forgetting the little problem of the Libertarians."
"All worlds have groups of separatists. These aren't as bad as some."
Trance had been very quiet through all of this and I saw Harper turn around to check that she was still with us. I had thought that she had been looking a little paler than usual, but he put it down to the light, or maybe the fact that I hadn't had my sensors checked in a while, and carried on.
I was soon proved wrong however. As soon as we reached the Andromeda, Trance lurched at the doors.
"Are you okay?" asked Beka
"I don't think so," whimpered Trance as she ran for the nearest waste disposal unit.
She threw up. Violently.
By this time Beka and Harper were both anxiously beside her and when she stood up they both reached out to steady her. Almost immediately she was kneeling back down and vomiting again, then again. I quickly called some of my bots who brought a stretcher down from medical and we took Trance up there, even as she kept being sick.
By now she had nothing to throw back up except bile, but still she kept retching. This went on for hours, anything she ate or drank, was immediately chucked back up. I had to put liquid and minerals back into her system intravenously but despite my own and Beka's best efforts, she kept getting worse. Her temperature was rising and nothing would bring it down. Eventually the retching stopped as Trance slipped into unconsciousness, but the temperature went on rising and although I knew almost nothing of her physiology I knew that this couldn't carry on.
Beka had sat beside Trance throughout all of this, looking increasingly worried and trying to do whatever she could to help her condition. She chewed her lip nervously and turned to me.
"What's causing this? She was fine this morning. And now…"
She gestured helplessly to the inert body on the bed. I knew exactly what she meant but I didn't know any more than she did. I had run numerous scans but couldn't find anything that seemed to be reacting with her body.
I didn't know what to do and was frustrated that I couldn't come up with a solution that could save her life. At that point Harper burst in impatiently, Beka had sent him out as he hadn't really been helping but all ha wanted to do was look after his friend. I decided to send him to Trances room to see if he could find any explanation in there, I didn't really expect there to be anything there but it seemed to be the only way of making him leave.
I monitored him on internal sensors as he made his way to Trances quarters, he obviously knew that we were just trying to keep him doing something out of the way but was determined to make the best of it.
Half-heartedly he looked around the room but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. So Harper slumped down in a convenient chair and picked up the nearest flexi, which Trance had been reading before we left for the ceremonial dinner and dance. She was only on the second page so Harper settled down to read. It seemed to be about the beliefs and rituals that this planet had and there were a lot. I have never really understood why organics cling to these systems of belief when there is no proof, but every race seems to have at least one of these deities or spiritual leaders somewhere in their world. The Passetlitten seemed to have one of the most complex and rigidly adhered to that I have ever encountered.
Whilst I was thinking about this Harper had been rapidly working his way through the data, not really reading or taking in the whole text, just letting his eyes wander over the page seeing one or two words. Suddenly he sat bolt upright eyes glued to the page in front of him.
"Those idiots!"
