Part 37

Colin stepped into the meeting room and stopped almost immediately, staring at the man stood with Dylan Hunt. There was an immediate atmosphere, as the two men sized each other up.

"Colin, your father has reasoned with Yussuf and his men and they are willing to work with us," Dylan finally announced, when no one else spoke.

"We can't trust them to keep their word," Colin spoke, still looking at his father.

"I will keep my ear to the ground and warn you if things change," Sadiki offered.

"You will ensure that they will not doubt us at all," Colin returned with strength in his voice that surprised Dylan, as much as it surprised the boy's father.

"Colin, your father is doing what we have asked of him," Dylan spoke calmly.

"Kosi," Sadiki began but he was quickly cut off by his son.

"That is not my name; that is a name of a weak child sent to prison by his own father, so that his father could be free!" Colin seethed.

"Colin," Sadiki corrected. "My being here does not mean we have to like each other, just tolerate each others presence, do not risk this mission of Captain Hunt over some point that means little to me."

Colin glared at his father. "I'd expect little else from a man like you."

"But your father is right, Colin," Dylan interrupted. "We need to rescue our crew and then destroy the threat that Rico has incurred on this system, starting with the threat to my ship," Dylan stressed. "Imagine what Rico could do to your people, if he succeeded in taking over the Andromeda."

Colin glared at Dylan, before his expression softened and he turned away, muttering something under his breath that neither Dylan nor his father caught.

Rommie suddenly appeared in holographic form beside Dylan. "Captain, I am detecting a ship, and it is on a direct course," she began. "It feels like Rico's ship but as yet I am unable to confirm, the ship has some kind of shield preventing me identifying it."

"Give me ship wide," Dylan ordered to his ship. "Red Alert, all personnel to action stations, enemy ship sighted."

"Captain," Rommie then spoke up, a little confusion sounding in her voice. "No one is reacting to your command, except for Trance and Rhade."

"What?" Dylan demanded and the screen flashed up to show all the personnel heading to other destinations. "I guess now we know how many of your Resistors were loyal to Rico," Dylan frowned, but was barely able to mask his anger. "Rommie, close off your command functions to all terminals bar the one I'm at, and only respond to my direct command, shut down engineering access and give these people no access at all to any of your systems, use whatever means necessary."

"Understood," Rommie agreed. "But you should know that two of the engineering crew are already in my conduits, with full access, I have been unable to disable their privileges."

"What privileges do they have?" Dylan asked, checking his force lance charged as he spoke.

"They have access to the energy resources and weapons, nothing more than that at this time," Rommie answered.

"Lock off your AI interface, try and disarm your internal weapons on my authorisation," Dylan quickly decided. "Give me full control of the weapons systems as soon as," he then hurried to the door. "Colin, Sadiki, with me, come on."


Harper and Beka had reached engineering, and found nearly five Nietzscheans busy at various consoles. So wrapped up in their work they didn't notice as the two humans quickly hid in a sub control room.

"This place got what you need?" Beka hissed, with her gun armed and ready as she kept an eye on the ubers through the control room window.

Harper rummaged through some shelves and quickly pulled a soldering kit from it's midst. "Yeah, give me a minute," Harper was already powering the wand up as he set to work ripping the connector from one lead, before busily connecting it precisely to the other lead.

After a few tense minutes, Harper was testing the strength of his work, and he then inserted the new soldered connector into his port, and pulled a pained face.

"Harper, whatever you plan to do make it quick," Beka suggested.

"Got a feeling I'll have no choice, this isn't a legal connector, it might not be stable enough for me to do much," Harper warned.

"I just don't want you in cyberspace, when you're needed out here," Beka feared.

Harper spun around and found an access port for the other end of the lead in one of the panels. "I'll be as quick as I can; I just want put this ship in diagnostic mode to buy us, and my lovely Andromeda some time, an old trick but one of my favourites."

Beka smiled, as Harper inserted the jack into the wall and then his eyes rolled back and he was inside the mainframe. Harper's still body was at peace, as Beka nervously waited, staying alert knowing anyone at anytime could enter the small side room.

The minutes passed slowly, and every so often Harper's body twitched, adding to Beka's rising stress levels, and she couldn't help remembering what he had said about the lead's suspect connection, hoping it was enough for Harper to complete the job he was doing.

Before she could become too worried, Beka heard voices outside, raised voices and then five gunshots. Snapping alert, Beka checked the window and armed her gun. There were now five dead Nietzscheans on the deck outside, and Beka could only wait before the door suddenly flew open and her worse fears were realised. Darla now stood over them both with the gun she'd stolen from Harper and aimed without firing. Beka refused to back down, keeping her weapon steady even though she was perspiring from her injury, her focus completely trained on Darla.

"Give it up, Valentine," Darla declared.

"Not to you, never," Beka returned strongly, edging closer to Harper to protect him.

"I've just killed the engineering section, so I need an engineer, and you know what? I see an engineer," Darla gestured to Harper. "I'm not giving him up, and one thing I don't need is a bitch for a first officer, you have to give up, Valentine, not me."

Beka focused on Darla and could see no wound about her person; Beka had been convinced that she had shot her. Realising now that she must have missed, or the shot was deflected by the bars of her cell, Beka remained close to Harper.

"You're injured," Darla observed knowingly, looking at Beka. "An injured female kludge can't defeat me."

"Your own arrogance can though," Beka snarled almost.

"Put down the gun," Darla commanded.

"Why?" Beka challenged. "There are two of us, one of you."

"If I shot him now, it would even the numbers," Darla warned.

"I'd shoot you before you had a chance to," Beka returned with anger.

Beka could see Darla was stuck, so convinced that she could use her uber powers to overthrow Beka but she was now beginning to show doubt in her expression and Beka slowly smiled.

"Who do you really want to defeat here, us or your brother?" Beka then asked, her tone softening.

Darla hesitated and considered the question. "All of you," she finally answered, her inexperience in battle becoming clear.

"Killing me, Harper and those five engineers is a stupid way of achieving that, but you already know that, don't you," Beka humoured her. "Can you fly a ship of this size solo?" Beka asked to add more weight to her argument, and then glanced down at the still unconscious engineer busy inside the ships systems. "Look, Darla, in me you have the Andromeda's best pilot, in Harper one of the best engineers in this universe, killing us is killing your only chance of actually defeating your brother, we want the same thing."

"What are you suggesting?" Darla cagily asked.

"Use those superior genes, you already know that defeating us is defeating yourself," Beka stressed, still holding her gun towards Darla.

Suddenly the lights plunged into emergency mode, casting shadows around them both, and within seconds Harper stirred and opened his eyes. Seeing the situation, he showed no surprise as he got to his feet unaided and stood by Beka, he glanced at the two guns each women held to each other.

"This ship is under my control now," Harper then announced with a lopsided grin.

"Says who?" Darla demanded with obvious surprise.

"Says the person who has just taken over this ship, what's the matter, your uber brain unable to understand?" Harper mocked, and then heard Darla charge her weapon and he faced her with gritted determination. "I'm a sick bastard; did anyone ever tell you that? You know maybe I did and I just don't remember, what with the strangeness I'm experiencing around here," he stressed in a low voice. "Point that freaking gun at me but I'll tell you this only once, your superior uber hearing should hear me fine, if either my heartbeat or Beka's heart beat slows down to say, an unconscious state, this ship blows with all of us on it."

"That's crazy, your precious Beka is injured, she could fall unconscious or die anytime," Darla stressed with mild panic, glancing at Beka's bleeding arm and weakening state.

Harper glanced back at Beka with some concern. "Which is why you're now going to escort us safely to the med deck of this thing, its now in everyone's best interest that Beka remains alive," Harper stated with urgency, and then grinned as he eyed his gun still in Darla's possession. "And I believe that's mine," he added. "You won't be needed this anymore."

Without a struggle Harper easily claimed back his gun from Darla's grip, and she looked stunned by developments as she numbly allowed Harper to push her forward, somehow becoming the prisoner but still not sure how.

TBC