"Dylan, this is a terrible ideal! I just thought you should know that," said Beka Valentine, Acting First Officer of the Andromeda Ascendant. She stood at the pilot's console, preparing to engage the slipstream drive.
"Well, I appreciate your vote of support," Captain Dylan Hunt replied. He combatted his crew's chronic insubordination and offhand remarks with humor of his own. "As you know, I am the Captain of All Terrible Ideas That Just Might Work."
Beka grinned, appreciatively. "Got me there."
Mister Seamus Harper, Andromeda's tow-headed engineer, cracked a smile. "And here we all thought you were Captain Terrific," he quipped, slapping his forehead. "What a mistake!"
Beka raised her eyebrows and asked, "You're sure you want to fly into slipstream with no clear idea of where you want to go?"
"Just get us away from here," said Dylan, grabbing a console to keep his balance as the ship rocked from weapon's fire. "Pick any direction you like."
"They keep predicting our next move, boss," said Harper. "We've gotta shake 'em somehow."
Dylan looked towards the images on the view screen. "At this point, anywhere's better than here."
Beka watched the screen as a huge ship that looked more like a battering ram barreled towards them, guns blazing. Needing no more answer than that, she clutched a control in each hand. "Brace for slipstream." There was a white flash as the slipsteam porthole opened. "Prepare to enter in three, two, one." The explosive jolt caused her heart to race as the ship entered slipstream. She loved navigating slipstream. The precise timing, the guessing game, the unexpected twisting turns that required a split second response, both mentally and physically, all combined to make slip piloting one of the best things in the universe. The ride ended all too quickly and the snaky white turblence of slipstream was left behind as the Andromeda Ascendant traveled through a nexus and began to decelerate.
"Transiting out of slipstream...Returning to normal space."
"Any sign of them?" questioned Dylan, expecting the worse.
Tyr stood at his console. His dark eyes studied the readouts of the ship's short and long range scanners. "No sign of them," the Nietzschean said at last. "They do not appear to have followed us."
"That's a new one," said Beka. "Well, we're not stuck between black holes and haven't been thrown back in time. I say we got off remarkably easy." A puzzled expression filled her blue eyes. "Why does that worry me?"
"You don't have to worry. Not about that anyways," Trance said. She looked up from her check of environmentals. "But those traders hit us pretty hard and if you don't need me anymore up here, Dylan, I have to leave."
"Leave?" asked Dylan, disturbed by the unnaturally serious look on the Purple Girl's face. "Trance, why are you leaving? And, for that matter, where are you going to go?"
"Why ya here and where are ya goin'?" Harper shook his head. "Don't be sad or surprised if you don't get an answer to that, Boss."
"I just said I'm leaving?" Comprehension dawned and Trance smiled. "Oh, you thought I meant leaving as in leaving. No, I'm just gonna go somewhere different than Command. There's really not much time to explain. Let's just say that if I don't go now, it could get very cold in here, very fast. Rommie?" Trance requested, turning any explaining over to the ship.
Dylan nodded to her and Trance departed.
Holo-Rommie flickered into the room, but before she could speak a nervous laugh exploded from the engineer's throat. He was staring at Trance's vacated console. "Your environmentals apparently took quite a beating, why didn't you warn us, Rom doll?"
"I was busy," replied Andromeda, shortly. The onscreen persona almost wore an expression of embarrassment about her oversight.
"It's not like I can be everywhere at once," said Holo-Rommie, defensively.
That statement sounded strange to everyone's ears.
Tyr shook his head. "Ship, I have a hard time believing that."
"So do I," said Dylan, rubbing his forehead as his temple began to throb.
At that moment, the voice of Andromeda's avatar came over shipwide from some other region of the ship. "Dylan?"
"Yes, Rommie?" Dylan acknowledged.
"My drones and I were able to seal the partial hull breach and contain several contamination leaks, but some damage caused a surge which blew part of my internal sensor array. It's making repairs more difficult, but I have my bots patrolling the decks to find any damage my sensors can't detect."
Harper's laugh rang out again. "Oh boy! First, the fall of Captain Terrific and now the revelation of Rommie, the not always all-seeing warship. My, have all my illusions been shattered! Cordan traders! And where'd they get weapons like that? I don't mind if we never see them again." Harper shook his head. "I've never seen traders turn that nasty just because I realized I could get a better deal elsewhere. Who knew?"
"Apparently everyone but you, Little Man," Tyr answered, reading the looks on the others' faces.
"So now you're blamin' me for this?" asked Harper, bristling.
"Now's not the time to be blaming anyone," Dylan intervened. "We need to focus our energies on more important things. Rommie? Status on our locale?"
"Checking," replied Rommie. "On the bright side, we're not lost. In fact, we're one slipstream jump away from one of our newest allies."
Beka looked at the star chart that Andromeda was displaying on one of her many screens and groaned. She shook her head and looked at Dylan. "No. Don't say it. Anywhere it but there."
Dylan only smiled. "Sounds perfect. We need a safe place to run a check on our systems and it's about time we were checking in on them." Seeing the look of rebellion in Beka's eyes, he continued. "They are our allies."
"Some allies!" Beka snorted. Her voice took on the tones of a tour guide. "Ladies and gentleman, I am now entering our destination. Our next stop will be a peaceful planet that may call you their Most Honored Guests one moment and throw you in the slammer the next." Her fingers hovered over the controls. "Does anyone else have a problem with this or is it just me?"
The hologram gave her a reproving look, as if she really should have more respect for the captain's orders, but Beka ignored her and glanced about Command Deck to see if anyone else shared in her apprehension.
Harper had moved to stand near the back of Command Deck. He unhooked a diagnostic tool from one of the access panels. Before the attack, he'd been running a compatability test with some new components they'd managed to procure on the last drift they'd visited. Despite the chaos the Commonwealth's fall had caused, there had been some technological advances over the past three hundred years. Recently the engineer had implemented some massive changes to the Command Deck's design. The ship required constant maintenance with the frequent poundings the Andromeda seemed to get and he wasn't about to let this ship fall apart because some pieces of it were out-of-date. Not on his watch. "No problem," said Harper. "The sooner I can get started on these repairs..."
Tyr gave a nod of assent to Harper's words. "The barrage fired upon us in their intial onslaught has sadly weakened our shields. A safe harbor to complete repairs would be advantageous."
Resigning to the fact that she wasn't going to be able to talk her way out of this visit and noting the necessity of it, Beka smiled at her defeat and grabbed the controls. "Brace for slipstream, people! Next stop: Monarchea."
One might say that Tyr's presence aboard the Andromeda Ascendant had been entirely by chance.
It had all begun with an idealistic dream of an ancient High Guard Captain whose sanity Tyr Anasazi had seriously doubted when the Nietzchean first decided to stay aboard the Andromeda Ascendant. It had been a strictly strategic choice. The idea of a single man and a single ship with an untrained crew trying to resurrect a system that had fallen hundreds of years before was ridiculous to the Nietzschean. But the Andromeda ship was impressive and Captain Dylan Hunt proved to have survival skills that were equally as impressive. Tyr had intended to stay onboard until an opportunity presented itself for him to gain control of Andromeda.
But things had changed.
He knew the ship better.
The Andromeda Ascendant's AI was fiercely loyal to Captain Hunt and would never be forcibly controlled by another master. His desire to do such a thing had long since been replaced by a respect of the AI's zeal to fulfill her mission even when placed in impossible situations. Taking over the ship was completely out of the question.
He knew the crew better.
He'd competed with Dylan in sports like basketball and Go.
He'd taught the Purple Girl combat exercises and given her lessons in intimidation.
He'd seen the Magog struggle against his destructive nature searching for peace.
He'd watched the Little Professor grow from a nervous engineer into a gifted crew member who faced up to his fears and could be counted on in a crisis.
He'd gotten to know the unique personality which was Beka Valentine's.
He'd been impressed when Dylan and Beka had tracked him down after he'd crash landed on Midden and saved him from certain death by his enemies.
And Tyr Anasazi knew the universe better.
Forever etched in his memory was his first sight of the Magog Worldship looming into view and its sinister occupants bent on death and destruction.
Yes, it had all begun with what was once a silly dream. But now, as he had gravely admitted to Dylan, restoring the Commonwealth was no longer a dream. That dream had become a necessity.
It did not trouble Tyr to be back in Monarchean space. It was good to keep in contact with their allies because, if they were to save the universe, Dylan Hunt and his crew needed all the help they could get.
And if renewing relations with the Monarchea also gave him the opportunity to solve the final mystery of the box, so be it.
"Why?" Beka walked the width of the Maru's cockpit and back again. As soon as her piloting skills were no longer needed on the Command Deck, she had disappeared to the interiors of her ship. "I got us here, isn't that enough? Dylan can meet with the dignitaries, Harper can shop for repair supplies, and Trance can stock up on as many pretty things as she likes. But there's no reason I should have to go planetside."
"Dylan wishes to speak with you," Andromeda's AI insisted over the Maru's comm. "He's waiting in his office."
"Tell him I'm busy." I am busy, Beka thought, as she headed to a storage hold. I need to tweak a few things here in the cockpit, the Maru's finish could use another coat, and when was the last time the ventilation system had been--
"Beka," said Andromeda with the slightest tinge of rising irritation in her voice. Her face appeared on a wall screen near Beka's head. "Considering what occurred last time, your relunctance to make a planetside visit is understandable. However, it's important that the inhabitants know we bear them no ill will."
"What if we do?" Beka bustled about opening cans and boxes, shuffling items from one place to another other, and putting this particular storage hold of the Maru's into a general state of disarray.
Andromeda thought it best not to argue with Beka when she got like this. "Ask Dylan," she replied and closed the connection.
Beka didn't want to speak with Dylan. No matter how much she prepared her refusal beforehand, somehow, he always managed to talk her into agreeing with his plans. And the maddening thing was the fact she never seemed to be able to get him to agree to any of her plans. Like that mining proposition for instance.
She wasn't really ready to speak with Tyr at the moment either, but that was unavoidable because she ran into him the moment she emerged from the Maru. Beka narrowed her eyes suspiciosly. "Dylan sent you here to convince me, didn't he?"
Tyr shook his head. "No one sent me. But since you mentioned it, in this case I believe, it would be advantageous if you were to join those going planetside."
"Why's that?"
"You don't trust anyone as readily as our good Captain Hunt. And early alliances are shaky."
"Then, why don't you take some of your own advice?"
"I am."
"You are?" Beka peered at him in surprise, trying to read the expression on his face. "You're going planetside to participate in all of this?"
"We know things now that we were not aware of before. The more prepared our allies, the more prepared are we to take what comes."
Beka wavered. "Well. When you put it that way. I'll think about it," she said and left the Hangar Deck.
It was a strange turning of the tables, Beka thought. The last time they'd visited Monarchea, it had been Tyr who hadn't wanted to set foot planetside. Now, he was encouraging her to go and going himself? Why such a change of heart? Yes, the Magog were coming, but it was hard for Beka to believe Tyr would place himself in the role of Paul Revere.
Her steps brought her to the door of the Captain's Office.
Beka stormed in with a challenge. "Okay, Dylan! Let's just cut to the chase here. You're going planetside and I don't want to go. You've probably already got something up your sleeve to try and change my mind. I'm ready. Shoot."
Dylan grinned, smugly. "Administrator Elva asked particularly after you. Apparently, that speech you gave them left an impression on the Administrative Board's mind. Of course, your exposure of Reha would be hard to forget. You've become somewhat of a planetary hero and--"
"Alright. Alright. Stop right there." Beka sighed and figured she was beat. "It's against my better judgement, but I'll go down there--" Beka's pointer finger came up. "On one condition."
A worry line creased Dylan's brow. "Condition?"
"We don't take the Maru. It stays here on Andromeda."
Dylan forced back a smile, doing his best to take Beka's demand seriously, and nodded in agreement. "I can live with that."