Note: Post Season 5. Self beta'd.
Lost and Found
By Chya
"How are you doing, Beka?" Dylan asked as his first officer's image flickered and wavered on the screen before them.
"Not good, Dylan," she told him frankly as she struggled with the Maru's controls. "Stabilisers are shot, I've got a leak somewhere in the engine, and life support doesn't know whether it's coming or going." There was the sound of Rhade's voice in the background feeding Beka urgent information.
"You'll make it," Dylan assured her, "The cargo bay is open and ready for you."
"Better be, because we are coming in hot!"
The command deck shook with the force of an explosion against the ship's shields. "Andromeda, report!" commanded Dylan as he returned fire upon the Calderian raiders.
"Shields are holding," the Core AI told him. "And the Eureka Maru has entered the cargo bay on a forty five degree transit. Fire crews are on standby."
"I've had enough of this," Dylan declared, and now that the Maru was inside Andromeda, he decided to take the offensive. Within moments the raiders fled.
"Dylan," Trance cocked her head at him, asking the question and Dylan nodded. "Go prepare the med deck.
"Boss, boss, me too!" Harper bounced up and down. And Dylan dismissed him to go and see how the Maru was.
XXXXX
The Eureka Maru skidded sideways across the cargo bay, multicoloured sparks flying across the front, and the rear wall approaching far too quickly.
The only thing Rhade could do was brace himself for impact. The collision was violent, the front windows shattering and consoles flying.
Beka yelled, arms raised to protect her face, but some flying metal glanced off the side of her head, knocking her out cold.
Rhade roared his frustration, as g-forces did not allow him to move forward and protect the matriarch, until everything stopped with whiplash abruptness. Blinking his eyes clear, he visually checked on Beka slumped in the pilot's seat as he quickly unstrapped himself. Debris was still dropping from the ceiling, falling off the walls and small fires were bursting out of pipes and decking. Something above Beka moved, and Rhade could see the entire console that was normally fixed to the ceiling, dangling by just a few wires directly over the unconscious pilot.
In two strides he was in front of the chair, leaning over Beka protectively as he tried to undo her straps. He felt searing heat and the weight of the universe land on his back and blacked out.
XXXXX
Beka was having the most wonderful dream.
Smooth skin under her finger tips covering the most delicious and decidedly masculine muscles. The smell of roast chicken slightly acrid from being overcooked on the barbeque and a gentle sprinkling of rain. She didn't much like planet stuff, but she could make an exception if the owner of the muscles was as cute as he felt. If only the wailing would go away.
But the wailing grew insistent, beating on her skull until she opened her eyes and figured out that the rain was the Maru's sprinklers, the man was Rhade and the smell of cooked meat was...
Ugh.
And Rhade was heavy, his full weight resting on her. Mustering as much strength as possible, she pushed Rhade up by the shoulders. The headache grew stronger, and she cursed as she couldn't seem to get the purchase necessary to lift the Neitzchean off her. "Wake up!" she yelled over the Maru's sirens, not expecting an answer, but needing to say something.
"I am awake," Rhade told her even though his eyes were shut and he was still limp.
"Then can you please act like it, you're suffocating me!" Beka was slightly concerned that there were three Rhades in front of her, but fortunately all of them managed to get their arms under them enough to push themselves off her.
"Ow," said one of the Rhades, and she squinted as she tried to work out which one had spoken. Debris fell off the back of them, and the sprinklers soaked them all.
The Rhades held out hands to help her up and she offered a hand of her own, which the middle one kindly took. Her brain bounced around painfully inside her skull and she staggered but Rhade caught her. Taking a moment to look around her, she noted all the sparks and fires being
doused, her baby having been eviscerated, wires and hoses and pipes lying dead over the decks, and she laughed. She wasn't entirely sure why, except that some part of her was so sure it wasn't real, it had to be a joke.
Rhade was holding her up, but as he guided her out towards the exit, he stumbled and she held him up. By the time they got to the ramp, they were holding each other up and it was so hysterically funny that she told Harper so when he met them. Rhade didn't seem to find it funny though, but then again he could such a sourpuss at times.
Harper told them to go and see Trance, and Beka thought that was a very good idea because Trance was her bestest friend and would no doubt share the joke with her.
Or maybe that could wait until later because Rhade was very heavy and she was suddenly very tired and this spot right there in the corner by the thingy looked so comfortable that she dropped Rhade and tried to curl up into it. Rhade, being the spoilsport he was, stood on his hands
and knees and tried to tell her not to sleep here, so she told him to find his own corner, curled up and attempted to go to sleep.
XXXXX
Tapping into a notepad as he went, Harper viewed the Maru in dismay. The Eureka Maru may not have been as beautiful and magnificent and hi tech as the Andromeda, but she was an old friend, and to see her so damaged tore at his heartstrings.
Fortunately, the damage seemed restricted to the cockpit, although some of the cargo had worked loose and was smashed in the landing, and he figured that with Andromeda's assistance he could have the Maru flight worthy within a few days. To restore her back to full operation would take a while longer, but the Maru had been flying when held together with spit and bailing wire before.
As he stood in the remains of the cockpit and looked out of the shattered window, he reflected that Beka and Rhade were both lucky to have walked out of the wreck that was the cockpit, even if they weren't doing much walking at the moment. He could see Doyle with a couple of the droids trying to get Beka and Rhade to the med deck and hoped they were both okay. He shivered at the thought of the alternative and dismissed them as too scary to dwell upon; sometimes it was best not to think too hard about how the universe always seemed to be out to get them.
XXXXX
"This would be so much easier if at least one of you were unconscious," Doyle muttered to her two recalcitrant patients.
"I am trying to get unconscious. Right here. Right now." Beka informed her from her place on the floor, her words slightly slurred, and her face virtually covered in blood that was dribbling slowly down her chest.
"You are not allowed to be unconscious," Doyle replied. "Unfortunately for me. Look, I have a nice comfortable stretcher here that you can use as a bed."
"S'too far up." Beka said trying to lie back down, and slapping at Rhade who was trying to stop her from lying down by pulling her arm.
"If you'd let us help you up," Doyle sighed, "then it wouldn't be nearly so far."
"Right. You tell her. She needs to be in med deck."
"And don't you start," Doyle switched her icy glare to Rhade as he hissed in pain from the mess that was his back. "I want you on a stretcher too, and despite what Trance says, punching you out is starting to look like an extremely good idea."
"Not until Beka is on her way to med deck. And then I'll walk." Rhade ground out.
"Good idea," Doyle told him. "Then when you pass out from the pain, I'll carry you." She paused as he growled threateningly at her. "Right, so consider which option is going to hurt your pride the least, and let me deal with Beka."
"Do you require any assistance?" The hologram Andromeda materialised at Doyle's elbow. Doyle scowled, and Andromeda told her, "Perhaps you should have Harper adjust your programming. There are occasions when being nice is not the most efficient way to get the job done."
There were times that Doyle regretted giving up control of Andromeda to Rommie and she wished vehemently that the hologram were solid so she could take a swipe.
Aggravatingly, the hologram directed the droids to firmly picking Beka up despite her shouts of protest and depositing her on the waiting stretcher. "Mmf, you're right, this is comfy," Beka mumbled as she settled down to sleep.
"Oh no you don't," Doyle pinched Beka hard, producing a squeal of pain, and watched as Rhade carefully pulled himself to his feet.
"I'm walking," the Neitzchean told her and took exactly two steps before his knees gave out. Andromeda's hologram smiled smugly as the droids caught him and despite his assertions that he was capable of carrying himself, manhandled him onto the second stretcher.
XXXXX
"Both Captain Valentine and Commander Rhade are on their way to the med deck," Andromeda's core AI informed Dylan. "The cargo bay will be out of commission for the approximately three hours for clean up, and I am detecting a small amount of gas leakage from the Eureka Maru's cargo hold."
"What gas?" asked Dylan. "Is it harmful?"
"The exact purpose of the specific mix of gases is unknown, however it does not contain any harmful components and should dissipate naturally through the ventilation and purge systems."
"In that case, Andromeda, Rommie, I will leave clean up in your capable hands while I go and see how our prodigal crewmembers are."
By the time Dylan reach the med deck, Trance had looked over both patients and was swabbing a nasty looking gash at Beka's hairline.
"Dylan!" Beka greeted Hunt enthusiastically. "You can see I don't need to be here, tell Trance I can leave. Pretty please?"
Dylan wanted to point out that she had a lump the size of a lunar egg, her speech was slurred and her eyes seemed to be looking in different directions, but managed to restrain himself. "Trance?" he asked instead.
The golden girl smiled sweetly. "Beka has a serious concussion, so she's going to stay here until at least tomorrow."
"Right," Dylan nodded, "doctor's orders, and you heard the doctor." Beka scowled and snatched the cold compress Trance gave her, tenderly putting it on her wound.
Rhade was sitting on the side of one of the beds, sniggering. "Dermal regenerator and Neitzchean nanobots," he grinned happily at Beka. "I'll be out of here before dinner."
Raising an eyebrow, Dylan waited patiently while Trance cut away Rhade's vest and examined his back. "I don't think so," she said peering at the area and Dylan walked around next to her. The remnants of the vest was fused with deeply burned skin and open blisters that covered the entirety of the Neitzchean's back. He winced in sympathy.
"Oh, don't worry," said Trance brightly, "this is easily fixed. "I just need to pick all the bits of fabric out and then I prescribe a deep burn bath."
"A what!" Rhade snapped incredulously. "That's ridiculous, I -"
"Uh, Rhade," Dylan meant to reassure and went to put his hand on the younger man's shoulder but thought twice at the blisters there. "You really want to listen to Trance. How long in the bath?" he asked the medic.
"Um, it's pretty serious, and a normal human would need at least a week," she said.
"I am not a normal human," Rhade ground out.
"I know, so maybe three or four days." Trance decided and a low growl came from somewhere deep inside Rhade's chest.
"Suck it up, Rhade," Dylan said to the Neitzchean and now Beka was the one who was smirking happily.
Dylan glared at them both. "Now if I hear either of you two have been giving Trance trouble, I'll ask Harper and Rommie to think of something really nasty to do to you." He grinned and left the med deck muttering loud enough for at least Neitzchean ears to hear, "A few days peace and quiet without those two bickering. Bliss."
XXXXX
Rhade was not happy at having to submit to a burn bath and found himself wishing he'd just let Beka get crushed by the falling console. The whole concept was an anathema to his beliefs. He would spend the next three days or so in a coffin full of blue gel, wearing a gas mask that would keep him breathing and sedated. Just the idea made him feel incredibly vulnerable.
"You trust us to keep you safe, don't you?" asked Trance as if reading his mind. He chose not to reply to that particular question. He certainly trusted them as much as he trusted anyone, but he would still never normally leave himself this open to betrayal. Trance pulling firmly at a patch of burned flesh lanced into his thoughts, and he gave her a noncommittal grunt in lieu of any form of reply.
"If I'm going to be stuck in here, I think I'm going to have fun," Beka laughed. "I'm sure Harper has some rubber duckies I can play with in your bath."
"Then I shall be sure to – ah!" Trance's ministrations seemed to be rougher than absolutely necessarily.
"There," Trance said finally. "You're done. The bath is ready for you, so if you'd strip down, you can get in." Beka snickered and Trance chose that moment to knock a metal tray off the side. Beka cringed as the sound apparently hurt her sore head. "Oops," Trance smiled.
Rhade stripped down and climbed gingerly into the transparent coffin that was already full of the pale blue gel and took one last opportunity to laugh at Beka's misery before putting on the mask over his mouth and nose. Trance fixed an IV to provide fluids and nutrients and then instructed him to lie down on his front. The lid was closed, and the gas began to take effect.
The last thing he heard before falling asleep was Beka saying, "Why do Neitzchean males have to be so damned pretty to look at?"
XXXXX
A very loud and very insistent alarm woke Rhade very rudely from his dreamless sleep. It took him some moments to work out where he was, and why he was shivering when by all rights he shouldn't feel the cold.
From the explanations that Trance had given him, the lid should have been opened and he should have been woken up as the gel finished draining, and the mask removed , the IV taken out, he would have been checked over, showered down, checked over again and then released from the med deck. That had been the plan.
Except things were not quite working out that way.
The coffin lid was open, and the gel had drained away at some point leaving him covering in residue. The mask was still on, and he could feel the gas pulling him down, so he pulled it off, breathing fresh air in long steady lungfuls until his head cleared. Whilst he was re-acclimating himself, he became aware that what he first thought was night lighting, was in fact the low lights of dormancy.
Which explained the low temperature. Not too low for Neitzchean physiology once he had dried off, but certainly lower than any of the humans would find comfortable. Senses on the alert, Rhade sat up, testing out his back which seemed perfectly healed and smooth, and smiled at the yellow rubber duck that shared his bath. He would have to find something appropriate to do with it that would annoy Beka.
Climbing out of the coffin style bath, Rhade's eyes alighted on an old battery powered timepiece that someone had left on a table where he couldn't miss it. According the red numbers, he'd been asleep for the best part of three weeks. Three weeks! Outrageous!
"Andromeda?" he called out, fully expecting a reply from the ship, but there was nothing. He found a manual intercom. "Dylan? Anyone? Urgent, can someone please acknowledge me now."
And nothing was the loud reply.