TITLE: The Tears of the Angel
AUTHOR: October
SERIES: Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda
GENRES: Adventure, Action, Romance
PAIRING: Rommie/Dylan
RATING: M (for intense space battles and a little bit of non-explicit, euphemistic sex) Using movie ratings, I would rate this somewhere between PG and PG-13
DISCLAIMER: I don't own "Andromeda." I only wrote this for fun. No profit was made.
SUMMARY: For Dylan/Rommie fans! A space creature disables the Andromeda and Dylan and Rommie are transported to a haunted mine on a distant world. Will their friends find them in time? And what are Trance's battle tactics?
NOTES: I don't yet own the DVD sets. (Just ordered the first season but it hasn't arrived yet!) So I have only seen most of these episodes once, and some of them, a long time ago. My memory may be at fault. Andromeda the ship seems to be visualized larger in seasons 1 and 2, so being fascinated with her changes in scale, I emphasize her size. I believe the avatar of The Wrath of Achilles is named Ryan... hope I remembered right and did not mix up my ships! Other minor details and technical objects might not be accurate. All terminology I got either from watching the show, or just making it up on the spot ; So, fellow fanficcers, don't use this as a writer's reference! Please email me to correct any major errors and I will happily fix whatever's wrong!
DEDICATION: This story is dedicated to the exquisitely beautiful Lexa Doig, who was cast perfectly as Andromeda.
1.
When the Andromeda Ascendant arrived at Shivaloka on her rescue mission, there was jubilation in the streets. This beautiful planet, with its tropical climate, its great temples and its rare flora and fauna (it was the only world where elephants still thrived) had been recently attacked by a spacefaring predator. While the planetary defense systems had managed to deter it, the panicked locals lost no time in contacting the Commonwealth, who in turn had contacted Andromeda and her captain, Dylan Hunt. At the time he had accepted the mission, it had seemed to him one that they could easily handle, and he had allowed most of the crew to shuttle down to enjoy the party the locals were throwing in their honor. In retrospect, that was a very good thing, because it had prevented a great quantity of casualties.
Dylan, Trance, Beka and Harper had been touring the Golden Temple in the capital city of New Nadia. Dylan was particularly interested in a legend which was illustrated in a huge mosaic in the temple floor. The tour guide explained that it depicted the monster Rahu who had eaten the moon.
Dylan led the little group out of doors to call Andromeda. He was intending to ask her to run orbital simulations, to see if she could successfully insert that hypothetical moon into the Shiva system; but the monster, Rahu, had not given him the time. "Hey, Boss," Harper said sharply, pointing to the heavens. "What's going on up there?"
Dylan looked, and froze in his tracks. A veil of green, a wavy aurora, exploded slowly across the daylight sky. It was beautiful, but he recognized it for what it was-- the byproducts of a massive plasma discharge hitting Shivaloka's atmosphere. Andromeda was firing her railguns. He tapped his comlink. "Andromeda! Report!"
"Dylan, it's the creature, and it's just taken a piece out of my starboard side. Multiple casualties. Requesting backup."
"Damn! All right. Drop some slip couriers, wherever you have to. Ask for whatever you need. I'm coming up." He turned to Harper, Trance and Beka. "Come on, people. My ship is in trouble and there's not enough time to find Rhade."
They were just entering the Maru at a run when Dylan received an urgent cry for help. "Andromeda?"
Her slipstream core was damaged. She could not escape her attacker.
Dylan commanded the Maru to launch. The old cargo drone pulled away from Shivaloka at bonebreaking speed, its inertial dampers adjusting in not-so-smooth increments as the engines went into overdrive.
"What could it be?" said Harper. "What is so big it can make a snack out of Andromeda? It would have to be the size of a planet."
"Well, the legend says it ate the moon," Beka replied.
"I don't care how big it is," said Dylan grimly. "Nothing attacks my ship and gets away with it."
Andromeda's AI appeared on the Maru's cockpit screen. "Dylan, it's an organic identical to the planet-eater we encountered before, but more massive. It seems to be attracted to my materials."
"A concentrated source of food," he muttered. "Hit it with everything you've got, Rommie!"
"I have, but no effect." AI flickered, then reappeared. "It's attacking again."
"Keep hitting it. And broadcast as loud as you can on all spectrums and frequencies. Maybe you can frighten it."
"Hey Dylan," said Beka. "I know you've got some nova bombs stashed somewhere."
"No, Beka!" cried Trance. "It's too close to the planet! Everyone down there would die!"
"Trance is right," said Dylan. "We can't use them. Rommie? Rommie!"
AI was in visible pain. "Dylan. I've been eviscerated. I'm losing the crew."
Dylan was now standing in the cockpit. "Order the remaining crew to abandon ship."
"Acknowledged. Dylan. I recommend you use extreme caution. Do not approach me. Do not approach!"
"Andromeda, we're coming and we're going to save you as well as your crew. Where is your avatar?" He said the last with a sudden sharp pang in his gut.
Avatar's voice. "I'm in the slipcore preparing to eject it. Dylan, I do not recommend--" the screen suddenly fell silent.
"Rommie? Andromeda!"
"Look!" said Beka, pointing.
The Maru had climbed above the last shreds of atmosphere and onto the scene of battle. Debris was everywhere. Beka pushed Dylan to one side as she slipped into the pilot's cradle. "Excuse me, but someone has to steer us-- Oh!" She jerked the Maru sideways, just missing a massive chunk of twisted metal that would have flattened the cargo ship.
"Oh, no..." Trance indicated a slowly spinning object just above them. It was huge, larger than most space stations. "One of Andromeda's slipfoils, Dylan."
"There they are." Dylan tapped the window and all heads turned in his direction.
The Andromeda Ascendant was approaching rapidly off the Maru's port side, and her attacker swam beyond her. It was beautiful, translucent and glowing and definitely the same type of creature that they had barely succeeded in killing once before-- a species that the Perseids had subsequently named "Andromedii nauticus." There was only one difference. This one was much larger than the previous one -- indeed, as Harper had inadvertently guessed, it was the size of a planet.
Beka turned. "Dylan, I really hate to say it, but this is a no-go. There is no way we can kill that thing."
"Oh my God," breathed Harper. "Look at Andromeda." His face had gone white.
The great ship hung in space like a broken moon. Dylan saw that "eviscerated" was the right word. Andromeda's metallic guts were literally hanging out of a massive gash. Miles long, it was the clean slash of a predator's tooth and it had nearly torn the ship in half. As she swung slowly around to keep facing her attacker, she was spilling a swarm of tiny objects from the rent in her side. Slipfighters, Dylan realized, but unmanned. They drifted like a cloud of gnats, then scattered in every direction like a school of frightened fish. What she was doing? Trying to create a diversion? She was sinking, still spilling her guts, the gravity of the planet pulling her in as her enemy circled her. Dylan realized Andromeda was mortally wounded.
"Beka," he said. "Take the Maru in front of that thing. Right up its snout. Maybe we can lure it away."
"Gotcha," she said, kicking the cargo drone's engines back into maximum output. The Eureka Maru tore through the debris field, swerving as she continued to accelerate. Trance shrieked as they barely missed another large piece of Andromeda.
"Rommie! Can you hear me? How long until you eject the slipcore?"
The screen cleared and this time it was Avatar's face, tracked on camera. Her hair was flying wildly in the wind of depressurization and her eyes were flashing with battle fury. "Unknown. My framework has been twisted beyond all tolerances. The core will not eject. I'm working on it."
"Hang on, people!" shouted Beka. "We're approaching the creature!"
Dylan grabbed the cockpit railing. "Closer, Beka!"
"This close enough?" The Maru shuddered as its frame encountered the resistance of the residual atmosphere surrounding the monster.
"OK. Trance, fire everything we've got down that thing's throat!"
"Firing!"
From his vantage point behind Trance, Harper clearly saw the powerful plasma missiles impact on the creature's outer shell. The animal did not react; instead, it continued on its course to once again intercept the Andromeda.
"Pull up!"
"Pulling," Beka said between clenched teeth, bringing the Maru out of Rahu's atmosphere.
"It's going after Andromeda!" shouted Harper. "It's going for the kill!"
"Dylan," AI interjected. "I have received a courier transmission from the Wrath of Achilles. He's headed here now."
"There's not enough time, Rommie. Have you got any maneuvering capability left?"
"Almost none."
"Use what you have! Back away from that thing!" The monster lunged toward his wounded ship. Andromeda, attempting to reverse, spun into an uncontrolled roll as her engines failed. Then Rahu was on her like a blue cloud. A flash of light, a piercing scream of agony shearing across the radio spectrum, and Rahu was off again, circling like some unimaginable shark.
Andromeda was still locked in a spin, now missing her other slipfoil. Avatar came onscreen. "Dylan!" she screamed. She was clinging to the catwalk in the slipcore. "Stay away from me!"
Dylan slammed both fists into the cockpit glass. "Rommie!"
"I can help you save her, Dylan," Trance said suddenly behind him.
He rounded on her. "Why can't you move the whole ship like you did before in the parallel universe?"
"I am not allowed to interfere like that again," she said sternly. "But I can help you save Rommie, if you hurry."
"What do I do?"
"Just go to her. If you take her hand, I'll know when you've found her."
"Caught a slipfighter," Beka announced as the Maru rocked slightly from the impact.
Dylan ran for the fighter. He didn't take time to don a spacesuit, just grabbed some supplemental oxygen, landed in the cockpit and sent the skittish little craft flying back to its mother. As he drew near the stricken warship, he gasped again at the extent of her injuries. Her side had been ripped open from bow to stern as if from some cosmic fang. Her upper blades were bleeding gas. Escape pods were everywhere. "Beka! Harper!" he snapped. "Start catching those pods!" He barely heard the acknowledgement as he quickly calculated Andromeda's spin. "Rommie! Can you synchronize us?"
"No, Dylan. What are you doing?"
"Saving you. Get your avatar out of the slipstream core and send her to me. Hurry!" Grabbing the fine maneuvering controls, he started the little fighter spinning, first slowly, then a bit faster, visually synchronizing with Andromeda's helpless rotation. "OK," he muttered between clenched teeth, and nudged the slipfighter forward into an intact cargo bay. Andromeda's autonomic nervous system was still working here and the bay doors shut. There was an agonizing moment while he waited for any pressure that might be found. "Andromeda! Andromeda! Can you hear me?"
The AI was barely functioning, flickering in and out. "Dylan," she said. "Get out while you can. I've downloaded--" and the rest was garbled static.
He sprang down from the fighter. Gravity was still working, but it was built to withstand almost anything except total destruction. There was some air still left, but it was thin. He headed for the slipstream core at a dead run, but halted suddenly as he saw a wounded figure on the floor ahead. It was a Than crewmember, unconscious and bleeding, but alive. "Damn!" His muscles aching from the low atmospheric pressure, he lifted his charge and ran back the way he had come, retracing his steps. He loaded the crewman in the slipfighter and shut the cockpit. "You!" he said, addressing the machine. "Take him out!"
The fighter came to life and as he stepped back out of harms' way, it took off on autopilot, screaming out of the hangar doors. "Got a live one coming your way, Beka!" he yelled over the comlink.
"I see him, Dylan," she acknowledged. "Dylan! Rahu looks like it's coming around for another bite!"
Dylan staggered. He broke out the supplemental oxygen, clenching it between his teeth. New strength flooded quickly through him and once again he headed in the direction of the core. Andromeda's monorails would be down-- they were always the first thing to go in an emergency-- and it would be a long run from here on foot. He started off. "Rommie. Where are you?"
"Dylan! Ryan's here!"
----
A flash of light slashed across the bridge of the Eureka Maru as the Wrath of Achilles came out of slipstream dangerously close to the Andromeda. The monstrous warship swung quickly around, surveying the Shiva system. Its radio transmission came through loud and clear. "Andromeda! Eureka Maru! This is Ryan. I'm here... and I see it!"
The appearance of the second ship had caused the monster to pause for a moment in its ominous circling. It hovered, considering. Then it lunged. The Wrath of Achilles roared forward to meet it. Ever after, the terrible confrontation would be known as the Battle of Shivaloka.
----
Dylan burst through a cloud of corrosive gas, eyes shut, breath held, knowing his ship so well that this gave no hesitation to his steps. Closed bulkheads gave way before him automatically at his presence. Then he was in the clear again and could breathe and see. Outside there was a battle raging. Beka and Harper were on the comlink, their voices shrill with excitement and terror as they described what was happening. Ryan had rushed the monster, all cannons firing point-blank. Rahu was giving ground.
Dylan was forced to pause for a moment, resting with his hands on his knees. He was breathing very hard. There was almost no air left here and his supplemental oxygen was beginning to run dry. He knew he had only a few minutes' survival time remaining-- maybe not enough. "Rommie. Where are you!"
"Dylan. I'm here!"
He looked up. Rommie was running toward him down the corridor.
In the next instant, the world spun. The shriek of ripping metal and the Andromeda's agonized screams would echo in Dylan's memory for the rest of his life. Rahu, avoiding the Achilles, had darted across the Andromeda's path and their huge bulks had collided. The impact tore Andromeda in half.
Rommie had almost reached him when the deck sheared away beneath her and she fell in a howling wind. Dylan, pulled off balance, turned it into a leap, diving after her into the exposed slipcore far below.
They were in free fall, the cold of space rushing up on them. He saw her look up and see him there. She spread her arms and legs and rolled over on her back, exposing as much surface as possible to slow herself. In a couple of seconds he had reached her. Their fingers caught and clutched as they fell like stones. "TRANCE!" he yelled, and they were engulfed by golden flames.