A/N: Sorry this took so long.

Chapter Eight: What Happened Next

"So...what you're saying is that...Beka and I...we..." Dylan's voice trailed off.

Harper and Trance nodded, but neither crewmember was really paying attention.

"I can't believe it," Dylan's eyes widened and he began to pace, "I can't even remember any of it."

Harper and Trance continued to nod.

"Um...Trance is there a possibility that when Beka and I were in the infirmary together...we...y'know, did she and I...get too close," Dylan cleared his throat and peered closely at them, "Hey! Are you two even listening to me!"

"What?" Trance blinked and suddenly came to her senses, "Oh um...no! No, no, no...you didn't go that far."

"Good to know..." Dylan muttered.

"Sorry Boss," Harper sighed, coming back to reality, "It's just with everything going on, it's hard to focus on one thing."

Dylan didn't reply for a few minutes, taking some time to register the days past events.

"How's the Andromeda doing?" he asked, falling back into his responsible state.

"Better than Beka is," Harper grumbled.

"Or Rhade," Trance chimed in.

"Can't forget Rommie," added Harper.

"Aren't you two quite the optimists," Dylan growled in a nearly Nietzschean way.

Harper shivered, "Please don't do that again. It reminds me of---"

Harper suddenly felt a sinking feeling crawl over him.

"Rhade!" he squeaked.

Indeed. Harper looked up and saw the Nietzschean towering over him with undecipherable emotions running through his deep brown eyes.

"Harper," Rhade's voice was surprisingly cool.

Harper clamped both his hands over his nose and ran off screaming, "I didn't do it!"

Rhade and Dylan looked towards Trance.

"Oh, um, right...I'll go...go...make sure Harper doesn't do something stupid," Trance stammered and escaped their gazes.

As Trance hurried off, Rhade and Dylan both slowly brought their eyes to each other. Rhade's expression held a fine mixture of angst and envy while Dylan just looked confused.

"Well...I'm going to go and...Um..." Dylan began yet another sentence which he was unable to complete.

"Yes?" Rhade surprisingly urged him on.

Dylan's eyes drifted behind Rhade to where Rommie had been standing quietly all along, her face a mystery.

"I'm going to go crawl under a rock..." Dylan said in a low tone, and walked away.

"Yes, I think that would be a good idea Captain," Rhade glared although Dylan was too far to hear him.

After a few moments of silence, Rhade turned to face Rommie, whose eyes were glazed over in obvious longing.

"He's probably headed to Command," said Rhade.

"Hm...?" Rommie's brain fell from her daydreams, "Oh, right. Whatever."

Rhade quirked an eyebrow at that very un-Rommie-like statement, "Whatever?"

"It works for Harper," Rommie grumbled and stormed past Rhade.

Beka Valentine stood on the Observation Deck staring out into the universe and at the same time trying to figure out why her heart had dropped to the floor hours ago.

Was it Dylan? Perhaps. He was, after all, brave, kind and loyal...and for a little while, he'd also been obsessed with her. Beka clamped her eyes shut in frustration.

No, no, no! Valentine are you insane? Please no…not again…not another one, Beka mused to herself, remembering all her past loves...most of whom had ended up betraying her and leaving her totally heartbroken.

Dylan wouldn't do that to her right? Then again, Beka wasn't entirely sure that Dylan had actually had feelings for her in the first place. It seemed as though nothing was entirely sure right now. Including her feelings for Dylan. Did she even have feelings for Dylan? Dear Lord, who knew?

And then there was Rhade.

Oh Rhade, Rhade, Rhade.

Damn Nietzschean, thought Beka, that…that…argh!"

It struck her that she hadn't spoken to him in awhile and she wondered what his take on the whole situation was. Probably the Nietzschean take. That all of the pressures of being Dylan Hunt had finally driven the good Captain insane. It wasn't all too hard to tell what the Nietzschean train of thought revolved around. Power, honour, reproduction. It was simple. Beka understood.

Or at least she thought she did. Then along came Tyr Anasazi, and everything had changed. And here she was again, comparing Tyr to Rhade. Beka frowned, she knew it was unfair to Rhade, to judge him according to what Tyr had done, but sometimes she couldn't help it. Trance had informed her many a time that one man's sins could not taint an entire race.

Sometimes, Beka felt differently.

"HAAAAAARPER..."

Harper dropped his screwdriver in shock.

"Trance? What the Hell was that?" the Engineer stood up and stared at the beautiful golden goddess.

"I just wanted to see what sort of effect that dragging out the first syllable in one's name has on you," Trance shrugged, "Haaaaarper!"

"Trance, please don't do that again," Harper winced.

"Why not?" Trance pouted a little, "You do it a lot."

"Yeah, but it doesn't sound right when you say it."

Trance grinned, "HAAAAARP---mrrrrf!"

Harper had clamped one hand down over her mouth.

"Harper? Trance?" Dylan eyed the two of them with a slight smirk on his face as he walked into Command with Rommie following closely behind.

Trance yanked Harper's hand away from her mouth and smiled at Dylan.

"Yes Captain?" asked Trance.

"How are the repairs going?" asked Dylan, peering at the wires, tools and various metal objects that were scattered all over the floor.

"Well, I managed to fix the slipstream drive, but only partially. Weaponry wiring is still a little fuzzy, but we can control it. Communications are still fried though...and there's a whole bunch of other stuff to be fixed," Harper admitted sadly.

"So we're still stuck?"

Trance nodded, "How are you feeling Dylan?"

"Fine...well sort of...still a little light headed," replied Dylan.

"Makes sense," Harper shrugged getting back to work, "You got knocked out so many---"

Trance whacked the back of his head gently.

"What?" Dylan's eyebrows knit themselves into a troubled frown, "Who knocked me out."

"Never mind," Trance hurried to his side, "You should rest...there could always be a relapse."

"But what of?" Dylan inquired, "You wouldn't happen to know...and I demand that someone explain to me what the Hell went on after the Nietzscheans attacked us!"

"Um..." Trance's eyes lit up with an idea, "Rommie, why don't you tell Dylan what happened."

Rommie blinked.

"You know...back in Dylan's quarters," Trance coughed, ever so gently and motioned towards the door.

"Sounds good," Dylan said, "I don't like being uninformed."

Trance shot Rommie a little smile. The android looked uneasy.

"You'll be fine," Trance whispered to Rommie as she turned towards the door to follow Dylan out of Command.

"I beg to differ," Rommie squeaked.

When they were gone, Trance turned to Harper who had an amused expression on his face.

"Did she actually squeak?" he asked.

"What's wrong with that?" Trance grinned, "You do it all the time."

A/N: Next chapter will be poster A.S.A.P. There will probably be ten chapters to this fic...eh...yeah, that's it for me.

Thank you to all who reviewed.