Title: Commander Kaylee McKnight

Chapter Title: Your Late

Rating: PG-13

A/N: Special thanks to my beta reader and all the reviewers. Sorry it took so long to update, I had chapter 2 already to go until my disk decided to stop working on me. Well I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for reading.

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Dylan walked on command to see three of his officers at their stations. Trance was at hers, Rommie at hers, and Harper, was at his (which, by the way, was a surprise to Dylan). What surprised him the most is that Kaylee was not at her post.

"Rommie… how long do the others have before there late" Dylan asked coming down to his station. Rommie walked other to her captain.

"Ten minutes and thirty one seconds" she said. Dylan nodded.

"Yeah… I'm usually the last one here" Harper said "so ya can't chase me down today" It had become habit for Rommie to do so. The doors to command deck opened, and Beka walked in followed by Rhade. The senor staff looked at each other.

"Rommie time" Dylan said.

"Two minutes" she said watching Beka and Rhade walked to their stations.

"Ha, we're all on time today!" Beka said without even looking at Kaylee's empty station because she had always been there when they came in before. Dylan shook his head and pointed down to Kaylee's station.

"That's a first!" Rhade said, as Rommie went back to her station. "I guess everyone's late once in while"

Andromeda appeared on the screen "Commander McKnight has never been late for her shift on command… well except for that one week" Andromeda popped out before anyone could say something. Dylan and Rommies eyes widened.

"So… why was she late, then" Beka asked surprised. Dylan and Rommie didn't say anything, which got everyone's attention.

"Well… what happened" Beka asked. Dylan and Rommie looked at each other. Dylan took a deep breath and Dylan took a deep breath.

"Andromeda… you will say nothing else about this… that's a order" he looked at the rest of his senor officers

"If you want to know… you need to ask Kaylee… as a captain I can't say anything else… but as a friend…" he looked at Rhade "I think you should ask her" Rhade looked at Dylan.

"Me?" Rhade said

"I can't, and I won't, not say anymore" Dylan looked at Rommie. "Time"

"Seven mintues and fifty five seconds late" Rommie said.

"See what's taking her so long," he said. "Then get her up here" Rommie nodded then closed her eyes.

Everyone else was looking at Rhade. 'Why does he want me to talk to her about it' Rhade thought to himself looking away from the others looks.

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"Who are you?" A Nietzschean male stepped out from behind a corner and held up a weapon. Gaheris stepped protectively in front of Kaylee. They both held up there force lances. The Nietzschean was as tall has Gaheris, yet a little thinner. He had brown hair, longer then Gaheris's yet shorter then Dylan's, and he looked like someone had beaten him.

"I am Commander Gaheris Rhade and this is Commander Kaylee McKnight…" Gaheris nodded his head in her direction "We are answering a distress signal… are you the one who sent it" Gaheris put down his force lance a little, Kaylee followed his example; the Nietzschean put down his force lance a little. The Nietzschean put his weapon down and shock his head.

"No, my wife did. She is a commonwealth officer. Her name is Lieutenant Jane Long…" he said, nearly falling. Kaylee and Gaheris grabbed him before he fell completely.

"That sounds like a human name" Kaylee said.

"It is… my wife is human," the Nietzschean said. Kaylee and Gaheris looked at each other. Neither of them had ever heard of a Nietzschean and a Human ever dating before let alone getting married.

"We better get him back to Andromeda… where is your wife?" Kaylee asked looking around then helping the Nietzschean back to his feet.

"She is dead" he said with anger in his voice.

"Who killed her? Who did this to you?" Kaylee asked.

"Magog" he said, with even a more anger in his voice.

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Kaylee awoke to the sound of Andromeda's voice.

"Kaylee" the hologram said standing at the foot of her bed.

Kaylee looked at her. "What's wrong"? Andromeda looked at her.

"Kaylee… you are late for your shift on command… are you felling alright" Kaylee sat up

Kaylee nodded her head. "How late"

"Ten minutes… are you sure your feeling ok?" Andromeda asked, seeing Kaylee trying to get up several times but kept falling back to her bed. Kaylee finally got to her feet and grabbed her uniform.

"I'm fine, tell Dylan I'm on my way" Andromeda looked at her with concerned eyes. Kaylee put on her uniform.

"Andromeda, I'm fine," Andromeda looked at her. "Andromeda… I just didn't sleep very well, that's all… tell Dylan I'm on my way" she said trying to find her other boot. Andromeda studied her for a moment then blinked out.

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Kaylee practically ran into command, the senor staff looked up to greet her. Kaylee was still hooking the top of her uniform; her hair was down and a bit on the wild said (she didn't have the time brash it). She didn't look like she was getting enough sleep. She grabbed a cup of coffee that one of the new crewmembers were passing out to the senor officers, then walked to her station.

"Time?" Dylan asked looking at Rommie.

"Twenty minutes and thirty two seconds late" she said. Kaylee looked at Dylan.

"Your late" he said crossing his arms. Kaylee nodded

"Sorry… I didn't sleep very well last night… it won't happen again." She looked back at her console. Dylan didn't say anything. 'That's it… he not going to get mad'. She was waiting for Dylan to say something but her console started to beep. Everyone looked over to her. Kaylee pressed a few commands into her console.

"There's a fight in the mess hall", she said as she made her way over to the door, closely followed by Rhade.

"Wait… I'm going with you." Dylan said as Rommie followed him out the door. On the way to the mess hall, Kaylee managed to put her hair in a ponytail, just in case they had to pull the fight apart. There had never been a fight between the crew in the old commonwealth, at least not like this. They walked into the mess hall and saw people standing all around. Two men tried to break up the fight, but were outnumbered. As soon as the senior officers walked in, the crew that was not involved started to leave.

They walked in the mess hall and people were standing all around. There were two men trying to break up the fight. As soon as the senor officers walked in the crew that was not involved started to leave.

"Break it up…" Dylan yelled grabbing one of the men's arms Rommie grabbed the other. Kaylee and Rhade grabbed the other guy. Both still tried to get to each other. The two men who had tried to break up the fight stepped in between the struggling men.

"Ok… what the hell is going on here" Dylan asked looking at the two crewmembers.

"There fighting over crewmen Lese sir" one of the men who had tried to break the fight up.

"Line up" Kaylee said. All four men walked putting themselves in a straight line. The two men that were fighting were on the end. Dylan asked questions and got answers. In the end they were friends again. The two men that were fighting had to clean up the mess hall and the ones that had tried to break up the fight got the next three days off (unless they were needed). They all went out the mess hall leaving the two crewmen to clean up the mess they made (which neither of them were really injured). Rhade stopped walking in the middle of the hall.

"Kaylee, can I have a minute?" he asked. Dylan, Rommie, and Kaylee all turned to look at Rhade.

"Alone" he said. Kaylee looked at Dylan and Rommie as they nodded and walked away. Kaylee looked back at Rhade. The hall was empty; the crew must have been at there post. Rhade started to walk slowly, as did Kaylee.

"We had an interesting conversion this morning before you reported for your shift"

"Is that so" Kaylee smiled "was it about me?"

"Andromeda said something about you being late before," Kaylee came to a complete stop, as did Rhade when he saw her stop." I didn't think anything of it but when Baka asked why Dylan didn't say anything, he told us if we wanted to know, we had to ask you… I would not have asked, but he looked right at me when he said that" Kaylee shock her head.

"That's my business, no one else needs to know anything other then that… Andromeda you have no right to tell anybody anything about me unless I tell you other wise… is that understood?" Andromeda hologram popped up and nodded.

"Kaylee, it might help if you sa…"

"No" Kaylee cut Andromeda off before she could finish. Kaylee looked back at Rhade as she started to walk away then stopped.

"Rhade met me on the observation deck tomorrow after your shift… I'll tell you what you want to know" then she walked out of sight.

"Her surprise party is tomorrow, this will be a good distraction" Rhade said walking to command leaving Andromeda's hologram standing there. Her view screen self popped up right next to her

"This is going to be a problem," the view screen said.

"If you would not have said anything in the first place we would not be in this situation" the hologram said.

"Where the same, you wanted to tell them just as much as I do, however we better tell the captain" both the hologram and the view screen popped out.

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Do you like this chapter? If you would like to make a suggestion, please feel free to do so and if have an idea about Kaylee, please tell me as well. Thank you for reading and please review.