And here, is the thirteenth chapter… Amazing eh?
I own nothing and no one that you recognize…
. Chapter Thirteen .
"You failed."
"I did no such thing." a man growled, looking over into the corner at red, beady little eyes. "You gave me the wrong codes. She didn't even let me finish before she shut me out!"
"That is considered a fail among our people."
The man scowled at the beings words, covered in a heavy accent that wasn't normally heard from the people that lived on the planet.
"You failed in giving me the right code you dumb ass." he said, the being not responding for several moments.
"I will tell our high council this. You should leave, two of the crew members are said to be coming to the ship." with saying that, the being turned around had left, its heavy foot steps ringing throughout the ships halls.
The man sighed and stood up out of the seat, making sure his head didn't connect with any live wires that hung from the ceiling has he made his way towards the air lock. Stepping outside into the early morning light, he dashed into some bushes when he heard the sound of motorbike engines approaching. Crouching down, he watched as two bikes, one black and the other blue, ride out from the forest, the riders both looking around the clearing cautiously.
He watched silently as they both got off the bikes and walked them up closer to the damaged ship, parking them and shutting off the engines. He watched as the women walked around the ship towards the air lock, looking back over both her shoulders before punching in a code, the man following silently behind, closing the door once they were inside the ship.
"Perfect." he said to himself, standing up and backing into the shadows some more. "Time to deal with the Captain on my own."
"I have Drones, Slip fighters, two Planetary Warfare bots, Harper, and even a few hidden Nova's, but I must get one of those."
Rhade turned his head and smiled at the androids mumbled sentence, shaking his head and turning towards the engine room.
"If I open a door this thing isn't going to blow up is it?" he called back over his shoulder.
"Relax Rhade." Rommie said over the com system in the cockpit. "She's not that damaged. Open all the doors you want."
Rhade nodded to himself and opened the door, only to see that going in there was hopeless. There were live wires hanging down everywhere, spitting out so many sparks you couldn't tell which spark belonged to which wire.
Closing the door, he made his way to the cockpit, seeing Rommie touch her hand down onto the back consol and close her eyes, entering into the Maru's VR matrix.
When she opened her eyes, everything was dark. The usual blue walls full of information that surrounded her were completely blacked out.
"Eureka Maru, respond." she said out loud, her voice echoing around her. "This is the Andromeda Ascendant, respond." she said again, but instead of getting a voiced response, an image of her ship self appeared on the walls around her, showing what she looked like as they pulled her out of the black hole, and various other shots of her ship self all the way up until they left for the drift.
"Okay." Rommie said. "Eureka Maru, show me Telemachus Rhade." Again, the Maru showed her all of its archives on Rhade, up until just before they landed. Then, everything went black for a second, before showing Rhade standing before her in the cockpit.
"Now, Eureka Maru, show me yourself." Instead of images of the vessel she knew as the Eureka Maru, everything went black again, and a hologram of a little girl appeared before her.
The little girl was as tall as Rommie's hip, and had medium length red hair that was filled with braids. She wore loose clothing, and held a white angel doll at her side. She smiled up at Rommie, a right tooth missing, and waved.
"How's his hand healing?"
"Good, and fast too."
"Has he woken up yet?"
"No, not yet Raki."
Dylan mentally sighed, not wanting to show them that he was, in fact, awake. Just a fairly good actor at pretending to be asleep.
He inwardly groaned as they switched positions, Raki sitting down beside him, and the young boy, called Ryan, left, closing the door behind him.
He had to leave soon. He knew that both of his crew members were on the Maru, out in the woods, in a very dangerous position. He wasn't stupid. He knew his ship inside and out, which meant he knew what Rommie would do if he or Rhade were injured, and that was what she was surely doing now.
Risking her life to get the Maru back up and running so they could leave.
"I know you're awake sir." Raki said, Dylan finally opening his eyes when he was found out. "I'm not as young and naive as my appearance makes people think."
"I never doubted you Raki." Dylan smiled, moving himself into a sitting position. Looking around, he noticed that he was in a white, rectangular room, with a table, another bed across from him, a bedside table to his left, and a chair on either side of him. It looked similar to an old Earth hospital room, except he didn't see any of the equipment they usually had in theirs around him.
"Raki," Dylan said, lifting his burnt hand to see it was fully covered by white wrappings. "How long have I been out?"
"No more then four hours sir." he said, the nodded to Dylan's hand. "I bandaged that less then an hour ago, so it should be fine until Andromeda and Rhade return."
Dylan looked at him curiously, before asking where his crew members were.
"They're in the city sir." Raki supplied. "Andromeda said she wanted to talk to some of the city folk and find out about the planets history with the aliens from some of the elders, and Rhade agreed to accompany her when she declined my company. Some of the people, mainly the elders, aren't open to newcomers."
"Ahhh." Dylan said, nodding in understanding, or, understanding that it was a very well developed lie, one he didn't think would come from Andromeda. It seemed a little, forced, and backed up with information to hide something.
'Or maybe she's sneakier then I'm giving her credit for and is planning on confusing me so I stay put until they come back with more lies...' he thought, leaning back on a white pillow behind his back. 'Or maybe it wasn't her lie, but Rhade's, and he said to give the information in that way so that it would... it would...' Dylan mentally slapped himself and told his brain to stop thinking. What he needed to figure out was how to get past that android, and how to get the Maru to drag his friends back by their ears.
'Well,' he thought, 'I could always ask him to grab me my force lance... If I knew where it was.'
"Alright Harper," Beka said, holding the flash light at the double door before them. "Work that magic you keep bragging about."
Harper smiled widely at her, winking while putting a small clear tube into his data port. He quickly rubbed his hands together and snapped his fingers, the doors opening.
Trance was the first to walk through. She took the flash light from Beka and led them in. From what they could see, the entire other crew were standing around a figure on the floor, with the two Bots standing before them.
"Hey," Trance called. "Is everyone alright?"
"Duong fainted." Mathers said, not even sounding close to concerned about the matter. "I think the machines scared him."
"We should get him to medical." Trance said, the two Carlo finally making themselves useful by picking him up and following Trance.
Beka and Harper stayed behind with the rest of the crew, who were more or less confused by the current state of the ship they were on.
"Hey! Boys!" Harper called up, the two massive bots looking down at him. "You're connected to Andromeda's main frame, right?"
They both nodded.
"Then, help her get the anomaly out, and protect her systems."
They both nodded, but before the light faded from either of their eyes, the lights in the room flickered on. They were on a low setting, but they were on.
"Anomaly confined." Andromeda said, sounding more like her self again. "All systems at one hundred percent. Awaiting captains orders."
"Well," Beka said, smiling. "How about you tell me what that bug was looking for?"
"You're... you're the Maru?" Rommie asked, taking a step towards the hologram. It looked exactly like Beka, but younger, and with red hair.
The little girl nodded her head, braids moving everywhere, before running up to Rommie. She grabbed her hand gently and dragged her for a bit before stopping in front of nothing. The hologram let go of her hand and touched something, a small space lighting up instantly. She pointed to it, and Rommie looked, realizing the hologram was showing her a list of everything in the engine room that needed to be repaired.
"Thank you." Rommie said, memorizing everything. She turned to the girl and smiled warmly. "I'll be back soon, and before you know it, you'll be back up and flying again, okay?"
The hologram smiled again and nodded, and Rommie left.
Dylan walked quietly out of the front doors, successfully avoiding a walking guard.
After all, who knew who else in the compound was supposed to make sure he stayed in bed all day?
"Captain Hunt?"
Dylan froze, quickly moving into a relaxed posture and turned around, smiling as Ron walked up towards him.
"How have you been?" he asked.
"Good. Getting better every second I'm told. You?" Dylan asked, wishing the man would shut up and leave him be.
"Oh, I've been alright. But I am terribly sorry about what happened to your hand. I'm afraid our acid rains slipped my mind when you and your crew arrived." Ron said, slipping on a very sorrowful and ashamed face. "May I walk with you?" he asked.
Dylan, always wanting to rather make friends rather then enemies, didn't say no, and before he knew it, he and Ron were walking through some on the outer forest talking on pleasant terms.
Ironically, they talked for five minutes about how nice the weather was.
Dylan didn't even notice when someone, or, something, started to silently follow them through the dense trees and bushes around the city.
He didn't notice the hidden syringe in Ron's hand either.
"Duong. Duong, are you alright? Can you hear me?" Trance asked in a low voice when she saw his eyes flicker behind closed lids.
By the time they had gotten to medical, Andromeda had announced that she had successfully confined the anomaly, and Beka had told her over the com. system to make sure Duong didn't hit his head to badly on the floor. Trance had looked over him quickly, finding that he had just fainted from what was most likely shock, or fear, and had gotten a bump on the back of his head from the fall.
"Wh- wha?" he said, eyes slowly opening and looking around the large room.
"Good, you're awake." Trance said, moving to stand beside him within eyesight. "You fainted and bumped your head. You're in medical now."
"Al- alright." he said, making to sit up, but failing and almost falling off the side of the narrow bed. "Umm-" he studerd. "Red lights, clicks, darkness."
"Yes," Trance said, helping him back up so he wouldn't fall and break his head in. "Beka took everyone up to command. You and I can go up in a few moments. For now, you should rest for a moment. You fell on your head and Andromeda doesn't have the softest of floors."
With that said, Alexander Duong did something he was told to do for once, and closed his eyes.
"Alright Andromeda," Beka said, standing at her consol on command. "Tell me what this thing was doing in your system."
"It was copying information." the main AI said, showing up on the middle screen. "Mainly old access codes that any High Guard officer aboard would know, but ones that I stopped hearing since the black hole."
"Where was it copying the files to?" Harper asked, standing on Beka's left.
"That I didn't find out. I was able to confine it and find out what it was taking, but before I could find its source or origin, it self destructed."
"Clever." Beka said, nodding. "Was it able to get anything out?"
"No." Andromeda confirmed. "I stopped it before it had the chance."
"Good." Harper said, smiling a little, though it looked like it was forced. "No harm done, right boss?"
"Sure. Just a small, easily overcome, set back."
"Ahh, good, you're back." Rhade said once he noticed Rommie open her eyes. "Everything okay?"
"Yes." she said, turning towards the engine room. "I know what needs to be fixed, but I'll need your help with some of them."
"Okay." Rhade said uneasily, watching as she opened the door. Wires were everywhere, just like he had left it, but no sparks were coming down.
"The Eureka Maru must have shut some things off so we could walk through." Rommie supplied, pushing the wires out of the way.
Slowly, and uncertainly, Rhade also followed, not sure if he was going to be shocked and killed on a half dead ship or not.
. End Chapter Thirteen .
Okay… About this story. It is my favorite of them all, and as I have found, the biggest pain in the ass. As of yet. It took me longer then it should have to type this up, and I was very disappointed. I think my sister stole my thinking cap. So, if it takes a little longer for the next chapter, I apologize now, and wish for you to forgive me.
Reviews :
Jade Rhade –
Yes, it was dirt bikes! I'm happy you have a good memory! And no, I'm sorry, the boys didn't take over… They're just special. And how could I kill Beka Trance and Harper? Then who's gonna save Rhade? Thanks for the review!
prin69 –
Awww… Thank you. And Drom's okay now… They just had a set back… So now everyone is trapped on the planet for longer… Good, or bad, depends on how you look at it after this chapter. And don't worry about Alexander. I have… something… for him. Thank you for the review!
Until next time…
