Sorry for the long wait...
I don't own Andromeda... cry
"So, this way we will be able to improve the security over those two sectors!" Dylan ended his strategy with a toothy grin and acknowledged the tide of applauses and cheers coming from his small, yet very important audience.
"Captain… I mean, Tri-Hunt, we wouldn't have expected anything less from you." Tri-Ortiz smiled and lightly bowed her head in respect.
"Well, as much as we would all love to hear about your latest combat plans, this remains the celebration of your Triumvir naming. So, what do you think? Could we let more important discussion for the future days and only drown ourselves in small-talks tonight?" Tri-Lorn joked and caused laughter in the somewhat crowded hall.
"Only if you promise to listen." Dylan smiled warmly.
"Tri-Hunt, I do not have to listen anymore. However, your commandors have." The man joked agaun and caused even more rumour.
"Dylan!" the Nietzcheean Matriarh appeared and signaled him to exit the room for a minute and follow her. The former captain nodded his head, made the appropriate excuses and left.
"What's going on?" he inquired.
"Several small prides will attack the Sabrans ina week at most. My presence there is required." She flatly explained.
"If it's Tamerlan…" the former captain started, but got cut off.
"These prides were our allies until six weeks ago, when the entire Pegasus Cluster broke away from the Commonwealth."
"Not a simple coincidence?"
"Not likely. My generals report me that these new enemies of ours are not only some of the weakest prides, but curiously enough, some of the peaceful ones too. However, it would seem that at a certain time they've all gone mad." Beka explained with a somewhat bored tone, letting him understand that this could mean nothing more than the usual.
"Well, then why do you have to go?" Dylan asked a bit cautious.
"Both Rhade and I have several doubts… and this might prove itself the perfect occasion to confirm one or more of those thoughts."
"Need some help?" his tone turned inviting.
"Maybe… Look, this may be just a hunch… but in case things turn for the worst, I will need back-up." Beka admitted and thanfully nodded.
"You know, I do have to take Andromeda on one last "symbolic" mission. Send Rommie the coordinates and we'll be there." He bowed his head.
"Thanks Dylan…"
"Matriarh, there you are!" Rhade's voice surprised the two, as the broad-chested Admiral approached them, bringing with him a quiet Tamerlan. As soon as he got a glimpse of Beka, the boy shot from the Nietzcheean's side and went directly next to her.
"Tam, why don't we go check out some of Harper's new devices?" Dyl;an offered, having noticed the woman's surprise and Rhade's embarrassment.
"Alright!" Tamerlan took the Triumvir's hand and proceeded in running to the short engineer's machine shop.
Found themselves suddenly alone, the two kept a deep silence, until the Admiral found enough strength to speak to his Matriarh… and former crewmate.
"You've asked Dylan for help."
"I take it that you don't agree with my decision?" she stared at him with an unreadable look.
"He might have been our Captain, but he is a Triumvir. His first priority if the Commonwealth and not a quarrel between the Nietzcheean prides!" Rhade gritted his teeth and stared back at her defyingly.
"Most prides form the Commonwealth, Rhade! Things are starting to return to the way they used to be!"
"Three hundred years ago!"
"After what happened with Tyr, all went mad. But now, the fact that the Nietzcheeans have the Progenitor's true reincarnation and the Matriarh, me, made them understand everything!" Beka rose her tone, trying to get something into Rhade's thick skull.
"And what if he doesn't show up and our fears are correct? Then what?" the Admiral demanded.
"He's Dylan! When had he ever let us down?" she felt all the calm slipping away… fastly.
"When we ended up in the Seefra system! I wouldn't know about you… but I don't want to repeat the experience…" he ended and turned around, leaving her alone in the hallway.
"What are you up to, Rhade…" Beka whispered sadly and, one long moment later, she left towards Harper's machine shop, where she knew that she was expected.
"And then you press this little button over here and it works like magic!" an over-extatic Harper was about to demonstrate a small-scale atom dezitegration, using carbon as experiment material. He carefully pressed the button and, after a second of silence, a small quantity of black dust flew directly in the man's face, covering him completely. The result: fits of laughter from Tamerlan, a disapproving shake of head from Dylan and several snickers from Beka.
"You're never going get over that." The Matriarh spoke after managing to calm down her pulse.
"I keep telling him that…" Rommie entered the room and passed from one side to another, as if nothing had happened and the funny engineer wasn't standing there, all covered in black dust. "And he never listenes." She ended, grabbed a load of metal parts and exited again, with the same serene face.
"Hahaha…" Harper started sarcastically. "I will manage to do this darn thing one day… Just you way and see…"
"Yup, that would be the day when pigs will suddenly develop wings and fly." Beka smiled evily and snickered some more.
"Can you do that again?" Tamerlan stared at him with large eyes, filled with amusement, but admiration too.
"Well, maybe some other time…" Harper offered and thanked the gods for the black stuff or, otherwise, his faint blush turning visible. He loved the little guy… inspite of his acendence… After all, he was pretty much considered more like Beka's kid, rather than Tyr's and that appeared to have a quite good influence on him. He was turning out to be much more peaceful than his father, but equally wise, strong and probably even good-looking. Only thirteen and he was already catching up with Harper easily. Soon we would turn out as tall as Beka, followed soon enough by Dylan. Well, as long as he would be capable to be the right leader, everything was worthy… even the scientific experiments which usually turned Harper, either black, red, blue or some other impossible colour.
"So, when are we leaving?" Dylan turned to Beka, letting go of Tamerlan, who went straight to Harper and started analysing his new "look".
"Rhade and I will be departing in two days. You are welcome to follow." Beka warmly suggested.
"Alright. I'll let the others know of this trip and we'll meet you there in exactly a week." Dylan ended, got up and walked to the exit.
"Dylan…" Beka's strange voice stopped him. "Just… promise me that you'll be careful…"
"Beka?" he eyed her strangely, unused to her careful and rather pleading tone.
"Just be careful… I have a bad feeling about this… and I don't want to start losing friends… Not anymore…"
"Now entering the Pegasus Cluster charted space." Andromeda's hologram announced with her so-ever calm voice. Turning to the screen, she displayed a map of the entire sector, which showed no ships anywhere near.
"Shouldn't they have been here… or at least somewhere in the neighbourhood?" a very puzzled Harper asked once he understood what the charts meant.
"That was the plan…" Dylan mumbled worried and left the flying commands, returning to the main ones, right in front of the large screens. "Andromeda search with every senzor you've got. Long range, short range, every detectors." He commanded and the holographic image complied.
"There are no ships within the next five systems. However, I am detecting some trails: ion rezidue and some hall fragments. Not to much though… Dylan, if a battle has taken place here, the ships must have left the system at least two or three days ago. No rezidue is larger than small-sized asteroids, which emans that no ship has been destroyed." Rommie spoke a moment later, after processing all the incoming data. She glanced over at her former captain, noticing the unhappy expression and confusion displayed on his face features.
"Days, huh? Andromeda take us out." He commanded and turned around to leave.
"Where to, captain?" she asked calmly, stopping him only for a second.
"You said you found a trail… Follow it and let me know when you find something…" he ordered and left the Command Deck in a rush. Crossing the hallways silently, not even returning the salutes he received from the crew members, he went directly to the hydroponics, where he hoped to find some answers.
"I heard the news!" Trance didn't even glance at him when he entered noiseless the large chamber. "I must say that I did not expect this." She left the side of the plant she was currently watering and turned to him, only to see him frowning.
"Beka said they would be here."
"Maybe the fight ended sooner and they went home."
"No! We would have met on the way." He excluded that possibility.
"Maybe things took a turn no one expected…" Trance started speaking her riddles and sat down next to Dylan.
"Now we're getting somewhere… Now, the only question is "what kind of turn"? The ships Beka took with her might not have been the most powerful from her entire army, but they were large and strong enough to at least offer the required protection. What happened here Trance?" he turned to the golden goddess almost desperately.
"You knew something like this would happen…" she only concluded.
"Beka told me to be very careful… I knew there was something she wouldn't tell me… but I never imagined that she could just disappeare like that!" he burst out.
"Well, maybe she didn't…" Trance suggested and looked up to see his stunned expression. "After all, she wasn't alone by far on those ships…"
Drop, drop… Somewhere near she could hear drops of water falling… It was annoying… It wouldn't stop and let her sleep… Damned water, damned planets… damned life.
Beka opened her eyes and looked around. At first, she felt completely numb and then, while her muscles were starting to work again, she started remembering everything… The fight, the enemies…
"Tam…" she suddenly realised and tried to get up faster, only to fail miserably. Her entire body hurt like hell and, unfortunately, she was no longer a sfit as she dwould have liked to consider herself.
"Don't try to stand… you won't succeed…" Rhade's voice was heard few metres away. Trying and even managing to turn at least a bit to him, Beka realised that he was as crippled as she.
"Great… Where's Tamerlan?" she mumbled and then asked loud enough for him to hear.
"When I woke up he was already gone… and I also can't hear any of our soldiers either… Only the bugs in this blastful cave!" the Nietzcheean burst angrily, reminding the Matriarh of the days spent on Seefra, when Rhade used to get drunk at the first sign of trouble and later get on with it.
"Let's just find a way to return to normal and get out of here. I need to find Tam…" she ended with a mumble and proceeded and moving around a bit, trying to make some sense of her condition.
"Where are you taking me?" the thirteen year-old boy demanded as two guards, which he recognized as being Nietzscheeans, dragged him on the ground and on to a set of large tents, settled near a large forest. Although he struggled, trying to escape the strong men, he would still pay attention to his surroundings, just the way both Dylan and Beka had taught him. When the moment was right he would escape and manage to run away, hopefully soon to be found by his friends. "Do you even have any idea who I am!" he asked loudly, this time even sounding like a pricky nobleman.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I do!" a voice suddenly rose above any other noises and Tamerlan felt a hand placed on his bowed head, somehow stopping all his struggle and shouting. Slowly, the hand moved and two fingers grabbed his chin, rising his entire face. Soon enough, the boys black eyes made a frozen light-eyed gaze. From the very first moment, the boy understood that those eyes belonged to an enemy and never a friend.
"Who are you?" he asked frightened, all his courage suddenly gone at the sight of the two orbs.
"Hm, your future guardian… and master…" the man simply answered and grinned demonicly, somehow showing the entire evilness inside his soul and thoughts.
Somewhere on Atolia, a world known by very few and reachable for even fewer, another day was starting. As the birds started their morning fussing throughout the trees, sounds from very far away managed to reach the forest's echoes… those sounds belonged to the sea, which laid only two miles further to the south from that spot. Apparently, it was going to be a beautiful day, just the way it's sunrise announced it to be.
"Lunar! Come tell us what joys and adventures this day will bring us!" a group of noisy little girls and boys ran to a tall and thin man, dressed in some kind of leather robe with black feathers stuck on it. In spite of his strange dark features, which almost seemed to be drawn on his skin, the man's entire being appared to glow with kindness and love. Although many would consider him cold, due to his appearance, everyone who had at least spoken to him once knew exactly how much goodness laid inside his soul.
"Hmm… This day will be as filled with as much happiness and as many new discoveries as yesterday was…" the man played his part to the children's delight and, after few more "prophecies" he sent the children back to their homes, where they were going to have breakfast before playing in the woods and even reaching the shore.
He watched them all running towards the wooden huts, enjoying their laughter and noises. He loved children and that was the only reason for which their parents would welcome hima dn allow him to spend so much time with them. Every day he would take them walking in the huge forest, always teaching them something new, weather it was a words, a skill or simply a song. And the children would always be impressed and say that they want to be like him when they would grown up. And he would smile and thank the gods that his blush could be easily hidden.
Suddenly, he found himself alone in the woods, surrounded by complete silence. Everything inside the alive forest had stopped: the animals, the birds… everything… A sudden chill passed throught his tall body, forcing his skin to powerfully glow once… and once was just enough for him to understand what was happening… or about to happen. The string of Fate had once again been lost by the Moiras and the Universe rested in a mortal's hand for the second time in that decay.
And still, the feeling of cold wouldn't go away, even after his superior senses had decripted the hidden information carried away by the wind… but only until:
"Trance…" the man opened his eyes widely and whispered harshly, staring at the ground covered in leaves below his feet. And then he looked up at the rising sun in the sky and shouted out in fear. "Trance!"
Tada! The new chappie! Don't forget! As usual, special thanks goto the Romanian Andromeda Fanclub!
Read and review! Please? Pretty please?