I know, I know... long time no update... but hopefully that will change...
Don't own Andromeda... damn...
Last stop so far: Cygnus Eight.
Dylan stood in front of one of the very few windows that were connected directly with the visual sensors and replayed every change in their whereabouts, as soon as they received the signal from the drones outside. The Triumvir was leaning onto the "window's" frame, staring at a view that was extremely familiar: a nine-planet system with two suns. This configuration reminded him of the months spent trapped inside the Seefra system… with no place to go and almost no hope at all.
But still, even then he had someone by his side. Even though Beka always warned him about charging the deliveries, Rhade threatened to leave every time he got drunk, Harper refused to build several devices, Trance couldn't remember a thing and Rommie was gone… they had still remained a somewhat united group.
And now… now he was standing all alone, trying to figure out what had happened to a Commonwealth's Admiral, the Nietzscheeans' Matriarh and Drago Museveni's reincarnation.
"A penny for your thoughts." A rather shy and tired voice brought him back to reality and Dylan turned to see Trance Gemini, standing few feet behind him with a small smile on her delicate face. Even now, after her strength had been revealed, the former captain would still consider the golden avatar as fragile as a china doll.
"Hello, Trance… How are you feeling?" he stepped away from the frame and approached her.
"Much better than before…" she slightly bowed her head and then seemed to be a bit embarrassed. Noticing her frowns, Dylan asked.
"What is it Trance?" Before answering, the golden woman rose her eyes to him, just the way she always used to do when there was something wrong. "Trance?"
"Dylan, I've unconsciously brought you here… because there was something calling me here… But I do not know where Beka, Tam and Rhade are…" she spoke with a very sad tone, lowering her eyes again.
"Alright… do you know what or who called you here? And if you do… could they be able to help us find Rhade and the others?" he inquired.
"I don't know… but I am called here…" She explained quietly and Dylan understood exactly what she meant to say in not so many words. This was her way of saying goodbye… at least for the time being.
"Can you at least tell me where you are going or who are you meeting?"
"It's very near here… I can see metal… a lot metallic parts… So, it's probably a ship, but I cannot tell you more for now either. I'm sorry…" she spologized and lowered her eyes again.
"Will you come in time to find Beka, Tam and Rhade?"
"I can tell you this: in order to find them, you must follow Orion's arm from here on. I… I will try my best to be there when you'll need me, but, for now… I must find my answers here." Trance ended and looked up to see sadness imprinted on the Triumvir's face.
"Promise me that you'll be careful… I'd hate to see another one of us trapped in some forgotten place."
"I will be…" the vedran sun's avatar bowed her head respectfully and, one moment later, she disappeared into a flash of golden light, leaving the former captain alone… again…
When Beka regained consciousness, it was already evening. Groaning, she sat up on the strangely comfortable bed. As soon as she managed to focus on her whereabouts, she looked up to see a worried Tamerlan sitting on his own bed, metres away, with his knees rised to his chest and his eyes staring at her. Looking directly into his black orbs, Beka understood all his unasked questions.
"How long?" she only asked, gazing around the room, hoping that she might catch a glimpse of Rhade.
"They brought you yesterday evening… and no, the Admiral wasn't brought back." The boy answered her. Beka let out a sad smile, silently thanking him for the information. "Beka… who are these Nietzscheeans and why are they against us?" he finally asked after a long moment, during which the Matriarh already started checking the doors and windows, trying to find a way out.
"Well, some of them might be Nietzscheeans, but their boss is a very bad guy whose plans were pretty much destroyed by us, years back. So, he wants revenge…" she explained and kept searching.
"But why after all this time?" Tamerlan started shifting on the bed in order to see Beka at all times.
"Because he probably has now a small army for attack and defence, because Dylan became a Triumvir and… because he has finally found an opening that could elad him to us… So he did what every bad guy would do: he took it." Beka ended and let out a deep sigh, signaling that she had had no success in whatever she was planning.
"We're stuck?" the boy simply asked, already having learned his caretaker's reactions.
"We're stuck." The blond woman nodded and, turning around, she walked to Tam's bed and took a seat, right next to him. "You're not scared and that's good. Anyone else would have freaked out a thousands times by now." She smiled again.
"Well, I'm not just anyone." Tam grinned and received an amused look. "And plus, you need someone to rely on… considering the Admiral isn't here anymore…"
"Well, for now let's just keep our present parts: you'll be the calm kid… and I'll be the responsible Matriarh." She winked and turned around, facing the windows again. The fact that Rhade was missing for so long made her worry. If something happened to Rhade, then she was next on the list. Unfortunately, she suspected that Pish wanted to have Tamerlan as his own personal herald. In less than seven years Tam would become the leader of the Nietzscheans… and if the Collector could get under his skin, then the humanity would be in a lot of trouble. Yes, she knew that she had to get Tam as far away from Pish as possible with the first occasion.
Usually, people would stare at her, but hidden in such a large crowd and covered by her classic cloack, Trance was as good as invisible. She simply walked around the drift, not knowing where she was going and not understanding completely what she was doing there.
Having learned that a pretty large public garden could be found there, Trance decided to visit it, thinking that with flowers around her she might clear her thoughts and detect the source of her confusing visions.
As soon as she passed through the first trees, she could notice exactly how large and beautiful the garden was. The clerk she had asked for directions had not described entirely this place. Everywhere she looked she could see flowers of all colours, standing out between the green leaves. She was already walking towards the center, when a strange dialogue stopped her abruptly.
"Ione, when is the Sun Goddess coming?" the voice of a child inquired. Turning towards the voice, Trance could see a girl child, not older than ten probably, clinging onto a much older man's hands. Gazing at those hands, Trance followed their way up, only to meet the man's dark-skinned face… his face…
"Soon, Lia, soon…" he spoke on a warm tone, his entire body now being in the golden avatar's view. Suddenly, the thin smile faded away from his lips, as Lunar looked up to see the cloacked figure watching them. And then, he thought that if he had had a heart, it would've definitely stopped.
"I found you… and I have to let you go…"
"I won't let you go, Trance Gemini. You're the best part of me…"The two thought of the same memory as their eyes met. Light and dark… day and night… the Sun and the Moon of Tarn Vedra meeting one another, after all these years, on a place so strange and so far away from home.
Ione took one step towards her, trying to make sure that it was her and not another. As if acknowledging his gesture, the Sun Goddess took of the hood and allowed him to see her golden features, that were now probably sparkling with light, due to her intense feelings. At the sight of his beloved one, the moon avatar could only smile and respectfully bow his head. Instantly, a set of small hands clung onto his trousers.
"Is she the Sun Goddess? Is she your princess, Ione?" He looked down to see Lia's bright eyes and he nodded.
"Yes, fairy child… This is my princess… The best part of me…"
An entire day had passed, when, finally, the doors slid open and two soldiers came in carrying Rhade's extremely bruised body. Blood was dripping from several cuts and he was unconscious. They dropped him on one of the beds, on his belly.
"So much for the never-exhausted Nietzscheean." Beka mumbled as soon as the door closed again and she leaned over the Admiral, checking his pulse. Tam only sent her a half amused, half terrified glance and then proceeded in checking the large man for severe wounds.
"Found anything?" Beka asked after two minutes.
"Nothing fatal." Tam answered and then watched the blonde woman get up and get ready a bowl of warm water and a towel. Turning back, she stood on her knees next to the bed and started cleaning the Admiral's wounds. One minute later he finally reacted, waking up with a loud groan.
"What happened?" he asked, his words partly muffled by the pillow that sustained his head.
"You tell us. This is only the result and, might I add, that I haven't seen you like this since your mercenary days back on Seefra." Beka spoke as she kept cleaning his wounds. Noticing that he had dropped his face in the sheet, she pushed a bit one of his cuts, making him rise his head, groan again and glare at her. "Stay awake." She finished her work and pointed an authoritary index finger at him. He only groaned again.
"So, now what?" Tamerlan asked after a few long moments of silence.
"Now we find a way to get out of here." The woman crossed her arms in front of her chest, as she stood in front of the window and peered outside, watching the guardians surrounding the perimetre.
"That won't be so easy." Rhade's deep voice drew their attention as he finally sat up on the bed. "Pish wants Dylan, not us."
"And hoping that Dylan would come to the rescue, he trapped us. Great.. but the question remaining is "How?"… How did he manage to get us bu, surprisingly enough, convincing Nietzscheeans into faking a declaration of war against their own kind and then kidnapping us?" Beka's eyes turned dark with anger.
"Blackmail, drugs, you know Pish… everything's possible with him. He's pure evil and that's no news." The Admiral replied.
"Why does he want Dylan?" Tamerlan's sudden question forced the two grown-ups to stare at him.
"Well… Dylan was the main character that pretty much destroyed him by…" Rhade felt an urge to say "by killing your father", but he bit down his tongue as hard as he could and ended his sentence in a way as harmless as possible for the young boy: "hunting down the fake Collectors and helping a lot with the destruction of the Abyss."
"During the 5 years while we fought for the rebirth of the Commonwealth, we encountered many enemies… and Dylan, as our leader, achieved the most." The pilot spoke on a somewhat amused tone, trying to lighten up the atmosphere, after having realised what Rhade had wanted to say at first.
"Soo, this evil Collector… He only wants Dylan?" Tam asked further.
"The Collectors' true goal was to achieve as much information as possible and use it for good. Pish's true goal was to use that information for his own profit. In this case: power. He's probably had enough hiding and now he wants to be acknowledged as… what the hell it is that he wants to be!" Beka answered again.
"Only this time he's gone too far. He found a way to force our own kind to betray us and he took us hostages. Neither the Commonwealth nor the main Nietzscheean prides will forgive this. Someone will find us." Rhade spoke assuringly.
"The only question is if they'll manage to find us in time."
"Captain, I'm picking up a signal… It's one of ours!" Rommie announced from her commands, looking at Dylan who was occupying the normal spot, although he wasn't tehnically the captain anymore. Having noticed how easy the avatar had used his old rank, Dylan allowed a sad smile to appear on his only for a few moments.
"Identify." He commanded and wacthed the large screen in front of him.
"Sedna's Mystery." Rommie responded sharply and Harper looked up at her with widened eyes.
"Doyle's ship?" he wondered out loud and Dylan cast him an amused look.
"Think she might join us in our quest to find Beka, Tam and Rhade?" the Triumvir rose an eyebrow as Harper grinned back.
"It'll be good to have an ally in no man's land here." The engineer shrugged.
The two men nodded their heads in the same time and a loud enough "hmph" was heard behind them. Both of them turned simultaneously to see an irritated Rommie standing with her arms folded in front of her chest. They stared at her questioningly, while she just "hmphed" again and looked somewhere else. Dylan sent Harper a wondering look, while the engineer seemed a bit embarrassed and glanced at the dark-haired avatar again.
"I see… Move to intercept!" he asked quietly and, few seconds later, let out a deep breath as Andromeda's IA acknowledged his commands and the ship was already on its way. "Hail them."
"Aye." A still unhappy Rommie complied.
"This is Triumvir Hunt, from the Andromeda Ascendant. Please respond." Dylan spoke somewhat uneasy with his new title… again. In spite of his uneasiness, the image of Sedna's Command Deck apparead on the main screen.
"Triumvir Hunt, welcome to Cygnus Eight system. Captain Lar Kindro reporting for duty, Sir." A man wearing a High Guard uniform saluted Dylan.
It was a completely empty room, with only a holographic screen that was currently playing various video recordings from Andromeda Ascendant's memory core. The files had been extracted several months before the ship's departure through the Route of Ages, during the trial held on Tarazed.
There were two persons inside the rather small room, visualising the recordings. One of them was Pish Tryan who stood on his feet and only glanced from time to time to the other person: a blind woman sitting on a chair, tied down with strong chains onto the furniture piece. In spite of her visible handicap and her calm exterior, the guards had learned of her strange powers and had accepted their employer's demands: to lock the woman in a completely empty room and tie her down so that she couldn't move almost at all.
Still, her features were now pained and filled with pure hatred for her kidnapper, while she listened the recordings and even seemed, strangely enough, to see the flashing images. Magog, Bokor, all the enemies that Dylan Hunt had encountered during his years as a captain were now showed in these images, as if Pish was trying to tell the woman something. Finally, last but not least, specific scenes from Dylan's past, from before the Fall were played.
Unable to bare more, the light-haired woman closed her eyes, trying to shut away two tears. However, her executioner was thinking otherwise.
"I lived with the impression that Dylan Hunt was the last Paradine alive." The Collector ended the playback with the press of a button and turned to the chained woman. He stared right into her blind eyes that were now opened again. When he noticed that she wasn't going to answer, he walked towards her and asked harshly. "The world is about to change again… This time for good… And the Triumvir's future is uncertain… so who is to carry out your hopes for the future?" The two tears were now falling down her cheeks and the woman remained again unmoved, as a perfectly carved statue. "You will not win this war… because this war will be held between the living things, without the help of a foreign entity. Now tell me, who is the child that, according to your plans, will win this battle and lead further the Commonwealth?" The woman remained silent. "Who is this child? Who is the second Paradine alive?!?" The Collector lost his temper and shouted roughly. Suddenly, the woman's head moved up and her lifeless eyes seemed to stare right into his own, the sight sending shivers all over Pish's spine.
"Someone who will destroy you." She simply whispered and, one long moment later, looked away from the man, leaving him even more furious than before.
Stay tooned for the next chappie... which I will, hopefully, manage to update sooner ;) Until then, review please!