After a few agonising seconds, a man's face popped into view. His eyes were as dark as ever, they reminded Dylan of the black hole that claimed him and these eyes contrasted with the paleness of his face. His hair was a dull, brown colour and it grew with a slight curl. His small, curved mouth was spread into a wide grin at the sight of Beka, showing his ridiculously perfect teeth. He had a greedy, expectant look in his and this scared her.

"Beka! Are you going to apologise for shooting me?" He asked in a manner usually reserved for naughty infants, as he launched into conversation. He tried to hide the bitterness and anger from his voice. Tried to hide the fact he felt ashamed that a woman who had been beaten, drugged and operated on had still managed to get the better of him. With his own gun.

"Hello Dean." Beka replied sweetly. "And no, you deserved that."

"So what do you want, my dear woman?"

"I am not your woman."

There was a pause and for a second Dean's face revealed it's true feelings, the smile slipped and left his eyes. He had a dead expression; there was no emotion until suddenly Dean remembered. A heart beat later and the perfectly composed face of greed and slight concern washed back over him. The calm in the eye of a tornado.

"Do you want something Becky? 'Cause truth be told, I'm kinda busy." Dean started to grin again, remembering to keep up the insane but 'I can manage everything' act he had developed through years of working with people.

"I wanna talk with you. On your ship. If we talk about a deal here- Dylan will only overhear and try to stop me." She did not add that her Dylan was currently standing beside her- for all Dean could see was Beka. Rommie had lined it up so that Beka was the only one being transmitted to Dean. Thank the Devine, for someone with common sense.

Dean laughed harshly, not quite believing what he was hearing.

"Talk?" Dean stuttered. "You come back to my ship?"

Beka nodded, her face deadly serious.

"Why? I mean I tried to kill you. Now you want to talk?" Dean was not buying this, but a little voice in his head was telling him to say yes. To get Beka back on his ship, to whatever he wanted to her, to take whatever he wanted from her.

Say yes.

"Alright Dean- I'll be honest with you." Beka lied. "I know what you're going to do, why you cut me up. And I hate you for it, but..."

There is always a but.

"I want in. I want to be part of this race that you're so obviously creating- hell, most of it'll be my DNA anyway. So I propose I come on board and we come to some agreement. I don't trust you, just as you don't trust me but..."

There it is again Deany.

"I'm sure we can work something out... I may not agree with your methods." Beka said darkly, before concluding her little speech. "But what you are going to create is pretty intense."

The whole crew wondered desperately if it had worked. Had Dean bought the lie that had rolled so smoothly of her tongue? The collective held their breath as Dean stared at Beka from across the gulf of space.

"Give me an hour Rebecca, to prepare my men, get some chest armour and a cup of coffee. Then you my come aboard to talk."

With that, Dean was gone and Andromeda's crew launched into action.

"Mr Harper, do your thing." Dylan said authoritivly.

"Beka? Last chance?" Harper turned to his captain, friend and the woman he thought of as a sister. He was scared this was going to be her undoing.

"Go."

With a nod, he skipped out of the room, dragging Doyle behind him. Meanwhile, Trance looked in her head, seeing if she could find any indication of how this whole 'escapade' would turn out but still, all was dark. Beka was back in one piece and Trance had believed that to be the important factor in the future, apparently that was not so.

So, like the rest of her friends, it looked like she was going to have to play this one out completely oblivious to the outcome.

As Dylan would say: flying blind.

A/N Sorry this is short, I know everything I want to do with this story- I'm just having a hard time getting it out of my fingers onto the paper. So please bear with me.

Also, I think I'm going to concentrate on this story, then go back to Sun.