Arkology Revisited Chapter 2, an andromeda fanfic

Author's Note: Italics signify thought, emphasis or telepathic conversation.

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It was dark on obs deck when Telemachus led Alura through the doorway, but not dark enough that her Nietzschean eyesight couldn't see the people gathered near a table set for dinner. Even though she saw them, she still jumped when the lights suddenly came on and they all yelled, "Happy birthday!"

Trance came forward to hug her, and Alura cast the evil eye over her mother's shoulder at Danny. The holograph walked over to them and shook his head with a small laugh.

"I didn't tell them; Trance figured it out on her own," he informed her.

Alura was surprised. She had made sure none of the vid files she had given her mother were dated just in case something in them showed a part of the future Trance shouldn't see. That way at least she wouldn't know when the event would happen. But evidently it hadn't mattered.

Alura smiled at Trance when the other woman let her go. "Thanks, Mom."

"I had to miss your first twenty-six birthdays, I wasn't going to ignore this one," Trance answered.

Alura was happy to note that no shadow had crossed her mother's eyes when she had made reference to the past. During the last several months, Trance had become more and more accepting of the fact that even though in a way Alura's past was the future, it was gone... there was no changing it.

Trance stepped back to stand beside Dylan, and Alura smiled to herself when she noticed Dylan's arm snake around her mother's waist and draw her closer to his side. The Captain and his medical officer had been in an official relationship as long as she had been married to Telemachus, and Dylan was just now getting used to small public displays of affection, though only when both of them were off-duty, of course.

"Did we surprise you, Momma?" Drago asked, launching himself into Alura's arms for a hug and kiss.

"Very much," she assured him. "I had no idea anyone knew it was my birthday."

"And why didn't you tell us?" Lecy asked, joining them.

"Or at least me," Telemachus added, a hurt note in the quiet comment.

Alura shrugged, "I never really celebrated my birthday before."

The subject was promptly dropped, and Harper and Dylan extended their birthday greetings, as did a few other crew members Alura had become friends with. Telemachus stayed near her physically, but mentally he seemed to be drifting. She knew he was thinking... brooding about how much he didn't know about her.

From trial and error she had learned that it was best to just let him. If she tried to coax him out of the mood he was in, it would inevitably turn into a fight about why she couldn't tell at least him everything about herself. Alura had never been able to tell him that it was because she knew his first loyalty was to Dylan, and there were things that Dylan and Trance just couldn't know. Telemachus would come out of the funk on his own if she gave him a little time.

"You know," Harper commented when he gave her a small wrapped package a little while later, "you're both younger and older than me."

"Only older by a year and a half, Harper, don't try to make me feel ancient."

"Still," he said, shrugging with most of his upper body in the way only Harper could, "you are definitely one of a kind."

Alura smiled and laughed lightly, "I'll take that as a compliment."

"As well you should," the engineer bantered right back.

Harper moved away from her when Dylan announced that dinner was ready, and Telemachus offered his arm to Alura to lead her to the table. She smiled softly at him as an apology for not telling him her birthday. Telemachus returned the gesture.

"As soon as Trance told me yesterday about the party, I sent away for a gift. It probably won't reach us for a few weeks, but I'll show you a picture of it later."

"Okay," she agreed softly as she sat down in the chair he had pulled out for her.

At the head of the table, Dylan stood up and made a short but sweet toast to her. Alura had a sudden moment when she could feel Dylan's affection for her while he was talking. But she knew it wasn't possible that she had actually felt it, so she shook it off as just being able to read him better now than she had been able to when she first came on board the Andromeda all those months ago.

That is, until she caught Rommie looking at her strangely. Thirty minutes later when the meal was over, Alura was able to ask the android what was wrong without anyone else listening in.

"Nothing," Rommie answered. "Must have been a glitch in my systems."

"What do you mean?" Alura asked cautiously.

"For a scant moment, your life signs changed."

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Trance kept glancing at her daughter while the two of them finished returning obs deck to its usual state. It had been very brief, but right before dinner had started Alura's essence had shifted. Soon after, Alura had been tense, worried about something. The tension had increased when she had spoken briefly with Rommie. The young blue and silver woman had remained that way throughout the rest of the party, though outwardly she laughed and smiled with their friends.

Trance was starting to worry. Despite everything Alura had been through, or maybe because of it, she was a relatively calm, easygoing person. It wasn't like her to be frightened for this long.

Alura was moving a plant back to its usual spot when Trance sensed the shift again. It was stronger and slightly longer this time. Alura's hands shook visibly and the plant dropped, its pot shattering.

The moment passed and Alura let out a small gasping sound. She fell to her knees beside the plant, carefully scooping as much of the dirt back together as she could. Her hands were still shaking. Trance joined her daughter, reaching out to still Alura's hands. Alura lifted her head to look at Trance, tears welling in her eyes.

"Shh," Trance soothed. "It's okay, I'll pick it up. You had a lot of excitement today, maybe you should get some rest."

Alura shook her head in a combination of refusal and denial but still stood up.

"I..." she started. Fear and apprehension rolled from her in waves, but she didn't get to finish.

The shift in Alura's aura flared more brightly than before, and the Light that was a part of every Avatar suddenly burned to life inside her. But whatever control Alura might have had in her own reality seemed to be lacking in this one, and the Light extended out from her body in a brilliant glow. The force of it lifted Alura off the floor, her semi-conscious form hovering for several minutes before Trance could think of anything to do to help.

Trance let her own Light extend slightly so that Alura's wouldn't hurt her as she approached.

"Alura Anasazi," Trance called firmly.

The half-Avatar's eyes flew open and focused on Trance, the usually dark blue orbs glowing a brilliant color, like backlit aquamarines. For a second, all Trance could sense was power, then she found the spark that was her daughter's soul. She willed her own calm and strength to envelop the fragile core of her daughter.

When the connection was established, Trance reached up and laced her fingers through Alura's, pulling gently so that Alura's feet once again touched the floor of obs deck. Still the Light shone too brightly for a half-Avatar to maintain.

"I love you, my daughter," Trance said softly.

Alura blinked, a tear falling from the corner of each eye. Her eyes returned to their natural dark blue color and the Light receded to a level where Alura could control it.

"I love you, too, Mom," Alura answered.

With that, she promptly collapsed to her knees again. Trance moved to join her but was stopped by Alura lifting one hand in a 'stay back' motion. Alura closed her eyes once more, but this time when the light extended, it seemed more controlled.

Alura was having a Vision.

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At first, Alura could not tell the significance of what she was Seeing. The only previous times she'd had a Vision while awake it had been important things, not the random Seeing she did as she dreamt. But what she was Seeing now...

An ancient behemoth of a vessel, an orbiter with a self-sustaining ecology. Arkology, something named the place. It was important in some way. A place of peace.

But Alura couldn't understand what that meant in relation to her. She was a warrior, it was the path she had been set upon from birth and the one she had accepted whole-heartedly. Somewhere that people clung to peace no matter what the cost was not a place she would ever willingly stay. Universal peace was a noble ambition, but she knew it would not be possible for many lifetimes to come, let alone in her own.

Then she Saw Telemachus. Telling a thin, blonde Nietzschean that he loved her. A stab of pain cut into Alura's heart. There was a desparate need in his love for Louisa Messereau that had never shown itself in his love for her.

The last thing she Saw was Telemachus telling Dylan that he had learned all he could from Dylan and that he was choosing to stay on Arkology with Louisa. Telemachus had found personal peace. Nothing could be more important.

Not even, or perhaps most especially not, her.

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When Alura opened her eyes, tears were falling freely down her face. She got slowly to her feet, dusting the plant dirt off her face. She sighed heavily in what Trance could easily read as resignation.

"What is it?" Trance asked softly.

Instead of answering, Alura smiled sadly and asked, "Could you bring up that area of space I told you about?"

Trance quickly requested that the Andromeda do so. There on the screen, between the Ringonni and Delfic systems, right where Alura said it would be, was a star.

"So you have your star back," Trance said lightly.

"Obviously," Alura said with a shrug. "I just thought you might like to see it."

Trance studied the screen again, smiling when she noticed something.

"It's a blue dwarf!"

Alura smiled as well, thought the gesture didn't quite reach her eyes. "Yes, I always thought maybe that had something to do with my coloring. Either that or your love for Dylan's blue eyes affected my development."

Even with the current situation, Trance couldn't help but grin at the thought. But Alura was still tense and sad, and Trance wasn't quite sure why. Before she could ask, though, her daughter asked a question Trance wasn't expecting.

"Do you believe that love and destiny are important?"

"Of course," Trance answered, surprised when her answer spiked her daughter's sorrow level before acceptance became the only emtion she could feel from Alura.

"I'll need your help soon, but right now I need to go to the Dance and rest."

"Why go to the Dance?"

Alura sighed, "I can't deal with anyone else's emotions right now, I'm out of practice. Could you give Telemachus a message for me?"

"Yes."

"Tell him... just tell him I'm fine but I need a little time alone. You can explain why."

But as Alura left the room, Trance wasn't sure she understood why herself.

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Alura traveled silently through corridors she could feel were deserted, taking nearly three times as long to reach the Dance as she usually did. She had been empathy-blind for so long she didn't know how much she could feel without reacting. Not only because of the time she had been in this reality without her star, but also because of the two years she had been alone in her own reality. If control snapped, she might see her Vision again in front of someone, and they would of course call her husband to help her.

But she couldn't be near him yet. Alura couldn't allow her love for him to stand in the way of his destiny. Complete acceptance would have to come before she could be in his presence again.

The door to the Dance stood open when she reached the hangar; Danny was waiting at the bottom of the ramp for her. Concern was clear on his expressive face, but he did not say anything as she leaned on him for support on the walk up the ramp. The door slid shut and sealed behind them, and Danny led her to her bedroom. Not the one she had briefly shared with Telemachus when they had mated, but her real bedroom, the one that still held much of who she had been, who she still was.

Alura sank down onto the bed and stared at her ship's AI. The man (for she could think of him no other way) who had been her friend and family when she'd had no one, when the universe had been falling apart. She had once told him that if she'd had more siblings, she would have wanted a brother just like him.

"I felt you change," Danny said after several silent minutes.

One of his systems was always locked on her vital signs. In part so he would know where she was, but also so that if she was killed he could initiate a self-destruct. There was a vast amount of information in the databases and logs of the Dance that would be very dangerous in the wrong hands.

Alura nodded slowly in response to Danny's comment, trying to concentrate on the surge of power she had felt on obs deck. The Light inside her reacted suddenly, extending to fill every part of her, to touch her mind. She slammed her lids shut and focused on Seeing without eyes. A shudder ran through her when the same scene from an hour ago flashed by in her mind.

Realizing she wasn't going to learn anything new, Alura pushed the Light back into the center of her being. She was out of practice keeping herself balanced. She would not be able to fully integrate both of her halves until she was much calmer.

"What did you See?" Danny asked after she had come back to herself fully.

"The same thing I Saw earlier. Part of what's to come. A part that I will have no role in." Alura sighed heavily, "Something that confirms that I don't belong here, that I never should have stayed."

Danny's eyes went blank. "But you've made a home here. You have friends, family..."

"I have to leave," Alura told him firmly.

"How many passengers should I expect?" Danny asked cautiously.

"Just Drago and I."

Telemachus has to stay here for Louisa, she thought with a slight trace of bitterness.

But in truth, Alura couldn't feel sorry for her decision to stay on the Andromeda as long as she had, no matter how much it now hurt to have to leave. She had been able to rescue Drago and get to know her mother and the Andromeda's crew. And she had learned what it meant to love and be loved in return.

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Preview: Will anyone understand what Alura knows she has to do?