Arkology Revisited Chapter 4, an andromeda fanfic

Author's Note: Italics signify thought or emphasis.

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Lecy and Drago were in Alura and Telemachus' room when Alura returned. They were putting her belongings into her trunk. A glance around the front room and Drago's room showed they had already finished with his things.

"Thank you," Alura said to Lecy as she joined them in their task.

"Sure," Lecy answered easily. "I figured time might be an issue, so when we were done with his things, Drago and I decided to start on yours. Oh, and in case you go to Tarazed at some point, I gave Drago the contact information for my family when I gave him my recipe book."

Alura hugged her friend briefly, "Thank you for accepting us so easily, for all your help over these past months."

"You're very welcome," Lecy said softly.

They were done quickly, and bots were requested to bring Alura and Drago's things to the Dance. At the last minute, Alura remembered to grab the shirt she had bought for Telemachus that had the see-through panel for his helix band and threw it into her trunk. When the bots had left, she looked around the suite and realized that Telemachus' things would have to be moved too. The suite would no longer be necessary without she and Drago.

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Telemachus smiled when he walked into their suite at the end of his duty shift and saw Alura waiting for him. Alura let his relief and love wash over her for a second. Confirming that the love he felt for her wasn't as deep and desperate as what he would feel for Louisa, Alura shied away from him when he tried to pull her into his arms. Telemachus frowned and seemed to notice Trance in the room for the first time.

The sad but determined look on the Avatar's face seemed to make his frown deepen. Alura waited while Telemachus glanced around the suite, his eyes narrowing when he noticed the stark simplicity of their quarters. The same stark simplicity all empty rooms on the Andromeda had.

"What's going on?" he asked slowly, dark suspicion coloring his other emotions. "Where is everything?"

"Your things are back in your old quarters."

"And Drago's things? And yours?"

"Onboard the Dance Among the Stars," Alura said. "We've stayed too long already."

Suspicion turned to fear and pain, and Telemachus said with a deceptive calm, "Let me go talk to Dylan, I'm sure he'll understand if I tender my resignation immediately instead of giving advanced notice."

"No, Telemachus. Your place is here on the Andromeda. Drago and I will be going alone."

"Damn it, Alura," Telemachus swore. "Why are you doing this?"

"It's time for me to go," she told him softly, flinching when he slammed his fist down on the top of the desk. His anger, fear and panic threatened to break her, but she held fast to the knowledge that before too long he would be happy, in love and at peace with himself. "I need the band back."

Telemachus paled, and his right hand crept up and across his chest to touch his helix band. "What… what have I done to make you stop loving me?"

"This has nothing to do with me loving or not loving you. It has to do with you and your future."

"A future without you and Drago?" he asked bitterly. He pointed at Trance. "Did she tell you something is going to happen? You said it doesn't have anything to do with you loving me. Does it have something to do with my love for you? Because, Alura, you have to know that nothing will ever change the way I feel about you."

Knowing that he wouldn't remember any of this anyway, Alura gave in to the need to feel his arms around her one last time. She moved toward Telemachus and allowed him to pull her close. A tear escaped to slide down her cheek. Telemachus lifted one hand to tenderly wipe it away. He bent his head to kiss her, and Alura allowed a brief touch of lips.

"Please," Telemachus whispered, "don't do this."

"I love you, Telemachus," Alura sobbed, her tears falling freely now. "I always will. That means I want the best for you. And that doesn't include me."

"It has to," he insisted.

Alura smiled sadly and injected him with the sedative she'd kept hidden from his view. The drug worked quickly, and Alura guided his suddenly unconscious form to fall on the sofa. Making sure he was positioned comfortably, Alura pressed one last kiss to his cheek, unclasped the helix band from his left bicep and straightened. She hooked the band through one of the straps of her weapons holster just to keep it out of the way.

Trance approached and put a comforting hand on Alura's arm. "It's not too late to change your mind."

Alura's gaze simply remained steady on Trance's. Trance sighed. Alura watched as her mother perched on the edge of the sofa near Telemachus' head.

"Which memories did you want me to take from him?" Trance asked.

"All of his personal interaction with and thoughts of me since we rescued Drago. That way he at least has some memories to fall back on if someone mentions my name to him."

"Even if he doesn't agree with what you're doing, Dylan will keep his word to me," Trance assured her. "Everyone will be ordered not to bring you up once you've gone."

Alura nodded. "I still have a couple more things I need to do."

"Okay, I'll be there when it's time for you and Drago to leave. I want to say good-bye."

"Thank you, Mother," Alura said as she moved to leave the room. "For everything."

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Danny appeared in the hall next to Alura once the door to her now empty, except for Telemachus and Trance of course, quarters. He had been listening the whole time from his emitter, which was currently attached to Alura's weapons holster. Together, Commodore and AI walked to the hangar where the ship was waiting.

Danny wasn't in his usual hardlight form, in fact, he wouldn't even show up on sensors if anyone checked. Stealth mode was necessary for the next several minutes. He also hoped his presence would offer Alura at least some comfort. They had one more task to complete before they could leave, and it would be accomplished from a computer station in the hangar where the Dance Among the Stars was located.

Drago was with Lecy, the woman taking the boy around to say good-bye to all the friends he had made on the Andromeda. Lecy and Drago would meet Alura in front of the Dance when it was time to go.

Danny and Alura reached the hangar in silence. As one, they moved to the computer station a few feet from the door.

"Privacy mode, please, Andromeda," Alura requested.

A beep signaled that public record surveillance had been shut down. Her fingers moving quickly on the computer, Alura entered a request for 'full privacy mode'. A screen immediately came up asking for an authorization code. Alura typed it in and quickly set Danny's emitter on the computer terminal.

The AI's eyes closed as he simultaneously accomplished the two tasks his Commodore had set for him.

Alura counted down from thirty seconds. When she reached 'one', Danny looked at her and nodded. Alura picked up his emitter and handed it to him. Danny walked quickly to the Dance.

Alura alone would face the consequences of what they had just done.

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Dylan, Beka and Rommie were on duty on command deck when Rommie suddenly frowned.

"Captain, Alura has disappeared from sensors."

"How is that possible?" Beka asked. "She wouldn't leave without Drago, and he's still with Ensign Kenyon."

The young Nietzschean had just left the bridge a few minutes ago after saying good-bye to Dylan, Beka and Rommie. There was no way he had already made it back to hangar one.

"She was in hangar one at the computer terminal when she requested privacy mode, but whatever she did after that I cannot access."

Dylan's eyebrows rose, and he shared a look with Rommie. When privacy mode was engaged, the normal surveillance that took place on the warship became classified, accessible only to the Senior Officers who had the proper clearance. There was only one time when Rommie, as the ship's AI, would not be able to tell what was going on in any part of the ship, outside of damage from an attack.

Full privacy mode completely shut down surveillance. But how could Alura possibly have the clearance to access it? Even before being trapped in the horizon of the black hole more than three hundred years ago, Dylan had always been the only one with the codes to Andromeda's full privacy mode.

"Beka," Dylan ordered sharply, "have a security team meet me outside hangar one."

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Beka sent the requested order and watched Dylan leave the room. She wasn't sure what silent communication had passed between Dylan and Rommie, or even what Alura had done, but she recognized the look on Dylan's face.

It had surprised Beka when Trance had earlier told her that Alura was leaving and that Rhade would have no memories of his wife. But severing all connection with her husband wasn't the end of Alura's shocking behavior. Now, if she had not made an enemy of Captain Dylan Hunt, then she had least assured she would never again have a place on his ship.

Beka was left to wonder why she wasn't happier about the development.

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Alura was standing at attention at the bottom of the ramp that led up into the Dance when Dylan and his security team entered the hangar. At Dylan's order, the four men took up posts in a square around her, each of them ten feet from her. Alura's gaze never left Dylan, even when the security team trained their weapons on her.

"Do you want to explain yourself?" Dylan asked coldly.

Rommie had informed him when he was on the way to the hangar that full privacy mode had only lasted a total of forty-five seconds, and that Alura had simply moved to the spot she was currently in after turning it off. However she had gotten the code, she had to have known that it would have been noted. What could she possibly have done in forty-five seconds that would have been worth this?

"I erased all surveillance that showed the connection between Commander Rhade and myself," Alura answered crisply.

Dylan frowned, "I would have done that if you had asked, there has to be something more to it than that."

Alura remained silent, still standing at attention.

Dylan sighed before saying, "Since you're already leaving, I won't have to force you off my ship. But if you ever come back, whether to visit Trance or for another reason, you will be unarmed and under guard the whole time. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Captain."

There was one more thing Dylan had to know before he left the room. "I'm being lenient because you have risked your own life for the crew of the Andromeda more than once and because Trance assures me you would never do anything to endanger us. What would you have done if I had ordered your imprisonment?"

Alura lifted one eyebrow. "I would have fought my way free. Drago needs me, and no matter what I did or did not do, I would die before I would let someone take me away from him."

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When Lecy brought Drago into the hangar ten minutes later, Harper and Trance were with them. Drago simply ran to his mother and flung his arms around her, but the other three stared in shock at the guards who still had their weapons pointed at Alura.

"What's going on?" Lecy asked.

Alura smiled sadly, "Something that I needed to do didn't sit right with Captain Hunt. Nothing to worry about."

"Would you guys mind pointing the guns elsewhere while we say good-bye?" Harper asked nervously.

Lecy gave one of the guards a look and all four lowered their weapons. Harper moved forward to hug Alura.

"Take care of each other," he said, loud enough for Drago to hear too.

"We will," Alura assured him. She smiled fondly at Harper as he pulled away, "Try not to get yourself into too much trouble."

"Trouble? Me?" Harper asked with a mock innocent expression.

He grinned before turning to walk away.

Lecy hugged Drago and then Alura, saying, "Just because you're leaving doesn't mean I'm going to stop being your friend."

"I know," Alura assured her. "And thank you."

Lecy left, and Trance was the only one left to say good-bye to. Alura almost wished she could ask her mother to come with them, but she knew Trance belonged on the Andromeda with Dylan, the man she loved. Tears came to Alura's eyes. She wasn't sure how she was going to stand saying good-bye to her mother after only having been able to know her for several months.

Trance hugged Drago and sent the little boy into the ship. A single tear trickled down Alura's face and Trance stood closer and wiped it away, drawing Alura into her arms.

"I love you, my daughter, never forget that. If you ever have need of me, don't hesitate to send for me. And you better stay in touch."

Alura pulled back slightly and kissed her mother's cheek. "I'll find a way, I promise."

Alura turned away abruptly, needing to get away from her mother's sadness.

"Good-bye," she heard Trance whisper as the ramp closed behind her.

Danny appeared beside her as she walked toward the bridge, "Where to?"

"The nearest supply post, we'll need to stock up before we make any lasting decisions."

"Aye, Commodore," Danny answered.

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Preview: Life on the Andromeda goes on. Also, Alura ties up loose ends, and she and Drago find a place to live.