Arkology Revisited Chapter 5, an andromeda fanfic

Author's Note: Italics signify thought or emphasis.

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Telemachus woke with a silent inner groan. His head felt odd, more of a headache kind of ache than a hit-in-the-head kind if pain. He opened his eyes to find himself in med deck on an examining table. Trance was nearby, watching him with one of the saddest expressions he had ever seen on the alien's golden face. He frowned, alerting her to the fact that he was awake.

Trance's sad countenance vanished, replaced by a compassionate but cheerful look. She moved closer and helped him sit up, passing a scanning device over different portions of his head. He waited silently for an explanation.

"How are you feeling?" Trance asked.

"Odd," he answered truthfully. "What happened?"

"We're not sure. You were found unconscious in your quarters. There is some indication that you're suffering a delayed reaction to a prior head injury, so you may have some memory loss. The pain you're feeling should fade soon."

"I don't remember hitting my head hard enough to do any damage," Telemachus said thoughtfully.

Trance looked at him with a bemused expression.

"Oh, right, memory loss," he murmured.

He must have hit his head pretty hard for this to be happening. Nietzscheans were fast healers in every aspect. Telemachus sighed and waited for Trance to finish scanning him.

"Alright," she smiled. "All done. Let me know if your head keeps bothering you and I'll give you something for it."

Telemachus nodded. "Am I on duty now?"

Trance shook her head as she put away her instruments. "Not until tomorrow."

"Thanks," Telemachus said as he left the room.

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Trance sighed as her former son-in-law left the room. She really didn't like lying to him, but there was no helping it. The pain he was feeling was nothing more than a post-hypnotic suggestion that would fade over the next couple hours. And a little physical pain was better than what he would suffer knowing that Alura had left him.

Nietzscheans could deal with physical pain easily. They healed much more quickly than regular humans and possessed psychological aids that helped them ignore pain from the time of early adolescence. But family… mates and children… were the biggest part of who they were, and Trance didn't know how Telemachus would deal with losing his. She hoped she didn't have to find out. The memory-altering ability she had used was not final. There were many things that could trigger the memories coming back.

Trance could only hope that they wouldn't until after Telemachus had met and settled down with Louisa. He'd have her for support and comfort then, and he might even be able to understand why Alura had done what she did, though somehow Trance doubted that last part.

Alura had told Trance that Telemachus would love Louisa with a desperation that he did not feel for Alura. Trance wasn't sure she believed that. Nietzscheans primarily mated to procreate, love was very rare among their race, and Trance knew beyond a doubt that Telemachus loved her daughter. What was so great about Louisa Messereau that Telemachus would be better off with her?

Old tigers, sensing the end, are at their most fierce, a voice seemed to whisper.

The end? Trance sat down heavily. If somehow Telemachus could sense that the end was approaching, would he be desperate to love, desperate to have a mate? Desperate enough to fool himself into loving someone he might not in normal circumstances? Trance had no choice but to wait and see.

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Telemachus' first duty shift after Alura's departure was the next morning. Beka was on command deck, along with Dylan and Harper. Dylan acknowledged the Nietzschean with his normal small nod. Beka smiled slightly from her place at the pilot's station, and Harper gave one of his nervous half-grin-half-grimace expressions. Telemachus looked at Harper oddly, his eyebrows rising in question when Harper just continued to look at him.

"A Nietzschean, a Magog and a Nightsider walk into a bar," Harper began.

Dylan cleared his throat loudly and asked, "Aren't you supposed to be working on the slipstream core, Mr. Harper?"

"Sure, boss," Harper said with a half-hearted smile. "On my way there right now."

When Harper was out of earshot, Telemachus asked the room in general, "Is it just me or is Harper even more nervous than usual?"

"Harper is, well, Harper," Beka answered lightly in an attempt at normalcy.

One corner of Telemachus' mouth twitched up momentarily before he nodded in a serious manner. He turned his attention to his station, and Beka got back to work. Half her mind was still on Telemachus, however. He seemed to be doing well, pretty much his old self from before Alura had ever come onboard. But she couldn't help feeling a bit worried. His old self had never been as happy as he had been when with Alura.

Beka never really understood precisely why she didn't like Alura. Sure, she didn't trust Alura because she knew the other woman was hiding things, but Alura had never actually done anything to hurt any of them until she had left Telemachus. In fact, she had helped them at every turn, risking her own life several times for them. Maybe it was a territorial thing. Rommie was an android, and Trance was a soft, gentle person until significantly provoked. Beka had been the dominant female onboard for years, and then came Alura.

Alura had never taken crap from Beka, had even stood her ground every time Beka tried to confront her. And she was younger than Beka, and arguably quite beautiful. Add that to the fact that she had been Tyr's daughter and had quickly become the most important person in Telemachus' life, and Beka could admit, to herself at least, that she had been a little jealous.

She still didn't understand why Alura would give up having Telemachus in her life. Beka decided to give it a few days before approaching Trance about it. They hadn't had one of their "girl talk" nights in quite some time, and Beka knew it would be better to give Trance some time to get over not being near her daughter before she bought the subject up.

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Trance lay on her bunk on the Eureka Maru and stared at the ceiling, unseeing. She and Dylan had gotten into a fight about Alura, and she had decided to sleep away from him for the night in order to let them both cool off. Dylan wanted to know what else Alura had done when she had activated full privacy mode before leaving. He didn't believe that Trance didn't know.

But she really didn't. Trance did agree that going to that mode was overkill just to erase video files of Alura and Telemachus together, but she had no idea what else Alura might have been doing. Whatever it was, she trusted that Alura hadn't done it to hurt them. Sighing, Trance turned onto her side, finding it difficult to get used to sleeping without Dylan beside her after the last several months.

Trance found herself standing on the ship Alura would someday command. Instead of just a brief Vision like the one she'd had several months ago, she was actually in it this time, standing several feet away from the children gathered in front of her daughter and the men standing near her.

She still couldn't see the men's faces, but one of the three was wearing a High Guard uniform in the same style as Alura's. A style not worn by those on the Andromeda Ascendant, which one of the other men was wearing. The third man, well, she couldn't even see his clothes. Which seemed odd, because how could someone's clothing tell her who it was? She had no doubt that it was simply to hide his identity.

Trance turned her attention to the children, noticing this time that they were not simply grouped together, but organized in two rows in seeming age order. There was a gap between the first three, all girls, and the next, a boy. Trance smiled when she noticed that the two girls she had previously identified as Telemachus' children were twins.

Aside from Drago, who was actually standing closer to the man whose clothes she couldn't see than he was to the rest of the kids, the twin girls were the only two of the children that didn't give off the aura of being at least part Avatar. Which made sense, confirming Trance's suspicions that Alura had been only just pregnant before leaving, before her Avatar half had come back full force.

Alura moved a hand to her abdomen and made a slightly disgruntled sound. It drew Trance's attention to the fact that her daughter was pregnant yet again.

The man in Andromeda-version uniform put a hand over Alura's and asked in a Vision-distorted voice, "Jumping on your bladder again?"

Alura nodded. She glanced down at the gap Trance had noticed and turned toward Drago.

"Where are..."

Before Alura could even finish, Drago answered, "On the way with Danny."

Alura smiled and then looked directly at Trance. "Have you figured out the new holo-recorder yet, Mom?"

"Just about," Trance answered without trying to.

She felt an arm wrap around her waist, and glanced beside her to smile up at Dylan. Just then Danny came into the room, dressed in the same type of uniform as Alura and one of the men. With him were three children. One was a teenage girl, about the same age as Drago. She was Nietzschean. She was carrying a boy, part-Avatar part-Nietzschean. The boy was obviously Telemachus and Alura's son. He was the right age to be in age order between the three girls and the other boy.

But it was the third child that caused Trance to gasp. He looked around eight years old and had sandy hair, clear blue eyes and golden skin.

And he looked right at her and called happily, "Mommy!"

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"Be sure to go wide enough to skirt all of that debris field," Alura instructed calmly.

Drago nodded and carefully moved the controls. It was the second time he had sat in the pilot's chair, and he was doing very well. Cautious, but good. The controls that were normally recessed into the floor were active for the benefit of his lessons. Drago turned his head to look at her and she smiled reassuringly. He smiled back and his excitement washed over her in a wave before he returned his attention to the screen in front of him.

Knowing he would be absorbed in flying for the next several minutes at the very least, Alura moved to the back of command deck and sat down in one of the chairs there. It had been two weeks since they had left the Andromeda, and the questions still hadn't stopped floating through her mind. She knew that she had to do what she did, but was it right to take Drago away from the stability of the Andromeda?

It had been his choice to come with her, but she knew Drago missed Telemachus and the others. And his lessons were not quite as thorough and varied as they had been, she and Danny now the only ones available to teach him. She'd have to make sure there were available tutors wherever they ended up. And then of course, there was the problem of who Drago was. He wouldn't be able to fulfill his destiny unless he got along well with other Nietzscheans. Alura doubted other Nietzscheans would even give him a chance if they knew he had been raised exclusively by her.

They had gotten some odd looks at the market drift they had stopped on two weeks ago, and there had only been humans there. The darker looks they had received had made both of them nervous. Though they'd been forced to wait for certain parts they ordered to be delivered and had had to stay at the drift for nearly a week, they had ended up remaining on the Dance most of that time.

But their stay there had served two purposes, one of them unexpected but necessary. The first, of course, was to stock up on supplies. The second, unexpected result was Alura realizing that they next needed to make a trip to Tarazed. Telemachus' family needed to be told of the separation, and she wasn't going to trust the news to a relayed message. She had to visit Isis and Baldur personally.

Danny appeared near her and looked around command, frowning slightly. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he turned to stare at her and a smile lit his features.

"What?" she asked.

"I heard a faint, accelerated heartbeat and got worried. And then I got confused because I could hear that your heart and Drago's are normal."

Alura sat up straighter in alarm, "Do we have a stowaway?"

Danny laughed, "In a sense."

"Danny," Alura drew out his name in a threatening growl.

He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice enough to allow only her to hear him, "Congratulations, Commodore, I'd say you're exactly twenty-one days pregnant."

Alura fainted in shock.

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Three days later Danny approached Alura in the hydroponics bay. She was sitting under a luminescent tree, part of the self-sustaining ecology she had cultivated back when it was just the two of them on the run from the Abyss in their own reality. Alura was resting with her hands pressed palm down on her still-flat abdomen. There was a look of intense concentration on her face.

"Communicating with them?" Danny asked softly.

Alura made a face at him. "Of course not. They're much too young for that, even if they were Avatar."

When she had come to after fainting, neither Danny nor Drago had left her alone until she had submitted herself to a full medical scan. She was indeed twenty-one days pregnant, the scan had revealed. With twin girls. Drago was beyond excited about his impending position as older brother, and despite everything, Alura was ecstatic that she was going to have children.

Genetically, the babies were completely Nietzschean, which in a way worried Alura all the more about their current situation. She was a half-blood, looked down upon by the great majority of Nietzscheans, and in a little over eight months she was going to have three full-blooded Nietzschean children in her care. Alura could only hope the twins at least looked slightly like her to help lessen the problems they were bound to face.

"What were you doing then?" Danny asked as he sat down beside her.

Alura shrugged, a slightly embarrassed look on her face. "Sending them my love."

Danny smiled softly. They sat in companionable silence for awhile until Danny broke it with another question.

"Why aren't you in bed sleeping? Drago's been out for hours. You haven't been sleeping enough at all lately, and I could understand you not being comfortable since you just... lost your husband. But now you have them to consider."

"I know," she said softly. "But I'm half-Avatar again."

"The dreams," Danny said as he realized what she was so hesitant about.

Alura nodded and sighed. "I never thought they could get worse than they were right after home was destroyed, but they are. Just... death and pain and suffering with no end in sight. And not having the control I had then makes me feel them even deeper. It makes it a little difficult to sleep."

"I'm sorry," Danny said.

Alura smiled tiredly. "I know, thank you." She sighed softly before asking, "How long before we reach Tarazed?"

"We should be there by midday tomorrow."

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Alura fidgeted nervously with her right hand raised to knock on the outer door to the Majorem Pride complex. Drago squeezed her left hand gently to show his support, and she smiled down at him before taking a breath and knocking sharply. She and Drago were both cloaked in heavy black material that hid their faces well. Alura wasn't in the mood to attract undue attention, and Drago had taken the cue from her.

"Yes?" a woman frowned at them when she opened the door.

"I'm here to see Baldur Rhade," Alura said, standing tall and speaking proudly. "You can tell him Alura Anasazi is calling."

The woman frowned deeper but allowed them into the entryway.

"Wait here," she instructed.

A few minutes later Alura and Drago were shown into a small sitting room. Baldur was waiting for them, along with a red-haired woman Alura had never seen. Baldur walked forward and embraced Alura. Surprised, Alura hugged him back. She was amused when Drago let Baldur embrace him as well, but in a way the man had been Drago's grandfather for a time even if they had never before met in person.

"Alura, this is my second wife, Jess."

The wife of his heart, Alura knew from Telemachus.

"It's nice to meet you," Alura said to the other woman. But she didn't want to draw out what was coming and have them all get comfortable together when Baldur and Jess weren't likely to be happy with her news. "I'm afraid this isn't exactly a social call."

Baldur gestured for her to sit with a slight frown, and she did so, lowering her hood but keeping her cloak around her shoulders.

"I've come to tell you that the union between myself and Telemachus has been dissolved."

Jess gasped in denial and Baldur was shocked. Alura flinched from the force of the negative emotions and hastened to finish her visit so she could leave.

"It has nothing to do with Telemachus and everything to do with me and where I come from. You can tell Isis that I am no longer in his life. But there is one thing I have to ask of you. Telemachus has had his memory altered so that he doesn't remember being my husband. I ask that you please never speak of me to him, and caution Isis to do the same."

Neither of them said anything, shock the only thing she could feel from them. Alura stood and Drago moved with her.

As they neared the door to leave, Alura turned back momentarily and pled softly, "Please, it would only hurt him, and I don't want him to hurt anymore."

She didn't stay to hear their answer.

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Alura and Drago were walking back through the market toward the shuttle that would take them back up to the docking facility where they had left the Dance when someone almost knocked Alura over by backing up suddenly. The person spun around quickly, and a slender hand shot out to steady Alura.

"I'm so sorry," the young woman attached to the hand said quickly.

She was a few inches shorter than Alura and had chesnut hair in a lively cut that fell to her chin. Her face was heart shaped and was made unique by groupings of light brown spots around her eyes and across her cheeks. She was Trillian. Alura glanced down at the hand that still steadied her arm. Boneblades. Half-Nietzschean Trillian. Alura almost laughed at the thought of how rare that particular combination must be and how she had heard about one from Achilles and now had run into one.

The half-Trillian's mouth parted slightly and her eyes rounded as she took in Alura's blue boneblades and her exotically colored face beneath the dark hood.

"Alura Anasazi?" she asked.

"Ariadne?" Alura responded in only slight surprise. "I'm sorry, your brother never told me your last name."

"Ariadne Bluteau, out of Cassandra by Ticon," Ariadne introduced herself. "My father dropped his tribe name when he married my mother."

Alura nodded her understanding and returned the introduction. "Alura Anasazi out of Trance by Tyr, and this is Drago Anasazi, out of Freya by Tyr."

Drago smiled at Ariadne from beside Alura.

"Where are you headed?" Ariadne asked.

"Back to our ship," Drago answered.

"Oh," Ariadne smiled widely. "You have to come home with me first. My mother would never let me hear the end of it if I told her I had met you and didn't bring you to see her."

Alura smiled at the other woman's enthusiasm. "Thank you, it would be an honor."

"Great! The compound's this way."

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The outside of the Valhalla Pride compound was very similar in design to the Majorem complex. Heavily fortified to withstand attack. But that was where the similarities ended. Where Majorem's interior was designed to impress and intimidate as the residence of Tarazed's most powerful Pride, Valhalla's compound was a home. It was welcoming and comforting and had obviously been structured with family in mind. There were many open areas leading into gardens, some just simple lawns where children could tumble and play.

Ariadne led Alura and Drago to the section of the compound where Cassandra and her immediate family lived, taking their cloaks when they reached a closet. Her gaze swept over them both as she smiled.

"You're both exactly as Kill described you," she remarked.

"Kill?" Drago echoed.

"Achilles," Ariadne clarified. "I've called him Kill since I was first able to talk. Come on, I think Mom's in the sunroom."

Cassandra Bluteau was indeed in the sunroom, an entire wall of which was glass looking out onto a large courtyard complete with flowerbeds, trees and a pool. There were chairs, lounges and small tables in groups interspersed in the landscape and around the water, making it an obviously favorite place for members of the Pride to gather. Cassandra was sitting in a comfortable chair just inside the door that opened onto the courtyard watching several children play a game of tag in the garden.

"Mom," Ariadne called as they entered the room. "Look who I ran into in the market."

Alura smiled as Cassandra turned to face them. Achilles took after his mother, a very beautiful woman with graying blonde hair and light blue eyes. Introductions were made, full, formal ones this time to show respect to Cassandra as sister of the Alpha of Valhalla Pride.

"It's nice to finally meet the woman my son has told me so much about," Cassandra remarked when Ariadne, Alura and Drago had sat down.

"Achilles saved my life once, and he has been a very good friend to us since," Alura hedged, easily realizing that Cassandra knew that Achilles wanted to be more than Alura's friend but not wanting to talk to the other woman about it.

Just then a young Nietzschean girl, probably around the same age as Drago, walked quietly into the room. She was on the small side, with light hair that verged on being strawberry blonde and dark blue eyes. Cassandra held an arm out and the girl moved quickly to stand beside her chair.

"Britta," Cassandra spoke gently to the girl, "would you like to show Drago your favorite spot in the garden?"

Britta glanced shyly at Drago and nodded. She took a few steps forward and held out her hand to the boy. Drago glanced at Alura to make sure it was okay before walking to Britta and putting his hand in hers. The two children smiled shyly at each other before leaving through the open double glass doors.

"Do you mind if I ask about her?" Alura asked when the two children had disappeared into the garden. "She seemed so sad."

She didn't tell them that Britta had more than 'seemed' sad. There weren't many people she would trust with the knowledge of her abilities, and as nice as Achilles' family was being to her so far, she did not truly know them yet. A wave of sadness that almost matched what Alura had felt from Britta extended from Cassandra before dying down slightly.

"We lost Donar, my son and her father, about fourteen months ago. Her mother died in childbirth years ago, and we haven't decided who in the family should take the poor dear yet. She doesn't talk or play as much as the other children and sometimes they pick on her a little for it."

"I'm very sorry for your loss," Alura said softly.

"Thank you, dear. Now, what about you? What are you doing on Tarazed?"

Alura smiled without humor, "I had to go to Majorem Pride to inform Baldur Rhade that my union with his son had been dissolved. There are… extenuating circumstances that led me to have to tell him in person."

Cassandra and Ariadne shared a look, and Cassandra changed the subject.

"What are your plans now?"

"Drago and I need to find a house in an area that accepts people like me…" Nausea suddenly struck Alura and she asked quickly, "I'm sorry, where's the closest bathroom?"

"In the hall, first door to the right."

When Alura came back, Ariadne looked worried but Cassandra was smiling gently at her.

"You're pregnant, aren't you?"

"Yes," Alura admitted proudly, "it's another reason I need to find a place for Drago and I to live where I will be at least slightly accepted. I need a safe place for my family."

"I know just the place," Cassandra said, the smile never leaving her face.

"Where?" Alura asked, relieved to have found someone who could understand her situation and help her.

"Here with us."

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Preview: When Tri-Jema sends Indra Xicol to the Andromeda, will Dylan betray Trance in order to discover the truth about who he can trust? Meanwhile on Tarazed, Alura is trying without success to again become accustomed to her Avatar half, and Achilles comes home on leave after a rendezvous with the Andromeda.

Author's Note: Before any of you ask, yes, I did research and 21 days is when a baby's heartbeat can first be heard.