Arkology Revisited Chapter 10, an andromeda fanfic

Author's Notes: Italics signify thought or emphasis. Part of this chapter will jump back in time, so forgive me if it's slightly confusing. It'll be labeled.

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Telemachus thanked the Divine silently and repeatedly as they walked. Instead of Louisa trying to start a conversation with him, she seemed perfectly willing to listen in to the diplomatic posturing of the ambassador and the two captains. By the time they reached the meeting room, Telemachus knew enough about the people of Arkology to know he wouldn't get along with them on a long-term basis. He was deeply surprised any Nietzschean could choose to live that way, let alone whatever was left of Ana Purna Pride, and he supposed there had to be quite a few for their Pride to have lasted for 300 years on Arkology without inbreeding.

Ambassador Galdamez took the seat at the head of the table after introductions were made all around. Trance was quieter than she usually was when they had guests. Harper kept staring at Louisa oddly and then glancing at Telemachus before gazing at Louisa again. Once everyone was seated, Dylan asked what the two visitors had been doing so far away from the Arkology.

"We were on a diplomatic mission to sign a peace treaty with the Magog," Ambassador Galdamez answered with more than a trace of pride.

Every member of the Andromeda's crew that was in the room stared open-mouthed at the man.

"You're going to…" Harper spluttered. "What are you going to do, fly right up to the worldship and say here I am, eat me!"

"Mr. Harper," Dylan bit off in that tone that meant 'shut up'. "I'm sorry, Ambassador, but we have had many encounters with the Magog and not once has peace been an option. You're obviously delivering yourselves directly into a trap."

"You misunderstand, Captain Hunt. We've already signed the treaty. We were on our way back to Arkology when we were attacked by those marauders."

"Captain," Rommie said quietly, the tone of her voice alerting Telemachus to the fact that she was asking permission to do something.

Dylan nodded at the ship-made-flesh, and Telemachus watched anxiously as Rommie's eyes closed in concentration as sometimes happened when she was communicating silently with her ship-self or searching records. He had a bad feeling about what it was she was looking for. And though he had never had as devastating an experience with the Magog as Harper and the others had before he had been a member of the crew, he knew enough to know that the Ambassador and his people were fools if they actually believed the tripe the Ambassador was spewing.

Galdamez was waxing poetic about greeting the universe with love when Rommie again said, "Captain!"

But this time there was panic in her voice.

Almost an instant after Rommie had spoken, Galdamez groaned. Everyone in the room was immediately on alert, except maybe for Louisa, who was standing behind and to the left of her superior. When the man stood and staggered away from his chair, everyone else stood as well, each drawing his or her weapons and pointing them at the Ambassador. Galdamez fell to the ground, his eyes rolling back in his head and disgusting green foam dribbling from his slack mouth.

Louisa cried out in shock, but the Andromeda's crew simply waited, knowing it was much to late to do anything for Galdamez. Seconds later, the man's stomach exploded, a single Magog larvae launching itself in the air toward Dylan. A calmly aimed force lance blast destroyed the creature, and Dylan sent a follow-up barrage into the cavity in the dead Ambassador's body to make sure the rest of the larvae didn't make it out.

Louisa had covered her mouth with her hand, backing a few steps away from the Ambassador's body.

"Are you okay?" Dylan asked her.

Louisa nodded but then shrugged. "I… I don't know how that could have happened."

Rommie spoke up then, "Louisa's scan is clear. The Ambassador must have consumed something that had been infested."

"He… he had a glass of water…"

"Rhade," Dylan ordered. "Take Louisa to medical. She needs to be watched for shock."

Telemachus frowned, "Shouldn't Trance take her?"

Dylan frowned back at him. "Trance isn't on duty right now, someone else will be there to help her in medical."

"Then Harper can do it, you'll need me to help with the body."

"I'll take care of the body," Rommie put in.

Telemachus had the sudden urge to ask if they had slipped into a parallel universe where no one wanted him to do anything that required any kind of effort. He wondered what Dylan would do if he refused outright to accompany the other Nietzschean. Then he glanced at Louisa, still staring in horror at the body on the floor. A twinge of sympathy caused him to sigh and beckon the woman out of the room. As they were leaving, he could have sworn there were several sighs of relief in the room behind them.

"I'm sorry for reacting the way I did," Louisa said softly a they walked. "I've just… never seen anything like that before."

"The peace treaty was an obvious attempt to infiltrate Arkology from the inside," Telemachus remarked.

He felt almost as if he were berating a child. He hadn't had a lot of experience with the Magog, thank the Divine, but even he knew not to trust a Magog as far as you could throw them. Not that anyone would want to get close enough to be able to throw them anywhere.

Louisa had looked away at his words, but she spoke softly now, "We have to warn Arkology. If we hadn't been delayed and then attacked, we would have been back already. I assume this will not be the only thing the Magog do."

"I'm sure Captain Hunt is already instructing the Andromeda to head for Arkology," Telemachus assured.

"I must thank your captain for all of his assistance. If he was not acting as transport, I would never get back in time to tell my people what is coming." She added, more to herself than him, "Marlowe will want to hold a Council session."

"It will be good to have time to prepare yourselves for the battle to come," Telemachus easily agreed.

Louisa cast him a startled glance. "I thought you understood from the Ambassador that Arkology is peaceful. We choose to greet the universe with love and understanding, not weapons and hatred."

Telemachus stopped dead in his tracks. "Are you telling me you'll just stand there and let the Magog eat all of you, even the children of the habitat?"

He had snarled the question, and Louisa took a hesitant step away from him.

"What good is faith and belief if you abandon them at the first sign of trouble?" Louisa asked softly.

"A belief in peace at any cost is not worth thousands of lives!"

"Millions."

"What?"

"You said thousands of lives; there are three million residents of Arkology," she told him. "And we have all chosen to follow this path."

"No," he bit off. "You've been born into it. And what kind of choice can the children of Arkology make when all you allow them to know is the way you choose to be?"

If she had an answer to that, he didn't want to hear it. With a disgusted growl, Telemachus nearly jogged the last several feet to the door to medical. Louisa thanked him meekly and went into the room. Telemachus spun on his heel and stalked toward command, where he was still supposed to be on duty.

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"Rhade? Where's Louisa?"

Telemachus rolled his eyes at Dylan's question as he resumed his post. "Still on medical, I assume. You did order me to escort her there."

"Why aren't you there with her?" Dylan asked.

His head snapping to the side in Dylan's direction, Telemachus stared at his CO as if the other man had just announced that they would be working for the Abyss and wearing pink tutus while doing so.

"I'm not a medical officer."

Dylan didn't have a response to this, and Telemachus turned back to his station. A few minutes later, Dylan absently told Telemachus that he had command before leaving. The Nietzschean shook his head at the odd way his usually predictable captain was behaving.

As he went about his duties that day, he kept running into Louisa, sometimes accompanied by Harper and sometimes by Beka or Dylan or both. Trance had disappeared somewhere, Telemachus not seeing her again until dinner.

When dinner was served for the senior officers in the formal dining room near Dylan's quarters, Telemachus was somehow the last one there even though he was technically two minutes early. And of course the only seat left was the one next to their guest. Telemachus glared across the table at Harper, who was usually at least five minutes later than everyone else, as if it was his fault everyone had suddenly decided to show up early for something.

Louisa gave him a tentative smile when he was forced to glance her way, an admiring glance sliding over his dress uniform. Trying to remember his manners despite his bad mood, Telemachus made an attempt to smile back, though he was sure it came out as more of a grimace.

Louisa began asking him questions about the Andromeda and about his own history as they ate. He thought it was a bit rude for her to focus so completely on him, but none of the others seemed to mind. In fact, they made it difficult for anyone but him to entertain their guest.

Although their mouths were never empty long enough to join in polite conversation, his crewmates must have been chewing as slowly as humanly possible, because their plates still contained more food than Telemachus and Louisa's, even though the two Nietzscheans had occasionally been speaking.

Telemachus finished eating and made his excuses as soon as he was politely able to do so. He made a detour to obs deck to pick up one of Alura's plants before heading back to his quarters, needing some small connection with her after the trying day he'd had. He sighed heavily when only minutes later a knock came to his door.

"Andromeda," Telemachus called.

The holographic version of the ship appeared to his right. "Yes, Commander?"

"Please tell me the person on the other side of that door is not our guest."

Andromeda blinked and answered, "It's not. Rommie is waiting for you in the hall."

Telemachus strode to the door and opened it, "Can I help you, Rommie?"

"Harper asked me to pass on the message that Dylan would like to see you in his office."

The android looked stoic, which set off a warning bell in Telemachus' head. When speaking of the two human males she was closest to, Rommie always had some sort of expression on her face.

"I'm off-duty, Rommie. And why didn't Dylan just send me a message himself?"

Rommie tilted her head slightly. "Harper said the communications systems in Dylan's office are temporarily down. Evidently it happened while Harper was trying to fix something else."

Having delivered her message, Rommie turned and walked away. Telemachus' gaze slid back to the holographic Andromeda still behind him in the room. He didn't need to ask anything aloud, the AI had become very good at reading his expressions.

"The communications system is off in Dylan's office, but Dylan is not in it. He is on command."

Telemachus sighed. "What would be the point of Harper sending me on a wild goose chase?"

Andromeda's eyes widened slightly and Telemachus could have sworn he almost saw her hide a laugh. "Beka is in the hall you would have to walk down to get there. Louisa Messereau is with her. Beka is speaking rather flatteringly about you to our guest."

Telemachus growled. "Tell Harper if I see him he's going to be hanging by his toes above the slipstream core."

"Of course, Commander," Andromeda replied, not bothering to hide her smile.

Not wanting to know how far Beka would push things and fearing getting trapped with Louisa in his own quarters, Telemachus left the room and stalked through the ship, giving the hall Beka and Louisa were in a wide berth.

Not wanting to be ordered by Dylan to act as companion to Louisa while she was onboard if he said anything about it to the captain, Telemachus decided to confront the only other person he normally found to be logical. After all, trying to reason with Beka or Harper was often tantamount to beating his skull against a solid bulkhead. Rommie, of course, would do as Dylan or Harper wanted her to, and though Andromeda had proven helpful many times, she wasn't part of the problem and therefore couldn't assist him this time.

He found Trance on obs deck.

She smiled at him, the gesture not reaching her eyes as she asked, "Don't you think it's a lovely night? You should go and show Louisa the hydroponics bay."

"Stop throwing Louisa Messereau at me," he growled. "Have you all completely lost your minds?"

Trance faltered visibly, "We thought you would like…"

"She isn't even worth half of…" Telemachus interrupted, but he trailed off before he completed the thought.

"Half of?" Trance echoed, prompting him to continue.

For a second Telemachus thought she had sounded hopeful, but until he was sure of what had happened to his memories of Alura and his marriage to her, he wasn't willing to risk it happening again if he confronted his crewmates. Maybe what sounded like hope to him was actually suspicion.

He couldn't compare their guest to his wife. Despite the fact that basic knowledge of her had remained after whatever had happened, Alura just being his friend wouldn't elicit that kind of response from him, and Trance was sure to know it.

"Half of my attention. My loyalty is to the Andromeda and to Dylan. And even if it wasn't, Nietzscheans don't dally outside of marriage, at least the self-respecting ones don't," Telemachus growled, running a hand through his hair. "Louisa certainly isn't attractive or intriguing enough to make me think about leaving the Andromeda for her, and the way she chooses to live her life shows that she and I have nothing in common. Obviously the rest of you don't think very much of me if you believe I would feel anything like that after less than twenty-four hours. I'd appreciate it if you could tell everyone to stop trapping me in situations with her. Otherwise I'm going to start locking myself in my quarters when I'm not on duty."

Trance looked for a moment as if she wanted to argue, but instead she simply frowned and nodded.

"And Trance? If she wants a tour, get Harper or Beka to give it to her."

He turned to go, Trance's voice stopping him for only a second.

"I'm sorry," she said softly.

For just an instant, Telemachus thought she meant the apology for much more than whatever had gotten the crew acting as extremely misguided matchmakers, but he brushed it aside.

Even if she was sorry for whatever had happened to him, he wasn't ready to forgive her.

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Trance watched her daughter's former husband stalk from the room, anger still rolling from him in waves. She was still having trouble coming to terms with the fact that the reason Alura had left them had somehow been affected despite everything she had done to set it right.

With a sigh, Trance turned her attention inward. She had been feeling anxious and agitated for the past few days, but somehow she knew simply meeting the woman who was supposed to replace her daughter in Telemachus' heart was not the reason. And neither was the Magog's attempt to infiltrate Arkology by sending back the infested Ambassador. It went deeper than that. Something big… important… was going to happen, and Trance couldn't fight the shiver of fear that slid down her spine.

At least Alura was safe from the impending danger.

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Telemachus lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Unable to sleep, he was entertaining himself thinking of various ways to torture members of the crew. Well, the ones who had been pushing him at Louisa anyway. Which only seemed to consist of his 'friends'. The rest of the crew didn't seem to care one way or the other about Louisa, though he had seen Alicia Kenyon glare at Louisa the one time they were in the same room. It reminded Telemachus that Alicia had been very good friends with his wife and had been teaching Drago to cook.

He really couldn't understand why the crew seemed so sure that he would go for it with Louisa. Especially since they had all known how much Alura meant to him. Alura, who was strong-willed but loving, a fighter as any true Nietzschean should be. A beautiful woman with a pure heart who he had loved more than he had known one of his kind could love. Unconsciously he reached down to caress the still-hidden-at-his-wrist-under-the-forearm-wrap necklace he had designed for his wife before her disappearance.

Alura…

His eyes flying as wide as they would go, Telemachus sat up straight with a suddenness that surprised even him. Was it possible? Had Alura left him because of Louisa? He knew on some level that Trance saw alternate possibilities because of being an Avatar, and, if he remembered correctly, Alura had regained her own Avatar abilities shortly before all this started.

Could Alura have seen something from the situation they were going into that would make her think that he would be interested in Louisa? It only made any sort of sense if what she had seen had been from a version of reality where they had survived the attack from the Magog more than a year ago but never met her.

Although it was hard to think that way, Telemachus had to admit that Louisa might have intrigued him if Alura had never been a part of his life. Because of Alura, he had become stronger again, more Nietzschean if one looked at it that way. He had been in contact, however brief, with his parents and had allowed the friends he had made on the Andromeda to become deeper parts of his life.

If that hadn't happened, if he had never met Alura and never changed through his experiences with her, he would have been very lonely… empty. And extremely tired of feeling that way.

And despite the fact that there were several women on Andromeda that he found more attractive than their guest, he had to admit that he had never considered anything other than a full-blooded Nietzschean as a potential mate before meeting Alura. So if things had been completely different, then yes, maybe that possible future would have been possible. But it hadn't, and he didn't know what to do with that insight.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Though they seemed to try to get him together with Louisa at every possible turn, none of the inner circle of the crew actually seemed to like her. So they were only doing it because they believed it was what was supposed to happen. He almost laughed at the thought of their loyalty and friendship with his wife causing them to act as cupid for he and Louisa.

Now the problem was how he could make them stop their efforts and see that it wasn't what he wanted on any level. With a fatalistic shrug, Telemachus realized he would just have to persevere through whatever was coming.

They would go to Arkology. They would complete another of Dylan's seemingly endless supply of impossible missions for the future of life in the universe. And then they would leave. And he could confront all of them with evidence that he wasn't going to choose to share anything of himself with Louisa Messereau. Then they would have to tell him what had happened instead of trying to make him forget again. They would have to tell him how to find his wife and his adopted son. Everything would be right again soon.

Telemachus smiled as he allowed himself to finally fall asleep.

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Two weeks and 6 days earlier… (in other words, the morning after Louisa and the Ambassador left Arkology)

"Good luck, Alura Anasazi," Marlowe's image smiled on the front screen of the Dance Among the Stars. "May the Divine watch over and guide you."

"You as well, Paradine," Alura replied before signaling for Danny to end the communication.

She turned her back on the front view screen as Danny flew away from Arkology on autopilot so they'd be clear of the structure before entering slipstream. Cassandra, Baldur, Jess, Ticon and Terren were sitting in the chairs along the back wall, awaiting her instructions. Ariadne was with Britta and Drago in their suite, having agreed to watch them for the duration of the trip. Achilles stood by Alura's side. They had already discussed what would happen the night before, and he would be taking the pilot chair first.

"From here we have to travel through twelve different slipstream routes to get to the one that will lead to Tarn Vedra. I have to ask each of you who have experience in slipstream to take turns with Kill so I will be rested when we come to the final portal. I am the only one who will be able to make that route work for us without a lot of training, and we don't have time to wait for that."

A schedule was quickly decided upon between all of the other adults since they all had experience in slipstream, though Cassandra hadn't piloted in some time. The shorter, easier jumps would be reserved for her to pilot.

Alura left command deck in Achilles' capable hands and went to the room where Ariadne and the two children were. Command deck remained under normal shields so that the pilot could feel changes in the slipstream route, but the rest of the ship, most importantly the personal quarters, had special shields that allowed the occupants to go about their business even during extended periods of slipstream travel. She sat quietly in a comfortable chair watching them play for awhile until Britta asked her to read them a story. When she consented, Drago brought her his favorite flexi, the one with the life story of Alexander the Great. It remained his favorite story, and had become one of Britta's as well.

"If one of the twins was a boy we could've named him Alexander," Drago said wistfully in one of the lulls between chapters.

"There's a girl version of the name: Alexandra," Alura informed him.

"Could we name one of them that?" Britta asked, both children smiling excitedly as they waited for her answer.

Alura felt a pang at the thought of not having been able to discuss names with the twins' father, but she smiled gently at the waiting children, "I'll have to talk about it with Telemachus, but I don't see a problem with it."

Britta squealed delightedly, and Alura could feel Drago's happiness at helping name one of his baby sisters, but that wasn't all he was thinking about.

"Does that mean we're going to see Telemachus again soon?" he asked in a small voice.

Ariadne, who was sitting across the room, was suddenly completely tuned in to their conversation.

"If the Andromeda and her crew need our help against the Magog worldship, we'll see them in about three weeks. But if they are able to complete the mission on their own, we'll track them down in a few months," Alura replied. "It's important for him to be there when the twins are born," she added, that last part meant more for Ariadne than for Drago and Britta.

Drago smiled, happy, and Ariadne asked the two children if they were hungry for lunch yet. Alura excused herself to her own room, determined to get something light to eat and then rest until it was her turn as pilot.

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"Alura, it's time," Achilles' voice came to her over Danny's communications system.

Having already been aware that they were almost there, Alura stopped pacing as she had been for the past several minutes and left the room, heading for command. The others watched as she entered, all but Achilles strapped firmly into the seats along the back wall of command.

"Do you need more rest?" Achilles asked as she approached, reminding her that he could feel her nervousness.

"No, I'm ready," she answered softly, smiling when he lightly stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. "It's just been a few years since I last did this."

Achilles nodded and moved to his own seat. Alura climbed into the pilot chair that had been raised from beneath the floor to enable slipstream piloting. Danny appeared beside her and smiled, dressed in his uniform as he had been since they had left Tarazed. She smiled back and engaged slipstream, seeing the portal opening a second before it actually did because of her Avatar blood.

"Shipwide, please, Danny," Alura said. At his affirming nod, she continued, "Everyone make sure you remain securely fastened into your seats. About three minutes in we'll be taking a sharp turn and even the heavily shielded parts of the ship will feel it. It will be followed by a bit of bouncing around before we exist slipstream."

Taking a deep breath and focusing all her attention on what she was about to do, Alura moved the Dance forward into slipstream. The 'turn' she had accidentally taken so many years ago in the otherwise normal slipstream route was not visible to the naked eye or to sensors. It had to be felt. Alura let her eyes slide shut as the Dance approached the spot where she would have to take drastic action. Feeling the familiar pull that had led her to the only place she had ever truly considered home in her own reality, Alura pulled back hard on the controls, forcing the Dance into an almost ninety degree turn straight up from where they had been flying.

Someone gasped behind her, and Alura opened her eyes to navigate the rest of the route to Tarn Vedra. Even this was not easy, not ordinary, the route about three times more tangled and twisted than the average hard-to-navigate slipstream route. The Vedrans had a device that was capable of manipulating the slipstream strings, and they had used it to cut themselves off after the Nietzscheans had gone against the Commonwealth three hundred years before. The majority of routes had been completely destroyed, but this one had simply been snarled beyond recognition, it's entrance hidden, so that only those trained to do so could navigate it.

The Vedrans had never counted on a fifteen-year-old half-Nietzschean half-Avatar accidentally finding the route on her first attempt at piloting slipstream. Alura had often wondered how luck had been so firmly on her side then when it hadn't been kind to her most of her young life.

She didn't want to even consider what it would have meant for her or the universe in general if she had never found it.

The Dance jostled through the stream for a few minutes before Alura turned the ship, not quite as sharply as before, and exited into regular space. A swell of wonder and awe coming from behind her made her smile. She asked for shipwide again and told Ariadne to bring Drago and Britta to command. All three ran into the room a mere minute later, joining the others in staring at the blue, green and white orb before them. Tarn Vedra was reminiscent of Earth before it had been corrupted by centuries of attacks and devastation, only so much larger. The fact that it was the lone planet circling its sun was another thing that set it apart from Earth.

There were Commonwealth and civilian ships… warships, cargo carriers and transports alike… circling the planet, and two of the smaller warships were already heading their way. Alura glanced at Danny. If he was given to such things, he would have been pacing or otherwise fidgeting. As it was, he merely stared with intensity at the two ships as they drew nearer. They were bigger than his current shell, but not even half of what he had once been. Although she knew it was even more of a long shot than getting herself reinstated as Rear Admiral of the Lower Fleet within the next three weeks, Alura couldn't help hoping that Danny would once again become the AI of one of the most powerful ships in the Tarn Vedran fleet. But at this point in time, 'he' had been installed a year already, the Dance Among The Stars still under the command of his first captain.

One of the warships hailed them, and Danny put a man's image up on a portion of the front screen. Before the man could order her to keep all weapons offline and follow them is she didn't want her ship destroyed, Alura spoke.

"My name is Alura Anasazi, I need to speak with…"

"Follow us, please," the man cut her off before his image disappeared.

"That was rude," Cassandra commented.

Alura smiled but kept her laugh contained, following the two warships as they turned and headed for the planet. She was confused when, instead of taking them to the quarantine zone, the two warships led them to the Imperial docking facility.

The man reappeared on the screen as Alura landed the Dance to say, "Your escort will meet you outside your ship."

He disappeared again after relaying his message.

"What's going on?" Achilles asked quietly from beside her, able to feel how confused she was through the past several minutes.

"I have no idea," she murmured in response. To the others, she said, "Achilles and I will go through the first meeting without the rest of you. We'll be back as soon as we can."

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"I wish you'd take me with you," Danny said as he walked with Alura and Achilles toward the exit ramp.

"You already exist here, Danny. Until they accept where and when I'm from, it would be too confusing and suspicious for you to be there."

"If they throw you in the brig, I have the codes that could get you out," he pointed out.

"I have your emitter if it comes to that," Alura assured her ship's AI.

Danny nodded and watched as Alura took a deep breath and moved through the exit, head held high. Achilles went out first to guard Alura against possible attacks. A human woman in civilian clothes stood at the bottom of the ramp, flanked by two male Vedrans, both in Commonwealth uniform shirts. The shirts had the silver piping and insignia that Alura had shown him on her uniforms.

Achilles couldn't help but stare at the first live and in person Vedrans he had ever seen, though something flickered in his mind, reminding him that when he had watched over Alura in her own reality, he would have seen plenty of Tarn Vedra and its inhabitants.

"Follow me, please," the woman said before turning around.

Achilles could feel Alura's continuing confusion at the way they were being handled, but he remained outwardly calm just as she did. Alura's hand brushed his as they walked, and Achilles reached down to give her fingers a light squeeze. She smiled up at him briefly before refocusing her attention on their guides.

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They were led directly to the large greeting room used for semi-private meetings with the Empress and other members of the court. Alura was now beyond confused. When she and Hank had found their way here accidentally, they had been questioned and kept in quarantine for three months before they were granted a temporary test citizenship. Even when they had joined the Tarn Vedra Home Guard they hadn't seen the monarch in person. It wasn't until Aura's first commendation that they had actually met the Empress.

The guards walking with them stopped just inside the meeting room doors and waved Alura and Achilles forward. Alura took a few steps forward toward the raised platform at the end of the room that served as the Empress' "throne" before realizing she was being tested. The woman dressed in regal attire and waiting with an imperious expression held Alura's attention for only a moment. A quick scan of the room stopped Alura's forward movement, and Achilles went still as well, taking his cues from her.

When she spotted a particular Vedran female off to the side clothed in the outfit of a servant, Alura turned and walked toward her. Using Achilles' arm as a balance against her pregnant belly's tendency to tip her forward, Alura curtsied low before the disguised alien.

"Your Imperial Majesty," she greeted softly.

The centaur-like Empress smiled and motioned for Alura to stand.

"Welcome. But may I ask why you're out of uniform, Commodore?"

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Preview: Alura is welcomed back to Tarn Vedra with surprisingly open arms. The Andromeda reaches Arkology, and the crew discovers how close the worldship is.