Arkology Revisited Chapter 11, an andromeda fanfic

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

Yes… I am alive. Yes… I'm horribly sorry for the long posting gap. No… I haven't given up on this story. Yes… I will continue writing it until it is finished, even if a certain someone I know is the only one who reviews from here on out. Yes… I will be more grateful than you can understand if it ends up more people have stuck with me. Anyway, on with the story.

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Previously…

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?"

And now…

Achilles pulled Alura all the way to her feet automatically. It had taken a few seconds for the Empress' words to sink in, for them to realize what she had called Alura, and the couple stared at the Vedran, their mouths slack in disbelief. Alura was the first to recover, though Achilles could tell both through their connection and the trembling of her hand on his arm that she was still shocked. They had been expecting to have to argue every bit of who they were and why they were here, to fight for every inch of belief and acceptance, and now it seemed that it wasn't necessary.

"Empress? How did you…"

Instead of answering, the Vedran Empress interrupted Alura with a lift of her hand and commanded the rest of the room, "Leave us."

The four-legged monarch moved toward the dais at the head of the room as the rest of the court began filing out of the various doors. Achilles and Alura followed her automatically, almost in a daze. The Empress removed the casual top that had covered her own more regal attire, handing it to a young, human servant, the last person to leave. When she had regained her usual spot, she turned her focus once more to Alura and Achilles.

"The knowledge of your existence, your past in an alternate future, and the fact that you would eventually come to us, it has all been known to the royal line since right after the fall of the Commonwealth. My ancestress was going to completely cut Tarn Vedra off from the rest of the universe until a visitor from the future convinced her not to."

"A visitor?" Alura echoed. "From my future?"

The Empress inclined her head. "He did not live long, but what he shared with my ancestress in the time he was here was enough to convince her and every generation since that preparing for the day when Tarn Vedra would rejoin the universe was of utmost importance. He also brought proof that the Nietzscheans had been right to rebel against the Commonwealth's foolish belief that a treaty with the Magog was a good idea."

Achilles could tell that Alura had added up the comments the monarch had made about the person from the future and come to a conclusion even before she spoke. He had come to the same one.

"He was infested, wasn't he?"

"Yes," the Empress answered simply. She switched her gaze to Achilles, studying him for a moment before saying, "I always expected you to show up alone, though I can't imagine why."

"Forgive me, Your Majesty," Alura dipped her head slightly in a partial bow. "In the excitement I forgot that you would not know him. This is my second husband, Achilles Renier of the Valhalla and Kodiak Prides, formerly of the Tarazed Home Guard and the new Commonwealth High Guard."

"Formerly?" the Empress queried.

"I quit when my request for leave to be with Alura during her pregnancy was denied," Achilles responded. "There were certain intrigues having to do with her first husband's family that made her and their unborn children a target. I was not willing to risk her safety just to keep my military career."

"Your loyalty to your wife is commendable," the Empress acknowledged. Of Alura she asked, "Are you still willing to resume your duties with the Imperial Guard now that you are with child?"

It was a valid question. Anyone who knew even a little about Nietzschean family structures knew that women were much less likely to be warriors, especially if they were able to bear children. To actually fight when one was, in fact, pregnant was practically unheard of.

"As long as Your Majesty does not find it an impediment," Alura replied. "I chose the path of a warrior long ago and that will never change, but I don't intend to let it stop me from having a family. If the Divine continues to bless me, this will not be my last pregnancy." Alura smiled, "And to answer your earlier question, my uniforms no longer fit me."

The Empress laughed lightly, "In that case, I'll have one of the Imperial Guard tailors contact you about a fitting tomorrow."

"Thank you."

The Vedran Empress became serious again. "Is it true that you are the daughter of the Avatar of Tarn Vedra's sun?"

Alura gasped, and the knowledge that she herself had suspected it but not known until meeting her mother in this reality passed through their connection to Achilles. Who from Alura's reality who had known her when she was already a Commodore of the Vedran fleet could possibly have known that?

"Yes," Alura answered shakily. "Who…?"

Without a word, the Empress moved to one of the decorative pillars at the edge of the dais, pressing a hidden panel that slid out on contact. Her fingers flew over the keys on the top of the panel, presumably entering a code. Another hidden panel opened, this one sliding aside to reveal a small safe. The Empress reached inside and pulled out a vid player. Knowing his wife was too anxious to control the tremor running through her form, Achilles stepped forward and accepted it from the Vedran female.

He handed it to his wife, who played the single file in the player's memory for only a few seconds before pausing it. Tears welled in her eyes and a mix of sorrow and love washed through her and, by default, him. There was only one human that Achilles hadn't met who would make her feel that way so quickly, the man who had been a second father to her in one of the darkest periods of Alura's life. It didn't explain how he had known about Trance being Tarn Vedra's sun, but it did make other things a lot more clear.

"Hank," she whispered softly, running a silver fingernail down the image on the small screen. Alura lifted her gaze to the Empress, "May I keep this?"

The Empress nodded, "Of course. It was meant for you. All the other records pertaining to this situation are kept in a separate, highly secure location."

Alura turned to Achilles and handed him the player, which she had turned off. "Hold on to this for me. And could you go wait in the hall for a minute? There's something I need to tell the Empress alone."

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The Empress listened as the half Nietzschean, half Avatar woman turned to her mate. The bands on their arms were, of course, an obvious sign of what they were to each other, but there was also intense feeling between them that was almost tangible, and they seemed to be able to communicate on a level only those with the deepest commitment to each other could. From what the Empress knew of the Nietzschean race, this was a rare thing.

The blonde Nietzschean male inclined his head in acknowledgment of her request and, after planting a light kiss on his wife's forehead, he turned and left the room. The Empress returned her attention to Alura when Achilles had shut the door behind him.

"Forgive me for being forward, Your Majesty, but… if I have the timeline right, I'm not the only one expecting right now." Alura didn't pause, obviously not finished with what she had to say. "If I am right, you're pregnant for the fourth time, and this pregnancy is only a couple months shy of when you… lost the other children."

"That's correct," the Empress answered, the reminder of the children she'd been unable to carry to term making her sadness carry through into the tone of her voice.

Alura took a deep breath and told her, "Your mate has been poisoning you, Your Majesty. He knows you have feelings for your second male and is afraid you will cast him aside once he gives you an heir. He does not want to lose the position or power inherent to being your Consort, and so each time you start to show, he slips an undetectable poison, not strong enough to more than make you sick but more than enough to kill your unborn child, into your bathing water."

Vedrans were matriarchal, and when the females came of age they took six males as theirs. However, only one member of the group, the one commonly referred to as the female's mate, was allowed to impregnate her. There were many cases of fighting and intrigue destroying family groups, especially when a female became closer to a male other than her mate, but it was one of the main traditions of the culture, and there were too many more male Vedrans than there were females for monogamy to work. No one had come up with a better system, so this one remained in place.

The Empress clenched and unclenched her fists, rage and despair swirling through her in equal measure. "How… how did you discover this?"

"I didn't, it all happened more than a decade before I found the way through the slipstream maze in my universe," Alura replied. "After the loss of your fifth child, the poison had an unintended side effect of making you sterile. Eventually your Consort felt guilty enough about obliterating the royal line to admit what he had done. You had him executed quietly; I learned about the matter when… I was the Imperial Hand for a year and a half."

"And do you have proof of this?" the Empress asked urgently, not concerned in the least that Alura had just admitted to having been the Empress' personal spy-and-assassin for a time. Although it hadn't been included in the knowledge of her that had been preserved for three hundred years, it actually didn't surprise the Empress, considering the woman had been a Commodore, and offered an Admiralty, at such a young age. "I won't be able to do anything without proof. And I do not want to lose another child, royal line notwithstanding."

Alura's hand drifted to her own rounded belly in an unconscious, protective gesture. "I understand. I do have the records of his confession, will that be enough?"

"It will have to be," the Empress said firmly.

Taking a breath to steady herself, she yanked on a nearby bell pull, summoning a member of the Imperial Guard. While the Empress spoke quietly to him about having a permanent watch put on her Consort until she could take action, Alura drifted to the door Achilles had exited through, beckoning him back into the throne room. The Guard slipped away to do her bidding, and the Empress pulled another rope as the couple once more approached her. A door nearer the dais opened and Admiral Volkova, one of the highest ranked officers in Tarn Vedra's military and, more importantly, a trusted friend, entered the room.

"Commodore Alura Anasazi, Admiral Mikhail Volkova… he will be acting as your liaison if you have no objections," the Empress introduced and informed. "Volkova, this is the mysterious Commodore I told you about."

As expected, Alura showed no signs of knowing Volkova. The Admiral had most likely been retired by the time Alura was highly ranked enough herself to have dealings with officers of his position in her universe. It was another reason the Empress had chosen him for this important mission. She did not want ties from Alura's former life to make dealing with any of the Nietzschean-Avatar's current military contacts difficult on or awkward for the young woman.

"It is an honor," the human male stated as he shook first Alura's hand and then Achilles'.

"And this is her husband, Captain Achilles Renier, formerly of the new Commonwealth High Guard and the Tarazed Home Guard," the Empress continued. "I don't think it will be a problem for him to be her second-in-command with a position in the Tarn Vedra fleet that matches his old rank."

Volkova nodded in her direction, "I'll see to it right away, Your Majesty."

"Along a similar line," Alura spoke, "I have a request to make."

The Empress inclined her head slightly in a 'go ahead' gesture.

"When we left Tarazed, my son Drago, Achilles' adopted daughter Britta and several members of our extended family came with us," Alura began. "They are not military, though two of them were members of the Tarazed police force for many years, but they did come halfway across the universe with me to support and help me. They are all at least half Nietzschean, and many of them have membership in two Prides, but I am their Matriarch while they are here. If it isn't a problem, I would like to request that they be allowed to remain with Achilles and I on whatever ship or base you choose to send us to. Other than the children, all but two of them are qualified to fulfill civilian positions onboard a ship."

The Empress shared a glance with Volkova before smiling at Alura. "You have my permission, but it will ultimately be up to you. You will be Commanding Officer of your ship, after all. Decisions about your crew are yours to make."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Alura responded, bowing her head briefly. "There is one more favor I have to ask of you."

The Empress turned a questioning gaze on the young woman.

"Since you know so much about my former life I assume you also know about Captain Dylan Hunt and his ship the Andromeda Ascendant." When the Empress inclined her head in agreement, Alura continued. "In slightly less than three weeks he will be facing off against the Magog worldship, trying to protect an orbiting habitat called Arkology. Arkology is a place of peace and is somehow an important part of the Light that the Abyss wants to forever extinguish. My family and I have already tried to subtly help the Andromeda's crew in the fight to come, but they may still need assistance."

"What is it exactly that you want us to do?" the Empress asked.

"My mother and my first husband are both on that ship," Alura said, her voice changing slightly to reveal her passionate refusal to lose them. "I have to be there to make sure they don't lose their lives. If Dylan fails, it will be the beginning of the end for the entire universe, not just the Commonwealth that Dylan reestablished. Dylan is a Champion of the Light, displaced in time three hundred years so he could be of the most use…"

"Commodore," the Empress interrupted. "Why don't you just let us know what you need so we can start working on it?"

Alura blushed, her cheeks becoming an interesting shade of violet. "Sorry, Your Majesty. If at all possible, I'd like an escort of four warships that can cover my ship if it becomes necessary to go in and get the Andromeda's crew out."

"Four?" Volkova echoed. "Don't you think that's overkill with a ship like the Dance? I'd say you only need two others for a retrieval mission."

Alura, wide-eyed, swung her gaze from Volkova back to the Empress, "You're letting me have command of the original Dance Among the Stars?"

"Yes," the Empress answered, a smile curving her lips at Alura's childlike awe over the fact that she was getting her ship back. "Because of what we knew of you, the Dance has been sitting in dry dock since it was built, waiting for it's commanding officer and it's AI to come home."

Several silent but emotionally charged minutes passed before Alura responded in a voice barely above a whisper, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," the Empress answered before clearing her throat. "Now, I do have other matters to take care of. Admiral Volkova will help you with the transfer and all of the logistics of putting together a full crew for the Dance. He'll also be in charge of getting any information you may have to share with us and vice versa. I will find a time to schedule a meeting to see how things are going in a week."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Alura curtsied with her husband's assistance once more, and Achilles and Volkova bowed before following the Commodore out of the throne room. Once they were gone, the Empress gave herself a few minutes to process what she had learned before calling in her next appointment. Her personal feelings about what had happened would have to wait until the business of running the empire was done for the day.

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As they followed Admiral Volkova down the hall a little ways, Alura apologized mind to mind to Achilles for the chaotic swirl of emotions racing through them both. She was still reeling, in a good way, from everything that had fallen into place so quickly. But darker emotions had also been stirred by the memory of what Hank had gone through in his last days. Achilles brushed aside her concern that perhaps the price of being Bonded was too hard on him, letting her know he liked knowing how she was feeling, that it made him feel that much closer to her.

When they reached the part of the hallway that branched out in two different directions, one of them the way they had earlier come from the current, smaller Dance, Volkova stopped and turned to face them.

"There are things I'm going to need to take care of now that you've arrived, and I'm sure you'd like the files necessary to bring you up to date on current military activity." Alura nodded, and Volkova continued, "I'll send one of my aides to your ship to bring you the information that will be necessary to transfer command of the Dance Among the Stars to you, as well as the most pertinent military records. We can meet in two days if that's enough time for you to get yourselves resettled and take a look at the files."

"That sounds good, thank you, Admiral. Time is of the essence to get everything in place to assist Captain Hunt."

Volkova nodded his understanding and saluted quickly, "Then I will see you again in two days, Commodore."

Alura saluted back, and when Volkova had turned and left them, she and Achilles headed for the smaller version of the Dance that would soon become simply a back up fighter. There was no military escort this time, Alura and her family now an accepted part of the Vedran Empire. Alura knew Danny would be thrilled.

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"Well?"

Alura stifled a laugh. Danny hadn't even waited for she and Achilles to reach the top of the ramp leading into the current Dance Among the Stars before asking them how the meeting had gone… though not in so many words.

"The aide of an Admiral named Volkova will be coming by shortly with orders for the Dance Among the Stars to be handed over to myself and it's AI. We have a busy few weeks ahead of us."

Danny simply stared at Alura for a long minute. "I… they never programmed the original AI?"

Alura shook her head, a soft smile on her lips. "We've been expected for three hundred years, long before the Dance was even designed. Volkova is our main contact within the military; we'll be working under him from now on. Would you like to wait here for the aide while we tell the others about the meeting?"

Danny would be able to monitor the coming conversation through the ship's sensors, and Alura knew he would be anxious about the orders and information they were waiting for until it had reached them. The overwhelmed AI simply nodded in response to her question, and Alura and Achilles headed for the bridge where the others were sure to be awaiting their return.

An hour later Alura and Achilles were once again alone, having already shared the good news with the rest of their family. Everyone had been understandably relieved and excited. Danny was still waiting at the ship's entrance for the aide whose dispatches would set their next course of action in motion, that of relocating once again, this time into a full size warship. Alura felt bad about making the others go through so much effort, but it would further ensure their own safety and greatly increase the likelihood that their plans to help Dylan, Telemachus and the rest of the Andromeda's crew would work. And hopefully it would be the last major upheaval they'd have to deal with for the foreseeable future.

Breaking free of her thoughts to focus on her Bonded mate and her new theory about how much of this had even become possible, Alura held up the vid player that the Empress had given her but did not activate it. "Kill, this is what you did."

"What do you mean?" Achilles asked, something pressing at his conscious memory but not quite able to get through.

"You sent Hank to this past, with all the knowledge he would need to pave my way, when he was about to die," Alura said softly. "It's why you were stripped of your position and your memory."

Achilles flinched as if an electrical current had just run through his body. Images of Alura, which he suddenly knew were from his time watching over her in her reality, flooded into his memory. There were others, too, millennia of remembrances added to his only decades-long life in this form, but the memories of Alura were the most vivid, the most important. She was right. He had gone against the rules, never even attempting to gain permission, in order to set things up enough that she would once again have the backing of the Vedran Empire when she eventually made her way to the planet that had been her base of operations for nearly half her life.

He had known before he made the choice that it would mean the end of his guardianship of her, might even result in the end of his immortal existence, but he had loved her too much to care what would happen to him. When he had been informed that his memories were to be stripped and that his Light would be given a mortal existence, his only request had been that his mortal self be allowed to cross paths with her. There had been resistance to the idea at first, the fear that he would regain some of what he was because of her influence the biggest factor, but because he had not asked for anything beyond that… power, wealth, position or anything else… it had, in time, been allowed.

It was because of Alura's perceptive revelations here and on Arkology, and the fact that they were Bonded, that he had remembered anything. The knowledge of all he had given up for her, as well as the fact that though he would always be a Paradine, his Light unable to become anything else, his lifespan was now tied directly to hers, flowed from Achilles to Alura. It was a bittersweet moment, but there would be time in the years they would have together to reflect on everything they had been and would be to each other. Right now they had worries that affected more than just the two of them to attend to.

"Marlowe has been out of touch with the rest of the Paradine for hundreds of years," Achilles told Alura, his voice and feelings showing his worry over the fact and what it could mean to the crew of the Andromeda. "Something has been blocking him from their influence nearly the entire time he's been on Arkology."

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Nearly three weeks later…

"I'll take you to Marlowe," Louisa said as she led the way down a hallway.

The Andromeda had reached Arkology, and the crew been warmly welcomed. Beka had opted to stay on the Andromeda, having heard enough about Arkology and its inhabitants from Louisa to know it was not a place she would ever fit in. Telemachus was once again relegated to escorting Louisa, but to Dylan's surprise… and suspicion… he had stopped fighting it awhile ago and seemed to be silently suffering through the experience. Dylan didn't believe for one second that Telemachus was actually falling for Louisa, the put-upon expression that slid out from beneath the mask of indifference Telemachus wore when he thought the others had stopped watching was more than enough to convince Dylan. Telemachus and Louisa walked in front of the small group, Dylan and Trance right behind them, with Harper and Rommie bringing up the rear.

The people they passed watched silently, a few of them inclining their heads in greeting. The men and women were dressed one of two ways. Some of them wore simple, practical clothing like Louisa's, the other were dressed in robes. The ones in robes seemed more suspicious of their presence, and Dylan wondered if they were part of whatever government the people of Arkology followed. It was only later, when they had met Marlowe and been shown to the main room used by the "Council" that Dylan realized how much more odd the situation was than he had anticipated. After Louisa had excused herself and Telemachus to show the Nietzschean Commander around the structure, a tactical necessity, Dylan had tried to explain to Marlowe what it was the Magog had really been doing when pursuing their "treaty".

Marlowe listened, the faint smile he'd been wearing since they'd shown up slipping not even once. Dylan found it slightly disturbing but maintained a controlled façade. When they had arrived, Trance had told him that this place, a place of peace, was important, that if the Magog destroyed it, it would be a great loss. Keeping that in mind, though he had a hard time believing it, Dylan encouraged Marlowe to move Arkology so the Magog would have to look for it before they could complete their plan.

"Any decisions must be made unanimously by the entire Council," the dark skinned man calmly told Dylan.

A short, derisive laugh escaped Dylan and he gestured around the room. "Then hold your meeting and make the decision. Time is of the essence."

Marlowe's smile grew slightly. "The Council consists of every person living on Arkology, Dylan. We can only hold our meetings in dream state and will have to wait until this evening to do so."

Floored by the thought of that many people deciding on anything, Dylan could do nothing beyond muttering a defeated, "Fine."

"Even if the Council did decide to move Arkology, which is unlikely, I'm afraid our slipstream drive hasn't been used in hundreds of years," Marlowe went on calmly. "I believe it is no longer in working condition."

Harper sneered slightly. Dylan knew that look and agreed with it. There wasn't anything Harper couldn't fix given enough time and the right supplies… sometimes even when he didn't have those.

"You wouldn't mind if I took a look at it then," the blonde engineer half-asked.

"Of course," Marlowe answered after a barely discernible hesitation.

He waved forward a young man, instructing him to take Harper to the engine room and provide him with any tools he might need. Once Harper had gone, Rommie in tow, Dylan begrudgingly agreed to a tour since the Council would not "meet" for at least several more hours. Trance, silent and sad-eyed, followed closely.

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As Telemachus walked through the main section of Arkology with Louisa, slightly in awe of the unique structure, he mentally noted all the weaknesses inherent in it's design. If the place had even just had simple defensive systems in place, it might have been a different story, but as it was, the only people that could live on it without fearing for their lives every time a ship approached would be people that had a blind faith in the power of peace.

They passed many people as they moved, and Telemachus judged them as well. He needed to know what he and the rest of the Andromeda's crew would be dealing with if Harper wasn't able to fix things in time and they were forced to fight. Though many of the men and women of Arkology were in the physical shape that resulted from long hours working in agricultural pursuits, he saw not one person with a warrior's build. Which was particularly disturbing to him since there were quite a few Nietzscheans. Ana Purna Pride would not be making alliances based on the physical promise of their genetics anytime soon.

Weapons would have to be passed out from the Andromeda's stores. Telemachus highly doubted pitchforks and hoes would do much against the Magog. He tried to ignore the fact that the Magog could kill them all with little more than a few strategically placed hull breaches. It didn't settle his nerves to know the Magog probably wanted many of the residents to remain alive for feeding and infesting. Fatalism was part of being a Nietzschean, and Telemachus couldn't help but wonder if he had remembered Alura only to die before he could even start to look for her and Drago.

As if the thought of the boy had conjured her, a preteen Nietzschean girl crossed the dirt path in front of he and Louisa. Telemachus smiled as she and her companions stopped to stare at the visitor, making him wonder how infrequently people from outside Arkology came across the place, let alone stopped and visited. The other children rushed ahead and Louisa told one of them to look out for another, he assumed the youngest of the group.

The Nietzschean girl smiled shyly at him before following the others. Telemachus' gaze unfocused, wondering if Alura and Drago were somewhere where there were other Nietzscheans for his adopted son to grow up with. Beside him, Louisa lightly touched his arm to get his attention.

He looked at her with a questioning raise of his eyebrows.

"I think she was quite taken with you," the blonde remarked.

She nodded in the direction the girl had gone, but Telemachus could tell from her tone that she was hinting that the girl wasn't the only one. Taking the unexpected but welcomed opportunity to tell Louisa how things stood without Dylan or one of the others interrupting them, however good their intentions might have been, Telemachus turned to look Louisa directly in the eyes. He didn't want there to be any chance of her misunderstanding.

"It is not spoken of among the crew due to personal reasons, but I am already mated," he said. "I love my wife, and in her I found my match, someone who feels the way I do about fighting for life. Besides," he nodded with a smile in the direction the children had disappeared, "she was much too young for me."

His attempt at lightening what could have been a very awkward, heavy situation worked, and Louisa smiled back. "I'm sure her heart will mend."

So would hers, Telemachus knew. They had not known each other long enough to establish any real, deep bonds. He didn't know why at her age she was unmated, but Louisa still had time to find the right man for her… if she survived what was coming. It just wouldn't be him.

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"Thank you for doing this, Beka," Dylan's image said on the Eureka Maru's communications screen.

Busy doing her pre-flight check, Beka barely spared the screen a glance. "I may not be willing to die for these people, Dylan, but I'm not about to leave you here completely blind."

Arkology did not possess long range scanners of any sort. And though Dylan was still hopeful that Harper would be able to fix Arkology's slipstream drive, or, if the repairs took too long, that he himself would be able to convince the people of Arkology to fight for their own lives, in either case they needed to know how long they had. The last confirmed intelligence they had received on the location of the worldship had been some time ago. So Beka, not feeling comfortable waiting and doing nothing on Arkology, had volunteered to make a handful of slipstream jumps and get some long range scans taken so they had a better idea of when Arkology had to be either gone or ready to fight.

When she had finished that, she would be on her way out of the situation. Beka only grudgingly believed in fighting for Dylan's ideals, but there was no way she could handle staying and dealing once again with the Abyss and its minions for a bunch of peace-loving freaks who wouldn't even run to save themselves, let alone raise a hand in their own defense. She was seriously questioning the rest of the crew's sanity with their willingness to let their final battleground… for really, there was no way they would win against the world ship and all the forces at it's disposal seeing as how they were not even as heavily armed as the last time they'd tried and failed… be this place that gave her a serious case of the creeps.

Beka had only made the first three short slipstream jumps before she pulled the Maru up short, no more slipstream portals necessary except for the ones that would take her back. At first it was just a few Magog fighters, the kind that punched through the hulls of bigger ships, that had her quickly making her preparations to leave… but the next sight she glimpsed, that of the edges of the horrifically familiar worldship rounding a nearby gas giant, froze her blood in her veins.

"Oh, shit."

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"How's it looking, Harper?" Dylan asked tiredly.

Trance was quiet, but she wandered slightly away from Dylan, having come in with him. She looked around the room with more interest that he'd ever seen her show in any of Harper's gadgets with the possible exception of his ill-fated tesseract machine.

The young engineer had not stopped frowning since Dylan had entered the slipstream engine room. And from the furrows in Harper's brow, Dylan doubted he had been making any expression other than a frown for some time. Could it really be that bad? Though Dylan wanted to help save the people of Arkology, he wasn't sure he was willing to die protecting a way of life he didn't believe in… they would find out when Beka got back just how long they had before leaving was a necessity. And while it was true that Harper often stressed himself out when he was working on something important, there was something different about his frustration this time.

"It's going to take time, probably more time than we have," Harper answered.

Dylan sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"There's something else though, Dylan," Harper added hesitantly. "That Marlowe guy was wrong. I don't know whether he lied directly or not, but it hasn't been that long since someone worked on the drive. I'd say a month ago at the most. There are obvious signs of repair…"

"But?" Dylan prodded when Harper trailed off.

Before Harper could reply, however, Trance suddenly gasped and then spoke, standing next to Dylan once more.

"Alura."

Both men turned to look at her.

"What?" they asked in unison.

Trance glanced up at Dylan. He felt the tiniest bit of tension leave him as she smiled at him, her gaze clearer than it had been for a few days. She knew something, something that had lifted some of the weight from her slender shoulders and put a considerable amount of sparkle back in her eyes.

"Alura was here," Trance answered them. "Someone may have undone what she did to fix the slipstream engine, but if she knew enough to come here and do that, she'll know enough to be here again if we need her."

They were prevented from further discussion of the matter by one of the council members from the initial meeting making herself known vocally.

"Dylan," the woman called from the doorway. "Marlowe would like to speak with you… alone."

Noticing Trance's worried frown, Dylan nodded reluctantly before turning to follow the woman back to the council room. Marlowe made him uneasy, especially since, until her discovery of Alura's involvment, Trance hadn't smiled once since they'd reached Arkology, but Dylan knew he had to play nice if he was going to get Arkology's leader to listen to reason. Marlowe had insisted that the Council, which in its entirety included all of Arkology's adult residents, made every decision together, but Dylan had noted the respect the older man had been shown by the others, the way they turned to him for guidance. Hopefully this meeting would allow him to convince the older man of the truth.

Be careful, Dylan, Trance's voice echoed in his head.

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Preview: Things precede well on Tarn Vedra until Alura gets a Vision. Sabotage on Arkology traps the Andromeda crew into a no-win situation and forces Alura to take more direct action.