Title: When Worlds Collide
Author: AstraGalactic
Disclaimer: Andromeda is not mine. If it was, Gaheris would be alive, and Dylan would be with Rommie. Atlanta is mine.
Setting/Season: TUM AU (Trance did not switch places with her gold-self, and the Andromeda has a new engineer)
Summary: The Andromeda's Captain makes a wish, but when he gets it will it destroy them all?
A/N: My thanks to other writers who have inspired me, Please R&R!
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Ten days later…..
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Within Machine shop seven, Atlanta watched with satisfaction as the boot sequence reached completion, and the Android she built started to show signs of awakening, eyelids fluttering, before opening completely. But as soon as he was fully awake, he left a gasp of pain and fear, and scrambled to his feet, pulling himself into a shadowed corner of the room where he sank to the floor, arms wrapped around his knees, trembling, his eyes shut tight as if in pain – haunted by a memory only he could see.
Atlanta drew closer – not surprised or even particularly concerned by her creation's reaction, considering that the last human memory he had was dying – quickly enough that he could not come to terms with it… but now he had the time – time for the trauma to sink in. She also was confident that he would get over it – that once he dealt with his demons, he would be fine –judging from all the archival footage of him she had seen.
Dropping to one knee by his side, she gently laid one hand on top of one of his, saying comfortingly:
"Calm down, you are safe."
When he opened his eyes to look at her, struggling to calm his breathing, she smiled at him – amazed herself by her success in making him so very human – and repeated in a soothing tone:
"You are safe."
Slowly he relaxed, stretching out his legs, and letting his hands rest in his lap. Seeing this, Atlanta asked in the same gentle tone:
"I need to ask you some basic questions….. may I?"
Dylan nodded absently, and she asked:
"Do you know your name?"
He replied immediately – in a tone that was calm but almost confused by the simplicity of the question:
"Dylan Hunt."
Concerned by the confusion and the edge of fear lingering in his blue eyes as his gaze darted around the room – as if looking for something – but not sure what, Atlanta replaced her hand on his, and asked him:
"Do you know where you are?"
Taking another glance at his surroundings, he replied:
"On the Andromeda…. Machine shop….."
Dylan trailed off, unable to remember the number since he never had paid much attention to the small differences between the machine shops in the past, but added after a final glance around him:
"….. what a mess."
Atlanta could not help but smile at that comment, adding with laughter in her tone:
"Yeah….. it's been worse though."
After all, compared with Harper, she was organized – although she doubted her brand of order matched the Highguard protocol he was used to – she was pretty sure that his comment was mostly influenced by the parts of the room that she had not re-organized since Harper's use of them.
As Dylan started to relax further, and remembering Andromeda…. his Andromeda, he called out softly, almost questioningly:
"Andromeda?"
Atlanta looked up as Andromeda's hologram materialized before them, smiling at the pure joy and love that shone from her eyes as she said to Dylan, reaching out to touch his cheek, immaterial though she was, saying in a voice laced with tears and joy:
"Dylan, It's good to have you back."
Dylan returned her smile, but only for her benefit….. lost in confusion that only grew from her words… hearing in them the meaning that he had been gone….. But what had happened… what could he not remember?
Atlanta said gently to Andromeda, smiling for the ship's obvious happiness:
"Andromeda, why don't you tell Gaheris."
Andromeda disappeared with a nod and a smile, leaving her present third-in-command and former Captain together.
"Gaheris…." The name echoed in Dylan's mind, memories of horror and pain rippling just beyond his conscious reach, shadowing happy memories of a best friend he had once by his side… What was he missing?
Finding his voice – a whisper that showed his incomprehensible fear – he asked:
"Gaheris?"
Atlanta replied comfortingly in the same tone:
"Your friend, Gaheris Rhade….. He's the one who asked for you…."
"Gaheris Rhade….. Commander Gaheris Rhade…." echoed in Dylan's mind… Dawn's last words: "Commander?"
Suddenly it all came crashing back to him, one fateful word unlocking the floodgates, releasing the memory that had been hidden by his subconscious – a memory too painful to think about….. but now he could not stop thinking about it…. re-living it over and over again…., and as a pained cry was ripped from his throat, he pressed his hands against the place on his lower abdomen where the plasma rounds had hit him – drowning in the physical and emotional pain…. loosing himself – his dreams and everything he loved in the grief, shock and betrayal….. spiraling deeper into a dark place of wrath and tears that he could not fight against as hard as he tried. Overwhelmed by a bitter, blind… rage as the last light was extinguished.
Atlanta saw his unexplainable reaction, and tried to calm him, as did Andromeda who had returned in her holographic form – but to no avail.
Suddenly he leaped to his feet, only to be stopped by Atlanta who gently but firmly pulled on his arm as she stood, asking:
"Dylan….. what are you doing?"
Dylan replied in a cry of blind rage:
"I am going to kill him!"
Both Atlanta and Andromeda managed only a shocked:
"What?"
Atlanta stepped forward saying in a tone that showed her desperation:
"No, Dylan…. Gaheris loves you…."
Dylan spat back, rage choked with grief:
"Gaheris is the one who killed me…. And I will have my revenge."
With those words he stepped forward once more, blocked by Andromeda's hologram who reached toward him, saying in a voice choked by tears:
"Please don't do this Dylan…..I love you, but in my own way I also love him…. And I know that deep down inside you still do too….."
She continued in a voice trembling with grief:
"Loosing you broke my heart, Dylan….. but it also broke his – it was never what he wanted….. so please don't make me loose one of you….. remember what you feel."
Andromeda's hope died as Dylan replied bitterly, storming through Andromeda's hologram:
"I feel nothing."
Atlanta sighed knowing that without intervention this would end with a death, and said gently to Andromeda:
"Tell Gaheris to stay away."
Andromeda nodded and disappeared once more, while Atlanta drew her forcelance, extending it as she swung it low, hitting Dylan's legs and sending him crashing to the floor, but as he fell, he kicked the extended lance, breaking it in half and pulling her down too.
Recovering, and unwilling to fail, she pulled herself up, throwing herself towards Dylan's back, one outstretched hand reaching for his power switch… but she never made it. As she reached him, he turned around, and too fast for her to reach, threw her away from him, sending her flying out the open door to the machine shop.
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Gaheris walked swiftly towards the Machine shop, having left Command as soon as Andromeda told him that the Dylan replica was complete….. desperate hope and happiness tangling with the burning grief and regret in his broken heart.
He could not slow the nervous fast beating of his heart, even as it ached from his sorrow… For how could he face Dylan again? What would he say to him? Would Dylan be anything like the person he was? …
He was jarred from his thoughts by Andromeda's alarmed voice and the expression on her face as her hologram materialized before him, saying:
"Captain!... Gaheris… Abort your visit to the machine shop"
Gaheris sighed, realization hitting him:
"Something's gone wrong."
Andromeda replied with dead seriousness:
"Yes, very."
Fear ripped through his mind – fear for his friend who was with the android, and in a haunted tone he asked:
"Atlanta?"
Andromeda answered unwillingly, yet unable to lie to him:
"Trying to shut him down."
Gaheris was not surprised…. only terrified that Atlanta would get killed, and he broke into a run, despite Andromeda's protests, headed straight for the Machine shop.
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As Atlanta collided with the wall in the corridor, she felt her lower right leg bones snap from the force of the impact, and both her knee and hip get dislocated…. but remembering the Android who was charging for the door, she hurled the keypad that she had tucked in her pocket earlier – after starting Dylan's boot sequence – hitting precisely the button that would lock the door to the machine shop, automatically triggering a lockdown that could not be opened without her command codes…..
As she heard the crash of the enraged android against the door, she collapsed on her front, overwhelmed by pain… until Gaheris came to her side….. running.
Fear for her was evident in his voice as he dropped to his knees beside Atlanta, gently laying a hand on her shoulder:
"Are you okay?"
Knowing from her heartbeat and breathing that were clearly audible to him that Atlanta was not in danger of dying, he gently turned her over, not surprised when she reached out, leaning on him to pull herself to a sitting position cradled in his arms, and answered between gasps of pain, gesturing with her eyes at her now outstretched right leg:
"Yea…. most of me anyway."
Andromeda's hologram materialized by their side, filling in:
"Two severe fractures and two dislocations….. all in her right leg"
Gaheris sighed, and then said gently but firmly to Atlanta who was now silently leaning against him:
"You're going to Medical."
Atlanta smiled at Gaheris's concern for her, but refused with a frown, glancing up towards the door to the Machine shop:
"Med-deck can wait… that door can hold back an army, but it isn't going to hold him forever."
As if in answer to her words, another deafening crash shook the door and corridor, while Atlanta cringed, and Andromeda frowned, saying in a very worried tone, after consulting her sensors:
"Yea, things are not….. getting any ….. better."
Atlanta knew exactly what that meant, but Gaheris did not – only that there was a hidden meaning that he was not aware of –even though he could guess. But to be certain, he asked Atlanta:
"What is going on?"
Atlanta replied truthfully, but purposefully vaguely, as she reached out and picked up the keypad that had bounced back toward her from the control panel of the door:
"He's got….. issues, and I need to shut him down to fix the problem."
As she spoke, she entered in the codes that would power Dylan down, only to be rewarded with a sound signaling an error from the device in her hands and another deafening crash against the door….. Her worst fears were already coming true.
Forcing upon herself a calm she could not feel – knowing that giving into her fear would get Gaheris killed for certain, Atlanta said, defeat coloring her tone even as she tried the codes again, to no avail:
"Damn….. he's disabled remote access to his system."
Desperate to find a way to stop her creation before he killed Gaheris, she squeezed her eyes shut, fighting to the back of her mind her physical pain, searching desperately all she knew for a solution….
Finally Atlanta found one….. It would be dangerous potentially…..but worth it. Determination filling her tone, she said in a whisper only Gaheris would hear:
"Okay, I can still shut him down, but I have to get to Andromeda's core. He has a connection to her so he can get real-time information….. without having to ask verbally….. I can use that to hack into his system."
Seeing in Gaheris's expression the hesitation – fear for both her and Dylan, she added:
"It will be safe, for both me and him…. but I can't get to the core on my own….. I need your help."
Nodding in acceptance of her decision – though mingled with a good measure of hesitation, Gaheris knelt to lift her into his arms, when suddenly Andromeda's hologram disappeared, the lights in the corridor shut off, replaced only by the dim emergency lighting, and the doors at either end of the corridor shut, trapping them in it.
Gaheris straightened, crouching on only one knee protectively over his wounded friend…. wondering if this was the beginning of an attack, but when none came he relaxed his tense stance, calling out softly:
"Andromeda?"
When no response came, he felt grief rip though his heart… had she been erased? Calling out again in a tone that broke with tears:
"Andromeda?" again elicited no response.
Atlanta realized the cause for his grief – but checking with her keypad told her one positive thing – perhaps the first that day, and she said in a comforting tone laced with an edge of desperation:
"Gaheris, Andromeda is unharmed….. but she's locked down. Passive sensors and surveillance are running, as are environmental controls….. but that is all, she cannot help us."
Desperation welled in her voice as she added:
"I can't override…. whatever he did."
Gaheris sighed in resignation – and also relief, for Andromeda at least:
"His old command codes…. he must have used them."
"One more mistake…. one more fatal mistake" echoed in Atlanta's mind as she closed her eyes once more.
She was running out of options….. even with Gaheris's forcelance set to laser, they would not be able to cut down every door from there to the core….. especially when this whole sector had been reinforced in light of Harper's Nova bomb project…. which left only one choice – one choice that she knew would break Gaheris's heart… total AI erasure of this Dylan.
Fighting back tears, Atlanta decided not to tell Gaheris her plan –knowing only too well that he would not be happy with it, that he may even refuse to go with it….. yet at the same time knowing that by taking this path, she would only intensify his unbearable grief.
Entering a different set of codes on the keypad, Atlanta took a calming breath, trying to keep her voice steady as the computer asked for authorization and she turned the keypad towards Gaheris asking him to enter his command codes.
"… I need you to enter your Command codes."
Gaheris froze at the simple – almost innocent request. He could hear the grief and resignation mingling with the determination in her tone….. and that more than anything stopped him before he did as she asked. He trusted her, and loved her… but he feared her decision… feared it because she had not told him what she was doing, because he knew she would do anything to protect him – and that fact, coupled with the regret in her tone – left only one option…
For it was not a new idea that she thought would work…. there was no satisfaction, pride or hope in her tone….. only sorrow mingled with determination….. This had been an option all along – only one she never wanted to take: Erasing Dylan.
Grief ripped through Gaheris's broken heart and shattered soul at the thought of Dylan - the person he loved dying….. again, and in a voice that broke with tears, he asked – more a statement that a question:
"You're going to erase him?"
Atlanta wanted to deny it….. but could not lie to him, and after what felt like an eternity of silence, she replied – desperation coloring her tone:
"It's the only way…..He's cut off every other option."
Seeing Gaheris's silent reply as he shook his head – and seeing the desperation evident in it, she added:
"He won't be lost forever…. I still have his personality profile, I just have to make some adjustments and then re-install….."
In a voice breaking with sorrow, Gaheris replied:
"But to him, it will be like dying all over again….."
Atlanta sighed:
"I don't know… how an AI perceives erasure."
But Gaheris knew….. he knew when he had seen Andromeda's subtle reaction to the threat of erasure….. the brief flash of fear in the eyes of the strongest person he knew… And he could not do it to Dylan….. he was not able to do it to Andromeda even realizing that she could have been just waiting for the right time to kill him…. Knowing that if she wanted to kill him, he was doomed….
His tone was barely a whisper as he replied:
"I do…"
Reaching out to take his hand, Atlanta said, her voice choked with tears that slowly filled her eyes:
"I don't like it either Gaheris….. But please, I'm begging you. This is my mistake, let me fix it… I can still do this, I can still repair what I did wrong."
With those words, she turned the keypad back toward him, a tiny flicker of sad hope lighting in her heart as he reached toward it…. then suddenly crushed as Gaheris moved faster than she could – even at her best, taking away the keypad from her hands.
As Atlanta reached in desperation toward him, Gaheris slid the keypad into his back pocket, catching both her wrists in his hands and holding them gently but firmly immobile close to his chest, his heart breaking with grief for her as she cried in a voice that shook with the magnitude of her pain and desperation, and her tears overflowed:
"Gaheris…. Don't do this to me, please. Don't make me be the cause of your death."
Gaheris replied gently, reassuring her that she was not – and would never be:
"You cannot b…"
But he was cut off by her sobbed reply as she leaned her forehead against his chest– realizing only after she spoke what she thought he was saying, that she could not be sure of his death:
"I am sure….. He swore to kill you….."
Gaheris pushed her back slightly, meeting her tear-filled eyes with his own that shone like stars drowning in grief, as he asked in a voice that broke under the magnitude of his infinite spiritual pain:
"You know why?"
Atlanta answered through her tears, knowing already from the unbearable sorrow that filled his eyes and shook his soft voice that it was true:
"He said you killed him….. he swore to have revenge."
Gaheris replied in a voice that was barely audible, his eyes closed as he fought back the tears, his broken heart and shattered soul tormented by the memories of Dylan's death that had haunted him for years:
"It's true…. I did kill him….. "
Now it all made sense to her….. now she understood the grief that tore into his heart each moment of each day – grief that he would not let himself heal from….. now she understood why he would not hurt this Dylan…. why he did not mind dying here at Dylan's hands….. He had loved Dylan, though life had forced him to kill him… he still loved him.
Gently reaching up to dry Gaheris's tears, unimpeded by his hands that now only rested on her wrists as long as she did not try to move far, she cupped his cheeks, planting a soft chaste kiss on his forehead as she whispered – her voice strangled by his infinite pain:
"It doesn't matter, Gaheris…. you always loved him."
Forcing back his tears, Gaheris said in a tone that showed only too clearly that his course was fixed:
"Still, this is his justice….. my fate."
Desperately Atlanta replied, knowing she was begging now but unable to care:
"I can't let you die because of me….."
Gaheris pulled her close, pinning her against his chest where she could not pull away to get to the keypad, holding the person he loved close to his heart for one last time as he said in a soft, even calm tone laced with grief:
"It will never be because of you…..It was my mistake then, as it is my decision now…
You have always been there for me – as my friend….. my hope….. I only ask you to do one last thing…. for me."
Pulling back to look into her eyes, Gaheris finished with a truly sad smile:
"Promise me you will not blame yourself for this….. this is what I want... "
Planting a chaste soft kiss of his own on her forehead, Gaheris shifted to get to his feet, leaning her against the wall, prevented from moving further by her arms that wrapped around him, refusing to let go, while she sobbed in a broken tone that was barely audible:
"Don't go, Gaheris….. don't….. die….."
Gently Gaheris unwrapped her hands from his arms, looking for one last time into her eyes, whispering through tears of his own:
"I'm sorry."
And then he rose gracefully to his feet, crossing the corridor…. his fingers swiftly flying over the keypad as the entered the codes to unlock the door.
As the door to Machine shop 7 slid open, and Gaheris stepped forward into the darkness that awaited him, walking willingly into the waiting embrace of Death, Atlanta sprang forward, whether to stop him or be inside with him, she was not sure… given strength by her desperation to save the one she loved….
But she fell short of her mark as her injured leg collapsed beneath her, and she crashed to the floor in agony, the Machine shop door sliding closed inches from her reach.
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