***
Chapter two
***
Harper handed over another potted plant to Trance in the Andromeda's hydroponics bay. "I still can't believe we've got twenty guys locked up down in the lower decks from over a hundred years into the future," he said.
Trance took the potted plant from Harper with a smile and put it on the nearby bench. "You're not going to annoy them, are you? Dylan said we have to leave them alone and try to get them back to their future without corrupting ours."
Harper pulled open the now revealed access port and stuck his head inside, muffling his innocent "Who me?"
Trance looked over with a huge smile when she saw old Tyr walk in. "Hi, Tyr. Harper was just checking the irrigation regulators for me. I'll be with you soon."
Looking nervously at the part of Harper's body sticking out of the open access port, Tyr said, "Well, I'll just head down to medical now, and you can meet me there."
As Harper started squirming his way out of the access port, Trance's smile grew broader. She shook her head and took Tyr's arm to stop him from leaving. "I need you to help me take down some plant samples first," she said firmly.
Feeling trapped by Trance's knowing smile, Tyr stood helpless as the one person he had desperately never wanted to meet pulled himself out of the access port. As his spiky unkempt golden hair finally emerged Harper, stood up with a huge smile of his own and stuck out his hand. "I'm Seamus Zelazney Harper, resident genius and all around good guy, at your service."
Tyr stood shocked for one of the very few times in his life as he took in the sight of Harper, alive and even more vibrant than he had remembered.
Trance noticed the stunned look on Tyr's face and the worried look on Harper's. "Perfect possible future," she said softly.
Between old Tyr's weird look and Trance's cryptic words, Harper was completely confused.
"Are you sure?" Tyr asked Trance.
Trance tilted her head. "What do you feel?"
Tyr stood quietly for a long time before Harper had finally been freaked out enough. "Trance, the irrigation regulators are working fine. I've got to get back to work--catch you guys later."
Turning to watch Harper walk quickly out of Hydroponics, Tyr waited until the doors closed behind him before he spoke. "I think I need to have a serious talk with myself before it's too late."
***
Old Tyr slowly walked into the Andromeda's gym and silently leaned against a wall to watch the younger version of himself go through his combat training with a High Guard force lance. Tyr drew himself up and collapsed his force lance, and old Tyr stayed leaning against the wall, waiting for his younger self to speak.
"What do you want, old man?" Tyr asked as he walked over to where he had left his towel.
"Don't you have any questions for me?"
Wiping his face and upper body with the towel, Tyr looked over at the old man in silent appraisal before asking, "Are you saying you know definitively what my future holds?"
Old Tyr smiled at his younger self. "I didn't realise I had such an interest in physics. Philosophy, yes. Physics, no."
"Aren't they one and the same when it comes to us?" Tyr sat down on a bench facing his older self.
"Not really."
Tyr snorted. "You're here for a reason. What is it?"
"I accomplished everything I set out to do, you know," the old Tyr said, tilting his head upwards. His eyes grew distant as he remembered. "I rebuilt the Kodiak Pride, exterminated the Drago Kasov to the last generation, became one of the greatest warriors our people have known, had eight wives and thirty fourchildren. But in the end it meant nothing."
"What are you talking about now?" Tyr demanded angrily, growing nervous.
"Happiness, joy, content with myself in the quiet moments. I was never happy, Tyr," old Tyr said quietly as he brought weary eyes back to face his angry younger self.
Standing up, Tyr sneered at his older self. "Then I became a foolish old man."
Old Tyr simply smiled at the heat in Tyr's words. "A foolish old man who accomplished everything you ever wanted to achieve, except one thing," he said mildly.
"And what might that be?" Tyr asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at his older self.
Old Tyr pushed himself off the wall and started to walk away. He stopped just outside the gym and turned to say, "What haunts our dreams and fuels our daily exercise sessions as we work off our frustration and confusion? What possible thing is left that we never got the wisdom to do something about?"
Leaving a confused Tyr behind him, old Tyr slowly limped away with a rueful smile at both his younger self's arrogance and his own stubbornness. He could already see that this conversation was going to get violent.
***
Old Tyr silently watched the tension between his younger
self and Beka Valentine on the command deck of the Andromeda as they drifted
through space. With the others off looking for desperately needed spare
parts, the ship would have felt hauntingly empty if not for the twenty
refugees from the future trapped on board with them. As Beka and
Tyr danced around each other, old Tyr had kept his distance, watching to
see what would happen. In the end, Beka had made her move for Tyr
over dinner, and exactly as old Tyr remembered, Tyr had turned her down
flat for not being Nietzchean. A good excuse that would ensure no
one looked too closely at his actions or occasional slip-ups when it came
to Harper. Old Tyr had forgotten how ruthless and manipulative he
could be. Amazing how much he had mellowed over the last century.
Still, old Tyr thought, he had left his younger self alone for the last
few weeks to think about his words in the gym, and except for his daily
talks with Trance and Harper, he had kept with his crew in the lower decks.
Now they had finally gotten word from the Maru that the others were on
their way back with the spare parts they'd needed, and old Tyr felt the
need for another quiet word with his younger self.
Old Tyr found his younger self in the gym again less than an hour after the Maru had returned, and this time he felt he needed to show him a few things. He may have been one hundred and fifty seven years old, but he hadn't remained alpha of Kodiak Pride and the Supreme Commander of the Martyr Battalions without still being able to fight. Moving into the gym, old Tyr ignored the calculating look of his younger self as he started his warm-up exercises. As he felt his joints get more flexible and his muscles loosen up, old Tyr stood, grabbing a force lance from a nearby armory cabinet, and turned towards his younger self. "Are you ready to be humiliated, boy?"
Tyr narrowed his eyes and rapidly twirled his force lance around his torso before snapping it to a stop aimed directly at old Tyr's chest. "Ready, old man"
Old Tyr simply smiled as he brought his force lance to a guard position and waited for his younger self to make the first move. Tyr moved with lightning speed to attack old Tyr, and he was surprised when the old man simply dodged his combination attack with a quick side step and attempted to trip Tyr as he passed, saying, "You'll have to better than that, boy."
Not bothering with a reply, Tyr jumped over the old man's lance and swung his own in a downward stroke at the old man's head. As it was blocked, he used the momentum to twist his body and snap a vicious roundhouse kick at the old man's kidneys. The old man wasn't so easily caught; he also used the momentum caused by his block to twist to the opposite side and collapsed his lance, only to snap it open again to entangle Tyr's legs as he tried to land. Moving with all the speed his old body possessed, old Tyr collapsed his lance again as Tyr fell on his arse, and he snapped it back open while swinging it down in a savage overhead sweep. Reacting off instinct, Tyr twirled his lance to block and attempted to twist the old man's lance out of his hands by using his superior strength. Old Tyr reacted to the expected move and allowed his lance to fly from his hands as he kicked Tyr savagely in the nose, smashing into it in a spray of blood. Following up with a flurry of blows into Tyr's face, old Tyr then used Tyr's momentary pause to kick his force lance away and raced to grab his own, panting, "You're fighting like an old woman, boy."
Rolling over to grab his own, Tyr flipped to his feet and growled. He charged at the old man taunting him, swinging his lance in a ferocious side sweep before him. Old Tyr smiled as he fired directly at the charging man's chest, and when Tyr dived to avoid the blast, followed it with another and another, forcing Tyr to roll across the floor to avoid the blasts. As Tyr rolled into a wall, old Tyr fired at him again. Tyr backflipped away.
"This isn't a game, boy. Fight like the alpha I know you are."
Tyr snarled as he swung his force lance over his shoulder while standing and snapped off a shot back at the old man. Easily dodging it, old Tyr chuckled and fired back, saying, "Fight like your life depends on it."
While the two of them began dodging the ineffectual blasts they were shooting at each other, a holographic image of Rommie appeared in the middle of the gym. With blasts passing through her, she said angrily, "Tyr and Tyr, you are damaging the gym. Stop this now!"
When both Tyrs completely ignored her and continued to try and kill each other, Rommie narrowed her eyes and acted. Orange lightning shot through both men as their force lances followed the instructions sent to them by Rommie. Both Tyrs collapsed to the floor, senseless, and Rommie spoke with irritatedly through the ship's intercom. "Trance, report to medical, and expect two angry and damaged Nietzcheans to arrive shortly for treatment." With a passing glare at both of them, Rommie then sent silent instructions to her androids to pick them up and carry them to medical.
***
Dylan wiped a hand over his face in frustration as he watched Trance try to tend to Tyr's broken nose. Applying a small cast to Tyr's nose, Trance smiled and ignored his snarl. "You'll be all better in a couple of hours. You've shattered--"
Tyr angrily cut Trance off as he pushed her away and sat up snarling, "I'll kill that old fool."
Dylan sighed. "You'll only be killing yourself, literally," he said.
Tyr narrowed his eyes at Dylan and was about to snarl something back when the door opened. Harper walked in with a broad smile and a twinkle in his eyes.
"That old guy sure is somethin' else, ain't he? He's already up and about, telling Beka and Rommie to back off with the probes or else."
Dylan sighed again as Tyr snarled menacingly at Harper and stomped out of the room. "You sure you couldn't slip him a sedative?"
Harper watched with surprise as Tyr stormed out in a huff. "What's up with the über?" he asked.
Smiling broadly as her tail twitched spasmodically behind her, Trance said, "Tyr would smell the sedative as soon as it came near him. Harper, I think you should go and try to talk to Tyr while Dylan sends Rev to talk to older Tyr."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Dylan asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Absolutely," Trance said with a happy nod of her head before skipping out of medical, immensely pleased with herself.
Harper frowned at Dylan. "Is it just me, or is Her Purpleness acting even weirder than usual since the old guy came on board?"
Dylan gave Harper a small smile, then patted him on the shoulder and walked towards the door, saying, "I'll go get Rev. If you need help with Tyr, just let Rommie know."
***
Harper nervously adjusted his tool belt for the tenth time as he stood just inside the hanger where the Maru was docked. "Rommie are you sure Tyr's in the Maru?" he asked.
An image of Rommie appeared on a nearby monitor. "Yes, Harper," she said impatiently. "If he knows what's good for him, he'll stay there until he is prepared to act rationally. If either of them start trying to damage me again, I'll throw them both out the nearest airlock and be done with it."
"Now, Rom-doll, you don't mean that."
Rommie glared at him. "Don't bet on it, Harper."
Smiling, Harper shook his head at how only Tyr could seriously piss off a High Guard Warship with a training session in the gym, and he headed over towards the Maru.
Opening the door into the Maru's bridge, Harper cautiously looked in to see Tyr pacing up and down, muttering to himself. Harper walked in and waited for Tyr to spot him. Completely ignoring the annoying engineer, Tyr continued to ponder the various methods of killing he knew, searching his extensive knowledge for the slowest and most painful way to kill his older self.
"Rommie's still fuming over that training session between you and the old guy," Harper said as he leant back on the doorframe. "It's gonna take me a couple of days just to replace all the paneling you two destroyed."
"Leave me alone," Tyr growled, turning angrily.
Feeling nervous at the sight of Tyr's barely controlled rage, Harper looked down at his toolbelt and fidgeted with his tools. "You should get to know the old guy better. He's actually a pretty okay guy...for a Nietzchean."
Narrowing his eyes dangerously at Harper, Tyr bit out, "How would you know?"
Harper kept fidgeting with his tools. "He comes down to see me all the time." Bringing his eyes up to Tyr's, Harper smiled slightly as he said, "He even brings me Sparky Cola sometimes."
Feeling his anger growing, Tyr glared at Harper and fought to control the urge to grab the young human by the throat. He struggled with himself to ask, "He brings you Sparky Cola?"
Visibly wilting beneath Tyr's harsh gaze, Harper looked back down at the floor. "Well, yeah. Usually when I'm working down in the lower decks, but lately other times, too, when he talks to me about stuff."
"What stuff?" Tyr asked, still trying to bring both a growing sense of alarm and reasonless rage under control.
Fidgeting with his toolbelt again, Harper started to get angry, as well. Why the hell was he even trying to talk to this...this...über? "Why the hell do you care what he talks to me about?" he shot back. "It's not like you give a shit."
***
Old Tyr stood looking out of the observation deck window as he heard someone draped in robes walk through the door. Without turning, old Tyr said, "I have no desire to discuss my feelings with you, Magog."
Rev didn't speak as he continued into the room, and he stopped a distance from old Tyr as he joined him looking out through the observation window. After what seemed an eternity of strained silence to Tyr, he heard the Magog say, "Harper tells me you two often speak about feelings."
"Did he say anything else?" Tyr asked quietly, still looking out the window.
Turning to look at the ancient Nietzchean, Rev smiled. "Yes."
Tyr sighed quietly, watching the stars slowly drift past the Andromeda. "You always did infuriate me, Magog," he said.
"Harper said that you often wished you could have changed what you did in the past. That if you knew back then what you do now, you would have acted differently," Rev said calmly as he folded his clawed hands into the arms of his robe.
Nodding his head slowly, still refusing to look at Rev, Tyr said, "I was so consumed with revenge and survival that I forgot about life. In the end, all my accomplishments meant nothing to me because, as I face eternity I find that the one thing I wanted is the one thing I could never have." Finally turning to face Rev, old Tyr whispered, "Because they had died while I stood by and let them."
Rev paused to think, tilting his head slightly as he watched the ancient Nietzchean silently turn back to the observation window. Slowly raising a hand to touch his silent companion on the shoulder, Rev said, "But now you have the chance to change your past."
"I forgot how stubborn and self assured I was. He won't listen to me," Tyr said, moving away from the Magog.
Folding his hands back inside his robe, Rev nodded understandingly. "It makes you angry."
Old Tyr snorted softly and turned to look at Rev again. "You have no idea, Magog."
***
Tyr looked surprised as Harper pushed away from the doorway and stepped up to him, demanding, "Why do I keep forgetting that not only is he a damned über, but that he's actually you?"
Tyr was suddenly speechless as his mind whirled with possibilities. "What?"
"Because he's nice to me. Brings me Sparky Cola while I'm working and talks to me like I'm a real person. And he actually listens to what I say, unlike most of the people around here."
"You want people to bring you that gut rot and be nice to you?" Tyr asked with a raised eyebrow.
With a look of disgust Harper turned away from Tyr and folded his arms across his chest, muttering, "Forget it."
His anger forgotten, Tyr stood behind Harper with hands raised to touch, utterly confused. "You like him," he said quietly.
Hugging himself, Harper muttered back, "Maybe I do."
Tyr turned Harper around to face him. "You do realise he's over six times your age."
Blushing brightly, Harper stammered, "Not like that. As a friend or... or... or something."
Tyr lifted Harper's face to look at him. "You've kissed him."
"Once," Harper murmured, his ears burning in embarrassment. "After one of our talks he kissed me on the cheek goodbye."
Tyr leaned down slightly, bringing his face closer to Harper's, and asked, "Did you like it?"
With his eyes as big as moons, Harper whispered back, "Maybe I did."
"Do you want to try it again?" Tyr breathed, bringing his lips to hover just above Harper's.
"Yes."
Then Tyr brushed his lips across Harper's, and when he heard his sharp intake of breath, he brought their lips together again. Feeling Tyr's surprisingly soft lips press against his, Harper gasped again before he felt Tyr's tongue flick out across his lips. Tyr deepened their kiss as Harper's arms went around him, and his tongue plundered Harper's mouth. He allowed himself for the first time since he was a child to feel.