Tyr looked up when he heard the heavy door open up and Harper walk back in from where he'd been holed up with members of the local HLA cell.
Harper walked over to Tyr and sat down next to him on a large turbine. "We've got major problems."
Keeping a close eye on the other humans who spread themselves out around the room with obvious bulges under their ragged jackets, Tyr waited patiently for Harper to tell what he'd found out.
"The Dragons know I'm here, and they've sent in a squadron of twelve Warcrusiers to take me back to Dragon space for questioning," Harper said, looking down at his feet. Lifting his head so he could look Tyr in the eye he whispered, "You don't think they know that Chrome's me, do you?"
Tyr's eyes flicked over Harper's worried face. "It's a possibility. Are they looking for Dylan and the others, as well?"
Harper just shook his head as he looked back down at his boots. "Marc said the Dragons are threatening to destroy the drift if they don't turn me over in two hours when they get here. He put the word out about Trance and found out she left with the Maru over an hour ago."
"Good." Tyr said. When Harper looked at him, confused, he elaborated. "It means that Dylan knows about the Drago Kasov and about the reward for your capture."
"Marc wants us off the Drift." Harper sighed. "He's trying to get us on a freighter before the Dragons get here."
Noticing some hard glances from the humans around them, Tyr put an arm around Harper and hugged him closer. As Harper returned the hug and nuzzled his head in against Tyr's chest, Tyr glared back at the humans who were watching them, daring them to say or do anything about it.
***
Screen Rommie appeared on the main display of the Andromeda's command deck beside a tactical display of the Hyval system. "Dylan, I'm receiving a wide band transmission from a buoy that was dropped from a Chichin freighter that just slipstreamed out of this system."
With an eyebrow raised in curiosity Dylan said, "Show us, Rommie."
Harper appeared on the display wrapped up in a dirty grey shawl. "Hey there, guys, sorry to pike on your party plans for me, but I got better places to be." With a large smile Harper's image tilted his head slightly. "And just from me to Gabriel's girl, I'm going where the fun never stops rolling. Look for me where I'm the happiest."
As Harper's image froze and then started to repeat, Dylan waved his hand in front of his throat to end the playback. "Comments, people?"
Avatar Rommie looked over at her Captain as the tactical display reappeared. "The last part of his message was clearly meant for us, but I'm unsure of where exactly he meant."
"I'm not. I know exactly where he wants us to meet him," Beka said as she got out of the Andromeda's pilot chair and looked over at Trance and Rev with a broad smile.
"Infinity Atoll," all three said at the same time.
***
Tyr watched from his position on the bridge of the Persied ship as seven of the Drago Kasov Warcrusiers took Harper's bait and followed the Chichin freighter out of the system. With a nod at the curious look from the Persied Captain, Tyr left the bridge and went looking for Harper in the cabin they'd been given.
Walking quickly through the narrow corridors, Tyr opened the door to their quarters to hear Harper talking to someone on the comm link.
"Look, if a purple-skinned girl shows up there, just tell her that I have to take my time getting there. Tyr reckons it'll take us about two or three weeks to get to Infinity if the Dragons don't chase us."
Tyr moved further into the room so he could see the smartly-dressed green-and blue-haired human woman Harper was talking to.
"I don't know, Chrome," she said in a gravelly voice. "You should go into hiding for a while. The übers are serious about capturing you. The Sabra-Jaguar have upped the Dragon's reward, and they're offering 60 million guilders for your capture."
Harper smiled ruefully. "Hey, nice to know what I'm worth, Maggie. Always told you that I was priceless."
Tyr crossed his arms as he stood behind Harper just out of sight of the comm link's pickup as Maggie shook her head. "Chrome, I'm being serious. At least take your time getting to Infinity. I'll tell your purple friend that you'll be there in three months."
"Sorry, but I can't." Harper seriously worried about what could happen while he was away from Rommie for so long. From the corner of his eye, he saw a lone dagger fly into the wall. "I'll be there in about a month. Gotta go, Maggie. Just pass it along to your hubbie on Infinity, please."
Maggie looked frustrated, angry, and worried all at once before she sighed in exasperation. "All right, I'll let him know." Narrowing her eyes at Harper she said seriously, "Just be careful, Chrome. For old time's sake, you're the last of my cousins still alive, and I worry..."
Harper smiled as he leant forward, preparing to cut the communication. "I will. Trust me, I'll be in touch."
As the comm link went dead, Tyr moved up behind Harper and put his hands comfortingly on Harper's shoulders. "She looks nothing like you. Is that common amongst blood relatives on Earth?"
"Maggie's not my blood relative," Harper said as he plugged himself into the ship's computer system. "Maggie and me, we're the last survivors of the Miguel Estaban. That was the name of the rust bucket we used to escape Earth in. Well, the first time I escaped, anyway."
Tyr held himself still at that, unsure if he should encourage Harper to share with him a past where he lived only to kill Nietzcheans and Magog. With a blank stare at the wall in front of him, Harper suddenly smiled and snorted softly. "You should have seen it, Tyr. The Miguel was packed with as many refugees as could physically fit into her holds. Almost two hundred of us left Earth, slipping past Dragon patrols, and slipstreaming to freedom." Wrapped up in memories, Harper never noticed Tyr's questioning look or the fact that he was still plugged into the ship's computer systems.
Watching a rapid series of schematics and star charts click over the comm link display, Tyr waited for Harper to finish before he got his attention. "We need to get off this ship as soon as we leave slipstream. Your friends will be there to pick up our life pod?"
Leaning back to rest his head on Tyr, Harper looked up at him as he said, "Yeah. We'll be picked up by a modified merchant ship as soon as the Persieds slipstream out."
Tyr raised an eyebrow as he looked down at Harper's smiling face. "What do you mean, modified?"
Harper winked mischievously. "Trust in the Harper. The Harper is good. The Harper has it all worked out."
Tyr snorted as he smiled back. "Why does that worry me?"
***
As they popped out of slipstream, Beka smiled and unbuckled herself. "Wow. Look at that--we got no one following us."
Dylan exchanged a look with Avatar Rommie. "I never doubted it for a moment," he told Beka.
She snorted as she jumped out of the pilot's chair and strode up to Avatar Rommie. "You think they'll be able to find Harper and Tyr?"
"Considering fourteen ships slipstreamed out of the Hyval System within five minutes of Harper's message buoy activating, it seems unlikely at least for awhile," Avatar Rommie said with a small smile.
Beka tapped out some commands into the console next to Avatar Rommie. "You know, they'll probably take a while to get to Infinity Atoll, and we never did get those replacement missiles you wanted..."
Dylan leaned on the hand rail around his work station. "And you have an idea on how to get some."
"Well now that you ask..." Beka smiled and pressed another command, causing a slipstream route to show up on the main display.
"The Girondelli System. There was a High Guard resupply depot abandoned in that system 320 years ago," Avatar Rommie said as she looked over at Dylan.
Frowning, Dylan studied the display. "We abandoned that depot because of a treaty with the Pyrians that gave them exclusive control of the system for three..."
Beka was grinning like the proverbial cat with a canary as she finished Dylan's sentence for him. "Three hundred years. A treaty that expired twenty years ago. I happen to have checked it out, and no one's been near the Girondelli System in over a hundred years..."
"And according to the understanding between the Systems Commonwealth and the Pyrians, we would be entitled to have complete access to the depot until a new treaty is signed," Dylan said as he looked over at Beka with a smile that showed just how impressed he was.
***
Wriggling out of the open door of the life pod, Harper stood up beside Tyr's redwood impression, confused until he realised why Tyr was standing ramrod straight. There were eight armoured humans standing just inside the hanger doors with some very nasty looking rifles pointed at them. With a sigh, Harper moved ahead of Tyr and smiled weakly as he waited for a familiar face or voice. The two groups stood staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity until finally the hanger doors whined open, and a small, grey-haired woman walked in with another three armoured and heavily-armed guards.
"Fei," Harper greeted the woman. "Which code signal do you want me to use tonight?"
The Asian-looking woman walked up to Harper and crossed her arms. "Which one do you think will keep you alive?" she asked coldly.
"The one with that really funky rhythm you like so well?"
Fei turned a suspicious eye on Harper. "Does it go bop de bop de bop?"
"Nah, it goes ba de bop de ba de bop."
Fei turned a glare onto Harper that could freeze molten lead before a small smirk broke through, and she said with a twinkle in her eye, "I like la de friggin da better, myself."
Harper broke into a broad smile and pulled Fei into a tight hug. "Happy to see you, too, Fei."
As she returned Harper's hug, Fei eyed off Tyr. "I wish it wasn't under these circumstances, though," she said, pulling back and jerking her head in Tyr's direction. "Who's your friend?"
Harper moved back to stand beside Tyr. "Tyr Anasazi, last of the Kodiak Pride. The Dragons are hunting him, too."
Fei flicked her eyes between the two of them before she sighed and signalled for the guards to stand down. "Well, we have a lot to talk about, and I think you'll both be more comfortable in my cabin."
***
Without a flicker of emotion, Tyr watched Harper embrace the Fei woman in what looked like a familiar hug. It shouldn't disturb him, for one she was too old to reproduce and... Tyr hid his momentary confusion by slowly sweeping his gaze across the eleven armed guards spread out across the hanger bay. What was wrong with him? He was Tyr Anasazi out of Victoria by Barbarossa, he was a Nietzchean. That he was in love with the small human stepping back to introduce him should have been irrelevant. Love? Yes, love. I am in love. I am in love with Harper. Tyr numbly followed Harper and the woman as they led him into the depths of this decrepit ship, his mind spinning as he pondered what that one word meant. Nietzchean philosophers had been no more successful pondering the implications and meanings of that word than any one else had.
***
Fei refilled her glass with some more alcohol and then sat back in her chair, idly looking at Harper and Tyr. Tyr was almost pacing as he moved between staring out the port window or standing behind Harper, who was lounging in a chair across from Fei, and glaring at her menacingly. After taking a sip of her drink, Fei said casually to Harper, "You realise that the Dragons almost certainly know your real identity."
Picking up his half-full glass carefully, Harper saw the tension in Tyr's back as he stared out the window. "We'll be safe once we're on board the Andromeda again," he said to the ceiling. "It just means that I can't work out in the open any more."
Fei twirled the alcohol in her glass, watching the light reflect off the dark liquid. "If you make it back."
"Is that a question or a statement?" Tyr asked carefully as he remained facing the slowly passing stars outside the window.
"A statement." Fei sipped from her glass and looked curiously at Harper over the rim.
Harper saw the dangerous glint in Tyr's eye as he turned away from the window. "Why wouldn't we make it back?"
Fei tapped a finger nail against the side of her glass and looked hard at Harper as she said, "I never said the über wouldn't make it back to the Andromeda, eventually. Chrome, on the other hand..."
Moving to stand behind Harper, Tyr leant against the back of his chair. "What about Chrome?"
"Tyr," Harper warned as he put down his glass.
"Chrome is the public face of the HLA, now. Chrome is needed on the front lines, either as a leader or..." Fei gulped the last of the dark fluid. "As a martyr."
***
Beka strode onto the Andromeda's Command Deck to see Dylan and Avatar Rommie standing next to Rev at the science work station, talking quietly amongst themselves. With a raised eyebrow, she headed over. "What's going on?"
Dylan looked up. "We're just going over the updated star chart you got for us on the Girondelli System."
Holographic Rommie flickered into place next to Beka. "The little information we have on likely Pyrian activity only indicates the presence of occasional Pyrian patrols in this system. We would have a far better negotiating position if we knew of any Pyrian outposts or colonies there."
"Look, the old High Guard depot was over here in this asteroid field between the orbits of the fifth and sixth planets of the system," Beka said, indicating the area on the display in front of them.
"Those planets are both gas giants with only twenty or so icy moons between them. High Guard surveys found no viable quantities of any valuable minerals," Avatar Rommie said from beside Dylan.
Dylan nodded thoughtfully. "The High Guard established the resupply depot here for the exploration program we had running into the Sphinx galactic cluster. We traded the system as part of a larger treaty between the Systems Commonwealth and the Pyrians."
"Why?" Beka asked curiously.
"Classified. The exploration program was shut down just before the treaty was signed for security reasons."
"Traditionally, Pyrians were only interested in worlds close to a star with high ambient temperatures," Holographic Rommie said. "The Girondelli System has only one world that matches those specifics commonly associated with Pyrian colonisation."
Pointing to the second planet on the star chart, Avatar Rommie said, "The second planet could have been colonised, but the first planet would be unlikely due to its small mass and weak gravitational and magnetic fields."
Beka looked thoughtfully at the star chart. "If we slipstream into that debris field just outside the planetary system, we could avoid detection long enough to work out what's going on in there."
***
Old Tyr walked up to the door with his grandson beside him as he nodded at a saluting crew member. She entered the almost empty cargo bay and turned to give a nod to the crew member standing just inside, and old Tyr followed his grandson through the doors. The small black man pressed a button on a small device in his hand, which immediately began a high-pitched squeal that rapidly increased in pitch until it went beyond human hearing. Old Tyr and the rest of his former crew waited patiently, even after the painful whine had faded, until the man holding the device finally looked up from it with a smile.
Gesturing for everyone to sit down, old Tyr looked at the surviving members of his crew calmly. "The moment of destiny for our final stand against the enemy draws closer. The time of training and waiting is over."
Walking over to one of the few crates they had managed to salvage from the Bunker Hill, he tapped in the release codes and stood back as the crate opened itself, then turned to face his expectant crew.
"The Andromeda Ascendant must remain unaware of our preparations. Her crew would not understand, and we cannot explain. While her engineer is away and the crew is distracted, we have a window of opportunity in which to lay the groundwork for victory."
***
Dragging the unconscious guard further into the room,
Tyr looked over at Harper's slumped body where he was jacked into the ship's
computer core. Dropping the guard next to another three of her unconscious
crew, Tyr closed the door to the ship's reactor core and held himself ready
for the next, hoping that Harper would be finished soon.
Deep within the electronic landscape of the Perelli's computer core, Harper smiled as he broke through the last of the ship's security protocols. Rapidly gesturing with his holographic hands, Harper reprogrammed the ship's command structure. He groaned as he snapped back to awareness and unplugged himself. "Remind me to tell Fei that her ship needs a real engineer. That was like wading through thick mud."
Looking around as he stiffly stood up, Harper first spotted the four bodies over by a wall, then Tyr looking at him with a gun held ready before he turned back to the doorway.
"You promised you wouldn't kill anyone," Harper said reproachfully, pointing to the bodies.
"I didn't. They're unconscious," Tyr said without taking his attention away from the doorway. "Have you finished toying around with this... vessel?"
"Yeah. We should emerge out of slipstream near the Sinti System, and I've programmed a modified life pod to drop away undetected," Harper said as he checked one guard's pulse.
Tyr snorted. "Yet again, I'm almost afraid to ask what that means."
Having made sure they were all still alive, Harper moved away from the unconscious guards. "I altered the schematics for the standard life pods carried on most of the courier and light freight ships that we use in the HLA. They're used to drop off couriers in hostile systems without setting off any security scanners."
Facing away from Harper, Tyr allowed himself a small smile of admiration even as he said dismissively, "I hope you picked one close to us, Professor. That woman can't cover for our absence much longer."
"Trust in the Harper." He opened the door and led them into the empty corridor. "The life pod's the third one from the ladder on C deck."
***
As the Andromeda emerged from slipstream, Dylan checked the ship's systems. "Can you detect any Pyrian ships near us, Rommie?"
Holographic Rommie appeared in her usual spot next to the main display. "Nothing within this debris field, but I have detected several small drones moving towards us."
An image of a spherical black object with small flashing lights appeared on the main display next to Holographic Rommie, and Rev spoke. "They appear to be some sort of sensor drones. Three of them started moving towards us as soon as we emerged from slipstream."
"Pyrian drones?" Dylan asked, focused on his console, preparing to take counter measures if they were fired upon.
"Uncertain. They appear to be, but they are generating a fluxing magnetic field that is interfering with my sensors," Screen Rommie said from the display.
"They're going pretty slow. I'm sure I can slip past them by going deeper into the debris field," Beka said as she grabbed the Andromeda's controls, preparing to do just that.
Dylan studied the display on his console showing the sensor readouts of the star system, then shook his head. "No, just take us further into the system. There's no power or communciation signals from the planetary system at all. These are probably just a detection system to let the Pyrians know someone's here."
"And what do we say when the Pyrians get here?" Beka asked as she piloted the Andromeda through the debris field.
"That after three hundred years I though it was high time for a social call?"
***
Leaning his head back as far as it could go in the cramped confines of the Perelli's lifepod, Tyr felt Harper's elbow jab him in the ribs in his excitement. "Fei's ship just slipstreamed outta here, none the wiser."
"Wonderful," Tyr said sarcastically, staring out of the life pod's only window.
Harper squirmed some more, and when Tyr got kicked in the groin, he barked, "What do you think you're doing, boy?"
"Putting us on course to dock with the Husvana orbital. The FTA use it as a major stopover on long transit runs, so we should be able to grab a lift to just about anywhere," Harper said as he twisted around.
Another elbow caught Tyr in the ribs, and he growled and grabbed Harper. "Finished?"
"Uh, yeah."
Tyr noticed both the strange huskiness to Harper's voice and the fact that he'd pulled Harper up close to his body. Trying not to notice how Harper's body felt moulded against him, Tyr bent his head down to whisper into Harper's ear. "Then just relax until we get there, professor."
TBC