By: Chris M. <thoth_anubis@yahoo.com>
Pairing: Various, both Het and slash
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers : Takes place during the conclusion of episode 4x07 "The World Turns All Around Her" and is dependent on details from that episode.
Summary : A series of scene fragments set near the end of "The World Turns Around Her," that I thought of while proofreading "Recreation," using the same basic story idea, (consequently you will probably want to read that one first) but with a twist. Each starts from the seed of the first paragraph, which is a line Trance used in the episode, then continues in a different direction (making a different AU) for each section. Enjoy!
***
"The Maru has just returned to its hanger," Trance commented, looking up from the readout on her instrument panel to smile at Beka, "It's because you wanted it there."
And then...
1. Trance
"Great, so lets get the heck out of here," Harper commented. He looked around at the incredulous faces of his shipmates. "What are you all looking at?" the now-purple engineer asked as he hitched up his tool belt with a nifty move of his tail before turning back to his station.
Trance blushed and looked down at her readout as the rest of the crew turned to stare at her. "Oops?"
2. Rommie
The Andromeda's avatar watched Dylan reach forward to activate her sublight engines, then opened her eyes wide as her perception shifted. Her eyes abruptly began seeing on an extremely narrow range of frequencies, her ears lost 65.3% of their sensitivity, and her nose lost the ability to differentiate the thousand variations of chemical combinations in the air, leaving only a few vague descriptive words to provide a general sense, rather than the detailed analyses she had been able to generate.
Darkness began to cloud her mind, and she stumbled, the involuntary motion inspiring her to abruptly gasp - clearing the looming haze as her new lungs took their first breath. Her hands shook as she slowly lifted them before her eyes - eyes that could barely perceive the faint lines and wrinkles in some places, and not the finely engineered pores that Harper had spent hours creating in mathematically precise patterns across her synthetic skin.
Her chest began to heave as she realized what that sound she was hearing was... It was her heart. Her *human* heart, thudding in her chest. "I'm... human," she gasped, turning to her captain with love in her eyes.
3. Beka
"INTRUDER ALERT," echoed over the loudspeakers, the AI's cold voice ringing out a strident warning as the sensors registered the sudden unauthorized presence.
And Tyr, naked save for the tiny leather and chainmail thong, that emphasized more than concealed, looked up from his place at Beka's feet and whispered, "Command me, Mistress Beka. I swear on the bones of Drago Museveni that my wealth, my fleets, and my body are entirely yours to use as you will."
Beka's smile grew into a smirk as Tyr lovingly licked her boots clean. "Good boy."
Dylan blinked, then simply commented, "There's something you don't see every day."
4. Rhade
Harper flinched as severed heads appeared from nowhere, raining down from nothingness to land with horrible wet thumps on the command deck, leaking blood and in some cases, grey matter. "Gah..." he stammered, as one landed on his console. His eyes locked to the cold, dead eyes of Charlemagne Bolivar.
He backed away from the grim trophy, then turned and stared in shock at the heavily swollen, pregnant belly of Rommie that he'd collided with. Eyes wide, he spun, his disbelieving eyes alighting on the pregnant figures of Rommie, Trance, and Beka, and the improbably and untraceably decapitated body of Dylan Hunt.
Harper began to hyperventilate, then, at the feeling of a sudden draft, looked down and discovered that his pants had vanished. "Wha...?" he began, then fell silent as he heard a mocking chuckle.
"Over here, boy. Since my consorts are all pregnant, ensuring the continuation of my genetic line and proving my superiority, and my enemies have all met mysterious and fatal accidents, I can afford to take time out from my relentless drive for conquest and impregnation to play," Rhade smirked as he slowly unbuckled the belt of his uniform and kicked the severed head of Tyr Anasazi out of his way. "So get that cute little ass over here and service me, kludge."
5. Dylan
Harper blinked and looked down, startled by a sudden strange feeling. Slowly, cautiously, "he" touched the breasts that were straining the top of "his" brown leather outfit.
When "his" fingers had verified what "his" eyes had shown "him", "he" slowly turned to look at the rest of the crew, and wasn't really surprised to find that "he" wasn't the only one to have been transformed: the crew now consisted entirely of women in tight leather outfits that looked a great deal like Trance's - aside from an only vaguely apologetic-looking and entirely male Captain Dylan Hunt.
"Y'know," Harper commented, scratching "his" crotch in a distinctly unfeminine manner, "this is *not* how I envisioned being in a seraglio. Hell, there aren't even any silk wall hangings."
6. Harper
Struck by a sudden thought, Harper crossed his fingers, screwed his eyes shut, and concentrated harder than he ever had in his life. When he heard a startled, wordless exclamation from Beka, he opened his eyes and laughed...
... before jumping into the massive pile of thrones, crowns, eagles, and talons that glittered in a heap taller than he was, the pile nearly dwarfed by the crates of quantum memory chips, Neu Bayern Weissbrau, and Sparky Cola that surrounded it.
"Score!"
7. Trance Take 2
Trance gestured and in the air before her appeared the five pieces of the Engine of Creation, the four missing pieces glowing with power as they hovered in the air above the one the trio had already collected.
The pieces slowly assembled themselves, the rods fitting into the sockets on the complimentary pieces with ominous clicks that seemed to reverberate through all of reality. When the assembly was complete, a hum seemed to come from it, a vibration that seemed to echo in their souls.
A small motion, barely a twitch of Trance's finger, and they were back in the regular universe, without recourse to the Route of Ages, or the portal in space. The crew of the Andromeda stared at Trance as her eyes began to glow, and she began to laugh and laugh and laugh as the stars began to go out, one by one...
8. Rommie Take 2
"Harper?" Andromeda breathed, staring from the display screen as her engineer flickered before her internal sensors, before the fluctuations vanished, leaving him subtly different.
Harper's eyes widened as he looked down, lifted his shirt, and slowly opened an access panel that hadn't been there moments before, revealing an intricate tracery of circuitry and LEDs that glowed red and green, a visible diagnostic of his operating status.
"Holy..." Beka began, before falling silent.
Rommie slowly walked up to her creator, and now her creation in turn, and with a smile interlocked her hand with his, activating the transmitter in her palm to interface with him.
On the view screen, an image of Harper with a serious expression, and wearing a High Guard uniform appeared beside the image of Andromeda's AI. For a moment, neither figure moved, but then the image of Harper cautiously placed an arm around the shoulders of the AI. The expressions on both of their faces slowly became just a little less grim.
The emitters in the ceiling of the command deck flashed into life as holographic projections of Harper and Andromeda appeared by Trance's side, holding hands, and wearing coordinated outfits.
"You don't have to wear gloves if you want to touch me now," Rommie breathed, as she slowly leaned in to kiss him.
9. Beka Take 2
Beka's eyes widened as she stared at the man who had suddenly appeared in front of the viewscreen. With a small, almost childlike whisper, she asked, "Daddy?"
10. Rhade Take 2
Dylan turned to Telemachus, and bashfully smiled. "I've fought against it, because I was mourning your ancestor, but I can't resist it anymore. Ever since the first time we met, I've known the truth. I love *you*, Telemachus."
As he kneeled on the command deck, ignoring the tide of darkness that was rising to cover the planet they'd just escaped, Dylan whispered, "Will you marry me?"
11. Dylan Take 2
"Intruder alert!" a cold voice cried out, "Andromeda, activate internal defenses and repel boarders."
Rather than complying, Rommie turned and stared at the person who had barked out the commands. "Dawn?" she gasped.
Dylan spun in place, staring at his pilot, "Refractions of Dawn?" then turned to where his first officer had once stood to add, "Rhade?"
"Yes?" Twin voices responded, the two scowling Nietzscheans continuing to menace each other with bared bone blades without turning to look at their captain as they tried to avoid a moment of vulnerability from the strange mirror image of themselves that they had been confronted with.
"Captain," the AI said, an accustomed hint of emotion in her voice, "There are now 7,143 life signs on board... Our crew is back. Our original crew is back and *alive*."
Dylan looked around the command deck, his eyes widening at the clutter of the two crews, both sets staring at the "intruders" who had suddenly appeared amongst them, while one set *also* tried to understand the strange transformation that had overtaken the bridge... and his face slowly creased into a smile.
12. Harper Take 2
Harper stared at the planet, honestly trying to empty his thoughts, but he was interrupted when he was suddenly engulfed by female flesh.
"Harper..." Rommie breathed in one ear, as Trance whispered "Seamus..." in the other.
"I love you," they whispered in unison.
Harper tried to get away, but they were too strong for him.
Rommie kissed him, her hands tearing open his clothing to access that which she desired so much that lay beneath it. She seized one flailing arm and forced it inside her uniform, the leather of her pants preventing him from moving it away from where she'd placed his hand.
As Trance nibbled on his earlobe, holding his other hand captive with inhuman strength, she whispered, "I know you have a fetish for avatars... and that's good, because I have got a *surprise* for you."
As the women dragged him from the command deck, heading for parts unknown, Harper whimpered, "I didn't mean it," as he was slowly divested of his clothing.
"I guess the old saying is true: 'be careful what you wish for,'" Beka commented as she activated the sublight engines, heading for the Route of Ages and the portal back to their own reality.
The End