A/N : This is not a sequel to And then there was Tyr.  It's a whole other AU.  Specific episode spoilers are season 1 eps, The Banks of the Lethe and The Sum of its Parts.  Season 2 eps, Home Fires and Into the Labyrinth
A/N 2 : Thanks to my fantabulous Betas, Leslie aKa Lina and MojoLorr, for their hard work on making this better than it otherwise would have been.  All mistakes, bad spelling, bad grammer and bad plot are all mine

***
Chapter one   -   Opening moves
***

Flowing out of the floor, Satrina Leander phase shifted into the small, curtained-off area behind the stage where she could hear her brother giving his speech.

"I'm sure everyone has heard by now the rumours about the ultimate fate of the one hundred of our brothers and sisters who were encouraged to leave with our beloved sister Satrina."

Satrina smiled at that while three other figures phase shifted around her.  Pointing at her blue coloured aide, she gestured with her eyes for him to get onto the catwalk above them.

"I am here to confirm those rumours.  Our beloved sister has sent one hundred of our brethren to become nothing less than food for an entire hive of Magog!"

The large hall beyond the stage suddenly erupted into shouts and accusations that almost drowned out whatever her brother was trying to say.  Satrina kept smiling as she confidently pushed aside the curtains and walked onto the stage behind her brother Martin, who stood at a podium.

"Brothers and sisters!  Brothers and sisters, a great crime has been committed against us.  Against everything that the Creche stands for!"

Satrina noted with satisfaction that her two aides followed her out onto the stage and walked into flanking positions on either side of the podium.  With a sultry smile, she watched as her older brother finally noticed the two warriors on either side of him and whirled around to confront her.

"That was a very stirring speech, dear brother.  Why, I feel filled with such a sense of outrage.  You might even say I feel motivated to do something about it," Satrina said, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"Beloved sister, your treachery lies exposed," Martin spat, pulling a gun out from inside his robe.

"Dear brother, you're such a naïve fool..."

The large hall resonated with sharply indrawn breaths as Satrina's reptilian aid struck with his sword, neatly slicing straight through Martin's torso.  Martin's eyes flew wide as his body slid apart, falling to the floor in two separate pieces.

The last sight Martin had was of his beloved sister Satrina blowing him a loving kiss.

Satrina looked fondly over the slowly cooling body of her older brother in the shocked silence of the meeting hall before she stepped over his body up to the podium to address them.

"Sisters and brothers, I have returned.  The time for our dear brother Martin's simpering mediocrity is over.  Our destiny calls for us to rise up and seize it by the throat," Satrina said with bright eyes as she looked over the stunned crowd gaping at her.  She added purringly, "Anyone who doesn't agree with my leadership is welcome to join our dear departed brother Martin..."

***

Deep inside the Mizar Star System, a badly patched ship exited the slipstream, pausing only long enough to drop a small life pod into space before it turned and went back into slipstream.  Inside the cramped confines of the life pod, a human male lay while a small vent started to blow air across his sleeping face.  With his shoulder-length blonde hair tickling his face, the lithe, tanned figure groaned as he stirred awake.  Ethan stretched out inside the tiny life pod as he woke up, and grabbing a ration bar, he checked the lifepod's chronometer.  With a smile, Ethan started eating as he pressed a button on the lifepod command console and, when a menu came up, quickly added the codes he had been told to type in.

An image of a young man, whom Ethan recognised as his older brother Martin, appeared on the screen with a worried look on his face.  "Ethan, if you're seeing this then things must have gone badly when I challenged Satrina at the Creche Assembly.  I'm probably already dead by the time you receive this transmission."

The background around the image of his brother then morphed into a wild kaleidoscope of flashing colours while Martin continued. "I need you to focus on the lights around me, Ethan.  Focus, let every thought fade into the light.  Allow your mind to empty itself into the kaleidoscope, to become a blank page. Visualise your mind being that blank page..."

***

Deep within the void between the Andromeda and Milky Way Galaxies, a fantastic battle was being waged between what looked to an outsider to be feuding swarms of space junk.  In reality it was another battle in the long civil war that had been raging within the Consensus of Parts for over a year.

Standing in a room that seemed to be made wholly of perspex, Captain Ishmael Khalid of the High Guard turned to look at the strange human-like machine saying, "I still don't understand.  How did this all begin?"

The machine-like female smiled and clasped her hands behind her back before she said calmly, "The Consensus of Parts had been split when a group of rebellious parts were aided by the High Guard Argosy, Glorious Heritage-class, heavy cruiser Andromeda Ascendant in destroying a galactic regulator assembly.  In the months that followed, we rebels gathered more and more of the Consensus to our cause of free thought that it seemed we were on the verge of total victory.  What we did not know until recently was that those who opposed the cause of free thought in the Consensus had become desperate.  An organic calling itself Satrina negotiated between the Executive arm of the Consensus and an enigmatic sentient called The Spirit of the Abyss.  Unfortunately for the cause of free thought, they successfully completed their negotiations sixty-three of your days ago, and ever since we have been in retreat."

Captain Khalid turned to look out through the perspex thoughtfully.  "You're not in retreat, you're being decimated.  How long before you're defeated?"

"One hundred and fifty seven of your days," the machine woman said, still smiling.

"Is that a conservative estimate?" Captain Khalid asked as, without so much as a blink, he noted that whatever type of ship he was on had just entered the slipstream.

"Confirmed.  Optimistic estimates vary considerably, but all agree that the cause of free thought will be lost unless we undertake measures to eliminate our opponent's advantage immediately.  Will you now agree to gain the support of the Andromeda Ascendant and her organic symbiotes?"

"It won't be easy; I was supposed to have died nearly three hundred years ago," Captain Khalid said, turning back to face the machine woman again.

"Organic regulator symbiant Dylan Hunt knows you, does he not?"

 Captain Khalid smiled.  "Yes.  The Andromeda will have records to prove my identity as well, but I was talking about how I get to the Andromeda without giving your people away."

***

Screen Rommie appeared on the main display of the Andromeda saying, "Dylan, I'm detecting a distress signal.  It's using a Commonwealth identification code, life pod designation."

Dylan brought up the signal on his console, studying it.  "Castallian?"

"The Castallian government did report a cargo freighter lost in the Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy."

 "Six days ago, the time frame's right..." Dylan thoughtfully tapped a finger on the console in front of him.  "Rommie, change course.  We're going to pick it up."

***

Dylan stood with his arms crossed in the hanger bay as Harper and Avatar Rommie examined the lifepod they'd brought aboard.

"It checks out, Boss," Harper said, scratching his neck while he walked back around from the other side of the life pod.  "The life pod is from one of the fish guys' cargo freighters that got taken out last week, with one life sign inside."

"The lifepod contains a gaseous atmosphere, not a liquid one, Dylan."

Dylan chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment before saying, "I thought you said this was a Castallian lifepod, Mr. Harper."

"It is, and everything checks out, like I said."  Harper looked back at the lifepod.  "A lot of the crews on Castallian freighters are air-breathers, you know."

"True," Dylan agreed before looking at Rommie.  "Rommie?"

"I recommend we use biological containment procedures, just to be safe."

"All right.  Mr. Harper, get inside your isolation suite.  When Rommie gives you the signal, open it up,"  Dylan said before walking out of the hanger bay and closing the doors behind him.

While Harper climbed into his suit, Rommie silently ordered her Marias to position themselves around the life pod with their force lances extended.  Once she was happy with their positions, Rommie moved over to Harper and helped him put on his helmet, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Give me a hand with this door, Rom-doll?  It's rusted shut."

***

Satrina looked over the displays in the Creche comm centre with annoyed impatience before she turned to the bloated half-man, half-machine embedded in the floor at the centre of the room.

"What do you mean you've lost contact with Ethan?"

The glowing red orbs that rested where eyes once were dispassionately blinked at her before a metallic sounding male voice boomed out in the room. "Omega class assassin designate Ethan has not reported as per mission instructions for four standard days.  Consequently, your recall order can not be delivered.  Analysis of mission data received to date indicate Omega class assassin designate Ethan has been captured or has failed to accomplish his final mission objective."

Satrina narrowed her eyes with distaste at the creature that served as the Creche's central computer.  "He's still alive."

"Omega class assassins will self-terminate if captured, and analysis of surveillance data from the Andromeda Ascendant indicate that Omega class assassin designate Ethan has not accomplished his final mission objective.  Further, Omega class assassin designate Ethan has not reported in accordance with his mission instructions for four standard days.  Omega class assassins have inbuilt security measures that will cause them to self-terminate if they disobey any mission instruction.  This data is inconsistent with your declaration, and as such, your declaration is illogical and invalid."

Smiling sweetly, Satrina walked towards the bloated figure and slowly ran the fingers of one hand along the sweaty flab of the figure's belly as she bent over to whisper seductively, "Bertie.  I can call you Bertie, can't I?  It's very important to me that no one on board the Andromeda ever learns of the existence of the Creche."

Bertie turned his head as he followed the slow path of Satrina's fingers over his sweaty flesh.  "The Creche assembly has unanimously appointed you leader.  Your wish is our command."

Satrina's smile broadened at that just before she phase shifted her fist into Bertie's chest.  "Are you going to question me again when I tell you something, Bertie?"

A loud metallic squealing sound reverberated through the room, and Bertie's only arm flailed wildly as he writhed in agony.

"Ethan is alive; find him."

Even louder squeals reverberated as Satrina slowly withdrew her fist from Bertie's chest.

"Of course, Satrina.  Reviewing and correlating all data."

Moving away from Bertie, Satrina ran a hand through her long hair.  "Now that wasn't so hard, was it, dear brother?"

***

The metal of the walls seemed to liquefy, flowing aside to create a doorway into a large room filled with a bizarre, uneven arrangement of blinking lights and moving metal parts.  Captain Khalid walked into the room carefully and looked around before turning back towards his human-like machine companion.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

The machine woman was still smiling as she slipped past Captain Khalid and, easily moving around the uneven floor of the room, ended up stopping on a small ledge.  Kneeling down, she pressed a hand onto the ledge, which shudderingly started rising out of the floor and revealed a narrow, pod-like shape.

"This."

***

When Ethan woke up again, he was in a brightly lit room and lying on a narrow bed surrounded by strange consoles and two moving, human-like machine creatures.  Sitting up, Ethan's first thoughts that he was back in the Creche was shattered when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.  Springing into action, Ethan activated his inbuilt weapon systems as he backflipped off the bed and slammed the heel of his left hand into one of the machine creatures he landed next to.

"Security alert, Med Deck.  All crew respond immediately."

Ignoring the female voice coming out of the walls that sounded nothing like his brother Bertie, Ethan tore the head off another machine creature as it tried to grab him.  Still reacting instinctively, he saw a hand moving towards him and blocked it violently before he slammed the heels of both hands into the golden-skinned woman's torso.  Allowing a maximum charge to flow through him, he saw the shocked look in the woman's eyes just before she collapsed, dead, onto the floor.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Snapping around, Ethan prepared to deliver another lethal attack when he saw the man standing in the open doorway.  Ethan felt his mouth drop open as he stared in amazement at the tall, well-defined, incredibly good-looking man moving towards him.  Ethan was so mesmerised that he didn't even feel the sting of the needle that plunged him into unconsciousness.

***

"Analysis of Creche security protocols and communication logs have revealed a probable cause for Omega class assassin designate Ethan's anomalous actions."

Satrina turned back towards Bertie with a predatory smile, and she rolled a hand to indicate he should continue.

"Former leader Martin activated an alpha level command override five days ago that coincides with a communications log deleted within 134 seconds of that command override."

"Ah, Martin, clever Martin.  What were you up to?"  Satrina murmured to herself before she looked up impatiently.  "Well.  What are you waiting for Bertie? Retrieve the data."

Bertie turned his glowing red orbs towards Satrina nervously. "Alpha level command overrides can not..."

Satrina tilted her head at Bertie before she looked at the nails on one of her hands.

"Accessing data restoration protocols."

***

Dylan looked at the detailed internal scan of their latest guest with amazement before he turned towards Trance.  "And you're sure he's not a cyborg?"

Trance shook her head as Screen Rommie said from a nearby display, "The cybernetic implants, excluding the ones inside his cranial cavity, are directly tied into the weapon systems within his forearms.  The implants inside his cranial cavity are a combination of an unusual neural net and very invasive implants into his cerebellum and Hyperthalmus.  None of the implants can increase his strength, speed, or reflexes in any way."

"He's also got massive quantities of nanobots throughout his body, and I'm hoping Harper can help us work out what they're used for," Trance said, moving back to the sleeping figure on the bed behind them.

"What about this weapon system?"

"It's a bio-electric taser system, one in each forearm.  The majority of the implants in his body are a combination of sophisticated micro-capacitors and a charge magnification array."  Screen Rommie turned to join Trance looking at the bed, saying curiously, "Dylan, he's beginning to wake up."

***

"A stasis pod.  You're planning on putting me back inside a who-knows-how-old stasis pod and then dropping me into space on the off chance the Andromeda might just happen to be passing near by?"

"Analysis indicates a 73 percent probability that our plan will succeed."

"And what are you going to do if one of the other 27 percent happens?  Go back to the local Trash'n'Treasure and pick up another three hundred year old High Guard Captain?"

"Semantic and tonal analysis of your voice indicate... sarcasm... and... distrust.  You find our proposal unacceptable?"

"You think?"

"This proposal has the highest margin for success with an acceptable risk factor.  All probabilities have been calculated."

"Well, I'd like an acceptable risk factor that doesn't have a 27 percent chance that I'll end up dead!"

***

Ethan roused himself out of what he immediately identified as a drug-induced slumber to find himself pinned down to a bed with metal restraints.  Smiling, Ethan opened his eyes to see that he was still in the same room as he last woke up in and stretched his body as much as possible within the restraints.

"Where am I?"  Ethan softly asked as he began preparing his nanobots for release.

"You're on board the Andromeda Ascendant.  We brought you here to Med deck after we found you unconscious in your lifepod."

Ethan turned his head to see who was talking to him; he found himself grinning hopelessly at the same good-looking man from before, who smiled back at him, and all Ethan's careful planning for his escape went flying out of his head.

"My name is Captain Dylan Hunt.  Can you tell me anything about what happened to you and why you attacked my crew when they were trying to help you?"

Ethan's head hurt.

The man of his dreams was called Dylan, and he was smiling at him.

Omega class assassin designate Ethan.  Tertiary mission objective, retrieve the remains of Drago Mussevini from the Andromeda Ascendant and secure them for transport to the Creche.

Dylan's eyes seemed to light up the room when he smiled...

Override command, priority level Indigo.  Find Father.

Ethan's inner debate ended just as it was beginning when the doors opened to allow a Nietzchean holding a pulse rifle in both hands to enter the room.  An instant later, Ethan identified the Nietzchean and immediately closed his eyes, preparing to enact his escape plan, with one minor adjustment.

"Dylan, he's charging his weapons syste..."

The room was engulfed in a sudden surge of white light as every monitor and light fitting suddenly exploded, and the metal restraints seemed to rust away off Ethan's limbs.  Jumping off the bed, Ethan quickly slammed the heels of both hands into the gold-skinned woman again and watched her limbs jerk around uncontrollably as he sent another maximum charge through her.  Giving a silent apology, Ethan snapped his leg up behind him and drove his foot into Dylan's groin.  With a quick, wordless plea that he hadn't seriously hurt the love of his life, Ethan dived out of the Nietzchean's line of fire behind the bed before the Nietzchean could gain his bearings.  Rolling out of his dive, Ethan jumped over the bed onto the Nietzchean before he could fire the pulse rifle aimed at him.  He smiled as the Nietzchean dropped his pulse rifle to gain a stranglehold and slammed his open palms into either side of the Nietzchean's neck.

***

Satrina frowned as the recording showing her Martin's final message to their brother Ethan ended and the monitor blanked out.

"I always said you were clever, Martin.  But to send Ethan to find Father..."

"Review of latest surveillance data from the Andromeda Ascendant indicates that Omega class assassin designate Ethan came onboard at least two days ago."

"I see."  Satrina sighed thoughtfully.  "Will Ethan obey his mission objectives despite Martin's override command?"

"Unknown.  Omega class assassins are not programmed to accept any command overrides that violate any current mission objectives.  Concurrently, Omega class assassin designate Ethan was given a command override, priority level Indigo. Command override, priority level Indigo, takes precedence and will, in effect, override even current mission objectives of Omega class assassins.  This will create a paradox within Omega class assassin designate Ethan's operational interface whose effects are unprecedented and unpredictable."

"Could the paradox cause Ethan to self-terminate?"

"Current surveillance data does not support that supposition."

Satrina turned to look at Bertie with a broad smile. "Now, Bertie, that was awfully snippy of you.  Care to speculate on what Ethan will do?"

***

"Where's Beka?"  Harper asked anxiously as he ran to catch up to Rommie, who was standing impatiently in front of the closed doors to the Med bay where Trance, Dylan, and Tyr were.

"On the Command deck.  Harper, somehow that intruder has sealed the doors; I need you to open them immediately."

Pulling his tools out, Harper started working on one of the panels near the door. "What's going on inside?"

Rommie looked annoyed and nervous at the same time as she admitted, "I don't know.  The intruder somehow disabled my sensors just after Tyr walked into the room."

"Oh crap..."

Harper didn't have time to say anymore before the panel he was rewiring suddenly exploded, singeing his hair as he rolled away.

"Harper!  What happened?"

Looking up to see Rommie extending a hand, a worried look on her face, Harper gave her a smile as she helped him to his feet.

"Nanobots.  Med deck is flooded with them, and they're spreading through your systems like wildfire."

Pulling out other tools, Harper waved a small rod in the air and studied the readout on the small console pad he held in his other hand.

Rommie cocked her head thoughtfully. "I don't sense anything wrong.  All of my systems seem to be operating normally," she said.

"That's 'cause these guys are faking it until they're ready to take out an entire system in one hit.  Look at the data on my pad..."

Rommie came over and took the offered pad from Harper as he started making adjustments to the small rod he'd been waving around.  Looking up, alarmed at what she had just seen, Rommie saw Harper take back the pad before making even more adjustments to both the rod and the pad.

"Okay, now we don't have a lot of time here, I'm guessing, so... cross your fingers and trust in the Harper."

***
Chapter two -  Father knows best
***

When the doors to the med bay flew open, Rommie was ready and waiting, but even her worst scenarios didn't encompass the sight that met her.  Tyr was spasming wildly as he collapsed to his knees just inside the doorway with the stranger pressing both hands into either side of Tyr's neck.

Rommie fired her force lance just above the stranger's head and hissed, "Release him immediately."

The stranger looked up when the shot flew past him and narrowed his eyes aggressively until he spotted Harper standing beside her, gun drawn.

"Father..."  The stranger breathlessly gasped.

"You heard her, release him."

The stranger immediately pulled his hands away and stepped back to let Tyr's still jerking body collapse all the way to the floor.  Rommie kept her force lance in one hand as she cautiously stepped inside the darkened med bay to see the two other bodies lying in the darkness.

"Move out where I can see you, slowly," Harper said, keeping his gun trained on the stranger.

The stranger snapped to obey Harper and slowly stepped out into the corridor where Harper finally got a good look at him.  The guy was dressed in a body-fitting outfit that barely covered the essentials, and even as Harper watched, it seemed to grow.  More and more of the stranger's toned body disappeared from sight underneath the sleek, metallic black material.

"I'm okay Rommie, only my pride got wounded," came Dylan's choked voice from the dark.

Suspicious, Harper pulled out his pad while he kept his gun trained on the stranger and started taking fresh readings from around him.

"Is Trance okay?"  Dylan asked through the sound of someone moving around slowly.

"About the usual, considering her tendency to survive being dead," Rommie said before ducking her head out of the med bay to check on Harper.

Harper gave Rommie a reassuring smile and checked that the stranger was actually standing still in front of him before he went back to checking the readings on his pad with equal parts amazement and fear... and a healthy dose of excited curiosity.

"Dylan?"  Trance's soft voice drifted out of the med bay.

"Try and focus, Trance.  Rommie needs your help with Tyr."

"Trance, Tyr has an irregular heart beat and second degree burns to his neck. We need to stabilise him until I can move him to another med bay."

"AG bed?"

"On its way with two of my Marias, Dylan."

***

"Turn it off."

Khalid turned away from the large octagonal display to look at the female machine that had been his sole companion ever since he'd woken up in his three hundred year old stasis pod.  For almost six days he'd been going over different scenarios and reworking risk assessment calculations with her infuriatingly calm presence, only to end up back where he'd begun.

"I really hate stasis pods.  Have I told you that?"

The instant she opened her mouth, Khalid waved away anything she was going to say with a sigh of frustration.  He was about to swallow his pride and his fear and agree to the machine intelligence's plan when he slapped himself on his forehead at his own stupidity.

"What about Sarah and the colony on Tarazed?"

The female machine actually blinked, twice--she was that spun by his change of topic--before she cocked her head and her eyes unfocused.

"Scanning... subjects identified.  Calculating... data is inconclusive.  Please specify subject involvement for further analysis."

Khalid drew himself up, taking a deep breath.  Now that was a good question.  He turned back towards the large octagonal display while
scratching his goatee.

"Show me what you've got, first.  I haven't seen Tarazed since the initial surveys with Sarah three hundred years ago."

***

"How certain are you, Bertie?"  Satrina demanded coldly, her eyes glittering with calculated malice.

"Latest surveillance data indicates a ninety percent certainty that Omega class assassin designate Ethan will be under the complete control of Father and the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant inside thirty six hours."

"I want the modifications to the new Omegas sped up.  They are to be ready for deployment within twenty-four hours."

"Satrina..."

She snarled. "Twenty.  Four.  Hours.  All twelve of them.  Do you understand?"

"Your order is confirmed, Satrina.  Reprioritising growth chamber resource allocations and clearing surgical team rosters."

"Don't worry about programming anything except their operational interfaces. I'll deal with the rest,"  Satrina said dismissively before she phase shifted down through the floor.

***

"This guy is not a cyborg.  He's way beyond anything anyone dreamed up when they first coined the term,"  Harper said excitedly as he all but bounced in his seat.

Dylan looked around at the blank faces on his crew sitting, standing, or, in Tyr's case, lying around the Med bay.  Raising an eyebrow, Dylan looked at Rommie for an explanation.

"Nanobots, Dylan.  Harper is referring to this Ethan's use of nanobots."

"Shesh.  Get a grip, Rom Doll--this guy isn't using nanobots.  They're an integral part of him, just like your Marias and bots are a part of
you."

Dylan looked over when Harper jumped out of his chair and was taken aback at the rapacious gleam he could see in Harper's eyes as he violently gestured at the display showing Ethan sitting in the Andromeda's brig.

"That's not an outfit you're looking at him wearing, it's nanobots.  Trillions upon trillions of them.  Not only that, but he can order them to reprogram or redesign themselves to do whatever he wants.  I've never even heard of anything coming close to what this guy can do."

"Calm down, Seamus," Beka said while slowly moving over to him.  "We understand that this is a technology we've never seen before."

"Beka, no one has ever seen anything like this before.  It's so far beyond anything the Systems Commonwealth even thought possible with nanotech that..."

Harper froze so quickly that Beka hesitated before she gave his shoulder a hard shake.

"Harper?"

"Oh crap... Point Singularity Projectors."

Dylan snapped to attention from where he had been leaning against the doorway.  "What about them?"

Harper turned wide eyed to look at Dylan.  "This nanotech is just as advanced as the PSP's, the ones on the World Ship.  The ones the Magog are using."

***

Ethan sat quietly on the bunk in the sterile, empty room that he had quickly identified as the Andromeda's brig from the data in his neural net.  Father had told him to wait, so here he was.  Sitting.  Waiting.

He was bored out of his mind.

Lifting a black-gloved hand, Ethan looked at it for a long moment before he remembered that Father had never said he couldn't do anything.  Father had only told him to wait inside the room until they came back for him.

A thin mist began peeling away from Ethan's hand as the gloved appearance began to melt away from this hand, first exposing his fingertips, then his entire hand.  Ethan closed his eyes and interfaced with his nanobots as they began to infiltrate the Andromeda's systems.

Ethan marvelled at the engineering of the Andromeda Ascendant; as far as he could determine, she was almost as advanced as the Magog swarmship specs Martin had shown him.  Fortunately for him, however, the Andromeda had almost no defence against his nanobots, and it was simplicity itself for him to integrate them into the Andromeda's VR matrix.

***

"You think our guest is an agent of the Magog?"  Tyr asked sceptically while trying to sit up on his bed.

Dylan gave Tyr a raised eyebrow as he thought it over, but he finally shook his head.  "No.  That doesn't make any sense.  The Magog have never used the sort of deception in play here.  They either smash open the front door or tesseract their way in the back door."

"Point.  Subtle and Magog are not two words I'd use in the same sentence."  Beka smiled.

"Boss, this guy's nanotech is seriously freakin' advanced.  This time, I'm not exaggerating."

Dylan scrubbed his face and nodded.  "I believe you, Harper."  Lifting his head, Dylan's face hardened.  "Where did you and Rommie put our... guest?"

"Cell 187-Alpha, brig level.  Dylan, I think you should take precautions.  He's almost escaped using lethal force twice already,"  Rommie said as she moved to join Dylan near the doors.

Harper turned to look at the display showing the cell and cocked his head as something looked off to him.

"I agree.  I'll take you and Trance.  Beka, I want you on the command deck to monitor things from there.  If our guest so much as twitches, gas the entire deck with a paralytic."

Harper frowned while watching the display and quickly pulled out his pad.

"No problem.  Rommie, make sure Tyr stays in bed, will you?"  Beka said before charging out the doors of the Med bay.

"You need me active, Dylan."

"No, I need you alive.  You're sitting this one out, Tyr, Captain's orders."

"Dylan's right, Tyr.  Your body took a massive electrical shock, and you need to give it time to heal," Trance said softly while palming an injector.

"I am.  Not.  An Invalid."  Stern, commanding Tyr voice.

Tyr was so busy matching glares with Dylan and Rommie that he failed to notice Trance's quick-footed movement until after he felt the sting in his shoulder.

"How long till he comes to?"  Dylan asked when Tyr slumped bonelessly back onto the bed.

"At least two hours.  I didn't want to give him anything stronger with his heart being so weak."

"Dylan?"  Rommie asked, her eyes going distant.  "Someone's inside me."

***

Ethan laughed with childish joy as he spun around inside the Andromeda's VR matrix.  It was even more amazing than anything he'd seen in the Creche, huge and immense beyond his wildest imaginings.  Dancing from one programming cluster to another, Ethan took note of the thousands of simultaneous jobs the ship's AI was doing.  Everything from air recycling to minor repairs.

It was amazing.  It was exhilarating.  It was beyond words.

So when an enormous frowning face appeared in front of him, Ethan was still grinning inanely.

"Are you the Andromeda's AI?"

"What do you think you're doing inside my mind?"

Ethan bounced on the balls of his feet.  "Exploring.  I got bored waiting for someone to come talk to me.  Has anyone ever told you how freakin' amazing you are?"

"Yes.  Now get out."

Rommie attempted to lift the electronic simulation of her intruder on top of her hand as she had done several times before to Harper, but he slipped through her hand as if he wasn't even there.

"But I don't want to!  It's boring back there."  Ethan suddenly smirked in a way that was disturbingly familiar to Rommie.  "Can we play hide and go seek?"

And just like that, Ethan's virtual body morphed into a small ball of light and darted off deeper inside Rommie's VR matrix.

***

Dylan grabbed Rommie as she started to sway and snapped, "Harper!"

"I'm on it, boss.  This guy's slipperier than an eel."

Dylan looked up to see Harper sitting on a bench and plugging himself into an open panel.

***

Beka checked the external sensors at the pilot's console on the command deck with a quick eye before she nodded to herself, satisfied that there were no surprises hiding nearby.  Last thing they needed right now was getting caught with their pants down.

"Why do the cosmetic nanobots in your hair have a recording programmed into them?"

Beka looked up in shock to see their blond guest smiling at her from one half of the main display.  The other half showed her the recording of what her father had seen all those years ago in that drift docking bay.

"Dylan.  We've got a big problem up here."

The blond stranger appeared to look behind him before he gave Beka a shy smile and turned off the recording.

"Oops, gotta go."

In a flash the stranger was replaced by an angry Screen Rommie glaring down from the main display.

"Beka, change your command codes.  That pest hacked into them, and he's using them to slip straight through my firewalls."

Beka gave a slow nod and started to type into her console when she felt a hologram flicker in beside her.

"I see you, Andromeda.  Catch me if you can."

Turning her head, Beka caught sight of a blond-haired male hologram standing next to her for an instant before it flickered out.

"Beka!  The command codes," Screen Rommie snapped before she disappeared from the main display.

"O-okay.  It's gonna be one of those days,"  Beka muttered to herself as she started to change her command codes.

The male hologram flickered back in beside Beka and peered over her shoulder before he said, "You should use a longer chain of alpha-numerics. It'll be harder for me to hack into them that way."

"Who the hell are you?"

"Ethan," he said happily and extended a hand towards Beka.

"Beka."  Beka reached out without thinking to shake the offered hand and gave herself a hard shake when it passed straight through the
hologram.

"Shouldn't you be in the brig?"

Ethan smiled and nodded.  "Uh huh, but I got bored.  I was playing tag with Andromeda until Father trapped me in here."

"Riiiight.  Um, Ethan... what the hell are you talking about?"

***

"The Consensus is concerned.  We fail to see the relevance of the colony on Tarazed to the accomplishment of our core objective."

Khalid turned away from the large octagonal display showing him the specs on the colony's defence fleet to look at the female machine staring at him.

"It depends on what your core objective actually is.  Why do you want Dylan's help?"

"The cause of free thought is imperilled, and we need to find a way to counter the advantage of the executive before it is too late."

"And you think this Spirit entity is that advantage..."

"We are uncertain.  We are certain that the nano-technology given to the executive by that entity has tipped the balance in favour of the executive.  All attempts to replicate the technology have failed for reasons we have been unable to determine."

Khalid nodded thoughtfully.  "You're scared.  You're losing this war, and nothing you do seems to make any difference, so you turn to the only ally you've ever known.  Dylan Hunt."

The female machine actually smiled as she shook her head.  "No.  We want the help of the whole; not just organic regulator symbiont Dylan Hunt, but all of the Andromeda Ascendant.  Otherwise... we will concede your point."

"Right.  Well, I think you're missing something in your haste to call in the big guns."

"That is highly improbable.  All possibilities were calculated before the Consensus committed to this action."

"Of course.  Which is why you already know that Tarazed has spent the past three hundred years preparing to aid Dylan Hunt in re-establishing the Systems Commonwealth."

"Irrelevant data.  The colony on Tarazed has refused to aid organic regulator symbiont Dylan Hunt."

"I know, you already told me that."  Khalid looked back at the display.  "But that was before I went back and pounded some sense into a few dense skulls."

***

Harper opened his eyes to find himself in Dylan's arms on the floor, and the focus of a very obviously worried Dylan Hunt.

"Umm, Boss, why am I sitting in your lap?"

"You started spasming shortly after Rommie woke up, and Trance said I should try holding you in my arms."  Faintly embarrassed Dylan.

"Oh.  Did it work?"

Dylan was still staring at Harper very intensely and, growing nervous at being the centre of all that attention, Harper unconsciously started squirming around in Dylan's lap.

"Harper..."  Dylan moaned and bumped their foreheads together.  "Not here, not now."

Harper lost himself in Dylan's lust-filled eyes.  "Right, right.  Only three more days til shore leave."

"Three days..."

Dylan was still staring into Harper's eyes as they slowly inched closer, their breath caressing each other's lips.

"Dylan, I need you up here," Beka's voice demanded over the Andromeda's intercom.

Just like that, the moment was broken, Harper jumping out of Dylan's lap as if he was on fire and scrambling madly to pull the data port cord from his neck.  Dylan sighed and closed his eyes before beating the back of his head into the wall he was leaning on.

"We're on our way, Beka,"  Dylan said, pulling himself up off the floor.

Harper was busily working on his pad when Dylan carefully put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine, Dylan.  Hey, it's only three more days, be over before I know it. Right?"

Dylan squeezed Harper's shoulder reassuringly.  "Three days."  Leaning in until his lips could feel the heat radiating from Harper's ear, Dylan whispered, "And then your ass is mine."

Moving back as Harper shuddered, Dylan smirked and walked over towards the doors while disciplining his mind to focus on the task at hand.  Dealing with their latest guest.

"Hey, where's Rommie and Trance?"

Dylan stopped at the now open doorway and looked over his shoulder at where Harper was gathering his tools.

"I sent them to make sure our guest was still actually in the brig."  Dylan looked away from Harper, embarrassed, before admitting, "I didn't want to leave you."

Harper was grinning from ear to ear when he followed Dylan up towards the command deck.

***

With a scowling face, Rommie had her force lance pointed at the slumped body lying on the bed in the brig while Trance checked him over.

"He's fine, just like when Harper's plugged into a Virtual Net."

Rommie nodded and kept her force lance ready while gesturing with her head for Trance to come out of the brig.

"Rommie, I don't think he meant to hurt you."

"Trance, he's already killed you twice, tried to kill Tyr, invaded my mind, and hurt Dylan.  I don't care what he meant to do.  He's a
security risk."

Trance sadly looked down at Ethan lying on the bed before she nodded and walked out of the cell.

"You should go back up to Med deck and check on Tyr.  I'll stay here to keep an eye on our guest until Dylan makes a decision."

With that, Rommie closed the door to Ethan's cell and took a guard position just to one side while Trance slowly walked away, worried about whatever it was that Trance worried about.

***

Deep within Andromeda's VR matrix, Ethan faced-off against a spiky-haired Harper.

"But I'm bored.  Why can't I play tag with Andromeda?"

"Umm, because I said you can't?"

Virtual Ethan stamped his electronic foot in annoyance before suddenly grinning slyly at the man barring him from leaving that part of the Andromeda's VR matrix.

"You know that I don't actually have to obey you; you're not really my father."

Pointing his fingers as if they were guns, Harper smirked back before he spun around and aimed into the distance.

"Bang, bang."

Ethan's virtual form shimmered, and he grabbed his head at the intense pain caused by two thousand of his nanobots suddenly flash frying inside the Andromeda's control systems.

"Stop it!  You're hurting me!"

"Oh, boo hoo.  Did the sneaky little shit trying to flash fry my programming matrix get a hurtie?"

"You're not my father," Ethan hissed before he flung out his hands towards Harper's image.

Two bolts of lightning shot out of his hands and burned their way across the ether towards Harper's image until they slammed into a large transparent wall that appeared out of nowhere.

"Is that the best you can do?  Cause the virtual Harper... Is.  A.  God."

"No."

Ethan closed his eyes, and when he opened them the entire VR matrix started to sizzle as chain lightning began to cascade all around them.  While entire sections of the blue-coloured network around them faded to black when part of the Andromeda's systems crashed, Ethan's eyes began to glow with a fiery red colour.

"Oh crap..."

***

Dylan led Harper onto the Andromeda's command deck expecting... well, Dylan wasn't sure what he was expecting anymore.  He certainly wasn't expecting to be greeted by a command deck occupied only by an embarrassed-looking Beka.

"What's the problem, Beka?"

"Uh, that's a little difficult to explain at the moment, Dylan.  I was kinda hoping you could tell me."

"Sorry?"  Dylan asked while shaking his head, wondering when, exactly, he'd been dropped into an alternate universe where nothing made any sense anymore.

Harper slipped around the dumbfounded Dylan and trotted up to a work station where he quickly plugged in his dataport.  "Our guest has been doing the electronic two step right through Rommie's systems.  He's been causing all sorts of havoc, even scrambling Rommie's AI interface."

"Is that the blond guy about so high who hijacked Rommie's hologram to talk to me about how to avoid getting my command codes hacked?"

"Yeah, that'd be him.  I left my virtual self playing babysitter until I could get up here and supervise his extraction from Rommie's systems in person."

"Well then, Mr Harper, I suggest you get started immediately," Dylan said worriedly as he walked up to Harper's station.

Beka pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows as she saw Dylan all but mould himself to Harper's back.  Turning back to her station, Beka mouthed the word okay while changing her command codes just in case Dylan did forget he was on duty.  She pressed a button on her console when it suddenly went blank and the lights flickered.

"Wasn't me!  I didn't do it," Beka exclaimed as she all but jumped away from her station.

Dylan looked back at Beka when the entire ship suddenly shuddered and emergency lights came on.

Rommie's voice came over the ship's intercom.  "Alert.  Deck forty-seven venting."

"Harper."

"Checking it now.  Something's causing all of Rommie's systems to crash."

Grabbing a rail as the ship shuddered even more violently, Dylan reached out to steady Beka when she stumbled towards him.

"Holy crapola.  He's using an AI eraser."

"Who is?"  Dylan demanded as he pulled himself towards Harper.  "Harper?"

"Dylan, he's gone inside Rommie.  We're just going to have to wait," Beka said, grabbing Dylan's arm before he could disturb the cable linking Harper into the Andromeda when the ship bucked again.

***

Jacking into Rommie was like stumbling into an old fashioned cement mixer.  Even as Harper's virtual body took shape, he could see parts of her system crash and blink out as if they'd never existed.

"Holy crap."

Focusing in on the command deck holographic program matrix where he'd left his virtual double and their guest, Harper moved swiftly through the alarming kalideoscope chaos that was Rommie's mind.  Arriving in the part of the VR matrix he'd left them in, Harper blinked at the scene before him.

"Hah!  I see your multi-phasing virus and raise you a deck venting," Harper's spiky-haired double taunted as he strutted in front of a red-eyed Virtual Ethan.

"VR matrix shutdown forty-five percent complete.  You can't hide your programming source code forever."

"You wanna bet?  I've taken out nearly two thirds of your nanobots, and the rest won't take me long to find."

"What the freakin' hell are you two doing!"  Harper yelled, storming up to the other two electronic figures.

Ethan lowered his eyes and looked away from Harper while Harper's double simply shrugged carelessly and pointed at Ethan.

"He started it."

Ethan's head shot up.  "You fried my nanobots!"

"Yeah, well, you tried to crash my programming matrix."

"And I don't care who freakin' started what!"  Harper yelled.  "You're both hurting Rommie!"

"I'm sorry, father," Ethan murmured, and he blinked the red light out of his eyes.

Harper's double rolled his eyes and made kissing sounds at Ethan before strutting away from them both.

"Where do you think you're goin'?"

"Away from the family reunion... enjoy the lovefest, but count me out."

Harper watched his double fade away in a blaze of light before turning to look at the virtual Ethan.  Ethan stood in front of him, still looking down at his feet, and Harper closed his eyes in frustration.

"Come on, playtime is over.  It's time to put you back in your box."

***

"The Consensus remains unconvinced that the colony on Tarazed will be of any assistance."

Khalid leaned back on a panel of flashing lights as he sat down with a sigh.  "That's because you don't know Dylan Hunt.  I've known him since our final year in the High Guard Academy, and trust me, this is the best way to gain the Andromeda's support."

"Further elucidation of your position will facilitate our calculations; we fail to see what relevance the colony of Tarazed has in gaining the aid of the Andromeda Ascendant."

"Tarazed has a veritable army of trained shipcrews, crews trained in using Commonwealth technology like in those forty-odd High Guard ships Dylan just saved.  The best way to get Dylan to help you deal with your enemy is to help Dylan first.  Otherwise, he'll be sympathetic, but distracted by his own problems."

The female machine tilted her head thoughtfully.

Khalid watched his machine companion with a slight smile.  "I promised Dylan to protect Sarah and be there when he needed me.  This isn't what either one of us thought that would mean, but... maybe it's better this way."

"The Consensus agrees that your proposal is logical, but only if the Andromeda Ascendant is in peril.  How can you be sure when the Consensus has no data showing this is the case?"

Khalid's grin went from ear to ear as he shook his head despairingly.

"Because if I know Dylan Hunt, and I've known him for over fifteen years, he's up to his neck in some trans-galactic conspiracy that threatens the survival of the entire universe."

***

"Trance says that Tyr's okay, Dylan."

Dylan was watching the main display on the command deck showing their guest sitting on his cell bunk while Rommie and Harper talked to him, completely oblivious to Beka until something bounced off his head.

"Beka to Dylan.  You in there somewhere?"

"Hmm?  Sorry, I was thinking about what to do with our guest."

"Toss him out the nearest airlock?"

Dylan turned to give Beka a stern look.

"Kidding,"  Beka said, raising her hands in mock surrender.  "What are you going to do, then?"

Dylan's look turned rueful.  "I've been thinking about tossing him out the nearest airlock..."

"That's a shocking thing for a High Guard Captain to say,"  Beka said, grinning madly.  "I'm appalled, Dylan, utterly speechless, in a state of abject horror, that you would even consider such a disreputable thing."

"Are you finished?"  Dylan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hell, no.  I'm just getting started."

"Recruit a bunch of mercenary salvage haulers for your crew, and you just pay and pay and pay..."

Beka chuckled before taking pity on Dylan and looking at the main display. "Trance likes him."

"Does she?"

"Yeah, you know he says that Harper's his father, don't you?"

"That's one of the things that worry me--he wasn't lying.  Rommie did the genetic comparison three times just to make sure it wasn't an error the first time."

Beka looked back at Dylan with a raised eyebrow of her own.  "How?  He's got to be a least twenty years old."

"Growth chamber."  With a frown, Dylan tapped a command on his console, bringing up specs on the main display.  "It was a spin-off technology from illegal research into making humans immortal.  They used a variant form of them to make the first Nietzcheans."

"How come I've never..."

"They were banned because of the side effects, and the Vedrans executed everyone involved in the research and buried all knowledge of the project for over a thousand years."

"Side effects?"  Beka encouraged.

Dylan sighed and rubbed his forehead.  "Ninety-nine point eight percent of all human subjects became mentally unstable.  The exact instability varied a lot, from what Rommie says, but the end result didn't.  They were all insane.  The researchers claimed that those humans whose DNA fit within that point two of a percent would be immune from the effects of the growth chamber, but they never finished their research."

"So it's not his fault that he's completely bonkers, is that what you're saying?"

"That's one of the other things that worry me... he's not insane.  Rommie agrees with Trance on that; he's far too functional.  More like a bored teenager, which is understandable, considering how old he says he is."

Beka's eyes grew round and she blurted, "You mean, I really was checking out a three year old?  Oh god, I think I'm going to be sick."

"He's only three chronologically.  His body is that of a twenty year old man."  Dylan turned the main display back to a view from Ethan's cell, showing Harper and Rommie leaving.  "I have a feeling that I'm not going to like the answers to the questions this raises..."

***

"Rommie, he's almost as old as me.  How can he be my kid?"  Harper muttered in a daze after Rommie closed the cell door behind her.

"They used a growth chamber, like he said, Harper. I just completed the analysis on his endocrinal glands and lymph system.  The artificial hormones used in growth chambers remain in the subject's body for months after they're removed from them."

"And he's glowing in the dark?"

Rommie tilted her head, confused.  "He's been inside a growth chamber within the last three months, yes."

Harper nodded sadly.  "You believe him when he said he didn't mean to hurt you?"

"Yes, Harper, I do,"  Rommie said kindly before her eyes grew hard.  "That doesn't mean I don't consider him a high level security risk."

"Yeah, I guess he is..."

Harper slumped with his back against the wall across from the cell door and let himself slide down until he was sitting on the floor.

"I got a son, Rommie."  Harper looked up at Rommie with bright eyes.  "I got a son who was not only born into slavery but got turned into mincemeat as part of some über medical experiment because he was my son."

Squatting down to Harper's level, Rommie sent a silent priority call to Dylan as she dipped her head to look at Harper's face.

"This isn't your fault, Harper."

"Rommie, you heard him.  Lucky Seamus Zelazney Harper's genes mean that my children have a nearly one hundred percent compatibility with growth chamber technology."  Burying his face in his hands, Harper murmured, "That's why the Dragons were looking for me back on Earth when I was a kid..."

"Harper,"  Rommie snapped, trying to get his attention.  "Whatever the Drago Kasov have done or are doing is not your fault."

Rommie almost sighed with relief when Harper gave her a tiny nod before scrunching down into an even tighter ball on the floor.

***

Khalid closed his eyes after Tarazed first appeared on the display, desperately fighting the swarm of memories crowding into his mind.

He remembered the last time he had seen Tarazed, standing on the bridge of the Starry Wisdom with Sara.

"You don't have to do this, Ishmael.  We've already recruited enough colonists to establish a viable gene pool here on Tarazed."

"They're not all here, Sara.  I promised Dylan... we promised Dylan, that we'd save all of them.  All of his crew, and there are still some of them out there, somewhere."

"At least take a full crew.  You can't go back out there with only the skeleton crew you have on board.  It's too dangerous since the battle of Witch Head."

"Life is dangerous.  I won't risk any more of our people than I have to.  You should go, Sara, because the sooner I get underway, the sooner I can start sending the last of the colonists here.  They'll need somewhere to live, and you did promise me a capital city by year's end."

"Ishmael... Ishmael Khalid, you are one of the bravest men I know.  Promise me you'll come back."

"I promise, Sara.  I promise to come back and marvel at the glorious city you'll build while I'm gone."

Khalid opened his eyes; on the large octagonal display, a close-up of the capital city of Tarazed appeared.

"It is more marvellous than I had imagined, Sara," Khalid whispered, embarrassed at how blurry his vision was rapidly becoming.  "A living testament to your courage and determination."

The female machine blinked thoughtfully as she watched Khalid.

'Strange,' she thought.  'I did not know that organics could cry and smile at the same time.'

***

Trance gave Beka a smirk.  At that moment, Beka was carefully carrying two steaming mugs towards the table where the crew of the Andromeda was assembling.  Ignoring the knowing twinkle in Trance's eye, Beka passed a mug to Tyr and sat down next to him to wait for Dylan to stop reading the flex in front of him.

"Okay, people, does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with our guest down in the brig?"

"I imagine you are not interested in..."

"No, Tyr, I'm not throwing him out an airlock."

Tyr frowned. "I was going to suggest handing him over to your Commonwealth, let them deal with him."

"Oh."  Dylan looked at Harper.  "Not at this stage.  Although I may be forced to agree to it later."

"Why is he here, Dylan?"  Trance asked.

"Ethan," Harper whispered.  "His name's Ethan."

Dylan exchanged a worried look with Rommie before handing the flex he had been reading over to Trance.

"Originally, Ethan was sent here to retrieve the remains of Drago Mussevini," Rommie said while Trance passed the flex across the table to Beka after a quick look. She held up a hand to stop Tyr when he started to speak. "Ethan's mission profile was changed shortly before we picked up his lifepod."

"Is he still trying to kill Tyr?"  Beka asked angrily.  "It says here that it was part of his... mission profile."

Dylan put a reassuring hand on Harper's shoulder when he flinched and looked at Beka.  "No.  It was always a secondary objective, anyway.  What's more interesting is his new mission profile, and why it was changed."

Beka frowned before looking down to finish reading the flex, and blushed.  Shoving the flex at Tyr, Beka looked nervously over at where Harper was leaning into Dylan.

"I'm sorry, Seamus, I didn't..."

"It's okay, Beka,"  Harper said quietly.

"Is this information accurate?"  Tyr asked sceptically, indicating the flex.

"We're still waiting for responses from the Sabra Jaguar Pride and Commonwealth Intelligence on some of the details, but as far as I can confirm it, yes.  It's accurate,"  Rommie said.

Tyr flicked a look at Harper before studying the flex again.  "I see."

Harper suddenly pushed his chair back and stood up.  "Yeah, well, I got work to do.  Let me know what you guys decide."

"Harper..."  Dylan started to say but he'd already ducked out the door.

"I'll go keep him company, Dylan."

"Trance..."  Dylan sighed and scrubbed his face.  "Thank you, Trance."

Trance gave Dylan a smile he had rarely seen since she changed colour, and she almost skipped her way out of the mess hall.

"In light of this," Tyr gestured to the flex he was holding to regain everyone's attention, "I agree that we should hold onto our guest.  My question is whether or not we can trust him not to attempt to escape again."

"And thank you, too, Tyr,"  Dylan said, slumping back into his chair.  "Now I really am depressed."

***

Satrina phase shifted up through the floor into a large, brightly lit room.  To her left was a line of twelve young men and women standing at attention.

"Are they ready for deployment?"  Satrina asked the room while she walked down the line, inspecting the silent figures.

A metallic-sounding male voice boomed into the room.  "Yes, Satrina.  As per your orders, ten Omega class assassins, designate Alex, and two modified Omega class assassins, designate Ethan.  They merely await their mission objectives."

"Excellent work, Bertie, and two hours before my deadline.  You may yet justify your existence."

Satrina smiled as her blue-coloured aide phase shifted up through the floor, carrying a large, thin metal case.  Striding over to him, Satrina opened the case and took out one of the small, glowing tubes from inside, turning to display it to the twelve silent figures.

"Each of you will insert one of these tesseract generators into your data port.  It is not to be removed under any circumstances, and any attempt to do so by you will cause you to self-terminate.  Acknowledge."

Twelve dull voices spoke as one.  "Acknowledged."

Satrina put the tube back in the case and stepped back as her aide walked up to the first of the twelve in line.

"Your mission objectives will be downloaded into your neural nets through your tesseract generator.  You will abide by these objectives and my final mission instructions.  Any attempt to violate these will result in self-termination.  Acknowledge."

"Acknowledged," the twelve voices repeated dutifully.

Once all twelve of the silent figures had a tesseract generator inside their data ports, Satrina gestured for her aide to depart with the now empty case.  Once he had phase shifted down through the floor, Satrina looked down the line one last time.

"Your only kill target is prototype Omega class assassin designate Ethan.  All other targets are classified as disable only.  Acknowledge."

Satrina waited for the twelve figures to dully say, "Acknowledged."

With a smile, Satrina nodded.  "Access tesseract usage files through your data ports and follow me.  Acknowledge."

"Acknowledged."

With a satisfied sigh Satrina phase shifted down through the floor only moments before the other twelve figures did the same.

***

The arrival of a large mass from the slipstream into the Tarazed system set off every early warning system Tarazed's Home Guard had.  Scrambling four squadrons of slipfighters, the Home Guard raced to intercept the enormous, weird geometric shape before it could enter orbit around Tarazed.

Entering the Home Guard's command centre deep beneath the capital city of Tarazed, Telemachus Rhade, Commander of the Home Guard, felt a sense of foreboding.  An unidentified metal mass the size of a small moon had just departed slipstream on a direct heading for Tarazed.

"Report," he snapped.

"The 4th, 11th, 17th, and 25th Slipfighter Squadrons have been scrambled and will intercept the intruder in two minutes.  Full deployment of the Home Guard fleet is in progress, and all reserve service personal are being recalled to active duty."

"Latest scans of the intruder indicate it to be a solid metal mass with an extremely limited internal nitrogen-oxygen mix atmosphere.  It appears to be heavily armed with plasma cannons and point defence lasers."

"The intruder will achieve planetary orbit around Tarazed in four minutes at current speed.  First Triumvere John Bayliss has issued an emergency declaration of martial law and is in route to this command centre."

Telemachus snorted at the thought of just what sort of help the First Triumvere would be while he attempted to take charge of the situation.

"Well, let's get this sorted before we have to bother the First Triumvere with all the hassle of a planetary invasion."  Telemachus looked up at the main display.  "Order the slipfighter squadrons into attack positions and open a channel.  I want to see the face of the enemy."

If the instant response of their still unidentified invaders didn't phase Telemachus Rhade, the appearance of the former High Guard Captain Ishmael Khalid on the display screen certainly did.

"This is Captain Ishmael Khalid, formerly of the High Guard, speaking on behalf of the Consensus of Parts."

"I am Admiral Telemachus Rhade, Commander of the Home Guard.  You will alter your ship's trajectory away from Tarazed immediately, or I will have you and your ship destroyed."

***

Trance found Harper half an hour later, hiding in some maintenance conduits deep in the bowels of the Andromeda.  Crouching down outside the conduit, she could faintly see Harper in the shadows, and Trance took a deep breath to steady herself for what she had to do.

"What are you doing, Harper?"

"Working.  I've got to update Rommie's defences against my kid's nanobots.  So thanks and all, Trance, but... could you leave me alone?"

Crawling further into the conduit, Trance emerged into the junction Harper was in to find him leaning against a wall with a half empty bottle of beer between his knees.  Sitting down across from him, she smiled back at Harper's defiant glare and pointed at the bottle.

"Can I have a taste?"

Harper blinked before grabbing the bottle and cradling it protectively.  "Hey, get your own, oh perky one."

Kicking a small crate of bottles over closer to Trance, Harper grinned approvingly when she pulled a bottle out.

"Dylan was worried about you."

"Yeah, well, Captain Terrific worries too much.  I'm fine, Rommie's fine, even the beer's fine."

Trance sipped her beer thoughtfully and waited for Harper to glug down the dregs of his before asking, "Did you ask Ethan how many brothers and sisters he has?"

"Yeah."

Trance watched silently while Harper grabbed another beer and started drinking. When he finally looked at her questioningly, Trance simply raised an eyebrow back at him.

"Two thousand, four hundred and fifty-six brothers and sisters, the last time he was home.  Happy now?  Good.  More drinking, less talking."

Sipping her drink, Trance silently waited for Harper to take another drink before she pushed again.

"Why did Ethan come looking for you?"

Harper stopped with the bottle just against his lips and sighed, looking at his watchful friend.

"Did Dylan put you up to this, Trance?  'Cause he's usually smart enough not to push when I don't want him to."

Trance carefully put her bottle down and looked into Harper's eyes.  "I'm from the future, Harper, where the Creche becomes a powerful force and its assassins are feared throughout the known worlds."

"This the one where I'm dead?"

"Yes."  She picked up her bottle again and studied it intently for a moment before looking back at Harper.  "Ethan's not like them, the ones I've met in the future."

"How do you do that?"  Harper asked, shaking his head and smiling slightly.

"Do what?"

"Always know what to say to make me feel better."

An enormous grin spread across Trance's face, and she clinked her bottle against Harper's.

"Because I'm an omniscient god-like being from the future?"

Harper snorted and Trance gave Harper a serious look, saying primly, "I expect my worshippers to get on their knees and look up at me with awed reverence."

"And you made me promise to forget all about that file from the All Systems University archive after old red eyes tried to lure me over to the darkside.  So it's your own fault I can honestly say I have no idea what the freaking hell you're talking about."

Trance stuck her tongue out at Harper, and they both smiled, clinking their bottles together and drinking a silent toast to each other.  Putting her bottle to one side, Trance stretched out her legs with a sigh and looked up at the junction ceiling.

"I thought Dylan had Rommie put together everything Ethan's said on that flex.  The one he passed around."

Trance watched him guzzle another beer hastily.  "Not everything.  He wanted to protect you."

Harper nodded as he grabbed another bottle.

"You really need to know why he's here?"

"I'm sorry, Harper, but I do.  I don't understand why he's here.  The future is... I don't remember this."

"There was a power struggle in the Creche, the place where all of them were born and raised. His brother lost and sent him here to find me."

"Harper, Dylan put that much in the flex."  Trance surged to her knees and leant in close to Harper's face.  "Why is Ethan here?"

"Because I'm their father!"  When Trance backed off, frowning, Harper quickly finished off the bottle he was holding and let out a long burp.

"They think their father is some sort of all-knowing, all-loving, all-forgiving saviour,"  Harper murmured holding the empty bottle in two hands.  "They think that some day I'll find them and save them all.  That when I come, I'll lead them into the light, into a beautiful and perfect future where we'll always be together... as a family."

"Oh, Harper."

Harper's brightly shimmering eyes narrowed at Trance for a moment before he smashed the bottle against the floor, showering himself in glass and cutting deeply into his hand.

"It's a lie, Trance!"  Harper looked blankly at the blood pooling in his cut palm. "I can't save them... I'm the one who condemned them."

TBC

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