TITLE: Back at Ya
AUTHOR: Michael J. Gallagher ( mikejoe@odyssey.net )
SPOILERS: "Ouroborus" *and* "Bunker Hill"
SYNOPSIS: While trying to get to Command, Rommie takes jump through space and time to a pivotal event in Harper's life
DISCLAIMER: GENE RODDENBERRY'S ANDROMEDA is owned by Tribune; I am making no money off this idea which I've had since last week, so please do not sue me.
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"Go!" Dylan barked. He looked drawn and tired. Rommie was worried about him. The pace of the last several months had worn on her captain, and she did not want to leave him alone. But he had ordered them to split up, to see if they could find their own ways to Command through the space/time distortion of a machine that hadn't been activated yet.
"Going," Rommie said. She and Dylan walked past each other, heading in opposite directions.
Rommie stopped and turned around. "Oh, Dylan -- "
He'd vanished.
"Dylan?" she called. "Dylan?"
No answer.
'Damn it!' the android thought. She would have to catch up to Dylan later.
She turned on her heel, took two steps ....
.... and wasn't aboard her ship self anymore. She stumbled, regained her footing, and took in her surroundings.
"This is different," Rommie mused.
She was outdoors, at night, in a ditch at the bottom of an embankment. There were shrubs on either side; she was ankle deep in water. A chain link fence was along the top of the embankment, and Rommie noticed a hole in the bottom of it about ten meters ahead of her position.
'Ok, where and when am I?' She opened her receiver, listening for something with a location and time base in it. She found it in an instant --
Time -- CY 10,076, twelve years into the past. Location -- Drago-Kasvo Garrison, Boston Sector ...
Earth.
'But that could mean ...'
Just then she heard a high-pitched squealing noise. Rommie winced -- it went into the ultrasonic.
It was also far away.
Then she heard gun shots.
"Isaac!" a boy's voice hissed above them.
"We have to go, Seamus!" another voice answered. "Now!"
Two figures scrambled through the fence and fell down the embankment. Rommie's eyes shifted to night-vision mode and her sensors shifted to provide full molecular and genetic scans ..... as if she needed it now. Both were rail thin; dirty; dressed in old, worn clothes, with holes; and barely knocking on the door of adolescence, but she could see in their faces the men they'd become. The taller one, already with the good looks and the quickness in his eye, that had to Harper's cousin, Brendan. And the other, shorter one, who looked like he was two seconds away from a panic attack ....
Seamus Harper, who would one day create her.
"So what now, Brendan!?" the young Harper yelped.
"Quiet!" Brendan hissed. "Let me think -- "
Then they heard voices, shouting. And dogs barking. Getting closer.
"Crap!" Brendan snapped.
Rommie analyzed the situation -- as she'd suspected when he'd told her the story, Harper, his cousin Brendan, and their now-dead friend, Isaac, had accessed the Nietzschean compound through the hole in the fence ..... and made the tactical blunder of doing it *twice.* The Nietzschean security had obviously prepositioned some of their units, hoping for another breach, obviously intent on making an example of the boys in their usually brutal fashion. Maybe even fatally so. But Harper had been -- would be -- alive a dozen years in the future -- she was living proof -- so she didn't have to do anything, right?
Rommie went back and forth on the issue 9,678 in the space of a heartbeat, but the fact was, she really had no choice.
"You two!" she called. "Over here."
The boys whirled.
"Who're you?" Brendan demanded.
"A friend," Rommie said. "It's me or the Dragons. Your choice."
They had no choice; Brendan and Harper came over to her, and she drew them into the bushes, keeping a look out. It was only a matter of moments before the Nietzscheans were in sight.
"Ok, no games," Brendan said. "Who are you?"
"I told you -- a friend," Rommie said, "and I can help you get away from the Nietzscheans. Harper, how many shrillers do you have?"
"How do you know -- ?" Frightened, Harper tried to squirm away. "You -- you're a spy, are't you? Look at her, Brendan; she's gotta be a collab -- "
Rommie grabbed his shoulder. "I'm not a spy, Harper, and I'm not a collaborator. I .... Look, I can't tell you who I am and how I know you. But I promise, one day, you will understand. Now, how many shrillers?"
He was dirty, thin, frightened ..... but in his eyes, Rommie saw a shadow of the man he would be .... and something else? Rommie would use up incredible amounts of processor time on that one later. But for whatever reason, Harper dug into his pockets.
"I got five of 'em," he said, handing her the tiny, bulbous little gadgets. "You activate 'em by -- "
"I think I see," Rommie said. "And a remote activation feature." She smiled at him. "Brilliant!"
"Yeah, well I never figured out a transmitter ... "
"This is all well and good," Brendan said, "but how does this help us?"
"You two stay low and follow the stream," Rommie said. "Don't worry, I'll give the dragons plenty of reasons not to follow you. Now go!"
"C'mon, couso," Brendan urged. But Harper didn't budge right away; he was fixated on Rommie.
"Come ON!" Brendan grabbed his younger cousin's arm and dragged him down the stream. Rommie felt a little anxious, wondering if they would vanish into the future, but they didn't.
"See you in eleven years," Rommie murmured. "And don't be late." Then she scrambled from one side of the ditch to the other, planting four of the shrillers -- two on either side -- just under the mud. She'd just got back under the bushes when the Nietzscheans and their dogs came through the fence, down the embankment.
"Spread out!" the leader shouted. "They have to be -- "
"You'll never find them," Rommie said, standing up. "They're beyond your power. They always will be."
"Who're you?" the leader barked as a half a dozen guns were leveled on her ... all from less than three meters away. Perfect.
The leader's second consulted a sensor. "She's a synthetic."
"Synthetic *this,*" Rommie said, and transmitted the activation signal. The attack dogs screeched, straining on their leads to run away, while their handlers flinched in pain. That was all the opening Rommie needed. She went into action, quickly disarming and incapacitating (non lethally, to avoid temporal disruptions) the squad. The dogs, their leads dropped, ran for it.
Then the shrillers cut out.
"Limited life power supply," Rommie murmured; the adult Harper would not have made such a mistake. His younger self had a lot to learn .... and he would.
"Ok, now how do I get home?" She opened her scanners to all wavelengths, and found the tesseract's energy signature through the bushes and a little way up the embankment.
"There's no place like home." She pushed through the bushes, scrambled up ....
..... and had to recover her footing again, stumbling, as she was back on her decks.
Rommie fished the remaining shriller out of her pocket. "A Seamus Harper original -- "
She heard a Kalderan screech behind her and got to cover just as it fired on her. Damn! She should have brought a gauss rifle from the past with her --
Then she remembered the shriller. She activated it; the Kalderan winced in pain. She had it unconscious on the deck seconds later. Then the last shriller died.
"I will definitely have to bring this up at the next staff meeting," Rommie murmured, popping the little gizmo back in her pocket.
******************
Before too long, she'd caught up with Dylan ... and begun to get the sense of the time jumps. Finally, they met the crew back in the machine shop, where Harper was willing to lay down his life to bring back Höhne, but ..... Trance seized the initiative and saved his life.
And Rommie didn't mind that too much. Höhne's death wouldn't make their lives any easier, but she had the genius she wanted back.
************
Rommie stayed by the wall as Harper, sitting up on his hospital bed with Beka by his side, took off the inhaler he'd worn around his neck for months. "What am I going to do with this thing?" he said. "I'm almost tempted to keep it as a momento, but ... I dunno ... "
Rommie stepped forward. "I'll trade you." She brought the dead shriller out from behind her back. Harper's eyes went wide as he accepted it from her.
"This is -- " he stammered. "How did you -- " Harper looked into her eyes. "That was *you?*"
Rommie nodded, smiling.
Beka's eyes flicked between Harper and the beautiful android he'd created. "Ok -- um, I've done the compassionate captain thing, so, I'll let you guys handle the weirdness. Ok? Ok." She couldn't have left the room faster if she'd run for it.
"You told me I'd understand," Harper said, turning the little gadget over in his hand. Then he looked up at her. "Back at ya, Rommie."
THE END
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