TITLE: Ballast
AUTHOR: Michael J. Gallagher ( mikejoe@odyssey.net )
SYNOPSIS: Dylan escapes the Nietszchean trap at Hephastos and warns the High Guard of the rebellion .... wait a minute ....
RATING PG/R
AUTHOR'S COMMENT: I came up with this while I was out of town last week. I'm not entirely happy with it, and if you think it's not my best, you're probably right.
DISCLAIMER: GRA is owned by Tribune. I am just having "fun." Please don't sue me; I'm making no money off this that I could pay my lawyer with.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Regrets are like ballast -- let them go and you fly faster. But for
some reason, we don't want to get rid of them"
--- Pax Magellanic AI, Transmission to Academy Commencement, class of CY 9782
"Where do I begin, Rev?"
"At the beginning, Andromeda. Where else is there?"
****************
"What about you?" Refractions of Dawn asked, figting to maintane control of the _Andromeda_ against the black hole's pull. Dylan Hunt had just ordered the whole crew to abandon ship; he and the Than pilot were the only ones left on the command deck.
"I have an idea," Dylan said, going from one control panel to another.
"You always do. You're going to need a good pilot."
"I ordered you to abandon ship!"
"Let the record show that First Lieutenant Refractions of Dawn respectfully refuses to obey that order. If you want, you can court martial me later."
"You are one stuborn bug."
"What is it humans say? 'Guilty as charged.'"
Dylan smiled and ascended to his command podium. "All right; let's bring it. New course 127 mark 93."
"But that takes us -- "
"Right back at the Nietzschean fleet. Andromeda! Stand by to launch communications drones. Let's hope these guys didn't change the specs on their ships too radically."
********************
"Rhade!" Andromeda's Hologram appeared in the path of the Nietzschean first officer. "Have you thought about this?"
"I have thought about it, Ship," he said, halting to speak to her. "I have thought of this a great deal."
"And you're sure betraying the Commonwealth will help your people?"
"How do you --? Of course, you're one of Stark's 'Children.' But even if I had doubts, in case you didn't notice, I just killed two Lancers taking me to the brig."
"They're not dead; I'm already getting them medical attention."
"I must be slipping ... "
"There's still time. Please, Rhade! Dylan is your friend, and I know how honored you were to be asked to be his Best Man. Please reconsider!"
*************
"We're drawing heavy fire," Rommie's image said from one of the big main screens. "PDLs are taking care of it."
"Hold your course," Dylan said to the ship and to Dawn. "We need to get a bit closer before we can -- "
The big bridge doors opened and Ghares Rhade entered.
"Commander?" Dawn said.
"I came here to kill you," Rhade said.
"And?" Dylan asked.
"The Ship pursuaded me not to."
Rommie's image smiled at that.
"Take your station, Commader," Dylan said. "Stand by on the communication drones."
"Communications?" Rhade said.
"Yes," Dylan explained. "Nietzschean ships in this time period had IS system that any idiot could reset with the right sequence of commands broadcast loud enough. When we get close enough, our drones will send those signals and Control-Alt-Delete them. Then we plow through and get to Slipstream before they can stop us."
"We're almost in range," Rommie said.
"Annnnnndddddd ...... " Dylan watched as the Niezschean capital ships crossed a certain line on the tactical graphic. "Bring it!"
"Transmitting," Rhade said.
One second, the _Andromeda_ was being buffetted by heavy fire; the next, it was smooth sailing. They enemy ships pinwheeled helplessly as the High Guard cruiser flashed past them.
"Transitting to Slipstream .... " Dawn said; the ship plunged into the tangled web of the faster-than-light realm, and came out within communications range of a High Guard base. Dylan transmitted a report on what had happened; the base acknowledged and ordered the _Andromeda_ back to headquarters.
"Acknowledged," Dylan said as he switched off.
"Sir," Rhade said formally. "I must present myself to you for arrest on charges of conspriacy, mutiny, and treason." His voice softened. "You have to put me in the brig, Dylan."
"All right," Dylan said, starting to lead his friend off the bridge. "But in light of your actions just now, we should have no problems sorting this out."
"Of course, I don't share your optimism about that, but thank you for trying. Oh, and what did you mean just now about Nietzschean ships of this 'time period'?"
"Uhhhmmmmmm .... "
Rommie appeared by Dylan's right side. "It's not imprtant, Dylan," she said gently.
"No, it's not important," Dylan repeated, almost vacantly. Then his face lit up. "Unless they call it the Hunt Maneuver!"
The bridge doors closed behind Dylan and Rhade. Rommie's hologram stared at them for a long time before vanishing.
***************
As Dylan entered Admiral Stark's office with the _Pax Magellanic's_ Captain Warrick and -- he didn't know her name, but the tall blonde was certainly hot -- he was pleased to see Rhade had not been handcuffed, and that the guards that had escorted him there had been dismissed.
"In light of his recent conduct, Commander Rhade will be returned to normal duty," Admiral Stark said.
"See?" Dylan said. "I told you, pessimism is not a survival strategy."
The admiral quickly put an end to the banter and they discussed the current crisis; she gave her captains their orders.
"Dylan," Warrick said as they were leaving.
"Good to see you again, John," Dylan said. "And who is this?"
"Dylan Hunt, meet Jill Pearce."
"Pleasure," Dylan said. "You've joined the Pax' crew?"
"Not exactly," Jill said.
"What do you mean .... wait ... are you an android?"
Jill was taken aback. "How did you know? No one else can tell!"
"I just ... " Dylan rubbed his forehead. How had he known? "I guess I must have heard somewhere that the _Pax Magellanic_ had a humanoid avatar. And 'Jill Pearce' is kind of obvious if you think about it."
"Well, humanoid avatars are finally back in style," Warrick said. "I find her to be very helpful. And the crew likes her, too."
"And there are other benefits," Jill said with a knowing smile.
"Jillllllll ....... " Warrick warned.
"Hmm ...." Rommie's voice piped up from Dylan's com guantlet. "Think I should get one of those, Sis?"
"Absolutely, Rommie. You won't regret it."
***********************
Sara was waiting outside Stark's office.
"Sara ... " Dylan moved to embrace her, but she backed away.
"What's wrong?" Dylan asked.
"I ... Dylan .... " Sara opened Dylan's hand and pressed something small and metallic into it. He looked at it.
It was their engagement ring.
"Why?" Dylan finally managed.
"Because I don't love you," Sara said. "I never did. You are a good man, and I would like to be your friend. But I'm only marrying you because Aunt Connie wants me to. I've thought about it a great deal, and I've decided I don't want to be part of some Argosy-Intelligence Dynasty." She kissed him on the cheek. "I hope you find whatever you're looking for."
And she left him.
**********************
"How do you like it?" Rommie's new humanoid avatar said as she entered Dylan's cabin.
"Hmm?" Dylan looked up absently.
"This new body. What do you think?" She piroutted in front of him.
Dylan pivoted his chair around to her. "It looks good, Rommie. Very nice. It's just ... "
"Sara?"
"It's strange. I know I love her. But when she left ... it feels so .... I dunno, abstract. Like it meant nothing to me."
"Then it's just as well the wedding's off."
"Yes, but still .... "
"It's all right, Dylan," Rommie said, easing down onto Dylan's lap. "I'm here."
"Rommie! What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" She eased one arm around his shoulders and drew closer.
"B-but ... Rommie, there are High Guard protocols, and it's a taboo or something -- "
"Don't you love me?"
"Yes," Dylan said, realizing it for the first time. "I've always loved you, ever since I first saw you."
"And I've always loved you. What could be wrong with this?"
Just as their lips were about to touch, a cacaphony of sound and light formed in the space behind them. It looked vaguely human in shape, like a hologram was trying to form but couldn't.
Rommie jumped to her feet. "Get out of here!" she shouted at it. "Go away. This is what I want. Leave me alone!" She swiped her hand through the .... whatever it was, and it vanished.
"Rommie?" Dylan said, coming over to her. "What was that?"
She turned around and touched Dylan's neck, just below his right ear. "It's not important, Dylan."
"It's .... not important."
"The only thing that is important is this."
And she kissed him.
****************
The war did not go well for the Commonwealth. Dylan and a handful of other commanders, mostly Nietzscheans, provided the High Guard with a few victories ... very few. But they mattered little against Tarn Vedra being cut off and the Empress being killed.
The worst day -- what should have been the worst day -- was when the _Andromeda_ was called in to assist the _Pax Magellanic_ and the _Ballance of Judgement._ In the end, all they could do was rescue the ships' crews as the two sentient warships, like lovers fulfilling a suicide pact, flung themselves at the enemy squadrons and exploded, to buy the _Andromeda_ time to escape.
It struck Dylan as odd.
"This ... it's wrong, Rommie."
"Of course it is. The loss of two noble ships is never right. But sacrificing themselves so their crews could escape was how they should have died."
"'Should have'?"
She touched that spot on his neck before he could stop her. "It's not important."
"No ... I think it is .... " His hand reached up to hers. "I think ... "
"No, you DON'T," Rommie said forcefully.
"Lovers' quarel?" Rhade said from the XO's podium. The crew knew about Dylan and Rommie but normally said nothing.
"No, Rhade, no," Dylan said. "It's not important."
Another thing that bothered Dylan was where he was getting all the technical knowledge he drew on when fighting the Nietzschean ships.
"I've read my transcripts backwards and forwards, Rommie," he said one night, sitting up in bed, "and I got good marks in my engineering courses, but I don't remember being drawn to that subject. In fact, I don't remember anything about those classes at all."
"Then it's probably -- "
"'Not important.' I know. We're going to have to discuss -- "
Something screamed and that apparition appeared again. Rommie flung herself at it. "GO AWAY!" It vanished.
"Rommie, what is that thing? And don't tell me it's not -- "
Rommie suddenly kissed him, rubbing her hand on his neck, just below his right ear. Dylan lost himself in the kiss; ok, maybe it wasn't _that_ important.
"Close your eyes," Rommie said when she released him.
"What?"
"Just do it, Love. I have a surprise."
Dylan closed his eyes; he felt a flexie being forced into his hands.
"You can open them now."
Dylan did. "What's this?" he asked.
"Your new orders from Admiral Stark," Rommie explained. "Your tour as captain of this ship has been extended for another four years. Do you know what this means? We can stay together!"
"Really?" Dylan grinned. "That's great, Rom Doll!"
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?"
"What -- I'm sorry -- "
"Don't call me that! Don't you EVER call me that!"
Dylan was taken aback by his android lover's anger. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to offend. It just seemed right, somehow."
"It's not." Rommie's voice softened. "It reminds me of someone else, someone who claimed he loved me, but he just wanted to satisfy his perverted desires. I never wanted him, and I want to forget all about him. You understand?"
"Yes, Rommie. It's just .... all right."
******************
Then came the day when they were ordered to the Witchhead Nebul. The High Guard was mustering all the ships it had left for an assault on Fountainhead .... all one hundred of them.
"Transitting to normal space ... " Dawn said, before the ship plunged into the nebula.
"The other ships are here Dylan," Rommie said, "and --- Nietzschean ships, multiple vectors. It's an ambush!"
"How many ships are we facing?" Dylan asked.
"Fifteen hundred."
"Fifteen -- wait, that's --" Before he could say any more, the _Andromeda_ came under enemy fire. Dylan found himself trying to organize the High Guard defense. But the Nietzscheans had numbers and bloody-mindedness on their side. Although both sides suffered heavy losses, on the basis of numbers alone, it looked like the Nietzscheans would come out on top.
Then the _Andromeda_ took a very bad direct hit.
"Reactors overloading," Rommie said. "Estimate six minutes to detonation."
Dylan had no choice. "All hands, abandon ship."
"What about you?" Rhade said; he and Dawn were the last to leave their stations.
One look into Rommie's brown eyes, and again, Dylan knew he didn't have a choice. "I'm staying."
Rhade and Dawn protested, but Dylan stood firm. They exchanged salutes; his two long-time friends left.
"Four minutes," Rommie said. "The crew is away. There's an opening in the enemy lines to their flagship. If we make for it at maximum PSL, we will have them in our blast radius before we explode. We can deliver a crippling blow."
"Just what I was thinking. Bring it."
"Executing new course. Three minutes thirty seconds to detonation." She walked into her captain's arms. "We had our time together, and we're going out fighting. This is how it should be. I have no regrets."
"I ... I don't know, Rommie. Something's wrong. Something's _been_ wrong."
She reached for his neck. "It's -- "
Dylan grabbed her hand before she could reach that spot below his right ear. "It _is_ important. I've felt something strange for .... I don't know how long. I don't even remember time passing. And I'm not acting the way I think I should act. What's going on?"
A screaming mass of static appeared on the bridge, in front of them. Dylan pushed Rommie back. "This is part of it, isn't it? You're not sending it away this time. I'm going to find out what's going on!"
"No!" Rommie screamed. "Don't touch it! DON'T TOUCH IT!"
Dylan didn't listen. He grabbed what he thought was the electric ghost's hand and yanked ....
.... and it condensed into another Dylan Hunt.
"Beka, I'm in!" the new Dylan said.
"We're at three minutes to detonation," a woman's voice answered. "Have you found Harper yet?"
"I think so."
"Well, get him to hustle on that self destruct!"
"Self destruct?" Dylan asked.
The new Dylan stepped closer. "Do you know who that was? Do you know who you are?"
"You called her Beka ..." Dylan said. "Beka, the _Maru._ But if you're Dylan, then who -- " Dylan reached to the spot on his neck Rommie was always touching and felt it -- the small metal disk. A plug. _His_ plug. "I'm Harper."
"NO!" Rommie shouted. "I don't want Harper back -- "
"Two minutes," Rommie and Beka's voice said.
"Dylan!" Beka added.
"-- I don't want that little creep at all!" Rommie ranted. "I've loved my captain and I'm going to die with him the way I should have. That little twit can rot!"
"Rom Doll," Dylan/Harper said. "You sure know how to hurt a guy." He squeezed his eyes shut and his body broke into scan lines which reformed into someone smaller, younger, geekier ....
.... into Seamus Harper.
"I remember now," Harper said. "Rommie's computer networks siezed up when we repelled that Drago-Kazov patrol. I dove in to fix it, but something was wrong; I could feel the data flows reversing on me. Next thing I knew, I was you. She must have been using my brain as a coprocessor to support that Dylan persona; that's why I even talked like you."
"Your real body is locked in a conduit behind the bridge," Dylan said. "The internal defenses have interfered every time we've tried to get you out."
"And we go up like a roman candle in one minute thirty!" Beka's voice said.
"Nag, nag, nag," Harper said. He raised his hands; displays appeared in the air in front of him. "Didn't you know we take _everything_ down to the wire around here?"
He fiddled with the displays as the clock ticked down: 45 seconds. Thirty. Twenty. Ten.
"Five seconds .... self destruct disabled," Rommie's voice said.
The bridge melted around them, revealing the virtual world inside Rommie's mind. The Rommie image remained for a moment, glaring at them, before she dissolved.
"Mr. Harper .... what did she mean by ... "
"Let's just get the hell out of here, Boss."
*****************
Dylan pulled the VR headest off as Rommie, lying on the floor next to him, woke up.
"Receiving download ... " She gasped. "Oh my God, what have I done?"
"Harper," Dylan said, picking himself off the floor. He got to the conduit just as the small hatch opened. Harper, looking sweaty and tired, stuck his head through it.
"You all right?" Dylan asked.
Rommie came up beside her captain. "Harper! Oh, God, I'm so sorry -- "
Harper pushed past both of them and headed for the bridge doors.
"Harper!?" Beka said, astonished; this was too rude, even for him. "What -- "
"Let him go, Beka." Rommie's voice shook as she hugged herself. "He's been through a lot."
***************
".... but the worst part isn't that I brutalized poor Harper physically, or that I almost killed us all," Rommie said, finally turning around and facing Rev across the observation deck. "I've had literally thousands of human males walk my decks since I was commissioned; I know how they think. Even when a female loves a male dearly -- and I do love Harper, really -- any relationship that doesn't involve copulation is seen as rejection. Harper has known for some time I don't want to have sex with him; now he's experienced firsthand my ... attitudes towards Dylan .... "
" .... and some repressed contempt for him?" the Magog monk asked.
Rommie had been fighting back tears -- and gave up. "Maybe. I dunno. I don't think I know anything anymore. But I do know that Harper knows better than anybody that this body is just a facade; the ship around us, that's the real me. You all live inside me. I could understand completely if he couldn't stand to be on my decks for one more minute. That's why he's going to leave me."
"You think so?"
"He's aboard the _Maru_ with Dylan and Beka. What other reason could they have for convening in the one place where I can't see or hear them?"
Rev sighed. "Well, there certainly are a lot of things to work on, Andromeda. Clearly, smoothing things over with the crew is going take time." Rev's voice indicated it would take time for him, too. "But the larger question isn't your feelings for Harper and Dylan, or even that you regret that you were frozen in time and couldn't 'die' with the rest of the fleet at Witchhead. The real problem is that you kept it all inside, that you wouldn't open up to your friends."
"I'm a High Guard warship. I have to be strong."
"You are also a sentient being with emotions. You need support, especially when you are troubled. Where else can you turn for that, if not to us?"
"I'm afraid .... I don't want anyone to think I'm weak, that I'll let them down."
"I once heard a saying: 'A friend is someone who knows everything about you and loves you anyway.' No one will preceive you as weak, Andromeda -- except Tyr, who doesn't care anyway -- If anything, it will strengthen your bonds to the ones you love. That is all for later. Now, let us go aboard the _Maru_ and see what we can do regarding your captain and young Master Harper."
*******************
"Hey!" Beka said with a grin as Rev and Rommie came through the _Maru's_ airlock. "You here to help?"
"Help?" Rommie asked, hoping she kept her apprehension out of her voice.
"Yeah. I gotta renew my FTA membership, and you and Dylan have sent me on a new adventure in red tape. Two ships, two captains, ONE crew -- trying to reconcile that with FTA rules WITHOUT having my dues for one month bankrupt the Commonwealth before it gets going -- it's a real mess, isn't it boys?"
"Mondo big time headache, Boss," Dylan said. He had dyed his hair blonde and was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a loud Hawaiian shirt.
"But I'm sure we can figure out a solution consistent with Free Trade Alliance regulations," said Harper, who had dyed his hair brown and was wearing a High Guard uniform.
"Something wrong, Rom Doll?" Dylan said.
Rommie ignored the fact that Beka was leaning on some grillwork, laughing; and that Rev had curled up in a little ball, making odd, gurgling noises; and tried to maintane her composure as she faced her (probably insane) captain and engineer.
"What, um, what is all this?"
"This?" Dylan said, looking down at himself. "Oh, the Harpster and I were talking about it, and we decided this was the best way to avoid any future confusion over who's who."
"Yes, Andromeda," Harper added, "no more problems like we had earlier today."
"Whaddya think?" Dylan asked.
"I think," Rommie said, repressing a chuckle, "I really think .... this whole display ... " She couldn't resist -- she started laughing. "You two meat head-d-d-ds! C'mere!"
She gave them each a kiss on the cheek, and they all kept on laughing.
And nothing else was important.
THE END
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