TITLE: One Dear Perpetual Place
AUTHORS: ArmourMe and Zion's Starfish
RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: ATH
ARCHIVE: Please ask either Zion's Starfish (zionsstarfish@hotmail.com) or ArmourMe (ralex7@qwest.net) if you'd
like to archive this fic. Thank you!
COMMENTS: Well, in lieu of certain events, we decided to have
this huge dedication :) Feel free to skip right to the story
ZS: First, to ArmourMe who had the idea for the
plot and the mom knowledge and the idea for this partnership
and... well, if you enjoy this story, all the kudos go to her. I
was just along for the amazing ride. AM, you're a wonderful
person and believe me when I say that it shines through so
brightly even across these hundreds of miles and my little
internet connection. Thank you!
ZS: So ArmourMe and I heard the story of how Zack and Ashley became writing partners, and though we didn't plan it, it was kind of the way we became writing partners, over the internet and purely by chance. So, by virtue of coincidentally having the first letters of our screen nicks match Zack and Ash's names, and our total fangirl and writer-wannabe admiration of these two guys having a dream and making it big, we dedicate this to Zack and Ash. When we were feeling sluggish, we told ourselves, "We're the female ZackAsh!! Nothing can stop us!" Thanks guys, for inspiring us to dream big and in bright colors.
AM: Zion's Starfish and I would also like to dedicate this story to Robert Hewitt Wolfe. Its not just the coincidence of timing (that is, we were almost done and just heard about Robert) but for a much bigger reason. We just loved writing this story while aspiring to the kind of story telling that Andromeda has given us. We were striving to write characters as complex, a mood as rich and as dualistic as Robert had invented. We had so much fun going places TV has a hard time going - taking advantage of the still places, as Keith calls them, and the character moments - taking our time. I'm really sad that Zion's Starfish and I and other fanfic writers aren't going to get to see the still places as Robert was envisioning them. I'm sure they would have been rich, and subtle, complex and layered.....
AM: When Zion's and I decided to try to write together, we laid out our future story ideas, and looked at where they over lapped. We both really wanted to follow up on Double Helix, so we chose to start there, thinking we'd just take it slow and see how we worked together. HA! It was like being on a runaway horse! We wrote the outline in detail in about 3 hours of IRC chat, and finished totally high and breathless. Two nights after Zion's and I outlined the story, I woke up out of a dream in which she and I were pitching the story to Robert and the writing team :) It was the lovely pipe dream of two amateur writers. But at the very least we are now able to dedicate our story, written as close to the Robert spirit as our skills would allow....to Robert :)
ZS: I read somewhere that coincidence is just
diluted magic. Timing may be an even more dilute form. We're
writing this as we're about three scenes and a huge edit from
finishing. And as the story grows and takes shape, it's beginning
to feel real to us. More than words on a page, more like tangible
visions. Magic, right? Which is what Andromeda is. Truly. And for
being the guy who brought us the opportunity to write together
and who brought us the magic, Robert, we'd like to dedicate this
to you too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May she become a flourishing
hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.
from A Prayer For My Daughter by W.B. Yeats
"Boy, what's our ETA? If we miss this contact, we won't get a second chance with these people. And Andromeda needs these weapons." Tyr was impatient enough to be pacing the decks of the Maru.
"Hey, no back seat drivers, okay?" Harper called over his shoulder. "ETA is fifteen minutes. Which is exactly the same ETA as when you last asked!"
"If I'm impatient it's because you made us late with your little sight seeing back at the Drift. Ogling women," Tyr said with a slight smile.
Harper snickered under his breath.
"As if you're a breeding specimen."
"Hey!--"
"Keep your mind on flying this....ship. And while you're at it, are we within broadcast range yet?"
"Keep your pants on, Tyr."
From behind Harper, the pacing stopped and an audible snort came from Tyr. Harper punched in from the pilot seat and accessed the outcoming general broadcast of info from the Drift. Tyr stepped up to a console and began reading.
"Here we are. News, weather, sports, mail..." Harper said, glancing up at Tyr. "I wonder if Trance won the sweepstakes lottery again?" Tyr shot a dark look at Harper. "No, I don't open her mail!" Harper came back indignantly.
They both bent to their consoles for a moment, reading their personal correspondence. Harper muttered under his breath, "Bills... bills... speeding ticket... Aw man! I wasn't going anywhere near that speed--"
"Harper, we have to... I've got to leave, now."
Harper caught Tyr's sudden urgency and looked up, confused.
"There's something I must do..." Tyr stopped, unwilling to say more.
Harper unbuckled and turned partway around in the pilotseat. "What's up, Tyr?"
"Look I'll drop you off at the drift and take the Maru, but I've got to go," Tyr said as forcefully as he could. But it didn't come off as he expected. Harper had been inside Tyr's defenses and wasn't going to be dismissed nearly this easily.
"Hey! Beka trusted me with the Maru. Wherever it goes, I go. She's gonna kill me if I let you get your hands... uh..." Harper paled at Tyr's obvious anger. Tyr was desperate!? Desperate over what?
Tyr stepped forward and leaned down into Harper who pulled back. "Harper I've got to go, and I need a ship." There was a tense silence. "Look, either you stay here where you're perfectly safe and I'll come back for you... or I take you with me where you're likely to get shot. Make a rational decision!"
Harper let Tyr keep him pressed back in the seat while his mind raced for a way to get Tyr to keep him onboard. He owed Tyr, true, but beside that he was hardly going to miss what ever excitement Tyr was headed off too.
"Hey, look. Wherever you want to go, we can get there faster if I pilot the Maru. If you drop me off somewhere, it'll only take more time. Okay?"
Tyr pushed abruptly back from the armrest and stomped in the tiny forward space of the Maru. "This is not some joy ride, boy! People are going to die on this mission, I'm quite sure of it!"
Harper's face dropped. "Tyr, uh... what exactly is this mission? I mean, if people are gonna die, I think we could use a bad ass ship like the Andromeda at our backs, don't you think?"
Tyr stopped his restless movement and turned to Harper. "No. Absolutely not. This is a...family matter." Harper was not squishing as easily as Tyr had expected. Tyr growled with frustration at Harper's refusal to back down. He struggled to say something while revealing nothing and turned again for a final attempt to intimidate Harper. But in the end he said calmly, "Are you going to do the sane thing and get off this ship? We're wasting time."
"Look, Tyr. You don't have to tell me anything. If there's anything I understand, it's family stuff, okay?" Harper knew Tyr was out of time for this argument. "Who can get you there the fastest? You or me?"
Tyr looked at Harper for a moment longer, then exhaled. Tyr stepped forward, taking a flexi from his console and handed it to him. "Fine. We're going here. Now get us there quickly."
"We just... leave the big scary arms dealer dudes hanging?"
"We leave them. I have people MUCH more important to
worry about."
The Maru settled in a very narrow space between thickly standing trees. Harper eased her down, scrunching some brush, fitting her snug in a perfect hiding space.
Harper unbuckled the slipchair harness and watched Tyr disappear around the corner. He followed, still wondering what had gotten Tyr so agitated.
Tyr flung open the right side of the weapons locker and started picking out weapons. Harper approached carefully.
"Uh, Tyr?"
There was no answer.
"Uh... mind telling me where you're going?"
Harper watched Tyr slide two knives into his boot.
Shrugging, Harper stood beside Tyr, flung open the left side of the weapons locker, and started grabbing weapons too.
Tyr paused. "Boy, what are you doing?"
"Going with you." Harper smirked but carefully so Tyr couldn't see it. "Wherever that is."
"I think not."
"Excuse me? You're running head long into some mysterious situation that you said would get people dead, and you don't want someone along who can watch your back? Carry more weapons? Uh... shoot the occasional bad guy?"
Harper returned Tyr's determined look, trying not to project the fear that was settling into the pit of his stomach right next to the Magog. Mysterious Nietzschean situations were scary enough. But a Tyr-related mysterious Nietzschean situation? That was downright freaky. But he owed Tyr big time. And it just so happened that the only thing worse than a mysterious Nietzschean situation was owing Tyr.
Harper reached for a laser rifle but Tyr stopped him.
"Tyr, I thought I said--"
"I heard you, boy. Do what you want, but if you're coming with me, bring these."
Harper looked down at the bundle Tyr put into his arms.
"You want me to carry blankets? Uh... wouldn't you rather have a laser rifle? A sling shot? A pointy rock?"
Tyr shot him a withering look. Blankets it was.
While Harper struggled to fold the blankets, Tyr went into the kitchen and filled a couple of canteens with water and raided the more nutritiously stocked cupboards. He stuffed all the items into a small pack and dropped it at Harper's feet.
"Put the blankets in here."
"So... we're going camping? I'm telling you right now, I'm not sharing a tent with y--"
Tyr growled and stepped all the way in to Harper's personal space. Harper's heart jumped into his throat.
"Listen well. If you come with me, you will do exactly as I say. And you will keep your mouth shut. Do you understand me."
Harper nodded. He'd never seen Tyr so serious.
"Good. Let's go." Tyr moved away and Harper sighed.
Before Harper left, he deployed several plasma mines around the Maru. If things were going to be as bad as Tyr suspected, he wanted the Maru to be here when they got back.
If.