Parallel Possibilities
Title: Parallel Possibilities
Author: Natasha Bennett
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Dylan enters alternate dimensions. Will he be able to return to his own?
Disclaimer: Andromeda is property of Tribune.
The Andromeda was in very big trouble.
"Main thrusters are out, defense missiles off-line!" Harper’s voice floated over the intercom. "I can’t repair them with these ships on our tails!"
"Great!" Dylan Hunt, Captain of the Andromeda snapped. "We came here for a nice, peaceful conference and we’re instead ambushed by our so-called ambassadors!"
A second explosion hit the ship. "What was that?" Beka Valentine, his first officer asked.
"That was the sound of our port side being hit!" Harper replied.
"Depressurization underway!"
"Stabilizing port nacelles," Rommie, the ship’s computer said, the only one sounding perfectly calm in the tense situation.
"Forward missiles are non-responsive!" Tyr snapped at Dylan from weapons control. "Now might be one of those times for one of those last-minute-back-up surprises you have stored for us. It almost makes up for your moral handicaps that get us into these situations in the first place!"
Dylan let that one pass…For now. "Harper, is slipstream drive back on line?"
"Just a few seconds!" Harper replied.
"Enemy regrouping!" Tyr said.
Dylan swore under his breath. "Once, just once, I wish that something actually goes according to plan. We would have an easier time re-establishing the commonwealth without people biting our heels out of fear!"
Beka turned to him, startled by his pessimistic view.
"Slipstream back on line!" Harper said triumphantly.
"Engaging slipstream!" Beka immediately said, turning back to her station.
"Enemy firing!" Tyr said at the exact same time.
The blast hit them just as they entered slipstream. The slip portal closed behind them, but they weren’t moving out of slipstream either.
"Harper?"
"Reactors been severely hit! We’re dead in slipstream!" Harper shouted.
"That’s never happened before," Beka said nervously. They all knew that slipstream was unpredictable at best, deadly at worse.
"Sometimes I think the whole galaxy is against us," Dylan muttered, but under his breath. "Suggestions?"
"I have to jump-start the reactor. That’s going to be difficult. At the very least, it’ll propel us into the slipstream waves. Without any direction, we could be lost in slipstream forever," Harper said over the intercom.
"On the other hand, what choice do we have?" The android version of Rommie asked, standing beside Dylan.
"Harper, do it!" Dylan ordered.
"Better hang on to something up there! This is going to be rough. Re-starting...now!"
Dylan closed his eyes, suddenly very dizzy. He saw light blue waves at the edge of his vision, and the entire ship seemed to shudder. He opened his eyes, but still the waves would not dissipate. The entire room blurred for a moment, and for a moment, he thought he could actually see slipstream, to the infinite paths they led. He felt himself being pulled to one of those paths and through a bright light. He closed his eyes again. When he opened them, he was back on the bridge of the Andromeda. The blue waves had vanished.
Yet, even as he looked around, he felt a strange feeling of strangeness. Everything felt out of place, looked slightly different. He had somehow moved without realizing it halfway across the room with Rommie by his side. On the view screen was the blackness of space, but that only served to make things stranger. Weren’t they lost in slipstream? And if that wasn’t enough, Harper, whom he was reasonably sure was in engineering, was now on the bridge manning the weapons. Beka was now in the navigational station. Tyr stood in front of the view screen, his muscled back to Dylan.
He blinked his eyes in confusion. "Beka, report!" he ordered.
Beka was also puzzled. Her gaze shifted. Not to him, but to Tyr. "Captain?" she inquired.
Tyr turned and pointed his weapon at Dylan, his expression one of genuine astonishment. "Who are you, and how did you get aboard my ship?"
"Excuse me? Your ship?" The android Rommie repeated. She gestured to Dylan. "He’s the captain here, not you."
"ALL HANDS, INTRUDER ALERT!" The computer Andromeda shrieked, making Dylan jump. "Scans confirm one human and one android of my appearance. Obviously they were trying to infiltrate the ship and exchange my personality with a Magog duplicate!"
"Magog spies? Here?" Harper echoed, puzzled. He turned to Tyr. "And human?"
Dylan straightened. "What is wrong with all of you? I am Captain Dylan Hunt of the Andromeda Ascendant. You have all been my crew for the past year!"
"Dylan, these are not our crew," The android Rommie suddenly stated.
Dylan turned to her. "What do you mean?"
"I’ve completed an initial scan of the bridge. There are subtle difference among the bridge design and this crew. Different hair lengths, scars and cuts that were never there and gone where they should be. Whoever these are, they are not our people," Rommie said. "They could be intruders trying to impersonate the crew."
"Excuse me? You board my ship and call us intruders?" Tyr asked. He turned to the screen.
"What do you think, Rommie?" he inquired.
The computer shrugged. "We detected strange amounts of radiation a few moments before they arrived. My only working theory is that they’re either spies, or a freak accident has accidentally placed them here."
"From where?" Beka asked.
"Another reality, possibly another time. However, the chances of them being Magog spies is far more likely," The computer added, sniffing. Dylan noticed that a strange tattoo marked Rommie’s face and her black hair, usually cut short, was now in a thick braid.
"How can you say that!?" The android Rommie snapped, looking at the computer. "I’m you! We share the same computer systems! Patch into my mainframe!"
"I’ve been trying to since you’ve arrived," Rommie said bluntly. "You’re not responding to any of my codes,"
"Um...boss? Not to interrupt this intriguing mystery, but I’ve just detected five Magog world ships coming out of the slipvoid," Harper suddenly said to Tyr. "They’re closing in fast."
"We don’t have time to debate this. All Commonwealth ships report to battle stations! Beka, put these two on the prison deck," Tyr ordered, his voice a startling good impersonation of Dylan’s.
Beka saluted him and moved to Dylan, her eyes cold and hard. One hand rested casually on her blaster.
"Beka-" Dylan began.
All of a sudden blue ripples surrounded them....
Dylan suddenly rammed into a young man with black hair wearing a high guard uniform, who jumped back in surprise. "Hey, watch where you’re…" he suddenly started in alarm and saluted. "I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t see you approaching."
Dylan was so startled himself that he saluted back. "It’s all right-Davidson?" he whispered in astonishment. A brief look around told him that he was no longer on the bridge, but in a corridor. Other High guard members of the crew were moving around them. Once, 300 years ago, they were his crew.
"Yes, sir," the man said. He turned to Rommie in surprise. "M-Ma’am? Captain, why does this woman look like our computer AI?"
"ALL HANDS, BATTLE STATIONS! NEICHIANS APPROACHING POSITION!" A male voice Dylan didn’t recognize sound over the comm.
Davidson immediately turned and ran down the deck. Dylan and Rommie were almost stampeded by crew running down the corridors.
"This-this is the original crew!" Dylan said. "How can that be possible!?"
"I-"
"STEALTH MISSILES APPROACHING. ENGAGING EMERGENCY SLIPSTREAM DRIVE." The unfamiliar voice calmly said.
Suddenly Rommie and Dylan were once again surrounded by the blue ripples. Before Dylan became dizzy and was forced to close his eyes, he suddenly realized whose voice he was hearing.
It was his own.
They were suddenly back on the bridge of the Andromeda. Dylan turned, and saw the back of Beka calmly piloting the ship. The rest of the bridge was empty. "Piloting out of slipstream in twenty seconds," she said.
"Beka!" Dylan said, stepping forward. "Thank God-."
Beka turned, and Dylan felt the words swallow in his throat. There was no hint of recognition. "Who in the infinitive words are you?" she demanded. One side of her face was scarred slightly to one side, and her muscles were three times more bulkier then Dylan had ever seen them.
"Who are you?" Dylan asked.
"Beka Valentine, captain of the Nietzschean fleet." she snapped. "Who are you? One of those peace-loving Waiest spies?"
Tyr suddenly appeared in the form of a hologram, wearing style of uniform Dylan had never seen before. His deep black long hair was not a dark red, and he wore a sword by his side. "Clearly, he’s not a Nietzschean," he remarked. "I say we kill him."
"Agreed," Beka snapped.
The fibers suddenly surrounded them again....
When Dylan opened his eyes again, he found himself in an empty corridor of the Andromeda. Rommie was standing beside him, looking completely puzzled. But clearly, it wasn’t their Andromeda, for the corridor walls were lined with frost.
"Rommie-answer truthfully. First Tyr’s captain then I see my original crew, and now I don’t even recognize my own crew! Am I going insane?" Dylan asked, rubbing his arms against the cold.
"As Harper might put it, are you asking me if you’re ‘a few engines short of Lightspeed?’ No, I don’t. I believe that jump-starting the reactor has thrown us into parallel dimensions, places that are the same as our universe except where different changes done in the past has altered our version of normal reality. Why only the two of us and not the whole crew, I am not certain." Rommie admitted. "In both realities we shifted dimensions immediately after slipstream is activated. My guess is that, despite the ship being in space, we ourselves are stuck in slipstream."
"Explain," Dylan said.
"Slipstream was created to connect galaxies together. Its materials are still unknown to us, despite being made well before our time. As we have already seen, being lost in slipstream can have hazardous effects, like when Trance sent us back through time. Therefore, it is possible that we have become stuck in the fibers that separate realities."
"You’re right," replied a heavy voice. Dylan and Rommie turned, and saw the future version of Trance from their own reality standing behind them in profound sorrow.
She held up a hand before they could speak. "We only have a few moments before the next reality shift, so listen carefully. When Harper activated the reactor in the slipstream, the two of you were thrown into different currents of realities. Unless you do something, the two of you will be lost forever in virtually infinitive realities, and nothing I can do can bring you back to your own."
"So what can we do?" Rommie asked.
"You have to recreate the accident from one individual Andromeda while in slipstream. It’s very complicated, but that is the only way to restore the realities to their rightful balance." her mouth suddenly twisted in hate. "Not even he can prevent natural physics, I think."
"Who?" Dylan asked, wondering if she meant Harper.
Trance thought for a moment, then sighed. "Dylan, this wasn’t just a freak accident. Someone deliberately did this to you, and that someone is trying to tear the realities apart from each other. The longer you stay, the more of a gap there is between your version of the realities and others, more differences, and the harder it’ll be to return yourself to your own reality."
"Who?" Dylan persisted. "Who’s doing this?"
Trance shook her head. "I can’t say. With luck, you’ll never meet him. He’s a trickster, a meddler, one who delights in chaos and torment. I met him, once, and it almost destroyed Me." she handed him a small paper. "These are the schematics to jump-start the reactor. Either Rommie or Harper should be able to decipher them. And remember, close proximity
during slipcurrents are the only way the two of you can stay together."
They could feel the winds gathering again. "Come with us!" Rommie demanded.
Trance shook her head and stepped back. "I can’t. I belong to this version. Yet, in a way, I am connected to all realities. I will try and help further, if I can."
Blue winds surrounded them....
"CODE RED! CODE RED! OFFICERS DOWN IN COMMAND! OFFICERS DOWN IN COMMAND!"
Dylan almost fell. He inhaled sharply. "Is it just me, or are these keep getting harder and harder?"
Rommie nodded. "What Trance says makes sense. We have to go to engineering of the Andromeda and restart the reactor while in slipstream. However, there is a problem."
Dimly they heard shouting somewhere. "Time. We can’t predict when the next slipstream comes."
"We have to try-" Rommie began.
"Come on! Breathe, Beka!" they heard a voice in front of them. Dylan lifted his head. The entire bridge was a mess. Fried circuits and debris was everywhere, and the Magog world ship was on the view screen. Two figures were in the center on the floor, one lifeless and bleeding bad, one trying to revive her. Dylan peered closer.
"MAGOG SWARM SHIPS ATTEMPTING TO PENETRATE HULL A SECOND TIME. AUTO DEFENSES DOWN, HARPER," The computer Andromeda said. "LOCKING BRIDGE DOORS."
Harper briefly nodded. He was pumping his fist against Beka’s lifeless heart, his sleeves splattered with her blood. His spiked blond hair was now streaked dark blue, and there was a deep gasp on his head. Tears ran down his face as his pumping quickened frantically. "Come on, Beka! I’ve lost everyone but I’m not going to lose you. Come on!"
Dylan stepped forehead. "Harp-"
Harper’s head immediately snapped up in surprise. His eyes narrowed, and his lips twisted in hate. "You!" he shrieked, pointing at him. "You did this to her!"
Dylan recoiled back in surprise. "Wha-"
Harper stood. Slowly. "She never loved you, Dylan! Couldn’t you ever understand that!? You tried to force her but she refused! You executed her, you murdering pig! " he shouted, his voice growling low in his throat. He suddenly rushed towards Dylan, his blaster drawn.
A sudden burst of light, and suddenly Harper was catapulted backwards, sparks flying from his body. Dylan turned around in surprise. Rommie held her own smoking force lance, her face full of grief. "He was going to kill you, Dylan," she said.
Dylan couldn’t speak. He turned and walked towards them. Beka was shot clearly through the chest, in perfect execution-style. Harper’s body lay still beside her, his blaster still held in a death-grip. "They’re both dead," he said.
"They’re not our people," Rommie reminded him softly.
Dylan fought back tears. Still he could see Harper flying towards him, his pale face filled with grief and hate. "We have to get out of this," he said.
Rommie nodded and moved to the blackened controls. "As long as there are no more slipstream activations, we can stay in this reality for as long as we please."
Dylan looked at Beka’s and Harper’s bodies and shuddered. "I’m not sure if I want to stay in this reality."
"If what Trace says is true, then eventually we will be in realities beyond our comprehension. I say that we take the chance," Rommie stated. "Even with Magog crawling around the ship."
"If our theories are right, then despite shifting realities our overall positions should remain the same. If we head to engineering and the realities shift; then we should still be in engineering. From there I can-" she suddenly turned. "Dylan, slipstream points opening again. Magog…"
The blue currents of reality circled around again, but this time it was different. This time it was circled around only him. He could see Rommie at the edge of his vision, shouting to him. The wind was so strong that she couldn’t get to him. The noise was so loud it was almost impossible to hear. "Rommie!" he shouted.
A shout, a muffled sob, then blackness.
Dylan refused to open his eyes for a moment. Miraculously, he heard only normal systems operations. He opened his eyes, but what he saw shocked him more then any other reality then he encountered. He paled visibly and had to brace himself against the rail.
The other crew, his crew, stared at him in frank curiosity. A purple-haired Beka was whispering quietly to Harper as both looked at Dylan, puzzled. Tyr and Rev glanced at each other, both wearing a Waiest outfit and peace medallions. Rommie’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
But what astonished Dylan most of all was the person that stood in the navigation chair. It turned around, revealing a woman he knew very well, a woman that had died 300 years ago. "Sarah?" he whispered.
The woman stared at him with equal recognition. "Dylan?" she gasped.
All the breath went out of him with one sigh.
A sudden beeping beside Rommie diverted her attention for a moment. "Slipstream active," she said. To Dylan, it was his worst nightmare come true.
"No!" he shouted, but the waves came towards him again. He tried to rush towards her, to surround her with his currents, but he found himself being pulled back. Back to the endless maze of realities.
"NO!" he shouted reaching out with his hand. Tears ran down his cheek. He pulled and struggled with all of his might, but he couldn’t prevent himself from being shoved backwards "SARAH!"
Then he was pulled back into the void.
He appeared once again on the bridge of the Andromeda. He turned, and found most of his crew waiting for him. Only this time, they looked exactly like they did before he starting to jump realities. "Beka? Rommie? Are you people...my reality?"
Beka shook her head sadly. "No, Dylan. You’re still not in your dimension yet. But we were told that you would come. We were told to help you get back."
It was then that Dylan noticed a strange mark on each of their necks. It looked like a tiny silver circle, only there were small patterns engraved in them that were different for each person. "Who told you?" he asked.
Beka smiled, but it was a bitter grimace. "Little-Miss-ruler-of-the-galaxy herself. Trance Gemini."
"Then you’re-"
"Slaves, yes. Not that it’s any of your concern. What matters is that we have to get you back to your own reality before you cause any more trouble. At least, that’s what she said," Beka said. "You have something to give to Harper, I’m told."
Dylan reached for the paper. Mercifully, he hadn’t lost in any other realities. He gave it to Harper.
Harper took a glance at it. He grinned. "Hey, it’s schematics for one of those old type-9 reactor cores! Boy, if there’s one good thing Trance has done since being a purple-trailed Goddess, it’s getting us out of that stone-age era-."
"Not now, Harper," Beka snapped at him. "Can it be duplicated?"
"Of course," Harper said, grinning. "According to this, we have to be dead in slipstream to do it, though. That’ll be risky."
"Tyr, get us in slipstream. Harper, get down to engineering and work on those schematics. I’ll give Captain Hunt a little tour of the ship before he goes," Beka said.
"Four-hundred nova bombs, eighty-eight plasma bombs, six billion force lances at our disposal-"
"That’s quite a collection," Dylan said, impressed in spite of himself.
"But if you’ve conquered the Magog, like you’ve said, then why the need for such heavy weaponry?"
"The Magog? A minor race compared to other foes we’ve encountered," Beka said as they entered engineering. "With luck, you’ll never meet them."
"Hey, boss-master!" Harper greeted Beka. "The schematics are finished. All you have to do is jump-start the reactor at your disposal."
"Harper, report to command!" Tyr’s voice said over the intercom.
Harper shook his head and grinned. "Five thousand crew at his disposal, and he always calls on me to do the dirty work..." he walked out of engineering, still muttering.
"Your reality, Captain. Whenever you’re ready," Beka said coldly, her hands folded behind her back.
"Can I ask you something? Why are you people slaves?"
"We all are slaves to Trance Gemini. Everyone in the galaxy. Funny too, because she used to our friend. The Andromeda Ascendant is her enforcer, Captain. You could say that we ensure peace across the known galaxies. We punish those that disobey her. Your reality...this hasn’t happened?"
"No," Dylan said.
"Pray that it never does," Beka said.
Dylan turned to her. "The Beka Valentine I know would never be a slave."
"Trance Gemini isn’t the average slave master. She does...terrible things to those that don’t obey her commands. Terrible things. We’re her deathship." Beka shuddered. "I’m just trying to survive. We all are. Believe me, the universe could be a lot worse without her guidance."
"Maybe. But that’s still no excuse," Dylan said.
"No, it isn’t. But it’s what it is in this reality." Beka said. She saluted. "Good-bye, Dylan Hunt. I pray that you live in a reality better then mine." Before he could protest, she hit the jump-start button.
Once again he found himself being pulled away, but this time he wasn’t in slipstream, but in outer space. Amazingly, he could somehow breathe in outer space. The slipstream throbbed above him like a living silver cloud.
‘And so, Dylan Hunt, we meet at last," whispered a voice in slipstream.
"Who are you?" he asked. "Show yourself!"
"Ah, that is the question, isn’t it? Should I show myself to you, knowing that your mind would explode from just looking at me? Perhaps, but not now. For now, in this time, simple words will have to suffice," whispered the voice.
"Who are you?" Dylan demanded again. "Are you....are the trickster Trance spoke of!?"
"Trickster!?" the voice echoed with terrible rage. "Is that what that purple thing told you!? If our paths ever cross before your eyes, perhaps you’ll wonder whom you truly despair from! However, yes, I am the one that....thing spoke to you off. I am the man that has led you down this path."
"Why?" Dylan asked.
"Perhaps because I was bored. Perhaps because you begged me to. But mostly, perhaps, because I wanted you to suffer. I wanted you to die. You’ve disappointed me greatly, beating me at my own game. However, perhaps all is not yet lost for me. I cannot kill you...according to the rules of fair play, anyway. However, I can offer you a better alternative to the reality you have now."
Dylan said nothing.
"You have just seen the barest glance at the endless possibilities. I can restore your original crew. I can make you the richest man, or the king of tyrants. I even know of a reality where the mighty Tyr Anasazi caters to your every will." It paused. "Or perhaps, I can offer you the reality where you’ve just been to, the reality where your dead wife lives..."
Before Dylan could speak it continued. "Don’t allow your high-and-mighty morals to interfere in your judgement. I am offering you the greatest of gives. I am offering you new life. Don’t disappoint me by squandering it."
Dylan thought frantically. To live a life where his wife is alive...where she could love him...touch him again...Dylan was overwhelmed by the possibility. It would be so easy to live that life. And why shouldn’t he? He’d certainly earn it. What was holding him back?
‘My friends. They’re holding me back,’ Dylan thought. All of them. Beka, Harper, Trace, Rommie, Rev, even though he was lost somewhere on his own quest. Even Tyr held him back from sweet bliss. Through his mind’s eye he remembered his squabbles, his friendships he had with them. If he went to another reality, what were the chances that they would still be alive, or the same? And what about his crew? His ship? Alone without a captain, struggling against the darkness which threatened to surround them. No, there really was no choice to be made. He closed his eyes and shook his head.
The voice was literally trembling with rage. "You defy me!? Very well, Captain Hunt, go back to your own insignificant corner of the cosmos, and take this message in your heart-your love for your crew binds you to their plain, but not all of those you hold dear will survive the wrath of the future, and not one of them will be the same!"
Dylan was suddenly catapulted backwards through the slipstream cloud. He turned his head with a great effort of will, and saw the barest glance of the person that had spoken with him.
He saw his own face.
Blackness. Dylan had the impression of something heavy pressed against his back and head. Something soft was on him. A blanket.
"D-Dylan? Are you all right?" inquired a voice full of worry. Rommie’s voice.
"Well? Is he dead, or isn’t he?" demanded another voice. Tyr.
Slowly, Dylan opened his eyes again, fearing the truth. Around him was the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant. All of them. And they looked exactly how he left them.
Dylan tried to move, but Trance held him down. "Easy, Dylan. You’ve been gone for almost six hours. Give yourself time to adjust."
Dylan tried to speak. "Wha-what happened?"
"While we went into slipstream you disappeared." Harper said, smiling. "We almost thought we’d lost you."
"Then...this is my reality?" he asked, starring intently at all of them.
"Wha-what do you mean?" Harper asked uncertainly.
"You’re not all slaves? I’m the captain? I-I traveled to all these different dimensions. Rommie... .Rommie, you were with me."
Rommie rolled her eyes. "They didn’t believe me either, Dylan. I found my own way home through the Magog-invested ship."
He looked at Harper. "But you said I was gone-"
"Yeah, gone. Gone from sensors, that is. But then, all the systems had gone out. It took us six hours to find you crawling hand-and-foot through the decks. We found you on deck nineteen, unconscious. A broken beam was right beside you. You must have hit your head," Harper said, shrugging.
"But-"
"Dylan, different dimensions are only a theory. There is no possible way the reactor jump-start could have done that. Besides, why send only you and not the entire ship?" Harper reasoned.
"Why indeed?" Dylan wondered. His eyes rested lightly on Trance’s for a moment.
Trance gave him a completely innocent expression. "You should be fully recovered soon," she said. Her eyes seemed to twinkle as she walked out, followed by Harper and Tyr.
As Rommie was about to leave he stopped her. "Rommie, did you see anything...strange right before you came back?"
Rommie looked puzzled. "Not at all," she said. She left, deep in thought.
Beka Valentine smiled at him. "You had as all worried there for a while. Honestly, you always pick the worst times to play hide-and-go-seek."
"Complete scepticism from my loyal crew aside, it is good to be back," he said with a laugh.
Beka was about to say something, then hesitated. "I believe you, you know."
"You do?" Dylan said in astonishment.
Beka shook her head. "No one could go missing from me for six hours. So tell me, did you find anything interesting?"
‘You tried to force her to love her but she refused! You executed her, you murdering pig!’
"Dylan?"
Dylan hesitated. "I....I saw lots of things. Most of them were not pleasant. Before I thought that the galaxy couldn’t get much worse. Now I see that it can."
‘I offer you new life.’
"It was....enlightening," Dylan continued.
"Well, the important thing is that you’re home, whether or not a beam fell on your head or that you actually traveled to different realities. We...we were lost Dylan. We didn’t know if you were going to make it."
"Believe me, I’m happy to be here. I feel...renewed. I have more faith then ever that the new Commonwealth stands a chance." He lifted himself lightly to his feet and left the medical bay.
Beka watched him go silently. Then her brow wrinkled in puzzlement. "The Commonwealth? What Commonwealth?"
The End
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