Disclaimer: Andromeda isn’t mine.
Author’s Notes: A little while ago, I was making a “challenges” page for the First Dylan/Beka Fanfiction Archive when I realized that there was one challenge that was screaming at me to write a fic for it. However, I couldn’t come up with any ideas. So I thought, and I thought, and I came up with two titles, “Fragile as a Rock” and “Tough as Glass”. In case that doesn't give it away, this is the sequel to "Fragile as a Rock".
Tough as Glass
By Erin_Cale
It had been a public affair the first time. A mistake on their parts, but one that would not be realized until it was far too late to stop the wheels of fate from turning.
The second time, after realizing their grave mistake, they made the ceremony private with only those who needed to attend actually taking up the spaces around the large table. Beka looked around at the rulers who sat before her, waiting for her to speak. She knew what they wanted to hear, but she couldn’t tell them. She couldn’t tell them that the Commonwealth would be all right. She couldn’t even tell them that it would survive. Just after Dylan’s assassination during the first attempt to sign the final Commonwealth charter she had remembered her promise to him. That was the only reason she was here in front of these people at all. She had promised that she would try.
Keeping that in mind, she advanced to the front of the room. When she stepped up to the small podium, it was as if somebody cast a spell over her audience. One by one, they hushed and within two minutes, the only sound became the rustling of clothing as somebody shifted position in his or her seat. Beka took a moment to reflect on the irony of the situation. She wasn’t supposed to be the one standing here, it was supposed to be Dylan.
Taking a deep breath, she began. “Hi everybody. Um, as you all know, I’m not the person who’s supposed to be talking to you right now- that person died three weeks ago. I’m hardly a qualified replacement, but I made a promise to this person two years ago that I would try to carry on trying to restore the Commonwealth if he ever died without finishing.” She stopped speaking, laying one hand across her stomach as if she had to hold herself back from flying across the room and out the door. After collecting her thoughts, she began again.
“So here I am. You all know that this treaty means the Commonwealth is officially restored. However, from here it’s only going to get harder. Our first challenge is to put together a fleet that will wipe out the Magog worldship once and for all. I know that many of you signed up for the Commonwealth only because of the protection that being a member afforded you, but the Andromeda Ascendant cannot defend all of the Known Worlds without a little help. When you all go home, I want you to put everything you have into the military. I want your best minds seeing if they can’t come up with another way to defeat the Magog besides Nova bombs. I want your people working on building ships and I want all of the raw materials you can muster without destroying planets. Most of all, I want you to be optimistic and alert. We can win this war, but first we have to feel like we can and we must always be on the lookout for those who either side with the Magog or do not want the Commonwealth to survive. Those who do not want the Commonwealth to be restored are those same people who assassinated Dylan Hunt in the hopes that his death would destroy that dream. Well, I’m here to say that they were wrong. Until the end of the universe, there will always be those who will fight for truth and freedom. I’m proud to be one of them, and I will continue fighting for the Commonwealth until my last day- because I made a promise. If I die fighting the Magog or if I die fighting for the Commonwealth, no matter what happens, people will know that I kept my promise. Come war or infestation, I will try.”
The room, if it had been quiet before, was now as silent as death. Not one person moved or said a word for so long that Beka began to wonder if they were staring at her not because of what she said, but because there was some monstrous beast behind her with its long claws about to snap her neck. The first to move, a Nietzchean, Beka noted in surprise, stood up and slowly began to move his large hands. For a split second that felt like eternity she thought that he was going to dismiss her with a wave of his hands and walk away from Dylan’s dream. When his hands met and he clapped for her, she felt about ready to pass out with relief. Then the others all started to stand up and do the same. Beka, had she not suddenly remembered that Dylan was supposed to be getting the standing ovation and not her, would have smiled. Here were fifty people, each a ruler of his or her own planet, saluting her for nothing more than a group of words she had spoken to them. She thanked them and left in a hurry, suddenly feeling nauseous just being in that room. Only Trance followed; Tyr and Rommie staying behind to monitor the conversations and answer any questions that the diplomats might have.
When Beka finally made it to her quarters, after quieting the worries about her physical health for the Andromeda’s unofficial medical officer, she sat down on one edge of her bed and just stared. At first, her eyes weren’t looking at anything in particular, but as she continued to stare, she found that her gaze was slowly moving towards the picture by her bed. It was the one from that night they went to dinner, that night before she had run away, that night-
Absently, she wiped the two tears off of her face with one hand. Looking down at her now wet hand, she started to laugh. It all seemed like some scene straight out of one of the old Earth novels that she kept hidden underneath her bed. Boy goes off to fight for what he believes in and dies, leaving the Girl at home alone to grieve her loss, knowing that she had never told him what she had truly felt. It was so cheesy that it almost made her want to throw up.
“Uh oh.” She ran to the bathroom, barely making it in time. After finishing, she sat still on the slightly cool floor for an hour before getting up the courage to risk moving. “Maybe Trance had something to be worried about,” she muttered to herself. Then she raised her voice, talking not to herself but to the ship, “Andromeda, is Trance still awake?”
The hologram appeared in front of her. “Yes. She’s in the med. bay.”
“Lucky me.” She was already halfway out the door before she turned back to the hologram. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I mean it. I’d probably be fried on Flash if you and Dylan hadn’t asked me and the crew to stay onboard.”
Andromeda smiled, the first real smile that Beka had seen on the hologram’s face since the “warship comment” when they had confronted the Worldship for the first time. “At first, I didn’t want you on board. Dylan made me accept you. Now I realize that most of my crews were better than the four of you...” She paused long enough for Beka to get in a good chuckle then continued, “But I’ve never had a crew who worked harder than all of you.” Her holographic head tilted to the right slightly as she listened to a little bit of information that Beka would have to find out from someone else. “I think you better go see Trance while she’s still awake.”
Beka looked at her a moment, her face expressing her concern that Andromeda’s internal sensors had detected something wrong with her and that was the reason for the hologram to break up the conversation early.
Seeing her worry, Andromeda lied, “Don’t worry. The info. wasn’t about you. My avatar was just communicating that she and Tyr are ready to return now.” At least the last part wasn’t a lie, Andromeda reasoned with herself.
“Yeah, it’s been a long day. Thanks Andromeda.”
“Anytime.”
Secretly, the ship watched as Beka made her way to the med. bay, making sure that one of the ‘bots was always nearby in case Beka happened to lose consciousness in the hallway. Luckily Beka made it to her destination with little trouble. Her observation finished, Andromeda switched to privacy mode. Beka probably wouldn’t want what Trance was about to tell her to be recorded.
In the med. bay, Trance was pretending to do work when she heard the door open. Without looking up, she greeted the person coming in. “Hi Beka. What’s wrong?”
“Since you knew it was me, how could you not know what was wrong with me?”
“Humor me.”
Beka sighed, sitting down on one of the observation beds. “Okay, I’ve been feeling nauseous lately and a little lightheaded.”
Trance looked up at her through her long, purple eyelashes as she ran the necessary scans. “Anything else?”
“No, just a feeling... I feel off, Trance. I don’t feel like my usual self.”
“Well, that’s usually the case with those who have had loved ones die.” Trance glanced at the processed information from her scans. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”
“Do I have to?”
“You will have to, but I suppose not right away if you don’t want to hear it right now.”
“Well, if I’m going to need to know it eventually, you might as well tell me now.” She sat up, rubbing her temples in anticipation of whatever news Trance was about to give her.
“You’re pregnant.”
The information took a minute to sink in, but when it did, the response was almost violently sudden. “What?! No! I can’t be! No!” She curled up in a fetal position on the bed. Trance immediately laid a reassuring arm around her friend’s shoulder.
“What’s so wrong with that?” she asked innocently.
“I’m not going to be a good mother! My mother went away when I was young and my father ODed on Flash. I don’t have a perfect track record with parents. Good parenting isn’t in my genes,” she exclaimed, nearing hysterics.
“You will be a wonderful mom, Beka. I’m sure of it. And just think of it this way, Dylan was always telling us that his favorite part of all this was the fact that he was trying to make the universe a little bit safer for children especially. He would have been a good parent too if he had lived long enough. Besides, think of this whole thing as something to help you remember Dylan.”
“Trance, how did you know who the father was?”
“I didn’t, but you just confirmed it.”
Beka took a deep breath, curling her arms around her a little tighter, but seemingly calmer than she had been mere moments before. “It was just one night Trance. It probably didn’t mean anything to him.”
Trance’s voice became hard. “Beka, he loved you. That was obvious to everybody, you just chose not to realize it because you thought he’d end up hurting you.” When Beka sniffled and took a ragged breath, Trance’s voice became softer. “And as it happens, he did- just not the way you thought he would. And because you’ve been hurt so many times, you think that’s what you’re going to do to these children.”
Beka’s eyes closed for a moment, before snapping open again. “Trance, please don’t tell me you just said that I am having twins.”
“I didn’t say anything about twins.” Trance glanced at her readings once more to make absolutely certain that she was right. “I meant that you’re having triplets.” She paused, but interrupted Beka’s next statement before the former salvage captain could even start. “You can deny it all you want, but I have the readings right here.”
Beka started to laugh. “I’ll be damned.”
The ship started to rock. Before either Trance or Beka could ask what was happening, Andromeda’s hologram popped into being before them.
“We are under attack. I have sent for the Maru, but it will take them a few minutes to get here and until then, we’re on our own.”
Trance looked at Beka, pleased to note the fact that she immediately forgot her other problems and focused on the task at hand. “Do you feel well enough to pilot?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
The ship rocked with more weapon’s fire as Beka and Trance raced to Command. Fighting off another wave of nausea, Beka took the pilot’s console and started to weave them out of the paths of the incoming missiles.
Taking a look at the image of the attacking ships on the screen, Beka yelled, “Andromeda, who are these bastards?”
“I don’t know. I can’t identify them. However, they’re using PSPs.”
“What?! How’d they get their hands on Magog technology?” Without waiting for an answer, she directed her next comment at Trance. “Trance, I know you don’t like to kill things, but I need you to take remote control of one of the slipfighters and try to take some of the heat off of the Andromeda’s tail.”
“Yes ma’am.” Trance reached down under the weapon’s console and got out the necessary gear. A few minutes after putting on the glasses, she took them off again. “Lost it,” she explained apologetically.
“The Maru is coming back,” Andromeda reported, switching images on the forward screen to one of the Maru coming up from the planet shielded by Andromeda’s bulk.
“No!” Trance screamed. “Tell them to pull back!”
Before Andromeda could carry out her order, the attacking ships switched their fire from the Andromeda to the Maru. Within a few minutes, the Maru was nothing more than a few pieces of space debris.
“No survivors,” Andromeda stated.
“Andromeda, get us out of here.”
“Engaging slipstream drive.”
“Brace for slipstream everybody.”
Seconds before Andromeda disappeared into the slip portal, a solitary shot from the enemy ships hit the Andromeda. She rocked with the blow, consoles all over Command exploding. Beka saw the lights flashing on the piloting console mere moments before it blew up. She only had enough time to put her right arm up, shielding her eyes.
Trance saw the explosion and knew immediately what was going to happen. It was all coming together. This was the worst universe that could have possibly existed, the one that she had always tried so carefully to avoid. She saw the next few moments as clear as they were to her when they happened shortly thereafter. She saw a plate of metal from the ceiling fall on Beka’s exposed torso and knew that death would result.
“Andromeda,” she shouted above the noise of grating metal. “Beka rerouted slipstream control to the engine room when she was on flash. Can you do that now?”
“Y-y-yes,” Andromeda said, her virtual self shimmering in and out of existence.
“Good. Do it. I’m going down to the Engine Room.”
Andromeda’s image glanced at Beka, trying to determine her status. Unable to do so, she turned her full attention to getting Trance what she needed. The change was felt almost as soon as Trance got the controls. She may not have been a good pilot, but she was a much better option than flying blind through the slipstream.
Exiting the slipstream, Andromeda took in her surroundings. “Tarazed?” she murmured out loud. She sent out a distress call and searched her interior for two functional ‘bots to take Beka down to Medical. Once located, she switched her awareness to Trance.
“You are either very lucky or you know far more about piloting than you let on.”
Trance jumped; obviously she had not expected Andromeda to say something. “I prefer lucky,” she said innocently.
Andromeda decided to ignore the matter for the time being, since there was a more urgent matter currently being moved to the Med. Bay. “Beka is hurt badly.”
“I know that. Don’t worry, if I’m right she’ll be fine physically.”
Andromeda raised an eyebrow at Trance’s statement. “I suggest you get to the Med. Bay.”
“Yes ma’am.” Trance ran out the door, leaving Andromeda’s hologram to shake her head in the silence of the Engine Room.
In the med. bay, Trance found Beka groaning on one of the medical cots. She also saw that Beka was trying to get up.
“Beka, don’t move. If your children are going to survive at all, you’ve got to stop moving.” The movement immediately ceased. “Everything’s going to be all right,” Trance lied. “Everything will be fine.”
“How can you say that?” Beka asked, her voice hoarse and barely above a whisper. “Harper’s dead, Rev is gone, Dylan’s dead, Tyr’s dead, Rommie’s dead.”
“But you, Andromeda, and I are not dead. And your children are not dead yet. However, they will be if you don’t stop talking.” Beka obediently shut her mouth, staring up at the ceiling from her one good eye, tears threatening to spill over onto the burns she had received.
From the medical console, Trance could see that the right side of her friend’s face was badly burned. The burns could be repaired, of course, but her right eye looked too badly damaged to be saved. The right arm also looked badly damaged, but perhaps she could regain some use by getting one of those metallic gloves that could send messages to her brain that the nerves would have sent in a normal situation.
The first results came back. Just as she had thought. Trance looked back up at Beka. One more grief like Trance had just discovered would threaten her mental stability if Trance didn’t stall a little before telling her.
“Beka, I’m going to give you a sedative so that I can heal your burns.” Not expecting an answer, she gave the sedative to Beka anyway. As her friend slipped into blissful unconsciousness and Trance began the long process of repairing the damage, Andromeda’s hologram appeared in front of her.
“Trance? W-what did you find-d?” Andromeda asked, her audio processors still damaged.
“Beka was having triplets. Now she’s just having twins.”
Andromeda stayed silent, watching Beka sleep for a moment before she received other information. “Telemach-chus Rhade has answered our distressss call. He’s sending s-s-some ships to escort us in and the emergency room in the closest hospital is being p-p-prepped for Beka’s arrival.”
Slowly, a plan began to form in Trance’s head. “Once Beka is taken care of, I’m going to ask Rhade for a small ship. I’m going to go see our old friend Höhne.”
“Why?” Andromeda asked.
“He still has that tessaract generator that Harper worked on. I think I can use that to go back in time and make sure none of this happens.”
“A-are you sure?”
“No, but the universe frankly can’t get much worse than it already is, so it’s worth a try.”
“Where are you going?”
Trance jumped and turned to face Beka. Even though Beka had been this way for a few days, it was still a shock to see her in what looked like a EVA suit reject with a robotic arm, an eye patch where one eye used to be, and her hair back to its natural color of red.
“Uh, I...”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to get the tessaract generator that Harper worked on and then I’m going to go salvage some of the wreckage of the Maru and see if I can’t use it.”
“To do what?” Beka’s one eye looked at her with confusion.
“Try to change the present by changing the past.
“I’m going with you.”
“No, you’re not. You’re still not back to your full strength.” Beka sat down in the slipstream chair and strapped herself in. “Beka, you’re not going.”
“Tough. You need a good pilot in case those people who attacked us before find out what you’re up to.”
“Beka, you’re not going.”
“So Höhne’s place first, then we’re going back to Drisoro?” Beka asked, staring straight ahead.
Trance sighed and sat down dejectedly in her seat. “Yes.”
“Here we are,” Beka said, looking out at the wreckage that took up a large portion of the forward viewscreen.
“Whoever attacked us must have also attacked Drisoro, otherwise they would have cleaned this up by now.”
“We can’t do anything to help them now. I’m going in to pick up a piece of the wreckage. We’ve got the tessaract generator- anything else we need?”
“No.” There was silence as Trance let Beka do her work, then a subtle thump as the ship took in a piece of the wreckage.
“Brace for slipstream.” Trance obediently grabbed onto her console and held on as Beka began the rough journey back to Tarazed and safety.
In slipstream, most people consider it very hard to talk to anyone save your self. Just the bouncing and jarring about is usually enough to discourage any attempt at conversation, but the absolutely determined can get a couple of words out. However, Trance would have heard Beka’s cry just as they exited slipstream even if she had been deaf. It expressed grief, frustration, and shock all rolled into one.
“Beka, what is it?”
Her captain pointed wordlessly out the front window. There lay Tarazed in all its glory. Trance didn’t see anything at first so she looked closer, knowing that Beka wouldn’t be acting like this without reason.
The hulk of the Andromeda Ascendant drifted in space where it had formerly been attached to a repair station that had been set up for the warship. The repair station too was drifting and the two objects were on a collision course. As Trance watched in horror, they collided. The station was destroyed immediately and set off a chain reaction in the Andromeda that both women could tell would tear the ship apart in a few more moments.
“Andromeda wouldn’t have let that happen if she had any power to stop it. In fact, I haven’t picked up any power from the Andromeda since we exited slipstream,” Trance reported after glancing at her readings.
“She’s gone,” Beka whispered.
“What could have done it though?”
Beka took a deep breath and let it hiss out from between her pursed lips. “The same thing that’s causing those huge fires on the planet.” She raised one elegant finger and laid to rest on one of the huge black clouds that was visible even from this distance. Letting it drift back down to the console at her side, she added, “Kalderans. They must have followed us to Terrazed and attacked when we left.”
“Do you think they’re searching for us?”
The ship's proximity klaxon started blaring its warning. “I’d say that’s a ‘yes’. Trance, hold on to something.” As Trance rushed back to her seat, Beka pulled the craft into a 180 and poured the speed on, heading for deeper space.
“Where are we going?” Trance asked.
“We’re getting out of here. If you’re right, then I’m going to find a place where you can set the tessaract generator up. If you’re wrong and it doesn’t work, well...” Beka paused sadly, “There’s nothing we can do for Terrazed anyway.”
Trance switched her gaze from the besieged planet to Beka. She could tell that all this piloting was taking its toll on her captain but she was already in the pilot’s seat and it would take too many precious moments for them to switch.
“Prepare weapons and brace for slipstream!”
Silence assumed its throne in cockpit as the ship sped towards some random destination. Beka stared straight ahead, caught up in the never-routine movements that made up her life.
“Be prepared to fire the weapons on my mark,” Beka barked. “Exiting slipstream.”
“Enemy ships exiting slipstream as well,” Trance replied.
“Mark.” There was the faintest movement as the converted slipfighter let loose its weapons. “Brace for slipstream.”
Again, the ship was silent. Trance kept an eye on her readings, but saw none of the enemy ships still in pursuit. After exiting slipstream, she happily announced, “None of the enemy ships were able to track our slip portal.”
“Good.” Beka maneuvered her ship towards the nearest planet without another word to her companion.
“You have to make me a promise,” Beka said, coming up towards Trance after taking a final look at the wreckage of the Maru.
“And what would that be?” the purple being asked.
“You can’t tell the past Dylan what happened between us.” Trance looked up, her eyes wide. “Trance, if you were ever my friend, please do this one thing for me.”
Trance looked back down at her hands, which lay still in her lap. “All right, but I still believe that you are making a bad decision in asking me to do this.”
“But it’s my decision to make.”
Trance shook her head and returned to her work. A few minutes later she exclaimed, “Done!” She stood up. “I’m going to make a recording for my younger self. Please don’t come in the ship for a couple of minutes.”
“Okay.” Beka leaned against the Maru’s wreckage as Trance entered the ship itself.
A few minutes later, she came back out and handed a data chip to Beka. “Give this to my younger self, please.”
“Of course.” Beka pocketed the chip and then took one purple hand in one of her pale white ones, shaking it firmly. “See you on the other side.”
“I’ll see you a few years ago.” With that, Trance flicked the tessaract generator on.