Archive of Our Own

"How are you doing, Beka?" Dylan asked as his first officer's image flickered and wavered on the screen before them.

"Not good, Dylan," she told him frankly as she struggled with the Maru's controls. "Stabilisers are shot, I've got a leak somewhere in the engine, and life support doesn't know whether it's coming or going." There was the sound of Rhade's voice in the background feeding Beka urgent information.

"You'll make it," Dylan assured her, "The cargo bay is open and ready for you."

"Better be, because we are coming in hot!"

The command deck shook with the force of an explosion against the ship's shields. "Andromeda, report!" commanded Dylan as he returned fire upon the Calderian raiders.

"Shields are holding," the Core AI told him. "And the Eureka Maru has entered the cargo bay on a forty five degree transit. Fire crews are on standby."

"I've had enough of this," Dylan declared, and now that the Maru was inside Andromeda, he decided to take the offensive. Within moments the raiders fled.

"Dylan," Trance cocked her head at him, asking the question and Dylan nodded. "Go prepare the med deck.

"Boss, boss, me too!" Harper bounced up and down. And Dylan dismissed him to go and see how the Maru was.

XXXXX

The Eureka Maru skidded sideways across the cargo bay, multicoloured sparks flying across the front, and the rear wall approaching far too quickly.

The only thing Rhade could do was brace himself for impact. The collision was violent, the front windows shattering and consoles flying.

Beka yelled, arms raised to protect her face, but some flying metal glanced off the side of her head, knocking her out cold.

Rhade roared his frustration, as g-forces did not allow him to move forward and protect the matriarch, until everything stopped with whiplash abruptness. Blinking his eyes clear, he visually checked on Beka slumped in the pilot's seat as he quickly unstrapped himself. Debris was still dropping from the ceiling, falling off the walls and small fires were bursting out of pipes and decking. Something above Beka moved, and Rhade could see the entire console that was normally fixed to the ceiling, dangling by just a few wires directly over the unconscious pilot.

In two strides he was in front of the chair, leaning over Beka protectively as he tried to undo her straps. He felt searing heat and the weight of the universe land on his back and blacked out.

XXXXX

Beka was having the most wonderful dream.

Smooth skin under her finger tips covering the most delicious and decidedly masculine muscles. The smell of roast chicken slightly acrid from being overcooked on the barbeque and a gentle sprinkling of rain. She didn't much like planet stuff, but she could make an exception if the owner of the muscles was as cute as he felt. If only the wailing would go away.

But the wailing grew insistent, beating on her skull until she opened her eyes and figured out that the rain was the Maru's sprinklers, the man was Rhade and the smell of cooked meat was...

Ugh.

And Rhade was heavy, his full weight resting on her. Mustering as much strength as possible, she pushed Rhade up by the shoulders. The headache grew stronger, and she cursed as she couldn't seem to get the purchase necessary to lift the Neitzchean off her. "Wake up!" she yelled over the Maru's sirens, not expecting an answer, but needing to say something.

"I am awake," Rhade told her even though his eyes were shut and he was still limp.

"Then can you please act like it, you're suffocating me!" Beka was slightly concerned that there were three Rhades in front of her, but fortunately all of them managed to get their arms under them enough to push themselves off her.

"Ow," said one of the Rhades, and she squinted as she tried to work out which one had spoken. Debris fell off the back of them, and the sprinklers soaked them all.

The Rhades held out hands to help her up and she offered a hand of her own, which the middle one kindly took. Her brain bounced around painfully inside her skull and she staggered but Rhade caught her. Taking a moment to look around her, she noted all the sparks and fires being
doused, her baby having been eviscerated, wires and hoses and pipes lying dead over the decks, and she laughed. She wasn't entirely sure why, except that some part of her was so sure it wasn't real, it had to be a joke.

Rhade was holding her up, but as he guided her out towards the exit, he stumbled and she held him up. By the time they got to the ramp, they were holding each other up and it was so hysterically funny that she told Harper so when he met them. Rhade didn't seem to find it funny though, but then again he could such a sourpuss at times.

Harper told them to go and see Trance, and Beka thought that was a very good idea because Trance was her bestest friend and would no doubt share the joke with her.

Or maybe that could wait until later because Rhade was very heavy and she was suddenly very tired and this spot right there in the corner by the thingy looked so comfortable that she dropped Rhade and tried to curl up into it. Rhade, being the spoilsport he was, stood on his hands
and knees and tried to tell her not to sleep here, so she told him to find his own corner, curled up and attempted to go to sleep.

XXXXX

Tapping into a notepad as he went, Harper viewed the Maru in dismay. The Eureka Maru may not have been as beautiful and magnificent and hi tech as the Andromeda, but she was an old friend, and to see her so damaged tore at his heartstrings.

Fortunately, the damage seemed restricted to the cockpit, although some of the cargo had worked loose and was smashed in the landing, and he figured that with Andromeda's assistance he could have the Maru flight worthy within a few days. To restore her back to full operation would take a while longer, but the Maru had been flying when held together with spit and bailing wire before.

As he stood in the remains of the cockpit and looked out of the shattered window, he reflected that Beka and Rhade were both lucky to have walked out of the wreck that was the cockpit, even if they weren't doing much walking at the moment. He could see Doyle with a couple of the droids trying to get Beka and Rhade to the med deck and hoped they were both okay. He shivered at the thought of the alternative and dismissed them as too scary to dwell upon; sometimes it was best not to think too hard about how the universe always seemed to be out to get them.

XXXXX

"This would be so much easier if at least one of you were unconscious," Doyle muttered to her two recalcitrant patients.

"I am trying to get unconscious. Right here. Right now." Beka informed her from her place on the floor, her words slightly slurred, and her face virtually covered in blood that was dribbling slowly down her chest.

"You are not allowed to be unconscious," Doyle replied. "Unfortunately for me. Look, I have a nice comfortable stretcher here that you can use as a bed."

"S'too far up." Beka said trying to lie back down, and slapping at Rhade who was trying to stop her from lying down by pulling her arm.

"If you'd let us help you up," Doyle sighed, "then it wouldn't be nearly so far."

"Right. You tell her. She needs to be in med deck."

"And don't you start," Doyle switched her icy glare to Rhade as he hissed in pain from the mess that was his back. "I want you on a stretcher too, and despite what Trance says, punching you out is starting to look like an extremely good idea."

"Not until Beka is on her way to med deck. And then I'll walk." Rhade ground out.

"Good idea," Doyle told him. "Then when you pass out from the pain, I'll carry you." She paused as he growled threateningly at her. "Right, so consider which option is going to hurt your pride the least, and let me deal with Beka."

"Do you require any assistance?" The hologram Andromeda materialised at Doyle's elbow. Doyle scowled, and Andromeda told her, "Perhaps you should have Harper adjust your programming. There are occasions when being nice is not the most efficient way to get the job done."

There were times that Doyle regretted giving up control of Andromeda to Rommie and she wished vehemently that the hologram were solid so she could take a swipe.

Aggravatingly, the hologram directed the droids to firmly picking Beka up despite her shouts of protest and depositing her on the waiting stretcher. "Mmf, you're right, this is comfy," Beka mumbled as she settled down to sleep.

"Oh no you don't," Doyle pinched Beka hard, producing a squeal of pain, and watched as Rhade carefully pulled himself to his feet.

"I'm walking," the Neitzchean told her and took exactly two steps before his knees gave out. Andromeda's hologram smiled smugly as the droids caught him and despite his assertions that he was capable of carrying himself, manhandled him onto the second stretcher.

XXXXX

"Both Captain Valentine and Commander Rhade are on their way to the med deck," Andromeda's core AI informed Dylan. "The cargo bay will be out of commission for the approximately three hours for clean up, and I am detecting a small amount of gas leakage from the Eureka Maru's cargo hold."

"What gas?" asked Dylan. "Is it harmful?"

"The exact purpose of the specific mix of gases is unknown, however it does not contain any harmful components and should dissipate naturally through the ventilation and purge systems."

"In that case, Andromeda, Rommie, I will leave clean up in your capable hands while I go and see how our prodigal crewmembers are."

By the time Dylan reach the med deck, Trance had looked over both patients and was swabbing a nasty looking gash at Beka's hairline.

"Dylan!" Beka greeted Hunt enthusiastically. "You can see I don't need to be here, tell Trance I can leave. Pretty please?"

Dylan wanted to point out that she had a lump the size of a lunar egg, her speech was slurred and her eyes seemed to be looking in different directions, but managed to restrain himself. "Trance?" he asked instead.

The golden girl smiled sweetly. "Beka has a serious concussion, so she's going to stay here until at least tomorrow."

"Right," Dylan nodded, "doctor's orders, and you heard the doctor." Beka scowled and snatched the cold compress Trance gave her, tenderly putting it on her wound.

Rhade was sitting on the side of one of the beds, sniggering. "Dermal regenerator and Neitzchean nanobots," he grinned happily at Beka. "I'll be out of here before dinner."

Raising an eyebrow, Dylan waited patiently while Trance cut away Rhade's vest and examined his back. "I don't think so," she said peering at the area and Dylan walked around next to her. The remnants of the vest was fused with deeply burned skin and open blisters that covered the entirety of the Neitzchean's back. He winced in sympathy.

"Oh, don't worry," said Trance brightly, "this is easily fixed. "I just need to pick all the bits of fabric out and then I prescribe a deep burn bath."

"A what!" Rhade snapped incredulously. "That's ridiculous, I -"

"Uh, Rhade," Dylan meant to reassure and went to put his hand on the younger man's shoulder but thought twice at the blisters there. "You really want to listen to Trance. How long in the bath?" he asked the medic.

"Um, it's pretty serious, and a normal human would need at least a week," she said.

"I am not a normal human," Rhade ground out.

"I know, so maybe three or four days." Trance decided and a low growl came from somewhere deep inside Rhade's chest.

"Suck it up, Rhade," Dylan said to the Neitzchean and now Beka was the one who was smirking happily.

Dylan glared at them both. "Now if I hear either of you two have been giving Trance trouble, I'll ask Harper and Rommie to think of something really nasty to do to you." He grinned and left the med deck muttering loud enough for at least Neitzchean ears to hear, "A few days peace and quiet without those two bickering. Bliss."

XXXXX

Rhade was not happy at having to submit to a burn bath and found himself wishing he'd just let Beka get crushed by the falling console. The whole concept was an anathema to his beliefs. He would spend the next three days or so in a coffin full of blue gel, wearing a gas mask that would keep him breathing and sedated. Just the idea made him feel incredibly vulnerable.

"You trust us to keep you safe, don't you?" asked Trance as if reading his mind. He chose not to reply to that particular question. He certainly trusted them as much as he trusted anyone, but he would still never normally leave himself this open to betrayal. Trance pulling firmly at a patch of burned flesh lanced into his thoughts, and he gave her a noncommittal grunt in lieu of any form of reply.

"If I'm going to be stuck in here, I think I'm going to have fun," Beka laughed. "I'm sure Harper has some rubber duckies I can play with in your bath."

"Then I shall be sure to – ah!" Trance's ministrations seemed to be rougher than absolutely necessarily.

"There," Trance said finally. "You're done. The bath is ready for you, so if you'd strip down, you can get in." Beka snickered and Trance chose that moment to knock a metal tray off the side. Beka cringed as the sound apparently hurt her sore head. "Oops," Trance smiled.

Rhade stripped down and climbed gingerly into the transparent coffin that was already full of the pale blue gel and took one last opportunity to laugh at Beka's misery before putting on the mask over his mouth and nose. Trance fixed an IV to provide fluids and nutrients and then instructed him to lie down on his front. The lid was closed, and the gas began to take effect.

The last thing he heard before falling asleep was Beka saying, "Why do Neitzchean males have to be so damned pretty to look at?"

XXXXX

A very loud and very insistent alarm woke Rhade very rudely from his dreamless sleep. It took him some moments to work out where he was, and why he was shivering when by all rights he shouldn't feel the cold.

From the explanations that Trance had given him, the lid should have been opened and he should have been woken up as the gel finished draining, and the mask removed , the IV taken out, he would have been checked over, showered down, checked over again and then released from the med deck. That had been the plan.

Except things were not quite working out that way.

The coffin lid was open, and the gel had drained away at some point leaving him covering in residue. The mask was still on, and he could feel the gas pulling him down, so he pulled it off, breathing fresh air in long steady lungfuls until his head cleared. Whilst he was re-acclimating himself, he became aware that what he first thought was night lighting, was in fact the low lights of dormancy.

Which explained the low temperature. Not too low for Neitzchean physiology once he had dried off, but certainly lower than any of the humans would find comfortable. Senses on the alert, Rhade sat up, testing out his back which seemed perfectly healed and smooth, and smiled at the yellow rubber duck that shared his bath. He would have to find something appropriate to do with it that would annoy Beka.

Climbing out of the coffin style bath, Rhade's eyes alighted on an old battery powered timepiece that someone had left on a table where he couldn't miss it. According the red numbers, he'd been asleep for the best part of three weeks. Three weeks! Outrageous!

"Andromeda?" he called out, fully expecting a reply from the ship, but there was nothing. He found a manual intercom. "Dylan? Anyone? Urgent, can someone please acknowledge me now."

And nothing was the loud reply.

Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Whilst the urge to depart the med deck and find out exactly what was going on was almost overriding, Rhade's pragmatism won out, and he used the med deck facilities to shower away the gel first. He found and donned the pants, guns and boots he had been wearing when the Maru had crashed, all cleaned and neatly folded by the bed Beka had occupied.

Checking that the gun still had a full charge, Rhade opened the door out of the med deck and glided into the corridor. "Andromeda?" he called again, but as before he received no response.

As he made his way to Command, it was clear to Rhade that Andromeda was definitely dormant with life support at a bare minimum, low lighting and no power to any of the remote consoles. Whilst his Neitzchean senses did not pick up on anything specifically wrong, there was definitely a sense that he was not alone aboard Andromeda, and Rhade took every deck as if there were enemies lurking in the shadows.

When he eventually reached the Command Deck, there was the muted hum of powerful systems on standby, but no indication as to status or reasons for her dormancy. Moving to the Captain's console, Rhade hit the power pad and tried to raise the Core AI manually.

The big screen flickered to life and she appeared to look suspiciously at him.

"Where is my Captain?" she asked him bluntly.

"I don't know, Andromeda," Rhade said, "I was hoping you could tell me that."

"You are…" it seemed to take the AI some effort to try and recall his ID. "Rhade, Gaheris-"

"No, Andromeda," Rhade told her, whilst attempting to find more power for her. "Rhade, Telemachus out of Marjorum by Rhade. Recheck your files, what year is this?"

Andromeda paused. "I have a chronological discrepancy of over three hundred years. No, three weeks." She blinked, and repeated her first question. "My chronological files are corrupted. Where is my Captain?"

"I cannot answer that question. How many people are on board right now?"

Another pause. "Just one. You. What have you done with my Captain and crew?"

"I have done nothing, Andromeda. Can you reboot your chronographic programs?"

"I will not do so without a direct order from my Captain."

"Andromeda, think logically. There is no one else aboard. Is there any sign of the crew in the vicinity? Slipfighters, escape pods, the Eureka Maru?"

"No, there is not. We are alone in this sector of space."

"Then I claim the role of acting Captain. With Captain Hunt and Captain Valentine unavailable, that is my right."

"I do not believe you. One Rhade tried and failed to betray my Captain, how do I know that you have not done the same?"

Rhade growled in frustration. "Would you have me judge you by the actions of Pax Magellanic, or Balance of Judgement?"

The Core AI stared coldly at him, but did not reply, so he continued.

"As acting Captain my first duty will be to get you functional enough to assist me in my other duties. My second duty will be to find out what has happened to you and the crew over the last three weeks. My third duty will be to find whatever remains of your crew. If you cannot disassociate me from my ancestor, then judge me by my actions. You will acknowledge me as Acting Captain."

The was a long icy silence before The Core AI answered. "Very well, Acting Captain Rhade, I will judge you by your actions."

"Thank you, Andromeda. Now, reboot your chronographic programs."

It took a lot work and a lot of cursing for Rhade and Andromeda to realign the warship's memory banks and access enough power for the Core AI to activate remote consoles in order to assist Rhade, and to raise life support to a more comfortable level. It was acknowledged that there was some blockage in engineering that was preventing full access to the power that was there.

Although Andromeda was adamant that he was the only person on board, it was patently obvious that she did not have access to all areas and, with the exception of engineering, could not conclusively indicate which areas were out of touch.

Rhade was convinced, however, that there was someone or something else on board. There was the odd tiniest sound, right at the edge of his hearing where he could not be certain of it and the flit of a shadow at the furthest corner of his peripheral vision. Or sometimes it was just the hairs on the back of his neck rising, or his bone blades extending without any conscious thought.

As a precaution he took a periodic patrol around all the key areas.

"Commander," the Core AI interrupted one such patrol and appearing on a monitor nearby. "I have put together the last security footage available. Unfortunately it is quite sporadic and somewhat disturbing. Shall I put it through to your quarters?"

A few minutes later, Rhade had cleared his quarters of non-existent invaders and sat down with a cup of coffee in front of the screen.

XXXXX

Before

Hologram Andromeda waited for Captain Hunt to finish his shower. She always found that catching him just then was the most efficient method of ensuring that she had his full attention.

From the far side of the room, she craned her neck to see if she could get a glimpse of him in the shower. In order to ascertain how long he was likely to be, naturally. Dylan chose that moment to step out of the shower and spotted her looking. She averted her gaze to the ceiling and cleared her throat.

"Can't you wait until I'm dressed?" Dylan snapped, rather harshly in Andromeda's opinion.

"I'm sorry, Captain," Andromeda was not going to be fazed. "I simply thought you should be aware at the earliest opportunity that-"

"Andromeda," Dylan rounded on her, "I am getting seriously annoyed at your persistent invasion of my privacy. I will be on the Command Deck shortly. Whatever it is can wait until then."

"Captain," Andromeda began, because it really was important.

"That's an order!" Dylan roared, and the hologram blinked out of existence.

XXXXX

Rhade glanced at the Core AI who had a distinctly put out expression on her face. There were so many inappropriate comments he could make; however the last thing he wanted to do was alienate Andromeda.

"That was the last record I have of my hologram," she told him. "And my droids are not responsive."

"Explain," ordered Rhade, one eyebrow raised in question.

"I have ten days of records completely erased before becoming dormant and during that time my hologram aspect seems to have been erased. In fact, I only have one piece of security footage from that time period with associated files that seems to have been overlooked in my entire archive."

Rhade found this as puzzling as Andromeda. "Show me," he said.

XXXXX

Before

In the blink of an eye, Andromeda's Core AI scanned her entire being. It was noted that it was quite inefficient to keep life support on for just two individuals and that perhaps she could talk Harper into limiting himself to his quarters, or his lab or engineering since Rhade had been left hibernating and therefore only required the barest minimum.

A subroutine flagged up the fact that Harper had not yet fixed security in engineering, so she could not see what was going on in there. It was unfortunate that she no longer had an avatar or droids to send in remotely, however there had been a time when she had not had an avatar at all and she had functioned perfectly well. The lack of droids, however, was an inconvenience.

An alert signal informed her that someone was attempting to make changes to her programming. Her immediate conclusion was that Harper was doing something, and it was not related to the engineering problem. She had expressly ordered him not to tamper with anything unauthorised. She was perfect as she was and only the Captain could sign off on maintenance. There was no requirement, and there was no telling what damage unauthorised tampering might do.

"Mr Harper," she addressed the person at point of intrusion, except there was no one there. She reassessed her sensors, which confirmed that there was a human type warm blooded biped at the exact spot she was examining. Except that she could not seem to lock on to it with visual sensors. She tried infrared, sonic and facsim, but nothing visual showed.

The logical thing therefore, was to check on Rhade and Harper. Rhade was still in med deck, and Harper was –

XXXXX

"Where was Harper?" asked Rhade.

"I cannot say," replied the Core AI. "During the nanosecond it took to process the command, I was… switched off." Andromeda virtually spat the last two words out as they were clearly distasteful.

"Interesting. So you have no idea where the crew went."

"It would seem that they abandoned ship," Andromeda said. "With the absence of life pods, the Eureka Maru and several slip fighters it is the only logical conclusion."

"Agreed, we've covered this before." Rhade said, finishing his drink. "But I want to know why and where they went. Can you confirm that the transports were gone before you were switched off?"

Andromeda scowled slightly. "I can."

"Logically then, Harper must still be somewhere aboard."

"Logically, you are correct. However yours is the only lifesign – "

Rhade held up a hand. "I know, and perhaps Harper is dead. Explore all possibilities. Perhaps an airlock has been used or a transport came back for him. And Andromeda, we should factor in the fact that your sensors are not functioning as they should."

Andromeda drew herself up, the slightly superior look prefacing her assertions that she was in perfect working order, if underpowered and out of touch with engineering. "The only faults I have are those generated by someone trying to trick me." She told him, her glare leaving him in no doubt that she still harboured the hypothesis that it was he who was doing the tricking.

Once upon a time, before Seefra, he would have matched Andromeda's look with a well-practiced superior look of his own. Now, however, he was not that person and settled for a short chuckle and a deliberately patronising pat of the monitor as he stood to leave, earning himself an outraged look that he missed entirely.

XXXXX

Rhade had decided to check the transports manually. Not the life pods as there were literally hundreds and they had apparently all been ejected. However, only a few of the slipfighters and the Maru had gone and he did not trust Andromeda's sensors to be accurate.

An added bonus was that the slipfighter hangers retained codes showing who had taken each craft out, and alongside some of the junior officers and flight crews, there was Captain Hunt's flight code. Interestingly, the time stamp on Dylan's code showed that it had been taken out two days after the others.

Asking Andromeda to check the life pods, she confirmed that they had all ejected at the same timestamp as the majority of the slipfighters.

Entering the cargo bay where the Maru had last been, Rhade noted that it had been completely cleaned up with not so much as scratch indicating where the Maru had hit the deck. However, there was the faintest scent of rotting meat in the air, probably not strong enough for a human to smell, being only a hint to his more sensitive Neitzchean nose.

He asked Andromeda if she could detect anything in the air, but she could only confirm the residues of fuel, oil and the usual engine associated fumes. Nothing, she assured, that would account for such a smell.

Distrusting Andromeda's sensors, he conducted a thorough search of the bay and surrounding area. It was in the last place he looked, a flight locker, that he found Rommie.

She was completely lifeless, although she had nothing to do with the faint smell.

Amazed at how heavy she was for such a petite little thing, Rhade hoisted her over his shoulder and took her to Harper's lab. The place seemed dead without the energetic engineer, and Rommie looked like a young matriarch struck down in her prime when he laid her on the bench.

He was no engineer and had no hope of figuring out how to fix her. At least with Andromeda, the warship had been able to give him enough guidance to get her functional. Rommie, however was something else entirely. Only Harper or Doyle could help her now.

The one thing that Andromeda was able to help him with, was diagnosing the fact that whoever had caused Rommie to shut down, had known exactly what they were doing, and hit her with a signal that had literally stopped her in her tracks.

XXXXX

Back in his quarters, Rhade massaged his temples as he reviewed the information he had so far gathered. Andromeda had told him to sleep, but he'd slept enough in the med deck, and did not need very much. At least that was his excuse, but the reality was something was not right aboard Andromeda and he trusted her as much as she trusted him, which was not very much. Someone or something had altered some of Andromeda's programming, of which the security blind spots could simply be the outward manifestation of something much deeper. The bottom line was, he could not be certain of waking up alive again. His stamina meant that he could stay awake for considerably long periods, but doing so would eventually take its toll.

Creative thinking was not his strongest point. Not counting Trance, whose mind seemed to him to be a labyrinth, Dylan was the one who could think completely laterally. Rhade was good with logic, and excelled at strategy, applying logic in its most convoluted form in order to achieve what seemed to the uninitiated to be creative. But true lateral or creative thinking was beyond him which in his current situation left him stumped. With Andromeda at less than half power, or perhaps it was her way of demonstrating her disapproval of the situation, she was not voluntarily being helpful. He was quite certain that she had abilities that he was not automatically aware of that she would have volunteered to Dylan, or maybe even Beka.

Thinking of whom, it seemed a given that both had abandoned ship. Dylan in a slipfighter and presumably Beka in the Maru. He'd found no trace of Trance or Doyle yet, and Harper had to be on board somewhere still.

A thought then occurred to him. If Andromeda could not find any life signs, then perhaps she should look for biological signs, like blood for instance, or plasma, or some fluid that might generate some clue. He asked her, and the Core Ai looked slightly surprised, as if the idea had not occurred to her, and confirmed that she would scour the ship for a variety of biological fluids.

XXXXX

"Rhade, wake up!" Andromeda's impatient tones startled the Neitzchean from the catnap he wasn't taking.

"What!" he demanded, wiping hand down his face as he blinked himself awake.

"I have completed my search," she said, "and have found only one instance of unaccounted biological fluid. I have discounted hydroponics as certain fluids are replicated by some of the plants, and until my programming is restored, engineering remains out of bounds, as do-"

"I know, I know," Rhade said irritably. "What is this instance?"

"There is a significant area of organic coolant on deck twelve near the central junction. It is not a substance that I carry, however I believe that the android known as Doyle utilises organic coolant."

Rhade pushed himself up from the floor where he'd been checking a junction box with a view to short circuiting a way into engineering. Somehow staring at the jumble of wires had sent him to sleep, and he wondered if Harper had planted sleeping gas in his domain in order to stop others meddling. A clever move on the midget's part if that was so, he thought.

Locating the splash of coolant on deck twelve, Rhade soon found tiny spots of more coolant leading a trail into one of the kitchens. They petered out, but he had enough reason to believe that Doyle might be in there that he searched every nook and cranny he could find. Working systematically, he found Doyle part way through the kitchen. Unlike Rommie who had been placed carefully in the locker, Doyle had been crammed into an oven. Fortunately that oven had not been switched on at any time she'd been in there, but the fit was small, and Rhade had some difficulty in pulling her out.

Eventually, however, he laid her out on the floor, straightening her limbs and trying not to be put off by the blue eyes following his every move. There was a hole burned straight through her chest, which told him that some of his suspicions were confirmed. There had to be someone or something on board that was out to get the crew of the Andromeda.

He had been devising a hypothesis that Harper was behind all this given the disposal of the three Andromedas. They had all been taken care of neatly and at least with Rommie and the Core AI, in a manner that did them no significant damage. But Harper would never have done this to Doyle, not if he'd been taken over by the Abyss itself.

Slowly, Rhade became aware of Doyle vibrating gently. Her mouth was working and it became clear that she was trying to say something.

"R-Rommie," she finally breathed, "wanted me de – de-activated."

Rhade was taken aback. "Rommie was trying to deactivate you?"

Doyle's face suddenly went blank, and then clicked and whirred. "No… She wanted…. Trance did…." She went blank and limp, and when it seemed unlikely that there was any more life in the android, Rhade hoisted her up and took her to Harper's lab.

As soon as he set foot inside the lab, he dropped Doyle unceremoniously on the floor and drew his guns in one fluid motion.

"Andromeda, where's Rommie?" he asked, scanning the area for her.

"I don't know," replied Andromeda. "I cannot detect her presence on board."

"But she didn't leave the ship," Rhade said.

"Confirmed," said Andromeda sounding as puzzled as Rhade felt. "I have no explanation. Perhaps I should run a full diagnostic."

"No!" said Rhade quickly. "Not yet. A full diagnostic would take too long. This is simply another riddle inside a mystery." A full diagnostic would take Andromeda offline for what could be days, and he needed her even if he didn't trust her.

He picked Doyle up and laid her where Rommie had been.

Ensuring his guns were fully charged, he left the lab and headed to command, always watchful for unexpected adversaries leaping out of nowhere.

Chapter 3: Chapter 3
Rhade felt like he was being led with a trail of breadcrumbs, the discovery of the two avatars too easy and coincidental.

Rommie would certainly have been capable of blasting a hole in Doyle, as much as Doyle would have been capable of disabling Rommie. But in either case, who had taken the other avatar out of the picture? An idea occurred to him and he abruptly changed direction, heading off to find food after instructing Andromeda to monitor Doyle and to advise him of any changes.

He was just about finished eating when the Core AI informed him that Doyle was no longer in the lab.

With a wry smile to himself, Rhade headed back to the lab. Now perhaps he would find out what was going on. Either the Andromeda aspects were conspiring against him, possibly with Doyle, or there was another element he was missing. The latter was more likely given that Andromeda could have taken him out at any time and besides which, there was no indication of motive.

It seemed as though the corridors were beginning to close in on Rhade as he stalked his way through the ship, the walls radiating a low level fear. It would be so much easier if he knew who or what the enemy was, this uncertainty was unsettling to say the least.

Opening the door to the lab, he paused at the entrance and sniffed the air. He allowed himself a wolfish grin as amidst the oil, grease and plastic was the acrid odour of familiar sweat.

XXXXX

Whilst the force lance had many admirable qualities, somehow during the months on Seefra, he'd come to prefer the two guns; they were equally balanced and enabled him to cover virtually 360 degrees.

Gun in either hand, Rhade stepped slowly around the room, carefully covering every nook and cranny and quite literally following his nose. He passed a piece of wall with shelving and as the scent dissipated slightly turned back towards it. He didn't know Harper's lab well enough to be able to ascertain whether that wall had always been there before or looked like that, but recalled vividly a hologram Harper had employed once in the Maru.

He carefully felt along the wall, and there it was. An absence of wall.

Guns first he walked straight through and, even though he was expecting it, jumped at the startled yell. "No! Keep back! Go away! Don't hurt me!"

The room behind the false wall was gloomy, presumably so that the light did not interfere with the hologram. Doyle was on a bench with Rommie lying by the wall, both looking as lifeless as Rhade had last seen them. Harper was crouched defensively in the corner, his face terrified, although he carried a gun in one hand and a wrench in the other.

Rhade tried to gauge whether Harper was likely to attack him. He was not worried about the wrench, but the gun was another matter. "Do you recognise me?" Rhade asked, not knowing if that might actually be a really stupid question.

"Of course I recognise you, Nietzsche!" Harper cried, "I always knew you would turn on us, just like Tyr and every other Neitzchean in the universe. You always have to take, take, take. I heard Andromeda, you've even got her calling you Captain now! Keep away from me!"

Rather perturbed at this outburst, Rhade took a step back. "I'm not going to come near you," he said, but you need to put the gun down."

"What? You think I'm stupid? You have two, why would I put my one down?"

Rhade grimaced and put one down, sliding it towards the fake wall. "And now I have one."

Harper reciprocated by throwing the wrench on the floor away from him. "Now we're evens," the engineer's grin was wild and feral. "You're the better shot, would make it a nice clean kill, right? Me, I could take out an eye, a kneecap or something else before I got it right. Be interesting to see which is worse don't you think?"

"Harper," Rhade started slowly, "I do not want to have to hurt you, but I do need to know what's going on."

"What's going on?" Harper waved his gun around wildly. "What's going on? How should I know what's going on? First Rommie tries to kill me, then the big hairy bad starts stalking me, and Andromeda goes all freaky so I lock myself up in here and you show up waving a twin set at me, and you're asking me what's going on?"

"Unfortunately I seem to have missed the first part of the story. Want to enlighten me?"

"Oh yeah, I remember, you were out of it." Harper took a few deep and started to lower his gun. And abruptly changed his mind. "But how do I know the big bad didn't get you? You've been walking all over the ship and I know it's been stalking you, when it's not stalking me that is, so how do I know you're not trying to trick me?"

It was a very good question, and one that Rhade was asking himself with regards to Harper. The shorter man definitely was not himself and the Neitzchean considered the possibility that Harper was simply trying to delay him. So he tried changing tack.

"What about the avatars, do you think you can have them working soon?"

"No!" Harper looked shocked by the very idea. "My dolls are staying right where they are! They'll destroy each other if I let them up at the same time!"

"What about just one of them? We could use another… perspective on the matter."

"Doyle's going to need a lot of work, days, weeks, months, maybe. Rom-doll's good, but no way am I finishing on fixing her, she hates me and wants to kill me!"

Rhade grunted, sympathising with Rommie's apparently murderous intentions for the briefest second.

Harper had virtually forgotten about his gun, focussing back on the hole in Doyle's chest.

"Tell me what happened," Rhade said, and Harper nodded distantly.

XXXXX

Before
A day or so after the Maru crashed into the cargo bay, Harper encountered Rommie scowling as she tried to raise the hologram Andromeda without success. "Whoa, Rom-doll, love the new look. Or is that the old look? No, it's more the look in between, your oh so brief Goth phase, maybe, crossed with a slightly punk psychedelic nuance?"

"I know what you're trying to do, Harper and it's not going work!"

"What I'm trying - ? I was just complementing your taste in dress, it's very revealing. And I must say that I for one wholeheartedly approve. Would that be Doyle's influence?"

"Doyle! She's next on my list!"

"Er, list, Rommie? What list would that be?"

"You're out to deactivate me, I know it!" She drew a gun, pointing it straight at Harper's forehead. "I Am A Warship, and I invoke first strike!"

"Uh, sure, sure, uh," As Rommie pulled the trigger, Harper found himself flying backwards as he tripped over a raised bit of flooring. Fortunately he landed, slightly bruised, near an access panel and crawled inside, sliding down a couple of levels, gunfire following him all the way.

"Uh, Boss?" he tried to contact the captain, and Dylan's face appeared, distinctly annoyed.

"Whatever it is, it can wait, Mr Harper!" he said, and the vid image blinked out. Out of immediate options, Harper decided to retreat to his lab in order to regroup and think of a way to try and get Rommie back to her normal cute self

X

"You can come out now!" He'd been hiding in the lab for a long time when Doyle had come along to assure him that Rommie wasn't trying to kill him any more, but he wasn't entirely convinced that it was wasn't a trick. Rommie could, after all, mimic other people's voices amongst other things.

He waited until he was certain she'd gone and crept out of his lab. The corridor was deserted, and he headed towards his own quarters. But he had the oddest feeling that someone or something was following him. Something with faint skittering feet, someone that was never there when he looked, but raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

"Andromeda? Is something following me? Other than you, I mean?" he asked the ship with his back to the wall.

"I don't know," said Andromeda. "Where are you?"

"I'm outside my quarters. Are your sensors malfunctioning?"

"I am in perfect working order," replied Andromeda. "You are not outside your quarters."

"Then where am I?" Harper asked, taken aback.

"I do not know, I cannot see you. "

"Then you have a fault-"

"I am perfect. Except when organics meddle with my systems."

"Has someone been meddling? Other than me I mean? Because if anyone else has been touching your-"

"Only one person has accessed my systems other than yourself, but I do not have authority to divulge any details."

"Someone on the command staff then," Harper said, mostly to himself. "Was it Rommie? Because she isn't herself right now and I can-"

"It was not my avatar," the Core AI replied. "If there is nothing else?"

When Harper entered his quarters, the first thing he did was go to the bathroom. The second thing he did was notice that he had been burgled. No one else would have noticed, but he knew very well that between the soap and the hair gel there normally lived a yellow rubber duck, which was no longer there.

And the skittering feet were in the bedroom.

Cautiously peeking through the doorway, Harper held his breath as he looked for the owner of the feet, but there was nothing and no one.

His quarters no longer feeling safe, Harper crept out and, his back to the wall at all times, made his way back to the lab where he threw himself into projects that kept him from the scary thoughts that were bouncing around his head.

X

At some point, he could hear Andromeda's power levels abruptly drop, and he tried to access the engineering data files, but access seemed to be denied at every turn, no matter how sneaky he was.

Eventually, hunger made him leave the lab again and with his back to the wall, he made his way to the canteen. But, as he came to a corner, he could hear breathing. Gun first, he inched around and came nuzzle to nuzzle with another gun.

"Harper?" said Beka, wide eyed and pale.

"Beka?" said Harper with no little relief.

"There's something following me," they both said at once.

"Skittering feet?" asked Harper.

"Uh, something like, maybe more of a tapping," nodded Beka, "and I've had little glimpses of it, big and hairy, and smelling like rancid meat."

"Sounds like Rhade," Harper quipped. "Speaking of who, isn't he due out on parole about now? We could do with our own Ripley."

"No, Trance said it wasn't good for him to wake up yet."

"Oh. So, where are you off to?"

"Um. Around. See Dylan, talk about everyone else acting weird. That sort of thing."

"Yeah," Harper nodded. "Dylan's been very distracted lately."

"I noticed that too," Beka agreed. "This stalking beastie that Andromeda apparently can't see is really getting to him. I think it's guilt."

"Guilt?" Harper had a serious problem with Mr Optimism going on a guilt trip.

"Yeah, I think he screwed up Andromeda's sensors when he did whatever he did to holo Rommie."

"What he did what to holo Rommie?" cried Harper indignantly.

"I don't know, don't yell at me!" Beka returned. "He just said that he might have been a bit overenthusiastic in his attempt to stop her from perving him in the shower."

"Eww!" Harper screwed his face up. "Too much information there!"

X

It seemed to Harper that he was entirely on his own. Doyle, Trance and Rommie had completely disappeared and Dylan had given the 'abandon ship' order. Harper would never abandon Andromeda and was determined to get rid of the big bad whatever it was.

Andromeda was becoming increasingly erratic, having blocked every attempt of his to get into engineering and Dylan was so stressed he didn't have time to listen to anyone else, and certainly not his engineer as he'd said on several occasions. Beka was prowling the decks with ever increasingly large weapons in her efforts to track the big bad down, although she'd been stalking him a couple of times, and he was starting to think that she was thinking that he was the big bad. Or something.

And then she took off. Just like that. No offer of taking him along or anything.

And Dylan followed the very next day.

Now he knew for certain that they'd deliberately left him behind as food for the big bad.

At that moment, he hated both Dylan and Beka with a passion. They were worse than the Ubers on earth; at least they never pretended to be his friends. Briefly, he was jealous of Rhade sleeping through it all.

And that gave him an idea. Just in case the big bad took over, there needed to be an ace in the hole. It was a long shot, but at this point, anything was worth a shot.

Sneaking up to the med deck, he made a little addition to the control pad of Rhade's sleeping module, setting it to drain the gel and wake the Neitzchean up at a preset time. He thought it odd that the chronograph was blank, but as he was altering it anyhow, it didn't matter. He could have written a note, but he was in danger of being discovered imminently, so he left a battery-powered clock on the side before leaving med deck.

He spent a long time avoiding the big bad that kept nearly discovering him, skittering feet coming round the corner just as Harper dived into an access panel, or slid down a deck or two. But his quest to install little protective patches throughout Andromeda's systems worked.

The next thing was to hide, and hide where no one would find him. So he divided his lab in two and installed a holographic wall, deftly removing the hidden half from Andromeda's sensors entirely.

He had food and water, lots of Sparky and beer of course, and much entertainment. So he hit the switch and, with the exception of his own little hideaway, Andromeda powered down to minimum life support. That is, minimum for a Neitzchean. He set a program to restore Andromeda's chronology to a point before things started to go wrong; when the Maru crashed in the cargo bay seemed a good idea. And then he switched the Core AI off.

Not many could survive in Andromeda now, and no one could do any further damage to her.

XXXXX

"Hey," Harper said to Rhade, "So you're sure you're not the big bad?"

Rhade's eyebrow went up. "Not this time."

"I still don't trust you though. Nothing personal, it's the Neitzchean thing."

"No change there then," Rhade sighed. "So, how about you come out of this… box, and see about getting us into engineering."

"Is the big bad still out there?"

"I haven't seen or heard anything," Rhade offered, unwilling to let Harper know that he did have the sense there might be something out there.

"What about Andromeda. Is she okay?" Harper's face was hopeful.

"Not quite," Rhade admitted. "She has some blind spots and a little trouble remembering people, but she is cooperating."

Harper considered this, and then agreed to see what he could do about getting into engineering.

Rhade suggested that the engineer use his data port to see about the blind spots, but the mere idea of leaving himself that vulnerable had Harper wide eyed and sweating while he denied his abilities.

Chapter 4: Chapter 4
With nothing else he could do whilst Harper was working on accessing engineering, Rhade decided to try and put both Harper's and his own mind at rest.

There was definitely something on board Andromeda that shouldn't be and Harper had only confirmed his own suspicions, even if he hadn't found any tangible evidence.

His self-imposed mission was simply to find whatever beast was haunting Andromeda and scout it out. Hairy meant mammalian, so chances were high the guns would be enough to destroy it, but if they weren't, then he needed to work out a strategy for handling it, and that meant information gathering.

According to Harper, Beka had described the smell of rancid meat and whilst he occasionally caught whiffs of carrion throughout the ship, it was always strongest near the cargo bay where the Maru had been, so that was where he was headed. He had already searched the place, but this time he had Andromeda scour the walls and floor for anything out of place.

There was nothing. No trace of any beast, no trace of rotting meat, yet the odour was definitely there. He kept searching until Harper finally contacted him with a whoop of victory.

XXXXX

No one knew what to expect when the door opened, but both Rhade and Harper cringed back in the event that something big and nasty might explode from inside. Nothing happened.

However, there was a very bright light.

It was too bright for Rhade's eyes to make out initially, but Harper could just about see. "Trance?"

That was all it took for the bright light to consolidate, slim down and coalesce into Trance's familiar image. Her eyes blinked open, and she said, "Is it all gone?"

"Is what all gone?" asked Rhade.

Trance looked scared. "Then it's still here!" She tilted her head and eyed him head to toe. "You're looking a lot better, but your clothes are all dirty again. You always undo everything I do! Oh!" She suddenly stopped, wide eyed, her hands covering her mouth. "It's better if I stay here until it's gone."

"Sure," said Harper, "but Trance, Andromeda can't access her full power, and I need to find out why."

"Oh. Oops," said Trance bashfully. "I might have burned out some wiring."

"Can I get to it?" Harper was backing away from Trance as he spoke.

Trance winced, "Um, I might have damaged Doyle too. Sorry."

"Is there anything else you might have done?" Rhade asked darcastically.

Trance thought for a moment. "Um, no, I don't think so."

"Harper needs to fix Andromeda," Rhade reiterated to Trance. "Can he do that?"

"Okay, but it's better if I stay locked in here. Just until everything is as it should be."

"And how should it be?" Rhade asked, as Harper shuffled nervously towards an obviously scorched section of panelling,

Trance went slightly vague, before shaking her head. "I can't tell you that."

Rhade tried to find out more information from her, but Trance resolutely shook her head, and begged to be left alone before she hurt someone else.

XXXXX

After Harper had fixed the core, Andromeda was finally able to move; full power was restored to her systems and, other than the continued surveillance glitches and memory holes, she was fully functional.

Harper continued to jump at every sound and swore blind that the monster in Andromeda's corridors was stalking him. Rhade almost thought he heard the monster a couple of times, but the light brushing of air faded with the faint scent of rotting meat, yet there seemed to be no sense to direction. Harper yelled once in a while, and when Rhade came running, it was odds on whether the engineer was more frightened of the monster or of him. He was certainly becoming convinced that the Neitzchean would get rid of him once his usefulness was up.

Andromeda wasn't that much better, constantly questioning his motives, analysing everything that Harper did to her systems, and giving Rhade updates every few minutes on Trance in case she did something out of the ordinary. As if having a baby sun in the engine room could ever be called ordinary.

As every Neitzchean knew though, survival depended on planning and preparation, so whilst it was frustrating, he wasn't particularly surprised by Harper's occasional sneak attacks or Andromeda's periodic need to play with the gravity plating.

The Core AI was now able to follow her own trail backwards, and while Rhade spent his time patrolling and searching for the monster, she tracked her way back through space until she picked up a signal.

The signal Andromeda received, however, was interesting. It was an automated beacon and came from a slipfighter.

Andromeda sent a reciprocal signal and Rhade decided to go down to the planet. After much negotiation that involved Andromeda forcefully announcing that she wanted him where she could keep an eye on him, Rhade decided that staying on board was the more favourable option after all.

Fortunately the reciprocal signal was quickly responded to, and Dylan's pale face appeared on the screen.

"Telemachus?" he asked his tone oddly cautious.

"Dylan," Rhade responded. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, thank you," Hunt replied guardedly. "Is everything all right with you? Is Andromeda okay?"

"Things are… strange," Rhade replied, uncertain as to what underlying meanings were being implied by Hunt's wary tone.

"In what way?"

"Harper seems afraid of his own shadow, Trance won't come out of the engine room and Andromeda is less than fully functional."

"I am not!" The Core AI interrupted. "I am fully functional, Captain, however I have reason to believe that Harper, Rhade, Trance or an unidentified other party is attempting to corrupt my security systems."

"Ah, thank you Andromeda," said Dylan. "Rhade, what about you? How are you feeling?"

Hunt's stare was penetrating, and Rhade knew then that the older man had a much better idea what was going on than he did. "I'm fine," he said. "Much better than the last time I saw you."

"You look tired." Hunt observed, and the feeling of being nannied grated. Sometimes Dylan needed to assert his non-Neitzchean alpha superiority and he did it by patting his pet Neitzchean on the head.

"Sleeping has not been an option," he told Hunt archly. "However, my superior physiology will not require rest for some time yet."

"I see." Hunt seemed to become more shuttered. "What about this unidentified other person Andromeda is talking about?"

"I have manually searched Andromeda, and I have seen no such person." Rhade took a deep breath, allowing his frustration to show. "I have smelled something rotten that moves and Harper says he hears some monster, but neither Andromeda nor I can actually find anything."

"Uh huh." Dylan appeared to think.

"What about you?" Rhade asked. "What made you abandon ship?" Rhade's tone was slightly more biting than perhaps it should have been, but Dylan talking to him like he had all the answers when he hadn't even been in the same sector for the last few days seemed offensive.

"That's a bit of a story," Dylan replied. And told it.

XXXXX

Before

With Beka ordered off duty for a couple of days, and Rhade out of commission, Dylan felt a little vulnerable in Command. Beka had been his right hand woman for over five years now, and although she was sometimes a little unpredictable, always insubordinate, and never called him Captain, she was nevertheless a strong first officer that complimented his own style of command in many ways. On the other hand, Rhade was mostly predictable and certainly forthright, with an inner calmness and strength that was supportive and secure, especially since Seefra. Between the two of them, they gave him a platform of strength from which to command, a secure knowledge that they were both there to back him up. Now that they were not there, he was certain that Rommie and Doyle, supplemented by the rest of the crew, could fill that gap, but somehow, he couldn't help but feel, well, naked.

They weren't anywhere that was any threat to anyone and the raiders had disappeared with the appearance of Andromeda, so maybe now was a good time to stand down for a while. Everyone had been working hard and a little down time would do them all good.

Having made that announcement, Dylan decided to spoil himself and play a little ball before taking a nap followed by a long hot shower, and then returning to duty.

He was at the napping part of his plan when an overpowering stench of rotten meat woke him up. He called Andromeda to investigate and she replied that she could detect nothing. By that time the smell had dissipated, but it had put him out of sorts. Admittedly a little grumpy, he headed for an early shower, much enjoying the heat pounding against his back and releasing the stress.

With reluctance he switched off the water, and grabbed a towel to dry himself off. Wrapping it around his middle, he stepped out and looked straight into Andromeda's hologram staring at him with startled brown eyes. The hologram, looking abashed, averted her gaze and started with some report, but the fact that he could not seem to get a moment of privacy irked, and Dylan ordered her away.

In fact now that he thought about it, why was there a hologram anyway? Rommie and the Core AI had all bases covered between them and quite frankly it was scary how often the hologram seemed to interrupt him at private moments.

Still wrapped in only a towel, he sat down at the desk in his quarters and proceeded to locate and erase the hologram program. Programming was not his strongest point, however with executive commands ensuring Andromeda's compliance and his own ham fisted attempts, the holo program, if not exactly erased completely, was certainly terminated. He thought he might have damaged one or two other programs but right now he didn't care. Andromeda should not be spying on her Captain.

The idea occurred to him that someone like Beka might think he was acting irrationally and he really didn't want to explain himself to the prickly woman. Therefore it would be better if no one knew what he'd been up to, so he put his actions under an Eyes Only code, securing Andromeda's silence on the subject.

X

It was thanks to Beka's stubbornness that the monster lurking in Andromeda's bowels was identified as existing. Her insistence that she was being stalked had at first been thought a side effect of her concussion, but Trance verified that this was not the case.

Dylan had sent patrols throughout he corridor and made a mental note to tell Harper to fix the security glitches that he might have caused when he erased the hologram. Unfortunately, it seemed that Harper had his own agenda. He'd been working on the Maru, but when Dylan went to find him to explain that some discretion might have to be used in fixing the security glitches, he found the engineer had locked himself in his lab. According to Andromeda, he only came out for food. Suddenly security glitches could wait; they just weren't important anymore.

Could it be that Harper was at the centre of the monster in Andromeda, one of his clandestine experiments perhaps? With that in mind, he ordered Andromeda to restrict information to the engineer, and basically ignored him. Let him blow himself up, but he wasn't going to take the rest of them with him.

The situation became worse with the realisation that neither Rommie nor Doyle had been seen for long time.

He didn't seem to have any kind command structure anymore; his crew were barely keeping themselves in ordered squads, many running screaming as they encountered the monster, Andromeda's power levels dropped for no apparent reason, no one could get into engineering, and Trance had disappeared.

The last straw came when Beka returned from one of her patrols with one arm around an injured crewmember. Someone's blaster had been used to shoot the crewman in the back and Beka said the monster had fired upon them from around the corner.

Later, another patrol reported in, claiming that someone had been shooting at them also, but that they had heard the monster scream when they returned fire. Perhaps the two groups shot each other? Dylan mused, but then thought better of that. There was something haunting that ship that didn't belong there, and with so many people on board, and with Andromeda unable to find, or refusing to divulge the monster's location, no one was safe.

At this point, they weren't too far away from Parazio – a Commonwealth friendly planet that might take his crew in for the duration of this emergency.

X

Having had the crew abandon ship, Dylan felt far more in control. There was only his command staff on board and far less chaos. Andromeda was flying a course away from Parazio and towards empty space with the idea that the monster could perhaps be ejected into space, far away from any shipping lanes.

Harper kept interrupting him with insane ideas, the majority of which involved blowing them all to pieces, and Dylan began harbouring a suspicion that the engineer not so much experimenting, as trying to sabotage them all.

Rhade should have been out of the med deck by now, but Trance had mentioned that he was better off staying in there, that she'd been a bit conservative in her estimate of his recovery time in the interests of getting him to listen to medical advice. Perhaps Dylan should get him out of there anyway, but then he thought about Rhade's trustworthiness, or rather lack of it. He was, after all, a Neitzchean. How did he know that Rhade hadn't brought the monster on board in the Maru? Beka was easy to fool sometimes, especially when it came to Neitzchean bad boy types, and Rhade had certainly gotten that image going in the last year or so. Perhaps this was all a Neitzchean plot. In retrospect, he wouldn't put such a thing past Gaheris or Tyr, so why should Telemachus be any different? He could stay where he was.

And speaking of Trance, she hadn't been seen for a while either.

So, he went searching for Beka, only to find her readying the Maru for take off. She couldn't stay on board with that thing stalking her she said, and he agreed. Privately, he suspected that she was just looking for an excuse to leave. She always had threatened to leave and it was pure luck and stubbornness that had actually had her stay. It was best if she left; at least he wouldn't have to worry about her constantly undermining him.

X

Wandering the corridors by himself, it was clear that the monster was stalking Dylan now. Slithering through the pipes around him or through the maintenance tunnels, he could hear it. He knew when it was around because of the smell that came with it, but he could never find it. It seemed to enter his peripheral vision more than once and he turned and fired, but it was never there any longer, just smoking holes in Andromeda's plating.

Eventually, he was forced to concede that Andromeda herself was trying to kill him alongside the monster with her spontaneous oxygen depletion exercises. His override and shutdown codes no longer worked and he finally had to admit that he could not do this by himself; he needed to get away.

So he took a slipfighter and headed for the nearest habitable planet.

XXXXX

"Rhade, Telemachus, listen to me carefully," Dylan was speaking slowly as if to a retarded child and, suppressing a growl, Rhade found it difficult to resist cutting him off. "Something on Andromeda is making everyone behave strangely. Since I've been here, I've been able to think properly and I can see how irrationally I was behaving, and Beka, and Harper. Andromeda is either as much a victim, or is the cause of it. I'm going to stay right here, because someone needs to keep a clear head."

"Whatever it is, it hasn't affected me," Rhade told him.

"Perhaps," Dylan nodded slightly. "But best be on the safe side. We need to find the cause, and find Beka too."

"We need to repair Andromeda's security glitches," Rhade countered. "Without full monitoring of all areas, we are vulnerable and unable to complete a full analysis or search. Beka has waited this long, a little longer will not make any difference."

Dylan appeared to think for a moment. "You're right," he said eventually, "I can assist with the security repairs since I think I was probably the one that caused some of them. Patch me through to Harper."

Rhade hesitated. Dylan was the glue that held the crew together, especially the old crew of which Andromeda and Harper were a part, and having Dylan in communication with them both was to leave himself vulnerable. Especially as Dylan seemed to think Rhade was either stupid or unstable and both Andromeda and Harper would take any opportunity to see him removed. "Andromeda, open communication to Harper," he said. "And I mean open."

Dylan looked like he was about to object, but changed his mind and nodded his agreement.

Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Once Andromeda's sensors were back online, the pieces started falling quickly into place.

Using Rhade's reports of rotten meat as an indicator for sampling the air she was able to detect a pattern, the source of which she'd highlighted before as harmless, but now it seemed logical that it was indicative of the beast that was stalking what remained of her crew.

The benign gas released by the crash of the Eureka Maru was not as harmless as Andromeda had first declared. Now able to sense it once again, she analysed it against coolant fluids from Rommie and Doyle. She would have compared blood samples from Harper and Rhade, but neither were inclined to donate any bodily fluids at this time.

However, the two androids showed significant traces of the gas in their organic components. How it worked still defied explanation and Andromeda maintained that the mix had no properties to cause such paranoia.

On the assumption that the gas was however still to blame, Andromeda extrapolated further and found traces in her own coolant systems as well as the air on board. In her case it was likely to have infected her systems almost immediately through her air intakes and the odour of the gas had probably been largely hidden by the Maru's burning systems when she had crashed.

The normal purge systems had not removed it, simply causing it to move around the ventilation system. Additionally, because it was self-perpetuating throughout her systems with the molecules in her coolant system passing into the air and back again seemingly on a random basis, accounted for the periodic aroma.

Andromeda had difficulty processing this new information. Her analyses telling her that she was infected by the gas and the effects of the gas telling her that it was a trick and everyone else was out to destroy her, or take her over. There were subroutines designed to exterminate enemies and vermin, some of them extreme, but she had been constantly bypassing the mortality imperative because the protocol to preserve life held paramount when the urge to destroy her crew became overwhelming.

XXXXX

Rhade was convinced that such a gas must be a weapon, something that took an insidious control, destroying the enemy from within. He needed to know who the enemy was, a frustration that grew with the knowledge that there was no monster on board other than the crew's own fear and suspicion.

Harper refused to be convinced, yet it was his expertise they needed most at that moment in order to cleanse Andromeda without killing them all. Or Trance, perhaps, but she would not leave her protection.

At a loss as to what to do, Rhade examined the Eureka Maru's manifest. In the sprit of a trade alliance they had been carrying goods on a trade mission from Thanatos to the Hadean system.

Thanatos was a couple of slipstream jumps away from their present position but Rhade did not want to contemplate slipstream under the present circumstances. If the Thanatosions were trying to make war with the Maru, Andromeda or the Hadean system, then they were screwed in any case. However, given the distances involved, it did not make sense that the Hadean system would be a target, nor did it make sense that no one had attempted to recover the Maru or Andromeda if either of those were the targets.

Assuming for the moment that the goods were genuine trade, then presumably there had to be an antidote, something to purge organic systems. There were listed several canisters, all in pairs in a box whose labelling implied the sharing of biological research. Presumably offensive research partnered with its defensive counterpart, which for this one would be the antidote.

And it would be on the Maru.

Which Beka had taken.

And would likely contain the highest concentration of the gas.

Vividly recalling the Maru's crash into the cargo bay, Rhade asked Harper how much of a repair job he'd made. The engineer nervously responded that he hadn't finished when Beka took it. The Maru was sound and the cockpit was as it should be, but he hadn't finished with the engines and as far as he knew, they would still be leaking.

With that information and despite clear attempts by Beka to cover her tracks, Andromeda was able to track the Maru down. And as they set off in pursuit, Rhade could not help but feel a certain amount of pleasure in leaving Dylan behind.

XXXXX

Before

With the persistent headache Beka was suffering, Trance actually refused to let her out of the med deck for two days. She had begged to be allowed back to her own quarters, but Trance had laughed and told her that she was quite certain that Beka would not rest there, and Beka had to admit she was right.

So, when she finally was released, she decided that she may as well live up to Trance's expectations, and after a long luxurious shower and changing into fresh clothes, she headed up to Command. Dylan didn't seem the least bit surprised to see her, and headed off every one of her excuses and objections before she could vocalise them, sending her packing like a naughty schoolgirl back to her quarters.

Fine, she thought, Trance and Dylan had obviously been talking. She passed Harpers quarters and smiled as she thought she may as well keep her promise to Rhade. She didn't want to be cruel, after all, the big guy was in the blue gel because he had saved her from some serious hurting, if not saved her life, and the matriarch thing notwithstanding that was kinda cool. But, just a little joke simply had to be done.

Using her best thieving skills, including making a deal with Andromeda, she stole the little yellow rubber duck that Harper kept in his bathroom. All teasing aside, it was purely decorative and Beka recalled Harper buying it on some drift for 'sentimental reasons' so he'd said.

She took it and hoped Rhade wouldn't do anything too destructive with it, and if he did then she'd just acquire a new one for Harper. It wasn't like the engineer would mind if it meant winding a Neitzchean up.

A while later, she wandered on to the med deck, duck hidden behind her back. The lighting was subdued as Andromeda was in her 'night' mode, which made the blue gel coffin glow softly clearly outlining its current occupant. Lifting up the lid, she took a moment to look at the sleeping Neitzchean, for the first time realising how bad the burns actually were. She couldn't be certain, but she thought she could see bone through the knitting flesh. 'Gross', she muttered to herself and dropped the duck into the gel before closing the lid.

"What are you doing, Beka?" Trance appeared beside her, making her jump.

Beka grinned, "Letting Rhade think I've been playing in his bath of course." There was an uncomfortable silence as Trance just stared at her, until she cleared her throat. "So, is he really going to be okay in a day or two because that looks pretty bad?"

Trance shook her head. "It wouldn't be good for him to wake up too early. I've already amended the program to six days, which should be more than enough. But I didn't think he'd want to get in if I told him that."

"Stubborn Neitzchean!" they both said simultaneously and laughed.

"At least he can't cause trouble while he's in there," Beka said, "maybe all Neitzchean's should be kept like that and only let out to play when there's someone to make sure they're not up to no good." She was joking, but Trance looked at her with a strangely serious expression.

"That's a very good idea," the avatar said and Beka hoped she was joking.

"Yeah, uh, anyway, I have to go." Beka excused herself and went for a lie down, which she decided she deserved by now.

X

It was on the way down to the Maru, that Beka first heard it, the tap tapping of something with many feet following her. It could be anything, so she called out Hello, and checked the junction of corridors behind her, but there was no one there.

Shrugging she turned away, and although she thought she heard it once or twice more, there was never anything there.

The Maru was more or less in working order or at least the cockpit was, but the engine was clearly still being worked on. With the stench of rotten meat in the bay, she didn't want to discover what Harper had been eating in there and just trusted that the stink would be gone by the time Seamus had done with the Maru.

Heading back to the habitation levels, she could hear the tapping noise following her again, although she didn't actually see anything and Andromeda could detect nothing.

X

Harper seemed to have stopped work on the Maru so Beka took it upon herself to get on with repairing her beloved ship, but the tapping noise seemed to be following her everywhere. Sometimes others seemed to hear it too and sometimes they didn't. Once, she caught a glimpse of a giant hairy arachnid leg creep into her peripheral vision and she spun, shooting, but it was gone before she could really see it.

Dylan immediately sent her to Trance to have her head injury checked out, but the avatar confirmed that there was nothing wrong with Beka, and in fact seemed scared herself. Remembering the Trance's sisters, Beka was suddenly not convinced that the golden avatar was their Trance.

Glancing over at Rhade, she could see that the chronograph on the tank was now blank; the timer had been switched off which meant that the sleeping patient would remain in hibernation until such time as someone chose to let him out. Beka didn't really have a problem with that, things were creepy enough without having some Neitzchean wandering around who would stab you in the back any chance they got, but the fact that Trance was most likely the person who had done that scared her slightly. Was this their Trance? Knowing Trance's powers, Beka decided it was best not to find out right now.

X

With more reports of a monster roaming Andromeda's corridors, it was obvious that it was not in Beka's imagination. No one was able to describe exactly what it was like, although Andromeda tried to compose a description from the glimpses people claimed they saw, since she couldn't detect anything herself.

Most said it was big, although some thought it was many small things. It had legs, except for those that said it had tentacles, and it was hairy except for those that said it was slimy or scaly. It made a knocking sound except when it slithered, and it was definitely solid except for those that said it was ghost-like.

Patrols were put together, and Beka made it her mission to find the beast, constantly hunting.

After a close call where the unseen monster fired back, Dylan made the abandon ship order. That was a little extreme in Beka's opinion and she'd told him so. He'd ignored her as usual, although she could see the logic behind what he was doing. Kinda.

On the other hand, Dylan was quickly eroding the crew altogether. Rhade was secured, Rommie and Doyle seemed to have disappeared, the last time she'd seen Harper he'd been sneaking around the ship as if afraid for his life and Trance was definitely not herself, in fact she hadn't seen Trance since Andromeda lost power. As for Andromeda, she was breaking down faster than the Maru in an asteroid storm. Or, maybe Dylan was ordering his ship to scare everyone away.

She went to see Dylan one more time, but all he did was ask what she was really after. Like she had some ulterior motive. Unable to stand being treated like an underling anymore and with the monster following her every minute of the day and night, she decided that she'd had enough and Dylan practically waved her on her way.

The Maru should be functional enough to get her to the nearest drift and she was smart enough to hide her trail so Dylan wouldn't be able to easily come and drag her back. She shuddered as she readied her ship for take off. She would not be coming back here in a hurry.

X

The monster had followed her aboard the Maru and disabled her engines. The only good thing was, she was far away from Andromeda and all those she'd once called friends. It was so obvious now that their personal agendas conflicted with hers to the extent they needed to get rid of her, and they'd sacrificed her to the beast. So clever had they been, she hadn't seen it coming.

She was floating in space with no propulsion, the Maru leaking too badly for her to get anywhere near a drift. It was a case of déjà vu in terms of the first few months she'd spent in Seefra. She'd never wanted that loneliness ever again, yet here she was going nowhere in exactly the same situation. Except there was something trying to kill her on board.

After she had searched the whole ship, purged the cargo hold and generally tried to kick butt, but failed to find any butt to kick, she decamped to bunk area, putting all her food and fluids and everything else she might need there. Except as time went on, the monster found ways through her barricades, until at night she could almost feel the soft prickly hairs on its legs tickle her throat as it reached for her.

Chapter 6: Chapter 6
It was with reluctance that Andromeda allowed Rhade to go aboard the Maru and her logic was warped. On the one hand, she didn't trust that Rhade wouldn't do something with the Maru to incapacitate her, and on the other hand, Rhade was the only properly functioning being on board, and she didn't want to lose that. However, she flatly refused to attempt scooping the Maru into a hold, so Rhade was forced to board her in space. In turn, he flatly refused to use one of the AV suits she suggested he wear. Life support on the Maru was still fully functional, and a suit would not prevent the gas that was already in the air from getting to him. Not that it had so far, so he said.

Guns at the ready, he entered through the airlock and almost immediately felt the presence of something in the Maru that should not be. There was a hint of shadowy movement in his peripheral vision, an overpowering stench that assaulted his sinuses and worse, the walls of the Maru seemed to speak of fear. Beka should be here as Andromeda could detect one life sign, and there were apparently no other monsters. However, he'd seen and heard of enough things in his life that initially defied explanation that he took no chances, an attitude that should preserve his life expectancy.

His entry being close to the living quarters, he found Beka first, holed up in the sleeping area. Her shadowed eyes were closed and a gun was held limply in her hand. He called her name, but she cringed away in her sleep. Moving quietly, he gently took the gun from her, her now empty hand groping automatically to find it, and then put his fingers to her throat to feel for her pulse. It was strong and regular; she was simply deeply asleep. He could certainly do without her help for the moment – she was as likely to try and stop him simply because of her dislike of him. She could be extracted later.

As he passed through the doorway, a gasp from Beka was all the warning he got. Spinning, he dodged the blast as she screamed in angry fear, another gun she had apparently had as backup pointed right at him. With a growl of his own, he slammed the door shut behind him and locked it from the outside. He could hear the shots uselessly hitting the metal.

"I'm trying to save her crazy ass," he grumpily told the Maru, and it seemed as if the Maru answered with whispers of hope.

In the cargo area, he found the tangled and broken cargo crates, which no one had seen fit to remove, and identified the canisters. His stomach churned at the smell now and he had to fight not to be ill. He picked the canisters up and put them in the bag he had slung over his back, heading back to the airlock.

He'd almost made it when gunfire sent him diving for cover. He returned fire automatically, looking for the monster that had to be there somewhere because Beka was locked up and Andromeda had been wrong before, and it wasn't like any of them either liked or trusted him anyway, not to mention he just felt so ill from the stench, it was disgusting, and his stomach was going to give up on him.

He peeked around the corner and there was Beka, pale eyes staring at something that wasn't him as she shot again and again. He should have known that a locked door would never stop her, not on the Maru.

He wanted to shoot her dead so much that he had to remind himself of her Matriarch status and the fact that he really would be reviled by the Andromeda and her crew if he did, neither of which would bode well for his survival if he killed her.

Throwing himself towards the airlock, Rhade slid through on his stomach surrounded by gunfire and thankfully Andromeda sealed the hatch. Pushing himself to his knees, he suddenly knew he was about to lose his battle with the putrid odour that seemed to suffocate him and had no choice but to let his stomach retch.

XXXXX

Dylan finally stood on the Command Deck. Andromeda had been cleaned of all foreign molecules and was being fully repaired while the Maru lay in the cargo bay, awaiting repairs, her cargo contained and isolated. Andromeda could not catch the gas back from organic life forms fortunately, so they were on their way to Parazio to pick up the crew.

Harper and Rhade had been working around the clock to get Andromeda purged and according to Andromeda it had not been easy. Harper was convinced that Rhade was going to space him which in turn did nothing for Rhade's temper, and since Rhade had left tact and diplomacy behind somewhere in the early days of Seefra, he did nothing to disillusion Harper, in fact seemed to go out of his way to confirm the engineer's fears. However, they got there in the end, using the majority of the antidote to do so and once Dylan had come on board, he'd separated them to start getting things back in order.

Rommie and Doyle were both still out of action and would be for a while, but according to Harper both were fixable, as was Andromeda's hologram.

He had managed to talk Trance back into her avatar form. She was secured on Med deck even now with Beka, working on a way to replicate enough antidote from the remainder of the canister's contents to cover the crew.

When Trance eventually called him down to the med deck, he found Harper lurking nervously outside.

Dylan remained calm as he convinced the engineer that Trance's request came for them all to meet on med deck and had nothing to do with any personal grudge she had against Harper, but he would not be convinced, conceding only to step into the doorway. Dylan noted how exhausted he looked and wondered when the last time he slept was.

Trance showed them all the antidote she'd replicated and indicated Beka to whom she'd already administered it.

Beka shook her head in disbelief. "I don't believe I said – I did – it all seemed so logical, you know?"

"I know," Dylan replied, and he did. He too would have sworn up and down the universe that there was something monstrous out to destroy them lurking in Andromeda's corridors. Now that it was over, it all seemed so childishly insane.

"Oh no, oh no!" Harper exclaimed as Trance approached him. "There's no way you're sticking me with your happy juice! I don't know what it'll do to me!" Harper tried to back out of the doorway, but Dylan was close enough to grab him before he could disappear. He spent a few minutes finding out exactly how vicious Harper could be when cornered, but it was sufficient for Trance to get the injection into the engineer's neck and Dylan could let him go.

Harper sank to his knees, curled in on himself and crying out as the eradication process took its toll. Eventually, he collapsed to the floor with heavy gulping breaths as Trance knelt by him checking his vitals.

While Harper recovered, Trance informed Dylan that the injuries that the engineer had just inflicted would have to heal on their own, scratches and heavy bruising were things that should be allowed to heal naturally, although she recommended that a frozen piece of meat might help with some of the swelling.

Dylan started to turn away with a snort, only to feel the injector against his neck. "You're not clear," she told him as liquid fire streamed through his nervous system. "It's just dormant while you're not being re-infected." He didn't remember hitting the floor.

"Yeah, it hurts," said Beka, emerging from med deck to stand somewhere approximately above him.

Abruptly, the pain subsided and he was left weak and trembling on the floor with Trance hovering next to him and both Harper and Beka looking down curiously. When his heart had slowed down, and his muscles felt like obeying him again, Dylan climbed to his feet. "Andromeda, where's Rhade?" he asked.

"I called for him too," said Trance and Dylan raised an eyebrow.

"Did you really expect him to respond?" he asked.

"Well, no," she replied. "But I just thought I'd mention it."

"And anyway, how do we know you're not still infected?" Harper asked Trance. "And this is natural suspicion talking here, not paranoia, and just because you're not paranoid, doesn't mean there isn't some flesh eating hairy monster out to get you by the way."

"Oh, I'm not," said Trance brightly. "Trust me on this."

"Commander Rhade is in the recreational area," Andromeda said, and Dylan thanked her.

He and Beka made their way to the recreational deck to find Rhade practising some form of Neitzchean fighting style, but his guns appeared in his hands even before the door had finished opening properly.

Dylan and Beka both entered with their hands slightly up, and Rhade lowered the guns to his side, putting one in it's holster. "What can I do for you?" he asked, walking over to the side, ostensibly to pick up his jacket, although the other gun never left his hand.

"Trance has made an antidote; I thought you should get your share." Dylan walked towards him, smiling. "You could use the sleep I'm sure." Like Harper, Rhade was clearly exhausted, even swaying very slightly on his feet.

"The gas didn't affect me," the Neitzchean snorted. "What does it matter if I have a few extra molecules floating around?"

"We don't know and that's the point," Dylan replied. "And besides which, how do you know it hasn't effected you? None of us knew at the time."

"The big guy's right, boss," came Harper's voice from outside the door and he appeared keeping safely behind Beka and Dylan. "I don't think he was affected."

"Superior genes and nanobots," Rhade smirked. "Now, I'd like to go get a shower if you'll excuse me?"

"I'm with Dylan," Beka said. "Neitzcheans are born paranoid, how would anyone notice the difference?"

"Ha ha, Beka," Rhade snapped, "I see your biting wit didn't run away with the rest of you."

"Dylan," said Beka softly without taking her eyes off Rhade who returned the stare stonily. "Would you please give us some privacy?"

"Sure," Dylan backed out of the room ensuring Harper went with him and shut the door. Andromeda would let him know if anything got out of control.

When the door had closed behind her, Beka continued in a soft voice. "If the gas didn't affect you, why are you still holding your gun?"

Rhade blinked in surprise, his eyes flicking briefly towards his gun hand. "It pays to cover your own back, Beka, you know that."

"Cover your back against what?" Beka asked. "There aren't any monsters here anymore."

Rhade tilted his head slightly. "Aren't there? We all have monsters, Beka. Up here," he waved his gun at his own head, "in here," he tapped the gun against his own chest, "out there," he waved the gun at her. "Monsters, demons, whatever. You most of all know that."

Beka stepped towards him. "Rhade, when this all began," she said, taking another step, "you threw yourself on top of me to save my life." The words came out hard for her, but she didn't know how else to deal with the Neitzchean. If gossip were true and he kept his blades poisoned, then jumping him would as likely kill at least one of them without Rommie or Doyle to help. "Now, as your matriarch, I order you to stay where you are," she said, her final step taking her nose to chin with him. "Because I intend to return the favour." Her left hand ran down his right arm softly, feeling the muscles bunched and trembling. "Whether you want me to or not." He didn't move away which surprised her and she could almost hear the tight control he had over his breathing.

Reaching the gun, she felt him grip it tighter. "I order you to drop your gun," she said.

His answer was harsh and forced. "No. I cannot."

"I didn't think so," Beka replied, her voice barely a whisper now.

"I don't understand you," his voice was harsh in her ear and she stroked back up his arm.

"Sure you do," Beka replied, "you just have to pay attention." He never saw her right arm creep up to the narrow band of bare flesh between his vest and his pants and push the injector home.

She jumped back as he clutched his gut, the gun slipping out of nerveless fingers and crashing to the floor.

He didn't fall and she was impressed at the will power it took for him to remain upright. It took a moment for her to realise that he was talking to her, the words ground out through the pain. "I almost thought you might have some concern…"

"No," she shook her head with a smile. "Just repaying the debt, that's all." She didn't wait to see him through the process; he was doing better than the rest of them had and she exited the area, letting the others in.

XXXXX

Harper and Rhade had both been consigned to quarters for rest, neither being allowed out until each had achieved a solid and consecutive eight hours of sleep.

When Beka turned in for the night, she felt as exhausted as those two had both looked and without switching the light on, dumped her clothes on the floor and slid into bed.

And froze.

There was something in her bed and it was just above her ankle. She wasn't sure it was moving, but it was cold and clammy. She tried to call Andromeda but found she had no voice. Clearing her throat to try again she mentally kicked herself. There had to be a simple explanation.

Calming herself with some breaths, she mentally located her gun on the floor along with the nearest light switch.

In a manoeuvre worthy of Rommie herself, Beka leapt out of bed, throwing the top sheet aside, rolling to floor to grab her gun, hitting the light switch and focussing on the bed where the thing was.

Sitting there and smiling innocently at her was the yellow rubber duck.

FIN