SquidgeWorld Archive

Chapter Text

"I am concerned about our esteemed Captain."

Beka Valentine lifted her head off it's muscular pillow and looked up at her bedmate in surprise. For Tyr to show genuine concern was unusual enough. For him to do so while in bed was downright scary. On the other hand, she understood. She too had some worries about Dylan.

"He has become increasingly self-destructive of late and it seems as if his opinions and goals change daily. I've also observed that the ship itself watches him closely and with her own concern."

Beka nodded and rested her head back on his chest. "I know. Something's wrong. I just don't know what."

"Could the boy find out while inside the system?"

Despite the gravity of the conversation, the blonde woman couldn't help but grin at that. Tyr's almost paternal interest in Harper never failed to amuse her. There were a lot of things about Tyr that amused her these days. Like how he always wanted to cuddle after sex. Who would have ever imagined big bad Tyr Anasanzi, last Alpha of the Kodiak Pride, as a cuddler?

Forcibly bringing her mind back on topic, she shrugged. "He might. But I don't recommend calling him 'boy' when you ask him to."

She heard the smile in his voice. "Who says I'm going to be the one to ask him?"

"Well, it's your idea. You should get the proper credit for it."

Sudden movement erupted beneath her and she found herself looking up into the dark brown eyes. She'd never admit it in a million years, but one of the things that had first attracted Beka to her crewmate-besides his well made body and general good looks- had been the deviousness and forcefulness that was so much a part of the Nieztschean. As attractive as she found Dylan Hunt physically, his personality was all wrong for her.

Then Tyr leaned down to kiss her and erased the captain from her mind for the rest of the night.

~*~*~

"Let me see if I got this straight. You want me to hack into Dylan's medical files and find out if he and Rommie are hiding something from us? So that, what? You can steal his ship from him?" Seamus Harper leaned back against the Maru's bulkhead and glared at his two crewmates. This was just the sort of thing Tyr would do, but he'd really expected better of Beka.

"Look.. Seamus..." Uh oh. Beka only called him Seamus when she really wanted something from him and was gonna pull out all the stops to get it. He'd learned early on in their association that it was better to just give up about this point. Still, he decided to listen to what she had to say. "Tyr and I are just worried about him."

He shot an incredulous look at their resident Nieztschean. Tyr didn't worry about people unless it somehow affected him, that's just the way his species was.

Apparently, the bigger man could tell where his thoughts had taken him because the dark brown eyes rolled in exasperation. "Think about it, boy. If Dylan has become mentally ill then it endangers all of us."

"Tyr's right, Harper. Think about it. Look at how different he is now from how he was when we first pulled him out of the singularity."

"Yeah, but Beka we've all changed since then. You gotta admit, we've been through a lot in the last two years and it's been even worse for him." Despite the near constant fighting and the seriously rocky road, he liked living on the Andromeda and thought they'd all gained a lot when Dylan had recruited them. The captain, on the other hand, had lost everything- not once, but twice- and was now struggling to rebuild the Commonwealth with just his one ship and it's tiny crew. In Harper's mind, that had to be pretty damned traumatic.

"Exactly. And look at his behavior, especially since we ran into the Magog worldship. He's like a yo-yo, Seamus. One day it's
all 'Let's save the Commonwealth' the next it's 'Let's take a three-week cruise'.. One minute he's all for saving Earth, the next it's not important." Trust Beka to know exactly what to say to remind Harper that he was still a little upset with Hunt's behavior himself.

"And he has become increasingly self-destructive with no thought for how it effects the rest of us. He has called missiles down on his own position. Even before that, coming to rescue us after ordering the acting captain to fire a Nova bomb at the worldship."

"Or the thing with the Inari."

Harper waved his hands in the air, gesturing for them to shut up when it looked like they were going to continue. "I get it, I get it. Okay, so there could be something wrong." He sighed and rubbed his hair as he felt a headache coming on. The idea that Dylan was sick wasn't one he was comfortable with, but he had to admit that he could see their point. Dylan's behavior in the last two years had become increasingly erratic, to the point that you just never could tell which way he was going to jump with some things. It did bear looking into. "I'll do it, but if I get in trouble, I'm sending him after you two."

"Of course, Seamus." Beka smiled happily at him, having gotten her way. "I knew we could count on you."

He watched the pair leave the Maru and banged his head softly against the bulkhead. It wouldn't be hard, hacking into the records and even if Rommie did catch him, well.. she'd been acting much nicer to him in the last few months. She wouldn't be too upset and probably wouldn't tell Dylan.

Why then, did he have such a bad feeling about this?

~*~*~

"Dylan, Harper is trying to access your medical files."

The Captain of the Andromeda Ascendant sighed and closed the file he was working on. "Do you know why?"

"No sir, but he, Beka, and Tyr had a private meeting onboard the Maru less than an hour ago. Should I eject him from the system?"

Dylan shut his eyes and rubbed strong hands over his face. "No, Rommie. We've been expecting this for a while now. They were bound to notice eventually."

He sat there for a moment longer, thinking over his options.

"He's just discovered that they've been removed." The holograms eyes were glazed as she watched the inner activity. After a second, her gaze snapped to focus once more. "He's on his way here for answers."

Straightening his uniform, the High Guard officer offered his ship's AI. a weary smile. "Well, we might as well tell them all at once. Open a ship wide comm. link." At her nod, he addressed his ragtag crew. "All hands, meet me on the bridge. Hunt out."

"Are you sure about this Dylan?"

"No, but they deserve to know what's going on."

The hologram didn't look particularly convinced, but remained silent, just watching as her captain left the room.

~*~*~

"Well? Did you find anything?"

Harper shook his head at Beka's whispered inquiry as the pair hurried towards the bridge. "Nothing. His files have been wiped clean."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know, Beka. They were there back when we first joined the Andromeda cuz I saw them. But now they're not."

The hushed conversation came to a halt once they reached their destination. Tyr and Dylan were already there. The Nieztschean was leaning back against a bulkhead studying their captain. Dylan stood in front of the view screen, his back to them. He was flanked on one side by the hologram and on the other by the avatar. Both looked concerned.

It did nothing to ease the growing sense of anxiety that had plagued Harper since his search of the system had found only empty spaces where medical files had once been.

There was no doubt about it now. Something was definitely wrong with Dylan.

Trance glided in behind them and he had to forcibly prevent a shudder. He still hadn't gotten used to the new and not-so-improved golden Trance. Days like this, he really missed his old perky purple friend.

"Well. We're all waiting with baited breath."

Trust Tyr to start off with sarcasm.

Rommie murmured something to Dylan that Seamus couldn't hear and the captain nodded before turning to face them all.

"Thank you, Tyr." An expression of placidness had settled over the big man's strong features. "It's been brought to my attention that you all were concerned enough about me to send Harper in to sneak around Rommie's files, where he found absolutely nothing. If you want to know something, you might try asking first. I might just surprise you and answer. Then there wouldn't be any need for all this cloak and dagger business." Whatever illness Dylan might have had, it wasn't in evidence at the moment. The man before them was one hundred percent pure Captain Dylan Hunt.

"Very well," It would take someone who knew Tyr very well to hear the very real concern under the insolent tone. "What exactly is wrong with you?"

Hunt turned back around to face the screen again. "I don't suppose any of you know anything about the various diseases and viruses native to Tarn Vedra?"

"No offense, Dylan, but I don't think anybody knows much of anything about Tarn Vedra anymore." Harper wanted to elbow his friend for reminding Dylan of what had to be a painful subject, but stopped when he realized that the bigger man was nodding.

"And that, my friends, is the real problem."

Rommie took over. An image that he recognized as a DNA strand flashed on the screen. "This is a DNA strand that contains the genetic mutation that causes Yoweri Syndrome which most often occurred in the victim's brain. About three hundred and fifty years ago, one in every thousand infants born on Tarn Vedra, Vedran or otherwise, carried the mutation in their genes. Out of those, one in every thousand was born with an acute case of it. The disease possessed five stages. The first was at a genetic level and usually could only be detected through DNA or genetic testing. The second stage had more physical symptoms- fluctuating adrenaline levels, nausea and insomnia, small memory lapses. Mostly just annoyances, nothing life threatening."

On the screen, the DNA strand was rotating and mutating steadily with the holograms words.

"Stages three and four were not fatal in and of themselves, but the symptoms often caused death anyway. Severe mood swings where the patient would go from nearly insanely cheerful to suicidaly depressed in a matter of moments, a sort of splintering of the personality that often left the patient confused and missing spots in their memories, occasional bouts of paralysis, and severe pain in the form of migraines and muscle inflammation, occasionally there was internal hemorrhaging . The final stage was fatal. Most patients committed assisted suicide rather than deal with the pain and loss of control."

The avatar broke in. "In an average case, the first stage lasts from birth until the patient is between the ages of ten and fifteen. The second usually another ten years after that. The third and fourth stages were often difficult to separate, but between them they usually progressed rapidly for between eight and twelve years depending on the individual. I have no record of anyone living long enough through the fifth stage for the disease itself to be fatal. Most committed assisted suicide, a few went insane and were killed. Life expectancy for anyone born with Yoweri Syndrome was between thirty-five and forty-five years. In an acute case, the progression of the disease was greatly accelerated. Life expectancy dropped to twenty years of age."

"And of course, despite my mother's genetic manipulations, I was born one of the unlucky of the unlucky."

"You were born with an acute case of this... whachamacallit, Yoweri Syndrome?" Harper needed clarification because even without the three hundred some odd years in the singularity, he knew Dylan was over twenty.

Nodding, Dylan smiled. "Yes. However, I did get lucky in that both of my parents were devoted researchers, my mother in genetics and my father in medicine. Since I was more or less a genetic experiment, I was tested regularly from birth and they found the mutation while I was still a toddler. They pooled their resources and went to work on a cure. We went through two failed medicines that accelerated it even worse, one that did nothing at all, a couple of therapies using radiation, and a handful of other things that had various harmful side effects before they finally found something that reversed the effects of the disease and forced it into a sort of remission. I was fifteen and well into the fourth stage by that point, but it worked and I was able to live a relatively normal life."

"Wait a minute. Are you saying your parents used you as a guinea pig?" Beka's incredulous question was echoed in everyone's
expression.

The young Earth-born human had been in that position a few times when he hadn't been quick enough to escape Nieztschean scouting parties, but he couldn't even imagine his own parents doing those things to him. Dylan on the other hand, just shrugged his shoulders, seeming to accept it as the natural order of things.

"Who else were they going to use? I was the one they wanted to save and I didn't have the kind of time it would take for the more prolonged official testing to be done."

"If they cured you, why are you getting sick now?" Tyr's harsh voice was practically right in his ear and Harper started slightly, turning to glare at the big man who'd come up beside him and Beka.

Dylan just shrugged. "Bad Karma?"

That caused a frown to form on the faces of all three Rommie's as the Motherboard came alive to join the conversation. "Actually, there were a number of contributing factors. First, the singularity itself. Though not high enough to be fatal, we were exposed to significant levels of radiation for over three hundred years. We have also been exposed a number of times since. When we hid in the corona of the sun, the children's station, and again in the Nova bomb explosion aboard the Magog worldship. The general stress the entire crew has been exposed to, the near death in the battle against the Magog, the time travel back to the battle of Witchhead. It has all added up."

"How bad is it, Dylan?" While there was concern in the new Trance's voice, there was none of the warmth that had been in the old one.

"Right now I seem to be hovering somewhere between the third and fourth stages."

Harper knew he looked silly, with his mouth hanging open in shock like it was, but he couldn't do anything about it. That meant... Jeez, that meant very bad things for all of them. "I thought you said it would take twenty years!"

"Well, it seems to be even more accelerated than before. Rommie estimates another six months to a year before the disease reaches the final stage. I suppose I should have told you all earlier, but I wasn't dealing with it all that well myself and I didn't want to add the burden to anyone else."

"But we could've been helping you and Rommie work on a cure Dylan." Harper winced at Beka's angry tone and was glad it was directed at someone besides him.

The intended victim seemed oblivious to it as he shrugged. "We're not working on a cure."

"What? Why not?"

Dylan's gaze was both weary and angry at the same time. "Because there's no point in it, and we can't afford to waste the time or the resources."

"So you're just giving up?" He wasn't able to keep the accusing note out of his tone. Dammit, no one had let him give up when his gut had been full of nasty little hitchhikers! How dare Dylan give up?

"No, Mr. Harper, I'm being realistic." In an instant, the captain's tone had gone from resigned to furious. "Three hundred years ago it took both of my parents twelve years to synthesize a cure- and that's with the resources of every medical institution in the million system Commonwealth. I don't have that kind of time and I'm not going to waste what little I do have on a useless endeavor. There is a Magog world ship out there and all the innocent people living in it's path matter a hell of a lot more than me." His gaze softened and he ran a hand over his face. "I'm sorry, Harper. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"S'okay. I get it. I just don't like it."

There was no humor in the answering chuckle. "Neither do I, Mr. Harper. Neither do I."

~*~*~

In the week following Dylan's revelations, even Rommie was forced to admit that it was easier for the captain. Though he was more obviously tired and in pain, his face had lost a great deal of the strain it had carried for so long.

She hadn't realized just what it was costing him to hide his condition.

An added bonus was that she finally had allies in the battle for Dylan's life. Despite his orders to the contrary, she'd searched every data bank and information disc they came into contact with, looking for any hint on how to reproduce the cure that the Dr.'s Hunt had found. She knew there had only been two places where she could have definitely found what they needed- the Renewed Valor from their trip back in time and Terazed. Neither of them had realized he was sick again until weeks after Beka had brought them back from the Battle of Witchhead. And Rommie would never tell Harper that the machine he'd built to save his own life had somehow managed to delete the files she'd gotten from Terazed in it's little space/time folding act.

When they'd left the High Guard planet, commander Rhade and the council had asked that the co-ordinates of their slipstream portal be erased from her memory banks and Dylan, still swinging wildly from betrayed anger to empathy, had agreed.

She still had a partial in her databank and had originally hoped it could be used as a baseline. Both she and Dylan had been sure it would give them a good starting point. In the end, Dylan had nixed the whole idea of a cure when they found that one of the key herbals listed was extinct.

Contrary to what he'd told Harper, Dylan had given up.

Rommie knew it was just another sign of the depression that overcame him more often than not. Knowing it was a side effect of the disease didn't make it any easier for her to see.

Dylan Hunt hadn't always been a perfect captain, but he was a damn sight better than anyone else who'd stood on her bridge claiming the title. She respected him and cared for him more than she cared for anyone else.

To borrow one of Harper's colorful Terran phrases, it'd be a cold day in hell before she let him die without a fight.

TBC