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One of the Few
by Erin Cale
"What is it, Rommie?" Dylan asked as he and the others entered Command.
"One ship, less than 1/4 my size. Heavily armored, but no weapons are powered."
"Doesn't look like anything is powered," Beka remarked, studying the visual intensely. "It appears to be drifting."
"Indeed. My scans reveal that this ship has been in approximately the same spot for the past four days and has less than one day's worth of oxygen left."
"Any life forms on board?"
"My scans indicate one human in the command center."
Dylan gave the ship one last look, then turned to Beka and Tyr. "Let's go."
***
The ship was dark and the environmental controls had apparently been shut down along with everything else so it was also very cold as well. Beka ducked back into their transport and grabbed some jackets. When she came back out, she threw one to each of her companions.
"Thanks," Dylan said, already scanning his surroundings for anything strange or dangerous. Tyr took his without comment, pausing only to put his jacket on before proceeding towards the command center. Beka put her jacket on, lifted her force lance, and followed behind her friends.
The darkness of the ship was enough to creep anybody out, except perhaps Tyr. He led the way while Dylan, for some reason, stayed behind with Beka. They listened to the ship creaking, as if its wounds were too numerous to bear.
"Almost creepier than the Eureka Maru," Dylan remarked, causing Beka to turn to him.
"Don't you dare go insulting my ship."
"I would ne-" Dylan was interrupted by a soft noise from Tyr's direction. That alone was enough to startle them from their conversation.
"I think I've found who were looking for." Dylan and Beka followed the sound of his voice. They found him in a large room that seemed like it had been bombed several times. Tyr was staring at a large sheet of metal that was lying against a console. As they came in, Beka heard a noise. A childish whimper coming from behind the piece of metal.
Dylan motioned to Tyr and Beka to stay where they were. He crept forward, trying to coax the little child out from its hiding place. There was another whimper and some movement behind the metal. Dylan backed away carefully, knowing that the child would not come out for him any time soon. He motioned to Beka to try.
"What?!" Beka whispered fiercely. "I was never good with kids! You think that our little friend is going to just come running out to me?"
"Just try," Dylan said. "Please, Beka."
"Fine, but don't blame me if this doesn't work." She kneeled down and started forward slowly. When she heard some more movement, she stopped where she was. She murmured some reassuring phrases in a soothing tone. After the little child had become somewhat comfortable with Beka being there, she started forward again and was able to creep close enough to start moving the metal out of the way.
A few minutes passed with Dylan and Tyr watching as Beka moved the metal away from the child. Little by little, the tiny face was exposed. A little girl who couldn't be more than seven years old watched Beka's every move with storm gray eyes that were almost totally covered by a mane of unruly brown hair.
"Hurts." The girl's voice was almost too soft to be heard.
"What hurts sweetheart?" Beka pulled the last piece of metal away from the little girl. She seemed about ready to pass out.
"E-everything." With that, the little girl did pass out. Beka picked up the little girl carefully after doing a rough check and deciding that the girl's chances aboard the Andromeda outweighed the risks of moving her.
Dylan and Tyr followed, Tyr staying behind a moment to double-check that nobody else was trapped under the rubble.
Once onboard the Maru, Dylan opened a channel to the Andromeda. "Andromeda, make sure the med bay is prepped. We found the one survivor, but she is wounded. Can't tell how badly."
"Acknowledged," came the reply.
In the few minutes it took to dock inside the Andromeda Ascendant, Dylan noticed how worried Beka seemed to be.
"Beka? You all right?"
"Yeah." Beka's voice was dazed, distracted by the still form in front of her. Seeing this girl brought back some memories of her father. He had been fried on Flash, his gray eyes a pearly white, his brown hair a mess from not having been brushed for a week. It wasn't soon after that he had died. She definitely did not want history to repeat itself in any way with this little girl who had trusted Beka enough to let her that close.
Tyr brought them down in the hanger swiftly, managing to land without the slightest bump. Dylan keyed the door for Beka as she once again picked up the girl and exited the ship. Dylan and Tyr shut down the Maru, then headed for the infirmary.
"Tyr?" Dylan said as they walked. "Did you notice anything weird about the ship, the girl, anything?" "Yes. It looked like it had been attacked, but there were no bodies, no signs of anyone other than then the girl inhabiting the ship. And there were signs of attempts at repairing some of the damage. How could a girl that young even begin to understand what it is that she's trying to fix."
"Maybe she hired somebody to fix the repairs, but that person stopped when he or she found the girl had no money."
"Still, there is the question of who attacked her in the first place. The style isn't Neitzchean, nor is it Magog." Tyr stopped in his tracks and stopped Dylan as well. "The fact is that we don't know who this girl is or what enemies she has made. We could be..."
"What?" Dylan asked. "Getting in over our heads?"
"Exactly."
"I thought the whole point of Neitzschean life is to prove oneself superior to one's rivals. And here you are backing away from a possible fight," Dylan said, his dare hanging in the air between them. After a moment, Tyr spoke again.
"Neitzcheans aren't suicidal, Dylan. How do we know that we aren?t going to be going up against an army?"
"Why would an entire army be after that girl?"
"The point is that we don't know," Tyr said, reiterating his point. At that moment, the two arrived at the doors to the infirmary. The doors opened and they saw the entire crew gathered in the room.
Harper looked up at them as they entered. He immediately approached Dylan. "Uh, I ran some scans on the ship. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the battle scars. Speaking of which, the damage is only about four days old."
"About the same time she stopped the ship in this spot."
"Uh, yeah. So, my theory is that she was in the middle of some fight, she somehow manages to go to slipstream and ends up here. However, the jump drains the last of the ship's energy and she is forced to stay here."
"Well, that would certainly explain a lot. But how many weapon's signatures did you find?"
"One," Harper replied.
"Great," Dylan said. "That means she wasn't caught in any crossfire, somebody was aiming for her."
"Ye-" Harper was interrupted by Trance, who was staring at a computer screen a few yards away.
"You guys might want to come and see this."
Everybody moved from their positions by the infirmary bed to the console that Trance was studying. On it was a picture of the girl's skull, with something metallic imbedded deep in her brain stem. Trance pointed to it. "I don't know what this thing is or where it came from but it's giving off a signal."
"Where to?" Beka asked anxiously.
"Back to the ship." Trance took a small breath. "And the ship is sending back the same signal."
"So they're communicating," Dylan remarked.
"Yep. I think that there may be an AI in that ship, but it doesn't have any other way to talk with anybody onboard."
"Who would design an AI with no way to communicate with the outside world?" Harper asked. "It would drive it nuts within a few weeks if it knew what was going on outside."
"How long until we can wake her up?" Dylan asked, referring to the little girl.
"Well, she's malnourished and hasn't rested in a couple of days, so it will probably be a few hours. And when she wakes up, she'll have to be fed immediately."
"Okay. Make sure to tell me when we can safely wake her up."
Trance nodded and turned back to her charge. Dylan and company left, each to their own little station.
***
Trance looked up from her small potted plant as she heard the little girl rustle and start to get up. She slowly made her way over to the girl, who was sitting up by now and looking around with wide eyes.
"Dylan?" Trance swiftly opened a communications channel to the high guard officer.
"Dylan here."
"Our little guest is awake."
"I'll be right there."
Trance continued her way over to the girl. "Hi," she said in her sweetest voice. "I'm Trance, who are you?"
"237."
"That's your name?" Trance asked, desperately hoping it wasn't.
"That is my title." Trance sighed, glad that this girl's name wasn't "237". She smiled.
"Then what is your name?"
The girl looked around a little before answering. "My title is my name."
For once, Trance couldn't find anything to say. There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence before they were saved by the entrance of the rest of the crew.
"Hello," Dylan spoke first.
"Uh, Dylan, this is 237. 237, this is Dylan Hunt, captain of the ship we're on, the Andromeda Ascendant."
"I am the connection to the ship Beloff's Tears. 237 reached out her hand and Dylan shook it firmly.
"Beloff's Tears, You mean that ship we found you on?" Beka asked.
"Yes. We tried to escape from... a bad place."
"What was this 'bad place'?" Dylan asked.
"A place where they experimented with orphans, trying to find new ways of improving... something. I'm not sure what. That's how I was connected to Beloff's Tears. One day I freed Beloff from the docking bay and directed him to jump to slipstream as soon as he was able."
"But the people who connected you to Beloff's Tears found out that you had gotten loose."
The girl nodded. "Uh huh. We barely escaped."
Beka took a step closer to the infirmary bed and brought her hand out from behind her back. Held in her hand was a plate with some steamed vegetables on it.
"I thought you might be hungry, but I knew that your stomach wouldn't be able to handle too rich food."
The girl tilted her head to the side. "I remember you. You're the woman who saved me."
Beka smiled sheepishly. "Well, I wasn't the only one. Tyr and Dylan helped too, and we never would have found you if it hadn't been for Andromeda."
Dylan turned to her. "Beka, you saved her life and you know it."
237 grabbed Beka's wrist and said in a childish whisper, "Thank you Beka."
"Is she okay enough to leave now?"
"Yep," Trance replied.
"Alright." Beka turned back to 237. "First thing we should do is give you a name. No offense, but I can't go around calling you by a number."
"A name? Like what?"
"Well, do you know of any name that you'd like?"
"No. I only know of the names that our controllers were called." She scrunched up her face. "I don't want to be called any of those names."
"Well, how about Martha?" The girl shook her head. "Carol?" Another shake. "Natalie?" The girl's eyes lit up and she nodded vigorously. "Well, Natalie, would you like to go exploring with me?"
"Yeah," she said, obviously proud of her new name. Beka picked her up off of the bed and placed her on the floor. She gripped Natalie's small hand in her own and escorted her out of the room as the rest of the crew watched.
When he was sure that Beka was out of hearing range, Harper remarked, "I've never seen Beka like anyone so quickly before."
Dylan had something else on his mind. "Andromeda, keep an eye out for any other ships. Something tells me we haven't seen the last of Natalie's controllers'."
***
It had been eight days since Natalie and her ship had been found drifting in space. So far, she had befriended each of the crew, except for perhaps Tyr. However, the Nietzchean was using some of his free time to teach Natalie self-defense should she ever meet anybody who was not as friendly as the crew of the Andromeda. After one of their lessons, Harper stopped by to take Natalie for a walk.
"I'd like to show you something. You up to it?"
"Sure!"
"Alright, close your eyes." Natalie closed her eyes and held onto his hand as he led her through Andromeda's hallways, making sure to go in circles a few times in case she had memorized her way around the ship. Finally, he stopped before a door. It opened at his approach and Harper led his little friend inside.
"You can open them now."
Natalie did as she was told and squealed with delight upon seeing Harper's surprise. There, in front of her, was Beloff's Tears looking as new as the day she had first seen him.
"I can hear him better than I could before," Natalie said, her face revealing her absolute delight. She closed her eyes again for a moment, obviously enjoying the connection to her ship.
"Yep. I've fixed him up, polished him, even made a hologram to represent him." Harper led Natalie inside and almost immediately a hologram shimmered to life in front of them. It looked like a young man wearing a High Guard uniform.
Speechless for a moment, Natalie finally got enough courage to say, "Beloff. Is that really you?"
"Well, its a holographic representation of me but yes, it's me," the hologram replied, bowing its head slightly.
Natalie turned back to Harper. "Thank you," she said, wrapping her arms around him. Harper hugged her back for a minute before pulling away.
"Listen, I'm going to go and let you two catch up on old times." Harper was about to leave when the ship rocked.
"Weapon's fire," Beloff said. He rushed his two visitors out. "Harper, let me out of here."
"Why?"
"Somebody is attacking the Andromeda. She has been protecting me for the past week, I wish to return the favor."
Harper nodded and ran out of the hanger, Natalie in tow. Once the doors to the bay were sealed, Harper said, "Uh, Andromeda, release Beloff's Tears." There was a thump as the bay doors opened and Beloff's Tears rose up gently. Its thrusters pushed it out the doors into open space. Natalie and Harper proceeded to run up to Command, where Harper was most definitely needed and they could possibly find out what was going on.
On Command, they were met with dreary faces. Harper saw why: the battle screen Andromeda used to represent what was going on showed Andromeda in the center as a blue blob and 3 red blobs covered in weapons surrounding her. A dense purple cloud to the upper right hand corner showed the position of a nebula that would shield them from sensors, but it was too far off to get to in time. As they watched, a second blue blob appeared right next to Andromeda.
"Beloff's Tears," Natalie muttered.
"Dylan." Andromeda's hologram popped into existence in front of them. "The three ships have massive amounts of weaponry. Even with Beloff's Tears fighting with us, we won't make it. Beloff's Tears has told me to make a run for slipstream while he distracts them."
"No!" Natalie screamed. "We can't just leave him here to die!"
"We don't have any other choice," Dylan said, looking at the representation of the battle. Another volley rocked the ship. "Within a few minutes, none of us will exist. Rommie, you know what to do."
Tears filled Natalie's eyes as she felt the ship prepare for slipstream. With Beka in the pilot's seat, she latched onto Harper. A few minutes went by as Beka expertly piloted them through the slipstream. However, the silence was broken when Natalie started sobbing. Harper hugged the little girl back as she desperately tried to hold back tears that had already started flowing from her eyes.
"I... can't... hear him!" she cried, each word punctuated by a heart-wrenching sob.
"I know, I know," Harper murmured, not knowing what else to say.
***
Later on that same day, Beka sat with Natalie in her quarters. Trance had felt that with the little girl as sad and lonely as she was, it would be better if she stayed with someone. And Trance, being who she is, was looking right at Beka while saying this.
Beka smiled as she relived the scene in her head. She hadn't wanted Natalie to live with her at first, but then she had seen the little girl sitting in a corner, still mourning the loss of her friend. Beka knew loss and she wasn't about to let the girl go through it alone. So here she was, sitting in her room with Natalie right beside her.
"Beka?" The sound was enough to break the trance she had been in. "When will it stop hurting?"
At first, Beka didn't know what to say but finally she decided to tell Natalie the truth. "It never really does. The pain just dulls in time, it never really goes away."
"Oh." Natalie crawled up into Beka's lap and yawned. Beka smiled and pulled a blanket over them both. She was happy for the contact since she had found herself thinking more about her father the past couple of days. Suddenly, an idea formed in her head. Her father had always sung a lullaby to her when she couldn?t sleep. Now if she could only remember the words.
"Hush little baby, don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don't sing, Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring..." She paused for a moment, aware that Dylan had entered the room after trying unsuccessfully to get her to answer the door.
"...and if that diamond ring don't shine, Mama's gonna get you some real good wine."
"You know I'm here, don't you?" he asked, his voice quiet but laughing.
"Of course," Beka replied, careful not to disturb the sleeping child in her lap. "I have eyes in the back of my head."
There was a pause. "I liked your lyrics."
"Thank you. My father could never remember the 'diamond mine' part so he always said 'real good wine' instead."
"Ah."
"?Any news on her friend?"
"None, but Andromeda still believes he could have made it to the nebula before they could catch him."
"I hope for Natalie's sake that that is what happened. I'm not sure if she's going to be able to deal with it."
"You did." Dylan moved around the couch she was sitting on and grabbed a chair. He placed in front of Beka and sat down.
"Yeah, but I was a lot older than she is and truth was I saw it coming for a long time." Dylan was silent, his outline framed by the starry backdrop. "Dylan, we're friends right?"
"Of course."
"Good. It's just that with all that has been going on lately, I realized just how few friends I have."
Dylan smiled. "Then I am glad to be among the privileged few."
They spent the next few hours in an easy, companionable silence, each thinking about the ones they had loved and lost in their lives. Beka fell asleep and Dylan took the opportunity to watch her for a moment. She seemed so... untrusting when she was awake and yet she trusted him enough to fall asleep with him in the room. He pulled the blanket up further over Beka and Natalie. He got up and left, leaving them to their peaceful slumber.
END