Don't deny the Truth

 

Chapter 1 - That Stupid Dream

Beka's Pov

It was in slow motion. Tyr was getting closer and closer. He was leaning towards me. His lips were kinda puckered so I must have puckered mine. I could feel his breathe on my cheeks. I slowly closed my eyes and then opened them again. I expected to see Tyr but it wasn't him. It was Rhade. He didn't stop moving forward and I didn't stop him I didn't want him to stop. His lips gently pressed against mine. They were soft, much, much softer that I ever imagined. Then I heard someone calling me.

"Beka........Beka........Beka!"

I woke up.

It was Andromeda that was calling me. I could see her on the view screen opposite my bed.

"Beka, Dylan wants you on Command Deck in thirty minutes."

I nodded and expected her to go away but she lingered and was looking at me kinda funny. "What?", I asked her somewhat rudely.

"Were you having a dream?"

"Why?"

Andromeda looked slightly amused. "Well..", she said, "your eyes were moving under your eyelids, you were slightly tossing, and for the oddest reason, your lips were puckered." She smiled while my face changed to a nice pinky color.

"Um....no...well... I might have been dreaming but I don't remember anything."

Andromeda didn't seem to buy it for a second but she nodded and disappeared from the view screen.

I let out a big sigh. The truth was I remember every single detail about the dream. Tyr, Rhade, that kiss that had seemed to real, so pure, but I know now was nothing but a figment of my imagination. What did this mean. I've never believed in all that crap about "dream interpreting" but it sure seemed to come into play now. Maybe I should talk to Trance about it. No, I shouldn't, she'd probably get the wrong idea. I know I didn't have feeling for Rhade. I mean I think I don't have feelings for Rhade, maybe I do.....

No! No get a grip on yourself Beka. Rhade's a Neitszchean. Nothing but a selfish, lowlife Neitszchean that is bound to betray you, Dylan and the rest of the crew. You do not have feelings for him, period end of discussion.

I finally got up to get dressed.

When I got there I realized that I was the last one there and everyone was waiting for me. everyone was in there usual places. I looked up at Rhade. He was looking very good in the tight T-shirt he was wearing. As I passed him I noticed that he smelled like soap. It was very comforting and I started to wonder what he would smell like after a good workout. Probably strong and muscular, if you good smell those things. Wait a minute. You are so not thinking about how he smells. Get a grip on yourself Valentine. You do not, I repeat not have feelings for him, understand. I snapped out of my thought, took my place at the pilot console and mutter a "Sorry I'm late". Dylan nodded and started.

"We have received a distress cal from Terra Omega..."

"Where?!" Harper asked in his usual boisterous way.

"Terra Omega," Dylan continued, "We've never heard of it because it was cloaked for hundreds of years. It turns out that the device was put into use by its ancestors to protect its people from the outside world. Its inhabitants were very aware that there was other life in the universe but we just didn't know that they existed. Also, it seems that the device has broken down and they sent out this distress signal to any ships in the vicinity that included all this information. We're finding it difficult to return their message so I want to just go there. And I want to make sure that the Triumvirs don't find out about this, for obvious reasons." I interrupted.

"Wait, if this planet was cloaked wouldn't someone have run into it or something. I mean, a planet is pretty big and if you can't see it, you might run into it." Dylan nodded.

"I know, I've been wondering the same question but at the moment we don't know. Hopefully we'll learn more once we get there." I had another question.

"What if this is dangerous, I mean you seem pretty intent on just jumping into this thing without knowing anything about this planet or its people."

"I understand the risk but these people need our help and there has been no evidence that they are dangerous. Now, they sent a map. We can reach their planet by slipstream. Let's go." I sighed. We went into slipstream and got there with relatively no problem. The planet would have been beautiful, if I didn't hate all planets. It was the richest shade of red mixed perfectly with orange and green here and there.

"Hey Dylan", Harper said, "someone's trying to contact us, they want to talk to you."

"On screen."

The person that came on screen was this really pretty red head. Her hair was curly and down to a little past her shoulder blades. It was clipped behind her ears. She had a little bump that started in the middle of her eyes that extended over her left eye and stopped at her temple. I assumed that this was an alien feature. She was slim but curvy and had really nice violet eyes. I kinda envied her. I knew that Harper was already thinking of a cheesy pickup line.

"Hello, I'm Yliza Cartangio. I am the head of Terra Omega. I assume that you are here to answer out distress call."

"Yes", Dylan replied, somewhat happily, "My name is Dylan Hunt, captain of the Andromeda. We received your distress call, but we do have a few questions. I was wondering...."

"If you could come down, yes. There is a lot to explain. Please come. I have never met and alien before."

"Okay we'll arrive there on a ship, near your location. Hunt out." She disappeared from the screen. "Okay," Dylan said, clapping his hands together, "Harper, Rhade, Beka, you're with me. Trance and Rommie, stay here for the moment. Now where is she on the planet?"

"Here.", Rommie said and she pointed to a area on a map of the planet. It seemed really close to the water. I hate the ocean.

"OK, lets bring the Eureka Maru down here." He pointed on the map. I nodded and we left command deck. Harper was practically drooling over this Yliza person. Rhade didn't really show any emotion, as usual. I wondered what he was thinking. We never talked anymore. Well, we never talked to begin with, but Rhade had made an effort, then I tried to rip out his heart. I know why I did it now, but there is still tension between us. Maybe that's why I dreamed about him, because I felt guilty for not trusting him? I forced myself to believe that, but even then I knew it wasn't true.

Chapter 2 – Yliza Cartiango

Dylan, Harper, Rhade and I headed for the Maru. Harper was yaking about women the whole flight there. Rhade kept teasing him and they started to throw insults at one another.

It was kinda cute, like they were brothers and there is a really cute dimple in Rhade's right cheek when he sarcastically smiles. Wait, did I just think that Rhade is cute. I must be sleep deprived.

We landed where Dylan had instructed earlier and when we got out of the plane we were met by Yliza Cartiango and two others. Yliza was wearing a very tight shirt and leather pants to match. Her red hair contrasted nicely against the black. The two people behind her were wearing what must have been uniforms consisting of gray cargo pants and a gray shirt that had purple lining. Yliza stepped forward and extended her right hand at Dylan.

"Hello, welcome to Terra Omega. I know you have many questions so lets begin."

Dylan took her hand and shook it gently. He nodded and said.

"This is my first officer Beka Valentine," he motioned to me, "my engineer Mr. Harper and my weapons officer Telemachus Rhade." He motioned to both of them. I noticed that Yliza's eyes seem to hesitate at Rhade. My eyes grew narrower, I don't know why. She smiled and nodded.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. I am the first of my species in at least 700 years to encounter outsiders but lets discuss that inside." Yliza nodded at a building behind her. She turned on heel and motioned at us to follow her. We followed her into the building and she led us into a room with a circular table. We everyone sat down. I was to the right of Dylan and to the left of Harper. Dylan sat to the right of Yliza and Rhade sat at her left. I was pretty much across the table from her. She started to talk.

"I'll start with a history of my planet. 700 years ago, my ancestors were very technologically advance. They had slipstream, virtual reality and so on. We were very good terms with the other planets in our system."

I was confused. When we looked there were no other planets in this system that supported life. She soon explained that.

"However, the other planets were warriors, fighters. They would have quarrels with one another often. My planet managed to avoid them but it became very difficult. Soon they were at war. My ancestors wanted nothing to do with this, so they built this cloaking device. It took ten years. They cloaked out planet so no one else would bother us. They other planets soon destroyed each other. I believe that all that survived fled and went to other planets to start new colonies. Our ancestors taught us about outsiders and what to do if we were to meet them. Also, they stopped technologically advancing because no one desired to. We didn't need anymore technology. But now the cloaking device has malfunctioned and we don't know how to fix it. We'd like you to help to recloak us."

Dylan nodded, trying to look calm but you if you knew him well enough you knew that he was still trying to process everything.

"Um, well we would be glad to help you repair this device, my engineer is one of the best," Harper grinned, "but I do wonder, what would be the point?"

"Excuse me?" Yliza asked

"Well," Dylan continued what would be the point of recloaking. We already know you're here."

Yliza clearly looked like she was about to ask another favor, which she did.

"We were hoping that you wouldn't tell anyone about us."

"Okay," Dylan said after a few long seconds, "we won't tell anyone about you're planet..." Rhade interrupted.

"Excuse me, Captain but Ms. Cartiango, even if we don't tell anyone about this planet, the cloaking device might take a while to fix, what if someone comes by?" Yliza looked at him for a moment and said, "I hadn't really thought of that. I guess we can address the issue if and when a ship locates us. Hopefully it can be resolved non-violently."

Rhade spoke again, "But we can't discount the possibility that someone might find this planet and not be as secretive as us."

Yliza looked strait at him and he looked strait at her. I swear I could see little sparks of electricity go between them. Yliza spoke, "Well we are not equipped with any weapons. I suppose we will have to just handle that situation if it presents itself." Rhade did not look happy, then again he rarely did anyway.

Dylan finally said something, "My officer is just concerned that in order to stop this planet from being discovered by someone else, you will ask us to attack them, something we will not do."

"I assure you captain, we won't ask you to do anything that you cannot do. And I understand your officer's concern." Yliza glanced at Rhade and then looked back at Dylan. She smiled, "We appreciate everything that you can do for us. Now let me show you to the device." She stood and turned towards a door at the far side of the room. We all followed her into a much larger room. In the middle of it was an octagonal object that was at least twenty feet high. It was twenty feet wide too, and it was black and green. She pointed at it and said,

"This is the cloaking device. Hopefully you can make sense of it all."

Harper stepped forward to get a good look at it. He took a good twenty minutes and during those twenty Rhade and Yliza had a conversation. I couldn't really make out most of it but I think that they were talking about the planet and how Yliza became the leader. It turns out that every now and then the current leader is challenged to a intellectual "duel." Whoever won the duel became leader. She challenged the former leader only six months ago. Rhade seemed to listen very intently. You'd think that he wouldn't really like her after what happened at the meeting, but he seemed to like her, a lot actually.... Wait, I don't care who Rhade likes. He could get married to Dylan for all I care. Harper had finished his inspection and decided that he could star on it tomorrow, it was getting late anyway. Yliza offered places for us to stay, but Dylan told her that we could sleep on the Andromeda. Rhade looked ever so slightly disappointed.

But then Dylan asked Yliza, "Ms. Cartiango, would you like to have a tour of the ship?" Yliza's eyes widened and she nodded, "Yes, I'd like that very much, no one has been off this planet in years."

Dylan smiled and we started walking to the Maru. Rhade and Yliza were talking again. Harper commented every now and then and he looked slightly annoyed that Yliza seemed to enjoy talking to Rhade more than to him. I had hardly talked the whole time we were down there. I guess I was too entranced in my thoughts, or one thought I should say.

Well anyway we got back to the Andromeda and Dylan started to show Yliza around. Rhade and Harper followed them. I happen to be going the same way they were so I followed a little behind. Rhade always glanced at Yliza and I always noticed this. It started to annoy me, but then I arrived at my quarters. I got ready for sleep and got into my bed. I must have laid there for hours just looking at the ceiling.

I finally drifted off to sleep but it was uneasy, I tossed and turned so many times that when I woke up, my head was at the foot of the bed and my feet were at the head. This was great. I got up and took a shower. I headed to Command deck. On my way there I passed by Obs deck and when I was there I passed by Rhade.

Only it wasn't just Rhade.

Yliza was there.

And they were kissing.

Chapter 3 – Realization

(Beka’s PoV).

I froze. My eyes widened. My mouth dropped. I quickly turned away and headed for command. Rhade and Yliza were kissing. I wonder what happen last night after I went to sleep. I don’t want to know. That no good, pretty alien idiot, I bet she talked him up, lured him in. Stop, hold on, I don’t care who Rhade dates. I don’t care if he dates some no good, little alien scum. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t!

Maybe I do....

This is not good, not good at all. I can’t have feelings for Rhade, I don’t have feelings for Rhade. This is just not possible. I hate Neitszcheans, there selfish, dirty, low life.... but then again there was, Tyr.

But Rhade? No, I have no feelings for Rhade. Than why were you jealous when you saw him kissing Yliza back there?, a little voice inside me asked. I really don’t know the answer to that one.

It took me a moment to realize that I had reached command deck. I took my place and started my watch. Dylan arrived a few minutes later.

“Good you’re here already. I needed to talk with everyone today. It turns out that when we were done with the tour it was a little too late for Yliza to return to the planet and plus we were all tired, so she spent the night in guest quarters. I was wondering if you saw her?” My eyes narrowed to slits.

“No.. I... haven’t.”, I said very slowly. Dylan looked slightly taken aback. Just then Rhade walked in. Yliza wasn’t with him. Smart move. Dylan asked Rhade the same question and he said that he saw her and that she was on her way. He would know. Yliza walked in a few minutes later. I glared at her. No one noticed.

“Oh, good, you’re here.” Dylan said when Yliza walked in. I noticed that Rhade and her didn’t even look at each other. Another smart move. Dylan continued, “I wanted to go down to the planet and start trying to make repairs to the device. Rhade and my engineer Harper will come with us.” Yliza nodded. She seemed eager that Rhade was coming with. This made my stomach do something somewhat uncomfortable.

“Dylan, should I come along?” I asked innocently.

“No,” Dylan said, “I need you on command, well let’s go. Harper’s already on the Maru.” They left, leaving only me on the command deck. Rommie and Trance came a little later. We started out watch. It was getting boring. I wasn’t in a very good mood. Trance and Rommie picked this up easily.

“Beka,” Rommie said after an hour of complete silence, “is there something bothering you?”

“No”, I grunted, pretending to be busy with my work.

“This is about Rhade and Yliza isn’t it?”, Rommie asked, eyeing me suspiciously. I quickly looked at her. I glanced at Trance. She was looking at us with curiosity sparkling in your eyes.

“Rhade and who?” I asked, trying to dismiss the two like nothing was wrong. It didn’t work.

“Rhade and Yliza, they seem to be close.”

“I don’t care if they’re close.”

“I never said you did.”

“Then what are you accusing me of?”

“Nothing. It just seemed that something was bothering you and I know that you saw Rhade and Yliza earlier this mourning.” I heard Trance let out a small “Oh...” behind me. I ignored her.

“Why would me seeing Rhade with someone bother me?” I asked Rommie trying to look like I couldn’t care less.

“As if you didn’t know.”, Rommie smiled back at me.

“What is that suppose to mean?”

“Oh, come on Beka, me and Trance already know, you don’t have to hide it.”

“Hide what?”

Trance spoke, “Your feelings for Rhade.” I looked at her with what I hoped was a disgusted look on my face.

“The only feelings I have for Rhade is pure disgust.”

“Beka,”, Rommie said to me, a very amused look on her face, “I’ve been watching you for months now. When Rhade speaks to you your breathing increases, so does your heart rate and your cheeks turn a light pink. You also start to sweat, not a lot but you still do. When your on command deck you always glance at him. When Dylan puts you on missions together.......”

Rommie went on. I kinda tuned her out. All of this couldn’t be right. I can’t have feelings Rhade, it’s utterly impossible. I hate him, well I don’t hate him, I at least like him. I mean, I enjoy some missions we have together. He can be funny, sometimes. He’s really good at talking, sometimes I can listen for hours. He has a nice smile, and I drown in his eyes. He smells really good too.............oh my god.

I love Rhade.

Chapter 4 – I Can’t Believe I Love Him

My mouth must have hit the floor. How had this happened. I had done everything to avoid this. Another Neitszchean, this must be a record. I looked at Rommie. I looked at Trance. Rommie looked amused and Trance looked concerned.

“How could I have let this happen...how long did you guys know?”

“A pretty long time..” Rommie replied.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!?”, I asked completely confused.

“We thought you knew!” I took in a few breaths. This was not going to be easy. Rommie and Trance were just staring at me and it was getting on my nerves. Finally, Rommie returned to her panel. So did Trance. I returned to mine too. After a few minutes of more silence and total confusion, at least on my part, Rommie spoke up.

“You know if it helps, Rhade has feelings for you too.”

I turned to look at her so hard that I cramped my neck.

“What?!?”, I asked as I rubbed my sprained muscle.

“Yeah, he has had feelings for you for a while now. I was surprised that you didn’t notice, but you most likely did and refused to believe it.”

“Okay, so if he has feelings for me then why is he kissing Yliza Cartiango behind people’s backs?”

“We’ll I suppose he is trying to move on but I think that you should be asking him about that.”

“Yeah, like that will ever happen.”

“Why not?”, Trance asked joining our conversation.

“Because,” I replied, frustrated, “if he has found someone else and it’s not my place to interfere.”

“Beka, he doesn’t really love her. He is attracted to her yes, but she is not the one he was destined for. You are. This has been a long time coming, ever since you and Gaheris.....” she trailed off.

“What?” I asked truly baffled. All I knew about Gaheris Rhade was that he betrayed Dylan 300 years ago, I hadn’t even met him.

“Oh, nothing, it doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that you must tell Rhade how you feel.” I shook my head.

“No, no, no...and you two will not tell him either.”

“But Beka...”

“NO!” Trance and Rommie looked at me a minute longer and then returned to their work.

After my watch, I returned to my quarters and engaged privacy mode. I just laid on my bed, staring at the ceiling, breathing in and out, in and out. It seemed like hours had passed when I heard someone knocking at my door. I expected them to go away but the just kept knocking. I finally gave up and told them to come in.

I sat up. “Rhade...what are you doing here?”, said when I saw that the tall Nietzschean walk through my door.

“Rommie and Trance wanted me to come here, they didn’t tell me why. Are you okay, Beka? You seem somewhat......distant.”

“Oh, I’m fine, just peachy.”

“I’m detecting some hostility in your voice.”

“No, I’m fine..... really I am......I’m just a little tired.”

“Okay, well did you need me?”

“No, I don’t need you anymore. Um.....what happened down on the planet?”

“Nothing worth mentioning, Harper just looked over the device. He thinks that he can fix it.”

“That’s good...”

“Well, if that’s all, I should leave now.”

“Okay.” And with that he left. I plopped onto my back again and sighed deeply. I continued staring at the ceiling. Then I decided to go to Obs deck. I got out of bed and started walking there. I was about to turn a corner when I heard people taking in whispers. I stopped and leaned against the wall to listen.

“Do you love him?” I heard Trance ask.

“I don’t see why that’s any of your business.” I knew that, voice it was so familiar.....wait that was Yliza.

“I just don’t want to see Rhade hurt.” Trance was speaking to Yliza.

“I assure you that I wouldn’t hurt Rhade now excuse me I have to go.” I heard her footsteps as she walked the other way.

“Trance! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked coming out from my hiding place. But when I turned the corner she wasn’t there. creepy I tell you, just plain creepy. But this was something I had come to expect with Trance. I continued my walk to Obs. Deck but I was interrupted about halfway there.

“Beka you are needed in Med deck.” I nodded at her and turned to go to Med deck. When I got there, I fully expected Trance to be there or someone like that but as I entered the room I realized that it was empty. Well, almost empty.

“Hello..” I heard someone say behind me after a few minutes of searching Med deck. I turned around to see Yliza.

“Hi....” I said in a way that it almost sounded as a question.

“You’re probably wondering why I asked you here.”

“Yeah, I was kinda wondering.”

“We need to talk.”

“Okay.....about what.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“No, I’m absolutely clueless.”

“Rhade talks about you a lot you know.” Now this made me go a little pink.

“I don’t care if Rhade talks about me a lot.”

“Of coarse you care, you probably enjoy him talking about you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I know how you two feel for each other.”

“Excuse me” She had me there, but how could she know how I feel about him, she had only met me a day or two ago.

“I know that you love him, but I love him too. I just thought that I’d let you know that you have a little competition. Enjoy the rest of your day.” Then she gave me a really fake smile and strutted out the door. I watched her walk out. Wow she was really crazy. And what did she mean by “competition”. Did she think that I was gonna fight for Rhade?

Well, I guess she was right.

I wasn’t going to let that scum end up with Rhade.

Chapter 5 – Stupid Beka, You Had To Open Your Freak…..

I left Med. deck in search for Rhade. I wasn’t going to tell him how I feel. I was just going to tell him what a skank Yliza was. I mean, come on. She just threatened me for a battle for Rhade. I battle that I was going to win, but a battle none the less. I doubt she told him about our conversation, about how I feel. Maybe he already knows.... Ugh, this was too much. Before I realized where my feet were leading me, I was at his door. I knocked a few timed before he answered. I think that he was getting ready for bed because he was only wearing a tight blue sleeveless shirt and black shorts. You could see his muscles through his shirt. He had a six pack. This made me blush.

“Beka, can I help you?” I remembered why I was there.

“Yes Rhade, you can help me. I just have one question to ask you. What do you see in her?”

“Who?”

“Please, like you don’t know who I’m talking about. Yliza, what do you see in Yliza?” His expression hardly changed. And by hardly, I mean it changed a little, enough for me to know that he was uncomfortable. Good.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh please, I know Rhade, saw you two kissing in Obs. Deck.”

“Oh.... you saw.”

“Yes Rhade, I saw and I just want to know what you see in her.”

“Well Beka, she’s very intelligent....”

I snorted, “Yeah, right, whatever.” Rhade leaned against the doorframe.

“Yes Beka, she is. Why do you care so much?” I thought fast. He couldn’t find out about my feelings for him.

“Because........ because, she’s an idiot. She doesn’t deserve you.” Oh, great Beka. Nice going. Both of Rhade’s eyebrows went up. He shifted his weight.

“And who do I deserve?” he asked, dead serious, not even a hint sarcasm in his voice.

“I...I...I have to go.”, I managed to mutter right before I practically flew back to my quarters. I jumped onto my bed and screamed into my pillow. Someone started to knock. It was probably Rhade and I couldn’t face him anymore. I had already made a fool of my self. The person kept on knocking and knocking and knocking. They didn’t stop. I knew that I was going to have to face him eventually. I didn’t want to see them, especially if it was Rhade. I mean it had to be Rhade, who else would knock that long? I took in a few deep, deep breaths and opened the door. I expected to see Rhade.

But I didn’t.

Instead I saw Yliza

And as soon as I opened the door,

She punched me.

Chapter 6 – The Trip To Med Deck

I staggered back I few steps. I put my hand to my right cheek where she punched me. She was strong! I couldn’t believe how much my cheek stung, but I didn’t have time to really think about it because she tried to punch me again. This time I ducked and managed to kick her in the stomach. She didn’t even budge. Well this was great; this girl was practically indestructible. She somehow managed to flip me onto my back and then she pounced on me. I don’t have another word to describe it; she just pounced on me. I kneed her in the stomach and somehow pushed her off of me. I stood up and pulled her forward. I kneed her in the stomach but then she grabbed my hair. That’s right she grabbed my hair, how girly is that? She pushed me onto my bed and started to choke me. Now this was not good. Lucky for me, at least I think lucky for me; someone pulled her off of me right before I passed out. Too bad that person was Rhade.

“Yliza, what the hell were you doing to her?!?” She breathed in and out. Rhade had her by the collar. I rolled over onto my side gasping for breath.

“That bitch just tried to kill me.”, I managed to stagger, “I told you that she was no good.” Yliza seemed to take this personally.

“I told you to stay away!”, she yelled at me, moving forward. Rhade kept her back, “You thought that I wasn’t serious, that I was weak. You thought that I couldn’t do anything to you! You thought that I wasn’t going to keep my promise, that I wasn’t going to fight! Well look at you know, you were but an inch away from death!”

“Yliza, what are you talking about?” Rhade asked, clearly baffled.

“I told her to stay away, and what does she do, she goes right up to you and start talking you up.”

“What? You told her to stay away from me?”

“That’s right, I know about you two. Stop hiding it. I know, and I told her to stay away. But she didn’t listen. She doesn’t deserve you, I do!” We’ll this was creepy, that’s almost exactly what I said to Rhade earlier. But I couldn’t worry about that now. I had to convince Rhade that whatever she said wasn’t true. I slowly stood up.

“Rhade, there’s obviously something wrong with Yliza. She must be sick or something. We should get her to Med. deck.”

“I’m not sick, you’d do anything to get rid of me would you, bitch!” Rhade grabbed her around the waist while she tried to claw her way to my head. I stepped back a few paces so she couldn’t reach out and grab me.

“Yes, I think that we should bring her to Med. deck.” He lifted her up off the ground and dragged her out of my room. I followed them all the way to Med. deck. It would have been hilarious if I wasn’t so freaked out. Everyone turned their heads from their work when we passed by. Yliza tried everything to get Rhade to let go of her, I thought she would have liked being in his very muscular arm, his amazingly strong, muscular arms.....hold on Beka, let’s not go there. Anyway, she tried everything. She kicked, she wiggled, she punched, I even think she tried to bite him. We eventually arrived at Med. deck. Trance was there cleaning up the place. When we walked in she immediately rushed over like a gust if wind and a look of deep concern came over the features of her golden face.

“What’s wrong Rhade?” she asked him as he tried to get Yliza to stay on one of the beds. It wasn’t working.

“There’s something wrong with her, she keeps saying that Beka and I should stop hiding our feelings for each other. We think that she’s delirious.” Trance nodded. Yliza wiggled in Rhade’s arms.

“No! I’m not delirious! Stop it! Put me down!” She wiggled again, but Rhade just held her tighter.

“I can put her to sleep and look over her if that’s what you want.” Trance said to us after a slight pause. Rhade nodded. Trance turned around to get the tranquilizer and she briefly glanced at me. That glanced said everything that she needed to say. It said that I should just tell Rhade that Yliza is not crazy and I do have feelings for him before it is too late and everything turned into a bigger mess than it already is. I responded to that glance with a cold stone look that said, “Yeah right, in your dreams.”

She returned and had a somewhat lethal looking object in her hand. She moved towards Yliza. Yliza screamed and furiously clawed at Rhade. Her long nails ended up scratching his cheek. Deep, red blood oozed from the wound. Trance swiftly injected Yliza and she slumped over, mouth and eyes still slightly open. Rhade laid her down on the bed that Trance had set up. Trance started her inspection. Rhade stepped back and put his hand to his wound. Blood ended up and his fingers. I looked around and found a gauze clothy type thing. I took the cloth and walked over to Rhade. I started dabbing his cheek with it. He reached up to take the cloth and our fingers touched. It took a second or two for me to pull away. God, I was sad. An uncomfortable silence followed. I gave in.

“Well, I’ll go now, I need to get some sleep.”

“Wait Beka, we need to talk.” This was peachy, nothing that follows ‘we need to talk’ is ever good. He pulled me over to the corner of Med. deck farthest away from Trance. I had a feeling that she would hear anyway.

“Okay, Rhade what do ‘we need to talk’ about?” I said as sarcastically as I could in the current situation. You’d be freaking out too if the man that you loved just said ‘we need to talk’.

“Beka, there is a reason that I showed up at your room when I did.”

“Oh, is there.”

“Beka, I’m serious. I wanted to see you after the...the conversation we had outside my quarters.” Oops, of coarse he wanted to talk about that.

“Oh....Rhade listen..” He put a finger to my lips. This was new.

“Shhh....let me finish. I wanted to tell you that....” I moved his hand away from my mouth and interrupted him.

“Rhade, I don’t want you to misunderstand what.....” I wasn’t allowed to finish because something pressed up against my lips.

It wasn’t his finger or his hand this time.

It was his lips.

Chapter 7 – I Kissed Back, duh….

I kissed back. Well what did you expect me to do? Here I was being kissed be Telemachus Rhade, the man I apparently love, what else was I suppose to do. I didn’t really care that Trance could see everything. I slowly wrapped my arms around his neck and I felt him put his arms around my waist and pull me closer, if that was possible. I ran my hand through his very gelled hair. It was very thick and soft. His hands ran up and down my back. I slowly pulled away.

“Um.... wow, that was new.”

“Beka, I just want to say that I--” He was interrupted.

“Rhade,” Trance called over in concern lined in her voice, “I think that you guys should come over here.” We rushed over to Trance who was standing over Yliza’s bed. Yliza looked very peaceful with her eyes shut and the gently rise and fall of her chest. I almost liked her this way. I looked up at Trance and waited for her to give the news. She looked back at me and gave a look that screamed with amusement. I gave her a ‘golden’ smile (okay cheesy joke I know).

Rhade looked down at Yliza. I could see something in his eyes. It was.... concern? I wasn’t sure. Was her still attracted to her? Jealousy suddenly squirmed in my gut. My concentration was broken when Trance spoke.

“Um, well there’s nothing wrong with her, physically. There is nothing that supports that she is mentally unstable, but I did find something in her cerebellum. There is a growth not found in most humanoid species. This growth is unique to only one type of humanoid. Beka, Rhade, Yliza’s a telepath.”

Chapter 8 – Telepath?

"A telepath, like she can read minds?" I asked Trance after a few seconds of stunned silence. She sighed lightly.

"Um, well no. First of all, the mind is not like a book that can be opened or closed for anyone to peer in. It is very complicated. Second of all, there are many types of telepaths. There are those who can hear spoken thoughts, those who can see visual thoughts, those who can see or hear memories and many, many more. It's very hard to know what type of telepath Yliza and, I assume, her species is. She could even be an empath or telekinetic. The only way we'll ever find out is if we wake her up." Trance looked down at her with a look that could only be described as pitiful disgust.

I looked up at Rhade. His brow was furrowed and his arms were crossed in front of him. He looked back at me and nodded. I nodded back.

"Okay Trance," I said as I turned to the pretty gold alien, "I guess we should wake her up."

"Okay, but we should inform Dylan. I think he's sleeping right now. Andromeda, can you tell Dylan to come down here now." The olive skinned woman appeared on the view screen.

"Dylan is on his way."

I stood there looking at Yliza. God, I hated her. Dylan appeared surprisingly fast. He took one look at Yliza and his face turned red.

"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" I explained quickly.

"We thought that Yliza was unstable after, um....something happened so we brought her to Trance. Trance found something in her brain that suggests that she's a type of telepath." Dylan looked confused to say the least. After a few seconds of silence, Dylan spoke.

"Um..what did she do?"

"She tried to kill me."

"Why?"

"Ah, well, long story." I wasn't ready to tell Dylan, not yet. I thought that he would find out eventually. Unfortunately, Dylan had other ideas.

"Beka, tell me why she tried to kill you." I looked over my shoulder at Rhade. He slowly nodded at me. This sucked. I sighed deeply.

"Yliza was trying to kill me because," I couldn't tell him the whole truth, I just couldn't, so I told him part of the truth, "...because, she had this weird idea that me and Rhade had feelings for each other." I finished quickly. Dylan narrowed his eyes. I could tell that he was thinking about it. Rhade tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to face him.

"Beka, tell him the truth, the whole truth. He's going to find out eventually." He whispered to me.

"I know that. I'll, we'll tell him later, in private."

"Fine." I patted his cannon arm.

"Don't worry about it. I know his trust means a lot to you. It means a lot to me too. Let's just worry about Yliza." He took in a deep breath that I took for an 'okay'. And I turned around. Dylan had moved over to Yliza's bed and was looking down at her. I moved over to the bed. He was talking to Trance.

"Well Trance, I guess that you should wake her up." Trance nodded and injected her with something. She woke up not at all happy.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" She tried to move but it turns out that Trance had strapped her down at her wrists, waist, and ankles. Well, I took it as my duty to inform her why she was here.

"Oh, would you shut up Yliza! You're here because we know that you're a telepath. Get over yourself." I was standing to her right. She turned to me and gave me a very evil smile.

"Yes, I am a telepath. I can hear you're spoken thoughts, and I can hear what you say, wherever you are. It takes a discipline mind to sort out all the voices and focus on one, but in you're species case it was very easy. That's how I new Beka. I heard you're thoughts, you contemplating you're feelings. I even heard your conversation with him, and that's how I knew that you hadn't listened to my warning. What a fool." She just smirked at me. Her body was still tense in the constraints but it had stopped struggling.

Well, this was very embarrassing. I continued to look at Yliza, pretending that I didn't see Dylan looking at me and Rhade, who was behind me. All of a sudden, the strap that was holding Yliza's right arm burst off. There's no other word for it, it just burst off. She clawed for me. I felt Rhade quickly pull me back by my shoulders. She continue to wave her right arm in my direction, but stopped abruptly when Trance knocked her out again. Rhade kept his arms on my shoulders while I just continued to stare at Yliza. His grip tightened. I looked up at him and I saw that he was giving Dylan a very serious, no business type look. I looked at Dylan and I saw that he was giving him, us, the exact same look. Then he spoke.

"Care to tell me what the hell is going on?"

Chapter 9 – Shut Up Dylan, I don’t have to tell you.

Well, I was freaked and started mumbling, “Um, well....nothing’s going on, um, nothing important at least, um ...what are you talking about, um, yeah, nothing Dylan, yeah, um, sure.. “

“What the hell are you talking about Beka?” Dylan finally got out between my mumbling. Rhade hadn’t let go of my shoulders. It was like he didn’t want me to take on Dylan on my own. It was really sweet. I looked at Dylan.

“Okay Dylan. I’ll tell you. Well it started with us meeting Yliza. As you can tell, Rhade and Yliza seemed to really, um, hit it off.” I could hear Rhade behind me. Trance was looking at us, she seemed worried. I continued. “well I guess that I have had, um, feelings for.....for.....” Rhade finished for me.

“Dylan, I care a great deal for Beka and I believe that she care for me too. I love her Dylan.” I started breathing real fast, and my heart was pounding so hard that I was afraid that it would pop out of my chest. He loved me. He said that he loved me and it was the greatest thing anyone had ever said. I took my right hand and put it to my left shoulder where his hand was. I held tight. Dylan was at a lost for words, it was quite amusing.

“Ah...when....when did this...” He trailed off, I could tell that he had never had two of his officers involved with one another. Trance spoke before Rhade or I could though.

“Dylan, does it matter really? They’re in love, that’s all that matters.” I couldn’t put it better myself. I tightened the grip I had on Rhade’s hand. If he was a human he’d be screaming from the pain by now but he was a Nietzschean so I don’t think he really felt it.

“Okay, I give you guys my.....blessing.” Wait Dylan gave us his blessing? What was he, my father or something? But Rhade seemed to take it as a good thing because Rhade smiled and said, “Thank you, I’ll treat her well.” He’ll treat me well, well he better cause if he doesn’t I’ll get Rommie to kick his ass, which I know she can fully do. Well anyway Dylan started again.

“Now on to more pressing matters. What are we going to do with Yliza. It seems that she is quite unstable. (ha ha, sorry I took this from you Kath) I think that it would be best to return her to the planet and tell them that she tried to attack one of my crew...”

“Damn right....”

“What was that Rhade?”

“Nothing.”

“Well, should we return her like this or should we wake her up and bring her in restrained?” I answered Dylan’s question.

“It would probably be better if we returned her awake. They might get somewhat suspicious.” Dylan nodded and he moved towards Trance.

“Okay so we should cuff her and then wake her up.” Trance muttered an “okay” and she walked off and returned with silver restraints. She and Dylan unhooked Yliza from the bed and they put her hands behind her back and tied them together. Then Trance took the device and injected her with it. She woke up. when her eyes opened she automatically realized that she was restrained. She didn’t like that. She screamed at the top of her lungs.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Let me go you assholes! You have no idea who you’re trying to mess with! I can change everything that you believed in! I’m that strong!” I tuned her out until she said that bit about changing everything that I believed in. as Dylan was dragging her out of Med. deck I stopped them.

“Wait, stop.”, I moved towards them, “Yliza what was that you said about changing everything that I believed?” she turned to me, hands behind her back. She grinned wickedly at me.

‘Oh, yes, I can. It may not be everything you believed in but I can change a lot of things that you believe. I really hope that you and Rhade enjoy you sad existence together, bitch.” And with that Dylan dragged her off. I, of coarse, followed. I was so going down to the planet and wishing Yliza a great life in the loony bin that I hoped they put her in. Rhade was behind me. I liked that he was behind me. It made me feel more secure, protected. It was a good feeling. Rhade ended up at my side because of his large strides and my slightly shorter ones.

“Beka may I ask you a question?”

“Yeah, of coarse.”

“How long?” I didn’t need to ask what he meant by that. He wanted to know how long I had felt this way for him.

“Um, I’m not sure actually. You’d have to ask Rommie or Trance.”

“Why would I ask one of them?”

“Let’s just say that they know me better than I know myself.”

“Ah...” I had to ask him back.

“And you Rhade, how long?” “A few months now, there’s no exact moment.”

“Oh....” We were still following Dylan down the corridors until Holo-Rommie appeared.

“Dylan”, she said, “I think that you should come to Command Deck immediately. Bring Yliza with you, you’ll probably want to talk to her.”

“On my way.” He turned right and I caught a glimpse of Yliza. The look on her face I can only describe as pure sadistic amusement. This freaked me out. Rhade and I turned right also. We arrived at Command deck where Rommie was at her station. When we entered she turned to face us.

“Dylan I think you should see this.” She pushed a few buttons on her control panel and the planet popped up.

Or the area of space where the planet was suppose to be popped up.

Because it only showed stars and black, no planet.

Chapter 10 – So The Planet wasn’t real.

“Rommie, where did the planet go?” I asked after a few seconds had passed.

“I don’t know, one minute it’s there, the next minute it’s not. There’s nothing else I can tell you.” This was impossible.

“Rommie, a planet does not just disappear.”

“Well, I can’t explain it.” Then I heard someone laughing. I turned to see Yliza doubling over.

“Hahahaha....so easy, so amazingly easy to fool. Idiots, idiots I tell you....hahahahaha.....so weak, there minds are so easy to play with..hahahaha....” I rushed over to her.

“What the hell are you muttering about?” I asked as I got closer. She stood up tall, as if she were immensely proud about something.

“I can’t believe that you thought that it was all real. You are pathetic.” She smirked. I grabbed the front of her shirt with my right hand and pulled her forward so she was only about three inches away from my face.

“Are you telling me that all of this was fake, that you controlled all of this?” I hissed at her. She replied with that smug look still on her face.

“Yes.”

That was the last straw. She had tried to steal Rhade from me, she threatened me with a death match, and now this. I didn’t like this chick at all. So I released my grip from her shirt and I punched her. A lot of things happened at once. Rhade grabbed me at the arm and pulled me back, Yliza toppled over but didn’t fall because Dylan was still holding on to her arms, and Dylan screamed, “Beka, stop!”. Well he didn’t scream just kind of yelled it because Dylan is a screaming kind of person. I didn’t stop though, I reached for her again but Rhade had grabbed me around the waist and lifted me from the ground. I screamed at her.

“Who the hell do you think you are?!? You can’t mess with people’s minds like that! And how did you manage to manage to fool us like that?!?” Rhade turned so that I ended up screaming most of this over his shoulder. He put me down and turned me around so that I was facing him. He grabbed me shoulders, this was happening a lot now.

“Beka, try to calm down. Were not going to get anything out of her if you knock her out. Okay?” I looked up at him. This was so not fair, he had such an advantage against me, with those deep, deep pools of eyes. He rubbed my shoulders.

“Just try to relax.” I nodded.

“Awwwwwww, look at them, they are sooooo cute.” I heard Yliza sarcastically say at us. “What’s he telling you, that he’ll love you forever? That he won’t ever let anything happen to you? How sad.” This pissed me off but I choose to pretend that I didn’t hear it. Dylan spoke to relieve the tension.

“Yliza, explain to me what you did with the planet?”

“There was no planet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There was never a planet, it was all in your mind.”

“What else was only in our minds?”

“A lot of things.”

“Care to tell me what they are?”

Chapter 11 – She knows, trust us she knows

“What’s fake and what’s real, hmmm.....” Yliza said as if she was pondering what to have for lunch. (BLT or Turkey sandwich?). I started to breath heavily and I felt heat rise into my face.

“Beka...” Rhade whispered warningly when he saw my fists clenched into little balls. I breathed deeply and I could feel the heat go down a little, just a little. Yliza continued her little conversation with Dylan.

“Well, nothing is real. Okay, not nothing. You’re real, the ship is real, your emotions are real. Yep, Beka, don’t worry, he’s real.” She smiled a really cheesy smile at me. She continued her little speech, she seemed very willing to give information up.

"Yes, I brought you little people here, I get bored very easily. I need something to entertain myself and what better than little toys. Little toys that talk, react, and...love one another. It really is quite lame how easy your species trusted me and my fake planet."

"But we went down to it, we felt solid ground beneath out feet." I pointed this out to her. She looked at me like I were a child that she was trying to teach basic math to and failing desperately.

"No, you didn't even leave the ship. You just thought that you did. Why can't you get this, it's not that hard." Yeah, maybe for her, but for us. I'm sorry, but we haven't exactly evolved to the mind control point.

“I’m sorry that we are difficult to deal with Yliza”, I said, very pissed off at this snotty little bitch, “but you should have thought of that before you decided to play with our strings like little puppets. You fully deserve it if were making it hard for you.” I said this so calmly that it was stone cold. I was quite impressed that I didn’t blow up at her and try to rip her head off like I wanted to.

“Whatever. I’m tired of this.” She practically yawned. For some reason this amused me.

“If you’re so tired than why don’t you just leave?” She gave me another cocky look. Only this time, there was something in it. A small flicker of emotion. I knew that look that emotion. It was fear.

“Because, I choose not to...”

“No, it’s because you can’t” This came from Trance. We all turned to look at her. Yliza had on the fakest ‘what are you talking about?’ look.

“What are you talking about?” Trance looked hard at her.

“You can’t leave, you’re getting worried because you can’t read our thought’s anymore, you can’t control us. I know, trust me, I know.” Yliza’s face went as red as her hair.

“I still don’t understand...” This was so weird. How had Trance known about Yliza?

Chapter 12 – The Tomato

"Um....Trance care to explain?" Dylan asked with a very confused look on his face.
"She can't leave because we're overloading her."
"Overloading, that makes her sound like a machine." Trance smiled a little.
"Sorry, I guess a better word is overwhelming her." She replied to Dylan's question. Yliza snapped ar her.
"What are you talking about, goldie?!?" Goldie? Okay was that suppose to be insulting? I thought that the gold was quite pretty. Trance continued as if she hadn't heard her.
"Yliza is a telepath. And from what she says and has showed a strong one. However, even strong telepaths have troubles trying to sort out all of the thoughts and feelings from different people and trying to create thoughts or situations for them too. Right now there are quite a few people on this ship that have difficult thoughts and emotions for Yliza to sort through. They are overwhelming her and they will continue to keep her from using telepathy until the people having them stop having them or the intensity of the thoughts go down." A short silence greeted this little speech. Dylan was shocked, Rommie looked serious, Rhade also looked serious, and I was definitely going to have to sit down pretty soon. Now Yliza looked like a tomato. Seriously, a tomato. Her face was as red as her hair. (I think I mentioned somewhere that Yliza has red hair.)
"That's a lie!" Guess who this was from. (A/N:Okay, I had to put this in here. I saw Harry Potter four times in theater. Twice in the same day.) We ignored her though.
"Okkkaaaayyyy..." Dylan said slowly to Trance, "How did you figure this out?"
"I knew a few telepaths and they sometimes had that problem. Empaths too." I was confused for a second.
"What are empaths?" Trance turned to me and smiled.
"Empaths are people who are able to sense a person's emotions." Oh. Trance continued.
"They sometimes had this problem." She turned to Yliza who was the color of crimson by now, "This has never happened to you has it?" She responded very tactfully to that.
"I don't have to answer any of your goddamn questions!" Oh, Yliza, how graceful you are. Trance was unperturbed though.
"I was right. There is a simple way to get out of this and if you had known it you would have used it by now."
"Well." Dylan said, obviously just to say something. I wanted to say something too but I'm sure in my current state it would have sounded something like 'jhdfua;lkhjf;koeuiq;lkhjdfla'. I wasn't even stable enough to say a casual 'well'.
"Your nothing but a liar! I still have control! What do you no you ugly, good for nothing, lowlife, bitch! You nothing, nothing I tell you! You are so low, so pathetic! It makes me want to throw up! you think that you are so great, so superior! Your nothing!" And then she dramatically hiccuped and started bawling. I'm serious she started bawling. I swear, it was like there was a four year old girl right in front of me. And someone has stolen her ice cream. I also saw something, something that I had never seen before. It was fear. Yliza was afraid, I could see it in her eyes. It was the first time she looked real, like a person capable of compassion. Almost. I glanced over at Rhade. He wasn't buying her tear fest though. He narrowed his eyes at her.
"You're faking it." He said calmly and without a doubt. She abruptly stopped
"You people are sooo funny." This made me slightly pissed again. I probably still have a over reactive trigger mechanism or something. Still I couldn't ignore that fear that was in her eyes. It was real....very, very real.
"Stop it Yliza," I said to her, "I wouldn't be all giggles if I were you."
"Ooo, why is that?"
"Because what Trance said is true. You can't control us and you can't leave. If you could, you would've already." I saw her thinking this over. The fear that I had seen before was back. It was covered, deep in the pools of her eyes, but it was there. This is when I knew, I knew that what trance had said was 100% correct.
"So what if I can't control you, huh? What are you going to do? Kill me, throw me into space? Torture me? Abandon me on some planet? Yeah right. I know you people inside and out. You are too civil for that." Oh she was pushing my buttons. I didn't care that she was terrified. I didn't pity her. She had played with us like we were puppets on a string. everyone glanced at one another. What were we going to do with her? Yliza noticed this and smirked.
"Uh-huh, I though so."
"You know what Yliza, I really, really can't stand you.", I said, steam practically coming out of my ears, "I don't want to kill you, oh no. death is way too good for you. See because when your dead you can't feel anything. It's too good of a punishment. No, I'll rip your flesh from your bones and tear you limb from limb." I didn't shout this. In fact I think I said it quite calmly. It was kind of eerie actually. The color in Yliza's face drained slightly. Now instead of looking like a tomato, she looked like a carrot with a wig.
"Okay, that's it." Dylan started pushing Yliza into the door which leads to the corridor. "I'm taking you to the brig." Yliza seemed amused by this.
"Fine, whatever." I couldn't understand Yliza. What made her act so smartass when I knew that she was scared. It's probably a defensive trick or something. She looked around the room at all of it's occupants. I expected her eyes to stop at me and for her to say to me some stupid, bitchy comment. Instead her eyes stopped on Rhade.
"I enjoyed our...night together." And she blew him a real fake kiss and was pulled out by Dylan, face alight with amusement and childish superiority. I froze. I wasn't sure what she meant by that. Oh, I had many ideas, none of them I particularly liked. I slowly turned around to face Rhade.
"Okay, what the hell did she mean by that?"

Chapter 13 – Senior Staff meeting. Whoopee!

Rhade looked down at me.
“She meant nothing by it”
“Riiigggghhhttt....What did she mean by it?” Rhade stared down with his amazingly beautiful eyes.
“Beka,” he said, caressing my name so softly that I almost forgot all my anger and leaped into his arms right then, “What would I gain by lying to you?” I pondered this question. Apparently I pondered a little too long because Rhade started to speak again.
“Beka,” he said again, sounding more exasperated this time. He grabbed my shoulders, “Yliza is trying to get to you, that’s all. I wouldn’t lie to you.” There was so much truth in his beautiful eyes that I had to believe it. It would be stupid if I didn’t, so I slowly shook my head. Rhade slightly smiled. Right then Andromeda appeared on the screen.
“Dylan wants you in the meeting room right now.” She said to us.
“Okay.” This came from Trance. I almost forgot she was there. I thought she had gone with Dylan and Rommie.
So with Trance leading the way, we went off to the meeting room. We each took our seats and right as my butt hit the cushion Harper, Dylan and Rommie walked in. They took they’re seats too and before I could even prepare for it, a very disgruntled Harper asked very loudly, and I believe these were his exact word,
“What the hell is going on?!? And why did no one call me up?!?” Ahhh, the question of the week. Well the first one at least, the second one not so much. Harper had directed this question at Dylan, who had obviously not told him the details of our little “incident” with Yliza. Dylan, instead of answering Harper’s questions nodded at me.
“I think it would be better for Beka to answer those questions for you.” I looked at Dylan then Harper and back again. They were expecting me to say something. Oh this was great.
“Well...it’s kind of a long story.” I said hoping that they would settle for the abridged part.
“Don’t worry Beka,” Rhade assured me from my right side in a low whisper, “you don’t have to tell him everything.” I knew that but I appreciated the support all the same. I swallowed and nodded.
“Well, Yliza, she thought, um....she thought that me and , um...well Rhade and Yliza, they...you know, um....” Why was this so hard. It was a lot easier to tell Dylan, “um, we kinda.....”
“Me and Beka are in love.” Thank you Rhade, couldn’t have put it better myself. Harper’s mouth dropped open. Rhade continued, obviously happy that Harper wasn’t talking.
“Before we realized this, me and Yliza has an affair. She knew of our feelings for each other and got jealous. That is when it was revealed that she is a telepath and that the planet and its cloaking device were figments of our imagination created by her. However, right now she’s incapacitated as our anger for her is overwhelming her telepathic abilities.” To say that Harper was surprised by this news would be like saying that he found women uninteresting. He was speechless. Dylan, noticing this and wanting to take full advantage of this rare state, started talking.
“Now that we have that settled up, we have a few more situations to address. Now, I know that Yliza could control humans, but how did she manage to fool Rommie or Andromeda?” That was a good question.
“Well,” Rommie said in response to Dylan’s question, “she could have broke into my systems and tampered with them so that I believed that the planet was there, she could have even gotten Harper to do it without his knowledge. I’ll have to do a full systems analysis before we can confirm this story though. She could’ve gotten someone to fix me, right before she lost control because I can obviously see now that there was no planet. She has covered her tracks carefully though, I’m even sure that is what she did.”
“Well, why would she bother to fix you. If she hadn’t then we would still think that the planet was there, at least until we tried to land on it and realized that we were trying to land on nothing.”
“Dylan, I can’t explain everything.” I had watched small this conversation quietly, at least until an idea hit me.
“She could have done it for fun, you know, to create a little conflict, see how we would react to it.” Everyone got a look on their faces, you know the you-know-what-that-kinda-makes-sense-look.
“Anyway, that doesn’t matter,” Dylan announced after he has apparently pondered my suggestion, “the more important thing is what we do with her?” I had and answer to that one.
“I suggest we abandon her on some planet.” I thought that this was a brilliant idea. Dylan, however, did not. “Maybe we can think of something else.” Was his reply,
“Trance, this thing that’s affecting her. It’s temporary right?” Trance nodded.
“Yes, it will only stop when the members of the crew that are feeling hostile towards her stop and I am pretty sure that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.” She turned towards me after she said this but it was so casual that I doubt that anyone else noticed.
“Well one thing is sure”, I said, pretty confidently, “I’m not going to let her control me anymore.”

Chapter 14 – My ship, mis MY ship

"Well, I don't think that anyone wants to be controlled anymore." Harper said, with that sarcastic tone. You know the one, the one that makes you want to strangle him.
"Oh, ha ha. That's real funny." I said this in a somewhat snappy way. I'm sorry; I was just a little on the edge. Harper didn't look that taken aback though.
"Sorry, boss."
"Anyway", Dylan said, obviously trying to get us to concentrate on the point, "right now hat we need is options of what we could do with her."
"I'm telling you Dylan," I said leaning forward in my seat, "we should leave her on some planet. It would be the safest route I believe. I mean we can' t exactly go up to the Commonwealth and ask they could put her in prison or anything. I mean, they're not exactly happy with us." Dylan placed his elbow on the table in front of him and rested his chin on fist.
"I understand, but there has to be another option." Just at that time Andromeda appeared on the view screen.
"Dylan," she said urgently, "trouble in the brig. Yliza has managed to escape." He looked around and everyone was already on their feet and jogging towards the door.
It didn't take us long when members of the crew confronted us. Rhade and I were in the lead of our little pack, me slightly in front of him when we rounded a corner we came face to face with some of them. Right when we came into their view they pulled out their force lances and started shooting. Luckily, Rhade pulled me back just as a shot came freakishly close.
"Beka!" he yelled as he placed his arm around my waist and pulled me back. I jerked backwards and placed my back up against the wall.
"What the hell do they think there doing?!?" I yelled over the sound of lasers.
"I don't know!" replied Rhade as he drew out his force lance and scooted past towards the corner. He turned quickly towards the crewmen and fired a few shots then he quickly turned back and rested against the wall next to me. Why would the crew fire on us? Dylan and Harper had drawn their weapons too and were firing on the crew. Over the shouts I could faintly hear them talking, the crewmen I mean.
"How did Magog get on the ship?" one yelled.
"I don't know!" shouted the other, "no warning or anything, we didn't even detect their ships. "
Magog? What were talking about? I glanced at Rhade, sure that his Nietzschean hearing had picked it up. He shrugged his strong shoulders. Then it clicked in my head.
"Yliza, she's doing this." But even as I said it, it didn't make sense. How could Yliza do this? Trance had said that her powers weren't working, Yliza had even said that herself.
"How?!?" Rhade asked me as Dylan and Harper continued firing. Rommie had joined in by now. Trance was kinda standing back.
"I don't know?!?" A lot of people have been saying those words lately. Dylan managed to break my thoughts.
"Beka! Rhade! Try a different way to the brig! We'll try to figure out what's going on here! Trance! Rommie! Take a different route from them and see if you can make it too!" We nodded and went separate ways. I had pulled out my force lance too and was holding it in front of me slightly. I didn't think it mattered anyway; Rhade was in front of me. We checked before we turn corners. It took us few minutes, but when we arrived at the big, it was empty. There weren't even signs that she had forced her way out. In fact, it looked like the person who was guarding her just let her out. Rhade was the first to overcome the shock.
"Andromeda, where is Yliza?" she popped up on the view screen to our right.
"Someone has interfered with my systems. I can't detect her now, but the last time I detected her, she was on her way to the hangar bay."
"Come on." He said to me and we started to jog to the hangar bay. God, how I hated her. If she even breaths on the Maru, she'd going to be breathing out of a tube for weeks. It only took us about a minute to get to the hangar bay. When we stepped through the doors I could see her just step through the Maru's doors.
"Hey! Stay away from my ship!" She ignored me. That was it, she was going to be breathing out of a tube for years.

Chapter 15 My Ship Is Still My Ship

I literally was a blur as I ran up to the Maru. My ship, my baby. I could hear the sound of shuffling feet behind me. I ran up to the Maru and got inside. I swear to the Divine, I was nothing but a streak of light. I automatically got my forcelance out and started waving it in front of me. My baby, my poor baby. She was not getting away this time. I was soooo angry. My face my hot, my hand clenched white on the forcelance in front of me, the other one in a ball by my side. I had a feeling that Rhade was just as mad, maybe even madder. He was probably a little uncomfortable too, considering a ragging woman, a.k.a. me, was right in front of him.
"YLIZA, I SWEAR IF YOU EVEN DENT SOMETHING, ANYTHING, I PULL OUT YOUR ALL OF YOUR PRETTY LITTLE RED HAIRS ONE HANDFUL AT A TIME!!!" Okay, I admit, I was going a little crazy.
"Beka, try to calm yourself down, don't let angry cloud your judgement."(A/N: Now where have we heard that before. Hmm...) Gosh, that sounded like something Dylan would say. (A/N: Yes, it does sound like something Dylan would say.) I think he's rubbing off on us a little too much. But, that's when I heard it. Some people would describe this noxious sound as a giggle. I, however, can only describe it as the pure evil cackle of the devil himself. Of herself in this case.
"YLIZA!" I screamed at the top of my lungs! "Why don't you show yourself you disgusting piece of vermin?!?"
"Beeeeekkkkkaaaa...." Yliza said in a sing-song voice, like this was all a game and I was not going to shoot her on sight. I still couldn't see her, her voice seemed to echo off the walls though and boy was that annoying. I looked from right to left, nothing. I turned right on the next fork that I came up on, and that's when I saw it. I could just see her red hair whip past another turn in front of me. I shoot at her. When I realized that I hadn't hit her I started to run after her.
"Rhade did you see that?" I asked, not looking back at him. When a few seconds passed and I heard no response I looked back and immediately froze at what I saw. Nothing. That's right, Rhade wasn't behind me anymore.
"Rhade?!?" I called back, hoping that he'd hear me and come running around a corner. No such thing.
"Rhade?!?" I called out again. "Telemachus?!?" Same response, which was none. Oh, this wasn't good. Did Rhade just abandon me? No, he wouldn't do that. Even if he didn't confess his love for me he wouldn't do that. Scenarios flew through my head. Was I so concentrated on finding Yliza that somehow she managed to capture Rhade and somehow I didn't hear it? I didn't know, but for the first time in a while I started to feel fear. Not, oh-my-gosh-there's-a-spider-on-the-wall-fear, but true, true fear. And that's when I heard the cackle again.
"Hehehehehehe"

----------------------------------------------------------

I could feel my breathing increase. My palms grew sweatier. My confidence was slightly sliding. I was fine a minute ago, I knew my goal distinctly and had no doubt that I would succeed at destroying Yliza. Now I wasn't so sure. I knew why too. Rhade no longer had my back, I no longer had the support that I needed, the notion that if I walked into anything, Rhade would do anything to get me out of it. I tried not to think too much of it, I still had a goal that I had to complete. I continued with the force lance in front of me. I turned a corner. No sign of him, or her. She knew my weakness and that sucks extremely.
"Oooo, itty-bitty Beka is so hopeless." Her singsong voice echoed off the walls. It seemed to split my head in two and bounce around my skull, which isn't pleasant I'll tell you that. I started running in the direction of her voice. As I ran, my footsteps clunked against the metal floor (A/N: The floor in the Maru is metal right?).
"Beeeekkkkkaaa, ooooohhh Beeekkkkaaa." It came from my left. I turned and shot. The beam hit against the corner and sparks came of the metal. She had made me shoot my baby! I was so angry that I could scream, and I did. It didn't help as much as I thought it would though, my voice echoed off the walls just as Yliza's had done. I started on my search again. I must have circled the Maru twice checking every hiding spot. Yliza was moving though, that made it harder. I found my pilot's console in front of me for the third time. I decided to use the tracking system to see if I could spot her on the Maru. I sat down in the chair and tapped a few buttons on the panel. The readings came up pretty quickly. I scanned over them. According to them, Yliza should be right behind...
I turned around to my knees and shot my forcelance. Yliza quickly ducked it and dove under the weapons console. I shot again. Sparks flew from the console. Yliza quickly stood and fired at me. I ducked behind the head of the pilot's chair. Where did she get a weapon? I quickly got out of the seat and ducked behind it. I shot again. It missed.
"Beka's loosing her touch." Was all that Yliza had to say. As she ducked behind the console like a little girl. She shot at me and sparks filled my eyes. I swiftly move closer to the weapons console but hid behind a corner. I turned to shoot again. Nothing.
"You know what Beka," I heard her say again, "you must be so sad."
"Why is that." I answered sarcastically as I tried to find a way out of this situation.
"Well, I mean, it must be very frustrating to have no one on your back." She replied as she shot her forcelance at my area, "Where is Rhade?" Red filled my vision and the anger inside me rose. I turned to shoot at her again but Yliza had expected that. She shot at the same time and ended up hitting me on the shoulder. All I could feel was pain as I turned and clutched my shoulder. I breathed deeply. My and Yliza were stuck in a battle, and I think I was loosing.

------------------------------------------------

I gently gripped my shoulder where Yliza had shot me. I've been shot before, I know how it feels, but that doesn't mean that it starts to hurt less each time it happens. It feels like something had pierced your skin and every nerve ending is on fire. It's no wonder that so many people pass out from the pain. Me though, I had to stay in there. I couldn't let Yliza win, or give her the satisfaction that she would have had if she won. It's odd, but the satisfaction part pissed me off more that the actually winning part. In fact, if Yliza had no joy in winning, I probably wouldn't have minded as much. Oh yeah, if she hadn't completely lied to us, used us in her little experiment, especially me and Rhade, and tried to kill us too, I wouldn't have been that pissed off either.
Anyway, I had to act fast or my ass was grass.(A/N: Okay, Beka would never say anything this cheesy but I love saying that so it's staying in, because I am weird. Woooohoooo, go weird people!) I closed my eyes briefly trying to devise a plan in my head. Unfortunately, my lovely company disrupted my thoughts.
"Beka, I just have to ask you something. It's been on my mind for a long time and I was wondering if I could ask you? " Yliza called out to me. I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of responding to the inquiry. Instead I stayed silent, my brain overloading with the lack of any relevant information that I needed for an escape. Noticing my silence, Yliza quickly responded to her own question.
"Oh, yes, of coarse, my mistake. You must be terribly busy, you know, thinking up an idea to over throw me. Well I'll leave you to your thoughts, but ponder this, are you ready for twenty plus step children?"
Twenty plus stepchildren? Wait, where had this come from? I opened my eyes and completely disregarding my self-oath not to respond to the evil little bitch yelled over my shoulder to her.
"What the hell are you talking about, whore?"
"Rhade's a Nietzschean, Beka. He is a fellow likely to take many wives. Are you going to be okay with having six or seven woman to compete with?" That's right, Rhade was a Nietzschean. But would he really take more than one wife. I know that Tyr wouldn't hesitate but Rhade? Rhade wasn't like Tyr, not a single bit except for the species. Wait, Rebecca, you are NOT thinking of this right now! You have more important things to freak out about, like what the hell you're going to do and where the hell is Rhade when you need him! Ideas started to flow around the insides of my mind again. Still nothing. I just couldn't think strait, knowing that Yliza could outwit me so easily. I couldn't hold off much longer. I had to move, now. I knew what I had to do. I took a deep breath and lunged out of my little cover bunker. I headed for the corridor, fully knowing that I would have to pass by Yliza doing it. I still had hope though. I knew that Yliza was huddled under a control panel. Hopefully it would take her a while to register what was happening and by then I would fully be around a corner. I ran swerving so I wouldn't hit a control panel. As I passed by a Yliza I heard a distinctive, "Hey, What the!!!!" I reached the corridor and ran occasionally throwing a shot or two behind me. I heard footsteps against the metal floor. My footsteps echoed along with Yliza's as we ran for our lives. Well, I was running for my life, Yliza was running to take my life.
I felt shots wiz by my head as I tried to dodge them as well as possible under the current situation. I turned as many corners as I could hoping that Yliza would lose me or get lost herself.
My heart was beating so hard I thought blood was going to pop out of my ears. My legs started to cramp, despite all the times I've run away from something like this. I couldn't keep it on much longer. I looked over my shoulder expecting to see Yliza chasing after me. I didn't. I abruptly stopped and turned to look behind me more accurately. The corridor was completely empty, I started o walk back down it a little, keeping my force lance in front of me. I quickly turned the corner in front of me, my force lance at ready position. Nothing. I turned back and headed down the corridor I originally stopped on. I walk as quietly as I could, straining my ears for any sign of movement. None. I was started to get paranoid, well, more than I already was.
Suddenly, a force that almost sent me to the ground threw me forward. Pain automatically seared through my back like a spider's web, the point of impact being where the force lance shot hit me. Before I could react another shot hit me, right next to the first, and this one did throw me forward onto my stomache. I cried out in pain, as I tried to push myself off the Maru's floor with my palms. I managed to roll over onto my back, which put pressure on my wounds. A more intense pain seared through my back. I looked up at Yliza, who had a weapon pointed directly at my heart. She had a pure sadistic grin spread over the features of her face.
"Goodnight, dearest Beka." She said, right before she pulled the trigger.

------------------------------------------------

“Wait!” I said right before she pulled the trigger all the way, “wait! Stop!” she did and gave me an inquisitive look.
I started to go numb. I’ve had more guns pointed in my face than I can even count, but I had never felt so helpless, so hopeless, in my whole entire life. Before, whenever someone had I gun in my face, I knew they weren’t really going to shoot, I knew that they needed me somehow to do something for them or that they were just too chicken to take someone’s life. In this case though, I wasn’t so sure. I was almost certain that this was the end of the reign of Beka Valentine and that there was no clever plan that would ever get me out of the shit I was in. My breathing increased and got heavier as the pure horror of my situation dawned on me.
“Yliza...” I said looking up at her, trying to calm her down, “you don’t want to do this.”
“Oh, really, why don’t I want to do this? I know for a fact that it’ll give me great pleasure”
“Because...” I replied slowly inching to my force lance which had flown a few feet to my right when I was knocked forward, it was just a few feet over, just a few feet. “What would that accomplish...”
“Well, you would be dead.”
“Okay, good point, but what are you going to do when I’m dead? Rhade not going to want you anymore than he does now. In fact, he’s going to want you even less. He’s going to hate you.” She let out a laugh.
“I can fix that you know. He won’t hate me forever, he may even learn to love me.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I think that you’re forgetting that I can control him.” What the hell was she talking about? Wasn’t she kind of forgetting that she couldn’t control him?
“Control him? Um, you can’t control him. He’ll overwhelm you, like we did before.” She let out another short, cruel laugh.
“Your little friend Trance was more helpful than she intended to be. She told me what I needed to know. She should have just kept her mouth shut. You see, I’m slowly learning how to control you, even if your emotions are getting in my way.” My fingertips edged closer to my force lance. Maybe if I get close enough to lunge for it, I can get to Yliza before she gets to me. I had to keep her busy though.
“Really, well that’s great,” two more feet, “how do you do that?”
“You really think that I’m going to tell you.”
“Hey, I don’t like your tone.” one and a half feet away, “anyway, you’re going to kill me anyway, why don’t you just tell me. Consider it a dying request, a last request.” One and a quarter foot, almost there just hold one. Yliza’s weapon hadn’t moved from where it pointed at my heart. It was a little unnerving.
“A last request? Ha, like I’m going to honor you with one of those.” I just had one more foot to go. Then the worst thing happened.
“Hey! What they hell are you doing?!?” Yliza had noticed. She shot at my hand. Pure white pain shot up my arm. I let out a scream of pain. She also literally stepped on my stomach. I let out another scream. I knew that a few ribs were at least cracked. I doubled over in pain. Every nerve in my body was on fire. I almost hoped that Yliza did shoot me, just so I wouldn’t feel pain anymore. Then again, I didn’t really want to die. She returned the gunpoint to my heart.
“You just made a mistake Beka. A terrible, fatal mistake. You’re going to die now Beka, a horrible, gruesome death. I feel sorry for you Beka, I really do. It’s a shame, really. You weren’t all that bad. Oh well, I wish you a pleasant time, in your afterlife. Goodbye, Rebecca Valentine. I hope that you’re scared.”
She pulled the trigger. I knew that asking her to stop wasn’t going to do anything. I sucked in my last breath. I kept my eyes open; I was going to meet death head on. I braced myself.
All of a sudden, there was a flash of red light. Yliza’s eyes popped open and her back arched. I could see shock and pain etched all over her face. She turned to me with a look of pure horror. There was another flash of bright, red light. She fell to her knees and gave me a look that almost made me feel sorry for her. It almost made me feel the pain that she was going through. She fell flat onto her face and her gun bounced a few feet away from her. I looked up and saw the most beautiful site I have ever seen.
There was Rhade, force lance drawn in front of him, and the most determined look that I had ever seen on his face.

“Beka!” he said after it was quite clear that Yliza wasn’t going to get up. He ran to me while putting his force lance back in its holster.
“Rhade!” I managed to choke out. He quickly was kneeling at my side. He picked me up in his arms and held me tightly. It kind of hurt my ribs, but hell, like I cared.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I was following you and then, you just disappeared. I looked all over but I couldn’t find you. Then I heard yelling and shots being fired.” He said into my hair.
“It’s okay. Yliza, she did something.” He laid me back down onto the Maru’s cold metal floor. He examined my wounds.
“We need to get you to Med. deck so Trance can look at you. She may also be able to answer some questions.” I nodded.
“Can you walk?” Rhade asked. I nodded again as I tried to sit up, tried being key word there. I quickly had to lie back down from the pain erupting in my ribs. Rhade quickly put his hand behind my back to cushion the fall.
“No, no, can’t walk.” I groaned between gritted teeth. Rhade nodded.
“I’ll have to carry you.” Yay! I nodded solemnly, pretending like him carrying me would suck, but that’s not what I was thinking. He placed his arms under my knees and my back and slowly got to his feet. I grabbed around his neck so I wouldn’t go flailing back to the Maru’s floor. He took a few steps forward and then adjusted me in his arms so it would be easier for him to carry me. I rested my head under his shoulder. I could here the beating of his heart, which somewhat surprised me. He has a lot of muscle. He continued carrying me through the muscle, I mean Maru, without any problems. I didn’t expect any though, I mean, it is Rhade and it’s not like I weigh a lot.
We exited the Maru and walked through the corridors of the Andromeda. Well, Rhade walked, I of coarse was not. Andromeda’s image appeared on the screen at the end of the corridor.
“What happened?” she asked, eyebrows scrunched together.
“Beka’s been shot in the back and Yliza’s dead.” He replied glancing at her while turning a corner.
“How did that happen?” Andromeda asked, moving to the screen at the end of the corridor we were now going down.
“Yliza shot Beka then I shot her.” Rhade said back, a slight agitation in his voice.
“Whhhyy?” A small growl came from the back of Rhade’s throat.
“Listen Andromeda,” he said, halting in front of her screen. He adjusted me in his arms, “now is not a good time. Is Trance in Med. deck?” Andromeda did not look please.
“What do you think?” she snapped back at him before disappearing, leaving a black void where her face was. He gave another small growl and then turned to Med. deck. Trance was there, not surprisingly, and she had a bed ready for me. Rhade gently laid me down and brushed back my hair. Trance came over and started reading looking over my wounds. While she was busy, I decided to get some things out in the open with Rhade.
“Rhade what exactly happened? You just disappeared on me.” Rhade was standing over me. A confused look came over his face.
“I don’t know exactly, one minute I was following you down the corridor and then you were gone. I was looking strait at you and then you just...disappeared.”
“Do you think that Yliza has anything to do with it?”
“I’m certain of it.”
“But how...” I asked, hoping that Rhade had the answer.
“I don’t know... wait a minute, Trance.” Trance turned to look at him, “didn’t you say something about getting out of being overwhelmed?”
“Yes, I did.” When she didn’t elaborate any further, I took it into my hands to ask her.
“How do you do it?” she had a look on her face. It was the kind of look that I had taken to mean that I know but I’m not going to tell you because it’s a secret and you can’t know because you may die from the knowledge that you would acquire from this information...okay, maybe it doesn’t mean that exactly but close enough.
“The mind is very complicated,” she started. “It can not be explained in a single sentence or even in pages and pages of words. I can’t explain what you do to get out of being emotionally overwhelmed because there are no real words to describe how. You can only feel. You can only know. And for that to be possible, you would have to be a telepath.” Ah, yes. That made everything so much clearer.
“Okay Trance,” I said to her, “if you have to be a telepath to know this “magical thing”, how do you know? Are you a telepath?” A small smile came over the golden features of Trance’s face.
“No, I just had friends that were.” She injected me with Nano-bots. The sudden sharp pain surprised me.
“Ouch!” I said and grabbed my upper arm where she had injected me, “That hurt.” She ignored me.
“You look all good Beka. Your back should me painful for a few days but that will eventually subside.”
“Thanks.” I said grumpily. I sat up and hopped off the bed. Andromeda popped up on the screen.
“Beka, Rhade, Trance. Dylan wants you in the meeting room when everything’s all patched up.” With that Andromeda disappeared from the screen.
“Well, I think we should get a move on.”
Nothing really happened during that meeting. I just told them what went on between me and Yliza on the Maru, not the gritty details of coarse. Dylan asked lots of questions, Harper made a lot of sarcastic remarks, Trance just sat quietly and Rommie looked really, really serious. I think that a little R and R would do her some good. (A/N: So do I, Rommie needs some happy time.)
Dylan finally let everyone go after what seemed like forever. I went back to my quarter to sleep. Rhade walked me there, which was sweet of him. He kissed me good night and I passed out on my bed. I woke up the next day refreshed. Okay, no I didn’t, but it wasn’t like I was going to fall asleep at the helm. We had a memorial service for Yliza. Why, I don’t know, but Dylan saw it fitting. Yeah right Dylan, whatever. We were on Command afterward. Business as usual. It was quiet when Harper interrupted that welcomed silence.
“Hey, boss, can I ask you a question.” I smiled gently.
“I may regret it but sure go ahead.”
“How do you know that she’s still not control us, messing at our minds.” I turned to face him. He had a look of mingled curiosity. I thought for a few seconds. Harper was right. How did I know? She could still be messing with us. I felt a small twinge of fear bubble up in the pit of my stomach. I heard footsteps come from the doorway of Command. I turned to see who it was. Rhade had just entered. He gave me a smile that caused tingles up and down my spine. I smiled back. I turned to Harper.
“I don’t know Harper. I guess we can never be sure anymore but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop living my life. I happen to like my life and I like living it. That’s the truth, you can’t deny it.” Harper smiled. He opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off.
“No you can’t Beka,” Rhade said to me, “you can’t deny the truth.”

The End

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