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Chapter 9 Chapter 11

Alternity - Chapter 10

Wait and Worry

Location: The Eureka Maru

Trance was in the common room of the Maru, watching Aurora play on the floor and trying to play a game of Vedran Whist while she waited for the return of her family and Dylan. Her thoughts were not on the cards lying on the table but rather were alternating between worry over her family and fuming at Dylan.

When she and Harper had returned with the news about the warehouse. Dylan had declared that she would stay on board to take care of her daughter while the others investigated the warehouse. More precisely he had told Harper that 'Your wife will stay aboard the Maru while the rest of us investigate the address you obtained from the Than, Mr Harper.' No mention of the fact that she helped Harper get the information, and he didn't even look at her when he made his decision that she would stay behind.

It wasn't the fact that she had to stay behind that bothered her. Someone had to stay with the baby, and to be truthful Harper and Beka were better choices if the investigation became a gun battle. It was the fact that even after nearly six months, Dylan still had no faith in her. He simply refused to acknowledge her skill as a medic, and used her linguistic lapses as evidence that she was his inferior. Never mind that she had only been speaking Common for a few years, and that her native tongue was so alien from Common that the only similarity between them was that they were both spoken languages. To Dylan, her mistakes and misunderstandings were signs of an inferior mind. He openly admired Beka's skills as a pilot and Harper's engineering genius but she was simply an empty headed girl who had a talent for growing things.

His ship didn't like her either. Actually, his ship didn't like any of them - Beka, Harper, Aurora or herself. She looked down on them because they weren't High Guard, and didn't trust them because they had criminal records. Trance knew that she had done a great number of questionable things since she had fled her parent's home, but she had never done anything that she had considered truly bad, and much of what she had done she had done simply to survive. But to the ship all that mattered was that they had broken the law.

Holographic Andromeda wasn't too bad; she treated her as, if not exactly an equal, at least as a person worth listening to, and freely admitted that the hydroponic gardens were flourishing under her care. She also seemed to understand that sometimes life didn't offer a choice of wrong or right, but rather wrong or less wrong. But the other Andromeda obviously distrusted her, her family, and didn't approve of Aurora being on board.

Trance looked down at the cards; she had lost again. In a fit of frustration she threw the cards onto the table. Sitting around waiting, worrying, and fuming was getting her nowhere. She picked up Aurora and headed back to the berthing compartment. It was the baby's nap time. There was nothing she could do to help Harper and Beka. and she might as well take a nap too.

She lay down on her bunk, cradled Aurora to her, shut her eyes, and quickly fell asleep. As she slept she dreamt. Her sleep became fitful as the dreams turned into a nightmare. In her dream she was standing on a rock strewn stretch of barren ground. As she looked about she saw a figure approaching. As the figure approached she recognized it to be the assistant port master Carlisle. He ran towards her arms outstretched, not to embrace her but to crush her. She turned and began to run and slipped on one of the exposed rocks. As she fell her dream self realized that the rock was composed of ulanium and hyduron. As Carlisle approached he began to age, aging years with each step. Scrambling to her feet she saw a mountain that hadn't been there before, in the side of a mountain was a cave. Sobbing in terror her dream self ran into the cave. The dream shifted and she was walking through a tunnel. The tunnel was roughly hewn through rock with uneven walls and flooring. There was a flickering light coming from somewhere further down the tunnel. For some reason she felt the urge to seek out the source of the light. As she walked the light became brighter but continued to flicker much as if the light source was a flame rather than a conventional lamp. Abruptly the source of the light became visible. At first glance Trance thought the source of the light was a burning man. The source was man shaped and waving its arms but after a moment Trance discerned that the shape was not a man but rather flame, a living flame. The man flame had its back to her and was gesturing with its hands apparently giving directions to some one or ones but whoever or what ever it was directing was not visible to her. Suddenly as if sensing her presence the flame turned around. The head was featureless except for two glowing red eyes, which met hers. To Trance they looked as if they were windows into the fires of the Hell that her husband had once told her about. As she looked into the eyes they seemed bore into her becoming larger and larger until her vision was obliterated by red hell fire.

With a gasp Trance awoke from her dream. She was trembling and covered in sweat. She knew that the dream had been important. That her subconscious mind had been working on a problem and had come up with an answer. And that if the answer it had come up with was correct it meant she and her family were in mortal danger.

Chapter 9 Chapter11