The Nietzschean or the Tiger
folder
1 through F › Andromeda
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
5
Views:
3,425
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
1 through F › Andromeda
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
5
Views:
3,425
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Andromeda, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Loony
Normal
ROBERT MOYERS
8
12
2001-02-13T18:36:00Z
2001-02-13T18:47:00Z
3
1117
6372
53
12
7825
9.2720
Chapter 3
Dylan turned around to face the front of the small shuttle. Rhade... he looks so much like ‘Heris. For all I know he may very well be related to him. A great-great-great-grand nephew. Just remember Dylan, he isn’t Rhade, he can’t be Rhade. You killed Gaheris Rhade. You loved him and you killed him. Remember that, Dylan. You saw his force lance lying there, you went to grab it, and you shot him in the chest with his force lance. You held him as he died. You killed him, Dylan. Never forget that.
Dylan looked out the front view port to the swelling shape of the Andromeda.
* * *
Tyr stared at the young man sitting quietly in the seat ahead of him. His long dark hair lay flat against his head, several small tufts fluffing as they dried. His eyes were closed, dark lashes resting on those space tan cheeks. His arms lay on the armrest, spikes pointed out in a defensive move. The spikes themselves were gently flared, creating a space around him. His chest rose and fell in a shallow pattern.
Feeling Tyr’s eyes on him, Raa opened his a crack and looked around. His eyes flicked to Tyr who was sitting a little bit back and on his right. Tyr thinks I’m up to something, but then again... he is a Nietzschean. A Nietzschean who is working with Captain Dylan Hunt. This is intriguing. Most Nietzscheans would avoid the Commonwealth like the plague. It’s time to pump Hunt for some information.
* * *
"Captain Hunt?"
"Yes, Rha- Raa? And you can call me Dylan."
Rha-? Rhade. "Thank you, Dylan? Would you care to introduce your crew? Trance, I’ve already met." Raa smiled.
"Oh yeah." Pointing over to Beka, "This is Beka Valentine, my First Officer and Captain of the salvage ship, Eureka Maru. Tyr was a mercenary that I happened to entice into working aboard the ship. On board we have Seamus Harper, he is a genius with computer and engineering systems. Also Rev Bem. He’s a Magog. He’s also a..."
"A MAGOG?!"
"He’s a member of the People of the Way. He wants to make up for the evil his people have done."
"Hunt, You are High Guard. From over three hundred years ago. You were alive when Brandenburg Tor was attacked. They killed over three billion sentients. Did you forget that? Did you forget the pictures of them ripping the innards out to lay their eggs?"
"No. The Commonwealth always allowed people to find a way to make up mistakes."
"That’s why the Commonwealth died." Turning to face Tyr, "Is he always this... idealistic?" Raa sneered.
"Sometimes worse." Tyr stated.
"Oh well, I’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t get me killed." Raa sighed.
* * *
Beka docked the shuttle and they walked down the hall to the bridge. Rev Bem and Harper were on the bridge, making sure everything was running the way it should.
"So, Raa how long has it been since you sent the distress signal?"
"Distress signal, Hunt? Nietzschean ships don’t have distress signals. We do however have message beacons. We sent one off into a normal transport route for clerical reasons. Things get all tangled up when there are mysteries. They know where we went down, so if HavenCorp wants to find their colonists, they know where to look."
"No distress signals? Must have been a Nietzschean transport." A young man with a jack sticking out of his neck said.
"You must be Seamus. Hunt said you were a genius but it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Gavain Raa."
"Hello, Gavain. Another stray, Dylan?"
"Maybe, and what is this thing you all have about Nietzschean transports?" Dylan asked
"I guess you wouldn’t know, Dylan but Nietzscheans as you do know often stay close to home. There are always some that chose to enter military endeavors and they are lauded. Some choose to use their brainpower and go into commerce and business. The more successful they are, the more women take notice of them. Then there are those who are not successful in fighting, who are mental giants, they aren’t even mental contenders. They are rejects. There are those who can’t manage the simplest things, they are also the ones that no woman will choose to breed with. They fall into three categories: colonists, this isn’t a very big group, afall all who wants colonists who don’t breed; mercenaries, even though all Nietzscheans have a mercenary nature we fight for our own, not others, so they aren’t too large a group either; and then there is us, we work transport ships.
We transport anything. Waste, People, Products. There are always more of us, so if a ship goes down, they worry more about what was on the ship and whether they will lose the contract. So what is it about Nietzschean transports? Only the poorest and lowest of the low take us. If they wanted Nietzscheans and they had money, they would have their own ship and bring in a crew from one of the home worlds.
"Oh, so you are all expendable?" Dylan asked.
"More than expendable, useless."
"It seems to me, that you don’t fit the descriptions that you give me of the ‘rejects’." The Magog said.
"Well, let’s see it’s like this. Either I fought with someone who I knew I couldn’t beat or I ran until I could fight him. I decided I wanted to live. As the old adage says, ‘Run to live to fight another day.’ Nietzscheans survive. We may not always win but we survive and if we survive then sooner or later we will win if only by surviving until everyone else is dead."
"I see. Thank you for this glimpse into Nietzschean philosophy."
"Welcome."
"Captain?"
"Yes, Rev?"
"What are you going to do about the other Nietzscheans on planplanet?"
"I don’t know." Dylan said, slipping into his chair.
"Why do anything, Hunt? Tyr killed one of them sey hey have food, if they die before someone comes looking for the colonists, then they obviously are more inferior than was previously thought. If they do manage to survive then they might just get a woman to show some interest in them." Raa stated. "Besides if you bring them on board you either have to keep them locked up or take them as crew. Keep them locked up and they will find a way out, and then they’ll either steal a ship or find a set of Nietzscheans to take over this one. Let them run free and the first time any Nietzschean vessel comes within range they’ll betray you to them in return for status and a chance of breeding.
"As is, next time you run into a Nietzschean vessel you will do well to keep Tyr and myself under your eyes. After all, you should have learned by now that Nietzscheans have the original mercenary mindset. I noticed that Beka Valentine is your First Officer, which meant Gaheris Rhade did not manage to take over this ship. One could assume he was alive but you did not list him in your crew, which means he died. Most likely he died by your hand. Strange that a human could actually manage to kill one of us. Lucky shot, I bet."
"Yes, he did. So you are saying, I can’t trust you or Tyr when there are other Nietzscheans around?"
"I'm saying," said Raa behind clenched teeth, "that you can't afford to take any chances with us. We are Nietzscheans and we always survive by taking the winning side. If you can’t win then we won’t stand with you. Not unless we really believe in what you are selling, and that’s not likely. You are an optimist in a universe where optimism almost always gets people killed. I’m glad you believe you can survive your optimism but I don’t have any reassurance that I will. Now you can either drop me off at the next habitable planet or you get yourself a new crewman. Either way, I survive. And I know these are you only two choices cause you are if nothing else Captain Dylan Hunt of the High Guard. Well?"
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o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
Loony
Normal
ROBERT MOYERS
8
12
2001-02-13T18:36:00Z
2001-02-13T18:47:00Z
3
1117
6372
53
12
7825
9.2720
Chapter 3
Dylan turned around to face the front of the small shuttle. Rhade... he looks so much like ‘Heris. For all I know he may very well be related to him. A great-great-great-grand nephew. Just remember Dylan, he isn’t Rhade, he can’t be Rhade. You killed Gaheris Rhade. You loved him and you killed him. Remember that, Dylan. You saw his force lance lying there, you went to grab it, and you shot him in the chest with his force lance. You held him as he died. You killed him, Dylan. Never forget that.
Dylan looked out the front view port to the swelling shape of the Andromeda.
* * *
Tyr stared at the young man sitting quietly in the seat ahead of him. His long dark hair lay flat against his head, several small tufts fluffing as they dried. His eyes were closed, dark lashes resting on those space tan cheeks. His arms lay on the armrest, spikes pointed out in a defensive move. The spikes themselves were gently flared, creating a space around him. His chest rose and fell in a shallow pattern.
Feeling Tyr’s eyes on him, Raa opened his a crack and looked around. His eyes flicked to Tyr who was sitting a little bit back and on his right. Tyr thinks I’m up to something, but then again... he is a Nietzschean. A Nietzschean who is working with Captain Dylan Hunt. This is intriguing. Most Nietzscheans would avoid the Commonwealth like the plague. It’s time to pump Hunt for some information.
* * *
"Captain Hunt?"
"Yes, Rha- Raa? And you can call me Dylan."
Rha-? Rhade. "Thank you, Dylan? Would you care to introduce your crew? Trance, I’ve already met." Raa smiled.
"Oh yeah." Pointing over to Beka, "This is Beka Valentine, my First Officer and Captain of the salvage ship, Eureka Maru. Tyr was a mercenary that I happened to entice into working aboard the ship. On board we have Seamus Harper, he is a genius with computer and engineering systems. Also Rev Bem. He’s a Magog. He’s also a..."
"A MAGOG?!"
"He’s a member of the People of the Way. He wants to make up for the evil his people have done."
"Hunt, You are High Guard. From over three hundred years ago. You were alive when Brandenburg Tor was attacked. They killed over three billion sentients. Did you forget that? Did you forget the pictures of them ripping the innards out to lay their eggs?"
"No. The Commonwealth always allowed people to find a way to make up mistakes."
"That’s why the Commonwealth died." Turning to face Tyr, "Is he always this... idealistic?" Raa sneered.
"Sometimes worse." Tyr stated.
"Oh well, I’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t get me killed." Raa sighed.
* * *
Beka docked the shuttle and they walked down the hall to the bridge. Rev Bem and Harper were on the bridge, making sure everything was running the way it should.
"So, Raa how long has it been since you sent the distress signal?"
"Distress signal, Hunt? Nietzschean ships don’t have distress signals. We do however have message beacons. We sent one off into a normal transport route for clerical reasons. Things get all tangled up when there are mysteries. They know where we went down, so if HavenCorp wants to find their colonists, they know where to look."
"No distress signals? Must have been a Nietzschean transport." A young man with a jack sticking out of his neck said.
"You must be Seamus. Hunt said you were a genius but it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Gavain Raa."
"Hello, Gavain. Another stray, Dylan?"
"Maybe, and what is this thing you all have about Nietzschean transports?" Dylan asked
"I guess you wouldn’t know, Dylan but Nietzscheans as you do know often stay close to home. There are always some that chose to enter military endeavors and they are lauded. Some choose to use their brainpower and go into commerce and business. The more successful they are, the more women take notice of them. Then there are those who are not successful in fighting, who are mental giants, they aren’t even mental contenders. They are rejects. There are those who can’t manage the simplest things, they are also the ones that no woman will choose to breed with. They fall into three categories: colonists, this isn’t a very big group, afall all who wants colonists who don’t breed; mercenaries, even though all Nietzscheans have a mercenary nature we fight for our own, not others, so they aren’t too large a group either; and then there is us, we work transport ships.
We transport anything. Waste, People, Products. There are always more of us, so if a ship goes down, they worry more about what was on the ship and whether they will lose the contract. So what is it about Nietzschean transports? Only the poorest and lowest of the low take us. If they wanted Nietzscheans and they had money, they would have their own ship and bring in a crew from one of the home worlds.
"Oh, so you are all expendable?" Dylan asked.
"More than expendable, useless."
"It seems to me, that you don’t fit the descriptions that you give me of the ‘rejects’." The Magog said.
"Well, let’s see it’s like this. Either I fought with someone who I knew I couldn’t beat or I ran until I could fight him. I decided I wanted to live. As the old adage says, ‘Run to live to fight another day.’ Nietzscheans survive. We may not always win but we survive and if we survive then sooner or later we will win if only by surviving until everyone else is dead."
"I see. Thank you for this glimpse into Nietzschean philosophy."
"Welcome."
"Captain?"
"Yes, Rev?"
"What are you going to do about the other Nietzscheans on planplanet?"
"I don’t know." Dylan said, slipping into his chair.
"Why do anything, Hunt? Tyr killed one of them sey hey have food, if they die before someone comes looking for the colonists, then they obviously are more inferior than was previously thought. If they do manage to survive then they might just get a woman to show some interest in them." Raa stated. "Besides if you bring them on board you either have to keep them locked up or take them as crew. Keep them locked up and they will find a way out, and then they’ll either steal a ship or find a set of Nietzscheans to take over this one. Let them run free and the first time any Nietzschean vessel comes within range they’ll betray you to them in return for status and a chance of breeding.
"As is, next time you run into a Nietzschean vessel you will do well to keep Tyr and myself under your eyes. After all, you should have learned by now that Nietzscheans have the original mercenary mindset. I noticed that Beka Valentine is your First Officer, which meant Gaheris Rhade did not manage to take over this ship. One could assume he was alive but you did not list him in your crew, which means he died. Most likely he died by your hand. Strange that a human could actually manage to kill one of us. Lucky shot, I bet."
"Yes, he did. So you are saying, I can’t trust you or Tyr when there are other Nietzscheans around?"
"I'm saying," said Raa behind clenched teeth, "that you can't afford to take any chances with us. We are Nietzscheans and we always survive by taking the winning side. If you can’t win then we won’t stand with you. Not unless we really believe in what you are selling, and that’s not likely. You are an optimist in a universe where optimism almost always gets people killed. I’m glad you believe you can survive your optimism but I don’t have any reassurance that I will. Now you can either drop me off at the next habitable planet or you get yourself a new crewman. Either way, I survive. And I know these are you only two choices cause you are if nothing else Captain Dylan Hunt of the High Guard. Well?"