"I was talking to Oren the other day." "Back from the city so soon?" "Just to visit." "But you should've seen him." "He had all new clothes on and his own strider." "Good for Oren." "Yeah, he says they need weavers in Hegel's Port." "You could make good money." "What about you?" "I can work as a loader, or go on one of the big boats, like Oren." "You're too young." "Besides, I promised your father I'd stay here and look out for you." "I'm almost sixteen." "I don't need looking out for." "And I'm not going to stay here for the rest of my life, in the middle of nowhere, fishing." "And giving half the harvest to the Dragons, anyway." "It's not so bad." "Compared to what?" "The universe can be a dangerous place, Breyon." "There are a lot worse places than this." "Believe me." "I don't get you." "You weren't born here." "You're not even my real mother, so why do you bother?" "Your father was a good man." "I loved him." "And I made him a promise." "Well, if you loved him so much, why don't you help fight the Dragons, huh?" "I'm going to forget you said that." "You gonna forget what they did to him, too?" "How they didn't just kill him?" "How they cut him up and fed him to the fish?" "I'm gonna pay 'em back." "You'll see." "What was that?" "A ship." "Dragons." "It's not on their normal landing approach." "Well, it has to be them." "Nobody else ever comes around here." "You think somebody shot him down?" "Where are you going?" "!" "They're crashing." "Someone might be hurt." "If they're Dragons, they got whatever they deserve." "And if they're not?" "Stay here." "M'Lord." "I didn't realize." "I came to see if you needed help." "M'Lord?" "Where am I?" "You're on Midden, m'lord." "Melanzey Inlet." "I'm Yvaine Gwennens-daughter." "All right." "One more question:" "Who am I?" "The long night has come." "The Systems Commonwealth, the greatest civilization in history, has fallen." "But now, one ship, one crew, have vowed to drive back the night and rekindle the light of civilization." "On the starship Andromeda, hope lives again." "." "There's plenty to eat, as long as you like fish." "We grow a few vegetables up on the hillside." "Do Nietzscheans eat vegetables?" "We can eat virtually anything, so long as it's organic." "Well, we've got plenty of driftwood." "I'm sorry, I meant no disrespect." "You've been very hospitable." "Are you all right?" "You still can't remember anything..." "I know I am a Nietzschean." "I can remember general facts and information, but my personal memories I only have glimpses images." " I'm sure once I contact the Dragons,..." " Dragons?" "It's a nickname we have for your family, the Drago-Kasov Pride." "Midden is one of their your tributary worlds, m'Lord." "Drago-Kasov." "You will tell them nothing." "But, m'Lord..." "Do what I say!" "Nietzschean family relations are..." "complicated." "Until I have my proper wits about me, I prefer to remain anonymous." "Of course." "Please, make yourself comfortable." "I have to tend to my nets." "Are you insane?" "Bringing that Dragon into our house?" "I don't think he's a Dragon." "The way he said Kasov, like it was an insult." "He's still a Nietzschean." "Well, what was I supposed to do?" "Leave him to die?" "Why not?" "It's what he would've done if we were dying." "You think he'd lift a finger to help us?" "I can't live my life like a Nietzschean." "Besides, think, Breyon." "What if he is one of them?" "If I left him there and he died, then what would have happened?" "The Dragons would have killed you, me, and half the people on this inlet." "I'm so sick of this." "I'm sick of feeding them, I'm sick of kissing their feet." "I wish they'd all just disappear." "Rocks might as well try to wish away the ocean." "Well, I'm not a rock." "I'm a human being." "That's the problem." "We're only humans." "I thought you went to bed." "Yeah, I didn't sleep very well." "Is anything wrong?" "Yeah, actually, uhm..." "I kept dreaming about you." "It was very,..." "what's the opposite of sleep-inducing?" "Arousing." "Yeh...it wasn't that kind of dream." "It was very disturbing." "Yeah, that's the word I was looking for." "It was disturbing." "You know, you were..." "King Arthur, and I was Guenevere..." " I thought it wasn't that kind of dream." "...and we were discussing our taxes." "I wanted you to demand a tribute from the Saxons, and you, of course, wanted to give back all the money that we'd gotten from them so far." "And then, in walked Merlin, only he looked exactly like Andromeda." "Ah, lucky him." " Andromeda the ship, not the persona." " Ah." "BUT wearing a big, pointy hat...?" "So, this is the disturbing part." "No, that's still coming." "Anyway,... he said she said, that the kingdom was in trouble, and if we didn't start doing something about it, we would have to sell the Round Table." "We are not using the Andromeda to carry cargo." "You're jumping ahead a little!" "That is where you were going." "Uh, no, actually, I had in mind a mining operation." "Wanna see?" "C'mon." "C'mon." "Look Andromeda has a cargo capacity of ten million cubic meters." "Now, I've heard that there are asteroids in the Katana System that are made of pure platinum." "I say we take the point defense lasers and carve out just f..." "No." "Exactly what you said in my dream." "Oh, and I meant it." "As soon as we find Tyr, we're heading straight for Asampa to meet with the local Than." "Fine." "You'd rather chat with the local bugs than make a small fortune, who am I to argue?" "W-w-w-wait." "You still haven't told me the disturbing part." "Oh, yeah." "There was this whole, uh, Lancelot thing." "I, I really don't want to get into it." "I'll teach you rule number one." "You NEVER aim a gun at someone unless you intend to use it." "Go ahead." "Shoot me." "Sooner or later, Midden will be free of you Dragon bastards." "You keep talking as if I am a member of the Drago-Kasov Pride." "But I, I think I hate them even more than you do." "Here." "You're wrong about hating them more than we do." "Dragons have occupied this planet for centuries, killed millions of people." "And every time we try and get rid of 'em..." "It just makes things worse." "They killed him." "They killed my father." "Please, m'lord." "He didn't mean any harm." "He's just a boy." "I won't hurt him." "You mean that?" "Look at me, woman." "I don't know who I am." "I don't know where I am." "My ship is wrecked, I have no resources." "My survival, it seems, would depend on establishing a relationship with the native inhabitants of this planet, beginning with you." "You really don't remember anything?" "Not even your name?" "Nothing." "So what are we gonna call you?" "Anything you like." "Do you know "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"?" "An ancient Earth novel about a mysterious ship's captain seeking vengeance against his enemies." "And what did they call him?" "The Latin word for "no one":" "Nemo." "Still nothing?" "And the saddest part is, I could probably fly this wreck, if I had to." "But I'll be damned if I know what it's called or where I'd go." "This is important." "I'm certain of it!" "I, I, I..." "Maybe if you opened it." "A three-stage lock." "Keyhole, genetic scanner, voice-code recognition system." "Keyhole, and, and I have a key." "Provide scan." "Authorized." "Provide voice code." "Incorrect code will trigger self-destruct." "Do you wish to continue the unlock sequence?" "If yes, provide the voice code." "If no, remove the physical key." "unlock sequence aborted." "Open it now!" "Let go of me!" " Wait here." "No." "I can help." "Nietzscheans aren't very popular around here." "Get off of me!" "That's all there is!" "What do you mean that's all there is?" "I told you, that's all we can spare." "You're holding out on me." "Let him go, Hanno." "Yvaine." "Lovely, as always." "Save it." "You just get out!" "I think you'd be more grateful." "Grateful?" "For what?" "For blockading the roads?" "Stealing our harvests?" "Ambushing our convoys on the way to market?" "We are fighting to free Midden from the Dragons." "My husband was a patriot." "You're nothing but a thief." "A thief is someone who takes what they want." "Is that what I am?" "Be careful." "I might live up to your expectations." "Or, you might not live at all." "Ha!" "I wouldn't." "Drop your weapons and get face-down on the floor or she dies." "You're making a mistake." "I don't make mistakes." "Tie him up!" "Hanno, don't." "Why are you protecting this...uber?" "She's not protecting me." "She's protecting you." "That's enough!" "It's enough when I say it is." "You don't have to live here." "I do!" "And if you kill him, I'm as good as dead." "Lady's got a point." "Help me with them." "Carry out your own trash." " Anything?" " Not yet." "Damn that Nietzschean." "If he stole my ship..." "I'm not worried about your ship." "I'm worried about Tyr." "'Kay..." "Ok, you know, before he left, I did warn him that the Maru had a bad plasma regulator." "If he was planning on doing any tricky maneuvering, he would have had to fix it." "We should check all local drifts see if he tried to get a replacement." "Yeah." "It's a start, anyway." "Still no luck?" "Something scrambled the main database." "Most of the records are badly garbled." "Well, at least you know your name." "Barabas Jericho:" "Owner and operator of the Klondike Trail." "Faked." "You sure?" "I may not know my real name, but I know it's not Barabas." "Pilots license, registry, course logs all forgeries." "On the bright side, I know what happened to my memory." "Some kind of machine?" "That is an attack nanobot, designed to scramble electrical systems, both mechanical and biological." "The ship was infested with them, and so was I." "They were in your blood?" "You're lucky they didn't kill you." "I'm a Nietzschean." "I have a bio-engineered immune system." "Defensive nanobots of my own." "They stopped the attack and should repair the damage." "Eventually." "And then what?" "And then I go back to my life, whatever that is." "How did you end up here, in a place like this?" "You certainly don't look like a fishmonger." "It's honest work." "A lot better than some of the other things I've had to do." "The Dragons have ruled here for centuries." "You know we can't beat them, but people get a little crazy sometimes." "It happened in my home city, Nisalla, when I was ten." "We tried to fight." "Your people lost." "Worse." "We won." "We wiped out the local garrison." "The next day, the Dragons dropped an atomic warhead on the city." "I was the only member of my family who made it out." "My parents." "Something happened to them, something something similar." "And I think the Drago-Kasov I can't remember." "I wish I could say that." "The next few years were rough." "I made it to Hegel's Port somehow, and then I met Larone, Breyon's father." "He was kind, gentle, quiet but intense." "He asked me to come back with him." "To me, this was paradise, living with Larone helping him raise Breyon until the madness came here, too." "The Dragons increased the tribute levels, so the local fishermen stopped paying in protest." "The Dragons killed one-tenth of the male population of the province including Larone." "That's a ship." "Headed for the landing field outside Hegel's Port." "Which means the Dragons are coming." "You don't have to go." "We can hide you here." "And if the Dragons come?" "They might not even be looking for you." "They're my enemies." "The more I think about it, the more certain I am of that." "We could fight." "I could spread the word." "We'd have a small army in a couple of hours." "Dragons can't win forever, and maybe with your help..." "Even with my help, a great many of your people will die." "Your mother's right." "It's madness." "I'll leave." "There's another option." "You could give them what they want." "You think they're after that crate." "You won't miss it." "You don't even know what it is." "And no one will have to die." "I can't." "That crate it's mine." "I can feel it." "Live well." "Warning." "AG Field cannot be activated without proper security code." "Warning." "AG Field cannot be activated without proper security..." "FINE!" "I'll do it myself." "Pay attention." "Clear." "Clear." "Anything on the sniffer?" "I'm picking up trace from the target." "He was here." "What about the package?" "I've got it!" "Man, this is gonna get Histar's attention." "Worry about fathering children later." "Focus on the job." "Get me an uplink to satellite." "Give them a lock on our position." "What are you waiting for?" "Shoot me." "I don't waste resources." "And I don't cooperate with the enemy of my Pride." "Fine." "I want a name." "Arden Lya, Drago-Kasov Pride." "Not your name." "Mine." "We don't know." "Is that what you wanna hear?" "Why don't you tell me?" "I'll make sure that they spell it right on your grave marker." "Lift it." "Do what I say." "Good." "Now walk." "Keep moving." "Why?" "As soon as we're done, you're just gonna kill me." "Might as well get it over with." "I'm tired!" "You're a husband and father." "Then you owe it to your mate and your children to keep yourself alive for as long as possible, hmmm?" "Lift that crate." "He went to the Drago-Kasov homeworld?" "!" "Hey, my exact reaction." "Why would Tyr walk into the stronghold of his mortal enemies?" "I'll see your question and I'll raise you one." "What did he do when he got there?" "Look at that." "A couple of hours after he landed, the Drago's mobilized their entire fleet." "That's Tyr." "He always loved a party." "I can't carry it any further." "That's far enough." "I recommend that you don't move until nightfall." "I may still be out there in the trees somewhere." "And if I see you again, I'll kill you." "You're keeping me alive?" "Apparently." "You're Kodiak Pride, aren't you?" "What if I am?" "I was right about what I was carrying." "It was an honor." "Kodiak." "My lineage was also proud." "The Kodiak were entrusted with the remains of the original progenitor." "You've actually seen the body of Drago Museveni?" "As a child." "mummified remains were enshrined in our fasthold." "From all over the known worlds would make pilgrimages to see it." "We lived under a permanent truce, and our allies guaranteed our safety." "Until the Drago-Kasov pride claimed they were the Progenitor's rightful keepers." "We fought so very fiercely." "Authorized." "Provide voice code." "Voice code:" "Retribution." "Authorized." "Locks disengaged." "Drago Museveni, I presume?" "Spread out and find the Kodiak." "Remember, we need him alive, so no mistakes." "Stay down!" "Stay down!" "Please." "Reach for your gun." "Give me an excuse." "You said you'd kill me next time you saw me." "Care to try your luck?" "I said that I'd kill you." "I didn't say when." "Hey, you just missed the fun." "I snuck past an entire Nietzschean battle group and left them chasing their own tails." "Andromeda kept me up to date." "It looked like you had everything well in hand." "Thanks for the vote of confidence." "You've earned it." "But one thing bothers me." "What's that?" "I was curious about how you managed to track Tyr, so I had Andromeda review your link-up with the Drift." "I had no idea you were so good with I.S. systems." "Ah." "You found my hack." "Ah." "I did." "You rifled through the station's entire database." "And I found Tyr's departure route." "Hmmm." "Among other things." "You copied files from all over the Drift." "Scientific research reports, archeological journals, shipping data..." "Somehow, I get the feeling that Tyr wasn't all you were looking for." "Dylan, really, why do you think I'm here?" "I mean, you won't let me use Andromeda for running cargo." "I'm not allowed to mine." "God knows you're not PAYING me." "I like your whole idea of the Commonwealth, but do you really think that's the only thing that's keeping me around?" "I prefer to." "Come on, Dylan." "Your entire crew has an ulterior motive." "Rev Bem wants to use your Commonwealth to spread his faith." "Harper is in lust with your ship." "Tyr's always plotting something, and God only knows what, uh, the purple one's up to." "Does it really surprise you to find out that I'm no different?" "No." "I suppose not." " I'm here, aren't I?" " For now." "Ok, the way things are going these days, "now" is all we've got." "Nemo." " You shouldn't be here." " Stay low." "I'll try to get you away from them." "Wait for me." "I'll get Breyon." "I should leave head out on my own." "And go where?" "You need a guide." "Hey!" "Why are you doing this?" "Maybe the madness finally got me, too." "I wouldn't." "Smart little kludge." "See." "I told you I could find him for you." "And you." "Garbage removed, I'd say." "I'm sorry, Nemo." "I don't blame you." "How touching." "Now, about my reward." "Of course." "Humans." "Intimidation and strength are the only currency a Nietzschean needs." "Wouldn't you agree?" "You kill me, and you'll never find your prize." "That's where intimidation comes in." "Either you tell us what we want to know, or we'll kill your friends." "Fine." "no!" "I'm all right." "There." "That takes care of that." "Now, the crate." "I'll lead you to it." "But you let them go, first." "No, they come with us, for insurance." "Lead on." "There's one thing I don't understand." "Why do you care about these kludges?" "They're nothing." "Nothing..." "they're the people who feed you, the people who clothe you." "If it weren't for enslaved worlds, the Drago-Kasov Pride would cease to exist." "Ruling over them doesn't make you strong, it makes you dependent and weak." "Strong enough to turn Kodiak Pride to dust." "I should have killed you." "It's this way." "Wait!" "You go first." "We don't want any surprises." "Go to hell." "You see, they do it to themselves." "Stop!" "Now, it works both ways, doesn't it?" "So long as I'm trying to protect them, you can force me to cooperate." "But just as soon as they're dead, I'll have nothing to lose." "Only one problem." "There's two of them, and I have a spare." "Breyon, do as he says." "You heard her." "Call for reinforcements!" "Breyon!" "Give up!" "You're nothing!" "You're no one!" "You're wrong." "I am TYR ANASAZI OF KODIAK PRIDE!" "Out of Victoria by Barbarossa!" "And I will NEVER surrender!" "Is he all right?" "I think he'll be ok." "GO!" "There's no way out." "Give it up." "Now!" "Fine." "Reseal the cave." "Pump it full of nerve gas." "Excuse us." "I don't know what kind of game you're playing here, but nerve gas, I would have to say, is out of bounds." "That's a charged forcelance pointed at you." "I'd play nice." " Friends of yours?" " Yes." "I believe they are." "Beka says she's got the Maru up and running again." "That's a pleasant surprise." "Rather like your arrival." "In the old days, when High Guard officers went missing in enemy territory we found them, no matter what." " These aren't the old days." "Not yet, but I'm working on it." "Better get going, before the Drago-Kasov bring in more troops." "I'll need just a few minutes." "Dylan, thank you." "So, what will you do?" "I had considered staying though I couldn't quite tell you why." "You risked your life for whatever is in that crate." "I'm betting you're not gonnajust forget about it." "And even if you wanted to, do you really think the Dragons would leave you alone?" "I might ask you the same question." "Midden is a big planet." "Breyon and I we can move, disappear." "But you could never do that." "There is another option." "You and Breyon could come with m... us." "And join you on your grand adventure?" "I've had enough adventure to last a lifetime." "All I want is to tend my nets, to grow old on the same world where I was born." "Plus, on adventures, people die." "And I don't want to see you, or anyone else I care about, die." "Not again." "I guess that makes me a coward." "You're much braver than you know." "So." "Live well, Yvaine Gwennens-daughter." "Live well, Tyr Anasazi." "Out of Victoria by Barbarossa." "So, Tyr." "Are you ever going to tell me what we're transporting, here?" "Something that belongs to me." "Something that's belonged to me all along."