Chapter 13

Talia rounded to corner on the way to Command smirking slightly. Her feet were clanging noisily as she walked. Her bodyguard, Henry, and personally assistant, Amarintha, rounded another corner and met Talia at a crossroads between the four halls. Talia looked at the questioningly. They merely nodded and followed Talia to Command.

Dylan stood and nodded to Talia as she entered. Before she and Beka could start another shouting match, alarms went off.

"It's the Marhegans." Rommie said.

"What?" Dylan said over the sound of the alarms. He turned to Talia "I thought you said it would be days before they came back?"

Talia, cool and calm as always walked up to the screen with Henry and Amarintha.

"I lied." In an instant, Talia had a gun in each hand, one trained on Dylan and one at Beka. Henry pointed one at Trance and one on Rhade. Amarintha had both trained on Rommie, who smirked.

"Those wont work on me." She said smugly.

Talia smiled brightly. "Even if they didn't, you wouldn't want to try anything or we would shoot your captain. Besides, these are Marhegan technology. Not only do they kill on contact but they can fry your electronic systems, so don't try anything."

"I don't believe you." Rommie said.

"Really." Amarintha said and aimed one of the guns at a Maria bot. a sickening crunch echoed through command as the shot sent the bot back into the rail. But instead of hitting the rail, the force blasted the Maria bot so hard the rail cut it in half. Everyone's eyebrows went up, or jaws dropped.

"Now, to your Captain's quarters." Talia said motioning with the gun.

"Andromeda wont open the doors for you." Dylan said.

"She doesn't have to, the bitchy AI is currently trapped in her matrix. She has no control over the ship until I say so." Talia said tapping a box attached to her hip. "Marhegan technology."

Beka, Rhade, Trance, Dylan and Rommie sat at the table trying to figure out a plan.

"I think it is obvious Talia and the Marhegans have met before." Dylan said.

"No shit Sherlock." Beka snapped.

"Excuse me?" Dylan asked, shocked.

"She was lying. The Marhegans are rag-tag assassins. They've been acquaintances with Odekyrke for years." Beka said.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this?" Dylan asked.

"I tried! You wouldn't listen to me. I tried to explain this morning but you told me to stop giving her a bad time." Beka snapped.

"Fine." Dylan said. "Now the question is what are they hired to do?"

"Assassinate one or all of the Triumvirs?" Rommie suggested.

"Maybe, but somehow I doubt it. What does Talia have to gain if the Triumvirs are dead?" Dylan mused.

No one spoke for a minute, then Trance spoke up. "Perhaps…Talia is trying to up her status in the Commonwealth."

"How could killing the triumvirs make her status increase?" Rhade asked.

"She doesn't have to kill them. That isn't her aim." Trance said.

"Care to elaborate on that?" Beka asked.

"I…I'm not sure what her true motive is." Trance said looking away, obviously trying to conceal her true thoughts.

"Well it's fairly obvious if we need to get anything done, we need to get out of here." Beka said slamming her fist into the door.

"I believe we have overlooked a very important element here." Rhade said suddenly.

"What?" Dylan asked. "We've done all I can think of."

"Not quite, we have forgotten one of the key players in this. Harper." Rhade said.