AN: Sorry about the wait, life has been getting in the way.

AaA Andromeda Ascendant – The Past AaA

He couldn't believe his eyes when they first caught the sleek lines and graceful curves of the ship, her hull was like nothing he'd ever seen. The ships that existed today were all blocky constructs designed to simply do their jobs. The Andromeda Ascendant was designed to be a warship and a piece of art, from her cargo bays to the bridge, every hall and bulkhead was sculpted by a master artisan.

Harper was truly at a loss for words when he first stepped on to the ship that was art, his hand trailed across every contoured surface, feeling and taking in the care and love that the designers had for these Commonwealth ships.

Pulling himself from his reverie he reached up to scratch the rash that covered his neck, absently making mental notes about the engineering of the ship as he made his way toward engineering.

[[Seamus, what's taking so long]], Beka asked through the commlink.

"I'm going as fast as I can Boss, do you have any idea how huge this ship is? And all the corridors still look alike to me."

[[Well hurry up, we need life-support as soon as possible, the air in here is too stale to be healthy]].

Harper sighed in frustration before he thumbed the link on and replied, "I'll do my best."

Running his hand down his face he sighed again.

"I'm not getting paid enough for this," he said with an exhausted exhalation.

You don't get paid enough for a lot of things Seamus, Zelazny commented as Harper followed the map in his hand to main engineering and the life-support system. Ignoring Zelazny, he finally found the doors he needed.

With a grin he palmed open to door and stepped inside.

His breath caught as the sheer size of engineering rose before him, but the size was nothing compared to the most beautiful thing that he'd ever seen in his short life, the Andromeda's Slipstream core. Well, the second most beautiful thing after Trance, but no one needed to know that little secret, especially his sparkly purple princess.

If there had been anyone watching they would have laughed at the awestruck look on his face, the total and utter admiration he was directing to the marvel that surrounded him would be enough to make any woman blush.

Unbeknownst to Harper that's what was happening, more or less, on the bridge with the Andromeda AI as she monitored his progress. As he moved she was aware of every touch and look the engineer gave her, even if no one else knew it, not even Dylan, who was currently on his way to intercept the man who was currently making her wish she were able to physically blush.

As she watched he found the controls he needed and set to work taking the life-support system out of standby mode and get the air handlers circulating the air once again. Despite having spent the last 200 years on the edge of an event horizon in suspended animation the air itself had gone a bit stale, partially in thanks to the Nietzschean mutiny.

Andromeda studied the young man again, his fingers flew over the console as if he had been trained in a Commonwealth Academy, but she also knew from the latent communication signals in the surrounding space that the Commonwealth had fallen, not a single Highguard carrier wave was to be found among the noise of the Hawking Radiation from the black hole.

She sighed as she watched Dylan scare the living daylights out of the young man, fortunately after he got the air moving again. Watching as her captain forcefully removed the young man from engineering she blanked that feed as she watched the other members of the salvage crew making their way through the various sections of the ship.

Focusing her feeds on one she followed the most intriguing of the group, the young purple alien with a tail.

Trance hummed happily to herself as she walked the halls of the ship, she hadn't been given any specific destination other than to find the bridge, but she had been drawn toward where she felt a large natural body.

Arriving where the pull drew her she found the largest ship based hydroponics bay she'd ever seen, and at the center of it was a now extinct tree that she knew to be the best oxygen producer in the universe. She was ecstatic to see that the tree was still alive.

Stopping to take in the rest of the bay she closed her eyes and just felt the nature around her, felt the flow of water through the roots as it started moving again. She inhaled the fresher air of the bay, the plants producing clean oxygen that filled her lungs with a subtle floral aroma.

After standing there several moments the chatter between Beka and Harper broke her reverie. She started to suppress a smile when she thought about him, but then realized no one could see her and happily smiled as thoughts of her best friend flowed through her mind like the water in the roots of the plants.

She began to absently hum a love song she'd heard in a bar on a Drift once when the Maru had docked to resupply. That song had always reminded her of Harper and she would hum it when she was alone and missing him.

Even now, as she left the hydroponics bay in search of the bridge, happy thoughts of him came to her mind. He was the only person who could elicit these happy feelings in her, even if he didn't know it and probably never would.

Trance absently hummed her song as she wandered the halls of the seemingly dead ship, her mind swimming in thoughts of Harper even as her body moved on autopilot, at least that was the case until her comm chirped to life.

[[All crew back to the Maru, we have a situation]], Beka's voice commanded over the communicators.

With a frown Trance turned and started to make her way back toward the Maru.

AaA

"I'm telling you, Boss, this guy was like a Greek god, like Hercules or something."

"Do you even know who Hercules is, Master Harper?" Rev asked from where he sat in the Maru's kitchen.

"Well, no, but I've heard the name before and he has to be strong or something, right?" He asked as he directed the last word toward Trance who merely shrugged as she didn't know about Earth mythology.

Beka sighed as she put her face in her hands.

"Do we even know who he is?" she asked through her fingers, dropping her hands when she was met with silence.

"No ideas?" she queried her crew in addition to the client that had hired them for this salvage job.

"By the looks of his uniform he might be one of the original crew," Harper said into the silence, the idea having come from Zelazny, not that they needed to know that.

"Then how is he still alive," Beka said in frustration, "he should be over 200 years old."

More silence met her question before Harper once again filled the void.

"I think I know," he said as he sat on the counter next to Trance, having had to jump to get high enough to join her, their shoulders barely touching. "Dilation."

"Care to explain further?" Beka asked when he didn't elaborate.

"Time dilation," he said as he leaned across Trance to grab something on the other side of her, causing a massive blush to spread across the girl's face, Harper of course was oblivious. Grabbing the objects he needed he held one in each hand.

"Imagine the plate is the black hole," he said as he held the object out toward Beka.

"Ok," she replied skeptically as she gestured for her engineer to continue.

"This cup is the Andromeda, the gorgeous ship that she is," he went on as he showed the metal object the crew called a cup.

"Please get on with the explanation Master Harper," Rev said with a gesture of his claw. Harper sighed as he 'got on with it' and continued explaining. As he held both objects he was acutely aware of Trance's warm body pressed against his side on the small countertop.

Swallowing to wet his dry throat he continued even as her heat burned at his senses and overwhelmed his mind.

"The rim of the plate is the event horizon of the black hole, as the Andromeda got closer to the rim time began to slow down." He said as he moved the objects near each other. "While the time for the rest of the universe continued to move at the normal pace, time inside the Andromeda began to slow until it eventually stopped almost entirely. What were 200 years for the universe was mere seconds for them."

"But why?" Trance asked as she took the cup from Harper and looked at it before returning her eyes to him.

"A black hole has a very strong gravitational field, which we saw when we were pulling the Andromeda out of it. The gravity of the black hole is so extreme that it bends the curvature of space around it, making the time that passes near the event horizon slow due to the warped spacetime. Thankfully the Andromeda was on the edge of the event horizon and only affected by what's called gravitational time dilation, if she had been inside she would have been lost to the gravitational forces of the black hole and torn apart as soon as she entered."

Silence reigned in the kitchen as everyone stared at Harper with various expressions, Admiration from Trance and Rev, Shock from Beka, and the client.

"Her orbit was decaying," the client said as he managed to recover his wits, "that is why this job was such a rush."

"It's also why it was so hard to pull her out," Harper said as he put the plate back on the other side of Trance, his arm brushing her stomach and sending a shock through them both. "The gravity of a black hole is so massive that not only does it compress space and slow time, but light can't even escape from it. The closer an object gets to the black hole, the more the gravity will pull it in. If we hadn't freed the Andromeda then she would have been pulled into the event horizon and destroyed."

"Well, that explains our unexpected guest," Beka said as she sighed again. "He must have been left behind when the rest of the crew jettisoned in the escape pods. But that still leaves the question of what to do about him."

"I might have a solution," the client said after several moments of silence. However, before he could elaborate or anyone else could ask for details the sound of heavy boots was heard in the hallway.

Soon an armed man followed by two armed robots stood in the door of the kitchen, the robots' weapons trained on the people inside while the man stood with his arms at his side, his hand hovering near a holster and the weapon inside it.

"I'm Captain Dylan Hunt of the Systems Commonwealth warship Andromeda Ascendant, what the hell are you doing on my ship."