Author's Note: This is the sequel to "Illusions." It picks up directly where "Illusions" left off, so please, read that first!

Characters: Beka, T. Rhade, Dylan, Harper, Trance, Rommie and (as of right now) one original character

Disclaimer: Story's mine, but, as usual, that's about it! (And I'm still not making any money off them!)

Rating: So far, only PG for violence and graphic images

"Omega Blue"

By Meg Jordan

Chapter 1

"All senior officers to Command," Andromeda's voice echoed through the ship. "All senior officers to Command."

On the Obs Deck, Beka snapped shut a small golden locket, fastening it around her neck as she began jogging toward Command. She heard a yell from the side.

"Hey, Boss!" Harper shouted, jogging alongside her. Beka slowed her pace to a walk. "You know what's going on?"

Beka shook her head. "No idea," she told him. "I was in the Obs Deck."

"Hey, whazat?" Harper asked, pointing at the locket.

Beka defensively tucked it under her shirt. "Nothing."

Harper smirked. "C'mon, Boss, who's it from?"

"No one," Beka replied, giving Harper the evil eye.

Harper's smirk widened. "I'm gonna hazard a guess," he said in that tone of voice that made people want to strangle him. "Is it Mr... Tall, Dark, and Nietzschean?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Harper, you are truly annoying," Beka told him.

"It is! Ha!" Harper exclaimed in triumph just as Telemachus and trance joined up with them from another corridor.

"What is?" Telemachus asked.

"See!" Harper announced. "It's Mr. Tall, Dark, and Nietzschean himself!"

Telemachus gave them both an odd look. "I assume there's something someone's not telling me," he said, clearly irritated.

Harper smirked up at the Nietzschean. "I was saying that you and Bek-"

Beka interrupted him. "He was just being nosy as usual. He thought you," she lifted the locket, "gave me this." When Harper looked at the Nietzschean, Beka shot Rhade a look that said cover for me!

Telemachus looked at Harper in what appeared to be genuine puzzlement and took the locket from Beka, opening it, looking at it, then tossing it to Harper. "Why would I give Beka a holo of her father?"

Harper looked in it, then cast an apologetic look at Beka. "Sorry, Boss."

Beka gave him a friendly swat on the head. "S'okay."

As Harper went on ahead of them, Rhade handed Beka the locket he had originally given her, taking the one he had showed Harper.

"Nice sleight-of-hand," Beka complimented him in a low voice.

Telemachus shrugged. "Not much," he responded, then smiled. "But now you owe me a favor."

"And what do you want in return?" Beka asked warily.

Telemachus smiled as they followed Harper into the Command Deck, walking to their respective stations.

"What's the problem?" Beka asked.

"Small ship heading toward us," Andromeda responded from the viewscreen in front of them. "A cargo freighter, the Dusky Rose. She's allied with us, even delivered supplies to us once."

"So what's the problem?" Beka asked again, slowly.

"It's moving slowly and inconsistently," the humanoid avatar Rommie said. "And I'm only reading one life-sign.

"I'm receiving a hail," Andromeda said. "Audio only."

"Play it," Dylan ordered.

Andromeda was replaced by the image of a medium-sized cargo ship; obviously the Dusky Rose. There was a pause, and then a little girl's voice. "Visual, visual, where is the visu-" An image appeared onscreen, and Beka swallowed, trying to keep her midday meal down.

It was a girl, maybe six or seven years old. It was hard to tell, because her skin looked like it was slowly being eaten away by acid. Beka could hear the tears choked back in the girl's voice as she begged:

"Please, someone, help me."