"Vedran Sunset"
by Jedi Adia

Disclaimers: I don't own Andromeda! It belongs to the people associated with
Gene Roddenberry. And the character Libbi Gemini - I created her, so I guess
that means she's mine.


Trance and Sheamus go on a mission in the Eureka Maru and discover a way into
Tarn Vedra, which was cut off from the slipstream during the fall of the
Commonwealth.
**

"Good luck on the mission," Dylan Hunt's voice came over the comm.

"And take care of my ship, or else you're really going to get it this time,
Harper," Beka said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sheamus said. Trance leaned closer to him so that Dylan and
Beka wouldn't hear.

"I think she means it, Harper."

Sheamus shivered with delight at having Trance so close to him. He sighed.
Maybe she was finally changing her mind. But then she moved away, and he
groaned inwardly. "OK, guys, we'll be back," Sheamus said. "And Beka, I'll take
care of her, I promise." He signed off and turned to Trance. "Ready to go,
babe?"

Trance rolled her eyes. When was he ever going to give up? "Yes," she said. She
strapped in, as Sheamus prepared for slipstream. "Are *you* ready to go?
Honestly, I agree with Beka. Maybe I should drive."

"Yeah right. Streaming...now!" Everything became distorted, as the Eureka Maru
entered slipstream.

Suddenly, they were jolted out of the stream.

"What the-" Harper unstrapped and checked the sensors. Trance looked at what
lay ahead of them.

"There's a breach in the slipstream," Harper said.

"It looks like a wormhole in normal space."

"That's essentially what it is," Harper said grimly. Dylan wasn't going to be
happy with this.

"Maybe we should check it out. Otherwise, we can only go back the way we came."

"Which Dylan wouldn't like. We need to get those parts for the slipstream
drive," Harper said. "I'm going to scan for the nearest inhabited planet. Maybe
they can help us." He ran through the scan and then looked up at the viewport.
"Looks like it's right through the breach." He came back to the helm and drove
them through. A planet came into view and Sheamus started toward it. They
landed a few minutes later.

"What is this place?" Trance asked, as they went toward some buildings nearby.
They had landed on the outskirts of a rather large village.

"I'm not sure...whatever it is, they can't be much. I seriously doubt that they
would have parts for a slipstream drive," Sheamus said. "because they're cut
off from the slipstream."

When they arrived, many people eyed them with curiosity. They obviously didn't
see people from off-planet very much. They looked around for signs that would
tell them where they were, and there was a large one nearby.

"Welcome to Vedra City, the capital of Tarn Vedra," Sheamus read aloud. "Tarn
Vedra? Where have I heard that before?"

"It's Dylan's home planet," Trance said, her voice tinged with awe. "Harper, I
can't believe we're actually here!" She looked up at him. It was apparently
just dawning on him. "Remember when Beka tried so hard to get here? It was the
time that I was sick, because we had streamed so much."

"And Beka got addicted to Flash? Yeah, sure I remember that," Sheamus said.
"Wow."

They walked toward the nearest restaurant, realizing that they hadn't eaten in
quite some time. After that, they'd have to find a place to stay - either that
or go back to the Maru. It was getting late.

After ordering, Trance looked around. The people here were so different. It was
because of seclusion, she knew. Some of them looked back at her, many of them
with surprise. One of them approached her.

"Who are you?"

"I'm-"

Sheamus put a hand over hers. "Trance," he said through gritted teeth in a low
voice.

"We thought there was only one of your kind," the stranger said. "That's why I
ask."

"Trance," she whispered. "Trance Gemini."

The stranger took a breath and looked somewhere behind him. He finally saw the
person he was looking for and brought her over. Trance gasped. This one was
just like her!

"Trance?! What are you doing here?" The girl asked.

"I..."

"Trance - it's your cousin Libbi!"

"Hey, uh, Trance? I didn't know you had family here," Sheamus said. "Never mind
that - I didn't know you had family at all!"

"That's because I didn't know she was here," Trance hissed.

"Who's this?" Libbi asked.

"Sheamus Harper, my...traveling companion," Trance explained.

"Do you guys have anywhere to stay?" Libbi asked.

"I think we'll be staying on our ship - it's just outside of town," Sheamus
said. Their food had arrived by then and Sheamus turned to the waiter. "Can we
take this to go?" The waiter nodded and was back moments later with a bag.

"Trance, we should probably get going," Sheamus whispered.

"We just got here," Trance whispered back.

"We'll be back tomorrow - we'll have to come back tomorrow to look for parts.
It's getting too late now."

"You can go back to the Maru. I'm spending the night here," Trance whispered
firmly.

"Um, can I speak to you for a minute, Trance?" Sheamus said. He looked at Libbi
and her friend. "Alone." They took the hint and left them alone. "Trance, you
don't know this place. It could be dangerous."

"I have my force lance," Trance said. "and the fighting skills I learned from
Tyr."

"That doesn't stop me from worrying about you, Trance."

"I'm still staying, Harper." Trance walked away and he grabbed her wrist. She
shook him off and went to find Libbi. They had some catching up to do.

Later that same evening, Libbi and Trance were laughing on the hill outside
Libbi's house. The sunset was beautiful, as Trance remembered it always had
been.
"Everyone was so concerned about you when you left us so abruptly,
Trance...what made you come back?"

"I-we didn't come back here deliberately, Libbi," Trance explained. "The ship
that I travel on, it needed new parts for its slipstream drive. We encountered
a breach in the stream and ended up here."

"So...you're not here to stay," Libbi said.

"Right," Trance said. She stopped when she saw the look on Libbi's face.
"Libbi...I have a life now. And it appears that you do, too."

"What? Oh, you mean Armin?" Libbi said, referring to the man that had come with
her to the restaurant earlier that evening. "That's not serious. Honest. He and
I are just friends. What about you and...Sheamus?"

"Same here. We just travel together. He's the main engineer on the Andromeda,"
Trance explained. "Andromeda is the ship that I travel on." She was trying to
be careful not to say too much. She knew Libbi, but she didn't know the people
that Libbi knew. But another part of her was thinking that the people of Tarn
Vedra could help restore the Commonwealth. After all, Dylan was from Tarn
Vedra. She looked up at the sky, and Libbi looked at her, streaks of red from
the sky running down their faces. Trance sensed Libbi looking at her and turned
her head. "Hey," she said. "Why don't you come with us?"

"I couldn't do that," Libbi said. "Why don't you stay here?"

"I can't do that, Libbi...I don't belong here," Trance said.

"Then why did you stay, when Sheamus wanted you to go back to the ship with
him?"

"Because...I wanted a last chance to say good-bye, Libbi...I don't feel that
last time was good enough," Trance said. "I was in too much of a hurry to
leave."

"Yeah," Libbi said. "That much is true." A tear came to her eye as she tried to
swallow past the lump in her throat. "I don't want you to leave,
Trance...please stay."

"I think we may be leaving tomorrow, after we see if we can find what we need
here," Trance said.

"He got to you, didn't he? Do these people run your life, Trance?"

"No...but my bond with them does," Trance said, in a moment of realization. She
rose to her feet. "I'll be right back," she said, before going into the house.

**

Sheamus sat on the roof of the Maru, watching the same Vedran sunset. Why did
this have to happen? Why did she want to stay? He loved her! It wasn't just
some infatuation like she had taken it to be! Ok, it had been at first, but now
it was real! And she didn't see that. How was he going to make her see that he
loved her? All he knew was that he had to.

**

Trance came back out moments later, brushing tears from her face. Somehow,
Libbi had made her realize the truth and that was the fact that she did indeed
love Sheamus. There was no question in her mind now. There never would be
again. Not about Sheamus. She was wrong to push him away as she had. She needed
to make things right. But now, with the sunset fading and darkness setting in,
it would have to wait. Tomorrow. She would have to wait until tomorrow. This
would be the longest night ever.

The next day, Trance rose early. She knew what she had to do and left the house
to go to the Maru. When she got there, she excitedly ran up into the ship in
search of Sheamus. "Harper! Where are you? This is important!" Trance walked
around the ship, calling for him. "Harper! Sheamus Harper, I need to talk to
you!" He wasn't there. Could it be that he had already gone back to town to
look for the stream parts? Trance sighed. Great. Where would she start? She
started back down the ramp and went back to Libbi's to think.
**

"Do you know where she went?" Sheamus asked Libbi. He had gotten to her house
shortly after Trance left.

"I think she went back to your ship. She said there was something she needed to
talk to you about." Libbi was mildly excited, for she had a feeling she knew
what it was. Sheamus turned to go. "Wait," Libbi said. "She may be coming back
here."

Sheamus sat down on the steps and sure enough, Trance came back.

"Harper, I-"

"I need to talk to you," they said together. Sheamus looked back at Libbi.
"Alone," he said. She got his point and went into the house. "Let's sit," he
said. They sat on the steps and looked at each other. "You first," they said.

"OK, OK, I'll go first," Sheamus said. "Trance, I'm tired of playing games. I
really am. This is real," he began, and took a deep breath before he went on.
"Remember yesterday, when I said I was worried about you?" Trance nodded. "I
didn't want to lose you. And there's a reason...I - this isn't an infatuation,
Trance. I mean, it was, but it's not anymore. I really am in love with you, and
I just...wanted you to know that - that I love you." OK, that was done. He
sighed with relief. "Now what did you have to tell me?"

There was a big smile on her face. "I love you too, Sheamus."

"Oh my stars, you actually used my first name," Sheamus said. He took her hand
and squeezed it.

"I need to go talk to Libbi for a minute. What are we going to do about the
slipstream parts?"

"We'll have to look elsewhere. There isn't even a store around here that has
them," Sheamus said.

Trance walked into the house and ran into Libbi, who had been listening at the
door.

"You guys actually said it...I knew you would," Libbi said. "So now what?"

"We're leaving. There aren't any places around here that have what we need,"
Trance said. "I'm sorry I can't stay longer."

"I understand."

"I'll miss you, Libbi Gemini," Trance said, hugging her cousin. "Maybe I'll see
you again someday."

"Yeah," Libbi said, her voice shaking. "Good-bye, Trance."

"`Bye." Trance hugged her once more and left with Sheamus. Libbi watched them
go. Trance was the only family she had...and she might never see her again. The
sun had set on their relationship, like it did on Tarn Vedra. It was all over.

**

The Maru met up with the Andromeda a couple of days later. It had taken them
awhile to get away from the slipstream breach, but they did it.

"Sorry to report that the mission failed, Dylan," Sheamus said. "There was a
small problem."

"Oh?" Dylan said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. We had quite a time at Tarn Vedra, though."

"You what?"

"We'll tell you, sometime...and then there's something else," Sheamus said.
This time it was Beka who raised the eyebrow.

"We love each other," Trance said, as Sheamus wrapped himself around her.

"HA! I KNEW IT!" Beka said.

"What, you going to get Rev to marry you two?" Dylan said, with a twinkle in
his eye.

"Ha ha, very funny," Sheamus said. He went with Trance and they left Dylan and
Beka for a place to be alone. They couldn't help but smile. It was just the
beginning...anything was possible.