Andromeda, Trying to Throw Your Arms, table 3, #98 writer's choice
Title: Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World
Fandom: Andromeda, general series
Author: karrenia
Rating: general audiences
Summary: a what-if oneshot featuring the alliance between Gaheris and Telemachus Rahde.
Prompt: #98 writer's choice, table 3
91/100
Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Tribune and Fireworks Entertainment. It is not mine.
"Trying to Throw Your Arms around the World" by karrenia
The political and social makeup of the galactic quadrant had changed, for the most part, for the better, of that Gaheris Rhade would freely admit.
Whether or not the current status quo would stay that way remained to be seen, and while he had never claimed to be either an optimist or pessimist, he preferred to play the long odds.
If his time spent in a sidereal pocket dimension where he had played out the various scenarios of his past life where he had turned his back on everything and everyone that he had spent the better half of his adult life building up and fighting for, that was over.
He held no regrets for what had happened, and while his best friend and former commanding officer might have had just cause to argue that point, the Old Commonwealth was now nothing more than an entry in the New Systems Commonwealth historical database.
Gaheris himself, could almost understand how Dylan felt, a man more than three hundred years an anachronistic relic, but that was not what currently preoccupied his thoughts.
No, it was the fact that he could not quite determine if his survival from that timeless existence had been at the whims of some cosmic chess player or if when confronting his contemporary, Telemachus Rhade, had allowed him to not only survive his own personal hell but allowed him to be given a second chance.
Either way, he was no fool; Gaheris was determined to seize the opportunity that he was now afforded with both hands and forge his own path. Staring at the back of Telemachus, he wondered if the other man harbored similar thoughts.
Telemachus was aware of the silent scrutiny, but did not immediately acknowledge the other man. He stood looking out over the
“Do you not ever wonder if God plays dice with the universe and we are just the pieces that He moves around the board?”
Gaheris shook his head and asked, “How do you figure that?”
Telemachus laughed and said in a tone that indicated that it should have been obvious, but said anyway: “Because I would not have figured that two people such as ourselves could find common cause with each other, despite the fact of our sharing physical and genetic similarities.
“Back in the day, I would have agreed with you, but as the matters stand, I am no longer the same man I was then.”
“Neither am I. I sometimes wonder what would have become man had now I been swept into the gravitational pull of a certain Dylan Hunt and his crew.”
“Whatever happened to them? Last I heard you were trapped on Seefra.”
“I am still a bit fuzzy on that I, the fact of the matter, is that I believe that it’s time I chart my own course,” replied Telemachus.
Gaheris pivoted on his heel, held his left arm out and parallel to the ground, extended at full length, awaiting the expected response, which was not long in coming, for Telemachus took a matter of heartbeats to exhale and then inhale before grasping it with his hands, and shaking it, and so sealing their alliance.
“I am reminded, at this juncture, of a snippet of an Old Earth poem, that seems appropriate at such a juncture,” said Gaheris.
“Do tell,” encouraged Telemachus.
“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. I believe it was a very line from a poem by a human poet from 17th century Old Earth, by the name of Lord Tennyson.”
“Hmm, there is something to that, I feel that there is definitely something there,” replied Telemachus.
“We have both come through so much, experienced so much that the majority of our people could never have imagined.”
“I concur. What are you getting at?”
“Just this… My own survival is nothing if not, all but impossible. Gaheris shrugged nonchantly ang then flashed his contemporary a disarming grin, “Don’t get me wrong. I much prefer to be alive than to be dead, but how many times can a man cheat death with there being consequences.
“As a certain ship’s engineer once said,” remarked Telemachus, “only God and the angels know the answer to that one, and the devil is hedging his bets.”
“Ah, Mr. Harper, I liked him, even at his most brilliant and his most annoying.”
“That we can agree on, although I knew him better than you did.”
“Please tell me that our alliance is not going to be based on a game of one-man up?”
“It will not. Rest assured on that score.”
Fandom: Andromeda, general series
Author: karrenia
Rating: general audiences
Summary: a what-if oneshot featuring the alliance between Gaheris and Telemachus Rahde.
Prompt: #98 writer's choice, table 3
91/100
Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Tribune and Fireworks Entertainment. It is not mine.
"Trying to Throw Your Arms around the World" by karrenia
The political and social makeup of the galactic quadrant had changed, for the most part, for the better, of that Gaheris Rhade would freely admit.
Whether or not the current status quo would stay that way remained to be seen, and while he had never claimed to be either an optimist or pessimist, he preferred to play the long odds.
If his time spent in a sidereal pocket dimension where he had played out the various scenarios of his past life where he had turned his back on everything and everyone that he had spent the better half of his adult life building up and fighting for, that was over.
He held no regrets for what had happened, and while his best friend and former commanding officer might have had just cause to argue that point, the Old Commonwealth was now nothing more than an entry in the New Systems Commonwealth historical database.
Gaheris himself, could almost understand how Dylan felt, a man more than three hundred years an anachronistic relic, but that was not what currently preoccupied his thoughts.
No, it was the fact that he could not quite determine if his survival from that timeless existence had been at the whims of some cosmic chess player or if when confronting his contemporary, Telemachus Rhade, had allowed him to not only survive his own personal hell but allowed him to be given a second chance.
Either way, he was no fool; Gaheris was determined to seize the opportunity that he was now afforded with both hands and forge his own path. Staring at the back of Telemachus, he wondered if the other man harbored similar thoughts.
Telemachus was aware of the silent scrutiny, but did not immediately acknowledge the other man. He stood looking out over the
“Do you not ever wonder if God plays dice with the universe and we are just the pieces that He moves around the board?”
Gaheris shook his head and asked, “How do you figure that?”
Telemachus laughed and said in a tone that indicated that it should have been obvious, but said anyway: “Because I would not have figured that two people such as ourselves could find common cause with each other, despite the fact of our sharing physical and genetic similarities.
“Back in the day, I would have agreed with you, but as the matters stand, I am no longer the same man I was then.”
“Neither am I. I sometimes wonder what would have become man had now I been swept into the gravitational pull of a certain Dylan Hunt and his crew.”
“Whatever happened to them? Last I heard you were trapped on Seefra.”
“I am still a bit fuzzy on that I, the fact of the matter, is that I believe that it’s time I chart my own course,” replied Telemachus.
Gaheris pivoted on his heel, held his left arm out and parallel to the ground, extended at full length, awaiting the expected response, which was not long in coming, for Telemachus took a matter of heartbeats to exhale and then inhale before grasping it with his hands, and shaking it, and so sealing their alliance.
“I am reminded, at this juncture, of a snippet of an Old Earth poem, that seems appropriate at such a juncture,” said Gaheris.
“Do tell,” encouraged Telemachus.
“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. I believe it was a very line from a poem by a human poet from 17th century Old Earth, by the name of Lord Tennyson.”
“Hmm, there is something to that, I feel that there is definitely something there,” replied Telemachus.
“We have both come through so much, experienced so much that the majority of our people could never have imagined.”
“I concur. What are you getting at?”
“Just this… My own survival is nothing if not, all but impossible. Gaheris shrugged nonchantly ang then flashed his contemporary a disarming grin, “Don’t get me wrong. I much prefer to be alive than to be dead, but how many times can a man cheat death with there being consequences.
“As a certain ship’s engineer once said,” remarked Telemachus, “only God and the angels know the answer to that one, and the devil is hedging his bets.”
“Ah, Mr. Harper, I liked him, even at his most brilliant and his most annoying.”
“That we can agree on, although I knew him better than you did.”
“Please tell me that our alliance is not going to be based on a game of one-man up?”
“It will not. Rest assured on that score.”