FIC: Part of the Fire (Andromeda)
I am on such an Andromeda kick lately. It's kinda surreal. But why not take advantage of it...if there's a Drom character you'd like to see me write about, make a request, and if I like the character too I'll write him/her/it. Cool?
Written for 1character, and all the jazz that usually accompanies that. Gen (no pairings). Lots of Bunker Hill spoilers.
Title: Part of the Fire
Fandom: Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda
Character: Brendan Lahey
Theme set: Beta
Disclaimer: Property of Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Matt Kiene, Joe Reinkemeyer, and Mark Hildreth. So not mine. #39 has Brendan paraphrasing an Orson Scott Card quote.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Just barely AU, in the sense that it contradicts Harper's line in The Heart of the Journey about visiting his cousin's grave. But we can handwave that as Harper being mistaken or misinformed or just a pessimist. Set before, during, and after Bunker Hill. Numerical, not chronological, order. Abuse of semicolons, colons, and hyphens. Feedback and concrit adored.
#01 - Package
The ubers like their kludges to be good little boys and girls who can be ignored as necessary, Brendan's da said; from the ripe old age of seven(ish), Brendan made it his personal mission not to fit into that package.
#02 - Obscure
He liked obscure old Earth music; he liked obscure old Earth culture in general, to be honest: memories of when Earth wasn't hell, when humans had the right to exist.
#03 - Skeleton
The first time Brendan Lahey robbed a grave, he wasn't old enough to find girls interesting; he and his cousins Seamus, Declan, and Siobhan stole clothes and small possessions right out of the mass grave at the edge of the village.
#04 - Nurse
He almost died six or seven times over the course of the revolution, and it was only because his 'inner circle' loved him and believed in him that he managed to survive at all.
#05 - Domino
He knew when he was recording the call to arms that it would have a ripple effect-knock down one domino and see the rest fall-but he knew in his soul that whatever ripples might come from it had to be better than what they had now.
#06 - Thaw
When the thaw came and the snow melted, Boston was almost dead and Brendan cried without shame for the people they'd lost in the fight: but he still stood, and Ozzie and Collin with him, and every day more stepped up to take the places of their fallen comrades.
#07 - Waves
They came in waves, the ubers did, slaughtering everyone in their path, and Brendan resorted to prayer because he'd run out of waves to send back.
#08 - Burglar
When they were kids, Brendan could always find the best rationalizations for their activities: like, the ubers stole our planet, so why shouldn't we steal their (weapons/clothes/food/other)?
#09 - Frame
He framed his ideologies in words that made sense but couldn't contain them, phrases that inspired without reaching as far as he wanted them to; he longed for the day when he could say everything he believed, but that day was not today.
#10 - Carpet
Blood and death carpeted Boston, and Brendan knew with perfect clarity that what he was doing wasn't going to clean the streets, only add to the destruction.
#11 - Insect
He didn't bother to speak in his own defense at the trial, because he knew full damn well that it was a mockery; they looked at him like an insect, not a human being who had thought out every one of his actions in agonizing detail.
#12 - Mentor
His throat closed over, he could hardly manage to choke out, "You should've found a better mentor than me, kid," and he looked away as Ozzie closed the kid's eyes.
#13 - Spirit
"I did it for Boston," he said defiantly to the handful of press who had shown up to see the notorious terrorist Brendan Lahey on trial.
#14 - Wax
Revolutions are like fires, like he said to his cousin; what he couldn't escape was that every fire needed to be started, and he lit the candle.
#15 - Trash
He sold his body for food for the first time before he hit puberty; afterwards he was tossed aside like so much trash, and it only fueled his desire to fight.
#16 - Womb
"My mother is dying, my mother is bleeding, my mother needs me to help bring her back to life; my mother is Earth, she gave me life and history, and how can I not return that favor?" he asked, knowing how well it would play on the vids, knowing that it would help gather support for their fight.
#17 - Burn
Boston was burning and Brendan was burning with her; no matter what his detractors said, this wasn't a lie, he lived and died with her.
#18 - Flash
He was no choirboy, he'd done his share of drugs hard and soft, but flashers he wouldn't put up with, they were too unpredictable and they couldn't be trusted.
#19 - Anima
He exists to fight, and that's all; when the revolution's over, when they've won, he'll have nothing else driving him, but he dreams of that day anyway.
#20 - Gamble
"Of course the revolution was a gamble," he said at the trial when he finally got bullied into talking, "It was always a gamble, it was always going to be a gamble; but I guess I'm a gambler at heart."
#21 - Statue
"One goal, Brendan," Jake asked, "Just one tangible goal, something that we will be able to see when we've accomplished it," and without breaking stride Brendan answered, "The Statue of Liberty."
#22 - Perfume
He was too used to the smog and pollution of Boston; when they dragged him into space to be held for trial, he choked on the clean, perfumed air.
#23 - Wine
At fourteen (or thereabouts...he lost track years ago, but fourteen sounds about right), he and Seamus boosted a few bottles of wine and beer from some lost spacers, holed up in the subways and got pissed, letting the alcohol drown out the parts of them that cared.
#24 - Reflection
When Seamus turned up again, clean and healthy and accompanied by a drop-dead gorgeous (and frankly kickass) woman, Brendan had to stare at him for a while; it was like seeing a distorted reflection of the cousin he'd grown up with.
#25 - Take
"If we want freedom, we have to take it."
#26 - Magic
Space was magic and exhilarating and it didn't take him but five minutes to understand why Seamus loved it so much, but damn it, Earth was home.
#27 - Fragment
When his sister was grabbed by slavers and hauled off for sale, his world broke into a million pieces, and he spent years trying to piece it back together.
#28 - Cats and Dogs
They fought like cats and dogs as kids, they fought like cats and dogs now, but that never changed the fact that Brendan loved his cousin Seamus and would voluntarily die in his place if it came down to that, and he knew full well that the reverse was true, too.
#29 - Hum
Floaters had their own sound, a low ground hum that wasn't quite like anything else, and Brendan learned quickly how to judge by the sound when a floater was close enough to be hit by a Molotov cocktail.
#30 - Flinch
He didn't flinch when the ubers threaten to execute him for his crimes; he had expected to die on the streets fighting, not here, but that didn't change the fact that he had always expected to die.
#31 - Rush
Adrenaline carried him through the war; when he was starving and sick and had nothing going for him, adrenaline pushed him forward.
#32 - Jester
Maybe it was a family trait, biting off jokes and sarcasm and snark at the worst possible moment; Brendan did not consider this when he was goading the two ubers into hurting him worse, only much later when he was forced to stop moving for a while.
#33 - Haven
Boston was his haven and his home, even as she almost killed him several times over.
#34 - Dusk
"It's almost dusk, Bren," Ozzie said, coughing a little, "You coming back to base anytime soon?" and Brendan shook his head but said, "Yeah, soon."
#35 - Chord
It struck a chord with the Bostonians, what Brendan Lahey and Seamus Harper had to say, and Brendan was stunned by how many found the will within them to fight back this time.
#36 - Indulgence
Charley accused him of "indulging" himself with this revolt; he just stared at her uncomprehendingly, because how the hell did everyone and everything he loved dying equal an indulgence?
#37 - Freezer
It snowed that winter in Boston, like it snowed every winter in Boston since before humans named it; but the snow only turned red and gray: the city was not cleansed of the revolt, and as Brendan pushed it forward he knew that the snow would not clean him of the death and blood that he caused.
#38 - Passage
Were he in a better mood, he might have found it amusing that the ubers were giving him free passage off of Earth; but the accusations of terrorist and murderer rang in his ears, and he just shut down.
#39 - Coast
"Everybody knows that Boston might not be the capital of hell," Brendan told the spacer with a slight sneer, "But we're damned sure the major coastal city."
#40 - Keepsake
He kept his mother's wedding ring with him after her death, always carrying it in a pocket or hung around his neck on a cord, and it was the one thing he refused to let the ubers strip away from him before the trial.
#41 - Morbid
He kept a careful count of every one of his people who died in the war, and maybe it was a little morbid, but at least he knew he still had a soul this way.
#42 - Shipwreck
On Earth, in Boston, he was never alone; he had his family, or his friends, or his gang, or his revolutionaries; in space, at trial, he felt completely alone, shipwrecked among hostiles, and as he looked around at unfamiliar and unfriendly faces it occurred to him to wonder when (or if) word of the trial would reach the Andromeda Ascendant and his cousin.
#43 - Socks
He socked Ozzie for calling Seamus a coward for leaving, even though he'd accused his cousin of pretty much the same thing not two hours earlier.
#44 - Sand
"This is our line in the sand, boys and girls," Brendan whispered, and then he threw the first Molotov cocktail and the war was on.
#45 - Coin
It's amazing what an Earther kid will do for a coin or two, and like his father before him and back and back and back, Brendan swore that no kid of his was going to have to do what he'd done.
#46 - Guile
He was a practiced liar, and a good one; he could present the image of a guileless idealist while plotting revolution and murder.
#47 - Eyelash
Brendan didn't bat an eyelash at the death counts they brought up at his trial, because he'd been keeping the same counts in his head.
#48 - Drive
He had a drive to fight, a drive to win, a drive for freedom, and he refused to let anyone ever put that out of him.
#49 - Net
He never planned a safety net, because he always figured that if they lost, he'd die, and that would be the end of it...not this.
#50 - Destination
On the last day of the trial, Seamus showed up, older and battered and worn; cried when he saw Brendan, and hugged his cousin, and promised to help him get out of this; and Brendan was convinced that this was where he'd been headed for his whole life.
Written for 1character, and all the jazz that usually accompanies that. Gen (no pairings). Lots of Bunker Hill spoilers.
Title: Part of the Fire
Fandom: Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda
Character: Brendan Lahey
Theme set: Beta
Disclaimer: Property of Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Matt Kiene, Joe Reinkemeyer, and Mark Hildreth. So not mine. #39 has Brendan paraphrasing an Orson Scott Card quote.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Just barely AU, in the sense that it contradicts Harper's line in The Heart of the Journey about visiting his cousin's grave. But we can handwave that as Harper being mistaken or misinformed or just a pessimist. Set before, during, and after Bunker Hill. Numerical, not chronological, order. Abuse of semicolons, colons, and hyphens. Feedback and concrit adored.
#01 - Package
The ubers like their kludges to be good little boys and girls who can be ignored as necessary, Brendan's da said; from the ripe old age of seven(ish), Brendan made it his personal mission not to fit into that package.
#02 - Obscure
He liked obscure old Earth music; he liked obscure old Earth culture in general, to be honest: memories of when Earth wasn't hell, when humans had the right to exist.
#03 - Skeleton
The first time Brendan Lahey robbed a grave, he wasn't old enough to find girls interesting; he and his cousins Seamus, Declan, and Siobhan stole clothes and small possessions right out of the mass grave at the edge of the village.
#04 - Nurse
He almost died six or seven times over the course of the revolution, and it was only because his 'inner circle' loved him and believed in him that he managed to survive at all.
#05 - Domino
He knew when he was recording the call to arms that it would have a ripple effect-knock down one domino and see the rest fall-but he knew in his soul that whatever ripples might come from it had to be better than what they had now.
#06 - Thaw
When the thaw came and the snow melted, Boston was almost dead and Brendan cried without shame for the people they'd lost in the fight: but he still stood, and Ozzie and Collin with him, and every day more stepped up to take the places of their fallen comrades.
#07 - Waves
They came in waves, the ubers did, slaughtering everyone in their path, and Brendan resorted to prayer because he'd run out of waves to send back.
#08 - Burglar
When they were kids, Brendan could always find the best rationalizations for their activities: like, the ubers stole our planet, so why shouldn't we steal their (weapons/clothes/food/other)?
#09 - Frame
He framed his ideologies in words that made sense but couldn't contain them, phrases that inspired without reaching as far as he wanted them to; he longed for the day when he could say everything he believed, but that day was not today.
#10 - Carpet
Blood and death carpeted Boston, and Brendan knew with perfect clarity that what he was doing wasn't going to clean the streets, only add to the destruction.
#11 - Insect
He didn't bother to speak in his own defense at the trial, because he knew full damn well that it was a mockery; they looked at him like an insect, not a human being who had thought out every one of his actions in agonizing detail.
#12 - Mentor
His throat closed over, he could hardly manage to choke out, "You should've found a better mentor than me, kid," and he looked away as Ozzie closed the kid's eyes.
#13 - Spirit
"I did it for Boston," he said defiantly to the handful of press who had shown up to see the notorious terrorist Brendan Lahey on trial.
#14 - Wax
Revolutions are like fires, like he said to his cousin; what he couldn't escape was that every fire needed to be started, and he lit the candle.
#15 - Trash
He sold his body for food for the first time before he hit puberty; afterwards he was tossed aside like so much trash, and it only fueled his desire to fight.
#16 - Womb
"My mother is dying, my mother is bleeding, my mother needs me to help bring her back to life; my mother is Earth, she gave me life and history, and how can I not return that favor?" he asked, knowing how well it would play on the vids, knowing that it would help gather support for their fight.
#17 - Burn
Boston was burning and Brendan was burning with her; no matter what his detractors said, this wasn't a lie, he lived and died with her.
#18 - Flash
He was no choirboy, he'd done his share of drugs hard and soft, but flashers he wouldn't put up with, they were too unpredictable and they couldn't be trusted.
#19 - Anima
He exists to fight, and that's all; when the revolution's over, when they've won, he'll have nothing else driving him, but he dreams of that day anyway.
#20 - Gamble
"Of course the revolution was a gamble," he said at the trial when he finally got bullied into talking, "It was always a gamble, it was always going to be a gamble; but I guess I'm a gambler at heart."
#21 - Statue
"One goal, Brendan," Jake asked, "Just one tangible goal, something that we will be able to see when we've accomplished it," and without breaking stride Brendan answered, "The Statue of Liberty."
#22 - Perfume
He was too used to the smog and pollution of Boston; when they dragged him into space to be held for trial, he choked on the clean, perfumed air.
#23 - Wine
At fourteen (or thereabouts...he lost track years ago, but fourteen sounds about right), he and Seamus boosted a few bottles of wine and beer from some lost spacers, holed up in the subways and got pissed, letting the alcohol drown out the parts of them that cared.
#24 - Reflection
When Seamus turned up again, clean and healthy and accompanied by a drop-dead gorgeous (and frankly kickass) woman, Brendan had to stare at him for a while; it was like seeing a distorted reflection of the cousin he'd grown up with.
#25 - Take
"If we want freedom, we have to take it."
#26 - Magic
Space was magic and exhilarating and it didn't take him but five minutes to understand why Seamus loved it so much, but damn it, Earth was home.
#27 - Fragment
When his sister was grabbed by slavers and hauled off for sale, his world broke into a million pieces, and he spent years trying to piece it back together.
#28 - Cats and Dogs
They fought like cats and dogs as kids, they fought like cats and dogs now, but that never changed the fact that Brendan loved his cousin Seamus and would voluntarily die in his place if it came down to that, and he knew full well that the reverse was true, too.
#29 - Hum
Floaters had their own sound, a low ground hum that wasn't quite like anything else, and Brendan learned quickly how to judge by the sound when a floater was close enough to be hit by a Molotov cocktail.
#30 - Flinch
He didn't flinch when the ubers threaten to execute him for his crimes; he had expected to die on the streets fighting, not here, but that didn't change the fact that he had always expected to die.
#31 - Rush
Adrenaline carried him through the war; when he was starving and sick and had nothing going for him, adrenaline pushed him forward.
#32 - Jester
Maybe it was a family trait, biting off jokes and sarcasm and snark at the worst possible moment; Brendan did not consider this when he was goading the two ubers into hurting him worse, only much later when he was forced to stop moving for a while.
#33 - Haven
Boston was his haven and his home, even as she almost killed him several times over.
#34 - Dusk
"It's almost dusk, Bren," Ozzie said, coughing a little, "You coming back to base anytime soon?" and Brendan shook his head but said, "Yeah, soon."
#35 - Chord
It struck a chord with the Bostonians, what Brendan Lahey and Seamus Harper had to say, and Brendan was stunned by how many found the will within them to fight back this time.
#36 - Indulgence
Charley accused him of "indulging" himself with this revolt; he just stared at her uncomprehendingly, because how the hell did everyone and everything he loved dying equal an indulgence?
#37 - Freezer
It snowed that winter in Boston, like it snowed every winter in Boston since before humans named it; but the snow only turned red and gray: the city was not cleansed of the revolt, and as Brendan pushed it forward he knew that the snow would not clean him of the death and blood that he caused.
#38 - Passage
Were he in a better mood, he might have found it amusing that the ubers were giving him free passage off of Earth; but the accusations of terrorist and murderer rang in his ears, and he just shut down.
#39 - Coast
"Everybody knows that Boston might not be the capital of hell," Brendan told the spacer with a slight sneer, "But we're damned sure the major coastal city."
#40 - Keepsake
He kept his mother's wedding ring with him after her death, always carrying it in a pocket or hung around his neck on a cord, and it was the one thing he refused to let the ubers strip away from him before the trial.
#41 - Morbid
He kept a careful count of every one of his people who died in the war, and maybe it was a little morbid, but at least he knew he still had a soul this way.
#42 - Shipwreck
On Earth, in Boston, he was never alone; he had his family, or his friends, or his gang, or his revolutionaries; in space, at trial, he felt completely alone, shipwrecked among hostiles, and as he looked around at unfamiliar and unfriendly faces it occurred to him to wonder when (or if) word of the trial would reach the Andromeda Ascendant and his cousin.
#43 - Socks
He socked Ozzie for calling Seamus a coward for leaving, even though he'd accused his cousin of pretty much the same thing not two hours earlier.
#44 - Sand
"This is our line in the sand, boys and girls," Brendan whispered, and then he threw the first Molotov cocktail and the war was on.
#45 - Coin
It's amazing what an Earther kid will do for a coin or two, and like his father before him and back and back and back, Brendan swore that no kid of his was going to have to do what he'd done.
#46 - Guile
He was a practiced liar, and a good one; he could present the image of a guileless idealist while plotting revolution and murder.
#47 - Eyelash
Brendan didn't bat an eyelash at the death counts they brought up at his trial, because he'd been keeping the same counts in his head.
#48 - Drive
He had a drive to fight, a drive to win, a drive for freedom, and he refused to let anyone ever put that out of him.
#49 - Net
He never planned a safety net, because he always figured that if they lost, he'd die, and that would be the end of it...not this.
#50 - Destination
On the last day of the trial, Seamus showed up, older and battered and worn; cried when he saw Brendan, and hugged his cousin, and promised to help him get out of this; and Brendan was convinced that this was where he'd been headed for his whole life.