"Caeilla! What are you doing spying? Come in." Raa turned to her with a smile.

"I remember you Raa. I remember when you were here. I remember you from when Mother kept you in the other room."

"Do you? I thought you might. You smelled familiar when we met this time."

"Yeah? What are you planning?" Looking at the screen she noticed some information from her Mother’s computer. "There are Mother’s special files."

"I know. I thought no one was supposed to know how to get in them except your mother and her spies."

"I’m going to be the next Matriarch, she always wants to protect me but I need to know things. I need to know what she’s up to and how it will affect my people during my reign."

"You are a very smart and intelligent young woman. Only ten and already you are thinking of your Pride. Very well, I will tell you what is happening because this will decide, if this pride survives the coming war."

Raa leaned back into the chair and motioned Caeilla to another seat. "Meet Rolf. He’s an AI on the Andromeda Ascendant." With a few clicked keys, Raa brought up the information for Caeilla. "First you have to understand how your mother feels about the Ancestor, Dylan. She hates him and to understand that you have to go back into the history. Three hundred and a few years ago Dylan and Rhade were paired up on a mission to Sigma Sal5, they were to bring a dictator off his world so that he could stand trial. If he refused then they were to kill him. This was their first mission. For this Dylan became Captain of the Andromeda and Rhade was his first mate."

"I know, then they fell in love, then the war... I remember this from class." Caeilla smiled up at Raa.

"Not exactly... you have to listen. Sometimes we only tell part of the truth and that is only part. To continue... Yes, that was when they got together... They fell in love and everything was going ok. They knew... rather Dylan wanted Rhade to take over as Captain when it was time for him to transfer. Rhade was planning to ask to serve under him again.

"You must remember Caeilla that Dylan is human. Yes, his mother was a heavyworlder, but he is still human and he was raised as human. Rhade was one of us. When Dylan fell in love with Sarah, he thought that there was no way for him to love Sarah and Rhade. He believed he had to choose one or the other. He might have chosen Rhade but Rhade, being one of us, told Dylan to be with Sarah. Rhade would never get in the way of Dylan having children. Dylan... it never crossed his mind that he could have kids with Rhade. Otherwise Denalie would have born with those two waiting for her.

"Rhade also knew the Nietzschean Tactical Offensive was coming. For the first time he felt jealousy and triumph. It is one thing to win a championship among us. It was another to give Dylan something even Sarah could not. There was no surety that Sarah would survive. There was no surety either of them would, but he wanted one child out here who still held a part of Dylan, his genes were worth passing on.

"What you don’t know yet is what happened at Hephaestus... they fought. Dylan got in a lucky shot and killed the man he loves. He hasn’t forgiven himself for that... neither has your mother."

"Why would she hate him for surviving? We are all supposed to strive to survive." Caeilla asked as she leaned closer.

"Because Rhade should have won. He was a Nietzschean. He was genetically engineered to be smarter, faster, stronger than Dylan. He shouldn’t have lost. He did. Either love weakened him enough so that he didn’t fight hard enough; though to consider love a weakness is wrong. Or Rhade was inferior.

"We are Nietzscheans, you were raised as a Nietzschean. If Dylan won, it meant that Rhade’s Nietzschean genes were weak. If they were weak then so must be yours... and your mother’s. She hates Dylan cause he won. Because he either won cause Rhade let him or because Rhade’s genes were weak. She abhors weakness. She refuses to be weak. Dylan is both reminder and proof of weakness, she believes to settle this issue she must lure him, trick him, and kill him." Raa held her closer.

"Betray the Ancestor? How?"

"Easy, she sees it as necessary for the survival of Gryphon but she is leading us to our destruction.

* * *

Ma’ctor tried to move his legs and arms. They responded quicker than before. He wiggled his toes, ignoring the tightness in his legs. When he could flex every muscle in his legs without a twinge, he started in on his arms. Soon, he was sweating. Radli won’t ignore me for much longer. Onnika needed help with Raa’s creation. Who better than a doctor? Onnika’s plans are ill timed. I almost have everything I need to see what she is up to. Almost.

Silently, Ma’ctor levered himself up and sat on the bed. The only sound of him getting to his feet was a slight thump, but it was more than enough to alert Radli. Ma’ctor stood up, trying not to tilt or lean. "Radli. I think it’s time for me to go."

"I don’t think so, Mr. Ma’ctor." Radli replied, a smile slicing across his narrow face. "You shouldn’t have removed the IV. Your death would have been gentle, once I placed it into your line."

"But I don’t want to die. Radli, Onnika is making a mistake, there is more here at risk than just Gryphon pride. She will destroy us all if her plans work. Raa told us about what he was designed for. I bet she has been raiding old High Guard stations. What could she be looking for? What did the High Guard have that no one else did? I know she has plans to make Nova Bombs. So then came the question of why? I couldn’t figure it out until I thought of a record I had seen aboard the Andromeda. A Vedran from the Imperial Library. The All Systems University Library of Tarn Vedra. So there is a way to Tarn Vedra and Onnika plans to bomb them.

"But if she does then we will fall to the Killers. I can’t let that happen."

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