"Harper doesn't have such a great record taking on Andromeda," he points out, reasonable, but the joking fades away as she leans across to kiss him. He tries not to smile, but doesn't quite succeed.

"I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing, except from Harper's point of view."

He makes that sound perfectly logical, too, and this time, it's because it is. That stuff is foul.

But then something happens, a strange flash in Trance's eyes that it's hard to be sure he sees, and as he narrows his eyes at her. Going back in time? Yes. They have. And not just Dylan teleporting, but the whole ship.

Back in time on a day he wishes he'd never seen. A day that chills him to his soul to remember.

A day when she'd been flying. When she'd fled Command when he'd stormed in to find out who'd been doing what to his ship.

They'd written it off as an accident.

But this is Trance.

"You did that on purpose."

Even he's surprised by how cold his voice is, haunted by a hundred thousand deaths.