Andromeda scanned her systems for virus infected files, cleaned the infected files, rearranged her files into a new organizational system and reached out with her sensor array to approximate the length of time until she reached the Perseid vessel rendezvous point, which in combination occupied a lot of her system resources. She allotted the rest of her available resources for necessary operations and watching the crew.
Andromeda found Beka aboard the Maru in the Hangar Deck. Although Andromeda could not see Beka with her sensors, she was aware of what Beka was doing. The exterior of the Maru vibrated slightly with the loud rock 'n roll music playing from the small collection of antique CDs Beka had acquired since her original collection was stolen by Rafe. The volume and the selection of music could only indicate that Beka was upgrading or repairing something on the Maru because Harper was busy. Andromeda noted to remind Beka about hearing damage caused by loud music.
Andromeda shifted her attention to Command Deck. Tyr was reading a summary of the new outbreaks of Nietzschean conflicts in the sector she was approaching. He occasionally glanced at the navigations console and their ETA. Andromeda took one more look around Command Deck. Absolutely nothing noteworthy.
Andromeda noticed the new supplies in Med Deck had been reorganized. Trance had left Med Deck half an hour before, retiring to her quarters. While she had been working on a summary of the restocking and organization of the new supplies for Dylan, she had fallen asleep on her bed. Andromeda dimmed the lights to a level more appropriate for sleep and sent her avatar to inform Dylan of the Med Deck situation.
Rommie operated independently from Andromeda's main system for the most part, therefore requiring very little use of her resources. Rommie entered Dylan's quarters.
"Yes, Rommie?" Dylan asked.
"The Med Deck supplies have been organized and stocked," Rommie replied.
"What about the virus scans?"
"51.237% of my systems have been cleaned."
"ETA to the Perseids?"
"2 hours 14 minutes."
Dylan stood and approached her. Andromeda felt the Rommie's systems speed up. She compared the reaction to Harper's reaction when the avatar approached him: the equivalent of an increased heart rate, release of hormones and underlying nervousness.
Andromeda quickly changed the use of her resources to enter the avatar's mind. "Your immature emotional reactions are distracting from more important tasks."
"I could be running completely independently, but you chose to enter me," Rommie mentally replied.
"He's your captain. The probability of a relationship-"
"Is as probable as a black hole appearing on Command Deck at this moment," Rommie finished somewhat sarcastically.
"If you were running completely independently, I would still be able to sense traces of your emotional reactions."
"Instead of experiencing it fully as you are currently, why don't you concentrate on your virus and navigational scanning?"
Andromeda withdrew from Rommie and ignored her. After checking on the course and virus scan, she did a quick sweep over the main portions of the ship. Harper was missing. She started a scan at Command Deck and worked her way back. She discovered Harper in a conduit practically devoid of oxygen. His life signs were very weak.
She sent a near-by Maria bot to remove him from the conduit while waking Trance. She was overloading herself, but she could not allow Harper to die.
Trance arrived quickly, with a small medical kit. Two Maria bots followed her with a stretcher. A very concerned expression crossed Trance's face. The Maria bots lifted Harper onto the stretcher and took him to Med Deck, Trance trailing them.
Andromeda notified Dylan while Trance attempted to stabilize Harper. Harper was hooked up to eleven different machines when Trance finished.
Dylan entered Med Deck. "How bad is it?"
"We can keep him alive on the machines, but only time will tell. There might have been brain damage," Trance replied.
"What happened, Andromeda?" Dylan asked.
"Harper was using a soldering wand on a panel, and accidentally activated an old intruder security system. The conduit was sealed off and life support was deactivated. I easily overrode it when I discovered it had occurred," Andromeda's voice replied.
"We'll meet the Perseid vessel in less than two hours," Dylan said. "We prearranged for everyone but Harper to board the ship. Could Rommie provide medical care for him?"
"Yes," Andromeda replied.
"Keep an eye on him until then, Trance." Dylan exited Med Deck.
*****
The rendezvous with the Perseid vessel went according to plan. Rommie stood by Harper's biobed, watching the life support machine readings.
"The virus scans and file reorganization are now complete," Andromeda's voice said.
Rommie was silent for a moment. "It's our fault."
"The system resources were so low we couldn't watch the entire ship and communicate with Dylan simultaneously."
"Your entrance into my system was unnecessary, and I caused it." Rommie sighed. "He has brain damage because of me."
"It was likely-"
"That asphyxiation wouldn't have occurred if we had noticed his situation sixty seconds earlier. He's our engineer. Do you even care?"
"Of course I care about my crew, but there is little we can do."
"There may be little I can do by myself, but you could repair the damage."
"Interfacing with him and repairing the damage would be very risky."
"Risk didn't seem to matter when he was repairing us."
"Dylan would never appr-"
"Dylan would never know."
"What you're suggesting is-"
"Indirect insubordination."
Andromeda was silent again. "We have very little time before the effects will be irreversible."
"I have everything we need here already." Rommie pushed the biobed a short distance to the nearest interface. She carefully placed the jack in Harper's data port and slid the other end into the interface. All she could do was watch his life signs.
"Please be okay," she whispered, a tear falling from her eye. She lightly kissed Harper's cheek.
*****
Andromeda found herself standing in a giant room filled with tangled and knotted wires of every color of the rainbow. The room was very dim. She lifted one of the piles of jumbled wire and carefully removed the knots from it. The light grew a miniscule bit brighter.
"I have to undo all these knots?" she asked herself. "How am I supposed to accomplish such a huge undertaking in a short amount of time?"
She grabbed another pile of jumbled wires and removed the knots. Several piles into the process, she noticed movement in corner of the room. A gnome-sized version of Harper had started to undo wires himself.
Andromeda watched with curiosity as the little Harper gnome repaired wires. She partially withdrew from Harper's mind to see what was happening in Med Deck.
Rommie was kissing Harper's cheek, tears falling from her eyes.
"Touch his hand," Andromeda said.
Rommie jerked away from Harper, somewhat surprised.
The Harper gnome stopped repairing the tangled wires.
"Touch his hand," Andromeda insisted.
Rommie complied, causing the Harper gnome to begin repairing the tangled wires again.
"Kiss him again," Andromeda said.
The somewhat confused Rommie lightly kissed Harper's cheek again. Another Harper gnome appeared and assisted the first.
Andromeda had an idea.
*****
"You want me to what?" Rommie asked.
"Have sex with him. The hormones are waking up part of his brain and helping me repair the damage," Andromeda replied.
"Couldn't I just touch him?"
"It would be more likely he would release an increased amount of hormones faster...and I know the idea far from disgusts you."
Rommie would have blushed if she had been capable. Even though she was Andromeda, she had developed her own slightly different personality in the avatar. It felt like an invasion of privacy when the main frame Andromeda knew about personal issues. "We have to save him. You're taking a risk and making a sacrifice, so I should be willing to offer any help I can."
"Sacrifice?" Andromeda asked.
"You do your job and I'll do mine," the Rommie said.
"Yes, you'll definitely *do* your job."
"Harper's brain must be affecting you," the avatar commented with annoyance.
Silence followed, and Rommie looked down at Harper. She gently touched his peaceful face and leaned down to kiss him. She had always been curious what it would feel like to kiss Harper, but had turned down his propositions because of protocol, and because he was the best engineer she had ever had. Losing him would be like losing one of the valued members of her old crew.
His lips were soft and expectedly unresponsive.
She caressed his face with her hands and continued to kiss him. Pretending
he was conscious and what she was doing was allowed, Rommie kissed his
neck. She carefully avoided the jack and cord that connected Harper
to the main frame, but lightly kissed around his data port. His breathing
and heart rate increased slightly, and he shivered.
Rommie untied the medical gown from behind his neck and
gingerly removed it. She glanced over his compact and very attractive
body. Scars of various sizes and shapes dotted his body. Rommie
traced the scars with her fingers, wondering how they had been acquired.
Inadvertently, Rommie's actions had caused Harper to develop an erection.
Rommie interfaced with the main frame and downloaded an appropriate sex routine for the situation. Time was more important than foreplay. Rommie quickly removed the clothing from her avatar. She admired the beautiful body that Harper had created in the reflection of a surgical tray for a moment before climbing up onto the biobed. This was not how she had imagined losing her physical virginity. Although, she hadn't imagined anything remotely similar to her affair with Gabriel before it had happened.
Rommie straddled Harper, holding him still above waist level. She closed her eyes, imagining Dylan. She slowly lowered herself onto Harper's cock, eventually meeting his hips. She wasn't in real pain, since she wasn't able to experience pain as humans do. Nor was she able to experience pleasure. She found it strange that Harper had built her as a human female, even capable of sexual reactions such as her nipples hardening and her body providing lubrication for sex, without giving her the ability to experience pleasure. She cast aside her thoughts, including those of Dylan, and concentrated on doing all she could to help save Harper.
After a couple of minutes of slow and long thrusts of Rommie's hips, Harper climaxed with a quiet groan. Rommie climbed down from the biobed. In a mechanical fashion, she cleaned and dressed both herself and Harper. Then, she simply stood in front of the bed and waited.
"The damage is repaired," Andromeda said.
The avatar removed the jack from Harper's data port and pushed the biobed back into its original position. She stood by the biobed for half an hour longer.
"Is he okay?" Trance asked.
"In the same condition as before," Rommie replied.
"I can keep an eye on him now," Trance said.
Rommie exited Med Deck without another word.
*****
Harper regained consciousness later that day. A complete recovery was expected within a couple of days. However, Trance wanted to run several brain scans to be certain there was no lingering damage waiting to reveal itself later.
Rommie had completely detached herself from Andromeda. She performed small tasks that were asked of her, but didn't volunteer to do anything. She seemed content to sit on a bunk in one of the unoccupied crew quarters and stare at the wall.
"Rommie?" Harper stood in the doorway. "Can I come in?"
Rommie was silent.
"I'll take that as a yes." Harper sat down on the bunk next to Rommie.
"Shouldn't you be in Med Deck resting?" Rommie asked.
"What Trance doesn't know won't hurt her, or me for that matter."
Rommie was again silent.
"I just came down here to thank you," Harper eventually said.
Rommie turned to look at him. "She told you?"
"Yeah. And I'm sorry."
Rommie was surprised. "*You're* sorry?"
"Well, I hadn't really been planning for you to do anything like that soon so I never finished all of your systems. And I know that probably wasn't what you really wanted."
Rommie just nodded.
"I know you're not really a hug person and neither am I, but..." Harper wrapped his arms around Rommie in a tight embrace.
"You're my engineer. Sometimes we have to take risks
and make sacrifices for each other." Rommie felt safer and more comfortable
in Harper's arms than she did in Dylan's. Dylan hadn't even crossed
her mind since she had been in Med Deck. Rommie laid her head on
Harper's shoulder and returned the hug, content to be with him.