With a groan, he rolled out of bed and stood up, heading for the shower. Oh well, no time like the present to do what he wanted and surprise Tyr, hopefully, if his lover ever stepped off the bridge again before Harper had turned old and grey.
"Hey, Rommie, you got time to do what we talked about? I can meet you in medical as soon as I grab a shower."
"I'll be waiting for you, Harper. Are you sure about this? It will take a full day with the nanobots working from almost immediately afterwards for you to heal."
"It's not like I've got anything to do, or anyone for that matter," the human groused as he stepped under the hot spray.
"Very well, Harper, medical in twenty minutes."
<>
An hour later Harper was back in the captain's quarters, sprawled out on the bed and trying to ignore the throbbing in his tongue and around his navel. Damn, why had he decided he wanted to do this again? Piercings were painful, fuck it all, even with a local anesthetic and nano-technology healing him. He almost wished he had the Nietzschean version, but those were designed for Nietzschean hosts only.
Footsteps were the only warning Harper had before Loki appeared beside him. The young Nietzschean peered at the human curiously. He extended a finger and poked gingerly at the piercing visible at Harper's navel. "Doesn't that hurt?"
"OWWWWWW! owowowowowowoowwow!" Harper bellowed as he jumped and moved away from the brat's fingers. "Dammit, Loki, didn't anyone ever tell you look but don't touch?" Harper managed to get out around his swollen tongue. "You're tryin' to kill me, aren't you?
Loki's eyes widened when he saw the tongue piercing. "By the makers! That's..." He couldn't find words to describe it. "Why would you do something like that? Do you enjoy damaging yourself?"
"No, I don't, not particularly," the human groused. Realizing that the kid wasn't going to go away until he got an answer, any answer, Harper sighed and sat up. "I did it for your father, okay; he likes to... look, among other things, and he'll find these, ummm, pleasing to the senses. It's a surprise.
"And why aren't you in classes with your siblings? Don't you Nietzscheans have philosophy school or something?"
"My schooling is finished for the day. Normally, I would spend time with my siblings, or my father if he were home, but we see each other often now. Since you seem important to my father, I wanted to get to know you better." Loki perched on the side of the bed, staring at Harper, clearly waiting for the human to say something interesting. He had decided to leave the issue of his father liking to look at Harper for a later time.
"Umm, well, now is kinda a bad time, Loki. I mean, Rommie said I shouldn't talk too much until the nanobots had time to heal my tongue, and I shouldn't move around that much either," Harper replied quickly.
The way Loki was eyeing his midriff shirt and his low riding jersey shorts was actually making him feel like - well, like a piece of rare meat on a dinner plate in front of a hungry Nietzschean. Christ, if that was what Tyr looked like when he was younger, how had he managed to wait until twelve years ago to start to breed?
"Tell ya what, tomorrow you can start helping me on my little project, okay? And then we can get to know each other all you want." Harper only hoped he wasn't suggesting they get to know each other carnally; god only knew what a Nietzschean hormonally active teen considered a come on line!
Loki eyed Harper curiously. "All right. But I still don't see why the ship needs a body that looks like its hologram. It has done fine with featureless androids until now." He shrugged, dismissing the matter as unimportant. He placed one hand on Harper's bare midriff curiously.
"I don't see what's so different about you that fascinates my father." He looked up inquisitively, apparently waiting for Harper to explain it.
Harper's stomach muscles contracted, shying away from the teen's touch. It felt strange to let anyone but Tyr touch him - especially Tyr's son! Finally giving into the urge to move, Harper slid out from underneath Loki's hand and put considerable space between the Nietzschean and himself.
"And that's something that I can't explain to you either, Loki. Your father and I just... click. Call it chemistry, animal magnetism or maybe something as simple as we were meant for each other. Maybe the whole reason I was born was so that I could be with your dad, I don't know. All I know is that we are and that your father is the only one for me."
Loki frowned, clearly not understanding. He stood up, moving toward Harper, intent on figuring it out.
"Loki!"
The roar stopped the pre-teen in his tracks, outstretched hand just short of touching Harper. He glanced almost fearfully over his shoulder at his father. "Father. I-"
"I don't care. Listen to me very carefully. My son or not, I will cut your hand off if you ever touch Harper again against his will." Possessive rage flamed in Tyr's eyes, and he pushed past his son to hug Harper, only to stop and stare at the navel ring he hadn't noticed until that moment.
"I-it's all right, Tyr, he was just curious is all," Harper replied softly, clambering off the bed to get between father and son and avoid bloodshed.
"He wanted to know why you liked me so much. It's flattering, kinda, that he wants to know. He just wanted to get to know me, nothing devastating, and he didn't touch me at all, really," Harper continued to babble as he tried desperately to soothe the pissed off captain and calm the situation down some. Last thing he wanted was to come between Tyr and his son. However, he completely forgot about his piercings, so when he bit his tongue in frustration, he let out a little yelp of pain as the still throbbing flesh protested its abuse.
Tyr instantly focused on Harper. "What's wrong?"
"He has a piercing in his tongue too," Loki announced.
"Last time I try to save your hide, kid," Harper muttered under his breath before looking from father to son and back then hightailing it into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him. So much for surprising Tyr with a hot and mind blowing blow job!
Tyr's eyebrows rose as he stared after his fleeing lover. He pushed Loki out the room, telling him they would discuss this later, and locked the door so that no one except him or Harper could open it. Then he followed Harper, stepping inside and wrapping his arms around him.
"You didn't really think I wouldn't notice, did you?"
"Was kinda hoping to 'show' you before you noticed, okay? I've been told that having a tongue piercing gives the most incredible sensations to someone who's being blown. Wanted to surprise you," Harper sulked, his lower lip quivering as he stared back at Tyr through the mirror.
"You did surprise me," Tyr murmured, lowering his head to nibble at the sensitive area where Harper's neck curved into his shoulder. "And I'm looking forward to feeling that when you're healed. In the meantime, I want you..." He pressed his erection against Harper's ass, letting him know how much he wanted him but leaving it up to Harper whether anything happened.
"Gee, there's a shock!" Harper teased lightly, his hands stroking back and forth over Tyr's arms, fingers tracing and playing with his forearm spikes.
"How much longer 'til we find and kill the bitch, Tyr?" Harper asked suddenly, changing topics. "I just... call me selfish, but I want to have you all to myself without my slavery, Freya, Orca or anything else hanging over our heads. I want some peace and quiet with just you and me and no interruptions or needing to be on the bridge twenty out of twenty-four hours in the day. I kinda want to get to know the man I fell in love with, you know?"
Tyr sighed, stepping back, suddenly losing interest in sex. "Then you'll be pleased to know that we are planning to attack the Orca stronghold tomorrow. When we come out of slipstream the next time, we will be in striking range.
"My information says that neither Freya nor Guderian is present right now." He looked up, meeting Harper's eyes in the mirror. "They are away with a new slave they both seem much taken with. From the description, it is likely your friend, Rafe Valentine."
"Oh god! Does Bek know? Jesus, Tyr, that's her older brother; he took care of her after their dad died and practically raised her. Oh god, oh fuck, I know, I know what they're doing to him. I know how they break a slave and... and..." Harper's eyes were wide and wild with terror; that brief little sentence managed to shatter his illusion of control and let the memories come flooding back. Memories of training and conditioning, of how the Orcas would break a person's will and spirit even as they broke the body.
To be born into slavery and to have that done to you was bad enough. To be a child and to know nothing else was even more horrible. But to be a free man, an adult who'd known nothing but freedom his entire life... "We gotta save him, Tyr. Oh my god, I gotta do something. He was nice to me! He looked after me and healed me and protected me! Please, Tyr!"
Large, protective arms wrapped around the human and pulled him tightly against a broad chest. "I know, Harper, I know. I promise you I'll help you find him. I owe him for keeping you safe for me, and I want to feel Guderian die between my hands for what he did to my pride. We will find them and bring your friend back."
Harper whimpered, whirling around to bury his face in the older man's shoulder, trying to hold back the shivers of terror as his mind raced from memory to memory. It made him want to find a dark closet and hide in it, a corner that he could back himself into and protect himself from being taken somehow. Instead he clung to Tyr, to his lover, his lifeline to sanity.
"They hurt you and... do things to you. They use psychotropic drugs and hallucinogens to weaken your mind and leave you vulnerable, and then they have," Harper choked on the word, "gangs of people who get to use you until you're used to being a whore for them. Then when you're broken, they start to train you to please them. And teach you how to find pleasure in it too. They pervert and corrupt you and leave you a shell.
"That's what they did to me, and I was just a child. For someone like Rafe, it's a million times worse, Tyr. I watched them try and break a free man once, a long time ago. He went so crazy they had to put him down 'cause he was trying to hurt himself, hurt them, hurt the other slaves. They snapped his mind. I don't want that to happen to Rafe."
Tyr could only hold Harper. He knew he couldn't promise that they'd be able to prevent that happening to Rafe. For all they knew, it might already be too late for the man. He would, however, do everything in his power to save Rafe Valentine if he was still alive when they caught up to Freya and Guderian.
"We'll do everything we can to prevent that, Harper. And I swear to you that they will never touch you again." Tyr knew he would never allow anything to happen to Harper. He couldn't. The very thought made him almost quake.
"I know you won't, Tyr," Harper replied softly, cuddling further into the hard frame. But if they wanted to catch Freya and Guderian faster, they'd need something that the two Orcas wanted more than even Rafe Valentine. That meant being bait.
But there was no way Tyr would go for it. Hell, he'd kill anyone who even looked at Harper funny let alone... but Beka, Dylan and Trance would back him up. Tomorrow, when the majority of the remaining Kodiak warriors were seeking retribution on the Orca stronghold.
Maybe Agravaine Rhade would help them too; if not, Harper's bodyguard would have to be tricked into being left behind. It was a good plan, one that would work. Harper could leave a latent command in Rommie's memory banks, one that would be triggered when Tyr returned, one that would give him the frequency of the tracking device he'd implant into himself on the Maru.
Tyr would find him, of that Harper had no doubt, and he could endure if it meant saving Rafe. He only hoped that Tyr would forgive him, someday. "Tyr, I need you, please. Love me?"
Tyr could hear the desperation in his lover's voice, but he assumed it was because of the memories and empathy for his friend, a human failing. He drew Harper closer, tilting the smaller man's head up so he could kiss him, more than willing to make him forget everything except the pleasure they gave each other.
He led Harper back to the other room where he slowly stripped the clothes from his body, nibbling and kissing each exposed inch of flesh. Once Harper was naked, he removed his own clothes, pleasantly aware of Harper's eyes on him. When he met the human's gaze, however, he saw that the pain and worry were still there, though shadowed by his growing pleasure.
Harper's distress gave him the impetus to do something he'd been considering for a while. The Nietzschean knelt on the edge of the bed and leaned over to kiss his now prone lover. "Would you like to take me?" he murmured against Harper's lips.
"What do you mean, take you?" Harper looked up at the bigger man quizzically, until the heat in Tyr's eyes and the myriad meanings those softly spoken words contained processed. Gasping, he stared up at the Nietzschean, not really believing what he heard.
"T-take you? You mean like you take me? Tyr, you want me to make love to you?" the younger man stuttered, in shock, even as his body hardened rapidly. "I've never, I mean I have once or twice when I was with other slaves, but that wasn't making love; that was fucking, and I wouldn't want to mess this up or hurt you or..."
Yanking the Nietzschean captain down by his braids, Harper proceeded to devour Tyr's mouth, showing him beyond a shadow of a doubt how much he 'liked' the idea, ignoring, for the moment, the slight throbbing in his tongue caused by the piercing. A little pain was well worth the pleasure of tasting his Tyr.
Tyr cooperated enthusiastically. He enjoyed it when Harper became more aggressive. His arms wrapped around his lover, and he rolled them over so that he was lying beneath the human. "I'll take that as a yes," he laughed, dancing eyes staring up at the other man. "So how do you want me?" His head rose for a moment to kiss Harper, then he sprawled beneath him.
"I, ummm, I want to see you; I need to see you, okay?" Harper requested softly as he began to trace his lover's face with his fingers, mapping Tyr's features and memorizing them... just in case.
"You are beautiful, you know. Even when I hated you that first day, when you captured us, I still thought so. I remember looking up and seeing you and getting an instant hard on, which scared the shit out of me since I hadn't had one in, oh, about three years, ever since Bek and Dylan helped me get it under control," the young man confessed.
Sliding down the hard frame, not waiting for an answer, Harper began to map the hard, Nietzschean body with lips and fingers, trying to avoid using his tongue for the most part, taking his time to explore every inch of Tyr from head downwards. He wanted to remember everything, explore and taste and feel every part of his lover.
"You know what did it? What made me love you even when I didn't want to? You came after me," Harper purred as he gave in and lapped at dusky brown nipple, feeling the bitter sweet bite of a body still healing, although the nanobots had taken a sharp pain and lessened it to a dull throb by now. "No one's ever cared that much about me, well, that could do anything about it that is, to come after me. Even if I was only a possession at the time, I was still yours, and when I saw you across the room, I knew, in my heart, that I was. Was one of the reasons I rabbited the way I did. You scared me half to death!"
Moving down further, the human nuzzled his way through wiry soft curls, then licked his way up the large erection before him, lightly running the steel ball embedded in his tongue up the sensitive vein beneath. "This is so big, I could hardly believe it had fit, but it fit so well. Like I was made for it, to be taken by you that way. And the feelings, Tyr, you blew my mind. Not even when I was being - rebellious - could I deny that you made me feel better than I had ever felt in my life. Sexy, you know? And desirable and so hot, so incredibly hot. You made my toes curl and my bones melt.
"And now, now you want me to take you. You trust me enough to do that. I can't begin to describe the feeling. It's... I love you so much," Harper husked, as he rose to blanket the older man's body as best he could once more, his eyes glistening with moisture. "My life, my everything. You are, you know."
One large hand rose to cup Harper's face, holding him still while Tyr stared into his eyes. "How could I not come after you? Even then, not knowing how much you would come to mean to me, I knew that I couldn't lose you, could not allow you to be harmed. I could no more leave you than I could... could enter slipstream without a ship!"
His fingers wove through the short, spiky blond hair, and he tugged Harper's head down to him. His tongue delved deep, seeking out and claiming every inch of his lover's mouth, leaving the human panting when he finally laid his head back down.
His arms were crossed behind his head, pillowing it, and his legs were spread and raised, his knees pressing against Harper's hips. A smug smile curved his lips as he lay waiting for Harper's next move.
"You are so damned sure of yourself, aren't you?" Harper chuckled as he rubbed his cock back and forth over Tyr's, feeling their precum mix together to form a wet glide of flesh. "How could I possibly resist that?"
Still chuckling, Harper reached for the lubricant and squirted it into his hand to warm it. "You're also easy; look at you splayed out like that," Harper continued to tease as he slid a moistened finger down his lover's ass and slipped between to tease the muscle.
"Fuck, Tyr, you're tight," Harper groaned. "Can't wait to be in you. Can't..." Harper's lubricated hand stroked his own erection roughly then positioned it between Tyr's ass cheeks. Finding the tight pucker, he slid in with a thready moan. "Minnne."
Tyr rose up into the thrust, taking Harper deeper, then sank down again. "Oh yes," he groaned, "so very good." His eyes, which had shut at the incredible sensation of Harper sinking into him, opened again and focused on the pale blue ones staring down at him.
"I'll never be like this with anyone else again," Tyr vowed, promising Harper that this much, at least, would be his alone.
"You'd damn well better not!" Harper growled, slamming into the Nietzschean as he surged upwards, biting the older man above his heart, marking Tyr as his and his alone. "I may have to share you with wives you need to take and children you need to father, but this is mine, damn you!" Harper snarled furiously, almost insane with jealousy at being reminded just how little of Tyr he really had.
The Nietzschean gasped, his teeth catching his lower lip as Harper took him hard. "No one else, no other lovers, never again." His hands ran over Harper's body, exploring him, a finger sliding inside him as Tyr rode the rigid length plunging into his depths. "Only want you." His throat arched as the pleasure grew, and he caught one of Harper's hands, drawing it to his aching cock.
"No other lovers..." Harper laughed quietly, his anger nowhere near assuaged. Maybe no other lovers, but there would be wives; he wasn't completely ignorant. Harper knew what being alpha of Pride Kodiak meant: it meant he had to prove his virility, and there was one of two ways - children and wives or children and lovers. Tyr was giving up lovers, which meant that he'd have to have children, and that meant more wives. Tyr would never be exclusively his. Never.
Hips slamming harder into the older man, Harper forgot his need to be gentle, to learn Tyr in case something went wrong. He was hell bent on claiming the Nietzschean, making sure that Tyr never forgot him under any circumstances. Especially when he was off procreating with some Nietzschean bitch.
"Mine, mine, mine, mine!" he snarled over and over again, taking Tyr harder and faster, his hand mimicking the action of his hips, claiming the older man as thoroughly as one little human could.
Groaning and thrashing, the Nietzschean came, his body convulsing beneath his lover, clamping down on the rigid length filling him. Even then he continued to move, wanting to share that pleasure with Harper. The human's roughness, though nothing compared to what a Nietzschean was capable of, still gave Tyr an idea of what Harper was feeling, and he gave Harper what he could.
As his body milked his lover's, Tyr looked up into his eyes and said, "I love you."
"Oh god!" Harper crumbled, even as those desperately wanted words caused him to go over the edge and find his own release, pouring everything he was into Tyr. Collapsing onto the strong body beneath him, Harper held on for dear life, tears streaming as he begged for forgiveness of his insane jealousy, promising to never be selfish again, just so long as Tyr never took it back.
Tyr held Harper to him tightly, soothing and petting him, slowly calming till he lay quietly in his embrace. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I know you want more, deserve more, but..." To give up his place in the pride, to not procreate, would be to deny everything that made him Nietzschean. Even if he could, it would destroy him.
"I never expected to feel this," he admitted. "You are my weakness, Harper, something that matters more to me than my own survival." He shook his head. "I don't think we need share that with anyone else. Just... be careful. I don't want to lose you." His arms tightened convulsively.
"I'm trying, Tyr; I really am. I know you have to do what your genetic imperative demands, and I know why you need to do it. It's just... hard. I'm selfish. Now that I've found the most wonderful thing in the galaxy, a person who loves me, who wants me, I want to keep you mine forever. But that can't happen. Just don't... I don't want to know who, okay, or how many. Leave me on the Andromeda when you finally get around to... I don't want to know," Harper begged quietly.
"And I'm learning how to take care of myself. Dylan's teaching me stuff - about self-defense, and Bek's teaching me how to shoot a gauze rifle, and Agravaine is watching me 24-7 when you're not around. I'm protected," at least until I give Agravaine the slip and make myself into bait, the younger man thought with a twinge of guilt. But Rafe was his friend, and Rafe needed help. Help that Harper was probably the only one qualified to give.
Tyr smiled slightly. "I wondered when you were going to tell me about your combat lessons. No, the ship did not tell me. Did you really think that I wouldn't recognize the bruising?" He shook his head.
"As for the other... that will be separate from us. I promise you that." He tucked the blond head under his chin, just holding him.
Trying to shake the suddenly somber mood, he teased, "So, should I assume you like it this way too?"
"Variety is the spice of life, Tyr," Harper grinned at his mate then stretched upwards to kiss the full, pouting lips and rub his almost smooth cheek against Tyr's beard roughened one, purring. "But only once in a while. I kinda prefer you taking me. You're just so damn butch!"
That drew a chuckle from the Nietzschean. "You won't find too many weak Nietzscheans," he pointed out. "And I'll be more than happy to take you as often as you want." A hand ran possessively over Harper's ass. "I like being here."
"Really? Couldn't tell," Harper sassed, snuggling into the lean frame then yelping as his still tender navel ring caught and was pulled slightly. "Owwwowowowowow. Why the hell did I get this again?"
"I wouldn't know since you haven't seen fit to share that information with me," Tyr replied, still a little surprised that Harper had chosen to get the two piercings. "Not that I mind the occasional surprise, especially not one that makes you even sexier, Pet." He stroked Harper lightly. "I'll be happy when the nanobots complete healing your tongue and I can kiss you properly again though."
"Tomorrow morning," Harper replied softly. "Whether they're finished healing me or not, you kiss me before you go, okay?" Little did the younger man know but he sounded more like a frightened child than anything else at that moment. And he was frightened.
Harper knew Tyr would survive, of that he had no doubt. It was his own survival that was questionable. If Freya or Guderian ever got their hands on him, he wouldn't survive the hour, let alone a day or long enough for Tyr to ride to the rescue. Not this time. This time he was well and truly on his own.
Hearing the fear in Harper's voice, Tyr frowned, but he assumed that it was for him. "The Orca are not strong enough to harm me, Harper. I intend to come back to you." He held Harper tightly to him, stroking him soothingly. "You will be safe here, with my children. All that I care about, aside from my pride, is here in one place. I won't be gone long, Pe-Harper."
"You'll still kiss me goodbye," Harper demanded fiercely, not willing to tell Tyr about his plans.
"With pleasure," Tyr said quietly, arms tightening around his lover. "Kissing you is never difficult. Now sleep."
"I... I'll have enough time to sleep when you're gone. I just want to be with you, Tyr. We haven't had any time together since this all began. Talk to me, tell me about growing up in the prides, about growing up free? Please?"
Sighing, Tyr realized that he was not going to get any sleep that night. Fortunately he was well rested, so it would not affect him in the next day's battle. He sat up, settling himself comfortably against the headboard, then pulled Harper back into his arms. He urged Harper to settle against him, head on his shoulder, as he began to speak. He described his childhood, picking and choosing the details to share with Harper, telling him about his parents and siblings, talking until Harper dozed off in his arms.
He stared down at the blond head fondly, pressing a light kiss on him before closing his own eyes to get what sleep he could.
Morning came far too early for Harper. He watched silently as Tyr girded for battle, even assisted where he could. His own plans were in readiness; Dylan, Beka and Trance had done most of the preparations, all but the weapons, which Harper had to take care of himself.
It hadn't taken much to rewire a couple of deactivated androids to register as still deactivated as they carried the weapons through the ship, and it was a common sight to see what with the attack that was being mounted. He'd overridden the codes on the weapons lockers and had the androids install them on the Maru, Andromeda Ascendant and the Nietzschean crew none the wiser. If Harper's plan worked, then the weapons would be discharged, and the Maru wouldn't be carrying any when it re-docked, and the missing weapons would be considered used in battle.
Now all Harper had to do was wait for the Nietzschean assault force to leave, taking Tyr with them. "Never thought I'd say this, but you look gorgeous all dressed up to kill," he joked lamely, trying desperately to lighten the mood as he tied Tyr's hair back from his face in a thick tail.
Tyr smiled crookedly and wrapped an arm around Harper's
waist pulling him closer. "I think it's time for that kiss now." He took
Harper's mouth hungrily, as eager for him as if they hadn't spent themselves
already that morning. When he finally raised his head, he smirked down
at the dazed human. "There, that will inspire me to finish off the Orca
quickly so I can come back to you and continue where we left off." Another
quick kiss pressed to Harper's swollen lips and he was gone.
<>
It had been fairly easy to convince Rommie that he and the other humans were bored and just wanted to take the Maru out for old times' sake. For once Harper was glad of Loki's interest because it meant that he'd been able to ask Agravaine to escort the younger Nietzschean back to his lessons, thereby giving them an easier time to make their escape. Rommie's sensors were focused on the battle below on the Orca colony, so she couldn't react to the Maru going into slipstream until it was too late.
Harper's fingers flew over the computer pad, his cyberjack feeding him information at a phenomenal rate. Trajectories, variables, the complete list of Orca's worlds, the slave camps, the training centers, all the information that was burned into his brain from decades of enslavement and years of specialized assignments thanks to his above average intelligence. After half an hour of frantic searching Harper knew where Freya and Guderian had taken Rafe.
"They took him back to the installation I was trained at," he choked out, collapsing, exhausted, into Dylan's arms.
Exchanging a worried glance with Beka, Dylan held the younger man, who seemed to be running on pure nervous energy. "Harper... maybe you should go back to the Andromeda and let us go after Rafe. Going back there..." He trailed off, unsure how to express his concern. He was afraid that facing his past would be too much for Harper. Seeing him this last while, happy, had made Dylan realize how tightly strung Harper had always been. Strange that he had a Nietzschean to thank for his happiness, when it was Nietzscheans who had caused his misery.
"No, you're gonna need me. I know things. Things I wasn't supposed to. Blueprints, schematics, security codes, where to go, where to look, what conduits go where. And Rafe is my friend, Dylan, I don't have many of 'em, so I really wanna keep the ones I've got.
"Besides," Harper's voice cracked, "I'm the only one who's going into his cell, the rest of you are staying outside until... until I say you can come in. I've seen what happens, experienced it, but you haven't, and he won't want you to... see," the young human choked.
Beka cringed, thinking of her big brother in that state, remembering how Harper had been when they found him. "Oh Rafe..." The tiny cry escaped her, and Dylan moved to her side, wrapping his arms around her.
"We'll find him, Bek. I promise you." He refused to believe otherwise, refused to consider a universe without Beka's practical joking older brother in it. "But not at the cost of you, Harper. Losing one to save one is not a good bargain. Both of you have to come out of there... sane."
"Hey, I've got no arguments, big guy; however, considering what I'm gonna have waiting for me, one royally ticked off Nietzschean, crazy may be what I am now," the engineer tried to joke with a wry grin.
"Listen, I'm gonna try and get some sleep, okay; wake me up before we come out of slip stream."
Beka watched as the younger man disappeared down a corridor to his old set of rooms. "He's right, Anasazi is gonna be less than impressed. Hopefully he'll take it out on us, though, and not Harper. The kid's heart is way too big for that little body, and he wears it on his sleeve. He's gonna get it smashed one of these days.
"We're not going to be able to do this alone, Dylan, no matter what Harper says. We've got enough of a head start that it'll take the Andromeda at least a good two hours to get to us, longer if they're still fighting. We need to send our coordinates back to Rommie so that she can follow. We're gonna need them."
Dylan nodded. "It might save our lives too, if we let Anasazi know where Harper is. I never thought I'd say this, but I think he really does love the kid, and he is going to be incredibly pissed that he's in danger." He sighed. "What a messed up universe when I can't even hate a Nietzschean alpha anymore.
"Send the coordinates, Bek. The less time that captain has to stew about where Harper is, the better for all concerned."
"And after I do, how 'bout we let Trance watch the ship for a while and you hold me, please?" the blonde captain asked softly, the strain of the situation at last making itself known in her fractured voice. "I... I need to be held, Dylan; I hate it, but I do. He's my brother," she got out on a choked sob before wheeling and racing to the helm to send the coordinates back to the Andromeda Ascendant.
Dylan followed, standing behind her, his arms around her waist. "You don't always have to be strong and take everything alone, Bek. I'm here for you. I love you, Captain Valentine. We will get your brother back, love, I swear it.
"How could we fail?" he teased, trying to cheer her up. "With two Valentines, me, Harper and Trance, nothing can stop us. And having a very pissed off Nietzschean coming behind us doesn't hurt either."
"Not to mention the last High Guard ship in existence,"
the captain grinned wanly. "Now let me get this message off, and then you
can take me back to our cabin and teach me how to 'share' my feelings."