Bonds Made, Bonds Broken: Part 2
Trance was waiting for them when they finally reached the Medical Bay. She took one look at Harper and began rushing around the room, getting everything she needed and subtly removing Dylan and Beka from the area. She was so focused on analyzing and treating Harper, that it took several seconds for her to notice that Tyr had been brought in as well. It was the fact that the bots were restraining him that she noticed most.
"What's wrong with Tyr? Why are you tying him down?" She asked, leaving her best friend's welfare in the hands of the medical bots for a few seconds.
"Don't worry about him. He's only stunned. Just focus on Harper." Dylan replied. Trance looked as though she was going to ask something else but thought better of it and returned her attention to her patient.
~~~~~~~~
Trance worked alongside the medical bots and took care of Harper. The broken arm was set, and mended almost completely within the hour. The cuts were all healed and the bruises only a shadow of a memory. There were three broken ribs that had taken a little more time to take care of, but she was pretty confident that when Harper woke up the worst he would be feeling was a headache and some stiffness. Now the only question was when he would wake up. It had been three hours now and Trance was certain he should have regained consciousness on his own by now. She rechecked the scan she had taken of his brain functions. It was all working as it always had and there was no sign of concussion. He *should* be awake.
Trance decided - in her own mind - that the reason Harper hadn't woken up yet was because he wasn't ready to face what had happened. One of his closest friends - although it was a newly formed bond - had attacked him. Viciously. That wasn't something your mind just recovered from. Harper had trusted Tyr, and Trance knew better than most how hard it was to earn Harper's trust. That made it the worst betrayal of all. So she let him sleep, and seemed content to believe he could take some refuge in his own mind.
She sat by his bedside, the medical bots long since finished treating him, and waited for him to wake up. She began to drift off and was awakened by the feeling that someone else was in the room with her. A conscious someone.
"Harper?" She asked hopefully, then her face dropped as she realized he was still completely out of it. She turned around and realized it was not Harper she had heard, but the room's other patient.
Tyr was awake.
~~~~~~~~~
Dylan rushed to the Medical Bay. Trance had notified Dylan that Tyr had regained consciousness; he was now, hopefully, on his way to get some answers. The sight he was met with when he came in was somewhat nerve rattling, but not completely unexpected. Tyr was restrained by thick metal straps, and Dylan had to wonder how long those would hold against the large man's attempts to free himself. He was pulling at the bonds with all his might, never tiring. His face was set in a look of permanent rage. Not the look of someone capable of rational thought. Tyr was clearly not in his right mind.
"Release me at once!" Tyr growled furiously, "I will tear out your throat when I am freed!"
Dylan had thought that maybe - just maybe - Tyr had attacked Harper for a personal reason. That somehow the young engineer may have angered the Nietzschean to such an extent that the attack had occured. It was painfully obvious that was not the case. There was no personal quarrel; there was something seriously wrong with Tyr.
"You worthless, disgusting excuse for lifeforms, let me go!"
"He hasn't calmed down since he woke up. I was about to sedate him." Trance informed Dylan.
"Do it. Then run all the tests you can think of, on him. Blood tests, DNA, brain functions. I want to know what's wrong with him." Dylan replied without tearing his gaze away from his restrained crew-member.
Trance nodded and Dylan turned to leave, somehow knowing he wouldn't be getting any answers from Tyr, no matter how hard he tried. When he was almost out the door his gaze stopped on the room's other occupant.
"How's Harper?" He asked solemnly.
Trance smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, "He'll be okay. Physically anyway. A few broken ribs, some cuts and bruises, minor concussion. I'll call you as soon as he wakes up." The sparkly purple babe assured him.
"I'd appreciate that." Dylan replied, and headed out once more.
~~~~~~~~~
After sedating him immediately, Trance took a blood sample from Tyr and placed it in the scanners. It took several minutes for a full analysis to be completed, so she made her way to Harper's bedside. She wasn't alone. Beka had been by his side as often as possible. She was called to the Command Deck several times, but she always returned as quickly as she could in case there were any changes in her engineer's condition. Of course he meant much more to her than a mere engineer. In many ways Harper was a little brother to Beka; always looking up to her, getting into mischief, teasing her constantly, but in a cute, non-offensive way. Beka even dared to believe that Harper was the life force of the Andromeda, and nothing seemed right on the ship when the young man wasn't crawling through the ships crawl spaces, or working on his many projects. It just wasn't the natural order of things.
"You know Harper, I think you just enjoy making my life difficult." Beka said jokingly, as she pushed back an errant lock of Harper's hair. He suddenly began to toss and turn; definite signs of consciousness. Beka and Trance both held their breaths hopefully and then exhaled as Harper's eyelids flickered open.
"Harper. How do you feel?" Trance asked immediately, it being the first thing to come to mind.
"Trance? I've been better. Like, *way* better." He propped himself up on one elbow and looked around the familiar Medical Bay while rubbing the other hand over his face. "What the hell happened?"
"You uh had a little ... accident." Beka replied, not quite sure how much to tell him.
"Accident, huh?" Harper seemed to think about it. His gaze swept around the room once more and when Trance moved slightly to her left he was finally able to see his roommate. As his eyes focussed on Tyr, it all came back to him. He remembered what happened quite clearly now. He flinched noticeably as the memories returned. His eyes betrayed the barrage of emotions that swirled through him, varying from anger, hurt, confusion, and betrayal. Several moments passed and nothing was said; Beka felt the urge to break the silence.
"Harper, are you alright?" She asked in concern.
Immediately Harper returned from his deep thoughts and turned Beka, "Yeah, I'm good." His gaze wandered back to Tyr, "Uh, what's wrong with him? I mean, that definitely wasn't Tyr back there."
Beka couldn't believe her ears. Harper was one of the most paranoid people she had ever met, and trusted almost no one. Even the slightest betrayal of that hard earned trust usually took great lengths of time to regain on Harper's part. Beka knew this was undoubtedly one of the largest betrayals of Harper's life, yet he had immediately believed that Tyr's actions had been due to an outside influence of some sort, instead of taking the fight as a means of that trust being broken. He sure had grown a lot this past year. That, or he just downright refused to believe Tyr would ever hurt him while in his right mind. Whatever the reason, Beka was proud of him.
"We're not sure yet. But we're looking into it." Beka assured him.
Harper seemed to accept this. Everyone jumped as a beeping came out of nowhere. "We may find out right now," Trance told them, "The tests are done."
Trance went over to the console to see what, if anything, had been found. She looked it over several times, to absorb fully what it said.
"Beka, could you take a blood sample from Harper and bring it over here, please? I need to check something." Trance called out, never tearing her eyes away from the screen.
"Yeah, sure thing." Beka replied.
"Watch it, I don't have all that much to spare."
"I'm sure you'll be fine." Beka said unsympathetically, bringing the sample over to Trance. She took it at once and fed it into the computer for analysis. It would take another several minutes to scan this sample as well. Trance called Dylan while they waited, telling him Harper was awake and she may have found out the reason for Tyr's *unusual* behaviour.
"Don't keep us in suspense here, babe. Spill it already." Harper urged Trance to tell them what she thought was wrong, as he tried to sit further up in bed.
"Wait until Dylan gets here, and the scan's done. And lay back down, you have to rest." Trance fussed.
"I'm fine, you took good care of me. Now talk." Harper practically ordered her. Just then Dylan came in and the scan of Harper's blood finished. Trance read the findings as Dylan traded pleasantries with the now conscious Harper.
Trance smiled of joy and relief, "I know what's wrong." She announced.
"Anytime here Trance." Harper urged her once more.
"Okay." She replied. She brought up the scan results on the large screen for everyone to see.
{Author's note. Now pay attention, this is the important part}
"This is Tyr's and Harper's blood, respectively. Everything looks pretty normal, but if you look really close you'll notice tiny microscopic cells. Those little things that look like squished bugs." Everyone cringed at the comparison.
"So what?" Harper asked, not really knowing what should be in his blood.
"Well, according to your last blood test, that wasn't in either of your blood streams when you left the ship before your supply run. I won't go into details about what they are exactly, that would take too long."
"We appreciate that." Beka commented.
"I thought you might. Anyway, what I do know is that these little buggers are effecting the chemical balance in Tyr's mind. Which, caused him to become so angry and pretty much lose complete control over himself and his emotions." Trance continued.
"Can you counter the effects?" Dylan asked.
Trance smiled rather brightly, "You bet. It's pretty much a simple mixture of a few chemicals. I probably would have detected them when you two first came onboard, but since neither of you had a blood exam there was no way of knowing anything was wrong."
"That makes sense, I guess. But, how exactly did we get these little guys in us?" Harper enquired.
"My best guess would be that it was that knock out gas stuff those would- be robbers used on you." Trance replied.
"Well, I may have a whammy of a headache, but I don't feel like bashing anyone's brains in. Why wasn't I effected?" Harper continued.
"Probably because you're human. The gas knocked you unconscious, and seemed not to have effected Tyr. But now we know differently. There's no way to know what it was specifically designed for, since we don't have a sample. See, in your blood stream the virus cells are dormant; they're there, they just aren't doing anything. But in Tyr's cells they're active." Trance explained.
"So, these two breathed in some odd gas, which knocked Harper unconscious and caused Tyr to lose complete control of himself and his actions? And you can reverse this for sure?" Dylan asked, just to be sure he was understanding correctly.
"Basically. Yes."
"Well, that's simple enough. Why don't you make that antidote now, Trance." Dylan suggested.
"Sure thing. It'll just take a sec. Then we just have to wait for the sedative to wear off, and we'll see if it worked."
"Goodie," Harper mumbled under his breath. No one seemed to notice. Just as Trance was about to inject Tyr with the antidote he spoke up.
"Hey, Trance. Am I cleared to get out of here? I'd really rather rest in my quarters." Harper stated calmly. But his eyes showed different, there was a clear indication of in his eyes that there was a battle of emotions going on inside of him; and he definitely didn't want to stick around.
"Yeah, I uh guess so." Trance replied, confused. It had seemed earlier that Harper didn't blame Tyr in the least for the incident, he especially shouldn't now that the reason for the attack was clear. But he obviously wasn't comfortable with being in the room when Tyr woke up. Trance decided that the wounds were too fresh, and perhaps even with forgiveness it would take some time before Harper could approach Tyr comfortably again.
Everyone exchanged a confused glance as Harper left the Medical bay hurriedly, favoring his left side slightly. Trance administered the antidote to Tyr. Now all they could do was wait.
~~~~~~~
An hour later.
Dylan and Beka had both returned to the Command Deck and told Trance to notify them if there was any change. Trance sat at a console reading all that the medical equipment had been able to find out about the virus-like things in Tyr and Harper's bloodstream. It wasn't a very strong virus, in that it could be easily combatted; she had been able to make an antidote in mere seconds. But it was deadly in its effects. Tyr easily could have attacked anyone on the ship, or perhaps sabotaged some important systems. Trance was just glad Harper hadn't been effected. The two of them running mad around the ship was more than she wanted to think about. She looked up and noticed that Tyr showed signs of waking.
"Dylan, Beka, Tyr's waking up." She called out through the comlink. They both headed to Medical immediately. She hesitated to call Harper; he hadn't asked to be notified if Tyr woke up and he may be sleeping, he really needed to rest. Trance decided to wait. It would be for the best; if the antidote didn't work for some reason she didn't want Harper to have to see Tyr again while he was under the virus's influence. She took a blood sample from Tyr and placed it in the scanner just as Dylan and Beka arrived.
Dylan walked over and stood by Tyr's bedside. As Tyr's eyes opened he looked around the room, calmly and clearly curious. Then he focussed on Dylan standing next to him.
"Dylan." He exclaimed calmly, but questioningly.
"Yeah, Tyr."
"Untie me before I am forced to find my own way of escape, which will undoubtedly lead to physical harm to your person." Tyr stated just as calmly as before. There was no rage in his eyes, just a need to be freed. Dylan wasn't so sure he was thrilled about the physical harm part of the equation though.
"It's okay, Dylan," Trance announced happily, reading off the results from the blood tests, "The virus is cleared from his system. He's back to himself."
Tyr raised an eyebrow to Dylan and indicated the bonds.
"Well then," Dylan said as he released his security chief, "It's good to have you back."
"Yes, well I must admit that I am at a loss as to where I was." Tyr admitted, sitting up.
"What's the last thing you remember, Tyr?" Beka asked softly. She was cringing inwardly; they may have to tell Tyr what he did while he was under the virus's control.
"I returned from the supply run and went to the gym I believe. In fact, as I recall I broke the punching bag." Tyr stated rather proudly. "Hmmmm, afterwards. I believe I ... well I was completely enraged. At what I have no recollection; but I was quite mad. And I seem to recall perhaps ending up at the machine shop." Tyr explained slowly, trying to remember.
"Do you remember Harper being there?" Dylan asked, not giving away any information in his tone.
Tyr's gaze suddenly broke away from Dylan at the mention of Harper's name. He lowered his head, and clenched his eyes shut then pressed his hands against his temples, as if he were in physical pain. It all came back to him in a rush, the memories flashed before his closed eyes relentlessly.
[[Breaking the equipment in the gym. The intense overpowering rage. The urge for destruction. Going into the Machine Shop. Destroying the robot with his bare hands. Harper coming in. The urge to kill. Attacking Harper.]]
"No!" Tyr yelled in denial, not wanting to see, but still the memories returned. His attack on Harper replayed in horrid detail, ending with the flash of red from Dylan's forcelance. When the memories finally ended, Tyr gasped in shocked, and horrified surprise.
"My god." He looked Dylan straight in the eye, "What happened to me? Where is the boy?" He asked, getting up to look around the Medical bay.
"Harper's fine, Tyr." Trance assured him.
"He's just resting in his quarters." Beka finished.
"Well then, would one of you please explain what happened?" Tyr asked somewhat forcefully, frustration ringing out clearly in his voice.
Beka, Dylan and Trance looked at each other, willing the other to explain so they wouldn't have to. Dylan was the one to step up and explain the situation. He explained how it was probably the gas that caused the entire incident, and what the virus's effects had been, and how they reversed it. Tyr sat in silence, absorbing it all. When Dylan finished he remained silent, clearly in deep thought. It was several moments before he spoke.
"I have to go see Harper." Tyr said getting up to leave Medical as quickly as Harper had earlier. He needed to speak to the boy right away. After all the work he had put into having a friendship with the "little man" he refused to let it die because of some virus.
"Wait, Tyr. I want to run some more tests to make sure you're okay." Trance yelled, but Tyr was practically out the door.
"Later."
"But ..." Trance started.
"I said later!" He called back behind him and headed for Harper's quarters.
Dylan wasn't convinced about Tyr's state of mind yet, and refused to take any chances, "Rommie, I assume you heard all that."
The holographic form of the ship's AI fizzled to life in front of them, "Yes. Not a very nice situation."
"I know. Monitor Tyr, even if he engages Privacy Mode. I want to know what he's doing. It's the safest thing, at least for the time being." Dylan explained.
"Understood." Rommie nodded and then disappeared once more. Dylan didn't like invading Tyr's privacy and he knew the others didn't like it either, but better safe than sorry. Dylan, Beka and Trance parted company to return to regular duty and hope life would somehow be like it was before.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr kept up a steady pace all the way to Harper's quarters. He didn't know what he was going to say to the young engineer, he just knew he had to see him. The memories from when he was under the virus's hold were still strong in his mind. He needed to know that Harper was alright, physically and mentally and hope that there friendship could somehow remain as it was; but deep down he had a feeling it would never be the same. He had betrayed Harper, whether in his own mind or not, it was betrayal, nonetheless. And trust was something Harper didn't just throw around.
He finally arrived at Harper's quarters. He rang the bell, not really knowing what he was going to say. As it turned out he didn't have to worry right then, Harper wasn't answering the door. Tyr resorted to knocking.
"Harper. Are you in there?" Tyr called. No reply. He let out an exasperated sigh. "Ship, is Harper in his quarters?"
"No. Harper is currently in Machine Shop 2." Rommie replied without appearing.
Tyr immediately started on his way to the Machine Shop. As he reached the door he realized this was where he had attacked Harper. He couldn't help but wonder why Harper would return here so quickly. He went in and looked around. The room was in shambles. Broken machines, and spare parts littered the floor, there was an overturned supply shelf and the communications console on the wall was completely shattered. Harper sat in the middle of the floor, picking up parts and inspecting them, then putting them back on the floor or shoving them into recycle bins if they were broken beyond repair. Tyr thought he looked as though he were attempting to put together a jigsaw puzzle. He approached him slowly, not realizing how quiet his approach actually was.
"Harper?" He finally addressed him. Harper scrambled to his feet in surprise and spun around to face him. Tyr cringed inwardly when he noticed the shock and initial fear in Harper's eyes that didn't immediately go away. The bruises around his neck and the way he was favoring his left ribs was discomforting as well. The engineer relaxed somewhat when he realized Tyr was himself, but remained somewhat tense. "Aren't you supposed to be resting?" Tyr asked, attempting to start the conversation somehow.
Harper's features immediately hardened, "Yeah, well I had plenty of time to do that while I was unconscious." He replied coldly, then turned back to the parts on the floor.
Tyr wasn't thrilled with the response, but wasn't totally surprised. He ignored the comment, as much as it hurt, and continued, "What is it you're doing?"
"Cleaning up this mess and trying to find out if any of this stuff still works." Harper said. He picked up the remnants of the robot Tyr had destroyed and threw it into a recycling bin rather roughly. Tyr remained in the doorway until Harper addressed him. "Hey, you helped make the mess, feel free to clean some of it up."
Tyr came into the room and placed several pieces of broken equipment into the bins, then straightened and spoke somewhat louder than before, since Harper had his back to him. "I came to see if you were alright." He admitted.
"Oh, in that case I'm right as rain. Thanks for stopping by." Harper's voice was sharp and dismissive.
"Look little man, I was told that your purple friend explained my behaviour to you. I was not myself in any sense of the word, so I would appreciate it if you would not hold my actions against me." Tyr said as calmly as possible; Harper's attitude was wearing down his patience.
"Hey, who's holding anything against you? I'm fine, you're fine. Life goes on, right? Everything's peachy!" Harper replied sarcastically, his tone as cold as steel. It was clear everything was not fine.
"Obviously everything is not "peachy". What do you want me to do? I am sorry for what happened, and fine, I *apologize*, but I can not changed what occurred." Tyr said, his voice rising slightly higher.
"That's right, you can't change what happened. So why talk about it? Tell you what else, you can take that *apology* and shove it up your a..."
"What is wrong with you?" Tyr demanded, not understanding Harper's reaction. He had just apologized. Him. Tyr Anasazi out of Victoria by Barbarosa. Apologized! He had thought that would be enough, especially since he wasn't in control of his actions. But Harper clearly wasn't accepting the apology.
"You! You're wrong with me. Just stay out of my business and get the hell out of here!" Harper demanded, clearly meaning it. He empasized his point by throwing the piece of metal he had picked up at Tyr with all the strength he could muster. Luckily his aim was off thanks to his recent injuries and he only managed to strike the doorframe next to Tyr. This only enraged the big man further and his patience finally cracked.
"Fine, you just stay here with your precious machines. Why I ever believed a friendship with a worthless mudfoot such as yourself was worth pursueing, I'll never know." Tyr replied angrily. He turned and left the room, if possible he would have slammed the door on his way out.
He was so blinded by his own emotional turmoil he didn't notice the irregularities in Harper's actions. If he had been able to think through his own rage, and hurt, he may have noticed the unrational anger in Harper's reaction, or nervousness and anxiety in all his actions, or heard the crash and bang of more equipment and parts being broken by the young man in the Machine Shop behind him. But as it was, Tyr was oblivious to all this, he could only think about his own mistakes and feelings. Perhaps if he had noticed, he could have stopped Harper before the virus had set in completely, and in doing so saved himself and Harper from unnecessary pain. But he didn't notice, and the virus in Harper's system continued to grow stronger.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr walked through the ship aimlessly, he didn't know, and didn't care where he was going. The entire scene with Harper kept replaying in his mind. He silently wished he had waited longer to confront the young man.
[[Perhaps it was too early to speak to him. I barely gave him time to process all that happened.]] Tyr reasoned to himself. He had prepared himself for the worst, he knew Harper's reaction may not be entirely pleasant, but he hadn't prepared enough. He was being eaten away by guilt, and desperately wished Harper had accepted his apology, it would have made things much easier. His mind was quite aware that he hadn't been responsible for his actions, but he couldn't seem to convince his mind, or that annoying little thing he called a conscience.
[[Damn it, I'm going soft. Getting so worked up about the boy being angry at me. I really shouldn't care this much, it's nothing but a weakness.]] Another voice in Tyr's head told him.
He couldn't get the images out of his mind of when he attacked Harper. He remembered all of it, including the feeling of joy and satisfaction. He hadn't taken great pleasure in preying on the young man, and attacking him. Thinking about it now literally made him sick to his stomach.
[[Of course he doesn't forgive you, think of what you did to him. Would you be so willing to forget such an incident?]] He asked himself. Tyr was really starting to hate that little voice. He eventually found himself outside the doors to the Command Deck. He decided he may as well go there, it was as good a place on any. He went in and found only Beka manning the deck.
"Hey Tyr, how'd it go with Harper?" Beka asked, a little too cheerfully for Tyr's liking. Of course, Beka had thought that Harper would forgive Tyr immediately, after his reaction in the Medical Bay.
"Not well, to say the least. He more or less ordered me to stay away from him." Tyr told her, staring out the view screen to avoid her gaze.
"You're kidding?" Beka was somewhat shocked.
"Do I seem in a humorous mood to you?" Tyr asked bitterly.
"No, it's just that .. well after what Harper said in Medical I was positive he'd already forgotten the incident and pretty much put it behind him." Beka replied.
"Oh, and what was it he said exactly?" Tyr enquired, genuinely curious. If Harper had been willing to forgive him earlier, then why not now?
"Well when he woke up, the first thing he did was ask what was wrong with you. Not attitude-wise or anything, he automatically assumed there was some kind of outside influence effecting you. It's was like he refused to believe you would attack him like that, for any reason. He seemed awful relieved when we found out it was actually a virus." Beka said, trying to recall everything said in Medical.
"That does not sound like the same Harper who just told me to take my apology and shove it up my a..."
"You actually apologized?" Beka asked in pleasant surprise. She suddenly had an even greater respect for Tyr.
Tyr nodded. "And he didn't forgive you? That doesn't sound like Harper at all." Beka commented.
"No. It doesn't." Tyr replied slowly, seemingly deep in thought about something. Now that his mind was clearer, he was picking up on Harper's extremely odd behaviour. But he wasn't sure yet. He left the Command Deck without so much as a good-bye and made his way to the Medical Bay.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr entered the Medical Bay and immediately scanned the area looking for the person he needed.
"Trance, are you here?" He called out, not bothering to ask Andromeda, who would undoubtedly know.
"Hey Tyr. I'm glad you stopped by, I still need to run those tests. I just need to make sure you're definitely okay." She explained happily, thinking he had done as she asked and returned for the tests.
"Perhaps later. Right now you must assist me. Did you take any samples of Harper's blood since he returned from the supply run?" Tyr asked, while making his way over where she sat at a desk.
"Yeah, I took one while he was unconscious. Why?" Trance was nice enough to ignore the fact that Tyr had pretty much *ordered* her to help him. She knew he was just like that.
"Get it. There is something I need you to check." Tyr said, his voice indicating she should hurry.
"Okay, I guess." She got the slide with Harper's blood and placed it in the scanner. "Now, why exactly do you want to see it?"
"There." Tyr pointed to the screen where Harper's blood was now displayed, "Am I right in assuming that is not normal?"
Trance looked closer and nodded her head in agreement. "That can't be right." She said mostly to herself. She magnified the diagnosis but she already knew what she was seeing. "This is *so* bad. The virus cells aren't dormant in Harper's blood anymore, they're active. How did you know?"
"I didn't for sure. Let's just say he was acting very un-harperish." Tyr replied. Trance couldn't hold back a slight grin at Tyr using the word "un-harperish".
Tyr wasn't extremely worried about his vocabulary at the moment. He was immensely relieved to find out that Harper had actually been under the virus's control at the time of their latest confrontation, but he was also now very worried about Harper's well being with the virus raging in his system.
"Why did you not eliminate the virus from his system, as you did me?" Tyr asked, trying his best not to sound accusatory.
"Well, he seemed fine. We didn't think it effected him. He was just ... Harper." Trance tried to explain.
Tyr attempted to keep his anger in check, he still needed answers. "Why is it effecting him now?"
"I'm not sure." She scanned the readings from the blood test. A lightbulb clicked in her head. "Harper said something about a console exploding on the Maru, and him getting knocked out."
"Yes, he was fine afterwards. I don't see the relevance." Tyr said, not following her line of thinking.
"He took a painkiller though, right?" Tyr nodded. "That must be it." She brought up a new screen. "See, this is a list of the compounds I mixed to make the antidote for the virus, some of them are the same as the ones used in painkillers. The painkiller must have kept the virus dormant, but didn't have all the components to destroy it. So now that the medicine's worn off ..."
"The virus is becoming active." Tyr finished. "Will this effect Harper the same way it did me?" He asked, his voice laced with concern.
Trance shrugged, "There's no way to know. He may get all aggressive like you, or something else completely. He's human, we'd have to wait to know for sure."
"Well I don't wish to find out. Give me the antidote. I'll go find him and administer it." Tyr ordered. Trance immediately rushed away to make another shot of the antidote. "Ship, where is Harper?"
"Unknown." Andromeda replied.
"Unknown?" Tyr repeated, not believing his bad luck.
Rommie fizzled to life in front of them, "He must be doing something to block my sensors. I can't locate him."
"My god, could this get any worse?" He mumbled under his breath.
"Here's the antidote Tyr." Trance handed him a hypo.
Tyr sighed, "Make a few more. Take one for yourself and find Dylan and the others and tell them to inject Harper if they see him. It appears as though we'll have to scour the ship ourselves, in order to find the little man. I'll start at the Machine Shops." He called out as he left the Medical Bay; leaving Trance the task of telling the rest of the crew about Harper. Trance smiled inwardly though. Tyr acted tough and mean around pretty much everyone, and he was tough and somewhat mean, she wouldn't deny it, but you would have to be blind not to notice Tyr's concern about Harper's well being. As much as he hated it, Tyr had become friends with Harper, and Tyr was definitely the kind of person, who, once friends were made, kept them for a long time and protected them as best he could. Harper was no different.
Returning her thoughts to the present she knew what she had to do. She hit her com button. "Uh, Dylan, there's something you need to know."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr walked down the corridors of Andromeda, trying to think like Harper, which in itself was an odd and tiring task. He decided the Machine Shops were a good place to start since that was where he was last seen. As he made his way down the corridors, clutching the hypo tightly, he couldn't help but think of how long a day this had turned out to be.
[[And it's not near being over.]] Tyr thought to himself. He knew life on Andromeda wouldn't be entirely easy, but this was soon becoming one of the longest and potentially worst days of his life. It went right up there with being trapped on a Magog swarm ship.
Oddly enough the experience on the Magog ship had been a slight blessing in diguise. If not for the Magog attack he would never have gotten to know Harper. He discovered Harper's demons and helped him face them, one on one. Tyr couldn't help but be proud of Harper's actions under the extreme situation, especially knowing Harper's background with the Magog. Going into the fight against the Magog, Harper had been the far more experienced, already having faced his deal of Magog in his day. Tyr hadn't even known to wear goggles to protect against paralyzing poison. Back then, Tyr was forced to pity the boy slightly, although he wouldn't admit it. Harper had grown up with the horrors of earth. On Andromeda he had been assured safety, and just when he had felt safe and dropped his defences the Magog had arrived and destroyed the boy's paradise.
The friendship blossomed soon afterward, and Tyr had to admit he enjoyed being able to have actual conversations with the humorous and charismatic young man. But now he had to keep his new friend from doing something he may soon regret. He suddenly had an idea, it probably wouldn't work, but it was worth a shot. He opened up the communications frequency so he could broadcast to the whole ship.
"Harper. I don't know where you are, but you have to come out. There's a virus in your system. If you tell us where you are we can help you, but first we have to find you." Tyr called out through the ship. He held his breath for a few moments as he waited and hoped for a response. He was pleasantly surprised when he got a reply.
"Help me? Ha, that's a laugh. I don't need *your* kind of help." Harper's voice dripped with malice towards the Nietchzean. "Don't think I don't know what you guys are up to. I'm clued in, I know everything. Well you won't get me! Not Seamus Harper!" Harper's voice rang out around Tyr. He sounded absolutely paranoid, even more so than usual.
"Harper, I don't know what you're ta..." He started, but Harper wasn't finished.
"I can help myself. That's for sure. I don't need anyone! Especially not anyone who's just waiting to stab me in the back! You want me, come and get me. But don't think that it's going to be easy." He still sounded paranoid and angry, but Tyr could swear he could see Harper's "I'm a genius" grin on his face, just through hearing his voice. Just then the entire ship became totally engulfed in darkness, as every light on board was extinguished.
"Harper!" Tyr called out angrily. This wouldn't help at all. The com line stayed open, and Tyr could have sworn he heard nervous but satisfied laughter through the com unit before it shut off. "Andromeda, were you able to find him?" Tyr asked hopefully while trying to feel his way to a locker that may have a flashlight.
"No. He masked the signal." Rommie explained without appearing, Tyr couldn't see her anyway.
"Damn. The little man can't make anything easy, can he?" Tyr found a flashlight in a locker and set about searching the ship, in the dark, with no idea where to start.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harper sat in front of one of the many control consoles in the Andromeda. This particular one was located in a crawl-space he had discovered several weeks ago, he was fairly sure he was the only one who could ever manage to fit into the small space with enough room to work comfortably. He thought of it as his own personal workspace, free of distractions, and had set it up so he could access all systems and do almost anything from this console. He was extremely glad that he had set up this little area; especially since everyone onboard was trying to kill him.
He thought they were anyway. The virus that was now raging in his system was an unexpected side effect from the gas he'd been exposed to on the Space Station, but the gas wasn't to take all the blame. The virus had entered his system when he'd inhaled the gas, and the painkiller in his blood had kept it dormant, but it had also mutated it somewhat. When Tyr was affected, the virus tapped into the Nietzschean's most primal emotions of hatred and anger and the need for destruction, intensifying the feelings to such an extent that they blocked out all rational thought and even memory. All that existed was primal, untamed emotions. Harper was a different story. The mutated version of the virus was tapping into his own personally strongest emotions; those being a deep rooted hatred, anger, and as of recent months, paranoia. But the virus also had changed in that he was capable of rational thought, he recalled perfectly how to work all of Andromeda's system, and he remembered all of the crew, he just thought they wanted to kill him. And this new and unimproved Harper was royally pissed about it!
[[I'll show them. Think they can just get rid of me! Not a chance.]]
Why wouldn't he think they wanted to kill him? First off there was Rev Bem. There was of course the obvious of him being a Magog, and they weren't currently on Harper's friend list. He also suddenly remembered all the time Rev had threatened to eat him. Although he had been joking, to Harper's now twisted mental picture, he was sure the Wayist had been completely serious.
[[Yeah, like I'm gonna let myself get infested twice!]]
Then there was Trance. What did he really know about Trance? Pretty much nothing. And really, who was *that* innocent and naive about the universe? She was sure to have her own agenda and was just using Harper as a means to get what she wants, just like everyone else in the world. He saw the look she got in her eyes every now and then when she thought no one was looking. Deep in thought about her oh so clever plans and grinning evilly! He definitely had to stay away from her.
But don't forget about Beka. She had rescued Harper, as she repeatedly reminded him. Reminded him just to make sure he stayed in check, keeping him scared and in submission. She had saved him to use him for his amazing engineering abilities just to make her own life easier. He remembered with perfect clarity how Beka had threatened to send him back to that hellhole she had found him, if he told anyone about her using Flash. Of course he had told and she had tried to choke the life out of him. Oh yeah, there's a friend for you.
There was always Rommie too. Dear, sweet, perfect Rommie. Nice to look at, but don't forget she's a warship! She's programmed to kill. And Harper had messed around with her systems, and tricked her with technical tricks so many times over the last few months that he had no doubt she was holding some sort of grudge. He bet she even blamed him for the entire Magog incident. Just because he had opened an old personality file, with her permission! But that wouldn't matter to her, he'd set it loose and to her it would be entirely his fault. She only kept him around so he would fix her. If she ever found another even remotely capable engineer he had no doubt she would get rid of him as quickly as possible. No, she definitely couldn't be trusted.
Tyr. The man he had trusted. The man he had thought was his friend. The man he had been infested with, and fought alongside against a whole army of magog. Had stabbed him in the back, and Harper was sure to him it had just been another day in the office. Another useless kludge out of the way. But he had survived, and now he was coming back for more. And he wouldn't make the same mistake twice, no way was Tyr getting another shot at him.
But there was always Dylan. The noble high guard captain would never betray him, and Harper had no reason to think he would. But with all the others after him he had no doubts that they could persuade the captain to go after him as well. He wouldn't go against the wishes of everyone else to protect Harper, he needed the others if he ever wanted to achieve his Commonwealth.
No, he was on his own.
[[Well that's the way it's always been, isn't it? You were alone for twenty years on that hell hole called Earth, you can survive this. Just focus on the task, and not on the betrayal and the pain.]]
Harper continued working to shield himself from the sensors, absently wiping away the tears that brimmed around his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr continued to search the ship. He had checked all the Machine Shops and found no signs of the boy. The task seemed nearly impossible with a ship this size and a crew so small. Suddenly he heard a noise. Up ahead, there was someone there. He turned off his flashlight and backed against the wall, listening closely. He could clearly hear the person breathing. His thoughts that this may be Harper were shattered when he heard a voice call out.
"Harper, it's Trance. Are you here?" Tyr stepped out of his hiding spot. "Har ... oh Tyr, it's you. Haven't found him?"
Tyr sighed, already exasperated with the girl, "No. What do you think you're doing? If he truly has lost all his senses do you believe he'll just come out of hiding because you call him? He believes we are trying to kill him."
Trance frowned, "Why would he think that?"
"I do not know, and right now, neither do I care. Our main concern is to find him before he cuts off all systems from our control. Are you even armed?" He asked incredously.
"No. But it would kinda pointless if I was, I could never shoot Harper." She replied, completely shocked.
"It would be for his own benefit. He'll thank you later."
"You didn't thank Dylan." Trance pointed out.
"I'll do it later."
"Sure."
"Are you going to help me find the little man, or stand here blabbering all day?" Tyr really needed to get going.
"I don't blabber. Sometimes I have a lot to say, and I may occasionally have some extra information ..."
"Never mind, you've answered my question. I'll find him myself." Tyr stormed down the corridor; obviously very focused.
Trance just shrugged and continued in the opposite direction, "Harper. It's Trance. Wanna tell me some more about how smart you are?"
Tyr sighed as he heard Trance talking again in the distance. He activated his com link, "Rev Bem, please come down to deck 4 and help our purple friend in her search. I fear for her safety on her own."
"Understood. I'll be right there." Rev replied. Tyr breathed a little easier knowing Trance would no longer be alone.
He arrived at one of the Officer's quarters and decided to check inside. He looked up and down the hall as he moved to enter the room and ...
"Ow!" He walked straight into the door, which hadn't opened upon his arrival as it should have. "Harper, when I get my hands on you ...." He let the threat hang in the air and decided to simply think of things he would do to the young engineer. This was getting very irritating. First the lights, and now all the doors would have to be opened using brute force. He made a mental note to talk to Andromeda about finding a way of locking Harper out of her systems if necessary, then continued on his way. He still had a lot of ship to cover.
Onward To Part 3!
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