Descending Revelations
TITLE: Descending Revelations
AUTHOR: Natasha Bennett. nbennett@islandnet.com
RATING: PG-13 for violence
SPOILERS: Into the Labyrinth (season 2)
SUMMARY: Harper betrays the crew for the Magog.
ARCHIVE: Ask first, but it shouldn't really be a problem.
DISCLAIMER: Ugh, what an iffy subject! Okay, I really don't think I copied any ideas except for 'Into the Labyrinth' and some things from season two, which are of Tribune Entertainment respectfully, so please, nobody sue me! I only want to write fan stories for people, okay?
Seamus Harper walked alone in the busy space port of Terron Beta. All around him the dirty atmosphere was buzzing with activity, and the unwary travelers were getting robbed, beaten, or murdered in no particular order. Harper casually stepped over an unconscious man having his green eye slowly removed by a thief and smiled. This was the intergalactic slop of the galaxy. Here the worst class of people came to find a few easy backs, or, in this case, a few easy body parts. No one but the worse scum would come here. Except for him, of course.
Suddenly, the hologramatic version of the Andromeda Ascendant appeared right in front of him. "Harper--"
Harper was so startled that he instantly drew his blaster and pointed it right at her. His blue eyes widened. "Rommie." Relief immediately turned into anger. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is!? I could have shot right through you and hit someone! Where did--how did you get here, anyway? I always assumed that you were only limited to the Andromeda."
"I tapped into Terron Beta's mainframe to project my image using your data port as a key scanner point," Rommie replied, not without a trace of smugness. "And don't change the subject. The fact that I could easily access the mainframe just demonstrates how lax security is here. It's filled with nothing but smugglers, drug addicts, thieves, assassins--"
"And yet we're docked here," Harper remarked, raising an eyebrow. He put away his blaster.
Rommie rolled her brown eyes. "The only reason we're here is to purchase supplies, faulty as they may be. As I recall Dylan specifically authorized no one to enter Terron Beta. And so what does Seamus Harper do? He blinds my sensors to believe that he's happily working in machine shop 23, and leaves without any thought of responsibility or even common sense." She shook her digital head. "If Trance hadn't asked where you were--"
"I would have been happily on my way," Harper said. "All right, so you caught me. Now, would you please go? You're attracting attention." That much was true. As he spoke a few glanced at them. One of them, another hologram, even whistled at Rommie.
"The only way I'm leaving this spaceport, Harper, is if you come back with me or you at least tell me what you're doing here," Rommie replied stubbornly, folding her dark arms. "And don't forget, I'm a virtual lie detector."
Harper cleared his throat. "Well, the thing is--"
"Lie," Rommie instantly said.
"I was thinking, of, you know, for you--"
"Lie," Rommie said again.
Harper threw his hands up in the air. "All right, all right! I came here to get some stupid information!"
Rommie frowned. "What kind of information?"
"Um...the really top secret kind?" Harper tried.
Rommie's frowned deepened.
Harper looked at her and sighed. "Someone contacted me three days ago to tell me that they had information about Earth," he finally said.
Rommie blinked, her hologramatic black hair falling in front of her eyes.
"Oh," was all she said.
Harper shook his head. "Look, Rommie, I know better then anyone the dangers of coming here, believe me! But if there's a chance...any chance that someone has information as to whether or not my cousin is alive...well, I would certainly tread worse places to find out. But I have to do this alone, Rommie. I don't know why, I just do."
Rommie said nothing for a moment. "Be back within two hours, or I'm telling Dylan what you're up to," she finally said.
Harper nodded. "Fair enough."
"Harper!" Rommie called after him. "Be careful," she warned.
Harper gave her his most charming smile. "Rommie, my dear, sweet love, aren't I always?"
Sighing, Rommie disappeared.
Smiling to himself, Harper walked to the table to where his contact would meet him. The person was hidden in shadows, typical with most informants.
Harper nodded a greeting and asked what he had.
A woman's face moved out of the shadows. Instantly he knew who it was. It was the Satrina Leander, the woman from his past. The woman he had prayed daily never to see again. "Hello, Seamus," she greeted with unexpected eagerness.
At that moment, Harper realized he had stepped right into a trap. He didn't even think twice. He turned, fully prepared to bolt back to the Andromeda and promise a smug Rommie that he would never, never set a foot outside the ship again.
Except things didn't exactly happen that way.
What did happen was that he bumped straight into three very large hairy Magog. He looked up at them in shock. They were massive, far more bulkier then anything Magog he had ever seen! Nietzschean genetic enhancements? He didn't dwell on the subject as he pulled out his blaster and managed to fire at one before another grabbed him. Howling, the third Magog fell to the ground, convulsing. The smell of burning fur and blood soon filled the air. People passed by without much interest.
Suddenly, the first Magog bit him in the shoulder. Hard. He instantly felt the cold paralyzing drug seize his body like it did on the Magog world ship a year ago. For him, it was his worst nightmare come true. The Magog were back, ready to invest him with their larva again. The one holding him slammed him face-down onto Satrina's metal table.
The paralyzer was working its way quickly through his body. He felt his legs buckle against him. He tried to find his blaster but his arm had taken a rather inappropriate time to fall asleep. He cursed inwardly. What ever happened to Terron Beta security? He could understand smuggling the odd blaster, but a trio of Magog!? They weren't welcome on any world! Oh, if he ever got out of this he was so going to write a firm letter to the head of the interplanetary security company--
Dimly he heard the woman talking. "--when you defied him he was furious," she was saying. "None of us could contact him for days for fear of being instantly incinerated. Twice we underestimated you. For the longest time he sent me into a very cold, dark place! But I fought back! I earned his favor again after many hard months. And my reward? To seek out the man that humiliated me," she said through Harper's rapidly fuzzy vision. He blinked and tried to move, but the paralyzing agent stopped him. Yet it must not have been very potent, for he was still conscious. "Turn his head," he heard her say.
Snarling, the Magog grabbed his blond hair and twisted, revealing the data port in his neck. "What are you doing?" Harper managed to say through his numb mouth.
Satrina smiled and attached a wire into Harper's neck. She attached the other end to the computer. "This is your lucky day, Seamus. You're going to help us destroy the Andromeda Ascendant."
"I don't--" Harper began, when his lungs felt the eerie chill of the paralyzer eating away at him. He coughed. "I really don't think so," he managed to whisper.
Satrina laughed. "Well, we disagree." She activated a button. A thousand currents of electricity ran through his data port, shocking him into an abyss of darkness which he couldn't crawl out from. His head slumped onto the table.
He stayed in that darkness for a long, long time.
******************************
An hour later Harper walked out of the loading dock alone, dazed and confused. He looked around, as though unfamiliar with the surroundings.
"Harper!" Greeted a voice from behind him. Instinctively he whirled around, one hand on his blaster, only to find that it wasn't there. He had dropped it somewhere. Where had he dropped it? He shook his head, and focused all his attention on Trance Gemini. She was the only member of the crew that had actually lived in the future. It must had not been very good, because she came back to make things better.
"Trance," he said without much enthusiasm. Instantly he felt a sudden surge of pain in his head, a sudden surge of rage. He winced.
It didn't escape Trance's notice. "Are you okay?" she asked him.
'The meddler!' A voice shrieked in the back of his head.
"Harper?"
"What? Oh. I'm fine, Trance. Just fine," Harper said, forcing a smile.
"Just haven't gotten a lot of sleep recently."
Trance held up a device with her gloved hand. "Well, I was wondering if you can fix my cellular regenerator. It got sort of...broken."
Harper took it without glancing at it. "I'll take a look at it."
"You sure you're all right?" Trance asked, touching his shoulder in concern.
Immediately Harper jolted backwards as though on fire. He crashed into a shelf, causing a tray of parts to fall with a shatter. He looked at her in shock.
"Harper?" Trance whispered, really concerned now.
Sweat was rapidly running down his forehead. "I'm...I'm fine Trance. Just....uh!" He touched his temple in pain and was starting to breathe very heavily. "Just...go. I have to do some things, Trance. Very important things."
She rushed to his side. "You are not fine! We have to get you to medical right away--"
He shoved her away. "Go away, Trance!" he ordered.
She stared at him in astonishment, not because of what he did, but because at that moment she heard the voices which ran through his head. 'Yes, go away, meddler! We have important things to do and you will not interfere. You will NOT INTERFERE!'
"You always....always have to mess in my affairs," he managed to say, starring at her angrily. "What's the matter, Trance? The fact that you can't read my future like the rest of the crew infuriates you? Just...just leave me alone. I'm an engineer, Trance. I know how to cause little accidents. I'm not entirely sure if anything can kill you at this point, but I know at few things that can mess you up pretty good." He brushed past her. "Just leave me alone."
'Yes, leave us alone,' she could hear. 'We have to do things. Very important things.'
'Hurry, Harper, she suspects. She knows something is wrong. Hurry!'
Trance ran.
*****************************************
'Hurry, Harper. They're coming to stop you.' The voices persisted in his mind. It sounded like a thousand angry hornets buzzing in his mind. It was worse then when he had the archive in his head. Harper wiped sweat away from his eyes. "Shut up, just shut up," he whispered angrily. He attached a device to the power supply of the engine core, and twisted its dial very delicately.
'The one approaches. He hears. He suspects. He knows!' The voice shrieked just as he finished. "HE'S HERE!'
The doors opened and Dylan Hunt stepped through. "Harper? Harper, are you in here?"
Harper lifted his head up in puzzlement. "Hey, Dylan. What'cha want?" he asked casually, with a strained smile.
"Answers, for one," Dylan replied calmly, starring at him. "Trance said that there might be something wrong with you." He tilted his blond head. "In fact she said that you might do something very wrong."
Harper shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. "Dylan, I really want to help you, but I can't. I honestly don't know what she's talking about. We....we hardly know Trance anymore, Dylan. Who knows what she really wants?" He laughed. "For all we know she could be here to break us apart...or kill us, or something."
Dylan stared at him, puzzled.
Harper closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "I'm fine," he continued.
"Really. Perfectly, happily fine."
Dylan's head tilted to left. "What are you working on?" He sudden inquired.
"Nothing," Harper snapped defensively, glancing behind him. A mistake.
"Rommie, scan the room for--" he began, when Harper suddenly rushed at him.
Both collapsed to the ground. Harper scrambled to his feet and grabbed a metal bar from the shelf just as Dylan managed to struggle to his feet.
Harper lunged just as Dylan took out his force lance. Instantly Dylan turned it into a staff to parley Harper's blow. Both circled each other. "Harper, what are you doing!?" Dylan exclaimed.
Harper shook his head, his eyes full of bitterness and rage. "You think you're powerful," he sneered. "You think you can stop us. But you can't! We have so much more...we are so much more then you can possibly imagine!"
"Why are you doing this?" Dylan demanded.
"You killed thousands of my children," Harper snarled. "Reason enough?"
"Who--" Dylan began.
"AWAITING FINAL OUTPUT," said the computer.
Harper glanced up to the small level above them. Instantly he ran to one of the two ladders. Dylan raced up the second, paused, and set his force lance to its lowest setting and aimed at Harper. Harper threw his lead pipe at Dylan, which bounced sharply off Dylan's arm and deflected the blow.
Cursing, Dylan struggled to maintain his balance. By then Harper made it to the top of the platform. Dylan scrambled up the small ladder. Harper retrieved a blaster from another shelf and fired at Dylan. Dylan instantly fired back. Both fire dissolved in a dazzling display of sparks.
Dylan fired again, but to his horror the force lance was jammed. Grinning, Harper aimed and fired...only to find that he was out of ammunition. Both eyed the control panel.
Harper raced to it. "Enable power surge, authorization acting engineer Seamus Harp--ack!" He managed to say before being shoved aside.
"AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED. ATTENTION! POWER SURGE IN TWENTY SECONDS--"
The device blinked to life.
His eyes still filled with puzzlement and hurt, Harper turned and disappeared into the wall. Dylan didn't have time to consider the significance of this as he rushed to the device, but an electromagnetic force shield was around it to prevent tampering. "Rommie, shut down this control station!" He ordered.
"Harper's authorized a lockout. I can't shut it down!" Rommie said, her eyes wide with panic.
"Dylan?" Beka's confused voice said over the intercom. "Someone's trying to leave in the Eureka Maru--"
"It's Harper, but we've got bigger problems at the moment!" Dylan snapped.
"Track him, if you can!"
'ATTENTION! POWER SURGE IN EIGHT SECONDS."
"SEVEN..."
"SIX..."
"I've found the lockout! Override in progress," Rommie said.
"FIVE..."
With a grinding whine the station shut down. The device disengaged. Rommie nodded. "Done."
Dylan leaned against the wall. "It was linked to the power core. If we hadn't noticed in time--"
"We wouldn't have been aware until our deaths," Rommie finished grimly.
**************************
Lights-years away from the Andromeda, Satrina pushed the final button on her computer. "All clear," she said, smiling.
Harper looked around, puzzled. "What--"
"Congratulations, Seamus. You just murdered your own crew."
"How!?" he demanded. He glanced around quickly. There was no sign of her Magog buddies.
"Within each of us with data ports is a connection to our God of the Magog, some to a greater extent then others. I installed a program which would amplify your own connection to his mind, and through you, he extracted his revenge on Dylan and the others." She smiled. "You were barely aware of it, I think. But he could have never had done it without your help."
Harper blinked. His first reaction was to grab her by her pale throat and choke the life out of her, a reaction which his conscience had no moral objections with. He lunged at her, but suddenly realized he was held fast to the comm chair by bindings around his wrist.
"I thought precautions were required," Satrina replied, smiling at his fierce glare. "I see that I was right."
"Bindings can't last forever," Harper replied, his voice filled with undisguised hatred. "Take some friendly advice--you'd live a lot longer if you killed me now."
"What, and kill the man who solved all my God's problems? I think not," she replied, giving him an affectionate pat on the cheek. She sat down on the navigation seat and led them through slipstream.
Harper, now for the first time entirely himself again, quickly recalled all the memories he had experienced on the Andromeda. The main question of the day was--were they dead? Harper seriously doubted it. The crudely designed bomb was designed for stealth, not efficiency. And Dylan was right there right behind him. There was a very good chance that he managed to diffuse it in time. But Satrina, and whoever she worked for believed they were dead, that was the main point. And Harper had no intention of letting her think otherwise.
But he still had hope, if nothing else. After a moment Harper had to ask, "Where are we going?"
"Home," Satrina replied, smiling.
*****************************
"Do you want me to kill him?" Tyr asked Dylan.
"We have to find him first," Dylan said grimly. They were all on the bridge of the Andromeda. "Then we'll decide what to do."
"All right. But it's really no trouble," Tyr said, shrugging, "No trouble at all."
"I don't believe you," Beka snapped. She stared at Dylan. "Both of you! I've worked with Harper for a few solid years, and I've learned three things. Number one--" she lifted a finger. "--he has strange habits that you would be better off not asking about. Number two, he is currently the most famous 'man to avoid' champion in the woman's seventh cluster eight years running. And three, he does not sell out his shipmates! Not for whole worlds! He...he..." She raised her hands. "He just doesn't!"
"I know, Beka, but circumstances seem to dictate otherwise," Dylan said, thinking quietly.
"When I saw him....he was so different," Trance Gemini remarked, shivering. "He truly wanted to kill me, yet a part of him tried to protect me as well. He was almost a completely different person."
"Almost a different person..." Dylan mused. "Or a different entity entirely."
"Dylan?" Beka prompted.
"Harper walked through walls. As far as we know, only the human allies of the Magog can do that. And, he spoke to me...almost like he was referring to the Magog."
Beka nodded in agreement. "They must be involved somehow."
Rommie's digital face appeared on the screen. "If that were true, then it is very likely that the Eureka Maru will be returning to the Magog World ship."
"We wouldn't survive for a moment," Tyr snarled. "And an unprepared encounter with a Magog World ship is one which I would very much like to avoid."
Dylan nodded reluctantly, pondering.
"We may not have to," Rommie suddenly said. Her face disappeared from the screen and a map of the solar systems appeared in her place. "In order to reach the Magog world ship, the Eureka Maru will have to traverse through certain key slip points. No deviation is possible."
"So?" Tyr asked.
Dylan caught on immediately. "So, we find a way to cut them off."
"The Eureka Maru has a lot more maneuverability then the Andromeda, but my propulsion is far more enhanced. If we set my engines to maximum power and aim for this slip point--" One of the yellow systems lit up. "We should reach it bare minutes before the Eureka Maru."
"That's dangerously close to Magog territory," Tyr noted.
"But the only assured point that we can reach in time," Rommie said.
"It's suicide. Traversing through slipstream with full thrusters is extremely hazardous," Tyr said, staring at Dylan. "The boy has clearly already betrayed us. Let him fall into his own grave and find ourselves a new engineer."
The hologramatic version appeared. "It is extremely dangerous," she admitted reluctantly. "Facing a Magog World ship in our current damaged state would almost certainly mean our deaths. But Dylan, the only way we'll catch them is if we leave now."
"Dylan, we can't just leave him!" Beka snapped. Her eyes stared at him pleadingly, yet Dylan could also see a dangerous hint of warning of what could happen if Dylan refused.
Dylan turned to Trance Gemini. "Well, Trance? Any suggestions?"
Surprisingly, Trance was smiling. She shook her head, her red braided locks bouncing. "I don't need to offer any advice, Dylan. Not this time. Not when we both know what you're going to say."
Dylan sighed heavily. "I never ask for these things to happen, you know."
"But you're so good at fixing them," Trance replied.
Dylan sighed. "Beka, navigate us to that slip point. Rommie, engines on full."
"Engines on full. Aye," Rommie promptly replied.
Dylan's face was grim. "All hands, battle stations."
Onward to Part 2!
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