Pipedreams
TITLE: Pipedreams
AUTHOR: parisindy
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: Harper has a bag of money that's some how related to his past...
DISCLAIMER: No money was received or exchanged. I do not own Andromeda or any of its Characters. This is purely for fun.
ARCHIVE: Zion's Starfish can archive it anyone else has to ask
CHALLENGE: Harper has a bag of money that's some how related to his past (in response to Zion's Starfish's challenge her site rocks!) And a big hug to Harpergirl for being my Beta reader!
JD: "Well, I've always believed that if done properly, armed robbery doesn't have to be an unpleasant experience."
Visual fiction: Thelma and Louise; 1991 old Earth calendar
Harper peered around the corner, looking both ways before entering the hallway. No one was coming. Keeping his body close to the bulkhead he quietly made his way down the corridor. It was the wee hours of the morning and everyone should be asleep but he wasn't taking any chances.
He reached a vent halfway down the hall and once again looked both ways before he pulled out a screwdriver. He inserted it in to the small metal top and began to twist.
"Harper, what are you doing?"
Harper was not one easily startled, but he jumped, dropping the screwdriver and yelping in surprise. He took a deep calming breath before he answered.
"Hey, Rom Doll, what are you doing up?"
"I was about to ask you that."
"I heard a rattling noise. It was keeping me up."
"Harper, your quarters are two levels down from here. How could you hear anything?"
"I heard it earlier and I couldn't get it out of my head, ok?" He yawned exaggeratedly. "Look, I want to fix it and get back to bed, OK? So I can I have moment here?"
The hologrammed Rommie looked at him for a second. "Hamm."
"Don't look so suspicious. Sheesh!" He opened the vent and pulled out some wiring then looked up at her expectantly. "You know, Rommie, you're getting almost as paranoid as me."
With that she made a face at him and disappeared.
"Finally," he whispered as he laid his tools on the ground. He once again looked up and down the hall. No one was there. He leaned forward and reached up inside the vent as far as he could. His fingers snagged a piece of cloth and pulled. As quietly as possible he pulled out a musty green bag.
He looked in and sighed with relief. They were still there and man, were they beautiful! He gazed down into the colourless bag that was filled with thousands of brightly colour credit chips. Millions in Vedran currency and no one could ever know.
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The next morning Harper stood on command beside Dylan. He was supposed to be briefing the captain on repairs but he kept stopping to yawn.
"Late night, Mr. Harper?" asked Dylan, a hint of suspicion ringing in his words.
"Um, yeah, sort of."
"Any special projects I should know about?"
"Nothing that will warp time and space as we know it!" Harper tried to quip cheerfully but he yawned again helplessly. "I just need a Sparky and I'm good to go."
Rommie's hologram popped in beside Dylan. "Maybe if you did repairs during the day and not the middle of the night you wouldn't need so much caffeine."
Dylan arched an eyebrow.
"Listen, Rommie, I'm a creature of the night. I'm like a vampire-the sun will kill me." Harper joked trying to change the subject.
Rommie gazed at his smiling face flatly. "Hardly," she turned to Dylan. "A vampire is an ancient Earth legend about dead humans that came back to life and lived of the blood of others. It's a gruesome myth."
"I know," agreed Dylan, "I've heard of them."
"And if my memory serves me correctly and it always does," continued Rommie, "these creatures were often seen as alluring and very handsome."
"You see? Just like me!" Harper threw his arm across his face like he was hiding behind a cape and skulked towards the command deck doors. Rommie rolled her eyes and Dylan smiled. Just then Beka entered the room. Harper flung his arms out like wings and nearly jumped on top of her, shouting, "I vant to drink your blood!"
Beka jumped in surprise and nearly decked him. "Harper, you really are a freak, you know that?" she shouted at Harper's back as he hurried down the hall laughing.
He rounded two corners before he stopped and leaned against the bulkhead. His heart beat madly in his chest. 'Whew. Rommie was getting too suspicious,' he thought. He'd have to move the money, but when? He couldn't do anymore 'late night repairs' to the same vent. He closed his eyes. He was tired of the secrets. He felt like he was betraying everyone by not telling, but it was too important. They must never know. He had always dreamed of getting of that hellhole Earth, and he had; now this could blow everything, and he certainly didn't want that. The man yawned again. Man, he was tired. A quick nap and maybe he would be able to pretend the money never existed. He continued down the hall towards his quarters.
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10 years earlier
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Harper's parents had been dead for 3 months now.
He had found a new place to live, just a couple of steps away from Brendan's hovel. It was small but safe for now. He looked around his new abode.
It was literally no bigger then a closet. Tiny, musty, and inhabited by unwanted creatures-at night he thought he heard rats. He sighed. He had hoped this move would make him feel better. He couldn't stay in the same place his parents had been murdered a moment longer. His head was trying to move on but his heart wouldn't follow.
He piled a couple of old blankets in the corner and stuck a couple of old photos up on the tin metal walls above the blankets. There. Now he was unpacked. Nice and homey.
Brendan stuck his head around the corner into the room.
"Shay?"
"Hey, Brendan, come in."
"This isn't so bad." Harper knew he was trying to cheer him up but Brendan didn't know the whole story.
"Yeah," he agreed. "A bit empty though."
Brendan patted him on the shoulder. "You can come stay at my place if you want. You know that. You're always welcome." Brendan had asked him many times. Brendan also had girl friends and Harper wanted a place of his own.
"No. It's cool-really. Thanks though."
Brendan nodded and backed out of the room but just as he was almost gone he popped his head back in. "Hey Shay, Liz and me are going to find something to eat. Want to come?"
"Nah, it's ok. I ate yesterday."
Brendan gave him a funny look. It looked like concern but it was gone in a flash. Harper was a growing boy and if he could he would eat anything he could get his hands on. Usually that wasn't much but he never turned down a food run. His older cousin also knew what he was going through and when to back off.
"Ok Shay. Later."
"Yeah, later."
Harper settled down on his blankets and tried to sleep. It wasn't coming as easy as he had hoped. Every time he tried to close his eyes he felt an acidy substance grow in his stomach and flashes of his parents death came flooding back.
Eventually his eyes traveled to his photos. One was of a fancy star ship he had ripped out of an old magazine. The other was his parent's wedding photo.
His parents where in the front and there were some smiling people standing behind. An aunt and a grandfather, his mother had told him. But he had never met them. Would he show this picture to his kids? Would they care? The people in the photo would be strangers to them too. He felt the bile rise in the back of his throat and the tears scratching his eyelids to get out. 'No,' he thought and swallowed three time to get control.
A smell made it to his nose and made him sneeze. 'What was that?' he thought and he glanced around. Just to the right of his parents picture was a small hole and a breeze was filtering through. 'Oh. I'll need to fix that before winter.' He tore a small piece off of one of his already damaged blankets. But just before he was about to stuff the rag into the small hole he saw something.
He pressed his eye against the hole. 'Yup.' There it was-the North Star, bright as ever. 'Cool.'
He could also make out shadows of the camp. He could even see the barbwire fence separating the refugee camp from the Nietzschein strong hold. But years of war with them had polluted the air so bad you couldn't see the stars anymore. He glanced up again to double check. It had to be the North Star. He blinked twice and the tiny little sparkling speck didn't move. He smiled to himself. Maybe it was an omen. Maybe-hopefully-this place wouldn't be the last place he would sleep. Maybe someday he would get to go up there. And maybe, just maybe he wouldn't be alone anymore.
He shook his head, annoyed with himself, and stuffed the rag in the little hole. 'Pipedreams' didn't keep you alive through the winter. He wasn't a small child anymore; he had to be more practical then that. He rolled over and quickly fell asleep.
But something changed deep down inside. He was still young. Maybe the child hadn't died yet and a part of his soul held on to that tiny ray of hope. Maybe, sometimes, pipedreams came true.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Present time
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Harper woke slowly. His ten-minute catnap turned into an hour and 45-minute sleep. He rubbed his hand over his face, remembering the dream. 'Gawd,' he mentally groaned. He had been so naive. It had been a long time ago. Things had been bad back then but in many ways simpler. There was cold, pain, hunger, an overwhelming sadness, but all of that had been a part of his life for so long they felt familiar. Especially after his parent's death, for then he had nothing to loose. Now there was so much to loose. If the others only knew what he did they would drop him like a moldy Kali melon. Beka always promised she would never dump him again but she didn't know the whole story. Life sucked on Earth, no doubt of that, but in some ways it was harder now. He had a lot to lose.
He hopped off his bunk to grab a Sparky and his tool belt as he made his way out the door. He was going to move the credits now. If he did it like it was an everyday event no one would notice. No one would notice that he had a bag full of Vedran credits with dates on them indicating they were made long after the Commonwealth fell. No one would guess that he knew the way to Tarn Vendra and no one would have to know how he got that information.
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Four Years ago on the Maru
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'He's been on the Maru for nearly 6 months now,' thought Beka to herself, 'and yet he still eats like he's in the camps.' Harper sat across from her and Rev Bem looked on.
"Master Harper, perhaps the food would do you more good if you actually chewed it."
Rev Bem was an old family friend and Beka was giving him passage to a Wayist monastery. Harper flinched slightly at the sound of the Magog's voice. Without meeting Rev's eye's he mumbled a reply, "Ummm, sure, sorry, I'll remember that." He quickly pocketed some fruit and took off towards engineering.
"And there he goes," whispered Beka "You've been on board a week and he's still jittery around you."
"The boy's been through a lot."
"That's it, Rev. He's been here for six months now and I still don't really know much about him. I don't completely trust him."
"Beka, I've learned you trust very few people. If it's any comfort to you I think he trusts you as much as you trust him."
Beka smiled. She had missed Rev's rumbling wisdom. "I've missed you, Rev. I'm glad you're here."
"I'm only sorry it's for such a short time."
Beka nodded in understanding. "We all have places we need to be."
"Do you have work?" Rev questioned.
"Yeah, we're heading to small place on the other side of the planet where we're dropping you off. There is some salvage work there; it's small job but it'll keep us in fuel for a while."
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Two days later…
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They had dropped Rev off and Harper and Beka were wandering around a small market waiting to meet their contact.
Beka stopped at a stall to look at some parts they might use to fix the coolant pipes on the Maru when she noticed Harper wasn't beside her. She looked quickly around and spotted him standing near a large plant.
"Harper?" she shouted but he had his eyes closed and didn't seem to hear him. She walked back to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
He jumped slightly. "Oh, hey."
"What the heck were you doing?"
"Sorry. I just realized how much I missed trees. Space is much different, you know."
"You miss trees?" Beka couldn't keep the sarcasm from her voice.
Harper looked embarrassed. "Umm, sorry…look, let's go."
Beka felt a twinge of guilt. "Look, I'm sorry. I just sometimes forget that you're from a planet. Personally I prefer space."
Harper looked like he was about to reply when an extra large creature approached them.
"You Beka Valentine?"
"What's it to you?"
The creature's head bobbed when it spoke shaking its octopus like tentacles on the top of its head. "The boss calls me Leroy. I'm supposed to meet you and bring you back to the warehouse to pick up the stuff."
Beka met Harper's eyes. He had a smirk on his face and mouthed back at her, "Leroy?"
Beka had to raise her hand to cover her own smile. When she turned back to the creature she was all business. "All right, Leroy, we go, but remember-my hand will be on my blaster at all times."
Leroy seems to accept this as a matter of business and started off in a lumbering gate out of the marketplace. Harper had to jog just to keep up.
After about ten minutes they reached their destination. Leroy opened a large metal door and stirred up the surrounding dust. Harper sneezed three times but tried to hide his allergies. Beka hadn't seen him sick yet. He was forever getting sick on Earth but had been completely germ free on the Maru so far-space and the majority of its ships were quite sterile, a fact he had started to take for granted. He didn't want her to know that just about everything caused him to get sick. A sick crewman might get dumped pretty quickly. She did give him a quick puzzled glance but then quickly focused on the task at hand.
Leroy walked into the dark building without hesitation. Something was up, though; Beka could feel it in her bones and she didn't like it. She hesitated for a moment and drew her blaster.
"Seamus, stay here. I'll be right back, okay? Watch my back." Harper nodded and drew his own blaster as Beka followed Leroy into the warehouse.
More then a few moments past, Harper was starting to get a headache and he was starting to worry. Suddenly he could hear voices, loud angry voices.
"Beka?" he shouted. The twin suns of this planet were so bright that he couldn't see anything as he peered into the dark building. It didn't help his nerves.
"Its ok," he heard Beka shout back; "come on in."
Harper wandered in, blinking rapidly trying to get his eyes used to the dim light. After a moment he saw Beka leaning against some pallets with boxes stacked on top. She didn't look happy; her arms were crossed across her chest and her eyes looked like ice. He then heard a voice that made his skin crawl. Despite the chill his body instantly reacted and he turned with a raised blaster.
"Hey, kid, you still here?" It was Bobby.
Harper didn't bother to answer and kept his gun trained on Bobby's head.
"Beka, what's he doing here?"
She sighed heavily. "It's ok, Harper, put your blaster down. Bobby's hired us to do a job."
Harper's blaster didn't move. "Yeah, sure, and I'm the Vedran Empress."
"Yeah, well, you fight like a girl, you might well be her," snarled Bobby.
Harper clicked the safety off. "You better-"
"Boys!" Beka interrupted. She walked over and took the blaster from Harper's hands. She talked to Harper but her eyes were all on Bobby. "We're just doing a job, nothing more, nothing less."
Harper wasn't satisfied, but what could he do? She was the boss, after all, and it was not his place to argue. Beka stepped between them. "I mean it, Bobby. This is just a job… and I want my money up front!"
"Yeah, sure, baby, I know it's just a job, but I'll give you half now and half when you deliver." Bobby's voice didn't sound sincere but Beka nodded curtly.
"You lie to me again and I'll kill you."
Bobby just smiled. Harper wanted so badly to remove it but he just snarled at him from behind Beka.
"Let's go, Harper."
And they headed back to the Maru.
****
The next day Harper played gopher for Beka, running errands. He picked up some things they would need for the trip-including an extra couple of Sparky Colas, just in case. He headed over to the warehouse with a box load of stuff and it was getting quite heavy. Leroy stood outside and stopped him as he tried to enter.
"What's up?" he asked the guard.
"Boss is busy."
"I don't give a damn about Bobby. I'm with Beka." He started again but Leroy grabbed his arm causing Harper to drop the box. Harper swore and reached down to pick up his stuff when he glanced into the building and saw Beka and Bobby in a heavy make out session. "Gawd, not again!"
Beka heard him and looked up. "Boss, say it ain't so!"
"Shut up, kid," Bobby sneered as Beka straightened her hair. Beka wandered over to him.
"It's okay, Harper, everything's worked out." But she had a funny look on her face that he couldn't quite read.
"I don't…" He met her eyes then and he could see the film of white. "You're on flash?"
She giggled and smiled an unsteady smile. "It's what I'm, umm … we're hauling for Bobby."
"WHAT!" She reached over and covered his mouth with her hand
"It's okay, really, I just need you to run one more errand for me then we'll go… everything will work out okay, you'll see." Harper tried to protest but she wasn't listening. "Here are some credits." She placed three small chips in his hand. "I need you to get me some nano widgets, ten of them, then get back here okay?"
Harper nodded unsure. "Sure, Boss," he whispered.
She ruffled his hair like a dog. "Good, now scoot." She gave him a small push.
He looked at her for a moment then turned and walked out of the warehouse.
Forty-five minutes later when he returned they were gone. The Maru's docking bay was as empty as the warehouse. Yet one ironic thought kept rolling through his mind: 'They took Leroy but left me behind.'
"Give them hell, Leroy," he whispered and wandered down the street. He was alone again. Only this time he was really alone. No Beka or Brendan, no rebel squad… hell, he didn't even know where he was. Harper's eyes gazed towards the setting suns; even the sun had a friend. 'Trust is over rated.'
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Two weeks later
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Harper sat huddled against the cold night winds. He sat in a small space between two buildings trying to draw his chin into his light jacket. Beka had left. He had gotten over it quickly enough; he had no disillusions.
People left him all the time. It was just the way the universe moved. He told himself he accepted it.
The thing that did annoy him, though, was the loss of his stuff. He had never owned very much but all he held dear Beka Valentine took with her. His parents wedding photo, the now much worn magazine cut out of his dream ship, his last shriller, an old blanket, and a change of clothes all stuffed in a small brown canvas bag were still on the Eureka Maru. 'Probably all in the recycler by now,' he thought bitterly. It was that damn freakoid Bobby's fault. He had never seen Beka touch anything harder than a stiff drink the entire time he had spent with her. He had liked; her she a tough babe, but when she was with Bobby something changed. She became needy. Hell, he understood needy, sympathized even. Yet her whole personality changed when she was around him, and he wasn't sure he liked that other person. Not that it mattered anymore; he got what he needed for the most part. He got off Earth, like he always wanted. But then, why did he feel like crap? He rubbed his hands together and blew on them as he watched what little night life there was come alive.
So far he had survived doing what he had to. He wasn't proud. He had spent the first night just watching, trying to figure out who were the Kludges and who were the Ubers in this place. It was harder to tell here. There were the shopkeepers who were the most honestly wealthy people. The young crowd consisted mostly the shopkeeper's older children. The weird thing about them was their wild clothes. It was almost like they were trying to look poor while they walked around in brand-new boots and carrying expensive drinks. Then there were the poorer families who did various jobs for the shopkeepers. Next came the street scum, like himself, and then there was one creature lower then him: the organized crime faction. Basically your pimps, drug dealers and gang leaders. Harper hadn't had to deal with them much yet. He mostly followed the young crowd around trying to get close enough to pick a pocket or two. He had been pretty successful up until last night when he got caught. They roughed him up a bit; he got a black eye, a couple of bruises and missed supper. Other then that he was ok. The hardest part was not many of them spoke Common and their language was really hard for him to follow. He had never been very good at learning other languages.
He saw tonight's prey. Three young women and one guy walked by his little nook. The four were huddled together and laughing as they stood by an outdoor vender that sold hot drinks. They showed their money so openly that they almost seemed to be flaunting it in front of him. Harper stood up from his hiding place and made his way over to the vender. He stood near them, trying to look like he belonged to their group without actually being noticed by the young people themselves. He closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled. The hot drinks almost smelled like coffee, the ambrosia of mere humans. When the young man made a joke, or at least he thought it was a joke, he made sure he laughed along with the group, all the while getting himself ever closer to the one girl's baggy jacket. He could see her wallet. Then in an instance he had it Harper slunk back into the shadows and around the corner.
He was two blocks away when he felt a hand on his shoulder spinning him around, half-pinning him to a nearby wall. One of the lower scum's he had been avoiding looked him in the eye why three of his buddies came around the corner. They weren't human but they were pretty close. They looked like Leroy but not as big. They spoke to him in their rough guttural language. Harper shook his head, indicating he didn't understand.
"Common?" the leader finally grunted.
"Yeah, you catch on real quick," Harper agreed with sarcasm. The tentacled alien looked at him confused. Obviously 'Common' wasn't their language of choice.
"We saw what you did," he continued unabated.
"So what's it to you, squid head?!"
The alien slammed him hard against the wall as his friends looked on menacingly. "What squid head???"
Harper didn't bother with a reply. This conversation was pointless. They were either going to take the wallet from him and throw him around a bit or kill him. Either way he would just rather get on with it. Harper hoped that these creatures had the same basic anatomy, and slammed his knee into the creature's groin. The squid head screamed and fell to the ground. Harper sneered and allowed himself a moment of victory. In hindsight gloating wasn't the best thing for the situation. Harper screamed two weeks of frustration out on the creature using every Earth swear word he could think of (and some just unintelligible mumblings), but before he had finished his third sentence the leader's buddies where all over him. Then the streetlights dimmed and he didn't remember anything for a while.
He awoke sometime later on the floor of a very tiny four by five foot room. It was little more than a box with a light source and a locked door. His head pounded as he took stock of the room. More bruises he sighed and he noticed he was only looking around with one eye, as the other was swollen shut. He reached up and lightly touched his eye with his hand. He swore a couple times under his breath. He bet it looked nasty. The door jerked open suddenly and a squid head was dragging him from the small gray room before he was fully conscious. He was too sore to fight back, so he let the creature drag him away.
He was taken to a set of large doors. The creature knocked out a rhythm that was obviously the code to be let in. The giant doors swung inwards. He let out a low whistle. Harper had to say he was impressed. He was dragged into a large room filled with every sort of electrical device you could imagine. His good eye bounced around the over stuffed room trying to take it all in. Another squid head that had met them at the door showed them they way to what seemed like a back office type room. The alien grunted at the door when he heard a reply in very clear Common.
"Enter." He was pushed inside. The two squid heads seemed to hang back a bit. Harper quickly saw why they were nervous and swallowed loudly himself as he stood in front of a very large Nietzschean. Harper hadn't seen any other Nietzscheans on the planet. Where had this one come from?
The Nietzschean stood up from his chair and walked over to him, towering high above in an obvious attempt to intimidate him. He had been around them his whole life and his face would not betray his fear; he met the Nietzschean's eyes without flinching. After a quick staring contest the big Uber sneered at him in an unnatural smile. "The boys here say you have been encroaching on our area."
"Sorry, I didn't see your name on it."
"Everyone here knows the rules. You're not from around here, are you?"
"Did your mother name you Einstein?"
"You try my patience, Kludge, but the boys say you're good. So I am here to offer you a choice."
"What's it going to cost me?"
"You stay here, in our section and I get half of everything you steal."
"Not very likely!"
"I'll send work your way and you'll get to keep your hands." Harper hadn't seen that part coming and the big Nietzschein pointed to the decorations that hung on his wall. "I already have quite a collection." Harper did his best to keep what little he had in his stomach down as he looked around at the collection of hands, fingers and tentacles nailed to the back wall. He quickly forced his eyes to the floor.
"I guess I don't have much of a choice for now… I'm in."
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Harper was looking to run again. He just hadn't figured out the scam his new boss was playing. He had been working for Sirius for about a week now and he couldn't say much for the job. Sirius was a lone Nietzschean and that worried him. Nietzscheans were always in groups and it was just a matter of time before the other shoe dropped and Sirius's big happy family showed up. Harper couldn't figure out Sirius's game plan. All Nietzschean's had one. These were the thoughts that kept him warm at night.
Harper was working the latest con for his new boss. He was hanging out at a large political rally of some sort. While the crowd listened to the speeches he was 'liberating' all he could. It had been a good day and it was almost time to meet with the Uber's henchmen to go over their haul. But he had a few minutes and decided to take a break. The sun felt warm on his face and he sat down under a large plant. He relaxed his muscles for the first time since he arrived on this forsaken planet and closed his eyes. The nights were cold and the days overtly hot, but today was better. He could even feel a breeze. It reminded him of good days on Earth, the days when no one wanted to kill you.
Someone kicked him hard in the leg and yelled at him in the squid heads native tongue.
Harper sat up with a jerk. "Oh, gawd, what time is it?" He had fallen asleep. The speeches were over and all that was left behind was the litter. The squid head started to make motioning waves at him that Harper took to mean no loitering. He got to his feet and looked at the twin suns. They were starting to set. He had missed the rendezvous with Sirius' henchmen and was probably in big trouble. He took off at a jog to the old office complex they used for their headquarters. It was nearly dark when he arrived and he opened the main door hesitantly. That's when he realized the other shoe he'd been worrying about had dropped. Five Nietzschean males sat in Sirius's office and they were all in deep conversation. Reint, the main squid head henchman, spotted him and hauled him all the way into the building.
"You missed our time," he hissed in broken Common.
"I know I'm sorry. I … I can explain."
"Gimme all stuff," grunted Reint. He started to grab at Harper's pockets
"No way! You're not getting all the credit!" Harper's voice was a little louder then he intended as he jerked his body away. The Nietzscheans turned at the noise. Sirius smiled the unnatural, cruel smile that only Nietzscheans could muster-the one that sent shivers down his spine.
"Ah, boy you're here … come on over."
Harper stopped his struggle but hesitated for a minute before moving towards his boss. Reint gave him a shove forward.
"Closer," indicated Sirius. Soon he was standing in the middle of a group of Nietzscheans. For a boy from Earth this was the last place he wanted to be. He looked at the floor, careful not to meet anyone's eyes. "I have a new job for you. These are my cousins and they are flying cargo. You used to fly on a cargo ship, right?" Sirius was talking to him as if he were a child. Harper didn't answer. There were too many thoughts flying through his head.
"Are you sure the Kludge understands Common?" asked one of the cousins.
"Yeah, yeah." Sirius waved his hand. "You usually can't get him to shut up… Boy, answer the question: you used to work on a cargo ship. Am I correct?"
"Yeah, for six months." His voice was barley audible.
"What was your role on this ship?" asked yet another cousin.
"Engineer." His fear was getting the better of him; his words came out as a whisper.
The big Nietzschean laughed out loud. "Engineer! Sirius, you have got to be kidding. He's a Kludge and barley old enough to be away from his mother!" The others joined in the laughs.
"He's smarter than he looks," replied Sirius. Harper restrained himself from making a face. "Look, what can you lose? If he doesn't work out, dump him out the airlock." Harper's eyes widened.
"If he doesn't 'work out' we'll be without an engineer!" replied the same big Nietzschean.
The conversation went on as if he wasn't standing there anymore. Sirius got up and started pacing the small room in front of Harper. "Look, he might not even make as far as the ship anyway. I say we go through with our plan to use him as a faux hostage and if he makes we'll also have an engineer."
"What plan?" he whispered, but no one answered him.
"I say we take one of those other creatures of yours, Sirius. They are native to the planet, so the authorities will be more concerned about it," one of the Nietzscheans said.
"Yes, but if we take one of the others they will also be more determined to save him. I don't think they will try too hard to save some Earth kid. But they won't let us kill him either...it's perfect!" Finally the others agreed and started to disperse.
The biggest Nietzschean confirmed their next meeting time with Sirius and followed the others out the door. Sirius then pulled Harper aside. "You should be happy, kid. I just did something great for you."
"What's going on?" questioned Harper. Sirius closed the door, then sat at the table he used as a desk. He leaned back in his chair and quietly drummed his fingers in thought before answering the question.
"We're going to rob a bank and you're going to be our hostage."
"W-what?" sputtered Harper. "Hostage? M-me?"
"Then we are going to use this old ship for our get away, so you'll need to fix it up… then if you're still alive and if you play your cards right we'll take you with. We're going to use the money to fund our expedition. If you're a good little Kludge, I'll keep you on to work for us."
"What is the expedition for?" he whispered nervously.
Sirius smiled proudly, "For nothing less then the Engine of Creation, boy! Once I have it, Labella, the alpha female of my tribe, will not be able to deny me! I will return to my ancestral home and marry her."
Harper's eyes grew large. "The Engine of Creation?"
Sirius smiled a wicked smile. "You tell anyone and I'll break you in half! I'll show you the ship you'll have to repair tomorrow and in a week's time we'll make our move."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper sat in the dark closet, exhausted but too anxious to sleep. Sirius had been keeping him locked up in the old dank closet so he wouldn't be able to tell anyone of the 'big plan'. The rest of the time he spent working on the piece of crap that Sirius called a ship. The big bulky craft made the Eureka Maru look like the Hilton. He had worked hard, long hours, and finally it was ready.
Tomorrow was the robbery. He had stolen a lot of things in his life, but the things he stole were necessary to survive. Most of the time the things he stole were from the Nietzscheans now he was working with Nietzscheans. Not that he had much choice anymore. Before he probably could have run away and found some transport to get him off the planet, but now it was too late. What bothered him most was that though no one has actually said the words he was once again a slave to the Nietzscheans.
He closed his eyes in despair. Maybe this was his fate. Maybe he was meant to be a slave.
Harper fell into an erratic doze so when Sirius kicked him in the shin to wake him. It felt as if he had only been asleep for a moment. He blinked at the bright light that flooded the small closet.
"It's time," grunted Sirius. Harper got up and blearily followed him to the ship. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and quickly gave the ship one last inspection. He shook his head and smiled weakly. The ship was obviously used, beaten and charred from years of space travel and hijinks. Someone had come with a name. Thelma was painted in vivid red letters across the outside helm. Well, he had to admit, it was a good disguise. No one would be expecting any self-respecting Nietzschean to be flying this hunk of junk.
The rest of the group showed up. Harper felt more then a little out of place, as he was the only non-Nietzschean aboard. Just so there wasn't any confusion, Sirius quickly let Harper know where he stood in the chain of command: the bottom.
Sirius took a small device out of his pocket and Harper started backing away. He recognized the device.
"Just what the hell are you planning to do with that thing?" Harper groaned suddenly feeling ill.
"You've seen it before?" smiled Sirius.
Harper stopped when he could back away no more. His back hit the bulkhead. "It's a slave collar and I'm no one's slave."
"You need to put it on. We need to be able to trust you when you go into the bank alone."
"Forget it-no way-I'm out of here!" Harper ducked away from Sirius as he tried to grab him and ran for the door.
Sirius was too fast for Harper. He grabbed the back of the young man's jacket as he reached the exit. The threadbare material ripped under his grip but Sirius had him by the back of the neck before it was completely shredded. Harper screamed and kicked. Sirius' clan stood around and laughed as their leader dealt with the unruly mudfoot. Finally he managed to force Harper face down on the ground. He placed a knee in the centre of his back. Harper continued to struggle so Sirius slapped him roughly on the side of the head. Harper was momentarily stunned and Sirius quickly attached the control collar to his wrist.
"You belong to me now, boy," he growled roughly in his ear, "and you will do as I say! Now get up!"
Harper got to his feet shakily. He quickly brushed a tear of shame from his eye before the Nietzscheans could see it. He looked down at his feet, refusing to meet Sirius eyes. It was one of the most embarrassing and shameful moments of his life.
Had nothing changed? On Earth he had managed to stay out of the slave camps. His parents had died trying to save him from the terrible fate and Brendan had saved his butt on more then a dozen occasions. Yet here he was. Was he really that incapable of taking care of himself? By becoming Sirius's slave he had let them all down. The shame felt heavy in his chest.
"Now, listen, kid, this is what we need you to do," Sirius started. "You will walk into the bank like it's an every day thing. I want you to go up to one of the computer tellers. Understand so far?"
He wanted to snap that he wasn't retarded, but Harper could only nod mutely.
"While you're at the terminal I want you to implant this virus. It will shut down the internal defenses." Sirius handed Harper a small chip. "Lose that chip and I'll kill you. Then when we enter, pretend you don't see us until it's obvious the bank is being robbed. At that point one of us will grab you and pretend you're our hostage. We'll tell you what to do from there. Any questions?"
Harper shook his head.
"Good. Now with the collar on your wrist, at anytime when I feel you're not living up to our expectations, I'll turn it on. The shock is severe and very painful. I can even set it to blow your hand off if I so choose."
Harper could hear the other Nietzscheans laughing at him. 'What a miserable day,' he thought to himself.
Sirius directed him to a corner of the transport and forced him to sit. Someone turned on the engines. Thelma gave a little shudder but soon they were in the air. Within minutes they were landing near the bank.
Sirius pushed Harper out the transport doors and threatened his obedience once more. Harper made his way hesitantly towards the banks door and paused at the entrance.
It was early in the morning. The bank was filled with hundreds of humanoids, looking mostly like the same species. He was slightly amazed that people still used banks, as there were none on Earth anymore (not like there was much money anyway). He finally saw where the lines started for the computer tellers and joined in. After about a ten-minute wait he stepped up to the terminal. Quickly he pulled the virus chip from his pocket and inserted it into one of the deposit slots. He glanced nervously over his shoulder but no one seemed to notice.
He drummed his fingers anxiously as he waited for confirmation that the virus was working. Absently he wondered if anyone else could hear his heart pounding in his chest. He glanced down at the terminal in front of him. "Come on, come on," he whispered. He scratched at the collar. Already it was starting to cause a rash on his wrist.
The teller started to make a weird whirring noise. Some of the other patrons began to glance over curiously. Harper stepped back slightly from the terminal surprised. Then a loud pop echoed through the room and green smoke billowed from the terminal he was standing at. "Aw, hell!" he swore.
Something had gone terribly wrong. The patrons of the banks started yelling and coughing. Some rushed to the doors in panic, but no doors were opened. It seemed that they were sealed in. Slowly people fell to the ground. Harper himself felt woozy and his knees buckled beneath him. He glanced over to the man beside him, laying on the ground and laboring for a last breath.
"Why…" he gasped, "Why did you do this to us?"
Harper could not answer him. He could only stare back in shock as the man's eyes turned glassy and his chest stopped its painful gasps.
This wasn't a robbery. This was a well-planned massacre.
And Harper had just been the catalyst for it all.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper sat amongst the chaos. He was still too stunned to react. His head felt foggy and his stomach rolled. The smoke was starting to clear and it revealed the true course of his actions… death. Harper had seen death before. In fact he had been witness to scenes like the one that lay before him many times. Magog raids, Nietzschean cleansing raids. Hell, he had even killed before, more times then he could count. He fought when he needed to, kill when he needed to. It was the way to survive on Earth. But, these people… he didn't hate them. Hell, he didn't even know them and now they were dead because of him. All he wanted to do was get off of Earth because things would be better. He looked around him. Nothing had changed.
He felt ill. The room began to spin and he was loosing his battle with nausea.
As if the voice of the devil was whispering in his ear he heard someone call his name. "Harper…BOY!"
Harper blinked a couple of times and looked around. There was nothing but death, no movement at all. "HARPER!" the voice screamed. He brain started to function a little and he realized the voice was Sirius's. It was coming from his control collar. He lifted his wrist to his mouth. "Yeah."
"Get on your feet and go to the vault."
"Sirius…" He was still dazed and was having trouble focusing on what was being said. "They're all dead."
"Of course they are...now hurry, security is on its way! On your feet now!"
Harper looked around the room and spotted the vault towards the back. He stepped over the body of the man who had accused him with his dying breath, whose face would forever haunt him in his dreams. He stepped over many more. 'There could be hundreds here,' his mind raged but he turned his thoughts off. He needed to get through this. Once again he was doing what he needed to.
"I'm here," he whispered into the collar on his wrist.
Sirius's voice buzzed back an urgent reply. "Open the door and look for two large blue bags. Grab them and get the hell out! Hurry!"
Harper reached for the vault door but something blocked his path. He looked down and met the glassy stare of a beautiful young woman. Her body lay slumped against the door. She had blue eyes and light green hair that matched the very subtle jade colour of her skin. He couldn't break the gaze. Moments ago she had been alive, getting money, maybe for food or clothing or just to spend with her kids.
Harper very swiftly and violently lost control of his stomach. He turned his head and heaved the contents of his stomach on the floor.
He wiped his hand across his forehead. He could hear sirens. He reached down and with a brief apology grabbed the young woman's arm and pulled her away from the door. Within seconds he had found the bags Sirius had mentioned. He ran for the door.
Outside he sighted the ship. He darted up the boarding ramp, lungs heaving. Thelma's engines were already running and the minute he was on board the airlocks sealed behind him. He felt her shutter as they entered the upper atmosphere.
He leaned against a nearby bulkhead and his knees buckled. He slid down the wall to the floor. It was only then he realized he still had the bags in his hands. He looked down at his hands that were clenched around the material of the bags. The adrenaline in his system was starting to dissipate and reality was setting in.
His hands started to shake.
Sirius walked from the cockpit area and crouched down beside him, studying him. "You did well boy. Tonight we'll celebrate." He smiled and ruffled Harper's hair like a dog.
Harper's voice was scratchy from the poisoned smoke, and his each breath was like sharp fingernails dragging down his throat. But like the man who lay dying he needed to know.
"Why…" He stopped and coughed. "Why did you kill them?"
"I didn't kill them. You did." Sirius paused for a second, looking quite pleased with himself. "Those creatures belonged to a race that my pride has been at war with for a hundred years. We dealt them a heavy blow they won't soon forget. And I came up with it, of course. A great day for my genes-proving my genius, no doubt." Sirius looked at him a moment longer and then leaned forward to remove the bags from Harpers now limp but shaky hands.
Harper coughed again, he could feel his body failing him, and vertigo was setting in. Sirius grabbed his shirt as he started to tip over and helped him lay down. Didn't want his precious slave to be hurt, no doubt. "Wh…why didn't I die?"
Sirius laughed a light laugh. "By the looks of you, you might yet…but didn't you notice, boy?"
Harper shook his head, barely conscious.
Sirius laughed again. "They were all humanoids but you were the only human. The gas was created that way. I wouldn't want my little advocate to be wasted so early, would I?"
Harper heard Sirius stand up and he could feel the bags were gone.
He dozed in and out of consciousness for hours. He had a fever and the cold metal of the bulkhead felt cool against his back. In one of his waking moments he watched the group of Nietzscheans sitting around a small table examining the contents of the two sacks. Their voices floated over him like ominous clouds.
"I'm telling you, Sirius, the Engine of Creation is just a pipedream, as the mud-foots say. This is the real deal! We could make enough money to build a whole fleet of fighters…hell, we may not even have to! They might already be built!"
"I don't know. Are you sure these are genuine?"
"Absolutely… and look at the date on the chips…fifty years after the fall of the Commonwealth, after Tarn- Vedra was cut off!"
Sirius shook his head in disbelief. "We still have no idea how to get there…"
One of the older Nietzscheans, one that barley ever spoke, cleared his throat. All talking stopped and everyone turned towards him. "There might be a way…"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
After three days of lying on the floor, Harper started to feel marginally better. His back had a terminal case of the cramps but his fever was gone and he felt thirsty. He crawled to his feet and looked around. Not much had changed.
Deep inside Harper would never be the same but he dealt with it like he had dealt with all the major catastrophes in his life: he kept going. If he pretended it never happened for a while he could keep functioning, and as time passed it would get easier, like all things.
One of the Niets was sleeping on a bunk; two were up in command, and Sirius himself sat nearby reading a book. He looked as Harper stood.
"Have you decided to live then, boy?"
"Yeah, whether you like it or not," sneered Harper
Luckily Sirius chose to ignore Harper's tone; otherwise the little human would have gotten some bone blades through his chest. "Then eat and get down to the engine room. There are repairs to be done. I've had enough of your pathetic pain anyway." Either he didn't notice or care when Harper stuck out his tongue. The massive Nietzschean went back to his book.
Harper staggered his way over to the galley. He was still really weak. Whatever had been in that poisoned gas really had knocked him off his feet, and his terrible immune system hadn't helped much. He looked in a few containers but the smells alone still made his nauseous. He looked for the water tank and after gulping down three glasses he wandered off to what this bucket called an engineering bay.
He had done most of the repairs before…well, before they left the planet. Harper pushed down the feelings that tried to overwhelm him. He swallowed a couple of times and tried to focus on his work. How long was he out? Had they driven the engine through a minefield? There were small leaks everywhere.
Over the next couple of days Harper literally ate and slept in the engine room. It was easier for him all the way around this way. He was out of Sirius and his cronies' way. "Out of sight and out of mind," he kept whispering to himself when the loneliness became unbearable. Plus, he wasn't feeling his best yet, and the engine room was the warmest. Keeping busy also helped.
Nighttime was always what he dreaded the most. Even on Earth he had had terrible nightmares-and why wouldn't he, with those surroundings-and the recent events just seemed to escalate the problem. He could always rest, but it seemed impossible to turn his mind off. The nightmares would start with his parents; at least they seemed to go in chronological order.
First, his parents being ripped apart by Nietzscheans, and then the Magog raids. Those were the familiar nightmares. In some ways they had become almost soothing, since he had become so used to having them. Various beatings given to him by the Ubers and other just as nasty people would flash through his mind. Then came the big one. It seemed the worst because it was the freshest… the smoke, the man asking him why…the pretty girl by the vault…the burning of bile in his chest…the heaving gasps of the dying… Harper sat up with a gasp. At first he didn't remember where he was. But quickly the memories flooded back, leaving him gasping for air. This was what happened night after night, and he couldn't get it to stop.
Harper didn't remember much of what happened while he had been sick, but he was pretty sure he was a 'wanted' man. He was also fairly sure that someone had said the words Tarn Vedra. He hadn't heard much since he was spending most of his time in engineering but sometimes his hunger and he curiosity drove him away from his repairs. He stood in the galley stuffing his pockets with bread (when no one was looking, of course) and would always try to hear what Sirius and the older Nietzschein 'Tritan' were talking about.
One day Tritan was talking rapidly in his low, gruff voice. "I met this Perseid once, a dozen years ago. He had been the assistant to the one that went insane… you remember, the one who wrote the diary."
Harper peered around the corner cautiously. Sirius was nodding. "Yes, I remember reading about that somewhere…"
"Well, he said he traveled with him when he was plotting the way to Tarn-Vedra and that the half-crazy one had gone completely insane by the time they reached Tarn-Vedra. But he had flown their vessel back. The Perseids are intelligent creatures, a bit too fragile and skittish and so damn annoying, but very smart. By the time he had flown the vessel back to normal space he had memorized the route."
Sirius bobbed his head happily like a kid hearing a bedtime story. "So what happened next? Why didn't you demand to know the route then?"
"I did," continued Tritan. "He was looking for someone to travel back with him, but there were people chasing him and we lost contact before we could complete our business deal."
"What makes you think he hasn't found someone else? Hell, he could be dead even."
"I heard a bit about a crazy Perseid not long ago. My guess is no one believed him-not too many people listen to Perseid babblings. I heard that he was on a commerce planet not far from here. I doubt he's still there, but maybe we could find some leads."
At that point Sirius noticed Harper.
"BOY!" he bellowed. "What are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be working?"
"Yes sir, just going," he answered quickly, shuffling out of the door and back to engineering.
Despite the fear Sirius always induced his heart was beating with excitement. He took a minute to think… nah. It couldn't be real. Tarn-Vedra was just like all the other things he wished for…it was just a pipedream. And those never came true.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A few days later they docked at the commerce planet.
Harper had been ordered too stay on board since he was wanted by about a million different law enforcement agencies. He had to agree that it was a good idea. Sirius had set his slave collar so he wasn't able to wander away from Thelma while they went to search for 'the mad Perseid's assistant.
Harper was bored, though, and missed being on a planet. There was nobody around so he figured it was safe to sit outside for a few minutes. He sat on the boarding platform of their ship so at least he could get some fresh air while he tinkered with a flexi.
He was searching for a way to override the slave collar when he heard a voice that made his hair stand on end. Well, okay it was already standing up, but the voice certainly got his attention. He quickly ducked up the ramp out of sight but peered around the corner to find the owner of the voice.
"Bobby, I mean it! You're off the Maru…I'm not going to turn out like my father…I'm done with that stuff!"
"Beka…baby," started Bobby as the two came around the corner of the docking bay. They stopped to argue in front of him.
"Forget it!" she snarled.
Bobby raised his hand in fury and smacked Beka across the face. She staggered back a step with a surprised yelp.
Harper let out a scream of rage, uttering his best battle cry, and flew down the ramp at Bobby.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper collided with Bobby's shoulder. Since he had launched himself from Thelma's boarding ramp it had given him a little unexpected height. Bobby fell to the tarmac like the lumbering tree he was. Vaguely he heard Beka let out a shout of surprise but the world around him seemed far away. He slugged Bobby harshly across the face three times before Bobby could react from his own shock. Harper yelled with the weeks of built-up pain and fury and hatred but his next strike never connected as Bobby threw him off. Harper hit the ground and rolled.
He rolled a little too far.
He hit the invisible boundary; he was over fifteen feet from the ship and his collar kicked in. A lightning bolt of electricity ran up his arm and into his head. He yelled in agony and dragged his aching body closer to the ship.
"Well, what do we have here?" sneered Bobby as he dragged his forearm across his nose. He glanced at his arm and the red smear of blood on his shirt. "You little piece of crap! I'm bleeding!"
Before Harper was able to recover from his daze the enormous man grabbed the mudfoot's wrist and lifted it way above Harper's head. He smiled as the boy tried to balance dizzily on tiptoes so Bobby wouldn't pull his arm from its socket.
"Looks like some new jewelry, huh, kid?" Bobby snickered.
"Go to hell," whispered Harper under his breath. He had just started to feel better from the smoke but he didn't have his usual strength back yet and this mammoth was stronger to start with… what had he been thinking?
Bobby pulled his arm higher and Harper groaned.
Harper closed his eyes against the pain for less then a nano-second when he heard the sound of a blaster charging. He blinked his eyes open and smiled. She looked like a goddess. A goddess with a blaster pressed to the neck of her deadbeat boyfriend. "Hey Boss." Harper's smile widened.
"Drop him now, Bobby!"
Bobby did so very abruptly and Harper fell to his knees. His hands flew to his aching shoulder.
"Beka …" Bobby started. He held his arms out as if to embrace her his face and voice all smiles but it didn't quite match the expression in his eyes. Bobby was canned fury.
Harper finally got to his feet and skittered his way behind Beka, being careful not to get to far away from Thelma. He had her back.
"Bobby…go now." Beka's voice was steel.
"Beka…"
"You won't touch my ship, my crew, or me ever again. Go now!"
Bobby started towards her and she fired a round at the tarmac by his feet. Bobby froze and studied them both for a second.
"I'm like flash, baby. You might try to give me up but sooner or later you'll want more."
Beka's hands shook a little but the blaster never lost its focus. "Go," she whispered a final time.
Bobby smiled his evil little grin and turned and walked away. Beka had her gun trained on him till he was finally out of sight and then fell to the ground sobbing.
Harper stared at her for a moment more then a little uncomfortable. He wasn't any good with the mushy stuff but pain and loss he understood. He sat down on the ground in front of her cross-legged. Beka reached over and grabbed him in a half strangling bear hug. She sobbed openly on his shoulder. After a second he relaxed into her embrace and hugged her back.
"I'm sorry, Seamus," she gasped between sobs.
"Sorry for what?" he asked, slightly confused.
She let out a partially gurgled laugh. "For leaving you behind, dumb ass."
"It's okay…people always leave me." When he said it, he wasn't being melodramatic or anything. He was simply stating a fact. But Beka paused and pulled away slightly to look him in the face.
"I won't…ever again."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, boss."
"I don't," she whispered.
Harper studied her for a moment. He wanted to trust her, but a lifetime of hardship wouldn't allow him to.
Her face was starting to turn blue where Bobby hit her and she was going to have a mean black eye. "Did he hurt you bad?"
Beka placed her hand on her heart. "Nothing that won't heal." She then paused and took stock of their situation. "What's that thing on your arm?"
Harper looked away quickly as reality came crashing back to him. "A slave collar."
"A what?"
"Things have…well, been less then stellar."
She grabbed his wrist and started fiddling with the device… "Beka, NO!" he cried as he jerked his arm back. "Are you trying to blow my arm off?"
He looked at her and immediately regretted his harsh words. She didn't know and she looked hurt. "Look Beka…I'm sorry."
She had been hearing that a lot lately.
"I can't take it off… I can't go further then fifteen feet from the ship or I get that nasty shock you saw."
"I'm not leaving you…"
"I don't see where you have much of a choice…besides, there's things you don't know…"
Just then Harper flinched. "Aw, gawd. No."
"What?" asked Beka urgently. He could hear voices of Sirius, Tritan and the others. They were coming back.
"Beka, you got to go…run!"
"Harper, I told you, I'm not leaving you again."
Harper started to panic as the voices got closer. "No, really go, go!" He pushed her away.
She grabbed the front of his shirt and forced him to meet her eyes. "I always keep my promises."
'This is gonna get messy,' was all he could think.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Beka pulled the unarmed Harper to his feet and pushed him behind her. She lifted her blaster and aimed it in the general area the voices sounded like they were coming from. She didn't have to wait long.
Sirius and the others rounded the corner; they met Beka's glare head on.
Sirius paused with shock at first but quickly recovered. He put on his best show face. "Is there something I can help you with?" He smiled, showing rows of bright teeth.
Beka had had enough of men like Sirius today. From the looks of him he was too much like Bobby-and the insincerity was dripping off him. "This is my engineer and you have placed a control collar on him. He doesn't belong to you. I want him back, and I'm getting him back!"
"He was fair salvage," sneered Sirius "And he isn't going anywhere."
"HEY!" Harper shouted, objecting to being called salvage and feeling a little braver standing behind Beka's blaster. Both Sirius and Beka told him to shut up.
"Really? Well, I don't care what you Ubers think. He's coming with me." Beka decided to open fire.
Sirius and the others ducked and rolled behind different parts of the cargo that sat on the hanger deck. Beka pulled Harper behind Thelma's docking ramp. She ducked down for cover, rising up ever so often to fire at Sirius. "Harper, we need to get out of here, now. Can you get the collar off?"
"Oh, gee, I hadn't thought of trying to get it off!" he groaned, but despite his sarcastic overtures he couldn't keep the panic out of his voice.
Beka stuck her head out around the ramp again, firing off a couple of shots before ducking back under their minimal protection. Sirius was on the move; Nietzscheans' were notorious for coming up with complex plans to protect themselves. That meant they were running out of time. She grabbed Harper by the shoulder and shook him lightly forcing him to focus on her. "Okay, so you can't leave this ship." Beka paused in thought for a split second when an evil smiled crossed her face. "Remember how we practiced flying the Maru?"
Harper nodded.
"Good, because you're going to fly this one."
"WHAT? Are you nuts? Beka, listen I fixed those ships but flying-" Beka placed a hand over his mouth.
"There's no time to argue, Harper. You can't leave it so you're taking it with you. On the count of three I'm going out there. I'll cover you and you're flying this beast out of here. Got it?"
Once again he nodded and tried to mumble through her fingers. She dropped her hand and quickly turned around as she started to move towards the Nietzscheans but he grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Thanks," he whispered.
She looked back at him and smiled. "Meet me at Inspiration Drift, okay?" With that she was gone.
Harper paused for a second and watched the whirlwind of a woman lay down ground fire before he jumped and ran up the ramp.
With surprising speed Harper dashed to the cockpit, slamming a fist on what he hoped was the docking mechanism controls. He leapt into the pilot's seat and glanced down at the controls. He had worked on them…hell, he had even rebuilt half of them. So this was no big deal. He could do this…right? "Okay, okay this is good," he whispered.
Blaster fire slammed against the ships doors. "No solicitors!" he yelled over his shoulder but it was doubtful that they heard. At least it made him feel better.
A movement outside caught his eye. In the distance the Eureka Maru was taking off from it's docking hangar. That meant Beka was safe. He let out a big breath he wasn't aware he had been holding.
Suddenly things seemed possible. He turned the engines on and pulled back on the yoke. Thelma shuttered and lifted up off the tarmac. He could see Sirius and the other Nietzscheans screaming up at him and firing their weapons. He smiled and turned on the loud speakers.
"Jingle bells, Sirius smells, Tritan laid and egg.
Thelma lost the Nietzscheans and the cute guy got away-HEY!"
His singing voice echoed through the loading docks and with a final loud "WHO-HOO!" Seamus Zelazny Harper pointed his ship towards the stars and disappeared.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper sat at the helm aboard the good ship Thelma. He had pulled his knees up to his chest in the pilot's chair, resting his chin and his arms on his knees. He was staring out into space, contemplating his future. This is something he had done a lot in his short but interesting life but never before did he have so many options.
He closed his eyes, remembering those nights in his little room back on Earth. His cousin Brendan was there. Brendan's sister had still been alive. Lotte. Harper smiled to himself…he hadn't thought of her in a while. She was older then Brendan and Brendan was older then Harper so she tended to think she was the boss. Especially after Harper's parents died. She got sick only months after they died.
He remembered all the tricks Brendan and him used to pull on her. Having her there helped a little. When Brendan was busy with his girlfriend or some of his other buddies, Lotte always made sure he wasn't alone. But she got sick. Actually, everyone got sick that winter. There was something wrong with the water and before anyone realized and found a new source of water it was too late. People got sick and people died, including Lotte.
Harper shook himself a little. He wasn't on Earth anymore. Yet, things were still messed up. Would he ever have a normal life? Friends, food, shelter, maybe even a family…someday? It was all so unrealistic. Now with what happened at the bank…all those people dead because he was stupid. Harper closed his eyes in shame. What would his parents have thought of him now? Probably not very much. A normal life would always be a pipedream for Seamus Zelazny Harper.
So what now? Did he just take off with the ship? Try to find a better life somewhere where no one knew about the murders at the bank? Did he go back to Earth and maybe sell the ship get some money for everyone? Or… He paused. Maybe go back to Beka?
He owed her big time. But what would she think of him and what happened at the bank? Did she even know? How would he tell her? It would be really nice not to be alone anymore. That was the one thought that really drove him back to her. He did feel like he owed her but he really was just tired of being alone. She couldn't mean the promise about never leaving him. She would leave him the moment she found out about the bank. But then, even if she did, he would at least live a little while he wouldn't have to be alone. Life had been good those months on the Maru. Almost like a normal life. A pipedream come true.
"This is a really dumb idea, Harper," he whispered to himself as he grabbed the pilot controls and set in the coordinates to Inspiration Drift.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper stood on what could be called the command deck of the Eureka Maru.
Beka stood before him, arms crossed, foot tapping.
"What took you so long?"
"I had some things to think over."
Her eyes softened a bit. "I was worried."
Harper had to admit he was confused. "Why?"
"I needed someone to save me from myself and there you were. No one has ever come to my rescue before... Well, at least not with some other motive." She paused for a moment. "I could ask you the same question, you know?"
"What?" Harper raised an eyebrow.
"Why? Why did you jump on Bobby? He could have pounded you into mush."
"Well, I'm pretty resourceful." Harper didn't like her mood. It was too serious and it made him nervous. "And I'm taller then I look!"
Beka allowed a small smile. "Well, let's try to forget everything. I'm sorry I left you, all right?"
"Yeah sure, boss…Boss?" Beka turned away to go back to the helm when something in Harper's voice made her pause.
"What?"
"So did you umm…watch the news while I was gone?"
'Strange question,' she thought. "No, I didn't. Between Bobby and the Flash I barley left the Maru and I certainly wasn't up to checking the broadcasts. Why?"
"Well...some bad stuff happened."
"Harper, you were the prisoner of four Nietzscheans. Whatever happened is history, all right? It doesn't matter."
"Yeah, but…"
"No buts. We both have pasts, Harper, and I'm sick of overanalyzing mine. How about you?"
"Oh yeah you better believe it!" Harper smiled she didn't care. Well, she didn't know, so for now that was okay. Right? "So what should we do with the ship?" Thelma was currently attached to the top of the Maru and they were towing it.
"Well, it's a big bull's eye on our butt. We should probably dumb it someplace."
Harper nodded in agreement. "I'm just going to go check and see what we can salvage for the Maru first, okay?"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Beka joined Harper on Thelma and they both started poking around. Harper immediately headed towards his old temporary home (the engine room) while Beka headed towards the helm.
As Harper made his way to the back of the ship he noticed something and paused. It was the crew quarters. He couldn't say what made him do it but he slowly pushed the door open and looked in.
'Sirius and his buddies weren't the neatest Ubers,' he thought to himself. Various pieces of personal gear littered the floor. He glanced around. There didn't seem to be anything interesting but he entered the room anyway. He saw what looked like Sirius's knife on the floor near a pack. He bent down, picked it up, and studied it for a moment.
Maybe he was driven by some need to make sense of what happened. This group of Nietzscheans had forced him to kill over a hundred beings. What kind of people did that? Deep down Nietzscheans were human. Humans were known to be a cruel race. Yet still he did not understand it. Maybe he would never make sense of what happened at the bank that day.
"Harper?"
He jumped guiltily. "Uh, yeah, boss?"
Beka entered the room. "Find anything interesting?"
Harper shrugged his shoulders. "Nah, not really."
"You can keep looking. When you're finished, come to the cockpit and I'll try to cut that collar thing off. Then we'll look for stuff to salvage. I think we could use some of their communications system equipment. Okay?"
"Sure. Be there in a few."
Beka paused, studying him for a moment but whatever she was thinking she let drop. She turned and headed back towards the cockpit.
Harper continued to study the knife for a moment, trying to fight off the memories that threatened to overwhelm him. Finally he stood stiffly and placed the knife in his belt. He took one final look around.
'Wait! What was that?' He stepped towards a nearby bunk. He wasn't sure whose it was, but it didn't matter now. He reached under the bunk and pulled out a bag. No, it was two bags. The ones he had stolen from the bank.
"Crap!" he swore under his breath. He had just assumed when they landed that the Nietzscheans had hidden them somewhere. He hadn't suspected that they were still on the ship. "Crap, crap, crap!"
Well, he certainly couldn't leave them here. If Beka found them or whoever they sold the ship to found them he was in trouble. 'No, I better take them and hide them,' he decided. He dumped the contents of one bag into the other and shoved the empty bag back under the bunk. As he slid the bag under the bed his hand nicked a piece of metal scratching his hand. "Ouch." He pulled back his hand quickly and sucked on the small trickle of blood on the back of his hand. He crouched down even further and looked under the bunk.
There was a green metal box about the size of one foot squared.
Harper reached in and carefully pulled it out.
"Harper?" called Beka from the front of the ship.
"Coming, boss, just a second!" he shouted back over his shoulder.
It must have been Tritan's bunk. There was a small silver symbol painted on the box and Harper remembered seeing that symbol sewn on one of Tritan's jackets. He took the knife from his belt and pried the box open.
Inside were a bunch of little trinkets. Pictures of Tritan's family, a lock of someone's hair tied with a cord, and a small book. Books were kind of rare; almost everything could be found on flexis now, so maybe it was worth some money. Harper pulled it from the box. A piece of paper fell out and onto the floor.
He looked at the book for a moment before reaching down for the paper. It was a book on the history of Tarn-Vedra. Tritan knew a lot about Tarn-Vedra. It was why they had stopped on that commerce planet. The Nietzscheans had wanted to find that Perseid that new about the lost planet. Harper pocketed the book and the knife and picked up the piece of paper. He unfolded the fragile paper carefully. What he saw almost made his heart stop beating. 'Nah, it couldn't be…' he thought to himself. It was a map, a complicated, half-gibberish map, but a map nonetheless-to Tarn-Vedra!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Back to the Andromeda
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper hummed to himself as he pretended to work his way down to the panel where the credits were hidden. No one had been down the corridor in over an hour so with a final look over his shoulder he popped open the panel and reached up for the bag.
"Hi, Harper. What are you doing?"
Harper yelped with surprise and hit his head on the open panel cover. "Ow! Trance!"
"Sorry." She didn't sound like she meant it. His heart quickened to about a million pulses a second.
"You shouldn't sneak up on people!" he grumbled and quickly pulled his hand from the conduit.
"I said I was sorry." That stupid, hurtful tone of hers. Harper let it drop. "What are you doing? Do you need help?"
"No, I'm fine. You can go away now!"
"Okay, fine, but if you need me call me." She turned to walk away, but paused and turned back towards him. "Oh, Harper, I forgot-I was doing some cleaning the other day and I found some Vedran credits. Are they yours?"
Harper's heart stopped beating. He stared at her with an open mouth. This must have been the effect she was going for because she smiled slightly.
He swallowed three times, unsure where to even start. His mind was reeling.
"Did you tell anyone?" he finally managed to whisper
She shook her head. "No, I haven't, but I really need to know what you're up to. Where did you get them from?"
"Trance," he begged, "please don't make me tell you!"
She looked into his eyes and saw his desperation. Her resolve softened a bit. "Harper, what could possibly be so bad you couldn't tell your best friend?"
"Look, it's ancient history, Trance! I mean you're always talking about probabilities right? Well, if I tell you, there isn't going to be much of a probability that you will speak to me again. And, well, I was just getting used to the new you."
Trance sat down on the floor next to him and took one of his hands in hers. "Seamus Harper, I've seen one possible future without you. I can't imagine another."
"So don't make me tell you then," he pleaded.
"It's a lot of money and I've seen the dates. It could make all the difference in the world to Dylan."
"He talked to the four legged blue meanie…"
"The Vedran…"
"Whatever, he knows Tarn-Vedra is still out there."
"Harper, do you know a way to Tarn-Vedra?" The new Trance was a lot more direct then the old one. He suddenly missed the old purple Trance.
He looked at the floor quickly tears filled his eyes. "A way," he whispered.
She watched the tears roll down his face. "This is great news. Why haven't you told us before? It would mean so much to the others. It could possibly mean the re-establishment of the New Commonwealth!"
"Things are never that easy."
She gripped his hand. "They seldom are, but it would be a start if you could tell me why you've hidden this from us." She paused and looked at him but he didn't answer. "Would it be easier if we talked to Beka?"
"NO!" he shouted, his eyes quickly roaming up and down the corridor. "If anyone really knew it would all fall apart."
"What would?"
"Everything. My life, my friendships-Trance, I don't want to wake up from my pipedream."
She looked at him confused. "Okay, fine. I won't tell Beka. But this is too important to just forget about." She placed her hand on his chin and forced him to meet her eyes. " If you promise to meet me on the observation deck tonight and tell me everything, I promise I won't hate you and I promise I won't tell anyone."
"I don't know. I've had this to myself so long…I don't know if I could tell it to you."
"Just promise you'll meet me?" she said with a small smile.
He nodded. What else could he do? "Okay, I promise to meet you."
She smiled a true smile and got to her feet. She held his hand for a moment longer before letting go and wandered down the hall, leaving Harper sitting on the corridor floor to once again consider his options.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Part Two
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Just after midnight Earth standard time Harper wandered on to the observation deck. Trance sat stoically looking out to the stars. He stood there silently for a moment, watching her and still debating whether he should be there or not.
"I thought you might have decided not to come," she spoke first. He didn't think she had heard him come in.
"I wasn't sure I would." He walked in slowly, almost reluctantly, and sat down on the bench beside her.
"Seamus, what happened to you that's so hard to talk about?"
"It's the proverbial long story."
She placed a hand on his knee to comfort him. "Sooner or later everyone has to tell their story."
"Really? When are we gonna hear yours?"
Trance just blinked those massive eyes of hers at him.
Harper sighed. Stalling wasn't working. Where should he start? Where it all began, he decided. He told her about his time with the Nietzscheans, skipping over the gory parts. He never mentioned people had been killed at the bank robbery, only hurt, and he never said that Beka had left him behind. She seemed to understand, but he was still worried about what would happen if she knew the whole truth. It took a better part of an hour to tell the story but in the end he got a hug and a smile. "See? Not so bad." She smiled again. "But what about Tarn-Vedra?"
"Trance, it's late, and I'm bushed."
"You'll sleep better if you tell me."
"You're relentless you know that." He had to smile.
"It's one of my more charming features." She smiled a small grin and shrugged her shoulders. For a moment, an instance even, Harper could see the old Trance, the one that had been his best friend.
Harper let out a heavy sigh and began the story again.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It had been three weeks since Harper had found the map. He knew Beka was a salvage operator but he didn't know enough about her to gauge how she would take a treasure hunt. He decided to try asking her some leading questions. So one morning as Beka sat at the helm and he was sipping his morning Sparky he gave it a shot.
"So, Beka, have you ever heard of Tarn-Vedra?"
"No!" Sarcasm dripped from her voice. "Tarn-Vedra? What in the seven galaxies could that be?" She snickered at her own words and fiddled with the controls. Okay, so it was a stupid question. Of course she had heard of it. "Why?"
"Well, do you think…I mean do you know of anyone who has ever been there?"
"No. The Vedrans sealed it off long ago, or someone did."
"Umm, well, I heard of this Perseid that went there."
"The Mad Perseid, I've heard of that story! Man, would I like to get my hands on that diary!"
"What diary?" asked Harper confused.
"Well, they say he found an alternate route to Tarn-Vedra and that he wrote it all down in his diary before he died."
"Ummm…I thought he drew a map to it."
Beka let go of the controls and quickly faced Harper. "What? What are you taking about? Is there a reason for this conversation?"
Harper backed away a little. An automatic reaction he had developed due to the adversity he had faced on Earth. He hadn't even realized he done it but Beka noticed. She got up more slowly from the slip chair. She tried again and met his eyes as she spoke.
"Is there something you want to tell me?"
"I have a map. I got it from the Nietzschean ship."
Beka contained her anger but her voice was seething. "Harper, we sold that ship two weeks ago! When were you planning on telling me?"
He tried to reply but she cut him off. The anger was starting to leak through. "What…were you just going to take off on me? I thought we were crew!"
Harper looked at his feet guiltily. "I know, I just wasn't sure how you would take a treasure hunt…I wasn't going to take off, Boss. I promise."
He was almost pleading with her. Now Beka felt guilty. How could she accuse him of wanting to take off when that's exactly what she had done? "Can I see this map?"
"I'll go get it." He ran down the hallway towards his crew quarters.
Why was she so mad anyway? This kid was fresh off of Earth. What did he know about slipstream routes? The map was probably a fake.
Harper's heavy footsteps echoed through the Maru as he rushed back to Beka. He excitedly shoved the map in her hands. Now his eyes shone like a kid at Christmas, all fear and guilt aside.
"Open it!" he urged.
Beka carefully opened the ancient paper and let out a low whistle. If it was a fake it was a damn good one. Her eyes scanned the paper. It even had a small Perseid stamp in the bottom left corner.
"Wow." There was the biggest understatement in the galaxy.
Harper was practically bouncing on the spot. "So do you want to give it a try?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "Hell, why not? We have enough credit from the sale of the ship to last us a while, so I think we can take a side trip."
Harper's smile nearly exploded from his face. Beka tried to rein him in a little. "We'll need to plan and we'll some more supplies and a bigger crew…are you sure you're up for this?"
"Hey, boss, trust me! I mean, does a duck like water?"
Beka looked confused. "I don't know. Does it?"
Harper laughed. "That's mud-foot for ya…hell, yeah, and when we leaving?"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Maru landed on El Dorado Drift. Beka stepped out onto the docking platform. She took a deep breath and stretched. Harper stepped out from behind her, squinted against the bright florescent lights and sniffed the air. Beka frowned at him. "Harper, give it a chance!" she chastised.
Harper gave a small sneer. "All these drifts smell the same"
"Yeah I know!" Beka took another happy deep breath.
"And that doesn't bother you?"
"What do you want it to smell like?" She placed her hand on her hips in defense.
"I don't know," he shrugged his shoulders in defeat, "it just smells stale. I like planets better. So, boss? How are we going to find the rest of our crew?" he asked as they started walking. "I doubt they have a recruitment centre."
Beka smiled sneakily. "I think you'll like this one Harper…" She paused for effect. "First, we find the closest bar."
"Hell yeah!" Harper grinned happily.
It didn't take them long before they were sitting in a dingy seedy little drinking establishment.
Beka found a booth in a quiet corner but not too far from the main action. Harper stood at the bar trying to explain to the bartender what a beer was. Obviously the bartender wasn't familiar with Earth beverages.
She glanced around the room. There was the usual assortment of roughnecks one could expect to find in a port saloon. She wasn't sure she would find anyone in this lot but they had to start somewhere.
Harper returned with a beverage of sort and sat down beside Bake with an unhappy grumble.
"What kind of bartender doesn't know what beer is?"
"What did you get?"
"I don't know. Something pink." Harper sounded disgusted.
Beka tried to hide her smile behind her hand.
"So…" Harper continued, "any good prospects?"
"Nothing yet. Give it time."
They sat there for about an hour before they decided to order a meal. Beka asked the waitress if she knew anybody looking for work. The waitress said she didn't but she would let them know. The meal, despite its horrid appearance, was gleefully eaten and many more beverages were consumed without a single lead. Beka nudged Harper, who had had quite a few more drinks than her and was now sleeping on the table.
"Wuzz?" the young man mumbled against the table.
"Harper, wake up. We're calling it a night."
As she tried to rouse the drunken Harper she noticed someone staring at her. "Can I help you?"
"I heard you were looking for crew."
"Maybe? What's your name?" The voice stepped a little closer and Beka got a better look at the creature she was talking to. He had ash gray skin, he had no hair that Beka could see and he was very tall and gangly. A Perseid, no doubt. They sure were ugly.
"Hey, it's Lurch!" shouted the very drunk Harper jovially. Beka sighed, ignoring him.
"The name's Vex-pag," the Perseid said crisply. "You hiring or not?"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The next day Harper was banging around the engine room and whining. Beka, however, did not feel sorry for him. She knew that he had the hangover from hell. Heck, she had had many of her own (and some terrible ones from her Flash addiction), but her philosophy was if you do the crime you pay the fine. She wasn't about to use any of their med. supplies unless he really needed it. Harper, as was to be expected, was quite grumpy, and if he had a headache he wanted to make sure everyone else had one too.
Beka was giving Vex-pag the grand tour. She was trying to have a conversation with the quiet man and having to yell over Harper's noise wasn't making it and easier. It seems Vex-pag was one of those jack-of-all-trades kinda guys, a regular multi-tasker. He was trained as a medic but also could serve as the environmental and security officer. Of course, Beka didn't trust him-she didn't trust anyone-but he seemed like he would fit in all right. Vex-pag even seemed to have a tolerance for Harper, one that Beka didn't have at the moment, and how many people in the universe could tolerate him?
"Harper!" she screamed at the top of her lungs when she'd had enough. "If you don't quit it right now you won't want to know where you'll find your next Sparky!"
The banging stopped abruptly. Beka took a deep breath and was about to explain the rules to Vex-pag when there was a final bang.
"Sorry!" came the snotty reply from the engine room. Beka just snarled at the door.
"You know, Beka, you'll have to learn to control that temper." The voice came from the doorway. Beka turned and squealed like a schoolgirl.
"Rev!" she shouted as she wrapped her arms around the Magog. "What are you doing here?"
"Well," his voice grumbled pleasantly, "I wasn't needed as much at the monastery as I thought, so I decided to do some traveling, some ministry perhaps, and working on a cargo ship seemed like an excellent opportunity. This, however, was most unexpected. The divine truly is mystifying."
"You mean it, Rev, you'll be traveling with us?" Beka couldn't contain her happiness.
"If you'll have me." Rev bowed his head.
"Rev, you're family. You don't even have to ask. I just have one question… when can you start?"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A couple of weeks later
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper was less than thrilled at Rev Bem's return. But he made Beka happy, so Harper promised to do his best not to scream every time Rev entered the room. Vex-pag was okay except for the fact that Beka suddenly decided that Harper was too skinny and that he needed vitamins-after a helpful suggestion from the Perseid. Vex-pag either wanted to impress his new boss or simply liked to torture Harper. He wasn't sure which. Whatever the reason, Vex-pag had turned into the vitamin Nazi.
What was nice, though, was that the small crew had fallen into a routine. Harper really enjoyed it, despite his complaining. It was nice to wake up in the morning and know you were with friends and that there was breakfast in the galley. It turned out Vex-pag was also a good cook.
The crew had just started their day. Vex-pag was making breakfast. Rev was in Morning Prayer's. Beka was sitting at the helm, plotting the day's course and looking at Harper's map. Harper stood at her side, drinking his morning Sparky. The flow of conversation was light and jovial.
"Really, Beka, you should see the size of the vitamins he tries to feed me. They're the size of Kali melons."
"You and the Kali melons again. Do you have some weird addiction I need to know about?" A funny look came across his face and he cocked one eyebrow up. Beka raised her hand. "Hold it! I don't want to know." Her gaze returned back to the map.
Harper laughed and took a sip of his Sparky. Things were going good. They had plenty of money, no one was bothering them, and they were making a lot of progress with the map.
Harper's face turned slowly into a frown, suddenly lost in his thoughts. When things got good Harper got worried. What if Beka found out about the bank or the money? What if Sirius and his buddies were still after them? Nietzscheans were big on grudges. What if Rev Bem got really, really hungry?
"Seamus!"
Harper blinked twice before he realized Beka was talking to him. "Umm, sorry, Boss, you were saying?"
"Is something wrong?"
"Nah, I'm good." Beka had already learned that meant quite the opposite when Harper said it. She glanced at him worriedly for a moment and then reached up to feel his forehead. Harper leaned away lightly brushing her hand away. "Back off, mother hen," he joked. "I'm fine. I was just thinking."
Beka half-glared at him for a moment and turned back to the map. "Thinking?"
"Yeah, I know what you told me about how it hurts my little head but-"
"What were you thinking about?"
His mouth opened before he wanted it to. "Don't you think this is a little too easy?"
"What do you mean? The translations on this map are nearly impossible. We've had to turn back and retrace our steps three times already!"
"Yeah." Harper put his hands up in defense. "And sure, you are brilliant and, well frankly, I'm a super genius." Beka hid a smile behind her hand. "But…" continued Harper, undaunted, "people have been looking for this for a long time and never found it. How come it's so easy for us?"
"Harper, you're paranoid."
"Wouldn't have made it this far without paranoia. It makes you think though-doesn't it?"
Beka shook her head. Before he was able to inquire further Vex-pag's voice came on over the intercom calling them for breakfast.
Onward to Part II!
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