Pipedreams: Part II
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Back on the Andromeda
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Harper stopped and looked up at Trance. "I'm not telling you any more."
"Harper, what's wrong?" Her voice was full of concern.
"I'm not going to tell you anymore… blackmail me, throw me out the airlock, use your 'mysterious powers' on me, I don't care." Trance looked into Harper's eyes. She was the older one by far. His face still looked so young but his eyes had lived a thousand life times.
"Is it really that awful?"
He paused; he really was unsure how to answer the question so he asked one of his own. "Trance, have you ever really loved something?"
She gave him a funny look. "Of course."
"I bet you have." He smiled. "In fact I know you have. It's why you came back isn't it?"
Unexpected tears sprung to her eyes and she gave a small nod.
"In whatever future you lived in you lost something you loved." He watched her brush a tear away hurriedly, like he wouldn't catch the movement. "I'm like you, Trance. I would do anything to save something I loved." Harper looked to the floor and in a voice no louder than a whisper he said, "Now imagine… that every single thing you loved somehow got destroyed… I'm not talking one big disaster. I mean slowly. One small thing happens and it leads to another, a slow erosion of your life. The pain becomes so constant you almost don't notice it. You can push it away … pretend almost that the world isn't crumbling like mud to dust. Then something will come along and it will be one of two things. Maybe it's a bad thing, something that will knock your breath away. But you can cope with that like everything else you've had to face, tuck it away, and add it to the list. The really bad thing is when something good happens."
Harper took a deep breath and continued.
"The good things are the worst of all because they remind you of the pain you had ignored for so long. Good things give you hope, belief even, that maybe just maybe everything would turn out okay as long as you wanted it bad enough, loved it and held onto it hard enough, everything would be okay."
Trance wrapped her arms around his body and leaned her forehead on his shoulder.
"It could be okay." A whisper.
Harper choked, trying to block the emotions that threatened to escape. "It's why I'm afraid all the time, you know…so paranoid. Because being here has given me hope. Trance, I love being here and I haven't loved anything for a very long time. So now you sit here and ask me to tell you what happened-I can't and I won't. This time when everything falls apart Seamus Zelazny Harper is going down swinging. I won't tell you because I can live with the pain for now, but if I tell you it will all start again and everything I love will be gone and I just won't be able to pick myself up again."
He stood and walked towards the door. She didn't stop him, couldn't stop him. He paused for a moment without looking back. "I'm tired," he whispered and disappeared out in to the corridor.
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A few hours later Beka found him in one of the machine shops. The lights were dim and he was sitting with his back against the bulkhead. He held a piece of something he was working on his hand but his mind was obviously far away. Beka watched him for a moment as he twirled whatever he was holding over and over again. She cleared her throat and stepped into the dark room.
"Hey, sport, what's up?"
Harper jumped a little and gave her a wry smile, embarrassed that he had been surprised. "Nothing. Just thinking."
Beka slide down the bulkhead and sat beside him on the floor. "It's the middle of the night. Why aren't you sleeping?"
He shrugged noncommittally.
"Bad dreams?" She knew Harper had nightmares but she accounted them all to his life on Earth. She didn't know it was the memories of what had happened since he left Earth that had been plaguing him lately.
"Yeah, a bit." He gave a small smile again. Beka knew Harper better then anyone else, so he wasn't fooling her: he often smiled to cover up the pain. "What's your excuse?" he asked.
"The same I guess… do you ever think about the time we tried to get to Tarn-Vedra?"
Harper's heat skipped a beat. "Which time?"
"Before Andromeda."
Harper practically squirmed. "Have you been talking to Trance?"
"No. Why?" she asked curiously.
"No reason." He took a deep breath. "What made you think of Tarn-Vedra?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I was just thinking now that we have fifty worlds signed finding Tarn-Vedra would slam the door on all the doubters of the new Commonwealth."
"Beka, there will always be someone who has doubts…I don't think Tarn-Vedra would make a difference."
"You're a pessimist, Seamus," she joked but her smile quickly faded. "But you're probably right for once. It sure would be nice though."
She slowly stood up. "Well, I better get some sleep." She looked at him once more with worried eyes. "You better get some too."
"Yes, Mom," he replied, once again with a smile. She mussed his hair as she stepped towards the door.
"Night then."
"Night."
Harper watched her go. Sleep wasn't going to come soon. Unfortunately, Trance was right; sooner or later he would have to tell her. The fear of her finding out was eating him alive. How could he tell her though?
"It started so simply," he whispered. "Where did I go wrong?"
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Back to the past on the Maru
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"SON OF A BITCH!!!!" screamed Harper as Beka tried to pin him to the wall.
"Rev, Vex, help!" yelled Beka.
"No. Not the Magog! He'll smell the blood and lose it!"
"Harper, calm down."
Harper had been working on one of the engines when the Maru encountered some unexpected asteroids.
The sudden jolt caused Harper's nano-welder to slip across his hand. When it did he jumped back, surprised at the burn, and fell on to the sharpened pipe he had been trying to jerry-rig into a new coolant valve. The pipe had neatly sliced into his shoulder.
"Aggh!" he yelled again in pain. It stung like hell. Still, the pain was beginning to dull as his mind tried to slip away. Whatever made it stop, even blacking out, would work for him.
Beka kept him forced up against the bulkhead, trying to keep him from curling up around his wounds as she kept pressure on his shoulder. She wanted him talking. He was losing blood fast and she didn't want him to pass out until Vex-pag arrived with the med kit. His eyes were closing.
"Harper!"
"What?" his voice snapped, but he didn't open his eyes.
"Look at me, mister! What happened?" She shook him a little and he groaned.
His eyes opened halfway. "I slipped…what happened to the Maru?"
"Asteroids, just as we were coming out of slipstream… VEX!!!" she screamed again over her shoulder.
Vex-pag arrived with Rev Bem close on his heels just when Harper's knees began to buckle.
Vex-pag quickly stepped in and scooped Harper off his feet. Quickly, half-running, he took him down to the crew quarters, placing him on his own bed (Harper's was on top and therefore too hard to access). He immediately began attending to Harper's injuries.
Beka paced worriedly around the crew quarters as Rev Bem said a quick prayer. After about twenty minutes Vex-pag looked up from his work. "He's going to be okay as long as we can keep any infections at bay and we get him some blood. Captain, your blood type is A negative, correct?"
Beka nodded.
"Good…come sit here. I'll need your help."
Beka sat down and Vex-pag set up an IV. "Now I'll just need to mix up some new vitamins to help fight the infection. Reverend? May I ask for your assistance?"
Rev bowed and followed him from the room.
Beka watched the blonde boy's chest rise and fall as her blood entered his system. After a few moments his eyes began to blink open.
"Hey, Boss," he whispered.
"Hey, yourself."
Harper looked confused. "What happened?"
"You said you fell."
"Oh yeah, I remember…" His eyes began to close once again. "Thanks."
"No problem." She smiled softly and brushed an errant lock from his eyes.
Maybe it was the loss of blood or the shock of the injury but Harper had a thought race through his head and it came out of his mouth before he could stop it. "You know, you look a little like my mother… only you're younger of course and she had blond hair."
Beka was more than a little touched. "Well, I am no one's mother but you and I …we share the same blood now, Seamus, and that makes us family."
His eyes closed and she wasn't sure if he heard it but she meant it. This little stick thing of a human had stuck up for her and tried to save her from Bobby. He had forgiven her for abandoning him for a Flash fix…and he had shared the map with her when he could have easily ran off with it and saved it for himself. She had been alone so long, ever since her father had died and her brother left. And Bobby had been little solace. Finally, for the first time in a long time she had hope all because of a little mudfoot. The universe sure had a sense of humour.
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Back to the present
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Two days after his late night chat with Trance, Harper had come to a decision. He would tell Beka what happened. After all that they had done together she deserved to know. If she kicked him off the ship…well, he deserved it. She had said once that she would never leave him. Even years later he still didn't trust that promise…why he never could rationalize.
Really, he wasn't a kid anymore; these people were his friends. In his mind he knew he should be over his distrust of people but his heart betrayed his mind. He would catch himself doing things that pushed people away, all unconsciously. It was like he was afraid to get close to people.
His thoughts drifted back to the other day when Dylan had come to the machine shop to talk to him. Every time Dylan stepped towards him he had taken two steps back; he didn't mean to, and he had chastised himself about it later. Dylan just wanted to see what he was working on. It was the little things like that that reminded the others that he was still a mudfoot even after all these years.
Harper sighed. He had to accept that he was who he was. He was a man with a less then stellar past. Beka had once told him that they both had pasts and she didn't need to hear his unless he wanted to tell it, but now, when all he wanted to do was forget it, he felt she needed to know. Hell, after all they had been through she deserved to know. Now that the decision was made there was only one thing left to do… He headed down the hall towards Beka's quarters.
"Come in!" shouted Beka as he chimed at her door.
"Hey, Boss, it's me."
Beka came out of the adjoining room carrying a sandwich. "Hey, I was just about to have some supper. You want some?"
"Nah, thanks though. I don't think my stomach could take it right now."
Worry instantly crossed her face. "What's wrong? Are you sick?" She reached for his forehead to feel for his temperature but he stepped away. "What's wrong?"
"Beka, why did you ask me about the time we tried to find Tarn-Vedra?"
Beka sighed heavily and sat in an over-stuffed chair nearby. She looked sad and confused. "You know I don't remember much of what happened, right?"
Harper nodded silently.
"Well…I don't know…something I've seen recently got me thinking about it again." She paused for a moment. She looked unsure of what to say. She took a deep breath, stood, and walked over to a nearby cabinet; pulling out a small brown disk it looked old. "Please tell me you can explain this?" Her eyes were pleading as she activated the disk.
A little hologram about six inches high appeared. It was a communications disk. The hologram was a picture of Harper nearly five years ago when he had first left Earth. The disk also carried a message. The computerized words filled the silence that hung between the two friends.
"Seamus Zelazny Harper wanted for prosecution for the mass murder at a regional bank on Calbidium Prime. The murder is believed to have been politically motivated."
The hologram flashed again to a shot of Harper sitting on the floor of the bank surrounded by dead people. Harper turned white as the blood drained from his face.
"This man is also wanted for the destruction of a slipstream portal in Webston district. The slipstream was the main source of commerce and trade for two nearby planets whose economy was destroyed as a result. Motives for this action are unknown. If you know of the whereabouts of this individual please contact your local authorities. A reward of one hundred thousand thrones has been offered for any tips leading to an arrest." The disk restarted its message but Beka turned it off.
Harper couldn't meet her eyes but he heard it all in her voice as it quivered the questions. "Harper, what really happened, and why didn't you tell me?"
After all the years of thinking about it and the days leading up to his final decision he was speechless.
He always assumed it would go badly but in every scenario that he ran through his head he was always the one that had initiated the conversation. This was a little different.
"Beka I… I don't know what to say."
"Why don't you start with the truth? Did you have anything to do with the massacre?"
"Yes, but it's not as simple as that." Beka's eyes looked sad and he turned away from her and looked at the wall. "It was a long time ago. So much has changed since then. I didn't know that it would go the way that it did, but it's no excuse. I knew there was a chance that the people would get hurt and that I was being lied to. I just… I didn't have many options back then. I had no reason not to do what I did."
Beka stepped up behind him, placing her hand on his shoulder. He flinched slightly at her touch but did not pull away. She wrapped her arms around him from behind. "You have changed, you know that? I believe you when you say you didn't know. I'm just hurt you never told me, that you've been carrying all this around for so long. Why, after all we've been through, why couldn't you trust me?" She pulled back slightly and turned him to face her.
He turned towards her but still couldn't meet her eyes. "I do trust you, Beka, I just don't always believe the things you say." He smiled slightly as a small bit of normal Harper showed through. "But I do trust you. You know, you're probably the only person in the whole freakin' universe I do trust."
"Then why?" she asked again.
He walked towards her couch and sighed as he flopped down, his body suddenly heavy. Beka sat in the chair beside him.
"Mostly, I didn't trust myself. Do you remember what happened when we went to look for Tarn-Vedra?"
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Back to the past on the Maru
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Harper slid down the ladder in the Maru's engineering bay and sprinted down the hallway towards the command area. He grabbed a pipe and swung on it to get around a corner quicker as he literally leapt into the cockpit area.
"Mr. Harper, the shoulder!" chastised Vex without looking over his shoulder. "It will never heal if you continue to swing on it like on over grown TreeWee!"
Harper had no idea what a TreeWee was so he ignored the comment. His shoulder was sore but the nanobots had done their job and it was almost completely healed thanks to Vex. Besides, he was too excited to care about a little discomfort. "Beka, are we there yet?" He was unconsciously jumping up and down on the spot. Vex-pag was standing at the weapons station and Rev Bem was standing at navigation, both smiling at the youth's excitement. Beka wiped her brow as she relaxed a little. The last slipstream had been tough. She turned back to smile at Harper.
"Yeah, we're close, but I think we'll leave the final three jumps till tomorrow."
Harper's face fell and he quit bouncing.
Beka chuckled. "Don't worry, sport. We've been on this treasure hunt for six months. One more night won't kill you."
Vex-pag laughed a little too. "Yes, but if he keeps me awake one more night studying that map I might kill him."
"Yeah, well, Vex," chimed in Harper, "I might have kept you up once in a while but you're snoring has kept me awake for months!"
Vex took a playful swing at Harper, but he ducked under it and headed back to engineering, a broad grin splitting his face. Tomorrow would change his life… everything would be different and he couldn't wait!
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The night never seemed to end, as excitement always made time crawl agonizingly slowly. When Beka walked on to the bridge that morning she found Harper leaning against one of the railings fast asleep. She smiled as she looked down at him. He was just a kid, yet probably the most capable individual she ever met. She pushed at him a little with her foot.
"Rise and shine, handsome."
Harper blinked a couple of time then yawned loudly. "Boss. Hey. Morning."
"I hope you didn't sleep here."
He shrugged his shoulders. "I couldn't sleep."
"Well, you seemed to be doing a fine job of 'not sleeping'. But I need you alert. These next three jumps will be murder, if they are the right ones at all."
"Don't worry, Beka," grinned Harper with his most winning smile. "With us on their trail the Vedrans won't stand a chance… I bet they have a lot of stuff, like money and technology. I wonder if there will be anyone alive on the planet. I bet they have the best-"
"Harper, enough!" Beka laughed. "Lets get going. Why don't you navigate?"
Harper ran over to the navigation station just as Vex-pag and Rev Bem entered the bridge.
"I see we are not even going to wait for a decent breakfast," Vex-pag complained, but the mood was light aboard the Eureka Maru. Everyone took a station and was ready when Beka said the words Harper had waited all night to hear.
"Transiting to slipstream."
The Maru bucked and weaved like a horse Harper had once saw in a flexi-book. But Beka's slightest touch tempered the beast and the Maru flipped and slid with ease. Harper was impressed but started to get worried when the slipstream didn't end.
"Beka, what's wrong? Should it be this long?"
A grunt was her only reply as her focus was completely on the slipstream in front of her. The slipstream must have lasted fifteen minutes and when they emerged on the other side Beka was covered in a light sheen of sweat and was exhausted. "Wow," she whispered.
"What the hell was that?" questioned Vex.
"The hand of the divine," whispered Rev.
The tense and reverent silence was broken by a sudden and very loud whoop. "That was freakin' amazing! We did it!!"
Everyone's faces reflected Harper's excitement.
"Harper grab me a drink and we'll tackle the next one, we'll show the Vedrans not to mess a Valentine and her crew."
Within minutes Beka had finished her drink and was ready to take the next slipstream. Beka turned up the power to the engines when a warning light flashed on her counsel.
"Harper?"
"I'm on it!" And he dashed from the room towards engineering. After a few moments a voice sounded from the intercom. "We're good to go, Boss. Gun it!"
Beka aimed the Maru at the slipstream entrance and headed in.
This one was much like the other with very sharp and sudden turns, but Beka navigated it as if she were a part of her beloved ship. The really strange and unexpected component was that there seemed to be pieces of ships floating about in the slipstream. She was forced to dodge them while staying on course, a very tricky feat.
Vex let out a low whistle. "I hope you are a better pilot then these poor souls."
No one answered but Rev Bem could be heard whispering a prayer.
The Maru burst through the end of the slipstream just as Harper returned to the command centre.
Beka gasped as if she had been holding her breath for quite some time. She turned in her chair to grin back at Harper.
Harper didn't meet her gaze, though, as he glanced over her shoulder at out towards space… "Is that it? Is that Tarn-Vedra?" His mouth hung slack with awe.
A small blue and green planet floated before them. Earth may have been as beautiful at one time.
"This isn't right," commented Beka with a concerned face. "There is supposed to be another jump."
"Maybe the map's wrong," suggested Vex-pag.
"But it hasn't been so far," replied Rev Bem. "Only our interpretation has been wrong and we were able to correct it. Beka's right-there should be one more jump."
"Maybe that's the trick?" whispered Harper.
"I don't like this at all, Harper. Where's the next slipstream?" Beka commanded.
He was about to answer when he saw something move out the front viewer. "Oh, oh, this isn't good."
Alarms started flashing everywhere on the Maru.
"Fighters on our port and aft," shouted Vex-pag. "A ship design I've never seen."
"Vedran fighters, I'll bet," whispered Harper.
"Look out-incoming!"
The Maru rocked and groaned as she was bombarded with missile fire.
"Harper!" screamed Beka. "Find us the next portal!"
"It's right behind that planet!" he shouted over the noise. As sparks flew form the panel next to him he ducked down.
"Beka, we need to move or the hull is going to breech!" Vex said worriedly.
"I know, I know," grunted Beka angrily and then she swore. She wasn't mad at Vex-pag-only the damn situation. Beka pulled back on the Maru's piloting yoke. The ship groaned and moaned but bid her heading and flipped over before swerving to the right.
Suddenly there was a loud explosion from the engineering bay.
"Hull breech," confirmed Rev Bem, studying the panel in front of him. "It's small, yet can still do serious damage."
"We need to fix it!" Harper's voice was getting panicky. Panic was not good.
Vex-pag grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed him towards engineering. "Let's go. I'll help."
Another crash pushed Harper and Vex-pag against the wall as they made their way towards the back of the ship. As they traveled through the ship the place continued to shake and roll, klaxons still blaring.
When the engineering doors opened Harper swore, flattening himself against a wall to avoid the sucking wind.
"It's bad, Vex!" he shouted over the rush of air. "We'll need to fix it from outside. If we go any closer we'll get sucked out or stuck."
"Have you ever space walked before?" Vex-pag shouted back.
Harper shook his head sheepishly. "Not much call for it on Earth."
"Right. Then I'll go."
"No, it's okay, Vex. I'll go…how hard can it be?" They sealed the door to the engineering bay and started towards the nearest airlock.
Vex turned to Harper. "One wrong move out there and you'll float off into space. Then no one will be able to repair the engine once the breech is fixed."
Harper started to protest but Vex raised a long thin hand. "While we are under attack someone with experience needs to be out there. You can stay here and talk me through it okay."
Harper nodded, silently glad he didn't have to go but bit worried at the risk to the Perseid. "Vex, it needs to be done right and quickly or the engine bay is going to blow out the side of the Maru, and ten there will be nothing to save."
"Then help me get my suit on-we need to move!"
Harper helped Vex with his EVA suit and closed the airlock behind the exiting Perseid. He knew Vex was entering a war zone, and worse yet, so did Vex.
"Vex, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear. I'm almost there. Tell me what I need to do."
Harper strained to see him out the airlock window but he couldn't see him. He did catch glimpses of weapons fire and the sudden jolt of the Maru indicated that they had been hit again.
"Vex?"
"I'm okay for now…Okay. I'm at the breech. What now?"
"Okay use the nano-welder. Make a-a weld around the entire exterior of the breech"
"Mmmm," mumbled Vex as he worked.
"When that's done use the expand-a-patch." Harper shifted nervously. "Hurry, Vex."
"Mr. Harper…" the pause in his voice made Harper heart skip a beat.
"WHAT! What's wrong?"
"I think I snagged my suit. There might be a leak…" Harper heard a loud, long hiss, and suddenly Vex-pag's connection went dead.
"VEX! NO!" Harper screamed and pounded on the airlock door. Quickly he tried to come to his senses and grabbed for an environmental suit.
He was about to click his helmet on when Rev Bem appeared beside him and placed a hairy claw on his arm, which was enough to stop anybody's progress.
"He's gone… We saw him…his body." Rev was unsure how to comfort the boy who still lived in fear of him and finally settled on what always had comforted him. "He's with the Divine now."
"No," moaned Harper his knees buckling and his hands flying to his face to cover his grief. "Not again… my fault again!"
"Mr. Harper-"
"If I'd gone out there Vex wouldn't be dead!"
"And you would. It was a horrible accident, and it was no one's fault."
Harper cupped his hands around the back of his neck and rocked back and forth on his heels.
Rev was torn between staying and returning to Beka, who needed him to ward of the attackers. He reached forward and firmly grabbed Harper by the forearm. The young man yelped and tried to squirm away.
"Leave me alone!"
"Beka needs you up front now!" Rev propelled the angry irrational Harper down the hallway towards the cockpit.
The two reached the command centre just as there was a loud screech of metal and the Maru gave a death shudder. Rev's hands flew to his ears. Beka and Harper both turned white.
"Harper?" screamed Beka. "Was it-?"
Harper nodded. "Yeah. The engine's gone."
An eerie silence filled the Maru as the ship died in space. Then the explosions started again.
"We're being boarded!" shouted Rev.
"By what?" asked Beka.
"I don't know."
There was a final loud explosion and for a long time Harper remembered nothing.
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There was a blur of white and then a strange noise. Harper tried to raise his hands to cover his face but he couldn't move. The noise twisted into a voice. It hurt his ears.
"No," he tried to say but it was barely a whisper. His throat was dry and scratchy; his body ached all over.
The voice again. "Is he awake?"
Harper tried to tell the voice to be quiet but it was all too much and the light and the noise slid away.
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It must be a horrible dream. He told himself he was going to wake up in his bunk. Vex would be cooking breakfast, Beka would be singing in the shower and Rev would be…No…Magog! Unable to face another nightmare Harper sat up with a sudden gasp. His arms jerked and pain shot through his body. He fell back against the bed. He was on a bed?
Slowly he became aware of his surroundings. Warily he looked around. He was in a very white room. The walls were bare and there was nothing except the bed and a small table with medical supplies. The room smelled of antiseptic and it made his nose itch. He tried to reach up to scratch his nose when he realized that his hands were in restraints.
Harper started to panic. His whole body screamed with pain, he was strapped to a bed, and-perhaps the worst-he was alone. He tried to kick with his legs and flail his shoulders but the pain became too intense and it left him gasping.
Just then the door to his room creaked open. Two people entered. Harper glared at them in defiance and hate; it was all he could do, and he was determined to do it. Both wore some kind of uniform with a white shirt over top.
"It's good to see you're awake," stated the man, almost emotionless.
"How do you feel?" asked the women as she checked his vitals on a monitor on the small table.
Neither of them introduced themselves and Harper was not about to give out any information. So he decided to do what years on Earth had taught him to do. He swore…a lot.
Neither of them flinched at his verbal rampage.
"I'm afraid that will get us nowhere, Mr. Harper." Harper stopped swearing, shocked that they knew his name.
"How do you…?"
"Your name? Well, the wanted Beacons all over this side of space were a dead giveaway."
Ah. From his old bank robbery, no doubt. Harper hated this situation. It was like when he was on Earth with Brendan. These two were just like the Nietzscheans. They held all the cards and they knew it. "Where's Beka, you freakin' Ubers!"
"That all depends on if you give us what we want," replied the woman.
Harper's head fell back against his pillow in defeat. "I have nothing to give."
The man stepped forward. "We have a lot of questions that need answers. We know you weren't working alone in the bank robbery. Who were you working for? Why steal Vedran currency only? Were you hoping to commit another attack? Only this time on Tarn-Vedra itself instead of one of its allies? We, the members of Argosy, do not take kindly to terrorists!"
Harper lay there in stunned silence for a moment when the fog slowly cleared and he started to understand.
"You're High Guard? I thought you guys were all dead. Is this Tarn-Vedra?"
"You will answer our questions, Mr. Harper."
"Screw you Ubers! I want to see Beka before I answer any questions."
"That won't be possible," said the woman.
What were they talking about? Harper couldn't read them. They were like android-hell, androids were more expressive. And because he had no answers his mind automatically leapt ahead to the worst possible scenario.
"Is she dead?" he whispered.
Neither the man nor the woman would answer the question.
Grief of the unknown flooded his system and his head ached. He closed his eyes against the pain.
"Who do you work for? Was that woman the ringleader?" the man asked, sounding as though he were ready to repeat his ring of stupid questions.
Harper shook his head. He had noticed the past tense the man had used when asking about Beka. "It wasn't her. She doesn't know. I was working for a Nietzschean named Sirius."
The woman grabbed the man's arm and they stepped away for a few moments to discuss the revelation in hushed tones.
Harper's mind floated back to memories of Beka and Vex-pag. The thoughts hurt and he felt an ache in his chest. He took a deep breath and controlled his thoughts. He wouldn't think of them anymore. His time with them was just a dream, a moment of his life. It hadn't been real. They weren't important. He tried to convince himself of the lies he was telling. He had lost too many people and he was eager to accept those lies. His minded floated back to his parents, but he wouldn't even allow his mind to pause on that. Think of black, he told himself. Black. Warm encompassing darkness.
When his interrogators returned he had his emotions under control. He felt empty, drained, and removed. Nothing mattered. He answered all their questions as best he could, not caring if they believed him or not. They gave him very little information in return. Yes, they were High Guard, this was Tarn-Vedra, and he was in a lot of trouble.
They eventually told him that Beka was dead and they had just used her as a threat to get to the truth. By then his heart had turned to stone and it didn't matter. He felt nothing.
After about an hour they left him alone and he slept.
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Time passed…maybe a week. Harper never saw his two interrogators again. Only a doctor and nurse checked up on him.
From their broken discussions Harper gathered that he had broken his leg; three ribs were cracked and he had a concussion. He wondered where he got such injuries; had the boarders attacked him? And to top it all of he had torn the ligaments in his shoulder, the one that he had hurt in engineering. Vex was right. He should have been more careful.
Once the nanobots had repaired his broken bones, his restraints had been removed. He was encouraged to walk around his little room to help with the healing. He still limped when he walked and his side felt stiff but it was good to be out of bed. The ligaments, however, were not healing as quickly so he avoided using that arm. The doctor was not happy about Harper's refusal to use his arm but like with everything else Harper was beyond caring.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Another two weeks went by before someone new came to see him. Frankly he was glad to see someone else for a change. He was quite sick of the medical staff and he was quite sure they were sick of him. The doctor had grown frustrated with Harper's stubbornness and his refusal to use his injured arm. He did try to use his arm once or twice but it hurt like the blazes. Mostly, though, he didn't use it because they wanted him to. His own little act of rebellion; it was all he had.
That was before Lieutenant McBride came, and then even that small bit of rebellion seemed unimportant.
Harper disliked him immediately. He came in wearing a very crisp and proper High Guard uniform and carrying a clipboard. He read his stupid clipboard for a good five minutes before even acknowledging Harper.
Harper sat on his bed and glared at him. Finally the man cleared his throat and introduced himself.
"I'm Lieutenant McBride. I will be your representative."
"My what?"
"Your representative." He sniffed once and looked at Harper like he was an idiot.
"Represent me at what?"
"Your arraignment, of course."
Harper felt stunned. He hadn't expected that. "I'm going on trial?"
"Yes…ummm…Mr. Harper." McBride consulted his clipboard for Harper's name again. That was pretty pathetic. His own little lawyer didn't know his freakin' name.
"Well, I thought you guys pretty much thought I was guilty and that was it."
"The High Guard is a diplomatic society. Everyone receives a trial before conviction." Harper noticed that he didn't say that he thought Harper was innocent. The man continued, "The doctor mentioned you haven't been co-operating with his treatments."
Harper swore a couple of times.
The lawyer didn't even blink. "Being uncooperative will go on your record, Mr. Harper. I must say it doesn't look good."
"I don't give a crap what goes on my record."
"Are you confessing to the murder of 103 civilian allies?"
Harper scowled and said nothing for a few minutes. "Listen, I went over this with your two buddies when I first got here…I didn't kill them on purpose."
"Do you think your intent will make a difference?" He consulted his clipboard again. "It also says here you refuse to disclose the whereabouts of one Sirius unknown last name. Your supposed employer?"
"I was his slave, I ran away, I DON'T KNOW!"
"This attitude really won't help you at trial, Mr. Harper," sniffed McBride disdainfully. Harper was beginning to wonder if he had allergies. "Your hearing will be in 3 days. You will be shipped out of the secure area back to the planet you saw when you were captured. That is where your fate will be decided." With that McBride sniffed once more and abruptly left Harper's room.
Harper sat there for a moment contemplating the situation and one thought kept rolling through his brain. 'Like hell someone else will decide my fate for me.' Then all the sadness he had been holding deep inside turned into something else. These people, the High Guard, were supposed to be the good guys. Yet they had destroyed the Maru (he thought), Vex-pag died because of their attack, and…Beka. A sob of rage caught in his throat.
He would never, NEVER trust anyone again.
Harper started to plan.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Three days later Harper's hands were bound in front of him. He winced slightly as the bindings closed on his injured arm. He was led from his small white room down the long hallways to someplace unknown. He couldn't remember ever seeing the halls before but they were no different than any other institutional building: white and cold and never ending. His body was tense as he counted the minutes until he could execute his plan but it momentarily slipped his mind as they led him outside.
His mouth hung slack as his eyes darted around in awe. This was Tarn-Vedra, really Tarn-Vedra. Now Harper understood why they fought so hard to protect it. It was gorgeous.
As his guards led him to a near by shuttle he tried to soak it in. Giant trees stood on one side of his path; trees hundreds of feet high and so round Harper could never reach his arms around them. Dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves and he could smell dew in the air. On the other side of the path was a large, well-tended flower garden with many plants he had never seen before. They crossed a small wooden bridge with a thin creek rippling underneath it. Past the flower gardens was a view of blue and white mountains that obscured the horizon.
One of the guards nudged him when he stopped, overwhelmed by the beauty.
"Is the whole planet like this?" whispered Harper.
"Pretty much, but there are no trees on the beaches near the oceans. Come on-let's move it."
Harper had always wanted to see a real ocean, one that was unpolluted and un-patrolled. He had also wanted to try swimming, maybe even surfing, something he had read about long ago. His thoughts raced to happier places as they loaded him on the transport. The door closed and he said good-bye to the most beautiful place he had ever seen. Ten minutes of beauty was all he had been allowed, but that didn't mean he would forget it.
The High Guard officers removed his bindings and placed him in a holding cell near the back of the ship. There was no view of Tarn-Vedra and no possible way of knowing the way to and from the planet. The cell was quite effective, as it was depressing.
After about an hour Harper felt the small ship vibrate and enter slipstream. Harper smiled to himself when he noted that they only went through one slipstream. The map had been right after all. It was getting close to the time where he needed to start his plan rolling. It was the smartest idea he'd ever come up with-but hopefully it would work.
He pulled up the sleeve of his injured arm and revealed a large white cloth bandage. Yesterday he had faked depression and cut his arm open (not an easy thing to do, but he managed it anyway). The doctor immediately applied nanobots to seal the wound and wrapped his arm in the bandage. Once the doctor had left and before the nanobots could seal the wound completely he inserted a small wire into his arm (something else that he could hardly pull off). He had managed to pull the wire from underneath his hospital bed's frame. He swore and tears streamed down his face as he inserted the wire under his tender skin; the fact that it still hurt to move that arm at all certainly didn't help. Once they had finished their jobs, the nanobots sealed the wound leaving, the wire nearly undetectable. Part two of the plan was removing it. Harper had to admit this wasn't his favorite part of the plan.
He licked his lips nervously, and started to pick at his nearly healed wound. He did his best to keep the bleeding minimal or else the guards would notice. He swore slightly and pulled out the wire. It was like having a really evil, really big splinter. Harper clenched his teeth in pain. Quickly he took a big breath and readjusted his bandage, palmed the wire and waited. It was another hour before the shuttle seemed to slow and make its decent.
He could feel the shudder of the ship landing and once again he was on solid ground.
The guards came to his small holding area. One put his bindings back on as the other watched. Harper noticed he kept his one hand on his force lance at all times. Harper sighed to himself. 'I guess you can never be too safe with someone who murdered a hundred and three people.'
They started to lead him through the shipyards. The sky here was gray and it had none of the beauty of Tarn-Vedra. As they walked, Harper would pause every so often to pretend to gawk at one of the ships. The guards pushed him on, keeping him ahead of them. Never once did they take notice of Harper's fidgeting fingers as he used the wire to pick the lock on his bindings. The one thing these High Guards had forgotten was who Harper really was. He had spent many years on Earth as a thief; it was a skill he had needed just to survive. And once again he needed those skills. He had the complicated computerized locking device open in under two minutes.
Harper took a large silent breath and once again commented on a nearby ship. Both guards momentarily looked up. In that nanosecond Harper was gone, running amongst the crowd of people that hurried through the shipyard.
The one guard swore as he spotted the back of Harper's shirt running through the crowd. He yelled a warning to the crowd and opened fire.
Bolts of light whipped past Harper's head as he weaved through the screaming crowd. He turned sharply and did a long U-turn around a large Perseid ship.
Then he saw something that took his breath away. He nearly stumbled in his effort to stop. Not fifty yards from him was Beka Valentine and the Eureka Maru.
For the second time that day his mouth hung open in awe. She wasn't dead!
She did look heavily sedated though and was being escorted into her own ship by two seedy looking characters. 'What the hell is going on?' he wondered to himself.
"Beka!" he screamed. Either she was too far away or too drugged to hear him; she never even turned.
He ran towards her as fast as he could, his mind blank with rage. They had lied and they had taken her from him. He wasn't going to let that happen again. As he ran he was spotted once again by his High Guard posse. They started after him.
He was within ten meters of Beka when a force lance bolt flew by his head close enough to burn his ear. Close enough to strike Beka full in the chest.
Seeing her struck by weapons fire, her escort quickly let go of her arms dropping her on the tarmac and dove behind the ramp leading up to the Maru for cover.
"No!" he sobbed as he fell to his knees beside her fallen form. He grabbed her hand, holding it tight and looking pleadingly into her eyes. They were glazed and empty.
"Oh gawd, not again." He could hardly breathe as the weight of the universe fell on to his shoulders. "Beka, don't leave me," he pleaded. "You said you would never leave me."
Suddenly he felt her hand flex in his slightly. "Beka?" he pleaded once more.
The High Guards that had been chasing him had found reinforcements and a large group of them began to converge on the scene.
Harper panicked and with one final look into Beka's eyes he ran. He ran as if the very gates of hell had been thrown open and every demon wanted his soul. Because as he ran from the best friend he had ever had, he ran from the demons that chased him with the knowledge that she might still be alive and that he had left her without a hope of survival.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Back to the present
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper fell off the chair and onto his knees sobbing. That was his big secret. Bigger then Tarn-Vedra, bigger then a bag of credits and over a hundred people dead. His greatest shame was leaving Beka to die to save himself and now she knew.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Beka looked down at Harper who sat sobbing on her rug. A vast wave of emotions flowed through her. She felt rage, sorrow, love, and pain; all threatened to boil to the surface at once. She clasped her hands over her mouth in an attempt to keep her emotions bottled, but she was losing the battle. She panicked and ran from the room. Not unlike, she thought, what Harper had done fours years previously.
Harper watched her go through blurry eyes. His heart had been broken so many times but as Beka ran from the room he held his hand over his chest and gasped with pain. He had changed a lot since those events, but his reactions were still the same. As he watched her go he thought of black. Warm, soothing encompassing blackness…
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A couple of hours later Trance wandered over to Beka's quarters. She wanted to borrow one of Beka's shirts for a dinner the crew of the Andromeda was expected to attend on a nearby planet the next evening. That didn't mean she didn't have another motive for the visit.
She paused even before she asked for entry, sensing something was wrong. She noticed that Beka's door wasn't locked. This puzzled Trance, as Beka was always one for security and always locked her door.
Cautiously she walked into Beka quarters. The lights were all on but the room was deathly silent.
"Beka?" she whispered, stepping into the main area. Then she gasped slightly as she saw Harper sitting on the floor by one of the chairs. He stared straight ahead with a strangely blank look on his face.
"Harper?" she called but he didn't react. She ran to his side. He had no apparent wound but she could tell something was seriously wrong. "Harper?" she said again as she knelt in front of him. But hid did not twitch. No smile, no joke. He didn't even meet her eyes-only stared directly ahead.
Trance reached up and touched his cheek, trying to direct his eyes to hers, when she felt his cold skin. He was ice cold. "You must be in shock." She spoke to him in a quiet, calm voice. "We need to get you to medical, okay?" She expected a retort, but upon receiving none she bit her lip with worry. Harper hated go to Med deck and always complained. Instead of calling the droids to bring a stretcher she radioed Tyr. Maybe with his help they could walk him down to medical. She reached up, pulled the blanket from the chair and wrapped it around his shoulders, trying to warm him up.
He shivered slightly but that was the only reaction at all. "I guess you must have told Beka?" She continued to speak quietly and calmly, hoping he might come back from where ever he went. "It didn't go well, did it? Harper, talk to me, okay? I'll go talk to her for you if you like. She is probably just surprised... She loves you a lot, you know." She continued to whisper softly until Tyr arrived at the door.
"What did he do this time?" asked Tyr. His voice was annoyed but his concern was evident.
"I think he had an argument with Beka but they will have to tell us the details."
"What could possibly have happened to cause this?"
Trance just shrugged her shoulders innocently, though it was silly; both knew she wasn't innocent anymore.
Tyr let it drop for now and reached for Harper. "Come on, little man."
They each grabbed an arm and raised the lost engineer to his feet. Calmly but with the necessary urgency they carried him down the corridors. At one point Trance let go of his arm to hit a door release and he nearly sagged to the floor. He seemed so boneless-no, so spiritless.
Once Trance had him settled in medical, Tyr went to find the answer to the mystery-he went to look for Beka.
It didn't take him long to find her. She was in the first place he looked. Beka sat in the cockpit of the Eureka Maru. She had her knees pulled up and she was resting her chin on them. Tyr approached her silently. The two of them had developed…well, something over the last couple months, and so it bothered him to see her now with nearly the same expression Harper wore when they took him medical. "Are you planning to go somewhere? I do believe that involves starting the ships engines."
"Tyr, go away."
"Why? So you can brood? That hardly seems productive." He gave a disdainful sigh. "What did you do to the little professor?"
Finally, he got a normal reaction-anger. "What? What do you mean? I didn't do anything to him. Did he tell you I did?" She was pissed. This Tyr could work with.
Tyr shrugged noncommittally as he wandered to her side. "He's not saying much at all."
"What do you mean?" Beka was angry, confused, and very hurt, but she cared for Harper too much to just to dismiss any concerns easily.
"He's on Med Deck."
Beka's pale face quickly grew paler. "What did that stupid idiot do now?" she whispered, afraid that their conversation had had fatal results. Harper was prone to rash actions when in pain of any sort.
"He's alive." Tyr studied her face with interest. "He's simply hiding with in himself. Not a fabulous survival tactic."
Beka looked away from Tyr's analyzing eyes, quickly rubbing a tear away. "He's always managed to survive one way or another, though. Hasn't he?"
"Indeed."
Beka sighed and started babbling. "I really don't remember much of what happed, you know. I remember Rev shouting that the Maru was being boarded and after that… just flashes and pain. I think I was drugged and then I was injured. I vaguely remember that Gerentex was there. It was the first time I saw him. At the time I didn't even know who he was but I learned that later. I don't remember Harper at all till we met up again months later."
"What are you referring to?" asked Tyr, confused. He didn't like to be confused.
Beka quickly whipped a few more tears away. "I don't know if I should tell you but I really need to talk to someone…" Beka recounted the tale from her point of view of how she met Harper up until Harper's most recent confession. It wasn't easy to talk about, but afterwards she felt a hell of a lot better getting it off her chest.
Tyr had to admit he was more then a little shocked and well…impressed. He hadn't thought the little professor had it in him. "What bothers you now?" he questioned.
"You know that what has bothered him the most is that he left me when he wasn't sure I was dead. But, what bothers me is that all these years he hid it from me, he didn't trust me enough to tell me." Beka gasped out a small sob but tried to maintain control. "Him running away was completely understandable. He grew up on Earth…it would be an instinct for him. He watched too many people he loved die. So he would have learned to run even when those around him weren't."
Tyr nodded in understanding. "Sometimes it is necessary to survive."
"But I thought we were friends… hell, even family! Why couldn't he tell me?"
For that Tyr had no answer but as Beka fell against his shoulder sobbing he did not push her away. Instead he wrapped his arms around her frail body.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On Med Deck
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dylan and Trance stood over Harper. Trance had made him comfortable and warm. She also had applied some intravenous packs to keep him hydrated. Due to the fact that all he drank was Sparkies and alcohol he was usually a little dehydrated anyway so the intravenous certainly wouldn't hurt but other than that there wasn't much she could do.
"What's wrong with him?" questioned Dylan.
Trance shrugged her shoulders noncommittally. "I think he's tried to deal with some of his past but he couldn't deal with it so he's hiding."
Dylan rubbed a hand over his face. "Damn! I knew there was some chance of this. I just didn't know when it would come. Beka always said he had a lot of bad memories. This is just bad timing with that dinner we have tonight."
"I gave him something to help him sleep. He shouldn't be awake till morning. Still…someone should be here with him."
Dylan nodded "Well, I would like you at the dinner if possible, Trance."
"Beka could stay with him. She knows more about what he's going through then anyone."
He huffed a sigh. Dylan could be a real pain when he was angry. "I really need you all down there but I guess it's best if she stays. Rommie?"
"Yes, Dylan." Rommie the hologram appeared quickly. She had been monitoring the situation and was worried about Harper. Her AI was planet-side helping with preparations. It was a good thing she wasn't here anyway she had been too, well, too emotional lately anyway. This wouldn't have helped.
"Please tell Beka I need to talk to her."
"Right away." And she disappeared again.
Dylan looked again to the young man asleep on the bed in front of him. An obvious concern for him covered his face, which Trance found touching. She reached forward and lightly placed her hand on his forearm. "He'll be okay. He just needs some time."
Dylan nodded "I just hope he realizes how much we need him."
"I don't think he does," she whispered "But he will."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper was lost in his own memories. He remembered running from Beka. Blindly and without thought, he dodged through the late afternoon crowd. The High Guard relics that chased him were only seconds behind.
Then, inexplicitly, there was an explosion, a very large one. Debris littered the ground; the buildings around him shook. Dust filled the air and Harper started to wheeze and cough. Wiping the dust from his eyes he suddenly realized he was kneeling on the ground. He knees and palms were burning. He must have fallen…his heartbeat was like a punk rock rhythm. 'I need to move,' he told his weary body as he tried to get it functioning once again.
Then he heard the magic words that never failed to set him moving. Someone in the crowd yelled "Magog!" Then he heard more shrieking as the crowd started to panic. The High Guard that chased him quickly forgot him as hundreds of furry bodies invaded the town. The men that had guarded him on the flight from Tran-Vedra were two of the first to fall.
Harper ran even when his body thought it was finished. "Not again." He sobbed as memories of his cousins, his aunts, his uncles on Earth flooded his mind. Making the realty he was drowning in even more severe.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ten days after the Magog massacre
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper had lived through yet another Magog raid. He had been scratched up a bit but he wasn't infested. Over three quarters of the planet's population was either killed or infested. Infested was as good as dead for statistics and for facing up to the inevitable.
Harper wandered through the devastated town, scrounging for food and a new shirt when he found himself back in the shipyards. A small ray of hope shot through his mind. Maybe the Maru was still here. Surely Beka would be dead but his clothes were there, with food and blankets and familiarity! He nearly ran to where he had last saw the ship that once had been his home. The Maru was missing. 'Maybe,' he thought, 'maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was closer to the west side?' Harper looked for over two hours; draining what little energy he had left. Finally his legs buckled and his unused arm throbbed as he sat in the middle of the tarmac, feeling utterly defeated.
"Someone must have stolen it," he whispered. But who? Beka had so many securities and firewalls; no one could unlock them but her. Finally he lay down. Resting his forehead on the warm cement, he cried.
He cried for Beka and because he left her. He cried for the Maru and because he had been happy for a while. He cried for Vex-pag, who had thought that Harper was too important to go outside in the danger. He cried because the blood sucking Magog existed in his universe. He cried for all the awful things that he had done. He cried because the universe was inherently unfair.
He cried because he was lost and alone.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Present time on the Andromeda medical deck
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Beka stood in the doorway looking over to where Harper lay. He stared straight ahead. He didn't move. He barley blinked; he barley breathed. Beka found it unnerving. Dylan wanted her to stay behind to watch him, but Beka was more than convinced that Trance had somehow arranged it. Finally she took a deep breath and entered the room.
"Rommie, privacy please."
"Engaged," confirmed the urethral voice.
Beka felt exhausted, like she had been hit by an oversized transport. Of all the things that could have happened, she hadn't seen this one coming. Harper had been the king of loyalty.
She placed her hand on his forehead. He felt warm and alive, but he certainly didn't look either.
"Harper, what happened to us?" He didn't respond.
She turned and pulled up a nearby chair. After a minute's pause she held his hand lightly. "It's okay. I'll wait," she told him. She would keep her promise. "I won't leave you."
Harper blinked once, then twice and looked towards his hand. His eyes followed the hand up the arm to Beka's face. She stared back at him expectantly.
He opened his mouth but he could think of absolutely nothing to say…what could he say?
"Morning, sport," she whispered not unkindly.
"Beka…"
"It's okay." She cut him off. "I won't leave you."
Confusion and a torrent of pain crossed his face. "Why?" He choked on the words.
"I made a promise."
"I absolve you of it. I no longer hold you accountable."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Beka's voice rose with anger and Harper shrank back in his bed. Seeing his fear and worried that he might turn himself off again, she tried to be nicer. "Harper, that's not the only reason."
"But it's the main one, right?" snarled Harper, more than a little bitter.
Beka's anger threatened to bubble over once again. "Seamus Harper, for the genius you proclaim yourself to be, you sure are an idiot!"
"Get out!" shouted Harper. "Just leave already! I want you to! You'll do it eventually anyway."
She looked at him, shocked, and studied him for a moment... Maybe he didn't know. She had never actually said it. Her family never had said these kind things out loud. When she took Harper on and, well, practically adopted him, she just assumed he knew. In her own way she had kept a secret from him. One that she didn't even know she had.
"Harper, I don't leave because we are family, and…I love you."
Harper, who had sat up in his bed when the argument had first started, looked back in shock. "You don't mean it."
She stepped forward and grabbed her engineer by the shoulders, looked him directly in the eye, and then pulled him forward into her arms. "Of course I mean it, you idiot! It doesn't matter what happened. We both have made a lot of mistakes. All that matters is that we do the best we can now."
It was then that Harper started to hug back.
"Family, huh?" Harper finally asked after they had separated. He had a sly look on his face.
Beka smiled back at him. "Through thick and thin."
Slowly it dawned on him that maybe he wasn't alone. Maybe his pipedream had really come true. Harper's head felt a little light and for a moment he felt dizzy as all the baggage he had carried fell away. Then one more thought concerned him. "We'll have to tell Dylan."
Beka nodded. "Okay, but we'll do it together."
"Plus I have a couple of questions about what happened."
"Me too, but we'll sort it all out."
Harper cast his eyes to the floor. "Beka?"
"What?"
"I'm sorry I left you and I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
Beka reached for his chin forcing him to look up. A small tear trickled down his cheek. Beka's own eyes flooded the moment she saw his. Once again she pulled him in to her embrace. "You are an idiot, but I love you anyway."
Harper laughed against her shoulder. "I love ya too, boss."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Back to the past
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Beka woke with a pounding headache. She tried to move, but her upper body was stiff and seemed to be wrapped in heavy bandages.
"What the hell is going on?" she groaned, slowly raising her hand to protect her eyes from the harsh light.
"Thank the divine you're awake."
"Rev? Is that you?"
"Calm yourself. It is only I." She felt his furry hand clasp her free hand.
"I'm…what happened?"
"Don't you remember?"
Beka tried to shake her head but the pain forced her to reply verbally. "Not really…we were slipstreaming then the Maru was attacked." Sudden realization struck her. "Oh gawd! Something fell on Harper! Where's Harper?"
"Beka, listen to me," Rev forced his panicked captain to focus on him. "He's missing…We were attacked about a month ago. Don't you remember anything since then?" He couldn't hide his concern.
"A month! No, everything is a blur…what happened? Where are we?"
"We were attacked, as you seem to remember, and then boarded by what looked like High Guard soldiers, which I find very confusing. I haven't even heard of them in a long time. In fact, I didn't think they existed anymore. Well, when they boarded there were a lot of explosions, and I was completely cut off from you and Mr. Harper. There was nothing I could do for you except escape and try to watch where they took you so I could free you later. I managed to make it to an escape pod. Unfortunately the pod was hit upon my descent to the planet and crashed. I barley escaped with my life. The Divine was truly watching over me that day. I searched for you for weeks with no sign of you. I finally found where they might be you. It was a facility of some sort. I prayed that you were alive. I never saw you but I watched them bring in the Eureka Maru and deduced that you would be there as well. I watched and I waited."
He paused, worried about her health, but Beka encouraged him to continue. "Then there was this strange little man with a pointing nose and long stringy hair-a Nightsider, I believe. He had three large men with him and kept surveying the Maru like he was looking to buy it. Then those men came and did some repairs. I was worried that they might be trying to take it away and I still wasn't sure where you were so… I built something to try to dissuade them…just as a deterrent, of course…"
She caught on. "You built a bomb!" Beka was shocked. The Wayist priest was always lecturing on the ills of weaponry.
"A small one, and I wasn't planning to ignite it near anyone. I just wanted to use it as… a diversion."
Beka smiled weakly. "Harper would be proud."
Rev Bem gave a small bow and continued his story. "I was just setting the bomb in place when I saw them loading the Maru with supplies… and then…" Rev frowned. "I am not proud of what I did next."
Beka sat up slightly in her bed, intent on his words.
"I heard ships landing…many ships landed through out the day but I knew these ones were different right away. They weren't landing on the space dock but in the field just out side of town. I recognized the sound of the ships and later the smells and the voices."
"Magog?" whispered Beka.
Rev nodded, his voice cracking as he remembered the attack. "I panicked. I used the bomb, not to help but to destroy, and I killed my own kind…I killed…" His voice died off for a second, the pain of the memory evident on his face. "In the end it didn't help anyway. The Magog invaded the town, maiming and destroying. I was so distracted by their fervor, I…I wanted to join them. I nearly forgot you. "
Beka reached out and touched his furry arm in an attempt to comfort him. "But you didn't."
He drew a little strength from that. "No, I didn't, but my distraction nearly cost you your life… when I found you were wounded-nearly dead."
"How did you get us off the planet?" She was growing tired but she needed to know.
"We can talk again later…"
"No, Rev…tell me please… I'll sleep better once I know the whole story."
"I don't know if I can give you that, but I'll give you what I can." He paused to sit on the edge of her bed. "You were hurt but because of who I am I-we were left alone and I managed to get you aboard the ship. There I encountered some men they said that they worked for a Nightsider named Gerentex and that He had bought the Eureka Maru and its captain from a group of freedom fighters called 'Argosy Avenged.'
"I've never heard of them."
"Neither have I, but they must have something to do with the old Commonwealth because it would explain the uniforms I saw when we were first attacked."
"Why they hell would this 'Argosy Avenged' attack us?"
"We were looking for Tarn-Vedra."
"But how would they know?"
"What about the Nietzscheans that you stole the ship from? Harper was with them when they were making plans to find Tarn-Vedra themselves… they would know that he would eventually find the map."
"Oh gawd, that never even occurred to me!"
"I think they may have sold information to the 'Argosy Avenged.' They must have known we were coming."
"I don't think so…"
"Why?" Rev was surprised.
"Well… I don't remember much and it sure didn't feel like a month had passed…" She paused her, forehead wrinkling as she strained to remember. "I remember getting injections, and people were talking and I remember words… someone said the 'Nietzscheans were killed for knowing too much.' It didn't make sense at the time. Like I said, it was all kind of blurry."
"These 'High Guard' certainly don't act like the legend they have inspired."
"Desperate times lead to desperate measures."
Rev gave a small bow in agreement.
"Rev…we need to find Harper. I promised I wouldn't leave him."
"Beka, Magog raids are sudden, random, and violent. If he made it down to the planet at all I doubt he survived. I never saw any evidence of him even being on the planet. If we searched for him where would we start? We cannot return to the planet-it is in ruins! The people that have been infected will be…"
He couldn't finish it, but Beka new what he meant. The people that had survived and been infested would be dead soon and a new wave of Magog would be born. "And if there are survivors they may still be looking for us… Rev, what should we do?"
"When you two were separated before, where did you meet?"
"El Dorado drift."
"Then that's where we'll go and wait. I do need to tell you one more thing that I have so far neglected to tell you."
Beka looked at him, concerned.
"I made a deal for a freedom with this Nightsider named Gerentex."
"What?! What kind of deal?"
"They bought the ship for a salvage run but since I convinced them-quite forcefully-that they had no right or claim to this ship, they said that we owed them the money back. So I agreed that after we had fully recovered from our ordeal that would we would help them in way of retribution."
Beka groaned. "Rev, what did you promise?"
"Really, it's nothing. They found this ship called the Andromeda and they want us to help with the salvage."
Beka sighed and a small smile flittered across her face. "Remind me to never let a Magog handle negotiations."
Rev Bem chuckled and left her to sleep.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Present time on the observation deck of the Andromeda
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The group had returned from a successful dinner and Dylan was happy to report that yet another world had signed the Commonwealth charter. He was also happy to see his engineer up and about as both Beka and Harper met them upon their return.
Beka had requested they all meet on the observation deck. They had something to tell him. Dylan looked puzzled but agreed and once everyone gathered she and Harper recounted their story.
Harper still had trouble with the details, so Beka helped him where she could. She sat by his side and squeezed his arm with encouragement whenever he faltered. When it was her turn she spoke slowly and deliberately, trying to leave nothing out, though her memories were sketchy.
The group sat in shock when the two had finished talking and Beka glanced around the room. Tyr looked surprised and little impressed. Trance looked like she had just finished reading a flexi soap opera and was hungry for more. Rommie couldn't keep her eyes off Harper, who continued to stare stoically at the floor, like at any moment he'd burst into tears.
Dylan's face wore a frown, not of anger but one that showed that he was lost in thought. The unasked question of 'what now?' hung silently in the air.
"I have a couple of questions." As everyone gave him their attention he looked towards Beka and Harper. "How did you two get back together?"
"Ummm…well," Harper started, "it took me a while, but I managed to, er, appropriate one of the ships that was no longer being used in the shipyard. I flew to El Dorado drift. I was hoping to find some work, maybe move on with my life the best I could and I literally bumped into Beka one day in the market. She was looking for crew. Well, first she jumped around and screamed a lot."
"I was happy you were alive, you goof!"
"She said she didn't remember much and was worried about me," Harper's voice cracked a little but Beka squeezed his arm and he continued. "I was glad she didn't remember me leaving her so I pretended it didn't happen. I found out later the Rev had saved her. It was then I started to trust him. I was so grateful…the purple one being there was an unexpected bonus."
Beka smiled. "I had forgotten. Trance found out I was looking for crew, and she joined us before we found you."
Trance also smiled, just happy to be a part of the story.
"What happened to the money during all this?" asked Dylan. He wasn't about to let any detail go unexplained.
"Harper hid it really well."
"Yeah, those Argosy guys ripped the ship apart and they never found it." There was pride in Harper's voice. "I took the stuffing out of my pillow and put the thrones inside… I guess it was just a little too obvious for them."
Tyr snorted and hid a smile behind his hand.
"Do you and Beka still know the route that leads to Tarn-Vedra?" asked Dylan.
"No, it was the weirdest thing," answered Beka. "A couple of weeks after there was all these news broadcasts. It seems the 'Argosy Avengers' that survived somehow managed to acquire some Nova Bombs. They blew up half their system, including all known slipstream routes that led back to that planet."
"What happened to the map?"
Harper shrugged. "They must have taken it. I never saw it again and Rev said it wasn't on the Maru when he reclaimed it."
Dylan shook his head. "That's quite a story. And what are your plans now Mr. Harper?"
"I don't know," mumbled Harper. "I always thought that some day I might give the money back to the people we got it from…I know it could never fix what happened but I don't know what else to do."
"It's a start," agreed Dylan
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Three weeks later
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harper and Beka stood on the lawn out side of where the bank once stood. It had been torn down and a memorial had been built for all that had died there.
Harper looked sadly at the names that were listed on a large stone wall.
Dylan wasn't happy with all that had happened, but in the end he spoke with them alone. He told them about how hard it had been for him to carry on after he woke up knowing that everyone and everything he had ever loved was dead. But, for the good or bad, he had to leave it behind; the past was the past and he had to live for himself and for the people that were around him today. He said he had gotten to know them over the last few years, and that he knew who they were now. Who they were then wasn't important anymore. Beka and Harper had been "forged by fire," he said, and it had made them strong. He was proud to have them on his crew.
So after Beka and Harper returned the money anonymously and as Dylan talked with the planets governor about what really happened and thus clearing Harper's name, the Maru's captain and her engineer tried to say good-bye to their past.
Trance had sent some flowers along and Beka laid them on the ground beside the wall.
"Well, sport?" she asked as she stepped to Harper's side. "Have you done what you needed to?"
"I guess." He shrugged. "It's...just… I'm not sure it's enough…giving the money back, I mean… I wish I could offer more."
"You didn't kill those people, Seamus."
"I know."
"Remember them, and live your life the best you can…it's all you can do."
"You know what I remember most?"
Beka glanced at him and he met her eyes.
"I remember you kept your promise you never left me. I'm not alone any more. My pipedream came true."
Beka smiled and pulled him in to a rough hug.
After a moment they pulled apart and started to walk back towards the main part of the city.
"Hungry?" asked Harper.
"Famished."
"Great! I'm buying." Harper reached into his pocket and pulled out a brightly coloured credit chip.
Beka was shocked. "Harper, that isn't what I think it is!"
"Beka, I just gave away approximately two million thrones! We should at least get a free meal!"
Beka laughed. "Seamus Harper, you're incorrigible."
"And starving. Let's go."
The End
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