Author: Max Gemini
Email: gsolt@hotmail.com
Story rating: PG to the best of my knowlege
Disclaimer: Whatever the other fan fic writers said should pretty much cover it.
Beka Valentine cursed under her breath, the slip drive was acting up and she had to return the Eureka Maru to normal space.
Getting out of the pilot’s seat she went back to survey the damage.
The damage looked worse than any thing she could repair, and deciding she’d have to switch to the back up slip drive, she found a note which she read aloud to herself:
“Note to Harper. Repair back up slip drive before Beka goes on shore leave. Signed Harper.”
*Harper you’re fired,* thought Beka.
To make matters worse, it just happened that she was in the middle of nowhere. The nearest spaceport, in fact the closest piece of civilization was twelve light days away. She knew this meant that even a radio signal carrying a distress call would take twelve days to get there, and without slip drive the Maru would take even longer.
Beka set autopilot for the nearest space port, activated the automatic distress signal, and decided she might as well double check her diagnosis of the slip drive.
********
A couple hours into the flight, another ship was approaching from the distance and hailing her, Beka responded and the image of a dark haired woman appeared on her monitor.
“This is captain Tasha Blake of the Aquarius, do you need assistance?”
“Yes, My slip drive is out,” replied Beka.
“OK, no problem, I think our engineer can help if you let us dock.”
“Go ahead. Here are the docking instructions. Thanks, it really is lucky for me that you were passing this way.”
“You’re more than welcome, we’re just glad we could help.”
***
The ships were docked and Beka saw the engineer of the Aquarius for the first time as he began walking through the air locks joining the two ships. If the guy were human Beka would say he was in his early twenties. Their eyes met as he stopped at the entrance of the Maru and asked, “Permission to come aboard?”
*Talk about luck* thought Beka. As the guy’s tail curled and came to rest next to his feet, Beka wished someone else were there to reassure her that he was real. She hadn’t been able to imagine how a purple guy would look, but now she knew. Then she remembered that he was still waiting for her to answer.
“Y-yes permission granted. Welcome aboard. I’m Beka. I’m sorry, it’s just that you reminded me of one of my crew, and before now she was the only one of her people I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s OK Beka,” the other innocently replied. “You’re the first human I’ve ever seen with my shade of skin.”
*This can’t be happening* thought Beka. Then Beka saw the purple guy was grinning. *Smart Alec,* thought Beka.
He offered his hand. “By the way, I’m Alex.”
Beka accepted his hand shake and said, “I’m Beka.”
Realizing that she had just repeated herself, Beka mentally put a hand to her forehead and was relieved to find that Alex either didn’t notice or was nice enough to change the topic by wistfully asking, "So where's the trouble?"
"Right this way," Beka answered as she showed the way to the engine bay.
***
Alex followed carrying his toolbox and taking in his surroundings as he went. He seemed fascinated with the Maru’s unconventional layout. As they walked through its hallways his pace began to slow and at one point he stopped, and lightly touched one of the many metal panels lining a hallway.
Crash!
Beka spun around at the noise to find one of the panels had fallen to the floor, and that Alex had also jumped, he then noticed her looking. His tail dropped to the floor and he smiled sheepishly, "Um, it was loose."
"It's OK," sighed Beka "It's an old ship."
"Someone must have taken good care of her for her to have lasted this long," said Alex. He seemed to think old was an understatement.
"Yeah, that would be Harper, maybe you could meet him and Trance sometime."
Alex brightened "I think I would like that Beka."
"Oh, and Alex?"
"Yes?"
"This ship may be old but it’s my ship. Please don't touch any more of those."
"I can do that."
Beka resumed her walk, and Alex followed a tad cautiously this time as he looked warily at each wall panel and the metal pipes that were hanging above him.
****
Beka had poured herself a cup of coffee from one of her strategically located coffee machines and now watched over the railing from one of the engine room’s cat walks as Alex climbed up the access latter to join her. Alex gave his diagnosis, “It looks pretty messed up.”
“I know,” said Beka. “Can it be fixed?”
“Well, not exactly, but if I have an hour…" Alex trailed off clearly regretting what he had to say.
Beka prodded “If you have an hour…?”
Alex continued "there is a chance I can get it to work once more for a short amount of time. You could then make it to a spaceport where you could get a new slip drive. I'll need to improvise, that's what I'll need two hours for. I've done this sort of jury-rigging before and most of the time it worked. It's a piece of cake."
*I’m feeling better already,* thought Beka sarcastically.
Out loud she asked, "Didn't you say it would only take an hour? Why is it now two?"
Alex shrugged, "These are only approximations. I don't think it will take any longer though." Beka still seemed to dread her prospects and
Alex added, “You needn’t worry about being stranded between here and the next space port. I’ll come along and make sure you get there.”
Beka seemed a little too suspicious for Alex’s comfort, as she asked,
“Won’t you be needed on your ship?”
Alex hoped he hadn’t made a mistake as he answered, “Captain Blake won’t mind. I can come back later, and before this emergency I was already over due for time off the ship. This is every bit as much a convenience for me as it is for you.” This seemed to work and Alex was glad that every thing he had said was at least technically true.
“In that case,” said Beka, “I’m glad we could help each other.”
“Good,” said Alex. “I’ll just go over to my ship to see that every thing is squared away.”
“No that’s OK Alex, I’ll tell Captain Blake for you.”
“Are you sure? It won’t take me more than a minute,” said Alex, “I really don’t mind the trip.”
“I’m sure,” said Beka, “This way you can get started sooner.”
“OK, then,” said Alex relenting. He realized that Beka had made her choice and there was no interfering with that he could do that would make things any better. As Beka turned to leave, Alex remembered that he was holding a metal cylinder and stopped her. “Beka before you go...”
Beka turned to face him, “Yes Alex?”
"Is this necessary to the function of your slip drive? I doubt that it is, but you can never be too sure, with hasty emergency repairs and all." Alex held up a can of Sparky Cola.
Beka looked surprised. "Where'd you find that?"
"It was behind one of the slip drive's access panels," answered Alex.
Beka made a mental note to have a talk with Harper when she got back. "No, I'm sure you’re right. It's something Harper drinks, but I wouldn't drink it if I were you; I hear that stuff will eventually rot your insides out." Beka reconsidered then amended,
"Then again, from what I know of Trance, maybe it wouldn't have any effect on you."
Alex considered this. "What does Trance drink?"
Beka thought about that a moment then smiled, "Other people under the table.”
Alex grinned, “That sounds like fun. Do you think she’d show me how that’s done? The closest I’ve ever come to doing that is drinking WITH other people under the table.”
*I’d sure like to hear the story behind that one* thought Beka.
Alex looked at Beka’s mug. “What about that drink?”
“I call this a public service to those around me” Beka’s grin was hidden behind the mug as she took another sip.
Alex’s tail curled then uncurled as he smiled at Beka’s last remark, then he remembered he had a job to do and excused himself. “Well I should get started,” Alex turned and began his descent back down the access latter. Beka headed back to the command deck.
***
Beka opened a channel and hailed the Aquarius, but there was no reply. She ran some diagnostics of the Maru's communications circuitry and everything checked out. Maybe the trouble's on their end, she thought, odd since they didn't have any trouble when they first hailed her.
Inspite of the Inari claiming that a male of Trance’s species had caused a civil war Alex seemed harmless enough, and if he was not then he wouldn't have the security codes to get into anything. Besides it may have been someone else since Alex was probably 25 at most and that was over a decade ago. And when it came down to it Beka decided she probably wouldn’t care if Alex was the one; She didn’t like the Inari and she had seen too many instances of people blaming someone else for their problems and their own actions not to be a little skeptical of the Inari people’s claim that one person was responsible for their war.
Still, with this com problem she thought it was best to go investigate what was going on, and her letting them know that Alex would be awhile would be the perfect excuse for being over there.
***
Back in the engine room Alex looked at the components before him trying his best to think of them as some sort of fun puzzle or game. *Come on Alex, you know can do this.* A smile crept across his face as he looked at the damaged components and out of the unknown number of ways that they could be jury-rigged and reassembled Alex saw in an intuitive leap of insight one that was promising, that would require just a few additional things he brought over from the other ship.
He went to his toolbox and opened a secret compartment where he kept things that under the circumstances he would have more use for than the high tech gadgets he had been using when Beka was around.
From this he removed a plastic bag containing a coat hanger, antique paper clips, a stick of gum, and a very old bottle of Elmer's glue. Alex doubted that this was what Beka had in mind when he said he would need to improvise, but with damage like this and such meager resources to work with Alex had to go back to the basics.
There was one other thing needed. It was still the most versatile simple repair material of all even though it was invented thousands of years ago. Alex remembered reading a book once that described 101 uses for it, and after the fall of the Common Wealth, he had been to some space ports that were so run down that it was the main thing holding these places together. Over the span of time that Alex had been living by his wits there were a number of occasions when the stuff had been the last line of defense between him and the vacuum of space.
As Alex headed back he grabbed a roll of the gray stuff with his tail, "Good thing I’m not out of duct tape", Alex said to himself.
The repairs went quickly. When he had finished a couple minutes later he looked at his work pleased, *this time it will work,* Alex thought.
Now with nothing to worry about he replaced the panels and tried out the Sparky Cola while he thought about what to do with the extra nuts and bolts.
***
"Hello, is anybody home?" Beka said for the third time.
This didn't look good. She hadn't found anybody. She had even been to the ship’s slip drive, or at least where it used be and knew Alex had been stranded until he found her. Now it was mostly out of morbid curiosity that she continued. In what little time she had, she wanted to see how much she could find out about her purple visitor.
"Hello?" Her question was now just a formality, in case there was somebody else. She was on the command deck when she found it. Beka looked both ways, and then punched the replay. On the view screen it was Captain Blake…
. . “This is captain Tasha Blake of the Aquarius, do you need assistance?”
A pause.
“OK, no problem, I think our technician can help if you let us dock”
Another pause.
“You’re more than welcome, we’re just glad we could help.”
Beka had seen enough and shut off Alex’s prerecorded deception. Beka wondered, did he really find her that predictable? ‘No’ Beka reassured herself, ‘I’m not that predictable, that recording would have worked well for many other answers I could have given.’
Beka knew now that Alex had been the only one on this ship, or at least was the only one left. Beka’s pulse began increasing. In the back of her mind this all seemed oddly familiar. The feeling had been gradually creeping up on her while see was exploring the ship, but it was only now that she was able to remember why.
During her early childhood growing up on the Maru, her uncle Sid used to tell stories to her and her brother Rafe before they went to bed. She loved Sid’s stories even though some of them gave her nightmares. One of her favorites, which in one version or another was common amongst those who grew up on freighters, was called The Hitch Hiker. This story changed a bit with each retelling but it had essentially all the main elements of her current situation. It always started with someone’s ship dead in space. Naturally the conversations in the story weren’t exactly like the one’s she had with Alex, however the use of a recorded deception was in the story, and even worse the dialogue she had with ‘Tasha Blake’ was in the story exactly word for word. But that wasn’t the worst of it, the worst part was that in the story the name of the fictitious captain was also Tasha Blake.
Eventually her dislike of people not being up front with her won out over these childhood fears enough for Beka to head back to the Maru to confront Alex. As the victim in the story did, Beka decided to check her weapons locker but only because it was the smart thing to do. One of the pulse guns was gone, and Beka realized she shouldn’t have been surprised that combination locks would be worthless against Alex. Now things were more serious than a possibly defensive secrecy. *At least this isn’t identical to the story,* she thought. In Sid’s version of the story, all of the guns had gone missing as it didn’t make any more sense for the hitch hiker to leave any guns for his victim to use than it made any sense that Alex had left them for Beka. Beka brushed this enigma aside as she chose one of the remaining weapons and proceeded to look for Alex.
***
Alex had just finished his work and was sitting on a cat walk in the engine bay, when he heard Beka come up behind him. Without turning around Alex slowly came to his feet. His face which Beka couldn’t see had a playful grin which faded as he turned around to see Beka pointing a rather large pulse gun in his direction and looking more than a little annoyed.
Beka didn’t find the missing gun on Alex but she kept the gun on him, and watched for his tail, which Alex began to teasingly swish as soon as he noticed her interest in it.
“Don’t. Do. That.” Beka firmly intoned. The tail stopped, and Alex frowned. For a couple silent moments the two stood watching each other.
Then Alex carefully broke the silence. “I’ve finished the repairs Beka.”
“Don’t you Beka me,” Beka shot back. “You tricked me. What did you do with the other gun?”
Alex fiddled with hands, “About the trick, I can explain. It’s really simple. If you thought there were others then I could trust you not to try anything while I worked on your slip drive.”
Then a grin that was some how teasingly menacing and playful at the same time appeared as he added, “As for what I did with the gun, I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise... Don’t you just love surprises?”
“Only the ones I planned,” growled Beka.
Alex frowned in mock disappointment. “Well. I guess there’s only one other thing I need to finish.”
Beka tensed full of adrenaline and ready for anything,
“What else do you need to finish?”
Alex chuckled a little then turned deadly, “You.”
In the next instant Alex moved with almost impossible speed catching the missing gun as it fell from its hiding place where it had been imperfectly balanced and aimed for Beka.
Beka’s fast reflexes would have saved her; she fired just a moment before he finished pulling the trigger,
But the shot had no effect on Alex.
Alex fired back, nailing Beka squarely in the chest sending her to her knees.
Alex laughed and gave Beka a light playful punch in the shoulder then ran as fast as he could for the hallway and disappeared out of sight.
In the remaining moments Beka remembered Trance’s response to the world ship of the maggog surviving a supernova. ‘It’s not impossible, it’s just really unfair.’
In the last of the stunned moments Beka touched the wet spot on her chest where she’d been hit.
It wasn’t blood.
She was soaked, with water dripping from her shirt to the floor.
*Why that little devil.* She thought. She re-examined her gun and found that it had been altered to squirt water with high force complete with sound effects and red lighting, it even had three settings. She got to her feet as she shook off the power of suggestion and her thoughts turned to the hallway, and to how much she was going every second of this.
“I’m coming after you Alex!” Beka called.
She set the gun to super soak and headed down the hallway after him.
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