TITLE: The Prodigal
AUTHOR: Michael J. Gallagher ( mikejoe@odyssey.net )
SYNOPSIS: Answer to a challenge on SSBBS: The crew is acting weird, and Harper has to find out why!
RATING: PG-ish (whatever the show is, really)
DISCLAIMER: I own neither DROM nor the source material for the opening quote. I'm making no money off this; it's just for fun.
++++++
"Always two there are .... a master and an apprentice ... "
-- dialogue from ancient Earth multimedia entertainment
"Status," Dylan said.
"Unchanged," the ship's voice answered. "The vessel is still running parallel to our course."
"Anything from your sensor drones?" Dylan asked as the big doors open and Trance, Tyr and Beka filed on to the command deck.
"Only confirming first readings, that it's a Vagabond class courier, one life sign aboard, no obvious weapons, but apparent modifications to communications systems."
"Sorry we're late," Beka said. "When Harper gets back, he'll have to write clearer notes on all his mods to Andromeda's systems."
"I always thought they were clear," Android Rommie said as the others took their stations.
"So, we are concerned about a small ship?" Tyr asked.
"Who's shadowed us through five slipstream jumps," Dylan said. "Could be nothing but you never know .... something amusing, Mr. Anaszi?"
"No," the grinning Nietzschean said. "Just gratified you are being sensible for once."
"Never thought paranoia was proper etiquette," Beka said under her breath.
"Beka, steady as she goes until I say otherwise. Tyr, keep an eye on him. No overt moves, but be ready to get a missile lock on him fast. Andromeda. Extend our compliments to the ship's captain and ask if there's anything we can do for him ..... "
****
The *Eureka Maru* banged and rattled out of slipstream. Harper settled back in the freighter's pilot seat. As much as he'd enjoyed his unscheduled vacation on Infinity Atoll, he looked forward to returning to the *Andromeda.*
"Ok, Maru, we is here! Signal that big, beautiful goddess of the spaceways."
"Channel open," the *Maru's* voice answered. ".... No response. Andromeda not in range."
Harper shrugged. "So they're late for once. Ok, ok. I'll wait."
****
Five hours later, the *Andromeda* still hadn't shown. And Harper was getting worried.
"Ok, ok," Harper said. "Assume something bad's happened. WHERE? Backtrack their route? No, what would Dylan do? Find out. Get 'intelligence.'" It hit him: "*Ask somebody.*"
Harper dropped into the pilot's chair and sent a hail to the nearest courier ship. A middle-aged, bald man with spectacles and a gray fringe appeared on the screen.
"Well, Seamus," he said, breaking into a smile. "Haven't seen you in a while."
Harper grinned. "Well, if it isn't Old Gus! How ya doin'?"
"Fair to midlin', fair to midlin'. Y'know, my niece still asks me about you .... "
"Yeah, I know," Harper said, concealing a groan.
".... Haven't the heart to tell her she's competing with a Glorious Heritage class cruiser."
"Hey! You got it right for once."
"Miracles do happen. So, is this a social call?"
Harper felt secure enough with Gus he could be honest. "No, actually, it's about the *Andromeda.* I was supposed to rendezvous with her here, but they haven't shown up."
"I was just about to ask you about that. I just spoke with another courier who'd seen her passing through Jiroku sector. Only reason he knew it was her was he was close enough to see her 'stream; ship wasn't putting out any signals or answering hails, no active sensors, nothing."
"She's running silent?" Harper muttered half to himself. After a moment, he turned back to Gus. "This other pilot say if he saw anything weird or, I dunno, nasty after her?"
"Nope, just the ship. I was gonna ask you, but I guess you don't know. You think there's trouble?"
"What do you think?"
"Hmm .... tell ya what, I'm pullin' into El Dorado drift. I can ask some of the guys at the office there, what they've seen, if anything. You're welcome to come."
"Thanks man," Harper said. Old Gus was one of a kind, always friendly to other spacers, always ready to lend a hand. And Harper feared he would need it.
****
Harper's butt hurt from sitting on the bar stool, and he couldn't bring himself to take another sip of the Sparky Cola in front of him. He could not stop thinking about Andromeda .... and the others, of course; sick worry twisted in his stomach like a snake made of ice.
"Harper?"
Harper turned at Gus' voice. The graying, fat courier had another man with him, a wiry whip of a man with a long, leathery face, and his own speckles of gray in his otherwise brown beard and hair.
"Any news?" Harper asked, anxious.
"Maybe," Gus said. "Seamus I'd like you to meet Captain Nathan Bridges, my boss here."
"Pleasure," Bridges said, extending his hand.
Harper shook it. "Yeah, uh, nice to meet you, but do you have something?"
"Maybe." Bridges laid a couple of flexies out in front of Harper. "I've pulled together all the sightings from the guys who've come in. They saw the ship making sublight transits here, here, and here. No one remembers seeing any damage, but she is running with her battle blades open and not answering any hails."
Harper took a closer look at the flexie. "But where could she be .... ? Wait a minute." Harper tabbed a control on the flexie; a tangled mass of lines connected the dots. Harper followed one of the lines ....
"OH CRAP!" Harper jumped off his stool. "I gotta get after her!" He hesitated, and turned to the bar tender. "Put it on my tab."
"You don't have one," the man growled back.
"Then start one!"
"Wait a minute," Bridges interrupted. "Mr. Harper, what's the problem?"
"I think the *Andromeda* is heading for the Kalyxa system."
"Kalyxa?" Gus said. "That's a Magog breading ground."
"You think the Magog could have taken the ship?" Bridges asked solemnly.
"I dunno," Harper said. "But I gotta get to her, and maybe try to stop her."
"Gus -- go with him."
"Cap'n."
"No -- wait!" Harper said. "You don't have to do this -- "
"Son," Bridges said, "if you're right about this, then you'll need all the help you can get. And the clock is ticking."
****
They stopped just long enough to retrieve Gus' gauss shotgun and a few personal effects from his small ship, then took off in the *Maru.* Harper could not have been more scared at the thought of facing the Magog again; he tried to pass the time during the last slip with conversation.
"So, uh, you and Bridges know each other?" Harper asked, not looking away from his piloting.
"We served together," Gus said from the engineer's station.
"Yeah, he sounds kind of military, like Dylan. Mind if I ask where?"
"Not at all. It was on the *starQuest.*"
*That* got Harper's attention. "The .... Hey, wasn't that, like, the FTA's super ship?"
"Depends on whom you ask," Gus said. "She was either a super ship or a super boondoggle. Damn near bankrupted the FTA to build it. And after ..... well, let's say there were plenty of individuals who took the opportunity to argue against building another one, and they won the day."
"The thing's been lost for years. After something like the *Andromeda,* she's the Holy Grail of interstellar salvage."
Gus smiled a little sadly. "Some things are best left buried, Seamus. I wouldn't trade my time on the *starQuest* Deep Space Vehicle for anything, but those days are gone. It's your turn now, time for young people to make their own legends, make this time theirs, and let old farts like me putter away into the night side ..... Aren't we supposed to be transiting to normal space soon?"
"Oh, yeah, right! Just about there. Transiting to normal space .... "
The ship rattled back into normal space.
"Ok, we're five jumps from Kalyxa; this is as close I get to the Daisy Hill Magog Farm without them noticing. If the *Andromeda* is taking the route I think she's taking, she *has* to come this way."
"Nothing on ... " Gus said. "Wait -- Slipstream event. It's the *Andromeda.*"
"Moving to intercept .... "
****
Harper could have sworn he heard his own heart beating as he closed on the huge silver starship. He didn't know what scared him most -- the thought of fighting whoever commanded the mighty cruiser, or the thought of trying to destroy her to keep her out of Magog hands.
'She'd'a done the same for me,' Harper thought, remembering his infestation with Magog larvae. It didn't help.
"Then there'd still be damage, even on a ship that can fix its own hull breaches. Not a scratch. She hasn't been through a fight."
Harper's fear began to dissolve into confusion. "What .... ?"
"Incoming signal."
"On screen!"
Dylan Hunt's angry face filled the monitor above the pilot's chair. Harper noticed right off that the *Andromeda's* captain was not on the command deck.
"Unidentified vessel," Dylan said. "This is Captain Dylan Hunt of the High Guard Cruiser *Andromeda Ascendant.* I have no quarrel with you, and I outgun you at least ten to one. Stand down and get out of my way."
"Yeah, your engineer, Mr. Fixit, the guy you always turn to whenever there's a jam or Rommie needs to be cleaned up after a dog fight. I've known you for over two years now. We been to hell and back and went back to hell to get our shoes from the lost and found and came back together."
"Really."
"Yeah .... wait, don't you recognize me?"
"Truthfully, Captain Harper, I have never seen you before in my entire life."
"*What!?* Wait, Uh .... " Harper tried to think fast. "Well, we been buds ever since you were frozen in time on the edge of a black hole. This ship, the *Eureka Maru,* rescued you and Andromeda."
"I see. You wouldn't happen to have any proof would you?"
Harper almost panicked. How to prove to Dylan that he'd been on the crew for two years ....
.... and the *Maru* had been ....
"Yeah!" Harper said. "Check hangar two -- the way the umbilical feeds have been configured. Does it look like it's been set up for any High Guard ship you know?"
Dylan looked away from the camera, at another monitor. "No."
"'Course not, 'cause I reconfigured it for *this* ship, the *Maru.* Let me dock and I'll prove it."
"Stand by." Dylan left the screen.
"Thought he'd be more friendly than that," Gus said.
"Something's really wrong," Harper said.
"I'd guessed that."
"No, not just not recognizing me. You see where he was? He was in the gunnery nose -- not on the Command Deck."
Gus consulted his panel. "Command's intact, son, although there's no one on it. But then why was Dylan heading for Kalyxa?"
"Well .... hey, maybe if he forgot being frozen in time ... yeah, it makes sense. Back in the day, Kalyxa was a High Guard command center. Maybe he thought someone was playing a mind game on him and -- "
Dylan's face returned to the monitor. "Captain Harper. Proceed to docking in hangar two. I advise you and any of your crew to remain in the hangar until I get there."
"Ok, great, and Boss, it's -- "
Dylan had already left the screen.
" ..... Harper."
****
"So where is he?" Gus said, pacing back and forth in the hangar. "Would it take this long to get back here?"
"I don't think so. Andromeda? Hey, Darlin', where's Dylan?"
"If you must know, Little Man," the ship's voice sniffed disdainfully, "he is almost here. Now kindly stop bothering me!"
Harper's jaw almost dropped.
"Gee, Harper -- " Gus started and cut himself off as two figures came into the hangar from a side entrance: Trance and Tyr, weaving along, arms on each others' shoulders, obviously having a good time.
"I got you babe," they belted out, "I got you babe, I got you babe -- " They swerved across the hangar, not noticing Harper and Gus, and left though another entrance.
"Who's the chippie?" Gus asked.
"Trance."
"That's Trance!? Huh. Thought she was purple. And what happened to Tyr's bone spurs?"
"Two very long stories, Gus, and I don't know -- "
The entrance nearest them open. Dylan came through, force lance drawn. "Captain Harper."
"It's just 'Harper,' Dylan."
"Of course."
"So .... you don't remember me? Or anybody else on this ship?"
"No, although the AI does concur with your story, when I can get her to respond to me, that is."
"I see." Harper took a deep breath. "Look, Dylan, I'm your friend, ok? I helped you and Rommie get in and out of dozens of scrapes. An' I want to help this time. But first, you gotta change course from Kalyxa. It's a Magog world these days, not High Guard."
"Andromeda, is that true?" Dylan said. "ANDROMEDA!"
"What," she said.
"Is what Mr. Harper said true?"
"Yes. It is."
"And why didn't you tell me this before?"
No answer.
"Very well, Mr. Harper and .... "
"Gus Crockett," Gus said.
"You will accompany me to Command."
****
Dylan seemed to be watching his back all the way to command, but for whom? Or what? Harper decided not to press it. Once Dylan had piloted Andromeda three jumps away from Kalyxa, Harper thought he could relax on that point.
"So, Mr. Harper," Dylan said. "You seem to know more about this situation than I. What do you suggest now?"
"Well .... " 'Great, he wants a plan from me!' "Maybe the problem with the AI is part of what's gone wrong around here, so we should go to my quarters and I'll jack in from there."
"Lead the -- "
Just then, the big doors slide open, and Beka rushed in.
"DARLING!" Before Harper's jaw had dropped all the way, she went over to Dylan and began to cover him with kisses. "Oh, darling, I missed you so much -- "
"Yes -- " Dylan tried to pry Beka off him. "Yes, um, it's good to see you, too. But I have work to do -- "
Beka jumped back, a hurt look on her face. "You don't want to be with me? Don't you love me?"
"N -- YES, yes, I do. And if you love me, uh, ..... "
"Beka," Harper and Gus muttered.
" ..... Beka," Dylan went on, "if you really want to do something I will really appreciate, I would like for you to stay in command and keep an eye on things. Will you do this?"
"You won't forget me?"
"Of course not," Dylan said as he, Harper and Gus edged towards the door. "You will always be in my heart, even as we are parted." He blew her a kiss, and then the three men practically ran for it.
"All right," Beka said. "I can do this. For the light of my life, the sun in my sky -- "
"Beka?" the ship's voice said.
"Yes, Andromeda?"
"Could you stand half a meter to your right, away from any control panels?"
Beka moved. "Here?"
"Yes. Don't move."
And the sprinkler head Beka was standing under switched on; the blonde starship pilot was totally drenched.
****
Harper, Dylan, and Gus heard the interminable chorus of "I got you, Babe," before Trance and Tyr weaved into view. Even without smelling their breaths, it was obvious they'd been drinking .... a *lot.*
"HEY!" Trance said, breaking out of song (thank goodness). "It's HARPER!"
"HARPER!" Tyr roared as he and Trance practically crushed Harper in a group hug. "The alpha par-tay an-i-mal of the *Andromeda* pride is in the hooouuuussse!"
"Hey," Trance said (Harper almost wretched at her breath). "Why donya come an' drink with us?"
"Love to, but, uh -- I'm on the wagon. *Isn't that right, guys?*"
"Yes," Gus said.
"Mr..... Harper is making an effort," Dylan added.
"Wellll .... " Trance mused. "SPARKY COLA! Yeah, have a Sparky with us."
"The Sparky Cola Alpha is in da houuuuuuse!" Tyr roared.
"No .... guys, I got work to do. But I'll catch up to you later. Honest!"
"Ok," Trance said.
"I got you babe," Trance and Tyr started singing as they started to weave away. "I got you babe. I got you babe ..... " They swerved around the far corner.
"Mr. Harper. Out of curiosity, is there more to that song?"
"Yeah, Boss, but I don't think I'll ever want to hear it again after all this is over."
"Agreed."
****
"Um .... Mr. Harper?" Dylan said. "What is all this?"
"My stuff."
"What's it doing in the corridor?"
"No idea, Boss."
Harper, Gus, and Dylan had made it to the stretch of corridor just in front of Harper's machine shop/quarters to find it loaded with junk -- projects of various shapes and sizes, clothes, surfing paraphernalia, posters -- the acquired what-not of the life and times of one Seamus Zelazny Harper, dumped in the hall as if it were yesterday's garbage.
"Watch where you step," Harper said, starting to pick his way down the corridor, around and through the projects.
"Do we have to worry about anything exploding?" Gus asked as he and Dylan followed.
"No," Harper said, "but it'd make my life easier not to have to try and rebuild something uber breakable."
Even allowing for having to climb over the X-1 airframe, which blocked the corridor halfway to the machine shop, they managed to get around Harper's stuff without hearing anything go *crunch.* But then they found the machine shop locked.
"Andromeda, open this door, authorization Hunt, Dylan, Lexic Dark 52278...... **ANDROMEDA!!**"
"Oh, very well," the ship's voice said lethargically, and the hatch opened.
Three jaws dropped as one at what they saw inside. The room was filled with clothing racks, filled with dresses, costumes, and outfits from a variety of cultures. And in the center of it all, admiring herself in several full length mirrors, was Rommie, the ship's android avatar.
Dylan stepped in, amazed. "Andromeda? She's ..... That's Andromeda, The Ship Made Flesh?"
"Yeah, that's right," Harper said. "You didn't have an avatar in the old days. I built Rommie a long time ago. Looks like I can get in from that panel over there."
Dylan just stared at the android.
"Uh, Boss?" Harper said.
"Oh, right."
Harper lead the way past Rommie. But just as he went behind her, she stuck her foot out, tripping him; Harper sprawled on the deck, looking at Rommie with a hurt expression. Rommie, for her part, didn't seem to have noticed anything.
"You all right?" Dylan said, helping Harper up.
"Only my pride," Harper said.
They got to the control panel; Harper popped onto a stool and plugged his lead into the control panel and brought the other end to his neck.
"And what are we supposed to do while you're doing whatever?" Dylan asked. "Just keep watch?"
"You still don't trust me," Harper said, slightly surprised. "All this time, you been playin' along, waitin' for me to show my 'true colors.'"
"You seem to know how I think, Mr. Harper, although that doesn't answer the question."
"Fine. Here." Harper found a VR headset on a shelf, plugged it lead into the console, and indicated the stool next to his. "Take a seat."
Dylan took a seat and put on the headset. Harper closed his eyes; he and Dylan plunged into the virtual landscape of the *Andromeda Ascendant's* mind. A control display promptly appeared in the air next to Harper. He touched it --
-- and recoiled at an electric shock! "What the -- !?!?"
An image of Andromeda's upper body the size of a three-story building appeared in front of them. "Maybe this will teach you to keep your grubby little hands off such a fine piece of machinery as myself."
"Andromeda -- " Dylan started.
"No, wait!" Harper said. "Andromeda, what the hell is this all about? You shockin' me, Rommie tripping me -- what the heck is going on, Darlin'?"
"I would have thought that would have been obvious," the AI sniffed, "but since your small mind can not divine the obvious, I will tell you: I don't like you. I never did. And I speak for my avatar, for all the aspects of my quite impressive intelligence. I find you a dirty, disgusting, little ape who barely knows the difference between a wrench and a screwdriver, and I want you to leave. Is that plain enough for you, or must I resort to flash cards?"
"Andromeda!" Dylan shouted.
"What?" Rommie said.
Dylan was at a loss for words.
Harper looked at the ground, tears flowing down his cheeks. Then he glared up at Rommie, anger and hurt in his eyes all at once. "You .... you BITCH! I knock myself out for you and .... all right, FINE! You want me gone, I'm gone!"
****
Harper opened his eyes in the real world, tears flowing down his cheeks, and yanked the lead out of his neck.
"Harper -- ?" Gus started.
"C'mon, Gus. I'm done here. I'll get a new job when we pull into L. D."
Dylan pushed his visor up. "Harper -- ?"
Rommie suddenly stopped admiring herself in the mirrors. She walked over to Harper, not so haughty, and stared at him. She seemed almost puzzled.
"I've hurt you," she said at length.
"Well, DUH!" Harper shot back.
Rommie reached up and touched Harper's cheek. "It bothers this aspect of me that I've hurt you. I don't know why." She lowered her hand "What do you require?"
"Read-only access to the core personality matrix," Harper said.
"Reenter the matrix," Rommie said. "And I promise, no tricks this time."
****
On Dylan and Harper's reappearance in the virtual world, the Andromeda image's skin, clothes, and hair vanished, revealing a structure of light and energy in her wireframe body, which exploded into a maze of blocks, connected by tendrils of light. The patch of ground Dylan and Harper were standing on lifted off, taking them into the light, to one particular block. Harper studied it, and his jaw dropped.
"What is it?" Dylan asked.
"Someone's changed the constants in Rommie's personality matrix," Harper said. "Suppressing some traits and magnifying others."
"And that's bad."
"'Bad'? Dylan, that's supposed to be *impossible!* That's why rogue AIs are supposed to be erased -- you can't just reprogram it. It's too complicated to get a desired result, but that seems to be what's happened here."
"And you think that may be what happened to us? Someone reprogrammed our personalities?"
"Well, it doesn't account for your amnesia, but yeah, everyone else's personalities' have been hacked."
"Who could do it?"
"Got me there, Boss. I mean, like I said, hackin' or changin' a personality, organic or otherwise, is supposed to be impossible. I only ever heard one guy say other -- " Harper broke off and turned white. "Oh, crap."
****
"Felix le Chat?" Dylan said, still on his stool in Harper's quarters. "I've never heard of him .... "
"'Course not," Dylan and Harper chorused.
"The name appears to be a play on 'Felix the Cat,'" Rommie said, making a tremendous effort to be civil, "an animated entertainment on Old Earth back in the 20th century."
"Personally, I think Felix wanted to name himself after the Cheshire Cat," Harper said, "but got confused."
"'Name himself,'" Dylan said. "So that's not his real name?"
"No," Harper said. "And no, I don't know what his real name is. I don't think he knows, either. It's his handle. Felix is probably the best hacker who's ever lived. He's the one who installed my data port and .... well, showed me some of the things I could do with it. Got me started on the basics. I haven't seen him in .... Rommie? What's wrong?"
Rommie had her eyes closed, wincing, then she opened them and looked at Harper. "Harper ..... You must complete the following phrase: 'Always two there are.'"
"'A master and an apprentice,'" Harper finished.
The air crackled next to them, and the holographic image of a man appeared. He was tall, lean, and dressed completely in back, a large, silver dataport on his neck, with spiky white hair above his piercing blue eyes. Narrow lines cut through the light skin, but age did not seem to have dulled his intelligence.
"Well done, my erstwhile pupil," the man said.
"Hey, Felix," Harper muttered.
"Well, by now you've seen my handiwork," Felix went on, "and no doubt, you are impressed. So impressed, I knew you would want to see me in person. So I left this little message in the AI's memory to trigger at the mention of my name. It contains my location's coordinates. Do come and visit me. We have a great deal to discuss." The hologram vanished.
"Sonofabitch," Gus breathed.
"Opinion, Mr. Harper?" Dylan said.
"If anyone coulda done this, Felix could have. He was always talking about weird things like this. No one else coulda got into Andromeda the way he did. No one."
"What do you suggest we do, then?"
"You're the captain, Dylan; you tell me."
"Well, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it appears your mentor has attacked my ship and assaulted my crew. I say it's time to take the fight to him."
Harper grinned. "Whatever you say, Boss."
****
When they got back to Command, Dylan somehow managed to convince Beka that the best way to show her love for him was to man the sensor station (no way was he going to let her fly in that state). Then he took notice of who else was there. Or, more accurately, wasn't.
"Andromeda?" Dylan said. "Where are .... uh .... "
"Trance and Tyr," Harper and Gus said.
"Yeah, them," Dylan said.
"In Tyr's quarters, with privacy mode in effect," Rommie said. "Shall I interrupt them."
"Urhmmm .... " Dylan noticed Harper and Gus shaking their heads. "No."
"I can handle weapons," Gus said.
"Very well," Dylan said. "Mr. Harper, do .... whatever it is you do ... " The slipstream controls folded around him. "And away we go."
****
The asteroid at the coordinates from Felix' message looked about as nondescript as they come, no sign of habitation.
They quickly learned its appearance was deceiving.
"I can't see where the weapons are, O Center of my Universe," Beka said, "but we have been painted by targeting scanners."
"Any communication?" Dylan asked.
"None," Rommie said. "Although I am detecting a nav beacon in one of the asteroid's craters."
"Felix ain't exactly one for the social graces," Harper said. "Showin' us his doormat is about as close as he gets to an actual welcome."
"Very well," Dylan said. "Mr. Harper and I -- "
"Actually," Gus said, "with all due respect, Cap'n, I think you should stay here. He's already zapped you with his gizmos once; no tellin' what happens if he does that again."
"And you .... have some kind of invulnerability?" Dylan asked.
Gus cracked a half smile. "I got an extra thick skull and no skeletons in my closet he wants."
"Well .... all right."
No sooner had Gus and Harper taken five steps towards the door then Beka rushed to Dylan and put her arms around him from behind.
"I'm so glad you're staying, Darling," she cooed. "Your place is here, with me, and together -- "
"You guys SURE you don't need any help?" Dylan called.
"No, we're good, Boss," Harper said, then picked up the pace as he and Gus left Command.
"You realize -- " Gus started.
"I'll be cleanin' Rommie's exhaust manifolds for the next twelve liberties?" Harper finished. "Yeah. What's the down side?"
"You're an engineer all right, Son."
****
Harper followed the nav beacon as he piloted the *Maru* to the asteroid. The entrance to the landing hangar was so brilliantly camouflaged, he didn't see it until the hangar doors open.
"No reception committee," Gus said as, after the hangar had repressurized, he and Harper had disembarked from the *Maru.*
"Like I said, not one for the social graces," Harper answered, just as a hatch slid open. "'Come into my parlor.'"
"I'm gaining a healthy respect for the fly's point of view, than you very much," Gus said, keeping his shotgun at the ready.
A series of hatches opened for them as they made their way through the asteroid; the last them let them into a room that, Harper thought, made his machine shop look neat. A cot, small stove on one side, next to an equally Spartan, curtained-off bathroom; the rest littered with computer equipment Harper had never seen before. But the control panel showing the *Andromeda* with a big bull's eye on it seemed in good repair.
"Too bad Rommie's not here," Harper said. "She'd never complain about my digs again."
A hatch in the far corner opened and Felix entered. He smiled broadly. "Well, well, well!" he said, crossing to them. "My boy." He clapped Harper's shoulders. "So, the prodigal has at last returned."
Harper batted Felix' hands away. "Yeah, yeah, Felix, glad to see you, too."
"Oh, come now, is this any way to greet your old friend and teacher?"
"After you hurt my friends, YEAH!"
"Please," Gus chuckled. "Considering the accounts of your adventures, I'd say what I'd done to them is the least of their worries."
"So it was you."
"*Yes!* I've made the breakthrough, Seamus, an insight into the nature of sentient personalities that makes them malleable. Imagine the possibilities."
"I can imagine quite a bit," Harper said. "But what I'm imagining now is whether you can reverse what you've done to them."
"Oh, of course I can," Felix mused, "for a price."
"Name it."
"You."
"Excuse me?"
"I thought it quite plain, Harper. I will restore your .... companions' personalities to their original condition -- although why you'd want that is beyond my comprehension -- and in return, you will join us."
"'Us'?"
"Felix and me," said another man entering the room.
Harper recognized the other man at once. "BRENDAN!?" He raced over to his cousin. "You're alive!? You got off Earth?"
"'Course, I did, Couso. And with you and me working with Felix, our friends will be able to take down the Drago Kasov and liberate, not just Earth, but all Human worlds from their domination."
"What fr -- ?" Then Harper noticed the insignia on Brendan's shirt: A triskelion.
The insignia of the Knights of Genetic Purity.
"What the -- ?" Harper stammered. "Brendan -- you're working for the Freakites?"
"'Working for them'?" Brendan said with a smile. "Seamus, I've *been* a Knight since I was 19. Who do you think bankrolled our rebellion before you showed up? Grandma Templeton's bake sales? Get with the program, Seamus. Dylan Hunt may be a great guy, but the Knights of Genetic Purity are the only ones who have fought for us all along. It's time we returned the favor."
"The Freakites ..... " Harper said. "Brendan are you out of your mind?"
"Who got me off Earth, Seamus?" Brendan said. "Who distributed the video I shot? The Knights. And where was Dylan? *Nowhere.*"
"Dylan woulda been there," Harper said, "but the Dragon fleet pulled a fast one."
"Now is not the time for recriminations," Felix said, putting his arm around Harper's shoulders. "Imagine the possibilities. With a small squadron of ships equipped with no more than basic electronic warfare gear, one man could 'flip' the personalities of every Uber on a Dragon fleet. They'd all become pacifists in an instant, and they could be wiped out with a few missile strikes!"
"We could take down the garrison at Boston," Brendan said. "Then just walk through there and slaughter them. Like they deserve."
Harper hesitated. There was something appealing about the sight of Dragons begging for their mommies while under the gun, begging for mercy ....
He pulled away from Felix. "No. No way am I helping the Freakites. They're no better than the freakin' ubers with all their talk o' genetic purity. They had their way, they'd take *my friends* out, or jam 'em into some kinda ghetto. No way am I helpin' with that."
Felix smiled. "Seamus, you seem to be a man who thinks he has some kind of choice. You don't. But in case you need convincing .... " He raised his hand, aiming a small box at Gus.
Gus pumped his shotgun and leveled it at Felix. "You got one chance to put that down, Mister."
"In a moment, you'll be suicidal," Felix said, "and won't think of using it on anyone but yourself." Smiling, he pressed the button on the box.
Nothing happened.
Gus cocked a half smile. "That tickled. Thanks. In payment for the 'brain massage,' I won't blow your head off. Seamus? We'd best be goin'."
****
Harper didn't say anything on the flight back to the *Andromeda,* but once they'd got off the *Maru* and were walking across the hangar .....
"Wait a second," Harper said. "Gus, how come his gizmo didn't work on you?"
"I told Dylan, I don't have any skeletons in my closet *Felix wants.*"
"Care to elaborate?"
"Not really."
Dylan was waiting for them at the inner hangar. "I take it your mission didn't work," he said.
"No," Harper said. "What now?"
"Plan 'B.'"
"Thought so. Which is .... ?"
****
"I've been over it ten times," Brendan said. "The device *should* have worked."
"There must be more to Mr. Crockett than -- " Felix broke off, then smiled. "Well, well, well."
"What?"
"Seamus is attempting to hack my computer systems. I'll wager he's looking for the information to cure his friends." Felix reached up and threw a switch on his dataport.
"Want some help?" Brendan asked, picking up a VR helmet.
"No. I can handle it myself." Felix shut his eyes. He appeared in his computers' red and gold VR matrix, Harper skulking around a block of data. "Well, well, my boy! You almost made it. My congratulations."
Harper spun as if shot. "You'll make it easier on yourself if you just give me what I want," he said, sounding nervous.
Felix strolled over. "Seamus, Seamus, Seamus ..... Here I give you a chance to reconsider the mistake you made when you left with that floozy of a freighter pilot, and you repay me with theft?" Felix tisked. "But I will give you one more chance. Join me, and together, we will help the Knights of Genetic purity free our people."
"No way!" Harper said. He drew himself up, but somehow, didn't look impressive. "You just give me what I want and I'll leave, no sweat. You don't .... you'll pay."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes!" Harper shuffled back a half step, dropping into a fighting stance, as black robes formed around him and red and black tattoos jigsawed across his face. He stuck his hand out and a metal tube appeared in it, blades of light extending from each end.
"A 'brawl to settle it all'? Very well, I'll play." Black robes formed on Felix, a black helmet on his head as a single-bladed energy sword appeared in his hands. "Defend yourself!"
Their blades crashed together like thunderbolts as they fought back and forth, data and energy the only witnesses to their battle.
"You've improved," Felix said as they circled each other. "But you should know there is more to this than swordplay."
"You mean like this?" Harper pointed and a datastream floating nearby changed course and blasted Felix, knocking him off his feet.
"How's that?" Harper grinned, twirling his blade.
Felix sat up. "Impressive, but you forget where you are, boy. And while it may be a bit trite, I am the master here."
With that, the ground under Harper's fleet lifted up, carrying him into the air. It began to head down again, to slam Harper on the ground. He leapt off at the last second .....
..... *only to be impaled on Felix' energy sword!!*
Harper's screams echoed though the virtual world as Felix lowered him to the ground and yanked the blade out of the young hacker's chest. Harper slumped to the ground, his clothes and skin returning to normal, sparkles of light floating away from the wounds in his chest and back.
"I'm sorry, it had to end like this," Felix said almost sadly, "but if you are not with me, you are against me. I had such high hopes, Seamus, but if this is the way it must be, then so be it." He raised his blade, readying to make one final strike on his former pupil.
"Just one thing," Harper gasped.
"What?"
"Always make sure you know who you're fighting." With that, Harper's body dissolved into static ....
... and then reformed into Dylan Hunt!
"What -- ?" Felix started.
"Mr. Harper -- NOW!" Dylan called.
Felix didn't notice Dylan's vanishing as he turned at the rumbling behind him, to be stunned by the sight of the approaching wave of green energy, sweeping over and absorbing everything in the virtual world as it passed.
It was on Felix before he could pull out.
****
Felix jerked as his dataport sparked, and he slumped to the floor.
"Felix!?" Brendan got to Felix' side just as the wall console beeped for attention. Brendan stood and absorbed its report: The *Andromeda* had just jumped to the slipstream.
Brendan tabbed more controls, trying to call up certain files, but they'd all been erased. After first being copied, no doubt.
Behind him, Felix sat up, weeping. "Wasted my life," he muttered, "could have married, had a family .... " He broke down crying.
"Nice move, Couso," Brendan said, his face hardening.
****
Harper looked up when Rommie set the can of Sparky Cola down on the counter in front of him. "Uh-oh."
"I thought you fixed her," Gus said, looking up from where he was cleaning his gauss shotgun.
"Yeah, maybe I grabbed the wrong files from Felix' mainframe," Harper said.
"You mean you're no longer a hacker par excellence?" Rommie said.
"Yeah, like I said, I got the right files, and Rommie's ok."
"Mmm-hmm." Rommie shuffled uncomfortably; she and Harper gave Gus some pointed looks.
"Yeah," Gus said, "I'll just leave the room and, um, do .... stuff .... " The hatch slid shut behind him.
"Yeah, um .... " Harper said.
"Harper -- before you embarrass yourself, let me say something: I'm terribly sorry for the way I behaved towards you ... "
"Hey, c'mon, Rom Doll, I tick everybody off."
"Yes, and sometimes I get so mad I could split. But I also care about you a great deal." She squeezed his shoulder. "You wouldn't be able to get to me if I didn't."
"Hey .... " Harper grasped her wrists. "It's ok, ok? Don't sweat it." The lowered their hands.
"Are you going to drink that?" Rommie asked, indicating the can.
"No."
"What!? Maybe Felix got to you after all."
"Only if he made me exhausted."
They smiled.
"Have you figured out what to do about Trance and Tyr?" Harper said.
"Oh, I sent some nanobots in through the air vents," Rommie said. "The treatment should work soon .... "
****
Trance and Tyr woke up at the same moment.
They sat up in bed and looked at each other.
They looked down at themselves and confirmed they were naked.
"Oh, crap," they groaned, and flopped back down onto the bed.
****
"Hey," Beka said, coming up to where Dylan was leaning on the railing in the observation deck.
"Hey yourself," Dylan said. "Feel better?"
"Yeah, oh, yeah."
"You don't sound too embarrassed."
"Well, Harper knows a dire fate awaits him if he attempts to make copies of Rommie's memory archives for himself. How're you ... You remember me, right?"
"So, anything you want to talk about?" Beka asked.
"You mean aboooouuuuuu ..."
"About your amnesia."
"Um, I don't see what. I mean, I just stopped remembering you; can't figure out how Felix' device did that."
"Yeah, that's the thing. See, according to Rommie, all it did was bring up repressed desires or personality traits. Which means you wouldn't have forgot everything from being frozen in time on unless you wanted to forget."
Dylan just stared out the window.
"Y'know, I may not have lost as much as you, but I've lost a lot," Beka said. "Everyone on this boat has. Y'need someone to lend you an ear ... "
"Thanks .... " Dylan half turned to her. "Thanks, Beka, thanks. I will but ... not right now, ok?"
"Ok." Beka squeezed her fellow captain's shoulder, turned, and left the room.