Title: Turnabout
Author: three eyes open
Rating: R
Summary: Harper does something he really should have...
Disclaimer: I wish I was making money off of this, but I'm not, so it would be pointless to sue me.
Spoilers: Not a one.
Notes: For MikeJoe, who has encouraged me from the first time I posted a fic at the Stream. The imagery of this oughtta get your heart rate up, lol.
"What are you doing, Harper?" Andromeda asked him as he disconnected his dataport form the computer in his quarters. "Why did you just download clothing designs from a shop on the planet?"
"I'm planning to make something for somebody".
"Clothing? Why not just buy it?"
"Well, I, uh, couldn't afford it".
"Harper, that constitutes theft and you know it".
"Not when I'm combining stuff from different designs".
"That should be...interesting. Who is this for? And what's the occasion?"
"You already know too much, Andromeda. Privacy mode".
An hour later, Andromeda noticed that Harper was jacked into her system again.
"Harper, why did you just access my hologram in your quarters?"
"Hey, I said privacy mode! And I need it to make this."
"Is this for my avatar? Would you like me to send a Maria to help you?"
"Jeez, and I thought Trance was bad when I was getting her a gift! I'm not telling you anything else. Now let me use your hologram in here, and don't send a droid either. And privacy mode!"
Believing that Harper was attempting to make something special for Rommie, Andromeda chose to withhold this information from her avatar.
Harper kept access to her hologram in his quarters for several hours. The next day, Andromeda found that all traces of Harper's access the day before had been erased. All she could determine was how long he'd had access to the hologram without hunting for the deleted files, which she decided would be an act of distrust.
Several days passed and Harper did not present a gift of any sort to her avatar. Andromeda, of course, was incapable of forgetting about it, but considered the possibility that Harper had. He had been fairly busy since then. But she thought a little invstigating was in order.
"Dylan, may I ask you a question?" Andromeda's hologram asked him in his cabin.
"Sure, what's going on?"
"Is there any traditional gift-giving occasion in the near future?"
"Um, not that I know of. Why?"
"I'm afraid it may not appropriate to tell you that."
"Oo-kayy. Is this a personal thing?"
"I'm not certain. It is very possible".
"Hmmm, well you should probably ask Beka or Harper about modern human holidays".
"Thank you. I believe I will ask Beka".
The next day Andromeda's hologram appeared in Beka's quarters and asked the same question.
"Well, it varies a lot by which planet the people come from. I don't know of any myself soon. Why?"
"I'm afraid it may not appropriate to tell you that."
"Wait just a minute. Did Harper give you a gift recently?"
"No." Andromeda's face and voice were carefully neutral. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, he had his eye on an outfit for you on that last planet, what was it called? Pele's Tears?"
"That is its common name, yes. What sort of outfit?"
"Oh, you don't want to know. Trust me."
A suspicion formed in Andromeda's mind.
"Would you recognize this outfit if you saw it again?"
"Oh, definitely. Can't forget something like *that* easily. Andromeda, is something wrong?"
"Wrong? Not at all."
"Good, I thought you looked a little angry there for a minute".
"I have several images of clothing from Pele's Tears I'd like for you to look at. Perhaps the outfit Harper liked so well is among them".
"What is this about?"
"I'm afraid it may not appropriate to tell you that."
"Uh-huh. Okay, I'll look," Beka said with a shrug.
Beka found the outfit Harper had almost purchased in less than ten minutes while telling Andromeda why he hadn't gotten it. "Poor little guy", Beka laughed. She didn't sound very sympathetic, Andromeda thought, but then she herself didn't feel inclined to be so either.
At the same time, Andromeda hunted for the deleted records of Harper's access to her hologram. He could have erased them so that she would have never found them, but he knew she would have become suspicious if he had gone to so much trouble to hide anything from her.
When she viewed what her had hologram had been programmed to do, she wished she hadn't found those files.
She watched, seething, as the hologram appeared wearing the very revealing "dress" Harper had liked. The hologram began to dance, slowly and gracefully at first. Every movement made the garment shift to reveal more and more of her unhumanly perfect body. When she dipped forward or moved sideways it shifted to reveal her firm breasts. He'd paid attention to details too, because the nipples were definitely erect. When she turned around it shifted over her perfect buttoocks, slithering over the smooth skin. When she dipped backwards, the garment displayed her dark pubic hair.
The dance quickened somewhat, and to Andromeda's shock, the hologram began to fondle herself as she danced. First her breasts, then her buttocks. Smooth hands kneading the soft flesh, she even moaned softly as she danced.
And then came the final indignity: the hologram stood on the bed, legs spread apart over what must have been Harper's prone form, fondling herself between her perfect thighs, hips pumping suggestively, her mouth open in a sensual expression, wriggling seductively to the unheard music.
The hologram had done this over and over for hours.
Later that evening, Harper returned to his cabin after his shift was over. He was tired, sweaty and irritable, but satisfied that the slispstream core was in perfect working order now.
"Harper, you should eat before you go to bed."
"I'm not hungry. Just tired".
"You have not eaten at all today to my knowledge".
"Well, I'm just too tired, Rom-doll."
"Look at me, Harper".
"I sai-"
A minute later he was running through the corridor outside his room and crashed into a moving wall of flesh. Nietzschean flesh.
"Boy, what are you running from?", Tyr asked, virtually peeling the engineer off of him.
"Oh, uh, nothing. It's nothing. I was, uh, going to get something to eat. Yeah, I need to eat. Hven't eaten all day. Kinda forgot, I was real busy. Had to adjust the slipstream core, it kept being off just a little bit, ya know. Lotsa stuff to do all day." Harper decided to shut up as Tyr's expression became more suspicious with each word.
"What is in your quarters?" Tyr had obviously not failed to notice where they were.
"Uh, nothing, just my usual junk. You know, it looks like a bombed hovel in there. Same as always. What, you don't believe me?"
Probably not, as Tyr pushed past him and headed for Harper's quarters.
"Hey, that's not right. You can't just go in there whenever you feel like it. I said, stop!"
"I will if you tell me what you're hiding".
"I'm not hiding anything. And you can't go in there!"
Tyr didn't seem to believe either of those statements.
However, after he crosed the threshold, he didn't see anything unusual in the engineer's room. Puzzled, and still ignoring Harper, he called out, "Ship?"
"Yes, Tyr?", the hologram appeared and asked. At least the hologram sounded like Andromeda.
The image, however, was quite different. It was an exact duplicate of Harper.
Wearing the "garment" he had so liked on Pele's Tears. The one he'd had the hologram wear to entertain him.
Tyr's mouth hung open for many seconds, then clicked shut. "WHAT is the meaning of this, Ship?!"
"Harper seemed to think my hologram looked very attractive dancing in this outfit, so I was curious to see how it would look on him".
"Boy, you-". But Harper was already gone.
Tyr closed his eyes and regulated his breathing. Very softly, he said, "Please return your appearance to normal. In the clothing you normally wear".
"Yes, Tyr."
"Thank you, Ship." Tyr did a 180 and walked out of the room, not opening his eyes until he was in the corridor again.