Softly Spoken Words In The Eternal Night

by Wushu

//HarperTrance// After another battle with the DragoKazov, the Andromeda is performing repairs when the ship is infected by a Computer Virus. Takes place after the episode “Ouroboros,” and several others after that. So Trance, sadly, is no longer purple.

Title: Softly Spoken Words In The Eternal Night

Author: Samurai Sushi

Series: Andromeda

Pairing: Harper/Trance

Rating: PG

Summary: After another battle with the Drago-Kazov, the Andromeda is performing repairs when the ship is infected by a Computer Virus. Takes place after the episode "Ouroboros," and several others after that. So Trance, sadly, is no longer purple. This story is the complete version of my stories 'Things Left Unsaid' and 'Speak Softly Once Again'.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor anything associated with the series, they are the property of Tribune Entertainment Co. I am only using the characters for fun that is all. I have written several Star Trek Voyager stories so some elements of Star Trek may sneak into the story, if so sorry about that.

"I really hate the Dragans, you know that Trance?" Seamus Harper said as he and Trance made their way to an engineering Conduit. "I mean they always break things and leave me to fix it. They don't play well with others."

Trance only smiled.

"Ah, here we are, good old number 47." He looked over at Trance. "46 down, 152 remaining. Not bad for twelve hours work."

Harper settled into a comfortable position as he removed the panel in front of him, Trance settled in behind him with his toolbox in hand. The panel he removed revealed a mess of blown circuits and shorted-out wires.

"Oh man, this'll take hours. Better get comfortable Trance. We'll be here awhile." He complained to her, Trance just smiled and made herself comfortable.

"Well, it won't be all bad Harper. At least you won't be bored!" She said cheerfully, trying to make him feel better.

"I'd take boredom over this anytime formerly purple people eater. Oh well, the company's not bad." He grinned at Trance, who blushed slightly. "Lets get to work, hand me the nanowelder would ya?" With that they got to work on their repairs.

"There's really nothing to worry about. Harper will have it fixed in next to no time." Beka told Dylan with all the confidence she had in Harper.

"I know, I know. But I still can't help feeling like I need to be helping them fix my ship." He replied with agitation in his voice.

"Dylan, this is Harper, 'Super Genius,' we're talking about." Beka managed to mimic Harper's tone exactly, drawing an amused look from Tyr at the weapons console.

"Besides he has Trance to help him. They'll get the job done. Don't worry and stop pacing a hole in the floor."

"You're right Beka, your right! Lets try to do something constructive while we wait for repairs to finish. I know lets restock our munitions and parts. Beka set a course for the nearest asteroid belt, Tyr inventory what weapons we need to restock and see to it." The way he gave the orders showed how bored he was, and how much he needed something to do.

"As you wish Dylan." Was all Tyr said.

"You really are bored aren't you?" Beka, who said it not so much as a question but as an accusation, joked to Dylan.

Dylan just laughed.

"Well, 47 down, on to 48. C'mon Trance lets get going, we only have a 24 hour day here." Harper said as he offered Trance his hands to get up. After several hours of work, she took the offered help and stood, falling against Harper when the lack of circulation made her legs weak.

"Whoa, easy there Trance, you've been sitting there for hours." Harper said, catching her as she fell.

They stood there together in each other's arms for several minutes. They stood looking into each other's eyes, when Harper reached up and with a gentle hand, pushed an arrant lock of hair off of Trance's face. She just watched him, stunned.

Harper was first to pull away and break the embrace. He moved to gather his toolbox. He looked back to where Trance was still standing, an expression of embarrassment on his face.

"We … uh … we should get moving. C'mon Trance, we still have a lot to do." He said hesitantly, more embarrassed that his expression could every say.

As they moved to number 48 on their list of repairs, Harper kept kicking himself mentally for his unconscious act.

"Aw man!" He thought to himself, "I am such an idiot, I mean this is Trance, my best friend. Well the old Trance was, I don't know about this Trance." All these thoughts passed through his mind in the time it took to crawl out of the conduit they were in.

"Why did he do that?" Trance wondered, "What was he thinking? Why? Does he still think of me as his 'sparkly purple babe', or his 'purple pixie'? Does he still think of me as the old Trance, or does he accept this new one?" All these thoughts drifted through her head at the same moment that Harper was questioning his action. After much debating with herself; her mind finally settled on one thought, "He Likes Me! He still likes me." This thought had the power to make her happy, even though she didn't know why, at least not yet.

"Harper." She said his name, but he didn't hear her, so lost in his own thoughts. She had to finally tap him on the shoulder to get his attention, which of course made him jump.

"Wha … What? What is it Trance?" he asked, a little confused.

"You passed the junction we need to get to the next panel, back there. Number 48 is back that way." She told him as she pointed out he junction. What was he thinking about, she wondered to herself.

"Uh … thanks Trance. Sorry about that, my mind was somewhere else." He explained.

So turning back to the correct junction, they went off to fix number 48 of 199 items to be repaired.

"So Beka, how did you sleep last night?" Dylan asked as she came onto the bridge the next morning.

"Quite well, thank you." She replied. "How far have Harper and Trance gotten on their repairs?" she asked in turn.

"Don't know, they haven't reported yet, but I'm not worried." Dylan said as he continued to work at his console. "I'm sure they're still working on it. They'll report when they can." he said with confidence.

There was a beep at his console. "Ah, there he is now. Mr. Harper, how are things going down there?" Dylan asked as Harper's tired face appeared on the view screen.

"Well Boss, we got 52 done and we are exhausted." He yawned, as if to prove his point. "Trance and I are going to go get a few hours sleep before we start again. That ok?"

"Sure, go get some rest. 'Weary eyes make bad work.'" Dylan intoned piously.

"Thanks Boss." Harper said before his picture disappeared from the screen.

"Well Beka, ask and ye shall receive." He told her.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get to full of yourself Captain Hunt." She replied playfully while she took her own station. Dylan could only laughed.

"Well Beka, what shall we do today to kill time?" He asked her.

"Um … I don't know, you wanna play cards?" they both laughed as they continued working.

"I guess we'll figure out something to keep from being bored. I'll trust your judgment Beka."

"Thank you my Captain Hunt." She said sarcastically.

Harper and Trance, before retiring to their separate quarters, stopped at the mess hall for a quick bite to eat.

"Well Trance, we make a good team." He told her as they sat down with their trays.

"Yeah, I know." She replied. "Harper?" He looked up from his meal. "Back in the conduit, when you helped me up, why did you brush away the hair in my eyes?" She asked, as Harper grew pale and almost choked on his food.

"Well, uh … because you're my best friend Trance. Uh … yeah, that's why." He managed to stammer out with out too much embarrassment showing.

"Really? I'm your best friend?" She asked happily.

"Yeah sure. I thought you knew that." He stopped in mid-thought, "I told the old you, the purple you, that." He said, realizing how she might react to his 'purple you' comment, he grimaced.

"I remember you telling me that now, it's just I've seen so much that I'd forgotten. I remember how happy I was when you told me that, I'd never had a best friend before." She got a sad, faraway look on her face as though remembering something from many years ago.

It broke Harper's heart to see that look on her once purple, now golden, yet still beautiful face.

"Ah Trance, why are you so sad? Don't be sad, you're making me sad. I can't stand to see that look on your face, please stop." He told her, reaching his hand towards her as if to comfort her. He stopped before it got there and returned his hand to where it had rested on the table.

"I'm sorry Seamus, I was just remembering something that happened, yet thankfully didn't happen." She told him.

"What didn't happen that did happen, that makes you sad?" He asked, wondering if the question made any sense, not noticing that she called him 'Seamus'.

"I can't tell you now, but I will tell you, later. I promise you." She answered as she realized what time it was and mentioned that fact to Harper. "We should go get some sleep. We have a lot more work to do tomorrow."

"Yeah, you're right." He said as they bussed their trays.

"G'night Trance." He said as they reached the corridor. He turned towards his quarters, but turning back he went over and lightly kissed Trance on the cheek. "G'night, my golden goddess." He whispered in her ear.

Pulling away from Trance, Harper walked down the corridor towards his quarters, whistling a happy tune.

As he rounded the corner, Trance stood there stunned. Her hand went to where Harper had kissed her.

"Good night Harper." She said to nobody, before heading off to her own quarters to sleep.

All the way back to his quarters he kept thinking about how strange he'd been acting towards Trance. "Oh well, it's nothing" He thought, even though he didn't really believe it, he just kept whistling his tune, trying to distract his mind from the direction it had been going.

Trance's quarters still held all of the possessions of the purple Trance. The walls were bathed in soft violet light, adding an ethereal quality to the room. There were plants in varying sizes scattered about the room, adding to the otherworldly feel. Trance's bed was even a light violet, the sheets being made from silk, they were a shade darker than Trance's skin once was.

Settling into a comfortable position on her bed, Trance grabbed a nearby pillow and curling into a sleeping position, her mind went into overdrive. She was wondering much the same thing as Harper. She however, having already lived much of what may happen, had the advantage of knowing why Harper was acting the way he was, even if he didn't. She still couldn't be sure though, she would need to ask him when she had the chance.

After a long day's work, both were grateful to be able to sleep. Their heads touching their pillows sent them instantly into the realm of dreams.

The next day proved just as busy as the one before, and both Harper and Trance were grateful for the sleep that they had gotten. Repairs went on at the usual pace. Dylan and Beka actually had something to do today. They could either workout with Tyr, or go over the reports of the repairs. They chose the reports, not having the death wish to workout with Tyr.

Harper and Trance resumed work at item number 53. 53 turned out to be the lucky, or unlucky number as fate would have it. 53 would change everything for Harper and Trance.

"Well Trance, here we are, 53. This should be easy, our lucky number." He said with a grin at his workmate.

"Harper, why do you believe in luck?" She asked as they got to work. Besides creating idle conversation, she was genuinely curious to find out about her best friend.

"That's a good question, my beautiful golden goddess." He said, unaware of the start the term of endearment gave Trance. Reaching half his body into a panel, he continued. "And I'll tell you there's a very good reason behind it too." He pulled out of the panel at this point and looked at her. "You may want to get comfortable Trance, this is a long story." He told, she nodded her head and made herself comfortable on the floor. Putting his head back into the panel, Harper continued.

"Growing up on Earth I learned that fate was a fairy tale, it doesn't exist. The only thing that can save you and keep you alive another day was luck. Was it fate that kept the Dragan troops from killing you in your sleep? No, it was luck. Luck that you woke up in the morning, luck that you ate, and luck that you went to sleep at night just to start over again the next day. In short, it was luck that you were even alive, between Magog attacks and Nietzschean slaver raids and death squads, I was lucky to even get off world and find the Eureka Maru." He looked at her with a quizzical look on his face. "That is why I believe in luck Trance." He turned back to his work on the panel. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious, that's all. I want to know more about my best friend, you never tell any one anything about yourself." She said as she gave him a small hug, like two friends who haven't seen each other in awhile.

Harper stiffened slightly, then relaxed into the short embrace, continuing to work. Trance broke the embrace and moved back to watch Harper work.

"Hey Trance." He said from half inside the panel.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"I'm gonna jack into Andromeda. Get comfortable Trance. I may be awhile. I'll let you know if I find anything."

"What are you looking for?" She asked.

"Well," he said, pulling his head out of the panel. "This area received a direct hit from a Dragan missile. The funny thing is the missile didn't explode, it impacted but no boom, it just shattered. I'm gonna check the schematics and see if there's any damage." He explained as he interface with the ship.

After several minutes of silence, there was a small explosion, and a cry of pain as Harper fell out of the panel onto the floor.

"Harper!" Trance cried out as she crawled to her friend. She was looking him over for any bumps and bruises, but found none.

"Trance," Harper whispered, "virus." He told her as he fell into unconsciousness, his head in her lap.

"Rommie!" Trance cried, but it was too late, the virus had activated and was worming its way through the various ship's systems, shutting them down one by one.

"Rommie Report!" Dylan yelled as he and Beka entered Command from Dylan's office, which was littered with reports.

"A polymorphic virus was introduced into my system by a Dragan missile packed with nanobots. They infested me with the virus. It was dormant until Harper jacked into my system. The virus is shutting down systems around the ship. It appears to be leaving only my holographic projection system, life support, and artificial gravity online." She reported.

"And Mr. Harper?" Dylan asked as he absorbed the news.

"I don't know, internal sensors are offline. All I know is that before I lost internal sensors I registered a small explosion in the vicinity of Harper and Trance. Aside from that I'm not sure of their condition." She answered. "They'll contact us when they can, but that will be difficult as communications are down as well."

"That will make it difficult then. We need to kill the virus and then start getting systems back online." Dylan ordered.

"The virus has already been stopped. As I said before the only systems still on are life support, gravity and hologram projection. Hologram projection is limited to the Command Deck. My avatar is currently on the floor in the corridor leading to Hydroponics." The Andromeda hologram reported.

"Good, thank you Rommie. Beka I want you to get to work on communications. Tyr I want you to … " He was abruptly cut off by Tyr.

"Dylan, my time would be better spent on getting weapons and defenses back online. Anything else would be a waste of my time. Without weapons and defenses we are a sitting duck." Tyr said, using a phrase he'd once heard from Harper.

"Yes, you're right Tyr. Both of you get to work right away, we need those systems, I don't like being dead in the water. Rommie, try to get your avatar up and running, we could use her hands." Rommie nodded as she blinked out, Tyr and Beka went to work on their systems. Dylan went to work at his console, trying not to think about the damage to his ship.

Harper awoke to someone gently touching his hair and caressing his face. He opened his eyes to see Trance watching him; she was caressing his face and hair.

"Welcome back." She said to him with a smile.

"How long have I been out?" He asked, deciding to keep his head in her lap, for fear it would explode from the pain.

"Not long." She said, her voice betraying his concern for him.

"My implant hurts, what happened?" He asked, touching his implant in emphasis.

"I don't know. You were fine one minute, then the next there was an explosion and you screamed in pain and fell out of the panel." She told him.

"Well, what ever happened, my head hurts. Have you heard from Dylan or Rommie?" Harper asked as he struggled to a leaning position against the wall across from her.

"No communications are down, I've tried five times, and still nothing." She told him.

"Well as soon as they fix communications, they'll contact us. So until they do, and my head stops pounding, what do you wanna do Trance?" He asked her.

"Well we could play cards if you had any, or we could talk for awhile. We can't leave though; the emergency seals were activated and closed us in. Life support is still on, otherwise we'd be dead now." She replied.

"Well, that cuts our choices down to talking. Do you wanna go first, ask the first question I mean?" He asked.

"Sure. Harper, what was life like growing up on Earth?"

Trance could tell the question was a painful one, judging by the small grimace Harper gave.

"Well, what's to talk about, but what the hey! I mean what else are we gonna do?" He asked trying to hide the pain the question caused.

"Well, life on Earth was no picnic, as I said before." He sighed. "My life was like that of anybody else on Earth, trying to get enough to fill his stomach. I had to fight to get any little scrape of food, sometimes no bigger than a crumb. I had to learn how to lie, cheat, steal, and be the worst possible person you could ever imagine. But I was lucky; I got off world and met all you guys." He paused to think about his next words.

"I lived in Boston with my family. I went back a while ago to help free Earth in a revolution. I saw my cousin Brendan; he was the leader of the resistance. The entire Earth rebellion was crushed, and Brendan was most likely killed." He paused to remember his cousin and what he died for. "I wanted so much to get away from Earth, but I ended up returning and trying to make things better. I only made them worse, I wanted to stay there on Earth and fight and die with them, Trance." He had been looking at the floor so far, but now looked up at Trance, tears in his eyes. "But Rommie convinced me that Andromeda was my home now and that you were my family, and I believed her, so I left. But I can't help thinking that if I hadn't gone to help Brendan with the revolution, he'd still be alive now, and all those who fought the Dragans would be too. I gave them hope, but it only led to their deaths." The look of pain and loss that crossed his face made Trance's heart break; yet she didn't move to comfort him, she couldn't, not yet.

"Trance, do you know what it's like to knowingly be the cause of one of your few living relative's death? No, no, let me rephrase that, your only living relative's death." He asked her, not expecting an answer. "I watched my parents die at the hands of a Dragan slaver for resisting to go, he slit their throats and walked away. My parents had hidden me, but I saw the whole thing. I watched as my brothers and sisters died of the various diseases that roamed the camps. A few were even lucky enough to be killed as slaves for the Dragans, instead of wasting away from some disease. That Trance, is what my life was like growing up on Earth." He told her, the tears in his eyes finally falling as he looked at her.

"I never knew, I'm so sorry Harper." Moving to sit next to Harper, Trance put her arm around his shoulder in an effort to comfort him.

"Nobody knew Trance, the only person who knew was Brendan and now he's dead too. So you're the only one alive who knows." He said, exhausted by his retelling.

Resting his head on Trance's shoulder, Harper just breathed in and out gathering his thoughts and feelings.

Trance accepted the fact her best friend was tired by his sad story and the emotions it caused, if only she could tell him her story. She was the only person to know his life before the Maru.

"Trance." He asked in a tired voice.

"Yes Harper?"

"Promise you won't tell anyone the truth. I'm sure you realize that I didn't tell you everything, no matter what, no one will ever know everything I've been through. Some horrors are best taken to the grave." He said, closing his eyes against the atrocities only he knew of.

"Harper, I promise I'll never tell anyone. You have my word as your best friend."

"Thanks Trance, that means a lot.' He said removing his head from her shoulder and looking at her.

"Trance, back when I built the tesserect machine, and had the choice of saving myself or Hohne." He stopped to plan his words. "Why did you save me Trance? Why did you let one of the most brilliant minds in the known galaxies die? If I had died it wouldn't have been a big loss to the universe, but Hohne, he was worth more that I was. He should be alive now, and I should be dead." Harper managed to say through the tears that continued to run down his cheeks, from the loss of both Hohne and his choice to live or die.

"Harper, I don't know what you want me to tell you. I saved you and not Hohne because you're my best friend and I didn't even know Hohne." She told him gently, seeing the mental anguish he was going through.

"Trance, I want you to tell me the truth." When he looked over at her his eyes were both pleading and angry. "Truthfully, why did you save me?" He asked, holding eye contact, staring into her soul, trying to find the Trance that he knew and loved.

The look sent shivers of pleasure down her spine, all of his looks did that. She did her best to hide it.

"The truth?" She asked, recovering from his look. "The truth is that when you died it was as if I had died right along with you. You were my best friend, your death is what started my growth into what you see now. I realized that I couldn't live without you, and neither could Andromeda. Your death is what created the horrible future that I came from, that is one of the mistakes that I came back to fix."

She paused, the memories of his death bringing tears to her eyes. She was a lot like him, they both had tough exteriors designed to keep people from getting close, for if anyone got close they would die or leave them.

"Tyr took no pleasure in killing you, I want you to know. He felt like he was killing his own family." She told him finally. "He was saddened by the fact that we couldn't save you."

"Tyr? Saddened by killing anything, especially having to kill me? I find that hard to believe." Harper said scornfully, looking up at Trance.

"I know you may feel that, but I lived through it. I saw you die at Tyr's hands, and I wished he would kill me too, I begged him to kill me, pleaded with him. But he didn't and wouldn't kill me. So I didn't die, but thousands of times I wish I had. I saw Tyr die when He, Beka and I went searching for the Engine of Creation, Dylan died freeing the Andromeda from the Cetus. The future Beka and I were the only ones to survive, and we were forced to adapt to the most hostile beings in the universe, just to survive. That is why I changed places with my younger self, that is why I saved you and not Hohne, that is the future I came from."

"Trance, is that what you couldn't tell me earlier?" When she nodded, he was silent while he thought about what she'd said.

"Harper, now we each know something about the other that no one else knows. We must keep these secrets to ourselves, if we don't bad things could happen. I don't want any bad things to happen to my best friend." He nodded in understanding, she went on. "Harper, when I was changing and growing I kept thinking of two things. First, how could I go back and fix what had happened in the past. Second, when I did fix it, could we, you and I, ever be more than just best friends?"

"Trance, how much more than friends do you want to be? I mean, we're best friends now, there is no higher level of friendship than that." Harper asked, some enlightenment coming to him. All those little things that he'd ignored as minor came into focus at her comment, she loved him. At this Harper's heart sped up and his breathing quickened. She loves me, do I love her? I don't know, I love her as my best friend but more than that?

"Harper, my life is empty without you in it, your wisecracks and sarcasm, your pseudo-bragging, your kindness. All that and more make my life worth living, if only to see you in the morning, to touch you once. I love you Seamus Zelazny Harper, and I hope you love me." She said wistfully, hoping upon hope that he would return her love.

Looking up at her from where he sat, Harper took a moment to absorb what she told him.

'She loves me? SHE LOVES ME!' He thought to himself as two battles were fought in his head. One was whether or not to tell her that he, Seamus Harper, did love Trance Gemini. The second battle was whether or not he would allow himself to love her, all those he'd ever loved or cared about ended up dead or leaving him. He didn't know if he could take another death by proxy.

"Trance," He said slowly, "I don't know how to tell you this, so I'll tell you straight out. I love you too." At the look of absolute joy on her golden face he went on. "But I don't know if I can love you." This took the joyful expression off her face and replaced it with one of both sadness and curiosity. "All my family, all my friends, all the ones I've ever loved have ended up either dead or leaving me alone. It was my fear for the longest time that Beka would tire of me and dump me on some drift or planet to fend for myself. I don't want you to die from me loving you and I don't want you to leave me either. That is why I can't let myself love you, to protect us both from death. You deserve a long happy life with someone who won't be an albatross around your neck, you deserve better than a sickly, no-immune-system-always-near-death street punk like me." He said as his voice fell deeper and deeper into despair.

"Seamus Harper." She chided him, giving him a shake. "You may have been a street punk once but now you are chief engineer for the Andromeda and a valued member of this crew, and my best friend." She told him, trying to shake him from his self loathing.

"You always know just what I need to hear and when, I guess that's part of what I love about you. But I know that I'm just setting you up for death, you don't deserve that Trance. You don't deserve to be burdened with all the pain and sadness that I've had to live through. You should have sunshine and rainbows and other beautiful things. You need someone who can love you without all the baggage that I'm hauling around. You deserve much better, anyone better than me." He told her, looking into her eyes and holding the contact.

"Harper, I want to be the one that decides that. And my love for you as a beautiful thing makes that all irrelevant. If my love for you means that I'll be burdened with your pain and sadness, then I'll gladly shoulder that if you're there with me." She told him with an odd gentleness, that the old Trance always exhibited, permeating her voice.

"Your right Trance, the choice is yours. And I can't keep you from deciding what you want, but I still think you deserve someone better than the likes of me. If I am your choice, so be it, I can't and won't try to stop you. I mean what the hey, you only live once, right? So let's give this romance thing a try and see what happens." He said as he moved to get his toolbox from the other side of the conduit.

As Harper moved past Trance, she grabbed him and pulled him into a big hug, relishing the feel of his body next to hers.

"Hey, Trance. C'mon let me go. I got work to do, we need to get communications back online." He said, humor at his friend's antics evident in his voice.

He was silenced as he felt her lips on his, as she pulled him into a passionate embrace. Seeing that there was no way he could escape her, he gave in and kissed her back with all the emotions he'd been holding inside.

The kiss lasted for several minutes, when they did break apart they just stared into each other's eyes.

"Now you can get to work cutie." She told him as she patted him on the butt. The pat also served to gently push him towards the toolbox.

Harper just grinned and set to work repairing the damage he could and getting them back into the loop of things.

Several hours later Harper had managed to get communications back on, and get both Trance and himself out of the conduit they were stuck in.

"Harper, you're a site for sore eyes. How are you doing? Before the attack we registered an explosion in your area. We assumed the worst." Beka said as his image appeared on the view screen.

"Are you kidding Beka? It'll take more than an explosion to get Seamus Zelazny Harper." In the background Dylan and Beka could see Trance roll her eyes, and did their best to hide their grins.

"Well, as you can see we've got communications back up. We'll try to repair the damage done by the nanobots. More long hours in a cramped tube. I'm starting to feel like toothpaste." Harper said as he was turning away to sign off.

"Ah, Harper." Dylan said, catching him before he could sign off.

"Yeah boss?" Harper asked, turning back to Dylan a little confused.

"You've got some lip gloss on the corner of your mouth." Dylan said, keeping his head down, the laughter welling up inside him. Pointing on himself, Dylan showed Harper where the lip gloss was.

Reaching up to his lips and touching them, his hand came away with lip gloss the same color as Trance's.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man." Harper kept repeating as his image dissappeared from the screen.

As soon as Harper disappeared from the screen both Dylan and Beka broke into laughter.

"The look on his face … it was priceless." Beka said through the laughter.

"I just wish we had a picture of it." Dylan said. Then getting an idea he turned to Rommie.

"Rommie, did you get any screen captures of that?" He asked, meaning that if she did, they did indeed have a picture of the look on his face.

"Of course, I record all transmissions coming into the Command Deck." She replied, having an idea of where this was going.

"Well then, Beka would you join me in the Observation Deck?" Dylan asked, a wicked glint in his eyes.

"Of course Dylan. It would be my pleasure." She told him as she proceeded him off the bridge.

"Tyr you have command." Dylan said as he followed, Tyr only nodded confirmation.

"Well Trance we finally finished all the repairs, both the old and new ones." Harper said as they crawled out of the last conduit and into machine shop 17.

"That was hard work." She told him, he just smiled and pulling her to him, kissed her forehead.

"Now you know why I have to be so small, Trance babe." He replied with a grin.

"If that isn't the most touching thing I've ever seen."

A voice behind them startled them. turning they found Tyr watching them from the doorway.

"Tyr? How ya doing?" Harper said nervously as the Nietzschean started walking towards them.

"Apparently better than you are." He told Harper. "I wanted to offer you some advice, take it or leave, the choice is yours. If you are ever going to appear on screen after a …" he searched for a suitable word. "romantic interlude, it would be best for all if you removed any evidence from your face before hand."

With that advice, Tyr turned and walked out the door, pausing only to say something to Trance.

"If he ever mistreats you, in anyway, let me know and I'll make sure he pays."

With that threat, Tyr left the machine shop and the young couple.

"That was strange." Trance said, Harper could only nod.

Walking towards the door Trance settled into the crook of Harper's arm, his arm around her shoulder, hers around his waist.

"Hey lets get something to eat, I'm famished." He told her.

Her nod sent them in the direction of the mess hall and the relative safety it offered.

Returning to his quarters after dinner, Harper found a box and a flexi laying on his bed.

Picking up the flexi, Harper read.

Harper, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well this one is worth a whole lot more. By the way, we made everyone a copy.

Dylan and Beka

Curious about the photo they made he opened the box and removed a real photo in a real frame. When he saw the photo Harper dropped the box and flexi to the floor and stared in horror at the image.

His face, a look of shock of it, hand and lips showing red lip gloss. Trance in the background, a blush staining her face. It was the moment when Dylan told him he had lip gloss on his face. The moment they all knew he loved Trance and she him. The moment when they were officially recognized as a couple and not just friends. The moment that will forever haunt him.

The moment he found his true love and hearts desire. The moment he found Trance, and she him. A moment they will both never be able to forget thanks to Dylan, Beka, and Rommie.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and Harper had to agree with them, whoever they are anyway. When he opened the box containing the photo of his most embarrassing day, he had a few words of his own that were not for polite or mixed company.

As he stared in shock at the framed photo and the event pictured there, he thought back over the events that led to the event.

"I really hate the Dragans, you know that Trance?" Seamus Harper said as he and Trance made their way to an engineering Conduit. "I mean they always break things and leave me to fix it. They don't play well with others."

Trance only smiled.

"Ah, here we are, good old number 47." He looked over at Trance. "46 down, 152 remaining. Not bad for twelve hours work."

Harper settled into a comfortable position as he removed the panel in front of him, Trance settled in behind him with his toolbox in hand. The panel he removed revealed a mess of blown circuits and shorted-out wires.

"Oh man, this'll take hours. Better get comfortable Trance. We'll be here awhile," he complained to her. Trance just smiled and made herself comfortable.

"Well, it won't be all bad Harper. At least you won't be bored!" She said cheerfully, trying to make him feel better.

"I'd take boredom over this anytime formerly purple people eater. Oh well, the company's not bad." He grinned at Trance, who blushed slightly. "Lets get to work, hand me the nanowelder would ya?" With that they got to work on their repairs.

That was the first thing to pop into his mind as he remembered. His memories were cut short as the door to his quarters chimed.

"Who is it?" He asked, not wanting anyone to start discussing the photo with him. It was a moment he'd rather forget.

"Harper, it's me. Can we talk?" Came the reply from Trance.

"Sure, come on in," he told her as he opened the door.

As she came in he looked down the corridor in both directions, checking for the rest of the crew trying to get another picture. He found no one.

"Hey Trance, what can I do for you?" He asked as he returned to his bed and picked up the empty box and flexi from the floor.

"Well, you can tell me why Beka and Dylan made such a big deal out of our kiss," she told him sitting down on his bed.

"Well, they like to play jokes on people, well Beka does, Dylan is just evil." He grinned as he told her this.

"I already knew that. What I want to know is why is it such a big deal? Why can't we be a couple without them interfering?" She asked.

"I don't think they are trying to interfere, I just think they're bored. They need something to do, so they latch onto the one interesting thing that comes their way. That happened to be us, unfortunately," he told her.

"I don't think it's unfortunate."

"Really? Why is that Trance?"

"Well, the image they used of us is so cute. The look on your face is precious, and, if you didn't notice, I'm blushing. I think that's cute, too." She explained.

"Really? Well, at least someone besides Beka, Dylan, and Rommie find it funny. I sure don't. It was embarrassing to me. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. By the way, Tyr was right," he said.

She was confused, trying to remember what Tyr had said.

"What did Tyr say?" She asked.

"Tyr said, and I quote: 'I wanted to offer you some advice, take it or leave, the choice is yours. If you are ever going to appear on screen after a romantic interlude, it would be best for all if you removed any evidence from your face before hand.'"

Trance giggled as Harper tried to mimic the big Nietzschean, he failed miserably.

"If Tyr heard that he wouldn't be happy."

"What do I care if Tyr wouldn't be happy? Is he ever happy? Is he even here? No. So I really don't care what Tyr would think," he told her. "Besides, I'm more interested in what you think."

"Well, I think that Tyr is right. Next time you should check for any lip gloss before you go out in public," she said with a smile.

"Oh? Is there going to be a next time?" He asked her with a grin of his own.

"Well there could be," she replied with a glint in her eye as she looked at him.

"Well, when that happens I'll be sure to check for any incriminating evidence," he told her with a smirk as he leaned in to give her a kiss.

She pulled away from him before he could kiss her.

"Well, next time will have to wait. Right now we're needed on the Command Deck," she said as she got up and stood in front of Harper.

"Why?" He asked her, a little suspicious.

"Dylan will explain when we get there," she told him with out giving any hints.

'Well, what could Dylan have planned? I'd better be prepared for anything.' He thought to himself as he followed Trance to Command Deck. They walked hand in hand all the way there.

On Command Deck, Harper learned why Dylan had wanted him there.

"Mr. Harper, what do you require in the way of new parts?" Dylan asked as Harper and Trance entered Command still hand in hand.

The question caught Harper by surprise.

"Boss?" He asked, trying to figure out why Dylan was asking about parts.

"What parts do you need to repair and upgrade Rommie's systems?" Dylan asked again.

"I'm not sure. I'll make a list. Does that include spare parts too?" He asked, his mind already making a list of the spare parts that they needed.

"I guess it does, if you need them. What systems can you upgrade with material on hand?"

"With what we got on hand? None. The repairs from the Dragan's attacks ate up most of the spare parts and material. I'll make a list of the stuff Rommie can't make herself," he said as he moved to a computer console and started making the list.

Trance was moving to follow her lover when Dylan's voice stopped her.

"Trance, what do you need for Hydroponics and Med Bay?" He asked her.

"I need some new soil, and a few new hand tools. I also want to get some new plants too. Med Bay is fully stocked right now, so it doesn't need anything. But if you could get some information on any new diseases for the computer that would be great." She told Dylan. He just nodded.

"Rommie, add that to the shopping list. Mr. Harper, how is your list coming?" Dylan asked as he looked over at his engineer. Trance had made her way over to where he was working and was leaning against a nearby console watching him.

"It's almost done, only a few more things. There, it's done. I'm uploading it to Rommie now." He explained as he put words into action.

"Thank you, Harper. A very good list, I look forward to having those systems upgraded," Rommie said as she received the upload.

"Hey boss?" Harper asked Dylan. At his look Harper continued, "Why do you need these lists?"

"Well, Beka, Tyr, Rommie, and myself are going to take the Maru and go get the items on the list. You and Trance are going to stay here and finish making repairs to the ship. I also want you to find some asteroids and make those parts that you can. I also want a full inventory of all the remaining spare parts. You also need to make some new droids to replace those damaged by the attacks. The trip should take us 4 days. I expect that you'll be finished long before that, if you are just do the regular maintenance needed," Dylan told the two.

"Yeah, sure boss. I got all that, don't worry. By the time you get back you won't recognize the Andromeda," Harper said with a grin.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Rommie said as she and Dylan left Command to pack for the trip.

One day after the photo event.

After Harper and Trance had seen the Maru off they went to the mess hall to get something to eat.

"Well Trance, where should we start?" Harper asked as he looked at the list of tasks that Dylan had left them.

"What's the easiest thing to do?" She asked as she started eating her lunch.

"Well there are some power conduits in Hydroponics that have been acting up. We can gather the raw material for the parts and the droids first, then set Andromeda to start fabrication of the parts. Then we can work on the conduits in Hydroponics," he told her as he too started eating his lunch.

"That'll work," she said through a mouthful of food. Harper just grinned at her.

As it turned out, the conduits weren't the easiest things to fix. In fact Harper needed to create new conduits to replace the malfunctioning ones. Fortunately, they only needed a few feet.

"Trance, hand me the nanowelder. I need to secure this piece here," he told her.

She handed him the welder and sat back, holding up her end of the conduit.

As she sat watching Harper and holding her end up, she saw a small spark of electricity arc between the conduit and Harper's welder.

"Ow. That hurt, damn power conduit. I thought I turned the power off to this conduit," he said as he looked over to Trance for confirmation.

"You did, it's probably residual stored in the conduit."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he said as he went back to work welding the conduit.

Two hours later they had finished the conduit repair and were headed down to Hydroponics for a picnic lunch.

They found a large tree to sit under and eat their lunch.

Trance laid open the large blanket they had brought with them to lay on. Harper was getting the food out and placing it on the blanket.

"I'm glad there're no ants here," he said as he lay in a reclining position eating his sandwich.

"Why?" Trance asked from the spot beside him where she, too, was in a reclining position.

"Well because they'd be all over the food and all over us too. They'd bite us as we'd try to get them off of the food and us. Then we'd have to pick up everything and move to a place where there are no ants." He told her.

"Oh," was all she said as she continued to eat her own sandwich.

When they were done with their lunch they decided to take a small rest, just lay under the tree, letting the food digest.

Trance was sitting up with Harper's head in her lap. He was looking up towards the tree's branches while she stroked his hair.

Harper was reflecting on the things that he'd told Trance in the conduit after the nano-bot attack, things he'd never told a soul before her.

"Well, life on Earth was no picnic, as I said before." He sighed. "My life was like that of anybody else on Earth, trying to get enough to fill his stomach. I had to fight to get any little scrape of food, sometimes no bigger than a crumb. I had to learn how to lie, cheat, steal, and be the worst possible person you could ever imagine. But I was lucky; I got off world and met all you guys." He paused to think about his next words.

"I lived in Boston with my family. I went back a while ago to help free Earth in a revolution. I saw my cousin Brendan; he was the leader of the resistance. The entire Earth rebellion was crushed, and Brendan was most likely killed." He paused to remember his cousin and what he died for. "I wanted so much to get away from Earth, but I ended up returning and trying to make things better. I only made them worse, I wanted to stay there on Earth and fight and die with them, Trance." He had been looking at the floor so far, but now looked up at Trance, tears in his eyes. "But Rommie convinced me that Andromeda was my home now and that you were my family, and I believed her, so I left. But I can't help thinking that if I hadn't gone to help Brendan with the revolution, he'd still be alive now, and all those who fought the Dragans would be too. I gave them hope, but it only led to their deaths." The look of pain and loss that crossed his face made Trance's heart break; yet she didn't move to comfort him, she couldn't, not yet.

"Trance, do you know what it's like to knowingly be the cause of one of your few living relative's death? No, no, let me rephrase that, your only living relative's death." He asked her, not expecting an answer. "I watched my parents die at the hands of a Dragan slaver for resisting to go, he slit their throats and walked away. My parents had hidden me, but I saw the whole thing. I watched as my brothers and sisters died of the various diseases that roamed the camps. A few were even lucky enough to be killed as slaves for the Dragans, instead of wasting away from some disease. That Trance, is what my life was like growing up on Earth." He told her, the tears in his eyes finally falling as he looked at her.

"Harper? Harper!" Trance's gentle shaking roused Harper from the memories of his conversation with her in the conduit.

"Huh? What is it Trance?" He asked, tilting his head back to look her in the eyes.

"I was asking you a question about us," she told him.

"Oh, sorry Trance, I was thinking about something. What did you ask?"

"I asked where are we?" She replied.

"Where are we?" Harper asked confused. "Trance, we're in Hydroponics, on the Andromeda Ascendant, in the middle of an asteroid field," he said.

"No silly! I mean where are you and I. Are we a couple? Are we boyfriend and girlfriend?" she explained.

"Oh," he said, thinking about her question. "Well, Trance, that all depends on you. What do you want us to be? Do you want us to be a couple? Boyfriend and girlfriend? I know what I want, but what do you want?" He asked in return.

"I don't know. I know that I want to be with you the rest of my life. I want to touch you, caress your face. Tangle my fingers in your hair," she said as she did just that. "I don't want to leave you, and I don't want you to leave me. Does that mean I want us to be a couple?" She asked, showing that some of the old Trance's naivete still remained in this Golden Trance.

Harper smiled.

"Yes, Trance, that does mean that you want to be a couple. It means that I won't leave you and you won't leave me. You can touch me and caress my face all you want. Tangle your fingers in my hair till the big crunch. Yes, Trance, it means we are a couple," he told her happily.

"However, we can't lay here any longer. We gotta go back to work. We've got a lot of work left to do," he said as he got up from the blanket and started putting away the picnic garbage. He then helped Trance get up off the blanket and gave her a quick hug.

"Help me fold the blanket?" She asked him.

"Of course, my golden goddess," he replied as they folded the blanket up.

Having folded the blanket up, they gathered their picnic basket and left Hydroponics to continue working on Andromeda.

The next day.

Entering the Command Deck, Harper moved to the nearest console to check on the droid construction.

"Hey Andromeda! How's my beautiful ship doing?" Harper asked as he checked the status of materials built from the asteroid ore.

"Just fine, Harper. The construction of the droids is coming along well. As is the parts manufacturing. We should be done within 2 hours," the Andromeda replied as she popped into existence beside Harper.

"That's good Andromeda. Since you have everything well in hand, I'm going back to finish the inventory of the spare parts. I'll let you know what we need to make," he told her as he headed towards the doors.

"Ok. I'll let you know when the manufacturing is completed." Andromeda said as he left Command.

'Well, it took me 3 hours to inventory all the spare parts we had,' Harper thought to himself as he made his way to Command to give Andromeda the inventoried list he'd made.

"Well, Andromeda, it seems as though we're pretty well stocked on parts. We only need," he stopped as he looked at the list, "we only need to make about 20 different parts." He told her, finally looking up from the flexi in his hand.

When Andromeda didn't materialize as she normally did, Harper was curious why.

"Andromeda?" He asked as he moved towards a computer console.

Looking at the console display, Harper could see that Andromeda was running a full maintenance check of her systems, and Harper knew that for that type of check the hologram projection system had to be offline. The check also required that Andromeda's full resources be used to ensure the thorough completion of the check. This meant that Andromeda couldn't reply on the screen in the room. This was the kind of test a ship did while in dock on a safe, Commonwealth planet where it was protected by other ships. However, Andromeda had no other choice but to perform the test in the middle of an Asteroid field.

So, unable to just give Andromeda the list he had to manually input each and every figure into the databank. This took Harper a good hour to do considering the amount of parts they had and the few they needed. Harper choose to input the inventory list manually because he had nothing better to do and it gave him a chance to double check the numbers from memory.

By the time he was done, Andromeda was running the last portion of her check and was able to appear on the screen at the front of Command.

"Harper, I got your list. As soon as I finish my check, I will fabricate the new parts and have the droids put them into storage," her image said.

"Thanks Andromeda. What time is it?" He asked as he was closing out her database.

"It is 20:50 hours." She replied.

"Thanks Andromeda, I gotta go. I'm meeting Trance for dinner at 9," he said as he was almost out the Command Deck doors.

On his way to meet Trance at Hydroponics, Harper's mind wandered back to fragments of their conversation from a few days ago in the conduit.

His mental wanderings finally settled on his conversation with Trance about luck.

"Harper, why do you believe in luck?" She asked as they got to work. Besides creating idle conversation, she was genuinely curious to find out about her best friend.

"That's a good question, my beautiful golden goddess." He said, unaware of the start the term of endearment gave Trance. Reaching half his body into a panel, he continued. "And I'll tell you there's a very good reason behind it too." He pulled out of the panel at this point and looked at her. "You may want to get comfortable Trance, this is a long story." He told, she nodded her head and made herself comfortable on the floor. Putting his head back into the panel, Harper continued.

"Growing up on Earth I learned that fate was a fairy tale, it doesn't exist. The only thing that can save you and keep you alive another day was luck. Was it fate that kept the Dragan troops from killing you in your sleep? No, it was luck. Luck that you woke up in the morning, luck that you ate, and luck that you went to sleep at night just to start over again the next day. In short, it was luck that you were even alive, between Magog attacks and Nietzschean slaver raids and death squads, I was lucky to even get off world and find the Eureka Maru." He looked at her with a quizzical look on his face. "That is why I believe in luck Trance." He turned back to his work on the panel. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious, that's all. I want to know more about my best friend, you never tell any one anything about yourself." She said as she gave him a small hug, like two friends who haven't seen each other in awhile.

Harper stiffened slightly, then relaxed into the short embrace, continuing to work. Trance broke the embrace and moved back to watch Harper work.

He smiled to himself at the memory of that conversation. He really didn't believe in luck either, it was just something he could latch onto in order to explain how he survived all his years on Earth.

Noticing that he was almost to Hydroponics, he pulled his thoughts back into the present, and Trance.

She was waiting for him outside the doors to Hydroponics when he arrived.

"Hi Trance, ready to go?" He asked as they both turned and walked in the direction of his quarters and the romantic dinner waiting there.

"You bet. I'm starving. When did you find the time to set up this dinner in your quarters?" She asked as they were almost there.

"Well, after I checked the inventory, I ran back here and got everything set up. I put the food in a warmer and all we need to do is heat it up. So we're good to go, babe," Harper told her as they arrived at, and entered, his quarters.

Harper's quarters were like those of everybody else, yet his somehow made Trance feel safe. His quarters were normally littered with the discards of projects he had been working on and empty cans of Sparky cola. His walls were decorated with posters of old Earth movies, and surfing contests that he'd been in. His award from the contest on Infinity Atoll was laying on a small stand beneath the poster for the contest. His normally messy bed was freshly made with white sheets and a black comforter with matching pillow cases. In the corner of the room, just in front of the little kitchen, was the couch. Trance had no idea where Harper had gotten it, but it was almost the exact shade of light purple that she used to be. In front of the couch was a movie projector and a list of movies. In the center of the room stood his dining room table, set with two candles and service for two.

"Wow, Harper! Candles? Where did you get these?" She asked as she saw the setting for a candlelit dinner.

"I picked them up on the last drift, I was going to use them for one of Dylan's formal parties, but this seemed a better use," he told her with a grin.

"Wow, I'm impressed," she said, he only smiled.

"Well, shall we eat?" He asked her, holding out a chair for her to sit.

"Yes, let's," she replied, sitting in the offered chair.

Moving to the warmer with the food in it, Harper quickly reheated the food and put in on a serving platter. Placing the meal on the table, Harper searched around in his pockets until he found his lighter. Lighting the candles, Harper had Andromeda lower the room's lighting to a soft glow.

"Andromeda?" He asked.

The hologram appeared before Harper.

"Yes Harper?" She asked.

"Would you please engage the privacy mode?" He asked her.

"Of course Harper, but I will interrupt you if the situation warrants it," she told him.

"Yeah, yeah. Understood." Harper said, waving his hand in the air, as Andromeda's hologram dissappeared and privacy mode was engaged.

"Well, now that we're alone we can eat." Harper told Trance. She nodded as she began to serve herself from the platter on the table.

"Here, let me serve you, after all, it is the gentlemanly thing to do." Harper said, taking the serving utensils and dividing the meal into two equal portions. Placing Trance's in front of her, he took to opportunity to give her a kiss on the cheek. Sitting back down he removed his utensils from the napkin, place the napkin on his lap and proceeded to eat. He noticed that Trance had done the same thing.

They were having a mildly spiced chicken paprika with a mild curried rice. Harper had chosen a meal that was mainly without plants to not disturb Trance. He figured that after caring for the plants she wouldn't want to eat them, at least he hoped.

"This dish is very good Harper. It's not too spicy and not too mild. What is it called?" She asked as she slowly ate her meal.

"Its called chicken paprika with curried rice. Both dishes are normally spicy, but I made this mild," He told her, as he, too, ate slowly.

To compliment the dinner, Harper choose an old Earth champagne.

"Harper, what is this drink? I've never had anything like it before, it's good, and the bubbles tickle my nose. What do you call it?" She asked as she tried the champagne.

"Its called champagne, Trance. It's actually called Dom something or other, I can't remember exactly what, but it's a very famous champagne. It's from Earth, I managed to find one of the last bottles made a few weeks ago. I figured, hey champagne is good for lots of stuff, celebrations, dinners, romance," he told her with a grin as he returned to his own dinner.

Looking up, Harper suddenly remembered something else he'd planned. Reaching into his pocket he removed a small remote control. Pressing a button, soft music started to fill the room.

Trance looked up from her chicken, and smiled at Harper, realizing what he was trying to do, and enjoying the romantic mood that he created.

"Harper, this is turning out to be a wonderful evening. Thank you," she said.

"Hey, what else did you expect from the Exalted Love God?" He joked to her. "Tonight is only going to get better. Finish your chicken and I'll get the dessert," he told her as he finished his own chicken. Hearing that there would be dessert, Trance quickly finished hers as well.

Removing all the plates from the table, Harper returned with a piece of chocolate mousse cake and two forks.

The cake was on one plate, drawing a curious stare from Trance.

"This we can share," he told her when she gave him a funny look.

"Oh, I see." Was all she said.

As they ate the cake together, occasionally feed a little to each other, Trance's mind wandered back to the events that led up to this dinner. She thought back to the conduit and their conversation there.

"Harper, my life is empty without you in it, your wisecracks and sarcasm, your pseudo-bragging, your kindness. All that and more make my life worth living, if only to see you in the morning, to touch you once. I love you Seamus Zelazny Harper, and I hope you love me." She said wistfully, hoping upon hope that he would return her love.

Looking up at her from where he sat, Harper took a moment to absorb what she told him.

'She loves me? SHE LOVES ME!' He thought to himself as two battles were fought in his head. One was whether or not to tell her that he, Seamus Harper, did love Trance Gemini. The second battle was whether or not he would allow himself to love her, all those he'd ever loved or cared about ended up dead or leaving him. He didn't know if he could take another death by proxy.

"Trance," He said slowly, "I don't know how to tell you this, so I'll tell you straight out. I love you too." At the look of absolute joy on her golden face he went on. "But I don't know if I can love you." This took the joyful expression off her face and replaced it with one of both sadness and curiosity. "All my family, all my friends, all the ones I've ever loved have ended up either dead or leaving me alone. It was my fear for the longest time that Beka would tire of me and dump me on some drift or planet to fend for myself. I don't want you to die from me loving you and I don't want you to leave me either. That is why I can't let myself love you, to protect us both from death. You deserve a long happy life with someone who won't be an albatross around your neck, you deserve better than a sickly, no-immune-system-always-near-death street punk like me." He said as his voice fell deeper and deeper into despair.

"Seamus Harper." She chided him, giving him a shake. "You may have been a street punk once but now you are chief engineer for the Andromeda and a valued member of this crew, and my best friend." She told him, trying to shake him from his self loathing.

"You always know just what I need to hear and when, I guess that's part of what I love about you. But I know that I'm just setting you up for death, you don't deserve that Trance. You don't deserve to be burdened with all the pain and sadness that I've had to live through. You should have sunshine and rainbows and other beautiful things. You need someone who can love you without all the baggage that I'm hauling around. You deserve much better, anyone better than me." He told her, looking into her eyes and holding the contact.

"Harper, I want to be the one that decides that. And my love for you as a beautiful thing makes that all irrelevant. If my love for you means that I'll be burdened with your pain and sadness, then I'll gladly shoulder that if you're there with me." She told him with an odd gentleness, that the old Trance always exhibited, permeating her voice.

"Your right Trance, the choice is yours. And I can't keep you from deciding what you want, but I still think you deserve someone better than the likes of me. If I am your choice, so be it, I can't and won't try to stop you. I mean what the hey, you only live once, right? So let's give this romance thing a try and see what happens." He said as he moved to get his toolbox from the other side of the conduit.

That conversation revealed more of her secrets than had she wanted. She now knew as much about Harper as he did about her.

'If we are going to have a relationship I need to tell him more, not all, but more. That can wait, right now I just want to be with him tonight.' She thought as she put another forkful of cake in her mouth.

Finishing the cake, Harper removed all the dishes to be cleaned later. Taking Trance's hand he moved with her to the couch.

They sat down and Trance snuggled into Harper's arms, as he wrapped them around her.

"So Trance, you wanna watch a movie? I have a lot." He asked her as she just breathed, taking in his smell, a combination of sweat and oil and grease, it wasn't all together unpleasant. It told what Harper was, a man who fixed things.

"What movie do you have in mind?" She asked, using anything as an excuse to stay near him.

"I was thinking about one called 'Sleepless In Seattle.' What do ya think?" He asked her.

"Sure, sounds good." She told him, relishing the touch of his arms. She stifled a small cry as he removed his arms to go get the movie. Returning and setting the movie to play, Harper once again wrapped his arms around Trance.

As the opening credits rolled, Trance thought of how happy she was right now and how she never wanted this to end.

One hour and 45 minutes later the movie was over. Harper hadn't been paying much attention to the movie, he'd been too rapped up in his thoughts to pay much attention.

During the entire movie he'd had one arm wrapped around Trance, who was laying cuddled into his shoulder, and the other hand was in his pocket. In his pocket his hand kept turning a small ring around and around. Harper's mind was a jumble of questions.

"Andromeda." Harper called softly, to not wake Trance who was lightly sleeping.

"Yes Harper?" She answered just as softly, shimmering into view beside Harper.

"You can turn off privacy mode now, I'm gonna put Trance to sleep in my bed while I take the couch. Wake me at 0800 tomorrow, I've got to run a few system checks in the machine shop. And try not to wake Trance, ok?" He asked the hologram.

"Of course Harper. Good night." She said as she once again shimmered into the ether.

Gently picking up Trance he moved with careful steps to his bed. During the journey she had wrapped her arms around his neck, and removing them without waking her was not an easy task.

A few minutes later, the task successfully done, Harper went into his bathroom and changed into his 'pajamas,' a t-shirt and boxers.

Stopping at the bed, Harper carefully removed Trance's boots and tucked her into bed, kissing her forehead as he did so. She made a happy little sound and snuggled into Harper's sheets, falling into a deep sleep.

Smiling at this, Harper removed a spare blanket and pillow from a cabinet and made a somewhat comfortable bed on the couch. Drifting off to sleep with thoughts of Trance in his mind, Harper wasn't plagued with nightmares, but pleasant dreams of him and Trance together.

Harper woke up the next morning at the metallic touch of one of the ship's droids.

"Huh, I'm up, I'm up." He said a little loudly then softer as he remembered Trance was sleeping in his bed.

"Thanks Andromeda." He whispered, the droid nodded and left his quarters.

Moving with all the stealth he'd learned on Earth, he quietly crept to his bathroom and changed into his work clothes.

Returning to the main room, he decided to let Trance sleep herself out.

Exiting his quarters with the same stealth he used entering the bathroom, he made his way to the mess hall for breakfast.

"Boy oh boy, Andromeda! Did I ever sleep well. Not one nightmare, not one!" He told her as he gathered together 2 waffles, bacon, orange juice, toast, jelly, and a Sparky cola.

Sitting down at a table, Harper waited for Andromeda's hologram to appear.

"Not one nightmare?" She repeated, shimmering into existence.

"Yup, not a one. All I dreamed about was Trance." He told her with a grin.

"I don't want to know any more about your dreams about Trance." Andromeda told him as he opened his mouth to continue.

"It's not those type of dreams Andromeda. They were more like .." He paused, trying to figure out an appropriate word. "They were more like sunshine warming you on a beach after you won a huge surfing contest. They were good dreams. They were like Trance." He finally told her.

The hologram nodded in understanding, but couldn't let a comment pass.

"You had dreams about Trance, and you describe them as being like Trance?" She said, smiling at Harper.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh all you want, but that's the best way to describe the dreams." He told her, trying to defend him self.

"She's very good for you Harper. She's changed you for the better. Everyone's noticed, even Tyr." She told him.

Harper smirked at the thought of Tyr noticing something like a change in his attitude and behaviors.

"I know, I've noticed the changes myself. I'm in a better mood all the time, I'm sure Dylan and Beka noticed that." He joked to her, he only received a small smile.

Looking down at his empty plate Harper was struck by a thought.

"Andromeda, can I share a secret with you?" He asked, still looking at his plate.

"Of course, who can't I tell?" She asked as she engaged privacy mode so that she and Harper could speak privately, without any sensors or recorders.

"Trance, you can't tell Trance." He told her pulling a small box from his pocket.

"Harper is that what I think it is?" She asked in mild shock.

"You'd better believe it Babe. It's an engagement ring." He told her, removing the simple piece of metal from its box.

"You're going to propose to her?" She asked, understanding the need for secrecy.

"Yeah, I was going to do it after the movie last night, but she fell asleep. I'll ask her when I'm done with the system checks." He replied, returning the ring to its box.

"Well, I hope you'll let me record the moment for the rest of the crew, they'd really hate to miss it." Andromeda asked as Harper got up and returned his tray to be cleaned.

"Of course, I wouldn't dream of leaving them out of this special moment." He told her with a grin, as he exited the mess hall and headed towards the machine shop.

After an hour of running system checks and not finding any problems, Harper went to the messhall to gather together the same thing he had for breakfast, minus the Sparky. Having completed that he left for his quarters.

When he arrived, Trance was still asleep. Placing the tray of food on the table he went over to the bed.

"Trance?" He said softly. Receiving no response he gently brushed the tips of his fingers over her cheek. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she smiled.

"Good morning Harper." She said as she stretched her arms over her head.

"Morning Trance, I thought you could use something to eat so I brought you breakfast in bed." He told her going over to the table and getting the tray.

Placing the tray across her lap, he went to the table to get a chair. Pulling the chair beside the bed, he sat watching her while she ate.

When she finished eating he put the tray back on the table and replaced the chair as well. Harper decided to sit on the edge of the bed by Trance.

"So Trance, what did you think of the movie last night?" He asked her, watching her expression.

"I enjoyed it. Tom Hanks is a good actor. So is that Meg Ryan. They have good screen chemistry together. Where they ever in another movie together?" She asked him.

"Yeah, there were several, but I prefer 'You've Got Mail.'" He told her.

"Do you have that movie?" She asked him, at his nod she went on. "Maybe we could watch it tonight?" She asked, a little shy.

"I'd like that, Trance. Really I would. But first I've got a serious question for you." He told her as he moved to take her hand. "Andromeda." Was all he said. When Trance gave him a confused look he just shook his head, a big grin on his face. Andromeda, however knew exactly what he meant and turned her recorders on.

"Trance, you're my best friend. You always find a way to heal me when I get sick, which is a lot. You've never let me down. I want you to know how much you mean to me. Remember when I told you that you could run you fingers through my hair and caress my face all you want?" At her nod he continued. "Well Trance I want to make this official. I don't want to be boyfriend and girlfriend." He told her, at the hurt look on her face he went on. "I love you Trance, I want to be with you until I die, until the end of both the universe and the perfect possible future. I want you to marry me Trance, I want you as my wife. Will you marry me Trance?" he asked as he kneeled on one knee and looked her fully in the eyes.

As Harper watched her absorb the request, he waited with his breath held. If she didn't answer him soon he was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.

A hundred emotions crossed Trance's face in the few seconds that Harper had to wait for her answer.

"Harper." She said, "I'm overwhelmed, I don't know what to say." She told him as the tears started to pour down her face.

"How about 'yes Harper, I'll marry you.'" Harper prompted, releasing his held breath.

"Yes Harper. I will marry you." She told him with tears in her eyes and a small amount of laughter in her voice.

Grabbing Trance out of the bed, Harper lifted her into the air in a show of his overwhelming joy. Giving her the biggest hug he could muster he set her back on the bed. Retrieving the ring box out of his pocket he removed the ring and slid it onto her finger. The ring was a simple one made from platinum with their names engraved on it. Harper had to pay a small fortune for it, but Trance was worth it he figured.

"Trance, you have no idea how happy you've made me." He said through his own tears of joy.

"You're wrong Harper." She told him, "I do know how happy I've made you, it's the same happiness that you've given to me." She told him as she kissed him.

"Trance, when the others get back we can start to plan the wedding. How does that sound?" He asked.

"Sounds good to me, the sooner the better. You never know when we'll be attacked again." She told him as she continued to cry from joy, their tears mingling as they held each other.

In the end they just sat there for an hour, holding each other and crying. After that hour they had to get to work, and get the ship in tip-top shape for Dylan.

But first they had to find Trance's boots, which Harper had taken off her the previous night.

The rest of the afternoon flew by in a haze for the two. They had to clean the decking of the ship and log all the repairs made, as well as all the new droids and parts.

It turned out to be more difficult to get the droids to clean the decking than Harper originally thought.

"Andromeda, I need these droids to clean the decking before Dylan gets back." He complained to the hologram.

"I'm sorry Harper, but I need these droids to move some cargo to make room for the new supplies that Dylan bought." She explained.

"Ok, let's compromise. The droids can clean the floor first, which is the longer job, and then move the cargo. I'll even help them move the cargo. Sound like a deal?" Harper asked as he continued to work on his final maintenance check.

Andromeda smiled evilly at the thought of Harper having to move the crates around.

"Sure Harper, sounds like a deal." She told him.

"Great! You send the droids to clean the floors while I finish this check. When they're done I'll go down and help them move the crates." He said without looking up from his diagnostic.

After the droids had cleaned the floor back to it's showroom shine, Harper left Command to go help the droids move the crates. A promise is a promise after all.

So after 3 hours of moving boxes against the wall and making room for more, Harper gratefully entered his quarters for dinner, Trance was waiting for him with dinner ready.

"I heard about your deal with Andromeda, so I thought that I'd make dinner tonight. Then we can watch that other movie." She explained as the smells of a spaghetti dinner wafted over to Harper.

"Wow! Spaghetti. And you even have garlic bread!" His anticipation of the meal evident in his expression, all the soreness from moving the boxes forgotten. "Thanks Trance, I haven't had a spaghetti dinner in a long time." He told her.

She just shrugged and smiled.

As they sat down to their dinner Harper couldn't help but think how lucky he was to be engaged to this woman.

After dinner they once again resumed their places on the couch while they watched the movie. This time they both fell asleep in each other's arms.

Seeing the scene in Harper's quarters, Andromeda lowered the lights and turned off the movie. She'd let them sleep, then wake them before Dylan arrived.

"Harper, you need to wake up now." Came the call. Harper tried to identify the voice but his mind refused to work.

"Harper, Dylan is going to be here in three hours. Do you want him to come looking for you and find you here like this?" Andromeda asked.

"Oh, Andromeda, leave me alone. Dylan can just … Dylan!" He exclaimed, sitting straight up from the floor where he and Trance were sleeping. Apparently they had rolled off the couch during the night. "Ok, I'm up. Andromeda how much time do we have?" He asked running his hand over his face, trying to vanquish the sleep which lingered there.

"A little over three hours. That means you need to wake Trance, get cleaned up, eat and meet them at the hanger." The hologram told him.

"Ok, ok. I get the picture." Turning towards Trance he gently nudged her. "Trance, babe, you need to get up. We need to get cleaned up for Dylan's arrival." He told her. When that didn't work he kissed her on the cheek, her eyes instantly flew open.

"Harper? What time is it?" She asked him, sitting up.

"I don't know, but Dylan will be here in about three hours. So you need to go to your quarters and shower and get changed. I need to do the same. I'll meet you in the mess hall in 45 minutes, ok?" He asked as he rose from the floor and offered Trance his hands.

She took them and rose. Then, after giving a back popping stretch, she left for her own quarters, but not with out giving Harper a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks. That was a good movie, I had fun. See you in 45 minutes." She told him, he just watched her walk down the corridor before heading to his own shower.

45 minutes later they were in the mess hall eating breakfast and discussing the differences and similarities of 'Sleepless In Seattle' and 'You've Got Mail.' They carried on like that for about and hour when Andromeda interrupted them.

"Harper, Trance. The Maru is on its way in. you should head to the hanger now." She told them.

"Thank you, Andromeda." Trance said.

"Yeah, thanks. We'll continue this conversation later Trance." Harper said.

"I'm counting on it." Was her response.

Picking up their trays and placing them for cleaning, they left for the hanger, hand in hand.

"Harper! Trance!" Beka called as she made her way down the ramp.

"Hey Beka. Have a good trip?" Harper asked as Beka hugged him and then Trance.

"You guys have no idea how much I missed you. 4 days on a ship with Tyr and Dylan. It's enough to try the patience of a Wayist." She joked to them.

"Mr. Harper, I see that the ship is still in one piece. I can only assume that you've completed your tasks. Hello Trance, how are you?" Dylan said as he came up behind Beka. Tyr and Rommie not far behind.

"Very well thank you. And Harper did get all his tasks done. He finished a day before you got here." The look that Trance shot Harper was one of pride, this made Dylan curious.

"Ok then Mr. Harper, I apologize for assuming the worst." Dylan said as the crew started walking towards the Hanger doors while the droids began removing the cargo from the Maru.

"Its ok Boss. I would've expected the same thing were I you." Harper told him as they left the Hanger deck, Trance quietly squeezed his hand in support.

On their way to Command, Trance and Harper asked Dylan and the others many questions about their trip.

Upon reaching Command, Dylan changed the topic with a question of his own.

"Did anything interesting happen while I was away? I find it hard to believe that all you did was work." Dylan said as he surveyed the still intact Command Deck.

"Actually something interesting did happen, and all we did was work. This happened after we had finished working." Harper told him, a stupid grin plaster on his face. Trance was wearing a similar grin, and was standing slightly behind Harper. Dylan was curious at once.

Rommie's face had been blank, but changed the moment she received the updates from her holographic self. Her look changed from shock to joy to just a smile a she struggled to keep the engagement a secret. She wanted Harper and Trance to tell Dylan, Beka, and Tyr.

Harper, seeing the expressions on Rommie's face knew that she had received the updates from the ship. He just smiled in anticipation. He leaned over and whispered in Trance's ear, at her nod he proceeded.

"Andromeda, would you please play the video from my quarters the other night? I want Dylan and Beka to see it." he asked the AI.

"Sure Harper, no problem." Harper could see that even the holographic version of Andromeda was having trouble not telling the secret.

"A video? From your quarters? Harper is this really appropriate to show?" Dylan asked, watching as Harper's quarters appeared on the screen.

"Trust me Dylan, you'll enjoy this video." Trance told him.

Dylan just shrugged as the video started to play, needless to say he was speechless at what he saw. Harper could see that Beka was too, she had her mouth hanging open in shock.

For there, on the screen and large as life, was Harper professing his love for Trance.

"Trance, you're my best friend. You always find a way to heal me when I get sick, which is a lot. You've never let me down. I want you to know how much you mean to me. Remember when I told you that you could run you fingers through my hair and caress my face all you want?" At her nod he continued. "Well Trance I want to make this official. I don't want to be boyfriend and girlfriend." He told her, at the hurt look on her face he went on. "I love you Trance, I want to be with you until I die, until the end of both the universe and the perfect possible future. I want you to marry me Trance, I want you as my wife. Will you marry me Trance?" he asked as he kneeled on one knee and looked her fully in the eyes.

As Harper watched her absorb the request, he waited with his breath held. If she didn't answer him soon he was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.

A hundred emotions crossed Trance's face in the few seconds that Harper had to wait for her answer.

"Harper." She said, "I'm overwhelmed, I don't know what to say." She told him as the tears started to pour down her face.

"How about 'yes Harper, I'll marry you.'" Harper prompted, releasing his held breath.

"Yes Harper. I will marry you." She told him with tears in her eyes and a small amount of laughter in her voice.

Grabbing Trance out of the bed, Harper lifted her into the air in a show of his overwhelming joy. Giving her the biggest hug he could muster he set her back on the bed. Retrieving the ring box out of his pocket he removed the ring and slid it onto her finger. The ring was a simple one made from platinum with their names engraved on it. Harper had to pay a small fortune for it, but Trance was worth it he figured.

"Trance, you have no idea how happy you've made me." He said through his own tears of joy.

"You're wrong Harper." She told him, "I do know how happy I've made you, it's the same happiness that you've given to me." She told him as she kissed him.

As the images faded away, Dylan and Beka both turned to Trance and Harper. For the first time they noticed that the young woman was not only wearing an engagement ring but was also holding Harper's hand.

'So that's why she was hiding behind Harper.' Dylan thought.

"Oh Trance I'm so happy for you both." Beka was the first to recover, she went over and gave the couple a big hug.

Dylan took a little longer to get over his shock.

"What can I say besides congratulations Mr. Harper?" He asked, shaking Harper's hand.

"That's ok Boss. You don't need to say anything. You face says it all. I know that you're happy for us, thanks, thanks a lot." Harper told him. "There is one thing that you can do though."

"Oh? And what would that be?" Dylan asked, thinking that he already knew the answer.

"Could you marry us? You know officiate at the ceremony?" Harper asked him.

"Mr. Harper it would be my pleasure to marry you and Trance." He replied, putting his hand on Harper's shoulder.

"So tell me more about this wedding?" Beka asked, pulling Trance aside and leading her away to help plan the wedding.

Harper and Dylan just smiled at her.

"You'd think she was getting married what with the enthusiasm she's showing." Dylan told Harper.

"Don't worry Boss, her day will come, you'll see." Harper said as he followed the two most important women in his life, his fiancée and his second best friend.

Three Months Later…

"Trance! You look, you look beautiful." Beka said as Trance appeared in her wedding gown. "That color brings out the purple in your skin."

"Thank you Beka." Trance said a bit shyly.

Trance was wearing a light peach dress which did indeed draw out the lilac coloring that remained in her skin. Her dress was accentuated by pieces of silver jewelry which complimented the gold in her skin. Her hair was pulled back into a bundle which was covered by a cloth the same color as the dress, and tied with a silk ribbon slightly darker than the dress. The dress was a traditional Earth style that Trance, Beka, and Rommie had found during their search of the databases. The dress was originally cut to show off a pendant or necklace, but was now displaying the star shaped coloring on Trance's throat.

"Trance, if Harper doesn't like you in this dress we're gonna need to get his eyes checked." Beka joked as Trance moved across the room to sit in a chair large enough to not hurt the dress.

"Thank you Beka, thank you for all your help in planning this wedding." Trance said as she tried to remain calm, resisting the nervousness threatening to escape.

"Relax Trance, you'll be fine. Just like we practiced. Just remember, we have representatives of all the Commonwealth Charter worlds as guests. We need to make sure you look your best." Beka said as she fiddled with the few pieces of ornamentation hanging on Trance. Trance was wearing a pair of earrings that Harper had given her as engagement presents. They were made of silver. There was a matching pendant that went with the earrings, but Trance decided not to wear that.

There was a knock at the door. When Rommie went to see who it was, Dylan stepped into the room.

"Are you almost ready Trance?" He asked approaching the bride.

"Yes, I am ready." Trance said standing up and turning to look at Dylan.

Dylan smiled.

"That's good, but we're still waiting on Harper. He's late." Dylan said with mild reproach in his voice.

"My sensors show that he's in the machine shop pacing." Rommie told them.

Dylan sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Rommie, would you please ask him to join us so that he can get married?" Dylan asked the avatar.

"Of course Dylan." She replied.

Harper was in the Machine Shop trying to pace a hole into the next deck. His nervousness had gotten the better of him. He was dressed in a tuxedo that was slightly away from traditional. It had no collar and was styled after an ancient Japanese design that Harper had liked.

The hologram of Andromeda appeared as Harper was beginning his fortieth lap.

"Harper, are you going to get married today or pace a hole to the cargo bays?" She asked him as he continued to pace by her image.

"I'm just nervous, that's all. Can't a guy be nervous on his own wedding day?" He asked the hologram. Seeing the look on her face he stopped pacing and turned to face her. Releasing his breath in a sigh Harper looked at the hologram.

"Andromeda, how does Trance look?" He asked her.

"She looks very beautiful, and she is just as nervous as you are, except she isn't pacing a hole in my decking." Andromeda tried to joke with him, see that it didn't work she went on. "Relax Harper, it's your wedding day. Thing of it like this, you're marrying Trance, you have no baby Magog in your stomach, and the universe is smiling on you. Cheer up!" She told him with a smile.

"You're right. I'll bet everyone is waiting for me huh?" He asked as he slowly started to walk towards the door.

"Yes and no. Yes they are waiting for you, and no not just for you. Trance is waiting for you to arrive before she'll go out. We can't have a wedding without the groom." The hologram told him.

"You're right, you can't have a wedding without the groom. Tell them I'm on my way and will be there in a few minutes." Harper told her as he began to run down the corridor to the Observation Deck.

"Harper is on his way up here." Rommie reported to Dylan.

"Good, good. Well Trance, I'm going back out there and will be waiting for you both." Dylan told her, he then surprised her by giving her a hug. "I'm so happy for you both." He whispered in her ear.

"Thank you Dylan." She whispered back.

Dylan released her and left the room, leaving Trance, Beka, and Rommie alone once again.

There was silence in the room as each women tried to think of a reason to speak or words that should be spoken. There were no more preparations to make, no more little details to work out. All that was left was waiting.

Rommie finally broke the silence with a report of Harper's progress.

"Harper is almost here. Trance you should get ready. He'll need a few moments to catch his breath, he ran the whole way." Rommie told them.

And sure enough, opening the door to the Observation Deck a few inches, the three watched as Harper ran into the room completely breathless.

"Hey Dylan." He said as he nearly fell into the other man. "Glad you could make it."

"Nice to see that you made it too. Now, Mr. Harper. If you could possibly stand on your own we can get started." Dylan said as he helped straighten the young man. Harper just grinned.

Harper had asked Tyr to be his best man, when the Nietzschean had heard this he had turn him down, but after a some consideration that told Harper that he would accept the position. Tyr was now standing behind Harper, and was prepared to perform all the Best man's duties. He was wearing a tuxedo similar to Harper's. Harper mused on how hard it had been to get Tyr to wear the tux.

"You want me to wear what?" Tyr asked when Harper showed him the tuxedo he was to wear.

"It's just like mine Tyr." Harper told him, trying to get the murderous gleam out of his eyes.

"I refuse to wear such a ridiculous outfit."

"Come on Tyr. It won't be so bad. It'll make you look stronger and bigger too. I'm sure it'll impress Beka." Harper said.

He was quick to move as Tyr lunged at him for his comment about Beka. Then he considered that the boy may be right.

"Very well. I will wear the … garment. But only under protest." Tyr said, pointing his finger at Harper.

"Understood." Harper said as he back out of the room.

Trance had asked Beka to be her maid of honor, Beka accepted the offer right away. She was wearing a simpler dress than the one Trance had on, as did Rommie.

Rommie was the acting ring bearer, carrying the rings on a pillow of silk.

Dylan was wearing a full High Guard uniform. As the Captain he was performing the ceremony, so he had to be in full High Guard uniform.

Rev had been persuaded to return from his travels to walk Trance down the aisle. Rev was wearing a Wayist monk's robe that somehow compliment the outfits of his friends.

Dylan signaled to Rommie to begin the wedding march. As the music began to swirl around the guests, Harper's breath caught in his throat as he caught his first glimpse of Trance.

Rev took trances arm and started to walk her down the aisle.

"I am so happy that the Divine has given you to Harper and he to you." Rev whispered to Trance, as he and Trance stepped into the wedding aisle.

"So am I Rev. Thank you for being here." She whispered to him

"I wouldn't have missed it for the universe." He told her as they continued down the aisle.

She was walking down the aisle towards her Husband to be and Dylan, the man who would join them together as a couple, forever. Her eyes were now focused only on Harper, who looked very handsome in his tuxedo, his spiky blond hair as disheveled as ever.

Passing the dignitaries from the Charter worlds, some of who were smiling as she passed by. Trance didn't notice them, however, her eyes never left Harper's.

After completing the short walk down the aisle, Trance took Harper's hand in hers as Dylan began the ceremony. Beka moved off to Trance's left and Rev went to stand beside Tyr.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to day to join these two in the bonds of Holy Matrimony." Dylan read from the flexi in his hand.

As the time neared for the two to exchange their vows, Harper's mind kept wondering how he'd been lucky enough to get this beautiful, yet dangerous, woman to be his bride. Harper smiled at the thought of being able to spend the rest of his life with this enchanting woman who had captured his heart and soul.

Trance's mind was wandering along the same path as Harper's was. How could she be this lucky? Here she was marrying this man who made her feel as though every breath she took was a special moment. As though every touch he gave her was to be cherished and remembered. When had she first gotten these feelings? She asked herself, but the answer didn't come. Was that because there was no answer? Or because the feelings had always been there since she had first met Harper onboard the Maru? She wasn't sure and didn't care, she was marrying Harper and that was all that mattered.

"Harper and Trance will now exchange the vows which they wrote themselves." Dylan told the assembled guests.

"Trance," Harper began, "I can't remember when I first knew that I loved you. Whether it was when you were still purple and sparkly, or when you changed into the person before me, I'm not sure. But I know that when I'm not with you I'm thinking about you. When I'm not thinking about you or with you, I'm wishing I were with you. You are the one true thing in this universe that I've been looking for my whole life. You have the one thing I've been searching the galaxies for, love. I don't know if I'll ever be able to give you the amount of love I see shining through in your eyes, but I'll try." Harper had to pause as tears started to fill his eyes. "Trance, I would die to protect you and I would kill to do the same. I will put your life above mine always, for your love is the most important thing in the universe. You, Trance, are the most important thing to me from now 'till forever." He managed to finish without crying too badly.

Trance was holding back the tears as Harper finished. It was now her turn to speak, gathering strength from his words she proceeded to speak.

"Harper, I don't know when I realized that I love you. I do know that I've had feelings for you since we met on the Maru. I do love you, and will do anything to protect you and keep you safe. I have seen many different possibilities, and the worse ones were always without you. All the best possibilities included you in them, happy and strong. From now on our lives and destinies will be intertwined as one. We will be living for and with each other until the end of our days. You are the most precious thing to me now. You are the piece that completes my soul, completes my life. In you eyes I see a love that others will never know, and for that I am glad. Glad that I will be the only one to see that love, glad to know that I will be the only one to receive that love. Harper you are the love of my life, and I'm not sure if I could live without you in my life." Trance told him. Harper now had tears flowing down his cheeks, as did Trance.

Beka and Rommie were the same, even though Rommie couldn't actually cry. Rev was close to tears, if a Magog could cry. Even Tyr was close to tears, though he would never admit it.

During the vows they had slipped the rings on each other's finger, completing the joining of their souls. The rings were matching pieces of platinum, Trance's ring had a small diamond set into it. Each ring had to other person's name engraved into it. Harper on Trance's and Trance on Harper's.

Dylan waited a few seconds before continuing on with the ceremony.

"Then by the powers vested in me as Captain of this ship, and by the Commonwealth, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride." Dylan finished.

Harper and Trance wasted no time in kissing, as soon as Dylan had said 'may' they were already in a passionate kiss. Pulling apart and grinning, Trance and Harper turned to face the audience.

"May I introduce, Mr. And Mrs. Seamus Zelazny Harper." Dylan said over the applause the radiated from the guests.

Harper and Trance grinned like children.

As the guests started to head towards the reception in Hydroponics, Dylan, Beka, Rommie, Tyr, and Rev, stopped Harper and Trance from leaving.

"You guys." Beka said as she hugged them both. "That was so beautiful."

"A very nice ceremony. May the Divine continue to bless both of you." Rev said as he too hugged them.

"Thank you Rev." Trance said.

"I'm glad you could make it Rev." Harper told the Wayist.

"Harper, Trance. I never thought this day would come. You guys look so happy together." Rommie said as she gave Trance and then Harper a hug.

"Thanks Rommie." Replied Trance.

"I guess this means no more flirting, huh Rommie?" Harper asked as he received his hug. He then received a hit on the arm from Rommie, Trance and Beka. "Ow, I was just kidding." He said defensively. The three women only laughed.

"You have both done well. I am sure that you will both be happy." Tyr said as he stood in the back of the crowd.

"Thank you Tyr." Trance said as she went up to the Nietzschean and gave him a hug. Tyr stiffened and the unexpectedly returned the hug.

"Thanks Tyr." Harper said shaking his hand, leaning close to Tyr, Harper whispered, "and I told you Beka would like the Tux. She hasn't taken her eyes off you all night." Harper told him. Looking in Beka's direction, Tyr did indeed catch her eyes on him. He smiled at her. "Thank you boy." He told Harper in a low whisper.

Tyr then moved to stand next to Beka, laving room for Dylan to approach the couple.

"Trance, I never thought this day would come. I'm so happy that you've finally found someone who makes you happy, even if it is Mr. Harper." Dylan said as he wrapped Trance in a hug.

"Hey!" Harper said as Dylan released his wife and moved on to him.

"Sorry about that Mr. Harper. I am very happy for you both. You of all people deserve to be happy." Dylan told him as he gave Harper a hug.

"Thanks Dylan." Harper said, returning the hug.

"Hey, since we're all here why don't we take a group photo to remember today.?" Harper asked as the wedding photographer returned to the Observation Deck at the request of Andromeda who had appeared in hologram form to talk to him.

"Sounds good to me." And other such phrases were heard from the group.

Everyone moved into a pose that the photographer liked. Having achieved the right pose the photographer took several pictures of the group. They all knew that this may well be the last time the entire crew, including Rev Bem, would be gathered together for any reason.

After the photos had been taken the group moved towards the entrance to the Observation Deck. Only Harper and Trance held back.

They both moved towards the window. As one they held each other and stared out into the blackness of space.

"Trance, I want you to know that I'll be by your side forever. Until the end of the universe. I will never leave you alone." He whispered into her ear.

"I know Harper. I want you to know that I am always going to be here for you, always by your side. Forever, until the day we both die and beyond that." She replied.

Turning to look at each other they stared into each other's eyes for several long moments.

After these moments passed they gently kissed, not a passionate kiss, but one meant to reassure the other that they would always be together.

Turning around, they walked towards the reception awaiting them in the Hydroponics Bay. Realizing how late they were they took each others hand and ran the whole way to Hydroponics, laughing like children.

A little later, after the traditional feeding each other the cake, Trance and Harper excused themselves and left for their quarters.

Reaching their quarter's Harper stopped just before the door. He turned to look at Trance, reaching up and removing the cloth from her hair he smiled.

"There, that's better. You know at first I didn't like your dreadlocks, but now I do." He told her as her gathered her into his arms for a hug that she returned. Picking her up off her feet, Harper proceeded to carry Trance over the threshold.

"It's said to bring good luck and happiness. It's an old Earth tradition." He told her as they crossed from the corridor to their new quarters.

As the door closed behind them there was a wealth of emotions on both their faces, the most noticeable being joy. They now both had a family, they never needed to worry about being alone, and they had both found their soul mate.

As Andromeda engaged the privacy mode, she couldn't help but wonder what fate had in store for the new couple. She could only hope that their life together would be a happy and pleasant one.

Fin