TITLE: Vengeance
SUMMARY: After Harper is found shot things turn from bad to worse when Andromeda starts to malfunction - big time.
RATING: PG for mild swearing and some violence, just to be on the safe side.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Andromeda series, I'm just borrowing.
NOTES: Eek! My first fic! Feel free to make any comments, tell me if you don't get anything or point out my gaping plot holes, but be nice about it!
CHAPTER ONE - Teaser
"You may be able to forget the past, but the past will never forget you."
- Kelisian Proverb
^~*~^
The evening sky on Autriva rivalled all other sunsets that Harper had ever seen. Oranges and purples rioted with pinks and reds, making the entire planet glow. Sadly, Harper once again found himself staring not at the view but into nothingness. He was alone in the guest chamber of the Enyan hall, where Beka and Dylan were playing diplomats to two warring colonies. Harper had only his memories for company. They were bad memories, although recently he kept struggling to find any good ones at all. This date always punished him. It had been six years now.
Harper kicked the balcony door and looked around the room for anything that would keep his mind from reliving that day again. Maybe he should go to the negotiations....no, he wasn't wanted there. Usually on this day some life or death situation would come up and Harper wouldn't have to remember. Last year it was that whole ordeal with the Tesseract machine and those damn magog larvae.
The sound of someone entering thankfully pulled him from his thoughts. "Thank god, I thought you guys would be in there for hours." He said, turning around, but stopped when he saw a face he'd sooner forget.
"Hello Seamus."
^~*~^
Beka made screwed up her face and, as politely as she could, spit out the food that she had just bitten into. Dylan laughed beside her. "You know, I don't think the Enyans or the Setrinians would appreciate that Beka." He said, still keeping his 'everything's-just-great' mask on.
"I took it didn't I? I didn't think they would try to poison me!" Beka retaliated. "Besides I don't think a rude gesture is going to break up the Enyans and the Setrinians. Look at them, you'd think they were never at war."
Dylan and Beka stood in a grand hall filled with hundreds of colonists from Autriva. An hour ago they were divided into two factions that wouldn't stop trying to attack one another, but Dylan soon sorted that out. As it happened both the Setrinians and the Enyans were extremely persuasive and Dylan had talked them into 'making up' in a matter of hours. Now, as Beka said, they looked like the best of friends.
"Where's Harper, I thought you said he'd come if there was free food?" Dylan asked.
"I'm not sure. He's been a little...off lately." Beka answered.
"I noticed." Dylan replied. Harper had been quieter of late, spending more and more time in the machine shop. Beka had hoped some shore-leave would help.
"I don't know, sometimes I just don't get that guy." She commented. "I'll go find him. A party would do him good." She said, then added "Don't worry I'll try not to let him make too many rude gestures. Or jokes. Or comments....in fact it might be best if we just not let him speak." She added, then left to find Harper.
^~*~^
The dark-haired woman closed the door behind her gently. It took a moment for Harper to realise who it was. Her hair had changed and she wore different clothes but her voice was the same. It still tore at his skin and made his heart pound. Harper tensed and stumbled backwards. He had not seen Lane Farrow in years and he had hoped he never would again. It was no secret that Harper had a terrible past, and was a victim of innumerable atrocities. But there were other times that he had never spoken of, not even to Beka or Trance. Times when he hadn't been the victim. Lane Farrow was a symbol of everything Harper would sooner forget.
"What...what are you doing here?" Harper uttered, panicking.
"Aren't you happy to see me Seamus?" Lane asked. "I would have thought after six sterile years away from me you would be dying for a fix."
"No. I'm not that person any more." Harper denied cautiously.
"Don't feed me that crap, you know I never had a taste for your lies." Lane spat back. "What was it you said the last time we met? 'I'm just going to get your money'?"
Harper stammered. "I....I don't..."
"Oh, it's okay. I wasn't that bothered about the money. But you lied to me Seamus. And then, then you left me to rot in that hell while you went off with your little friends on that laughable excuse for a ship." The woman seethed.
Harper kept his eyes on her. Lane was unpredictable to say the least and she had a wild temper. Harper had learned to always keep his guard up around her. He silently tried to remember where he had placed his sidearm, but Lane's words were cutting through him like light through dark. Lane was possibly the only other living person that knew what Harper had been trying to forget for six years.
"And to top it off" Lane continued. "I had to hear about all the wild and wacky adventures of the Andromeda Ascendant and her crew. You've become quite the little explorer. Tell me, do your new friends know who you really are? Do they know the Seamus Harper that I had the privilege of knowing?" Harper was silent. "No, of course they don't. Why would you want anyone to know that?"
"What do you want?" He asked.
"What do you want?" Lane replied quickly. "You can't expect me to believe you're happy on that ship. I know you better than that. You know I can help you."
Harper shook his head. "No. I'm happy now, I left all my problems behind on Carna."
Lane approached him slowly. Harper recoiled but he was backed up against a wall. Lane leaned in closely, until Harper could feel her warm breath upon his neck. She lingered for a moment and then whispered. "You didn't leave me behind."
^~*~^
Beka rounded the corner and thought nothing of the dark-haired woman walking slowly at the opposite end of the corridor. She reached the guest room to find the door ajar.
"Harper?" She called, pushing the door open.
To say she was unprepared for the sight that awaited her was a horrific understatement. Harper was slumped against the wall, blood drizzling from a wound to his chest with his gun beside him. He was completely still.
^~*~^
End of chapter one
^~*~^