Title: Friends Forever
Author: LittleRedhead
Rating: PG13 to be safe
Spoilers: Bunker Hill and some Season 1
Summary: A Harper/Trance action story
Disclaimer: I do not own Adromeda or its characters. I am also making no money from this story.
Chapter 1
In her nightmare Trance Gemini ran along a rocky slope on an unfamiliar planet. The sun was hidden behind clouds; lending an eerie atmosphere to the situation. The purple girl ran as fast as she could, knowing Harper was in danger. The short human was always in danger in her dream.
Trance ran for what seemed like miles before coming to the edge of a forest. She slowed down and cautiously entered the forest. It was dark in the forest but Trance always seemed to know which way to go. She followed the shrill Magog howls in the distance, instinctively knowing that Harper was among the Magog.
Trance picked up the pace and started jogging towards the Magog. As she came within 100 meters of the Magog horde their shrieks suddenly stopped.
The golden woman heard some twigs snap behind her and a cold shiver traveled through her body. Trance dreaded turning around, since she knew the outcome, but couldn't resist the temptation.
Trance slowly turned around in the direction of the noise and froze at what she saw. Standing in front of her was Harper, covered in cuts and bites from the Magog.
"Trance, you're too late," Harper murmured as he collapsed into Trance's arms.
No! Not Harper. Why does it have to be him? Trance Gemini thought to herself as she sat on the bed in her quarters. Trance couldn't shake the feeling of dread that suddenly came over her as she meditated. She had these felt the same feeling before and something terrible always happened. This time it was different for the purple alien; the feeling of dread she felt was associated with Seamus Harper. Something awful was going to happen to him.
What made the premonitions all the more scary for Trance was that Harper had been in life threatening situations ever since the she had met the engineer. At no time did the purple pixie ever have a premonition; not even whenthe engineerwas infested with the Magog larvae. Trance wiped a tear from her cheek as she stood up. She had been having these premonitions concerning Andromeda's engineer for the past few days but kept the knowledge to herself. Trance vowed to keep an eye on her friend while she had the premonitions.
Even though Trance trusted the accuracy of those premonitions she didn't want to see the looks on the faces of the rest of the crew. Sure they might believe her, but there would be a lot of explaining involved. Explaining wasn't somethingthe alienwas very good at or cared to do.
As she walked down Andromeda's corridors the purple pixiethought up excuses for being around Harper. The Earther wasn't one for having company while he worked so Trance would have to make those excuses good ones. As she walked past Beka Valentine's quarters the blonde executive officer called out. In her haste Trance didn't even notice Beka.
"Hey Trance, did you hear me? Trance where ya goin' so fast?" Beka asked as she trotted after the purple woman.
Trance turned around towards Beka and uttered a hurried, "Can't talk now Beka."
Beka watched as the purple woman turned a corner and disappeared. The executive officer stopped and let out a breath. "Okay, that would be unusual if it didn't come from Trance."
Trance burst into Machine Shop 8, causing Harper to whirl around. The engineer had his hand on his gun, ready to pull it out of its holster, when he sawhis crewmate and took his hand away from the trigger. "Trance, what are you doing busting in here?"
Seeing her friend was alright Trance breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little. Okay Trance, think fast now. You can't tell him the truth yet. "Umm, I thought I left a poisonous plant in here last time stopped by. I wanted to get it before you or anybody else touched it."
Harper craned his neck trying to see a plant anywhere in the room. "Haven't seen any plants around here; poisonous or otherwise. You really should be more careful with your plants."
"I know and I will be more careful," the purplealien assured. "Harper, I'm glad I didn't leave my plant in here."
The human's face softened, although he still thought thealien girl was acting a bit strangely, even for her. He couldn't stay angry with Trance. Besides, it wasn'tTrance he was angry with. "Yeah, me too. I'm sorry Trance. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just really busy right now."
The alien gave Harper a wane smile as she put her hand in his. "I know. You've been busy lately. Maybe you should take a break."
"I would if I didn't have a list of repairs a mile long,"the engineerreplied as he returned to his project.
Trance decided the workthe Eartherwas doing wasn't dangerous enough to warrant her staying any longer. "I'll leave you alone then. I still have a poisonous plant to find."
The engineerdidn't even pause from his work. "Okay, yak at ya later Trance."
Trance left Machine Shop 8 with the feeling that she would be spending a lot of time in the immediate future watching after Harper. He would most likely just laugh it off and tell her she was crazy or mistaken, but Trance knew it was something more. It was too important to just let is slide.
An hour later Harper had finished his work and was in the mess hall rummaging around for a snack. The engineer was about to take a bite of a roasted chicken leg leftover from the previous night when Beka walked in.
"Leftover chicken? I don't know how you can eat leftovers Harper," the blonde pilot remarked as she poured a cup of coffee for herself.
The Earther smiled as he swallowed the last bite of meat from the drumstick still in his hand. "On earth this leftover chicken would be considered a delicacy. It's really good once you get past it being a few days old."
Harper grabbed a chicken wing and walked over to the blonde. Beka fended off the chicken wing Harper had waved playfully under her nose. She was in no mood to try new ways of getting food poisoning. "Harper, keep that chicken away from me if you want to keep your arm attached to your body."
The engineer chuckled at the threat. "Spacers! I can't believe that with your immune system you'd worry about getting sick from eating a little piece of three-day-old chicken wing."
"And with your immune system you should be more careful," Beka retorted, sitting down at one of the tables.
The engineer was unmoved by his taller friend'sreminder. "I've eaten worse on Earth and survived."
"Harper have you noticed whether Trance has been acting strange lately?" Beka asked, changing the subject.
A broad grin crossed the engineer's face in response to the question. "Strange is a relative term when talking about Trance. If you mean have I noticed Trance acting a little strange for Trance? The answer to that is a definite yes."
The executive officer nodded. Her suspicions had been correct. "That's what I thought, but I just wanted to make sure it wasn't just me. Maybe somebody should have a talk with her."
"Like that would do any good Boss. Trance will tell us only what she wants to tell us, nothing else. If she hasn't told us already then she doesn't want to," Harper reasoned.
"I know, but we need to at least ask her if something is wrong," Beka replied.
Harper shoved the rest of the chicken back into the refrigerator. "Are you volunteering then?"
The blonde pilot rolled her eyes at the engineer. "Okay fine. I'll go have a talk with Trance. I'm beginning to think there's more than one chicken in here."
The Earthers cowled at the blonde executive officer. "Ha ha. Very funny Boss. Well, now that I've had my snack I'll mosey on down to engineering and start checking off another repair job from my list."
Beka found Trance in Medical checking over a report. "Interesting reading?"
Trance looked up from the flexi in her hands and smiled at the executive officer. "That all depends on who's doing the reading. It's really rather mundane. Just the latest results on the scans I ran on Harper."
Beka's heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong with Harper. That's why Trance has been acting so strangely. Beka had all she could do to keep herself from grabbing the flexi from Trance. "Is there anything wrong with him? Trance, tell me Harper's okay."
"I'm sorry if I alarmed you Beka," Trance quickly apologized. "Relax Beka. Harper is in as good of health as he can be." If Trance were able to be more forthcoming she would have told Beka about having the same fears regarding the engineer's health.
Beka decided to just go ahead and ask the question she had come to ask. "That's a relief. Anything else you care to tell me Trance? I noticed you seemed to be acting out of sorts lately. Is anything the matter?"
"No. I've just been preoccupied with making sure my crew and my plants are healthy and prepared for a possible encounter with the Kelvan's," Trance informed. It wasn't a lie she told herself. She was trying to keep Andromeda's crew healthy, especially Harper.
That evening Seamus Harper was in the process of welding a piece metal back onto one of the Andromeda Ascendant's consoles when Trance appeared behind him.
"Care for a Sparky?" the purplepixie asked as she held out a can of the soda.
Startled,the humanturned abruptly to face his unexpected visitor. "Would you quit sneaking up on me like that? You're gonna give me a heart attack."
Trance tried to be careful not to startle her friend and crewmate. She knew how paranoid and jumpy the engineer could be. Harper had seemed extraordinarily jumpy lately that it was almost impossible not to startle him. "I'm sorry Harper I didn't mean to startle you."
"It's okay. I just didn't hear you coming," Harper replied before gulping down the cola.
"Dylan's been keeping you pretty busy with repairs lately I see," Trance remarked.
The Earther finished off the rest of the Sparky Cola and dropped onto the deck. "Yeah, he wants everything in tip top condition before we get into Kelvan space.
Trance smiled as she watched the engineer finish up his welding. "The Kelvan's aren't exactly jumping up and down with excitement about joining the restored Commonwealth."
Harper finished soldering one side of the metal to the console before turning shutting off the nanowelder. "That, my Purple Pixie, is an understatement. Uh Trance, don't tell me you just came here to bring me a Sparky?"
Trance looked down at the deck. There was more she wanted to say to the engineer, but she just didn't know how. "I just wanted to tell you to be careful."
The human looked at Trance as if her skin had just turned from purple toorange and shrugged his shoulders. "Umm… I will. Thanks. Why did you just tell me to be careful Trance?"
"I heard you were welding so I just wanted to tell you to be careful," Trance answered, hoping she hadn't aroused too much suspicion in the paranoid engineer.
The engineer was so intent on getting back to his work that he didn't give the answer too much thought. "Okay I appreciate the concern Trance. I don't mean to give you the brush off but I really should get back to work."
"That's okay Harper. I should get back to Hydroponics. See you later." The youthful alien replied cheerfully before returning to hydroponics to think. Tending her plants always seemed to help Trance think things out. Right now the purple girl had a lot of thinking to do.She had to try to figure out how to respond to her dreams.