Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, or Andromeda. They all
belong to their respective owners. The purpose of this story is to
entertain fans of the show. I am not making anything of monetary value by
writing this story.
Cold Medicine.
Harper lay; working under an access panel, fixing small problems around Andromeda was a familiar task to him. Dylan had on occasion asked him how he managed to do the job of a whole team of engineers, his reply being that he had the rest of the crew help when something serious went wrong, other than that it was just about the same amount of work as on the Maru, its systems were far less reliable than Andromeda's, well, except the slipstream drive, for some unknown reason that thing never worked right for very long.
Mostly Rommie's droids could take care of most of the repairs, but he preferred to do them himself as he is a lot faster and he can learn about all of Rommies systems, he was a genius, he was, he knew, he had to teach himself most of what he knew, mostly because his parents died when he was young.
He never talked about his past, just like Trance never talked about hers, at first it had driven him crazy, she was, and still is, such an enigma. But he understood that she had her own reasons to conceal her past, he could understand that and she knew that he knew; it was an unspoken promise that they both held with high regard.
There were moments that their friendship was tested by his near discovery of her past, well more like partial discovery. But he had often, all too readily given up at any hint that he was causing her distress, he had learned only a little about her past, more than he let her know, but still only a small part, it seemed to him that she had a dark past and had done things that she regretted. But it didn't matter, she was one of his dearest and closest friends and he trusted her completely, you cant fake the kind of friendship she showed him and the others, neither was she as harmless as she let on.
That was another thing, his work gave him time to think, to ponder the mysteries of the universe, but trying to solve the Trance puzzle, was futile, every time he got a lead, he gave it away, like the time he gave her the library because he knew it made her nervous, because it had info in it about her, he said it was because it was safer that he was away from it, but he only gave it to her because it would make her happy.
Right then his thoughts were interrupted by the intercom:
"Harper, Please meet me on the command deck." Dylan commanding voice came through the intercom.
"Yeah, yeah, sure thing boss."
Harper knew that Dylan couldn't hear him, but it made him feel better from being dragged away from his work and his train of thought.
On the command deck there was the usual, Dylan wandering back and forth to various consoles, Beka at the 1st officers station as they were not in slipstream, and Tyr at the tactical station.
Dylan then walked over to Harper to discuss why he had been called up to the command deck.
Dylan had an ability to stay calm in the direst of circumstances, and was able to look nonchalant even when he was angry, but during the time he had been on Andromeda, he had learned to read Dylan's expressions finely enough to tell what he was feeling, to a degree anyway. Today however he saw nothing out of the ordinary in the captain's features and no panic evident in the rest of the bridge crew.
So, whatever it was that Dylan had called him up here for it couldn't be anything too important, probably some errand he wanted him to do.
"Mr.Harper, Remember that spaceport we visited a few days ago?" asked Dylan.
"Sure" replied Harper, they had to stop at a spaceport to restock and get some parts, nothing major.
"Well it seems that there was an outbreak of some kind of flu while we where there, and I'm sending the whole crew down to med deck to get a check up, you first because you are the most likely to have caught it" Dylan said
"Damn, I hate being ill, I really hate being ill, thanks for the concern boss" Harper said turning for the door.
He hated going to med deck as well, not because Trance would be there; but because he hated being ill, but him would rush down there if there were the chance that illness could be avoided. It was for that reason that particular room held bad memories for him, it was where he was when he was ill, he would spend weeks on end in agony in there.
Trance tried to cheer him up the best she could but despite this it still wasn't the place he liked to be with his purple friend.
Harper walked through the door to medical to find Trance standing by an examination table, obviously expecting him.
"Hey, babe" said Harper cheerfully as he walked up to her.
"Good morning Harper" said Trance looking up from the console and smiling.
"I hope it is," said Harper
"I doubt that you contracted the illness, and even if you did, it's not serious." Trance said, understanding.
"Yeah, but I really don't like being ill Trance, I hate being here." Harper said
The smile on Trances face disappeared and turned to that of slight hurt. Harper noticed.
"But I'm glad you're here when I am" He said in a friendly tone.
Trance smiled at Harper, Harper grinned back.
"Okay Trance, babe, lets see it Seamus Harper has finally managed to avoid an illness for once in his life." Harper joked, ending the short staring contest.
After Trance had finished scanning him she turned to him, with a slightly amused slightly apologetic look on her face.
"Don't tell me Trance, I've caught it haven't I, damn it, why, every single time!" Harper said in an annoyed tone before flopping back onto the examination table.
"Well actually Harper, you don't have the illness that broke out at the spaceport, you actually have a cold, but it hasn't started to show yet. Sorry." Trance said showing a much more truthful apologetic smile."
"Well, its better than some contagious flu I suppose" Harper said disappointed
"Well I'm going to get back to work before the cold start to show itself" See you later Trance.
"Harper wait." Trance called after him.
"What?" He asked.
"Don't you think it would be better if you stayed here, even a cold can be fatal to your weakened immune system." Trance pleaded with her ever- difficult patient.
"Trance, I really hate being bedridden, ill come back when my symptoms start to show, promise." Harper said defiantly.
"Okay, but as soon as they do, come back here, please." Trance stressed the last part, she knew that he often listened to her more than a lot of people, but was still reluctant when it came to his healthcare.
"Hey, don't worry your little purple self about me, I'll be fine, and I'll come back here as soon as the cold gets worse." Harper said, he then turned and exited before Trance had a chance to plead with him not to go.
After Harper had finished the repair he was working on before Dylan had called him he got up, took a deep breath, he noticed then that his nose was becoming blocked.
"Damn, I don't think its worth going to medical yet, I can still get in a few more hours of work before then." Harper thought to himself.
"What's next, oh yeah, the faulty sensors in section 7A." Harper remembered. He then set off to his next task.
On the bridge there was a sudden alarm sound the bridge crew were all alert and working away at their consoles at a significantly faster rate than normal.
"I'm detecting two small ships exiting ships, both appear to be armed." The holographic image of Andromeda said, as the ships could be seen exiting slipstream in front of them"
"Battle stations!" called Dylan, Beka abandoned her station to Rev, who had walked onto the bridge a few seconds prior, and sat down in the pilot's chair, ready to do some fancy manoeuvres if necessary,
During the few seconds of the crew getting into battle readiness, Andromeda had gathered more information about the ships.
"The ships are engaging each other, they seem to have no interest in us, for now anyway." The ships AI said.
"Neither ships is a match for us, it is my theory that their fighting has nothing to do with us and we should give them some space, and return fire if the winner turns their attention to us." Recommended the AI.
"Agreed, take us to a safe distance" Ordered Dylan.
"You got it" replied Beka, obviously just a bit disappointed that it looked like she wouldn't get to do anything very impressive.
However, as the Andromeda began to move away from the skirmishing ships, one of the ships scored a direct hit on one of the other ships engines, having lost one engine; the ship made a sharp curve, and smashed straight into the Andromeda, with an explosion that shook the ship and sent some of the bridge crew to the floor.
While the crew of the Andromeda was recovering from the jolt the other ship made haste its escape, as the pilot believed that the Andromeda would retaliate, the ship got into slipstream quickly and vanished from the sensors.
"Damage" called Dylan, knowing Rommie would give him a full damage report.
"Extensive damage to section 7A" reported the android. "I've sealed breaches in the hull," the android continued.
"Rommie put me through to Harper" Dylan said, wanting to get the engineer on the damage as soon as possible.
"Yes sir" Rommie replied, Dylan knew that the comm. Link had been opened by the time she had finished speaking.
"Mr.Harper?" questioned Dylan.
"Mr.Harper, respond." Dylan repeated, at hearing no reply he turned to Rommie. "Where is Harper?" he questioned to Ai turned crewmember.
Rommies eyes glazed over for a second as she used her internal scanners to locate the engineer, this took less than a second and she turned back to Dylan.
"I cannot locate Harper"
"Why, you didn't say your internal sensors were damaged." Dylan inquired, stunned by the lapse of his ships AI.
"My sensors appear to be working fine, apart from the faulty ones in section-…" Realization struck her.
"Harper must have been in section 7A during the attack working on my faulty sensors!" Rommie said suddenly panicked.
"Oh no" said Dylan quietly, before running to section 7A as fast as his legs could carry him there.
When Dylan arrived in the desired section he realised just how bad the damage was, rubble was everywhere, pipes burst, conduits broken and wires sparking with contact with other wires.
Dylan ran around searching all the section not finding Harper anywhere, he finally came to a stop near a pile of rubble, smoke coming from underneath it, Dylan would not have paid much attention to it, had there not been a thin river of blood trickling out from the rubble forming a puddle in the middle of the deck.
Dylan rushed to it and began moving the largest pieces of metal and throwing them to the side, after removing several pieces, he reveals the unconscious face of his engineer, removing more pieces he discovers several large gashes on his body but most alarmingly a gash on his head a sharp piece of metal impaling him in the left shoulder.
Dylan activated his communicator and spoke into it with urgency,
"Trance, get down here, medical emergency" he didn't wait for a response, he knew she would be on her way, he turned his attention back to removing the rubble from around Harper.
As Dylan had not had time to get Rommie to send the message to Trance alone the message was heard by everyone on board. Beka immediately ran for the door, and was soon well on her way to help her friend.
Trance however was already there when Beka arrived, Dylan had the rubble almost out of the way, but the situation was made worse by the fact that the metal impaling Harper was still attached to the deck.
At seeing Beka's arrival Dylan immediately gave her a task,
"Beka, get a laser cutter, we cant risk pulling him off this thing, we'll have to cut it off the deck!" Dylan called to her.
Beka took off down the corridor in search of a laser cutter.
"Rommie!" Beka called while running aimlessly searching the corridors.
"Yes, Beka" Asked Andromeda.
"Where is there a Laser cutter in section 7A?" Beka inquired, out of breath.
"There is a laser cutter in a storage cabinet in corridor 4" the disembodied voice of Andromeda said.
Beka ran directly to corridor 4 as fast as she could
When she arrived back she passed the laser cutter to Dylan and tried to get her breath back.
It was at that moment that Trance arrived with a stretcher, her face turning into that of horror as she looked down at her almost dead friend.
Dylan began cutting the shard from the deck, doing his best not to cut through Harpers shoulder. After several seconds of cutting the metal came free.
Both Beka and Dylan heaved Harper up onto the stretcher and began the trip up to the medical deck.
Harper felt no pain as the blackness that was his vision turned to a blur of colours, that slowly formed into a picture, he could see his crewmates at the sides of his stretcher, he couldn't hear a sound and he couldn't move he could only see what was happening around him.
His vision then went back to black, an immeasurable amount of time later his vision came again, he could see Dylan pick him up and moving him to put him onto a bed, he tried to speak, to asked what was going on but couldn't, this time he could hear but only distorted sounds, he could hear voices, one he could recognise as Beka, and the other Trance, but their words were as blurry as his vision, he heard Dylan speak as he put him down onto the bed, but he couldn't make out his words either.
With the contact of his body to the bed his vision again became black.
Trance had worked fast on his shoulder, and had given him painkillers, antibiotics and other medication that would help. She had also hooked him up to a life support machine and had given him blood. She had done all she could, but Harper was now in a coma.
All they could do was hope that he would wake.
That night the two beds by Harpers were both occupied, one by Trance on his right to keep an eye on him overnight in case something happened or he woke up.
And Beka, who saw Harper as a little brother and had insisted on watching ever him, occupied the bed to his left. Both Beka and Trance were awake, neither of them could sleep through worry, both hoped that the only sleeping occupant of the room would wake up.
Cold Medicine.
Harper lay; working under an access panel, fixing small problems around Andromeda was a familiar task to him. Dylan had on occasion asked him how he managed to do the job of a whole team of engineers, his reply being that he had the rest of the crew help when something serious went wrong, other than that it was just about the same amount of work as on the Maru, its systems were far less reliable than Andromeda's, well, except the slipstream drive, for some unknown reason that thing never worked right for very long.
Mostly Rommie's droids could take care of most of the repairs, but he preferred to do them himself as he is a lot faster and he can learn about all of Rommies systems, he was a genius, he was, he knew, he had to teach himself most of what he knew, mostly because his parents died when he was young.
He never talked about his past, just like Trance never talked about hers, at first it had driven him crazy, she was, and still is, such an enigma. But he understood that she had her own reasons to conceal her past, he could understand that and she knew that he knew; it was an unspoken promise that they both held with high regard.
There were moments that their friendship was tested by his near discovery of her past, well more like partial discovery. But he had often, all too readily given up at any hint that he was causing her distress, he had learned only a little about her past, more than he let her know, but still only a small part, it seemed to him that she had a dark past and had done things that she regretted. But it didn't matter, she was one of his dearest and closest friends and he trusted her completely, you cant fake the kind of friendship she showed him and the others, neither was she as harmless as she let on.
That was another thing, his work gave him time to think, to ponder the mysteries of the universe, but trying to solve the Trance puzzle, was futile, every time he got a lead, he gave it away, like the time he gave her the library because he knew it made her nervous, because it had info in it about her, he said it was because it was safer that he was away from it, but he only gave it to her because it would make her happy.
Right then his thoughts were interrupted by the intercom:
"Harper, Please meet me on the command deck." Dylan commanding voice came through the intercom.
"Yeah, yeah, sure thing boss."
Harper knew that Dylan couldn't hear him, but it made him feel better from being dragged away from his work and his train of thought.
On the command deck there was the usual, Dylan wandering back and forth to various consoles, Beka at the 1st officers station as they were not in slipstream, and Tyr at the tactical station.
Dylan then walked over to Harper to discuss why he had been called up to the command deck.
Dylan had an ability to stay calm in the direst of circumstances, and was able to look nonchalant even when he was angry, but during the time he had been on Andromeda, he had learned to read Dylan's expressions finely enough to tell what he was feeling, to a degree anyway. Today however he saw nothing out of the ordinary in the captain's features and no panic evident in the rest of the bridge crew.
So, whatever it was that Dylan had called him up here for it couldn't be anything too important, probably some errand he wanted him to do.
"Mr.Harper, Remember that spaceport we visited a few days ago?" asked Dylan.
"Sure" replied Harper, they had to stop at a spaceport to restock and get some parts, nothing major.
"Well it seems that there was an outbreak of some kind of flu while we where there, and I'm sending the whole crew down to med deck to get a check up, you first because you are the most likely to have caught it" Dylan said
"Damn, I hate being ill, I really hate being ill, thanks for the concern boss" Harper said turning for the door.
He hated going to med deck as well, not because Trance would be there; but because he hated being ill, but him would rush down there if there were the chance that illness could be avoided. It was for that reason that particular room held bad memories for him, it was where he was when he was ill, he would spend weeks on end in agony in there.
Trance tried to cheer him up the best she could but despite this it still wasn't the place he liked to be with his purple friend.
Harper walked through the door to medical to find Trance standing by an examination table, obviously expecting him.
"Hey, babe" said Harper cheerfully as he walked up to her.
"Good morning Harper" said Trance looking up from the console and smiling.
"I hope it is," said Harper
"I doubt that you contracted the illness, and even if you did, it's not serious." Trance said, understanding.
"Yeah, but I really don't like being ill Trance, I hate being here." Harper said
The smile on Trances face disappeared and turned to that of slight hurt. Harper noticed.
"But I'm glad you're here when I am" He said in a friendly tone.
Trance smiled at Harper, Harper grinned back.
"Okay Trance, babe, lets see it Seamus Harper has finally managed to avoid an illness for once in his life." Harper joked, ending the short staring contest.
After Trance had finished scanning him she turned to him, with a slightly amused slightly apologetic look on her face.
"Don't tell me Trance, I've caught it haven't I, damn it, why, every single time!" Harper said in an annoyed tone before flopping back onto the examination table.
"Well actually Harper, you don't have the illness that broke out at the spaceport, you actually have a cold, but it hasn't started to show yet. Sorry." Trance said showing a much more truthful apologetic smile."
"Well, its better than some contagious flu I suppose" Harper said disappointed
"Well I'm going to get back to work before the cold start to show itself" See you later Trance.
"Harper wait." Trance called after him.
"What?" He asked.
"Don't you think it would be better if you stayed here, even a cold can be fatal to your weakened immune system." Trance pleaded with her ever- difficult patient.
"Trance, I really hate being bedridden, ill come back when my symptoms start to show, promise." Harper said defiantly.
"Okay, but as soon as they do, come back here, please." Trance stressed the last part, she knew that he often listened to her more than a lot of people, but was still reluctant when it came to his healthcare.
"Hey, don't worry your little purple self about me, I'll be fine, and I'll come back here as soon as the cold gets worse." Harper said, he then turned and exited before Trance had a chance to plead with him not to go.
After Harper had finished the repair he was working on before Dylan had called him he got up, took a deep breath, he noticed then that his nose was becoming blocked.
"Damn, I don't think its worth going to medical yet, I can still get in a few more hours of work before then." Harper thought to himself.
"What's next, oh yeah, the faulty sensors in section 7A." Harper remembered. He then set off to his next task.
On the bridge there was a sudden alarm sound the bridge crew were all alert and working away at their consoles at a significantly faster rate than normal.
"I'm detecting two small ships exiting ships, both appear to be armed." The holographic image of Andromeda said, as the ships could be seen exiting slipstream in front of them"
"Battle stations!" called Dylan, Beka abandoned her station to Rev, who had walked onto the bridge a few seconds prior, and sat down in the pilot's chair, ready to do some fancy manoeuvres if necessary,
During the few seconds of the crew getting into battle readiness, Andromeda had gathered more information about the ships.
"The ships are engaging each other, they seem to have no interest in us, for now anyway." The ships AI said.
"Neither ships is a match for us, it is my theory that their fighting has nothing to do with us and we should give them some space, and return fire if the winner turns their attention to us." Recommended the AI.
"Agreed, take us to a safe distance" Ordered Dylan.
"You got it" replied Beka, obviously just a bit disappointed that it looked like she wouldn't get to do anything very impressive.
However, as the Andromeda began to move away from the skirmishing ships, one of the ships scored a direct hit on one of the other ships engines, having lost one engine; the ship made a sharp curve, and smashed straight into the Andromeda, with an explosion that shook the ship and sent some of the bridge crew to the floor.
While the crew of the Andromeda was recovering from the jolt the other ship made haste its escape, as the pilot believed that the Andromeda would retaliate, the ship got into slipstream quickly and vanished from the sensors.
"Damage" called Dylan, knowing Rommie would give him a full damage report.
"Extensive damage to section 7A" reported the android. "I've sealed breaches in the hull," the android continued.
"Rommie put me through to Harper" Dylan said, wanting to get the engineer on the damage as soon as possible.
"Yes sir" Rommie replied, Dylan knew that the comm. Link had been opened by the time she had finished speaking.
"Mr.Harper?" questioned Dylan.
"Mr.Harper, respond." Dylan repeated, at hearing no reply he turned to Rommie. "Where is Harper?" he questioned to Ai turned crewmember.
Rommies eyes glazed over for a second as she used her internal scanners to locate the engineer, this took less than a second and she turned back to Dylan.
"I cannot locate Harper"
"Why, you didn't say your internal sensors were damaged." Dylan inquired, stunned by the lapse of his ships AI.
"My sensors appear to be working fine, apart from the faulty ones in section-…" Realization struck her.
"Harper must have been in section 7A during the attack working on my faulty sensors!" Rommie said suddenly panicked.
"Oh no" said Dylan quietly, before running to section 7A as fast as his legs could carry him there.
When Dylan arrived in the desired section he realised just how bad the damage was, rubble was everywhere, pipes burst, conduits broken and wires sparking with contact with other wires.
Dylan ran around searching all the section not finding Harper anywhere, he finally came to a stop near a pile of rubble, smoke coming from underneath it, Dylan would not have paid much attention to it, had there not been a thin river of blood trickling out from the rubble forming a puddle in the middle of the deck.
Dylan rushed to it and began moving the largest pieces of metal and throwing them to the side, after removing several pieces, he reveals the unconscious face of his engineer, removing more pieces he discovers several large gashes on his body but most alarmingly a gash on his head a sharp piece of metal impaling him in the left shoulder.
Dylan activated his communicator and spoke into it with urgency,
"Trance, get down here, medical emergency" he didn't wait for a response, he knew she would be on her way, he turned his attention back to removing the rubble from around Harper.
As Dylan had not had time to get Rommie to send the message to Trance alone the message was heard by everyone on board. Beka immediately ran for the door, and was soon well on her way to help her friend.
Trance however was already there when Beka arrived, Dylan had the rubble almost out of the way, but the situation was made worse by the fact that the metal impaling Harper was still attached to the deck.
At seeing Beka's arrival Dylan immediately gave her a task,
"Beka, get a laser cutter, we cant risk pulling him off this thing, we'll have to cut it off the deck!" Dylan called to her.
Beka took off down the corridor in search of a laser cutter.
"Rommie!" Beka called while running aimlessly searching the corridors.
"Yes, Beka" Asked Andromeda.
"Where is there a Laser cutter in section 7A?" Beka inquired, out of breath.
"There is a laser cutter in a storage cabinet in corridor 4" the disembodied voice of Andromeda said.
Beka ran directly to corridor 4 as fast as she could
When she arrived back she passed the laser cutter to Dylan and tried to get her breath back.
It was at that moment that Trance arrived with a stretcher, her face turning into that of horror as she looked down at her almost dead friend.
Dylan began cutting the shard from the deck, doing his best not to cut through Harpers shoulder. After several seconds of cutting the metal came free.
Both Beka and Dylan heaved Harper up onto the stretcher and began the trip up to the medical deck.
Harper felt no pain as the blackness that was his vision turned to a blur of colours, that slowly formed into a picture, he could see his crewmates at the sides of his stretcher, he couldn't hear a sound and he couldn't move he could only see what was happening around him.
His vision then went back to black, an immeasurable amount of time later his vision came again, he could see Dylan pick him up and moving him to put him onto a bed, he tried to speak, to asked what was going on but couldn't, this time he could hear but only distorted sounds, he could hear voices, one he could recognise as Beka, and the other Trance, but their words were as blurry as his vision, he heard Dylan speak as he put him down onto the bed, but he couldn't make out his words either.
With the contact of his body to the bed his vision again became black.
Trance had worked fast on his shoulder, and had given him painkillers, antibiotics and other medication that would help. She had also hooked him up to a life support machine and had given him blood. She had done all she could, but Harper was now in a coma.
All they could do was hope that he would wake.
That night the two beds by Harpers were both occupied, one by Trance on his right to keep an eye on him overnight in case something happened or he woke up.
And Beka, who saw Harper as a little brother and had insisted on watching ever him, occupied the bed to his left. Both Beka and Trance were awake, neither of them could sleep through worry, both hoped that the only sleeping occupant of the room would wake up.