Harper: Identify
Part 1
"So everything is ok?" Harper checked as he appeared with athleticism from the inner workings of the Andromeda Ascendant, it had been nearly fourteen straight hours since he had first entered Rommie's most hard to get to areas.
"All systems are working," Andromeda revealed, her image appearing on the nearby screen.
His feet soon clattered loudly on the raised deck, and he began to move along the walkway to the ladder, going some of the way to rejoin the more social areas of the ship, he couldn't wait to grab a sparky, some food and then rest until someone broke the ship again.
"So just tell me one more time, Rom Doll, because I never tire of hearing it, all systems are working, right?" Harper smiled with joy.
"I can confirm, Harper that all my systems are working perfectly and within specified criteria, in fact, I would say I've not felt this good since the day I first left dry dock," Andromeda confirmed.
Harper looked a little suspicious at the AI as she appeared on a screen he passed, unsure if she was mocking him or not, but finally brightened. "Well, that makes a freaking change," he offered, as he finally put back the tools that he had been holding into his belt and stepped into the corridor. For a moment Harper savoured the feeling of being back in a familiar and social environment, before continuing to walk along the corridor.
Feeling as though he was ready to take on the universe, and whatever it wanted to throw at him, Harper decided to bask in his own glory of completing his task for the day. "The spring clean, or if you prefer annual overhaul of your most precious and totally beautiful working parts, my lovely Andromeda, are complete for another year, thank the divine," he beamed with some pride at his own work. "All fusion oils vented, all gases," Harper hesitated. "Er, re-gassed, and all pumps are a-pumping, this ship has never been so freaking loved," he smiled and kissed one of Andromeda's corridor bulkheads.
"Thank you Harper," Andromeda almost blushed as she appeared on a nearby screen in the corridor, getting caught up in her engineer's enthusiasm. "I can report a clean bill of health," Andromeda agreed with a satisfied smile. "How long until my avatar is back online?" she then asked.
"The diagnostic has another five hours to run, so not long now," Harper revealed, as he continued to walk, and he also tried to figure out the shortest route to command from his position.
Rommie disappeared from the screen satisfied with his response, but a few moments later reappeared in hologram form in front of the engineer.
"Strange," she commented, and noticed Harper stagger slightly from her sudden appearance before him in holographic form.
"Uh oh," Harper feared, it was never a good sign to see the warship looking the way she was now looking at him. "What have you detected? I'll get right on it," he insisted, retrieving his tools and already looking to move. "I knew it couldn't last, it never lasts," he complained.
"My systems are still fine, Harper," Rommie assured him quickly, but she still appeared distracted and Harper didn't move for the moment.
"Then what the hell is it?" Harper asked confused, when Rommie failed to continue.
"Stay right there, and don't move," Rommie instructed firmly without explanation, and disappeared.
Harper frowned, and he looked around, tempted to ignore the instruction but instead deciding to humour Rommie, and he remained where she asked him to stay and decided to tidy up his belt.
Rommie appeared in holographic form on Command, in an area as to not draw attention to herself, as she observed Dylan, Tyr and Beka mid-discussion.
"Dylan, the systems may be working fine now but there will be a time when they fail, we can't keep running like this!" Beka Valentine's voice was raised, as she stood in front of Dylan Hunt, on command.
"We need an engineer full time, it is ridiculous that we have gone this far without one," Tyr supported now from his position by the weapons controls. "It makes little sense to continue this quest of yours when we are so inadequately staffed for such a mission! We have been caught out many times, how long will that continue?" he demanded to make his point known. "We can't keep relying on damage somehow fixing itself, one day we will push this ship too far!"
"We'll get an engineer, but we need one we can trust and one who will fit in," Dylan insisted, sounding tired and it was clear this was not a new discussion by the frown he now wore. "I am looking, but there are not many trustworthy engineers in this universe, I can't just take onboard the first one we come across!"
"Surely the academy has an engineer we can borrow for a couple of years?" Beka stressed, sounding at her wits end with the situation.
"The first years are just that, still in their first years, it'll be another six months before the first graduates begin taking commissions," Dylan explained, and sounded as though it wasn't for the first time. "We need an engineer now, right? Are you honestly suggesting we grab some kid from an academy that is just a few months old?"
Rommie re-appeared before Dylan in hologram form, she looked at each crewmember in turn with confusion to try and size up the situation, but their words failed to make any sense to her. "What about Harper?" She calmly asked, looking forward to the response with interest.
"Harper?" Dylan checked. "Is this an engineer we've worked with in the past?" he seemed keen to know more, but not familiar with the name.
"You could say that Dylan, Harper is my chief engineer," Rommie returned, her arms now crossed, as it became clearer that no one bar her on command had heard of Harper.
"Your what?" Beka stepped forward now, sounding amused. "Rommie, it's just us, we do not have an engineer, chief or otherwise, we never have had."
"Yes we do," Rommie said carefully, and slowly. "But it appears you have all forgotten him, and I have no explanation why."
Beka threw her arms up. "Just great, now Rommie's gone crazy and there's no one on board to fix her!"
"I am not going crazy," Rommie insisted. "Dylan, I am not sure what is going on here, but we do have an engineer on board right now, and his name is Harper," she gestured to the view screen and flashed up images and files to show them Harper, in the hope it would jog their memories. "In fact he has just completed a full overhaul of my most vital systems, and that is why everything is working perfectly right now."
"What the hell?" Beka spoke up, seeing a stranger amongst them. "Who ever this guy is, this kid, he was not on any of these missions you're showing us here, we've never seen him before!" Beka insisted, and the others seemed to agree as they continued to watch the footage Rommie showed them.
"He was a part of your Maru crew, he was instrumental in pulling me free from the black hole," Rommie stated confidently. "And he is a very competent engineer; he's saved us countless times."
Beka just looked at her. "If he was my engineer on the Maru, don't you think that I would remember?"
"Yes, which is why I'm confused that you have no recollection of him," Rommie responded calmly.
"Andromeda, this person is not a member of my crew," Dylan was half smiling now, almost amused by her stance but there was anger behind his smile. "Now I don't know where these pictures came from, or how they have been so well manipulated that you believe them to be genuine, but I can assure you that they are fake," Dylan insisted. "In fact I think you should go into a self diagnostic and I think we should find this kid and deal with him."
"I am not crazy, and I will prove that Harper is a member of this crew," Andromeda insisted, and blinked out of sight.
"Beka, Tyr, I think we'll have to take the Andromeda AI offline for a while, certainly for non-vital systems, can you manage that?" Dylan asked, and then looked over with surprise towards the doors as they opened, and a short scruffy human stepped on command with a confidence and cockiness that Dylan became instantly suspicious of. "Andromeda," Dylan barked, as the kid continued to walk towards them, with an air of arrogance and too much familiarity.
Rommie blinked back into sight. "This, captain, is Seamus Harper our ships engineer," she stated.
"Rommie?" Harper finally spoke up, now confused, first she had ordered him to stand in the middle of a corridor and now she was introducing him to Dylan.
"No further," Dylan ordered drawing his force lance on Harper, and gesturing for him to stop his approach.
Harper froze and looked around as Beka drew her force lance on him too. "Jeez what is this, practical joke time, payback for that orange slime show incident last month?" Harper asked with confusion. "First Rommie is telling me where I can or can't stand, and now you," Harper paused, and saw that none of the crew seemed to even be looking as though they would be attempting a smile anytime soon. "You're actually threatening me?" he questioned unsure.
"Tyr," Dylan gestured.
Harper suddenly became aware of something being very wrong when Tyr roughly took his wrists, and secured them tightly together behind his back. "Ow, for freaks sake, what the hell is going on?" he looked to Rommie, who could only look apologetic and shrug in reply.
"I see no weapons," Dylan stated, looking at Harper with contempt.
"Captain," Rommie then turned to Dylan. "I'm not sure what has happened, but Harper is not a threat to us, and he is a part of this crew."
"I know what has happened, obviously this kid has decided to have some fun with your systems and make you believe that he is a member of this crew," Dylan accused and stepped closer to Harper, with suspicion. "Well tough break kid, you can't reprogram us in the same way to make us believe your games."
"Boss, I am the engineer on this ship," Harper spoke up, with an unthreatening stance in the hope it would convince the normally reasonable captain. "Listen to your ever so gorgeous ship, you normally do, I'm not some stupid kid who's playing games," he insisted, and then grimaced feeling Tyr's hold growing impatient. "I mean give me some credit, what you're suggesting is a stupid plan!" he protested, and immediately regretted it as he felt Tyr tug at his arms. "Ow," he complained.
"We can't trust him," Beka spoke up with suspicion now. "He looks human, and he looks trouble," she observed.
"Beka," Harper genuinely felt hurt as he heard his friend speak.
Beka didn't appreciate Harper's familiarity. "He could know too much, we don't know how long he's been on board but I'm guessing enough time to trick Rommie, this certainly appears to have been well planned," Beka continued to observe, and then she looked Harper up and down. "But this kid is a joke, trying his luck, and maybe he got this far but no further."
"And his over confidence has been his downfall," Dylan looked at Harper. "I give you some credit, you've infiltrated a high guard ship and by all accounts convinced her that you are her engineer, but I don't like hackers, especially not those that mess with my ship," Dylan confirmed. "Tyr, take him to the brig."
"I'm not a kid, or a hacker, at least not anymore on both counts," Harper insisted, and looked desperately around to Rommie to fix this mess. "Rom doll," he said with pleading in his voice.
"Captain, please, listen to me," Rommie requested. "Harper is my engineer I have many files to back up this claim, and you can take this to the council, to any of our member worlds and they will confirm this."
"He's good," Dylan was forced to admit, seeing how convinced his ship was about the boy's status on board. "I'm sorry, Andromeda," Dylan spoke sincerely. "But this kid has damaged your systems to make you believe he is a member of our crew, and we've been compromised, so I can not listen to you until the damage is repaired," Dylan authorised. "Beka set a course to Sinti, I'm putting the ship into dry dock, and in the mean time, sorry Rommie but I have to request that you shut down all but the vital operating systems."
"Andromeda is in perfect working order!" Harper argued, as Tyr dragged him back towards the exit.
"Understood, Captain," Rommie conceded and disappeared.
"Perfect," Tyr remarked. "Now we not only fail to have a competent engineer on board, we're now defenceless and without AI support whilst we travel to Sinti, remind me again why being on this crew is a benefit to me," Tyr complained.
"Dylan, listen to me, I'm not the enemy I am the engineer!" Harper stressed with more passion, his panic rising now Rommie was shutting down. "The ship is in perfect working order," he protested. "For once anyway," he added. "Don't shut Rommie down, Tyr's right, doing that puts us it a real freaky position and you don't even know who the hell I am do you?" Harper realised mid-sentence as Dylan just coldly stared at him.
"Want me to deal with this?" Beka asked towards Dylan.
Dylan looked at Beka with a nod of his head. "Find out who he's working for, why and where he's come from, then we'll hand him over to the council to deal with," Dylan stated. "And if he is just a kid trying to bag himself a job, make sure he understands that he has gone about it in completely the wrong way."
"Understood," Beka stressed, and began to follow Tyr who still held Harper firmly.
"And Tyr," Dylan called out from command. "Try not to break him too badly, we're still the good guys remember?"
"You're the good guy," Tyr complained under his breath as they walked away. "I just always do a good job," he stressed and tugged at Harper painfully to make his point clear.
Harper grimaced, not enjoying Tyr's close attentions. "Beka please, listen to me, something has happened and in my experience, when that something happens its real bad for the ship, we have to keep Rommie online," Harper spoke with concern, as they walked. "Tyr, big guy, come on, this is no longer a joke. Self preservation guy, come on, you know we're compromised right now!"
"Too right," Beka snapped. "It's you who has compromised our systems, and we're not laughing."
"I fix the systems!" Harper said with frustrations. "Beka, look, I know you, you're the captain of the Eureka Maru, your family used to call you Rocket, Vex Peg used to be on your crew," he continued, hoping his words would convince her that he was her friend.
"The more you speak, the more you reveal about how much you know about me, and that is just giving me more reason to just kill you," Beka returned bluntly. "I do not like wise guys, I do not like people messing with my ride, understand that, kid?"
Harper immediately shut up and the shock of her words hit him hard. He had seen both Tyr and Beka dealing with suspected criminals in his time, and now he was one in their eyes. He began to fear for his safety, he feared whatever had caused the crew to forget him, and more importantly he was beginning to fear the crew themselves.
TBC