Disclaimer. I do not own Andromeda or its characters. I only write about them.
Nothing Looks the Same in the Light
By: Verbannen
Harper felt the odd sensation as he plugged himself in once again to the Andromeda Ascendant, but he had grown used to the feeling and had even started to like it in a strange way. That was definitely a good thing since fixing these small problems that occurred in the ships systems had become a routine for the engineer. This, Harper thought, was just another quick fix- -probably just a crossed signal, or maybe just an electrical surge caused by degrading of one of the chips in the mainframe. Whatever it was Dylan had ordered him to "find the problem and solve it right away."
"Here we go again, Rom Doll." Harper said as he began his interface with the AI.
The computer sent a tingling feeling through his body as he began to interact with the system. Harper felt his body go numb, and he was now inside. As his vision became clear he followed the makeup of the wiring until he found what he was looking for. "I think I found the problem, Doll Face."
"What seems to be the trouble?" Rommie asked.
"What the...?" Harper had found where the fault was occurring, but as hard as it was for him to admit, he wasn't sure exactly what he was looking at. He approached and tried to incorporate all the information he was receiving. "Are you getting anything from this?" he asked the AI with a smirk as his fingers glazed over the sensors core. While reaching out to try and decipher the info something struck him. "Rommie, baby," he said jokingly about the slight shock he felt through his entire body. "I didn't know you felt that way about me."
The AI appeared. "I didn't do anything."
"Wait...you didn't do that?"
The AI looked on curiously. "What?"
"I don't know exactly how to explain it, but..."
"But what..." she demanded that he continue.
"I'm not sure, but I think you have a virus, but one that I have never seen the likes of before." Harper looked more in depth at the info. "Not to worry though. Harper's here to solve all your problems."
"What can I do to help?"
"Just sit back and enjoy the ride," the engineer said with a crooked smile.
The slight shock Harper had felt suddenly became more dramatic and took him by force, seizing his body into a sharp convulsion.
"Harper... " Rommie called. "Are you alright?" Her hologram stood next to Harper's unconscious body looking down at him helplessly. The electrical surge had started a fire, and Rommie knew that the only thing she could do for Harper at the moment was to get him out of here.
******
"We're not going into slipstream until the sensors are back on-line." Captain Hunt pointed out mater-of-factly to an ever more impatient crew, but it was mostly directed at Beka.
"I thought you had Harper working on the problem?" Beka questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Dylan glared up at Beka, "I did. I do." He stated.
"Dylan!" The AI interrupted the two's tiff. "There's a problem in the machine shop. It's Harper."
Dylan didn't stay to listen to any details. He could sense the urgency in Rommie's voice. "I'm on my way."
"I'm coming with you." Beka declared without any room for argument.
The two ran down the corridor and found themselves at the machine shop, unable to enter.
"Rommie, open the door." Dylan commanded in a voice that was filled with both annoyance and concern.
"Unable to comply. I'm getting no response from this area of the ship."
Beka was at the panel, and after a few minutes managed to get the door to slide slightly open with some resistance.
Dylan forced it open the rest of the way. The door came open, and the smoke hit him in the face making his eyes and throat burn. Flames were burning along a far wall producing heat along with deadly sparks. "Harper..."Dylan called out as he stepped into the room. He could feel the heat emanating from all around him, and it grew more intense with each new step he took.
Harper was making a small groaning sound still not completely aware that he was lying on the metal floor. His connection with Andromeda had been severed, although he was still hooked in through his port.
"Harper..." Beka yelled while passing Dylan.
The Captain grabbed her by the arm. "I'll get him," he said as he spun her around to face him. "I need you to put out these flames."
Beka was about to protest, but she knew that Dylan was right. She wouldn't be able to lift Harper out of here, and the boy wasn't going to be on his feet any time soon. Beka nodded in compliance, but not before giving Captain Hunt a look that told him he had better take care of the young engineer.
Dylan caught the look. "He'll be fine." It was a promise he hoped he could keep.
As the Captain got closer to his young crewman his concern mounted. He always forgot how fragile Seamus Harper could be, but looking down at the unconscious young man that realization brought him back to reality. "Harper..." Dylan leaned over the boy to see if he could get the engineer to focus on him. "I'm going to get you out of here," he said as he removed the connector from the port in Harper's neck.
Harper's eyes fluttered, but he didn't respond to Dylan's voice.
Dylan checked him for injuries, but found none, and he then scooped him up carefully.
"Dylan," Now that the flames were under control, Beka took a moment away from her duty to check on Harper. "How is he?" Her eyes were hooded with concern.
"He just seems to be unconscious." Dylan had noted the boy's breathing was fine, and he didn't seem to have any noticeable physical injuries-other than he was a little too pale. "Let's hope he just received a bad shock."
She looked on at Harper's listless body. "Yeah, let's hope." She said, her eyes now focused on the Captain.
******
On the Medical Deck Trance had looked over Harper and given him a clean bill of health. Dylan, Beka, and Trance all stood near the now conscious Harper.
"From what Rommie said, I would guess that he received a massive shock that gave him a grand mal seizure."
"A seizure?" Harper asked in shock, but both Dylan and Beka had the same look on their faces.
"It's nothing to worry about," Trance continued. "He's fine now."
"Nothing to worry about -just a seizure." Harper mocked. "I could have easily been killed!"
Beka shot Harper a look that told him to quit his whining, and he quickly listened. "Could this happen again?" She asked Trance with concern.
"I doubt it. Rommie said that she can't detect the virus anymore." Trance said nonchalantly.
"Virus?" Dylan questioned. "I think I want the whole story-from the beginning."
Trance sighed before she began. "Rommie had a virus..."
"That was what was causing my sensors to be off-line." The AI's hologram interrupted.
"Harper fixed the problem, and that was what caused the shock to his system. The virus was protecting itself."
"But the door wouldn't open when we got down to the machine shop." Dylan pointed out. "How do you explain that?"
"That was because of the damage due to the fire," the hologram explained. "The nanobots have repaired most of it by now."
"So everything is under control, and you can assure me that this won't happen again?" Dylan asked.
"Hello... boy who was almost turned into toast over here." He felt like he wasn't even in the room with everybody talking about him, but not asking his side of the story.
Dylan walked over to Harper to get a closer look at his pallor. "And I assume you are feeling better."
"All things considered." Harper said rubbing his neck. He still remembered the shock he had received, and he swore he could still feel it tingling a little. "Rommie's right though. I am almost positive that I got rid of the virus."
"Almost?"
"Hey, I'm a whiz kid, not a psychic."
"Well, get some rest. I'm gonna need you to make sure that everything is in tip-top shape before I'm willing to let Andromeda go into slipstream."
"No problem, Boss. I'll have it done in a jiffy." Harper hopped up off the table, but a little too quickly because a wave of dizziness struck him and he wavered on his feet a bit. He didn't think anyone noticed. Beka had already left and Trance had her back turned. And he didn't think Dylan ever paid much attention to what he did. He was wrong. A strong arm reached out to steady him.
"I said rest." This time Dylan made it sound more like a command than a suggestion.
"You got it, Boss." Harper agreed feeling a wave of nausea that followed his wooziness.
******
"Andromeda..."
"Yes, Dylan." The ships AI appeared on the screen.
"I want you to do a full system analysis just to sure that you're clear of the virus."
"Already done. There was some minor damage caused by the electrical surge, but it seems to have repaired itself. The virus seemed to have contained itself to the sensors which is where most of the damage occurred."
"Harper will finish any repairs shortly." Dylan wanted the young man to have a chance to fully recover, but he was also the only one capable of fixing the many engineering problems that occurred on the Andromeda. For the moment it could wait, but having the sensors off line made him nervous and vulnerable out in the middle of space. He would let Harper get a chance to get things together, but then he would have no choice but to have him finish the repairs. Dylan would just make sure to keep a close eye on him to make sure that there truly were no ill side effects.
******
After almost a day of rest Harper felt like his old self again. He returned to the machine shop with only a slight twinge of the memory from the intense shock, but he had had shocks before, just none that bad. He still had no reservations about going back into Andromeda to finish the few repairs that the nanobots hadn't taken care of. In fact, he was looking forward to it and would have gotten to it sooner if a certain Captain hadn't been so overbearingly resistant to the fact that he was fine. He would even venture to say that he felt better than he had in a long time. No slight cold, strange flu, or any other of the million strange viruses that he seemed to pick up on a regular basis seemed to bother him today, and he was ready to get down to business.
"Did ya miss me, Darlin?" Harper asked the AI in his usual sardonic tone.
"I see you're feeling better, Harper." The hologram crossed her arms, leering at Harper.
"Better and ready to get down to business." Harper slipped the long port into his neck and closed his eyes. "You look better than you did when I left the last time, Rommie." Harper wondered around a bit inside the AI. "All you need is a little tweaking."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"And you should," Harper grinned and got to work. He had only planned to do a few quick repairs and search the Andromeda in and out to insure that there were no residual effects due to the virus. And he wanted to make sure that had gotten rid of it before he had been forcefully and painfully thrown out of the system, but when he unplugged he had been working for almost two hours, but he could have sworn that it had been less than an hour.
******
"Andromeda,"
"Yes, Captain."
"Show me the schematic for the next slipstream."
The AI complied, and a map appeared on the view screen.
Dylan starred at the map for a few seconds before realizing what the problem was, but Beka spoke up before he had a chance to. "Andromeda, this map shows the slipstream to San-Ska-Re, are next destination is Aviktar II." Both her and Dylan had the same look of confusion on their faces.
Rommie's hologram appeared. "Something appears to be wrong. My files are telling me that this is a map of Aviktar II."
Dylan realized that their plans to make it for a much needed shore leave would not be happening anytime in the near future. He gave a heavy sigh. "Harper, I need you in the machine shop." He made a ship wide announcement. "Immediately," he added just to insure that there was no delay. "Andromeda,"
"Yes, Captain."
"Keep me up to date. I want to know exactly what is happening."
"I'll tell you what's happening, Captain Hunt." Beka voiced with irritation. "We are never going to get to Aviktar II at this rate. You should have let me slipstream two days ago."
"I told you, Beka, I will not risk my crew or the Andromeda for a vacation." Dylan knew that tensions were running on high and this setback was only making things worse, but he could not risk slipstreaming into an unfamiliar place.
"I can get us there without Andromeda's schematics."
Dylan's patience was wearing thin. He hated it when Beka questioned his authority. And he hated it even more when she did it in front of crewmembers. He could see Tyr through the corner of his eyes, and he desperately wanted to take this argument away from the command deck. He decided instead to end the conversation where they stood. "Captain Valentine, I want you to take a break." He could see she wanted to argue, but he stopped her before she had the chance. "If you want to we can finish this conversation later." He made it clear in his annotation that it was something that she would not want to bring up again.
Beka held her breath. Red faced, she marched off the deck as ordered.
Dylan glanced over at Tyr. "Not a word." He said.
Tyr remained silent, but his expression gave away what the Nietzschean was thinking-that for a starship Captain, Dylan allowed too much belligerence from his crew, namely Beka Valentine.
******
"How's it going?" Dylan asked Harper as he stepped into the machine shop.
Harper looked up from what he was working on. "Well, it seems that not only is our lovely ship having problems with telling us where we are, and where we need to be going, but she also seems to be having some problems with her memory."
"Give me specifics." Dylan demanded more information about his ship.
"To put it plain and simple she has chunks of time missing from her main memory core. If she where human I would say that she was just getting too old."
"I heard that!" Rommie interrupted.
"Don't worry, Rommie. I'm not ready to send you for scrap metal yet."
"Harper..." Dylan cut off their exchange. "Are you sure that you cleared the virus from her system?"
"I've swept every corner, and I can't find anything that says this should be happening."
"Well, keep looking."
Harper just nodded and tried desperately to suppress a yawn with little success.
Dylan could see Harper's need for sleep, but he ignored his instinct to tell him to get some rest. This new information on Andromeda's time lapses gave him even more reason to be concerned. He knew that the virus had to still be in the ship somewhere. There was no other explanation for everything that was going wrong.
******
"Dylan," Harper walked into command. "Your resident genius has found the problem and fixed it. No need for applause."
The Captain sat up strait. "Did you find the virus?"
"No virus. The time lapse seemed to occur at the same time that the schematics were sent out of whack. It was a simple problem with a misfiring in the wiring."
Dylan was not so easily convinced. "A simple problem?"
Harper didn't have the energy to go over every detail with him. "I have her purring like a kitten. Now, if it's okay with you Captain, I'm going to get some sleep." He rubbed his eyes and headed back to his quarters.
Dylan got the rest of his answers from Andromeda, who seemed to have the same explanation of what had happened.
******
Tyr stepped into the shower in his quarters. The day had been long and boring for the Nietzschean, and the only thing that gave him any enjoyment at times like this was a long grueling workout, but that was over and he was ready to wash off the sweat that he had built up.
"Damn it! he bellowed as a stream of burning hot water hit him in the chest.
"Andromeda..." There was no answer. "Andromeda!" Tyr yelled again, then mumbled a curse as he threw on a pair of pants.
He was still cursing as he stomped down the corridor to Harper's quarters. "Call himself a genius. What kind of engineer can't even insure that the water temperature is right?"
At first he pounded at the door, but when he got no response he put in an override for the code; a little something he had learned to do in his previous line of work. He found the boy asleep. "Harper..." He stood over his bed and kicked the mattress. "Get up."
Harper only gave a slight moan.
Tyr rolled his eyes in agitation He screamed his name once again and gave him a hearty shake.
Harper turned over and glared up with squinted eyes. The sight of the Nietzschean over his bed frightened him for a moment, but then his dreams started to fade and reality took over. "Tyr?"
"My showers broken. I need you to fix it."
"Now?" Harper cleared his throat. "Rommie, he called out to the ships AI." He too got no answer.
"And I think there's something wrong with the ships internal communications-she isn't answering."
"What!" At that Harper bounced out of his bed. He realized his mistake after he had stood up. His head was pounding.
"You look sick." Tyr stated, noticing his pallor. "You should get some more rest-after you find out what's going on with Andromeda- and fix my shower."
Harper forced a smile. "Is that your way of saying that you care?" He pulled the blanket tight around him. He could barely keep his eyes open.
Tyr took in a deep breath. "I will go find the Captain and Rommie and see what's going on."
"I'll go take a look at Andromeda." Harper said as he let his head slide down onto his pillow.
Tyr shook his head. "Harper..." but the boy was already back asleep. Humans-he thought, and he left him. He would send someone else back to wake him up.
******
Tyr found Captain Hunt in the Hydroponics bar with Beka. He figured the two must have worked out the differences that they were having earlier. The two seemed to be quite comfortable with each other's company, and Tyr thought that he might even be interrupting something.
"I know that there aren't many of us on board, but you might want to put on a little more clothes, Tyr." Beka didn't mind though. She had to admit that he looked good in his tight pants without any shirt covering his nicely formed chest muscles.
"I am not here on a social visit."
Dylan put down his glass. His smile faded into a look of seriousness. "What's going on Tyr?"
"If you haven't noticed the ships internal communication system is down, and there are a whole other host of problems going wrong."
Dylan's concern grew. "Andromeda..." He called. He went to the nearest view screen and called again, but got no response." He turned to Beka, "I want you to find Rommie and see if she can explain what is happening.
"Do you have any ideas, Captain?" Beka asked before leaving Hydroponics. "I mean what is going on with Andromeda?"
Dylan thought for a moment. "The virus...it has to be what is attacking the Andromeda. It's in there somewhere."
Tyr, go get Harper and have him find out what the problem is and fix it."
"Harper's...sick." Tyr told the Captain with annoyance.
"I don't care. We need him." Dylan had the same concern for the Andromeda as he did for any of his crewmembers, and right now something was wrong. It was only getting worse by the minute. The problem with the sensors seemed to be only the beginning. From there things seemed only to be escalating. "I'm going to Command to see if I can find anything out there."
******
Tyr was once again outside Harper's quarters. This time he didn't bother to knock. He went strait in, but found the room empty. "Where are you, Little Man?" He checked the room over just to make sure, but didn't find him.
After some searching, including the medical deck where he thought Harper might have gone and probably should have, he found the boy in the machine shop. He walked in and saw Harper remove the jack from his neck.
"Did you fix the internal communication problem?"
"The what?" Harper looked at the Nietzschean with confusion. "Oh yeah, that. Umm... well you see..."
"Harper," Try grabbed the boy by the side of his head. "Don't mess with me, Little Man. Did you or did you not fix the problem?" He shouted, pulling the much smaller man out of his seat,
Looking into Tyr Anasazi's dark eyes frightened Harper. Especially being in such close proximity to him. He was terrified to tell him that he didn't know what he was doing here, but the Nietzschean was leaving him no choice. "No. At least I don't think so"
"You didn't fix the problem."
"I'm not sure." He said with a forced crooked smile.
Just as Tyr was about to release his anger on the young man the lighting started to go out. "Harper! What is going on?"
"I-I," Harper stuttered. "I don't know. It could be that maybe I might have fixed the problem when I was connected, or maybe I made things worse."
"Harper, what exactly did you do in there?"
"Well, you see, I don't exactly remember."
"You don't remember."
Harper tried to use his so called charm on the Nietzschean. "Guess I should have stayed in bed, huh?"
Tyr pushed Harper back down in his seat. "You go back in there, and you fix whatever is wrong," he said as he shoved the long port into his hand.
The door to the machine shop opened. "Harper, wait." Dylan yelled. He had Rommie with him who seemed just as anxious that Harper didn't interface with the AI.
"Captain, things are getting worse." Tyr motioned to the lights that were flickering above their heads.
"And they won't get any better if Harper keeps connecting with Andromeda." Dylan said as he cleared the distance between him and where Harper and Tyr were.
"I don't understand." Tyr said, but he did remove the port from Harper's palm.
"Harper has the virus, not me." Rommie explained.
Tyr looked confused. "But how?" he glanced down at the young engineer. "He's human."
"Yeah, how?" Harper spoke up.
"I can explain later, but if you interface again you could shut down life support or any other vital system." She told Harper. "I am attempting to reverse the damage that the virus has done each time Harper has connected, but it will take time. We just have to keep Harper away until we can figure out how this virus can survive in his system, and how we can get rid of it.
"That's ridiculous, I would never hurt you, Rommie." Harper explained standing up. He reached for the port that Tyr had laid down beside him only to have it pulled out of his reach.
"I want you in medical." Dylan commanded to Harper.
Harper took a step towards the Captain. "I'm fine, Dylan. Just let me go back in one more time, and I swear I will fix the problem." Harper's ego was feeling a little deflated, and he wanted to prove to his crewmembers that there was no way that he was the one doing all the damage to the Andromeda. He took one more step and noticed that the room was beginning to spin.
"Harp..." But before Dylan could finish what he was saying Harper was collapsing.
Tyr reached out an arm and caught the boy as he fell. "Damn it, Little Man," Tyr said as he carried Harper to medical, "sometimes you're more trouble that you're worth.
******
Harper pulled the covers up over his shoulder. He was freezing, but he had remembered throwing them off because he was too hot just a few minutes ago. He realized that he was in his own bed now, and not in the medical deck anymore.
"Why is he in his own quarters?" Dylan asked Beka.
Beka looked up at the tall figure that was blocking most of the light streaming in from the open door. "This is where he wanted to be. He was complaining that the beds in medical
weren't comfortable enough."
"Comfortable or not, he's sick, and that's where he should be." Dylan stepped all the way into the room, and for the first time noticed the dark circles under Beka's eyes. "How long have you been up with him?"
Beka shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't want to leave him alone. Trance says he's fine. He just needs to rest. The computer virus is acting like any other virus, and he just needs to let his immune system fight it off. There's nothing else we can do for him, but wait."
"Get some sleep, Beka, I'll sit with him for a while."
"You sure?" She eyed him strangely.
"Don't make me give you a direct order."
"Yeah, right, I'm going." She tucked the covers in around the young man. She turned to say something else, but just watched for a moment. Dylan didn't notice her staring, but she could see the concern on the Captains face, and she smile, turned her back and left the room.
******
Several hours had passed, and Dylan opened his eyes and realized he had fallen asleep in the chair that Beka had placed near the bed. His eyes shot quickly around the room when he found Harper's bed empty. Then he heard a noise coming form the bathroom. "Harper," Dylan placed himself just outside the door, "are you alright?"
For the moment Harper had stopped throwing up. "Yeah, I feel like a million bucks." Then, before he could say anything else he let out the few remnants that were in his stomach.
"Do you need anything?" Dylan was not really sure what he should do. He didn't want to intrude on the boy's privacy, but he was concerned as he always was for a member of his crew. "Would you like some water or something?"
"No," Harper came back into the room, "I'm feeling much better now." He said forcing a smile.
"I'm glad," Dylan watched as the young man went back to his bed. He could see that the virus had taken its toll on Harper. He even looked like he had lost a couple of pounds, and for Harper that was a lot.
Harper sat at the edge of his bed and glanced up at the Captain. "How bad did I screw things up?" Harper inquired keeping his eyes locked on the floor in front of him.
"Screw things up?" Dylan repeated. "Harper, let me explain something to you. What happened was not your fault." He said sitting himself down on the chair opposite the younger man.
"But it should have never happened." He finally made eye contact. "I could have destroyed Andromeda and killed everyone in the process." He continued to berate himself. "I can't risk doing that again."
Dylan knew Harper was distressed about what the virus had made him do, but he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Harper, I know you think you are to blame for what happened, but neither I nor anyone else on board feels that way." He took in a deep breath. "And I can't tell you that something like this will never happen again, but what I can tell you is that you are a member of this crew and that we all need you."
"Oh come on, any space geek could do what I do."
"You and I both know that's not true." Dylan looked on for an acknowledgement. "Right..."
"Right," Harper finally agreed.
"Now, get some sleep." Dylan said as he began to make his way out of the room. "We'll be at Aviktar II in less than ten hours, and I expect all my crewmembers to be ready for shore leave."
Harper let go of some of the tension he had been feeling since he had first woken up. Being the only crewmember from Earth he had always felt a little out of place aboard Andromeda, but the fact that they didn't dump him off on the nearest planet after the trouble he had caused made him feel like he might actually have found a place where he belonged.
1
Nothing Looks the Same in the Light
By: Verbannen
Harper felt the odd sensation as he plugged himself in once again to the Andromeda Ascendant, but he had grown used to the feeling and had even started to like it in a strange way. That was definitely a good thing since fixing these small problems that occurred in the ships systems had become a routine for the engineer. This, Harper thought, was just another quick fix- -probably just a crossed signal, or maybe just an electrical surge caused by degrading of one of the chips in the mainframe. Whatever it was Dylan had ordered him to "find the problem and solve it right away."
"Here we go again, Rom Doll." Harper said as he began his interface with the AI.
The computer sent a tingling feeling through his body as he began to interact with the system. Harper felt his body go numb, and he was now inside. As his vision became clear he followed the makeup of the wiring until he found what he was looking for. "I think I found the problem, Doll Face."
"What seems to be the trouble?" Rommie asked.
"What the...?" Harper had found where the fault was occurring, but as hard as it was for him to admit, he wasn't sure exactly what he was looking at. He approached and tried to incorporate all the information he was receiving. "Are you getting anything from this?" he asked the AI with a smirk as his fingers glazed over the sensors core. While reaching out to try and decipher the info something struck him. "Rommie, baby," he said jokingly about the slight shock he felt through his entire body. "I didn't know you felt that way about me."
The AI appeared. "I didn't do anything."
"Wait...you didn't do that?"
The AI looked on curiously. "What?"
"I don't know exactly how to explain it, but..."
"But what..." she demanded that he continue.
"I'm not sure, but I think you have a virus, but one that I have never seen the likes of before." Harper looked more in depth at the info. "Not to worry though. Harper's here to solve all your problems."
"What can I do to help?"
"Just sit back and enjoy the ride," the engineer said with a crooked smile.
The slight shock Harper had felt suddenly became more dramatic and took him by force, seizing his body into a sharp convulsion.
"Harper... " Rommie called. "Are you alright?" Her hologram stood next to Harper's unconscious body looking down at him helplessly. The electrical surge had started a fire, and Rommie knew that the only thing she could do for Harper at the moment was to get him out of here.
******
"We're not going into slipstream until the sensors are back on-line." Captain Hunt pointed out mater-of-factly to an ever more impatient crew, but it was mostly directed at Beka.
"I thought you had Harper working on the problem?" Beka questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Dylan glared up at Beka, "I did. I do." He stated.
"Dylan!" The AI interrupted the two's tiff. "There's a problem in the machine shop. It's Harper."
Dylan didn't stay to listen to any details. He could sense the urgency in Rommie's voice. "I'm on my way."
"I'm coming with you." Beka declared without any room for argument.
The two ran down the corridor and found themselves at the machine shop, unable to enter.
"Rommie, open the door." Dylan commanded in a voice that was filled with both annoyance and concern.
"Unable to comply. I'm getting no response from this area of the ship."
Beka was at the panel, and after a few minutes managed to get the door to slide slightly open with some resistance.
Dylan forced it open the rest of the way. The door came open, and the smoke hit him in the face making his eyes and throat burn. Flames were burning along a far wall producing heat along with deadly sparks. "Harper..."Dylan called out as he stepped into the room. He could feel the heat emanating from all around him, and it grew more intense with each new step he took.
Harper was making a small groaning sound still not completely aware that he was lying on the metal floor. His connection with Andromeda had been severed, although he was still hooked in through his port.
"Harper..." Beka yelled while passing Dylan.
The Captain grabbed her by the arm. "I'll get him," he said as he spun her around to face him. "I need you to put out these flames."
Beka was about to protest, but she knew that Dylan was right. She wouldn't be able to lift Harper out of here, and the boy wasn't going to be on his feet any time soon. Beka nodded in compliance, but not before giving Captain Hunt a look that told him he had better take care of the young engineer.
Dylan caught the look. "He'll be fine." It was a promise he hoped he could keep.
As the Captain got closer to his young crewman his concern mounted. He always forgot how fragile Seamus Harper could be, but looking down at the unconscious young man that realization brought him back to reality. "Harper..." Dylan leaned over the boy to see if he could get the engineer to focus on him. "I'm going to get you out of here," he said as he removed the connector from the port in Harper's neck.
Harper's eyes fluttered, but he didn't respond to Dylan's voice.
Dylan checked him for injuries, but found none, and he then scooped him up carefully.
"Dylan," Now that the flames were under control, Beka took a moment away from her duty to check on Harper. "How is he?" Her eyes were hooded with concern.
"He just seems to be unconscious." Dylan had noted the boy's breathing was fine, and he didn't seem to have any noticeable physical injuries-other than he was a little too pale. "Let's hope he just received a bad shock."
She looked on at Harper's listless body. "Yeah, let's hope." She said, her eyes now focused on the Captain.
******
On the Medical Deck Trance had looked over Harper and given him a clean bill of health. Dylan, Beka, and Trance all stood near the now conscious Harper.
"From what Rommie said, I would guess that he received a massive shock that gave him a grand mal seizure."
"A seizure?" Harper asked in shock, but both Dylan and Beka had the same look on their faces.
"It's nothing to worry about," Trance continued. "He's fine now."
"Nothing to worry about -just a seizure." Harper mocked. "I could have easily been killed!"
Beka shot Harper a look that told him to quit his whining, and he quickly listened. "Could this happen again?" She asked Trance with concern.
"I doubt it. Rommie said that she can't detect the virus anymore." Trance said nonchalantly.
"Virus?" Dylan questioned. "I think I want the whole story-from the beginning."
Trance sighed before she began. "Rommie had a virus..."
"That was what was causing my sensors to be off-line." The AI's hologram interrupted.
"Harper fixed the problem, and that was what caused the shock to his system. The virus was protecting itself."
"But the door wouldn't open when we got down to the machine shop." Dylan pointed out. "How do you explain that?"
"That was because of the damage due to the fire," the hologram explained. "The nanobots have repaired most of it by now."
"So everything is under control, and you can assure me that this won't happen again?" Dylan asked.
"Hello... boy who was almost turned into toast over here." He felt like he wasn't even in the room with everybody talking about him, but not asking his side of the story.
Dylan walked over to Harper to get a closer look at his pallor. "And I assume you are feeling better."
"All things considered." Harper said rubbing his neck. He still remembered the shock he had received, and he swore he could still feel it tingling a little. "Rommie's right though. I am almost positive that I got rid of the virus."
"Almost?"
"Hey, I'm a whiz kid, not a psychic."
"Well, get some rest. I'm gonna need you to make sure that everything is in tip-top shape before I'm willing to let Andromeda go into slipstream."
"No problem, Boss. I'll have it done in a jiffy." Harper hopped up off the table, but a little too quickly because a wave of dizziness struck him and he wavered on his feet a bit. He didn't think anyone noticed. Beka had already left and Trance had her back turned. And he didn't think Dylan ever paid much attention to what he did. He was wrong. A strong arm reached out to steady him.
"I said rest." This time Dylan made it sound more like a command than a suggestion.
"You got it, Boss." Harper agreed feeling a wave of nausea that followed his wooziness.
******
"Andromeda..."
"Yes, Dylan." The ships AI appeared on the screen.
"I want you to do a full system analysis just to sure that you're clear of the virus."
"Already done. There was some minor damage caused by the electrical surge, but it seems to have repaired itself. The virus seemed to have contained itself to the sensors which is where most of the damage occurred."
"Harper will finish any repairs shortly." Dylan wanted the young man to have a chance to fully recover, but he was also the only one capable of fixing the many engineering problems that occurred on the Andromeda. For the moment it could wait, but having the sensors off line made him nervous and vulnerable out in the middle of space. He would let Harper get a chance to get things together, but then he would have no choice but to have him finish the repairs. Dylan would just make sure to keep a close eye on him to make sure that there truly were no ill side effects.
******
After almost a day of rest Harper felt like his old self again. He returned to the machine shop with only a slight twinge of the memory from the intense shock, but he had had shocks before, just none that bad. He still had no reservations about going back into Andromeda to finish the few repairs that the nanobots hadn't taken care of. In fact, he was looking forward to it and would have gotten to it sooner if a certain Captain hadn't been so overbearingly resistant to the fact that he was fine. He would even venture to say that he felt better than he had in a long time. No slight cold, strange flu, or any other of the million strange viruses that he seemed to pick up on a regular basis seemed to bother him today, and he was ready to get down to business.
"Did ya miss me, Darlin?" Harper asked the AI in his usual sardonic tone.
"I see you're feeling better, Harper." The hologram crossed her arms, leering at Harper.
"Better and ready to get down to business." Harper slipped the long port into his neck and closed his eyes. "You look better than you did when I left the last time, Rommie." Harper wondered around a bit inside the AI. "All you need is a little tweaking."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"And you should," Harper grinned and got to work. He had only planned to do a few quick repairs and search the Andromeda in and out to insure that there were no residual effects due to the virus. And he wanted to make sure that had gotten rid of it before he had been forcefully and painfully thrown out of the system, but when he unplugged he had been working for almost two hours, but he could have sworn that it had been less than an hour.
******
"Andromeda,"
"Yes, Captain."
"Show me the schematic for the next slipstream."
The AI complied, and a map appeared on the view screen.
Dylan starred at the map for a few seconds before realizing what the problem was, but Beka spoke up before he had a chance to. "Andromeda, this map shows the slipstream to San-Ska-Re, are next destination is Aviktar II." Both her and Dylan had the same look of confusion on their faces.
Rommie's hologram appeared. "Something appears to be wrong. My files are telling me that this is a map of Aviktar II."
Dylan realized that their plans to make it for a much needed shore leave would not be happening anytime in the near future. He gave a heavy sigh. "Harper, I need you in the machine shop." He made a ship wide announcement. "Immediately," he added just to insure that there was no delay. "Andromeda,"
"Yes, Captain."
"Keep me up to date. I want to know exactly what is happening."
"I'll tell you what's happening, Captain Hunt." Beka voiced with irritation. "We are never going to get to Aviktar II at this rate. You should have let me slipstream two days ago."
"I told you, Beka, I will not risk my crew or the Andromeda for a vacation." Dylan knew that tensions were running on high and this setback was only making things worse, but he could not risk slipstreaming into an unfamiliar place.
"I can get us there without Andromeda's schematics."
Dylan's patience was wearing thin. He hated it when Beka questioned his authority. And he hated it even more when she did it in front of crewmembers. He could see Tyr through the corner of his eyes, and he desperately wanted to take this argument away from the command deck. He decided instead to end the conversation where they stood. "Captain Valentine, I want you to take a break." He could see she wanted to argue, but he stopped her before she had the chance. "If you want to we can finish this conversation later." He made it clear in his annotation that it was something that she would not want to bring up again.
Beka held her breath. Red faced, she marched off the deck as ordered.
Dylan glanced over at Tyr. "Not a word." He said.
Tyr remained silent, but his expression gave away what the Nietzschean was thinking-that for a starship Captain, Dylan allowed too much belligerence from his crew, namely Beka Valentine.
******
"How's it going?" Dylan asked Harper as he stepped into the machine shop.
Harper looked up from what he was working on. "Well, it seems that not only is our lovely ship having problems with telling us where we are, and where we need to be going, but she also seems to be having some problems with her memory."
"Give me specifics." Dylan demanded more information about his ship.
"To put it plain and simple she has chunks of time missing from her main memory core. If she where human I would say that she was just getting too old."
"I heard that!" Rommie interrupted.
"Don't worry, Rommie. I'm not ready to send you for scrap metal yet."
"Harper..." Dylan cut off their exchange. "Are you sure that you cleared the virus from her system?"
"I've swept every corner, and I can't find anything that says this should be happening."
"Well, keep looking."
Harper just nodded and tried desperately to suppress a yawn with little success.
Dylan could see Harper's need for sleep, but he ignored his instinct to tell him to get some rest. This new information on Andromeda's time lapses gave him even more reason to be concerned. He knew that the virus had to still be in the ship somewhere. There was no other explanation for everything that was going wrong.
******
"Dylan," Harper walked into command. "Your resident genius has found the problem and fixed it. No need for applause."
The Captain sat up strait. "Did you find the virus?"
"No virus. The time lapse seemed to occur at the same time that the schematics were sent out of whack. It was a simple problem with a misfiring in the wiring."
Dylan was not so easily convinced. "A simple problem?"
Harper didn't have the energy to go over every detail with him. "I have her purring like a kitten. Now, if it's okay with you Captain, I'm going to get some sleep." He rubbed his eyes and headed back to his quarters.
Dylan got the rest of his answers from Andromeda, who seemed to have the same explanation of what had happened.
******
Tyr stepped into the shower in his quarters. The day had been long and boring for the Nietzschean, and the only thing that gave him any enjoyment at times like this was a long grueling workout, but that was over and he was ready to wash off the sweat that he had built up.
"Damn it! he bellowed as a stream of burning hot water hit him in the chest.
"Andromeda..." There was no answer. "Andromeda!" Tyr yelled again, then mumbled a curse as he threw on a pair of pants.
He was still cursing as he stomped down the corridor to Harper's quarters. "Call himself a genius. What kind of engineer can't even insure that the water temperature is right?"
At first he pounded at the door, but when he got no response he put in an override for the code; a little something he had learned to do in his previous line of work. He found the boy asleep. "Harper..." He stood over his bed and kicked the mattress. "Get up."
Harper only gave a slight moan.
Tyr rolled his eyes in agitation He screamed his name once again and gave him a hearty shake.
Harper turned over and glared up with squinted eyes. The sight of the Nietzschean over his bed frightened him for a moment, but then his dreams started to fade and reality took over. "Tyr?"
"My showers broken. I need you to fix it."
"Now?" Harper cleared his throat. "Rommie, he called out to the ships AI." He too got no answer.
"And I think there's something wrong with the ships internal communications-she isn't answering."
"What!" At that Harper bounced out of his bed. He realized his mistake after he had stood up. His head was pounding.
"You look sick." Tyr stated, noticing his pallor. "You should get some more rest-after you find out what's going on with Andromeda- and fix my shower."
Harper forced a smile. "Is that your way of saying that you care?" He pulled the blanket tight around him. He could barely keep his eyes open.
Tyr took in a deep breath. "I will go find the Captain and Rommie and see what's going on."
"I'll go take a look at Andromeda." Harper said as he let his head slide down onto his pillow.
Tyr shook his head. "Harper..." but the boy was already back asleep. Humans-he thought, and he left him. He would send someone else back to wake him up.
******
Tyr found Captain Hunt in the Hydroponics bar with Beka. He figured the two must have worked out the differences that they were having earlier. The two seemed to be quite comfortable with each other's company, and Tyr thought that he might even be interrupting something.
"I know that there aren't many of us on board, but you might want to put on a little more clothes, Tyr." Beka didn't mind though. She had to admit that he looked good in his tight pants without any shirt covering his nicely formed chest muscles.
"I am not here on a social visit."
Dylan put down his glass. His smile faded into a look of seriousness. "What's going on Tyr?"
"If you haven't noticed the ships internal communication system is down, and there are a whole other host of problems going wrong."
Dylan's concern grew. "Andromeda..." He called. He went to the nearest view screen and called again, but got no response." He turned to Beka, "I want you to find Rommie and see if she can explain what is happening.
"Do you have any ideas, Captain?" Beka asked before leaving Hydroponics. "I mean what is going on with Andromeda?"
Dylan thought for a moment. "The virus...it has to be what is attacking the Andromeda. It's in there somewhere."
Tyr, go get Harper and have him find out what the problem is and fix it."
"Harper's...sick." Tyr told the Captain with annoyance.
"I don't care. We need him." Dylan had the same concern for the Andromeda as he did for any of his crewmembers, and right now something was wrong. It was only getting worse by the minute. The problem with the sensors seemed to be only the beginning. From there things seemed only to be escalating. "I'm going to Command to see if I can find anything out there."
******
Tyr was once again outside Harper's quarters. This time he didn't bother to knock. He went strait in, but found the room empty. "Where are you, Little Man?" He checked the room over just to make sure, but didn't find him.
After some searching, including the medical deck where he thought Harper might have gone and probably should have, he found the boy in the machine shop. He walked in and saw Harper remove the jack from his neck.
"Did you fix the internal communication problem?"
"The what?" Harper looked at the Nietzschean with confusion. "Oh yeah, that. Umm... well you see..."
"Harper," Try grabbed the boy by the side of his head. "Don't mess with me, Little Man. Did you or did you not fix the problem?" He shouted, pulling the much smaller man out of his seat,
Looking into Tyr Anasazi's dark eyes frightened Harper. Especially being in such close proximity to him. He was terrified to tell him that he didn't know what he was doing here, but the Nietzschean was leaving him no choice. "No. At least I don't think so"
"You didn't fix the problem."
"I'm not sure." He said with a forced crooked smile.
Just as Tyr was about to release his anger on the young man the lighting started to go out. "Harper! What is going on?"
"I-I," Harper stuttered. "I don't know. It could be that maybe I might have fixed the problem when I was connected, or maybe I made things worse."
"Harper, what exactly did you do in there?"
"Well, you see, I don't exactly remember."
"You don't remember."
Harper tried to use his so called charm on the Nietzschean. "Guess I should have stayed in bed, huh?"
Tyr pushed Harper back down in his seat. "You go back in there, and you fix whatever is wrong," he said as he shoved the long port into his hand.
The door to the machine shop opened. "Harper, wait." Dylan yelled. He had Rommie with him who seemed just as anxious that Harper didn't interface with the AI.
"Captain, things are getting worse." Tyr motioned to the lights that were flickering above their heads.
"And they won't get any better if Harper keeps connecting with Andromeda." Dylan said as he cleared the distance between him and where Harper and Tyr were.
"I don't understand." Tyr said, but he did remove the port from Harper's palm.
"Harper has the virus, not me." Rommie explained.
Tyr looked confused. "But how?" he glanced down at the young engineer. "He's human."
"Yeah, how?" Harper spoke up.
"I can explain later, but if you interface again you could shut down life support or any other vital system." She told Harper. "I am attempting to reverse the damage that the virus has done each time Harper has connected, but it will take time. We just have to keep Harper away until we can figure out how this virus can survive in his system, and how we can get rid of it.
"That's ridiculous, I would never hurt you, Rommie." Harper explained standing up. He reached for the port that Tyr had laid down beside him only to have it pulled out of his reach.
"I want you in medical." Dylan commanded to Harper.
Harper took a step towards the Captain. "I'm fine, Dylan. Just let me go back in one more time, and I swear I will fix the problem." Harper's ego was feeling a little deflated, and he wanted to prove to his crewmembers that there was no way that he was the one doing all the damage to the Andromeda. He took one more step and noticed that the room was beginning to spin.
"Harp..." But before Dylan could finish what he was saying Harper was collapsing.
Tyr reached out an arm and caught the boy as he fell. "Damn it, Little Man," Tyr said as he carried Harper to medical, "sometimes you're more trouble that you're worth.
******
Harper pulled the covers up over his shoulder. He was freezing, but he had remembered throwing them off because he was too hot just a few minutes ago. He realized that he was in his own bed now, and not in the medical deck anymore.
"Why is he in his own quarters?" Dylan asked Beka.
Beka looked up at the tall figure that was blocking most of the light streaming in from the open door. "This is where he wanted to be. He was complaining that the beds in medical
weren't comfortable enough."
"Comfortable or not, he's sick, and that's where he should be." Dylan stepped all the way into the room, and for the first time noticed the dark circles under Beka's eyes. "How long have you been up with him?"
Beka shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't want to leave him alone. Trance says he's fine. He just needs to rest. The computer virus is acting like any other virus, and he just needs to let his immune system fight it off. There's nothing else we can do for him, but wait."
"Get some sleep, Beka, I'll sit with him for a while."
"You sure?" She eyed him strangely.
"Don't make me give you a direct order."
"Yeah, right, I'm going." She tucked the covers in around the young man. She turned to say something else, but just watched for a moment. Dylan didn't notice her staring, but she could see the concern on the Captains face, and she smile, turned her back and left the room.
******
Several hours had passed, and Dylan opened his eyes and realized he had fallen asleep in the chair that Beka had placed near the bed. His eyes shot quickly around the room when he found Harper's bed empty. Then he heard a noise coming form the bathroom. "Harper," Dylan placed himself just outside the door, "are you alright?"
For the moment Harper had stopped throwing up. "Yeah, I feel like a million bucks." Then, before he could say anything else he let out the few remnants that were in his stomach.
"Do you need anything?" Dylan was not really sure what he should do. He didn't want to intrude on the boy's privacy, but he was concerned as he always was for a member of his crew. "Would you like some water or something?"
"No," Harper came back into the room, "I'm feeling much better now." He said forcing a smile.
"I'm glad," Dylan watched as the young man went back to his bed. He could see that the virus had taken its toll on Harper. He even looked like he had lost a couple of pounds, and for Harper that was a lot.
Harper sat at the edge of his bed and glanced up at the Captain. "How bad did I screw things up?" Harper inquired keeping his eyes locked on the floor in front of him.
"Screw things up?" Dylan repeated. "Harper, let me explain something to you. What happened was not your fault." He said sitting himself down on the chair opposite the younger man.
"But it should have never happened." He finally made eye contact. "I could have destroyed Andromeda and killed everyone in the process." He continued to berate himself. "I can't risk doing that again."
Dylan knew Harper was distressed about what the virus had made him do, but he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Harper, I know you think you are to blame for what happened, but neither I nor anyone else on board feels that way." He took in a deep breath. "And I can't tell you that something like this will never happen again, but what I can tell you is that you are a member of this crew and that we all need you."
"Oh come on, any space geek could do what I do."
"You and I both know that's not true." Dylan looked on for an acknowledgement. "Right..."
"Right," Harper finally agreed.
"Now, get some sleep." Dylan said as he began to make his way out of the room. "We'll be at Aviktar II in less than ten hours, and I expect all my crewmembers to be ready for shore leave."
Harper let go of some of the tension he had been feeling since he had first woken up. Being the only crewmember from Earth he had always felt a little out of place aboard Andromeda, but the fact that they didn't dump him off on the nearest planet after the trouble he had caused made him feel like he might actually have found a place where he belonged.
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