Title: Survival Instincts
Author: Nureek
Rating: R (It's gonna get real ugly)
Disclaimer: If I owned Andromeda, well we won't go there, but I'd be rich and would not be on this board, I'd be in Tahiti, with my mini-Harper, catching some waves. But I don't own Andromeda, or any of their characters. Man disclaimers are depressing.
Summary: Strange things happen when the crew studies an unusual nebula. Harper centric with a dren-load of angst!
Spoilers: For safety, let's just say up to season three. And this ignores The Tunnel at the End of the Light and all of season 3(bad season 3)
Survival Instincts
Chapter 1
The purple light from the gaseous glowing nebula radiated into the bridge of the starship Andromeda and was absorbed by the faces of the crew.
"It's beautiful," the gold Trance remarked in awe.
"It's just a diffuse mass of interstellar dust and gas which is visible as luminous patches of darkness depending on the way the mass absorbs or reflects incident radiation." Rommie dryly stated. "Though it would be much more interesting if all of my sensors were on-line....Harper?"
"I"m working on it Rom-doll, hold your horses" the engineer answered over the coms. He was deep inside the ship's VI matrix trying to fine tune some of the sensors to pick up as much data on the nebula as possible.
A few days ago, Trace discovered the nebula on long range sensors. It had very unusual energy readings. Higher energy readings than had ever been seen before in any nebula. So she managed to bug the crew until they gave in and headed off towards the rarity for some scientific study.
"Do you feel the energy radiating off of it?" asked Trace. She was in a complete state of bliss - eyes closed, just taking it all in.
"I feel my cells being destroyed," complained Tyr. "Ship, are you sure the radiation isn't too high?"
"It's well within safety parameters" replied the annoyed hologram.
Beka was standing at the pilot station watching the galactic dust and gas. "It's pretty Trance, but I've got a bad feeling about this place."
"Me too," chimed in the 300 year old captain who was standing next to Beka. "Let's just get the readings and get out of here."
Beka gave a concerned smile, "This is a switch. We're getting the hunches and Trance isn't. Now I REALLY don't like this place."
After a few minutes of silent watching and waiting, Dylan finally spoke up, "Harper, how close are you to getting those sensors working?"
"About twenty more minutes boss. What's the hurry, you're not enjoying being a space tourist? Ya wanna go find someone to shoot at us?" replied the disembodied voice of the engineer.
Dylan rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. "No Mr. Harper, we just have a bad fe......" The captain was interrupted when he looked back at the view screen. The nebula was changing and expanding at great speed towards them. "ANDROMEDA REPORT!"
"All of my working sensors are overloaded. I can't get any readings."
"BEKA! GET US THE HELL OUT OF HE....." But Dylan's order was cut short by an energy blast that shot out of the expanding nebula. The blast raced towards the ship, passing through the outer hull and hurtled towards the shocked crew.
The wave first hit Beka and Dylan. The energy pulsed through their fragile bodies as they screamed in agony and fell unconscious to the ground. Before any of the others could react, the wave was upon them too. Trance let out a blood curdling scream and then went limp to the floor. Even the stoic Tyr screamed in pain before he collapsed to the hard metal grating. Rommie was silent as the energy wave rushed through all of her robotic systems, frying each one until she joined the rest on the floor, unconscious and smoldering.
Even the ship's AI was not left untouched. As the destructive energy wave ripped through her main processing center, a huge surge of power pulsed through every bit of the ship's system. Unfortunately, the last conscious crew member's mind was in the ships system when the pulse raged through. Harper was slumped over in a conduit deep within Andromeda plugged into her matrix. When the energy pulse hit the system he was working in, his motionless body jerked up. A primal scream of pain ripped out of his throat as sparks flew from his data port.
A few seconds later it was all over. The nebula returned to it's previous size and the wave dissipated. All throughout Andromeda, it was dark and motionless. Only emergency power was on and command was illuminated by an eerie shade of purple from the nebula. Lying on the cold floor was Trance, Beka, Tyr and Dylan, all with small trickles of blood flowing out of their ears. Laying next to them was Rommie who was smoldering and unmoving. And in the conduit, laid Harper with puss and blood pouring out of his data port.
TBC