Title: New Trance Tells Her Story
Summary: You know you want to hear her story
Disclaimer: I own nothing and am getting no money.
X0832001@yahoo.com
"I said Harper only had a few minutes to live and I meant it, the new honest Trance and all. The last time I lived these days he was dead. Tyr had cleanly broken his neck while Dylan had been steadying himself to pull the trigger. To me it was like it was yesterday, (Well it kind of was yesterday, date wise anyway). I can still see Harper stumbling forward as the larvae stirred and their movements hurt him. I had caught him; I can still feel the weight of him in my arms. He knew it was time even before Rommie coolly announced, "It's time Dylan.' I remember the last time I looked into those eyes, so blue and deep, and brave. He wasn't afraid of death. I didn't know what to say, he was going to die! He gave me a little peck, the same way I had given him one a few hours before this mess. Then Harper slipped from my arms and gave Dylan one of his classically Harper smirks.
"Do what you gotta do boss." Dylan had nodded, leveling his Force lance at Harper's chest, then his head, and back to his engineer's heart. We were all so focused on Dylan even I barely noticed Tyr stepping up behind his friend.
I know Tyr considers Harper a friend because I was there when he kept his promise. A simple "You will be missed boy" was all he said as he ended Harper's life. It was fast; a quick jerk, a sickening crack that has and even now, after all that has changed, still will plague my dreams, Harper's body fell to its knees and crashed forward. He was dead long before he hit the floor of his beloved machine shop.
I could have stopped it, but I didn't. I just let the events play out and didn't interfere. I had seen things, knew about the tesserac machine and its shock waves, even seen a future me. I'm from a future where I never switched places with my younger self. I thought I could make the right decisions. But I had the same morbid view as everyone else, that Houhn was more important than Harper. So I let Harper die, my best friend died because of me. It was bad.
We buried him with full High Guard honors on Earth in the open country of what was once Massachusetts. Far away from the miserable city he had grown up in and the mass graves built by the Dragons that held the rest of his family we buried Harper. Dylan had spoken, of what a fine human being Harper was. 300 years and he was sure there had never been, and never would be another Harper. Rommie admitted Harper had proven himself trustworthy and had become closer to her than anyone else in her life. Beka couldn't talk, she started the story of when she met Harper, but didn't get much past "By the Powers he was thin..." before she burst into a fresh batch of tears. She excused herself with "Seamus was a good friend and a brilliant engineer." Tyr was still Tyr. He stood in front of the High Guard coffin and chuckled.
"They don't even have real funerals on this miserable rock and the boy gets full military honors at his." The Neitzchien shook his head. "It's a shame the line ended with him. For a human, he had some of the most worthy genes I have seen" then he sat down. That was actually the highest thing he could have said about Harper. Then it had been my turn to talk. I didn't know what to say. I know I got up, but now I don't remember what I said. I hope it was nice. Harper deserved that.
Houhn died from a brain aneurysm 6 month later to the day. That was when things started to get worse. Beka hadn't taken that especially well. She'd been doing much better, rarely crying, able to talk about her friend. But when she heard the news she locked herself in her room for 3 days and did nothing but cry until Tyr broke down her door and dragged her out to get food into her. It was like Harper's death was for nothing. He'd died to save Houhn, but he'd died anyway. Fate had wanted the genius dead and gone through Harper to get it done. If I hadn't been crying, I may have laughed at the sight of Tyr carrying Beka through the ship as she kicked and screamed, then force-feeding her soup. Harper would have laughed. Laughed a lot and probably made it a video Christmas card. "Snap out of it woman! The boy wouldn't want you to make yourself sick mourning him again!"
Time passed, it always does. Beka got better again, we all did. Life went on, it always does. Beka went off with Bobby. They took the Maru and started a new relationship. I was happy for them. Of course I was stupid and naive. The Magog were still coming. Their World Ship was on its way. After Harper died the Nova bomb plan had to be put off. A nice enough fellow, a caring compassionate captain, but Dylan was far from a student of nuclear physics. None of us were, and Harper hadn't been building regular bombs anyway. He was following his own sprawled plans, covered in numbers and equations we didn't quite understand. Nova bombs hadn't worked, so Harper had come up with gravity as a weapon. A modified Nova bomb that created a black hole. Genius, but not what Dylan had provided him plans for. Rommie tried to make sense of his mess, but she was the ship. Being everywhere and running everything took up a lot of her time. So we never got around to finishing that plan.
I suppose we could have found another scientist to finish them, but we were so busy restoring the Commonwealth. Every time we turned around there was another problem. The Dragons threatening someone, Charlemagne's claim of Alpha being disputed, The Dragons threatening more people, The Percids wanting more recourses for research. I grew up during this time. Stopped being young and hopeful and learned to let the universe know I was dangerous. None of these slowed the World Ship. The Magog came; it was very, very bad.
We put up a brave defense. There was so much destruction. So many people died. Beka came back. As a cyborg, but still, she came back. She was different, of course so was I. Bobby was dead, uprising on Teleran Prime. Beka escaped and made it back to Andromeda just in time to lose it again. I don't know exactly what happened. It certainly wasn't the perfect possible future; I hadn't seen that in such a long time. I remember the Magog, and an explosion, the putrid smell of burning hair, feeling the heat of fire, and then nothing. I woke up on the Maru. Beka had saved me. Dylan had gone down with his ship. Just like those old Earth sea captains in some of Harper's stories. Tyr was gone too. He died still the lone Kodiak, the Magog hadn't cared about the bones Andromeda held. They'd invaded and intended to win. The bones went down with the ship too.
We were still fighting when the tesserac wave showed up. One minute we were on the Maru, the next we were back on the Andromeda. It was a miracle, a chance to go back and make things good again. I crossed over and I could see the perfect possible future again. I had to see to it that things went differently this time. I saw myself, my younger self. I saw Beka, the blonde non-metallic Beka. I switched places with my younger self, at least this time I understood how important the situation was. I could change things!
Then I saw him, Harper, alive. I wanted to reach out and touch him. He was on the verge of death, but still not dead yet. For a long moment I just stared at him. He probably was a little freaked out by the intensity of my gaze. He had no idea of what was coming, that when he died it would tear me apart inside. How hard it was to go on with my life and goals knowing I let him down. I didn't find a cure. I had to stop the future from turning out the way I had seen. My idea on how was to save Harper.
I don't know if I changed things by saving Harper. Honestly, he could be fated to die. Things might even turn out worse this way. His gravity bombs could have been the product of a Sparky Cola overdose and too much time on his hands. But I don't care anymore. Things were bad, very bad the way things turned out before. On top of everything, I missed Harper everyday. So what if I am being selfish. After all I have seen, and all that happened I deserve to be selfish. I want to live this time again. So I will. They'll get used to me. Beka has come pretty close, Dylan didn't know what to make of me when I was purple, so for him nothing is different now that I'm gold. Tyr will trust me when I've really earned it, he barely trusts Dylan who's saved his life. That's just Tyr.
Harper started to warm up to me today. It's like a ray of sunshine to have him back. I don't think anyone realizes how much someone means to them until they are gone. I have no intention of losing him again. I can see the perfect possible future again. I missed that too; the hope that things will all turn out alright."