Title: Lose the earring, kid.
Author: SparkyCola
Summary: Before Andromeda (BA) i.e. set on the Eureka Maru, Harper/Beka friendship and Harper Angst.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers for: 'Be all my sins remembered' and 'Bunker Hill.' ..two great eps.
Author Note: Just randomly written one night, what can I say. Please R and R!
"Lose the earring, kid."
"I can't!"
Beka turned on him sharply and he stiffened.
"I gave you an order, you've barely been on here a week and you're already disobeying me?"
Beka was still not feeling great, having just shoved Bobby off the ship. She didn't need this.
"B-but...I ...I'm not sure..."
"Not sure what? I said take it off, is that too hard? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius!"
Harper looked terrified. Beka sighed.
"Sorry. I'm not really...look just take it off ok?"
She left. Harper stood there, unsure of what to do, then moved to engineering.
A few hours later Beka went to check on him, bored and lonely now Bobby had left.
"Harper...I thought I told you to take that off." Beka gestured to the earring.
"It's no use boss I tried honestly, I just...they're not meant to be taken off..."
Beka hated it when her crew didn't obey orders. Especially brand new crew, and especially when she was already in a bad mood. She made for the earring and tried to force it off.
"Hey! Ow! Get off!"
Then something happened. Just as she felt she was making progress, Harper screamed in pain and shoved her violently away from him. In surprise she stood back and watched him fall to the floor. Finally he stopped screaming, and stood up slowly and shakily.
"Boss, I tried to tell you..."
"What the hell was that?"
"You mean you don't know?"
"Know what?"
Beka was becoming more concerned by the second.
"What this earring means...boss...it means that..."
Harper shifted uncomfortably, and mumbled his next words in shame.
"I'm a slave."
Beka raised her eyebrows and stared at him. She looked over the scrawny Earth kid in front of her with a surprise she didn't bother to conceal.
"You're a slave."
Harper nodded awkwardly, and watched her expression, determining her response.
"You seem pretty confident for a slave!"
Harper knew what she meant. Most slaves were extremely timid and simply followed orders without a word. Any that tried to escape, were almost always killed. Almost always. Harper mentally smiled.
"Yeah well I wasn't a slave long. They were still...breaking me in." Harper said with some distaste.
Beka frowned, and to avoid an awkward silence Harper continued.
"Long enough to get an annoying piece of metal permanently fixed to me though"
This brought Beka back round to the problem at hand.
"Do you like scientists?"
"Why?"
"I have an idea. We're headed to Sinti."
"Sinti?"
"Yeah Sinti, you know...oh wait, you don't do you...well never mind. I think you'll like it."
"Why is it full of hot babes and-"
"Uh- Not exactly, no."
To Beka's surprise, they found someone who would actually do it for free, for scientific interest- but the operation was painful, so with the money she'd been going to spend on the operation she bought Harper a dataport. It would be useful after all. If she was honest, she felt sorry for the kid, not that she'd ever let him know that. He was a charismatic character for sure- which helped cheer her up a bit, so in another way the dataport was a thank you. Even though it was Harper currently doing the thank you'ing.
"Thanks boss! I can't believe it, a whole new set of clothes, a dataport, how come you're being so nice to me?!"
"Your other clothes were beyond salvation for one thing..."
"And I haven't woken up so far with some device or other that I have to come to Santi-"
"Sinti"
"Yeah, Sinti, to get removed either. Things are definitely looking up. Sleeping in a place that never gets cold, food..."
"Harper, Harper I get the point. You're excited because of the dataport right? Just...calm down you're giving me a headache!" Beka shook her head in amused exasperation.
"Sorry boss."
Harper paused for all of five seconds before continuing. In mid-rant, Beka interrupted.
"You know, I can't imagine you as a slave for half a second Harper."
Harper stopped. Beka knew she'd hit something, and was a little surprised. Harper wasn't usually affected by anything like that, she assumed she could pretty much say what she wanted without him being offended by it- which was refreshing. She hated walking on eggshells and trying to be diplomatic all the time.
He didn't say anything, but she knew. In fact, that's how she knew. He'd stopped talking completely.
"I'm sorry..."
"It's ok; I guess it's just a little bit soon ya know? I'll get over it."
They continued awkwardly for a moment.
"You're right anyways. I'd a made a terrible slave. Or a great slave depending on how much inner anger my master had..."
Beka wasn't amused by this. She glanced at him in concern.
"How did you escape?"
"What do you mean how did I escape? How many times do I have to tell you, I'm a freakin-"
"-genius I know, but..."
Harper sighed.
"I was there for 6 months. The average is 4, so, as much as Ubers love a challenge, they were getting bored of me. They were just about ready to kill me when one of the guards noticed I had a ...'flair' for fixing things. So they tried to make me fix things, and that was their mistake. I made shrillers- I mean, devices which upset Uber sensitive hearing, weapons – even though they thought I wouldn't be able to with what they gave me...Well I escaped anywho. They were chasing me when I ran into Bobby, but they'd a given up by now. They're lazy like that."
"How did they catch you in the first place?"
Harper looked at the ground.
"They came, my parents protected me and were killed in the process...then they took me whilst I was at their grave one night."
"I'm so sorry Harper..."
"But hey, look on the bright side, I can forget about that place now, and if I can help it I'll stay as far away from it as possible."
They walked in silence for a while, contemplative. When they reached the Maru Beka turned to Harper.
"Harper...do I want to know what happened during those 6 months?"
Harper stared at her through haunted eyes, and shook his head slowly. Then they went in to the Maru, and acted as though the conversation never took place. That didn't stop both lying awake that night thinking about it though.
Harper woke with a start. He was so used to nightmares, he didn't even scream anymore.
The End. please r and r! thanks.