Part 1

It shouldn't be taking this long. Seamus Harper mentally chastised himself as he stopped his work and took a moment to gather his senses. This was a simple job, recalibrating systems was something he did every day and standard procedures but he was struggling. Harper took a deep breath; he hadn't been feeling great that day but this was nothing new. He'd been working non-stop on repairs since Dylan last got the ship shot at, just after the last conference the ship had hosted, and Harper really wanted to get things fixed before shore leave.

For weeks Harper had been crossing the days off before Beka would take him in the Maru and drop him off at the seventh tri-star surfing championships being held on some planet whose name he could barely remember, let alone pronounce, but he didn't care, all he wanted was to make sure Rommie was in tip top condition before he left so he'd truly be able to kick back and enjoy the surf.

"Harper."

Great, now Rommie was on his case, Harper considered and he stopped and prepared himself for a dressing down.

"What is it, babe?" he asked as casually as he could.

"Are you alright?"

Harper looked around the system's matrix, surprised by the question Andromeda had asked him. "Yeah?" he answered, allowing the confusion to show in his voice.

"I'm picking up some fluctuating patterns in your life signs," Andromeda spoke as she appeared next to Harper.

"What do you mean?" Harper asked, a little concerned now as he pushed away the streams of data he had been working on and focused fully on Andromeda.

"I think you should return," Andromeda advised. "I will ask Trance to meet you."

"I feel fine," Harper protested lightly.

"You have been working in my matrix now for over five hours without a break, and you have not slept in nearly twenty hours, the only food you have eaten is snack food," Rommie stated.

"Watching my every move?" Harper smirked.

"Always Harper, it's what I do," Rommie answered without emotion, but her face softened. "Please, Harper, return to your body and let Trance try and solve why I am picking up the readings that I am."

Without warning Harper suddenly grimaced, and then brought his hand to his head.

"Harper?" Rommie spoke with concern, but he didn't respond as his signal momentarily became disrupted. The ship's avatar could only watch as Harper fought what appeared to be an intense amount of pain. She moved closer, wishing she could comfort him but inside her matrix he was just bytes of information like herself.

"Rommie," Harper then managed, as his bodily representation shifted once again, before he virtually moved to lie down across some random information streams.

"Harper, you can't stay here," Rommie stated, crouching beside her engineer.

"I don't feel too good," Harper stressed between gritted teeth. "I was fine until you made me aware that I wasn't," he added tiredly.

"Harper, you have to return, Trance is with you now, please, disconnect," Rommie encouraged.

Instead of complying with her orders, Harper closed his eyes rapidly losing consciousness.

"Dylan," Rommie then spoke up. "We have a medical emergency."


Beka was shaking her head as she walked along the corridor, and with a deep breath she entered the living quarters of the ship's engineer, and her friend, Seamus Harper. Immediately she looked over to where his bed was situated, and finding the lights were low, she took care as she walked over to his side.

"Hey," Beka smiled, when she saw Harper shift and then roll over sleepily. "Sounds like I missed quite an adventure today."

"If you're here to lecture me, don't bother, just get in line behind Rommie, Trance and Dylan," Harper mumbled, his eyes barely open as he brought the covers up around himself.

"You mean Tyr hasn't had a pop at you? I'm surprised, Mr self-preservation is usually the first in line whenever you try and kill yourself," Beka softly spoke and then smiled warmly.

"I didn't try to kill myself," Harper returned.

"But you made a good attempt," Beka offered.

"I didn't realise I was developing a fever when I jacked in," Harper explained, his red rimmed eyes opening a little more now. "I just thought I was tired because I was trying to finish all essential repairs before I went on shore leave."

Beka noted the sadness in her friend's voice now. "Sorry you've had to cancel," she simply said.

"Bound to happen, I look forward to something too much I should expect shit to happen preventing it happening," Harper spoke with bitterness.

Beka reached out an arm and rested her hand on the top of Harper's head softly, and began to gently stroke his hair back from his clammy forehead. "Don't be so hard on yourself," Beka offered quietly. "You haven't been sick in a long while, it's just unfortunate," she added.

"Not since that time we were stranded on the Maru," Harper remembered, and a brief smile appeared.

"And that was accidental if I remember, you exposed yourself to a gas that made you blind and stupid," Beka teased, finding a smile of her own with the memory.

"Just blind, thank you very much," Harper returned, but found another brief smile. "And that was bad enough, actually can we not remember that on second thoughts, still gives me nightmares," he admitted lightly.

"Can't believe that was almost six months ago already," Beka idly realised. "We really were lucky on reflection."

"Lucky?" Harper shifted so he was lying on his back now.

"We were both alive and somewhat well after the event," Beka shrugged.

Harper frowned. "My back was sore for weeks."

"You should have let Trance take a look at it," Beka stated. "I could only ever do a sub-standard job in treating you, and I'm sure Rommie got suspicious about our frequent trips to the Maru."

"Let them talk," Harper grinned. "They didn't have to know about that guy and what he did to me."

"It could have been a lot worse," Beka stated seriously.

"But it wasn't, can we drop this?" Harper asked again, rolling onto his side once more.

Beka checked Harper's reactions, and was concerned by his reluctance to talk about the events that had happened on the Maru six months previously. Beka then saw how much her friend was suffering with the fever he had picked up, and decided to drop it.

"Get some rest, and no jacking in until Trance gives you a clean bill of health, I don't want to ever return back from a supply run again to discover you caused a medical emergency, ok?"

"You got it," Harper mumbled tiredly and his eyes were closed once more, as he brought the covers up close again, trying to settle down.

Beka watched as Harper slowly settled into a fevered sleep, and she sighed knowing that for a while there had been a great concern over Harper's welfare, enough for them to contact her on the Maru to let her know what had happened. It had taken them a good hour at least to safely remove Harper from the matrix connection, and even then they were not completely sure that he hadn't been harmed by his falling ill whilst jacked in.

Harper had been rendered unconscious before whilst jacked in, but falling ill was uncharted territory and Beka was just glad that he was ok, she wasn't ready to lose him and it was very much connected to what had happened six months previously. She got to her feet, and stared at the prone figure battling with the fever in his sleep, realising she had just admitted to something she had been denying since the events on the Maru six months before.


The room was dark and stale smelling. Boxes and cartons lay abandoned around the four walls, leaving only room for a table and the door way. Around the table five men were sitting, drinking some form of alcohol.

"Tell me some good news," the man that was sitting at the top of the table asked, his battle armour adding to his presence that intimidated the others gathered.

"We've finally been able to confirm that story, about that little freighter ship," an eager young kid spoke up. "It's called the Eureka Maru and it is a part of the Andromeda Ascendant's fleet."

"So they weren't lying about that, interesting," the man sneered, as he examined the blade of his knife. "What took you so long in finding that out?"

"They are part of that new commonwealth, it's hard to get information out of them," another of the men stated, his bulk almost taking up one side of the table.

"Her name is Beka Valentine, the runt is called Seamus Harper," The kid now continued. "Valentine is the CO, second in command to Dylan Hunt a 300 year old relic from the past, it's quite a story," the kid enthused.

"What about the runt, Harper?"

"He's the ships engineer, something of a genius and respected amongst the top scientists in the known worlds," the kid finished and there was silence for a moment.

"They tricked me, humiliated me, and they took back what I had taken from them, I want that Maru, and I want them both to pay, especially the runt," the man sneered. "But you know something? What I want most of all is the Andromeda, it's the least they can give me for the troubles they caused me."

"Tyrone, I'm not sure it's wise to get mixed up with this new commonwealth," the larger man spoke his concerns.

"We can't just take a high guard warship, boss," a smaller guy sitting next to the kid argued.

Tyrone rose to his full six foot plus height, and glared at his men in turn. "It's time we stepped up a league, and I know exactly how we're going to do it."

No man dared to argue now that Tyrone had made his thoughts known, and meekly they all agreed with brief nods of the head.

TBC