Title: Crazy Holy Rollers
Disclaimer: I own nothing and I am getting no money
Summary: Crazy Holy Rollers think Harper is a major Sinner
A/N: I actually am not anti religion. Reposted with the hopes it won't have my name on it this time
Harper was plugged into the computer; his limp and lifeless catatonic body was propped up in the corner. His mind was deep in the computer, working at the speed of thought to redirect Andromeda's pathways around a burnt out circuit. Trance skipped into the engine room and noticed Harper in the corner. "Andromeda, How long has he been in there?"
"2 hours, 23 minutes" said holo- Rommie as she appeared in front of Trance
"Isn't that a long time?"
Just then Captain Hunt led a group of Kalins into the engine room. The Kalins were a new group the Andromeda was hoping would join the Commonwealth. They were humans, but they all wore the same yellow robes. Suddenly one of the female delegates shrieked.
"What's wrong?" asked Dylan, whirling around in full concern mode. Unable to speak she pointed at Harper's body. "Oh" sighed a relieved Hunt, "That's our engineer, Harper, he's fine". Her scream had seemed to imply serious fear. Hunt was so glad it was just a misinterpretation of what she saw. She probably thought he was dead; Harper did look rather corpse-like propped up against the wall. Trying to rectify the situation Andromeda threw Harper out of her mainframe.
Suddenly animated, the little human whined as he came back to the real world, "I was almost done Rommie" he explained, pulling the cable from his port.
"Harper, this is the Kalin delegation. They were a little worried about you."
He smirked "Oh. I'm fine, really" The Kalins did not seem to agree.
"Look at it!" gasped the woman, pointing at the little blonde engineer. "It's an abomination!"
"What?" Harper chuckled, "I may not be a looker like Dylan here, but I assure you I'm no abomination. I mean I'm a freakin genius after all, that's gotta make up for something."
Before they even knew what was happening the leader of the Kalins shot Harper. A fast draw, the man had produced a gun from his long robes and Harper was on the deck before Dylan even knew the man had a gun. A long thin dart was lodged in the upper chest of Hunt's engineer. Hunt moved to disarm the shooter, but the Kalin simply handed over the gun without resistance. Trance jumped to Harper's side and tried to jostle him awake unsuccessfully.
"He'll be dead in 15 minutes or less if we don't take back to our planet and give him the antidote to that poison," the man stated calmly. "He is a great sinner. Whether he lives or dies is entirely your decision Captain Hunt."
"Why!"
"He committed the greatest offense against the Great Spirit one man can commit. He implanted that which is unnatural, a machine into his own body."
"So you shoot him! Killing isn't wrong for you!" exclaimed Trance from the floor.
"Killing is wrong dear child, when it is someone good and just. Your friend has evil sticking out of his neck. The Great Spirit has commanded we end such transgressions. You have 10 minutes, less if his body is weak."
Hunt was torn. Let these crazy people take Harper? They were the ones who poisoned him to begin with. Unfortunately it was the kid's only chance to live. "Take him." Two of the smaller men in the group of Kalins each took hold of an arm and hauled Harper across their shoulders.
"Not a bad decision Captain Hunt. He will be returned to you when the evil has been removed."
"Fine, of course I will be accompanying you so the transfer process shouldn't take long." He whipped out his force lance to make his position perfectly clear. "Get moving because if Harper doesn't make it I might not be able to control my emotional outburst and that may separate your head from your shoulders." Unfazed the Kalin led on.
Beka was fuming. She knocked over several tables and punctured Dylan's basketball. But even the heavy pift of the bladderless ball smacking against the floor couldn't sooth her nerves. Trance had come running as soon as Dylan, Harper, and the delegation left. Since Andromeda recorded the scene Beka could see it played back in living color. Now she was livid. Furious with the Kalins for pulling something like this, and not very thrilled with Dylan for joining in on this stunt, almost forgetting to release command to her. What was he thinking? After what they had done to Harper? Harper. That's why he'd done it. That's why is she had been the one in that engine room she'd have gone without a moments thought. Harper was one of the family. You don't let family die when there is even an ice cube's chance in hell that they don't have to.
"I see they have taken the little professor" came a strong voice from behind her.
"Shut up Tyr. We're going to get him back"
"I have no doubt that you will" This surprised her as much as if he had just said "I am Tyr Anazazi of the Lollipop Guild, let's all chuckle and eat sweets"
"You agree?"
"Certainly. Survival is a very good motive, and Andromeda could make a sizeable whole in their planet."
"Dylan would never do that," Beka pointed out
"He's down there and the weapons are up here." Then he turned and headed for the command deck.
XXXXXXXXX
Dylan found himself in a large hospital like room. They'd rushed Harper away to be injected with the antidote. Leaving Dylan alone pondering what would happen next. They surely weren't going to say, "Here captain Hunt, sorry our devout religious beliefs interfered with your day, what were we thinking!" and then release Harper, who would stroll out humming a jaunty tune.
Hunt had gotten the impression they were going to try and remove the data port from his engineer's neck where its presence was so offensive to their god. Data ports hadn't been too common 300 years ago. But his understanding was they weren't easily removed. Time passed slowly. A scream broke the quiet. Dylan knew it had to be Harper. He jumped out of the molded polymer chair he had been sitting in.
"They've started already?" he demanded of a passing nurse.
"Yes" she responded wistfully. "Soon he will be at peace with the Great Spirit"
"They are Killing him," stressed Hunt
"He is a blight to the eyes of the Great Spirit as he is" there was no talking to this girl. Dylan had hoped to escape with Harper between the antidote and the surgery. From the noises coming from down the hall that plan had fallen through.
Finally, the screaming stopped. A man in white robes splattered with blood approached him. Hunt restrained himself from strangling the man wearing Harper's blood.
"What did you do to him?"
"Unfortunately the port is implanted too deep. He started hemorrhaging so we stopped the bleeding and called it a day. We will try again in a few hours. "
"Take me to him"
"As you wish"
He was in his cell, sleeping. Harper could sleep anywhere about now. The red wound that surrounded his port looked infected. They'd tried to cut it out but it was connected deep in his brain. Not that they would leave him alone because of that, they were going to get it out, one way or another. Save his divine temple or some rot. Deep asleep, he didn't stir when Dylan arrived.
Dylan was surprised to find behind the doors in the waiting room this hospital had halls lined with cells. This wasn't an ordinary hospital. "Harper" Dylan called through the ancient iron bars that separated him from his engineer. The boy groaned as he came to. "We'll get you out of here" Hunt said without thinking.
"Yeah Boss" mumbled the blonde rolling off his side and into a sitting position.
"You are welcome to leave once the abomination is removed," pointed out the Kalin doctor. "You a scheduled for the procedure in about 6 hours."
"You are not taking my port" Harper wanted to stay up and make this clear, but his vision was graying and he knew he'd be asleep in moments. He hurt. Sleep would offer a quiet respite.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
He'd quietly said he wasn't giving up his port, and then he'd fallen over. Hunt couldn't believe what was happening. "You'll kill him over this? You are a doctor, you know that port is too deep in his brain to remove safely"
"I must do what I think is right, just as you do"
Dylan was then escorted away from the prison hospital and to the chambers of the High Council. This would be his last chance to convince them to release Harper.
Was Tyr being serious? Beka watched him saunter up the ramp. Threaten a people with annihilation using their lovely antique warship? She followed him to the command deck.
Tyr was lounging in Dylan's chair when she arrived. "We can't threaten to blow up Kalin" Beka told him as she entered the room.
"Why not?" he asked simply
"We're the good guys."
"As you wish, but being the good guys is not going to stop the Kalins" he let out a carefree sigh, "They're probably lobotomizing the boy as we speak"
"We need to give Dylan a chance to do this his way."
"Time is of the essence Captain Valentine."
Rommie watched the exchange. She found herself agreeing with Tyr. She noted that should not become a habit. Harper was her creator, he'd built her, and he took care of her. He treated Andromeda with differently than any of her previous engineers. He protected her, and always made sure she was performing at peak efficiency. If these Kalins had their way he'd never interface with her again. That was a strange idea. One of the very first things he'd down when he came aboard was enter her mainframe. It would be weird if Harper couldn't do that anymore. Worse would be if he simply didn't come back. So Rommie was all for flexing a little muscle. She was a warship after all, and warships should get their way sometimes.
The Chamber of the Elders was ornate to say the least. Anything that could be covered in gold was. On risers sat the 4 older Kalins. One stood as Hunt approached them.
"Captain Hunt. I am glad you came. I am First Minister Shatook"
"You are killing one of my crew, how could I not?"
"We are honoring the Great Spirit by removing that which offends him"
"I understand that you do not believe in altering your body, but that is not Harper's belief."
"The Great Spirit blessed him with an able body, but your crewman had defiled that gift. Implanted cold metal and circuitry into his body, mutilated the Great Spirit's gift for his own selfish reasons."
"Minister, You cannot impose your beliefs on my crew."
"I answer with a question". Dylan groaned mentally, why did these intellectual, moral high ground types always answer a question with a question? "If I were committing atrocities against my people, would you try and stop me?'
"Yes, but this isn't the same thing."
"In my belief system it is. If I let it continue then I am giving my blessing to all those who wish to destroy the Great Spirit's gifts. His port will be removed in just a short time."
'You cannot kill a member of my crew!"
"Captain we have humored you more than enough. Your crewmember is in our prison, guarded so you won't be kidnapping him, and scheduled for surgery in a few hours. There is nothing you can do to stand in our way. We will complete this task for the Great Spirit and he will reward us. We will allow you to remain on Kalin until the situation is resolved. Know how generous we are to even allow that." Then Dylan was forcibly removed from the room. Dylan noted negotiations were really not his strong point.
That was it, 10 minutes and Harper's death sentence was declared final. He was led back to the hospital. They'd let him see Harper one more time before he went back under the knife. He wasn't being bullied but it was quite clear that his itinerary was pretty well planned.
Harper was awake for the time being. He still felt incredibly fuzzy, but things were clearing up. Dylan came in. He wore a grim expression. Not a good sign. Harper knew that look; he'd had that look on occasion back on Earth. It was the serious, fake smile of "I know you're going to kick it before I see you again". God he hated that look. That optimistic voice in the back of his head, the first one to be silenced in almost all situations, said Seamus Harper had been given that look before and he was still here.
"Hey boss" he smiled, a pale shadow of his usual vibrancy
"Hello Harper"
"Look, I know what you're thinking. The little genius is done. But don't give up on me yet."
"Of course not- It's"
"Let's not ponder my chances of surviving having this thing yanked out of my neck. Let's just talk about something else."
"How long have you had it?" Dylan had wanted to ask that for a while now. Everyone of his new crew was a mystery. Had secrets and pasts that they hadn't shared with Hunt. Normally Harper would have skirted this with a joke like any other question about his past. But being in an alien prison hospital did odd things to a man.
"4 years. I was 19 and it seemed like my ticket off Earth. I had been saving for years. Putting away every throne and gilder I could lay my hands on. Had it done some Persid who couldn't even speak Common. He had this hot nurse who translated." He laughed at the memory "It got infected and he was so afraid I'd die and people would blame him. Actually made me sign a paper saying I was a weak sickly little mudfoot from the time I came to see him"
Before Dylan could even respond to how much Harper had opened up they were leading him away. He actually tried to break free of their grasp but apparently there were some weight machines in their rectory. Two against one and he was not getting out of it. They led him back to the waiting room and pushed him into a chair. They sat with him while he waited for what was coming.
They'd come for him. They'd taken Dylan away and begun unlocking the door. Harper glared at them, his "I'm not going to take this anymore" attitude apparent. He had come too far in his life to give up now. Tyr's words of encouragement during the Magog attacks were coming back and making quite a bit of sense. He'd lived for 20 years- 2 decades! surrounded by plagues and famine and death. He'd lived through attack after attack after attack. He hadn't been lying when he'd told Genterex he'd been tortured by Neitzcheins. He had fought a swarm of Magog, been taken back to their World Ship- and come back alive. He had a gut full of larvae, but he was still alive. He had a screaming agony filled death waiting just under his shirt. But he was still alive. He was going to stay alive too, because there was no way in hell that he after all that had almost killed him, that he was going to die at the hands of some bunch of holy rollers who thought he was the biggest sinner in the system.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Two orderlies took hold of his arms and Harper twisted his shoulder in a circle that broke their grips. He gabbed the shorter of the men by the hair as he pulled the Kalin's head into his knee. The second orderly grabbed Harper's free hand and pulled the little human off his buddy. He scratched and he fought until he was strapped to the gurney with thick leather straps. "He's possessed by the demon!" they shouted.
"It's a demon who wishes to defy the Great Spirit!"
"It's no demon- let me up" snarled Harper. The only thing controlling him at this point was his strong will not to get carved up like a turkey. They didn't do as he asked. But, mercifully, this time before they wheeled him into surgery he was sedated to calm his demon.
Beka looked around at her crewmates. Rev was disgusted by the situation and had retired to his room to meditate and pray to the Divine for Harper's safe return. Rommie stood awaiting a command near the front of the room. Trance was pacing the ramp like a caged animal muttering to herself, while Tyr stood directly in front of her, demanding her answer.
"Do it" urged Trance. Beka looked at her surprised. The little sparkly alien grew serious.
"There are an awful lot of futures where Harper doesn't make it." she explained. She could see all sorts of possibilities for the future, even the perfect outcome. But quite a few involved Harper being returned in a box. Harper was her best friend; she didn't want to lose him.
Beka sighed, there was a time for the High Guard way, and then there was now.
"Go for it Tyr" The Neitzchien smiled and jumped into Dylan's chair. The Kalin High Council appeared on the screen.
"This is Tyr Anazassi of the Kodiak pride." He yelled in that Oh-so-Special Tyr way. "You will return our crewmen or I will do serious damage to your planet. We have a High Guard war ship, plenty of firepower for a job such as this" Rommie's avatar moved closer to Tyr and into the recorder's view.
"I possess several energy weapons and my torpedoes are capable of producing enough force to
"You must be joking," said a startled minister
"I'm Neitzchien, are we known to be great kidders?" He smiled his evil Tyr smile.
"Hum, I need to consult with the others"
"I understand, it's a big decision. You have 5 minutes."
The drugs had taken affect and Harper was under the knife. The blade sparkled in the focused light as it was pressed to Harper's skin and the blood welled up around it. Suddenly the doors to the operating room flew open and a young intern came rushing in.
"Stop!" He yelled frantically
"His shipmates are crazy! They are going to blow us up if we don't send him and his captain back right away!" The doctor looked confused but the intern produced a document complete with the High Council's seal telling him to release the sinner back to his Captain.
One quick stitch and they were wheeling the little blonde human out the same way he had come in, port still intact.
The shuttle ride back to Andromeda was one of the longest Dylan had ever experienced. Harper was still groggy so he didn't even have anyone to talk to. He'd been so surprised when they had wheeled Harper out only minutes after they had wheeled him in. He'd seen the frantic kid but hadn't realized what had happened. The Kalins had explained when they brought Harper out again that they were letting them go. Apparently a crazy Neitzchein was threatening to redecorate their planet's landscape. Hmm, who could that be wondered Dylan as they had led him to the transport that would take him back to his ship.
Tyr and Trance met Dylan at the airlock. Trance immediately pushed past Dylan to help the now semi-conscious engineer to Med Deck
"It's not a doll," he mumbled to himself, lost deep in his own dreams. Dylan and Tyr talked as they walked towards Beka on the Command Deck. "You shouldn't have handled the situation that way" Dylan pointed out angrily "We are trying to make allies not enemies"
"We also must stay loyal to our own"
Dylan sighed. The methods were flawed but the result couldn't be denied. Harper was going to live. Dylan's way didn't seem to deliver that outcome. "You know they won't be joining the Commonwealth now"
"A bunch of narrow minded monks, how much help were they really going to be anyway."