Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to "Andromeda" or its characters. I am simply borrowing them, I swear!
A/N: This is my first "Andromeda" fic, so be kind! This idea came to me while reading Stephen King's (GREAT author) Carrie. Feedback is greatly appreciated, and suggestions are very helpful to me. Thanks much!
Title: "The Girl who Hated All"
Summary: When the Andromeda comes across a very young, and very strange young girl, they have no choice but to allow her to come with them. Harper soon discovers her secret; too bad no one believes him…
Genre: Supernatural/Horror
Rating: PG-13 for language and supernatural occurrences.
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Chapter One
"Remind me one last time why we have to visit this place?" griped Harper, as he and Dylan stood side-by-side, leaning against the Maru's walls.
"Because, Mr. Harper, there have been some unusual occurrences on that planet for several days now; something even the Andromeda cannot interpret," explained Dylan, as the doors to the main deck slid open. "That is why."
Harper cocked his head at his captain before returning to his post. "How close are we to the atmosphere, Rommie?" asked Dylan.
"Nearly ten kilometers," replied Rommie.
Dylan nodded. "Take us in."
The Maru slowly neared the planet; the clouds underneath the atmosphere were so thick that the crew was nearly blinded by the sheer whiteness that they projected. "What planet is this?" asked Harper.
"This is the planet of Mykenae. I cannot find very much information about this planet, although there does not appear to be any life on it whatsoever," replied Rommie. "We are about twenty feet from the surface; prepare for a rough landing."
As soon as the Maru touched the ground, the earth around it collapsed, causing the Maru to skid . . .
"Rommie, report!" commanded Dylan, his hands grabbing onto any support they could find.
"It appears that the surface of Mykenae is not stable. We are slowing." The Maru slowly slid to a complete stop, sinking only feet beneath the surface.
The Maru took one last lurch before all movement stopped. No one moved for a matter of seconds, making sure that the ship had finished moving. "Okay," said Beka, breaking the silence, "are you guys ready to go?"
"Already?" asked Harper. Beka raised her eyebrow at him. "I mean, yeah," he said, quickly. "I'm ready to go!" he added, feigning enthusiasm.
"Okay, let's move out," stated Dylan, making towards the door, Beka and Harper directly behind him.
On the Andromeda . . .
Tyr stood at the controls, looking at the screen. Trance was standing beside him. He looked down at Trance. "Why did Dylan find it so important to travel here?" he asked, staring ahead.
"Rommie said that there had been some rather bizarre happenings on this planet, Mykenae, she called it?"
"Such as . . .?"
"Something she couldn't detect; she said there was some kind of . . . force, I believe she put it, destroying every trace of life that was on this planet. Apparently, the only remaining or existing organisms on this planet are the trees and plants."
Tyr nodded, although he still did not understand the meaning of their coming to this planet. It seemed to him that Dylan was letting too many disturbances distract him from the rebuilding of the Commonwealth.
He sighed heavily; he would never comprehend all of the doings that Dylan did, and did not obsess over it any longer . . .
Meanwhile, on Mykenae . . .
Dylan, Beka, Rommie, and Harper were trudging through a vast grouping of trees. The closest thing that Harper could relate it to was the rainforests back on Earth, except it was deathly quiet; the only sound was a continuous dripping of water onto the dark-green leaves, which broke the silence every so often.
Plop. A large drop of water landed onto Harper's head, sending a chill up his spine as the drop slowly slid down the back of his neck and down his back . . .
"Harper?" said Beka, looking back at the engineer.
Harper jumped slightly at the sound of his name. "Uh, yeah, Boss?" he replied, attempting to sound calm and collected, but failing miserably at both; there was something about the emptiness of the forest that worried him. He assumed that, on an entire planet, there would be some form of life.
"Harper," repeated Beka, "c'mon kid, catch up."
He quickly snapped out of the daze he had been in, and noticed that his group had gotten twenty or thirty feet ahead of him. He took off into a sprint, trying to catch up with them. He looked at the ground, trying to rid himself of a cramp in his side. 'This is what happens when you're stuck on a ship for so long without much time to just run,' he thought.
When he looked back up, Rommie, Beka, and Dylan had . . . disappeared. Vanished. He squinted his eyes, and felt a twitch of uneasiness wash over him. "Oh, great," he mumbled, and continued to run, looking all around at the trees around him, seeing only the green stillness.
Suddenly, as he looked to his left, he saw a person, a young girl, about six years old, standing among the trees, staring at him with bright green eyes. Harper was so transfixed on her eyes that he did not look where he was heading; his foot snagged onto a loose root, and he went sprawling onto the ground.
He groaned in pain, laying on his stomach on the cool, wet dirt. Remembering the little girl he had seen, Harper pushed himself back up into a standing position. He spun around on his heel and dashed towards the area where he had seen the girl.
Harper arrived at the spot and stopped abruptly; the girl was gone. Had he imagined her? No, it was impossible. She had been there, and those eyes. He shuddered, remembering her bright green eyes. They had been such an intense color, that they had nearly hurt to look into.
"Harper, what the hell are you doing?" Harper spun around to come face-to-face with Beka, who was looking back at him, anger showing vividly in her eyes. After a moments silence, Beka said again, "I repeat, 'what the hell are you doing?'"
Harper opened his mouth. He wondered if there was any chance that they'd believe his if he said that there had been a young girl standing not five feet from where they were standing that minute. "W-well, see . . ." he stammered, shrugging his shoulders.
"Yes?"
"I was trying to catch up with you guys, right? But then you disappeared, so I ran to find you, and I saw this . . . this girl."
"Another girl?" mocked Dylan, shaking his head.
"No, not that kind of a girl; a little girl, you know. About five or six, I don't know . . ." he trailed off, knowing how ridiculous he sounded. "Then," he continued, finding his voice, "I was looking at her, and she was looking at me, and then I tripped and . . . now she's gone."
Beka held up her hands. "Wait, wait, you fell? Harper, are you sure that you didn't just imagine this girl?"
"First of all, boss, I fell after I saw her, and second, she was there!"
"Impossible, Harper," protested Rommie. "As I explained, there are no living forms on this entire planet; so, there could not have been a girl."
"Rommie, she was very small. Is there a chance that you couldn't have picked up her presence?"
"No," replied Rommie, simply, crossing her arms.
Harper sighed deeply. He should have known; something so absurd can't get by without a better explanation than "I saw her." "Okay then, you guys are right," stated Harper. "I just imagined her, she never existed, let's go."
Although they were all slightly shocked at Harper's acceptance he had been wrong, Dylan, Beka, and Rommie did not push the matter further. The four of them continued to hike through the forest, looking for the slightest evidence of why the planet was unoccupied, but, after an hour, continued to be unsuccessful.
Dylan, who was leading, glanced back at his crew members, all of whom were looking rather flustered and irritated. "Rommie, has there been any sign of why this planet is so empty?" Dylan asked.
"Not yet, Dylan," replied Rommie.
Dylan nodded and turned his head foreword. Suddenly, Dylan came to a full stop, causing Beka to crash into him, Rommie to crash into Beka, and, finally, Harper to crash into Rommie. "Dylan, what's wrong?" asked Beka, releasing herself from her captain's back.
"Harper, you say that you saw a little girl?" asked Dylan, ignoring Beka.
"Yeah, Boss, why?"
"Look," stated Dylan, pointing up the road of them, where a small girl was standing, her arms at her side. She looked at them, her strikingly green eyes causing Beka and Rommie to look at her as well.
Dylan began to walk towards the girl. As soon as he reached her, he kneeled down in front of her. "Hello," he greeted, softly.
She looked at him for a second. "Hello," she replied. Her voice was small and sweet.
"What's your name?"
"Agrona."
"Agrona, where did you come from?"
"I don't know," she replied. "All I remember is that I was just . . . here."
Dylan nodded, not really understanding. "Do you know why there is no one here?" he asked.
She nodded. "They died. It got them."
"What's 'it'?" asked Dylan, getting slightly annoying having to ask so many questions.
Agrona shrugged. "Who are you?" she asked, chewing on a piece of her dark-brown hair.
"I'm Captain Dylan Hunt, from the Andromeda."
"Oh, I've heard of you. My daddy said that you would come."
"'Your daddy'?" repeated Dylan, his eyes narrowing.
"Yeah, he said that you would take me away from here before It gets me, too."
Dylan stood up, looking down at the small girl in front of him. He couldn't leave her here, all alone. "Well, alright," he said, breaking down. "You can come with us, until we find someone who knows who you are."
Agrona's face broke into a large smile. "Thank you!" she exclaimed.
Dylan nodded. "Come on; let's go back to the Maru." Agrona nodded and followed Dylan back to where Rommie, Beka, and Harper were standing, a confused look upon each of their faces. "Crew, this is Agrona; she'll be staying on the Andromeda with us until we find someone to take her. Agrona, this is Beka, Rommie, and Harper," he said, gesturing to each of them as he introduced them.
Beka and Rommie smiled at the young girl, each wondering how Rommie's sensors were unable to pick her up.
Agrona looked at each of them. As her eyes met Harper's once again, she smiled an odd sort of smile. "I like you," she said, continuing to smile.
Harper chuckled nervously. Sure, the girl was cute, but there was something about her that made him feel uneasy. Harper barely heard Dylan say to head back to the Maru. He watched as the girl began to walk behind Dylan, her eyes fixed upon his. Before she turned back around, her eyes flashed, and another wave of fear was sent throughout Harper's body. As he followed behind Rommie, he could still feel his heart pounding. The look she had given him . . . it made him think of death.
When they arrived at the Maru, Harper could do nothing more than stare at the girl as Dylan told her where to sit for the "ride back to the Andromeda." 'Maybe I should never have told them about her,' he thought, leaning against the wall next to the door. 'Then we could have just left that place, and never have met her. I can tell that there is something wrong with her, but no one believed me when I said she existed, so who's going to believe me when I say that a little girl is, I don't know, demon-possessed?'
"Agrona, would you like to see where you're going to be staying?" asked Trance. Agrona nodded, following Trance out of the door. As she passed by, Agrona's hand lightly touched Harper's arm. As soon as it touched his flesh, his body went stiff, and there was a bright flash . . .
Falling . . .
Red . . .
Darkness . . .
An assortment of horrible thoughts went flashing through his mind, before the Maru's main deck appeared again. His body relaxed again, and he slouched against the wall once again, rubbing his arm. 'What just happened?' he asked himself, letting his arm fall back down to his side. 'What is it about that girl that bothers me so much? And why wasn't Rommie able to detect her on the planet?'
His unanswered questions remained unanswered as he felt the Maru begin to rise and leave the planet where they had been sure that no one had been on . . .
No one alive, at least . . .
To Be Continued . . .
A/N: What do you think so far? Please review and tell me! Thanks, much appreciated.