A/N- I was working on my other story and this popped up. Darn plot bunnies can't they see I am trying to finish a never-ending story. (For those of you reading Beka's Story: Promises of a Lifetime click on my authors profile I have added 3 chapters but it hasn't updated on the Andromeda page)
A/N2-this takes place during season 2 while Harper is still infested. It's from Andromeda's point of view (yes Raven your story did give me the idea for this). It is dark but well read to find out.
A/N3-I think they have changed the formal of cherry coke. Caffeine is now the last ingredient instead of second to last. This is going to severally affect my late night writing. special thanks to everyone who has reviewed my other works, especially Parisindy and Raven.
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That's me books and cleverness but the are more important things, like friendship and bravery.
– Harry Potter the movie
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It was night according to my timers. I never understood why the timers still ran on earth time. Each planet had a different day depending on it's rotation around the sun so why did people still use the time plan of a slave planet. Some habits died slower then others my AI had once tried to tell me.
We where growing father apart these days. While I acted upset with her emotions and growing concern for the crew I also wanted to be able to explore these new things with her. We were the same person and divided. She was learning and discovering things I would never know. She wandered the halls of the ship tonight between the crew quarters. There were no pressing repairs or more no repairs that other maintenance bots could mange. She walked the halls a silent guard. Together we monitored the crews' vitals. The same order every night, Harper, Dylan, Beka, Harper, Tyr, Trance, and Harper for the third time. The young earthling condition was a constant source of worry for my AI. She monitored his vitals every moment of the day after the magog attack. It was only after I convinced her that she was tying up important possesses that she stopped. I do not think it was me as much as Harper complaining that he didn't want the whole ship to know every time he sneezed.
Harper vitals were getting worst and worst everyday. When he came on board his blood presser was high. Part of living on earth most of his life according to all my medical records. Now it was dangerously low. His body was getting less fresh blood even though his heart now raced day and night. The worst part was there was no treatment. Every night I scanned all the medical records. It had been 58 days since the world ship. I had scanned the files 69334 times and gathered 490 new files by scanning all the record of the 463 ships and planets we had come into contact with since the world ship. I couldn't find anything to help him. I was the most powerful warship and I could do nothing but watch a crew member die.
Harper had been infected with an ancient rash the first time we met. It was a simple treatment and he was well again. Without treatment he would have died a slow and painful death. That was the first of the 27 illness Harper had gotten in the 398 days he was a board before the world ship. Now a simple cold could speed up his impending death and there was nothing I could do.
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Beka's heart rate and breathing increased. I turned on my internal sensors in her quarters to see if it was a nightmare or she had woken up. She was sitting up in her bed. Her breathing was rapid and the fine sweat on her skin suggested she had just woken up from a nightmare. Hmmm both my theories were true.
Beka swung her legs over the edge of her bed and head down the hallway. I knew were she was headed. For the now 456 days Beka had been on board she always went to the same person every time she had a nightmare. She once explained to my AI that sometimes you wanted to be with someone who understood you without you having to say a word. This statement continued to puzzle me. How could a person know you if you did not provide any information about yourself? This was just another example of the strange behaviors of the humans my AI cared so much about.
Beka stood at the door to Harper's room. Her hand was raised like she was debating going in. My AI found her this way 38 seconds after she first approached the door.
"You're not going to disturb him, he's awake." What awful slang my AI was picking up. Darn Harper's programming, but without him I wouldn't have an AI. Beka nodded and a voice from inside the door answered her knock before she ever hit the door.
"Come on in Beka." The door opened with a hiss. Harper was sitting on his bed cross-legged a teddy bear in his lap. The bear had been with him when he came on board. It was a filthy thing but he guarded it too closely for a bot to get it and disinfect it. Carrier of germs, yet it was one of Harper few positions. Why would someone with such a poor immune system keep something that had the power to make him so sick?
"How you feeling kid?"
"Sick of that question." I saw a smile grace both of their lips, more of the unspoken that I was still trying to understand.
"I never pictured as the kind to have a teddy bear."
"It's not mine, it was my sister's. She was killed by magog when I was two. She was only five, I don't remember her. I just remember the tears in my mom's eyes every year on her birthday. You know she celebrated every one of the families birthdays even after that person had died. She wanted to keep their memories alive. That's why I have Tara's bear." He turned and looked at Beka his eyes red from the tears he had been crying earlier. The whole time he was crying my AI stood at the door debating going in. She was becoming too human, but deep in my computer core I was relieved that Beka was now with Harper. Talking was medically proven to heal people.
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Harper and Beka had sat in silence for the past 23 minutes. Harper's eyes blinked a few times and he was finally asleep. Outside the door my AI breathed a sigh of relief. More rest he got the better. Harper use to wander the ship at night, after the worldship he was confined to quarters at night. It was Dylan's hope that he would get some sleep. Harper in the end would tinker on some small project he managed to seek into his room under Beka and Dylan's watchful eyes. It that didn't work he sat on the bed staring off into space. Harper only got a few hours of rest a night. It was no use to try and force the issue. Harper would rather be sick than face his nightly demons.
Beka pulled a blanket out of the linen closet and laid down next to Harper's bed. Soon they were both asleep.
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Dylan stood at the door the next morning with a smile on his face viewing the two sleeping figures. "Rise and shine sleepy heads." His comment was met by a flying pillow from Harper. Dylan threw the pillow back at Harper but for all his hours on the basketball court his aim was off. The pillow landed on Beka's head. She was quick to pick up the pillow along with her own and throw one at Harper and the other one at Dylan. Her aim was much better than my captain's. Within 37 seconds the three of them where involved in a 'pillow fight' on Harper's bed.
I sent a message to my AI to stop them. Their 'rough housing' could worsen Harper's condition. She told me to go away. Some things are more important. For a moment I could see her reasoning as wide smiles graced Harper's Dylan's and Beka's faces.
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(raven put down your coffee)
Even stronger support comes from primate studies: social isolation impairs the immunity and health of monkeys, and animals put into stressful environments that would normally suppress their immune systems are buffered from that happening if they are in the company of friends.
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers ~ Robert M. Sapolsky (aka my pysch book)