A Life Long Since Past
Disclaimer: I do not in any way own the Andromeda characters; Kao and Commander Kalen however are of my own creation.Chapter 1
Day One
"Kao!" Harper cried as he woke to dark quarters on the Andromeda Ascendant. Staring into the dark areas of the room Harper wiped the cold sweat from his forehead as the nightmare that woke him faded from his eyes.
Throwing off the covers of his bed Harper ruffled his hair, and yawned as he headed for the shower.
Closing his eyes and letting the water flow over his face and neck Harper could clearly see the nightmare that haunted him every year burning on the back of his eyelids.
It had been seven years since-
"HARPER!"
Beka's harsh voice sounded through the communication system.
Shaking his head Harper, sending droplets of water against the shower walls, he turned of the shower and grabbing a towel he answered Beka's hails.
"Yeah boss?"
"Where are you I thought you were going to start an hour ago?" Beka said.
Harper sighed.
"Are you alright?" Beka asked.
"Hey boss, do you know what day it is?" Harper said annoyed, as he got dressed.
Beka was silent for a moment.
"Yes I know what day it is," Beka sighed. "But we've been through this before, we still need you."
Harper grumbled, grabbed his tool belt and left for the air lock.
Dylan stood on the command deck watching the station in front of him. It had been ten months since Beka had pulled him out of the singularity. The door opened and Rommie and Beka walked in.
"Well Harper's finally out bed," Beka commented leaning on the banister.
"Harper blood pressure is elevated and he seems very tense," Rommie stated, "Could be why he is late?"
"Oh no, It's a personal reason," Beka said off-handedly.
"You know what is wrong?" Dylan asked.
"Well," Beka hesitated, "I promised I wouldn't tell."
Dylan stared at her then glanced at Rommie. She looked as confused as he felt.
"Why can't you tell?" Dylan demanded.
"Because it's Harper's business," Beka said shortly.
"How do you know?"
"He does this every year," Beka said, "I just leave him too it."
"Then Trance and Rev should now about it," Dylan said trying to wheedle more information out of it.
"They know of it, but they don't know why he does it," Beka said slowly and she began to leave before Dylan could question her further.
"Then how do you know?" Dylan asked again.
"I was there," she said simply and left the command deck.
"Wow, I'm in love," Harper said, "No offence Rommie," he added to the Avatar.
"None taken," the A.I. replied.
Harper Rommie and Beka had boarded the station which just recently they had been having problems with the gravitation system and other systems.
"Come on, Harper," Beka said, "You're here to look at her, not gawk at her."
"It's all the same to me," Harper said with fiend cheerfulness.
Rommie noted that Harper seemed more enthusiastic then normal and his fiend happiness was very short lived.
The station was full of shouts and cat calls as the occupants traded, gambled and drank. Harper, Beka and Rommie navigated their way through the crowd, Rommie seeing Commander Kalen headed straight for her.
"Welcome to our station," Kalen said.
Harper completely ignored her staring off into another direction.
"Harper!" Beka said warningly.
"Yes?"
"The Gravitation System is malfunctioning," Kalen said.
Harper stared off into the crowd.
"I was under the impression that you were interested," Kalen said.
"Oh, I am inter-ter-terested," Harper said through a yawned. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night."
"This requires a lot of concentration," Kalen said.
"I'll be fine," Harper said.
Kalen hesitated.
"Follow me," she said and walked to the right, Rommie followed immediately allowing Beka to slow Harper down.
"Harper you have to stay awake," Beka began.
"I will, I always do," Harper said through his teeth.
"Yes, but it's different on the Andromeda," Beka argued, "There are only six of us."
"Are you telling me I'm incapable of working?" Harper asked.
"No, but Dylan's already asked questions it's only day one and I covered for you," Beka said.
"What do you mean you covered for me?" Harper questioned.
"Like I said, Dylan was asking questions-"
"You didn't tell him did you?" Harper asked stopping.
"I-"
"You promised," Harper reminded forcefully.
"I didn't tell him," Beka sighed.
Harper continued to walk.
"That's for you to do," Beka said.
Harper ignored her and Beka grabbed his shirt collar pulling him to face her.
"Hey, you may not want to sleep, eat or work but you at least have to do the latter," Beka said frustrated.
Harper pulled his shirt out of her grip his face stony and he didn't say anything.
"Hey," she said softly, "you know I don't want to get you in trouble."
"I know," Harper said quietly.
"Beka! Harper!"
The two turned to Rommie followed by Kalen making there way back to them.
"I was beginning to think that you had gone gambling or just got lost," Kalen said reaching them.
Harper gave a side-glance and caught Beka's eye and she took lead.
"Got lost," she said simply.
Kalen nodded by Rommie frowned slightly, there wasn't a lot of people there they could not have gotten lost so easily.
"On the to the engine room," Harper said breaking the tension.
"This way," Kalen said.
"I see your problem," Harper said coming out from under the console.
"Really?" Kalen said surprised, "our best engineers couldn't figure it out."
"You're out of power," Harper said leaning on the console.
Kalen's face turned annoyed.
"We know we turned it off so you wouldn't blow yourself up," she replied.
"Oh," Harper said and he disappeared under again.
"How could you take the power off?" Beka asked.
"Well, we didn't take it all off, of course, just the hotel decks, make it easier for Mr. Harper," Kalen sighed, "There aren't a lot of people visiting this system any more."
"I got it!" Harper said suddenly.
"What is it?" Kalen said.
Harper went into a full explanation out something that only Rommie seemed to understand.
"I'm afraid I don't understand-" Kalen said politely,
"Say it in English, Harper," Beka commented.
"You have a Bug," he said simply coming out.
"A Bug?" Kalen stated.
"Yeah, very old fashioned, used for messing things up or gathering information, and then sending it," Harper explained.
"Can you get rid of it?" Kalen asked worried.
"Sure, Rommie pass me that disk," Harper said and the A.I. threw him the object and Harper disappeared under the console.
"Who could have put something like that in there?" Kalen asked worried to Beka.
"I'm thinking more why than who," Harper said muffled under the console, obviously he had been holding something in his mouth because a moment later he continue in a clear voice. "I mean, why would someone put a bug in the gravitation system? They obviously don't know their st- OW!"
A shower of sparks with a small bang issued from under the console. Beka bent over with one hand on the station to look underneath,
"Are you okay, Harper?" she asked.
"Yeah," Harper murmur and put his cut finger in his mouth.
"Nasty little bug."
Beka heard him say, as she stood straight again.
Harper appeared claiming that the problem should be fixed.
"I should take a look at that Bug," Rommie said. "It might be able to tell us who and why they put it there."
"Alright but it could decide that it might be better off in you then in their gravitation system," Harper said accepting the cloth from Beka and wrapped his bleeding finger.
"I'll be careful," Rommie assured him, and he threw her the disk.
Harper returned to his quarters after a long and tiring day, hot, dirty and sweaty he made his way to the shower emptying the rest of the coffee into his cup.
Pulling off his shirt he stood one hand on the sink head down, his stomach wasn't settling and it had nothing to do with the fact that he hadn't eaten all day.
The steam filled up the bathroom and made his skin prickle with the heat he closed his eyes and felt a sudden chill, though the room was hot.
Looking into the mirror his breath caught in his throat as a young girl stood behind with torn clothes and gashes on her cheeks and arms.
Harper turned so fast he got a crick in his neck but ignored it, as there was nothing but steam and towels that stood in the place that the girl stood.
Convinced that his mind was playing a trick on him based on that he had no sleep and hadn't eaten Harper turned back to the mirror.
The coffee cup hit the sink with a clatter and the coffee went down the drain.
On the steamed up mirror was a child's drawing of a heart, only it seamed that the same child had also wiped half of it out.
Harper backed up and closed his eyes praying he was dreaming, he opened his eyes again and the heart was no longer there.
"Andromeda," he squeaked then cleared his throat.
"Andromeda?" he said much stronger.
"Yes?" the ship answered.
"Are there any intruders on the ship?" he asked knowing what the answer was but it was the only way to prove he wasn't seeing things.
"No body aboard was uninvited," Andromeda responded.
"I was afraid of that," Harper said too himself.
Harper sat, in his pyjamas, staring at the blue prints of the virus that they had taken from the station but he didn't read any of it, he was so tired and dim witted that the screen bore into his eyes with a blinding light.
Turning it off Harper closed his eyes and pressed on them, they stun and burned and watered but it felt good.
Harper sat in the darkness every now and then turning the lights on full blast so not to fall asleep then decided that the only way to distract himself was to fix or build something, so leaving he made his way to the engine room.
Harper fixed everything he could find in the engine room unfortunately he had done most of it just last week, but finding part of the catwalk that he was always planning to fix he began hammering away.
Harper was so immersed in what he was doing he lost track of time and was surprised to Dylan appear in his housecoat.
"Oh his boss," Harper said in mid swing.
"Harper what are you doing?" Dylan asked.
"I was just fixing the ah-" he faltered pointing at the catwalk while Dylan seemed less than impressed.
"It's three o'clock in the morning," Dylan said exasperated.
"Really?" Harper asked. Dylan frowned looking at his engineer who was still in his pyjamas.
"Yes," Dylan said annoyed, "but why aren't sleeping?"
"Can't sleep."
"So you decided to wake us up too, by fixing something in your pyjamas," Dylan questioned.
Harper looked down.
"Well," he stuttered, "I just didn't change."
"I noticed," Dylan said threateningly.
"I suppose you want me to stop," Harper guessed.
"That might be a good idea," Dylan said walking away.
Harper dropped his hammer and looked around at a loss of what to do.
"And Harper?"
Harper looked back to Dylan.
"Try to get some sleep," Dylan told him.
"Right then," Harper answered.
Abandoning the engine room Harper set off through the Andromeda stopping occasional to repair or add to her systems.
Harper continued to wander the hallways until he met Rev in the early hours of the morning.
"Hey Rev what's up?" Harper asked.
"The usually thing I'm doing at five thirty in the morning," Rev answered mysteriously.
"Ah," Harper said unable to think of anything else to say.
"The question is, Harper, what are you doing at this time?" Rev asked walking with him down the hallway.
"Oh just," Harper stopped he didn't know exactly why he was wandering the hallways at night.
"Can't sleep again," Rev offered.
"Yeah," he replied.
"Will you tell me what is wrong?" Rev asked.
"No offence, but-"
"If you won't tell me maybe you should tell Beka what is wrong," Rev suggested.
"She already knows," Harper murmured.
"Then Dylan, if Beka knows then it might help to tell someone else," Rev said.
"Maybe I will," Harper said taking the opportunity to get away from this conversation. "I'll do that now," and he walked away to the command deck.
"Thanks Rev!" Harper added.
"That's what I'm here for," Rev said more to himself than Harper.
Harper paced the command deck in his pyjamas annoying Tyr who was on duty.
"Just go and wake him up," Tyr suggested after an hour of arguing with Harper.
"I can't," Harper said, "I woke him already."
"When did you do that?" Tyr asked.
"Three in the morning," Harper stated.
"Oh, so that was you?" Tyr said.
"Yes that was me," Harper sneered.
"Why didn't you tell him them?" Tyr asked.
"I had nothing to tell him then," Harper said shortly.
"Why is this so important," Tyr asked, "so important that you can't tell me?"
"It's my business," Harper said.
"But you're telling Dylan," Tyr argued.
"You don't need to know," Harper snapped.
Tyr looked taken aback.
Suddenly the door opened and Dylan entered the room, he stared at Harper who was scruffier than when he had met him at three o'clock and Tyr who looked even cleaner and neat beside Harper.
"Pyjama Party?" Dylan asked faintly trying to understand.
Harper ignored him staring past his right shoulder into the corridor behind him but Tyr answered.
"He has something important to tell you," Tyr said.
Only Harper didn't say anything, he was staring past Dylan as though he wasn't there, Dylan turned to see what Harper was looking at but there was nothing there.
"Excuse me,' Harper said and he ran from the command deck and Dylan and Tyr exchanged confused glances.
Harper ran down the corridor, he had seen that twelve year old girl that had appeared in his mirror the night before, she had stood behind Dylan just in view and now she ran at the same speed that Harper did never letting him get a god look at her.
She turned a corner up ahead and as Harper reached that corner he ran into Rommie.
"Hey Rommie, did you see a girl in this hallway," Harper asked trying to look past her.
"No one else has been wandering these hallways except yourself," Rommie stated.
"No I mean just now," Harper said. "Did anyone pass you?"
"No," Rommie said.
Harper stopped looking and frowned.
"But-"
"You know, you haven't slept all night, you should go to bed before the briefing," Rommie suggested.
"I don't think I will," Harper said through his teeth.
"Why not?"
"I've told about everyone now, I can't sleep," Harper said irritated.
"You should at least try," Rommie said.
Harper growled annoyed.
"Or not," Rommie said surprised.
"Wise choice," He said coldly and he walked away.