Author Notes : I don't own any of the Characters 'cept for Amber. I had to remove the lyrics because of a old rule that I found whilest reading, this sadly takes away the effect of the story, but.. o well.
Harper Discovers DDR, Sad, Romantic, and slightly goofey.
Kick the Can By Bus Stop
(Music plays)"Yeah"
(More Music plays)
"Sweet!"
(Loads more music plays)
100 Combo
"I'm on fire! Wohoo!"
(Yep, you guess it.. more music)Score AA w/star
"Yes, yes, YES!" I do a small victory dance. Using the ancient Dance pad I selected another song.
Dream a dream by Captain Jack
(insert five mins of music here)I can't help but feel that someone is watching me.
(do..dodododdoooooo.. dadaaadumdum)Using an over exaggerated dance move, I discreetly looked around the room. Glimpsing a maroon top and some wild hair was enough.
In one fluid motion I snapped off the lights, rolled backwards, and caught the intruder in a choke hold. "What do you want," I snarled.
"C-can-t, cough, br-eath."
"State your name and purpose!" I tighten my grip.
"gaspcough H-a--rper, coughcough, he-ard... that ,coughgasp, you.. needed... trans-porta-tion." The face of the intruder was turning purple.
I quickly released my hold, leaving this 'Harper' gasping for breath on the floor. "You could have knocked you know."
"I gasp did, you must not have heard me." Harper said whilst rubbing his neck.
"Sorry, guess I didn't hear you over that thing," I indicated the DDR machine. "So, you are my ride off this planet? I have the money"
"Alright," he said absently, looking intently at my DDR.
"Ahem," I cleared my throat, "SO, when do we leave?" I was trying to divert his attention from my game system.
"Oh, um, right now." He fumbled for some type of communicator. "Hey Beka, me and our new passenger are on our way."
"Okay, see you when you get back. Beka out."
By the time he had looked up, I was holding a black travel bag, and the DDR was gone. "Alright, I'm ready."
"Um, okay, lets go."
I followed him through the streets and alleyways to the space port. He took me around some of the ship till we made to a beat up ship called the "Eureka Maru", I smiled, reminded of my old ship before it blew up.
After I got onboard, I found out that this isn't the ship that I was staying on, but that we were headed towards a larger ship called the 'Andromeda Ascent'.
It was to be my home for the next two years. Little did I know that things were going to go horribly wrong.
Harper
I still haven't found out her name, probably because I haven't asked her. It was so awesome to watch her dancing to that music. So fluid, so graceful. I admit that I was interested in the game, but I was also interested in her. So I decided I should start a conversation. "Um, so, you know my name, what's your's?"
"Its, uh, Amber. So, what do you do on the Ascent?"
Now to impress her... " Well, I happen to be the best engineer they have onboard."
"Sweet, I am to, well an engineer away way. In fact that old relic I was playing is from 20th century earth. It has been handed down from generation to generation. After awhile the pad must have broken, so they used the system as a music station. When it was handed down to me by my father, he gave me the pad. Said he didn't know what it was for, but they never threw it out. I found out that the data transfer port had fused over. I fix it in less than two minutes. I was always good at fixing stuff."
Oo, my kinda gal...
Later
Well, we talked for quite a long time, and got to know each other pretty well. This made my life a whole lot more painful when she died. I still remember her last words, and my promise to her. But I just haven't been able to bring my self to fulfill her last wish. I won't even go near her room unless I need to fix something. The whole damn crew knows how much losing her affected me, she was one of the only people I could just be myself. Lately I feel like I have this cloud of guilt hovering around me. Every night my mind nags at me, brings back the promise I am trying to forget. Each night I promise myself, 'I'll do it some other time, just not right now'.
I sigh as I get up from my bed, I gotta do it sometime or I'll never be able to sleep soundly again, not that I really ever had. I trudged down the halls of Andromeda heading towards her room. I pause a moment before going in. My breath caught in my throat when I entered. Everything was just the way it had been when she was alive. Her 'DDR' system still set up in a corner of her room, her old traveling bag stuff halfway under her bed. It really hurt me to see her room again after almost six months after it happened.
I slowly walked towards the machine and kneeled down to unhook the wire that went from the system to a small view screen, boy she was smart, just as smart as me. Tears came to my eyes as I finished with the wires. I slowly and carefully rolled up the mat and gently placed it in the black travel bag. Tucking the system under my arm I slowly headed to the door. I looked back one last time and whispered "Good-bye Amber."
Three Weeks Later
Beka
"Andromeda! Locate Harper!" I stood in front of his machine shop, I was sick and tired of trying to track him down. I hadn't seen him in almost three weeks, so I was pretty frantic looking for him. Oh sure I tried asking Andromeda from time to time, and she always told me. So I figured everything was alright. After not seeing or hearing from him in three days, I tried ccontacting him, he always responded, telling me that he was really busy with a invention and would talk to her later. It wasn't until one hour ago that she realized something, the 'talks' with Harper were being repeated. He had used a damn recorder, sending back false messages to 'assure her' that he was alright. I admit I was afraid that he might be trying to drink his cares away, or might even be dead right now. "And Andromeda, I want the correct location, Authorization 'Beka 9-32-Alpha'" I waited for a response.
"I'm sorry, Harper used a program that won't let me tell you where he is, he even blocked off almost all command codes, I guess he didn't know about that one." Andromeda's avatar flashed into existance in front of me. "It seems that he has activated a hidden privacy mode in my database, I can now locate him, but I can't 'see' inside the room."
"Damn," I whispered under my breath. "Well, where is he!"
"Deck 9, Room 19." Andromeda's avatar blinked off.
Deck 9, outside of Room 19
Harper
I finally did it, I fufilled her last wish, the one I promised that I would complete. It took almost 100 cans of Sparky Cola and three whole weeks, but I finally did it. I colapsed onto the nearby bed, staring at the ceiling, wishing that Amber could be there. I stared for a long time, it seemed like forever. I was remembering. The way she laughed, I would burst out laughing with her because she had the silliest laugh I ever heard. When she couldn't breath, she would start to hiccup in order to get air into her lungs, then she would start laughing all over again because she found her laugh funny. The way she looked when she was sad, she would look at you with huge brown eyes, that look made even Try melt. Okay, maybe not melt, just go a little gooey.
It seemed that all I could hear or see was her, I had been in love. It was the perfect kind of love. Not the passionate love, but the beautiful love that you always wish you had, kinda like friends love each other... but a bit more. After awhile of this painful remembering I thought I heard something, so I sat up. Uh, oh. "Damn," I cursed lightly under my breath.
Bang, bang, bang, "Harper, open up, I know you're in there!", bang, bang, bang.
Deck 9, outside of Room 19
Beka
Bang, bang, bang, "Harper, open up, I know you're in there!", bang, bang, bang.
Why wouldn't he answer? Was he sick? Drunk? Dead? Oh, God, please no. "Harper, Please let me in! What's wrong?" I pleaded as I banged on the door a bit more. I heard the doors click and unlock and my heart jumped. "Oh My God, what happened," I rushed forward to catch Harper. "Trance, send a stretcher to Deck 9, Room 19, it's an emergency." Looked again at Harper. He was as white as a sheet, very thin, and shaking. I looked inside the room and saw loads of Sparky Cola cans.
"Beka, all the bots are down, I'm sending Dylan and Tyr to your position. Who is hurt? You?"
"Harper, I think." I looked down and saw his half-open eyes looking at me.
Harper
I looked up at Beka, still unsure why I collapsed. I wanted to tell her I did it, to tell her everything was okay, but I couldn't. The world was shaking around me, my stomach screamed at me for not eating for weeks. I tryed to ignore it, as well as the pain in my legs. I tried, oh boy did I try, to tell her I was alright. But I just couldn't. I could hear muffled voices, vaguely sounding like Dylan and Tyr. I just couldn't concentrate. I felt myself being lifted up and carried. I slowly closed my eyes, not wanting to ever open them again.
Med Deck
Trance
I looked down at Harper, grief consumed me. To see him so tried and worn out hurt me. The reason Harper had collasped, he hadn't eaten or drank anything, 'cept Sparky Cola, for three whole weeks. Maybe even longer, he was running on adrenaline for a long time. And it caught up with him. "He will be fine in a day or two, the nutrients that I have given him should help him." I looked at all those asembled in the room, Dylan, Beka, and Tyr. Both Dylan and Beka smiled slightly, Tyr just blinked. "I don't really know want happened in that room. We may never know..." I was cut sort by Rommie, who had just entered the room. "Did you find something?" I asked hopefully.
"I belive so," she turned a small view screen on. "It took a bit of 'digging' but I found some well hidden vid logs on the inside of that room the past three weeks." After a moment or two the screen came to life.
Beka
I watched the screen intently, and lets just say I was nothing short but amazed. I watched as Harper was dancing superbly to some type of music. I watched the screen that he was looking intently at and I realized that it was showing him were he show put his feet next. At the end of the song the screen went black for a moment. It suddenly went back to life, and give him a 'score'. I peered closer at the screen. It looked like three oddly shaped, identical symbols next to each other, with a small star on the bottom of the last shape. He threw his hands in the air, apparently happy. Then he staggered slowly towards a bed and collapsed on it. He smiled once or twice, most likely remembering something. Soon afterward she heard herself banging on the door, demanding to be let in. Slowly it seemed to register to Harper, as he got up slowly and opened the door. At this the screen went black."The rest you know," Rommie said.
Harper
I woke up with a start, 'bout jumped out of my skin. Then I felt my back protest at me and I quickly laid down again and closed my eyes, wincing. I heard Beka and opened my eyes to find her, Dylan, Rommie, Trance, and even Tyr hovering over him. I looked up at Beka, and said only four words before falling back asleep. "I fulfilled my promise."
Author Notes: In case you are wondering, Amber's last wish before dying in Harper's arms was, "Harper, promise me, you'll beat a challenge mode with triple A's and a star, promise?"