Where's Harper?
Rating: PG
Season: 4
"Where's Harper?" Asked Rhade as he bumped into Beka in the corridor.
"How the hell should I know?" Beka retorted.
"Well, you are his friend" Rhade persisted.
"So are you, why do you care anyway?"
"I was just starting to enjoy the peace, and quite; then I realised something must be wrong; it is quite unlike our resident genius to let an entire day pass with out any sarcastic commentary toward me." Rhade stated flatly.
"Funny Rhade" Beka replied not looking the least bit amused.
"Well have you seen him?" He let her little snip pass with out comment.
"No, I'm sure he's around though, Andromeda where is Harper located? See easily solved" Beka stated, with out waiting for a reply from the ship.
"Harper is no longer registering aboard the ship", Andromeda stated, "That's unexpected; he has no leave booked. Should I inform the captain?" The hologram inquired.
"Um, No Andromeda let me handle this he's probably just hiding or something." As the hologram faded Beka turned back to Rhade.
"Come on Rhade since your so concerned about his welfare you can help me search for him."
"As I told you I was merely inquiring the reason behind this new found peace, and quite." Rhade repeated.
"You take the bottom levels, I'll take the top, and we'll meet in the middle" Beka stated making it clear she didn't care about Rhade's opinion on the matter.
The first place Beka looked was Harper's quarters it was quite possible he had simply engaged his 'extra private' privacy mode, and blinded the ships sensors to himself. She used her override codes to gain access. With all the mess it took her a moment to realise that Harpers quarters were indeed vacant.
Next she tried the machine shops, and his usual hangouts; then finally resorted to crawling though conduits, for what it seemed was forever. Eventually she met up with Rhade at the ships midpoint, and they continued their search together.
Beka's mood darkened slightly, at the thought of being trapped in the tiny conduits with Rhade, it darken more when she actually realised that her close proximity to Rhade was provoking 'unexpected feelings' in her.
After crawling though the conduits a bit longer Rhade began to grumble "You know I don't know why were doing this; I was enjoying the peace, and quite. Do we really want him back that much?"
After crawling though conduits on her hands, and knees Beka was beginning to wonder the same thing. Of Course she wasn't going to admit that to Rhade, what she actually said was, "Of course we want to find him he might be injured; he could be lying in one of these very corridors bleeding to death right now".
"But you don't really believe that do you?" stated Rhade "Or else you'd have contacted Dylan by now. In fact I do believe that's what we should do right now, we have wasted enough time already on this matter, lets let Dylan worry about his errant engineer."
Beka hated to admit it, but it did seem that Rhade was right. Dam she hated it when that happened. But it was true they had scoured every inch of the ship between them, and there was still no sign of Harper.
The thought settled heavily on Beka's brain that this might be more serious than she first recognised. It was beginning to look less, and less like one of Harpers pranks, or his occasional need for 'extra private' privacy. It was seriously beginning to look like Harper wasn't on the ship at all, and Beka did not like the implications of that.
"Your right" she finally surrendered "It's time to call Dylan in on this, but since that was your idea I'll leave you to explain that to him" she added with a smile before making a hasty retreat.
End of part 1