I haven't had a new story up in so long… Sorry that I quit the last one, "Redemption," but I ran out of motivation for that story. Well… I know the whole "How Harper Met Beka" thing has been done dozens of times before, plus we've already had an episode that explained how Harper came to be a member of Beka's crew, but I had a dream one night and this is how it went…
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Beka Valentine, captain of the Eureka Maru, shoved a piece of her shoulder-length red hair behind her ear and looked up from her drink. Her blue eyes scanned the small bar until they came across a purple girl with curly blond hair and a tail. Trance Gemini was an enigma to Beka, but she was her best friend and one of her two crewmembers. The purple girl turned away from the bartender and approached Beka's table. By the smile on her face, Beka guessed that she had good news.
"So?" Beka encouraged impatiently. She licked her lips in anticipation as Trance enjoyed her excitement for a moment.
"He said he knows a few people for the job," Trance finally answered.
Beka nearly shrieked with joy. "Did you get the information we need to find them?"
Trance held up a flexi and smiled. Beka snatched the flexi from her hand and scanned it silently. "You're welcome," Trance mumbled. She started to turn away but was prevented from doing so when Beka wrapped her arms around her.
"Did I ever tell you I love you, my lucky charm?" Beka asked dreamily.
"No, but I can sense it somehow…" Trance laughed. "Should we start today?" Beka nodded and pulled Trance by the wrist toward the door. "The bartender said we should try that Harper guy first. He said he's the best."
"Yeah, okay, Trance," Beka acknowledged as she pulled Trance through the door into the busy street.
"Shouldn't we go find Bobby first?" Trance asked worriedly.
Beka paused outside the bar, looking up at the bright morning sky. Bobby was probably sleeping or making trouble at another bar. She didn't need to deal with him right now and he probably wouldn't give two flying monkeys if the girls interviewed engineers without him. She shrugged lightly and scanned the flexi for the name Harper. "Here it is!" she exclaimed. "Seamus Harper. Eh… He lives in the slums. You sure he said 'Harper?'" Trance nodded innocently. "Okay… Let's go then. Just stay close, alright?"
The two walked in silence through the busy streets of the tiny planet's market. As they entered the wealthy part of the residential area, they looked at the houses in mild astonishment. Even for "rich" homes, the buildings were broken down. Whatever paint was put on the metal exteriors was chipping away. Beka could only imagine how bad the slums were. The pair continued along the streets, which were becoming less crowded as they neared the slums. Finally they reached a gate in the road. A guard stood inside a small building, stopping every person coming through the gate into the wealthier part of the residential area. Trance and Beka passed through the gate, sticking close together for protection.
"I don't like this, Beka," Trance whispered.
"Relax, Trance," Beka calmed her, a bit uneasy herself. "All we have to do is find this guy and get back to the Maru." She found herself wondering what this Harper guy might look like. Anybody that was good enough to be recommended by name for his engineering skills had to have had years and years of experience. The image of an old man with a gray beard filled her mind. As she checked the flexi again for Harper's address, she felt Trance's hand wrap around her arm. She looked up and followed the purple girl's gaze to where a pair of ratty men sat staring at them from a bench. Her hand instinctively rested on her gauss gun at her side. "Walk faster," she whispered to Trance.
"We have to turn here, Beka," Trance said as they came to a side street. Beka didn't know how she knew this was the street they needed; the streets weren't named, but numbered, and Trance hadn't even looked at the flexi yet. She trusted her friend at all times, so the pair turned onto the street and began searching the buildings for Harper's apartment. They found the apartment number on the side of a concrete and aluminum building. There was no paint on the exterior, save for the numbers by the doors, and the aluminum doors were rusted to high hell.
"What a dump," Beka mumbled as she began to think of turning back and finding somebody else for the job. Something in the far corner of her mind compelled her to continue to the door of the apartment, and before she knew it, she was knocking on the rusted aluminum and waiting for an answer with Trance right by her side.
Trance stood next to her friend, her tail twitching nervously. She could faintly pick up the sounds of footsteps on the other side of the door. "I hope this is worth it," she whispered. The door opened a crack and an ice blue eye stared out at them.
"Can I help you?" a small voice asked. As Trance's eye traced along the crack in the door, she could see pale skin and a tuft of blond hair.
"We're looking for Seamus Harper," Beka answered after consulting the flexi. The blue eye looked her up and down, then did the same to Trance.
"That would be me," the voice grunted. "What do you want?"
"We need an engineer, and a bartender told us about you," Trance replied. The blue eye blinked a couple of times as if the owner was thinking.
"How much are you paying?" he asked.
"How much do you want?" Beka questioned back.
The eye blinked some more. "Five thousand for everything you need done."
"Five thousand thrones?" Beka choked. "That's more than we've got at the moment." (A/N: I don't really know a whole lot about currency on "Andromeda," so please don't hurt me if 5,000 sounds stupid.)
"Then I can't help you." The door slammed shut in Beka's face. "Go away!" the man inside shouted.
Trance pulled Beka away from the door and looked at the door as she whispered, "I'm getting one of those feelings, Beka… I think we need this guy." Beka raised an eyebrow at her, but nodded nonetheless. Trance went back to the door and picked at her fingernails as she thought. "How about a warm room, a nice bed, and hot food for as long as it takes you to fix our ship?" Trance shouted to the man inside. Beka lightly slapped her arm in protest. There was silence for a moment, until the door opened a little again.
"Will you buy me dinner at any restaurant I want tonight?" the man asked. Beka realized how young he sounded when he asked that.
Beka rolled her eyes over to Trance, who shrugged innocently. "Fine. Free room and board while you fix the ship, and I'll buy you dinner tonight," she said in resignation. She really hoped this guy was worth all this trouble.
The blue eye looked at them for a moment before the owner pulled the door open all the way. He was short, skinny, and blond. Beka guessed he was maybe sixteen, if that. His size and the lack of bone blades told her that he was definitely not a Nietzschean. She secretly inspected him a little closer, noticing a nasty rash creeping from beneath his tattered shirt up his neck. His eyes were slightly glazed over, his hands shook, and there was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead. 'Great,' Beka thought, 'I just made a deal with a sick kid.'
"How old are you?" she asked. It sounded ruder than she meant it to.
He sniffed at her and said, "Nineteen…" She raised both eyebrows at him and he narrowed his eyes. "I'm from Earth, okay? You don't exactly grow up to be over six feet tall when you live off bread and water your whole life."
"Oh," Beka said quietly, regretting ever questioning him about his age. Well, that at least explained his size. He was too skinny; his clothes, which would be small on Beka, were loose on his body and she could see the bones in his wrists. "How did you get here?" she ventured.
His hand traveled up to his neck and he tapped a metal device embedded in his skin behind his ear. "This data port has gotten me a few jobs… But never mind about how I got here. That's not important. What about that dinner you promised me?"
Beka remembered their deal and pulled a few currency chips out of her pocket. She shuffled them around a bit, her brow creasing in disappointment. "Try to keep it cheap, will you? We're not exactly rich. I'm Beka, by the way. Captain Beka Valentine. This is Trance Gemini. You'll be working on a cargo ship called the Eureka Maru."
Harper leaned against the door frame as e regarded the two women. The redhead was pretty. She looked like she was tough, like she didn't take flack from anybody. A person had to be tough to be the captain of his or her own ship. The purple girl was a babe. Her skin was the color of plums or grapes. Her tail was different, but he thought it was kind of intriguing. He turned away from them and wandered into his apartment to his bed. "Excuse the mess," he apologized sarcastically. There was no mess; he was wearing everything he owned, sans a jacket that lay on his bed. The bed wasn't even his. It came standard in these free housing projects. He picked up the jacket and slipped it on uncomfortably. As he exited the apartment, he pulled the door shut and locked it. "Shall we?"
The unusual trio walked the streets at a fast pace. Beka and Trance walked half a pace behind their new engineer, each watching his wobbly steps. His blond spikes waved slightly in the cool breeze. Trance thought he looked like he would break if she touched him. She'd never seen a full-grown human so fragile before. He was almost an alien to her eyes. Her thoughts wandered to the future. 'Bobby can snap this kid's neck with one hand,' she thought uneasily.
"Here," the kid said softly as he entered a small building. Inside there were a variety of races sitting at red tables. Waitresses of different races tended the customers, smiles gracing their faces like they really did want to be serving people. Beka had tried to hold a job as a waitress on a drift once, but it never worked. The Maru was her home and her work. The smell of food drifted to the dining area from the kitchen in the back and Beka realized how hungry she was. Harper sniffed the air and sighed happily. "This is my favorite restaurant. And don't worry, their food is cheap," he said with a glance at Beka.
A waitress approached them and showed them to one of the red tables, setting menus down at the seats and getting her notepad out to take their drink orders. Trance ordered a fruit drink, Beka ordered very weak liquor, and Harper ordered plain water. This surprised Beka because Harper struck her as the drinking type. Her eyes wandered back to the horrible rash on his neck and she shuddered.
"I hope that's not contagious," she said, gesturing at the rash.
"I hope so, too," he replied. "I don't even know where it came from." The waitress came with their drinks and Harper immediately started drinking his water.
"Had any sex lately?" Trance asked out of nowhere, causing Harper to nearly choke on his water. The stares she received from Beka and Harper made her laugh a little. "He could have gotten it from a girl…" she explained.
"No," Harper replied quickly. "Not a chance. Now if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about my non-existent sex life…" He took another sip of his water and looked at Beka. "What exactly is wrong with your ship?"
"Slip drive's shot, engine needs a tune up, life support's screwy… That should be everything. Although, if you name a part, it more than likely needs fixing. Our last engineer… Um… Well, he died, and we haven't been able to fix everything ourselves. I'm not exactly gifted in the field of engineering and Trance… She's not allowed near anything mechanical." She watched Harper as listened with mild interest. He was pathetic, just sitting there scratching his neck, looking like a skeleton with hair. The sudden uneasy look on his face alarmed her. "You feeling okay, kid?"
"Harper," he corrected harshly. "My name is Harper." He finished his water and looked around for the waitress. "Where's the waitress, I need more water."
Trance eyed him worriedly. She'd only just met him, but something about him made her want to be his friend. It was obvious he was sick, the question was how sick was he. He shifted nervously in his seat, clutching his stomach like he'd just been elbowed in the gut. His eyes grew wider and glazed over some more.
"Harper?" Beka asked, worried at the look on his face. He got up and ran for the door of the restaurant, one hand over his mouth, the other reaching for the door. Beka blinked in confusion and looked at Trance. "I'll go," she sighed. She stood and calmly left the restaurant, leaving Trance alone at the table. She found Harper outside, his face buried in a trashcan while he emptied the few contents of his stomach into the bottom. She winced at the sound of his stomach rejecting whatever might have been in it. "I thought you said you were fine," she said, making him jump.
His blue eyes looked up at her sadly, as if he was asking her for forgiveness. "I'll be fine, don't worry. This happens at least twice a day," he explained. He held his breath for a moment, then stuck his face in the trashcan again. Beka approached him sympathetically and placed a hand on his back, albeit reluctantly. Her touch unnerved him and he shied away, wincing slightly. She raised her hands to show she meant no harm.
After a moment of awkward silence, Harper stood up straight, running a hand through his blond spikes. Beka eyed him cautiously, noticing he was a shade paler, if that was even possible, and he looked as if he would faint at any moment. "Do you want to skip dinner and head to the Maru so you can rest?"
Harper shook his head defiantly. "I'm fine. Besides, I don't sleep. I'm a mud foot, it's in my genes to have insomnia." He smiled slightly and walked back into the restaurant, followed closely by Beka. When he sat down, he took a long drink from the new glass of water Trance had ordered for him while he was gone. Trance and Beka watched him with raised eyebrows, making him even more uneasy than he already was. "Don't look at me like that," he warned quietly. The girls looked at each other and shrugged, trying not to focus their attention on him.
"So, Harper," Trance started, careful not to look directly at him, "you said you're from Earth. How'd you get all the way out here?"
Harper licked his lips and sighed. "Well, I told you my data port has gotten me a lot of jobs, right? The truth is, I've only had one major job on a ship before this one. Only, it wasn't really a job. It was a slave ship. My 'employer' treated me like dirt, then refused to get me help when I got sick. I tried to leave, but he wouldn't let me. I even ran away once when we were on a drift picking up cargo. He found me, though… Boy, I never tried to get away again. So anyway, we come to this drift a couple of years ago, and I'm sick as a dog. I mean, I could barely function I was so freakin' sick. He didn't want a sick slave, so he dumped me in the bar you guys got my name from and took off for his next cargo run, one slave short. What a guy…"
"So I take it you got to a doctor after he left you?" Beka asked.
"Kind of," Harper answered. "The bartender took me to one of those free clinics. They couldn't really do anything for me there except give me some antibiotics and a bed for a couple of weeks until I was healthier. Once I had over stayed my welcome, they set an apartment up for me in one of those free housing projects. That's where you came in."
Trance felt a pang of pity in the pit of her stomach. She'd never been in that kind of a situation. She'd always had a place to live and people that cared about her. When she joined Beka's crew, Beka accepted her as a friend and someone she could trust. Bobby, on the other hand, didn't like her much. He thought she was too mysterious and would probably try to kill him if she'd been given the right opportunity. Since the Maru was Beka's ship, Beka decided who would be on her crew. Trance remembered a time when Bobby had yelled at her for sleeping in the wrong bunk. Beka yelled at Bobby for hours for ever raising his voice to a member of her crew. She told him that if he didn't like Trance, he could leave. As Trance thought, she realized that she was staring at Harper with sympathy in her eyes.
"Don't feel sorry for me," he whispered just loud enough for the women to hear. "I hate pity. It gets you nowhere." The waitress approached and the trio ordered their food. Harper hardly ate anything, but he agreed to take his food back to the Maru so he could eat when he felt a little better. Beka almost wanted to force him to eat because he was so thin. She didn't want him to pass out in her slip drive. She'd get stuck with his medical bills.
After paying the check, the trio left the restaurant and walked in silence to the Maru. Harper's steps had gotten more unsteady since they left his apartment a couple of hours before. The girls still were still worried about the fact that he hadn't eaten much at the restaurant. Beka no longer regarded him with disgust; she pitied him for all he said he'd been through. As the trio entered the Maru, Bobby's voice drifted from his quarters. He was drunk again.
"Shit," Beka muttered under her breath. "Look, kid, you're about to meet Bobby, my boyfriend. Just… Just remember that he's probably drunk right now and he's not so bad when he's sober. Okay?" Harper nodded slowly, afraid that he'd gotten himself into another bad situation. "Bobby, come here for a second!" the redhead called out.
"What do you want?" a deep voice bellowed, followed by loud footsteps and some muttered curses. Soon a tall, muscular man appeared before the trio. He swayed in his place, looking over Harper like he was a dog looking at a piece of meat. "Who the hell are you?" Harper backed up slightly, his eyes turning to the floor. He suddenly wouldn't talk. Trance noticed the fear and frustration on his face and spoke up.
"This is Seamus Harper, he's our new engineer," she answered softly.
"Shut up," Bobby growled at her. "I wasn't talking to you. If he's gonna be a member of this crew, he's gotta learn to answer questions when they're asked. Especially by me."
Beka glared at him with pure hostility. "This is my ship, Bobby. my crew, not yours, remember? What makes you so special that he has to bow down and kiss your feet?"
Bobby snorted at her and walked away angrily. "Just keep the little rat out of my way," he called back.
Harper sighed sadly as he continued to look at the floor. "And the first rule of play is that I stay away from that guy…" he mumbled quietly. Beka looked at him apologetically. "Don't apologize, Captain Valentine. I'm used to it. So where do I start working anyway?"
"I think life support is the most important thing at this moment," Beka answered. "When we're flying, the air smells like sulfur and it gets real dry in here. You don't have to start today, you know. It can wait until tomorrow. You look like you need some rest or food or something."
"I told you I don't sleep and for the last time I feel fine. Now show me where to start…"
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This first chapter was long, but the rest might not be so long from now on. I've actually been working on this story for over a year now. What you're reading is a newly revised version that I've decided is good enough for the likes of fanfiction.net. It's only a little bit like the story I originally wrote. In fact, this first chapter is the only one that has only been edited a little bit. The rest are completely new. Don't you feel special? Please review, if you feel like it.
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Beka Valentine, captain of the Eureka Maru, shoved a piece of her shoulder-length red hair behind her ear and looked up from her drink. Her blue eyes scanned the small bar until they came across a purple girl with curly blond hair and a tail. Trance Gemini was an enigma to Beka, but she was her best friend and one of her two crewmembers. The purple girl turned away from the bartender and approached Beka's table. By the smile on her face, Beka guessed that she had good news.
"So?" Beka encouraged impatiently. She licked her lips in anticipation as Trance enjoyed her excitement for a moment.
"He said he knows a few people for the job," Trance finally answered.
Beka nearly shrieked with joy. "Did you get the information we need to find them?"
Trance held up a flexi and smiled. Beka snatched the flexi from her hand and scanned it silently. "You're welcome," Trance mumbled. She started to turn away but was prevented from doing so when Beka wrapped her arms around her.
"Did I ever tell you I love you, my lucky charm?" Beka asked dreamily.
"No, but I can sense it somehow…" Trance laughed. "Should we start today?" Beka nodded and pulled Trance by the wrist toward the door. "The bartender said we should try that Harper guy first. He said he's the best."
"Yeah, okay, Trance," Beka acknowledged as she pulled Trance through the door into the busy street.
"Shouldn't we go find Bobby first?" Trance asked worriedly.
Beka paused outside the bar, looking up at the bright morning sky. Bobby was probably sleeping or making trouble at another bar. She didn't need to deal with him right now and he probably wouldn't give two flying monkeys if the girls interviewed engineers without him. She shrugged lightly and scanned the flexi for the name Harper. "Here it is!" she exclaimed. "Seamus Harper. Eh… He lives in the slums. You sure he said 'Harper?'" Trance nodded innocently. "Okay… Let's go then. Just stay close, alright?"
The two walked in silence through the busy streets of the tiny planet's market. As they entered the wealthy part of the residential area, they looked at the houses in mild astonishment. Even for "rich" homes, the buildings were broken down. Whatever paint was put on the metal exteriors was chipping away. Beka could only imagine how bad the slums were. The pair continued along the streets, which were becoming less crowded as they neared the slums. Finally they reached a gate in the road. A guard stood inside a small building, stopping every person coming through the gate into the wealthier part of the residential area. Trance and Beka passed through the gate, sticking close together for protection.
"I don't like this, Beka," Trance whispered.
"Relax, Trance," Beka calmed her, a bit uneasy herself. "All we have to do is find this guy and get back to the Maru." She found herself wondering what this Harper guy might look like. Anybody that was good enough to be recommended by name for his engineering skills had to have had years and years of experience. The image of an old man with a gray beard filled her mind. As she checked the flexi again for Harper's address, she felt Trance's hand wrap around her arm. She looked up and followed the purple girl's gaze to where a pair of ratty men sat staring at them from a bench. Her hand instinctively rested on her gauss gun at her side. "Walk faster," she whispered to Trance.
"We have to turn here, Beka," Trance said as they came to a side street. Beka didn't know how she knew this was the street they needed; the streets weren't named, but numbered, and Trance hadn't even looked at the flexi yet. She trusted her friend at all times, so the pair turned onto the street and began searching the buildings for Harper's apartment. They found the apartment number on the side of a concrete and aluminum building. There was no paint on the exterior, save for the numbers by the doors, and the aluminum doors were rusted to high hell.
"What a dump," Beka mumbled as she began to think of turning back and finding somebody else for the job. Something in the far corner of her mind compelled her to continue to the door of the apartment, and before she knew it, she was knocking on the rusted aluminum and waiting for an answer with Trance right by her side.
Trance stood next to her friend, her tail twitching nervously. She could faintly pick up the sounds of footsteps on the other side of the door. "I hope this is worth it," she whispered. The door opened a crack and an ice blue eye stared out at them.
"Can I help you?" a small voice asked. As Trance's eye traced along the crack in the door, she could see pale skin and a tuft of blond hair.
"We're looking for Seamus Harper," Beka answered after consulting the flexi. The blue eye looked her up and down, then did the same to Trance.
"That would be me," the voice grunted. "What do you want?"
"We need an engineer, and a bartender told us about you," Trance replied. The blue eye blinked a couple of times as if the owner was thinking.
"How much are you paying?" he asked.
"How much do you want?" Beka questioned back.
The eye blinked some more. "Five thousand for everything you need done."
"Five thousand thrones?" Beka choked. "That's more than we've got at the moment." (A/N: I don't really know a whole lot about currency on "Andromeda," so please don't hurt me if 5,000 sounds stupid.)
"Then I can't help you." The door slammed shut in Beka's face. "Go away!" the man inside shouted.
Trance pulled Beka away from the door and looked at the door as she whispered, "I'm getting one of those feelings, Beka… I think we need this guy." Beka raised an eyebrow at her, but nodded nonetheless. Trance went back to the door and picked at her fingernails as she thought. "How about a warm room, a nice bed, and hot food for as long as it takes you to fix our ship?" Trance shouted to the man inside. Beka lightly slapped her arm in protest. There was silence for a moment, until the door opened a little again.
"Will you buy me dinner at any restaurant I want tonight?" the man asked. Beka realized how young he sounded when he asked that.
Beka rolled her eyes over to Trance, who shrugged innocently. "Fine. Free room and board while you fix the ship, and I'll buy you dinner tonight," she said in resignation. She really hoped this guy was worth all this trouble.
The blue eye looked at them for a moment before the owner pulled the door open all the way. He was short, skinny, and blond. Beka guessed he was maybe sixteen, if that. His size and the lack of bone blades told her that he was definitely not a Nietzschean. She secretly inspected him a little closer, noticing a nasty rash creeping from beneath his tattered shirt up his neck. His eyes were slightly glazed over, his hands shook, and there was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead. 'Great,' Beka thought, 'I just made a deal with a sick kid.'
"How old are you?" she asked. It sounded ruder than she meant it to.
He sniffed at her and said, "Nineteen…" She raised both eyebrows at him and he narrowed his eyes. "I'm from Earth, okay? You don't exactly grow up to be over six feet tall when you live off bread and water your whole life."
"Oh," Beka said quietly, regretting ever questioning him about his age. Well, that at least explained his size. He was too skinny; his clothes, which would be small on Beka, were loose on his body and she could see the bones in his wrists. "How did you get here?" she ventured.
His hand traveled up to his neck and he tapped a metal device embedded in his skin behind his ear. "This data port has gotten me a few jobs… But never mind about how I got here. That's not important. What about that dinner you promised me?"
Beka remembered their deal and pulled a few currency chips out of her pocket. She shuffled them around a bit, her brow creasing in disappointment. "Try to keep it cheap, will you? We're not exactly rich. I'm Beka, by the way. Captain Beka Valentine. This is Trance Gemini. You'll be working on a cargo ship called the Eureka Maru."
Harper leaned against the door frame as e regarded the two women. The redhead was pretty. She looked like she was tough, like she didn't take flack from anybody. A person had to be tough to be the captain of his or her own ship. The purple girl was a babe. Her skin was the color of plums or grapes. Her tail was different, but he thought it was kind of intriguing. He turned away from them and wandered into his apartment to his bed. "Excuse the mess," he apologized sarcastically. There was no mess; he was wearing everything he owned, sans a jacket that lay on his bed. The bed wasn't even his. It came standard in these free housing projects. He picked up the jacket and slipped it on uncomfortably. As he exited the apartment, he pulled the door shut and locked it. "Shall we?"
The unusual trio walked the streets at a fast pace. Beka and Trance walked half a pace behind their new engineer, each watching his wobbly steps. His blond spikes waved slightly in the cool breeze. Trance thought he looked like he would break if she touched him. She'd never seen a full-grown human so fragile before. He was almost an alien to her eyes. Her thoughts wandered to the future. 'Bobby can snap this kid's neck with one hand,' she thought uneasily.
"Here," the kid said softly as he entered a small building. Inside there were a variety of races sitting at red tables. Waitresses of different races tended the customers, smiles gracing their faces like they really did want to be serving people. Beka had tried to hold a job as a waitress on a drift once, but it never worked. The Maru was her home and her work. The smell of food drifted to the dining area from the kitchen in the back and Beka realized how hungry she was. Harper sniffed the air and sighed happily. "This is my favorite restaurant. And don't worry, their food is cheap," he said with a glance at Beka.
A waitress approached them and showed them to one of the red tables, setting menus down at the seats and getting her notepad out to take their drink orders. Trance ordered a fruit drink, Beka ordered very weak liquor, and Harper ordered plain water. This surprised Beka because Harper struck her as the drinking type. Her eyes wandered back to the horrible rash on his neck and she shuddered.
"I hope that's not contagious," she said, gesturing at the rash.
"I hope so, too," he replied. "I don't even know where it came from." The waitress came with their drinks and Harper immediately started drinking his water.
"Had any sex lately?" Trance asked out of nowhere, causing Harper to nearly choke on his water. The stares she received from Beka and Harper made her laugh a little. "He could have gotten it from a girl…" she explained.
"No," Harper replied quickly. "Not a chance. Now if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about my non-existent sex life…" He took another sip of his water and looked at Beka. "What exactly is wrong with your ship?"
"Slip drive's shot, engine needs a tune up, life support's screwy… That should be everything. Although, if you name a part, it more than likely needs fixing. Our last engineer… Um… Well, he died, and we haven't been able to fix everything ourselves. I'm not exactly gifted in the field of engineering and Trance… She's not allowed near anything mechanical." She watched Harper as listened with mild interest. He was pathetic, just sitting there scratching his neck, looking like a skeleton with hair. The sudden uneasy look on his face alarmed her. "You feeling okay, kid?"
"Harper," he corrected harshly. "My name is Harper." He finished his water and looked around for the waitress. "Where's the waitress, I need more water."
Trance eyed him worriedly. She'd only just met him, but something about him made her want to be his friend. It was obvious he was sick, the question was how sick was he. He shifted nervously in his seat, clutching his stomach like he'd just been elbowed in the gut. His eyes grew wider and glazed over some more.
"Harper?" Beka asked, worried at the look on his face. He got up and ran for the door of the restaurant, one hand over his mouth, the other reaching for the door. Beka blinked in confusion and looked at Trance. "I'll go," she sighed. She stood and calmly left the restaurant, leaving Trance alone at the table. She found Harper outside, his face buried in a trashcan while he emptied the few contents of his stomach into the bottom. She winced at the sound of his stomach rejecting whatever might have been in it. "I thought you said you were fine," she said, making him jump.
His blue eyes looked up at her sadly, as if he was asking her for forgiveness. "I'll be fine, don't worry. This happens at least twice a day," he explained. He held his breath for a moment, then stuck his face in the trashcan again. Beka approached him sympathetically and placed a hand on his back, albeit reluctantly. Her touch unnerved him and he shied away, wincing slightly. She raised her hands to show she meant no harm.
After a moment of awkward silence, Harper stood up straight, running a hand through his blond spikes. Beka eyed him cautiously, noticing he was a shade paler, if that was even possible, and he looked as if he would faint at any moment. "Do you want to skip dinner and head to the Maru so you can rest?"
Harper shook his head defiantly. "I'm fine. Besides, I don't sleep. I'm a mud foot, it's in my genes to have insomnia." He smiled slightly and walked back into the restaurant, followed closely by Beka. When he sat down, he took a long drink from the new glass of water Trance had ordered for him while he was gone. Trance and Beka watched him with raised eyebrows, making him even more uneasy than he already was. "Don't look at me like that," he warned quietly. The girls looked at each other and shrugged, trying not to focus their attention on him.
"So, Harper," Trance started, careful not to look directly at him, "you said you're from Earth. How'd you get all the way out here?"
Harper licked his lips and sighed. "Well, I told you my data port has gotten me a lot of jobs, right? The truth is, I've only had one major job on a ship before this one. Only, it wasn't really a job. It was a slave ship. My 'employer' treated me like dirt, then refused to get me help when I got sick. I tried to leave, but he wouldn't let me. I even ran away once when we were on a drift picking up cargo. He found me, though… Boy, I never tried to get away again. So anyway, we come to this drift a couple of years ago, and I'm sick as a dog. I mean, I could barely function I was so freakin' sick. He didn't want a sick slave, so he dumped me in the bar you guys got my name from and took off for his next cargo run, one slave short. What a guy…"
"So I take it you got to a doctor after he left you?" Beka asked.
"Kind of," Harper answered. "The bartender took me to one of those free clinics. They couldn't really do anything for me there except give me some antibiotics and a bed for a couple of weeks until I was healthier. Once I had over stayed my welcome, they set an apartment up for me in one of those free housing projects. That's where you came in."
Trance felt a pang of pity in the pit of her stomach. She'd never been in that kind of a situation. She'd always had a place to live and people that cared about her. When she joined Beka's crew, Beka accepted her as a friend and someone she could trust. Bobby, on the other hand, didn't like her much. He thought she was too mysterious and would probably try to kill him if she'd been given the right opportunity. Since the Maru was Beka's ship, Beka decided who would be on her crew. Trance remembered a time when Bobby had yelled at her for sleeping in the wrong bunk. Beka yelled at Bobby for hours for ever raising his voice to a member of her crew. She told him that if he didn't like Trance, he could leave. As Trance thought, she realized that she was staring at Harper with sympathy in her eyes.
"Don't feel sorry for me," he whispered just loud enough for the women to hear. "I hate pity. It gets you nowhere." The waitress approached and the trio ordered their food. Harper hardly ate anything, but he agreed to take his food back to the Maru so he could eat when he felt a little better. Beka almost wanted to force him to eat because he was so thin. She didn't want him to pass out in her slip drive. She'd get stuck with his medical bills.
After paying the check, the trio left the restaurant and walked in silence to the Maru. Harper's steps had gotten more unsteady since they left his apartment a couple of hours before. The girls still were still worried about the fact that he hadn't eaten much at the restaurant. Beka no longer regarded him with disgust; she pitied him for all he said he'd been through. As the trio entered the Maru, Bobby's voice drifted from his quarters. He was drunk again.
"Shit," Beka muttered under her breath. "Look, kid, you're about to meet Bobby, my boyfriend. Just… Just remember that he's probably drunk right now and he's not so bad when he's sober. Okay?" Harper nodded slowly, afraid that he'd gotten himself into another bad situation. "Bobby, come here for a second!" the redhead called out.
"What do you want?" a deep voice bellowed, followed by loud footsteps and some muttered curses. Soon a tall, muscular man appeared before the trio. He swayed in his place, looking over Harper like he was a dog looking at a piece of meat. "Who the hell are you?" Harper backed up slightly, his eyes turning to the floor. He suddenly wouldn't talk. Trance noticed the fear and frustration on his face and spoke up.
"This is Seamus Harper, he's our new engineer," she answered softly.
"Shut up," Bobby growled at her. "I wasn't talking to you. If he's gonna be a member of this crew, he's gotta learn to answer questions when they're asked. Especially by me."
Beka glared at him with pure hostility. "This is my ship, Bobby. my crew, not yours, remember? What makes you so special that he has to bow down and kiss your feet?"
Bobby snorted at her and walked away angrily. "Just keep the little rat out of my way," he called back.
Harper sighed sadly as he continued to look at the floor. "And the first rule of play is that I stay away from that guy…" he mumbled quietly. Beka looked at him apologetically. "Don't apologize, Captain Valentine. I'm used to it. So where do I start working anyway?"
"I think life support is the most important thing at this moment," Beka answered. "When we're flying, the air smells like sulfur and it gets real dry in here. You don't have to start today, you know. It can wait until tomorrow. You look like you need some rest or food or something."
"I told you I don't sleep and for the last time I feel fine. Now show me where to start…"
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This first chapter was long, but the rest might not be so long from now on. I've actually been working on this story for over a year now. What you're reading is a newly revised version that I've decided is good enough for the likes of fanfiction.net. It's only a little bit like the story I originally wrote. In fact, this first chapter is the only one that has only been edited a little bit. The rest are completely new. Don't you feel special? Please review, if you feel like it.