Harper walked into the Medical Bay aboared the andromeda. Kryten was running scans on Trance, who was still lying there in pain. She had her eyes closed and looked very uncomftable. Kryten had plugged her into the andromedas life support machines and she had wires and tubes connected to various parts of her body.

"Hows she doing?" Harper asked.

"She is looking quite stable, But the infection is still at large. I am afraid, Mr harper, that i do not understand the infection, therefor i cannot create an antidote. I am realy sorry, but i think it is no longer a matter of will she live but more of a matter of how long will she live for" Kryten replied sadly. "I am terribly sorry Mr Harper, I understand that you and miss gemeni were very close. But i dont think there is anything that i can do..." Harper began to cry, and crouched down next to trances bed. Kryten left the room out of respect. Trance turned her head towards harper and slowly opened her eyes, and began too smile at him.

"Trance... Did i wake you? I am so sorry" Harper said, with tears in his eyes.

"Its fine, Really harper. Dont be sad. Please, Dont be sad for me." She croaked in a faint voice.

"But trance.. I... Trance, You..." Trance slowly lifted her finger and put it over Harpers lips.
"Shhhh" she hushed.
"Oh Trance, I made this for you" Harper said. He reached down and pulled out a card, with hearts all over it. He handed it over to Trance, Who slowly lifted it up and began to read the front cover.

"Happy Valentines Day...?" she read out loud in confusion "Wow, Look at all the red hearts. There so pretty" Harper smiled at her.

"Like you trance, They are very pretty just like you. And do you know what this card is for?" He asked. Trance shook her head.
"I dont know, But its very nice. Thank you harper" Harper smiled.

"It means i want you to be my valentine Trance" he smiled. She looked at him in confusion.

"You want me to be your beka?" She said. Harper laughed.

"No, Oh it doesent matter. Im glad you like it anyway" He said. "Oh and i got you a valentines gift too" He pulled out one of his teddybears, and handed it to her.
"For you" he said.

"Oh harper, This is your favorite teddy. I cant accept this" She replied. Harper ignored her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then sat back down beside her. "Whats going on then, Where are we going Harper" Trance asked. Harper explained about the mission they were on, He told her about the artifact that they were searching for and where it was based.

"At the moment were just floating to the next slipstream point, When we get there we'll be just a few days from the planet that this object is located on, Helgar 4" He explained. Trance jolted in pain, then closed her eyes and fell asleep. Harper rested the teddy bear down next to her head, and then left the room frowning.

Rommie stood at her panel on the command deck and tapped away at the buttons. She turned towards dylan.

"Dylan im detecting somthing... Its a small escape pod a few light minutes out"
"On screen" Dylan demanded. Rommie brought the visual view off the small craft onto the main screen.

"Its an eagle mark AF:143, the same escape craft used by commonwealth planet-based research outposts" Rommie said. Dylan thought for a second, then ordered Rommie to hail the tiny craft. Rommie tapped away at her console, and then the pilot of the escape pod bleeped up onto the main screen.
"This is captain Dylan Hunt of the high gaurd warship Andromeda. Please confirm your identity" The man on the screen smiled. He was a mid-20s neezcheian. He had a scruffy haircut and looked dirty and unshaven. He was skinny looking, and was wearing the standerd commonwealth labcoat.

"Good to see you captain! I was hoping that one of you guys would be in the vercinity" he replied. "My name is Hellogaurn Arad, freinds call me Hell. Commonwealth number 8943:RO4. Part of Research Outpost 4 on Helgar 4" Rommie bleeped away at her console, accesing the Commonwealth database.

"Dylan, Identity confirmed. Hellogaurn Arad was a research scientist working at RO4. He graduated from Galileyo at the age of 16 from where on he..."

"Thats enougth rommie..." Dylan interupted holding up his hand "As long as he belongs to the commonwealth thats just fine" he laughed.
"Commander hunt, Permision to come aboard sir" Hell asked over the visual intercom.

"Permision Granted, Hunt out" Dylan stepped down from the command position and made his way towards the docking bay. Beka was about too follow him when Lister came running up to her. He was puffing and panting and was holding a home-made card in his hand. The card was covered in hand drawn love hearts and had the words "Be My Valentine, Valentine" Scribbled on in poor handwritting.

"Wait!" Lister cried to beka. "Here you go". He handed her the card, she proceeded to read it.

"Dear Beka, Be my valentine, Ive loved since we did first meet. I want to take you too the sheets... Err... thanks lister, thats very... err... sweet. I guess..." Beka read aloud. Lister smiled at her.

"I came up with the ryhme myself. Dont you like it?" Beka laughed.

"You certainly have a way with words" she said, trying not to laugh at the pathetic attempt of a valentine card. She left the command deck and cought up with dylan who was on his way to meet Hellogaurn.

The small lifepod landed in the bay, and Hellogaurn stepped out to be greeted by Dylan and Beka.

"For a while there i thought i was a gonna! Phew" Hell said wiping the sweat of his forehead. "I was being pursuied by two genite ships, i managed to shake them off and enter slip-stream, which is how i found you guys" Dylan looked confused.

"It was the genites? The genites are the ones stealing the artifact?" He asked. Hell nodded.

"What ever that object is, they want it pretty bad" Beka said. Dylan patted Hell on the arm.

"Follow me, You can tell me what happened" he said, and the three left the docking bay.

"This research post on Helgar 4... what exactly was it you were doing there?" Beka asked as the three walked through andromedas corridoors.

"It was top secret. Im afraid i am not classified to tell you. The commonwealth law states that we cant" Hell replied rubbing his neck "Sorry". Dylan looked a little irritated.

"Excuse me, Mr Helloguarn, But while you are on boared my ship... You will follow my orders. Now, Tell me what you guys were doing down there" Dylan demanded.

"Im sorry captain, I dont have the clearance to give you that information. I really am not at libetery to say" Hell replied.

"Ok.. Ok... So this, Artifact. I guess it has nothing to do with... what ever it was you were doing down there? Because news of that object spreaded like wildfire" Beka interupted. The three entered the command deck in which rommie was standing looking at star maps.

"Yeah thats right. We were mining resources for our research.. and one day we came across it. It was burried deep within Helgar 4s surface. It took our longest drill tip to actually get to it." Hell replied

"And noone who looked at the object had a clue what it was" Dylan sighed. "Great, just great... Were on a mission to rescue and unkown artifact from a base that deals with unkown research"

"The object... It was beutifull" Hell said. "It was one of the most equisate peice of engeneering i have ever seen. And the fact that it was so ancheint makes it all the more amazing"

"Do we know ANYthing about it? Anything at all?" Dylan said.

"I know what it looks like, But thats all... Oh and it had the words "The Heart Of Gemini" inscribed on it in ancheint tounge. Acording to a language expert, anyway"

Dylan turned to Rommie.

"Rommie, Where about is Helgar 4 located in the Gemini Star System?" Rommie bagan to study the star map.

"Helgar 4 is a rather large planet in orbit around the center star of the gemeni system, the very center star in fact. The star known as Gemini " Rommie replied.

"The Heart Of Gemini indeed" Dylan whispered to himself in deep thought. He turned to Hell.

"Hell, You are going to have to acompany us on our mission to Helgar 4. We need a guide. Is the artifact still locked in the pantry?" Dylan asked.

"No, When i got to the escape pods i heard the genites talking. They were talking in common tounge, about how they were going to get a huge sum of credits for the artifact"

"Just as i thought" Dylan said. "They plan to sell the heart on the black market."

"Were approaching the slip-point" Rommie anounced. "Should i open a portal?" Dylan nodded. Rommie began to tap away at her console, but nothing happened. The engine made a huge creaking sound and then a large bang followed by a clunk and a powering down sound.

"Oh great. Just great" Dylan moaned. "Let me guess Rommie, The slip stream drive has failed. HARPER!" He cried.

Harper emerged from the wall pannel, with his torch and wrench.

"Hey boss, Just as i thought. It was the Anti-Matter injector. Its as dead as a donkey." He said over the intercom to dylan. "Theres more chance of rain on iligina than us jumping to slip stream now". Dylan, Who was standing on the command deck sighed. "And theres no atmoshpear on iligina" he said. "Estemated time untill repairs are completed?"

"Unknown sir. Should be a peice of cake, Done it loads of times before, but without trances help... it shouldent take more than a few hours" Harper replied.

"Do it Mr Harper" Dylan said. "Work as quickly as you can".

Beka walked into the engine room in which Harper was working just as he turned off his comunicator to dylan.

"How you doing harp?" She asked him softly. She handed him a tool.

"Me... im ok.. Its just trance... I cant stop thinking about her." He replied sadly. Beka patted him on the shoulder.
"Yeah, We are all very sad" Beka said. "But we cant let that get in the way of our mission". Harper smiled, and started to fiddle with a part of the engine. He shot back with an electric shock, squelling in pain.

"Owch... Oh yeah, Its just Kryten told me that it was no longer a matter of if, it was a matter of when" Beka frowned. Harper noticed she had a tear in her eye.

"Yeah, I know" she sobbed. "But you know Trance. She is full of surprises" Beka stood up and patted him on the back, then left the room. Harper continued to repair the engine. He was remembering all the fun that they used to have, the games they used to play back when she was purple. Lister came wondering in.

"Oh hi harper, I was just talking to that... that Hellogaurn guy. He seems a nice fella, and he said he knows a lot about slipsteam drives" Lister told Harper. Harper looked at him.

"Not as much as me, Harper the freaken genius" he said. Hell walked in and crouched down next to him. He studied the engine for a few seconds, then turned to harper.

"Ahh, I see. Just recalibrate the antimatter drive to 180 then max it out after a few seconds. That should blow-out the engine, then you can simpley retune it back to the way it was" Hell told Harper. He thought about it for a second.

"Hey... That just might work!" he said. He tried it.

"Dylan the slipstream drive is back online" Rommie stated to dylan, who laughed.

"I told him to work fast" Dylan said "He actually listened to me". Rommie smiled as Beka walked onto the bridge.

"Lets get this show on the road" She said, Activating the slip-stream controlls. Rommie opened up a slip portal, and the andromeda disapeared into slipstream. Beka rode the strings of slipstream untill she jetesened the andromeda out of the other end.
"Rommie SitRep" dylan asked as they left slipstream.

"We have emerged presicly 15 lightminutes from the Gemini star and surrounding planets. No sign of any genite craft in the parrimeter, but i am yet to conduct a thorough search"

"Send out sensor drones" Dylan commanded.
"Aye Aye" Rommie replied. The andromeda opened up and the Sensor Drones emerged from the inner hull.

"Scanning" Rommie said.

"All ahead full" dylan asked. Beka accelerated the andromeda to full non-slipsteam speed.

"The gemini star and helgar 4 is now within visual contact" Rommie stated. She Brought the view up onto the screen.

"There she is" Hell said while pointing at Helgar 4 as it orbited the gemini star.
"Are there any genite ships inside the vicinity?" Dylan asked.

"No..." Rommie replied "Hang on.. Wait... Im picking up a contact too the south... And the west... incoming genite attack crafts". The two ships circled the andromeda and then entered attack formation. Side by side they swooped down towards the andromeda and began attack manouveurs.

"Rommie, Target with after phasors, tubes 1 through 4" Dylan ordered. The andromeda fired its payload of phasor towards the targets, clipping the wing off one of the genite attack crafts and sending it tumbling out of controll. The other genite craft managed to dodge the phasor, and proceeded to launch missiles towards the andromeda.

"Brace" rommie cried, the entire ship shook as the missles hit. Sparks began to fly inside the bridge, as the crew held onto the rails.

"Rommie, Swat that fly!" Harper cried. Rommie fired a heat seaking missile that homed in on the craft. The genite tried to outrun the missile, but failed.

"Both genite crafts have been destroyed" Rommie stated.

"Good work" Dylan said. "Still, Theres no mother ship. We have to get down to Helgar 4. Lister, Stay on the andromeda with Rommie and Harper and cover us while Me, Beka and Hell make our way to Helgar 4s surface inside the Maru" Lister nodded and went and stood in Dylans position.

"He never lets me take command!" Harper said to lister, as Dylan, Hell and Beka made their ways to the Maru.

The Maru took off from the andromedas hanger, and proceeded to fly into outer space and towards Helgar 4. On boared, Dylan polished his force lance and Hell sat thinking about the heart of gemini.

"When you see it, the artifact, You might just fall in love with it" Hell told dylan. "Its such an amazing object, Such a beutifull peice of history". Dylan wondered why Hell was so fond of it.

"Im sure it is" He replied. As the Maru approached the huge star of gemini, Beka noticed the readings coming from the sun were unusual.

"Dylan, Its strange. The star, Gemini, Its giving me really strange readings.. The radiation levels go of the chart. Its allmost as if... I dont know" She said. Hell did not say a word. Dylan looked out of the Marus window, and watched the sun coming into view. He could see solar flares spurting out of the star, and strange patterns appearing on the Heat vision scan of the star. That second, Rommies voice bleeped onto the maru.
"Beka, You got... 4 genite fighters coming out of Helgar 4. There approaching you and are begining attack maneouveurs" Rommie told them. Beka checked her sensor screen.

"Damit, Shes right" Beka remarked "Hold on to your cookies people!". She did a 180 degree flip, then spun the ship onto its side. She charged at the genite ships, who charged back.

"Beka what the hell are you doing!" Dylan cried.
"This" she said, Firing two missiles, both of which hit there intended targets. "1 down 3 to go" she said. The genite ships entered an attack formation. All 3 swooped towards the maru, firing there payload of rocket pods. Beka swerved the maru in and out of the rocket pods, dodging each on.

"Shes one hell of a pilot!" Hell cried as he watched the rocket pods float off into the distance.

"Yeah she is!" Dylan cried back, as the maru twisted and turned. Beka was laughing in the face of death. She swooped around the Maru and then fired a second missile, which hit another genite ship right in the aft. The craft spun out of controll, and smashed into the 3rd fighter. Both exploded into balls of flame.

"3 down, 1 to go!" Beka said, while laughing. That second, a huge plasma blast fired out of the andromeda, skimming the maru and destroying the last attack ship.

"You stole my kill rommie!" Beka moaned. Rommie, Harper and Lister could be heared laughing over the intercom.

"Nice work beka" Dylan said as the Maru turned and flew back towards Gemini and Helgar 4. As the maru approached the planet of Helgar 4, Dylan noticed a strange thing happening on the planets surface. From were they were, they could see a huge hole in the ground. Strange blue lights were begging to float towards the hole, and were gathering toghether.

"What the hell?" Dylan asked. "Is that... A giant plasma cannon?". His queston was soon answerd, when a huge beam of light blue plasma was hurling towards the star of gemini. It must have been a mile in diameter. Beka managed to swerve the maru away from the blast, But the plasma impacted the sun, Coursing a huge explosion. The plasma had created a hole in the sun and went right through, coming out of the other side. A huge soler flare spun up from the sun, and it was sent hurling through space.

"I think we just discovered what those unusual readings were caused by beka" dylan said slowly.

Trance screamed in excrutiating pain. Pain that you cannot imagine, Pain like no other. Harper came running in like a bullet to the medic bay, followed by Kryten.

"Trance!" Harper shouted. "Trance Gemini! What the hell is up with you!" Harper cried. He grabbed her. "Trance!" Trance lay there, not moving a muscle. She was trying her best to breathe.

"It is totally unexplained mr harper sir" Kryten said "It is almost as if randomly Miss Gemini is experiencing some kind of... i dont know sir. I know she is in extreame pain". Harper felt so sorry for her, He hugged her and told her she was going to be alright. Although deep down he knew otherwise.

"I want anwsers. I want them now" Dylan said. He had his force lance pressed violently against Hells neck. Hell squeled like a girl under the pressure, and eventually gave in.

"Ok, Ok.. Ill tell you.. Ill tell you!" He cried. "Stop, Take the weapon away. Stop!"

"What the hell were you guys doing down there? I had no idea that the commonwealth were firing plasma cannons at stars!" Dylan cried. "Speak!"

"We were working on... On a new kind of weapons technology... It was top secret! We... We were trying... trying to develop a way of controlling solar flares... We discoverd that If you fire the right kind of plasma at a star, you can eject the solar radiation at tremendes speeds in the direction in which you choose... imagine the power of a supernova within your grasp... it is only in expreimental stage at the moment, but we intend this new weapons technology to do good for the new commonwealth... not bad... please, we mean nobody any harm!" Hell cried. Dylan stood and thought about it.

"Its not that i am worried about doing anybody any harm" he said. "Its the fact that i was in the dark about all this". Dylan dropped his force lance from Hells neck, and hell, as a jibbering wreck, crawled over to sit against the wall.

"Belive me" hell said. "You are not the only one. Many commonwealth captians know nothing of this solar wind project". Hell begged dylan not to harm him, And dylan put his force lance away. He told Hell that he couldent harm him as he was a vital asset to the mission.

"I need you to lead us to where the Heart Of Gemini is" dylan told him. "Beka, Step on it. Bring us down to Helgar 4" Beka nodded and the maru swooped into the planets atmoshpear.

"Almost at the heart" Dylan whispered...