Part 29

'She's been ranting but the high powered restraints are doing the job, we'll have to thank the Persieds for their improvements to our internal containment fields,' Roseby smiled and put a hot drink in front of Rev.

'Her rants concern me,' Rev admitted.

'Well if it's any consolation, opening my ship up to born again Wayist Magogs concern me,' Roseby responded as she took her seat. 'The crew are showing increasing discomfort to their presence on board, apparently a few of them keep licking their lips?' she offered with a sly smile.

Rev simply frowned with a hint of amusement. 'I can assure you they are keeping their hunger under control, they are strong enough,' he spoke with comfort. 'My fear is if we need to ask them to defend this ship, that could be a test too far putting them in an environment where fighting occurs this early into their training, I can not be sure that they are ready to go into combat and not eat the enemy.'

'It's so easy to joke, but the reality is very real, if you are here to help then we will need to utilise the distraction they could provide us on Edenia,' Roseby frowned.

'In a perfect universe there would be no need for war,' Rev offered. 'But I came here to help, my students want to test their new found skills and sadly we do not have the luxury of providing them with a 'safe' testing ground for the tests they face,' Rev looked at Roseby. 'I am confident they are ready, that they are strong, and that we can offer the help that could provide an advantage to bring this conflict to an end, with no further blood loss.'

'That's good enough for me,' Roseby assured the Magog Priest. 'So, tell me, why are Trance's rants concerning you, they are just mindless rants I wouldn't pay them any attention.'

'All of them are directed towards a good friend, and she is not Trance,' Rev spoke gravely. 'I fear if we do defeat the impostor, then she will go all out after Harper and I don't think anyone would have the ability to stop her, so even if she is defeated she could still win, still hurt us.'

'Maybe that's why she chose Harper,' Roseby suggested. 'Put you and the original Andromeda crew in a no win situation, she found your weakness.'

'Harper is not weak,' Rev stated.

'I wasn't suggesting he was,' Roseby quickly offered. 'I'm sorry, I just meant she singled him out knowing how much all of you care about him, he had a use to her that maybe no one else could offer her.'

'She abused the respect he and Trance had for each other, picked a moment he was at his lowest point,' Rev sadly spoke. 'Usually he's so sharp and so aware, but I'm not sure anyone truly appreciated how much losing his home, both Earth and the Andromeda affected him,' he frowned. 'They all tried to force him to move on, to distract him when all he wanted to do was to simple stop, remember and find some comfort and happiness.'

'That's pretty deep,' Roseby commented.

'For a Magog?' Rev enquired.

'No for describing Seamus Harper, as I understand it he's a bit of live wire, and his file seems to have more than a few reports against him for unwanted advances, and I won't even mention the charge for indecent exposure he has to his name,' Roseby smiled.

'On paper Seamus Harper must appear to be something of a maverick, a fly by night,' Rev agreed. 'To know the person, that is a totally different experience, his people have a saying 'never judge a book by its cover'.'

'Point taken,' Roseby accepted and glance at the impostor Trance still trapped in the container field. 'But you have to admit it sounding like his biggest weakness is his desire to be loved.'

'And when a man is already down they'll accept it in any form, and Trance's sister knew this all too well,' Rev frowned again. 'I was just too blind to see, I was there at the beginning when she was starting her games. Young Harper had secretly asked to see me, he wanted to talk so he could sort his head out, and at the time I put it down to wanting an excuse to be away from the others,' Rev remembered. 'I had agreed to meet him but found that he was already drunk and I didn't suspect a thing when I found Trance was there on his arm, I just didn't see it wasn't our Trance.'

'Rev you can't blame yourself,' Roseby spoke.

'I can, he was asking for my help, and I realise now it was a cry for help because maybe he knew that the fake Trance had him where she wanted, he wanted me there that night because I suspect he knew he was in too deep and needed something to pull him back,' Rev explained. 'But instead I watched as he sunk lower, I was the one who walked away when had I stayed I might have stopped him meeting the Dragans,' Rev stated.

'Did you know we had the other Trance on board before?'

'I willingly served with her, I am not proud to admit that, but I made a promise to the real Trance to keep an eye on things, especially on Harper once I discovered the truth but it was already too late, Harper had fallen too far and let her influence him, even though he knew she wasn't the one, and she had progressed quicker than I ever imagined,' Rev lowered his head. 'I wasn't going to go to the reunion but Trance begged me to go, knowing her sister would be there impersonating her and knowing Harper had been used by her, had allowed it to the point she had infiltrated the others into believing she was the real Trance with Harper's co-operation, but I could see nothing suspect, Harper seemed himself and she was acting like the other Trance for the most part.'

'You thought maybe he had come to his senses, had begun to resist her?' Roseby prompted.

'At first, but then his fear of Trance when he woke up, it made me realise things were not ok and then everything that has happened since,' Rev sighed heavily. 'He wanted me to help him and I failed him both times.'

Roseby reached out and covered Rev's partly human hand. 'You're helping him now, and you're following Trance's wishes, be thankful for small mercies, Rev,' Roseby offered with a smile.

Rev couldn't help the smile he returned, taking comfort from her words.


Harper's wrists were now secured behind his back and he was surrounded by Dragan soldiers; they had remained in the backstreets of Edenia waiting. Tark was on the floor, his face a bloody mess as his former colleagues took offence to his attempt to change the plans for his own benefit.

Glaring at Asa, Harper showed his contempt and Asa avoided making eye contact but Harper wasn't in the mood to let this go.

'Happy now, Asa?' Harper sneered. 'Is this what you wanted? You're an accomplice to both Tark's and my deaths, does that please you? Does letting Edenia fall into the hands of monsters make you proud?' he continued until one of the soldiers holding him jabbed him in the ribs.

'You life is safe,' Asa simply returned.

'You're a fool if you believe that,' Harper stressed but before Asa could respond Hertzler appeared with more soldiers flanking him.

'Seamus Harper, we meet again,' Hertzler announced and then turned to Asa. 'Take us to the control room.'

'Remember our deal,' Asa stated.

'I remember it,' Hertzler stated.

'Wait,' Harper spoke up. 'What's going to happen to him,' he gestured to Tark.

Hertzler sighed and looked at the bloodied man with disgust. 'He is of no importance,' he offered and then withdrew a weapon.

'Wait!' Harper yelled, seeing the weapon aimed at Tark.

Hertzler showed amusement to Harper's apparent concern for the defeated Nietzschean. 'Is there a problem, boy?'

'It wasn't his idea, it was that other guys idea, he had no choice,' Harper offered and saw the glare Tark was now giving him, but Harper was adamant.

'So he's weak and stupid?' Hertzler asked flippantly.

'No! Only a numbskull would think that he didn't want to be found, and once Asa was on his side why do you think I was so easily caught? If he was honestly trying to avoid capture would you have caught me so easily? Or are all your soldiers that easy to catch? All I'm saying is it seems unfair to just kill him, that's all, when it was the other guy.'

'You're helping him, by pleading his case?' Hertzler was intrigue.

'Fine, go ahead and kill him then,' Harper dismissed and saw Hertzler raise his weapon once more. 'But he's the only uber I respect out of your motley crew, he's good, I've lived with Dragan filth all my life and even with all that he still managed to con me into thinking he was helping me, so depending on how quickly you want to learn the secrets of the system, you might find he still has a use to you.'

Hertzler put his weapon away once again and slowly turned to Harper. 'Are you trying to bargain with me, boy?' Harper just frowned so Hertzler pushed. 'Why him?'

'Because like me, he's pretty much dead meat on the grander scale of things so we have something in common, and he's in the sort of position that will guarantee he pays attention if he wants to live,' Harper answered flippantly. 'Students work better when they have a desperate need to pay attention,' he added with narrowed eyes.

'You mean he'll be probably less likely to kill you the minute my back is turned if you speak out of turn?' Hertzler caught on.

'Yeah, and that,' Harper agreed flippantly. 'I'd trust him above any of your other meatheads,' he added with a crooked smile.

'Ok, secure the traitor,' Hertzler ordered and then swung around, his fist catching Harper squarely across the face sending him sprawling in the dirt. 'Just a warning boy, if you ever feel like making any more demands.'

Harper lay still for a moment dazed before he felt himself being hauled up to a standing position once again. He glanced at Asa who showed concern but only shook his head at the older man, before looking at Tark, Harper saw a brief glimpse of thanks in his expression before they were all shoved forward.

'Asa, show us the way,' Hertzler ordered.


'Hey, Zal!'


Zal looked up and frowned at a figure running towards him, he then noticed the soldiers behind them giving chase.

'What the hell are you doing?' Zal returned towards the figure, slightly panicked as he kept one eye on the uber soldiers. 'You know you have company?'

'You're a daddy to a baby girl,' Naomi panted heavily, practically falling into Zal's arms as she arrived. 'Arrived this morning, mother and baby, and kid brother doing well,' she managed before the soldiers grabbed her harshly.

'Hey, be careful with her!' Zal protested but backed away on seeing the weapon brandished before him. 'She's just letting me know some good news, man, talk about killjoys!' he complained as they began to pull Naomi away. 'What about you, Naomi?'

Naomi smiled happily. 'I'm fine, everything is fine, we're all safe and sound and getting stronger,' she offered with a secret smile before being dragged away.

'Tell Junia I love her, I miss her, hug little Zelazny for me, hug all them, I'm not fussed, I miss them all and can't wait to meet the ones I missed!' Zal hurriedly called before she was dragged out of sight.

Zal stood still and let the news sink in as a slow smile crept across his face. 'You can lock us up assholes, but we keep living and breathing like the best of them, welcome to the world my little girl!' he proclaimed, before being shoved to the ground by the soldier assigned to him before being hit a couple of times.

'Congratulations, now get back to work,' the soldier gruffly offered before resuming his rounds.


'Report,' Dylan ordered as he walked into the makeshift command center.

Rhade glanced up. 'We've secured the building, and have units posted here, here and here,' Rhade gestured to the crude map they had put together that marked the areas their units were covering outside. 'Intelligence tells us that we'll have company soon, enemy soldiers are gathering here and here,' Rhade once again pointed to the relevant spots.

'Are we ready for a fight?' Dylan asked.

'More than,' Rhade simply answered. 'I'm guessing the objective is to protect the control room?'

Dylan only frowned. 'Until we know where Harper is, the control room isn't much use to us.'

'We have the best available technicians down there right now, hopefully we won't need to be so reliant on Harper, take him out of the equation,' Rhade remarked.

'Harper's had several months to become more than familiar with the system, your men only have hours if that,' Dylan reminded him.

'It's just a machine, like any other under the surface,' Rhade lightly disagreed.

Dylan could only frown. 'Well if they can figure out how to lower the shields, I hope you have a plan B for saving Harper, or things could get ugly when Beka wakes up,' he smirked.

'One problem at a time, Captain,' Rhade only commented.


For the past half hour Trance had worn a menacing smile as she stared at her captors behind the container field, as they looked back at her. She was still restrained, but had for a long time given up on the struggle to free herself, instead she calmly stood and stared.

'I don't like this,' Roseby admitted.

'She is planning something and if I know her people, she could already know her plan will work,' Rev agreed. 'We need to be prepared to move, and I feel Edenia will be our target.'

'I can prep the slip fighters,' Roseby suggested.

'All your best men, and all my best Magog,' Rev offered wryly.

'They know how to fly the fighters?' Roseby questioned.

'They knew how to fly when they were monsters, they flew the darts, now they are evolved they can even fly well now and in a straight line,' Rev offered mockingly.

'Sorry, I wasn't meaning to sound condescending,' Roseby apologised.

Rev simply looked on. 'Let's just hope they are prepared, I fear this is too soon.'

'What options do we have?' Roseby reasoned. 'They ran off all the additional firepower we had, by simply turning up, we need something that could provide enough of a distraction.'

'To be fair, all who were here before were under Trance's spell, would you say this was correct?' Rev asked looking with interest at Roseby.

'I trusted her, she'd served with Dylan Hunt, or so I thought,' Roseby offered with a sigh. 'We are depleted and the Magog give us more of an advantage but I need reassurance that they won't eat my men.'

'I can't say for sure, Magog are still monsters even if they are more capable of free thought and deeper control of their hunger, they are still driven by instinct,' Rev calmly spoke.

'You feel comfortable unleashing your people onto Edenia, all those people, all that fear?' Roseby asked, needing to know she was doing the right thing.

'Comfortable is not a term I'd use, but I am determined to put an end to this hell the true monster is unleashing around us,' Rev stared back at Trance, bearing his teeth as an old instinct kicked in. 'This will be a true test, but if we want quick results then I see no better way of making the Dragans run away faster than to unleash a hoard of Magog into their territory.'

'So if they eat a few Dragans we're ok?' Roseby half smiled.

'I would forgive them a bite or two,' Rev simply responded.

'We can't guarantee it will only be Dragans they attack, if they do turn back with temptation,' Roseby grimly offered.

'I know,' Rev replied. 'There are a couple I feel are not ready for the journey and I will ask them to stay behind on the Andromeda, if you are ok with that?'

'I would ask they stay in secured quarters just to be safe,' Roseby agreed.

'That is acceptable, one in particular, Wasim, must not go down there,' Rev glanced at Trance, and his anger rose as she just smiled at him with menace.

'So you still want them to go down there?' Roseby checked.

'We have no choice.'


They came to a stop and Harper was roughly pulled back as Hertzler spoke to one of his commanding officers. The stone streets were once again silent, reminding Harper of his first time in Edenia, it had been hell then and it was now hell again only with added Nietzscheans.

Hertzler walked over to Harper and grabbed his hair roughly, causing Harper to grimace. The leader took care to check Harper's reactions, moving his head sharply to observe the human. 'Your addiction?' he simply asked.

'No longer a problem,' Harper answered tiredly, his energy levels waning.

'My men did well,' Hertzler observed taking credit. 'I didn't think the pins would be so effective so soon.'

Harper didn't respond, knowing the pins hadn't been the reason he'd lost the addiction, but it rather being the work of the scary gold Trance. He found himself beginning to wish she'd appear again, and wondered why she was letting this happen to him.

Surely being in the hands of the ubers was not in her plans but then, Harper considered, it wasn't like he'd been able to successfully second guess her to this point so he guessed things were still going to her plan in her eyes. Harper suddenly blinked his eyes as they became heavy, the sun was rising and the heat of Edenia was rapidly returning, and Harper's head was feeling heavier as he battled to stay awake. Hertzler shook him hard and Harper jolted awake again.

'He looks pale,' Hertzler noted with little care more with irritation. 'Get him water, and some food, we need him awake and aware for when we get to the control room. Kludges are so weak, it's a surprise they even survive at all,' he complained with disgust.

'Sir,' the soldier holding Harper spoke up. 'He's injured sir; he's losing blood.'

'What?' Hertzler questioned and Harper found himself roughly turned around and pushed down to his knees, attention now on the small knife wound in his back, that still seeped blood. 'Who did this? When did this happen?' Hertzler demanded, and when no one answered he kicked Harper hard enough so the human fell to his side and lay on his back struggling for air.

'Ask him,' Harper offered gasping to reclaim his breath, as he stared at Asa.

'You stabbed him?' Hertzler checked unsure. 'I don't recall ordering that.' Asa stood strong and didn't flinch as Hertzler approached. 'You know we need him alive and well, unless you had other plans?' the Nietzschean frowned.

'I was trying to control him, to get him to listen to me,' Asa answered calmly.

'Or were you giving him a way out?' Hertzler offered, testing the Edenian leader. 'We know you care about this kludge, like a son I hear, it must pain you to see him like this, as a traitor who needs to serve punishment for his crimes.'

'No,' Asa remained defiant. 'It was self defence, you didn't see what happened; he tried to kill me.'

Hertzler smirked and turned back to Harper. 'This is why you should never trust a kludge, Asa, they are animals and they always bite the hand that feeds them, we know this only too well,' Hertzler grabbed Harper's thin shirt and pulled him up abruptly, and Harper struggled to get his balance until the closest soldier secured him. 'It was a joyous day when his poor excuse of a planet was finally destroyed,' Hertzler goaded and stepped back with amusement as he watched Harper's angry reaction to his words. 'And now he's trying to destroy your planet, Asa, not content with the part he played in his own planet's destruction.'

'What?' Asa questioned taken by surprise.

'Lies!' Harper screamed, working himself up as he listened to the words Hertzler spoke. 'I had nothing to do with it!'

'The Andromeda, the ship on which this kludge found himself by some weird deranged luck, it was on the front line, and it had the means and the power to talk to the universes biggest threat,' Hertzler declared with pomp. 'He was right there when the planet was destroyed, Asa, and he watched it right before his eyes isn't that right, kludge?' Hertzler goaded, grabbing Harper's face firmly to ensure he had the human's full attention.

'I was there,' Harper admitted with venom. 'But I didn't cause it, I had nothing to do with Earth's destruction,' he spoke clearly and with conviction.

Hertzler spun around, having pushed Harper back. 'Who do you believe?' he simply asked of Asa.

'Sir, we've pushed the Commonwealth back enough to get their attention,' a soldier announced.

'Let's get their attention then,' Hertzler beamed and he aimed a smile at Harper that sent shivers down the engineer's spine. 'You,' he pointed to Asa. 'Is that the building that hides the control room?'

Asa stepped forward, seeing the square up ahead and the front line that had advanced forward. 'That's the building,' he simply answered.

'Ok, let's go,' Hertzler ordered.

--

TBC