Storms
By: X
X0832001@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I own nothing, I am getting no money for any of this. Just the way I choose to spend my free time.
Rated: PG-13 (a little bit of cursing)
Summary: Beka, Dylan and Harper spend some time on a planet. As one would expect, things don't stay real peachy keen.
Tyr growled as he paced the command deck. He did not like this. Dylan had not contacted the ship. Captain Valentine had not checked in and the little professor hadn't even requested a status report on Andromeda's systems as he was prone to do. This worried the Neitzchien. Well, not exactly worried; Neitzchiens did not worry about humans. Still, the security officer was interested in knowing what was going on with his shipmates. Trance strolled onto the deck, her gold skin shining in the dim light.
"Tyr, any word yet?"
"No" he grumbled. The mysterious alien frowned.
"Something is wrong."
"Is that one of your predictions?"
"Dose it matter? You feel it too, something isn't right. Call Dylan." Tyr paced and shook his head. It would be viewed as a sign we don't trust the Ichbeins. It may ruin the negotiations. We will wait for him to contact us." Trance frowned. "Ship, enhance sensor readings. I want to know where they are."
The transparent image of Andromeda's hologram appeared before Tyr and Trance. Dylan is in the palace- presumably in the negotiations. Beka is nearby in a large building filled with ships. Harper is several miles away, apart from any city or settlement." This did not ease Tyr's mind.
"Their life signs?"
"Fine, though Harper appears to be in one of his trances. Respiration and heart rate both greatly reduced." Andromeda tilted her head to one side a little as she analyzed some more incoming data. "Reduced more than usual actually"
"Keep a close watch on all of them."
Tyr resumed his pacing, his mind filled with what his course of action should be. He did not like being this much in the dark. He wanted to know what was going on. "Can you contact the little professor?" Andromeda shook her holographic head.
"I tried. He isn't responding."
"Damn" muttered the Neitzchien. "I never thought I would want to hear his senseless babble." He had a bad feeling about this situation. He agreed with Trance, something didn't feel right. His pacing feet carried him to Hunt's chair and he plunked himself down. "Contact Dylan."
Dylan Hunt appeared on the screen moments later. "Uh, hey Tyr" he said nervously. Tyr could hear the Captain's pounding heart. The human was trying to be covert. Trying and doing a poor job in Tyr's opinion.
"Is everything alright captain? Our readings indicate Harper and Beka aren't with you."
"Oh, yeah, they're around here somewhere. I can't really be bothered looking for them. I'm sure the Ichbeins won't let anything happen to them during these negotiations." Tyr understood clearly now. They were hostages. "So just stay calm and I'll see you back on Andromeda. Dylan out."
Tyr hated waiting. He would like to blow a large chunk out of the Ichbein home world. But, since Dylan had the Maru he had no way of getting Beka or Harper back himself. Not that he planed to just let things play out easily for these aliens. He would take that chunk out the minute he learned his friends had been harmed. Like the rest of his species, Tyr was a little overprotective of his group. He'd let Hunt do his talking, try for a peaceful end to this. But, make no mistake, if the kluge's life signs began to falter, or Beka popped off the sensor map; weapon fire would commence.
As they worked out a plan Beka realized exactly how intangible Harper was. He explained he was actually miles away in a rain saturated field. His consciousness was actually still trapped in that immobile shell, his brain wasn't in her earphone as she had thought. An earphone wasn't nearly complex enough to hold all that information. Andromeda could, but she was a supercomputer. So Harper was using the earphone as a relay, but still trapped and unable to operate his own body while he was connected to Beka. In fact he knew Andromeda had tried to contact him, he simply had no way to answer them. He really needed call waiting. All this meant he really couldn't do much more than plan Beka's escape and hope she found him before he froze to death. When it came to the actual running Beka was going to be on her own.
When the plan came together it really was simple. They had just fixed a ship. Simply use the ship to get back to Andromeda. Once on their ship Beka could use Andromeda's sensors to find out where on the planet Harper was and they could alert Dylan to go find the boy. The only kink was getting past the security. The Ichbeins really didn't make a habit of letting their hostages come and go as they pleased. They did let them work on their ships though. The plan was to take a test drive, and just not come back. It was risky. Beka's captors would know she was leaving, and be watching. Harper was pretty sure by the time they realized something wasn't right it would be too late. Beka hoped he was right.
Captain Valentine strode up to her supervisor. "I need to take a test flight in the AS-400." Harper had figured from her description that was the ship they were dealing with.
"I'll do it. You stay here missy." Beka processed that kink in the plan. She'd talk her way out of it, it worked for years before and it would work now.
"No problem. I mean with all the time I've spent on Andromeda I'm a little rusty with this type of ship. I mean the technology isn't even compatible. Positive ion flow, negative, I'm pretty sure I got it right but I'd hate to be the pilot if it blew. Thanks for being the guinea pig man." She smiled and turned back to her work station.
"Uh, maybe you should go. If something goes wrong you'll have a better idea of what to do."
"As you wish sir. I'm sure it'll be fine." Beka couldn't repress her smile. The big idiot was giving the OK for her escape. His superiors were going to be pissed about this one.
Beka strapped herself into the seat. Harper was in her ear again. "We ready boss?"
"Sure kid, we can give it a go. What do we have to lose? Just our lives."
"Exactly. Well, your life anyway. Some beautiful Wilderness woman could still wander by and make me her love slave."
"Hold your breath on that one Seamus." She let her fingers key in the complex operation code and felt the shift as the little ship accelerated along the ground. "You better have given good instructions Harper!" She commanded as the ship took to the air. Beka directed the ship up towards the atmosphere and was just breaking through when the prison people finally realized their mistake.
The Ichbeins did send a few ships after the fleeing human, but they knew they were too late. As soon as Beka had escaped the dampening affects of the atmosphere she had called Tyr. The Neitzchien was quick to defend her and it was only minutes before Beka was safely on board the Andromeda again.
Tyr looked at Captain Valentine. She looked more than a little worse for wear. Her posture was stooped, her eyes betrayed her fatigue. A bruise marred her lovely completion. "We have to get Harper" she explained urgently. "Tell Dylan we are safe and that he needs to pick up Harper."
"Andromeda, scan the planet for him." Beka demanded. Turning to the Neitzchien she explained. He stopped talking right after I took off, something may be wrong."
"Northern continent coordinates 204.17.126, he's alone- no guards. I am alerting Dylan." Andromeda supplied
"Good. Now we will visit the med deck Captain Valentine."
"I'm fine; we need to get Harper back first."
"Captain, passing out is not going to get the boy back here any faster. Dylan is down there, he has the Maru and he will bring the little professor back here. As I have already accepted in our situation there is no way to help. We just have to wait."
Dylan Hunt sat in the Ichbein conference room, holding firm to his standards as best he could. The aliens' threats against his crew members kept him negotiating. "You must provide SOME military support to the new Commonwealth"
"Captain, I think you need to be a little more flexible. Think of your crewmen." Dylan grumbled to himself. "Your ship is contacting you again. Please tell them to stop." Andromeda appeared on a small screen in front of him. Dylan smiled at the news she provided.
"When you learn how to conduct negotiations, let me know." With that, Dylan pushed back from the table and walked out of the room.
The Maru touched down in a field. These were the cooridinates Andromeda had provided. Out here in the middle of nowhere was where Harper was supposed to be. Hunt rushed from the ship and began surveying the field for his engineer. He saw some of the tall grass out of alignment and hurrired towards what he saw. He was correct, the grass was being held down by the prone body of Harper.
Harper's skin was gray and cold. As Dylan pulled the limp body to his feet he could feel the younger man was drenched. Hunt had no illusions that Harper had been spared hypothermia. Rain was pouring all around him and wind blew strongly. His engineer was past the point of shivering. That caused fear to grow in the captain. Notes from his survival training class back at the academy came rushing back into his head like a tidal wave. This was an emergency situation. Hunt carried his little handy man to the waiting Maru. He hoped they weren't too late.
When the Maru docked Trance was the first on board and was already unstraping her friend by the time Beka pushed her way on board. "Will he be OK?" she asked urgently.
"Hypothermia, but nothing broken. He'll recover." He was still eerily still. Trance unplugged the connector from Harper's port. He responded by moaning and moving his neck ever so slowly. "You back with us?" she asked him.
"Beka…Ok?" he stuttered as shivers took hold of his weakened body.
"Fine Seamus" Beka stepped closer and waved at him a little. Trance wrapped Harper in blanket after blanket.
"The...bastard...got...your...your…pretty face."
"Yeah"
"They always g-g-get us beautiful p-p-p-people."
"The bastards" Beka smiled at her friend
"The b-b-bastards" he agreed
"We need to get you out of those wet clothes immediately Trance ordered, bearing most of his weight as she led him down to med deck.
They were both a little weather beaten, but it looked like things had cleared up pretty well.