Title: Egg Whisk

Chapter 6

By: X

X0832001@yahoo.com

Discliamer: I own nothing and am getting no money

They followed Harper's zig zagging directions, Dylan though he knew his ship.  But by the time they came down the ladder directly across from the Gym he was convinced Harper had added decks while he wasn't paying attention.  Beka nodded her goodbyes and slipped away.  Dylan wondered what she was up to but really did not have the time to figure it out.  Beka was as big girl, capable of taking care of herself.  He just hoped she wasn't off to skin the Elmarins for what they'd done to Harper.

Dylan strode all the way to his office.  Beka was sitting at his desk, looking at his computer screen.  "Uhm, what are you doing?  There are other places to access Andromeda's database."

            "But not your mail"

            "What!  You can't read my mail, it's privacy protected!"

            "Yes I can, I have Harper, there is little that kid can't do when it comes to Andromeda."

            "My research makes me agree with you.  I assume you've read the test results, he's a genius."

            "From what I've seen him do in the years he's been with me, I'm not too surprised."

            "So, how's he holding up?  You've left him alone?"

            "He's a big boy Dylan.  He hates being fawned over."

            "So he's OK to be alone?"

            "I don't know; I made Rommie come up with some malfunction for them both to putter over."  She paused.  "I didn't want to leave him alone either."

            "Any insights?"

            "Does anyone else find it odd that we are transporting these people to Rhinus, a tiny little planet that just happened to be where one of the other Elmarin prisoners was from?

            "What?"

            "Lourna was from Rhinus."

            "That is a little weird"

            All was well on Andromeda once more.  Everyone was in their place and everyone's place was away from the place of everyone who wanted them dead.  Harper considered this as he walked an out of the way corridor towards his favorite machine shop.  Even with the new crew, and everything that had happened, his machine shop was the same.  It was comforting it was still his and his alone. 

            Harper could feel eyes on him. He was very good at knowing when someone was tailing him.  He bent down to tie an already tied boot.  The littlest Billisite past him, a pathetic attempt to make it appear he wasn't following Harper.  But at the end of the hall he didn't know what to do and turned around he smirked.

            "I seem to have gotten a little turned around.  How to I get back to our quarters?"

            It was possible the kid actually had gotten lost, that he was following the engineer hoping to be led back to a familiar area.  "Oh, no problem.  Go back the way you came, at the third junction make a left.  You're the sixth door on the right."  Of course Harper didn't buy that.  He was probably just paranoid; these people had no reason to hate him.  They shouldn't even know who he was, maybe if they did he'd understand.  After all, they couldn't be too pleased Harper had helped win the war against them. 

            "Thank you Mr. Harper" with that the young man headed off in the other direction.  Deep in his bones he knew something was wrong.  How had the kid had known his name?

            Instead of going to the machine shop Harper went to Dylan.  The captain surely could do something.  He found the Captain still in his office.  "Dylan, I think the Billisites are up to something."

            "You mean the Elmarins"

            "No, I mean the Billisites.  I'm real good at identifying the Elmarins." sneered the little blond.

            "What are the Billisites doing then?"

            "I don't know just yet.  They're following me."

            Dylan sighed softly.  The stress of the whole crazy situation was making the engineer paranoid.  Not that Dylan could blame him, the situation a\was simply unreal.    Harper had been through so much it was logical he'd expect more to come his way.

            "We'll keep an eye on them' just take it easy Mr. Harper."

            Harper could tell the captain didn't believe him.  Oh well, "Thanks Dylan" and he walked out of the office towards his machine shop.  This was something he was going to take care of.

            He sat on the floor of the Machine Shop building, the door sealed.  Some people probably had a voice in their head that would tell them they were just being paranoid, to calm down.  Harper didn't have a voice like that.  Maybe after a little while on Andromeda he'd developed a voice that said they're after Andromeda, the mission, Dylan, not you personally but even that voice had been silenced.  Ever since the Elmarins had locked him away, kept him starving and beaten, he wasn't taking chances.  This wasn't paranoia, this was survival. 

            He held up his work.  It was an enemy scrambler 3000; a Harper original.  It utilized the conductivity of a metal egg whisk he had long ago pilfered from the galley to produce thermal energy.  This came about thanks to conversion of kinetic energy, supplied by it rotation due to a few modifications he'd made.  It kind of looked like a glowing red bulky egg whisk on a meter stick.  But to its creator the Enemy Scrambler 3000 had some pretty decent potential.  No one was doing anything to him. 

            He knew they'd already created feedback loops in Andromeda's sensors.  That's why weapon construction hadn't even gained a bat of an eye from Rommie.  If she had seen him sitting in the middle of t he floor, playing with weapon parts, she would have at least asked what he was up to.  Harper had not been too into weapon tinkering since he'd gotten back. 

            If he called for help, they'd know that he was on to them.  If he entered the computer to try and get Rommie a message, they'd know.  If the Billisites knew that he knew, it would only bring on their attack, and he'd lose the element of surprise.  The element of surprise had always served Harper amazingly well.

            He was going to fight his way out of this one.  There was absolutely no way he was going to wind up yet another group's little plaything.  Too many times in his life had he been reduced to a sad, dirty, little wretch.  It was not happening today.  Seamus Z. Harper was nobody's tool.  Another group was not going to use his until they had what they wanted and then throw him away to wait for the next group to show up. 

            That's why the Elmarins hadn't killed him before.  He'd heard them marching down the halls, ripping open doors, weapons fire and strangled moans of death..  He'd seen them in his window, seen them walk past.  The Elmarins thought they might want him for their next little war.  They thought his brain might still be worth something.  The bastards were just so simple, kept them color coded so you just had to walk down the hall and kill everyone who wouldn't be a part of the next plan.  They were going to rue the day they tried to outsmart a genius.

The 4 Billisites watched Harper stroll down the hall outside of their guest quarters.  They'd studied the pictures, they knew it was him.  He was Seamus Harper, the Andromeda's engineer who'd been enslaved by the evil Elmarins.  He'd planned attacks that won the war.  He was alone, oblivious to the danger the Billisites posed to him.  Mihir glanced back at their resident computer hacker, Tamin. 

            "How's it coming Tamin?  The ship still watching?"

            "yeah…uhm..no…all internal sensors are down now."

            "Then we move" The Billisites moved into the hall and crept after Harper. 

            Of coarse Harper heard the sound of approaching footsteps.  It was a survival trait formed long ago and had only gotten stronger after this latest abduction. 

He whirled and found the entire group of Billisites standing behind him.  He looked back at the group that had surrounded him.  "Oh, hey guys.  Everything Ok here, need more blankets or little shampoos?" he knew it was going down now.

            "Oh everything is fine" supplied Mihir, stepping ahead of the others.  "We were actually looking for you Mr. Harper.  We've heard about your work in the past and have an offer for you."

            "Look, I didn't want to be there.  The Elmarins forced me to work for them, kept me battered and half dead.  I'm sorry about your people, really, but, it wasn't my fault!"

            "You misunderstand us Mr. Harper.  We know about your skills and how you helped the Elmarins, we want you to help us now."

            "Sorry, I'm out of the war business. I just work on Rommie now, she keeps me busy."  Harper looked up, addressing the unseen force that was the ship, "Don't ya darling?"

            "The ship cannot hear you.  It cannot see you either.  We've blinded her internal sensors without her noticing.  A feedback loop is making her believe everything is just fine.  No one knows where you are."

            "Ah…Ok, this isn't just a friendly job offer is it?"

            "You are a smart one Mr. Harper.  You really don't get much of a choice in the matter.  You'll be helping us."