Rating: PG13

The Truth of Good and Evil by Katia

PART TWO

"How dare you kill them!" shouted Trance. "They were powerless
against you. You are evil!"

The Nietzscheans turned suddenly, weapons drawn. However, on seeing
what confronted them, they relaxed and one went over and pulled Trance
and Harper out of the bushes. One young, human male, and an
unimpressive one at that. And, some rather purple thing. Both small.
Both unarmed.

"Yes," replied the female Nietzschean, "and evil is not a bad thing."

Harper and the female Nietzschean eyed each other up and down, while
Trance boiled over with silent anger or whatever it was that her kind felt
in these situations.

The Nietzschean woman was well over six feet tall, and her sleeveless
shirt revealed rippling biceps. Her strong jaw was softened slightly by
her full, voluptuous lips and piercing brown eyes. Harper felt that she
could see straight through him...well, straight through his clothes at least.
Nevertheless, he was glad it was him that she was staring at, not Trance.
He could not let her hurt Trance.

The fact that she really could hurt Trance, and that there was little he
could do about it, was the only power that he felt she had over him. He
had been here before, with men, with women. But he knew he must not
let the memories beat him now. There was nothing new that they could
do to him. Apart from finish it all.

Still, he felt numb, apart from what he felt for Trance. A voice screamed
inside of him. "Just get her out of here! She is your only weakness."

***

"Damn it! None of these godforsaken little objects have seen Trance or
Harper since they left the village last night. Anything could have
happened to them." Beka turned to Tyr. "How the hell could you let
them go off like that?"

"It was not my responsibility to protect them" He replied.

"Yeah? Then whose was it? Dylan, Rev and I were wasting our time in
there with these mindless...things, you had nothing else to do."

Tyr shrugged. "I had to get out of here. These ephemeral beings," he
said motioning at a couple of passing Llanyi with a dismissive gesture
"grate on my nerves."

"Yeah? They have that effect on the rest of us too, OK?" replied Beka,
aggressively.

"And I brought back valuable information about the intruders I
observed." said Tyr, in a grave monotone.

"Mmmmm. Yes. Information that could mean that Trance and Harper
have been captured, tortured, or even killed. Look, I can't stand around
here waiting for Dylan and Rev to stop talking any longer, knowing those
two are out there alone with a group of marauding Nietzscheans intent on
destroying the atmosphere and mass destruction of life. Are you coming
with me?"

"They're not alone. They're together. They can look after each other."

"Trance and Harper? You kidding?"

Tyr said nothing but followed Beka towards the countryside in the
direction that the Llanyi said the others had gone. They hadn't gone far
when Dylan came running after them, calling them back.

"The Llanyi say that Tyr's news about the Nietzscheans, what he saw and
heard about the heltovanradium, changes nothing. They will not
negotiate."

"They drive me insane!" said Beka. "They still expect us to protect them,
right?"

"They never said they did. They still say they are powerless to prevent us
protecting them or killing them."

"Forget them!" said Beka hastily. "Just forget it. Look, two of my crew
are lost out there, they need us. I'm not wasting any more time with these
goddam Llanyi"

"Right." said Dylan, "Let's split up and search properly. I need to speak
to Rev...and keep in contact with Rommie. She may be able to trace
something."

***

Three hours later they met back at the village. They'd found nothing.
There was no trace of Trance, Harper, or the Nietzscheans. Rev
approached them, looking concerned.

"I've been told on good authority, by one of the Llanyi, that the
Nietzcheans were seen leaving for their ship a short while back. They
had Harper with them. But there was no sign of Trance."

Beka looked wildly alarmed. "Oh, God, if they've laid a finger on her..."

"Calm down, she could have escaped and be fine. And at least we know
that Harper is alright," said Dylan.

"Or WAS alright," said Tyr gravely, "but now, they're no longer
together."

***

While still on the planet, The Female Nietzschean had observed Harper
with curiosity and took her time to assess the situation. She had
established that he and his little friend had arrived on the Commonwealth
ship, although she had not worked out what exactly they had been doing
creeping around in the bushes together. Anyway, that was irrelevant.
What should she do?

Although the Llanyi had probably let on to the new arrivals that she and
her crew were up to no good, she do not intend to allow these two, who
must have worked out her exact intentions, go free. She was going to go
back to her ship and wait until the good Captain Hunt, who she had been
told about, got tired of hitting his head against a brick wall trying to get to
the Llanyi to negotiate, and gave up. Then, she could carry on,
undisturbed.

However, while she came to this conclusion The Male Nietzscheans who
accompanied her, and tended the machinery, grew impatient.

"Look," said one, "we are following your instructions because we
believed you had a profitable plan. But, now I...no, we...tire of you. I
have several wives and children to get back to. We must dispose of the
prisoners and get on with this, or abandon the whole procedure."

The Female turned on him swiftly.

"No. We must wait. We cannot risk going ahead while Hunt and his
crew are on the planet."

"Fair enough," said another of The Males, "But, what should we do with
them?" Here he indicated at Trance and Harper, who were both
uncharacteristically quiet, due to the fact they had been told that if one
made a noise the other would be instantly killed.

The Female paused to think again. Of course, she did wonder if her two
little captives might be missed. Surely, they could not be valuable?
However, then again, even she could think of some uses for them...and
they boy had a cerebral-port in the side of his neck. Maybe he was even
of some practical use. This was a worry, but the Commonwealth captain
and his crew believed they were dead, surely they would not be worth
exacting revenge over? To risk valuable equipment over something so
pointless would be very weak.

At length she came to a decision. She motioned to three of her men.
"You, take the girl out into the wilderness. Do with her what you will."

"No!!!!!!!" Harper violently wrenched himself away from the fourth
Nietzschean who had been restraining him. He threw himself towards the
others as they reached for Trance, and kicked and pounded them with all the
ferocity of a hatred that is yielded only by those who have seen the violation, and destruction, of beings they love. The self becomes no longer
important.

Of course, it was futile. Harper was casually brushed away and the
Nietzscheans seemed somewhat amused by his predictable little outburst.
Trance said nothing. She just looked straight into Harper's eyes and he
stared straight back. They were both strangely calm. Words between
them were not necessary. It had all been said, although nothing had been
said at all.


***

Harper had fought all the way back to the ship, but not the Nietzscheans.
He just let them take him. He fought his feelings. He loved Trance.
Now she was dead, and it had probably been a horrible death. But then,
he'd loved his parents and his cousins. He'd had to watch them die
horribly. At least Trance had been given the one small dignity that he hadn't had to watch. His memory of her was not tainted.

Who was there left to live for? He thought of the others on the
Andromeda. They were not like Trance. They could take care of
themselves. They'd live without him. Then, for some strange reason, he
thought about Nietzsche, and what he'd read. Now he was angry. "Stop
thinking, stop feeling!" he shouted in his head. A strange sense of
numbness swept through him again. Trance was gone, there was nothing
more which could be taken from him. He did not care what happened to
him. The numbness was replaced by something even stranger. An odd
feeling surged right from his soul, fighting any feeling of grief or love.
He had no weaknesses, no fear. He was utterly defeated yet he felt
suddenly empowered.

They were now inside the ship. It was smaller than the Andromeda and
Harper figured it would not be too easy to disable if he could escape the
grip of his captors and investigate a little. He was strangely relieved to be
back on a ship, with its technology and hard, angular appearance. It was
an environment he could control, at least potentially, unlike the beautiful, untamed wildness of the planet. He was placed in a chair and his hands and feet
tied. Harper let out a cool, mirthless laugh.

"What's this? Scare you, do I? Well, I'm not surprised, y' know." He
looked over to The Female then at the one of The Males, who had
remained on the bridge with them while the others saw to tasks around
the ship. "You wouldn't want me to get my hands on your little woman
here, would you? I get these uncontrollable urges, sometimes. And,
there's no stopping me when I get going."

The Female seemed mildly irritated. She hoped to have some fun with
the human later, but for now, they had work to do. "Silence!"

"Oooh, touchy. Sorry! I forget how jumpy you girlies can get." Harper
paused. He was somewhat surprised nobody had hit him yet. He knew it
must be coming. But nobody moved.

"So who is really in charge here then?" he asked. I mean, it can't be
Madame Muscles here. I mean, what was it old Nietzchey-boy said, oh
yeah, "Man shall be trained for war and woman for the recreation of the
warrior. All else is folly." Harper spoke the words in a mocking voice.
"He really knew what he was talking about, huh?"

The Female slammed her fist down causing the equipment she was
working with to splinter and crack. Harper casually observed that it was
fortunate that it had not been his head. Well, kind of fortunate.

"Do you think we're so shallow and stupid to have not understood the
true essence and meaning of Nietzsche? By woman, he did not mean all
females. He means the weak, the inferior."

"You are NOT a woman then?"

"In that sense, no."

"OK, doll."

At this, The Female did hit him. Hard enough to stun him a little, but not
that hard. She was holding off. Something deep inside Harper knew
why, although the being that seemed to be thinking in there did not
appear to be a part of him.

"Kill him," said The Male. His voice sounded detached and vague.

The Female turned on The Male. "This is MY mission. Do not presume
to tell me what to do with him. Don't you see, that's what he wants."

The Male narrowed his eyes. "You feel what HE has said has undermined
your authority so much that you care whether he wants it or not? Maybe
he is right. Remember that I am here for profit alone. There is no other
reason I would listen to any instruction from a woman. Now you are
being irrational, so you must listen to me. He is worthless to us. Kill
him."

"How can anything he says undermine MY authority. I just do not
believe we need to kill him yet. He may be useful. For bargaining." said
The Female, her eyes wide with aggression, anger and something else, a
vague indefinable feeling that she was desperately trying to repress.

"If you will not kill him, I will." The Male stopped what he was doing,
took out a knife, and started towards Harper.

END OF PART TWO