"In less than a hundred years, we have found a new way to think of ourselves. From sitting at the center of the universe, we now find ourselves orbiting an average-sized sun, which is just one of millions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. And our galaxy itself is just one of billions of galaxies, in a universe that is infinite and expanding. But this is far from the end of a long history of inquiry. Huge questions remain to be answered, before we can hope to have a complete picture of the universe we live in."

--Stephen Hawking, 20th Century scientist


Broken Mirror

"We've got a problem here." Harper muttered as he looked at the mass of tangled wires hanging out of the panel like a gutted fish. Beka walked in, carrying a large tool.

"I should say so. The damage is still horrendous, even if we've been working for a week." She said, shaking her head. She sighed. "I'm going to go down to the planet, see what supplies we can get."

"Well, it'll take a day or two to get everything back inside their proper places again. And then we're going to have to power it back up" Harper frowned. "I hope nothing explodes…" He trailed off as Rommie entered.

"The sensors are back online." She said. "Diagnostics show that the only thing still malfunctioning is the navigational controls. And even that is minor."

Harper grinned. "Good to know, Rommie. We'll be out and about sooner than I thought."

Dylan walked in, and stumbled over one of Harper's tools. His hand shot out and he held onto the side of a cart for support. As he straightened up, he looked at the large array of equipment surrounding Harper.

"What are you doing, running inventory?" He asked.

Harper shrugged. "Could be. Anyhow, Rommie has informed me of our impending departure." He said.

"Yes, we should be on our way by tomorrow." Dylan said. "I just came in to ask if you've seen Trance."

"I think she's around the commerce planet with Beka." He said.

Dylan nodded. "Thanks." He turned to leave, but stopped just shy of the door, which swished opened immediately. "Harper?"

The young man looked up from inspecting one of his apparatus. "Yeah?"

"I know you use the 'every pot in the house' method to fixing things, but try to clean up." He said.

Harper grinned and saluted. "Will do, Cap."



The Next Day

Harper hopped into his seat on board the Andromeda Ascendant's command bridge. He pressed a few buttons on a pad he had in his hand and grinned.

"She's new and improved, ladies and gentlemen, I present…. the Andromeda Ascendant!"

Tyr rolled his eyes as Dylan smiled and shook his head.

"Powering up." He said and the Andromeda hummed to life.

"Remus III, this is the Andromeda Ascendant, leaving docking bay." Beka said to the commerce planet.

"Andromeda, this is Remus III wishing you a safe journey." A humanoid voice responded.

"Nice folks. Too bad I didn't have the time to go visit." Harper said, shifting in his seat.

As soon as they had left the colony, things settled down to a quieter pace. Tyr began his exercise in his quarters while Beka checked the supplies they had got on the planet.

Trance and Rev were in Sickbay as usual, while Dylan had decided to play chess with Rommie, even though she tended to beat him everytime. left Harper to wander.

"This is a first. No projects." He muttered. He suddenly felt very sad. And very bored.

As he walked through the ship, heading towards his own personal corner, Engineering, he tried to muster something to do. There was nothing to fix, he'd done that for the past week since the ship scraped against an asteroid. And besides, he just got off from fixing the ship; he didn't want to get back to it just yet.

He wandered through Andromeda, examining the walls, making sure nothing was sticking out. As he did so, he heard a clanking sound. He stopped and backed up to make sure he wasn't making the noise. There was none of the usual din that accompanied him when he had his tool belt.

The noise resumed. Harper frowned and walked to the wall. He leaned closer and tried to locate the noise.

Beka left the cargo bay and decided to get some lunch. She walked through the hallways, her eyes steering over the cool interior. She passed Harper, who seemed to be in deep thought.

"Hey Harper."

The engineer kept walking past her. Beka shrugged and cast a suspicious eye towards him. "Okay, bye then."

She turned around and resumed walking. As she rounded the corner, she ran straight into-

"Harper?"

The young man looked up. "Huh?"

For a second, Beka thought Harper's ear was glued to the wall. He was standing next to the ship, the side of his head close to the hull.

"What are you doing?" She asked. and then her expression changed. She was confused beyond measure. "And didn't I just see you walking down the hallway?"

Harper temporarily focused his orbs on her. "What? No, I was here. I heard something, thought it was some-yeah." He closed his mouth and they stood for a second in silence.

Beka was the first to break the silence. "Anyways, I swear I just saw you…"

Harper shook his head. "I was here for a while."

Beka shook her head and started to walk on. "I must be coming down with something." She muttered.

As her back disappeared, Harper peered around the corner to make sure she was gone. When she was, he crept back to the wall and put his ear to it again.