Trance was preening one of her many plants in the Hydroponics Bay. Quietly humming a tune from a music disc Harper had given her. She was having a very good day. All her plants were thriving, they had just signed another planet to the Commonwealth Charter, and Dylan had given the entire crew a week off to celebrate and have some personal time.
Beka was had taken the Eureka Maru to a commerce planet to buy some new fuel cells. Rev had gone to a religious conference on Nerisa Prime. Tyr had gone on a scavenger hunt for some new weapon, there's a big surprise. Dylan had gone with Beka, and on the way he was going to drop her off on Teras Three where the inhabitants were supposed to be incredibly advanced agriculturists. He was going to see if he could get them to sign on with the Commonwealth.
Trance and Harper were the only member's of the crew that were still on board the Andromeda. Besides Andromeda herself.
"Hey Trance, what's up?" Harper asked as he walked into the Hydroponics Bay.
"Hey Harper." Trance glanced at him before snipping the leaves of one of the Buvasion water plants they had picked up on a commerce station a couple weeks back. 'He really is cute.' Trance thought as should looked at him. He had on his usual work pants and a white shirt. Well, it was a white shirt at one point. Now it was covered in grease from Andromeda's engine and slipstream drive.
' He really does have a great body. His chest has muscle but not to much, like those guys she had seen on those muscle shows. And his arms are nice and toned. His lips are....no, Trance you will not go there! He just thinks of you as a naive kid.' Trance had often wondered what it would be like to kiss him. To look into his wonderful blue eyes and.....
"Trance...hey Trance!" Harper yelled and snapped her back into reality. "Hey did you hear what I said?"
"I'm sorry. I...I was just thinking about something. What were you saying?" Trance was trying very hard not to blush.
"Dylan wants us to pick him up in about two days. He thinks he might be able to get the people on Teras Three to sign the Charter."
"That's great." How long will take us to get their." Trance asked, wanting to here Harper talk some more. 'When had this happened? Harper and the others knew almost nothing about her. She had promised herself that she wouldn't put them through that, it was too dangerous. But lately she had found that she was falling for Harper's sarcastic attitude and cocky way of presenting himself.
"About a day from our current position. So I was thinking. There's a commerce station about an hour from here where we can hang out until we have to leave. What do you think"
"Sounds great, let's go."
"What?!" Harper sounded shocked, but a cocky smile was playing on his face. "You, Trance Gemini, are going to listen to one of my suggestions?"
It was then that holo-Rommie appeared next to Trance in the Hydro. Bay. "Harper, I should remind you that the system you are about to enter is primarily run by the Parilet's."
Harper and Trance looked at her and obviously didn't make the connection. So holo-Rommie rolled her eyes and explained. "The Parilet's were not the best of friends with the Commonwealth. In fact, when the war with the Nietzschean first started they aligned themselves with the Nietzscheans."
"Hate to break it to you Rommie, but that was three hundred years ago, no one holds a grudge that long" Harper said in his usual sarcastic tone.
"Very well, but don't say I didn't warn you. They are not going to like that we are here. And for reference, I don't like this."
"It's OK Andromeda. If they don't want us there, we'll leave, it's that simple," Trance flashed one of her, "don't worry, you can trust me smiles," if Rommie had had a real heart it would have melted.
Rommie then turned her attention to something that neither Trance nor Harper could her.
"I've got an incoming transmission from a ship about 20 metras away."
************************************************************************
Harper and Trance went to the bridge to see what the ship that Rommie had detected wanted.
"We're being hailed."
"On......" Harper had started to say 'on screen' but was stopped by Trance putting a hand on his fore arm. One look into her eyes and Harper knew something was up. He didn't know much about Trance's past, but he knew enough to know that she had good intuitions about some things. And the look that was in her eye's right now showed pure and utter terror.
She only managed to squeak out the word, "danger.." before both she and Harper were thrown across the command deck of the Andromeda and rammed into one of her aft walls.
"Rommie what happened?" Harper yelled
"That ship fired on us! It was some sort of energy beam, all of my systems are down. I have hull breaches on decks six, eleven and seventeen."
"Can you seal them?!"
"Already done."
Then Harper saw Trance lying on the floor. "Rommie get one of the nano-bots up here with a gurney now!!!!!"
"I've already ordered 3 to bring to portable gurney to command, but Harper........"
"What!"
"I'm not reading any brain activity. I don't know what that pulse, or whatever it was did, but Trance is hurt very badly."
Harper's head was racing. 'She couldn't die....she just couldn't. Trance was always the one who was always on his side. She was his best friend. She was the only one who would put up with his constant whining and egotism. He loved her.......oh shit! where did that come from.' Harper thought
'But it's true, and you know it.' His mind betrayed his carefully orchestrated screne of denial.
He couldn't lose her now, he needed her.
************************************************************************
"Andromeda, set a course for the planet Dylan's on, we're picking him up early."
"I already did. We should be there in about six hours."
Andromeda's nano-bots had taken Trance's unconscious body to the Medical Bay and Rommie had been running scans on her for the past 20 minutes.
It had been the longest 20 minutes of his life.
Then Rommie appeared in the Med. Bay door. "Harper........I can't get a brain pattern from Trance...essentially she's alive.....but all that's keeping her alive is life support. The computer's have taken up all her brain's function's. She's dead Harper."
Harper's world began to spin as the shock of what Rommie had said sunk in. 'Dead, she couldn't be dead, she survived when Gerentex shot her, she could survive this! It was just an energy pulse for crying out loud. It hadn't affected him, there was no reason for it to affect her.'
But then again, they knew next to nothing about Trance's physiology. And every time they asked her about it she would either avoid the question or give them such a vague answer they had no idea what she had actually answered the question or not.
"Harper, your adrenaline levels are getting unusually high. I think you should sit down."
But it was too late, Harper's world spun faster and faster until he collapsed on the ground.
************************************************************************
Harper found himself in a mist, on a planet he had never seen. (and there weren't many of those)
He looked around taking in his surrounding's. 'Where was he? What had happened?'
And then everything slowly returned to him. Trance, the ship, she was dead.
"Oh God." Harper slowly collapsed to his knees. Allowing himself to cry for the first time since he had heard the news from Rommie.
He sunk into the ground, head between his knees and sobbed. He could have gone on like that for hours. But then he heard the sweet sound of a familiar voice behind him.
"Harper, don't cry."
Trance? No, it couldn't be, she was dead. But the voice sounded so much like her, and his heart wrenched in his stomach in remembrance. Harper got up and turned to see the person who was standing behind him.
It was Trance. Harper's stomach was in his throat as he managed to say, "You're.....you're dead."
Trance smiled at him. She has such a beautiful smile, but he would never get to see it again. She was dead..gone. He had promised himself when his family had died during the last Magog raid of Earth that he would never let anyone get close to him again. But Trance had broken through all the barriers he had put up. And now he had lost her too. Just like he had lost everyone else he had ever cared about
"I came to say goodbye Harper," tears were streaming down her face, if only she had told him what she was. He would have known to turn the ship around the second she had saw it. She had to explain this to him.
" I knew when I left home that they would come after her. What had I been thinking, I knew I was putting her friends on the Andromeda in danger just by being here."
"But when I came to this part of the Universe I hadn't expected to find true friends like Beka, Rev, Dylan, and Andromeda." Trance stifled a small laugh and continued.
"Even mean old Tyr. But never, in my wildest dreams, had I expected to fall in love."
Harper listened to this girl standing in front of him. She looked like Trance, walked like her, talked like her. But it couldn't be her, she was dead.
Harper was so caught up is his own train of thoughts, that at first it didn't register with her was she had said.
"Love....?"
She looked at him with her bright brown eyes, Trance's, bright brown eyes. This was Trance...his Trance!
Harper never broke eye contact with her as he leaned in and kissed her. The hairs on the back of Harper's neck stood on end. But Trance didn't object as he deepened the kiss, caressing the hidden corners of her mouth with his tongue. She tasted sweet, like honey, but then he felt an electric shock go through him and.....
************************************************************************
Flash:
All of the sudden Harper was in a room decorated in purple decor. And on the floor huddled in a cornering wimpering was a sparkly purple alien.
Trance! Harper thought. But it wasn't Trance, not her right now anyway, it was a younger version, a completely innocent version, a scared out of her wits version.
She had her knees pulled up under her chin and her tail wrapped around her waiste, and she was shaking in fear.
That was when the younger Trance spoke up in a pleading voice that made Harper cringe, "Daddy please don't, I'm really sorry, I'll never run away again, I swear!"
Then Harper noticed another person in the room. He was obviously one on Trance's race because he had the same purple complexion and tail, but he was atleast 3 times bigger than the younger Trance. He had in his hand a large, silver cylinder. Just looking at it sent shivers down Harper's spine. Then his suspicions about the device were confirmed when the man started walking toward her.
"You will pay for your in subordination child! You will not dishonor me again!"
"Please! Don't!" the younger Trance screamed in terror.
Harper turned away as he heard the blows hit the innocent child. He wanted to attack this man and beat the preverbal crap out of him with everything he had for daring to hurt such an innocent child, for hurting Trance! But they did not seem to realize he was there and Harper doubted that he could even touch them.
Flash:
************************************************************************
And then in was gone. Harper stopped kissing Trance and looked at her, tears were beginning to form on in her beautiful brown eyes.
"Trance......what was that....who was that?" Harper asked, forgetting about the fact that she was dead.
Trance looked up into Harper's eyes. She couldn't tell him. She just couldn't....she had fought so hard to keep her past out of her new life. To forget everything that had happened......but Harper had seen it, she couldn't hide in any longer.
"My people were rejected by other races because we could see the possibilities of the future. We had promised ourselves that we would never become involved with these races again."
"But I had heard the elders stories of distant galaxies and new races. And I wanted to see it. I had to see it. When I was about nine I stole a ship and tried to run. But the engine had a busted fuel drive, and I didn't get 30 metras away until the engine's gave out and my father's men found me. He was needless to say.....not happy......my father was a very important man on our world and me running away made him look bad so he........he...."
"He beat you." Harper answered seething, how could he, she was his daughter!
Trance nodded solemnly. She hated how Harper was looking at her right now, the pity she saw there. That's why she had never told anyone about herself, she didn't want the pity. But she was running out of time. She had to say her good-bye's before she lost control of Harper's dream.
"Harper, I didn't come here to ask for your pity. I came to say goodbye. I had to see you one more time and to tell you how I felt. The device that my people hit me with affect the neurological center of the brain. It sends the persons consciousness so for down into the brain that it can no longer make the other parts of the body functions. After about two hours the conscious has been pushed so far into the mind that it just disappears. Then the person dies."
Harper slowly shook his head. He would not loose her now. "No, I don't accept that, you said that the consciousness is still there, there has to be a way to bring it back to the surface."
Harper looked at Trance, pleading with his eyes. A glimmer of hope passed through her. She hoped he hadn't seen it, she would not risk Harper's life for her. The Andromeda needed him. The New Commonwealth needed him.
But he had seen it, he had seen her inner termoil. But he didn't know what she was fighting herself over.
"Trance......Trance what aren't you telling me?"
"It's too risky, I won't put you through that." Damn! Why did he have to be so damn stuborn! But she wouldn't, she couldn't, she would not be that selfish as to risk Harper's life.
Harper could see he was loosing her, if he didn't act soon he would loose her forever. He put his hand underneath her chin and forced her to look up at him. "Don't you think you're worth it. I mean, God Trance, you're the only person on the crew who will listen to my inscecent rambling, you're the only member of the crew who will let me brag about being Seamus Zelazny Harper "super genius"........God Trance, I love you. So, tell me what I have to do."
"Harper, the procedure......it intails the complete joining of too minds, they literally take a piece of each others souls. They have to be completely connected. It is almost impossible for a human and a member of my race to do that. Humans just don't have the mental or psychic abilities to do it. And even if we could somehow find a way to connect. No human has ever survived. Their brains always end up being fried before it can be finished."
"I don't care, It's worth the risk."
"No I'm not!" God! Why couldn't he just let go! These damn humans and their attachments to each other!
'But that's why you love him. He's not like anyone you've ever met. He's not anything like the males of your species, he's warm, emotional, they're cold and distant. Her mind forced her to confront feelings she had been hiding for so long.'
Harper had had enough. This girl was the most stubborn person he had ever met! It was like she thought she wasn't worthy, did she know how much she meant to everyone. Did she know how much she meant to him!
It suddenly clicked with Trance what Harper had said, "You...you love me?" she said in surprise.
"Well, yeah, of course, I would have thought you would have guessed that by now. Hell, you're my sparkly purple babe, my best friend, and so much more." Harper was slowly turning a bright crimson red. Trance knew he wasn't used to sharing his feelings, they were alike like that.
Suddenly Harper's eyes brightened, like they did when he got one of his ideas.
"Trance...you said that the people who were going through this thing had to be connected mentally, right?"
"Yeah...that's right." Trance answered, a quizzical look on her face. What was he up to now?
Harper cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes, pleading with her to listen to his idea. "Trance...I need you to fight for me...just a little bit longer, I refuse to loose you now."
"Harper....." "Trance no, I need you to trust me...promise me you'll fight."
"I promise, I will for as long as I can."
Harper leaned in and kissed her. That kiss held promises that Trance longed to come true, love, fear, hope, life were all tangled up in one perfect moment.
************************************************************************
Harper awoke to find Rommie hovering over him like a mother hen. Damn, my head hurts. Harper sat up, his head spinning. "Rommie, what happened?"
"You collapsed, I had to use some strong stimulants to wake you up."
"Trance?"
"She's still brain dead Harper, there has been no response to the stimuli. Sooner or later we're gonna have to take her off life support."
"No, no, I saw her. I talked to her."
"Harper you were only out for about 5 minutes, and she was unconscious the whole time, you imagined it."
Harper jumped off the bed in Med. Bay and headed for his workshop in engineering. Rommie following close behind him.
"Harper where are you going?" Rommie asked, getting slightly annoyed at the young crewman's refusal to accept death. She had cared about Trance as well, but she wasn't acting delirious, even though she couldn't act delirious if she had wanted to.
"I have to get the adapter for my cerebral implant that hooks me up to the Med. Bay equipment." Harper replied, frantically trying to get to his workplace.
"Harper she's gone, you can't bring her back."
That was it, that was the last straw, he knew Rommie was only being realistic, she didn't know what he knew. But he forgot all of that as he blew up in Rommie's face.
"Look! I don't have time for you cynical attitude! You don't know! You can't know! You're a machine! You'll never feel love! I love her Rommie, I'm not gonna loose her."
He knew he had hurt her. He knew he shouldn't have said the things he did. But he was too worried about how long Trance would be able to hold on. He would apologize later. He just hoped she'd forgive him.
************************************************************************
Once back in the Medical Bay, Harper set up all the things he would need to make the connection with the computer that was keeping Trance alive.
Rommie came up behind him, no longer arguing with his reasoning for fear of provoking another one of Harper's outbursts. "I'll be monitoring your heart and respiratory rates, if they drop I'm pulling you out."
Harper turned around glaring at Rommie, "No, you won't, I decide when I come out, not you."
Rommie shrank back, slowly nodding her head. "All right Harper."
Harper hooked himself up to the machines. 'Oh please God, I know you have never really liked me, which is evident by my past, but just this once, please, just this once, let things go right.'
Harper connected himself with the equipment and a bright light flashed in his eyes.
************************************************************************
"Trance.....Trance where are you." Harper wasn't quite sure where he was. It was getting harder and harder to see. Things were getting darker by the second.
Then he saw her.
She was lying on the ground, her head between her knees. She was dying.
He sat down next to her and out his arms around her back. "So tell me what I have to do."
Trance looked up, not quite believing what she was seeing. Leave it to Seamus Zelazny Harper to surpass all the odds and pull off what few had been able to do. But he could still die, she desperately wanted him to succeed, but the chances were so slim.....
"Put your hands under my head and open up your mind."
Harper complied and when his hands were in place she did the same to him.
Harper felt an electric shock go through him as her hands connected with the flesh on his neck. It was just a slight pain, a shock that extended to his toes. But Harper had a feeling it would grow.
Images started flying through Harper's head, an extremely young Trance climbing through trees, being chased by a group of men in uniforms. An older Trance in a soft lavender dress, looking at herself in a mirror. The Trance he had saw before, huddled in a corner trying to shield herself from the blows of her fathers weapon. A much older Trance meeting Beka for the first time, and beginning her new life on the Maru. And finally, Trance kissing him, less than a half an hour ago.
Trance was going through a similar experience, she saw Harper at about age 9, fixing the engine of a hover-board. A young teenage Harper watching his cousin being eaten alive by magogs eggs. An older Harper receiving his cerebral implant, all the while hitting on his nurse. The Harper she knew, dropping a large, metal object on a womans foot. Only to look up and see a blond haired woman who he would later know as Beka, and sign onto the Maru. And finally, the Harper she loved, kissing her. Making promises that would, in a kill the both of them.
Then it was over, and Harper and Trance were standing together, in a swirl of there own memories.
Tears were streaming down Trance's face, this was it, there was no turning back, he would know everything about her within a matter of second. Even if she had wanted to stop, she wouldn't have been able to. They were too connected, separating now would cause irreparable brain damage. It was up to him to keep his mind in tact.
A searing pain shot through both Trance and Harper. They screamed out in pain.
************************************************************************
Trance shot up off of her bed in the Medical Bay of the Andromeda. She could still feel the pain of the connection in her chest. "Oh my God!" Trance was breathing heavily trying to take in more air then her lungs would let her."
"Trance....you're.....you're alive." Trance turned to see Rommie's avatar staring in disbelief.
"Harper...where's Harper?"
"He collapsed about the same time you woke up. I was going to bring him out of the link but he told be not to. I have a faint life sign, but it's not much."
Trance walked over to the spare bed in the medical bay, she ran her hand through his messy blond hair. "Come on Harper, I fought for you, now I need you to fight for me."
"Trance, your bodies been through massive shock, you should lie down and rest. Regain your strength." Rommie said from behind her.
"No, I want to stay with him."
"All right, but I have to go to the bridge and set a course through an asteroid belt we have come across. Atleast lie down."
"It's OK Rommie, I'll be fine while your gone. And I promise I'll lie down for a couple minutes."
"You're sure?"
"Yes, I"ll be fine."
Rommie walked out of the medical bay headed for the bridge, promising herself that later she would find out how Trance had gone from being brain dead to alive and kicking in a matter of seconds, and why Harper was now hanging on to life by a thread.
Back in the medical bay Trance was desperately trying to get Harper move, open his eyes, do something that would give her a sign that he was going to be OK. She long to hear one of his sarcastic remarks, make fun of her tail, or even call himself Seamus Zelazny Harper, super genius.
"Come on Harper, we need you. You're the only one who can fix Andromeda's slip stream drive as many times as it's broken. Tyr will blow a gasket if he's gonna have to do all the tech work here. And besides, we all know he's not that good at it anyway. He's better at blowing things up, not fixing them."
"Yeah, he'd probably end up doing more bad then good if he ever really tried to fix anything."
Trance looked up to see Harper on his side smiling one of his cocky grins at her. Trance nearly leaped out of her skin. Again. Jumping up and down she screaming.
"You're awake, you're awake, you're awake!" She ran over, wrapped her arms around him and never wanted to let go. But Harper snapped her back to reality.
"Ugh..... Trance? You're kinda strangling me here."
"Oh! Sorry Harper!"
"That's OK, I think I like you better a lot closer."
Harper grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto his lap. Then he kissed her passionately. All the emotions he had had bottled up inside him for who knows how long were let out in that kiss. He let his tongue do the preverbal tango with hers as he explored her mouth.
Trance had so many emotions going through her right now, she didn't know whether they were her's or Harper's. Something she had neglected to tell him was that the connection they had shared made it so that from now on they would be able to fell each other's emotions. They would have a certain empathy toward each other until either one, or both of them died.
An unknown emotions was growing inside Harper, and he didn't know where it was coming from. Fear, fear of losing something. Himself! He pulled away from Trance and looked into her eyes.
"Trance.....is there something you wanna tell me?"
"Ummm.....Harper....there's more to our connection then just memories. The procedure connects our souls as well. And there's a permanent side affect."
"Which is?" Trance looked down at her feet and started chewing on her lower lip.
"We will be able to feel one another's emotions from now on. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I was too worried that you'd even survive, and I sorta forgot. Do you hate me?"
The look in Trance's eyes melted any remnense of anger he could have had. Even though he probably wouldn't have had any anyway. "Course not babe, I could never hate you. This is permanent?"
"Yeah."
"I think I can live with that." Harper pulled Trance farther onto the small bed in the medical bay and straddled her between his knees. "How bout we see just how many emotions we can stir up."
Trance giggled, "I'm thinking that would be a good idea."
It was then that Harper fell off the small bed they were on. "Maybe we should move this to more.....comfortable surroundings." Harper said in a persuading voice.
"No objections here."
Trance smiled as she looked down at the young man who had fallen on his butt just seconds earlier.
God she's beautiful Harper thought.
************************************************************************
They had gone to Harper's quarter's because there were so many beads and plants in Trance's that they would probably trip and die if they actually tried to do anything.
Course, Harper's room wasn't much better, there were so many bits and pieces of machinery from Andromeda and several other of Harper's experiments that you could barely see the floor.
Both Trance and Harper were breathing heavily. "Are you sure you wanna do this?" Harper asked.
Trance ran her hand across Harper's face. "Yeah, I'm sure, I don't wanna risk almost loosing you again. I want to be with you."
Trance didn't object as Harper laid her on his bed.
************************************************************************
Later that night:
Harper walked onto command to find Rommie looking out the view screen.
"Umm.......Rommie, look...."
"You and Trance done already Harper, I thought you were gonna go all night."
"Yeah....well.....Trance hasn't completely healed from her injuries yet.....she needed some rest. Rommie, I'm really sorry about what I said earlier. I was under a lot of emotional stress and I wasn't thinking about what I was saying. You do have emotions, I've seen that myself. Again, I'm really sorry Rommie, I can understand if you don't forgive me. But I just wanted you to know."
"It's all right Harper. It's human nature to lash out when they are under a degree of stress. I forgive you."
"You sure?"
"Yeah Harper. You better get back there. We're going to be arriving on Teras Three in about an hour, and I don't think you want Dylan to find you and Trance the way you were before, Trance is still...um...well."
"I get it Rommie, thanks. Yeah, I have a feeling he wouldn't appreciate that. Hey Rommie? Are you gonna tell Dylan about what happened?"
"No Harper, your personal life is your personal life. I'm not going to tell him."
"Thanks Rommie, night."
"Goodnight Harper."
When Harper had left the room, a single tear fell down the avatar's face.
************************************************************************
"Hey guys, everything go smoothly while I was gone?" Dylan had been waiting for them on the docking center on Terrace Three when they had arrived in the system.
"Yeah, everything went great." Harper looked over at Trance, Dylan didn't notice them holding hands. "Better than great." Trance smiled back at Harper.
She hadn't wanted the crew to know about her past. She hadn't wanted them to know about her pain. But if anyone were to know, she was glad it was Harper. They both had scattered pasts, but they would get through it together.
Beka was had taken the Eureka Maru to a commerce planet to buy some new fuel cells. Rev had gone to a religious conference on Nerisa Prime. Tyr had gone on a scavenger hunt for some new weapon, there's a big surprise. Dylan had gone with Beka, and on the way he was going to drop her off on Teras Three where the inhabitants were supposed to be incredibly advanced agriculturists. He was going to see if he could get them to sign on with the Commonwealth.
Trance and Harper were the only member's of the crew that were still on board the Andromeda. Besides Andromeda herself.
"Hey Trance, what's up?" Harper asked as he walked into the Hydroponics Bay.
"Hey Harper." Trance glanced at him before snipping the leaves of one of the Buvasion water plants they had picked up on a commerce station a couple weeks back. 'He really is cute.' Trance thought as should looked at him. He had on his usual work pants and a white shirt. Well, it was a white shirt at one point. Now it was covered in grease from Andromeda's engine and slipstream drive.
' He really does have a great body. His chest has muscle but not to much, like those guys she had seen on those muscle shows. And his arms are nice and toned. His lips are....no, Trance you will not go there! He just thinks of you as a naive kid.' Trance had often wondered what it would be like to kiss him. To look into his wonderful blue eyes and.....
"Trance...hey Trance!" Harper yelled and snapped her back into reality. "Hey did you hear what I said?"
"I'm sorry. I...I was just thinking about something. What were you saying?" Trance was trying very hard not to blush.
"Dylan wants us to pick him up in about two days. He thinks he might be able to get the people on Teras Three to sign the Charter."
"That's great." How long will take us to get their." Trance asked, wanting to here Harper talk some more. 'When had this happened? Harper and the others knew almost nothing about her. She had promised herself that she wouldn't put them through that, it was too dangerous. But lately she had found that she was falling for Harper's sarcastic attitude and cocky way of presenting himself.
"About a day from our current position. So I was thinking. There's a commerce station about an hour from here where we can hang out until we have to leave. What do you think"
"Sounds great, let's go."
"What?!" Harper sounded shocked, but a cocky smile was playing on his face. "You, Trance Gemini, are going to listen to one of my suggestions?"
It was then that holo-Rommie appeared next to Trance in the Hydro. Bay. "Harper, I should remind you that the system you are about to enter is primarily run by the Parilet's."
Harper and Trance looked at her and obviously didn't make the connection. So holo-Rommie rolled her eyes and explained. "The Parilet's were not the best of friends with the Commonwealth. In fact, when the war with the Nietzschean first started they aligned themselves with the Nietzscheans."
"Hate to break it to you Rommie, but that was three hundred years ago, no one holds a grudge that long" Harper said in his usual sarcastic tone.
"Very well, but don't say I didn't warn you. They are not going to like that we are here. And for reference, I don't like this."
"It's OK Andromeda. If they don't want us there, we'll leave, it's that simple," Trance flashed one of her, "don't worry, you can trust me smiles," if Rommie had had a real heart it would have melted.
Rommie then turned her attention to something that neither Trance nor Harper could her.
"I've got an incoming transmission from a ship about 20 metras away."
************************************************************************
Harper and Trance went to the bridge to see what the ship that Rommie had detected wanted.
"We're being hailed."
"On......" Harper had started to say 'on screen' but was stopped by Trance putting a hand on his fore arm. One look into her eyes and Harper knew something was up. He didn't know much about Trance's past, but he knew enough to know that she had good intuitions about some things. And the look that was in her eye's right now showed pure and utter terror.
She only managed to squeak out the word, "danger.." before both she and Harper were thrown across the command deck of the Andromeda and rammed into one of her aft walls.
"Rommie what happened?" Harper yelled
"That ship fired on us! It was some sort of energy beam, all of my systems are down. I have hull breaches on decks six, eleven and seventeen."
"Can you seal them?!"
"Already done."
Then Harper saw Trance lying on the floor. "Rommie get one of the nano-bots up here with a gurney now!!!!!"
"I've already ordered 3 to bring to portable gurney to command, but Harper........"
"What!"
"I'm not reading any brain activity. I don't know what that pulse, or whatever it was did, but Trance is hurt very badly."
Harper's head was racing. 'She couldn't die....she just couldn't. Trance was always the one who was always on his side. She was his best friend. She was the only one who would put up with his constant whining and egotism. He loved her.......oh shit! where did that come from.' Harper thought
'But it's true, and you know it.' His mind betrayed his carefully orchestrated screne of denial.
He couldn't lose her now, he needed her.
************************************************************************
"Andromeda, set a course for the planet Dylan's on, we're picking him up early."
"I already did. We should be there in about six hours."
Andromeda's nano-bots had taken Trance's unconscious body to the Medical Bay and Rommie had been running scans on her for the past 20 minutes.
It had been the longest 20 minutes of his life.
Then Rommie appeared in the Med. Bay door. "Harper........I can't get a brain pattern from Trance...essentially she's alive.....but all that's keeping her alive is life support. The computer's have taken up all her brain's function's. She's dead Harper."
Harper's world began to spin as the shock of what Rommie had said sunk in. 'Dead, she couldn't be dead, she survived when Gerentex shot her, she could survive this! It was just an energy pulse for crying out loud. It hadn't affected him, there was no reason for it to affect her.'
But then again, they knew next to nothing about Trance's physiology. And every time they asked her about it she would either avoid the question or give them such a vague answer they had no idea what she had actually answered the question or not.
"Harper, your adrenaline levels are getting unusually high. I think you should sit down."
But it was too late, Harper's world spun faster and faster until he collapsed on the ground.
************************************************************************
Harper found himself in a mist, on a planet he had never seen. (and there weren't many of those)
He looked around taking in his surrounding's. 'Where was he? What had happened?'
And then everything slowly returned to him. Trance, the ship, she was dead.
"Oh God." Harper slowly collapsed to his knees. Allowing himself to cry for the first time since he had heard the news from Rommie.
He sunk into the ground, head between his knees and sobbed. He could have gone on like that for hours. But then he heard the sweet sound of a familiar voice behind him.
"Harper, don't cry."
Trance? No, it couldn't be, she was dead. But the voice sounded so much like her, and his heart wrenched in his stomach in remembrance. Harper got up and turned to see the person who was standing behind him.
It was Trance. Harper's stomach was in his throat as he managed to say, "You're.....you're dead."
Trance smiled at him. She has such a beautiful smile, but he would never get to see it again. She was dead..gone. He had promised himself when his family had died during the last Magog raid of Earth that he would never let anyone get close to him again. But Trance had broken through all the barriers he had put up. And now he had lost her too. Just like he had lost everyone else he had ever cared about
"I came to say goodbye Harper," tears were streaming down her face, if only she had told him what she was. He would have known to turn the ship around the second she had saw it. She had to explain this to him.
" I knew when I left home that they would come after her. What had I been thinking, I knew I was putting her friends on the Andromeda in danger just by being here."
"But when I came to this part of the Universe I hadn't expected to find true friends like Beka, Rev, Dylan, and Andromeda." Trance stifled a small laugh and continued.
"Even mean old Tyr. But never, in my wildest dreams, had I expected to fall in love."
Harper listened to this girl standing in front of him. She looked like Trance, walked like her, talked like her. But it couldn't be her, she was dead.
Harper was so caught up is his own train of thoughts, that at first it didn't register with her was she had said.
"Love....?"
She looked at him with her bright brown eyes, Trance's, bright brown eyes. This was Trance...his Trance!
Harper never broke eye contact with her as he leaned in and kissed her. The hairs on the back of Harper's neck stood on end. But Trance didn't object as he deepened the kiss, caressing the hidden corners of her mouth with his tongue. She tasted sweet, like honey, but then he felt an electric shock go through him and.....
************************************************************************
Flash:
All of the sudden Harper was in a room decorated in purple decor. And on the floor huddled in a cornering wimpering was a sparkly purple alien.
Trance! Harper thought. But it wasn't Trance, not her right now anyway, it was a younger version, a completely innocent version, a scared out of her wits version.
She had her knees pulled up under her chin and her tail wrapped around her waiste, and she was shaking in fear.
That was when the younger Trance spoke up in a pleading voice that made Harper cringe, "Daddy please don't, I'm really sorry, I'll never run away again, I swear!"
Then Harper noticed another person in the room. He was obviously one on Trance's race because he had the same purple complexion and tail, but he was atleast 3 times bigger than the younger Trance. He had in his hand a large, silver cylinder. Just looking at it sent shivers down Harper's spine. Then his suspicions about the device were confirmed when the man started walking toward her.
"You will pay for your in subordination child! You will not dishonor me again!"
"Please! Don't!" the younger Trance screamed in terror.
Harper turned away as he heard the blows hit the innocent child. He wanted to attack this man and beat the preverbal crap out of him with everything he had for daring to hurt such an innocent child, for hurting Trance! But they did not seem to realize he was there and Harper doubted that he could even touch them.
Flash:
************************************************************************
And then in was gone. Harper stopped kissing Trance and looked at her, tears were beginning to form on in her beautiful brown eyes.
"Trance......what was that....who was that?" Harper asked, forgetting about the fact that she was dead.
Trance looked up into Harper's eyes. She couldn't tell him. She just couldn't....she had fought so hard to keep her past out of her new life. To forget everything that had happened......but Harper had seen it, she couldn't hide in any longer.
"My people were rejected by other races because we could see the possibilities of the future. We had promised ourselves that we would never become involved with these races again."
"But I had heard the elders stories of distant galaxies and new races. And I wanted to see it. I had to see it. When I was about nine I stole a ship and tried to run. But the engine had a busted fuel drive, and I didn't get 30 metras away until the engine's gave out and my father's men found me. He was needless to say.....not happy......my father was a very important man on our world and me running away made him look bad so he........he...."
"He beat you." Harper answered seething, how could he, she was his daughter!
Trance nodded solemnly. She hated how Harper was looking at her right now, the pity she saw there. That's why she had never told anyone about herself, she didn't want the pity. But she was running out of time. She had to say her good-bye's before she lost control of Harper's dream.
"Harper, I didn't come here to ask for your pity. I came to say goodbye. I had to see you one more time and to tell you how I felt. The device that my people hit me with affect the neurological center of the brain. It sends the persons consciousness so for down into the brain that it can no longer make the other parts of the body functions. After about two hours the conscious has been pushed so far into the mind that it just disappears. Then the person dies."
Harper slowly shook his head. He would not loose her now. "No, I don't accept that, you said that the consciousness is still there, there has to be a way to bring it back to the surface."
Harper looked at Trance, pleading with his eyes. A glimmer of hope passed through her. She hoped he hadn't seen it, she would not risk Harper's life for her. The Andromeda needed him. The New Commonwealth needed him.
But he had seen it, he had seen her inner termoil. But he didn't know what she was fighting herself over.
"Trance......Trance what aren't you telling me?"
"It's too risky, I won't put you through that." Damn! Why did he have to be so damn stuborn! But she wouldn't, she couldn't, she would not be that selfish as to risk Harper's life.
Harper could see he was loosing her, if he didn't act soon he would loose her forever. He put his hand underneath her chin and forced her to look up at him. "Don't you think you're worth it. I mean, God Trance, you're the only person on the crew who will listen to my inscecent rambling, you're the only member of the crew who will let me brag about being Seamus Zelazny Harper "super genius"........God Trance, I love you. So, tell me what I have to do."
"Harper, the procedure......it intails the complete joining of too minds, they literally take a piece of each others souls. They have to be completely connected. It is almost impossible for a human and a member of my race to do that. Humans just don't have the mental or psychic abilities to do it. And even if we could somehow find a way to connect. No human has ever survived. Their brains always end up being fried before it can be finished."
"I don't care, It's worth the risk."
"No I'm not!" God! Why couldn't he just let go! These damn humans and their attachments to each other!
'But that's why you love him. He's not like anyone you've ever met. He's not anything like the males of your species, he's warm, emotional, they're cold and distant. Her mind forced her to confront feelings she had been hiding for so long.'
Harper had had enough. This girl was the most stubborn person he had ever met! It was like she thought she wasn't worthy, did she know how much she meant to everyone. Did she know how much she meant to him!
It suddenly clicked with Trance what Harper had said, "You...you love me?" she said in surprise.
"Well, yeah, of course, I would have thought you would have guessed that by now. Hell, you're my sparkly purple babe, my best friend, and so much more." Harper was slowly turning a bright crimson red. Trance knew he wasn't used to sharing his feelings, they were alike like that.
Suddenly Harper's eyes brightened, like they did when he got one of his ideas.
"Trance...you said that the people who were going through this thing had to be connected mentally, right?"
"Yeah...that's right." Trance answered, a quizzical look on her face. What was he up to now?
Harper cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes, pleading with her to listen to his idea. "Trance...I need you to fight for me...just a little bit longer, I refuse to loose you now."
"Harper....." "Trance no, I need you to trust me...promise me you'll fight."
"I promise, I will for as long as I can."
Harper leaned in and kissed her. That kiss held promises that Trance longed to come true, love, fear, hope, life were all tangled up in one perfect moment.
************************************************************************
Harper awoke to find Rommie hovering over him like a mother hen. Damn, my head hurts. Harper sat up, his head spinning. "Rommie, what happened?"
"You collapsed, I had to use some strong stimulants to wake you up."
"Trance?"
"She's still brain dead Harper, there has been no response to the stimuli. Sooner or later we're gonna have to take her off life support."
"No, no, I saw her. I talked to her."
"Harper you were only out for about 5 minutes, and she was unconscious the whole time, you imagined it."
Harper jumped off the bed in Med. Bay and headed for his workshop in engineering. Rommie following close behind him.
"Harper where are you going?" Rommie asked, getting slightly annoyed at the young crewman's refusal to accept death. She had cared about Trance as well, but she wasn't acting delirious, even though she couldn't act delirious if she had wanted to.
"I have to get the adapter for my cerebral implant that hooks me up to the Med. Bay equipment." Harper replied, frantically trying to get to his workplace.
"Harper she's gone, you can't bring her back."
That was it, that was the last straw, he knew Rommie was only being realistic, she didn't know what he knew. But he forgot all of that as he blew up in Rommie's face.
"Look! I don't have time for you cynical attitude! You don't know! You can't know! You're a machine! You'll never feel love! I love her Rommie, I'm not gonna loose her."
He knew he had hurt her. He knew he shouldn't have said the things he did. But he was too worried about how long Trance would be able to hold on. He would apologize later. He just hoped she'd forgive him.
************************************************************************
Once back in the Medical Bay, Harper set up all the things he would need to make the connection with the computer that was keeping Trance alive.
Rommie came up behind him, no longer arguing with his reasoning for fear of provoking another one of Harper's outbursts. "I'll be monitoring your heart and respiratory rates, if they drop I'm pulling you out."
Harper turned around glaring at Rommie, "No, you won't, I decide when I come out, not you."
Rommie shrank back, slowly nodding her head. "All right Harper."
Harper hooked himself up to the machines. 'Oh please God, I know you have never really liked me, which is evident by my past, but just this once, please, just this once, let things go right.'
Harper connected himself with the equipment and a bright light flashed in his eyes.
************************************************************************
"Trance.....Trance where are you." Harper wasn't quite sure where he was. It was getting harder and harder to see. Things were getting darker by the second.
Then he saw her.
She was lying on the ground, her head between her knees. She was dying.
He sat down next to her and out his arms around her back. "So tell me what I have to do."
Trance looked up, not quite believing what she was seeing. Leave it to Seamus Zelazny Harper to surpass all the odds and pull off what few had been able to do. But he could still die, she desperately wanted him to succeed, but the chances were so slim.....
"Put your hands under my head and open up your mind."
Harper complied and when his hands were in place she did the same to him.
Harper felt an electric shock go through him as her hands connected with the flesh on his neck. It was just a slight pain, a shock that extended to his toes. But Harper had a feeling it would grow.
Images started flying through Harper's head, an extremely young Trance climbing through trees, being chased by a group of men in uniforms. An older Trance in a soft lavender dress, looking at herself in a mirror. The Trance he had saw before, huddled in a corner trying to shield herself from the blows of her fathers weapon. A much older Trance meeting Beka for the first time, and beginning her new life on the Maru. And finally, Trance kissing him, less than a half an hour ago.
Trance was going through a similar experience, she saw Harper at about age 9, fixing the engine of a hover-board. A young teenage Harper watching his cousin being eaten alive by magogs eggs. An older Harper receiving his cerebral implant, all the while hitting on his nurse. The Harper she knew, dropping a large, metal object on a womans foot. Only to look up and see a blond haired woman who he would later know as Beka, and sign onto the Maru. And finally, the Harper she loved, kissing her. Making promises that would, in a kill the both of them.
Then it was over, and Harper and Trance were standing together, in a swirl of there own memories.
Tears were streaming down Trance's face, this was it, there was no turning back, he would know everything about her within a matter of second. Even if she had wanted to stop, she wouldn't have been able to. They were too connected, separating now would cause irreparable brain damage. It was up to him to keep his mind in tact.
A searing pain shot through both Trance and Harper. They screamed out in pain.
************************************************************************
Trance shot up off of her bed in the Medical Bay of the Andromeda. She could still feel the pain of the connection in her chest. "Oh my God!" Trance was breathing heavily trying to take in more air then her lungs would let her."
"Trance....you're.....you're alive." Trance turned to see Rommie's avatar staring in disbelief.
"Harper...where's Harper?"
"He collapsed about the same time you woke up. I was going to bring him out of the link but he told be not to. I have a faint life sign, but it's not much."
Trance walked over to the spare bed in the medical bay, she ran her hand through his messy blond hair. "Come on Harper, I fought for you, now I need you to fight for me."
"Trance, your bodies been through massive shock, you should lie down and rest. Regain your strength." Rommie said from behind her.
"No, I want to stay with him."
"All right, but I have to go to the bridge and set a course through an asteroid belt we have come across. Atleast lie down."
"It's OK Rommie, I'll be fine while your gone. And I promise I'll lie down for a couple minutes."
"You're sure?"
"Yes, I"ll be fine."
Rommie walked out of the medical bay headed for the bridge, promising herself that later she would find out how Trance had gone from being brain dead to alive and kicking in a matter of seconds, and why Harper was now hanging on to life by a thread.
Back in the medical bay Trance was desperately trying to get Harper move, open his eyes, do something that would give her a sign that he was going to be OK. She long to hear one of his sarcastic remarks, make fun of her tail, or even call himself Seamus Zelazny Harper, super genius.
"Come on Harper, we need you. You're the only one who can fix Andromeda's slip stream drive as many times as it's broken. Tyr will blow a gasket if he's gonna have to do all the tech work here. And besides, we all know he's not that good at it anyway. He's better at blowing things up, not fixing them."
"Yeah, he'd probably end up doing more bad then good if he ever really tried to fix anything."
Trance looked up to see Harper on his side smiling one of his cocky grins at her. Trance nearly leaped out of her skin. Again. Jumping up and down she screaming.
"You're awake, you're awake, you're awake!" She ran over, wrapped her arms around him and never wanted to let go. But Harper snapped her back to reality.
"Ugh..... Trance? You're kinda strangling me here."
"Oh! Sorry Harper!"
"That's OK, I think I like you better a lot closer."
Harper grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto his lap. Then he kissed her passionately. All the emotions he had had bottled up inside him for who knows how long were let out in that kiss. He let his tongue do the preverbal tango with hers as he explored her mouth.
Trance had so many emotions going through her right now, she didn't know whether they were her's or Harper's. Something she had neglected to tell him was that the connection they had shared made it so that from now on they would be able to fell each other's emotions. They would have a certain empathy toward each other until either one, or both of them died.
An unknown emotions was growing inside Harper, and he didn't know where it was coming from. Fear, fear of losing something. Himself! He pulled away from Trance and looked into her eyes.
"Trance.....is there something you wanna tell me?"
"Ummm.....Harper....there's more to our connection then just memories. The procedure connects our souls as well. And there's a permanent side affect."
"Which is?" Trance looked down at her feet and started chewing on her lower lip.
"We will be able to feel one another's emotions from now on. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I was too worried that you'd even survive, and I sorta forgot. Do you hate me?"
The look in Trance's eyes melted any remnense of anger he could have had. Even though he probably wouldn't have had any anyway. "Course not babe, I could never hate you. This is permanent?"
"Yeah."
"I think I can live with that." Harper pulled Trance farther onto the small bed in the medical bay and straddled her between his knees. "How bout we see just how many emotions we can stir up."
Trance giggled, "I'm thinking that would be a good idea."
It was then that Harper fell off the small bed they were on. "Maybe we should move this to more.....comfortable surroundings." Harper said in a persuading voice.
"No objections here."
Trance smiled as she looked down at the young man who had fallen on his butt just seconds earlier.
God she's beautiful Harper thought.
************************************************************************
They had gone to Harper's quarter's because there were so many beads and plants in Trance's that they would probably trip and die if they actually tried to do anything.
Course, Harper's room wasn't much better, there were so many bits and pieces of machinery from Andromeda and several other of Harper's experiments that you could barely see the floor.
Both Trance and Harper were breathing heavily. "Are you sure you wanna do this?" Harper asked.
Trance ran her hand across Harper's face. "Yeah, I'm sure, I don't wanna risk almost loosing you again. I want to be with you."
Trance didn't object as Harper laid her on his bed.
************************************************************************
Later that night:
Harper walked onto command to find Rommie looking out the view screen.
"Umm.......Rommie, look...."
"You and Trance done already Harper, I thought you were gonna go all night."
"Yeah....well.....Trance hasn't completely healed from her injuries yet.....she needed some rest. Rommie, I'm really sorry about what I said earlier. I was under a lot of emotional stress and I wasn't thinking about what I was saying. You do have emotions, I've seen that myself. Again, I'm really sorry Rommie, I can understand if you don't forgive me. But I just wanted you to know."
"It's all right Harper. It's human nature to lash out when they are under a degree of stress. I forgive you."
"You sure?"
"Yeah Harper. You better get back there. We're going to be arriving on Teras Three in about an hour, and I don't think you want Dylan to find you and Trance the way you were before, Trance is still...um...well."
"I get it Rommie, thanks. Yeah, I have a feeling he wouldn't appreciate that. Hey Rommie? Are you gonna tell Dylan about what happened?"
"No Harper, your personal life is your personal life. I'm not going to tell him."
"Thanks Rommie, night."
"Goodnight Harper."
When Harper had left the room, a single tear fell down the avatar's face.
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"Hey guys, everything go smoothly while I was gone?" Dylan had been waiting for them on the docking center on Terrace Three when they had arrived in the system.
"Yeah, everything went great." Harper looked over at Trance, Dylan didn't notice them holding hands. "Better than great." Trance smiled back at Harper.
She hadn't wanted the crew to know about her past. She hadn't wanted them to know about her pain. But if anyone were to know, she was glad it was Harper. They both had scattered pasts, but they would get through it together.
