Janet opened her eyes. The world around her was a blur of colours and muffled voices. Gradually everything came into focus and she saw Thor's face. She moved to punch him but found she was being restrained by some steel cuffs around her wrists connected to the bed she was on. He laughed. Janet looked around taking in her surroundings. She was in what looked like a Sick Bay on a Nietzschean ship. Why was she in Sick Bay? They wouldn't care if she was injured or not and they certainly wouldn't treat her if she was. She then became aware of the intense fiery pain in the back of her head. She groaned.
"Take her to the brig." Thor ordered.
The cuffs were released and two pairs of rough hands gripped her arms and pulled her down the corridor. "Let me go!", Janet protested. "I can walk by myself." The hands dropped her. She stumbled for a moment and then started walking slowly and unsteadily down the hall. When they reached the brig the Nietzscheans let down a forcefield and shoved her in. Janet fell to the floor. She lay there for while not wanting to move. She wished she could die right there because this was just the beginning. There was much worse to come.
"What you in for?", a familiar voice broke the silence. Janet looked up in surprise. "Harper?!"
"That's my name."
"What are you doing here?"
"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those damn Nietzschean bastards grabbed me and used me to get off the Andromeda first by threatening Dylan to kill me and then using my codes to open the Hangar doors."
"This is awful. You shouldn't be here. You didn't do anything to them. Damn them if they hurt you I swear I'll....." Janet trailed off. What could she do? This was all her fault. She felt terrible. She wished she'd never sent out the distress signal. Then all this never would have happened. These people who were trying to drive back the Long Night as it was called had been disturbed in their mission because of her." Oh God help me.", she said.
"What did you say?" Harper said.
"I said 'Oh God help me.'" Janet replied.
"What are you a Wayist or something? You're the first Nietzschean I've ever heard pray to a god."
"Yes well I'm not your average Nietzschean now am I?."
Harper thought for a moment."No you're not." he finally replied.
A long silence followed.
********************
"Andromeda can you follow them?", Dylan asked.
"No. They're long gone by now."
"Do you know what planet Coyote Pride live on?"
"No. They're last known home was Sierrea Five but that was three-hundred years ago."
"Well it's worth a try." Dylan answered and announced over the com system. "Prepare for slipstream."
*******************
Janet slammed her fist into the forcefield only to be thrown back away from it. She paced back and forth. She was really annoyed. Her head hurt like hell, she was on her way to an unwelcome planet and she had dragged a perfectly innocent human into the trouble.
"Hey. Calm down. Even if you did break down the forcefield where would you go? Mars?" Harper said sarcastically. He didn't like the situation anymore than Janet but at least he was handling it better, he hoped.
Janet sat on the bench across from Harper. "No but I could gain control of the ship and maybe then I could...." she trailed off when she realised that she didn't even know what she was talking about and what she was saying didn't make any sense. "I just can't think straight right now.",she said and put her head in her hands.
"Well that's kinda obvious."
"Shut up" Janet snapped. She put her hand on the back of her head and felt a deep cut there. She wondered what they had done to her while she had been knocked out. She decided to leave it alone and let her nanobots deal with it. She looked over at Harper. He seemed to be in a world of his own.
Harper was thinking about the Andromeda. He knew that they would be looking for them but he didn't think they had a chance in hell of finding them and even if they did knowing his luck they would be found dead.
The forcefield was turned off and Thor appeared at the entrance. "We're home." he said with a cruel look in his eyes.
