Reality's Ghosts

by Catherine1

A dangerous situation forces the crew to deal with some ghosts

Reality's Ghosts

By: Catherine Semerjian

Seamus Harper had grown up on Earth, running away from Magog and Nietzscheans to avoid being the next casualty … or meal.  It was safe to say that he had a strong sense of self preservation.  Some would call it paranoia, but it was the thing that kept him alive.  The instinct that told him to run when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.  It had kept him alive when almost everyone he loved died.  Harper let out a shaky sigh and banished those thoughts.  He'd become good at forgetting the past, but right now, he couldn't forget the anxiety that was gripping him.

He just didn't know why that would be happening in his quarters.

It was nighttime aboard the Andromeda Ascendant and everyone else was sleeping.  For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to close his eyes.  He felt as though something was watching him.   Harper knew that Andromeda was monitoring everyone on the ship's vital signs constantly, but something was wrong.  The blond man turned his head a little and coughed.

Growing up on Earth had left him with another disadvantage:  a slight breeze could give him pneumonia, a fall down a ladder could snap his spine like a twig.  Recently, he'd caught some obscure little virus -- he didn't bother learning the names of the things he caught anymore.  He was being treated for it with an antibiotic that he could barely pronounce.  Maybe it was one of the ones he couldn't pronounce; there were so many of them and you'd think that the doctors would try to make things easier on themselves…

 

The young engineer sat up; he glanced over to his right where his chronometer lay and sighed; it was three in the morning.  Knowing that he wouldn't get any more sleep tonight, Harper got up and dressed quickly.  He slipped on his loose black pants and a white  T-shirt.  Out of habit, he slipped on his brown tool belt; the weight felt familiar and reassuring around his hips.

A sudden chill made Harper shiver; when had it gotten so cold in here?  He glanced around for his leather jacket, it was draped over one of the chairs in his room, and slipped it on. 

"Andromeda," he called out, knowing that the ship would hear him.  Usually, he engaged privacy mode before going to sleep.  His weird sleeping patterns lead him to be changing in the middle of the night and he didn't want the attractive AI to see him naked, yet.  "How cold is it in here?"

"It is twenty degrees Celsius," replied the ship's artificial intelligence.

Seamus rubbed his hands together, trying to warm them.  When that didn't work, he blew warm breath.  That seemed to help, but it was still freezing in here.  "A-are you sure?  I feel like it's the middle of freaking winter in here!  Run a diagnostic and see if your internal sensors are malfunctioning."

There was a moment of silence and the holographic image of the Andromeda Ascent appeared before him.  She was a bit shorter than him with short cropped brown hair, olive skin and dark eyes.  Her build was slight yet muscular; though Harper knew that she was an AI, he couldn't help appreciating at her beauty.

"I'm not detecting any malfunction," she declared.  Her expression softened as she gazed at him and he knew she was examining his vital signs.  "You're not showing any signs of a fever, but your heart rate and breathing are slightly elevated.  Has the flu become any worse?"

"I'm fine," he snapped, immediately regretting his tone.  "It's just a little cold in here.  I think I'll go down to the mess and grab a cup of coffee.  You know what they say, Roms, coffee will cure what ails you."

She frowned at him, "I'm not familiar with that particular expression."

He grinned at her, reassured by this friendly banter.  "It's a Seamus Harper original, Rom-Doll," he grinned, regaining some of his usual bluster.  "Not only am I the greatest engineer in the galaxy, I will have you know that I'm also an accomplished poet, known to woo the heart -- or system - of any lady."  His mild tirade ended with a coughing fit.  Harper could tell that he was getting better; it didn't feel as if his lungs were trying to escape through his mouth anymore.  Still, he made a mental note to drop by the med-deck and see Trance for another shot of antibiotics.  Not that he minded spending time with his cute purple friend.

Making his way towards the bedroom door, he let out a startled yelp when the room plunged into darkness.  It lasted perhaps five seconds, but it was enough to scare the daylights out of him.  "Why, Rommie, if I'd known you wanted to fool around in the dark--"

There was a slight tremor to his voice, she noticed.  "That wasn't me, Harper.  It was a mild power surge.  We're passing by a G-class nebula and my sensors were reacting to it.  There's nothing to be worried about," she added.  Andromeda knew that Harper was aware of the problems with her sensors, so she didn't broach the subject.

He coughed again, covering his mouth with his hand.  Harper's chest was heaving as though he'd been running a great distance.  "Who, me, worried?"

The coffee didn't help.  Harper had three cups of it and while it was enough to wake him up, he felt more jittery than before.  That cold spell in his quarters followed by the light show was the only thing on his mind.  There were tons of little repairs he could be doing; hell, he could even clean up his favourite cargo bay, but he couldn't get the two odd instances out of his mind.  Something just wasn't quite right about the situation.

Seamus, lost in his thoughts, didn't notice Dylan Hunt walking up behind him.  The last remaining High Guard captain placed a hand on his engineer's shoulder.

Harper jumped when something touched his shoulder, biting his lip to keep from yelping out loud.  "Don't sneak up on a guy like that, would ya'?  If I have a heart attack, you're out one genius."

Dylan glanced down at him, "maybe you should lay off the coffee," he said lightly.  "Oh, and good morning."

The engineer glanced up at the man he'd come to consider his captain.  Dylan Hunt was the second tallest man on the ship, second only to Tyr Anasazi, their resident Nietzschean.  Hunt was human with light brown hair and matching eyes.  As always, he wore his High Guard Uniform.  The man had been caught in the event horizon of a black hole for three hundred years while everything he'd ever known fell apart.  Now he was striving to get it all back.  He earned Harper's respect, something not many had been able to do.

"Good morning," mumbled Seamus, gesturing for the other man to have a seat.  He wasn't in the mood for company, but it was a force of habit.

Dylan did so, regarding his engineer with concern.  "Are you feeling all right?"  With their crew of six people, it was hard to keep anything secret, least of all Harper's frequent medical problems.  When they'd first met, Hunt thought the young man would be a liability, but Harper managed to amaze him by coping with his various medial problems.  No matter what, he just kept coming back for more.

"Yeah," Harper replied; a cough disproved his reply.  "I'm just a little jumpy this morning."

The two men swiftly ran out of things to say to each other.  It wasn't often that they were the only ones in the room when there was no emergency.  Trance Gemini was probably in her garden and doubtless Tyr was working out.  Beka Valentine, Dylan's first officer and Harper's first captain was taking care of some business with an old friend of hers.  Rev Bem, their Wayist Magog science officer, was with her as well.

"So," the young man began, "anything in particular you want me to fix today?"

Dylan studied Harper thoughtfully; though the blond man wasn't an official High Guard officer, none of his new crew was, he'd come to take them all under his protection.  This recent virus that Harper had contracted had been more benign than most.  He stayed on the medical deck for a day, but released after promising to return daily for shots of Tylexine, a potent antibiotic.  Dylan had learned the hard way that it wasn't wise to push Harper beyond his limits, but the younger man looked fine.  "Why don't you take a look at the sensors today," he suggested.  "They've been giving us some trouble at long range."

Harper nodded, his gaze becoming thoughtful.  "No problem-o, cap."  With that, he was on his feet and walking towards the engineering decks.

When the younger man left, Dylan leaned forward in his chair.  "Andromeda," he said, knowing that his ship would hear him.  "Keep an eye on Harper today, would you?  I think there's something wrong with him."

"Aye, Captain," replied the disembodied voice.

Harper found that his coughing was getting much better; there weren't as many spells and they didn't leave him as out of breath as before.  Still, he couldn't quite seem to focus on the task ahead of him.  The problem was minor enough, a few of the circuits relaying to the bridge were out; basically, Andromeda was receiving the information, it just wasn't going where it was supposed to go.  It was a simply matter of bypassing the damaged circuitry, then salvaging some nonessential wiring from some of the crew quarters and fixing it.

There were days when Harper wished he could have seen this ship during the glory days of the Commonwealth.  Back then, the Andromeda wouldn't have had to suffice with makeshift repair jobs and stopgap solutions, cannibalizing things from unused crew quarters and sometimes barely making it to the next port for new equipment.  True, he was a genius, but there was only so much he could do with limited supplies and no money.  During the height of the Commonwealth, she would have had thousands of engineers waiting to fix her every ailment.  The best technology of the time would have been available to her. 

Now there was only him and whatever he could create.  Harper sighed softly; it was different on the Eureka Maru, Beka's ship.  That vessel wasn't sentient and the life of a salvage ship wasn't exactly glamorous. The Andromeda Ascent was no doubt used to the best equipment, the finest engineers and many other High Guard ships surrounding her.  In many ways, she'd lost her family too.

"Rommie," he said, fiddling with a wire between his two fingers.

"Yes, Harper?" She replied, her holographic image materializing behind him.  He jumped when he saw her out of the corner of his eye, but turned to face her.

"How many engineers were assigned to you before you went … well, you know."

Rommie frowned; it wasn't like Harper to ask her about the past.  None of them did; though it weighed heavily on her, she didn't talk about it.  Dylan made the occasional wistful remark, but none of the others bothered.  "There was an engineering complement of eight hundred officers at any given time," replied Andromeda.

"You had it pretty good back then," said Harper, his tone curiously wistful.

"Yes, but now I'm working with a genius."  Normally, Andromeda didn't cater to the engineer's boasts, but from the pained expression on his face, she decided to oblige him.

Instead of getting him to smile she anticipated, he shook his head.  He opened his mouth to speak, but wound up coughing instead.  "But there's only one of me, Rommie and I can't do everything."

"Harper--"  She didn't like the turn this conversation was taking.  She'd never known the blond man to be unable to look her in the eye.  In fact, he didn't seem to be looking at anything except the floor.  She couldn't decipher the expression on his face.

"I need to head down to Med-Deck to get another injection," he said tersely, rising to his feet.  Harper walked out of the room.

Trance Gemini hummed softly to herself as she worked in the Med-Deck.  She was cataloguing various drugs, so that she could keep better track of them.  That and she was waiting for Harper to arrive.  Trance had often treated him when he was sick, but this was the first time he'd come to Med-Deck voluntarily.  Usually, she had to search him out because he'd become absorbed in a project.  Sometimes, she wondered if she could just sneak up on him and give him the injection without him knowing.

She turned around, smiling as Harper walked in, but her expression turned into one of confusion as she saw the sadness on her friend's face.  Harper was usually so happy and fun, that's why they got along.  Today, he looked tired and upset.  She wanted to talk to him about it, but knew that he would tell her in a little while.

To her great surprise, the engineer jumped nimbly on to the examining table, slipped off his jacket and rolled up his sleeve.

"Good morning!" she greeted him.  "How are you feeling?"

"If one more person asks me that, I'll be feeling damned annoyed," the terseness of his reply almost made Trance drop the needle.  Harper never got mad at her.  If he noticed the hurt expression on her face, he didn't comment on it.  She gulped softly and gave him the injection.  Harper hopped off the bed, slipped on his jacket and walked out without a word.

Trance stood there, staring at the door.  Her tail swished behind her agitatedly, denoting how upset she was.  She gripped the examining bed for support, biting her lower lip.

Harper went back to the engineering deck.  The medication was already taking effect; he felt better, more charged.  He set to work with vigor, fixing up the problem with Rommie's sensors in a half hour and setting to work on various other projects he'd started.

"Harper?"

Seamus literally jumped at Andromeda's voice.  His feet left the ground.  He whirled around to stare at her, his eyes wide and panicked.  She tilted her head inquisitively; her avatar's body able to perfectly mimic confusion.

"What?" When she didn't respond immediately, he got annoyed, "what, Rommie?  Or did everyone forget to remind me that it's 'Scare the Hell out of Harper day'?"

"I wanted to let you know that my sensors are functioning at optimum levels again," she said, a little annoyed herself.  This young engineer certainly was gifted, but there were times when he could be infuriating.  His strange behavior lately had everyone confused. 

When he'd been looking at her, she found his eyes to be bloodshot.  She attributed it to a lack of sleep. 

Though he often lamented his workload, Harper was infamous for his bizarre sleep habits.  More often, Dylan had to rein him in than encourage him.  It was a real paradox, much like the young man himself.  Harper's cruel tone jolted her out of her reverie.

"Well that's just fabulous.  Seamus Harper strikes again," he replied sarcastically, turning his back to her in a pointed gesture that the conversation was over.  At least, she thought he was finished.  "What were they like?" he asked, head bowed over several pieces of machinery.

Andromeda stared at his back for a long time, "Who?"

The engineer stopped what he was doing, but didn't look at her.  "The engineering crew that worked with you before you went into the black hole.  Tell me about them.  Who were your favorites?  Stuff like that."

Andromeda thought back for a long moment; she wanted to ask him about his sudden interest in her past.  Instead, a small smile appeared on her lips; it had been so long since she'd been able to share these stories.  There were moments when she missed the old High Guard crew.  The avatar sat on a nearby crate; though Harper wasn't looking at her, she knew that he was paying attention.

 "The chief engineer was Lucas Sedgell, he was a human, thirty years old.  He liked to play jokes, such as programming a droid to walk into the door of every engineer on night ship."  Andromeda spoke for over an hour, telling stories about her favourite members of the engineering staff.  Since she spent most of her time interacting with that group, she had many memories to share.  Some were funny, most were about how clever and brave they had been. Harper never looked at her, or acknowledged her voice.   For her part, Andromeda enjoyed telling the stories; she felt as though not sharing them was wrong somehow.  The only other person who would know what she was talking about was Dylan and he preferred to focus on the present and future, rather than dwelling on the past.

That night found Harper laying awake in bed again.  His coughing seemed a little worse than usual, but he decided to not bother waking Trance.  He thought about what Andromeda had said.  She really missed her old crew, if it hadn't been obvious to him before, it was clear now.

Harper got out of bed and looked around his quarters.  He had a few personal items scattered around, but most remained on the Maru.  The quarters were big and spacious, probably the best accommodations he'd seen in his entire life.  Seamus knew that all the other crew quarters were identical, save for the upper class officers, whose rooms were even bigger.  His room was slightly apart from the others'; if there was an emergency, he'd be able to get to the slipstream drive or engineering decks quickly.  He had the entire deck to himself; Beka, Trance and the others were all on the deck above him.

This ship was huge, its normal complement was four thousand.  Minus Beka, Tyr, Dylan, Trance, Rev and himself, that meant there were three thousand, nine hundred and four rooms were unoccupied.  Harper wandered around his room.  He couldn't help wondering about the people who'd been on this ship before.  Harper shivered slightly; what about the person who'd slept in this bed, lived in this room?  He walked around, as though searching for clues of the former occupant's past.  He could just ask Andromeda, but then she would just have more questions and he wasn't up to dealing with her, facing her nostalgia. 

Instead, he walked over to his personal computer terminal, engaging the privacy mode as he went.  The information he was looking for wasn't classified, so he wouldn't have to do any fine tuning to find it.  Besides, Dylan had given them all voice access recognition.

It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for; as he'd expected, these quarters once belonged to a member of the engineering staff:  Sedgell, Lucas.  He was the head engineer.  Harper coughed a little and typed in a new command.  

Moments later, a picture of the man was on the screen.  Seamus' eyes widened; the man was listed as tall, about six feet in old Earth measurements.  His face was unlined, but he was listed as being thirty years old.  He had a pointed, elfin jaw that came to a point at the end of his chin.  The features Harper found most disturbing were his pale blond hair and large, almond shaped blue eyes that were almost the same shade as his own.  Even to him, the resemblance was remarkable.

Seamus quickly turned off the monitor, nearly doubling over in his seat as another coughing fit began.  When it subsided, he was breathless and gasping.  He disengaged privacy mode and immediately the image of Andromeda appeared.

Before she could open her holographic mouth, Harper was speaking.  His eyes were wide and bright, as though feverish, but she couldn't detect any sign of an abnormal temperature or pulse.  "Rom-Doll," he began, his mouth dry.  "W-why'd you assign me to this room?"

"It made sense," she replied.  "You will be able to arrive quickly at the engineering deck if there is a malfunction.  Most of the engineers were assigned to this area.  Don't you like it here?"

"Compared to the stones and sticks back home, this is a palace," declared Harper, rising again.  His movements were jerky, as though his body was moving before his mind had time to think about it.  He was pacing as he spoke.  "But why this room, why not the one next to it?  I mean, why a room where the last guy didn't look like me?"

The AI frowned, searching through her database before realizing what the engineer meant.  "It was a coincidence, I guess."  She hadn't thought about Lucas in a long time; perhaps it had been deliberate on her part. Did artificial intelligence have a sub-conscience?  Sedgell and Harper resembled each other enough to pass for brothers.  On some level, had she been trying to substitute one for the other?

She was interrupted from her thoughts by the sounds of painful coughing.  Harper was leaning against his chair for support, his face going red.  When it was over, he looked tired and weak.  "The antibiotics don't appear to be working anymore," she announced; with a few unspoken commands, her avatar entered the room.

She went over to Harper, intending to help him to the medical deck.  The engineer backed away from her and headed out the door.  Hologram and avatar looked at each other, confusion evident in both their faces.    She began to make her way towards the medical deck, sending a quick communication to Dylan that the engineer might be relapsing into his illness.

Harper made his way to the Med-Deck in record time.  He knew that Rommie was hot on his heels, so he engaged the privacy lock.  The engineer had been in this room often enough to know where everything was; he also knew how Trance operated.  He opened up the cabinet closest to the main examining bed.  The blue vial that Trance had been drawing the antibiotics from was there. 

Over the course of his life, he'd seen hundreds of doctors sterilize needles to give injections.  Back on Earth, sterilization wasn't possible and had caused several diseases to devastate the already weakened civilization, but he was on the Andromeda now, and had the luxury of a clean needle.  Harper rolled up his sleeve, bit his lip; just because he got a lot of injections didn't mean he liked them.  Usually, he would look away, but this time, he had to make sure he hit a vein.  The tip of the needle disappeared into the flesh of his arm and the medicine began to enter his system almost immediately.

Meanwhile, Dylan was on the bridge with Tyr, ruminating about his engineer.  His captain's instinct was telling him that something was going to go wrong, but he couldn't say what it would be.  A monitor nearby began to blink and Rommie informed him that Beka was hailing him.

The petite blond woman appeared on the screen.  She appeared in the pilot's chair, where she was most comfortable.  She was wearing a silver shirt with no sleeves and there was a cocky grin on her face.  "I'm assuming it went well," Dylan said by way of greeting.

"Couldn't have gone better if I'd done it myself, which incidentally, I did," replied the captain of the Eureka Maru.  Her smile melted away, "What's up?"

It was a first officer's job to know when the captain was preoccupied and Beka read him with unerring accuracy.  "Harper got sick," Dylan announced.

Beka snorted, pushing some of her short hair away from her face.  "And you're worried?  It's not like none of us have seen him sick before.  Sure, his complaining can get a little annoying, but-" her expression immediately became concerned.  She leaned forward in her seat, eyes narrowing.  "Is he all right?  Because if something's happened to my engineer, I'll have to--"

"No, he's fine," Dylan assured her quickly.  "He's just been jumpy lately, that's all.  It's not like him.  Things have been slow lately, repair-wise.  It might just be excess energy and if there's one thing Harper has, it's energy."

"You said he was sick," from the tone of her voice it was clear that Beka wasn't in the mood for humour.  Out of the corner of his eye, Dylan saw Rev turn to look at the screen, but Beka spoke again, "What did you give him, antibiotics, vaccine, what?"

Beka was fiercely protective of Harper; it was obvious to anyone who saw them together.  Despite the ease with which he caught diseases, she often made a point to know the specifics about each illness.  Often, Dylan was reminded of a surrogate motherhood, but he was certain both would violently disagree with the comparison.  "Why is this so important, Beka?" He asked.

Beka waved her hand impatiently, warding off any more questions.  "It might be important, now what was he given?"

"Tylexine."

The blond pounded her fist against her chair, "Damnit!"

"What's wrong, Beka?"

"Harper is allergic to that," Beka snapped, running a hand through her hair.  "We found that out the hard way at a space station.  Some idiot nurse gave it to him before she ran a blood test.  I guess some people have weird reactions to it.  He got a mild dose of it and we had to strap him down.  He talked about how I was plotting to send him back to Earth because I didn't like the improvements he'd done on the Maru.  You have to get him to Med-Deck and flush that crap out of his system before he can cause any serious damage.  Why didn't you ask him about it?"

"He was unconscious when it was administered the first time," snapped Dylan.  High Guard training called for basic medical knowledge and he knew about the possible allergic reactions to Tylexine.  The first were particularly grisly convulsions that always resulted in death, thankfully that could be discounted.  The second reaction included anxiety, disorientation and dangerous paranoia.

"Captain," Andromeda interrupted, "I just examined the medical deck, but Harper's not there.  The vial of Tylexine has been taken out and approximately thirty five milligrams of it has been used.  We've been giving him the smallest recommended dose in order to conserve our supply.  What he has taken is triple what we've been giving him and double the average dosage."

Oh, fabulous, Dylan thought.  He didn't say it aloud, but his crew knew him well enough to understand his facial expression.

"I'm on my way," Beka said, her voice tight with emotion.  "Dylan, whatever you do, don't corner him.  He's going to be a mess."  She paused, as though debating whether to tell him something.  Then she spoke, "He doesn't remember what happened the first time, but he got the normal dose … and it was bad."

As the communication ended, Dylan turned around and saw Trance standing in the doorway.  The purple skinned girl was biting her lips together.  Though Dylan was unfamiliar with her physiology, it was clear that she'd been crying.  She must have overheard the conversation.  "Trance," he began harshly.  He could see that she was upset, but as captain, he had to make sure she understood the consequences of her actions.  It was a simple matter to take a blood sample test; true she wasn't a trained medical professional, but it was common knowledge.  "Harper's in--"

"I'm sorry!" She exclaimed, running over to stand in front of him.  "The computer told me Tylexine was the best way to cure the Pavellian flu and Harper was getting better.  I should have told him what it was.  There wasn't a record of this in computer and it's all my fault!"

His first instinct was to console the girl.  However, faced with a potential crisis, he was a captain first.  "We'll deal with this later, Trance," Dylan said.  "Right now we've got to find Harper."

Tyr nodded, "his thinking isn't going to be rational and he has intimate knowledge of the ship's workings.  He could be anywhere, doing anything.  Knowing Harper, he'll go someplace that he feels is safe.  But if he thinks we're all against him, he'd go somewhere we wouldn't expect."

"Oh, that makes perfect sense," Dylan muttered, loud enough for all to hear.  A delirious, paranoid engineer was roaming around his ship, who potentially considered them all enemies.

The Nietzschean shrugged, "Since when has Harper made sense?"

The engineer in question roamed the halls of the Andromeda.  His mind was whirling with a jumble of thoughts and images.  It was like the time the Perseid had downloaded a vast amount of knowledge into his mind.  Only this time, the information was his.  Seamus knew that there was something going on, something he was missing.  He just couldn't clear his thoughts enough to put his finger on it.

Harper found himself in his back quarters, pacing around frantically.  Before he was conscious of it, he'd engaged privacy mode.

Andromeda told him all about the guy who'd lived here, Lucas Sedgell.  He must have been a very good engineer to be assigned to her.  Yeah, he must have treated this AI like gold.  She told him about how funny Lucas was, how smart and brave and noble he was.  Hell, he probably never got sick either.

Harper sighed; he was always getting sick. It wasn't his fault but, people would always get mad at him.  He couldn't exactly help it.  Andromeda probably missed having an engineer who was healthy all the time. 

There wasn't anything he could do about that.  Furious at his weaknesses, the blond balled up his fist.  Those who knew him best knew he had a nasty temper.  While he was known for throwing things, tonight he was in the mood to hit something.

That thing turned out to be the wall.  When his clenched hand hit the bulkhead, he knew he'd broken it.  For a few moments, the shock clouded his thinking; then the pain ebbed and he looked down at his injury.  It was nasty; his hand hanged limply and he'd broken the skin somehow.  He'd have to get to Med-Deck and get this fixed…

No, no, he couldn't do that.  Ever since he'd been going to get those injections, his thinking had become weird.  Though his thoughts were racing in several different directions at once, he came up with one conclusion:  he was being poisoned.

Trance wouldn't do something like that to him. There had to be another explanation.  She was too innocent and sweet … too easily lied to; somebody was feeding her false information about what she'd been giving him.  There was only one person who would be able to get away with something like that. 

Andromeda.

It made perfect sense.  She missed Lucas Sedgell so much and she was giving him some kind of drug.  Maybe something that would confuse him, then when there was enough of it in his body, she'd try to mold him into a new version of her old engineer.  If she was really trying to do this, then there was a serious malfunction happening.

But what if it wasn't a malfunction?  Andromeda was an AI, but she was still a ship and there was only so much she could do acting independently.  She had to be getting her orders from somewhere and Dylan was the only person that popped into his mind. 

Dylan missed his old crew too; he didn't say it, but it was obvious to Harper.  He was always trying to make Beka a better first officer; he was telling Andromeda to teach Trance about medicine to replace their medical officer; Rev was a natural science officer. 

As for Tyr, Dylan's first officer had been a Nietzschean, there was a substitute right there!

He was different from the others; Rev and Trance took orders well, Beka was a great tactician, well, Tyr was Tyr.  Harper looked down at his clothing; he was about as far from a High Guard officer as you could get.  Small wonder Dylan wanted to improve him.  He was always telling him what to fix, when to sleep, as though he didn't know these things himself.

Damn, his hand was really hurting.  Seamus fumbled around his room, finally finding a clean T-shirt draped over his chair.  Grimacing, he wrapped the clothing around his hand.  The bandage was makeshift at best, but it was better than the stuff he'd had on Earth.

This conspiracy had only begun recently, Harper mused.  If it hadn't, he would have been converted by now.  Beka and Rev had been gone the whole time.  It was possible they weren't under Dylan and/or Andromeda's influence.  He had to get in touch with them somehow. Maybe they could help him fix whatever was wrong with Rommie.

Seamus stumbled out of the room, alert for any activity that was going on around him.  His quarters were secluded from the others', so he had a few minutes of leeway to accomplish his goal.

He was so distracted with his thoughts that he walked right into a droid, who was performing some menial maintenance job.  Staggering into them wasn't anything new for Harper, he was frequently distracted and didn't bother noticing.  This time, all he could think about was Andromeda telling him about how Sedgell would program the droids to walk into people's doors.

"This isn't funny," he muttered, his voice sounding small and distant, "this is so not funny that it's … really not."

A few minutes later found Harper at his destination.  It was an interesting little cranny of the ship he'd discovered when he'd first become a part of the crew.  The section was wide, but small; two people could easily fit inside, but there wasn't enough room for the engineer to stand upright.  But it had what he needed: a communication port and access to some of Andromeda's main systems.  Humming softly to himself, he set to work.  Part of him really hated to do this to the ship, but if she was damaged and was targeting him, he would have to make sure she couldn't stop him from fixing her.

She couldn't stop him if she couldn't find him.  Harper knew that he could grab a thermal blanket to distort his body heat, but the distortion would be picked up by her sensors.  He had had to make sure that she couldn't find him.  Seamus knew that he had to disappear … or keep her busy.

Thanking his luck, Seamus grabbed his tool belt and pulled out his cutting laser.  If he had forgotten to grab his belt, he'd be screwed; he set the laser to its lowest levels.  He didn't want to damage the ship, only distract her.  Seconds later, there was a blackened circle and a piece of metal on the ground and Harper had access to the necessary circuits.  His hand hurt like hell, but he forced himself not to think about it.

 "Seamus Harper strikes again," murmured the blond engineer.  "I'm sorry, Rommie."

On the bridge of the Andromeda, the avatar paused in mid sentence.  Dylan asked her what was wrong, but she didn't answer.  Her head tilted to the side and her eyes closed.  "Food processing unit … functioning at optimum level," her voice was far more mechanical than usual.  She continued to speak, citing systems and how well they were working.

"Damnit!" Dylan swore, resisting the urge to hit something.

"What's wrong with her?" Asked Trance, staring at the avatar curiously.

"Harper's setting her up on a thorough maintenance check," the High Guard captain explained.  "In the old days, this would only be done when the ship was in dry dock because, as you can see, she's totally defenseless."

"She won't be able to track him in this condition," Tyr stated with grudging respect.  Even the Nietzschean had to admit that it was a good move.  His people were most dangerous when their survival was threatened; the same was true for Harper.  The Human was smart to begin with, but if he felt that he was in trouble, he would do anything to preserve himself.

Dylan nodded his confirmation.  He added that the entire diagnostic process could take up to three half hours.  Meanwhile, the avatar continued to speak; her tone never changed and her eyes never opened.

Harper's hand was killing him and working with only one good one was awkward, but he soon managed what he set out to do.  He'd piggybacked his signal into the normal sounds of empty space.  Basically, he was hiding his transmission in nothingness.  It was a trick that he and Beka had used before, he only hoped she remembered it.  "Come on, come on," he muttered, running his injured hand through his hair and wincing as the injury protested.

Beka had known Seamus Harper a long time and there were certain things that remained constant about him, no matter what.  Harper tended to be a loner when he was working, but would never hesitate to ask for help otherwise.  She'd been counting on their old trick to come in handy.

She stared the computer screen and blinked twice to make sure her eyes weren't being deceptive.  No, Harper really did look that bad.  His eyes were wide and bloodshot, darting around frantically as though searching for enemies.  There was a fine sheen of sweat on his skin and there appeared to be something red in his hair.  The monitor he was using was small and he was leaning close to it, so his appearance only looked worse.

"Beka," he said, his tone frantic.  "Rommie's malfunctioning.  She's been making Trance drug me without her knowing about it.  I think that Dylan knows what's going on too, but you can never really tell what Tyr is thinking, so you've got to help me, please.  I've taken care of the ship for now, but I'll need some of the Maru's equipment to find out what the problem is.  Dylan and the others won't let me fix her…"

Beka listened to the whole thing.  She'd been expecting bad, but not this bad.  If Harper trusted her in this deluded state, she would have to work with that.  "I know, Harper," she said in her most calm voice.  "I'm going to dock the ship and you'll come on board, okay?  We can work something out from here.  Now, what have you done to Andromeda?"  She really didn't want to know the answer to this question.  Harper had a dark side that he didn't show often, but if he thought he was being threatened… Even Beka worried how far he'd go.

Harper made a dismissive gesture with his bandaged hand.  "She'll be fine, she's doing a self diagnostic that will keep her busy for a few hours."

Beka nodded, disguising her relief with satisfaction, "that's good.  Rev and I will be down to pick you up in twenty minutes.  Just hang tight and don't move."  She knew better than to push her luck and ask him to trust someone on the ship.

When she was done with the communication, Beka called the Andromeda.  Luckily, she was able to open a channel and speak to Dylan.  She told him of the situation, including her plan.  She didn't recognize the area where Harper was hiding, so she could only hope that he stayed where he was.  A deck by deck search by only Dylan, Tyr and Trance would take several hours.

Sitting in the small alcove, Harper's eyes widened with despair.  Did Beka really think he was stupid enough to not monitor her transmissions?  He heard everything she told Dylan in full surround sound.  She was in on it, too.  This whole thing had been going on longer than he thought.

Biting his lower lip to keep from whimpering, Harper leaned his head back against the bulkhead.  Unexpected tears threatened, but he held them off.  This wasn't the time to be upset.  Right now, he had to fix the ship and now he had to do it by himself.  He decided that he would still sneak on to the Maru.  When Andromeda was done with her diagnostic, she wasn't going to be happy.  Harper knew he could help her best from the other ship.

The Eureka Maru was still an hour and a half away; he resolved to stay where he was and wait for 'help' to arrive.

Dylan was not pleased.  His training had prepared him for all sorts of scenarios, but something like this had never been thought of before.  He sat down in the pilot's chair, lost in thought.  Tyr and Trance were doing their best to try and override the diagnostic command, but neither of them had the technical expertise that Harper did.

The engineering deck is the first place we'd look, the captain ruminated.  Harper wouldn't be stupid enough to go there.  Still, he managed to engage diagnostic mode and communicate with Beka, all in a relatively short time span.  He had to do it from one place, but what area of the ship besides Engineering and the bridge have those capabilities?

Of course, there was only one other place: the emergency command stations.  There were five of them on the ship. Knowing Harper, he'd found the one nearest to his quarters. They were in place in case the ship was overrun by hostile parties, High Guard people would still have access to vital systems that had the power to countermand anything done on the bridge.

"Tyr," he declared, drawing the others out of their intense conversation.  "I know where Harper is, you stay here in case Beka needs to speak to us again."

"You shouldn't go alone," Trance said, clearly worried.

"He'll be more agitated if there's too many of us," Dylan explained.  "I might be able to get through to him."  Dylan knew that Tyr wanted to go, but the captain also knew that his presence would be less threatening.  The last thing they wanted to do was agitate Harper any further.

He hated the prospect of having to fire on his crewman, but Hunt made certain his force lance was fully charged before leaving the bridge.

Over the past few months, Dylan had become used to the silence on his ship.  Before, there had always been activity.  For the first little while, the utter stillness of the vessel had made him uncomfortable.  He remembered holding still and listening, as if he could somehow hear some noise, any noise, being made by the ghosts of his former crew.

Now he was searching for any sound, craning his ears to make certain that Harper didn't get the jump on him.  He was so intent on finding his engineer that he didn't notice that a small bit of bulkhead had been cut away, leaving a sharpened edge exposed.  Dylan swore as his bicep hit the metal.  It pierced the material of his uniform and he felt a bit of blood welling up from the scratch.

Annoyed with his carelessness, Dylan continued forward…  until he felt something blunt pressing against the side of his neck.  "Old Earth trick I invented," Harper's voice was manic, raspy.  "Didn't work on the Nietz, but Human scavengers never figured it out."

Harper ushered the two of them into the emergency command station, but not before taking his captain's force lance.  Dylan now saw what the engineer was holding him hostage with: a cutting laser.  To others, it would seem a strange choice of weapon, but Hunt had seen the device slice through the thickest ship hull in a matter of minutes.  It would have no trouble slicing through human flesh.

He sat down as the young man commanded of him, trying to appear as non threatening as possible.  Harper sat across from him, sitting cross legged, but keeping the laser pointed directly at the other man.

From this position, Hunt was able to take stock of the situation.  Strategically, he was in a poor position and knew that his only chance was to talk the engineer out of this.  Hunt stared at the younger man, scrutinizing him.  The bandage on his hand was soaked red, but whatever the wound was appeared to have stopped bleeding.  Harper's skin was pasty and he was sweating, eyes darting around as though expecting an attack from every direction simultaneously.

"What happened to your hand?" Dylan asked.

"Hit a wall," replied Harper conversationally.

"Why don't you tell me what you're doing?" continued the captain.  "Maybe I can help you with it."

Harper snorted, never taking his eyes off  Hunt.  "Sure, destroy the plan you've been working on for who knows how long!  Doesn't that just make perfect sense?"

Dylan could only listen as Seamus went into a long diatribe about the conspiracy being perpetuated against him.  He spoke of Lucas Sedgell and how Andromeda had a serious malfunction because she could no longer tell him apart from Harper.  He mentioned how she hated how he got sick all the time, but decided to use this recent illness to her advantage to remake Sedgell using mind altering drugs without Trance's knowing about it. 

To Hunt, the words were pathetically misguided, but they would almost make sense to a madman.  Luckily, Harper had decided that the others weren't playing such a huge role in the conspiracy, rather, the ship itself was the cause of it.  He outlined his plans for once he got back into the Maru.

"If the Andromeda is malfunctioning," Dylan asked, "why don't you let me help you?  I have access to the ship's command codes.  It would be in everyone's best interests to fix a problem."

"I don't trust you," Seamus said bluntly.

The High Guard captain remained silent.  In his mind, he was calculating how long the Tylexine would be in Harper's system.  It had been more than two hours since the engineer had injected himself and it would take another four for it to run its course.  Beka would arrive in little under an hour.  Dylan examined his choices and decided that it was more plausible to not make any escape attempts unless he was certain of success.  This way, he could also keep an eye on Harper.

"Dylan should have been back by now," Trance declared, casting nervous glances towards the entranceway.  "It's been a long time and I don't have a good feeling about this."

Tyr looked up from his panel.  "Dylan can take care of himself."

"I know!" Trance exclaimed, "I just have a really bad feeling about this, that's all.  What if Harper doesn't recognize him?  What if he tries to hurt--"

"He has a force lance with him," the Nietzschean pointed out, "he'll use it if he has to.  Call Beka again and see when she will arrive."  It was pointless busywork, each of them knew exactly when she would be meeting them, but it would give the girl something to do.  He was not in the mood to listen to her complain.  However, if Dylan didn't arrive within ten minutes, he resolved to go down to the emergency command post himself.

Beka poured on every bit of speed the Eureka Maru's engines contained.  Her piloting skills were also serving her in good stead; some of the maneuvers she was attempting were borderline suicidal.  She glanced over at Rev and could have sworn the Magog looked a little space sick.  Worry was also evident, even on his alien features.

Of course, Rev was the only other member of the crew who had seen Harper's first exposure to Tylexine; this was shortly before the other crewmen left and Trance came aboard.

Valentine remembered it well.  Harper had come down with the nastier strain of Pavellian flu, so they'd stopped by a space port with decent medical facilities.  The facilities were average, but the staff was not.  Beka was helping Seamus into the medical ward and once there, a nurse asked her what he had, then injected him with Tylexine where he stood.

Satisfied, but annoyed, Beka had paid the medical fine and began to help her engineer back to the Maru.  The symptoms began to manifest quickly; he thought he could hear people talking about him.  She'd told Rev about the incident, then the Magog checked his limited medical database and discovered the possible allergic reaction.  They returned Harper to the medical ward.

In a matter of minutes, they had him strapped down in an isolated room.  The equipment required to flush his system took nearly fifteen minutes to arrive.  During that time, Beka sat with him.

Beka's eyes narrowed; she would never forget the look of betrayal in Harper's eyes.  His voice when he accused her of shipping him back to Earth ranged from heartbroken to furious.  The drug preyed on his worst fears -- real and imagined -- and merged them into something hideous.

In apology for the error, the station refunded their money.  Beka hadn't felt better until she'd punched out that idiot nurse.  Her lips pursed into a grim smile at the mental image, but her amusement didn't last long.  Harper had been a raving lunatic while under the normal dosage.  Now that it had been doubled -- "come on, Seamus, be all right."

After having a terse conversation with Beka, who had indicated that she was going as fast as possible, Tyr decided he could not wait any longer.  He stood up and made sure his force lance was secure.  To her credit, Trance did not comment on the weapon; she understood that it might be necessary.

Tyr made his way quickly to the appropriate deck, using the ladders instead of the lifts because they were quieter.  The Nietzschean's powerful eyes darted around as he listened for any sounds.  As he walked down the hall, he could make out faint mumurings; he couldn't hear the words being spoken, but recognized the voices as those of Dylan and Harper.  Stealthily, he approached the sound.  There was blood on a sharpened piece of bulkhead, but not enough to indicate a severe injury.  Tyr understood why the makeshift weapon was there and his respect for the engineer cranked up a notch.  It would be an effective trap … against Humans.

Without warning, the small, well camouflaged door to the emergency command post opened.  The Nietzschean's muscles tensed, ready to strike.  In an instant, he saw that wasn't advisable.  Harper had backed Dylan up into the far wall of the room, holding a weapon to his neck.  "Hey, Tyr," the engineer snapped, "what's up?"

The big man didn't respond.  He wasn't a negotiator and stood there in silence, waiting to capitalize on the moment when Harper let down his guard.  In his overly suspicious state, that wasn't likely to happen soon, but Tyr could be a patient man.  It was an effective standoff; Tyr and Harper had their eyes locked on each other, but the moment Dylan's body shifted at all, the cutting laser ground into his neck.  Slowly, the minutes trickled past.  None of them were willing to move.

After more than ten minutes of silence, the monitor began to beep, indicating an incoming transmission.  Harper's eyes flickered to it, "turn it on," he commanded to the captain.

"Why don't you?" Tyr retorted.

Absently, Harper held up his bloodied hand, "turn it on," he repeated, more forcefully.

"All right," Dylan said evenly.  He moved very slowly, making certain not to aggravate the situation with any hasty motions.  In one smooth motion, the monitor activated.  He saw the horror in Beka's eyes.

Tyr however, had known the blond captain longer.  He knew that she was troubled not by the situation, but because she had to consider Harper the threat.  It was always easier to fight a stranger.

"We're docking," Valentine announced simply, cutting the connection.

Harper rose unsteadily to his feet and Tyr reluctantly moved aside to allow he and Dylan room to leave.  To Nietzschean eyes, the faint tremors racking the engineer were obvious.  He suspected that it was the beginnings of shock.

Harper kept facing the Nietzschean, backing up towards the airlock where the Maru was kept.  Under other circumstances, it would be a poor maneuver, but all three men knew that there was nobody else on the deck.  With every step, the tremors increased.

Tyr moved with him at a distance that didn't appear threatening, but which he could cross quickly if he chose to disarm Harper.  If there was one place he could do that, it would be when they climbed up the ladder to get to the above deck.

Dylan decided to allow Harper to board the Maru and not give him any trouble.  If he trusted Rev and Beka, then being in their presence would only calm him.  He climbed up the ladder obediently, silently ordering Tyr to do the same. 

He knew that the Nietzschean would rather act on this potential advantage, but Dylan had learned that sometimes going along with a situation was the best strategy.  The safest solution was to allow the Tylexine to run its course without having to injure the engineer.

 

However, if Harper thought to try and 'fix' Rommie from the Maru, then action would be taken to stop him.  The walk was made in silence and allowed Captain Hunt to ruminate on the situation.  He opened the airlock doors where the Maru was docked.  Rev and Beka were not in sight.

The moment he saw the entrance to the Eureka Maru, Harper felt a wave of relief hit him.  Blindly, he shoved Dylan away from him and ran inside, closing the hatch behind him as he went.  He dropped the cutting laser, relieved that he could now set to work.

"Seamus?" it was Beka's voice.

He turned to look at her and groaned as wave of dizziness struck him.  He held still for a moment, trying to ignore the throbbing in his hand.  He had to get to work … had to fix Rommie - - "Bek?" he murmured, his voice shaking.  What was wrong with him; he had to fix the ship!

"Harper, you're hurt," it was Rev's voice, but he sounded so far away.

The engineer stared at them, wide eyed; he tried to speak, but only succeeded in opening his mouth.  It was as though the effort of getting the words out was too much for him.

Beka correctly interpreted the look on her engineer's face.  She was in position to catch him even as his knees gave out.  Rev was by her side, examining the young man's vital signs.  "He's gone into shock," the Magog explained.  "We need to get him to the medical deck."

Valentine nodded and with her science officer's help, they looped one of Harper's arms around each of their necks and began to take him back to the Andromeda.  Tyr and Dylan were waiting by the airlock and took the engineer from their grasp.

Rev theorized that Harper's paranoia had cause a massive influx of adrenaline in his system, which allowed him to function and ignore his broken hand.  When he boarded the Maru, everything came to a head.  They repaired his hand, though he would have to work with it gingerly for a week or so, but he would recover.  After snapping out of her diagnostic induced haze, Andromeda confirmed this.

Harper knew he was in Med-Deck; he could tell by the medicinal smell of it.  He could also tell that Trance was nearby, she would start humming when she thought he was asleep.  Even knowing that Rommie was monitoring him, Seamus wanted to wait until Trance was gone; then he would make a retreat with his tail between his legs, so to speak.

For the first ten minutes he'd been awake, he'd been trying to convince himself that it had all been some kind of bizarre hallucination.  The dull ache in his hand convinced him otherwise.  He made a mental note to stick to throwing things around when he got mad and let other people punch stuff.

He lay on the examining bed, perfectly still, pleased that his ruse was working.  His purple friend had grown quiet, but she hadn't left the room.  Not knowing where she was made him nervous.  It took all of his willpower not to react when Trance leaned towards him, whispering into his ear, her breath warm against his cheek.  "I know you're awake, Harper, but since you don't want to talk to me now, we'll do it later."  Seconds later, he heard the door open and close.  Quite a girl, that Trance.

As soon as she was gone, the engineer was on his feet.  He made it two steps towards the door before Andromeda appeared before him in holographic form.  Briefly, he toyed with the idea of engaging privacy mode, but he knew he couldn't avoid her forever.  "You're awake," she declared.

"No, you're dreaming about me," replied Harper with some of his usual humour.

"Do you remember what happened?" asked Andromeda, unfazed by his attempt at levity.

Yes, now you're going to torture me with it for the rest of my life.  "Uh, no, what are you talking about, Roms?  Did I get sick again?"

"Of course you don't remember," the AI replied, matching his sarcasm with her own.  "That's why you were laying there for twenty minutes, pretending to be asleep."

He shrugged nonchalantly, "I was tired."

She tilted her head at him, her expression akin to kindness.  "I hope you realize that this wasn't your fault.  If anything, I should have advised Trance to perform the blood test."

"But I still did everything, Andromeda," he replied darkly.  She was surprised by his use of her full name, but he didn't notice.  "If one of those galactic nasties we seem to attract had decided to get the jump on us, he wouldn't have had a problem and it would have been my fault.  I didn't trust you, I - I didn't trust anyone."

"There was no permanent damage done," she informed him.  "I was due for a self diagnostic anyway."  When this failed to appease him, she continued.  "Do you know what the other possible allergic reaction to Tylexine is?  If you hadn't entered that paranoid state, you would have gone into convulsions and died.  If you ask me, a little distrust is far preferable."

Seamus stared at her for a long time.  She had a great poker face, but he was good at reading people.  He squinted at her, as though searching for signs of betrayal.  When he found none, his body relaxed.  "I'm really sorry, Rommie."  Somehow, that sounded awfully stupid.

She smiled at him, "it was better than the alternative."

Just as she was going to disappear, he called her name.  "Yes?" she inquired.

"I really enjoyed hearing about your old crew," Harper said.

With her back to him, he didn't see her smile.  She nodded and vanished.

Meanwhile, the avatar sat staring out a view port on the starboard side.  She detected Dylan coming up behind her and made no move to ignore him, merely gestured to the empty spot beside him so he could sit down.  "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can't help but feel that this was my fault," she said.  Rev had once told her that it was good to share one's feelings, but now she realized why it was hard for many people to do.

"The Tylexine is to blame," Dylan informed her.  While Harper was still unconscious, the captain made certain that any recorded allergies his crewmen had were downloaded into medical files like those used by his former crew.  Also, Andromeda now knew to conduct blood sample testing on any unfamiliar medicine.  They had learned from this and it would not happen again.

"But I was telling him about the crew," she replied.  "He asked me about it.  I told him one story, I couldn't stop.  He just sat there and listened, growing more and more agitated and I just kept going.  I advised him to sleep in Sedgell's quarters, they look so much alike, why did I--?"

"It was a coincidence, Rommie," the captain said.  "It was a strange coincidence, but that's all it was.  Nobody was at fault here and no permanent damage was done."  He stared into her face for a long time, then took a deep breath.  "You miss them, don't you?"

"I'm only starting to realize how much," she murmured.

"Me too," Dylan replied.  It was hard for him to talk about his long gone crew.  They had become a part of him, having them taken away in what felt like the blink of an eye was a terrible wound.  It was only now, with the help of his unpredictable new crew that his pain was beginning to ease.  Until now, he hadn't wanted to dredge up memories of the past.  He'd forgotten that he wasn't the only one who still remembered.

A small, soft smile played across his face.  "Do you remember the thirty first birthday party they threw for Susan Horner?"  It was the first memory that came to his mind, partially because the event had been so memorable.

The avatar returned the smile, "they were cleaning up for four hours afterwards."

They sat there and talked.  Both had been leery of this subject, not wanting to renew the pain of their shared loss.  However, as they traded anecdotes, they found that the memories were not painful at all; if anything, they were cathartic.  The first crew of the Andromeda Ascent deserved to be remembered joyously, not ignored for fear of causing damage.  Their ghosts had to be put to rest.

After a week of subtle and not-so-subtle avoidance, Harper had spoken to Dylan.  As he'd expected, the captain was forgiving, but Harper still felt bad.  It wasn't every day he made that big an ass out of himself.  Everyone told him to blame the Tylexine, but his mind had come up with the fantasies, and he acted out on them.

He couldn't help but worry; what if they thought he didn't trust them?  Seamus knew that Beka would understand, they'd been through a lot together.  She understood that if he didn't trust them, he would have been long gone by now.  He could only hope that the others believed that too.

It was night shift and Harper lay in bed, the back of his head pillowed by his hands.  Without moving too much, he gazed around the room.  Andromeda told him about the others, because he wanted to know them.  Even before the Tylexine, he'd been curious about her old crew.  He didn't regret that, and now that he knew about the man who'd lived in this room before, he felt strangely relieved.  He didn't have to be curious any more.  He could finally put his paranoid delusions to rest.

For the first time in two weeks, he felt safe enough in these quarters to sleep.

THE END