Stranded

by X3

Trance and Harper are kidnapped and stranded

Title: Stranded

Disclaimer:  I own nothing and I am getting no money

The negotiations weren't going too well, they seemed to be going nowhere.  Dylan wrung his hands together and was looking across the table at the Nietzchiens.  They weren't budging.  Rommie sat to his left and Beka to his right.  Both women looked bored.  Trance flicked her tail absently and Tyr glared at her.  She wished she hadn't asked to be included in the negotiations, this was so boring.  Rev had a lot of patience but even he saw the futility of this meeting.  Just then, Harper came in with his tools, attracting the gaze of everyone in the room.  "Just be a minute." He assured them, crouching down and peering into an access port.  He was a welcome distraction.  Diab, leader of this Niezchien pride, looked down at the screen in his hand and looked back to Hunt. This pride, the Ukiah were willing to consider becoming a part of the Commonwealth.  If Dylan could convince them.

"I think we can work together, Captain" Diab smiled, an odd response from a Niezchien. 

"Excellent" suddenly Diab pulled out a blaster of some sort and leveled it at Dylan.  Tyr attempted to intervene, but he found blasters leveled at himself and all his crewmates in the room. How had this happened? Why hadn't he noticed there were 7 of them and 7 in his crew?  Diab had even requested Rev's participation when the monk turned to leave before this meeting.  How could he have let his goal blind him to everything?  Tyr had warned him, he had ignored him.  Now what was going to happen? 

Diab nodded to his crewman across the room that was holding Harper.  The Niezchien nodded back in agreement and shackled the engineer's hands behind him.

"Hey" Harper complained.  Diab cocked the trigger and pushed the gun closer to Hunt's head.  "Alright, Alright calm down. I'll take a little vacation with you."  They pushed Harper to the door. 

"Take the pixie too", the Neitzchien captain ordered. 

"Why?  We have the human.  We don't need that one."

            "She's unique" So Trance found herself in the same shackled position as her friend.  Diab released Hunt but made it clear if any attempt to stop them from leaving was made a hostage would be decorating the walls.  Then Harper and Trance were led away to the scoundrel's waiting ship while their shipmates wondered if they would ever see them alive again. 

                        The Neitzchien ship's cargo hold was dark and that is where they dumped the Andromeda crew.  Harper could feel the ship enter slipstream and knew they were speeding away from his home.  Trance was afraid and had drawn her knees to her chest while she huddled near her friend.  "There's nothing to worry about babe" he lied to her.  She didn't believe him, she wasn't that naïve.    

            "I think they wanted Harper." Beka commented

            "You think the fact they took Harper wasn't a coincidence, that they picked him on purpose?" Dylan was skeptical.

            "Yeah, did you notice they suddenly got more agreeable to your terms after Harper showed up to fix the life support systems?"

            "They were just using the negotiations to get at Harper? Why?"

            "I don't know, but what else did they gain besides their hostages?"

"I'm not sure, but why is Harper important enough to go to all this trouble?"  Beka didn't have an answer to Dylan's question.  She had known Harper for a while now; when she met him he was a scrawny and emaciated kid, who had impressed her with his way with machines.  But, he had never seemed like someone people would kidnap.  Rev suddenly got out of his seat and retrieved something from the floor.

"Will this shed any light on what happened?"  Rev asked holding up the little screen Diab had brought.  On the screen was Harper.  Beka was right.  The Neitzchien had never wanted to join the Commonwealth, they weren't representatives of their pride, and were really, a rouge group who acquired things, for a hefty fee.  They had been paid to get Harper, and from the looks of things their resident handyman fetched a good price.  Despite his ill health, his cerebral interface and his reputation for problem solving had attracted a buyer, who was willing to pay, and pay a lot to own Harper. 

Harper had been sold as a slave and according to these documents, he was to be dropped off at the agreed upon planet to be picked up by his new master.  Unfortunately, the planet wasn't mentioned and they didn't have much time to find it.  Their only chance was to find the planet and rescue Harper before his new master claimed him.   They also had to hope they dumped Trance on the planet too, if they were separated it would mean a fight with the Nietzchiens.  

            Diab pushed Harper forward "Hey man, no need to push." Trance stayed quiet and let herself be led.  They had landed on a planet and were being escorted off the ship.

            "Shut up human". The planet was deserted.  From the looks of things they had evacuated or been killed during a Magog or Neitzchien raid long ago. 

"Where are we?"

"What part of shut up do you need explained?"  After they had walked a few minutes Diab pushed Harper to the ground near an abandoned building. He sat with his knees drawn up to his chest, feet on the ground.  Trance soon joined him down there, sitting by his feet and facing him. Diab tied Harper's wrists behind him and around the building's drainpipe. Then he tied Trance's against Harper's ankles.  Then Diab turned and left.  Leaving them alone in the cloud of dust kicked up by their ship as it took off.

"This is really not how I planned to spend my day.  I mean this whole being kidnapped and stranded thing is really going to mess with my maintenance schedule."

            "Put your legs flat"

            "Why"

            "I'll untie us silly", Harper did as he was bade and Trance crawled into his lap.  She was very limber.  Her tail snaked around and started working on the knots that connected them.  Despite the seriousness of the situation Harper found himself noticing that Trance smelled like honey.  She was so close he couldn't help it.  "There" she announced triumphantly as she stood up.  She made short work of the last knot on Harper.  "Now what?"

            "I guess we find a way back to Andromeda, as long as you're done with this whole stranded on a desolate world thing."  Trance smiled a little.

            "How?"

            "That I am still working on.   But, fear not babe, I am a genius so it won't be that hard" They started looking around the burned out and deserted huts.  The huts really were deserted.  No food, no water, just broken things.  Broken furniture, knocked over tables and chairs, all the shelves and cabinets empty and open.  Someone had cleaned these places out.  It reminded him a little of Earth after a Nietzchien attack.  Harper saw something under an overturned table.  He held it over his head triumphantly.

            "What is it?" Trance asked

"It's a computer; kind of" he explained

            "It doesn't look like a computer"

            "It's ancient, primitive even. But it is a computer and it may help us get out of here."

            "Really!?!"

"You are lucky you happened to get dropped on a deserted, potentially hazardous planet with a genius."

They didn't find anything else in the ruins.  "It's going to rain."  Trance announced

"Is it?"

"Yes" At that very moment the sky opened up and the rain poured down. 

"Wow!" Harper gasped  "talk about accurate" The rain was soaking them through, Harper held his bright blue Hawaiian print shirt over Trance and himself while Trance clutched the computer.  It didn't defend them against the rain too much, but he tried.  The grassless ground had turned into sucking mud.  Looking around for a way out of the rain and the mud that wanted to hold them in place. 

"Mountain?"  Trance asked pointing to the mountain.  The ground did seem firmer up there.  So Harper nodded and followed Trance up the mountain. 

The two strandees made their way up the incline.  The rain continued to pour down around them, but the mud was better.  Harper gave upon the shirt umbrella and Trance handed him the computer.  Thunder exploded and Trance shrieked in surprise.  Harper laughed as followed behind her single file through a tight passage.  The next moments happened so fast.  There was a bright light; a deafening crashing and Trance whirled around.  She saw Harper, bent over at the waist, amid a pile of fallen rocks.  "Keep going!" he ordered with considerably more authority than he usually had.  Trance jumped a little, turned around again and kept going forward.  Ahead of her was a cave and she ducked inside.  Harper followed her and sunk to his knees, head bowed and leaning over the computer.

Slowly, he put a hand to the side of his head; it came back stained red with his blood.  "Damn" he muttered, the pain he could ignore but if he passed out from blood loss he wasn't going to be much help to anyone.  He bent over the keys of the little computer.  It was a tragically archaic piece of machinery and he wished he had a connector so he could interface with the little device. But, if anyone could make it work it was him. 

Trance watched Harper pounding away at the little machine.  Then she noticed the blood; Harper had a gash just above his right temple.  The wound looked serious, blood seeping from it.  His blonde hair was stuck to the side of his head and its light color had been tarnished from the amount of blood in it.  "Harper!" she gasped

"It's not too bad." He explained without looking up from his work.  He knew she was worried about the wound but they really didn't have time to stop so she could treat him.   But that was not good enough for his purple friend.  She made a thick pad out of material from her pants.  Mud stained the bottoms, but most was still clean enough to use.  Then she sat down next to him and pressed it firmly to the side of his head.  "Hey, ow, we don't have time for this" he complained, still not letting his fingers stop dancing across the keys.

"You keep working and I'll stop you from bleeding to death"

"Sounds good to me" Trance ripped a long strip of fabric from the middle of her shirt, bearing her midriff.  "Very nice babe"

"Keep your mind on the job Harper" Up on her knees she used the strip to hold the folded fabric to the wound.  Harper squirmed with discomfort but didn't say anything as Trance tied her knots.  She stayed kneeling next to him, pressing hard against the wound until the bleeding stopped.  Pleased with her work she settled back and watched him work.  His lesion looked serious, and because it was Harper it was very likely going to become infected.

  Despite the painful appearance of the gash it didn't seem to be bothering Harper.  Trance sadly touched the hair on the top of her friend's head that wasn't covered by her bandage.  She knew why it wasn't bothering him; well not exactly why, but enough to understand.  In his life he had experienced more pain than a head wound.  Growing up in the camps had more than prepared him for being stranded on a hostile planet, bleeding, and starving.  "You Alright?' he asked, still typing away.

"Just thinking", she explained

Trance stood up and surveyed the cave.  It was just a big, empty stone room really.  "I'm going to look for some food," she announced.  Trance had eaten all day; she'd missed breakfast and now really regretted it.  She didn't when Harper had last eaten, but it had to have been a while.  The negotiations had started early and it was well past dark now.  "Be careful" Harper warned absently, he had opened up the computer, taken things out, closed it back up, and was now fiddling with some part. 

Trance returned empty handed an hour later.  The rain had stopped but there was no food to be found.  All the plants were dead.  She was tired and hungry as she sat down next to Harper.  He was still working, and humming. 

His condition was deteriorating; he knew it.  His head was pounding and the gash burned and throbbed.  His breath rattled in his chest.  Trance had fallen asleep and her head was resting in his lap.  Harper touched her soft, tri-colored hair absently.  He knew he was in bad shape and didn't have much time.  A head wound was serious; there was no denying that.  He had lost a lot of blood; it was beginning to make him light headed.  He wondered exactly how much blood he lost. 

Trance had fallen asleep leaning against Harper.  While she slept she had fallen into his lap, and that is where she found herself now.  She had awakened hours after she had decided to lean into Harper's shoulder and rest her eyes when she heard a soft click near her head.  Harper had ejected some sort of small round disk.  Sitting up she looked at Harper's face.  He was sweating, incredibly pale, and his glassy eyes were drifting closed.  Quickly removing the homemade bandage, she found the gash on the side of his head was no longer bleeding but it looked infected.  It had puffed up, was red, and inflamed.  The caked on dried blood was flaking off.  "I made a beacon, if they're looking for us we stick out like a sore thumb" he explained as he fell back onto the cave floor.  He'd done it again; saved the day but worked until he simply collapsed. Trance knew he had exhausted himself and his body was being plagued by yet another infection.  Harper had quite a work ethic, but it was going to kill him.  He refused to rest until the work was done.  Even back on the Maru he would go days without eating or sleeping when he got into solving a problem.  Sitting him up she donated her sleeves to redress the injury.  His neck was limp and he couldn't hold his head up without her hand.  After his head was taken care of she gently eased him against the floor of the cave again.

"Dylan!"  Beka yelled banging on his door. He came out rubbing his eyes.  He had only been asleep for about an hour but he had spent the last 18 hours working on finding this planet the Nietzchiens had left Harper, and hopefully Trance.  They hadn't had much luck, the universe was a big place.  "We might have found them!"

"Really?"

"Rommie is detecting a signal.   It's on an old radio frequency being amplified and redirected."

"And you think it's Harper?"

"It's old rock music"

"How far?"

"4 jumps.  We're on our way already"

"Glad I made that decision"

"When it comes to my crew being sold as slaves, we don't wait."

There was nothing she could do for him.  They were alone here, in a cave, with no access to medical supplies.  Harper had a head wound that was wrapped in fabric from her clothes and seriously infected.  He had managed to create a beacon that should wind up getting them off this planet out of some old computer.  He was amazing, and the first one to tell you so.  Now he was lying on the cave floor doing his best to hang onto life.  Trance curled up nearby, wrapping her tail around her.  The cave was cold at night and Harper had most of her pants and her sleeves around his head.  She hoped he was warm enough; things would only get worse if he went into shock.  She certainly was cold and she wrapped her tail around her more tightly.  She was shivering and trying to sleep when she heard Harper. 

"Trance?" his voice was weak and when she opened her eyes she found he was looking at her.

"Yes, Harper?" she asked crawling over to him.  He smiled at her the best he could

"You look cold"

"It's not too bad"

"You know I just got this head wound so I could get a better look at your legs."  His voice was soft and his joke didn't have quite the tone he wanted.  Reaching out he guided her to the floor and against his body.  "Body Heat" he explained.  He was right; it was warmer lying against him. 

"Thanks"

"Hey, it's selfish to hog a perfectly good fever."  He was right yet again; his body was hot with fever.  Trance snuggled against the human and he put his arm around her.  She could hear his heart beating in his chest under her ear.  She felt warm and peaceful as she listened to the steady rhythm.   Thrum-dum Thrum-dum Thrum-dum, it was a constant, ceaseless sound that reassured and comforted her.

They looked at the screen, at the planet where Harper was.  It was deserted, bombed out by some ancient enemy.  Beka really hoped this planet wasn't like Earth.  Harper had escaped he didn't need to relive any of it.

"I'm taking the Maru" Dylan announced leaving the command deck and heading for the hanger.

"Yeah right!"  Beka yelled chasing after him.  "My ship, my crew, my help on the rescue."  There was no arguing with her. 

They landed on the planet as close to the source of the signal as they could.  The signal seemed to come from up on this mountain.  They stepped out into the hot sun and looked up.  How had they gotten up there?  Rommie had made a portable device that was capable of picking up the signal.  Looking at the screen it seemed his crew wee about halfway up the mountain.

"There" Beka said pointing to a slightly worn path in the sand and rocks.

"Too small, look up there, they would have to fit through that skinny pass between those outcroppings of rock."

"How big do you think Harper is? He squeezes in every nook and cranny Andromeda has.  Now let's go!"

They hiked up the sandy mountain as fast as they could.  At the outcropping Beka barely slowed down, but Dylan barely made it through.  On the other side they found the remains of a rockslide, and blood.  Dylan suddenly realized Harper might be dead.  He couldn't let Beka be the one to find him.  Harper was like her little brother.  The source of the signal was just ahead.  "Wait here" he ordered

"No way!"  Dylan looked at the blood, then back at her.  The look in his eyes left no room for question.  She realized why he was saying this, this was Harper's blood spilled on the ground.  "Fine" she relented.

Dylan followed the signal into a large cave.  There he found his missing crew members, fast asleep.  Harper was lying on the cave floor with Trace asleep in his arms.  Trance had wrapped her tail around them both and was nuzzling the engineer's chest in her sleep.  If it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation Dylan would have thought it was adorable.  The signal was originating from a little black machine in the middle of the floor.  The machine was making a little whirring noise and it was producing the signal Andromeda had been following.  "Good Morning" he said clearing his throat.  Trance jumped up, pausing only a moment to extract her tail from under Harper.

"Captain!"  She exclaimed.   Harper's eyes slowly drifted open due to the commotion. Dylan frowned; Harper looked bad, really bad. He was pale as death, sweating, and shivering with chills.  Trance was trying to help her friend to his feet.  The engineer's slight frame was suddenly thrown forward as he stumbled.  Dylan quickly crossed the space between them and placed a large hand under Harper's elbow.  In this weakened state Harper seemed so small to his captain.

"Hey boss" he quipped feebly.  He looked so tiny and young hurt like this.  How old was Harper anyway?  He couldn't be 24 yet; no wonder Tyr called him a boy.   Beka appeared at the mouth of the cave.  Dylan hadn't yelled or cursed, or cried so she figured Harper was all right.  She gasped at the sight of Harper. He wasn't all right. He was being supported entirely by Dylan and Trance.  Blood stained rags were wrapped around his head.  He smiled at her though, "Hey boss". With both Dylan, Trance and Trance's tail helping to support Harper they led him out of the cave.  Dylan could easily have picked Harper up and carried him back to the ship, but it seemed important to Trance that she helped and he doubted they would get him back to Andromeda any faster that way. 

            Harper was back in his own bed on Andromeda.  His head had been stitched up and was dressed with clean white bandages.  Andromeda was keeping a close watch on him.  He was going to be okay.  Trance was eating a big breakfast.  Why she had chosen that meal was a mystery, but most Trance related things were.  Things were getting back to normal.  Well, as normal as things got on a ship where a more than 300 year old man from a dead civilization who was betrayed by a Nietzchien, worked with a Nietzchien from a betrayed pride, a captain who treats her ship like it's her child, a purple girl that no one even knows what species she is, let alone anything about her past, an avatar of the ship's AI, a Magog who is also a Wayist monk, and a human who happens to be terrified of the Magog.