Disclaimer: I own nothing and I am getting no money
Summery:
Enter Harper (Read the A/N too)
A/N: This is the start (not that it matters later) of a series, the
"The Bar Was Loud" series. They will
all start with the same paragraph and will all be a different genre. I hope you enjoy.
The bar was loud. The band in the corner played their
instruments while their singer screamed as she bobbed her head wildly and
gyrated her hips. It was so loud Beka could barely hear her own thoughts. This whole city was loud. It was a lousy, dirty, crowded, and loud
city. Beka pushed through the dense
wall of patrons and made her way to the bar.
It took a few minutes to get the bartender's attention, but when she had
it she ordered a vodka tonic. While she waited for her drink she looked out
into the crowd.
"You will
marry my daughter." A large burly man
said. Beka looked up in surprise. It was a surprising thing to hear. As she expected the man wasn't talking to
her, but a little blonde man standing next to her.
"She's
a lovely girl but…" the blond was nervous.
Beka looked at him, underweight and pale she figured he was from
Earth. She wondered how he got off
Earth; you don't find many Earthers around, most were slaves or still on the
planet. The big man growled.
"I can't"
"She wants you"
"But, uhm, I'm already married"
Beka felt herself being grabbed around her wrist and being pulled closer to the
human. She turned and glared at him;
she didn't want to be involved in this guy's problem. She had her own, she was
just here to get her slip drive fixed.
His eyes were a nice cold blue and they pleaded with her to help him
out. He was still a kid, no more than
20 if he was a day. Beka sighed and
smiled at the fuming father.
"He sure is," she drawled with a
thick southern accent. She might come
back here one day; she didn't want to be wife of the Earther every time.
"I don't believe you" the man
sneered. Beka couldn't see what was
coming until it was too late. Her
"husband" tipped her back and planted a kiss on her lips. He was not a bad kisser. An idea that one day would horrify her, as
much as knowing your little brother as a good kisser would horrify anyone.
"See, my wife", he said setting her
back on her feet. To her great surprise
he held up her hand. "Wedding ring and
all" On her hand was a silver ring, a ring that wasn't there before. "Well, I better be going" Smiling he started
to lead Beka out of the bar.
"SHE CHOSE YOU, RUNT, AND YOU AINT
GONNA DISAPOINT HER!" Roared the
father. Beka felt like her arm was
going to ripped out of its socket as the little blonde guy took off, still
holding her wrist. He was quite a
runner. Now she was sure he was from
Earth, her father had told her about what an awful planet it was. The
non-runners didn't last long there. The
little guy ran out of the bar and through the crammed streets, and the big guy
followed. Lucky for Beka, Mr. Survival
Skills lost his pursuer pretty fast.
"I'm Harper by the way" he smiled
when he finally stopped. This guy sure
smiled a lot for someone who had just been chased through the city by a
hulking, furious father.
"Beka Valentine, you owe me big
buster"
"You are right, I do babe. How can
I make it up to you?" He batted his
eyelashes coyly.
"Isn't that how you got in that
mess?"
"Of course not! I did no dishonor
to the lady. She wanted a husband and was captivated by my boyish good
looks."
"And then her father got involved?"
"Yeah, she's his little princess
and he gives his princess what she wants"
"Well, you had an interesting plan
for getting away"
"Thank you, I am a genius after
all"
"Are you now? Then tell me how you got this ring on my
finger?" The boy smiled.
"It's not a ring, it's a 6cm slip
drive heating coil. It was in my pocket
and I slipped it on your finger while everyone was distracted by the kiss"
"Sounds like you might be a genius,
and probably an engineer"
"I am a fixer of all things"
"My slip drive needs fixing, can
you do it?"
"It would be my pleasure, boss"
"Stay Back" Harper warned, holding
Beka back from boarding the Maru. Craning
her neck to see around him and into the ship she only saw Rev. She sighed and
pushed past the boy's arm.
"That's Rev Bem, my science
officer", she explained
"A Magog?"
"He's safe. Calm down Harper!" the boy was nearly
trembling. Stiff and continually
watching his back Harper followed Beka to the engines.
"So what do you here?" he asked
nervously
"Salvage" the look on his face made
it like he had expected her to say she and her Magog raided small
villages. "It's good honest work." Upon
seeing his task Harper loosened up a bit and crawled into the engines. Actually inside them!
"Wow, you've really let your
engines go"
"I have not!" Beka stated indignantly. But she admitted,
"Well, our last engineer had a pretty nasty Flash addiction."
"You can tell" Beka smirked in
disbelief.
"I'm sure" The last engineer was
her father's engineer for years. He had
kept the Maru running, in between hits of course.
"Ship
should run better without this welder stuck in here." He pulled a pencil like tool out and handed it to Beka. There was a bit of banging and a couple of
minutes latter he emerged. "You're all
set"
"That's
it?" it had taken longer to get him on the ship than it had to fix it.
"Yes my
beautiful wife. It hardly taxed my
extensive skill. See foreign object
jammed in guts of drive, remove object, pound guts of drive back in place; It's
simple. You are all set to go and leave
me now." He pretended to be near tears. Beka smiled, she could get used to having
this kid around.
"How about sticking around?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, Rev and I could use the
help". Harper glanced at the Magog again.
Oh well,
"Sure, I'll give it a go"
