Seamus Harper was in absolute ectasy.
If a magical being from the future had told him last year what he was doing today, he would have just laughed. But his recent dreams (well, most of them anyways) had become reality. Just as Ajax and his Dream Catcher had predicted.
Harper could recall every experience that he had in the Dream Catcher. In his fantasy world, himself, Trance, and Rev lived on Earth - an Earth where Humans and Magog could co-exist peacefully. He knew that it wasn't real...but it felt real.
But enough thinking about the past, Harper he thought to himself. Think about the present...and the future. And here he was, on a small slipshuttle with Trance the sparkly purple alien babe, and Rev the religious Wayist Magog - heading towards Earth, making his dream of peaceful coexistence between Humans and Magog become a reality.
His only regret was that he couldn't take the Maru, which would have gotten him there in half the time. But Harper didn't have any intention of returning to the Andromeda...and the Maru belonged to Beka, after all. Harper was already on bad terms with her and didn't want to make things worse.
Out of the three people on the slipshuttle, Harper was the best pilot. But even he needed to take a break every now and then. So when Harper was on his break, he took a look at the Dream Catcher.
He didn't know exactly why he had packed it. But he remembered Ajax's words:
"You saw what you needed to see. Now go and let someone else have that
oppertunity."
Mabye some Magog could make a use out of it, he thought to himself. After thinking for another minute or two, Harper tossed the Dream Catcher aside and used the rest of his break to get some much-needed sleep.
*****
"Wake up, Harper!"
A groaning sound was being emitted from underneath the covers of Harper's bed.
"Come on, quit groaning and get up...we're here!"
That got Harper's attention. He lifted the covers to see Trance looking down at him. He blinked for a moment and sat up. "How long was I asleep for?"
"You've been sleeping for two days straight. Rev and I agreed that you needed it."
"So, where exactly are we?"
Trance shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know, never been to Earth before. But we're parked in a field in the center of a city. A very big city. There are a few camps of people scattered around the area that we picked up on the scanner earlier, but nobody is nearby. We should be safe wherever we are. You're right about needing to make the place look pretty though, because many of the buildings are in ruin or destroyed. Rev left to scout out the area. He should be back soon.
"SHIT!" Harper hit his head. Hard. "You shouldn't have let Rev go, not all humans are accepting as yours truly. Magog may be tough, but a pack of humans with packs of ammo won't have any trouble making meat out of Rev. We can't let him be seen by the others, at least not yet. Come on...we have to go find him!"
Harper jumped out of bed and grabbed a force lance. "I trust you know how to operate one of these..." He threw it towards Trance, who caught it with her tail. Harper then grabbed another that was formely hidden in the closet. The two of them ran out of the shuttle into the field.
Suddenly Harper stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to look at Trance. "Trance, this isn't a field. It's a baseball diamond."
"Oh. We'll still be safe here right?"
"Yeah...looks abandoned to me. Now let's get going, we can't waste any time with finding Rev!"
It took them a while to find their way out of the baseball diamond, but eventually Trance and Harper made their way out and into the heart of the city.
Harper didn't recognize any of it. He was born and raised on a small farm in the praries and had only seen pictures of Earth cities. But the pictures were from before the Magog attacks, when the cities populated millions of people.
He would be lucky if they could find twenty here. Almost everything was abandoned and in disrepair. It saddened Harper to see the fate of the great cities of Earth.
Himself and Trance searched for hours...but they could not find a single person. Disappointed, they headed back to the slipshuttle to see if they could enhance the scanners, and triangulate Rev's position on the planet.
But then something happened. Something called luck. Trance was the first to hear it.
*CRASH!*
She stopped dead in her tracks. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Harper gave her an odd look.
"I heard a funny noise. It sounded like breaking glass."
*CRASH!*
"There it is again!"
"Yeah, I heard it that time. Might as well check it out, unless you have a better idea..." Trance shook her head no.
They ran in the direction of the sound.
A short while later Harper and Trance arrived outside a bar. Neon lights were flashing on the outside and chatter could be heard from the inside. The place was obviously populated.
*CRASH!*
The mysterious crashing noise was coming from an alley behind the bar. Harper could see two shadows there. One of them was Magog.
"Stand back, Trance. I think Rev's being attacked behind the alley."
Harper ran into the alley, jumped over a box, whipped out his force lance and fired two shots at the Magog's attacker. The attacker, a human male, grabbed his chest and fell to the ground, slouched against a box.
"Rev! Are you okay?"
The Magog made no noise, it was laying unconsious against a large pane of glass.
"Trance! Get over here and help Rev! I'm gonna have a little chat with his attacker." Trance rushed to go help Rev.
Harper grabbed and lifted the human by his collar. "Why were you fighting him!"
The man spat out blood, and blinked a few times. "Cuz it's a Magog, they're taking over the damn planet and...wait a minute...are you Shay Harper?"
It was Harper's turn to blink. He looked at the man's face. "No...it couldn't be! You...you're dead!"
The man laughed. "It's been a long time..."
End of Chapter Three
Author's note: Again, I would like to apologize for the delays in posting
this story. I have two major excuses this time, the first is the usual...school,
homework, real life issues to deal with, dividing any leftover spare time between
writing and making my webpage, etc.
The second is with the story itself. When I usually write my stories - I just start writing and take it from there...the story writes itself in my head as I write it on my computer. But with Coming Home the situation was different. I knew exactly how and where I wanted to end the story...but I didn't know how to get to that point. Thankfully, that situation is finally starting to resolve itself.
So when will Chapter Four be written? I don't know. Hopefully sooner rather than later...keep readin' and reviewin'!
- ~Thissa~