Part 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing and am getting no money

Rommie appeared in front of Dylan.  He was sitting at his desk, tiredly rubbing his eyes with one hand.  Here they were, 3months after his meeting with the Neitzchiens, and the crew still wasn't back together.  They'd had 4 dead ends in their search for Harper.  They'd found "Einstein, Albert" on the manifest for a ship leaving the mine and going to a spaceport.  It seemed that he picked up another freighter and wound up riding to a moon.  He'd sent them a message from this moon, but when they arrived he was gone again.  At the location he had provided they only found his angry landlord, whom Harper had apparently stiffed a month's worth of rent. 

He looked up; Rommie was smiling.  He smiled too because Rommie hadn't smiled in weeks.  He could tell she missed Harper, even if she swore she just was uncomfortable with the idea of being engineer less.  All the dead ends were really diminishing everyone's spirits.  Even Tyr seemed a little mellower without the "boy" around.

"Good news I hope"

"A trader said he got his ship fixed by 'a little guy with a port and delusions of grandeur' on Maxim IV" Dylan smiled broadly at the news.

"Tell Beka to take us to Maxim IV"

"Actually Dylan, Beka is the one who found the trader.  We've been heading towards Maxim for 20 minutes"

There he was, goggles down, welding something onto the side of a ship clunkier than the Maru. Beka rushed up and grabbed him, nearly knocking him over in the process. He was thinner; he'd lost at least 20 pounds.  She could feel his skin was freezing as she hugged her crewman.  He removed the goggles to reveal his tired blue eyes, shadowed by circles of exhaustion. 

"Boss!" he exclaimed, "You found me!!"

"Yeah, Is there a reason you can't stay in one place because it makes tracking you down pretty difficult." Beka commented

"You know me boss"

A woman slipped through the doorway behind Beka and Dylan and stood next to Harper.  Without acknowledging the strangers or speaking to Harper she rolled up his sleeve and pulled out a syringe.  Harper continued talking, oblivious to this woman and her ministering. With a practiced ease she found a vein and stuck him.  Before she could depress the stopper Dylan was between them.  She finally said something

"Friends of yours Harper?" she asked, ignoring Dylan

"Woah boss, she's just giving me my meds.  Robin, these are my friends I was telling you about!"

"The High Guards?"

"Yep" She smiled, happy for him

"So I'm losing my best customer" The thought of Harper going without his medicine hadn't even occurred to Dylan.  He was lucky to have found this girl.

"All good things come to an end" he smiled handing her the money he owed.

"Yours has been one of my most interesting jobs.  Of all the drugs people have asked for, never 'something to keep my Magog larvae dormant'." 

"She's been injecting you since you got here then?"  Beka asked

"Every night, I was down to my last dose when she came in"

"I still never got the structure quite right for the inhaler method, the molecules couldn't handle the force behind that velocity, broke apart before they could do anything"

"I think she likes to play with needles" Harper commented

"Sure, I have nothing better to do."  She smiled one more time "Nice knowing you Harper.  Good luck with that whole saving the universe thing.  Hope that works out for you" then she slipped out into darkness and was gone.

"Do I hear voices mudfoot!"

"Yes sir, Mr. Abbey sir" Harper answered the gruff voice of his boss lightly.  The tall, balding man strode out shaking his hands wildly.

"You-" he slapped Harper so hard it made him stumble "know the rules" he raised his hand again.  This time Dylan was not so polite as he stepped between Harper and possible danger.  Dylan took hold of Mr. Abbey's wrist and glared at the skinny man.

"I'm quitting now sir." Mentioned Harper.

"OK mudfoot" and that was that

It had taken 3 months to get the crew back together.  But it had happened.  Like any problem fate threw at this crew, they just kept going on.  The crew of the Andromeda Ascendant, all 7 of them; Dylan, Rommie, Beka, Trance, Rev, Harper, and Tyr, had a mission.  They were going to restore the Commonwealth, save the galaxy from the coming Magog World Ships. 

They hadn't had a lot in common when this mission started.  Dylan and Rommie were High Guard Officers, 300 years in the future and they had just invited a mercenary and a colorful band of petty thieves to be their new crew.  But they had become a crew just as close and even more like a family than Dylan's former crew.  That's why they had spent 3 months of bad days looking for each other.

The End