You guys are too cool!!!! Thank you for all the GREAT reviews. Especially
Becky, Kat, Dublina, faithgw, brat64, starfish, jim, angelbaby, harper's
angel, cherubino, jenben, len and rockstar. Reviews mean a lot guys. Well
they still aren't mine. Dammit eh? Life has been very hectic lately. No
writing time. It's now midnight, on a school night. I hope you all
appreciate this. Okay, this isn't a slash, as I've said. It's also not a
romance. Sure Harper and Trance look good together, but you won't find any
of that mushy stuff here. Yuck! Hope you like it though.
~~~~~~~~~
Trance was waiting for them when they finally reached the Medical Bay. She took one look at Harper and began rushing around the room, getting everything she needed and subtly removing Dylan and Beka from the area. She was so focused on analyzing and treating Harper, that it took several seconds for her to notice that Tyr had been brought in as well. It was the fact that the bots were restraining him that she noticed most.
"What's wrong with Tyr? Why are you tying him down?" She asked, leaving her best friend's welfare in the hands of the medical bots for a few seconds.
"Don't worry about him. He's only stunned. Just focus on Harper." Dylan replied. Trance looked as though she was going to ask something else but thought better of it and returned her attention to her patient.
~~~~~~~~
Trance worked alongside the medical bots and took care of Harper. The broken arm was set, and mended almost completely within the hour. The cuts were all healed and the bruises only a shadow of a memory. There were three broken ribs that had taken a little more time to take care of, but she was pretty confident that when Harper woke up the worst he would be feeling was a headache and some stiffness. Now the only question was when he would wake up. It had been three hours now and Trance was certain he should have regained consciousness on his own by now. She rechecked the scan she had taken of his brain functions. It was all working as it always had and there was no sign of concussion. He *should* be awake.
Trance decided - in her own mind - that the reason Harper hadn't woken up yet was because he wasn't ready to face what had happened. One of his closest friends - although it was a newly formed bond - had attacked him. Viciously. That wasn't something your mind just recovered from. Harper had trusted Tyr, and Trance knew better than most how hard it was to earn Harper's trust. That made it the worst betrayal of all. So she let him sleep, and seemed content to believe he could take some refuge in his own mind.
She sat by his bedside, the medical bots long since finished treating him, and waited for him to wake up. She began to drift off and was awakened by the feeling that someone else was in the room with her. A conscious someone.
"Harper?" She asked hopefully, then her face dropped as she realized he was still completely out of it. She turned around and realized it was not Harper she had heard, but the room's other patient.
Tyr was awake.
~~~~~~~~~
Dylan rushed to the Medical Bay. Trance had notified Dylan that Tyr had regained consciousness; he was now, hopefully, on his way to get some answers. The sight he was met with when he came in was somewhat nerve rattling, but not completely unexpected. Tyr was restrained by thick metal straps, and Dylan had to wonder how long those would hold against the large man's attempts to free himself. He was pulling at the bonds with all his might, never tiring. His face was set in a look of permanent rage. Not the look of someone capable of rational thought. Tyr was clearly not in his right mind.
"Release me at once!" Tyr growled furiously, "I will tear out your throat when I am freed!"
Dylan had thought that maybe - just maybe - Tyr had attacked Harper for a personal reason. That somehow the young engineer may have angered the Nietzschean to such an extent that the attack had occured. It was painfully obvious that was not the case. There was no personal quarrel; there was something seriously wrong with Tyr.
"You worthless, disgusting excuse for lifeforms, let me go!"
"He hasn't calmed down since he woke up. I was about to sedate him." Trance informed Dylan.
"Do it. Then run all the tests you can think of, on him. Blood tests, DNA, brain functions. I want to know what's wrong with him." Dylan replied without tearing his gaze away from his restrained crew-member.
Trance nodded and Dylan turned to leave, somehow knowing he wouldn't be getting any answers from Tyr, no matter how hard he tried. When he was almost out the door his gaze stopped on the room's other occupant.
"How's Harper?" He asked solemnly.
Trance smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, "He'll be okay. Physically anyway. A few broken ribs, some cuts and bruises, minor concussion. I'll call you as soon as he wakes up." The sparkly purple babe assured him.
"I'd appreciate that." Dylan replied, and headed out once more.
~~~~~~~~~
After sedating him immediately, Trance took a blood sample from Tyr and placed it in the scanners. It took several minutes for a full analysis to be completed, so she made her way to Harper's bedside. She wasn't alone. Beka had been by his side as often as possible. She was called to the Command Deck several times, but she always returned as quickly as she could in case there were any changes in her engineer's condition. Of course he meant much more to her than a mere engineer. In many ways Harper was a little brother to Beka; always looking up to her, getting into mischief, teasing her constantly, but in a cute, non-offensive way. Beka even dared to believe that Harper was the life force of the Andromeda, and nothing seemed right on the ship when the young man wasn't crawling through the ships crawl spaces, or working on his many projects. It just wasn't the natural order of things.
"You know Harper, I think you just enjoy making my life difficult." Beka said jokingly, as she pushed back an errant lock of Harper's hair. He suddenly began to toss and turn; definite signs of consciousness. Beka and Trance both held their breaths hopefully and then exhaled as Harper's eyelids flickered open.
"Harper. How do you feel?" Trance asked immediately, it being the first thing to come to mind.
"Trance? I've been better. Like, *way* better." He propped himself up on one elbow and looked around the familiar Medical Bay while rubbing the other hand over his face. "What the hell happened?"
"You uh had a little ... accident." Beka replied, not quite sure how much to tell him.
"Accident, huh?" Harper seemed to think about it. His gaze swept around the room once more and when Trance moved slightly to her left he was finally able to see his roommate. As his eyes focussed on Tyr, it all came back to him. He remembered what happened quite clearly now. He flinched noticeably as the memories returned. His eyes betrayed the barrage of emotions that swirled through him, varying from anger, hurt, confusion, and betrayal. Several moments passed and nothing was said; Beka felt the urge to break the silence.
"Harper, are you alright?" She asked in concern.
Immediately Harper returned from his deep thoughts and turned Beka, "Yeah, I'm good." His gaze wandered back to Tyr, "Uh, what's wrong with him? I mean, that definitely wasn't Tyr back there."
Beka couldn't believe her ears. Harper was one of the most paranoid people she had ever met, and trusted almost no one. Even the slightest betrayal of that hard earned trust usually took great lengths of time to regain on Harper's part. Beka knew this was undoubtedly one of the largest betrayals of Harper's life, yet he had immediately believed that Tyr's actions had been due to an outside influence of some sort, instead of taking the fight as a means of that trust being broken. He sure had grown a lot this past year. That, or he just downright refused to believe Tyr would ever hurt him while in his right mind. Whatever the reason, Beka was proud of him.
"We're not sure yet. But we're looking into it." Beka assured him.
Harper seemed to accept this. Everyone jumped as a beeping came out of nowhere. "We may find out right now," Trance told them, "The tests are done."
Trance went over to the console to see what, if anything, had been found. She looked it over several times, to absorb fully what it said.
"Beka, could you take a blood sample from Harper and bring it over here, please? I need to check something." Trance called out, never tearing her eyes away from the screen.
"Yeah, sure thing." Beka replied.
"Watch it, I don't have all that much to spare."
"I'm sure you'll be fine." Beka said unsympathetically, bringing the sample over to Trance. She took it at once and fed it into the computer for analysis. It would take another several minutes to scan this sample as well. Trance called Dylan while they waited, telling him Harper was awake and she may have found out the reason for Tyr's *unusual* behaviour.
"Don't keep us in suspense here, babe. Spill it already." Harper urged Trance to tell them what she thought was wrong, as he tried to sit further up in bed.
"Wait until Dylan gets here, and the scan's done. And lay back down, you have to rest." Trance fussed.
"I'm fine, you took good care of me. Now talk." Harper practically ordered her. Just then Dylan came in and the scan of Harper's blood finished. Trance read the findings as Dylan traded pleasantries with the now conscious Harper.
Trance smiled of joy and relief, "I know what's wrong." She announced.
"Anytime here Trance." Harper urged her once more.
"Okay." She replied. She brought up the scan results on the large screen for everyone to see.
{Author's note. Now pay attention, this is the important part}
"This is Tyr's and Harper's blood, respectively. Everything looks pretty normal, but if you look really close you'll notice tiny microscopic cells. Those little things that look like squished bugs." Everyone cringed at the comparison.
"So what?" Harper asked, not really knowing what should be in his blood.
"Well, according to your last blood test, that wasn't in either of your blood streams when you left the ship before your supply run. I won't go into details about what they are exactly, that would take too long."
"We appreciate that." Beka commented.
"I thought you might. Anyway, what I do know is that these little buggers are effecting the chemical balance in Tyr's mind. Which, caused him to become so angry and pretty much lose complete control over himself and his emotions." Trance continued.
"Can you counter the effects?" Dylan asked.
Trance smiled rather brightly, "You bet. It's pretty much a simple mixture of a few chemicals. I probably would have detected them when you two first came onboard, but since neither of you had a blood exam there was no way of knowing anything was wrong."
"That makes sense, I guess. But, how exactly did we get these little guys in us?" Harper enquired.
"My best guess would be that it was that knock out gas stuff those would- be robbers used on you." Trance replied.
"Well, I may have a whammy of a headache, but I don't feel like bashing anyone's brains in. Why wasn't I effected?" Harper continued.
"Probably because you're human. The gas knocked you unconscious, and seemed not to have effected Tyr. But now we know differently. There's no way to know what it was specifically designed for, since we don't have a sample. See, in your blood stream the virus cells are dormant; they're there, they just aren't doing anything. But in Tyr's cells they're active." Trance explained.
"So, these two breathed in some odd gas, which knocked Harper unconscious and caused Tyr to lose complete control of himself and his actions? And you can reverse this for sure?" Dylan asked, just to be sure he was understanding correctly.
"Basically. Yes."
"Well, that's simple enough. Why don't you make that antidote now, Trance." Dylan suggested.
"Sure thing. It'll just take a sec. Then we just have to wait for the sedative to wear off, and we'll see if it worked."
"Goodie," Harper mumbled under his breath. No one seemed to notice. Just as Trance was about to inject Tyr with the antidote he spoke up.
"Hey, Trance. Am I cleared to get out of here? I'd really rather rest in my quarters." Harper stated calmly. But his eyes showed different, there was a clear indication of in his eyes that there was a battle of emotions going on inside of him; and he definitely didn't want to stick around.
"Yeah, I uh guess so." Trance replied, confused. It had seemed earlier that Harper didn't blame Tyr in the least for the incident, he especially shouldn't now that the reason for the attack was clear. But he obviously wasn't comfortable with being in the room when Tyr woke up. Trance decided that the wounds were too fresh, and perhaps even with forgiveness it would take some time before Harper could approach Tyr comfortably again.
Everyone exchanged a confused glance as Harper left the Medical bay hurriedly, favoring his left side slightly. Trance administered the antidote to Tyr. Now all they could do was wait.
~~~~~~~
Yeah, I know. Waiting sucks. Well, deal with it, life is going on crazy here. I have to perform my drama play three times this weekend so I may be a bit busy. But hey, Christmas is coming. Rejoice, rejoice. Oh and Review, Review. Pleaaaaassssseeeee. There's much more to come. And to be honest I'm actually pretty excited about writing it all.
Diana
~~~~~~~~~
Trance was waiting for them when they finally reached the Medical Bay. She took one look at Harper and began rushing around the room, getting everything she needed and subtly removing Dylan and Beka from the area. She was so focused on analyzing and treating Harper, that it took several seconds for her to notice that Tyr had been brought in as well. It was the fact that the bots were restraining him that she noticed most.
"What's wrong with Tyr? Why are you tying him down?" She asked, leaving her best friend's welfare in the hands of the medical bots for a few seconds.
"Don't worry about him. He's only stunned. Just focus on Harper." Dylan replied. Trance looked as though she was going to ask something else but thought better of it and returned her attention to her patient.
~~~~~~~~
Trance worked alongside the medical bots and took care of Harper. The broken arm was set, and mended almost completely within the hour. The cuts were all healed and the bruises only a shadow of a memory. There were three broken ribs that had taken a little more time to take care of, but she was pretty confident that when Harper woke up the worst he would be feeling was a headache and some stiffness. Now the only question was when he would wake up. It had been three hours now and Trance was certain he should have regained consciousness on his own by now. She rechecked the scan she had taken of his brain functions. It was all working as it always had and there was no sign of concussion. He *should* be awake.
Trance decided - in her own mind - that the reason Harper hadn't woken up yet was because he wasn't ready to face what had happened. One of his closest friends - although it was a newly formed bond - had attacked him. Viciously. That wasn't something your mind just recovered from. Harper had trusted Tyr, and Trance knew better than most how hard it was to earn Harper's trust. That made it the worst betrayal of all. So she let him sleep, and seemed content to believe he could take some refuge in his own mind.
She sat by his bedside, the medical bots long since finished treating him, and waited for him to wake up. She began to drift off and was awakened by the feeling that someone else was in the room with her. A conscious someone.
"Harper?" She asked hopefully, then her face dropped as she realized he was still completely out of it. She turned around and realized it was not Harper she had heard, but the room's other patient.
Tyr was awake.
~~~~~~~~~
Dylan rushed to the Medical Bay. Trance had notified Dylan that Tyr had regained consciousness; he was now, hopefully, on his way to get some answers. The sight he was met with when he came in was somewhat nerve rattling, but not completely unexpected. Tyr was restrained by thick metal straps, and Dylan had to wonder how long those would hold against the large man's attempts to free himself. He was pulling at the bonds with all his might, never tiring. His face was set in a look of permanent rage. Not the look of someone capable of rational thought. Tyr was clearly not in his right mind.
"Release me at once!" Tyr growled furiously, "I will tear out your throat when I am freed!"
Dylan had thought that maybe - just maybe - Tyr had attacked Harper for a personal reason. That somehow the young engineer may have angered the Nietzschean to such an extent that the attack had occured. It was painfully obvious that was not the case. There was no personal quarrel; there was something seriously wrong with Tyr.
"You worthless, disgusting excuse for lifeforms, let me go!"
"He hasn't calmed down since he woke up. I was about to sedate him." Trance informed Dylan.
"Do it. Then run all the tests you can think of, on him. Blood tests, DNA, brain functions. I want to know what's wrong with him." Dylan replied without tearing his gaze away from his restrained crew-member.
Trance nodded and Dylan turned to leave, somehow knowing he wouldn't be getting any answers from Tyr, no matter how hard he tried. When he was almost out the door his gaze stopped on the room's other occupant.
"How's Harper?" He asked solemnly.
Trance smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, "He'll be okay. Physically anyway. A few broken ribs, some cuts and bruises, minor concussion. I'll call you as soon as he wakes up." The sparkly purple babe assured him.
"I'd appreciate that." Dylan replied, and headed out once more.
~~~~~~~~~
After sedating him immediately, Trance took a blood sample from Tyr and placed it in the scanners. It took several minutes for a full analysis to be completed, so she made her way to Harper's bedside. She wasn't alone. Beka had been by his side as often as possible. She was called to the Command Deck several times, but she always returned as quickly as she could in case there were any changes in her engineer's condition. Of course he meant much more to her than a mere engineer. In many ways Harper was a little brother to Beka; always looking up to her, getting into mischief, teasing her constantly, but in a cute, non-offensive way. Beka even dared to believe that Harper was the life force of the Andromeda, and nothing seemed right on the ship when the young man wasn't crawling through the ships crawl spaces, or working on his many projects. It just wasn't the natural order of things.
"You know Harper, I think you just enjoy making my life difficult." Beka said jokingly, as she pushed back an errant lock of Harper's hair. He suddenly began to toss and turn; definite signs of consciousness. Beka and Trance both held their breaths hopefully and then exhaled as Harper's eyelids flickered open.
"Harper. How do you feel?" Trance asked immediately, it being the first thing to come to mind.
"Trance? I've been better. Like, *way* better." He propped himself up on one elbow and looked around the familiar Medical Bay while rubbing the other hand over his face. "What the hell happened?"
"You uh had a little ... accident." Beka replied, not quite sure how much to tell him.
"Accident, huh?" Harper seemed to think about it. His gaze swept around the room once more and when Trance moved slightly to her left he was finally able to see his roommate. As his eyes focussed on Tyr, it all came back to him. He remembered what happened quite clearly now. He flinched noticeably as the memories returned. His eyes betrayed the barrage of emotions that swirled through him, varying from anger, hurt, confusion, and betrayal. Several moments passed and nothing was said; Beka felt the urge to break the silence.
"Harper, are you alright?" She asked in concern.
Immediately Harper returned from his deep thoughts and turned Beka, "Yeah, I'm good." His gaze wandered back to Tyr, "Uh, what's wrong with him? I mean, that definitely wasn't Tyr back there."
Beka couldn't believe her ears. Harper was one of the most paranoid people she had ever met, and trusted almost no one. Even the slightest betrayal of that hard earned trust usually took great lengths of time to regain on Harper's part. Beka knew this was undoubtedly one of the largest betrayals of Harper's life, yet he had immediately believed that Tyr's actions had been due to an outside influence of some sort, instead of taking the fight as a means of that trust being broken. He sure had grown a lot this past year. That, or he just downright refused to believe Tyr would ever hurt him while in his right mind. Whatever the reason, Beka was proud of him.
"We're not sure yet. But we're looking into it." Beka assured him.
Harper seemed to accept this. Everyone jumped as a beeping came out of nowhere. "We may find out right now," Trance told them, "The tests are done."
Trance went over to the console to see what, if anything, had been found. She looked it over several times, to absorb fully what it said.
"Beka, could you take a blood sample from Harper and bring it over here, please? I need to check something." Trance called out, never tearing her eyes away from the screen.
"Yeah, sure thing." Beka replied.
"Watch it, I don't have all that much to spare."
"I'm sure you'll be fine." Beka said unsympathetically, bringing the sample over to Trance. She took it at once and fed it into the computer for analysis. It would take another several minutes to scan this sample as well. Trance called Dylan while they waited, telling him Harper was awake and she may have found out the reason for Tyr's *unusual* behaviour.
"Don't keep us in suspense here, babe. Spill it already." Harper urged Trance to tell them what she thought was wrong, as he tried to sit further up in bed.
"Wait until Dylan gets here, and the scan's done. And lay back down, you have to rest." Trance fussed.
"I'm fine, you took good care of me. Now talk." Harper practically ordered her. Just then Dylan came in and the scan of Harper's blood finished. Trance read the findings as Dylan traded pleasantries with the now conscious Harper.
Trance smiled of joy and relief, "I know what's wrong." She announced.
"Anytime here Trance." Harper urged her once more.
"Okay." She replied. She brought up the scan results on the large screen for everyone to see.
{Author's note. Now pay attention, this is the important part}
"This is Tyr's and Harper's blood, respectively. Everything looks pretty normal, but if you look really close you'll notice tiny microscopic cells. Those little things that look like squished bugs." Everyone cringed at the comparison.
"So what?" Harper asked, not really knowing what should be in his blood.
"Well, according to your last blood test, that wasn't in either of your blood streams when you left the ship before your supply run. I won't go into details about what they are exactly, that would take too long."
"We appreciate that." Beka commented.
"I thought you might. Anyway, what I do know is that these little buggers are effecting the chemical balance in Tyr's mind. Which, caused him to become so angry and pretty much lose complete control over himself and his emotions." Trance continued.
"Can you counter the effects?" Dylan asked.
Trance smiled rather brightly, "You bet. It's pretty much a simple mixture of a few chemicals. I probably would have detected them when you two first came onboard, but since neither of you had a blood exam there was no way of knowing anything was wrong."
"That makes sense, I guess. But, how exactly did we get these little guys in us?" Harper enquired.
"My best guess would be that it was that knock out gas stuff those would- be robbers used on you." Trance replied.
"Well, I may have a whammy of a headache, but I don't feel like bashing anyone's brains in. Why wasn't I effected?" Harper continued.
"Probably because you're human. The gas knocked you unconscious, and seemed not to have effected Tyr. But now we know differently. There's no way to know what it was specifically designed for, since we don't have a sample. See, in your blood stream the virus cells are dormant; they're there, they just aren't doing anything. But in Tyr's cells they're active." Trance explained.
"So, these two breathed in some odd gas, which knocked Harper unconscious and caused Tyr to lose complete control of himself and his actions? And you can reverse this for sure?" Dylan asked, just to be sure he was understanding correctly.
"Basically. Yes."
"Well, that's simple enough. Why don't you make that antidote now, Trance." Dylan suggested.
"Sure thing. It'll just take a sec. Then we just have to wait for the sedative to wear off, and we'll see if it worked."
"Goodie," Harper mumbled under his breath. No one seemed to notice. Just as Trance was about to inject Tyr with the antidote he spoke up.
"Hey, Trance. Am I cleared to get out of here? I'd really rather rest in my quarters." Harper stated calmly. But his eyes showed different, there was a clear indication of in his eyes that there was a battle of emotions going on inside of him; and he definitely didn't want to stick around.
"Yeah, I uh guess so." Trance replied, confused. It had seemed earlier that Harper didn't blame Tyr in the least for the incident, he especially shouldn't now that the reason for the attack was clear. But he obviously wasn't comfortable with being in the room when Tyr woke up. Trance decided that the wounds were too fresh, and perhaps even with forgiveness it would take some time before Harper could approach Tyr comfortably again.
Everyone exchanged a confused glance as Harper left the Medical bay hurriedly, favoring his left side slightly. Trance administered the antidote to Tyr. Now all they could do was wait.
~~~~~~~
Yeah, I know. Waiting sucks. Well, deal with it, life is going on crazy here. I have to perform my drama play three times this weekend so I may be a bit busy. But hey, Christmas is coming. Rejoice, rejoice. Oh and Review, Review. Pleaaaaassssseeeee. There's much more to come. And to be honest I'm actually pretty excited about writing it all.
Diana
