Man, I am really starting to love my own story. Since I love it so much
I've worked really hard and got a new chapter. A few more things are
explained, if there's something you still don't understand feel free to ask
and I'll be sure to include it in the next chapter.
Okay, I don't own them, you knew that. I just like to play with them.
Not a slash, not a romance of any kind. I'm an action/adventure writer. Deal with it, I think a lot of peeps like it that way, personally.
Big, BIG thanks go out to all my reviewers. I must thank each of you because you've all been so kind. Thanks, Dublina, brat64, trepidatiot, Amelia, daylight, Ihavenoname, Becky, Starfish, Sterninlicht, Anastachia, Spike, Len, Ms. Coolio, Danielle, jenben, rockchick, zhala, Phoenix Storms, Mary Rose, Appreciate, Morgaine, Ossisian, hehehe, pessim, Zealprophet, Antares and weird peace. Thanks guys.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr entered the Medical Bay and immediately scanned the area looking for the person he needed.
"Trance, are you here?" He called out, not bothering to ask Andromeda, who would undoubtedly know.
"Hey Tyr. I'm glad you stopped by, I still need to run those tests. I just need to make sure you're definitely okay." She explained happily, thinking he had done as she asked and returned for the tests.
"Perhaps later. Right now you must assist me. Did you take any samples of Harper's blood since he returned from the supply run?" Tyr asked, while making his way over where she sat at a desk.
"Yeah, I took one while he was unconscious. Why?" Trance was nice enough to ignore the fact that Tyr had pretty much *ordered* her to help him. She knew he was just like that.
"Get it. There is something I need you to check." Tyr said, his voice indicating she should hurry.
"Okay, I guess." She got the slide with Harper's blood and placed it in the scanner. "Now, why exactly do you want to see it?"
"There." Tyr pointed to the screen where Harper's blood was now displayed, "Am I right in assuming that is not normal?"
Trance looked closer and nodded her head in agreement. "That can't be right." She said mostly to herself. She magnified the diagnosis but she already knew what she was seeing. "This is *so* bad. The virus cells aren't dormant in Harper's blood anymore, they're active. How did you know?"
"I didn't for sure. Let's just say he was acting very un-harperish." Tyr replied. Trance couldn't hold back a slight grin at Tyr using the word "un- harperish".
Tyr wasn't extremely worried about his vocabulary at the moment. He was immensely relieved to find out that Harper had actually been under the virus's control at the time of their latest confrontation, but he was also now very worried about Harper's well being with the virus raging in his system.
"Why did you not eliminate the virus from his system, as you did me?" Tyr asked, trying his best not to sound accusatory.
"Well, he seemed fine. We didn't think it effected him. He was just ... Harper." Trance tried to explain.
Tyr attempted to keep his anger in check, he still needed answers. "Why is it effecting him now?"
"I'm not sure." She scanned the readings from the blood test. A lightbulb clicked in her head. "Harper said something about a console exploding on the Maru, and him getting knocked out."
"Yes, he was fine afterwards. I don't see the relevance." Tyr said, not following her line of thinking.
"He took a painkiller though, right?" Tyr nodded. "That must be it." She brought up a new screen. "See, this is a list of the compounds I mixed to make the antidote for the virus, some of them are the same as the ones used in painkillers. The painkiller must have kept the virus dormant, but didn't have all the components to destroy it. So now that the medicine's worn off ..."
"The virus is becoming active." Tyr finished. "Will this effect Harper the same way it did me?" He asked, his voice laced with concern.
Trance shrugged, "There's no way to know. He may get all aggressive like you, or something else completely. He's human, we'd have to wait to know for sure."
"Well I don't wish to find out. Give me the antidote. I'll go find him and administer it." Tyr ordered. Trance immediately rushed away to make another shot of the antidote. "Ship, where is Harper?"
"Unknown." Andromeda replied.
"Unknown?" Tyr repeated, not believing his bad luck.
Rommie fizzled to life in front of them, "He must be doing something to block my sensors. I can't locate him."
"My god, could this get any worse?" He mumbled under his breath.
"Here's the antidote Tyr." Trance handed him a hypo.
Tyr sighed, "Make a few more. Take one for yourself and find Dylan and the others and tell them to inject Harper if they see him. It appears as though we'll have to scour the ship ourselves, in order to find the little man. I'll start at the Machine Shops." He called out as he left the Medical Bay; leaving Trance the task of telling the rest of the crew about Harper. Trance smiled inwardly though. Tyr acted tough and mean around pretty much everyone, and he was tough and somewhat mean, she wouldn't deny it, but you would have to be blind not to notice Tyr's concern about Harper's well being. As much as he hated it, Tyr had become friends with Harper, and Tyr was definitely the kind of person, who, once friends were made, kept them for a long time and protected them as best he could. Harper was no different.
Returning her thoughts to the present she knew what she had to do. She hit her com button. "Uh, Dylan, there's something you need to know."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr walked down the corridors of Andromeda, trying to think like Harper, which in itself was an odd and tiring task. He decided the Machine Shops were a good place to start since that was where he was last seen. As he made his way down the corridors, clutching the hypo tightly, he couldn't help but think of how long a day this had turned out to be.
And it's not near being over. Tyr thought to himself. He knew life on Andromeda wouldn't be entirely easy, but this was soon becoming one of the longest and potentially worst days of his life. It went right up there with being trapped on a Magog swarm ship.
Oddly enough the experience on the Magog ship had been a slight blessing in diguise. If not for the Magog attack he would never have gotten to know Harper. He discovered Harper's demons and helped him face them, one on one. Tyr couldn't help but be proud of Harper's actions under the extreme situation, especially knowing Harper's background with the Magog. Going into the fight against the Magog, Harper had been the far more experienced, already having faced his deal of Magog in his day. Tyr hadn't even known to wear goggles to protect against paralyzing poison. Back then, Tyr was forced to pity the boy slightly, although he wouldn't admit it. Harper had grown up with the horrors of earth. On Andromeda he had been assured safety, and just when he had felt safe and dropped his defences the Magog had arrived and destroyed the boy's paradise.
The friendship blossomed soon afterward, and Tyr had to admit he enjoyed being able to have actual conversations with the humorous and charismatic young man. But now he had to keep his new friend from doing something he may soon regret. He suddenly had an idea, it probably wouldn't work, but it was worth a shot. He opened up the communications frequency so he could broadcast to the whole ship.
"Harper. I don't know where you are, but you have to come out. There's a virus in your system. If you tell us where you are we can help you, but first we have to find you." Tyr called out through the ship. He held his breath for a few moments as he waited and hoped for a response. He was pleasantly surprised when he got a reply.
"Help me? Ha, that's a laugh. I don't need *your* kind of help." Harper's voice dripped with malice towards the Nietchzean. "Don't think I don't know what you guys are up to. I'm clued in, I know everything. Well you won't get me! Not Seamus Harper!" Harper's voice rang out around Tyr. He sounded absolutely paranoid, even more so than usual.
"Harper, I don't know what you're ta..." He started, but Harper wasn't finished.
"I can help myself. That's for sure. I don't need anyone! Especially not anyone who's just waiting to stab me in the back! You want me, come and get me. But don't think that it's going to be easy." He still sounded paranoid and angry, but Tyr could swear he could see Harper's "I'm a genius" grin on his face, just through hearing his voice. Just then the entire ship became totally engulfed in darkness, as every light on board was extinguished.
"Harper!" Tyr called out angrily. This wouldn't help at all. The com line stayed open, and Tyr could have sworn he heard nervous but satisfied laughter through the com unit before it shut off. "Andromeda, were you able to find him?" Tyr asked hopefully while trying to feel his way to a locker that may have a flashlight.
"No. He masked the signal." Rommie explained without appearing, Tyr couldn't see her anyway.
"Damn. The little man can't make anything easy, can he?" Tyr found a flashlight in a locker and set about searching the ship, in the dark, with no idea where to start.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harper sat in front of one of the many control consoles in the Andromeda. This particular one was located in a crawl-space he had discovered several weeks ago, he was fairly sure he was the only one who could ever manage to fit into the small space with enough room to work comfortably. He thought of it as his own personal workspace, free of distractions, and had set it up so he could access all systems and do almost anything from this console. He was extremely glad that he had set up this little area; especially since everyone onboard was trying to kill him.
He thought they were anyway. The virus that was now raging in his system was an unexpected side effect from the gas he'd been exposed to on the Space Station, but the gas wasn't to take all the blame. The virus had entered his system when he'd inhaled the gas, and the painkiller in his blood had kept it dormant, but it had also mutated it somewhat. When Tyr was affected, the virus tapped into the Nietzschean's most primal emotions of hatred and anger and the need for destruction, intensifying the feelings to such an extent that they blocked out all rational thought and even memory. All that existed was primal, untamed emotions. Harper was a different story. The mutated version of the virus was tapping into his own personally strongest emotions; those being a deep rooted hatred, anger, and as of recent months, paranoia. But the virus also had changed in that he was capable of rational thought, he recalled perfectly how to work all of Andromeda's system, and he remembered all of the crew, he just thought they wanted to kill him. And this new and unimproved Harper was royally pissed about it!
I'll show them. Think they can just get rid of me! Not a chance.
Why wouldn't he think they wanted to kill him? First off there was Rev Bem. There was of course the obvious of him being a Magog, and they weren't currently on Harper's friend list. He also suddenly remembered all the time Rev had threatened to eat him. Although he had been joking, to Harper's now twisted mental picture, he was sure the Wayist had been completely serious.
Yeah, like I'm gonna let myself get infested twice!
Then there was Trance. What did he really know about Trance? Pretty much nothing. And really, who was *that* innocent and naive about the universe? She was sure to have her own agenda and was just using Harper as a means to get what she wants, just like everyone else in the world. He saw the look she got in her eyes every now and then when she thought no one was looking. Deep in thought about her oh so clever plans and grinning evilly! He definitely had to stay away from her.
But don't forget about Beka. She had rescued Harper, as she repeatedly reminded him. Reminded him just to make sure he stayed in check, keeping him scared and in submission. She had saved him to use him for his amazing engineering abilities just to make her own life easier. He remembered with perfect clarity how Beka had threatened to send him back to that hellhole she had found him, if he told anyone about her using Flash. Of course he had told and she had tried to choke the life out of him. Oh yeah, there's a friend for you.
There was always Rommie too. Dear, sweet, perfect Rommie. Nice to look at, but don't forget she's a warship! She's programmed to kill. And Harper had messed around with her systems, and tricked her with technical tricks so many times over the last few months that he had no doubt she was holding some sort of grudge. He bet she even blamed him for the entire Magog incident. Just because he had opened an old personality file, with her permission! But that wouldn't matter to her, he'd set it loose and to her it would be entirely his fault. She only kept him around so he would fix her. If she ever found another even remotely capable engineer he had no doubt she would get rid of him as quickly as possible. No, she definitely couldn't be trusted.
Tyr. The man he had trusted. The man he had thought was his friend. The man he had been infested with, and fought alongside against a whole army of magog. Had stabbed him in the back, and Harper was sure to him it had just been another day in the office. Another useless kludge out of the way. But he had survived, and now he was coming back for more. And he wouldn't make the same mistake twice, no way was Tyr getting another shot at him.
But there was always Dylan. The noble high guard captain would never betray him, and Harper had no reason to think he would. But with all the others after him he had no doubts that they could persuade the captain to go after him as well. He wouldn't go against the wishes of everyone else to protect Harper, he needed the others if he ever wanted to achieve his Commonwealth.
No, he was on his own.
Well that's the way it's always been, isn't it? You were alone for twenty years on that hell hole called Earth, you can survive this. Just focus on the task, and not on the betrayal and the pain.
Harper continued working to shield himself from the sensors, absently wiping away the tears that brimmed around his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr continued to search the ship. He had checked all the Machine Shops and found no signs of the boy. The task seemed nearly impossible with a ship this size and a crew so small. Suddenly he heard a noise. Up ahead, there was someone there. He turned off his flashlight and backed against the wall, listening closely. He could clearly hear the person breathing. His thoughts that this may be Harper were shattered when he heard a voice call out.
"Harper, it's Trance. Are you here?" Tyr stepped out of his hiding spot. "Har ... oh Tyr, it's you. Haven't found him?"
Tyr sighed, already exasperated with the girl, "No. What do you think you're doing? If he truly has lost all his senses do you believe he'll just come out of hiding because you call him? He believes we are trying to kill him."
Trance frowned, "Why would he think that?"
"I do not know, and right now, neither do I care. Our main concern is to find him before he cuts off all systems from our control. Are you even armed?" He asked incredously.
"No. But it would kinda pointless if I was, I could never shoot Harper." She replied, completely shocked.
"It would be for his own benefit. He'll thank you later."
"You didn't thank Dylan." Trance pointed out.
"I'll do it later."
"Sure."
"Are you going to help me find the little man, or stand here blabbering all day?" Tyr really needed to get going.
"I don't blabber. Sometimes I have a lot to say, and I may occasionally have some extra information ..."
"Never mind, you've answered my question. I'll find him myself." Tyr stormed down the corridor; obviously very focused.
Trance just shrugged and continued in the opposite direction, "Harper. It's Trance. Wanna tell me some more about how smart you are?"
Tyr sighed as he heard Trance talking again in the distance. He activated his com link, "Rev Bem, please come down to deck 4 and help our purple friend in her search. I fear for her safety on her own."
"Understood. I'll be right there." Rev replied. Tyr breathed a little easier knowing Trance would no longer be alone.
He arrived at one of the Officer's quarters and decided to check inside. He looked up and down the hall as he moved to enter the room and ...
"Ow!" He walked straight into the door, which hadn't opened upon his arrival as it should have. "Harper, when I get my hands on you ...." He let the threat hang in the air and decided to simply think of things he would do to the young engineer. This was getting very irritating. First the lights, and now all the doors would have to be opened using brute force. He made a mental note to talk to Andromeda about finding a way of locking Harper out of her systems if necessary, then continued on his way. He still had a lot of ship to cover.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, it's still not done. Sorry, I'm going as fast as my fingers will allow. Please review, I need to know what you all think. I live for reviews. You don't want me to die do you? Then you'll never know what happens. :-)
Okay, I don't own them, you knew that. I just like to play with them.
Not a slash, not a romance of any kind. I'm an action/adventure writer. Deal with it, I think a lot of peeps like it that way, personally.
Big, BIG thanks go out to all my reviewers. I must thank each of you because you've all been so kind. Thanks, Dublina, brat64, trepidatiot, Amelia, daylight, Ihavenoname, Becky, Starfish, Sterninlicht, Anastachia, Spike, Len, Ms. Coolio, Danielle, jenben, rockchick, zhala, Phoenix Storms, Mary Rose, Appreciate, Morgaine, Ossisian, hehehe, pessim, Zealprophet, Antares and weird peace. Thanks guys.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr entered the Medical Bay and immediately scanned the area looking for the person he needed.
"Trance, are you here?" He called out, not bothering to ask Andromeda, who would undoubtedly know.
"Hey Tyr. I'm glad you stopped by, I still need to run those tests. I just need to make sure you're definitely okay." She explained happily, thinking he had done as she asked and returned for the tests.
"Perhaps later. Right now you must assist me. Did you take any samples of Harper's blood since he returned from the supply run?" Tyr asked, while making his way over where she sat at a desk.
"Yeah, I took one while he was unconscious. Why?" Trance was nice enough to ignore the fact that Tyr had pretty much *ordered* her to help him. She knew he was just like that.
"Get it. There is something I need you to check." Tyr said, his voice indicating she should hurry.
"Okay, I guess." She got the slide with Harper's blood and placed it in the scanner. "Now, why exactly do you want to see it?"
"There." Tyr pointed to the screen where Harper's blood was now displayed, "Am I right in assuming that is not normal?"
Trance looked closer and nodded her head in agreement. "That can't be right." She said mostly to herself. She magnified the diagnosis but she already knew what she was seeing. "This is *so* bad. The virus cells aren't dormant in Harper's blood anymore, they're active. How did you know?"
"I didn't for sure. Let's just say he was acting very un-harperish." Tyr replied. Trance couldn't hold back a slight grin at Tyr using the word "un- harperish".
Tyr wasn't extremely worried about his vocabulary at the moment. He was immensely relieved to find out that Harper had actually been under the virus's control at the time of their latest confrontation, but he was also now very worried about Harper's well being with the virus raging in his system.
"Why did you not eliminate the virus from his system, as you did me?" Tyr asked, trying his best not to sound accusatory.
"Well, he seemed fine. We didn't think it effected him. He was just ... Harper." Trance tried to explain.
Tyr attempted to keep his anger in check, he still needed answers. "Why is it effecting him now?"
"I'm not sure." She scanned the readings from the blood test. A lightbulb clicked in her head. "Harper said something about a console exploding on the Maru, and him getting knocked out."
"Yes, he was fine afterwards. I don't see the relevance." Tyr said, not following her line of thinking.
"He took a painkiller though, right?" Tyr nodded. "That must be it." She brought up a new screen. "See, this is a list of the compounds I mixed to make the antidote for the virus, some of them are the same as the ones used in painkillers. The painkiller must have kept the virus dormant, but didn't have all the components to destroy it. So now that the medicine's worn off ..."
"The virus is becoming active." Tyr finished. "Will this effect Harper the same way it did me?" He asked, his voice laced with concern.
Trance shrugged, "There's no way to know. He may get all aggressive like you, or something else completely. He's human, we'd have to wait to know for sure."
"Well I don't wish to find out. Give me the antidote. I'll go find him and administer it." Tyr ordered. Trance immediately rushed away to make another shot of the antidote. "Ship, where is Harper?"
"Unknown." Andromeda replied.
"Unknown?" Tyr repeated, not believing his bad luck.
Rommie fizzled to life in front of them, "He must be doing something to block my sensors. I can't locate him."
"My god, could this get any worse?" He mumbled under his breath.
"Here's the antidote Tyr." Trance handed him a hypo.
Tyr sighed, "Make a few more. Take one for yourself and find Dylan and the others and tell them to inject Harper if they see him. It appears as though we'll have to scour the ship ourselves, in order to find the little man. I'll start at the Machine Shops." He called out as he left the Medical Bay; leaving Trance the task of telling the rest of the crew about Harper. Trance smiled inwardly though. Tyr acted tough and mean around pretty much everyone, and he was tough and somewhat mean, she wouldn't deny it, but you would have to be blind not to notice Tyr's concern about Harper's well being. As much as he hated it, Tyr had become friends with Harper, and Tyr was definitely the kind of person, who, once friends were made, kept them for a long time and protected them as best he could. Harper was no different.
Returning her thoughts to the present she knew what she had to do. She hit her com button. "Uh, Dylan, there's something you need to know."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr walked down the corridors of Andromeda, trying to think like Harper, which in itself was an odd and tiring task. He decided the Machine Shops were a good place to start since that was where he was last seen. As he made his way down the corridors, clutching the hypo tightly, he couldn't help but think of how long a day this had turned out to be.
And it's not near being over. Tyr thought to himself. He knew life on Andromeda wouldn't be entirely easy, but this was soon becoming one of the longest and potentially worst days of his life. It went right up there with being trapped on a Magog swarm ship.
Oddly enough the experience on the Magog ship had been a slight blessing in diguise. If not for the Magog attack he would never have gotten to know Harper. He discovered Harper's demons and helped him face them, one on one. Tyr couldn't help but be proud of Harper's actions under the extreme situation, especially knowing Harper's background with the Magog. Going into the fight against the Magog, Harper had been the far more experienced, already having faced his deal of Magog in his day. Tyr hadn't even known to wear goggles to protect against paralyzing poison. Back then, Tyr was forced to pity the boy slightly, although he wouldn't admit it. Harper had grown up with the horrors of earth. On Andromeda he had been assured safety, and just when he had felt safe and dropped his defences the Magog had arrived and destroyed the boy's paradise.
The friendship blossomed soon afterward, and Tyr had to admit he enjoyed being able to have actual conversations with the humorous and charismatic young man. But now he had to keep his new friend from doing something he may soon regret. He suddenly had an idea, it probably wouldn't work, but it was worth a shot. He opened up the communications frequency so he could broadcast to the whole ship.
"Harper. I don't know where you are, but you have to come out. There's a virus in your system. If you tell us where you are we can help you, but first we have to find you." Tyr called out through the ship. He held his breath for a few moments as he waited and hoped for a response. He was pleasantly surprised when he got a reply.
"Help me? Ha, that's a laugh. I don't need *your* kind of help." Harper's voice dripped with malice towards the Nietchzean. "Don't think I don't know what you guys are up to. I'm clued in, I know everything. Well you won't get me! Not Seamus Harper!" Harper's voice rang out around Tyr. He sounded absolutely paranoid, even more so than usual.
"Harper, I don't know what you're ta..." He started, but Harper wasn't finished.
"I can help myself. That's for sure. I don't need anyone! Especially not anyone who's just waiting to stab me in the back! You want me, come and get me. But don't think that it's going to be easy." He still sounded paranoid and angry, but Tyr could swear he could see Harper's "I'm a genius" grin on his face, just through hearing his voice. Just then the entire ship became totally engulfed in darkness, as every light on board was extinguished.
"Harper!" Tyr called out angrily. This wouldn't help at all. The com line stayed open, and Tyr could have sworn he heard nervous but satisfied laughter through the com unit before it shut off. "Andromeda, were you able to find him?" Tyr asked hopefully while trying to feel his way to a locker that may have a flashlight.
"No. He masked the signal." Rommie explained without appearing, Tyr couldn't see her anyway.
"Damn. The little man can't make anything easy, can he?" Tyr found a flashlight in a locker and set about searching the ship, in the dark, with no idea where to start.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harper sat in front of one of the many control consoles in the Andromeda. This particular one was located in a crawl-space he had discovered several weeks ago, he was fairly sure he was the only one who could ever manage to fit into the small space with enough room to work comfortably. He thought of it as his own personal workspace, free of distractions, and had set it up so he could access all systems and do almost anything from this console. He was extremely glad that he had set up this little area; especially since everyone onboard was trying to kill him.
He thought they were anyway. The virus that was now raging in his system was an unexpected side effect from the gas he'd been exposed to on the Space Station, but the gas wasn't to take all the blame. The virus had entered his system when he'd inhaled the gas, and the painkiller in his blood had kept it dormant, but it had also mutated it somewhat. When Tyr was affected, the virus tapped into the Nietzschean's most primal emotions of hatred and anger and the need for destruction, intensifying the feelings to such an extent that they blocked out all rational thought and even memory. All that existed was primal, untamed emotions. Harper was a different story. The mutated version of the virus was tapping into his own personally strongest emotions; those being a deep rooted hatred, anger, and as of recent months, paranoia. But the virus also had changed in that he was capable of rational thought, he recalled perfectly how to work all of Andromeda's system, and he remembered all of the crew, he just thought they wanted to kill him. And this new and unimproved Harper was royally pissed about it!
I'll show them. Think they can just get rid of me! Not a chance.
Why wouldn't he think they wanted to kill him? First off there was Rev Bem. There was of course the obvious of him being a Magog, and they weren't currently on Harper's friend list. He also suddenly remembered all the time Rev had threatened to eat him. Although he had been joking, to Harper's now twisted mental picture, he was sure the Wayist had been completely serious.
Yeah, like I'm gonna let myself get infested twice!
Then there was Trance. What did he really know about Trance? Pretty much nothing. And really, who was *that* innocent and naive about the universe? She was sure to have her own agenda and was just using Harper as a means to get what she wants, just like everyone else in the world. He saw the look she got in her eyes every now and then when she thought no one was looking. Deep in thought about her oh so clever plans and grinning evilly! He definitely had to stay away from her.
But don't forget about Beka. She had rescued Harper, as she repeatedly reminded him. Reminded him just to make sure he stayed in check, keeping him scared and in submission. She had saved him to use him for his amazing engineering abilities just to make her own life easier. He remembered with perfect clarity how Beka had threatened to send him back to that hellhole she had found him, if he told anyone about her using Flash. Of course he had told and she had tried to choke the life out of him. Oh yeah, there's a friend for you.
There was always Rommie too. Dear, sweet, perfect Rommie. Nice to look at, but don't forget she's a warship! She's programmed to kill. And Harper had messed around with her systems, and tricked her with technical tricks so many times over the last few months that he had no doubt she was holding some sort of grudge. He bet she even blamed him for the entire Magog incident. Just because he had opened an old personality file, with her permission! But that wouldn't matter to her, he'd set it loose and to her it would be entirely his fault. She only kept him around so he would fix her. If she ever found another even remotely capable engineer he had no doubt she would get rid of him as quickly as possible. No, she definitely couldn't be trusted.
Tyr. The man he had trusted. The man he had thought was his friend. The man he had been infested with, and fought alongside against a whole army of magog. Had stabbed him in the back, and Harper was sure to him it had just been another day in the office. Another useless kludge out of the way. But he had survived, and now he was coming back for more. And he wouldn't make the same mistake twice, no way was Tyr getting another shot at him.
But there was always Dylan. The noble high guard captain would never betray him, and Harper had no reason to think he would. But with all the others after him he had no doubts that they could persuade the captain to go after him as well. He wouldn't go against the wishes of everyone else to protect Harper, he needed the others if he ever wanted to achieve his Commonwealth.
No, he was on his own.
Well that's the way it's always been, isn't it? You were alone for twenty years on that hell hole called Earth, you can survive this. Just focus on the task, and not on the betrayal and the pain.
Harper continued working to shield himself from the sensors, absently wiping away the tears that brimmed around his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tyr continued to search the ship. He had checked all the Machine Shops and found no signs of the boy. The task seemed nearly impossible with a ship this size and a crew so small. Suddenly he heard a noise. Up ahead, there was someone there. He turned off his flashlight and backed against the wall, listening closely. He could clearly hear the person breathing. His thoughts that this may be Harper were shattered when he heard a voice call out.
"Harper, it's Trance. Are you here?" Tyr stepped out of his hiding spot. "Har ... oh Tyr, it's you. Haven't found him?"
Tyr sighed, already exasperated with the girl, "No. What do you think you're doing? If he truly has lost all his senses do you believe he'll just come out of hiding because you call him? He believes we are trying to kill him."
Trance frowned, "Why would he think that?"
"I do not know, and right now, neither do I care. Our main concern is to find him before he cuts off all systems from our control. Are you even armed?" He asked incredously.
"No. But it would kinda pointless if I was, I could never shoot Harper." She replied, completely shocked.
"It would be for his own benefit. He'll thank you later."
"You didn't thank Dylan." Trance pointed out.
"I'll do it later."
"Sure."
"Are you going to help me find the little man, or stand here blabbering all day?" Tyr really needed to get going.
"I don't blabber. Sometimes I have a lot to say, and I may occasionally have some extra information ..."
"Never mind, you've answered my question. I'll find him myself." Tyr stormed down the corridor; obviously very focused.
Trance just shrugged and continued in the opposite direction, "Harper. It's Trance. Wanna tell me some more about how smart you are?"
Tyr sighed as he heard Trance talking again in the distance. He activated his com link, "Rev Bem, please come down to deck 4 and help our purple friend in her search. I fear for her safety on her own."
"Understood. I'll be right there." Rev replied. Tyr breathed a little easier knowing Trance would no longer be alone.
He arrived at one of the Officer's quarters and decided to check inside. He looked up and down the hall as he moved to enter the room and ...
"Ow!" He walked straight into the door, which hadn't opened upon his arrival as it should have. "Harper, when I get my hands on you ...." He let the threat hang in the air and decided to simply think of things he would do to the young engineer. This was getting very irritating. First the lights, and now all the doors would have to be opened using brute force. He made a mental note to talk to Andromeda about finding a way of locking Harper out of her systems if necessary, then continued on his way. He still had a lot of ship to cover.
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Yeah, it's still not done. Sorry, I'm going as fast as my fingers will allow. Please review, I need to know what you all think. I live for reviews. You don't want me to die do you? Then you'll never know what happens. :-)
