Hey all. Sorry for the wait. Oh and jenben, you're right I shouldn't live for reviews, so I'm not gonna. No more asking, it's demeening, review if you feel like it. Thanks.



Bonds made, Bonds broken

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Harper mentally kicked himself for his stupidity. Here he was, on a ship full of people trying to kill him and he had found a place where they would never find him, and he had forgotten his most important tools. He slowly made his way out of the crawlspace and peered into the hallway. No signs of anyone, if someone was coming he was sure to see the glow of their flashlights before they spotted him. He was really only in need of one item and he knew exactly where to get it.

Of all the times in my life to forget my plug-in wire. He thought to himself. He needed to jack into Andromeda's system and was without the equipment to do so. He had managed to turn off the lights and shut off the doors manually, but if he wanted to survive he'd need to get in the system.

Walking down the pitch black hall, he listened for footsteps. He didn't turn on his flashlight because it would make it easier for them to find him, but it was okay because he knew Andromeda like the back of his hand.

"Ow!" Hmm, someone must have moved that wall when he was away.

After a few misdirections he got to his onboard laboratory. He'd programmed the doors to still respond to him so he had no trouble getting in. Once inside he chanced turning on his flashlight, this room was such a mess he didn't want to make all these survival measures pointless by accidently killing himself somehow.

"Gotcha." He said to himself as he found what he needed and shoved it quickly into his pocket. He was about to leave when he heard the distinct sound of approaching footsteps.

Oh, crap! Harper turned off his flashlight and crouched low in the corner of the room. He was armed with a forcelance, which he kept unextended, they were lighter that way. He backed himself against the wall and waited for whoever was coming; ready to fight for his life.

The door was pried open and a flashlight beam scanned the room. Several moments later he could see the shadow of the person coming in. He was glad he'd turned off the lights, but he really wished he hadn't left his hiding place at all. Just as Harper prepared to shoot the intruder, since it could only be someone trying to kill him, a voice called out in the dark.

"Harper, are you here? We just wanna help." Dylan said to the pitch black room.

It's Dylan. And he's alone. Maybe I can talk him out of this whole trying to kill me thing and get him to help me out. Harper's virus stricken mind thought.

"Pssst! Dylan, over here." Harper called out, just barely above a whisper.

Dylan turned around quickly, surprised that Harper had actually responded, "Harper, thank god." Dylan reached for his comlink, intent on informing the rest of the crew that he'd found their missing engineer.

"No, Dylan! Don't tell the others where I am. You gotta help me." Dylan's heart broke at the desperation in Harper's voice and he released the com unit. Harper had come out of the corner and was standing a safe distance away from Dylan, with his back to the still open door. It was hard to see but he kept looking around the room nervously, as if someone was going to jump out and attack him.

"I'm only here to help, Harper. So is everyone else. No one wants to hurt you." Dylan tried to reassure the young man. Harper was twitchy and his nerves seemed positively fried and Dylan was pretty sure Harper had been crying.

"That's bull and you know it." Harper's voice dropped to below a whisper and he sounded shaky and scared, "They'll kill me the first chance they get. But you won't. You can help me, I know you don't really want to hurt me. You're just going along with everyone else."

Dylan realized he couldn't reason with Harper, the virus was obviously in complete control. He was extremely edgy, breathing hard and sweat poured from his brow despite the coolness of the room he also never completely lowered his force lance, and Dylan had a feeling it was probably set to kill. He decided to go along with his delusions and hoped he could manage to get close enough to administer the antidote he had clipped to his belt.

Dylan casually placed his hand on his belt, flicking the switch on his com unit. The channel was now open and the rest of the crew would be able to hear everything said in the room. "What do you need me to do?" He asked, trying to sound neutral.

Harper's face split into a large grin; Dylan was going to help him. "Well, I hadn't really thought all that far ahead. I mean, this whole everyone trying to kill me thing kinda took me by surprise. Let's see, the first thing we need to do is take care of Rommie, she's gonna get around my sensor block eventually." Harper paced the room, biting his nails as he sped off instructions speedily, as if he only had seconds to tell Dylan everything. "You can do that. Hell, you're the captain, of course you can."

"No problem." Dylan silently urged someone to trace the com signal and find them to help him take down Harper. The young man was being so jumpy, Dylan thought he might run if he tried to get closer to him.



Tyr walked further down the corridor, still in search of the little man. He heard his com line beep but heard nothing being said on the other end. He was about to ask who had called him when Dylan's voice came over the link, he sounded to be talking to someone.

"What do you need me to do?" Dylan was asking someone.

"Well, I hadn't really thought all that far ahead." Tyr grinned when he realized it was Harper's, very shaky, voice. He didn't listen to the rest of the message, he didn't have time. "Ship, where is Dylan?"

"Harper's laboratory." Rommie replied.

Tyr's grin broadened, he was very close to them. He broke into a run and made his way full speed to the laboratory.



"So, we need a way to incapacitate everyone, or get them off the ship or something. We could ... we could try a bomb, but that might kill us too. Knock out gas, vent knock out gas in the ship. No, they're too smart for that, and Rev and Tyr can hold their breaths a pretty long time. How about .... uh .. we ...we fake a slipstream overload. Yeah, yeah, they'll all head for the escape pods and they'll be gone. But they might ...."

"Harper, slow down!" Dylan interrupted the engineer. He had been rambling about possible attack procedures for the last five minutes and Dylan wasn't following him anymore. He needed to get Harper to Medical, and he *really* needed to inject him, but he kept moving farther and farther away with his pacing. "Now let's think about this calmly. Why does everyone want to kill you?"

Harper looked up suddenly, apparently shocked by the question, but then he smiled, "Right. Good idea, we have to get into their *twisted minds*. Think like your enemy, that's the trick. I can see why you're a captain you know, you're a pretty smart guy. Okay, I'm ... I'm Rev. Well, to him I'm food. That's ...."



Tyr approached Harper's laboratory slowly, careful not to make any sound. He could hear Dylan and Harper talking inside. Tyr edged his way to the still-open door and listened, trying to determine when Harper had his back to him. He felt he couldn't wait any longer, Harper sounded as though he was getting restless. He took out the hypo with the antidote in it and started into the room.



"Harper!" Dylan interrupted again. "I don't mean think like them. I mean, why do *you* think they're trying to kill you? They're you're friends."

Harper's face hardened and his nervousness vanished for a few moments as his voice became cold as ice, "They're not my friends. Friends don't keep secrets from each other, friends don't threaten to eat you, friends don't stab you in the back, friends don't send you on dangerous missions and leave you ..." Harper stopped suddenly and glared at Dylan, it was apparent Harper's delusional mind had come up with some new twisted realization. "Friends don't send friends on dangerous missions, where they could easily be killed by the very things they've feared more than death since childhood!" Harper was yelling now and had his forcelance aimed in Dylan's direction, "Friends don't let friends get infested by Magog! You .... you're just like them. You sent me to fix the frigging ship while you went to the nice safe Command Deck. Sure, you sent Tyr to protect me and that worked out great! You're just like the others. Well Seamus Harper doesn't go down without a fight!" Harper seemed ready to run for dear life, but his grip on the force lance was unwavering and Dylan feared he might shoot at any moment.

"Harper look, I'm just trying to help...." Dylan stopped when he saw Tyr coming up behind Harper.

Harper noticed Dylan's gaze wandering and turned quickly; Tyr was directly behind him. "Get away from me!" Harper yelled. Tyr was too close to get a clear shot, so Harper swung the force lance like a bat and aimed for the Nietchzean's head. Tyr ducked and Harper swung again, he was a little off balance and didn't get much force into the swing, but he hit Tyr in the shoulder, hard enough to knock him down. Harper turned around again, not forgetting about Dylan. Dylan pulled something from his belt and headed towards Harper.

Oh, so they wanna poison me now? What the hell is the point of that? Harper asked himself, but didn't dwell on it. He fired at Dylan, who quickly jumped behind a table. Harper ran out of the room and into the hall.

"You won't get me!" He promised as he fled.

Dylan and Tyr got up quickly and raced into the hallway after him, "Get back here little man!" Tyr demanded.

Harper jumped into the air vent he'd used to get into the corridors and replaced the grating quickly, then backed away and around the corner of the vent, so as not to be seen.

They won't get me.

Dylan and Tyr glanced up and down the hall, looking for Harper. With the lights out it was hard to see anything at all, let alone follow where Harper had headed. They had no idea where to look now, they both sighed in defeat.

"Guys, did you find Harper?" Trance's voice asked over the com unit.

"He got away, Trance. We'll find him though." Dylan assured her. He was about to say more when laughter was heard over the com lines. It was Harper, and he sounded exhausted.

"So, you're all after me huh? Well good luck, you'll need it. Chew on this!" Harper said, then the com went dead. Completely and utterly dead. They had no way of talking to one another now.

"Great. No lights, no communications, we have to open doors manually. Could this get any worse?" Dylan asked rhetorically as he futilely tried his com link.

"Well, at least he hasn't cut off life support." Tyr said, trying to be somewhat optimistic.

"Don't give him any ideas."

"I must admit, I admire the boy's instinct for survival, as misplaced as it may be. He is doing a wonderful job of eluding us." Tyr noted, admiration in his voice.

"Harper's a survivor alright. We should keep looking, we're not going to get system's back online until he's back to normal." Tyr nodded in agreement and they made their way through the corridors once more. Still looking for their errant engineer and friend.

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I know it was a little shorter than most of my chapters, and it took me forever to post. I'm sorry, I was away all weekend and my teacher gave me this assignment to write a short story, and this doesn't count so I've had other things I've had to focus on. More next time I promise. But the rest of the week is pretty busy, probably won't have a new chapter til the weekend. Sorry all.

Diana (robinyj)