Marcus's hologram flickered out before Harper got a chance to respond. Straightening up with a wince, he called out, "Rommie? Where's Marcus?"
"He just left my quarters, why? What happened?" She sounded confused.
"He saw me working on the tesseract generator for the siblings."
"Oh, Harper..."
"Can you track him?"
"Affirmative... he's heading for the Maru. Beka is already there. I'll go after him."
"No, I'll tell him."
-----------------------------------
Beka looked up to see Marcus enter her quarters. He looked distressed and was in the process of clenching and unclenching his fists. He looked as if he was crying as he began to pace.
"Marcus?"
Marcus looked up at her. "He... He was... there was something... here." Marcus pointed to his abdomen. "It bit him." Marcus stopped pacing and slid to the floor.
"Shh.... Easy." Beka placed a hand on his forehead.
"But it bit him... he screamed. What's in him, Beka?"
"Easy. Rommie and Harper are on their way." Beka began to rub his back until he stopped sobbing. The hatch opened and Harper entered the room, looking at Marcus.
"Beka, give us a minute, please."
Beka stood up slowly and left, closing the door behind her with a gentle push. Harper crouched down on the floor in front of his son. "Hey kid."
Marcus sniffled. "What's in you?"
"Marcus..."
"Tell me." He met Harper's stare.
Marcus reminded Harper of the first time he met Rommie. Harper wasn't about to deny telling him the truth. Being on Earth as long as he was, he knew Marcus deserved to know what might happen. "You know I always thought the first father son chat I'd have would involve the birds and the bees."
"Birds and bees?"
"Never mind. What's in me is Magog larvae. I was infested with them before you were here."
Marcus looked as if he was processing the information, and his green eyes went wide. "Was it... was it Rev?"
Harper took a breath and shook his head. "No, in fact he helped make a drug to keeps them asleep until I can find a way to get them out."
Marcus reached out, touched Harper's abdomen, and bit his lip. "Does it hurt?"
"Sometimes they do. Usually they are too stoned to care."
"Stoned?"
"It's a phrase."
Marcus looked as if he was going to cry. "Are you going to die?"
Harper thought his heart was about to break. "Maybe. I don't know for sure. What you saw back there was me trying to make it so I don't."
His son started to shake. "I'm scared." Harper pulled Marcus into a hug as Rommie entered the room.
Looking at her, Harper whispered, "So am I."
-----------------------------------
It was a long while before Harper, Rommie, and Marcus finally left the Maru. When they did, Beka was waiting outside. Marcus clung to Rommie and she gave Harper a worried look.
Harper took a deep breath. "Long day."
"Yes. Dinner?"
"Uh... sure. Take Marcus to his quarters and I'll check on you two later?"
Rommie nodded and took Marcus from the hangar deck. Beka came forward.
"How is he?"
"Shaken. We talked about a lot of things, and I gave him the Reader's Digest of what life on Earth was like, and what life working with you is like, because he was curious about how I wound up here."
"Reader's Digest?"
"It's an Earth thing. Don't worry about it." The two of them walked on to the Mess in silence. When they arrived, Harper took his meal and sat down. Beka made herself a cup of coffee and took the seat across from him, looking into his eyes.
"They need you, you know."
"I know, I know. We need them."
"That's not what I mean. What they need is for you to let them help. Rommie isn't used to standing back and doing nothing. And Marcus... well, I don't care what Dylan thinks, AI or not Marcus is still very much a baby."
Harper snorted and took a sip of water. "I thought you'd want to mother hen my kids someday."
"Harper, I'm just looking out for you." Beka reached over and squeezed his hand.
"Yeah yeah yeah. Thanks for doing so." Harper looked down at this plate and suddenly didn't feel very hungry. He pushed the plate away from him. "You really think letting them help me work on this cure would make it easier on them?"
"She has the same expression in her eyes when she looks at you that I did when dad was dying."
"Which is what?"
Beka took a sip of coffee. "Helplessness."
----------------------------
Rommie sat on the edge of the bed and played with her son's hair. Dark like her own, it was soft against her fingertips. "What is it you wanted to know?"
Marcus kept his eyes closed. "Did you make me because dad is dying?
"No, his condition was only the reason why we made you now."
"You would have made me anyway?"
"I would have wanted to. I can't speak on whether Harper would have said yes or not."
"Mom... why make me at all?"
Rommie wrung her hands and stood up. "It's complicated. Remember when I said that I used to have a crew of over four thousand on board?"
Marcus nodded.
"Well, when the Commonwealth was still intact, my engineering crew alone comprised of dozens. They knew my programming, but they didn't know me, the person. My old engineering crew just knew the warship. Most didn't have neural ports, so that didn't help matters any. But Harper's different. He's always treated me differently. And for the past year and a half, it's been just the two of us when I need to be fixed. So when I found the specs on how to make a second AI, I thought about it really hard. I could have made just a copy of myself, or I could have asked to have someone volunteer for the scan and DNA donation. I decided I wanted a donation."
"Dad didn't meet the original requirements for candidates..."
Rommie smiled. "No, and I lied to him about that. If I went with the requirements, I would have asked Dylan." Rommie sat across from her son. "But I didn't want to ask Dylan. I wanted to ask your father. He's really the only person I would have considered now anyway."
"Why?"
Rommie played with her son's hair again. "You need to perform that maintenance check. We'll talk about this later, OK?"
Marcus nodded, placed his hand on his charger, and closed his eyes. Rommie quietly left and made her way to her quarters.
Harper was sitting on the floor by her door when she got there.
--------------------------------------
Marcus opened his eyes to see his quarters were darkened to account for the time of day. Done with a nightly maintenance check, he scanned the ship with his sensors to look for his mother. She was in her quarters. Concentrating, he projected a miniature form of his hologram into the room.
She was sitting up in the bed with her eyes closed. His father was laying down with his head on her lap, eyes closed.
His mother looked at him from her position on the bed immediately.
"I'm just going for a walk around on the ship. I want to try moving without an active connection so we get a feel of what it's like. Is dad sleeping?"
Rommie nodded without a sound.
Marcus smiled and his hologram dissolved. Getting out of his bed, he decided to go back to the Maru.
On the way, he used his mother's database to research the schematics of a neural port. He didn't need one, but he wanted to give an excuse for the ability to access other computers with such ease if he had to. His mother told him that some people don't like AI's.
Besides, he had a feeling that working for Beka might not be, as his father described, a walk in a park. Whatever a park is.
Reaching the Maru he opened the hatch and stepped inside, heading straight for the bridge. He sat at the helm and activated the computer terminal in front of him.
"I'm sorry they want me to replace you. You seem nice. Quiet, but still nice."
The Maru responded with its standard hum. Marcus ran his fingers over the terminal.
"It won't be so bad you know. I'm going to ask mom and dad to incorporate what you've learned into my programming. I need your experiences on the outside, I think. You may like being in here you know." Marcus tapped his forehead. "This way, we can both use me to get around, OK? Oh, and I'll do what I can to take care of Beka."
"You know, other than catching Rafe doing that once when I was seven, that's got to be only time I've ever seen anyone talk to the Maru like that."
Marcus looked up. Beka was standing in the hallway in shorts and a T shirt. He smiled.
"Just because he doesn't talk doesn't mean he shouldn't have a say in all this. It's his ship you guys want me to live in now."
Beka came forward and leaned on her arms against the helm. "How are you feeling, by the way?"
Marcus frowned. "I'm still scared."
"I don't blame you. I've never told Seamus this, but he acts more like he's my brother sometimes than Rafe does."
Marcus closed his eyes and decided to trust Beka. "Can you help me with a research project by the way? I want to get more information to try and help dad."
Beka smiled. "Alright. I'll let Harper know first thing in the..."
"Beka? I don't want you to tell anyone yet that I want to do this."
Beka nodded in understanding. "You and I need to talk about why you shouldn't wake your captain at three in the morning unless it's an emergency..."
------------------------------------------------
"I still don't understand why you want a port." Rommie paced the machine shop and looked at her son as Harper installed the port on the side of his neck. "We don't need it."
Marcus rolled his eyes and tried not to move. "Mom, we've been over this. Some places don't like AI's. With a port, I can fit in and explain why I can access systems as easily as I can. It's called blending in."
"But do you have to have one?"
Harper looked up at Rommie. "You know, you never complained like this about my port. Besides it's a dummy port. Think of it as a tattoo. You know, like the one I have."
Marcus blinked. "You have a tattoo? That never shows up when you enter the matrix when you visit mom..."
"Your port is different. You need your port to do your job. He doesn't need one." Rommie sat at a nearby bench and sighed.
Harper paused before continuing, his cheeks slightly flushed. "A lot of engineers do their jobs without a port, Rommie. Marcus just wants there to be an excuse for why he can do his so well if he has to pose for one. He's going to live with Beka soon."
"Oh yeah, I know all about what it was like for you to live with Beka."
Marcus seemed reflective. "Beka seems like a good person..."
Harper reached for another tool, looking at his son. "Beka is a good person. I'd trust her with my life. And the Maru is, as far as she's concerned, hers. She won't let anything happen to you."
"Harper, you're not helping here."
Harper gave Rommie an annoyed expression, stopped what he was doing and approached her. He leaned forward so that his face was inches from hers. "I can do my job just as well with or without a port and you know it. Now, if our kid feels he needs a port to fit in on occasion, let him have it." His face softened. "He just wants to keep an element of surprise. What better surprise on some shady little backwater drift for an AI than to pass for human?"
Rommie pouted and finally gave in. "Fine, he can have the port."
Marcus tilted his head. "Are we done? I promised I'd meet Tyr in the gym..."
Both Rommie and Harper turned to Marcus with raised eyebrows.
"Well, I downloaded the self defense programs like you asked. Tyr offered to help me try them out. Besides he complained he needed something more challenging than a punching bag, and Trance was busy."
Harper shrugged. "I'm done, but I need to fine tune the calibrations later. Tell him not to hit the port."
Marcus hopped off the table and left the Machine shop. Harper turned back to Rommie.
"Mind telling me what the hell that was all about?"
"I just think it's unnecessary work."
"I don't."
"I'm sorry if I upset you. Look, we both have more pressing issues, like how to move him onto the Maru and incorporate the old programming Beka relies on."
"Darling, I'm on it." Harper sighed. "Speaking of more pressing issues I need to get back to work on the tesseract generator. Feel like doing some calculations for me?"
Rommie very slowly smiled. "If this is your standard pick up line it's failing miserably."
Harper laughed. "No, that line would only work on hot female engineers. Trust me, there aren't any on board."
Rommie's smile faded. "Dylan wants to see me in his ready room."
"Go, I'll see you later."
Rommie left and Harper grabbed his tool belt. Reaching over, he felt a sudden pain in his abdomen and winced. He fumbled for his inhaler.
Andromeda's hologram appeared. "Do you need me to have Trance get the Med Deck ready?"
Harper shook his head as he took his inhaler. "No, I'm good. Let's just get to work on the generator, OK?"
End Ch. 4.
"He just left my quarters, why? What happened?" She sounded confused.
"He saw me working on the tesseract generator for the siblings."
"Oh, Harper..."
"Can you track him?"
"Affirmative... he's heading for the Maru. Beka is already there. I'll go after him."
"No, I'll tell him."
-----------------------------------
Beka looked up to see Marcus enter her quarters. He looked distressed and was in the process of clenching and unclenching his fists. He looked as if he was crying as he began to pace.
"Marcus?"
Marcus looked up at her. "He... He was... there was something... here." Marcus pointed to his abdomen. "It bit him." Marcus stopped pacing and slid to the floor.
"Shh.... Easy." Beka placed a hand on his forehead.
"But it bit him... he screamed. What's in him, Beka?"
"Easy. Rommie and Harper are on their way." Beka began to rub his back until he stopped sobbing. The hatch opened and Harper entered the room, looking at Marcus.
"Beka, give us a minute, please."
Beka stood up slowly and left, closing the door behind her with a gentle push. Harper crouched down on the floor in front of his son. "Hey kid."
Marcus sniffled. "What's in you?"
"Marcus..."
"Tell me." He met Harper's stare.
Marcus reminded Harper of the first time he met Rommie. Harper wasn't about to deny telling him the truth. Being on Earth as long as he was, he knew Marcus deserved to know what might happen. "You know I always thought the first father son chat I'd have would involve the birds and the bees."
"Birds and bees?"
"Never mind. What's in me is Magog larvae. I was infested with them before you were here."
Marcus looked as if he was processing the information, and his green eyes went wide. "Was it... was it Rev?"
Harper took a breath and shook his head. "No, in fact he helped make a drug to keeps them asleep until I can find a way to get them out."
Marcus reached out, touched Harper's abdomen, and bit his lip. "Does it hurt?"
"Sometimes they do. Usually they are too stoned to care."
"Stoned?"
"It's a phrase."
Marcus looked as if he was going to cry. "Are you going to die?"
Harper thought his heart was about to break. "Maybe. I don't know for sure. What you saw back there was me trying to make it so I don't."
His son started to shake. "I'm scared." Harper pulled Marcus into a hug as Rommie entered the room.
Looking at her, Harper whispered, "So am I."
-----------------------------------
It was a long while before Harper, Rommie, and Marcus finally left the Maru. When they did, Beka was waiting outside. Marcus clung to Rommie and she gave Harper a worried look.
Harper took a deep breath. "Long day."
"Yes. Dinner?"
"Uh... sure. Take Marcus to his quarters and I'll check on you two later?"
Rommie nodded and took Marcus from the hangar deck. Beka came forward.
"How is he?"
"Shaken. We talked about a lot of things, and I gave him the Reader's Digest of what life on Earth was like, and what life working with you is like, because he was curious about how I wound up here."
"Reader's Digest?"
"It's an Earth thing. Don't worry about it." The two of them walked on to the Mess in silence. When they arrived, Harper took his meal and sat down. Beka made herself a cup of coffee and took the seat across from him, looking into his eyes.
"They need you, you know."
"I know, I know. We need them."
"That's not what I mean. What they need is for you to let them help. Rommie isn't used to standing back and doing nothing. And Marcus... well, I don't care what Dylan thinks, AI or not Marcus is still very much a baby."
Harper snorted and took a sip of water. "I thought you'd want to mother hen my kids someday."
"Harper, I'm just looking out for you." Beka reached over and squeezed his hand.
"Yeah yeah yeah. Thanks for doing so." Harper looked down at this plate and suddenly didn't feel very hungry. He pushed the plate away from him. "You really think letting them help me work on this cure would make it easier on them?"
"She has the same expression in her eyes when she looks at you that I did when dad was dying."
"Which is what?"
Beka took a sip of coffee. "Helplessness."
----------------------------
Rommie sat on the edge of the bed and played with her son's hair. Dark like her own, it was soft against her fingertips. "What is it you wanted to know?"
Marcus kept his eyes closed. "Did you make me because dad is dying?
"No, his condition was only the reason why we made you now."
"You would have made me anyway?"
"I would have wanted to. I can't speak on whether Harper would have said yes or not."
"Mom... why make me at all?"
Rommie wrung her hands and stood up. "It's complicated. Remember when I said that I used to have a crew of over four thousand on board?"
Marcus nodded.
"Well, when the Commonwealth was still intact, my engineering crew alone comprised of dozens. They knew my programming, but they didn't know me, the person. My old engineering crew just knew the warship. Most didn't have neural ports, so that didn't help matters any. But Harper's different. He's always treated me differently. And for the past year and a half, it's been just the two of us when I need to be fixed. So when I found the specs on how to make a second AI, I thought about it really hard. I could have made just a copy of myself, or I could have asked to have someone volunteer for the scan and DNA donation. I decided I wanted a donation."
"Dad didn't meet the original requirements for candidates..."
Rommie smiled. "No, and I lied to him about that. If I went with the requirements, I would have asked Dylan." Rommie sat across from her son. "But I didn't want to ask Dylan. I wanted to ask your father. He's really the only person I would have considered now anyway."
"Why?"
Rommie played with her son's hair again. "You need to perform that maintenance check. We'll talk about this later, OK?"
Marcus nodded, placed his hand on his charger, and closed his eyes. Rommie quietly left and made her way to her quarters.
Harper was sitting on the floor by her door when she got there.
--------------------------------------
Marcus opened his eyes to see his quarters were darkened to account for the time of day. Done with a nightly maintenance check, he scanned the ship with his sensors to look for his mother. She was in her quarters. Concentrating, he projected a miniature form of his hologram into the room.
She was sitting up in the bed with her eyes closed. His father was laying down with his head on her lap, eyes closed.
His mother looked at him from her position on the bed immediately.
"I'm just going for a walk around on the ship. I want to try moving without an active connection so we get a feel of what it's like. Is dad sleeping?"
Rommie nodded without a sound.
Marcus smiled and his hologram dissolved. Getting out of his bed, he decided to go back to the Maru.
On the way, he used his mother's database to research the schematics of a neural port. He didn't need one, but he wanted to give an excuse for the ability to access other computers with such ease if he had to. His mother told him that some people don't like AI's.
Besides, he had a feeling that working for Beka might not be, as his father described, a walk in a park. Whatever a park is.
Reaching the Maru he opened the hatch and stepped inside, heading straight for the bridge. He sat at the helm and activated the computer terminal in front of him.
"I'm sorry they want me to replace you. You seem nice. Quiet, but still nice."
The Maru responded with its standard hum. Marcus ran his fingers over the terminal.
"It won't be so bad you know. I'm going to ask mom and dad to incorporate what you've learned into my programming. I need your experiences on the outside, I think. You may like being in here you know." Marcus tapped his forehead. "This way, we can both use me to get around, OK? Oh, and I'll do what I can to take care of Beka."
"You know, other than catching Rafe doing that once when I was seven, that's got to be only time I've ever seen anyone talk to the Maru like that."
Marcus looked up. Beka was standing in the hallway in shorts and a T shirt. He smiled.
"Just because he doesn't talk doesn't mean he shouldn't have a say in all this. It's his ship you guys want me to live in now."
Beka came forward and leaned on her arms against the helm. "How are you feeling, by the way?"
Marcus frowned. "I'm still scared."
"I don't blame you. I've never told Seamus this, but he acts more like he's my brother sometimes than Rafe does."
Marcus closed his eyes and decided to trust Beka. "Can you help me with a research project by the way? I want to get more information to try and help dad."
Beka smiled. "Alright. I'll let Harper know first thing in the..."
"Beka? I don't want you to tell anyone yet that I want to do this."
Beka nodded in understanding. "You and I need to talk about why you shouldn't wake your captain at three in the morning unless it's an emergency..."
------------------------------------------------
"I still don't understand why you want a port." Rommie paced the machine shop and looked at her son as Harper installed the port on the side of his neck. "We don't need it."
Marcus rolled his eyes and tried not to move. "Mom, we've been over this. Some places don't like AI's. With a port, I can fit in and explain why I can access systems as easily as I can. It's called blending in."
"But do you have to have one?"
Harper looked up at Rommie. "You know, you never complained like this about my port. Besides it's a dummy port. Think of it as a tattoo. You know, like the one I have."
Marcus blinked. "You have a tattoo? That never shows up when you enter the matrix when you visit mom..."
"Your port is different. You need your port to do your job. He doesn't need one." Rommie sat at a nearby bench and sighed.
Harper paused before continuing, his cheeks slightly flushed. "A lot of engineers do their jobs without a port, Rommie. Marcus just wants there to be an excuse for why he can do his so well if he has to pose for one. He's going to live with Beka soon."
"Oh yeah, I know all about what it was like for you to live with Beka."
Marcus seemed reflective. "Beka seems like a good person..."
Harper reached for another tool, looking at his son. "Beka is a good person. I'd trust her with my life. And the Maru is, as far as she's concerned, hers. She won't let anything happen to you."
"Harper, you're not helping here."
Harper gave Rommie an annoyed expression, stopped what he was doing and approached her. He leaned forward so that his face was inches from hers. "I can do my job just as well with or without a port and you know it. Now, if our kid feels he needs a port to fit in on occasion, let him have it." His face softened. "He just wants to keep an element of surprise. What better surprise on some shady little backwater drift for an AI than to pass for human?"
Rommie pouted and finally gave in. "Fine, he can have the port."
Marcus tilted his head. "Are we done? I promised I'd meet Tyr in the gym..."
Both Rommie and Harper turned to Marcus with raised eyebrows.
"Well, I downloaded the self defense programs like you asked. Tyr offered to help me try them out. Besides he complained he needed something more challenging than a punching bag, and Trance was busy."
Harper shrugged. "I'm done, but I need to fine tune the calibrations later. Tell him not to hit the port."
Marcus hopped off the table and left the Machine shop. Harper turned back to Rommie.
"Mind telling me what the hell that was all about?"
"I just think it's unnecessary work."
"I don't."
"I'm sorry if I upset you. Look, we both have more pressing issues, like how to move him onto the Maru and incorporate the old programming Beka relies on."
"Darling, I'm on it." Harper sighed. "Speaking of more pressing issues I need to get back to work on the tesseract generator. Feel like doing some calculations for me?"
Rommie very slowly smiled. "If this is your standard pick up line it's failing miserably."
Harper laughed. "No, that line would only work on hot female engineers. Trust me, there aren't any on board."
Rommie's smile faded. "Dylan wants to see me in his ready room."
"Go, I'll see you later."
Rommie left and Harper grabbed his tool belt. Reaching over, he felt a sudden pain in his abdomen and winced. He fumbled for his inhaler.
Andromeda's hologram appeared. "Do you need me to have Trance get the Med Deck ready?"
Harper shook his head as he took his inhaler. "No, I'm good. Let's just get to work on the generator, OK?"
End Ch. 4.