A few hours later, in bed, while his wife was sleeping, Harper started to
remember another scheme he tried to find out more about Arwen. His need to
do this stemmed from his gut feeling that there was more to her than meets
the eye, yet in a different way than Trance was.
One day, when she and Trance were on a field trip to get some more plants, Harper overrode some security protocols and blinded Andromeda's sensors to get into Arwen's room, which by that point had become Dylan's room as well. The room looked neat, yet lived in. There were candles of various colors around, as well as odd knick knacks. Harper decided to go look for that book that he had seen Arwen reading at times. After scanning for the book, he found that it was in this locked box under the bed, just as he was about to try to open the box, he heard a booming voice.
"What the hell are you doing?"
He looked up and saw Dylan's standing there, furious.
"uh…. Hi boss. I was just uh… doing a safety check in this room."
"These quarters are private. What is in here is none of your business. Arwen told me that you might have an interest in her private book. When I found the sensors here blinded, I decided to check it out."
"But boss…."
"Leave! Before I toss you in the brig."
"Do you know what's in that book?" Harper asked
"No, but I trust Arwen, and so should you."
Harper left, cursing how he was so close, yet so far.
Then, the alarm clock brought Harper back to the present.
Meanwhile, David had met a new friend named Jade, who was also a writer. She and David would often meet at the local café to discuss their latest scribbleings.
"So, what's your next story about?" David asked
"dragons"
"What are they?"
"They are these sentient beings, whose wisdom surpasses our own. They have the body of a large reptile, while having the claws of a lion, wings, and scaly skin."
"Neat. Why don't we read your story together and discuss it, so as to make improvements and we can do the same to my story in a day or two."
"Sure."
They got so ingrossed in the story, that before they knew it that first light of dawn came upon them.
"Oh no! I 'd better get back. My girlfriend must be worried."
"Okay. Thanks for your help!"
When he got home, he heard Rommie's irritated voice.
"Where have you been?"
"With Jade"
"Jade?"
"A new writing buddy of mine. She wrote this great story about a dragon, which is…."
"I know what they are." she said, then added "I've never met this Jade."
"She is new in town"
"I see. Well, you'd better get to bed."
"I'm sorry I didn't let you know"
"I looked for you everywhere"
"I didn't mean to worry you"
"I know."
So, David went to bed.
The next day, David again met Jade at the café.
Three weeks later, David was coming home, with his seeing eye bot, from a late night of Jade helping him beta read his latest short story, when again, he a note of controlled strong emotions in her voice.
"We have to talk" Rommie said
"About what?" David did have a good feeling about this.
"I've heard rumors"
"since when do you believe in those?"
"since they were actually things I've heard your friends say. I was walking along, near where some of your other friends wer sitting talking about how you have been spending less time with them. They seemed worried. When they saw me, they shut up, little knowing that I had android hearing."
"Rommie don't' you trust me?" David was shocked at what she was implying. "I love you too much, and would never cheat on you"
"I trust you to be human, and subject to temptation."
David didn't say anything.
"I think that the best way to solve a problem is to avoid it. Maybe you should spend less time with her."
"I like her as a friend. I'm not attracted to her. You're being overly jealous"
"I don't think so"
"okay, look, I'll spend a little less time with her."
The next day, Jade saw David walking along, on his way to meet some friends, when she said hi to him.
"So, when do you wanna meet?"
"Actually, I promised my girlfriend that I would spend more time with her."
"I see. In other words, she got a case of the jealous-heebie-jeebies, and does not want you to spend as much time with me"
"Well.. uh…."
"You don' have to say it. However, I just really need to show you something."
"I don't know…"
"Come on!"
"Okay."
So, being the nice guy that he was, David went with her to this mysterious place, which he could not really identify except that it had a pleasant smell and was eerily silent.
"Where are we?"
"In an abandoned building"
"why?"
"I found something quite interesting." She answered as she lead him to where they needed to go. "here we are. Feel the statue" she said as she lead his hand to it.
David felt around and found the statue to be around the size of a regular chair.
"What is it?" he asked.
"A light blue dragon statue"
"Neat"
" Whoever did this statue, captured the essence of the dragon, with all the wisdom and strength"
David made sure to be through in his feeling the dragon, capturing what it looks like.
"Tell me more about dragons"
And so she did for an hour, until David interrupted her.
"Is there someone else here?"
"What makes you say that?"
"I get the feeling that we are being watched"
"oh?"
"Yeah, I can't quite put my finger on it"
Back at his home, Harper was again trying to access his memory files regarding Arwen. He remembered another event during which he almost was able to get some information on Arwen. Somehow, thinking that everyone was asleep, Arwen had left her 'glowing thing' on a bench in the observation deck as she went to walk around for a bit. Somehow, using the Andromeda's computer, Harper was able to find this out, and he with his more advanced scanner, which he just built went there. While the 'glowing thing' was not on, he went to scan it. All the new scanner showed him was that it was made from unknown materials.
"Gee, that's a lot of help. I might as well have used the old one."
Then, he picked it up, and tried to find the place where it's supposed to be turned on, but to no avail, after which he asked the ship to scan it.
"The object is made from materials I am not familiar with,"
"You mean that in your magical mystery database, you can't find any matches?
"No, but I do sense other things"
"Such as?"
"Well, there are a total of two materials. One for the metal part, and another for the Crystal itself. The Crystal is made from some material that can contain and conduct a lot of power at once. It can hold the power equivalent to the amount put out by me and 1000 ships of my size."
"Whoa! What about the metal part?"
"It's made from some sort of material that is so strong, that if my hull were made from it, I would never sustain any battle damage ever again.
"Double whoa!"
"Can you find the on switch to this thing?"
"There doesn't appear to be one."
"How about power source?"
"No" The ship hadn't scanned it before because somehow it had never occurred to her, until Harper asked her.
"That does it, I'm gonna see Dylan" he said to himself. "Where is he? And more importantly, where's Arwen?"
"She's in one of the lavatories, she's not…. Feeling well, all of a sudden. Dylan is in his quarters sleeping"
"Okay" he didn't want to do this, but he thought that Dylan should know that his girlfriend was not being on the level with him, as soon as possible.
However, one minute he was on his way, and the next he found himself in med bay. Dylan was standing next to the bed.
"Glad to have ya back"
"What happened?"
"You fainted"
"Wha..?"
"And stole Arwen's Crystal."
"I did not! I was trying to study it. Dylan, neither my scanners nor Rommie's sensors could detect what it is. I wanted to show it to you to prove that there is something fishy about Arwen. She's lying to you about who she is."
"That's quite an accusation, Harper."
"Think about it, why doesn't she show you that book? Or explain about that 'glowing thing' "
"She made a promise to someone that she would not show the book to anyone else. Otherwise she would have shown it to me"
"How convenient, blame her secrecy on someone else."
"as for the glowing thing, she got it from a friend, and doesn't know much about it"
"Then why doesn't she let me study it, huh?
"Why should she, you've been quite rude to her, spying, going to our rooming trying to steal her book, and now stealing her Crystal." Dyan was glaring at Harper as he said all this, and was getting impatient.
" I was not spying, but trying to figure out what that glowing thing was. Also, I just wanted to make sure that she's not some evil alien or something? How could you not be suspicious?"
"Because I love Arwen, and I trust her."
"you're just blinded by the babe. If I had a girlfriend who acted like she did, you would have been on to her, in a snap, but since you are the one with the girlfriend…. Wake up and smell the antimatter Dylan"
"Enough! I'm tired of your attempts to get more information on Arwen and her personal private objects."
"Wait! Don't' you think it's odd that I just fainted, just as I was about to show you my evidence?" Harper wanted Dylan to see some logic.
"It's from the slight infection you have, according to Trance"
"Wait! She gave it to me! She has powers"
Dylan was starting to get madder, but he took a deep breath, and told himself to be patient, as Harper did live a hard life on Earth.
"She does not. You are being paranoid. Not even Tyr has the level of concern you have"
"Look, I survived on Earth from developing this gut feeling about stuff, and I got that kinda vibe from your girlfriend."
"You will apologize to her" Dylan said in his commanding officer voice.
"No freakin way!"
"there is a surfing competition soon, and you do need authorization to get off the ship….."
"Fine! I'd rather miss it than apologize to her" The last thing Harper wanted to do was to apologize to her.
Dylan was surprised at this.
"Andromeda, tell Dylan what you told me"
"What did I tell you?" she asked
"Remember how you said that if you hull were made from the metal part of the 'glowing thing' you'd never sustain any batter damage? and that the Crystal could contain the same amount of power as 1000 ships of your size?"
"I don't remember saying that"
"Oh crap. She erased some of the ship's memory" This was the last thing that Harper needed.
"Arwen, has been with me all the time you were unconscious."
"She could have erased the memory before"
"No she could not have"
"Andromeda, reanalyze the 'glowing thing' Harper requested.
"Crystal and metal parts made from common materials found in a lot of places in the known worlds"
"No way! She's been messing with the ship's sensors. Cause that's not what they or my scanners said before."
"Arwen made me scan her crystal, with your scanning device, so as to avoid confusion and it confirmed what Andromeda said." Dylan said simply. "Look, Harper, Arwen doesn't have any engineering ability, there was no way that she could have sabotaged anything." he was starting to get annoyed and impatient by Harper's accusations.
"Maybe, she didn't need to use engineering to erased Andromeda's memory, or mess with the scanners. She could have powers of some kind."
"She does not have any powers, didn't you see the scanning results?" Dylan said this with an impatient sigh.
"She used her powers to manipulate them."
"Look, Harper" his voice was starting to rise " I know that you had a rough life on Earth, and I'm sorry, but that gives you no right to take her things without permission. You could have broken her crystal. You will apologize to her."
"Uh.. no I won't"
The next day, Dylan and Arwen announced to the others that she was pregnant. A while after this announcement, Beka and Harper were talking on the Maru.
"Beka, you gotta believe me, that glowing thing is not made from common material. I'm not delusional"
" I know you're not, and I know that even you are not that paranoid."
"So you believe me?"
"Mostly"
"What are we gonna do?"
"Well, Dylan loves her very much, and it'll be hard to convince him. "
"Kinda like when you were with Bobby and you did not believe that he was a psycho."
Beka just looked at him.
"Besides" she continued, "She is kinda like Trance, as she doesn't like to show off her abilities"
"But she isn't even telling Dylan."
"Yeah, it's obvious that she isn't."
Harper's thoughts were interrupted and transported back to the present by his wife's kissing the back of his neck, and asking him to join her for a bath, which he did.
One day, when she and Trance were on a field trip to get some more plants, Harper overrode some security protocols and blinded Andromeda's sensors to get into Arwen's room, which by that point had become Dylan's room as well. The room looked neat, yet lived in. There were candles of various colors around, as well as odd knick knacks. Harper decided to go look for that book that he had seen Arwen reading at times. After scanning for the book, he found that it was in this locked box under the bed, just as he was about to try to open the box, he heard a booming voice.
"What the hell are you doing?"
He looked up and saw Dylan's standing there, furious.
"uh…. Hi boss. I was just uh… doing a safety check in this room."
"These quarters are private. What is in here is none of your business. Arwen told me that you might have an interest in her private book. When I found the sensors here blinded, I decided to check it out."
"But boss…."
"Leave! Before I toss you in the brig."
"Do you know what's in that book?" Harper asked
"No, but I trust Arwen, and so should you."
Harper left, cursing how he was so close, yet so far.
Then, the alarm clock brought Harper back to the present.
Meanwhile, David had met a new friend named Jade, who was also a writer. She and David would often meet at the local café to discuss their latest scribbleings.
"So, what's your next story about?" David asked
"dragons"
"What are they?"
"They are these sentient beings, whose wisdom surpasses our own. They have the body of a large reptile, while having the claws of a lion, wings, and scaly skin."
"Neat. Why don't we read your story together and discuss it, so as to make improvements and we can do the same to my story in a day or two."
"Sure."
They got so ingrossed in the story, that before they knew it that first light of dawn came upon them.
"Oh no! I 'd better get back. My girlfriend must be worried."
"Okay. Thanks for your help!"
When he got home, he heard Rommie's irritated voice.
"Where have you been?"
"With Jade"
"Jade?"
"A new writing buddy of mine. She wrote this great story about a dragon, which is…."
"I know what they are." she said, then added "I've never met this Jade."
"She is new in town"
"I see. Well, you'd better get to bed."
"I'm sorry I didn't let you know"
"I looked for you everywhere"
"I didn't mean to worry you"
"I know."
So, David went to bed.
The next day, David again met Jade at the café.
Three weeks later, David was coming home, with his seeing eye bot, from a late night of Jade helping him beta read his latest short story, when again, he a note of controlled strong emotions in her voice.
"We have to talk" Rommie said
"About what?" David did have a good feeling about this.
"I've heard rumors"
"since when do you believe in those?"
"since they were actually things I've heard your friends say. I was walking along, near where some of your other friends wer sitting talking about how you have been spending less time with them. They seemed worried. When they saw me, they shut up, little knowing that I had android hearing."
"Rommie don't' you trust me?" David was shocked at what she was implying. "I love you too much, and would never cheat on you"
"I trust you to be human, and subject to temptation."
David didn't say anything.
"I think that the best way to solve a problem is to avoid it. Maybe you should spend less time with her."
"I like her as a friend. I'm not attracted to her. You're being overly jealous"
"I don't think so"
"okay, look, I'll spend a little less time with her."
The next day, Jade saw David walking along, on his way to meet some friends, when she said hi to him.
"So, when do you wanna meet?"
"Actually, I promised my girlfriend that I would spend more time with her."
"I see. In other words, she got a case of the jealous-heebie-jeebies, and does not want you to spend as much time with me"
"Well.. uh…."
"You don' have to say it. However, I just really need to show you something."
"I don't know…"
"Come on!"
"Okay."
So, being the nice guy that he was, David went with her to this mysterious place, which he could not really identify except that it had a pleasant smell and was eerily silent.
"Where are we?"
"In an abandoned building"
"why?"
"I found something quite interesting." She answered as she lead him to where they needed to go. "here we are. Feel the statue" she said as she lead his hand to it.
David felt around and found the statue to be around the size of a regular chair.
"What is it?" he asked.
"A light blue dragon statue"
"Neat"
" Whoever did this statue, captured the essence of the dragon, with all the wisdom and strength"
David made sure to be through in his feeling the dragon, capturing what it looks like.
"Tell me more about dragons"
And so she did for an hour, until David interrupted her.
"Is there someone else here?"
"What makes you say that?"
"I get the feeling that we are being watched"
"oh?"
"Yeah, I can't quite put my finger on it"
Back at his home, Harper was again trying to access his memory files regarding Arwen. He remembered another event during which he almost was able to get some information on Arwen. Somehow, thinking that everyone was asleep, Arwen had left her 'glowing thing' on a bench in the observation deck as she went to walk around for a bit. Somehow, using the Andromeda's computer, Harper was able to find this out, and he with his more advanced scanner, which he just built went there. While the 'glowing thing' was not on, he went to scan it. All the new scanner showed him was that it was made from unknown materials.
"Gee, that's a lot of help. I might as well have used the old one."
Then, he picked it up, and tried to find the place where it's supposed to be turned on, but to no avail, after which he asked the ship to scan it.
"The object is made from materials I am not familiar with,"
"You mean that in your magical mystery database, you can't find any matches?
"No, but I do sense other things"
"Such as?"
"Well, there are a total of two materials. One for the metal part, and another for the Crystal itself. The Crystal is made from some material that can contain and conduct a lot of power at once. It can hold the power equivalent to the amount put out by me and 1000 ships of my size."
"Whoa! What about the metal part?"
"It's made from some sort of material that is so strong, that if my hull were made from it, I would never sustain any battle damage ever again.
"Double whoa!"
"Can you find the on switch to this thing?"
"There doesn't appear to be one."
"How about power source?"
"No" The ship hadn't scanned it before because somehow it had never occurred to her, until Harper asked her.
"That does it, I'm gonna see Dylan" he said to himself. "Where is he? And more importantly, where's Arwen?"
"She's in one of the lavatories, she's not…. Feeling well, all of a sudden. Dylan is in his quarters sleeping"
"Okay" he didn't want to do this, but he thought that Dylan should know that his girlfriend was not being on the level with him, as soon as possible.
However, one minute he was on his way, and the next he found himself in med bay. Dylan was standing next to the bed.
"Glad to have ya back"
"What happened?"
"You fainted"
"Wha..?"
"And stole Arwen's Crystal."
"I did not! I was trying to study it. Dylan, neither my scanners nor Rommie's sensors could detect what it is. I wanted to show it to you to prove that there is something fishy about Arwen. She's lying to you about who she is."
"That's quite an accusation, Harper."
"Think about it, why doesn't she show you that book? Or explain about that 'glowing thing' "
"She made a promise to someone that she would not show the book to anyone else. Otherwise she would have shown it to me"
"How convenient, blame her secrecy on someone else."
"as for the glowing thing, she got it from a friend, and doesn't know much about it"
"Then why doesn't she let me study it, huh?
"Why should she, you've been quite rude to her, spying, going to our rooming trying to steal her book, and now stealing her Crystal." Dyan was glaring at Harper as he said all this, and was getting impatient.
" I was not spying, but trying to figure out what that glowing thing was. Also, I just wanted to make sure that she's not some evil alien or something? How could you not be suspicious?"
"Because I love Arwen, and I trust her."
"you're just blinded by the babe. If I had a girlfriend who acted like she did, you would have been on to her, in a snap, but since you are the one with the girlfriend…. Wake up and smell the antimatter Dylan"
"Enough! I'm tired of your attempts to get more information on Arwen and her personal private objects."
"Wait! Don't' you think it's odd that I just fainted, just as I was about to show you my evidence?" Harper wanted Dylan to see some logic.
"It's from the slight infection you have, according to Trance"
"Wait! She gave it to me! She has powers"
Dylan was starting to get madder, but he took a deep breath, and told himself to be patient, as Harper did live a hard life on Earth.
"She does not. You are being paranoid. Not even Tyr has the level of concern you have"
"Look, I survived on Earth from developing this gut feeling about stuff, and I got that kinda vibe from your girlfriend."
"You will apologize to her" Dylan said in his commanding officer voice.
"No freakin way!"
"there is a surfing competition soon, and you do need authorization to get off the ship….."
"Fine! I'd rather miss it than apologize to her" The last thing Harper wanted to do was to apologize to her.
Dylan was surprised at this.
"Andromeda, tell Dylan what you told me"
"What did I tell you?" she asked
"Remember how you said that if you hull were made from the metal part of the 'glowing thing' you'd never sustain any batter damage? and that the Crystal could contain the same amount of power as 1000 ships of your size?"
"I don't remember saying that"
"Oh crap. She erased some of the ship's memory" This was the last thing that Harper needed.
"Arwen, has been with me all the time you were unconscious."
"She could have erased the memory before"
"No she could not have"
"Andromeda, reanalyze the 'glowing thing' Harper requested.
"Crystal and metal parts made from common materials found in a lot of places in the known worlds"
"No way! She's been messing with the ship's sensors. Cause that's not what they or my scanners said before."
"Arwen made me scan her crystal, with your scanning device, so as to avoid confusion and it confirmed what Andromeda said." Dylan said simply. "Look, Harper, Arwen doesn't have any engineering ability, there was no way that she could have sabotaged anything." he was starting to get annoyed and impatient by Harper's accusations.
"Maybe, she didn't need to use engineering to erased Andromeda's memory, or mess with the scanners. She could have powers of some kind."
"She does not have any powers, didn't you see the scanning results?" Dylan said this with an impatient sigh.
"She used her powers to manipulate them."
"Look, Harper" his voice was starting to rise " I know that you had a rough life on Earth, and I'm sorry, but that gives you no right to take her things without permission. You could have broken her crystal. You will apologize to her."
"Uh.. no I won't"
The next day, Dylan and Arwen announced to the others that she was pregnant. A while after this announcement, Beka and Harper were talking on the Maru.
"Beka, you gotta believe me, that glowing thing is not made from common material. I'm not delusional"
" I know you're not, and I know that even you are not that paranoid."
"So you believe me?"
"Mostly"
"What are we gonna do?"
"Well, Dylan loves her very much, and it'll be hard to convince him. "
"Kinda like when you were with Bobby and you did not believe that he was a psycho."
Beka just looked at him.
"Besides" she continued, "She is kinda like Trance, as she doesn't like to show off her abilities"
"But she isn't even telling Dylan."
"Yeah, it's obvious that she isn't."
Harper's thoughts were interrupted and transported back to the present by his wife's kissing the back of his neck, and asking him to join her for a bath, which he did.