Exits, Part 2- Motivated
Disclaimer: I haven't gotten control of Andromeda's characters since the last chapter and they certainly aren't paying me to write this.
Harper spent the 4 days generally being mad at Bobby and wishing harm to come to his person. He even had thought a couple of ways to see that it happened. Seamus Z. Harper did not take kindly to people trying to get him killed. But with a maturity formed by selfishness he decided to go along with their original agreement, allowing for Bobby to be only humiliated and hopefully mildly maimed. He was mature, but he could still hope for a maiming.
Maiming was actually commonplace around here. After he had retuned he found Ziggy had nearly lost his left eye in a fight with an Uber. A shame, but no one was that surprised. Things happened, people got hurt. Harper did not want to stick around waiting for it to happen to him again.
So on the appointed day he went to the landing strip where they had agreed the transfer would take place and waited for Bobby. The backstabber arrived in one of the most run down, clunky ships ever to grace the strip. The rumble in the distance indicated the Neitzchiens were heading across the dusty field in one of their ground transport vehicles. Harper was crouched in the shadows behind the closest white stone storage bay. These bays bisected the giant empty field that was the Boston area space port and offered Harper a view of what happened when the Neitzchiens met Bobby.
"Code" was all the big Neitzchien asked, his impatience already showing.
"What?" Bobby asked
"Don't mess with us human, tell us the authorization code, or you aren't getting the shipment."
"Authorization code?" What are you talking about?"
"You are wasting my time kluge?!"
"What?" The Neitzchien proceeded to knock Bobby flat on his back. He stepped on the human's hand as he turned to leave, getting a lovely yell from the nasty human. Harper swooped in in time to save the deal.
He wished he could capture the look on Bobby Jenson's face when he appeared from behind the building. It was wonderful. "I'm sorry; my partner didn't seem to get the information. The code is URA-B00B."
"Thank you"
"Yeah, thanks Seamus. Why don't you get the box?" Bobby was glaring at Harper to kill him. He did not take kindly to being made a fool. Unfortunately there really wasn't anything he could do about the situation.
It was about this time Beka Valintine, the Maru's captain appeared. She was quite attractive in Harper's opinion. Bobby's too, as he demonstrated by planting a kiss on his lips. Harper wanted to gag. The Neitzchiens for their part finally figured out this was an odd situation and responded in the typical Neitzchien manner of shooting their guns.
Harper brought the crate onto the Maru fast. The others followed as quickly as they could. The scene had gotten a little ugly. Beka headed for the command deck to get them away from the ugly scene leaving Harper and Bobby standing by the door. Bobby knew he'd have to keep the kid around a little longer and that annoyed him.
"What was that about kid?!" he yelled when Beka was out of earshot, since he didn't want her to know he'd been tricked.
"What was that about? You told the Neitz I was there! Do you know what they would have done to me?"
"Something about a fish, I wasn't really paying attention."
"Why did you do it?"
"Frankly I just didn't want to pay you."
"Fine. We have to get out of here now though."
"What's the rush, this is your home after all"
"The Neitzchiens are going to realize they gave their weapons to an outpost who never requested them. Then they are going to come after us. Maybe we shouldn't be here then."
"Alright, we're going. But this isn't over kid." Then they headed for command deck.