Well this beastly thing has hit 45 pages… at what point did this blasted thing turn into a book!! LOL

Once again I can't say enough about you guys you've really given me the motivation to keep going. You have all been so sweet and overwhelmingly friendly.

I managed to give you a bigger chapter this time I hope it makes up for all the smaller ones!

**Small warning for violence and a slightly gruesome scene. ***

Hope you enjoy it.

~ Your friendly neighborhood parisindy

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Another two weeks went by before someone new came to see him and frankly he was glad he was quite sick of the medical staff and he was quite sure they were sick of him. The doctor had grown frustrated with Harper's stubbornness and his refusal to use his injured arm. He did try to use his arm once or twice but it hurt like the blazes. Mostly though he didn't use it because they wanted him to. His own little act of rebellion, it was all he had.

That was before Lieutenant McBride came and then even that small bit of rebellion seemed unimportant..

Harper disliked him immediately. He came in wearing a very crisp and proper High Guard uniform and carrying a clipboard. He read his clipboard for a good five minutes before even acknowledging Harper.

Harper sat on his bed and glared at him. Finally the man cleared his throat and introduced himself.

"I'm Lieutenant McBride I will be your representative."

"My what?"

"Your representative." He sniffed once and looked at Harper like he was an idiot.

"Represent me at what?"

"Your arraignment of course."

Harper felt stunned he hadn't expected that. "I'm going on trial?"

"Yes…ummm …Mr. Harper" McBride consulted his clipboard for Harper's name again.

"Well I thought you guys pretty much thought I was guilty and that was it."

"The High Guards are a diplomatic society, everyone receives a trial before conviction." Harper noticed that he didn't say that he thought Harper was innocent. The man continued, "The doctor mentioned you haven't been co- operating with his treatments."

Harper swore a couple of times.

The lawyer didn't even blink. "Being uncooperative will go on your record Mr. Harper I must say it doesn't look good."

"I don't give a crap what goes on my record."

"Are you confessing to the murder of 103 civilian allies?"

Harper scowled and said nothing. "Listen I went over this with your two buddies when I first got here… I didn't kill them on purpose."

"Do you think your intent will make a difference?" He consulted his clipboard again. "It also says here you refuse to disclose the were abouts of one Sirius unknown last name. Your supposed employer."

"I was his slave, I ran away, I DON'T KNOW!"

"This attitude really won't help you at trial Mr. Harper." Sniffed McBride, Harper was beginning to wonder if he had allergies. "Your hearing will be in 3 days you will be shipped out of the secure area back to the planet you saw when you were captured. That is where your fate will be decided." With that McBride sniffed once more and abruptly left Harper's room.

Harper sat there for a moment contemplating the situation and one thought kept rolling through his brain. 'Like hell some else would decide his fate for him.' Then all the sadness he had been holding deep inside turned into something else. These people, the High Guard were suppose to be the good guys. Yet they had destroyed the Maru, VexPax died because of their attack, and … Beka. A sob of rage caught in his throat.

He would never, NEVER trust anyone again.

Harper started to plan.

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Three days later Harper's hands were bound in front of him He winched slightly as the bindings closed on his injured arm and he was lead from his small white room. He had never been in the hall before but it was no different then any other institutional building. His body was tense as he counted the minutes until he could execute his plan but it momentarily slipped his mind as they led him outside.

His mouth hung slack as his eyes darted around in awe. This was Tarn Vedra and now he understood why they fought so hard to protect it. As his guards led him to a near by shuttle Harper tried to soak it in. Giant trees stood on one side of his path. Hundreds of feet high and so round Harper could never reach his arms around them. Dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves and He could smell dew in the air. On the other side of the path was a large well-tended flower garden with many plants he had never seen before. They crossed a small wooden bridge and a small creek rippled underneath. Past the flower gardens was a view of blue and white mountains that obscured the horizon.

One of the guards nudged him when he stopped overwhelmed by the beauty.

"Is the whole planet like this?" Whispered Harper.

"Pretty much but there are no trees on the beaches near the oceans. Come on let's move it."

Harper had always wanted to see a real ocean. One that was unpolluted and un-patrolled. He had always wanted try swimming maybe even surfing. His thoughts raced to happier places as they loaded him on the transport. The door closed and he said good-bye to the most beautiful place he had ever seen. Ten minutes of beauty was all he had been allowed.

The Highgaurd officers removed his bindings and placed him in a holding cell near the back of the ship. There was no view of Tarn Vedra and no possible way of knowing the way to and from the planet. After about an hour Harper felt the small ship vibrate and enter slipstream. Harper smiled to himself when he noted that they only went through one slipstream. The map had been right after all. It was getting close to the time where he needed to start his plan rolling. It was the smartest idea ever but hopefully it would work.

He pulled up the sleeve of his injured arm and revealed a large white cloth bandage. Yesterday he had faked depression and cut his arm open. The doctor immediately applied nanobots to seal the wound and wrapped his arm in the bandage. Once the doctor had left and before the nanobots could seal the wound completely he inserted a small wire into his arm. He had managed to pull the wire from underneath his hospital bed's frame. He swore and tears streamed down his face and he inserted the wire under his tender skin. Never mind that it still hurt to move that arm at all. Once done the nanobots sealed the wound leaving the wire nearly undetectable. Part two of the plan was removing it. Harper had to admit this wasn't his favorite part of the plan.

He licked his lips nervously. And started to pick at his nearly healed wound. He did his best to keep the bleeding minimal or else the guards would notice. He swore slightly and pulled out the wire. It was like have a really evil, really big sliver. Harper clenched his teeth in pain. Quickly he took a big breath and readjusted his bandage, palmed the wire and waited. It was another hour before the shuttle seem to slow and make it's decent.

He could feel the shudder of the ship landing and once again he was on solid ground.

The guards came to his small holding area. One put his bindings back on as the other watched. Harper noticed he kept his one hand on his force lance at all times. Harper sighed to him self. 'I guess you can never be too safe with someone who murdered a hundred and three people.'

They started to lead him through the shipyards. The sky here was gray and it had none of the beauty of Tarn Vedra. As they walked Harper would pause every so often to pretend to gawk at one of the ships the guards pushed him on keeping him a head of them. Never once did they take notice of Harper's fidgeting fingers as he used the wire to pick the lock on his bindings. The one thing these high guards had forgotten is who Harper really was. He had spent many years on earth as a thief; it was a skill he had needed just to survive. And once again he was he needed those skills. He had the complicated computerized locking device open in under two minutes.

Harper took a large silent breath and once again commented on a nearby ship. Both guards momentarily looked up. In that nano second Harper was gone running in amongst the crowd of people that hurried through the shipyard.

The one guard swore as he spotted the back of Harper's shirt running through the crowd. He yelled a warning to the crowd and opened fire.

Bolts of light whipped past Harper's head as he weaved through the screaming crowd. He turned sharply and did a long u-turn around a large Perseid ship.

Then he saw something that took his breath away. He nearly stumbled in his effort to stop. Not fifty yards from him was Beka Valentine and the Eureka Maru.

For the second time that day his mouth hung open in awe. She wasn't dead!

She did look heavily sedated though and was being escorted unto her own ship by two seedy looking characters. 'What the hell is going on'? He wondered to him self.

"Beka!!" He screamed. Either she was to far away or to drugged to hear him but she never even turned.

He ran towards as fast as he could his mind blank with rage. They had lied and they had taken her from him. He wasn't going to let that happen again. As he ran he was spotted once again by his Highgaurd posse.

He was with ten meters of Beka when a force lace bolt flew by his head close enough to burn his ear. Close enough to strike Beka full in the chest.

Seeing her struck by weapons fire her escort quickly let go of her arms dropping her on the tarmac and dove behind the ramp leading up to the Maru for cover.

"No!" he sobbed as he fell to his knees beside her fallen form. He grabbed her hand holding it tight and looking pleadingly into her eyes. They were glazed and empty.

"Oh gawd, not again." He could hardly breath as the weight of the universe fell on to his shoulders. "Beka, don't leave me," he pleaded. "You said you would never leave me."

Suddenly he felt her hand flex in his slightly. "Beka?" he pleaded once more.

The Highguards that had been chasing him had found reinforcements and a large group of them began to converge on the scene.

Harper panicked and with one final look into Beka's eyes he ran. He ran as fast as if the very gates of hell had been thrown open and every demon wanted his soul. Because as he ran from the best friend he ever had he ran from the demons that chased him with the knowledge that she might still be alive and that he had left her without a hope of survival.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Back to the present

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Harper fell of the chair and onto his knees sobbing. That was his big secret. Bigger then Tarn Vedra, bigger then a bag of credits and over a hundred people dead. His greatest shame was leaving Beka to die to save himself and now she knew.

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TBC