TITLE: In the Beginning
AUTHOR: Brit
STATUS: WIP
RATING: R – I have trouble with your ratings so if this isn't correct someone please tell me.
PAIRING: None Yet
SUMMARY: My take on Harper joining the Maru. I haven't seen BAMSR so I guess I have a free hand
SPOILERS: None that I know of.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Andromeda or any of her characters mentioned in this story. If I did own Harper I would have a permanent very big grin on my face.
When I first set eyes on the Eureka Maru I was lurking in the darkest corner of a run down docking port on an obscure drift. I was currently unemployed; the small amount of money I'd been able to earn in the past few weeks was long gone. I couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten properly; I'd been scavenging in trashcans in filthy alleyways for days. I was almost ready to sell my body again. I looked at myself in disgust, who would pay good money for me, not because I was small and undernourished a certain type of client liked that look, it appealed to many potential customers. No, they wouldn't want me because I was dirty, my clothes were filthy and my skin crawled at the feel of them, I hadn't managed to wash them or my body for some time. I also had a hacking cough, par for the course with a crappy immune system like mine.
I'd been watching the vessels docking here for the last week, hoping that someone would need a crewmember, I was prepared to take on any job however menial, anything to get away from that godforsaken place.
One minute all was quiet, the next a figure came hurtling out of the hatch of an extremely scruffy looking freighter, the body was followed by a holdall and an irate blonde woman who shouted after the fleeing alien.
"If you come near my engines again you freak you'll be wearing your balls as a necklace." She caught sight of me, "enjoying the show kid, well it's over now, finished, done, end of entertainment?"
I'd heard the magic word – engines – I decided to take the opportunity that was presenting itself to me. "Hey lady, first off I ain't a kid and second off are you by any chance looking for an engineer?"
The woman laughed, she stood with her hands on her hips appraising me. "I am looking for an engineer, you happen to know one?"
I gave her the full force of the boyish grin. "It so happens you are looking at the best freakin engineer on this entire drift." Now that wasn't saying much given the nature of the place but it wasn't like me to boast.
"Yeah right," she looked at me, I could see her glance go to the data port in the side of my neck. She was obviously a woman who made up her mind quickly, "OK kid," she said, "I'll make a deal, you look as though you could do with a good meal, and," she wrinkled her nose, "a wash and some clean clothes. I need my slipstream drive working and I need it done yesterday. You fix the drive, I'll feed you and pay you a few thrones, you can get a shower and a change of clothes and we part friends."
I thought quickly and held out a grubby hand to her, "it's a deal lady."
She looked at my hand dubiously but took it and shook it briefly. "By the way kid it's not lady it's Captain Beka Valentine." I smirked at her, "by the way lady it's not kid it's Seamus Zelazny Harper, I'll call you boss if you don't mind it's less of a mouthful."
I was soon sitting in the ship's galley with a big plate of food in front of me, trouble was now that I had food I couldn't eat it. My chest was tight and I had that familiar, aching, shivering, hot and cold feeling that came with a severe infection. Beka looked at me quizzically. "It's OK boss I'll take it with me when I leave it'll last me longer that way. I'll take a look at the slipstream drive and then you'll be rid of me."
I jacked into the nearest port and felt the familiar rush as my virtual body bonded with the ship's computer systems. It didn't take me long to find the virus, it was clumsy and obvious and I reckoned that Beka herself could have found it if she'd looked. What she wouldn't have found however was the virus within the virus, the one that would trigger when the first one was removed. The first time she went to slipstream that second virus would have activated the ship to destruct and she would have been blown into very small pieces indeed. Someone had done a beautiful job creating it, nearly as good a job as I would have done, but not quite, mind you I am a genius. I dealt with it and disconnected. My real body was feeling worse than ever. It was time to leave and find somewhere to hole up in and ride out the fever. I could see Beka looking at me with a worried expression on her face, yeah worried about what I'd done to her precious engine.
I grinned weakly at her, "someone really doesn't like you boss, you've been sabotaged, and whoever it was didn't want you to get to wherever you're going in one piece. It's good now, so if you'll just pay me what you owe me I'll get out of here."
My legs felt really shaky as if I was trying to walk in low gravity, the last thing I saw before I passed out was Beka's face in front of me, I heard her shout "Trance." Everything went blissfully black after that.
When I came round I was lying on something soft, it felt like a bed, OK I thought, this time I'm dead, I was aware that wherever I was appeared to be moving, I could hear voices too. I opened my eyes tentatively to see a beautiful purple girl watching me, she turned to speak to someone standing behind her, and she seemed to have a tail. Wow I was definitely dead and in heaven. "Hey sparkly purple babe," my voice was very weak but it must have been loud enough for her to hear because she turned round, as she did I caught sight of the figure standing behind her. That was when I started screaming; forget heaven I was in hell. I closed my eyes tightly and instinctively curled up to make myself as small as possible. I couldn't think coherently, I had to be delirious, I hoped I was delirious because if I wasn't I was in a small room with a magog, and that was about as bad as it could get.
AUTHOR: Brit
STATUS: WIP
RATING: R – I have trouble with your ratings so if this isn't correct someone please tell me.
PAIRING: None Yet
SUMMARY: My take on Harper joining the Maru. I haven't seen BAMSR so I guess I have a free hand
SPOILERS: None that I know of.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Andromeda or any of her characters mentioned in this story. If I did own Harper I would have a permanent very big grin on my face.
When I first set eyes on the Eureka Maru I was lurking in the darkest corner of a run down docking port on an obscure drift. I was currently unemployed; the small amount of money I'd been able to earn in the past few weeks was long gone. I couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten properly; I'd been scavenging in trashcans in filthy alleyways for days. I was almost ready to sell my body again. I looked at myself in disgust, who would pay good money for me, not because I was small and undernourished a certain type of client liked that look, it appealed to many potential customers. No, they wouldn't want me because I was dirty, my clothes were filthy and my skin crawled at the feel of them, I hadn't managed to wash them or my body for some time. I also had a hacking cough, par for the course with a crappy immune system like mine.
I'd been watching the vessels docking here for the last week, hoping that someone would need a crewmember, I was prepared to take on any job however menial, anything to get away from that godforsaken place.
One minute all was quiet, the next a figure came hurtling out of the hatch of an extremely scruffy looking freighter, the body was followed by a holdall and an irate blonde woman who shouted after the fleeing alien.
"If you come near my engines again you freak you'll be wearing your balls as a necklace." She caught sight of me, "enjoying the show kid, well it's over now, finished, done, end of entertainment?"
I'd heard the magic word – engines – I decided to take the opportunity that was presenting itself to me. "Hey lady, first off I ain't a kid and second off are you by any chance looking for an engineer?"
The woman laughed, she stood with her hands on her hips appraising me. "I am looking for an engineer, you happen to know one?"
I gave her the full force of the boyish grin. "It so happens you are looking at the best freakin engineer on this entire drift." Now that wasn't saying much given the nature of the place but it wasn't like me to boast.
"Yeah right," she looked at me, I could see her glance go to the data port in the side of my neck. She was obviously a woman who made up her mind quickly, "OK kid," she said, "I'll make a deal, you look as though you could do with a good meal, and," she wrinkled her nose, "a wash and some clean clothes. I need my slipstream drive working and I need it done yesterday. You fix the drive, I'll feed you and pay you a few thrones, you can get a shower and a change of clothes and we part friends."
I thought quickly and held out a grubby hand to her, "it's a deal lady."
She looked at my hand dubiously but took it and shook it briefly. "By the way kid it's not lady it's Captain Beka Valentine." I smirked at her, "by the way lady it's not kid it's Seamus Zelazny Harper, I'll call you boss if you don't mind it's less of a mouthful."
I was soon sitting in the ship's galley with a big plate of food in front of me, trouble was now that I had food I couldn't eat it. My chest was tight and I had that familiar, aching, shivering, hot and cold feeling that came with a severe infection. Beka looked at me quizzically. "It's OK boss I'll take it with me when I leave it'll last me longer that way. I'll take a look at the slipstream drive and then you'll be rid of me."
I jacked into the nearest port and felt the familiar rush as my virtual body bonded with the ship's computer systems. It didn't take me long to find the virus, it was clumsy and obvious and I reckoned that Beka herself could have found it if she'd looked. What she wouldn't have found however was the virus within the virus, the one that would trigger when the first one was removed. The first time she went to slipstream that second virus would have activated the ship to destruct and she would have been blown into very small pieces indeed. Someone had done a beautiful job creating it, nearly as good a job as I would have done, but not quite, mind you I am a genius. I dealt with it and disconnected. My real body was feeling worse than ever. It was time to leave and find somewhere to hole up in and ride out the fever. I could see Beka looking at me with a worried expression on her face, yeah worried about what I'd done to her precious engine.
I grinned weakly at her, "someone really doesn't like you boss, you've been sabotaged, and whoever it was didn't want you to get to wherever you're going in one piece. It's good now, so if you'll just pay me what you owe me I'll get out of here."
My legs felt really shaky as if I was trying to walk in low gravity, the last thing I saw before I passed out was Beka's face in front of me, I heard her shout "Trance." Everything went blissfully black after that.
When I came round I was lying on something soft, it felt like a bed, OK I thought, this time I'm dead, I was aware that wherever I was appeared to be moving, I could hear voices too. I opened my eyes tentatively to see a beautiful purple girl watching me, she turned to speak to someone standing behind her, and she seemed to have a tail. Wow I was definitely dead and in heaven. "Hey sparkly purple babe," my voice was very weak but it must have been loud enough for her to hear because she turned round, as she did I caught sight of the figure standing behind her. That was when I started screaming; forget heaven I was in hell. I closed my eyes tightly and instinctively curled up to make myself as small as possible. I couldn't think coherently, I had to be delirious, I hoped I was delirious because if I wasn't I was in a small room with a magog, and that was about as bad as it could get.
