"Beka! Get us out of here!" Harper yelled.
"Okay everyone. You'd better hold on to something."
Casey held onto a nearby rail as they went into slipstream. Unfortunately, Harper wasn't ready and flew into her. This would have been alright if she hadn't been hungry and exhausted already. As it was she was flung to the floor and hit her head on something. When they finally exited slipstream she put two fingers to her head and they came back bloody.
"You okay kid?" Beka asked staring at her.
"Yeah, fine," she answered fighting to get her breath back. Beka turned to Harper.
"You were supposed to bring back this Casey guy," she said irritably.
"We did," Tyr stated.
"Huh?" Beka asked.
"Beka, I'd like you to meet Casey. Hacker extraordinaire and seventeen year old kid."
"You're Casey?" Beka asked the girl.
"Yep," she answered trying to stop the blood flowing from her injury. Beka shrugged and began looking for the first aid kit she knew they kept around here somewhere. The girl pulled an injector out of her bag and began mixing a substance together and putting it in it.
"What is that?" Beka asked figuring it was either nanobots or drugs and hoping it wasn't the latter.
"An invention I'm testing," Casey answered distractedly as she made sure she had the correct dose and mixture.
"What's it do?" Harper asked.
"You'll see," Casey said smiling confidently. She injected herself in the arm. Her body suddenly went rigid as whatever it was began to work. They watched in astonishment as the cut healed before their eyes. Her body relaxed when it was healed and she smiled mischievously. "I knew it would work. I'm glad I finally got the chance to test it."
"This was your first time to test it?" Harper asked paling.
"Yes. On a human anyway. I tested it on rats...with mixed results."
"Mixed results?" Harper asked swallowing hard.
"Yeah, but their anatomy is different. I concluded from my calculations it would work on a human."
"You're insane," Harper commented dryly.
"Probably, but I'm also a super genius so that makes up for it."
"We're almost there," Beka announced loudly.
"Good," Tyr said darkly. It was obvious he was annoyed at their idle chatter. He was also annoyed to see Harper who he thought of like a little brother drooling over an undernourished, underage, over worked female. Especially since that female didn't seem to realize the boy wanted her.
They docked on Andromeda with no problem. Casey shrunk back when she saw the AI waiting to greet them.
"Move!" Tyr said from behind her. Casey nodded telling herself she was being silly and walking forward
"Dylan, this is Casey," Harper said pulling the girl toward Dylan.
Dylan looked surprised at first then smiled gently. "Hello, Casey."
"Nice to meet you, Captain Hunt," Casey said smiling her most charmingly innocent smile. She could really turn on the charm when she wanted to.
"Nice to meet you too. This is Rommie, the Andromeda's avatar and this is Trance."
"Hi," Casey said giving a small wave. She coughed a couple of times and pulled a strange looking piece of candy out of her bag. She was about to eat it when she saw Rommie look at her disapprovingly. "What?" she asked.
"It is none of my business but I am detecting high levels of proteins, carbohydrates and pure sugar in that piece of 'candy' you are about to eat."
"So? You can live on these for three weeks without dying. One a day and you're good to go."
"It does not seem very healthy," Rommie commented.
"It's not," the girl admitted, "but there's not exactly an abundance of food in the universe. Don't worry I try to only take them two weeks straight. I still have another six days before I begin to feel the effects of taking them for an extended period of time and another eight days before I would die."
Trance looked at her with consternation. The girl stared at her as if she was insane.
"You invented these too?" Harper asked.
"Yeah. When I was twelve I was in a pretty bad situation trapped in a hotel room with only some chemicals during an alert. I was out of money and had to either die, beg or find a way to keep myself alive until I could leave."
"Amazing," Dylan said smiling diplomatically.
"Not as amazing as that weapon. I mean, think of the possibilities-" Harper said before Dylan cut him off.
"That information is classified, Mr. Harper."
"But-"
"He's right, Harper. It's too dangerous to risk everyone knowing. I'd rather not be tortured for information." "Again," she added in an undertone.
"Trance, Rommie, will you show our guest to her quarters?" Dylan asked.
"Of course," they answered simultaneously. Casey followed behind them glad that she was finally somewhere relatively safe.