Chapter Three: Dum spiro, spero
(As long as I breathe, I hope)
For a few precious seconds time seemed to stand still. Harper felt like he was taking the whole scene in from very far away when he was really right in front of two very angry looking aliens. Both parties were frozen on the spot and staring at the other. Harper was doing so out of plain fear and the aliens were just very curious.
"Um," the engineer stuttered, "I guess you guys weren't on the Andromeda, eh? Well that's good cause if you were I'd probably be in pieces by now."
One of the aliens hissed and took a step forward. Eyes widening, Harper took a step back and drew his gun.
"Now listen, if you take one more step, I"ll, I'll." He trailed off and stared at the hand that was holding his gun. It couldn't be his hand, it was shaking too much.
But if it's not my hand, who's holding the gun? His mind didn't seem to be working too well. The alien!
Harper squeezed the trigger in self-defense and started when the gun he was looking at fired.
They shot me! He thought. But I don't feel anything. Is this what dying's like? Well, I'm not going down without a fight. Take that!
He squeezed the trigger again and again, hoping that he could get his revenge on the two aliens before he made his way to the pearly gates. When he stopped, the corridor was dead quiet. Harper cracked open eyes he hadn't realized were closed and saw both of the aliens lying on the ground, dead. He looked down at his stomach and instead of a bloody hole like he thought there'd be there was nothing. Quickly pulling his shirt up and running fingers along his belly, Harper exhaled in relief.
"I'm alive," He said to himself. "I'm alive! Man, what I wouldn't give for a drink right now."
Harper stumbled with a spell of dizziness as he turned to take a different way.
Twenty minutes later Harper was no closer to finding Tyr or Beka. He was starting to lose his last thread of patience. Part of it was out of frustration and the plain feeling of helplessness and the other part was the fact that Dylan had commented on the engineer's irritability the last time he'd been on the comm.
"Irritable!" Harper scoffed while he yelled into the nothingness. "Can you believe he had the gall to call me that? Is he totally oblivious to this whole situation?! C'mon God, Divine, whatever, give me some help here. Please? Argh! If he wants irritated I'll show him irritated!"
With that, Harper kicked the corridor wall as hard as he could. He was purely dumbfounded when he found himself sitting on his butt because his whole foot had gone through it like paper.
"What the-?"
He picked himself up and used his hands to rip apart the rest of the fake cover, trying to see what was up. What he found made him cry out with joy. It was a console with a place to jack in and everything. The thing that stunned him the most was that it was only a small 2 by 2 feet section. If he had tried kicking anywhere else he would've hit pure metal.
"Wow, I guess there really is a God." Harper mumbled in shock at his good fortune.
The engineer glanced nervously both ways before plugging in. The trip to VR was like a rocket, a lot quicker than he was used to. The instantaneous leap left him standing in the middle of a stream of data trying his best to keep the contents of his stomach down.
"Wild," Harper croaked to himself when he found his voice.
The data around him was in weird symbols that he couldn't read. Closing his eyes, he willed the alien language to convert to English. The millions of new letters were a little overwhelming but Harper whizzed through them, doing his best to try to find the location where prisoners were held. He found what he was looking for in a small map. He enlarged it and put it in his memory, literally. Being able to do that was one of the finer points of having a port.
Harper had what he'd been looking for but being the stupid genius he was he had to snoop around some more. It only led to trouble. A few seconds after breaking through an encrypted file an alarm that alerted the aliens to his location went off and he was zapped out of the VR. Jacking in had been faster, reading the files had been harder, and getting kicked out was a lot more painful.
Would you like me well done or can we stop at just medium rare? Was Harper's last coherent thought in the real world before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.
"Harper?!" Dylan yelled into his comm for what felt like the millionth time. "Harper are you there? Harper! Answer me damnit!"
There was no reply or quip from the engineer and that worried Dylan to a great degree. Fearing for Harper's safety, the captain turned right and started to make his way in the direction he had last seen Harper going. A glance at his watch told him there were only three and a half-hours left. Dylan quickened his pace.
A little under an hour and six aliens later, Dylan stumbled across a couple that were carrying an unconscious human.
"Harper!" Dylan yelled and fired two short bursts with his forcelance. The aliens fell dead to the ground.
Why wasn't it easy to kill these guys on the Andromeda? Dylan thought as he checked Harper for a pulse and picked him up in a fireman's carry. And where the hell do I go now?
The captain closed his eyes and pointed to nowhere in particular. It just happened to be a wall.
"Uh," Dylan stammered, glad Harper hadn't been awake to witness the embarassing act, "I guess we'll go the other way."
Turning on his heel, he started walking down a very dark corridor with his weapon in hand.
For a few precious seconds time seemed to stand still. Harper felt like he was taking the whole scene in from very far away when he was really right in front of two very angry looking aliens. Both parties were frozen on the spot and staring at the other. Harper was doing so out of plain fear and the aliens were just very curious.
"Um," the engineer stuttered, "I guess you guys weren't on the Andromeda, eh? Well that's good cause if you were I'd probably be in pieces by now."
One of the aliens hissed and took a step forward. Eyes widening, Harper took a step back and drew his gun.
"Now listen, if you take one more step, I"ll, I'll." He trailed off and stared at the hand that was holding his gun. It couldn't be his hand, it was shaking too much.
But if it's not my hand, who's holding the gun? His mind didn't seem to be working too well. The alien!
Harper squeezed the trigger in self-defense and started when the gun he was looking at fired.
They shot me! He thought. But I don't feel anything. Is this what dying's like? Well, I'm not going down without a fight. Take that!
He squeezed the trigger again and again, hoping that he could get his revenge on the two aliens before he made his way to the pearly gates. When he stopped, the corridor was dead quiet. Harper cracked open eyes he hadn't realized were closed and saw both of the aliens lying on the ground, dead. He looked down at his stomach and instead of a bloody hole like he thought there'd be there was nothing. Quickly pulling his shirt up and running fingers along his belly, Harper exhaled in relief.
"I'm alive," He said to himself. "I'm alive! Man, what I wouldn't give for a drink right now."
Harper stumbled with a spell of dizziness as he turned to take a different way.
Twenty minutes later Harper was no closer to finding Tyr or Beka. He was starting to lose his last thread of patience. Part of it was out of frustration and the plain feeling of helplessness and the other part was the fact that Dylan had commented on the engineer's irritability the last time he'd been on the comm.
"Irritable!" Harper scoffed while he yelled into the nothingness. "Can you believe he had the gall to call me that? Is he totally oblivious to this whole situation?! C'mon God, Divine, whatever, give me some help here. Please? Argh! If he wants irritated I'll show him irritated!"
With that, Harper kicked the corridor wall as hard as he could. He was purely dumbfounded when he found himself sitting on his butt because his whole foot had gone through it like paper.
"What the-?"
He picked himself up and used his hands to rip apart the rest of the fake cover, trying to see what was up. What he found made him cry out with joy. It was a console with a place to jack in and everything. The thing that stunned him the most was that it was only a small 2 by 2 feet section. If he had tried kicking anywhere else he would've hit pure metal.
"Wow, I guess there really is a God." Harper mumbled in shock at his good fortune.
The engineer glanced nervously both ways before plugging in. The trip to VR was like a rocket, a lot quicker than he was used to. The instantaneous leap left him standing in the middle of a stream of data trying his best to keep the contents of his stomach down.
"Wild," Harper croaked to himself when he found his voice.
The data around him was in weird symbols that he couldn't read. Closing his eyes, he willed the alien language to convert to English. The millions of new letters were a little overwhelming but Harper whizzed through them, doing his best to try to find the location where prisoners were held. He found what he was looking for in a small map. He enlarged it and put it in his memory, literally. Being able to do that was one of the finer points of having a port.
Harper had what he'd been looking for but being the stupid genius he was he had to snoop around some more. It only led to trouble. A few seconds after breaking through an encrypted file an alarm that alerted the aliens to his location went off and he was zapped out of the VR. Jacking in had been faster, reading the files had been harder, and getting kicked out was a lot more painful.
Would you like me well done or can we stop at just medium rare? Was Harper's last coherent thought in the real world before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.
"Harper?!" Dylan yelled into his comm for what felt like the millionth time. "Harper are you there? Harper! Answer me damnit!"
There was no reply or quip from the engineer and that worried Dylan to a great degree. Fearing for Harper's safety, the captain turned right and started to make his way in the direction he had last seen Harper going. A glance at his watch told him there were only three and a half-hours left. Dylan quickened his pace.
A little under an hour and six aliens later, Dylan stumbled across a couple that were carrying an unconscious human.
"Harper!" Dylan yelled and fired two short bursts with his forcelance. The aliens fell dead to the ground.
Why wasn't it easy to kill these guys on the Andromeda? Dylan thought as he checked Harper for a pulse and picked him up in a fireman's carry. And where the hell do I go now?
The captain closed his eyes and pointed to nowhere in particular. It just happened to be a wall.
"Uh," Dylan stammered, glad Harper hadn't been awake to witness the embarassing act, "I guess we'll go the other way."
Turning on his heel, he started walking down a very dark corridor with his weapon in hand.