"Beka, I got the mainframe back up!" Harper yelled from his console in the Maru.
"Good job! Why don't you see if you can get the engines back online? Rommie, Dylan, and Trance have been working on it but they haven't had any luck yet." Beka replied from another end of the ship.
"Nah, I think I'm gonna jack in and see if I can reroute some reserve power to the main controls!"
"Alright, but be careful! Hey, do you have a nanowelder?"
"Yah, you can use it if you need to. It's somewhere around here…I think!"
Beka chuckled, knowing very well how messy her engineer could be. "I'll be there in a sec but if I have to dig through your garbage you're going to be in big trouble!"
Harper sighed as he plugged himself in. The Maru had been on its way to get supplies when an angry bunch of Kalderans had attacked it. Tyr and Rommie, who had been the ones piloting the Maru, had limped back with no supplies and a very broken ship. It left Harper, the resident engineer and fix-it man with a pretty big project. He could only guess what Dylan, Trance, and Rommie were doing to the poor engines. He knew Rommie was the only one who had an even close to advanced education on ship mechanics, and even she was mostly clueless when it came to Beka's junker.
Newbies, Harper mused as he entered the Maru's matrix. It was nothing like the Andromeda's of course, quite different, in fact. It was exactly like the Maru only there was no metal in the way of important wires and internal problems could be fixed with the flick of a wrist, the flick of Harper's wrist, to be more precise.
Beka walked into command and saw Harper slumped over. She smiled at the scene. Being blessed with good luck, she managed to find the nanowelder she needed within only five minutes and was about to leave when a small explosion rocked the ship.
"Harper, what the hell was that?!" she asked. When he didn't answer she turned around and gasped at what she saw. The explosion had originated from the console Harper had been working from. The blast had thrown him against the wall.
"Harper! Harper!" she slapped his cheeks to try to get a coherent response, but was rewarded only by a weak groan. "Harper can you hear me?"
"Ow," the blonde engineer said softly in reply.
Just then Dylan and Trance came running into command.
"Beka, how'd you get the engines back online?" Dylan asked before he saw what was going on.
"Harper!" Trance exclaimed, then focused her attention on Beka, "What happened?"
Beka looked up at the newcomers with worry etched on her face. "I think he got shocked when he was interfacing but I've never seen anything this serious before."
"I think the charge safeties blew along with all the Maru's key systems, Rommie said as she entered command. "That means there was nothing holding back the electricity flow that was being emitted when Harper accessed whatever it was he accessed."
"Can you do anything Trance?" Dylan asked as he knelt down next to Beka.
The gold girl paused before answering, "Dylan, I really don't think it'd be a good idea for me to do anything. Neural ports have to do with the brain and I'm really not qualified to mess around with them. Add that to the fact that I have no idea how they work and I think you'll come up with the same conclusion I have."
Dylan nodded, "Then we'll take him to a specialist in the Maru. We need parts anyway."
Beka frowned and said, "Good idea, but there's a slight problem, the Maru is broken. Remember?"
"Not anymore," Trance piped in. "Whatever happened restored power to all the major systems and Tyr's already fixed the slipstream drive. That means the Maru's space worthy and ready for flight."
"Alright, Trance, you and Rommie get off the Maru and we'll prep for launch." Dylan said.
Rommie looked somewhat disappointed at the fact that she wouldn't be going along but left quietly, following Trance. Dylan and Beka took their semiconscious engineer to Beka's bunk.
Beka said hesitantly, "You stay with him while I fly us outta here."
Dylan nodded and watched her leave before turning his attention back to Harper.
"You with me Harper?" He asked tentatively.
"Sure thing boss," Harper whispered in reply, startling Dylan. "I don't know how long I'll be able to keep at it though. I'm so tired…"
"Harper, you need to stay awake. You might have a concussion so you can't lose consciousness."
"Mmhmm," was the mumbled reply.
Harper's eyelids felt like lead and he could no longer keep them open. The transition to slipstream rattled his body and caused flames of pain to lick at his head. Now that he thought about it, his head felt really heavy too. Dylan kept talking to him but he was too tired to do anything but grunt and groan so his captain would know he was awake. It seemed like hours before he heard Beka's voice.
"How ya doing sport?" she asked.
"I've seen worse," Harper replied, then as an afterthought added, "I think."
Dylan chuckled and Beka got the med kit out from under her bunk.
"Yah," the blonde woman said as she surveyed the damage Harper had taken, "you've definitely seen worse."
"How do you feel?" Dylan asked.
Harper pried his eyes open and was glad the lights were set to dim. He figured he'd be feeling halfway decent if his head didn't hurt so badly. To answer Dylan's question he replied, "Terrible."
Beka quietly shooed Dylan away while she administered some basic first aid. Harper was actually quite compliant and only refused to let her touch his dataport. The knock he took to his head appeared to be what was worrying her and Dylan. They didn't let him close his eyes again until they felt relatively sure he wasn't going to slip into a coma and die on them. After six hours of staring at the Maru's ceiling and listening to Beka and Dylan drone on about the most boring things imaginable, Harper's eyelids slowly flickered shut and he fell deep asleep.