Mutiny-B
By: X
X0832001@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: They have not given me ownership of anything since you started reading this project.

Quotes by Julie: (altered just slightly from Dylan to Tyr), BR48, RFranke, Lauriena

"Andromeda, where is Harper?"
"In his quarters, sleeping."
"Engage Privacy mode."

The next thing Harper felt was white hot pain explode from somewhere in the back of his head where it hit the wall. How he hated that familiar blinding pain. All he really could be sure of was that Dylan was shaking him; hard. He could feel his captain's fingers pressing into his arms too. Accepting he wasn't going to get away from this rant he slackened to keep from getting hurt. This wasn't the first time this had happened. While certainly the most aggressive yet Dylan had been getting more violent in the last few weeks. The first time he had been pretty surprised. He'd pegged Dylan as the quiet, stern type when things didn't go his way. Apparently he was willing to threaten a bit for motivation. A distant part of his mind wondered how this had happened, why was Dylan doing this. The practical survivalist part developed from years on Earth told him to stop analyzing everything and stay limp.

Dylan Hunt was stressed. It was like he could feel the Maggog breathing on the back of his neck. They needed something to be ready for them. A lot of ships just meant a higher body count; bodies that would weigh on his soul. Harper was working on weapons; but not fast enough. This Commonwealth they were building was going to be the universe's only hope. Technology might stand between victory and loss.

And what was Harper doing? Sleeping. The kid was giving up, wasting time. Didn't he realize time was of the essence? Still in privacy mode he had over ridden the boy's lock. He saw Harper, curled up in the blankets of his bed. Even in the dim light he'd been able to see the younger man's chest rising and falling peacefully. Peacefully even at a time like this. It only fueled his anger. The step he took towards the bed must have put him into Harper's "warning zone" because the mudfoot suddenly became still as stone. Hunt knew he was awake. "Harper" He'd said calmly, identifying himself. Harper sat up, looking quite bedraggled despite the briefness of his sleep.
"Yeah boss?" He was pretty confused as to why Dylan was in his quarters.
"How are the modifications coming?"
"Pretty good. I'm pretty wiped so I figured I'd crash for a few hours and then get back on them."

Harper realized that was not the response Dylan wanted when the larger man had crossed the remaining distance between them. "Still not ready?"
"Not quite boss, sir, dude." Harper was talking fast. When Harper was afraid he talked fast. "I mean, they'll be done in plenty of time before, you know, the big day. Early next week at the latest." Then he felt Dylan's hands on him and seen the anger in the captain's face.

Harper had easily been more abused than this. He still couldn't think of one of his bosses without a shudder ripping through him. Mr. Martin didn't consider it a reprimand if there wasn't blood and often didn't stop until his arm was too tired to lift his weapon anymore. He compared this to Mr. Thompson. But that was ridiculous. Dylan wasn't like his last boss on Earth. Captain Dylan Hunt, restorer of the Commonwealth, all around great guy, didn't batter his crewmen. Thompson had yelled a lot. He yelled about how worthless Harper was, how he regretted hiring him, how kind it was that he let the boy live behind the garage, allowed someone so useless to live at all. Dylan was kind, a defender of the truth and all that is pure and good. There was no reason for his mind to be making a connection like this. But he couldn't stop himself.

Harper took back control of his muscles as Dylan released him so he simply sank to his knees. "Hurry up" was all the engineer heard of his captain's departing rant. Harper pulled himself back onto his feet and headed for the machine shop where his latest creations were nearing completion. He didn't want to make Dylan angry again.

The scene before Beka was pitiful. She'd gone to check on Harper since she hadn't seen him all morning and what she found could only be described as pitiful. Harper was leaning over his drafting table, barely conscious but fingers of his left hand flying as they made their sketches. His left hand groped for the mug of lukewarm coffee he'd set on the floor. "Harper" she cooed. He looked at her lopsidedly. Dark circles ringed his eyes. He had lost weight. She sighed. She could never drop a few extra pounds when they found their way to her hips. The weight Harper gained and seriously needed slid from his bones easily. "Harper, go to the mess hall, get something to eat, then go to bed. You are overdoing it-again." She ordered.
"I'm fine" he mumbled. Beka sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. The young man flinched. He hadn't flinched like that in at least 4 years. Just like when every touch made him flinch she ignored it but was careful not to hurt him.
"Harper, you need a break"
"I'm good boss" he side stepped around her, leaving just his over shirt in her hand. Five bruises, evenly spaced, on each arm assaulted her vision.
"Who did that?!" she demanded.
"No one" Beka took hold of his forearm and examined the bruised bicep. Harper cringed. What had they done to him? She repressed the urge to check him for more injuries. "Really boss, I gotta get back to work." He maneuvered her to the door and left her on the other side.

"Tyr! Get you sorry Neitzchien butt over here right now!" Beka bellowed as she entered the command deck. Ahead of her a wrench she had picked up in the machine shop clattered to the deck. Tyr didn't know why exactly she was hurling objects at him, but he did know it couldn't be a good sign.
"What do you want woman" came his voice from behind the slipstream chair. She flat out punched him in the nose when she saw his smiling eyes and the way we smirked at her anger. The smirk faded pretty much when he felt her fist distorting the cartilage of his nose. He growled but Beka didn't back down.
"What do you think you are doing to Harper?
"I have done nothing to the little professor."
"Bruises" she touched her own bicep, "Someone with large hands is squeezing my Harper. Tyr, you have large hands.
"But I am not squeezing your Harper."
"Someone is, those are real bruises on his arms"
"Have you considered our dear Captain Hunt?"
"Dylan?"
"He has been acting odd. He's alone in his office for hours, short tempered, and has had the ship running thousands of simulations on the Maggog World ships. I'd say something is wrong."
"But hurting Harper?"
"Stress can do odd things to a person." Beka considered for a moment.
"Let me see your hands." Sighing he presented his hands for a size comparison. "Too big" she muttered.

"Beka, Tyr is telling the truth. I suspect Dylan may have lost control of himself." Andromeda's holographic image appeared before her before she had even left the command deck.
"And you are just telling me now because?" Beka was shocked. How could Andromeda keep a secret like this?
"I had to be sure. The next step is a drastic one."
"Wait, hold up a second. What is the next step? Wait; tell me what you know first."
"They have been using privacy mode to block me, but Harper's behavior has been radically changed for the last 12 days. In the beginning he was just working hard; like whenever he gets caught up in a project. I didn't think it was anything to worry about. He was asking for the Maria's to bring him sandwiches and taking little naps here and there. But now, he's been awake for the last 46 hours. Dylan has been to see him several times and always enacted privacy mode."
"The evidence all points to Captain Hunt" said Tyr seriously. Beka looked for something to throw.
"Why!"
"I agree with Tyr. I believe Dylan may have a problem with stress."
"Stress? The man woke up 300 years in the future-he hasn't learned to deal with stress?! Well I am not letting him continue this rampage. We are having a revolt. Now."

"What is this, a mutiny?" Dylan chucked as Rommie, Beka, Tyr, and Trance all entered his office unannounced.
"Mutiny is such an ugly word, my dear Captain," Rommie purred, leaning close when she reached his desk.
"True, this really isn't a mutiny; more of an intervention with mutinous intentions." Beka smiled darkly. Dylan moved to stand up. Beka and Rommie both shoved him back into the chair. Trance leaned across the doorway, blocking the only exit. "You don't get to leave an intervention Dylan. And just give me a reason to shoot you because I will." She tapped her pistol on the desk. Rommie sighed.
"We aren't looking for a shooting spree; we just need to address your problem Dylan."
"What are you talking about? I don't have a problem." Beka sat on the edge of the desk, balancing herself close to Dylan and blocking his path to the door. As if Trance would let him pass. "Why are you doing this?"
"High Guard Order 342-7, subparagraph b. demands that we do this Dylan." Rommie supplied. Dylan looked perplexed for a moment as he tried to recall that particular order.
"I'm having an affair with a monarch of a non-Commonwealth world?"
"Maybe you are, but we're not interested in your sex life Dylan. I'm interested that you've gone off the deep end and are hitting Harper." Beka was growing angry.
"What?! I haven't hit him." That comment was a slap in the face. Not only was he knocking around her friend but he was denying it. Not man enough to admit, for what ever seriously wrong and twisted reason, he was taking his anger out on Harper.

"Beka, explain to me how you can accidentally shoot a guy, five times." Rommie sighed looking at the limp form of her captain slumped across the desk. Tyr continued his chuckle. He thought her shooting spree had been rather amusing.
"I lost control and my finger slipped. Repeatedly. In his direction. Let's just caulk this one up to a 'my bad'. I'm sorry-sort of." Beka explained haltingly. "The liar's just stunned though, no big deal." Dylan groaned at that moment and picked his head up from the desk. A lovely purple bruise had formed. The bruise was shaped like a pear and made Beka feel a little bit better. Just a little bit. Rommie resumed the intervention and an image appeared on the computer sitting on the captain's desk. It was Dylan with his hand twisted in Harper's hair.
"That was 20 minutes ago, just before Harper called for privacy mode."
"See, Harper called for privacy, I didn't. The camera angle is just incriminating." Dylan was talking fast. What was he doing? Was he really hurting Harper?

He hadn't realized what he had been doing. He was so frustrated he hadn't even noticed he was taking out that impatience on his engineer. He didn't remember the image before him. That was really him? He knew he had gone to see how the work was progressing; but had he really hurt Harper? God, he didn't even remember it.

"Show him the machine shop"
"I can't privacy mode is engaged."
"Rommie, we are having a mutiny. You don't follow the rules during a takeover. Takeovers are against the rules."
"Good point" with that Harper, barely conscious but still sipping coffee from an empty cup as he drafted, appeared on the screen on Dylan's desk.
"Who the hell do you think you are that you can do this to another human being?" Beka banged her fist down hard on the desk, knocking several flexies onto the floor. Tyr growled from his position by the door.
"You sicken me Hunt, preying on those under your command."

Dylan knew he was a terrible liar. He couldn't just deny this and hope it went away. It also would be a disservice to Harper. Poor Harper, he didn't deserve to be the target of all this frustrated rage. "How did this happen?" Dylan sighed; letting his head hit the desktop.
"Because, Harper was you quiet victim." Explained Tyr coolly. "You unknowingly took advantage of a fragile mind. I would have knocked you down so hard the first time it wouldn't have happened again, Hunt."
Beka exploded in anger again, not letting Dylan off the hook for his show of self piety. "I would have been on the Maru and gone before it ever came to this. One Bobby in my lifetime is plenty. But Harper, he's still that Kluge slave from Earth somewhere in his mind. You just had to get past the little self confidence he's built up and you had yourself. the trembling kid who simply doesn't want to get hurt anymore. I had that kid when I brought him on the Maru."

Her angry mind wandered back to that night on the Maru. He'd only been there a few days and despite the flippant attitude still peppered his sentences with more ma'ams than any reasonable person could take. She'd gotten about 4 words into her reprimand when she realized he was shaking. When she asked why, he asked if she would just hit him because the yelling was worse. It had turned her stomach to hear a human thought like that. Dylan was on the verge, if he hadn't already, of bringing back that Harper.

Tyr sighed, deciding this yelling and denouncing the scum that was Dylan Hunt wasn't especially productive. "What are we going to do about this Captain Valentine?" Beka thought. Throwing him out an airlock had potential. But that really wouldn't help Harper. The kid had been thrown back to his subservient mode and no doubt the twisted values it supplied. Ideas like the person in charge answered to no one. He could do what he wanted.
"Dylan is going to apologize." Trance raised an eyebrow,
"That's it?"
"Of course not, the man shook my Harper. Rommie what does you little High guard guide say we do?"
"Counseling, removal from duty for at least 1 month."
"I can live with that."
"Me too" Tyr simple nodded.
"I'll consent" Dylan added remorsefully.

Harper skirted behind a table as Beka pushed Dylan through the door. "Be quick, and if you so much as lay a hand on him, or raise your voice, or anything remotely like that, my finger is going to slip again." This was not going to be easy he realized. His engineer was actually afraid of him. What the hell had he been doing? He glanced around the machine shop. It was pretty obvious what Harper had been doing. Plans covered every flat surface and partially completed projects littered the floor. "All done with those modifications sir" he smiled. It was a tragic, defeated kind of smile that made Beka's chest hurt to see it. Unable control herself in the presence of Harper's broken spirit and the shadow of his usual happy demeanor, Beka knocked Dylan's legs out from under him. Her boot rested on his chest.
"Harper we know what Dylan has been doing"
"Don't know what you are talkin' about boss" his eyes looked towards his feet. Beka moved her foot to allow Dylan to apologize properly.
"He's going to step down for a few weeks, but he wanted to apologize Harper." Beka took her friend's hand, despite the flinch, and brought him closer to Dylan.
"Mr. Harper, I had absolutely no right to hurt you. My behavior is inexcusable, it won't happen again, and I hope you will be able to forgive me some day." He turned and left, leaving Harper alone with his thoughts.

He thought about Dylan, he thought about Mr. Thompson again. A revelation hit harder than even Mr. Martin had. "It was wrong"

The End