Disclaimer: Andromeda is owned by Tribune.

Spoilers: The first season, maybe the second season later.

Summary: AU, What if Harper had never met Beka? What would his life have been like then? And what happens when he eventually does meet the Andromeda crew?

"If all of life is predestined then there is little you can do to change the outcome except try to always do what's right and hope for the best. And then, even if it's not predestined you've lived the best way you could and you've always had hope."

He was finally off Earth. Nearly twenty years on that damn planet and he had finally escaped. But not the way he'd planned.

He used to dream of escaping, of stowing away or managing to get a job on a ship, escaping into the stars and never looking back. He had gotten away but he wasn't free. But being a slave on a Nietzchean ship was probably the best freedom he could ever hope for.

It wasn't so bad. At least he got fed, sometimes. The work was tiring yeah, but it was all good experience for the day he escaped. There were plenty of engineers needed out there and he was pretty good.

The lights above him lit up and an alarm sounded. He heard the Nietzchean voice shout. "Alright C-block your shift starts now."

He got up quickly. The faster you moved the less likely the Dragans would have any reason to touch you. Not that they needed a reason. Two guards walked through the room.

He saw two fellow engineers further down the room desperately trying to get a third person out of bed. His name was Jay and he'd been beaten pretty badly during the last shift. He'd been dragged back unconscious.

The girl was shaking his shoulder and trying to pull him up as the guards were getting ever closer. He knew her too, she was pretty and the Dragans thought so too. You were cursed if you had good looks here, not blessed, but then you did get treated a little better when it came to food.

The girl and the guy gave up their futile attempts at waking Jed as the guards came towards them. The stood like everyone else, beside their cots, eyes down. Pretending to be nobody. As the guard passed him, Harper did the same.

Too late he recognised the guard and had no time to prepare for the blow that knocked him off balance. He immediately stood up straight again ignoring the pain of the whole left side of his face. The guard walked on.

His name was Granzen and he, for no reason at all, seemed to have it in for Harper. While he was around there was nothing Harper could do right. He'd attack him in passing or corner him while he was in the corridor. Just him, no-one else.

Ignoring the dull aching of his face Harper turned his attention back to Jay. The guards were at his bunk now. One of them, not Granzen, pulled him out of the cot and, holding him a few feet off the ground, shook him hard. Getting no response from the small human whose head was sagging, he dropped him.

He made as if to go on, then stopped and pulled his gun, shooting Jay in the head. He walked on and the body lay motionless on the ground. No-one moved, no-one spoke.

The doors opened. "Alright C-block, get to work." They filed out silently. No-one cried for the dead body on the floor because in truth they were only dead people walking.

Yeah, thought Harper, this was freedom.

***

Trance was sitting in the hydroponics bay swinging her tail idly from side to side and singing softy to the plants. She wondered where Beka was and if she should go talk to her about Captain Hunt.

Things hadn't been good recently, especially things between Beka and Hunt. She resented the fact that she was stuck here on his vessel because they hadn't been able to find the Maru and she also resented the fact that he had let her only engineer Dale get captured or killed just because they weren't able to find her ship.

Trance had been a bit surprised when she'd first joined the Maru. She hadn't exactly being expecting Dale. He was in his mid-twenties, tall and strongly built. In truth she'd been expecting someone else. A small man, with blond hair who looked like a feather would probably knock him over.

But he wasn't here. That was how it went though, the future. It was constantly changing and things didn't always happen exactly as you thought they would. But if he was destined to be here, she had no doubt he'd get here eventually.

He was important. She also had a very strange feeling that if he had been here instead of Dale then he'd be alive and with them right now, and so would the Maru. Things would be better then. Maybe Captain Hunt wouldn't be so distant and maybe Beka wouldn't be so resentful, maybe Tyr would be less aloof and scary.

And maybe, just maybe, the future would look better.

***

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