Chapter 4
~*~
"Even God cannot change the past."
-Agathon
~*~
After heading down several decks and passing hundreds of empty crew quarters, Cecily stopped Harper, pointing up ahead.
"That's it… the one on the left."
As she spoke the door in question slid open with a metallic hiss and Beka Valentine exited, shakily running a hand through her tangled hair.
"Harper… Cez," the captain greeted when she noticed the pair. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong Beka, Harper just wanted to talk with Trance," the redhead said, eying the door her friend had just exited. "I take it your conversation didn't go too well?"
Laughing bitterly, Beka shook her head. "You could say that. I tried to explain what was going on, but she won't even talk to me."
"Think I could give it a try?" Harper asked, stepping forward as the older woman frowned.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea or not…."
"Maybe not," Harper shrugged, "but could it get any worse if I tried?"
Shaking her head, Beka muttered, "I guess not. Give it your best shot."
Stepping out of her way, Harper walked to the door and touched a control panel by the side. Once again, it slide open with a hiss and he took a step inside. Outside, as the doors shut behind him, he could faintly hear Cecily explaining about their current engine problems.
The first thing to hit him was the smell. It had a tangy, sweet scent to it, reminding him off the hydroponics bay back home. Staring into the room, Harper realized just how huge her quarters were. Two twin trees grew side by side in the middle while flora of all kind lined the walls. Each of the trees looked to be about three or four times his own height.
A bed was set up in a corner, and like the wall, covered with vines tinted blue, green, and red. Each hung from the top, giving it the appearance of a living canapé. While modern objects were scattered throughout the room, all were decorated with living plants in some way. Some were potted, though most grew freely around the vicinity.
Taking a step over the now discarded blanket she'd been wearing earlier, Harper searched the room with his eyes but found nothing.
"Trance?" he called, hoping for a response. No one answered. "Look, I know this is weird for you, but I'd really like to talk," he tried again.
Again not hearing anything, Harper walked around the room, figuring there were only so many places for the purple alien could hide.
After a few minutes, Seamus was beginning to wonder if there was some secret door out of the room he didn't know about. That was until his eye caught something unusual just below the tree's abnormally tinted cerulean leaves: A lone, purple tail hanging from a high branch, just out of his line of site. Stepping towards the smile, Harper smiled.
Rubbing his hands, the young engineer took hold of the lowest branch and hoisted himself up by climbing up the side of the knobby tree trunk. Safely up on the first limb, Harper pushed back the bushy leaves from his face, and using the other branches around him, began to slowly climb up following the tail. As he ascended, he finally caught a glimpse of the individual the tail was attached to. Sitting just a foot or two up above him on the thickest branch of the tree was Trance, facing away and obviously ignoring him.
"Mind if I come up?" he asked, making sure she wasn't going to shove him backwards onto the hard deck below. He saw her move her shoulders nonchalantly up and down and figured that was his opening. Climbing up the last few feet, Harper took a seat next to her, making sure to keep a hold on one of the limbs above him for balance. Looking down at his hand, Seamus cursed when he noticed a tiny thorn sticking out of his thumb.
Glancing over at Trance, Harper realized she looked pretty much the same. "Your big and blue tree's injured me," he tried with a light laugh, hoping for a reaction from the girl.
When she didn't respond, Harper shrugged. "I used to climb trees as a kid," he said, putting his hand up to his mouth and sucking on the tiny wound. "We didn't have much else to do, so we built treehouses high up and acted out old Earth fables… you know, from books we'd heard about and all that junk."
Picking at the thorn, Seamus looked over to see if he'd caught Trance's interest. While she hadn't turned her head, she'd made no move to leave and he knew she was pretending not to listen.
"I remember when I was about nine," he began again, messing with his hand, "a group of my friends and I were sick of eating tasteless food and decided to go steal some from a group of Nietzscheans living in the woods near our camp. We all snuck out one night and ended up near their camp to spy on them. I still remember the smell of whatever kind of meat they were cooking. We all decided then and there that we need it more than they did. So, like the stupid kids we were, we waited until they had left the fire and made a grab for it."
Pausing from his story, Harper looked over to see that Trance was indeed silently listening.
"What happened you ask? Well… everything was hunky-dory until they nearly caught us. When we saw those three drunken Nietzscheans chasing after us, we made a break for it. Of course since I was the youngest, I was naturally the slowest. After a while I couldn't even see the older boys so I just took off in a new direction by myself. I almost thought I'd gotten away, but the moment was too good to be true. I heard one of them coming after me and knew I wouldn't be able to get away fast enough, so I chose the tallest tree I could find and climbed it."
Making sure his silent companion was still interested, he continued.
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking… pretty dumb move, huh? Well I'm up this tree and here comes the Nietzschean bumbling through the forest after me. He spots me and tries to climb up. He gets about three branches up before falling back onto his butt and realizing he's afraid of heights. Yeah, I know, Mr. Big Bad Nietzschean was afraid of climbing a little bit of foliage.
So he's down there cursing the human race and reaching for his gun, blasting away leaves from every tree around the area but mine. Finally I just jumped. Not a little skip mind you, but a good five feet leap over to another tree. I get over there and the Nietzschean finally gets his aim correct and starts shooting away at where I'd just been. I got a few trees away and could still see the idiot stumbling around and shouting, so I pick this freaking huge hickory nut off the tree I'm in and chuck it at him as hard as I can. It hits him square in the middle of the forehead, no joke here, and he actually screams some Nietzschean battle cry and promptly falls flat on his so-called superior ass… unconscious."
Hearing a quiet snort next to him, Harper smiled.
"So you were listening," he said, glancing over and hoping she'd at least say something. When she still ignored him, Harper looked down at his hand, once again picking at the tiny embedded thorn and winching when he pushed on it too hard. "Oww," he muttered, sucking on the tip of his thumb again.
Slowly a small, violet hand reached out to take his in hers, pulling it away from his face and towards her lap. Seamus watched silently as Trance used her longer fingernails to get a grip on the tiny barb and gently removed it, tossing it to the ground and turning to face him.
"You look so much like him," she finally said, staring hard at Harper's face. "Why did my friend die while other versions didn't? Did I do something wrong?"
Harper frowned a little. "I don't know why. Fate I guess… if you believe in that sort of thing." He paused. "You couldn't have done anything in the first place. You were dealing with a disease that hadn't had a cure in over two hundred years. I know myself well enough to know he wouldn't have blamed you, and you know that."
Looking down, Trance nodded slowly, running a hand over her eyes. "I never before believed in one fate, only causality. Like we each have multiple fates, and that every decision we face represents a branching of reality. As we make choices in life, we limit our possible realities, inevitably determining our final destinies." She looked up. "Everyone else always thought they were just silly beliefs, but now… I guess I wasn't so wrong."
There was a silent moment between the two, and Harper silently fiddled with a lone indigo colored leaf hanging in front of his face. Next to him, Trance glanced up.
"What's your Trance like?" she asked, a curious look finally brightening her features.
"Hmm," Harper mumbled, looking over at her smiling. "Well, let me help you with that question. What planet are you from?"
"My planet?"
"Yeah," Seamus said, raising his eyebrows ever so slightly.
"Well ah…"
"Come on now, there are no secrets here."
"I'd would tell you, but you couldn't pronounce it," Trance finally announced with a quick nod of her head.
"Yep, you two could be identical twins," Harper said as she smiled back, hoping, if nothing else, he'd be able to pull her back from the void she'd been in for so long.
"Look, Trance, I have a few questions I need to ask you. They're really important to me. Are you alright with that?" he asked.
For a moment he feared the alien girl would deny his request when she didn't speak. But to his surprise, she nodded.
~*~
Pulling herself out from under a newly installed console, Beka stood up and went to work above. Hitting a few keys, the lose wires underneath began to spark, causing her to jump back away from the machinery. Holding in the overwhelming urge to kick the piece of the ship she'd been trying to fix, the stubborn Captain once again climbed under, this time crossing different wires. After sliding out a second time and trying the top, Beka was finally happy that she hadn't produced any sparks and silently thanked the Divine.
Turning away, she headed over towards where Rev was silently working, but stopped.
"Hey, Andromeda?"
The holographic form of the ship appeared a split second after her call.
"Yes, Captain?"
"What's Trance and… err, Harper doing right now?" Beka asked, pausing a moment when she realized how strange it was to be saying the young man's name again.
"They're still talking in the commissary," Andromeda replied calmly. "Do you need one of them, Captain?"
"Nah," Beka replied, heading towards Rev. "It can wait. Trance needs this right now."
~*~
Quietly drumming five fingers against the one of the mess deck's tables, Harper sat alone, waiting for Trance to come back with whatever she had wanted to surprise him with. Looking around, it was eerie how much everything looked the same. Even the people of this crew were identical to his, except for being a few members short.
'So this is what an alternate reality feels like,' he thought to himself, wondering how many others like this there were. Were their places where Earth had never fallen to the Magog or the Commonwealth still stood proud? Perhaps there were realties that would appeal to just a certain person. Maybe a universe in which Beka ran a respectable family business with her father and brother? Harper had to actually hold in a laugh at that one. Was there a place where Rev's kind were the protectors, not the destroyers? Or maybe another where Kodiak Pride ruled the galaxy? Harper was suddenly thankful he'd found this one.
A swooshing sound alerted him to Trance's return and Harper found himself watching her as she edged close to him, one hand carrying two dishes, while the other remained hidden behind her back. Setting one of the plates before him and the other in front of her own seat, Seamus eyed her curiously. Silently, Trance pulled out another large tray from behind her back to reveal a strangely shaped, but familiar Earth crop. Laying the tray between the two, Trance took her seat smiling.
"Where on Tarn Vedra did you manage to find a pineapple, Trance?" Harper asked with a wide grin, remembering he hadn't seen the native fruit in almost ten years.
"I picked up a new tree at Eago Drift several years ago from a trader. He hadn't known what it was, and neither had I until I planted it in hydroponics. It grew and well, these are what I got from it. You do like them don't you? I know my Harper used to talk about them on the Maru when we first met," she said.
"Yeah, I love 'um, but I haven't had one since I was a kid. Are these any good?"
"I don't know," Trance admitted. "I've never eaten any of the ones that came from the tree after I found out what they were. Do you think it'll taste okay?"
Reaching over to the already cut side, Harper grabbed a tiny piece. Popping it into his mouth, he smiled. "Oh yeahhhh." Reaching for another bit, he paused, looking over at Trance. "Well come on… you don't want me to eat it all by myself do you?"
Slowly, Trance let one of the small yellow wedges into her month and her eyes went wide. "It… it's …."
"Sweet," Harper finished, taking another and putting it into his mouth. "Earth might not be well known for its pleasantness, but it's still got some kick-ass produce."
~*~
A whole pineapple later, Harper still sat with Trance in the dining hall talking and finishing up the last of his surprise. So deep in conversation, he'd not noticed the room's door sliding open until he name was called.
"Hey, Harper," Cecily said, coming up to his and Trance's table. "I've thought of a way of possibly getting the main engines back online, but… what in the name of the Devine is that!" Staring down at the spiky remains of his pineapple, Cez made a face. "On second thought, never mind."
"What were you saying about engines again?" Harper asked, standing up to stretch.
Still looking totally thrown by the fruit in front of her, Cez finally turned away. "Yeah… anyway, I notice a while back that you had a cerebral port, so I figured you might be able to get into the ship's system and find a way of transferring more power to engines. I think it's being blocked somehow, but there's no way to really."
"I don't have a problem with trying. Will you be okay if I go, Trance?" he asked.
"Don't worry about me," the purple figure said next to him. "Go get the ship working. I'll clean up this mess."
"Thanks," he called, following Cez. "I'll come by later maybe, okay?"
"Sure, Harper."
Nodding, Seamus stepped out of the door to find that Cecily was a significant way down the corridor already.
"Hurry up, Genius!" Cez called, turning another corner and leaving Harper's view.
"Coming, coming," the male engineer muttered but refused to follow. Instead he took off into a run the opposite direction. With this short cut, Harper would make it several seconds before her. That should give him a significant amount of gloating time. Breaking into a jog, Harper smiled. It almost felt like home again. Almost.
~*~*~*~
TBC…
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Remember that when I wrote this, I hadn't seen "The Dark Backward". I don't know if that can be considered an alternate reality episode, but it would make sense. Oh, and Trance's "causality" quote wasn't made up. I don't remember where I found it, but it was from an audition packet for actresses trying out for the part of Trance. I found it while writing this and thought it would work. The full quote is: I believe in causality. That we each have multiple fates. And that every decision we face represents a branching of reality. As we make choices in life, we limit our possible realities, inevitably determining our final destinies.
Kudos to the few who guessed Stargate SG-1. Cookies to CJ, Talismaniac, Echo, Ladybug Jess, and Harper's Pixie. What, you guys didn't like my Teal'c face? lol
(o:|~ Teal'c is not happy.
Ladybug, you were close with the Harper= Daniel guesses. You forgot about Catherine though. For the most part, Catherine=Rev and Cez=Sam. (Just check the dialogue.) Everyone left over is a mixture. And Talismaniac, if you remember the SG episode, Danny actually seemed to come out ahead of everyone else. ;D
