Past Reflections 7/?

Disclaimer: Andromeda, Harper, Tyr etc. don't belong to me, unfortunately. No infringement intended.
Authors Notes: Rated R due to possible slash content and violence. I have been having some formatting problems, so if this comes out crazy bear with me.
Harper's Story
Later that evening Harper left Tyr in their suite as he went in search of Malick. A guard showed him into a room filled with surveillance equipment when he was caught wandering the hallways. While a nondescript man continued to monitor the video feed being relayed, Malick was sitting behind a desk immersed in paperwork. When he saw who had entered Malick immediately put down the flexi he had been reading and got to his feet.

"Come on, Shay. This stuff can wait." Malick explained as he led Harper out of the room through a hidden entrance which led to a courtyard. "Sit down and relax, man. You look stressed, tomorrow will come soon enough no use worrying about it until then."

"Yes it will." Harper responded thoughtfully taking a sip of the Synth Ale Malick poured for him.

"The way you're worrying over these people I would think they are your blood kin. Since you have no relatives off world, just who are these people to you?" Malick questioned curiously. "You already know what I've been doing since I was smuggled off of Earth, I don't even know how you managed to escape Angeles, let alone get off Earth, and settle up with the baddest warship in the known worlds."

"Which part do you want me to answer first?"

"We have all night, why don't you start at the beginning."

"After we were separated in the camp a group of Nietzscheans came into the cell and beat me within an inch of my life. Then after chaining me to a wall and burning me with oil, the real interrogation began. The Niet that questioned me, Joseph, had a neural inhibitor implanted in my neck, which was the Ubers first and last mistake. That night they left me unchained because I was so weak that Joseph didn't think I would be able to cause any trouble. You see I overheard two guards mentioning a transfer of prisoners scheduled for later that night. The only inhabitants still in the compound were the overseers and those being 'questioned.' I used this information and the inhibitor to my advantage. I physically cut it out of my neck with my fingers and went to work. It only took me a few hours to use the components to create a thermal bomb, capable of leveling a building with a timer I set for an hour, using wire I tore out of the roach infested mattress. "

"Just before the guard came to escort me back to my torture chamber, I armed the bomb and the guard, expecting a barely conscious kludge, was taken by surprise when he entered. Seeing my bed in shambles, he tried to turn around, but before he could complete the movement I had tackled him and used my momentum to knock him into the wall. From there it was easy to use his own bone blades to impale him with. I didn't stay long enough to make sure he was dead. I merely took his weapon and blasted my way out of there, taking as many Ubers out as I could and rescuing those I could find. You should have seen it, Malick. Here I am a naked little kludge covered in blood and barely standing, leading an army of near skeletons out of the most heavily armed prison in Boston. Man, it was classic!"

"Damn Shay, I always knew you were dangerous. Remind me never to piss you off." Malick said grinning, although looking slightly wistful. "I wish I could have been there, Man."

"No worries. Things seemed to work out for the best." Harper acknowledged heartily slapping Malick on the back. "Now do you want me to finish this story or what?"

"Go ahead. I wouldn't want to interrupt his majesty when he's speaking." Malick said with a smirk.

"See that it doesn't happen again, lowly scum." Harper answered in a faux serious voice. "Okay, so where was I?"

"You had just rescued some little kitties from a tree…"

"Smart ass." Harper grinned. "So we had made it past the outer perimeter and since it was still night we could hide under the cover of darkness. A few minutes later the alarm was raised so the eleven of us split up. Just when it looked like the Ubers were onto our trail, the explosion rocked the city and they broke off pursuit. It just so happens that a few weeks later I was able to buy my way on a supply ship due to my engineering genius. It seemed the Eureka Maru came into a bit of trouble during a pick up, resulting in a dead engineer and a broken slipstream drive. I was given safe passage out of Dragan space in exchange for fixing their ship. I would have taken Brendan with me but he had gone to Port Charles to find passage off world when I had been captured. Captain Valentine dropped me off at Sinti Drift. I didn't see her again until six months later. From there I traveled from place to place offering my services to any ship in port."

"Eventually after one particularly disastrous job on a freighter ship, I got a message from Beka Valentine offering me a permanent position as her engineer. I jumped at the chance to get away from where I was currently living on Omega Prime, barely surviving day to day on any odd job I could find. When I met up with the esteemed Captain Valentine and the Maru once again, I was surprised to find a purple alien woman with a tail and a Wayist Monk who just so happened to be a Magog, among her crew. I didn't think I would be able to survive much longer the way I had been living, so I decided to stay on for a little while at least. "

"A little while became three years, and in that time I became good friends with Beka and Trance, and I could even be in the same room as Rev, the Magog Monk, without cringing or reaching for my blaster. During a random salvaging mission we came upon the Andromeda stuck in a black hole, and a few wayward mercenaries lead by our resident Nietzschean Tyr Anastazi. Using the ship's grapplers, we were able to extract the ship and it's three hundred year old captain, from the gravitational pull of the black hole. The rest as they say is history. We found Dylan aboard the ship, he convinced us all into helping him rebuild the commonwealth-"

"Why would he want to do that?" Malick asked. "I'm still confused. Why was Dylan on this ship in the first place, and what is so good about a three hundred year old body, wouldn't it be decomposed by now?"

"Sorry, I got ahead of myself there. Captain Dylan Hunt was an officer in the Commonwealth before it's collapse three hundred years ago. At the Battle of Witch Head he was betrayed by his Nietzschean first officer, during all the commotion the ship was knocked off course and into the black hole. He and the ship's AI Rommie, were held in suspended animation until we dragged them out of the black hole, three hundred years in the future. He convinced us in his mission and now we go around signing whole worlds onto the charter to restore the Commonwealth."

"I heard rumors of an insane crew going from world to world trying to convince others of the validity of the All Systems Commonwealth, but I never though I would know one of the psychos personally." Malick gasped out in between chuckles. "But I thought you were the ultimate pragmatist, Shay. This doesn't sound like something you would get mixed up in."

"Normally I wouldn't be involved in a pipedream like Dylan's but I stay on the Andromeda for three reasons. One, my family is there and since all my blood relations are now dead, they are all I have left. If they want to go on this fools mission, then I will be there to make sure they all survive the attempt. Two, at first it seemed like an idealistic duck hunt, but now little by little the concept is spreading and new worlds are signing on weekly. The third reason is based solely on survival, mine and everyone else's. The Magog Worldship is coming and if we all fight it on our own we will die, slowly and extremely painfully. Only if all of the free worlds stand together do we have a chance at surviving the upcoming onslaught. You and I both know what the Magog are capable of. Now picture that carnage on a universal scale and you will understand the benefits of Dylan's vision."

"My god! Will it really be that bad?" Malick asked, shaken by the mere scope of an invasion of Magog that large.

"I would never joke about the Magog. You know that." Harper reiterated. "That's why finding the crew is imperative for so many reasons. But don't worry we still have at least another year and a half until they are within range, and by that time Dylan's Commonwealth should be a reality."

"That explains what you are doing on the Andromeda, after all if Armageddon is coming I wouldn't expect you to be anywhere else. That doesn't explain however, how you came to claim a Nietzschean as a member of your family."

"He's saved my life twice directly and countless other times as well. Don't get me wrong. I trust Tyr to be Tyr, that is to worry about himself first and foremost. However, I also trust Tyr to watch my back, which he has in fact been doing since he came aboard the Andromeda."

"Alright, I trust your judgment Shay. Just be careful. Now what do you say we get some rest. My informant should have made contact by tomorrow, so hopefully you'll be able to rescue your friends over the next couple of days." Malick suggested getting rather drunkenly to his feet.

"'Kay Malick, I'll see you tomorrow bright and early."

Harper entered the darkened suite cautiously, not wanting to knock over anything in his inebriated state and wake up Tyr . Harper made his was to the edge of the bed stripping down to his briefs as he took each stumbling step. His fuzzy mind didn't realize he was getting into a bed already occupied by his Nietzschean crewmate. Instead, Harper put his spare dagger under his pillow and he lay down snuggling into his warm 'covers.' Between one breath and the next he was sound asleep, for possible the first real rest he had gotten since the misbegotten mission to obtain Jeridian Ore, a little over two weeks ago.