Sorry folks: I got addicted to cliffhangers while writing SG-1 fiction.
Chrysalis, part 10
Harper landed on his back, looking up at a clear blue sky.
He tilted his head: the doorway was still visible, as was the VR-matrix beyond, but all around him where trees and flowers. He sat up, looking around, trying to workout where he was: It looked like a garden Trance had dragged him to once while on shore leave, all bright colures and birdsong. A gravel pathway leading away from the door, deeper into the greenery.
For want of a better thing to do, he followed it.
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Trance looked on worriedly as Andrew opened his eyes, "What happened? Where's Harper?" The Avatar rubbed his head, "Hay, last thing I remember was a wall of flame. Are his vitals still stable?" Trance nodded, "Yes." Andrew sighed, "Then it's up to him."
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The gravel crunched under Harper's feet as he walked along the path, travelling deeper and deeper into the garden that was Rommie's mind. He recognised some of the plants from hydroponics, but others where alien to him. He rounded a corner and stopped. The gazebo was covered in vines that trailed up its supports and around the pointed top. A wooden bench was placed underneath, and a familiar figure was sitting with her back to the path. "Rommie?" Harper asked, "Is that you?"
Rommie turned her head to face him, "Hello Seamus. Come, sit with me."
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Dylan stood in the doorway between the med deck and Rommie's room, his eyes moving from his wife's body to Harpers and back again, "What's taking so long?"
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Confused more than ever, Harper sat as instructed, "Where are we?" Rommie turned to look at the manicured lawn, "Royal gardens on Tarn-Vedra. Andromeda visited them once." She smiled slightly, "I wasn't her first Avatar you know. There was one before me, back even before Dylan became captain. She was destroyed by the Magog when Andromeda was sent to find the origin of the Magog invasion and ran into the World Ship."
Harper blinked, "Why didn't they replace her?" Rommie shrugged, "I don't know. There are a lot of things that are still blurry, even after the personality merger. Maybe the High Guard was scared that people would see her and, not know her memory had be erased, try and talk to her." She sighed, "I don't have all her memories, only bit, places and names, but I do remember this garden. So why'd they send you in here?" Harper sighed, "What's happening? You should be ok, but you're still stuck in the diagnostic loop." Rommie smiled, "I don't know for sure, but I don't think it's anything bad. Dylan must be going crazy with worry." Harper chuckled, "He is. He misses you, we all do."
Rommie patted him on the knee, "I don't think it'll take much longer. Time for you to go: it's going to rain." Storm clouds had started to role in from across the distant mountains. Forks of lightning and ominous thunderclaps shook the ground. Rommie turned to Harper, "You have to go now: the link is destabilising. Listen, if something goes wrong, if I don't make it, tell Dylan I love him, and I wouldn't trade my time with him for anything."
The last words where all but frowned out by the thunder, and Harper felt like his body had been grabbed by an invisible hand and dragged backwards at high speed.
To Be Continued…