/I've been waking up from drugged sleeps a lot recently/, Beka observed as she awoke from yet another unnatural--though healing, she had to admit--rest.
"Hey boss, you awake?" Med was dimmed, and at first, Beka thought she had dreamed the voice that had awakened her. "Boss?" She propped herself up on her elbows, winced, and squinted into the dark. A pale figure with unruly blond hair materialized at her side. "Good. Are you okay?"
Aside from the twinge that shot up her arm when she leaned on it, she really did feel fine. "Um, I think so, but Trance isn't going to be happy that you disturbed her patient from her sleep. After taking care of her plants for so long, I think she's almost delirious at having something more complex to nurse."
Harper darted a glance at the door before replying. "Yeah, boss. Do you remember what day it is?" Another paranoid glance.
"Harper, have you been chugging the Sparky again? You know that more than six of those a day has been scientifically proven to equal a 500 milliliter dose of Flash and--oh wait, today's Trance's not-birthday, isn't it?"
Harper nodded and looked over his shoulder. "Uh-huh, and I don't think I've ever seen her sleep, so we have to hurry up." He turned and stared so intently at the Med door that he yelped and jumped halfway to the ceiling when Beka laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Seriously, Harper, ease up on the cola. Do you mix that stuff in with your coffee each morning, or what?"
Harper began to make a face at her, but his expression suddenly became thoughtful. " 's not a bad idea for all those nights I'm stayin' up twenty hours straight, like after that Sabra-"
"Shut up, Harper," Beka said calmly. She swung her legs off the bed and hopped down beside her engineer. Together, they padded stealthily to the door. It slid open with a soft hiss, and Beka herself nearly reached the ceiling when she saw someone outside. She opened her mouth and tried to think of a plausible excuse for Trance as to why she was sneaking out… but this was a tall, dark, and chain-mail clad someone.
"Tyr!" she breathed, "what is the name of the Divine are you /doing/ there?! And /who/ is watching my ship??"
Tyr hand turned to face the duo as soon as the door had revealed them. "I observed Harper slinking around the ship like a Perseid playing at espionage," he explained with a short burst of rather derisive laughter, "and it piqued my curiosity--and I'm sure your ship's sensors are doing a perfectly adequate job of sensing on their own."
Beka peered down the hall in both directions and motioned for Harper to follow her. "And I'm sure your Nietzschean-ly enhanced senses could a /more/ than adequate job. It's Trance's not-birthday, and Harper and I have to… make out preparations before she decides to check up on her favorite suffering patient again." She met Tyr's eyes and gave him her most captain-y glare, though it must be said that she didn't quite suppress a gleeful smile. "And if you snitch on me, Anasazi…"
He looked faintly amused. "Yes, Captain Valentine, the airlock. I never saw you, or Master Harper, for that matter." With a mock bow, he left them. Harper and Beka shrugged at one another.
In one tiny area… no more than a closet… in a corner on the Maru was located a room with the highly satirical name of 'Festival Hall'. Harper had nearly choked when Beka first introduced him to the Festival Hall. The crew stored various scraps and odds-and-ends they picked up at sundry drifts that they could use for a party, birthday or otherwise. Beka threw these parties faithfully for her crew, in private memory of all the birthdays and holidays that had passed uncelebrated during her childhood.
Now they raided the Festival Hall, emerging more ribbon than human. Harper selected mostly pink and purple streamers, while Beka chose the sparkliest she could find. They shushed each other constantly and giggled like giddy teenagers who just discovered the ship's liquor cabinet. Then, to Beka's infinite horror, Trance appeared at the other end of the corridor. Without a word of explanation, she shoved Harper into the claustrophobic room and dove in after him. She thought she heard Trance hum as she skipped past, but the humming and skipping could've easily been her imagination.
"Too bad I don't possess Mr. Anasazi's genetically enhanced everything right now," she muttered."
Harper snorted beside her in the darkness. "Boss, no offense, but if you had Tyr's Nietzschean goodness, you'd be halfway to barefoot and pregnant by now."
If there'd been a single ray of light penetrating the dusty room, Harper would've discovered himself the victim of a purely venomous glare. "Ex/cuse/ me?? Valentine women do /not/ do barefoot and pregnant." At least, from what little Beka knew of her mother, they didn't. /Swashbuckling from day we met to the day she left/, her father had often said fondly. And /she/ definitely wasn't planning on it.
"Oh come on, boss, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome's been after you from day one. Not that isn't showing /impeccable/ taste in doing so," he added hastily, "but I'd be a little more trusting of him if he… I don't know… called us kludge at every other turn and insisted on running this whole mission himself. But boss, he actually /asked/ my advice on the Maru's engines today. I mean, you and Trance know I'm an engineering god above and beyond any other, but this fact has never before been acknowledged by any of our cousins /invictus/."
"Shh, I think I hear Trance." They were still a moment, then Beka exhaled. "I don't know what to tell you, Seamus." /I don't know what's going on myself/. "For better or worse, he's here, and as long as he's good, he stays." Cautiously, she opened the door a crack. From what she could make out, the hallway was deserted. "Now don't forget the tape."
As they skulked through the Maru, Harper hummed a tune Beka'd never heard before. "Oh, come on, boss, you're kidding me, right? Mission: Impossible?" At her blank look, he persisted. "James Bond? Austin Powers? Dr. Evil?" He held his pinky to the corner of his mouth and began in a strange accent, "Throw me a freakin' bone here, people. One hundred /billion/ dollars. I shall call him… Mini-Me. Just the two of us…" At this point, he burst into song.
Beka goggled. "What the /hell/ are you babbling about, Harper?"
He rolled his eyes, dropped his hand, and spoke in his normal voice again. "Barbarians. No culture, whatsoever."
They finally approached the crew bunks. Beka and Harper looked around, at each other, then shook their heads. Trance's favorite place and true home on the ship was the tiny hydroponics bay, which housed her beloved--each individually named--flora. Harper went on ahead, "to scope out the joint," and finding it empty, called to Beka.
"All right, Harper, after she searches the Maru for us, she's going to come right back here. Let's make it quick." In a flurry of activity, pink and purple, shiny and sparkly, the two taped and tied up the bright decorations at an almost superhuman speed.
Beka smiled, very satisfied, at the effect. She didn't waste much time, though, and began giving Harper some final instructions concerning her present for Trance and smuggling back here, along with his own. He saluted her and dashed away, hugging the wall and humming that Impossible Evil James song again.
All Beka had to do was creep back into Med and convince Trance she had just popped off to the Mess and returned by a longer route than usual.
A hitch in the plan came about when Trance caught her patient just a few minutes later, nowhere near the Mess. "Beka, what are you doing? If that gets infected, you're going to have to stay in bed even longer, and…" Beka put on an attentive expression and listened to Trance's scolding without saying a word until she finished.
"You're right, Trance. I don't want anything to make this any worse, and I /definitely/ don't want to stay in Med any longer. But you know, being trapped in that teeny, dark room for so long… I just had to get a little air." Vague but appropriately believable. Beka congratulated herself on her ad lib.
Trance gave Beka a characteristically merry smile, and her tone warmed to match. "I guess I should've asked if you wanted to go on a walk. You can come with me to check plants now if you-"
"/No/, Trance, uh, thanks, but I think I've gone far enough today." She forced a laugh. "Think I'm getting a little woozy." She touched her fingertips to her forehead, and Trance immediately wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Well, then let's get you back to Medical. I can check on Lizzy and Mr. Darcy later." She shot Beka a puzzled glance. "Did you see Harper during your escape? I was going to ask him where you were, but I couldn't find him either."
Beka was innocence personified. "Really? Oh, he probably just crashed in one of the hallways near the engine room after a characteristically Harperian two-day caffeine binge." She shrugged minutely.
"Hmm. I guess I'll look for him after I get you safe and sound in Medical."
Beka cheered inwardly. Another delay!
"You know, for a second I couldn't even find Tyr! But then her just sort of appeared in the cockpit," She leaned in, as if sharing a confidence. "I told him you wouldn't be very happy if there wasn't anyone watching out for the bad guys."
Beka laughed and looped her good arm around the girl's shoulders. "You got my number there, Trance."
"Hey boss, you awake?" Med was dimmed, and at first, Beka thought she had dreamed the voice that had awakened her. "Boss?" She propped herself up on her elbows, winced, and squinted into the dark. A pale figure with unruly blond hair materialized at her side. "Good. Are you okay?"
Aside from the twinge that shot up her arm when she leaned on it, she really did feel fine. "Um, I think so, but Trance isn't going to be happy that you disturbed her patient from her sleep. After taking care of her plants for so long, I think she's almost delirious at having something more complex to nurse."
Harper darted a glance at the door before replying. "Yeah, boss. Do you remember what day it is?" Another paranoid glance.
"Harper, have you been chugging the Sparky again? You know that more than six of those a day has been scientifically proven to equal a 500 milliliter dose of Flash and--oh wait, today's Trance's not-birthday, isn't it?"
Harper nodded and looked over his shoulder. "Uh-huh, and I don't think I've ever seen her sleep, so we have to hurry up." He turned and stared so intently at the Med door that he yelped and jumped halfway to the ceiling when Beka laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Seriously, Harper, ease up on the cola. Do you mix that stuff in with your coffee each morning, or what?"
Harper began to make a face at her, but his expression suddenly became thoughtful. " 's not a bad idea for all those nights I'm stayin' up twenty hours straight, like after that Sabra-"
"Shut up, Harper," Beka said calmly. She swung her legs off the bed and hopped down beside her engineer. Together, they padded stealthily to the door. It slid open with a soft hiss, and Beka herself nearly reached the ceiling when she saw someone outside. She opened her mouth and tried to think of a plausible excuse for Trance as to why she was sneaking out… but this was a tall, dark, and chain-mail clad someone.
"Tyr!" she breathed, "what is the name of the Divine are you /doing/ there?! And /who/ is watching my ship??"
Tyr hand turned to face the duo as soon as the door had revealed them. "I observed Harper slinking around the ship like a Perseid playing at espionage," he explained with a short burst of rather derisive laughter, "and it piqued my curiosity--and I'm sure your ship's sensors are doing a perfectly adequate job of sensing on their own."
Beka peered down the hall in both directions and motioned for Harper to follow her. "And I'm sure your Nietzschean-ly enhanced senses could a /more/ than adequate job. It's Trance's not-birthday, and Harper and I have to… make out preparations before she decides to check up on her favorite suffering patient again." She met Tyr's eyes and gave him her most captain-y glare, though it must be said that she didn't quite suppress a gleeful smile. "And if you snitch on me, Anasazi…"
He looked faintly amused. "Yes, Captain Valentine, the airlock. I never saw you, or Master Harper, for that matter." With a mock bow, he left them. Harper and Beka shrugged at one another.
In one tiny area… no more than a closet… in a corner on the Maru was located a room with the highly satirical name of 'Festival Hall'. Harper had nearly choked when Beka first introduced him to the Festival Hall. The crew stored various scraps and odds-and-ends they picked up at sundry drifts that they could use for a party, birthday or otherwise. Beka threw these parties faithfully for her crew, in private memory of all the birthdays and holidays that had passed uncelebrated during her childhood.
Now they raided the Festival Hall, emerging more ribbon than human. Harper selected mostly pink and purple streamers, while Beka chose the sparkliest she could find. They shushed each other constantly and giggled like giddy teenagers who just discovered the ship's liquor cabinet. Then, to Beka's infinite horror, Trance appeared at the other end of the corridor. Without a word of explanation, she shoved Harper into the claustrophobic room and dove in after him. She thought she heard Trance hum as she skipped past, but the humming and skipping could've easily been her imagination.
"Too bad I don't possess Mr. Anasazi's genetically enhanced everything right now," she muttered."
Harper snorted beside her in the darkness. "Boss, no offense, but if you had Tyr's Nietzschean goodness, you'd be halfway to barefoot and pregnant by now."
If there'd been a single ray of light penetrating the dusty room, Harper would've discovered himself the victim of a purely venomous glare. "Ex/cuse/ me?? Valentine women do /not/ do barefoot and pregnant." At least, from what little Beka knew of her mother, they didn't. /Swashbuckling from day we met to the day she left/, her father had often said fondly. And /she/ definitely wasn't planning on it.
"Oh come on, boss, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome's been after you from day one. Not that isn't showing /impeccable/ taste in doing so," he added hastily, "but I'd be a little more trusting of him if he… I don't know… called us kludge at every other turn and insisted on running this whole mission himself. But boss, he actually /asked/ my advice on the Maru's engines today. I mean, you and Trance know I'm an engineering god above and beyond any other, but this fact has never before been acknowledged by any of our cousins /invictus/."
"Shh, I think I hear Trance." They were still a moment, then Beka exhaled. "I don't know what to tell you, Seamus." /I don't know what's going on myself/. "For better or worse, he's here, and as long as he's good, he stays." Cautiously, she opened the door a crack. From what she could make out, the hallway was deserted. "Now don't forget the tape."
As they skulked through the Maru, Harper hummed a tune Beka'd never heard before. "Oh, come on, boss, you're kidding me, right? Mission: Impossible?" At her blank look, he persisted. "James Bond? Austin Powers? Dr. Evil?" He held his pinky to the corner of his mouth and began in a strange accent, "Throw me a freakin' bone here, people. One hundred /billion/ dollars. I shall call him… Mini-Me. Just the two of us…" At this point, he burst into song.
Beka goggled. "What the /hell/ are you babbling about, Harper?"
He rolled his eyes, dropped his hand, and spoke in his normal voice again. "Barbarians. No culture, whatsoever."
They finally approached the crew bunks. Beka and Harper looked around, at each other, then shook their heads. Trance's favorite place and true home on the ship was the tiny hydroponics bay, which housed her beloved--each individually named--flora. Harper went on ahead, "to scope out the joint," and finding it empty, called to Beka.
"All right, Harper, after she searches the Maru for us, she's going to come right back here. Let's make it quick." In a flurry of activity, pink and purple, shiny and sparkly, the two taped and tied up the bright decorations at an almost superhuman speed.
Beka smiled, very satisfied, at the effect. She didn't waste much time, though, and began giving Harper some final instructions concerning her present for Trance and smuggling back here, along with his own. He saluted her and dashed away, hugging the wall and humming that Impossible Evil James song again.
All Beka had to do was creep back into Med and convince Trance she had just popped off to the Mess and returned by a longer route than usual.
A hitch in the plan came about when Trance caught her patient just a few minutes later, nowhere near the Mess. "Beka, what are you doing? If that gets infected, you're going to have to stay in bed even longer, and…" Beka put on an attentive expression and listened to Trance's scolding without saying a word until she finished.
"You're right, Trance. I don't want anything to make this any worse, and I /definitely/ don't want to stay in Med any longer. But you know, being trapped in that teeny, dark room for so long… I just had to get a little air." Vague but appropriately believable. Beka congratulated herself on her ad lib.
Trance gave Beka a characteristically merry smile, and her tone warmed to match. "I guess I should've asked if you wanted to go on a walk. You can come with me to check plants now if you-"
"/No/, Trance, uh, thanks, but I think I've gone far enough today." She forced a laugh. "Think I'm getting a little woozy." She touched her fingertips to her forehead, and Trance immediately wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Well, then let's get you back to Medical. I can check on Lizzy and Mr. Darcy later." She shot Beka a puzzled glance. "Did you see Harper during your escape? I was going to ask him where you were, but I couldn't find him either."
Beka was innocence personified. "Really? Oh, he probably just crashed in one of the hallways near the engine room after a characteristically Harperian two-day caffeine binge." She shrugged minutely.
"Hmm. I guess I'll look for him after I get you safe and sound in Medical."
Beka cheered inwardly. Another delay!
"You know, for a second I couldn't even find Tyr! But then her just sort of appeared in the cockpit," She leaned in, as if sharing a confidence. "I told him you wouldn't be very happy if there wasn't anyone watching out for the bad guys."
Beka laughed and looped her good arm around the girl's shoulders. "You got my number there, Trance."