A/N: For all you fellow Ex-Slipstreamers: Just in case you didn't know there are two main message boards where many of the Slipstreamers went. One is Ex Isle, http://www.exisle.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi The other is Slipstream Underground, http://pub98.ezboard.com/bslipstreambbs12353

Now onto the angst!

Chapter 3

Harper stayed in his hunched over shaking position, just listening to the overwhelming silence. There was no more Andromeda and no more friends. All he could hear was the purr of power running through the ship. He slowly picked his throbbing head out of his hands. His brilliant brain was slowly starting to work past his over welling pain and fear to form a plan.

"Okay, Seamus, pull yourself together. You can do this," he said to himself reassuringly. But do what, he thought.

"I gotta get Andromeda back on-line," he whispered. He reached out for the free end of his connector cable. It was lying on the ground next to him where it landed when it got wrenched out of his port earlier. The other end was still connected to the computer panel. He examined the free end as he picked it up. It was coated in a thick, sticky, dark red goo. His blood.

"Great," he grumbled to himself. He then took one hand to his brightly colored orange shirt and wiped the substance off the rod. Next he reached up, with the rod in his shaky hand, and placed it at the opening of his bloody, swollen port.

"This is gonna hurt," he mumbled as he started to push the rod in. As it entered the port, a scream escaped his lips. His quivering hand tried to push the connector in father, but the pain just increased as the rod got deeper. Finally, the rod could go no farther. Through agonizing pain, Harper realized that he was not connecting to the matrix. He tried to push the connector in farther, but it would not budge. The harder he pressed it in, the more pain shot through every nerve in his body. As his whole body shook, he realized it would not work and painfully pulled the connector out. Deep red blood dripped off the emerging rod and flowed out of the metal port.

"Crap," hissed Harper through clenched teeth. The tissue in his port was so swollen that the connectors on the rod and in his neck could not touch each other and therefore could not transmit information. Because of this there was no way he could jack in to re-boot the AI. Even the VI goggles could not give him the freedom in the system to do what he needed to do.

"Aggghhhh," he grunted as realized this. He once again threw his pounding head into his hands. Trying to re-boot Andromeda manually could take days, and that was if the aliens simply took her off-line. It could take weeks if they did worse. Hell, he might not even be able to bring her back at all.

"Think, genus, think," he commanded as he rocked back and forth in his confining conduit. His plotting was interrupted when the ship jolted under him and he fell onto his side onto the grated floor. Slipstream. Someone just entered Slipstream and was piloting his Andromeda.

"THAT'S IT!" he yelled as he jumped up, hitting his already sore head on the low hard ceiling. "Ouch," he mumbled as he collapsed back onto the familiar floor, rubbing his spiky and now bruised head.

After a second of self pity for his new boo-boo, he picked himself back up and started crawling down the conduit. His destination was the Slipstream core. "If I can't get Andromeda back, then at least I can stop them in their tracks." He giggled at his clever rhyme. "I think that bonk to my head is effecting me......maybe I should just go and have some tea."

Giggles could be heard reverberating throughout the conduits.

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All that could be heard in one of the many corridors on Andromeda was two pairs of boots, hitting the grated floor at a very fast pace. Suddenly, a voiced boomed over the comms, breaking the semi-silence.

"Velac, we are underway to the rendezvous point," boomed Dylan's voice. "We should reach it in about 2 days."

"Good," replied one of the two women who were hastily making their way down the empty corridor. Beka and Trance's minds could hear, see, and feel everything that was happening. The only thing they couldn't do was control anything. They knew what the aliens were commanding their bodies to go do. They were heading off to find Harper, their friend, part of their small family. Both women wanted to yell out, to fight. But the more their minds fought the intruder, the more pain the aliens inflected on them. They were completely helpless.

Dylan's harsh voice spoke again, "How's the hunt for the mudfood going?"

Beka's new commanding harsh voice answered, "We're almost where the computer says his life signs are originating from. We'll know really soon what happened." The two Maru crew members continued on their fast pace down the corridor towards their prey. Suddenly, they both stopped dead in their tracks. They could feel Harper's energy pattern. He was near.

"Damn," hissed Beka/Velac. "Do you feel him?'

"Yes and Melak isn't with him. I cant sense Melak anywhere," whispered back Trance/Nixic.

"Something must have gone wrong, Melak was strong, he should have easily taken over that weak one's mind," hissed Beka's cold voice.

"What do you want to do?" questioned Trance/Nixic.

"Beka seems to think he's a genius of some sort. Maybe our allies would like him as a nice gift when we finally meet up with them," Velac forced Beka's voice to say.

"Trance holds him in high regards too. Plus, apparently he came from a slave planet. That should make him easy to brake," Trance/Nixic said. The real Trance was screaming as her body was forced to say such a thing. Apparently, Nixic wasn't as nice as Trance hoped. As she once again fought her invader, pain from Nixic ripped through her mind.

Back in the corridor, Trance's body doubled over.

"What is it?" coarsely questioned Beka/Velac.

"I-It's Trance's mind. S-She's fighting me again," Nixic struggled to get the sentences out of Trance's mouth. Suddenly, both Trance and Nixic heard Beka's body move and heard the sound of her gun charging. They also felt a cold smooth blunt point be placed on Trance's temple.

"Get her under control, or I will fire. I know she's hard to kill, but I think a shot through the head might do some nice damage," Beka/Velac quietly and calmly said.

Trance fought harder, hoping to overcome Nixic and fake still being invalided. Unfortunately, Nixic was not so weak. She, he, it forced more pain into Trance's mind. The harder Trance fought, the more intense the pain got. She finally had to give control back to Nixic, both in exhaustion and in order to save her body. She gave up her fight and returned to the darkness of her own mind.

Trance's body stopped shaking and snapped back up to a standing position. "Sorry about that Velac It won't happen again," Nixic forced Trance to say.

"It better not," hissed Beka/Velac. "If it does......," she was cut off by the sound of running feet coming down the corridor perpendicular to them. "Just follow my lead," she whispered into Trance's golden pointy ear.

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The blonde engineer was now racing towards the Slipstream core through the larger corridors. He had to leave the safety of the conduits to make it to his destination. He was sprinting around a corner when he slammed into two soft bodies. All three tumbled backwards, letting out a collective groan as they hit the hard floor.

"Harper! Watch where your going!" shouted out Beka's tone of voice.

"Where are you going in such a hurry anyways?" asked Trance/Nixic as innocently as possible.

Harper rubbed his now sore back and cocked his head. Tons of thoughts were running through his mind. What was going on here? They were acting perfectly normal. A trap maybe? Or maybe this was all a prank from Andromeda to get him back for making her sensors believe there were 3,000 Dylans onboard last week.

"Harper?" questioned Beka/Velac with a hint of concern coming into her voice. She started to dust herself off and get back up.

Harper was still silent as he pulled his aching body off the floor. No no. Andromeda wouldn't burn his port for a prank. The aliens must just be playing with him, hoping he was dumb and wouldn't see through their little rouse. But he wasn't called a genius for nothing.

"What? Oh, sorry girls. Just going for a jog, you know, trying to bulk up. Trying to give Tyr and Dylan a run for their money on the "Hunky Men of Andromeda" title. Well, it was nice running into you both, literally, but I gotta go back to working out now." He flexed his sleeve covered arm and felt his bicep. "I've got a lot of catching up to do, bye!" With that he turned to flee, but didn't get too far as he felt Trance's strong hand grab his arm. Beka came around in front of him and invaded his personal space.

"Oh, come on Seamus, you already won the hunk award in our eyes. Do you want to claim your prize?" Beka voice said seductively.

"W-What prize," shuddered out the horny Harper.

Trance/Nixic then moved closer to his body and wrapped one of her legs around one of his shaking legs. She then started to lightly blow on the non-injured side of his neck. "The prize is that you get to live out your fantasy. Beka on bottom, me on top and you," she paused as she slowly licked the back of his neck. "and you in the middle."

Harper shuddered and his heart rate went through the roof. His Super-Ego was desperately trying to beat down his raging Id with a nice phallic shaped club. No, no, no. Bad evil aliens, must resist, he thought. He regretfully pushed the lustful girls away from him. His Id slumped down and started crying.

"I-I-I'm sorry ladies, but the Harper body is off limits. You know, training and all, gotta keep the mind clear." He slowly started to back away from the curvy, seductive, attractive women. As he quicken his backward retreat, both females kept pace with him.

"OH! HI DYLAN!!" Harper yelled out as he pointed over the girls' shoulders. Both of the aliens turned their attention away from Harper to look for the larger man.

"Suckers," whispered Harper as he turned and fled down the corridor. By the time Trance and Beka turned back to face Harper, all they saw was an empty corridor.

"Damn," they both cursed under their breaths. But deep, deep inside Beka and Trance's mind, Harper's true friends were cheering.