Chapter 4

The long empty corridor stared back at the two women with spiteful glee. Trance/Nixic was the first to break the silence. "What now Velac?"

Beka's eyes gleamed with the hope of vengeance. "We get him and we have some fun with him. Then we hand him over to our allies so they can have some fun with him."

"Where do you think he was heading too?" asked the imposter within Trance.

Both ladies paused while they searched their host's memory and knowledge. They then exchanged knowing glances and chimed out in unison.

"Slipstream core."

Beka voice could then be heard alone, still full of confidence and intensity. "You head off to the core and wait for him. I'll head back up to command and take over piloting. I think with Beka's skills we might shorten our trip. I'll send Fex and Stolic down to the core to help you, um, contain our problem child." She said with a evil wink and an even eviler smile.

"Ok," replied Trance/Nixic as she started to head off towards the Slipstream core. She only got a few steps before she heard Beka's voice adding some last minute instructions.

"Just remember, we need him alive, so don't have too much fun." She paused. "And if you guys could, please leave me a little bit to play with too. Okay?"

A classic bad guy laugh escaped Trance's throat. "Whatever you say Velac." The golden alien then sprinted down the corridor while the Maru's captain could be heard sprinting in the opposite direction. Both had a chilling grin plastered on their faces'.

*********

Harper was still slowly making his way towards the Slipstream core. The going was slow partly because he was taking the safe long backwards route to the core. He was trying to avoid any more run-in's with the "new" freaky crew. But the main reason the going was slow was because of the pain that raced through his tortured body. His back hurt from his collision with the girls, his head hurt from hitting it on the ceiling of the conduit, but mostly, his port was the problem. The small sliver disk was coated in deep rich blood that ran down his neck and onto his bright orange shirt causing it turn a lovely shade of puke reddish orange. With each new heartbeat came a new wave of nausea and dizziness. The skin around the disk was swollen and burning. Just turning his neck caused new levels of pain to course through his body. And due to his wonderful immune system, his port was already becoming infected and was started to cause a rise in his body temperature. "I love my life," he muttered out.

Harper continued to push onwards towards his destination. He had to get the core to shut down the engines. He still didn't know what he would do after that, but he knew that was Step One. Step Twos are highly overrated anyways he thought.

As he neared the core, he felt some stress and worry lift off of his shoulders. He had made it there safely with no more encounters with the body snatchers. He knew for a fact that he would not be able to withstand another run-in with Mistresses Beka and Trance.

Harper walked up to the door control panel and punched in the sequence to open them. The heavy metal door slid open with just a whoosh. Harper made his way into his second home. He always felt safe here. The roar of the engine and the soft vibrations that could be felt through the grated floor made him feel like he was in some sort of womb. Safe and protected from the wicked, cruel outside world. He made his way over to the main engine controls and was about to initiate Step One of his one step plan.

"Whatcha doing Harper?" A voice bellowed out over the hum of the engines.

The tired engineer jumped as his heart began to imitate that of a humming bird's heart. His spiky hair even managed to stand up straighter on end. He knew who the voice belonged to and this knowledge scared him even more. If it was Dylan, Beka, or even Tyr, he would at least have had a slight idea of what they were capable of, both mentally and physically. But this voice belonged to the new scarier gold Trance. Under normal circumstances, he still didn't trust her, but under these circumstances, he was scared shitless of her.

He spun around to face his fear. She stepped out from the shadows of the machines she was hiding behind. She looked different.....scary different.......bad different.

"Trance! Nice to see you here," Harper managed to get out past the lump in his throat. He had no idea how to play this.

Trance walked towards him while keeping her eyes glued on his trembling form. "Nice to see you too Harper." The way she said his name sent shivers up his painful spine. "I'm quite hurt you didn't want to play with Beka and I."

Harper was slowly backing up towards the safety of the closed doors. "Look, I know you're not Trance so you can stop playing this game," he said sounding as confident and as authoritative as possible.

"But I like this game," Trance's voice responded. "It's fun." Trance was matching Harper's retreat step by step.

Harper had made his way to the doors. With his hand behind his back, he felt the wonderful cool smooth surface of the door controls. He silently keyed in the code while keeping an eye on the imposter. "Well, sorry to ruin your fun, but I gotta be going now, bye!" Harper spat out as he turned to run out the newly open doors. But again, he didn't get far as he ran smack into the hard chests of Tyr and Dylan. "Crap," he muttered.

"Just where do you think your going little man?" questioned Stolic as he impersonated Tyr while staring down at the petrified engineer.

Before Harper could even compose himself to answer, Tyr and Dylan's powerful arms were pushing him back into the Slipstream core room. They kept advancing until Harper backed up into Trance's solid form. Harper was then in a situation he never thought possible. He was surrounded by his friend, but dread was racing through his mind and body.

"Heh-heh, guys, come on, work with me here. How 'bout we just take you back home? Huh? How does that sound? You don't want theses bodies. They're crappy bodies. I mean it. Look at Dylan, he's old. I think I even saw some gray hairs the other week, and look at those bags under his eyes, you don't....um....want......that......?" He slowed down as his three friends closed in on him. Their eyes were filled with such rage and disgust that it was a wonder the stares alone didn't kill Harper. "No, huh?" he whispered before the new round of anguish began.

At first, Harper did try to fight back, but he had to do so without harming his friends' bodies. When at first Trance grasped his upper arms, he used her as support as he jumped up, pushing Dylan and Tyr away with his feet. As he did this, he felt Trance's hands tightening on his arms. Her grip continued to tighten until he could feel his left humerus begin to crumble under her amazingly powerful grasp. He let out a heart wrenching scream of pain as the bone was torn apart under the pressure. At that point it was all over. Tyr and Dylan started to pummel Harper's chest and stomach until they were almost sure all of his ribs were broken. Then they moved onto his face, giving him two black eyes, a bloody nose and a very nice slit lip. As an added bonus, they threw in some random bruises to help fill-in his battered face. Once they got bored with his face, they moved back to his mid-section to re-hash the previous damage.

With each new punch came a new gasp of pain or plead for help from his friends. Harper knew they were in their bodies somewhere and he needed their help. In fact, his friends were right there with him, fighting their own battles inside themselves.

The real Dylan was close to tears (that is if he had control over his tear ducts). All he wanted was to stop hitting his poor engineer, to stop hurting him, but he couldn't do a thing. Hell, he couldn't' even stop watching. Even closing his eyes would be bliss right now. But no, he had to see each blow HIS fists laid into Harper's bloodied face. He had to see each grimace of pain that followed every time one of HIS punches landed on one of Harper's battered and broken ribs. And he had to hear every cry of agony and every plead that left Harper's bleeding lips, as he, Dylan Hunt, commander and friend, beat him into unconsciousness.

The same battle was raging within the Nietzschean's mind. As much as he hated to admit it, he did care for the little mudfoot. With every kick that he felt his foot landing and with every rib that he felt breaking under his own clasped hand, a primal scream would escape Tyr's non-corporeal lips. What made it worse was that Tyr could feel the joy that was coming from his host, as could the others. They were linked. Stolic could feel Tyr's pain, but could block it out. Tyr, unfortunately, could not do the same. He felt joy as he broke Harper's nose and he felt all warm and tingling as he saw the boy loosing consciousness. Tyr wished for a second that he could join his friend in the blissful world of nothingness.

All the while, the real Trance was simply crying. She cried when she felt Harper's humerus crumble under her grip and she cried when Harper finally collapsed into her arms. She even cried as Tyr came over and picked the bloody, limp, unconscious form of her friend off the newly stained red floor. She cried the whole time, but not once did a single tear escape her eyes.

TBC