Parisindy ~ Harperchondriacs? lol.sounds fun! I'll have to check that site out sometime :)

Luna Sealeaf ~ I know it was kinda short, wasn't it? Hehehe...I'll try to make them longer when I can...

Littleredhead, X3, JC6, Simone, AKAJipster, Sparkyone, and Meg ~ Thanx so so much for the replies! I really appreciate them :)

Now...next chapter:

********

Sometime later, feeling began to return to Seamus Harper, and it didn't take long for him to wish it hadn't. His head was pounding, as if his brain wanted release from the confines of his skull, and his body felt tired and achy all over. He slowly opened his eyes on his dim surroundings, pushing himself up from the floor where he'd been lying.

"It's freakin' freezing in here," he muttered under his breath, which he was dismayed to realize, he could see as he exhaled. He began rubbing his hands together to try and generate some warmth. Cimmerii wasn't exactly the warmest of planets, if that's even where he still was, but it wasn't this cold. Harper hadn't exactly been dressed for winter, having only a light brown jacket over his t-shirt. The room he was in now felt about as warm as a meat locker, and it was also about as decorative as one. There were no windows, no furniture...four metallic walls, and a door with a very complicated locking mechanism next to it. Harper instinctively glanced down to see his tools were missing, which wasn't all that surprising given the circumstances in which he'd come to be here.

Rhade. What had happened to him? They were barely separated for ten minutes and he suddenly becomes the schizophrenic Neitzschean. Harper couldn't even begin to guess what was wrong, but he would very much have liked to know why he was dragged into it...if someone was after Rhade, they'd obviously gotten to him...why stick around for him too?

Shivering slightly, Harper started to walk around the room, heading first for the door. Never hurt to check, after all. But as he examined the electronic lock, which was roughly the size of his hand if he spread out his fingers, he knew there wasn't much chance of getting past it, and without his tools, he couldn't jack in either.

Pulling his jacket tighter around him, Harper moved away from the door, now just wanting to stay warm. He wondered how long he was going to be in here before someone realized he was awake. From what he could see, there were no cameras, and the walls were so smooth and flat he had no idea how he was getting his oxygen, but he had the impression that if he tried shouting or making noise of any kind, it would be a wasted effort.

After what felt like hours, but in reality was probably more like twenty minutes, Harper could no longer feel his fingers, and his hands wouldn't stop shaking no matter how hard he pushed them under his arms. His teeth had begun to chatter as well, and finally he gave up walking around.

Leaning against the nearest wall, Harper let himself slide to the floor as the temperature seemed to drop rapidly. He wrapped his arms around his legs, rocking back and forth and trying to calm the shudders now running through his body.

He wondered if Rhade...or whoever else might have put him here, intended to let him freeze to death...but then why take him in the first place?

Shoving his chin against his knees and trying to keep his mind focused, Harper could only wait, trembling from the now burning cold in the air, and hope that someone would come for him soon...

********

"So let me get this straight," Beka Valentine said testily, her day going from bad to horribly bad. "You heard a fight break out in a nearby alley, you went to check it out, soon there was gunfire everywhere, you took shelter in an abandoned building, you left Harper alone-"

"I went ahead to make sure the area was clear," Rhade interrupted stiffly.

"Yeah, okay," Beka waved the statement away, unimpressed. "You leave Harper alone, end up getting cut off from the passage you would have taken to get back to him by several of your so-called attackers, and when you finally lose them and make your way back, he's gone, and you find his gun on the floor."

"Yes," Rhade stated curtly, his anger over Beka's words mingling with the shame he felt over losing his crewmate. After looking through the former hotel and all of the surrounding area for Harper and coming up empty, he'd met up with the others at the Maru as planned, and let them know what had happened.

"Beka take it easy," Dylan said calmly. "We're not placing blame here, let's just concentrate on finding out where Harper is and who took him."

"Isn't it obvious?" Beka stated quickly, crossing her arms over her chest, indifferently. "That slimeball Roman Delacroix is behind this, I know it."

"We don't know that for certain..." Dylan began, ever the diplomat.

"Oh come on!" Beka argued. "He has us come to meet with him, to discuss that ridiculous debt, on a planet where he knows we're not gonna bring Rommie or Trance with us, leaving Rhade and Harper alone."

Dylan opened his mouth to interject, but Beka was caught up in her rant now, and pushed on with it, her eyes flashing.

"They're suddenly fired upon, and most of it, according to Rhade here, was aimed at him. But in the end he's alive and Harper's missing...don't you see? The gunfire wasn't meant to kill Rhade, it was meant to take Harper alive, and now someone has."

"Look, I'm not arguing with you," Dylan finally got his turn to speak. "In fact, I was thinking the same thing...but what doesn't make sen-"

"What doesn't make sense is, why?" Rhade cut in suddenly. "If it is Delacroix who's behind this, what would he need Harper for? Unless there's a specific reason...there are a great many engineers who would gladly work for someone like Roman Delacroix."

"Thank you," Dylan nodded, showing Rhade had guessed his point. "What would he need our engineer for?"

"Well who else could it be?" Beka asked softly, her anger seeming to grow. Dylan saw her fuse reaching its end.

"Beka we're on the same side here," he stated evenly. "I'm not disagreeing with you in that Roman Delacroix seems like the perfect suspect here...but we do need proof. We will find Harper, and believe me I intend on speaking with Mr. Delacroix the second we're back on the Andromeda..."

"Back on the...? Dylan we can't leave!" Beka exclaimed suddenly. "What if- "

"We'll be back, trust me. I have a feeling that our new friend is going to cooperate with us, whether he wants to or not."

"He'd better," Beka stated menacingly, hesitating for a moment, before finally moving to the pilot's chair, and beginning to power up the ship.

"Rommie," Dylan called out, fingering the communicator in his neck.

"Here Dylan," came the immediate reply.

"We're on our way back, but Harper is missing, and it doesn't appear to be by choice. I want you to try and locate him, see if his homing device is still active. If that doesn't work, try contacting him, I want to know if he's still on this planet."

"Affirmative."

"Let's just hope he's nearby," Dylan said quietly, holding loosely to the railing above the pilot's seat.

"If a ship had left Andromeda would have seen it," Beka stated confidently.

"I agree," Dylan smirked, "Just better to be sure..."

"Delacroix," Rhade spoke up curiously then. "Why do you believe he is going to help us? I'm assuming we don't owe him the money, as Captain Valentine hasn't killed anyone yet..."

"Hey!" Beka cried out with mock indignation and Rhade merely grinned down at her, as he stood beside Dylan

"No, we don't owe him anything," Dylan confirmed. "His story about Beka's father's debt seems to be completely fabricated. He couldn't produce one shred of proof to show anything worth that much had ever been stolen from him..."

"And believe me if my father ever had come across that much money," Beka interjected quickly, "I would've known...not to mention taken my fair share, repaid my debts and had a nice early retirement."

"He also couldn't give us any specific information on how it was stolen, nor was there anything to show an investigation was conducted at that time," Dylan added.

"So this was all a set-up, to get us here," Rhade stated.

"To get Harper here, at least," Beka spoke up, darkly.

"Don't think I haven't thought of that," Dylan replied calmly. "But it was quite an exorbitant amount of money he was asking for, and I wouldn't put it past anyone as deep into black market trade as Delacroix is to come up with a scheme as ridiculous as this one in hopes of a payoff."

"But how will this convince him to work with us?" Rhade asked, skeptically.

"Well if he wants to stay in business," Dylan began, beginning to smile, "I'd say it'd be a good idea for him to cooperate. Otherwise the Commonwealth might not go so easy on him. He tried to pull a scam...a very expensive scam, on one of my officers and while we were discussing matters, another member of my goes missing."

"So if he doesn't want word to get around that the Commonwealth is breathing down his neck...effectively stopping a good deal of his business..."

"Exactly," Dylan nodded. "His organization may look neat enough on paper, but if there were an investigation into his business dealings, it would reveal enough illegal activity to shut him down for good..."

"Not a bad idea," Beka spoke up brightly from her seat below them. "What d'ya say we do that anyway after we get Harper back?"

Dylan let out a small laugh and opened his mouth to reply, when Rommie's voice suddenly came through his communicator.

"Dylan?"

"Go ahead Rommie."

"I'm not able to establish a link with Harper's homing device, though it might be possible if I were closer. I've also attempted to contact him via his data port, but there was no response. Something is blocking the connection, though I am unable to determine the source of the disturbance."

"That is just great," Dylan muttered, frustrated. "Alright Rommie, we'll be there soon. I plan to speak with Delacroix about this when I arrive, so wait for us on the bridge. Dylan out."

"Nothing?" Beka asked as she heard him end the transmission, her voice showing she already knew the answer.

"This is just beginning Beka," Dylan assured her. He stepped back from the railing then, collecting his thoughts, but Rhade moved with him.

"Captain Hunt," he began in a hushed tone, his expression grim. "I wish to apologize for the situation...I should not have let this happen."

"I'm not blaming you Rhade..."

"I blame myself, captain. You had me there with Mr. Harper so he wouldn't be alone, but that's exactly how I left him."

"You were looking for a way out of a dangerous situation," Dylan argued, not wanting to waste time on this.

"I should have had him come with me."

"Telemachus," Dylan said, realizing the Neitzchean was not going to go easy on himself. "You did what you thought was best. If Harper had been with you, and the person who took him wanted him badly enough, you might have been injured, or worse. What I need from you now is your full attention towards helping us find Harper so we can get him back."

Rhade held the captain's gaze for a brief moment, before nodding curtly.

"Yes sir."

"Good," Dylan replied, returning the nod. He turned back towards the front, and saw the familiar sight of the Andromeda Ascendant, gleaming back at him. It was time to get to work.

********

How many hours had passed? Harper had no idea. He remained huddled tightly against one wall of this freezing prison, wishing for someone...anyone...to come for him. As the seconds continued to tick past, he had to keep convincing himself that whoever put him here wouldn't leave him, there had to be a reason that he was taken. But as he couldn't feel his feet inside his boots any longer, and any part of his skin that touched the air felt burnt from the scalding cold, it had become increasingly harder to keep from letting panic set in.

He wondered again what had happened to Rhade, why he'd been brought here, if Dylan and Beka were alright...for all he knew the whole crew could be here now, somewhere in this...place...

When at last he heard a noise near the door, Harper raised his head quickly, half of him filling with dread, while the other half felt only relief at the prospect of getting out of the cold. As he recognized the sound of a rather large lock sliding back from its place, he slowly pushed himself up, using the wall for support. His whole body was still shaking violently.

The door opened, sliding upwards, and two men who Harper didn't recognize entered the room.

"Wh-who are you?" the smaller man managed to utter through teeth that were clenched to hopefully prevent them from chattering. He eyed the men nervously. They were both much taller than he was, with dark blonde hair and gray eyes. Their facial features were just different enough that they weren't completely identical, but their build, frame, height, weight and just about everything else seemed to match perfectly to one another.

Without a word, the two advanced on the freezing engineer, who was too weak in his present state to put up much of a fight. Nevertheless he had no intentions of going easily; as they took hold of his arms he tried with all he had to wrench free, but it was about as effective as trying to fly by waving a feather in the air.

They had no trouble pulling him quickly into the hall, and Harper nearly found himself involuntarily relaxing in their grip, due to the much welcomed heat that engulfed him outside of his cell. Feeling began to return at once to his fingers and toes, which were tingling uncomfortably from the sudden temperature change. But as they forced him forward through the brightly lit passageway, he quickly resumed his struggle, doubting he would want to go wherever it was they were taking him.

They took several turns down so many identical silver hallways that Harper soon couldn't remember how many they'd been through, until finally they dragged him into another smooth-surfaced room. This one had a heavy table in the center of the floor, with two chairs on either side.

"Let me go!" Harper yelled, grunting with the effort of trying to break away from the grasp they had on him, but they moved forward, unfazed by his resistance, forcing him roughly into one of the chairs.

"What's going on?" Harper spat irately. "Why am I here?"

But no response was given, the two just continued to work in silence. While one of the men held Harper down in the seat, the other jerked the engineer's arms behind the chair, tying his wrists tightly, before they quickly stood and headed wordlessly for the exit.

"Hey wait!" Harper cried after them, but they paid no attention, and as they stepped out of sight, he heard a lock sliding into place. Once again, he was alone.

Still quite cold, as well as exhausted and scared, Harper immediately began twisting his arms, having little hope he would actually be able to loosen the bonds, and only ended up feeling as if they had tightened around his wrists. He sighed in frustration and anger, and lashed out with one leg, kicking the bottom of the table in front of him, before leaning his head against the high back of the chair and closing his eyes. He wanted this to end, why was he even here? It couldn't be Rhade who was truly behind this, if anything, Harper believed the Neitzchean was being used...controlled, somehow. Though how this had happened in the few short minutes they'd been separated in that abandoned hotel, the engineer couldn't say...

When he heard the lock on the door sliding open again just a few moments later, Harper tensed in his seat. At least he wouldn't be waiting long this time. Leaning forward as best he could against his restraints, Harper peered to his left, towards the entrance, and his eyes fell upon a very familiar form.

"Rhade," Harper began nervously, not exactly relieved at the sight of his crewmate. "What's going on? Why are we here?"

The larger man strode briskly across the room, coming to a stop less than five feet from Harper. There was no emotion in his eyes as he glared down at the engineer.

"Seamus Harper," he began, evenly. "You're here because my employer requested your presence...and you will obey him until you are no longer needed."

For a brief moment, Harper could only stare at him in undisguised confusion, before finding his voice.

"What are you talking about? Your employer? I thought we worked for the same guy...and what do you mean my presence was requested? What's happened to you Rhade? Who's doing-"

Harper stopped abruptly as a painful crack went through his jaw, by means of Rhade's backhand. He grimaced in pain as his head hit the back of the chair, before slowly raising his gaze to the Neitzschean again.

"You'll do what is asked of you, or you won't live to regret it," Rhade stated threateningly.

"You're not the first Neitzschean to say that to me, ya' know," Harper remarked, defiantly, before his expression became one of determination. "Rhade please, this can't be you...you just have to fight it...someone's controlling you, they must be..."

At this, the larger man's eyes seemed to gleam, and a smile broke out across his face.

"This can't be me? Oh but it is, I assure you, and I want what should already be mine. The Andromeda."

Harper narrowed his eyes, bewildered.

"You want the Andromeda...but...but you work on her...you...this doesn't make sense..." he trailed off, looking up to see the Neitzschean staring back at him in smug silence. "Who are you?" Harper asked.

Looking as though he'd been waiting for the question to be asked, the larger man stepped forward two paces, his humorless eyes leering down on the small engineer.

"My name is Gaheris Rhade. First officer and soon to be captain of the Andromeda Ascendant."