~~Harper
3.0~~
Harper stood on the observation deck,
staring out of the windows. He sighed to himself. He had been there for a
while, just watching the stars and planets fly by slowly as the Andromeda
sailed past them at a normal speed. Harper leaned against the railing, and
watched a nearby planet with mere curiosity. It was small, with a noticeable
ocean or two, and lots of land. 'Just like home…' He thought to himself
as he watched the northern hemisphere of the planet suddenly envelop itself in
a large mass of clouds. 'Almost…'
"Thinking about something?" A soft
gentle voice from behind him made him jump up, and look back at Trance's
smiling face. He smiled weakly at Trance, and turned back to staring out at the
universe. The planet was no longer big enough to watch. It was a small speck of
light far away in the distance.
"Yeah, you could say that." Harper
glanced beside him, where Trance had taken the spot next to him, and was also
staring out at the stars.
"The universe is a beautiful place."
She commented, watching a star go by slowly.
"It's not as beautiful as it lets up
to be. It gets pretty ugly sometimes." Harper said with disgust in his voice.
"Of course. Everything which exists
has a purpose. To serve either Good or Evil." Trance went on, talking in her
mysterious 'everything means something' mood.
"Whatever." Harper said with a frown
on his face. He leaned even further towards the glass separating them from the
unbelievably thin air of the universe.
"Harper," Trance started off with a
hint of uncertainty in her delicate voice. She looked at him for a moment. "Is
the Realm of Ages what's been distracting you lately?" She frowned sadly when
he didn't answer at first.
"Well, yes and no. That thing gives me
the creeps. And it just sits there, like it's waiting for something." He turned
around, and stared at the small, mini universe floating in the air behind them.
He gestured to it as Trance turned around, and he continued. "It's like a time
bomb, waiting to go off. I don't feel right being here around that - that
thing."
"Or not. It depends on which way you
look at it." Trance mused with a delicate smile forming on her lips.
"I don't see the difference anymore."
Harper turned back around, and leaned forward on the railing.
"I think you do. There are always
different ways to look at something. Different views on different subjects. It
all depends on how you see everything." Trance said in her small but
determined voice.
Harper didn't answer, instead, he
stared out to the stars again. Even though he always saw different planets and
different stars, they all looked the same. The same…
"Well, why would you come here to look out
at the stars if there was something here that scared you so much?" Trance
watched as Harper turned his head and found herself staring deep into his eyes.
"Good point. I don't like it much
here, anyway." He took a step back from the railing, and broke eye contact with
Trance. He smiled weakly at her as he left the obs deck. Trance stared at the
Realm of Ages for a moment, then smiled warmly.
She turned suddenly to look out at the
universe. As she looked, a few stars burned a little bit brighter, and one
faded in and out, almost winking at her. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she
watched them out of what seemed like pure fascination. But is there something more to her fascination?
***********************************************************************
"Mr. Harper, are you done repairing
the slipstream drive yet?" Was Harper's greeting as he walked onto Command.
Harper groaned, and scratched the side of his face.
"Well, yes and no." Harper looked up
at Captain Dylan Hunt a little guiltily.
"What do you mean? You either fixed it
or you didn't, Harper." Beka Valentine turned to look at Harper, and raised her
eyebrows "Come on, spill."
"Okay, okay. It's fixed." Both Dylan
and Beka nodded, but then Harper continued. "But it won't stay that way for too
much longer. If we don't get a few new parts soon, the whole slipstream drive
is going to burn out. Literally. I mean, we shouldn't use it, it could never
handle more than a few jumps into Slipstream."
"Oh." Dylan looked away, and blinked a
few times. "Then we'll have to take those few jumps into slipstream to find the
closest planet with actual merchandise." At the confused look on both
Beka and Harper's faces, Dylan spoke again. "You know, not the stolen
stuff."
Harper shrugged, and Beka looked around.
"You know, that 'stolen stuff' isn't all bad. We used to - " At the look on
Dylan's face, she stopped talking, raised her eyebrows, and walked away.
"Yeah." Was all she said as she left the Command Deck. Dylan stayed where he
was for a few moments before turning to look at the view screen. Harper sat
down on the floor with a box in his hands. He put it down on his lap. When he
looked back up, Dylan had one eyebrow raised as he glanced back at him.
"What?" Harper asked as he frowned,
and went back to looking at the small metallic box. Dylan shrugged, and turned
back around. He rolled his eyes as he shook his head, something no one normally
expected a Captain of a ship to do. And a captain of a war ship no less.
Harper ran his fingers down the smooth
surface of the metallic object in his hands, and sighed. It had been a gift
from a friend. 'Just a friend. Nothing more. Never anything more.
Just a friend.' Harper thought to himself, and he hung his head with
sadness.
"Harper?" Dylan stood, staring down at
Harper. "Harper!?" He tried for the second time. When he received no response,
he crouched down in front of Harper, and shook the boy's shoulders.
"Huh?" Harper looked up, a blank
expression on his face. "What is it, el capitano?"
The captain shook his head in
disbelief, sighed, and stood up.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" He
asked hesitantly, not sure of what Harper would say or do next.
"Wha- um, oh, yeah." Harper jumped to
his feet, saluted Dylan carelessly with his free hand, and looked at him with a
serious expression on his face.
"Alright then. Go on, I'm not keeping
you, am I?" Dylan asked, and he raised his eyebrows.
"Oh, heh, nope." Harper turned on his
heel, and left the Command deck, deep in thought. He wandered the corridors of
the Andromeda aimlessly. No thought as to why he was doing it or where he was going
ever crossed his mind.
He finally found his way to his quarters, and fell face first onto his bed. He rolled over, a wary expression on his face. He fell asleep in that same uncomfortable yet comfortable position, the metallic box still in his grasp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harper groaned as he woke up, and
opened his eyes. "What the hell…?" He mumbled into the hard metal ground of a
familiar place. Full of curiosity, he sat up and looked around. "Where-" He
stopped in mid sentence when he noticed that he knew exactly where he was. He
was on board the Eureka Maru.
"There you are, Harper! What are you doing
on the ground, silly? Beds are meant to be slept on. Grounds aren't!" Exclaimed a soft, sweet
voice from just behind himself. He jumped up to his feet, and swung around
until his face was barely a few inches away from someone quite familiar.
Trance. Only, not future Trance, past Trance. He remembered quite clearly the
day that Trance switched places with her future self. The day that he lost his
Trance.
"Trance…" He breathed, a surprised
look on his face. He inhaled her sweet fragrance, and felt a feeling of
complete bliss wash over all his senses and thoughts.
"Is there something wrong, Harper?"
Trance cocked her head to the side, and smiled playfully. Her trail broke him
out of his 'trance'-like state when it found its way around her hips, and in
front of his face.
"No. No, nothing's wrong Trance." He
forced a smile, and looked away from the purple beauty standing before him.
"Are you sure?" Harper nodded, and
Trance smiled. "Okay. Well, I should probably go." She turned to leave, but
suddenly turned back around as if she suddenly remembered something "Bek' needs
you to work on the navigating "
"Wait! Don't go." Seamus grabbed her wrist
and pulled her forwards before she could react, and pressed his lips against
hers. Their lips remained locked for several moments as Trance was completely
shocked that she hadn't seen it coming, and because Harper was caught up in the
moment. He felt as though he were on cloud nine, and felt a floating feeling in
his stomach.
Suddenly Trance placed her hand on his
chest, and pushed him away a little reluctantly. Here eyes were the first
things that Harper noticed when he looked back at her. They weren't full of
anger or confusion. Instead, they were full of sadness and guilt.
"I'm sorry, Harper. But… I think it's
best if we… if we just stay friends. We have built such a beautiful
relationship, and it's still blossoming. It would be awful to ruin that now,
right? I'm really sorry, I really am. Please don't let this little incident
effect the way we act around each other, okay?" Trance bit her lip, and Harper
nodded, no really hearing her words. "You'll understand one day, Harper. But by
then, you'll have someone else to love and cherish just like that." She smiled
sadly, and held her arms behind her back for a moment before she pulled them
back to her front. Trance held out her little violet hands, and pushed them
towards Harper, who looked at them quizzically. She pulled away one of her
hands, revealing a tiny metallic box covered in intricate designs.
"What-"
"Take it." Trance pushed it into his
hands, a delicate smile playing across her features. "I give this to you so
that you can understand. I do love you Harper; like a brother, like a friend. I
care for you, like I would care for any one of my friends… But, Harper-"
"I understand." Seamus said softly
with a blank expression on his face.
"Good. Thank you!" Trance threw her
arms around his neck, then pulled back, a grin on her face. "Bye!" She waved to
him before she ran out of their quarters, and down the corridor, leaving a
broken-hearted Harper behind.
"Why…?" He cried out, tears clouding
his vision, and going blind with rage. "Why…" A single tear found its way out
of his eye, and down the left side of his cheek. He stared down at the tiny box
in his hands, and ran his free hand over his lips, deep in thought. "Why…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Because I wouldn't want to hurt you…"
Trance murmured softly as she watched her Harper sleeping, safe in his own bed.
A few of her own tears slid down her cheeks, landed on his cheek, and mingled
with his tears. She whispered softly as she wiped away a few of Harper's tears.
"Because I love you."
************************************************************************
Yay! My first Andromeda fic that I've ever posted! ^_^ I felt the need to post
this one up and see how many of you enjoyed it! And I needed a little break
from the other stories I've been writing.
Oh yeah!!! TO ALL REVIEWERS/READERS:
Please! I need your help with this! I really want fanfiction.net to add a new
category under 'TV SHOWS'!!! And I won't be able to get them to do so unless
you help me out! If you'd like to help me out with this, then please e-mail
ff.net at:
newcategory@fanfiction.net with
this information: '(please describe the category, which area it falls under,
and whether you have stories written for it)'
The category is: Starhunter
The shows is about a crew of bounty hunters and engineers who hunt down and
capture criminals from all the known worlds and some. As well as bounty
hunting, a girl named Percy Montana, an engineer on board the 'Tulip
(Trans-Utopian),' is searching for a way to get into 'Hyper Space,' and rescue
her uncle, Dante Montana.
The characters are:
Percy Montana (engineer, own of Tulip)
Marcus Fegan (engineer)
Travis Montana (captain, Dante Montana's son, Bounty hunter)
Callista 'Callie' Larkadia (bounty hunter)
Rudolpho Deluna (owner of Tulip, bounty hunter, Dante's friend)
Carravaggio (the ship's A.I.)
from season 1:
Lucretia (bounty hunter)
Dante
Montana (bounty hunter, owner of tulip)
And I do have a story written for it!!! So I hope they add the category
ssoooonn! With your help, they just might! ^___^
XD
Thanks! Please R&R!