Having reread chapter 1 of Volume 2, I realized how bad it was, at least in comparison to how good I had wanted it to be. So, since I cannot change chapter 1, I have decided to try and make up for it with chapter 2. Enjoy.
*On a further note, in chapter one, the ages said 16-17, and I wrote that part when I had meant to make it much, much longer. Then I forgot to go back and change it, so you might as well disregard it, although he is sixteen in the end of that chapter, as he is in the beginning of this one. Sorry about that.

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters that are from Andromeda, and I am not making a profit from writing this.

Pronunciation: The Irish names, meanings, spellings, and pronunciations are all correct, as far as I know.
Bronagh (Bro-nah)
Kaleigh (Kay-lee)
Eoin (Owe-in)
Declan (Deck-lawn)
Siobhan (Shiv-an)

Volume 2: Chapter 2
Fading Hope
Age:16-17

The darkness enveloped him like a smothering blanket. The night air was cold, the smell of decay and filth were fresh in the air. Seamus wrapped the blanket around his body tightly, watching the ground as he walked and tried to stifle his coughs. Eoin hadn't wanted him to go, not after he'd spent an entire day working on other ships, but Seamus couldn't pass up the chance to earn some money. That is, if he could trust that woman, Beka, which he doubted he could. Still, he had to take his chances.

Brendan had disappeared again, said he had work to do and that he would return later that night. Grimacing, Seamus wondered what he had meant by 'work'. Probably the same thing Cal made him do, delivering items for the black market.

Lights shown in the darkness, the dock lay up ahead. Quickening his pace, Seamus then froze when he heard footsteps behind him. Wishing he had thought to bring a weapon, he slid a heavy metal tool from his belt and gripped it in his hand, then kept walking as the footsteps became silent. The docks were closed at night; at least, they were for people like him. However he still knew some ways to get in without being noticed, and he planned to use them.

The gates to the docks had just come into view when he felt a hard hand grab his shoulder. Spinning, Seamus knocked the arm off of him with a heavy blow from the tool-a small welder-and jumped away. His blood ran cold at the sight of four young male Nietzscheans stepping into the dim glow of light and smiling. They were probably younger than he was, but they were much taller-with much bigger muscles.

"What would a scrawny kludge such as yourself be doing after curfew?" The one who had grabbed his shoulder spit out. The other three circled around him, and Seamus nervously shifted his stance.

"I'm working," Were the first words that came out of his mouth. "Shouldn't little kids like you be in bed right now? I imagine your parents are worried," He listened to the words with horror, which doubled when he realized that he had said them. Snarling, the one who had first talked grabbed onto his throat, tightly, lifting his wiry body off the ground, then slammed him down onto his back, knocking the breath out of him.

"And where are your parents, human? Didn't they teach you to respect your betters?" With a cry at the mention of his parents-how dare they talk about them?-Seamus managed to kick the one in front of him in the stomach before the others pinned him to the ground. The leader of the little group recovered from the blow and smiled maliciously.

"I think we shall have to teach the little kludge a lesson, my brothers. Shall we show him the many uses of our blades?" The others laughed, and Seamus struggled harder against their grips. He was pressed down harder, and he could no longer see what the one who had spoken was doing. Suddenly he felt a sharp, searing pain in his leg, then another in his opposite arm. He tried to cry out, but one of them wrapped an arm around his face and kept him from making a sound-or breathing, for that matter. Just when he thought he was going to die, either from having his throat slit or by suffocation, there was a heavy blow to his head, and he fell limp.

When he regained consciousness, it was still dark. Groaning, he sat up, and then quickly lay back down. Blood ran from the side of his head down his face and it dripped down his right arm and his left leg. His whole body ached and he cursed himself for the idiot that he was, although he remembered to curse the Nietzscheans as well, and for good measure he threw in Cal. Finally, he decided that he couldn't lie down forever and after a few minutes of struggling-his left leg wouldn't support any weight- he managed to stand. Now, should he return to Cal's and have Eoin fix him up, or should he keep going and work on the Maru?

With a sigh, he turned and continued walking, or rather, hobbling, to the dock. Using an entrance he'd been shown years ago, he slipped inside and quietly made his way to the ship whose owner would hopefully still let him work for extra money as she had said she would.

"Captain Beka," He called softly, knocking again on the entrance door to the Maru. He paused to cough, thinking how nice it was of the Uber brats to give him a few flesh wounds on top of the cold he already had. At last, the door opened and Seamus looked up to explain, and stopped when he found himself staring up at a man. A tall man, with dark hair and who was staring at him with a strange look on his face.

"'Scuse me, is Captain Beka around?" He asked quietly, wondering if this man was the "Bobby" she had spoken of the day before.

"Who the hell are you?" Was the gruff reply. The man crossed his arms and stared down at Seamus. Feeling much too tired to be dealing with this of all things, Seamus replied angrily, although he didn't have enough strength to make his words very shocking.

"Who in hell is right; cause guess where you are? In hell," He turned to leave, the man casting a puzzled look behind him when he heard a voice ask,

"What's going on Bobby?" Beka's clear and commanding, though also tired sounding, voice cut into the night. Seamus kept walking, berating himself for coming back in the first place. He heard the man, Bobby, reply in a tone of confusion,

"Some kid was knocking on the door, and then asked for a 'Captain Beka'," The man laughed but was silenced quickly, perhaps by one of the glares Seamus had experienced himself the day before.

"Hey, wait a minute, Seamus-"Beka called after him, recognizing the blonde youth. Seamus turned around, interrupting her to say,

"It's Harper," When she said his name it made him feel like a child; he didn't like feeling that way, especially since most people had trouble taking him seriously as an engineer in the first place.

"Harper then...what are you doing here so late at night? I thought you wouldn't be back until morning," Still not turning around, Seamus shrugged his uninjured shoulder.

"Cal thinks I'm finished here and he's got other clients for me to work on, so I figured I'd fix your ship at night, if that's ok with you," Bobby was asking Beka what this was all about, but she hushed him and finally he went back inside. Then Beka walked down to where Seamus was.

"It's not polite to turn your back to people when you're talking to them," She was actually joking, mostly, since she'd never been one for formalities and etiquette, but she still preferred to be able to see the face of someone she was talking to. "And when did you plan on sleeping?" She asked out of curiosity.

"I don't need more than a few hours of sleep, and I can get by with none at all," As he answered, he turned around, still staring at the ground, wondering if there was as much blood as he thought there was. When she didn't say anything, he at last looked up. She was biting her lip and staring down at him.

"Come on; get inside before the guards see you. I don't think you're supposed to be out here, are you?" Slowly, Seamus shook his head, then followed her as she walked into the Maru. "I'll be right back," She explained, then went to find Bobby, adding as she walked down the hall, "Don't steal anything; I'll know it's you," For a few minutes, Seamus stood there; then he remembered where the engineering room was and he made his way down there, admiring the inside of the ship as he did.

In one way, it reminded him of the Nietzschean science lab, but perhaps that was merely the strange smelling air. He liked the ship better though, there was a cozy feeling. You could tell that people lived here. Thinking of the lab made him think of Kylie, so he turned his attention elsewhere. Reaching the engineering room, he took out one of the rags looped through his tool belt, wiped off the blood so it wouldn't get on anything, and began working. It surprised him that the ship could even fly, it was almost literally falling apart, and he felt a strange desire to make her the best she could be, for the ship's sake and not just for the money.

"Oh no, you are not getting blood on my ship, are you?" Seamus had to almost literally tear himself away from the part he was fixing to focus on her words. When he did, he scowled, since the pain returned and his body felt stiff. When he was working it was so easy to slip in a state of unawareness to the rest of the world. He had been working on his back to get to the lower control panel, and he felt Beka pull him roughly to his feet.

"Hey-"He protested, and then she pushed a small plastic bottle and a white cloth into his hand.

"Here, at least stop the bleeding before you work! Maybe you should wait until you're healed," Eyeing him skeptically, as though she wasn't sure he would ever heal all that was wrong with him, Seamus stared at the bottle of liquid. Sniffing it, he looked up at her in surprise. Why would alcohol stop the bleeding, and what did she expect him to do with such a clean, white piece of cloth? It was much too small to use for anything.

"Uh, thanks, I'm fine," He mumbled. They stood there awkwardly for a few more moments, then Beka finally turned around and left, telling him he could get to work. Not sure what to do with the things she had given him, he stuffed them in his pockets and returned to the panel he'd been working on.

Almost an hour later, Beka returned quietly. Seamus noticed, but didn't say anything. Apparently she became bored with just watching him work and took out a flexi-he'd seen Nietzscheans using them in the dock stations-and began to read. What she was reading, Seamus didn't know, but occasionally she would laugh. Finally, having finished with one job he asked her what was so funny. Glancing up at him in surprise, she tried to explain the plot. When he understood the humor, Seamus grinned too. Finding that talking didn't distract him, sometimes Beka would pause her reading and either tell him what was going on in the story, or ask him questions. Her questions usually weren't very personal, but curiously she inquired,

"Where did you learn so much about ships?" Seamus thought it an odd question. Where did anyone learn about ships? "I mean, who taught you how they worked or how to fix them?" No, of course they hadn't. Seamus was confused, and finally shrugged, replying

"I don't know, I guess I just figured it out. I mean, it's not that hard," Beka gave him a look of disbelief and shook her head, but didn't ask anything else.

Weeks passed, and Seamus kept the same routine. His wounds healed fairly quickly, but his cold lingered and worsened. Since the magog attacks had increased, though thankfully not on the camp itself, food was scarce. With almost no food and little sleep, Seamus wasn't doing much to help his body fight off the cold. Eoin and Brendan both told him to take it easy, but he couldn't. Even Brendan had to admit that if Seamus stopped working on the Maru, they wouldn't be able to buy enough food for all of them to live on, since prices had skyrocketed. Cal wouldn't give him the day off, but told him to not cough so much when he was working. Customers were starting to notice and complain. So he muddled on, finding that sleep was a fair trade for enjoying the night. He spent the first half of each night at the Maru, working on it and chatting with Beka. It seemed she and her boyfriend weren't as peachy as they used to be, and she liked having extra company. He would never be so stupid as to trust her of course, but he did think she was one of the nicest clients he'd worked for, not to mention one of the prettiest. When he finally returned to Cal's shop, usually because Beka threw him out, complaining about the time, he returned to his room upstairs, where Eoin and Brendan waited for him.

One night, after a fit of coughing while working at the Maru, Beka frowned and walked over to him.

"Are you sick or something?" She asked gruffly, trying not to sound too concerned, which he appreciated.

"Nah, this is just how us earthers breathe, haven't you noticed?" He grinned and laughed, which turned into a hacking cough, then went back to working, ignoring her quiet reply of,

"Yes, I have," Not liking the tense silence that followed, Seamus shifted and asked louder,

"So why are you staying here so long anyway? I mean, most people who come here aren't sane in the first place, but if they are, they leave as soon as they can. Isn't your slipstream drive working?" Silence followed, as Beka wondered what to tell him and Seamus almost took back the question as a joke.

"Yeah, it is actually. In fact, the slipstream was only part of the reason we ended up here...we're doing some deliveries for the Nietzscheans," She finally replied. His slow nod, as though she had just proved something he had thought all along, made her feel guilty and ashamed. She didn't like feeling that way, and it made her mad. "It's not like we're really helping them, but I really need the money, and they pay well," Still, Seamus didn't say anything, he merely continued working. Annoyed that he seemed to be angry at her, or worse, judging her, she said angrily, "I don't like Nietzscheans anymore than the next normal human, but haven't you ever done something you didn't want to do?" Standing up, Seamus wiped his greasy hands on his pants, eyes downcast.

"Well, looks like I'm about done for the night. See ya tomorrow," With a curt nod, he walked out. Beka was stunned. He had never left of his own free will before. Was he that mad just because she was working for Nietzscheans? You'd think he'd be a little more grateful, she thought. A smaller voice in her mind sneered at her though; Grateful that someone on the side of the Nietzscheans decided to be so gracious as to spend a little of their oppressor's money on their hard labor? Ignoring both of these thoughts, she turned the lights off in the engine room and shut the door behind her.

After that, Seamus didn't come as often, sometimes staying home for a night. He explained that he needed his sleep, tired of having the cold for over two months. She'd accepted it of course, what else could she do? When he did come, he didn't talk as much though. Some nights he seemed to forget their earlier discussion and be his normal, joking self. Most nights, it felt like brick wall had been built in the engineering room, right in between the two. Beka told herself she didn't care. After all, she'd be leaving soon, and he was just a stupid mudfoot. But with her and Bobby fighting more and more often and there being few friendly faces on Earth, she felt lonely. It was a feeling she was all too used to, and one she despised.

"So what does this space babe look like exactly that she has you returning to her ship all the time?" Brendan teased. Eoin, Brendan, and Seamus were in the room above the workshop, sharing dinner: moldy bread and a bottle of homemade beer.

"I told you, she's old and ugly," Seamus replied calmly. Eoin laughed at his remark.

"She sure must have aged fast then. If I recall, when you first met her, you called her...what was it again Brendan?" Smiling, he looked over to his other nephew, ignoring Seamus' red face.

"I believe the word he used was an 'angel'," Brendan said. The two laughed, and Seamus said quietly, grimacing,

"Yeah, she's a real angel, no wonder the Nietzscheans like her," Brendan and Eoin fell silent, sensing from his tone that he didn't want to talk about it. "Besides, she's leaving in a week anyway,"

"Is she coming back?"

"I dunno...she said not for another year, probably, if she ever does."

"Why would she want to?" Brendan asked, tearing off a piece of the bread and eating it slowly.

"Said something 'bout a contract renewal, I dunno," The three fell silent, until Eoin changed the subject.
)***(

Two more months passed by. Seamus observed his seventeenth birthday by having Eoin and Brendan take him 'out' to celebrate. It was a fun night, in comparison to most, and Seamus enjoyed the fact that it was his first birthday since he turned 9 that he spent among family. His sixteenth had gone undistinguished, as he'd been in the lab, with Kylie, and hadn't been able to keep track of the days.

"I don't miss her, I'm getting more sleep now. I just wished I still had money," Seamus told himself every day. Whether it was Beka or the Maru that he missed, his mind never made clear, but it was true that he did need the money he'd been making. Food was nowhere to be found, and all three of them were thinner than every. Eoin would sometimes tell them stories about their family, to distract them, despite the fact that their ages were 20 and 17, respectively.

"Now then, as you know, my parents-your grandparents-came over here from Ireland just after little Bronagh was able to walk. Both of your fathers were on the ship that we took, that's how Kaleigh met Brian and Bronagh met Zelazny." Brendan was always quiet when Brian Lahey, his father, was mentioned. He had never known him, since he had died when Brendan was barely three. "I didn't meet Cassie until we had moved. Of course, we knew the Nietzscheans had taken over, but in Ireland they hadn't been too strict, spending most of their energy on Britain and the rest of Europe. 'Sides, us Irish have always been fighting for our independence, them Ubers had a hard time trying to control us," Brendan and Seamus exchanged glances and small smiles. They're parents had always been proud of the fact that they were Irish, although in that time of interstellar travel, people of one planet were generally grouped together.

Eoin usually liked to stop the story there, saying that was where most of the happiness ended, excepting the births of his nephews and children, of course.

It was only a week later that Seamus awoke to screaming. Screaming and noise so loud it hurt his ears. Confused, he glanced over at his uncle, only to find his bed empty. Brendan was gone as well. Worried now, Seamus scrambled to his feet, pulling on a shirt and running down the stairs.

"Cal! What's going on?" He called out, but there was no answer. The screaming and shouting continued. He pushed open the door, looked out. Reflexively he slammed the door shut again, the blood drained from his face. Gasping for breath, he stumbled over a chair in the room.

"Oh God," He said softly, his voice hoarse.

End of Chapter 2
Volume 2

Was it a cliffhanger? Are you curious to find out what happens next? Well, guess what, so am I! No, I do have some vague idea of what is going on. Anyway, I certainly hope this chapter made up for the last one. It was so terrible-I think I'm going to have nightmares for weeks over how bad it was. I blame the withdrawal—from Andromeda that is! ( Ok, well if you get a chance, let me know what you think of this chapter. And thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed chapter 1, horrid though it was, and special thanks to everyone's who's been reading this since the beginning. I must say this is the first fanfic I've actually enjoyed writing! (By the way, I originally had intended to make this chapter much, much longer. You may thank my sister/writing adviser for the change to a cliffhanger.)
-Luna Sealeaf

**P.S.** This is just to note that the next chapter will be rated R. I hope that doesn't conflict with anyone's ability or desire to read it.