NOTES: I'm very sorry I've not updated in a while, but I've been having serious problems getting onto the site. While I've sent emails about the problem, I've not got any response yet, but have managed to get round the problem temporarily by using another computer. For your patience, here are a few chapters to keep you going. Enjoy!

CHAPTER TWELVE ~ Bliss Is Ignorance
"Why did I stop running?
Why run if what you're afraid of is in front of you?"
Sek-Tus-Nurel, Sequenitir of Avaengrove
CY 2899
^~*~^

Harper stood in the alley with no company but his thoughts until Lane's familiar voice came from nowhere. "Pay no attention to them, they're all talk," she said.

Harper wanted to believe her, but Thorne's words haunted him nonetheless. If the drug wasn't HX, what was it? And the fact that he and his gang had walked off laughing without killing him was a dead giveaway that something was amiss.

"Sorry I'm late, I ran into an unsatisfied customer," Daeg said, approaching from the right "which almost never happens, I'd like to add. Hey, you look spooked."

Harper had almost forgotten what he was doing in the alley. "Did you get them?" he asked.

"You're now suffering from Trisentian flu. You have my sympathies," Daeg replied, handing over a small disc. "Now there's just the small matter of - "

Harper didn't let him finish. He handed over the ten thousand thrones grudgingly. He had been saving for a new surf board for the next time they got back to Infinity Atoll, but he guessed that didn't really matter anymore.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Daeg grinned. Nothing like a few grand to put a spring in your step.

Harper grabbed Daeg by the collar and brought his face up close to his own. "Give my name to anyone and you're a dead man, you understand?" he threatened. Daeg was utterly convinced. Harper let him go and walked away without another word.

^~*~^

It was half seven in the morning and Harper had been busy not sleeping since he'd arrived back at the hotel. He found himself shivering, partly because he'd just been out in the freezing cold, but mainly because he hadn't had a fix for just about eight hours. The drugs weren't safe (not that they were exactly healthy before), but his plan to gradually come off the HX - or whatever it was - wasn't finished yet, and the first three syringes were all gone.

"Do you really think no-one will notice if you just stop taking it? They're idiots, but they're not blind. Just a little dose and they won't have to know anything's wrong," Lane said. She had been with him all night, taunting and trying to convince him to take another syringe. It was true, the others would notice the state he was in, but they might just put it down to the flu he supposedly had.

"Can you afford to take that chance?" Lane argued.

She was right, he couldn't. Trisentian flu was bad but it wasn't this bad. If the others saw him in this condition it would raise too many questions. Trance would want to research alternative medicines for him, or want to talk to the doctor, something that would expose his lies. He couldn't allow that to happen.

"It can't be that dangerous, you've already taken four, so what's another one?" Lane encouraged. "They'll be up soon, you'd better make up your mind."

^~*~^

It was morning once more and Dylan, Beka, Trance and Tyr were having breakfast. Tyr was ravenously hungry and had ordered around four breakfasts just for himself, much to the disgust of Beka, who was sitting opposite.

"I couldn't sleep last night, knowing the verdict could be announced today," Trance said.

"Please, I wouldn't be surprised if you already know what they're gonna say," Beka jested, though her joke had a certain truth to it.

Trance gave her usual 'I'm saying nothing' look.

"I'm sure the representatives will make the right decision," Dylan chimed in.

"Have you considered what will happen if they don't?" Tyr said, after finishing another mouthful of food.

"I prefer to remain optimistic," Dylan replied. In truth he didn't want to consider it, because if the verdict wasn't what they were all hoping for, he didn't know what was going to happen - and that scared him more than anything.

"Optimism is for fools," Tyr said.

"Positive energy affects things more than you know," Trance returned. Tyr's perspective often bothered her, though she knew it was just his way.

"Thank-you Trance," Dylan said happily. Tyr continued to eat, indifferent.
Just then Rommie and Harper walked in and sat down, Harper looking surprisingly chirpy. He waited for the inevitable -

"How are you feeling?" The question came from Beka, but could have come from any of them.

"Great," Harper replied immediately. Unlike the previous nine hundred times he had heard the question, it didn't annoy him. He was feeling pleasantly care-free, though slightly light-headed. No prizes for guessing which choice he made.

"What did the doctor say?" Trance inquired.

"Long story short - Trisentian flu," Harper replied.

Beka recognised the name. "Again?"

"You've had it before?" Dylan asked.

"Way back when, and it wasn't pretty," Beka recalled before Harper had the chance. She had worried so much when Harper had come down with the flu virus before. Though she knew Andromeda had much better medicinal supplies, she couldn't help being concerned. "It infects the blood and hacks away at whatever system it's passing through...."

Tyr sat back, obviously annoyed (more so than usual, anyway.) The others stopped and looked at him.
"Oh please, do go on. I can't think of a more interesting discussion to have while we eat our breakfast," Tyr said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Harper silently thanked him. He didn't want to get into the matter any more than Tyr did.

Just then a steward with the hotel approached the table. "Captain Hunt," he greeted.

"Yes?"

"I have been told to inform you that the verdict will be announced in one hour, in the halls of justice," the steward relayed, with rehearsed accuracy.

A flurry of nervousness caught Dylan off-guard, but he quickly shoved it down and maintained his composure. He was an officer of the Commonwealth, after all. "Thank-you." The steward nodded respectfully and left.

"We should get to the halls early," Dylan said, putting his napkin on his empty plate.
Beka couldn't see the point in going early, but she knew she'd only spend the hour worrying, so she too finished up her last gulp of juice.

"Harper, I'll need those documents so I can give them in."

"No problem," Harper replied and flicked the small disc from his jacket pocket.

Dylan took it, noting that Harper was acting unusually upbeat for someone suffering from Trisentian flu. Then again, Harper was much like himself when it came to being in pain and hiding it - maybe it was because he hated to come across as weak. After a lifetime of atrocities, the one thing he was probably sick of was pity. Dylan remembered other times when Harper would put up a front, even though he was suffering. Maybe it was that. Or maybe it was just a guy thing.

"We'll catch up with you later," Trance said. She hadn't quite finished her Sequcian fruit juice and Tyr was still devouring his meal. Rommie left, having no need to eat. Harper absent-mindedly took a letin-stick from Tyr's plate, and completely missed Tyr's possessive snarl. Trance watched him curiously. "Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" she asked.

Harper didn't falter at the sudden inquisition. "Why shouldn't I be? You can't keep a good man down, darlin'," he replied contentedly.

Invisible to all but Harper, Lane sat in Dylan's empty chair and grinned at the engineer. "You'd be surprised."

^~*~^
End of chapter twelve
Next: Chapter Thirteen - 'Just'