Title: An Error and an Out
By: X
X0832001yahoo.com
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing and am getting no money
Set just after the closing of "Abridging the Devil's Divide", so tons and tons of spoilers for that, but not much else
Please forgive me for bad baseball allusions, I don't know what came over me. On with the short short story…..
"Are you possessed or just stupid?" Beka sneered, waving a gauss gun as she spoke.
"I was making him work a little harder!" Dylan defended. Beka had found out about his little one more strike scolding and was apparently a little displeased with the tactic.
"Argh! I can't believe you Dylan!" She threw a surprise kick and knocked the chair out from under her captain, causing him to tumble onto the deck. His head cracked against the floor and he glared at the blonde.
"Ow! That was unnecessary Beka, calm down"
"Do you know the same Harper I do? He's the hyper little spaz with insecurity issues."
"He works better under stress. I got him to finish those repairs because he was worried."
"He would have done them anyway. Andromeda is his baby; he insists she stays in tip top shape. The kid has plenty of stress from the approaching Maggog World Ship and his paralyzing fear of Maggog. That should be enough stress motivation for you."
"Beka, please, he's not a kid. He's a man and our engineer and I think I have a handle on the situation." Beka would not be pacified. She slammed her fist down on the desk, jostling several office knick knacks.
"Well to me a part of him will always be that kid I picked up in Boston. The kid with that nasal mush mouth accent, no social skills, and who I had to drug so he'd get a few hours rest!" Beka glared at the captain who returned her angry look with one of confusion. "Yeah, I'll tell you." She dropped her gaze to the floor, embarrassed by her past actions. She continued with more sadness than anger. "He was a slave you know, he let it slip once. I doubt Bobby even knew that when he picked him up." She shook her head and continued. "Neitzchiens kept him tied up like a dog. They tortured him when he'd collapsed from exhaustion, or whenever else they felt like it. That sleep deprivation thing they stuck on you for a day or so, sounds like what he dealt with for years. Just thinking about what those bastards did to him!" She once again put the knick knacks in danger as she hit the desk top. Getting back to the point of the story she continued. "So when he got on the Maru he was wound up tight." Dylan could feel her sadness as she quietly shared what obviously had been a secret for quite some time. "Skittish as hell, he'd flinch so bad if you got too close or too loud. And there was no way to stop him from working. He always had some improvements. At first it was great and I took advantage of the labor, but it started to wear him down."
"So he was diligent. Beka, he has projects now, he stays busy. It's what he likes."
"He was a completely different person Dylan! Yeah, I agree he'll still work himself pretty hard when he's caught up in something. It's like a holdover from this past, but it's not the same. He wouldn't go off to bed, some deep rooted fear he'd be punished. He'd just toil away until he collapsed like a puppet with his strings cut. You couldn't make him sleep. I tried ordering him, even locking him in his bunk. He'd go, couldn't disobey an order back then, but the most that ever happened was he'd have an attack"
"An attack?"
"Nightmares, night terrors, whatever you call them. He'd wake up everybody screaming himself horse. He was trapped in some dream; it was hard as hell to snap him out of them." She shook her head again, "They really had him messed up. He couldn't survive like that, so I drugged him. Me! The woman who's seen first hand drugs destroy a person, I would dissolve these three little white pills in his Sparky and then give it to him. He'd just drink it down because he trusted me. I felt so bad Dylan, I mean I did it for his own good but… that was serious."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that Beka, really. But I've been a captain a while now. I don't think this will bother Harper, he'll be a little paranoid for a day or so and then back to normal." Beka was still exasperated. Dylan was being such an idiot! He didn't know Harper like she did.
"You have no idea Captain. Yeah he's afraid of Maggog, but he's also very afraid of being ditched and going back to Earth. I know this, it's the fear I played on when I wanted him quiet about the Flash. Your little strike three ploy has him back on his best behavior, and that's not the Harper you know. I know this Harper and Neitzchien slave owners know this Harper. I can't go through this again, Dylan. Go check on him; see what you've done and FIX IT!" She slammed her fist and the stylus cup tumbled to the floor, followed by a couple of data rods. A framed picture fell forward. The knick knacks were a casualty of Beka's passion for her friend. Without looking at the sacrificed office materials or giving Dylan a chance to reply Beka stormed out of the office.
"Andromeda?"
"Yes Dylan?"
"Can you show me Mr. Harper?"
"Of course" Machine Shop 3 appeared on his computer screen. Harper was working on something. That wasn't odd, what was Beka talking about? Harper was fine.
"Andromeda, play audio"
"The audio is playing sir" Sure enough Harper lit an old fashioned welder with a click, snap and fizzle. But Harper himself was silent. It was hard to imagine Harper working with out music or yammering away to himself. Dylan was interrupted by the door chime.
"Come in" Rhade entered, looking serious. It was hard to tell if this was the usual seriousness of if he was upset about something.
"Sir, I'm very concerned. I believe something has happened to Harper since our encounter with the Templars."
"Why, what have you seen?"
"He has not insulted me about being a Neitzchien recently."
"He said he was going to stop that"
"He told me I had the attention span of oatmeal on our flight back to Andromeda, it didn't last long."
"But you think he's different?
"He seems afraid and afraid of me in particular."
"Afraid of you?" That didn't make sense; Dylan had been the one to threaten his stay aboard Andromeda. Harper and Rhade had been getting along very well before this.
"The Templars may have done something to turn him against Neitzchiens." Rhade held up his arm. "He gives my bone blades a very wide berth and no longer looks me in the eyes when we speak." It clicked in Dylan's head, Harper was thinking about being sent back to Earth. Earth was still a Neitzchien slave planet. "I think it may be a subconscious ailment, I've questioned him about the change but he denies it exists. He'll look up for a few sentences but then right back down. He could have been reprogrammed in some way. I wouldn't put that past the Templars."
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention Rhade, I'm going to go talk to Mr. Harper. Then we can determine the best course of action."
"Thank you sir" The Neitzchien nodded and left the office.
So now he had two crew members worried about Harper. "Andromeda?"
"Yes Dylan"
"When was the last time Harper slept?"
"He fell asleep 8 minutes ago"
"And before that"
"Presuming he did not sleep during your incarceration or on the Maru, 73 hours 26 minutes and 12 seconds" Shit, Beka was looking more right all the time. Harper hadn't slept since he'd threatened him with the three strikes. It had seemed like a pretty harmless threat at the time, plus he'd been pretty mad at the engineer. Now he felt very bad.
"Tell me when he wakes up, we need to talk." Turning back to the computer screen he found it was still showing Machine Shop 3. Harper was sprawled on the floor, half under a cabinet with his back to the wall. Yep, Dylan felt very bad. He'd activated a wound in Harper's psyche that was going to need help closing. Dylan didn't even know where to start. Was this post traumatic stress syndrome, some sort of phobia? He'd barely started when Andromeda announced that after 30 minutes, Harper was back at the workbench. Dylan sighed, his best shot was just to explain to Harper that he was a valued member of the crew and despite his mistake he was in no danger of being booted off the ship.
Harper barely acknowledged Dylan's intrusion. He was too caught up in whatever the hell he was working on. "Hey boss."
"Harper, you know you're an important part of this crew right?" Dylan began. Harper panicked. That was a foreboding statement. He stopped working and faced his captain. How had he messed up so fast?
"Yeah, boss, sir, is there something I didn't do? I'll do whatever repairs you want, I just didn't know we needed any right now, thought we were all caught up" the young engineer spoke fast and glanced around for hidden attackers.
"No, no everything's fine Harper. I was just worried you seemed a little stressed."
"Yeah, well, Maggog are coming; and future Maggog so I'm just doing my best, being part of the team" he smiled nervously.
"You just look a little worn, get some sleep."
"I will. I just gotta finish a few things"
"Don't worry about it. You can get them in the morning."
"It's not a problem, I can finish"
"Mr. Harper-sleep, that's an order"
"Alright, I will"
"Oh and Harper"
"Yeah Boss?"
"Remember that talk we had"
Harper gulped. "I haven't done anything wrong, I swear"
"You're safe at home" Confident his message had been received Dylan left Harper alone again.
Beka had been watching this exchange. Andromeda had been a little reluctant to display the feed but she was the first officer after all and technically since privacy mode had not been engaged what went on down there was fair game. She heard the baseball metaphor and saw Dylan depart. The captain had made an effort to calm Harper down, and that was good. But, she still wanted to make sure Harper was Okay. Dylan's little talk had been kind of lame. She ducked her head into the Machine Shop, "Hey Harper"
"Hi Boss"
"Dylan come by?"
"Yeah, just left. You can catch him if you hurry."
"I don't need to see him right now. But I heard about the three strikes thing."
"Yeah? Small ship. But I'm being good Beka; I'm not going to get any more strikes. Don't worry about me."
"Oh I'm not worried about your batting average Harper, you've proved yourself years ago. " Harper slowed down his fiddling. Beka just watched him, as if she could visualize the conflict between his past and present selves. "You know you're never getting dumped right? Dylan tries it and you, me, and probably a few others are driving off into the sunset in the Maru."
"Thanks Beka"
"No problem Shortie, we're stuck with each other"
The End