A/R (author's ramble)- it's been forever (over a month) and I am sorry, but Iowa was umm… interesting and my brother's house (that he shares w/ two other college guys) was… we won't talk about that.  Dorm room is nice though.  Anyways I have my coke and I am ready.

A/N- my technical knowledge is none, and slipstream.com scares me some days, so no research was done.

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I see their moral dilemmas.
I see their raw courage.
I see their self sacrifice.
I see our victory.
 
Magic card
(no I don't remember which one)

~~~*~~~

            I repositioned myself in the chair.  Where do go now, what to do now?  The ship was slowly falling down around us.  There where four more trips through the stream and three more crossing through normal space.  I was tired from the three days of little to no sleep that we had been getting.  I heard the soft shuffle of feet behind me, "Harper I thought I told you to go to bed."

            "I slept for a little bit."

            "Lying in bed for fifteen minutes, doesn't count as sleeping."

            "Boss I've been asleep for over two hours."

            "No I just chased you off to bed."

            "No you didn't, Boss it's 2200."

            "I must have nodded off in the chair."

            "You go sleep; I'll fly for a while."

            "With one arm?"

            "It can be done, beside everyone else is asleep."  With a grumble I left the chair and headed out to bed.  I turned at the door and watched Harper climb into the chair, and key a few keys before he slipped his right hand into the controls.  He was getting better, most people struggled with the opposite hand but Harper almost switched hands without any signs that he hadn't been right handed his whole life.

            Once again I found myself waking up by hitting the floor.  What had Harper done to my ship now?  I stumbled into command the whole ship rocking as we took fire.

            "Harper, what's happening?"

            "What do you think happening boss?   Those jerks are after us again."

            "Or more whatever is on those computer disks," I opened a com channel to the ship that was firing on us.  "This is Beka Valentine of the Eurka Maru, why are you firing on us."

            "Yeah that is going to work Boss."  Right as Harper made his comment the consol rang out noting an incoming message.  I hit the button for audio only.

            'Eurka Maru unload your cargo and we will stop firing."

            "You know I can't do that."

            "Then die."  With that the com channel was closed.

            "Why do they always give such limited choices?"

            "Life tends to always be life or death."  At that moment the whole ship rocket and flashing lights and alarms filled command.  I looked at the console next to me.  "Two hits to the aft port."  I told Harper.

            "We're not going to be able to take another one."  I could to see him starting to over ventilate panicking under the stress.  Flying with one hand was hard; I could see the strain on Harper's face.

            "Alright stay there and try to keep us in one piece, I'll see what I can do."

            "How do you except me to do that."

            "Don't get hit."

            "Oh sure I will just fly around the ships that are shooting at us."

            "That would be a good idea."  I ran down the hall toward the damage section.  I grabbed Harper's abandoned tool beat off the table and stopped at the mess of smoke and sparks that greeted me.  The ship shuttered again.

            "Want some help Beka?"  I tried not to jump at Trance's voice.

            "Yeah we need to get keep this ship together."

            "Well then we better get to work."  I watched as Trance read the report on one of the consoles.  "Beka what does this mean?"  I looked down at the report.  How did she?  Oh well better not to ask.

            "It means we need to repair the conducts over there and get the shields back up."  Trance nodded and we moved over to the section to be repaired.  I soon figured out why Harper always worked with Trance.  She handed me the right tool before I asked and with her help the shields where back up in record time.  The ship had stopped shuttering a few minutes before and I was thrown into Trance as the ship lunged being the familiar trip into slipstream.  I finished welding the paneling back in place and jogged up to the cockpit to see how Harper was doing. 

I walked into command to see his brow was covered in sweat and he was biting his lip.  I don't think he noticed, his eyes where glued to the screen and I could see how hard he was trying to keep the ship on course.  I walked out of the cockpit.  I didn't want to be reasonable for breaking his conservation.

I walked into the engine room where trance stood with Harper's tool belt waiting for me.  "What now Beka?"

I read down the accident report from the Maru.  Autopilot was down again, shied plating was down to a minimum, and the list went on and on.  Environment had been lost in the cargo bay.  I sighed it was good that it was only there and not the rest of the ship.  So much to do and so little parts and time, auto pilot wasn't important right now; the computer parts didn't look to be heat sensitive so environmental could wait.  I took the time to find the systems that would be the next to fail and headed off to work on repairs.

I ran straight for the cockpit the moment I left us come out of slipstream later that day.  Harper looked tried out from the ordeal.  I glanced over at the timer, 1300, when had this day begun.  I couldn't remember when I had been thrown from bed.  "Harper, why don't you get some sleep?  I'll fly for a while."

"Thanks Boss," Harper said as he dragged himself out of the chair and down the hallway.  I slip my hands into the controls.  I gave Harper plenty of time to get to his bed before I headed back into the stream.  I was tired of this haul I was getting this cargo to that rat before the end of the day.