Title: The Tattoo
Author: LittleRedhead
Rating: G
Summary: How young Seamus Harper got his tattoo. A one shot story for the Starry Night Secret Santa project.
Disclaimer: I do not own Andromeda or its characters and am making no money from this story.
"I'm gonna be in trouble if that Uber finds me with this clock. Serves the Dragons right though," Seamus thought to himself as cradled the small clock against his chest.The teenager crawled towards the small opening in the fence he had earlier created to get inside the dump. Seamus kept a lookout for the Nietzschean guards that routinely patrolled the area.
Seamus Harper flattened himself against the loose dirt on the ground and crawled through the hole in the chain link fence. The Nietzschean pride that controlled earth wouldn't be happy to find a young kludge like Seamus with Nietzschean property, even if it was just a broken clock.
Once safely outside of the dump, Seamus Harper jogged up the street until he found a manhole cover. The Earther climbed down the rusted metal ladder. Once at the end of the ladder Seamus jumped down to the concrete floor. The young Earther winced as his joints protested against the hard landing.
Seamus Harper waded through calf deep slimy water for nearly two miles. Weak from not having eaten for the last few days, the Earther was out of breath and tired by the time he climbed back to the surface.
A half hour later, Seamus Harper climbed down through another manhole and walked for a mile. The young Earther snakedhis waythrough the maze of tunnels that made up the sewer system on Earth like an expert. Like many of the kludges living on Earth, the sewer tunnels were the young man's hangout.
The youngman turned a corner and entered a medium sized room that had been chiseled out of the concrete years before. All people in the room watched Seamus Harper as he stopped to bend over and try to catch his breath.
"Did you get it Harper?" a skinny brunette boy about the same age as Harper asked.
"Yeah Ziggy, I got the stuff you asked for,"Harper gasped as handed the clock over.
Ziggy quickly examined the clock before looking back at Seamus. "It looks like a reasonably good clock. You've passed the first phase."
A disappointed frown crossed Seamus Harper's face. "You didn't say anything about any phases. You just said if I nabbed a clock from the Uber dump then I was in your society."
Ziggy scowled at the smaller boy before turning to the rest of the kludges sitting around. "I didn't say anything of the kind, did I guys?"
The other kludges nodded their heads and mumbled their agreement with their leader. They knew it was in their best interest to back Ziggy over a new recruit.
Ziggy turned back to Seamus Harper with a satisfied, arrogant smile on his face. "Make up your mind kid. Do you still want in the Bunker Hill Protection Society or not?"
Seamus Harper felt his stomach rumble from hunger and reluctantly answered, "Yeah I still want in. So what do I have to do next?"
"All ya gotta due is get this clock working," Ziggy instructed. "We can use somebody who can build and fix things."
Seamus Harper fought to hide a grin that threatened to spread across his face. He couldn't have gotten an easier task if he had picked it himself. Seamus had been good at fixing things for as long as he could remember. It was just an instinct with the boy. "Okay I'll see what I can do. What kind of tools do you have?"
Ziggy handed the clock back to Seamus and pointed to a small box on floor behind Seamus. "There's a box of stuff behind you. Pick out any tools you need, but remember they are not for you to keep."
The boy's eyes opened wide at the site of the box full of tools and various machine parts. After quickly recovering, Seamus moved to the box and knelt down beside it. "Where did you get all of this stuff?"
"None of your business," Ziggy snapped. He wasn't about to give that kind of information to a new recruit.
Seamus Harper shrugged his bony shoulders and went about searching through the box next to him. A few minutes later the boy pulled out a screwdriver and two small pieces of broken wire. Seamus cradled the clock in his lap and went to work, completely oblivious Ziggy and the others watching him.
Two hours later Ziggy nudged Seamus' left leg with a booted foot. "Hey kid, are you making any progress?"
Seamus looked up at the older boy and smiled. "Yup, I just about have this clock running. Another few minutes and I'll be done."
"Good, because you've been sitting there ignoring us for the past two hours," Ziggy complained gruffly.
"How long have I been working on this clock?" Seamus asked a little confused.
Ziggy rolled his brown eyes at what he perceived as a ridiculous question. "It's been three hours since you started working on that clock. You've really tuned out everything but the clock. That's not such a healthy thing around these parts. You need to stay alert."
The boy's eyes focused from Ziggy to the floor in shame. "I'm sorry Ziggy. It won't happen again. I got the clock to work. You can see for yourself," Seamus said as he held the clock up to Ziggy.
Ziggy took the clock from the filthy hand and fiddled with the settings. After a few moments a small smile appeared on the brunette teenager's face. "Good job. Looks like you're in the Bunker Hill Society kid."
Seamus Harper returned the smile as he stood up. "Alright! So what happens next?"
"What happens next is you get a tattoo like this," Ziggy informed. He rolled up his left shirt sleeve to reveal a small yin/yang tattoo on the outer side of his bicep.
Seamus Harper stared at the tattoo in awe. "I've wanted to get a tattoo for some time now."
"Good to hear that," Ziggy said as he walked Seamus over to a small crate in one corner of the room. "Sit here and Bobby will fix you up with your tattoo."
Seamus nodded his head and waited a few minutes in silence before a middle aged man he assumed was Bobby approached him. Bobby opened up a case that contained needles and the ink necessary for putting a tattoo on Seamus. The boy looked on with some nervousness, not sure how much pain the process involved. Now Seamus was beginning to have second thoughts about getting a tattoo, but kept quiet. Ziggy would no doubt be unhappy if Seamus Harper backed out now. Even at his young age Seamus guessed that Ziggy was not a man who looked kindly on any show of weakness from other Kludges.
An hour later Bobby stopped his work and announced, "All done, now have a look."
Seamus craned his neck to get a good look at the tattoo. "I like it. Thanks Bobby."
The pain of the needle was worth it. He now had a tattoo and belonged to a group of people that would protect him from the Ubers and Kludges that would try to push Seamus Harper around.