Sorry once again this hasn't been beta yet but it will be :-D

Thanks to Eljay

And Nureek and Jips for some bits of inspiration

Thanks for all the comments you guys are the best!

Beka bent to pick at the long straw-like grass that caught in her pant hem. She must have picked it up as she crossed the small field from the Maru to the Harper homestead. Beka had grown bored after the first twenty-four and she still wasn't in to a long conversation with Tyr so she decided to do some snooping. She left Tyr running scans on the Maru and hiked over to the old house. She and Tyr had been in the house before but she decided now to take a better look at the second floor.

As she climbed the stairs to the second floor of the old grey house Beka had to be careful as to where she stepped. There were loose boards and holes through out the entire staircase. Some steps were missing all together and she had to hop haphazardly to the next step, hoping it would support her. She wasn't a heavy woman; a child could have flown up the stairs. But a heavier Nietzschean or a Magog would not have made it well at least not without some serious risk and noise. It wasn't a wonder that the family sleeping quarters were upstairs; it would be the safest place in the house.

At the top of the stairs there was a narrow hallway. The walls were dirty and the plaster was missing in a couple of places. It was obvious no one had been here in quite a while. Cobwebs brushed her face and Beka batted at them disgustedly. There were no spiders in space. She liked space.

The floor under her foot creaked with age as Beka arrived at the first door and paused hesitantly. Finally giving in to the curiosity that had brought here Beka opened the door slowly. A cloud of dust puffed up and Beka coughed. The Space Captain glanced around surprised at the room's sparseness. This must be or been Seamus's Aunt's room Beka surmised by the area's meager contents. An old creased photograph of a man sat in a broken frame on a small table. There was an old dirty mattress in the corner with two moth eaten blankets folded neatly on one end. This was so foreign to her life on the Maru. It was hard to relate. Things on the Maru were cluttered and claustrophobic this whole house felt so empty.

Beka shivered it often felt like a cold breeze rippled right through this place but the air never stirred. It was like the ghosts of this place were talking to her. She didn't believe in ghosts but this house seemed to echo with them. She stepped over to a window on the far wall. A torn curtain hung loosely barley blocking the view and brushed it aside lightly. The view must have been breath taking once. Beka watched the damaged ocean crash against the rocks. If she closed her eyes she could almost here the voices of Raven, Fergus and Seamus playing on the beach. Beka shook herself from her daydream and turned back to her investigation of the room.

On the wall adjacent to the mattress was a wall covered with a child's drawings. The drawings were pinned to the wall with anything that could be found: pieces of wire, old sewing pins, and glue. Beka reached forward touching the pictures almost reverently. A small 'R' was scrawled in the corner of a few and it made Beka smile. The drawings must have belonged to Raven. It was obvious she was just learning her letters as some of the "R's" were backwards. There were all sorts of pictures and there were a glimpse in to Raven's world. There were rainbows, seagulls and suns with smiling faces but Beka's favorites were the family portraits.

The Harper family smiled back at her in their best scribbled form. She spotted Seamus right away. He was the one with the hair sticking up wildly all over the place. In one picture it showed Seamus falling in to the ocean. It mad Beka laugh out loud. Raven had obviously been annoyed with her older cousin that day.

Beka stepped back to look at all the pictures as a whole when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. Under the corner of the mattress was a stack of papers. Beka gasped as she pulled them out. There were more Drawings by Raven but these ones were not as happy as the ones on the wall. These pictures we're drawn with red, black and grey crayons and there were no smiling suns. There were pictures of large men with guns and blood. The one that mad her catch her breath was of a spiky-haired boy with big black tears. Beka folded that one and put it in her pocket.

She felt so bad that the Maru had crashed here. She felt sick at the thought that she had something to do with the Death's of Raven and Fergus. But this was not a happy place. Whether she had crash-landed or not bad things happened here no amount of guilt or regret would change that.

Beka said good-bye to the small room and stepped back out to the hallway to investigate the next one. This must have been Seamus's parent's room. Again there was no bed frame only a mattress. Calling it threadbare would have been polite. Beka jumped as a small rodent ran across the floor in front of her. Unquestionably, the family had done it's best to keep things neat and clean. But from what Seamus had said the adults had been gone for sometime before Beka had found them and the place had that forgotten musty smell feel to it all. Unmistakably this had once been someone's home. She now could feel why he had such a connection to this place. He probably still held out hope that his parents would come home. Hell, walking in to these rooms felt like she was invading. Despite the dust it felt like the people who lived here would be were still here. There was a glass of water sitting on a table by the bed but the water had long since evaporated leaving a dirty circle around its perimeter. An old book lay open on a chair. These people had not planned on leaving. They were just gone. It was creepy in a way, it was like they all evaporated like the glass of water. They weren't coming back. She had no reason to think that way other then her world-weary experiences. The problem was Seamus, he couldn't keep waiting for them to come back. Whether he accepted it or not, he was still a kid. Seamus needed someone not just to make sure he was fed and clean but also to be there for him. The kid was so utterly alone.

Beka left the room quietly, leaving its contents to the rats.

She stepped towards the last room at the very end of the hallway. The door was handle was broken off so she simply pushed the door open. This was the kid's room. More drawings littered the walls and scattered across the floor. Raven had left her mark once again.

This room had the most items in it of the three. There were three homemade mattresses on the floor and a blanket on each. The blankets in this room had not been folded neatly… they lay in heaps on the mattresses. This room showed more recent signs of inhabitants. It had been only been a few months since this room had saw life. There were some stuffed bears sitting haphazardly on a chair. A discarded shoe lay in the centre of the room.

Beka gazed took a closer look at the books. She was a fan of holonovels but she never really read books. She let her fingers run across the bindings as she read the titles. They were written common which surprised her. Everyone spoke common but most literature was written in Vedran. Still she recognized most of the words from her childhood lessons. Much to here surprise these weren't kids books.

Advanced Physics, Understanding Fractals and three or four books on Auto repair...Beka raised her eyebrow. These were smart kids. Seamus talked of fairy tales but he certainly wasn't getting them from these books. Beka felt sad sorting through these rooms but as she went she also felt something else. These were smart kids…intelligent, beautiful children. No one deserved to live this way especially not Seamus. He was so much more then this. She had never seen anyone catch on to things as quickly as he did. He had never been on a spacecraft before they met yet, not long ago she caught him crawling through the slipstream making minor repairs. He was wasted here. This was a crime of the highest proportions. She felt sad but slowly the rage built up inside her. This isn't right. She was sorry about his family but she cold still save Harper from this miserable existence. She just needed to convince him of that. She had to convince him he was so much more then this pathetic old house on the hill.

Suddenly she had heard a noise and she whirled around to see Tyr down the hall at the top of the stairs. "Hey," She smiled weakly.

Tyr gave a terse nod. "Looking for something specific?"

"I'm looking for a boy," Beka sighed; he emotions were all over the board today.

"Well unless he's buried under a pile of books, or …" Tyr wrinkled his nose. "Or filth, I doubt he's here."

Beka smiled at Tyr's jest. "Well, you remember what he looked like when he first came aboard. The filth thing is a possibility." Beka glanced around the room once again. "Can you imagine this life Tyr? I don't think I can."

Tyr shrugged, "This is not the first time I've been a witness to loss and poverty."

Beka looked at him with interest then.

Tyr leaned against the doorframe. "I lived a happy life. I was warm, feed, educated and loved. My Parents were strong. My mother…" Tyr paused and offered a rare smile. "She was a powerful woman. She catered to no man…"

Tyr got lost in his own memories for a moment but Beka waited patiently.

"Then we were attacked. My tribe was decimated. I escaped but only for a while. I was a slave for over a year."

Beka gasped. "Tyr, you were a slave!? I had no idea!"

"It was a long time ago now. But, I remember it was difficult. Harper is younger then I was and well he's…"

"Not Nietzschean," Beka finished for him. Why did it always come back to that?

Tyr didn't agree out right. "Being from Earth gives him a certain, disadvantage."

"I'm worried about him, Tyr. Do you think he's okay?"

"He's proven himself to be resourceful in the past."

Beka wrapped her arms around herself. "We have to find him." Beka swept her arms outwards. "We have to give him something more then this. He deserves to have a future."

He cried until he felt there was no moisture left in his body. Then hiccupped roughly causing his head and neck to jar. His hand crept up to where Bacchus had grabbed him. He could feel the vivid welts that had grown there.

Bacchus said he would be punished then sent to the factory. Hadn't he already been punished enough. What did he have left really? A darkness came over him as all hope and faith left him. His mother used to talk about the Divine's will. Perhaps it was the Divine's will that he be nothing more then a nothing mudfoot. Maybe he deserved to be a slave. Maybe it was all he was good for.

It felt like forever before they came for him but it may have only been minutes. His heart beat wildly in his chest when he finally heard the footsteps in the corridor. The lock clanked and then the door crashed open. He jumped at the noise despite himself. Two large Nietzcheans enter the room. Weren't they all large? One had long hair like Tyr but his skin was pale while the other was bald and dark. Both looked menacing. The bald one carried a set of chains and shook them in Harper's direction.

"Come on baby Kludge, you have an appointment."

"Bugger off." Harper swore crab walking backwards towards the wall.

The one with long hair sniggered but the bald one was not amused. "You sure like to use that mouth of yours don't you, mudfoot? Well we'll soon fix that." Then he swung the chains catching Harper in the back of the shins. Seamus cried out and fell heavily on to his butt. His left leg went instantly numb. He was then grabbed by his wrists and pulled to his feet. He balanced precariously on his one leg as the chains clamped down on his wrists.

The longhaired one sneered at him. "We made them extra small for you mini-kludges."

The buckles were tight on his wrists. The Uber was right… There would be no way to squirm free. But, he didn't bother to comment. His heart was already beginning to accept his new role.

The bald one pulled him from his cell using the chains like a leash. He was led to another room a short distance away. As his escorts unlocked the door Seamus wrinkled his nose, it smelled like meat smoke house. As the door opened he soon learned why. Inside the room there were bodies. At least five bodies hung from chains on the wall as large heat lamps shone down on them from every corner.

If he had eaten lunch he would have let it in the hallway.

He gagged as they pulled him in. There was an empty hook in the very center of the room and Baldy hooked Harper chains on to it. So he was forced to stand tip-toed as his arms hung from the chains well above his head.

He shivered in the heat, as the Nietzcheans looked him over. "Tsk, well this won't do," breathed the one with the long hair. "He can still touch the ground. This will be too easy."

"Let's make it a bit more challenging," the other agreed with a sneer who then reached for Harper's right arm. He felt along like a doctor searching for a deformity after seemingly finding what he was looking for he paused and smiled. Then he pulled a long thin rod from a pouch that hung on his belt. He waved it in front of Harper's face. One end had been sharpened to a nasty point.

Seamus swallowed loudly, "Is this my punishment?"

The Bald Uber sneered back gleefully. "My dear boy this is only part one." Still smiling he drove the spike through Harper's arm.

He screamed. For a brief moment he thought the pain had made him go blind as white spots danced across his vision. He gasped for air as the initial shock faded. While he attempted to recover he could vaguely feel them cutting his shirt off.

"No,' He moaned as his back started to take on the full brunt of the heat lamps. Sweat trickled down his neck.

"Let him cook for a while." Chuckled long-hair. The other grunted in agreement and the two ogres's shuffled from the room, locking the door behind them.

Harper bit his lip. The air in the room grew stale and thick making it hard to breath. The pain in his arm was intense. But so was the bruise on his leg from being hit with the chain. His leg was starting to cramp. For a brief moment he let his arms take his weight.

His arm burned and he screamed. It felt like when they had first pushed it in. He thrust himself upwards back on to the balls of his feet again. It rod must be resting on a pressure point he surmised when he caught his wits again. He couldn't relax his legs and his legs couldn't hold him forever.

He blinked rapidly trying to keep the sweat from his eyes. He glanced at the withered corpses on the wall and thought of what the Uber's had said. 'My dear boy this is only part one.'

He let out a sobbed laugh. His parents left, Raven and Fergus died. Tyr had abandoned him. Now even his torturer's had abandoned him temporarily. He closed his eyes and accepted his lots. Pain was life. Life was pain. Even if he wasn't here that would never change

TBC