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Disclaimer: Gene Roddenberry owns these characters (except for the 'entity'), I make no money from this (darn)

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Dylan entered the machine shop quietly so he could observe Harper before talking to him. At the moment, the engineer was working feverishly on sorting all the parts he and Beka had retrieved while humming to himself. He appeared to be totally absorbed in his work, and most importantly, healthy.

        "Mister Harper." Dylan announced his presence. Harper almost dropped the instrument he was holding in shock, and spun around, before he realized who was standing there.

        "Hi, Boss, what can I do for ya? It had better be quick whatever it is, there's just so much to do here! Did you know that even if I worked non-stop for eternity this ship would never be in one hundred percent working order? Even with my super genius mind, keeping this ship running is near impossible!"

        "Harper, slow down. You don't need to worry about all that right now. Can you tell me why you refused to go to med-deck?"

        "Can't you see?" Harper asked as he started frantically working again. "Too much work, I must get this done."

        Dylan picked his jaw up off the floor before Harper noticed. Something was wrong with this picture. Harper was naturally a hyper person, but he never acted like this. Beka was right; it almost looked like the young man was on Flash. True, he hadn't known the engineer long, but this definitely wasn't like him.

        "Look, Boss, I don't think med-deck is necessary. I can do my job fine, I feel fine, hell, the whole universe is one damn fine place."

        "Well," Dylan was a bit lost as to how he should proceed. "Seeing as I'm Captain of this ship, and you are definitely not fine, I am ordering you to go to med-deck."

        Putting down what he was working on, Harper stalked over to Dylan, invading his personal space, and his eyes flashing. "I'm getting really sick of your type, Captain. You and Beka are the same. I don't need you telling me what to do." At Dylan's shocked look, Harper continued. "Not used to people disobeying your orders are you. Get used to it, because I will not take orders from the likes of you!"

        "And I will not tolerate this attitude from you, Mister Harper!" Dylan reached out and grabbed Harper's arm, intending to drag him to med- deck. He was totally unprepared for the cry of pain, and shocked look that appeared on Harper's face. Almost immediately, the younger man tried to pull away from Dylan's grip, but instead of letting go completely, Dylan used his other arm to hold Harper's wrist and used the arm that had grabbed him to hike up his shirt sleeve. Black. Harsh black bruises encircled his bicep, standing out in stark contrast against his pale skin.

        "Harper, what happened?" To say Dylan was shocked was an understatement. Just by looking at the pattern formed by the bruises, it was obvious someone had grabbed him. The bruising was fresh, but the only other person he'd been in contact with was Beka, and her hands weren't near big enough to do this. Not to mention the amount of force needed would be more than Beka could create. "Who did this to you?"

        Harper's face took on a hard look, his mouth set.

        "Did this happen on the drift?" At Harper's silence, he continued. "Harper, I want to help you, but I can't do that if you don't tell me what happened!"

        "Dylan, there is a large spatial distortion headed this way, too large for us to completely evade." Rommie's voice came over the comm system.

        "Alright. I'm on my way." Dylan looked Harper in the eye. "We'll deal with this later. Right now I have an even bigger problem to deal with."

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        The image on the screen was something Dylan had never seen before. The distortion filled the whole screen and was bright. Blindingly so. It moved like water, fluidly twisting and shifting. Blue and purple clouds of light were visible in the middle.

        "The distortion will impact us in one minute, six seconds. While it contains large amounts of energy, my data tells me it will cause damage, but not enough to destroy or cripple the ship."

        "Alright, brace for impact everybody!"

        The crew scattered around the bridge, looking for anything secure to hold onto as the distortion impacted the Andromeda. The ship jerked violently and was tossed like a butterfly in a snowstorm. While it only lasted a few seconds, it felt like an eternity. Sparks flew from control panels, and the lights flickered, but as Rommie predicted, once the distortion passed, the ship was still functioning.

        "Status!" Dylan yelled as he picked himself up off the floor. He looked around and saw everyone else doing the same.

        "Engines are offline, weapons, hull integrity seventy percent, and there are many minor malfunctions ship wide," Tyr reported.

        "Rommie, get Harper on it," Dylan ordered.

        "Actually, he's already running a diagnostic on the ships systems."

        At the mention of Harper's name, Beka glanced up from the pilots' chair and made eye contact with Dylan, her face unreadable. Dylan shared her look before walking to Rev's side to help perform an analysis on the disturbance, effectively telling her his visit with Harper had been unsuccessful.

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        "I've almost got you fixed, after almost six hours, just one more fuse and... AH!" Harper dropped the nanowelder and cursed a blue streak that would make a Nietzschean blush after accidentally burning the sensitive skin on the back of his hand. "Son of a goddamn bitch! I almost had you working perfectly you piece of junk! Why can nothing on this damn ship cooperate!"

        "Maybe if you took a break you'd be able to concentrate on what you're doing," Andromeda's hologram stated as she flashed into existence across from the engineer.

        "Maybe if you'd mind your own damn business I'd get this done faster," Harper sneered.

        "Harper, what has gotten into you? Ever since you got back from the supply run you've been moody and on edge. You haven't rested or eaten since you got back, and I'm detecting an elevation in all your vital signs."

        "And why do you have to be so nosy! For Divine's sake quit spying on me! Engage privacy mode, run program Harper-alpha-break-alpha." Harper grinned wickedly as the hologram vanished, a look of astonishment on her face. "Lets see you get through that program, Rom-doll."

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        Two days later, Harper's mood had not improved, but it had not gotten any better. He worked almost non-stop to repair the damage from the disturbance, but the moment anyone actually asked him to do something, he'd get angry and demand to be left alone. He didn't talk with anyone, and almost never slept or ate.

        Beka had really been hurt by what Harper had said and spent her time trying to avoid him until his mood improved. She kept replaying what had happened on the Maru over in her head. She'd even gone and run a diagnostic on the system, but she only found evidence of that first power surge. She'd come to think of the little human as a younger brother. She'd never hurt him before, and most definitely had never given him a reason to think of her as a slaver. Of course she worked him hard, but no harder than she'd expect of herself or any other crew member.

        Currently, she and Dylan were observing Harper from Command as he rebuilt a section of the weapons guidance system in the machine shop. He worked silently, and that's what worried the two of them. Harper always talked when working, even when he was alone.

        Dylan took in all the classic signs of exhaustion in the young man. Not missing the dark smudges under his eyes, the way his clothes hung on him, and the way his hands shook.

        "I'm going to send Trance in to see him. It seems as long as he's allowed to work he leaves everyone alone, but I'm not going tolerate this any longer. He's alienated every crew member. I'd like to know if there's a physiological cause for this."

        "Are you sure that's wise? He's already been damn close to resorting to violence. What if he tries something with Trance?"

        "I'll send Rommie with her. Being an android, she could easily over power Harper if he gets out of control."

        Instead of acknowledging him, Beka continued to look at the screen, worry marring her features. "I've only known him for two years, but I've never seen him like this. This is worse than when he had the library downloaded into his brain."

        "We'll figure this out, Beka."

        An hour later, Trance called Dylan and Beka down to med-deck to go over her findings.

        "There's nothing wrong with him."

        "What? How can that be? You've seen the way he's been behaving." Dylan was almost positive Trance would find something.

        Beka was just as shocked. She was angry and hurt. She had hoped there was a physical reason for this. But there wasn't. That would mean he'd meant what he had said to her, it wasn't an injury making him behave differently.

        "Harper allowed me to scan him while he worked. Apart from the bruising on his arm, and the elevated norepinephrine levels, which account for his excitability, he's fine. Not only that, I can't find any physiological cause for his mood swings or memory loss. It is possible the electric shock he suffered is causing this, but there's no way to tell for sure."

        "Alright, well for now we'll just keep an eye on him. If he gets any worse then we'll have to take him to a medical facility for further examination," Dylan added.

        "Dylan, my external long-range sensors are still offline. Harper should have fixed them three hours ago."

        Dylan groaned. It hadn't been a week since Harper's mood change, and the whole crew was starting to suffer because of it.

        "Alright. I'll go speak with him and get his sorted out once and for all."

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        Harper's body fell slack as he entered Andromeda's VR matrix, intent on fixing a power distribution problem. The long-range sensors could not be fixed until they had enough electricity to properly power them. He wasn't surprised when Andromeda didn't greet him. He didn't particularly care either. Searching through the pathways, he started to feel strange. A wave of deja vu washed over him as something pricked the back of his memory. He'd felt this before. Where? His skin started to burn, like someone had poured acid over it, and his chest tightened making breathing near impossible. He doubled over. Suddenly, his vision turned black for a moment as he felt a rush of energy leave him. He watched in awe as a black cloud of energy hovered above him before once again taking a human shape. The Maru! That's where he'd seen this before! He had to warn the others.

        Before he could leave the matrix, he felt an electrical surge in the air and screamed as he felt it engulf him. He came out of the interface with a scream of pain as every nerve in his body burned. Pulling the jack out, he whispered Rommie's name, forgetting the program he'd activated earlier had ensured a permanent privacy mode in engineering, and fell into the waiting hands of unconsciousness.