If anyone's still reading, sorry this too so long! I wrote myself into a bit of a corner. I am very technologically illiterate, and then I realized I'd have to have a way for Harper to defeat this highly advanced piece of technology! I hope to have this done by the time school starts. Thanks for the feedback you guys!

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"Tell me why I thought this was a good idea?" Andromeda bemoaned as she took in her appearance again. As per Harper's request, she'd made her holographic self a mirror image of Harper in the matrix.

"Because if this works, you'll be the healthiest warship in the three galaxies," Harper answered her voice as he stood on Command, preparing the join Andromeda in the matrix.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Harper?" Beka inquired.

"No. But it's my only idea. Trust in the Harper, it's all good." He was trying to alleviate her fear, but it wasn't working. "You remember what I asked you to do?" He hooked the jack up to the panel on the wall.

"Yeah. After thirteen minutes, I'm to initiate a massive power surge directed at the pathway you're about to build. And at the first sign of trouble pull you out."

"So you were paying attention. See ya on the flipside." The engineer sat on the floor and plugged in. The matrix grabbed him and he was enveloped in that familiar feeling of falling and weighlessness. It felt like forever, but seconds later he materialized next to Andromeda. Or rather, 'himself'. "If I might say, you look..."

"Don't say it, Harper," she ordered, shooting daggers with her eyes. 'I'm never going to hear the end of this,' she thought. "The entity is still in the same position, and it hasn't grown due to the firewall. The circuit you need to access is located directly behind it. How are you going to get to it?"

"That's what you're here for. You are my distraction. With any luck, that dark lump over there won't be able to tell the difference between the two of us."

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"Dylan! We've got incoming!" Trance yelled, panicked. This ship, while it was small, was highly armed and manouevreable. Seconds later, the Andromeda was rocked as it was hit with missile fire. Sparks flew, and the crew all grabbed onto the nearest structure for support.

"Load missile tubes one through thirty and return fire!" Dylan ran over to the nearest console, trying to find out who this was, although he already had a good idea.

The sleek gold ship powered up and started coming in for another run. Beka veered hard to port while at the same time Tyr fired the missiles at it. The explosions could be felt shipwide as the missiles impacted with the hostile ship, but it wasn't enough. The ship once again appeared on the main viewscreen, but this time instead of hurtling towards them, it slowed to a stop, slightly right of centre.

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Harper had inched forwards toward the black mass, and was within arms reach of the circuit. Taking a deep breath, he reached his hand forwards. Closer, closer, boom! He was thrown from the entity and some of the datastreams fizzled as the ship was hit with the missiles.

"Harper!" Andromeda yelled, not realizing she'd just alerted the entity to Harper's presence. "Are you alright?"

Shaking the fogginess from his mind, he stood up and was just glad that in the matrix, it was hard to physically hurt oneself. "I'm fine. Someone sure has the lousiest timing. What was that?"

"The ship is under attack. I'm only reading one enemy ship, although it's armament is comparable to mine. I suggest we leave until he's gone. Any number of things could happen while we're under attack."

"Just give me one more minute. I hope Beka's ready."

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"What is he doing?" Trance innocently asked. The ship hadn't moved at all in the past minute, and wasn't responding to hails.

"He's waiting. Sizing us up. Obviously this moron has made a large error in judgement and is formulating a new plan," Tyr added. "He's made it clear he's not worthy of the space he's occupying. Lets just blow him up."

"I don't think he's that much of a threat. He was expecting us to be completely drained of power. He doesn't want to fight, that's why he built the virus. To avoid this."

"You left out the part about him also expecting us to be dead. Whoever designed this virus is a formidable opponent and should be eliminated."

"Dylan? I didn't want to say this at first, I mean I thought the sensors were broken again, but then again..."

"Just spit it out, girl," Tyr prodded, annoyed.

"Well, at first I wasn't reading any lifesigns on the ship, and when I looked further I saw that there really isn't a ship there at all. It's not real."

"What?" The three other people on Command exclaimed at once.

"Those missile hits were real enough."

"Actually, they weren't. We were damaged, but it was from inside. Explosions caused by the virus. Look." Trance cut the power to the main screen, and the image of the ship faded away as the electricity drained. Nothing remained but the stars. "He wasn't emitting an energy signature or anything."

"Maybe this guys plot is to drive us all insane," Tyr complained.

"Andromeda? How's Harper doing?" Dylan asked.

Her computer image popped into existence on the screen. "He is almost ready for you to initiate the overload, Beka."

"All he has to do is give the word."

Moments later, Beka sent all available power through the conduit Harper had built, causing a momentary loss of lighting, and the computers to shut down. Time stretched on, but eventually the eerie silence caused by the power loss was replaced by everything booting up again. Unlike before, when Harper emerged from the matrix, he had a huge grin on his face.

"Oh yeah, who's good." He jumped up, pulled out the jack and started rambling like mad and gesturing wildly. "It was amazing! I was actually surprised it worked! I mean, sometimes the most high tech problems require the most low tech solutions!"

"So the virus is gone?"

"You said it! That mother burned to a crisp and disintegrated! Gives new meaning to the phrase 'ashes to ashes'."

"Just like that?" Dylan was feeling very unsure about things. Problems were never solved this easily. "Is there a 'but' to this, Mister Harper?"

The engineers smile faded a bit. "I thought I'd soften you guys up a bit first." Recieving imploring looks from everyone, he continued. "Before it went kaboom, it sent one last transmission. Most likely to its creator. We should be expecting company soon."

"I should have seen that coming," Tyr growled. "What makes you so sure the message was an invitation to this 'creator'?"

"Because once I deciphered the highly coded binary sequence, it said something resembling, 'I'm over here. Come and get me.'"

"Alright people, it looks like we'd better shape up. There's company coming."