Harper's Lab

"Well Harper?" Asked Dylan "Did it work or was this another one of your mistakes?"

"It should have worked boss. All the readings show that it worked. Beka should be here now."

"Dylan," said Rommie "I believe it did work, see." Rommie was pointing to what appeared to be a small pile of rags on the floor about six feet in front of them. They all walked over to where Rommie had pointed for a closer look.

"I don't believe it Harper. I just don't believe it." said Dylan.

Harper looked stunned as he stared a the mound of clothes on the floor.

El Dorado Drift

Beka felt an odd tingling sensation for a moment then a cool draft chilled her.

"Come on Trance let's go, the store's up ahead two doors on the left."

She paused a moment when she saw that everyone nearby was staring at her. "What's wrong Trance, why is everyone..." Beka's voice trailed off as she saw the look of total surprise on Trance's face and followed her gaze. Beka now knew that it wasn't the air conditioning that had caused her sudden chill but the fact that all her clothes had suddenly vanished. Even though she had no taboo's about nudity, she also definitely didn't care for being disrobed in a crowd of strangers.

She noticed Trance frantically speaking into her communicator. After a moment Trance looked at her and spoke one word "Harper"

Beka's face flushed red with anger as realized what had happened. "HARPER, you son of a bitch, I'm gonna kill you for this! " She yelled into her empty hand before she noticed she was no longer holding her com link. When she looked at Trance again, she saw that Trance was still talking into her communicator while looking about as if looking for some thing..

"Let me have that thing," she snapped at Trance, literally snatching the communicator out of her hands. "I want to have some words with Harper."

Harper's Lab

"Dylan, Trance has just informed me that she and Beka are both unharmed but that it would be best if Harper were to stay clear of Beka for a while."

"Thank you Andromeda. Well, Mr. Harper, what do you have to say about this?" asked Dylan while trying to keep a straight face.

"You know Harper , she might just decide to kill you for this." commented Tyr. He was trying and failing miserably to keep from laughing. Both Rommie and Andromeda were starting to chuckle also.

"It's not my fault it didn't work right" Harper said weakly. "It should have worked."

"Harper." said Dylan, trying to get his attention.

"Everything was working correctly." Harper continued as he examined the instrument panel, not even noticing Dylan.

"HARPER!" said both Dyan and Rommie louder this time.

"The instruments show that every thing worked just like they did in the tests." he said as he pulled out his interface cable and proceeded to connect himself to the computer, no longer aware of anyone else in the room or that he was beginning to ramble on.

"HARPER!" yelled Dylan, Rommie and Andromeda simultaneously, finally getting his attention.

"What boss?" asked Harper as he turned to face them. He saw Tyr leaving the lab laughing harder than he had ever seen him laugh before. "Glad I could make somebody's day."

Dylan merely pointed to Beka's clothes on the floor.

"Oh, right Boss." he said as he figured out what Dylan meant. Andromeda indicated to him that she had a channel to Trance and Beka ready. "Beka I'm really, really sorry about this. It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

"Harper I don't give a damn about how it was supposed to work, it didn't," Beka snarled into Trance's com link with a tone of unmistakable anger in her voice.

" I'm going to make it up to you boss and I'll start by sending your clothes back to you right away."

"That's a good start Harper. No wait, don't send them down. I don't want to risk another one of your disasters. Trance and I are right in front of a clothing store I'll get some clothes here."

"Get yourself anything you want boss. I'll pay for it." Harper offered.

Of course you are Harper. You're going to pay in ways you can't even imagine." she said in a menacing tone that made Harper shudder.

"Harper!" Dylan snapped at him. "Later I want to see you in my office, but in the mean time I want you to figure out just what went wrong." He turned and headed out of the lab without waiting for Harper to reply, giving in to the laughter he had been struggling to contain.. Rommie left close behind him while Andromeda and Logic disappeared leaving Harper to his work and wondering if Beka would have the kindness to simply shoot him rather than shoving him out an airlock.

El Dorado Drift

"Come on Beka let's get to the store before this crowd gets any worse" Trance said while reaching to help Beka make her way to the store.

Then an old woman who had been making her way through the crowd stopped when she saw Beka. There was a look of surprise on her face which quickly turned to one compassion. She was dressed in clothing that looked more like rags than anything else. She was wearing a tattered red cloak which had faded over the years. Although there were many stains on it, it was neatly patched and the way she wore it made it clear that this was her most prized possession.

"Oh my." she said. Then she quickly pulled off her tattered cloak and pushed it into Beka's hands saying "You need this more than I do." Then she moved off into the crowd disappearing as quickly as she had appeared.