Dylan's Office

It had taken Dylan almost an hour before he could think about what had happened without laughing. Now two hours later he thought that Harper had had enough time to figure out what had gone wrong and maybe even to have devised a solution. He turned to Andromeda as she appeared on the view screen in his office and said, "I need you to monitor and record what Harper says when I talk to him. You know how difficult it is to understand him when he's explaining something he invented."

"Dylan, I presently have archived 23 detailed reports from him about his inventions that neither I, nor anyone else in the Commonwealth can understand. The chance that there is anyone besides Harper in the Commonwealth that is competent to understand this one is almost non-existent."

Dylan sighed then called out "Harper." When Harper appeared on screen Dylan said, "I want you to report to my office ASAP."

"Sure thing Boss" Harper replied and then he disappeared from the view screen. The room was filled with a low hum and a momentary flash of light. "Is this soon enough for you?" Harper ask immediately after materializing in front of Dylan's desk.

"I see that you got it fixed."

"I didn't fix nothing, it was working right the whole time."

"Then what went wrong?"

"I don't know yet. After I checked the teleporter for malfunctions I tested it on some objects. Everything worked perfectly so I programed a batch of nano-bots for myself and ..."

"Wait a second," interrupted Dylan. "What about these nano-bots? Are they anything like those replicators? You said you got the idea on how to do it from the replicators."

"No boss, they're nothing like that. You see the problem with the teleporter was that once I had figured out how to de-materialize and re-materialize things , which is easy once you realize that matter is a form of energy being held in a stable pattern, we didn't have sensors that were good enough to lock on to it. I'm mean Thor's people are way ahead of us in that department. According to what Major Carter and Dr. Jackson say, the Asgard have been working on this stuff for a few million years. So..."

"Harper, get to the point and keep it simple."

"Right Dylan. Well these nano-bots not only serve as a beacon for the teleporter to lock on to its target, they also help focus the energy field necessary for de-materialization. You see I got a hint about the energy field from how the basic replicator building blocks recombine after being broken apart. The replicator blocks generate a low energy electromagnetic field that causes them to be attracted to each other and recombine. Only this isn't your normal electromagnetic field which has a very short range of effect. No this one also emits through a sub-dimension of the normal space/time continuum, which increases its range to about 2 AU's. This is the energy field that the shorinol disrupts so we could destroy them and they couldn't recombine. The circuitry to produce that electromagnetic energy field in the replicators is an integral part of the replicators. Well I've constructed several varieties of nano-bots that attach themselves to living organic compounds, non-living organic compounds inclose proximity to living organic compounds and inorganic compounds .."

"Nano-bots that attach to people and the clothes and equipment on their persons. Right?"

"Uh, yeah boss. These nano-bots produce a momentary high energy field when activated by the teleporter that de-materializes what it is attached to and almost instantaneously re-materializes it in the complimentary energy field projected by the device. You know it's actually kind of simple when I think about it. This energy field creates a conduit through a sub dimension of normal space in which all points have no discernable distance between them, as far as we're concerned that is.

"You call this keeping it simple, Harper? Just get to the point where you tell me why you "Beamed up" Beka's clothes and equipment and not Beka." Dylan said in an irritated tone of voice.

"Well the nano-bots that were supposed to attach to Beka herself didn't get activated when the rest of them did. Why they didn't work, I don't know. It's as if they were destroyed by being in contact with Beka."

"If you don't have any thing further to add I think I will let you get back to work this. You might want to check with Trance about those nano-bots that didn't work on Beka."

"I'll get on it right away." said Harper and he raised what looked like a remote, pushed a button and disappeared.

"Dylan, I am getting concerned about Harper." Andromeda commented.

"Why, what's wrong?"

"I have been monitoring his meds and each time that he has teleported himself, there was an unusual surge of energy in his neurological system. The effects appear to be cumulative. Each time the surge was a little stronger and lasted a little longer."

"Keep an eye on him Andromeda, we can't afford to lose him."

El Dorado Drift

Beka and Trance exited a shop with a holographic sign that said "Welcome to Aurora's Clothing Emporium: The Finest Clothes and the Latest Fashions in the Quadrant". The sign switched between eight major languages every five seconds. Beka had a small anti-grav shopping cart she had rented from the clothing store. In the cart she had two large dress boxes and a couple of bags.

"Beka, I thought you were only going to get one outfit for the wedding."

"I am, this one is for you" Beka said as she picked up one of the boxes..

"Oh thank you Beka, but I didn't ask for one. How much do I owe you for it."'

"Nothing Trance, but you can thank Harper for it when we get back to the ship." Beka paused in front of an open air café. She looked at Trance and motioned towards one of the empty tables "Lets stop here and get a drink before we finish shopping. Harper's buying."

"Don't you think your getting carried away with this? That flight jacket you got cost ten times the amount of your other one, and that was one of the cheapest things you bought."

"He owes me and he is going to pay for what he did." Beka said with a slight growl as they sat down. As the waitress approached and started to hand them a menu Beka stopped her and said "Just bring us a bottle of your best wine."

"You know that he didn't mean to do it, I mean that he didn't intend for it to happen the way it did." Trance said after the waitress left.

"That's just the problem he never intends for it to happen but it always does. This time he went to far. He used me as a guinea pig without even asking me."

"He just wanted to surprise you."

"Surprise me! That's an understatement. He left me naked in the middle of a crowd of people on a busy street. That's what he did." Beka's face flushed with anger as she remembered the incident. She stared at Trance as she saw that Trances sides were heaving spasmodically and that Trance her hands over her mouth. "What's wrong Trance," she asked? Then she heard a muffled laugh which quickly grew louder . Trance dropped all attempts to keep from laughing and lowered her hands to hold her side as she gave in to the laughter.

When the waitress arrived with the wine and two glasses Trance was still laughing loud and uncontrollably. Beka paid with the temporary voucher which had arrived while she and Trance were the clothing store and charged everything she bought with it to Harper's account. As she paid the waitress commented "That must have been some joke."

"I guess so, but I didn't think it was that funny," Beka replied. " Would you please bring me a glass of water and a towel as quickly as you can?" The waitress took less than a minute to bring a towel, a glass and a pitcher of water from which she proceeded to fill the glass. "Thank you and please leave the pitcher." Beka told her. As the waitress left Beka stood, picked up and emptied the pitcher over the head of the still laughing Trance.

Beka sat back down as Trance shrieked out of surprise drawing even more attention to than her laughing had. Beka tossed the towel to Trance and then poured a glass of wine and waited for Trance to dry herself. "Why did you do that", asked Trance?.

"What were you laughing at that was so funny?"

"Well you were talking about what happened and I got to thinking about it and then I remembered the look on your face when you realized what had happened." Trance paused as she watched Beka's expression which showed an equal measure of anger and frustration. " Well it was funny, really it was. Look nobody got hurt right."

"I wasn't hurt, I was just humiliated in public, that's all." Beka retorted.

"See every things ok. A little humiliation is good for us, it keeps us humble." Trance said in a cheery tone of voice as she started looking around for something.

"Sure you might not mind being humiliated, but I do. What are you looking for?"

"This." Said Trance as she pulled a small bundle wrapped in a plain unmarked wrapper out of the cart and placed it on the table.

"What is it?"

"The old woman's cloak," she replied as she opened the package and showed Beka the freshly washed and mended cloak. "See. I had it cleaned and mended while you were trying on clothes."

"I thought you threw that away, at least that's what I asked you to do with it."

"No." said Trance with an uncharacteristic amount of defiance in her voice. "I couldn't do that. It was obviously her most valued possession, the least we could do was clean and mend it before we give it back to her."

"You gotta be kidding Trance. Just where are we going to find her in the first place. Besides what difference would it make?"

"It makes a difference Beka, everything we do makes a difference."

"Really Trance, I hadn't noticed," Beka replied with a sarcastic tone of voice. She drank some more of her wine before continuing. "After everything we've done the past few years it doesn't seem to have changed anything. At least not for the better. We helped restore the Commonwealth, but it's still the same old corrupt governments running the show. The Nietzscheans are still around causing trouble and the collectors are still just as dangerous as ever. As far as I can see we haven't made a damn bit of difference."

"We've made a difference Beka, believe me we've made a world of difference."

"Is that so. Look at Harper for instance, I save his ass from the Nietzscheans and Magog on earth. Then I save his ass a few more times on top of that and look what thanks I get. He uses me as a guinea pig in one of his projects that leaves me naked in a crowd of strangers."

"Beka!" Trance exclaimed in shock. "You know very well that Harper has saved not only yours but Dylan's , Tyr's and everyone else's lives more times than all of you put together have saved his. How many times have any of even acknowledged that fact let alone thanked him for it?" Trance paused to take a sip of her wine while Beka stared in stunned surprise. "You know he doesn't do it for praise or reward. He does it because he is saving the only family he has left. That's why, and for him that is enough thanks." She paused and a look came over her face as if were seeing something that only she could see.

Beka cleared her throat and said "Trance, you know I didn't mean it the way it sounded, especially the last part about Harper. I was angry and I was just blowing off some steam."

"No Beka I think you really did mean it that way and that's why we have to find the old woman even more now." Trance activated her com-link and said, "Andromeda, can you send a Maria or a crewmember to the El Dorado café to pick up Beka's stuff and bring it back to the ship. Beka and I have something that we need to take care of first.