Chapter 5
"He's stuck, that's what it is. He's in between worlds. You know it happens sometimes that the spirit gets yanked out so fast that the essence still feels it has work to do here."
From Ghost
Harper turned around. Beka's kitten had been asleep on a chair in the corner on the room, but now it had lifted its head and was looking at him. Not even around him or behind him, but directly at him, and it was mewing quietly. Beka heard it too.
'Kitty? What's wrong?' Beka walked out of the shower, completely naked. She grabbed a soft, white towel from a shelf and wrapped it around her. Her usually blonde hair was dark from the moisture and lay in unattractive rats-tails against her bare skin. She had stopped crying and was frowning at the kitten. She followed its gaze until she was looking right at Harper as well but, unlike the kitten, saw only a bare wall. Harper was amazed. It seemed that animals really were more receptive than humans were.
Beka picked the kitten up, but it struggled and scratched her until she dropped it with a yelp of pain. It landed splay-legged on the white tiles and scrambled to its feet clumsily. It trotted over to Harper and tried to rub its tawny body against his leg, but of course fell right through him. For one surreal moment it seemed that Harper had a small cat in the place of his foot. Then the frightened feline backed off, hissing, with its ears flat against its head. Harper made coaxing noises with his tongue and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, but this only served to terrify it even farther and it darted away and hid trembling under the bed.
Beka had watched the whole thing with an open mouth and wide, dark eyes. She didn't even bother to try and comfort the kitten, just stared wildly around Harper and behind Harper, anywhere but actually at him. She suddenly started to shiver, wrapping the towel a little tighter around her. Harper saw tiny goosepimples rise on her flesh. He wondered if maybe his ghostly presence was making the room cold, then he realised that she was scared.
'Harper?' she whispered tentatively.
'YES! Yes, come on, Beka, it's me! I knew it, come on, Beka listen to me…' he crossed the room in a flash and stood in front of her, shoving his face right in front of hers. But of course she still couldn't see him. She shook her head and gave a sad little half-smile.
'Being silly,' she muttered, barely audible, and then began to dress slowly.
'Nooo! Kitty, tell her. Come on, you stupid hairball, what good are you if you can't let people know I'm here?' The cat remained stubbornly shivering under the bed. Harper snorted in disgust. Beka finished dressing, raked a hairbrush through her hair and straightened her clothes. 'Beka, come on, be open-minded for once in your life! Listen to the cat! Beka!' Useless. He sighed, then turned around with his arms folded.
'Hello, Wall. I've decided to talk to you now, 'cause I'll probably get more of a response,' he said disgustedly. Beka was unaware of his annoyance and left the room. Harper didn't bother to follow her; there was no point. He was alone once more, if you didn't count the wimpy little kitten under the bed.
Harper thought. Nothing.
He thought harder, and the beginnings of an idea started to form in his head.
He no longer had a physical body, that much was obvious. But what could he do before he died that didn't require a body? He felt the answer stir at the back of his head. He concentrated on it, wishing for some kind of solution. He was an engineer. He messed about with things, he put machines back together, but sometimes he didn't have to use his hands
(You can't see it yourself, but your dataport is gone as well.)
sometimes he just had to use his mind, when he had to jack in to the Andromeda…
The dataport. He didn't need it any more but…
What if he really didn't need it?
Harper's eyes went wide. He ran, ploughing through walls and floors, looking for a port where he normally would have jacked in. What if he didn't need a dataport at all any more? After all, the part of him that went into the Andromeda sure as hell wasn't his body, it was his mind, and his mind definitely wasn't with the charred remains of his body.
Harper stood in front of the control panel. Now that it came to it, he wasn't sure what his intentions were. The theory was there but he had no idea of how he was going to go about it. Then he thought of the way that the crew had ignored him, of Beka's tears, Bobby's half-crazed loneliness. Most of all, he thought of Gerentex. He squatted down and concentrated with new resolve.
He reached out a transparent hand, his fingertips hovering just over the tiny hole in the panel. He thought of Beka, he thought of Trance, he thought of Dylan. Hell, he even thought of Tyr. He curled his hand into a fist, then flexed it and touched the tip of one finger to the port. His head buzzed, he lost his form and felt himself being pulled into the Andromeda, jacking in like he had done so many times before. He saw thousands, no; billions of flashing lights and codes like little coloured stars. Then his vision cleared and he looked around with a proud smile.
He was in.
Time to play poltergeist.
