OK, OK, I'm a terrible person who leaves updates for MONTHS on end. What happened was, I lost the disk with the rest of this on and I was so depressed about it that I just couldn't be arsed to update for a long time. So to make up for it, here's the next chapter!
Chapter 14
"Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest of violence."
Francis Jeffrey
''I was aiming between his eyes,' Harper added conversationally. He relaxed his fingers to let the gun clatter to the floor. There was a stunned silence, then Lise gave a small, terrified, gasping scream and collapsed at Reb's side, supporting his lolling head and whispering in his ear. He didn't respond; he was in a state of deep unconsciousness, but she didn't think it was a coma. Yuna reached down to shake him, but Lise dashed her hands away.
'Be careful,' she cried in a panicked voice. 'He might have hurt his spine!' She pulled off her jacket, folded it up and pushed it under Reb's head. 'You!' she called to Beka, who looked stunned. 'Get Aur … get that nurse lady in here NOW!' Beka nodded in a dazed fashion and sprinted away towards med deck.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew had their guns trained on Harper, fingers clenched on the triggers, looking at him in shock and hatred. He spread his arms wide and waggled to his fingers to prove that he was unarmed.
'I'm done,' he said. 'Besides, if a bunch of freaks like you kill me then Dylan will have you all shot. You don't have any rights.'
'Let me get him' Bren muttered, aiming his gun at Harper's shins. 'I got a target, please! We can say it was an accident.' Behind his harsh, tough words his voice shook with injured pride.
'Bren, he's right, we can't shoot him?' Gret said reasonably, although her eyes were shining with tears.
'Why the hell not? He just shot Reb! He called us freaks! It's pretty obvious he's an Angel. I say we give him an Angel's fate,' Bren was seething, his trigger finger aching to cause pain.
'Go ahead, do it. You're an animal. You're not human. I don't expect any better,' Harper sneered, but his voice broke and tears started to spring up and tremble in his eyes. Bren was certain that at that point he would have shot Harper without mercy, were it not for the sudden arrival of Aurora … no, Trance, on the scene.
'What happened? What's going on?' she asked. 'Beka said Harper's been shot?
The Deepwater crew looked at Beka quizzically.
'I was confused,' she said. 'I – I just wanted to get Trance down here as fast as possible.'
'It's Reb who's been shot,' Zak informed her, his eyes burning with indignation. 'Harper was doing the shooting.'
'Want to help, Beka?' Harper cried happily. 'I'll give you a weapon and we'll watch them run. Shoot them in the ankles; it slows them down!'
'You shut up!' Bren yelled, striding forward and hitting Harper roughly in the mouth, spinning the smaller man around and knocking him to the floor. 'Don't you dare! Keep your filthy mouth shut or I'll kill you! I'll kill you!'
'Stop it! Leave him alone!' Trance said, her voice hitched and raspy with stemmed tears of shock. She knelt at Reb's side, felt his pulse, and said quickly, 'his back's not hurt, but I'll need your help to get him to med deck so I can cauterise the wound and sort out his chest. You…' she gestured to Zak. 'You take his legs…'
One by one the crew reluctantly lowered their weapons and helped her take Reb to med deck, all apart from Yuna, who stayed behind to watch over Harper. He looked at her, his chest rising and falling in heavy breaths, and he was no longer triumphant, but troubled. His face crumpled and he sank to the floor, hugging his knees.
'Harper…'
'Don't talk to me, monster.'
'You don't mean that, I know you don't. Why did you do that to Reb? What did he do?'
Harper's laugh was muffled by the material of his pants. 'It's more to do with what he is than what he's done. And you're just as bad, so leave me alone.' He lay down on the deck and rolled ontohis side so that he was facing away from her.
'I don't…'
'Eighteen years!' he yelled furiously, jumping up. 'Almost two decades on that stinking planet and what do I get for most of it? Or rather, who do I get it from?'
'I…'
'Nietzscheans! And where do you think they came from, hmmm? What little brainwave brought around the scourge of the Known Worlds? What was the research that enabled them to replicate the cells that they liked the look of and to destroy the ones they didn't? Come on, even freaks of nature have brains, you must be able to work it out!'
'Oh no,' Yuna whispered. 'The first clones…'
'Yeah, think your universe is special? Think it only happened there? It didn't! The science used to make you was the same used to destroy Earth! Because from that research they made clones, and from clones they made ubers! And you're even worse than them because if I were to kill you now you could just come straight back! You're the worst kind of Nietzschean! And I know what your plan is, to take control of the Andromeda, to steal the slipstream drive and to take over Earth!'
