Part 4
Harper kept walking, not allowing the limp of his left leg to stop him, and suddenly his mind was a flurry of conflicting emotions. Trance had said it was ok for him to leave, and he wasn't interested in his temperature rising, he just wanted answers and there was only one thing on board that could give him those answers.
With blind fury Harper reached the brig, and immediately identified the one that contained his answers, and he rushed over.
"I trusted you!" Harper yelled, whilst bringing his right hand hammering down on the barrier that prevented him reaching the Magog occupant.
"Master Harper!" Rev's voice came back with obvious surprise.
"Damn you, I freaking trusted you, Magog!" Harper continued with rage his slurred tones less noticeable with the rage, as his right hand continuing to hit the cell door before he moved away and found the engineers supplies panel.
"Harper," Rommie's hologram flickered into existence beside him. "You're temperature is high, you have a fever, stop what you are doing," she ordered.
"Stay out of this, ship!" Harper stressed with conviction, a light sheen covering his face now, as he threw all manner of tools and equipment out of the storage panel, and Rommie blinked out of sight.
"Master Harper let me try to offer," Rev attempted to explain, but Harper soon cut him off, as he quickly returned with a data link cable.
"Forget it, Magog!" Harper yelled with anger, as he single handily connected a wire to his port and then to the door controls with determined focus.
"That is not a good idea, Harper," Rev warned, picking up on what Harper was doing. "I am still infected, and you are in no state," Rev attempted to explain, but the cell door opened.
"Harper!" Beka's voice now sounded, as she finally figured out Harper's destination having wrongly gone to his quarters first.
"Stay out of this, Valentine," Harper stressed coldly, as he stepped into the brig.
"I will not fight you, Harper," Rev offered, as he backed away from the irate human, who approached him with purpose.
Beka moved to the cell entrance, and soon found Tyr by her side having responded to Rommie's call for assistance. "Do something!" Beka exclaimed to Tyr, who simply looked on as Harper stared at the Magog.
"Trust him, trust the Magog, you know how many times I was freaking told that?" Harper stated with anger, his voice still loud but more controlled now.
"I am ill, Master Harper," Rev simply responded.
"But you're all the same, all of your kind," Harper seethed with effort, as his paralysis began to drag him down again. "What," he gasped, and paused for a moment. "What sham I?" he slurred now and closed his eyes for a second, determined to be understood. "Some joke to you?" he asked loudly. "Yeah, I trusted a freaking Magog, stupid freaking human, trusts the Magog and then what happened, huge freaking surprise he attacks me!" he yelled, and Beka noticed Harper stumble slightly.
"Harper, enough," Beka now spoke with authority.
"No, Valentine, I say enough!" Harper dictated now, regaining some control over his speech and actions. "Enough with this freaking freak show, enough with trusting the Magog, the uber, enough!" he yelled, and then staggered slightly, breathing deeply now, as he tried to maintain control.
"Have I done something to make you not trust me?" Tyr spoke up, seemingly put out by being spoken in the same breath as the Magog.
"Do you breathe?" Harper snidely returned, and Tyr crossed his arms. "Enough said," Harper finished, and turned back to Rev. "I trusted you, and do you even know what that meant, Magog?"
"It was more than I could have asked for," Rev stated, his head bowed.
"Seamus, come on, let's go," Beka spoke calmly. "You've said enough."
"Look at me, Magog," Harper demanded now with force. "Look at what you did to me!" Harper insisted now and reached forward without fear, and forced Rev's head up so he looked at him. "You hear me, my voice? You see me, my face, my arm, my left side?" He asked with emotions rising. "Because of you I speak like I'm drunk and I can barely stand on my two legs, and you know why?" Harper stared intently at Rev. "Because I'm the stupid fool that was convinced to accept you, trust you, to consider you a friend," he spoke with hurt in his voice now. "I've learned my lesson all too well," he finished, his hand pressed against Rev's neck now, but the Magog did nothing to stop Harper, as the distressed human pressed down harder on his wind pipe.
Tyr moved forward now, having realised that Rev was failing to respond to Harper's words and this concerned the Nietzschean. "Come now, Harper," Tyr simply spoke, as Harper continued to single handily strangle the Magog, a sinister look in his eye. "I do not wish to hang around for hours watching you only partially strangle a Magog, no matter how satisfying it is to see," Tyr remarked, and then acted quickly when he saw the first glint of anger in the Magog's eyes.
Harper was quickly pulled away, as Tyr saw Rev swipe a clawed hand towards the boy, narrowly missing slicing the human's skin. Wasting no time the Nietzschean pushed Harper towards Beka, and they all hurried out of the brig as Rev lost control to the illness once more. Once the door had been securely activated again, Beka and Tyr could only watch as Rev once more attempted to regain control over his fevered instincts.
"Hang in there, Rev," Beka simply encouraged, before turning to Harper who now rested with his back against the bulk head, catching his breath and looking as white as a sheet, his clothes drenched now in perspiration. "Come on, let's get you to your quarters so you can sleep this fever off," Beka said with care.
"You shaw that, right?" Harper checked with shaky breaths, his injuries and illness more noticeable now as he rapidly weakened before them.
Beka knelt down beside the fallen human, who seemed more shaken than angered now. "I saw it," Beka confirmed. "Neither of you are thinking in your right minds at the moment, so come on, time to rest and get over this fever," Beka encouraged Harper to stand. "It's been a long day for everyone."
Harper was now too tired to respond, as he clung to Beka as she took his weight. Tyr hung back, observing the Magog with disgust.
"Let it be known, should it come down to who goes and who stays, the boys ability to make this relic move will be the deciding factor, I would strongly suggest you work through this illness and fast, and you do the boy no harm in the meantime," Tyr warned before walking away, leaving Rev alone to meditate.
Rommie stood at her console on command, and she glanced at Dylan before turning to speak to him.
"Should we be concerned by this conflict that has developed between Rev and Harper?" Rommie asked with caution, the earlier discussion with her other selves playing on her mind now.
Dylan sighed. "I'm trying not to be, they seem a resilient unit, so I'm hoping they can bounce back from this."
"They have served side by side for a few years," Rommie noted. "But we still know very little about them, and their past."
"We know enough," Dylan stated, still checking his console.
"What if this conflict between Harper and Rev isn't a new thing, what if they have just been getting along for our benefit?" Rommie asked.
"Now you're speaking like the warship I know and love," Dylan partially smiled at the android, still getting use to her presence in human form. "Rev picked up an illness, Rommie, and now Harper has a weak strain of that same illness, I'm sure once they are both recovered things will be better between them," Dylan offered reassuringly.
"We need Harper," Rommie returned.
"We need Rev," Dylan stated just as firmly. "He's suffering just as much, he never intended or wished to harm Harper, but he did, that's the worse thing he could have done and he's having to deal with that, as well as the illness," Dylan insisted lightly.
"I am worried this will drive Harper away, he truly is a genius at getting my systems in working order, Dylan," Rommie said with concern now.
"Harper's obviously had to overcome his fear of Rev at least once before," Dylan considered, with awkwardness revealing his own fear now. "I mean the kid grew up in hell, and Magog played a major part of that fear."
"As did the Nietzscheans, and we have one of those on board too," Rommie responded.
"Look I hardly know Harper, and we're both still getting to know these people we now call our crew," Dylan explained. "I can't begin to understand what serving with Rev and Tyr must be like for Harper, and vice versa for Rev and Tyr working with him," Dylan shrugged, believing that Harper must have clashed with both species whilst on Earth, and Harper had survived which didn't bode well for his enemies, and Dylan was in no doubt that both Rev and Tyr would be aware of that fact.
Deciding to move on from that thought, Dylan looked at Rommie and saw her concern before he continued. "But what I do know of Harper is that he's a fighter and he knows a good thing when he sees it, and Rommie, that's you," Dylan smiled.
"He does appear to have developed quite an affection for me," Rommie was forced to admit. "I'm just not confident that it's enough to keep him here, considering the other factors."
"I'm sure Beka and Trance will do all they can to help both Harper and Rev," Dylan stated confidently. "All we can do is wait, one day I hope we'll be able to all serve together as a crew, but right now, I'm not sure we can do anything to help them."
"I have noticed that in time of crisis within this crew that the separate elements are more noticeable; the 'them and us' mentality," Rommie observed. "I am not use to not being involved in all aspects of my crews' welfare," she added.
"This is not a normal situation, not yet anyway, and it's still early days we've known them less than a couple of months," Dylan offered. "But give it time, Andromeda, as we live and work together, and experience more you will see that the crew will become one."
"That's if we even manage to keep a hold of this crew," Rommie noted as she returned to her console.
"Hope will be another factor," Dylan sighed.
End of part 4
