Part 25
Dylan Hunt stood on the command deck, with his arms crossed. Either side of him at their respective consoles, Rhade and Rommie looked on. The view screen presented them with Yussuf, the tyrant that had become an unwelcome distraction, who should have remained part of a simple mission but had now overstepped the mark with his arrogant actions against the Commonwealth.
"You have two of my crew, being held against their will and we would like them back," Dylan spoke with authority.
"Did you not take one of my crew?" Yussuf simply answered, with an air to suggest a lack of concern. "You know, Captain Hunt, I think you need to look inwardly at your own actions, before you question mine."
"Yussuf, when we had Dani on board, you could have just talked to us to discuss the situation," Dylan reasoned. "We did not force Dani to come with us, and she was treated as a guest whilst aboard, and we have ship logs to confirm that," Dylan stressed.
"Captain Hunt, I have eyes, and they can see quite well, so we'll reserve judgement on that little claim," Yussuf quickly sneered and looked distracted, showing a disinterest to the captain's words.
"I can assure you that none of my crew harmed Dani," Dylan argued. "But my point is this, you decided to attack us rather than talk, so we were unable to negotiate Dani's return to you, you made the first strike, not us."
"Petty arguments will get us no where, fact is you took something that wasn't yours to take, and that is all I have done by return, we're even Dylan Hunt," Yussuf simply announced. "And I'm afraid that when I take something, I keep that something, so the kludge and the female that you claim as crew, they are now mine," he stressed his position. "It's been a bore talking to you, but we have places to be, good day, Captain Hunt."
"Wait," Dylan called out before Yussuf closed transmission. "You can not just lay claim on people like this, we will not allow you to keep members of our crew in this fashion."
"Captain Hunt," Yussuf said with agitation. "You want to negotiate, fine, let's negotiate, tell me what you can give me in return for the female?"
Dylan glanced around and with hidden amusement he stood proud. "I can give you some assurance that on the safe return on both of my crew, we will not hit you will all the Andromeda firepower we can throw at you, I'm sure your sensors knows that this ship carries an almighty punch."
To his credit, Yussuf only slightly flinched at Dylan's terms, but he quickly recovered his composure. "The Commonwealth is not welcome in this sector, and I know that a man like you, with a dream like yours would not risk alienating such a large sector of space for two simple crew mates."
"You seem to over estimate your popularity in these parts, Yussuf," Dylan declared with confidence, as he crossed his arms defiantly. "I want you to return the Maru, with both of my crew on board, and I'll give you ten minutes to respond, Dylan out," he ordered and Rommie quickly cut the connection.
Dylan frowned, as he turned to Rhade and Rommie, to catch their reactions. "This should be interesting," he simply spoke, as he prepared to wait.
Beka jumped at the sound of the cell door activating and her heart seemed to stop, Harper had yet to return and her mind had been expecting the worse. When Yussuf entered the cell minus Harper, she couldn't help but show her anger and despair.
"I am giving you a choice, and I don't do this often," Yussuf declared without any explanation for Harper's absence. "You can return now to the Andromeda, taking your ship, do you want to go?"
"What about Harper?" Beka quickly asked, her voice almost catching in her throat.
"What about him?" Yussuf showed confusion. "Do you want to return?"
"Not without Harper," Beka stressed.
"Does that mean you wish to stay?" Yussuf pushed.
Beka glared at Yussuf. "Tell me where Harper is."
"He's somewhere," Yussuf loosely gestured. "Still breathing," he added arrogantly. "So, you have an opportunity to return, what is your decision?"
"You're a sick bastard," Beka spat, wishing her hands were free of their restraints so she could at least attempt to throttle the Nietzschean tyrant.
"That's not an answer," Yussuf explained. "That's at least ten lashings, now get back to the point and answer my very simple question," Yussuf declared.
Beka closed her eyes, she wanted nothing more than to jump back into the Maru and return to the Andromeda, but could she really leave Harper behind? "Is Harper going to get the same question?"
"Yes," Yussuf simply said.
"Will you tell him my decision?" Beka questioned.
"Do I really look like the fool you seem to think I am?" Yussuf was at least honest in his reaction.
Beka took a deep breath, she knew Harper well, and she knew that if he was asked the same question, he too would assume that she would not be joining him, and he would decide to stay, to stick it out together.
"Well?" Yussuf asked with urgency. "You know, time is not something to waste."
Could she call his bluff? Could she really say yes to leaving, and then hope Harper does the same, meaning they both escape his clutches, but would he then even give Harper the choice if she did say yes? Beka was confused and felt helpless, had he already asked Harper, and had Harper already requested to leave and was he waiting for her on the Maru?
With a heavy heart, Beka knew she couldn't leave, not without knowing the full facts and if it meant she was left behind, so be it. "I want to stay," Beka decided finally, with her head down.
"Did we get that on internal cameras?" Yussuf asked.
"Loud and clear," a guard confirmed.
"Right, let's find the kludge, play him for his loyalty to his friend too and let Dylan Hunt deal with it," Yussuf said with satisfaction, leaving Beka to hate him even more for his manipulation.
"He won't accept it," Beka warned Yussuf before he left the room. "You can't just wish Dylan Hunt to go away, it doesn't work like that!" she now yelled to make sure he understood the man he was trying to outsmart, but Yussuf wasn't listening.
His office was silent now, and Dylan Hunt considered the two recordings he had just seen. Beka seemed as though she was resisting the words she spoke, and Harper, Dylan had never seen the kid looking so rough, and he remembered how he had barely recognised him with his hair so roughly cut down to his scalp.
"Yussuf is hailing us," Holo-Rommie appeared before Dylan.
Dylan closed his eyes, before composing himself and gesturing to Rommie to patch him through.
"Yussuf, you know," he began with a knowing expression. "Had my crew been in the same room, making these statements together, I might have been convinced of their wishes to stay," Dylan declared. "It's obvious that you played them off of each other, and I'm not impressed by this tactic, or the condition in which they are being kept."
Yussuf seemed taken aback. "I can assure you that your crew are being kept clean and safe on board my ship."
"Is that so? Then explain to me why do they both look as though they've been enrolled in some fight to the death program?" Dylan barked back.
"Being a part of my crew is not as soft as being a part of a Commonwealth Crew, that is all, Captain Hunt," Yussuf declared. "You heard them, they have both declared on film about their desire to stay with me, and my crew," Yussuf continued. "There will be no further discussion, Yussuf out."
The screen went blank before the Commonwealth insignia appeared in Yussuf's place. Rommie had remained in hologram form, and she now looked with care at Dylan Hunt.
"With those declarations, no matter how forced you may judge them to be, it's going to make retrieving our crew a lot harder to enforce through Commonwealth channels," Rommie informed him.
"I'm not going to use those claims as fact, Rommie," Dylan argued, as he stood up. "It's clear as day that they were forced to say those words, so in my mind they are void, and nothing has changed, he is holding two of my crew against their will and we have to get them back," Dylan stressed loudly.
"The Commonwealth may not see what you see, with the World Ship approaching they might not see this as a good time to take on a tyrant like Yussuf," Rommie reasoned.
"With the World Ship threat, I see more reason to do what we can to get our crew back, Rommie," Dylan declared. "You know we're going to need Beka and Harper right here, by our side for this fight," he stated, and then took a deep breath to calm his emotions. "We are going to bring Beka and Harper home," he simply stated before leaving his office.
"Good," Rommie simply responded, with a half smile, before she disappeared from sight.
The grated floor was a welcome sensation, as Harper found his body landing on top of it. He felt as though it was on fire, there wasn't an inch of skin that didn't burn or irritate him, as Harper took controlled breaths in an attempt to recover.
"Seamus?"
Harper focused as best he could on the voice that had spoken his name. "Dani?" he gasped.
"Shay, you're awake," Dani's voice got closer. "I thought that maybe you were unconscious, I heard your screams, I'm so sorry," Dani said in a hushed voice, full of concern.
"This isn't your fault," Harper stated between breaths, he still couldn't see Dani, only hear her, as he remained face down on the deck, with his hands still tied behind his back. "The Commonwealth decided to take something from Yussuf, and now we're paying that price, it has nothing to do with you."
Harper felt Dani's hand touch his exposed back, and the pain was unbearable. "Don't touch me!" he snapped, and noticeably tensed as Dani moved her hand quickly away, he could now just about see her from the corner of his eye.
"I'm sorry," Dani offered, and her voice laced with concern, and she moved out of his vision again, but he sensed her returning to his side. "What are they doing to you? Your skin, it's burning."
"I know," Harper said with shortness, the pain alone was driving him crazy with its unrelenting hold.
"The cleansing process," Dani then figured. "Yussuf is a bit obsessed about things being clean, avoiding disease and germs, add that to his general distrust of kludges, and I guess this is his way of protecting himself from what he sees as a threat to his health."
"He sees me as a threat?" Harper had to smile, even if it went unnoticed by Dani, as Harper rested his forehead against the deck, focused on trying not to move, and to ignore the pain.
"Only in a disgusting sense, on par with say a rat," Dani had to be honest. "Look, I have to go but I wanted to tell you that they don't know," she stressed.
"Don't know what?" Harper questioned, using all his will power to concentrate on Dani's voice, and he sensed her move closer still, so she could now whisper.
"They don't know my head is fixed, they still think I don't remember," Dani revealed, and she lightly brushed what little hair Harper now had covering his sore scalp. "I liked it better before," she said as a parting shot, and Harper knew she had left him, wherever he now found himself.
Moments later Harper yelled as a jet blast of freezing cold water attacked his unprotected body, and he struggled to avoid its unrelenting barrage, unable to escape the final stage of the cleansing process.
Dylan had struggled to relay the information to Trance, and he had agonised over whether to show her the shots of both crew members that they had received, knowing she would be upset by Beka and Harper's beaten features. In the end, he decided that Trance had a right to know everything, and now she was looking back at him with anger clear in her expression.
"I trust you have a plan, Dylan," Trance spoke from the Ipcres home world, where she continued to help them to rebuild after the attacks.
"I have the motivation to form a plan, and I do not intend to let Yussuf continue to hold them against their will," Dylan said with conviction.
"I will return soon, my work here is almost done," Trance indicated. "Dylan, I must stress that Harper was not in the best of health when he left us, we have to get him away from Yussuf," she said with concern. "I would strongly advise that you test Dani's loyalty to Harper now, as part of your plan; we may find that she could be valuable to us."
"You think what they share is real?" Dylan was forced to question, his own uncertainty clouding his judgement. "Real enough, that she would help us?"
"I believe we have to try and determine if it is," Trance simply answered. "It could be the only advantage we have."
"That's not a great sign, Trance, if Dani was just using him then we have nothing," Dylan sighed.
"We have to try," Trance reiterated.
Dylan began to nod his head. "Let me know when you leave the system, you presence here is becoming more urgent."
"I will, Trance out," she declared before the transmission ended.
Looking up, Dylan knew he had to follow Trance's advice, and test Dani's loyalty, to discover which way she now truly followed, was she with Harper, or with Yussuf, although Dylan was forced to admit that he feared it was still the latter, and wondered if he could take that chance on her.
"Andromeda, put me on ship wide," Dylan ordered and heard the confirmation. "Can all senior crew members report to the meeting room, immediately," Dylan announced, for the first time he found himself calling on the crew members that were immediately below the command crew positions, but with only Rhade and Rommie representing the command crew, he was forced into using all his options.
Beka had managed to shuffle herself into the corner of the cell, the passage of time since she had last seen Harper now seemed immense and she was resigned to the possibility that she might not see him again. As much as she tried not to think about that prospect, Beka couldn't help herself.
When the cell door activated again some time later, Beka could only muster a small amount of interest, so low was her morale now. When two guards arrived semi carrying Harper, she suddenly brightened, but waited until they had left before reacting.
"Harper," Beka stressed with urgency, and began to shuffle towards his still body.
"Don't touch me," Harper simply stated.
"Why?" Beka asked with concern.
Harper didn't answer immediately. "Just don't," he requested tiredly.
As Beka moved closer she could see a reddish tint to his once pale complexion, in some areas it seemed harsher than other areas, and the cuts across his back seemed only a little better, but there were a couple of fresh marks that hadn't been there before.
"You were put through the cleansing process again?" Beka question with confusion, knowing it had only been a few hours since they had both been through it the first time. Harper simply nodded his head, facing away from her, and seemingly battling with his own thoughts and emotions.
Beka took a moment to take in the sight, to fully understand what Harper was experiencing, he was wearing only a pair of loose fitting pants, his upper torso and his feet were exposed and showed off the true extent to the abuse he was receiving, there didn't seem to be an area untouched by the sores, or by cuts and bruises.
"Still with me?" Beka asked.
"Yeah," Harper simply responded. "Were you offered a chance off this ship too?"
"Yeah, they would have to drag me off this ship if you weren't by my side," Beka confirmed.
"You should have gone, I can handle this," Harper spoke without emotion, still facing away from her.
"I'm not leaving you behind," Beka stressed strongly. "If anyone should have gone, it's you, Harper you don't have to act the freaking hero."
"That's hardly my plan, Beka," he stated softly, and Harper finally moved with pain onto his side, and he looked at Beka through tired looking eyes, and it was clear that he was in some discomfort. "We stick together," he confirmed finally. "Did you bake me a cake?" he asked, his expression changing to a frown.
"I did, the ubers took it away," Beka played along.
"Bastards," Harper simply responded. "I like what you've done with the place while I've been away," he then continued the idle pointless chat.
"I was going for the ubers in space look," Beka now had to grin, wondering if this was some strange survival tactic that Harper had used in the past, he seemed familiar with the notion of talking crap, more so than usual.
"You did well, I'd almost believe we were on some uber scum slime of a ship," Harper said, his voice littered with bitterness and anger.
"That's the spirit," Beka simply declared, knowing Harper was still with her and was not allowing the situation to defeat him, and it gave her some hope.
The cell door slowly opened again, and Yussuf now strolled in, and Beka couldn't help her fury. "You sick bastard, do you get your kicks by doing this to people, hurting them like this?" she gestured with anger, ignoring the flash of anger Harper now threw her.
"I'm saving his life, keeping him clean, surely you understand how easy it is for kludges to get themselves ill?" Yussuf declared his innocence.
"Maybe if you didn't make them bleed, they wouldn't be at risk to infection," Beka said with bitterness.
Yussuf considered her words, before he glanced round to one of his guards. "You know, I don't think I like this one," he decided. "Maybe we should send her back to annoy Dylan Hunt instead of me?"
"It can be easily arranged, she has her own transport and we've disabled the weapon capabilities," the guard confirmed.
"Arrange it, I don't need to hear her whining all the time," Yussuf declared.
"Wait," Beka spoke up. "I'm not going anywhere, you can't force me!"
Yussuf showed his obvious amusement as Beka caught her own words. "That's the thing, I can, you are here at my whim and you can go on that same whim, and I would suggest for your own health that you think carefully about the tone in which you chose to speak to me."
"Please, I don't want to go," Beka now changed tact, Yussuf was gaining a little of her respect, but only a little.
"Even if it means a cleansing session that you will be due, having come into contact with that mess of a being?" Yussuf asked gesturing to Harper.
Beka hesitated, and Harper took the opportunity to speak. "Let her go, she won't quit complaining trust me," he stated.
"Harper!" Beka protested with shock.
"Then it's decided, you leave, and you take your poor excuse for a ship with you," Yussuf declared. "Let's hope my goodwill gesture in returning you will lessen the blow to the Commonwealth of me obtaining the services of his kludge for my pride."
Harper threw Yussuf a confused look, and glanced with concern to Beka, who now seemed ready for a fight, regardless of her restrained condition.
"We won't let you simply take him, we won't rest until he is returned to the Andromeda," Beka spat with fury and conviction.
"Then we should have some interesting times ahead," Yussuf declared and promptly left the room. "I'm looking forward to some piece and quiet around here too," he sniped in the distance.
"Beka," Harper spoke up once they were alone.
"Right now, Seamus, I'm this close to killing you myself," Beka snapped angrily. "What the hell happened to 'we're in this together'?" she demanded. "First chance you get, you chummy up to Yussuf and get rid of me?" she snapped.
"You can help me more without the restraints, with the Maru and the Andromeda behind you," Harper explained with care. "With you gone, I just have to focus on me, and they won't use us against each other again, don't you see that he's a master manipulator?" Harper questioned, he wanted Beka to see what he saw. "Just don't leave me here too long," he requested softly.
Beka's mood immediately softened. "You know I won't stop until your back in that machine shop messing about with some junk," Beka confirmed. "But I don't like leaving you here, not with him and what they are doing to you."
"Its nothing I haven't been through before," Harper dismissed, all too easily. "You've seen the layout of this ship, you know more about Yussuf than you did before, so use it to defeat him and bring me home," he reasoned.
Beka nodded her head, Harper was right, she had the opportunity to make Yussuf regret the day he dismissed her as nothing more than annoying, he'll find out first hand just how annoying she can be, the moment she is out of his control, he would see.
"Beka, when you leave on the Maru, don't be an easy target," Harper advised, as he moved to rest on his knees.
"I expect him to try and pick me off, so don't worry, I won't make it possible for him," Beka assured him. "And if he tries to convince you otherwise, don't believe your eyes, ok?"
Harper nodded his head. "Whatever happens, we had fun, right?"
"Always, and we'll have more fun soon," Beka grinned, with a sadness behind it, as guards arrived to take her away.
Yussuf stood by the airlock, and Beka stopped, closing her eyes briefly not believing that she was leaving Harper behind.
"Put her on board," Yussuf declared.
Beka felt her body being pushed through the airlock, and opened her eyes to see the full situation. "This isn't the Maru!" Beka demanded, and began to struggle.
"Tell me, Valentine, do I now have a tattoo on my forehead that reads 'I am really stupid'?" Yussuf asked, and before she could respond, he back handed her across the jaw. "You are being sent away; let's call you my security in case your kludge friend decides to play up."
"What do you have planned for him?" Beka had to know, she had to ask.
"Don't you worry about your friend, just hope that he doesn't cross me," Yussuf declared and Beka was pushed the rest of the way into the transport ship, and the air lock shut behind her, as she truly left Harper behind, knowing that the help he was hoping she would supply, would not be coming.
TBC