Part 33
The Andromeda seemed even more spectacular today as Beka proudly showed off her decks to Colin, who seemed overwhelmed by what he was seeing.
"And this is command," Beka gestured as the doors slid open.
"It's beautiful," Colin simply stated as they walked forward, and he saw Captain Hunt glance over at him with amusement.
"I never tire of seeing people's first reactions to this place," Dylan spoke up as Colin approached. "I trust you have settled into the guest quarters without a problem?" he asked.
"Everything is perfect, even the company," He smiled towards Beka.
Beka simply laughed dismissively, and then moved to her console to check if there had been any further messages from Rhade. "No word huh?" she sounded disappointed.
"Nothing yet, although it is night where Rhade is, so he may be resting," Trance spoke up, and she saw Colin staring at her again, just like he had when he had first met her at the beginning of Beka's tour.
"Dylan, I think the phrase 'speak of the devil' is applicable here," Rommie spoke up from the view screen. "I have a hail from Rhade, and he wishes to speak to you."
"Put him through," Dylan confirmed with a knowing smile towards Rommie. "Rhade, good to see you," Dylan gestured as his image appeared.
"And good to see my ship is in one piece," Beka added.
"Beka, it's good to see you," Rhade acknowledged brightly, before looking at Dylan. "Captain, I have news," he stated.
"Better be worth it, if those injuries to you face are a result of this information," Dylan offered with a slight concern.
"I am ok, this was self inflicted in a way, but I was able to speak to Dani," Rhade stated with satisfaction at his own work.
Beka looked amused. "Please tell me that Dani didn't do that to your face," she mocked.
"No," Rhade confirmed with an air of annoyance. "I enrolled in a fight night that Yussuf is keen on promoting, and through that I was able to freely speak to Dani, as she was the medic on duty after my bout."
"Interesting," Dylan crossed his arms. "And what did she have to say?"
"And more importantly how is Harper, is he with you?" Beka spoke up urgently.
"Unfortunately he isn't with me, and I wasn't able to sight Harper, but she told me he was at the palace," Rhade stated. "She did not have good news, in fact, she had no good news."
"Go on," Beka spoke gravely.
"It appears she had the idea of requesting that Harper become her slave," Rhade began and already knew how Beka would react.
"Did she now," Beka exclaimed with anger. "Yeah, good idea, let's turn Harper into the one thing that he has feared on the same level as the Magog all of his life, it must be fricking love," she snapped and looked downwards.
"Continue, Rhade," Dylan gestured.
"It would seem rather than keeping him out of trouble, it has done exactly the opposite," Rhade frowned. "It would appear that today he was in a position to save Yussuf's life, and did so."
The Command Deck was silent now, before Colin stepped forward from the shadows. "He saved Yussuf's life, how exactly?"
Rhade was a little taken aback by the new face, but saw Dylan nod his head to answer. "It seems that there was an attempt on Yussuf's life, and Harper intervened causing himself injury but Yussuf now, unofficially it seems, credits Harper with saving his life," he sighed. "Dani believes that to take Harper away from Yussuf now will be almost impossible as things stand."
"I bet she does, she has him right where she freaking wanted him all along, they have the Commonwealths best engineer kneeling at their damn feet," Beka seethed with fury.
"I did confront her on those concerns, Beka," Rhade spoke with care. "She continued to deny my accusations, so I left it that I will return to defend the title I won today during my fight, and I expect to leave with Harper when I am victorious again, with her help."
"Do you think she can help?" Dylan asked.
"She is not a slave or appears to be in any way restricted in her movements around Yussuf's base," Rhade confirmed. "If she truly wants to help Harper, and if she wants us to believe that, she will help us."
"And if she doesn't?" Beka questioned.
"Then she is the enemy and we must treat her as such, in truth if she doesn't help us her actions against Harper far outweigh anything Yussuf has done against him," Rhade considered.
Beka seemed to accept Rhade's words and nodded her head, as Colin stood beside her now. "Your friend, he stopped the rebellion," Colin spoke with confusion, almost in his own world with his thoughts.
"Not now," Beka spoke quickly.
"Rhade, we are heading your way, when is the next fight scheduled?" Dylan asked.
"Tomorrow night, I will rest now and await your call," Rhade confirmed and signed off.
"Dylan, we have to have a plan, we can't rely on Dani," Beka encouraged.
Trance now approached Dylan and calmly stared out to the stars. "I believe Dani will help us," she simply said, and looked at Dylan for his trust.
"Even so, I would still prefer to have a plan B, Trance," Dylan responded.
"Yussuf was supposed to die, and you are planning on saving the guy who ensured he didn't?" Colin spoke with shock.
"Colin, Harper is our friend, more importantly my friend, and we don't know the circumstances and trust me, when it comes to ubers like Yussuf, Harper could teach you a thing or two about hating them," Beka warned and Colin noticeably backed off.
"I think Colin should be allowed to get some food and rest now," Trance smiled and offered her arm for him to take. "Can I walk you to the mess deck," Trance asked, and Colin agreed, still numbed by what he had learned.
"Colin has a point," Beka finally spoke once she was alone on command with Dylan. "Harper has stopped the overthrow of a tyrant, what the hell was he thinking?" she stressed with anger.
"Is his name seriously Colin?" Dylan asked whilst distracted slightly by the work he was doing at his console.
"No," Beka couldn't help but smirk at Dylan's inappropriate question, but she needed the distraction herself after what they had just learned. "He adopted it for a fallen friend," she simply said and paused for a moment to contemplate things. "We have to bring Harper home, I don't care what his actions may have done," Beka stressed.
"Rommie needs him, this ship needs him, the commonwealth needs him with the World Ship so close, so we have every reason available to bring him home, don't worry," Dylan responded, still focused on his console.
Beka simply nodded her head, but she couldn't help the fear she was feeling deep inside that on this occasion Harper could be out of reach, and her anger towards Dani resurfaced with a passion, knowing that there was a possibility now that Dani had all played them for fools.
Dani hurried behind Kane as they reached the medical area, before she pushed past him to go to Harper's side. He was unconscious and she could see that his breathing was laboured. With urgency Dani cleaned her hands and put on a gown, before she looked at Kane.
"Can you help me?" Dani asked.
Kane didn't respond but did as she had, cleaning his hands and grabbing a gown. Dani immediately set to work on easing Harper's breathing as she hooked him up to respirator, and then she focused on his hand.
"He's lost a lot of blood, why wasn't then cleaned and closed up?" she demanded, but knew that Kane had no answers.
"I guess the doc had other concerns, like encouraging the kludges early death," Kane simply shrugged. "We have suspected that he may be disloyal to Yussuf for a while," he added calmly.
"Yussuf should know about the doctor, but only if we've reached Shay in time," Dani stressed as she worked feverously to save is life. "Hand me that," Dani gestured towards a tray of clips, and Kane wasted no time in handing them over.
"The kludge has nothing to worry about if you keep this up," Kane observed sounding impressed by Dani's work.
"Will you stop calling him that, his name is Shay," Dani returned bluntly, as she took a sample of blood to synthesize, working without pause.
"Sorry," Kane offered, and stared at Dani for a moment. "Look, I was with this kid earlier, and he helped with our mission, cut at least ten minutes either side because of that port," Kane explained. "I don't want him dead, especially after what he did to save Yussuf."
"Saving Yussuf might have been the worse thing he could have done," Dani remarked.
"What do you mean?" Kane questioned. "He's set up for life now that he has Yussuf on side, and he'll see that no harm comes to him and for a kludge, that's a great position to be in with Yussuf."
"I'm a kludge remember?" Dani returned. "Don't try and preach to me about being grateful, about how great my life is 'considering'," she stressed with annoyance. "We are not the scum of this universe, and we do not need handouts to have a good life," she added without thinking, too preoccupied with helping Seamus.
Kane studied Dani some more as she worked, before responding. "I've never heard you question Yussuf before; in fact, you used to always be extremely grateful to him for what he has done for you."
"I still am, to an extent," Dani backtracked quickly glancing at Kane, and then she paused for a moment. "He had a life, Kane, a good life," Dani explained, gesturing to Harper. "This kid, this kludge, he's Commonwealth, and he's no slave to them, he was the chief engineer of the flag ship and one of the best," she said fondly. "Kane, he had status, a place and friends, everything a kludge dreams off, he got that without any help from ubers, and now look at him," she stressed, trying hard to hold on to her emotions.
Kane didn't speak immediately but it was clear he had been unaware of the facts. "That does change things," Kane admitted but his attention was on Dani more than Harper. "I thought he was just some scrap that Yussuf had uncovered from his travels."
"Like me?" Dani questioned and saw Kane look away. "He was part of the crew who took me," Dani continued, and then resumed work, concentrating on closing the wound to Harper's hand, starting with the tendons. "Yussuf thinks that they treated me badly, well they didn't," Dani admitted, her eyes focused on sealing the damage the blade had inflicted. "I had freedom of the ship, my own quarters," she offered, her voice wavering slightly. "Yet, I chose not to say anything, when I so easily could have and maybe could have protected him."
"Why didn't you speak up?" Kane asked.
"Because I was afraid, we were both afraid I guess," She gestured again to Harper, without looking up. "But how could we have been afraid when this is the result of saying nothing?"
"Afraid of what?" a new voice now spoke, and Dani spun around to see Yussuf at the door, and Kane indicated that he had been there for a short while but Dani had no idea how long.
"Yussuf, I thought you were at the fight night," Dani said a little caught out.
"I was, but the talent after that Commonwealth fighter were not up to standard, and then I heard a rumour that your kludge was in a bad way," Yussuf indicated and moved a little forward to see for himself, before continuing. "You say the Commonwealth treated you well, Dani? I saw the marks they left on you, I am not blind."
Dani turned back to treating Harper. "It was Johnson who left those marks, not the Commonwealth," Dani shrugged. "Johnson attacked me shortly after my rescue, and I was afraid to say anything because it further protected what I was more afraid of you finding out," Dani admitted, knowing she could no longer hide the truth. "I didn't want you to find out that I had fallen in love, Yussuf, with someone who isn't you," Dani lightly brushed Harper's upper arm as a machine continued to help the prone human breath.
Yussuf took a deep breath and he wandered over to the cot, looking down on the kludge that had saved his life, and who Dani now spoke of loving, and he discovered that he wasn't surprised, he had suspected something between them for a while.
"Keep working on him, and we will discuss this later," Yussuf declared and promptly left the area.
After a few moments Kane spoke up. "He took that well," Kane observed with surprise.
"Too well," Dani feared. "But he won't let this go so easily," she stated as fact.
"I'm surprised to hear you reveal that the Commonwealth treated you well," Kane observed.
"Why?" Dani had to ask.
Kane just shrugged, but the way he now looked at Dani raised her suspicions, and when he didn't answer she focused on Harper's hand and finished her work.
"Beka," a voice called out, as she walked to the mess deck.
"Colin, are you still finding your way around?" Beka asked brightly.
"Andromeda has been keeping an eye on me, making sure I don't get too disorientated or lost," Colin responded with a smile. "Speaking of which, the android, how is she?" he asked.
"We're not sure, we need Harper to look at her," Beka responded. "We can't get her systems online, so we think she's burnt out some components playing with electricity."
"About earlier, and Harper, I'm sorry if I spoke out of turn," Colin offered. "It was just a shock to learn that all that planning," he spoke but Beka soon cut him off.
"It's ok, I can't understand why you reacted like you did," she admitted.
"I still find it hard to believe that your friend saved a tyrant like Yussuf's life though," he admitted.
"Harper only makes sense when he wants to make sense, you'll learn that about him and we don't know just how much of a choice he had, do we?" Beka stated as she guided Colin into the mess area. "You heard Rhade, Harper's been made a slave, so who knows what's going on."
"Are you ok?" Colin then asked, seeing a sudden sadness about Beka.
"Yeah," She quickly offered, and took a deep breath as the food suddenly became more interesting to her. She then realised that Colin was still looking at her, waiting for more of an answer. "Harper, his background, being made a slave," she sighed. "Basically he hates slaves, he hated Dani when she first arrived and he hadn't even seen her," she tried to explain.
"When you mention this Dani, I'm right to assume that you do mean Yussuf's little slave, right?" Colin asked with interest.
"The very same, although she told us she's not a slave," Beka answered. "We kidnapped her, tried to get some information from her to possibly help us to bring down Yussuf's little empire."
"You had Dani here?" Colin exclaimed. "How did she escape?"
"Well she didn't, hence how I turned up on your doorstep in that camp, and Harper is now her fricking slave," Beka now seethed.
"That is so typical of what I understand of Dani," Colin casually remarked.
"What do you mean?" Beka questioned quickly.
"The whole irony thing, I've heard Dani is this freak, she loves to get payback but in subtle unusual ways, and that's why Yussuf loves her," Colin shrugged. "She's like a toy, a pet to him, I mean come on, you said Harper hated her for being a slave, and now what is he?" Colin questioned.
"Her slave," Beka agreed, and she had to admit that the thought had more than crossed her mind.
"Look, I don't really know Dani all that well, I don't even know what she looks like, what I know is heresy, heard from the guards," Colin explained as they walked to a table with some food. "I just always got the impression from the guards that they didn't trust or like her, some were even scared of the influence she has on Yussuf, and that she often befriended people to only turn on them later for her own amusement, she's loyal to Yussuf first, no one second."
Beka sat down and settled down before responding. "She had me convinced for a time there, I'll give her that," Beka offered. "I was ready to believe that what she felt for Harper was real, but now," she sighed again. "I just don't know, and I really wish I did know, because at the end of the day I know that Seamus believes she loves him."
"Tough break," Colin responded. "It might be real, they say love is this mysterious concept, can strike at any time," he grinned as he looked at Beka.
Beka smirked and began to eat, watching as Colin began to tuck into his meal, and suddenly realising how comfortable she felt in his company, and how he made things feel different somehow, not as bad as she would normally feel when a friend was in trouble.
"So, what are your plans now?" Beka asked. "You're free now, and you can do what you want, so where can we take you?"
"Anywhere you go is fine by me," he charmed.
Beka just raised her eyebrows, amused by his answer and she then shook her head. "We're heading to Yussuf's place, you sure you want to keep to that answer?" she grinned.
Colin looked a little unsure now, but the grin remained. "I'm willing to take my chances," he offered finally.
"Good," Beka simply said. "Because we haven't got time for a detour, I need to bring my friend home," she stated assuredly.
"I'm looking forward to meeting Harper," Colin simply responded, and continued to eat his meal.
TBC