Chapter 2

"Harper! Its Monday,7 am, get your butt outa bed!" Beka shouted through the ship, waking Harper up.

"Just 5 more minutes mum!" Harper moaned and grumbled something about it being to early for a freaking genius to work.

"No, NOW!" Beka shouted and Harper gave a small scream as he fell off the hammock and onto the hard wooden floor.

"Im awake! IM AWAKE!" He shouted back and forced himself to his feet.

"Good. Now, its Monday morning, what does that mean?" The captain smiled to the engineer. Harper rolled his eyes and gave another groan.

"That's right! Now off we go, to the Market, Bye-bye!"

"Why wake me up and make me bang my head on the floor- that really did hurt ya know- when you could have gone your self!"

"I don't even know what the friggin thing looks like.."

"What about Rev?"

"Hes coming with me!"

"And where are you going?"

"To the bar, in search off a new ES officer!"Beka smirked and walked towards a mug on the side, she filled the silver cup up with water.

"So, in other words, your goanna sit on you ass all day whiles poor old human Harper works his butt off?"

"That pretty much sums it up. Yup." Beka smirked again and walked of the Maru, Harper looked confused as he turned to Rev.

"Why do I work for her again…" He asked the maggog... "Don't even answer that!" With that, the Rev walked off the ship giving a small shrug. Harper walked into his room to get changed.

Harper was searching around the tightly crammed market, there were hundreds of people from all different races ranging from neizchien's to species Harper had never even new existed. As he made his way through the crowds, he kept a sharp eye out for any Market stall selling used engine parts. He was just passing a stall selling make-over nanno-bots when somebody caught his eye. A young girl, who looked about his age. She was skipping around just a few metres away from him. She had bright purple skin that made her look like a giant walking lolipop. Harper did not know what race she was, as he had never seen a species like hers before. Her hair had a golden tone to it, but she had it pinned up in a clip, with a few strands coming around her face, she also had about 4 coloured strands mixed in with the blonde hair. She wore bright blue clothes that really brought out the purple tone in her skin. Harper walked up behind her and in the usual Harper fashion, he started to look at her behind, noticing straight away, that she had a tail. 'Core... That would be a great tool for the bedroom…' He thought to himself. He was about to approach her and attempt to flirt with the mysterious girl, but he suddenly thought, 'There's no way ive got a chance with her…she's…just too…pretty.' He slowly looked up to above her hips to see the girl looking at him, to his surprise, she was smiling at him. He quickly turned around in embarrassment and continued to search for the exotic mattelense he was looking for, without looking back.

Harper was so in-tranced with the girl he had just saw that he almost completely forgot about the stall he was looking for and walked straight past a engineering stall, which clearly sold the part he was looking for. Luckily after he passed it he noticed and walked back, that morning he had been practicing his haggling skills so he could maybe have a chance of a cheap deal.

As Harper approached, he notice the person working at the stall wasn't a person…but not a guy…or a girl…but a bug .…a green slimy slug…with a large hump in its neck. He looked pretty vile and put Harper off trying to haggle…for good. He carried on walking to the stall, when he reached it, he started to look for the part he had been searching for the entire morning.

"Hey…uhh…buddy …Got any exotic mattelenses?"

"Yes young sir, can Interest you in one?" As the large bug spoke, Harper could see the hump in his neck inflating and deflating as each syllable came out.

"And I thought maggog had it bad.." Harper mumbled…looking away from the bug so it wouldn't hear, Harper turned his attention back to the bug.

"What the cheapest one you got?"

"That would be 800 thrones young sir."

"What can I get for 1000 thrones?"

"Can I interest you in the mark 3?"

"Hmm…hey…I aint falling for that one pal! That model was mass produced and badly made!"

"You know your engine parts young sir… Ok then how about the GH21-DF Mk 4?"

"For 1000? Ill take it"

"1000 it is"

"800?"

"900"

"Deal" Harper finally said, Harper reached out to shake hands with the bug, he saw the slimy tentacle which belonged to the green slug and immediately took his hand away.

"On second thoughts…ill just…take the…lense and…Ya know… Bye!" He quickly hurried away with the exotic matter lense clutched to his chest.

"They always do that.." The green slug sighed and carried on working..

"Hey Boss, I got the exotic mattelense, it was a GH21-DF Mk 4 and 100 thrones.." Harper spoke over his headpiece-intercom to Beka.

"I don't know what that is, but it sounds good, anything but a mark 3." Was Beka's reply

"Any luck in finding a ES officer?"

"Nope, non at all…meet me back on the Maru later."

"Ok boss, see ya." Harper took his head piece off and continued to walk along, squeezing through the crowds of people in the market to try and find an exit. Harper had noticed that some of the people he had seen the night before were either still on flash or drunk. He walked straight past the bar Beka was in and went into the casino, inside it was slightly dull and tables were scattered around in various places and only a couple of people playing cards or gambling. There were signs of various stands up comedy's, some of theme very strange like the stand-up neizchien's.

"Something's should just be left unsaid." He mumbled after reading it and making his way over to the bar. Harper was just about to order his drink when he heard a couple of people cheer behind him. He turned around to see what was going on, only to find the same purple girl he had met earlier, reaching out into the middle of a poker table and bringing in a LOT of thrones. She hadn't changed her hair, but her cloths were different. Now she wore the same pair of boots with a pair of blue shorts and a yellow and red top, showing her belly.The young purple girl collected her money and looked up to see Harper looking at her again, she gave him a small smile before standing up from the green table she had been leaning over. She slowly made her way between a few people towards Harper, when she reached him, she pulled a stool up and sat on it next to him. Harper couldent belive his luck.

"Hi there" The young girl said to harper with a smile. He smiled back, while he placed the exotic matter lens he was inspecting down underneath his stool. "So" she continued as he emerged from beneath the stool "I couldent help notice you staring at me back there". Harper rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well... Err.. Its just... your so beautifull, i couldent help but look at you. You must get it all the time!" Harper replied with a cheeky smile. The girl held out her hand.

"Names Trance" she said. Harper knealt down and kissed her on the hand, telling her his name. She just laughed at him "Your very sweet" she said. Harper smiled back.

"So, do you live here? On this planet i mean" Harper asked as soon as he had sat back on his stool. She looked at the floor.

"Well, I dont really have a home. Im more of a... traveller. You wont believe the number of planets that ive been to in my time" she replied. Harper nodded.

"I know how you feel, Ive seen quite a few planets too. Ever since i left earth, i aint stayed in one place for longer than a few weeks" he said. Trance laughed and then noticed his rash.
"Ouch that looks painfull" she said. At first harper dident realise what she meant, but after pointing to her neck, he replied.

"Well i kinda got used to it. And no, I dont have a clue what it is. I just hope it goes away soon because its itchy as hell... but lets not talk about me lets talk about you... theres a lot to talk about! Such as how pretty you are" Harper was nodding his head slowly while smiling. Trance quickly changed the subject.

"Whats that?" She asked pointing at the exotic matter lense underneath his stool. This was it, his chance to really impress her.

"This my purple freind, is a GH21-DF Mk 4 exotic matter lense..." harper started. He went on to explain exactly how it worked and began with the techno babble about AP reactions and whatnot. After about 5 minutes of trance pretending she was interested in what he was blabbing on about, she quickly tried to shut him up.

"Can i take a closer look at it?" she asked. Harper thought about how harmless she looked, and then handed over to her with a "sure". Trance took the lense out of his hand and proceeded to falsely examine it. But before harper could say another word, she was running out of the bar with the lense in her hand. Harper couldent belive it, and quickly began to pursue her. He darted out of the bar and chased her out onto the market, but amidst all of the people the purple menace had disapeared from view. Harper gave up right there. He knew there was no way he was going to find her now she had disappeared into the endless waves of people. Instead he just stood still feeling betrayed.

"I knew she was too good to be true" he sighed to himself, and with that he prepared himself for the verbal wallaping that he was going to recieve from Beka upon her hearing that they were stranded. With no money, and no slipstream drive, they weren't going anywhere anytime soon.