Chapter 5
"People only see what they are prepared to see."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Three days. Harper had been on Sinti for three days and there had been no progress. A day ago the doctors had tried their first dose of antipsychotic medication and the results had been less than pleasant. The drugs had ultimately only increased Harper's hallucinations ten fold. It had taken nearly two hours and a large amount of tranquilizers to calm him. Beka had been there every delicate step of the way, trying anything she could to help her friend.
Yesterday had been the first time she'd slept for more than a few hours- and that had only been because Trance had slipped a sedative into her dinner. She'd been furious when she'd awoken and remembered what had happened, but after a few minutes of screaming in the impassive girl's face, Beka realized how much better she felt with eight hours of sleep under her belt.
Now she stood outside of Harper's padded prison waiting for the others to arrive. She hated the idea of them seeing him like this, but she knew they deserved the chance to visit him. The first to round the hallway's corner was Dylan, followed closely by Rommie and Tyr. Trance had been along earlier and was now off consulting with the doctors on their newest drug.
"How's he doing?" Dylan asked as he approached. Beka realized for the first time that the usually stoic captain was looking a little rough around the edges. She sighed. Of course she wasn't the only one to care about Harper, she'd just been too wrapped up in what was going on to think about everyone else.
"So-so," she answered. "The doctor said he was acting a little more lucid today. Which, I suppose, is a good thing considering."
Approaching footsteps drew the group's attention to Doctor Keenan and a pair of burly Perseid aides following behind.
"It's good to see you again Captain Hunt," Keenan greeted. "I'm sorry I'm running late, we had a bit of a problem with another patient. Are you ready to see Mr. Harper?"
"Yes," Dylan answered. "Beka said he's a little better today."
Keenan placed his palm across a panel near the door and the device slowly scanned it. "Perhaps. I wouldn't expect much though." He smiled gently and pulled his hand from the wall. "If he becomes agitated, call the aides."
The door slid open and the doctor turned away to attend to his other duties. The two orderlies took up positions outside the door. Beka passed by the overly large Perseids and wondered why they were needed. What could Harper do that could possibly call for two aides? Kick their shins?
The group filed in, none quite sure what to expect. The room itself was bare. No furniture or even windows to decorate the walls. The only thing occupying it was the Andromeda's engineerAs they approached, the human sitting in the middle of the floor looked up. Harper's eyes slowly focused on the figures and his brow wrinkled in confusion.
Beka frowned. "It's us, Harper. Don't you recognize us?"
The engineer blinked a few times and finally said, "I… I was just making sure you weren't figments of my… mind." He began to pull insistently on the bottom of his shirt.
The outfit reminded Beka all too well of the medical scrubs used on the Andromeda. She even remembered the last time she'd seen him acting and looking as he did now. It had been when he'd first woken to find out he'd been infested with Magog eggs. Maybe it was nervous habit, but he'd nearly pulled the seams out of his top by the time he was allowed out of Med Deck.
Rommie crouched down in front of her friend and smiled gently. "How are you doing?"
Harper swallowed and looked down, tears building in his eyes. "They… they took away my toolbelt in case I… tried to… tried to hurt myself with something in it. Could you… get it back for me?"
Rommie looked back at Dylan and the Highguard nodded. "I'll ask Dr. Keenan, Harper."
"Thank you," Seamus whispered, still not looking at any of them.
"Are they treating you okay?" Beka asked.
Harper nodded, but as he did the tears he'd been holding back began to fall. He covered his face with his hands and softly sobbed into them. Beka's first instinct was to step forward and reach for him but she managed to quell her motion. A day ago when she'd tried to touch him he'd pulled away from her in fright and had a full blown panic attack. It had been a scary moment she wasn't eager to repeat.
After a time Harper seemed to collect himself enough to look up at them again. He wiped his palms furiously against his wet cheeks. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.
"For what?" Beka asked in confusion.
In the most rapid turn around she'd ever see, Harper began to suddenly snicker. "For being such a head case!" he responded, a smile cutting across his face.
"It's not your fault," Rommie whispered as she came to stand beside Dylan again.
"Harper," Tyr said, "Beka believes what happened might have something to do with the Limvris."
Beka glanced at the Nietzschean, surprised that he'd actually been listening to her earlier. She and Trance had been running through a timeline of events, trying to pinpoint when exactly Harper had started showing symptoms of his… sickness. Trance had been convinced it had been harboring inside of him for years. Beka, on the other hand, wasn't buying that. It was only after entering the chamber that he'd drastically changed. Not only that, but the change had been too rapid… too quick in her opinion. Perhaps something in the room had sped up the disease?
"You remember in that chamber when you said you felt something brush by you?" Beka asked, looking down at the other blonde.
Harper seemed to have sobered again. "Yes. It was them… I… I know you don't believe me, but I felt them." His eyes suddenly darted up to search the room. "They heard me!"
The engineer scrambled backwards until his back hit the white padded wall of the room. He pushed himself to his right in order to squeeze himself into the intersection of the walls and sat breathing heavily. "They're coming! They're coming…"
"Only your friends are here, Harper," Dylan said soothingly.
"They're coming! Footsteps! I hear footsteps!"
"Seamus!" Beka yelled. "There are no footsteps. Stay with us!"
Harper pushed back against the wall, hyperventilating. "Footsteps! Footsteps! Stop! Make them go away! GO AWAY!" he shrieked and pointed to Tyr. "I told you, it's one of them. Next to you! It's right there!"
"There's no one at my side, Harper," Tyr answered forlornly.
"Yes," Harper whispered, "there is."
Dylan looked over and Rommie and shook his head. "Can you get the aides?"
As the android turned and knocked on the door, Harper suddenly jumped to his feet and rushed Tyr. The taller, broader man easily caught the struggling human. His arm went around Harper's upper chest and the other around his stomach to hold the boy's arms down.
Tyr felt Harper abruptly tense up and then squirming engineer was somehow slipping from his grasp. Harper jumped back and stared up at him with what Tyr thought, for a moment, looked like bright, lucid blue eyes.
"Something just went inside Tyr!" Harper yelled.
Behind the group the door slide opened and the two aides came barreling in.
"You're hallucinating Harper," Beka said sadly.
The aides both took one of Harper's thrashing arms and tried to pull the struggling human to the ground. "Don't just stand there," Harper screamed, "get it out of him!" He grunted as he was slammed to the padded flooring.
A nurse rushed into the room with a hypospray. Harper kicked out at the Perseids holding him but they only tightened their grip. The female nurse managed to get the device close enough to Harper's neck to inject him with the sedative.
Beka felt tears running down her face as she watched her friend go limp in the aides arms. For a moment his eyes met hers.
"… ello…" he whispered before giving into the medicine streaming through his body.
A moment later doctor Keenan rushed into the room followed by another orderly. "What happened?" he demanded.
"He was having another hallucination, Doctor," the nurse replied. "We managed to sedate him before he hurt himself."
Keenan sighed. "All right, let's raise the dose. Five mils at four hour intervals. Captain Hunt, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you and your crew to leave."
"Of course," Dylan answered and turned to his friends. "Lets convene back on the ship. Beka, you need some sleep anyway."
"Dy--"
"EH!" Hunt exclaimed, pointing a finger at her. "Don't make me make this an order. Please."
Valentine sighed but nodded, glancing down one last time at Harper. The nurses and aides were crowded around him and she didn't think she'd even be able to get through to touch him.
Rommie and Tyr left first and Dylan watched Beka's back a moment. His second in command slowly turned towards the door and eventually followed her crewmates. Dylan was the last to leave.
In the middle of the room the group around Harper began to dissipate. Keenan ordered the aides back to their positions and the nurse to collect Harper's medflexi. The doctor gently arranged he boy's arms in a more comfortable position and finally stood up. The engineer was deeply sedated, but Keenan could see the faint outlines of his eyes moving below his pale eyelids.
"Good dreams, Mr. Harper."
Unlike the dilapidated exterior, the room looked as high-tech as the Andromeda Ascendant's bridge. It was smaller than what he expected and the gray, marble colored walls were plain, but the ceiling ascended much higher than that of Command back on the ship. It faintly reminded Harper of his workspace in the machine shop, save for the long red coverings that hung over some of the tables.
"Hey guys," Harper said. When they turned to look at him he pointed towards a shrouded alcove of the room. "I wonder what's in there."
"I am in there."
Tyr, Harper, and Beka drew their weapons, aiming at the alcove. It was dimly lit but even in the low light the figure of a person could be seen making its way out. Pushing through the crimson material that covered the archway was an old man. From what Harper could guess, he looked like he was going on ninety-- in human years.
The scene wavered and changed before Harper's eyes. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again the man was standing in front of him.
"You! You!" the elder cried, pointing at Harper. "Here, quickly! Inventions to fight the Nietzscheans!"
Harper walked towards the old man but stopped. This wasn't right. What was going on? Was this a dream? He knew this place, knew that he'd been here before. The man's name was on the tip of his tongue…
"Uh, hey, so what is all this stuff?" Beka asked, coming to stand beside him. "Weapons?"
"Yes," the man agreed, "weapons to fight the Nietzscheans and Magog!"
The name, it was so close… right there…
"You!" the elder called again to Harper. "Come! Come! Weapons to fight the Nietzscheans!"
"Machello," Harper finally whispered. "That's your name. I know you. You… you're dead."
The old man smiled and stepped closer to Harper as Beka and Tyr seemed to vanish behind them. Machello's blue eyes met his and Harper felt the man's gaze burn into his very soul.
"My work is very much alive though, thanks to you Seamus Harper. You have now delivered me to the vile Nietzschean so I may destroy it."
