Chapter 9
"Honor isn't about making the right choices.
It's about dealing with the consequences."
-Midori Koto
A week ago a shower had been a luxury. Now it was something Harper couldn't finish fast enough. He'd tried to take his time, but every second it lasted he could hear the voices calling his name. He knew they were just memories, but they felt as real as they had been earlier.
Harper stemmed the water and toweled himself off, quickly pulling the soft cloth around his abdomen. He stepped out of the cubicle and froze as he passed the room's mirror, noticing that he didn't even look the same anymore. Harper turned and gazed harder into it, dragging a hand over his face and realizing he needed a shave badly. The thin skin under his eyes was dark and his bare chest was littered with ugly bruises. He looked like he did when he was back on…
He managed to make it to the disposal unit before he threw up, however, seeing as he hadn't really eaten anything of substance in days there was very little there. He'd gone in search of food when he'd first arrived aboard Andromeda but found that he couldn't tolerate the smell of it. He managed to eat a few bites of a candy bar he'd hidden in his quarters and keep it down. Until now of course.
Harper coughed and fell onto his backside, his head in his hands. He was still dizzy from the medicine and now the nausea seemed to be back as well. Lovely. God, what had they given him at that nut house? The everlasting drug or something?
Five minutes after retching, Harper felt up to standing again, though his stomach still vehemently protested the action. He managed to change into some clean loose clothing and stumble to his bed. Nothing had ever felt so good. He buried his head in the pillow and sighed.
Dylan had said he had a few hours to rest before they reached their destination. Apparently there was were some last minute dealings with the Sinti government and then they would slipstream to Kabela to collect Machello's devices, most importantly, his datapads. Harper wasn't sure exactly how he was going to be able to help Tyr, but he was going to try his damnedest once he got a look at Machello's work.
He'd told Rommie after his body switching ordeal that he hadn't hated Machello. He hadn't liked being used in such a way… but the old coot wasn't so very different than he was really. Machello had lost his family, friends, and world to the Nietzscheans and Magog. Harper of all people could relate to that. In the end though, as he lay dying, Machello had thanked him for giving him the experience to live again, even if it had been for a single day. Harper wasn't saying he wanted to hug the guy and invite him over a beer and a smashball game… but in that moment they had truly understood one another.
Harper rolled over and groaned as his sore back touched the mattress. He closed his eyes tightly and tried not to let himself even think about tears. The anger he was feeling was there, bubbling beneath the surface. The silent rage over everything that had happened.
Why had he been the one to get chucked in the loony bin? How long had they waited to send him off to Sinti? One day? Two maybe? Everyone, Dylan, Beka, Trance, Rommie… hell, even Tyr, hadn't hesitated to just toss him in, not even thinking there could be something more to what was going on.
Oh, flaky old Harper had finally lost it! In he goes! The rational part of his brain was telling him they were his friends and cared about his well being, but his emotions were screaming one word at him: betrayal.
Had he been betrayed? Maybe, maybe not.
Sleep didn't come for Harper as the Andromeda slide into slipstream bound for Kabela. He lay for an hour staring at the ceiling, wishing he would wake up any minute and realize this had all just been a freaky dream. He sighed. If wishes were thrones, well, he wouldn't he here now, would he? That Seraglio he'd wanted all those years ago was looking more and more tempting…
"I will send someone to collect the requested items immediately, Captain Hunt."
Dylan smiled and nodded at the Kabelan man. "Thank you councilman."
"Would you like us to turn them on? Make sure they are the correct datapads you are looking for? All of the pads were seals together, pending further investigation. However, only the larger devices have been examined."
Hunt opened his mouth but was interrupted by Harper's sudden yell of, "No!" as the engineer sprinted onto the Command Deck.
"Harper?" Dylan asked.
Harper was panting a bit and holding onto a console for support but said, "No… don't… don't turn the data pads on. I think… think that's how I was infected… by turning it on."
The councilman on screen nodded to the tired earthling, though looked a bit bewildered. "All right, the datapads will be sent in their original crates. We should have a transport deliver them in a little over an hour."
"Thank you, councilman. Hunt out."
Beka, who'd been near Dylan observing the conversation with the Kabelan official, couldn't take her eyes of Harper. Was he actually grey looking? Or was it just the light?
"You okay, Harper?" she asked
Seamus let go of the console and smiled slightly. "Sure, Boss. Just glad they didn't decide to turn those puppies on. They were probably fortunate they hadn't started work on them yet. Who knows how many people could have been infected, ya know?"
'I wasn't really concerned about them,' Beka thought, but said aloud, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Did you get any sleep?"
"Yep," he responded. That was all he was willing to give apparently.
She raised an eyebrow. Now he was being quick and to the point? That wasn't like him. She hadn't expected him to be 100 percent after everything that had happened but…
Harper put his hands in his pockets and stepped away from them. "Uh… I'm going to be in my workshop. Com me when the data pads get here."
Faster than a panicked crab disappearing down into the sand, he was gone, off doing… whatever. Beka sighed.
"You okay?" Dylan asked, typing something into the panel before him. He hadn't looked at Beka but she knew who his question was directed at.
"Yep."
Dylan finally turned to stare at her. "Now you sound like Harper."
Beka covered her face with her hands a moment and then pulled them back. "Dylan… what we did… to Harper I mean… it's…"
"It's what we thought was best for him, Beka."
"I know that, I do," Beka said, crossing her arms, "but there's another part of me that… feels guilty. I really don't know if we'll be… okay when this is all said and done."
Dylan smiled and closed the gap between them. "Harper loves you," he responded, putting a hand on her upper arm. "You just have to trust that he'll remember that when this is over with."
How To Help An Ill Nietzschean 101. Step One: Determine Problem. Step Two: Fix Problem. Step Three: Fiesta!
Harper sighed and slide down one of the walls in his workshop. He lay his arms over his bent knees and buried his head in them. At the rate he was going, he'd reach Step One by the time he was Machello's age. For a while he'd begun to think he might be able to come up with an idea… but he wasn't exactly having getting any "Eureka!" moments to speak of and time was running out for said Nietzschean.
Soon the datapads would arrive and he'd meet the others in one of the laboratories to see if his little theory (or should he say Beka's?) about the landmines was true. How that was going to help them per se? He didn't know just yet.
Right on schedule, Andromeda's hologram appeared next to him.
"Harper, the pads have arrived," the transparent figure said
"Be right there," he mumbled, his face still planted in his arms.
"Are you all right, Harper?" He didn't have to see her to know she was probably giving him one of her a subtle looks of concern. Warships weren't supposed to look concerned, about anything, but he could always tell when she was worried. "Your vitals are a bit weak. Maybe Trance should have another look at you?"
Harper, head still down, said, "Look, Droms, I'm fine. Just haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately. When we figure this out… I'll be a regular Rip Van Winkle, okay?"
This time he hoped his own act would be enough. Luckily for him, the ship didn't seem to be in the mood for a fight and the AI argued no further with him.
'Small victories,' Harper thought as he looked up in time to see her image disappear. He ran a hand over his stubble a moment and then dug the palm into his eye, willing his headache to go away. At least none of his Nietzschean friends were back…
Harper dropped his hand and his eyes popped open. He scanned the room warily, just to be sure. No Niets. No closets. No voices. He was the old Harper once again. A little eccentric, a little wacky, but certainly not crazy... right?
Right?
When Machello's inventions arrived on the Andromeda, the first thing Dylan made sure to do was seal them in a quarantine chamber. Besides the thick glass paneling, it was also surrounded by a nearly invisible force field, similar, though not as powerful, as the one used in the ships' brig. The only openings in the small chamber allowed whomever was working to slip their hands into gloves that were attached to the chamber and work on what was inside. The field surrounding the device was only dissected when it touched the gloves, though it then continued on the other side of the material as if it had never been broken.
Inside the chamber, Rommie was opening the small crate the contained the dozen datapads. Trance had wanted to be involved in the research but Tyr had taken another turn for the worse. This time it was his heart. The few hours they had had initially were running out. She'd managed to get the vital organ pumping again, but for how long she didn't know.
Carefully the android laid out the twelve inactive devices. Once lined up, she picked up a long metal instrument and used it to turn on the first pad. The tiny machine glowed in typical fashion and the screen lit up brightly. Though the language scrolling across it was foreign to them, the device itself didn't appear any different. Using the instrument once more, Rommie proceeded to turn it off. Sure enough, when the proper button was pushed, the light disappeared and it lay dormant again. Rommie looked over at Harper.
The engineer leaned towards the chamber, peering into it. "Try the next one."
Rommie moved to the next pad and proceeded to turn it on. Like the one prior, the view screen came to life, the same strange words moving across it. Still using the metal instrument she proceeded to press the different keys but nothing, save for more code, appeared.
Harper crossed his arms. "I know I saw something. This has got to be it. Keep trying."
Rommie nodded and continued on. If she was doubtful of him she didn't show it. By the time she reached the eighth pad nothing had happened. On turning on the ninth and still finding nothing but scrolling text, the robot put down the clamp and looked up at her engineer.
"Harper, to use one of your own quotes, I think we're on a wild Magog chase." She looked over at Dylan and noticed her captain seemed to have the same idea.
Harper bit his bottom lip in frustration and stared down at the datapad. He was about to concede to their suggestion when the text on the bright screen suddenly changed and something started sliding out of the pad and onto the camber's bottom.
"L-l-look!" he stuttered, instinctively moving backwards. "It's… it's them!"
The group turned to peer into the quarantine chamber and all felt their eyes widen as several creatures, about the size of small luminara worms, began to slide from the device. The organisms looked to be about an inch in length and were a pale, nearly translucent cerulean.
"Damn," Beka muttered as see watched them slide around. They didn't appear to have legs and just slithered rapidly around the chamber on their flat middles like slugs on Flash.
Harper felt a bit giddy at the discovery, only because it proved he hadn't been completely insane after all. The creatures existed.
"I count ten total," Rommie said. "If all his altered pads are the same we're looking at about ten per device."
"That explains how I got infected," Harper interjected. "There were nine Limvris."
Beka finished with, "And when you activated the device, the last one went into you."
"I'm going to try and immobilize one to put it under the scope," Rommie continued. Try as she might, however, the android couldn't seem to get a good grip on one of the rapidly moving creatures and asked Beka to help her trap one. The blonde moved to the opposite side of the container and inserted her hands into the other pair of gloves. Together they both attempted to restrain one of the specimens with the clamps.
After a moment Beka smiled in triumph. "Got one!" she proclaimed as she looked down at the blue, struggling organism held within her clamp.
Valentine's smile suddenly broke and she dropped the clamp. Harper watched in horror as four of the creatures disappeared into the material of the gloves… directly into her hand.
"The gloves are breached!" Rommie yelled in warning but it came to late. One of the specimens disappeared into the android's covered hands as well.
Both Beka and Rommie yanked their hands from the gloves, shoving the material into the chamber. Atomically the force field filled in the open gap.
"Andromeda!" Dylan yelled. "Triple the power on that force field!"
The field around the chamber noticeably brightened, and the remaining four creatures seemed to be unable to penetrate it. Beka and Rommie on the other hand were already compromised. Valentine was panicking, scratching at her arms, nails digging deeply into her arm and Rommie was staring down at the spot where the creature had disappeared into her artificial skin.
"Beka! Rommie! " Harper called. He made a move towards them but Dylan's hand came across his chest.
"No, you could get infected again," Hunt said, his tone deadly serious.
"But, I may be immune now!" he protested. "I might be the only one who can touch them."
Dylan kept the engineer planted in the same spot. "Do you know that for sure? Can you tell me that you're 100 percent positive that is can't you again? You had one in you, Harper. Beka has several. Who's to say one of the extras won't jump bodies?"
Harper wanted to answer yes… but there was no way he could. He was only guessing that they couldn't jump from human to human because he hadn't infected anyone but Tyr. Dylan was right though. Beka had at least four inside of her and he couldn't take the chance of being infected again. Rommie also had one in her and there was no telling how it would react with her systems. At any moment it could realize the skin it had disappeared into wasn't real and then what? Come for him or Dylan?
Across from them Beka had stopped her furious scratching, finally realizing it was a futile gesture. She dropped her hands and looked over at Rommie. The android was calm, though looked a bit baffled at their predicament.
Valentine's eyes found Dylan and the engineer he was holding in place. The older man's face appeared uneasy and Harper look downright aghast by the entire situation. She knew the feeling.
"Great," Beka deadpanned. "Just great."
FROM THE PILOT:
Harper: How are we gonna spend our money?
Beka: Lemme guess. A little cottage by the lakeshore, a white picket fence, dog? All the traditional mudfoot accessories.
Harper: Not even close. I have one word for you two. Seraglio.
Trance: Ser-what?
Beka: Seraglio. Slave girls and grapes. Eunuch guards. Classy.
Harper: Hey, don't forget the silk wall-hangings! I love silk wall-hangings. The only reason I go is for the silk wall-hangings.
Beka: Harper, you are truly disgusting.
Harper: I try.
