TITLE: The Unintended

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Andromeda series, I'm just borrowing.

NOTES: Sorry for the delay, here's the next chappie :D

CHAPTER NINE In The Dark

"Don't fear the dark, just try and stay out of it."

Mosabe proverb

Harper hadn't moved from where he had fallen on the floor. His body was still resonating with the pain the inhibitor had inflicted. He was afraid to move for fear of it returning. Rayne was still standing over him.

"What did you see?" he demanded, without sympathy.

"I don't know...faces," Harper replied quietly. He hated Rayne with a passion but right now he had to give the sadist what he wanted.

"Whose faces?"

"Beka, Trance, Dylan...you...others I didn't recognise, a woman and a man."

"And all you saw were faces? Is there anything else? What were they doing, where were they?"

Harper closed his eyes. He didn't want to remember. He didn't want to tell Rayne, he didn't know why it mattered anyway, it was just a nightmare. But he also didn't want Rayne to activate the device stuck in his brain. "They were in pain. Screaming. Hurting."

Rayne studied the man before him. "Is that everything?" he asked.

Harper nodded slightly.

"Very well. Get some sleep. You'll need it."

Harper wanted to hurt that son of a bitch, badly, but he couldn't let himself go through that again. There was only one thing stopping Harper from experiencing that pain again. Fear. Fear was holding him together, preventing him from losing himself completely.

Rayne walked back to the monitoring room with a smile on his face. "The inhibitor works beautifully, wouldn't you say?"

Gaou disagreed. "We need to turn the intensity down, it's far too high."

Her suggestion was met with hostility. "You'll do no such thing."

"At least let me give him something for the pain," Gaou argued. Harper was supposed to be her patient and now she was being told how she was allowed to treat him. It was ridiculous. She'd never liked Rayne, or the Admiral for that matter, but it just wasn't an option to leave.

Rayne looked through the two-way glass at Harper who was still on the floor. "Fine," Rayne said with a wave of his hand. "I'll be back in an hour."

When he had gone, Gaou got some pain meds and went into the observation room. Harper opened his eyes but made no other movements. Gaou crouched down next to him and lifted his arm to inject the meds.

"I'm giving you something for the pain Harper. My name is - "

"Gaou...Doctor Gaou," Harper finished for her. He knew her. He recognised her, he knew her name but from where?

"How did you know that?" Gaou asked. She had been watching Harper since he was brought aboard and no-one had mentioned her name.

Harper sat up when he realised, a look of alarm of his face. He had seen he face in his nightmare. She was talking to Rayne and the older man, and then later she was screaming for her life like the others.

"You saw me when you were dreaming, didn't you?" Gaou suddenly realised. She didn't know how to react but settled for astonished. She turned to the mirror, knowing that Lambreck was still behind the glass. "The virus is advancing faster than we imagined."

"Are you gonna cure it?" Harper asked her, though it sounded so desperate it was more of a cry for help.

Gaou turned back to him. It wasn't in her job description to find a cure, only to study him for as long as was possible. That meant study Harper until he died. The spark of guilt quickly subsided and she wore a blank expression as she administered the meds.

"These will help you sleep better," she informed him coldly and got up to leave.

"Please..." Harper uttered, before drifting off to sleep.

"Dylan we're back online," Andromeda reported as soon as she had regained control over her engines.

"The Outset?" Dylan asked.

Andromeda checked her sensors now that they were back online. "I'm sorry, Dylan, it's too late. The sun's gravitational pull has caught it again. We'll never reach it in time to stop it from drifting into the...Hold on." Holo-Rommie's expression suddenly changed as her concentration shifted.

Dylan and the others waited patiently for her to explain.

"Another ship is moving to intercept The Outset," she announced.

"The Barbell?" Beka asked in confusion. She assumed that The Barbell intended to let The Outset get destroyed, to cover up whatever it was they were covering up.

"Negative," Rommie told her. "The ship is of Nietzschean design. They're pulling The Outset off course."

Tyr was his usual suspicious self. "Why would Nietzscheans care about an abandoned research vessel?"

"They're hailing us," Andromeda reported.

"I guess we'll find out," Dylan answered. "On screen."

A blonde square-faced Nietzschean appeared on the screen. To say he looked unhappy would be an understatement. "Where is he?"

Not a great start, Dylan thought to himself. "Nice to meet you, I'm Captain Hunt of the Andromeda Ascendant, and who might you be?"

"I am Luthor of the Dovien-Genghis pride. Don't play games with me, Hunt," he threatened. "Where is Taylor?"

"What do you want with Taylor?" Tyr asked, his curiosity peaked.

"That is none of your concern. Now tell me where he is or suffer the consequences!"

Tyr couldn't help but smirk. Not only was this man the most unthreatening Nietzschean he had ever come across, but he was incompetent too. The only time people used the expression 'suffer the consequences' was when they had no firepower whatsoever.

"We're looking for Taylor too, so it is my concern," Dylan told him with authority. "Oh, and by the way. Threaten me again and it will be the last time you threaten anyone. Now tell me what you want with the Admiral and I might not allow my trigger-happy weapons officer to exercise his fingers."

Luthor scoffed. "Admiral? Tell me, are you at home in the dark, Captain?

"What's that supposed to mean?" Beka said defensively.

"It means Taylor is no more of an Admiral than my two year old nephew,"Luthor informed them, enjoying the knowledge he possessed that the High Guard Captain didn't. "Not anymore."

End of Chapter Nine