TITLE: The Unintended

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

NOTES: Ta for the feedback, I do love getting it! Still a few more chapters to go, thanks for sticking with me for this long. This is actually the longest fic I've ever written, hehe.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Apex

"You ask why I weep, to which I reply;

'A friend to a stranger in the blink of an eye'"

Hera Matuen 'The Broken'

CY 6784

Rommie looked worriedly at Harper. He was staring into space as they docked, his expression unchanged. When they set down he walked out of the Maru without saying anything, the new AI following closely behind. Rommie caught up with him. . "Harper, what happened over there? Has the virus progressed?"

"Brace for Slipstream," Andromeda announced as soon as the Maru was safely docked. If her calculations were accurate, they were cutting it very fine.

Harper turned to Rommie. For a moment he considered forming an answer for her, but there were no words to describe it. "I have to go and clean up," he said, backing down from the conversation. But before he could even turn away the whole ship jolted suddenly.

Andromeda's voice sounded throughout the ship. "Senior crew report to Command."

"Shockwave from the Nietzschean ship?" Rommie asked her grander self.

"We entered Slipstream just as we caught the tail end. The Slipstream drive has been seriously damaged. We're out of control."

Beka and Rommie started their run to Command. Harper lingered for a moment, then followed.

There was chaos in Command. Dylan and Trance had reached there before the others. Tyr was struggling to keep the ship under control in the Slipstream.

"What's going on?" Beka asked when they arrived. She went to her station next to Tyr and Rommie went to hers. Harper remained in the background, observing what was going on. Every few seconds the room would shake. It felt like she was under tremendous stress.

"The shockwave from the Nietzschean ship hit us as the ship was entering Slipstream. Now I can't exit," Tyr explained, the concentration evident on his expression.

Beka watched his movements and the Slipstream and knew even if she was piloting they wouldn't have a chance. They were all over the place.

"The Slipstream Core is overloading," Andromeda reported.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Dylan exclaimed.

Unlike the others, Harper was calm. Andromeda had such an amazing energy, he couldn't believe he had never felt it before. Even when he was jacked-in he had never felt anything like this. The crew, too, had their own energies, all so different.

Then, as if a switch had been flicked, it all made sense. All three of his new senses began to merge and work in unison. Harper could feel the energy of Andromeda and of the slipstream. He could leave his body and see the entire ship and her path from every angle. And he could see what was going to happen if he failed.

"I can't get a handle on it, we're out of control!"

"Rommie, find us the nearest exit!"

"It's too far, we won't make it before the core overloads and destroys the ship."

Harper's mind rose above the shouts and minor explosions and left the confines of his own body. He simultaneously viewed the exterior of the ship, the slipstream core, the engines and the tendrils of slipstream. His visions, which he had mastered, allowed him to visualise what the blue ribbons would do. Focussing on tying the energy of the ship to his control, but at the same time still monitoring the time and space surrounding it, Harper began to move Andromeda.

Tyr felt the little remaining control he had over steering vanish. For a moment he thought they were done for; they all did. They should have been blown into a trillion pieces and scattered throughout slipstream but instead the Andromeda was gliding through perfectly as if there was nothing wrong.

"Tyr?" Beka asked.

"It's not me."

"Rommie?" Dylan asked, also viewing the sudden change.

"It wasn't me."

"We should be dead by now."

"You need human instinct to pilot slipstream. If Tyr isn't doing it, who is?"

"I believe Harper may have something to do with it," Andromeda told them.

Under normal circumstances, this would mean that Harper had fixed the problem with a solution that was nothing short of genius. But normal circumstances seemed like a distant memory. Each crewmember turned and saw Harper standing by the doors to Command. His eyes were closed.

"Is he...?"

"It's not possible..."

Harper finally saw the exited Andromeda from slipstream. He had experienced the utter power of energy, felt and manipulated the very fabric of existence. For years he had been saying it, but in those moments for the first time Harper was as close as one could get to being a god. However, there was one flaw in this hypothesis. Gods don't falter.

In what seemed like the smallest fraction of a second it all became too much. Harper's mental outreach snapped back into his body too quickly for comfort He opened his eyes and was suddenly wracked with shock. He wasn't the only one.

"Harper..." Trance breathed. She didn't know how to deal with what she had just witnessed. On the one hand it appeared Harper had powers that superceded her own. On the other she was seriously worried for his health.

"That was...amazing!" Beka exclaimed.

It was Dylan who noticed that Harper did not look at all well. And given that he looked like hell before, this was pretty bad. His eyes were darting back and forth and he appeared to be trembling. There was a fleck of bright red blood coming from his nose.

Rommie caught him just as his eyes rolled back into his head and all strength fled his body.

End of Chapter Twenty-Two