TITLE: The Unintended

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

NOTES: Another chapter for y'all. Keep the feedback coming!

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE The Calm

"There may be calm before a storm, but sometimes it's the calm that's the killer."

Unknown saying

The world had stopped. Two days ago Harper had come back to the crew of the Andromeda, only to leave them again. He had been sleeping since he collapsed in Command. Well, Beka liked to call it sleep. Trance had used words like 'catatonic' and 'comatose' to describe his state. 'Sleep' was much sweeter, and Harper deserved something sweet.

Beka sat next to his still form in med-deck while Trance busied herself elsewhere in the room. None of them had expected the tremendous display of power Harper had shown. He had changed so much in such a short time. Beka had barely left his side since his return. She didn't know how to feel. Halfway between grieving for a lost friend and praying for him to open his eyes and make some kind of cheesy quip, she was stuck in an emotional limbo. Like the others, she had run through what happened over and over in her mind.

Two days earlier...

Trance was over by his side in a heartbeat when Harper collapsed. She feared the worst when she checked for a pulse.

"What's happening to him?" Dylan asked urgently.

"We need to get him to med-deck straight away," Trance replied without answering the question.

As they carried Harper to med-deck they were silent and tension filled the air. Trance wouldn't answer anyone's questions. She had a good idea of what had happened but she didn't want to say anything before she was sure. The others held their breath as they waited to hear what she had to say after her various scans. When she finally spoke, her words were ominous. "Harper's suffered severe trauma. I don't think he'll be waking up for a while."

Dylan was immediately pushed for further explanation. "What happened? I mean, what we saw was...I still can't believe he moved the entire ship through Slipstream."

"He saved us. I don't find that hard to believe," Beka said sadly.

"The human brain isn't meant to contain that kind of power," Trance interjected. "Harper's mind was trying to capacitate it all, which was causing tremendous pressure on his cerebral cortex. Effectively, his brain overloaded."

"So we're too late. The virus is going to kill him," Rommie deduced.

Trance shook her head. "The virus is no longer present in Harper's system."

"I thought you said you didn't have a cure?" Tyr said.

"It wasn't me. Harper's immune system managed to combat the virus by itself," Trance told them.

"Even with his weakened immune system?"

"The virus wasn't designed to kill, it was designed to give the recipient advanced mental abilities, and it did just that. It replicated faster than in the other hosts we saw, because of Harper's weakened immune system, but it was just a matter of time before he was able to combat it."

"Well, that's good news right?"

Trance turned away from them, a tell tale sign that all was not well. She spoke her next words with difficulty. "The physical damage the virus caused is nothing compared to the psychological impact. Harper's had access to powers that not even I...that none of us can imagine and when he wakes up he's not going to have them anymore. It's like taking away a drug after the user has become completely dependent on it."

"That's why Shyla committed suicide," Beka deduced sadly. She knew all too well what is was like to suffer withdrawal, and from what Trance was saying, this was ten times worse.

"We're not going to let that happen to Harper," Dylan insisted defiantly. "He can get through this. And we're going to help him."

Trance desperately wanted to believe him but this time Dylan's confidence did not stir her own. "You should all get some rest, we've been up for a while."

If Trance hadn't mentioned it, they wouldn't have noticed how tired were. Even Tyr's eyelids getting heavy. Dylan, Rommie and Beka left med-deck with the Nietzschean in tow.

"He didn't seem..." Beka began, but trailed off. "He didn't even use his powers until we needed help."

Dylan knew she was trying to make things right in her mind. He decided to give her some comfort. "He's strong. Maybe the virus didn't do as much damage as we thought."

Tyr scoffed. The other turned to glare at him.

"Everyone on that ship was dead but Harper. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who what happened. What state of mind do you suppose he was in when he slaughtered half a Nietzschean pride?"

Beka was first to jump to Harper's defence. "There's no proof he did that."

"Besides the fact he was covered in blood and the self-destruct had been set?" Tyr returned. "Denial helps nothing. You should accept the facts and prepare for when that boy wakes up." He left the others reeling and returned to his quarters. He was aware of the harshness of his words but tiptoeing around the obvious issue was pointless. It wasn't that he was fine with Harper being an insane, suicidal murderer - quite the opposite. There was even pangs of guilt rolling around in him somewhere for letting it happen. But Tyr was a man who accepted bad news when it was in plain sight. But for someone so set in his ways, he was still finding it hard to deny that he cared a little more than he let on.

When med-deck was empty again, Trance realised there was no point in working on a cure anymore and she was left with nothing to do. Nothing but prepare for Harper's wake. It wasn't long before she realised she had no idea of how to do that. She turned away from her abandoned work and saw Harper on the bed. She didn't hold back the tears, not knowing if he would ever come back to her.

Two days later, nothing much had changed. There was still a horrid misery rampant in every corridor and room. Harper was still sleeping. Things were quiet. After some forlorn discussions the senior crew had decided to put Harper in restraints so when he woke up he couldn't hurt himself, or anyone else. Repairs from the damage the bad slipstream journey were under way.

It was early in the morning, three or four was Trance's guess. She kept losing track of time lately. She had been crying again, it was difficult not to when things were so terribly wrong. The golden alien had barely left med-deck since the events two days ago. Andromeda had been monitoring everyone closely. Everyone's behaviour had been erratic of late, which didn't surprise her. Behavioural patterns often changed when the crew were in mourning, or dealing with a case of serious injury or sickness. Now things were somewhere in between.

Trance sat by Harper's bed and looked at his hand. The injury from the soldering iron had been aggravated severely, something she noticed during her many hours by his side. She was hoping it wouldn't become infected but it looked like it had. As she put on new bandages she failed to notice the slight flicker of her patient's eyelids.

End of Chapter Twenty-Three