Part 19

Beka felt like she was strangely violating a trust, as the files Harper had created were opening before her eyes. He had wanted the security of Beka seeing these files, if she needed to, and in an emergency, but still it felt strange. As Beka waited for all the information to sort itself out, she wondered why Harper had been so specific with his authorisation for her to be able to access them.

As far as she knew, his research had been simply finding a possible solution to his blindness, but as she considered it more, her natural suspicion grew.

"Andromeda, activate privacy mode," Beka ordered. "Including the information I'm about to access," she added as a precaution, and heard Rommie acknowledge her request.

Harper trusted her, of that Beka had no doubt, so if he was trusting her with this information then she began to doubt that it was just a simple search query on eye doctors. Maybe it was nothing, and now it was irrelevant, she knew Harper was in a strange place mentally when he was doing this research, maybe he only truly trusted Beka at that time, and it seemed a natural request to make.

Finally the information was ready, and Beka began to investigate, whilst quietly cursing Harper for the amount of information his session had gathered.

"Not everyone is equipped to handle this amount of information, Seamus," Beka quietly seethed, the number of files would take her hours to sift through. Beka took a deep breath, and focused. "Give me the information that deals with doctors on Sinti," she then decided to cut to the chase rather than seek answers in every page that flashed up.

Ten results appeared before her and Beka took those files and began to read the contents. The third page had what she was looking for and she beamed, as she downloaded the page to a data chip.

"Doctor Richter," Beka remembered his name now, as she looked at the photograph the file showed her. "Where in the universe are you now?" she then asked, planning to investigate later.

There were still plenty of files left, and Beka knew that meant that eye doctors weren't the only thing Harper had investigated. She took a moment to consider her next move, and looked upwards for inspiration.

"Sort through the remaining files and give me a breakdown of repeated topics, I want to know the areas that Harper was researching," Beka ordered and waited for the simple command to go through its paces, knowing a breakdown would give her some clue to Harper's mindset when he conducted this research.

The console beeped and Beka focused on the results, and she both surprised and not so surprised by the results. Top of the list was Gerentex, and then there was Yussuf's name, followed by Dani. Beka could guess why Harper was investigating Gerentex's activities, after he had tried to kill him by slitting his wrists, but Yussuf was a little surprising, she wasn't surprised by Dani but the fact Harper had investigated Yussuf more, it just didn't add up.

Beka activated the results for Yussuf and stared at the first page for a moment. The information Harper had research was Yussuf's fleet, and the general engineering requirements that Yussuf had. Then there was information on the engineer's that Yussuf had employed in his pride, to work on those ships.

Beka sat back, and considered the information. "Harper was finding out the criteria of finding work with Yussuf?" she spoke in a worried whisper.

Sitting forward again, Beka checked through more of the results but there was no explanation for these searches, until another thought struck her. "Harper was looking for work with Yussuf?" she whispered with disbelief. "No way, there has to be another reasons, I mean I know he missed Dani, but," Beka paused, as she checked more of the results and saw a picture of Dani.

It had been a long time since she had seen a picture of Dani, and she was caught for a moment remembering what Harper had said, as another memory returned, she was holding a distraught Harper in her arms who had just confessed how much he missed Dani. Her eyes returned to the Yussuf search results, and she was forced to realise that Harper could have been seriously considering his options.

"This is ridiculous," Beka stood up and paced the room to clear her thoughts. "He was blind, he needed this ship and the Maru, how was he planning on achieving this? Yussuf hate's humans like him, and there's no way he'd give work to a blind crippled kludge," she frowned with the harshness of her words, and rubbed her face, before returning to the console knowing she was missing something.

Two beeps sounded, indicating a standard code to tell Beka that Andromeda was trying to reach her through the privacy mode.

"Close all files, and remove privacy," Beka ordered. "What is it Rommie?"

"Beka, I am picking up a frequency on one or more of the files you are working with," Rommie informed her. "I am unable to determine the source or the relevance."

"They've been hacked?" Beka questioned.

"They were hacked," Rommie corrected. "The frequency suggests that at the time of the research the files Harper was accessing were either being traced by a third party or Harper was hacking into systems that were already being hacked into, and he was silently discovered," Rommie stated.

"So I'm guessing whoever discovered Harper's hacking, wouldn't have made a big deal out of it at the time because either they were observing what he was doing to later use against him, or they too were hacking into the same system Harper was," Beka suggested.

"Correct, Harper wouldn't have known at the time, as the frequency is the same as my matrix output, but now the files have been reactivated, I can pick out the subtle differences, either way, the files Harper was accessing were being monitored and his research was observed by a third party."

"Which files?" Beka asked.

"All I know is that you haven't accessed them all yet, and I am unable to determine the exact files," Rommie informed her, unable to be more specific with the security in place around them.

"Thanks, I'll get on it and try to work it out," Beka stated.

"Reinitiating privacy mode," Rommie informed her and disappeared from the view screen.

"Return files," Beka ordered and rested her head in both hands, as she waited for the files to appear. "Show me the files that have the unusual amounts of trace data attached to them," she frowned.

Files began to appear and Beka finally sat up to take notice, the answer she was looking for became much clearer in that instant.

"Oh man, well that bit makes sense now," Beka frowned. "This stuff in the wrong hands spells trouble, just by someone knowing Harper was looking at this stuff, now I just have to figure out which wrong hands intercepted this," she sighed, and rubbed her face tiredly. "Crap, Harper didn't I always warn you about hacking, don't you dare accuse me of being your mother again," she seethed, but her concern soon returned, as she closed her console and headed back to the Maru.


Harper stood by the window, his arms crossed as he tried to focus on the landscape outside, but things remained blurred. He caught his own nervousness and tried to calm his breathing, closing his eyes momentarily. An hour ago he had woken, and he remembered what had happened, the panic and the uncertainty after the killer headache consumed him. He was supposed to be in bed, resting, and he was still dressed for bed not having the energy to fully get up, as his thoughts drifted some more.

Deep down he knew something was wrong, and he no longer had the security blanket of, Harper paused as his mind drew a blank for a moment, before he remembered, Trance and the Andromeda. How could he forget, Harper asked himself blaming his own nerves, wanting to laugh but his fear stopped him.

Beka, he suddenly thought, as if his memory had been jogged. He needed to contact her, let her know he was ok, and he remembered that she was alone, when they had promised to stick together. Urgency now fuelled him as he felt the wall to guide him around the room.

"Dani?" Harper called out.

The door opened and Dani walked in. "Sir?"

Harper rolled his eyes at her continued insistence of protocol. "I need to contact my friend; I need access to a communications panel."

"I'm sorry but these quarters are not linked to the main network," Dani returned.

"Then take me someplace that is, I can make calls, right?" Harper stated a little flustered.

"The doctors instructed you to rest, and stay in bed," Dani reminded him. "I'm sorry but my orders are to ensure you do this, and to take care of you."

"Am I a guest or a prisoner?" Harper asked pointedly.

"You are sick," Dani stood her ground.

"I'm fine!" Harper snapped. "Now, I want to make a call and you will obey," Harper stopped himself, caught by his own tone and words and the silence that followed.

"Sir?" Dani prompted in an even voice.

Harper calmed himself down before speaking. "I'm sorry, Dani, I didn't mean to speak to you like that, it's just I really need to make a call."

"I am not able to authorise that, sir," Dani spoke calmly. "I could see about gaining permission, and getting you the equipment you would need."

"Please?" Harper sounded appreciative now.

"Will you return to bed and rest?" Dani asked, and Harper willingly let her lead him to his bed. "I'll go speak to my superiors, and then I'll bring you some lunch."

"Did you happen to catch any of what those doctors think is wrong with me?" Harper asked as he climbed back under the covers.

"You're experiencing fits of some kind, but they don't know what, or why," Dani offered. "They think it's related to your eyes, and it was that doctor we're holding prisoner that treated you, right?" Dani asked, as Harper settled and she checked his temperature by placing her hand on his forehead.

"Yeah, whatever he did has caused these fits," Harper complained. "I should never have let him near me."

To Harper's surprise he felt then Dani's hand brush the side of his face and run through his hair tenderly. "We'll do what we can to help you," Dani simply said and before Harper could respond she was already through the door, leaving him alone once again.

TBC