Part 24
Harper felt the blood dripping from a cut lip, as his senses returned after the sharp blow to his head. His shoulders had been jarred and he felt his full weight in that area now, as well as in the wrist joints, his hands were totally numb. With his head hanging down, Harper heard that the attention was further down the line now and away from him for the moment.
"Seamus?" Dani whispered.
"Dani, you ok?" Harper quickly replied.
"I'm ok, did he hurt you?"
"I'm good, hanging in there," he attempted humour.
"I feel like both my shoulders are dislocated," Dani complained under her breath. "My hands are blue," she added.
"My arms will be the longest part of my body if this continues," Harper joined in the moaning. "What's going on, Dani?"
Dani was silent for a moment. "He's punching Yussuf," Dani observed. "And the entire sector is watching."
"What?" Harper checked.
"Oh, you don't know, it's all being broadcast for the sector to see," Dani informed him. "Yussuf's fall from grace."
"But," Harper spoke, trying to understand the situation. "What did Yussuf do? What did we do?"
"Whatever it was, we're now the enemy," Dani spoke sadly.
"I don't feel like an enemy, that makes no sense we help people, I've always helped people if I could," Harper protested in a low hushed voice.
"Maybe they don't understand our intentions?" Dani offered and then gestured for silence, and Harper soon heard the Resisters returning down the line.
Beka sat up, and even though they were approaching co-ordinates, the coverage had got interesting and she wasn't going to miss it. The Resister was going down the line of prisoners, demanding to know their allegiances and Beka wanted to see them reach Harper, and she finally found a smile in anticipation.
"What's going on?" Dylan casually asked as he entered command, seeing the final approach towards the planet ahead.
"Five minutes till we dock," Beka informed him. "And they are asking for allegiances on the sicko wacko channel."
"Have they reached Harper yet?" Dylan asked, finding a position to watch the footage from behind Beka's chair.
"Not yet, he's the last in line," Beka stated. "Dani's up now, and he's next," Beka enthused.
"No surprise that Dani is loyal to Yussuf," Dylan remarked, as they both heard Dani confirm her loyalty to Yussuf.
They watched as Harper's hair was grabbed and his head brought up, and they saw his cut lip was healing, the bandage still covering his eyes.
'Kludge, tell us your allegiance.'
"Do they have to call him that?" Beka seethed under her breath as they waited for Harper's response.
Harper took some breaths, clearly struggling in the painful position he was currently in and they saw the strain in his expression from hanging by his wrists.
"I'm loyal to," Harper paused, needing some more breaths. "Yussuf," he muttered.
There was only silence in the Maru's command section as they watched the Resister turn on his heels and looked directly at the camera. All of his prisoners had confirmed their allegiance to the enemy of the Resisters, and now Beka felt sick to the stomach.
"This palace is now a stronghold for the Resisters, these fiends are our prisoners, our enemy, and they will suffer, our time has come and we have responded," the Resister spoke with triumph but he quickly looked to one side as a flurry of gunfire was heard in the distance. "The fight it appears still continues, but we have the power, enjoy your day and celebrate this victory with us!"
The transmission abruptly ended, and Beka was left staring at a blank screen, having only caught sight of the prisoners beginning to be moved, Harper with them.
"We should concentrate on docking, and then on our meeting with Colin," Dylan calmly spoke, and Beka numbly nodded her head, as she guided the Maru towards the space port.
Harper felt the rope that was keeping him hanging being cut, and then he crumpled to the floor as it finally gave way. Grimacing as he made contact with the wooden floor, he immediately felt his shoulders and wrists burning; now they were finally relieved from the pressure of holding up his own body weight.
Seconds later he was hauled to his feet, and painfully pulled along whilst trying not to fall or think about the intense shooting pains running down his arms as the feeling returned. Harper still couldn't feel his hands, that were still bound together and he had no idea where Dani was. He stumbled along for nearly five minutes, hearing gun fire and conflict not far away, before being pushed into a cold room and he fell clumsily to the floor with his hands still bound.
Hands pushed him onto his back and then he was dragged across the floor. Harper instinctively struggled against the treatment he was receiving, only to find that the handling got worse as a result.
"I'm not a piece of meat!" Harper protested, and promptly felt a kick to his ribs rendering him unable to breathe for a moment. In that moment he was hauled to his feet and forced to stand as he shakily got his bearings once more.
He felt hands on his face and before he could react he felt the bandage covering his eyes being ripped off without care.
"Ow!" Harper cried out angrily to the stinging sensation, and he shut his eyes immediately, as the sudden influx of light hit him for a moment.
Fingers grabbed his face now, pressing deeply into his cheeks and he felt someone close to him. "Open your eyes kludge, let me see what they've done!"
Harper resisted for as long as he could, but the guy holding his face was now forcing his eyes open until he relented, and opened them to the blinding light that made him want to instantly close them again but a sharp slap across the face stopped him.
His sight was still blurred, as Harper adjusted to the sensation of seeing something again, but his eyes began to water, still sensitive to the light after the treatment.
"Nice work," the Resister remarked. "I like the red bloodshot look."
"Thanks," Harper sneered through gritted teeth, his face still gripped by the man, as he closed his eyes to save them from the painful light.
The Resister ignored Harper's remark and untied the human's wrists from their tight binds. Promptly Harper was spun around and pushed into the cell wall, as the guy retied his wrists behind his back. The Resister then paused, and a shiver was sent through Harper as his captor traced the scar on his bare back, the one behind his shoulder, the one that for some reason Harper had forgotten about.
"You were a slave," The Resister stated.
"What of it?" Harper asked, trying to hide his own confusion.
The Resister sharply spun Harper around again, and he found himself pushed into the wall with even more force, his back receiving the full impact. All the while, Harper's mind was in a frenzy trying to remember when he was a slave, and how he had been marked without seemingly knowing or remembering, and his gut was churning once again.
His thoughts were abruptly brought back to the present as the Resister grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at his captor.
"You were a slave of Yussuf?"
Harper didn't want to speak, his instincts screamed at him not to speak but there was doubt now clouding his thoughts.
"Who are you?" Harper asked.
"You do not ask me who I am!" the Resister yelled, obviously insulted.
Harper frowned, his eyes still partially closed. "I don't know."
The Resister now mocked him with laughter, before roughly shoving Harper back into the wall. "You don't know me?"
"No, I don't know about being a slave," Harper spoke in barely a whisper.
His hair was suddenly grabbed, forcing his head up and Harper managed to open his eyes slightly, seeing only a fuzzy image of the guy tormenting him.
"We've heard rumours about brainwashing, about Yussuf fixing his slaves," the Resister spoke with a calm voice now.
Harper listened intently, and slowly those doubts turned into paranoia about his own thoughts and beliefs.
"Where do you come from?"
"Earth," Harper responded.
"How did you leave Earth?"
Harper thought about the question, and he realised he was thinking too long about it. He closed his eyes, before the resister pulled his hair to get a response.
"You left Earth, kludge, on the Eureka Maru, a Captain Rebecca Valentine rescued you, made you her engineer," the Resister told him, and Harper tried to remember. "Do you remember the Andromeda?"
"I remember Earth, and I remember saving Yussuf's life, I remember being here, and I remember Dani," Harper decided to speak, somehow knowing this stranger knew more about him, than he knew about himself and he was eager to learn more. "I know I'm forgetting things, my gut has been telling me this, but I don't know why I've forgotten."
"Interesting," the Resister simply said, before someone else entered the cell.
"Captain, orders from up high, we're to secure the prisoners and help contain the left side, Yussuf's men are gaining some ground."
The Captain grabbed Harper and dragged him out of the cell along a corridor where he was pushed into another cell, and this time he heard the heavy mental door closing behind him.
"Seamus!"
"Dani?" Harper recognised the voice, before feeling Dani close to him and gently encouraging him to sit by the wall.
"I was so worried when that guy separated you from us," Dani spoke with concern, as she struggled to sit next to him with their hands still being tied behind them.
"The others are here?"
"There are in cells along this section," Dani responded. "Where's your bandage, did they hurt your eyes?" she fussed.
"They sting a bit, the light," Harper complained, keeping his head down. "Dani, was I, or am I a slave of Yussuf?" Harper then asked, needing to know.
Dani didn't respond immediately, as she seemed to be considering his question before Harper felt the need to lean forward, to show her his back.
"It's hazy," Dani spoke finally, and somehow Harper knew that she had seen his back, and the scar he carried. "But I remember you serving us, as a slave, but I can't remember details."
"Why didn't you tell me this?" Harper accused.
"I thought you knew, and I didn't want to upset you," Dani stated in her defence. "I saw the scar earlier, when we were being escorted from the building."
"There's a lot I've forgotten," Harper then spoke, his voice low. "And a lot that doesn't make sense," he added. "I'm made to feel I am somehow a part of Yussuf's pride, but I'm a freaking kludge, they are ubers, it makes no sense!"
"Seamus, we're both human, we forget things it's why we are what we are," Dani tried to calm him down.
"What?" Harper snapped. "See, that makes no sense either, I don't forget things, Dani but just lately, I've forgotten a hell of a lot," he stressed, clearly worked up. "I say I'm loyal to Yussuf as if it's the most natural thing in the world to say, but deep down, it just doesn't feel right, it's like there are two of me, and the other me is yelling at me to do something."
"You know I have mental health problems too," Dani reasoned, but there was a mocking tone in her voice.
"I don't know what to believe anymore," Harper sighed, and he couldn't help feeling lost.
"Yussuf will sort this out, he'll regain this palace and restore the prides place in this sector," Dani assured him. "Everything will be ok, Seamus."
"What the hell am I doing working for an uber?" Harper asked with a sigh. "I saved his life, I remember that so clearly, but why would I save an uber?"
"You talk like one of those Resisters," Dani observed.
Harper let his head fall back against the wall, considering Dani's remark, as he closed his eyes. "Maybe they got to me, but I know one thing," he said with a small smile. "I'm glad you're here," he offered.
"Me too," Dani agreed, and there was a tense silence for a moment before Harper felt Dani moving a little closer, until he felt her lips on his.
For the first time since he had woken up, something finally felt very right as he leaned closer and they kissed.
TBC
