Part 35

The eager young Nietzschean raced down the corridor and abruptly stopped, awaiting Rico to acknowledge him.

"Sir," the young man spoke, as Rico gestured to him. "We have tracked Yussuf's ship to the Andromeda; we have our target's co-ordinates."

"Excellent," Rico enthused. "Dismissed," he gestured and turned to Roberto who sat on at the meeting table. "I want you to deal with that kludge Harper, and also ensure my sister stays locked up, so when we claim the Andromeda she can admire our victory from their lovely brigs."

"Your sister is young, Rico," Roberto defended. "She doesn't understand the complex nature of winning a battle."

"She was going to twist the kludges mind to her way of thinking, and as you've already determined, that is the wrong way," Rico explained. "I will not have my mission compromised."

"A wise move," Roberto agreed and got to his feet. "I will make sure the kludge is ready to squeak when the time comes to take the Andromeda."

Rico smiled with trust towards Roberto, and watched his good friend leave his office, knowing it was just a matter of time now.


Harper had tested every wall but there was no give, or escape. He was alone in a square room, that was located within a more interesting room full of consoles that he could hack, but Harper had no access to that room due to the heavily locked door. The room he was in was probably once a store of some kind, Harper had determined as he once again checked the ship's ventilation mechanisms. Controlled environments usually mean air shafts, but this ship was well designed, and used pretty modern tech, to Harper's disappointment, the air vents were compact and only a mouse could escape this room in one piece.

With a slight grimace, Harper limped around the room, his ankle still throbbing painfully from his earlier altercation with the ubers. He sat down on one of two chairs in the room to give his ankle some relief, and then Harper's hand began absently drumming against the metallic table. He felt nervous, having finally believed in something, Beka had been taken away from him and he was back to believing in himself. Unless, he considered, Beka had used the gift he had stolen for her, the key, and she was on his side enough to help him escape. Beka had appeared genuine, and there was a quality in her actions towards him that suggested to Harper that she was his friend. It was so hard, with so many people messing with his head, Harper had no idea what was genuine and real, and being aware of that fact simply didn't help matters.

The door unlocked and opened, before a Nietzschean that Harper thought he recognised strode in. He had seen him before, in two different places. Roberto, Harper remembered, he had seen him briefly, but there was another name coming to mind.

"John?" Harper checked unsure, his eyes absently glancing towards the now unlocked door.

"You remember me?" Roberto smiled with amusement. "Your mind is more powerful than I gave it credit."

"That's not your name though, is it?" Harper then offered.

"It's one you remember," Roberto returned, as he sat down.

"Roberto, Rico called you that, I heard him," Harper responded confused.

"It's my name," Roberto shrugged. "But this isn't about me, kludge, it's all about you."

Harper frowned. "I was afraid of that."

"We have located the Andromeda," Roberto continued, crossing his arms. "So now you have two options, the easy way, or the hard way."

"How about the 'no freaking' way?" Harper crossed his arms now, and leant back for effect.

"The hard way it is then," Roberto confirmed without missing a beat.


The area was quiet, as Beka stepped carefully along the ships gangways knowing she had to find something to use as a weapon. So far she had only found a piece of piping that could do some damage, but she was hoping for something with a bit of firepower. As if the ship was reading her mind, Beka was suddenly drawn to a cabinet at the far end of the deck that she had walked onto, and she hurried to discover its bounty. There were very few crewmen on the ship, something that seemed odd to her considering the situation, and the size of the vessel, but she remained alert as she checked the cabinet for any weakness.

Using the piping to smash the controls on the lock, Beka quickly retrieved a couple of weapons, and armed them. Then she looked around, realising she could hear the feint sound of a struggle. With haste, she moved swiftly along the wall, alert to any dangers and with her newly acquired weapons ready.

In moments she at a cell door, and she cautiously looked inside to see Darla struggling, all tied up and with no hope of escape. With a smile Beka simply looked at her, making sure Darla noticed her but with the gag there was nothing Darla could do. Beka moved on past the bars in full view of the female, still hearing the sounds of a struggle from elsewhere, but they were closer now, and she could distinctively hear Harper.


Harper edged around the table, keeping the Nietschean the other side as they circled around the room. Their eyes were locked, neither man wanting to look away for fear of dropping his guard, as the tense atmosphere rose.

"Why make this more fun for me, kludge?" Roberto asked with an amused sneer.

"Why make it easy for you?" Harper countered, ignoring the shooting pains in his injured ankle.

The Nietzschean suddenly pushed the table forward towards Harper, who backed away quickly against the wall until the table pinned him.

"It's already too easy," Roberto mocked, as he easily grabbed Harper now trapped by the table.

Putting up a fight, Harper ignored his own pains and kicked out at the Nietzschean, managing to force the uber to let him go, and he scrambled away. Grabbing a chair now, Harper used it to defend himself against any more attacks.

"We should have kept those damn chains on you," Roberto complained now, feeling blood from a split lip. "You're animals, all of your kind!" he snapped.

"Yeah?" Harper was high on adrenaline now, his breathing fast. "I bite too," he warned, using the chair to keep the larger man away and he lunged forward only for the Nietzschean to grab the chair and use it to push Harper back with force.

Losing his balance, Harper stumbled back and fell to the floor. Looking up he saw the giant of a man descending on him, and then felt a boot connecting strongly with his ribs, as the breath was kicked out of him. Trying to shield his body, Harper was only able to partially protect his body from a series of frenzied kicks that Roberto now attacked him with. Struggling to breathe, Harper curled up against the onslaught but was unable to completely protect himself.

The door suddenly burst open and Beka didn't hesitate as she opened fire and two shots hit the attacking Nietzschean's back. Immediately Roberto stopped, and slowly turned, partially stunned by Beka's actions but then slowly he smiled as he turned back to Harper. Unsure, the human just stared at the dying Nietzschean towering over him.

"Sleep," Roberto sneered, as he waved his shaking hand and connected it to Harper's forehead, and the human's eyes immediately rolled back and he slumped back into a deep sleep just before Roberto breathed his last breath.

"Harper?" Beka hurried forward as the large Nietzschean fell onto Harper, and she hauled him off of the smaller human. "Seamus," Beka spoke again, seeing Harper was unresponsive. "Harper!" she yelled now, grabbing his shoulders and gently shaking him, his head simply rolled and he remained unconscious.

Lightly Beka slapped Harper's face, desperately trying to get some reaction from her friend. "Come on, Harper," Beka stressed, not wanting to be found with the dead uber they were sharing the room with.

Taking a deep breath, Beka considered the situation and knew now that the recently deceased uber had put Harper back into some kind of hypnotic trance. She had never truly believed it was possible, that one person could so easily control the actions of another, but Harper had been awake just a few seconds ago and now he appeared to be in a deep and strangely peaceful sleep, unable to wake up on his own, or with her more panicked efforts.

"Wake," Beka spoke but there was still no reaction from Harper, and she recalled the hand movement the uber had used when saying the word 'sleep'. She desperately needed Harper to wake up, considering they were still in the interrogation area with a dead uber for company. Slowly she composed herself, feeling a little foolish Beka knew she had to at least try, even though her own scepticism taunted her.

"Harper, when you wake," she decided to finally give it a go, trying to remember how she had seen this sort of stuff done before. "Everything you have been told in this state will be void," she considered her words with care. "You will remember who you really are and everything that you knew to be the truth, before you were first hypnotised," Beka said calmly, secretly hoping it would be enough. "And when I click my fingers, you will wake," she took a deep breath and then clicked her fingers close to Harper's face.

TBC