Part 40

Rhade grunted as Dylan directed him further into the conduit, the narrow space worked against the Nietzschean but he took some comfort in seeing Dylan also struggling with the small dimensions of the Andromeda's conduits.

"The two remaining intruders are close by, they haven't moved for nearly five minutes so they might be either working on a panel or connected to the mainframe," Dylan whispered. "Take that conduit and follow it to the right, I'll continue here and we should effectively trap them either side," Dylan directed Rhade, as he gestured to the pad he held.

"Shoot to kill or shoot to cause discomfort?" Rhade checked with a smirk.

"Shoot to stop them doing any more harm to my ship," Dylan hissed.

Rhade nodded his head before moving into the conduit, as Dylan continued on his way. Just short of where the two invaders were situated, Dylan heard voices and paused to listen, his breath almost caught as he listened with care.

They were communicating with a third party over a transmission, and Dylan edged closer, certain that he had heard a familiar voice but now he wasn't so sure.

"We can't bypass the lockouts, boss, and we're running out of time, nothing that kludge has told us is working, in fact it's working against us because the ship keeps shocking us!" the first invader snapped into his communications unit.

Dylan winced on hearing a scream of pain over the transmission, and he was convinced now that he was hearing Harper, after a couple more screams he then heard Harper breathlessly talking over the comms.

"Ok, ok," Harper's voice came back between heavy breaths. "You want to know how to by pass," Harper paused again, obviously struggling. "By pass the lockdown in place, short answer is you can't," Harper was heard to scream again having given the wrong answer. "Ok, ok, input security code, Gamma, Delta, three, seven, kiss my ass," Harper stressed and the communication was quickly cut off.

Dylan couldn't help but smile at the human's resistance but he knew it was coming at a price. His own communication unit beeped into life and Dylan saw Rhade on the small screen.

"You hear that?" Rhade asked.

"Harper," Dylan answered with a nod.

"What do we do?" Rhade responded.

"Take these clowns out as planned, with them out of the picture Rico has no need to further demand or physically force Harper help them," Dylan answered.

"He might also have no further need for Harper," Rhade pointed out and Dylan closed his eyes, knowing the Nietzschean was making a very good point.

"We still take them out," Dylan decided. "Then we wait, my voice is too familiar but Rico doesn't know your voice, Rhade, your accent is fairly similar to the guy doing all the talking," Dylan decided.

"No it's not!" Rhade protested lightly.

"It is now, Rhade, improvise, let's go," Dylan ordered and the two men moved forward with haste, to take out the final two intruders.


Harper fell to the deck with exhaustion, after five attempts by Rico to force him into the ship's mainframe, and then the two further beatings whilst trying to get him to give up details on overriding Andromeda's systems. Without looking up, Harper already knew Rico was stood over him, not prepared to give the human any rest. Wearily, Harper pushed himself up onto his knees and wiped the blood from his mouth and nose with the long sleeve of the dead Nietzschean's top that Harper still wore.

"Are you looking to die, kludge?" Rico asked calmly.

"No," Harper answered tiredly. "I'm nearly ready to kill someone again though, does that count?" he added brightly, even with his weary composure.

"I'll kill you before you even get a chance to kill me," Rico sneered and pulled Harper to his feet. "Now, let's have another go at taking over the Andromeda, maybe pain will help you remember how good it is to co-operate with me," he smiled. "No slave has ever resisted me, kludge, and you will not be the first."

"No uber has ever defeated me," Harper managed, before he felt his wrists being tied tightly behind his back. Ignoring the pain, Harper looked around the barren room they were now in situated below decks on the ship. It was clearly a cell of some sort, as Harper checked the exit blocked by electronic bars, there was little in the room that further supported its primary use as a means to hold people.

Rico activated the transmitter pad he held, and he stood near to Harper before turning to him. "If you continue to defy me, slave," Rico sneered into the human's face. "I will take your precious sight away again without a second thought, and I won't hesitate to weaken you further, both physically and mentally, you killed my sister and lost me my brother, don't you dare think I have anything planned for you apart from pain and misery, do you understand?"

Harper just stared at Rico with contempt, but inside he felt the full fear Rico wanted him to feel. Still remembering that Rico had carried through his threat before, when he had lost his sight and Harper was under no illusions that Rico didn't mean what he said. The mere thought of losing his sight again scared Harper more than he cared to admit, remembering the frustration and overwhelming sense of uselessness that had dogged him. Harper wanted to hate Rico, but he calmed his emotions knowing one stupid mistake could cost him so much, no uber would defeat him but Rico was coming close, and the human looked away from the Nietzschean's glare.

"Do you understand?" Rico asked again with anger.

"Yeah," Harper answered with little enthusiasm, still looking away from the uber.

"Giev, come in," Rico spoke into the pad.

"Here boss," the voice returned, but the quality was not good. "We're experiencing some interference so my voice might be a little distorted but I can hear you fine," he added.

"Very well, I have spoken at length with the slave and think he may be a little more co-operative now," Rico announced, and turned to Harper. "Right?" Harper just grimaced without answering. "Tell us how to override the lock out that currently is in place on board the Andromeda."

Harper looked away, not wanting to cooperate but Rico grabbed his hair roughly, and Harper soon found his voice. "Take the green wire, should be to your right," Harper began, his voice low and slightly panicked. "Find the red wire and pull out the chip that it's attached too."

"This won't cause my men a shock will it?" Rico demanded, pulling on Harper's hair some more for effect.

"No," Harper strained under the pain, until Rico let go and he heard the Nietzschean order his men to follow the plan. "When you've done that, tell the computer the following code, 'uber scum rot in hell'," Harper instantly yelped as Rico grabbed his hair again. "No, no," Harper stressed. "That's the code, I promise that's the code," Harper demanded frantically. "Me kludge, you uber, me hate your kind, get me?" Harper explained with panicked urgency.

"I suggest you change the code when we have control of the ship," Rico stated with a tired air, letting go of the human's hair once more.

"It'll still be relevant then," Harper quipped before he could stop himself, and found himself falling sharply down in a heap onto the deck, as Rico lashed out at him with uncontrolled anger.

"We've done that, we're in," the voice returned, as Harper remained down.

"Finally, the kludge is getting us results," Rico smiled knowingly. "We may have to wait a few minutes for the slave to regain consciousness, see what you can do in the meantime and I'll let you know when the kludge is back online."

"Kludge is back online?" Rhade hissed once the communication was cut, and he hit the panel in front of him with frustration. "Harper is many things, but he's not a machine."

"He's not a slave either, or a kludge," Dylan pointed out. "We have to get him off that ship."

"Before Rico kills him," Rhade agreed.

"Rico won't kill him, he would have done so already if that was his intention," Dylan sighed, but there was concern in his expression. "Though there's always the risk of an accident," he considered with genuine worry.

"Harper in Rico's eyes is a slave who escaped, and a slave who has defied the odds to further humiliate the Nietzschean pride," Rhade spoke with some apprehension in his voice. "If Harper was working to get his sight back, and has done so, that alone would be enough to make the Nietzschean who did that to him, feel as though the slave in question had insulted him, his family, and his authority by undermining his wishes for Harper to be blinded."

"Nietzscheans are really messed up, you know that?" Dylan remarked.

"In Rico's case I'll agree with you," Rhade returned. "So are we just going to say that everything Harper suggests works?" he added.

"For the moment, yes," Dylan agreed. "Harper should hopefully twig, so long as what he's telling us is false information."

"Captain," Rommie's projection appeared beside them in a smaller form. "The instructions Harper has given previously were all false, and led to my pre-programmed defences to activate against the intruders," she confirmed. "However, the last set of instructions given to you are genuine, the password is in fact Harper's own to override security measures that I may have in place."

"So 'uber scum rot in hell' is a genuine password in your matrix?" Rhade checked with amused disbelief.

"This is Harper, his profile has quite a few insults for passwords," Rommie added with a smile.

"If this is true, and I'm not doubting you, Andromeda," Dylan began, concern still etched on his features. "Then it's possible that Rico has finally broken Harper, and he's about to give us access to the Andromeda."

"Considering we already have access, captain," Rhade reminded him pointedly. "It's not a bad thing, right?"

"Not for us, but for Harper it could be very bad," Dylan feared.


The cold ice water drenched Harper's upper body and he returned to consciousness with a start, partly shivering as his body reacted to the extreme wake up call.

"Slave," Rico called out. "To your feet."

Harper wanted to protest but his body was already moving to do as the uber said, the pain numbing his body from the numerous beatings and forced entries into the matrix. With his head beginning to thump with the remains of the previous headache, Harper wearily rose to his feet wanting it to end. Struggling with his hands still tied behind his back, Harper eventually managed to reach full height.

"Next time faster," Rico observed with disgust, the young uber probably only a couple of years older than Harper circled the human but he knew that Harper was responding to him now, as a slave should and he smiled with victory.

"You are now my main slave, you will work directly for me," Rico announced and looked at Harper for a response, but saw none. "You will be re-branded as a slave, and you will not dare to humiliate my family ever again."

Harper remained sullen, simply listening to Rico without reaction. Inside he wanted to scream and shout, this wasn't how it was suppose to be and he knew he was not a slave, there was no way he'd be marked twice. His eyes now looked at Rico with disgust, the uber was scum in the nastiest sense and Harper's anger intensified as he realised he was mourning Darla's death more than her own brother. He now regretted the manner in which he had hastily killed the female, finding to his surprise that he resented Beka more now for stopping him killing Rico to justify Darla's death.

"Take him away to be branded, then bring him to engineering, you have five minutes," Rico ordered and immediately Harper struggled as the guards took hold of his tied arms.

"Get off me!" Harper yelled as he furthered his protests, making it as difficult as possible for the guards to get a firm grip on him.

A right hook stunned him enough to make Harper stop, but somehow he had remained standing, and was able to recover quickly to look back at Rico. The uber looked incensed and out of control for the moment with his eyes wide. Harper saw for the first time the man's apparent desperation and desire to control him, but only knowing violence as a means of doing so. It both assured Harper he was still capable of defeating the uber, but at the same time he was worried about the lengths with which the uber might go, in order to achieve his aim. It had all the markings bordering on obsession now and that look in an uber's eyes directed at you was always a bad sign, that Harper knew all too well from his years on Earth.

"You fooled me into thinking you were a willing slave now," Rico calmly spoke, but through gritted teeth.

"I find you're an easy fool to fool," Harper returned, with new resilience, ignoring now the pains in his body, as the guards attempted to hurt him.

"Open communications to the Andromeda," Rico ordered sharply, before turning to Harper and drawing a knife from his belt. "Now, slave, you will tell me the rest of the procedure to overriding the Andromeda's computer," Rico declared then pressed the blade to Harper's throat.

"Slit my throat now, it will save you time later," Harper sneered, feeling the blade.

"Boss," a voice hurriedly came through the communication from the Andromeda. "We've managed to gain control of most of the ship's systems with the earlier access the kludge gave us."

"What, no," Harper responded on instinct. "There's no way, I only gave the minimum of access," he blurted before Rico placed the blade closer to his throat for silence.

"My men are smarter than you think, slave, you will be punished later for underestimating them!" Rico snapped, returning his attention to the communication.

Harper listened intently, as Rico began to converse with his men on the Andromeda before it finally began to make sense, as the voice of the other man, even though distorted, became familiar.

'Rhade' Harper realised with relief, never imagining how glad he'd be to hear that uber's voice.

"We will begin docking procedures, are all the other men in position?" Rico asked. "I'm having trouble raising them."

"The men are in position, sir," the voice returned. "We think the ship put up a dampening field to block some transmissions, hence why my voice is distorted."

"We'll fix that this end," Rico demanded without hesitation and before a response could be heard he cut communications. "Take the kludge to engineering and hook him to the system, we need a slave on the inside to synchronise docking procedures, and I want him to sort out the communications problem to aid our arrival on the Andromeda."

This time Harper willingly allowed the guards to escort him away, knowing that Rhade at least had been able to infiltrate Rico's plans gave him some hope that all was not what it seemed on the Andromeda, and it was enough to play along with until an opportunity arose.

They walked until they reached the engineering section, and Harper was roughly pushed against the nearest console and before he had a chance to protest the two men ensured he remained docile as they laid two heavy punches to his gut and face. In the disorientation Harper was secured to the console, his arms above his head, and he was now practically sitting against the unit with his legs on the deck. The cloudy feeling in his head soon faded, allowing Harper to open his eyes feeling fresh blood on his lips, most probably from a bloodied nose, but he had no time to dwell on that as his crude connector lead once again came into focus and suddenly fresh pain consumed him, as he was forced to connect once more to the ships matrix in a rush of colour and confusion.

TBC