Chapter Twelve: Uncivilized

Telemachus Rhade waltzed gracefully into Machine Shop 13 and took his usual, Nietzschean stance.

"Harper," he called clearly.

The engineer slid out from under some ridiculously large piece of machinery and pulled down his goggles.

"Yes Rhade?" he asked, standing up and brushing the dirt off his outfit effortlessly.

"Fix this," Rhade demanded, handing Harper a little metal box.

"Uh..." Harper examined the object in his hands and tilted his head to one side a little, "Rhade, it's just a box."

"Open it," Rhade growled as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ooookay," Harper did as he was told and was surprised to find a crumpled up piece of paper inside of it.

Under Rhade's watchful glare, Harper worked carefully to unfold the paper without tearing it. After a good twenty seconds of unfolding, Harper finally was holding a complete piece of paper again.

His face paled as he read it.

I wish I had the courage to tell you this in person…

"Um..." Harper gulped as he looked up at Rhade.

"Harper, did Beka write this?"

"...no," replied Harper, meekly.

"Who wrote it then?"

"...m-me..."

"And who exactly was it addressed to?"

"W-well, that's a funny st-story..."

Rhade growled. Harper confessed.

"...you."

Harper jumped behind a table.

When Beka finally tore her lips from Dylan's, she was out of breath and having a hard time gaining it back. Her arms remained locked around his neck and her face was so close to his that he could feel her breath on his own lips.

Their eyes met. Blue on blue, ice on ice. Raw emotions coming together to create a conclusion that they couldn't understand. Yet.

Beka waited a few minutes before withdrawing from his lap and shifting into a strange stance on the floor, staring up at him again.

"Dylan?" she asked.

"Yes Beka?"

"Can you see me?"

"Yes."

"Can you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Do you love me?"

Dylan stared openly at her. He looked like he wanted to bolt, run away from her and not have to face her question.

Finally, he realized. The answer was so simple. There was no need to run away to run away from it anymore.

"Beka, I—"

He was interrupted by the sound of clanking metal and a loud thud.

"Ahhh...oof!"

Beka and Dylan both turned their heads to see a very disheveled Trance lying helplessly on the floor.

"Trance?" they said in unison and went to help her up.

"Um...hi," Trance said, brushing her hair back.

"What are you doing here?" Beka asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"I...I...um...well—"

"AHHH! TRAAAAAAAAAANCIE!"

Harper burst into to Maru.

"Not again," Trance sighed, her mind momentarily wandering off to Harper's latest predicament, which happened to be Rhade.

Again.

"This whole thing is that twerpy little engineer's fault!" Rhade glared at Harper, who was in his familiar arms-around-Trance's-waist-hiding-behind-her-profile stance.

"I have to agree," Beka sighed.

"I still don't know what's going on," Dylan shook his head.

"IwrotealoveletterfromBekatoRhadesothatthey'dfallinlovewitheachotherbutinsteadDylanfellinlovewithherandnowRommie'sgonna

blowmyheadoffifRhadedoesn'tsuffocatemefirstand—"

Trance clamped a hand down over Harper's mouth before he could go on with his incoherent blurb.

"He means he's sorry for the trouble he's caused," Trance supplied.

"Sorry?" Harper looked up and his expression changed, "Who said anything about..."

Rhade growled.

"...I'm sorry!"

"So am I," Rhade's tone softened a little and he sighed, "I really was looking forward to suffocating you but..."

"But what?" Trance looked at him.

"But it looks like I just lost my chance."

"Exactly," came a new voice from the Maru's door.

All eyes fell upon Rommie, who was looking slightly calmer than the last time anyone had seen her.

At once, a symphony of voices collided together and, thought everyone was screaming about similar things, they couldn't hear each other at all. Presently, Harper was trying to prove his innocence while Dylan, Beka, Rommie and Rhade all came up with reasons as to why they were in this situation.

And poor Trance of course, was left to clamp her hands down over her pointed ears and huddle in a corner hoping desperately that their screams wouldn't blow her away.

"Okay, stop!" Dylan exclaimed finally, realizing that this was getting them no where.

No one listened.

"People! Try to be civilized!" Trance added.

"THEY'RE GONNA EAT ME!" screamed a certain spiky-blonde-haired little man who had no one to crouch down behind since Trance was currently backed up against a wall.

"Shut up! All of you! And that's an order!" the Captain cried.

"Dylan, no one cares that you're the Captain! We've never cared! We just listen to you because we feel bad for the poor Commonwealth!" Beka yelled, though she wasn't quite sure he heard her over the other shouts.

"Oh please stop! I beg of you! Can't we just find a peaceful way to resolve this and come up with a...perfect possible...possibility?" Trance tilted her head to one side and strode over to Harper, "You don't honestly think that this is going to help improve the situation and make any of us feel better, do you?"

"I think that wringing Harper's neck would make us all feel better," Rhade snarled.

"Though choking someone to death is rather...grotesque," Rommie spat back at him bitterly, "This is Harper's fault."

"And Harper should pay for what he's done," Beka suggested.

"Beka! I thought you'd forgiven me already!" Harper looked like he'd just been stabbed.

"I have," Beka shrugged nonchalantly, "But they haven't, and technically, Rommie isright...well Rommie's always right, but anyways...you did right the love letter."

"But you have no proof that the letter had any affect on Dylan at all! Hell! We still don't know why Dylan went crazy anyways!" Harper looked like his head might explode.

Silence...

...Almost.

"Harper has a point," Rommie said finally, "We don't actually know what caused Dylan to slip into clearly deranged state."

No one liked the way the ship's avatar said "clearly". Particularly Dylan.

"If he was deranged at all..." Beka said softly.

She didn't notice Rhade's eyes narrowing.

"All right...so now that we're all calmed down, can weplease get back to Command and talk this out properly? Perhaps even find a cause for Dylan's previous state?" Trance said after a few minutes.

Dylan sighed, "Fine. All crew report to Command in fifteen minutes."

He fled the Maru before anyone could challenge his order. Rhade was next, stalking angrily out of the little cargo ship, cursing madly under his breath with Rommie following a few meters behind wearing no expression. Beka stood dazed for a few minutes and was brought suddenly out of her thoughts when Trance placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry," she said, "Things will work out, they always do."

Beka's lips quirked, "Maybe they've already started to. Trance...I...I think..."

Trance smiled warmly, but then remembered that Harper was in the room and was staring at them with eyes the sizes of saucers.

"You should go cool off," the golden girl advised, "You look pretty worked up."

"Yeah," Beka ran a hand through her now messy blonde hair, "I'll see you soon."

She treaded silently now. Her footsteps were like those of a cat's, soft, so soft that when she left the room, Trance couldn't be sure whether she'd left the Maru all together.

Trance turned to look at Harper, who was now standing on his own, which was actually quite an improvement.

"Is it really my fault?" he asked, his eyes huge.

"Oh Harper," Trance's fingers trailed through his hair, "I suppose we're going to find out."

A/N: This just keeps getting longer and longer…I'll try to add another chapter by tomorrow. Please don't give up on me! I will finish this! Beka will have a happy ending! (With Rhade!).