Part 14
Beka rolled over, and wearily opened her eyes before sitting up and resting on her elbows, Rhade was crouched beside her having shaken her gently awake.
"Any news?" Beka asked.
"Nothing, Asa thinks he must have found some others to take him in," Rhade offered, and handed Beka a small ration of bread.
Taking the bread, Beka sat up on the hard stone floor, longing for her bunk on the Maru. "Or he's lying in a ditch something struck with fever," she sighed.
"There are no ditches in Edenia," Rhade reminded her.
"You know what I mean," Beka returned, finishing her meagre offering of bread.
"Maybe I haven't known Harper for as long as you," Rhade partly smiled. "But I do know that he's pretty resourceful, whatever he's doing I'm sure he's ok."
"Why isn't he trying to find us?" Beka then asked. "We've been here, what? Three days now? Why does it feel like we're just chasing our own tails?"
Rhade shrugged. "From what we've been told, Harper hasn't exactly been able to think straight, they've hurt him, and he wasn't exactly with it when we arrived."
"That's what concerns me most," Beka admitted, not looking at Rhade as she continued. "Asa said they'd hurt him, Harper has this tendency not to forget those who hurt him, when he wants to be, his head can be full of the need to seek revenge."
"And Dylan's orders are to do nothing," Rhade noted.
"And Harper has no idea about those orders," Beka frowned. "Maybe he's too busy plotting his revenge to be bothered about finding us."
"I'm sure he is, in his own way, trying to find us," Rhade offered by way of comfort to Beka. "Harper is very loyal."
Beka didn't look convinced, and even smirked. "When he wants to be," she responded distantly. "This is the same guy who was able to just leave everyone and everything behind on Earth, to start a new life without so much as a word about it, and he's been pretty full on recently with memories from Earth, just by being on this damn planet."
"I very much doubt Harper is looking for a new life here," Rhade confidently returned.
"He told me he was home sick," Beka now looked at Rhade. "I mocked him, he couldn't possibly miss Earth after the hell he experienced, but he was talking about missing his old life."
Rhade seemed to catch onto Beka's drift as he responded. "We're in a prison camp, albeit in better conditions than Earth," he stated.
"I don't want to second guess, but the longer we can't find Harper, the more urgent it becomes that we do," Beka insisted.
"Something Asa said earlier caught my attention," Rhade then spoke, and saw he had Beka's attention. "He said, unlike us, that Harper didn't have guards trailing his every move."
"That's weird, how come he didn't get the up close and personal treatment?" Beka wondered. "Maybe we're not the only ones who can't find Harper," she said, and found a smile, just knowing there was a possibility that Harper was evading Kenan's guards as well as them made it feel a little better.
"Ow, watch my eyes; it's going in my eyes!" Harper squealed.
They continued to hold his head face down, and poured some more of the green alcohol over his hair leaving a trail of black gunk to flow into the stone drainage system.
Tarah after a while pulled his head up again, and wiped Harper's clenched eyes with a rag to clear the liquid that was stinging his eyes. Harper caught his breath, sitting up he finally opened his eyes to see Tarah, Junia and Zal looking back at him, all holding a part of him as they attempted to sort his hair out.
"I think that's all of it," Tarah finally confirmed. "Wow, he looks different with our hair."
"He looks like one of us, his skin is almost pale enough," Junia smiled.
"So we keep sick boy sick, and he'll pass as one of us," Zal humoured them. "Except for that crap on his neck being a bit of a giveaway that he's still a freak," he gestured.
Tarah moved closer and ran her hand over the smooth metallic surface acting as a second skin, and Harper tried not to back away to allow her curiosity to examine the melted metal that covered his skin around his neck.
Her hand then moved to the uncovered sore skin. "Ow," Harper grimaced as Tarah touched the still tender skin around his shoulder.
"Sorry," Tarah quickly offered, drawing her hand back sharply. "What happened to you?"
"I've already said," Harper now moved away.
"No, you didn't," Junia spoke calmly. "I've seen this injury before on our own people, the metal acts as a second skin but prevents full movement, and it's a punishment of some kind."
"What did you do?" Zal picked up eagerly, moving forward so he was stood in front of Harper.
Harper showed his growing frustration. "Nothing, I did nothing," Harper stressed.
"So why do you have this stuff on your neck?" Zal persisted.
Junia showed concern. "People say it's applied hot, keeps the receiver in pain for days after its applied, but I've only seen it on hands and feet, never the neck," she stated as fact.
"You really want to know?" Harper tiredly spoke. "It hurts like hell, my neck feels like its on fire but you know, I've gotten use to it now, I know pain, I can deal with it," he stressed, and then sighed. "The injuries on my shoulder are from this crap being removed, this is what my skin looks like under the metal."
"Your skin is raw and blistered," Tarah showed her horror. "So it continues to burn your skin even after application?"
"No wonder you are sick," Junia simply said, her expression fearful.
"How did you remove it?" Zal asked with interest, whilst showing little of the same horror that his two friends showed.
"The usual and only method of getting anything done around here," Harper responded, and then gestured to the green bottles.
"Let us at least remove the remaining metal, so it stops burning you," Junia offered quickly, as she grabbed a bottle.
"No," Harper responded sharply, backing away once more. "It's too dangerous, and really, its fine, I hardly notice it now," he added, though it was a lie, but he just didn't want these kids attempting anything near his port.
"But the longer that crap stays on, the worse the damage will be," Tarah protested.
"Please, no," Harper responded calmly, and he left the room to avoid any further questions or requests to help him.
Harper soon found himself stood at the door to the building that was temporarily his home, looking out into the Edenian street. It looked like every other street in this city, with everything constructed out of yellow sandstone. The closest there was to some kind of natural plant was the odd pot outside a building, usually broken and the plant inside long dead from lack of water.
With a sigh, Harper considered his options. His thoughts drifted to the others, and he knew he should make some attempt to find them, Beka no doubt would be besides herself with worry, he considered, but if he was honest, he was enjoying being out of their shadows for a while. The past few days had brought serious mixed emotions, brought on in part by the others, so deep down Harper was in no hurry to find them, he still needed to sort out the strange mood he had found himself in.
"Hey, freak, get out of my way."
Harper quickly moved aside as the two members of the house he had yet to be introduced to, returned. He could hear Zal and the girls talking out back, and had no idea where Buz had disappeared to.
"So you're staying," one of the returning guys asked, and Harper turned to the dark haired Edenian. He appeared older than the others, but there was a familiarity about him that Harper couldn't quite place.
"Yeah, for the moment at least," Harper casually returned.
"Those kids," the guy gestured out back. "Easily led, don't be getting any crazy ideas in that alien head of yours and talking of heads, I see you've been creative," he gestured to the pitch black hair Harper now sported.
"Courtesy of Zal," Harper frowned, seemingly unimpressed.
"Sounds like some stupid stunt my kid brother would pull," the guy responding, whilst shaking his head and he moved away to sit with his friend, who remained silent, but staring intently at them both.
"Zal's your brother?" Harper checked he had heard right.
"Correct, my name is Ethan, I'm sure Zal failed to mention me," Ethan grabbed a bottle and proceeded to take a swig of it, before offering it to his friend.
"Harper," Harper simply introduced, and he turned his attention once more to the street.
"Tell me, Harper," Ethan continued, and Harper glanced over to him. "What is your kind called?"
"Human," Harper answered swiftly.
"Are you the same as us?" Ethan continued, and Harper couldn't help but notice the Edenian's arm going around his male friend.
"What do you mean?" Harper found himself asking, hoping he didn't sound too freaked out.
"Physically, I can see you have two arms, two legs like us," Ethan smiled. "How do you, you know, procreate? If we're going to have aliens living in this house I want to be sure I'm not ignorant of your ways, I'm sure you can appreciate in such a small space it's good to know certain things."
"I really don't think I want to have this conversation," Harper dismissed with slight panic.
"I'm curious, that's all, as I said it's not everyday we invite an alien to stay," Ethan continued, oblivious to Harper's discomfort.
Harper watched Ethan's friend snuggle into the hold the older guy had around his shoulders. "Yeah, well, usually a whole bunch of other stuff is asked before we get to that subject, and hell, you're only on about the third page of the official Harper tour."
The two men watched as Harper left the building to simply stand outside, and away from them it seemed. Once outside Harper rubbed his face, the tiredness that had dogged him since his fever kicked in was draining him once more. Inside he heard talking; Ethan and his friend's voices were rising, as they debated something. Trying hard not to listen in, Harper couldn't help but catch snatches of their words as their discussion turned into an argument.
"They won't find out, Pallu, listen to me, no one knows," Ethan stressed, as Harper closed his eyes, resting against the wall outside.
"It's dangerous, they will come, you know how bad the tensions are, and we shouldn't be taking this risk!" Pallu argued. "We're no match for the Gilads; they will kill, sooner or later!"
"Stop being so dramatic Pallu, listen to yourself," Ethan dismissed his friend's concerns.
Harper remained leaning against the outside wall, with his eyes closed and failed to hear Ethan stepping outside to join him. "You should go inside," Ethan advised. "Staying out in the sun is never a wise move."
Harper took a deep breath, opening his eyes and acknowledging Ethan's concerns by moving back inside, without word.
"Kid, I'm sorry if my curiosity made you uncomfortable before," Ethan stated in a brash manner.
"Don't worry about it," Harper responded, and found a spot to sit down inside, against the stone wall. "If you must know, boy meets girl, they make love and hey presto, babies arrive, well in most cases," Harper finally answered.
"Most cases?" Pallu picked up.
"Yeah, it's not like every time," Harper attempted to explain.
"I see, sounds pretty much like us," Ethan stated, as he sat down. "Well, not us," he gestured to Pallu.
"We have that too, boy meets boy, it's no big deal," Harper shrugged, a little more prepared this time as Ethan put his arm around Pallu in an open display of affection.
"It is to us," Ethan smiled. "And you?"
"Definitely in the boy meets girl category," Harper was quick to answer, then with an evil glint in his eye. "But my friend Rhade, he's a different story," he smirked then settled down so he was lying on the floor, and before any further questions could be asked, Harper was already asleep.
"So why Harper?"
"Excuse me?"
"I'm interested to know what was so special about Harper that you let him remain on board the Maru," Rhade settled down next to Beka, who was seated outside the stone building now, glaring at the guards who continued to observe them.
"Is Dylan back yet?"
"Do you see him?" Rhade smiled, knowing Beka was avoiding his question. "Come on, we have time to kill, I have questions."
"Ask me the ones that don't involve Harper and we can talk," Beka remarked.
Rhade was intrigued by this demand. "Why don't you want to talk about Harper?"
"Why do you want to?" Beka returned.
Rhade smirked, bringing his knees to his chest as his arms wrapped around them, attempting to get comfortable. "Ever since Harper opened up, I've been thinking."
"Well stop," Beka suggested with a sigh. "Look, an ex-boyfriend of mine, Bobby, brought Harper on board and Harper in turn made me realise what a pig Bobby was, so I let him stay."
"Even though he was just a mudfoot? Fresh from the horrors of Earth, with no education or, if I am to understand correctly from the other night, no skills whatsoever?" Rhade questioned.
"He had skills," Beka returned sharply, but saw the raised eyebrows and realised her own choice of words. "No, not those kinds of skills, he was eager and enthusiastic, had no where else to go and when Bobby left, he was all I had, and that was better than nothing."
"You felt sorry for him," Rhade picked up.
"No," Beka quickly spoke. "That was never my reasoning," she stressed. "For pities sake Rhade, what does this matter to you?"
"Of all the crew, Harper remains the one I have most difficulty communicating with, without insults," Rhade shrugged. "The other night I caught a glimpse of a more complex character, one that has completely twisted all that I understood about Harper onto its head."
"Come on," Beka dismissed. "You must have known he wasn't only some happy go lucky, sarcastic quippy little guy, that there was more behind all that," she reasoned.
"I never really thought about it," Rhade admitted. "He was just the little annoying one, who occasional entertained me with his so called wit."
"He speaks highly of you too," Beka sneered, not looking at Rhade.
"We will find him, and in one piece," Rhade then assured Beka, sensing her concern in her tone.
"I know, we always do, eventually," Beka sighed heavily, and looked around the empty street. "It's in what condition we find him that worries me."
"Why?" Rhade asked, catching Beka a little off guard.
"What?" she questioned, but continued before Rhade could explain. "Why is it odd that I don't want Harper to suffer any more than he has to?"
"It's not odd," Rhade was quick to offer. "I just wonder why you worry so much about Harper, when it's clear from his background that he is quite capable of looking after himself, he survived Earth."
Beka looked at the stone ground for a moment. "You don't know Harper like I know Harper."
"That's not a reason, that's an excuse," Rhade stated.
"What do you want me to say?" Beka asked genuinely. "You really want me to tell you why I care for someone so much, someone I have known and been in life and death situations with for over five years, you want to know why I give a damn about that person?"
Rhade was now silent, as he considered Beka's emotion fuelled words. "Sorry," he simply said. "It's clear the Harper you know is the one I am not even close to knowing."
"You think Harper isn't worth my concern?" Beka now questioned.
"It's not that," Rhade answered swiftly.
"Then what?" Beka pushed. "You wanted to know why I let Harper stay on the Maru, when he was just a useless mudfoot?" she continued, now ready to speak as Rhade appeared to sink back. "I let him stay because I just wanted, no, needed something that Bobby had done to work out."
"So it had nothing to do with Harper?" Rhade was quick to point out.
"Not exactly," Beka admitted. "He just happened to be the last thing Bobby did that pissed me off, by bringing some piece of crap from Earth on board with the sole intention of betraying him, so when I kicked Bobby off the ship the last thing I could do was go down to Bobby's level and kick the kid off the ship as well, like Bobby was always intending, I just needed to prove to myself that I was better than Bobby."
There was a brief silence, as the words settled. "So Harper only found himself on your ship due to some need to avenge your ex's wishes?"
"You ever tell Harper that and I will personally kill you, and very slowly," Beka warned.
Rhade smirked, and saw Beka smile briefly, lightening the mood slightly. "Your love for Harper is a lot more understandable now."
"Is it?" Beka quickly asked, and then considered his choice of words. "Plutonic love, right, that's what you meant?"
"Naturally," Rhade smirked. "And yes, you care deeply for Harper because he helped you prove a point, that you, Beka Valentine could make your own choices and decisions, despite the odds. Harper represents something you did, against the wishes of someone you thought you loved, and you did a good thing in taking Harper under your wing and he has repaid that faith by utilising his untapped genius to become the engineer you desperately needed to keep your ship going."
"Harper always wanted to be an engineer, he's at one with machines, more so than humans, it wasn't me that did that," Beka abruptly pointed out.
"You said when he first arrived that he knew nothing about the workings of a ship, and was minus a data port," Rhade stated.
"True, but he showed enough interest that it became an obvious choice for him, it was all his decision," Beka insisted.
"You needed to prove a point, and how better than to train the mudfoot to meet your needs, plutonically speaking," Rhade offered, with a wry smile.
Beka quickly got to her feet. "I'm not discussing this any further, Rhade, you've crossed a line and I don't like what you're suggesting," she snapped suddenly needing to be elsewhere. "You don't know Harper, and you certainly do not know me, so quit with the second guessing and assumptions," she stormed and walked away along the stone streets, leaving Rhade to simply sit alone and consider what he had learned.
TBC