Part 59
Beka waited until the captain emerged from the Eureka Maru that had docked in the hanger bay a few minutes earlier, and then approached with some purpose.
"Why did you do it?"
"Do what?" Dylan asked, oblivious to Beka's anger, as he glanced at Rommie who was stood by his side, having just returned from Edenia with him.
"You know what," Beka stressed, and saw Rommie mentally communicating with her ship self.
"She knows, Dylan, about your orders regarding the reports to the council," Rommie then informed Dylan.
Dylan frowned and then began to walk, with Beka and Rommie falling into place either side of him. "I understand why you're angry," Dylan began as they left the hanger deck.
"Angry doesn't even come close," Beka seethed. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't take Harper right not and leave this damn ship, and the ungratefulness behind!"
Dylan stopped and made sure he had Beka's attention, as they reached the connecting point in the corridors. "I did it to protect Harper, and to protect Earth," Dylan stated firmly.
"And yourself no doubt, you've taken your experiences on Edenia far too personally and Harper will not be your scapegoat!" Beka stressed.
"Now calm down!" Dylan ordered loudly, and Beka instinctively backed down, looking away from the high guard captain. "Right now Harper is the only person who fully understands Edenia's systems, he's the only one in this universe who could jack in right now and instantly understand it!"
"And, why is that a bad thing?" Beka snapped. "Making you feel inferior?"
Dylan lightly grabbed Beka's upper arms, to make his point clearer. "Fine, I'll tell the council if that's what you want, the same council that you yourself know I no longer trust and hell, I'll just go and tell Earth too, sure the Nietzscheans would love to know there's one sure fire way of gaining control of the city of Edenia!" Dylan stressed with anger. "We both know that Edenia is ideally located to completely control this sector and be well protected in doing so, that's why we risked our lives to go down there in the first place, and now you want to risk Harper's very being by exposing him to the universe, for what? Fame, acknowledgement, a pat on the back?"
Beka was silent now in the face of Dylan's wrath, as he continued. "I needed to take back control and I did exactly that by protecting my crew, the crew I care deeply about, and our experiences on Edenia just reminded me of that fact," Dylan spoke with calm now. "I also realised that I can no longer avoid and mistake the fact that I do not trust the very thing I've been working my butt off for the past four years to build, we have to stick together and keep all the cards to our chest, and that means the true skills of our crew, of Harper, Trance, yourself and Rhade, and it's my job to protect you so we can make this universe a better place."
Beka took a deep breath and then gestured for Dylan to let go of her, as she backed away. "You should have told me, not let me find out the way I did," Beka spoke softly.
"I wanted Harper to be the first to know," Dylan offered. "But the time I just spent on Edenia was longer than I expected."
"How are things down there?" Beka idly asked.
"They have voted for the shield to be permanently reinitialised, have things go back to how they were," Dylan sighed. "They don't want to join the Commonwealth or be a part of the universe," Dylan spoke with some sadness at the decision.
"I don't blame them," Beka shrugged. "And if things go to hell out here, might be a good place to hide, so long as it's not as messed up as it was during our first visit."
"We should let them be," Dylan advised. "They want to be cut off for a reason."
"But we helped them, gave them control, so they won't turn us away, surely?" Beka protested.
"I'm hoping we never have to ask for sanctuary, it would take this universe turning into the depths of hell to make me return willingly to that city once the shield is restored," Dylan simply said, and then looked over to the side as the hologram of Andromeda materialised.
"Dylan," the hologram greeted. "Zal and Junia have just made a joint request to return to Edenia, they have decided to stay on their planet."
"They have?" Beka checked.
"The novelty has worn off and they say the thought of leaving their home is too much," The hologram spoke.
"Ok, we'll arrange something," Dylan dismissed easily. "Tell them we'll arrange something later, I need to get some sleep and freshen up, Beka you have command," Dylan stated tiredly and walked along the corridor and away from Beka, the hologram and Rommie, and they now just stood and stared at each other for a moment.
"Shame, I was just getting use to having them two around," Beka commented finally.
"It does seem a little sudden," the hologram noted.
Rommie had a strange look on her face. "Zal is acting strange," Rommie spoke with confusion.
"What do you mean?" Beka asked.
"He's angry, Junia is attempting to calm him down, he seems agitated," Rommie considered, and her hologram nodded her head.
"He has high levels of the Bantra toxin in his blood, he is currently intoxicated," The hologram supported.
"Great, perfect!" Beka sighed. "I better go check on him."
"Did you know he was an addict?" Rommie asked, as they began to walk and the hologram disappeared from sight.
"Not exactly," Beka answered. "But does this look like my surprised face?"
"No I would say that was your not surprised face," Rommie noted.
"Exactly, and the last thing Harper needs around him right now is an addict to that damn toxin, maybe we should get Zal off this ship sooner rather than later," Beka stressed.
"Do you think Zal might have exposed Harper to the drug at all?" Rommie now casually asked.
"I don't think so, he seemed just as surprised as us when we found out," Beka admitted.
"Sometimes addicts will do anything to cover their own habits, lying being the most common," Rommie pointed out.
Beka took a deep breath, her own nightmares returning to her thoughts. "Don't ask me how I know, but I'm confident Zal had nothing to do with reawakening Harper's addiction, I know how that happened, a guy called Buz."
Rommie looked at Beka with a frown, but decided not to argue as they continued to walk to Zal's location.
"Zal you have to calm down," Junia tried to reason with her troubled friend. "Come on, take a deep breath and fight this," she stressed. "What is wrong?" she continued when Zal didn't respond.
"It just made me mad," Zal spoke with agitation, now pacing the deck as Junia attempted to follow.
"What did?"
"The way he spoke to you," Zal returned.
"Who?"
"Harper, who else?" Zal snapped.
"What?" Junia stepped forward and stopped Zal pacing. "What way did he speak to me?"
"Like he didn't care," Zal answered.
"Zal, he's been through so much it's understandable that he's not ready to accept me into his life, come on, be fair," Junia spoke with honesty. "Is this why you want us to return to Edenia?"
"Yes," Zal took a deep breath.
"Why did you take an extra dose of that stuff?" Junia then frowned. "Was it because of Harper?"
"I needed it, for the first time in weeks I just needed something more to push me further," Zal explained, without making sense.
"You were doing so well," Junia sighed. "For four weeks you've been controlling it and now we have to start all over again."
"Harper did this," Zal offered softly.
"No, Zal, he helped you, you've been able to control your addiction for four weeks because of Harper, you can't blame him," Junia argued.
"Well I won't have him reject you, because I warned him, right at the beginning I warned him," Zal stated flippantly. "He knew you were my special girl, I warned him," Zal now fussed, as he continued to pace the room.
Junia froze on seeing the expression on her friend's troubled face. "Don't do anything, Zal, not in this state, and you don't want Harper to see you like this."
"He knows I'm an addict, he already guessed," Zal stressed.
"I know, I heard him too, and he was right you shouldn't have taken more of that stuff on this ship, it will know, this ship it's all seeing remember?" Junia reminded him. "Probably already knows."
"I don't care," Zal moved to the cot in the corner of the room, his energy waning now as the dose lost its edge. "Already seen Harper," he then added before closing his eyes.
"What?" Junia demanded.
"After I made the request, I went to see Harper, before I came back here to see you," Zal wearily settled down to sleep, that rapidly seemed to be taking him over.
Junia didn't want to hear anymore, she quickly moved to the exit and headed towards med deck. Moments later Beka and Rommie entered the room, and found Zal already in a deep sleep.
"Where's Junia?" Beka casually asked.
"On her way to med deck, I think we should go too," Rommie then answered, already making her way back to the corridor.
"Why, what's going on?" Beka picked up the urgency.
"It's Harper," Rommie said, her voice unable to mask the concern.
"What about Harper?" Beka demanded.
"Well he's fine, but his nose has just started to bleed," Rommie stated, and both women picked up the pace.
Harper looked at his hands and saw the sticky red substance that covered them. The shock set in and he just stood numbly staring at them, feeling the warm sensation as the blood travelled down to his chin and stained the white t-shirt he was wearing.
He hadn't really thought anything of the tea Zal had made him, and he put the gesture down to nothing more than another of Zal's quirks, supporting the strange affection Zal seemed to have for him. Harper had waited for it to cool but as soon as he brought it to his mouth, he recognised the sensation and then the blood flowed. A few feet away from where he now stood lay the broken glass and scattered liquid of the tea, covering that part of the deck.
"No," Harper denied what he was seeing, and he remembered what Zal had said.
'I told you not to hurt Junia, I warned you.' Zal had been more animated than he remembered ever seeing him before, more like the night he had first met him in that house, when he had picked a fight with him for no reason, and suddenly Harper's blood ran cold as he put two and two together. Those words Zal had spoken though were not said in anger, more like a passing comment between friends, and Harper had long ago taken a lot of what Zal said in jest, never sensing a threat.
'Now we're equal, you should know that he's still got Zal right where he wants him, don't trust him.' He'd been warned, and now Harper's thoughts were confused as he was taunted by Buz's warning, don't trust Zal. Harper shook his head slowly in denial, Zal was not like that, he was no longer Pallu's puppet, but nothing could disguise that Harper was now looking at his own hands covered in blood. An innocent gesture of friendship by Zal had led to this, but he didn't want to believe it was true.
"Harper?"
"Junia," Harper spun around and almost lost his balance, and Junia quickly moved to his side to support him.
"Stay focused," Junia advised as she checked his reactions, happy to see Harper moving his eyes following her hand, and reacting to her clicking her fingers. "You've only had a light exposure, you know who you are, right?"
"Course I do," Harper smirked, feeling light headed now that the initial shock had worn off. "Seamus Zelazny Harper, genius."
"You should sit down," Junia advised.
"I can't," Harper grimaced. "Movement is making me feel sick," he added.
"Come down to the floor then, come on, I've got you," Junia spoke with care, as Harper trusted her voice and allowed his legs to buckle so he could sit on the floor. "Is that better?"
"Yeah," Harper moved to sit cross-legged, and then used his hands to rest his head on, as the nausea caught up with him for a moment.
Junia retuned to his side, he hadn't even realised she had gone, and she brought a cloth to his face to stop the nose bleed. She looked up when Beka and Rommie joined her.
"Trance, report to med deck immediately," Beka spoke with concern on seeing Harper sitting on the floor with a blood stained cloth to his face.
"He's ok," Junia confidently assessed.
"We'll let Trance confirm that," Beka advised, kneeling beside Harper now, and putting an arm across his back.
"Sorry," Harper then looked up at Junia.
"Don't," Junia returned knowingly, seeing the confusion in Harper's expression. "Zal was wrong, not you."
"Zal did this?" Beka questioned.
Junia reluctantly turned to Beka, hesitant to answer. "I think so."
"He did," Harper answered, rubbing his temples now to ease the pain, and then looked at Junia. "He was high, right?" he guessed.
Junia nodded her head slowly, and turned to Beka. "Look, we'll leave the ship and return to Edenia immediately, we won't stay, I'm sorry I thought Zal was over the worse but he still has a long way to go to beat his own addiction, and these stupid lapses he has."
"He shouldn't be around Harper at the moment," Beka agreed.
"You've been saying that all along," Harper argued lightly.
"And he's continued to hurt or betray you all along, enough is enough, Harper," Beka returned.
"Don't go," Harper looked up at Junia. "Neither you or Zal, don't go because of this, you have a great opportunity to leave Edenia, to leave your past behind," he stressed.
"Harper," Beka stressed. "They can't stay here, what if Zal does this again?"
"He won't," Harper stated firmly.
"How can you be so sure?" Beka wasn't going to let it lie.
Harper shrugged, and then looked up as Trance came in. "I think I'm going to be sick, you might want to clear a path," he announced clutching his arms around his stomach, and looked very much like he wasn't joking, but Junia didn't move and Beka started to gently rub his back.
"What happened?" Trance asked.
"The tea," Harper managed between deep breaths, as he tried to beat the nausea.
"He must have laced it with the bantra toxin," Junia figured. "It's how some people like their tea on Edenia and is not enough of an exposure to cause addiction, but for addicts and in Harper's case, it's enough to give them a hit."
"How did Zal get that toxin on board, and how did it escape Rommie's attention?" Beka asked.
"That's my fault," Junia admitted. "I've been helping Zal with his addiction, and so I carry very small amounts with me, for those moments where he just needs something to pick him up."
"You give him the drug to pick him up, the whole point of getting over an addiction is to avoid the drug full stop," Beka stated.
"The Bantra toxin is very toxic," Trance explained before Junia could answer. "For addicts it would kill them to simply stop exposing themselves to it, they have to reduce their exposure little by little, it's not like Flash, you can't just stop."
"So how far apart are Zal's hits now?" Beka idly asked.
"Usually he can go a week between needing bantra tea, but he must have increased his own dosage to get to the state he was in, this will set him back quite a bit," Junia frowned.
"What caused it?" Beka asked.
"Who knows what exactly triggered it, but in the past week he's lost his brother, seen all he knows on Edenia shot to pieces and has considered the prospect of leaving that world behind for a big adventure, I'm sure his anxiety levels are sky high," Junia shrugged. "He probably lost his control, control that he barely has to start with, and had a moment of weakness."
"I don't blame him," Harper sighed, still holding his head in his hands.
"Maybe it's best you both return to Edenia, until he's straightened out," Beka frowned.
"No," Harper answered, and looked up finally. "The best thing I did was leave that life behind when I had the same problem, a change of scenery and perspective is the best thing he could have to help him."
"Harper, Zal is not you," Beka reasoned. "You didn't try and hurt people when you joined my crew, Zal needs help that we can't give him."
"You're wrong," Harper insisted. "He did this to me because he thought I was hurting Junia. Sending him back to Edenia, with Pallu still alive is not helping Zal."
"Harper wasn't hurting me," Junia spoke up to clarify. "I can appreciate that Harper has other things to focus on right now."
"Exactly, so I guess Zal read my words that wrong," Harper offered, and saw the blank expressions of Beka, Trance and Rommie staring back at him.
"I will help Zal, and I'll make sure we stay clear of Pallu," Junia spoke sincerely.
"Pallu will be standing trial over the coming weeks, so you should be ok to find a new place to live in Edenia," Rommie then mentioned.
Harper frowned, not looking convinced, before he sighed. "Anyway, the fact is Zal probably felt a bit lost, because he feels you just want to dump him and forget about him, so can you blame him for losing it?"
"We told him why he can't stay on board," Trance offered.
"I know," Harper answered. "But he gave me the impression that apart from pleasantries, he hadn't exactly been made to feel welcome."
"We've been busy," Beka defended but her words gave away her own guilt, and she saw Harper and Junia staring at her. "Ok, I know I haven't exactly been giving my attention to Zal, or you Junia, but I have been busy, I have a job on this ship, this isn't Edenia."
"I think Zal has a crush on you," Junia then informed Beka. "He won't admit it but he's really wanted you to just acknowledge him just a little, like how you did on Edenia, he doesn't understand that things have changed. He's lost, he has nothing now and I think he's really feeling it."
Beka nodded her head in understanding. "I'll talk to him, and if he's lucky I won't beat him upside the head for what he's done to you," Beka gestured to Harper.
"I'm ok, just a little zoned," Harper offered tiredly, and took the bloodied cloth from Junia to wipe his face clean again.
"But I need to talk to you first, Harper," Beka then spoke, and the others bar Trance all made their excuses to leave.
"Is it ok if I stay, I want to ensure Harper is ok like he claims," Trance offered, and Beka nodded her head to indicate it was ok. "Can you move, or do you want to remain on the floor?" Trance asked.
"I'll stay here, still feel a little sick," Harper responded, and found Beka moving to sit beside him, as Trance moved away to give them some privacy whilst she checked his vitals from her console. "So what's going on?" Harper asked, picking up on Beka's mood.
"Dylan's covering up what happened on Edenia," Beka informed him.
"Doesn't surprise me," Harper admitted. "I thought he was avoiding me for a reason."
"He's not been to visit?"
"Not really," Harper shrugged. "But he's been planet side a lot, hasn't he?"
"No excuse," Beka returned. "So why don't you blame him?"
"Had time to think," Harper answered. "Not sure I want Earth's so called achievements on Edenia to be recorded, I mean look what they did," Harper gestured with his hands, clearly troubled.
"Amazing stuff with technology?" Beka guessed.
Harper smirked. "Yeah," he admitted. "But at what cost? The Edenian's fear technology and they haven't even advanced to motorised transport; they built all their beliefs around the magic of tech that they didn't understand."
"There's is arrogance on display, but Harper, no offence but history does record that before Earth became a slave planet, its people were blinded by arrogance," Beka reasoned. "You know I even heard that they thought they were the only sentient beings in this universe for a long while."
"Till now I didn't want to believe it," Harper sighed.
"Harper, giving back Edenia to it's people and taking away the hold Earth put on Edenia, that was special," Beka assured him. "Maybe some good has come from the ubers enslavement of Earth, and you're the first example of that by the actions you took."
Harper smirked. "You don't really believe that do you?"
"No, but I thought it might puff up that ego of yours that sounds a bit deflated," Beka smiled.
"Thanks," Harper offered genuinely.
"So why did you do it?" Beka then ventured.
Harper took a deep breath, as some colour returned to his face. "Because I could, and it would mean less work for me in the long run if I got the Edenian's to do it for me," he smiled.
Beka laughed and then put her arm around Harper's shoulders to hold him close. "Ok, well I'll quit being mad at Dylan then, if you're truly ok at being omitted from the reports," Beka stated.
"I'm fine with it, I mean it's kind of scary to be the only one who knows that tech, the original tech, inside that mainframe," Harper offered with a sigh.
"Did you learn anything?" Beka enquired.
"Yeah," Harper answered without going into any detail, and Beka sensed he wouldn't expand on his answer and decided to leave well enough alone.
"Well, I better go and see Zal, that's if he's woken up," Beka got to her feet.
"Don't push him away, give him a chance," Harper offered.
"In what sense, from this ship or to his charms?" Beka asked curiously.
Harper didn't respond and just smiled at Beka, leaving her to work out to what he was referring. With a knowing smile back, Beka turned and left med deck.
To be concluded…:)