In the Docking bay, six crewmen awaited their Chief Engineer. Lena Jenson , being next in rank below Harper, already had the team Investigating the exterior of Eternity, in search of any damage that would need repaired.
Two crewmen, a pair of Nietchiens from Terrazed, were checking out the remarkable shield generators Eternity was equipped with. Their conversation, however, soon turned to a less technical topic.
"So Cain. What do you think of the Kludge Engineer?"
"What's there to think Morak?" Cain asked. "He's a Kludge."
"He seems rather pathetic though, don't you think, even for a Kludge."
"Yes, I do, but I wasn't going to say anything."
"Are you afraid of a Mudfoot from Earth?" Morak mocked.
"Cain out of Leona, by Doran is afraid of nothing!" He growled defensively.
"Then consider his inferior genes. Surely one of us should be Chief Engineer and not a genetically altered Kludge Earther with a foolish tail."
Harper and Trance were at this time standing just outside the entrance to the docking bay.
"Did you hear that Trance?" Harper asked.
"Hear what Harper?"
"I hear two of the new engineering crewmembers talking." Harper stated. "Can't you hear them?"
"No Harper. I can't." Trance leaned her ear toward the door to try and hear better. "Harper, I can't hear a thing."
"Well I do Trance." Harper said. Trance was about to say something else, but Harper motioned for her to listen.
"I think it's pretty pathetic that the best he could find in mates is that other purple freak with a tail." Morak said.
"Better for them to be together," Cain said, "than to pollute two family gene pools with their offensive genes."
"I hear he was once a normal human." Morak said. "Then that thing did something to him, and made him like it."
"I hear that she's nothing more than a…."
Harper had heard enough. He entered the Docking Bay with Trance still by his side. She saw the anger in his eyes, and it scared her. She hadn't heard the conversation and didn't know what had caused Harper to be so furious. She was afraid that he was about to forget all about her warnings about self control.
Officer Lena Jenson walked over, and met Harper and Trance as they neared the vessel.
Lena saluted Harper.
"Chief, we've done a preliminary sweep of the exterior of the vessel, and found little damage. Those energy shields are amazing."
"Officer Jenson. How many times do I have to tell you to call me Harper, not Chief, not Sir, just Harper?"
"Sorry Sir,… er,… uh, I mean Harper."
"That's better." Trance noticed that Harper had relaxed a bit during his short conversation with Lena, but just a bit.
"Lena." Harper said. "I would like to see Cain and Morak. Could you bring them here please?"
"Yes Sir." Lena said, already forgetting.
She left and went over to the other side of the ship where she knew the two crewmembers had been admiring the shield generators. During this time Harper could still hear them talking. Their conversation that he had previously heard had been the kinder part of it. They were now saying hurtful things about Trance and himself that he never wanted Trance to have to hear. "How could they allow someone of their thinking even be in the High Guard?" Harper asked himself. "They can say what they want about me, but I won't let them talk about Trance like that."
With every second that passed, Harper was getting angrier and angrier.
Trance looked into Harper's eyes, but there was none. In the place of his eyes were flames of fire. Oh Yeah, he was hot. She had to try to talk him down before he did something he'd later regret.
Trance, already holding Harper's hand said, "Harper, you need to calm down. I don't know what you heard, but you can't let it cause you to lose control. Harper please, let it go."
"I can't just let it go Trance." Harper said. "You don't know what they said. Don't worry Trance. I won't lose control. I may be angry, but I'm in control. Devine help them if I wasn't."
His words were meant to calm her, but they were unsuccessful. When he had finished talking they saw Lena leading two crewmembers toward them. As Harper saw the two, Trance noticed Harper's body begin to emanate great heat.
"Please Harper." She pleaded. "Don't do it."
"CAIN! MORAK!" Harper shouted furiously in a thunderous unnatural voice.
The two Nietchiens both took a step backward, when they heard him speak. Harper saw fear in their eyes.
"Wha…what do you want?" Morak asked.
"What I want is for you to get off this ship!" Harper shouted.
"I don't understand." Cain replied.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. You Ubers need everything explained and drawn out. OK. You're currently ON the Andromeda. I want you OFF of Andromeda. The sooner the better."
"What have we done wrong?" Morak asked defiantly. "We've been here doing OUR jobs while you were apparently with… her."
"Oops," Trance said. "Wrong thing to say."
A solar flare shot out from Harper's body and struck the deck in front Morak, burning a hole in the plating.
Harper looked up, and softly said. "Sorry Andromeda."
Rommie entered the Docking Bay just in time to see the fire works.
"What is going on here?" Rommie inquired.
Harper turned to Rommie.
"Sorry Rom Doll. No time right now to explain, link with Andromeda and everything should be made clear. Be sure to access the conversation these two were having for the past fifteen to twenty minutes."
Rommie connected with Andromeda's main frame and in an instant the kind, pleasant expression on her face was changed to one of total rage.
"How dare you!" Rommie shouted at the two, as she drew her force lance. "Trance and Harper aren't just my Engineer and Medical officer, they're my friends, and I won't allow my friends to be berated by the likes of you!"
"We didn't say anything!" Cain lied.
"You should know by now," Rommie said, "that anything said on Andromeda, she hears. And she is me."
"Andromeda?" Harper called. Instantly Her hologram appeared before him.
"Yes Harper." She said.
"I'm relieving Dumb and Dumber here of duty, and confining them to quarters. Could you send two droids to escort them?"
"It would be my pleasure Harper."
"You can't do that!" Cain shouted. "You don't have the authority!"
"According to Commonwealth regulations," Andromeda's hologram said. "The Chief of Engineering does have the authority to do just that. Personally if it were up to me, I would've sent you to the brig and charged you with Departmental Mutiny."
A few moments later the droids showed up and took the two away.
"I'm so proud of you Harper." Trance said, as she hugged Harper with all her might.
"Trance, you'll never know how much I wanted to go nova on those guys."
"I'm glad you didn't Harper." Trance said. "The way you handled that took a lot of self discipline."
"Trance." Harper said.
"I mean, it was great the way you shot that warning shot at Morak to scare him."
"Trance!"
"Yes Harper."
"I wasn't trying to scare him."
"You weren't?" Trance asked. "It sure had that effect on him. What were you … oh."
"Yeah Trance. I was aiming for his head."
"Bad Harper, Bad, Bad Harper." Trance said, scolding him as she lightly smacked Harpers arm.
After Trance was through disciplining him, Harper turned to Andromeda's hologram.
"Departmental Mutiny Andromeda? I don't believe I've ever heard of that."
"I'm not surprised Harper." Andromeda said. "I made it up."
"Then you wouldn't have charged them with it?" Trance asked.
"Oh no. I would've charged them with it, then sent them to the brig. They would then be able to contest the charge as soon as we came to a system that had a Commonwealth judicial system. We are currently three weeks journey from such a system."
"How long will they be confined to quarters?" Trance asked.
"The same amount of time." Andromeda replied. "The only difference is their quarters are slightly more comfortable than the brig. Anyway, I better inform the captain of what occurred here."
The ship's hologram vanished.
"S…Harper." Lena said. "I would like to apologize for what happened here today."
"Lena." Harper said. "You're not responsible for their actions."
"Maybe not, but I did pick them to be part of my team. I should have noticed something was different about them."
"Forget it Jenson." Harper said. Then he smiled and added ,"And that's an order."
"Very well Sir." Lena said, emphasizing the word sir, then she also grinned.
"Hey! What are we all standing around here for?" Harper asked. "We've got a three thousand year old ship that we need to get back into tip top shape."
"You're right Harper." Rommie said. "I'll connect with Eternity and tell her we're ready to come aboard."
A hatch opened, and a boarding ramp slid down to Andromeda's deck.
"Here goes nothing." Harper said, as they walked up the ramp and entered the ship.
The corridor was dark. Apparently only emergency lighting was available.
Rommie led Harper, Trance , and the rest of the team to Eternity's Engineering.
"I would like to thank you for offering to do this." Eternity said, as her image appeared on a nearby screen.
"Your welcome Eternity." Harper said.
"Lena you take the team to the Command deck to see if anything needs repaired up there, and have someone try and get normal lighting back on."
Lena and her team left to do as they were told. It took her and her team awhile to catch on to the wiring system that Eternity utilized, but Eternity helped out immensely when she showed them the schematics of her various systems.
Back in Engineering.
"Eternity?" Harper asked. "I have the ability to enter your matrix by the use of my data port. It's much easier for me to run diagnostics, repair damaged memory files, and fix other system functions in this manner. Will you give me permission to do this?"
"Would you willingly do harm to me?" Eternity asked, scanning Harper's vitals to see if he answers her truthfully or not.
"No Eternity." Harper said. " As long as you pose no threat to me or my friends, I won't hurt you."
Satisfied that Harper was being truthful, Eternity Agreed to let him jack in.
Upon entering Eternity's matrix, Harper was somewhat shocked. Instead of the virtual computer realm that he was used to in Andromeda's matrix, he was standing on a sandy beach.
In front of him stood Eternity wearing a white formal gown. There were no data streams. He looked down at himself to discover that he appeared different as well. Everything seemed so real, it was incredible.
"Welcome Harper." Eternity said.
"Thank you."
"Would you like to get to work?"
"Yes. We better." Harper said, but he looked confused.
"Eternity, where are the data streams? In Andromeda's matrix I can easily see them."
"They're out there." She said, as she pointed out to the ocean waves.