Harper and Trance entered the Command Deck, to find everyone present.
"I've made my decision." Harper said. "I'm going to accept the position as Eternity's captain."
"Congratulations Harper." Becka said.
"It'll be good to have another ship around." Dylan said. "You never know when she'll come in handy."
"We're not staying Boss."
"What do you mean, You're no staying?" Becka asked. She had assumed, as Dylan did too, that if Harper became Eternity's captain, she would stay in the Docking bay until needed and he would remain Andromeda's engineer.
"Trance and I are taking Eternity to Earth. With a ship of our own, We're going to help the resistance fighters on Earth to make Earth free."
"Don't be a fool Harper." Dylan said. "One small ship can't possibly make a difference."
"Well, Dylan!" Harper said. "It would be nice to have help, but I recall someone stating that it wasn't in the Commonwealth's best interests to get involved with matters of Earth." Harper was mad. He knew what he had planned wouldn't be easy, but he promised those on Earth that he would be back some day, and he was keeping that promise. He only wished that Brendan was still alive.
"Harper, I can't just…."
"It's OK Dylan." Harper said. "I'm sorry. I didn't come here to fight with you. I just had to let you know what I had decided to do."
Becka walked over to Harper and placed both hands on his shoulders. "Are you sure about this Harper?"
"Yea Becka. I have to do this."
"Trance?" Becka asked, looking at her long time friend and good luck charm.
"I can't let him go alone Becka."
"Then I'm going too." Becka stated.
"Becka, No." Harper protested.
"Why not?"
"Because you're needed here Becka." Trance said.
"Then I'll go with you." Rommie stated.
"What?" Dylan asked.
"This ship got along perfectly well before Harper built me this body. She can do so again until I return."
"If Rommie goes with you, then I'll stay, but only on the condition that Dylan attempts to talk the leaders of the new Commonwealth into assisting Earth's fight for freedom."
"I'll do what I can Becka." Dylan said. "I really don't think they'll change their minds, but I will try."
"I'll give you three weeks Dylan." Becka said. "If they don't agree to help by then, I'm taking the Maru and joining Harper and the others."
Andromeda observed everything that was occurring on her Command Deck. Harper and Trance were leaving, her Avatar was joining them, and now Becka has stated that she too will be leaving in less than a month. She couldn't help but be sad at the thought of losing so many of her crew… No, not crew, but family. She never thought there would come a day that Harper would leave her. She had had many engineers over the years, but none had treated with as much love and care as he did. She knew he would someday die, and she would lose him eventually, but he wasn't dieing, he was leaving her.
"How soon will you be leaving?" Becka asked.
"First I need to talk to Eternity and tell her my decision. After I do that I want to perform a few upgrades on the Maru and Andromeda."
"What type of upgrades Harper?" Becka and Dylan both asked.
"Just a few things I noticed on Eternity, like her energy shields, Food replicator, cloaking device, and solid hologram. I thought these might be useful if you can come help later. But even if you can't, they'll come in handy Boss."
"How long will it take to finish these upgrades Harper?" Dylan asked.
"With Lena and the rest of the engineering crew helping, I estimate that we'll be finished in less than three days."
"Harper." Trance said. "I think it's time that we go talk to Eternity."
"OK Trance. Let's go."
Once again on board Eternity, Harper Looked at the Command deck for the first time. It's layoutwas different from that of Andromeda's. Therewas a large visual display in front, naturally. In the center of the roomwas what Harper guessed to be the captains seat. He looked around, but didn't see anything that resembled piloting controls. Therewere tactical stations with seats along side the walls, but no pilot station.
"Eternity?" Harper asked. "Where is the pilots station?"
"I'm sorry Harper." Eternity replied. "I forgot to tell you. The captain is the pilot."
"I assume that this chair in the middle is the captain's seat?"
"Yes."
"Then where are the flight controls?"
"Harper." Eternity said. "Before I answer any more questions, will you answer one for me?"
"Sure thing." Harper replied.
"Do you accept the position as my captain?"
"Yes Eternity. I do."
"Then please sit down." Harper sat down in the large and very comfortable captain's seat.
"See those metallic hand prints on each arm of your seat?"
"Yes."
"Place your hands on the imprints. This is the last verification of your captaincy."
Harper placed his hands on the imprints that Eternity indicated. He felt a slight tingle and then his hands began to get warmer. He felt Eternity enter his mind. He struggled at first, but relaxed as Trance placed her hands gently on his shoulders.
It was as if he had left his body, but he wasn't in Eternity's matrix. A part of her matrix had somehow joined with his mind. He looked around, and saw people working all around him. Three men were installing the forward display screen, while others were busy installing other components, and making adjustments on already installed equipment. He couldn't figure out where all of these people came from. He was also pretty sure that the display screen was already up when he entered earlier.
He then noticed something about all the people that were working busily on Eternity's Command deck. They all had tails, and were all of various colors. These were Trance's people, and somehow he was seeing the past. Perhaps it was one of Eternity's memories of her creators.
Only a few seconds had passed from the time that Harper placed his hands on the imprints. He opened his eyes and looked at Trance.
"Did you know?"Was all he asked.
"I knew about the ship." Trance said. "But I didn't know that they had designed it for you. I wasn't there when they built her. I was away working on other projects. It was over one thousand years later, before I even heard about Eternity, and then I thought it was possibly just a legend."
"Are you mad Harper?" Trance asked.
"I'm not mad Trance." Harper said. "It's just becoming a little overwhelming that a race of Avatars, three thousand years ago, built a ship that is practically indestructible, for me to find and be her captain. Trance what if,….Never mind."
"What Harper. What do you want to know. I promise, I'll tell you anything. I should have told you about this earlier. I'm sorry Harper."
"Trance, I was just wondering. If we hadn't… I mean If I hadn't agreed to… I'm sorry Trance. I can't ask you that."
"You want to know, if my older self and you hadn't saved me, causing you to become like us, would you still have been accepted as Eternity's captain?"
"I'm not sure if I want to know the answer to that Trance, but yes. That is what I was wondering."
"The answer is no Harper. The genetic key code matches you as you are now. It would not have matched your previous DNA."
"Captain?" Eternity said.
"Please, Eternity." Harper said. "Just call me Harper. I know I'm your captain, but the title just doesn't sound right. Besides, we're going to be like friends, I hope, rather than ship and captain."
"I think I'd like that Harper." Eternity said.
"Good. Now that that's settled, I need to get my engineering teams busy on upgrading Andromeda and the Maru."
"Harper." Trance said. "You better tell Eternity about Earth."
"Oh yea. Sorry. Eternity, I hope you're in the mood for a good fight, because we're going on a mission to free Earth."
"I was built for battle. I'm always in the mood."
The next few days Harper and the engineering crews were busy installing new energy shields, cloaking devices, and several other new mechanisms to Andromeda and the Maru. He, Trance, and Rommie decided that they would leave in the morning.
Harper was in Andromeda's engineering room, when her hologram appeared.
"What are you doing Harper?" She asked.
"I'm just making some final adjustments on your new solid holographic generators…. There all finished!"
"I don't feel any different Harper."
"You'll have to power down your hologram then restart it for the new generator to kick in. Give it a try."
Andromeda powered down her holographic projection, then immediately restarted. When she appeared this time, there was a definite change. She, like Eternity's hologram was now solid. She was no longer semi-transparent. She could touch and feel. The first thing she decided to do was to give Harper a huge hug.
"Thank you Harper. I had no idea I could feel this way. I feel so… alive."
"Hey, you know I'd do anything for you Doll. I may be Eternity's captain, but you're still my favorite AI, and one of my best friends."
"Harper, If I asked you to stay, would you?"
"Please Andromeda, don't ask me that. You know how much I care for you, but I can't just ignore what fate has thrown at me. The Commonwealth may not give a Nightsider's backside what happens to Earth, but I do. I've been given a chance to do some good on Earth and I'm going to take it. Please, don't make me choose between Earth and you. I will come back, and until I do Lena will take good care of you. She's almost as good as me, and she really is a High Guard officer, so Dylan ought to like that."
"Harper. I don't care if you act like a High Guard officer or not. You're the best Engineer and friend I've ever had. Promise me two things Harper."
"You name it."
"Promise me that you'll keep yourself, Trance and my Avatar safe, and promise that you'll all come back to me."
"I promise Andromeda. Whatever I have to do, I'll make sure we all make it back alive."
"Thank you Harper." Andromeda gave Harper another hug, and when she let him go, she gave him a quick kiss on the lips."
"Andr…"
"You better be going Harper." Andromeda said interrupting his question about the kiss. "I think the others wanted to give you a little going away party on Obs deck."
"Uh… OK." Harper said, obviously still stunned from the kiss. "See you there."
While Harper left engineering, Andromeda's hologram remained. Her ship persona appeared on a nearby screen.
"Do you think it was wise to do that?" Her ship self asked.
"Probably not." Her hologram admitted.
"I don't know about you, but I don't want to do anything that would cause problems between Harper and Trance."
"I don't either!" Her hologram shouted in defense. "I love Harper and Trance. They're my friends. What I did was just…. Well I don't know what it was. I just felt like doing it."
"Maybe we should talk to Trance about this before they leave." Her ship self said.
"That would be best. Otherwise, it would look as if we were trying to hide something."
"I could have our Avatar explain to her."
"No. I was the one that kissed him." Her hologram said. "I should be the one to explain to Trance. Perhaps it was the sensation of being able to feel, to finally be able to embrace another person physically. I have always wondered what it felt like to kiss."
"It was nice." Her ship self added.
Her hologram disappeared. She needed to talk to Trance about the kiss. She knew that everybody was now on the Obs deck with Trance and Harper.
"It was nice." Her ship self repeated.
Harper entered the Obs Deck. Everyone was there, including Eternity's hologram. She linked to Andromeda and was sharing the new generators that Harper had upgraded. Harper quickly found Becka, and told her what happened.
"Whoa! Slow down Shorty." Becka said. "Say that again. For a second there, I thought you said Andromeda kissed you."
"I did Boss. What am I gonna do. You do know I'm a dead man as soon as Trance finds out? What am I gonna do? I used to dream of Andromeda kissing me, but now that Trance and I are together it's all wrong. Why does my life always end up getting messed up? Trance will find out, then she'll kill me or worse, she'll leave me."
"Harper exactly what happened?"
"Andromeda kissed me. What part of that didn't ya get?"