Part 2

The wash of colours hurt his senses, but he was relieved to feel the slight nausea as his consciousness pushed itself back, signalling that he was finished. With a grimace, Harper pulled the connector from his port and found that he was soaked from perspiration, and his muscles were aching. Then Harper spotted Beka looking directly at him from across the room.

"What the hell do you think you are doing, Harper?"

"There was an emergency, I had to do something," Harper already knew the source of Beka's anger, he could barely move with his energy drained but he remained insistent. "No one else around here has a port, or can do the wonders I can with these hands," he gestured trying to make light of how he was feeling.

"Look at yourself, Seamus," Beka was using his first name, so Harper knew she was in no mood for jokes.

"I was only jacked in for ten minutes," He dismissed.

"Twenty-five," Beka corrected him. "What if you had fallen unconscious again?"

"Rommie was keeping an eye on me," Harper shakily got to his feet, and Beka reached out to steady him. "Look, I know I'm ill, ok? But seriously, I had to do something."

Beka took a deep breath, and found she was just relieved that Harper was out of the system and at least acknowledging that he wasn't feeling good. "This is madness, how are you supposed to get well again if you're the only engineer on board?"

"Dylan said new recruits will be on board soon," Harper reminded her, and he was now able to walk freely and unaided. "I feel better than I did, Beka, you don't have to worry."

"I do, and I will, this virus you have can only go if you completely rest," Beka returned, and then found that they were outside Harper's quarters. "Now go and get cleaned up, then sleep and don't be saving our butts anytime soon, ok?"

"Gotcha," Harper agreed with a grin, but stopped as he walked through his door. "You can always join me, scrub my back then tie me to my bunk, and make sure I never leave?" he offered suggestively.

"Seamus, you are sick, in more ways than one," Beka shook her head, and walked away.


"Boss, he never showed up!"

"What?" Tyrone spun his chair around and faced the kid. "Explain."

"I asked around, apparently he was forced to cancel his entry to the surf competition due to illness," the kid shrugged. "I hung around just in case it was a trick, or they'd somehow cottoned onto our plan, but he didn't show."

"I want surveillance stepped up, I want to know each and every departure and arrival from that damn ship, they can't stay on there forever," Tyrone spat, remembering his past altercation with the two people he now wanted to capture, and force into giving him what he wanted, and it riled his anger to boiling point.

"We'll do what we can, whilst avoiding detection," the kid backed away quickly, and left the command deck.


"Dylan."

"Go ahead, Andromeda," Dylan gestured, he was stood on command going through the basic routine maintenance, trying to do what he could to further help Harper to rest, and keep Beka off his back.

"I'm detecting what appears to be surveillance technology on the edges of my sensors," Andromeda spoke from the screen, showing her confusion.

"Do you recognise the signals as either Nietzshean or any of our growing list of enemies?" Dylan idly asked.

"None that I recognise," Andromeda admitted.

"Take readings and if they broach any further, or in anyway attempt to interfere with your systems, notify Harper," Dylan ordered. "Otherwise, put it on the list of jobs for Harper to look into when he's feeling better."

"Dylan!"

Dylan looked up with a frown as Beka walked onto Command and quickly towards him, already sensing that he was coming into contact with another battering from his first officer. "Beka?"

"He's working again!" Beka stated angrily. "I left him only an hour ago to get some needed rest, only to find since then you've already dragged him from his sick bed to do something else!"

"It's just an emergency repair," Dylan immediately spoke. "Just a five minute job, I promise."

"Harper doesn't even have to jack in," Rommie supported from her station close to Dylan.

"He needs complete rest; do you even get what that means? Have you even seen him lately?" Beka demanded.

"I understand that the Gogorstum virus is draining, and only gets better with complete rest but I promise I checked with Trance and Rommie first, and they both said Harper would be able to handle that small job, the virus is on the decline and Harper needs the distraction," Dylan defended his orders.

"It's a job that one of those damn bots could have handled just fine," Beka argued.

"But it needed a human touch," Dylan stated. "Beka, I want Harper back fit and well like anyone else around here, but fact remains that until the new crew arrive he's all we've got to keep this ship from failing at a critical time, and we can't afford to take those chances."

"At least don't leave him working alone to do these jobs," Beka conceded. "He is still suffering, and that virus is still in his system and we can't afford to take chances with his health either, I thought you'd have learnt that lesson by now," Beka stressed, backing down slightly. "I'm going to go and help him, and in future, don't keep your orders involving Harper to yourself, ok?"

Dylan just nodded his head in understanding, appreciating that Beka had a special friendship with the engineer that made this whole situation unbearable for her, more so than for the rest of the crew.


"Damn, stupid, move you bugger!" Harper's voice was heard to snap as Beka finally located her friend, sat on the floor in a small off the beaten track corridor on deck ten.

"Harper?" Beka's voice made the engineer jump slightly, as he turned to face her.

"Aw man, look I'm ok, ok?" Harper complained snappily, as he continued to try and physically move a component from an exposed wall panel.

"Need a hand?"

"No," Harper stressed with petulance, as he battled once more with the fittings. "Can you believe that a problem effecting all of the ships air filters is originating from this one piece of faulty and very stuck tubing?" he explained through gritted teeth.

"Let me have a go," Beka offered knowing she had more strength at that moment, as she moved beside Harper.

"No, its ok, nearly got it," Harper struggled, and Beka could only watch and see the amount of effort it was taking him, as perspiration fell down his face, it was clear that he still didn't have his strength back.

Harper suddenly fell back onto the deck with a cry of anguished pain, making Beka jump, and the piping he had been trying to remove fell with a clatter to the ground, as Harper rolled over clutching his hand.

"Harper?" Beka soon gathered her senses and stopped Harper rolling, managing to get him to lay still on his back, but his hand was clutching his other hand and there seemed to be a lot of blood suddenly. "What the hell?" she asked.

"Pipe broke off in my hand," Harper grimaced, talking with clenched teeth and short breaths, as he clutched his hand.

"Come on, sit up," Beka encouraged, and with some effort managed to get Harper to sit up against the wall of the corridor they were in. "Let me see," Beka requested and Harper hesitantly removed his vice like grip from around the injured hand. "Can you move your fingers?" she asked, seeing a three inch gash in the palm of Harper's hand.

Harper nodded his head, and to prove his claim he managed to move his fingers slightly but it caused him pain, and he rapidly held his hand close to his chest. Beka looked around and saw a semi clean cloth near to where Harper's tools were laid out. Without hesitation she ripped the cloth in two, and scrunching up one half she pressed it firmly against the open wound, trying to ignore the pain it caused Harper. Soon she was wrapping the other half around his hand, as a makeshift bandage.

"Keep pressure on it," Beka ordered, and then got Harper to his feet. "Let's get you to med deck."

"Beka, before we go, please just put that stupid new piping in the place of the old pipe?" Harper requested with pained breaths, and leant against the wall for support.

Beka seemed in two minds but remembered the only reason Harper had been working on that section was due to it being an emergency. She picked up the new tubing, and then kicked the offending fallen old tubing away, reaching into the panel to remove the rest of the pipe that had done the damage to Harper's hand.

"Like this?" Beka asked, once she had the tube in place.

"Yeah, you'll need to solder the ends," Harper managed, composing himself a little better now but he was clearly struggling, as his illness grew stronger in his weakening state.

Beka worked as quickly as she could to secure the new piping, remembering how Dylan had insisted that this repair needed Human hands, and she seethed that it had almost cost Harper the use of those hands.

"Done, can we go now?" Beka asked, and Harper simply nodded his head, and she guided him towards the med deck.


Tyrone paced the deck, as his men looked on from their stations. Clearly he was growing impatient and was not happy.

"The minute either of them leave that ship, the exact minute!" Tyrone blasted.

"Sir, they haven't left since we began surveillance," the kid spoke up.

"Then we should just assume it will be any day now," Tyrone sighed, and retook his seat. "Any longer and I will grow bored of this plan," he complained.

His men all exchanged glances that suggested that they were hoping that would happen.

TBC