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Part 5

Even before she had returned to the Maru, Beka had sensed something was wrong. Unable to know for sure, Beka instinctively headed to the crew quarters to check on her friend and discovered that her gut had been right, as she quickly moved to Harper's side.

"Harper, wake up," Beka stressed, seeing him perspiring heavily, and in the midst of a troubled sleep. His breathing was laboured and she knew the fever had come back, and with full force. "Harper!"

As Harper slowly began to stir, Beka noticed the meds she had left for Harper to take when he woke up, and quickly grabbed them. Administering them without a second thought knowing that he was overdue a dose, Beka watched as Harper snapped his eyes open, and immediately gasped for breath.

"Beka," Harper panicked.

"It's ok, I'm here," Beka insisted firmly, and held her friend until he became more aware of his surroundings. "What happened? Why has the fever returned? You seemed to be getting better," she asked not expecting an answer.

Harper blinked his eyes, and began to remember his encounter with Tyrone but for a moment he was unsure if it was a dream, or in fact real.

"How many people are on board?" Harper asked.

"What?" Beka returned confused. "It's just us."

"Check," Harper insisted.

"Ok," Beka agreed unsure and moved to a panel just outside the crew quarters. "Yeah, just the two of us." She watched as Harper seemed to relax slightly. "Who did you think was on board?"

"Tyrone," Harper stated with relief.

Beka froze at the mention of the name, remembering her own paranoia when she had been on the drift; they were both remembering the past it seemed. "It was just a nightmare," Beka assured him, as she returned to his side.

"Wait," Harper was alert again. "What if I programmed the Maru to ignore his life signs? He might still be on board!"

"Harper, stop this, it's the fever speaking," Beka assured him calmly.

"No, I have to check," Harper stressed with short breaths. "Dylan, he sent a message, warning us, go check, it should still be on the system," Harper instructed, as he shakily got to his feet.

"Ok, I'll go check, but first I'll prep to leave so we can get you back to the Andromeda where Trance can help you, and you just do what you have to do until we return, just make sure it involves sleep sooner rather than later," Beka instructed, sensing that Harper needed to put his own mind at rest.

It seemed her plan to help Harper by bringing him on the supply run had backfired, and it was all due to that last bad experience and she wondered if she should have expected this reaction from Harper or if she had truly underestimated the affect it had had on him. The mention of Tyrone also troubled her but at the same time had convinced her that Harper was just working with his paranoid senses; she too had found the past playing on her mind, and with Harper the fever had heightened those thoughts.

Harper however was now preoccupied with needing to check the hold, having taken in only some of what Beka had told him. His mind was a flurry of confusion and noise, and his body was once more racked with fever.

"Harper," Beka's voice came through his thoughts once more. "The idea of this trip was to relieve you of stress, what the hell happened that caused you to work yourself up like this and let the fever take hold again?" she asked.

"I don't know," Harper answered absently, and moved unsteadily towards the exit, leaving a confused and concerned Beka behind him.


Harper slowly stepped up the ladder and cautiously entered the hold. He needed to see that there was no one else on board but deep down he feared there was. Hearing the engines power up and then feeling the shift as the Maru prepared to leave the drift, Harper walked over to the bays under the deck and to his relief he found them empty. Taking a deep breath, Harper mentally allowed himself to relax and that's when he suddenly found a hand around his throat, before being pushed face first into the bulkhead.

With the breath knocked from him, Harper remained silently stunned by the turn of events, and then felt someone leaning in close behind him that they only had to whisper so he could hear them and feel their breath on his skin.

"Nice try, Seamus Harper, but a few crates of soda can not keep me and my boy down for long."

"Tyrone," Harper finally managed to find his voice.

"Who were you expecting?" Tyrone teased, before roughly bringing Harper around to face him, and showing the weapon that was trained on him. "The kid here," Tyrone gestured to the younger man. "Did what you must have forgotten to do, he hid our signals from the ships sensors, I told you he was good," Tyrone smiled. "That was very unfortunate for you, to forget an instruction like that."

"Proves you can't control me," Harper stated defiantly but soon realised that was a bad move, as Tyrone appeared to agree.

"Kid," Tyrone then barked, and the kid was immediately by his side. "Secure Valentine in the cockpit area."

Harper could only watch, with the gun still aimed at him, as the kid used a small monitor that was hacked into the Maru's systems from the hold. It was crude but effective set up, and the kid seemed to know what he was doing.

"I need a signal mask," the kid then spoke towards Tyrone.

"Will he do?" Tyrone gestured to Harper.

"He has a port, sure," the kid shrugged casually and he took a cable from his pocket that he ably plugged into his make shift set up, throwing the other end to Tyrone. "The link is set up to protect the Maru's systems from him taking over," the kid added.

"No way, you're not just sticking that in me," Harper spoke knowing his connection to the Maru would more than serve the kids purpose, and tried to back away but Tyrone made him more aware of the gun still aimed at him. Tyrone then moved quickly, but Harper pushed him away and managed to kick the gun from Tyrone's hold. Without hesitation Harper headed towards the ladder and quickly slid down to the main section of the ship.

"Beka!" Harper yelled, as he headed towards the command section. He ran despite his weakening state, and ignored his heavy breathing but on approach he soon realised it was already too late. The blast door had already been activated, and Beka was trapped in the cockpit. "Beka!" Harper hammered on the door and heard the distant muffled voice of Beka on the other side, calling his name but he couldn't make out anything else.

"I'll get you out, I promise!" Harper stressed tiredly, feeling his exhaustion now but he knew he couldn't let it win. Harper was then aware of not being alone, as he turned and saw Tyrone stood in the gangway.

"Shouldn't make promises you can't keep," Tyrone advised quietly, with his six foot plus frame dominating the surroundings, as he slowly approached. "You're needed in engineering runt."

Harper couldn't do much in his sickened state, as the Tyrone grabbed the back of his neck roughly and hauled him forwards, towards the walkway that ran down the middle of the ship, towards engineering.


"Harper!" Beka screamed. "What the hell did you do to my ship!" she demanded, but she could barely make out his words, other than his muffled promise to get her out.

With frustration, Beka returned to her pilot's chair and continue to observe the Maru's flight path from the drift. Her thoughts reminded her of Harper's prediction that this trip couldn't possibly go smoothly, and then she sighed, knowing her friend was still fighting an impossible virus. Sadness now consumed her; she had read nearly all the reports on the Gogorstum virus. It was an alien virus that meant Harper stood little chance in avoiding it, once exposed, and she knew one of the Persied delegates that had come on board as a guest of Dylan Hunt had been suffering with it.

It was a tricky virus particularly for the humanoid body, as opposed to other life forms, in that it was hard to beat down with simple drugs. With humans the only effective cure from the illness was to completely rest, any kind of activity only served to feed the virus, making it stronger, even when it appeared to be in remission and the patient was getting better. Then even after finally being beaten, the virus still stayed in the patients system for anything up to five years, and was known to flair up at the first signs of stress and the cycle of complete rest would begin again until it died down and eventually it would weaken and leave the system.

Beka shook her head, it just wasn't in Harper's nature to stop and even when dosed up like he had been with drugs, his poor immune system did not help him and she feared just how long Harper might suffer with this condition. His situation certainly was not cut out to recover one hundred percent from this virus, and with the rate they found themselves in stressful situations, she imaged Harper would be getting sick nearly every week as the virus would over indulge on his stress levels.

Looking over once more to the locked blast door, effectively trapping her in the cockpit, Beka knew that she shouldn't have left Harper alone. He had obviously been delirious and now he was running amok probably unsure exactly what he was doing, and his panic and stress would be sky high. Clearly locking her in the cockpit had been a mistake that was something she was sure of by Harper's presence at the door. He had recognised his error and she only hoped he was aware enough to fix it, she didn't fancy spending all day in such a confined space, especially when food was the other side.

Beka then noticed the communications console, and the one saved message reminded her of what Harper had said about a message from Dylan, so she hit play, and settled down to listen.

TBC