"Dylan, are you off the planet yet?" Beka asked over the comm. link.
"We just took off, Beka. We'll be back as soon as we can. Be at the rendezvous point in three hours." Dylan said. As Harper stopped at the rendezvous point he got up and walked towards Aikera when he fell down. Aikera was the first to his side and rolled him carefully onto his back.
"You ok?" She asked quietly.
"Yea, I'm just dizzy." He replied. He was taking in shallow breaths as he tried to sit up. Aikera could tell he was having trouble breathing. She helped him into the nearest cabin and Harper noted that it looked like Beka's room but blacked out before he could fully tell.
"Dylan, you and Trance need to stay out of here until he is better." Aikera said. Trance stayed in the room against Aikera's wishes.
"I can't catch whatever he has." Trance said before Aikera could say anything else. Aikera just ignored her and determined what Harper had. When the Maru docked back onboard the Andromeda, Beka met Dylan at the hanger door. She wasn't in the happiest of moods. Trance was in a full out run to medical and she came back in record time with medical supplies. By the time she got back Beka and Dylan were talking.
"When were you going to tell me that you were bringing company back?" She asked him.
"Nice to see you to Beka. How'd the negotiations go?" Dylan asked back.
"Good, they will sign up in two months. Now stop beating around the bush and tell me exactly why you have brought someone back with you?" Beka said. Dylan had started walking towards his office with Beka walking beside him.
"Now lets see, her planet will be signing up with the Commonwealth in two months also. In the meantime she will be our guest, an ambassador if you want to call her that." Dylan said. "And she is a doctor who just happens to be trying to save Harper's life at the moment. He caught some illness on her planet and no one is aloud on the Maru until he is better."
"What's he got?" Trance asked again as she finished the antibiotics that Aikera asked her to prepare.
"Marshland infection." Aikera answered putting an I.V. in Harper's arm. "He'll be disoriented for quite some time. And I'll be able to manage him from here on out. If I need help I'll call for you."
"Ok." Trance said leaving. Harper talking brought Aikera out of her thoughts. For two weeks he got worse before he got better, at times it was hard to keep him in the bed. He would get up and walk around the ship. She had to bind his wrists to the bed a couple of times to keep him safe.
"Mama?" he whispered, "the magog have come back again."
"Where are they?" Aikera asked. She had been doing this to keep him calm.
"Out back. They say they want my shoes and to play with me." Harper said. Aikera looked at him questionably. It was the first time she heard of a magog and them doing this. She didn't know what a magog was but she heard Harper mumble in his sleep about the 'magog raids'.
"Harper please listen to me, I'm not your mother and there are no magog here." Aikera said holding Harper down. She gave him a higher dosage of the antibiotics to put him to sleep.
"So, are you worn out yet?" Rommie asked scaring Aikera.
"Who are you?" She asked back quickly.
"Rommie, Andromeda's aviator, the ship made flesh if you want to call me that." Rommie said.
"Non- organic huh? Interesting they have them around in the universe still." Aikera said. Rommie just looked at her with a hurt look and left going to talk to Beka about it. Three days later Harper woke up and saw Aikera stir in her sleep but not wake. He was glad she didn't wake, and that Trance walked in when she did.
"Good you're up, Andromeda, can you check for the infection on the Maru please." Trance asked.
"The infection is no longer on board the Maru and is out of Harper's system and Aikera doesn't have it either." Andromeda said.
"That's because I'm immuned to it due to having it as a young child. My people are immuned from it." Aikera said. She got up and took the I.V. out of Harper's arm then laid down on the bed going back to sleep. A day later Aikera woke up feeling refreshed and stretched. She stopped mid-stretch and sat upright. She didn't recognize her surroundings at all.
"You know I didn't think you would ever wake. Of course you've only been asleep for a day." Dylan said.
"Where am I?" Aikera asked.
"On the Andromeda in the VIP quarters." Dylan said. Aikera nodded standing up. "Hungry?"
"No." Aikera answered.
"Do you regret it?" Dylan asked.
"Regret what?" She asked back.
"Coming with us, taking care of Harper for two weeks. Don't you want to go back?" Dylan asked. He walked out with Aikera following him. He went towards command.
"Dylan, me coming here was only partially due to my father making me come, the other part is to learn your way of life. I may be a princess but do you think that being royalty has everything a person may want? I want adventure something new and different." Aikera said. They entered command and Harper looked at Aikera. She smiled weakly and he left mumbling something about repairs he had to do.
"It's a little to quiet in here." Dylan mumbled. Aikera looked at him.
"I heard you had a Nietzschean on your ship." Aikera said changing the subject.
"About that, we have one as well as a magog, who is a monk of the divine." Dylan said.
"I'm not one to judge a species of any kind, I may not like certain people of a species or a race but I don't hold it against their kind." Aikera said. Dylan nodded.