Harper awoke with a slight ache at the base of his skull. It felt as though somebody had punched him in the back of the neck and left him for dead. Blinking he managed to open his sore eyes to see a faint light coming from somewhere on his left. He winced once and then quickly took in a mental inventory of what had happened last night.

Bar. Alcohol. Chichin. Displeased Kalderan's. Woman. More alcohol. Beka. MORE alcohol. Kissing. Giggling. Bed.

He jerked his body upright, the sheets falling from his chest to settle around his waist. Not recognising where he was he quickly scrunched his eyes shut momentarily, hoping to push back the growing head ache before he moved his eyes over the small room. It took only a manner of seconds for him to find the host of this place. She sat at a table that was cluttered with bits and pieces and junk and there was a single light illuminating the project in her hands. But what had drawn his attention, causing him to raise his brows, was her attire. As he looked her over from top to bottom he inventoried her attire, starting with the old baseball style cap with the brim turned 'round back with black grease marks that were scattered about, and it held back loose strands of her brown hair. Moving on to the red shirt she wore, he noted it was very familiar – definitely not hers, it was too big for her and left nothing to the imagination.

"Are you wearing anything underneath that?"

Riley laughed but didn't lift her eyes from her work station, if it could even be called that. "You're aware you said that out loud right?" she said with humour in her voice.

He dropped his gaze to the floor and grinned. "You bet I did," came his reply as he began searching for the remainder of his clothes. His boots were somewhere near to the door, socks not far after and his jacket seemed to have been thrown onto the only other table in the room. His pants were somewhere out of sight at the moment and his underwear hung on the corner of the chair she currently occupied. "Can I have them?" he said motioning to the off white garment.

She turned her eyes in his direction and upon meeting his eyes the corner of her mouth hooked into a smirk. "Sure, but I don't have an issue with the no pants thing."

He grinned and he slipped off her bed and caught his underwear as she threw them at him. "Usually I wouldn't either." He admitted slipping them on.

She raised one brow and sat back down. "But?"

"But," he chuckled and placing the sheets back on the bed, "my Boss might have a problem with it and I'm sure she'd want to make sure I'm not in any kind of trouble."

She seemed to pout as he stood and scanned the room for his pants again. "Not even the fun kind?" she asked.

"Oh I would love to stay for the fun kind..." He said letting the words hang in the air.

She nodded, "But you have to leave." It wasn't a question but more of a statement and Harper frowned at her words.

He found his pants and pulled them on as he spoke. "Well, hopefully not for a few days." He moved to stand next to her, watching her hands move as they worked on pulling a few pieces of metal together as she held back an assortment of wires. He tried to follow it with his eyes, tried to take in what she was doing. He had decided that whatever she was building there was still a lot of work to be done. He could see that much, but what he couldn't see was what it was going to be.

Deciding he needed to know now, he voiced his thoughts. "What are you doing?"

"Fixing the footprint nullification device." She answered as thought it should be obvious as she picked up a beaten and well used nano-welder, which had seen better days, and pressed it into a small space.

"How does it work again?"

She pursed her lips and held the nano-welder in place for several more seconds before putting it down. Her hand reached out to grab another incomplete device and she held up the gadget that was about the size of a bottle of Sparky Cola. "This integrates itself with the internal sensors to measure the readings being transmitted and at the same time it will cut out any radiation emissions, leaks or protons that are released." She put it down and picked up a third piece that looked like a whole lot of nothing to Harper. "This sends out miniscule EMP pulses that targets another ships scanners, ceasing any and all ability to detect."

He frowned and eyed the array of devices once again. In his opinion, she was sticking pieces of metal together and hoping for the best. "Really?"

She lifted one brow and angled her head up to eye him. "Don't believe me?"

"No, I believe that you believe it." Her confident look didn't waver as he gave an awkward chuckle before he picked up one of the three parts. Turing it over in his hands he saw her as she watched him out of the corner of her eye. The more he looked the more he could actually see what she had described. Maybe she did have a chance to make it work after all.

Maybe he could try something similar for the Andromeda. Invisible to all scan, that sure would be an advantage over anybody.

A beep sounded from his pockets and he recognised it as his communicator. He shuffled around for it only to find Trance's golden face smiling at him when he answered. "Trance," he smiled back and took a few steps away from Riley. "How can I help my golden friend?"

Trance raised her brows at him and shook her head. "Beka will want you to check in. In person Harper."

"Right."

"How's your head?"

He pulled a face, the drumming in his skull seeming to get louder. "It was fine until you said that."

Trance laughed and shook her head. "Come back to the Maru and I'll give you something for it."

"Right." He said and then Trance's face disappeared and he moved back to Riley's side. She didn't look up at him but he could see a smirk beginning at the corners of her mouth. "I'm going to need my shirt back."

She put everything down with careful precision and lifted her eyes up at him with mirth. She stood so that only a few inches separated them and she lifted a hand to draw a finger across a small white scar that marked a path at the bottom of his ribs. "Why don't you just take it then?"

Harper grinned. Oh yeah, the Harper still has it.