Chapter 5: Desperate Measures

Onboard Andromeda the two Bekas, Purple Trance, Past Harper, Rommie and Rev walk through the corridors as Future Beka explains some of the events involving the Seefra System. She keeps it short and as simple as possible. Basically, the crew was transported to the Vedran home world Tarn Vedra, which had been cut off from the Known Worlds when the Commonwealth fell. Since then the Vedrans left Tarn Vedra and it deteriorated into what was now called the Seefra System. The crew were all tesseracted to Seefra by Trance to save them from the Magog, however Trance also sent the crew back various amounts of time when she tesseracted them.

Trance herself was in Seefra for 11 years, Harper was in Seefra for 4 years, Beka was there for about 1 1/2 years, and Andromeda (the ship) was there for just over a year. The Magog had destroyed Rommie but Harper had downloaded her fragmented core-personality before being tesseracted to Seefra. Unfortunately he wasn't able to repair her until shortly before the crew left Seefra (Rommie's body was actually made by a different android named Doyle but Harper made her work properly). Eventually the crew rejoined Seefra to the Known Worlds and they end up returning days after they were originally tesseracted out of the Known Worlds.

While Beka was in Seefra, Drago Museveni the Nietzschean Progenitor visited from the past and stole Beka's DNA to make his genetically altered children (the Nietzscheans), this makes Beka the Matriarch of the Nietzscheans. So in the future the Nietzscheans have to obey Beka (that's why she has expensive clothing and advanced technology on the Maru).

Rev inquires about himself, fearing the reason for his future self's absence was a bad one. Future Beka tells Rev that he becomes the leader of the Wayist church a couple years after the Abyss's destruction (as thanks for converting thousands of Magog, saving them from the species' extirpation from the Known Worlds at the hands of the High Guard). So many people follow Rev's teachings that he couldn't attend the mission, he always has to be there for his devoted followers.

Past Beka asks how Harper gets to be captain of Andromeda. Future Beka tells them that after the Abyss was destroyed on the Magog Worldship (20 hollow planets filled with trillions of Magog joined together and powered by a miniature sun) Andromeda's original captain, Dylan Hunt was promoted to the rank of Fleet Admiral. Since she was the Matriarch, Beka (who was Andromeda's First Officer) had to leave the High Guard and lead the Nietzscheans. Andromeda's third-in-command Telemachus Rhade also left the High Guard to defend his home planet Tarazed from rogue Nietzscheans. Also, Maura the leader of the Lambent Kith Nebula (a council of suns that determine almost everything that will happen in the universe) had been an agent of the Abyss and was killed when the Worldship was destroyed. Since Trance is the oldest of the suns she had to return to the Nebula and take Maura's place as their leader.

"What?" says Harper gaping at Trance, he and Past Beka are clearly amazed that their new purple friend is a Sun Avatar. Trance just smiles sweetly. Rev admits that he suspected that Trance was a sun, he then asks Future Beka how the Abyss was destroyed. She explains that Dylan led the Abyss on the Magog Worldship into the passageway between Seefra and the Known Worlds called the Route of Ages and had Trance block the exit with her sun. When the Worldship collided with the sun it and everything onboard were destroyed (including the Abyss).

Although they are very impressed at Dylan's plan, the past crew still wants to know why Harper is Andromeda's captain. So Future Beka tells them that since the Abyss destroyed Earth, Harper couldn't return home like he was planning to. He also couldn't go with Beka on the Maru so he decided to stay on Andromeda. Instead of getting Andromeda a new captain, Dylan promoted Harper from Andromeda's Chief Engineer, to her new captain. "So basically, he was the only member of the original crew left," says Past Beka, smirking at Harper. Future Beka nods, but tells the crew that Harper wasn't a bad captain. She tells them that Harper's first act was to promote Rommie to Andromeda's First Officer, making a point that avatars are more than extensions of their ships.

Rommie tells the group that Dylan stayed aboard the Andromeda, using her as the Commonwealth's Flagship, until just over a year before Trance got Beka, Harper, Rommie and Andromeda to go on this time-travel mission. Past Beka asks why and Rommie tells her that a more powerful ship called the Seefran Sunset (who's AI was actually Doyle) had been built and Dylan decided to make that the flagship instead of Andromeda. Future Beka comments on a rumor that Dylan had a huge argument with Harper and Rommie and left Andromeda to get away from them. Rommie reminds Future Beka that listening to rumors is a bad habit and has no further comments. Future Beka is still smirking, she knows the rumors are true.

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The group enters Med. Deck where Captain Harper and Gold Trance are looking at a large computer display. Future Beka, Rommie and the Maru Crew don't pay attention to the screen because their attention is focused on Captain Harper whose face is scraped and bloody with large burns running down his left arm. Rommie expresses her concerns but Captain Harper tells her the scrapes and burns aren't the problem. Future Beka playfully chastises Harper for risking his life like that, "you're lucky you didn't die," she says.

"I'm not as lucky as you think," responds Captain Harper looking back at the computer screen.

The others finally notice the medical display. It shows most of Harper's vital signs, a current diagram of his body showing his vital organs (heart, lungs, guts etc.), a model of his DNA and a radiation reading. Although Captain Harper's vitals are stable and the diagram shows no deterioration of the organs, his radiation levels are very high. Gold Trance explains that the radiation from the Magog Weapon was meant to target the DNA of individual organ systems causing those organs to shut down leaving the surrounding organs functional (for the time being).

Captain Harper sadly inform the group that his organ systems are going to start shutting off one by one over the course of about 36 hours. At first it will be the smaller systems like the endocrine system but after a day his digestive system will shut off. Then his acidic digestive juices will eat their way through the dead stomach and intestine walls and start dissolving the nearby organs, since his nervous system will still be working perfectly, Captain Harper will be in excruciating pain until his cardiovascular system fails and he dies.

Future Beka, Rommie and the Maru Crew are horrified by the news. They ask Gold Trance if there is any way to stop the radiation but she tells them there isn't. Also, she can't use any nano-bots, painkillers or any other drug to help with the pain because it will probably react with the radiation and either kill Harper faster or make the process even more painful. Rev muses that it seems all they can do is pray for Harper's soul, since his body is inevitably doomed.

Captain Harper had been looking forlornly at the floor, but when he heard Rev he looked up. He looked at the computer screen where his vital signs (specifically his brain waves) were being displayed as a bunch of oscillating lines. Captain Harper turned his head and looked at a terminal showing Andromeda's condition, amongst the multiple schematics there was a reading of Andromeda's AI. It also looked like a bunch of rapidly changing, jagged lines.

"That's it!" says Captain Harper ecstatically looking back at his brainwave display. The others wonder what Harper is talking about while he copies his brainwave display and Andromeda's AI display onto a separate display screen. He then explains that if they transfer his brainwaves into a computer before he dies then he could live on as an Artificial Intelligence. The Bekas are skeptical saying it can't be done, but Rommie and Gold Trance both think it is a great idea. Rev says that change is part of life and that souls always live on, he says that if they get all of Captain Harper's mind then his soul will come too.

Everyone accepts the idea and they make an action plan. Since Captain Harper is going to start feeling the affects of the radiation soon it is best that he stays on Med. Deck and help Rommie construct a device to download, process and store his mind. The Trances decide to study the Magog Weapon while the rest of the Maru Crew and Future Beka fix up the Past Maru. In the meantime, Andromeda will repair herself (using her drones and worker bots) as well as she can and keep watch for more Nietzscheans or Magog.

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We then watch the crew going about their jobs. First we see the Trances examining the Magog Weapon, however they are talking about their responsibilities. Gold Trance hands Purple Trance a bonsai tree and tells her that she will have to guide the Maru Crew and Dylan Hunt once this mission is over. Purple Trance holds the bonsai in wonder and runs off to put it in the Past Maru after promising to keep the crew safe.

Past Beka is heaving a couple dead Magog onto a floating dolly when Purple Trance runs by with the bonsai. Beka stops her and inquires about her new plant, Trance tells her it's harmless but Beka isn't sure. Future Beka walks into the corridor and tells Trance to go put the bonsai in her room. Past Beka is a little angry about her future self making the decision and Future Beka tells her about how Trance can see possible futures and determine which one comes true by pruning the bonsai. Future Beka tells her past self that if Trance doesn't like what happens she just cut off a different branch and the originally cut limb grows back immediately. "Oh, well a little greenery never hurts," jokes Past Beka as Trance happily runs out the airlock with her tail flitting through the air behind her.

Past Harper and Rev watch Trance run out of the Hangar Bay from on top of the Maru. Harper returns to welding around a hole from a Magog Swarm Ship as Rev cuts away twisted bits of metal. Behind them an engine suspended from cables is being brought into the hangar from a storeroom off to the side. Rev watches as what was left of the Maru's old starboard engine is lifted away from the attachment area and the new one takes its place. Beside it, the port engine is fixed and below it, the bottom engine is being repaired by Andromeda's worker bots.

Harper looks over and wonders how the future people knew they had to bring a spare starboard engine for the Maru if their memories were erased. Rev thinks that Trance keeps her memory which is why her future self wasn't surprised at Captain Harper's AI idea. Harper nods absentmindedly and goes back to welding, however Rev continues to talk while he works. He says that Trance probably knows how this time excursion will turn out and she would have said something if the AI plan would fail. "What is she doesn't know," snaps Harper, "what if this is a parallel dimension or a different past or whatever? And even if she does know what's going to happen, maybe she doesn't want to tell us, or maybe she can't."

Rev is hurt by Harper's harsh tone and Harper sees this, he apologizes to Rev saying he's a bit on-edge. Rev understands, "If I found out my future self was going to die, I'd be a little touchy too," he says. Rev then adds that Captain Harper may not die, Past Harper is still troubled and Rev points out that Captain Harper is optimistic about the plan, "and he does have 13 more years of experience then you," says Rev.

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A couple hours later on Med. Deck, Rommie and Captain Harper are talking about the similarities and differences between the future and past people as they work on the Brain-Downloading Machine (BDM). "Rev is pretty much the same," says Rommie, "Trance is, well, Trance, Beka is way more defensive then her future self and you're very-"

"Immature?" suggests Harper.

"Juvenile," finishes Rommie.

"Yeah well, being surrounded by death and destruction tends to make people grow up pretty fast," says Harper looking at the medical display. At first all the organs had been coloured blue, but now a bunch of them were red. As Harper watched the screen his kidneys both turned red and Andromeda warns Harper and Rommie that his Urinary Tract just shut down.

"Fourteen hours 'til cardiovascular failure," says Harper, "two hours left before my guts start melting." Rommie tells Harper that he should get some sleep before the pain makes it impossible. The machine is only 6 hours away from completion and everything has been designed, all Rommie has to do is put it together. Harper can feel the effects of the radiation, he is becoming too weak to help Rommie build the machine so he agrees that the best thing for him to do is sleep.

As he lies down Rommie asks him about his parents. He reminds her that she knows the story but she says she only knows the ending. Harper doesn't look like he is going to tell Rommie the rest of the story, so she points out that if the machine doesn't work someone should still know what really happened. Harper insists that the machine will work, but he decides to tell Rommie anyway.

Harper tells Rommie about how he liked to build things when he was little (which she already knew) and how his parents always wanted to escape Earth and the Nietzscheans. So when he was 6, Harper built a radar-like machine that could detect ships around Earth. Using the radar, Harper could find approaching cargo ships that may offer transportation off Earth in exchange for help moving or stealing cargo. It was an ingenious creation, however Harper didn't know that the Nietzscheans could also pick up on his radar signals.

One day the Nietzscheans heard the radar and decided to eliminate its creator, preventing them from making weapons and teaching others how to as well. Fortunately Harper's father discovered the Nietzscheans' plan to take Harper to the slave plantations.

We then see a flashback:

Harper's father, a short, fairly skinny man with brown hair, shows up in the human refugee camp and tells little Seamus Harper and his lanky, blonde-haired mother to leave as fast as they could. They do as they were told but they hadn't gotten far when Harper's mother hears Nietzscheans approaching. She has Harper return to the camp by crawling through the garbage, she knew the Nietzscheans wouldn't expect Harper to hide amongst his relatives (the Nietzscheans would assume that he would still try to get away from the camp without his parents).

When Harper sneaks back to camp he sees the Nietzscheans torturing his father demanding where Harper and his mother went. Two more Nietzscheans come into camp dragging Harper's mother with them. The Nietzscheans say she won't tell them where Harper ran off. Harper's father laughs at how the Nietzscheans won't succeed in getting his entire family. As he laughs the Head Nietzschean takes out a knife and slits his throat. Harper's mother screams and struggles against the Nietzscheans as her husband slumps to the floor. The Head Nietzschean turns around shooting her in the stomach. The two Nietzscheans drop her limp body and leave. Harper stays hidden, tears streaming silently down his face.

In the present time, Rommie looks sadly at Harper. He tells her that he vowed never to tell anyone the entire story until he found someone he loved as much as he loved his parents. Before Rommie can respond Harper slips unconscious (he had been up for over two days and he hadn't eaten in hours). As she goes back to work on the BDM, Rommie looks mildly confused. Harper has told her he loves her on many occasions, but this is the first time Rommie finds herself moved by his feelings, and she doesn't really know why.