See Disclaimer in the Prologue.

==^== Andromeda – Present Time ==^==

After Harper and Trance had their dinner in the Machine Shop, Harper happily reported the sensor pack ready. This however was due entirely to his determination to get it done. Thoughts of Trance were swimming through his head the entire time he worked; it also didn't help that she was there, having dinner with him.

"Well Rom-doll, I'm happy to report your new sensor pack is ready to be tested, and I threw in a few surprises for you as well," he said with a grin as he set the pack on the floor of Command.

"Mr. Harper, I'm glad to see that you were able to finish that this week," Dylan remarked as he entered behind the young man.

"Yup, and I'll start the next project as soon as I know this one is working."

"If your preliminary results are anything to go by, then this will increase the effectiveness of the sensors by 12%, in addition to making the internal sensors harder to jam."

"That's the point, Andromeda," Harper said as he addressed the hologram.

"Let's get this pack installed. I have at least 10 other projects that need to be finished this week," Harper said as he led Rommie off the Command Deck towards the sensor controls, leaving an amused Dylan behind them.

==

On the way to the controls, Harper and Rommie discussed the possible benefits of the new sensors.

"Like I told you before, Rommie. This pack will help to prevent all but the most sophisticated jamming technologies. I know you want to block all jamming signals, but there are some that modulate on a random frequency, making them damn near impossible to block."

"I know that Harper. I'm just concerned with how they may affect the navigational sensors."

"They shouldn't affect them at all, they operate on two entirely different systems. There is no way they can crosstalk. The only problem is the time it's gonna take to install this. I have to crawl into some of the smallest crawlways on the ship to get this thing in, so I hope it works."

"Yeah, me too," Rommie said softly as they arrived at the access hatch to the inner crawlways of the Andromeda Ascendant, crawlways that only Harper and service droids can fit into.

"Well Rommie, I'm off to the dark reaches of your tunnels. How about a good luck kiss?"

"Harper, you're pathetic," she said as she rolled her eyes and tried not to smile.

"I know, but that's why you love me," he replied as he crawled into the tunnels.

When he was far enough in, Rommie handed the sensor pack to him. To make it easier to move, the pack had been placed on a rolling dolly, perfectly sized to fit through the crawlways.

"Thanks Rom-Doll, I'll have this installed in a jiffy," he said as he pulled the pack after him into the crawlway. Rommie could only walk away, leaving him to his work. As much as she hated to admit it, she cared more for the engineer that any other crewman she had ever had, except for Dylan. Her feelings for Dylan were different than the ones she had for Harper -- Dylan she loved and wanted to be loved by, Harper she loved as a though she were his mother and wanted to protect him with her life.

Harper continued to crawl back towards Command as Rommie walked away. His progress was slow; the spaces were tight and he had a forty pound pack trailing behind him.

==

Harper had estimated that the installation would take about 2 hours; he was off by 3 hours. So instead of finishing in 2 hours, he would now be finished in 5. The reason being that the entire sensor grid had to be shut down manually, and that alone took 30 minutes, starting it back up took another 45.

The type of shutdown he was using was a maintenance mode shutdown, which meant that the entire grid was down with no connections to the rest of the ship, or to the outside world.

As Harper was nearing the 2 and a half hour mark, Trance paid him a visit in the cramped tube he currently found himself in.

"Harper?" she called softly as she crawled through the conduits.

"Trance?" he called in reply, surprise evident in his voice. Trance just smiled and crawled towards the sound of his voice.

"Hi Harper," she said sweetly when she saw his prone form on the deck.

"Hey ya Trance, what brings my sparkly purple princess down here?"

"You do," she replied. "I brought you something to eat."

"You did? Trance, I love you," he told her as he reached for the food, stopping before he took it. "Um, let's move to a place where we can actually sit up. Follow me."

He led the way as they crawled to the nearest intersection, a place where two tunnels met, and there was enough room to stretch out, within reason.

"Great, I'll eat here. So, what'd you bring me?" he eagerly asked.

"A turkey sandwich on white bread with a Sparky cola, and I brought dessert too, but you'll get that later."

"Trance, you're the best. You know I love you right? I mean I really do love you, you're the best, my best friend, the best ever!" he said through mouthfuls of sandwich.

"Harper, slow down and chew your food, I don't want you to choke," she said with a smile as he slowed his pace.

"So Trance, what have you been doing today?" he asked as he swallowed the last of the sandwich and reached for the Sparky.

"You know, the same old stuff, cleaned Medical, watered the plants in Hydroponics, and made you lunch."

"Sounds like a pretty full day," he replied as he downed the Sparky in one gulp. "So. What's for dessert?"

"I made this special for you," she said as she took a grape custard filled tart with grapes topping it out of the little basket she brought with her. "However, there is one condition, you have to tell me how you got that scar on your chin."

"My scar? Why do you want to know where I got that?" he asked her as he settled back against the wall.

"I'm just curious, you never talk about your past much, and I'm just curious how my best friend got that scar," she explained, knowing that she herself never revealed anything to him.

"You really want to know, don't you?" he asked, it wasn't really a question, more of a statement in which he resigned himself to tell her about his past.

"Well, I was working for a man named Sampson, he was Captain of the freighter Ariel. He stood six feet high, he was like a mountain, but he had the heart of a lion. You would have liked him Trance." Harper's eyes lost focus as he began recounting his time aboard the Ariel.

"Was? What happened to him?" Trance asked when Harper paused.

"That's how I got the scar, but I'm getting there. I had been working with him for about a year, doing all the stuff I did on the Maru, fixing the engines, AP tanks, that sorta stuff. Anyway, we had just left El Dorado drift for another freight run. Everything was normal, all systems were functioning, and we were making good headway. We were about to enter Slipstream when we were attacked by Nietzschean pirates." Harper paused as the memories came flooding back to him, memories he didn't want to remember.

"They took out our Slipstream drive and crippled the main engine. They wanted our cargo of communication, navigation and slipstream parts, they can sell for a small fortune on the black market. The Captain decided that we would take as many of them with as we could, considering how we were all going to die. We set up an ambush at the airlock, we knew that we would only be able to take down the first couple of rows, so we had hand to hand weapons ready to use. We had scavenged the ship for anything we could use to take them out, knives, sharpened metal, anything. So we were waiting for them as they docked with the ship. We waited for the airlock to pressurize and the door to open before we opened fire. The first vanguard fell, allowing those behind them to take cover and return fire. We continued firing at each other, each side losing men, finally we decided to just go hand to hand. That's when it really got ugly. Their leader decided to join the party and was he a piece of work. This guy was as tall as Sampson and twice as wide, and he carried a wicked looking blade; he knew about hand to hand combat. As the fight waged on, the deck plates were littered with blood and bodies, with more joining it every few minutes. As our forces were depleted, actually only the Captain and myself were left, the pirate leader was laughing as we defended ourselves. With a signal his men stopped fighting and let him advance. I was determined to win this fight. I charged the leader with my knife extended. We locked blades a few times before he stabbed me in the shoulder, a wound that would cause me to slowly bleed to death. He then kicked me in the stomach. As I was leaning over, he went to cut off my head, I moved back in time to avoid losing my head, but his sword cut my chin. Leaving me where I had fallen he went to fight the Captain. They fought for what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, and Sampson was stabbed in the stomach. He staggered over to me and picked me up, we both looked at the pirate, and he just grinned back. Sampson then led me towards the command deck and the escape pods located there. The pirates had decided that they would finish us later -- we weren't a threat -- and began to take the cargo. The Captain put me in one of the two pods and moved to the main computer. He then activated the self-destruct for 30 seconds after the escape pod was launched. Moving to me, he said 'Harper, it has been a pleasure working with you, you truly are a genius.' Due to the pain I was in, I didn't understand the implications his words carried. He then placed a flexi and a credit chip in the pod and closed the door. Through the pain I saw him destroy the controls of the other pod, just as the pirates decided they would kill us. He jettisoned my pod. The last time I saw Captain Sampson alive, he was overrun by pirates. Thirty seconds after my pod was launched, Ariel exploded into dust, taking the pirates and my Captain, my friend, with her. I finally succumbed to the darkness that was calling me. The pod was set to find the nearest drift. I woke up on a hospital drift a week later; I was the only survivor. That, Trance, is how I got this scar."

"Harper, I'm so sorry, I remember hearing about the crew of the Ariel, and her lone survivor. They never released his name, something about the company not allowing it. I never realized that it was you," she said with a questioning tone.

Harper smiled, a little. "The parts were for Sid Prophet's company; they didn't want my name revealed due to the fact that the parts were probably stolen and they didn't want anyone questioning the crew about where they came from. Trance, can I have my dessert now?"

"Oh, of course, sorry Harper," she said with a shy grin as she handed him the dessert.

"Thanks, mmmm, this sure looks good," he said as he bit into the grape tart, a smile on his face.

Trance couldn't help but smile at the joy that was etched on his face as he ate the dessert.

"I'm glad you like it, Harper, I've gotta go back to work now," she said sadly, not wanting to leave her friend.

"Yeah, I should get back to work, I've got another 2 hours on this thing. Hey, after I'm done, you wanna have dinner with me?" he asked quickly.

"Sure Harper, I'd love that," she replied with a radiant smile, warming the young man's heart.

"Great, I'll see you then," he said as Trance began crawling back into the conduit, but not before giving Harper a kiss on the cheek.

As Harper followed her back to where he was working, he watched her tail swing back and forth behind her. He was so entranced by the movement that he hit his knee on the partially installed sensor pack. Biting back a curse he rubbed his knee as Trance turned to look at him.

"I just hit my knee, that's all," he said quickly as he felt his face grow hot. He was certain that she knew he was watching her crawl.

Trance just smiled and continued on until she rounded the corner out of view -- Harper was certain that her tail waved at him before it disappeared. Dismissing that to the pain in his knee, he went back to work on the sensors.

==^==

True to his word, Harper finished installing the pack 2 hours after his quick meal with Trance. All he needed to do now was restart the system.

Entering Command he went straight to his station, giving Rommie instructions the entire time.

"Ok, Rom-doll, I'm gonna restart the system now, I want you to monitor the grid for any spikes."

"You got it Harper," the avatar replied as her eyes closed and she scanned the sensor grid.

Harper began the restart, system by system. He began with the priority systems first, long range and navigational sensors.

"Long range and navigational sensors are online and working well above High Guard requirements, in fact, this is the best they've ever worked," the avatar praised as she looked at Harper with joy.

"I added a few new features and upgrades as well," he said as he continued to restart the sensors. "I've even upgraded the sensor output display, I enhanced the 3D mapping abilities of the projection. It can now show a holographic 3D view of ships just within sensor range, before visual contact is made. It'll also work for other objects within sensor range."

"Mr. Harper, I am truly impressed," Dylan said as he leaned against his console, admiring the skill with which Harper worked.

"Thanks boss. Rommie could you check the integration of the navigational sensors with the long-range sensors. I want to make sure there are no loose connections."

"I'm not detecting any, but we will know better once the other systems are back online."

Harper just grinned as he ran the final sequence to fully bring the navigational sensors online and connected to the long-range sensors. This was the easy part, the rest of the sensors would take another half hour to restart and check the intersystem connections. Not only were the various sensors able to talk to one another, the new hardware also provided a more secure connection protecting the various systems from sabotage.

"How long will it take to bring the rest of the systems online? Beka isn't happy about playing guard with the Maru; she wants to return as soon as possible."

"Umm, I'd say about 30 minutes, don't worry boss, she'll be home before she can plan any nasty acts of revenge," Harper said with a smile to relieve any fears of retaliation Dylan may have. Beka didn't like putting the Maru in any form of danger, and acting as a sensor drone for the Andromeda was a form of danger.

"Good, Rommie, please inform Beka she can return the Maru to Hanger Deck as soon as Harper has finished, I am going to Medical to get something for a headache," Dylan said with a groan as he moved toward the Command Deck doors.

"Aye," was Rommie's only reply as she continued to monitor the sensor grid.

As the doors were closing behind him, Dylan thought he heard Rommie mention something about Harper and Trance in a conduit together and something about a kiss, but he ignored it, it had to be the headache.

==

Hearing the doors close behind Dylan, Rommie took the opportunity to broach a subject with Harper.

"So Harper, what were you and Trance doing in that conduit for half and hour? And what about the kiss?"

"You were spying on us?" Harper looked up from the console, hurt showing clearly in his eyes.

"No," Rommie said empathically, not wanting to hurt her creator and friend. "It is my job to monitor all life forms aboard ship for any health problems."

"But your internal sensors were offline," Harper said, catching the lie, a smile tugging at his lips as he returned to working.

"Ok, I was spying on you," she admitted finally, "but only because I care about you."

"Really?" Harper's head perked up at that comment.

"Not in that way! I just want to see you happy, and you seemed happy when you were talking with Trance."

"Why are you so concerned with my happiness?" he asked as his humor sunk back into the abyss, dark resignation replacing it.

"Because you're my friend and creator, yet I can't help but consider myself as you mother, I am always looking after you. I just want to see you happy. Can't a mother want her child to be happy?" she asked as she placed a gentle hand on his arm. He sighed and dropped his shoulders

"Your child? I never thought of it that way. Well, I guess I finally know who wears the pants around here, don't I?" he asked quietly, his hands continuing to work as sadness washed across his face, realization dawning as to why she refused his advances – she viewed him as her child.

Rommie seeing the sadness in his eyes embraced him in a hug. Harper realized that all her hugs felt like this, like a parent comforting their child.

"Are you going to be alright?" She asked him as they broke apart.

"Yeah I'll be fine, I just need to get back to my work; love is a waste of time anyway," he said with a sniffle.

Rommie couldn't help but express outright sadness at his statement, but she quickly hid it.

"Harper, can I ask you a question?" She asked a few minutes later, breaking the silence of Command.

"Sure, go ahead."

"What do you think of Trance?"

Harper was momentarily taken aback by the question: what did he think about Trance, what a strange question.

"Umm, what do you mean Rommie?" he asked, truly not understanding her question.

"What do you think of her? What is your relationship with her?"

"Oh, we're best friends," he answered with a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "She's my best friend in the whole universe, my only real friend. It's not that you, Dylan, Beka, and Tyr aren't my friends; it's just that with Trance it's different. We can share our secrets with each other and not feel like the other is judging."

"Harper, I'm glad to hear that. When you're done with the sensors you can go visit Trance. She may be able to cheer you up, she always has in the past."

"Sure Rom-doll, whatever you say," he replied as he continued to work on the sensors. Neither talked for the rest of the installation except to discuss the job itself.

Half an hour later, Harper left Command to join Trance in Hydroponics.

==^== End Chapter 3 ==^==