SquidgeWorld Archive

"I really hate the Dragans, you know that Trance?" Seamus Harper said as he and Trance made their way to an engineering Conduit. "I mean they always break things and leave me to fix it. They don't play well with others."

Trance only smiled.

"Ah, here we are, good old number 47." He looked over at Trance. "46 down, 152 remaining. Not bad for twelve hours work."

Harper settled into a comfortable position as he removed the panel in front of him, Trance settled in behind him with his toolbox in hand. The panel he removed revealed a mess of blown circuits and shorted-out wires.

"Oh man, this'll take hours. Better get comfortable Trance. We'll be here awhile." He complained to her, Trance just smiled and made herself comfortable.

"Well, it won't be all bad Harper. At least you won't be bored!" She said cheerfully, trying to make him feel better.

"I'd take boredom over this anytime formerly purple people eater. Oh well, the company's not bad." He grinned at Trance, who blushed slightly. "Lets get to work, hand me the nanowelder would ya?" With that they got to work on their repairs.

==^==

"There's really nothing to worry about. Harper will have it fixed in next to no time." Beka told Dylan with all the confidence she had in Harper.

"I know, I know. But I still can't help feeling like I need to be helping them fix my ship." He replied with agitation in his voice. "Dylan, this is Harper, `Super Genius,' we're talking about." Beka managed to mimic Harper's tone exactly, drawing an amused look from Tyr at the weapons console. "Besides he has Trance to help him. They'll get the job done. Don't worry and stop pacing a hole in the floor."

"You're right Beka, your right! Lets try to do something constructive while we wait for repairs to finish. I know lets restock our munitions and parts. Beka set a course for the nearest asteroid belt, Tyr inventory what weapons we need to restock and see to it." The way he gave the orders showed how bored he was, and how much he needed something to do.

"As you wish Dylan." Was all Tyr said.

"You really are bored aren't you?" Beka, who said it not so much as a question but as an accusation, joked to Dylan.

Dylan just laughed.

==^==

"Well, 47 down, on to 48. C'mon Trance lets get going, we only have a 24 hour day here." Harper said as he offered Trance his hands to get up. After several hours of work, she took the offered help and stood, falling against Harper when the lack of circulation made her legs weak.

"Whoa, easy there Trance, you've been sitting there for hours." Harper said, catching her as she fell.

They stood there together in each other's arms for several minutes. They stood looking into each other's eyes, when Harper reached up and with a gentle hand, pushed an arrant lock of hair off of Trance's face. She just watched him, stunned.

Harper was first to pull away and break the embrace. He moved to gather his toolbox. He looked back to where Trance was still standing, an expression of embarrassment on his face.

"We ... uh ... we should get moving. C'mon Trance, we still have a lot to do." He said hesitantly, more embarrassed that his expression could every say.

As they moved to number 48 on their list of repairs, Harper kept kicking himself mentally for his unconscious act.

"Aw man!" He thought to himself, "I am such an idiot, I mean this is Trance, my best friend. Well the old Trance was, I don't know about this Trance." All these thoughts passed through his mind in the time it took to crawl out of the conduit they were in.

"Why did he do that?" Trance wondered, "What was he thinking? Why? Does he still think of me as his `sparkly purple babe', or his `purple pixie'? Does he still think of me as the old Trance, or does he accept this new one?" All these thoughts drifted through her head at the same moment that Harper was questioning his action. After much debating with herself; her mind finally settled on one thought, "He Likes Me! He still likes me." This thought had the power to make her happy, even though she didn't know why, at least not yet.

"Harper." She said his name, but he didn't hear her, so lost in his own thoughts. She had to finally tap him on the shoulder to get his attention, which of course made him jump. "Wha ... What? What is it Trance?" he asked, a little confused.

"You passed the junction we need to get to the next panel, back there. Number 48 is back that way." She told him as she pointed out he junction. What was he thinking about, she wondered to herself.

"Uh ... thanks Trance. Sorry about that, my mind was somewhere else." He explained. So turning back to the correct junction, they went off to fix number 48 of 199 items to be repaired.

==^==

"So Beka, how did you sleep last night?" Dylan asked as she came onto the bridge the next morning.

"Quite well, thank you." She replied. "How far have Harper and Trance gotten on their repairs?" she asked in turn.

"Don't know, they haven't reported yet, but I'm not worried." Dylan said as he continued to work at his console. "I'm sure they're still working on it. They'll report when they can." he said with confidence.

There was a beep at his console. "Ah, there he is now. Mr. Harper, how are things going down there?" Dylan asked as Harper's tired face appeared on the view screen.

"Well Boss, we got 52 done and we are exhausted." He yawned, as if to prove his point. "Trance and I are going to go get a few hours sleep before we start again. That ok?"

"Sure, go get some rest. `Weary eyes make bad work.'" Dylan intoned piously.

"Thanks Boss." Harper said before his picture disappeared from the screen.

"Well Beka, ask and ye shall receive." He told her.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get to full of yourself Captain Hunt." She replied playfully while she took her own station. Dylan could only laughed.

"Well Beka, what shall we do today to kill time?" He asked her.

"Um ... I don't know, you wanna play cards?" they both laughed as they continued working.

"I guess we'll figure out something to keep from being bored. I'll trust your judgment Beka."

"Thank you my Captain Hunt." She said sarcastically.

==^==

Harper and Trance, before retiring to their separate quarters, stopped at the mess hall for a quick bite to eat.

"Well Trance, we make a good team." He told her as they sat down with their trays.

"Yeah, I know." She replied. "Harper?" He looked up from his meal. "Back in the conduit, when you helped me up, why did you brush away the hair in my eyes?" She asked, as Harper grew pale and almost choked on his food.

"Well, uh ... because you're my best friend Trance. Uh ... yeah, that's why." He managed to stammer out with out too much embarrassment showing.

"Really? I'm your best friend?" She asked happily.

"Yeah sure. I thought you knew that." He stopped in mid-thought, "I told the old you, the purple you, that." He said, realizing how she might react to his `purple you' comment, he grimaced.

"I remember you telling me that now, it's just I've seen so much that I'd forgotten. I remember how happy I was when you told me that, I'd never had a best friend before." She got a sad, faraway look on her face as though remembering something from many years ago.

It broke Harper's heart to see that look on her once purple, now golden, still beautiful face.

"Ah Trance, why are you so sad? Don't be sad, you're making me sad. I can't stand to see that look on your face, please stop." He told her.

"I'm sorry Seamus, I was just remembering something that happened, yet thankfully didn't happen." She told him.

"What didn't happen that did happen, that makes you sad?" He asked, wondering if the question made any sense, not noticing that she called him `Seamus'.

"I can't tell you now, but I will tell you, later." She answered as she realized what time it was and mentioned that fact to Harper. "We should go get some sleep. We have a lot more work to do."

"Yeah, you're right." He said as they bussed their trays.

"G'night Trance." He said as they reached the corridor. He turned towards his quarters, but turning back he went over and lightly kissed Trance on the cheek.

As he rounded the corner, Trance stood there stunned. Her hand went to where Harper had kissed her.

"Good night Harper." She said to nobody, before heading off to her own quarters to sleep.

==^==

All the way back to his quarters he kept thinking about how strange he'd been acting towards Trance. "Oh well, it's nothing" He thought, even though he didn't really believe it.

In her own quarters, Trance was wondering the same thing as Harper. She however, having already lived much of what may happen, had the advantage of knowing why Harper was acting the way he was, even if he didn't.

After a long day's work, both were grateful to be able to sleep. Their heads touching their pillows sent them instantly into the realm of dreams.

==^==

The next day proved just as busy as the one before. Repairs went on at the usual pace. Dylan and Beka actually had something to do today. They could either workout with Tyr, or go over the reports of the repairs. They chose the reports.

Harper and Trance resumed work at item number 53. 53 turned out to be the luck, or unlucky number as fate would have it. 53 would change everything for Harper and Trance.

==^==

"Well Trance, here we are, 53. This should be easy, our lucky number." He said with a grin at his workmate.

"Harper, why do you believe in luck?" She asked as they got to work. Besides creating idle conversation, she was genuinely curious to find out about her friend.

"That's a good question, my golden goddess." He said, unaware of the start the term of endearment gave Trance. Reaching half his body into a panel, he continued. "And I'll tell you there's a very good reason behind it too. Growing up on Earth I learned that fate was a fairy tale, it doesn't exist. The only thing that can save you and keep you alive another day was luck. Was it fate that kept the Dragan troops from killing you in your sleep? No, it was luck. Luck that you woke up in the morning, luck that you ate, and luck that you went to sleep at night just to start over again the next day. In short, it was luck that you were even alive, between Magog attacks and Nietzschean slaver raids and death squads, I was lucky to even get off world and find the Eureka Maru." He looked at her with a quizzical look on his face. "That is why I believe in luck Trance." He turned back to his work on the panel. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious, that's all. I want to know more about my best friend, you never tell any one anything about yourself." She said as she gave him a small hug, like two friends who haven't seen each other in awhile.

Harper stiffened slightly, then relaxed into the short embrace, continuing to work. Trance broke the embrace and moved back to watch Harper work.

"Hey Trance." He said from half inside the panel.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"I'm gonna jack into Andromeda. Get comfortable Trance. I may be awhile. I'll let you know if I find anything."

"What are you looking for?" She asked.

"Well," he said, pulling his head out of the panel. "This area received a direct hit from a Dragan missile. The funny thing is the missile didn't explode, it impacted but no boom, it just shattered. I'm gonna check the schematics and see if there's any damage." He explained as he interface with the ship.

After several minutes of silence, there was a small explosion, and a cry of pain as Harper fell out panel.

"Harper!" Trance cried out as she crawled to her friend. She was looking him over for any bumps and bruises, but found none.

`Trance," Harper whispered, "virus." He told her as he fell into unconsciousness, his head in her lap.

"Rommie!" Trance cried, but it was too late, the virus had activated and was worming its way through the various ship's systems, shutting them down one by one.

==^==

"Rommie Report!" Dylan yelled as he and Beka entered Command from Dylan's office, which was scattered with reports.

"A polymorphic virus was introduced into my system by a Dragan missile packed with nanobots. They infested me with the virus. It was dormant until Harper jacked into my system. The virus is shutting down systems around the ship. It appears to be leaving only my holographic projection system, life support, and artificial gravity online." She reported.

"And Mr. Harper?" Dylan asked as he absorbed the news.

"I don't know internal sensors are offline. All I know is that before I lost internal sensors I registered a small explosion in the vicinity of Harper and Trance. Aside from that I'm not sure of their condition." She answered. "They'll contact us when they can, but that will be difficult as well, communications are down as well."

"That will make it difficult then. We need to kill the virus and then start getting systems back online." Dylan ordered.

"The virus has already been stopped. As I said before the only systems still on are life support, gravity and hologram projection. Hologram projection is limited to the Command Deck. My avatar is currently on the floor in the corridor leading to Hydroponics." The Andromeda hologram reported.

"Good, thank you Rommie. Beka I want you to get to work on communications. Tyr I want you to ... " He was cut off by Tyr.

"Dylan, my time would be better spent on getting weapons and defenses back online. Anything else would be a waste of my time." Tyr said.

"Yes, you're right Tyr. Both of you get to work right away, we need those systems, I don't like being dead in the water. Rommie, try to get your avatar up and running, we could use her hands." Rommie nodded as she blinked out, Tyr and Beka went to work on their systems. Dylan went to work at his console, trying not to think about the damage to his ship.

==^==

Harper awoke to someone gently touching his hair and caressing his face. He opened his eyes to see Trance watching him; she was caressing his face and hair.

"Welcome back." She said to him with a smile.

"How long have I been out?" He asked, propping himself on an elbow and looking at her.

"Not long." She said, her voice betraying his concern for him.

"My implant hurts, what happened?" He asked, touching his implant in emphasis.

"I don't know. You were fine one minute, then the next there was an explosion and you screamed in pain and fell out of the panel." She told him.

"Well, what ever happened, my head hurts. Have you heard from Dylan or Rommie?" Harper asked as he struggled to a leaning position against the wall across from her.

"No communications are down, I've tried five times, and still nothing." She told him.

"Well as soon as they fix communications, they contact us. So until that time what do you wanna do Trance?" He asked her.

"Well we could play cards if you had any, or we could talk for awhile. We can't leave though; the emergency seals were activated and closed us in. Life support is still on, otherwise we'd be dead now." She replied.

`Well, that cuts our choices down to talking. Do you wanna go first, ask the first question I mean?" He asked.

"Sure. Harper, what was life like growing up on Earth?"

Trance could tell the question was a painful one, judging by the small grimace Harper gave.

"Well, it's to talk about, but what the hey! I mean what else are we gonna do?" He asked trying to hide the pain the question caused.

"Well, life on Earth was no picnic, as I said before.' He sighed. "My life was like that of anybody else on Earth, trying to get enough to fill his stomach. I had to fight to get any little scrape of food, sometimes no bigger than a crumb. I had to learn how to lie, cheat, steal, and be the worst possible person you could ever imagine. But I was lucky; I got off world and met all you guys." He paused to think about his next words.

"I lived in Boston with my family. I went back a while ago to help free Earth in a revolution. I saw my cousin Brendan; he was the leader of the resistance. The entire Earth rebellion was crushed, and Brendan was most likely killed." He paused to remember his cousin and what he died for. "I wanted so much to get away from Earth, but I ended up returning trying to make things better. I only made them worse, I wanted to stay there on Earth and fight and die with them Trance." He had been looking at the floor but now looked up at Trance, tears in his eyes. "But Rommie convinced me that Andromeda was my home now and that you were my family, and I believed her, so I left. But I can't help thinking that if I hadn't gone to help Brendan with the revolution, he'd still be alive now." The look of pain and loss that crossed his face made Trance's heart break; yet she didn't move to comfort him.

"Trance, do you know what it's like to knowingly be the cause of one of your few living relatives death?" He asked her, not expecting an answer. "I watched my parents die at the hands of a Dragan slaver for resisting. I watched as my brothers and sisters died of various diseases and a few were lucky enough to be killed as slaves for the Dragans, instead of wasting away. That trance, is what my life was like on Earth."

"I never knew I'm so sorry Harper." Moving to sit next to Harper, Trance put her arm around his shoulder in an effort to comfort him.

"Nobody knew Trance, the only person who knew was Brendan and now he's dead too. So you're the only one alive who knows." He said, exhausted by his retelling.

Resting his head on Trance's shoulder, Harper just breathed in and out gathering his thoughts and feelings.

Trance accepted the fact her best friend was tired by his sad story, if only she could tell him her story. She was the only person to know his life before the Maru.

"Trance." He asked in a tired voice.

"Yes Harper?"

"Promise you won't tell anyone the truth. I'm sure you realize that I didn't tell you everything, no matter what, no one will every know everything I've been through. Some horrors are best taken to the grave." He said, closing his eyes against the atrocities only he would know.

"Harper, I promise I'll never tell anyone. You have my word as your best friend."

"Thanks Trance, that means a lot.' He said removing his head from her shoulder.

"Trance, back when I built the tesserect machine, and had the choice of saving me or Hohne." He stopped to plan his words. "Why did you save me? Why did you let one of the most brilliant minds in the known galaxies die? If I had died there wouldn't have been a big loss to the universe, but Hohne, he was worth more that I was. He should be alive now, and I should be dead." Harper managed to say through the tears that now ran down his cheeks, from both the loss of Hohne and his choice to live or die.

"Harper, I don't know what you want me to tell you. I saved you and not Hohne because you're my best friend and I didn't even know Hohne." She told him gently, seeing the mental anguish he was going through.

"Trance, I want you to tell me the truth." When he looked over at her his eyes were both pleading and angry. "Truthfully, why did you save me?" He asked, holding eye contact, staring into her soul, trying to find the Trance he knew and loved.

The look sent shivers of pleasure down her spine, all of his looks did that.

"The truth?" She asked, recovering from his look. "The truth is when you died it was as if I died right along with you. You were my best friend, your death is what started my growth into what you see now. I realized that I couldn't live without you, and neither could Andromeda."

She paused, the memories of his death bringing tears to her eyes. She was alot like him, they both had tough exteriors designed to keep people from getting close, for if anyone got close they would die or leave them.

"Tyr took no pleasure in killing you, I want you to know. He felt like he was killing his own family." She told him finally. "He was saddened by the fact that we couldn't save you."

"Tyr? Saddened by killing anything, especially having to kill me? I find that hard to believe." Harper said scornfully, looking up at Trance.

"I know you may feel that, but I lived through it. I saw you die at Tyr's hands, and I wished he would kill me too. But I didn't die, thousands of times I wish I had. I saw Tyr die as Beka and I searched for the Engine of Creation, Dylan died freeing the Andromeda from the Cetus. The future Beka and I were the only ones to survive, and we were forced to adapt to the most hostile beings in the universe, just to survive. That is why I changed places with my younger self, that is why I saved you and not Hohne."

"Trance, is that what you couldn't tell me earlier?" When she nodded, he was silent while he thought about what she'd said.

"Harper, now we each know something about the other that no one else knows. We must keep these to ourselves, if we don't bad things could happen." He nodded in understanding, she went on. "Harper, when I was changing and growing I kept thinking of two things. First, how could I go back and fix what had happened. Second, when I did fix it, could we, you and I, ever be more than just best friends?"

"Trance, how much more than friends do you want to be?" Harper asked, some enlightenment coming to him. All those little things that he'd ignored as minor came into focus at her comment, she loved him. At this Harper's heart sped up and his breathing quickened. She loves me, do I love her? I don't know, I love her as my best friend but more than that?

"Harper, my life is empty without you there, your wisecracks and sarcasm, your pseudo-bragging, your kindness. All that and more make my life worth living, if only to see you in the morning, to touch you once. I love you Seamus Harper, and I hope you love me." She said wistfully.

Looking up at her from where he sat, Harper took a moment to absorb what she told him.

"She loves me? She loves me!" He thought to himself as two battles were fought in his head. One was whether or not to tell her that he, Seamus Harper, did love Trance Gemini. The second battle was whether or not he would allow himself to love her, all those he'd ever loved or cared about ended up dead. He didn't know if he could take another death by proxy.

"Trance," He said slowly, "I don't know how to tell you this but I love you too." At the look of absolute joy on her golden face he went on. "But I don't know if I can love you. All my family, all the ones I've ever loved have ended up dead or have left me alone. I don't want you to die from me loving you and I don't want you to leave me. You deserve a long happy life with someone who won't be an albatross around your neck, you deserve better than a sickly, no-immune-system- always-near-death street punk like me." He said as his voice fell more and more into despair.

"Seamus Harper." She chided him. "You may have been a street punk once but now you are chief engineer for the Andromeda and a valued member of this crew, and my best friend." She told him.

"You always know just what I need to hear and when, I guess that's part of what I love about you. I know that I'm just setting you up for death, you don't deserve that. You don't deserve to be burdened with all the pain and sadness that I've had to live through. You should have sunshine and rainbows and other beautiful things." He told her, looking into her eyes and holding the contact.

"Harper, I want to be the one that decide that. And my love for you as a beautiful thing makes that all moot. If my love for you means that I'll be burdened with your pain and sadness, then I'll gladly shoulder that if you're there with me." She told him with an odd gentleness that the old Trance always exhibited, permeating her voice.

"Your right Trance, the choice is yours. If I am your choice, so be it. I mean what the hey, you only live once, right? So let's give this romance thing a try and see what happens." He said as he moved to get his toolbox from the other side of the conduit.

As Harper moved past Trance she grabbed him and pulled him into a big hug.

"Hey, Trance. C'mon let me go. I got work to do." He said, humor at his friends antics evident in his voice.

He was silenced as he felt her lips on his, as she pulled him into a passionate embrace. Seeing that there was no way he could escape her, he gave in and kissed her back with all the emotions he'd been holding inside.

The kiss lasted for several minutes, when they did break apart they just stared into each other's eyes.

"Now you can get to work cutie." She told him as she patted him on the butt and gently pushed him towards the toolbox.

Harper just grinned and set to work repairing the damage he could and getting them back into the loop of things.

==^==

Several hours later Harper had managed to get communications back on.

"Harper, you're a site for sore eyes. How are you doing? Before the attack we registered an explosion in your area. We assumed the worst." Beka said as his image appeared on the view screen.

"Are you kidding Beka? It'll take more than an explosion to get Seamus Zelazny Harper." In the background Dylan and Beka could see Trance roll her eyes, and did their best to hide their grins.

"Well, as you can see we've got communications back up. We'll try to repair the damage done by the nanobots. More long hours in a cramped tube. I'm starting to feel like toothpaste." Harper said as he was turning away to sign off.

"Ah, Harper." Dylan said, catching him before he could sign off.

"Yeah boss?" Harper asked, a little confused.

"You've got some lipstick on the corner of your mouth." Dylan said, keeping his head down, the laughter welling up inside him. Pointing on himself Dylan showed Harper where the lipstick was.

Reaching up to his lips and touching them, his hand came away with lipstick the same color as Trance's.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man." Harper kept repeating as his image dissappeared from the screen.

As soon as Harper disappeared from the screen both Dylan and Beka broke into laughter.

"The look on his face ... it was priceless." Beka said through the laughter.

"I just wish we had a picture of it." Dylan said. Then getting an idea he turned to Rommie.

"Rommie, did you get any screen captures of that?" He asked, meaning that if she did, they did indeed have a picture of the look on his face.

"Of course, I record all transmissions coming into the Command Deck." She replied, having an idea of where this was going.

"Well then, Beka would you join me in the Observation Deck?" Dylan asked, a wicked glint in his eyes.

"Of course Dylan. It would be my pleasure." She told him as she proceeded him off the bridge.

"Tyr you have command." Dylan said as he followed, Tyr only nodded confirmation.

==^==

"Well Trance we finally finished all the repairs, both old and new." Harper said as they crawled out of the last conduit and into machine shop 17.

"That was hard work." She told him, he just smiled and pulling her to him kissed her forehead.

"Now you know why I have to be so small Trance babe." He replied with a grin.

"If that isn't the most touching thing I've ever seen."

A voice behind them startled them. turning they found Tyr watching them from the doorway.

"Tyr!? How ya doing?" Harper said nervously as the Nietzschean started walking towards them.

"Apparently better than you are." He told Harper. "I wanted to offer you some advice. If you are ever going to appear on screen after a ... " he searched for a suitable word. "romantic interlude, it would be best for all if you removed any evidence from your face."

With that advice, Tyr turned and walked out the door, pausing only to say something to Trance.

"If he ever mistreats you, let me know and I'll make sure he pays."

With that threat Tyr left the machine shop and the young couple.

"That was strange." Trance said, Harper could only nod.

Walking towards the door Trance settle into the crook of Harper's arm, his arm around her shoulder, hers around his waist.

"Hey lets get something to eat, I'm famished." He told her.

Her nod sent them in the direction of the mess hall and the safety it offered.

==^==

Returning to his quarters after dinner, Harper found a box and a flexi laying on his bed.

Picking up the flexi, Harper read.

Harper, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well this one is worth a whole lot more. By the way, we made everyone a copy. -~ Dylan and Beka ~

Curious about the photo they made he opened the box and removed a real photo in a real frame. When he saw the photo Harper dropped the box and flexi to the floor and stared in horror at the image.

His face, a look of shock of it, hand and lips showing red lipstick. Trance in the background, a blush staining her face. It was the moment when Dylan told him he had lipstick on his face. The moment they all knew he loved Trance and she him. The moment when they were officially recognized as a couple and not just friends. The moment that will forever haunt him.

The moment he found his true love and hearts desire. The moment he found Trance, and she him. A moment they will both never be able to forget thanks to Dylan, Beka, and Rommie.

The End.