TITLE: Dominant

AUTHOR: Ta'al

(Talek111@aol.com)

PAIRING: Harper/Trance-centric, some Rommie/Dylan and Beka/Tyr

TYPE: Action/Adventure, Romance

RATING: Currently R rated for language, may at some point be taken to NC-17

ARCHIVE: If you want it, please feel free

SUMMARY: Harper, Trance and Beka are captured by a mad-scientist type, whose experimentation leaves one of them vastly different, and promises to leave nothing the same again. This fic is R rated now, but I may do a separate NC-17 version for us grown ups.

DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely nothing, so I have nothing worth suing me for.

SPOILERS: Currently None, this fic takes place after IMALL, but before IHCRAL.

Dominant
by Ta'al

Prologue

"When you stare into the Abyss,
Take heed that the Abyss also stares into you."
Unknown Source

Systems University Archives
C.Y. 8537

Dylan was almost ready to meet with the leader of the Tellarian people, an Eldrich Hahn, to finalise the entry of the Tellarians into the new Commonwealth. The planet Tellaris had been colonised by Humans just after the fall of the old Commonwealth, in order to protect themselves from anti-commonwealth aggression they had renamed themselves the Tellarians and the people had since depended upon the rich mineral deposits that graced the world. Given the reactions of the Tellerians so far, Dylan was confident that the signing would go smoothly as the Tellerians, while technologically advanced, had almost no fleet to speak of, and certainly nothing to defend against an assault by the Magog or the Nietzscheans. They would enjoy the protection of the Commonwealth and the other enlisted planets would benefit from the influx of resources.

~All in all, a deal where everyone wins~ thought Dylan as he finished preparing his uniform, the Tellarians were fun-loving people during recreation, but they were absolute sticklers for form and conduct when they worked, which suited the life-long officer just fine.

Dylan had asked Beka to take the Maru and miss the ceremony in order to investigate a strange signal that the Andromeda had picked up the day before. It had looked like a distress signal of some sort, but it was of a completely unfamiliar language or code so not even Rommie could translate it. Given the need for formality at this occasion, Beka had convinced Dylan that if it was a call for help, that she would need a medic and an engineer, so Trance and Harper had agreed to join her.

***

Trance walked down the corridor, her tail trailing along behind her, to her best friend's quarters. When she called for him but received no reply, she ask Andromeda to locate him.

"Harper current location is Machine Shop 12, shall I tell him your coming?" The holographic woman inquired.

"No, I'll just go tell him myself." And with that, Trance turned on a heel and headed towards the Machine Shop.

Harper whistled as he worked on his latest project, considering how often he ran into trouble he was trying to fit a new power source to his forcelance, to give it more firepower. An unfortunate side effect of the upgrade was that the forcelance overloaded at random intervals giving him an extremely unpleasant shock. But if he could just fit a second power regulator to the…

"Hey, Harper. What are you doing?" The lilting, laughing voice that Harper had always loved echoed behind him.

"Nothing much Trance, you?" He turned to face the 'Sparkly Purple Babe' that was Trance Gemini. Noting, as always, how pretty she was when she smiled.

"I was just coming to see if you were ready to go yet." Came the reply.

"Yeah, lets go, it doesn't look like I'll finish this soon anyway" As he spoke, the Forcelance gave him it's irregular jolt and he yelped and dropped it onto the bench. Harper glared at the treacherous weapon before turning back to Trance and saw her barely concealing a grin.

"After you, babe." He gestured towards the door and the two left. They walked closely, Harper's arm around her shoulders, and Trance's arm encircling his waist. The pair easily falling into step as they navigated there way toward the Maru.

Chapter 1

"Andromeda, this is the Eureka Maru, we're heading off now, see you in a few days." Beka effortlessly piloted her ship out of the Andromeda bay and prepared to jump to slipstream.

"See you soon, Beka. Andromeda out." Came Hunt's reply.

"Trance, Harper! Hang on to something, we're going to slipstream." Beka yelled over her shoulder.

Harper braced himself on a nearby railing, then looked over to see Trance do the same, satisfied that she wouldn't fall over, he continued to tinker with the forcelance problem in his head.

The Eureka Maru jumped to Slipstream. With the talented Beka Valentine at the helm, this was a routine, and quite frankly boring, stream. She piloted as if she had been born for it.

When the jump had finished, Beka ran a scan to look for the signal that they had been told to track. There was a large asteroid, a few smaller ones, a small star and some wreckage. Her instruments told her that the distress call was coming from the cloud of debris.

"Harper, get your ass up here and tell me all about that." She pointed towards the Debris.

"You got it, Boss." Harper called, sitting at the console and expertly manipulating the controls.

"Well, it looks like what's left of ship, it was about the same size as the Maru and it's fairly recent, maybe three or four days. The signal is coming from inside the wreckage. We need to get closer to get a more clear reading. Unfortunately for you, the computer isn't as capable of genius as I am."

Shaking her head and rolling her eyes, Beka moved them closer. Harper saw an image of purple beauty walking into the front and blushed slightly when Trance caught him staring.

"Ok, better. What do we have here? Uh, boss, there is something in that wreckage that as sure as hell is not a part of the ship. It's about 3 metres across, spherical and not made of the same kind of metal as the debris. It looks like our signal is coming from that." Harper's voice carried a slightly excited tone, a new toy to play with!

"Wait! Something weird is happening!" Yelled Harper.

"What do you mean by weird?" Beka asked

"Weird? Strange, odd, queer, unusual…" Harper ran off the litany as he worked.

"Okay! I get it, what is happening?" Beka was getting more and more annoyed with her engineer as the seconds ticked by. Trance grinned despite the situation.

"It's generating power, lots of power. More than we are, in fact. Wait, It's scanning us."

A blue glow flashed over the ship for a second, before dying.

"Okay, we're getting a message. From the sphere." Harper reported.

"Lets see it."

"Accessing communication, it's audio only" Trance said, before flicking a few switches. The hollow, metallic voice rang through the ship.

"Attention, unidentified vessel. You are trespassing. Scanners report three sentients on board. One 'Unknown', female. One Human, female. One Human, male. You are ordered to power down your systems and prepare to be boarded. You will not be harmed. Failure to comply will result in your being rendered unconscious. You have 30 seconds to power down." The message ended.

"The hell we will, we're leaving right now!" Came Beka's voice. She swung the ship around and prepared to enter slipstream.

"Boss, that… thing is preparing to fire some sort of weapon at us. If we are gonna leave, we should go right now." Harper advised.

"Okay, we're gone in…AH!" Beka yelled as the sphere fired at them. Trance, Harper and Beka collapsed.

The last thing Harper saw as he hit the ground was a Trance's Tri-colored hair, and then it was all went black.

***

The first thing that hit Beka as she opened her eyes was just how much she disliked being KO'ed. It happened far to often for her liking and it often gave her a headache for days.

On this pleasant note, she lifted her head slowly and took in her surroundings. She was in a small room, there was a door, a large mirror that covered most of one wall, a double bunk and a still purple form lying next to her.

Sitting up suddenly (much to the protestation of her aching head) Beka grabbed Trance's form by the shoulder and gently shook her.

"Trance, Trance! Wake up" She spoke in a quiet yet intense whisper.

Trance groaned and opened her eyes. Where was she? She remembered falling over, nearly landing on Harper.

~Harper! Where is Harper, is he okay?~ The panic began to rise in her chest, Trance jolted up and looked around wildly.

"Trance!"

"Beka, Where are we, what happened." She whipped round to look at the blonde.

"I don't know, kiddo, just stay calm." Beka was trying to sound confidant for Trance's sake.

"Ah, I see our guests are awake" The voice rang through the cell, as the 'mirror' on one side of the room suddenly became transparent. Both Trance and Beka turned towards their' captor.

The man in question was Human, or at least he so appeared, his small frame supported his slightly balding head. Crinkled facial lines and a stooped posture demonstrated his advanced age. Despite his physical frailties, his eyes betrayed a great intelligence and a sharp wit.

"I am Doctor Jacobs. I must apologise for the accommodations, I'm afraid we weren't expecting visitor, though your arrival is so timely it might be considered fate." A chuckle followed that statement, which quickly turned into a coughing fit. Once that had finished, he returned his attention to them.

"My health is not what it once was, even with the exceptional care of this facility, I have but a few days to live. No matter, what I will bring to the universe will be my contribution, it will be the axis of my immortality. I may die, but my name will be known throughout the stars."

"That's all nice and dandy and all, but where the hell are we and why did you bring us here?" Beka had risen and was quickly loosing her temper.

"And where is Harper?" Trance added from behind the irate captain, she was scared, but her concern for her best friend overrode that for the moment.

"Harper? Ah, you are referring to your friend. He is about to have the great honour, no, the privilege to taking the first step to returning mankind to it's rightful place among the stars."

"You had better start explaining yourself right now!" Beka actually hit the glass.

"Perhaps you are right, you might be more co-operative when you know the truth, so I shall explain it to you. Why are Humans oppressed by Nietzscheans? The answer is simple; they are better than we are. They are stronger, faster and smarter than any Human could hope to be. So, the solution is equally simple, to survive, Humans must become better than them."

"How though? Well, at first we thought of using chemicals to improve the individual soldiers. But chemicals produce messy and unpredictable side-effects. So we turned our thinking towards genetic alteration, making the society stronger over the generations. But the Nietzscheans have used this technique for centuries and already have too great a headstart. Finally, we had to think on a grander scale, we had to make the Human RACE better, not just small groups. The answer lay in an alien message buoy we discovered, it including data on an entirely new field of research, EvoGenics."

"For the last three decades, I have spent every waking moment in the advancement of this technology and barely two days ago we finally conquered our last barrier. We now have the capacity to cause the spontaneous evolution of an individual Human. Our test subjects do not arrive for several weeks, but your arrival provided such a great opportunity I just could not let it pass away. Therefore it has been decided that you and your friend will be the Adam and Eve of the new Genus of Humanity. Homo Superior. Do you now understand how important this is, you will mate and spearhead the new Human species." The doctor appeared to have moved even himself with his speech and was grinning broadly.

"Your are out of your fucking head if you think we are going to co-operate with you in any way!" Beka was beyond furious now. The doctor looked disappointed.

"I see. Well, you cannot stop the evolution, and if you will not mate after that. Well, I am sure we can find some way of making you co-operative, drugs perhaps. Or possibly threats made on your friend here, either way, you WILL do as you are told. I know that you must think I am a monster, so to prove to you my good intentions I shall permit you to observe the procedure from your cell. I am sure, once you have seen the results, you will be impressed." Dr. Jacobs turned away from the panel, ignoring Beka's screamed threats and for the first time since they arrived, the duo paid some attention to the room in which the doctor stood.

The room was expansive, white and bland; an operating room of some description. In the centre was a bed equipped with heavy-duty wrist and ankle restraints, above it hung a large, grotesque machine so completely alien that Beka could not discern or even guess at it's purpose.

Strapped to the bed was a struggling Harper.

"Harper!" Trance pressed herself to the glass, the young engineer did not respond., either he could not hear her or he was too preoccupied by his current situation.

"The operation will now commence, I don't expect you to listen, but it would be better if you just relax." The Doctor was kindly, but coldly advising the unwilling patient.

"Fuck you! I am gonna kill you! Let me go!" Harper was screaming, he didn't like being restrained, being confined, it brought back unpleasant memories, things that he would rather forget.

"Well, I tried, now you might feel a slight pain, but don't worry. That'll go away once the searing agony sets in. Activate the device." The doctor ordered the nurse by a control panel in the corner.

"Activation sequence initiated, system is hot, beginning preliminary DNA evolution extrapolations." A wave of golden light passed from an emitter on the device and bathed Harper in it's harsh light. Harper moaned in pain.

"DNA evolution beginning, intensity at 10%… 20%… 30%… Holding at 35%. Beginning sequence." The nurse reported.

The golden light intensified greatly, Harper began to scream and writhe around in pain. He felt like his body was being torn apart one cell at a time.

Suddenly, something exploded. Sparks flew from the machine and a disturbing whine echoed in the chamber. The golden glow became almost blinding, Harper's inhuman scream made Trance cover her ears. He was beyond words, screaming himself hoarse, then sucking in a frenzied breath and screaming again.

"Holy Divine! Intensity at 80%! 90, 100. Sir! Intensity has reached 120%!" The nurse had to shout to make himself heard over the racket.

"Discontinue the operation, shut down the machinery!" Jacobs bellowed.

"I can't, it won't respond, it's going into overload"

"Cut power to the machinery." The doctor ordered.

"Sir! Are you insane?" The nurse was incredulous, he couldn't be serious!

"DO IT!" There was a pause.

"Cutting power"

The glow reached it's zenith, everyone looked away from the blinding light and Harper's scream tapered off, he had passed out. And slowly the light began to fade as well, leaving spots in the eyes. Beka blinked several times, trying to restore her vision, when it finally came back, she saw Harper's motionless form lying on the bed. She tried to see if he was breathing, she couldn't tell.

"Report!" Doctor Jacobs was frantic, what had gone wrong?

"Sir, the machine didn't stop at the theoretical maximum, it continued to evolve him until we shut it down. According to the sensors, the subject is NOT a Homo Superior!" The nurse seemed to be re-checking his instruments.

"Dammit! Another failure, he's completely useless to us now…" Jacobs anger was reaching boiling point.

"Sir, you don't understand. The machinery has surpassed the projected 'Homo Superior' window, his DNA is now 13.2% different. Sir, if these readings are correct, the subject is now a completely new level of Human!" The nurse was amazed.

"Incredible! We had theorised this might be possible, but never in our wildest dreams did we think it would happen any time soon. He has reached the third stage? That would make him Homo Dominant! Are you totally sure?" The Doctor was practically jumping up and down.

"All systems are green, the sensors are working, I would have to say yes."

"Jacobs! What the fuck is going on, what have you done to him?" Beka was terrified for Harper, he was like a younger brother, she should have protected him, this was her fault. Trance was unusually quiet.

The doctor turned to the captives, a triumphant smile on his face.

"You see, aside from some minor technical difficulties, everything went perfectly, in fact it, went better than perfectly! I'm sure now you can appreciate…" The doctor's ranting went on and on and Trance looked passed the raving scientist at the Nurse.

She was standing stone-still, the tendons in her neck standing out prominently, a fine sheen of sweat covered her slightly paled face. Trance didn't understand what was wrong with her, until she glanced over at Harper. His eyes were open and his stare was fixed on the woman. He wasn't even blinking, the intensity of his glare seemed to disturb the nurse greatly.

The woman was trembling slightly now, her hand moving of it's own accord, slowly pressing controls on the panel in front of her, she struggled with herself, her eyes pleading with him to stop.

She pushed the final key, Trance saw the restraints that covered Harper noiselessly slide back into the bed. Harper rose up from his confinement like a vengeful phoenix. The nurse looked ready to faint, she was petrified. A final glance from Harper, and the nurse collapsed, her body slid down to the floor in a boneless heap.

The sound of the falling nurse had alerted Jacobs, who span around and came face to face with the 'test subject' that he had so recently operated on. His words died on his lips. He looked into the distant stare that Harper was giving him, instinctively he backed up against the glass.

For an instant Beka thought Harper was going to kill him, not that she would have blamed him, but that just wasn't the kind of person Harper was. She was right, Harper moved the doctor to the side with a sharp glare, the doctor looked too scared to think.

Harper's eyes roamed quickly over the edges of the obviously reinforced glass. He drew back a step and punched the glass dead centre. Nothing, twice more he fruitlessly hit the transparent surface. Finally, he kicked the glass as hard as he could, creating the tiniest crack barely an inch long in the centre.

"It's no good. No-one, not even an angry Nietzchean could break that. We designed it that way deliberately." There was a slight tremor in the Doctor's voice, but it was carefully controlled.

"I will open the room for you, I have the keycard on me, so take your friends and leave, your ship is on docking bay 2. You will have to go around through that corridor" The doctor held up a slightly crumpled card and pointed to an exit. Harper glanced briefly in that direction, seemed to be lost momentarily, then returned to them.

Harper looked at the doctor again with frozen eyes, he seemed to calculating something. The smile froze on the doctor's face as his quick mind began to understand, with sickening certainty, exactly what the patient was contemplating. He raised his arms to protect himself, all in vain, for this Harper was far to quick and strong.

"NO! PLEASE!" Harper grabbed the man by the scruff of his lab coat, heedless of his pleas. He lifted him easily off of his feet and swung the man hard into the glass. Trance and Beka leapt away. The extra weight, combined with the sheer ferocity of Harper's swing was enough to shatter the glass. Shards of broken glass fell in slow motion, for an instant reflecting the falling visage of the doctor's broken, bleeding and shattered body fell into the cell. The man lay in a crumpled heap on the ground, he was not moving.

Beka and Trance stood in shock. Harper had just made that man into a living battering ram, he had thrown an elderly man through the glass because it would take less time than unlocking the door.

Harper looked at them, a strange look in his eyes. A moment later, he indicated with his head that they should follow him, turned and slowly began to leave the lab. Trance looked at Beka, and they both ran after him.

"Harper! Wait." Beka called, He didn't even slow down. The two finally caught up to him as they rounded a corner. Before either of the ladies could react, Harper broke into a sprint, looking along his path, Beka saw two black-clad guards.

He caught the first gun-wielding human in the mid section and rammed the taller man into the wall, cracking his head unpleasantly on the wall. The partially concussed guard was too stunned to even contemplate retaliation, the other guard raised his weapon, a rather primitive energy weapon of some sort, and loosed a shot that went wild and sizzled a black mark into the wall just above his companion's head.

Beka kicked the guard hard in the gut, then ripped his weapon away from his loosened grip and beat him over his unprotected head, the man went down in an instant.

Harper straightened, smashed the man across the face with his elbow, blood splattered over the wall as the guards nose collapsed under the blow. Harper grabbed his opponent by the jacket and with a grunt threw the man across the hall and into the wall with sufficient force that Beka winced at the sound of the bones cracking and splintering inside of him. Harper crossed over to the downed guard, kicked him onto his back and stared into his glazed over eyes. The man was moaning in pain, Harper paid him no attention except to reach down and relive the man of his weapon and stood back. Kicking the man in the head almost as an afterthought. The ex-guard passed out.

Harper looked at a scared Trance and then his stunned captain, he jerked his head in the direction of the corridor and turned to leave. Beka seemed to be getting angrier by the minute, though whether it was Harper's actions or just the current situation, she couldn't tell you. She was just about to rip into Harper when Trance placed a gentle hand on Beka's arm. She decided to stow it until they were out of here, at which point she would have a serious talk with this man.

Trance and Beka followed closely with their' friend. Beka noticed that he was walking differently, instead of his characteristic quick steps, Harper was stalking in a manner that Beka could only call 'graceful'. Considering that graceful was not a word normally applied in any way, shape or form to the cocky young engineer; Beka was becoming increasingly worried for the man who, all things considered, was like a little brother to her. For her part, Trance was getting more and more scared of the man she considered her best friend.

Minutes later, the trio came to a door. Stencilled on the door were the words

"HANGER BAY"

The door was locked, a small card reader was situated on the wall to the right of the door frame, Harper swiped the card and the three stepped out quickly into the bay. Right into the path of a single young man holding a gauss rifle.

"Stop right there! Anyone moves, they die" The man was Human, approximately twenty years old, and held his weapon with a familiarity that indicated his experience with it's use.

"We're leaving, right now and you are not gonna stop us." Beka yelled, almost tempted to just attack him, but common sense won out in the end.

"No. We are going right back to the lab. You will walk slowly, you will keep your hands behind your head at all times. I will shoot any one who even thinks about trying to escape. You!" he looked at Harper "drop that weapon now, or I'll just kill her." The man swung his rifle to aim at Trance.

Harper was completely still, no trace of emotion on his face, a moment passed, then he carefully unhooked the weapon from his shoulder and dropped it.

"Kick it away from you." The man was in complete control of the situation and he knew it.

The tiniest move of Harper's foot, and the weapon was sent skidding away from them and colliding with the wall. The man didn't appear to have noticed just how little effort that had taken Harper, he was too wrapped up in his own power to care.

"Fuck it, I think I'll just kill this bitch anyway." A malicious grin spread across his face as he tightened his finger around the trigger.

The man's smile froze on his face, his eyes blinked rapidly, his breathing accelerated and he began to sweat. He could not move, it was like he was a statue, he felt something digging into his mind, moving behind his eyes, something monstrously powerful. Then it hit him, it was not something, it was someone. He looked wildly around and saw Harper, his iris' a solid black.

Then came the pain.

It was a blinding white inferno of agony that cascaded through him, sweeping his senses up into a whirling cacophony. He felt like he was burning from the inside out; but he was also so cold, so utterly chilled that his teeth chattered and his hands shook violently. Stabbing pinpricks covered every inch of his skin. He screamed, it hurt so bad he wanted to die.

He would get his wish.

Harper crossed slowly to the man and batted the weapon from his grasp. His lip curled up in a snarl. He violently grabbed the man's head, securing his other hand in the mans hair and twisting viciously. The crack of bones filled the bay and the man finally stopped screaming. He fell to the metal plating with a clang.

Harper looked down at the man with almost psychotic rage etched into his face, his thoughts a tempest of malice and darkness. It took a full minute for Harper to calm down enough to be confidant of turning around and facing his friends. He did so, looked Beka in the eyes and nodded toward the Eureka Maru, she took the hint and jogged to the door.

Punching in the code, she ushered Trance in, then turned and looked at Harper. She was not sure what to say. On the one hand, he had always been a part of her crew and as such obeyed her orders. On the other, she had just witnessed him do things that gave her doubts about how to approach this situation. Harper saved Beka the trouble by silently climbing in, being careful not to touch her in any way.

Beka shook her head, bit back an angry remark and decided to just focus on piloting her baby back to the Andromeda.

Harper sank quietly into the nearest corner, crossed his arms and closed his eyes. Moments later, he heard someone enter the room. He guessed it was Trance, since Beka was probably piloting. He heard her take a seat, and decided that she was here to stay. Harper remained still, feigning sleep and hoping to avoid the questions he knew were coming.

He could feel her eyes on him all the way back to the Andromeda.

Chapter 2

Trance ran the scanner over Harper as he lay silently on one of the horrendously uncomfortable MedDeck beds he frequented so often. Once the Maru had docked with the Andromeda Trance, Beka and a distant Harper had walked to Med Deck. Beka had asked for Andromeda to meet the trio in Med Deck. Andromeda reported that Dylan, Rev, Tyr and her Avatar would have to finish the reception they were currently attending or risk causing the Tellarian ambassadors offence. Beka had been very objectionable to this and Dylan and had promised to leave as soon as they were able. With this Beka would have to be content.

"Just lie still, I'll be finished in a moment." Trance said in her most reassuring voice. She was very worried about the Blonde engineer, she had only the vaguest idea of what had been done to him and certainly no clue about how to reverse it.

"Trance, can you tell what happened to him?" Beka's question only served to make Trance feel even worse at her own inability to help.

"I can't tell. The scanners are having trouble reading him at all, and what data I can get makes no sense."

"Look, here's what Harper's body looked at when he had his last checkup two days ago." Trance pressed a control and a three-dimensional representation of a fairly typical human body appeared onscreen. Bones, organs, muscle tissue, it was all where it should be.

"And this is what the scanner is reading now." Trance continued, tapping a few controls. A second image appeared next to the first. The first thing that beka noticed was how grainy and distorted the picture was, she asked Andromeda about it.

"I'm sorry Beka, the scanner is working fine, Harper's body is generating a kind of energy field, it's not very strong now but it does the equipment some problems." Said Andromeda's hologram that had just appeared next to the bed.

The bones were in the right place, physically there was little difference that Beka could see.

"The Bones look the same." Beka said.

"For the most part they are, however at high powered magnification there are some minute differences, the bones are developing tiny tubes, hollow channels that are microns in diameter but run along every single one of his bones." Andromeda reported, before adding in a doubtful voice. "I can't tell what they are for, but the interference is making it very hard to detect any other changes that may exist."

"As for the rest of him, it gets sketchy. We had to use old X-ray style mapping to see the changes in his bones because the interference is making the scanners go haywire. I can say that his organs are changing, but not how and certainly not why. I'm sorry, Beka." Andromeda added reproachfully.

"It's not your fault. Lets just concentrate on making Harper well, and then we can get to work on the guys who's fault this really is." Beka's temper was flaring slightly, but she pushed it down.

"That's just it, Beka. He's not unwell, he's not sick or diseased or injured in any way we can see. He's just, well, different." Trance's voice was becoming more and more worried as she watched Beka, she doubted that Beka would accept this quickly, if at all.

"That was the idea." Harper's quiet statement filled the room as he spoke his first words since the incident.

"Harper!" Trance leapt to his side to give him a hug, which he accepted and even reciprocated carefully. She looked into his eyes and saw her Harper staring back.

~'My' Harper? Am I getting possessive?~ The thought drifted across her mind before she shoved it aside to focus on the task at hand.

No sooner had Trance released him, Beka moved to his other side to put a hand on his forehead.

"Seamus Harper, you have got to stop worrying me like this. How do you feel?"

"Strange" Was the only answer he supplied.

"Are you in pain?" Trance was anxious, but she looked slightly relieved when he shook his head.

"What happened to me. I feel, different"

"Different how?"

"It is hard to explain. I'm seeing things, things I never noticed before."

Harper sat up and looked at Trance for the first time, his eyes were wide with awe.

"What?" Trance blushed slightly under his scrutiny. Harper just smiled and turned away slighty.

~I can see colours around you. It's silvery and flows around you and through you. It pools at your chest, winds up and down and around your body, your arms and legs, even your tail~ Harper thought

Harper was starting to get the hang of this kind of this weirdo-vision , it was like it overlapped over the way things looked normally. Looking around he saw different colours on everything. A blue 'aura' surrounded Beka, but it was gauzy and indistinct when compared to the brilliance that enclosed Trance.

Harper had always thought Trance was pretty, but lately he had been noticing more and more just how attractive this girl was. She was a myriad of contradictions; naïve and trusting she was, but she was also very intelligence and incredibly wise. Beautiful and outgoing, yet she seemed completely oblivious to the way most of the males that laid their' eyes upon drooled at the idea of having her. Harper suspected that if she were to ask him about sex, he would have to explain an awful lot.

Harper felt a strange buzz that dwelled behind his eyes, it wasn't painful, it actually tickled a little. Then he saw images of Trance, his memories of her when he first caught her trying to relieve him of his money. When he had later saw her signing up on the Maru. The way she moved when she was happy or excited, the bounce always present in her step. A thousand other things about her flew through his mind, every memory, every feeling and every sensation that connected him with Trance. Tiny morsels of information that quickly slipped into place to form a dazzlingly clear picture of who Trance was to him.

All this happened in a blinding flash, in less than a fraction of a second and it nearly dropped him. He blinked a few times, and realised how stupid he must look having just stared at Trance for what felt like hours. Yet, given her lack of reaction, he realised that it must have taken a mere instant.

So, Seamus Zelazny Harper called upon his psyche's most powerful capability, his capability for denial. Steeling himself for a Herculean feat of repression, he filed this particular piece of disturbing information away in a little mental cabinet that he knew would not stay closed for long.

"So Trance, what did the mad doctor and his insane experiments do to me?" Harper was ready to face up to physical changes, he had a feeling that they would hit him the softest.

"Well, I'm gonna need a blood sample." Trance took the sample with easy precision and placed it under the scanner.

"Andromeda, please run a scan of the sample and show us the results." Trance's voice was less shaky now that she was actually doing something.

On the screen, Andromeda showed the group the changes that had occurred to Harper's DNA.

"A Triple-Helix?!?" Trance was shocked, if the changes had affected Harper at the genetic level, it would be very likely irreversible. No, she would not accept that, she had to help Harper.

"Harper's DNA has undergone a massive change. Not only is there an extra strand in the helix, but the DNA is the most densely packed arrangement of nucleotides I have ever seen. He also has extra bases, not four but eight different organic bases. I don't know how this kind of strand can even support itself, let alone replicate at the rate it is." Andromeda's voice was, as always, calm, but there was a tinge of worry in her voice. In truth, though she had had literally hundreds of engineers, none were so close to her as Harper. She was worried for the Human who kept her running better alone than a team of fifty High Guard engineers.

"So, any other good news?" Harper was being to calm, very little of this had soaked in yet; on the plus side he was starting get the hang of ignoring the auras and just seeing things normally.

"The energy that your body is putting out makes it hard to scan you, but your body is undergoing massive changes at every level: skeleton, muscles and organs are all changing . In fact, given how fast your metabolism must be running to keep up, you should be getting pretty hungry right about now." Trance said.

"You're right, I am hungry, if your purpleness has no objections, I'm going down to the mess to eat. Anybody wanna join me?" Harper tried to sound as though he didn't want to be left alone for a while. Deep inside he knew that the changes could never be reversed, so why dwell in hell?

"I'll go." Trance said quickly, she wanted to keep an eye on him, he had the most annoying habit of pushing himself too hard. Beka declined the offer, she wanted to go beat the hell out of Tyr, she found it a most enjoyable way of relieving emotional stress.

~Plus he is really hot~ she thought

So with a brief look to the recovering engineer, she departed MedDeck.

Harper looked at Trance again, studying her, before he felt that buzz again behind his eyes and turned toward the door a little too sharply.

"Well my Sparkly Purple Babe, are you ready to escort little me to the Mess?" Harper's tone was mocking, but his teasing smile and the glint in his eyes let Trance know he was only playing. It amazed her how well she knew Harper, his mannerisms and habits were second nature to her, she decided she liked this.

~Plus he is really hot and I love him~ The thought came unbidden, it screamed at her of truth. She would push this away for now, Harper was sick and he needed her help. With that she turned and walked in stride with the blonde.

As they walked with shoulders touching very lightly, Trance became aware of Harper's hand at the small of her back, touching her so gently she almost didn't notice it. A second later, she realised that her tail had left it's habitual position of trailing along the floor and had began to oh-so-gently wrap itself around his waist. He didn't seem to mind, though. The old Harper might not have even noticed it, but something about the way he acted made her believe that he was becoming far more sensitive to his surroundings. She had excellent hearing and keen eyesight, and it had taken her quite a few days on this ship to learn to tune out the tiny little noises that cropped up around the corridor. She watched Harper out of the corner of her eye, his eyes were flicking around very fast, looking at this part of the bulkhead and then that section of the ceiling. He was sensing the most minuscule things that had always escaped him.

Harper was perfectly aware of the way they were moving, the proximity of her warm body was comforting to him as he tried not to jump at the little things he was starting to see and hear. Ever since he had left MedDeck he had heard a kind of buzzing that was loud and very annoying, it had taken him awhile to realise that it was the sound of the electronic systems in Andromeda working. Trance had always made him feel something he had very rarely experienced in his life, she made him feel safe.

~And besides, if she was uncomfortable, she wouldn't be looking at me like that~ He referred to the way she was sneaking glances at him when she thought his attention diverted. It was actually kind of cute, and the look she was giving him was warm and sparkly, just like her. The contact between the two increased ever so slightly as they both decided they liked the feel of each other close to them.

All too soon, they arrived at their' destination and reluctantly parted as Harper went to get some food and Trance sat at a table. Harper returned with a small meal for Trance, three cans of Sparky cola and a huge plate filled with very unusual foods. Trance wasn't sure she recognised all of the stuff on Harper's plate and was tempted to run some of it by MedDeck before Harper ate anything poisonous, she supposed the food might have been left from one of the meals that the Andromeda hosted with some alien ambassadors.

Harper was eating with gusto, he was munching down foods that, when he thought about it, he would probably not have even touched two days ago.

"So, Trance, I've been thinking, if that machine was supposed to have 'evolved' me, then why is my body still changing? And why am having these strange dietary urges?" Harper said between mouthfuls, he opened a can of Sparky and downed it in one. Trance glanced at his meal and saw that he was almost finished, while hers' had been barely touched.

"I don't know. Maybe whatever went wrong with the machine also screwed up the sequence. That Doctor Jacobs…" Trance had an almost angry look on her face as she said that name. "didn't he say that the machine had evolved your body much further than they had intended? Maybe the machine 'evolved' your DNA that far but didn't have time to work on your body before they turned it off." Harper pondered this for a moment, before shrugging and finishing his meal in record time.

The two stood up and walked closely and silently to the ObsDeck. There was a brilliant view of the planet Tellaris below them. Harper sat down quietly against the wall, and after a moment's hesitation Trance sat next to him, her arms wrapped around her legs and her tail wrapped itself gently around his waist.The duo looked out at the planet in silence, quietly enjoying the view. A minute passed, then two before Harper spoke.

"Trance. What that machine did to me. It's not going to reversible, it's permanent. I know that you think that's just my own fear talking, but it will be true, I can feel it. So I don't want you to feel bad when you can't do anything, I want you to try and accept it." His voice was calm and his voice betrayed an utter certainty, he didn't look at her, but her head snapped to look at him.

"I want to help, Harper! You're shouldn't be talking like that!" Trance was almost in tears. She felt so helpless.

"You DO help me Trance. You make me feel so much better just being here. You have always been there for me, you make me feel safe. I don't like what is happening to me, but I know we can't change it. It's better I just try to deal with it, rather than fight it for no reason. You know what I'm saying is the truth." His voice was full of emotion.

Trance was shocked, despite his outgoing personality, Harper had always been very private about his emotions. His last sentence conveyed more emotion than Trance had heard from him in all the time she had known him.

"I know." She whispered quietly, Trance was very scared for him. Harper wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she leaned her head against him and closed her eyes.

"It's just, I've lost so much already, I couldn't bare the thought of loosing you." Trance spoke in a quiet, trembling voice.

Whereas before, Harper would have jumped on any tiny morsel of information about Trance, Harper just laid his head gently on hers and hugged her tighter.

"You're not going to loose me, Trance, and I'm not going to loose you either. Trust in that, I'll be here for you for as long as you'll have me." Harper spoke reassuringly, knowing that this would be difficult for them both. Trance was very rarely scared of anything, but he could tell that she was terrified right now. He thought perhaps she knew something else, but cast it aside. Even if she wasn't telling him something, he trusted her enough to know that there would be a good reason.

Strangely enough, Trance was comforted immeasurably by the simple statement. The events of the day were beginning to catch up with her. She was so tired, and he felt so warm and safe. She closed her eyes and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

Harper smiled slightly as he felt her fall asleep. Realising that he was just as tired as Trance, Harper relaxed and closed his eyes as well, following Trance into dreams.

A figure watched them silently from the corridor, he moved not at all and wore a dark cloak which covered his head and bathed it in shadow. He saw the two fall asleep and smiled.

~And so it begins~ He thought, before stepping backwards and disappearing from the Andromeda, leaving not a trace. Quietly, Harper stirred in his sleep.

Chapter 3

The next morning, Dylan, Rev, Tyr and Rommie returned from the surface. Dylan explained to a rather irate Beka that the Tellarians had insisted that they stay the night. After hearing this, Beka filled Rev, Tyr and Dylan in on what had happened to the to them during their' 'rescue mission'. Rommie, of course, had been informed by her ship-self upon arrival. They were all expressing their' concern, except Tyr who simply grunted and left. Beka had spent almost twenty minutes looking for the Neatzchean the previous evening, before she remembered that Tyr wasn't even on board. She had been understandably reluctant to admit to Andromeda that she had forgotten his whereabouts, so she had decided that she was just taking a walk before retiring to bed. Ah, the power of Human denial.

Beka knew Tyr well enough to know that what had happened to Harper made him cringe. To have your DNA re-written, to have all that you are torn apart would be one of the worst fate's that Tyr could imagine.

Rev had wanted to be alone, to pray for Harper's wellbeing, which left Dylan and Rommie with the unenviable task of confronting his best and only engineer over something this huge. After querying Andromeda about Harper's location, the two set off towards the ObsDeck.

When they arrived, they found Trance and Harper sound asleep and very comfortably wrapped around each other. Harper was lying against the wall, Trance was essentially curled up on his lap. Dylan made a mental note to talk to Harper about his relationship with Trance after they had resolved the current crisis. It would not be right for Harper to get closely involved with her; she was too young and naïve and he was, well, he was Harper.

Dylan was reluctant to wake up the obviously exhausted pair, and was about to lead Rommie out in silence when the aforementioned engineer's eyes snapped open and he looked toward the two. Looking down at the purple beauty that was soundly asleep on his chest, he gently shook her and said quietly.

"Trance. Trance, time to wake up. Come on sleepyhead, rise and shine."

"Wh..Wha..What? Is it time to get up already?" Trance woke up slowly, stretching cat-like to get the kinks out of her back before yawning, extricating her tail from around Harper's waist and standing up. Releasing her reluctantly, Harper stood up quietly with her, looking at Dylan and Rommie just inside the entrance.

"Hey boss, what's up?" Harper's voice was cheery, but there was an underlying tone that Rommie couldn't quite identify.

"We just got back from Tellaris, how do you feel?" Rommie spoke.

"I feel okay, well rested." Harper shot Trance a warm smile causing her to blush slightly.

"I want you to come to MedDeck with me now." Trance's voice was firm, she knew how stubborn Harper could be when it came to his health, to her surprise he just nodded and with an overly elaborate gesture he said.

"Lead the way, milady." Harper's accent incited a giggle from the purple girl, he always could make her laugh. Dylan and Rommie just stood in shocked silence, Harper was actually willing to go to MedDeck without any kicking/screaming/whining?

In truth, Harper had no desire to go to Medical again, but although he had tried to prepare Trance for it, she would have to understand the futility of the situation. He sighed mentally, she was a very smart girl, she would figure it out, and he would be there to support her when she realised what he instinctively knew. Trance took her work seriously and this was going to hit her hard. So, with his trademark grin plastered over his face, Harper wrapped his arm around Trance's shoulders and they to walked right passed a stunned Dylan and a suddenly overworked Rommie.

The two walked close, both had come to enjoy the warmth of each other's bodies, even if they weren't ready to admit it verbally yet. So they walked, Trance's tail possessively wrapped around Harper's waist, they moved with total familiarity.

When they arrived in MedDeck, Trance had Harper lie on one of the beds so she could scan him. He complied and was just lying down when Dylan and Rommie caught up with them. An amused look toward them later, Trance activated the scanner and passed it slowly over Harper's body.

Andromeda's hologram appeared next to her avatar, forcing Dylan to once again appreciate the differences between Rommie and Andromeda, and to be thankful for them.

"Trance, the scanner is picking up something very unusual."

"What?" Trance demanded.

"The energetic interference that Harper was generating last night has increased, by a factor of ten. I can't read anything at all, in fact the only way I know he is still there is the fact that thermal imaging can detect his body heat. Aside from that, the medical sensors are telling me he doesn't exist." Andromeda obviously didn't like this, she was used to being the all-seeing AI on board.

"Andromeda, is there any way we can get around the interference?" Dylan queried.

"No, I…Dylan, I'm detecting a forming slipstream opening 20 light-seconds away to starboard. I would suggest you get to command." Andromeda reported, before blinking out of existence.

"Trance, is Harper well enough to come to command?" Dylan needed to know if his engineer was able.

"I don't know, the sensors don't tell me anything, Dylan I don't think that we should…"

"Trance! I need to know now, is he or is he not able." Dylan was impatient.

"As far as I know, yes." Trance replied with reluctance.

"Then let's go."

The group walked quickly to command, where Tyr, Beka and Rev Bem were stationed.

"What have we got?" Dylan looked at Beka.

"A ship exited slipstream and is on an intercept course, they'll be here in less than two minutes." Beka reported

"Tyr, what kind of weapons and are they gunning for us?"

"I can't tell, the ship is of unknown configuration. However there are no detectable weapon locks, or any active sensors at all. Our weapons are ready though."

"Andromeda, scan the ship. What have we got?"

"The ship is approximately three times the size of one of my Slip Fighters. The ship appears to be organically based, but it is generating an interference pattern that I cannot scan through." The ships was silent for a moment, then she continued.

"Dylan, the interference is almost identical to the kind that Harper's body is putting off. There are minute differences in frequency, but otherwise the only difference is magnitude." Harper's head jerked up at that statement.

"Open a channel." Dylan said.

"Open."

"This is Captain Hunt of the Commonwealth starship 'Andromeda Ascendant', please respond." A second passed, then two.

"We are receiving a response. Audio transmission only." Andromeda said.

"Greetings. This is the 'Deva's Tear' to 'Andromeda Ascendant', we come in peace, our weapons are offline and we request a face to face meeting."

"'Deva's Tear', we are willing to meet in person, you may dock at any time, but we request that you come unarmed." Dylan replied.

"Understood 'Ascendant', we will gladly accept any conditions that you impose. We will dock momentarily. 'Deva's Tear' out." The comm line was cut.

"Open the hanger doors but maintain a weapons lock unless they try anything funny. Harper, Trance, Beka and Tyr come with me. They left the bridge and went to greet the visitor.

Once the 'Deva's Tear' had landed, the group waited for the visitor with mixed feelings.

Harper stood close and slightly in front of Trance, he was curious and more than a little scared, but her proximity calmed him somewhat. Trance, for her part, felt almost exactly the same as Harper, but for different reasons.

They all looked at the ship that had landed silently in front of them, it was a sleek, organic design that was deep blue and black and seemed to shimmer. The patterns of light that fell on its' surface were never still, it was eerie, yet beautiful in itself.

The group watched as a single figure disembarked the ship via a doorway they were sure was not there moments previously. The being that emerged was humanoid, and seemed to be dressed in a flowing black cloak. Nimbly it jumped the thirty feet to the floor, landing silently and gracefully. It spun and walked to them quickly, when it reached a distance of about ten feet it stopped.

"Welcome to the Andromeda, I am Dylan Hunt This is my first officer Beka Valentine, our weapon's officer Tyr Anasazi, Trance Gemini our medical officer and Harper, our engineer." Dylan introduced the crew, gesturing to each in turn.

The hooded figure looked slowly over the group, unseen eyes passed over them each in turn, before coming to rest upon Harper. The figure seemed to be looking him over. After a few seconds, it reached up to and lowered its' hood to reveal a striking Human. He had black hair and startling green eyes.

"Greetings." He bowed his head slightly.

"I am…" And from his mouth came a stream of totally unrecognisable sylables that seemed to flow unnaturally.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that." Dylan had be diplomatic here, many sentient species were very sensitive about the pronunciation of their' names.

"You are Human, are you not? It is understandable that you might find my name hard to pronounce. You may call me Alex'Rai" He smiled.

"May I ask why you are here?" Dylan was slightly uneasy around this man, he seemed strange, there was something about him that made him wary.

"Certainly. I am here to take your engineer with me."

Chapter 4

No sooner had the man finished speaking, did Tyr and Beka have their' weapons aimed at him. Dylan was wary, but considerably calmer than the other two. Harper was staring at the man, while Trance was holding his hand so tightly she was cutting off the circulation. She was scared he would leave her, he had promised to stay with her and he intended to keep his word. Harper squeezed her back to reassure her.

"I really don't think you're in any position to be making threats against my crew." Dylan's voice was as calm and nonchalant as ever, but it was clear that he was not happy.

Surprisingly, the man had not reacted to having weapons pointed at him at all, he was still staring at Harper. Although his demeanor had not changed at all, he was more than a little surprised by the sheer power he could see within Harper's aura.

~This one is powerful indeed~ Alex'Rai thought.

"Captain Hunt." He said at length, tearing his eyes from Harper to look at the High Guard.

"While my appearance mirrors yours somewhat, I wish to make something absolutely clear. I am not, nor have I ever been, Human. I choose to look Human simply because you find this form easier to understand and interact with, my kind are composed primarily of energy, and have the ability to assume different forms. We are called the Ul'Wath'Lei. Your name for my race is 'Homo Dominant', we are distant genetic cousins of yours. We are the stage in evolution the Human genus will be in approximately 300,000 years."

"300,000 years. How did you get here? Time travel?" Beka piped up, Alex'Rai looked at her, amused.

~Time travel!?! What a four-dimensional way of thinking~

"You are grossly oversimplifying the situation, I shall attempt to clarify it for you. Simply put, the Ul'Wath'Lei live on a plane separate to this one. Basic inter-planer physics mean that time and space warp between the Planes. On our home plane, your understanding of the space time continuum would not apply. Similarly, your existence here is almost completely alien to me. Please try to understand, further explanations would be pointless because, as a species, Humans do not possess the psychological capacity to comprehend Planer physics. Well, not without having a psychotic episode anyway."

"What do you want then?" Harper had a sick feeling he knew the answer to his query.

"Exactly as I said earlier, I am here to take you to our home plane."

"You keep saying 'our' home plane. You do know that Harper is Human, right?" Beka didn't like where this dialogue was going.

"No. Mr. Harper is not Human." Alex'Rai was adamant.

"As I am sure you are aware, Harper has been through an experience in which his genetic structure was significantly altered to resemble that of my species. This was not coincidental. A simple genetic sample can verify much of what I am saying, we allowed the 'Doctor' to find the equipment, we engineered the 'malfunction' which caused the spontaneous evolution of Mr. Harper. The machine was designed for this single task. Mr. Harper was turned from a Homo Sapiens, such as you, to a Homo Dominant, such as me. I was sent here to help him through the transition by taking him home." Alex'Rai finished.

"Your lying, his involvement was an accident, we didn't plan to be there." Beka said, her weapon not wavering in the slightest.

"Within the confines of this multiverse, there are no accidents, no coincidences, everything happens for a reason. There are those of my species who are capable of seeing into what you would call the future, we knew he would be there before any of this happened."

"Then why? Why change him into a 'Dominant'?" Beka was still having trouble accepting that her friend was no longer human.

"I don't know." Alex'Rai seemed less than pleased at having to reveal his ignorance, nevertheless, he continued.

"Our elders are the only members of our society who are capable of seeing through time with such accuracy. They did not see fit to inform me as to why he was worthy of this gift."

"Gift? You call this a gift! I KILLED a guy." Harper burst. Behind him, Trance moved infinitesimally closer to him and he was grateful to her.

"I see. And was this man threatening you or your friend's at the time?" Aex'Rai's voice was heavy.

Harper nodded.

"Then be at ease. The way you reacted was instinctive, our kind do not take kindly to being threatened. Unless we are in complete control of our emotions, we have been known to regress into a kind of highly evolved 'fight or flight' state, especially when we are as young as you."

"Young? I'm 24 years old" Harper protested. Alex'Rai had an amused glint in his eye.

"You are thinking like a Human. Our kind is somewhat longer-lived, among the Ul'Wath'Lei, I am considered a young adult." Harper wasn't sure how to take that 'thinking like a Human' comment, how else was he supposed to think?

"So, how old are you?" Harper asked.

"I am 415 of your 'years' old. The difference between us is that I am a born Ul'Wath'Lei, whereas you were turned into one. The genetic coding we implanted in the machine will cause much more rapid growth than is usual for our kind. When were you changed?"

"Yesterday." Harper didn't like where this was going, he had enough to deal with right now without more changes.

"Then you are a 'Kist'Arach', a youngling among us. Your body is about to undergo the change from youth to adulthood. This means that your hormonal levels are extremely high and your metabolism is in overdrive. This point is the most volatile and potentially dangerous stages of our life cycle. At home you would have other Ul'Wath'Lei to help you through the change." Alex'Rai explained.

"I'm not going anywhere." Harper's voice betrayed absolutely no compromise on that subject.

"I was not exaggerating, this is going to be a very difficult time for you. It would be wise for you to reconsider."

"I said, I'm staying here." Harper felt Trance move even closer to him, she was almost leaning against him, yet she seemed entirely unaware of it. Harper almost smiled.

"We can be a dangerous species, even more so when we are 'Kist'Arach'. But I see that I am not going to convince you of that."

"You? Dangerous? You were weak enough to place youself in a tactically inferior position." Tyr was as diplomatic as ever. Alex'Rai smiled, but there was a hint of something cold residing in his eyes that unsettled Tyr ever-so-slightly.

"Don't mistake my good nature for weakness, Nietzschean." Alex'Rai's demeanour had gone from friendly to dangerous in seconds. Dylan rushed to avoid a confrontation.

"Mr. Alex'Rai," His pronunciation was appalling. "I think you have a lot of explaining to do."

"I would be more than happy to explain this to you, but can we at least talk somewhere more comfortable? Without weapons pointed at me." He looked pointedly at Tyr's gauss rifle. Dylan thought about it for a moment, before nodding.

"Alright, you can stay aboard. But if you make so much as a threatening gesture toward this ship or any of my crew, I'll shoot you. Understood?"

Alex'Rai smiled and bowed his head again.

*

Alex'Rai had requested that he be allowed to speak to Harper privately for a time; although Trance was reluctant to release him, he had agreed and the two had moved to the ObsDeck.

"Andromeda. Engage privacy mode please." Harper called to thin air.

"Privacy mode engaged, authorisation Seamus Harper." Came the disembodied reply. After a moment, Harper turned to Alex'Rai.

"OK, give it to me straight. What do you want?" Harper's patience was wearing thin, he was inexplicably tired, cranky at having been woken up by Dylan earlier, and he was already missing his favourite purple company.

"I was sent to you by the Ul'Wath'Lei in order to help you through the coming transition. I had intended to take you home, but since that is not an option you are left with two choices."

"Which are?" Harper was still having trouble with this.

"One. I can simply leave. Eventually, you will go through the change naturally and, assuming you and your friends survive, I can return to teach you how to use your abilities."

"Or…"

"Two. I can give you the means to induce the change, and then teach you. This seems to me the more sensible option since you will have the benefit of your Sha'Lya's support."

"Shall-I-Ah what?"

"I apologise, I tend to slip into our language when the translation is hard. The word 'Sha'Lya means many things; 'Closest friend', 'Most trusted companion' and 'Beloved' all rolled into one. I believe that the Human term is 'Soul mate'. I am, of course, referring to your purple friend, Trace."

"Her name is Trance, and she is not my soul mate. She's just a friend." Even as Harper spoke, he felt a pang in his chest. Alex'Rai obviously didn't believe it any more than Harper did.

"I am very good at reading people, and although your denying it. You and I both know that she is far more than just a friend. Regardless, her presence would be invaluable to you during the transition, assuming she would be willing to help of course."

"So those are my choices. Either change later and maybe die. Or ask Trance's help to change sooner?"

"Essentially."

"That sucks. I guess it's not much of a choice. But I should talk to Trance first, get her support, y'know?"

"Of course. But don't delay long."

"Yes Sir captain Noclue." Harper gave a sarcastic salute and left.

Alex'Rai just sighed.

*

Harper walked quietly through Hydroponics. He knew Trance was in here somewhere, though how he knew was uncertain, but he couldn't seem to find her.

A shadow moved an iota in the periphery of his vision, Harper froze and looked there. Trance was sitting silently against a sturdy sapling with her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, her back to him. Harper slowly traversed the distance between them. As he got closer, he could hear he sobbing quietly into her knees. His heart wrenched in his chest as he came up behind her and sat down next to her.

Trance was startled as a form sat down beside her, she had not heard anyone approach, so she assumed it must be Harper. She quieted her tears, but kept her head down so that he would not see that she had been crying. Or worse, inquire as to why.

Instead of asking questions, Harper scooted close to her and slipped his arms around her shoulders, hugging her tightly to him. She burst into tears again and buried her head in his chest. Harper just held her as she cried, soaking the front of his T-shirt.

After a few minutes, Trance felt something wet and warm land on the back of her neck, it took her a second to realise that Harper was crying. She pulled back slightly to look into his blue eyes. He was indeed crying, this puzzled her enough to stifle her own tears momentarily.

"Why are you crying?" She asked him, her voice shaky. He looked at her with deep sincerity.

"Because you are." That admission shocked them both.

"I know what is going to happen, Harper. Your going away, your going to leave me. Just like everyone leaves me…"

"I'm not leaving Trance, I promised to stay with you and I will." He had not released his grip on her in the slightest, she had to understand that.

"Yes you will!" Her voice betrayed fear and anger. He stared into her eyes, his wordless denial angering her even more.

"You haven't got a choice, you are going to go with that man, you're going home. You'll leave with him and I'll be alone again…" Harper had to do something, she was rapidly becoming panicked.

Trance was cut off as Harper's lips descended onto hers, he kissed her passionately, but so very gently, as if he were afraid of scaring her away. For a moment, Trance froze, before closing her eyes and responding to him. The kiss lasted only seconds, but it rocked the two of them to the core. When it ended, the two separated only an inch.

"I love you, Trance. And I'm not going anywhere." There. He had said it, what happened now was up to her.

In his long life, Harper had seen things that would scare most people out of their' minds. But he could say, without a doubt, that this was the single most terrifying moment of his entire existence. Would she reject him? Run from him? Hit him?

A second passed, then two. Trance's face softened slightly and then she smiled, pulled him into a tight hug and whispered the most beautiful four words he had ever had the pleasure of hearing into his ear.

"I love you too."

The couple grinned, both incredible happy to be together, both scared of loosing each other, and both thinking how lucky they were to have someone so special as each other.

Chapter 5

Harper and Trance took a few moments to come back to reality, they had always been close friends but this was so much more than either of them had ever imagined. Once they had regained their' senses sufficiently to actually be able to form words, Harper was the first to speak.

"Trance, not that I'm not enjoying this, 'cause you know I love being this close to you, but there is some stuff you should know." Harper was hesitant to drop this on her right now, but he had the feeling that she would be able to help him.

So, at length, Harper explained to her what Alex'Rai had told him. With some trepidation, Harper decided to omit the 'soul-mate' discourse for the moment, he had no desire to pressure her any more than necessary. Tentative though he was to ask for Trance's help in this endeavour, he knew that to even attempt this without her help would likely prove impossible. He understood how much she loved him, he loved her exactly as much, there was no way she would let him do this alone.

True to his expectations, Trance immediately jumped to his side (figuratively speaking, given their' proximity) and was only too willing to help him with this. He was worried, or more accurately concerned, for her safety; but elated at how quick she was to stand with him. She made it all seem bearable, just as she always had, and for a moment Harper just looked at her. Appreciating her beauty for an endless instant, he felt that tingling sensation behind his eyes again, this time he didn't fight it.

The picture of Trance began to coalesce again, the jigsaw of memories and impressions incorporating Trance's relationship with him even down to the look she was giving him right now. This collage of information. Then, in a slightly dizzying fashion, the entire image 'shifted'; becoming clearer, each point become more and more perfect, until the whole became greater than the sum of it's parts. The sheer beauty of it was incredible to behold, just like her.

Reality reasserted itself, he was back in Hydroponics with Trance wrapped up in his arms. At that moment, even with all the pain and suffering that he felt was to come, he would be completely satisfied to stay with her for as long as he lived.

***

The Andromeda's newest couple found Alex'Rai on ObsDeck after spending a rather enjoyable hour just holding each other under a sapling in Hydroponics. Trance and Harper knew how concerned they should be of the challenge placed before them, neither had even considered how their' crewmates would react, but the pair had found themselves unable to remove the grins from their' faces.

Alex'Rai, perhaps understandably, thought they were being far too flippant about the task that lay ahead; yet he merely greeted them quietly and asked if they were ready. When they answered to the affirmative, the 415 year old Ul'Wath'Lei explained to them what to expect.

"When the transition occurs, your bodies will fall into a..." he looked at the purple girl sporting an ironic smile "...trance; during which Harper's growing bio-etheric energy will consume his physical body." Harper interrupted him with an inquiry.

"I'm not sure how comfortable I am having my body 'consumed' by anything, much less something I probably couldn't spell." Thinking for a second how simple the word 'magog' was.

"It is a necessary part of the process; try to understand that you will be comprised of energy, energy that can be focused by your thoughts. You will be able to maintain a physical form of whatever description you wish afterwards. Also, your mind will be enhanced greatly, as you rely less on physical bio-electrical neuro-cognitive functions, this is the second stage of the process."

"How 'advanced' do you mean."

~Will I still be me?~ Harper had no desire to lose who he was. Alex'Rai seemed to understand the unsaid question.

"Your core identity will remain the same, but your base intelligence as well as your data-processing capabilies will be increased by a factor of hundreds."

"Hundreds?!?" Trance said incredulously.

"My dear, due to the physical limitations of their' bodies, Human's use less than 10% of their' total brain capacity at any one time. Our 'brains' are not physical in nature, and as such are not hampered by such concerns. While this may sound like a massive leap forward, Harper will have the mental capacity equal to any Ul'Wath'Lei. This includes certain other abilities such as telempathy, telekinesis, and total recall. We do have a limited precognitive capability, but as you know Trance, predicting the future is almost entirely guesswork." Alex'Rai gave her a meaningful stare, before continuing with the lecture.

Harper wondered what he had meant by that, but once again his absolute trust in his Sha'Lya (he was warming to the term) overwhelmed any doubts he may have previously entertained about her motives. She would tell him when she was ready.

"The final phase of the change is the only one in which I may interact with you. I will impart a basic understanding and control of your faculties to you. It will be somewhat similar the way you download data through your dataport, as our minds will be closely meshed at the time. This is the reason I was sent to you, and this is the reason that it would be better to attempt this with me than without."

"How long will we be outside of our bodies?" Trance questioned, she had become somewhat quieter since the 'precognition' comment.

"Here? Not long, a few hours at most. But it will seem to us to be much longer, days or even weeks. Depending on how quickly Harper accepts the change."

"What about this" Harper taps his dataport once.

"That will be discarded along with the rest of your flesh and blood. However, you will still be able to interact with computer systems by using a similar method that I can teach you. Harper was unsure how to take this news. It had cost him a lot, financially and otherwise, to acquire his dataport. However, according to Alex'Rai (and Harper was beginning to trust him) he would retain his ability to interface with to Andromeda, which was definitely a good thing.

"Ok, let's get started." Harper had found that his confidence in himself was much improved when Trance was so close to him.

"Are you both totally sure?" Alex'Rai looked eager to begin.

Trance nodded, as did Harper.

"Alright then." Alex'Rai instructed them to sit down. The younger two sat cross-legged and close to each other, Trance's tail had once again found it's way around Harper's waist; his fingers gently brushed it once to signify that he approved. Trance gave a small smile, where she came from, this level of semi-public intimacy would be considered scandalous between long-bonded couples, and completely unforgivable in such a newly formed relationship. Once again Trance was thankful for the social largess permitted in this area of space, she enjoyed their contact immensely.

"Now. I want you to both close your eyes and try to clear your mind of any thoughts or feelings. Concentrate on your breathing." A few minutes of silence later, Harper felt a sensation not entirely unlike the buzzing behind his eyes. It grew louder, more forceful as the seconds ticked by until he was drowning in the sensation, then quite suddenly, it stopped and Harper was no longer sitting next to his soul-mate on the Andromeda.

He was standing in a place of endless white, distances were meaningless as without frame of reference, he span around several times, seeing nothing at all. He was just starting to panic when he heard a voice.

"Harper." He knew that voice, a beautiful lilting, laughing duclet voice. He smiled when he turned and saw Trance standing A few feet from him, Alex'Rai was several feet to her right. He walked quickly to her, standing comfortably close to her and turned to question the Ul'Wath'Lei standing before them.

"Where are we?"

"In your mind. Or at least, the anthropomorphic representation that you have subconsciously decided upon." He looked around with some humour. "Not feeling imaginative are we?"

"Hey, don't look at me. I'm not liking this place any more than you."

"I am looking at you, because this is YOUR MIND. It looks however you want, if you do not approve, change it."

"How?"

"All it takes is will, focus upon your goal. Try something small to begin with, visualise somewhere that you feel comfortable. A place that puts you at ease, then simply will it to happen."

Harper shook his head, before resigning himself to this ridiculous exercise. He closed his eyes and tried to think of somewhere he felt safe.

~The only time I feel safe is when I'm with Trance. So where would Trance feel safe?~ Unsurprisingly, Harper had a very good idea of the kind of environment Trance would find comforting. So, with great effort, he pictured a large garden. He pictured exactly the plants, in all their' colour and form. A clear blue sky above him and he pictured a flowing stream, not far from the group. Suddenly, he became distracted by an irritating sound, though try as he might, Harper couldn't recall when it had started.

His eyes snapped open and then widened noticeably as he took in his surroundings. The trio stood in a beautiful garden, where a moment ago there had been nothing. That distracting sound was running water close by. Trance was startled but delighted at the change of scenery, she suspected Harper's motive for this particular choice of locale, and was all the more grateful for it.

Alex'Rai looked decidedly impressed. He was again wary of the sheer depth of power that resided in this one. Few Kist'Arach were capable of this level of conscious control over their' thoughts.

"Very impressive." He said with a nod to a rather surprised Harper.

"Now, I will begin the process, but then I must leave you. My presence in your mind during the change would likely prove catastrophic to your forming psyche. Once it is over I will return. I suggest you prepare yourself as best you can; this part can be very unpleasant." Alex'Rai looked sorrowful, but determined, he disappeared from their' sight.

"You know, I am really beginning to dislike that guy." Harper said to no one in particular, before turning to a grinning Trance and kissing her gently on the lips. A short while later the two decided to wander the garden while they waited. They soon found themselves sitting comfortably on the bank of the stream, idly watching the flowing water.

"How long is this going to take, anyhow?" Said Harper once a few uneventful minutes had passed by. Trance could tell that he was using the illusion of impatience to set them both at ease, it was not an entirely successful attempt, but she was comforted none-the-less.

Suddenly Harper screamed and curled up into a ball, obviously the process was beginning, Trance was at a complete loss as to how she was supposed to help him. Terrified for his safety, she wrapped her arms around him and concentrated on his pain, trying to help in any way she could.

She could feel the scenery around them changing to reflect Harper's pain, a great-grandmother of a storm had sprung from where there had only been clear skies moments previously. Driving rain and a fierce wind pounded water into the pair as Harper continued to scream. His body was on fire, he could feel his bones melting and his blood boiling. The pain was too much, it was overwhelming.

Lightning crackled between the sheet of black clouds above them, thunder rolling over the two as they huddled together. Flashes of lightning created a strobe effect throughout the dark mass that hung above them, increasing in their frequency and intensity with each passing moment. The crackling bolts of energy whipped wildly about, seeming to coalesce directly above them, the flickering light illuminating the pair with quickening flashes. And then it all stopped, suddenly and without warning.

A complete stillness hung suspended in the air for a moment. But only for a moment.

Harper was rent by the explosive force of the single, unbelievable, bolt of lightning that plunged down from the heavens above. It was a strike of lightning such as had never been before, a thousand times more brilliant, more powerful, more terrifying than a single lightning bolt could ever hope to achieve.

A clap of thunder sounded as the bolt struck Harper's body hurling Trance away. Creating a rolling crack of sound that reverberated throughout the world.

Trance had instinctively flinched away from where the lightning had struck, her eyes shut against the blinding light and her hands clasped tight over her ringing ears. In a blind panic she turned back to her fallen love, where an amazing sight greeted her.

Seamus Zelazny Harper was no longer Human.

In his place floated a brilliant mass of energy, a white blur that her senses attempted and utterly failed to describe to her, several tendrils of the same bright white were gently swaying around it, probing the air surrounding it as the garden faded to an uncompromising black.

END PART 4