Work Text:
REPLACEMENTS
by Jaime
Back on the Andromeda, finally. Beka yawned and began the trek to her quarters. Now that they were leaving Terazed - finally - she could finally think about a hot shower and her bed.
"Hey, Beka, wait up!"
Beka stopped in her tracks and waited for Harper to catch up to her. "What's up?"
"Did you just get back from the planet? What happened to the Triumvir?"
Beka started walking again, and Harper fell into step next to her. "She's under house arrest. It's quite the scene - the press is camped outside her house, waiting to record her every move. The government is arguing about what to do with her - some people want to lock her up and throw away the key, and some of them want to slap her wrist and send her on her merry way. I don't know what they'll end up doing."
Harper shrugged. "Well, can't blame the lady for trying. She nearly got them to join up."
"True."
When they reached Beka's quarters, she gestured for Harper to follow her in. "Thanks, boss," he muttered.
"So," she said, watching as he sank down into a chair, "what's on your mind?"
"What?"
"You don't chase me down unless you have something to say. What's up?"
He sighed. "Well . those High Guard dudes were pretty impressive."
"Yes, they were," Beka agreed, grinning.
"I'm not talking about that, oh lecherous one."
"Hey, don't act all innocent, I heard you talking about the Triumvir."
"Shut up. I'm trying to be serious here."
Beka raised an eyebrow and suppressed a grin. "Okay, serious. I can do serious."
"Anyway," Harper continued, "Dylan and Rommie were really impressed with the High Guard forces."
"Well, yeah, of course they were. It must have felt like old home week for them."
"That's my point."
"Huh?"
"Think about it. We might have lucked out, you know, with the Triumvir getting caught, and even with the Commonwealth getting voted down."
"How do you figure?" Beka asked, eyes narrowing.
"Beka, what if Dylan could have a real High Guard crew around? Would he even need us?"
Beka blinked. After a pause, she shook her head. "You're being paranoid, Seamus."
"Am I? Really?" He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "When I'm not actually fixing something around here, Rommie would prefer to toss me out the airlock rather than have a conversation with me."
"That's because you're obnoxious."
"That's beside the point. Or, maybe it is the point. I don't know." Harper expelled a loud breath. "What if she could have a real High Guard engineer around? Would she need me any more?"
"Oh, Harper ."
"I'm serious! I mean, what about you, even? What if Dylan decided he wanted a first officer who could set foot on a planet without checking the police blotter for her name on an arrest warrant?"
"Thanks ever so much for the vote of confidence," she grumbled.
"Come on, think about it. You know I'm you eternal slave, but Dylan, maybe not. We don't resemble High Guard officers at all."
"That hasn't bothered Dylan before . um, much."
"He didn't have a real crew to compare us to before."
Beka was silent for a moment. "What, you think he'd just say 'sorry guys, the job's been filled, it's been nice knowing you, have fun out there on you own'?"
"I would. You know, if I was him."
"Yes, but you're a nasty little bugger."
"Thank you."
"Wasn't a compliment."
"Sure it was."
"You have a warped sense of self worth," she said, grinning again.
"You know, there's an old Earth saying, something about a pot and a kettle and both of them being black ."
"What the hell? Honestly, where do you get some of this stuff?"
"It means that you have no room to talk about a warped sense of self."
"Oh." She tossed a pillow at him.
Harper caught the pillow and smiled, but then allowed the grin to fade away. "You're distracting me. You're not taking me seriously, are you?"
"Calm down. Personally, I think you're letting your imagination run away with you. Besides, Terazed voted against Dylan, so we have no more men in High Guard uniforms in our future. Unfortunately," she sighed.
"You don't think that Dylan would jump at the chance to have the whole ship manned by High Guard officers? To not have to worry about what his crew is plotting behind his back?"
"We're not plotting behind his back?"
"We're not?"
"Not much."
Harper turned towards the door, then turned back to Beka. "You know, much as I love the Maru, the idea of spending what could be my final days tooling around, looking for work, doesn't really rank on my list of 'things to do before my guts are ripped open by fuzzy monsters.' So, maybe I'm glad that we didn't recruit Terazed, if it means I get to keep my job a little while longer."
Beka didn't have a response. Even after Harper had left the room, she stared at the closed door. He was paranoid, she told herself. He always did have an overactive imagination, as well as a tendency to believe conspiracy theories.
Still, when she finally laid in her bed, the image of a High Guard officer, standing at attention in full dress uniform, wasn't as pleasant a dream as she'd first imagined it to be.
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