Notes: This started out as a writing project.  I somehow got hooked into the Andromeda Classic scriptwriting group that started up in the Slipstream BBS.  The project fell apart and everyone went their own way, but my plot idea was stuck in my head, it wouldn't go away.  I'd already written a dozen or so pages and I liked them so I carried on, adding little slashy bits since...well, I think Tyr and Harper are a cute couple.

I'd like to point out that this is not supposed to be one of the eps of the AC project.  I'm pretty sure no one else wrote a story where Tyr and Harper ended up in the sack.  Maybe one fifth of this was written for that script but the rest is all freestyle and it's all in fanfic format.  I dunno about you, but I hate reading script format.
 
 

The last of the supplies were trundled into Andromeda’s cargo bay 7. Harper checked the manifest and sighed with relief: he couldn’t wait to get away from Shantii’s drift. He’d gotten drunk a couple of days before and had woken up between a pair of high-G men and under a girl with more tattoos than visible skin. Harper was still wincing as he walked, and forget about sitting down.

Tyr was leaning over a box, lifting out one of the new weapons he’d bought. Privately Harper thought there was something wrong with the way Tyr’s guns kept getting bigger and bigger. The one he was lifting now was big enough to crush any opponents, let alone shoot them. Harper grinned and considered that the guns might be to compensate for the big guy not getting any in the sack recently.

That was definitely something else to keep firmly behind his teeth.

"Okay," Harper said, "Everything is accounted for. I’ll be glad to get the Hell away from here."

Tyr looked up. "Really, I thought you found the local party scene to your taste?"

"Huh?" Harper cringed, hoping Tyr hadn’t seen his ‘performance’ in one of Shantii’s sleazier bars. He had vague memories of stripping and dancing on a table with a girl in feathers, before crawling under it to blow her boyfriend.

"You were gone for two days and when you returned you smelled like stale alcohol and several types of sex. That is your preferred way to spend shore-leave isn’t it?"

Harper breathed a sigh of relief; Tyr hadn’t seen anything. "Yeah, but the beer here sucks and the liquor is murder on the stomach lining." Harper grinned and made his escape.

Tyr watched Harper go. He hadn’t missed the signs Harper was giving out: embarrassment. Whether it was his behaviour he was embarrassed about or Tyr knowing about it wasn’t clear; but Tyr had been a little surprised when he’d realised that, from the smell, Harper had had sex with at least five people in those two days and three of them had been men.

<><><><><>

Harper sauntered onto the command deck and smiled to see the ugly bulk of Shantii’s Drift receding in the viewscreen. As far as he was concerned the sooner they’d finished warning this area of space that they were directly in the path of a Magog invasion the better.

Beka smiled at him indulgently as he limped over to her. "Good shore leave?"

"I think so. I don’t remember much of it which is usually a good sign."

Beka laughed and then swore as a slipstream portal opened up right in front of them. A cargo transport hurtled into normal space.

"I’m receiving a transmission." Viewscreen Rommie said.

"Let’s see it," Dylan replied with a scowl.

The screen flickered to show a panic-stricken spacer yelling at them. "This is Adam Alvarez of the cargo ship Nocturne to all ships, drifts, planets…whatever. The Magog have taken down Jay’s Mining Colony two jumps out. They could be on their way here now. Get the Hell out of here while you still can. There’s nothing left of Jay except rubble and blood stains." The screen went blank.

"He’s gone back into slipstream." Holo-Rommie said.

"Damn!" Dylan cried, "I wanted to have a talk to him."

"Isn’t Jay one of the planets we visited last week?" Harper asked.

"Yes," Dylan said shortly. "Beka, plot us a course back there. Best possible speed."

Harper gaped. "Uh Dylan? You do realise that flying into Magog space is not a good idea don’t you?"

"Jay’s World is well outside Magog space and the colony there is barely 50,000 people. I’m betting that this was just a raid, not an attempt to expand Magog territory. Besides, if the Magog had still been there do you think that ship would have been able to get out?" Harper didn’t reply but left the command deck with a scowl on his face.

"Dylan?" Beka asked tentatively.

"Yes."

"This is the first time since…you know…that Harper has had to deal with hostile Magog remember. He’s bound to be a bit twitchy about it." Beka smiled carefully. "And he does have a point: you don’t know that the Magog just stopped in for supplies and moved on."

"The Spirit of the Abyss is re-building his World Ship. That’s his main priority now. To do that he needs more workers, to get more workers he needs something for them to breed in and eat. I don’t think he’s going to try to expand into known space until he’s at full strength."

Beka sighed, "I hope you’re right.

<><><><><>

The Andromeda jumped back into normal space and surveyed the damage. The remains of about a dozen cargo ships and their contents drifted in orbit around Jay’s World. Part of the planetary defence system passed them and as the terminator crossed the only inhabited area of the planet they could all see the scarring caused by first the mining operation and then the Magog attack. The atmosphere over that part was darkened also, as smoke and ash rose from the ruins.

"I’m detecting no ships in the area." Holo-Rommie said.

"What about the planet? Can you read any life signs?" Dylan asked.

"Not yet. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any. The survivors could be spread out or underground. I can do a more detailed scan once I’m in orbit."

"Good. We’ll need as much information as possible before we go down there."

"Down there? Are you crazy?" Beka jumped down from the slipstream console and strode over to Dylan. "We don’t know what’s down there."

"That’s why Rommie will scan first. Don’t worry Beka we’ll make sure it’s perfectly safe before we take the Maru down." Dylan smiled reassuringly and patted Beka on the shoulder.

"You’d better: because if there’s one scratch more on the Maru for this I’ll nail your hide over it."

<><><><><>

Beka piloted the Maru through the atmosphere, trying very hard not to be annoyed at Dylan leaning over her shoulder. She was still angry with Dylan for first making them come down here and second insisting that Harper had to come too.

"He has to come," Dylan had said. "If there’s any record of what happened down there he’s the best chance we have to access it."

"And how’s he going to react to seeing the aftermath of a Magog attack? He was a wreck for weeks after we met the World Ship."

"But this time there’s no Magog. He grew up on Earth; he’s seen this before."

"And that makes it okay?"

"You don’t need to protect him Beka. He’s not as fragile as you seem to think. If he was he’d never have survived this long."

Beka had her doubts but Harper had reacted to the news that they were going down to the planet with a scowl and a couple of bad jokes so she’d let it go. She wished she hadn’t when they touched down and she saw how pale Harper was.

"You okay Harper?"

"Fine." Harper said.

That wasn’t good, reflected Beka. Harper was only monosyllabic when something was bothering him.

"You don’t have to go out there you know. Dylan would understand if you had a problem with it."

"I’m fine." Harper pushed past her and walked over to the airlock and Dylan. "The main records building is about 500 yards away. I’ll check it out first; it’s our best chance of finding anything. I doubt if the Magog cared too much about covering their traces."

Dylan looked up. "Good, take Tyr with you."

Harper nodded and went to collect the weapons Tyr was handing out. "Looks like it’s you, me and the Magog again Tyr."

"There are no Magog left here Harper," Tyr said.

"We hope," Harper said as they made their way out of the Maru.

<><><><><>

The air was still and it was ominously quiet. It all made Harper very twitchy: it didn’t matter that it was quiet because Jay had no indigenous animal life. His Earth-born senses kept telling him that the lack of sound meant something was about to attack.

"You’re sure there are no Magog here?" Harper asked Tyr, hating the slight, but detectable, whine in his voice.

"I didn’t say that. The ship couldn’t detect any and I can’t sense any. There probably isn’t anything left on this rock, dead or alive but nothing is ever a sure thing."

"Thanks for the reassurance," Harper muttered.

They walked on in silence until they reached the records building. Harper had jumped at every shadow until Tyr had started growling. Harper was sure the surroundings of burnt-out buildings and the smell of blood and Magog were getting to Tyr. After all, Tyr had been infested with Magog eggs too. Harper kept forgetting that. Even with the eggs removed, Tyr had gone through the same trauma on the world ship as he had, Tyr must have been affected by it. Harper just hoped Tyr wasn’t as freaked out right now as he was.

The record building was set away from the rest of the town centre. It was trashed but was only partially burnt out. Harper found the mainframe with no problems and settled down to jack in.

"I’ll do another sweep. How long will you be?" Tyr asked.

"Dunno. It depends on what I find once I’m in there." Harper jacked into the system and slumped against the wall.

Tyr watched Harper for a few moments; he hated the idea of leaving your body so vulnerable as Harper did when his consciousness was in cyber-space. Anyone could just walk up to him and kill him. Tyr turned to re-check the building. He knew he hadn’t missed anything the first time but making sure comforted him somehow. He hated to admit it but he was fond of the annoying little kludge and would prefer not to have to explain to Dylan why he hadn’t protected him properly.

<><><><><>

Harper mentally winced as his consciousness rattled into the mangled mainframe.

"Shit, rough ride." Harper’s virtual form appeared, flickering in the unstable data-streams. Carefully making his way through the masses of corrupted files and the jagged edges of destroyed programs he finally found the visual records from the planetary defence system. In Harper’s opinion it was a piss-poor excuse for a defence: the damn thing had only got off three shots before being blown into confetti.

One of the benefits of his virtual body was it didn’t have the same nasty physiological response to the sight of numerous Magog swarm ships pouring out of slipstream as his flesh and blood one did. Harper studied the record: 73.19 minutes of the Magog approaching and then BOOM! Some sparkles and everything went black. Harper’s attention shifted to the planetary recordings. A general alert in the middle of the night, colonists rushing to either the mines or the pitifully small armoury and then the slaughter. Harper removed his consciousness from the visual database as soon as the Magog landed. He didn’t want to see that. Carefully he extracted records, making a mental note to warn Rommie about the damaged codes, as some of them could be dangerous to an unshielded AI.

Once he’d finished making records of all the relevant and undamaged data Harper wandered out of the building to look for Tyr. This part of the town didn’t seem so badly damaged as the rest, presumably because it was the business district and would have been mostly empty of people at that time of night. Harper shivered as he thought about what would be happening to those colonists who had survived the slaking of the Magog’s initial hunger.

Turning down an alleyway with his gun drawn, Harper’s attention was caught by a scrap of colourful cloth. Moving closer he dropped to his knees and moaned in horror. The scrap that had drawn his attention came from the skirt of a young girl, probably only 11 or 12 years old. Her legs were horribly burned and her stomach was swollen to grotesque proportions. Harper could see the outlines of the Magog larvae moving through the thin fabric of her tee shirt.

Harper scrabbled at his neck, pulling off his inhaler and holding it to her lips. He gazed into her pain-dulled eyes and tried to comfort her.

"Breathe this. It’ll help."

She stared up at him, no trace of comprehension in her eyes.

Harper pressed it more firmly to her lips and with a silent apology held her nose. The girl breathed in through her mouth. Harper smiled in triumph. "That will make the Magog dormant."

But it didn’t.

Harper was stroking her arm when he noticed the first bloom of blood appear in her tee shirt. At first he thought it was part of the picture, a unicorn racing through the clouds, but as it grew he realised it was the Magog tearing their way out. He looked down into the girl’s eyes and saw that she was now dead.

Harper was frozen watching the blood spread, there was less that he thought there should be until he remembered that the Magog inside would be drinking most of it. Finally, with a dreadful tearing noise the head of a Magog ripped through into the light.

Harper wasn’t aware of the gun in his hand but some instinct aimed it and began firing. Yelling at the top of his voice he fired pulse after pulse into the body. Not stopping even when all movement had ceased.

<><><><><>

Tyr was on the roof when he heard Harper screaming and the sound of gunfire. Sprinting down stairs and leaping over wreckage he followed the sounds. He turned into the alleyway Harper had found and saw Harper shooting, at close range, something unidentifiable. Tyr knew that whatever had spooked Harper had sent him into a panic and Harper in a panic was not predictable. Slowly Tyr moved into Harper’s line of sight and tried not to make any threatening moves.

Harper’s gun swung up to aim at Tyr.

"Whatever it was, it’s dead now," Tyr said gently.

Harper looked at Tyr, at his gun and down at the charred remains scattered around the alley. Harper dropped the gun and stood swaying, staring at the ground.

Tyr picked up the gun. "Did you get the records?" For a moment Tyr thought Harper wasn’t going to answer until he saw the slight nod. "Good, lets get back to the Maru." Harper didn’t resist as Tyr lead him back through the town. As they arrived at the Maru Dylan ran up.

"I heard gunfire. Are you both all right?"

"It was Harper shooting," Tyr said. "I don’t know at what: by the time I got there, there wasn’t much left."

"Harper, what were you shooting at?" Dylan asked.

Harper continued to stare at the ground, his face pale and sweaty.

"He hasn’t said anything since I found him."

Dylan swore. "Shit, he’s in shock. Get him back to Andromeda and take him to med-deck. We found some survivors in the mines and we’ll need Trance to stay here, some of the colonists are badly injured and can’t be moved. You’ll have to use the medical database to help him."

"I’m not a doctor, and I wouldn’t trust the ship to diagnose a cold," Tyr said, scowling.

"It’s the best we can do," Dylan said with a shrug. He placed one hand on Harper’s shoulder and squeezed. "It’s okay Harper. You’re going back to the Andromeda now."

Harper nodded and walked up the ramp.

Dylan turned back to Tyr. "As soon as Harper is settled I want the Maru back here. There are about twenty survivors and once Trance has patched up them up I want to move them to the Andromeda."

"Fine," Tyr said and entered the Maru.

<><><><><>

Harper was sitting curled up on the bed in his old cabin. His knees were under his chin and he had his arms wrapped around his legs. Tyr saw that Harper’s knuckles were white. Tyr was unsure of what to do so he left Harper there and took the Maru back to Andromeda. Once they were safely back on board Tyr returned to find Harper still in the same position, only shaking violently.

"Harper?"

"I gotta get these things out of me. I’m not going to die like that," Harper muttered.

"Good, you’re talking. That’s an improvement," Tyr said. Harper just scowled up at him. "You have to go to med-deck now."

"Fuck that."

"Dylan said you were in shock. I assume that needs to be treated."

"I’m outta the shock now. I’m in the shakes. Pretty soon it’ll be the manic, closely followed by the aggressive stage and then I’ll pick a fight, get laid or drunk and everything will be A-OK again. So fuck off and let me work through it."

Tyr decided that arguing with Harper was a waste of time and picked him up. Harper cursed a blue streak as Tyr slung him over his shoulder and headed for Medical, but Tyr ignored him. Harper’s shakes had slowed a little by the time Tyr deposited him on the nearest bio-bed.

Harper sat and scowled. "Fine, I’m here. What now Doctor Tyr? I have to tell you your bedside manner sucks. I can’t believe Dylan sent you to baby-sit me. Shouldn’t you be down on the surface doing your stoic-heroic thing?"

"I see the manic stage has set in." Tyr was both concerned and amused by the energy that seemed to radiate from Harper. It had set in so fast.

"Fuck you Tyr," Harper said, jumping down from the bed. "I’m fine. I’ll be even finer when I get the Hell out of here."

Holo-Rommie appeared behind Harper. "I recommend a sedative."

Harper yelped at the sound of her voice and jumped about a foot in the air. "Shit! Rommie, don’t do that. You’re not sticking me with anything. I don’t need a sedative."

One of the Marias walked over and handed a med-spray to Tyr.

"That should calm him down," Rommie said.

"No!" Harper took off towards the door. Tyr, however, was ready for this and grabbed Harper by his collar as he ran past. Harper choked and yelled as Tyr pressed the med-spray into Harper’s arm.

"Bastard." Harper yanked free and stumbled out of the door.

"It should knock him out for a couple of hours." Rommie said, "He needs natural sleep but I don’t think he’s going to get that any time soon." Her gaze went distant for a second. "He just passed out in the corridor."

"I’ll bring him back." Tyr turned to go.

"No, put him in his quarters. I can monitor him easily enough there and I’m going to be full of injured Magog victims soon. I don’t want Harper waking up to that."

Tyr nodded. "I have to take the Maru back down to the surface as soon as I’m done here."

"Fine, don’t worry about Harper: I’ll look after him."

Tyr grimaced; he wasn’t worried about Harper being alone on the ship. Except he was worried about Harper being alone on the ship. He was worried about Harper waking up alone. He was worried about Harper full stop. Not that he’d ever admit it, he thought as he picked Harper up off the deck-plate.

<><><><><>

Tyr dropped Harper onto his bed and looked around. Harper’s quarters weren’t as messy as he’d expected. Tyr, remembering the avatar’s complaints about Harper’s sloppiness, assumed that the ship had sent something in to clean up recently.

Bending over he removed Harper’s boots and set them on the floor. Looking down at Harper lying in an untidy mess on the bed, Tyr sighed and unbuckled Harper’s tool belt, fumbling with the unfamiliar fastenings. Tyr decided it would be easier to just pull off Harper pants instead of untangling them from the belt. Tyr pulled off Harper’s pants and then the shirt, leaving him in just a tee and boxers.

All of a sudden he didn’t want to leave. Harper looked so young and vulnerable, just like he had down on the planet when he’d jacked in. Tyr realised his reluctance to leave stemmed from his guilt at allowing Harper to wander off unprotected. If Tyr had stayed with him Harper wouldn’t have been in this state now. Tyr pulled the edge of the blanket over Harper and stared down at him.

Tyr cursed softly at himself and left the room to return to the planet below. There was work to be done.

<><><><><>

Harper was sure something was wrong. There was a panic filled moment when he wasn’t sure where he was, then he felt the familiar fabric of his blanket and realised he was in his own bed on board the Andromeda. His head felt full of glue, he couldn’t think straight and some instinct told him that he wasn’t going to like it when he did regain his memory of recent events.

The Magog! Harper leapt into a sitting position and screamed as something moved in the shadows.

"Hush. It’s me." Tyr moved into view.

His heart pounding with the shock, Harper stared at Tyr. "What are you doing here? " Harper thought for a moment, "What am I doing here?"

"You were in shock. The ship sedated you and I brought you here." Tyr sat down on the edge of the bed. "How are you now?"

Harper goggled at Tyr. A concerned Tyr? He must have woken up in an alternate universe. "I don’t know yet." Wait, he did know: he was majorly freaked out by what he’d seen….

The shakes set in again.

"Oh shit. That girl."

"What girl?" Tyr asked gently.

The words tumbled out, Harper barely registered when the shakes slowed and his mouth sped up. He wasn’t aware of Tyr’s hand on his shoulder as he spilled out all the gory details. "Crap Tyr, sorry about pulling the gun on you. I wasn’t really in a very good mental place when you showed up. I mean Niets aren’t as big a thing for me as Magog but hey, you guys are way up there in the top five y’know?

"I never saw anyone ripped open before." Harper unconsciously pressed closer to Tyr, who was rubbing Harper’s back. "I’ve seen people infested before but we always…y’know, killed them before the Magog got out. And I’ve seen after, if we didn’t get there in time. That’s not nice: there’s blood and gunk and ribs all over the place. I just never saw the ripping. I can still hear it. Thank god I’ll be dead already when that happens to me: it’s not a nice sound." Harper crammed a fist into his mouth to prevent himself from howling like a baby.

"You are not going to die." Tyr stated.

Harper growled, "Sure I am, we’re all going to die sooner or later. I just get the ‘sooner’ option, that’s all. That’s fine, I’ve outlived almost everyone I grew up with anyway. I’d hoped to go out with a bang…" Harper giggled, slightly hysterical. "But I suppose I am going to explode."

Tyr gripped Harper’s shoulders and shook him. "Listen to me, child, you are alive now and you’ll be alive tomorrow. Somehow you will find the way to remove the spawn."

"Harper gazed into Tyr’s eyes, "Then how come I feel like a piece of dead meat walking around wondering what’s about to hatch in me? I don’t feel alive." Suddenly Harper lunged forwards and kissed Tyr.

"I want to feel alive." Harper said when Tyr pulled back. Changing direction suddenly Harper asked, "How long was I out?"

"Four hours, I just got back with the survivors. You should rest, the ship said you need natural sleep." Tyr wasn’t sure what was going on but backed away slightly.

"Did you take my pants off?"

"I couldn’t separate them from your belt."

"Why were you taking my belt off?" Harper moved closer, something Tyr didn’t recognise in his eyes.

"You were asleep, it looked uncomfortable."

"Now you look uncomfortable. Can I take your pants off?" Harper scrambled onto Tyr, straddled his lap and kissed him again.

Tyr pushed Harper away and wondered why he wasn’t already in the corridor heading away from Harper's quarters. "Harper, what are you doing?"

"Trying to feel alive Tyr. I need to feel alive or I’m going to go crazy. Help me?"

Tyr felt Harper wriggling on his lap, hands under his shirt and was that…yes, that was an erection pressed against his stomach. "Harper, I can’t…Nietzscheans don’t…"

Harper was biting Tyr’s neck as Tyr floundered around trying to find some way to disengage Harper without hurting either his feelings or the parts of him that were currently wrapped around him.

"Crap." Harper replied, "Niets like ass as much as the next man. Probably more since the babes only put out to procreate." Harper laughed at Tyr’s expression. "Did I shock you? Well Hell, you were what? Twelve when your family died? I guess they’d given you the ‘it’s your job to attract a mate and save your seed to breed’ speech, but not the ‘but it’s okay to screw a little kludge ass if that’s all that’s available’ speech. Am I right? I probably know more about fucking Nietzscheans than you do."

Harper pushed his hips forwards and Tyr felt himself react to the friction as Harper kissed him again. Why wasn’t he pushing Harper off? Why was he getting aroused? Questions flew through Tyr’s head as he sat there and…enjoyed what Harper was doing to him?

"C’mon big guy, make me feel alive. I know you can do it. Make me scream for it." Harper humped against Tyr impatiently. "Tyr, fuck me, do it. What are you waiting for?"

Tyr suddenly remembered Harper’s words in the Maru, ‘I’ll pick a fight, get laid or drunk and everything will be A-OK again’. Tyr jumped to his feet, spilling Harper off his lap and back onto the bed. "Harper, you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s just a reaction to what happened down on the planet." Tyr strode towards the door. "Try to get some rest."

"What the fuck! Tyr, come back here." Harper leapt up and followed Tyr before realising he wasn’t dressed. By the time he’d pulled his pants back on Tyr had vanished. "Rommie, where’s Tyr?" He yelled.

"Harper, Tyr is right. You need to rest." Rommie appeared in miniature on his nightstand. "You aren’t thinking clearly right now."

Harper scowled, "Fuck off then. Privacy mode."

Rommie flickered out and Harper stalked around the room muttering to himself and throwing things around until he found an unopened bottle of whisky.

<><><><><>

Harper’s second awakening was much, much worse than the first. He was out of the bed and hunched over the toilet, throwing up everything he’d eaten over the last couple of days before he was completely conscious. Harper’s stomach was empty long before he stopped retching, the long, painful dry heaves leaving him shivering and weak on the floor.

Harper lay for a few minutes trying to remember why he’d gotten so drunk in the first place. The memories didn’t resurface until he’d crawled over to the sink and gulped down about a pint of water. Drinking so fast sent a sharp, stabbing pain through his stomach and for a moment he thought he was going to throw it all back up again. He curled around himself and waited it out; that was when he remembered the events of…last night?…yesterday morning?

Harper wasn’t sure when he’d asked Tyr to fuck him, no, not asked, begged, but he recalled it now in horrifying detail. He’d climbed all over Tyr and begged like a portside whore. Harper put his head in his hands and groaned.

"Ah, you’re awake. Good." Tyr stood in the doorway with his arms crossed. "Have you finished?"

"Finished what?" Harper croaked.

"The shock, the shakes, the mania and the passion for self-destruction?" Tyr waved one hand vaguely in the direction of the bedroom.

Harper cringed at the memory of what he’d done on the bed with Tyr. "Yeah, I’m done."

Tyr sniffed. "You need a shower."

"No…really?" Harper tried to stand and was surprised to find Tyr’s arm holding him up. Hot daggers of pain lanced behind his eyes and he bit his lip to stop a whimper from leaking out.

"Headache?"

"Uh huh."

"This should help." Tyr offered one of Trance’s med-sprays; "It’s an analgesic and anti pyretic. Although it may be a little late for the latter."

"Y’think?" Harper blinked and took the spray, the thumping eased but didn’t disappear: Trance didn’t agree with curing hangovers instantly. "What are you doing?" Harper struggled weakly as Tyr yanked his tee shirt off. "Ow, ears, be careful." Harper rubbed the side of his head and sat down beside the sink.

Tyr opened the door of the shower and turned it on. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"You need a shower." Tyr gestured at the open cubicle.

"I can shower myself you know. I’m not totally incapacitated."

Tyr grinned. "So you don’t want me to join you?"

Harper groaned and hid his face in his hands. "I’m never going to live that down am I?" Tyr just continued grinning as he left the room. "Crap! Just what I need: a Nietzschean with one of my embarrassing secrets." Harper got up slowly and stepped into the shower. Dialling it up as high as he could stand he let the pounding of the water wash away the smell of vomit and sweat.

Harper felt almost human when he exited the shower and wrapped himself in a huge fluffy towel. His stomach flipped over slightly as the smell of scrambled eggs wafted in from the main room. Unsure how his stomach would react to actually eating them, he sat down again and sipped some more water.

Tyr appeared in the doorway. "Good, you’re out. You haven’t eaten for over 24 hours, you need nourishment unless you want…" Tyr’s eyes flicked to Harper’s abdomen and he grimaced.

"...Unless I want the kids to join me for breakfast, right?" Harper scowled. "It’s okay to mention it; I’m not going to go back to the freak-show you saw last night. They’re there; they may or may not get out in the foreseeable future. Not talking about it isn’t going to change that any more than making bad jokes or passes at friends will.

"I’m not hungry anyway."

"You will eat," Tyr growled.

"I’ll grab something later. I gotta get to work." Harper stood up, glad that the thumping behind his eyes wasn’t visible.

"Dylan has relieved you of duty for the next 24 hours. Beka has put me in charge of making sure you eat. I don’t particularly want to tell her I failed. You will eat." Tyr put his hand on Harper’s shoulder and manoeuvred him out of the bathroom.

Harper winced as he saw the huge pile of toast and eggs in front of him. "Tyr I don’t normally eat this much in an entire day. I’m half your size and I sure as Hell don’t have a Nietzschean metabolism. There’s no way on Earth I’ll be able to eat all that."

Tyr sat down opposite him and folded his arms again, flaring his bone-spurs slightly. "Try."

Harper opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and started to eat. Strangely enough once he managed to swallow the first mouthful the rest was easy. Harper suddenly realised he was starving and succeeded in putting away over two thirds of the eggs. "Good stuff," Harper said, his mouth half full.

"Thank you." Tyr was still watching him carefully. Harper was finding it a little unnerving.

"You’re a pretty good cook huh?"

"It’s a convenient skill to have."

"Uh huh. I’m full now." Harper pushed the rest of the plate away. "Sorry, I’d eat the rest if I could; I just don’t normally eat a lot at once. I sort of snack feed most of the time."

"I’d noticed."

"Hell Tyr! Is there some reason why you’re doing this?"

"Doing what?" The corner of Tyr’s mouth drew up slightly in amusement.

"Looking after me? You brought me back here, undressed me and put me to bed. When I woke up and made a pass at you, you didn’t turn me into a greasy smear on the wall. You even cooked for me." Harper was still hungover and his head felt like it was full of rancid porridge. "And for the last ten minutes you’ve been watching me eat. No, not watching, staring. What’s up?"

"You shouldn’t have wandered off by yourself."

"I was looking for you."

"You should have waited for me where you were."

"If I’d done that there would have been a dozen or so Magog running loose on the planet down there." Harper sat back and crossed his arms.

Tyr sighed. "I should have kept a closer eye on you."

Harper was annoyed. "I’m not a kid you know! I’ve been looking after myself for 25 years with no help from Nietzscheans. You aren’t my babysitter." Harper regretted raising his voice: his stomach might be feeling better but his head was very sore.

Tyr sat in silence for a moment. "Was it true what you said last night?"

"Uh, about what?"

"About Nietzscheans and…sex?"

"Do Nietzscheans really have sex with kludges? Yes, they do. Well, the Drago Kasov on Earth do." Harper looked down at his plate and scowled. "Have I ever fucked a Nietzschean? Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to. Hell Tyr, I have eyes: Nietzscheans may be the bastards of the universe but they come in hot packaging."

Tyr snorted at that. "Is that all sex is to you? Something nice to look at while you…relieve your tensions?"

"Yeah, pretty much. So far anyway. It’s easier that way when people around you have a habit of dying. Best not to get too involved."

"And you’re happy like that?"

"Do you think we could discuss this when I’m not hungover? Not that talking about my sex life isn’t fascinating but my head hurts and I’d like to go back to sleep." A thought occurred to Harper, "Tyr, how did you get in here? I invoked privacy protocols last night."

Tyr had the grace to look a little guilty. "I had Dylan revoke them. We thought it would be a good idea to have the ship keep an eye on you."

"Oh. I’m going to go to bed now. Goodbye Tyr."

Tyr took the hint and got up. "We’re en-route back to Shantii’s Drift to drop off the survivors. We should arrive in about half an hour."

"Fine."

"You have no duty shift today, will you be going on-station?"

"No." Harper was sitting with his arms crossed glaring at Tyr.

Tyr picked up the remains of Harper’s meal and left.

Harper detoured to the bathroom to pick up some more painkillers, then climbed back into bed and tried to go back to sleep. Sleep was elusive though: Tyr’s protective behaviour was out of character. Or was it? Harper thought back and remembered a number of occasions where Tyr had looked out for him. They’d usually been in the middle of a battle and Harper had been too freaked out to notice but it was all coming back to him now.

Hot packaging…he thought as he drifted back to sleep.

<><><><><>

"How is he?" Dylan asked, moving into step with Tyr.

"Almost back to his usual self. Once the hangover fades I think you can expect him back at work."

"Did he eat?"

"Eventually, he complained that he wasn’t hungry and then ate about six eggs and half a loaf of bread."

Dylan laughed. "Good, could you and Rommie keep an eye on him for a few days? Beka, Trance and I are going to busy with the survivors for a while. They’re all fairly traumatised."

"How did they escape the Magog anyway?" Tyr asked

"The old mine workings. They got down to the lowest level and collapsed the roof behind them. Only the fastest survived, a lot of them feel guilty about leaving children and the injured behind."

"If they hadn’t they’d have died too."

"They know that but I don’t think it helps, survivor guilt is tough to fight."

"Yes, it is," Tyr said quietly.

Dylan blinked. "Oh." There was an uncomfortable pause. "So you don’t mind looking out for Harper?"

"I don’t mind, I wouldn’t be much use to the colonists. Telling them to ‘live with it’ probably doesn’t constitute good counselling for unmodified humans."

"Ah, no. I don’t think so. Did Harper manage to download any information from the defence network?"

"Yes, the data chips should still be in his tool belt."

"Good, Rommie should review the data as soon as possible."

"I assume that means you want me to go and get them?"

"If you would. We need to know how large the raiding force in this area is. Depending on the size we can hopefully predict where they’ll attack next and warn them."

"We warned the people here. It didn’t seem to do much good."

"I think more people will listen now we have proof the Magog are on the attack."

"Never underestimate how blind a person can be when they don’t want to see."

"Hmmm."

Rommie strode into view in front of them. "Captain, one of the survivors is asking for you. I think he may have some pertinent information."

"Thank you Rommie, I’ll be right there. Harper managed to get some recordings of the attack before the...incident, Tyr was just about to collect them, I’d like you to analyse the data for swarm size and where they might have slipstreamed from." Rommie nodded. "Tyr, I’ll talk to you later, I’ll need to brief you and Harper on some weapons modifications but it can wait until Harper’s back on his feet." Dylan walked off towards the med deck.

"I should have been given the data immediately," Rommie said, falling into step with Tyr.

"I don’t think Harper even remembered he had it."

"But you knew."

"I had more pressing things on my mind at the time."

"Like looking after Harper? You forgot about important tactical data because Harper was upset?"

"No!" Tyr was suddenly confused: that was what had happened. He scowled and marched off down the corridor, leaving Rommie to catch up.

Harper was asleep again when they got to his quarters. Tyr noticed that Harper’s fingers were twitching and a light sheen of sweat covered his skin. The smell of fresh sweat and adrenaline filled the cabin and Tyr debated whether or not to wake Harper up. He took a step towards the bed.

"I wouldn’t if I were you," Rommie said quietly from the doorway, "for Harper that’s a quiet restful sleep."

"He’s having a nightmare."

"No, he’s just having a bad dream. If he were having a nightmare it would be…louder. Trust me Tyr, I watch Harper sleep all the time and he never sleeps without a few bad dreams."

"Every night?"

"Yes. On the plus side, I don’t think he remembers them when he wakes up and it doesn’t seem to disturb his sleep cycle much. He is getting enough rest despite the dreams."

"How often does he have nightmares?"

"Before the Magog larvae, once or twice a week. Now…most nights."

Tyr crouched down and searched through the belt still lying on the floor where he’d dropped it the day before. Finding the chips he handed them to Rommie and left, carefully not looking at Harper sprawled on the bed whimpering slightly.

Rommie silently crossed the room and placed a light kiss on Harper’s forehead. "Sweet dreams Harper, try to think of something nice. Me and keg of beer perhaps?" Rommie smiled as she remembered Harper’s behaviour the night before. "Or maybe Tyr?"

Harper quietened a little as Rommie straightened up and moved towards the door. She wrapped her hand around the chips and accessed the data. Gasping in shock she stumbled out of the door and closed it behind herself. A stream of corrupted files and visual records dumped themselves into her matrix, overwriting subroutines and shorting out a dozen or so processors before she shut down her retrieval commands and dropped the chips.

"Ow." Rommie winced and ran a quick check on her systems to make sure nothing was irretrievably damaged. Nothing important seemed to be affected so she carried on with her duties and reminded herself to ask Harper to give her check up once he was feeling better.

<><><><><>

"Harper!" Beka was standing, hammering on the door to machine shop five. "I know you’re in there. Open the door!"

Rommie shimmered into sight; "The only people with access to machine shop five are Dylan and Harper."

Beka scowled. "Fine." She turned back to the door and yelled, "Harper, I’ve been patient: you can’t stay in there forever you know. It’s not healthy. You have ten minutes to get out of there and come find me. I’ll be on the Maru." Sending a black look Rommie’s way she marched off.

Rommie reappeared in machine shop five. "She has a point. You’ve been in here for the last twenty hours."

"I’m busy," Harper said shortly as he placed another completed nova bomb in its padded storage container.

"You’re not busy, busy is when you have a lot of work to do in a limited amount of time. You are making up work to fill time so you don’t have to think about what happened on the planet. If you want to distract yourself take some shore leave. We’ll be staying at Shantii’s Drift for another 48 hours."

"No thanks. Been there, done…everyone I think. And in case you hadn’t noticed everything I do is on a limited amount of time. Dylan needs nova bombs, the weapons need to be at full capacity and I need to figure out how to make that work." Harper waved at the schematics and parts for the half-built tesseract generator sitting on a bench at the far wall. "Who knows, maybe I might get one of the things on that list done before I become a dear departed dad."

"Harper, it’s not going to come to that. And there are other things that need to be done: the environmental systems are off by almost five percent, there’s a huge knot in the data stream between my avatar and my main AI, I need help decrypting the mess that used to be the Jay’s colony records and Beka is taking her temper out on Dylan, who already feels guilty about sending you down there in the first place. Please, just talk to Beka, get her to calm down and then get some rest. If you don’t I’ll override security protocols and send Tyr in here to put you to bed again." Rommie grinned.

Harper’s eyebrows rose and he looked reluctantly amused. "Tyr huh? Okay, I’ll talk to Beka and get some sleep, but the other stuff will have to wait."

"As long as you rest I can wait for everything else."

<><><><><>

"You’re going to get sick if you carry on like this you know." Beka was pacing up and down in the narrow confines of the Maru.

Harper sighed, "I’m fine Beka, I’m taking my meds. I’m eating properly, I can’t do much about the not sleeping well, but you can’t have everything. If I work until I’m exhausted I have a better chance of getting a full night’s sleep. If it makes you feel any better I even have Tyr forcing food down my throat and nagging me about my health. I’m fine."

Beka stopped and stared at him. "Tyr?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I didn’t think Tyr was the nurturing type."

"Yeah, well, we’ve been through a lot together over the last few months." Harper shrugged.

"What, you two are buddies now or something?"

"No…he just…looks out for me. I never really thought about it before."

Beka tilted her head and studied Harper for a moment. "You should."

"Yes Mom, anything else?"

"Go get some sleep."

"Not a problem right now." Harper yawned and made his way out of the Maru.

<><><><><>

Rommie felt…strange. That was the only way to describe it. Her diagnostics hadn’t picked up anything anomalous…but… "You’re sure there’s nothing wrong?" Rommie asked her core AI.

"As sure as I can be with all this interference in the link. Why hasn’t Harper fixed this yet?"

"He’s busy in machine shop five."

"I really think this takes priority over Nova bombs."

"He’s working on the tesseract generator."

"He needs to be working on the records from Jay’s. The data needs to be handled by something that won’t be hurt by the broken files. That requires wet ware."

"I know, and so does Harper. I’m sure he’ll get around to it."

Holo-Rommie flashed into view. "I just reminded him about it. He apologised and he’s on his way now."

Harper appeared at the door, Tyr in tow. "Hey there, sorry I didn’t get on this sooner. Data dump problems?"

"And problems with the avatar interface," Rommie replied as holo-Rommie and the main AI faded from view.

Tyr leaned against the doorframe and watched silently as Harper babbled about being busy and needing to get this done fast so he could get back to work. Tyr wondered if Harper even realised how that sounded: maintaining the ship was his work.

"Okay Rom-doll, I’m just going to purge the link and reset it. That should fix the problems between you and the Central core, then we can go and kick those records into shape."

"Fine, do you need me to do anything?"

"Nah, just lie back and think happy thoughts," Harper said as he sat on the floor and jacked in with a grin and a wince.

Tyr shifted uncomfortably as Harper slumped against the wall; there was no way he was ever going to get used to that. It brought back bad memories too. Tyr shook his head to rid himself of memories of Harper jacking into Jay’s records, Harper with a gun in his hand and a dead expression on his face…Harper asleep…

Tyr was about to leave when he noticed the avatar twitching. He wasn’t sure what was normal for it but he was sure uncontrolled limb movements weren’t usual. He stepped over to investigate when Harper jerked and screamed, ripped the sparking jack from his neck and passed out.

The lights went out and the Andromeda’s artificial gravity flickered. Tyr saw Rommie fall over but his attention was focused on Harper who was groaning and coming around.

"What the Hell?" Harper rubbed his neck and jumped to his feet. "Crap!" Harper opened a com-line to the command deck and said, "Dylan, there’s a virus in the main AI." Harper reached out and grabbed some diagnostic tools and knelt next to Rommie. "I think it’s Dragan. They must have got to Jay just before us and downloaded it into the records. I didn’t know it was there because I didn’t view the whole thing…I didn’t want to see the Magog in action. It must have uploaded to Rommie when she scanned the chip and it’s been hiding there waiting to get into the core memory."

Harper shut down the link before Dylan could answer and opened up an access port in Rommie’s side and made some adjustments. "Shit, this is my fault: I should have scanned that stuff before Rommie got anywhere near it. And I should have checked why there was a problem with the data flow between the memories. I think that was part of Rommie’s programming trying to keep the virus contained. Damn!"

"It’s not your fault," Tyr said.

"Yes. It is. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in me, me, me, this wouldn’t have happened."

Harper reached over for his jack and Tyr grabbed his hand. "You’re not going back in there?"

"Just into Rommie. I think that’s the key to getting this out of the main AI: this thing has been sitting in Rommie for three days. It’ll have left footprints all over the place trying to hide. I’ll get a better idea of what to expect when I go after whatever the Hell it is."

"Your neck is burned."

"I’ll live. See you soon." Harper flashed Tyr a quick grin and plugged back in.

Tyr caught Harper as he slumped over and held him carefully. Tyr decided that he wasn’t going to think of this as hugging…he was just making sure that he was close enough to help if there were any more problems with the virus. The fact that there was almost exactly nothing he could do to help if anything went wrong was not something he was going to waste time considering.

Dylan’s voice boomed over the com, "Tyr to command now! We have multiple enemy ships incoming."

Tyr cursed, gently laid Harper down on the floor and ran for command.

<><><><><>

Dylan swore as the image from the viewscreen faded. Another system shut down in a shower of sparks as Tyr entered the bridge. "Check weapons," Dylan said to Tyr as Beka wrestled with the piloting controls. Sounds of missiles impacting the hull shook the deck

"I’m losing control here," Beka said, "I don’t think we’ll be able to hold onto…anything much longer. Not that it matters since we can’t see where we’re going any more anyway."

"I wouldn’t be so sure about that." Harper’s voice came from the com system. "They left a huge mess in Rommie’s memory which was practically a blueprint on how to get rid of the virus and I’m stamping it out now. Targeting should be back right…about…now!" Tyr’s station flickered back to life. "And here come weapons. Am I good, or am I good?"

"Propulsion would be helpful," Beka said as the ship lurched to one side due to another impact.

Rommie appeared on the viewscreen. "Propulsion will be back on line in approximately 20 seconds."

"Too slow," Beka gasped as she checked the sensors, "there are five Dragan ships on the way that will be in range…well, they’re in range…and they’re firing."

"Countermeasures deployed," Tyr said calmly, "Drones launched."

"Yes!" Beka crowed as Andromeda’s defensive and offensive weaponry obliterated the incoming missiles and got to work on the Dragan vessels.

"Propulsion back on baby!" Harper said, "That was just too easy. The Dragans really don’t breed for brains do they?"

"Don’t get too cocky," Dylan growled, "I want to know how that virus got into Rommie’s systems."

"I’m sure the boy would have checked the data once he’d recovered from his shock on the planet. I believe you were the one that wanted the avatar to see the data immediately," Tyr said, as he launched another stream of missiles towards the retreating ships.

"The Drago-Kasov ships are going to slipstream, do you want to follow them?" Rommie asked from the screen.

"No, we have to make sure that virus really is out of the system."

"I’m on it boss." Harper’s voice drifted down, he sounded a little subdued. "On the upside the damage sustained to the hull is minimal and if the memory core checks out okay, we should be fine in a couple of hours. I’ll need to replace some wiring and stuff, that’s all."

"Fine," Dylan said, his attention returning to the sensors.

"If you don’t need me?" Tyr asked and left the room as Dylan nodded.

<><><><><>

Harper had left the floor and was now plugged into a wall socket. Tyr walked over and crouched in front of him. Hesitantly he reached out one hand and traced the line of Harper’s neck, feeling the light, rapid pulse under the skin. Tyr pulled back quickly as he felt Harper’s awareness return to his body.

Harper groaned and opened his eyes. "Uh, hi," he said, surprised as he saw Tyr in front of him. "I want you to know that I never fucked a Dragan for fun. I may have low standards but they’re just too damned inferior even for me."

Tyr’s laughter filled the room and echoed out into the corridor. "Glad to hear it," he said and pulled Harper into a rough hug. Afterwards neither of them was sure who had made the first move; their lips came together and it felt like the most natural thing in the universe. Harper moaned into Tyr’s mouth and Tyr took advantage of the slightly parted lips to flick his tongue lightly across Harper’s. Harper’s hands tightened in Tyr’s braids and Tyr slid his hands down to cup Harper’s ass.

They broke apart, breathless and a little shocked at the intensity of the kiss. "Wow," Harper breathed, "Where did that come from?"

"I have no idea." Tyr replied, squeezing Harper’s ass. Harper leaned forwards to kiss Tyr again when a muted thump drew their attention to Rommie lying on the floor behind them. She was moving jerkily and her eyes were unfocused.

Harper leapt off Tyr and rushed over. "Shit, Rommie…are you okay? Tyr, throw over that jack will you?"

"You’re not going back in are you?" Tyr scowled, "You just fought off a computer virus and I know you haven’t slept for twenty four hours, you need to rest."

Harper started at the commanding tone in Tyr’s voice and frowned. "Yes, I’m going back in. This is my mess and I’m going to fix it. Jack please."

"I’m not going to let you put your health at risk just so you can tinker with your toys. Your neck is burned and who knows what sort of damage was caused when that thing sparked."

"’Let me’? And what makes you think it’s your business what I do?" Harper said quietly.

"Harper…" Tyr said.

"No, really. Do you think because we kissed that gives you the right to order my life? I’m not your possession. I’m not interested in being the great Alpha Tyr’s mate, fuck toy or whatever the Hell you call your pets. I do what I want. Maybe what I want includes sex with you, but it definitely doesn’t involve you telling me what to do."

Tyr growled, threw over the jack and stalked out of the room.

<><><><><>

"Tell the boy he needs to rest." Tyr stood in front of Dylan with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

Dylan sighed, "Tyr, I know Harper needs to rest but we need to be sure the ship isn’t going to shut down again. As soon as the essential systems are checked out I’ll make sure he gets some sleep."

"He’s not working on the essential systems," Tyr shouted, "He’s trying to mend that avatar because he feels guilty. Guilt…towards a machine."

Beka slid down from the slipstream station and headed for the door; to Dylan she said, "I’ll talk to Harper, you calm Tyr down?"

"Good idea," Dylan said studying Tyr carefully. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"No."

"I know I asked you to keep an eye on Harper, but don’t you think you’re going a little overboard?"

"We’ll all suffer if he gets sick and the ship gets six new Magog crewmembers."

"And that’s all you’re worried about?"

"Of course."

"You and Harper have gone through a lot together since he was infested."

"We were both infested. And the fact that you keep throwing us into potentially lethal situations says more about your mental state than mine or Harper’s."

"Ah, well…"

"I don’t have time for this: I need to make sure the weapons systems are functioning correctly." Tyr turned his back on Dylan and walked out.

<><><><><>

Beka found Harper sitting next to Rommie, soldering something in her side, while he scanned the ship’s systems via his ‘awake’ interface.

"Want to tell me about it?" Beka sat down next to him.

"Nothing to tell."

"Like Hell, Seamus. You’re working yourself to death on the tesseract generator and whatever else you have stashed in machine shop five while ignoring the rest of your duties. The Harper I know would never have let something like this happen. And now Tyr is all wound up. What did you do to him?"

Harper sighed and laid down the soldering wand. "I kissed him. Or he kissed me. I suppose technically I kissed him first, but I wasn’t in my right mind at the time. And then just now he hugged me and…"

"You kissed Tyr? And you’re still alive. You kissed Tyr?"

"And then I freaked out and yelled at him."

"About the kissing?"

"No. Well, not directly. He said he wasn’t going to let me go back in to fix Rommie. Like he had a say in what I do." Harper shifted and pulled out the jack from his neck. "Just because I’m willing to have sex with the guy doesn’t mean I’m willing to let him make my decisions for me."

"Harper, if Dylan or I had said that what would your reaction have been?"

Harper sat and thought about it for a moment. "That’s different."

"How?"

"You’d just mean that you were worried about…ah shit!"

"Yeah. He wasn’t trying to assert his dominance over you; he was just worried. Like I am, like Dylan would be if he took his head out of his ass long enough to see what’s going on." Beka looked around her. "Is there anything here that you absolutely have to do right now?"

"I’ve checked the memory core and it’s clean. I’ll have to clean out some crap but that can wait, it’s partitioned off and can’t do any harm right now. There’s just Rommie…"

"Rommie can wait."

"But…"

"No buts, you get Trance to look at your neck and then you go to bed. And if you see Tyr on your way to bed, apologise."

Harper sat quietly, picking up and playing with the soldering wand. "Do you think I’m making a horrible mistake?"

"In what way?"

"Lusting after Tyr?"

"You’re asking me for dating advice?"

"Hmm, good point. But at least I know you date. As far as I can tell no one else on this ship does."

"Harper, I’ve flirted and made passes at Tyr and he’s never taken the slightest bit of notice. If you can get him to kiss you with little or no provocation I think you’re doing okay. As to the advisability of getting involved with another species…you’re going to have to work that out for yourself.

"Thanks." Harper smiled wryly.

"All part of the service. Now go see Trance about your neck."

<><><><><>

"Tyr?" Harper stood at the door to Tyr’s quarters. "Tyr…sorry okay? I was freaking out and I don’t have good judgement when it comes to Nietzscheans. Are you going to open the door?"

The door stayed firmly closed. Harper stared at it for a few moments before walking away.

Tyr stood on the other side, confused, annoyed and a little sad.

<><><><><>

"Ow! Oh shit…ow!"

Harper sucked down another dose from his inhaler, aware that one more would tip him over into unconsciousness. The pain in his guts intensified and he hunched over with a cry.

"Dammit, not now…" Harper looked over at the tesseract device he’d been working on almost non-stop for the last three weeks. He’d almost cracked it…so damn close. He was glad he’d made lots of notes: maybe Hohne and the others would be able to finish it so no one else would have to…

Hohne!

Harper was vaguely aware of Dylan and Trance standing over him with concerned expressions, but it wasn’t until the pain block kicked in that he realised he must have asked Dylan to take him to Sinti. Actually Dylan looked really freaked out.

"Hey, I’m feeling a lot better now. I should really get back to work," Harper said, sliding off the bed.

"No! No more working. I should have listened to Beka and Tyr about your overworking in machine shop five."

Harper scowled. "Dylan, right now the only thing that gives me even a chance of surviving to see next week is that tesseract generator. I need to make sure that Hohne gets all the latest calculations so we’re not playing catch-up when he gets here. Right now I don’t think overworking can make things any worse."

"Alright, but I want Tyr in there with you. Tyr does any fetching and carrying that needs to be done. And I know he’ll alert Trance if you get worse."

"Uh, not Tyr okay? How about Beka?" Harper said cautiously. "Tyr and I aren’t really talking at the moment."

Dylan raised his brows. "No?"

"My fault, I suppose. I screwed up a couple of weeks ago and haven’t had a chance to apologise properly yet."

"Well, this will be a perfect opportunity won’t it? A couple of weeks?"

Harper shifted uncomfortably. "I’ve been busy. And he hasn’t really been in a very receptive mood."

"Too busy for a couple of weeks?"

"It took a long time to get Rommie back in action. And she’s still not completely right."

"I don’t think the blue hair suits her either but it’s her choice."

"Do you know why she did it?"

"No."

"She told me that she wanted something about her appearance that was under her own control. She said that I’d made her to be like I wanted and that she’d rather look less attractive than be my fantasy-made-flesh."

"Ouch." Dylan winced.

"That’s not the Rommie I know. Ever since the Dragan virus she’s been different…more aggressive."

"Harper, she’s a warship. She’s supposed to be aggressive. I’m sure she’s fine. It’s you I’m worried about, are you going to let me send Tyr in to do your heavy lifting?"

Harper grimaced. "Fine, but I’m getting pretty tired of you assigning Tyr to be my minder. Just because I look weak and pathetic doesn’t mean I am. I’ve got the survival instinct of a Nietzschean, I had to or I wouldn’t be alive today."

Dylan smiled. "Noted."

<><><><><>

Harper was lightly linked to a small data recorder when Tyr arrived. Harper gave him a hesitant smile and continued running thin strips of super-conductive polymer through a scanner.

"This wasn’t my idea. Dylan thought I needed a keeper."

Tyr snorted and leaned against the wall. "Dylan isn’t usually that perceptive." Harper sighed and winced as a particularly vicious tug in his guts got past the pain block. Tyr frowned, "Is it bad?"

"What do you think? You know what it feels like to have these bastards chewing on your guts. Now imagine they’re four times the size."

"Ah."

"Actually, come to think of it, by now they’re probably five times the size." Harper ran a hand over his abdomen which, to Tyr’s eye, was slightly swollen. "They’re making a Hell of a mess down there. My stomach looks like raspberry ripple ice cream."

"You’re very calm about this."

"Yeah, well, I’ve had six months to get used to the idea haven’t I? Bring that bench over here would you?"

Tyr and Harper worked quietly beside each other, neither wanting to get tangled up in more emotional matters. Tyr made his excuses as soon as Hohne arrived on board; he’d realised with mounting horror that he could hear the larvae inside Harper. Tiny squeaks and sounds of movement; it was a relief to escape.

<><><><><>

Tyr entered his quarters and tossed his shirt to one side before making his way to the bathroom. He splashed cold water over his face and stared at his reflection in the mirror. "Pull yourself together man," he said, scowling, "becoming emotionally attached to a dead man…" Tyr dried his face and walked back to his bedroom.

Only his bedroom wasn’t there.

Tyr looked around in confusion and saw Harper, Hohne and the other one..Rekeeb or Reekeb or something similar. Tyr’s mind insisted on categorising him as ‘the sidekick’. Tyr’s first thought was that Harper was using his new technology to play one of his pranks. Tyr strode over and grabbed Harper by the back of his head. He ignored the soft tickle of Harper’s hair on the palm of his hand and the flushed nervous look on Harper’s face. Harper wasn’t lying about the disturbance not being caused by him: this close Tyr could read the minute fluctuations that betrayed a liar. The only signs that Harper was sending out were pain and desire-tinged nervousness.

The events of the next few hours seemed blurred, as if his perceptions were fractured as well as time and space. Tyr’s emotions too, seemed to be out of his control. The shock of seeing Trance, transformed and so much more sinister was nothing to the shock of hearing Harper volunteer to die so that the Perseid could live again. Anger, fear and frustration boiled inside him…how dare Harper sacrifice himself?

The relief that flowed through Tyr when Trance took the decision away from them all and removed Harper’s larvae was huge, enormous. Seeing those things come floating out of Harper was truly one of the happiest moments of his life.

Harper was free. Harper wasn’t going to die.
 

Part 2

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