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Alternity - Chapter 10
Revelations
Location: Andromeda AscendantThe slip fighter that Beka had damaged with the mines was drifting helplessly in space, its engines destroyed. Given the choice of a slow death by asphyxiation or capture, the pilot had surrendered. He and the damaged craft were taken on board Andromeda. Dylan and a pair of Maria bots equipped with force lances quickly escorted the pilot to V deck and the brig. Andromeda began to analyze the craft for any clues as to its origins while Trance waited in the hanger bay for the arrival of the Maru and her husband.
As soon as Harper stepped off the Maru he was attacked by a purple whirlwind. Seeing her husband safe and in one piece, Trance cried "Harper" and launched herself at him, wrapping her arms, legs, and tail around him. The impact knocked most of the air out of Harper's lungs and what little air remained quickly got lost as she kissed him. Harper was beginning to return the kiss with equal fervor when there was a throat clearing noise from behind him.
"Ahem, when you two come up for air Andromeda has something she wants to tell you."
The two somewhat reluctantly disentangled themselves from each other and looked around to see Beka and the holographic image of Andromeda watching them grins on both their faces.
"Err, what is it Andromeda?" Harper asked after he got his breath back.
The holograms face became serious. "It concerns the pirate vessel that we captured. I compared the emission signature of its fire control radar to the emissions recorded by the Maru's ESM suite when you were attacked in this system nearly a year ago. The signatures are identical."
"He's one of the same sons of bitches that shot us up the last time," stated Beka. There was a cold fury in her voice.
"Are you certain, Andromeda?" asked Trance.
"The chance of a duplicate emission pattern is less than one in ten billion. Additionally there was one missile remaining in its portside ELS tube. The missile contains traces of Ulanium and Hyduron I found traces of the same in the residue from the missile that hit the Maru's engineering section when we first met and in the same identical ratios. It is the same craft."
A look of concentration came over Trance's face, as if she was trying and failing to remember something. Seeing the puzzled look on Trance's face Andromeda explained. "Ulanium and hyduron are stable isotopes of unbihexium and biniloctium and are only found naturally on objects that have been exposed to intense amounts of radiation. such as the rare asteroids found orbiting pulsars. They are virtually impossible to manufacture. Given that the ratios of the two isotopes were identical in both instances and the rarity of the elements the odds that they were obtained from separate sources is infinitesimal."
"I think," said Harper, "that maybe we should pay our new guest a visit."
Andromeda's core self decided she needed to put in a word. "Harper, I know how you feel. This is one of the people who attacked your family and nearly killed you, but I'm not going to let you exact revenge."
"We'll all go," said Dylan. He had just come up to the hanger deck to welcome his crew members back and had overheard the last part of the conversation.
When they reached Andromeda's brig, Harper astounded everyone by smiling and saying to the prisoner, "Hello Steven. How is Mr. Howard?"
"Do you know this person?" queried the dumbfounded Dylan.
"Steven I and go back a ways. Don't we Steven?"
Nine months ago in the warehouse district of Sinti IV
"Are you sure Mr. Harper? One percent of ten million thrones is a great deal of money. "
"I agree you are offering a great deal of money, Mr. Howard, but I am afraid that I'm not the man you need. "
"It's not a matter of money, Mr. Howard. I simply have no interest in the job; I have other obligations at the present. I can give you the names and contact procedures for three individuals who would fit your needs. I know that they are all currently active."
"I have certain contacts myself, Mr. Harper, but time is of the essence here and none of them are currently here on Sinti IV, you are. "
"I'm sorry, Mr. Howard, but I am not the man you are looking for. Now if you will excuse me I need to get back to my ship. I can find my own way back, thank you."
"Well if that is the way you feel, Mr. Harper, I'm sorry we couldn't do business. I will attempt to make other arrangements. Hopefully they can be made in time. Steven, please give Mr. Harper his pistol back and escort him to the exit. "
Harper brought himself back to the present and gave the others a quick summary of his meeting with Mr. Howard. As he talked the expression on Beka's changed from puzzlement to a mixture of contempt and fury. She began to berate her engineer, her voice growing louder as she spoke until she was no longer speaking but screaming.
"Harper, you betrayed us. Your activities led those pirates onto us and nearly got us all killed. It was all because of you that the Maru was nearly turned into scrap metal. Trance should have left you to die in the passageway, or better yet, I wish you hadn't gotten out of the engineering compartment in time and spent the last moments of your life trying to breathe vacuum."
She spun on her heel and walked out of the brig. Harper's instinct was to run after her and attempt to explain why he had done what he had done, but he knew that she wouldn't listen. He took a minute to blink back the tears that were starting to form; he feared he had just lost another family member. After getting himself under control, Harper turned to the prisoner. He couldn't undo the mistakes he had made, and might never regain Beka's trust and affection, but he could insure that this particular band of pirates never threatened his family or anyone else again.
"I think Steven is going to have a great deal to tell us about himself and a certain Mr. Howard. You are going to tell us, aren't you Steven."
"What makes you think I'm going to tell you anything?"
Harper got a thoughtful look on his face. "I was raised on Earth. I'm sure you've heard of Earth, Steven, it's one of the Nietzschean Drago-Kazov pride's conquests. One day when I was about fourteen, one of the men in the refugee camp I was living in took a swing at one of our overlords. The Ubers decided to make an example of him. They strung him up between a pair of posts and skinned him alive. They made everyone in the camp over the age of twelve watch as they removed the skin from his body. Done properly, it takes quite a while for a person to die. I watched how they did it. I think you are going to tell us if for no other reason than so that I will kill you quickly and end your pain."
Trance and the prisoner looked at Harper in horror. Trance's normally lilac skin coloring had paled to a faint mauve.
"You're not going to let him do that to me," asked the prisoner.
"Oh I don't know," replied Dylan. "Sometimes a captain has to do things to keep the crew happy, and they do have a legitimate grievance against you. Mr. Harper, I'm afraid you'll have to construct a torture rack since we don't have one handy. Why don't you construct it here where our guest can watch. I'm sure he'll find the construction techniques fascinating Call me when it's done. Trance, why don't we leave Mr. Harper to his work?" He ushered Trance out of the brig, leaving a smiling Harper and a horrified Steven behind.
The minute they were out of the brig, Andromeda's holographic image popped into view. "I absolutely forbid this."
"You can't let him go through with this," entreated Trance. "If you let him do this it will destroy him."
"Oh I have no intention of letting him carry through his threats," Dylan reassured them both. "But I don't see any reason we can't let our prisoner think that I will."
"So you're going to be the good policeman to Harper's bad one," said a relieved Andromeda.
"Exactly," said Dylan. "In the meantime, Trance, you and I are going to go to the mess deck and have a cup of coffee while we wait to see if our guest is going to crack. And while we're waiting you're going to tell me everything you know about your husband's extracurricular activities."
About an hour later, Harper's voice came over the ship's general announcing system. "Boss, our guest would like to have a chat with you."
Leaving Trance to put away the coffee cups and plates, Dylan hurried down to 'V' deck. Harper was working on the torture rack, humming as he used his nanowelder to burn holes in a piece of pipe.
"I understand you want to speak with me," he said to the prisoner.
"I do, but alone."
"Hmm. All right. Mr. Harper, why don't you take a break. But don't go too far. If our friend decides to be uncooperative I'll need you to resume your work."
As soon as Harper had left, Dylan turned to the prisoner.
"Now, unless you want my engineer to finish his work, I suggest you tell me all about your organization, how big it is, where it is headquartered, who runs it, and who this Mr. Howard is."
The prisoner started to speak, then he clutched his chest. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he staggered, then collapsed onto the deck of his cell.
Dylan triggered the ship wide announcing system. "Andromeda, Trance, V deck medical emergency possible cardiac arrest."
Trance and a pair of Maria bots carrying resuscitation equipment arrived within minutes, but by then Dylan knew that it would be too late. Apparently the organization that the late Steven worked for took precautions to insure that underlings did not betray the members of its inner circle.
Harper arrived at V deck just as the bots were carrying the body to Andromeda's sickbay where hopefully Trance, with the help of Andromeda, would be able to determine exactly what caused the death of their prisoner.
"Well, Mr. Harper, it's never easy is it? I guess we will have to do this the old fashioned way."
"Yeah Boss, I guess a trip to Sinti IV is in order."
"Tell me, Harper, what would you have done if our prisoner hadn't cracked."
"You really don't want to know, Boss."
"Vengeance isn't an admirable trait."
"Not vengeance, it would be about sending a message. He didn't just threaten me, he threatened my family, Beka, Trance, Aurora. Nobody threatens my family, nobody."
Dylan decided not to pursue the subject any further, reminding himself that by the standards to which he had been raised, his crew had been raised by wolves.
That night as Trance and Harper lay together in their bed.
"Harper, I know what you're doing in engineering workshop five. Do you think you're doing the right thing?"
"I don't know babe. I really don't. What do you think?"
"I don't know either."
"I should have told her, shouldn't I?"
"Hmm? Told who? "
"Beka, About what I was doing to bring in extra cash."
"Why didn't you?"
"I was afraid she would have told me to stop, and we needed the money and the parts. And because I didn't, I nearly got you all killed. I don't think it was an accident that one of Mr. Howard's boys was in on the attack on the Maru." He paused, then continued. "Do you think she'll ever forgive me for what I did?"
"In time. In time."
In another stateroom, Beka was lying awake staring at the ceiling and berating herself. She had suspected, no known, that Harper was involved in something illegal. Money for repair and replacement parts didn't just magically appear out of thin air, but she had turned her head the other way. They had needed the money too much. Had she stopped him, the attack on the Maru most likely would never have happened. She wanted to blame him for the entire episode but she couldn't. A captain was responsible for what happened on her ship, and she had knowingly let Harper commit criminal acts for her benefit. She was as much to blame as he was.
Dylan was also awake. He wasn't thinking about right or wrong, but about Harper and his comments. The captain of the Andromeda suspected that some day the Drago-Kazov pride that controlled Earth was going to find out to their dismay that while their Earthling subjects made poor slaves, they were excellent students.
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