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Oops! - Chapter 7
Time: CY 10086 - AD Nov 5163Location Holyoke spaceport
The floor of the bar was covered with sawdust, and spilled drinks. The air was so smoke filled that it made Beka's eyes water, while the smell of urine and vomit drifted out of the bar's bathroom and assailed hers nose, . She couldn't for the life of her remember how they managed to end up in this place, it was a dive even by her admittedly low standards. The noise from the bad, very bad, band in to back of the bar, the clack of the pool balls on the ancient pool table and the cursing and laughter of the men shooting pool made conversation almost impossible, but Beka didn't need to hear to see trouble brewing. It was time to collect her crew and leave.
"You'd better get Trance, Harper" said Beka., nearly shouting to be heard over the din. "It looks like she might be getting in over her head."
Harper glanced in the direction Beka had indicated to see Trance at the bar, a drink in hand, standing beside a large and well muscled man. She had her hand on his arm and was laughing at something or other he had just told her. Harper' s instincts immediately classified the man as 'predator', and from the way he was looking at Trance his intentions towards the girl couldn't have been more clear if he was carrying a sign reading 'rake.'
"Yeah, you're right," said Harper as he got up from the table and began to walk towards the couple at the bar
"Hello, Harper," said Trance as Harper approached the bar. "Spook says that he wants a me to give him a piece of tail. Do you think I should give him some? I've never had anyone ask me for a piece of tail before." From the slur in her voice and the unfocused look in her eyes Harper was surprised she was still vertical.
"No, Trance," said Harper trying to maneuver himself between Trance and the man. "I don't think you should give him a piece of tail. In fact I think that you should be coming along with Beka and me back to the Maru."
"Back off, Bub," said the man Trance had referred to as Spook giving Harper a menacing look "If the lady wants to stay with me, she stays with me."
"It's just a piece of tail, Harper. I bet I could spare a little," argued Trance.
"No, Trance, you can't," said Harper deliberately ignoring Spook. "It's time to go back to the Maru." He reached out an arm and began to guide her away from the bar.
Trance pouted prettily and resisted for a moment then began to follow his lead. "I guess you won't be getting any tail after all," she said apologetically to Spook as she began to follow Harper to the table where Beka had been carefully watching the drama unfold.
"I said she's staying with me," said Spook as he launched a punch at Harper's head that had it connected squarely very likely would have killed the Maru's engineer.
Fortunately for Harper he had been suspecting something of the sort and wasn't caught by surprise. Unfortunately though, Spook was uncommonly quick for a man his size. Harper wasn't able to completely evade the punch, but he was able to roll with it. Still the force of the blow was strong enough to send him reeling into the pool table. As Spook moved in to finish what he had started, Harper snatched a pool cue from the hands of one of the players and rammed one end of it into Spook's abdomen just under 'V' of the breastbone. As Spook gasped for breath Harper brought the stick around striking him alongside the head with enough force to break the cue. Spook went down as if he had been pole axed. The big man was down but not completely out. He shook his head and then started to get to his knees, only to be put down again as Harper delivered vicious kick to his head. Spook went down again, and this time he stayed down.
"Keep your filthy hands off Trance." said Harper emphasizing his words with one last kick to the unconscious mans ribs.
A couple of other men, perhaps friends of the unconscious Spook began to close in on Harper only to stop short as Beka drew her Gauss pistol. "We're leaving now," she said directing her words to all the bar patrons and not just the two that had threatened Harper. "So far everyone is still breathing. If no one follows us everyone will continue to do so. When lover boy there wakes up let him know that you really can loose your head over a piece of tail."
Location the Andromeda Ascendant
"I can't believe you said that about loosing his head over a piece of tail," said Andromeda."I take it Trance and Harper were in the process of becoming a pair when the fight happened."
"Pretty much," said Beka. "A couple of months later they were sharing the same bunk."
"I sometimes forget just how dangerous Harper really is," said Andromeda. "He's such a disorganized person most of the time it's easy to forget how deadly he can be when he wants to be."
"There's something else the two of you are forgetting," said Andromeda's core self as she manifested herself on the mess deck viewscreen. She was wearing the vaguely disapproving expression she normally wore whenever she saw her sister/self having a woman to woman talk with Beka.
"What's that?" asked Beka.
"The infant," said Andromeda's core self. "Trance and Harper are two entirely different species.. From the questions Trance once asked me about the term blue blood I think I can safely assume that her blood is blue."
"It is," agreed Beka. "She cut herself a time or two on the Maru. It's blue"
"Which means it's probably based on hemocyanin," continued Andromeda's core self. "The chance that their genetics are similar enough for them to produce a child is too small for me to compute. Harper might as well have been mating with one of earth's octopi. He would have had a better chance of fathering a child."
"Which means," said Beka following Andromeda's line of reasoning to it's conclusion, "where and who did Aurora come from?"
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