TITLE: The Unintended
SUMMARY: After a traumatic event onboard a ship in need of rescue, Harper comes away with more than emotional scars.
WARNINGS: Some violence and mild swearing
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Andromeda series, I'm just borrowing.
NOTES: You may have read this elsewhere, you may not have. It's a complete story so with any luck the updates will be frequent :D Enjoy!
CHAPTER ONE - The Outset
"The worst enemies are the ones that aren't seen until it's too late."
G.T.A Otaku
CY 2004
It was a slow day. But everyone on the Andromeda's crew knew that slow days were to be savoured, because they were almost always a rare break from risking their lives and saving whatever galaxy they were in at the time. So they enjoyed it while it lasted. Unfortunately, it rarely lasted.
Dylan, Harper, Tyr and Rommie arrived in Command where Trance and Beka were already waiting. "What have you got?" Dylan asked.
"Ship in distress," Andromeda's holo avatar reported. "I'm not detecting any power to the engines. The ship is drifting towards an uninhabited planet and will skim the atmosphere in 27 minutes. She'll break up if she continues on her path."
"Life signs?" Beka inquired.
"Just one," Andromeda informed her. This information surprised everyone.
"For a ship that size? No way. Something's not right," Harper commented.
Tyr was quick to offer a possible explanation. "The ship is out of control, there was probably an accident of some kind."
"Or someone went insane and killed everybody," Harper added.
"You've been reading those horror novels again, haven't you?" Trance said, not taking him seriously.
"It's called The Outset," Trance mentioned as she stared at the image of the ship onscreen. "We need to get the survivors out."
"Alright, we're going onboard. Trance, Tyr, Beka you're with me. Rommie, I need you to stay here and monitor the situation. I don't want any surprises," Dylan ordered.
The four of them left to kit up for the mission.
"I'll just stay here then!" Harper called after them.
Rommie smiled at him. "You didn't want to go anyway."
"That's not the point. It's nice to be asked," Harper complained.
Dylan leaned back round the door. "On second thoughts, Harper, come with me. We may need you to take a look at their engines," he said, and his face disappeared round the wall again.
Rommie smirked. "You'd better get going."
Harper gave her a wry smile, grabbed his tool belt and left Command.
"Hey, throw in some zombies and this is the setting for 'Zombies Attack Onboard the Apepolai'," Beka joked, remembering the premise of one of Harper's favourite cheesy horror holo novels.
"That's not funny," Harper snapped back. The ship was scary enough as it was, with dim emergency lights casting shadows every which way, and a chill that crawled over the skin, not to mention the silence that hung in the air. The group made their way through the corridors of the ship. It looked like a research vessel of some kind. Most of the doors were sealed shut, probably due to whatever caused the emergency power to kick in.
"Dylan..." Beka called. There was a body in ahead of her in the corridor, a man. As they drew silently closer it became obvious he had been electrocuted by a nearby exposed panel, which was still sparking.
"Rommie," Dylan called, opening a com line. "Can you give us a specific location for the life signs?"
"No, all I know is that someone is alive on that ship," Rommie explained, monitoring from Command.
"Okay, Harper, the engine room is up ahead, see if you can get them started. We need to turn this ship around," Dylan ordered. "Beka, Tyr, you search the lower decks, make as much noise as you can, hopefully the survivor will come to you. Trance and I will take this deck and the higher levels. Keep comms open."
After the plan was decided, the group dispersed. Harper cast a lingering look at the corpse and shivered. He headed for the engine rooms, mumbling as he went. "Yeah, split up, what a great idea. Dark, scary ship and you wanna split up."
The engine rooms were just as silent as deserted as the rest of the ship. He booted up a control panel with the portable power source he carried in his tool belt and began checking for damage.
A noise echoed through the room, from behind him. Harper yelped when he turned to see someone standing in the shadows. He jumped five feet in the air, then relaxed slightly when he saw there was no immediate danger. A blonde woman took a step forward. She looked terrible. Her hair was matted and dirty, along with her face. Her eyes were bloodshot, and sore, and it was a moment before Harper recognised her.
"Shyla?" Harper asked. Was it really her? He had known Shyla from the Nemetona, a welfare transport that Andromeda had escorted through Nietzschean territory. She was a good person. They got on well, and even kept in touch occasionally. "Are you alright?"
"I don't know why," Shyla said quietly. She clearly didn't recognise him. "There's no reason. No reason."
"No reason for what? What happened to the ship?" Harper asked calmly, but got no response. "It's Harper, do you remember me?"
Shyla was barely aware of his presence. "It's gone. I don't know where it's gone...oh god..." She started to sob.
"It's gonna be okay, you can come back to Andromeda with me, it's all going to be fine now, okay?" Harper told her.
Shyla continued to sob uncontrollably. Harper could tell she was close to breaking point. "Okay guys, you can stop looking for the survivor, I found her," Harper said into his comm. He began to approach her cautiously.
"It's gone...it's gone..." Shyla muttered almost incoherently. She stepped forward and
Harper froze when he saw she had a pulse gun.
"Shyla, why don't you put the gun down and come back to the Andromeda, huh?" Harper asked softly. He really wanted the others to come and get him, but for now he was on his own. "You can take a nice shower, have something to eat and..."
"You don't understand. They had it too, they lost it..." Shyla began to laugh manically. "They lost it!" Her laughter blurred into hysterically sobbing. "I lost it," she whispered. She put the gun onto the highest setting, pointed it into the side of her head and fired.
End of Chapter one