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Alternity - Chapter 6
Bad..
Do you want me to go with you when you talk to him, Trance?" asked Beka reaching out to touch Trance's arm in a gesture of support..
"No, Beka, I think maybe I'd better do this myself."
The two women were on the command deck of the Maru wondering how they were going to tell Harper that he was living under an extended death sentence. Their daily existence was precarious enough that they had all, at one time or another, considered the possibility of dying violently, but this situation had never crossed their minds.
"All right, if you're sure."
"I'm not sure, Beka, but I still think I should be the one who tells him." She gave Beka's hand a brief squeeze of thanks then set out to break the news to Harper.
Not too surprisingly, Harper was working on the Maru's engines. Trance walked down the passageway to the engineering compartment, wondering how she was going to break the news.
"Harper, we need to talk."
The Maru's engineer clambered down from the upper level catwalk. "I'm always willing to talk my sparkly purple …" his voice trailed off as he saw the look in her eyes.
"Harper, remember the blood test I made you take a few days ago. The results came in today."
"And, did they figure out why I've been feeling so tired lately?" He didn't like the expression on Trance's face. It looked like she was trying desperately to keep her emotions under control.
"Harper, I am so so sorry. But you have MVLS."
"I have what?"
"MVLS, Myeloitic viral leukaemic syndrome. It's a virus that attacks the bone marrow, and produces symptoms much like leukemia."
"Let me guess, I'm going to have to leave the Maru for an extended period to be cured." He didn't sound frightened or angry just annoyed. Trance dreaded what she was going to have to say next.
"It's worse, Harper," she moved into his arms, wrapping her tail around him as well to increase the amount of body contact. "There's no cure."
She felt his arms tighten around her. She knew that he now knew where this was going.
"Leukemia is fatal, isn't it?"
"Yes," she said it so softly he could barely hear.
"And this virus will affect me the same way that leukemia would?"
"Yes," whispered once again.
"There's no possibility of a mistake in the test?"
"No."
"And no cure."
She hesitated for a moment. Not wanting to tell him that there was a cure but that it wasn't available for him. He caught her hesitation and understood what she wasn't telling him.
"I see. There is a cure but you have to either rule a planet, or be rich enough to buy one, to get it. How much time do I have?" The anger that Trance had been expecting when she first made her announcement was present in his voice now.
"We have medicines that will slow the disease down, Harper. You could live for another six to ten years before they stop working, and I bet that before then they'll have new drugs, or even a cure for the disease that we can afford"
He disentangled himself from her. "Right, and next you're going to tell me that the legend of the Andromeda Ascendant and the other lost ships of the Commonwealth High Guard suddenly appearing when the three galaxies need them the most isn't a fairy tale either."
"I do believe it, Harper. I believe that we will have our perfect future. And I believe that we will find a cure for you."
She could hear the anger rising in his voice as he continued . "Isn't this the pits? I survive Earth with no medical care worth the name and exposed to every disease imaginable, and here, when we're supposed to be someplace where there's outstanding medical care, I come down with a fatal disease, with a cure only available for the chosen few."
He started walking past her towards the ship's exit hatch. Trance attempted to catch hold of his arm but he shook her off. "Just leave me alone, Trance. I aim to get very very drunk, and stay that way for a while."
Beka had heard the last part of Harper's outburst, and had started aft towards the engine room when she saw Harper stalking towards her with a distraught Trance behind him.
"Harper, please stop," entreated Trance. "We still need to talk."
Beka moved to let Harper past her then put out her hands to stop Trance. "Let him go, Trance," said Beka. "He needs to be alone for a while."
"But..."
"Just let him go. He was like this when Vexpeg died and when… Well, let's just say that the best thing we can do for him right now is not to do anything." The sound of the ship's airlock elevator caused her to stop for a moment. "Don't worry, he won't go far, and we'll pick him up before we lift off."
Two days later the Maru's cargo hold was loaded, and Harper had still not returned. Trance was starting to get frantic, but Beka was calm. She had seen this before. It was just a matter of checking all the fleabag hotels in the port area until they found the one that their engineer was holed up in. It was the fifth hotel they checked when they found him.
"We're looking for a man," said Beka to the clerk. The clerk was skinny with thinning black hair that was combed in an unsuccessful attempt to cover his bald spot. His skin was so greasy it was shiny. The suit that he was wearing had seen better days.
"Lots of women looking for a man. I'm one and I'm looking for a woman, or maybe two," he said giving her and Trance lewd looks.
Beka refrained from making a smart remark, right now she wanted information, not a fight. "A particular man. Skinny, short, blonde haired, blue eyed. Probably came in here drunk on his ass and stayed that way."
"What's your interest in him?"
"He's my chief engineer, and I want him aboard my ship and sobered up before we lift off."
"Well in that case, he's in room 204."
Beka, with Trance in tow, started for the stairs leading to the second floor, only to be stopped by the clerk's voice. "Sorry, I can't let you up there unless you have a key to a room."
"And just how much for a key?" asked Beka.
"Fifty thrones."
It was highway robbery, but Beka wasn't in the mood to argue. "OK, but give me the key to room 204."
The clerk had a self-satisfied smirk on his face as he passed over the key. He undoubtedly was going to keep the entire 50 thrones.
When they opened the door to room 204, the first thing they noticed was the stench. The room reeked of vomit and urine. Harper was there, passed out on the bed wearing nothing but his underwear. His shirt, pants and boots were lying in a heap in a corner of the room. Scattered about the room were dozens of empty bottles strewn about like dead soldiers on a battlefield. Against the far wall were several broken bottles, with broken glass scattered along the wall.
Trance gave a gasp of dismay, but Beka was a bit more experienced with this side of her engineer. "Come on Trance, let's get him up and back on board the Maru. He can sleep it off there, where you can keep an eye on him."
"Harper, come on get up. It's time to go home," entreated Trance.
"Mmmph," muttered Harper. "Leeme alone. Goway."
"Harper, get up off you butt and stand up," demanded Beka.
Beka's tone of command worked where Trances soft words had failed. The intoxicated engineer groaned and sat up. Blinking bloodshot eyes, he stared at the two women "Whatch you guys doing here?" he asked.
"We're lifting off," Beka informed him using her command voice. " Now get up and get dressed, so we can get you back to the Maru."
"Sure Boss. Whatever you say," mumbled Harper. He stood up, swayed unsteadily for a instant, then began to walk to the corner of the room where his outerwear had been tossed . He made a couple of steps towards the clothes, then fell to his knees and began vomiting. Instinctively Trance knelt beside her lover, and supported his head as the convulsions washed over his body. The spasms were violent and the fluid that was expelled from his stomach combined the sour stench of vomit with a reek of alcohol. The smell was nauseating, and Trance had to fight to keep her own stomach under control. Eventually the paroxysms ceased and Harper went limp, unconscious. If Trance hadn't been holding his head he would have fallen face forward into the spreading pool of vomit.
"Help me get his clothes on Beka," said Trance. "I don't want to take him out in his underwear.
The two women wrestled Harper's pants and boots onto his limp form. Once he was half dressed Beka picked up her engineer's shirt, and with a grimace of distaste stuffed it into one of the cargo pockets of her flight suit. "That's good enough Trance," she said. "We need to get him out of here and back aboard the Maru."
Together the two women lifted the unconscious engineer and staggered down the stairs carrying him between them. When they arrived at the bottom, the desk clerk stopped them again.
"I can't let you leave just like that," he complained. "He rented the room for five days, but only paid for three."
Beka had had enough. She drew her gauss pistol from its holster and shoved the barrel into the clerk's nose. There was a whining noise as the capacitors charged up.
"I've had a really really bad day, but yours could easily become much worse," she snarled. "Now, my environmental systems tech and I are going to take our engineer back to the ship. The fifty thrones I gave you will more than pay for the remaining cost of the room. So unless you want a great big hole in the place where your ugly face is, you'll put your ass back in your chair and let us leave.
"Oops! My mistake," said the clerk. "I seem to remember that he came down last night and paid the rest of his bill."
After they arrived back on the Maru, the women dumped Harper into his bunk, and Beka went forward to the command deck to prepare for takeoff. She noticed that Trance wasn't at her usual station at the environmental systems console. For a moment she thought about ordering Trance to assume her lift off station, but then decided against it. Even if the girl was on station her mind would be elsewhere.
Harper awoke 16 hours later to see Trance sitting by his bunk. He gave her a weak smile and winced in pain. He had a monumental hangover.
"Hiya."
"Hi yourself. Here, take these. You look like you could use them." She reached into a pocket of her jumpsuit and removed a vial. She shook out a few pills and handed them to Harper. He held them in his mouth, allowing them to dissolve, as they did the pain of his hangover began to recede.
"Did I get into any trouble while I was out?"
"Other than almost drinking yourself to death?"
"I just needed to work things out."
"And?"
"Six years can be a long time. Who knows, maybe someone will come up with a cure we can afford by then."
"The doctor said six or more years." She looked at him for a moment then went over to the intraship communications panel. "Beka, Harper and I are going to be busy for a while."
"I understand."
Trance closed the door that separated the crew's compartment from the common room. She slowly walked back to the bunk Harper was lying in, removing her clothing as she approached. As she got closer Harper could see her cheeks were wet. He wondered who she was crying for him, herself or the two of them. There was type of frenzied desperation in their lovemaking which had never been present before.
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