Beka woke up with a gasp, sitting up and looking wildly around her. Slowly, she seemed to calm down, looking at Dylan, Harper and Trance standing around her. It suddenly struck Dylan how long it had actually been since he’d last seen her, and he started to mentally beat himself up again. How could he not have noticed for weeks? How was it even possible? She looked unsure and somewhat flustered, looking from face to face.
“What’s happened?” she finally asked. “Why am I here?”
“Beka,” Trance started, hesitating for a moment. “What do you remember?” It took a few moments for Beka to respond, she frowned as if deep in thought. Then, suddenly, her eyes widened.
“No. No,” she repeated, “no, it didn’t…no.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed, but was firmly stopped by Trance.
“Beka, we need to talk about this.”
“Talk about…what? I…I can’t…I can’t remember…” She frowned and seemed to be thinking hard again, “Harper was there…and someone…” She frowned and shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Who did that to your arms Beka?” Harper suddenly asked, earning him a glare from both Trance and Dylan. She gave him a confused look.
“Who did…what?” After first giving Harper another reprimanding glance, Trance gently touched Beka’s shoulder and smiled at her.
“Your arms just seem to have got hurt,” she said calmly, “and we’re wondering how it happened.” Beka looked at her arms and pulled a sleeve up. Seeing the damage seemed to scare her, her breathing became shallow and she quickly pulled it down again.
“It was…” she pulled her knees up and encircled them with her arms, “it was…” She sobbed and grabbed her head, pulling at the hair on the sides, “him.”
“Who’s him?” Harper stressed. She merely shook her head wildly, her face turned down and her hands still pulling at her hair.
“Beka, are you sure you didn’t do it yourself?” Dylan asked. She looked up now, staring right at him.
“I didn’t,” she whispered, “it was…it was…” She gave a sound that was halfway between a wail and a sob as she clawed on her head. Trance grabbed her hand and stroked her hair calmingly.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “What’s happening?” Beka merely continued to sob and shake her head, and eventually, Trance grabbed a medical tool from her table and injected Beka, who immediately went limp, and Trance lowered her back onto the bed.
“You sedated her again?” Dylan asked.
“I…I thought it’d be the best thing to do, for now.”
“If this is going to be an ongoing problem,” he argued, “we can’t just solve it by sedating her every time she goes…funny.” Trance shrugged.
“I know,” she admitted, “but…I just can’t stand to see her like that.” Dylan gave her a nod and a sad smile.
“We’ll…we will deal with this together.” He looked over at Beka, who was laying still again, like before Trance had woken her up. “We need to talk about it.”
“Er,” Harper raised his hand slightly, “can I raise a theory?”
“Yes, Harper,” Dylan said.
“She said it was him who did it. I think…” he took a deep breath, “I think it might have been Tyr.” Dylan and Trance frowned.
“Tyr?!?” they said in unison. “Harper, I really don’t think…” he continued.
“Think about it!” Harper persisted, “he hasn’t exactly been sympathetic to her, has he? And the things he said earlier, that she’s weak and all that…I could see him doing it.”
“So why didn’t she say it was Tyr?” Harper looked exasperated.
“Because…she was obviously traumatised! You saw how she was acting, maybe she’s scared of telling us, or she’s not sure what she remembers. Anyhow, she said him and who else could it be? Me or you? I doubt it.”
“You don’t think she was lying?” Andromeda’s AI appeared on a screen on the nearby wall.
“My scans indicate that though stress levels were very high during the whole time she was awake, she was not lying.” Harper nodded quickly.
“Yeah!” he said. “See, I told you so. It must have been Tyr.”
“Andromeda,” Dylan said, turning to the image on the screen. “Can you extract security vids from the Maru? If you could determine the exact time for some of those cuts and show us the vids from that time?”
“Certainly.” A few seconds later, an image popped up on the screen. They watched it playing, with surprised gasps coming from all around.
“Well,” Dylan said when he’d finally caught his breath, “this doesn’t make sense…at all.”
