”How is she today?” Harper asked immediately as he entered medbay. He’d been visiting Beka every day since she was confined there, but was still never quite prepared for what he’d meet when he got there. Sometimes she seemed almost beyond contact. Never catatonic, thankfully that hadn’t happened, but as of the voice in her head blocked out everything else, and she’d concentrate so hard on it that she couldn’t recognise anything else. Trance gave him a warm smile.
“She’s actually quite all right today,” she said. “I had the bots here as usual but they haven’t had to restrain her, not all day. A few times she went a bit hysterical and tried to run out, but I managed to talk her out of it.” Harper was glad to hear this but knew to restrain his hopefulness. This had happened before, and he’d thought they were on the way to getting better, but the next day, or even the next moment, she’d be crying and screaming again and having to be sedated.
“So, do you think she could leave medbay today?” Trance gave him a perplexed look.
“What do you mean, Harper?”
“Not permanently, of course,” he hurried to add, “but maybe we could go to the Maru for a while, she’d like that.” Trance hesitated for a moment.
“Not the Maru,” she decided, “that’s where she was going through all this before, I’m not sure of what might happen if she goes back there.”
“Well,” Harper thought for a moment. “The observation deck then? I know she liked to go in there sometimes as well.”
“I suppose that would be all right,” Trance agreed after thinking for a while. “Just make sure Andromeda keeps an eye on you, and bring some sedatives with you, just in case.” Harper moved to protest, but closed his mouth and took the sedatives.
“Right. Where is she?”
“Reading some holonovel or something.” Harper raised an eyebrow.
“Really?” Trance nodded.
“Told you today was a good day,” she said with a smile.
Harper walked on and found Beka sat on one of the beds with her legs folded up under her, lazily reading from a flexi. She looked…almost normal.
“Hey,” he said, glancing over at her. She looked up and gave him a small smile, so very different from what he normally got. Well, it wasn’t like he couldn’t talk to her anymore, they just always seemed to get interrupted, and she always seemed distracted, scared.
“Hey.”
“I was thinking; wanna go down to the obs deck?”
“Getting out of here? I’d love to.” She left the flexi and jumped off the bed, looking almost…like her normal self. Jokingly, he put an arm around her shoulders. She squealed and jumped as he quickly pulled his arm back. Ok, so almost like her normal self. She withdrew slightly from him as she walked out of medbay.
“So…” he tried to think of something to ask her about, but realised anything he could ask would be stupid.
”What have you been up to lately? Hmm, good question. Not really, and not somewhere he’d want to go.
”How are you feeling?” Yeah, great question. Not depressing or anything.
”I’m glad you’re feeling better today.” Which would undoubtedly lead them to think about what she’s feeling better compared to.
”Hey, how are those voices coming along?” he finally thought sarcastically. There was only one solution, he decided as they entered the obs deck. Talk about something completely unrelated.
“Hey, you know, I think Tyr is up to something,” he said excitedly. He didn’t, actually. Nothing much really was going on aboard Andromeda, they were all too worried about Beka to juggle much else, but he didn’t want her to know that. Also, he missed scheming with her, and if there was nothing to scheme about, well, make something up! He figured it might take her mind off things, as well.
“Really?” she asked, looking down at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” he said, struggling to make something up on the spot, “he’s been really quiet lately. Like, uncharacteristically quiet. You know what Tyr’s like, always questioning Dylan’s decisions and so on, but now…he just seems to follow them blindly. It’s worrying, and a little scary.”
“You sure he’s not just feeling a bit down?”
“Tyr, feeling a bit down?” Harper sn*ggered. “Nietzscheans don’t feel down, do they? Wouldn’t that be a sign of being inferior?” He paled as he realised what he just said. “I didn’t mean –“ She seemed unfazed though, and gave a small giggle.
“So what do you think he’s up to?”
“I…don’t know. Contacting the Drago-Kazov and killing us all?” It was said as a joke, but he cursed himself inwardly. Great, the second time he put his foot in his mouth.
Make her more paranoid, why don’t you? he thought angrily. It seemed though, he had again got away with it, and she ruffled his hair with a grin on her face.
“Just show a little trust, Harper,” she joked. He couldn’t believe it. She was acting so…normal. This was almost too good to be true.
“Just give me a minute,” he said quickly before slipping out of the obs deck and finding the nearest screen where he met Andromeda’s quizzical face.
“I need to speak with Trance,” he said quickly, “now.” Andromeda blinked off and medbay appeared, where an anxious purple face soon filled the screen.
“What’s wrong, Harper?” she asked quickly. “Do you need something?” He shook his head.
“I can’t believe this,” he said excitedly, “she’s…she’s all right. She’s acting normally, I’ve managed to say the wrong thing twice and she didn’t even care…I don’t know what’s happened, but maybe the medicine is finally working.” Trance looked unsure.
“So suddenly?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Harper said with a grin, “but she seems fine to me. It’s almost too good to be true.”
Suddenly, a panicked scream came from inside the room he’d just left. Harper’s eyes widened and he left Trance on the screen to run back in to see what had happened.
Turned out it was too good to be true.
Beka was breathing heavily with tears running down her cheeks and a gun pressed to her chest.
