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It was a pretty standard stop off at Mrker’s Drift. It was the usual get parts, take some time off and just relax a little from their normal try and save the world schtick. This particular stop had Beka very excited though even if she was the only one. Mrker’s Drift was one of the only non-planet places that served Parlan. Parlan was a complex dish made in Paraon 3. It had the consistency of dirt or sawdust but its flavor was unimaginable.
It was sweet and rich and came in big bowls. Beka had a great fondness for the dish. And she never ever ate it. Harper was deathly allergic to it. The slightest amount of it could send him into anaphylactic shock. So she was never able to buy it and bring it on board and never able to eat it when the two of them were sent out on one of Dylan’s scavenger hunts.
This time though Harper was working on one of the engines and would be remaining on ship that meant that she would get to have as much of her treat as she could stuff into herself. She was also the only one from the ship that was able to leave, her job being to get the extra parts for the ship. She was well aware that it wouldn’t take as long as she had told Dylan. She had an extra stop to find though. In particular there was a restaurant that made amazing Parlan. She hurried through getting the parts and then hunted down the restaurant.
It was a little expensive because getting the ingredients imported was expensive. She was willing to treat herself though. She had earned it over the last few months. Beka wolfed down three big bowls of the stuff and only stopped when she felt like she was going to explode. She never even noticed the ultra-fine Parlan dust that covered her hair and clothes in a thin layer.
Andromeda
Beka returned to the ship with a full belly and a spring in her step, nothing could bring her down. She had gotten her treat, found all of the parts and had the rest of the evening off. Now she just needed to take Harper his parts and then she could spend the evening in her quarters. She was thinking a nice long bath. If she hurried she might have a full 6 hours to herself.
Andromeda
“How could you be so careless!?”
“I forgot about the dust! What more do you want from me?”
“I want you to act like the so called captain you claim to be and not nearly kill our engineer!” Beka winced at the volume of Tyr’s voice. He was getting louder by the minute. The two of them were standing outside the infirmary where Harper was undergoing treatment for anaphylactic shock.
“You are very well aware that he is extremely allergic to Parlan! You know that even the slightest amount in the air can be deadly for him and you should know better than to even consider bringing onto the ship! Even touching the damned stuff!”
“It’s not like I brought onboard a dish of it! How was I to know that there would be residue on my clothes?”
“It is a dust based food! It gets everywhere! That is part of the appeal! They advertise that as part of it! You should not have even chanced it anyways. You should have figured that the mere presence of it could be dangerous and have avoided it at all costs. You should also have banked on the Harper affect. Anything that could affect him, will! Thanks to your carelessness Harper could very well die!”
“Careful Tyr, you get anymore livid it’s going to sound like you care for him,” Dylan said, having just arrived to come check on his injured crew member. This seemed to be the wrong thing to say as instead of it lightening the mood it instead made him more angry.
“Well none of you seem to do so that only leaves me now then, doesn’t it?” The words were bit out and carried a sharp edge of them. Dylan simply gazed back at him in the placid way he had when dealing with upset people. Carefully neutral and unexpressive. It worked on most people and it worked on Tyr, allowing some of his anger to dissipate. It was tough to be angry in the face of calm logic and quiet words. Beka on the other hand drew back as though she had been slapped.
“How dare you accuse me of not caring for him? You, nothing but a low life Uber with no regard to humans in general! I took him on. I looked after him. If it wasn’t for me, he would still be a nothing mudfoot trying to scramble his way off of a dying world. He would be nothing but a low level kludge slave attempting to survive the Drago-Kazov. And we both know that you know what that is like, don’t we?”
“Beka!” This sharp rebuke came from Dylan who followed it up with an equally sharp, “walk with me”. Wanting nothing more to refuse and continue to argue with Tyr but knowing that she couldn’t out right refuse an order from Dylan, especially the way that she had messed up today. She followed him down the hallway leaving Tyr by himself. Only for a minute though. Having heard the shouting stop and seen Beka and Dylan walk away Trance had opened the door to the infirmary.
“You can come in and see him now, although he is a little worn out I think that he could use the company.” Trance gave him one of her secret smiles that said that she knew more than she was letting on and allowed Tyr to enter the infirmary. Trance decided to give them a little privacy and wandered off to the hydroponics lab. There were so peaches that were just about ready to be picked.
Tyr approached the bed where Harper was sat up. He had a small tube in his nose and Tyr could detect the slight sound of oxygen moving through it. Harper gave him a weak smile and Tyr frowned. Although Harper often got sick because of his immune system he never lost his vibrancy. He always seemed to be pumped full of energy and getting ready to take on the world.
Now though, it seemed that his energy had been drained. Not even the Magog had had this affect on him.
“How do you feel Harper,” Tyr asked, although he felt that the question was a little unnecessary. It was easy to see that he was exhausted and felt awful.
“Oh, you know. Okay.” His tone belied the words. His breath was coming in short, wheezing pants. “I heard you yelling at Beka. Its not her fault really. Parlan is one of her favorite dishes. She should be able to have it from time to time.”
“At the cost of your life? She should be allowed to trade our engineer for an hour’s indulgence? No. She doesn’t get to make that decision. She does not get to decide that for us! For me! Should she want to indulge she should have cleaned off the dust! She should have made sure that none landed on her! She was well aware of the severity of your allergy and simply ignored the danger. She knows that it gets everywhere and she knows that it would land on her clothes. So instead of taking the proper precaution she has nearly ended your life. That is unacceptable to me. As it should be to you.”
“What do you want me to say Tyr?” Harper’s words were nearly a whisper. “Do you want me to say that one of my closest friends nearly killed me? That someone I trusted implicitly almost ended my life because she couldn’t be bothered. I know that she knows. I know that this could have been very easily avoided. And you know what Tyr? It hurts! It hurts a lot! That she couldn’t even be bothered to change her clothes to make sure that none of it got to me. That all she had to do was resist the temptation and I could be working on the Andromeda right now. Because of her I can’t even set foot in my machine shop until it has been decontaminated for Parlan dust. That is my domain. My safe place and she took it away from me with a careless act.
“So, yeah, this is me sticking my head into the dirt. Because it is better than the alternative. I heard your arguing out there. I heard your words and hers. And maybe I don’t want to own up to the fact that the Nietzschean who used to like to scare me cares more about me than my best friend and the woman I have know for nearly 10 years. The one that I have followed as a captain. I just don’t want to think about it right now.”
“Sand.” Harper shot him an incredulous look. “The saying is ‘stick your head into the sand’ not dirt.”
“That is what you got out of all of this?”
“No Harper, I got a lot out of this. And right now all I want to do is have a relaxing conversation with one of my best friends while he recovers. Everything else can wait until tomorrow. All of the hurt, anger and accusations can wait until you are ready to face them. Because I believe that you are right. You are sticking your head into the sand. I think that that is what you need right now though.”
Harper gave him a weary appreciative smile at his words.
“Thanks Tyr. Sorry about what she said to you as well. You don’t deserve that. Hey, I found another old earth movie. I was wondering if you would like to watch it with me.” His tone was carefully hopeful.
“Of course. Let me snag your pad and you should not apologize for words and actions that are not your own nor that you have no control over.” Tyr went over to where the recently cleaned pad was sitting and snagged it. Harper adjusted himself over a little bit on the narrow bed and Tyr knew that even if he moved over there wasn’t room for both of them on the narrow infirmary bed to lay side by side.
“Scoot forward.” Harper shot him a confused look but did so making sure to now accept the oxygen tube in his nose. Tyr set the pad on the table next to the bed and straddled the bed behind him. Then he tugged Harper back to rest against his chest and played the movie. Harper squirmed back into him and laid his head against Tyr’s neck. Tyr brought his legs up around Harper’s smaller ones and rested his chin on the head of blond hair.
The movie wasn’t real exciting, it had a bit more of a sedate pace to it. Something about two male detectives attempting to figure out the death of a young man and an attempt to buy his grandmother’s house. Although they most likely needed something a little more relaxing and not stressful. It really wasn’t any wonder with the day that they had had that the two of them drifted off part of the way through the movie. Missing the exciting bits where one of them got thrown through a window and the killer was caught.
The day had caught up to them both and it was such a comfortable position. The warmth and safety soothing both of their worries and putting them to sleep.
Their position and dozing off would be kept between the woman who set the pad aside and the ship who looked after her occupants. The only evidence remained of course being the photos that had been taken. For posterity.