Adult-FanFiction.org : Television / Streaming

Dead Men Don't Cry	By : meklorka Category: 1 through F > Andromeda Views: 2960 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Andromeda, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
A/N: Be prepared for a long, but ultimately hopefully rewarding chapter. I took a lot of liberties with the Sinti, assuming it was the planet where the blue guys came from, and not having seen a lot of first season, in which I think Sinti might have been in more detail. Any of the random factoids in here is stuff that popped into my head, not canon. Hell, I'm not even all that sure of the planets color. Oh well. Beka POV. Are u surprise? Most likely. Will you review after you're done and tell me what you think? I hope so. =)

Chapter 6 - Anything's Possible
Maybe I should go check out what's going on in the back. There was yelling, no more than five minutes ago, which worried me, but the silence now... that worries me even more. Especially since Tyr was involved. I still don't trust him. He and that box will probably be gone the minute we land on Sinti. I give them a minute, listening for any noise, but I just don't hear anything. Ok, I going in.

I get up and look over at Trance, just to make sure she's ok. I don't expect her to be looking right back at me. She shakes her head, as if she knew exactly what I was about to do. I swear, ever since the 'new' Trance showed up it seems like she can read my mind or something. She gives me that look, which always means 'no'. For some reason I always listen, and this time is no exception. I sit down again, my sigh of defeat the only protest I'm gonna chance. The fact that she doesn't think intervention in whatever arguement they've gotten into this time isn't neccessary should calm my nerves, but it doesn't. I don't trust him, and I really don't see the point of him causing anymore trouble. He's done it before, back on Andromeda. Like trying to kill himself wasn't enough, a quarter of an hour after I ran out I could hear those two trying to out yell each other. Weird thing was that afterwards there didn't seem to be any bad blood between them. In fact, they seemed more friendly and easy around each other than I could ever remember them being... And what Dylan insinuated... That's crazy. Harper and Tyr? Never. Harper's a lady's man, first of all, and Tyr's, well, Tyr. He's only interested in fertile Nietzschean females, and even then he doesn't exactly play the part of 'eligable bachlor' too well. Just another one of Dylan's paranoid delusions.

And here he is, the man of the hour, Mr. Tyr Anazazi. He seems... distraught. Wow, didn't know that was possible. Usually the only emotion he shows is: Angry Tyr, Annoyed Tyr, and Tyr. Not a big range of feeling there. He walks over to his usual consol and tries to act like he's doing work, which is all an act, because there isn't any to do. He's probably just checking the ships coarse, but that should have taken a lot less button punching than what he's doing. Hmmm... Maybe he's trying to blow up the ship. That would sorta make sense with his recent suicidal streak. I really doubt that he'd be that stupid, but I hacko hio his consol anyway, just to see what he's up to. Ok, he's accessed the database, and is looking up... specifications for an avatar? Wait, those are Rommie's specifications, what the hell is he reading those for? He's accessed the part of the log that talks about her physical capabilities, how much of a punch she can give, how much of a hit she can take, all that stuff. Of all the things he could be reading right now... I don't get it. He doesn't care about Rommie at all. I would expect Harper to be rereading that stuff, but Tyr?

I swear, the whole ship must be turning into a mind reader colony, because Harper just wa in, in, as if he knew I was thinking about him. I look over him quickly, expecting the red eyed, clenched jawed Harper of 20 minutes ago. He seems almost ok, he's smiling his quirky little smile for one thing, but something's a little off. He does his half skipping, half jogging walk around the bridge before falling in next to Trance, who looks up and gives him one of her most comforting smiles. She's great when it comes to making people feel better, unlike me. I try to talk to Harper, and he blocks me out. She just smiles and he's like an open book. God, I wish I was that good.

"So, Boss, where we headed?" His voice is chipper, but obviously strained. He's trying really hard to keep up apperances.

"Sinti. That's where Rev decided to go awol, so I figured maybe someone saw which direction he went in."

"A wise assumption." That wasn't sarcastic Tyr, it was him trying very hard to sound like sarcastic Tyr, but sounding just as strained as Harper. Wow. Lots of strained voices in the room, which is surprising because it doesn't seem all that tense in here, although there is definately something going on, and I'm probably the only person who doesn't know what it is. Then this sudden silence seems to settle in, not at all a 'comfortable' silence, more like an unbearable silence. I go down a mental list of things I could say to break the silence, but eveing ing I can think of would sound really stupid and obvious. Thank God for Trance.

"We should reach Sinti any minute now," she reports and I look up and realize its true. I can already see thenge nge planet on the view screen.

"There are 2 other planets and a space station in the system," I add, hoping someone will tell me which one we should go to first.

"If I know Rev, and I do, then he would go right where he's needed ay, ay, a catastrovic crisis."

"You mean the time portals that opened up everywhere on Sinti?"

"I bet he went down to Sinti the minute he heard about what was happening."

"Sounds about right, but Sinti's a big planet."

"The most damage that seems to have occured on the planet as a result of the time distortions was Kartasya sector." Tyr inturpts, sounding a little bit more like himself.

"Isn't that the most commercialized place on the planet?"Trance asks.

"Also the most populated with off worlders. It'll be like finding a neddle in a haystack." I add, really wishing it had been any other part of the planet.

"Yeah, but a big brown slightly furry needle in a mostly bald blue haystack."

Ok, that was a really bizarre metaphor, but still, he has a point. Not many Magog frequent Sinti, or any planet for that matter. Besides, saying that the most off worlders populate it doesn't mean a lot, since the rest of the planet is 99% blue, but it would have been easier if the time screw ups had happened more in one of those other provinces, where we could be sure someone would still remember him.

"Can you get any more specific, Tyr? I don't want to go combing through the entire sector if I don't have to."

"The disruptions seem to have fai fairly uniformal, but the majority of the population of Katarsya is centered around two cities, Reinod and Gavgali."

"Auggeuggestions as to which one we should hit first?"

"Reinod sounds good to me," answers Trance, and I feel much more hopeful about all of this. If Trance's intuition tells her that Rev was in Reinod, then I'd put my money on Reinod.

I contact the Commercial and Tourism Council of Reinod for permission to land at the Reinod ship hanger and its immediatly granted. The fee is nominal, and worth it if my hunch turns out right. It occurs to me that since we haven't been doing much work that actually earns us money, that we aren't exactly well off, but I don't see us going broke in the near future. I suppose if we have any ser mon money problems we could always take a few jobs here and there, or sell off some of our spare parts that we have lying around the cargo bay.

Surprisingly we land on Sinti without a hitch. I guess I'm used to getting shot at, or crashing, or having to go on covert missions with the Maru. Wow, all the shit she's been through these past few months... Snow, water, Tyr using her to steal a corpse, getting shot at because Tyr used her to steal a corpse... Not to mention the time he decided to take on all those Drago Kazov ships and almost got her destroyed... I amazed she's still in working order, but she's a good ship, well built. She has to be to deal with Tyr, I suppose. Some people just don't know how to treat a ship, or how to stay out of trouble. Every single time something bad happens to the Maru, Tyr is somehow involved. I should be really pissed off, but instead I'm just really annoyed. Maybe I'm not so hard on him because he reminds me of... Ok, not going there. Don't have time to relive all the sad, stupid things that have happened to you during your life, Beka. We have to find Rev.

After we pay the landing and boarding fee, we leave the hanger and head towards the shuttle that goes to the city, because most of what's out here near the hanger is the warehouses, and more hangers. The shuttle itself is free, which makes me feel a whole lot better about our finacial situation. We board, and I'm surprised to find that its nearly empty, but then I remember that its off season for trading right now, and that there aren't many tourists in the first place. We head to the back car, which is mostly empty and find our seats. The seats in all the cars all are sideways, one row on each side, facing each other, which makes conversing a whole lot easire, even though I now realize that no one's been doing a whole lot of that lately. In fact, since we landed no one has said one word to each other, which is odd. Back when we were still officially the crew of the Eureka Maru we rarely had awkward silences. Then again we didn't have Tyr either. Ok, that might have been a bit harsh. I mean, its not his fault really, we all have things on our minds, and we aren't on what one would call a fun mission either. I'm probably too harsh towards him for the same reason that I'm not furious with him the entire time, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I'm not about to spend the time thinking about it so that it will.

Interesting seating arangement. Me and Trance on one side, Tyr and Harper on the other. I don't get what ever is going on between them. I mean, I clearly heard evidence of an arguement back on the Maru, not that I could make out anything they were saying, but still, there were raiseicesices. Then they came onto the bridge, each of them looking like they were going through some major emotional trauma and were trying to hide it. Now they seem completly comfortable sitting right next to each other. Harper's never been all that comfortable sitting right next to anyone, and yet he and Tyr are just sitting there, like nothing strange at all is going on. Well, Tyr looks a little off kilter, but I know that's just because they wouldn't let him bring his full array of weaponry with him onto the planet. I swear those guns of his are just as much security blankets as they are weapons.

And here we are. Sitting here in silence... Tyr staring at the scenery in the window behind me, looking a lot like he's thinking about those guns he left back on the ship, Harper twisted at an uncomfortable angle to look out the window behind him, and Trance just sitting e, se, smiling, like everything is perfect in the universe. And me? I'm just sitting here, looking around, wondering what to say or do. It occurs to me that for some definate reason we shouldn't be quiet, and then I remember.

We don't have a plan.

Shit, that's what got us last time too, running off the bridge without a plan. It's how we ended up here. What are we gonna do once we get to Reinod? I'm sure everyone has there own idea, but its not going to work out unless we agree on something.

"I think we should check the hospitals," Trance pipes up, then smiles sweetly at me. Ok, before I wasn't completly serious when I thought she could read minds but now, ok, thats just freaky.

"What, in case he's dead?" Harper mummbles, sounding somewhat annoyed... or maybe its something else he's feeling. I don't know, it's getting harder to tell what he feels. We're not as close as we once were, and yeah, that bothers me. A lot.

"No, she means in case he happened to try to save anyone, like we originally assumed," Tyr explains, almost patiently. Wow. Tyr's actually acting sort of tolorant of us for once. Wonder what caused that.

"Oh, sorry, Trance. Guess my mind was sorta... elsewhere."

"Sounds good to me," I agree. Finally, we're forming a concencise of sorts, "By the way, Tyr, you didn't happen to notice-"

"Five hospitals in the entire area, four at what were once the edges of the city, and a fifth central one that also serves as the Council of Health Services complex."

"Uhmm... Thanks." Yeah, I'm sorta surprised at that one. Shouldn't be though, he is the most prepared person in the group, usually, excluding Dylan or Rommie. Well, at least we got the next best thing to a high guard captian and the avatar of the most powerful starship... well except for the world ship, that is, but that could be disputed...Maybe... someday, hopefully.

"I think we should go there first," Trance says, and of coarse no one will dispute the woman who's been to the future and back.

The transport stops and we get off and look around. Well, its clean for one thing, and a lot older looking, but still better kept then most of the places of commerace I've visit. The buildings are fairly tall, som somewhat eleaborate, as are the streets, which seemed paved with the same substance the buildings are built out of - a shiny, metalic like stone. Several information consols are placed at stratigic places within the plaza we are currently in. Most of the people here are natives, but theres still quite a few not so natives walking around. Trance wanders over to one of the concils, leaving the rest of us to take in the view.

"Reinod, population slightly over a million, more than a third of those being non Sinti races. Known for the selling of wholesale computer components and medical devices, as well as the occasional computer database or two. Katarsya as a whole brings in 500,000 Kietral from exports annually," Tyr, who's begining to sound more and more like a computer database himself, gives us a crash coarse on the statistics of the city while we wait.

"Only 500,000? Aurlarus 5 brings in three times as much, and thats only a space station." Harper observes.

"You have to remember, the Sinti aren't big on trade," I remind him.

"Yeah, yeah, the thinkers of the universe, I know, but still you think they could do a lot better than 500,000 Kietral per year."

Trance suddenly reappears and interupts our chat on economics.

"The Center of the Council of Health Services, Reinod Branch, is about half a mile north of here."

"Ok, sounds walkable," I say, half expecting Harper to complain, but he seems content to make the journey on foot.

We make our way towards the building, while Tyr questions Trance on our destination.

"Is the Council itself open to the public?"

"Like almost everything on Sinti, everyone can come and go as they please. There are five different offices representing the Council in Reinod, one for each sector of the city, and one for the city itself. Each office has an overseer. There is a Magistrof hof health for the city, and five lower Magistrates for each sector of the city."

"I assume we are going to speak to the Magistrate first."

"That would be a good place to start, since the Magistrate is suppose to be in charge of all information concerning health in the city, including personel files. If Rev Bem enlisted, even unofficailly, to assist in any way during the crisis on Sinti, then the Magistrate would have access to those files and any information on him."

"What's this guys name anyway?" Harper asks.

""Magistrate Dren is what he's listed as in the database."

"Wow, you guys could write a book bout this place..." Harper comments as we continue on.

After following the same road for fifteen minutes and passing many unmarked buildings that look almost exactly alike, we come to a sign which announces - Center of Coucil of Health Services, Reinod. Behind the sign is a much bigger and evene ele elaborate building than most of the ones we've walked past. There doesn't seem to be much action around here, which supports the assumtion that theres very little disease on Sinti. In fact, the building looks a lot more like a mansion than it does a hospital. We walk in the large doorway and find ourselves in a huge lobby, which leads to a short but wide staircase that holds the offices of the six buracratic figures. Behind another set of doors we find another spacious room that leads to six others. The room is almost empty, save someone who seems to be the reseptionist, who immediatly approaches us.

"Can I be of assitance?" The Sinti asks, but in a friendly tone of voice. Everyone on this planet is helpful and seemingly honest and open. It's unnerving, especially considering they're all a bunch of genius scientists.

"Yeah, We wanna talk to Magistrate Dren," says Harper.

"He does have an open door policy, sir. You can walk right in," the cheerful Sinti says, then his smile fades a little as he looks at Tyr, who's staring right back at him with his usual impatient look on his face. I can't help but smile. Tyr sure does know how to get along with the natives. I hear Harper snort as the Sinti stares at Tyr anxiously for a few moments, before regaining his 'helpful' nature and points out the office, which is conviently the one right in front of us. Tyr brushes past, ea, eager to get away from the gawking Sinti, and nearly knocks him over. Huh. Guess that guy ain't never seen a Nietzschean before. Then again, even without his collection of big guns, Tyr is still pretty menacing. Poor little blue guy.

The Magistrate, lucky for us, is a lot less shakable than the guy in the lobby, because Tyr isn't pulling any punches.

"Magistrate Dren, I presume-" I begin to say as we enter his office, but I'm cut off by the ever socialable Nietzschean.

"We're looking for a Magog wayist by the name of Rev Bem who may have assisted your... facility a few months ago. Perhaps you could help us find him."

Dren is an unsually indifferent seeming Sinti, but still has the 'helpfullness' routine down pat.

"You mean during the time-space continium crisis. Yes, it seems to me there was a Magog, but he never enlisted, so I'm afraid I couldn't tell you much about him. He tried to counsil the patients that had been somewhat traumatized during the whole matter. Many people did come and go, doing there best to help. The fact that he was a magog was why he stood out, otherwise I might not have been able to help you. He did his work in this hospital, actually. If you go down the stairs and to the left, I'm sure you can find someone who remembers him."

"Hey, thanks." Harper says as he hurries out of the office, Tyr not far behind. Trance smiles at the Dren before following me out to hurry after the rest of our party.

"Well, we seem to be making progress," she chirps as we rush down the steps, two by two.

"Yeah, but how long until we run into a dead end?"

That's how these things always are. You get leads that seem great, bhen hen five minutes later you find out that all your leads were all wrong, and then your back to square one. That's why I'm not thrilled about going on this wild goose chase for Rev. I mean, I appreaciate the fact that Dylan has some serious mental issues, but I still think there are other options. True, lots of people who could help Dylan might not, because of who he is, but I don't see why we can't maybe get one of the Sinti to help.

"That's pretty negative."

"I don't get it, though. Why can't we just pay one of the Sinti to treat him. We don't need to go through all of this."

"It's possible, but if word got out about Dylan, then a lot of bad things could happen. Any worlds that are considering the Commonwealth might change their minds, and imagine what would happen if the Drago Kazov found out?"

"Ok, good point. But what if we can't find him?"

"Then maybe we could consider an alternative, but I'm still confident that we'll find Rev Bem."

"If you say so, Trance. I'll remain a sceptic, if you don't mind."

We stop talking when we find the guys, mostly because if Harper heard me talking like that he'd probably be really angry. The two of them are taking turns questioning a Sinti, who I realize after a few mintues, is a female. Wow. The voice sorta gave it away, but other than that she looks a lot like all the other Sinti.

"I remember him. Nice man. I had never met a Magog before, so I was hesitant at first to really talk to him, but after a while we got to know each other somewhat well. He's not at all like what I heard Magog are like."

"No, he isn't is he. Look, do you maybe know where we could find him?"

"Well, he left quite a while ago, but he's on file, so if you give me a minute I'll wha what information we have on him."

How convient... Too convient. I smell a dead end coming up, no matter what Trance says. The woman walks behind a consol and begins accessing the files.

"I was told that Rev Bem was never registered as working here." Tyr says in the way that means he feels suspcious of something. That's right, didn't Dren tell us that he wasn't registered just like 5 minutes ago? He sounded pretty sure of it.

She looks up from her panel, seeming surprised.

"No, he wasn't a registered worker, even though he did do a great deal during the crisis a few months back. We have him registered as a patient."

"A patient?" Harper flies towards the panel, the fear writen all over his face.

"Yes. He had some sort of eating disorder, but our physicians couldn't do much for him, since our knowledge of the Magog is rudimentary at best. Let's see... Well, it says here that the doctors gave him medication for the pain, and then recommended that he seek treatment at Nevarus Prime."

Harper turns white at the word 'pain' but other than that he seems to be holding together pretty well. We all knew that he had problems when it came to eating, since he's Magog, but I thought he he came planetside he could find something to eat.

"Nevarus Prime... Is that a planet?" I've heard of it once, but I really don't know anything about it.

"A spacestation, with the sole purpose of treating ailments that cannot be treated elsewhere. It's in the Azar Sector. I'm not sure if he planned to go there or not. He did seem to improve right before he left."

"Do you have a listing of his previous residence?" Tyr inquires, while I mentally measure the distance between here and Azar.

"It says here that he stayed in the Merced Building, block G, sector 5."

"Uhmm..." Harper is about to ask where that is, but he forgets that we have two Sinti 'experts' on our team.

"Come on, Harper. I know where that is." Trance says in a sure tone of voice.

"What, did ya read her mind or something?"

"No, I looked at a map earlier. The sectors are named in a clockwise direction, with 1 being the central sector and 2 the northern most. Sector 5 is west of here."

"You know your directions well, but I'd be careful in that part of town. Things can get a bit wild... the offworlders, you know," the Sinti interjects and smiles sweetly. Uh, hello? We *are* offworlders. Sinti. Weird people.

"That's just the way I like it," Harper says as he smiles back and starts to walk away, not noticing the 'nice' Sinti rolling her eyes at him. Yeah, I am too. He's adorable, ain't he.

We leave the building and follow Trance to where she says another shuttle station is. All the way there she explains how the block system works.

"They go from west to east, starting with A. When the street reaches the end of the sector, then the blocks on the opposite side of the street reverse direction, going alphabetically from east to west."

"Wow." I comment, impressed by her knowledge concerning a place she's never been to before. Maybe some of Tyr's 'preparedness' is rubbing off on her, because she sure read that map thoroughly.

"Huh?" Harper askes.

"Like this," she says slightly impatiently as she draws the sorta S shaped pattern in the air.

"Oh! Gee, Trance, you're the girl with all the knowledge, aren't you?" Harper says as we approach the terminal. Lucky us, we just catch the transport going west.

Trance smiles a smile that isn't her usual Trance smile.

"Nah, I just read maps. Tyr's the expert," she says, still smiling to herself. Ok, odd, never knew Trance was that big of a Tyr fan.

"Well, yeah, but he's genetically inhanced, so he don't count," Harper answers, grinning at Tyr, who's eyebrow shoots up immediatly.

"Oh really? And how do we know that she isn't?" points out Tyr, who normally doesn't play along, but is now for some reason.

"Ok, good point. Look's like I'm knowledge guy by default then," Harper annouces as we board the crowded car.

Hey! No fair.

"Since when did I get disqualified from the contest?"

"You're the captain, you're expected to know a lot already."

Yeah, right.

"And you aren't? As I remember, you're the self proclaimed genius," Tyr says as we all struggle to find enough space to squeeze into. Wow, there are a lot of humans and 'offworlders' on here. Like the entire population, probably. We find a small space in the furthest back car. Us and the back car, what is that about?

And the contest for 'knowledge guy' continues...

"Yeah, but just because I'm a genius doesn't disqualify me."

"Neither does the fact that you're making up the rules I suppose," Tyr responds as he fights to repress his smile.

Tyr smiling? That's something you don't see everyday, or any day really. This is weird. They start out the day fighting, then they're friends, then they fight some more, and end up like best friends. Wait, part of that was yesterday, part today. Wow, we all haven't done a great lot of sleeping. Here in Katarsya it's sorta middle afternoon, almost evening of what seems like yesterday, but on the Andromeda we probably would have waken up just about now, and that's on Harper's schedule of waking up. Well, there goes my beauty rest.

"Hey, don't worry, you get to win some contests too," Harper says, still perky, probably out of ignorance, or because of all the angst and excitement during the time when he should have been asleep.

"The 'Most Nietzschean guy' contest, perhaps?" Tyr says, doing an almost perfect impression of Harper.

"Well, naturally. However, you also have the honor of receiving the 'most genetically manipulated' assuming that Trance changes colors naturally. 'Longest hair' is a toss up, but you definatly earned 'most beard' and 'biggest artilary'."

All of that in one breath? I'm impressed.

"While I'm flattered, I must know how you determined that I have the 'biggest artilary'"

No, that could not have been Tyr telling a dirty joke, even though since he's smiling, and Harper is turning redder than I've ever seen him turn. He's redder than he is even whengetsgets a sunburn. And Trance, although she seems a bit more orange, looks very proud of herself, and I'm starting to get idea why. Nah, I think I'll stay in denile and blame it on too much fresh air.

"Hey! I'm not gonna bother explaining what I meant, since I know you know." a flustered Harper replies quickly, not making too much sense.

"No, but perhaps you could explain to me what it was that you didn't mean?"

Ok, still blaming it on too much pure oxygen in the atmosphere.

"Sector 5 - Blocks A thorough K" A mechanical voice announces as the doors swish open. Thank God for small favors.

"That's our stop, boys and girls. Off we go," I hurry them, successfully cutting short the really disturbing conversation.

We step outside and are greeted by a much less 'shiny' series of blocks. The streets themselves are clean, and the outside of the buildings, which are in general a lot like plain square boxes, seem ok, but it's definately not another sector 1. The streets arent what I would call crowded, but all the people just standing around doesn't exactly help traffic. They don't look too swell either - like people in the shuttle they're mostly human, or offworlder, and in general they don't have the imaculately clean, well cut clothing of the Sinti. Actually, I don't see any Sinti here. It's pretty loud, unlike the rest of what we've seen of the city.

"It's not so bad," says Trance. Well, it isn't really. The buildings aren't as tall, but they sure make up for it in their width, but then again they have more than one residence in them. The buildings all seem to have one big door in front, and their all closed. We start out on block K and walk west to G. By the time we get there the neighborhood around us has devolved from 'not great' to 'a lot less then great'. The streets, for one thing, are really beat up, and really dirty. The buildings look like they're going to crumble. And the Merced building is no exception, rather, its a great example of where not to live, but apparantly people don't seem to get that, because theres a lot of comotion going on inside.

I push the door open and immediatly a really bad stench hits me, forcing me to cough. Then, when I recover I take a look around. Oh yuck. Harper's not gonna be happy when he see's where Rev's been living. We walk into the large corridor, who's floor is covered in a layer of... well I don't want to know, and random pieces of metal, computer components and other things I can't even identify. I look back to see what Harper's reaction is, but I don't see anything in his expression other than mild and detached disgust. Good, I was worried the mhe might freak out when he saw this, knowing that this is what Rev had to live in, but he seems ok.

There are several doors and a stair at the end of the hall. An old woman comes out of the one closest to us... she don't look too happy.

"Managers Office," she says and points across the hall and two doors down, before slamming her own door behind her.

"Friendly neighbors..." points out Harper.

We walk to the door that the woman pointed out. Nothings on it, no different than any door thats in the hallway. Then my foot touches something and I look down to see a dirty piece of paper with the word 'manager' writen in black ink. Hmm.. looks like management isn't doing too well either.

Well, at least the door is clean enough to knock on. A guy who hasn't shaved in a while opens the door just enough to peek his head out.

"Hey... what can I do you for?" he asks with a grin. Oh great, it's Harper's long lost twin.

"We're looking for someone who used to live here. His name is Rev Bem and-"

"Oh, yeah, that magog guy," says the manager as he steps outside and quickly closes the door behind him, "Yeah, I remember him. Must have left about three, four months ago. Only stayed for about three weeks, but he paid on time, unlike most of them around here."

"Know where he went?" Harper asks.

"Nah, he just left one day, didn't say why... come to think of it, left some of his stuff behind. I wasn't sure if, you know, he was comin back or nothin, so I just locked the place up til someone ask for a room. Thing is, no one ever did. You wanna go up, take a looksee?"

"Yeah that'd be great," I offer him a smile, and I get one of those corny winks back, the kind that always makes me want to laugh.

"Anything for you, sweetie."

Ok, he's a lot worse than Harper, I admit it. But, he does lead us up the stairway, me bd hid him, then Harper, and Tyr and finally Trance bringing up the rear.

Upstairs is a lot dirty and smellier than downstairs. Trash everywhere, clothes hanging from clothlines strung across the ceiling of the hall. God, how primative.

"How can you live like this? I mean, I would think the Sinti wouldn't tolarate it."

"Well, you know, they give us our blocks and let us do what we want with them. They know us 'off worlders' ain't as perfect as them, so they let us manage ourselves, long as we don't cause riots or nothing. We own nearly half of sector 5, rest is warehouses and such. Truth is I try to keep this place clean as possible, but the renters do what they want. Hell, had this place cleaned out bout a week ago and look at it now. I mean, seriously, it may look ok during the day, but come night there are always some wild parties, in the streets, the halls, everywhere. This is the sector people come to when the want to have fun, can't afford no where else, or don't wanna be found. Well, actually, lots of offworlders come here just because they don't really fit in no where else. Most of them are tradesmen. No one stays for long."

Finally, he shut up, what a relief. How big is this place? We've been walking forever... I look back at Harper and the rest of the crew, and see him bat a really nasty piece of laundry out of his face.

"Huh. Reminds me of back home on Earth."

"That's unfortunate," comments Tyr, as he pushes aside the same pair of pants.

The managers stops in front of one of the doors and unlocks it.

"Here it is. Left everything the way it was. I'll be downstairs if you need me. Don't forget to close the door on your way out," He says before quickly dissapearing.

"Well, can't say I'm sad to see him go," Harper mumbles after he leaves.

"His insesent babbling was beginning to annoy me," adds Tyr. Wow is he talkative today.

I assess the place and am relieved to find it a lot cleaner than the hall, even though it smells worse. A lot bigger than I expected, too. Not an entirely terrible place to live... if your a small rodent. Several bags are strewn about the room, and a pile of old clothes has been tn onn on what might be a bed. We split up and start searching various parts of the room.

"An annoyed Nietzschean... yeah, that might decrease the population of 'offworlders," Harper says while

"You don't seem to distressed by the idea."

"Come on, boys, we're offworlders too, remember?" I remind them.

"No, we're tourists. There's a big difference," protests Harper.

"Yes... offworlder tourists," adds the newly conversational Tyr.

"Hey don't push me, I might become *annoyed*"

Here we go again. Hopefully this time Tyr won't start talking dirty, because last was just too bizarre. I sift through my pile of clothes while I listening to their ongoing banter.

"I wonder what kind of population decrease that will bring about..."

"Nietzschean."

"Unlikely."

"Oh you think I can't take you?"

"Not in combat, if that's what you mean."

Ok, time to get back to business.

"Did any of you find anything yet?" I interupt, before things get more weird.

"Nah, a lot of extra clothes, or tor two books, but nothing that looks like something he'd really need to keep if he left."

"Looks like he decided to travel light, and left behind anything unnessarry."

Are they aware they pretty much said the same exact thing?

"Yeah, nothing here either. Trance?"

No answer.

Oh my god, where's Trance? I turn around and see that Tyr is puzzled as well, then I see Harper rush over to a door that I assume leads to either a closet or a bathroom.

"Hey, Trance - whoa!" He says as he stumbles backward, "That reeks!"

Well, I guess he discovered the source of the stench. I go over to see for myself. The bathroom, which is about the same size as a closet, is strewn with various dead rodents, or what remained of them. Most of them looked half eaten. Maybe I was wrong about this being a great place for rodents to live.

"Well, at least we know Rev watinating healthy," Harper chocks out, still reeling from the smell, that is until Tyr lays a hand upon his shoulder which seems to immediatly steady him. Ok, maybe not everything Dylan said was part of his paranoid delusions... things are certaintly starting to make him look a lot more sane than previously thought.

"That's a matter of opinion."

Good to know Tyr hasn't lost his voice, though I start to wonder how he can breath standing that close to the door. Lots of corpses in there, but still no Trance. I walk towards the open door of the room, breathing in as much of the cleaner are as possible, but before I get there she walks in.

"Where were you?" I ask, still gasping for air.

"Down the hall, talking to a neighbor, who says Rev got a ride with his cousin out of the sector."

"Does he know where?"

"His cousin is a merchant, who travels all the way from Sinti to Ungla 6 in the Orius Cluster, making many stops along the way, none that he can remember though."

"That's still not even remotely close to Nevarus Prime." Tyr points out. So much for that theory.

I expect Harper to add some comment to what Tyr says, since that seems to be their new pattern, but he doesn't say anything. I look over to where Tyr left him and he's knealing on the ground near the corpses. Is he ok? Either he's taking the news really hard, or the stench really got to him, but before I can go over and make sure he's alright he calls over to us.

"Hey guys, I think I found something."

We all crowd around and not breath in too deeply as we look at where he's pointing to. Sure enough, there's something shiny and green among the piles of brown fur and white bone. Harper then looks up at Tyr, until Tyr notices.

"I hope you aren't expecting me to reach my hand in there..."

"You're the Nietzschean."

"And you're the human. Your point being?"

Trance sighs and thrusts her hand into the scattering of rotting corpses and pulls out a small green silver square that has strange writing on it. Tyr, supposedly too squimish to put his hand into the pile of carrion, now grabs the dirty and maybe diseased square and inspects it.

"What is it?" Harper asks, trying to look over Tyr's shoulder.

"An Alyarasta. The currency of the Telonya homeworld, which lies confiently on the same coarse that the merchant ship will be taking."

"Wow, that sure narrows it down! Great job, Harper!" Trance chirps excitedly.

"Seems as if the human genius saves the day," Tyr concurs.

"I think this calls for a celebration," Harper adds.

"Too bad that we're on Sinti or we could have one," I say, hoping to discorage him. It fails.

"Aww, Come on, Boss. I'm sure there's a bar or nightclub around here," he protests.

"You just want to get drunk."

"Yeah, so?"

"Let the boy have his fun," Tyr says.

Yeah and you just want to get him drunk. I look over at Trance and discover that I'm outnumbered. Oh well, a drink would be nice right about now. I just hope we don't end up in a place too sleezy.

"Fine," I give in, and the grin reappears immediatly. Oh, am I gonna regret this.

"I know of one that might be good," offers Trance.

"What, you saw that on the map too?" asks Harper.

"No, the guy down the hall invited me for a drink. He was... odd though, so I said no. But he told me that it was right over in Block D, which isn't too far. It's called the Galaxy."

"Hey, sounds good to me, lets go!" Harper is out the door first and almost runs down the hall. Boy, he must really need a drink if he's going that fast. Either that or he's in a really good mood, and wants to party.

"Woo hoo! Par-tay!" I hear from downstairs as I reach the stairwell. I'm guessing it's the latter, even though that's sorta surprising, considering the events of the last 48 hours, and the few months before that. It's a good thing, though, to see him this happy again. Trance has her 'knowing' smile on, and even though I not exactly sure what she knows right now, I'm sure it's something good.

The walk from block G to block D goes a lot quicker, now that everyone's in a better mood, and we actually have some hope for the future.

"You seem... cheerful," observes Tyr when we finally catch up to Harper.

"Yeah, guess I'm starting to believe what Trance says about that perfect possibility stuff," he replies off handedly, then suddenly turns pale white and his eyes widen.

"I mean-" he starts to reiterate, before Tyr cuts him off.

"Anything's possible," Tyr replies cryptically before brushing past him to take the lead. Harper suddenly regains his pinkish tink and the smile creeps back over his face. Whoa, am I missing something here? The look on Trance's face confirms it. I am now *so* out of the loop. That's slightly annoying, considering I've know Harper the longest, and I'm the captain, but maybe I can get Trance to enlighten me later on.

We arrive at 'The Galaxy', which actually wouldn't be so bad if it werent for the godawful music. It's chic, but still sorta corny looking, seems to have a wide array of alcoholic beverages, and have I mentioned the music? All in all it's Harper's paradise.

"Drinks are on Beka," he suddenly announces as we walk through the door.

"Yeah, right. The amount of drinks you're planning on consuming would cost me a fortune."

I'm not planning on going broke any time soon.

"I'll pay," Tyr causully offers. Oh yeah, and don't we all know why.

The place is half crowded with 'offworlders', most of them on the dance floor, flailing their arms to the semebelence of what might be a rhythm. I find a table near the front, but far enough back as to avoid the 'music', and buy a type of ale that looks good before sitting down. Harper stands at the bar and downs three shots of something almost as quickly as Tyr can fork over the Kietral. I expected Trance to come sit down, but instead she yells over to the buyer of drinks and the drinker of drinks
"H
"Hey, you two wanna come dance?"

Whatever Harper's been downing must be pretty strong because he already seems on his way to drunk as he nods and follows Trance to the dance floor. I'm surprised to see Tyr follow them, or I would have been surprised a week ago. Now I would expect nothing less. The three of them claim a spot on the dance floor, where I don't think such a thing as a 'slow song' ever existed. No one there seems to be dancing with anyone, and yet they're all dancing with everyone. Trance is by far the best dancer, even though its amazing that she can tolarte the mixed up music, let alone dance to it. Harper's drunk enough not to make a fool out of himself by doing his sober routine, and Tyr, while dancing far more conservatively then most of the drunks, is still legitamitly dancing. Pretty soon Trance is dancing more on her own then with the two of them, because Harper and Tyr seem to have retreated into their own little world of dancing to bad music. I see her wave to them before coming to take the seat across from me, but I doubt they noticed.

"I got tired."

"Right..."

"Besides, they don't really need me. They're doing fine on their own."

"Yeah, now that you got them dancing with each other..."

"You noticed?"

"It was hard not to."

She stops smiling as wide and leans towards me, resting her elbows on the table.

"You don't seem too happy about it."

"I'm just not quite sure what you're trying to encourage here..."

"Just another perfect possibility, of coarse."

"And what would perfect possible future would that be?"

She gestures with her head to the dance floor.

"That one."

"A drunken one night sta

"Beka!" she scolds me, with a disapproving glance.

"Well, that's all I see coming of this..."

"Beka, I know he reminds you of-"

"It's not that, Trance. Tyr can't be trusted."

"Oh really? He hasn't run off with his little box, ha, has he?"

"No."

Ok, that is odd. Where's his instinct of self preservation? He should have examined his options and dissappeared by now.

"I know it may seem strange, but look at them, Beka."

I glance over towards the dance floor, and there the two of them are, Harper with a shot glass in his hand and looking slightly drunker, which makes me suspicious until I see the bottle of something that Tyr is consuming. He's not nearly as out of it as Harper, or at least he's not showing it, but at least the playing field is leveled. I have to admit that they look... strangly appropriate together, now that the crowd has shifted away from them and they are clearly dancing together. The tempo's slowed down, and so has the dancing, but at least the music has gotten a little bit better. Harper has his back almost up against Tyr's chest, and he's looking up at him, everything he's feeling clearly written on his face. They're talking, almost whispering it looks like, but who knows what they're saying all I know is that Tyr hardly looks predatory, and Harper seems to be holding his own, unlike what I had been worrying about. They look... perfect together.

"The perfect couple..." Trance sighs, and looks completly content.

"Have you been reading my thoughts, Trance?" I wouldn't normally ask her this, but the ale seems to be getting to me.

"Well, that depends what you mean by reading, and what you consider to be your thoughts."

Ok, that's going to go completly no where. Getting back to the subject...

"How long has this been going on?" I gee toe towards the two on the dance floor, even though I don't need to.

"Longer than either of them has known. It took a lot of bad things to realize it, and a lot more bad things might happen, but in the end it's worth it."

"More bad things?"

"There's always a perfect possible future, Beka."

"Yeah, but how many 'bad things' has to happen the there to be one?"

"Enough to justify it."

Well, that was an answer, but I can't figure it out right now. Hopefully I'll be able to remember all of this in the morning. The ale is stronger than I had thought.

"Oops," Trance suddenly laughs, looking over at the dancefloor, now mostly empty, and I see a passed out Harper being picked up and slung over the shoulder of Tyr. I can't help but laugh too. Tyr doesn't say anything as he walks past us - we all know it's time to badinading back to the Maru.

After a little effort I stand up and follow them and Trance out the door. As he passes the counter, Tyr flings some currency upon it and walks out into the night air, leaving a surprised looking bartender behind.

"Well, that's something you don't see everyday..."

"A Nietzschean with a human slung over his shoulder?" I ask.

"Nah. Someone who bothers to leave a tip."

TBC

A/N: weird ending I know. Like something I might come up with at 2 in the AM. Oh, look at that. It's two in the morning. Anyway, thanks for all the great reviews. They encourage me to abandon sleep for my writting... hehehe. Ultimately, it makes me a much happier person, even if I can't get up tommorrow morning. Hehehe. Pleasegivegive any spelling errors, my brain isn't making a whole lot of sense right now. =) More reviews please.
- 5
- 6
- 7
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Dead Men Don't Cry