A PLANE SCRAPED ITS BELLY ON A SOOTY YELLOW MOON
An Andromeda fanfiction by L0C

Gone savage for teenagers
With automatic weapons
And boundless love.
-Soul Coughing "Screenwriter's Blues"

The Andromeda Ascendant was currently resting on the surface of the only natural satellite of the planet of Sardon, a human colony that was ancient even in Dylan's original days. The planet was almost completely covered in concrete and neon, the capital city Tipiskaw swallowed up mostly all the other towns and cities around it until it reached the northern continent's shores.

It's seat of power was here on it's bright yellow moon, far removed from the smoggy, rainy home of a hundred billion beneath it. It offered a view of the planet rising over the sooty yellow horizon, freeways splayed across the land like knots, continents glowing brightly against the utter darkness of the naturally unlit oceans.

Sardon's elite were here on the moon, in the small town that held the presidential palace and was completely dependent on money and resources from the planet far below it. They were mingling with the crew of the Andromeda, or most of it, to celebrate their new status as a member of the Commonwealth.

Tyr was bored. He was there to protect the ambassadors from each other and whatever other threats may be present. It was a function he often served and it usually kept him pretty busy, but no tonight. Tonight there was no threat. The Sardonics were a happy, jovial bunch of people. Too jovial. Too trusting. As unsettling as it seemed, it made Tyr a little nervous. But they posed no real threat. So it didn't really bother him that much.

It just made him bored and a little restless. He glanced around the meeting hall at the various locals, fellow crew members and ambassadors from various signatories- no representative of the Sabra-Jaguar pride, however. That was good. Tyr wasn't really in the mood to see Charlemagne or his wife. There was no real reason for bad feelings or mistrust between them, Tyr just wasn't in the mood.

He'd been falling into and out of moods lately.

By the Progenitor, this was the most bored he had ever been. Even with his inhuman attention span, there was only so much he could take.

Harper had managed to get out of it. He had badgered Dylan for weeks beforehand, talking about how he was getting cabin fever and needed to feel a planet beneath his feet for a while, how he was only going to screw up the negotiations anyway and how Tipiskaw was famous for it's nightlife, please, please, please? Dylan had at last bended and Harper had been on leave for the last two days. No one had heard from him yet but they figured they only would if something had gone wrong, so no one was worrying yet.

Harper, however, was not having as much fun as he thought he would. Sardon wasn't the best place for surfing, surprise surprise, but it did have a bunch of good skateparks. However, it rained, constantly, since he hit dirt, so that didn't help. Rain always made him feel gross and sickly like he was back on Earth. It was the same foul brown acidic rain that fell on Earth, too, and there was poverty on the streets. All over. It was different from Earth, but it was there, in the shadows, a child in rags or an incapacitated bag lady. All the locals seemed to be able to ignore them easily enough but it hit Harper a little close to home.

Good parties, though. Harper spent two days alternately drunk or sleeping, usually with the full intent of it being with someone, but that had not yet proved fruitful. Now he was wandering through a demonstration in one of the main squares, and it was interesting. All these people yelling and cheering, some singing and dancing. It was fun. Harper didn't quite understand what was happening, but it felt good to stick it to the man like that. `Sardon Industry out of Dragon Space' picket signs read. Sure, everything out of Dragon space. What?

Harper wasn't quite sure who threw the first stone, the crowd or the police, but soon there was panic. Hoses were unleashed upon the crowd, gas bombs unleashed, fires started. Harper ran in no particular direction, away from the chaos at least, and right into the chest of a fully armed policeman.

"Oh, Jesus," He started, and that seemed to be enough provocation for the law enforcer. He grabbed Seamus' arm and wrenched it behind his back while another beat him with a billy. Harper resisted at first but eventually, sadly, his old conditioning returned to him and he fell limp. They tossed him where the street met the wall where he remained.

He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, watching the chaos, watching others get beaten or carried off, cringing at the pain in his stomach and his back. Eventually it quieted down, sounds of yelling and gunfire and sirens in the far distance. Footsteps approached him from the distance and suddenly a young local woman was kneeling by him. "Holy shit, are you hurt? What did they do to you?"

Harper looked up at her blearily. "Huh?"

"Fucking pigs. Here. Let's get you someplace warm." The girl knelt by him and slung one of his arms over her shoulder, helping him stand.

--

Harper woke up staring at a dimly lit dirty beige wall. Music floated up faintly from downstairs. He realized he was fully clothed and lying in a small messy bed. A warm plaid flannel blanket tucked around him and his shoes lying in a heap on the floor. He turned slowly, taking in the rest of the room. A female laugh came at him softly from his right.

"Yeah, yeah I know. You should totally quit. I mean it. You're always talking about it, you should just do it already." A girl, a young woman really, sat on a chair in the corner, painting her toenails, an earpiece leading to a communication port whose vidscreen was snowy with static. She glanced up at him. "I have to go. He's awake. The guy I told you about. Yeah, I know, I'll take care of it, Klint, don't worry." She took out her earpiece and smiled at Harper. "Hi," She didn't wait for a response as she went to fetch a glass of water. "Sorry if I was too loud- or the music. We're on top of the Sugar Free Jazz, there's not much I can do about it. That was my roommate Klint.well not so much my roommate, I'm actually in between places right now. I just got back from a mission with SSR a few weeks ago- you know what SSR is? Of course you do, you were at the demonstration. Anyway, Klint works night at a porn shop- he hates it. Here." She handed him the glass of water and sat on the floor in front of him. "So he's just standing there and people actually come up to him and ask `do you have any child porn?' and he's like `get the hell outta here'. They make him keep a bat behind the counter just in case. It's crazy, he wants to quit and I think he just should. It's disgusting. Don't you think it's disgusting?"

"How the hell are you?" Harper had finished his water and found his voice.

"Oh, I'm Sakin. Hi. Is that okay? Are you still badly hurt? Who are you?"

"I'm..Harper." He sat up in bed blearily, his head still ringing slightly.

"Well Harper," Sakin smirked at him and he realized how cute she was. "Are you fatally injured or will you live?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He smiled back at her, hoping it was charming. She was really cute. She was small and fit, with porcelain white skin and big, expressive black eyes. She had long, dark purple dreadlocks. Harper knew the Sardonics were offshoots of the human race, but as far as he understood their mutations were largely on an unseen cellular level. Oh well. It worked on her. Unless she was using nanobots like Beka, which took away some of the mystery.

"Did you hear what I said?" Sakin was saying.

"Huh? What?"

"You can't stay here. Klint's not too happy. Hell, he's not too happy about my staying here. I just thought it was cruel to dump you off at a hospital somewhere. Do you need me to take you to one?"

"No, no, I'm good. Thanks." Harper stood up and put his boots on.

"Do you have a place to go? I could walk you home." She shrugged on a form fitting jacket that reminded him vaguely of the leather tendencies of certain crew members of the Andromeda.

"I'm staying at the inn at the space port. I think." Harper was a little surprised at how cold it became when night fell and the excitement was over. He and Sakin started walking down the still
populated but now calm streets.

"I know where that is. No problem. You're not from central Tipiskaw are you? Staying at the spaceport inn and all. You're a Souther, aren't you? They always come up here for the skateboarding and then get the crap kicked out of them."

"No, I'm not from the South. I'm an off-worlder." It was sort of nice talking to someone who talked as much as he did.

"Really? Where, one of the drifts?"

"No," Why was he telling her the truth? Well, he did sort of hope that once they got to the inn she might spend the night with him, and telling the truth couldn't hurt that. Regardless either way, he'd never see her again, so he might as well. "I'm from Earth."

Sakin stopped in her tracks. "You're kidding." Oh, no. Now came the disgust and embarrassment that everyone displayed when they found out he was a mudfoot, like they couldn't see it before. Great. Now she definitely wasn't going to sleep with him, probably terrified about all sorts of diseases.

Well, hindsight is twenty-twenty, Seamus Z.

"I've.I've never met an adult Earther who got off planet. I mean, kids, little kids, but.how did you get off?" She looked away. "No, I'm sorry. It's none of my business. It's just.wow, what a coincidence. I just got back from Earth. We left a week before that revolution broke out. Did you hear about that?"

"Yeah.yeah I did."

"That's something. I wish I could have been there. I wish, well I wish it just meant more to the Dragons, you know? Here, let's sit." She gestured at a bench overlooking a barren park space. "Where on Earth are you from?"

".Boston."

"Boston?! Holy shit! You're fucking with me! So, did you, like, just totally freak out when you saw that news feed or what?"

Harper's face paled slightly and he looked down a bit. "Well.yeah. He was my cousin."

Although talking about Brendan was still a little painful, even after all these weeks, it was almost worth it to see the look on her face. Almost. "You.no way. No way! That's.I mean.oh, jeez, I'm sorry man." Sakin surprised him by leaning forward and giving him a quick, close hug. "Wow. Man. Man. I was in Brasilia for three months, and in Beirut for a month before that. The Nietzsheans caught us, so we sort of had to leave, but if we had stayed for just a few more days.wow. That would've been something." She looked sideways at him. "I'm sorry about your cousin and all, man, but, you know, he's a galactic hero. And if he's still alive then he's a living hero, which is even better."

"Why were you on Earth?"

"Huh?"

"What were you doing on Earth?" Harper was changing the subject as seamlessly as he could. It didn't seem to bother Sakin.

"I work with the SSR. Teaching, mostly-"

"SSR?"

"Oh. Well. Society for Sentient Rights, stupid name I know. I hate it. But what're you gonna do?" Sakin slouched slightly on the bench, and Harper liked it.

"What do you do with them?"

"Well, we, we set up sort of makeshift open schools for the refugees, you know? Shit, Brasilia was full of them, a lot of them were moved off their land by the Dragons, or displaced by the Magog- but you know all that. I taught littler kids, mostly, how to read, and use technology. You know, maintain ships and all that. Some of them ended up getting jobs fixing shit for the Dragons, which is stupid, but it's better than in a sweatshop or slavery, right? But they caught us and.it doesn't look like we're going back to Earth anytime soon. Which sucks. But we also, it's not just Earth, right? I mean I've worked on Centauri and Betelgeuse 3, too. We do this thing.I mean
sometimes young mothers there.well they know we're from Sardon, right? So they, like, foster their kids with us and we put them into the system here and they get adopted by barren couples.black market babies, I know, but it's all good, right?"

Harper smiled. He could tell Sakin was more than a little wired, which could only be expected given tonight's events. "Yeah, yeah, that's all good. That's really cool.I've never heard of anyone doing anything like that. I thought everyone just left us to stagnate and die." And occasionally get carried off on slave ships.

"Well, we've only been in existence for, like, ten years. It's hard work, you know. The Dragons recognize Sardonic ships so we have to be careful about how we get in- it's difficult. I've never met an adult Earther who made it off planet. That's amazing."

There was a moment of silence where the two stared off into the darkness and noisy silence of the city night, staring up at the planet's big bright sooty yellow moon.

"What.what was all that about? That riot? I mean I came down here to have a good time and I walked into a freaking riot."

"Oh, it's complicated. And stupid. It was a peaceful demonstration, those pigs put up that fence. They were asking for it."

"Why were you demonstrating?"

Sakin shrugged. "The Commonwealth signature."

Harper glanced at her, surprised. "You're against joining the Commonwealth?"

"No, no, not really. It's just.you don't know much about Sardonic politics, do you?"

"I know it's a peaceful, representative democracy."

Sakin actually laughed. "And if all government reports were true, there'd be a thousand fewer slave planets."

"True."

Sakin sighed. "The party in power- the Sardonic Democratic Union- has been in power for the last forty years. Before I was born. Since then.I mean, people have found stuffed ballot boxes, but it's easy to deny it, you know? All the other parties have all but ceased to exist- a lot of those politicians just disappeared. I've heard of a lot of people getting beaten or threatened for publicly supporting the opposition. Or what's left of it. And.well, a lot of the bigger companies here do business with the Drago-Kazov. The government's in on it, or some of it, anyway. Garments, textiles, stuff like that, they use slave labour." Sakin glanced around herself. "It's never been said out loud, you know? Or proven. But I know, at least. I mean, I've been to Earth, I saw it. You know what I'm talking about."

Harper nodded. His own experience with slavery under the Dragons supported that.

"And you can see it here, too. `Cause there's no jobs for us anymore. I mean, you have to be really educated to get a decent job here, and a lot of people can't afford it because their parents can't work." Sakin sighed, staring up at the moon. "There's no way our leaders told the truth to those poor bastards up there. There's no way they're going to keep any promises. And I've done my homework, you know- I know the Jaguars and the Dragons are always going at it. What happens if war breaks out again and we're called into it? And the Dragons call our bluff? What happens to us then?" She narrowed her eyes at the sooty yellow moon. "It's so easy for them. They're so happy up there in their fucking little palace. They don't see the danger."

".shit," Harper said after a moment.

"Yeah."

They stayed like that, both brooding, staring up at the bright moon before them, for what felt like forever. Harper looked down and realized he was holding Sakin's hand.

"This is sort of nice-" He glanced at her face and realized she had fallen asleep.

Harper looked up at the moon and back down at Sakin, and decided that the moon had nothing on her.

(Chapter Two)

New York, New York, I won't go back
Indelible reminder of the steel I lack
I gave you seven years, what did you give me back
Jaw grind, disposition to a panic attack
-Soul Coughing `The Incumbent'

Harper awoke slowly to the feel of soft sunlight on his face. No nightmares. Clear blue sky. Maybe he was still dreaming.

He was lying on sand. Ah. Maybe he was on the beach. No. He listened, and could hear the distinct sounds of a crowded city. Oh. He leaned over on his right slowly. A girl was lying next to him. Oh. A beautiful girl.

Oh. It was Sakin.

Jeez, where are we? He wondered as he sat up slowly. He looked around him. They were in the middle of what could have been a park, but was really an expanse of sand and dirt, in the middle of the city. There were a few people at the edges of the `park', staring at them. Huh.

"Sakin?" he muttered blearily. Oh, his throat hurt. He needed water. He shook the young woman's shoulder gently.

"Hnn? Harper?" She squinted up at him. "Where are- oh no." She sat up quickly, like a bolt, shaking the sand out of her dreadlocks. "Oh, no. Shit!" She glanced around herself, quickly. "Those fucking pigs!"

"What?"

"Don't move! You'll step on one."

"One what?"

"This place is covered in landmines. This is insane."

"Huh?" Harper stared up at her incredulously. "How? What?"

"Just calm down. Stay still. This used to be a playground. Gangs would buy mines from the Dragons and plant them here. More, uh, entitled people would die and then jobs would be free. Now it's all just mines. Dammit!"

"Well how in the hell did we get here?"

"Cops. Dammit." Sakin took off her jacket and brushed sand off her shirt. "We must've fallen asleep on that bench, and they carried us in. They do that occasionally. Shit, and they covered their tracks. They know where they are, see, they just won't demine or mark them. Says it'd cost danger pay. Fuck." She took a deep breath and that seemed to calm her. "Okay. They're usually bouncing mines so they won't blow until you step off them. Do you feel like you're sitting on anything?"

"No."

"Okay. Stay where you are." She inched around on her hands and knees, blowing sand away. Eventually she had uncovered six mines around them in a circle, and they marked them with their jackets and boots. They sat back to back in a circle of mines.

"This is insane. You're serious, hey? That there's lots of parks like this and the government won't do anything to clean them up?"

"Yeah." Sakin shielded her eyes against the sun and peered out at the people on the edges of the park peering back. "And the townspeople just watch you get desperate and blow yourself up."

"That's insane. Everything you've told me is insane. Dylan should know."

"Dylan? Whose Dylan?"

Harper didn't answer her.

"Dylan Hunt? `Cause that's the only Dylan I can think of, but that can't be it. Can it?"

".maybe."

"Is it? You know Dylan Hunt?"

"I.I'm the Andromeda's mechanic."

"You're fucking with me. And to think I was going to sleep with you."

"What? You were? And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Yeah. Sure. I thought that was the deal. Gods, the Andromeda. Dylan Hunt. I mean, restoring the Commonwealth's all well and good, but there's so much more he could be doing."

"Huh? How?"

"Like cleaning up the slave planets for one. He has the guns. Fuck."

"Yeah. Well. It's not like I didn't try to get him to."

There was a moment of silence. Sakin looked over her shoulder at Harper. "Really? You did?"

"Yeah. A couple of times. But, well, it wasn't really on his agenda. So you were actually going to sleep with me, huh?"

"You're amazing. Un-fucking-believable. I mean, escaping Earth is one thing, but the Andromeda. You're unreal. How'd you do it?"

Harper didn't answer right away.

"Oh come on, man." Sakin said. "We need to talk about something else if we're going to figure out a way out of this, and the only thing I can talk about right now is those fucking pigs and how much I fucking hate them. I mean, they do this all the time, and they still can't come in here and mark-"

"Okay, okay, calm down." Sakin was thrashing about a little too much and it was making Harper nervous and panicky. "I'll tell you, okay? I was working with this girl Beka Valentine on the Eureka Maru when we found the Andromeda. All right?"

"But how'd you get off Earth?"

Harper sighed. "I.Beka.well she saved me. From.Dragons."

There was no reply, but Harper knew from Sakin's stilled back that he had her attention. "When I was ten, my, uh.my parents were killed by Nietzschean slavers. I got away, but.well, they got me eventually anyway. My cousin, his name was Brendan.he thought I had just run away but they got me eventually." He swallowed, hard. He hadn't told anyone this, not even Beka. "They.they put on this ship. The New Yorker."

Oh, god. The memories came back and out of Harper like a bat out of hell. Suddenly he could remember everything, the sounds and the darkness in the hold of the New Yorker, where they invaded his brain and stuck the port into him. Where he did the most meaningless of jobs for hours on end. Where his soul died and almost never came back to life.

"The worst.the worst part was that there was this girl," Harper's eyes were full of wetness, and his voice was shaky and cracking, but he refused to let go. "I don't know if.I knew her from before or what, but she was always there and she was always so good to me. When I had a chance to get off, with Beka, I.I promised her I'd take her with me, but I didn't. I just didn't. I got scared and I just ran off. And I.and I can't even remember her name." The weight of his entire unhappy past settled on him and the seriousness of his present situation hit Harper in the face and the tears came, for the girl, for the first time ever. He had never been touched by these memories
before, and that had always scared him a little-but this scared him even more.

"Oh, Harper, I." Sakin was suddenly, for once, at a loss for words as she turned and cradled Harper in her lap.

"Why? Why didn't I take her with me, why did I go free and she didn't?" Harper's chest convulsed as he struggled for breath. "Why.and.and after, I.I mean, I got infested by Magog for Chrissakes, and just when I thought I was gonna die, I get them out, and now I'm stuck here in the middle of a freaking minefield! It's like death is fucking teasing me!"

"Harper, Harper, shh, calm down," Sakin hugged Harper too her and tried to calm him, quickly getting as scared as Harper was, staring across the minefield to the spectators far away. "That's over now. Hey. Hey. Tell me about the Andromeda, hey?"

Harper closed his eyes and wiped his face and tried to control his breathing. "Okay." he said slowly, after a long pause.

--

Tyr was annoyed. Harper, of course, hadn't returned to the ship this morning like he was supposed to, and he had been sent to go look for him while the rest of the crew prepared to leave.

He was sure the boy would still be asleep in his room at the inn, but when he arrived, he wasn't there, and the innkeeper said he hadn't returned at night. Tyr sighed, and went back out, armed with a flexi photo of the boy, to look. No point in worrying the captain about it, Harper was probably just passed out in some strip joint or brothel.

--

"So.this Tyr is.Nietzschean?" Sakin and Harper sat close, facing each other. Harper's eyes were still red and his face still dry from tears, but he had calmed down considerably in the last hour. Talking about his friends had helped him immensely, but neither of them had yet formulated a plan to get out of the minefield. "And.you're okay with this?"

Harper shrugged. "Yeah."

"And you're in love with him?"

Harper stared at the ground. "Look, I haven't said this out loud before. To anyone. So I'd appreciate it if-"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. I know how you feel. I mean.I take it you haven't told him anything?"

"Jesus, no!" Harper stared at her, incredulously. "Do you know what he'd say?"

"Well, no. I've never met this person."

Talking with Sakin was strangely like talking to an old friend over drinks. "I don't know what to do about it. Nothing. I think he hates me. He makes me so nervous, you know? But.well, sometimes he's nice to me. He's saved my life before, but then he makes it seem like such a chore, you know?" Harper sighed. "I mean.I'd love to be with him. He spars with me sometimes, right? And that's the greatest thing in the world. And when I had the Magog, I mean.it's like he was taking care of me. But other than that, well.he makes me feel like shit. I mean, why would he be attracted to me anyway? It's pointless. I'm pathetic and useless and scrawny and.well, look at me!"

"Hey. Stop that," Sakin said calmly. "You're not useless or pathetic. You survived Earth for fuck's sake, and a slave ship after that. I think as a Nietzschean, he should be able to appreciate that. And you're not unattractive. You're anything but." She reached out and stroked his face softly. "I think that if this Tyr person can't see that, then he doesn't deserve you." She leaned in to kiss him.

Harper smiled against her lips and kissed her back, even if he was secretly pretending she was Tyr.

--

Tyr's search had led him to the steps of the Sugar Free Jazz. A bartender there told him that the boy had gone north with this Sakin girl, but who knows where that Sakin girl took off too.

So Tyr headed north, and was content to continue and brood when he saw a gathering of people around a square park. He pushed his way through them and his superior sight allowed him to glimpse the boy in the center with a local young woman draped across his lap.

"Of all the inappropriate." Tyr sighed and stepped into the sandy park, ignoring the cries of the people around him.

"Hey, man, you shouldn't go in there-"

"Dude, shut up. This'll be great."

Tyr rolled his eyes at the banter behind him and strolled towards Harper and his latest conquest.

--

Harper hadn't had this much fun in a long time. Despite the fact that he was sitting in the middle of a minefield, or a crowd of people were watching, he was able to forget his troubles and lose himself in Sakin's kisses. Or maybe it was the exhibitionism and sense of danger. Whatever. It worked.

Sakin broke free of his mouth and smiled at him. "Do me a favour?"

"What?"

"When we get out of this.will you tell your captain the things I told you? About the Dragons? Get him to talk to our leaders?"

"Yeah. Yeah I will. Do me a favour first."

"What?"

"Keep kissing me."

Sakin smiled and leaned in from where she sat on his lap, kissing him gently and lovingly.

She had a tongue stud. Oh, god, Harper figured he was already blown up by mines and in heaven.

No, heaven would have Tyr there with a tongue stud.

"Harper?" Speak of the devil! Harper twitched quickly at Tyr's voice, jolting Sakin off his lap. She fell into Tyr's legs, sideways, and it actually surprised him. Tyr lost his balance.

And fell.

Onto Harper's jacket.

Tyr rolled his eyes and suppress and growl and moved to-

"Don't get up!"

Tyr looked up warily at Harper and the local girl, who were both staring back at him apprehensively. Then he realized that he felt something digging into the middle of his back.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

(Chapter Three)

Leave me,
Unholy and dirty
And beautiful
-David Usher

"Harper." Tyr's voice had that menacing quality that meant he was close to losing his patience.

"Just.just please don't move, Tyr." Harper said, still holding his hands out in front of him like that was going to stop Tyr.

"What am I lying on?" Tyr didn't drop Harper's gaze.

"Uh-"

"A landmine," Sakin cut in. "Sucks, I know. I'm sorry. How in the hell-"

"Sakin, calm down. Hey." Tyr groaned inward. Harper and this girl deserved each other.

"And what are you doing here?" Tyr continued calmly, his reality having not yet sunk in.

"We woke up here."

"What do you mean-"

"They played a joke on us." Sakin stood with her hands on her hips and stared at the big Nietzschean like he was stupid. "Cops. They do it all the time."

"Why." Human beings and their pathetic mutant offshoots never ceased to amaze Tyr. To risk their own lives like that to spite each other. He remembered the violent, hateful graffiti sprawled over the walls, the gangs of disillusioned youth yelling as he passed, the derelict in the streets. Was it really so bad here that they resorted to street fighting and landmines?

"It's how they get their kicks. Look at them all." Sakin squinted out at the gathering crowds at the edge of the park. "I take it none of them warned you?"

"Who put these mines here?" It was slowly starting to sink in.

"Gangs. Everyone. They've been fighting for years. Forever."

"Who?"

Sakin put her hands in her pockets and glanced away. Clouds had moved over the sun and it grew cold quite quickly. "Everyone. The rich and the poor."

Harper actually laughed, a light, desperate chuckle. "The rich think they'll be better off without the poor and the poor kill the rich to free up their jobs."

"I'm going to see if I can get help." Without another word, Sakin was off, walking carefully in Tyr's giant footprints.

Harper sighed, and sat down in the dust and dirt next to Tyr. He traced patterns in the sand and was.well, just quiet for a while.

Tyr's blood started to burn when his mind finally grasped the full seriousness of his situation. "I'm lying on a LANDMINE?" He yelled. And it was terrifying.

"Yes! Jeez, we already told you that! Don't have to bite my head off." The clouds parted and the sun beat down on them with it's full intensity again. Harper was frustrated. "How the hell did you manage to make it across a minefield, anyway, and not get blown up?"

"Fate, I suppose."

"Yeah, fuck right. So you survived to end up lying on a freaking mine right here, eh?"

Tyr narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Fate, it would seem, is a cruel bitch. You of all people should appreciate that." Harper sighed and covered his face in his hands. "Don't get frustrated with me. I'm not the one who carried you in here."

"Yeah, but now you're going to die!"

"That's not concrete. Yet." Tyr sighed. "Harper, come here." Harper sighed and moved closer to Tyr. "Look, I don't think that girl is going to come back."

"Sakin."

"It doesn't matter. If you're so certain that I'm going to be stuck here, you should leave too. Before my footprints blow away."

"No,"

Tyr raised an eyebrow. "No? What if I told you to leave?"

"You can't tell me what to do. You don't own me." Harper turned away from Tyr and crossed his arms.

Even when he was being stubborn, Harper was attractive in a precocious, childlike way. Tyr closed his eyes and put an arm over his face to block out the overbearing sun. "That's right, I don't. But if I did, I'd order you to leave."

"Well, that's then that's just too bad because I'm not leaving you."

"Why would you stay here where you'll probably meet certain death, when you can go and survive?"

"You don't have a communicator, do you?"

"No."

"Don't get up!"

"I wasn't. I was stretching."

"Don't do that either. It's a bouncing mine, you have to keep weight on it."

Tyr regarded the boy for a moment. "You didn't answer my question."

"Drop it, Tyr, I'm not leaving you. All right?"

"Why wouldn't you? I would."

"Yes, we all know what you would do, but I'm sorry that we're not all perfect. I'm not leaving you." Harper sighed, still looking away. "I've left too many people behind before. Not anymore."

Tyr sighed. "If this is about Brendan-"

"It's not about Brendan, it's not about the slave ships, it's not about anything, all right?"

"Slave ships?" Tyr's voice was interested now.

"And that's none of your business. Forget it, okay?"

"Why are you so closed off to me?"

"Why.why are you so.Tyr?"

"That doesn't even make any sense."

Harper actually pouted, and crossed his arms, or he would have if they weren't already crossed. "Well, you can.you can just go fuck yourself."

"If you're only staying with me to insult me, I don't appreciate it."

"I'm not leaving!"

"Stupid boy."

"What did you call me?" Harper spun around and stared at Tyr. His emotions were on the edge of a precipice right now, and they only needed the littlest shove.

"You heard me. If you're willing to throw away everything you've been through for me, when it's apparent that you don't even enjoy my company, then you're not the genius you claim to be."

Clouds had passed over the sun again. The big, sooty yellow moon hung low in the horizon, dimmed by the blue sky. Harper shivered and cracked his knuckles nervously. "It's not that.that I don't enjoy your company. Or anything like that, it's not that, it's.it's you. Why.why do you hate me so much?"

Tyr dropped his arm and stared up at the boy, genuine surprise on his face. "What?"

"Why.why do you hate me so much? Is it `cause.`cause I used to belong to the Dragons? Or that I'm a mudfoot, what?"

"It's.first of all, I can honestly say I was unaware that you were a Dragon slave. And, no.it's none of those things." Tyr sighed. "I don't hate you Harper. I don't how you came to that conclusion."

"Just, I dunno, maybe everything you say and do? The way you're always threatening me?"

"I saved your life-"

"Rev guilted you into it. And I wouldn't have even known if he hadn't told me. Like you're ashamed of it or something." Harper shrank into himself and said, smally: "Are you?"

Tyr's eyes really widened. "No.no, Harper, no. Here." He reached out for the young mechanic, who shied away. "No, please, Harper, come here." He took Harper's small pale hand in his larger darker one, and drew him closer. "I'm not ashamed of you. I don't hate you. I.well, truth be told, I admire you. You've gone through so much and lived to tell about it. And dealt with it."

"But you've gone-"

"I'm naturally stronger and bigger than you, Harper. I don't have your will. Or your intellect. If I had been born with your body into your situation, on Earth.I wouldn't have made it to adulthood, much less off planet." Tyr pulled Harper closer still. "I'm proud of you. You should be too."

Harper avoided Tyr's gaze. He flexed his hand against the bigger man's arm, and felt up and down it, carefully in between the bone spurs. Oh, how long had he wanted to do this. Under what extreme circumstances it had to come to fruition. Fucking fate.

"I'm not ashamed of you, Harper. I'm.confident with you on the ship and proud to have you as a crewmate. I don't hate you. In fact." He drew his hand up to Harper's face, his pale, delicate young face. "Well, quite the opposite."

Harper leaned into the touch, sadly. ".really?"

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"Kinda." Small voice. Timid. "I...you....ever since." His voice cracked and something broke. He threw himself onto Tyr's chest, snuggling in there like he always did in his wildest dreams, but never dreamt of doing in waking life. "I'm not leaving you! I'm not...everyone I care about has been left behind. Not you. Not anymore. I can't.I don't want you to die."

Without realizing he was doing it, Tyr held Harper close to him, impossibly close, his consciousness filling with the scent of the boy's hair and neck and the sweat from the impossibly hot city sun. "I don't want to die either. But if it comes to that, Seamus, I want you to leave."

"No! I'm not going to let you die without me. I.I love you, I can't live without you. I'm not leaving you." He looked up and crawled up higher on Tyr's chest, desperation plain on his face. "Please.
Please. Don't make me."

Oh, what the hell. He leaned forward and mashed his lips against Tyr's, not quite as sweet and romantic as it was in his daydreams but it was there, and it was real. Finally. Better than never.

"I'm not leaving you," He said with determined finality, and nestled into Tyr's chest once and for all. Tyr sighed and held the boy closer to him, planting kisses in Harper's hair.

Stupid stubborn boy.

(Chapter Four)

You, you take away the world
And I don't even know myself now
So how can I know you?
And I don't wanna die
And I don't wanna leave this place yet
Just give me one more try.
-David Usher 'A Day in the Life'

It was hours before Sakin returned, limping and shivering. She had left her shoes and jacket behind in the circle, marking the mines so Harper wouldn't blow himself up. The first place she had gone was Klint's to get a spare jacket and boots, but he was asleep and had locked the place up pretty good. She hit the Sugar Free Jazz, but no one really helped her except to say that a big Nietzschean fellow had come looking for her new boyfriend earlier.

/God, Sakin, you're useless/ she thought to herself as she went limping up and down the streets. Gunfire broke out when two gangs, middle-classers and some really destitute kids, came out of one of the alleys. They knocked Sakin down in the street and she almost got trampled. "Fucking." She muttered and went barefoot to the police. Last ditch effort.

"I need a mine expert to help me."

"Why?" The desk sergeant looked at her warily, well, looked at her chest at least.

"There's two men trapped in the center of one of the minefields. One of them's lying on a mine. You know. Bouncing mine."

"What were they doing in a minefield? They should know better."

"They're off-worlders."

"How'd they get there?"

Sakin knew he was playing with her. She glared at him, biting down a sarcastic comeback. "They woke up there. Someone was playing a joke."

The desk sergeant smothered a grin. "I can't help you."

Sakin almost punched him, but then decided she liked freedom better.

So she trudged back to the center of the minefield, after pushing through a jeering crowd that was slowly dispersing after hours of nobody getting blown up. She tiptoed in Tyr's old footprints, which were starting to shallow, on raw and bloodied feet. She had with her some food from the Sugar Free Jazz, all she could afford with what was on her, and a bottle of water.

Sakin got the circle of boots and jackets and looked at Tyr and Harper sleeping, snuggled up to each other, for a while. The sun had passed its peak and was going to set in a few hours. She sighed.

And to think she was going to sleep with him.

Well, Sakin, you sure can pick `em!

She sat down in the center of the circle. "Hey," She nudged Harper with her foot. He bleared awake, looking cute and cuddly with his hair mussed. Tyr stirred-

"Don't get up!"

"I wasn't," Tyr growled. He yawned, and it reminded Sakin vaguely of the tigers she'd seen caged in zoos. Yikes.

"I brought food and water. Here." She handed the goods to Harper, who gently poured a few drops of water through Tyr's lips. "But.they wouldn't get a mine expert for me. It's just a big joke for all of them, that's all. They ignored me." She started biting hew newly painted nails.

"So.no one's coming to help us?"

Sakin didn't answer right away. "No."

".so now what?" Harper looked at Sakin and then at Tyr. Neither of them answered him. He laid his head back on Tyr's chest, the bigger man running his hands through his hair. "Tyr didn't think you would come back,"

Sakin looked up from biting her nails. "Of course I came back. I'm not.well, I'm not a lot of things."

The three were silent for a moment. Clouds raced across the sky, blotting out the sun and making it cold, the sort of cool that one experiences in the shadows of skyscrapers and cooled concrete. There was an explosion in the background. Harper and Sakin looked up to see a building go up in flames.

"Oh my god-" Harper started.

"Suicide bomber." Sakin said, a little dully, a little sadly. "Happens all the time. They'll never notice us now. And your captain will never hear about it."

"That is stupid." Tyr said, in the soft, deep patient voice that he had. "Why would you sacrifice yourself like that if it does not make a difference?"

Sakin shrugged. "They're desperate. They've been ignored all their lives and nobody cares about their cause unless it's violent and.entertaining. So they kill themselves. And others."

Harper clutched Tyr's hand in both of his smaller ones.

"Harper, Sakin, I want you both to leave. Go back to the Andromeda and be safe."

"I told you, I'm not leaving you." Harper didn't loosen his grip.

"Listen to me. If Sakin leaves, go with her."

"I'm not leaving you here either, man," Sakin said defensively. "I told you, I'm not like that."

"You don't even know us. Why would you stay here?" Tyr narrowed his eyes at the strange girl who reminded him so much of Seamus.

"Because.I dunno, `cause you're my responsibility. You're both off worlders, I.I should've taken better care. I can't leave you here. I'll stay here until I can figure out a way to get the both of you
out."

"It doesn't matter." Harper settled in beside Tyr, wrapping the bigger man's arm around him like a security blanket. "There's no way you can save us. You go. I'll stay here with Tyr,"

"Harper-"

"Shut up, Tyr, I'm staying."

"I want you to survive-"

"It's not worth it if you die. If you die, then.I want to die with you, and we can be together."

Sakin stood up, making a face. "That's stupid. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. You're going to throw away everything you've been through for.to die? Like those idiots?" She gestured at the burning buildings in the background. "So your death can mean nothing, and everything that's happened to you before can mean nothing? Maybe your captain will be angry and he'll cut the treaties and the only difference it'll make is that maybe your ship will be a little dusty from our moon." She trailed off, realizing she was no longer making any sense. She shivered and hugged herself. "You have to survive, Harper. You have to go on and free the slave planets and.people died before for you, you can't let that be in vain. And Tyr, you have to survive, too, because.he.you.this is stupid. Get out of the way, Harper."

"What? Why?" Sakin pushed Harper out of the way.

"I can take Tyr's place. If I do it right. I think. I've seen it done before. It's tricky."

"No," Tyr said firmly. "It's too much of a risk. You could kill us
all."

Harper looked at Sakin, then Tyr, then back again.

"Well, Harper," Tyr said, hands clasped on his chest. "It appears to be your decision."

Oh, gods in heaven, this was not a decision Harper was capable of making. /Trust in the Harper, the Harper is good./ Why did his own genius have to come back and bite him in the ass? Here he had two people willing to sacrifice themselves for him, two gorgeous, wonderful people that he.god, why couldn't one of them have been a Dragon, or Bobby? Things would be easier then.

There was Sakin, who was a relative stranger.but who had been so kind to him and had all the same goals as him and had done so much, or tried at least, to help those like him. And Tyr, who was a big bad Nietzschean who scared the hell out of him, and who would probably leave him as soon as she found a suitable female.but whom he loved. And who, apparently, loved him back. Or liked him back at least. Harper knew he wanted that even more than he wanted armies of beautiful girls.

"Choose, Harper," Sakin said. "Before one of us changes our mind."

So here he was, stuck between the death of the man he loved, or the woman he could love, and the risk involved with choosing the latter. They could all die. So there were really three possibilities- Tyr dies and so goes Harper, only Sakin dies, or all three.

Oh, he wished Trance was here. She'd know what to do.

/I'd rather save my friend than a stranger./

Oh. Well. Apparently she would.

"I....Tyr." Harper found his voice. "Change places with him."

Sakin nodded slowly. Tyr just closed his eyes; he had given this decision to Harper, and Harper had made it. Tyr knew, logically, that he had made the right decision, but he still felt the little bit of
sickness that Harper must've felt as well.

"Don't move," Sakin told Tyr, as she held her hand flat out on the ground and slowly slid it underneath him, blowing dug-out sand away. It took forever. The sun dipped low on the horizon and the fires died down. Harper watched apprehensively, his face sheeted with sweat, and
realized that he had forgotten to breathe. He let out a puff of air when Sakin said, softly: "Got it,"

"Are you sure?" Tyr said.

"As sure as I'm going to get. That's a risk you're going to have to take. Is it worth it?"

Harper looked at Tyr.

"Yes," Harper said.

"Harper says it is." Tyr was the only one not shaking, possibly because he was too big to.

"Okay, then." Sakin let out a deep, shaky breath, and bit her lower lip. "Get up."

Tyr tensed, and in an instant that seemed like a lifetime, sat up.

Everyone winced. A moment later, Sakin opened her eyes and saw her arm weighting down on the landmine.

Harper started to breathe again. Tyr gathered him in his arms and held him close.

Sakin drew her other arm up over the first one and rested her head down there, ensuring that weight stayed on the button of the bouncing mine. She breathed heavily, sweating more in this cold than she ever had in the city's heat.

"Oh, oh gods, Sakin, I'm sorry, I.oh god. Oh god."

"Calm down, Harper," Sakin rested her head on one side and looked up at him, purple dreadlocks beaded with sweat and sand. "It's fine."

"I....it's not for me to decide, see. I don't want to leave another person behind, what.what if Dylan can't change your leaders or clean up any of the slave planets-"

"Harper, listen to me." Sakin looked up at him serenely. Tyr still held him in his arms, his breath pressing against his neck port soothingly. "You only wanted to fuck me. And the feeling was mutual. But you love Tyr. And.and even if nothing else happens because of this, you'll be together. I know that. It's worth it." She smiled at him, and he thought he could hear the strains of music floating up from the Sugar Free Jazz again. "You WILL talk to your captain, right?"

"Yes. Yes. I promise. I mean it."

"Good. Get out of here. Before I change my mind."

Harper was about to say something else, but whatever it was, was cut off when Tyr literally scooped him up and carried him across the minefield.

His old footprints had become much shallower, but the imprints were still there, and Tyr's excellent, photographic memory allowed him to know where exactly to step.

"Wait, wait," Harper struggled against him. "I can't leave her behind, I can't leave another person behind-"

"Harper, hush," Tyr tried his best to be soothing as he carried his precious cargo back to the spaceport. "It was her decision to make. If she really didn't want to do it, she wouldn't have. The only thing you can do now is keep the promise you made to her. Then it wouldn't have been in vain, and neither would Brendan, or whoever else you left behind on those slave ships."

Harper stiffened at the thought of the New Yorker, but he stopped struggling and allowed Tyr to carry him off.

Try as he might, it would take him a lifetime to get the images of that little girl with the windswept hair, or Sakin's expressive black eyes and purple dreadlocks out of his memory.

(Epilogue)


How many cans must I stack up?
To wash you out from my mind
Out of my consciousness?
-Soul Coughing `How Many Cans'

After night had fallen and Sakin lay there for what seemed and eternity, Klint walked slowly through the minefield, using footprints left behind by a certain Nietzschean, carrying a blanket and a bottle of water.

He sat by his friend silently. "I was looking for you at the Sugar Free Jazz. They told me I could find you here. You can't keep out of trouble, can you?"

Sakin remained still as he pulled the blanket over her, tears spilling silently out of her black eyes. "How am I going to get out of this one, Klint?"

"I don't know," Klint said as he laid down beside her, draping his arm around her back comfortingly. "We'll figure something out."

They lay like that, in comforting silence.

"Klint?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you have work right now?"

"I quit."

--

"It was easier than I thought," Harper said, disbelieving, lounging lazily in Tyr's arms in the bigger man's bed aboard the Andromeda.

"It wasn't THAT easy," Tyr disputed. "You weren't there. Dylan was in that board room with those idiot leaders for weeks."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but.they've been trying to get that to happen for years, you know?"

"Mmm," Tyr drew his human closer to him and breathed in his scent. After much pestering, Dylan had met with the Sardonic leaders at Harper's request. He finally got the truth out of them about ballot stuffing, and the gang wars and the minefields and the industry trafficking with the Dragons. New legislations had been made and the Sabra-Jaguars agreed to allow relief work and aid stations to be set up on slave planets in their territory. Much good had come from their dangerous little escapade in central Tipiskaw, but it still made Tyr's blood boil when he thought of how much danger he and his little human had been in.

It wasn't in vain. Harper allowed himself a small smile when he thought back of Brendan, and the little girl from the New Yorker, and Sakin's purple dreadlocks and black eyes and kisses.

"Hey, Tyr?"

"Yes, little one."

"Would you ever consider getting a tongue stud?"

Big arms closed around his chest a little tighter. "If you wish. I may consider it."

THE END