| Three
Conversations in the TUMverse |
#1 (Beka/Harper)
"You're staying."
"No way, Boss. You go, we all go."
"Trance is staying. Her medical knowledge, your technical knowledge, and Andromeda's resources are your best hope for getting rid of the larvae."
"Beka... you got me off Earth, you gave me a life! Without you I'd probably be dead from disease or lying murdered in an alley. You're family."
"Yeah, I know. And as family I want what's best for you. And right now that's staying here, where there's a chance you can be helped."
"Are you leaving me because..."
"No, it's not because you're screwing Gaheris behind
my back."
#2 (Harper/Rhade)
"She's gone?"
"Uh huh."
"You'll miss her."
"No shit."
"She did what was best for everyone. Well, everyone but me."
"That's gotta be killing you. Ubers don't like their women running out on them."
"She's not Nietzschean, I couldn't apply our code of conduct to her any more than I'd apply it to you."
"Uh, good. So non-procreative sexual relationships have no rules?"
"Would you like rules? No fraternising with minions of the Abyss? No playing strip poker with my Go hologram? No..."
"Okay, okay, I get the picture. No rules."
"You mean you *do* play strip poker with Dylan?"
#3 (Rhade/Trance)
"You need to have a lot more sex with Harper."
"I need to *what*?"
"Now that Beka has left, Harper is sadder than usual. That's not helping his immune system, which means the serum is having to work harder at suppressing the larvae. He needs some fun, something to cheer him up, and an endorphin boost. He can get all that if you have sex with him more often."
"Oh. Sex as complimentary medicine. How very... innovative."
"And it's not like you don't get anything out of it."
"That's true."
"A happy engineer is a productive engineer."
"Heh, that too."