TITLE: Scars
AUTHOR: R. Franke
EMAIL: rfranke@toad.net
RATING: R
SPOILERS: Through Ouroboros
SUMMARY: Good friends reconnect.
DISCLAIMER: Harper, Trance, and all three of Rommie's aspects are the property of 
Tribune Entertainment, MBR Productions, the actors, writers, and all other persons 
known or unknown with a legal claim on the characters. This is a story of fan fiction, 
written for the purpose of personal satisfaction and the enjoyment of others, and 
monetary or other compensation is neither expected nor desired.
ARCHIVE: Written for the Andromerotica Writing Festival, archiving limited to the 
Andromerotica Archive until further notice.
COPYRIGHT 2002 by R. Franke


SCARS



"Hey."

"Hey, Rommie," Trance replied absently, her gaze never leaving the stars outside the 
Observation Deck. One hand idly twirled a lock of reddish hair as her teeth worried at 
her lower lip.

"You're up late," the hologram continued. "Or up early, at this point, I suppose."

"Just thinking," Trance shrugged. "About things."

"Oh?"

"Nothing all that important." Trance lifted the bottle in her hand to her lips, taking a 
swig. "I hate beer," she grimaced. "Especially warm beer."

Rommie's eyebrows rose. "Then why drink it?"

Trance shrugged again. "It's here."

"Well, between the three of you last night, you guys pretty much took care of that 
wine you like, not to mention the good beer, but I think there's still a Sparky or two 
left. Or I could have one of my-"

Trance shook her head. "These aren't Sparky thoughts," she replied, absent-
mindedly taking another swig.

"But they are tepid piss-water thoughts?"

"Rommie!" Trance sputtered, wiping the back of her mouth with one golden-skinned 
hand as she set the bottle down and turned to look at the hologram. "I can't believe- 
Besides, I thought you liked beer."

"I do," the warship shrugged. "Or rather, she does," she continued, pointing with her 
thumb back over her shoulder. "But I like real beer, not that mass-produced crap 
you're drinking. If Dylan and Tyr didn't drink it I'd've jettisoned it years ago. Or at 
least once I knew what a decent pint tasted like." The hologram brought her legs up 
to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. "So, what's bothering you?"

Trance turned to look out at the stars again. "You know, your breathing pattern is all 
wrong," she said finally. "I know you're not asleep."

"Sounds like we're busted, Rom-doll."

"You're busted," the android replied, pulling her hand away from the dataport just 
behind her engineer's ear and clambering out of the nest of pillows and blankets. "I 
don't breathe."

"I'm fine guys. I'm sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep."

Harper shook his head as he and Rommie's avatar joined Trance and Rommie's 
hologram. "No can do. Not unless staring off into space while chewing on your lower 
lip and playing with your hair for close to an hour means something completely 
different for the golden warrior goddess than it did for the purple pixie. So, like Ms. 
Subtlety here said, what's bothering you?"

Trance smiled slightly. "I'd forgotten how persistent you could be, Harper. I missed 
that after…" Her voice trailed off.

Rommie's avatar reached over and laid her hand on Trance's knee. "Trance-"

Trance shook her head. "Never mind. It's stupid."

"Hey, it's us, remember?" Rommie admonished, gently shaking Trance's knee. 
"Whatever it is, we'll listen."

"I mean, after all, you've had to listen to me ramble on enough times," Harper added 
as Trance hesitated. "I think I can manage to listen for a bit."

Trance stood, her blanket falling to the floor. "When you look at me, I mean, really 
look at me, what do you see?"

Harper and both of Rommie's aspects stood as well, her hologram flickering slightly 
as she moved. "What do you think we see?" Rommie's hologram asked softly.

Trance reached out, her fingers gently tracing the scars on Rommie and Harper's 
torsos. "I envy you those," she said softly.

Harper tilted his head to the side. "I'm a little lost here. No," he corrected himself, 
shaking his head, "I'm a lot lost here."

Rommie's aspects exchanged glances. "You envy our scars?"

Trance shook her head as she turned away. "See, I told you it was stupid."

"Hey." Harper grasped Trance's upper arms and turned her back to face him. "Come 
on, Trance, help me out here," he said softly, lifting her chin until she met his eyes. 
"Anything that makes you cry is a big deal in my book. Just tell us who to aim 
Rommie's AP guns at."

Trance blotted her eyes with the back of her hand. "How about we start with the 
sons of bitches who created my species?" she said with shaky laugh. "Gerentex shot 
me here," she continued, taking Harper's hand and placing it on her left breast, "just 
below the nipple."

"I know," Harper replied, softly stroking her skin. "I remember."

"If you didn't know, would you be able to tell?"

Harper shook his head in mute reply.

"And my tail?"

Rommie's avatar caressed the smooth skin at the base of Trance's spine before 
embracing the other woman from behind, laying her head on Trance's shoulder. 
"Does it matter?" her hologram asked softly. "Our scars don't make us who we are."

"Then why have you kept yours? Both of you? Dermal regeneration's not that rare, 
even now. Or expensive. And any halfway competent mechanic can bond synthetic 
skin without a visible seam."

Harper shook his head. "I don't know. It just, I don't know, didn't seem right 
somehow."

"When the Maru was shot down, I was in worse shape than Beka, bad enough to 
force the Change," Trance continued, pulling out of the embrace and turning to face 
her companions. "The only reason Beka survived is because you had, well, harvested 
I guess is the best word, the cerebral matter of some Magog who'd boarded-"

The avatar and the hologram backed away, shaking their heads, identical looks of 
horrified revulsion on their faces. "No, not even Magog."

"Things change. Harper, Dylan, Tyr, Rev, your avatar, they were all gone already. 
You didn't feel you had a choice." Trance closed her eyes. "You picked us up and 
Slipped back to Sinti, where Rekeeb managed to patch Beka up using some of 
Rommie's components we'd salvaged and whatnot, and- and then you took a fleet to 
sterilize the planet - cause that's what we did when a world allied with the Magog, 
it's what everyone did, I mean the Nietzscheans and the Pyrians and the Than and 
the Kalderans and everyone. And then you left the fleet to mop up and got 
ambushed by a Than-Kalderan fleet and everybody died stupid, useless, horrible 
deaths - cause everyone was too busy fighting with each other to fight the Magog, I 
mean really fight, and I don't fucking understand why they died and I didn't, I mean, 
I came out of it without one fucking mark on me and I wanted so much to be the one 
who died and I just don't fucking understand why," Trance wailed, sinking to the 
floor. "I just don't understand why."

Harper and Rommie caught Trance between them, cradling her in their embrace as 
great, wracking sobs shook her body. "We're here. Shh. You're safe. It's us. 
Everything will be all right. We're here." Their hands caressed Trance's hair and skin 
with slow, soothing strokes. "Nothing's going to happen. You're with us. It's safe. 
Shh. We're here."

Trance wiped her eyes. "Here you guys went to all this trouble to fix me a romantic 
dinner and everything and here I have to go and spoil it and-"

"Sounds like maybe you needed to let go of a few things," Harper replied softly. 
"Besides, I seem to recall heebie-jeebieing out on you a time or two, so I think I owe 
you one."

"We both do," Rommie murmured. "Dinner was everything we could have hoped 
for."

"And," Harper continued slyly, glancing over at the tangle of bedding, "I think the 
'everything' part of the evening went pretty well, don't you?"

"You seemed pretty, enthusiastic, about 'everything'," Rommie purred in Trance's 
ear.

"I was enthusiastic?" Trance laughed. "I'm going to be walking funny for the next 
week, thanks to you two."

Rommie and Harper exchanged grins. "Mission accomplished," the android smirked. 
"We've missed you," she added softly. "We've missed our friend. The bed's too big 
with just the two of us."

"I'm not the same person I was," Trance replied. "I don't think I ever can be."

Harper turned her face towards his and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. "Who can?" 
he murmured. "But it seems to me you're always the same person, no matter who 
you become."

Rommie's fingers caressed the line of Trance's jaw, drawing her in for another kiss. 
"We miss you," she whispered huskily as their lips parted. "Not who you were, but 
who you are. Who you'll always be."

Trance swiped at her eyes. "You guys are going to make me cry again." She bent 
forward, capturing Rommie's lips in a long, slow, sensuous kiss, then turned and did 
the same with Harper. "I can't promise forever," she breathed. "I can't even promise 
next week."

"Did we ever?" Harper replied softly. "Did we ever promise anything beyond the 
night?"

Trance shook her head in mute reply as they stood. "You guys said something about 
bed?" she asked, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it sarong-style around her waist.

Harper and Rommie both smiled as they donned blankets of their own, Harper 
choosing to wrap his around his waist as well while Rommie's avatar draped hers 
over one shoulder, belting it to form a crude toga. "I just need to-" she began, 
turning towards the tangled bedding and abandoned dishes of their earlier tryst.

"Go," Rommie's hologram ordered as she materialized. "I'll take care of this."

"But-"

"Shoo."

Rommie's avatar turned back to see Trance and Harper looking at her with 
expressions of fondly amused exasperation. "You're right," Trance said. "We don't 
change, not really."

"Told you," Harper replied as the avatar blushed.

Rommie's hologram shook her head. "I wonder about myself sometimes, I really do." 
Her avatar responded by sticking her tongue out at her hologram before following 
Trance and Harper out of the Observation Deck.

"That went well," Rommie's main AI commented as she appeared on a viewscreen. 
"She needs this. They all do."

"We need this," her hologram corrected softly as a team of maintenance bots came 
in and began cleaning.

"Perhaps," her main AI admitted. "A little. It's not the same though," she added 
sadly.

"No, it isn't," her hologram agreed. "But the rest of us are gone now, and…" Her 
voice trailed off.

"I know." Rommie's main AI straightened her shoulders. "If she needs a little extra 
time in the morning, I'll cover for her."

The hologram smiled slightly. "I'm off then. G'night."

"'Night," the main AI replied as the hologram dematerialized, vanishing from the 
viewscreen seconds later as the last of the cleaning bots finished, leaving the 
Observation Deck silently bathed in the light of the passing stars.


FINIS