Hibiki stepped off of the shuttle, relieved. It was great to be back on the Nirvana. Home.

Since the defeat of the Harvest fleets, Hibiki, Duelo, Bart, B.C., and Dita had been stuck on Taarak. The pirate base, or technically, former pirate base, run by Magno Vivan had been declared by both the Taarak and Mejere governments to be a neutral ground, a place for Men and Women to integrate their respective societies into each other.

The problem was that Magno's pirates had consisted exclusively of Women, with the exception of Hibiki, Duelo, and Bart in more recent times. So, it turned out that everyone who went to Taarak earned the privilege of interviewing thousands of selectees from among the Male population in order to find the ones that they personally believed to be the most compatible for reintegration. Hibiki had been bored out of his mind for the first week with all of the pointless paperwork. He thought it would get better when they got around to doing the live interviews. Sooner they got done, the sooner they could go home.

It didn't.

The entire time, Hibiki had to deal with Men who, frankly, weren't ready to accept that Men and Women were actually of the same species. He was constantly teased about his association with the Female pirates. On more than one occasion, Hibiki had started an all out brawl with the selecties, often ending with multiple injuries for both participants. It just wasn't easy to do a job when the people you were working with wouldn't take you seriously.

And Dita. It wasn't that he regretted bringing her along; in fact, there were times he was glad she was there. But at other times, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. While her happy, bubbly attitude might have been a welcome sight on the Nirvana, it brought nothing but trouble on Taarak. An incident came to mind involving a particularly stubborn general, who was a veteran from the often constant battling between Taarak and Mejere.

A shiver ran through his spine as Hibiki looked down at his arms. While the bruises were healed, he could still feel those boot prints, as if they were engraved into his very bones. Truly scary what a Male general and a few colonels could do BEFORE they decided to kill you.

As he walked forward, he thought about his relationship with the redhead. What had, and what could, become of it? He had seen a side of her on Taarak that he normally only experienced for what seemed like moments during the journey on the Nirvana. Even though the Male and Female governments had agreed to stop fighting and begin reintegrating their societies with one another, there were many, if not the majority of, Men who were not ready to accept this. Dita, technically the only Woman with them, had faced persecution that Hibiki could have only imagined at before then.

However, Dita faced it with the same optimism she did with everything, and for a short time, she persevered. But after about a month, she was starting to break. By then, she came up with the crazy plan to disguise herself. While she was far easier to disguise than many of the other Women Hibiki had encountered, she was completely unwilling to part with her hair. Hibiki thought its length was a bit more than slightly ridiculous, as parts of it fell down to her thighs. But she was adamant about it. Case closed.

Thus, the genius plan only worked for a few days. While it wasn't uncommon for Men to grow out their hair, the longest Hibiki had seen anyone grow theirs was Duelo, whose hung just past the mid-section of his back.

But, with each others' and the group's support, Hibiki and Dita both made it back in one piece, both physically and sanity wise, though by no means unchanged.

Hibiki was headed for the Men's section of the ship, where he had been told his old quarters were waiting. They had been untouched since his departure, and that's where he was to room until something more suitable opened up. He didn't mind. They were home, after all.

He had just exited the hangar when two of the most annoying words came echoing down the corridor.

"Mister Alien!" Dita yelled. "Don't leave me!"

"Damn," Hibiki mumbled under his breath. "I coulda swore she was asleep."

Hibiki braced himself as he was impacted from behind by Dita, who grabbed him around the neck in a chokehold. He had grown a little during his time on Taarak, so he and Dita were about the same height, now. That made it a LITTLE easier to take her blows.

"So, Mister Alien, are you going to keep your promise?" she asked, poking her head over his shoulder.

"It's Hibiki," he corrected with a sigh. He had matured a little on Taarak and found that he didn't particularly like being scolded by certain Men for what they perceived as his mistakes. While Dita took whatever crap he threw at her and smiled, he figured it probably wasn't a good idea, regardless. Karma, what-goes-around-comes-around, that kind of stuff.

"All right, Hibiki," she said. "Are you going to keep your promise?"

That was another amazing thing that had happened on Taarak. She had actually learned to use his real name. On occasion, that is.

"Maybe later," he replied. "I have to get unpacked."

"Then I'll help!" she said, releasing Hibiki from her choke hold.

Hibiki turned around to face her.

"That's probably not a good idea, with all of the new crew," Hibiki told her. He made sure to look her in the eyes as he said it, to show his sincerity. He knew it wouldn't matter to her either way, but it mattered to him. The world was changing. So would he.

"All right," she huffed in the childish way she often did.

Hibiki turned back around and began walking down the corridors towards the elevator. It would take a few minutes to get to the Men's section.

* * *

The man woke up, dazed. Something was wrong with him. Everything was hazy. He couldn't think at all. He didn't even know who or where he was.

Suddenly, several alarms went off all at once, and most of the bridge displays turned yellow or red.

Reflex kicked in, and he attempted to correct the problems that his ship was experiencing, but it just wasn't something he could fix on his own. He would need to dock somewhere for a while so he could perform repairs. And from the looks of it, attempt may end up being all he could do. Something had fried most of the ship's systems, including him, apparently.

He unlatched the restraints and kicked himself away from the pilot's chair, causing the man to float to the ceiling. He crawled along until he reached the tiny corridor behind the bridge. He pulled himself by the light fixtures until he reached the small engineering room. Once there, he activated the backup computer, which took forever to boot due to its age. However, the older design was durable enough to survive whatever had happened, so he wasn't complaining.

A moment later, his fears were realized. The main reactor was fried. He was running on the redundancy systems, and those only had a battery life of about a week. Then he would be stuck on emergency power, and that would be the end of it.

He shut down every unnecessary system aboard the small craft, including the crystalline matrix that contained his personal AI. It would be useless right now, as the main computer was non-existent. He hadn't taken the time to modify the AI's network to link with the emergency systems. That was something he would get around to fixing, in one lifetime or the other.

He caught himself as he thought that. One lifetime or the other? But, he soon shrugged it off as the ship became noticeably colder, and his mind became even more groggy as the oxygen level began dropping.

He quickly pulled himself to the makeshift medical bay in the living area, located between the bridge and the engineering section. Nothing special. Just a small, two meter wide room that he had placed a bed and a few medical supplies in. He grabbed one of the medical kits and floated himself back to the front of the ship.

After settling himself back into the pilot's chair, he began rummaging through the supplies that he had in hand. He didn't quite know what he was looking for, but something told him that what he needed was in there.

Gauze. No.

Anesthetics? No.

Antiseptics? No.

Blood Clotter? Only if he wanted to kill himself.

Chloroform? Definitely not.

Potassium chloride?

Lysergic acid diethylamide?

Heroin concentrate?

Condoms?!

How the hell had he come by this medical kit? He quickly decided he did NOT want to know.

But, a few more moments of rummaging revealed what he needed. Nutrient fluids and a single syringe marked "Hibernation Inducer".

The man quickly injected all of the liquids into his arm, then settled back as a sudden wave of fatigue hit him. But he had more work to do, and something told him that he had another half hour or so before he fell unconscious.

He brought up the bridge controls. Luckily, the event hadn't disabled the holographic projectors. The entirety of the ship's systems, which were now few and far between, were at his disposal. There were currently two systems that were a must in order for him to survive until help arrived. A distress beacon and the deflector system. After locating working devices, he began pulling himself through the ship.

A working beacon was not hard to locate. Apparently, the ship had a drop system for long-range communication buoys. All he had to do was pull one out of the launcher and lace it with a nearby outlet. It appeared to be functioning properly. After programming the launcher to eject the remainder of the objects at a rate of one every three days, he moved on to the harder of the two tasks.

As he reached the outer sections of the small ship, the man suddenly seized up as a massive headache hit him. His entire body went stiff, and he was afraid that the hibernation was already setting in. But, through his own willpower, he was able to start moving again, though his movements were shaky and anything but precise.

The man scurried around the deflector generator, looking for some way to jury-rig it to the backup power supply. The bridge and engineering displays had indicated that the device was undamaged, and would be able to generate a field around the ship sufficient enough to prevent meteoroids and other floating objects from damaging the hull. But it was directly connected to the main reactor, and apparently, whoever built the ship deemed it insignificant enough that it wasn't included among the emergency systems.

But, after ripping up a few panels in an attempt to find one of the cables leading to the backup power supply, he found something even better. An OUTLET to the backup power supply. Maybe the ship's creators weren't so stupid after all.

He went about displacing several of the deflector generator's massive cables, and was rewarded ten minutes later by a consistent hum from the working device.

Satisfied, he floated himself back to the bridge. After rummaging through the floating mass of medical supplies, he found the antidote to the hibernation inducer and kept a firm grip on it. If anyone found him before he woke up, they would need to be able to wake him.

He had just finished reprogramming the remainder of the ship's systems when his entire body seized up, and darkness overtook him.

* * *

B.C. stood aboard the Nirvana's bridge, overseeing what few functions that were running. Since the ship was in dock, and had been for the past few months, sensor operation and flight control use were at a minimum. Hopefully, the ship would get to fly out of here sometime soon. Except for the contention between the old Female crew and the new Male members, everything was all too quiet.

B.C. was about to leave the bridge for the mid-day meal when an alarm went off. She brought up the sensor display on the main screen, but nothing showed up. She was about to quell the alert when she noticed a small object appear at the edge of the Mejeran magnetic field. And it was transmitting an Earth identification code.

"All crew and pilots, to their stations!" B.C. yelled.

* * *

Hibiki had just arrived at his room when the ship's alarm went off.

"All crew and pilots to their stations!" yelled the Commander's voice over the ship's intercom.

Hibiki dropped the load he was carrying and ran back in the direction from whence he came. By the time he reached the hangar, all of the other pilots were in their Dreads and Vanguards. Hibiki ran up to his own Vanguard, easily distinguishable by its gold plating, and jumped inside of the cockpit.

Moments later, he found himself flying through space, moving into formation with the other Vanguards from the Nirvana.

During the final battle against the Harvest fleets, the Men pilots of the Taarak Vanguard wings had proven to be aggressive and effective fighters. Hibiki hoped these particular pilots would prove to be as much of a boon.

"Vanguard Team A, form up on me," Hibiki ordered, taking charge immediately.

Instantly, three Vanguards broke off from the main force and formed up in a triangle formation around Hibiki's Vanguard, with him in the center.

"So, umm, where's the enemy?" one of the pilots asked.

"I don't know..." Hibiki replied, scanning all the Vanguard's sensor equipment.

"Hey!" he yelled after opening a channel to the Nirvana. "What the hell is this supposed to be? A homecoming prank?"

"We detected an object at the edge of the magnetic storm," B.C. informed him, her face appearing on one of his screens. "It was transmitting old identification codes that our ship's records show to be of Earth origin."

Hibiki swallowed. He thought they had already defeated the Harvest. There were more? If that was the case, they were going to be even smarter this time through. And probably more powerful.

"Meia, I want you to take the Dreads ahead with Vanguard Team A," the Commander ordered. "Keep the other Vanguards back to defend the Nirvana."

"Roger that," Meia complied. "Everyone, you heard her. Vanguard Team A, you're with us. Keep up, if you can."

And with that, Meia shot forward in her Dread, followed by the entirety of the Nirvana's fighter wing.

"You're on!" one of Hibiki's pilots yelled, charging his Vanguard forward through space. Soon after, the rest of the formation was in hot pursuit, with Hibiki in the rear. He didn't care. He could speed past them any time. And since nothing was out there, he had nothing to worry about.

"Nirvana, I'm transmitting a visual," Meia reported over the comm.

Hibiki sped up a little, soon forcing his way past the other Vanguards and catching up with the Dread wing. He quickly spotted Meia's fighter, which was slowly circling a small object of some sort. It was about the size of a Vanguard's mid-section, and shaped like half of an hourglass. It was just floating there, some sort of signal pulsing outwards every time the small red light on top of the dome part flashed.

"What kind of UFO is that?" Dita asked, her Dread also circling the object.

"It's a subspace transmitter," Captain Magno answered.

"Captain!" Hibiki heard the Commander say. "I'm sorry. I thought you were resting."

* * *

"I was, until the alarms woke me," she replied in a slightly irritated tone.

"I apologize," B.C. said.

"It's nothing," the Captain assured her. "Now, how long ago did you detect the object?"

"About twenty minutes," the Commander replied. "I put the ship at full alert and sent out the fighters as soon as I received the first transmission."

"And what does that transmission say?" Magno asked.

"It simply gives an identification code and the time of the beacon's launch," B.C. informed her.

"What is the identification code?" Magno inquired.

"The format is similar to that of the Ikazuchi's code before the Men split the ship," B.C. informed her. "We're still trying to decode it. It's been difficult, due to our inexperience with old Earth formats."

"Why don't you ask Pyoro?" sarcastically said an annoying voice from the bridge's entrance.

The doors slid closed, and a small, egg-shaped robot floated towards the Commander. Supposedly, it, or he, was a navigational assistant aboard the colony ship Ikazuchi during long trip to the system in which Taarak and Mejere resided, but since then, something had damaged his systems, causing him to be integrated with the Paksis, the ship's living power supply, and giving him a somewhat annoying and obsessive personality.

"I wasn't aware that you were prepared to resume working aboard the Nirvana," the Commander replied. "I thought you were visiting the nursery."

"And now, I am done," Pyoro told her. "Upon hearing the alarm, I downloaded the stream of information that the beacon was transmitting. And I found out what it is."

"What?" the Commander asked impatiently.

"Now, you'll have to be nicer if I'm going to..." the robot started.

"You will tell us this instant, or I'll have you used for spare parts aboard the fighters!" the Commander yelled as she grabbed the floating menace.

"It's a cry for help," Pyoro told her in a whiny and fearful tone.

"From who?" the Commander asked, releasing Pyoro.

"Crimson Eternity," Pyoro answered in a mystified tone.

* * *

"How long ago was this beacon sent out?" Magno asked.

Hibiki waited for the answer as he started at the object. He could have sworn he had seen something like this before.

"Two weeks ago, in a few hours," the Commander responded.

"It's not a beacon," Pyoro replied. "It's a transmitter."

"Essentially the same thing," Magno responded. "They can transmit pre-recorded messages to locations up to three light-years away. If the ship and the transmitter have fallen away from each other, there's a good chance those poor souls will never be found."

"Just one," Pyoro said.

"How would you know?" the Commander asked.

"Because I'm talking to the ship," Pyoro answered. "There are four more transmitters in the magnetic storm, providing a communication link with it."

"And where is the ship?" Magno asked.

"I'm don't know," Pyoro responded. "I can't trace the beacon's locations from here. We have to follow them."

"A fool's errand," the Commander remarked. "We'll contact the planetary governments. If there's anyone still alive by the time they get around to looking for it, then good for him."

"I'll go," Hibiki volunteered.

The Commander's face appeared on one of his screens.

"This is not something you can just dive into without thinking, Tokai," the Commander scolded. "You remember when we were last in there. You can't see anything visually, and it's a total communication's blackout."

"If someone has come all this way from Earth, I personally would like to know what they're up to," Hibiki told her. "If we're getting signals from those transmitters on this side of the storm, who's to say that there isn't an entire line leading back to Earth? He might be some sort of advance scout."

"All the more reason we should let the military take care of it," the Commander reasoned.

"Let him go," Magno told her.

"Captain?" B.C. asked, turning to face her.

"Hibiki is right," the Captain told her. "If someone personally came all this way from Earth, it's not good news for us. Have Gascogne take Pyoro and one of the resupply ships and follow Hibiki."

"Yes, ma'am," B.C. complied.

Hibiki smirked. He had wanted something to happen. Now it had.