Star Blazers: Worldship Saga
Author's Notes: Standard disclaimers apply as I do not own Space Cruiser Yamato, Star Blazers, the Yamato, Argo or any of the characters save for the few who are original. Yumi is not an original character, she has appeared in Yamato before, bonus points for any who can place her. I am using Star Blazers names for everyone who had one save for the ship… it can never be anything other than Yamato for me now. I am doing a final quick rewrite to alter some unnecessary details as I post this, please forgive me if any slip past from the previous draft. More detailed notes as to why and the evolution of this fanfic will appear as a note for the last. chapter that I post.
Prologue
Whenever the Yamato went out on her missions, none had more hope or faith that Yamato would return than young Jordy Venture. The boy's faith was in more than simply the ship, he had just as much faith in the Yamato's Navigator/Pilot, his brother, Mark Venture. There was little wonder that the young boy's world had just been destroyed. Yamato did not return home, and neither did Mark.
Jordy looked out at the now frozen floodwaters that acted as an orbiting crypt for Yamato. Earth was safe but what is safety when the source of your hope is now dead and you are left on a ship of people that feels so empty and hopeless? In his heart he felt a part of him wasn't there anymore. Why couldn't things stay the way they were? The feelings of grief and hopelessness hammered his brain. He tried to be strong, to be like his brother and not cry, but it didn't seem to work. Everything he saw was through the blurry haze of tears.
The ship that carried the mourners "docked" along side the frozen waters that the mourners had taken to calling the Yamato Sea. The outline of the two shattered parts of Yamato was visible through the ice. In the remains there was a vague stirring wind. Yamato was never just a ship, it always seemed to have a touch of life.
Deep within the ice, the body of Captain Avatar remained frozen where he died. Suspended in ice, his hand still holding the Wave Motion Gun control, gently slouched over, he looked as if he had just dozed off. His hat hid his eyes like he wasn't really gone.
A light shown through the ice, illuminating both the Captain and the bridge. The light emanated from three maidens, beautiful as angels, who approached the Captain's body.
They moved freely, unhindered by the fact they were moving through solid ice. Such things did not effect them, as they were the stuff of legends. Like the sisters who had taken away King Arthur. They approached the old Captain, and looked at him in an odd respectful way. Like maybe they were related in some celestial sense they were taking him home with them to the place where old heroes go until needed once more.
Then, the light was gone. The maidens were gone. The Captain was gone. Only the ship, ice, and darkness remained. If the ship seemed that much lonelier, no one noticed.
On the surface, Yamato touched each of the mourners somewhere so deep inside them they couldn't explain it to anyone who hadn't felt it too. Nothing they knew or understood could explain that moment when they were all joined in sadness.
Wearing a variation of the Star Force uniform with a black arrow on the chest and a black stripe on each shoulder, the Honor Guard stood on the ice, escorting a line of caskets. The first of the caskets represented Captain Avatar, it was empty since the Captain's body had not yet been recovered. The second casket was not empty. It held the body of Mark Venture.
Watching the long line of caskets move, Jordy felt torn between the desire to see his brother one last time and the horror of seeing his still, lifeless corpse. He was both filled with pride and with grief for the empty chair that would be at the supper table where his brother would no longer sit. Yamato's victory tasted like ashes.
The eyes of everyone on Earth and on the ships were red with tears, people in funeral garb of different nations cried as final words were said and their beloved heroes disappeared into the vacuum of space to float free in the void to their final resting place.
That was the first of three ceremonies. The second ceremony would take place two days later as markers for the crewmen who had died, and a marker for the ship itself, would be added to the Hero's Hill monument on Earth. The third ceremony would also take place at Hero's Hill, as Deputy Captain Wildstar married his longtime girlfriend, Nova Forrester.
Five years later...