A/N Please read full author note at the end of the chapter. All disclaimers and notes are there.

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Everything was so cold, yet it seemed not to bother her. She shivered nonetheless. A whoosh type sound caught in her ears, followed by a creaking noise. Her body gave way and fell soundly to the metal floor. It was freezing and seemed to meld her skin to it.

She tried to move her arms up near her head so as to get up, but they merely twitched. Several times she tried this until finally she managed to move them. However, when she went to push herself up, all she managed to do was roll herself over.

The room was gray and had a somber atmosphere. A chamber of some sort was directly in front of her, its hatch open. Panic struck her. What had happened to her? The last thing she remembered was being controlled at the Galactic Leyline. Kashamie had been trying to get her out of there.

Once more, she tried to sit up, this time succeeding. Her muscles felt very stiff, as if they had atrophied. She nearly fell over as she stood, but she caught herself. A tickling sensation was felt in the middle of her back. She spun around, but found nothing except a large frosted window, nearly fifty feet in both directions.

The sensation came again and again she spun around and again she found nothing. She then felt her back, finding something stringy. She pulled at it, causing a slight pulling of her scalp. She pulled it in front of her. Golden strands wove delicately between her glove-covered fingers. It was her hair. How long had she been in there?

Instinctively she checked for her weapons, finding none. As well, she realized she was in different clothes than when she went to the Leyline. She was wearing all black, including a tight turtleneck instead of her white tank-top.

She was confused. Nothing made any sort of sense. And where was Kashamie? She must have been the one to bring her here. That gave rise to a new question: Where was she?

Being extremely careful to not trip, she walked to the large frosted window. She couldn't see anything out of it. It was cold to the touch. Water droplets began to run down from where her hand was. She made a wide sweeping motion with her hand and looked out the window.

It was a frozen wasteland. Nothing moved, except the things that yielded to the wind. Parts of ships lay scattered about, icicles hanging from various places. She could see other parts of the building. No activity could be found.

She inched away from the window, taking everything in. She was most likely alone here and probably had no way to escape. Something then struck her. Perhaps the Venus Eclipse was around somewhere. Maybe, maybe it had only been a few days and Kashamie was waiting for her. She had to find out.

Rapidly, she set out to find the ship. The facility was huge, however, she found what she was looking for after two hours of searching.

The Venus Eclipse was stationed at a dock, but no activity seemed to be coming from it. Her heart leaped in joy. She ran as fast as she was able over to the docking hatch.

The docking hatch was closed, but not locked. She, with a little effort, managed to pull it open and step inside.

Nothing had changed. Everything was as she remembered it, except that no power was on.

She headed to the cockpit. When she was there, she called out a familiar name. "Venec! Venec, wake up! It's me, Maki!" All of the sudden, hundreds of little lights came on. A voice spoke.

"Maki? What can I do for you?"

Maki smiled. "Can you tell me how long it has been since we got here?"

"Yes. We have been here for approximately thirty years."

That hit her like a critical wound. She needed to ask another question before she panicked completely. "Where is Kashamie?"

"Kashamie Manare is dead. She died thirty years ago."

Maki fell to the floor. How the hell could this be happening? Her best friend was dead and she had been asleep for thirty years. What did she do to deserve this?

"Venec, how. how did she die?" She was on the verge of tears.

"Pirates were after you and you were still weak, so she took you here to Galactica to get you healed. They put you in a cryostasis pod so you could heal, but the pirates came. They killed everyone at this facility. Kashamie knew what she had to do, so she drew all of them outside, then had me use a nuclear warhead. She, of course, did not survive. You survived the radiation because you are not susceptible to it."

Warm tears ran in rivers down her cold cheeks. Kashamie had died to save her. "Venec, how long will it take you to get ready for a launch?"

"Four hours. However, I am low on fuel. Where do you wish to go?"

"Blue Heaven."

"That is possible. However, I must be refueled and repaired once we get there."

"Understood. I'm going to look around this place for a bit. Oh, by the way, are my weapons onboard?"

"Yes."

"Alright. I will be back here in four hours." Maki held herself tightly for a moment, then she stood up and went back to the facility.

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Why did she have to die? She hadn't done anything to deserve it. Nothing would ever bring her back.

Maki dwelled on the past as she explored the huge facility. Everything was gray and cold. She tried to imagine it filled with people, but she couldn't.

A clatter of metal caught her attention. It had come from a room up ahead. She silently tip-toed over to it and inched her head around the corner. Standing on top of a desk was a small robot. Below the robot were a few pieces of scrap metal.

Hello there. Who are you?" Maki walked in slowly. The little robot turned its head towards her. It had a round head with tow big eyes and a mouth. It jumped down from the desk and marched up to Maki. "Hello. Are you the only one here?" It nodded its head. Maki frowned. "Can you do anything?"

"I am programmed to offer mechanical assistance," it said in a mechanical voice.

"Oh, so you can talk?"

"Only if needed."

Maki felt sorry for it. It was all alone. "Would you like to come with me and help me aboard my ship?" It nodded. "Well then, come with me."

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Blue Heaven hadn't changed much on the outside. It still looked like a giant asteroid. However, there were many new ships docked in the docks.

Maki paid for the Venus Eclipse's dock and told the robot to stay onboard. As she was exiting the ship, she noticed something. It was a red ship that looked like the Outlaw Star. She shook her head. It couldn't be the Outlaw Star. Then she noticed the hull. "Outlaw Star." Her jaw dropped. They were here.

She raced into the city to find any member of the Outlaw Star. As lick would have it, she ran head on into one of them. As they both stood up, Maki noticed that it was Melfina. "Melfina! I'm so glad to see you!" She began to think that maybe Venec's memory banks had been tampered with and that it hadn't been thirty years. Melfina looked as she always did.

"Oh, Maki. How nice to see you. I haven't seen you in thirty years." Maki's hopes dropped. Melfina was a bio android, so of course she wouldn't have aged.

"Oh, yeah. Is Gene here?"

"No. In fact, the only person here that you would know, besides me, is Aisha. But I don't know where she is."

"That's. alright. Say, how about we meet at the inn in about two hours? I need to get some things, but then we can talk."

"Okay. See you then."

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Oh man, caster shells are a pain in the ass to find. She was now in the fifth weapons shop today. Finding .38 cartridges were easy, but caster shells were almost extinct. All she had been able to find was one number three.

She walked around in a kind of daze. When she was about to leave, she spotted a small box on a shelf. As she got closer she saw it was a box with various caster shells.

As she was about to pick it up, a man reached for it as well. "Excuse me sir, but I found them first." She tried to have a nice tone in her voice, for this man was over half a foot taller than she was and didn't look like a pushover.

"You're mistaken. I saw them first."

"No, I did." Maki hardened her voice slightly.

"I doubt that. Besides, what use would these be to you?" He had an annoying smirk on his face. She wanted to smack it off.

"I have a caster. I need caster shells. These are caster shells." She grabbed a hold of the box and so did the man.

"But I also have a caster and I need caster shells."

"Well, you're gonna have to take them from me." She pulled on the box.

"That's funny. You actually think it would be difficult to take them?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Hey! No fighting in here!" The man a t the counter said.

"Well, what else do you suggest?" The tall man said. If he hadn't been trying to take the caster shells, she may have thought he was good looking.

"Split the box. You each get four caster shells."

"But they're different kinds," Maki said.

The man at the counter sighed. "Give them to me. I'll give them out."

Maki and the man she was fighting with handed the box over at the same time. The man distributed them. "Now, get out!"

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She rolled the four caster shells around in her palm. She had a number 7, a number 11, a number 15, and an unknown shell. It looked like it said 9, but number 9 shells didn't exist. At least, she didn't think they did. She remembered hearing about them from a weapons dealer one time, but he was a crazy old man.

That man in the store had wasted her time. She now only had forty-five minutes before she had to meet Melfina by the inn. Well, she could shop for clothes with Melfina. Right now she wanted to go back to the ship and put the caster shells in her safe.

Most people didn't use casters thirty years ago, and only a handful probably used them now. In a few years, she would either have a weapons dealer custom make some caster shells, or she would have to sell her caster to a museum.

Quite a few museums would be happy to buy a caster in excellent condition, but not many would buy a well used one. However, she would have no trouble selling hers.

Only ten of her model of caster had ever been made. And only one had found its way into a museum. It was an X-19 Shockwave caster. What made this caster special was that it fired the caster shell, but it also absorbed the force of it being shot, formed it into a beam and shot it out right after the shell. It basically let you get two caster shells out of one. If your enemy somehow survived the initial attack, it would be wiped out by the shock beam. However, the beam would not trigger if you shot a 17 or higher shell, since the caster would break from the force of a shock blast that high.

Maki sighed. She had owned this caster for years. Tuno Fardrect had given it to her as a thank you for stopping the C'tarl museum from being blown to smithereens. At first, she didn't know what to do with it. All it seemed to be was a purple piece of metal with a silver handle. Soon after, however, she learned how nice it was to have around when people were after her head.

As she though of this, she failed to notice that the man from the weapons store was by her ship and looking very interested. He gazed upward at it and did not move.

Maki almost walked into him, but realized who it was. She tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to face her. He was a good-looking man, with unruly black hair and beautiful sapphire eyes. His eyes were the only source of color about him, for everything he wore was dark. She hadn't noticed any of this before because she had been fighting with him.

She shook her head, "What are you doing?" Her voice was ice.

"I'm admiring this ship. It's not often that you see a grappler ship around here." He had no clue that this ship belonged to her. In fact, he didn't seem to realize that she was the one that had been arguing with him in the store.

"No, it isn't. But don't you think you are just a bit close to it? The owner probably doesn't want strangers this close to it."

"I think the owner would be happy to know that his ship is being admired."

"I don't think so."

"Why not?"

She grabbed his shirt and pulled him close. "Because I'm the owner of this ship!"

"Hey, you're that woman from the store!"

"No shit Sherlock. Now go away!"

"Why? I just want to look at it."

"I said," she balled her hand into a fist and punched him in the face, sending him flying across the floor. "Go away!"

The man now had a shocked look on his face. He didn't think she was that strong. He stood up and put on his annoying smirk. "Not bad for a woman. But I can do better than that." He put up his fists. It didn't seem like he knew a specific style of martial arts; just street fighting. That was just fine for Maki. She was a master of street fighting.

She stepped back with her right foot and, instead of putting her hands in fists, put her hands flat, like blades. "I was warming up. That was a weak punch."

"I'll say. And I bet all of your punches are the same."

At that instant, she charged at him, mouthing the word "idiot." She ducked beneath his punch and did an uppercut to his abdomen. However, he was quick. He did a roundhouse to the right side of her head, sending her off a few feet. He placed a hand where she had hit him. She wasn't kidding.

Maki sat up and rubbed her neck, then she stood up. That had hurt, but she wouldn't let him know that. "I thought you said you could do better."

"I can. That punch didn't hurt at all."

Both of them were lying through their teeth. Both attacks had hurt like hell.

Again, Maki charged, but the man did also. In seconds, their fists collided and their knees collided. Sharp pains went through their bodies.

Maki knew she couldn't keep like that, so she quickly stepped to the right, causing him to lose his balance. She then grabbed his arm and attempted to throw him, but he was faster.

He wrapped his arm around her middle and hurled her into the wall. "Damn! You aren't as light as I thought you would be," he said, smirk still on his face.

Maki shakily stood up, blood running from the corner of her mouth. "Well, you aren't much of a feather yourself." She smirked at him.

"Touché."

Maki laughed. "You think you can do better than me, but you've already run out of comebacks. And I hope you actually know the meaning of touché and that it isn't your idea of a comeback."

His smirk went away. "You actually know the meaning of touché?"

"Yeah. It's not that difficult of a word."

"Amazing. No one I've said it to knew what it meant. Why do you?"

"I lived on Earth for a few years. But enough about that. Weren't we in the middle of a fight?" She stepped into her fighting stance again. He did as well.

This time, the man charged at her, but she stood where she was with a smirk on her face. When he was about ten feet in front of her, she jumped to the side and on top of some metal boxes, grabbing a rod as she went up. She then jumped up high.

He never saw it coming. She landed and flattened herself close to the floor. She swung the rod in a wide arc at his head. With a crunch he flew forty feet and then crashed into the Venus Eclipse's hull.

She stood up and dropped the rod, an evil smile on her lips. Suddenly, with no warning, someone jumped on her and scratched her back, taking away a chunk of fabric.

She fell to the floor and rolled over. Her assailant, who was ready to smash her head in, stopped. It was Aisha. She sat up and Aisha helped her stand up. "Hello Aisha."

Aisha hugged Maki tightly. "Maki! It's been forever!"

Maki pushed Aisha away. Aisha looked sad. "It's not you. You just hug too tight."

"Oh, sorry about that. Now why were you fighting Strife?"

"Strife?"

"Me." Maki turned around and saw the man limping toward them.

"Oh. You."

"Aisha, why didn't you kick the crap out of her? She was trying to kill me."

Aisha stared coldly at him. "You must have deserved it. Maki would never hurt anybody unless they deserved it." She stuck her tongue out at him. He had a confused look on his face.

"What? You're taking her side?"

"Uh, yeah. She's my friend."

Strife fell over. "What! How? Never mind."

Aisha laughed. "You see, Maki? Just confuse him and he's like putty."

Maki smiled and laughed. "I'll have to remember that."

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Aisha had insisted that Maki have lunch with her and the new crew of the Outlaw Star. She couldn't refuse that.

Melfina was right about her and Aisha being the only two she knew. The others were Strife, the annoying man she had been fighting, Kitty, Aisha's daughter who looked exactly like her mother, Jess, Jim's daughter who was also taller than Maki, and Hiro, Sazuka's son. Everyone, except Strife, welcomed her.

"My dad told me about you. He said that you could be a pain sometimes, but that you were a pain for a good reason. He said that you once drugged Gene so that they wouldn't get hurt when you fought Hazanko," Jess said. She was a nice girl; much like her father.

"Yeah, I remember that. He was really angry at the time." Maki took a small bite out of an egg roll.

"So," Hiro said, "is it true that you have a 50 million wong bounty on your head?"

Maki nodded. "Yeah. Although, I wouldn't try to cash in. I'm worth that much for a reason." She just smiled at him. He smiled back.

Strife grinned wide. Now he could kill her and not get in so much trouble. It would be worth the pain, too.

"Although, Mel and I, plus Gene and Jim, know that it was never her fault to begin with. She just pissed off the wrong guy, that's all. She didn't even kill anybody to get that bounty on her head," Aisha explained. Shit, Strife thought. His plan went up in smoke.

They talked all day and nearly all night like this.

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"You sure you don't want to go with us for awhile?" Melfina asked Maki as she was getting ready to board the Venus Eclipse.

Maki gently smiled. "I'm sure. Besides, I need to find a crew for my ship. It's hard to run it alone. But I will keep in touch."

"Alright. Goodbye!" Melfina said.

"Goodbye!" Aisha, Jess, Kitty, and Hiro said. Jess elbowed Strife and gave him a cold stare.

"Goodbye and good riddance!" He said.

"Bye!" Maki climbed inside the ship.

Everyone watched as she launched the ship. Maki was going to take it everywhere.

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A/N Sorry I didn't put everything at the top, but I had to add the A/N's after I typed this up, and it was messing up the document when I put more than a few lines in.

Disclaimer: I do not own Outlaw Star, nor do I own this universe of it, and nor do I own Strife, Jess, Kitty, or Hiro. They all belong to AlphaBlades, not Outlaw Star of course. Just this universe and those four characters. He also owns a character named Jay, but he hasn't come into my story yet.

What I own: Not a whole lot. I own Maki and the Venus Eclipse, but that's about it. I'll bring in new characters that are mine too, but not at this moment.

Anyway, this chapter was a pilot chapter, which means that most of what happened in this chapter does not affect the real storyline. Strife and Maki actually meet somewhere different, and you can see this meeting in AlphaBlades's An Outlaw's Dream, chapter 20.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. This was just to see if you liked the new plot. Note: Everything up to the point where Maki boarded the Venus Eclipse with the little robot has happened in the real storyline. The thing on Blue Heaven didn't happen.

Please R&R. "See ya, for now."