Chapter 1.
It always took a few moments for me to wake up properly, and recently, in those first few moments, I'd developed an unreasoning panic before I fully opened both eyes and realised that I wasn't blind. I opened my left eye and relaxed, looking around surroundings which were still largely unfamiliar. Small sidelights above and to the side dimly illuminated a room that was the size of a small ballroom, highlighting a large ornate desk in front of what had to be the most useless picture window of all time, given that the outside of the ship was permanently shrouded in billowing clouds of dark matter. Despite the size of the room, the heavy, ornate furnishings and baroque embellishments gave the place a darkly oppressive, claustrophobic feel.
I shifted awkwardly, my right arm more than slightly numb. Easing it gently from underneath the delightful weight on top of it only provoked a serious attack of pins and needles. Given that the culprit seemed to finally be getting some much-needed rest, I made a valiant attempt to stop myself from whimpering like a girl, at least until the deceitful little villain feigning sleep shifted considerately (and quite deliberately) to allow blood to rush back into my fingers, and then had the temerity to smirk slightly against my shoulder at an unscripted intake of breath - though that was as much due to being suddenly and painfully reminded of a couple of cracked ribs and more bruises than I cared to count which hadn't yet healed fully.
I distinctly remembered that despite starting somewhere over near the antique chaise-longue next to the desk - and yes, there was still a pack of bandages on the floor that had rolled under the table, that I could be pretty sure matched the one wrapped around my ribs right now. But if memory served, there should have been a trail of clothing and assorted weaponry marking a haphazard route to the bed. Said floor was distinctly lacking in informal decoration - except for a small neat pile near the bed when I shifted slightly to look down with my one good eye, having spied the top of a pair of thigh-length black boots.
'Tell me you didn't get up in the night just to tidy up our mess?' I couldn't resist grinning as I dropped a light kiss on the top of the head that was currently nestled on my shoulder. That elicited a slight squirm.
'There's nothing wrong with being organised,' was the muffled reply. I wanted to protest as a delightful warm weight moved away slightly, and from under corn-coloured bangs, cobalt blue eyes stared up at me, studying, and then softening. A sensual mouth curved into what I already knew to be an all too rare genuine smile. 'You were really reaching for something to break the awkward silence, weren't you?' Kei's hand gently reached out to trace the pitted burn scars under my now sightless right eye.
'That obvious?' I repeated her gesture under the healing cut on her cheek - thankfully already fading, unlike the slice across mine that my brother had left me with - slightly less than couple of weeks or so before, but on a ship traveling IN-skip, with no real point of reference, a fortnight can feel like an eternity. 'Hadn't got much beyond "good morning" so don't credit me with too much imagination.'
She'd propped her chin up on one hand and lay there quietly, just watching me. Not warily, but curious. I mirrored the pose, and let my free hand trace the line of her collarbone - far too prominent; she didn't eat enough - and over her shoulder, lightly touching the darker scar that ran across it and onto her back. I'd seen that, and others far worse, over the past few days, and not all of them were battle scars. Some of them made me understand finally just why someone would want to wipe out their whole past - or why Harlock - the other Harlock - had so poor an opinion of the human race. Heaven help the people responsible for them if I ever get my hands on them – though I had enough sense to keep that last sentiment to myself - I didn't fancy being slapped down onto the deck like a wet kipper again by a woman who'd been taking care of herself for far too long because no-one else would.
'Besides, it wasn't that awkward.' I meant to drop a kiss on her cheek, not wanting to spook her, but she moved her head oh so slightly for her lips to brush mine. She seemed to delight in confounding expectations - Kei was Kei, and as I was quickly learning, she didn't hold back once she'd committed herself. I thought I knew who I had to thank for that attitude; I'd seen her fight and had a pretty good idea who'd trained her. I pulled away eventually only because we both had to be on the bridge shortly and I didn't really fancy a cold shower. 'I keep being surprised you don't bolt for the door as soon as you have the chance.' That earned me a punch on one of the few spots I had left unbruised.
'Fishing for compliments won't get you anywhere, rookie.' Her fingers traced the line of my scar back to rest gently under my eye again. 'You know, we've got contacts on some of the fringe worlds - maybe if we can find a decent doctor...'
'I appreciate the thought, but the scanners in the med bay were pretty clear on the diagnosis: the overflash from Isora's blaster fried the nano-camera and it took the optic nerve with it when the transmitter burned out.' As if on cue my eye started itching again but slender fingers stronger than they looked caught mine before I started scratching at it again. 'It's fine, I can cope - it didn't seem to slow Harlock down much.'
An unladylike snort told me what she thought of that. 'Harlock had a hundred years to learn to deal with it. You're going to have to relearn a lot of things pretty damn quickly if you don't want to be blindsided quite literally in your first firefight.' Her long fingers laced with mine. 'Guess I'm going to have to take you in hand after all - sure as hell the moment I take my eyes off you for five minutes you're in trouble!'
From anyone else that might have stung, but she also had a point. 'It wasn't that long ago it took two trained soldiers to stop you from tearing my head off. Yet you've had my back since we broke out of the brig to take back the ship. I don't think I could have held the crew together these past two weeks without you. I don't know what the hell I did to deserve it, but I'll take it.'
'I've also had you on your back...' she quipped.
'...and in the hot tub, and over the desk... and turret 12 probably needs to unsee a few things...' I added with a grin. It got me a pillow in the gut. 'Oof.'
'Idiot. You came back. You didn't have to. You could have walked away - saving forty condemned pirates didn't save the world - hell, it probably cost more lives getting out of the solar system than you saved. But you came back, and you stepped up.' Her free hand brushed away a stray lock of hair that was threatening to fall over my good eye. 'A lot of people wouldn't consider this trading up.'
'Depends on your point of view,' I replied softly. 'It wasn't as though there was much to go back to - my brother wanted me dead. Nami was gone, and I'd not exactly made many friends in the fleet.' I hadn't wanted it to sound quite so self-pitying, and winced. Kei shook her head slightly, an oddly familiar gesture I couldn't quite place.
'Hey - it's just me here. If you need to wallow for a bit, I won't judge. I've seen what happens to the totally repressed stoic, remember?' She placed a slim, elegant finger on the tip of my nose and hit me again with that devastating smile. 'I like you, but start any of that macho bullshit and I'll just have to knock it out of you.'
'Great. I'll go down in the annals as the first pirate captain who can get his ass handed to him by a girl...' That cost me another playful thump on my arm. 'Ow. Bossy cow! You know damn well I won't hit back!'
She grinned cheekily. 'Which is sweet but utterly impractical. Not all bounty hunters are male. And I'm hardly a girl; we're the same age, dummy. Or do you actually like some of the older guys calling you "kid"?'
Since I'd turned twenty-four only a few weeks ago, waiting on a barren rock for six months with only bad coffee to celebrate with, I had to admit she had a point. But then again, compared to most of these guys - even Eddie, the youngest at twenty and change had more mileage on him than I did - I was just a kid; a bratty, entitled idiot with a terminal decision making disorder. 'Can't blame them for thinking it I guess. Harlock left me his ship, his name, his crew. It's a hell of a lot to live up to - hell, I don't even know if I deserve any of it. But I won't let him or any of you down if I can avoid it.'
'Anything you left out of that list?'
I grinned. 'Now who's fishing?' She stuck her tongue out at me for that. 'Now you come to mention it, for some strange reason a beautiful, smart, bossy, courageous pirate seems to think I'm worth something.'
The little headshake and almost inaudible huff she gave that comment came straight from her mentor. 'I knew there was something off about you from day one, but just couldn't figure you out. Guess I should have realised it's hard to get a feel for someone who isn't comfortable in their own skin. Thankfully, once you pulled your head out of your arse, you turned out to be almost tolerable.'
'Tolerable, huh? Is that the best I can get?'
'Almost tolerable,' she qualified with a teasing grin. I stored that one away for later retaliation in the gym. My compulsively hyper-efficient tough-as-nails XO was proving to have a sense of mischief. I was enjoying watching it too much to take offence; it had been so long since I'd had a friend - or lover -I could relax with I'd almost forgotten what it felt like. What little ship's gossip – (otherwise known as "Ali's big mouth") - I'd heard about Kei's past led me to suspect that our unexpected companionship over the past few days was novel to her as well, so I was damn well going to run with it, and screw the rules. For once in my life I was making someone else happy instead of miserable. First time for everything- except of course running headlong into situations without pausing for breath. Yeah. That was something I just never seemed to stop doing.
'I wish I had been here on my own terms from the start,' I said quietly. I smiled and kissed her again, lazily, just brushing her lips which parted on a soft sigh under mine. Then I just rested my cheek briefly against hers, taking in the scent of her hair – clean and fresh, like lemon and roses. 'For one thing I might at least have been able to date you properly.'
'Properly?' She smiled up at me. 'Seriously? – look around you – we're on a battleship in the middle of nowhere: trust me, I don't hold it against you for not asking me out for dinner and a movie first...'
'Well I think I might be able to wrangle a candle-lit dinner if I can sweet-talk the cook.'
She laughed softly, if a little sadly. ''I hope you never lose this,' she whispered. 'We've fed on despair for so long, most of us have forgotten what hope feels like. The Captain...' She fell silent. I leaned closer to offer a shoulder, which was accepted with a quiet grace I could only envy, even when it grieved me to see. We had that in common if nothing else; some wounds take a while to heal, and betrayal - well, it takes many forms. I didn't think I'd be grieving for a commander who'd have let me undertake a risky job with no backup but an assassin. Or held out dreams of a blue Earth and a clean slate, only to jerk them away leaving them shattered without so much as an apology. Except... well. Maybe I did understand; the need to be accepted, loved... valued. Sometimes we cling hardest to the people who hurt us the most.
And sometimes...sometimes, when you think you've reached rock bottom and have lost everything and everyone you cared about, there's an unexpected ray of light in the darkness. Last night, watching Kei sleep I'd almost broken out into a cold sweat thinking how perilously close I'd come now on two occasions to throwing that light away. I was more than a little thankful she only knew about one of them, and definitely feeling guilty about not having admitted to the first of them yet. Right now however was possibly not the best time to confess I had briefly considered removing a potential threat to my mission back on Tokarga. Thankfully for both of us, I hadn't been that stupid. I'd like to think the captain knew me for a better man than that when he sent us down to the planet alone, but guessed that was one more question that might never be answered. It probably wasn't complementary any which way I looked at it.
Any moral dilemma I faced about 'fessing up to that momentary lapse of decency however was neatly forestalled by someone's communicator beeping insistently. 'Yours or mine?' I asked - but Kei was already squirming far too enticingly over me to get to the neatly stacked pile of her clothing which she proceeded to scatter about with abandon whilst I contemplated both a pair of long legs that seemed to go on forever, and the realisation that my immediate future was going to include that icy shower after all.
'This had better be good,' she snapped frostily into a comm unit. Yattaran's voice on the other end didn't seem even remotely apologetic in reply.
'Ali picked up a ship on the medium range sensors when we came out of IN-skip- might not have spotted us, but you might wanna get your lazy ass up here before we're in range.'
'Careful who you're calling lazy, you overw-' whatever she might have called her opposite number was lost briefly as she tried to find her undershirt.
'Oh - and Kei - tell our rookie captain to get some pants on and get his ass up here as well.'
I'll give her this; her feigned indignation was far better than mine might have been. 'What makes you think I know where he is?' she snapped. Yattaran's smirking chuckle could still be heard as she threw the comm at the wall. 'Asshole.'
Wordlessly, I handed her the other communicator, and she took her own device from my fingers, closed her eyes briefly and counted to ten under her breath. I decided to let discretion be the better part of valour at this point and just went looking for my boots. Dealing with being ordered around by my first mate however, was going to be a priority... after I grabbed a replacement comm unit from stores...
I reached the bridge and took up my station at the helm, bypassing the empty throne-like chair where Harlock's heavy black gravity cloak still lay, his gun-belt and sabre rifle still propped against one arm. Kei was already in place complaining under her breath about someone - presumably our resident loudmouth Ali - messing around with her station. A soft rustling sound and a low "caw" were my only warnings that someone considered me to be their official station. I managed to brace myself in time, as Harlock's bird landed its not inconsiderable weight on my shoulder and began to preen. I hadn't been able to figure out how the damned thing could eat with that skinny neck, but from the feel of it, the bird wasn't going short of a meal or three. Resisting the urge to lean on the wheel, I crossed my arms instead and hoped I wouldn't topple over. 'Status?'
Kei looked up from her console. 'Not a patrol. Looks like some kind of cargo ship. Carlos – can you get any kind of reading on it?'
'No armaments,' Carlos called back up cheerfully from the lower bridge. Him I liked: a big guy with long dark hair held off his face by a thin leather band, he was one of the more affable crew members - unlike Ali – six foot of scowling blond muttonchops with a chip on his shoulder the size of a small tree, giving me the stink-eye from his station when he thought I wasn't looking... 'She's big – over 1000 metres long. Standard drive signature, but the silhouette isn't in our files.' Nothing obviously out of the ordinary, but for some reason as I looked at the screen, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickling.
'Easy pickings,' Yattaran rumbled to my left, rubbing his hands gleefully. 'Might as well give her a shot over her bow and see what she's got for us.' His hand moved towards the remote turret control for the forward battery, but stopped as I rapped out a quick 'Wait.'
'You do know we're pirates? We're supposed to plunder our way through space...?' the fat man asked with a decidedly sarcastic tone, which I ignored as I moved over to Kei's station.
'Give it a rest,' Kei snapped back at him. 'If the captain thinks this feels off...'
I stepped in quickly to avoid another lengthy argument between the two. Once they got going, it was like pulling two kids apart in a playground. 'I just want another sweep. Kei – check for life signs. Get me some kind of head count if you can – Isora had several Q ships commissioned to look for you guys a couple of years ago, I'd just like to make sure we won't run into a platoon that's been out of touch with home for a while. If it's cargo, the life signs should be minimal – most of the newer ships are automated for deep space runs.'
Kei's hands ran quickly and expertly over her console. 'Strange... large biomass reading – concentrated in the main hold– but no life signs. There's a lot of organic material over there but whatever it is, it's dead or otherwise inert.'
'Harlock'
Mimay's voice, soft, barely above a whisper, and I didn't respond until Kei dug a swift elbow into my still healing ribs, eliciting a grunt. 'Oi, she means you,' she hissed. Flushing slightly and hoping no-one from the lower bridge could see their captain blushing like a kid with his hand caught in the sweet jar, I turned too quickly, forgetting I had several pounds weight of muscle and feathers sitting on my right shoulder. I almost over-balanced, catching the wheel just in time. With a squawk the bird flew back in high dudgeon to his usual perch on the back of the captain's chair. This however didn't quite cover the sound of Yattaran choking back a smirking laugh, or a heart-felt sigh from Kei.
Tall, slender, pale skinned with huge pupil-less eyes and long silky silvery hair, no-one would ever mistake the last of the Nibelung for human, despite the superficial similarities between our races. But she was breathtakingly beautiful in her alien, cat-like poise. That alone made me slightly uncomfortable, even without her tendency to look straight at me as though she always knew exactly what I was thinking. In the last few days I'd had to add the uncomfortable sensation that she was the only person on the ship who treated me as though I was Harlock – her Harlock - as though nothing had really changed. If I had to be completely honest, I had been avoiding being alone with her. Letting Kei bully me into finally letting her fix up my battered ribs after we'd finally shaken the fleet had been a slightly desperate move to politely get Mimay out of Harlock's – my - quarters without giving offence – or running for the hills. Given how that evening had played out, I probably owed her a 'thank you...' However all I could manage was 'Mimay?'
Her head inclined slightly in acknowledgement. 'The Central Computer wants to talk to you. Something about this ship is bothering him...'
Arcadia's Central Computer; I'd only been in the room twice, and it had been un-nerving both times. At least his tendency to chatter non-stop on a frequency it seemed only I could hear had been mercifully curbed over the past few days - although I really was going to have to stop avoiding the difficult conversations.
The earlier sense of unease I'd felt seemed even stronger, like a cold wind blowing across my neck. 'I'll go. Kei – with me – Yattaran, take the helm. Keep back but track it – there must be a planet somewhere on that heading if it's dropped out of IN-skip.' I strode off the bridge as confidently as I could, Kei and Mimay both following in my wake. One of Isora's early lessons: always look as though you know what you're doing, especially when you don't.
Mimay caught up with me faster than Kei did, and walked at my side. 'Are you sure that she should be included in this?' she asked softly. 'Your personal feelings...'
'Are nothing to do with it.' I hadn't meant to snap, and winced as it came out rather more harshly than I'd intended. 'Kei's the best qualified to take over if anything happens to me. Harlock might have kept his secrets close, I can't afford to. This crew deserves better than that.' Kei drew level with us then, and I fell silent. I saw her give Mimay a sharp sideways glance, and she slipped her hand into mine, giving it a squeeze I wasn't sure was possessive or reassuring. Kei being Kei, probably both. But any further musings were forestalled by our arrival at the door to the Central Computer room.
The Arcadia's central computer was the true heart of the ship, to my mind at least. The alien Dark Matter engine powered the ship, but the beating heart was here, in a towering cathedral at least two storeys high; a massive central column rising from the centre of a large hall, like the trunk of some ancient tree; a multitude of cables and strange extrusions running to it – or from it – like the roots or branches. Behind an inner wall of databanks, the mind that had created the Deathshadow 4 and her sister ships a century ago quietly and without fuss kept the ship's systems in order, permitting the operation of a capital class battleship over a kilometre long to function with a bare minimum of crew members.
Oyama Toshiro. Who'd died on the bridge of his greatest creation, only to be revived as its heart and soul when it was transformed by the dark matter that had bound captain, engineer and the last of the Nibelung into an immortal ghost ship. By rights I should be changing my name to Van der Vecken...
The computer made a welcoming gurgle as I walked with Kei through a gap in the outer ring of databanks and towards that towering central column. Whilst in theory I could "talk" to the computer from anywhere on the ship, it felt only polite to do so in person. Well, that, and I didn't need a reputation for hearing voices on top of everything else I was juggling right now... Harlock had spent a lot of his time in this room. Mimay was just as often to be found curled along one of the massive branches, from what little I'd seen. The three of them had been inseparable for a hundred years. And now they were two. With a wet behind the ears interloper replacing their dearest friend.
There was a surge in the rumbling from the central column, and the red lights flickered softly in a gentle negation.
'He says-' Mimay began. I raised my free hand slightly.
'I know.' Giving Kei's hand a squeeze, I let go, and walked forwards slowly until I stood directly in front of a circling red light. 'I think we understand each other, don't we, Tochiro?' The light circled green and a low, major tone answered. I smiled sadly. 'I'm sorry he didn't stay. And I should have been down here earlier than this. Forgive me.'
A rumbling "no". I reached out to touch one of the nearest branches, expecting cold metal, but it was warm to the touch. 'You accepted me that day on the bridge. You, and Kei,' I said softly, knowing only the computer would hear. 'I can't replace Harlock – no-one can – but hopefully we can be friends.' I'd bowed my head without noticing whilst I spoke, and it was a conscious effort to lift my face up to look up at the graceful, organic curves of the ship's heart. As if I was trying to look him in the eye. 'I think that's the only way this can work.'
A circling green light and an accepting hum. I smiled. 'Now what is it that troubles you?'
A wave of icy cold seemed to pass straight through me; bone-chilling, breath-taking. I was gasping for breath and heard both Kei and Mimay struggling likewise. It was a cold that felt as though someone had reached deep inside and laid icy fingers on my soul, half-pulling it from my body. It passed, slowly, accompanied by a howl of anguish from the Arcadia that left me shaking. In my mind's eye, the image I saw was of a cold blue flame, rushing out across the galaxy leaving world after world lifeless in its path. Behind it was only darkness.
Sight, sense and sound returned to normal. The underlying hum of the central computer had a double-beat that slowly brought me back to myself. Kei reached for me, her hand trembling, looking white and shaken. 'What was that?'
Holding onto her shoulder rather more tightly than I intended, I shook my head. 'I'm not sure, but I want a time radar trace on the origin of that ship, and we're going to see what its destination is.' I straightened, and released Kei from the death grip I'd had on her. 'Get back to the bridge and start the trace. I'll join you shortly.'
She nodded sharply and left at a run. As for me, I turned to look at Mimay, standing quietly near the main core of the computer. 'Do you have any idea what that was?'
She shook her head, silvery hair shivering softly down the translucent diaphanous veil she wore over her flight suit. 'I saw only what you did. Our friend senses far more of the universe around us than we do... However...'
'However?'
She placed a long-fingered hand on the nearest branch. 'He sees things differently. What it means I do not know. Except that there are dangers out there that perhaps we should have pushed Harlock to take more seriously... She bowed her head. 'We never expected to need to deal with them.'
In my new quarters, buried at the bottom of a draw in the captain's desk was a hand-held detonator for 100 dimensional oscillators carefully laid on a hundred worlds and capable of allegedly re-setting the universe. I personally hoped I'd have the courage never to use it. Harlock had had a different hope. 'So I'm expected to clean up the messes he avoided facing?'
Her head stayed bowed, and I walked away at that point, not trusting myself to stay civil. Behind me, the central computer's hum took on a tone that felt suspiciously like an electronic "I told you so."
