Some Embrace only Shadow - Part 1: Waterfall

by Helen1969

Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken - Summer, 2868... At the funeral for the Graf of Schloss Greifenstein, events are set in motion that will play out a personal tragedy against the prelude to war... Because if there's one thing a young Harlock forgot, or ignored, it was the old warning "be careful what you wish for..." (CGI verse, prequel)

2. Chapter 2

Waterfall - part 2/4

'There aren't many people here,' Maya said quietly to her father. The small ballroom of Schloss Greifenstein held at most thirty people mingling quietly and making sympathetic small talk whenever their paths crossed.

'Sebastian wasn't a man who socialised much, since his wife died. Not a recluse, as such - he went about his business well enough. But this is just the official reception. I have it on good authority the locals in the town will be far sorrier at his death than this lot.' He gestured to where two sour-faced men in the formal robes of the new Council were talking to a corpulent clergyman in red. 'They sent a cardinal. Not sure why, since Seb kicked the last bishop out at least ten years ago.'

She took a delicate sip of a white which the seneschal - the Graf's illegitimate son, Mamoru Okita - had assured her was a local vintage from the family vineyard. Cool, crisp and sharp, it went down all too easily. 'He might be flying over the battlements if he keeps making pointed comments about his host where he can be overheard.' She turned a searching look on her father. 'Are they a couple?' she asked nodding in the direction of the new Graf and his constant shadow, both looking stiffly formal and uncomfortable in a black uniform styled on Fleet dress greens.

'Oyama and Harlock?' Her father snorted. 'To the best of my knowledge, no - but that's their business, young lady.' He turned an indulgent, crafty look on his daughter, who was almost as tall as he was in her black heels. 'Unless you have an interest in the matter?'

A sip of wine went down the wrong way and she spluttered helplessly, waving off the attention of the fair-haired seneschal and smiling gamely at the matron who offered her a handkerchief. 'No - why would I?' she replied with as much innocence as she could muster. To distract her father she waved her now empty glass at the pair. 'Have you noticed every time someone tries to talk to him, the little guy steps in and chatters at them until they go away?'

'Always was cripplingly shy as a boy. Sebastian was a little hard on him, to my mind. I don't recall him having many friends until Old Man Oyama sent his son and grandson over to learn the business from his partner. The boys hit it off, I'm told, and were inseparable after that. Chalk and cheese, that pair, but even Admiral Sanada has learned better than to separate them.'

'And they do what, exactly?' she asked. She accepted a refill from Annelise as the redhead walked past with a carafe in her hand. 'From what I heard on the grapevine, they both almost got expelled from the OTC for fighting, insubordination…'

Her father chuckled. 'Checking up? My dear - are you sure you're not interested?'

'Just curious.'

'Arcadia Engineering has a contract to refit the Fleet - the Oyama boy is apparently an engineering wizard, though with a tendency to run before he can walk… Harlock was seconded to the company as a test pilot, putting the prototypes through their paces. He's gained quite a reputation for being able to evaluate anything from a capital class ship to a one-man fighter in combat.' He smiled at her 'I've heard the words "testing to destruction" bandied around.'

'Loosely translated, they have a reputation for causing catastrophe both separately and together.' Mamoru stood at her shoulder, offering a refill. A little over six foot and sandy-haired, he certainly didn't show his Japanese heritage - who does, these days, when "heritage" is so often a conceit of the dispossessed? - and he wasn't as imposing as his half-brother, though he was also old - at least thirty, at a guess. And happily married, according to a disappointed Annelise. 'Water,' he told her with a smile at her frown. 'Your father warned me you don't like to let it go to your head.'

She accepted the drink gracefully. 'No-one here seems too upset by the Graf's death,' she said lightly, fishing for information. 'Not even at the graveside.'

'Phantom wouldn't show it if you tried to tear it out of him with wild horses, but despite the biological connection, he wasn't much of a father to either of us. I can't complain too much - at least he made sure I had an education, and always looked after my mother financially - even after she wised up and decided that marriage to a man who actually thought she was worth it was better than being mistress to someone who thought she belonged beneath him - in all matters.' The statement was matter of fact, not bitter, and he shrugged at her raised eyebrow. 'It was what it was. Phantom - sorry, Harlock - on the other hand, I don't think the Graf ever forgave for being the cause of his mother's death. Though frankly, you'd think a man from a long line of tall warriors would have had the sense not to marry a tiny thing like the Grafin…' He frowned, staring at the largely empty space around the two young officers, towards which the rotund cleric was proceeding like a red-sailed barge. 'Oh shit…' he muttered.

'Problem?'

'There will be if I don't head that pompous, pious ass off at the pass… I had to elbow that young hothead in the ribs twice during the ceremony else he'd have flattened the twat. Excuse me, fraulein.'

She excused, but couldn't resist following in his wake. Long practice allowed her to notice the cardinal's thin lips curl into a sneer as the seneschal approached, and the tension in the new Graf's shoulders was unmistakeable. Surreptitiously, she quickened her pace, arriving just as the cardinal bulled his way past Mamoru without a by-your-leave, ignoring his attempt to steer him towards the canapes. She hovered near a convenient curtain.

'You seem to be avoiding me, my boy,' the cardinal boomed as he approached. Harlock turned his back on him and shrugged.

'Well, you're astute enough to work that out,' he replied quietly. 'Now why don't you get the hint that you're not welcome and fuck the hell out of my home?'

She had to bite back a laugh as the churchman's face turned a deep puce that she was sure clashed with his clerical robes.

'Graf or not, boy, you perhaps need a reminder of your manners and responsibilities.' He brushed off Mamoru's attempts to tug at his sleeve. 'And perhaps keep your ill-bred lap-dogs out of my way. Bad enough you flaunt your catamite in front of everyone - but to allow this by-blow to mix with his betters…'

Tochiro shared a look with Mamoru, and as if by some prior agreement, both men stepped out of the way as Harlock turned back to face the blustering ass. 'Mamoru is blood, regardless of the circumstances, and he's welcome in his own damn home - which you, having discharged your unasked for duties, are most certainly not.'

'Yeah - and what makes you think he tops?' Tochiro added cheekily, with a wink at Maya, who had to hold onto her glass with a death grip to avoid spilling it, she was close to laughing so hard. 'Is it because I'm short? Because that's just plain insulting, that is… Hey Harlock - maybe if you did snog me, he'd piss off - or at least shut up long enough to watch?'

She was sure she could hear Mamoru counting under his breath. He might have been up to fifty.

'I was warned you were a pair of insolent pups. Perhaps you are not aware that the new council will not ratify…'

'The Council can frankly go fuck itself,' Harlock replied mildly. His eyes, however, were anything but - stormy and filled with a deep fury that she suspected was not wholly due to the pompous prat baiting him. This storm looked as though it had been building for a while. 'You can't take anything away from me that isn't yours to bestow…'

'Oh? Perhaps you might want to reconsider your position, given how much of your fortune is currently tied up with Arcadia Engineering and those new military contracts both you and Oyama are relying on,' the cardinal snarled. 'Your attitude and blatant disregard for tradition and common morality have been noted, and those contracts can easily be reassigned…'

Seeing Harlock's hands curl into fists at his side, one of them perilously close to the pistol on his right hip, she decided to step in. Stepping forward, she giggled girlishly, shimmied between the frowning young graf and the priest, and tugged on Mamoru's sleeve. 'I was wondering where you'd got to,' she gushed, mentally tallying up how much the annoying pair would owe for this performance. 'You went off without topping my gla…- Oh! Ooopsie!' She set one foot in front of the other, deliberately tripping and spilling the contents of her glass all over the cardinal. 'Oh dear, your graceness - I'm so, so sorry. Silly me… now look what I've done.' She dabbed ineffectively at his wet chest. 'Oh dear…' She threw away her balance again and fell towards the cardinal, who didn't, she notice, pass up the opportunity for a quick grope as he set her on her feet. As expected. She drew herself up to her full height and glared at him, careful to make it a little cross-eyed. 'Why you - you pervert!' She slapped his face as hard as she could, wishing she could have gotten away with a full right cross. Even so, it rocked him onto his heels. 'Okita san! I'd like you to escort this… this… creature away from here at once!' she declared imperiously.

By now two burly young men from the town who'd been assisting with the serving had strolled over, and between them and the seneschal, manhandled the protesting cleric out of the room. She caught her father's eye from across the room and shook her head. She'd explain later. She turned back to her reluctant host, only to find him gone, his shorter companion looking at her with an amused smile. He pushed his glasses up his nose and beamed at her.

'Nicely played - though if I hadn't given Harlock a shove out the door you might have gotten that daft bastard killed… Lucky for him he'd rather retreat to somewhere quiet.'

'Where..?'

Tochiro shook his head. 'Leave him be. He's where no-one will think to look for him, which is how he likes it. Thanks, by the way - it would have been more than a little awkward if Harlock had decked the fat cu-'

'Lieutenant Oyama!' she scolded, cutting off the epithet. He just grinned.

'Eh. Nice slap, though you almost went for the cross, didn't you?'

She smiled back. 'Three brothers. It's a hard habit to break.' They shared a conspiratorial smile. 'I'm Maya - we haven't been formally introduced.' He shook her offered hand heartily.

'Well, since you've seen me with my dick out, it'd be tough to stand on ceremony.' He giggled at her blush. 'Ahhh… If only you were a redhead… It's Tochiro. I've heard a lot about you.'

She puzzled over that, not remembering too many times when her young host had stayed in the room when she'd visited. He grinned again. 'Don't worry about it - you'd be surprised what he notices. Nice meeting you again. Maybe next time I'll get to watch you drop your towel…' he strolled off with his hands in his pockets, whistling.

'Care to elaborate on that comment?' came her father's dry, amused voice from behind her left ear.

'Daddy?' It came out as a squeak. She hadn't noticed him glide up behind her.

He laid a hand on her shoulder. 'Perhaps we need to discuss your tendency to go off on your own, young lady...'

She resigned herself to the talking to, and followed him from the room.

---

"Where no-one would think to look" turned out to be her second guess, after the Graf's study. The old chapel. Restored, according to a plaque, in the late twenty-third century from records of a gothic original, it was a small, octagonal folly attached to the main building by a narrow, stone corridor ending in a thick oak door with black iron hinges. Since the door was slightly ajar, she didn't see the harm in sticking her head through the gap to look inside, and sure enough, a pew at the front of the small room was occupied by a slouching figure taking the occasional swig from a silver hip flask, his feet up on the railings in front of his seat.

'Planning on standing there all day or are you going to come in?' he asked without looking around, startling her since she didn't think he could have seen her. 'You do have a tendency to lurk, don't you? At least this time I've got some clothes on…'

She almost replied that she thought that a pity, but thought better of it. From the slight curl at the corner of his mouth though, she had a feeling he knew exactly what she was thinking.

He didn't comment. Simply handed her the flask. 'Drink?'

She took it and sniffed delicately. An expensive brandy, from the scent. She took a sip, coughed a little at the pleasant burn as it went down, and handed it back. 'Tochiro was right - this probably is the last place anyone would think to look for you, given your apparent dislike of all things clerical.'

He shrugged. 'I've no beliefs, or any kind of faith, despite my father's best efforts. And the last chaplain was kicked out some years back one step ahead of a lynch mob, and not even father would have another in residence after that.' He didn't elaborate, but sat draped idly over the pew, one leg dangling over the railing, one arm thrown casually over the back of the pew, the other hand toying with the hip flask. 'Any reason for invading my privacy, apart from maybe wanting to get a good look at me naked again?' he drawled. The tone was one of studied disinterest, but those dark eyes were anything but. They looked her over from head to toe as though he were planning where to start eating her.

She flushed. 'If you want me to leave, I'll leave,' she began, and turned to do so.

He took his leg off the railings and sat up straight. 'I didn't say I wanted you to leave,' he said quietly. 'I'm just… it's just… crowds of strangers wandering around my home makes me a bit twitchy.' He had a bad habit of not making eye contact, she noticed. Either that or he found her breasts fascinating. 'I prefer to avoid them.'

'You don't say,' she drawled, in a passable imitation of his own tone.

He did raise his gaze at that, and the dark eyes were amused - and interested, when they finally met hers. Unbidden, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

'So, are you really drunk, or do you use that - ' she nodded at the hip flask - 'to give you an excuse to act like a boor and keep people at arm's length?'

The errant corner of those full, sensual lips moved a little higher. 'Busted, I guess. It weeds out the people who can't be bothered to look beneath the surface from the ones who might possibly be interesting.' He took a long pull at it and offered it again. She was about to politely decline, then took it and had another sip. From the way his smile kept playing with the corners of his mouth, it was the right choice.

'So - am I moving into the interesting column?' she asked, placing the silver flask between them on the bench. She perched on the railing, arranging her skirts neatly.

'You never left it - the only question I had was whether or not to leave you in it,' he replied dryly. 'But you didn't answer my question.'

Question? Oh. That question. 'Your guests -'

'Not mine. I didn't invite them. Getting testy are they, because I'm not at the door so they can stay on script and offer me their fake condolences as they leave?'

'I'll take that as "I've no intention of bidding them goodbye, please find someone else to do my job for me?' she countered. He was actually getting predictable, in an annoying kind of way.

'See, you're quick. Mamoru can do it, he doesn't mind talking to those idiots.'

'He shouldn't have to stand in for you,' she replied shortly. 'You know, you do have obligations…' She noticed suddenly his jacket was open, and had fallen back from his chest to reveal a t-shirt underneath instead of the regulation light sweater. 'What on earth…' she reached out to push the thick leather away to reveal a skull and crossbones emblazoned on a black T. She read the legend underneath: 'Space Pirate should be a valid career choice…' She stared into his eyes and tried hard not to laugh. 'Really? You wandered around a Society funeral and wake with this hidden under your jacket?'

His eyes seemed to twinkle at her. 'That's nothing. You should see the one Tochiro's wearing,' he grinned.

'I'm not sure I'd dare… I suspect it's not fit for polite company.'

'Oh - you can count on it. We had them specially made.' He pouted. 'Mamoru, however, wimped out of wearing the one we bought for him.'

'Mamoru seems at least to have some sense of propriety,' she retorted.

'Mamoru - and trust me, although our age difference meant we're not close, I do love my brother - has a stick up his ass. Mostly due to always wanting to be "worthy" - whatever that means - like I give a shit that we don't have the same mother. But it only takes one dutiful scion to run this pile, so if he wants the job, it's his. Hell, I'd sign the place over to him if the entail allowed it.' He picked up the flask and waved it at the walls around them. 'Most of it's a fake. Take this chapel - it's about as gothic as my left testicle… Some of the bricks and walls might be original, but most of this drafty heap dates back to a twenty-third century rebuild.' He shook the flask ruefully, and she realised that he wasn't quite as sober as he tried to appear. 'Knew I should have just taken the bottle.'

'I suspect you've had more than enough already today,' she replied tartly.

'Sweetheart - I haven't even gotten started yet… this is nothing. I'm stuck here for another six weeks on "family leave" to sort out the mess my father left the finances in - I have every intention of making the process as painless as possible, and that, my beautiful Maya, means being as pissed as possible for the duration.' He gave her a speculative look and leaned a little closer, until he had his hands resting on the railing she sat on, one placed either side of her bottom. 'Of course, the time could go a lot more pleasantly if the company was amenable…'

The scent of brandy on his breath was strong, but not unpleasant. His sheer physical presence was rather more overpowering. She'd fended off boorish cadets and young officers before - it was par for the course for any young woman with two of everything she should have, after all. But Harlock… Harlock set every nerve she had on high alert - although in this case, the adrenaline rush wasn't so much saying "fight or fly", but suggesting strongly that she just wrap her legs around those slim hips and surrender to the inevitable. The deep, longing ache pooling in the lowest part of her stomach and between her legs seemed to be in total agreement. She had to resist the urge to wriggle away from the intensity of the sensation.

Face it… you like the dangerous ones, her inner demon whispered.

'You're more than a little drunk,' she said primly. 'I couldn't possibly take advantage of you in this condition.'

He sniggered. Actually sniggered, whilst still looming over her, leaning closer. 'I'm sober enough to consent to a pretty girl - especially one who can stand her ground and give as good as she gets. It's a refreshing change. And a surprise - you look so demure dressed like that.' He leaned so close she could feel his breath on her cheek. 'Though I prefer you in a wet shirt covered in suds, bent over my bike…' he whispered into her ear, before pulling away again to look into her eyes.

She gulped. 'What makes you think I won't just slap you senseless?'

Breathe…

Bent over my bike… Oh. The image that conjured up…

Breathebreathe...

She loved the lazy smile that his mouth adopted at her sudden blush. 'You don't want to slap me.'

'Bet?' she countered, meeting his gaze, wondering who the hell she was trying to convince.

'I never gamble,' he whispered, his mouth capturing hers on the last syllable.

---

He tasted of brandy. Sharp, rich and decadent - but smooth, deceptively intoxicating. She should have pushed him away for his effrontery, but instead she leaned into the kiss he took, and indulged herself by running her fingers through his dark hair, and yes, it was as soft as she'd thought it would be, the fine strands flowing over her fingers without resistance, like fine silk. His hands he kept on the railing, imprisoning her between his arms and his body, so that the only escape - even had she wanted it - would have been to tumble off backwards.

She was a willing prisoner, her lips parting to admit his teasing tongue, an intimacy she'd never invited from any other young chancer, having restricted their access to chaste kisses.

Not this one. He didn't wait to be asked, but took what he wanted, plundering her mouth with a delicate brutality. She essayed a trial of her own, shyly slipping her own tongue past his defences, and felt him groan in response. His hand moved to the small of her back and pulled her closer until she could feel the hard length of his sabre-rifle pressed against the tender flesh of her inner thigh.

That last broke the spell somewhat, and she shifted awkwardly, and would have taken that backward tumble if he hadn't caught her, and gently tugged her towards him and onto her feet. The withdrawal was like a bucket of cold water thrown over her - a sudden return to sanity that she actively resented. The small distance between them was a gulf that cut her in two, as though for a brief moment she'd been a part of something greater - not two people, but one.

'Gawd. Some look out you are, Harlock - the whole bloody village could have waltzed in here whilst you had your tongue down her throat.'

Tochiro's mellow tones, loaded with amusement. Blushing furiously she pushed Harlock's hands away and whirled round to see the speaker strolling out from the sacristy, naked to the waist, t-shirt and jacket draped over one shoulder. Annelise skipped out from behind him with a blushing, sickly smile and bolted for the door.

Maya turned sharply on her heel to look at the unrepentant rogue, who stood with his hands in his pockets, a satisfied smirk on his too-beautiful face. His lips looked full and slightly bruised, she noticed with her own sense of satisfaction. But she rounded on him anyway. 'You were on guard..?' she asked witheringly. Her tone was a warning, but he either didn't notice or ignored it anyway.

Her fallen angel had the temerity to shrug. 'Kind of. The least a friend can do, to keep a weather eye out. Her mother can be a bit handy with a rolling pin…' he trailed off, and a wary look appeared in those stormy eyes.

'So what - that was just a distraction?' He opened his mouth to reply, but Tochiro's snigger behind her changed her mood from elation to indignation. Without hesitation, she let her hand fly towards his face and land an open-palmed slap on it that actually made him take a step back to recover. 'You shameless… pirate!' she hissed at him. She shook off his attempt to grab her arm and gave him a hard shove, clearing her way so she could flounce past him and out of the chapel.

Outside, she leaned against the cold stone of the outer wall to get her breath back, and settle the churning of her stomach. A couple of deep breaths, and she did start to think she might have been a little hard on him. Especially when she remembered how it had felt when he'd pulled her closer… Then she heard Tochiro's giggle, at odds with his sexy tenor as he spoke.

'You know - everytime I think you can't screw things up any more with that girl… What the hell were you thinking?'

'Shut the fuck up. This is all your fault.' By comparison, Harlock's voice was hoarser, far less melodic, and he sounded rather petulant. She smiled. Well, so he should…

'My fault? I wasn't the one who decided to play tonsil hockey with the Ambassador's daughter - how is it my fault you couldn't keep your mind on the job at hand?' A long pause. 'Oh shit… you've really got it bad, haven't you? I'd thought this was just another itch you needed to scratch, but you're not going to be able to fuck this one and walk away, are you?'

There was the unmistakeable sound of flesh hitting flesh, a startled "oof" and the sound of a body hitting the floor. 'You bastard - what was that for!'

'You don't talk about her like that!'

'Seriously - you're ready to deck me over a girl? Whatever happened to bros before hos?' Another thwack. 'You fucking idiot - that was my lip! No - don't bloody well help me up, I'll find my own feet and my way out. For fuck's sake though - find her - or a willing little milkmaid - and get laid already - you're impossible when you're this cranky. Sheesh. I know you get all stressed out coming back here, but take out your temper on some other poor punchbag next time. Try Mamoru - he's more your size.'

Booted footsteps, heading purposefully in her direction, accompanied by a torrent of muttered imprecations in what she assumed was his native Japanese. But there was nowhere to hide, and she had to stand pressed against the wall as a five-foot-something thundercloud stormed out of the chapel. There was scant hope he wouldn't notice her, and he stopped, looked her up and down, and sighed.

'He's an idiot - just so you know. Stubborn, arrogant, hot-headed and a total pain in the arse - but never breaks his word, he's the best man I know, and if you can stick his bullshit out long enough to work that out for yourself, he's worth the effort.'

She stared at him silently, not sure what she should say.

'Ah. You're pretty enough - but can you go the distance? Whatever - break his heart, I'll break your legs. Are we clear, darlin?' This time he wasn't smiling.

Mouth suddenly dry, she nodded.

'Tochiro!'

The thunderous bellow from the chapel preceded the handful of bootsteps that heralded its owner reaching the doorway. Slightly stunned, she watched as Tochiro's beatific smile spread back over his homely face, and he scuttled off down the corridor, starting to whistle before stopping to touch his split lip.

Harlock stood in the doorway, filling it, and they stared at each other for what felt like an age, before she turned and walked away with as much dignity as she could manage.

So she didn't see the speculative smile which played around his sensual mouth as he watched her walk away.

---

Her father received a small mountain of work, which kept them both occupied for the next few days, and her host was conspicuous by his absence at meal times.

'Had to go into Bayreuth to see the family lawyers,' Mamoru told her when she asked over breakfast. Once the ceremonies were over, her father, having found out that everyone else headed for the kitchen to eat, insisted on joining them.

'No sense in running around after only two people,' he'd told Mamoru cheerily. 'Unless you'd prefer the annoying guests kept at arm's length?'

Mamoru had laughed at that. 'Doesn't bother me. It's a refreshing change to see an ambassador who isn't precious about his creature comforts - are you sure you're in the right trade?'

'Right business - wrong family.' Her father and Mamoru shared knowing looks, some in-joke she wasn't privy to.

She reached for the bread rolls and snagged a crusty white out from under Tochiro's quick fingers, sticking her tongue out at him when he pulled a face at her.

'Maya!' Her father's amused voice held just a slight note of censure. She bowed her head in a vain attempt to look contrite.

'Sorry, father.'

'For the face pulling or nicking my breakfast?' Tochiro asked, deliberately dropping her in it even further. Mamoru snorted into his coffee mug trying to hide a smile, and his wife, Miranda - a lovely woman a good ten years older than Maya, with hair a slightly deeper shade of gold, clipped him round the back of the head, causing their daughters - ten, eight and six years old - to giggle.

'You,' Maya told Tochiro sniffily, 'are a bad influence. And I'm saving you from having to let that jacket let out - you've had three rolls already this morning.'

He grinned, and it was impossible for anyone - her father included - to censure him, which the scamp probably counted on. 'Well, one of us has to like their food - how the hell Harlock got so tall given the way he picks at his dinners is beyond me. Luckily a lot of girls like a bit of meat on the bones, right, Liesl?' He patted Annelise on the backside as she wandered past with the coffee pot, and got a glare from her mother at the stove for his pains.

'You do know there's such a thing as sexual harassment?' Mamoru pointed out.

Tochiro pouted for a moment, then beamed. 'S'alright - Annelise - don't you worry about it - I won't press charges!'

Maya had to take a bite out of her roll to hide her giggles, her father rolled his eyes and Mamoru sighed. 'So help me - what did I do to deserve you two back on the doorstep?'

'You're the only family member who'll put up with us?' Tochiro hazarded. 'Dad did kind of hint about the don't darken-my-door thing last month, but he was joking. I think…'

'Don't be too sure,' Mamoru retorted darkly. But he smiled. 'Baka.' He put his mug down. 'Seriously - how long are the pair of you here for? I know the Fleet granted Harlock six weeks, but you've only got a couple of days left, and I know for a fact the timetable over at the dockyards off Titan is being moved up in light of recent events.'

'I'll fly out later in the week,' Tochiro replied. 'All joking aside, we do have to take the Yukikaze out on an extended test flight - dad wants the new drive put through its paces ASAP. Thought we could tie it in with a mission the long-range Explorer Corps ran past us - they think they found a signal coming from a region of space we haven't settled yet - didn't match anything in the records, so it's either a long-lost colony, or…' his grin - if possible - grew even bigger.

Mamoru groaned. 'Not that old chestnut again?'

'What old chestnut?' Maya leaned over the table, ignoring her father's muttered "elbows" uttered without looking over the top of his newstab.

'Aliens!' Tochiro beamed at her gleefully. 'Just think - could be a dying race of ethereal alien beauties, waiting to be rescued by a group of virile, handsome young men, to revitalise their dying race…' he finished on a yelp as the contents of the cooling coffee pot Annelise was removing from the table were unceremoniously dumped in his lap. 'What the hell was that for?'

'Accident,' she smiled at him, flashing her dimples. Grabbing a towel from Miranda, he grumbled under his breath as he mopped up the spill. Annelise caught Maya's gaze and shrugged, before giving her a conspiratorial wink and tripping off with the now empty pot.

'I wouldn't get too excited,' her father drawled. 'Maybe they'll be male alien beauties?'

Maya choked slightly on her roll, and Tochiro sat with the wet towel in his hand, staring in horror at her father.

'Daddy - why wouldn't Tochiro-san like boy aliens?' Mamoru's eldest - Aurora - spoke up, a frown on her normally sweet face.

Maya couldn't stifle the giggle at that, and even Mamoru laughed out loud, though he tried to turn it into a cough when Miranda glared at him. He stood up and reached for the dripping towel Tochiro was holding in his hand. 'And on that note, before you corrupt my daughters, I think breakfast is over.'

'Did I miss much?'

The familiar drawl from the doorway made her turn round, and sure enough, Harlock - in uniform for once - stood leaning against the stonework, arms folded on his chest. From the amused glint in his eyes and the ghost of a smile hovering around his mouth, he'd been there for a while.

'Probably not,' Maya replied as sweetly as she could. She allowed Mamoru to pull her chair out for her, gentleman that he - at -least - was. She walked to the doorway and the lanky, tousle-haired figure filling it. 'You do have a tendency to lurk, don't you?' she added, throwing his words from the chapel back at him.

He smiled at her, and her annoying heart skipped a beat. 'At least I have my clothes on…' he added.

If he was going to hand her these lines on a plate… She decided to let him have both barrels. 'That's a shame - it's amazing how many faults I can overlook when you don't have a shirt on…'

He leaned down so he could whisper in her ear as she walked past: 'Sweetheart - it wasn't my pecs you were eying up - I think you'd prefer me in rather less than a shirt…'

'I'm not your sweetheart,' she pointed out in her most reasonable tone, wishing she didn't blush so easily.

'Yet,' he murmured as he strode past her. 'Anything left of that, or did the human dustbin there clean it all up as usual?' He dropped into a chair and placed his feet on the table, before they were pushed off by Annelise's mother.

'Might be a couple of rashers left - why bother leaving you a plateful the way you eat? It's like watching a bird peck at a worm…' Tochiro grinned over to his friend. 'Maybe if we just pureed everything in alcohol…'

'I do not drink too much,' Harlock retorted. He reached for the plate the cook handed him and began stuffing it away with an enthusiasm that gave a lie to Tochiro's complaints. 'I just manage to drink you under the fucking table - but that's because you can't hold it worth a damn.'

'Papa says you're not supposed to use words like that!' Elena, the middle girl, stared wide eyed at her young uncle, and Maya stopped to watch the quiet scene to see how he'd react.

He put his cutlery down and pushed himself away from the table. Leaning down, he opened his arms and all three little girls almost sprang into them, squirming and elbowing each other to get into his lap.

Well, at least it's universal… Maya thought with a silent giggle.

'Quite right too.' He settled Elena on his left knee and Katy on the right with Aurora on the very edge. 'I'm not sure why your father allows you to be in the same room with such a terrible influence on my darling nieces. Now - who's going to punish me?' The little girls giggled and he was soundly kissed on both cheeks. 'If your papa agrees - grumpy bear that he is - who's for a riding lesson when I've finished my breakfast?'

This prompted squeals of "Me! Me!" from the trio, and he unleashed a sweet, dazzling smile on them that made her heart melt to see.

They adore him… she thought, watching them chatter and crawl all over him as he tried to finish the plate in front of him. And he's more relaxed with them than he is with anyone other than Tochiro, she noticed.

'Papa - may we?' Katy asked her father, giving him a wide-eyed long-lashed pleading look that would have melted the hardest heart.

'On lead-reins this time, Katy.' Mamoru addressed this to his daughter but was looking at his half-brother, who nodded. 'Elena - if I catch you trying to jump anything bigger than two foot, you're grounded for a week.'

'But Prince Rupert can jump three feet from a standstill…' the eight year old pouted prettily. Aurora - who considered herself far too grown up for such arguments, was already on her way to get changed.

'But you can't, given that you broke your arm last time when you went over his ears, Ellie. I'll put them all down to a reasonable height,' Harlock assured his brother. 'And you, miss - it's my ass on the line if you disobey your father! Have a care for my hide if not your own!' He smiled at her fondly, and Maya's heart decided to start somersaulting again.

'Weren't we supposed to discuss the finances...?' Mamoru asked as Harlock stood up and stretched, before gathering up the small fry. Maya frowned slightly as the odd stress he put on the word, then shrugged it off inwardly.

'Later. Much later. I need to have a think first.'

'What's to think about?' Mamoru asked as Harlock - two little blonde angels and Tochiro in tow, left via the outer door to the courtyard.

'Whether this place is worth selling my damn soul for,' Harlock replied quietly as he passed, only barely loudly enough to Maya to hear. He stopped in the doorway and flashed her a smile that almost had her joining his little retinue of admirers on the spot. But the look in his dark eyes was far more concerned than he was letting on. 'Fancy a ride?' he asked, all innocence. 'I'm sure with have something in your size a novice can handle.'

Tochiro, in the process of following his friend out of the room, spluttered and was elbowed by Harlock in the side of the head for his pains.

'I'm sure you do,' she replied smoothly. 'But I have work to do - my father's correspondence…'

'Can wait a while.' The treacherous bastard looked up briefly from the tablet he was reading the morning news on. 'It's a lovely day, Maya - and we're rarely on a planet like Earth where you can enjoy the outdoors.' He didn't, she noticed, even have the decency to look her in the eye whilst sealing her fate for the morning.

'But -'

'Oh please come, Miss Maya! Please! It'll be fun. ' The little girls tugged at her sleeve, and outnumbered, she sighed her agreement.

'I'll need to get changed.'

Giggling happily, the girls ran back to their uncle.

'The outdoor school is just past the stable block. Can't miss it.' Harlock told her. 'Just listen for squealing!' he winked at her, and escorted his charges out with shooing motions, Tochiro trailing in their wake.

---

Mamoru rounded on the ambassador as soon as the younger crowd were out of the room. 'Justin - what the hell are you playing at? Are you trying to throw your daughter to the wolves?'

Justinian Rosenbach, distant cadet scion of the Harlock family, laid his tablet down on the table and gave the younger man a look that would have rivalled the current head of the clan for innocence. 'I'm sure I wouldn't know to what you're referring, Okita-kun.'

'That's a bouncer, and you know it. I love my little brother, but he's too young, hot-headed and frankly can be a bit of a twat - most of the latter by design, since he really prefers keeping people at arm's length. He and Tochiro are as thick as thieves, but heaven knows, the little guy's more likely to egg him on than rein him in. Maybe in a few years…'

'We don't have a few years, Mamoru.' Rosenbach took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 'Earth's been protected from most of the unrest out there, but that's changing almost daily - what started as a nostalgic movement revering all things Earth-born is rapidly getting out of hand. I was a part of the Gaia movement from the beginning - we tried to establish ground rules for travel to the Solar System and Earth - but there's a more militant faction gaining ground on the council who want to cut all support and ties with the colonies. That fat cardinal is one of their lackeys.'

'But what - '

'Mamoru - Earth might be one of the last places of safety if war breaks out between the colonies. I'd like Maya somewhere safe - and Sebastian and I often talked of how it might be if our children hit it off. Harlock was a quiet child, but I remember - even if Maya doesn't - how he used to look out for her. He's impetuous, but he has a good heart, and I'm not blind to the interest.' He snorted. 'She tries to be so proper but she can be a handful when she wants to be. I saw how she looked at him from the first moment I saw them together.'

'Is that why you brought her? An old pact between fond parents?'

'Hardly. But I'm not one to let an opportunity pass when I see it. Maybe they'll be good for each other - sure as hell he won't have it all his own way with her - and vice versa. She needs a strong hand.' He sighed. 'I'm afraid for her safety, truth be told. There have been threats against members of the Gaia governing council and their families.'

'Sticking two firecrackers in a box is hardly the way to stop a fire,' Mamoru pointed out. He narrowed his eyes. 'And how the hell is a serving officer supposed to protect her? He'll be away most of the time.'

'But she'd have a valid reason to stay on Earth,' Rosenbach pointed out reasonably. 'Her brothers were born in-system, but we were stranded on Metabloody when her mother went into labour with Maya two weeks early. Technically she's colonial born. It's not public knowledge yet, but the Council intends to enact the first part of its exclusion act in about six weeks. Any colonial-born inhabitants of the inner and outer solar system worlds will be forcibly deported back to their birth worlds if they don't leave of their own accord once their travel visas expire.'

'I'd heard rumours, but I didn't think it would come to this so quickly… But Maya's your daughter - surely…?'

Rosenbach shook his head sadly. 'I could play that card - but what precedent would it set for the Elite to set one rule for themselves and another for everyone else? I argued against the Act, but predictably my opponents shouted me down precisely because Maya would be deported with the rest.' He sighed unhappily. 'I haven't had the courage to tell her yet - but if it comes down to it, I'll go with her. Once on Metabloody we can probably arrange for her to move to one of the agricultural worlds - Mistral or Herise.' What he didn't add as that the colonial situation was so fraught, even the travel between systems outside of the direct influence of the former Solar System Alliance was getting problematic. Scarce resources made for closed borders.

Mamoru ran a hand through his hair. 'Does Phantom - Harlock - know you're making fast and loose with his future? You should know, he's not one to take kindly to be backed into a corner. If he suspects you're playing him…'

Rosenbach threw his head back and laughed. 'He didn't tell you that he was the one who invited the pair of us to the funeral?'

Mamoru frowned. 'Come again?'

Rosenbach picked up his tablet and tapped it into life to pick up reading where he'd left off. 'Somehow, he got wind of the deportations. This whole thing was his idea.'

Mamoru sat back in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face. 'Why that sneaky, underhanded, manipulative son of a bitch…' he said admiringly, shaking his head. 'She'll make his life a living hell if she finds out,' he continued, smirking slightly.

---

The pace of life on Old Earth - at least in this idyllic backwater - was a pleasant change to Maya, who'd spent so much of her youth travelling from planet to planet first with her family as a whole, until one by one her brothers wet first to University, then found their own paths in life, until it was just her and her parents, and then just her and her father. More than a week passed before she even felt the need to travel as far as Heiligenstadt in the company of Miranda and her daughters, and the longer flight to Bayreuth by flier she begged off, preferring the quiet of the countryside either on horseback as her childhood skills returned, or on Harlock's old trail bike.

The problems of the increasing unrest of the colonies was far from her thoughts, at least until she came down to breakfast one morning and found the adults - guests, staff and family alike - all glued to a screen watching a broadcast on the main news channel.

'What happened?' She watched as silent footage replayed: a massive industrial dockyard wracked by a series of explosions, and what looked like hundreds of ships exchanging fire, or vanishing with an effect similar to time-lapsed photography as their warp drives kicked in - long trails of light that remained long after the ship generating them had vanished.

'Happened last night, Earth time,' Harlock replied around a mouthful of bacon and eggs. 'An attack on the Zone Industries dry dock around Castlemaine. They came out of warp right on top of the scaffold, and boarded it. Must have had inside help, since they had the codes for the docking clamps and came in during a shift change.'

'Stole over three hundred ships - most of them smaller destroyer class warships, but several transports as well. This is just a mop up of the diversion,' Tochiro added, an uncharacteristically sober note in his melodious tenor.

'I'll need a secure line if you have one?' Her father was talking to Mamoru, who nodded.

'The Graf's study. If you'll follow me?'

They left, leaving Maya alone with the two young men.

Tochiro shared a look with his friend. 'Need me to prep the Yukikaze?' he asked. 'We might find this nice little holiday cut short…'

'Weren't you due back three days ago?' Maya asked. Her hand collided with Harlock's as they both reached for the last sausage. With an elaborate wave of his hand and a bow from the waist - how he managed it seated as he was… - he relinquished his rights to the spoils. She grinned and helped herself.

'I kind of had a bit of leeway, given that we weren't exactly on active duty anyway.' Tochiro replied. 'But you're right. I couldn't have put it off much longer.'

'Prep her,' Harlock said quietly. 'But unless this escalates beyond the Castlemaine system, they won't be calling on the reserves just yet.'

'You're not worried about being called to the front lines?' She watched as he struggled to find the right thing to say.

'I'm a junior officer, on attachment, with command of an experimental ship. There are plenty of ships primed to head out before they need to call on the likes of us,' he opined eventually. His tone was flippant, but something in his gaze as he stared down at the worn, scarred surface of the ancient oak table suggested he was far from fine with the situation.

'You want to fight?'

Tochiro pulled out his sidearm and began to dismantle it, studiously avoiding the pair of them.

Harlock shrugged. 'It's what I trained for. Hell, it's what we as a family are best at.'

She arched one delicate golden eyebrow. 'Poppycock. Father isn't bloodthirsty - neither is Mamoru…'

'Warriors come in a lot of flavours,' Harlock replied, finally raising his eyes to look at her. 'There's a family legend says when there are two brothers there will always be "one for the battlefield, one for the hearth". Some of us are born to protect. Some born to fight.'

'And die?' she asked, in a small voice.

He nodded. 'Not many of us die of old age in our beds in this family. Even my father found a way to remove himself from this existence before his time.'

'His plane crashed,' she pointed out reasonably. 'An accident.'

'But not, you'll notice,' Harlock replied with a mirthless grimace, 'in his bed. Or anyone else's for that matter…'

'Your grandad,' Tochiro nodded sagely, not looking up from delicately autopsying his pistol. 'In his twenty year old mistress's bed as the story goes, at the ripe old age of eighty-seven, and with a smile on his face…'

'...and the mother of all boners,' Harlock finished for him. They shared a grin before Harlock noticed Maya's slightly wild-eyed blushes and flushed. 'Erm…'

'Don't!' She held up a hand to forestall the inevitable apologies. She stood up to leave and Harlock stood. She waved him back to his seat. 'I think I'm getting used to being an afterthought to the words coming out of your mouths…' She beamed at the pair and sashayed out.

Tochiro waggled the screwdriver in his hand at Harlock. 'You know, I can get to like her. She has a bit of a mean streak…'

'She's sweet.'

Tochiro spluttered. 'Sweet? That girl? Didn't she beat your time for the hill road run on that bike two days ago? By a good three minutes?'

Harlock shuddered. 'And given what I know about that track, I had my heart in my mouth when I found out she was trying it. ' He grinned. 'Mind you, she's got guts. I like that.'

'Nice ass too… though her tits are a bit small for my tastes.'

'Good job you're not in the market then,' Harlock told him sourly, glaring. 'I need to talk to Mamoru about a few of our little issues. If I'm not out in half an hour, rescue me from a fate worse than death?'

Tochiro sniggered. 'Hell no. Serves you damn well right.'

'You're all heart… Where's my backup when I need it?'

'Please - I'm the best friend you've got!' Tochiro smiled warmly at him. 'I just don't see the point of dragging you out of all the messes of your own making.' He laughed out loud as Harlock left the room, giving him the finger over his shoulder.

---

There was a full moon that night. Maya opened the windows fully in her room to let the cooler night air in, but there was no wind to stir the lacy curtains.

Or to cover the sounds of something scrabbling against the stone walls somewhere below the balcony she stood on. Grasping the balustrade, she leaned over as far as she could, and pulled back with a shocked gasp as something large and very dark moved in the shadows, making its way with alarming speed up the wall towards her window. She dashed back into the room, looked around frantically, and spying the carafe with water in it on her bedside table, grabbed it, ran back and hurled it down as close to the mystery climber as she could.

It missed by inches, shattering on the ivy-covered stone and showering the intruder with crystal shards and water.

'For fuck's sake, you mad cow - it's only me!'

She peered down again, just as the moon came back out from behind a cloud, illuminating a familiar face. 'Harlock?' Idly, she wondered if there was another jug of water she could throw. "Mad cow" indeed…

'What the hell are you doing?' she called down. She had to pull away as he shimmied up the final few feet and hauled himself up onto the small balcony, landing less than elegantly as he dropped over the balustrade. He shook his head to try and clear his hair of water and bits of carafe.

'What does it look like?' He strode into the room and picked up a towel from the bedspread where she'd left it. 'What were you trying to do - scar me for life?' he held up a finger, dripping blood from a small cut. There was another on his left cheek next to his long nose. 'Got a comb? Before I end up with a scalp full of cuts?'

She sat down on the bed and pulled her satin dressing gown closer around her as she waited for him to remove the worst of the shards from his hair. Eventually, taking pity on him, she dragged him into the bathroom and switched on the lights. 'Sit!' she gestured at the closed lid of the toilet. 'Let me do it.' She got to work on his collar length hair as he obediently took a perch on the suggested item. ''What were you thinking, sneaking into my room at night?' He growled as her comb caught a tangle. 'Do you ever brush this?'

'I didn't exactly sneak in... ' he pointed out. 'Sneaking up to it however… Ow!'

'Hmmpf. Sophistry and you know it. Hold still you big baby.' She attacked another glittering snarl and dropped a shard into the sink. 'There.' She put the comb down and stood facing him, her hands on her hips.

'I thought it might be… romantic.' he muttered the last word, and dropped his eyes - a bad habit he'd got.

She wanted to scold him, but there was a warm sensation in her stomach at his words. 'You could have fallen - how far up is this room?'

He snorted derisively. 'Fallen? Hardly - except when people chuck my best crystal at my head. There are hundreds of fingerholds for a half-way decent climber, and I know most of the routes up the walls.' He raised his eyes and smiled at her. 'It's one hell of a night - I wondered if you might like to go for a ride?'

'Ride?' The thoughts that flitted across the inside of her skull at that were totally unfit for public consumption. She grabbed at the neckline of her dressing gown, holding the two sides shut even though there was little chance of it falling open without help.

'My old bike's a bit small now - I had a bit of a growth spurt at seventeen…'

No kidding she thought, eyeing up the sheer length of him. Even sitting down his head wasn't too far below hers.

'...so I got Tochiro to sort out a new one. He finished it before he took off for orbit. Wondered if you might like to come along?'

Oh. Bikes? She was briefly deflated. Until she saw the challenge in his eyes and the smirking half smile playing around the corner of his sensual mouth. But if he thought she'd go that easily… 'What makes you think I'd take you up on the offer?' she asked, sniffing and sticking her nose in the air.

The lazy smile that he wore when challenged spread across his face. 'Maybe because I watch you… when you're trying to be the dutiful ambassador's daughter… so proper, so helpful… but you don't light up until you're doing something society would frown on - like riding - or hosing down - a powerful machine. Or playing with Mamoru's little hellions… or staring at naked men in cold mountain pools…' He stood up gracefully and leaned towards her, his nose almost in her hair. 'I've always watched you. Even as a little girl, you liked adventure, and a little danger.'

'Watching me? And that's not remotely creepy?' She reached out to push him away because he was far too close. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her bare neck and her earlobe, and it sent shivers of anticipation down her spine.

'You need to cut loose. I can't promise to be a perfect gentleman…'

Please don't…

'...but I can promise you'll be safe with me. I'd never hurt you.'

Those sherry-dark eyes were looking straight into hers for once, and there was a raw appeal in them she could not ignore. The inner man laid bare for her to see for the first time. Her mouth suddenly too dry, she nodded. Once she managed to swallow she squeaked out: 'I'll get dressed. Wait for me outside.'

He looked pointedly at the window. 'You know… it's easy to climb up this - not so much going back down…' he pouted.

She laughed at him. 'I meant the door, idiot!' She gave him a push in the right direction, and caught his amused smile as he turned. 'Honestly!'

---

When he finally brought the bike to a gentle stop, she recognised the spot instantly as the small glade she'd found him cavorting naked in with Tochiro over a week ago. He held his hand out to her when she dismounted, and despite it being utterly unnecessary, she accepted. He'd already removed his own helmet and placed it on the grass, and she followed suit, shaking her long hair out.

The moon shone brightly above, reflected in scattered multiplicity in the splash pool of the waterfall. Only the constant fall of water over stone and the distant hooting of a hunting owl disturbed the night - there was little to no wind, and the trees were silent.

'It's lovely,' she breathed, turning on the spot to look around the glade. In daylight, and distracted by the other sights on offer, she'd taken little notice of her surroundings.

'According to legend, although most of the forest around here only dates back to the Era of Reconstruction in the twenty-third century, this part was once a part of the Old Forest that once covered most of central Europe. The Schwarzwald was only a small part of it - it extended all the way to the Baltic coast, once.' He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face a stand of massive, wide trunked trees that stood on the far side of the grove. 'Look - it's a trick of the light, and needs the shadows of a moonlit night to see it, but if you look closely at the bark, it looks as though a woman's face is staring back at you, as though she's about to step right out of the tree!'

She stared at the largest tree - an ancient oak with shaggy bark eaten away in places to leave a hollowed out cavity tall enough to hold a man. Sure enough, as she stared, it did look as though the entrance to this dark temenos was guarded by a tall, long limbed woman - the curves of the trunk suggesting sinuous lines that looked a little like a stylised, naked woman, in three quarter profile. A slender branch reaching for the sky resembled an outstretched arm, and the "face" was a blank oval with eyes and mouth suggested by hollowed shadows.

She could imagine those black eyes staring right at her, and despite the warm night, she shivered.

'Sorry,' he whispered in her ear. 'Didn't mean to scare you.' His chin almost touched her shoulder as he leaned over it.

'You didn't,' she whispered back, turning her head just enough so that her lips almost brushed his cheek. She felt him shiver slightly as her breath touched his cheek. 'Besides, we have a chaperone…' She glanced back at the oak tree, and he followed her gaze with a not entirely humorous laugh.

'Well since your duenna is watching over us, I suppose I am on my best behaviour.' He let her go, and strode over to the edge of the pool. When he knelt at the edge and placed a hand in the cool water, she walked over and tapped him on the shoulder.

'If this is where you make some suggestion regarding a dip and it being fine because neither of us brought a costume…' she warned with a smile.

He just grinned up at her. 'Nah. The leather trousers chafe if you don't towel off properly afterwards…' he deadpanned. Before she could do more than huff her indignation at him, his hand came back up out of the water, trailing droplets and holding a bottle of the local vintage. 'There's a couple of glasses in the under-seat storage - would you mind?'

There was also a packet containing a selection of cold cuts and half a loaf plus some cheese. With the aid of his belt knife, this, along with the wine, was shared between them. He spread his jacket on the ground for her to sit on, and lounged beside her, the white skull and crossbones on his black tee stark and vivid in the moonlight. She reached out with the hand that didn't hold a doorstop sandwich in it and placed it on the skull, tracing the lines around the eye sockets, smiling inwardly at his intake of breath.

'So… space pirate Harlock - how does that work? I'm no physicist, but even I know there aren't any real pirates in space - something about matching insane velocities and closing distances?'

'There's never been a boarding in open space, true. But there are bandits who operate in-system and close to planetary orbits to intercept ships coming into space-docks or planetary landings. Trouble is, it's a mug's game. Most trade routes are well protected, and response times so fast that most of these idiots don't get away. Smuggling pays better to be honest, and even that's a tough life.'

'Why do I get the impression you have an idea of how to get around that?' she asked. She sipped the cold riesling and regarded him over the rim of the glass.

'Tochiro and I came up with a few ideas when we'd a few drinks one night.' He smiled, looking genuinely amused. A rare look. 'Mostly around having some totally kick-ass weaponry, and a ship that could make a Cosmo Tiger look slow - that close in-system, fighters are actually useful. You need a ship that can deal damage and take it - and is insanely quick and manoeuvrable…' he grinned wolfishly. 'Sadly when we calculated how much it would cost to actually build a ship like that…' his face fell, and he looked so young and woebegone, she leaned over to peck him on the cheek, her lips catching on soft stubble.

'Never mind. you'll just have to settle for cosmic explorer. Besides - you just don't look like a pirate…'

'You don't think I could rock an eyepatch?' he laughed with her, holding one hand over his left eye and squinting at her with the other.

'I think you'd totally nail the look,' she told him, laughing. She brushed her hair out her face.

Lounging next to her, he smiled. 'I'd much rather…'

She shushed him with a finger to his lips, laughing again when he simply took it between his teeth and nibbled gently, even though her stomach decided to turn flip flops at the sensation. 'If you value your ability to reproduce, you will not finish that sentence the way I think you were going to…' she ordered, retrieving the ravished digit reluctantly.

'Ouch. Tough lady.' But he let her have that lazy smile again, his eyes twinkling. The moon was high overhead but looked enormous, the light flooding the small glade. 'More seriously though, I did have an ulterior motive…'

'More ulterior than a romantic midnight picnic…?' she drawled back at him. But the look on his lean face was serious, and she settled down so she could face him.

With a deep breath, he continued quietly. 'How much do you know about the current anti-colonial legislation passing through the new Council?' he asked.

She thought carefully. Her father had been involved in several talks with the colonial worlds - she wasn't blind to the growing unrest on colony worlds that simply couldn't support their populations anymore. A solution, however, wasn't anywhere near close. 'A little. But I work mostly in communications for the diplomatic staff, when I don't act as father's hostess…'

'About a year ago me and Mamoru had an idea to put some cash back in the coffers,' he continued. He grimaced. 'Not a move we were proud of - we persuaded father to put the castle back on the old tourist route. Plenty of wealthy idiots and connected assholes out there keen to reconnect with their roots, as they see it.' He sneered. 'Still, we need the money… this place just swallows every credit that comes near it. But it turns out to have had a fringe benefit, because on a couple of occasions we overheard some juicy gossip. Some people really don't know when to keep their mouths shut it seems. One of those titbits is the reason I asked your father to bring you along to the funeral.'

Puzzled, she stared at him. 'He'd probably have brought me anyway…'

He smiled. 'I couldn't risk him not…. Though I'd have thought of something…' He took a deep breath. 'Article 17. The deportation and disenfranchisement of all non desirables in the solar system. To be defined as anyone of adult age born on a colony world outside this solar system. All funds confiscated, no rights, just shoved on the first available transport back to the planet you were born on. If you're lucky, they might make sure the captain won't just open the hangar to space and fill up again for another run…'

It took a moment to sink in. 'But…'

'Yes. That would mean you. Even if they allowed your father to go with you, he'd risk losing his own position to help you. Trust me - he'd do it in a heartbeat. He's a good man. But he has enemies in the Council, and some of them won't scruple about using your status to get to him.'

'How long?' she asked in a small voice.

'Two months at most. Maybe less. There's a lot of anger out there in the colonies… most of the terraformed planets are failing badly, but there's nowhere for their people to go. Some more militant groups have been wreaking havoc in system demanding resettlement… protests were all well and good but bombs and kidnappings are becoming more common. To go along with that the anti-colonial sentiment back home is growing. It's getting worse all the time.' He paused. 'Frankly this act is just a political move designed to get backs up - there aren't more than a few tens of thousands of people living and working in this system who'd be affected, but someone wants to send a message.'

'But what,' she interrupted, 'does this have to do with me and you?'

He hesitated and looked away briefly. Then he looked her straight in the eyes. 'If you were married to an Earthborn national, you could stay. Especially if that national was both an officer and a member of the ruling elite - albeit one with no seat on the new Council, but still…' he almost gabbled the last part of the sentence, and kept his eyes fixed on her face.

She stared at him wondering if she'd heard correctly. 'Did you just propose?'

It was hard to tell, since the moon went behind a cloud just then, but she thought he blushed. He nodded dumbly.

'Father would never let them...'

'He'd try.' Harlock's voice was gentle but husky. 'But he has enemies who'd crucify him politically for it. He's a moderate. A voice of reason in a world where a lot of people have more to gain by being unreasonable.'

'You hardly know me!' She burst out. 'I hardly know you…'

He smiled at her outburst. 'Actually, I've known you since you were little. On and off.'

'How on earth did I forget the creepy stalking?' she snapped. He flinched and she berated herself silently. 'Sorry.'

'Justified,' he replied evenly. As to not knowing me that well…' his laugh was self-deprecating. 'Tochiro would probably tell you that that isn't a bad thing.'

'Probably?'

He shrugged, feigning a nonchalance she noted wasn't reflected in his dark eyes. 'Okay. He'd definitely tell you that. But I'd hoped…'

'What? To win me over? In a few days or weeks?'

He lowered his gaze again. A bad habit when he was pressured. 'I know. I haven't made the best of impressions…'

She couldn't help but take pity on him. 'Well, I've seen worse…' she said lightly.

He looked up hopefully. 'Really?' She took her cue from him at this point. She had to look away. 'Oh.' he sounded so deflated, she made herself look closely at him, trying to get a reading from his usually so shuttered demeanour.

'Why me?' she asked eventually, none the wiser for her attempt to read him.

'Because there's a strength - a light in you that's like a beacon.' He laughed harshly, she suspected at himself. 'I'm drawn like a moth to a flame. Beauty - that I can resist. Just ask Tochiro. But not you. Burn my wings to ash and I'd still find myself crawling towards you. I just can't seem to help myself.'

That set her back on her metaphorical heels. She regarded him warily from under lowered lashes. He looked thoroughly miserable. 'Is that why you've always kept your distance? Or tried to?'

He nodded. 'Well… that, and I'm not that sociable anyway. I just didn't want to look a complete idiot. Which, I'm guessing, was a total failure?'

She looked into his eyes, and saw a stormy turbulence in their dark depths she was at a loss to explain. The honesty had cost him dearly - he shifted uncomfortably as she stared, though he didn't break her gaze this time.

'Would you want me, never knowing if it was just because I needed your protection?' she asked softly.

'If that was the only way, then yes.'

'Idiot. It would tear you apart,' she whispered, knowing it for the truth.

'Some things are worth the pain.' He reached out his hand and brushed an errant lock of hair out of her eyes, letting the silken strands fall over and between his long fingers. 'But you wouldn't do that. I think you'd tell me to go to the devil first. In that, we're alike. We don't run into a safe harbour when we're in danger.' He smiled at her. 'Look at it this way, I come with that draughty old pile of credit-sucking stone down there, and most of the land as far as the eye can see, three annoyingly cute nieces, an irritatingly chirpy and efficient half-brother…'

'... a heterosexual life-partner with sloppy impulse control who appears to be symbiotically attached to your hip, and a tendency to just shoot your mouth off without thinking?' she finished. She smiled at him, and was rewarded with another of those heart-melting one-sided smiles in return.

'Well if you put it like that…'

He'd been honest with her, despite the effort it cost him to open up even as much as he had. She owed him that much in return. 'I may be attracted to you. I don't love you. Yet.'

'Yet is hopeful…' He moved the hand that was toying with her hair to her cheek, and she leaned into the tentative touch. 'It doesn't mean "never".' He leaned closer, and once again she found her mouth being claimed by his sensual lips, and his tongue - wickedly independent it seemed - demanding entry. She granted it willingly. He was, as ever demanding, yet gentle. Never taking more than she was comfortable giving, yet at the same time she was acutely aware that if she did surrender, he was more than capable - and willing - to take everything.

Typical pirate… she thought to herself. A large hand curled gently around one of her breasts, and she bit back a moan at the sensation. Being what she could only charitably describe as "neat" in that area, she hadn't felt the need for a bra, and only the thin silk of her shirt lay between the sensitive skin and the palm of his hand. She was certain she could feel the heat through the thin cloth, and the sensation almost distracted her from the slow descent he was making down her neck with his mouth, lightly licking and kissing her neck, trailing across her collarbone where it was exposed by the open neck of her shirt…

He pulled away so quickly she felt slightly affronted as well as disappointed. 'Harlock, wha-'

'Ssshhh.' He placed his hand over her mouth. 'Quiet.'

He was listening attentively, she realised, to something outside of her hearing at first. She could hear the distant hoot of an owl, and something - probably a large hedgehog - snuffling in the undergrowth.

Then she heard it. A low pitched whine, getting closer.

'A drone,' he whispered. He lips brushed her earlobe as he spoke and she shivered. 'This is private land, there shouldn't be anything flying here.' he cocked his head on one side. 'Military - the engine note's unmistakeable. Shit.' He stood up and pulled her to her feet.

Gone was the languid shyness. There was something dangerously feral in the way he scanned the glade. She could feel the tension in his body as he held her close - coiled, but relaxed - paradoxical perhaps, but nevertheless, he was for the first time in his element.

'Run for the rocks at the side of the pool - strip off and head into the waterfall. There's a ledge behind it. Wait there for me.'

'Why?'

He sighed heavily. 'Heat seeking cameras.' He gave her a push. 'Go!'

She went. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw him run for the bike, grab his gunbelt from under the seat, and lope back towards her. In the shelter of the slick rocks, wet from the cool spray, he began stripping off. She turned her back, slower to do the same, feeling horribly exposed as she peeled off her boots and trousers, leaving her in thin panties and her shirt.

'All of it - unless you want to be riding back in wet clothes,' he hissed.

'I wasn't wearing anything underneath,' she hissed back.

'Oh, for crying out loud woman - what use would a couple of triangles of fabric and a bit of string be if I was planning on ravishing you?'

'About ten seconds head start?' she shot back. She heard him choke back a laugh.

'You underestimate my skill with a bra strap. Off with it, missy. In you go!'

She did as she was told, sensing the worry underlying his forced levity.

---

The water was icy cold, and she bit back a yelp as it poured down onto her exposed skin. Shivering, she shot through the curtain of water as fast as she could, and stood shaking on the narrow ledge behind the fall, dripping from head to toe, and still being dusted by the fine spray. She felt Harlock slip in beside her, and squeaked when his arms went around her, her back suddenly pressed hard against a lean chest.

Something else was pressed against the small of her back, and it certainly wasn't his holster this time. 'Apologies,' he muttered into her ear. 'This has to be the worst timing in history…'

'I can't hear that drone from here…' she said quietly, trying to tread the line between making herself heard over the sound of the water, and not attracting the attention of anything that might be listening. Military grade drones had notoriously sensitive equipment.

'I promise you, it's very real. I wouldn't make up a story like that just to get you naked.' But the opportunistic bastard licked the nape of her neck anyway. And dear God, her nipples were like tiny bullets… she only hoped he didn't slide his free hand - the one not holding his pistol - up to stroke them again. Her mind was already trying hard not to be distracted by wondering what it would be like to lose her virginity against the slick wall of the waterfall, if he held her against it… he was certainly strong enough, and if she wrapped her legs around…

She was suddenly very glad of the cold shower she was standing under.

'You were expecting trouble,' she accused, to take her mind off the feel of the length of an impressive erection nestled against her back.

'Ummm.' The non-committal response set her teeth on edge. Oh no you don't...

'Harlock…' she warned.

He took the hint. 'Mamoru found out a few other things during those guided tours,' he whispered in her ear. 'That attack on Zone Industries at Castlemaine was a set-up. They've sold the ships to a militant colonial group - the plan is to collect the insurance for the loss and still be able to make contract for the original customer. Highly illegal…'

'So this…'

'We suspected they were onto us. Mamoru's brilliant at following the money trail, but he was worried he might have been spotted lurking online. The bitch of it is another forty-eight hours and your dad would have been able to pass this onto the right authorities. I had a feeling there might be trouble when I saw Evgeni Zone's brother-in-law Alexei Nevich at the station in Bayreuth earlier today. Pompous little weasel is always around when his rat-faced CEO needs something cleaning up…'

'So you figured on a reason to be out of the castle?' she hazarded. 'I hope I'm not another distraction,' she hissed into his ear.

He kissed her cheek. 'Only to me. I didn't want you in there if anything went down. I just hope Mamoru got my message - daft bastard wasn't picking up earlier.' He let her go and stuck his head out of the falls. 'I think it's gone. Shake it off and get dressed - I need to get back to the castle. You can stay here if you prefer - it might be safer…'

She let him help her over the rocks back to the shore and their piles of clothing, too caught up in the drama to take offence when she ended up in his arms with her face on his chest and some very interesting anatomy almost in her belly button. 'I think I'll take my chances with you,' she replied. Grabbing her shirt she couldn't get it back on fast enough under his admiring gaze. In the moonlight his skin glistened as he moved, and her mouth went dry when he bent over to pick up his trousers. Oh my… he really did have the neatest, tightest ass…

She blushed, and busied herself with panties and trousers.

---

The electric motor on the bike had a silent mode in addition to the throaty roar which replicated a petrol engine. Clinging to Harlock's back as he raced the bike back down through the woods to the road, not even damp underwear could quite ruin the thrill. He guided the bike along paths that would have been terrifying at this speed in daylight, and did so without the lights, relying on the moonlight filtering through the trees, and, she assumed, an unerring memory for the route and its pitfalls.

So she'd relaxed her deathgrip on his slim waist by the time they reached the comparative safety of the road, because what could possibly go wrong on that surface - it was a straight run back to the Schloss…

Therefore it came as something of a shock when for no reason the bike slewed out of control, all power gone. She could hear Harlock swearing as he fought for control, but then she lost her balance as it corkscrewed, and she went flying off to the side, landing on the road and sliding painfully across the surface. She heard a crumpling sound and a heavy thud, and then night fell.

---

The first thing she felt was the chin strap of her helmet digging into her jaw, and a sense of claustrophobia. Scrambling to her knees she fumbled with the quick-release mechanism and gasped thankfully as she pulled the helmet free. Dropping it at her side, she looked around for Harlock and the bike.

The moon had gone behind a cloud, but she could make out a large hump in the road, that groaned slightly and moved. 'Harlock?'

She stood up carefully, her legs wobbling. Her thin jacket was torn, and she could feel grazes across what felt like most of her left side. She limped over to where Harlock was sitting up with a groan. She knelt beside him and helped his shaking hands with his helmet, setting it aside with a grimace. The visor had shattered, and something dark and wet slicked her fingers. Rather belatedly, she realised it was blood.

'You're hurt!' She reached out and tipped his head to face her. One side of his face was covered in blood, and she could see something sticking out of a gash that ran from his nose down across his left cheek almost to the chin.

'Went face first into a rock at the side of the road,' he replied hoarsely. 'Visor smashed. Funnily enough it's quite common for fighter jocks - almost got slashed a couple of months back in the same place when my faceplate smacked against the cockpit…' He reached a hand up to touch the gash, and winced as his fingers probed the wound. Tchhing at him, she pulled his searching fingers away. 'I'll need to take a better look at that. Stop fiddling with it!'

'Yes ma'am,' he replied meekly.

'What happened?' she helped him to his feet, and looked around for the bike.

'Total power loss. A jamming field at a guess. We're about a quarter of a mile from the drawbridge - guess we'll be walking the rest of the way.' The bike was in a heap at the side of the road a few yards further on - he must have ditched it. She helped him limp over to it.

'Not until I get that bleeding under control,' she told him sharply. 'There's a first aid kit under the seat - I saw it earlier.'

'Then help me pull the bike into the trees,' he ordered. 'I don't want us to be seen if they have anyone on lookout.'

Pull was right. The front wheel was buckled, and the bike a dead weight. Thankfully it wasn't far, and she helped him prop it against a tree, and grabbed the kit whilst he lowered himself onto a convenient fallen tree trunk. There was a small torch as well, and she took it to give herself some light to see by.

'Brakes locked when the power cut,' he muttered as she took a couple of antiseptic wipes to his face. 'Guess I should have listened to Tochiro when he said he still had a couple of bugs to get out before I could ride it…' He flinched, but didn't make a sound beyond a sharp hiss when she tugged the piece of perspex out of his face with some tweezers. She pressed a clean pad against the cut and ordered him to hold it in place while she rummaged for something to cover the wound.

'That's going to need a lot of stitches,' she told him. 'And expert work if you want to avoid it scarring…'

'Just slap something over it for now and tape it, 'he told her reassuringly. 'I can live with it. But I have to get into the castle.'

'Shouldn't we just call for help?'

He stood up, brushing off her attempt to make him sit back down, and strode unsteadily over to the bike. 'With what?' he asked, holding up the remains of the radio. 'Guess what it landed on…?'

She marched over and took it out of his hands. 'Hmmm.' She turned it over. 'Power source is undamaged. Just needs a transmitter…' She scrambled back to the road and came back with her helmet. 'These have short range transmitter/receivers for person to person on the bike,' she told him. She pointed to the small speaker in the side. 'Got a toolkit on this thing?' she nodded at the bike.

A slow smile spreading over his face, he reached for the seat storage and clicked it open. Reaching in he handed her a small box. 'You have a plan?'

'I have a plan,' she told him. 'I work in comms, remember? If I can swap out some of the damaged components, I can maybe get a message off - the question is where to?'

'The Yukikaze's in orbit,' he told her. 'If I give you the frequency…'

'I can get a message through - assuming Tochiro will be listening?'

'There's an emergency frequency,' he replied grimly. 'We have a contingency. Send an SOS, he'll do the rest.' He sat down weakly, and took a couple of deep breaths. 'This area's outside the jamming field. Stay in the woods, until he arrives.' He rattled off the frequency and she committed it to memory.

She sat down beside him and gently tugged the first dressing off his face. Thankfully the bleeding was slowing. Carefully she taped another over the cut, smoothing it down gently. 'You're still going in single-handed?'

He nodded. 'I have to - Zone'll be desperate, there's no telling what he might order done to cover this up. The man's a snake from a long line of cheapskating serpents. These are my friends and family. I have to protect them.' He gave her a weak smile. 'I forgot to ask if you were hurt?'

She smiled as brightly as she could hoping the cuts and grazes didn't show through her black jacket and trousers. 'Just a few scrapes, I'll be fine…' After a skin graft or two… she added mentally. She felt like she'd been dragged over a giant cheese-grater. 'I bounced.'

He stood up again, and helped her to her feet. 'I hate to leave you alone and unprotected…'

Maya gave him a tiny shove. 'I have plenty of long branches and some rocks. I'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about.'

He leaned down and kissed her again, gently caressing her lips with his. 'I can take care of myself. So long as you can get that signal out.'

'Count on it,' she told him. He gave her one last smile and turned away, limping back towards the road, and she watched the way he'd taken for several minutes after he'd vanished into the night, before she frowned, gave herself a mental shake, and got to work dismantling the remains of the radio.