Joe turned off the empty stretch of highway and onto a side road that, if he remembered correctly, wound its way through a forest. He'd been back with the team for a month now, but it hadn't taken long for him to become desperate to just drive, and fast! Faced with the fact that his Condor Attacker couldn't be disguised in a civilian mode, the way his old G-2 could, he'd gone and bought himself a sports car –a white one, and a convertible, no less. Dr. Rafael had set him up, ages ago, with a bank account, to be used "for the cause." He was never comfortable using the money –he still found it difficult to feel grateful for anything Dr. Rafael had done- but damn it, he'd needed a car!
He knew his racing days were over. That was how Galactor had found and captured him before, after they'd seen his face –someone in Galactor must have recognized him. So Joe Asakura returning to the track now would just lead to trouble. But there was no reason why he couldn't go tearing through a dark forest late at night, with the top down and the pine-scented air rushing past him. As it always had, driving fast helped him relax, cleared his mind…
He was living at G-Town. So was Ken; he rarely visited his airfield now. Ken had told him that his trailer was in one of his hangars, and that he could have it back. But Joe had told him that if he wasn't racing, then he didn't really need it –that it was more efficient to just sleep at G-Town and keep his minimal possessions stashed in his quarters there. The truth was, though, he had too many memories of Jun and himself, together in that trailer… How could he live there now without a continual feeling of… loss? No, his trailer was yet another thing that belonged only to the past.
The morning after his first night at G-Town, Jun had been nowhere to be found when he had gotten up. She'd gone back to Utoland. Except for missions, these days she and Jinpei still lived over the Snack J, and Ryu at his marina. Nearly a week had gone by, after that first morning, before he'd seen Jun again. It had been a motorcycle day trip that Jinpei had insisted they all come along on. Poor kid, he had clearly known that Ken and Jun had broken up and had obviously been hoping that if they saw each other it would somehow change things.
So far nothing had changed. Jun was civil, almost friendly, to both Ken and himself. Obviously, they had to work together so they had to be on decent terms, but she was definitely cooler and more distant than she'd ever been. That hurt, -okay, it hurt a lot- but what could he do about it?
At least Ken had his act together now. There had been three missions in the last month, and each time they'd successfully thwarted Galactor without any injuries, destroyed vehicles or close brushes with death. But sometimes he'd caught Jun looking at him surreptitiously, which made him nervous –had he done something strange, something that could give him away? He had to be careful, all the time.
He was speeding through a clearing in the forest now, and the starry sky was all around him. He glanced up briefly; so many stars… He often wondered if Dr. Rafael had not merely repaired his vision, but had rather improved it. He could see a tiny satellite moving through the stars on a steady path. That could be Jun up there, he thought. Dr. Nambu had sent her and Jinpei up to an orbiting recon station two days ago, to gather data on the disappearances of some other important satellites. But the tiny light was growing brighter, and brighter. Joe slowed down his car to better watch it. It wasn't a satellite at all, then; it was a rocket or something beginning to enter the Earth's atmosphere. Was it Jun and Jinpei? He could have sworn that Dr. Nambu had said they were going to be up there longer than this. Maybe he'd drive over to the Omlay Space Station and find out what was going on…
Just as he was getting back on to the highway, his bracelet beeped. It was Dr. Nambu.
"Joe, as we speak, Jun is returning to Earth in an escape rocket, and she reports that the recon station where she and Jinpei were has been attacked, and it has… disappeared. Only she was able to escape. Report to G-Town at once!"
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"When the attack began," said Dr. Nambu, "Jinpei was able to transmit data to the escape rocket. Here are two images of the moon from that data –one taken before the attack, and one taken during it."
They had all assembled at G-Town –everyone except the missing Jinpei. When the orbiting recon station had been attacked, without any warning, the hatches between decks had sealed automatically, and only Jun, alone on the observation deck, had been able to reach the escape rocket. Joe had his back to the room but he was aware that Jun was standing some distance behind him. It seemed as though he could feel the despair and guilt emanating from her. He wanted to go to her, put his arms around her, and tell her that it wasn't her fault…
But he couldn't.
All he could do was stand right beside Dr. Nambu, as he brought images from Jinpei's data up on the screen, and scrutinize them intensely. He might see something the others missed.
However, the difference between the "before" and "after" images of the moon was apparent to everyone –an unknown spaceship too large to hide anywhere except the moon.
"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, "We have to assume that Galactor has constructed a secret base on the moon, and that this ship is behind the disappearance of all the satellites."
"Could Jinpei be a prisoner in their base now?" asked Ryu, sounding deeply alarmed.
Jun gasped in horror. "This is all my fault!"
Joe forced himself not to turn around. Wasn't anyone going to help her?
"I should have been paying more attention!" He could hear her feet moving rapidly towards the door.
"Jun!" That was Ken.
Her feet stopped. "And I left without him –I left him behind!"
"Jun, that ship must absorb light and radio waves; there's no way you could have known it was coming."
"That's right, it wasn't your fault, Jun." chimed in Ryu.
Joe peered over his shoulder. Ken was standing slightly behind Jun with his hands on her shoulders, and she had turned her head to look at Ken, clearly grateful for his solace. Her eyes were warm and soft…
He snapped his head back towards the screen in front of him. It was good that Ken was comforting her; it should be Ken, not me…
The best thing that he could do was to keep studying Jinpei's data, as Dr. Nambu forwarded through the multitude of images. Wait, he saw something!
"Stop, Doctor! Zoom in on this image!"
What he'd seen was debris being ejected from a tiny port on the spaceship. But if something could leave the ship from that port, then something could also enter it there too, hopefully masked by the floating debris.
"There," said Joe, pointing to the screen, "That's the only place that the ship can be infiltrated, but it will require something small enough to fit through that port and something very fast to cover the distance and get inside before it's noticed."
"We'll use a mini-rocket," said Ken.
"Do we have one that's small enough?" asked Ryu.
"Do we, Jun?" asked Ken.
Joe glanced back again. Jun was staring at Ken again, her eyes lit up with hope.
"Yes," she said, "My Swan Rocket will be perfect for this mission."
No way! Joe knew exactly what she was thinking! But the person who piloted the Swan Rocket into that Galactor ship could so easily be detected and blasted with a laser before they ever got inside, and even if they made it in, who knew what the hell could be inside that ship? No, this was clearly a job for himself.
A job for someone… expendable.
"A rocket?" he asked, "I'll be the one to fly that."
"I'm going to do it!"
And she would too, unless…
"Ken, tell her not to be an idiot!" There, now he really sounded like a jerk. If only she could see that it was his job to do this kind of dangerous shit –that was why he was here!
"Joe…" She was staring at him now, looking stunned and hurt.
But it would be worth it, just as long as he was the one to pilot the rocket. Ken was doing a lot better these days at keeping it together when Jun was involved in dangerous situations during missions, but Joe knew that Ken would side with him on this one.
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Wearing a close-fitting space suit, he blasted away from the God Phoenix, leaving a bright trail behind him. That soon faded though, and he began to guide the Swan Rocket, little more than a flying chair, with the vertical and horizontal thrusters as he zoomed through empty space towards the Galactor ship that loomed, enormous, before him. It was visible now, and reflecting faint light from the distant Earth behind him. He could see the port that he would have to enter now, and he began the tricky task of guiding the rocket towards it, using only the thrusters –at the speed he was moving at, he couldn't afford any errors.
Suddenly, the Swan Rocket pitched; space was a silent vacuum, but bright light flared all around him. The last thing he felt was a smashing blow, like an explosion, and he was hurled forward as the Swan Rocket seemed to disintegrate around him, and everything faded…
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He was lying on his back, and there was light above him.
He opened his eyes to see Ken and Ryu staring down at him, looking amazed and relieved. He was in the God Phoenix.
"He must be immortal!" declared Ryu.
Then it all came back to him –the Swan Rocket, the Galactor ship…
If the Galactor ship had fired on him, he would have seen it. Yet somehow the Swan Rocket had blown apart around him. And now, here he was, completely unscathed, after an event which would surely have killed any normal person…
Shit!
But he could try to play it down, get their attention on something else.
He took a deep breath, to stifle the panic, and made himself laugh casually.
"Hey, no way I'm going to die twice because of Galactor!"
He knew that Ken's mind must already be working on a Plan B, and that after what had just happened, he wouldn't be including Joe in it –no, he would want to spare Joe any further danger, and try infiltrating the Galactor ship himself. That was the last thing Joe wanted!
"Jun," he asked, "You're supposed to be our best mechanical engineer; why was the Swan Rocket so defective?"
He turned towards her as he spoke.
"I just need one more chance, Jun –fix it for me!"
He was expecting to see pride and determination in her face, for her to leap at the chance for them to get it right a second time, but instead she… crumbled.
"I can't do it," she cried, looking horrified and ashamed, "I won't do this again, Joe!" She turned away, hiding her face in her hands.
Guilt washed over Joe. Of course… When she'd seen the explosion, she thought he'd died out there, and now still believed he'd only barely escaped death–and that it was all her fault.
But he hadn't been in any real danger. But there was no way he could tell her…
"First Jinpei is lost during a mission she was leading," said Ken to him, with a hint of reproach, "and now you nearly get killed using a rocket that she built. Don't you see how badly she must be feeling right now?"
So once again, Ken got to say all the right things while he himself had been a jerk to Jun. But how could he ever tell her the truth?
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Back at G-Town, Dr. Nambu had just finished explaining to them that one of the satellites captured by the Galactor ship had contained a large and rare ruby capable of exponential magnification, and that he feared Galactor was now planning to use it at their moon base to direct a powerful laser beam at the sun –with unknown but likely horrific consequences.
At least it was keeping Dr. Nambu from pondering how Joe had survived the explosion on the Swan Rocket without any injuries. "Miraculous" he'd called it, but the imminent danger to the sun was a more pressing concern for him than a complete medical examination of Joe.
Thank God, was all Joe could think.
"Doctor," said Ken, eyes bright with righteous anger, "I'll search till I find their moon base, infiltrate it and get that ruby back!"
"No, Ken," said Dr. Nambu, "That's much too dangerous!"
"How else can we rescue Jinpei and stop Galactor's plan?"
This was Joe's chance…
"Take it easy, Ken," he laughed lightly, "I'll try one more time to infiltrate their ship with the Swan Rocket. If that works, it'll lead us to the moon base, and show us how to get inside it. But I will need you to repair the rocket for me, Jun."
He looked at her, as encouragingly as he was able.
"I don't know, Joe…"
"Look, nothing we do is ever completely safe –that goes with being a Science Ninja- but I do know that you're a mechanical genius and that you can repair the Swan Rocket so that it works perfectly!"
She was still worried, but this time she agreed.
She spent the remainder of that day in an engineering bay, reconstructing the wreckage of the Swan Rocket. Every time Joe peered in to see how she was doing, she was so intent upon her work that she didn't notice him, but he recognized that determined spark once again in her eyes. He knew that once she was inside that Galactor moon base, she'd be exceptionally zealous against any Galactor forces she encountered there.
On their second attempt, the Swan Rocket functioned beautifully. He got inside the ejection port on the Galactor ship as it returned to its secret moon base, and was able to thwart its cloaking technology by leaving a trail of debris for the God Phoenix to follow… all the way to its base inside a crater. From there, it was short work for them all to rescue Jinpei from a holding cell, destroy the base, take off in the God Phoenix and chase down and destroy Galactor's ship by going firebird and slicing clean through it.
Now, in the wake of their mission's success, they were all back at G-Town. He was loitering in a corridor that led into the spacious room where Dr. Nambu like to give and receive briefings, with its massive undersea windows that always seemed to have large fish peering inside. He could see Jun standing alone far across the room, gazing out the windows. He wanted to talk to her, but…
He needed to keep his distance; the last thing he needed was to get her thinking again about the explosion of the Swan Rocket. She knew its engines, and she knew explosions; surely she'd soon realize that something very strange had occurred.
Now Ken was in the room, through another entrance, and walking over to Jun. Joe sighed, and stayed where he was.
"Jun, shouldn't you be getting some sleep? It's been… quite a day."
Joe could see Jun turning to Ken, smiling. He shouldn't have been able to hear them from this distance, but he could nevertheless. Rafael…
"How's Jinpei doing?" asked Ken.
She laughed then.
"Jinpei's fine –to hear him talk, you'd think he'd never been in any danger at all, and that I'd worried for no reason!"
"Jinpei's still a kid, isn't he? I envy him. Remember how it used to be for us, when we first started out? To Jinpei, it's still all a big adventure."
He shouldn't be eavesdropping, even if it was all too easy now. Jun's voice faded away behind him as he strode back up the corridor.
"True, I can remember when I was fourteen…"
He kept walking. Jun, when she was fourteen… He could remember. He could remember that summer day, when he'd pulled up in front of Dr. Nambu's house and had seen Jun sitting alone on the grassy slope beyond the house, staring into the distance.
He'd been driving an incredibly boring old sedan that belonged to the Doctor, but he'd just returned from the local track where he'd been taking driving lessons –racing lessons, specifically- from a retired pro that Dr. Nambu had hired for this purpose. He'd tested for his driver's license the day after he'd turned sixteen, but had only been really learning how to drive, in a real car, since the spring. He'd loved it. Out there on the track, he'd found he could take all the anger that lurked within him, that flared so unpredictably, and channel it into aggressive speed, into surviving on the edge of chaos. His instructor had even told him he was "a natural."
But it had been a hot summer afternoon. The fact that it was summer hadn't stopped the tutors from piling on the work, though, and he'd been supposed to practice martial arts and target shooting before the day was out too. It had been so quiet, in the way that only hot summer afternoons are quiet. He'd known that he should have been heading inside the house to finish assignments for the tutors.
Ken had been away at a flight school that summer, training for a pilot's license to finally be able to fly the old single prop plane that had belonged to his father. Already, he was urging Dr. Nambu to let him go to some fancy flight academy in Hontwohl so he could train to fly jets too. Joe was inclined to think Ken would get his wish.
Ryu had only been around sporadically that summer, as he'd persuaded Dr. Nambu to let him work a summer job at a marina, so that he could be around the water and the boats that he so loved. When he had been at home, he'd usually been occupied with assignments or that ISO "Phoenix" flight simulator program that Dr. Nambu had assigned him to beta test.
And Jinpei, he'd been attending some kind of summer camp, one that emphasized hiking and wilderness survival.
It had occurred to him, watching Jun in the distance, that she alone hadn't had anything special to do that summer. No wonder she'd looked morose –she'd probably been bored and lonely, especially with Ken away. Usually, she'd been Ken's shadow…
School work could wait, he'd decided. He'd begun walking towards her.
He'd plunked himself down on the grass beside her.
"Hey June Bug, what are you doing? Has the Doctor added meditation lessons to the roster?"
She'd punched him in the arm.
"I've told you a million times, Joe! Don't call me that!"
He'd smirked and rubbed his arm.
"Not bad, for a girl."
"For a girl?" she'd exclaimed, and had aimed a blow at his stomach –one he'd had to move very quickly to evade. But there had been laughter in those large green eyes and for once, he'd had her full attention.
"Well, you don't appear to be doing much of anything, and I could use some amusement, so what to do you say I teach you how to drive Dr. Nambu's car over there?"
Now he really had her attention.
"We won't get in trouble?" she'd asked, apprehensively.
"Nah, not if we just stay on the little local roads here."
"Okay!" and she'd jumped to her feet.
The vagaries of the clutch and gear shifter had initially proven frustrating to her, and Joe had found himself pushing the driver's seat back and sliding in behind Jun.
"Look, you just worry about steering and the gas and brake pedals, for now. I'll do the shifting, till you get the hang of everything else."
Soon they'd been driving, away from the house, along the coast, and through the local village. They'd had the car windows down, and the wind had been blowing Jun's hair into his face, making it hard to see. He'd had to lean forward, putting his chin over her shoulder.
That had been a mistake. He'd never been this close to her before, not even during sparring practice. Now there he'd been, pressed up behind her, breathing the warm scent of her hair and skin. He'd glanced down briefly, and there were the curves of her nascent breasts. His arm, reaching to the gear shifter, fit so neatly into the arc of her waist and hip. He'd been aware, for the last year or so, that she was changing, but now it was… overwhelming.
She'd been so beautiful… but still so young.
"This is fun!" she'd laughed, "I can't wait until I'm sixteen!"
"Here, why don't you try shifting for yourself now?"
He'd needed, badly, to move over to the passenger seat, away from her. She'd stalled a few times at intersections, but she'd gotten the hang of it quickly, and soon they'd been heading back towards the house again.
"Look at me, I'm driving!" she'd exclaimed, and then she'd turned the full force of her smile and shining eyes on Joe, "Thanks for teaching me!"
"Hey! Keep your eyes on the road."
She'd been so beautiful, aglow in the afternoon sun. In that moment, there'd been so much he had wanted to tell her…
He'd wondered if he should he tell her about the prototype sketches he'd seen on Dr. Nambu's desk –sketches of some kind of motorcycle, with a female driver. Should he tell her about the angry phone conversations he'd heard Dr. Nambu having with people who were apparently higher-ups at the ISO or even the UN? Should he tell her that he'd heard Dr. Nambu use a word that he'd not heard in many years, not since the one time the Doctor had told him who killed his parents?
Galactor… Just thinking of the word then had made him feel that deep anger within.
He'd wondered if he should tell her about his growing belief that what they'd all been doing all this time –the martial arts, the weapons training, combat simulations with the special uniforms- was far more than just helping Dr. Nambu research and test ISO prototypes and evaluate the efficacy of training methods. As a collection of (mostly) orphans living with a wealthy and eccentric scientist who had a very unusual take on "home-schooling," their lives had never been exactly normal, but that summer something, somehow –he'd been unable to put his finger on it- had become different in their lives.
They'd been almost back to the house.
"Jun, I think you might be driving –for real- sooner than you think. In fact, I think that everything is about to change for all of us, soon. I can feel it."
She'd parked the car in front of the house. He'd been startled at the urgency in his own voice. Jun had turned her head to stare at him, eyes widening with concern. Yes, she'd looked like she'd understand; he could have told her everything he'd been feeling…
The sound of a small plane flying towards them, flying very low…
Jun had turned away, jumped out of the car, and stared excitedly at the sky.
"It's Ken! That's his plane!"
She'd glanced at him briefly.
"Joe, I think he's going to land his plane in the field! Let's go see!"
He could still remember the way he'd felt, standing there, watching her run towards the field, waving her arms excitedly. It was a lot like way he felt now, walking down the corridors of G-Town, six years later.
But there was nothing he could do about it. That had been true then, and it was even truer now.
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