Disclaimer: Me? Own Vandread? I wish…
A/N: The revised version of Chapter 1. I fixed some descriptions and patched some minor holes. It's all good now.
Oh, and for the record:
Locations
"Transmissions"
'Thoughts'
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Chapter I: Homecoming
Hibiki Tokai's quarters, three hours later…
As the Taraaku transport ship SV-3000 entered Mejerran orbital space, Hibiki Tokai stood by a desk inside his quarters, a handgun placed on a holster on his left hip and a canister rifle hanging from his right one, having been strapped to his body with care. Usually the rifle would be simply strapped to his back, where access to it was far easier, but he would soon arrive home and it wouldn't do for the pirates to see that he had a deadly rifle with him. The way he had set his weapons would make sure that his regular outfit would hide them.
'And about the outfit…'
Quickly he opened the first drawer from his desk and extracted two black gloves made of some strange, velvety material that was actually incredibly though. They had been specially designed for handling weapons and delicate technology, and had been given to him by the scientists of the Ghost Project. Without much thought he closed the drawer and put the gloves on, which matched his black shirt, pants, and boots perfectly.
'Just one last thing…'
He walked through the room and reached a medium-sized metal wardrobe. With a snap of his fingers the wardrobe's doors slid open, revealing a long black trench coat and a matching, wide brimmed black hat hanging side by side on similar hooks. Unlike the rest of his outfit, these two pieces of clothing had been the last part of his share of the "loot" from the ruins of the old colonist ship, having been the last things he found before being sent back to his own ship. At first he had worn them out of stubbornness, looking completely ridiculous, since the coat and hat didn't match his personality at all, even if they did fit him thanks to the gas incident. Soon after he became a Ghost, however, that started changing, and by the end of the mission they suited his now entirely black clothes and his usually grim mood perfectly.
With a small sigh he put the coat on and placed the hat low over his face, closing the wardrobe's doors afterwards.
Then, without doing anything else, Hibiki Tokai left his quarters on the transport ship SV-3000 for good, eager to get home.
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Military transport pod, Mejerran orbital space, an hour later…
Hibiki Tokai stood tall inside the small transport pod that he had been sent on from the ship he had been in, looking through its windows at the floating teal dot that gave away the position of the Nirvana, which he was now rapidly approaching. Technically, someone of his rank (the son of Lord Grandpa, even if he himself had some difficulty considering himself as that) should have been delivered by the actual transport ship, but he had specifically asked to be brought to the Nirvana with as little ceremony as possible. In fact, the pirates didn't even know that he was coming, by his own choice. Setting up surprises like this wasn't in his nature, but he wanted to see their reactions, and had the power to do so, so why not do it? It was harmless anyway.
Still, now was not the time for such thoughts, not when he was just nearing home.
'I can see it clearly now…'
And indeed, he could. As he approached the location of the Nirvana the teal dot he had first seen had given way to a sleek, shining teal ship. Around the ship flew several smaller, highly stylized ships, apparently following a set of complex formations in quick succession…
'Dread formation maneuvers! I hadn't counted on those…'
Seeing as during his first stay on the Nirvana there had been more than a hundred female pirates, he had not met everyone personally, and if the team that happened to be practicing outside of the Nirvana happened to be led by someone he didn't know well, gaining entrance into the ship would be far more difficult.
Cursing himself for that small lack of foresight, he analyzed his options in case he encountered difficulty with the Dread teams.
The thing is he didn't have any options to start with.
He sighed.
'I guess I'll just have to wait and hope for the best…'
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Barnette's Dread, outside of the Nirvana…
When we last saw Barnette Orangello, soon after the defeat of Earth, she was a woman of strong spirit, bad temper, and a tendency to mistrust men, even though the latter had rather diminished after her forced co-habitation with the three men on the Nirvana.
But that was then. After two years she was bound to change, right?
Wrong.
Her temper and spirit were the same, and even after her first experience with men, and then when Dita, Bart, and Duero had brought a team of handpicked men from Tarak, among other things, her mistrust of men had yet to disappear, even if it had diminished into something far less than what it once was.
So yes, the Dread pilot now currently leading the training maneuvers outside of the Nirvana was almost the same as before.
'Rookies… can't they get anything right?' she thought as nearly half of her team, the newer part, went off on a direction completely different from the one stated in the current formation.
Quickly opening a comm-link to the rest of her team she started relaying her instructions as calmly as she could, even when half of the fools she was training simply didn't seem to get the idea, as was demonstrated by a volley of stupid comments directed at her.
'Don't rise… don't… these idiots must be treated with respect, no matter how stupid they are…'
She really shouldn't even have been out there, Meia should have been the one in charge of this particular training session, but she was currently busy overseeing some new technology for the Dreads, making sure the techies, knowing of the theory but inexperienced in the practice of piloting, wouldn't screw up. So Barnette had been selected to take her place, to deal with a bunch of inept fools that could barely even pilot a Dread without-
Suddenly, an image of a rather plain and unremarkable young pilot appeared on Barnette's screen, shaking her out of her increasingly angry thoughts.
The rookie, without bothering to even introduce herself properly (for indeed Barnette didn't even know her name) simply started raving:
"Ma'am, look! Look! I just saw a grey dot over there! And it's getting closer! What do we do?"
Ignoring the rookie's continuous ranting; Barnette peered out of her Dread's main window, and saw it.
A very small grey dot was fast approaching the vicinity of the Nirvana, and she, caught up in her own thoughts, had completely missed it. As the dot came close enough to take an actual form before her eyes, she saw that it wasn't actually a ship, but a small transport pod
'There aren't any scheduled arrivals for today, or the rest of the week… what's a pod doing here? No matter… if it isn't authorized then we've got to intercept it.'
"Ma'am… uh… what were we supposed to do again?"
Without bothering to respond, Barnette unceremoniously blocked the rookie's comm-link with the press of a button. After doing that, she quickly opened a comm-link of her own, directed at all of her (very few) non-trainee pilots.
"Alright, all of you; we've got an unauthorized transport pod closing in on the Nirvana. I doubt it could cause trouble, but it's our duty to check it out. Now, I want a couple of you to stay here and herd the rookies back into the Nirvana. I'm afraid that they're… inexperienced enough to cause an accident if left alone even for the short time it will take us to deal with the pod. The rest of you, follow me."
After several affirmative responses, she set course for the pod, three other Dreads following her closely.
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Military transport pod, now approaching the Nirvana's immediate vicinity, just a minute later…
Hibiki watched the four approaching Dreads with mixed emotions. He had recognized the lead Dread as Barnette's, but he wasn't sure that was a good thing. When he had last seen Barnette he really hadn't bothered with seeing how much her mistrust of men had diminished. He just hadn't been interested. Now, two years later, unauthorized, and looking as he did, things didn't look good. If Barnette didn't trust him… or worse, didn't recognize him, things could go very wrong.
'I'll just have to convince her. One way or another, I'm certain I'll-'
Suddenly, the pod's computer's voice rang out, shaking Hibiki out of his thoughts:
"Receiving incoming transmission… Accept? Deny?"
'A transmission? Oh… they're right in front of me now…'
"Very well. Accept," he ordered the computer, as the four Dreads started surrounding the pod.
As soon as he said that a holographic screen showing the image of a green haired woman was projected in front of him (the pod not having an actual physical plasma screen). Before Hibiki could even begin to say anything the woman began talking, first in a formal tone, then in her usual form of speech:
"This is Barnette Orangello, third-in-command of the Dread forces of the ship Nirvana. By Mejerran law I demand that you identify yourself and explain your reasons for being here. Failure to comply will result in a use of force. That means that you either take off the hat that's obscuring your face and show me who you are and what the hell you're doing here, or I have every right to blow you to smithereens."
'Here's the moment of truth. I hope she recognizes me…'
With a slightly mocking tone he answered the Dread pilot: "Why, Barnette, I know we never were the best of friends, but such threats are wounding, don't you think?"
Then, with a perfectly prepared smirk, Hibiki lifted his hat slightly, without completely taking it off, and showed his face to Barnette.
At first the Dread pilot just looked at him strangely, but then, as she took in his features, recognition began to show on her face, and then surprise. In a few seconds her mouth was hanging open.
Before Hibiki could make a mocking comment about that, however, she quickly composed her facial expression, and said the only word that could apparently come out of her mouth.
"You!"
"Why, yes, it's me. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like you to let me go through."
As could be expected, Barnette's surprise started fading into anger, increased by Hibiki's mocking tone and matching smirk.
"Why should I do that? I mean, you left us with barely a message. If I recall correctly, all Bart, Duero, and Dita got was a notice from some government agent saying that you were off on some stupid mission and probably wouldn't be back for a while. That was two years ago. Two years!"
Hibiki's smirk disappeared completely, and he answered in a serious tone.
"Yes, I did leave you. However, I must say that you're a bit… off in your argument. I was given an offer, and I accepted. Seconds later I was being dragged off to the mission ship, without any chance to even pack my stuff, much less give a proper goodbye. As for the two year period… do you think I actually had any control over how long the mission took?"
In fact, that was not what Hibiki really wanted to say to Barnette at all. What he really wanted to do was ask how come she was being foolish enough to try and block his entrance on the stupid grounds of "not saying goodbye", ask how she dared to label the mission, his mission (perhaps the most important one to have ever been charged upon the Taraaku military) as stupid, tell her that the sacrifices he had made in said mission had probably saved her life in the long run… But he realized that would get him nowhere, so he softened his words, and spoke in a completely collected fashion. And now he waited for an answer.
Then…
"Alright … perhaps that wasn't the best of arguments, but here's another. Even though you certainly seem to know the things you should, how do I know you're the real Hibiki, and not some impostor trying to wreak havoc on the Nirvana? I mean, it's been two years, and yet you look at least a decade older."
Hibiki raised an eyebrow.
"Good… good. Alright, here's a deal, you let me through and I'll answer your questions."
'Some of them anyway…'
Barnette thought it over for a minute, but could apparently find nothing wrong with the offer.
"Very well. We'll escort the pod to the Nirvana and then deal with you appropriately. You'll also have to undergo a scanner sweep, just to make sure you have nothing dangerous on you."
'She's treating me like I'm some random criminal, but there's nothing much that I can do about that right now. Still, I'm certain I'll be able to outmaneuver her inside of the Nirvana, where there are more sensible people than her, and where there won't be any Dread laser cannons pointed at me.'
"I see nothing wrong with that," responded Hibiki, "so… deal?"
"Deal."
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The Nirvana's main hangar, fifteen minutes later…
A small group of Dread pilots commanded by Barnette Orangello, all carrying their standard laser guns, stood around a small Taraaku transport pod, waiting rather impatiently for its doors to open.
When they did, however, the pilots weren't at all prepared for the sight they beheld.
Out of the pod came walking a man clothed completely in black. Black hat, black boots, black gloves, black trench coat, everything. He stood taller than all of them, and carried himself with a fair amount of dignity. He took a few steps into the hangar until he finally stopped, waiting patiently.
Even Barnette was surprised. During her conversation with Hibiki she had only seen his face, but now… she just didn't know what to think. Still, she had a job to do, and Hibiki had yet to fulfill his part of the deal. Quickly, she grabbed a small multi-use (blood and weapons) scanner that had been strapped to her belt and advanced on Hibiki. When she was close enough, she activated the scanner and started outlining Hibiki's body with it, careful not to actually touch him with the scanner, which could cause interference.
A few seconds later, the scanner beeped, and showed its statistics on its screen.
Clean. Completely clean.
"Well, there were no weapons on you alright, but that doesn't tell me that you are the real… you. I'll need to carry out a blood test."
Without saying anything, Hibiki pulled back the right-arm sleeves of his coat and shirt, and showed the veins of his wrist to Barnette.
She pressed a small button on the scanner, and a small needle came out of its bottom side. Without much preamble she grabbed the scanner and stuck the tip of the needle on one of the veins on Hibiki's wrist. She left it there for a few seconds as the scanner attempted to match Hibiki's blood with the data stored on its small hard drive.
Another beep. Barnette withdrew the needle and examined the scanner, her eyes widening with surprise at what she saw.
The blood matched perfectly with the data. The man in front of her was Hibiki Tokai. She looked at him in the eye, trying to make her expression as unreadable as possible.
"I guess it really is you."
Hibiki smirked.
"Did you ever really doubt it?"
"I'm not about to tell you," she answered, "now, even though I know you're not an impostor, you still have to answer my questions, especially why you look like you do. However, I've no authority to interrogate anyone, so I'll take you to the Captain."
Hibiki gave her a mocking sigh.
"And still you treat me like a criminal… but a deal's a deal. Take me to Magno if you wish, I did kind of miss the old woman, anyway."
Barnette's expression tightened. In her opinion Hibiki was being as insolent as ever, except he was now combining that insolence with mocking and wit, and that was making her angrier by the minute.
"Very well," she said, then turned towards her pilots and dismissed them, saying that Hibiki wasn't dangerous.
As the pilots left, she turned her attention back to Hibiki.
"You can come with me now, but I'll keep my gun out of its holster, so be careful about what you do."
Then, without waiting for a response, she started walking out of the hangar in the direction of the bridge.
Hibiki raised an eyebrow, but said nothing and simply followed her.
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The Nirvana's main hallway (nearing the bridge entrance), five minutes later…
As Hibiki followed Barnette to the bridge, ignoring the funny looks he got from several passing women and (unsurprisingly) men, he pondered on what had happened in recent moments. His weapons, made of undetectable and incredibly expensive metal alloys, had completely evaded Barnette's scanner, allowing him to continue carrying them, and stopping the pilots that had been around him from getting suspicious of his motives. This in turn allowed him to remain inside the Nirvana without being a prisoner (not that he couldn't free himself, it was just that, to him, it would not be worth the effort if it could actually be avoided). Still, he didn't really consider his ability to get Barnette to let him inside the Nirvana as something to be proud of. Even though he had managed to get inside the pirate ship, the amount difficulty it took him, even with someone as stubborn as Barnette, was showing him an evident lack in his persuasion skills. He supposed that had to do with the fact that, on his mission, to "persuade" someone meant pressing a gun against their forehead and ordering them to speak, or else.
'No matter. Dialogue was never really my forte, but that can be fixed, even if it will take a while.'
Still, there was something about Barnette that had not been there before. As Hibiki had not-so-subtly goaded her throughout their dialogue during Barnette's transmission, and then later inside the main hangar, he had noticed something that he had failed to see on her before, and that reminded him heavily of his old self.
'Arrogance. She is nearly as arrogant as I was before; it's just that I never noticed such a thing on my first stay on the Nirvana because I was just as arrogant myself…'
He hated to think that he had ever been as arrogant and foolishly stubborn, not because he thought he hadn't been, but because thinking such a thing inevitably led his mind to the memories of the impressive and painful changes he had undergone in his mission.
'Grim thoughts again… I really shouldn't think them, but with a mind like mine, full of bad memories, is that even possible?'
He resisted the urge to sigh, and tried to amuse himself by thinking about how funny Barnette's expression would look if he told her that with a small flick of his wrists and a quick movement of his arms, he could slice her head clean off. Not that he would ever tell her that, or worse yet, actually slice her head off, but it was still a rather funny thought.
"We're here."
'What? Oh… we are.'
Apparently he had been so busy with his own thoughts that he had failed to notice just how close they had been getting to the bridge. Now that he looked around, he saw the steel doors right in front of him.
"Let's go," said Barnette, "The Captain's on the bridge. I'll take you to her and she'll ask the questions."
Hibiki shrugged.
"As you wish," he said, and then they both went in.
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A/N: And that's that. Drop a review if you want, or go the next chapter. Just make sure you review, either in this chapter or the next. ;)
- KW
