CHAPTER SEVEN
Maetel awoke rested but hungry, very hungry. Dr Zero suggested that she take it easy and so she was eating a light breakfast that Monono Tadashi had provided when Miime came into the infirmary.
"Maetel-san, how do you feel?" Miime asked.
"For a long time," Maetel answered thoughtfully "something's been very wrong with me. But I feel much better: I really feel much better now."
"Your illness was caused by the residual effects from the Symbiosis Memory Storage Unit and a temporal causality loop with quantum shifting, or sliding, in your mind…."
"A causality loop and quantum shifting… sliding in my mind," Maetel repeated. Suddenly, it all made sense: the disjointed dreams, the confused incongruent images out of sequence. Maetel thought to cry out of relief that she wasn't and hadn't been insane but there was simply no emotion but acknowledgement. Acknowledgement and the pressing almost panicked question: "When, and in which reality am I…?"
Miime looked away saying, "I think we should wait until…"
"Miime, which reality am I in?" Maetel insisted.
"Maetel, the easiest answer is: we are all here, in this one."
Maetel sat back in silence. Miime paused to let the shock sink in before continuing, "You must play it by ear, Maetel. When things aren't… as you think, or feel, or remember them to be, you'll have to take a moment and just be yourself. The medication that Dr. Zero has developed will help you. It should deaden, or suppress all memories except those relevant to this reality, he hopes. It should also help you with your lack of 'assertiveness', he thinks. I wish he were more confident: he really is a good Doctor!"
"You mentioned a 'causality loop'…" Maetel asked.
"Yes, the first to figure it out were the Three-Nine and Queen Emeraldas but they kept the secret and have never revealed how many cycles have actually passed. Ryuz thought at least 20. She, Leryuz, Shadow and we think, many other mechanized beings became aware of what was happening but there's no way to know how many.
Tochero, on the other hand, was able to figure it out on his own. He told Emeraldas and together they told Harlock…"
"…and after that it wasn't much of a secret anymore." Emeraldas said as she and Harlock entered the Infirmary.
"A 'secret' can't be kept on this ship." she added to Harlocks chagrin.
"When you say that 'everyone' knew… Tetsuro…?" Maetel asked.
"No Maetel, Tetsuro didn't know. Actually, few un-mechanized humans across the galaxy did…" Harlock said.
"But some of us thought you did…." Miime added.
Maetel slowly shook her head, "No… I thought that… it was an eternal, never-ending journey. I didn't know that it was… I didn't know that we, that you, were trapped in it… too. If I'd known this… if you knew this, why didn't you come to me, someone come to me and tell me…?"
"You were the key Maetel," Emeraldas began, "nothing we did, or could do, seemed change anything. We dropped hints, but the story had to play out as it was destined to and nothing could change or alter it, but you. Moreover, it became obvious that as long as you needed to continue to do it, we would be here to help you, comrades to the end."
Maetel asked, "Did Mother and Father know?"
"Maetel, they had to, but they never let on," Emeraldas said. "So Maetel, I have to ask, for all of us: what happened? Why did you finally break the cycle?"
"Do you remember the boy, the young man, my dearest friend who loved and died for me?" Maetel looked into her sister's eyes and said, "The man who sacrificed his life for me!"
"Yes Maetel," Emeraldas smiled, "I remember him and I remember you hearing his voice rather than mine, too!"
"Yes Emeraldas, you do remember!" Maetel said smiling, "I loved him, you know? He came to me and I heard his voice again. You'll think it wrong, but he gave me leave: permission to stop. To walk, no, to run actually, away from the battle and to turn my back on the fight, our fight, our quest and that destiny. I wouldn't, I couldn't have done it without him. He told me to run. He told me to get on the train, and I did."
"Why couldn't you have stayed on La Metal?" Emeraldas asked.
Maetel looked at Emeraldas and said as a matter of fact, "It wasn't my planet, my home anymore: don't you remember, Leopard ordered my deportation? I couldn't stay there…"
Emeraldas was incredulous. "But that was… Leopard's been dead for… no one cares about any of that anymore…," Harlock and his crew who'd begun filtering into the room began laughing. Then Tochero's disembodied voice spoke saying, "See, I tried to tell you: rules, Maetel follows rules!"
"Be quiet," Emeraldas said to Tochero glaring about the room at no one in particular, "well we, I, turned the planet, the whole star system in fact, upside down searching for you. Why didn't you get in touch with me, or Harlock, or any of our old comrades?"
"I felt that I'd betrayed you," Maetel said. "That I'd failed you all somehow," looking about the room. "I couldn't help but feel that I was a traitor for running away. I thought you wouldn't want to see me, and I didn't want to burden you. I didn't try to hide, but, I didn't want to be found either. How did you find me by the way?"
Emeraldas struggled trying to formulate an answer, but the only thought that filled her mind was that Maetel thought that she had failed them, 'somehow'! Harlock and Tochero watched and took silent note. Then, fortunately, a member of the crew handed Emeraldas a picture torn from a pulp magazine and broke the spell. It was a grainy black and white image of Maetel caught in mid-bite. Maetel laughed at seeing it saying, "I remember that moment: I wanted to kill the photographer!"
"Yes…. So did I…." Emeraldas said swallowing hard, looking away.
At this point Harlock stepped in and said, "Because of that picture we knew to look for you somewhere other than La Metal and the Heavy Melder system. We put out the word that we were searching for you and after a bit, the Railways Administrator here sent word: a very cagy fellow that one!"
Emeraldas, having recovered her voice added, "and no, Maetel: I don't think it wrong that you responded to Nazca's voice: I think it was right and just in time…." Catching herself suddenly, Emeraldas let her voice trail off….
"Just in time?" Maetel asked.
Emeraldas' face darkened and she looked farther away but Maetel reiterated, "Emeraldas, why just in time?"
"I'm sorry Maetel. I had wanted to wait until you were feeling better to tell you about this," she said, "but there is a new threat from an old enemy, an evil that's coming again to destroy us all. Not just us but the galaxy, the whole universe: the Metanoids. They knew of the causality loop and have used it, somehow, to prepare. We've had a new mission thrust upon us, a new quest: one that transcends light and darkness…. And you Maetel, you have a role to play if you wish it."
Emeraldas looked about her, seeking concurrence from their comrades. Finding it in the faces around her, she then added, "But only if you wish it, Maetel."
Maetel was pensive but looking up around the room at her sister, her friends and her comrades who had stood by her so loyally for so long she said quietly, "Comrades to the end."
Emeraldas looked at her sister for a long, hard moment, almost glaring. Then she said sternly, "Maetel, is this what you want? Or are you being selfless and objective again? You are not obliged to be that way anymore, you know! You do not have to do anything that you do not want to do, ever again! There are no rules for you: you are free! You can reinvent yourself as you wish and live for yourself and do whatever you want to do! You are free, except for one thing: you are not to die and don't you dare let anyone kill you!"
At that, Maetel smiled and touched Emeraldas' hand. She could see in her sisters' face and hear the plaintive cry in her voice and said, "This is my choice, my sister. We are Comrades: Comrades to the end! And no, I won't die or let anyone kill me."
"On our new mission, your new mission Maetel, you'll need help…." Harlock said.
"Oh yes, I'm sure, but whom…?" she said with a knowing smile.
"Maetel-san!" It was Shashou-san's familiar voice over the com-Link. "The Galaxy Express three-nine, an old friend, a new friend and I are at the station, waiting for you to arrive! But there's no rush: we'll depart as soon as you're ready!"
Harlock then added, "Also, it seems preordained that you and Hoshino Tetsuro should run the rails of time together. He needs a bit of rescuing at the moment too… it's your destiny."
"It is my destiny…." Maetel repeated quietly. She looked for Miime making eye contact with her, but she said nothing and just looked back impassively.
Miime had said, 'You must play it by ear, Maetel. When things… aren't as you think, or feel, or remember them to be, you'll have to take a moment, and be yourself….'
'Well,' Maetel thought, 'I'll be off to rescue Tetsuro soon. I will be myself. But who is Tetsuro going to be…?'
FINI
