Chapter 11.

I couldn't have recounted the exact order of events that followed from realising Kei had been shot. I dimly remembered trying to get her seatbelt off, and pulling her from the hovercar. There was blood everywhere as I lowered her to the ground and tried desperately to stanch the bleeding. Someone - Carlos I think, was calling for a stretcher, but in the end he had to help me make a run for the infirmary, one carrying her, the other keeping pressure on the chest wound as best as he - or was it I - could.

The rest was a blur: Kei taken out of my arms by Doc, and someone - Ali? Ushering me out of the room. After that all I could do was stare blankly at the door, standing in the corridor, covered in her blood. Finally it was Mimay who guided me, unseeing, unhearing, back to my quarters. Mimay who tugged blood soaked clothes from me, and pushed me into the shower. Mimay who sat next to me, uncaring of the warm water soaking her, stroking my hair whilst I leaned against the wall, hands placed on it, my forehead pressed to the cool surface, and sank slowly to the floor, eventually leaning against her, my head on her shoulder.

Sometime after the point where warm water starts to feel a little chilly, she guided me out, still not having said a word. I was towelled off like a small child, then she sat me down on the edge of the bed and handed me a large tumbler. I don't even recall what was in it, just knocked it back and held it out for a refill, which was quietly obliged.

Even the bird was subdued, resting its head on my towel covered knee, making little chirping noises. I was halfway down the third tumbler before I could take a shuddering breath and get myself together enough to pull away slightly from Mimay's gentle embrace and try to stand.

She stopped me gently, but with more strength than I would have given her credit for. 'There's nothing you can do right now,' she said softly. 'Tochiro is monitoring the medical computer. Doc's still working on her. She's in good hands.'

'What the hell happened? I sent her back with the boy...'

'I spoke briefly with your uncle. He said one of the machinners turned on the boy when he ran to his parents, and shot at him. Kei ran between them, stopped the machinners, killed one of the guards, disabled the other. No-one realised she was hurt that badly until you landed. They had been about to kill the professors, not arrest them. If not for her...'

'I should be with her.'

She placed a pale blue hand on mine. 'You'd only be in the way, you know this.' She reached up and pushed a lock of wet hair out of my good eye. 'Concentrate on what you can do. The crew need you to be strong for them. They love her too, she's like a sister or a daughter to most of them, as well as a trusted officer.'

I looked at her somewhat blearily, unable to think of anything I ought to be saying. I'd heard many people talk about feeling numb in a crisis. I didn't feel numb; I felt as though someone was tearing my heart out by the roots and squeezing the life out of it in front of me. Not the hot frantic panic I'd felt all those years ago after the greenhouse explosion. Just a burning cold in my chest.

Mimay held out a pair of my trousers. 'Get dressed.' In the face of her alien implacability, I took my spare clothes from her. She had to help me with the zips, and I was so busy running nightmare scenarios through my head it never occurred to me to be embarrassed by being stark naked in front of her. She had just finished helping me in buckling on my gun belts when there was a discreet knock on the door.

'Enter,' Mimay called out before I could stop her. I wasn't in the mood for visitors. But Ali stood in the doorway, looking more than a little awkward.

'Sorry, captain, but he really wanted to see you.' He moved aside and a small dark haired tornado rushed towards me and clung to my legs, forcing me to sit back down again a little too rapidly for comfort. Then I had my small cousin in my lap, arms thrown around my neck and gulping a tearful babbling I slowly managed to make sense of.

'I didn't mean to get Kei hurt, honest. I'm sorry, Yama, I won't run again, I promise, if she gets well. She will get better, won't she?' Tearful brown eyes looked into mine, and he sniffed back a runny nose.

I hugged him close. 'Not your fault, Tadashi. Some bad men wanted to hurt all of you, there was nothing you could have done.' At some point I noticed the craven cowards had left the room leaving me alone with a crying six year old. But it helped. In comforting him and reassuring his fears, my own receded slightly, at least enough for me to function. I found a handkerchief in a drawer and managed to wipe tearful eyes and runny nose, before lowering him to the ground and taking his hand. 'Shall we go and see if there's any news? I think I could do with the company, if you're up for it?'

This got me an earnest little nod, and with Tadashi trotting at foot, I headed for the infirmary.

Doc was just leaving the room as I arrived. 'Good timing, I was just about to give you a call.'

Her relaxed tone gave me some hope. 'Kei- is she?'

She patted me on the arm. 'Relax, loverboy. She's fine. Sleepy, but fine. Lost a bit of blood, but the shot missed anything vital. That, and the way this ship tends to look after you and your crew...' she shook her head in puzzlement. 'I could probably write a paper on dark matter contamination. Damn stuff seems to have a mind of its own.' She gave me another reassuring pat. 'You can go in, but no hanky panky and let her rest. Me, I need a large scotch...' With that she bustled off, though not, I noticed, as energetically as she usually did.

But the door was open, and giving Tadashi's hand a squeeze, I looked down at him. 'Want to say hi?'

Kei was lying on her back, propped up on a couple of pillows. Her left arm and shoulder were bandaged, and although a sheet covered her, I could see the edge of the bandage around her chest. She looked pale, but she was awake, and her eyes lit up as she saw me. She extended her right hand, and I sat next to her, placing my own over it. Tadashi slithered onto the bed next to her, asking in a childish contralto if she was all right, and falling over himself to say sorry. She took her good hand out of mine with a rueful smile of apology to me, and allowed him to cuddle up to her, as the tears flowed again. Over that dark head she smiled at me.

'Sorry if I gave you a bad turn there. Doc said she thought for a while you looked worse than I did.'

'She's exaggerating, but I think I'll survive.' There was so much I wanted to say, but as in the conservatory earlier, the words just wouldn't come.

She tapped my tearful cousin on the arm. 'Tadashi, everything's going to be okay, I promise. Do you think you could give us some alone time though? Your parents probably want to make sure you don't get lost on the ship.'

I eventually managed to separate them, and found a willing lurker outside in the corridor - Sabu - to find the professors. With a sigh of relief I finally got to sit next to her without an interloper. She reached up and gently brushed her hand down my cheek. It came away damp. 'Doc's right. You do look as though you've seen a ghost.' she teased. I raised her hand to my lips and kissed it softly.

'Is this what I put you through when I pull one of those stunts that almost gets me killed?' I asked.

'Not so much fun on the receiving end, is it?' She winced. 'I'd laugh at you but it hurts too damn much.' The effort of talking though was obviously tiring her, and her eyes fluttered shut eventually, her breathing deepening. Not wanting to disturb her too much, I sat quietly at her side, just holding her hand and watching her sleep. The ship was in Imaginary number space, so there was little for me to do, and I never tired of watching her. Sleeping, all the little lines of care and tension left her, and Kei-the-pirate was replaced by a girl I could have met anywhere. Someone who hadn't needed to struggle, or fight, or be constantly on guard. The girl who loved roses, and lemon tea, and had no problems dealing with hyperactive small children.

Doc slipped quietly into the room at some point, and after silently checking her patient, suggested politely that I find someplace else to be. Reluctantly I obeyed, but not before brushing a few stray hairs off Kei's face, and bending over to kiss her lightly on the forehead.

'Just so you know, ' I whispered, 'I do love you.'

She murmured sleepily and a single bright blue eye opened and looked up at me. 'You do know you don't get any take-backs on that?'

'Faker,' I accused softly. She smiled and closed her eyes again.

'I've always known you do, you idiot. You're just terrible at spitting anything out,' she muttered sleepily. 'Just never thought it'd take getting shot to get you to finally admit it out loud.'

Doc sighed. 'If he tries to wriggle out of that later claiming a momentary lapse of reason, I'll hold him down while you beat a confession out of him.' Kei, still with her eyes closed, smiled at that. 'For now, and with all due respect, captain, take your cute, firm ass out of my infirmary, and leave my patient alone for a bit. I'll send for you when she's a little more awake.'

'Yes ma'am!' I backed out of the room reluctantly, which ended with the door very firmly shut in my face. Not wanting to head back to my quarters just yet, my feet instead turned towards the central computer room. I needed company.

Mimay was in her customary position in the hanging cables, lounging silently like a housecat, her head resting in her arms. Though she didn't so much as open her eyes, I knew she felt my presence. She swayed slightly in her perch as though moving to music only she could hear.

I took Harlock's old position, sitting in front of the whirling circle of red light on the front of the massive computers. There was always such a sense of peace in this place that I found my steps drawn there more and more often in the past few weeks. Though my relationship with the crew had improved from wary regard to an easy camaraderie, with the exception of Kei, and to a lesser extent Yattaran, true friendship was necessarily elusive. We weren't a military crew, with the attendant requirement for obedience precluding intimacy, but there was a necessary divide between a captain and those under his command. Even so, I didn't even think of attempting Harlock's stoic detachment from the men - or women- around him. They'd have laughed me out of town for trying a stunt like that. But outside of the bridge in any downtime, if I walked into a room conversations would fall silent briefly. It served as a reminder that I would never go back to being 'one of the lads'.

'Command's a lonely business, Harlock always said.'

Tochiro's hologram materialised at my side and 'sat' next to me. 'One reason I was never officially part of the command structure of the Arcadia. Meant we could just be ourselves and not worry about pesky things like orders getting in the way.' He sighed. 'Don't worry about Kei. The medical computers say she's fine. A few days and she'll be giving you hell for fussing over her.'

'It's not that so much...' I trailed off. I told him what had happened. 'I could so easily lose her. What's worse is I could be the one to order her to do something that could put her in danger again. She's not just a member of this crew, she's the battle commander. If I tried to hold her back she'd end up hating me, but if I don't...'

'Ah. Is that all? She knows the risks, just like you. Nothing in life is certain, except death. What matters is what you do with the time you have. Would you prefer not to love her?' My face must have been answer enough. An intangible hand patted my sleeve. 'Thought not. It hurts like hell to lose the people you love, but you can't let that stop you from caring. Harlock tried it. Prat. Love the guy to pieces, but sometimes feel like taking a wrench to his thick head.' He sighed. 'You remind me a lot of how he used to be, before the war, though you're a bit more serious. I guess that's down to the baggage you were already carrying when you came on board. His came a bit later in life.' He stood up. 'If you're beating yourself up over getting Kei hurt, just ask yourself this: what would have happened to your aunt, uncle and that sweet little boy of theirs if you hadn't gone to Mars when you did, eh? Those guys weren't there for you, they were after your uncle's research. Why else would that body stealing son of a bitch be hanging around to conveniently delay you after you had put Promethium's lights out? Kei was able to save them because you made a boneheaded decision.'

'You have a strange way of giving a motivational speech, do you know that?'

He laughed. 'Practice. Decades of practice hanging round a moody bastard with a terminal guilt complex. You work with what you've got, and being nice never usually got through.'

I smiled, and found myself laughing with him. 'Hence the wrench?'

'As you say. Actually we did get into it pretty hard one time. Silly bugger counted on his size to put me down. Kind of slipped his mind that when you're five something, tubby and wear glasses, you learn to fight dirty... though I did feel bad about it later.'

'Only because you actually concussed him,' Mimay added from her perch. She smiled down at us both, but that was the moment the entire ship shuddered from bow to stern, and with a complete loss of her catlike grace, she tumbled off her little nest. I only just caught her before she hit the deck.

'Did something just shoot us?' I asked. Tochiro's hologram faded from view, and the central computer core lit up like a fairground. 'We are still IN-SKIP?' It was supposed to be impossible for any ship to attack in sub-space. My commlink chimed. 'Harlock.'

'Oy - captain - you might want to get up here. Some bastard's taking pot shots at us!'

Yattaran sounded more peeved than anything. I Looked at Mimay, still lying in my arms.

'Anything you might like to share about what kind of ship can attack whilst we're in IN-SKIP?' I asked. I set her down gently.

'Only one,' she replied. 'And their kind vanished over a century ago.'

I took off at a run for the bridge.

Yattaran yielded the helm as I ran towards him, scooting back over to his own station with remarkable agility for his bulk. Ali, in Kei's absence, had her position. 'Do we have any readings on what the hell is taking shots at us yet?' As if on cue, another blast rocked the Arcadia.

'They're aiming for the engines. Bastards are trying to cripple us,' Yattaran called out. 'Ali - do you need someone to help you with the big words in the help manual?'

'Fuck you, you fat bastard!' There was no heat in their banter though. Ali however was frowning as he looked at the readouts. I kept a hand on the wheel, feeling the ship steady under my touch. 'Readings are bloody weird. Can't get a proper lock on. Though for a moment I thought I'd picked up our own echo...'

Mimay's heels clicked across the gantry, as she took up her position behind the captain's chair, her hands I already knew would be caressing the incandescent lightning filled globe that she used to control the dark matter engine. 'Had a feeling it might be something like that,' I muttered. 'Ali - can you put any visual up on the main screen?'

'I can try. Resolution's shit out there.' Another blast, but without a clear target, there was nothing yet to fire back at. 'Okay, best I can do...'

The ship that filled the screen was like nothing I'd ever seen. Truthfully, I couldn't get a good look at it, because the damned thing was wreathed in a similar substance to our own dark matter cloud. But where the Arcadia's dark matter was a cloud surrounding the ship, constantly in chaotic flux, this was - 'controlled' was the best description I could come up with. A ribbon of dark matter wound around an unknown central mass, spherical, and massive. The readings Ali passed on suggested this thing was almost twice our mass. That dark matter ribbon undulated and rippled continuously, forming a barrier around the ship which looked like someone had peeled an apple and put it back around the fruit, only stretching it out so that it left tantalising gaps, brief glimpses of what lay behind. Periodically a mass was ejected in a single, controlled burst in our direction, but having our opponent confirmed, the central computer was able to take evasive measures.

'All turrets, fire at will. Main battery, target the gaps in the dark matter, aim for the centre of that thing!' I had to make a swift correction, bringing the Arcadia round in a tight turn, trying to get above the dark matter ship, but the damned thing was almost as fast as we were. 'Mimay? Enlighten us?'

She ghosted to my side. 'It's the Phantasm. It was my brother's command.'

'Eh?' Yattaran spluttered. 'That's a Nibelung battleship?'

'Fuck me...' Ali breathed, awed. 'How the hell do we take it down? So far our guns aren't touching it.'

Which was a problem. I wanted it crippled before we made a break for it. 'Mimay - is there anything we have that can take her down? Tochiro?'

'Only the dark matter ejection antennae,' came Tochiro's voice weakly over the speakers. I guessed it was taking most of his attention keeping us in one piece. 'Mimay? Over to you.'

She looked at me to confirm the order, and I nodded. With that she ran for the dark matter engine and began whatever esoteric process she needed to perform. From Yattaran's console, a visual was brought up on his holographic display. The overarching spokes that curved elegantly over the Arcadia's spine reared up, and began to open, revealing a twisted structure in each not unlike a strand of DNA. Partly in tune as I was with the ship I felt the dark matter begin to build. It was like a pressure building in my head and chest, until I felt as though I was about to explode. In the hologram, the cloud surrounding us began to coalesce around the two radiating antennae arrays.

'Tochiro, a little guidance?' I whispered. He laughed over my personal link.

'Ah. Sorry, sorry. Mimay, let her rip!'

I felt the release as it left the ship and arced towards the Phantasm. The black mass hit her dead centre, and she reeled. Not waiting to check her status, I ordered another full volley from all guns, then span the wheel as hard as I could yelling at Mimay to give it everything we had, then drop us hard into real space. As the stars reappeared around us, I held onto the wheel for dear life, feeling utterly drained.

We'd taken a fair bit of damage in the attack, and looking at the monitors of the exterior skin of the ship with Yattaran and Maji, it appeared the auto-repair was stretched a little thin. The engine pods were functional, but the ship's armour was healing much more slowly than I liked to see.

'Must be the dark matter weapon they used, ' Maji offered. He pulled his bandana off his head and ran his fingers through short black hair. 'Figures the Nibelung would have a weapon capable of taking on their own kind of ship.'

'Are we flight capable?' I waited as my two top engineers conferred over the readings. Eventually Yattaran nodded.

'We actually came out pretty close to Tabito, so we might as well carry on in real space and meet up with Selen's people there. As long as we don't put too much strain on the hull we'll be fine. The auto-repair can handle it, it just needs more time than usual.'

'First time since the war we've had to face anything that could inflict that kind of damage,' Tochiro's hologram offered. 'Should have thought of that, my bad, guys. I'll go over the readings and see what we can do to mitigate it next time.'

There wasn't much I could offer, since this threesome comprised some of the best talent in the entirety of human space in their fields. 'I'll leave it to the experts. Just keep me posted.' I got a vague wave of acknowledgement from Maji, as the three engineers had their heads together already over a monitor. Feeling a bit like a fifth wheel, I headed for the infirmary.

Kei was awake when I arrived, surrounded by my family. Though the relationship wasn't a close one in terms of blood, I found I felt more at home around the older professors and their son than I had since I was in my teens with my own brother. Professor Daiba moved over to give me room to sit on the bed next to Kei, who although still pale, looked a lot better than she had earlier.

'Sorry for the turbulence earlier. An unplanned scuffle.' Kei gave me a hard stare but said nothing. Tadashi sat on her other side, on his best behaviour, thankfully. He was shoving a flimsy sheet under her nose and babbling happily.

'It's your name, in Japanese. Papa taught me how to write it. It means 'firefly' so I drew some for you. Mom found a picture for me to copy.'

I peered over to take a look. Sure enough, in a wobbly but recognisable hand, the character 'kei' (蛍 )written large, surrounded by several insects of indeterminate origin. Their bright yellow bottoms had yellow lines shooting out of them just in case the viewer missed the point.

Kei hugged him with her good arm. 'It's lovely, Tadashi. Thank you.' I could have sworn he practically wriggled like a puppy.

'Do I get the feeling I've got some serious competition?' I asked. 'You and I need a talk, young man!' He giggled.

Hiroko laughed. 'Maybe I can help with that, my boy.' She held up a large expensive shopping bag, reached in to pull a neatly wrapped parcel out of it, and handed it to me. 'That little matter we discussed last night? I decided to stop off before joining Tsuyoushi at the office.' She patted me on the arm, and picked up her offspring. 'We'll leave you in peace. I'll get the rest to you later.'

'Rest?' I only remembered asking for one small favour, and that bag looked full... The professor laid a hand on my shoulder as he left.

'If I were you, I'd just take the credit later, my lad. I find it's easier that way.' He walked out chuckling, and I finally had Kei to myself. Not for long, I judged, as she tried to bite back a yawn.

'Little matter?' Her tone was teasing, but her eyes were fixed on the parcel in my hands with the same intent stare she could send down the barrel of her gun. I handed it over.

'Present. I had a little word with my aunt... with all the excitement...' She just stared at the tissue paper wrapping, and I began to feel a little nervous. 'Kei? It's customary to start ripping the wrapping off...'

She ran her hands over it, and instead began unwrapping it with almost surgical delicacy. 'I've never had a present before.' I almost missed the slight tremor in her voice. I'd had a pretty good idea she had little enough of her own: she'd moved in with me with only a handful of flightsuits, gloves, boots and underwear. Like most of the crew she had free access to the assorted stores built up from various larcenous activities for everyday wear, and resident armourer Maji for more technical items.

I was struggling to hoĺd back a smile as she carefully folded the tissue paper in a neat square, and held up the sweater I'd talked my aunt into finding. 'It's so soft...'

I found myself grinning like a lunatic as she rubbed her cheek against the sky blue cashmere. 'Maybe I should have got you a kitten... want me to put it away for you?' I reached out for it and had to let out a laugh as she slapped my hand away.

'Oh no you don't.' I sat down on the bed next to her. 'Thank you,' she said brightly.

'Can't take all the credit. Had to leave the details to Aunt Hiroko. Judging by the size of that bag though, I think she might have gone a little overboard on the original specifications of the mission.' I leaned forward to give her a kiss but a loud throat-clearing behind me warned me not to complete the manoeuvre.

'Don't you have a ship to run, captain?' Doc had her hands thrust into her pockets, and I knew better than to mess when she had that look.

'It doesn't really need me...' Her foot started to tap. 'Okay, okay, I surrender.' For the second time that day, I had to make a strategic retreat from my own infirmary.

There was little enough I could do to keep me occupied whilst we were in transit. The ship was mostly autonomous, and what the central computer didn't cover, a well-trained crew did. In the end, I headed for the refectory, and let Anita ply me with something I didn't even notice eating. But she kept up an easy, friendly heckling, making me eat up. Zack, who'd refused to stay behind on Destiny with Selen's group, pestered me with questions about the battle.

Eventually between my new cook's friendly chatter and her son's eager questions about the ship, I did at least feel I could make my way back to my empty quarters for a much needed sleep.

I lay on top of the bed, not even bothering to take my boots off. I was still firing on all cylinders, and couldn't stop running events through my head. So much had happened in the last few months; at times I felt I was on wild ride I couldn't get off. Over and over and over, places, names, faces... only when I began to finally doze off did something pop into my head, and the connection was... an odd one.

Tochiro's description of the strange curving prongs that arched over the spine of the Arcadia, and apparently had something to do with dark matter manipulation on a large scale. A tower on Lar Metal with a two-faced woman's head on it, overlooking the city... but pointing to the sky... An antenna... with a power source buried at its base.

I leaned over and hit the control to turn the light up in the room, then fumbled for the comms. I needed a long talk with the two people who could tell me something about dark matter and what it could do. And with an archaeologist who a member of a long vanished race wanted dead and buried, along with his research.

If I was right, some answers might finally be within reach.