Chapter 36

Arcadia

The computer room was always dark and quiet, its soaring design always reminding Harlock of an ancient gothic cathedral. Depending on the mood of whoever entered it, it could seem welcoming or intimidating. There had been a time - half a lifetime ago, almost - when Harlock had been in the latter category. Then, he'd been lurking in the shadows behind the computer banks which encircled the tree-like central core whilst he watched a lonely, isolated figure sit on one of the massive roots of the central core, slumped as though weighed down by time and guilt and sorrow and loss, and the heavy gravity cloak he habitually wore.

Now, he reflected, he was the miserable asshole slumped in front of a friend he could neither touch nor truly understand, looking for guidance on the injustices of the world.

At least this time there wasn't some snot-nosed punk lurking in the shadows wondering if he dared risk shooting him in the back, he thought sourly. And he categorically refused to walk around his own ship wearing that damned cloak. Somedays it felt like a shroud.

The low-level rumbling of the Arcadia's background noise changed pitch for a moment. He shook his head slightly. 'Nothing. Just reminiscing.' He looked upwards briefly, but the dangling conduits Mimay usually draped herself over were conspicuously free of drifting fireflies. His only other company was the black bird, circling overhead before settling on one of the beams to preen. 'It's either that or start shooting something.'

The circular red light on the panel of the core facing him whirled a little faster. Harlock huffed slightly. 'No. Just remembering the first time I came in here. I had my target in my sights and I could have fired - done my job. I just couldn't do it.'

A rumble.

'No. Not because it would have gotten me killed - I'd expected that. Part of me back then would have welcomed it. It just… felt wrong. I had the drop on him in the workboat on Tokarga as well and still couldn't do it. Not in the back.'

Lights flickered. Harlock gave a hollow laugh. 'No. Not to his face either. I had him in my sights so many times and it just… wasn't me. If that makes any sense?'

Rumble.

'Too tied up to talk to me?' Again a little shake of the head, which if he'd seen himself, he'd have recognised as the same habit his predecessor had had. 'No - it's fine. I understand you pretty well by now.'

A more questioning hum.

'Something like that. Part of me wants to charge right in and rain down hell on the Mazone for this… but I can't blame all of them for the actions of a few. Someone wants me going off half-cocked - I just don't know why… But you know me - I don't like being manipulated.'

The hum deepened.

'You too huh? It had crossed my mind… if their information's that out of date… And you're right - he would have gone charging right in.'

Rumble.

'Heh. You think Mamoru resembles me and Wattaru The Captain?' A snort. 'Hardly. I've never seen Wattaru lose his temper - he just doesn't have any brakes. Mamoru on the other hand…' he paused. 'It pains me to say it but in a way I'm glad the three of them are together - Taro's got the brains but he can be vulnerable. Mamoru's often a little too clever and devious for his own good, but Wattaru can usually be relied on to rein the other two in with their plotting, and they can stop him charging around at full tilt. They're so damn young, but we didn't wrap them in cotton wool. They've got a better chance of getting out of this alive than most kids their age.' His head drooped slightly and he sighed. 'They hurt Mamoru… badly. I can't stop seeing it.' He lifted his head. 'Any ideas on how we do "subtle" when all we have to bring to the fight is the most powerful battleship in human space?'

The circling light dimmed in its endless circuit. 'Thought not. But I think we're going to need to think of something, my friend.' Heart still heavy, he stood up and back out of the encircling data banks before turning and striding away, wandering the currently empty corridors with a vague sense that he ought to be seen to be doing something.

The corridors weren't totally empty. Luna stalked out of the training room and glowered at Harlock from under her bangs when he came to a stop in front of her.

'Two days… Two damn days…' She jabbed a finger into his chest. 'If she won't sleep, try at least to get her to accept something to help - the damn woman's started punchtuating her sentences again… never a good sign.'

Thump. Thump. . Thwaaack.

Harlock winced as he heard the last of the noises coming from the room through the open door. 'You know she hates being drugged. For any reason. You also know why, Luna.'

'One of you won't take anything, the other metabolises them as soon as they're in his damn bloodstream…' his ship's doctor muttered. 'No wonder I drink…'

'You drank before you came on board!' he called out as she stormed away, white coat-tails flapping. She gave him the finger over her shoulder without looking back. With a sigh, Harlock pushed his hair out of his face and walked into the gym.

'Luna's right, you need to sleep…'

Thump. 'I'm.' thudthwack 'fine' thump. 'And' thudthud 'I've' thump 'no' thud 'intention' thwackthwack 'of' thump 'taking' thud 'anything'. Thudthwackthumpthump.

That last combination of punches and kicks made even his eyes water, the force almost knocking the heavy bag off its hook. He stepped up and steadied it, before she could launch another barrage at the hapless equipment. 'Kei.'

She stared at him from under sweat-darkened hair. Through the sparring wraps he could see blood seeping through where she'd scraped her knuckles. Dark circles underscored her blue eyes, which glared at him with a barely restrained but helpless fury. With no-one to take her anger and fear out on, Kei didn't handle it too well. 'How can you be so calm?' she blurted eventually. 'I don't know how you can stand there so quietly. You don't shout, you don't…'

He reached out and drew her close. She trembled in his arms, and not, he know all too well, from fear or sobbing. 'You think this is calm?' he asked eventually. Gently, he disengaged and began to unwrap one of her hands, wincing when the wrapping came away bloody. 'This isn't calm. This is me doing my damndest to keep a lid on it, because if I let it out even for one moment, I'm not all that sure I can stop.' He sighed when he saw her swollen, bruised knuckles. 'You need a shower, a rub down and bed - in that order.'

'Right now, I'm not sure "stopping" is something I'm in favour of,' she snarled. 'Why should we stop? They took our sons, Yama - they hurt - maybe killed - Mamoru in front of us. They're hurt, scared and millions of miles away, and I can't do a damned thing about it. What makes you think I want you to stop?'

He started working on the other hand. 'I command the most powerful battleship ever constructed - one capable of ripping holes in the fabric of reality if I really, really decide to let rip and express myself with it. So whilst you get the luxury of beating some poor, helpless punch bag into submission, I have to keep a lid on my temper and try to find a way of getting our boys back which doesn't involve a body count in the millions.' He dropped a kiss on one abused knuckle. Then he looked up and stared into her eyes. 'I'd like nothing more right now than to just turn around, head straight for one of those damned convoys, and start shooting until there's nothing left but leaf litter…'

His voice was as calm as always, but the reined in fury in his visible eye made her shiver. He forced a wry smile when he realised. 'You're the one I usually rely on to bring me down to reality. I guess right now neither of us is fit for human company…'

'So point us at a fleet of vegetables and start shooting,' she snarled. 'I don't care anymore.'

He stared into her eyes for a moment, and then kissed her gently. 'Yes, you do. Or if not now, when you calm down, you will.'

'Don't take that bet,' she warned. She freed her hands and wrapped her arms around his waist. 'I can't stand feeling so helpless.'

He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. 'Neither can I. But there will be an answer for this, I promise you. If nothing else that black-eyed bitch who hurt them is not long for this world.'

'She's mine.'

If anything the flat delivery of those two words mumbled into his sweater were more unnerving than her more emotional outbursts. 'If Mamoru and Wattaru don't get to her first,' he replied solemnly. Despite the fear and the worry, she smiled briefly.

'They do have a way with them, don't they,' she said in a soft, sad voice.

He hugged her a little more tightly. 'We didn't raise them to be soft, love. We couldn't afford to. Not with the prices on our heads. They're young, but they're smart, and resourceful, and the twins have Taro as well - if nothing else I trust in those three to take care of each other.'

'But they're still nine year old boys surrounded by a terrifying enemy, all alone,' she whispered. 'Speeding away to who knows where? How the hell can you be so certain we'll find them?'

He stroked her hair gently. 'Tochiro's certain he can track Mamoru once we reach Tabito - dark matter leaves a trail, and he's always been able to find him, ever since…' he trailed off, the memories of the final weeks of the plague year still gave them both nightmares. The frantic search for the cure, destroying Deathshadow One and the race to disseminate the vaccine had taken a toll on all of them, and had come too late for far too many.

It had almost been too late for Mamoru, who'd reacted badly to the retrovirus and almost died. If not for the quick thinking of Mimay, they'd have lost three children, not two. But using dark matter to save him had had a price - though one that now, Harlock was silently thanking his lucky stars for.

So long as the Mazone didn't split the boys up, they had a chance.

Kei, her face buried in his sweater, probably didn't hear, but to Harlock - captain of the ship for over thirteen years now - there was a slight strain creeping into the usual creaks, groans and murmurings of the ship when it travelled. The pressure - always present, however unwelcome - of dark matter was heavier than usual, and tiny flashes of blue lightning caught his eye, flickering along the walls and floor just at the edge of his vision.

"Speed" wasn't much of a concept in IN-SKIP - "Imaginary Number Space" was a conceit - the sub-dimension the Arcadia entered whilst immersed in the dark matter cloud was a coiled remnant of the universe from just after the Big Bang - when the universe had been a fraction of the Planck length in diameter. Tiny fractions of a microsecond later, it had collapsed into the familiar three spatial and one time dimension humanity lived in. But the multiple sub-dimensions survived, coiled tightly into tiny quantum states which touched the entirety of the Universe simultaneously. Travel "time" depended on the depth of your immersion, and that was utterly dependent upon the power of your drive.

Arcadia was racing to Tabito to pick up the trace of Mamoru's passage into that sub-dimensional space, where dark matter shone like a beacon. And to do so her engines was putting out a level of power at the very limit of her design tolerances. Tochiro's entire concentration for the past two days had been - and still was - totally concerned with ensuring the self-repair function could keep up with the stresses the power drain was putting on her hull and structure.

If she didn't shake herself to pieces in the process, they would reach Tabito in a little over twenty-four hours.

And if he could have been sure they'd get there in one piece, Harlock would have poured the entire output of the Nibelung engine into the task if it shaved even a single hour off that estimate…

Tabito

Blaze glared at the platinum-haired man sitting with casual abandon in a chair, one leg draped over the left arm. 'Nice to know my aunt has her priorities straight as usual - kicks up a storm because her childhood home gets trashed, but couldn't give a shit that my brother and his crew are all dead and we've got three missing children.'

Ra Frankenbach Leopard twiddled with the dark blue beret in his hands, and shrugged. 'She is what she is.'

'And you - uncle - can still sit there and wear that uniform in good conscience?' Blaze took a step forwards, his fists raised.

'Blaze, enough.'

At the sound of Selen's quiet voice, he stopped and dropped his hands to his side. 'Mother.'

'In good conscience, no,' Leopard replied. 'But unlike your parents I believe that you need to fight the system from the inside, with the rule of law.'

Blaze snorted. 'Seriously? You buy your own bullshit? You have a network of spies, informers and saboteurs larger than the Millennial Thieves working for you!'

'Because your father handed over control of the Lar Metal faction to me,' Leopard added smoothly. 'And now who's getting sidetracked?'

Selen, at the head of the small table, placed her hands on it palms down and stood up, leaning towards the Machinners' commander. 'Frank - whatever her reasons, Yayoi - Promethium - sent you to us, and I can guess that you're just the vanguard. But what does she hope to achieve by declaring war on these people?'

Leopard ran a hand through his silvery hair. 'She's taking this assault rather personally. Up to now, I don't think she cared - we're mostly based in M31 now anyway - this spiral isn't of much interest - except for one thing: It was her home.'

'It was Captain Irita who flattened the shop,' Blaze pointed out.

'And he claims he was given the intel about this planet by the Director of IntSec - who turns out to be some weird plant-human hybrid.'

'Symbiote,' Selen correctly absently. 'She's human, but her cells contain organelles from some single-celled variant of the Mazone. Her body's riddled with it.'

'Whatever,' Leopard waved off the technical details. 'The fact remains that I've ensured she holds them responsible - for that and for Marin's death.' He bowed his head slightly. 'For what it's worth, I'm truly sorry.'

'Monitoring our communications, much?' Blaze snarled.

'Hannibal called me en route - take it up with him - if you dare. Marin was also my nephew, Blaze - my brother and I might have had our differences, but we reconciled years ago. The damage this fleet could do is unprecedented. I saw what Loki set in motion almost fifteen years ago on Lar Metal, and I swore then I'd never let him succeed.'

'And yet - you still allow Promethium free rein on harvesting humans for their lifeforce. How the fuck do you sleep at night?' Blaze leaned forward and had his face almost nose to nose with his uncle's as he shouted, and only backed down when Selen laid a hand on his shoulder. With poor grace, he allowed himself to be drawn away from the confrontation, whilst Leopard kept his seat and his composure and didn't answer.

Blaze gave his mother's hand a slight squeeze before he pulled away. 'Hoshino's in orbit, the Poseidon is in system and I'm guessing Harlock's heading here as fast as he can push the Arcadia. That's a lot of firepower - but what use is it? If we engage these convoys, we risk a repeat of the accident that caught the Futatsuboshi!' Blaze paced the length of the room. 'What good is a shooting war in retaliation?'

'Even assuming we aren't all at each other's throats,' Selen added. Blaze stopped pacing to look at his mother. Since Hannibal's call relaying Harlock's news, she'd been so calm, it made him nervous. Even when she'd told his siblings, she'd been quiet and collected, her grief only showing in the tight wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Those who didn't know her often thought her cold, but Blaze could see through the facade well enough. Even after five years she'd not gotten over his father's death. This new loss was cutting her to pieces.

To his surprise even Leopard seemed sensitive to the mood. 'Selen - We have and always will have our differences. I'm here at your sister's bequest to send a message to this race - but the one thing she didn't do was tell me what the message had to be.' He stood up and walked to her side. 'This world is your home. I'll respect that. But I cannot hold back forever.'

'Not forever,' Selen replied. 'Wait for Harlock, that's all I ask.'

'He's a pirate and a rebel - what can he bring to this?'

'He's been investigating these creatures for months - years really, except we didn't know what we were dealing with until recently,' Blaze added. 'You want a way to handle the Mazone? Then wait for the man who knows the most about them - or had you forgotten that he's also got a brain as well as a big battleship? If anyone can find a way to stop them, it's Harlock.'

Leopard snorted. 'The galaxy's first combat botanist? We're doomed.'

Blaze smirked at him. 'See, I knew you'd understand.'

Leopard narrowed his eyes and looked down his nose at the younger man. 'You get more like your father every day,' he muttered, not unkindly. 'Hanging around with rebels and pirates is rubbing off on you.'

'Given the fact that so far the regular channels have been sadly lacking,' Blaze retorted tartly, 'That can only be a good thing.'

Leopard placed his beret on his silver hair and tugged it into place. 'It's a short term gain, Blaze. In the long term, these chaotic heroics never last. Only the order that comes with a civilised society can prevail in the long term.' He saluted Selen smartly, turned on his heel and left.

Blaze watched through the window as Leopard walked away. 'He ought to spend some time with that smarmy little shit we've got locked up in the mine. He spouts the same line of bullshit.'

Selen moved gracefully to his side and let out a deep breath. 'He's right about one thing: Heroes never last. They flourish when times are hard and the world needs changing - but once the world changes, what need does it have for them? All too often they become the very thing we fight against.'

'You didn't,' he pointed out, giving her a peck on the cheek. She smiled sadly.

'I had the sense to walk away.'

'And yet,' he said quietly, 'here we are.'

She stared out of the window at the dusty town, her fingers gripping the dusty sill tightly. 'As you say…'

'You know, I hate to admit it, but for once, my half-uncle has a point.'

'Frank is - and always has been - a blunt instrument,' Selen replied softly. 'We might need his fleet to fight the Mazone, but I'm not happy about it. Nor do I like their reasons for getting involved. Oki's on his way down and I know damn well Destiny won't want my sister involved in this. Yayoi has a tendency to overreact…'

'She's already overreacting,' Blaze broke in. 'Just sending Leopard in at high speed is proof enough of that.'

Selen sighed. 'She always did react rather than wait and consider.'

'Which is why, as I recall, we ended up on opposite sides,' he replied. He stood behind her, smiling sadly as he always did when her head rested under his chin when her held her. Some part of him always seemed to expect it to be the other way around - as though the little boy he had once been would always remain so. 'You're the sensible one, remember?'

She turned in his embrace and pulled away slightly so she could look into his eyes. His father's blue. She smiled sadly and flicked a stray lock of dark hair out of his eyes. 'That's what your father used to tell me…'

The catch in her voice was his only warning, and she turned and clung to him, crying silently into his jacket. He held her tightly for the longest time, not even noticing when his own silent tears joined hers.

'What is this?' Roderick growled as the third ship in an hour roared and rumbled overhead, momentarily blocking out the sun. 'Destiny Central?'

Ben slapped his crewmate on the shoulder and winced, shaking his hand to unnumb his fingers. 'Like hitting a brick wall,' he muttered. Roderick scowled through a scraggly black beard.

'And yet, you keep doing it…'

'I'm nothing if not an optimist,' Ben replied airily.

'You're a lot of things, Benjy-blue - most of 'em ain't repeatable in polite company.'

'That's the Poseidon,' Greg offered as he strolled past, one end of a large wooden beam on his shoulders. The other end was taken by a burly member of the Seventh Star's crew. 'The one before that was the Mephistopheles…'

'Uh-uh.' Ben corrected. 'The Mephisto - please note correct name - was this morning. Leopard's new ship was the last one before this. He's still in with Selen.'

'Are we friends with these guys now?' Rod snorted. He bent down to pick up more debris from the ground and swore as the carbonised wood broke apart when he tried to lift it. 'Bollocks. I need an industrial sized dustpan…'

'Friends, no… but Hoshino's had to haul ass over here to make excuses for his former underling, the Evil Empire are spitting feathers over Promethium's childhood home getting trashed, and the Alliance and the Evil Empire are both in shit with Destiny over this attack in Colonial Space and the death and kidnapping of colonial citizens - once the bottle stops spinning it'll be pointed right at these Mazone and they'll be falling over themselves to assure the Captain that they had nothing to do with it…' Ben's expression was grim.

'Pissing themselves as they do it, no doubt,' Rod sniggered. He looked up from his clearing of another pile of rubble and pointed. 'Oi - ain't that Leopard coming out now?'

Ben followed the direction the bigger pirate was pointing in and nodded. 'He needs to ditch the beret… it's so gay…'

He was twenty yards away, and over the sounds of heavy machinery and crashing rubble as the townsfolk and the crew of the Seventh Star worked on clearing the damaged housing, he shouldn't have been able to hear the comment. But piercing blue eyes under a shock of prematurely white hair glared straight at the blue-skinned pirate, before their owner turned on a militarily precise heel, saluted Selen, and strode away.

'Captain's right… he really does have a tight ass…' Ben murmured, tilting his head on one side appraisingly as he watched the officer walk away.

'The captain,' Zack said dryly from behind his left shoulder, 'doesn't mean it the way you do…'

The rest of the pirates laughed, and Ben shrugged off the observation with a grin. Zack looked round at the assembled crew and frowned. 'Where's Ali? Blaze is looking for him.'

'Last time we looked, making inroads on his second bottle of Andromedan Red in as many days,' Ben replied darkly. 'That stuff'll send you blind.'

'Funny - that's what my mum told me about some of the things you get up to,' Zack replied cheekily. Ben aimed a swat at the younger man's head, which was skillfully ducked.

'Cheeky fucker. Since you've just come from the ship then, any news on Tadashi?'

Zack's mood instantly sobered. He shook his head. 'Still unconscious. But he's breathing on his own now - that thing did a number on his neck. They think most of the plant toxins are out of his system. But it's a close thing. Selen's been in touch with Hannibal - one of his ships will rush him to Deathshadow Island. It's not like we've got great facilities here.'

'Any word from the captain?' Ben asked.

Zack shook his head. 'In flight, and we only got the relays back up this morning. It'll take them at least three more days to get here - but it's worrying they haven't dropped out of IN-SKIP to get in touch…'

'They don't know what happened though, only that we were out of touch.' Maji leaned against a charred upright, his arms folded. 'I just hope none of this lot-' he jerked his head upwards to indicate the orbiting ships '-get trigger happy when he arrives.'

Snorts all round. 'Like they could put a scratch on the Arcadia?' Greg voiced what the others were thinking.

'Ain't about them scratching us,' Maji added gloomily. 'It's about starting a shooting war. We've got Alliance, Machinner, Colonial, Thieves and us all lined up and twitchy coz of these Mazone - won't take much to set it all off.'

'I rather think that's what they were trying to do,' Ben added thoughtfully. 'Not sure quite what that uptight little tosser in the clink thought he was going to achieve by taking the kids - some high-falutin' crap about luring the captain out seems to be as far as his narrow little mind gets - he's all about law and order, that one. Ironic - given that he's responsible for an illegal raid outside his own territory... but his leggy red-haired boss seems to think bigger - and according to Daisuke, she was in cahoots with the Mazone. Seems to me it'd suit them just fine right now if we were at each other's throats - they could sail right on through whilst we scrapped amongst ourselves.'

'Can't be that simple, though,' Zack said. When they all turned to stare expectantly at him and he realised they were waiting for some profound insight, he flushed. 'Well, it never is, is it?'

Ben slapped him on the back, almost staggering him. 'Freckles - there might be cleverer ways of looking at this snafu, but I can't fault your assessment.'

Rod shook his head. 'So basically whatever they got planned, we're fucked?'

Ben grinned. 'Aaaaannnnddd the insights just keep on coming!' he beamed at them and Maji rolled his eyes. 'Truth is people, we're always fucked - we just have to bear in mind what we always do in times like these…'

'Which is?' Greg asked, looking at him squintwise.

'Fuck 'em right back!' Maji, Zack and Ben chorused. But the levity lasted for only an instant, before all of them exchanged worried glances, and tried to lose themselves in the hard manual labour of getting the town back on its feet.

Seventh Star

Daiba found Meg sitting at Tadashi's bedside in the infirmary.

'Aria sent me,' he said quietly, holding out a sealed coffee mug and a take out box. 'You haven't eaten.' He stared guiltily at the still figure of his namesake, pale and bruised in equal measure. The marks around his throat were a spectacular mix of purple green and yellow. 'I know I joked about not liking sharing my name, but I never wished him any harm,' he whispered. 'He's a nice guy.' He held the coffee out again. 'C'mon Meg - at least drink something.'

She shook her head. 'Not thirsty. Or hungry.' She held Tadashi's hand in her small one, where it rested on the cover. 'They took him off the ventilator, but he won't wake up.' Her narrow shoulders started to shake. 'Why won't he wake up?'

Daiba placed his packages on the bedside cabinet and awkwardly put his arms around the tiny pirate. She burrowed into his shoulder and sobbed silently into his sweater as he patted her back gently, not sure what to say. 'They've got some nasty neurotoxins, according to Harlock - might just be that getting them out of his system takes time,' he settled on eventually. She sniffled and raised a tear stained face to look at him.

'Is that supposed to be a reassuring smile?' she asked after a brief pause. He assayed a slight shrug. 'You look like you just chewed on a stick of liquorice…' She sniffled again.

'I know. My bedside manner sucks.' He grabbed the takeout box and placed it in her hand. 'Hold this.' He grabbed the coffee, and started to tow her out of the room.

'Where… what…'

'Out of here, somewhere quiet, you're gonna eat something, and I'm going to stand by on snot duty.' He pointed the coffee mug at a damp spot on his chest. 'Since you seem hell-bent on using me as a hanky.' The Seventh Star had a small crew lounge and he dragged her - mostly unresisting - into it and shut the door. Most of the crew had gone to help with the clearance of the town or to guard the prisoners, so apart from the med staff, they had the ship to themselves. He got Meg seated on as sofa and plopped down next to her. 'Are you going to eat that?' he pointed to the take out tray. When she shook her head absently, staring glumly into her coffee, he opened it up and grabbed one half of the triple-decker sandwich inside. When she looked at it a little listlessly on its way from box to mouth, he sheepishly handed over the box. Whilst he gobbled up his purloined portion, she nibbled on hers, periodically picking at the lettuce that dropped into the box on her lap.

'Seen Ali?' she mumbled between bites.

'About an hour ago, down the pub. Where he's probably staying for the foreseeable future since that shit he's drinking tends to interfere with the motor and the higher functions…'

The door irised open and he looked up. A group of small children hovered in the doorway, until Freya ran into the room and crawled into his lap. The little nibelung girl - if, he thought, you could call her a child - in all honesty he wasn't sure what she was, although her blissful search for contact was certainly childlike - burrowing happily into his neck, her arms wrapped around him.

'Ladies' man,' Meg sniped, half-heartedly. He stuck his tongue out at her.

'You're jealous.'

As if she understood, Freya unwrapped herself from Daiba, and shimmied over into Meg's lap for a cuddle. Meg rolled her eyes but held the little girl close anyway. Daiba's lap now free, the little nibelung's companions swarmed onto the small sofa, and the pair found themselves buried underneath a pile which consisted of Selen's three youngest, and Nami. The boys were doing their best to bear up manfully, but Kanna was tearful and Nami wasn't far behind.

'Rei?' Daiba addressed the oldest of the group. Normally as stoic as his older brothers, Rei's reddened eyes and runny nose suggested he'd also been crying.

'Hannibal called. Mom just heard about Marin,' he sniffed. Meg shuffled closer - no easy task with a lap full of small alien - and handed him one of the napkins from the take-out box. Despite it being a bit greasy Rei took it and blew his nose noisily.

'Mazone?' Daiba asked, through gritted teeth. Rei shook his head.

'Not really - there was some kind of accident - Hannibal said that Harlock said that a whole load of ships had blown up - something to do with their drives. And it did something… Marin just warped into it, and the ship…' he hiccupped. 'The ship…'

Kanna started wailing again, and Daiba tried to juggle a sniffling Nami and her bawling friend, without much success. At least until Freya disentangled herself from Meg and laid a cool little hand on Kanna's cheek. To the surprise of both teenagers, her large almond-shaped eyes were shedding tears. But Kanna's wails subsided to a soft series of sniffles and she hugged Freya hard enough to elicit a little squeak from the alien.

Rei's offer of an already soggy, grease-stained napkin however was rejected. Her brother shrugged, and put his arm around Nami instead.

'Powerful explosions can seriously warp space-time over a large area,' Meg mused out loud. 'It's why battlefields in space are best avoided for years afterwards.'

'Dad told us about the battle near Lar Metal,' Rei offered sadly. 'I never believed him that energy weapons could miss because of the warping effect - thought he was just yanking my chain…'

'Tadashi told me about it as well,' Meg said quietly. 'A few years back the Arcadia got into it with some wreckers near a rift they'd been using to lure in passing ships - some kind of sub-dimensional junkyard. They had to close it later with one of the Oscillators the old Harlock had deployed.'

'Mom said something about that to Hannibal - I think it left a hole they've gotta close.' Rei nodded in agreement. 'But it wasn't just Mal and the crew… I think thousands of those plant-womens' ships blew up. It was bad… real bad.'

'I'm not sure that's what some of us are thinking,' Daiba ground out. Rei stared at him wide-eyed. 'They took the twins and Taro and almost killed Tadashi, remember?'

'Not all of them', Daisuke piped up in his boyish treble. 'I mean - we don't blame all grown-ups for stuff only some of them do, do we? That's what mom and dad always said, anyway.'

Meg kicked Daiba on the ankle as he opened his mouth to reply. Before he could complain that just because he'd been about to slander the entirety of the Mazone race because -hell - they were Mazone, she gave him a warning shake of his head, and he subsided. Instead he found himself staring straight into Freya's cat-like eyes, wide and sorrowful.

'Við vorum ekki allir góðir heldur…' she murmured.

He still had that strange connection which allowed him to understand her: We were not all good either…

Abandoned mine, outside of Tabito Town

Hoshino bristled at the escort, but Oki insisted on escorting him to see Irita. He didn't have much choice other than to accept the man's "offer", but the blue-haired admiral hadn't given him much choice.

'What do you expect me to do? Spring him?' he asked sarcastically. He aimed a glare at the aquatics who followed them at a discreet distance, power-tridents held with studied nonchalance.

Oki shrugged. His long blue hair was held back from his face by a silver circlet, which also revealed the faint lines of his gill-slits on the side of his neck, tightly closed against Tabito's dry, dusty air. 'I have my orders, Admiral. But you're a guest, even if an unwelcome one. It's my duty to escort you. Besides - it's not us you need to worry about. A lot of people here are seriously unhappy with your subordinate's actions. Think of us as your bodyguards…'

'It's a sorry state of affairs when pirates and rebels are more welcome in the colonies than the law-abiding representatives of a neighbouring government,' Hoshino snapped.

Oki's generous mouth compressed into a thin disapproving line. 'A government which supports the actions of a regime which had to be hounded out of this part of the galaxy for rounding up millions of people and either forcibly converting them to machinners, or slaughtering them to harvest their life-force - and in the process leaving thousands of small children abandoned on the planets they depopulated, either to die or to be rounded up in their turn as slaves for yet another unwelcome despot. Frankly, Hoshino, I'm amazed you have the nerve to complain.' Back ramrod straight, he strode ahead of his Alliance counterpart, forcing the other man to almost jog to keep up.

'Did you ever stop to ask yourself if the Queen's right?' Hoshino asked as he caught up. 'Her way at least puts an end to so much suffering. Humanity has no home anymore - you think living on these marginal worlds eking out a living is a good thing? Crime on the Machinners planets is minimal. They don't hunger, they don't rebel…'

'They don't think,' Oki shot back. 'They don't care about anything anymore. As for crime - of course it's reported as minimal - crimes against those who still have their own bodies isn't recorded. They treat the living as an underclass - there to be harvested for their essence - the substance which gives the high ranking machinners their vitality - without which they'd be as apathetic and compliant as their lower class counterparts. That's not living, Hoshino. It's an abomination. If you think it's such a great idea, why don't you sign up for a machine body yourself?'

In reply, Hoshino stopped and rolled up the sleeve of his right arm. Underneath the uniform, instead of flesh, his skin was jet black, shot through with what looked like tiny red stars. 'I did,' he replied quietly. 'After I saw what happened during the plague. I vowed I'd never risk my family again just to maintain some outdated idea of what it is to be human.'

Oki shook his head sadly. 'You fool. Don't you have a son under ten? What of him?'

Hoshino rolled down his sleeve and fastened his cuff again. 'I'd have waited, and taken him for conversion. But my wife ran, took him with her. I've not been able to find them, although I put on of our best hunters on it.'

Oki walked on. 'And that didn't tell you something?' he asked blandly.

'Yes. That she had help.'

Oki resisted the temptation to roll his eyes at that. 'Missing the point much? Nevermind, we're here. Take your time - I've had the rest of your people moved to your ship as requested. Are you sure you don't want these two?'

Hoshino's smile, under his thick beard, was thin and cruel. 'I might have my differences professionally with that pissant little traitor, but I still owe him for saving my family during the plague - and I know what it is to search for a child. He can have the pair with my blessing.'

Oki watched him stride into the dark mine entrance with an amused smile playing around the corners of his mouth. 'Generous of you,' he muttered. 'Good job you haven't figured out who your wife asked for help yet…'

He leaned against one of the supporting upright beams, folded his arms, and settled down to wait for his charge to return.

The sound of booted feet scuffing through gravel alerted Irita to their visitor. Since the guards had fed them only an hour ago (he'd been allowed to keep his watch, at least) he wondered if the Millennial Thieves had finally sent in the interrogators. But the figure he could make out fuzzily standing in front of his bars was the familiar bearded bulk of his former commanding officer.

'Admiral.' He snapped to attention as best he could under the circumstances, the effect ruined by short-sighted peering and his three day-worn uniform. In her corner, Shizuka looked up briefly and ignored them both.

'Captain.' Hoshino looked him up and down and snorted. 'You're a mess. Appropriate, since you've caused more trouble in the last few days than I've ever had to mop up after Harlock - which is quite an achievement.'

'I can explain-' he began.

Hoshino waved him into silence. 'Save it for your court-martial - assuming you live that long. I've had your surviving men taken into our custody. Can't exactly blame them for following the orders of a congenital idiot.'

Irita flushed angrily. 'Admiral - the orders I followed were countersigned by the President himself. If-'

Hoshino raised a hand to cut him off again. 'Irita - you had the makings of a good officer, despite your origins. But you screwed the pooch when you took a ship into Colonial space and orchestrated the kidnapping of - ' he paused dramatically at this point. 'For fuck's sake, Irita - three small children? Did you even think this through? It's a public relations' disaster!'

'Harlock's children,' Irita retorted. 'If I'd succeeded, he'd have come running to hand himself in!'

Hoshino took a step towards the bars and despite himself, Irita took a step backwards. 'Article 53? That was your plan? You're a blithering idiot. Harlock would have torn into us all guns blazing without hesitating! And he'd have had half the SDF supporting him because you violated their space - Colonial citizens, Irita - it doesn't matter who their damn parents are, what you did amounts to an act of war. And before you open your prissy little mouth again to protest that you'd have handed me Harlock on a plate if your plan had worked, you would still have caused a damn war - since you lost control of the situation, blew up half a town and your men killed six locals.'

'Harlock's men set the explosives-' Irita began. He was cut short again.

'Harlock's men didn't set fire to the childhood home of Queen Promethium II, arrest her sister, and threaten to kill her nephews and niece,' Hoshino retorted. 'Or was I misinformed?'

Irita closed his mouth and said nothing.

'Wise,' Hoshino told him. 'Because I not only have the SDF to pacify, but also the Queen - who'd like your head on a spike. But since she's in Andromeda, and Harlock's likely to explode into orbit in that skull-prowed abomination anytime in the next forty-eight hours, he gets you first. And Irita - if there's anything left of you by the time they've both finished with you, you can kiss your career in IntSec goodbye. I think there's an opening in the Space Sheriff's for a bright, ambitious officer who has just pissed away any chance of advancement in any other branch of the military goodbye.'

Shizuka shifted then, and walked slowly over to the bars. After several days underground and without shower facilities, she looked dishevelled and pale, but nevertheless Irita noticed she still managed to exude an air of gamine frailty - playing the damsel in distress for all she was worth, the realised with a mental snort.

Good luck to you, he wished her mentally. He's not had the equipment to be tempted by that for two years...

'Admiral. Captain Irita acted under my orders - and mine came from-'

Hoshino's hand slammed against the bars with an audible clang that made both prisoners jump. 'I'm not sure where your orders came from, madam - but one thing I do know: they certainly didn't come from either the Prime Minister or the President. If Harlock doesn't tear you to pieces, you'll be going home to face charges of treason - in the diplomatic pouch.'

Shizuka flinched. 'The Prime minister signed the order himself,' she replied haughtily, once she regained her composure.

Hoshino's answering snort would have done credit to one of the draught horses Tabito had imported to help with the clearance work a year or two back. 'I'm sure he did. The question everyone seems to have is why he has no memory of doing so?'

'Convenient,' Irita answered dryly, sensing an opening.

'Verified by one of the new memory scanners from Shaitan,' Hoshino replied smoothly, slamming the door on the escape route firmly. 'His memory of that meeting ends around the time Miss Namino placed some papers on his desk and only returns when she leaves the room. A neat trick, madam - but once we were alerted to the issue, rest assured, no stone was left unturned in examining the scope of your actions. Which are not limited to the loss of a patrol ostensibly trying to intercept Harlock as he left Earth space a few weeks ago. Right now every single woman employed by the alliance is under review and having extensive testing.'

Shizuka turned away but too late to hide the very slight smirk on her face.

Hoshino smiled. 'Nice to know it's not limited to the fairer sex. Thank you - we had wondered if Harlock's data pointed at some shapeshifting ability.'

Irita couldn't resist. 'Seems you need to work on your pokerface, Director.' She ignored him, and went back to her cot.

A deep throbbing rumble reverberated through the tunnel as she sat down, causing the walls and roof to shake. Dirt and gravel trickled down onto the floor, and dusted the hair of all three. Hoshino flicked the tiny bits of rubble out of his dark hair and looked towards the entrance with a grim smile as the sound continued, drawing closer. 'It seems the Arcadia is gracing us with its presence a little earlier than expected,' he drawled. He was already walking away from the makeshift brig as Oki's men came to escort him.

Irita watched him leave with narrowed eyes - partly due to having to squint to see much. He leaned back against the wall and folded his arms. 'It appears the moment of reckoning is upon us both,' he said quietly.

'Aren't you worried?' Shizuka asked. Peering at her he couldn't tell if she was pale and fraught due to her circumstances or because she was nervous of falling into the pirate's clutches.

'Of what? An outlaw? His reputation might cause trepidation in the troops, but when all's said and done, he's just a lucky upstart trading on the fear and awe of his predecessor. It's not as though anyone would be terrified of Space Pirate Captain Yama, is it?'

'Perhaps,' she drawled sarcastically, 'but that was before we arranged to kidnap his children.'

'Men don't frighten me, Director. Men can be dealt with,' he replied haughtily.

She laughed harshly. 'Men, perhaps, Irita - but what about legends?'

To that, he had no reply, and in the silence that fell over the tunnel like a thick blanket as the Arcadia's powerful engines powered down, you could hear every slither of dirt and gravel its passing had shaken loose, grain by grain.