DISCLAIMER: SKIP BEAT! and its associated characters are the work of Yoshiki Nakamura. This author claims no ownership of Skip Beat or any of its characters. (c) Parkerbear 2021 for all work created independently of the original Nakamura characters, though.
Author's note: I blame the Skip Beat! Discord entirely for this. Yup. Totally. Ya'll know who you are.
Chapter 1
The debris field stretched wide across the wormhole's event horizon, masses and masses of blackened lunar rock and the hulks of burned-out umbar transports silhouetted against the murky yellow of the planet Aris. Anything smaller had been vaporized. That there had been a fight was obvious to the crew of the privateer Pleiades as soon as it exited the wormhole's Holman gate. What remained of the former mining colony of Aris VII was floating around its planet in small bits, forcing the quicksilver skin of the ship to deflect the flotsam off the hull.
Captain Ren Tsuruga sat on the bridge, taking in the devastation. "Yashiro," he called to his XO. "Sitrep?"
"Yes, sir. No other ship drive signatures found. No response from the Aris VII umbar colony. Actually…" Yashiro's voice trailed off. Unusual.
Ren turned his face from the holoscreen. "Actually?"
"Aris VII is missing. Entirely missing."
The crew on the bridge whistled. Aris was as remote as planets got these days, but Aris VII and its sister moons were a new and promising source of umbar. The mine had been a fairly new venture, owned and operated by one of the Hizuri Dynasty's shadow companies on terra nullius. It was too far out of the way to be claimed by any of the existing solar system hegemonies.
"Do you have the hyperchromatograph readings?"
"Aye, Captain. Readings are consistent with the use of heavy ionization Ragnarok-class weapons."
"Then this debris field…"
"...most likely consists of what used to be Aris VII."
Silence on the bridge. The use of a Ragnarok weapon meant that they were dealing with a major power, no less than a planetary hegemon, possibly one of the major dynasties. Only a select few entities could afford to build them at all. Commercial entities as a rule could not afford them, and the few that could were proscribed by intergalactic treaty from obtaining them. They functioned much as nuclear devices did in ancient Terra...as deterrents.
"Is there enough of a signature left to tell us whose Ragnarok was used?"
"From where I stand...I'd say...Yxia." Yashiro transmitted the spectral graph onto the holoscreen. "It has that extra iridium peak from that flashy shit they're so fond of using."
"Why are the Yxians blowing moons up on the other side of the galaxy, do you think?" Ren mused. "They shouldn't know about this being a Hizuri asset, and even if they did, they shouldn't be this keen on pissing the Hizuris off."
A beeping distracted Yashiro from his pensive captain. "Amamiya? Report in. Is that a beacon?"
"Sir, it appears to be a distress beacon. Location at radian 35.594 dash 117, 178 klicks," Sensors Officer Amamiya replied, "Looks like a stasis chamber."
Yashiro groaned as he looked at the Captain's face. Had the Pleiades been an ordinary privateer, they would have been looking for the spoils of war with no duty to the survivors except to inform the nearest Allied Planetary Rescue station. But the Pleiades was no ordinary privateer. It was a legend, slipping into and out of solar systems like a ghost. Ostensibly, it functioned as any privateer ship would: trading, transports, scavenging. But its main mission was what Yashiro liked to think of as "meddling"- taking down illicit slaver ships, meting vigilante justice out to corrupt backwater governments, holding the undeserving rich hostage to redistribute their wealth to those they otherwise oppressed. Ren was a special breed, and his crew were all unfailingly loyal to him. Yashiro swore that anyone on board the Pleiades was certifiably insane. And nothing made Ren more insane than the wanton extermination of human lives. They were in for a thorough search and rescue mission.
"Amamiya," the Captain said, "increase your array sensitivity to maximum. Comb Aris orbit for any additional survivors first, and then deploy sensors to the Aris surface. Search the moons concurrently."
"Yes, Captain."
"Yashiro?"
"Sir?"
"Take a recon team and secure the identified stasis chamber. Take them to medical as necessary."
"Yes, Captain."
"Yashiro?"
"Yes?"
"Be careful."
"Of course, Captain."
Ren settled into his seat on the bridge of his ship, his face impassive as he looked at the devastation. Inwardly, he was enraged. Aris VII's mine had just been built and seeded, with no more than a hundred or so souls consisting mostly of miners and engineers sent to establish operations. The Pleiades had only hopped into the Aris system out of a courtesy to the Hizuri Dynasty, who had requested that a report of the mine's progress be made. Ren had protested when they'd first received the request-there were other things, more interesting things, he'd said, that his ship and his crew could be doing with its time. But now...had he not stopped there, they might not have known about the state of the Aris VII mine for at least a sol-week.
One hundred souls, he thought, vaporized. He watched as Yashiro's team took the surface lander out to the asteroid-shaped fragment of rock where the distress beacon was coming from. He had known at least one man on Aris VII. Rich Schneider had been his instructor on planetary geologies and industry, a mechanical genius known for his innovative inventions and a loyal retainer to the Hizuris. He had invented the shapeshifting quicksilver that formed the outer skin of Pleiades. The umbar mine had been Rick's new pet project, a chance to start an enterprise to test out a new method of umbar refinement to produce the fuel source in a more efficient, cheaper, and less destructive manner. The Emperor Kuu had given Rick his charter himself. But now...Rick was gone. And for no discernible reason.
Why would Yxia do this? he thought. They had no purpose, absolutely no purpose in destroying a random umbar mine this far away from their corner of the galaxy. Yxia itself had plentiful umbar deposits in its hegemonic worlds, so it couldn't have been some misguided scheme to claim this umbar for itself. Most powers had secured umbar for plunder much, much closer than Aris. The only reason that the Aris VII enterprise had appealed to the Hizuri Emperor was its remoteness-enough isolation to allow Rick to experiment with his new production methods, to allow work without worrying about industrial espionage. To his knowledge, the umbar here had no special qualities that would have caused tension among the existing powers. So why had they done it? And with a Ragnarok, to boot! It would've been easy enough to dispatch the miners through conventional means without obliterating the moon.
"Amamiya!" he called, "Any other distress beacons? Have you found anything?"
"No sir," Amamiya replied. "Just the stasis chamber. I can't find any additional active stasis chamber beacons. It's just this first one."
"Continue until we have the entire system scanned."
"Aye, sir."
Ren focused back on the holoscreen, half-filled with the lurid yellow of Aris's sulfur-rich atmosphere. The twin lights of the surface lander's boosters were headed back to the ship. Typical Yashiro, he thought. His XO was thorough and efficient to a fault. That he was coming back so quickly raised Ren's interest. Usually, Yashiro would have taken some time to do some extra recon, perhaps searched the area for additional survivors or remains, perhaps scavenge some extra supplies for the crew.
"Yashiro," he called out on the comms. "Did you secure the chamber?"
"Yes, Captain," came the reply. "We have the chamber. Confirming one single body in stasis to go straight to the medical bay."
"One single survivor?"
"It's a single-person stasis chamber, sir. Quite unusual."
"Describe."
"It...it's best that you see it for yourself, sir." Ren looked down at the personal holoscreen on his wrist. Yashiro had sent a single message: the ancient terran kanji for "secret." Something was afoot. Ren knew his XO well enough to move quickly.
"Yashiro."
"Yes, sir?"
"Have the stasis chamber sent directly to medical. I will meet you there."
"Yes, Captain."
Ren stood. "Kijima! You're on deck."
Second Officer Kijima stood. "Yes, sir."
"Amamiya!"
"Yes, captain?"
"Continue the search. Expand for latent explosives and potential bioweapons."
"Aye, Captain."
He addressed the rest of the crew on the bridge. "I will be down in Medical. Advise me immediately if you see anything unusual at all. And I mean anything. If it looks or sounds like it could be anything other than dead rock, I want to know about it."
"Sir, yes, sir!" the crew called out.
Ren left the command deck as the landing craft made it to the airlock.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ren stood waiting in the medical bay as the shutter doors opened, revealing a grim-looking Yashiro followed by a stasis chamber just big enough for a single person rolling behind him. Ren gave his long-suffering XO a questioning look. Generally, Yashiro would have called for Kotonami, their ship's doctor, to be in attendance. Even more generally, Yashiro wouldn't have sent the rest of the recon crew straight to their quarters without a proper debrief to him on the bridge.
Yashiro glared at him as the shutter doors snapped shut behind him.
"Well?" Ren asked, laconically.
"I would like to remind His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Kuon Hizuri of the Rose Throne that the Hizuri Dynasty and all its worlds, vassals, vessels, and fiefdoms have signed a treaty with the House of Mogami dal Yxia, and that the treaty contains extradition terms requiring House Hizuri to immediately return certain designated criminals fleeing the justice of House Mogami directly to their home planet of Yxia. Failure to do so would be deemed as an act of war."
"Must be serious then," Ren said, with a grin. Yashiro was worked up. The normally calm, unflappable executive officer had been his master-of-arms since he turned 18, and, when he got the Pleiades, had become his XO. The crew of the Pleiades knew who Ren really was, of course-most of the crew were recruited directly out of the Hizuri special forces-but the rule on the ship was to never refer to Ren by his real name or rank. He made it easier for them by hiding his telltale Hizuri gold hair and emerald eyes under a bioscreen. The Pleiades did too much "meddling" for their link to the Hizuri dynasty to be known. Still, the Royal House Mogami dal Yxia had once been allies of the Hizuris. The Emperor Kuu had visited Yxia and his friend the King Misonoi often, with his family in tow. And the Mogamis had followed suit, visiting the Hizuri home world of Angeles X often. There had been rumors that the Crown Prince Kuon would eventually be engaged to the Mogami Princess. It had all come to a crashing end with Misonoi's death four sol-years ago. His wife, Saena, had become Regent.
"Ren, your father may be OK with you traipsing around the known universe as a goddamn pirate, but what's in that box is going to get us into serious shit." Usually, Yashiro took Ren's antics in-stride, responding with understated humor whenever appropriate. But now? He was dead serious.
"Good god, Yashiro, what the hell is this? That's not like you."
Yashiro stepped back with a shrug, gesturing to the stasis chamber between them. "See for yourself. I've verified that it contains no explosives or anything obviously harmful."
The stasis chamber looked like a solid black pillar, faceted around the edges, reflecting no light. In the small room, they could hear it generating a faint hum to indicate that it was still working. Ren stepped forward to put his hand on the control panel, and as he did, the black went clear. Under Ren's hand, it revealed itself to be made of a crystal-clear diamond glass, joined at the seams with gold embellished with the symbols of House Mogami: plum, pine, and bamboo.
Ren gasped.
Inside was a single figure floating in the stasis field-frozen in a moment of agony, her back arched, her leg bent as if interrupted in a kick, her eyes screwed shut and her mouth clenched. Her right hand was open, as if reaching for someone. Her left hand was shut in a fist, clutching something.
"Kyoko!"
"So you do know who she is," Yashiro said. "Then you know we have to head to Yxia immediately. We can't risk war between the Hizuris and the Mogamis."
"Bullshit, Yashiro."
"This is the Mogami Princess, Ren," Yashiro squeaked.
"I am well aware of that."
"Your highness, this girl is wanted for regicide. She killed her father. She's been accused of fomenting open rebellion against her mother. She's been missing for sol-months after breaking a marriage contract. You cannot keep her. She's dangerous-"
"Enough!"
Ren took a long, hard look at his XO. Yashiro had come into his service three years ago. He had become part of the forces the year after the Hizuri-Mogami alliance fell apart, after Saena had taken the Regency and become what the galaxy was now calling the Mogami Shadow Queen. Yashiro would not remember a time when the girl in the stasis field had been a princess who doted on her father. Or a time when the two of them-both heirs to their dynasties-had plotted their futures together in innocence and in hope. The last time he had seen Kyoko, she had been on her father's arm dressed in a gown that sparkled like water, waving at him as he looked at her from the departing Hizuri shuttle. He had left her half of an Angelan communication crystal, keeping its entangled half for himself. He kept it in his pocket to this very day. She was only thirteen back then, he, just seventeen. They had communicated happily via crystal until her fourteenth birthday, secure in their knowledge that the next time they met, their parents would be signing the formal declaration of their engagement and setting the stage for a new alignment between their hegemonies.
It had all fallen apart at her father's death. Everything changed. Saena clearly wished to distance Yxia from its longstanding ties with the Hizuris and the Emperor Kuu did not press the matter. And the fourteen-year-old Princess just disappeared from public life. Kuon would have understood if she wished to mourn in private, but all of a sudden, she had stopped answering her crystal. He'd been worried sick over it, going so far as to send her messages to be delivered physically, by hand, by courier ships.
The next thing he knew, her formal engagement to the heir of the Fuwa transportation conglomerate had been announced. Kuu had asked his son if he wanted him to oppose the match on the basis of a pre-existing agreement and Kuon had said no in a fit of bitterness. Nothing formal had ever been signed, he'd said. Had she answered her crystal, he would've stormed Yxia itself to take her-but her silence told him that she wanted no part of him. Instead, he had asked his father for a privateer ship that same day in an effort to help his heart forget her.
And now, four years after King Misonoi's death, she had been named a wanted fugitive for the murder of her father and for the breach of a marriage contract with the Fuwa heir. He hadn't believed a word of the report placed out on the interplanetary broadcasts, though he'd felt a small twinge of hope knowing that she hadn't married the Fuwa after all.
What mischief had led her to Aris? Surely the fact that he had plucked her body from the wreckage of a moon was no mere coincidence.
Yashiro was staring at him in shock at the outburst and his gaze softened. "I'm sorry, Yashiro. But you don't know the whole story. I'm not sure I do, either. But I promise you she didn't kill her father."
"But-"
"And before you say it, I'm sure my father wouldn't want me to hand her over to the tender mercies of the Shadow Queen."
Ren looked over at the stasis chamber's control panel, pressed the button to open the box. The top of the coffin dissolved and the Princess floated free above it. "Pleiades," he said, "commence full scan of entity in stasis."
"Commencing scan," said the pleasant, ungendered voice of the ship. "Stasis entity appears in sound health. Anomalous materials found embedded in triceps brachia, in mouth, and left hand."
Ren looked at the frozen figure. The contorted body was wearing an ill-fitting miner's jumper, black and loose on her lithe frame. Her hair, so long and glossy and black under his fingers once, had been chopped off and bleached into a copper-red which now floated in the stasis field, free of the ship's artificial gravity. His heart twisted. Now that she was above the chamber, Ren could see that the figure wore a single pink gem around her neck-one he recognized as the pink diamond he had sent her by courier on her sixteenth birthday. He had never figured out whether she'd actually received it. And...out of her left hand was a small corner of the tell-tale blue of their communication crystal gripped in her fist. Four years after he had last heard from her, his princess had appeared with nothing but the tokens of his love and his friendship left to distinguish who she was.
In her mouth, he thought. He raised his hand to caress the line of her bottom lip, only to startle back as a single, blood-red bead of liquid escaped from her lips to hover above them in the stasis field.
The scent of apples filled the room.
"VORYX!" Yashiro shouted. "Ren, it's voryx! Keep back-just getting that on your skin can be fatal!"
Ren lunged backwards, and then moved quickly to have the medical AI isolate the substance and neutralize it. The ship's autonomous fingers opened the frozen mouth gently and extracted a single capsule from the Princess's mouth, just barely broken before the stasis field had kicked in and frozen both the Princess and the poison in her mouth before it could kill her.
Yashiro was fuming. "Voryx...this was clearly a trap meant for you, Ren. It's a good thing I recognized the smell when I did. You clearly have some kind of past with this...this..criminal. She was set up for you to find, and then set up to kill you as soon as you disabled the stasis field. You're right. We shouldn't head back to Yxia. We need to go back to Angeles and tell the Emperor about this assassination attempt."
"Yashiro...stop." Ren held out his hand for the bubble that the AI had moved the voryx and its capsule into. "This...is not an assassination tool."
He gave Yashiro a grim smile. "This...is a suicide capsule," he said, holding up the bubble, "One usually reserved for members of royal houses. To take when all hope of evading capture is lost, and to destroy any vestige of their DNA so that no clones or gholems can be made or harvested for nefarious ends. You cannot just accidentally break the capsule-it requires activation via neural link. The person taking it MUST use a silent command before it breaks."
The bubble caught the light. "Just a small secret between us: I have a capsule. Father and Mother have capsules. I would wager members of House Mogami do, too."
Drops of blood-red poison danced in the containment field's zero gravity as Ren tossed the bubble back to the AI's storage unit. "If I know her at all, my bet is that our Princess here was doing everything she could to avoid capture by her Queen mother. And because Saena has yet to unlock the Antikythera Sword, voryx was the one way our Princess could ensure she'd never have the requisite DNA pattern to do so."
Ren looked over at the medical AI's panel, showing that Kyoko's frozen body appeared to be free of toxins. He turned back to the stasis chamber she had arrived in, noting the controls and cancelling the stasis field. The girl sank gently into a bed made of the Nishijin brocade of her home planet.
Not taking his eyes off of her, Ren said "Yashiro, leave us."
"With all due respect, Your Highness, I will not."
"It is Captain Tsuruga on board the ship, as you well know. And I will not have your insubordination now, Yashiro. Leave us."
"I will be just outside the door, Sir. With a blaster. In case she tries to kill you."
"She won't."
Yashiro left with a huff, and Ren looked down at the unconscious Princess. Steeling himself, he took off the bioscreen that hid him under a disguise of black hair and brown eyes. He would greet her as Kuon, the prince she knew, and not as a stranger. And then he sat to her side and hit the controls to cancel her stasis-sleep.
Her body gave a start, her foot violently moving up to complete the kick that she had been about to execute before stasis. "RICK!" she screamed, "Don't-don't let them take it…! I won't let them take me…"
Kuon put arms around her as she struggled against an unseen enemy. "Kyoko," he said, "ssshhhh. It's ok, you're safe...it's OK, you're safe...calm down...I won't let anyone hurt you..."
She quieted as her eyes focused on the ceiling, the walls, and then at Kuon. Her amber eyes met his and she sobbed. "Kuon?" she asked. Her hands came up to where his own held her. "How?"
He embraced her, then, her body still cold from stasis. "You're safe."