A/N: Aaaaaand it's our sembreak for the next couple of weeks!!! Now I can finally update this long-due stuff...many apologies for the long delay. I'll try to do a lot this vacation, but then again, I'm also busy...heheh...anyways...SHOUT-OUTS!!!

White Shadow - Sooooo sorry this update's only now...I'm glad you think it's excellently written (I'd only say it's mediocre-ly written...). :-) Many, many thanks for reading and many more thanks for the review as well.

Jerry Unipeg - Nice review...ok review...heheh. Seriously though, thanks lots for the reviews, and for reviewing all the chapters at that! :-)

Short...but that's the way it is right now. Mind's still kinda blank trying to recuperate. Anyways, here's the next part. Enjoy! :-)

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CHAPTER 5

More Repercussions

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How often has it happened in so short a span of time?

It was once again the same state of subconsciousness...a feeling in-between awake and asleep...though neither one predominating. One was somehow aware of things, though very vaguely, but unable to discern sufficiently to be sure. Was it a dream so real, it seemed to be reality; or was it reality so surreal that it seemed to be a dream?

When will it end?! I know I'm awake...but why can't I move?!

'You...'

Huh? Who is there?

'You...'

Show yourself!!!

'You...who are not of this era...'

So what if I'm not?! For all I know, this could be just one stupid dream! I mean, how could one possibly travel through time?! That's only fiction...!

'Yours is the power of understanding...'

And what could that mean...? I don't understand! I don't even know why I've been brought here, apart from what those cyborgs have told me...and all that's not even very clear...everything's happened so fast...

'Your time has not yet come...'

But...perhaps...you're right...

'...but all will be clear in due time...'

That's what everyone keeps saying...

'...in due time...'

But, yeah...I really hope so...

--------------------

The ship was once quiet and lethargic just earlier, they all remembered that clearly.

'Now, that time seems so long ago...' Dita thought, actually relieved that the mood had finally been lifted. Crew members scurried to and fro, talking animatedly about the earlier events. Indeed, it was much different from the silent hallways she could still so distinctly recall.

The three Dread pilots had just gotten out of their vessels, which were now at the ships' hangar. Having landed after the transfer of all the cargo, including the mysterious safe-pod, had been done. While they all had their own concerns, Dita, for one, was anxious to find the "alien".

'Ezra did say that the gold Vanguard was taken in...' she thought excitedly to herself as she literally skipped through the hangar doors and into the ship's interior.

Likewise, Jura had gone inside at once, saying that she was exhausted and wanted to get some sleep.

Meia, on the other hand, remained. She approached, and eyed with much wariness, their most recent load: the safe-pod they were able to salvage from the battle's leftovers. To say that its massive exterior was banged-up would have been an understatement, but then, it was built to withstand external forces. The black box was rather massive, and occupied a good part of the hangar. She was suspicious as to its contents, although she was even more intrigued to find out what those contents were; she even already had Parfet herself try to get the thing open to speed things up.

"Well, this shouldn't be too hard..." the engineer commented casually, "...just a little bit of...wait...here...and...almost...there! Open it is, Meia," she finished, not even breaking a sweat. At once, several of the ship's other mechanics, and a few of the armed guards, began gathering round.

With much caution, the door was very slowly opened. All those present, as well as those watching via the surveillance system, held their breath. Only when it was fully ajar, when light had sufficiently illuminated the small compartment, that anyone dared to move.

"A...Tarak...?" Meia questioned to nobody in particular.

"And...what are...all these...?" Parfet uttered similarly.

Someone was slumped against the wall, apparently alive, though very much unconscious. The being looked so much like one of the Tarak, though his garments were...different. It was to this particular being that Meia directed her attention at once to, checking for any injury, or perhaps weapons, that he might have been harboring.

'While he does look like one of them, there's something...different about this one...' Meia thought for a fleeting second. She then shook her head, and focused on the other things inside. There was simply no time for strange thoughts...

Also in the interior, the pirates found objects that were by no means commonplace to them; big things, little things...some were familiar, though perhaps different in the sense that they were made of some unusual material, or designed in some unusual motif, or such; scrutinization revealed that none were a threat to life or well-being.

"Some of these are actually kind of cute," commented one of the mechanics, who took a wooden figurine from the back shelf.

"At any rate," Meia intervened, satisfied with the inspection and the contents, save for one; the only living, breathing one. "He seems to have suffered a hard contusion. Get him to the infirmary for treatment. He will have to be interrogated as to these...things..." she pointed towards the other articles inside the safe-pod. The guards complied, lifting the figure onto a stretcher and out of the hangar.

"Just fascinating..." Parfet marveled, still inside the safe-pod. While several of the crew had gone out and attended to other tasks, she and Meia, as well as a few others, remained to examine further the peculiar objects. Least to say, she was like a child in a toy store.

"What do you make of these, Parfet?" Meia asked, curious herself.

"Well," the engineer paused in thought for awhile, "I think I've seen some of these in the archives, but I can't remember exactly. Judging by their appearance, as well as their structures, I think that these were made with very good intention, although also with even more primitive means. Either way, we still have to make sure."

The Dread leader sighed. How in the universe could something like this happen? Why now? Why to them? The questions were all piling up in her head, and it was beginning a migraine.

"Oh yeah," Meia said suddenly, "you wanted to ask me something earlier, before I ordered you here?"

"Ah, yes! I almost forgot," Parfet replied just as suddenly, "I need you to see something about the ship." She added hastily when she noticed Meia's frown, "It's nothing dangerous, like all this stuff. It's just...strange. We'll need to go to the bridge."

"Oh...alright...if you say so..." Meia's tone was that of control, though a small part of it gave her hesitation away. Even her manner of stride, long and rather hurried steps as they made their way out of the hangar and towards the bridge, marked her worry. Along their walk, she noticed something was...unusual...not quite correct. While she knew that they most certainly were still in the same ship, she couldn't help but feel like they were suddenly transported, in one way or another, to somewhere else.

'Didn't the walls change or something...?' she looked around while walking, wondering to herself. She quickly dismissed the thought, however; it seemed too farfetched.

Parfet had apparently noticed the reaction. "It gets even stranger when we get there..." she commented, sounding very excited.

'Now she tells me...'

Meia almost burst into the command room, closely followed by Parfet.

"What...the..."

The bridge crew was surprised at Meia's entrance, but instantly understood her concern. For the most part, the room looked the same as it always had been, so Meia was more than certain that this was still their ship. However, at the very center of the room's floor was a strange contraption, undoubtedly not there before. It was like a glowing...sphere or something...and its use was unknown, even by Parfet.

"Hey, I'm still working on finding out..." the mechanic replied when asked by Meia.

It took up a substantial amount of space and looked so much a part of the structure, that it couldn't have been installed in just the span of time that they were out, which the Dread leader realized to be no more than a few hours.

"And look at this..." Amarone, who stood nearby, said. She pointed at a small inscription that was lightly marked an obscure angle at the edge of the machine.

Meia observed the part for a second, and then exclaimed, "This is the insignia of Tarak! But then, it would mean that...!"

"This is...or was...part of the Tarak ship, I guess," Parfet finished for her.

"That was why I thought for awhile when you earlier said that you were at their ship earlier..." Ezra commented.

"But...how...? Boss? Sub-commander?" Meia asked, facing the higher officers.

"I'm afraid Parfet knows more than I do about this," Magno answered. B.C. only kept silent.

Meia turned to Parfet, a brow arched.

"Er...if I may, I'd like to discuss this with everyone. Could we call for a meeting?"

--------------------

"Let me out of here! What the hell is this?!"

Mere moments after waking, Hibiki was already sputtering curses. He either directed them to the Mejale "for being the monsters that they were", or to himself "for being so stupid to be caught". Credit the guards on-duty for not taking his threats too seriously; there was nothing he could actually do, anyway.

'Damn...I'm such an idiot! I shouldn't be here...!'

Luckily, the young doctor the three pilots had found earlier was there to talk some sense into the feisty mechanic-pilot. Needless to say, he was also imprisoned simply because he was a Tarak, though he was taking the situation rather well. "It wouldn't do any good to raise your voice like that. That is, of course, unless you want to get yourself shot or something..."

"Hey, don't look down on me, doc," Hibiki retorted angrily. "I don't see you doing anything to help us get out of here...and you too!" He added, turning to the other person in the cell.

The third person sat in a corner of the room with a smirk on his face. He didn't look all that reliable, though. "If you should know, I already have a plan to get us out of here. I'm just waiting for the right time to spring my trap."

"Yeah, whatever..." the doctor spoke in an unbelieving tone.

Then Hibiki began to wonder, "Oh yeah, who are you guys? How did you get here? What happened to the Ikazuchi?" He asked, stressing each succeeding question.

"I am Duero McFile, one of the physicians onboard, stationed at block two of the infirmary," the doctor answered in a steady voice almost mechanically, slightly shifting his white lab gown.

The other stood and saluted proudly. "Bart Garsus...Private First-class...third helmsman!" He made sure to display the diminutively small medal attached to the left breast of his tan uniform.

"And you must be Hibiki Tokai, I guess..." Duero said quickly, "...you're rather infamous, you know?"

"What do you know?" Hibiki sneered. "And what of the other crew?"

"No idea. I found the Ikazuchi in ruins when I first regained consciousness after the sonic boom. Unfortunately, I collapsed before being able to take a good look around..."

"Same here," the helmsman said, "for one second the whole ship was trembling bad, then the next, those Mejale were snooping around in our wrecked ship!"

"Was this their doing?" Hibiki asked.

"I overheard the other Mejale talking awhile ago...it doesn't seem likely that they were directly responsible for the goings-on. I'd even think that they experienced the same thing as us...only a little differently..." Duero answered slowly.

"Yeah! I mean, their ship is still intact!" Bart shouted, his voice reverberating through the walls of the cell. He suddenly held his hands to his mouth when he thought someone was peering through the other side of the bars. Fortunately, for them all, there was none.

"Not exactly...while we were being...uh...escorted here, I noticed that there were several parts and corridors of this ship that looked familiar," Duero droned on, "as if they were taken directly from the Ikazuchi..."

"You're sure? Maybe it was just some kind of trick..." Hibiki voiced, clearly suspicious.

"I'm sure...there can be no mistake..." the doctor replied coolly.

A moment of silence lapsed.

Hibiki broke the silence with a question. "So...what do we do now...?"

Only Duero responded. "We wait..."

--------------------

"...and that is what I think most likely happened."

The top brass of the pirate crew was gathered at the bridge. Transmission was turned off, since nobody wanted any mass panic in case the rest of the crewmates had any violent reactions. Parfet had just finished explaining her hypotheses concerning the recent events.

Suffice to say, everyone else was rendered flabbergasted, if not thoroughly confused.

"So..." Barnette asked, still unsure of what she just heard, "...you're telling us that the energy source of the Tarak ship...the...uh...peptis..."

"Pexis," Meia corrected.

"...whatever...caused both ships to merge and, in effect, form a new one?"

Parfet nodded in response. "Yep, that's right. I can't think of any other possible explanation...this is, after all, the pexis pragma we're talking about!"

Magno spoke, "Then this pexis is something more than just a power source, then?"

"Theoretically, most of its properties have yet to be verified, though it has already been established an immensely efficient source of energy, although a very unstable one at that. Of course, it would be difficult to imagine how it could cause such a dimensional disruption, but look at the situation! Not only has our ship obviously been changed, but we've also been thrown several light-years away from where we had that fight!"

"Hold on there..." Jura interrupted, apparently nonplussed, "...you mean that we're not anywhere on course anymore?"

"Haven't you been listening, Jura?" Meia reprimanded.

"Eh...heheh...sorry..."

"Well, it definitely seems that way..." Amarone replied. "In fact, according to our coordinates, we're now even farther from Mejale, and in the opposite direction. In effect, we've gone past Mejale."

"How long would it take to reach Mejale?" B.C. now questioned.

"At the rate we were going before we bumped into those two ships..." Belvedere said, checking her terminal screen, "...approximately eighteen months nonstop."

"More than a year?!" Jura stood and exclaimed.

Gascogne, who had been sitting quietly in one corner of the room, spoke wryly, "Well, there's nothing you can do about it, now is there?"

"Uh...that's not...but then again...! It's so frustrating!"

"I know; not only for you, but for all of us as well. But there's no use getting all worked up about it, since it was neither anybody's fault, nor could anyone of use here reverse what has happened."

"That's right, Gasco!" Dita, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, shouted.

"Thanks...but it's Gascogne! Not Gasco!"

"Haha...sorry, sorry..."

Everyone in the room laughed...except for one.

Meia then spoke. "And there's still the concern of those strange things we found at the safe-pod, not to mention its occupant..."

"He's a Tarak, right? I'd say that we just throw him in the cell like the rest of them..." said Barnette in her all-Tarak-should-be-destroyed tone.

"I don't think he is one of them..." Meia replied, to everyone's surprise.

"And what makes you think that, Meia?" Magno asked.

"He wasn't fighting; he was in a safe-pod. I don't even think he's from the Tarak ship; rather, from the other one, which wasn't at all hostile."

"I can't believe all this coming from you, of all the possible..." Barnette started, but was silenced by a harsh glare from the Dread leader.

Parfet interjected. "I believe Meia has a point. While he does seem most likely a Tarak, evidence suggests otherwise. I think we should just try to observe him, and try to find out what's really happening here..."

"I agree," Magno said, effectively silencing any objections that might have arisen, "it would be best not to rush things we're unsure of."

"Now..." the Boss continued, "if there are no more issues outstanding, might I suggest we all get some rest for change? I'd rather things calm down a bit before we do anything crucial..."

"Yes, boss!" The entire room echoed, signaling the end of the meeting.