REACH FOR THE STARS 5.
By girl starfish.
There was this to be said for the space port. True, it was a medley of unplanned constructions, each and every one of them from a different galaxy, each and everyone slightly different in shape, colour and build. True, the chaotic nature of the place made the established planet community turn up its nose, citing the errant nature of the migrants who filled the port, in a stream of what seemed like constant movement. True, it was a confusing mass of different cultures, aliens from all over the galaxy blending in a mass that resembled nothing so much as a jigsaw puzzle, with no two pieces from the same original puzzle.
But only in such an atmosphere could the two humans have walked down the street, singing off-key at the top of their lungs, and attracted no attention, other than the occasional shaking of a head, and the accompanying mutter of 'student.'
The space port knew students, and recognised an end of term celebration when it saw one.
'In the town where I was born, there lived a man, who sailed the seas—"
'And I would walk 500 more, just to be the—" Tai blinked, as his ears caught up with the rest of him, telling him something wasn't right.
'And he told us of his life, in the land of submarines.'
'Dude! Izzy!' Tai stopped walking. 'What are you doing?'
Izzy blinked. 'Singing. What did you think I was doing?'
'But we finished singing Beatles songs ages ago!'
'No we didn't.'
'Yes we did.'
'Tai, I think I would notice if we'd stopped singing Beatles songs.'
'Oh yeah? Then what was I singing just now?' Tai demanded triumphantly.
'Uh—' Izzy blinked, suddenly realizing he had very little recollection of anything that had happened in the recent history. 'Um, what are we doing here?'
'Uh . . .' Tai looked around. 'Good point. Let's see . . . we finished exams. Gabumon invited us to go get drunk to celebrate, which we did and then . . . oh, yeah! We're going to see Andromon!'
'Of course!' Izzy couldn't believe that had slipped his mind. 'Let's go then.'
Andromon's junkyard and workshop was huge, spanning two yards, and a building that extended underground as well—by exactly how far, no one knew.
Except, Andromon.
The mechanic alien smiled as he caught sight of Tai and Izzy making their way through the yard, pausing occasionally as they spotted a new arrival. He tapped one of his mechanical assistants. "Fetch the power gauge in my office,' he ordered, before going to meet the boys. 'And alert our visitor.'
'Andromon! Dude! You look well. Very shiny," Tai greeted the robot..
"Tai!" Izzy hissed, elbowing him. "Ignore him," he said to Andromon. "He's drunk."
Taichi stuck his tongue out. "So are you."
Technically Andromon wasn't a robot, although he was largely composed of mechanical parts, and indeed, retained none of his original organic parts. A robot would not have smirked at the argument being carried out before him.
'I take it the exams are over?'
'And not a moment too soon! Man, if I'd had to sit through another one of Gennai's lectures I'd have died!'
'It is fortunate then that you didn't. Otherwise I'd have had to look for a new buyer for the power gauge you ordered.'
That got Tai and Izzy's immediate attention both. 'It arrived?'
'Dude, you are the man!'
Andromon smirked again. 'It was hard but I managed to track down a pod on Juppiter of the exact model your equired. I also picked a few more power couplings, if you need them.'
'We could do with a few more. Taichi overheated the last ones,' Izzy sighed. 'That's why we need the power gauge.'
The machinedramon beeped, depositing its cargo on the bench. 'The gauge.'
'Here you go.'
Izzy picked it up to examine it, while Taichi started flicking through his wallet.
'No charge,' Andromon said.
"But—Dude!'
Izzy and Tai stared at him.
'This isn't exactly an item you can take off the shelf! You went through a lot of trouble to find that piece—" Izzy protested.
'You can't really want to give it to us!' Tai agreed.
Andromon smiled. "Well, she does."
Izzy and Tai stared in the direction he pointed. And kept on staring.
The object of their startled looks grinned back, not at all nonplussed. In fact she seemed rather pleased by their reactions.
She was a human, light brown hair cut short around her face and of a slight build. 'I take it you guys didn't get my message.'
"Kari? How on earth did you get here?'
She laughed. 'Don't I even get a hug, big brother?'
Taichi laughed, scooping up his younger sister. 'Still a know it all, huh?'
"Still an idiot," Kari grinned, hugging the brother she hadn't seen in ages. She was relieved—being a mission trainee hadn't changed him too much.
"Kari!" Tai said, eventually putting her down. "What are you doing here?"
"Being suffocated by you."
"Besides that," Izzy laughed.
Hikari laughed. "Hi Izzy! Have you gotten taller?"
"I hope so," the red head replied, moving forward to hug his practically-sister. "You appear to have matured dramatically."
"Thank-you, Izzy," Kari grinned. "It is so good to see you guys!"
Andromon motioned his mechanical assistants away. The humans looked as though they would appreciate being disturbed.
"So, Kari, what's this about?" Tai asked after another five minutes of the humans exclaiming over each other.
"Last time I checked this mission centre wasn't a budding tourist destination," Izzy added. "And unless a millionaire left you his fortune, you wouldn't be able to fly here on a whim."
"What gives?" Tai asked.
"Tai you should check your mail, once in a while," Kari said. "Mum and I have been writing to you about this for weeks and weeks!"
"I had exams," Tai said defensively. "I've been flat out."
"It doesn't matter," Kari grinned . "It means I get the opportunity to tell you in person." She smiled, resembling a certain well known cat. "I'm going to be studying here. I won a scholarship into the missions science labs—"
"You're kidding! Kari, that's great!" Tai hugged her again. "Izzy this calls for celebrations!"
"Another one? But we're already drun—" Izzy got kicked by Tai. "Broke," he amended, rubbing his bruised ribs.
"I'll shout us all ice-creams," Tai offered.
"I won't say no," Kari grinned.
"So, tell us what kind of study you'll be doing," Izzy said as the three left.
"Studying viruses," Kari explained. "At a molecular level, of course, and forming antidotes."
"Sounds fascinating," Izzy said.
"Sounds hard," Tai said. "Oh well, at least one of us was smart, so our parents won't be too disappointed if we fail our exams."
"What do you mean we? I'm not failing anything."
"Now its your turn," Kari said. "What have you two been doing?"
"Studying," Izzy said. "And contrary to what your brother tells you, we're not doing too badly."
"I know. When you two got into the mission pilot programme, the media on earth went nuts. No one had ever got that far—"
"We rock," Tai shrugged as if that explained everything.
"Can't fault logic like that," Izzy muttered.
"You—" Tai punched him. Izzy was prepared for that and fought back. Kari shook her head as they scuffled, eventually colliding with the side of a building.
"There! Got you!" Tai panted, holding Izzy back against the wall.
"Yes you do. Now let me go."
"I'm not letting you go that easy—" Tai smirked, leaning in to Izzy.
"Somehow, I didn't think you would—" the red head, muttered, heart thumping.
Tai's grin just widened and he bent down to kiss Izzy—
"You two didn't spend all your time studying, I see."
Tai and Izzy jumped, scrambling away from each other.
"Kari!"
"I forgot—"
"Oh don't worry," Kari grinned almost as widely as her brother had. "Go ahead, just pretend I'm not here."
Izzy and Tai looked at her then at each other.
"Lets just get those ice creams," Tai said, resignedly.
--oOo--
I looked at the muck on my plate, then slowly prodded it with a fork. It wobbled slightly. "I still say it can't possibly be organic."
"Well what do you think it is then?" Miyako sighed, with that impatient yet superior tone she'd perfected. "We've ruled out it being recycling produce."
"Something synthetic? Maybe they've come up with some sort of experimental cleaning compound they want to test for safety reasons and—"
Miyako snorted, having to choke a giggle. "You're impossible, Dai."
"It could happen," I protested, returning to poking my meal. "Maybe it's a unidentified substance, maybe from that planet we were on and they're testing it to see if its an alien life form or something."
"Alien life form? Isn't that a bit far fetched, even for you?"
"Have you eaten the cafeteria food?"
"Good point."
Miyako and I looked one last time at our 'meals' then turned to see what was in the package that Miyako's planet bound parents sent her regularly. Hey, who needs Mission food when you can subsist off muesli bars and junk food?
"I have to admit," Miyako said, "that I owe my parents a lot. If I'd had to eat cafeteria food one more week, I'd have died."
"Thanks for sharing," I said fervently.
"Hey, no sweat. After all, it wouldn't look good on my service record if I didn't—Captian's mech implicated in homocide, after allegedly forcing a comrade to eat cafeteria food."
I snicker. So Miyako might be a know-it-all, and Sora's mech, but she's cool. And the only other young mech on this ship. She's only 30% cyborg, but she's really intelligent—and can you believe, she volunteered for this? She says she likes the feeling of being aboard the big cruisers, but not having the responsibility of piloting them.
I say she's nuts.
She says I'm an idiot.
We get along just fine.
"I can't wait—just two days until we get to earth. Real food!" I crow, pausing. "Um, Miyako?"
"Yeah?"
"I think my meal just moved."
"What?"
"It moved—it is a life form!"
Miyako laughed. "Oh Dai, you are so immature—"
I poke my tongue out at her. "Am not."
"Excuse me."
We both look up automatically, and I freeze. Takeru—what's he doing here? And—he's seen me acting like an idiot—
"Yes, sir?" Miyako says politely. Lucky that one of us has regained sufficient motor skills to talk. "Do you want something?"
"I was wondering if I could sit here," Takeru says with a smile.
"Of course."
Miyako quickly slides our snacks onto her tray and stands, leaving me to hastily grab my tray with my abandoned meal on it. Hopefully we can find another table, although we may have to share with the other mechs--
"Wait—" Takeru gives us an apologetic smile. "I actually meant sit with you."
From Miyako's expression I can tell he did just say what I thought he said.
"Um—"
"Uh—"
"Of course if you don't want me to, that's fine," Takeru says softly. "Consider it a request, not an order."
"Dude—You really want to sit with us?" Man, I can't help but wish I thought things over before I just blurted them out. That sounded so desperate—
"Sure! Go ahead!" Miyako grinned, sitting back down. "I'm not going to argue with a crew member, particularly an extremely cute crew member!"
Takeru blushes slightly. Well, he wouldn't be as used to Miyako as I am. Damm, but he's cute when he blushes—I'll have to see if I can't make him do that more often.
"Daisuke? Aren't you going to sit down?" Miyako asks me. I meet Takeru's anxious gaze and realize I'm still standing—oh, hell! This must look so impolite! I sit down quickly.
"Are you sure you want to sit with us? I mean, your crew members—won't they mind?"
Miyako kicks me under the table, shaking her head, but Takeru doesn't seem to mind.
"I could care less what they think of me. Not one of them can talk of something other than Mission requirements, or what they hope to do once they get promoted. No, I'd much rather be talking with you—that is, if you don't mind." Takeru grins at me. "It was kind of you to explain to me how the interior power generator of this ship worked."
"Ah, anytime," I shrug. This is weird.
"You and Dai know each other," Miyako cut in. "But I'm afraid I don't. I'm Miyako, the Captain's mech."
"I'm Takeru, novice rank. Nice to make your acquaintance."
"Oh, the pleasure's mine."
I shake my head. Miyako was the same over Yamato—until she realized he was a jerk.
I listen to Miyako and Takeru make small talk, adding an answer in from time to time. This is nice—and according to Taichi, in his time would be considered normal.
"You're off in a daze there, Dai. What are you thinking about?"
"Oh, just something Tai said. You know, where he's from there's no difference between pilots and mechs."
"You mean when he's from, Dai," Miyako corrected.
"Is this the pilot that got picked up last week?" Takeru asks interestedly. "I've been hoping to meet him. So, if there wasn't a difference between pilots and mechs, what was there?"
"Its hard to explain. I don't think that there was any difference because pilots were trained as mechs."
"Makes sense," Takeru said, nodding, and I let out a sigh of relief. Taichi had offended some of the other pilots by mentioning it once—I'd never thought I'd see a situation where Yamato's temper looked good by comparison. In fact, if it hadn't been for the fact he stood there and glared the other pilots into remembering other things they had to do, there could have been a fight—not that Tai seemed overly concerned. And when Yamato had told him off for not being careful, Taichi had calmly told Yamato off.
I had to admit, seeing someone stand up to Yamato was extremely satisfying—I just wish I'd see more of Tai. Ever since Yamato had dragged him off to see the navigator I hardly ever saw him. Yamato had put me to work compiling data banks, so I guess that was one reason, but I knew he'd been spending time with Yamato and that wasn't fair—he was supposed to be my friend—
"So, how's Yamato been?" Takeru asked.
I snort. "Same old same old."
"Ah, come on Dai, he is improving somewhat," a teasing voice said behind me. "Yesterday, he was almost pleasant for ten minutes."
"Tai!" I grin.
Tai smiled, sitting down next to me. "Long time no see, huh?" He smiles at Miyako and Takeru. "Want to introduce me to your friends?"
"Sure! Dude, this is Miyako, Sora's mech, and Takeru, Yamato's brother."
"I'm Taichi."
"Nice to meet you—" Takeru starts but Miyako squeals.
"This must be my day for meeting cute guys!"
"Sorry about her," I say, rubbing the back of my head. "When she isn't acting like this, she's being a know-it-all—"
"I am not!"
"Kind of like Hikari." Taichi grins ruefully as we look at him. I don't think he meant to say that out loud. "My little sister. Or at least, she was—"
"Hell—she'll be older than you now," I realise.
"Yes."
Miyako kicks me again.
"Once we return to planet a citizen search won't be too hard to do," Takeru offered. "We'll be able to locate your family easily."
"Look, Sora—I mean, the Captain has access to all of Mission's records, even in space. I could distract her while you guys looked up the information—" Miyako said.
I gaped at her.
"What?" she said peevishly.
"That's the sort of thing you always tell me off for suggesting!"
"Well, I did wait for you to suggest it, Dai, but you didn't."
"Does that mean I get to be the one to tell you it's a stupid idea and that if you get caught, I won't have anything to do with it?" I grin, and Miyako swats me.
"You could get into trouble for this," Taichi warns. "Don't do this lightly."
"No sweat Dude. Besides, its not like we'll be doing anything bad. Sora hardly ever needs to access her computer and its for a worthy cause."
"In fact, I'm surprised she hasn't offered you the use of it already," Takeru adds.
Probably considering him the most sensible of all of us, Taichi looked at Takeru then nodded. "Well, make sure you don't get caught. I don't want any of you three getting in trouble because of me, got it?"
"Of course!"
"No problem, Taichi!" I flash him the victory sign. "Just watch me! They won't catch us--"
"Catch you doing what?"
I swear, Yamato is going to kill me one of these days. "Jeez, sir, do you have to creep up on me so quietly?"
"Yes," Yamato replies. I blink—was that humour? He glances at Taichi and raises an eyebrow. "What are you planning?"
"Oh nothing really," Taichi shrugs. "Just the best way to sneak into your quarters and remove all your hair gel."
Yamato flinched. "You wouldn't."
"Just watch me—" Taichi took off.
"Running inside a space-cruiser—"Takeru said, with what sounded a little like awe. "He's going to get in trouble if one of the senior officers catch him—"
"I think he'll be in more trouble if Yamato catches him," I said, having found out the hard way it was a bad idea to get beween Yamato and his styling products.
"Um—correct me if I'm wrong—" Miyako said, sounding a little uncertain. "But did Yamato just run after him?"
Takeru was scrubbing at his eyes. "That's what I saw—but—"
"What are we waiting for? Let's go before they get back—" I pulled Miyako and Takeru after me.
--oOo—
"Man, being the Captain has perks. Check it out Takeru—she has a bath and bubble bath!"
"Sora has bubble bath?" Takeru joins me in inspecting the Captain's bathroom.
"You guys!" Miyako huffs impatiently. "Sora may come back—"
"Relax. You said she'd gone to see Yamato, we all know how long that will take—"
Miyako coughed. "Microseconds?"
"Oh yeah."
"Um, excuse me?" Takeru blinked. "Am I missing something?"
"Oh—ah—" Miyako and I exchanged glances.
"You started this, you explain it. I'll set up the computer."
"Thanks," I muttered as Miyako stalked off.
"Explain what, Daisuke?"
"Its not really my place," I said. "But—well, I'm Yamato's mech, right? So I see a lot of him, and I see a lot of him around Sora. And it's not just me. Miyako thinks so to—"
"Thinks what?"
"Um—Yamato doesn't seem to like Sora much."
Miyako didn't need to be there to kick me for me to know I'd said the wrong thing.
"But—they're engaged to be married!"
"I know," I laughed weakly. "Kind of weird, huh?"
"You must be wrong!"
"That's what we thought—but, they don't seem to act at all like a regular couple." I freeze—"Did I just hear a door open?"
Takeru and I stared at each other then dived for the bathroom.
We got there just in time. Panting heavily, I tried to quiet my breathing so that it would not be audible in the next room. The Captain's voice was clearly audible—if we got caught--
"Please sit down, Yamato," Sora said. "Can I offer you anything to drink?"
"No thanks." Yamato's voice was cool as ever—no, he sounded slightly more annoyed than usual.
"You don't seem particularly happy with me."
"The way you treated Taichi before was disrespectful," Yamato said and I nearly choked. Was he standing up for a mech?
"Oh, I think you'll agree I have good reason to—oh, Miyako!"
"Sorry Captain, I did not know you were planning to return to your quarters so I thought I'd take the opportunity to do some software checks. I'll just leave."
"Please do."
There was a pause and then we heard the door close.
With Miyako went our only chance of escape—
Takeru, squashed against me, sighed. "This isn't good—"
"Ssssh," I whispered.
"Explain what you mean, Sora," Yamato said crisply, his voice betraying no emotion.
"Its quite simple. You know that as Captain I have access to the Mission information centre, from anywhere in the universe, on ship or off? Yesterday I decided to run a background check on the pilot. Frankly, I don't like the effect he's having on the crew. The mechs in particular are getting bold—you saw Miyako just now. Furthermore, he is blatantly disrespectful."
"He's been through a great ordeal, and he comes from a time with different standards of behaviour to ours," Yamato said, somehow managing to increase the cold tone in his voice.
'I will not tolerate insubordination on my ship," Sora said. "Especially not from someone who has lied to us."
Takeru slipped a hand over my mouth as I gasped. Fortunately any sound I might have made was masked by Yamato who seemed to be having a similar reaction.
"What?"
"He lied to us. I've checked the records of the last twenty years. No pilot of the name Yagami Taichi exists. There is no record of the mission he was supposedly on, nothing of the information he's given us can be verified."
There was a long pause.
"You're sure about this?" Yamato said at last.
"Of course. I double checked everything. I'm sorry, Yamato, I know you were getting close to him—"
I ground my teeth. Sora didn't sound unhappy at all—It plain sucked that she could be happy about something like this. Knowing Tai had lied to me—It hurt.
Takeru's hand gently brushed my shoulder. "Its okay," he whispered.
"I think it best that this matter remain between the two of us," Sora said. "But I'm arranging for the Mission head to send a party to collect him when we reach planet. He'll be more willing to go with them if he thinks we believe him."
Another pause. Then Yamato broke the silence. "Do what you think best."
"Yamato—Yamato! I know you're upset but that's no reason for you to go off and—" Sora's voice faded out angrily as she followed him.
We were alone.
"You know," Takeru said. "I think you're right. I've seen war footage that was friendlier than those two together."
I got the feeling he was trying to cheer me up. "I have to go," I told him. "I just—"
"Daisuke? I know how you must be feeling but—if you tell Taichi about this, Sora will know we were here and we'll both get demoted, maybe even kicked out of Mission."
I swallow. So my first reaction had been to go to Taichi and demand why—I guess that was ruled out. "Oh yeah."
"It's okay, Daisuke, really it is—"
"No its not! I thought he was my friend!" I haven't a chance of disguising the tremor in my voice. Takeru doesn't seem to find anything amiss though, putting his arm around me gently. "Its okay, Dai. Who knows? Maybe he has a good reason for not telling us who he is—"
I sniff. "You think so?"
"Hey, you never know."
It was then I realised that Takeru's arm was around my shoulder, and had been for a while. I blinked at him, surprised by the amount of concern in his eyes.
"Thanks," I whispered, not really trusting my voice.
"Any time," Takeru said, squeezing my hand. "Now lets get out of here. We don't want to get caught by Sora now!"
