Legal stuff: Nadesico is owned by Xebec and ADV Vision not me! So I don't claim to own any of the characters in this fic apart from those which I have invented (which obviously are not those which appear in the TV series) so please don't sue me or anything similarly painful. Just watch your complimentary copy of the series and reflect on the wonderful job you have done.

As I have said this is my first fan fic so this is all a learning experience for me so any help would be nice especially on characterization.

If you have read this far you might as well read the rest of my fic… ep 2 awaits.

After the uproar at 2:00 in the morning was finished understandably most people went back to bed and tried to get some more sleep.

Ship time 4:00

Ruri and Minato are the only people on the bridge.

Minato speaking softly as always "if you want you could go to sleep and I could stay here?"

"No it's ok" Ruri proving this sentence false by her inability to keep her eyes open

"If you're sure?"

"Yes……Miss Haruka" Ruri seems on the verge of saying something

"Yes Ruri." Prompts Minato

"Why did everybody react so irrationally this morning?"

" ..?" Minato knows that a polite and attentive silence asks all the right questions

And sure enough "Well everybody seemed upset and Yurika was shouting at Akito, but she never does that, and everybody was shouting at me and…" the words seem to gush out of Ruri in an endless stream without her seeming to pause for breath "...was it all my fault?"

Minato remembers that Ruri is only 14, something often forgotten when talking to her.

"No Ruri it's not your fault at all, everybody was just a little … surprised… about being woken up so early, you only did what you had to do …"

"That's the problem I didn't have to put out an all out alarm, and ….I don't know why I did…and I didn't mean to put on the sprinklers… will Mr Aoi be alright?"

"Yes, yes everything will be fine, now I'll just take you back to your room and then you can go to sleep and then…"

"Miss Haruka …" the normal controlled Ruri interrupts as her feelings slip back beyond her emotionless mask

"Yes Ruri?" Minato is confused by this sudden change

"Could you please not speak to me like a petulant child?"

Somewhat flustered Minato replies "Of course Ruri, but I do think that you should go to sleep, you have been working very hard"

"Yes I think I will." Ruri murmurs indistinctly as she falls asleep as her monitor again

In a different part of the ship a much less optimistic conversation is taking place:

In the sickbay a body is barely distinguishable under a huge array of tubes, needles, respirators and other arcane pieces of equipment, keeping him alive.

"How is he?" Only now it seems that Yurika has grasped how serious this situation is.

"Alive, for the moment, we only got him just in time, any later…" Wearily the doctor replies, after two hours of surgery the blood still streaked on his scrubs in fiery lines, thinking as he does so 'please let me go and get changed and go to sleep, please!'

"Is…he going to be ok?"

Resigned to the fact that he can't escape the doctor continues "Well we've got him stabilised at last, if nothing else occurs he, might survive. However it is likely that he will die from the extreme trauma he has suffered, I've never seen anything like it… the extent of his injures is extraordinary, I've never had such a challenging case." The doctor became more animated now that he was talking about something that he enjoyed "Quite interesting actually!"

"………….!?" Yurika gasps, confused at what he is saying, and shocked at his somewhat morbid viewpoint; but mainly confused.

Realising that not everybody shares his viewpoint the doctor hastens to add "In a tragic way of course"

"……..?" Yurika's mind is back on track "Anyway who is he?"

Inez stepping out of shadows in the corner in an almost deliberately menacing way, and incidentally scaring both Yurika and the doctor witless. "That's one of the things that I need to talk to you about"

Halfway to the door by this point Yurika realises who it is and turns round "So? What do you want to talk about then?"

Inez says nothing merely staring fixedly at the doctor who at this moment is looking away.

Yurika doesn't get it "What do you want to talk to me about?"

The Doctor turns round and because he is quicker on the uptake than Yurika, unsurprisingly, he quickly exists under Inez's piercing stare.

"Finally we can talk…"

Finally Yurika gets it "What do you… O I see! You wanted him out of the room…why?"

"Because what I'm going to tell you mustn't leave this room"

Yurika subdued for once "Right…ok"

"We don't know who or what he is"

"But … can't we check his wallet or something?"

"What was left of his clothing was melted onto his skin"

Yurika turns away "Ewwww that's horrible!"

"Yes it would have been… also his DNA doesn't match any known to the databases on earth."

"I thought that that had everybody born on earth within the last 100 years on it?"

"It does"

"So he's Jovian"

"No we can be sure he isn't Jovian if nothing else"

"…….? I thought that there was no identification?"

"His body is positively swimming with nanites and under the scaring on his hands there are IFS's" Inez explains all, as usual

"So …. He could be from mars!"

"Yes"

Somewhat later in the canteen, everybody is eating breakfast. Ryoko, Izumi and Hikaru are munching away in a corner with Seiya sitting at a nearby table; Akito joins him during his break, now that there isn't any fighting to do help Miss Howmei and her girls with their cooking.

"Hi Seiya…"

"Be quiet I'm listening"

Akito is nonplussed until Uribatake points towards the corner.

Hikaru is scribbling in her Manga notebook, then she looks up and sees Seiya staring avidly at the group and blushes, to cover this up she asks him "What do you think happened to that ship?"

Seiya tries to reply "Well …"

However Izumi buts in "It was fairly beat up wasn't it! Although that might have been due to a, certain out of control Aesti pilot …"

Ryoko responds as usual, although there is a hint of desperation which is lost on all those present "Shut up already! It wasn't, totally my fault, was it, Tenkawa" Gestures violently to Akito with her spoon almost braining him in the process.

Izumi is in a morose bitter mood however "O sorry I forgot … it must have been lover boy here who slammed into the ship out of control almost killing the only survivor, not the wonderful wing commander!"

Ryoko stands up and shouts at Izumi "At least I did something rather than float around GIGGLING!" If anybody had been listening closely, which they weren't they would have noticed that Ryoko was upset rather than just angry. She doesn't notice it but everybody in the room is staring at her, some are laughing under her breath.

Hikaru perceptive at times tactless at others misjudges the situation completely "Well if you call getting stuck, doing something..!"

Ryoko's chair slams into the pillar behind her as she almost jumps up, "Why don't you just give it a rest" She turns as if to go then suddenly spins round slamming her fist on the table with all her considerable force. "Don't laugh at me behind my back" Suddenly her face paled and she swivelled on the spot and stalked off clutching her right hand.

"What's wrong with her?" Izumi blurts out "I mean, what did we do?"

Hikaru glances down at the table as she starts to shovel more food into her mouth "I don't know, she made a huge dent though …. wait a second is that …. Blood?"

The cheap table had buckled under the blow and had cracked, exposing a razor sharp edge which was covered in a thin film of blood.

"Do you think she'll be ok?"

"Doesn't look too bad, she's probably already on her way to the medical centre if it's too bad"

Akito isn't so sure but it only looks like a small cut and he almost forgets about it and continues chatting to the girls, however his conscience got the better of him. "She did take it badly, maybe you should apologise? Maybe she feels ill or something?"

"If you really want to you can apologise then don't let me stop you" replied Izumi sardonically, however the sight of the blood brought back memories of when she had tried to commit suicide by slitting her wrists. "I'm sure you can cheer her up, we would probably just make her mad again"

Hikaru still feeling guilty agrees, although like Izumi her reasons are more about self preservation.

As Ryoko walked dejectedly back to her room she wondered why she had flared up so violently, "I mean, they do it all the time, and I never gave a damn" Of course that was before the letter arrived. She was too involved in her own misery to notice that the trickle of blood from her wrist was growing.

For Seiya the seriousness of what has just happened has gone completely over his head as he muses to himself "didn't even have a chance to look at the ship before it was broken up by the asteroid field, not even the part you lot brought in, too little space they said has to be ejected! Ha" looking accusingly at the two remaining pilots. Suddenly another thought occurs to him "Have either of you seen Jun? He was meant to meet me to discuss tactics for tonight's poker game with me and my boys."

Izumi is still feeling guilty but Hikaru is too bubbly to be depressed for long "I didn't know that there were that many tactics in Poker?"

Seiya is flabbergasted "Of course there are! There are thousands of different styles of play, thousands I tell you and you need to be able to beat any one of them, its more intellectual than chess, and you can win more too."

"I always thought that it was all sort of, down to luck?"

As Ryoko passed her room she paused, 'should I go to the Medical centre, it is starting to hurt quite a bit….' Then she realised that she would have to explain why and how she slammed her fist into a table and cut herself … on a damn table! "Anyway I feel ok, just a little tired, if it gets any worse I'll go" she sat down on her bed and read the letter again, as she did so a tear trickled down her cheek. She still doesn't notice that the dripping has turned into a steady flow.

"Down to luck………." Seiya is a picture of amazement

"And fixing the deck" Izumi's contribution

"All part of the game…" Seiya remarks without thinking 'damn didn't mean to say that'

"So that's how you make all your money, you and Mr Aoi cheat at poker"

"Give us a piece of the action, or we might….accidentally…..mention it" Izumi again

Seiya is shocked "Why would nice ladies like you want to play poker?"

"Money"

"Money… we're not playing strip poker are we?" Izumi once again

"No!" Seiya starts to back away "I'll just be right back, just getting some more breakfast"

"He didn't realise that we were joking did he"

"With that expression …. I hope not!"

Akito finds Ryoko curled up in a ball rocking back and forth in her room holding her still bleeding hand. He tries to re-assure her "They didn't mean it, any of it, they were just teasing….are you crying" shock fills Akito's voice, this is unexpected.

"NO!....yes I was….my hand it bloody hurts!"

Her hand comes into view and it is slick with blood which also splattered the front of her uniform

"Ok….. I think you need to be taken to the medical centre"

"ok"

This weak almost inaudible response goaded Akito into action. Fortunately there was a first aid kit hanging on the wall and Akito quickly wrapped up Ryoko's hand with the bandages inside, but this didn't stem the bleeding completely. Grabbing her arm he literally dragged her up the corridor, leaving a trail of drops streaking out behind them

Seiya now sitting a safe distance away from Izumi and Hikaru spots the captain come into the canteen, that in itself wasn't odd but the almost furtive look around she gave was

Seiya's mind went in to overdrive when she picked up a large package from Miss Howmei. He decided to investigate. "Miss Howmei?"

"Yes, do you want, more Breakfast"

"No, thank you it was delicious, I was wondering whether you could tell me what was in that package…?"

"Food"

Seiya had a flash of inspiration, something he had heard while 'observing' the pilots earlier "Is it anything to do with a surprise for Akito?"

"……" however her silence answered his question

"So you know what it is then"

"Of course"

"So …."

After a minute the question is rephrased "Will you tell me what the surprise is?"

"No" Turning back to her cooking she ignores him

"O….right" Seiya wonders off

Ryoko is starting to whimper in pain with every step as she loses more and more blood, and Akito is lost.

"Dammit where are we!" Casting around for a recognisable landmark he spots a stain on the floor "What the hell" Then he looks round the corner and sees something covered in blood lying on the floor in an alcove, its Jun and the top of his head is still oozing a trickle of blood. "He's alive!"

Then Akito notices that Ryoko is tugging at his sleeve "the medical centre is down that corridor, leave me here I'm only slowing you up…. Go dammit!" As Akito sprints down the corridor, Ryoko finally collapses due to blood loss and watches dumbly as her life seeped out of her rough bandage and drip onto the floor.

Fortunately the doctor was in the medical centre doing a routine check on his patient, "Calm down, calm down I don't understand what you're saying"

"There's been an accident … Jun and Miss Subaru … I couldn't do anything to help them, there was too much blood … blood everywhere!"

The doctor got the message not so much from Akito's garbled message but his agitated state, and the fact that he was covered in blood.

"Where!"

"I tried to help her but it was too late … I did try …" ashen faced Akito is mumbling and shaking uncontrollably slumped in a chair.

The doctor recognised the signs of extreme shock but there wasn't enough time to calm him down. Yanking Akito to his feet shouting in his face he tried to get some sense out of him. "Look at me, look at my eyes" In the face of the inane babbling he started shaking Akito violently "where are they dammit"

Akito finally manages to pull himself together "They're … down the corridor, turn left then halfway down in an alcove… I'm so sorry but…"

The doctor slams his fist of the emergency alarm, screaming into the microphone, "I need a full turnout in sector 25c corridor" glances at plan on wall "...12, got that! Two critical cases, I'm on rout" glances at Akito and the blood splattered down his shirt "Prep the surgery and get a blood transfer unit ready for a Aoi Jun and Miss Subaru"

Akito has calmed down slightly "Is there anything I can do …"

"NO! … Just stay here! … and don't touch anything!"

Akito blanches and backs away "I'm sorry … I did my best"

He is talking to an empty room

Akito slumps back and shuts his eyes as unbidden an image of Jun floats up, the back of his head caved in, a bloody mess, and a bone fragment glistening in the overhead lamplight.

Akito's head snaps back as the medic teams voice drifts down from the transmitter which is still on hanging by his head. "I'm on scene, lets see … there's blood everywhere, bloody hell … He have two cases of severe external bleeding, both patients are unconscious, the male … has had his head caved in he is still alive, just … we need that team here NOW!" Akito stared blankly ahead of him as he hears the approaching thunder of footsteps over the radio.

"We're here what's the sit rep, of HOLY SHI …" As Akito hears somebody being messily sick he felt the bile collect in his throat as he remembers.

"Get him on the stretcher… you get a grip … you and you get her on another stretcher she's fine apart from lack of blood, patch her up start the transfusion then meet me in the Surgery, go dammit go! This one can't last much longer"

Finally Akito finds the off switch and slumps in the blissful silence, except for Ryoko's last words echoing round his head 'leave me here I'm only slowing you up…. Go dammit' and him running away as she bled to death and of course those fateful words 'This one can't last much longer'

As his head slumped forwards into his hands he realised that he wasn't alone barely two feet away a prone figure lay unmoving one hand lying limply outside the blanket, as his mind tried wildly to distance him from what had just occurred he noticed a familiar outline under the scar tissue on the body's left hand, an IFS

Almost trancelike he reached out before realising what he was doing, and grasped the hand.

Almost as though this had connected an electric circuit the still stranger convulsed uncontrollably his muscles writhing in agony and as his back arced in pain and his mouth opened in a wordless scream all Akito could do was stare into the milky dead eye's staring madly back at him.

END OF EPISODE TWO

Any (relevant) criticisms would be welcome so please review …. Thank you for reading