A/N - Well, we've seen what's happening in Ruri's life. In this chapter we'll see how the rest of the crew are doing! Enjoy!

Seven

"You get to burning! Be yourself, be proud and face them head on! The days you spend running after your dreams make up…"

"Seiya, please!" Jun practically screamed. "It's bad enough having to share a cell with you without you singing!"

"Hey I'm a damn good singer!" The tuneless voice from the bathroom continued its tortuous performance. "You get to burning!"

"I swear I'm on the edge of cracking. I just can't take it any more!" wailed the former second-in-command of the Nadesico.

"Calm down Jun," Akito was lying on his bunk staring at the ceiling. "We're only in here for another eighty-one days,"

"Eighty-one days," Jun's head hit the surface of the table with a 'thunk'. "Sheesh, how do we get into these situations?"

Only three days of their sentence had passed and already the day of their return seemed like a distant memory. After they'd assembled in the hanger, it had taken two full hours for the register to be taken, including the time required to hunt down missing crew-members. Once that had been completed, their sentence had been announced – eighty-four days detention. For just under three months, they were to be prisoners of the UEAF. After the predictable commotion had died down, they'd been filed into the detention centre, split up and put into these cells. Since then, they had not been allowed to contact their fellow crewmembers and had only been allowed outside of the cells once a day, every morning, to exercise in the yard. Naturally, it was hard to take, but Akito was being philosophical about it.

"We've been in worse places Jun." he was saying. "At least this time we're not being shot at. And three months isn't so long."

Jun brought his head back up again, his abrupt panic attack over. "That's unusually optimistic for you, Tenkawa."

Akito shrugged from his lying position. "Life's not really that bad."

"Of course," said Jun bitterly. "It's all right for you. You've got a new life with Yurika to look forward to once you get out of here."

Akito ignored the resentment in his tone, his mind wandering on to his girl-friend. "It's kind of ironic when you think about it," he said, a slight smile forming on the edges of his mouth. "When I wanted her to leave me alone, she was always chasing me around. But now that I want to be with her, there's no way I can see her."

Jun didn't smile. "Well now you know how I've felt for the past year!"

Akito ignored that comment as well. "Guess that's the way of life, that we've just got to accept our pasts and keep looking forward to the future, no matter what the present's like." He paused, then asked, "So what are you going to do when you get out of here Jun?"

"Oh I don't know," Jun replied dismissively. "Go back to the academy I guess. Now that I've got actual battle experience it should be easier to pick up a decent qualification. Then I'll be made captain of my own gunship with any luck."

"Huh." Akito hadn't expected this answer. He sat up so that he could look at Jun directly. "You really want to go back to the fighting?"

"No, it isn't the fighting and killing I want." Jun's expression was suddenly serious. "I guess I'm looking for a place where I fit in, doing something that I'm good at. It's calling me, if you see what I mean. I think this is the path I'm meant to take." He rested his hands on the table, interlocking his fingers. "Does that sound stupid to you Tenkawa?"

"No. No, not at all. I think I know what you mean. It's kind of like when I had to be a pilot, but really all I wanted to be was a chef."

"Yeah," said Jun. He leaned back far in his chair, so that he was facing the ceiling. "My whole life in the past year has revolved around two things – Yurika and the fight for peace. Now both those chapters are closed, so I have to find something else."

"Yeah, I see what you mean. I guess a big part of our lives has finished now." Akito rolled his head over to look at the young man in the chair. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

"Thanks Tenkawa."

Just then, Seiya burst into the room, destroying the seriousness of the moment. His hair was still wet from the shower and the steam had caused his glasses to mist up.

"Yeah! I'm freshly showered and ready to roll! Lock up your daughters, Seiya's back in town!"

"Give it a rest Seiya," muttered Jun. "The only girls you'll be seeing are those models of yours."

"Better then nothing, Aoi!" replied the expert mechanic, moving over to the overturned wooden box, which served as his modelling table.

"So what are you working on now?" sighed Akito, more to make conversation rather than out of any real interest.

"This little beauty!" Seiya held up a small, half-painted figurine. Closer inspection revealed it to be a somewhat, well, overdeveloped Yukina wearing a playful smile and a skimpy bikini.

"What?!" he asked upon receiving their despairing stares.

"You need help Uribatake," murmured Jun flatly.

"Hey if you don't like my tastes, take a hike!" Seiya went back to painting without giving them another glance.

Akito just sighed. "I wonder how the others are doing at the moment." It wasn't the first time he'd stated that thought in the past few days.

"Not dissimilar to us, I reckon," replied Jun, thumbing through the copy of 'UEAF Detention Rules and Conditions' which had been provided for them. "I read in here that the common practise is to put detained crewmembers into groups of two or three of the same gender."

"I wish we could contact them," sighed Akito. "I mean, it's been three days since we last saw them. I hope they're okay."

"We'll find out soon if we're lucky, Tenkawa," said Jun, holding up the book. "It says in here that well-behaved inmates will have their privileges increased."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, at the moment we're under maximum security. But if we don't do anything stupid, we may eventually be allowed to contact our other crew-members whenever we like using the facility's internal communication system. Later on we may be able to actually see them in person at certain times. And if we're really good, we may even have our sentence reduced altogether."

"That would be great," said Akito. "So basically, to get that all we have to do is stay out of trouble,"

"Well yeah."

"Let's just hope that everyone else realises that too," murmured Seiya, not looking up from his work. "It would be just typical for some our idiot crewmates to get into a fight and ruin things for everyone."

"Yeah, that could be a problem," admitted Akito. "But I guess all we can do if sit tight and hope,"

"Yeah," said Jun, closing the book with a sign. Suddenly, he gave a nonchalant smile. "Could be worse I guess," he said. "We could be sharing a cell with Izumi!"

"Oh man," Akito gasped at the thought. "Ryoko's going to kill her, isn't she?"

* * *

"I swear if you touch that ukulele, I'm gonna smash your head in with it!"

Confinement wasn't suiting Ryoko too well.

Predictably, Izumi found this amusing. Winding up Ryoko seemed to be the only way to beat the boredom. With an inane grin, she strummed a tuneless note.

"Right that's it !" Ryoko surged towards the dark-haired Aestivalis pilot, who was sitting on the top bunk.

"Hey calm down Ryoko!" Hikaru tossed her sketch-book to one side and stood to bar Ryoko's way. She was nearly swatted aside as Ryoko raged forward.

"Part fools!" whispered Izumi. "Put up your swords, you know not what you do!" She strummed again to conclude her sentence.

"Why you!" Ryoko shoved past Hikaru and made a grab at her, but Izumi had rolled out of reach, giggling like a loon.

"Ryoko!" Hikaru protested, placing a hand on her shoulder. "What have we become if we're going to fight amongst ourselves?!"

Exerting the little self control she had, Ryoko sat back down with an exasperated grunt. "Don't give me that Gekiganger crap,"

"Come on, lighten up!" said Hikaru, cheerful all of a sudden. "I know you don't want to be here, but look on the bright side! Three months in here will give me enough time to draw a whole manga series!"

"Great," murmured Ryoko. "And here was I thinking that being here was just a waste of time."

Quickly seeing that their team leader was in no mood to be cheered up, Hikaru returned to her frantic scribbling. Ryoko picked up a book which Akito had leant to her last week. Izumi, on the other hand, stayed lying on her bed, staring into space and strumming her instrument at annoyingly irregular intervals.

Temporarily breaking out of her creative trance, Hikaru remembered something she'd meant to ask earlier and spoke up.

"Hey Ryoko, that message you received this morning. Who was it from?"

"Must have been a Cell phone message," That pun was truly appalling, even by Izumi's standards.

"It was from that damn Nergal playboy," Ryoko replied, spiting into the corner of the cell as if to clear the mention of Akatsuki from her mouth. "He wanted to recruit me for some new Nergal Aestivalis fleet."

"Wow! What did you tell him?"

"I told him he could shove his damn offer up his ass! The day I work for that creep, Satan will go to work in a bobsleigh,"

"Good for you!" cheered Hikaru. "You show that loser who's the boss!"

"The loser who's the boss? Wasn't that the captain?"

"Shut up, Izumi! Just shut up!"

* * *

"Well, I guess these cells are not really luxurious, but at least they're spacious!" said Yurika, a little too optimistically for Megumi's liking. The former communications officer had been the unlucky one stuck with the captain for the next three months. Though the days of their rivalry over Akito were long over, they were hardly the best of friends and in any case, Yurika's chirpiness was hard to take for even a short while. Three months together was likely to drive her into madness.

The purple-haired woman hadn't been very talkative at all over the past few days. She was finding this detention a little hard to take in truth. Like everyone else, she wanted to get out and start her new life as soon as possible. At the moment she felt just like she had when they'd left the Nadesico after Akatsuki's betrayal, with the whole crew separated and unable to communicate with each other. Only this time, they didn't even have their basic freedom. Perhaps it was a little negative to look at it that way, since this time they were coming back after a job well done, but when you're sharing a cell with Yurika Misumaru, it's hard to look on the bright side.

"Megumi?" Yurika's face suddenly appeared in front of her. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," sighed Megumi. "Just feeling a bit depressed, that's all."

"Depressed? Why's that, because we're locked up in here?"

Of course that was the reason! Megumi tried to stop her irritation from turning into anger. "Yes that's right," she replied, as calmly as she could muster.

"Well no need to worry! We'll be out of here soon enough, and when we are things will be alright again!"

"Soon enough for you maybe. You don't have to listen to yourself." Megumi murmured in her mind. She wisely kept her mouth shut and simply nodded Assuming that the problem was solved for now, Yurika smiled and wandered over to the small window of their cell.

"I really hope Akito's doing alright without me," Yurika said, looking out to the inaccessible world beyond.

"Now she's started on Akito. Argh, I hate my life!" Megumi burrowed her face in her hands and prayed for the strength to stop herself killing her former captain before the three months were up. Why on earth hadn't she been put with someone less annoying?! Even Ruri would've been a better cellmate – sure there wouldn't be much conversation but at least she'd have some peace. Minato would have been the best companion in this situation, she decided. On that though, she wondered how their helmswoman was faring at the moment. Better then she was, surely.

* * *

"I'm bored," moaned Yukina. Ever since they'd been locked up, she'd done nothing more than sit in the corner and sulk.

Minato, who'd been in the middle of a crossword, looked over to her and delivered her dazzling smile. "Things could be a lot worse!"

"I don't see how," Yukina's head sunk further down.

"We could have been imprisoned for years for what we did. When you look at it that way, three months isn't so bad! And it's not like we've all been separated and locked up with strangers."

"I suppose," grumbled the Jovian girl.

"If you like we could talk a bit," said Minato, leaning back and stretching.

"About what?"

"Well, I don't know. How do you think everyone else is coping with detention?"

"I wouldn't know. I don't know them as well as you do," said Yukina, a little darkly. "How do you think they're doing?"

"Well," Minato placed a finger on her generous lips thoughtfully. "I suppose they're all bored and feeling a bit low. I imagine Ryoko won't be taking it well and Yurika will be pining desperately for Akito."

"Huh. No change there then."

"Right! But other then that they'll probably be doing fine. Though I suppose I'm a little worried about Ruri. I hope the others are looking after her."

Yukina scowled. "Ruri, Ruri, Ruri! That's all I ever hear about!"

That accusation was a little harsh, but Minato just smiled at it. "You're not jealous of Ruri are you?"

Yukina's scowl darkened to a full frown. "Why would I be jealous of her?"

Minato's grin didn't falter. "You tell me!" She placed her elbows on the table and rested her chin on the backs of her hands.

The redhead from Jupiter lowered her head. "Well maybe I am, just a little," she said.

"And why's that?"

Yukina raised her head, just a fraction. "She's two years younger than me but she can control a whole battleship. And everyone thinks she's so cute."

"Well, she is cute, but you shouldn't be jealous because of that! You're just as cute and sweet as she is!"

"You're just saying that."

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it! In any case, I'd say she has more reason to be jealous of you. You have one thing that she may never have."

"What's that?" asked the Jovian girl, tilting her head curiously.

Minato's tone became somewhat mournful as she said, "Real human feelings."

"What?" Yukina was genuinely surprised by this response. "Are you saying she doesn't have feelings?"

"Well, she has a grasp of them, but her logical mind confuses her emotions. Until she learns to trust her real inner feelings over the logic which controls her now, she may never become totally human. I feel sorry for her." Her mouth perked up a little as she looked over to Yukina again. "You shouldn't take your humanity for granted. I'm sure Ruri would give a lot to see the world as you do."

"Well maybe," murmured Yukina, looking away from her. She always considered Minato's opinions seriously. It was her views on the world which made her such a mother figure to her.

"Anyway since talking hasn't cheered us up why don't we exercise for a bit? That'll make us feel better!"

"Aw!" Yukina's frown returned. "Do we have to?"

"Come on, if we don't do anything we'll be out of shape by the time we have to leave and that wouldn't do, would it?"

Reluctantly Yukina hauled herself up and went into the bathroom to change. As she pushed the door open, she thought about what Minato had said. Sure, she was jealous of Ruri, but she knew she wouldn't swap places with her if she had the choice. But Ruri would probably look at it differently. Perhaps she'd prefer to swap places with her, even if it meant giving up her superior mind. That was a strange thought and it made Yukina shudder.

She made a mental note to spend some more time with the younger girl. Ever since she'd first seen her, Yukina hadn't understood Ruri at all, but maybe a little time in her company would remedy that. Chances were that Ruri would be interested to get inside Yukina's own head, to see what made a normal girl like her tick. Yes, a little time together would be good for both of them, Yukina decided.

Of course, before that could happen they would have to be released by the UEAF. Yukina emitted a low moan at the thought of another eighty-one days behind bars. Sure, she was with a friend, but she was just so bored at the moment. Stupid Earthlings! Why'd they have to lock them up, just for saving the world?

In Yukina's eyes she was in a really terrible situation. But little did she know that Ruri would've given a whole lot to be in her place right now.