Chapter Three
Harlock watched as Sylviana dozed off, since he'd stubbornly insisted on taking first watch. The storm outside had just finished blowing itself out, and now rain fell softly upon the ground. This sound, and the pain killers Harlock had finally given in to taking (at gunpoint from Sylviana, no less!), made it very hard for him to remain awake. Also to blame were the warmth of the campfire and the cloak he now wore. The only thing that prevented him from sleeping was the occasional twinge of pain from the center of the bruising on his shoulder. Then, without warning, a violent chill ran down his spine, jarring his shoulder and getting a grimace from him. With the stubbornness he was famous for, Harlock refused to let any sound of discomfort come from him, no matter how much pain he was in.
"Besides, I've seen that woman angry…………….and it wasn't pretty." Harlock thought, smirking a little when he thought back to that time when they had been facing off in a Western-type showdown. Eventually the chills subsided, and he settled back, ever careful about his shoulder as he did so. Now everything ached, a telltale sign that he had a fever. Yet still he kept his silence, refusing to let the huntress know he was feeling ill.
"Great. This is exactly what I didn't want. What I wouldn't give for a brandy right about now." Harlock thought, as he rubbed the back of his gloved hand against his brow, wiping the cold sweat from it. Eventually, Harlock felt his remaining strength drift away, and he slipped into fevered sleep. It was then that a silent figure emerged from the gloom and approached the sleeping space pirate. With extreme care, the figure placed a small, delicate hand on his forehead, recoiling when she found the fever he'd succumbed to.
"Well, well. It seems we have an intruder." Sylviana's voice said, from behind the figure.
"Turn around and lower the hood. I want to see who and what you are." Sylviana demanded, as Harlock roused up and blinked confusedly up at the stranger. Slowly, the figure obeyed and turned to face Sylviana, lowering her hood as she went. Sylviana stared in stunned amazement at the stranger; she appeared to be human, about nineteen or twenty years old, with long blue hair and eyes of the same shade as her hair. Aside from the cloak she wore, the young woman wore a teal uniform that had black trim on the collar, and black boots could be seen peeking from beneath the cloak.
"Who…………………Who are you?" Sylviana asked, stunned that they had finally met another person on this backwater world.
"My name is Oyama Mayu. Who are you?" the woman asked, not noticing when Harlock uttered a sound of surprise in his throat.
"I'm Sylviana and that is Harlock. Did you crash here too?" Sylviana asked, watching the newcomer closely.
"Oh no! The Captain and I came here when I was little. I grew up here." Mayu replied, with a smile.
"Are you the one responsible for the wall carvings?" Harlock asked, struggling to remain lucid enough to ask a question.
"Yep, but I had a little help from the Captain. Yet you shouldn't even be talking right now, since you've got a high fever." Mayu said, as she turned her attention back to Harlock, and kneeled down beside him, unaware of the scowl Sylviana was giving him.
"Not exactly news to me." Harlock replied, wincing when he found out how dry his throat was. Mayu gave him a slight look of concern.
"Maybe I should take you to the ship. It'll be warmer there than in this drafty old cave." Mayu said, when she'd seen both Sylviana and Harlock shudder from the occasional chill breeze.
"When you said 'the ship', what did you mean?" Harlock asked, almost begging for more information.
"Why don't you come with me and see?" Mayu asked, answering Harlock's question with one of her own. Harlock exchanged a glance with Sylviana; what did they have to lose?
"All right. I guess we leave most of our stuff here, since we'll be helping you, Harlock." Sylviana said, getting a somewhat indignant look from the space pirate as a result.
"I can walk on my own, Sylviana. It was my shoulder that was hurt, not my legs." Harlock retorted, dryly, as he got to his feet, sucking in a breath when his shoulder protested against the movement.
"Hmph." Sylviana snorted, her eyes challenging. With that, they started walking deeper into the cave.
"Weren't we back here earlier? We can't go any farther." Sylviana said, when they had reached the back of the cave, and the mural of the three elves.
"Watch." Mayu said, as she reached up and pressed something in the mural. It took only mere moments for the formerly solid stone wall to slide back and reveal a passageway.
"Whoa." Sylviana muttered, in disbelief.
"Follow me. It's not far." Mayu said, as she started walking into the dark passage.
"Don't you need a light of some sort?" Harlock asked, uncertain as to whether or not he really wanted to go down the dark passage in his state.
"Don't worry. I've been this way many times, and the floor is smooth so you won't trip on anything." Mayu coaxed, partially hidden by the shadows where she had paused to wait for them.
"All right, I'm trusting you on this one." Harlock said, as he followed the young woman into the darkness. Sylviana hesitated for a moment, then followed; she wasn't about to let the pirate get the better of her! It took only about thirty minutes of walking to get to the end of the tunnel, but when they did finally emerge, Harlock and Sylviana were amazed by what they saw there. There, sitting silently in a berth of stone, was a familiar black battleship.
"My god……………..it's the Arcadia………….my father's ship…………….." Harlock muttered, his eyes glazed with a look Sylviana could only describe as shock and disbelief. Then she saw it; she remembered the model ship she had nearly stolen from Tochiro's lab in the Surimatake Cluster, and this ship looked almost exactly like it!
"Captain! I'm home!" Mayu called, her voice echoing slightly in the dimly lit cavern. She received no response.
"Hmm………..He must still be out surveying the area. Something big landed not far from here a few days ago. And then two more ships crashed. He sent me out to look into the smaller ships, while he went to see what the big thing was." Mayu said, as she led her awestruck guests to the entrance hatch and, consequently, into the ship itself. Sylviana shivered as cool air surrounded her.
"Don't worry, it's just my father's spirit. He usually does that to newcomers." Mayu said, when she'd noticed Sylviana's look of discomfort.
"You mean this ship is haunted?" Sylviana asked, shakily.
"Not 'haunted' per se, just protected by a guarding spirit." Mayu corrected.
"Mayu, what made the Captain decide to come here?" Harlock asked, looking decidedly pale as he spoke.
"I don't know. I was very young when we came here, but I know he was very sad. He was grieving for someone." Mayu replied, sobering when she remembered some faded childhood memories.
"I see. Did he ever mention having a son in all the time you had been here?" Harlock asked.
"No." Mayu said, shaking her head quietly.
"Is it just me, or does he really look hurt by that bit of news?" Sylviana thought, as a look of pain entered Harlock's brown eyes.
"But he did often say something to the effect of 'I wonder how he's doing?' or 'What kind of man has he become?'. He never specified who he was talking about, though." Mayu amended, having noticed the slight look of hurt in the pirate's eyes as well.
"I know my way around now, Mayu. I think I'll just go ahead and find the sickbay so I can lie down. Why don't you show Sylviana around? I'm sure she's curious about it." Harlock said, as he walked down the hall, disappearing into the shadows as he did so.
"I think I hurt him." Mayu murmured, jumping when the huntress placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry about him. He's a strong, stubborn man. He'll work out his issues on his own." Sylviana reassured, then thought, "At least………..I hope so."
A shadowy figure watched from the tree line as men and machine men alike worked on the hull of a massive black and yellow battleship. Through one silvery-gray eye, the man watched as the crew worked around the clock to repair the damages to the hull, all the while waiting for a chance to get in and see what was going on inside. As silently as the shadows he now resembled, the man stole ever closer to the entrance hatch; wary lest anyone should see him. Finally, his chance came; the door opened, and the relief crew for the one working outside came through, offering the black-clad man a single chance to get in unnoticed. He took the chance. Seconds later he found himself standing in the brightly lit hallway, blinking a little from the sharp contrast to the night. Thankfully for him, the hallway was empty, and he cautiously walked down it, ready to run at a moment's notice. It took him a few moments to reach the bridge (he'd taken several wrong turns already), yet, when he did, he felt almost as though he'd been transported back twenty-five years. For a brief moment, he was a young man again, and, as he approached the captain's chair, he felt some of the old youth and vigor return. It was then that the right side of his face throbbed, reminding him that he wasn't the same man he was when he'd been appointed to captain his first ship.
"That's right. I am no longer the man I was." The man thought, somberly, as he looked out from the captain's position at the layout of the bridge. It was eerily similar to his old ship, yet he knew that it wasn't his ship. Then an idea occurred to him; look up the ship's manifest and blueprints and see who had designed it! With deft fingers, the cloaked man typed in what he thought was the code word, and was shocked when he saw that he was correct in his assumption.
"Arcadia. But who would use that name? I didn't recognize any of those men outside!" the man thought, as the image of the ship's blueprints appeared on the screen above him. His jaw dropped when he saw the name of the ship's designer and chief builder; Tadashi Daiba.
"Daiba……………why? Why did you do this? What is the meaning of this?" the man muttered, his gray eye taking in the blueprint, and seeing only the two most important ships in his life there, blended into one.
"Hey! Who're you? What're you doin' here?!" a voice shouted. Startled, the man turned to find a young man standing there, with a laser pistol aimed at him.
"You'd best put that away, young man, or you might get hurt." The cloaked man warned, calmly. The younger man's eyes narrowed.
"We'll see who gets hurt. Hand over your weapons." The younger man ordered. The cloaked man arched an eyebrow.
"You're a little young to be giving orders, aren't you?" the cloaked man asked, again, acting as though he was going to hand over his weapons, then quickly grabbed and twisted the younger man's gun arm behind him, making him drop the weapon.
"Sorry I had to do that, young man, but I had to. You appear to be the kind of man that will shoot first, and ask questions later. Would you mind telling me where your captain is?" the cloaked man asked, as calmly as before.
"Why………..do you want to know?" the young man asked, his vision swimming with pain.
"I guess to find out what kind of man he is. This is a powerful ship, and I want to know if the man running it is a wise one, or a foolish one." The cloaked man said, his voice taking on a steely tone.
"He's…………….he's in his quarters…………….." the young man gasped, slumping forward when the cloaked man released him.
"Thank you. Again, I am sorry I had to do that, Second Officer." The cloaked man said, honestly.
"Wait! How did you know that I was the Second Officer?" the younger man asked, as the cloaked man paused in the doorway.
"The uniforms haven't changed all that much since I was in the military. And I could tell by how many bars are on your lapel." The cloaked man said, coolly, but with a hint of humor in his eye.
"Who are you?" the young man asked, his voice almost a whisper.
"Just an old soldier who doesn't really belong anywhere anymore." The cloaked man replied, before disappearing out the door, leaving the Second Officer kneeling there.
Zero sighed as he looked at the schematics print outs, wincing when he reached over to grab his mug of coffee.
"Captain, shouldn't you be resting? I can handle the rest of that." Marina said, worriedly.
"I'm fine, Marina. Besides, this has to be done before I can get any rest tonight." Zero said, but leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, clenching his jaw when the movement sent a twinge of pain through his ribs.
"You're not fine, Zero. I can tell just from looking at you that you're tired and making yourself sick by not resting. The entire crew is worried about you. I'm worried about you." Marina admitted.
"You should listen to your First Officer, Captain." A man's voice said, from the doorway. Zero and Marina jumped, and turned to look at who had spoken. They were startled to see a black-clad man standing there, his face hidden by the hood of his cloak.
"Who are you? How did you get on my ship?!" Zero asked, his surprise giving way to anger as he stood and faced the intruder, mahogany eyes flashing as he did so. The intruder raised both hands in front of him in a placating gesture.
"Don't strain yourself, Captain. If I had known that you had been injured, I wouldn't have come here at all. But I had to see who the captain of this ship was. To be fair with you, I will tell you who I am." The intruder said, as he pushed back the hood of his cloak, revealing his face. Once again, Zero stared in shock at the man.
"Harlock?" Zero asked, his shock almost rendering him speechless. The intruder nodded slightly.
"I am Phantom F. Harlock III, former captain of the Earth Unified Forces battleship, DeathShadow, and captain of the Arcadia." The intruder corrected, patiently, and almost sadly.
"So, you're the man known as 'Great' Harlock. Then that would make the Harlock we know so well your son. Right?" Marina asked, feeling slightly out of place talking to a former soldier of higher rank this way. Great Harlock nodded.
"You are correct, First Officer. Though I am a bit surprised that you have met my son." Great Harlock admitted.
"He's a close friend of mine. We fought side by side in the Battle for Technologia. He's a brave and stubborn man." Zero said, finally easing up enough to sit back down.
"I'm not surprised by that bit of news. He did inherit infamous stubbornness from both parents." Great Harlock said, with a rueful smile.
"I guess introductions are in order. I am Captain Warrius Zero, of the United Earth Independent Fleet battleship Karyu. And this is First Officer Marina Ohki." Zero said, as Marina saluted an amused looking Great Harlock.
"Looking at you now, Warrius, I am certain your father, Doctor Zero, would have been proud." Great Harlock said, with pride in his own eye.
"How did you know my father?" Zero asked.
"We sailed the Sea of Stars together for a long time. Truth to tell, I think I spent almost as much time in the sickbay as I did on the bridge. Tochiro used to call me accident prone. He never did bother to look in the mirror." Great Harlock muttered, getting chuckles from the young captain and his First Officer.
"I can't picture a great pirate like you being accident prone." Marina said, with a bit of a smirk on her face. Great Harlock shrugged.
"I guess it happened once or twice, but I deny that it happened all the time." Great Harlock said, with a smirk of his own.
"What I don't get is, why are you here? Why are you on this planet, of all places?" Zero asked. Great Harlock's expression sobered.
"This is the planet I chose to die on. I came here to die, Zero." Great Harlock replied, sadly. As the heavy silence fell in the room, Zero could only think of one question; the question that would possibly break apart the man in front of him.
Why?