"It took a great deal of effort, but it looks like the United Earth Armed Forces have finally gained a foothold on the Moon. Hopefully, Sasha Kirei will still be around to enjoy the victory. As a result of this victory, I am sure Victor will also want to gain more knowledge about the Martians. Let's hope he does not become too cocky after this."
Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita
A Destiny Star
Chapter 8: Revelations Without Purpose"How could there be a message for me from the Nadesico?" Hitoshi asked. "The Nadesico has been gone for seven months!"
"Don't ask me," the nurse said. "I'm only the messenger."
Hitoshi sighed. "Well, I don't have time for that anyway." He ran past the nurse and approached Sasha's bed quietly. She looked as though she was sleeping, and he did not want to wake her. "I will wait here for you to wake up," he whispered. "Everything is going to be fine." Quietly he moved a chair next to the bed and sat down.
"Captain Shroads, welcome to Tranquility Base," Nagare Akatsuki said as Dan walked down the corridor into the base. Both the Samayahita and the Cosmos had already docked and the crews were allowed a few hours of shore leave while the ships were re-supplying and refueling.
"Chairman Akatsuki, how nice it is to meet face to face," he said congenially, though he could not care less about meeting the man who ran Nergal. "How long do you think it will take before the ships are taken care of?"
The chairman put his arms behind his head, and the two began walking towards the cafeteria. "It won't be long, now that the base is being manned by several of the crewmembers from a few of the battleships. Our occupation of this base was pretty efficient. I'm impressed with the military's might."
"Yes, well, let's not forget the Jovians are still the dominant force here on the Moon," Dan commented.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Hopefully that will change soon, just as soon as we start work on our newer battleships." They arrived at the cafeteria and Akatsuki graciously held the door for the captain. "At any rate, the tide is turning in the war at last, and it won't be long until we'll be able to go back to Mars and actually make a difference this time." Dan sighed. He regarded Project Schiaparelli as a complete waste of resources and also the direct cause of the flagrant destruction of the Nadesico. Akatsuki looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "You find something wrong with taking back Mars?"
"No, it's not that, Chairman Akatsuki…"
"Please, call me Nagare," Akatsuki interrupted.
"…Nagare, but it's just that I don't want to see our entire fleet end up like the Nadesico."
Akatsuki laughed obnoxiously. "Don't worry, Captain. By the time we'd be going back to Mars, the Jovian Lizards would have been completely purged from the Earth Sphere. Once we get back to the red planet, we will vastly outnumber the enemy."
The line in the cafeteria was quite short, and it was not long before the pair managed to get a meal. Both of them ordered the Tranquility Base Tonkatsu Combo and quickly found a seat in the corner of the room. "Doesn't it worry you, though? I mean, the Jovians have been using unmanned weapons this whole time. No one even knows what a Jovian Lizard looks like. Because of this, wouldn't it be logical to assume they have an unlimited supply of unmanned grasshoppers and jiros? After all, if they were running out of those machines, they would start using manned vessels, right?"
"That makes sense, I suppose. Although by the time this war is over, they're going to need to use vessels with pilots, because we'll tear through every single one of their stupid computerized machines." Dan pretended to agree and they ate the rest of their meal in silence.
"The UEAF is getting ahead of itself just because we made it back to the moon," the captain thought to himself.
It had been several hours by the time Sasha woke up from her stress-induced slumber. She rose and found that Hitoshi was sitting in a chair next to her, his head resting on the edge of the bed. "That's so sweet," she said quietly. The nurse walked over to Sasha with a glass of water. "How long has he been here?"
The nurse set the water on the table next to her. "He got here just after you fell asleep. Even though he got a priority message from the Nadesico, he chose to wait here until you woke up."
Sasha gasped. "The Nadesico?" She began to shake Hitoshi. "Wake up, come on!" He sleepily mumbled. "Come on you idiot, get up!"
"What is it…Sasha!" He embraced her as soon as he regained consciousness. "I'm so glad you're okay. You are okay, right?"
"I'm fine," she replied, "but you had better go find out what your message is. I know you have been researching the Nadesico a great deal lately, and I don't want to keep you from finding out what this message is."
"I'm not leaving until you can come with me," he replied. "The message can wait for me."
The nurse cleared her throat. "Actually, Miss Kirei is just fine. If you are feeling better, you are free to go." Sasha jumped out of bed and thanked the nurse, and her and Hitoshi walked out of the room quickly.
"Are we going to the bridge?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. Let me check." Hitoshi used his communicator watch to place a call to the bridge. The window opened, but no one was sitting in Sosuke's seat. "Where is he?"
Suddenly, he heard voices in the background.
"I thought you disabled all communication lines to the bridge," a woman's voice asked.
"Damn it, what perfect timing. No, only Hitoshi can do that," a man's voice replied.
Hitoshi and Sasha stopped walking. "I hope they're not doing what I think they're doing…" he said. A second later, Sosuke appeared in the window.
"Oh, it's you. How's Sasha doing?"
Hitoshi raised an eyebrow. "She's fine. We were just on our way back, actually."
"Oh, that's good," Sosuke replied. "That means Hana and I will be off duty." He heard Hana giggle in the background.
"Right, whatever. Listen, is there a message for me from the Nadesico?"
"Oh, that's right, I forgot all about that," Sosuke said quickly. "It's all ready to play over at your work station."
"Thanks," Hitoshi replied, "I'll be there in ten."
Akatsuki and Dan were just finishing their meal and throwing away their garbage when Victor quickly entered the cafeteria and approached the pair. "Good afternoon, Chairman Akatsuki, how are you?"
"Oh? Victor Nakasone? I'm just fine, how are you?" Akatsuki looked away from Victor and rolled his eyes. Dan noticed this and found it amusing.
"So, Akatsuki hates Victor just as much as we do," he thought to himself.
"I'm fine, sir. I just wanted to ask you a favor," Victor said. He handed the chairman a paper. "Could I get you to sign this for me? It is a written consent form that would allow me to have access to the information Kadin Ara has stored on his computer, and also would allow him to answer any questions I ask about this information."
Akatsuki looked over the form. "Well, this stuff is classified, but I don't see any harm in him telling you." He took out a pen and quickly signed his name on the bottom. Victor bowed in appreciation and quickly ran out of the cafeteria. "Pain in the ass…" Akatsuki mumbled under his breath. Dan could not help but smile.
Sasha and Hitoshi reached the bridge within ten minutes of their conversation with Sosuke. When they opened the door, Sosuke and Hana ran out of the room hand in hand. "Good luck with your message thing," Sosuke called down the hall. Hitoshi and Hana just stared at them until they rounded the corner.
"That was really disturbing," he said quietly. Sasha just nodded. The pair quickly entered the room and descended the steps. They both squeezed onto the science officer chair and anxiously stared at the window floating in front of them. On the window was a large triangle with the Japanese word for "play" written on it in kanji.
"So, are you ready?" she asked as he slowly reached up to press the play button.
"Yeah, but I can't imagine where this message came from. It doesn't make sense, since the Nadesico has been gone for so long." Finally, he pressed the play button, and the screen doubled in size. On the screen was a very young girl, probably about twelve years old. She had yellow eyes like Hitoshi and Sasha, and light blue hair done up in pigtails.
"Hello, my name is Ruri Hoshino, and I am the science officer of the High Mobile Battleship Nadesico," the girl on the window said. "I hope this message somehow finds its way to Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, the designated recipient of this file."
"I wonder when this could have been sent," Hitoshi said quietly. "She's sitting on the Nadesico's bridge, and there was only about a two month window between the first time the Nadesico launched and the time it boson jumped."
Ruri began to speak again. "The date this message is being recorded is October 1st, 2196, and the perceived shipboard time is 21:40. Unfortunately, the matter of discussion is not something that can be revealed through a recording. As you may or may not know, the Nadesico is on its way to Mars, so it may be a fair amount of time before we can arrange a face to face meeting. Not only that, but who knows when you may be sent off to the military. I know you have been raised in a manner similar to the way I was, so it is pretty obvious to me that the military or Nergal will use you to perform a task much like the one I perform here on the Nadesico. All of this aside, however, I think it would be prudent to meet face to face. What I have to say involves your parents, and I do not feel safe revealing my findings to you in a recording that could potentially fall into the wrong hands. As soon as the Nadesico returns from its mission to the red planet, I will contact you. Using the Nadesico's computer, it will be much easier for me to track you down than it would be for you to track me down. Hopefully, I will be in touch with you within the next six months. In the meantime, do not trust Nergal Heavy Industries. That being said, I cannot at this time accurately determine the true nature of the events surrounding the occurrence that took place on Mars when you were born, but I do know that you need to be very careful in your dealings with the company."
Ruri stood up and bowed. "Thank you very much for your time." The window closed and a second recording opened up. This time, it was a middle-aged man in a UEAF admiral's uniform.
"Hello, my name is Admiral Markos Zuniga of the United Earth Armed Forces. This message has been sitting on my desk for the past eight months. I am very sorry I did not forward it to you sooner, but I had no idea it was buried under the obscene pile of paperwork I have had to do ever since the Big Barrier was trashed when the Nadesico blasted its way out of the atmosphere. At any rate, Lieutenant, I hope that message has helped you in some way. Unfortunately for you, Ruri Hoshino is long gone, but at least the message got through." He was about to reach down to his desk to shut off the recorder and then stopped. "Oh, just a little aside that is completely off the record: Take Hoshino's advice. Don't trust Nergal." Finally, the recording ended and the window disappeared.
Hitoshi punched the nano-board as hard as he could. "Damn it, damn it to hell!" he shouted loudly. Sasha stood up, a little startled by the outburst.
"It can't be helped," she said calmly. "This is something that you couldn't have foreseen, Markos couldn't have foreseen, and Ruri could not have foreseen."
"Damn it, if only I knew where she found out about my parents, then at least I could have found out for myself. As it stands now, that message has done more harm than good, because now I'm angry and upset, and I don't know where to go from here." He stood up and rapidly walked off of the bridge. "I want to be alone now. Keep an eye on things here." She was about to say something, but he was already off of the bridge before she could open her mouth.
Kadin was still working on his most recent thesis regarding the Martian ruins when once again, a loud, obnoxious knock interrupted him. "Well, he's sure persistent," he sighed as he picked up another glass figurine. "Come in!" The door opened and the figurine was airborne. There was no one on the other side of the door this time, however, and the trinket shattered against the wall outside. "Not bad, idiot, come on in." Victor stepped in and closed the door behind him.
"Okay, Kadin, now it's time for you to tell me about the autopsy!" Victor said, slamming his signed permission form down on Kadin's desk.
"Sorry, can't, computer trouble," Kadin replied, still typing away.
Victor growled. "I can see your computer is working just fine!" Kadin picked up the left speaker for his computer and violently slammed it into the monitor, shattering the screen and sending broken glass everywhere.
"Computer trouble," he said again.
"You really are out of your mind, you psycho," Victor said angrily. "If your computer is in such bad shape, just recite what you know from memory and I will come back some time when you aren't acting like a fool."
"Idiot just can't take a hint, can he?" Kadin said loudly. "Okay, you do me a favor and I will tell you the information, which, I might add, will not really do you any good. Haven't you ever heard the expression 'curiosity killed the cat?'"
Victor scoffed. "I'm not worried. My own curiosity will be satisfied, and that's all that matters to me right now. So, what's this favor you want me to do?"
Kadin tapped his chin with his right index finger in an exaggerated manner. "Hmm, let me think for a little. How about if you get me the password for Section A in the Nergal Mainframe?"
"Sorry, no can do," Victor said, almost proudly. "You know only the top executives of Nergal are allowed to access Section A."
"If that's so, then why do you have the password?"
Victor grimaced. "Because I was assigned to the Samayahita, and I was required to give regular reports on the financial situation of both Nergal and our battleship. Section A really only deals with the corporation's finances, so there is nothing there that would help you with your research."
"If I had a damn, I wouldn't give it," Kadin replied. "No password, no Martians."
"I could get fired if I just handed you the password!"
"Whoopee, I don't care. You wouldn't either if you kept your résumé up to date."
Victor quickly became visibly angry. "Damn it, it took me years to get to where I am now! I'm not about to throw it all away for your sake!"
"I thought you weren't afraid to satiate your curiosity by any means necessary."
Victor clenched his fists for a second. He then grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled something down. "Okay, here. I know you hate me, but do me a favor and don't tell anyone I just did that." Kadin folded up the paper and smiled.
"For once, I don't feel like beating you with a stop sign." Kadin stood up and motioned for Victor to take a seat. "Well, four days after our first expedition into the Martian ruins, they showed us information about the autopsy. Phil Behr, Inez Fressange, and I all sat down and had a discussion regarding the results of this autopsy. Unfortunately, before we got very far, Nergal came in and broke up our little party. They wanted to claim the ruins for themselves and make sure no one else had any part in it."
"So they just threw you out?" Victor asked suspiciously. "And you never got a chance to learn anything about the Martians…the way you led me to believe?"
"I got some of the information," Kadin sighed reluctantly. "I found out was that they used osmosis to exchange gasses and their digestive system was completely perfect."
"Completely perfect?"
"They did not produce solid or liquid waste," Kadin explained.
"That's impossible!" Victor exclaimed scornfully. "There's no way everything ingested could have been used. Waste is a fact in any system."
"Say what you want, but you don't know what you're talking about. The digestive enzymes, well, what they had that was analogous to our digestive enzymes, took everything apart and used it for something else. Everything was digested at the molecular level and integrated into the body. Respiration was used for this process somehow, because we found traces of atmosphere in their digestive cavities. Just a little side note, it looks like they were completely vegetarian. Only remains of vegetation were found in their digestive cavities, and it seems only enzymes capable of breaking down plant material were present in their bodies.
"I'd like to also make a note about the fact that vegetation much like ours seemed to exist all over ancient Mars. It consisted of cells nearly identical to the cells in terrestrial life forms. Not only that, but surprisingly enough, it also had a cell wall made of cellulose. If only we could have found some fossilized plants, we could have done some more research about the structures and perhaps we could have made a link between Martian and terrestrial life.
"But I digress. Basically, because the Martians lacked any real teeth, it is only logical to assume they were plant eaters. Either way, they were still dead, and that was the greatest puzzle of all."
Victor raised an eyebrow. "Why was that a mystery?"
"Well," Kadin replied, "it led to two mysteries actually. First and foremost, how did they die? We would need to do more research about what could have caused their death on a large scale like that. Despite all of Nergal's research, they still don't know what caused it, so that could be a lost cause. Then, of course, there's the second mystery."
"Well, what is it!"
"The Martians looked exactly like the aliens that people have been reporting in UFO abductions for centuries. With the teardrop heads and the almond eyes, and their characteristic slim build, they looked exactly like we have thought aliens have looked for a long time. Let me ask you something, Victor, could something like that be a coincidence?"
"It would explain a lot." He admitted reluctantly. "If their ships had radial symmetry and were equipped with the ability to move in all directions, like flying saucers, and were equipped with phase transition engines, they could easily perform all of the maneuvers that they can achieve in an atmosphere. A battleship like the Nadesico or Samayahita is designed to travel in one direction at any given time, but with the right system, there's no reason a ship couldn't have the ability to change directions instantly. Add on top of that the ability to boson jump, and it would make it easy for them to disappear from conventional radar like they do. But we'd need more evidence to make a connection like that. Also, you are forgetting that they've been dead for millions of years. That can't bode well for your theory."
"I didn't forget," he replied. "That's why it's just an idea, not a proven fact. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Nergal already had the answer to that one as well." He stood up and motioned to the door. "Victor, I am busy, go away before I beat you to death…with the golden femur of the Mayans!"
"You're certainly as violent as you are psychotic," Victor commented as he exited. Kadin laughed lightly upon hearing this, and set to work running his computer visual output through his communicator.
Dan and Akatsuki were walking down the corridor away from the cafeteria. "The commander of this base, some guy named Malcus Yeagrey requested my presence earlier, but I sort of blew him off to have a meal with you. I hear he was the head of the battleship Orchis during the battle, and once we took the base back, he was placed in charge. I've never met him, but I'm sure he won't be able to resist my charisma. Why don't you come down with me and we can meet him together?" Akatsuki smiled, and Dan sighed.
"I think I met him once a long time ago," Dan said. "I was just a student at the academy at the time, and he was one of the graduates about five years ahead of me. At the graduation party, we exchanged some banter, and I got to know him a bit. Afterwards, I had always wondered what happened to him, since it seemed like we had a lot in common. Actually, it was because I had admired him so much that I decided to pursue being a captain rather than a helmsman as I had intended. However, I doubt he would remember me after all of this time."
"Either way, I hope he can give us some idea what our next plan of attack is," Akatsuki said. "I'm certain the Jovians aren't going to sit still for this." They arrived at the door to the command center and the Chairman pressed a button beneath an intercom.
The intercom came to life and a voice from the other side asked, "Who is this?" It was a woman's voice, and she sounded young and attractive.
"This is Captain Dan Shroads of the Samayahita, and Nergal's Chairman Nagare Akatsuki of the Cosmos here to see Commander Malcus Yeagrey."
"Oh, yes, do come in." The sound of a magnetic lock disengaging echoed from inside the door, and it slowly slid open.
The command center was a large hemisphere with computer consoles running the entire circumference of the room. Those consoles only rose about six feet up the walls, however. Beginning about two feet above the consoles, the entire hemisphere was covered in view-screens. The 360º panoramic display created the illusion that they were actually outside on the surface of the moon. Besides all of this, there were several seats in the center of the room for commanding officials to coordinate activities. Their consoles were set slightly up from the floor on a platform that rose a few feet.
"Ah, there you are, Akatsuki, the Commander's been expecting you," a man said, rising from one of the seats in the center of the room. He nodded at the Chairman and then turned to Dan. "And I was hoping to get a chance to talk to the famous Captain Shroads of the Samayahita." He approached the pair that had entered and eagerly shook Dan's hand.
"Me? Famous?" Dan asked, chuckling.
"Of course you are," the man said. "Everyone in the United Forces has heard of the Samayahita and her captain." He took out a cigarette and lit it. "Oh, forgive me for smoking, but whenever we're in a high alert like this, I get the craving and I can't help myself. Should have given up the damn things years ago, but every time I quit, I end up smoking an entire pack in one setting one week later. I assume that's even worse than smoking on a regular basis, so I just quit trying to quit." Quickly, he took a long drag of the cigarette and turned his head to blow out the smoke. "I didn't even introduce myself. My name is Captain Bob Halliway, captain of the Zephyranthes. Commander Yeagrey pulled me off and had me assist him here for today while we finish taking control of the base. You want to meet him, right?"
"Yes, that's what we're here for," Dan said. "We were hoping to meet with him right now if that's possible."
"Oh, it's quite possible," a voice said. A figure rose from the center seat on the plateau in the middle of the room. "I am Malcus Yeagrey, the one and only." He descended the short row of steps from the raised platform and approached them. "It's nice to meet you. Your record over the past few months is impressive. Perhaps a lot of it has to do with the power of your battleship, but it would be foolish not to recognize your level of skill. After all, if I were as skilled as you, they may have appointed me to the battleship instead."
Dan shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "Well, it helps to have such an excellent crew. After all, they're the ones doing everything for me. I'm just the guy who bosses people around."
"Yes, that's true," Malcus said, "but you're forgetting that they only do what you tell them to do. You're not giving yourself enough credit. It's important to have a competent captain, such as yourself."
Akatsuki cleared his throat. "Hey, Commander, remember me?" he said while smiling. Dan could not tell if Akatsuki was perturbed or joking.
"Oh yes, the chairman of Nergal. I need to speak with you in private." The Commander turned to Dan. "I'm sorry we can't get to know each other better right now, but why don't we have lunch tomorrow if you're still at the base?"
Dan nodded. "Yes, I could do that. I'll speak with you tomorrow, then." He turned and walked for the door, and Akatsuki and the commander walked across to the other side of the room.
Hitoshi rested on his bed quietly, staring at the ceiling. "Why did it have to work out this way?" he murmured out loud. "It did not have to be like this." He was silent for a moment, then whispered, "Ruri Hoshino, where are you?"
TO BE CONTINUED…