Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
TS Elliott "The Waste Land"
Planet Filament, 31st December 2987
Fireworks lit up the night sky, providing the assembled crowds with a sky full of stars, if only for a fleeting, ephemeral moment. Cheers rang out through the town square, not quite drowned out by the series of explosions that accompanied the ostentatious display. Overlooking the proceedings from a balcony festooned with bunting and lights, the town's leaders, resplendent in their oh-so-new mechanical bodies, waved to the people gathered below, fake smiles plastered upon even more fake faces. Hollow men, hollowed out, scooping out what made them human until only the shell remained - and not even that, because once empty, what use was the shell? It too could be replaced, and so hollow men filled hollow shells and lived hollow lives...
From the sidelines of the proceedings, a woman - still in the body she'd been born in, one that showed every day of its thirty something years and more, turned her face away from the display with a sigh that didn't even come close to expressing the emotions that ran through her head. Disgust. Despair.
Envy...
Because to be hollowed out was to be rid of the pain of existence. Of fear, death, hunger, loss, hope...
'Mama?'
Love...
She looked down at the small figure next to her, one tiny hand in hers, large eyes; larger in a thin face that didn't get anywhere near enough to eat, no matter how she scrimped, saved, scrounged and scavenged.
You couldn't hollow out a child. What would be left?
'Can we stay and watch?'
'No dear. We have to get home, it's not safe.'
There are stories… of the Count and his cronies leaving their magnificent palace on nights like this, when people were relaxed and drunk… not being careful. Hunting, said the rumours. Trophies for the walls of their palaces. Hollow men trying in vain to fill up the emptiness inside of them.
She shivered, and not just because Filament's dim sun, so far away from the nearest galaxy's comforting glow, did little to warm the planet during its short day.
Groups of revellers pushed past them as she pressed herself against the wall, not even noticing them. 'We can watch from the window,' she promised, as she tugged her child's hand, trying to get the girl's attention.
The large digital screen in the town centre lit up with numbers and the crowd began to chant: 10...9...8…
'Mama!'
She looked up to see what the child was pointing to.
The sky was getting darker.
Which, she thought, shouldn't really be possible. There were no stars, so distant and lonely that night was always a true night. At least, no stars that mattered. Filament's nearest neighbours were the relics of dead and dying suns. No human eyes could see the occasional twinkle of those fading stars. Idly, she wondered if the eyes of the mechanised men could. And if so, would they even care?
5… 4… 3…
The count never reached the end. There was no flash of light, no explosion, no debris, no time for anyone to cry out. The lonely planet circling the forlorn, abandoned star vanished in the falling shadows.
This was the way the world ended
This was the way the world ended.
This was the way the world ended.
Filament's three tiny satellites kept orbiting the empty space where the planet had once been, endlessly circling in an eternal gyre.
Time passed.
It always does.
SDF cruiser "Sirius"
2999
'Yûki! Ho! Yûki-kun!'
Wataru flinched as the speaker bellowed at a volume that would do credit to a bull elephant in heat. Frankly, the speaker also moved in a similar manner. Nathaniel tended to charge through life - and anything in his way - with the same casual disregard for life and limb as he had for anyone else's hearing. Case in point: the slab of muscle masquerading as an arm that landed around Wataru's broad but slim shoulders. 'Nate.' He winced as his fellow classman's thick tail slapped against his lower leg. 'Ow…'
'Sorry. Keep forgetting.' Nate curled his tail over his arm to keep it out of the way of unwary classmates. A heavy-worlder with a chthonian mother, he embodied the best (worst?) of both sides of his heritage. Add in a personality that would make a red setter look depressed, and the result was a walking disaster area. An annoyingly chirpy one to boot.
'Try harder, Nate. It's like having a frisky Doberman around with no social skills.' He tried and failed to wriggle out from underneath the thick arm that almost had him in a headlock. 'Any reason why you feel the need to try and flatten and deafen me in the space of two minutes?'
'You got called into this morning's briefing…' Nate said archly as they walked towards the bridge. He did however move his arm and settled for walking beside Wataru, having to jog to keep up with the taller youth's long stride.
'Yes…'
'So? Why you? A sudden promotion I didn't know about?'
Wataru snorted. 'Please. It's just about the mission we're being sent on. No big deal - I just have a background that they thought might be relevant.'
'Relevant? How come? You're from some little dusty backwater way out past Lar Metal, aren't you?'
'Family stuff. Look, the captain's briefing everyone in a few minutes, and he won't thank me for talking out of turn, okay?'
Nate sighed. 'Sometimes, Yûki, you can be a bit of a stick in the mud, you know that?'
Wataru shrugged off the criticism, and ignored his classmate's attempts to squeeze the story out of him. There really wasn't much he could say anyway… Not without getting into explanations about just why his captain felt he might have something to contribute on the subject of dark matter…
'Oh - hey… someone's playing silly buggers again!' Nate pointed at the wall.
Some wag had been playing around with the wanted posters that flashed up on the board outside the bridge again. Because there, at eye level, larger than life, was his great-grandfather's wanted poster, with the standard Alliance "Wanted Dead or Alive" replaced with "preferably naked and delivered to the women's locker room" emblazoned across it instead.
'Well at least it's not Dad…' Wataru muttered under his breath.
'Eh?'
'Nothing. Come on, we don't want to be late.' He tugged at the long back coat that still felt too constricting, ran his fingers through his barely regulation dark hair, and strode as confidently onto the bridge as he could, Nate trailing in his wake.
Captain Todo barely acknowledged the two cadets as they entered the bridge - strolled nonchalantly in the case of young Yûki, and stomped (Nate). Although he couldn't help but be aware of the former. For all his youth, Yûki had a way of being noticed when he entered a room - a presence far too magnetic for his nineteen years. But then, given that he'd been made privy to the boy's sealed personnel file when he'd been assigned… "Why me" was a thought that went through his head almost daily.
It wasn't that the cadet was a poor student, or crewman. Quite the opposite. Respectful, intelligent, a crack shot, mad piloting skills and a born (ring) leader… never disobeyed an order, top of his class… planned on marrying his childhood sweetheart once he'd graduated.
Too perfect, Todo thought, and wondered why - for the upmteenth time - that bothered him. Or what the hell he sometimes felt he was waiting for - some crack in that too-handsome, too good for this world façade? He caught sight of the youth watching him from under that shock of hair that short of a buzz cut was never going to stay put, and saw the amusement in those eyes mixed with more than a little disappointment. As though the boy could read his mind.
But he didn't have to, did he? That file was sealed for a reason, after all. Of course he'd know that anyone who knew who he was would be waiting for him to screw up, to show the world that the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
It wouldn't do to explain to the boy he'd agreed to take him because he knew his father. That his worry wasn't that he'd screw up because - drumroll - he was Captain Harlock's son, but because he seemed to be trying too hard to distance himself from that reputation and the expectations that went with it. Can't be easy, he thought, turning back to face the rest of his crew, his newest cadet only just visible out of the corner of his eye, trying to live a normal life when your family is anything but.
But given their current assignment, that "anything but" might actually be a plus…
He cleared his throat. 'If I can have your attention?'
Silence slammed into the murmuring hubbub of chatter amongst the assembled crew. 'Some of you will be aware that we received new orders this morning from HQ, directly from Commander Shura herself. An engineering team surveying for a new hyperspace track between the Milky Way and the Greater Magellanic Cloud failed to make a scheduled check-in three days ago. As the closest ship, we've been ordered to divert to investigate. Since we're on a training run…' he glanced around deliberately making eye contact with the class of twenty cadets he'd taken on in lieu of his regular crew - 'We're just on a reconnaissance run. Any hostilities we call it in and get the hell out. No heroics…'
His gaze lingered on Yûki momentarily and passed him over with a hidden smile when the youth's head jerked up into an even stiffer posture. 'There have been reports of some anomalies in that area since a rogue system vanished about twenty years ago, so we play it safe. It's possible they just got into difficulties. You have your assigned stations. Go to them. All hands prepare for IN-SKIP.'
He sat heavily in the captain's chair, and watched his crew move smoothly into place. Even the cadets, on their first real posting, calm and well drilled.
He didn't miss the sideways glance Yûki gave him as the boy took his station at navigation, his usual nav officer at his side guiding him through the calculations - not that the kid needed much teaching. The little look that wondered why the hell he hadn't mentioned that the system that had been destroyed twenty years ago had been wiped out by a wave of dark matter from an unknown source...
Filament
The Sirius exited IN-SKIP a safe distance from the projected co-ordinates of the "lost" system - a standard precaution when expecting trouble.
Wataru stared at his screen and frowned. 'Well that makes no sense…'
'Cadet?' Todo leaned forward in his chair.
Wataru's fingers danced across the keypad as he tried to make sense of the readings. 'Our records say the system was destroyed - but I'm not seeing any trace of debris. In fact…' He brought up the colour-adjusted image from the forward sensors on the main viewer. 'According to every sensor we have, the planet and its star are gone - the only thing we can actually see in the visible spectrum is this.' He waved a hand towards the screen. 'And that makes no sense at all.'
At the weapons station, his classmate, Guy Lawrence, frowned. 'Its empty space…'
'Not exactly,' Wataru replied. 'Look closer.'
Guy peered, then leaned back in his seat with a shrug. "You've lost me.'
'Clearly,' Todo stated flatly, causing the fair-haired cadet to flush slightly. 'Because if the planet's gone, Lawrence, what the hell are those two moons orbiting?'
'Hologrammes?' Guy hazarded. 'It's not unheard of…' he shared a knowing smirk with Wataru.
'Nothing on the scanners indicating any signals of that sort,' the comms officer called out. 'Something big enough to blanket a whole planet - as the Gaia Sanction did with Earth - gives off a lot of energy. That's why the interdicted zone around the planet was so big.'
'Besides,' Wataru added, 'Why bother all the way out here? It's only because the intergalactic railroad to the GMC is passing through this sector that anyone was looking at it.'
'On which note, Yamadera - any sign of our missing scout ship or its emergency beacon?' Todo addressed his comms officer.
'No sir. Nothing, and I've beefed up reception as high as it will go…'
'Cadet Yûki?' Todo gestured to the comms station. 'Those adjustments you suggested?'
With an apologetic murmur to Yamadera, Wataru slid into the comms officer's vacated seat and began to type. 'We had this on the… on my father's ship a few years ago… they came across a rift in space/time with a graveyard of ships in it dating back to the Homecoming War. Toch… the chief engineer came up with a way to scan for anomalies, especially ones…' he hesitated, and looked over his shoulder at his captain.
Todo let out a deep breath. 'There's a suspicion that dark matter might be involved, people. Hence our caution. Yûki?'
'Almost there sir…'
The display on the main screen changed to a sickly green, concentrated around the location where the planet should have been sitting.
'Damn…' Todo breathed softly. 'I'd hoped we were wrong…'
'What the ever-loving…' Lawrence stared at the screen and then leaned towards Wataru. 'Any ideas?' he whispered.
'Yeah. We get the hell out of here on the double and someone calls dad…' Wataru whispered back. 'Something dropped that planet right out of our space time… it's still there, but it isn't. There are only two ships capable of dealing with that kind of shit, and one of them's all the way out near Andromeda…'
'Lawrence! Yûki! Either it's important enough to share with the rest of the crew, or it can wait until you're off duty.'
'Sorry sir,' they muttered in unison. Their backs to their commanding officer, they shared a conspiratorial grin. Guy and his sister had been brought up alternating between Mistral - their parents homeworld - and Tabito. The boys went way back together, Guy being the only one of Wataru's classmates privy to his family history. Guy's father, Rick, had served on the Arcadia for several years before his death a couple of years ago.
'I just suggested we might be better off putting in a call to someone with more experience in dealing with dark matter,' Mamoru suggested.
'Whilst I like your thinking,' Todo drawled with only a trace of sarcasm, 'asking for help from either one of the two most notorious outlaws in known space might not be a habit the SDF wants to get into.'
'Never usually stops them,' Guy muttered, with a sidelong glance to Wataru, who was hard pressed to hide a smile. It was after all one of his father's pet peeves that anything the regular authorities couldn't handle tended to end up in his lap. Or that of the Millennial Thieves, who technically weren't outlaws, but operated in the murky, barely legal fringes of the galactic mercenary companies.
'Lawrence… since you and your partner in crime appear to have your own opinions as to how to handle this, you can have the reconnaissance flight. Take one of the two-man fighters, and survey the area from the vicinity of the closest of those two satellites - but mark me - no further. One quick pass, and back to the barn.'
'Well gee thanks, Guy,' Wataru muttered out of the corner of his mouth. 'Way to go putting the pair of us in the firing line…' Out loud he asked: 'Why not a drone, sir?'
'The sensors are giving conflicting readings, cadet. You've got the background in this area, I'm hoping you can help interpret what's out there. But my order stands, gentlemen - no heroics.'
Yes sir!' Both youths stood and snapped off sharp salutes before heading for the hangar at a steady trot.
Once out of sight of the bridge they slowed to a jog. 'I don't know what you're getting pissed at me for,' Guy told him as they made their way down the main corridor. 'He was going to send you anyway…'
'And yet - you keep telling me I'm the one who runs headfirst into trouble without thinking… and here you are dragging me into it for a change…'
Guy smirked. 'Now you know how it feels for the rest of us when we have to run to keep up. Relax, Wataru - I've got your back. Be like the old days back home. All we're missing is your dick of a brother… Ow!' he rubbed his arm and glared at Wataru. 'Oh, c'mon, Yûki - even you have to admit Mamoru's turned being a smart-mouthed prick into an artform…'
'Takes one to know one,' Wataru smirked back, avoiding the elbow heading towards his midriff. He lengthened his stride, forcing Guy to do likewise, until they reached the hangar, where the two-man space jet waited for them, an irritated engineer tapping his toe on the gridded floor.
'So… I guess asking your sister out on a date…' Guy said breezily as he vaulted into the REO's seat behind Wataru.
'Over. My. Cold. Dead. Body.'
'Really? Because what's not to like? I'm tall, dark, handsome, drop dead gorgeous, have great prospects, and for the win, capable of stringing entire sentences together, which is more than can be said of most of the idiots she's surrounded by.'
'You've shagged your way through half the class,' Wataru pointed out, not unreasonably he thought.
'Five. Five girls in the entire semester. The only reason you haven't is you're a prude…'
'I have a fiancée, in case you'd forgotten…'
'Exactly my point. Prude.'
'Loyal.'
'So's my dog… but that's at home, and I'm here.'
Wataru waited, his grin hidden by his respirator.
'You know... I didn't mean…'
'Guy?'
'Yeah?'
'You know the line about when you've lost sight of daylight?'
The canopy started its slow descent, not before they both heard the exasperated mutterings from the flight engineer.
'So… Nami?' Guy asked chirpily as they taxied towards the open airlock.
'Fine. I'll ask dad.' Wataru wished he had a view of the backseat as he heard Guy making choking noises over the comms. He started whistling softly as he banked the plane and blasted away from the Sirius, towards the forlorn little rocks that orbited the missing planet, and grinned again when he heard the distressed yelp from behind his seat. 'What's wrong?' He asked disingenuously as Guy mouthed obscenities into the comms - thankfully not broadcasting back to the ship.
'You're a fucking lunatic!'
It was impossible to resist. 'Sorry - I thought you were missing Mamoru?'
'Bastard. Next time, I'm flying.'
'Not if we want to get there sometime this month,' Wataru replied dryly.
'Some of us like to arrive in one piece,' Guy retorted. 'Bloody well shows who taught you to fly - dad always said your parents flew like a couple of nutters.'
'Quit bellyaching and give me my readouts,' Wataru advised him. 'You're starting to sound like Ali.'
'Oh. Now you're going too far,' Guy told him. 'I can go off you…' But he flicked on the heads-up display in front of his seat and began an all-systems search of the area. 'Readings are all over the place, but the programme you put in from comms has been uploaded. Not that it's helping much… it's like picking your way through a Mistral fog at night. I'm picking up parts of what might be the survey ship's signal though…'
'Co-ordinates?'
'If I ignore my eyes and go with where the orbit of that little dustball says the planet should be? Dead ahead. And stay outside its orbit, flyboy - you heard the captain.'
At the controls, Wataru frowned as the little craft bucked under his hands. 'We're well outside - but something's got hold of us. It's like something kicked her in the backside!'
In his left ear, Guy's language would have made the crew of the Arcadia blush. Well, some of them… 'You're telling me? Can't you keep her straight?'
'What do you think I'm trying to do… Anything on the sensors?'
'I got nothing… wait… gravity fluctuations, and they're off the charts! Yûki! I think…'
'Way ahead of you!' Wataru tried to pull a hard turn in the craft, piling on the burn to break free and head back to the ship. 'Call it in!' He fought the controls, but the fighter wasn't responding. On the main comms, Guy was sending out a mayday, giving their location, but the only thing coming back was static.
Then the engines died, followed a heartbeat later by the instrumentation. Lights out, dead in space, the little fighter spiralled towards the heart of a green, flickering fog that billowed out of nowhere to envelop first the fighter, then the Sirius. Then as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone.
So were the ships.
Planet Tabito
The little raman shop stood in the middle of a row of small shops on a dusty side street, the sign above the door proclaiming "Galaxy Ramen" in Japanese and Standard, in elegant calligraphy on a sign that still looked so fresh the passersby might even suspect the paint was still wet. Which given that a stepladder had been moved only a few minutes earlier, was indeed the case.
A tall dark-haired young man whose amiable good looks were enough to cause a susceptible young lady cyclist to wobble on her way to lunch stood across the street, arms folded across a dark blue flightsuit and nodded approvingly as a youth about half his age dodged a couple of bikes to cross the road in a long-legged jog to reach his side. A smudge of dark paint on the side of his nose and several splashes on tatty beige coveralls told their own story.
'Nice job.'
'Thanks, makes it all worthwhile.' Daisuke punched his older brother on the arm. 'How come you weren't the one up the damn ladder?'
'Delegation.' Blaze deadpanned. He smiled at his kid brother, realising for the first time he didn't have to look down to do so. 'Damn, kiddo - you're shooting up like a beansprout!' At seventeen, Daisuke was almost the same height as his older brother, and probably still had some growing to do. He said as much, adding cheekily: 'Though hopefully not outwards... ' giving his brother's stomach a playful jab. Blaze swatted the back of his head, and smoothed the black t-shirt he wore which was - as always pulled tight over washboard firm abs.
'When you've got some muscle, we'll talk, sprout,' he growled fondly.
'He's got you there Dai!' a feminine voice called out from across the street. Both men turned to watch the speaker - a girl about Daisuke's age, tall and slender with long light brown hair and blue eyes, stroll across to greet them, smiling at both of them.
'I think she fancies you,' Daisuke whispered archly into his brother's ear just before she reached them. Blaze jumped, frowned at his brother, and shook his head as the youth winked at him. 'Lar knows why… I mean - you're the same age as her father…' he mercifully stopped speaking as the girl stood in front of them, her smile fading slightly as she looked from Blaze to Daisuke and back again.
'Something wrong?'
'Nothing, nothing…' Daisuke stepped forward and bussed her noisily on the lips, jumping back with a laugh as she glared at him and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand.
'Eugh, Dai. Are you still practicing on your pillow?'
'How else will I learn?' he asked, making soulful eyes at her. 'Mamoru won't let me…'
'Maybe he should. He has the worst taste in women. Look, I love you like a brother, Dai. That's why I don't want my father to shoot you. Which he will if he catches you slobbering all over my face.'
'If Harlock doesn't, I will,' Blaze promised, giving his brother a baleful glare, which was, as always, shrugged off. 'Nami. I thought you were with Kanna?' He gave her a chaste peck on the cheek when she tilted her head towards him and tapped below her cheekbone with a finger. 'That, oh bratty brother of mine, is how it's done.'
'No wonder you never get laid,' Dai replied, with a wink to Nami, who laughed at him.
'I was with your sister, but I have had about as much dress fitting as I can take for one day. In fact, probably for the rest of my life.'
Blaze eyed up her cut-off jeans and crop top, which between them left far too much midriff and leg exposed for his peace of mind, let alone her father's. She stuck her tongue out of him before he could say anything and continued: 'Whose bright idea was it for Hannibal to tell everyone about his first wedding? My very sweet friend and future sister in truth is driving us all nuts…' She turned to look at the paintwork across the road. 'Nice work, by the way - she'll love it.'
'Thanks,' Daisuke told her. 'All my own work, since lazybones here couldn't be arsed to break a sweat, and Zee vanishes with his partners in crime anytime someone mentions work to be done…'
'I supervised,' Blaze said loftily. 'And fitted out the kitchen and bought all the new crockery…'
'Could have just moved all the stuff from the old shop,' Daisuke pointed out. 'I don't see why we had to move all the way out here anyway?'
Nami laid a hand on his arm and patted it. 'There there, that's why the rest of us do all the thinking, Dai. Your evil auntie only left you alone there because of your mom. Besides, after the underground control centre flooded last year and you had to backfill, it wasn't really much use any more, was it?' She aimed this last question at Blaze, who nodded briefly.
'I'd rather persuade Kanna and Wataru to relocate totally, but there's no guarantee Promethium wouldn't try something if Kanna was off-planet, and Wataru's job's going to take him away a lot. Here we can always have someone watching, and Promethium won't attack Tabito.' He glanced at Dai, who was watching him, arms folded across his chest, and grinning. 'Don't you have some wallpaper to put up?' he asked pointedly. 'It won't hang itself…'
'Bloody well should,' Dai mumbled. 'Thirty-first bloody century and they can't make self-hanging wallpaper? Don't we have nanotech now?'
'The nanotech that can be compromised by machinners?' Nami asked sweetly. He grumbled something incoherent at her and slouched across the street, hands in pockets. She smiled up at Blaze. 'He really doesn't think things through, does he?'
'He's young. He'll learn.' He smiled down at her. 'How is Wataru?'
'On his first assignment. Last time we spoke he was about to ship out.'
'How's that working out?'
She pulled a face. 'About as well as can be expected. Thankfully only a handful of people know who our dad is, otherwise he'd be in it right up to his neck…'
Blaze matched her rueful sigh. 'Harlock's timing wasn't great, but I don't think Layla will hold it against him for long… though why he felt the need to dismantle that dimensional tunneling project is still a mystery. He won't talk about it…'
'Dismantle? Is that a new euphemism for "totally trashed"?' Nami shook her head. 'All I know is it's something to do with whatever went down on Herise last year, and that Time Castle…'
'Mamoru muttered something about seeing something there… before he was conveniently shipped off to Oedo's new pet project along with…'
'Almost everyone my age that I grew up with?' she scuffed the dusty pavement with one toe. 'I just have your idiot brother for company…' She fluttered her eyelashes and beamed up at him. 'And you, of course…' When he flushed and took a step back, she pouted. 'Really, Blaze? Relax. You're as old as my dad for Lar's sake…'
'Funny,' he drawled. 'That's what Daisuke just told me…'
She giggled. 'Really? He snitched on me?' she linked her arm in his and let him have the full force of a smile that she'd inherited from both parents. 'Did he also tell you that I'm female and have a pulse? Because I'm pretty sure that "fancies the arse off his big brother" doesn't require an awful lot more than that.'
'You,' he told her firmly, 'need to stop unleashing that smile on unwary bystanders. And I'm not sure I'm comfortable having my backside the subject of discussion by a young woman I used to babysit…'
'Oh, so having it actually fondled by a young woman who was only actually "born" two years after I was is okay then? she asked sweetly. He tripped over a pebble and turned to glare at her. 'Oh please, Blaze - everyone knows you've been finding excuses to head over to Ventimiglia to see Galene… You can't find that many problems to ask Grampy's advice about since he retired…' She nudged him in the side with her elbow. 'You know, you might start wanting to be a bit nicer to Wataru… before you find out what it's like having Grampy's Cosmo Eagle poking into your back as he marches you up the aisle…'
'I will never,' he told her, 'ever get used to having the great and terrible founder of my organisation answering to "grampy" by you brats…'
She grinned. 'Ianthe's little girl does it as well and you don't want to even go there wondering how awkward that must be…'
Since Ventimiglia was home to a large (and ever increasing) colony of rescued clones, one of which - the aforementioned Ianthe - was Hannibal's long-deceased wife, happily married to a clone of one of his nephew's grandsons, no, Blaze really didn't. It made his head hurt on a good day, and he was Lar Metallian born and bred. That he was still working on a budding relationship with one of the clones of Hannibal's daughters was just the icing on an increasingly complicated cake… especially since both her biological father and her adopted one were protective.
Very protective.
But before he could comment, Daisuke came barrelling out of the shop, waving frantically at them. He dashed across the road with scant regard for his safety, being narrowly missed by one of the dusty trucks from the mine, the driver of which honked and shouted something mercifully incoherent out of the window at him. He slewed to a stop beside his brother, fielded by a strong arm. 'Blaze!'
'Last time I looked… what is it?'
'Destiny… on the warp radio. There's been an accident.'
Blaze wasn't one to get into an immediate panic - he'd been trained too well by both parents and by Hannibal. He placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. 'Breathe, little brother. Slowly. What, where and who?'
'Commander Layla… says she needs to find Harlock - he's not answering the warp comms.' Daisuke glanced at Nami and his face crumpled into misery. 'Nami… It's the Sirius - they've lost contact with her.'
Nami's little wordless cry was the only outward sign of her distress. Blaze gave her a brief hug, and started back across the road, both youngsters in tow. 'Blaze…' she said, in an anguished whisper.
'Shinpai shinaide, Nami-chan. Let me do the talking - facts first, then we can work out what to do.' She nodded numbly, and he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
'It must be bad though,' he heard her say to Daisuke, as his longer legs took him ahead of the pair. 'I mean, if they're calling for papa?'
Rather more to the point, Blaze kept to himself, the timing couldn't be worse, since the commander and Harlock had gotten into it after Harlock had shut down the Galaxy Railway's interdimensional tunneling project, designed to create shortcuts along some of the projected routes for the new express line. Urgently trying to get hold of Harlock meant there was something hinky in the wind that the SDF couldn't handle, and that tended to suggest it was dark matter related. That it was urgent? Well… at least that suggested there was still hope…
He crossed his fingers out of sight of his brother and Nami, and sprinted ahead of them into the radio room.
