The first thing I noticed about the planet we'd landed on was the heat. It hit us as we walked down the ramp of the Lightning's rear hanger like walking into a brick wall. Within seconds Hannibal and I had divested ourselves of our jackets, and these were taken from us by a grinning O'Malley. By the time we hit the bottom of the ramp, I'd unbuttoned my shirt down to my navel and my sleeves were as far over my elbows as I could roll them. Hannibal wasn't far behind me doing the same.

Kei - smirking with the insouciant smugness of someone who'd asked about the planetary conditions beforehand - sauntered casually at my side wearing loose white pants and a flowing silk shirt in a vivid red. In front of us Captain Yanez strolled into the haze wearing just a pair of shorts and sandals.

'I'm one sweaty trickle away from just stripping off to my underwear and to hell with first impressions,' I muttered to Hannibal.

He grimaced and ran a finger around his collar. 'I might just be right behind you.'

One of our captors sniggered, and I shot the offender a filthy look. I must have still had my "bad pirate" vibe working for me at least, because he gulped and slowed his pace to drop behind us a few extra paces. Hannibal tsked at me. 'Sometimes, I do see my brother in you…'

'Now there's an image…' someone muttered from behind, and this time the glare I gave the miscreant caused him to take a sudden step to the side, which took him over the edge of the ramp - thankfully - or not - by this time we were only a foot or two above ground level, but he still let out a pained grunt as he landed. I stuck my hands in my pockets and strolled past the idiot as I followed in Yanez's footsteps, ignoring the whimpering heap clutching his ankle. It didn't escape me that Yanez pointedly ignored the injured party as well.

Kei scampered slightly to catch up to us; both Hannibal and myself had a tendency to stride out, and she had to stretch a little to keep up with our longer legs. Casually, I slowed my pace to match hers. 'Where do you think we're going?' she asked in a quiet voice.

I nodded towards the back of Yanez' greying head. 'Wherever he is.' The smart-alec comment earned me a frown. 'The beach, by the look of it.' I eyed up the vast expanse of water lapping at the sandy shore with a little discomfort. I'm Martian born and bred - meaning I'm an adequate swimmer at best, and large bodies of water are both a conscious waste of scarce resources, and something tolerated rather than enjoyed for recreation. Kei, ship-born, had held a similar dislike of the waste, but over the years had developed a taste for swimming. Me - I'd happily high-dive into it because it's a rush, but swimming in open water just for the hell of it isn't something I've ever done for fun - which didn't, as we got closer and the vague shapes seen through the heat haze resolved into a group of people frolicking in the waves, seem to bother the locals. Well over two dozen of them were either splashing around close to shore, or swimming in the bay laid out before us.

We have a holographic chamber in Deathshadow Island - our floating home away from home - based around a landscaped former wet-dock facility inside the former Gaia Fleet space port. I went with a tropical bay with golden sand, a couple of large cliffs, deep clear water and perpetually cloud free skies because I never mess with a classic. This place was the real deal, complete with what looked like a replica pre-atomic age tall ship anchored in the bay, sails furled.

Closer to hand several men and women were either lounging or in defiance of the heat, playing a vigorous game of contact volleyball with encouragement from the loungers. Clothing appeared to be optional, and given the temperature, I didn't blame them in the slightest. Even after a mere few hundred yards, I was seriously regretting keeping the leather pants on. 'How the hell did you manage to get someone to part with those?' I asked Kei as we walked towards the water's edge. She simply added enigmatic to smug and strolled on.

'Which one's the captain, do you think?' she asked. She was busy braiding her long hair as she walked, to keep it off her neck. I studied the figures I could see from our position - by now we were a few feet from the water, walking along the wet sand towards what looked like a wooden beach bar doing double duty as a corral for feral surfboards. I glanced at Hannibal for help, but the old bastard wasn't giving anything away, if he'd spotted anyone he knew.

Perhaps there wasn't anyone… But I checked out the crowd anyway. Force of habit - you could always identify the troublemakers or potential danger points if you watched. There's a pattern to the way people react to the alpha predators in their midst, but it wasn't in play here - most of the action was spontaneous, frivolous and happy - these guys reminded me of my own people when we let it all hang out on Deathshadow Island; relaxed and cheerful.

Except… there was an odd pattern. Yanez had come to a stop just before the high water line, and seemed to be waiting for something - or someone. Whilst I tried to resist tapping my foot impatiently, I began to notice that the crowd moved in an odd way, not totally at random.

'See it?' Kei asked me, leaning in so close her lips brushed my ear.

'Um. Not once is anyone down here out of sight of anyone else - in fact, I think every single person has at least two eyes on them. It's like they're constantly shifting their locations to keep that in mind.' Children ran and played with happy abandon, but always with watchful eyes, within an unseen boundary.

'No-one leaves the beach alone, at least so far,' Hannibal added in my other ear. 'Curious…'

Testing a theory, I walked a few steps to my left, deliberately moving out of the line of sight of a tall young man with dark, almost ebony black skin complemented by blazing red trunks. It was like a game of chess, I thought, watching a middle-aged woman send a frisbee flying off at a tangent which just happened to move her into line of sight with me when she followed it.

So… what the hell made them so watchful? I caught Kei's eye as I sauntered back to her side, and she raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Her cobalt blue eyes were sharp; she missed very little. She'd caught the silent accord between our hosts as well.

Yanez called out something I couldn't make out, and one of the swimmers started striking out for the shore. As soon as he - and the build was definitely male - began to walk out of the ocean, those nearest almost imperceptibly stood to attention, however briefly, as he walked past them. 'That one,' I said quietly to Kei. On my good side, I saw Hannibal momentarily stiffen, then relax.

Stark bollock naked, he walked out - no - strode out of the sea like Poseidon wading ashore from his kingdom. Tall - impressively so: Yanez was handing him a sarong, and I judged the newcomer to be at least a couple of inches taller than me by comparison to his subordinate. Jet black hair, curling down to about the middle of his shoulder blades even when wet. Dark skinned, not tanned. A short, well trimmed black beard framed a mouth that had a natural, sardonic curl to it, and a full bottom lip that gave him a slightly cruel look when he didn't smile. I'd have guessed his age around ten years older than I look - mid forties at most, close to my real age. Body type lean, and though a little soft around the middle, his chest and shoulders were both broad and well muscled; I'd hate to go against him in a fistfight or sabre to sabre - that torso spoke of great upper body strength. His height was mostly in his legs; before he wrapped the sarong around his middle and tucked it up to form impromptu trews, I noticed they were long and lean, and I judged fast was also on the table. No; I really wouldn't want to take this guy on. He held himself with the ease and grace of someone who knows how to handle himself in a fight. His reach was longer than mine as well - the corded arms were long, the hands large. He was also rather hirsute.

Next to me, Kei cleared her throat, and I spared her a quick glance, having to turn my head to do so, since she always covered my blind side. 'Wipe the drool,' I told her. 'And please stop licking him from head to toe with your eyes…'

'I can't help it,' she whispered back. But she reached out and took my hand, giving it a quick squeeze as though to reassure me. I'm not that insecure - I know my Kei too well after almost two decades, but what walked towards us taking one stride for every two or so of Yanez' was a walking invitation for sex, or I was no judge of the reaction women have to tall, dark and dangerously handsome.

He reminded me slightly of Harlock - something in the bearing, perhaps. The dark eyes and the quick appraisal that raked me from head to toe and - whilst not dismissing me - leaving me feeling as though I had to stand up straighter and let him have the full Captain Harlock treatment right between the eyes. But where Harlock had been aloof, reserved and radiated a sense of apathy and despair, this man walked as though he owned the very air he breathed. Harlock had been resigned to his fate. This man… this man, I realised, had faced it, and owned it. There was pride in every line of the man, but also a deep sorrow in his dark eyes.

He stood in front of me, and bowed gracefully from the waist. But not to me.

'Alex Schenk?' he said to Hannibal, his deep voice sounding more than a little amused. There was a light in those eyes - not as dark close up as I'd first thought - the colour was closer to my own hazel, though maybe with more green in them; kohl-edged lashes made them appear darker - and his mouth quirked slightly at the corners. 'Mamoru my friend - you're not even trying…' Then without warning he threw his head back and laughed, before grabbing my great-something grandfather in a bear hug, which after a very brief hesitation, was as far as I could see, warmly returned. 'How long has it been? A hundred years? More? I thought you dead, Mamoru,' he said when he'd released Hannibal. He slapped him on the back. 'If not in the battle, then taken by time. Fate it seems had plans for both of us.' He turned next to Kei, and his bow was even deeper. He offered his hand but when she, after a slight hesitation, offered her own, he didn't shake it but turned it over, lost in his large dark hand, liberally scattered with wiry dark hairs, and kissed it. 'Grafin. Welcome to Ventimiglia.'

'Grafin?' Kei's puzzled look swept over both myself and Hannibal. I shrugged. Hannibal smiled.

'Technically I suppose since you're married to Harlock's heir, the title would normally apply. It means "countess". Though the family claims to such things were always a little tenuous.' Hannibal lips twitched slightly, as though at a personal joke. 'He hated the title.'

'And the responsibility?' It came out a little more waspishly than I'd intended, but having to stand there and be deliberately ignored was really starting to annoy me.

Nero - if that was the name he preferred - let go of Kei's hand, and turned to Hannibal. 'The cub has teeth…' he murmured appreciatively. Patronising arse. I wondered how much force I'd have to put into a punch to shatter that all too handsome aquiline profile.

'Don't drag me into this one, Khal,' Hannibal told him flatly. 'You want to bait him, you're on your own.'

"Nero" grinned at him, revealing an impressive row of pearly white teeth. He turned and I now had his undivided attention, as he bowed with a flourish. 'You were well named,' he said as he straightened, looking me straight in the eye. 'Yama, the one who judges… and, it would seem, finds us wanting.'

I decided to be the better man and offered my hand. 'Most people call me Harlock, these days. I left that name behind a long time ago.'

He took my hand - positively dainty by comparison - and shook it firmly, but not too hard. Not a bonecrusher, this one. He knew better ways to intimidate than the obvious. Flickers of blue lightning sparked between us where skin touched skin. 'Ah. But has it left you? Khalsa, captain, Earth Alliance, once. Most people call me Nero, these days. I suppose Mamoru here explained my - it seems - not-so-unique circumstances?'

'You were the captain of Deathshadow One,' I replied, extricating my hand from a grip that held it, testing, a moment longer than necessary. I looked around. The Lightning sat on the rocky headland behind us, her lines blurred in the haze. 'I have to ask: where…?'

'My ship? The Thunderbolt survived. She's kept elsewhere, out of sight of prying metal eyes.' He slapped one of those massive hairy paws on my shoulder and if not for years of trying to look tough and brace myself against my damned bird using me as a perch, I'd have buckled. 'I must apologise for taking such a roundabout way of getting your attention, and for our rudeness. But believe me, there is method behind my rudeness. Perhaps you, your lovely wife, and my former admiral here will join me for dinner?'

'If there's an explanation for why you felt the need to drag me halfway across to Andromeda instead of just asking me, for dessert, then I might consider it,' I replied, giving him my best sarcastic drawl. He laughed again.

'I never thought that smart mouth would be genetic.'

'Neither did I,' I replied dryly. 'Then we had twin boys and realised why I piss off so many people…' This last might have been a bit unfair to Wataru, who just has a habit of speaking - and acting - before he thinks. Mamoru on the other hand has a sense of humour that tends to result in him coming off as a smart-mouthed little prick when he feels like it, and he can be a manipulative little shit to boot. It's a good job we love them to distraction: it's all that keeps me from throttling the little bastard some days.

Some of this must have shown on my face - or Kei's, as Nero raised an eyebrow and looked at Hannibal. 'That bad?'

'Worse,' Hannibal replied, trying to keep from laughing. 'Especially the eldest. Remember how my brother could be when he turned on the charm?'

'Hell yes,' Nero replied with some feeling. 'Kav and I were always picking up the pieces. Those messes we weren't making for ourselves that is.'

'They named him after me…' Hannibal's plaintive, unspoken plea for sympathy earned yet more laughter, and a slap on the back that almost floored him.

'Could have been worse,' Nero replied. 'Could have been daughters…' A shadow passed over Hannibal's face, and Nero lowered his head. 'Oh my friend… I'm sorry… Did anyone get out? Before…?'

'I lost Miranda, Elena and Katy,' Hannibal replied softly. 'I couldn't persuade Miri to leave before travel shut down. Aurora was on Mars, but it was safer not to draw attention to her, and later… she decided to stay. Jan was badly injured, couldn't be moved for months.'

I laid a hand on his shoulder, understanding all too well what still haunted him, over a century later. We'd lost our eldest daughter, Yumi, ten years ago, during the Deathshadow Three's reign of terror. No parent should ever bury a child. We'd buried two; Hannibal had lost most of his first family in his brother's disastrous attempt to shield Earth. In later years… Well. Living as long as he had, I couldn't even begin to imagine how it would feel to see your family age and die around you, whilst you lived on, aging slowly.

That it might be my fate wasn't something I'd seriously considered, until I stood staring at two men who'd outlived everything and everyone they'd ever known. One of them still in the prime of life, at least outwardly. Hannibal though… He could pass for a man in his late fifties or early sixties, but there was a frailty about him some days that worried me, and had since I'd known him. I wasn't at all happy that he'd been taken so far from his ship. Those of us affected by dark matter needed to stay in close proximity to our vessels or the dark matter in our systems was slowly but eventually metabolised. It wouldn't kill those of us in good health - the smart money was that we'd simply age normally from that point on if we never went near a dark matter engine again. But Hannibal had been double the age I'd been when I took a massive dose, when he'd been caught in a backblast. Over a hundred years had passed since then, and Deathshadow Zero hadn't been part of Tochiro's Nibelung inspired fleet. She'd been an ordinary ship with a few prototypical enhancements. Those hundred years had taken a toll. Kei and I had just turned forty-two; we can both pass for our mid twenties.

Perhaps Nero spotted it as well, because he smiled at us - not a reassuring gesture, frankly. He showed far too many white, perfect teeth. But he placed an arm around Hannibal's shoulders and gestured towards a long, low wooden building further up the beach, well above the high water line. 'Gentlemen, my lady - I am forgetting my manners. Please accept the hospitality of my home. A shower, a change of clothes, a short rest and then dinner.'

'And for dessert?' I added dryly.

He gave me a slight nod. 'If it's answers you prefer over fruit, Harlock -' and like every other relic from old times who'd known the previous holder, he hesitated over the name - 'then I promise you, answers you shall have.'

Well. That was a given, even if I had to drag them out of him. For now I just smiled and nodded my acceptance. If he was going to be fooled by my looks, I wasn't going to disabuse him anytime soon. I'd been played by one cursed captain of those cursed ships. There wasn't going to be a second.

Dinner was an interesting experience, held on the beach at one of several long wooden tables in a long, open "hall", lit by tall torches once the sun sank below the horizon. I'd expected some formality, the captain aloof from his people, but Nero's attitude was closer to mine than to my predecessors. Observing him from my vantage point on the largest table, I watched him move among them, greeting them familiarly and cheerfully - even picking up the children who wandered around, dispensing cuddles and kisses and on the receiving end of sticky hugs. The contrast between his easy-going attitude and Harlock's anti-social isolation was striking.

And it told me nothing about why I was here.

Kei topped up my glass from the jug in front of us, a local brew made from some fruit, that packed a hefty punch. Hannibal waved off after his second glass, Kei wasn't much of a drinker and only sipped at hers, but it tasted divine, and I got outside of most of the jug before I even felt a buzz. Whether my dark-matter riddled body's ability to metabolise alcohol and other drugs without ill effects was a blessing or a curse rather depended on which side of the sick bay door I was standing at the time. Judging from the amount Nero was quaffing with no ill effects, I suspected this was a perk of the job.

For all the easy-going atmosphere, there were guards at every entrance to the beach-front hall we were sitting in, however discretely they were slouching against doorways and next to windows. Ali, lurker extraordinaire, would have been right at home. And, I suspected, for very similar reasons.

'What the hell are they so afraid of?' I whispered to Kei as she topped up my glass again. I had to push the wide sleeves of the white silk shirt I was wearing out of the way to avoid them trailing in some spillage on the wooden table. The sky blue pants were made of the same soft fabric which went a great way towards mitigating the heat, still in the low thirties although the sun was going down. They'd put her in matching blue, Hannibal in black, to his amusement.

'They're well drilled,' she replied equally quietly. 'Careful not to scare the children, but they're protective. And have you noticed? Hardly any machines…'

Yes… I had noticed. The cooking had been done over wood fires, which I could have brushed off as an affectation due to the ongoing beach party, except for the fact that no-one wore energy weapons, not even the guardians. The curved short swords they wore - based on an old scimitar if I remembered my swords correctly - were wide-bladed and wickedly sharp. The pistols I saw were projectiles, and looked to be large calibre.

I looked out from my vantage point to the ship floating in the bay, visible against the deepening twilight by means of lanterns strung along the sides. Similar lanterns lit the dining area we sat in, flickering flames suggesting an oil based design. On the beach itself, tall flaming torches lit the area, casting their smoky light on the proceedings outside, where an impromptu dance was starting, to the beat of hand drums and two guitars.

'That would be part of the answers I promised you,' Nero said, from somewhere behind my right shoulder. Only long practice stopped me from jumping slightly in my seat. I hate anyone sneaking up on my blind side.

'No tech. At all?' I asked. I waved my hand in the direction of the Lightning, hidden by the lightweight wooden wall. 'Except for the ship?'

'There's a dampening field around the island,' he replied, taking the seat next to me, which forced me to turn my chair around to look at him. Across from me, Kei leaned on the table with her elbows and stared at him, whilst Hannibal leaned back in his chair, with a languid ease that reminded me a lot of his younger brother. Guess I knew where Harlock got it from… 'We had to leave our home in Andromeda when your war…'

I bristled at that slur, and opened my mouth to protest, then shut it again. I wasn't going to justify myself to this guy, no matter how old or bloody intimidating he tried to be. Fuck it. I'd done nothing to be ashamed of.

'...chased the Machinners out of the Milky Way, and brought Promethium there. Her transport ships found slim pickings, since Andromeda was and is even more so now, sparsely populated.'

'That war was none of our making.'

Bless Kei. She always stands up for me. 'That conflict was coming whether we were involved or not. Should we have stood by and done nothing, and watched millions die to feed her machines?'

He inclined his head. 'Apologies. But the fact remains they came here, and have been a pain in my backside for the last twelve years.'

'They aren't the reason for your precautions though, are they?' I leaned back in my chair and looked him straight in the eye. 'So what the hell has your people on such high alert? Why the shield over the island? From what I've seen, the Lightning could easily handle a Machinner battleship, and if Deathshadow One is still operational, she could handle a small fleet without breaking a sweat.'

'That is probably something better shown than told,' he replied evenly. He stood up, looming over me in a way that reminded me of the way Harlock, so long ago now, had once done, when he offered me my pistol back after my spectacularly inept attempt to shoot him in the back. 'Yanez?'

'My brother?'

'Bring the prisoner to the pier.'

As Yanez walked away, I looked across at Kei, then back to our host. He smiled enigmatically. 'You'll soon see,' he said quietly. 'Will you come?'

'Now you ask nicely?' I couldn't help it. Mamoru comes by some of his quirks quite honestly.

'Now I'm asking nicely,' he replied breezily.

The reason for the meeting to take place on the pier soon became obvious. The structure extended into the bay for a good quarter of a mile, which put the end of it outside the field of the dampener used to shield the Lightning - and, I assumed, the Deathshadow One.

Yanez waited for us at the end of the wooden decking with a tall man next to him, weighted down with chains. His hands were bound behind his back, secured to a collar around his neck, and hobbles chained his ankles close together to prevent him from running. The light from the oil lamps was fairly dim, but enough for me to get a decent look: about my height and build, with light brown hair and grey eyes. Fairly average in appearance - the kind of man you'd pass in the street without notice. I guessed him to be about twenty-five.

'Who is he?' Kei asked before I could. She took a step towards him, always curious, but Nero held a hand out to hold her back before I could.

'I wouldn't get too close,' he said softly. 'They are dangerous. Even chained.'

I looked again, aware of Hannibal to my left doing the same. Mister Average stared back, a slight sneer curling the corner of his mouth. Those grey eyes stared at me, and I revised my original assessment. Not average… Arrogant.

And those grey eyes… they were cold. Dead. They reminded me of a shark's, now I thought about it, having seen the creatures on Miraiseria. An ancient predator.

He moved, shuffling his stance as though to get more comfortable, and the movement reminded me of something else. Something I'd seen before. I just couldn't think what it was. He reminded me of someone…

Nero moved, taking the two strides needed to arrive at my side. He now had a pistol in his hand, I saw. An ancient flintlock at first glance. A second look and I smiled. 'Is that one of Tochiro's?'

Hannibal answered. 'He made a handful, before the war, for close friends and family. For me, the Cosmo Eagle; for Harlock, the Cosmo Dragoon you now own. And for Khal here…'

Nero raised the pistol and aimed it at the prisoner. Yanez had already moved out of the line of fire. 'He based mine on an old duelling pistol. But it's as powerful as any of his other creations - and we've found out the hard way it's one of the few weapons capable of killing them.'

'You're just going to kill a man in cold blood?' Hannibal asked. 'That's not like you, Khal.'

'It's not a man,' he replied bluntly. 'But even this weapon isn't a sure thing.' He fired.

The shot was dead on centre mass. At this distance, he couldn't have missed. The man should have dropped with half his torso missing.

He dropped, certainly. And there was a large hole where his left lung should have been. But then in spite of the chains, he began to get back to his feet within seconds.

No blood. As I watched, shreds of flesh flickered as though lit from within. The effect was similar to the way a hologramme shimmers as you get close enough to see through it. Within seconds the wound was gone, rebuilt and made whole. Even his clothing was restored.

The man - or creature masquerading as such - smiled.

Nero raised his gun again and fired. This time the creature's head disintegrated in the first shot. The next six blasted away at what was left of the body, which toppled into the sea, to vanish as though it had sunk like a stone.

'You might want to get down and cover your ears,' Yanez said quietly, dropping to the deck to do just that. We wasted no time following suit, which was only just in time, as the underwater explosion sent a burst of water well over thirty feet into the air as something detonated below the surface.