Dedicated to the memory of Makio Inoue, the VA who to so many of us will always be THE voice of Harlock, who sadly passed away November 29 2019.

遠く時の輪の接する所で, また 会う

Arcadia

Yattaran spared a brief glance over to the captain's chair, where their substitute was exchanging tablets with Rick, and lifted his striped t-shirt in a vain attempt to clean his thick lensed glasses. 'Bugger me backwards,' he muttered, just loud enough to be heard by Franz, the mustachioed pirate standing at Kei's usual station. 'Who'd ever think we'd end up with a girl captain?'

Franz shot a look back over his right shoulder, to where Selen was pushing Harlock's bird's beak out of her face gently, rubbing its head when it gave a little prrrk of annoyance. 'Bloody hell, Yattaran - you're such a dinosaur. You don't call a hottie like that a "girl" - it's disrespectful,' he whispered across the divide.

'S'not right, is what it is…' Yattaran's large hands fiddled with the controls on his console. 'Girl can't be Captain Harlock. Goes against all sortsa stuff…'

'But she isn't, is she? We aren't pulling that shit anymore pretending the captain's still on board? We're going to rescue the captain and Kei. And that's a sodding princess you're dissin', first mate. And the Boss of the Millennial Thieves…Kei would smack you senseless for this shit - and I thought you liked Miss Selen?'

'I do, but just…'

'Not when I'm sitting in your captain's chair?'

Selen had moved silently to stand behind Yattaran, who jumped far higher than anyone would have expected from a man of his girth. Across the bridge gantry, Franz sniggered. 'Man… your face!'

'Piss off.'

'Gentlemen!'

'Who? Us?' Yattaran belched and reached round his large girth to scratch his left ass cheek. 'Sorry ma'am. No gentlemen here and that's the sad, sorry truth…'

Selen sighed, and caught Franz's eye. The pirate - tall, dark haired with a luxuriant moustache he tended to stroke when he was nervous - rather like now - just rolled his eyes. 'Ignore him,' he advised. 'The rest of us do.' He glared at the first mate. 'You know… there's not really much going on whilst we're in IN-SKIP. Don't you have some plastic to glue to your cock or something?'

'That was my fingers, one time when Ali fucked with my stuff, you bastard, and anyways, gotta stay on top of you lot, haven't I?' Yattaran growled at him. 'With both the Captain and Kei away…'

'We'll get them back, first mate,' Selen assured him. 'A few more hours and we'll be in orbit around that planet.'

'Ventimiglia, huh?' Franz tapped in the name into the console. 'It's a no-man's land, literally. A mostly water world on the edge of M31, in the sweet zone by a margin - tropical temperatures all year round and that's in the temperate zone. Oceans are a little too salty and warm for most terrestrial life, apart from some archaea, so the suiseijin didn't want it. A beach bum's paradise…'

'One smaller planetoid in an inner orbit, one gas giant with no habitable moons, a few straggling comets from a small oort cloud all wrapped up in a sesame seed bun,' Martinez sang out as he staggered up the stairs under the weight of a large tray. 'Some of us do our homework. Coffee run!'

'Esteban, I might just grab you and snog you right here,' Franz told him with a grin.

'Just take your damned coffee and keep your hands and your lips to yourself, ferretface,' Martinez replied with a grin. 'Miss Selen? First mate?'

Selen passed, with a smile. Yattaran took one of the insulated mugs then scowled at the tray. 'No donuts?'

'Ran out of the ready prepped stuff yesterday and no one knows how to work the machine with Anita off on the Miranda.'

Selen placed a commiserating hand on Yattaran's broad, fleshy shoulder. 'I can work it. In fact, I need something to do that isn't sitting here watching nothing but your backsides. I might as well make myself useful. The ship pretty much runs itself. Yattaran - if you need me I'll be in with Tochiro for a little while, then the kitchens.'

Franz and Martinez both stared openly and admiringly as she strode towards the stairs. Tall, slender and athletic, her black flight suit was relieved only by the tan leather shoulder holster she wore, and her auburn hair had grown out from a severe cut a few years ago to sweep against the base of her spine.

'She sure is prettier than the captain,' Franz mused. 'I could stare at that ass and that rack all day… But I never get why a princess and a big shot rebel leader like her is so happy to just run a takeaway on the arse end of nowhere, or roll her sleeves up in our kitchen.'

'It ain't about being happy,' Yattaran said bleakly. 'She ain't been happy since Zero died. Sometimes you just have to find something that fills the hole… and keeps you from either going off the rails or stickin' a bucket on yer head an' screamin' out loud.'

Martinez and Franz both stared at him as though he'd suddenly sprouted a second head. 'When did you get so philosophical, first mate?' Martinez asked eventually.

Yattaran shrugged and scratched his navel, the movement sending shockwaves through his enormous belly. 'Saw it with the captain and Kei back when he first took the helm. Those two kids were clinging to each other like they'd found the only spar after a shipwreck to start with. Everyone of us has something we cling to. Ain't always smart. Ain't always comprehensible to anyone else, but we all have it.' He glanced back to where the captain's bird was grooming its feathers on the back of the throne. 'Even that daft thing. I make models. Maji spends most of his waking hours in that work room - and a lot of his sleeping ones come to that. Luna's got a bottle, her cats and Ali and I still ain't sure which order that's in.' He smirked. 'Cap'n has his hothouses in his off time, Kei has her clipboard, and they have each other and their spawn. Her Highness now… if she didn't have her kids and looking after waifs and strays on Tabito, I'd be real worried.'

'That mad bitch of a sister of hers had kids, and a guy who by all accounts would have died for her… still went batshit insane and wanted to rule the universe even before she got meched,' Franz opined.

'Kind of my point. If she'd stuck with running a little bitty ramen shop in the middle of nowhere, she wouldn't have turned into a murdering mad cow,' Yattaran pointed out triumphantly. 'Q.E.D. Also: Exhibit two - Captain's brother? Admiral, virgin, homicidal cunt.'

'And our old captain? You think if he'd had a hobby he might not have tried to reboot the universe?' Franz asked.

'Well he did have his liquor cabinet, but it might have helped if he'd gotten laid every once in a while,' Yattaran finished with a smirk.

Martinez sniggered. 'So should we be worried, first mate? What with Anita swanning off on the Miranda…?'

'Well if I start making a play for ruler of the universe, I guess you'll find out, won't ya?' Yattaran grinned nastily. 'And if you two jokers have fuck all better to do, take over here, will ya? I'm off. Got a hot date with this sweet little number the Captain found in this junk shop last month… still on the sprues an' everything…'

He stomped off, whistling out of tune with only a vague attempt at a melody.

'Captain spoils him,' Franz sniggered.

'Captain bribes him coz the lazy bastard won't get out of bed for anything less than the end of the world otherwise,' Martinez replied with a matching snigger. 'Oi! Shiro! Rookie! Get your behind up here and grab the coffees for me will ya? I need to take Yattaran's watch!'

A boyish tenor floated back up carrying a "coming, sir!' Martinez smirked.

'Sir… gotta love it. These newbies are so cute.'

Franz chuckled. 'Remember when Ali came on board?'

'Must I? The bastard bled all over me, Bob, Carlos, the shuttle, and The Captain, blacked The Captain's eye, and didn't stop bitching for a month.'

'Ali's never stopped bitching... '

'Maybe that's his thing?'

They both laughed, startling the kid - no more than about twenty - who'd dutifully trotted up the stairs. Martinez handed him the tray, then hearing voices below, leaned over the railing with a slight frown.

'Whassup?' Franz asked as his friend straightened and took up his station again. Between them the ship's wheel moved idly from clockwise to counter as though held in unseen hands.

'Just Cai loitering with Doscoi - had their heads together, gave me a bit of a weird look when they saw me and then hustled before the coffee got there. Just seemed a bit odd - I mean Doscoi's a surly fucker who doesn't even give the rest of the engineers the time of day except when there's work to do, and he can be a bit of a twat about the guy-on-guy thing, so him being unfriendly I expect. But Cai…'

'Be fair, Esteban - since Matt died, he's been breathing on one lung. I mean, that's a guy who really needs to get out more, is our Cai. Poor bastard. Those two were joined at the hip…' He pulled a face. 'I mean, yeah, they were but… That came out wrong.'

'Idiot. And yeah, I know. But even for Cai he's been quiet the past few months. I mean - he'd give the old captain a run for his money in the laconic, withdrawn and please-leave-me-alone department.'

Franz snorted. 'The Captain would never have said "please".'

'Missing the point much?' Martinez ran a hand over the latest pattern in his buzzcut - this time a skull and crossbones shaved into the side of his head.

'You're getting twitchy because a couple of the crew are being friendly?' Franz stroked his moustache, twiddling with the longer ends idly. 'Except... Old Grumpy Pants and the Lost Leonore? Granted, that's odd even for this bunch.' He shrugged. 'Still, you never know where true love will strike…'

Martinez snorted his coffee all over Yattaran's console and tried to mop up the mess frantically with the hem of his sweater whilst simultaneously trying to avoid choking with a coughing fit. 'Fuck's sake, Franz - I did not need that image! Bloody hell… I need brain bleach…'

'Sorry mate, we're all out,' Franz told him with a cheeky grin. 'And if that freaks you out, you really don't need to hear what I found Yatts and Anita doing the other day, in one of the…'

'You're right, I don't.'

'But I gotta tell someone…'

'Not me.'

'I was trying to mind my own bus…'

'Which bit of "not me" did you not get?'

'You're here…'

'Not listening.'

'He had his…'

'Will you for the love of everything just stop…?'

'Hell no… this is way too much fun!'

'Piss off.'

Franz's gleeful cackle echoed around the bridge. On the main floor, Rick turned to the man standing at the station to his right. 'I thought we'd left Ali back on the Miranda…?' he muttered, loud enough to carry.

Franz leaned over the railing. 'Oi! You can go off people you know!'

'I,' Rick muttered, 'Should be so lucky…'

In the Central Computer room, a deep throaty chuckle emanated from the speaker on the far side of the main computer banks, next to where Selen stood, her arms folded across her chest, staring at the glowing circular light that whirled round and around in the centre of the tree-like structure that soared for the best part of a hundred feet or more above her into the vaulted, cathedral-like dome of the room.

'Something amusing?' she asked. She changed her mind about standing, and sat down on the structure leading from the machine across the floor that resembled a massive tree root.

Just the crew being idiots. But it's fun to listen in most days. Kind of like one of those daytime vids, only with more profanity, nudity and sex.

'Just please don't show me any examples,' she pleaded with a husky laugh. 'There are some sights no-one should ever see…'

Funny, that's what Martinez was saying. Except Franz is yanking his chain and there was a plastic model involved… Tochiro paused and giggled. That came out wrong…

'You don't say…' she drawled. 'Did you take a look at Harlock's request?'

Ummm. Kind of a tough one, without a sample. I mean killing these things is one thing - I can get Maji and Doscoi to beef up the specs on the M78s - hell, we could have gone production on the cosmo dragoons years ago, but that's a lot of weapon to make so free with - I didn't fancy them falling into the wrong hands…

Selen's hand went up to the butt of her model - like the new Arcadia's standard sidearms, a version of the ancient Nambu type 14, complete with the horizontal ridging on the grip. 'You don't trust the crew?'

My lovely, adorable Selen, have you seen how much lost kit we get? Only takes one careless cock up or a trip to a casino and you have to knock heads together. But I guess if we only break 'em out for emergencies, I can talk Maji into counting' 'em all back in… that is his job, after all.

'And the other problem?'

Ah. Well. That, as I said, is the tough part. Tochiro's hologramme rippled into existence at her side and he sat beside her companionably. 'We don't know that much about the metanoids. Mimay doesn't know much - that was her brother's schtick…'

'The archaeologist?'

'Uh-huh. Poor bastard. Fancy having some alien creep stuff you into a box in your own brain and walk around wearing your body like a sock puppet.' He shuddered. 'Fate worse than death if you ask me, staring out through your own eyes, screaming inside where no-one will hear you…' He pulled a face and continued. 'Anyway. Harlock described something that reminded me more of a kind of something I once saw in a text back on Niflheim, when we first met Mimay's people. I think it was Maer who read it to me, though she stopped when Gullveig got nasty about it. Anyway. It was something about non-localised phenomena - their big mistake was in trying to communicate with these things - they were kind of like dark matter life forms or something - back in the universe the nibelung come from. They built them bodies, and that's when it all went a bit wrong…'

Selen frowned slightly. 'I do recall some talk, back when my sister first started her culling…'

The hologramme nodded enthusiastically. 'Yep. Me too. Something about mistakes repeating…' He sighed. 'How the hell do you look for a dark matter contamination in a group of people already riddled with the stuff from day to day exposure? Or in the case of Harlock and Hannibal, a massive dose or three from walking around on Earth or being caught in Phantom's Folly?' He scratched at his non existent left armpit with an equally existentially challenged finger. 'Poser, this one. But there must be some way to look for them.'

'The odd behaviour he mentioned?'

He just looked at her through his thick glasses. 'On this ship?'

She laughed. 'Good point.' She tilted her head slightly in thought. 'Tochiro… thinking of poor Alberich… why don't you put a call through to Oedo's team on Niflheim? Daiba's still working on that dig, isn't he? Maybe our new nibelung friends might be able to help? They were linked into the nibelung equivalent of a computer network, weren't they? Maybe one of them might know something?'

'I was already sending a few questions through to Freya… but I'll drop them a line. Might give old Oedo a heads-up as well. If this is something from the nibelung's distant past come back to haunt us, maybe he can target his efforts a bit more.'

'Thank you.' Selen looked up and around. 'No Mimay today?'

'Said she had something to look for, down in stores. Not sure what, but she was digging around in mine and Harlock's old stuff. I'll tell her you want her?'

She nodded and stood up gracefully. 'Please.' She sighed. 'I just wish I could believe that whatever those two have fallen into is just normal trouble. Just this once…'

'Kei and Harlock?'

'Hannibal and Harlock. You'd think at his age he'd have more sense.'

Tochiro's hologramme vanished in a shower of 3-D pixels, accompanied by manic giggles, his wide grin the last thing to disappear. She left the computer room with his peals of laughter still ringing in her ears.

Inside the confines of the crystalline lattices that made up the heart of the Arcadia's massive neural net, Tochiro chuckled to himself over Selen's comment. 'Mamoru? The big boy scout? Not a chance…' His consciousness splintered into multiple locations as he applied himself to an equal multitude of tasks. Thankfully there was enough of him to go round. Unlike the early days, right, Harlock? Huh. And there I go again, talking to you as though you were there… but maybe you are? Maybe it's like a coma patient, and you can hear me? Remember those days? I had to keep shoving against the AI, but every time I took some more space up, I had to compensate by taking over that task. Good job I could always multitask with the best… And I'm ornery as all hell.

He isolated a portion of his awareness, and put it to work on the specifications for the M78s and the rest of the armoury. Shoulda done this years ago… but hell, we didn't think it would matter, did we? If you're going to change the world an' all… He split off another portion, this time to look through the cameras that dotted the ship. Doscoi, huh? Sullen bugger, makes you look like a right little ray of sunshine, my friend. Brilliant at what he does, mind you - a practical engineer, not a theoretician. Lights up when you give him a puzzle to solve. Kind of guy I used to love working with back when. But… the kid says these things can't do empathy, so I have to check - though on this ship we kind of get the high-functioning end of that curve as standard…

Cai though… He watched the footage with an electromagnetic frown. Maybe he's still moping? Poor guy had his heart torn out when Matt bought it during the plague - and boy am I glad you missed that one… Okay. Split screen, remove non-surviving crew and anyone no longer part of the team. Don't want to start too close to the plague, or during the Machinners War - too many false positives. Let's start with just after the Mazone fiasco: run facial emotive recognition software, shall we, then go on to voice stress analysis.

Humming to himself, he got to work.

Miranda

'What I never get is how come it can take weeks to travel across our own galaxy,' Ali remarked from somewhere above Blaze's left ear, 'but just a few days between galaxies…'

Mamoru looked over his shoulder from his seat at navigation, where one of the crew was showing him the calculations. 'How long have you been on board spaceships?' he asked, rolling his eyes.

'Too bloody long. But I'm a passenger, me. And this is only the third time I've done an intergalactic hop. So it's a genuine question, smarty-pants. It's weird.'

'It's physics,' Freya said glibly. 'I could show you…'

Mamoru patted her hand where it rested on the console next to his, as she was standing watching his workings. 'Don't, Freya. He gets easily confused with the big words. It's easy: remember the time you fell off one of the draught horses while we were clearing up from when the dam overflowed?'

Rei cackled. 'Oh boy… right in it, you were. Took two horses on ropes to pull you out…'

Ali gave the boys a sour look. 'Yeah… who was it blew Takuma's trumpet in her ear?'

Both affected innocent looks. Mamoru eventually grinned. 'Anyway,' he continued smoothly, 'moving in Imaginary Number space in a galaxy is like moving through mud. All those gravity wells… all that mass… it takes a lot of power because the brane is under so much strain in those conditions.'

'So's mine,' Ali muttered.

'His what is what?' Freya whispered to Mamoru.

'Brain, strain,' he whispered back. 'He's trying to be witty, but puns are the last resort of a deranged mind… Ow!' He glared at Ali, who smirked smugly at him, having smacked the back of his head. 'You do know I'll tell mom you assaulted me, right?'

The crewman leaning over Mamoru's other shoulder raised an eyebrow. 'Not your father?'

'You're new, aren't you?' Ali asked. 'See, his dad'll just sigh and tell him to watch his smart mouth, and tell him to sort out his own problems. Kei on the other hand…' he shuddered theatrically. 'I'll just tell your dad you were mean to me.'

'Ali - I'm fifteen. What's your excuse for hiding behind dad?' He stuck his tongue out 'Anyway, the space between galaxies is devoid of that kind of gravity-distorting mass, so it's more like moving through water. It's easier, so it's faster. Now if you immerse more deeply into sub-space, you can move faster because you get below the distortion of space-time - think of it like snorkeling below the waves during a storm - the further below the surface, the calmer the waters. But that takes more energy, which is harder to maintain - kind of like not having enough ballast, so you work harder to stay under, and then you take all that energy with you to travel that deep, which itself distorts space-time around you…' He smirked, as Ali's eyes glazed over. 'But it's also faster for us than normal ships because - drumroll - most of that "empty" space is dark matter, and we get through that like candy, so for us that space is like moving through air. We sprint whilst everyone else is trudging along behind us.' He beamed, at least until Freya sighed at him. 'What?'

'It's a little more complicated than that,' she chided him.

'But close enough for the peanut gallery?' Mamoru replied chirpily, ducking another wafted hand to the back of his head.

'Get Yattaran to demonstrate it with a rubber sheet, a couple of scale models, a lot of ballbearings and a bathtub,' Rei advised Ali. 'It made more sense then.'

Mamoru sniffed disdainfully and ignored them. In the captain's seat, Blaze smiled at the banter. The Miranda's crew were mostly used to the Arcadia's more lax discipline by now, but it still occasioned bewildered glances between them when there were any crossovers.

'Ali had better start watching his step with that one,' Anita said gruffly from near his shoulder. 'That kid's getting bigger, stronger and meaner in the dojo, and he fights as dirty and hard as both his parents. Ali's going down hard one day soon.'

Blaze looked up into her wide, freckled face. Anita was a tall woman; big and fleshy but not all of her bulk was fat - she still had a fair amount of muscle on her large frame. 'Professional opinion?' he asked quietly. The group around Mamoru was busy arguing over each other, so there was little chance of being overheard.

'Hell yes. I'd sign him up in a heartbeat - he's fast, strong, smart... ' she sighed.

'But hasn't got a prayer of a career in the military,' he finished for her. 'Not with that eye, and the lasting damage from the plague.'

'His stamina will always be an issue,' she said sadly. 'And no, they won't take him with that eye. Which is bloody stupid because he can run rings around any two-eyed pilot. Even Rick says he's got a natural talent, and it doesn't slow him down any, in a modern cockpit. It's a crock, is what it is. A damned waste.'

'Kei and Harlock might disagree.'

'It is what it is, Blaze. Thing is a boy like that needs an outlet. Too much energy and drive in one place. But Oedo's put out some feelers. He's keen to get the lad to sign on to the Pathfinders.'

Blaze glanced away from her and back to the boys, Ali and Freya, laughing around the nav console at something. 'Would it be enough to keep him occupied?'

'The other option is outlaw, and Kei and the captain don't want that. Wataru's keen on going all in with the SDF, and that's a whole other ball of trouble,' she continued.

Blaze regarded the small group with shadowed eyes. The nibelung, the android and the son of an outlaw… Outsiders all, but as close as siblings. The only one missing from their small group was Taro, Harlock and Kei's adopted son - an Oyama born and bred, and possessed of the family smarts in generous measure. 'Can't help thinking I really should have left them behind,' he muttered.

Anita patted his shoulder, gently for her, but hard enough to flatten a lot of men. 'Won't work with that lot. They all think they have something to prove - might as well be there to guide 'em, is my view.' She smiled fondly at the group. 'Handsome lot, aren't they? And way smart. Can't wait to see what trouble they get into when they're grown.' She chuckled.

'From a distance?' Blaze asked.

'Now you're getting it.'

Attention. Ship exiting IN-SKIP. Dropping delta-V on pre-planned schedule. Estimate arrival in orbit around the target planet in twenty Earth standard minutes. The voice of the ship's AI was female with a slight accent and a vibrato that in life Blaze suspected would have plugged straight into the libido of any man with a pulse. It certainly made the announcements a lot more entertaining than the clipped mechanical tones of most ships. We tested some advanced voice print software, Hannibal had explained when he'd asked. There are several test prints in the ship's computers. I… prefer this one. Blaze had to agree. Whoever had provided the print had a voice like liquid honey, and he only hoped it hadn't belonged to someone's grandmother making a few credits on the side...

'Takes longer to slow down than it does to get here,' Ali was muttering.

'Hardly,' Rei snorted. 'You do exaggerate…'

'Do not.'

'Do so - really, do you want me to list all the times I can remember? Because: eidetic memory.'

'Piss off.'

Rei sneered down his long thin nose at him. 'Ahhh… the perennial refuge in profanity of the average pirate…'

'Double piss off with knobs on.' Then with an evil smirk, just before Rei could make another smart-arsed reply, Ali added: 'Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo.'

Mamoru spluttered and stared at him wide eyed: 'Ali!'

Rei nudged him in the ribs. 'Is that one of those old Earth languages? What the hell does that mean?'

'Latin,' Mamoru replied absently, still staring at Ali in something between shock and awe. 'Trust you to go nuclear on your profanity just to show off. Catallus, Carmen 16? And I'm not translating that in public.'

Ali sniggered. 'Reading your dad's collection of filthy Roman poetry again?'

'It's not intended to be filthy in context…' Mamoru replied loftily.

Ali sniggered again. 'Opinions vary,' he replied airily. He turned to Blaze, who was doing his best to look as though he was completely unconcerned by the chatter, and as usual failing miserably. 'Thought about how you're going to explain the appearance of this joker to his mom, when we land?' he asked with a smirk.

Blaze smirked back. 'Actually, since you were his self-appointed guardian,' he replied lightly, 'I rather thought you could do that…'

'Wait… what?' Ali spluttered. Rei patted him on the back.

'There there, Ali. I'm sure she'll have far more important things to worry about that just who to blame for the fact Mamoru's out here… on the front lines… instead of tucked up safe and sound on Tabito.'

'Don't get cocky,' Blaze advised him. 'Mom's on her way here onboard the Arcadia, and when we spoke, she didn't look too happy about your presence on board, little brother.'

'And I should be the one of us worrying why?'

Blaze grinned at him. 'Oh. Because the little boy lost routine never worked on her even when you could pull it off, kiddo? And Mamoru - I wouldn't look so smug. I rather think your little boy privileges are shortly to be a thing of the past.' He stood up and stretched. 'Our days of taking the shit for your shenanigans are over, children. Welcome to the wonderful world of adulthood. You wanted the adventure - now you're going to have to pay the price…' He high-fived Ali on his way off the bridge, leaving the two youngsters staring at each other gloomily, and Freya smiling enigmatically in a manner that would have done credit to Mimay.

Ali followed in Blaze's wake. 'She's still gonna tear a strip off me,' he muttered gloomily. 'Just because.'

'Chin up. It can't be worse than some of the things mom said to me on the subject,' Blaze replied. 'My only consolation is that that pair will finally feel what it's like to be on the receiving end of it with the gloves off at long last.' He slapped Ali on the shoulder. 'Prep the shuttle will you? You, me, Anita and the Terrible Trio back there.'

Ali stopped and stared at him. 'You're taking them down..?'

'You prefer I leave them in orbit?'

Ali pulled a face. 'Yeah. Good point. You know what? Times like these, I'm so glad I ain't got kids myself…'

'Ali - we're all glad you haven't got kids,' Blaze replied drily.

'Everyone says that…' Ali muttered as they stood on the moving walkway. 'Can't think why…'

Blaze decided there was no chance in hell he could answer that with a straight face, and concentrated on the report on the tablet in his hand instead.