Mamoru picked up the pace as he ran, still hearing his father's voice ringing in his ears after the announcement. He hadn't been far from the hangar bay when the bulkheads started to seal shut, and he dived under the last one with the same move that had launched him over the tryline numerous times to the chagrin of the opposing team.

A gloved hand appeared under his nose from his right side, and fingers wriggled in front of his left.

'Shit!' Taken by surprise he rolled out of the way and onto his knees, clearing his pistol as part of the same move. 'Dammit, Cai!'

'Sorry, Mamoru. Forgot.' Cai offered his hand again and helped Mamoru to his feet. Standing side by side, Mamoru towered over the dapper little pilot. 'He's over by the fighter bay, I don't think he knows we're here,' he whispered. 'By the way - cutting you from the team looks more and more like a crap idea,' he added. 'You've got some pace…'

'Stuff 'em,' Mamoru grunted, sliding the safety off his pistol. 'Some wag suggested moving me from the wing to blindside flanker and I let him know what I thought of his little "joke"…' He jerked his head in the direction of the planes. 'I've got Tochiro twittering in my ear since these guys will be all over our usual frequencies. It's Rick, isn't it?'

Cai nodded. 'He's doing something to the engine on the Captain's plane. I was about to tackle him when you launched yourself under the door…'

'Good job you didn't. These guys can take us apart without breaking a sweat, and you don't want to kill one in here if we can avoid it. Shoot to cripple if he comes at us, but Tochiro says dad's advising to encourage him to take a plane and run for it. They want to sabotage us, but he thinks not at the expense of their own lives.'

'And if he runs?'

Mamoru ginned ferally. 'Then we give chase…' From their position behind a stack of supply pods he risked sticking his head around the side. "Rick" had his back to them, and was reaching up to open a small hatch in the side of the black and red space wolf that belonged to Harlock. Mamoru's movement caused the stack of crates to move slightly, making a small rubbing sound, and the imposter whipped round, staring at the area with a frown. Mamoru held his breath, and hoped the lighting - which left the area he crouched in shadow-wreathed and gloomy - was dim enough to protect him.

It must have been, because with an all too human shrug, the imposter turned back to his task.

Mamoru let out a sigh as quietly as he could, and tried to figure out what the imposter was attempting. 'That's the gravium intake…' he muttered softly. 'You could take out half the stern if you take off with the wrong mix…' He pulled his head back in and tapped Cai on the shoulder. 'Not a good idea to start shooting in here,' he whispered next to the other man's ear. 'Most of the systems and the planes do not react well to blasters. But we really need to make it not worth his while staying.'

'I'm open to suggestions,' Cai whispered back. 'Shit… Are we sure that's not Rick? The guy was my wingman for years… between him and Kei, taught me everything I know about flying. Hell… I've been sitting with him in the mess every day. We've always been friends - he lost Layla to the plague only a day after Matt... '

'Rei saw it. And my guess would be that they use your brain as a kind of hard drive - so they can access the stored data, but maybe using different software? That would explain how they know stuff, but can't really nail the personality.'

'He has been a little quiet lately,' Cai mused sotto voce. 'But it's the anniversary of the destruction of the Deathshadow Three in a few days. I just figured that like me, he kind of felt it a bit hard…'

Mamoru laid a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. There really wasn't much he could say. His and Wataru's birthday fell only a day after Yumi had died, which had left them both feeling more than a little shit about the whole thing every year.

Cai was still speaking, he realised. '... you'd better wait here. Be hell to pay if anything happens to you.'

'Bugger that.' Mamoru took a firm grip on his pistol. 'I can…'

Their hushed whispering hadn't caught the attention of the saboteur, but the soft clank of the butt of his cosmo pistol against the heavy plastic crate seemed to ring out in the hangar like a bell. Both men froze as footsteps headed in their direction, paused halfway, then started up again with purpose, metallic boots clicking on the grated flooring.

'Who are you talking to, Cai?' Rick called out as he walked towards them. 'Why are you hiding behind there? Don't tell me you're one of the imposters…'

Ignoring Mamou's attempts to hold him down by dint of tugging on his sweater, Cai stood up, with a silent admonition to stay put. 'Funny, Rick. It wasn't my name the captain called out over the tannoy…' He held his pistol easily in his left hand, and pointed it at the erstaz pilot. 'Rick was a friend for almost twenty years, you bastard. What did you do with him? And when?'

'You won't shoot,' the fake Rick said evenly. 'I know Harlock briefed you on the fact we explode rather violently when killed. A helium 3 explosion in here - so close to the gravium storage and the rear propulsion drive? Would do more damage than I was planning. Be reasonable, Cai. Who were you talking to? Will he come out if I threaten to splatter your brains all over the captain's shiny toy here?'

'No-one. I was on the comms.'

Mamoru flinched. Even he could make out the bravado in Cai's voice.

"Rick" laughed. 'Really? You know, we do make improvements to these bodies, and that includes the sensors. It sounded to me like the captain's purblind brat… What do you say, Little Harlock? Can you come out of hiding and face me? One of the least of your foes? I'm little more than a footsoldier for our great Metanoid race. Are you so afraid? Will you cower behind crates and your elders, while others fight and die for you, little boy?'

Mamoru growled low in his throat and tightened his grip on his cosmogun, even as he heard Cai tell him to stay put.

'You however are just annoying,' he heard the metanoid say to Cai. 'So lost in the pain of that long lost soul that you wish for death, but are afraid to embrace it - and rightly so, because you'll find us facing you on the other side of the veil…'

A shot rang out, and Mamoru risked popping his head up to see what was happening. Cai stood over Rick, pistol aimed at his head. Rick's gun lay on the ground several feet away, and his left hand had been shot away.

There was no blood. As Mamoru watched, the area around the jagged wound flickered oddly, then bulged and swelled, dividing into fingers and a new hand under his startled gaze.

'Nice try,' the metanoid told an equally startled Cai. Then his right arm shot out- Rick's missing arm, lost to a firefight against the machinners eighteen years before - grabbed Cai by the neck, shook him once and threw him across the hangar. The small pilot slammed head first into the wall and slumped bonelessly to the floor, his neck at an unnatural angle even before he'd hit. The ten foot long arm casually reached down and picked up the discarded pistol as it returned to a more human size.

Taught by his father, his mother and more experienced freedom fighters than most people ever know in a lifetime, Mamoru fired twice, taking out the fake pilot's legs. Although his father's plane was closest, he avoided it, not knowing how much damage the creature had done to the fuel injection system before it had been disturbed. Don't think of it as Rick… he told himself as he planted another shot mid torso to keep it occupied regenerating as he ran for his mother's red and black space wolf. it's a monster wearing a friend's face…

He slammed the cockpit canopy down with a sigh of relief as a fleshy tentacle tried to squirm after him, the cold fingers briefly brushing against his neck.

He thumbed the comms on as he frantically went through the start-up sequence. Cold starting the space wolf wasn't recommended, but since he didn't plan on heading above the stratosphere, he figured he could bypass the safety protocols. 'Mighty metanoid warriors seem to have difficulty taking on teenage boys,' he taunted it. 'Nice trick you can do with the tentacles, but makes me wonder - can you fly? Why don't we take this outside? Unless you're just a gutless protoplasmic sack of shit? Can't take out a smart-mouthed little human punk on his own turf?'

The creature (notRicknotRick…) laughed, and the sound - making no attempt now to sound even remotely human - chilled his blood.

'You want me out of this ship,' it told him. 'Why should I indulge you?'

Mamoru hit the remote access for the hangar bay doors and prepped the engines for takeoff. 'Oh… maybe because it might send a message to my father far more effectively if you kill his eldest son on our terms… to show what you can do with such inferior bodies and technology?' He paused. 'Unless of course you really are just a coward who can only win when you have the upper hand… I mean, any moron can win when he has a great advantage in superior physiology and technology…'

'I have the experience and reflexes of this body at my disposal,' the creature snarled at him. On the viewscreen it wasn't even trying to look like Rick anymore, he noticed. The body was more attenuated, rather like the nibelung, but with oddly shark-like eyes, a deep widow's peak, and a strangely bulbous facial structure, the nose flat almost to just being two nostrils and a slit of a mouth. He shivered. 'Multiplied by an exponential factor. I'll take your challenge, Little Harlock.'

It ran towards one of the planes - Rick's, as it happened - with a looping run that looked as though its knees were on back to front. He reached for the helmet stowed under the seat and shuddered as he clicked it into place - a little tight, but the neck fittings at least were standard. 'Little Harlock me would you? Come and get me, asshole…' The space wolf slipped neatly into the magnetic railing and launched gracefully into the air, swooping upwards as Mamoru headed for the top deck as fast as he could, taking her into a vertical climb that would have been impossible without the cockpit's inertial dampers. His radar pinged to show the other plane on a similar vector, trying to get a lock. 'Nice try… now let's see if the guys can get a lock on you that won't take me out…'

On the bridge Ali swore when the proximity alert pinged on his console. 'I've got two fighters coming out of the hangar heading for the hard deck,' he called out. 'Martinez?'

'Getting Kei's call-sign, but she's slapping seven hells out of Takematsu with Yattaran. The other's Rick's…'

It's Mamoru… Tochiro replied over the sub-vocal comm channel he used for security. I can see what he's planning. Ali - this'll need a steady pair of hands on the point defence guns…

'No shit, lil guy,' Ali grunted. 'These things are calibrated for space combat, not aerial.' According to his read-out the planes were barely a couple of miles apart. 'Those two are practically humping each other, they're so close. Can't you tell the kid to get a bit of distance?'

'I do that,' Mamoru called out over the comms. 'And he'll smell a rat. He's a smug little shit - instead of keeping his distance and firing a long range missile, he's determined to do this old school. Thinks that if he sticks to my… whoa! Asshole! … you won't dare fire.'

'He's got a point.' Ali swore under his breath as on the viewscreen, Kei's space wolf slid and slithered out from under another volley of fire from the fighter chasing it. The space wolf had a weapons range measured in tens of miles, even in atmosphere. By comparison Rick was forcing Mamoru to stay low and pinning him almost to eyeball distance. 'Just stop playing with him and shake the bastard, Mamo - I can draw a bead on him but not when he's trying to crawl up your tailpipe!' His fingers danced over the console, trying to adjust the safety protocols to allow for both a short range firing solution, and to try and isolate Rick's fighter from the one Mamoru was flying. 'Shitshitshitshit… the computer's fighting me all the way on this. This system wasn't designed to be used at such short range…'

'You think I'm faking this?' Mamoru's voice went from his pleasant adult tenor into a boyish treble and back. 'Fucking nail him already, Ali! I'll worry about me!'

'What the fuck do you think I'm trying to do, kiddo? And the bastard's keeping you within the safety range deliberately. You gotta break out, Mamo, I don't care how you do it. Either get clear or get some distance!' He slammed a fist into the console. 'Fuck. Tochiro? Can't you disengage the safety margin?'

'Main computer's unresponsive!' Franz called down. 'Fuck knows what's going off down there - I've got basic systems only. The main system - Tochiro - seems to be fully occupied elsewhere. We're on our own!'

'What?!' Mamoru's voice almost reached a high C. 'Oh, fuck this. Ali - I'm gonna have to do this the hard way. I'm bringing this sucker in over the top deck. Suggest you close the blast shields…'

'Hard way? Wait… what? Kiddo - what the hell are you…' Ali stared at the screen in disbelief. 'You gotta be kidding me… is he doing what I think…'

'Fuck me…' Martinez breathed on the top gantry. 'Oh… I see his plan. It might work, if he can pull up before Rick does…'

'He's mental!' Ali screeched. But he held his hand over the blast shield control.

'He's right… the outer hull can take the impact,' Franz called down. 'And that's not an occupied area. If Rick takes the bait…'

Outside, the red fighter went into a steep dive, then levelled out skimming the ocean surface, the other plane close on its heels firing almost continuously. The red plane dodged and weaved with a frantic skill, and headed straight for the Arcadia.

Ali's fingers drummed on the edge of the console. 'C'mon… c'mon… you put so much as a scratch on that paintwork your mom'll ground you til you're thirty, kiddo.'

'I put a scratch on the Arcadia's, dad'll ground me until I'm Hannibal's age,' Mamoru shot back. A blast caught the tip of his right wing and the plane shuddered in the air. On the bridge there was a collective intake of breath and a series of relieved sighs as Mamoru fought and brought the fighter back under control.

'Two miles!' Franz called out.

'Anything happens to him, Harlock'll stuff a pole up my ass and use me as a mop to clean out the coolant ducts,' Ali muttered.

The fighter screeched into view in real time, buzzing the conn tower and making a vertical climb so close to the bridge window Ali felt he could reach out and touch the under belly of the craft as it sped past, followed shortly by the sonic boom.

The blast window slammed into place.

'Suck on that, SDF…' Mamoru muttered over the comms. Franz smirked at Martinez. 'Told you he wasn't happy about them blowing him off...'

'Their loss. Whoa!'

The plane chasing it couldn't match the climb - but then, on later reflection, Ali did wonder if Mamoru's plan hadn't been to lure it into a turn it couldn't match, or to offer it a better target.

It slammed into the blast window, and Ali flinched as the shield buckled, bulging into the bridge. Shards from the viewscreen - a transparent version of the allow that made up the hull - scattered into the room as it shattered, only to bounce back from the internal force field that ran in sync with the physical barrier. Even knowing it was there, the crew facing it still ducked, expecting a shower of white hot metal shards.

The secondary explosion rocked the entire tower, knocking all of them off their feet.

'One of these days, he'll put his hand in his pocket and get seats installed,' Ali grumbled as Rackham helped him to his feet. 'I'm getting too old to bounce around the bridge… Thanks Jacky. Damage report?'

'Took out a section of the hull below the bridge tower - we're listing a bit, but self-repair's kicking in. Big hole in the top elevation. No way a space wolf caused that much damage… we take that in battle every day!' Martinez called down.

'Yeah… but not with helium 3 bombs on board,' Ali muttered. 'Damn… those things are walking talking suicide bombers… that ain't good.' Belatedly he clicked on the commlink. 'Mamoru? You there kiddo, or do I have to make a run for another galaxy?'

'I'm here,' came the faint response. Ali grinned. Despite his cockiness, the kid sounded shaken. And about time, he added mentally. Before he wrote a cheque his body couldn't cash… 'Bringing her back in.'

'Do I need to get her detailed before your mom sees it?' Ali asked cheekily.

'Would you?' Mamoru replied, some of his natural bravado creeping back into his voice. 'I'd be in your debt…' he finished wearily.

'Bring on her home, kiddo,' Ali told him, not totally able to keep the relief out of his voice. 'How the hell did you force him down?'

'Dad's and Mom's planes got the new EW upgrades just before I left for Niflheim, and with a bit of judicious tweaking, you can send an over-ride to the avionics on the older planes in the wing, in case of pilot incapacitation. It's a bitch to do on the fly and keep from getting tagged though, but basically I made his systems think he was several hundred feet higher than he was. If he'd really been Rick though, he'd never have fallen for it. Rick always taught us to use your eyes, not rely on your instruments. Hoisted by his own supercilious superiority complex…' But his voice tailed away with a note of sorrow. 'Damn it, Ali… he was a friend and I grew up with his kids. Guy and Clare are going to hate me for this.'

'You didn't kill his dad,' Ali assured him, somewhat grimly. 'Get your arse back down here and I'll send a couple of guys to fetch you. Don't fancy anyone wandering the ship alone until we've mopped up this infestation.'

'Guess Nero's panopticon policy makes sense now, huh?' Franz said as Ali clicked off the comms.

'Bloody living nightmare,' Ali grunted. 'Jacky - take Kane and fetch Mamoru back here.'

'Erm… no can do,' Martinez called down. 'The central computer's still ignoring us, remember? And the internal bulkheads are still down…'

Ali swore under his breath. 'It's just one of those days, innit. Any news from the captain or Kei?'

'Yattaran's called in. Maji's taken a hit to his noggin, but otherwise okay. They got the bastard hog-tied. Apparently Kei chucked her clipboard at him…'

Ali chuckled. 'Man… why do I always miss the good stuff? Always said she was dangerous with that thing… Let me guess? She's heading for the Central Computer Room?'

'Via the ducts,' Franz told him. 'Complaining all the way…'

'Should lose a bit of weight then,' Ali smirked. 'Said she was putting on a bit on those hips…'

Franz whistled through his teeth. 'You do like living on the edge, don't you?'

'Franz me old mate, around here, there's no other way.' Ali stomped over to the back wall of the bridge and stared at the grill inset at about waist height. 'That goes straight back to the Central Computer room, doesn't it?'

Jack Rackam - a tall red-haired man in his early thirties with an engaging grin - pulled up a schematic. 'If these are still current, about two hundred yards and you'll be past the bulkhead. But it gets a bit tight at the mid-point.'

'Well if I get stuck,' Ali said as he pulled the grill off the wall and stared into the black hole revealed, 'someone'll just have to cut me out, won't they?' He pulled a small but powerful torch off his belt from his utility pouch. 'Here's where I hope years of Anita's cooking hasn't gone to my hips,' he quipped as he placed the torch in his teeth and pulled himself up into the opening, wriggling until he'd gotten all the way inside. The crew listened in silence as his boots periodically clanged off the walls as he eased his way along.

'I thought the captain put him in charge here?' Martinez muttered to Franz. Who shrugged. 'Like he'd leave the captain in danger if he saw a way to get to him?' he asked.

'Fair point,' Martinez granted. He smirked. 'Bit optimistic though, isn't he?'

'Why? Getting through that pinch point with those hips?' Franz sniggered.

'Nah. That we'd rush to cut him out if he got stuck…'

Back through the ducting a voice floated back 'I can hear you bastards, you do know that, right?'