The Tonnerre flew over the waves with an ease and grace that defied the effort needed by her crew to make that possible. Dozens of men and women scampered around the deck tying and untying ropes, hauling on lines and beams, cleaning, polishing, climbing with apparent disregard for safety into the swaying rigging with no visible means of support, all whilst the ship itself seemed determined to wallow, dip, bounce, and do everything but actually take off in thrall to the fickle ocean surface and the winds that whipped its surface into a fine foam on the peaks of the smaller waves.

Rei tried to push his unruly, salt-soaked mass of black hair back out of his eyes, and tried not to obviously cling to the sides of the ship with gloved fingers. Judging from the slight crack he'd left in one railing, he wasn't doing too good a job of it so far. He'd shuffled away from the tell-tale splinters hoping no-one would notice it. With any luck one of the insane idiots clambering around those fifty foot or more masts like a demented monkey on a bad acid trip would fall on it and the damage would be lost in the wreckage… He peered more closely and groaned inwardly, since one of those demented monkeys was his regular partner in mischief and mayhem - or as his parents liked to call him, Mamoru.

Selen appeared at his side before he noticed her, her approach masked by the ongoing activity and his preoccupation with the grey, churning waters he just couldn't stop staring at. Waters that could close over a hapless android's head should he be unlucky enough to fall in… cutting him off from the light as he fell several miles into ever-increasing darkness, through the dancing drifts of marine snow, to land on the cold, silted floor below, there to lie for an eternity, staring up into the blackness, for a ray of light that would never come whilst generations of sea-creatures chewed on his self-repairing hide…

Poke. A finger jabbed gently into his ribs.

He glanced around and gave his adopted mother a wan smile. Over his other shoulder Motherball hovered, gauges facing the waves as though they fascinated her. Selen's wide smile elicited a similar response from him by instinct. 'Staring into the abyss?' she twitted him.

He shrugged. 'Kinda. It's weird. I can handle stuff that would kill most humans… but out here, on the ocean? It's a level playing field. Look at it, mom. It's an environment almost as deadly as space.' His hand waved vaguely to take in the distant horizon where fluffy clouds gleamed a bright yellow-orange in the clear air. 'Humans came from the water, your bodies are mostly water, but you can't breathe it or live in it.' He paused then laughed. 'Okay. Before you remind me, I know, I know, the aquatics do well enough…'

'Still have to come up for air every so often,' she replied. The wind whipped her auburn hair around her face and heavy, wet strands slapped into his. 'Sorry.' She pulled the long mass into a quick plait. 'You know, you do not have to face it head on, you could wait below decks until we get there. We're a couple of hours out at most.' She turned back and looked up into the rigging, one hand shielding her eyes against the sun. 'Dammit, does he have to do that? Harlock will kill me if anything happens to him…'

Laughter and catcalls floated down to them from the rigging, where Mamoru, aided by a couple of the crew, was helping to haul in one of the heavy sails.

'I guess I'm not the only one who thinks he has something to prove…'

'Rei darling, you were nine and it was freshwater. Your body isn't as dense now as it was then - you're probably at least a little more buoyant than you think.'

'Psychic, much?' She smiled enigmatically without answering, and he jabbed a finger at the roiling waves. 'But I'd rather not test it if you don't mind.' The ship dipped rather violently at that point, and he made a grab for the rail. 'Great timing,' he muttered, then a gasp nearby drew his attention. Above, on the main spar of the tallest mast, a figure was clinging helplessly to the rigging. 'Mamoru…' A crew member was inching towards him, but another wave rocked the ship, and Mamuru lost his grip and began to fall…

...to hover in place below the spar, motionless in the air. Gasps from the surrounding crew and a murmur of amazement rippled through the crowd on the deck, all eyes staring at the youth. Rei glanced at his mother and saw her standing, one arm outstretched, her eyes fixed on that lanky figure. Sweat beaded on her forehead and her breathing sounded a little laboured.

'It's okay! He's on a rope!' someone called out. The man crawling along the spar reached down and grabbed hold of an outstretched hand. Laughing nervously, Mamoru let himself be hauled back to safety, but Rei noticed he was quick to scramble back to the relatively safer deck. Selen lowered her hand and sagged against Rei, who placed a steadying arm around her.

'I thought you weren't supposed to do that without one of the queens' crowns,' he muttered into her ear. A few of the crew gave them strange looks, but few seemed to have noticed the intervention, most probably attributing it to the belaying safety rope.

'They help with focus and provide a boost for larger targets, but it's possible to use telekinesis on smaller objects without them. I'm just out of practice.' Selen sucked in a few deep breaths as Mamoru walked towards them with a jaunty stride. 'A lot out of practice,' she added with a shaky laugh, one which Mamoru answered with a slightly sickly grin, quickly wiped off his face when Rei punched him on the arm as he drew level. 'Hey!'

'You worried mom,' Rei snapped at him. 'Made her tee-kay you. Showing off up there…'

'Rei.' Selen's voice was quiet but assertive. 'I can deal with this. Why don't you make sure that drive's ready to move once we reach the island?' When he opened his mouth to refuse she lifted a finger, and he shut his mouth with a snap. Sulkily, he shuffled off to the door leading below deck, in the underside of the poop deck. Selen turned to Mamoru with a sigh. 'You make it hard to keep you safe, you do know that?'

He gave her a peck on the cheek. 'Sorry Aunt Selen - but they had me on a line - wouldn't let me up without one.' He rubbed at his ribs with a rueful grin on his face. 'Got a squeeze from that and your helpful invisible hand though. But thanks for the assist.' He glanced over to where Rei had vanished. 'Seriously - is he really pissed at me?'

She smiled. 'More worried I think. You scared him half to death with that fall, though he hates to admit it.'

Mamoru pulled a face. 'He worries about you as well. That thing with the…' he waved one arm around pointing at the mast he'd fallen from, 'takes a lot out of you, if I remember correctly? Isn't that a trick your sister could pull?'

'Part and parcel of the package,' she replied vaguely. 'All the cloned potential queens have both telepathic and telekinetic abilities.'

'But didn't Promethium hold back an earthquake once? Yet just holding me…'

'Yayoi was wearing the crown at the time. It allows the wearer to amplify and focus their ability by several factors. She used it several times, though it almost killed her to pull some of the stunts she did. Overreach yourself, and there's no coming back.'

'Back?'

She turned and leaned on the railing vacated by Rei, staring out over the ocean as the ship cut through the waves. 'Like running downhill - once you start, you can't stop. If you apply yourself to a job too big, and can't finish it, you can pour so much of yourself into it that you can't stop. You're a conduit for the power - you can draw so much safely, but too much and you blow a fuse. Don't forget you're basically trying to fly in the face of physical forces at the most fundamental level. It was a dangerous enhancement to make - the human body hasn't really evolved to cope properly yet.' She suddenly pointed. 'I think that's our destination.'

Mamoru leaned on the railing next to her and stared in the direction she pointed. Up ahead was a small atoll - part of a small chain, he realised, as they drew closer, spotting several sharp peaks on the horizon. Volcanic, unless he'd forgotten all those extra lessons with Ali over the years. He squinted, wishing for a telescope at this point for a closer look. The ship was heading for a break in what looked like a circular wall. 'A caldera?'

'Certainly looks that way,' Selen told him. 'What better place to sink the transports, when you think about it? There's apparently only this one way in, the remains of the shield wall make it a natural fort, and it's deep enough to mask the ships from a casual fly-over, but not so deep they can't be easily accessed.'

'Unless the idea of what could happen when more than twenty hyperspace drives are in the path of millions of tons of molten magma fill you with dread,' Mamoru replied glibly. Halia, passing by on her way to the helm gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

'Relax - this was a convoy, there's only one drive, on the tug. And the last time that thing blew was around the time modern humans were evolving on Earth, or so we're informed. It's extinct.'

'Or overdue,' Mamoru said dryly. Halia just beamed at him.

'Relax. This particular island isn't sitting over the hot spot anymore. That'd be the one about a couple of hundred miles to planetary east,' she said, pointing to a column of smoke on the distant horizon puffing out "I'm sitting on a deadly magma plume" into the air for the benefit of those watching.

Mamoru turned back to Selen as the young woman continued on her way, shouting orders to the crew. 'She does know how far magma chambers can extend, right? Or do we need to get Ali back to give them some overdue lessons in vulcanology?'

Selen gave him a small push in the direction Rei had taken earlier. 'What did your father tell you about looking for trouble?'

'Usually, that I wouldn't need to,' he drawled. 'He does keep muttering something about genetics periodically…'

She chuckled. 'I think we can safely say it's as much down to environment than breeding,' she told him as they both ducked under the lintel. The corridor beyond was narrow and cramped, and she led the way, passing by two small doors before they reached the room where the dark matter drive was stored. 'Otherwise…' she trailed off.

'...you'd be worried about turning into a murderous tyrannical bitch?' he added for her.

'That's possibly a little harsh,' she chided gently, her hand hovering over the door handle. 'Yayoi didn't really begin to fall apart until she replaced our "mother".'

'You're responsible for almost as many people as she was, given the reach of the em-tees,' Mamoru said quietly. 'You've seen horrors beyond imagining, fought monsters, two major wars and you're the nicest, sweetest person I know who isn't one of my parents, aunt Selen.'

'Oh, Mamoru,' she sighed sadly. 'If you knew the things I've done…'

It wasn't easy from his position behind her, and in the cramped quarters, but he dropped a quick kiss on the side of her head. 'You sound like dad.' Before they entered the room he added: 'Out of interest - did your's and Zero's kids inherit that psychic thing?'

'It doesn't have full penetrance,' she replied as they entered. 'As far as I've been able to tell, none of them shows any abilities along those lines.'

'What lines?' Rei looked up from the device that occupied a heavy wooden table in the middle of the room, his long nose twitching slightly.

'Just asking about whether or not the magic runs in the family,' Mamoru told him as he sauntered over. He ignored the slight form of the nibelung who lurked on the far side of the small cabin, sorting several brassy fittings into neatly ordered rows. 'Is it ready?'

'Well it's ready to install. Yngwie here says it's good to go.' He stepped away from the table to let his mother and Mamoru get a better look at the dark matter engine.

It was an elegant device - a collection of pipes and rotating gears in an antique silver finish, it resembled the bastard offspring of an orrery and a pipe organ. A fraction of the size of its big cousin on board Arcadia, this was about eighteen inches across, and although heavy, just about passed for man portable. The several circles moved in strange and charming orbits, at times moving in patterns that seemed to pass through other parts of the machine, sometimes vanishing from sight altogether before reappearing in a totally different configuration. Mamoru shook his head as though to clear it. 'Damn… I can never follow the path of those things.'

'Unless you can visualise the universe in all eleven dimensions,' Yngwie piped up from his place at the small bench to the rear of the cabin, 'You can't. You also need to be able to hear the music of creation in order to tune it correctly.'

'That's your speciality?' Selen asked. Yngwie inclined his head slightly, his silky fine hair falling around his shoulders. 'The boy shows some promise,' he replied, the words sounding is though they were being dragged out of him. 'I admit to being impressed by this one - the technology used to create him was obviously nibelung - I assume the rebel faction?'

Rei rolled his eyes. 'Standing right here…' He shrugged. 'That was dad's and Harlock's guess. There wasn't anyone left to ask, but they weren't the good guys, shall we say?'

'You were created to handle dark matter and zero point energy,' Yngwie told him. 'No human civilisation has advanced that far unaided - not even the Bolar Empire, and they came close before Gamilas destroyed them.'

'Kicked 'em right into touch,' Mamoru grinned gleefully. 'I think that major moving violation of theirs is still a shipping hazard… Across at least a couple of light years. Gotta love those blue guys…' He nudged Selen in the ribs. 'Doesn't Ben's dad have a bit of a thing for you?'

She rolled her eyes and sighed. 'He's expressed an interest in adding me to his harem,' she replied dryly. 'I thanked him for the offer but told him I didn't like sharing.'

Rei snorted. 'You might want to rethink that, mom. He might just take you up on it one day…' Noticing Yngwie staring at him he narrowed his eyes. 'What now?'

'I find you fascinating. We toyed with artificial lifeforms, but that resulted in the disaster that was the metanoid race. We used the formless shadows to give our automata intelligence, and they turned on us. The human solution is not one we considered - allowing a brain to develop naturally.'

'Not all of us do,' Rei said shortly, scowling slightly - though now, not at Yngwie. 'It's cheaper and faster to use brain imprints, and that's what most factory produced sexaroids are given. It helps, since most of them are produced as adults. I was a prototype.'

'The same technology lies beneath the cloning techniques used to produce the bodies in storage Captain Khalsa - Nero - is so keen to save,' Yngwie replied with a moue of distaste flirting with his tiny, pale blue lips. 'On the human brain its success is limited. Even if we can keep the power on until the raiding party returns, he needs to understand that he could still lose a lot of these clones - attempts to integrate the older bodies with more detailed memory implants have been a little mixed.'

'I did wonder,' Selen murmured. 'On Lar Metal cloning was used almost exclusively for reproduction. Memory downloads capable of transferring personalities intact tended to induce violent, paranoid psychoses. It seems Doppler hasn't found a solution to that problem.'

'Explains a lot about Doppler and his high command though,' Rei added in a muttered undertone. He tipped his head to one side. 'Hey - I think we've stopped…'

Mamoru strolled over to the portal and peered out. 'They said they'd have to anchor offshore - something to do with the wind. It must be too sheltered inside the shield wall. We'll be taking the launches to that main transport tug - there's an access tube running down to the transport, and the others are slaved into that one. They should have the linkages completed by the time we get there - that was the plan, anyway.'

'How did they alert them? Carrier pigeon?' Rei snorted. He leaned over the nibelung device, peering into its peculiar workings.

'Standard wireless transmitters work once out from under the EM shield,' Yngwie informed them. 'Since it takes several days to reach the islands, they've had more than enough time to complete the cabling.' His fluting voice sounded smug.

'And just how did they ship enough cabling in to link all those ships together?' Rei asked.

Yngwie's tiny mouth twitched in an all too human smirk. 'From orbit, of course - we have several ships guarding the planet. The captain just had them print up and ship down the supplies.'

Rei pulled a face. 'So we could have just hitched a ride up and come back down on the cargo shuttle? Instead of taking almost a week to get here via a mode of travel that's almost as old as humanity?'

Mamoru coughed. 'Well you did say you needed time to work on the engine… and I thought it'd be sorta neat… I mean, dad's going to be gone for at least another four days, and the raiding party about a week…'

'"Sorta neat?"'

If Mamoru heard the dangerous note creeping into Rei's voice, he carried on staring out of the open window in blissful oblivion. 'Hell yes - when do we get opportunities like this back home? It's awesome!'

Rei turned a pleading glance on his adopted mother. 'Please - can I kill him just a little bit? Harlock might even thank me… Hell, I know Wataru will…' He smirked when Mamoru thumped him on the arm. 'You still hit like a girl…'

'I'm being nice. Your moms are watching.'

The motherball pulsed green as though it was laughing, and Selen couldn't resist the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. At this age, with their lives ahead of them, they were cocky, spirited and despite both having had rocky starts (Rei) or trauma (Mamoru) - they still found joy in the present and the future. Out loud she simply told them to take the drive to the launch. Once they'd left she turned her attention to Yngwie, busy packing his fittings into a bundle for carrying.

'Keeping watch over me?' he asked, his musical voice approaching a sarcastic drawl as closely as it could. 'Do any of you think I'm deaf and blind?' his third eyelids flickered over his large, round eyes. 'Okita and Harlock are both unsure if I can be trusted, and you appear to be firmly on their side. Which is amusing, since I've done far less damage in my life than Mimay has, and yet…'

'You're abrasive, defensive and you hold some opinions that the rest of them find unpalatable, if not outright distasteful,' she told him bluntly. His already round eyes widened. 'Some of your attitude reminds them uncomfortably of the rebel faction we've fallen foul of over the years, so you might just want to bear in mind that they've only had a few members of your race as examples, and most of them have proved treacherous.'

'Honesty…' he murmured. 'Uncomfortable, but thank you. It's preferable to the sideways looks and sly mutterings.' He sighed. 'The girl… I never expected to see one outside of its housing. They…'

'You were ashamed,' she told him. 'Not of your reaction to her, but you were face to face with a cold, hard truth you'd rather not have dealt with. That creatures you'd thought of as simply necessary, faceless automata had lives, and feelings, were no different from you. That kind of shame can make or break a person. Which are you, Yngwie?'

He stared at her, his small mouth twitching slightly. 'That has the ring of experience,' he replied. 'I've heard about your world - a genetically enhanced elite, ruling from their ivory towers above the stink and noise of the workers who kept their machinery running. I've also heard of you… the queen-in-waiting who led a slave rebellion against her own mother - and ended up putting an even worse tyrant in her place.'

'Honesty…' she murmured, not hiding her flinch. 'Uncomfortable.'

Surprisingly, he smiled at her echoing of his earlier statement. 'Our races are sadly not so different, Ra Andromeda Selenium. But then, it seems our rebels have much to answer for in the development of your planet's culture. In answer to your question, I do not know. But the child - Freya? Is charming, and sharp-witted, as well as gifted - her work on the power module was exemplary. I will try not to let old prejudices colour my thinking. I am not one of the rebels. I have no desire to bask in old glories of times lost in myth and legend. These metanoids are nothing I want any part of.' He fumbled with the clasp on the box he'd filled. 'As for Mimay… on that score, I cannot be so sanguine. She acted alone, setting off that reaction which destroyed Earth and left all of us cursed. Her attachment to Harlock and Tochiro over-rode any attempt to talk sense into her. If anyone expects me to forgive her any time soon, they have a long wait ahead of them.' He looked up directly into her eyes. 'I liked Earth. It was beauty, in a mostly barren galaxy. The sheer volume and variety of life it held, even so damaged by humanity before you left it was breathtaking. I was permitted to visit several times - Okita can verify this - to wander your seashores, your mountains, deserts, forests… Our world had lost those long ago. Our forests were silent, poisonous….' He sighed. 'You had a jewel beyond price…' he shook his head sadly, the movement causing his long hair to flutter. 'Under the Mazone it will recover, but like our world, it will never be the same, and I weep for that.'

Selen regarded him with a little more warmth than she'd originally felt for the prickly alien. 'You sound more like a poet than an engineer…'

'I wasn't an engineer,' he blurted, fiddling with the contents of the box, having given up on the clasp. 'When Deathshadow Three was damaged, Gullveig had to take Maer's place, as she was too badly injured. I was a medic - in my last year of training when we were forced to leave Niflheim - they needed someone to keep the machines running smoothly, so I volunteered - I wanted to see Earth... I never expected…'

'To end up spending a hundred years maintaining a machine you barely understood?'

He flushed a darker sea-green. 'I can operate these machines; it's a larger version of the one your son is working on, and we used them to power our homes, but…'

'You've been flying by the seat of your pants and didn't want anyone to know it?' she finished for him. She smiled sympathetically. 'You're rather younger than Freya, in real terms, aren't you?' she asked gently.

His gaze dropped miserably to the table top. 'Ra An…'

'Selen,' she interjected firmly but kindly. 'Just Selen, Yngwie. No-one uses that name unless they're trying to make a point.' She took the few steps towards him necessary to reach him, then reached over and closed the box with deft fingers. 'Honesty,' she added, with a smile. 'Make use of it a little more. Pride and shame are toxic, and you might have just wasted an entire century alone and isolated when you could have made peace with your circumstances and found friends amongst those exiled with you. When Nero and Yanez get back, try opening up a little more. Humans can often surprise you. Even Mimay has found that to be true.'

'I… need to get these to the launch.' He almost scuttled out of the room, but he did, she noticed with a smile she hid, stop in the doorway to dip his head in acknowledgement. A couple of seconds later, Mamoru's tousled head popped around the door frame.

'He's still a bit of a prick, but kinda helps to know it's just because he's an adolescent prick, right?' He grinned.

'You could try being a little nicer,' she chided, walking towards the door. 'Is that launch ready?'

'Just waiting for your illustrious presence, auntie,' he replied jauntily, falling into step with her, hands thrust into his pockets. 'Do you think the others are okay?' he asked as they crossed the wooden deck to where the rope ladder down to the launch awaited. 'Dad, Gramps, Blaze…?'

'The last message came from Hannibal this morning, relayed from the Celeste in orbit. They should be already engaging the ground forces on that factory world. I gather they met with a little more resistance than they expected.'

'Nothing from dad or Nero?'

'Not since they went silent prior to engaging. But you know how the weapons affect space-time in the region of a battle. The first thing affected is the warp radio. I know it's hard, but try not to worry. They've all been doing this for a long time, and Harlock's a canny tactician.' She let him go first and accepted his hand to help her into the rowboat, which wobbled rather alarmingly as she set foot in it. About twenty feet long, the little dinghy held ten people, six of whom were expected to row the few hundred yards to the floating platform moored directly above the main transport. On the middle bench, Rei sat hunched rather nervously with the generator on his lap. Selen took the spot beside him, and placed a reassuring arm around his shoulders. Mamoru, taking the bench just behind them.

'Cheer up,' he stage whispered into his friend's ear. 'It's not that deep here…'

'Oh, you're such a big help,' Rei grumped back at him. He launched into a hissed and hushed tirade of Mamoru's faults and hang-ups whilst the younger boy gave back as good as he got, the insults getting creative to the point the rest of the crew were trying hard not to laugh as they rowed. They'd reached the mooring and Halia had already sprung out of the boat to tie off by the time he realised that he'd been neatly distracted.

'Nicely done,' Selen murmured as Mamoru helped her out of the boat, Rei having practically teleported ahead of them to the comparative security of the access platform.

'Just playing to my strengths,' he beamed at her. At Halia's sigh he grinned at the girl. 'What?'

'Nothing…' As she turned back to help one of her sisters - Galena, Selen thought, though she'd yet to get them straight - she could have sworn the girl murmured "boys…" under her breath.

David was already working on the pressurised hatch that led to the small submersible they'd be taking down to the transport. Once the lights came on in the corridor that slanted downwards, he gestured expansively. 'Your chariot awaits, people - but just the minimum. Rei, Yngwie, Me, Galena. Oh, and Lady Selen.'

'Why you not me?' Mamoru asked sulkily.

'Because apparently she's familiar with this model of transport,' Halia informed him, bringing her hands down hard on his shoulders from behind, and ruffling his hair when he complained. 'You're staying here with me to liaise with Rei and Yngwie in case anything goes wrong - someone needs to monitor the other ships whilst the sub crew checks the connections. I'll be on life support, you're on power. Once the system's stable, we'll transfer command to the Celeste.'

He raked her with his eye from head to toe, taking in the slim, but nicely rounded in the right places body revealed by the tankini top and sarong she wore. 'Well, at least the scenery's nice…'

David's hand clipped him gently around the back of the head. 'Eyes up, small fry - you're too young for the amount of pain her fathers could unload on your head.'

'Age won't save you if I tell them you're bonking Gallie,' Mamoru smirked, just as David was ducking into the hatchway. The tall blond man jerked slightly, and swore eloquently when his head slammed into the top of the entry. With Rei and Yngwie crowding him however he was unable to manage more than turn a quick glare over one shoulder that promised later retribution before he had to vanish from view, leaving Mamoru leaning back against the railing, sniggering.

'That was nasty,' Halia told him. He glanced across to see her eyes sparkling with amusement.

'Wasn't it just?'

She laughed, then pointed to the other hatchway on the far side of the platform, this one barring the entry to a small cabin. 'You're trouble, aren't you? But cute with it. But for now, we've work to do - the sooner we're done here and back home, the happier I'll feel. Shall we?'

Grinning from ear to ear, he followed her, surreptitiously admiring the sway of her hips inside the spray-dampened cling of the bright yellow fabric of her sarong.