Chapter 6

From the bridge of his deep space patrol ship, Derek Wildstar watched as the rest of the Earth fleet lined up into formation and warped after the enemy. All that remained behind were debris from fighter craft that had been launched by both sides, and the wreckage of the Gamilon battleship. He knew the techies on Earth would have fun analyzing the enemy wreckage.

Medical ships would be arriving soon to save what pilots they could, but a practiced eye told Wildstar that the Gamilon ship would not survive long enough for the rescue teams to reach it. He would have to do what he could himself.

"Ready a shuttle for launch," he said, as he was half way to the door.

His pilot landed the shuttle skillfully on the top hull of the Gamilon ship, on a section he hoped would be more stable than the rest. As soon as he touched down, the rear hatch opened, allowing Wildstar and his rescue team to pour out.

They worked swiftly and silently, quickly locating an airlock hatch, opening it, and entering the ship. Once inside, they moved quickly through the ship, one man branching off at each new corridor they passed.

Wildstar made his way to the bridge of the Gamilon ship. He had only been on one or two Gamilon ships in the past, so it wasn't very difficult for him to find, but the going was slow, having to step over fallen supports and blown out panels. The ship had definitely taken major damage. His progress was further slowed by the frequent shaking of the deck, rattled by smaller explosions deep in the belly of the ship. None of the fallen crewmembers that he passed still lived.

At last, he reached the bridge, and went from station to station, checking for survivors. Everywhere he looked, all he saw was death, each one saddening him just a little bit more. Taking another look around, he found the Gamilon captain, sprawled in a relatively undamaged area of the bridge.

A larger explosion echoed from the bowels of the ship.

Rushing over to the fallen Captain, he checked his pulse. At least Captain Noble still lived. Lifting him as best he could, Wildstar began making his way back to the shuttle.

Wildstar heard the Gamilon captain muttering to himself as they moved down the corridors to the shuttle. He had to listen carefully to make it out, but he was saying something to the effect of "Home fleet... What happened to the Home Fleet?"

The rescue team met back at the shuttle, which lifted back off as soon as all were aboard. Wildstar sighed at the pitifully few number of survivors from the Gamilon ship.

"Message coming in from the ship, sir," the pilot reported.

"Well, what is it?" Wildstar asked.

"Headquarters radioed in. You are being summoned to the Yamato Sea."

At last.

It was the first time that Wildstar had returned to the Yamato Sea since his friends had been laid to rest, but it still looked the same. It was still just a huge chunk of ice floating between Earth and the reformed Moon. But there were a few changes, such as the addition of a prefab hanger next to a central bunker. There were also a series of small buildings along one edge that didn't seem to be able to serve any identifiable purpose.

Communications traffic indicated that several other shuttles were also scheduled to drop passengers off at the bunker as well, so as soon as he got off, Wildstar sent his shuttle back to the ship. He stood in the hanger while he waited for the next shuttle to land, trying to keep his feelings in check. He didn't want to hope too much, yet his gut told him this was the Icarus scenario, all over again.

His thoughts about Icarus seemed to be confirmed as Dr. Sane, Eager and Nurse Acre climbed off the second shuttle. Wildstar greeted them with a smile almost as wide as the Doctors.

"How are you doing, Doctor Sane?" he asked, then looking over at Eager, added, "It's almost like old times."

"Ahh, yes. Exactly like old times," the Doctor agreed. "And I hear the next few shuttles coming up from Earth are bringing in the latest batch of cadets directly from the Academy! Of course, you realize, Sandor will be very disappointed if you don't act a little surprised."

Within his chest, Wildstar felt his heart swell with pride, and anticipation. "Don't worry, Doc. Shall we enter the bunker?"

"Yes, of course!" The Doctor walked on past, pressing button to open the door. "I hope they have some Sake waiting in there for me."

The door opened to reveal a small waiting room that was totally devoid of refreshments of any kind, or any decorations whatsoever. A bench lined the walls and sitting on it was a single, extremely bored man in a cadet's uniform.

As soon as the door opened, the cadet stood. Looking past Dr. Sane and not even noticing the others, he fixed Derek Wildstar with a look of total hatred.

Wildstar recognized the stare for what it was, just as he identified the cadet as Jordy Venture, the brother of his late best friend. It did confuse him since he did not want to understand origins of Jordy's feelings.

Doctor Sane, feeling uncomfortable with the staring contest, did his best to break the tension. "Why, Jordy Venture! We've missed seeing you at the reunions, you would have been more than welcome. What brings you here?"

"Had business here. Now they won't let me go."

The Doctor couldn't help but notice the bitterness in the youth's voice. The entire situation seemed like he had somehow seen it before. Wildstar took over the conversation. "Since they kept you here, it must mean you are assigned with us."

Wildstar went over to the door control panel, and studied it more closely. "I wish Sandor didn't always make this so difficult."

"Surprising you is one of the few joys left in his life, Derek," Doctor Sane said.

Wildstar smiled in spite of himself, then punched in his command code. "I know, Doctor Sane. It just doesn't seem fair, he makes us work for it, but I bet the Cadets will have guided tours."

The room shuttered, causing Jordy Venture and Nurse Acre to nearly fall. "Are we moving?" she asked.

"Of course," answered the doctor.

The room descended for several minutes, then stopped, and began moving again in a different direction. At last the room stopped and the doors opened.

Keeping his reactions hidden from Venture, Wildstar swallowed and held his breath before stepping out.

He stepped out into a poorly lit, but good-sized ice cavern. Light emanated from the far end of the cavern, inviting the new arrivals to walk towards it. As they neared it, the surface they were walking on changed from ice to metal.

Wildstar stopped, and forced himself to breathe again. The air was cold and harsh, but he felt the warmth up ahead. He knew, without a doubt, he was standing at the entrance of the third bridge. Beside him, Dr. Sane wore a smile as big as the one on his own heart. Nurse Acre seemed a bit more unsettled... she wasn't one of Yamato's most veteran crewmen, and was taken more off guard, while young Jordy Venture was walking around with a look of total confusion, and a bit of shock, as the ice cave he was walking down became a lit metal room.

Looking over to the right, the elevator was exactly where Wildstar expected it to be. He waited impatiently for the others to reach the elevator, before pushing the button for the first bridge.

Much of Jordy's resentment seemed to have been lost of forgotten as they rode up in the elevator. Wildstar assumed it was forgotten in place of wonderment... or at least confusion, although Wildstar didn't spare much time in thinking about it. He was too excited.

The door opened onto a dream come true. Wildstar stepped out onto the bridge. He was home again.

The main video panel still dominated the bridge and was mounted at its usual angle just above the front windows. The radar station was still in the center on the right, he always use to look there to find encouragement from Nova. The engineering station just left of the Radar station also looked same. Sandor's science station along the right side of the bridge, with the back up radar stations, and on the left wall was Homer's communication equipment, and the gunnery stations where he would always see Dash, and along the front of the bridge, in front of the windows, were the four combat and navigation stations. The station he had spent so much of his life at... next to it the one where Mark Venture always sat. The return suddenly seemed bittersweet. Of course, at the back wall, was the Captains station... complete with miniature copies of all the other bridge stations, and a chair that was tied to a lift to take it either all the way up to the Captain's quarters, or down to the second or third bridge. One thing was missing. The carved portrait of Captain Avatar that had been mounted behind the captain's chair was absent.

Wildstar made a mental note to ask Sandor about that.

"Welcome home," Sandor said, "Now that you are here, Yamato can come alive again." He had just entered from the doorway on the opposite side of the Captain's station, leading a small procession of familiar officers, including Orion, Sakagage and IQ-9.

Sandor continued, "Sakagage has been assigned to Dash's old post... It seems Kitano was unwilling to part with him. Orion has finally become our Chief Engineer, and Eager will take the main radar station. Young Cadet Venture will be our new Navigator-Pilot... While you, Wildstar will command."

"And the other posts?"

"I will assume my old duties as science officer, while the other posts, including Combat Chief, will be filled mostly by cadets on the next two shuttles."

The orders to pack everything up had come as a complete surprise. Even more so, when he had been told that his room mate would not be returning, and to pack his stuff up as well. He had one hour to pack one duffle bag for each of them and then meet the shuttle in front of the dorms. A task that Adam Row completed with an excited ease, taking care to carefully pack the picture Jordy was so fond of.

Two shuttles were waiting for them in front of the dorms, along with a group of Space Marines who were already busy boarding them. A small group of cadets were already there, but he could see a lot more cadets were still on their way. He recognized most of them, but it was impossible to know everybody on such a large campus. Most of the cadets that he did recognize were top in their fields of study; he could only assume the same was true for the rest of them as well. He, himself, had scored very high marks in gunnery and tactics, but he hadn't scored anywhere near the levels of most of the others. Row just hoped he wasn't there by mistake.

The area around the shuttles was quickly becoming a crowd as more and more cadets came with their packs, and friends rushed up to see them off. Row stopped trying to figure out what was going on, and instead turned his attention towards getting a good seat on the shuttle.

Then he saw her... even though she was also a cadet, he had never seen her before; a face a beautiful as that he would have remembered. Only thing to do was go up and find out who she was.

His progress to the shuttle was abruptly halted by a large officer wearing a green on white uniform holding a clipboard. "Name?" he asked.

Row's mind seemed to have deserted him, as he looked up at the officer in confusion.

"What is your name, Cadet?"

"Row, Adam, sir."

The officer ruffled through the papers on his clipboard, finally finding the right one and handing it to Row.

It was an assignment card. Row read it, not quite believing it was real. He read it again.

Assignment:YAMATO

Station: TO BE ASSIGNED

REPORT TO FIRST BRIDGE

The flight had been uneventful. Actually, it had been downright boring, crammed in an over filled shuttle with no windows. And quiet... the noisiness of the ground had disappeared as everyone lost themselves in their own thoughts, and the enormity of their situation.

They weren't even sure where they had landed, they suspected, but couldn't bring themselves to actually believe that they had been taken to the Yamato Sea. Then the shuttle doors opened, revealing a tunnel carved out of ice.

The officer who had ushered them onto the shuttles appeared again, and gestured them out of the shuttles, before leading them down the tunnel.

Knox glanced down again at his new assignment card, still not quite believing he was in the right place. On the other hand, the cadets who were walking through the ice cave with him seemed even more confused. It was for their benefit that no sign of confusion reached his face.

He also was not sure about the extra long list of duties that would now be expected of him and his men. Having to act as damage repair, laundry duty, some other duties that equaled janitor; some job for a Marine. His second in command, Todd, was also cross-listed, but he was listed as a cook's assistant. What were they thinking, he thought, we're marines, not butlers. But then, noticing that several of the cadets walking with them were women, made him think that some of the perks may compensate for the extra duties.

At least he wouldn't be the only one lost, wandering around a strange ship, trying to figure out where his bunk assignment was. He just hoped, that with the confidence he projected, he didn't wind up being the last one to find their bunk.

Jordy Venture was frozen in his tracks, standing like an idiot mid stride in the middle of the bridge. It was the chair. HIS chair; his brother's chair. How could he be expected to sit in Mark's chair.

He blinked. For a second, he thought he saw Mark sitting there, looking back at him. Smiling in that encouraging brother sort of way that Mark often did, but once he blinked, the chair was waiting for him, just as empty as before.

"Is there a problem, Venture?" Wildstar asked, the slight hesitation around the name "Venture" barely noticeable.

If it had been anyone else who had asked him, he might have given voice to his worries, but instead it came from HIM.

"No, sir. No problems." He said, and forced himself to take those last steps to sit in the chair.

Sitting there, it was a strange sensation to know that was the exact same place where his brother had sat. It was even oddly reassuring when he began running the system checks, to know that he was following his brother's footsteps by checking the same systems that Mark did.

He looked over his shoulder at the sound of the elevator door opening. Wildstar and Sandor were looking over some personnel reports, while two new crew members stepped off the elevator. One of them, wearing a blue on white uniform, Jordy recognized as Lucas from the academy. The other one, wearing a black on yellow uniform, was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen... he wished he knew what her name was.

The two new crew members came to attention in front of the Captain. "Cadets Lucas and Yumi reporting for duty."

"Do you already know your assignment?"

"Yes, sir."

"Take your stations, and run your checks. We are taking off as soon as we get clearance."

The cadets nodded. Lucas went over to one of the science stations, while Yumi went over to communications.

The elevator door opened again allowing a confused Adam Row to step out onto the bridge. He too came to attention before the Captain. "Cadet Adam Row, reporting for duty."

Wildstar looked up at the cadet wearing a red on white uniform. "Do you already know your assignment?"

"No, Sir."

The Captain looked over to Sandor who answered the unspoken question, "I mentioned him to you earlier, and I didn't want to get his hopes up if you didn't agree with my selection."

Wildstar nodded, wishing that the same consideration had been given over Jordy Venture, but he would still have supported the decision. As for Row, his academy record was not spectacular, but there seemed to be something familiar about it all the same. He faced Row, examining him closely, trying to look into his soul. "You will be our new Combat Chief. Assume the front combat station."

Row turned to the front of the bridge, more than a little shocked. There was his room mate, Jordy sitting at the helm, staring back at him with a big grin to congratulate him... or perhaps just glad to see him. He couldn't help smiling back.

He took a deep breath, and pushed all doubt out of his mind. Sitting down at his post, he buried himself into his system checks, letting his duty and training take over, pushing his self doubt out of his mind, at least for the moment.

Wildstar looked over his crew, feeling a sense of satisfaction. Knowing they were all good people, who knew their jobs, and would do their best. He wondered if this was what Avatar had felt the first time the Star Force had been assembled for the trip to Iscandar. Still, he would prefer to run them through a few weeks worth of training exercises to whip them into shape, but he knew there would be no time for that this time.

His status board showed all stations were ready, so they might as well begin. "Eager, are all shuttles away?"

"The last shuttle blasted off a few minutes ago."

"Good. Homer, contact earth."

At the communications console, a confused Yumi looked back at him.

Wildstar winced... old habit, he supposed. This would be the first trip without Homer at his old post. "I'm sorry... What was your name?"

The young woman, jumped up to attention once more, "Yumi, Sir."

"You don't need to call me sir. We are all family here. Contact Earth please, Yumi."

Yumi sat back down at her post, and a few seconds later, the Commander's face appeared on the video panel.

"This is Captain Wildstar of the Yamato. We are ready for lift off."

The Commander nodded. "Good. Launch immediately, and then wait for further instructions. With our main fleet in pursuit of the enemy, we will need Yamato here to guard Earth if they come back."

"With all due respect, Commander, there is another danger I feel Yamato should look into. When I rescued the Gamilon, he mentioned their home fleet. We need to find out what happened to their fleet, to make sure the same fate does not befall our own."

The commander was silent. His stern eyes searched Wildstar and Sandor for the answers to his unspoken questions. Wildstar knew he was weighing his options. He knew the Commander had great respect for the instincts of veteran officers like himself and the late Captain Avatar.

"Very well. Do you want the Gamilon survivors transferred to Yamato?"

"Yes sir, they could be of great help to us."

The commander nodded. "Your old patrol ship, with the rescued Gamilons, will rendezvous with you on your way out of the solar system. Good luck, Captain Wildstar."

The screen went blank.

On the surface, a series of demolition charges shattered the ice. They were carefully laid out, and timed, so that none of the ice chunks would fall towards earth, but instead the many pieces of ice began to spread out into a ring around the planet. All except for one midsized piece of ice. The piece that held Yamato within.

The Yamato's engines flared, instantly burning through the back portion of the smaller ice asteroid, propelling it towards the sun.

As the ice neared the sun, the heat from the sun began melting the ice, forming a comet tail behind it. Soon the entire chunk of ice was obscured by the haze.

The comet whipped around the sun, heading back towards Earth. Something started becoming visible at the front of the comet. The bow of what appeared to be a World War Two era battleship... only the bow had a hole in the front of it, the firing gate of the Wave Motion Gun. More of the ice tore away, revealing the blue and red sides of the ship, the three torpedo tube doors closed. The first of the front gun turrets became visible in the haze, then the second turret, and then the smaller third turret. The Observation decks on the sides of the ship cleared the frosty haze, revealing eager young cadets watching from within. The windows of the second bridge cleared, quickly followed by those of the first bridge, and then the Captain's room on the uppermost point of the ship. At the same time the third bridge on the bottom of the ship exited the haze. Row after row of the anti-aircraft guns that lined the sides of the top of the ship cleared, then the smoke stack. The two rear gun turrets cleared, and finally the three stabilizer fins mounted on the main engine.

Finally cleared of the ice, the Yamato's main engine flared to life, propelling Yamato on into the vastness of space.