Nadesico Fan Fiction ❯ Chasing the Darkness ❯ [07] Unraveling ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I don't own most of the characters in this fic. But I'm broke so don't sue.

PART SEVEN: Unraveling

"Jun will be fine, Captain." Ines assured her. "That serum Erina gave him just knocked him out. He'll be up in two or three hours if Akatsuki's condition is any indication."

"And Akito?"

"Akito..."

"There wasn't anything wrong with him at all, was there."

Ines hesitated, then sighed, shaking her head. "Nothing I can find. But maybe he froze up-- he used to do that, you know."

"Of course!" Yurika smiled like the idea had just come to her. "And how are you feeling?"

"Me?" Ines looked surprised. "I'm very well, actually. The bullets only grazed my side, you know."

"That's good." she paused. "Can I see them?"

"The scars?"

"No! Akito and Jun."

Ines nodded and stood aside with some amusement, jotting something down about Jun's vital stats on her clipboard and moving into her office. Yurika hesitated again, then stopped her.

"Wait, Ines, before you go..."

"Yes?"

"Akito... he got knocked out during his fight with the white Aestivallis."

Ines stared at her quietly for a moment, then gave a slight bow. "Of course." she said, closing her office door.

Yurika squeezed Jun's hand and whispered a thank you, which she hoped he heard, and turned back to Akito.

******

The first thing Akito registered when he woke up was hot breath against his cheek. His eyes snapped open in alarm, but it was Yurika, not Hokushin, leaning over him with her blue hair forming a sort of privacy curtain around them.

"How dare you do that to me, Akito." she hissed. "How dare you do that to Jun? Don't talk." she ordered when he opened his mouth. "You can tell whatever lies you want, but I know you planned on getting killed out there. Don't deny it!" she snapped when he opened his mouth again.

"I'm not denying anything!" he argued coldly. "I didn't ask Jun to get me."

"You saved Jun's life once. Why did you think he'd hesitate to do the same? You're his friend, he--"

"He saved me because he thought it would make you happy! He's in love with you, you idiot! You're a fool not to see it!"

That stopped her. The curtain of hair disappeared. Akito sat up, watching her as she turned towards Jun's cot. Jun was still unconscious; she gazed at his still form with a tenderness she had once reserved for Akito alone.

"Jun is my friend, Akito." she said quietly. "He's your friend, too. That's why he saved you."

"Didn't you listen to a word I just said? He's in l..."

"He loves me. He's not in love with me. Maybe he was once, but we weren't right for each other. I always knew that. Even when I thought you'd never come back, I couldn't forget it." She didn't ask him why he wanted to die. He wouldn't tell her and she knew it. Her instincts told her that she was part of the problem, not the solution, and since she always trusted her instincts, she backed off and left him to decide what he would.

Akito spent a long time after she had left mulling over exactly what she meant when she had thought he wouldn't come back. Had he hurt her that badly? He had only wanted to make his death less painful when it happened. As he was sure that it had to happen.

If he had died out there, Yurika would have gone on a merciless campaign against the Martian Successors, weeding them out of existence before the Doomsday Plan ever went into effect. Now, however, no amount of dedication on his part was going to change the events set in motion by this battle. Or Yurika's damned capacity for mercy.

And the worst part of it was, it had been his own fault that he got saved in the first place. Something he had done differently must have inspired Erina to give Jun a nano-injection. Or inspired something that inspired Jun to get a nano-injection, or something. Time was a confusing thing to mess with-- Akito was a walking testament of it.

******

Shizuka couldn't help but let out a breath of relief as the Nadesico landed, somewhat bumpily, in the Osaka surface port. It was a completely pointless gesture, as he was fully aware that things were only going to get crazier from here on in. He also knew that he'd better hurry or Aritomo would have his head. Glancing about warily, he began to tap at his keyboard, nonchalantly hitting buttons in a seemingly random manner.

******

Aritomo gritted his teeth. How could such a promising officer have turned out to be such a failure? Shizuka had lost the A-class jumpers as well as allowed major damage to the Nadesico and missed the opportunity to use Tenkawa Akito as a hostage before destroying him. In fact, destroying Tenkawa and smuggling Yoshio to Osaka from prison on Mars seemed to be the only good things that he'd managed. Though it was Nina who had killed Tenkawa, albeit by completely wasting a shot with the beam cannon, and it had also been Nina who had hidden Yoshio in the kitchen during the Nadesico's flight. Although Shizuka had been the one to pull the jailbreak on Mars to free some of their best officers and scientists. That had been a brilliant maneuver. Perhaps Nina had been behind that one, too-- that woman needed a promotion. But not too high, Aritomo grimaced. He didn't want to have to work with her himself. Maybe he'd make her the Commander of the Nadesico and make Shizuka her first officer just to punish him. The thought made him grin evilly. But speaking of jailbreaks...

"Miki," he said sharply, "Patch me through to the Sixsome and find out why the commander isn't here to witness his great victory. It's undignified for him to be sitting in a prison."

"Yes, sir."

******

What are you doing?

"Trying something." Harry answered shortly, hooking up a few last electrodes to Lapis's suit. "Lapis thinks we can use the VR room to find Omoikane in the personal files."

Virtual Reality files aren't any more compatible to Omoikane's perimeters than Image Feedback System files are.

Harry's mouth twitched involuntarily. Ruri actually sounded miffed.

"I know, but a huge majority of the personal files on the Nadesico C are three dimensional journal logs." Harry explained as Lapis entered the VR world. "Earlier models of the Nadesico relied solely on IFS, but on the Nadesico C we were trying to integrate the two."

"It's easier to convert a virtual IFS file into a standard virtual file than it is to convert it into a flat IFS image." Lapis interjected, careful to address only Harry so that Ruri wouldn't think she was trying to show off.

"You told me." Harry informed her, but relayed the message to Ruri. After a moment, Ruri contacted Lapis.

Searching for files blind in IFS is complicated enough, but VR is twice as bad. Make sure nothing happens to Harry.

"I will." Lapis affirmed with a solemn voice.

"What was that about?" asked Harry, who was a little irritated that he'd been left out of the last exchange.

"Nothing." Lapis and Ruri said at the same time. Ruri returned to her own search. Lapis smiled shyly at Harry. "Let's hurry before we waste any more time."

******

"Message is coming through." Erina said sharply, and then immediately turned back to her computer. She was analyzing Jun's blood to find out why her serum had enabled him to make a jump that Yurika, as the Human Imaging System, couldn't trace, yet had knocked him out for even longer than the last concoction she'd whipped up. There was a lot on her mind, but that wasn't why she was being so sullen. Akatsuki, tapping the tabletop with his fingertips thoughtfully, was well aware of what was going on in that woman's head-- he knew her better than he liked to admit, even to himself.

He took a minute to respond to the message and send several things on a scrambled frequency before turning his attention to Erina.

"You're angry with me."

"I'm not."

"You're lying."

"Of course I am."

"You knew what the risks were when I first laid the plan on the table."

"We didn't have a choice." she conceded.

"But you still don't forgive me for making you do it."

"He could have died."

"You wouldn't have cared if it were someone besides Tenkawa."

Erina shot him a death look. "I'm sure I wouldn't."

"Hell, you gave Aoi that serum without a second thought, and it could have killed him." Smiling, Akatsuki tucked his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling. "You're too sentimental, Erina. That's why I'm the president and you're not, even though you want the position desperately and I don't care."

"Don't you have any feeling at all?" she yelled at him quite suddenly.

"No," he answered, unabashed. "Not in matters of business or women."

"That's sick." she whispered, gripping a vial tightly in one hand and a test tube in another. Akatsuki stood to leave the room, chuckling.

"You don't care about my morals." he laughed. "You're just upset because you're as damned as I am and you know it."

That's not why I'm upset. she thought, but she didn't let on what she was really feeling. "See you in hell, then."

******

"Sir?"

Genichiro turned to face one of his pilots, still growling. "I loathe myself."

"Are those your orders from Nergal?" another pilot asked. Genichiro shoved the laptop in the man's direction and turned to glare out the window. Quickly, all the pilots gathered around to read the orders. The commands seemed commonplace enough until the very last one; a single line at the bottom of the page.

Oh, and make some sort of inspirational speech, will you?

"What kind of order is that?" the first pilot asked incredulously.

"Akatsuki has to be the most callous person in the universe." the second answered as all the others nodded in agreement. Genichiro drove them away with an angry wave.

"You just do your job." he said shortly. "That means go suit up-- we jump on Akatsuki's signal."

When they had gone, sufficiently subdued, Genichiro sat back and closed his eyes. I'm doing what you want, right? he asked Shiratori. I'm trying to save the future and save lives. That's what you always believed in. Truthfully, he had to admit to himself that trying to live his best friend's ideals was driving him insane. They had always been good counterparts-- Shiratori the merciful, emotion-driven one and Genichiro the rational and rigid-- but trying to be both was painful.

And it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't killed him. he reminded himself cruelly, and left it at that.

******

Mayumi continued to shoot at the artillery cannons on the surface. She didn't have the greatest aim, so she could usually only take out a gun once about every ten shots, but she continued at it doggedly. Some of the other ships in the fleet also continued to aim for Osaka, sporadic laser fire blazing through the atmosphere. It was a small satisfaction; no matter how many of the guns they took out, the actual city was protected by the Artifact's shield.

"Mikako, move a little to the left so I can get a better shot at that.... Mikako? Hello? Anybody?" Mayumi looked up to see a completely empty bridge. The resulting loss of temper would have made the crew very glad that they had been absent for it.

******

Ruri continued scanning in IFS, lights moving rapidly across blank eyes. She went through every file she could before tackling the personal files. For some reason it felt wrong handling other people's journal and letters and personal databases, even if they were all encoded so she couldn't read them unless she took the time to decode each one individually. But she couldn't avoid it forever, and it was stupid of her to be worrying about being tempted to read the crew's private materials when lives were at stake.

When she finally transferred herself into that tangled, chaotic sector, she could immediately feel Lapis and Harry digging away, deeper down and farther in. At that point, she discovered that Lapis had been more than right. Converting the VIFS files to IFS was taking her roughly five seconds longer per file than it was taking Lapis and Harry to convert them to VRS files. However, the other two were constantly losing their focal point and having to retrace their steps to keep on track and prevent becoming lost in the system. On top of that, there were several other presences wandering around-- most likely Successor hackers trying to find Omoikane so they could delete it completely.

Doing a few quick calculations, Ruri made a decision and took herself out of IFS. As she made the trek to the VR room, she explained to Minato that there would most likely be an attack on Osaka and asked to be alerted if the order came before she had returned to the bridge.

"Also, see how Akito and Jun are doing."

******

"Well?"

The engineer sighed, smoothing out his coveralls, pulling himself out of the maintenance tunnel with some effort. "It's true that the power coils were never replaced."

Yurika's shoulders drooped slightly.

"But they didn't need to be."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that's not what the problem is. The coils weren't damaged during the Jovian War, and the whole system survived being stranded in space for nearly six years. It's remarkably well-preserved."

"So where's the problem?"

The engineer shrugged. "Faulty warning mechanism, I guess. Must have been a glitch in the system, because it's working fine now."

"Oh. Well thanks, try to keep it from happening again!" Yurika smiled and turned to leave. "The system doesn't have glitches." she muttered to herself on the way out. But she knew why the beam cannon hadn't fired. Someone had messed with the safety controls and set the output level at considerably lower than normal. And of course, there was only one person on the ship who could do that besides herself-- well, Harry could probably have managed it, but she pretty much ruled him out since he'd been in her sight the whole time he'd been on the Nadesico A.

This sort of thing had happened once before, but even though this time she wasn't planning on running, she had to push it aside. There was too much to do-- figuring out Akatsuki's motives this time would have to take the backburner to the more dire threat posed by Yoshio and the Artifact. She wasn't going to let the Successors get their hands on Akito while she was still breathing. And long after she had stopped, if she could manage it. Her shoes clacked quickly across the corridor as she hurried back to the bridge, face drawn and thoughtful. She had to figure out a way to get inside the Artifact's protective shield, which would be harder than it seemed considering she wasn't at all sure how they had broken through it the first time.

******

"Do you think she'll remember us, Commander?"

"Who, the fairy?" Araragi turned to face his eager helmsman. "Why wouldn't she? But anyway, she doesn't even know we're coming."

"Really, sir, leaving the docking area without completing routine procedures was very unprofessional." Araragi's admiral admonished mildly.

"We're under direct orders." Araragi returned. "From the head of Nergal himself."

"Hmm," the admiral remarked. "Too bad this battleship is under the Joint Peacekeeping Force's jurisdiction."

"Touche." Araragi smiled. He refused to let his good mood be broken. After all, these were the best orders he had gotten in over a year.

******

"Try it this way." Ruri said to Lapis and Harry. "I'll keep the anchor in my sight. You two fix your anchors on me and then we can double our range."

Running through a virtual file system was a little bit like being lost in a labyrinth. Ruri was providing them with a longer ball of the proverbial golden thread. The three quickly rearranged themselves and resumed their search with their new lifelines. Ruri smothered the smile that threatened to surface when she looked at Harry and Lapis's SD forms floating off in extremely comical poses and glanced away in amusement when Harry tripped over tiny, unseen file and went tumbling into a byte wall. The huge blocks of data surrounding her reminded her of when she and Akito had saved Omoikane before-- except back then Omoikane had still been around to help them. Glancing around, she began to sort through the files directly in her reach. The rock-sized ones she disregarded completely; Omoikane needed something at least car-sized in this virtual mode to hide in. But if she hadn't glanced a little to her left, she might have missed them.

There were three of them, and they were very, very small-- when she picked up the first one it was no bigger than a Rubix Cube. A small black box. What were black files? In a two dimensional mainframe, she would have suspected that it was a file without a compatible application to open it; but the virtual reality program she was searching through now used and recognized every available program to make a three dimensional picture. And in addition, it carried a compatibility drive to make sure each file could be put into use if needs be. Simply put, black unknown files should not exist here. Maybe it was a clue? There was one way to find out.

Omoikane, descramble file, she thought after some hesitation. If it was an innocent journal entry, she'd just put it back. But if Omoikane had put it there, it might contain some sort of clue to its whereabouts.

Unable to comply.

Ruri frowned. Open file.

Unable to comply.

Troubleshoot.

"I think I found it!" Harry shouted excitedly, and Ruri dropped the box. Windows began to pop up everywhere, the familiar bell pattern blazing across each one.

Good morning!

******

"What the hell do you mean, 'confined to quarters?'" Erina shouted indignantly.

"I don't have time to deal with you right now and I don't trust you to be on the bridge." Yurika explained shortly. "Just be grateful I haven't had someone arrest you yet."

"You can't arrest us!" Erina returned.

"I haven't. I've just confined you to your quarters, where you won't be able to sabotage the battle." Flashing them a grimace that was not quite a smile, she turned back forward. "Full speed ahead, Mikako."

"And how are you planning to bypass the Artifact's shield?" Akatsuki asked, calmly resisting the security officer's attempt to move him. "Ram it?"

"I'm the Human Imaging System." Yurika replied. "I should be able to do something."

"Captain, I'm declaring you unfit for your post." Akatsuki answered immediately. "You are relieved of command."

"Then I am placing you under arrest!" Yurika turned around again. "For tampering with the beam cannon and- and treason! And general contempt! Among other things!"

"Too bad. I relieved you of duty first!"

"Who cares? I'm making a civilian arrest!"

"You can't do that!" Erina shouted.

"Can too!"

"That notwithstanding, we're about to ram into the shield." Prospector observed.

"We've located Omoikane, if anyone cares to know." Ruri interjected softly, appearing briefly on the main screen. Akatsuki and Erina glanced at each other.

"Captain, as acting ship psychiatrist, I'm declaring you sane and fit for duty." Erina stated primly. Akatsuki leaned over Mayumi, quickly typing into her console. Before anyone had gathered enough wits to try to stop him, he had sent a one-word message. Where to exactly was unknown, but the message was clear enough: Go.

Akatsuki turned back to Yurika, eyes bright with wicked amusement. "It's easier to break a barrier from the inside than from the outside." The two stared at each other for a moment, as the Nadesico C plowed its way upwards through the Artifact's shielding to meet them.

******

"What's going on?!" Nina shouted, trying desperately to untangle herself from the dusty corner where she had been thrown when the emergency thrusters had been engaged. Batting at the windows that had filled the air around her head in annoyance, she reached for the shoulder holster that she preferred over a hip one. When she had sufficiently regained her footing, she put her gun to Porter's head menacingly. "Whatever the hell you think you're doing, little boy, I suggest that you stop now." Porter didn't move, but the click of another gun sounded from right behind them.

"I wouldn't shoot him if I were you." Shizuka said merrily, brandishing the pistol with a practiced ease. "In fact, Miss Cavoresso, I would back up against the wall and drop your weapon."

The air was suddenly filled with the sound of weapons cocking, and Nina turned to see fully half the bridge pointing guns at the other half. Yoshio stood miserably in the center of the room, hands raised in surrender.

"I was so hoping to enjoy some vacation time," he sighed. Nina bared her teeth, raising both her arms as her pistol clattered to the floor.

"Now then, " Shizuka continued, still grinning triumphantly at Nina, "All of you are under arrest, by the authority of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces. Don't try anything stupid, as the ship is once again under Nergal's control and trying to beat us will not give you your freedom but only increase your coming sentence."

******

"Sir..." Porter hissed as they were rounding their prisoners into the brig (with Omoikane helping to keep them there this time). "Weren't we supposed to wait until Nergal secured Osaka before arresting them?"

Shizuka shrugged. "So I got a little impatient. Objections?"

Porter glared at Nina, who glared back at him through the small window in her cell and began to shout ugly though unheard obscenities. "None, sir."

******

"Death before dishonor!!!" Tsukai screamed, rallying his half-hearted troops behind him.

"There doesn't need to be any more bloodshed." Genichiro shouted, climbing out of his cockpit to stand unarmed on the ground beside it. He had been doing the same thing with all the Successor squadrons that he met. It always went over well--they considered it sheer bravery from a war hero, to come before them with no way to defend himself except his words. The actual truth of it was Genichiro had been hoping that someone would shoot him and that he'd die a cold, graceless death just like Shiratori. But of course, in life only perception counts.

Tsukai bit his lip in irritation. He wouldn't shoot a man in the back-- he abhorred the very idea, but he did very much want to kill that man, and any person who tried to defend UE. And yet, listening to the eloquent speech this man delivered, he could almost believe his words. It didn't help that several of his men recognized their commander from during the war and were already laying down their weapons.

******

Once the Nadesico C had broken the barrier from the inside, it was a simple thing for the other two Nergal ships to breach it as well and head for the surface. Guided by Ruri and Omoikane, the Nadesico C came to a halt some way above the planet, maimed by the loss of its starboard engine. Two Liatris cruisers attached towlines to the crippled craft and escorted it back to the surface. The rest of the fleet began to fan out to make a blockade.

******

Akito glanced over at the cot next to his. "Come on, you idiot, wake up." he muttered. "You're going to miss everything." Whatever other problems it had caused, Jun's rescue had been an act of true bravery and Akito felt it was ignominious for him to sleep through the rest of the battle.

******

Aritomo watched the events unfolding with a sort of detached disbelief. Somehow, the fact that all three Nadesicos had broken through the Artifact's barrier and were now parked on his front lawn found him more irritated than surprised. He wished briefly that people would stop introducing new elements to a fight without informing him first. It really wasn't fair. He looked around for someone to blame the loss on. Shizuka-- yeah, somehow or another, it was all his fault. Where was the bastard, anyway?

"Sir, should we proceed with the removal plan?"

"Yes! By all means, get the Artifact out of here!" Aritomo sighed. Sometimes people were so stupid. They were losing the city; they had to move quickly if they wanted to keep the Artifact in their grasp.

"Sir, they've got Mr. Yamasaki!" Miki the intern said frantically, pointing. Aritomo looked out the window to where she was pointing; it seemed that Nergal had managed to get inside the Nadesico C and capture his crew.

"Where the hell is our ground force?" Aritomo demanded.

"Being mesmerized by the Jovian pilot, sir!" one of the guards on duty supplied militantly.

"Tsukiomi Genichiro is here?!" Miki asked excitedly, rushing to the window the guard had been looking out of. "He's so hot!" The three other female interns in the room gathered around Miki at the window, chattering ecstatically.

"Oh, for the love of..."

"Sir, I must insist that we evacuate the city, sir!" the other guard interrupted, sizing up the situation with some apprehension.

The room fell silent as Aritomo gazed out the window at Genichiro's speech. Many of his infantry were ripping their headbands away and crossing to stand behind the smooth-talking Jovian. "Remind me to have him assassinated." he muttered half-heartedly. "All right, let's go."

"But sir!" Kari, a short intern who could have passed in all ways as Miki's twin, spoke up. "What about the crew on the Nadesico C? Shouldn't we try to rescue them?"

Aritomo closed his eyes, trying to decide if there was anyone he wanted to save desperately on the ship. With the possible exception of Yamasaki Yoshio, he couldn't think of anyone. "Is the Artifact safely away?" he asked instead of answering.

"Sir!" the first guard saluted. "It was last reported successfully through the ground blockade and well on its way to Seoul, sir!"

"Excellent." Aritomo picked up his briefcase and headed for the door. "We'll leave someone behind to rescue Yoshio-- where's that Aki Tiki guy? He'll do."

"Akarui Tsukai?" Miki answered. "He's sulking in his Aestivallis."

"Fine. Have him rescue Yamasaki by any means he can. Now let's get the hell out of here."

******

Things had been happening very quickly; by the time the crews of the Nadesicos and the Liatris cruisers filed out into the courtyard, the battle--such as it was--had already ended. Ryoko seemed to be the only one disappointed by this, but even she was too drained to complain about it. Much.

Several members of the crew of the C were herding other members of that same crew into detention vans to be trucked to the nearest penitentiary. One of the ones doing the herding was James Shizuka himself; so no one was surprised when Akatsuki, smug expression fixed firmly on his face, went over to join the man who had taken over the ship in the first place. Shizuka bowed in acquiescence, then returned his attention to his prisoners. Sharing shrugs and looks of confused resignation, most of the crewmen of the Nadesicos A and B followed Akatsuki. They were joined almost immediately by Genichiro, who had finished converting the Successor infantry and pilot squadrons to what he had privately termed Nergalism, or in more cynical moods, Akatsukiism.

******

"Sir." Shizuka bowed again, slightly. Genichiro acknowledged his presence with a nod.

"Disgusting." Nina spat out as she was led away.

"I'll miss you, too," Shizuka informed her, grinning.

"So you were working for Nergal the whole time?" Harry asked, cocking his head. "I should have guessed. No one is as incompetent as you made out to be."

"I thought it was a pretty good acting job." Akatsuki laughed. "Except I might have to dock pay for the 'fool' line."

Shizuka sighed. Sometimes, he wondered if there was some company somewhere where the people got smarter as their rank went up.

"Where's the cap--admiral?" someone asked.

"I'm right here." Yurika chirped brightly. She had hold of one of the recently revived Jun's arms and was helping him make his way painfully down the ship's entrance ramp. Akito was supporting him on the other side. Jun looked mortified and felt twice as weak, but Yukina's face was brilliant as she looked up at the trio.

"Jun, you were so amazingly brave!" she shouted, wrapping her arms around his neck and toppling them both back into Yurika, who latched onto Akito to keep from falling and ended up bringing him down with her. Jun turned bright red, partially from lack of air, and tried desperately to disentangle himself. Yukina just hugged him tighter before letting go. "That deserves a date!"

Jun turned redder, and this time air had nothing to do with it.

******

Though it soon became apparent that Aritomo and the Artifact had evacuated the city, everyone involved felt the day was a success. All the Nadesicos were safely back in Nergal's hands; most of the Successors in Osaka had either been captured or agreed to find a compromise. And perhaps most importantly, Yamasaki Yoshio was on his way to the most secure penitentiary the company could offer. The extended crew of the Nadesico was given three days of shore leave while repairs were made to the Nadesico C. The improvements made on the A were to be integrated into the C's mainframe, and the Nadesicos A and B would be returned to dry dock where they were scheduled to remain permanently. The first Nadesico would be reverted to a war museum, and the B would be used in Nergal's newer, tougher basic training.

Well, that's what Akatsuki claimed, anyway. What that man ever really did was anyone's guess.

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