Loose Anchor, Strong Tide [HnG; Shindou, Sai]
Title: Loose Anchor, Strong Tide
Fandom: HnG
Word Count: 5,500
Summary: Meijin set up a blockade around Haze. Rumour has it the drug smugglers are at fault.
Notes: Originally written for the team round of the HnG Deathmatch, held on Dreamwidth here and posted here.
“Very well, Miss Ichikawa, you may initiate docking procedures.”
“Aye, aye sir.”
Flag Captain Ogata Seiji steepled his fingers, sitting smartly upright in the great leather chair at the centre of the bridge. His eyes were fixed on the great viewscreen in front of them, watching the spaceport as it loomed larger and larger in front of them, the planet behind an almost luminous green. A backwater planet, in the general scheme of things, but located precariously between the Meijin and Honinbou empires, Haze was suddenly of great military significance as hostilities intensified.
A warning flash at the far right of the screen had him immediately intent on his task. At that speed it had to be a shuttle, but surely even a place like this had traffic regulations?
“Incoming shuttle on the starboard bow!” a technician called a moment later, as the computer caught up with his visual assessment.
A magnified view appeared on the main screen. A racing shuttle - or an assault craft - by its size and sleek shape, it was slipping through the chaotic mass of commercial craft and the rest of the military flotilla as if they were stationary. It was a show of skill that wouldn’t have shamed a professional fighter pilot.
Ogata relaxed slightly. There was no real risk of a crash if the pilot was that good. That said he couldn’t even begin to contemplate the sort of idiot that would fly like that in the middle of a war fleet.
“Starboard battery - fire a warning flare,” he snapped when the shuttle showed no signs of hesitating as it veered close to the behemoth that was the flagship.
“Aye, aye sir.”
The red streak of the flare was almost invisible until it burst alight scarcely metres from the shuttle. The shuttle swerved to safety and spiralled out of range, vanishing behind a communications satellite. Work stopped on the bridge as they watched for its reappearance. Ogata allowed himself a smile: Akira’s aim always had been prodigious, but perhaps it was time for a word about the diplomatic reasons for missing certain shots.
“Please continue, Miss Ichikawa,” Ogata snapped.
“S-sir,” Ichikawa said, tugging her collar straight.
Ogata raised a hand to his headset and initiated a call to the Admiral. “Sir? Ogata speaking. We’re docking now, expected time of arrival 1725 hours.”
When the station clamps locked on with a jolt, he stood up and handed over the watch to Ichikawa, ducking through the hatch with care for the low metal frame that had once knocked him silly in his early days as a lieutenant. Whispers of discontent or not, it was time to scare the yokels into submission.
He clamped down on the urge to shiver as he stepped into the dirty grey of the busy spaceport corridors, kept at the cooler temperature preferred by the locals. All eyes were on an elderly man, who was towing a boy along by the ear. Apparently this was more newsworthy than a decorated starship captain.
“Hikaru, I’ve told you not to fly off by yourself!” the man hissed, and if he thought it was quiet enough not to be overheard, he was sadly deluded. Ogata watched with amusement as the boy attempted to settle the too-large pilot’s headset he wore without losing his footing. The encouraging pats on his shoulders from the scruffy dock workers he passed were undoubtedly not helping.
The boy scrambled to right himself. “Honestly, Grandpa, I had AI with me, it’s not like I was on my own.”
Children would be children, Ogata thought, and continued on his way. It was fortunate that Akira was more mature.
* * *
Shindou leaned into the turn as they skirted the edge of the debris cluster and ducked into cover behind the wrecked freighter. The controls moved independently beneath his hands, almost as if he was still a child on a simulator, with his Grandpa’s hands wrapped around his to guide his first movements.
“Incoming from the rear to port,” Sai murmured in his ear. Shindou moved the port laser almost without thinking, firing two short bursts backwards. The chasing shuttle spiralled off in a cloud of smoke and Shindou settled back in the seat, feeling Sai adjusting the cockpit around him so he was still perfectly positioned. A flick of a switch and damage stats flowed up onto the console. He tracked it with practised ease, scanning the schematics for potential problems.
“One of the rear thrusters is down,” he said. They’d have to fix that, which meant going into town for parts. Sometimes he wished he was still on a simulator, where none of the damage was real.
Sai relinquished the controls and drew back. “You flew well today, Hikaru,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll be coming this way again soon. Now, shift the ID beacon back.”
Shindou made the switch and flipped down the covers over the laser heads, and the assault craft ‘Sai’ was once again the civilian shuttle ‘Torajiro’ that Haze port was familiar with.
“All set,” he said and turned to grin at the ghostly figure. “Race you back?”
Sai’s solemn face vanished and the screen split into two identical ones. “We’ll start timing from Satellite B89. The last time we came this way, you tried to go through the little moon-”
“I was eleven!” Shindou wished sometimes he really could hit Sai. It was like having an older brother. A disgustingly perfect, always right, older brother.
The docks were dark when he clocked out of the spaceport, the wide through-roads used by the shipping companies deserted as the shippers and dockers wended their way through the dimly lit alleyways to their preferred haunts. The bureaucrats were long gone by now, leaving the spaceport and its surroundings for their cosy homes in the suburbs.
It was pushing 2200hrs when Shindou slipped into the Loose Anchor pub through the side door - not equipped with an ID scanner and deliberately left open for customers like him who were of age as far as Honinbou were concerned, definitely underage according to their Meijin overlords and who-the-hell-cared in Haze’s docks.
“Shindou!” Tall and lean with outrageously red hair styled into spikes, Kaga was the original bad influence. Back in their school days, Kaga had that dragged Shindou round the cargo bays and the engine rooms, introducing him to all the important people in this world. Now he seemed to spend most of his time in the pub talking to goodness knows who; about what, it was far safest not to know. He waved at the landlord, not bothering to go to the bar. “A pint of his usual and one for me.”
“How’s business?” Shindou asked, perching carefully on one of the precarious stools that Kaga favoured. Kaga had a table to himself, as usual.
“Same old, same old. You’d think Meijin would have learned by now.”
“And the others?”
Kaga flicked the privacy switch on the table and Shindou heard the buzz of the noise interference coming on. “Mitani’s down and out - lost three shipments in the past month. They go in the asteroid belt and never come back out. It can’t be Meijin doing it. Even they aren’t thick enough to put battlecruisers through the asteroids.”
Shindou hid his grin in his beer and looked past Kaga’s shoulder at where Mitani was sitting at the bar. Kaga eyed him.
“Mitani always was a bastard,” Shindou said, watching as Mitani downed a luminous green concoction that looked like it contained something dodgy.
“Word has he hired guards this latest trip - two of Dake’s brawlers - and they still didn’t get through. Dake will be calling in his debts soon, and that’ll be it for him.”
Shindou swallowed. It was all so clear when Mitani was cheating money from the old men when they were in school. It was less clear now Mitani was going to be killed. Still, trading drugs to sell to children was something he agreed with Sai on.
We tried to warn him, Hikaru, Sai whispered through the headset. His voice was sad. He was a child who didn’t know any better. He made a choice.
“Grandpa says the drug trade is what brought Meijin here. They don’t care about most of the other stuff - but when rich children go off the rails, the politicians start getting worried.”
Kaga did look round to glare at Mitani then. Mitani had another luminous glass in front of him and appeared completely oblivious to what was going on around him. Shindou frowned; normally Mitani was the one with three back door exits.
“Is Mitani really in that much trouble?”
“Grow up, Shindou. Dake doesn’t play for small money. Expensive business all round,” Kaga said. “Anyway, I’m charging my services at a premium for the inconvenience. How are you for cash? I could use a decent pilot for a courier run to the old man in Honinbou.”
The familiar question startled a laugh out of Shindou, and he gave his usual answer. “You’ve met my mother, haven’t you? Nothing out of the system til I’m thirty.”
Kaga tipped his head back and laughed. “Sure I’ve met your mum. I’ve also seen that beauty you call a passenger shuttle. There’s no way you’ve got that slick with her unless you were doing more than milkruns. You know where to find me if you ever do want work.”
“Under a table somewhere, nursing your hangover?”
Kaga cuffed him, not so hard that he spilt his drink. “You never used to be this mouthy.”
* * * * *
The next morning, Meijin crew were manually scanning IDs as people entered the spaceport itself. Shindou looked at them curiously - he’d seen the Meijin captain a few times, the admiral once, but the juniors were usually kept on board. Sai thought that was to keep them safe; Shindou thought it was to keep them out the way of bad influences. After all, given the choice he’d put money on them being out drinking most nights, just like any other people their age.
He hit the front of the line fast - it wasn’t early enough for the people working jobs, nor late enough for the leisure traffic.
“Good morning, I am Ensign Touya. Could I see your arm, please.”
Shindou presented it. The officer was a young man of about his own age, in a beautifully pressed white uniform, with perfectly groomed hair and a carefully polite expression. The contrast with Shindou’s home dye job and overalls must have been shocking. He made a note on his pad.
“And the reason for your visit today?”
“Repair job on my shuttle,” Shindou said, waving the bag of parts as evidence. Ensign Touya took a step backwards to avoid being hit.
”Careful, Hikaru,” Sai said. ”That uniform will stain if you get oil on it.”
Shindou stopped the bag swinging and blinked. Why did Sai expect him to care about that? What kind of idiot wore a white uniform in the spaceport anyway? There was oil everywhere.
“Thank you for your time,” Ensign Touya said, and stepped aside to let him past.
“Thanks!” Shindou said, being a little more careful with his bag as he passed. He paused, wondering whether the officer really was bored or whether the look came naturally. “Hey, if you want a drink sometime, I’m here most days. Grandpa works in docking control.”
Ensign Touya’s eyed widened. “I… uh… thank you, but we haven’t been given any leave from the ship.”
“Ouch! Better you than me.”
Shindou was almost through the door when Ensign Touya spoke again.
“Your grandfather, is that Shindou Heihachi? I liked working with him. He’s very good at what he does.”
“That’s him,” Shindou said and beamed. His grandpa was the best. “I’ll let him know. See you around, anyway.”
He bounded round the corner, ducked through the security room, greeted the guard there and went out the door at the far end of the room, straight into Cargo Bay 4. It was a huge space, made ridiculous by the presence of a few small shuttles. It had long since been discontinued as a commercial dock and it was only a couple of locals who bothered to dock there now: Shindou’s family, Kaga and a few other spaceport staff - certainly not enough to come near to filling the space.
Sai slotted neatly into one of the corners, underneath an overhanging crane. He’d dangled off that crane to patch up the paint job. That had been a fun afternoon.
“What took you so long?” Akari asked from underneath the next door shuttle. Shindou crouched to look underneath. She was a much better mechanic than he’d thought when they were kids, even if she did like the girly paintjobs. “You were right behind me coming in.”
“I was talking to the guy on security.”
“The cute one?”
Shindou paused. Ensign Touya was young, in a uniform, good-looking in a girly kind of way. “I guess. I invited him for drinks. He looked bored.”
“Oh, what did he say?”
“What do you expect? Can’t, got to be home for bedtime.”
Akari giggled. “He seemed ok, though. I’d have come with you, if he’d said yes. He might have a few new tricks for getting this engine working.”
“I’d like a look at one of their ships, sometime. Not that I’d trade Torajiro for anything, but just for a spin. It must be pretty cool to have all that power to play with.”
“You could always join up. They’ve got that recruiting drive going. You mum would like it.”
Shindou pulled a face. “And have to wear that every day! Not likely. Besides, you can’t get anything unless you go up through the insei. No chance am I going back to school just to learn how to pilot again.”
He unpacked his bag, grabbing his skateboard from his stack of junk in the corner, lying back on it to slide underneath the shuttle, screwdriver in hand.
“Say, Akari?”
She grunted at him.
“Did you hear about Mitani?”
There was a curse as Akari sat up too fast. “What about him?”
“Kaga says he’s screwed. Blew his credit trying to get drugs through the blockade.”
“Poor Mitani,” she said and sighed. “I’ll have to go see his sister at the weekend. Are you sure it was drugs? I can’t believe he’d be that thick.”
“When you owe money to Dake…” Shindou trailed off.
“Yeah. I can’t wait for Meijin just to give up. They aren’t getting anywhere, just making life hard for the rest of us. I miss being able to jump the border for a weekend. It’s not like I can afford Meijin prices, anyway.”
“They’ve got to give up soon. They aren’t stopping anyone but the amateurs like Mitani. You bet the regular runners are getting through.”
“And you’d know that how? Your mum won’t let you out of radio range.”
“I hear things.”
“You mean you were down the pub with Kaga again. I should tell her what you get up to at your Grandpa’s.”
“You wouldn’t dare! She’d go straight across the road to your mum and-“
The main internal door to the cargo slid open with a whirr of machinery and Shindou dropped the bag of screws he’d been holding. He swore as they scattered over the floor and pushed himself out from underneath, ready to make the interloper regret ever setting foot in his territory.
He stopped when he saw the uniforms. Lots of very shiny uniforms.
“Er… hello,” he managed, getting awkwardly to his feet. Behind him, there was a slight shimmer as Sai discreetly moved covers over a few of their more telling bits of kit.
The officer facing him didn’t say anything, looking around him with interest. His uniform was the most ornate, with lots of gold braid on shining white. Shindou looked sideways at Captain Ogata, a familiar face from the news broadcasts, and decided this had to be the admiral, Admiral Touya. His security escort were looking suspiciously at Shindou now. Akari was making her own way out, rather more slowly.
“Hikaru, what..?”
“There is no need to be alarmed,” the Admiral said eventually. “I am merely making a tour of the facilities. I understood that this cargo bay was no longer in use.”
“Ah, yeah. About that, Mister.” Shindou swallowed; Akari shuffled closer to him. “The main door to Outside went bust, what, five years back? You can still get through the hatch if your shuttle’s small enough but it’s no use to the freighters. Grandpa said it would be okay if we mucked around in here…”
“Sir,” Captain Ogata said. “This is the shuttle that we encountered on our transit in-system.”
“Oh? The one that Akira managed to miss. Your father’s?”
“Mine. Sir,” Shindou said. If the Admiral was surprised, he was too polite to show it. Captain Ogata wasn’t. He looked down his nose at Shindou albeit with a certain amount of interest.
“I would be more careful, another time. It would be unfortunate were a collision to happen.”
“But Hikaru never crashes!” Akari leapt to his defence. Akari wasn’t afraid of anyone.
The Admiral looked sharply at Ogata, then turned back to Shindou. “Even a warning shot can go tragically wrong,” he said. “My son has not been trained to miss. If you want to do stunt flying, you should enlist. We have excellent shuttles for pilots with talent, and appropriate venues for it.”
“My mum’s from Honinbou - and Dad’s not exactly from a long line of Meijin war heroes. I’d never make the cut,” Shindou said, and Meijin resident or not, he’d arrange Honinbou citizenship if he thought they were going to try pressing him.
There was a long awkward silence.
“You had better stay well away from the blockade, then, child,” Captain Ogata said. “We wouldn’t want there to be any unfortunate… accidents.”
Akari glared at him. Shindou fought the urge to say something very rude - that or leg it.
She sniffed. “I would have thought you’d have better things to do than wall off Haze, of all places.”
The Admiral closed his eyes and did not answer.
“I apologise for disturbing you. Come, Captain, we have a tour to complete.”
* * * * *
A week later, Shindou was down the pub again. He’d finished his repairs, hadn’t made another trip out and didn’t really have anything better to do while Akari was busy studying. Sai was making him be ridiculously careful about going out while Meijin were loitering in the system.
Kaga wasn’t there when he arrived. Shindou frowned and claimed the normal table, conspicuously empty despite the late hour, and nursed a pint while he waited, waving to familiar faces as they passed him on the way to the bar.
When Kaga did show, it was past midnight and he wasn’t alone. Shindou hadn’t seen Tsutsui in years. He had been at the same school as them but had left Haze completely to attend medical school. His suit and thick glasses attracted a lot of curious glances as he followed Kaga through the crowded pub. If he hadn’t been with Kaga, it might well have led to a mugging later.
“Hello, Shindou.”
“Senpai,” Shindou said, tilting back on his stool to snag a third seat for the table. “What are you doing back here?”
Kaga and Tsutsui looked at each other; Kaga sighed and slammed his hand against the privacy switch.
“Tsutsui’s been studying on Kawahagi. He caught a lift on the last ship of mine to get through the blockade - they had to smuggle him out. Your grandpa was right, kid. Meijin are here to stop the drug runners. The medical ones. The only reason they’re near Haze at all is to stop us shipping medical supplies to Kawahagi.”
Shindou looked over his shoulder, checking for uniforms although he knew they wouldn’t been seen dead in a locals’ pub.
“Shindou, there was a flu epidemic starting in one of the villages,” Tsutsui said, hands clasped tightly in front of him just above the sticky table. “If they don’t get supplies, it’s going to spread across the planet. Thousands, tens of thousands of people are going to die.”
“Why?”
Kaga scowled. “It’s a warning. Don’t get involved with their squabble with Honinbou’s central powers. Kawahagi is nothing - a backwater without even a proper spaceport dock. You have to pay double to get a freighter pilot out there. There’s no other reason Meijin would care.”
“Bastards!” Shindou said, almost on his feet now. “They know that’s happening and they don’t care?”
“They know it could happen,” Tsutsui said carefully. “I don’t believe they actually know how bad things are, and I certainly don’t think the outbreak was deliberately started, but it was always a possibility.”
“And the teachers at school wanted me to enlist in their navy,” Shindou said, stomach churning.
“The Admiral doesn’t have a say - he’s got a wife and son to worry about. Blackmail’s as normal for them as it is for us, they just aren’t going to come out and say it.”
“His kid’s here,” Shindou said absently. “Ensign. He’s a crack shot.”
“And you’d know.” Kaga’s mouth twisted. “Look, Shindou, I know you don’t like inter-system runs. And I know that you do them occasionally, whatever you say. You’re too damn good not to have tested yourself.”
“And?”
“I have a shipment of vaccines for Kawahagi. You’re the best pilot in system at the moment who won’t get me arrested. I need them through the blockade.”
“Yes,” Sai whispered into his ears. “We can do it. We might be the only ones who can, given the calibre of pilot they have available. I’ve seen the Admiral’s runs on the nets and he is the closest thing to a complete all-round pilot I’ve ever seen.”
Tsutsui stared at him, eyes wide behind his glasses. Kaga’s eyes were feral. Shindou almost asked why he didn’t go himself before remembering the last time they’d faced off in simulators.
“It will be in my shuttle or not at all,” he said at last. “I know it’s small but I’m not trying with a strange shuttle.” A strange shuttle and no Sai.
“Done,” Kaga said. “And I’ll pay you triple the normal.”
Shindou downed the rest of his drink and stood up. He’d need to be completely rested for this run.
“Not necessary. You know where to find me tomorrow.”
* * * * *
It was not a particularly restful night, starting late and ending early.
In the middle of the rush hour the next morning, Shindou dropped into his seat and rolled his shoulders as his harness clicked into place around him. There were cases of vaccine packed everywhere in the tiny cabin that they could safely fit - under the seat, down the crack behind him and on either side of his feet. Each case was individually fastened in place with the strongest industrial tape they could find. It wasn’t a professional setup but it only had to last one trip.
“You have the best information I can get you on Meijin’s positioning,” Kaga said, leaning against the side of the hatch. “And you’re happy you know who to ask for at the other end? You have all the identifiers you should need and they’re backed up to your computer if you need them.”
“Yeah, all set.”
There was a long moment when they just looked at each other. Shindou was very glad suddenly that he hadn’t told Akari exactly where he was going or else she would have insisted on seeing him off. And would have cried. As it was… he swallowed and reached up to tilt his headset more securely over his ears.
“I’ll see you in a week, then,” Kaga said. “Drinks will be on me.”
Shindou managed a grin and turned back to his controls as Kaga stepped clear. The hatch slid shut with a whir and the console came alight.
”Ready, Hikaru?
“Ready,” he whispered and gently nudged the controls to guide them out into the airlock.
They slid smoothly into the flow of commercial traffic and slid out of orbit without further notice, the private shuttle Torajirou receiving immediate clearance to depart. There were other shuttles leaving, buzzing around the giant freighters like flies around an elephant, heading off on pleasure jaunts or business trips, or simply serving as ferries out to the ships too big to dock at the spaceport itself. One more shuttle - a local shuttle at that - attracted no notice.
As they moved outside of the main shipping lanes, Shindou allowed himself to drop into the focus of a tough flight.
“I’ll pilot today, if you’ll take weapons.”
“Of course. If we’re up against Ensign Touya again, we will need all of our focus.”
“Hey, maybe he’ll come out to fight. The nets say he’s the gunner for the Insei’s top assault shuttle.”
“I would suspect not, Hikaru. He will be far too precious to them to waste on a small match up like this.”
Shindou snorted. “Small to them, anyway.”
It was 24 hours later that they first encountered a Meijin ship. Shindou was dozing in his chair, cradled securely in his harness while Sai piloted. Sai woke him as the sensors pinged, keeping control as they dropped all power as low as feasible, ghosting past the stern of the frigate with only the lightest of touches on the thrusters to steer them.
It was a master class in piloting and Shindou had a front line seat. He almost - almost - regretted deciding to pilot himself should they encounter any real trouble, but Sai was by far the superior gunner and they would need that precision accuracy if they came up against an opponent many times their size.
“Hikaru! Are you falling asleep again?” Sai demanded. Shindou groaned and tilted his seat fully upright, grabbing a snack bar to munch on from his small stash. Maybe the sugar would help. It was always the hardest part of the long runs, when you lost track of the hours and days in a blur of endless space. Sai’s avatar was filling the screen in front of him now, waving insistently at him. “Hikaru!”
“Okay, I’m up. I know, more of them around here somewhere. I assume you know where ‘here’ is?”
Sai looked affronted. “Of course. I’ve been paying attention. We’re making good time.”
“That puts us in the middle of nowhere then. Trust Meijin. We must have got really unlucky to run into a patrol out here.”
“If I were Admiral Touya,” Sai said, conjuring up a rough visual, “I would have one ship here, at Haze, which is the closest port and another at Kawahagi, the destination. The rest of the fleet could then patrol the more intuitive flight paths. There are too many trajectories to wall it off completely. They are trusting their sensors.”
“And their guns. Not many people are going to risk that.”
They tracked even further off the beaten track then, deeper into the asteroid field where the larger ships couldn’t safely go. Shindou had moved onto Sudoku games on a corner of his console by this point. Really, there wasn’t much else for him to do while Sai guided them through. It wasn’t even exciting piloting that he’d want to take over, when either of them could do it without thinking twice.
Shindou was dozing again by the time they neared Kawahagi, lightly enough that he could be awake and ready at a moment’s notice. He squinted at the screen.
“Sai, zoom in a few times.” The ship magnified and Shindou panned until he could see the name inscribed on the hull. Tengen. “That’s it.”
“Yes, he’s there.”
Shindou couldn’t tell if Sai was thinking of the father or the son. He grinned.
“Well then, let’s run this blockade.”
There was a click as the gunnery controls on Shindou’s console locked into place, coming fully under Sai’s control. Shindou flexed his hands and replaced them on the controls, taking full control of the piloting, swinging them down below the horizontal view of Tengen. Now came the test.
* * * * *
Tengen’s bridge was on high alert. No one - not even Ogata - knew quite why Admiral Touya had insisted they come to Kawahgi immediately and by the most direct shipping route, leaving Haze under the control of a junior captain. Nor did he know why the Admiral had taken a station on the bridge itself, rather than taking care of strategy from the distance of his own quarters.
Even more strangely, Ogata knew that his top assault shuttle crew - Lieutenant Ashiwara and Ensign Touya - had been on standby since they arrived at Kawahagi, their shuttle ready to leave as soon as the order came.
“Sir, a shuttle has just come into sensor range.”
Ogata brought the technician’s view up on his great screen that ran floor to ceiling in front of them and pushed his glasses up his nose, straining to locate the tiny dot that would indicate a shuttle at extreme range. There.
“I see it, Mr Ochi.”
Admiral Touya rose from his seat to one side of the main bridge operations and came to stand near the main control screen that loomed in direct view of Ogata’s chair. “Lock on that shuttle, Mr Ochi, and magnify as much as possible at this range,” he said, voice as calm as ever, hands clasped loosely behind his back.
They waited in silence as Ochi worked tapped furiously at his console. If the computer wouldn’t lock automatically, Ochi would attempt to follow the shuttle manually. It was a near impossible job against a skilled pilot.
“As I thought, that is the Haze shuttle, Torajirou,” the Admiral said with complete confidence.
The rest of the bridge crew looked at it with undisguised curiosity. It was the right size and the right style of audacious piloting. Was that enough to make that call?
“Sir, the ID beacon names the approaching shuttle as Sai, out of Honinbou, Kisei system.”
There was an awkward silence. The Admiral had a faint smile about his mouth.
“It is the same shuttle,” he said. “It has a very distinctive stern, no doubt because of the concealed weapons.”
Ogata frowned. “Miss Ichikawa, my compliments to Mr Ashiwara in starboard weapons control, and he is to prepare for launch immediately.”
He called up the shuttle ID on his personal screen, scrolling through the official registration documents. Shuttle Sai registered to one Fujiwarano Sai, of Honinbou, born… some 200 years previous.
“He’s acknowledged, sir.”
They watched the shuttle - apparently now well aware of its audience - as it arched towards them, spinning on its axis like a themepark ride. No one spoke.
“Starboard weapons control reports shuttle Tengen AS40 ready for launch, sir.”
“Send them out. Our orders are clear - they are to disable or destroy that shuttle.”
“Aye sir.”
The red dot on the screen was joined by another, much closer, in the green of friendly vessels. There was very little Tengen’s bridge could do now but watch - the great weapons that would be so effective in a full broadside struggled with the speed of a shuttle. The sheer distance involved gave the nimble craft too much time to react.
Ensign Touya was firing furiously now; Sai spiralling in evasive action, blips on the system showing weapons fired in counter attack that were eliminating Touya’s missiles before they could even come close.
Ogata sucked in a breath. Whoever that gunner was, they were incredibly skilled. He wasn’t aware of anyone in Honinbou with that level of skill, not even among the retired pilots.
“Human and AI in perfect harmony,” the Admiral said, eyes fixed on the screen. “There’s no space in that shuttle for a gunner, and no human could pilot like that and control multiple weapons.”
Ashiwara and Touya screamed past Sai, notifications from weapon controls alerting Ogata that they’d taken damage. Sai passed Tengen and vanished into the atmosphere.
Admiral Touya turned away. He seemed almost triumphant, despite their best crew losing the skirmish. “It is done,” he said and left without further comment.
Ogata fought the urge to scowl. They would nail Sai on her return trip.
Fandom: HnG
Word Count: 5,500
Summary: Meijin set up a blockade around Haze. Rumour has it the drug smugglers are at fault.
Notes: Originally written for the team round of the HnG Deathmatch, held on Dreamwidth here and posted here.
“Very well, Miss Ichikawa, you may initiate docking procedures.”
“Aye, aye sir.”
Flag Captain Ogata Seiji steepled his fingers, sitting smartly upright in the great leather chair at the centre of the bridge. His eyes were fixed on the great viewscreen in front of them, watching the spaceport as it loomed larger and larger in front of them, the planet behind an almost luminous green. A backwater planet, in the general scheme of things, but located precariously between the Meijin and Honinbou empires, Haze was suddenly of great military significance as hostilities intensified.
A warning flash at the far right of the screen had him immediately intent on his task. At that speed it had to be a shuttle, but surely even a place like this had traffic regulations?
“Incoming shuttle on the starboard bow!” a technician called a moment later, as the computer caught up with his visual assessment.
A magnified view appeared on the main screen. A racing shuttle - or an assault craft - by its size and sleek shape, it was slipping through the chaotic mass of commercial craft and the rest of the military flotilla as if they were stationary. It was a show of skill that wouldn’t have shamed a professional fighter pilot.
Ogata relaxed slightly. There was no real risk of a crash if the pilot was that good. That said he couldn’t even begin to contemplate the sort of idiot that would fly like that in the middle of a war fleet.
“Starboard battery - fire a warning flare,” he snapped when the shuttle showed no signs of hesitating as it veered close to the behemoth that was the flagship.
“Aye, aye sir.”
The red streak of the flare was almost invisible until it burst alight scarcely metres from the shuttle. The shuttle swerved to safety and spiralled out of range, vanishing behind a communications satellite. Work stopped on the bridge as they watched for its reappearance. Ogata allowed himself a smile: Akira’s aim always had been prodigious, but perhaps it was time for a word about the diplomatic reasons for missing certain shots.
“Please continue, Miss Ichikawa,” Ogata snapped.
“S-sir,” Ichikawa said, tugging her collar straight.
Ogata raised a hand to his headset and initiated a call to the Admiral. “Sir? Ogata speaking. We’re docking now, expected time of arrival 1725 hours.”
When the station clamps locked on with a jolt, he stood up and handed over the watch to Ichikawa, ducking through the hatch with care for the low metal frame that had once knocked him silly in his early days as a lieutenant. Whispers of discontent or not, it was time to scare the yokels into submission.
He clamped down on the urge to shiver as he stepped into the dirty grey of the busy spaceport corridors, kept at the cooler temperature preferred by the locals. All eyes were on an elderly man, who was towing a boy along by the ear. Apparently this was more newsworthy than a decorated starship captain.
“Hikaru, I’ve told you not to fly off by yourself!” the man hissed, and if he thought it was quiet enough not to be overheard, he was sadly deluded. Ogata watched with amusement as the boy attempted to settle the too-large pilot’s headset he wore without losing his footing. The encouraging pats on his shoulders from the scruffy dock workers he passed were undoubtedly not helping.
The boy scrambled to right himself. “Honestly, Grandpa, I had AI with me, it’s not like I was on my own.”
Children would be children, Ogata thought, and continued on his way. It was fortunate that Akira was more mature.
* * *
Shindou leaned into the turn as they skirted the edge of the debris cluster and ducked into cover behind the wrecked freighter. The controls moved independently beneath his hands, almost as if he was still a child on a simulator, with his Grandpa’s hands wrapped around his to guide his first movements.
“Incoming from the rear to port,” Sai murmured in his ear. Shindou moved the port laser almost without thinking, firing two short bursts backwards. The chasing shuttle spiralled off in a cloud of smoke and Shindou settled back in the seat, feeling Sai adjusting the cockpit around him so he was still perfectly positioned. A flick of a switch and damage stats flowed up onto the console. He tracked it with practised ease, scanning the schematics for potential problems.
“One of the rear thrusters is down,” he said. They’d have to fix that, which meant going into town for parts. Sometimes he wished he was still on a simulator, where none of the damage was real.
Sai relinquished the controls and drew back. “You flew well today, Hikaru,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll be coming this way again soon. Now, shift the ID beacon back.”
Shindou made the switch and flipped down the covers over the laser heads, and the assault craft ‘Sai’ was once again the civilian shuttle ‘Torajiro’ that Haze port was familiar with.
“All set,” he said and turned to grin at the ghostly figure. “Race you back?”
Sai’s solemn face vanished and the screen split into two identical ones. “We’ll start timing from Satellite B89. The last time we came this way, you tried to go through the little moon-”
“I was eleven!” Shindou wished sometimes he really could hit Sai. It was like having an older brother. A disgustingly perfect, always right, older brother.
The docks were dark when he clocked out of the spaceport, the wide through-roads used by the shipping companies deserted as the shippers and dockers wended their way through the dimly lit alleyways to their preferred haunts. The bureaucrats were long gone by now, leaving the spaceport and its surroundings for their cosy homes in the suburbs.
It was pushing 2200hrs when Shindou slipped into the Loose Anchor pub through the side door - not equipped with an ID scanner and deliberately left open for customers like him who were of age as far as Honinbou were concerned, definitely underage according to their Meijin overlords and who-the-hell-cared in Haze’s docks.
“Shindou!” Tall and lean with outrageously red hair styled into spikes, Kaga was the original bad influence. Back in their school days, Kaga had that dragged Shindou round the cargo bays and the engine rooms, introducing him to all the important people in this world. Now he seemed to spend most of his time in the pub talking to goodness knows who; about what, it was far safest not to know. He waved at the landlord, not bothering to go to the bar. “A pint of his usual and one for me.”
“How’s business?” Shindou asked, perching carefully on one of the precarious stools that Kaga favoured. Kaga had a table to himself, as usual.
“Same old, same old. You’d think Meijin would have learned by now.”
“And the others?”
Kaga flicked the privacy switch on the table and Shindou heard the buzz of the noise interference coming on. “Mitani’s down and out - lost three shipments in the past month. They go in the asteroid belt and never come back out. It can’t be Meijin doing it. Even they aren’t thick enough to put battlecruisers through the asteroids.”
Shindou hid his grin in his beer and looked past Kaga’s shoulder at where Mitani was sitting at the bar. Kaga eyed him.
“Mitani always was a bastard,” Shindou said, watching as Mitani downed a luminous green concoction that looked like it contained something dodgy.
“Word has he hired guards this latest trip - two of Dake’s brawlers - and they still didn’t get through. Dake will be calling in his debts soon, and that’ll be it for him.”
Shindou swallowed. It was all so clear when Mitani was cheating money from the old men when they were in school. It was less clear now Mitani was going to be killed. Still, trading drugs to sell to children was something he agreed with Sai on.
We tried to warn him, Hikaru, Sai whispered through the headset. His voice was sad. He was a child who didn’t know any better. He made a choice.
“Grandpa says the drug trade is what brought Meijin here. They don’t care about most of the other stuff - but when rich children go off the rails, the politicians start getting worried.”
Kaga did look round to glare at Mitani then. Mitani had another luminous glass in front of him and appeared completely oblivious to what was going on around him. Shindou frowned; normally Mitani was the one with three back door exits.
“Is Mitani really in that much trouble?”
“Grow up, Shindou. Dake doesn’t play for small money. Expensive business all round,” Kaga said. “Anyway, I’m charging my services at a premium for the inconvenience. How are you for cash? I could use a decent pilot for a courier run to the old man in Honinbou.”
The familiar question startled a laugh out of Shindou, and he gave his usual answer. “You’ve met my mother, haven’t you? Nothing out of the system til I’m thirty.”
Kaga tipped his head back and laughed. “Sure I’ve met your mum. I’ve also seen that beauty you call a passenger shuttle. There’s no way you’ve got that slick with her unless you were doing more than milkruns. You know where to find me if you ever do want work.”
“Under a table somewhere, nursing your hangover?”
Kaga cuffed him, not so hard that he spilt his drink. “You never used to be this mouthy.”
* * * * *
The next morning, Meijin crew were manually scanning IDs as people entered the spaceport itself. Shindou looked at them curiously - he’d seen the Meijin captain a few times, the admiral once, but the juniors were usually kept on board. Sai thought that was to keep them safe; Shindou thought it was to keep them out the way of bad influences. After all, given the choice he’d put money on them being out drinking most nights, just like any other people their age.
He hit the front of the line fast - it wasn’t early enough for the people working jobs, nor late enough for the leisure traffic.
“Good morning, I am Ensign Touya. Could I see your arm, please.”
Shindou presented it. The officer was a young man of about his own age, in a beautifully pressed white uniform, with perfectly groomed hair and a carefully polite expression. The contrast with Shindou’s home dye job and overalls must have been shocking. He made a note on his pad.
“And the reason for your visit today?”
“Repair job on my shuttle,” Shindou said, waving the bag of parts as evidence. Ensign Touya took a step backwards to avoid being hit.
”Careful, Hikaru,” Sai said. ”That uniform will stain if you get oil on it.”
Shindou stopped the bag swinging and blinked. Why did Sai expect him to care about that? What kind of idiot wore a white uniform in the spaceport anyway? There was oil everywhere.
“Thank you for your time,” Ensign Touya said, and stepped aside to let him past.
“Thanks!” Shindou said, being a little more careful with his bag as he passed. He paused, wondering whether the officer really was bored or whether the look came naturally. “Hey, if you want a drink sometime, I’m here most days. Grandpa works in docking control.”
Ensign Touya’s eyed widened. “I… uh… thank you, but we haven’t been given any leave from the ship.”
“Ouch! Better you than me.”
Shindou was almost through the door when Ensign Touya spoke again.
“Your grandfather, is that Shindou Heihachi? I liked working with him. He’s very good at what he does.”
“That’s him,” Shindou said and beamed. His grandpa was the best. “I’ll let him know. See you around, anyway.”
He bounded round the corner, ducked through the security room, greeted the guard there and went out the door at the far end of the room, straight into Cargo Bay 4. It was a huge space, made ridiculous by the presence of a few small shuttles. It had long since been discontinued as a commercial dock and it was only a couple of locals who bothered to dock there now: Shindou’s family, Kaga and a few other spaceport staff - certainly not enough to come near to filling the space.
Sai slotted neatly into one of the corners, underneath an overhanging crane. He’d dangled off that crane to patch up the paint job. That had been a fun afternoon.
“What took you so long?” Akari asked from underneath the next door shuttle. Shindou crouched to look underneath. She was a much better mechanic than he’d thought when they were kids, even if she did like the girly paintjobs. “You were right behind me coming in.”
“I was talking to the guy on security.”
“The cute one?”
Shindou paused. Ensign Touya was young, in a uniform, good-looking in a girly kind of way. “I guess. I invited him for drinks. He looked bored.”
“Oh, what did he say?”
“What do you expect? Can’t, got to be home for bedtime.”
Akari giggled. “He seemed ok, though. I’d have come with you, if he’d said yes. He might have a few new tricks for getting this engine working.”
“I’d like a look at one of their ships, sometime. Not that I’d trade Torajiro for anything, but just for a spin. It must be pretty cool to have all that power to play with.”
“You could always join up. They’ve got that recruiting drive going. You mum would like it.”
Shindou pulled a face. “And have to wear that every day! Not likely. Besides, you can’t get anything unless you go up through the insei. No chance am I going back to school just to learn how to pilot again.”
He unpacked his bag, grabbing his skateboard from his stack of junk in the corner, lying back on it to slide underneath the shuttle, screwdriver in hand.
“Say, Akari?”
She grunted at him.
“Did you hear about Mitani?”
There was a curse as Akari sat up too fast. “What about him?”
“Kaga says he’s screwed. Blew his credit trying to get drugs through the blockade.”
“Poor Mitani,” she said and sighed. “I’ll have to go see his sister at the weekend. Are you sure it was drugs? I can’t believe he’d be that thick.”
“When you owe money to Dake…” Shindou trailed off.
“Yeah. I can’t wait for Meijin just to give up. They aren’t getting anywhere, just making life hard for the rest of us. I miss being able to jump the border for a weekend. It’s not like I can afford Meijin prices, anyway.”
“They’ve got to give up soon. They aren’t stopping anyone but the amateurs like Mitani. You bet the regular runners are getting through.”
“And you’d know that how? Your mum won’t let you out of radio range.”
“I hear things.”
“You mean you were down the pub with Kaga again. I should tell her what you get up to at your Grandpa’s.”
“You wouldn’t dare! She’d go straight across the road to your mum and-“
The main internal door to the cargo slid open with a whirr of machinery and Shindou dropped the bag of screws he’d been holding. He swore as they scattered over the floor and pushed himself out from underneath, ready to make the interloper regret ever setting foot in his territory.
He stopped when he saw the uniforms. Lots of very shiny uniforms.
“Er… hello,” he managed, getting awkwardly to his feet. Behind him, there was a slight shimmer as Sai discreetly moved covers over a few of their more telling bits of kit.
The officer facing him didn’t say anything, looking around him with interest. His uniform was the most ornate, with lots of gold braid on shining white. Shindou looked sideways at Captain Ogata, a familiar face from the news broadcasts, and decided this had to be the admiral, Admiral Touya. His security escort were looking suspiciously at Shindou now. Akari was making her own way out, rather more slowly.
“Hikaru, what..?”
“There is no need to be alarmed,” the Admiral said eventually. “I am merely making a tour of the facilities. I understood that this cargo bay was no longer in use.”
“Ah, yeah. About that, Mister.” Shindou swallowed; Akari shuffled closer to him. “The main door to Outside went bust, what, five years back? You can still get through the hatch if your shuttle’s small enough but it’s no use to the freighters. Grandpa said it would be okay if we mucked around in here…”
“Sir,” Captain Ogata said. “This is the shuttle that we encountered on our transit in-system.”
“Oh? The one that Akira managed to miss. Your father’s?”
“Mine. Sir,” Shindou said. If the Admiral was surprised, he was too polite to show it. Captain Ogata wasn’t. He looked down his nose at Shindou albeit with a certain amount of interest.
“I would be more careful, another time. It would be unfortunate were a collision to happen.”
“But Hikaru never crashes!” Akari leapt to his defence. Akari wasn’t afraid of anyone.
The Admiral looked sharply at Ogata, then turned back to Shindou. “Even a warning shot can go tragically wrong,” he said. “My son has not been trained to miss. If you want to do stunt flying, you should enlist. We have excellent shuttles for pilots with talent, and appropriate venues for it.”
“My mum’s from Honinbou - and Dad’s not exactly from a long line of Meijin war heroes. I’d never make the cut,” Shindou said, and Meijin resident or not, he’d arrange Honinbou citizenship if he thought they were going to try pressing him.
There was a long awkward silence.
“You had better stay well away from the blockade, then, child,” Captain Ogata said. “We wouldn’t want there to be any unfortunate… accidents.”
Akari glared at him. Shindou fought the urge to say something very rude - that or leg it.
She sniffed. “I would have thought you’d have better things to do than wall off Haze, of all places.”
The Admiral closed his eyes and did not answer.
“I apologise for disturbing you. Come, Captain, we have a tour to complete.”
* * * * *
A week later, Shindou was down the pub again. He’d finished his repairs, hadn’t made another trip out and didn’t really have anything better to do while Akari was busy studying. Sai was making him be ridiculously careful about going out while Meijin were loitering in the system.
Kaga wasn’t there when he arrived. Shindou frowned and claimed the normal table, conspicuously empty despite the late hour, and nursed a pint while he waited, waving to familiar faces as they passed him on the way to the bar.
When Kaga did show, it was past midnight and he wasn’t alone. Shindou hadn’t seen Tsutsui in years. He had been at the same school as them but had left Haze completely to attend medical school. His suit and thick glasses attracted a lot of curious glances as he followed Kaga through the crowded pub. If he hadn’t been with Kaga, it might well have led to a mugging later.
“Hello, Shindou.”
“Senpai,” Shindou said, tilting back on his stool to snag a third seat for the table. “What are you doing back here?”
Kaga and Tsutsui looked at each other; Kaga sighed and slammed his hand against the privacy switch.
“Tsutsui’s been studying on Kawahagi. He caught a lift on the last ship of mine to get through the blockade - they had to smuggle him out. Your grandpa was right, kid. Meijin are here to stop the drug runners. The medical ones. The only reason they’re near Haze at all is to stop us shipping medical supplies to Kawahagi.”
Shindou looked over his shoulder, checking for uniforms although he knew they wouldn’t been seen dead in a locals’ pub.
“Shindou, there was a flu epidemic starting in one of the villages,” Tsutsui said, hands clasped tightly in front of him just above the sticky table. “If they don’t get supplies, it’s going to spread across the planet. Thousands, tens of thousands of people are going to die.”
“Why?”
Kaga scowled. “It’s a warning. Don’t get involved with their squabble with Honinbou’s central powers. Kawahagi is nothing - a backwater without even a proper spaceport dock. You have to pay double to get a freighter pilot out there. There’s no other reason Meijin would care.”
“Bastards!” Shindou said, almost on his feet now. “They know that’s happening and they don’t care?”
“They know it could happen,” Tsutsui said carefully. “I don’t believe they actually know how bad things are, and I certainly don’t think the outbreak was deliberately started, but it was always a possibility.”
“And the teachers at school wanted me to enlist in their navy,” Shindou said, stomach churning.
“The Admiral doesn’t have a say - he’s got a wife and son to worry about. Blackmail’s as normal for them as it is for us, they just aren’t going to come out and say it.”
“His kid’s here,” Shindou said absently. “Ensign. He’s a crack shot.”
“And you’d know.” Kaga’s mouth twisted. “Look, Shindou, I know you don’t like inter-system runs. And I know that you do them occasionally, whatever you say. You’re too damn good not to have tested yourself.”
“And?”
“I have a shipment of vaccines for Kawahagi. You’re the best pilot in system at the moment who won’t get me arrested. I need them through the blockade.”
“Yes,” Sai whispered into his ears. “We can do it. We might be the only ones who can, given the calibre of pilot they have available. I’ve seen the Admiral’s runs on the nets and he is the closest thing to a complete all-round pilot I’ve ever seen.”
Tsutsui stared at him, eyes wide behind his glasses. Kaga’s eyes were feral. Shindou almost asked why he didn’t go himself before remembering the last time they’d faced off in simulators.
“It will be in my shuttle or not at all,” he said at last. “I know it’s small but I’m not trying with a strange shuttle.” A strange shuttle and no Sai.
“Done,” Kaga said. “And I’ll pay you triple the normal.”
Shindou downed the rest of his drink and stood up. He’d need to be completely rested for this run.
“Not necessary. You know where to find me tomorrow.”
* * * * *
It was not a particularly restful night, starting late and ending early.
In the middle of the rush hour the next morning, Shindou dropped into his seat and rolled his shoulders as his harness clicked into place around him. There were cases of vaccine packed everywhere in the tiny cabin that they could safely fit - under the seat, down the crack behind him and on either side of his feet. Each case was individually fastened in place with the strongest industrial tape they could find. It wasn’t a professional setup but it only had to last one trip.
“You have the best information I can get you on Meijin’s positioning,” Kaga said, leaning against the side of the hatch. “And you’re happy you know who to ask for at the other end? You have all the identifiers you should need and they’re backed up to your computer if you need them.”
“Yeah, all set.”
There was a long moment when they just looked at each other. Shindou was very glad suddenly that he hadn’t told Akari exactly where he was going or else she would have insisted on seeing him off. And would have cried. As it was… he swallowed and reached up to tilt his headset more securely over his ears.
“I’ll see you in a week, then,” Kaga said. “Drinks will be on me.”
Shindou managed a grin and turned back to his controls as Kaga stepped clear. The hatch slid shut with a whir and the console came alight.
”Ready, Hikaru?
“Ready,” he whispered and gently nudged the controls to guide them out into the airlock.
They slid smoothly into the flow of commercial traffic and slid out of orbit without further notice, the private shuttle Torajirou receiving immediate clearance to depart. There were other shuttles leaving, buzzing around the giant freighters like flies around an elephant, heading off on pleasure jaunts or business trips, or simply serving as ferries out to the ships too big to dock at the spaceport itself. One more shuttle - a local shuttle at that - attracted no notice.
As they moved outside of the main shipping lanes, Shindou allowed himself to drop into the focus of a tough flight.
“I’ll pilot today, if you’ll take weapons.”
“Of course. If we’re up against Ensign Touya again, we will need all of our focus.”
“Hey, maybe he’ll come out to fight. The nets say he’s the gunner for the Insei’s top assault shuttle.”
“I would suspect not, Hikaru. He will be far too precious to them to waste on a small match up like this.”
Shindou snorted. “Small to them, anyway.”
It was 24 hours later that they first encountered a Meijin ship. Shindou was dozing in his chair, cradled securely in his harness while Sai piloted. Sai woke him as the sensors pinged, keeping control as they dropped all power as low as feasible, ghosting past the stern of the frigate with only the lightest of touches on the thrusters to steer them.
It was a master class in piloting and Shindou had a front line seat. He almost - almost - regretted deciding to pilot himself should they encounter any real trouble, but Sai was by far the superior gunner and they would need that precision accuracy if they came up against an opponent many times their size.
“Hikaru! Are you falling asleep again?” Sai demanded. Shindou groaned and tilted his seat fully upright, grabbing a snack bar to munch on from his small stash. Maybe the sugar would help. It was always the hardest part of the long runs, when you lost track of the hours and days in a blur of endless space. Sai’s avatar was filling the screen in front of him now, waving insistently at him. “Hikaru!”
“Okay, I’m up. I know, more of them around here somewhere. I assume you know where ‘here’ is?”
Sai looked affronted. “Of course. I’ve been paying attention. We’re making good time.”
“That puts us in the middle of nowhere then. Trust Meijin. We must have got really unlucky to run into a patrol out here.”
“If I were Admiral Touya,” Sai said, conjuring up a rough visual, “I would have one ship here, at Haze, which is the closest port and another at Kawahagi, the destination. The rest of the fleet could then patrol the more intuitive flight paths. There are too many trajectories to wall it off completely. They are trusting their sensors.”
“And their guns. Not many people are going to risk that.”
They tracked even further off the beaten track then, deeper into the asteroid field where the larger ships couldn’t safely go. Shindou had moved onto Sudoku games on a corner of his console by this point. Really, there wasn’t much else for him to do while Sai guided them through. It wasn’t even exciting piloting that he’d want to take over, when either of them could do it without thinking twice.
Shindou was dozing again by the time they neared Kawahagi, lightly enough that he could be awake and ready at a moment’s notice. He squinted at the screen.
“Sai, zoom in a few times.” The ship magnified and Shindou panned until he could see the name inscribed on the hull. Tengen. “That’s it.”
“Yes, he’s there.”
Shindou couldn’t tell if Sai was thinking of the father or the son. He grinned.
“Well then, let’s run this blockade.”
There was a click as the gunnery controls on Shindou’s console locked into place, coming fully under Sai’s control. Shindou flexed his hands and replaced them on the controls, taking full control of the piloting, swinging them down below the horizontal view of Tengen. Now came the test.
* * * * *
Tengen’s bridge was on high alert. No one - not even Ogata - knew quite why Admiral Touya had insisted they come to Kawahgi immediately and by the most direct shipping route, leaving Haze under the control of a junior captain. Nor did he know why the Admiral had taken a station on the bridge itself, rather than taking care of strategy from the distance of his own quarters.
Even more strangely, Ogata knew that his top assault shuttle crew - Lieutenant Ashiwara and Ensign Touya - had been on standby since they arrived at Kawahagi, their shuttle ready to leave as soon as the order came.
“Sir, a shuttle has just come into sensor range.”
Ogata brought the technician’s view up on his great screen that ran floor to ceiling in front of them and pushed his glasses up his nose, straining to locate the tiny dot that would indicate a shuttle at extreme range. There.
“I see it, Mr Ochi.”
Admiral Touya rose from his seat to one side of the main bridge operations and came to stand near the main control screen that loomed in direct view of Ogata’s chair. “Lock on that shuttle, Mr Ochi, and magnify as much as possible at this range,” he said, voice as calm as ever, hands clasped loosely behind his back.
They waited in silence as Ochi worked tapped furiously at his console. If the computer wouldn’t lock automatically, Ochi would attempt to follow the shuttle manually. It was a near impossible job against a skilled pilot.
“As I thought, that is the Haze shuttle, Torajirou,” the Admiral said with complete confidence.
The rest of the bridge crew looked at it with undisguised curiosity. It was the right size and the right style of audacious piloting. Was that enough to make that call?
“Sir, the ID beacon names the approaching shuttle as Sai, out of Honinbou, Kisei system.”
There was an awkward silence. The Admiral had a faint smile about his mouth.
“It is the same shuttle,” he said. “It has a very distinctive stern, no doubt because of the concealed weapons.”
Ogata frowned. “Miss Ichikawa, my compliments to Mr Ashiwara in starboard weapons control, and he is to prepare for launch immediately.”
He called up the shuttle ID on his personal screen, scrolling through the official registration documents. Shuttle Sai registered to one Fujiwarano Sai, of Honinbou, born… some 200 years previous.
“He’s acknowledged, sir.”
They watched the shuttle - apparently now well aware of its audience - as it arched towards them, spinning on its axis like a themepark ride. No one spoke.
“Starboard weapons control reports shuttle Tengen AS40 ready for launch, sir.”
“Send them out. Our orders are clear - they are to disable or destroy that shuttle.”
“Aye sir.”
The red dot on the screen was joined by another, much closer, in the green of friendly vessels. There was very little Tengen’s bridge could do now but watch - the great weapons that would be so effective in a full broadside struggled with the speed of a shuttle. The sheer distance involved gave the nimble craft too much time to react.
Ensign Touya was firing furiously now; Sai spiralling in evasive action, blips on the system showing weapons fired in counter attack that were eliminating Touya’s missiles before they could even come close.
Ogata sucked in a breath. Whoever that gunner was, they were incredibly skilled. He wasn’t aware of anyone in Honinbou with that level of skill, not even among the retired pilots.
“Human and AI in perfect harmony,” the Admiral said, eyes fixed on the screen. “There’s no space in that shuttle for a gunner, and no human could pilot like that and control multiple weapons.”
Ashiwara and Touya screamed past Sai, notifications from weapon controls alerting Ogata that they’d taken damage. Sai passed Tengen and vanished into the atmosphere.
Admiral Touya turned away. He seemed almost triumphant, despite their best crew losing the skirmish. “It is done,” he said and left without further comment.
Ogata fought the urge to scowl. They would nail Sai on her return trip.