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Brother and sister shared the same passion in life - the massive living, and breathing metal machines that slowly plow their way through the systems: capital ships. The Nakano siblings were much alike in this sense, but where the sister, Hitomi, had chosen the relatively peaceful existence of a trader for Kishiro and already commanded her own Kijiro-class transport - her older brother Akira had only reached a position as first mate on a navy cruiser. He took comfort in the fact that he got to pilot the ships he was passionate about, but just steering the thing was not enough; he wanted his own command.

The letter from the admiralty made his heart jump, the same way it always did when one of these letters landed in his lap. "Maybe this is the one." Many letters had come before this one. Not enough experience. Too young. Not enough piloting experience. Not enough experience on the various stations. Too many applicants for too few positions. The reasons had been many but the result had been the same: request for transfer denied.

Three of Akira's crewmates poked their heads into his small cabin, all of them in various states of concern, shock and surprise. Without realising it, Akira had been screaming out loud, making himself heard in the better part of the port-section of the ship. When they tried to ask what was going on, all Akira did was stare at a piece of paper. While usually very reserved and having a tremendous respect for personal space, one of the crewmen slipped into the cabin to see what was going on, placing his hand on Akira's shoulder. He finally reacted, and showed his friend the paper with a huge smile. "I'm in." he said softly, and a second later, the cabin was alive with talk and cheers.

---

Akira walked slowly through New Tokyo starport, constantly checking the time, even though he knew very well he had more than an hour to waste. The nerves were getting to him. After months in the academy, he had finally gotten a new stripe on his uniform and his transfer orders. Naval training gunboat KNF-T Seiran. "Officer in charge, Cpt Matsumoto. Navigation, Sgt Harada. Engineering, Sgt Nagamura. First mate, ..." Akira repeated his mantra over and over, desperate not to make a fool of himself on his very firts day, by forgetting any of the officers name. Constantly mumbling, and not concerned with the looks, he paced the navy section of the starport for the remainder of the hour, before heading off to the shuttlebay. He was as punctual as the shuttle, waiting only two minutes at the gate before the guards let him through to board.

"Domo Arigato, captain Matsumoto-sama!" he said with a deep bow, after being escorted to the bridge of the gunboat and introduced to the captain. He was feeling even more nervous now. He felt relieved that at least he recognised all the faces on the bridge from the orientation file, and that the names that went with them were still fresh in his head. "Ok, Lieutenant." the captain began calmly after formally introducing everyone on the bridge. "We are scheduled for docking with Yukawa Shipyards in Honshu in an hour, so I suggest you get started." Akira blinked his eyes a few times i confusion. "The normal thing to do at this point is request clearance to undock." the captain offered helpfully with a sarcastic smile, motioned to the captain's chair with his hand, and sat down in a small seat to the side.

He hadn't been shown his quarters, he had been on the ship less than fifteen minutes and apparently the bridge was his. The nerves his Akira like a ton of bricks, and it took all of his strength just to drag his feet to the captain's chair and sit down. For a moment he desperately tried to think, only to find his mind blank. When something at last popped into his head it was "I have my bag in my lap." He looked around for a moment, searching for a place to stow it. "You are in command!" he screamed inside his head. "You are on duty! You don't have to stow your own bag! Idiot!" Akira handed the bag to an ensign, asking for it to be taken to his quarters. A deep sigh of relief escaped him. "One down..." he thought to himself.

The gunboat slowly and steadily drifted backwards, away from the docking position. Akira tried to his very best to stay on top of things, but there was just so much to keep track of: communications, navigation, the piloting... He felt his mouth go dry from giving constant orders, and the nervousness didn't help. Under his command, the gunboat did an about face and headed for the first trade lane.

"You were first mate on the cruiser Fuji, correct?" Akira looked over his shoulder at captain and nodded. "Hai." he answered quickly. Matsumoto's followup question came just as quickly: "How many orders did you need to pilot the Fuji out of docking position?" Akira thought about it for a moment, trying to decide on wether he should answer one or two. The captain interrupted him with a new question: "How many orders have you given to the first mate so far?" Akira blinked his eyes and his head started spinning. "10...11...12..." he thought, and felt the embarrassment hit him. He began to blush, realising he had just made a complete fool of himself, despite his best effort. Once the bridge crew's laughter began to die down, the captain reached out and put a reassurring hand on his shoulder. "Not like the simulators, is it? Relax Akira; this happens to almost everyone the first time." Matsumoto sounded more like a father than an officer. "This is why you are here. Some things can't be learned from books and machines."

// Alleria Citadel: Thanks for a great chase and rp, and for letting me use the event as a base for this story.

Shinagawa Station, New Tokyo:

"Scan him. Bring us up on his port side." Akira stood on the bridge, gazing out the windows at the station, and the trading vessel. He gave the headset a quick touch to open the channel. "This is navy training gunboat Seiran: ID received. Please hold while we perform a scan of your cargo." The trader acknowledged, and only a moment later communications had the result: "He's clean. Electronics cargo, nothing strange." Akira nodded. "New Tokyo then." he said, and while the first mate moved the ship towards the lane gate, Akira activated the coms again. "Domo arigato. Scan complete, you are clear. Please proceed on course." The trader started moving, flashing off one more message: "How goes the shift, Seiran?" Akira smiled. "Excellent, thank you. The systems are calm today. Seiran out."

Akira returned to the captain's chair and sat down. "Nav, make sure we have all calculations done before we reach Shikoku." He smiled happily to himself, perfectly content with his fairly pointless and safe patrols around the core systems. Just feeling the low throbbing vibrations of the engines and the reactor core wasenough to keep him happy. "Enjoying yourself?" the captain asked, seeing the smile. "Hai", Akira answered simply, and beamed a smile at the captain. "You are settling in very well. Only a few weeks and you are like a Koi in a pond." With another pleased "Hai", Akira guided the crew towards Shikoku, scanning the few traders they passed by.

Shikoku, In the lane from New Tokyo gate, 10 minutes later:

A massive dark form came through the lane in the opposite direction. Akira's heart skipped a beat. "What was that?" he asked quickly. Comms replied quickly: "Unknown. Not enough time to scan. Bigger than a trader. We have no warships moving in this system at this time." Akira ran from the window and threw himself in his seat. "Emergency exit!" he yelled, and the metal structure of the ship groaned loudly as the pilot threw the ship out of the lane, making the hull twist slightly under the stress. "About face! Back in the lane!" The pilot was almost as quick to execute the orders as Akira could shout them; the first mate was skilled, every bit as good as Akira had ever been. The comms officer wasn't missing a beat either, shouting out the system warnings about a stationary ship in the lane even before they had exited the lane fully.

"There! Emergency exit!" The ship made another gut-wrenching exit, groaning and rolling over slightly to the port side from the forces. "Alongside! Scan!" Comms answered in barely more than a whisper. "Outcast. Destroyer class. Dear God..." Akira felt his mouth go dry, and his heart race. "Keep us moving. Orbit." Why is it just sitting there? Akira thought, watching the massive hulk by the tradelane. He tapped his headset. "Outcast. This is the Seiran. You will leave this system immediately. Kepler or Galileo, your choice. We will escort you out." There was no other choice. They wouldn't survive an engagement. He glanced back at the captain who just nodded reassuringly, indicating that Akira was making the right call. Just the knowledge that Matsumoto was there, ready to take over at any moment, gave him the confidence to continue. He was surprised though, that the captain hadn't stepped in yet. Could it be an exercise? A big fantastic expensive exercise to test him?

"You didn't ask nicely." the reply came, after what felt like an eternal wait for Akira. In any other situation, Akira would have thought the voice to be beautiful. "Besides, that's not where we are going." she continued. "Have you identified it yet?" he asked, turning to coms. "Designated Destroyer Epsilon. Navy has spotted it before but we have no ID, no name, no information... nothing." Nodding, Akira ordered coms to send alerts to the system, alert fleet command, and go through the standard proceedures. He took a deep breath and opened the channel. "Well, we can't just let you walz into New Tokyo, can we? It has to be Kepler or Galileo." He prayed to himself, while staring out at the massive ship, waiting for the reply, but expecting to see the turrets turn to open fire and destroy him. "Well, you won't succeed in stopping us." Akira suddenly realised the destroyer was on the move. "Persue!" he shouted, but the destroyer was already in cruise, and quickly leaving disruptor range. How did he miss their engines charging? How could he not see that? Maybe a trick of the eye? After all, the captain had said nothing either. The unknown ship vanished into the lane, and the gunboat raced after, pushing the cruise engines to the limit. "Today, we die." he said grimly. No one on the bridge answered.

New Tokyo, In a lane, a few minutes later:

The gunboat lurched and was brutally thrown out of the lane. "There! Cruise for that lane-gate!" Akira marked it on his tactical map, and the ship shuddered as it went to cruise speed. The destroyer was far ahead, well out of disruptor range. "If they keep shooting out the last gate of every lane, we are going to lose them! We have to maintain contact, keep the navy informed! Push the engines! I don't care if they explode!" Akira's heart was beating so hard, he was sure a heart attack would kill him before the destroyer. As the gunboat entered the lane towards the Honshu gate, he looked back at captain Matsumoto pleadingly. "I can't do this." he said. The captain answered as best he could: "There are many correct decisions to make, and a few bad ones. If you make a bad one, I will take over. As long as you make decisions I approve of, we will live just as long with you in command as me. Carry on, Lieutenant." The tone of voice convinced Akira once and for all: this was no drill.

"No contact!" coms yelled. The gunboat was almost out of the lane by the gate. Akira glanced to the port side, at the astroid field, considering his options. No contact. Did they get far enough ahead to slip off to the jumphole? Did they use the gate? The gate was active when the gunboat exited the lane - something had passed through, and there was no sign of the destroyer. "Gate!" There was no need to say more than that. The crew understood the decision, and started the jump sequence.

Honshu, New Tokyo gate, seconds later:

"No contact!" Akira slammed his fist into the armrest in frustration. "Yukawa lane! Let's hope we guess right, and that they are heading for Sigma-19." As the ship cruised off towards the gate, he activated his comms. "Command, this is Seiran in persuit of unknown outcast destroyer. We have lost the contact. Repeat, contact lost. We are searching." A few moments later, Akira sat straight up in his chair. "You know... I'll let you scan my cargo if you wish. I promise I won't shoot." It was her! The nerve! "It's not your cargo that worries me, gaijin. It's the ship and the crew. Besides, you know perfectly well that I have no choice but to open fire." he answered, and marked the lane to planet Honshu on his map to direct the first mate in the search. "I suppose we all have our orders, Seiran. We have reached our destination, and we got what we came for. We never meant to harm anyone." Akira shook his head. This was unbelieveable. "You expect me to take the word of an outcast?" The reply was swift. "All law-enforcers know that I keep my word. You didn't even ask nicely..."

Sigma-19 gate, Akita border station... the gunboat continued it's desperate search for the destroyer. "Nicely!? What was I supposed to do? You are flying a heavy outcast warship! Did you expect a red carpet and flowers? I have no choice! You say you don't want to harm anyone, and yet you force confrontation by breaking through the Kusari core systems!" Comms waved to Akira. "Incoming transmission." Comms started smiling. "It's the Shinigamu Maru! Finally! Destroyer class, at the New Tokyo gate." Akira nodded. "Narrowband transmission, I do NOT want HER to hear this! Ask them to head for the Sigma-19 gate. Hope we get lucky." While comms transmitted the message, the reply came from the destroyer: "Well, we'll be leaving now." Akira tried to think and activated the channel. "Oh, will you now?" Idiot! What kind of reply is that? "Comms... get that destroyer to the gate, now. Inform them I'll try to keep her occupied with chatter. If she's crazy about talking, let's keep her talking, alright?"

"I appreciate the precarious situation we have put you in, Seiran. We sympathise and apologise for that." Akira just shook his head yet again, something that was almost becoming a reflex just from hearing her voice. He opened the channel. "Well, that's very nice of you, but you do realise we can't just let you go?" The gunboat drifted silently by the Sigma-19 gate. There was nothing else to do. The destroyer wasn't near any of the gates or stations. "We'll be heading out to Sigma-19 now. We are leaving Kusari. It's been nice talking to you." Again, Akira shook his head, not quite believing his ears. "Nav, get us a course to the Sigma-19 jumphole. Comms, tell the Shinigamu Maru to hurry up and get to this gate! We can't cover both places at once, and we have to get to the jumphole now, or she might slip past. If the Shinigamu isn't at this gate real soon, she could slip away. She's told the truth so far - let's hope she still does. If she heads for Sigma-13 we are screwed, but we have to do something. I want a proper scan of that ship! I want every nut and bolt registered for command. We need a few minutes close to her."

"Narrowband to the Shinigamu. Jump hole reached. No contact." Akira sighed and looked out into the nebula. "Take up a position about..." Comms interrupted him. "Shinigamu has contact at the gate!" Akira was quick on the order, but the pilot was just as quick. The gunboat was charging the cruise engines and turning to the gate before Akira had completed giving the order. "Fourteen thousand units to go. Thirteen thousand. Twelve..." Navigation continued to call out the distances all the way to the gate.

"You will leave Kusari space now, outcast." The transmission came from the Shinigamu Maru. "We are leaving." came the response, just as the Seiran got visual contact with the ships and the gate. "I guess Shinigamu made the call for us. No fight. Maybe this isn't the day we die." The destroyer activated the gate, shrugging off the sentry-gun fire as if it wasn't even there,. "We haven't got the scan, and I want to make sure she leaves! Jump after it! Inform Shinigamu!" Comms acknowledged, and the gunboat plunged into the gate.

Sigma-19, Honshu gate, seconds later:
"Just here to make sure you leave." Akira got out of his chair and stepped up to the windows, looking out at the faint shadow that was the destroyer, half obscured by the nebula. "If you insist." came the reply. "I insist..." he muttered to himself. "Follow her. Close enough to scan and maintain contact, but otherwise as far as possible. No need to give her any clear shots." The two ships slowly plowed through the nebula, leaving swirling trails in the gas. For once, she was silent, and at first that felt good, but the longer time went, the more it worried him.

The destroyer stopped. "You can't follow us any longer now, Seiran." Akira opened the channel. "I will see you out of Kusari space." he answered, angry that she was now making demands. "I'm serious. It could be very bad for you to follow us. We have to keep some things secret." Her tone had changed now: this was a direct threat, no question about it. "Comms, how long to complete the scan?" Comms tapped his keyboard furiously. "I... I don't know sir! Maybe a minute, maybe two?" Akira grinded his teeth and made his decision, shouting into his headset. "Outcast! You are less than 3000 units from a Kusari gas-miner! You said your word was good! Live up to it! Do not dishonor yourself! I will see you out of Kusari space!" He almost stopped breathing. Had he gone too far? After a moment's silence the channel woke up; she was sighing deeply. "Well... we'd have to take a longer route..." He slammed the palms of his hands into the armrests, in an emotional outburst. "Yes! Yes! Finish the scan!" He tried to focus, get the anger from before back into his voice: "Take the longer route! I will see you out of Kusari space!"

"Goodbye Seiran." The destroyer activated the cruise engines and speeded off towards a sickly looking green nebula: the end of Kusari space, and the beginning of whatever else was out there. "Don't hurry back..." he said and slumped into the chair. "Call command. Update them, and get fighters out here. I want patrols along the edge of our nebula every minute, of every hour, of every day, for a week. If she returns... we want to know about it." Akira was feeling absolutely exhausted, staring out at the massive ship being engulfed by the green gases. He just sat there quietly for a minute, staring at the alien nebula. "Honshu gate. Get us home, please." His voice revealed how run down he was. "Make a flightpath to uh... where? Shikoku! That's where we were supposed to be..."

Captain Matsumoto rose to his feet and grabbed Akira by the arm, pulling him to his feet. "You have done very well, beyond expectations, in a very difficult situation. This was all far beyond what you should have done this early in your training. You did very well. Go now. Sleep. I will take the bridge." Akira sighed. "Well? All we did was follow her. She went wherever she wanted. She came just at the right time, to evade all our capital patrols. Even leaving was her choice. Her time, her place, her way. We are lucky to be alive." Matsumoto smiled. "Hai. We are lucky to be alive. And we got the scan. What more could you ask from a run down old gunboat against these odds? Go. Sleep. We will speak tomorrow." Akira didn't complain, and left the bridge with a simple "Hai, Captain." He was asleep in his quarters two minutes later.