Space Battleship Yamato A Voyage To Remember Chapter Three

SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: A VOYAGE TO REMEMBER

A fanfic recapitulation of Series One “The Quest for Iscandar” by

Frederick P. Kopetz

EPISODE THREE: YAMATO

May 9, 2199

Thanks to Gail Kopetz for Beta Reading, Dtill359 for Advice

On Planet Gamilas, a bald-headed officer in a brown uniform stood saluting in front of a huge desk.

“Yes, Hiss? What are you bothering me with now?” purred the dulcet voice of the handsome man who sat behind the desk.

The man appeared young, but it was said he was about one hundred and thirty Terran years old; at the tail end of his youth. Had he been a Terran, he would have been roughly thirty years old. He had a noble, youthful-appearing face with a fine, almost Roman-looking nose, heroic features, and alert eyes that were such a dark shade of brown that they appeared black. Above his high, regal brow, fine blond hair was combed in a rather neat part. The youngish-looking man wore a grey uniform with gold buttons surmounted with a red and black cloak secured at one shoulder with a pure gold brooch. His skin, however, was a light blue in tone.

The man’s name was Desslar, and he was the Leader, or Emperor, of the Gamilas Empire, and he was the somewhat warped alien genius and noble-born military officer and chemist who had ordered the bombing of Earth.

“Leader…Desslar,” said Hiss, an older Gamilas who had served Leader Desslar, his elder brother, and their father, all of whom had predeceased the Leader, “I have a report from the Pluto Front Line. Well, three reports,” stammered the bald Gamilas, who was currently Desslar’s Vice Chancellor. He also spoke in a heavy accent, since he came from one of Gamilas’s far northern cities.

“Hand me that report, Hiss. I don’t have any time for your prevarication today. I have other intelligence to concern myself with. The invasion of Terra is important, but the information General Lysis sent me is quite disturbing.”

“Sire,” said Hiss as he handed Desslar a sheath of papers. There was no sound but the low, unearthly hum of the Gamilas climate-control system in the Leader’s Headquarters as Desslar read over the reports.

“This first one is encouraging, Hiss. It appears that idiotic Zaltzian Colonel Schultz did something right for once?”

“Yes, Leader Desslar. The Earth fleet has been destroyed, except for one battleship, the Kirishima. The name of the commanding Admiral is Okita, sir. The man has a lot of nerve. He had the nerve to call Fleet Captain Valzar’s men “Idiots” before the battle begun. The results were predictable; all ships save for his destroyed, and one Terran missile destroyer fled the area, mortally damaged. Valzar didn’t think the ship worth pursuing, but Schultz sent a patrol craft out to its projected crash site at Titan to see if there are any survivors. If so, they will be captured and brought to us for study, interrogation, and torture. We never caught live Terrans before, Leader Desslar. The Kirishima was also permitted to crawl home, sir. It was so heavily damaged that they couldn’t attack an insect, Sire.”

“Pleasant news, Hiss,” Desslar said with a smile. “This next report…What? Valzar attacked this other vessel? Iscandarian?”

“Lord, an unarmed corvette of theirs…but…”

“It has Royal Daisukeings on it, if you can believe these images!” snapped Desslar. “Didn’t I tell you…no interference with the Royal House! We don’t need trouble with Starsha!”

“Sir, Valzar reported that the Iscandarian flying it was probably trying to help the Terrans. He said it could not be permitted near the fleet. Who could have been aboard that ship?”

“Princess Sasha, Starsha’s younger sister, most likely. She’s the damned adventurous tomboy sort,” snorted Desslar. “She tried to hit me with a spanner once when she caught me kissing Starsha! What nerve! Well? Is she dead? Do I have to hear Starsha yelling at me tonight on the hot line?”

“Leader Desslar, her ship was hit, but we believe it landed on the fourth planet of the Sol System. Chances are very good that she is currently speaking with the Terrans now.”

“Let her say all she wants to,” said Desslar. “She can’t do anything to stave off Terra’s doom, and she just condemned herself to death with the Terrans. This…third report?”

“Sir, Major Gans spotted this ship out beyond Pluto in the asteroid belt of all that was left of their planet Minerva after we hit it with a proton missile years ago. We did that to the Terrans as a warning on your orders, if you recall.”

“I thought they would have surrendered then, but the stupid barbarians just began to fight all the harder. So? It’s a capital ship; a carrier by the looks of it. Why didn’t Schultz send a fleet to attack it? Was he drunk again, or mooning over his daughter Hilde?”

“Leader Desslar…we have an ident on that ship. If it is correct, and some race didn’t just rebuild some ancient wreck…it appears that, if they still even exist, the Pellian Commonwealth may have some interest in this matter…”

“The Commonwealth?” said Desslar. “They had a base once near the Telezart sector, but they were attacked and wiped out. Our intelligence was scanty, but someone took out that base. As I understand it, even if they still exist…the Pellians are just a remnant of their old glory now; a dying ember of what used to be the Iscandarian Empire. They should not concern us…”

“Yes, but what if that carrier gets to Terra? They could offer the Earthers assistance, and they’re possibly more dangerous than the Iscandarians. If you know your history, Sire, they are supposed to be Iscandarians, but an offshoot who retained the ancient warrior ways of the old Empire, although they’re supposed to be in mortal combat with some race of cyborgs.”

“Oh, yes, those weird legends about the Blackeye Galaxy? Isn’t that where Pellias is supposed to be?”

“Yes, Leader Desslar…but if Pellians interfere with our plans for Terra…”

“Then, Hiss, have Schultz blow it to space dust with an Super Missile, as the Terrans call our Heavy D235’s, or have him hit it with the Reflex Gun we use to send our planet bombs to Terra. It should be an easy job. How much damage can just one capital ship do to our Empire? Unless that ship is some supernatural force or ghost ship? The Terrans will never have a ship like that, Hiss. What you are hearing from the Terrans is the death rattle of a race soon to be utterly extinct. Then, we can take their Terra, which they are infesting like cockroaches, and which surely is our ancient home of Galmania, and we can occupy that husk of rock and remake it into a new Capital for the Empire and a showplace of the universe. It is orbiting a stable star that will provide us with ample energy, and it is a geologically active world we can tap for our own uses, and which can stand our exploitation better than our Gamilas, our beloved Gamilas, which is dying as we speak. The sulfuric acid. Why do you think I have the climate control system up so high today, Hiss? I was out on the balcony earlier, and the smell from the acid seas is especially horrid today” Desslar mused.

“Leader Desslar…some of the oldest Priesthood tells us that Terra may have been the Origin Point of all humanity…”

“Origin Point?” purred Desslar. “A myth, I’m sure. Ancient myths and vapors need not concern us, even if some Gamilas still believe in the dying religion of Adonai. I’m not about to repent and throw sackcloth on myself, Hiss over an old myth about Adonai. Our science is greater than any God or so-called God. You see, Hiss, here on Gamilas…I am the one and only God!”

The intercom on Desslar’s desk buzzed. “Yes?” he said with considerable annoyance in his voice.

“Sire, General Talan says he wishes an audience with you.”

“Send him in; any discussion I have with my best friend is more welcome than grousing over ancient myths. Hiss, I thank you for the report. Leave us. And make sure you tell Colonel Schultz to intensify the planet bombing of Earth. I want them wiped out as soon as possible so that I can begin planning to build my new Chancellery on Terra.”

“Yes, My Leader,” said Hiss as he bowed and let Veldt Talan pass him and enter the office in his stead.

A few hours after they had reported to the Earth Defense Forces Commander and confronted Admiral Okita, and met Yuki Mori, Doctor Sado and ANALYZER, Susumu Kodai and Daisuke Shima were sitting in a lounge near the Hospital Section.

“Well, come on, Kodai,” said Daisuke Shima in a quiet voice. “We have to get something to eat. You won’t bring Alex back from the dead by starving yourself, dude!”

“You go eat for both of us, Shima,” said Susumu. “I don’t have any appetite right now,” he said as he sat there moping and thinking of his brother.

Susumu was so depressed that he was ignoring the soft, jazz-based mood music that played in the background in the lounge, and he also didn’t notice the quick footsteps of female booted feet that came behind the seat he was sitting on.

Daisuke Shima nearly dropped his drink when he saw that he was staring right into the face of the nurse they had met earlier that morning; Lieutenant Yuki Mori. She had on her marigold nurse’s minidress, matching boots, and she was carrying a case binder.

“Well…hello…ma’am,” stammered Shima when he saw that Yuki had added a Lieutenant’s rank pin to her collar. He was about to put down his drink and Susumu’s to salute when Yuki just nodded and said, “Don’t worry. I don’t stand all that much on ceremony. Never did; never will,” she said, speaking in a pleasant voice.

Yuki then looked at Kodai and said, “What’s wrong with your friend? He looks a little pale. Maybe he needs a vitamin supplement?”

“No, it’s not that at all, ma’am. He just lost his only brother in the battle near Pluto. I understand he was in command of the Yukikaze…” Shima said.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Yuki said in an honestly concerned soft voice as she set down her folder and crouched before Susumu. “Hello there, Ensign?” she said softly. “Would you mind talking to me about what happened? I’d be happy to help you feel a bit better…”

“Well…maybe I can talk to you, Miss,” Susumu sighed at Yuki as he looked up at her face, her gentle eyes, and her soft smile. Something told him she wasn’t going to go away all that easily, so he said, “Uh…this…is how I feel…”

Then, ANALYZER broke the moment by coming up fast on his treads. He blinked all of his lights, looked at Shima and Kodai, and said, “I have some important information for you two men. The woman is not included! Why don’t you make like a tree and leave, Yuki?”

ANALYZER, you ruined what might have been a great counseling session! Bakayaro! Yuki thought angrily as she got up as quickly as she could and picked up her binder. “I’ll leave, all right! I know when I’m not wanted, damn you!” she huffed as she took off as imperiously as an angered Queen with her nose up in the air.

“THAT WAS VERY RUDE!” snapped Shima. “Apologize to her!”

“Do not be concerned. I have not yet been programmed to be polite,” said ANALYZER. “I was sent here to advise you two that the message capsule you brought back from Mars has been analyzed. There is some interesting data on the capsule, even though we have not yet scratched the surface! You two are wanted ASAP at 2100 Hours at a mass meeting in Briefing Room Delta. Although I have no idea why, because you two are even more obnoxious than Miss Mori. You kids.”

“Well, who summoned us?” snapped Kodai.

“If you must know, Admiral Abraham Okita, Ensign. Evidently, he wants you two kids to report to the Council. We’re not going to see Yuki again; unless she sticks her nose in this business. She’s too smart for her own good and too nosy. I estimate there is a thirty percent chance she will be Court-Martialed soon for her impertinence to General Serizawa, whom she does not like. What a shame. She has a cute…face…”

ABOUT TWO HOURS LATER…

Briefing Room Delta was a roundish amphitheater-like room with a lot of round benches surrounding a lectern and a huge video panel.

Kodai and Shima found seats near the very back bench; the room was filling up rapidly.

“There’s General Serizawa,” muttered Kodai.

“Where?” muttered Shima.

“Don’t talk too loud. He’s over there, two benches over in our row. I couldn’t stand him…”

“Look, there’s Hijikata,” whispered Shima as another peacoat-clad Admiral entered the room to chat with Commanding General Todo.

“Admiral Hijikata from the Academy?” whispered Kodai.

“Yeah…it looks like most of the High Command is here,” said Daisuke. “This must be important.”

A moment later, Serizawa stood up to block the aisle. “Excuse me, Lieutenant! You can’t come in here! What’s your problem?”

“I have orders,” said a familiar voice as Kodai’s and Shima’s ears perked up.

“No, you don’t!” barked Serizawa.

“Doctor Sado couldn’t make it, so the Admiral deputized me to report for him,” the young woman insisted in the shadows. “Need to see the e-mail? It’s on my device,” she huffed as she handed Serizawa her personal communicator.

“Okay, this is real,” he said. “Sit down over there near those idiot Ensigns, and keep your damn trap shut until they call on you, Mori,” barked Serizawa.

“Yessir. With pleasure,” Yuki said with ice in her voice as she turned away from Serizawa and then noticed Kodai and Shima with wide eyes. “Did you two get orders, too?” she said with interest in her voice.

“Sit down here, ma’am,” said Shima as he moved down a little on the rapidly filling-up bench as he indicated a spot between himself and Kodai.

“Guess I can squeeze in,” Yuki said as she sat down between Daisuke and Susumu, with her hips touching theirs. “Before we sit around here and get all cozy, it would be nice to know your names,” Yuki said with bright eyes under her long lashes.

“I’m Ensign Daisuke Shima,” Daisuke said, extending his hand to Yuki’s who shook it calmly. “I’m a Navigation Officer and recon pilot.”

“I was trained to fly recon in ROTC myself in college,” Yuki said. “And you?” Yuki said as she turned towards Susumu.

“Ma’am…I…I’m Ensign Susumu Kodai. Combat Officer; trained fighter pilot, although I’ve never flown a real mission before.”

“What sort of planes do you two fly?” Yuki said.

“A Type 100 Recon Ship, and the Type 51 Starfighter. Supposedly an upgraded model is being built soon,” said Susumu.

“Heard the same thing myself,” said Yuki. “I hope all three of us can be friends. I’m sure you figured out what I do.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Susumu.

“From here on out, I’m Yuki to the two of you,” she said. “If you two ever call me ma’am again, I will smack your heads together…and…shh…here comes Admiral Okita,” Yuki said.

The room went quiet as Commanding General Todo and Admiral Okita came up together.

Some in the room began to come to attention, but Okita said, “There’s no need for you to salute either of us. If you salute anyone today, it should be Queen Starsha.”

The room was filled with hubbub as Daisuke then asked Yuki, “Who’s Queen…Starsha?”

“Beats me,” Yuki said.

“Wonder if she has anything to do with the Gamilas or if she can share any intel on those bastards?” Susumu hissed.

“You know just as much as I do,” Yuki whispered back. “And didn’t you ever learn not to swear in a lady’s presence, Susumu?”

“Sorry, Yuki…the war…I just want to kill a Gamilas trooper…because of what they did to my brother, and…”

“Hush, he’s about to talk…” Yuki said as she patted Susumu’s hand softly. Susumu was a little shocked at how soft her skin was. He looked at her again, and thought, Yuki, you almost look more like an aristocrat than a nurse. I wonder what brought you to the Defense Forces?

“Gentlemen and ladies,” said Admiral Okita into a microphone. “None of you are here by chance; all of you were summoned by me. Some of you, I feel are important enough to know all about the contents of this message capsule we received; that includes those of you who represent what remains of the United Nations, and the World Government we had to form from the UN Secretariat when Gamilas began to bomb us. This most directly concerns the Interspace Committee and its inner circle, the Earth Defense Council. Ninety-seven percent of you have high clearances, and are here on a need-to-know basis.”

Okita then paused. “Out of this audience of exactly one hundred individuals, three of you, only three of you, do not have Alpha Level Five Gold Security Clearances. However, the Earth Defense Commander and I have seen fit to grant you three young officers these clearances, for you will be reporting to us before we play the message capsule. I see the three of you at the back of the room; would you please stand and introduce yourselves to the audience?”

Susumu, Yuki and Daisuke came to attention. “Sir, distinguished guests, my name is Ensign Susumu Kodai, Combat Specialist and fighter pilot.”

Then, Yuki spoke. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Junior Lieutenant Yuki Mori; Nurse-Practitioner, and junior scientist and bio-chemist detailed to the Physics Section of the Defense Command.”

Shima gulped and spoke last. “My name is Ensign Daisuke Shima; Navigation and Survey Specialist.”

“Thank you, officers,” said Okita. “Ensigns Kodai and Shima are important to this affair for they surveyed the crash site of the alien spacecraft and escape pod and they found and secured the corpse of the alien woman who brought the message to us, as well as the data capsule itself. These two young men have done yeoman work in this business. They did their jobs under great stress and safely got the information to us. In light of their accomplishments, I have taken it upon myself to promote these Ensigns to the rank of Junior Lieutenant and I have recommended both of them for the UN Star Decoration, Second Class, for their services to the United Nations. In order, Mister Kodai, and then Mister Shima, tell us what you discovered on Mars and how you found the alien messenger’s body, ship, and the data capsule. Miss Mori, you may be seated, but I will call upon you in a few minutes, for you assisted in the analysis of the data capsule and also assisted Doctor Sakezo Sado in the autopsy we conducted on the alien messenger. The data capsule has been played twice, and we now know the name of the brave alien woman who gave her life for Earth: Princess Sasha of Iscandar. Gentlemen, proceed.”

Yuki sat down with her hands folded as she listened with interest to Susumu and Daisuke’s stories. She didn’t know all of the particulars before, but Kodai and Shima went up in her esteem somewhat as they gave their reports. Yuki watched them both make their report, and she thought to herself, They’re both okay. They have some rough spots. Daisuke could be a little less shy and Susumu a lot more polite. He’s cute, but why does he have that filthy mouth? He’s even saying ‘damn’ here in this assembly. Doesn’t he have an ounce of common courtesy? Okay…this is an interesting story…

“Yeah…and…that’s how we found the girl…Sasha,” said Kodai. “For the record, she was beautiful. The only woman I’ve ever met who looked anything like her is our amazing Girl Genius Miss Mori over here. I wonder if they’re cousins or something?” he said as the assembly laughed. Yuki blushed, but she gave Susumu a nice shot in the ribs with her elbow.

“What’s that for?” Susumu said in a low whisper.

“Shut up! I’m not an alien,” Yuki said. “I was born on December 24, 2178. My father is Kazuo Mori, Esquire, and my mother is Doctor Miyuki Mori.”

“Miss Mori,” said Okita with a slight grin. “We can all hear you; you have a sweet voice that carries! Now that we’ve heard from Mister Kodai and Mister Shima, you have the floor. Tell us how you and Doctor Sanada and his associates decoded the capsule. Then, you tell us what you found out during Sasha’s autopsy.”

“Yessir,” Yuki said as she briskly stood to attention. Shima noticed that for someone who evidently went to a civilian college and was commissioned through ROTC, she was older than Susumu and strangely had better military bearing than he did. It also explained how come they had never seen this girl at the Academy before.

Yuki began with, “After a shift dealing with children who are gravely ill with radiation sickness, and after assisting Doctor Sado with an important patient, I was summoned to the Physics Lab by Doctor Shiro Sanada, my CO in the Physics section and a previous professor of mine in school. Lieutenant Commander Sanada designated myself, Lieutenant Kaoru Niimi, and a young Ensign I know named Holly Parsons to the project. Some other men and women wished to assist, but Sanada said we were enough.”

Yuki paused and said, “We tapped the capsule with activation protocols at different amplitudes and wavelengths. None of them worked, but Holly…Miss Parsons, and I got a wild idea and recommended we try hitting it with a wave at the 8,000 Kilocycle GS-5 Protocol. That worked, and we began to get the capsule to give us output. There is a lot of data on that capsule, but we opened the first two files; the marker file, and a file in a strange holographic pseudo-MPEG Five file format. We then got recognizable audio and video from it. It is as if the person who sent it knew what sort of file limitations we have, and that the message was encoded on purpose in such a way that we could access it. When we played the audio; we didn’t even have to translate it like we’ve had to with the few terse messages we have received from the Gamilas; she actually speaks Japanese and Terranglish, lo and behold!”

“Who speaks Japanese and Terranglish?” snapped General Serizawa as he got up to challenge Yuki.

Why does Serizawa have it in for her? Susumu thought in rage. His heart went out to the young lady trying to do her job as Yuki stared down Serizawa and said, “Why, sir, Queen Starsha…of Iscandar. She’s the one you’ll hear in a few minutes. I assume you’ll be playing the message, Admiral Okita?” Yuki said as she addressed the EDF Fleet Commander directly.

“I will be, Miss Mori,” said Okita.

“Please, sir. Call me Yuki, if you would? I’m more comfortable with that.”

The group chuckled, but Okita held up a hand for silence. “Thank you, Yuki, if you don’t mind the informality. We have all that we need to hear from for now about how Doctor Sanada, Miss Niimi, Miss Parsons, and yourself decoded the message. Please tell us, and please make it succinct, what sort of being Sasha of Iscandar…was.”

“Sir,” said Yuki. “Sasha of Iscandar is almost indistinguishable, on the most basic level, from a Terran. She was, in old measure, an inch taller than myself, at five foot eight inches in height. Her weight was one hundred and twenty-nine pounds; slender build, well-nourished, with cream-colored skin, honey-blonde hair, and facial features that Doctor Sakezo Sado described as “aristocratic.” She had brown eyes, and we believe she was the equivalent of twenty-three years of age when she died, although genetic markers indicate she may really be much older with a longer lifespan than our race. When we examined her brain, we found it was very well-developed, with a very few small structures in it we have never before seen in a human being from Terra. Doctor Sado and I concurred that she had to be very intelligent and possibly even had psi-abilities of some type. We also performed a preliminary DNA analysis; most of her DNA is similar to that found in humans, specifically, of humans of what happened to be “noble” descent in the populations of France and Japan. However, there were a few extra features in her genome we have never seen on Earth before, with the exception of a very few individuals, most of whom are dead. Doctor Sado did the final analysis and he refused to tell me if any currently living individuals are genomic matches with these extra DNA elements found in our messenger, Princess Sasha of Iscandar. We have tissue and blood samples, but the causes of death were obvious; extreme anoxia due to breathing in an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide, along with hypothermia. She was beautiful. I hated to assist in cutting her open, but I saw the necessary science behind it and Doctor Sado and I were respectful to her remains. Other than the samples we have from her body and her gown, when we were done, the body was carefully closed, dressed, prepared, and then cremated to protect her from ghouls and body snatchers of all sorts. I conducted her remains to the crematory myself and said the last prayers over her body and personally collected the ashes several hours later. We are currently holding the ashes in a secure area. Sir, that is my report.”

“Yuki, thank you,” said Okita. “For your role in this, I have recommended you for the UN Star, First Class, along with Doctors Sado and Sanada. Your associates will receive the UN Star, Second Class. You may be seated.”

Okita then nodded and Doctor Sanada stood up and went to a computer console. “After Lieutenant Commander Sanada dims the lights, you will hear Queen Starsha’s message to us on the screen. Doctor?”

“Yessir,” said Sanada as he prepared everything.

A moment later, there was a strange, but soothing sound that sounded like wind chimes and different stars and planets swirled around the screen and a beautiful starfield as a startlingly young-sounding woman began to speak very recognizable Terranglish in soothing tones that sounded British with hints of a music in her voice that didn’t sound like any Terran they knew…save for one exception.

Susumu’s eyebrows went up when he realized in shock that the music in Starsha’s voice sounded just a little like Yuki’s voice! In fact, in much later years, when speaking very formally with a few years under her belt, Yuki would end up sounding somewhat like Queen Starsha herself.

They all listened as they heard Queen Starsha speak:

“People of Earth. I am Queen Starsha the Second of Planet Iscandar. When and if my sister Princess Sasha arrives safely on Earth with this message, you are to come to Iscandar. I am aware that you have only a little more than one Terran year left until the radiation from Gamilas’ Planet Bombs reaches the lowest levels of your underground cities, and means the end of all life on Earth. In this data capsule, I have sent you the plans for what is to you a new type of star drive known as a “WAVE MOTION ENGINE” along with the plans for a weapon that you can adapt from the engine design, but which must be used only in the direst of circumstances for only your own self-defense on the long and perilous journey to Iscandar. I was engaged in what you would call deep prayer before I decided to entrust this technology to you. It is very dangerous and must be used carefully! We are located about one hundred and forty-eight thousand lightyears beyond your Galactic System, in what you call the Great Magellenic Cloud. Charts and coordinates for Iscandar are in this capsule along with the engine plan.”

Starsha paused as what sounded like soft alien music began playing as her face appeared on the screen. Everyone in the room gasped audibly; she looked much like her late sister Sasha, but even more regal and beautiful.

“You shall be coming to Iscandar for a Purpose. When you reach Iscandar, we will give you a machine that best translates into your common tongue as “THE COSMO CLEANER-D”. This is a machine we have constructed that can rid your planet of the radioactive poisons of the Gamilas bombs and also will reconstruct your environment. I stress that it is the only thing that can save you. I wish that we could send you THE COSMO CLEANER-D ourselves, but we cannot. You must reach Iscandar and return to Earth within that approximate one-year timespan to save humanity and your Earth. We will be expecting you and praying for your safe arrival. I am Starsha; of the Planet Iscandar!”

Admiral Okita then stood before the assembly as he addressed everyone. “We also have begun analyzing the engine plans. It will be difficult, but we believe that we can construct a starship that will make the journey to Iscandar and back in just one year and then return with the COSMO CLEANER-D device. I have already volunteered to command this mission myself, and have accepted a voluntary downgrade to the rank of Captain to serve as the commander of this new ship. I stress that we will not be using the Kirishima for this mission, but we will be constructing a new, much larger vessel bigger than anything the UN Earth Defense Forces have fielded before for this journey. I must stress that in order to construct this new, great vessel, the Izumo Plan, which only a few of you know of, has been cancelled!”

Niimi glared hard at Okita and then at Sanada, to whom she whispered, “One year of research down the drain; like that, all because we got some fancy capsule from some darned alien Queen, whom we know NOTHING about?”

“Niimi…peace!” snapped Sanada in a low voice. “Listen to what was decided. I wasn’t in the meeting with the Commander when he and Okita made the decision, but we are doing something with those preparations! Although, I must say, you won’t be coming with us!”

“What?” snapped Niimi.

Okita then continued. “What was previously known as the Secret Izumo Plan is being reconfigured for the purpose of the journey to Iscandar. As I have said, I will be in command myself. I have also personally hand-picked an elite Medical Officer who was not in on the Izumo Plan to come with us, along with two scientists whom I can only describe as geniuses. One of those scientists was in the Izumo Plan, and is adaptable enough to adjust to the needs of this new mission. The other scientist is a very young scientist who is a gentle humanist who can think outside the box, and whom I have selected personally to replace Senior Lieutenant Kaoru Niimi on the reconfigured Mission to Iscandar under a new Paradigm known for now as the “Y” Plan. I will likewise select others of like mind to accompany me as well.”

Captain Okita then looked out at the crowd. “I will see many of you again in the next few weeks. I cannot say more. Dismissed!”

Everyone stood and saluted.

Okita left.

“So, what does all this mean?” Susumu said.

“Easy. Captain…Okita is selecting an elite crew of Earth’s best and finest to head out to Iscandar with him aboard this brand-new starship he’s building,” Yuki said. “Although I’m surprised that he said that Niimi was not selected.”

“Why?” said Shima.

“That woman,” Yuki said. “She’s my Boss in the Physics Section, and she’s a computer on legs! I don’t know of a scientist smarter than her in the Defense Forces, with the exception of Doctor Sanada, who had top clearance on this “Izumo Plan”, whatever that is…or was. He told me about it once in passing, but he never told me what it was. He said I didn’t have a high enough clearance to know what it was. Whoever Okita picked to replace her…that person must be a sheer genius that none of us know about yet! And what’s that part about that scientist being a “humanist”? It leaves me puzzled. Sounds like they picked somebody as morally straight and giving as Albert Schweitzer to be on that new project.”

“Who the…heck…was Albert Schweitzer?” said Susumu.

“I see you’re learning to talk a little more nicely, Kodai!” Yuki said as she tapped Susumu on the nose. “Albert Schweitzer was a physician, theologian, scientist, humanist, and all-around ultra-good and giving person…well…as good as one could have been on this mortal, imperfect, sinful plane. He’s always been one of my heroes, along with Admiral Grace Hopper, Admiral Louise DuPres, Doctor Martin Luther King, Martin Luther of the Reformation, and the late, long-dead US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Look those individuals up, Susumu. You might find their stories interesting; even inspiring.”

“Do you think we’re going to run into each other again, Yuki?” said Shima. “You sound like a very interesting person.”

“Yes, I think we probably will run into each other again,” Yuki said. “Daisuke, take care, and all the best to you. Susumu, you take care! Make sure you read up on those people I told you about; there might be a pop quiz when we meet again.”

“Yes, teacher,” Susumu said as he rolled up his eyes. Yuki put her hands over her mouth and giggled. Then, she said, “I’ll see you guys later. I’ve been busy most of the day. I need some sleep. If I don’t get it, I have a bad habit of getting up and walking around brooding.”

“Me too,” admitted Shima.

“I have a rough time even getting to sleep,” Susumu growled.

“May I ask why?” Yuki said with that strange concern in her eyes.

“Yuki, you’re too kind, but you don’t need to know about my weird nightmares,” Susumu said. “Talk soon.”

“Take care!” Yuki said as she took off to wherever it was that she had to go.

“So, what do you think of her?” Shima said as Yuki was out of earshot.

“She’s…different…” said Susumu. “You know how I’ve always been with women, Daisuke. They’re way different than I am; they don’t think the way I think. The cute ones like her would never give me the time of day, and the skanky ones…like Diane Henson…just used me for their own ends and spit me out. They’re all just…” yecch, you’re a greasy pilot” or “I want to sleep with you so bad, Susumu!” Yuki doesn’t seem like that at all. She seems smarter than a lot of guys I’ve met, and she’s nice…and even a little tough. I never had a girl elbow me in the ribs like that and then act totally kind five minutes later. She’s an enigma…wrapped inside a riddle. Doesn’t she strike you as kind of…mysterious?”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, she is sort of mysterious. Like she knows a lot more about things, and even us, than she lets on. You think she’s some kind of intelligence spook or secret agent?” Shima said.

“Maybe,” Susumu replied.

A while later, the subject of their conversation arrived back in her quarters.

Her roommate Natalie Fisher was there, but she was snoring like a buzzsaw. You had a normal day today, Yuki thought as she yawned. Lately, my life’s been anything but normal.

Yuki began to softly sing a hymn she liked called, “The Lord is my Light” as she undressed, wrapped a towel around herself (she had learned the hard way that ANALYZER liked to barge into her room at odd hours) and stepped into their small shared head to take a shower, wash her hair, et cetera.

Yuki came out exactly ten minutes later with her locks wrapped in a second towel like a turban as she found suitable sleepwear in her rather small selection of uniforms and clothing; a blue sleepshirt that she liked. Yuki liked this sleepshirt so much that she would still be wearing it fifteen years in the future when she had her own space battleship to command. She pulled on her sleepshirt, climbed into bed, and, after saying a few quick prayers under her breath, she read her daily dose of Scripture from a beat-up Ryrie Study Bible under the glow of her small headboard lamp above her bunk. Her father had given her this one before she had shipped out from Japan; somewhere in her sea bag, Yuki had a duplicate Bible of the same type she barely thought about, along with some paperback books and novels. Yuki had no idea why she was carrying that second Bible around, except for a feeling in the back of her head that someday, she would be giving it to someone who needed it far more than she did.

One of my hunches, Yuki thought as she rubbed her eyes while reading around the twentieth chapter of the Book of Job. Sometimes, they come true, along with the things I wish for. After finishing Job 20, Yuki randomly paged forward a little to read aloud, in a low voice, Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the Earth’s Foundations? Tell me, if you understand! Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!”

“No, Lord, I do not know,” Yuki whispered. “That means, stop showing everyone I have such a big head, huh? When you start to learn…you just begin to realize how much you don’t really know. I wonder what Queen Starsha is really like? Is she as kind as she seems in her message?”

Yuki then yawned again and closed her Bible, setting it in a small alcove by her bunk. She then turned off the light and was soon asleep.

She got maybe four hours’ worth of sleep before her phone began to bleep incessantly.

“ohh…who could be calling now? It’s 0300 Hours!” Yuki snapped as Natalie sat up. “Shima, Kodai, if either of you guys got my number from Doctor Sado or that wacky Tinwit and you think this is funny…well…you will have another thing coming!”

“Hello, who IS THIS?” Yuki snapped into her comm device when she answered it. “Do you realize what TIME this is?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, Yuki…as you said,” explained a grumbling voice.

“Captain Okita! Are you all right? What about that arm wound? Are there complications?” Yuki said.

“Not that at all,” said Okita. “We are having a secret meeting in Meeting Room Twelve near the Headquarters Block. Get into uniform and get here in twenty-five minutes! Both Doctor Sanada and I want to talk with you!”

“Yessir,” Yuki said as she hung up her phone.

“Yuki, who was that?” said Natalie.

“Captain Okita. The commander who came back from Pluto; I’ve been assigned to his care along with Doctor Sado,” Yuki said as she pulled on fresh underwear beneath her sleep shirt, then began to just put her brown dress skirt and jacket on over it. She threw on her ascot with one hand, and pulled her boots right onto her bare feet with her other hand, one by one, dispensing with her socks.

She jumped up, ran a brush through her hair a few times, and said, “How do I look, Natalie?”

“Okay for someone who just rolled out of bed,” Natalie yawned. “Can I go back to sleep now, Yuki?”

“Go ahead, Natalie-chan,” Yuki said softly. “You’re lucky; you get to sleep. Sleep must be a dirty word for me.”

“Sleep’s a bad word for me, too,” said Natalie. “G ’night, Yuki.”

“Good night, Natalie,” Yuki said as she stepped through her door and took off running.

What she didn’t know was that would be the first step in a great Adventure that would take the next year, and lead to other adventures that would continue for most of her long life.

Yuki arrived at the proper briefing room a few minutes later, to find Captain Okita, Doctor Shiro Sanada, a white-bearded man with a bald head she didn’t recognize, sitting there with Doctor Sado, her friend from the Physics Section Holly Parsons, who was a pretty redhead, along with a girl she didn’t know who wore her hair in strange pigtails and an EDF Chaplain in uniform with a clerical collar that Yuki sure did recognize! He was a youngish middle-aged priest with a genial, carved face and horn-rimmed glasses who had taught Yuki in both Osaka, Japan, and Boulder, Colorado as a religion teacher, parish priest in the breakaway American Catholic denomination that Yuki and her parents were members of; her friend, confessor, and spiritual advisor, Father Martin Likanski, who hailed from Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

“Father!” Yuki cried in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I was summoned, same as you, dear,” he said.

Captain Okita cleared his throat. “Yuki, it’s nice that you know our Chaplain, probably a good thing, as a matter of fact. Let me make introductions starting here. For those who may not know me, I’m Captain Abraham Okita. I was a Fleet Admiral before the Gamilas kicked our tails at Pluto, but, after we received some intel, it was decided that the Izumo Plan was to be canceled, and this plan begun in its stead after we heard from Queen Starsha of Iscandar. I’ll fill you in on that in just a few minutes. But, first, let me give you the history of the Izumo Plan so you can understand why we decided to cancel it.”

Okita cleared his throat and said, “A year ago, the Defense Command began to see the handwriting on the wall, so to speak, if we didn’t stop the Gamilas. General Serizawa and Lieutenant Commander Kaoru Niimi put their heads together with Lieutenant Commander Shiro Sanada here; this fellow,” Okita said as he raised a hand towards the man sitting next to him at his right. “Sanada and Niimi were tasked by General Serizawa to design an escape vessel to take a portion of the human race and our resources out beyond our solar system to colonize a new world. Since we only had slower than light speed drives, it was decided that most of the crew on this vessel would be shipped to their destination in cryo-freeze, on a cruise that might take a hundred years; maybe two hundred years. Also, it was decided that Earth’s most important government officials would automatically have seats on this cruise; a self-appointed master race condemning most of humanity to its fate while they, perhaps, escaped and lived.”

“Captain, I’m a priest, as you can all see,” said Likanski. “My name is Father Martin Likanski. To me, that plan sounds utterly cold-blooded and immoral.”

“I can’t say I disagree with you,” said Okita. “In fact, I was opposed to the Izumo Plan from the beginning, but every time I tried bringing up my objections in the Defense Council…I was overruled.”

“Captain, you mean that General Serizawa shouted you down,” Yuki said.

Sanada looked at her and nodded grimly as Okita said, “You’re pretty much correct, Yuki. But, let me explain our most recent developments. During the Battle of Pluto, an alien vessel streaked into the solar system having sustained damage. It was heading towards Mars, where it crashed. Two Ensigns, named Susumu Kodai and Daisuke Shima were on duty there on Mars near the crash site. They found the remains of the alien ship, an escape pod, and a single young woman of alien descent who died clutching a data capsule. It turns out that the capsule and messenger came from a planet somewhere in the depths of the Great Magellenic Cloud, a small galaxy near our own. The data capsule was brought back to Earth on the Kirishima a few days ago by these Ensigns along with the remains of our alien messenger.”

“How do we know she’s an alien?” asked the young Warrant Officer with the pigtails. “My name is Yuria Misaki; I assist in the Physics Section and in Research and Development, and I have no idea why I was summoned here!”

“You’ll soon find out, Miss Misaki,” said Okita. “You all know Doctor Sanada here. Doctor Sado, please introduce yourself.”

The chubby, shirt little bald man, stood up, coughed, and said, “My name is Doctor Sakezo Sado. I was trained as a surgeon and did my Medical Training at Central Military Hospital here in Japan and my residency at Johns Hopkins in the United States before the bombings started. I’ve learned a lot about the effects of radiation cancers and their treatment in the past few years, and I wrote a book regarding theories of what an alien race might look like, given that we were dealing with one in the Gamilas. I was married, divorced, and I had a daughter who was actually training with me up until three years ago. Her name was Aiko. She got the radiation sickness, and she died from it. Luckily, Destiny brought me a fine nurse shortly afterwards who I’ve come to regard almost as a surrogate daughter, our young genius Yuki Mori here. She’s great to work with, and if you can get her to imbibe a little bit, she makes a good drinking buddy, too!” laughed Sado.

“Please, Doctor,” Yuki said with a deep blush. “You know quite well that I don’t drink very often because I get…silly when I drink. Sake’ is not a bad thing, but too much goes against my moral code.”

“Okay,” said Doctor Sado. “So, after Yuki does something or another with that message capsule so we could read it…she and that wacky Ensign Holly Parsons over there got the bright idea to bombard it with radio waves or something, she comes in here in just enough time to help me autopsy our alien woman; who is mostly human, but who has a little bit of strange DNA only seen in a few individuals, along with some odd development in bits of her brain structure, like the hypothalamus and other structures, which seem consistent with the alien woman being able to think quickly and might mean she was psychic. Yuki here heped me piece together the idea that our dead Princess Sasha, as it turns out, really came from a different world than our own.”

“I heard there was a meeting earlier that I wasn’t invited to,” said Father Likanski.

“Same goes for us,” said Holly Parsons and Yuria as they looked at each other and Yuki. “Chief Yuki here is closer-mouthed about this thing than Frodo Baggins was with the One Ring to his Hobbit friends in The Lord of the Rings, but it’s obvious she and Doctor Sanada know that something’s up.”

“If I may explain,” said Sanada. “The message came from an alien world known as Iscandar. A woman spoke in the message, a Queen Starsha. Starsha said she included plans for a faster than light drive called the Wave Motion Engine to allow us to power a new spacecraft to Iscandar and back to pick up a machine she called The COSMO CLEANER-D. That machine, she said, could remove the radioactive contamination from Earth and restore our environment. By my estimates, in sixteen months from now, the radiation will seep so deep into the planet that even the lowest levels of the underground cities will be too irradiated to live in. That mans in sixteen months, we have to build this new…starship, find a crew, and get moving to Iscandar.”

“And a handy task all that would be, but it’s do-able,” said the old bald man with the mustache and beard in a deep Irish brogue. “I am Lieutenant Commander Hikozaemon Tokugawa, and I’ve been Captain Okita’s Chief Engineer aboard several of his commands in the past twelve years. I’ve also worked with Doctor Sanada in the past. He and I, on short notice, got the idea that we could take the partially finished hull that was built for the Izumo Plan and adapt it for this new Plan to go to Iscandar and back again. Captain, if I can pass out these folders, this will make more sense soon.”

“Go ahead,” said Okita.

“In these folders, is a brief description of what we were trying to accomplish with the Izumo Plan,” said Tokugawa. “It involved the construction of a new space cruiser ship, partially from metal recycled from and melted down from a few shipwrecks in the Great Eastern Sea, or East China Sea, not far from here. These were old World War II vessels which sunk in 1945 near the end of the war between Japan and the old United States of America. The largest of them is providing the most metal, and we were partially adapting the general hull plan into the Izumo Plan vessel. With Queen Starsha’s message, the Plan Objective has changed, and we are planning to engineer the wave motion engine into this large, partially finished ship and reconfigure her into a space battleship like nothin’ we’ve ever built before. Ladies and Gentlemen, turn to Page One of the book before you and look at the general schematic of what we think the ship will look like…for the new plan…The Yamato Plan or Project Yamato.”

Those not familiar with the plan looked in awe at a painting of a huge new spacecraft.

She was a very graceful and yet powerful ship with a blue-grey upper hull and works, and bright red lower hull, with a bright red accent on her funnel or smokestack, which was retained in the design.

She was bristling with guns; both in huge main turrets and massive pulse laser batteries on her flanks. The hull was incredibly streamlined; with three massive engine nozzles at her stern.

The clipper bow had a shield with huge hawse holes around the fo’castle, and the ship even had massive anchors. Much of the bow was hollowed out and replaced with something that, to Yuki, resembled…

“Captain Okita…is that a giant cannon at the bow?” Yuki asked. “I’ve never seen a design like this before! It almost looks…romantic!”

“Yuki, that is a giant cannon in the bow,” said Okita. “You’ll learn more about it soon if we can get everything to actually build and work right in the Yamato. Do you see those large radar aerials above the first bridge on the top of the conning tower? They’re actually going to be sophisticated sensors. Kaoru Niimi was to have operated that setup and also served as the ship’s Operations Chief. Because she was so inured with the Izumo Plan, I decided to remove her from the project. She won’t be coming with myself, Doctor Sanada, Lieutenant Commander Tokugawa, and Doctor Sado on the mission to Iscandar. Instead, we picked out a new, more adaptable scientist and humanist to take her place and run Operations on this ship; should the scientist accept it, that is.”

“Who?” Yuki said softly.

“You, of course,” said Okita with a chuckle. “Sanada will be the Executive Officer and in charge of shipboard maintenance, systems engineering, and will be the chief scientist. Lieutenant Commander Tokugawa has volunteered to join us as our Engineering Officer, and Doctor Sado will be with us as Chief Surgeon,” said Okita. “If you choose to come, Yuki, you will be in charge of the radar and sensor suite, and run personnel and ship’s operations, supervise the cooks, survey officers and men and women, a multi-disciplinary team of botanists, physicists, and Communications Officers. And you will be Doctor Sado’s right hand as his Nurse-Practitioner. Do you accept this challenge?”

“Sir…I do,” Yuki said after a moment’s thought, thinking, this is the moment when I step into the wardrobe and end up in Narnia, right? This is crazy, but…who else can do this? I can’t let them down! I just can’t!

“Great. I selected Miss Natalie Fisher to be your second, along with Warrant Officer Misaki, and Father Likanski is a trained combat medic and of course, Chaplain. So, tonight, I have my Medical Group, Technical Group, Engineering Group, and Operations Group Leaders for a ship that’s just forty percent finished. Miss Parsons will also be aboard in the Navigation Group. We have to get the Yamato built and ready in four months from now, and get a crew aboard her and trained. Yuki, that’s also where you come in. Go find me about two hundred and twenty of Earth’s best and brightest to be my Combat Chief and Gunners, Navigation Officer and assistant navigators and astrogators, Communications personnel and engineers, and support personnel of all kinds, along with fighter pilots, who will be flying two types of fighter planes; a new fighter-bomber we are calling the Black Tiger, and a new fighter we are calling the Cosmo Zero. You and Sanada get me a crew, and I’ll make final approval. Have anyone in mind, Yuki?”

“Well… I may have you a Navigation Officer…and a Fighter Captain. That is, if I can teach him to stop cursing so much,” Yuki said with a chuckle.

“Good,” said Okita. “Yuki, get me their service records. I also want you to keep an eye on them. I’ll send you an e-mail telling you what we will expect from these officers. Consider them your special lost lambs to drag into our fold. You too, Sanada. You know the Tech People out there. Find me the best ones.”

“Yessir,” Yuki and Sanada said together.

FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS LATER

September 21, 2199

“This makes no sense at all, Shima,” Susumu Kodai said as he stood at alert-thirty in a hangar bay. “Out and scan this in a Type 100 recon plane. Get pictures. Get back. Now and then, they’re nice guys and they let me fly that new bird, the Type 52 Super Starfighter. But I’m not supposed to engage any Gamilas with it, which makes no sense whatsoever when I want action! What do they have you doing?”

“Pretty much the same thing when they don’t have me in that stupid simulator,” said Shima. “I have no idea what I’m being trained for. I hear the Kirishima is being scrapped, piece by piece…or something. We don’t even have any heavy ships left!”

“I get the simulator…crap…too,” said Kodai as he looked around. “Do you get the mandatory therapy sessions, too?”

“Well, I don’t know if I can call those twice-a-week lunches with that Yuki chick as friendly lunches or headshrinker sessions,” said Shima.

“Kind of both,” said Susumu. “Did she pull you aside one day and have you sit around with her at a table and take a personality test? I got three of them, including those crazy inkblot cards.”

“Yeah, I got those too,” said Daisuke. “Did she have a test that she said there was no right or wrong answer for but it included writing a poem?”

“Yeah, come to think of it, I did,” said Susumu.

“What was your poem about?”

“Wanting to smash some Gamilas’ head against a wall because he killed my brother,” said Susumu. “Yuki said that was okay only as long as I did it in the line of duty. Do you believe her?”

“Yeah…there has to be some limits on killing the enemy, or we’ll turn into them.”

“You know, that’s exactly what she said to me,” said Kodai. “I also read about all of those people she spoke about; Albert Schweitzer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was really into women’s rights as a judge, and of course, I read the writings of Dr Martin Luther King and Martin Luther. Then, there was Admiral Grace Hopper, the first computer designer, and Admiral Louise DuPres, the computer whiz. When I told Yuki I did my reading, she was happy. Then, the next week, she introduced me to Admiral DuPres. And that was the really weird part! She’s a bit older, but she sort of looks like Yuki and even sorta sounds like her! I almost wonder if they’re related. And it got weirder. There I was with this DuPres character, and with Yuki, both of them talking a little over my head, and then they both ask me how to solve a computer error in a fighter plane in the middle of a battle! I came up with an answer on the spur of the moment. It was crazy, but I think they both liked it.”

“Yeah…and I get the sense that Yuki’s around watching me when I run that simulator. Taking notes or something in her head,” said Shima.

“I get the same sense when I’m running that gunnery simulator and she just shows up. She even showed me how to run a few routines on that thing,” Susumu said. “I wonder if there’s anything that young lady doesn’t know about. I asked her one day, and she said, “I’m like the university professor just two lessons ahead of the rest of the class. When I’m not nursing, I live, eat, and drink this stuff.” I have no idea what kind of answer that was…”

“If she wasn’t so nice, I’d say she’s weird,” said Shima.

Then, klaxons began to sound in the flight bay.

“EMERGENCY ALERT! A GAMILAS PLANE SIGHTED NEAR THE SITE OF THE SUNKEN BATTLESHIP YAMATO!”

“Come on, Susumu, let’s do some real flying!” said Daisuke.

“Well, Alex and I were gonna take some liberty together, but…let’s go do some flying ourselves!” Susumu snapped.

Daisuke nodded and they ran towards the nearest armed Type 100 Bravo recon plane. Susumu had flown some familiarization flights in this bird, so he knew what he was doing. “Well, there’s no one else around!”

Then, they heard the Squadron Chief, a by-the-book officer known as Lieutenant Peter Conroy yelling at them, “Hey! What’s the big idea! You guys aren’t cleared to take off!”

“Let’s go, Shima,” said Kodai as he cracked the canopy shut.

“Here we go,” agreed Shima from the rear place of the recon plane.

Some time passed.

Shima said, “I wonder what the Gamilas want with some old sunken battleship?”

Susumu said, “Hmmm…I heard about the Yamato. I saw the wreck from very high altitude once when I took Yuki up on a flight to test some scanners that she and Sanada developed and put in a pod on a Type 100. The Yamato was a great battleship once; she’s just scrap now!”

Susumu said, “Hey…I have something on the radar!”

He caught a blip, and soon, they had a Gamilas recon plane within visual sight.

“There he is! Let’s get him!” snapped Susumu as he flew around to meet the enemy ship.

“He’s at nine o’clock, Kodai!” said Shima as Susumu jinked around and caught the Gamilas ship in his gunsight.

“Locked on target…eat some missiles, you Gamilas!” snapped Susumu.

Susumu flipped the firing pickle and fired.

Nothing happened. Red lights appeared all over his dashboard.

“What…the?” Susumu snapped.

“No missiles loaded,” said a flat computer voice in the Type 100’s cockpit.

“Okay, you son-of-a-bitch…how’s about some laser guns?” Susumu said as he caught the enemy plane in his sights again and flicked the firing pickle to “guns”.

Susumu fired. One laser burst came out, but the Gamilas jinked around.

“He’s over there!” yelled Shima.

Susumu lined him up in his sights again and fired again.

“WHAT THE…?” yelled Susumu.

“Insufficient energy to power guns…engine manifold overheating,” said the flat computer voice as more red lights flashed.

The Type 100 began to go down.

“Our engine’s overheating! No thrust!” said Susumu.

“Oh, crap this pile of junk!” snapped Shima. “Kodai, why did you have to steal a stupid old recon plane?”

Then, the plane went down and smacked into Earth’s dry, dead, red surface.

“Ohh…damnit, Shima, you okay?” said Susumu as he rubbed his helmeted head.

“Yeah, what about you?” said Shima.

“What lousy luck!” snapped Susumu as he got out. “If only this bucket of crap warmed over would have held out another minute!” he said as he punched the fuselage hard with her gloved fist.

A few minutes passed.

They had used the plane’s radio to call for a pickup, and they were just walking over hills that used to be the ocean floor of the East China Sea.

“We’re going to get it when we get back,” Shima said.

“Why would the Gamilas send a patrol plane way out here?” said Susumu. “This is worse than the middle of nowhere; this is nowhere!”

They topped a hill and then looked down in amazement at the sight.

They were looking at a rusty, battered wreck of a ship which had once been a sleek, mighty battleship.

Now, it was junk.

They were looking down at the wreck of the Yamato.

“Isn’t that the Yamato?” said Shima.

“It’s just a pile of scrap metal,” said Susumu. “That baby will never move again!”

“Why would the Gamilas be interested in a rusty old shipwreck?” said Shima.

“I don’t know…perhaps…there’s some secret?” Susumu said.

As we end this chapter, I must burst back into the narrative again.

Susumu and Daisuke didn’t know, but, by then, **I** knew what was going on deep under the Yamato. In fact, I had already boarded her several times, sworn to deepest secrecy about the Project.

To end this chapter, I think it will be appropriate to end with a poem, or sort of unrhymed verse, that I wrote about the Yamato when I first saw pictures of the ruined, yet still-majestic wreck.

The Yamato was a proud ship.

She fought nobly until the end.

While rust and decay have taken away her once sleek beauty, her legend remains bright;

A legend of bravery and desperate sacrifice.

Now, just as the ancient ship appears again, her legend will come alive again.

A legend and a ship…which will save Earth.

TO BE CONTINUED…

TO BE CONTINUED…