The starship looked quite dull, as such things went. It was blocky, metallic grey that didn’t quite achieve silveriness, and its sides were so smooth they were almost featureless, looking for all the world as if someone had been aiming to make something without any sort of visual interest whatsoever. Even its engines were tucked as far out of sight as was possible. The only really interesting thing about it, from Hugh’s perspective, is that it seemed to be coming straight towards him, and at a fairly significant speed.
He cast a look over his shoulder, but there was nothing very notable behind him - just the darkness of space and a scattered field of stars.
Hmm. So it certainly seems as if it’s me that they’re after. But what could they possibly want? I only just arrived in this system, after all, and I hardly think my reputation has preceded me quite so quickly as all that.
Well, he answered himself, that is certainly the question. Perhaps we ought to ask them?
Capital ideal, Hugh, he thought. He stretched out a hand, and golden light streamed forth, forming instantly into the shape of an old-fashioned wireless radio. The dial whirled, static buzzed, and then someone spoke: “Again; unknown individual, you are trespassing in Naryan space. You will surrender now for interrogation. Do not resist.”
Not the friendliest greeting I ever heard - but I suppose I shouldn’t expect much better, if they think I’ve wandered into somewhere that I ought not to be. Perhaps I should do as they say.
That sounds awfully risky, said another rather skittish part of his mind. What if this is just a ploy to capture us?
Well, then, we will just have to deal with that as it comes, he told himself. Come on now, be stout of heart and all that!
A minute or so later he was rather regretting his rash surrender. They had drawn him into their hangar bay, where several soldiers were waiting for him with large, grey, boxy weapons. They weren’t pointing them at him, not directly, but he felt as if they were only a little provocation away from doing just that, so he was doing his best not to push them in that direction. In the mean time, he distracted himself as best he could by taking in his surrounds, although it didn’t make for much of an inspection - the inside of this starship seemed as bland as its outside, and even the people continued that theme, with greyscale skin varying between milk-white and midnight-black, and any number of shades in between, while their uniforms were all the same uninteresting shade of slate. Even their hair was monochrome.
Finally someone stomped into the room, nodded at the guards, and approached him. Her uniform didn’t show any rank markings that he could detect, but the way everyone deferred to her told him all that he needed - this had to be the leader of this little band. He gave her a friendly, ingratiating smile, and hoped it conveyed his intention of ‘Please do not start shooting at me, lasers are dreadful for my complexion.’ She just frowned back, and looked him up and down.
“You are not the person we are looking for.”
He bowed just a little. “I’m terribly sorry to hear that. My-”
“Your emotions are not relevant. You are visiting Naryan space?”
“I am, and may I say how-”
“That is acceptable. Cause no trouble while you visit. This is a peaceful territory, and we will not accept aliens coming here to cause disturbance to our way of life.”
“Of course. On which note, you mentioned that you are looking for someone?”
Another stern look. “That is not relevant to you. It is an internal matter, regarding disruptive behaviour committed by a Naryan citizen.”
His friendly expression had become something of a grimace, and he did his best to convert it back. “Oh, of course, and I would not dream of interfering, but perhaps you could use my assistance? I am rather talented at dealing with, ah, disruptive individuals.” He struck a pose - chest out, fists on hips, head cocked so his teeth glinted white in the light, and proclaimed: “That is why they call me Captain Cosmic - Hero of Earth!”
She did not look particularly impressed, but she blinked at him, and nodded. “Very well. If you wish to help us create order, we will accept your assistance. Be aware that this individual is very dangerous. Specifically, they are capable of energy attacks powerful enough to penetrate the hull of a warship. If you do manage to locate them, you are advised to avoid engaging. Simply contact us and we will arrange the capture.”
“Of course,” he smiled and bowed slightly. “Thank you for your help, Captain…”
“You may call me Commander Toklar.”
“Commander. Thank you, and may I say how much I look forward to seeing you again once I capture this troublemaker.”
He twinkled his eyes at her, and all she gave him was yet another frown.
Somehow, being back out in the depths of space made him feel like he could breathe. He always tried not to judge alien cultures by his own standards, tried to remind himself that their society was perfectly legitimate…but these Naryans seemed awfully stifling. On the other hand, he had only really met their military - perhaps, he dared to hope, the civilian population demonstrated a little less conformity. It might make it more bearable, if he were to spend any significant time in these parts.
Now, Hugh, he scolded himself, some people think the British are a cold and humourless people, and how would you feel if you chanced to meet such a person? You would probably answer their presumption with haughty disdain, wouldn’t you? And he had to admit that yes, he probably would.
So, then, enough of this cultural posturing - it was time to get to work! He pulled himself up and came to a complete stop, hanging weightless in the darkness. His eyes closed as he reached out with his cosmic senses. Even without this level of focus, he’d felt the life and energy of the system, but now that he was paying attention, it was like a fireworks display on the inside of his skull. The brightest points were five planets, each buzzing with the signatures of advanced technology, sparkling with life. He tuned those out as best he could - if his target were hanging around on a planet, either they would be so obvious that the Naryans would have already caught them, or subtle enough that he would never be able to detect them from out here, and neither possibility was terribly worth considering just now. The next-most-obvious traces were those of countless ships, handfuls of bulky military vessels sharing space with any number of civilian transports and mining ships and cargo vessels that shuffled ponderously back and forth, a few of them making their way out of the system but the vast majority tracing lines from planet to planet until their lanes hung there in the dark, a distant red-gold tracery almost solid enough to touch.
He pushed those away too, and that left him with almost nothing. For the length of a minute or two he simply hung there, alone in the drifting emptiness, straining his senses and hearing nothing but the sunlight as it reflected from planets and asteroids, and the faint crackle of far-away stars.
Nothing else made itself apparent, and eventually he opened his eyes and frowned. Well, then. Not as easy as I might have hoped. But then, if it were easy, why would they have needed my help? A rueful shake of his head. At this rate, the Naryans had at least as good a chance as he did of catching this person. The image of Commander Toklar’s stern, disapproving face flashed before his eyes, and he found his mouth hardening. No, I don’t think I want to let them beat me. I’ll show them what a human can do. He fidgeted while he thought, playing with the high-tech cuffs dangling at his hip - cuffs which, according to the Naryans, ought to drain his target of the powers that made them such a threat. He hoped they would work as advertised, although he certainly didn’t plan to bet his life on that little hope.
But the question remained, what could he do now? His powers didn’t seem to be providing any answers. Then I suppose that only leaves my intellect. Dear me. Now think, Hugh, where would you hide if it were you? He had already dismissed the inhabited planets as irrelevant to his search, and the starships were probably the same. But there didn’t seem to be very many uninhabited spots in this little system - one very small planetoid out near its edge, and a strangely dense asteroid field lying in a strip between a couple of the planets. Yes, that looks perfect. Rather inhospitable, perhaps, but an acceptable place to hide for a little while. Mind made up, he launched himself towards it at top speed.
The closer he came, the stranger the asteroid field became. Usually when he found a field like this, it would be quite diffuse - a few icy rocks scattered in a ;loose circle around their star - but this one had clumped up quite densely, with some of its rocks no more than a hundred metres apart. They were a varied bunch, as well, some that were little globes as small as a fist, some others were jagged ovoids two or three hundred metres wide, and even more seemed to tick off every possible size and shape in between. He amused himself by launching himself between them, gliding through narrowing gaps and winding around whirling stone monsters, taking a moment just to exult in the joy of flight, and so it came as quite a shock when he zoomed around the edge of yet another massive chunk of stone and found himself staring at something that seemed almost impossible.
There in front of him, set into the side of one of the asteroids, was a building.
He drifted in toward it and took a closer, narrower look. He’d seen asteroid mining facilities before, but those tended to be spindly metallic structures, built cheaply for a single purpose and disassembled for their parts when the job was done. This didn’t look anything like one of those - it was immense, and had clearly been sturdily-built and intimidating before it had been ruined. Most of it was little more than foundations and outlines now, but a couple of the walls still rose up from the ground, metal and concrete forms that were almost a metre thick and whose tallest parts still stretched up to almost twice his height. What in the world could have caused this sort of destruction? He drifted nearer to the centre of the ruin, and glanced down at something in the dust that made him frown. Now what might that be?
He was so distracted that he didn’t notice when the cosmic energy he’d been seeking started to swell. Nor did he notice when a bright blue glow cast itself around his shadow. He did, however, notice the berserker shout that tore through the void around him, and whirled himself around, his left arm producing a shield just in time to deflect a massive stone from crashing into his face. Revealed in the space behind it, he saw his enemy - a woman who floated as easily as he did, her blue-and-white costume accented by the bright blue glow of energy shining from her fists, almost as bright as the hate in her eyes. Their gazes met, and she let out an animal snarl: “YOU.”
“Galactra.” He sighed. “I take it you’re the Naryan ‘troublemaker?’ Perhaps I should have known.” Although, in his defence, they had told him he was looking for somebody local, and until now, he’d never known where his attractive antagonist had come from. But I suppose everybody comes from somewhere, don’t they?
“And you’re their latest desperate attempt to stop me! Pathetic.” She sneered. “You should run away now, while you have the chance.”
“I can’t do that. If you’re doing something to these people-”
The rest of that sentence was lost as she roared and threw herself at him, and he barely had time to bring his shield up and catch her punch. Another landed hard, and another - then he raised his guard a little too far, and a strike slipped underneath, energy exploding on his abdomen and throwing him back, tumbling end over end before he caught himself and came up to face her again. She swept in, on the attack, but now he had her measure. He dropped his guard to his side, while the other hand came up, a golden sword appearing out of nothing and licking out at the onrushing berserker. His first attack hit nothing but forced her to whirl aside and miss him, and as she came back around he pressed his advantage, closing the gap and slashing at her legs. She darted back, then bounced forward just a little faster than he’d expected, smashing a fist into his face. He reeled back in a daze, and she pushed forwards. Reflexively he raised his shield - she just grinned at him, grabbed it with both hands, and an awful hollow feeling started spreading into him as her very touch drained his power away. A few seconds of that treatment and the shield flickered…vanished. He tried to throw himself away again, but now he was much too slow, and the back of her hand caught him on the side of the jaw.
He didn’t realise that he’d momentarily blacked out until he came back to himself, flat on his back on one of the smaller asteroids, and so it was entirely a matter of instinct that let him roll aside before Galactra’s fist smashed into the rock, sending little shards splintering off into space. He kept rolling until he could turn the movement into a leap back to his feet, and right away had to bat away another hurled rock, this one about the size of his head. More followed behind it, a barrage that kept him dodging and blocking and retreating and desperately swatting at them, and through the swarm of stones he saw her smashing a fist into the asteroid’s surface to replenish her stock of ammunition. Goodness. If she keeps on like this, she’ll wear me down long before her own energy runs out, and then she’ll destroy me, no question. So if I can’t keep defending, and I can’t make it through to attack her…
Galactra hurled a final stone with a shout, then stood there on the rock, baring her teeth at the emptiness in front of her, space that by rights ought to be occupied by her enemy’s unconscious body. Immediately her guard was up, and she sent power flooding into her fists, waiting for the counterattack.
None came.
Her eyes flicked around, scanning the field, but the very things that had made it such an appealing place to hide in were now making it a frustrating, claustrophobic arena. Movement played at the edge of her vision, and she spun and thrust out a hand, blowing a small asteroid to smithereens. She growled. And still he was hiding from her! Had he run away? No, not likely. He was always blundering in, always trying to show her the error of her ways, and in all the times they’d inevitably ended up fighting, she’d never seen him just run away. This had to be some sort of trick, some tactic to throw her off-guard.
Well it wasn’t going to work! She shoved herself off her perch and into the void, scanning around for any possible trace of the Captain. And there! Just past the curve of one of the larger rocks, a faint shimmer of golden light. A tiny flex of her power sent her flying towards it, and the light brightened as she closed in, became a trail that was defined enough to follow. She grinned - he would never normally leave tracks like this, which meant that he had to be feeling weak. Vulnerable. Blood surged in her veins and she hurled herself faster at the trail of light, around another rock, and another, racing through that maze on hot on his heels-
And out, out into open space, and suddenly that trail ended and there he was, hanging in front of her and looking just as smug and self-satisfied as ever.
“Oh, there you are. I hope you don’t mind, but I thought it might be nice to have a change of scene.” Golden weapons came back up to guard, and he flashed her a smile. “Ready to finish this?”
As Galactra’s fists blazed and she roared into yet another attack, Captain Cosmic had to steel himself not to show his fear. Oh, he’d goaded her, taken her away from her defensible position, and drawn her out here…and in the process, made her angry enough that she was ten times as powerful as she had been, ten times as deadly. He just had to hope against hope that his plan would work.
Less of a plan, really, and more of a desperate gamble. Oh well, too late to worry about that now!
She punched at him again and again, and even with both sword and shield, it was all he could do to fend off her blows. Even counterattacking was out of the question. Most people would have been weakened by their anger, but Galactra’s passions were the absolute heart of her power, and so even as her attacks became wilder and less controlled, their strength made him flinch away. He didn’t dare try and block her directly, so as another strike came directly at his face, he dodged to the right and swatted at her arm with his shield to help her on her way. The move bought him maybe a third of a second. Her attacks were relentless, furious, and every one of them wore him down a little more - which, given he’d started this second skirmish already half-exhausted, meant that by now he was barely holding himself together.
Just a little longer now, he told himself. A little longer!
She dove at him again, and he slipped out of her path - but she’d tricked him! A kick lashed out and caught him across the midsection, and he flew back into the rock, the landing tearing the breath out of his lungs. He tried to rise - too late. Galactra landed, one foot cracking the ground on either side of him, her hand smashing down to crack his head once more into the asteroid. His head spun as she grabbed him by the throat and hauled him up, her eyes glaring deep into his own.
“Weak. After everything we’ve had together, I expected better from you! But you could never beat me. You don’t want it badly enough.”
He felt his energy, his life force being sapped away, his vision was swimming - then, over her shoulder, something came into view, and he smiled. “Maybe I couldn’t,” he croaked. “But I think they might manage.”
She whirled around, and snarled as she saw them - not one, but two Naryan cruisers, coming towards them as fast as their engines could manage, weapons already charging and just searching for a good lock. Meanwhile, from his spot kneeling on the rock, the Captain coughed and tried to get his breath back in order. “I knew I couldn’t fight you inside that asteroid field, there were far too many weapons for you to use. Far too many places to hide. Then I thought about why you were there in the first place, and it all came together. All that stone made it hard for the fleet to detect your power. But if I drew you out…”
There was a click, and Galactra looked down at her wrist, where a metal cuff had somehow appeared, with the Captain’s hand on it. He gave her a grim little smile. “If I drew you out, they might be able to distract you for long enough that I could get the upper hand.”
“What!?” She tore her arm out of his grip, and swung it at his face - but too slowly, much too slowly. He scrambled back and up to his feet, and when she tried to dash towards him, she found herself almost stumbling over her own. “What is this, what did you do to me!?”
“Those are a set of power-dampening cuffs that your victims gave me. I’m taking you in.” His voice was cool and steady again. “I think it would be best if you didn’t fight that fact any longer.”
She screeched and hurled herself at him, her leading fist humming with power - but it was weaker, now. She was weaker. He took her attack on his shield, and held his ground, held it as she slammed down another strike, and then another, each of them slower, fainter, weaker.
Still, even if it was weakening her body, it couldn’t do the same for her will. She gritted her teeth, and despite it all, the light in her left fist started to grow once more. “Never…going…to…give…in!” The fist came straight at his face - and he grabbed her wrist, wrenched it down, and slapped it into the other cuff.
The light went out, her eyes fluttered closed, and Hugh slipped his arm around her waist to keep her unconscious body from just dropping back to the asteroid under their feet. He half-smiled. It was a little strange to see her calm, and without her power, she seemed vulnerable, her body strong but slender in his grip. She looked almost like the innocent person she sometimes pretended to be. A few strands of bright blue hair fell across her face, and he brushed them away.
A shadow passed over them, and he looked up at the massive ship as it closed in and blocked out the starlight. Right, of course, the reason he was here in the first place. He nodded to himself, checked his careful hold to make sure her neck was cradled properly, and took flight toward the gaping hangar bay.
The Naryans did not seem terribly grateful for his efforts, nor impressed by their results - his appearance with Galactra in their airlock was greeted with as little surprise as if he had returned from a quick trip to the shops. They greeted him stoically, and a pair of guards stoically led him to the cells where they left their captive, before escorting him, stoically as ever, to the Bridge, where Commander Toklar was waiting to meet him. They nodded to her, she nodded to them, and they departed, leaving the two of them standing together in the centre of the room, while around the edges, various officers worked at their stations with a quiet efficiency.
“You were successful in capturing our troublemaker,” said the Commander, and Hugh smiled, expecting some degree of praise. The smile faltered after a few seconds, when no further comment had been forthcoming. He fell back on the obvious.
“Yes. As I said, I have a certain amount of experience with this sort of thing. And, of course, this isn’t the first time she and I have crossed paths.”
“Ah.” And that was all - Toklar didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in the details, which he supposed meant it would be rude to barrel ahead and provide them. Even about the time when she’d stolen a moon and he had to return it to its original home, an adventure which still brought him a certain amount of pride. But no, this Commander would hardly appreciate it properly. Pity.
In fact, it was rather odd to think of her being captured. It had hardly ever happened before, and on those rare occasions when it had, she had still escaped soon after. He had started to think that their fates were somehow linked, and that they were doomed to keep finding each other, battling endlessly, bringing nothing but destruction and despair to those in their wake. It was a rather grim thought.
He cleared his throat. “I, ah, made sure she was properly secured in your cells, since she can be a rather… dangerous person, on occasion. Although I must say, those cuffs you provided certainly took some of the fight out of her.” The image of her helpless body flashed into his mind’s eye, with an accompanying surge of guilt, and he couldn’t help asking: “They won’t harm her, will they?”
“They will not do any permanent damage.”
“Oh. Good, good.”
A few more moments passed in uncomfortable silence. Uncomfortable for him, that is - Toklar did not seem to care one jot. Hugh shifted his weight, fidgeted, cleared his throat again.
“What will be done with her now? Some kind of punishment, I suppose?”
“We are taking her to Elanna Bos for judgement by a Panel of Truth. They will decide what to do next.”
“And what is that likely to be, do you think?”
The Naryan Commander blinked thoughtfully at him. “Since she has demonstrated that she is unable to manage her emotions in the proper manner, the most probable outcome is that the Panel will send her to have a treatment to remove them. It is called the Chemical Correction.”
“You mean…” his mouth gaped. “That’s awful! Barbaric!”
“No, it’s quite painless.”
“But to deaden someone’s mind that way! How can you justify something so…so cruel?”
Another lizard-like blink. “It is the rational thing to do. She will be treated, and once she recovers, she will finally be able to rejoin society. Why, what does your culture do with antisocial misfits?”
“Do with them?” His mouth opened and closed a couple of times. “What do we do? Well, nothing, really. Not in the way that you mean. That is-”
“Nothing.” The voice was as flat as ever, but he felt it still carried a trace of surprise. “You do nothing to help them. That is far more ‘barbaric’ than the way we treat those who struggle to fit into our civilization.”
Hugh’s mouth worked in shock and anger and confusion, but he kept it closed, and the rest of the flight passed without his speaking another word.
Hugh had not expected to need any special accommodations when he had idly flown into this system, so it was fortunate that the Naryans arranged a room for him in the capital on Elanna Bos. It wasn’t luxurious, not at all, but it was a private space with a bed and an en-suite, and that was more consideration than he had expected from them at this point.
It had been a long day - a long, hard, exhausting day, full of unpleasantness and unexpected people - and he was feeling just as tired as he would have expected. But he lay there on the soft grey bed in the small grey room, and sleep evaded him. He couldn’t get comfortable. His head ached. His face itched, and when he scratched, the itch just slipped out of reach around his shoulder to continue needling at him. Eventually he sat up, rubbed his face, and scowled.
Within five minutes, he was outside on the street, walking aimlessly, all but alone, with just a few locals walking rapidly past on the way to deal with their own problems. Not one of them showed the slightest interest in him, despite how blatantly his red and gold contrasted against their monochrome. He kept on wandering, letting his eyes skim over the scenery with no particular direction. Much of it was as grey and boxy and personality-deficient as everything had been on board the ship, but where that blandness had been unbroken, here there were some splashes of colour: at regular intervals, notices stood out from the walls, reminding the viewers that “A Rational Person Is An Efficient Person,” and “It Is Wrong To Deviate From Your Assigned Role,” and “Antisocial Behaviour Will Be Punished.”
The last one particularly caught his attention. In fact, it transfixed him. It didn’t look like much - there was no artistry to attract his attention, nothing more than block letters on a strong, bright background. But the text was quite enough. “Antisocial Behaviour Will Be Punished.” Yes, it certainly would. The thought was appalling - ripping all emotion away from a person, leaving them barely more than a husk of their old self. And even if perhaps there were those for whom that would mean little, to do it to Galactra, whose emotions defined her so entirely…and who was, even now, locked in a cell, unconscious and powerless because of him…
He closed his eyes and sighed. “I think I’ve made a terrible mistake.”