The Galactic Bride

Movement stirred next to him, and Akihiko struggled to stay asleep. Somewhere in his deem mind he remembered something about that. Some inner voice had compelled him to wake up. He wanted to fight it, but his eyes popped open anyway and he clutched the moving object next to him. It was General Anura. She looked down at him, and gave a sleepy smile.

Slowly his mind began to process what was going on. He was still in that shelter in the cargo bay, and General Anura had been sleeping next to him. He remembered the lesson she taught him about sleeping with an enemy and that's what woke him up. If he had given into his urge to keep sleeping he could have died if this were for real.

"Go to your cabin and sleep the rest of the night there, if you want." The General told him. Her hair was falling out of her long pony tail. "Major Lani will not wake you until you are ready."

Akihiko rubbed his eyes. "How do I get to my cabin?"

"By walking."

And with that, the General was gone. Anger woke him up and he crawled out from the shelter, but she was gone. Swearing, he exited the cargo bay looked at the task ahead of him. He really should had been paying attention to where the General was taking him. There weren't that many crew member about, it seemed that the night crew had duty.

He managed to corner one and ask where his cabin was. Of course the crew member didn't know, but told him what deck the passenger cabins were and how to get there. That was better than nothing. He just hoped he was in a passenger cabin. Once he arrived on the correct deck he started recognizing features. It wasn't the right place where he had been sleeping, but it was near the office Lani had taken him too. That was close enough.

He found her office and palmed the panel by the door. Somehow he knew it would open, and it did. Of course there was no one in there, so he shut the door and went to sleep on the floor in front of her desk. Hours later he'd be awaken by a bright light and the Major's startled scream when she found him."What are you doing here?"

"I got lost. I saw this office and decided to come in here." Akihiko explained.

"Why didn't you call me?" She asked.

"I wasn't thinking." Akihiko told her honestly.

"The passengers cabins are on this deck, but on the opposite end." Lani explained. "I took an office here so it would be easier on you. If you had only kept going down the hall, you should have found it."

"I don't remember that…. Didn't I have to take a lift there last time?"

Lani looked confused, then blinked as she remembered. "You did. Oh, that's my fault. I used the lifts to get us closer to the other end of the hall so you wouldn't have to walk so long. See, our lifts go both horizontal and vertical."

"Oh."

"Do you want to go to bed?"

He did, but thought that might not be a good idea. "The General woke me up last night and started teaching me survival skills."

"She did?" Lani didn't look pleased at that. "How are you supposed to recover if you keep moving?" That last part was more of a complaint that a question. He couldn't answer that. "Well, as far as I'm concerned you should rest… but if the General is just going to keep waking you up, I suppose I should do my job. At least I'll go easier on you."

Akihiko groaned a bit. "Let's do something that I can sit down doing?"

"Okay!" Lani nodded. "If you like, we can bring along your friend. I'm sure she's tired of being cooped up in your cabin."

And so they went along with that plan. Lani and Akihiko invited Hana, and the three of them returned to the cargo bay. There he sat down and she started explain how to detox water in a canteen, pointed out various ways to spot poison on Musa Minor, a small lesson on weaving, and the importance and techniques of fire building. Since she was not allowing him to move all the much, he was starting to feel a lot better, although he still was missing that core-sleep time.

Hana was sitting next to him, keeping him alert. Since she had nothing to do, she was being an active student and learning to techniques as well. It made it easier to be more into the lessons if she was also doing them. At the end of the day, Major Lani walked them back to his cabin. Akihiko took special care to memorize the path.

Inside he flopped on the bed. Hana squeaked and pulled him off, rightly saying he was filthy and needed a bath. So he did. She found another set of pajamas for him, and when he returned to bed, he laid down and dragged her to his side. General Anura's lesson rang in his head as he did this, and he made sure she was facing him.

"Aki-chan, are we really going to be able to keep do this?" Hana asked.

Her voice seemed to have an embarrassed tone to it, and Akihiko knew it was because they kept sleeping in the same bed. But he was beyond caring about that sort of thing at this point. "They think we're a couple…"

"Yeah, but still."

"It doesn't matter anyway, we're both girls."

"In case you haven't noticed, that's all there are on this ship. It'd be more strange to them if you were a boy."

"If you don't want to sleep with me, I'll just take the floor again." Akihiko groaned. Why was she being so difficult?

"It's not that… it's… well… it feels strange sleeping with someone who… who I used to like."

Now he was awake. "Huh?"

"C'mon you didn't notice?" Hana turned her head away. She was close that she couldn't turn it too much.

The truth was that he did have a crush on her before. But he always thought the idea of acting on it would betray his friendship with Hiro. So he never allowed himself to think about Hana as anything but a friend. But there were those times when his eye would wander, or his mind would think something that it wasn't supposed to. But he'd quickly fight that off, remembering that she was Hiro's twin sister.

But to find out now that she liked him now felt like such a waste. Why did she have to tell him now? He couldn't possibly be with her the way he was now. Plus even if he could, he looked completely different, the attraction she might have had for him had to be gone. He thought about all those times he was alone with her in the past, and he hadn't acted on his instinct. Well that's what he got for being a loyal friend. One big missed opportunity.

"You really had no clue, huh?" Hana asked him after he went silent for a while.

"Sorry."

She sighed heavily, her breath blowing warmly across his face. "Did you… did you like me at all?"

He didn't know what to tell her. If he told her the truth, then what? They'd just lay there and think would could have been all night? But what if he lied. Then she'd be heart broken. What was the better way?

"Just tell me the truth." She spoke as if she heard his internal dialogue.

"I did like you. But you were Hiro-kun's sister-"

"Oh." Hana went silent. "That stupid blockhead got on my way again, huh?" She laughed a bit.

"I'm sorry about the way it turned out how it did, Hana-chan." Akihiko apologized. "I'm sorry about Hiro-kun, I'm sorry about you being here, I'm sorry about me being like this. Knowing me has really messed up your life, hasn't it."

There was a pause then she said the most soul crushing thing she could have said to him at that point: "Yeah."

Fighting the lump starting to form in his throat, he pretended he was tired again. "Well… I guess the only thing I can do for you right now is just go to sleep and leave you alone."

"Hmm?"

"Goodnight Hana-chan."

"Oh? Goodnight."

He closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. He didn't want to cry, she'd know for sure if he did. But laying still with his eyes closed did produce sleep. And despite on the circumstances on how he did fell asleep, when Lani woke him up the next morning, he felt refreshed. He changed clothes in front of Hana, it was the jumpsuit that crewman wore on the ship, as he figured that he was a girl now so it didn't matter. She still changed with her back towards him. Once again she was invited to lessons. This was the first time in his life that Akihiko didn't want anything to do with her.

In the cargo bay awaiting him was General Anura. As soon as he entered the room, a kick slammed him into the stomach, and he crumbled into the ground. It wasn't that hard hitting, Akihiko noticed. Just enough to get his attention. She definitely knew how to control her attacks. Still, he was on his feet again, getting in the General's face.

"What the hell was that?" He shouted at her, his nose almost touching her neck. She grinned and head butted him. "Ow!"

"Self defense lessons, Princess. Let's go."

She dragged him away from the others and started teaching him techniques… by doing them herself on him and tell him to block them. It was a poor way to teach. He was literally getting beat up, and every time he tried to fight back, her technique just shot him down like he was nothing. She only stopped when he fell to his hands and knees and spat up blood.

"What are you doing? Defense yourself." The General ordered.

"I haven't been taught how, you idiot."

"Here's a tip. Don't… get… HIT!" She kicked him hard in the mid-section.

He coughed and fell to the ground. But his stomach hurt so much she flopped over on his back forming a ball.

"Pathetic. Major Lani, take him to the rejuvenation center… and tomorrow start teaching him something he can use."

Akihiko wasn't a fool. He crawled to his feet and leaped on Generl Anura's back, wrapping his legs around her waist with one hand around her neck, the other holding back one of her swinging arms. He had her in a modified sleeper hold. She stumbled, still standing up, trying to reach him with her free hand.

"Teach him something useful? The last time we met, you said survival was more important. Don't contradict yourself!"

She couldn't respond, as his arm was wrapped around her throat. She was starting to fade. He kept the pressure, willing for her to pass out. But she surprised him. Running backwards, she slammed her back hard into one of the practice trees in the cargo bay. It hurt Akihiro the most, as he took the brunt of it. But since he also had those stomach injuries, it was more pain than he could stand and his grip loosened. In that one second of an opening, General Anura had flipped him off her back, slammed him back first on the floor, straddled him and rain in several blows to the face. He was out.

When he woke up, he found himself completely naked and once again placed in the rejuvenation chamber. Freaking out, she slammed on the windows with his fist screaming inside his air mask. But the liquid was draining, and the doctors were already letting him out.

They washed and dried him off and let him sit on the nearby bed. His heart was still pounding. He never wanted to go in there again. Lani was coming in as he started to lay down on the bed he was sitting on.

"Have you recovered"

"Recovered, she beat me to a pulp!" Akihiko protested, then in emphasis he looked in the mirror expecting to look completely broken. But he looked as if he just gotten out of a warm bath. "Wha-"

"The rejuvenation chamber has more than one purpose. Transforming seedlings is just one task it does, it's main job is to heal injuries." Lani explained. "And I must say, after what you went through, I'm surprised you're back to new in less two turns (hours). Even with the chamber, healing time usually takes longer."

"So that's my gift. I can take punishment. That's just great." Akihiko felt his face wondering if it was at least tender. It wasn't.

"It's just before lunch, how about we get an early bite before we go back."

"Go back!" Akihiko was shocked. "In case you didn't see, she nearly murdered me in there. I can't go back just to have her beat me up again!"

"I don't think you're have to worry about that." Lani looked slightly meek as she pointed across the room.

Laying on one of the hospital beds was a sleeping General Anura. Her eye brows were tilted up, and her eyes looked sunken in. Her hair was also wet, so she must of always went through the chamber like he had, only she still was asleep.

"What happened to her?"

"After she knocked you out she fall over on top of you, almost dead. You accidentally crushed her windpipe when she slammed you into the tree, and broke one of her arms. When she was punching you on her last breaths, it was only with one hand. All those knuckles got bruised as well."

Akihiko saw her sleeping face. In this one moment he took pity on her. She wasn't the monster she normally was, she was a hurt person. In fact, she almost looked like a wounded little girl. "I did all that?"

Lani nodded, then took his arm. "She'll be alright. We got her to the chamber in time. She just doesn't heal as fast as you do."

"But how… I'm not strong enough to do all that? She's bigger than me and-"

"But you are. The creatures of Terra-3 have thicker muscle mass than Nimbonians. Part of that remains in you even now. It's one of the reasons Terra-3 was selected by the Grajin House, I believe. Anyway you maybe as strong, if not stronger, than the General. Next time, please be careful."

"I didn't know… I was…" But he couldn't finish. General Anura opened one of her eyes and found him. They connected for a split second, then she went back to sleep. He wanted to continue hating her for everything she did to him. But at that moment he couldn't. He walked over to her bed and placed a nearby blanket on top of her.

"W-Weakling." The General whimpered and passed out.