Catharsis Spell

Ao no Kiseki Volume Two
The second crew of the starship Jules Verne are three months into what was supposed to be an uninterrupted journey. However, due to the "Blue Siren" crisis and the novel solution they devised, they are ordered to stop for inspection. Just before the inspection team docks, Sanshirou receives a private tachyon call from Admiral Drake, which puts Kai on edge. Drake claims he just wanted to talk, and he ends by asking Sanshirou to teach Kai that being alive is fun. It isn't until later that Kai realizes his father must have seen the fingernail gouges running up and down Sanshirou's arms from the previous night's activity.
Sanshirou asked him about the continued deep scratching. The first time, he could excuse it as getting carried away. When it keeps happening, though, he asks if Kai has a grudge against him for something. Kai himself isn't sure why he does it. He wonders if it's a result of his internal struggle between the Lunan part of him that wants to enjoy himself and his new persona that is trying to hide all his feelings from others. He's balancing between the two, in a sense, by subconsciously saying "I'll let you sleep with me, but I'll punish you for it to prove I'm maintaining my barriers."

After the call, Sanshirou hurries to put on his never-before-worn uniform to greet the inspector and his guards. The inspector, Sasha, a descendant of Russian nobility, is an attractive man with platium blond hair and ice blue eyes. Sandra has had a crush on him for a long time and wants to make a good impression. She and Lord guide him on a tour of the ship while Kai and Sanshirou go back to monitoring the Bridge.

Kai is full of conflicting emotions about his partner. On one hand, he is glad that Sanshirou still treats him the same, not caring about his past. On the other hand, it had taken a great deal of courage for him to make his revelation, and it's frustrating that the confession had so little impact. Besides that, his remaining Lunan pride is hurt that he hasn't been able to turn Sanshirou into a mindless love slave, though that's the very quality that attracted him to his partner in the first place.

Sanshirou hates sitting around on duty doing nothing, so he's been fiddling with the computer system. He develops a method to protect the main navigation computer from hackers by setting it up to recognize orders from the crew only. Kai scoffs at the precaution, arguing that no one could hack into a ship moving faster than light, particularly since the computer has no external connections that would make it vulnerable. Regardless, Sanshirou turns on the voice recorder while Kai is distracted and tricks Kai into saying something very embarrasing--for which Sanshirou is soundly zapped.

While Sanshirou writhes on the floor in agony, Sandra escorts the inspector to see the Bridge. She orders Kai to take Sanshirou to the medical center. Using the moment that everyone is focusing on watching Kai leave, Sasha secretly activates switches on the coldsleep control panel.

In the med center, Sanshirou admits that it was wrong of him to record what had been intended as a private confession. Kai agrees to forgive him if he deletes the recording and gets rid of the security system at his next possible opportunity. However, it will take Sanshirou several hours to recuperate from the empathic shock, so Kai stays with him while he sleeps.

Sasha had unlocked the door to the coldsleep block. He sneaks in and activates several of the capsules, rousing their occupants. By the time Sanshirou awakens, a dozen men (including Sasha) have broken into the weapons locker and armed themselves. They capture all four crew members at gunpoint. Sandra is heartbroken at the actions of Sasha and the commander he awakened, Sasha's former "buddy" Captain Lee, since she had long respected them. Sanshirou recognizes Lee as a man he hates and does his best to remain inconspicuous.

The rebels had smuggled themselves aboard by pretending to be scientists assigned to evaluate Sigma 23. They are going to keep one pair of the crew members awake to help them run the ship and put the other pair in coldsleep indefinitely. The four are confined to a room while the decision is made as to which pair whill receive which fate. Sandra and Kai speculate that the rebels will use the med center to brainwash the crew, send a shuttle to leave a trail to throw off pursuit, and hide the ship until they can get to their destination safely. Sanshirou says he has a plan, but he only has time to instruct Kai to cause a distraction at his signal.

The four crew are taken before Lee, who says he has decided to keep Kai and Sandra. At Sanshirou's signal, Kai removes his visor, drawing all attention to his eyes. Sanshirou uses the chance to escape, grab a gun, and shoot the medical computer--killing two of the rebels in the process. When he is recaptured, he explains that the main computer has locked their course on Sigma 23, and it will not accept any changes without the password. The password includes bio stats of the crew, so torturing them would be counter-productive.

Kai knows it's mostly bluff; it only requires the password recorded earlier plus the retinal patterns Sanshirou had transferred from the med computer during his initial programming. The rebels' computer expert, Sasha, can't break Sanshirou's protective lock because it's an original creation, not from any book. Lee realizes from the shocked expressions of Sandra and Lord that they weren't in on it, so he orders them into coldsleep. They ask to be awakened with kisses--Sandra from Sanshirou, Lord from Kai.

Captain Lee is horny after coming out of coldsleep. He starts trying to force Kai, but Sasha shows up and interrupts. Sasha doesn't appear pleased by the spectacle, even though he admits he had recommended they keep Kai because he's Lunan. Kai is disgusted that they didn't decide on him for his skills, they wanted him for "recreation." After Sasha's mild scolding, Lee promises he won't force Kai to do anything against his will. However, he then pins Sasha on the bed and humiliates him by having sex with him in front of Kai.

For three days, Kai is forced to stay by Lee's side at all times while the captain tries to convince him to join the rebels. His story is that the military had taken his ship away to give to a spoiled upperclass young man who merely wanted a military position to show off to his friends. The young man, through colossal incompetance, lost both ship and crew while running away to save his own hide--and was never reprimanded. Lee claims it's only one example of many, and that he wants to change the corrupt organization that would allow such harm to come to its own people.
Finally he takes Kai to see Sanshirou, who has been kept handcuffed to a wall since his two escape attempts greatly injured several of the rebels. Sanshirou shows no sign of caving. He reveals how he knows Captain Lee. The captain had hired a group of mercenaries, but ran into an explosion in space that damaged both ships. Lee immediately herded all the mercenaries onto the more severely damaged ship, knowing that everyone aboard would die from lack of air, just so that his own crew would have enough oxygen to last until help arrived. Sanshirou had been lucky that his talents were useful enough to keep him among the survivors.

Realizing that Sanshirou can't be talked into cooperating, Lee tries threatening to sleep with Kai. Sanshirou laughs off the threat and responds, "You yourself said it, he's a Lunan. Even if he screws you and all your men, that's only a drop in the bucket compared to what he's already done. Why should I get jealous?" Kai slaps him for the remark, reinforcing the impression that they can't be used against each other.

What keeps Kai going isn't his loyalty to the Federation, it's his pride. At first, he was insulted that he was the only one allowed relative freedom, because it implied Lee believed he would cooperate first. Then the three days spent by Lee's side make him wonder whether the captain has a point. Wanting to find out more about Lee's philosophy, he asks why the man treats his buddy Sasha so terribly when he shows such fierce protectiveness toward his crewmen--the protectiveness that led him to sacrifice all Sanshirou's fellow mercenaries without hesitation.

Lee proclaims that some people--himself, of course--are controllers, and some--such as Sasha--want to be controlled. The things he does to humiliate Sasha are reminders of who's in control. When Kai comments that he doesn't believe Sanshirou wants to be controlled, Lee likens the mercenary to a cast-out dog that has forgotten its real master and is under the illusion that it has become a master itself. Kai knows that isn't true, and he resolves to free Sanshirou by any means necessary. He's motivated by his pride in his own judgment for choosing to accept Sanshirou as his partner.

Lee persists in seeing Kai as nothing more than a stereotypical Lunan, which makes him believe that Sanshirou must be his love slave. This benefits Kai's plan to help his partner escape. He pretends to join the rebels, spending several days doing as much as he can to assist them so that they'll begin to trust him. He claims he doesn't know the password, but he will try to convince Sanshirou to tell him what it is.

Lee, meanwhile, has been getting increasingly agitated as the ship goes farther from his intended course. He has Sanshirou beaten to an extent that won't change his bio stats, but that has no effect. He orders one of his men to try mixing up a truth serum, but without the med computer they have no idea what possible side effects there might be. Lee agrees to give Kai a chance to persuade his partner.
Sasha escorts Kai to the prisoner. Kai immediately signals that he's up to something by reverting to his natural, sexy voice, usually reserved strictly for private moments. He asks for the password while kissing Sanshirou all over, even going so far as biting his partner on the ear. When Sanshirou continues to "refuse" (knowing full well Kai remembers the password he made such a big fuss over), Kai breaks off his attentions and announces he won't go any further until he gets some cooperation.

Sasha stays behind after Kai leaves and asks what it feels like to be betrayed by one's buddy. Sanshirou picks up on Sasha's discontent with his own buddy relationship and intentionally goads him, hoping it will cause a rift between him and Lee that will be to Kai's advantage.

Kai had implanted a small receiver in Sanshirou's ear when he bit him. He explains that his plan is to cut the ship's power so that Sanshirou's electromagnetic bonds will open. He made a small microphone into an earring that he keeps turned on so that Sanshirou can hear what's happening and react quickly. Kai intends to seduce Lee to get him close enough to zap with his empathic powers. Then, after killing the captain and taking his gun, he'll go to the bridge and cut the ship's power, taking as many of the rebels with him as he can before they shoot him.

Sanshirou has known that Kai cares nothing for his own life ever since the Lunan wanted to volunteer for the dangerous job of disconnecting the previous, malfunctioning main computer. It angers him that Kai's deathwish is leading him to sacrifice himself, while he can do nothing to stop it.

Kai begins to put his plan in action, but before he can zap the captain, Sasha interrupts and says Lee is needed on the Bridge. He takes Kai at gunpoint to his own quarters to rape him as punishment for daring to make a move on Lee. Kai doesn't struggle, knowing Sasha could easily kill him, which would mean Sanshirou would never get free. Sanshirou bites his lip until it bleeds in frustration at having to listen yet being powerless to help.

By the time Kai gets back to the Bridge, the captain orders the use of the dangerous truth serum. Kai realizes he has to act immediately, which means changing his plan. Rather than cutting the ship's power, which would take a comparatively lengthy series of commands, he instead secretly throws a single switch that reactivates the old main computer. The computer puts such a drain on the ship's energy resources that it cuts all power to protect itself, reverting to a backup subsystem. Lee, realizing that the prisoner has gotten free, sends his men to protect the main control room.

Sanshirou runs to the Bridge and jams the door from the outside, trapping Lee, Sasha, and Kai together inside. He then avoids pursuit by listening to Lee's orders through Kai's earring microphone and heads toward the backup Sub-Bridge. He restores the main computer from there, which gives him complete control of the ship. He throws down emergency barrier walls in the corridors, trapping Lee's men and cutting off their air supply. He tells Lee to kill himself, or else listen to his men suffocate to death just as Sanshirou had to hear his fellow mercenaries die.

Sasha can't bear to lose Lee and threatens to shoot Kai. However, Kai willingly throws himself in front of the gun, having no wish to be a handicap to his partner. Though he might not care if he dies, Sanshirou does, and he crawls through the ventilation system to go to the Bridge in person. Sasha is torn by conflicting feelings of love for his buddy and hatred for the man who treats him so terribly. He tries to shoot Lee himself and misses, then tries to shoot Kai, but only stuns him.
While Kai is unconscious, Sanshirou agrees to let all the rebels board a shuttle and go, knowing that they only have a fifty percent chance of finding a habitable planet before their power runs out. When Kai awakens, he's desperate to reassure himself that Sanshirou is alive, asking him to make love right there on the Bridge floor.
In the middle of his passion, Sanshirou feels himself getting the strange urge to break Kai's neck. He finally understands that the foreign, murderous instinct is being transmitted to him empathically from his partner. It's Kai who wants someone to kill him, to resolve the struggle between his Lunan and anti-Lunan personas. The reason he's been gouging Sanshirou's arms with his fingernails is that, through his close synchronization, he's been trying to hurt himself. Sanshirou is glad that Kai chose him as a partner, because he'll do everything in his power to save Kai from himself.

Later, they awaken the other two crew members from coldsleep with kisses, just as Kai promised. (Sandra reacts by drawing Sanshirou in for a deeper kiss. Lord screams.) Kai practically kicks himself for not thinking to remove the computer lock *before* waking the others. He's stuck with saying the embarrassing password in front of everyone.

Sanshirou: Does it matter to you how I make love?

Kai: If it's you...I don't mind anything you do to me.

End Volume Two

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