In the cold of space you find the heat of suns

Thank you for the reviews. They encourage me to continue the story. A special thank you to disembodiedvoiceofthedying for leaving the 400th review.

OK, I have a few days to write and only write so there will be a spate of updates probably followed by a dearth!

Apologies if the characters have grown differently in their new environment.

Spacer crews travel the Far Borders and the Fringe of occupied space, trading. Spacing is an ancient and honourable profession carved out by millenniums. Most spacers start out as fourteen-year-old boys seeking a future. Few survive a decade spacing.

69. Covert planning

Shikamaru had taken a few minutes to spot the ring on Neji’s finger. He told himself that he was being slow because of the headache, the post-tank lethargy and the pain in his toe. He touched the ring and smiled. Neji kissed him.

Neji’s face and the way he hovered told Shikamaru that he had scared them badly. Even Rin was being nice.

Annoyingly, no one would tell him anything, or give him clothes, or let him check that the laboratories were undamaged; they kept asking him what he wanted and then ignoring his requests.

In the end he waited for Neji to go to the head and then hacked into the ship’s systems via one of the consoles in the infirmary. He almost fainted and Neji threw a fit but Shikamaru had seen the damage report and knew what Kabuto had taken with him when he got away.

It was enough to make a start.

“Can’t I go back to the crew room?” he asked Rin next time she checked him. “Please? We’d all be much more comfortable there.”

“You are too weak to walk that far,” Rin told him.

“Naruto will carry me,” Shikamaru argued. “I’ll get into less trouble with Iruka-sensei watching me,” he reminded her.

Rin sighed and acquiesced.


It was good to see Na-chan. Neji had explained that he had been there earlier, when Shikamaru had been moved from the tank and before he had woken, which explained the pain in Shikamaru’s toe.

“You didn’t have to tweak my toe so hard,” he whispered as Naruto wrapped him in the bedcover and lifted him.

“Did,” Naruto told him. “You would not wake up. Everyone was worried. Neji was more than worried.”

Shikamaru relaxed into Naruto’s arms; by the Lady, no one should smell so good or have skin like that. He recalled what Kabuto had told them about Naruto; that he had been designed and built as a one-off to some rich man’s specification. It explained a lot.

Naruto placed him on one of the couches in the crew room, his back supported by a mound of pillows. Iruka-sensei leaned over and kissed his forehead.

“Haku and Neji are sorting out your room,” he told him.

Shikamaru flushed slightly; the clothes shop had proved to be the most successful of all their scenarios and had therefore lasted the longest. He hoped that Haku kept all the props.

“I would prefer to stay out here for now,” he admitted.

He leaned back against the pillows. Naruto had gone to help Haku and Neji. Shikamaru’s eyes kept closing and he knew he was drifting away. He dozed. When he opened his eyes he saw Sasuke sitting on a chair watching him.

He looked worse than Neji.

“We underestimated Kabuto,” Shikamaru told him.

“I messed up,” Sasuke insisted.

“No, we all did. Any of us could have stopped it. We were all tricked into thinking that it was a little bit risky when it was downright dangerous.” He checked Iruka’s location. “I need a console in my room and we need to jump to a system with a gate and light speed communications relay.”

Sasuke nodded.

“And I am going to contact Klennethon Darrent,” Shikamaru told him.

Sasuke stiffened.

“He has other sources of information and incredible resources. I think he will be angry that someone other than him has been messing with our heads. He won’t like the idea of Kabuto having the tissue samples. He’ll be interested in the miniature Mulligan drive.”

Sasuke scowled. “He probably sold it to Kabuto,” he complained.

“I wish he had,” Shikamaru replied. “Then he could tell us where to find him.” He saw Iruka studying them from the galley. “We have to keep our commitments to Temari and Gaara. It will be a stretch.” Iruka was walking purposefully towards them. “Trouble,” he warned.

“Sasuke-kun!” Iruka scolded.

Sasuke adopted his best innocent look. Shikamaru was impressed; combined with exhaustion it made Sasuke look fourteen again. He could see Iruka melting.

“You must allow Shika-kun to rest,” he insisted.

“Yes, Iruka-sensei,” Sasuke replied, with much contrition and eyelashes.


Neji was angry when he saw the console. Shikamaru had expected him to be worried, perhaps exasperated, but not angry. He thought Neji might snatch it away from him so he quickly downloaded what he had been working on to the laboratory and hid it under the bedcovers.

“Damn Sasuke,” Neji hissed. “You are meant to be resting.”

“I am resting,” Shikamaru complained. “I am in bed where I can fall asleep any time I feel the urge. If I wasn’t resting I would be in the laboratory.”

“You can’t stand for more than a few minutes, never mind get to the laboratory. We… I…” Neji trailed off, unable to verbalise his fears for Shikamaru’s safety.

Shikamaru pulled him down and kissed him. “I am going to be fine. Rin has agreed that I knocked myself out and that there is no evidence that my blood oxygen level fell to a dangerously low level. Once I am over the effects of the tank I will be back to normal.”

“You didn’t wake up,” Neji reminded him. “You scared us. I have never seen Kakashi-san like that.”

Shikamaru was surprised or disconcerted, he was not sure which; Iruka he could believe, but Kakashi?

“I have something to offer you,” Neji added.

The shy tone to Neji voice warned Shikamaru that they were no longer talking about the console or Kakashi. Shikamaru watched Neji’s hand open. On the palm was a very simple silver ring.

“It was my mother’s love ring to my father,” Neji told him.

Shikamaru’s heart was racing; so much for resting. Some of him was touched that Neji should give him a ring which meant so much to him; the rest would have preferred him to have chosen a less significant ring from Sasuke’s box. He waited.

“Will you wear my love ring, Shika?” Neji asked.

Shikamaru did not hesitate. “Yes, I would be honoured,” he replied.

Neji slipped the ring onto Shikamaru’s heart finger. It looked good there; a flashier ring would have clashed with his duty ring. Shikamaru accepted Neji’s kiss, when initiated one of his own.


Shikamaru spent the first part of the night crafting his communication to Klennethon Darrent. He knew that Neji would be cross if he found out but it was partly Neji’s fault for refusing to sleep in Shikamaru’s bed. Yes, he had taken the console but, no, of course that was not the only one; Sasuke had brought three.

He had decided on the complete opposite to the communication that Klennethon Darrent had sent him on Tarrasade. That message had been compact, intricate and involved. Shikamaru’s would be a facsimile of a pen and paper letter, apparently written by hand.

Dear Klennethon-san

Knowing your interest in the unfolding tale of the New Uchiha, I thought that I would take the liberty of informing you of a few developments.

Your gift has proved invaluable, facilitating our travels. We have several new recruits including two new cats, one male and one female, and another female crewmember. We were recently joined by Sasuke-sama’s brother, who is unfortunately incapacitated due to illness, and his Companion.

Business is good. We are starting on a new venture that must remain confidential at his time. Hopefully I will be able to give you more details in my next letter.

There is a matter about which I would like to seek your advice. We have recently had dealings with a scientist called Kabuto. He was invited on to our ship as a guest to consult with Rin-san about age retard for Naruto-san. This was in response to the information you yourself brought to Sasuke-sama’s notice.

Initially, the consultation progressed well. Kabuto gave Rin-san leads about age retard treatments and even shed light on Naruto-san’s origins. Unfortunately, he took advantage of his status as guest. He attacked the ship with mink-human hybrids, invaded our infirmary, stole our tissue bank and kidnapped both Sasuke-sama’s brother and Natsuhi-san. He then escaped by jumping through an ungated hole in a ship no bigger than the Sakura.

We wish to discuss this matter face-to-face with Kabuto and retrieve what is ours. I was wondering of you had any information that would help us in our quest to locate him.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

With wishes for your continued good health

Shikamaru.

P.S. I have initiated a new sport, Snuffer hunting, are you interested?

He packaged and addressed the ‘letter’ appropriately and set the communication to send as soon as they were in contact with a light-speed communication relay.

After that he examined the initial results of the queries he had presented to the data crystal array. He then incorporated the data that Rin had collected by autopsying some of the mink-human hybrid bodies. Next on his list was combing though the information Kakashi had gleaned from every scrap Kabuto had left on the Oak, which had been collected and laid out in one of the storage holds; Shikamaru would want to view the evidence for himself but second-hand would have to do for now. Finally, he reviewed the returns from the query he was running about Bara, the ancient hybrid engineer.

He was beginning to drift again, so he made absolutely certain he had downloaded the console’s contents and then hid it. Some more sleep would be good; he had to be able to convince Neji, Iruka and Rin to allow him to attend the strategy meeting Sasuke had planned for the coming afternoon.


In the end, Sasuke asked Rin whether it was risky to Shikamaru’s health for him to attend the strategy meeting. She reluctantly said it was not, so Shikamaru was there. He had even walked there, although it had left him shaky to do so; asking Naruto to carry him would have sparked off another round of argument.

As usual, the meeting started larger and would contract down to Sasuke, Kakashi, Neji and Shikamaru once the general discussion had finished; it was always left up to Naruto to choose if he wished to opt in to the second half. This time Shino, Rin, Kisame, Asuma, Iruka, Izumo and Gai had been invited. As always, one of the cats was on duty to fetch, carry and serve refreshments; it was Inari.

Both Iruka and Neji scowled at Shikamaru as he asked Inari for coffee.

“Shikamaru-san is drinking tea or water,” Rin announced.

Shikamaru sighed and accepted a cup of tea.

Once everyone had been offered refreshments, Sasuke began by asking for reports from Izumo, Shino, Rin, Iruka and Kakashi. Shikamaru monitored what they said, taking note of the occasional titbit of information or interesting intonation. He had one question for Izumo, two for Rin and would have had many for Kakashi if Kakashi had not pre-empted him.

“I think we should hear from Shikamaru-san,” Kakashi suggested. “I am sure, despite everyone’s efforts, he has a considerable amount to report.” He slid the portable console and the pointer across the table.

Shikamaru flushed but caught both deftly. His fingers danced across the console, inputting commands. A huge three-dimensional diagram appeared above the table.

“This is a low resolution topological map of known space based on known gated and ungated holes. We can zoom in and see any section at higher resolution as required. I propose we map all leads about Kabuto’s movements or whereabouts for the last twenty-five standards on this map. So far I have this.”

Hundreds of small dots and arrows appeared. They were concentrated in one sector.

“Brighter is more recent. As you can see, the more recent information is scattered. This…” Shikamaru pointed to a small cluster of blue lights. “…is the most recent information and includes Kabuto’s meeting with us. I can then add what we know about communications.” A multitude of thin yellow lines appeared, of varying brightness, snaking across the diagram. I can then add known associates and institutions he had been involved with.” Some red dots appeared. By adding more and more information as it arrives, I hope to identify some likely locations to investigate. I will prepare enquires that we will send to a variety of sources as soon as we reach a jump gate with a light speed communications relay and a set of hacking worms to interrogate some institutions that will not willing share information, for example the Central Civil Service research institutes and various libraries.” He looked directly at Kisame. “I will find him, it is merely a matter of how long it takes.”

“When?” Neji asked. “When did you do this?” He waved a hand towards the diagram.

Shikamaru shrugged. “I had much of the information already. The biggest problem for us is that our plan for eliminating the slavers from Kaze requires us to travel untrod paths, while doing this…” He imitated Neji’s wave. “…needs me to regularly hack light speed communication relays. I am going to suggest I train hacking teams and we send them out to dip into the data streams. Also, if we could get another Mulligan drive ship, that would be extremely useful, even without another improver.”

There was silence. Shikamaru felt vaguely uncomfortable. Usually he invested time deciding how little he should tell them but he had rushed this. Even so, he had been proud of the diagram; he had felt that it would give the others some idea of how the search was progressing.

Finally Sasuke broke the silence. “Thank you, Shikamaru-san. As usual, your contribution is truly remarkable.”

Shikamaru curled up in his chair. Was ‘truly remarkable’ welcome, or good, or anything other than incomprehensible? Then he saw Kakashi’s smile. When Kakashi realised Shikamaru was looking at him he added a small nod. Shikamaru relaxed.


They took a short break between the two parts of the meeting. Shikamaru stayed in his chair with his feet pulled up under him to reduce the chances of him fainting. Izumo paused to speak to him.

“You are like Kotetsu is about drives and jump technology, only for you it is everything,” Izumo observed. “I wish to say that the diagram is excellent. I know how hard it is for Kotetsu to make even me understand when he talks about drives and that is my area of expertise. You have a gift for explaining difficult things to normal people. That is rare in a genius.”

Shikamaru felt his cheeks reddening. “Thank you, Izumo-san.”

Izumo moved away and Shikamaru became aware of Kisame’s eye on him.

“Yes, I believe you will find him, Shikamaru-san,” Kisame told him. “Please inform me if there is anything I can do to help.”

Shikamaru settled on a nod as the most appropriate reply.

Then everyone who was leaving had left, with the exception of Iruka who had come to sit close to him. “You are very pale, Shika-kun,” Iruka informed him. “Maybe Sasuke should delay the second part of the meeting until after you have rested.”

“I would prefer to keep going, Iruka-sensei and then have a long sleep,” Shikamaru told him.

Iruka sighed but nodded. “I will send Tayuya or Konohamaru along with some broth for you. You will drink it. It will give you energy without a glucose rush.” He leaned over as he stood up and kissed Shikamaru’s forehead. He looked to Naruto. “I would prefer you to stay, Naruto-kun. While Shikamaru refuses to listen to Neji or to me, I know that you have ways of making him obey.”

Naruto whiskers twitched. “I shall look after Shi-chan,” he agreed. “I shall make him listen to Neji-san. I would not make the mistake of thinking that Sasuke would smuggle in only one console.”

Neji and Iruka both looked at Sasuke, who had the grace to flush slightly. “You were fussing too much,” he complained.

Kakashi laid a hand on his shoulder. “Stop quickly, Sasu-kun, before you say something you will truly regret.”


Shikamaru had to confess that he was not at his best for the second part of the meeting but Sasuke and Kakashi were in excellent form so the operational plan developed nicely. He sat curled in his chair, sipping the broth Tayuya had delivered, checking for flaws and occasionally suggesting refinements. He would review the plan again after he had slept.


Naruto caught the cup as it slipped from Shikamaru’s hand, which served to alert the others to the fact that Shikamaru was asleep.

“You had better put him to bed, Naruto-san,” Neji suggested. “If he wakes up, tell him I will be along as soon as we have finished the meeting.”

Naruto plucked Shikamaru from the chair as if he weighed nothing. “I would do so, Neji-san, but he will not wake until late tomorrow morning. When Shi-chan sleeps, Shi-chan sleeps soundly.”

---