Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot
Chapter 2
Ah, another DB mega-chapter. ^_^
Major snippage throughout...
taste, something that subtly altered the drink, making it
taste more exotic
than its origin would indicate.
Kei's eyes went from examining the steam doing a circuit
of the Lovely
Angel's galley, where they were currently sitting down
down. (missing punc)
After a moment of
avoiding the inevitable, the redhead's gaze once again
settled on the far
side of the table towards the woman seated directly
across from her. Iria
was drinking her coffee just as slowly as Kei, making a
barely audible
slurping noise as she did so. Without realizing it, a
smile creased the
troubleshooter's features. That sound brought back
memories; it was the
exact same one Kei had heard most mornings growing up under Iria's
tutelage. Every morning they had a chance (when Iria
wasn't on the job and
away from civilization)
civilization),
they would drink coffee in the morning for
breakfast. At first
first,
Kei only did it in imitation of her
mentor, but later
she had grown to enjoy the taste of the beverage as well.
Sometime after
she had left her home for good, she had dropped the
habit. But now Kei felt
she would be taking it up again. Iria took another
identical sip, and Kei
found that subtle character nuance to be reassuring. It
was nice to know
that even after so many years her mentor still remained
the same, at least
in some ways.
Kei opened her mouth to say something, then shut it just
as quickly. It was
the fourth time she had repeated the exact same movement.
Every time she
thought she had something to say, she'd think about it,
then judge it as
too stupid a way to start a conversation. Her actions had
been mirrored at
least twice across the table as Iria would look at her,
move her own lips
slightly, then return to her apparent contemplation..
Extra period
Kei
wasn't sure if
that was a good thing. The look of seriousness was
uncharacteristic to
Iria, and the redhead was halfway convinced it might be
that the Iria
omit "the"
was
trying to figure out how to reprimand her for her actions
over the years
"This is ridiculous," a deep male voice from a small,
watch-shaped computer
strapped to Iria's wrist complained. A tiny hologram of
two yellow floating
cones with a red sphere floating between them activate
activated
from the computer.
"Another ten years are going to pass before you two
really begin talking.
Why don't I start things off?"
Kei let out a sigh of relief, and swore she heard one
escape from Iria as
well. Leave it to good old Bob to help move things along.
When Iria had
first returned, and after they broke off their mutual
embrace and exchanged
pleasantries, Bob was quick to greet Kei as well from the
computer strapped
to Iria's wrist. Kei herself was relieved to learn Bob
was still, well
well,
alive wasn't quite the right term, but perhaps
functioning would do. Not
that she failed to think of him in terms other than that
of her co-guardian
when growing up, but she had been ashamed to realize that
all of her
attention had been riveted upon Iria from the moment she
had sent the deep
space communication and that she had not spared a thought
about Bob in all
of that time.
Sometimes Kei wondered what it would have been like to
have met Bob in
person, before Zeiram had killed him. Iria had shown her
pictures of the
bald man who had been her and Gren's primary employer
before the Karma
incident, an event that had changed all of their lives
dramatically.
However, the two dimensional photographs failed to convey the true
character of the man that had given her so much advice
and assistance over
the years. But the universe was not made of 'What Ifs'.
Bob had been
mortally wounded shortly before Iria had crash-landed on
Daowajon and she
had met Kei for the first time. Tedan-Tippendai, the
corporation that had
hired Bob, Iria, and her brother Gren to rescue the crew
of the space-liner
Karma (while failing to mention that Zeiram was on board
board,
which was the
reason a rescue was necessary) had taken his brain
patterns and secretly
downloaded them to an individualized 'Brain Bank,' for
their own private
use. Bob had circumvented their security programs and
contacted Iria, who
rescued him from the fate of being nothing more than an
eternal tool for
the mega-corporation. Bob had adjusted to the change in
form easily and
always considered himself lucky to even be a computerized
brain, but it was
still another potential future that Zeiram was guilty of
stealing. Bob's
and thousands of others.
Bob 'cleared' his throat by buzzing static for the
others' benefit. "I must
say
say,
Kei, you've blossomed into a radiant flower of beauty."
"Oh stop,"
"Oh, stop."
Kei squirmed girlishly and felt herself blushing at the
compliment. Coming from him, the flattery felt like it
was delivered from a
favored uncle rather than a possible romantic interest,
Bob's lack of body
notwithstanding. But it was nice to hear someone say that
she was still
good-looking. Of course
course,
she WAS still good-looking, but
it never hurt to
hear it said out loud.
Iria gave the small wrist computer a flat stare. "You
never say that sort
of thing about me."
"That's because you told me never to lie to you."
The wrist computer met the plastic table top several
times before Iria let
up.
Bob mock protested at first, but the complaint
degenerated into a laugh
that was joined a moment later by the girls. The laughter
went on for over
a minute before Bob managed to give what passed for a
sincere comment about
Iria's own attractive features. All present felt the
tension that had cast
a pall over the reunion dissolve with the sound of the
laughter, and the
trio eased into an almost long-forgotten camaraderie.
"You do look well, Kei," Iria confirmed. "I'm glad to see
you're looking
healthy too.
healthy, too.
For Kei, it felt as though a tremendous weight had been
lifted off her
shoulders. Iria had still cared enough about her to
follow her career as
best as she could. Part of Kei, a small but a very real
part, had been
fearful that once she had left Iria's sight, she had been quickly
forgotten. Originally
Originally.
it had been the fears of a young
woman mostly alone,
fearful that not only would she fail to make her mark on
the universe, but
that she had also failed to have an effect on the others
whose lives she
had already touched. Later, with the onset of maturity
(an idea Yuri would
have scoffed at when it applied
Suggest: when applied (omitting 'it')
to Kei)
Kei),
it was more of a
fear that it was a
way for Iria to get back at Kei for leaving her care with
only a short note
left behind. Eventually, the worries had been pushed to
the back of Kei's
mind, newer, more urgent concerns, from how much money
she had saved up to
who was trying to kill her today, taking precedent
precedence (... I think.)
over
the concerns of the
past. But once Kei had made her call to Iria, the old
fears had clawed
their way back to the present and made their presence
known, showing that
they had grown in the dark recesses of her mind rather
than fading away
like a memory over the passage of years.
Kei found herself reflexively flinch at the reprimand.
That was something
she never did with anyone, save with Yuri on those few
occasions when the
raven-haired member of the duo was right and the mess
they were in really
was Kei's fault. "Uh, yeah. I didn't know how else to do
it. I was afraid
you'd try to talk me out of it. And," It
it
took her a
moment to admit this,
mostly to herself, "I was more afraid you'd succeed. It
was the only way I
could see me successfully getting out of there, even if
it wasn't exactly
the best way I could have left."
"It's true," Kei insisted. She leaned forward, looking
around the room,
then gave Iria a conspiratorial look. Iria's curiosity
was piqued and she
leaned forward in her chair as well, her face no more
than a couple of
inches away from Kei's. The next words Kei said were
virtually inaudible,
and Iria had to strain to hear them. "I don't like to say
this out loud,
with Yuri being my partner and all, but the truth is,
she's really a loose
cannon."
Iria's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
"Oh yes,"
"Oh, yes,"
Kei assured her in smooth, louder tones. "She's
a wild, one woman
one-woman
wrecking crew. Now don't get me wrong, she's nice
she's *a* nice
person
most of the time,
and a heck of an agent. I wouldn't want anyone else for
my partner, and she
has cleared all of the charges too. But the main reason
things get blown up
around us is because she's recklessness personified. I
can't begin to
imagine the untold damage she'd cause if I wasn't there
to help keep her
under control."
Yuri: [face-faulting from around the corner where she'd been
listening] WHAT?!?!
Kei: Uh...
Iria: I just knew there was something wrong with this tale...
Iria cocked an eyebrow at this so-called 'confession'.
"That's interesting,
considering you were always the one that was pretty hard
to restrain
growing up, at least as I recall."
"Meaning the two of you are so alike it's scary," Bob
added. He received a
thump into the table top for his expert testimony.
Outside the room, a portable listening device's component
parts shattered
into a dozen pieces as a certain 3WA agent's grip
tightened reflexively
upon it.
HAHAHAHA!
A loose cannon, was she? And after she had been
thoughtful and
caring enough to plant a bug in the room beforehand and
eavesdrop on the
conversation to make sure everything went smoothly with
Kei and her old
friend (And she hadn't done it just to be nosy). And what
does that
backstabbing little witch do? She tries to make Yuri into
the big scapegoat
when it was actually Kei that was responsible for nearly
every bad move the
pair had ever made. Yuri made a mental note to have a
discussion with Kei
about taking responsibility for her actions at a later
time, probably in
the middle of a hand-to-hand combat training session.
That way Yuri knew
she'd have Kei's proper amount of attention. Oh, yes.
Yuri would see to it
she received plenty of attention from her partner. Almost
more than the
redhead would be able to handle.
Heh.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"How much longer until we get there?" Kei asked Iria as
the pair headed
towards the bounty hunter's attached ship, 'Creeper V'.
It was named in
honor of her original spacecraft, the four before the
current version all
meeting similar, violent fates. Both felt elated at their long
conversation. Once started, the two had bantered back and
forth, catching
up on old times and barely scratching the surface of all
they had done over
the years. They would have continued on through the night
until they
collapsed it had not been for Bob mentioning that they
would be dropping
out of hyperspace and arriving at the station in an hour,
and that they had
best make ready to deal with Zeiram.
My, how casually he tosses that idea out... :)
"Most planetary governments could find something useful
in there," Bob
confirmed, his mechanically simulated voice somehow
conveying an intangible
smirk.
Oh, dear. The Dirty Pa-- ERR, Lovely Angels with serious
firepower... The universe is doomed.
The trio of women stepped into the well-lit passageway
connecting the
ships. It was a sterile white, reminiscent of the color
within most medical
facilities on any planet in the galaxy, no matter how
vastly different
cultures might be. The five centimeter thick walls of the
connection tube
were all that stood between them and being lost in
hyperspace forever. None
of the women thought about this as they made their way
between the two
vessels. Iria used her personal code to allow their entry
into her ship.
Using the several second interval while the Creeper V
processed the code,
Yuri began asking some of the questions on her mind.
"What exactly is this
Zeiram creature? Kei didn't really have the time to give me proper
information on it since it was trying to kill us at the
time. Since then,"
she drifted off and pointed at the white bandage around
her upper leg.
Suggest: Since then..." She drifted off...
"What we need to do is kill the thing first, then ask
questions later." Now
that she was onboard, Kei saw that the design of the
Creeper V wasn't very
different from either of the previous incarnations two
Kei had seen,
I think there's a stray "two" in the sentence, but I'm not sure what
you intended.
save
that it was almost twice the size of the other two.
Despite its size the
ship was still only one quarter the size of the Lovely
Angel. For Iria, it
Yuri drew closer to a familiar type of rifle. "Hey. This
is a Pogtaltion
776. These were outlawed by the Uni-Gal Conventions
Guidelines at the same
time the Barneyblast 'Love Me,' Firearms were.
ARGH! NOOOOO! Heh.
time the Barneyblast 'Love Me' firearms were.
Only
agents of an inner
world military force, or special trouble shooters of the
3WA
3WA,
can use them.
And even then we have to fill out a GGIL form in
triplicate for each round
we use, which is why no 3WA agent has used them in the
last five years,
since the 'Good God It's Long' forms take at least a two
hour minimum to
fill out and that's if you're a speed writer."
Kei went up to her partner and grabbed her by the ear,
hard. "Yuri, how
many times do I have to tell you that if some nice person
is going to loan
us really cool weapons that are going to save our ass
from some bad guy, we
turn a blind eye to any illegal weapons charges we might
be able to bring
them up on? Besides, this is the woman who raised me. If
I still had a
mother, I'd sooner turn her in than Iria."
"Of course I wouldn't'
Stray apostrophe
say anything,"
anything."
Yuri pulled her ear
out of Kei's
grasp and turned partially away, giving Kei a defiant
look over her
shoulder. "I'm just saying that we should be mindful of
the rules we bend
just in case it comes back to bite us in the ass. After
all, I've certainly
covered for you and stuck my neck on the line when you
play fast and loose
with the rules, which has happened on more than one occasion."
Iria and Bob shared a chuckle at the exchange. They both
knew how hard Kei
could be to get along with after watching her grow up.
What time they had
spent reunited with her, despite how brief it had been,
indicated that she
was still very much the same type of girl that had left
them. Mischievous,
headstrong, lived
living
mostly in the short-term, a bit
violent, but a basically
good person that always tried to do the right thing.
Kei gave a beatific smile. "I know. Eight rotating
barrels and a two
thousand rounds per minute rate of fire. It's great,
isn't it? For the
first time since we ran into Zeiram
Zeiram,
I feel really secure."
As Yuri watched Iria move around, and steadily got to
know her during their
voyage, (mostly when the bounty hunter and Kei were
together)
Move comma to after the parenthetical passage.
she began to
see in her mind's eye the connection between her and Kei.
The redhead was
definitely a good bit wilder than the bounty hunter, but
it was easy to see
how her usual manic, gun happy
gun-happy
behavior could have been
encouraged in her
formative years with someone like Iria as her mentor. It made Yuri
appreciate her own upbringing in a much more stable and ordinary
environment. She had turned out perfectly normal,
especially when compared
to her red-haired partner.
Iria gave a soft smile at the duo before heading off on
her own, allowing
their voices to drift off to a dull clamor until there
was nothing left but
the gentle hum of the inner mechanisms of the station to
listen to. It was
times like these Iria regretted not having a partner. A
physical one, in
any case. She had tried to find one, but it never seemed
to work out.
Occasionally, when going after bigger bounties, she would
work with someone
else, but during those times she also discovered that a
partner tended to
cramp her style, especially if there was no real
chemistry between the two.
Chemistry was important to a partnership. Even in a semi-permanent
alliance, the members involved had to add to one
another's abilities, not
detract from them. The sum of the parts becoming greater
than the whole, to
use the age old expression. The few fellow bounty hunters
that she had
teamed up with, where that saying proved to be true, had
never lasted long.
Usually it was a conflict in philosophies, such as which
bounties to go
after and how far they would go in obtaining the target.
Other times it was
a conflict in personality, even if they were professional
enough to work
together during the length of the mission. Over time
Over time,
Iria
had quickly
learned that both individuals needed to want to be in the
other's presence
in order to make anything that lasted more than a couple
of missions work
out. Shehad
She had (unless you're implying a female holy war... :P)
yet to find someone like that.
There was that one time in her life where she did have a
partner in what
she had hoped would be a permanent union, but that had
turned into a real
bust, perhaps the biggest of her life. It made her wish
her brother, Gren,
had still been alive. That had been the perfect
partnership, and she
thought he had felt that way too. Combined, they had been
far more than the
mere sum of their parts. And they had gotten along better
than even most
normal families did. There was never any doubt they would
have always been
there to back each other up. A brother and sister team,
taking every vow
they could, save 'till death do they part.' Iria had had
dreams of that
when she was younger and on the verge of obtaining her
own license. But it
was never meant to be. Her lifelong dream had died aboard
the Karma, the
same way so many had died here on this station.
The monster she was hunting now was the one that had
taken Gren away. A
cold rage settled in the pit of her stomach. That
abomination had forced
her to kill all that remained of her brother by her own
hand. That was a
crime for which Zeiram could never be forgiven. Killing
him once should
have been enough, his festering corpse left to melt under
the bright sun of
the Stardust Desert. Putting Gren's spirit to rest and
nearly dying at
Zeiram's hands in the middle of that barren wasteland had
been enough to
purge that rage once. That and the knowledge that she had
find
to find
a way to go
on and take care of Kei had helped her bury that past.
But now it had come
back with a nasty vengeance, like the bile that came up
when one had the
dry heaves. It was taking a great deal of Iria's
self-control not to shout
towards the heavens at how unfair it all was that Zeiram had the
opportunity to come back and her brother did not.
Rage was clouding her judgment, and Iria knew it. She
took a moment to turn
her mind towards more pleasant thoughts, things that were
more important
than mere vengeance (which she would still achieve, to be
certain). Kei. It
was all about her. It was amazing how much her young ward
had grown, both
physically and emotionally. Certainly, the fiery redhead
still seemed a bit
immature in some ways, but Iria figured at least part of
it was an act for
her benefit. Or maybe Kei really was still that
irresponsible, but still
the bounty hunter felt the satisfaction that could only
be experienced when
a parent felt moved by their child's accomplishments.
That Kei was not of
Iria's blood made no difference to the older woman.
Whether it was in the
role of sister, mother, or friend, she had always been
proud of Kei and
felt a profound sense of accomplishment in helping the
young girl change
from a rowdy, thieving orphan to become an upstanding
honest, young woman.
Leave out the 'become'. Just: ...young girl change from X to Y. (If
you follow me...)
True, Kei had departed at the age of sixteen to start
living a life of her
own making, and there had been an emptiness within Iria
that had plagued
her for nearly a year afterwards, leading her to make
some awful mistakes
with her life. But with time
time,
she learned to deal with the
feelings that
were related to matters that had been outside of her
ability to change or
even control. With time, she accepted the way things had
Iria was about to make her way to another section of the
station when her
hunter's instinct made her turn towards another
direction. There was
something there, she was certain of it. More cautiously
than ever, she
moved into a long metal corridor that would lead to the
air processing
plant. As she stalked through the passageway, she spotted
an unmoving,
amorphous blob laying in the middle of the corridor.
After observing it for
several moments, and determining it wasn't moving in the
slightest, she
walked forward. Cautiously, she approached the lump,
rifle ready to pump a
few explosive rounds at anything that tried to rush her.
The situation was
the classic misdirection trap, the blob meaning to
attract her complete
attention. She made certain there was nothing hiding in a
cubby hole or
vent nearby that might try to attack. There appeared to
be nothing as she
drew near the thing in the corridor, getting close enough
to clearly make
out its form. When it had been alive, the thing certainly
could have been
one of the monstrosities produced by Zeiram. It appeared
to have once been
humanoid, but just barely, with long ropy tentacle
tentacles
where
arms should have
been and black skin the color of deep space. There was a
luminescent ooze
that was slowly dripping from its mouth, a pool of the
substance already
congealing underneath it.
"Maybe Zeiram killed it?" Kei offered, though her voice
lacked true
conviction.
Iria shook her head. "You remember what it was like fighting those
monsters. Every one of those creatures was fanatically
loyal. They'd never
turn on him. Also
Also,
I can't see him going through all the
hassle of creating
them just to kill them. No. I'm almost certain something
else took out the
one I saw."
"Survivors?" Yuri asked.
This time it was Kei's turn to ruin her partner's theory.
"Not on this
station. Not with Zeiram moving around for three days. Of that I'm
positive."
"Yeah," Yuri admitted. The idea was far-fetched. So who
did that leave? Not
the authorities; they would still be here conducting an
investigation. The
question continued plaguing Yuri until the trio arrived
at the command
center. They entered cautiously, finding a good portion
of the chamber
damaged from the earlier firefight that had ensued within
its confines.
"That where you exited the room?" Iria pointed to the
rubble filled
rubble-filled
far
side of the command center.
Kei nodded her head, examining what was left of the
interior. No Zeiram.
That was too bad, but she hadn't believed for a moment
that he had died in
the explosion. As to the computers, that was a different
story. Nearly all
of them near where she had tossed her overloaded laser
rifle had been
completely destroyed; all that was left was twisted metal
and exposed
wires. Another quarter appeared to have been damaged by
shrapnel and
assorted debris. That left only the master computers near
the commander's
portion of the room intact. They were located on a raised
portion of the
room, toward the back where the commander could see
everyone in the room at
once. Also
Also,
the computers up there had additional plating,
since they were
the most important.
Iria made her way over to them. Turning one of the
machines on, she was
immediately asked a password for entry into the system.
"Okay, Bob. It's
showtime." She pulled a data plug from her wrist computer
and inserted it
into the command terminal.
"How long do you think it'll take for him to get into the
system?" Yuri
asked.
"With all of the numerous and expensive encryption and
protection programs
they have in this multi-trillion credit corporate
juggernaut that took
nearly three years to build?"
The soothing tones of a feminine voice came from the
computer and said,
"Password accepted, Mr. Cool Guy Bob."
"About ten seconds," Iria finished.
"You're losing your touch," Kei chided to the devise
device
on
Iria's wrist.
That caught Muhgi's attention. He looked suspiciously at
both women, who
were manning the flight controls, then slowly backed out
of the cockpit of
the Lovely Angel. He really didn't like the direction the
conversation had
suddenly taken. Best to let something else distract them
so the discussion
turned away from him. He liked his partners well enough,
but they really
scared the
extra space
hell out of him with how weird they would get
every now and
then.
Smart Muhgi. Good Muhgi. :)
"I guess we ought to." Yuri's eyes were drawn to where
the DX-11000 station
had been a moment before. Complete eradication. It would
take a miracle to
find any evidence in that debris. If it hadn't been for
the her
stray "the"
and Kei
happening on the station when they did, and escaping with
their lives, no
one would ever have known what had really happened there.
It made one wonder what was really going on.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
"Most of the information on the mainframe was completely
erased. Whoever
did it was a professional too.
professional, too.
What they got to was
totally wiped out
without any chance of recovery."
"I sense a 'but' in there," Iria said.
Iria had returned the
Iria had returned *to* the
Lovely Angel again, the trio
gathering in the
conference room on board.
onboard.
All of the women stared at him. "How do you know?" Iria asked.
"I processed all of the data I could. Most of it was
garbage, but there was
at least one gem. This is some footage I managed to
salvage from one of the
docking bay security cameras. The picture is absolutely
miserable, but he's
here's (?)
what I recovered. It's the best I could do."
A hologram projector built into the center of the table
activated and
showed the footage Bob had managed to recover. In the
beginning seconds,
nothing but static filled the screen. Then there was a
change as the
picture cleared just enough to make out the unmistakable
form of Zeiram
getting on board
onboard
a ship. Several moments later, the ship
took off, and the
bay became as quiet as the tomb it had become.
"You think someone else came on board after Zeiram left
and set the station
to explode?" Kei asked, hoping anyone would be able to answer.
"I'm not sure, although it does seem make sense," Iria
seem *to* make
admitted. Yuri
nodded her head in agreement. Bob remained silent,
unwilling to come to any
conclusions without more information.
No one spoke for the next few moments, each left in the
privacy of their
own thoughts as they considered their situation. Bob was
the first to break
the silence. "So what do we do now? Alert the 3WA?"
"No." Iria's answer was quick, almost like a gunshot. It
had much the same
effect as one since everyone paid attention solely to
her. "We still don't
know what's going on, other than it appears there might
be a third party
involved. I want more information before we announce that
we know what's
happened here and that Zeiram still exists. I don't want
to wonder if the
people I'm spilling my guts to are somehow involved in
all of this. No
sense in putting a bull's eye on our backs if we can help
it. Besides,
Zeiram's mine and Kei's personal demon. We should be the
ones to kill him.
At this point other people would just get in the way."
She watched Kei and Yuri nod in agreement. Apparently
they were content to
defer to her, at least for the moment. Iria accepted that
they might try to
take charge after some time had passed, given the fact
they were legal
representatives of the most powerful law enforcement
agency in the galaxy
and quite capable of handling themselves. She made
certain return
certain *to* return
the favor
by keeping her mind open to any proposals they might have
in the future.
Not sure if the mix I have of the initial emotional
material at the
beginning and the new information to the plot provided in
the second half
was a balanced mix. The Iria-Kei relationship needed to
be explored, and
will continue to deepen as the chapters progress, but at
the same time I
didn't want to bog the reader down with a lot of mostly
emotional passages
to take up the majority of the fic. Hopefully it worked.
The Iria-Kei section seemed a tad long, but that could probably be
taken care of by just tightening your prose up, if you even want to
bother. I didn't find it to be a problem, necessarily.
Sorry about the dryness of this, but my allergies have left me
barely functional today.
Very good, DB. Look forward to seeing all those firefights I seem to
recall you mentioning in Chapter 1. ^_^
Dave
*******************************************
D.F. Roeder
FanFiction - http://www.flash.net/~dfroeder/index.html