Apparently, my first attempt at posting this chapter for Mike met
with rather
*odd* results on a number of computers (some apparently
got an empty message), so I am reposting this, with sincere apologies
if you already got it once.
Remember that any replies should be directed to
Ohmen1@aol.com
***************************
Okay, here is the third chapter of the story. As I have been mentioning
in my previous reposts, and as you can plainly see, I am not the one posting
this, but my friend Louis-Philippe Giroux is doing so for me. If you have
never heard of him (which essentially means you have been living in a cave
for the past several years ^_^ ), you should stop reading this now and run
over to his website. His two stories 'Lines Of Destiny' and 'Differing
Powers' remain two of my favorite Ranma stories ever. You can expect chapter
four to be reposted tonight, and then the new chapter posted tomorrow night.
Then its back to work on new chapters and new stories!
Everything displayed below is exactly what I posted a year ago, so the
Author's Notes should be read with that in mind.
Author's Notes:
Hello! And welcome to chapter three of my story, Second Star!
Actually, Second Star is just a contraction of sorts of its full name:
Second Star On The Right. But lets just call it Second Star for now,
eh?
As always, I would like to thank Louis-Philippe Giroux for
pre-reading this chapter for me. Mr. Giroux has my utmost respect
as a writer, and if you have not yet read his works, than stop reading
this right now and go read his stuff! His two main stories, Lines Of
Destiny (a Ranma/Sailormoon crossover, and Differing Powers (A Ranma/
WheelOfTime crossover), are great!
I would also like to thank ranko@v-wave, whose e-mailings were
a kick in the butt for me to start writing this chapter. Thanks!
More notes at the end!
And now, on with the show!
Second Star On The Right
Written by: Michael D. Rever
Ohmen1@aol.com
Chapter 3 Awakenings
Ranma loved to fly. To soar up into the air and view the world
from above. Zooming over the streets of Nerima, diving under the
small bridges, and racing the birds as they flew to unknown
destinations. He paused a minute to watch a baby chick call for its
mother, demanding food, and then he was off again. He had someplace
he had to be. Someone he had to meet. Launching himself straight
up, he rose over the rooftops and headed for the park. There she
was, waiting by the small lake, feeding the ducks. As he came to
land next to her, she started to look up. Her face was starting to
turn towards him...
!BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP!
Ranma awoke with a start, sitting straight up in bed. Almost
immediately though, he flopped back down into his reclining
position, pulled the leathery cover over his head, and started to go
back to sleep, murmuring something about 'Goddamn alarm clocks...'
*Waitaminute,* some slightly active part of his brain called
out, *'leathery cover'? This bed ain't right either. Kinda hard.
Like metal. Feels a little familiar though...*
*Who cares? I can sleep on it.* Another, even fuzzier, part of
his brain responded.
The first part considered this. *Yes, I can sleep on it.*
*Sleep gooooood.* The second part mumbled.
The two parts mentally shook hands, and joined the rest of the
brain in dreamland.
!BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP!
Ranma's arm went on automatic. It shot straight up into the
air, and swung mightily down, on a course to send a certain
annoyance into mechanical heaven. As it reached where its intended
target was supposed to be however, instead of hitting a small but
very annoying clock, it hit...nothing. Ranma quickly found himself
tumbling off of a fairly high bed, carried by the force of his own
swing.
Still groggy from sleep, Ranma sat up slowly, scratching his
head and smacking his lips. As his mind and vision started to
clear, he idly began wondering who put a bed in his room. That
thought suddenly evaporated from his mind as he started to look
around, and his eyes grew huge.
The room he was in was very small, about the same size as his
room back in the Tendo house. Rectangular in shape, the two longer
sides and one of the short ends appeared to be nothing but large
computers with blinking lights and screens which displayed lines
that moved in strange rhythms. The short wall without any computer
banks was simply a blank wall made from what looked to be pewter.
Glancing around in bemusement, he noticed that the 'bed' he had
fallen from actually appeared to be a squat, rectangular metal
pillar with several opaque crystals held above one end of it from
the ceiling. About where his head would have been had he still been
laying on it. The only two sources of color in the silver and gray
room were from the bright purple sheet that had been covering him,
which was now twisted around his feet since he had jumped up from
his sitting position, and from his usual red and black clothes which
he was wearing.
Looking around at the highly technical machines and the ominous
looking bed, Ranma could only come up with one answer. *Oh no, Pop
engaged me to that B-Ko girl!*
*No wait, that's not right. What's goin' on here?!* It was
such a good question, he thought it was worth shouting out. And so
he did.
As if to answer his question, the pewter wall suddenly
disappeared, without a sound and without fanfare. It was just
simply not there any more. "ummmmm...ok" Ranma mumbled as he
slowly walked towards the now open doorway.
What was revealed on the other side was a large circular room
with a tall domed ceiling, about fifteen feet high. The room, in
great contrast with the small room he was in, was made entirely from
carved stone, which had been polished smooth. The rock it was made
of was a strange mixture of dark brown, light tan, and pure white
strata all swirled around each other in a strangely compelling
pattern. There were also flashes of green, blue, and gold from time
to time, but no discernable source of these colors was evident.
Ranma slowly started walking out of the 'bedroom' he was in,
into this larger one. Other than the opening he just walked out of,
the room was featureless and barren, though well lit and at a
comfortable temperature. A slight feeling of air pressure behind
him caused Ranma to spin around to discover that now the room was
completely featureless, the door having closed behind him.
Searching the wall where it had been, Ranma was unable to find it
again.
He spent the next fifteen minutes trying to find the door
again, and, having failed that, searching the rest of the wall for
anything that might point a way out of the room. After he was done
he realized three things. One, he had no idea where along the wall
he had started out from. Two, it didn't matter since he couldn't
find that door anyway. And three, he was going to have to wait
until whoever put him in the room came back before he could get out.
So he started doing some katas to fill in time until his kidnappers
came for him.
*And then,* he thought cracking his knuckles, *they're going to
regret messing with Ranma Saotome! If this is another plot by some
guy who wants to marry Akane...* Ranma paused at this thought,
horrified that it had not come sooner. *Where's everybody else?
Where's Aka...uh, everybody else?* Ranma sped up his katas as worry
started to build in him.
An hour passed.
And then another hour passed.
And a third.
All the while, his mind was working, trying to remember how he
got here. *OK, I was fighting Ryouga...I think. And Akane came out
with a bucket of water, trying to stop us from fighting...she
splashed us..and..something...I remember holding her...no that's
Ucchan...and Cologne was there smiling and making a wedding
okonomiyaki...no, that's not right...* Something appeared to be wrong
with his memory. He remembered clearly his life with his Pop, and
arriving at the Tendo Dojo that first day. He remembered Ukyo and
Shampoo coming into his life. He remembered the failed wedding.
But then things started getting a bit foggy, and whenever he tried
to think about those times he got disjointed and confusing images
that didn't make much sense to him. *Ryouga fighting...boomers?
What's a boomer? What happened? Why can't I remem...the Xi Fa
Xiang Gao! Cologne! That old troll must have used it on me! Ha!
But I'm too strong for it! I still remember everybody!* Ranma
paused once again, *I think.*
Having gone through most of his katas, Ranma decided to rest a
minute and sat down against the wall that ran around the room. He
closed his eyes and rested his head back against the wall for just a
second, when they suddenly shot open again and stared at the room.
There was something he saw, just as his eyes were about shut. What
was it? Something about the walls, about the designs, the swirls
and flashes of color...*That's it! Its like those 'magic pictures'
Nabiki showed me! Stare at them and they show you something!* He
groaned aloud, he had never been able to get those damn things to
work for him. Feeling that this was something important, he spent
the next half hour squinting and closing his eyes, trying to see the
pattern he had glimpsed. He looked sideways. He looked at an upward
angle. He looked at a downward angle. He looked upside down. He
looked close-up and far away. No success. His mind fuzzed a little
bit while he was silently berating himself.
Then something appeared, out the corner of his eye. But when
he looked that direction, there was nothing. But it kept happening,
he started seeing things, shapes, out of the corners of his eyes.
And then the secret came to him and he deliberately let his eyes
unfocus, concentrating on using his peripheral vision. And the room
came alive. Beautiful images, mosaics, shapes, and patterns filled
the walls in vibrant colors and graceful lines. There was not a
single inch of the wall nor the ceiling that was not covered with
images of strange creatures, lush plants with odd flowers, and what
looked to be scenes from space. Two images seemed to dominate the
room, as they were much larger than the others and were situated at
opposite ends of the room. One was of a strange creature, tall and
impossibly thin. Its two arms were long and bone thin, it's hip-
bones were prominent, and it's waist was small enough that Ranma bet
he could almost surround it with his two hands. Its face was longer
than a humans, and did not seem to have a mouth nor nose. Its eyes
were sunken in and the picture seemed to portray some sort of energy
radiating from the top of its head. The second image was simply
that of a huge eyeball, with lines stretching away from it in many
directions. The entire image seemed to have that same energy
pattern radiating from it. Ranma shivered momentarily, for the
image of the eye seemed to ooze malice and threat.
Shaking his head and tearing his eyes away from these two
images, he started walking around the room looking in wonder at all
of the pictures. Now that he had learned the trick, he no longer
needed to unfocus his eyes, he could see the decorations normally.
As he was walking around the room, another flash from the corner of
his eye caught his attention. From the floor. Just now realizing
that the floor was still bare of design, Ranma unfocused his eyes
and tried to see the decoration he had glimpsed. Nothing. Looking
at it from different angles, to the point of getting on his hands
and knees, provided no more help. Shrugging, he continued with his
explorations and started walking around the room again. When he got
to the other side of the room, it happened again. A flash of
something on the floor. Looking around, he noticed that he was
halfway between the two dominant pictures, or nearly so. On a
hunch, he started inching backwards until he estimated that he was
exactly halfway from one picture to the other, and looked at the
floor with normal eyes. The design was clear and easily
recognizable. Moving his head from one side to the other, he
watched in fascination as the decoration appeared and disappeared
according to his head's, and eyes', position. It was not a trick of
focus like the walls and the ceiling, but more of a optical illusion
where you had to look from a certain angle to view it. Ranma
stepped away from the wall, causing the floor's picture to disappear
from his vision, but it was not needed. The design was a simple
one. A spiral, leading to the center of the room.
Keeping the design is his head, Ranma slowly, and then more
quickly, started doing the spiral dance, as if he was going to
launch the Hiru Shouten Ha attack. When he reached the end, the
center of the room, he stopped, strangely out of breath, and looked
around. And promptly passed out.
He awoke again, a short time later, and slowly got back onto
his feet, a splitting headache he did not remember having fading
away as he became upright. He raised his eyes and looked around.
And gaped at what he saw. The decorations were gone, as well as the
swirls of color that had made them. The wall was now a uniform dark
brown, polished smooth, yet the light that filled the room did not
reflect from it. Three red dots of light, similar to the light from
a laser pointer, shown brightly from three different locations on
the wall, each quite a distance from the other.
Almost hypnotized by the glowing red lights, he walked towards
the one that was directly ahead of him. When he got to about a foot
or two away from it, he stopped. The dot had not changed. Looking
at it from different angles, he could not tell anything about it.
It was just a dot on a wall.
"Hello?", he hesitantly spoke to the light, "Ummmm, this is
great and all, but could you let me out?"
No response.
"I said let me out!" He was getting a bit angry now, the
strangeness of the situation, worry for his friends, and being
cooped up in a cave started to get to him.
"Listen, I don't care what this is about, but I'm gonna count
to three, and if you don't open a door, somebody's gonna get hurt!"
he shouted, cracking his knuckles and brandishing them.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Thr......" Suddenly a image of the great Ranma Saotome waving
his fist at a dot of light on the wall of a cave formed in his mind,
and he froze for a moment, realizing just how utterly stupid he
looked.
*I bet they're just laughing it up right now.*, he thought
darkly of his captors, *When I get outta here...* He left the
thought unfinished as he dropped his arm and stood up straighter.
Standing up straight, the light was about chest high to him.
Looking around he could still see the other two lights on the wall,
and did not see any change in them. Bending over, he started to
bring his face close to he light in front of him, looking at it as
if it were a peephole of some sort. When his head came within a
foot's distance however, the dot changed. Instead of just a small
dot of red light, it stretched out, become a red outline slightly
oval in shape and growing larger as his face got closer. Jerking
back quickly, Ranma saw the red outline shrink back onto itself so
that it was just a dot again. Hesitantly, he poked his finger at
the light. As soon as his finger broke the one foot mark from the
wall, the light once again spread out into an outline, only this
time it was much smaller. Pulling his finger back, the outline once
more became a dot. Poking his finger in and out of the one foot
range, Ranma watched the dot expand and shrink several times.
Poking two fingers at the dot, he saw that the resulting outline was
different. Instead of a single round outline, the shape was of a
sideways figure eight with the center cross missing. After several
more tests, Ranma came to realize that the outline the red light was
forming, was the outline of whatever came close to it. A sudden
flash of understanding burst through his head, and Ranma firmly
extended his hand, palm out, towards the light. The dot expanded as
his hand came closer to it, until it exactly fit his hand as he
touched the wall. A flash of bright, white light came from
under his hand and suddenly the wall in front of him was no more.
Instead of a section of the wall, he was now looking through
the very same door he had exited hours before. The 'bedroom' for
lack of a better term, looked exactly as it had when he had first
awoken, except that the crystals which had previously hung just
above one end of the bed were now hanging just a couple inches from
the ceiling. Understanding now how the door worked, Ranma took a
step backwards and watched the wall reappear.
"Cool!" he exclaimed. He played with opening and closing the
door a few more times before he remembered that he still had no way
out of the room, and that there were two more lights on the wall.
*Now I'm gonna get some answers!*
Walking over to the next closest light, he confidently stuck
his hand forward and opened the door. Instead of a doorway into a
room or the way out of this one, what was revealed was a small
alcove, maybe a foot and a half deep, and hemispherical in shape.
The walls of the alcove seemed to be made of the same brown rock of
the room Ranma was in now, but the floor was a metal plate
crisscrossed with lines of clear crystal or glass. There were the
outlines of two feet engraved on the floor, with the heels against
the back of the alcove.
Figuring he had nothing to lose, Ranma stepped carefully onto
the plate and planted his feet so they matched the engraving on the
floor. The wall suddenly reappeared, leaving him within a very
small area, with barely enough room to move more than a few inches
in any direction but up. Looking around in panic, he noticed that
the little alcove extended much higher than he would have thought.
He could tell this because a dull white light was slowly making its
way down towards him from high above, shining through previously
unseen veins of crystal embedded into the walls. As the light
reached about head level, Ranma started to hear a slight buzzing.
No matter which way he turned his head, the buzzing seemed to come
from directly behind him. A few seconds later it did not matter,
for the light had traveled down the veins of crystal until they had
reached the lines of the mineral on the floor-plate. And Ranma was
suddenly blinded by an intense white light.
When his vision had cleared, he found himself back in the
center of the main room of his prison. The decorations were still
gone, and the three dots of light were shining on the wall. The
only difference was, standing right before him was...himself. Or
maybe it should be said, herself.
Ranma immediately and instinctively dropped into a ready stance
and sized up the person in front of him. The girl looked exactly
like his female half, from the red hair down to the black soft-soled
shoes on her feet. His trained senses and eyes had quickly
categorized everything about her and they told him that she was not
a threat. Her eyes were wide and honest, her stance unthreatening,
and the expression on her face looked more bored than anything else.
But there was something about her that nagged him (besides the fact
he was facing off against himself). Something just was not 'right'
about her. And it came to him. She was not breathing. Not at all.
And had not been since she he had first appeared.
The girl, for the most part, simply stood there while staring
at him, occasionally blinking her large blue eyes, and looking
expectant. She was balanced easily on her feet and her hands were
clasped behind her back. As a matter of fact, Ranma realized with a
start, she looked exactly the way he had when he was first
challenged by Akane a few years ago.
"Who...who...who are you?" he asked hesitantly, not absolutely sure
he really wanted to know. *Am I dreaming?* he wondered to himself.
"Ghjihijkn jhikh, ihuygi bkuy bh bb b y f uyfu kjh okl." The
girl before him responded. Immediately her smile, which had
appeared when he spoke, disappeared and her eyes narrowed a little
bit in concentration.
"TbjgGjio Ranma, dreaming HGj hgj tv you iut fgj." The girl
closed her eyes for a second and tried again.
"No Ranma, you are not dreaming." She beamed happily at
finally being able to speak correctly.
"Wha? Hey, who are you?" He paused for a second and did a
double-take "How did you know what I was thinking?!?" He had not
yet relaxed from his fighting stance.
The girl suddenly looked a bit nervous and tilted her head to
the side a bit, before starting to pace back and forth in front of
him, with her hands still clasped behind her.
"That...is a bit hard to explain. For both questions." She
replied. She suddenly laughed a bit ruefully. "I have been
planning for this exact moment for a long time. A very long time.
And now that it is here, I have absolutely no idea how to begin...what
to say."
"How 'bout telling me where I am, who you are, and what you've
done with Akane?" Ranma grated out, starting to lose patience with
this imposter. "And the others!" he hastily added.
The girl stopped and seemed to think for a second, eyeing Ranma
sideways. She then sighed and turned to face him. "Yes. Yes, I
guess that is as good a place to start as any. I am a memory in
essence. A psionic program projected directly into your brain. When
you stepped on the viewing pedestal, you activated the chamber you
are in now, and me. You are actually still standing in the little
niche, but I am controlling what you see and hear. You see what
happens is that a mind impression, focused through the crystalline
weave, is able to psionically project itself...Ranma? Uhh, Ranma?"
The hologram stopped speaking when it noticed the blank look that
had overcome Ranma features. "Ranma!" Ranma's eyes refocused.
"OK, look," the hologram stated tersely, "I am here to help
you. To explain things to you." The girl sighed. "I am not a
Leader. I don't have the conversation skills of one. But I need
you to listen, your life depends on it."
To tell the truth, Ranma had not been paying much attention.
Worry, anger, and confusion were warring over each other in his mind
as to which was going to take control. He heard every word the girl
was saying, but the content of those words was just not being
heeded. But this last sentence brought his full mind into focus.
There was a threat.
"Good, I can see that you are finally listening. Now listen
carefully, understanding what I am going to tell you might be the
most important thing you ever do." She seemed to take a deep
breath.
"Millions of years ago a species was born. Like other species
were destined to do, they grew, multiplied, and evolved. After
centuries and millennia of change and evolution, the race had grown
into a highly advanced and structured society. They were called the
Xel'Naga. Being a naturally curious species, they learned and
researched everything they could about their home planet and about
themselves. Using biochemical experimentation they were able to
accelerate their growth, artificially manipulating their life-
strands so as to amplify their minds and bodies. Their experiments
caused several races to appear within the Xel'Naga for the first
time. Soon they had learned everything they could from their planet
and they were unable to convince their bodies to evolve any more.
They had developed limited control over the three powers of life:
the power of the Body, the power of the Mind, and the power of the
Spirit. Their lifespans were limitless. What was left? They
started feeling bored and entrapped. Before long they were building
and growing ships to take them beyond their home planet's
atmosphere. Reaching out, they colonized their solar system, and
then traveled beyond. Excited again at the thought of experiencing
something new, they studied, and researched, and learned. The
powers of the stars, the paths of the planets. Astrophysics.
Cosmic energy. Everywhere they turned they found new things to
study, and those things, in turn, led to other new fields. The
Xel'Naga were once again happy."
While she was talking the landscape around Ranma changed.
Instead of being in the cave, he found himself floating in space,
high above a solar system with three large planets and a sun that
was much brighter than the one he was familiar with. As the story
progressed, he and the girl experienced planetfall and he saw images
of buildings fade in and out of existence, along with different
terrain and landscape. First there were huts, which changed to
small buildings, and then into tall ones. These tall buildings, in
turn, were replaced with other tall buildings, which were also
replaced. Images of strange ships sailing on smoky looking water
were seen, as well as small oddly shaped hovercraft sailing through
the sky. Soon other ships of various shapes and sizes were seen
floating in the air, only to fly off far above him. Ranma seemed to
follow these ships up past the atmosphere and into the blackness of
space, where he saw the ships split up and travel in every
direction. The girl had disappeared, with only her voice remaining.
"But then the Xel'Naga came across something that would change
their existence forever. On a small moon, near a newly explored
planet at the edge of their galaxy, they found life. They were
stunned. Despite their vast knowledge and curiosity, they had never
thought that there might be other life-forms out there. And if,
they came to realize, there was other life amongst the stars, might
there not be another race like them? What knowledge could be
shared? What new things could be discovered when they found this
brother race! The life they had found was simple, a single-celled
organism whose life span was about two days long. Such a simple
thing, but with such great consequences!"
"The Xel'Naga flew out into the reaches of space with new
purpose. To find other species to talk with. The idea had become
all-consuming to the Xel'Naga. But they quickly became
disappointed. Beyond that simple organism that they had found, no
other form of life had yet developed. They were the first and only
beings in the universe. At first they despaired. Their dreams of
finding new species and life-forms had crumbled to dust. But
eventually this dream changed, twisted. They came to believe that
they had evolved first for a reason. And that reason was to create
and guide life throughout the cosmos. To invent that which they had
been searching for."
"In their arrogance they began two new fields of study. That
of xenobiogenetic manipulation and Projective Evolution Management.
They created life-strands in their biolabs and seeded thousands and
millions of planets. And they watched, guided, and protected the
results; ever working towards evolving species which would develop
sentience and learning abilities. After millions of years they came
to watch over thousands of success stories, with the life-forms
developing societal structures and the beginnings of civilization.
They kept themselves hidden, content to guide secretly, and to watch
and to learn. Eventually several of the more advanced species
learned space travel. Hidden from scanners and searching eyes, the
Xel'Naga watched as these life-forms reached out and began
colonizing planets, just as the Xel'Naga had done so long ago. And
the entirety of the Xel'Naga watched as two of these races came into
contact with each other, wanting to experience vicariously the
meeting they themselves had searched for millions of years before.
But something went wrong. Instead of the glorious blending of two
of their 'children', the two races waged war on each other. Still
not wanting to expose their existence, the Xel'Naga could only watch
as the two races continued to fight. And, as the races developed
more and learned more, the fighting grew larger and larger.
Eventually other, not as developed, planets were conquered and
brought into the fighting. Two thousand years later a quarter of
their galaxy was at war, and it was spreading."
The view of Ranma had changed much while the story continued.
First he was traveling over the landscapes of countless planets.
Strange vistas, oddly colored skies, thick oceans, and planets
without any ground at all were all shown. He was then back in space
looking down at a moon that circled a small planet with several
rings. Many ships, much larger than the ones he saw take off from
the home planet of the Xel'Naga, hovered over this moon. Then they
took off in every direction as well. A brief view of a galaxy was
shown, resembling more of a rough sphere than the spiral shape of
the galaxy he was familiar with (well, that he had seen pictures of
anyways). He was then taken to a yellow-orange planet, from which a
small spacecraft was slowly leaving its atmosphere. A blink later
and there were suddenly several more of these ships, constantly
moving back and forth from the planet to its neighboring planets.
Then a much larger ship appeared from around the planet, rotated in
place, and disappeared into the inky blackness of space. His view
followed this ship as it sped along towards a distant star that was
slowly becoming closer. After it had reached its destination, Ranma
saw another ship, just as large, hovering over a brown-green planet.
Whereas the ship Ranma had been following was silver, sleek, and
angular, this new ship was dirt-brown, gangly, and had many
hemisphere-like protrusions covering it like boils. After a short
while of sitting still, the ship that Ranma had been following
suddenly shot some sort of energy weapons at the new ship. And the
battle was engaged. The images that floated by Ranma now were of
derelict ships, blasted and dead, floating in space. The hulls of
these ships changed, becoming larger, more damaged. He found
himself planetside, looking at vast fields that were burned and
pitted. Destroyed buildings and burning structures were seen.
"The Xel'Naga were at a loss as to what to do. They pulled
back their observers and returned to their home planet to decide on
a course of action. It was eventually decided to leave their
galaxy. To travel to a new one and start again. And so they packed
up everything and left, leaving no evidence that the Xel'Naga had
ever existed."
"And they came here to this galaxy. With one big difference
however. You see, even ancient, genius beings make mistakes and
accidents do occur. On the trip between galaxies, one of their
world-ships developed troubles and exploded. This was a critical
blow for the Xel'Naga, for this particular ship held the entirety of
the Leader caste. This caused the next most powerful race to come
into ruling power, the Theologian caste. This was the caste that
had originally spearheaded the movement for developing and guiding
life amongst the stars. At first the Xel'Naga continued as they had
done for millennia, seeding countless worlds and subtly guiding
those worlds which already had the beginnings of life.
But then something happened, something totally unexpected.
While exploring a planet-system for life-potential, a small
craft suddenly appeared near the outer rim. The exploring Xel'Naga
ship quickly investigated and discovered the craft and its one
occupant. The life-form that was in the ship was like nothing they
had seen before. The ship was badly damaged and had appeared to
have been in a fight, and the person inside was frozen in a
primitive cryogenic sleep. But the creature was amazing! Mind,
Body, Spirit! Never before had the Xel'Naga seen such a perfect
blend and development! While they themselves had limited control
over these fundamental forces, the readings for this one, lone,
frozen being were astounding. Keeping the life-form frozen, the
Xel'Naga went about studying him and searching for his place of
origin. After seeing and studying the potential of their find, the
Theologian's fervor and ideology began to change. No longer
satisfied in just starting life and watching as it developed, they
came to want to create the perfect species. They wanted to see if
they could duplicate what they had found.
They searched the planets that were under their care and
settled on one of the more advanced engineered species they were
guiding. This species was one of the more successful life-forms to
come from the Xel'Naga seeding campaign. Their bodies were durable,
fast, strong, and they adapted quickly to Aiur's (their home planet)
Jungle environment. But what interested the Xel'Naga the most was
the fact that the species had developed a limited degree of
telepathy. The Xel'Naga came to think that with the right guidance,
this species could come to control one of the three powers of life;
the power of the Mind, or Psi. They immediately began a program of
development for this species to accelerate its evolution. And for
the first time in Xel'Naga history, there was dissent. The Scout
caste of the Xel'Naga was the caste most in tune with the powers of
the mind, far greater than any of the other races within the
Xel'Naga. They were able to use Psi to interact with their
computers and ships in fundamental ways, and they were able to send
their thoughts across vast distances. They warned the Theologians
of the dangers of forcing the evolution of the chosen species, that
forcing the development of the powers of Psi could and would cause
problems as the life-form progresses."
Ranma watched as huge spherical ships traveled through space
and observed with interest as suddenly one of the ships slowed,
stopped, began to spin, and exploded. This was better than any
space movie he had ever seen! Then he was once again floating in
space, near a large planet. Behind him was a small planet and a
bright-blue sun behind that. After a few seconds, a bright flash
off to his right caught his attention, and he saw a small craft. Or
what was left of one, appear out of nowhere. He found himself
drifting closer to the ship until he could see into the windows.
Unfortunately he could not see much, as it seemed the entire inside
was one solid piece of ice. A figure could barely be seen trapped
inside the ice. The craft was suddenly whisked away and Ranma could
see it being towed away by another small craft. As soon as the two
ships were out of sight, the environment once again changed and
Ranma found himself in the center of a huge, circular auditorium.
Tier upon tier stretched from the floor to the rafters in all
directions. The room could easily hold hundreds of thousands of
humans. The girl once again stood before him and was talking with a
faraway look on her face.
"The Theologians, and thereby all other castes, decided to
ignore the warnings of the Scouts. And they set about doing it.
Gently but persistently they began to guide the steps of evolution
for the chosen species, to whom they had given the name Protoss,
which meant 'the First Born'. The Protoss had been living in a
tribal society, living more by instinct than true thought processes,
but all that changed. As a result of the Xel'Naga's manipulations,
the species evolved at a very quick rate. They developed quickly
both in mind and in achievements. The tribes grew, and met, and
merged, until the planet was ruled by a single governing body. A
communal link between all of the minds of the Protoss was developed.
They had come to live in harmony and were content."
"The Xel'Naga, believing that they were close to achieving
their goals, made themselves known to their children. The Protoss
were overjoyed to discover the Xel'Naga and worshipped them as gods.
The Xel'Naga set about teaching the Protoss about the universe and
all of its secrets, pleasantly surprised to find a curiosity and a
drive for knowledge that rivaled their own. The Protoss learned
from the Xel'Naga and began studying new fields of research. As
they made more and more discoveries, pride in accomplishment and new
ways of thinking developed amongst the Protoss. Individuals and
whole Tribes began desiring individuality and began taking personal
credit for things. This sense of individualism grew and grew until
whole Tribes began actively trying to disengage themselves from the
communal mind-link. They now began to look upon the Xel'Naga with
suspicion, wondering at ulterior motives. The Xel'Naga for the most
part were overwhelmed. They came to believe that they had indeed
pushed the Protoss too far and too fast. The sense of
individualistic ego many of the Protoss were developing was a sign
of this. As things got worse and worse, and individuals and Tribes
alike went into isolation, it was with a heavy heart that the
Xel'Naga decided to leave Aiur. It had been a failure. However,
while the Xel'Naga were done with the Protoss, the Protoss were not
yet done with the Xel'Naga. When they saw their old mentors leaving
them, the Protoss panicked and attacked their fleeing creators.
Dozens of world-ships were destroyed before the Xel'Naga retaliated
and eradicated the Protoss forces. And so the Xel'Naga left Aiur,
and the Protoss."
"Traveling to the other side of the galaxy, the Xel'Naga
decided to try again, once more over the protests of the Scout
caste. Surrounding a fiery planet named Zerus, the mighty Xel'Naga
selected a small insectoid species called the Zerg as the subjects
of their next attempt at creating perfection. Mindful of the
failure with the Protoss, the Xel'Naga decided to take a different
approach entirely with the second attempt. This time instead of
focusing on development of the Mind, they decided to focus their
attentions on the power of the Body. Also, they had decided to keep
the manipulation down to a minimum and hope for the best. They
selected a small species that had great handicaps. The Zerg were
very small and had no way to effectively manipulate their
environment, let alone thrive. They guided the Zerg's evolution so
that they became a parasitic species that was able to survive by
infecting larger, more durable, creatures. They gave the Zerg great
adaptability skills. And then the Xel'Naga sat back and watched."
"The Zerg, now able to thrive upon Zerus, slowly evolved. By
infecting spinal nerves and brain matter, they soon were able to
take control of their hosts and manipulate their environment. The
Xel'Naga, wanting to ensure the initial survival of the Zerg placed
several new breeds upon Zerus, which the Zerg would be able to use
to develop. Driven by a need to evolve and thrive, the Zerg soon
infected all of the major life-forms on Zerus. The Xel'Naga watched
in amazement as the Zerg learned to manipulate the evolutionary
traits of their host creatures and to supercharge those traits. In
just a short period of time every major race on Zerus had grown
tough carapaces, sharp spines, long teeth, and razor sharp limbs.
The uniformity of the changes to the diverse races was beautiful."
"The Xel'Naga, remembering the destruction individual desire
caused on Aiur, structured the Zerg Swarm's collective sentience
into a semi-sentient being called the Overmind. The Overmind was
the embodiment of the Zerg's instincts and drive. The Zerg became a
collective. The Xel'Naga were content, they had indeed created a
species perfect in Body. However, as they had before, things began
to go wrong. The Overmind gradually became more aware and more
intelligent. All of the strong life-forms on Zerus had been
absorbed into the Zerg Swarms, and the weak ones had been destroyed.
But the fundamental drive of the Zerg caused the Overmind to send
its mind outward, into the void. Finding a race of spacefaring
life-forms traveling through Zerus space, the Overmind mentally
called out to them. The life-forms responded to the call and landed
on Zerus, and were soon absorbed into the Zerg Swarm. Now the Zerg
had the genetic blueprints for the ability to travel through space.
It was now the Overmind sprung its surprise. Somehow it had learned
of the Xel'Naga fleet that hovered far above the skies of Zerus.
The Xel'Naga were astounded when the Overmind severed the mental
link they had created to observe it's actions. They were even more
surprised when wave after wave of Zerg forces suddenly assaulted
their world-ships. Understanding and fear swept through the
Xel'Naga as they came to realize exactly what it was they had
created. A race totally without mercy, whose only desire was to
absorb other races and to make themselves stronger. Realizing this,
and in the situation they were in, the Xel'Naga accomplished two
last actions. The first was to send away the Scouts with some very
important cargo, and the second was to self-destruct their ships,
all of which had been boarded by the Zerg. The knowledge possessed
by the Xel'Naga had to be kept from the Zerg's hands, and the
Xel'Naga themselves could not risk becoming absorbed by their
children. The universe's first race, the Xel'Naga, were no more."
"But the Overmind did not give up. Before it had severed its
link with its creators, it had stolen much information from the
organic computers of the world-ships. Naturally its research and
theft was solely on topics that could help it advance its own
evolution. Descriptions and reviews of thousands of species were
stolen and memorized, and, more importantly, the Overmind learned of
two great bastions of genetic potential. The first was knowledge of
a great and powerful species, called the Protoss, which lived on the
far rim of the galaxy. The second was the discovery of a being of
vast potential and power, who was being held frozen by the Xel'Naga.
Not knowing what had become of the powerful being, the Overmind set
its eye on the far off race of the Protoss."
Ranma was now feeling quite woozy. At first he had simply
stood in the auditorium and listened to the girl speak, but then the
view changed again and again. He started out standing on the ground
of a strange planet, with huge tree and a jungle-like appearance.
Soon humanoid creatures walked out of the underbrush, and Ranma
immediately recognized them as being of the same race as the first
huge mosaic he had seen in the cave. Time seemed to speed up and he
saw these creatures, the Protoss, grow and change. Simple tents and
cabins gave way to larger buildings and towns. Other beings of the
same race showed up, wearing different colors than the ones he had
been observing. And more Protoss showed up. And more. The larger
buildings gave way to huge temples and ziggurats. A city was born.
The Ranma saw huge ships slowly descend from the sky and the Protoss
running to meet them. A quick blink later he saw the ships take off
again, this time followed by smaller ships, which began attacking
the leaving ship. All around him he could see dead Protoss and off
in the distance he could see the Protoss killing each other.
Then he was on a planet that was blackened and burned. Most of
the ground was covered with what looked to be a purplish mucus. He
watched as a small group of crab-like creatures skittered by. When
they were a few feet away from him, he saw a small cloud of
something suddenly fly through the air and land on the creatures.
The creatures froze in place and flopped down on their bellies.
They shuddered a bit, as if trying to shake something off, then they
stopped that too. Then they stood as one, turned in a new
direction, and marched off. Similar scenes were repeated with other
creatures. The view changed and he was suddenly floating again, but
not in space. He was not sure where he was, but before him was a
really huge eyeball. The eyeball had tendons stretching away into
the darkness, and moved back and forth slowly. Then he was high
above an unidentified planet and facing the spherical ships he had
seen previously. Suddenly from the planet below him, thousands of
small creatures burst from the atmosphere and started impacting upon
the ships before him. As more and more creatures rammed into the
ships, causing dents to begin to appear, Ranma saw a large number of
small craft shoot from two of the ships and fly off at great speeds
out into space. Then the huge ships exploded, blinding him
momentarily. When his vision had cleared, he found himself back in
the cave, facing his female half again.
The girl looked at him, "Do you have all that?"
Ranma thought for a second, trying to remember what she had
been saying. "Nope."
The girl stared at him for a moment before muttering a soft
curse.
The story was repeated. This time without the graphics.
"You got it now?" she asked. It was then she noticed that
Ranma had fallen asleep.
When the girl had recovered from her facefault, she fairly
shouted, "RANMA!"
"Wha? Who? Huh?" Ranma was awakened and looking around.
The girl studied him for a minute, with her chin in her palm.
Her eyes widened slightly as an idea came to her. Her expression
then became one of scorn. "Ha! And to think I was told you were a
great fighter. You seem a little dim to me. Can't even pay
attention to a training exercise!"
Ranma was now alert and his anger had returned. "What do you
mean! I AM a great fighter! I'm the best! And what do you mean
'training exercise'? All you were doing was telling me some stupid
story!"
The girl inwardly chuckled, outwardly she made a show of
sighing. "OK, I'll spell it out for you. The story I told you is a
cover. In its meaning you can find the secret to winning the
greatest battle of your life. But you have to listen carefully!
The secret is well hidden, and you really have to think about it.
To tell the truth," she went on with a bland expression, "I don't
think you can handle it."
Ranma was really mad now. "Hey! If it has anything to do with
fighting, I can understand it! Tell me again, and I'll tell you the
secret!"
The girl looked hesitant. "Well, OK. I'll tell it one more
time. But that is all!" It was probably a good thing that Ranma
totally missed the smile that was threatening to break out across
her face.
The story was retold once more, but this time Ranma's full
concentration was brought into play. Every word the girl spoke was
recorded, analyzed, and categorized within his mind.
"Well? Did you pay attention this time, or were the rumors I
heard about you just that? Rumors?"
Ranma repeated the story back to the girl, word for word. One
thing bothered him though. "So what happened to the guy that was
found frozen? Did he get blown up when the Xel'Naga blew themselves
up?"
The girl suddenly looked very hesitant. "Ranma, you have to pay
attention to what I am about to say. It is very very important that
you believe me. The story I just told you was not just some bedtime
tale. It actually happened. It may be hard for you to believe, but
YOU are the being we found frozen! We don't know how you got there,
and we don't know where you came from. When the Zerg attacked, we
could not risk them getting you, and we did not want you to die for
our mistakes! The Theologians gave you into our care and sent us
off to escape the Zerg!" The girl was now speaking very
passionately, stressing what she was saying. Ranma stood still,
absorbing her message.
"Waitaminute, waitaminute! Let me get this straight. You are
a billion year old alien that found me floating frozen in space.
After studying me, you tried to create life and got burned, and now
your whole race, except for a few outcasts, is dead? Is THAT what
you are saying?"
The girl was now smiling widely. "Exactly!" Her smile
disappeared quickly when Ranma fell down laughing.
"Hee hee hee hee! You *HA!* expect me *Hoo!* to believe that?
*gasp* C'mon, at least
*choke* give me some credit!
*chortle*"
"Its true! All of it! And that's why your memory is messed
up!"
This caught Ranma's attention. While the whole unbelievable
story had suddenly become a source of great amusement for Ranma, the
holes in his memory were something real and felt. If even a glimmer
of truth could be found in her explanation, maybe it would help him
figure out a way to get his memories back. If not, well then, it
would just take a bit longer is all.
"What do you mean, 'That's why your memory is messed up'?!" he
demanded
The image of the Scout turned sad. "Look, my people were not
perfect. Even within our strict caste system, there were ways for
incompetent people to raise to positions of responsibility. When we
first found you, we did a few scans and then we unfroze you.
Everything was going well, you were awake and talking.
Unfortunately, a person by the name of Kuros was assigned to mindtap
with you so we could communicate more easily. Kuros was of the
Theologian caste. They did not assign a person from my caste, the
Scouts, because of political reasons. Kuros was a low level
Theologian, and his mindtap was a fumbling affair that defeated its
own purpose. In his attempt to connect with your mind, his bumbling
actually destroyed part of your Psi. Your mind immediately saw this
is an attack and retaliated, but it was too late. When we first
found you, your Psi was seen by us to be a large, bright, golden
sheet stretching across your mind. After Kuros was done, there was
a huge hole in that sheet. We sedated you and tried to fix the
hole, but some...unforeseen results took place. One of those results
is that part of your brain, the part that seemed to control your Psi
and held many memories, was numbed. Those brain cells were totally
drained of all energy. There is no physical damage, so your mind is
slow to realize that there is a problem. Because of this, those
cells remain 'asleep'. Eventually all of these cells will be
awakened, and your memories should return as they are. We froze you
again, not really knowing what to do. We unfroze you three or four
more times after that time, in hopes that sufficient healing had
occurred to attempt another mindtap. Each time we had to refreeze
you minutes after your waking up, seeing that the damage was slowly
repairing itself, but that you had developed an instinctive distrust
of us. Every time you were awakened, you immediately attacked us.
After Korus, we could not blame you. It was decided that it would
be kinder to keep you frozen until we found your people so that you
would have companionship."
The girl stopped here and looked at Ranma. "Look, I know you
don't believe me. But you will. Just for now, can't you pretend
that what I am telling you is the truth?"
Ranma was looking at the image of the girl with open
skepticism. It had occurred to him that this whole thing was just a
dream or nightmare, but all of his senses have been telling him that
this was real, ever since he woke up in the strange bedroom. It
also occurred to him that one of his old enemies had captured him
and were doing this for some reason, maybe Saffron. But nobody he
knew was able to do the things he had seen. He decided to play
along with what this imposter was saying, at least until he found a
way to escape. "OK, so you grabbed me and ran away from these Zerg
things. Then what? And why do you look like me? *lets see them
answer that one!* What's your name anyways?"
The image took on a vastly relieved look. "As I said my people
have, or had, limited powers over our own bodies. When we found
you, a large number of us, mostly from the Scout class and the
Artist class, chose to alter our appearance to match your species.
I deliberately chose to look like you because you and I have a
special bond. You see, when Korus damaged your Psi powers, I was an
advisor standing nearby. After his attempt, and after we removed
what was left of him, I volunteered to try to replace what was taken
from you with some of my own power. What none of us took into
consideration was your incredible adaptive skills. As soon as I
started shoring up the hole with my energy, your mind melded
perfectly with mine and grabbed hold. I was unable to remove my
mind from yours. It got to the point that your mind started to
overwrite mine! If not for the fact that I had several brothers
there to help me, I may have lost my identity! As it was, I escaped
your mind with copies of many of your memories. I must admit, I do
not remember too much about what I was like before our 'adventure',
but I am told that I changed after I was rescued from your mind. I
became something of a rebel if the truth be known. Or, considering
the reputation my caste has, more of a rebel. I came away from that
incident a changed being. I also came to think of you as a Caste
Brother, someone whom I should watch over. You were given into my
care primarily, and I changed my name to Ranko to symbolize my new
position."
"Anyway, after my Caste Brothers and I escaped the Zerg, we
fled in all directions. I was given the task to keep you as far
away from the Zerg as possible, for if they should happen to absorb
somebody with your potential, then the entire universe would be in
danger. None could stand against them. So I fled to the other side
of this galaxy, my small Scout ship not being powerful enough to
travel to a different one. Ironically, my path led me back through
the same systems my people had fled. The Protoss systems. I had
traveled so fast and so recklessly that my ship developed fatal
problems. I was forced to land on an uninhabited planet near the
Protoss empire. Seeking cover, I found a huge mountain range and
landed there. After a few months work, I was able to build an
adequate home within the highest mountain of the range. I
cannibalized my ship and moved as much as I could into our new home,
then I destroyed what was left. For better or worse, we were stuck
here."
"I made sure that you were safe, that the shielding was
operative, and that my computers were working properly, and then I
joined you in a hibernating sleep. Eons passed while we slept. And
then I was awakened by my machines. Something was happening on the
planet. I was surprised to say the least when I found beings like
yourself landing not far from here. Humans. Up until then, we had
never seen another of your species. I also scanned nearby sectors
and was overwhelmed with what had happened to the Protoss. They had
somehow overcome their problems and were once again a thriving and
powerful species. Mindtapping with my computer, I sent my mind out
across the reaches of space, looking for my brethren. And I found
them, hiding and observing like I was. Spread across the galaxy.
And that was the policy we decided to take. We were going to hide,
never showing ourselves. We again became simple observers."
"Another thousand years passed and I watched the humans conquer
the planet, and then move on to other planets. For the last time I
watched a civilization grow. And I knew it was the last time for me
because of something that was headed our way. The Zerg. They had
been seen coming straight towards us, consuming all in their path,
becoming stronger."
"And then they were here. I found myself out of time and out
of options. My brothers could not come save us for they would stand
no chance against the Zerg swarm. And we could not let the Zerg
know that there were Xel'Naga still left in the galaxy. I quickly
created devices that would awaken you when the time was right, and I
set things up in my home to lead you to this chamber. You see, as I
have said, my Caste is strong with Psi. We see things differently
then a person with no Psi does. We live that way, it is our
lifestyle. It infuses everything we do. My chambers could only be
accessed by a Psi-active being. And from previous scans, I knew
that you would not be able to even see the access ports for my
chambers without help. And so I set a series of steps that would
lead you down the path of regaining your Psi abilities. My mosaics
would be able to be seen by somebody with very low Psi abilities.
Your subconscience would automatically start probing your
surroundings as you became more aware of yourself. This would be
enough. The images on my walls themselves are partially made up of
Psi imprints. The longer you look at them, the more your mind will
react to them. Becoming stronger, more Psi active. Hopefully you
will eventually be able to see the spiral I impressed into the
floor. This spiral is perhaps the most important part to the
process of reawakening your potential and, perhaps just as important
to you, your memories. As you followed the spiral, thousands of
tiny Khaydarin crystals were probing and infusing your mind with
their power. As long as you kept moving, this continued. When you
stopped at the center, the power had nowhere to go and no source to
contain it. And so it dissipated from your mind. This sudden loss
would have been a little overwhelming, like the loss of an arm or
leg. I daresay that you would lose conscience. When this happens,
your mind should become fully aware of the parts of your mind that
are no longer working, and it should start repairing them."
"And everything worked! It had to have, if you are standing
here listening to me. You are awake, and on the road to recovery.
I just wish I was there to see it." The girl, named Ranko, looked
wistful as she spoke this last sentence.
Ranma was not sure what to make of the girl. He did not
believe her story, but he could not deny that -she- certainly
thought it was true. Nobody was that good of a liar. "What do you
mean, you wish you were here? You are here! Where do you think you
are?"
Ranko looked sadly back at Ranma. "I told you. I am just a
memory. A Psi-imprint of the original Ranko's mind. You see, some
distance from here, there is a large force of Zerg headed this way.
They seem to be searching for something, so they obviously have
discovered our existence. It was Ranko's thought that if the Zerg
actually saw us die, they would think there was nothing else to find
and they would leave. That would allow you the time you need to
fully awaken. We had to move fast. First he imprinted his mind
into our computers and created me, to guide you and explain things.
Then he programmed your stasis bed to begin the thawing process.
His death would be the trigger for the process to begin. It seemed
poetic for it to be that way, but now I see it was just dumb. And
then he left to fight the Zerg, and to die."
Ranko's eyes caught Ranma's and pinned him with sudden
intensity. "Ranma, listen to me. You are going to find out that
what I have told you is the truth. And when you do, keep this in
mind. If the Zerg catch you, if they bring you into the Swarm, they
will become unstoppable. They are nearly to that point now. You
have to leave this cave and find a life-path to follow. When you
do, stamp three times with all your might on the floor in the center
of the room. You will then have five minutes to leave before this
cave destroys itself."
The determination in her eyes grew stronger and her chin set
firmly. She was also beginning to speak quicker, her words almost
stumbling over themselves. "I have told you everything I can. Even
now I can feel the stored Psi energy that is my source begin to wear
down. Remember these three things: First, the Zerg -can- be killed.
They are strong, but not eternal. Second, do not give up hope. The
levels of your powers are seriously depleted due to your long sleep
and the damage to your mind. But they will return to you gradually.
And third, my Caste brothers are going to be watching. They cannot
do much while the Overmind controls the Zerg, but if they see a way
to help you, they will try to do so."
"Goodbye Ranma. For 35 million years I have been watching over
you. I want you to know that you were not alone while you slept."
Ranko was looking down at the ground, and Ranma hear regret in her
voice. The she looked up. "One more thing Ranma," she said giving
him the thumbs-up, "go kick some ass!" And the she evaporated like
smoke. The room soon followed her example, and Ranma found himself
back in the little niche with the way open into the cave.
As Ranma slowly stepped back into the main room of the cave, he
thought about what he had just gone through.
"That was a -colossal-," Ranma said to himself, his eyes wide
and mind whirling, "waste of time! Huge!" *Did she really think I
would believe that crap? Space aliens. Ha! Frozen. Ha! 35
MILLION years!! Yeah, right! I'm gonna go find Cologne and get her
to take back whatever she did to my memories!*
He looked around and decided that the only thing left for him
to do is to try the last dot of light on the far side of the wall.
*Still, SHE seemed to believe it. And I don't know how she
managed that disappearing trick at the end. Maybe she's ninja? But
she did look like me.* Ranma's mind was mostly still on the strange
encounter he had just experienced, but he did have presence of mind
enough to activate the last door. *Now this is more like it!* On
the other side of the door was a dark tunnel, rough hewn from the
same type of rock that was in the cave. He walked down the cave
perhaps twenty feet when the darkness swallowed what little light
flowed into it from the cave behind him. *No problem,* he thought
as he summoned his battle aura to act as a light. Or he tried to
summon anyway. For some reason he could not muster even the
slightest of glows. "What the hell...?" he muttered, shocked. He
had been able to create a battle aura since he was a kid.
"So! Think it will make it easier for you if you cut off my
Chi, eh? Well, it ain't gonna work!" Ranma felt better after
yelling this. He started making his way down the tunnel, carefully
probing with his hands and feet so he won't step into a trap. "I'm
gonna find ya, then I'm gonna kick your ass, and I don't need my Chi
to do it!" Ranma blindly followed the cave around a corner and
noticed an exit leading to a dimly lit sky not too far ahead. "Ha!
Made it!" He continued speaking to his kidnappers, all of whom he
knew were sweating now that he found the way out. "I have to admit
though, I just can't figure out why you would think I was dumb
enough to listen...to...all...that...crap?" When Ranma reached the end of
the tunnel, he found himself standing on a high precipice
overlooking a mountain range. Except for a thin path that wound
down one side and around the corner, it was pretty much a straight
drop down several thousand feet. A huge sun was just starting to
rise in front of him, and he could make out huge tendrils of
billowing smoke wafting from just over the horizon.
"......" he said.
*......* he thought.
Ranma Saotome had seen many strange things in his life, some of
which he still remembered. He was still convinced that he was
somewhere on Earth. And then a giant creature flew overhead, coming
over the mountain top behind him, flying over him, and heading for
the plumes of smoke in the distance. The creature was a combination
of gray with blue markings. It was squat, wider than it was long,
and had eight long legs sprouting from its sides and pointing
straight out. It actually looked like a really huge jumping spider.
A really huge jumping spider that could fly.
Seeing this one creature, something that he was absolutely
certain did not belong on Earth, caused his mind to accept one
horrible fact. A realization that was so dreadful in its meaning
that he clenched his hands in anger and growled deep in his throat.
The Earth was being invaded. They captured him so that they would
have no obstacle in their conquest.
*No wait,* his mind thought, *lets think about this.*
This time he got it right. Realization that everything that
Ranko had told him was true flooded his mind. He had been asleep
for millions of years. He was on another planet. Akane, Ucchan,
Shampoo, his home, his friends, his Pop, his mother...they were all
dead. Dead. All of them. When you take into consideration what
Ranma had gone through in the past few hours, it is not too
surprising that Ranma did what he did. He fainted.
A little while later he woke up and stood again, taking in the
sight that had not changed much. Deciding that he really did not
want to think about it, Ranma shoved all his problems into the back
of his mind and started to make his way down the curving path. For
a long time he was running down, his mind numb and movements
automatic. At last the path widened a bit and the air was
noticeably thicker than it had been up in the cave. Now traveling
at considerable speed, Ranma rounded a corner and literally crashed
into a creature that had been traveling just as fast the other
direction. Picking himself up off of the ground, he shook his head
to clear it a bit; an action the creature did as well. When Ranma
finally got a good look at what it was he ran into, he found himself
face to face with a Zergling.
The Zergling for the most part wasted no more time. It
immediately struck out with its two forearms at the human that it
had found. Fast enough so that the arms blurred, the natural twin
blades that comprised the Zergling's forearms launched towards the
still slightly woozy Ranma.
However woozy Ranma may have been, he was never one to get
himself killed. Just as fast as the creature struck forward with
its two forearms, Ranma leapt backwards, performed a single twist in
the air, and landed on his feet six meters away. The Zergling,
expecting to be looking at the human's disemboweled corpse, stood
still while it adjusted. This gave Ranma enough time to look over
the monster he had run into.
"Damn that's a big dog!" he said out loud, though it was
painfully obvious that he was not facing a canine. *Is that a Zerg?
Ranko said they were here. I wonder if...* His thought was
interrupted by the Zergling's next attack.
The Zergling's limited mind was working overtime. The human
was obviously going to be tougher to kill than the others it had
hunted with its brothers. It was alone for it was assumed that one
Zergling would be enough to destroy the human spotted by the
Guardian, and it was currently out of range of an Overlord to relay
any sort of information. In the end, the Zergling decided to follow
its instincts. Leaping forward with it powerful hind legs, it swung
its forearms out again, trying to impale the weak creature before
it.
Ranma backed up quickly as the Zergling continued to swing and
lunge with its sword-like arms, eventually leaping over the creature
and landing further down the sloping trail. The Zerg, of course,
immediately spun around and leapt once again at the human that was
causing it so much trouble. This time, however, Ranma did not back
away. Instead he slid under the Zergling as it was still in the
air, and kicked the creature in it's belly with both legs. The Zerg
went flying down the wide path, to land heavily on it's back.
The carapace of the alien was tough enough that it was
uninjured by the landing, but it was a bit disoriented as it righted
itself and looked up. Right into Ranma's frowning face. Then the
world spun a bit as some sort of great weight crashed into it's
head.
"Hey Fido," Ranma said after finishing his spinning kick, "you
are exactly what I need right now." And he proceeded to take out a
day's worth of frustration, anger, worry, fear, and confusion on the
murderous beast. "I...want...to...show...you...something." he ground out
through clenched teeth, punctuating each word with a punch or a
kick. He then backflipped a few meters, drew in his confidence, and
shouted out "Mouko Takabisha!"
Nothing happened.
The Zerg, more than a bit dizzy and in pain from the incredibly
hard hits it had just taken, watched in total confusion as the human
it had been hunting stood up the slope, holding its forearms out,
and standing still. Was something supposed to happen? The Zergling
slowly stood up from where it had collapsed, and started to flee
down the path as quick as possible..
Ranma was silently cursing himself. *Damn, I forgot! When
Ranko said my Chi was low, she wasn't kidding!* He came out of his
daze just in time to see the Zergling turn to corner of the trail
quite some distance off. Sprinting, he was able to turn that same
corner just a minute after the creature had.
But there was no sign of the Zergling. The mountain was a
large one, and Ranma was about halfway down, meaning the path was
long and only slightly curving. This side's length could be seen
for quite some distance. The Zergling had obviously been hurt, and,
while fast, did not seem fast enough to turn the corner at the far
end of the path in the short time it had been out of sight.
*Damn, he's getting away!* Ranma ran even faster down the
trail. Completely missing the very tiny hole that did not belong in
the ground.
He ran down the trail and around the corner a couple of times
before stopping, slightly out of breath. Calming himself, and
regulating his breathing, he listened very carefully, trying to hear
something that would point the way to his enemy. He could hear
nothing. *Shit!*
Looking around he tried to get his bearings. He was closer to
the bottom than the top, but he still had quite some distance to
cover before he hit the ground. The part of the mountain that he
was on now was almost totally devoid of plant life, except for the
occasional scraggly bush. He had a clear view of the other
mountains and he could see down to the valley at the base. As a
matter of fact, if he walked over to the side, like this, and he
looked down, like this, he should be able to see the next stretch of
trail below him...
*Waitaminute, what's that?*
Ranma could indeed see the next stretch of trail quite some
distance below him. However, it was not uninhabited. He could see
the back of some large creature. Taking in his distance from the
creature, and how far above it he was, he figured it to be around
ten feet tall. He could not see much of it, but he could just make
out two arms, and a long tail that grew into a snake-like body that
resembled an upright S. The creature did not move, except for it's
head slowly swaying back and forth, it just kept looking down the
trail. *He's waiting for something!* Ranma realized. *Its gotta
be a Zerg. But what's it waitin' for? It doesn't look like the
other one. If its here for me, it should be facing this way.*
Figuring he could just keep walking down the path the way he
was now and still surprise the Zerg from behind, Ranma continued
down the trail; periodically looking over the side to make sure the
Zerg had not turned around nor moved. However, as he reached a
position right above the Zerg, a sudden abundance of thick bushes
obscured his view, so he could not see it from the top nor front.
When he finally moved past the obstructions, he discovered that the
trail below him had taken a steep downward turn and was much further
away. He could, however, make out a small figure slowly making its
way up the steep trail. Squinting and concentrating, he could make
out what appeared to be a person climbing the path, using a walking
stick to prop himself up.
*uh, oh!* he thought as he watched the person climb ever
closer to the more level part of the path. The speed of the
person's movements and the reliance on the walking stick told Ranma
that the person was either old, or physically frail. In other
words, the person had no chance against the Zerg that was now
obviously waiting in ambush. "WATch..." Ranma suddenly stopped his
shout. Any noise he made that could be heard by the person, would
also be heard by the Zerg. He had to stop the Zerg before the
person reached it, there was no other way he could see. And he
would have to do it fast, the person was nearing the top of the
incline.
Running back the way he had come, he passed the open area where
he first saw the Zerg. Moving even further up the trail, he looked
for a way down the side, but found none that even he could navigate.
It seemed this part of the mountain was fairly vertical. Realizing
that he was about out of time, and he did not have enough of it to
simply run down the trail and around the mountain, he decided to do
it anyway.
Walking down the trail he found a side that was more navigable
and looked down. He was at just about the exact spot he had been
when he first saw the creature far below. Looking down now, he
could see the Zerg make its way down the trail, obviously having
seen the traveler. He was out of time.
Taking a breath and calming himself, he leapt out into the air.
Landing on a large protruding rock, he jumped again, this time to a
very thin tree growing from the rockside. Twisting, turning,
jumping, and falling; he quickly made his way down the side of the
mountain, finally landing on his hands on the trail. With a
flourish, he pushed himself in the air with his arms righted himself
and looked around. Grimacing, he then ran flat out down the path.
Turning a minor corner of the trail, he arrived just in time to
see the Zerg use its forearms to swat the traveler aside and into
the mountain wall. The creature was standing in profile to Ranma,
but turned his way when the person was thrown. Not really taking
time to study the creature, Ranma ran even faster and jumped into a
flying kick.
"Kiiiiyaaaa!" he shouted as he flew through the air. The beast
was just able to raise its head a bit and see him coming when his
kick connected with the Zerg's chest area. The force of the blow,
increased by the speed Ranma had been running at, was enough to send
the Zerg flying back ten or fifteen feet and onto its back.
Ranma landed heavily after the kick. The creature was much
more dense then he had guessed, and now his legs felt like he had
run into the side of a battleship. Barely he was able to stay
standing, but his legs felt very weak and shook slightly. Bending
over with his hands on his knees, he looked at the creature, while
taking darting glances at the person he had just rescued.
*It's a girl! Man, she's out of it!* The girl that lay on the
ground was obviously either dead or knocked out. The slight groan
she had made as he passed over her suggested that she was not yet
dead. But to tell the truth, Ranma had other things on his mind
than to wonder how she was doing.
The Hydralisk shook itself a bit as it righted itself. In its
whole existence it had never been hit that hard before. The
Hydralisk was a more sophisticated Zerg than the simple Zergling
that Ranma had fought earlier. It has a mind capable of thought and
had lots of animal cunning. Right now it was excited. It had not been
allowed to join the invasion of the human capital. Instead it had
been sent into the less populated reaches of the area to hunt down
any humans that might have escaped or were living on farms. Then it
had been called away from that easy task to hunt down the human that
the Overmind wanted captured. Both tasks were easy and had no
challenge to them. The human was unconscious nearby and the few
humans it had found had to be cajoled into putting up a decent fight
at all. Though it had to admit the humans made wonderful screaming
noises when punctured hundreds of times with it's needles.
Especially the smallest humans. Shoot a couple of those and the
rest would cry out and begin to fight back. Still, they were no
challenge. But now, here was a human that might possibly be worth
fighting. The Hydralisk wondered what this human would sound like
when it screamed.
Ranma for the most part was keeping a wary eye of the creature
before him. He was a little unnerved at the sheer size of the Zerg,
and his legs were only now starting to regain some feeling. Sizing
up the creature, from its spike-studded tail, to its armor-plated
head, he had to admit it was perhaps the scariest thing he had ever
seen. *Still,* he thought idly, *its better looking than
Pantyhose.*
The Hydralisk, having felt the damage Ranma could do up close,
decided to use its primary weapon.
Ranma stood up straight and watched the Zerg warily as the
creature rose to its full height. It then brought its head down a
bit, presenting the strange apex of its armor just behind its head.
For the first time, Ranma saw hundreds of tiny needles projecting
from the Zerg's top carapace and neck. These needles were pointing
in all directions, or at least they were. He had maybe a second to
ponder things, turn pale, and start jumping around as a great deal
of the needles suddenly oriented on him and fired.
Ranma was in pain, a bit shook up, and starting to get
physically tired. Despite all of this he forced himself to move
faster than he had in a long time to try to avoid or catch the long,
straight needles flying towards him. He succeeded for maybe half
the needles.
Ranma flew back and to the side, twisting in midair, as several
of the tiny missiles punched into him with armor piercing force.
Grunting in pain, he slowly got to his hands and knees and took
inventory. His right arm had been hit a couple of times, the blood
already beginning to soak his shirt, as well as his right shoulder,
a huge cut along his abdomen, and once in his right leg. *Damn that
hurts!* he thought, *But pain is good, means I'm not in shock.
Which means this bastard is going down!*
The Hydralisk was impressed and more than a little happy. The
other humans had been killed by this time. This one was still
alive! More opportunities for games! It watched the human slowly
get back onto its feet and realized that it had not heard the weak
human scream. It decided to see what it would take. It oriented a
single needle and fired.
Ranma gasped in pain again as a hole appeared in his left hand.
Clenching his teeth and grimacing, he kept his head down trying to
deal with this sudden new pain, glaring at his tormentor through his
eyebrows. Now Ranma was pissed.
"C'mon, is that the best you can do? I know a tomboy that
could hit harder! You can't fight! You're nothing! Nothing!"
Ranma was ready now, his anger overriding the pain that had flooded
his brain just moments before.
The Hydralisk was having fun. Not only was the weak creature
in front of it still alive, but it was also showing aggression. All
the better! It would take some skill to make this one scream, and
the Zerg was feeling up to the task. It oriented another needle and
fired. Only to watch in shock as the weak human snatched the
speeding needle from the air just before it impacted on his left
knee. Another needle, another snatch, this time from just in front
of it's left shoulder. Ok then, two needles. One grabbed from the
air, the other knocked off course by the injured hand. The
Hydralisk stopped and stood studying the human in front of it,
starting to get the impression that maybe in was in more danger than
it had previously thought. After a moments hesitation, it decided
to end its sport, kill the standing human, and take its original
prey back to the Swarm as the Overmind had commanded. Flaring most
of it remaining needles, and the few that had regenerated from its
previous shots, it prepared to turn Ranma into a pincushion, when
Ranma spoke up, distracting it.
"You think you're hot stuff? Because you can shoot things?
You like shooting things from far away, eh? Well, I'm not to bad at
that either. Try This!" With that Ranma started throwing the rocks
he had picked up while the Zerg hesitated. After the first salvo,
he kneeled on the ground and started to throw every rock and stone
he could reach with both his hands. Ignoring the pain, he threw as
hard as he could, shuffling forward to reach more of the plentiful
rocks on the ground.
The Zerg hurt. It had never felt pain itself before and was
stunned that this human was able to cause it. At first it had
wanted to chuckle when it saw the human start to throw pieces of
ground at it, but that only lasted until the third or fourth rock
had hit. And the pain had begun. At first the rocks merely bounced
off its though hide and carapace, but after a few hits, dents began
to appear. And then cracks and holes. Soon it was peppered with
dozens of small holes which were bleeding profusely. A few places
deep inside it body had curious aches and pains. It needed to get
away, to burrow itself safely and heal. It began to turn away when
suddenly half of its eyesight disappeared in a hot red flash, and
its mind became scrambled. With a high pitched scream, it fell over
onto its side, gave a shuddering sigh, and died.
Ranma himself collapsed as well. Deciding that the path made
for a comfortable bed, he took a quick nap.
Sometime later, he woke up. It must not have been too long
since he had passed out, as the sun had barely moved in the sky.
Sitting up with his legs stretched in front of him, he checked his
wounds. As far as he could tell, each of the injures were clean
holes, in one side and out the other. That was good, since he had
no idea how he would have taken a needle out had it still been in.
Funny thing though, the bleeding had stopped and the holes were a
bit smaller than he would have thought. He had always been a fast
healer, and as his skills in the Art grew, he began to heal faster
as his body toughened and matured. But he could not remember having
healed this fast before. Shrugging it off, he proceeded to slowly
get to his feet, grunting with pain with every movement. Looking at
the corpse of the Zerg he had killed, an exhilarating thought
crossed his mind.
"Ranma Saotome! The best damn Martial Artist on TWO worlds!"
His shout echoed across the mountains, followed quickly by his
delighted laugh. *Even the ole Pervert can't say that!* Then he
remembered something that caused him to feel very tired. *Or I
guess I should say -couldn't- say that.* The memory that everybody
he knew was dead started to weigh once again on his mind, before he
pushed it back. Looking around, he remembered the reason he fought
the Zerg.
Limping over to the fallen figure of the woman he had rescued,
he could see her body move with regular breathing. Heartened by
this sign of life, he turned her over from the crumpled position she
was in.
She looked in a bad way. If he was any judge, and having lived
much of his life on the road, he was, she was exhausted. Minor cuts
and bruises lined her face, and her red hair was matted and dirty.
Her green and white, form-hugging outfit was caked with dirt and
ash. Nearby, what he had originally thought was a walking stick
turned out to be a really huge and intimidating rifle of some sort.
He tried several ways to wake her up, from poking her in the side,
to shaking her face (careful not to grab any cuts), and even
shouting at her.
Looking around, he could see only one thing he could do. If
the Zerg were roaming around looking for him, and the woman was in
no condition to protect herself, he had to hide her someplace. *Not
that I can't take on anything that shows up,* he thought defiantly
to himself, *but a Martial Artist cannot allow a defenseless person
to be placed in danger.* Unfortunately there was only one place he
knew of that was even slightly safe and defendable. With a 'Why
Me!' look on his face, he looked back up the huge mountain to the
very top, where he had started out.
Grabbing the gun to use as a crutch, he gingerly grabbed the
back of the woman's suit and started to drag her the long distance
to the top. This was going to take a loooooooong time.
On one of his frequent stops, he looked down at the still
unconscious woman. "You better not be looking to get married!"
And he continued upwards and onwards.
Again, he never noticed the small air hole that had formed on
the ground. This one was further down the trail than the previous
one had been. He did notice the strangely disturbed patch of ground
where the last air hole had been though. But at that time his muscles
were screaming at him, his legs were about to collapse, and his
wounds had partially reopened, so he had other things on his mind.
More Notes!
A few points that may answer some question you might have:
1) Why did the Xel'Naga do the things they did, in the order
they did them in? Why did they act that way? We have to
keep in mind that the Xel'Naga are aliens and do things
differently then you or I would do them. That is why they
explored there entire planet before even thinking about
traveling the stars. That is also why they packed up their
entire race and moved to another galaxy without leaving some
behind on their home planet.
2) Body, Spirit, Mind. These are the three powers of life.
The power of the Spirit is called Chi, and the power of the
Mind is called Psi. The Protoss are weak in Body, average
in Chi (with potential), and high in Psi. Humans are
average in Body, average in Chi (with potential), and
average in Psi (becoming stronger). The Zerg are high in
Body, average-high in Chi (applied only in forcing
evolution), and weak in Psi. The Zerg are looking to
increase their powers of the Mind, so they could fight the
Protoss and absorb them into the Swarm. Ranma is very high
in all categories, but with his current memory problems and
depletion he is high in Body (he does not know this), weak
in Chi, and weak in Psi. His Chi should be coming back to
him quickly, with Psi coming more slowly. At least, this is
how it is right now. I may change these levels as I go.
3) What would have happened if Ranma had tried to open the door
to the outside first? He would have burned his hand. It
could only be opened when the Ranko hologram had finished
running.
4) Hmmmm, I know there were other places that might cause
questions or require explanations, but to tell the truth I
cannot think of them right now. Write me with any
questions!
C&C is always welcomed, even for old chapters. I happily
accept simple notes saying that you love the story, eagerly
read notes that give constructive negative comments, but I ignore
flames totally.