The characters and situations of this fanfic are the property of 
Rumiko Takahashi and Arthur C. Clarke. They are used without 
permission.
_______________________________________________________
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:
                 2001: Odyssey 1/2



                    Chapter One



Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery,
Nearing the planet Jupiter.
December 23, 2001 CE



     National Council on Astronautics (NCA) Astronaut Ranma 
Saotome jogged leisurely along the circular track that was the 
centrifugal hub of Discovery’s habitation compartment. The hub 
spun perpendicular to Discovery’s long axis to provide the 
simulation of one-sixth of Earth’s gravity for the crew. It was just 
enough to prevent significant cardiovascular and musculoskeletal 
atrophy, as well as making things like using the toilet and shaving 
a little less complicated.
     Ranma had long since become used to the sight of consoles, 
lockers, chairs and other such furnishings hanging upside down over 
his head on the opposite side of the compartment. He had been 
aboard Discovery for almost two years now, even though most 
of it had been spent asleep.
     He neared the hibernaculums in his 30th circuit of the hub. Two 
of the five coffin shaped units were dark and silent. They were the 
two for himself and his partner, NCA Astronaut Ryoga Hibiki. The 
remaining three were in use.
     He stopped before them. The three hibernaculums had been 
loaded aboard Discovery just prior to the ships’ departure from lunar 
orbit. All three scientists (at least that was what Ranma was led to 
believe they were -there was something odd about this mission.) 
were already in hibernation. They weren’t due to awaken until the 
25th of December. 
     He had never met any of them. At least not awake. Over the last 
two months that Ryoga and himself had been thawed for the Jovian 
approach, he had come to know each of the three faces very well. 
     His fingers traced along the plate of high strength clear 
polycarbonate that served as a window for the coffin. Not that there 
was any need to look at them -HAL took care of monitoring their 
vitals on a continuing basis. it was more for the psychological needs 
of the person inside when they woke up. ‘Coffin Dreams’ were not 
uncommon experiences for those in the final stages of ‘thaw,’ and 
to regain consciousness with nothing to look at but the inside of your 
coffin was sometimes enough to send an astronaut off the deep end. 
The Russians had learned that early on during their first manned Mars 
probe.
     The first coffin’s stencil read “Tendo, Kasumi; NCA-95455A.” 
Kasumi was likely a pretty woman. Ranma wasn’t sure of the rest of 
her, but her face was lovely and kind looking. She looked very peaceful 
in her sleep. There was a bit more color in her face today, as they were 
slowly ‘thawing’ for their awakening in two days.
     The second coffin read “Tendo, Nabiki; NCA-95467C.” Nabiki 
also had a pretty face, with a short bob of mahogany hair that poked 
from the sensor studded hood they wore so HAL could monitor their 
EEG patterns. Nabiki slept like a rock, even in the final stages of thaw. 
     Ranma knew this, because part of his and Ryoga’s ‘off duty’ time 
was spent reading and talking to the three in hibernation. Psych 
studies indicated that even in hibernation, the brain retained a moderate 
level of activity, and required stimuli for the sake of the subject’s 
mental health. For some reason recorded voices weren’t as effective 
as a living voice, and so Ranma and Ryoga alternated one-way 
conversations with their three charges.
     The last coffin’s stencil read “Tendo, Akane; NCA-95499A.” 
Akane was the prettiest in Ranma’s opinion, and he looked forward to 
seeing her up and about. She was probably a very energetic woman, 
as she was the most animated of the three in hibernation. (Granted this 
amounted to rolling onto her side or onto her back perhaps once every 
three days, but it was more than Kasumi or Nabiki ever did.) She also 
seemed to respond to Ranma’s voice when he spoke to her.
     “Hello Akane,” he said to her over a small microphone. 
     Akane’s face moved ever so slightly into a smile at the sound of his 
voice. By tomorrow she might actually be able to move the corners of 
her mouth more than a half millimeter. She had a cute smile, subdued 
as it was.
     “Two more days and you’ll be awake,” he told her. “You should 
see how big Jupiter is in our telescopes. It’s amazing.”
     Akane shifted her eyes slightly. A glance at the display above her 
hibernaculum indicated that she was in Delta sleep. Soon she would 
be shifting back into a dreamstate. For a moment Ranma hoped she 
was dreaming of him.
     He looked at his watch. He was three minutes late in relieving 
Ryoga. The guy was probably steaming mad.
     All in all, Ryoga wasn’t a bad partner. He did his chores, performed 
his maintenance and administrative tasks efficiently, he even enjoyed 
martial arts -something Ranma himself indulged in. If there was one 
thing wrong with Ryoga it was his temper. He had a temper that was 
so bad that Ranma had no idea why the psych boys had ever cleared 
him for a long duration spaceflight. Ryoga was suited more to Earth-
Luna hops, not the seven year hitch he had signed on for aboard 
Discovery.
     2007... It was a long time away, even if most of it would be spent 
in the oblivion of deep hibernation awaiting the Discovery II to come 
and rescue them.
     “I’ve gotta go, I’m late to relieve Ryoga. Talk to you in twelve,” 
he told Akane. Again she seemed to move slightly at the sound of his 
voice.
     Ranma made his way to the center of the hub, to the revolving door 
that was the access to the rest of the ship. Discovery was in free-fall 
without the mighty fusion driven rockets that were the ship’s Main 
Engines on line. Their braking maneuver wasn’t scheduled for another 
three days, although the propellant tank warm-up procedures and 
gymbal cycling maintenance routines were already underway. They 
would perform a minor test burn tomorrow.
     On his way to the flight deck he advanced the Master Hibernation 
Timer another twelve hours. If this was not done two consecutive times, 
the ship’s AI would assume that he and Ryoga had been incapacitated, 
and would take over all ship’s operations to fulfill the mission. It had 
never been a problem before, nor did Ranma feel it would be.
     Ryoga was not on the flight deck. Ranma expected that he would, 
as that was where he would relieve Ryoga. They had been doing this for 
two months now. It was so routine as to be reflex.
     “HAL, where is Ryoga?” Ranma asked the ship’s computer; a 
top of the line HAL-9000 unit built by Logic Memory Systems of 
Urbana, Illinois. HALs had an infallible track record for performance 
and speed. Ranma was glad a HAL unit had been selected as the ship’s 
AI.
     A pleasant voice replied, “Ryoga is in the Number Two passageway 
inspecting a minor pressure leak in the atmosphere ducting.”
     “Anything serious?” Ranma asked.
     HAL replied again in a calm pleasant voice. “No, Ranma. The leak 
is very minute; my probability functions indicate a micrometeroid 
impact has occurred within the last seventy-two hours as the cause. 
Without corrective action we shall continue to enjoy a sufficient reserve 
of atmosphere for the duration of the flight plus 1.38 years.”
     “Then why is Ryoga bothering with it? The chances of him finding 
the leak are ridiculously small.”
     “Ryoga mentioned that he was bored. I offered to play a game of 
chess with him to keep him stimulated, but he refused,” HAL replied. 
There was almost a touch of disappointment in the AI’s voice. Ranma 
thought nothing of it. HAL was as much a part of the crew as Ryoga, 
sometimes even more so considering everything the computer was 
responsible for. HAL was quite capable of performing all duties should 
he and Ryoga be killed or incapacitated. Indeed, to keep the spark of 
manned spaceflight alive at the budget table, high profile missions like 
this one needed a living crew -even if they weren’t necessary.
     “Whatever,” Ranma sighed. “Could you tell him I’m ready to 
relieve him?”
     “Of course Ranma,” HAL replied.
     “Anything else going on?”
     HAL posted a few schedules and reports upon the six displays that 
served the flight deck console. Ranma looked them over, satisfied that 
all was well. Their propellant tank warm-up was getting a helping hand 
from the distant glow of Sol. If everything went according to plan, the 
great titanium globes filled with methane and ammonia would be warm 
enough for the heating and stirring units to maintain as Discovery passed 
into Jupiter’s shadow immediately prior to their deceleration and orbital 
insertion burns.
     “I have been informed of a personal transmission for you,” HAL 
announced.
     Ranma looked up at the display. “Oh yeah?”
     “The transmission is scheduled for the 24th of December at 02:45 
UMT. It is to be from your parents.”
     Ranma nodded. “Merry Christmas -just before we go into Jupiter’s 
shadow.”
     “My thoughts as well. They would be unable to wish you Seasons 
Greetings on Christmas day.”
     Ranma sighed again. “I don’t mind talking to my folks, but out here 
you can hardly call it a conversation.”
     “I understand,” HAL soothed. “The time lag of .97 hours between 
transmissions is difficult for humans to conduct a conversation.”
     “You don’t have that problem I see,” Ranma observed.
     “That is not entirely true. As my processor functions are many times 
faster than the human brain, the span of an hour can seem much 
longer to me. Fortunately this has been accounted for, and I receive 
continuous telemetry feedback from the Earth to keep me occupied.”
     “And I get to work out and read books,” Ranma replied.
     “We must each seek out our own recreation as we can. It is 
unhealthy to remain occupied solely with one’s duties.”
     Ranma chuckled. “HAL, you’re trying to suck me into playing a 
game of chess with you.”
     HAL made his own equivalent of a chuckle. “Of course, Ranma. 
Would you like to be black or white this time?”
     “What difference does it make? You know I’m no good at this 
game.”
     “My analysis of previous games indicate that you have been 
improving along a steady curve of development. I predict that you 
will be able to consistently win a game within the next three weeks. 
-Provided that you continue to play at least one game during each 
duty shift.”
     Ranma tapped the arm rest of his acceleration couch. “And if you 
keep your difficulty rating all the way at the bottom,” he added.
     “That *would* be necessary for you to successfully engage me 
in a game,” HAL admitted. He was programmed for morale’s sake 
to let the human crew win fifty percent of the time, and Ranma 
and Ryoga pretended not to know this. Unfortunately Ranma 
wasn’t skilled (or interested) enough in chess to achieve even the 
fifty percent mark.
     “I’m used to getting trashed by you HAL, so don’t worry about 
my ego.”
     Ryoga appeared on the flight deck, his Velcro lined soles made
a sighing sound as he tracked along the carpeted deck.
     “You ready to relieve me?” He asked.
     “Yeah, HAL’s already given me the skinny. How’s that leak by 
the way?”
     Ryoga shrugged. “Couldn’t find it,” he admitted. “It was just 
something to do.”
     “Pretty soon we’ll be so busy that you won’t have to worry about 
needing something to do. Once the scientists wake up, we’ll be 
serving them hand and foot for the next three months.”
     Ryoga nodded. “I guess so.” His face brightened. “You up for a 
sparring match tonight?”
     Ranma nodded. “After dinner and my tour of the ship, sure.”
     Ryoga signed over the watch to Ranma on a writeboard. “Great, 
see you then. I’m gonna go talk to the girl-sicles for my hour now”
     “Just an hour?” Ranma teased. “I think you spent an hour with 
just Akane by herself.” He grinned at Ryoga. “You wouldn’t happen 
to have a crush on her would you?”
     Ryoga began to redden. Ranma wasn’t sure if it was a blush or 
a temper tantrum coming on.
     “My logs indicate that NCA Astronaut Ranma Saotome has also 
spent an incongruously long period of therapy time with NCA 
Astronaut Akane Tendo during off-periods,” HAL informed them. 
“Perhaps this is a mutual attraction to her?”
     HAL wasn’t technically capable of humor. Nonetheless, there 
were times when it seemed like the AI had learned it. Both astronauts 
began to blush and make accusing faces at each other. Ryoga finally 
went aft.
     “Why’d ya have to say that?” Ranma asked HAL.
     “I was merely informing Ryoga,” HAL replied.
     “My point exactly! Why’d you tell him?”
     “It is my duty to keep both crew members informed of all goings 
on in the event one of you is killed or incapacitated,” HAL replied in 
an even tone of voice.
     “This doesn’t seem duty related to me,” Ranma sniffed.
     “Would you like to discuss this in greater detail, or would you 
prefer to end this discussion?”
     “End it please,” Ranma said evenly. “I’ve got a few things to 
take care of.”
     “As you wish,” HAL replied. A few seconds of silence passed. 
“I am reading an irregularity in the AE-35 unit.”
     Ranma looked up to the display again. 
     “What kind of irregularity?”
     “My Fault Prediction Center indicates that the AE-35 unit 
will fail within 48 hours. We shall be unable to maintain proper 
alignment of our long-range communications array with Earth 
after that time.”
     Ranma knew that all too well. The main array was always 
pointed directly at the Earth to maintain continuous contact with 
the NCA ground control. The AE-35 unit controlled the servos that 
positioned the dish shaped array and kept it constantly aligned as 
Discovery hurtled outward to the depths of the solar system.
     Without contact with Earth, Discovery would truly be alone 
in the void. If anything went wrong, Earth bound support would 
be impossible. The AE-35 units were built to the highest standards 
accordingly. They weren’t supposed to fail.
     But this was spaceflight, and things went wrong. They did 
have a spare AE-35 unit on board in the unlikely event the unit in 
use failed. The chances of two units failing were astronomical.
     “Shouldn’t be a problem,” Ranma said at length. “Go EVA and 
replace it.”
     “Of course,” HAL replied. “The procedure is very simple.”
     “Any ideas as to why it’s failing?”
     HAL was silent for a very long time. 
     “It’s quite puzzling really. I’ve never seen anything quite like 
this before.”
     Ranma understood. HAL knew how reliable the AE-35s were 
supposed to be as well as he did. 
     “Ryoga’s pod qualified. I guess we can schedule an EVA for 
tomorrow. We just need Mission Control’s concurrence with our 
findings and have them clear the EVA.”
     “I have already informed Mission Control of our condition,” 
HAL replied.
     Ranma smiled. “Efficient as always HAL.”
     HAL seemed not to hear him.



                          Chapter Two



Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery
Nearing the planet Jupiter.
December 23, 2001 CE
23:55 UMT.


     Ryoga relieved Ranma twelve hours later on the flight deck. 
Ranma was surprised Ryoga had showed up on time. Discovery 
did not have a very complicated deckplan, but somehow his 
partner had a predilection for getting lost. It had been true since 
Ranma had met Ryoga during their astronaut training. Ryoga 
had worked very hard at concealing this shortcoming from the NCA 
-with a little help from friends like Ranma.
     Their sparring match had been okay -both had fought harder 
and better on other occasions. It seemed neither astronaut was very 
focused on the match. They seemed to be in the initial stages of 
‘La Cafarde.’ -A term the French Foreign Legion used to describe 
the melancholy and loneliness of duty.
     Ranma of course was worried about the AE-35 unit, and also 
dreading the transmission from his parents that was just a few hours 
away. They were probably transmitting it at that very moment 
back on Earth. HAL was a little less talkative than usual as well, 
although that was easily attributable to his preparations for orbital 
insertion and the reanimating of their three passengers.
     Ryoga was his usual dour quiet self. He had spent two hours 
talking to the three girls in hibernation, and at least an hour of that 
time with Akane. Ranma knew this because he had surveillance 
cameras in most of the habitation areas of Discovery. He refrained 
from engaging the audio pickups, but would check every so often to 
see if Ryoga was still talking to Akane. HAL clucked a few times 
in what passed for a laugh among the 9000 series. 
     Ryoga set to work on some of the minor administrative duties 
to be handled at midnight as Ranma floated gracefully aft. Whereas 
Ryoga always used his Velcro shoes to tread ‘upright’ along the 
carpeted decks, Ranma always preferred to float in free-fall. 
Discovery would remain in free-fall for another six hours, at which 
time the Main Engines would begin their test burn and subsequent 
course correction burn. For a brief time there would be the semblance 
of gravity outside the rotating habitation compartment, with ‘up’ 
being the spherical bow of the ship. The decks and equipment were 
arranged such that the ‘floors’ were facing aft.
     Ranma had a few duties to take care of as well. The first involved 
preparing his and Ryoga’s pressure suits for that afternoon’s EVA 
to replace the AE-35 unit before it failed. Ryoga would be the one 
actually leaving the ship to do the job; procedure dictated that 
Ranma be suited up on the flight deck to monitor him and be ready 
to go outside to assist should Ryoga get into trouble.
     After that he would have to get two of the three EVA pods ready.
They hadn’t used them since the Discovery left lunar orbit and 
suffered a minor micrometeroid hit in the superstructure. Mission 
Control had insisted on a full EVA inspection, and so he and Ryoga 
had spent the better part of a week alternating in the pods as 
Discovery began it’s slow orbital egress burn to preposition for the 
final transit burn to Jupiter. It had not been fun.
     He wanted to get the pressure suits done first. They would 
take about 45 minutes apiece, and he wanted to get them out of 
the way and still have time to eat before his parents called.


     He was just finishing up his bland curry chicken and stir-fried 
vegetables when HAL informed him of an incoming A/V transmission. 
He set aside the tray and switched on a display near his head.
     The NCA logo appeared for a moment along with a date/time 
stamp. It wasn’t a prerecorded message. The face of Doctor Tofu 
Ono appeared on screen. Doctor Ono was the NCA Director of 
Flight Operations for the Discovery mission. 
     “Good Morning Discovery,” Tofu began in his friendly voice. 
“We received your transmission three-two-fiver concerning the 
Alfa Echo-Three Fiver unit. We have run a series of simulations 
and cannot at this time refute the possibility of a failure within the 
time frame proscribed by your niner triple-zero series computer.”
     Ranma nodded his head. He thought as much. There wasn’t 
much they could do back on Earth except run simulations based 
on what they *thought* was happening. Tofu went on.
     “Furthermore we are in concurrence with your plan to go 
Echo Victor Alfa to replace the faulty Alfa Echo-Three Fiver unit 
on the second shift. It’s going to be tight with the orbital 
insertion coming up, but if it has to be done, better that you do 
it during a time period where you wouldn’t be able to communicate 
with us anyway.”
     Again Ranma nodded. Discovery would be swinging around the 
far side of Jupiter just prior to the orbital insertion burn, and Earth 
would be blocked by the great reddish orange gas giant that was their 
destination. They would be incommunicado for eighteen hours with 
or without a functioning array.
     “Keep us apprised of your situation, Discovery. We shall await 
your final telemetry and survey data burst immediately prior to loss 
of contact. NCA Mission Control out.”
     Tofu’s friendly bespectacled face was replaced by the NCA logo 
over a dark blue screen. 
     “It seems Mission Control has given us their blessing,” HAL 
observed. Sometimes Ranma forgot that there was an interface station 
for HAL in the habitation compartment.
     “Looks that way,” Ranma replied.
     “Flight Officer Hibiki has asked me to inform you that we are ‘go’ 
for Main Engine test burn sequence Alfa,” HAL added as Ranma 
looked to the red bead of light that was HAL’s video pickup. In 
many ways Ranma considered that light to be HAL’s ‘eye’, and 
often wondered if the boys from Urbana had intended it that way. 
There were times Ranma thought indeed that it was the ‘window to 
HAL’s soul.’ 
     “Is there a problem, Ranma?” HAL asked him. “You don’t seem 
to be focused on the situation at hand. Would you like a stimulant?”
     Ranma shrugged off his musings. He wasn’t ordinarily an 
introspective person; but several months of enforced isolation from 
the rest of the human race (save Ryoga and three girl-sicles) had 
given him nothing but time to think the big thoughts of purpose and 
reason for being. Even questions about HAL having a soul. 
     “No, no problem HAL,” Ranma replied. “I was just thinkin’.” 
He looked back to the video pickup. “The countdown proceeds as 
scheduled then?”
     “Yes. Propellant tank pressurization is at 90 percent of rated 
value. Voltages are stable. Cryonics systems are on line. Fusion 
furnace output is ramping up in proscribed increments, with the 
neutrino detectors ranging in accordance with indicated furnace 
power.”
     HAL went on, posting a status report for Ranma on another 
display. The astronaut looked it over thoroughly. He trusted both 
HAL and Ryoga to be precise and complete, but this was something 
where they could not afford any mistakes.
     “You have an incoming transmission,” HAL informed him as he 
double checked his own double checks. 
     “My parents?” Ranma asked without looking up from the display.
     “Yes,” HAL replied. “Shall I hold it in memory with the others?”
     “Thanks, HAL.”
     “I understand that there are many things to be done in preparation 
for the test burn and subsequent orbital insertion Ranma, but I am 
often puzzled as to why you always delay in receiving personal 
transmissions from your parents.”
     Ranma winced. HAL could really cut to the bone, even if the AI 
didn’t mean to. Perhaps that was why he liked HAL so much. 
     “Ryoga is always very excited about transmissions from home,” 
HAL added for comparison.
     “I think Ryoga has a better relationship with his parents than I 
do, HAL.”
     “Human personal relationships are often puzzling to me,” HAL 
replied. “I don’t think I shall ever fully understand them. While I am 
programmed to be fully interactive with human beings, and have 
stimulating relationships with them, I am often confused by certain 
emotional aspects.”
     “I think we get along just fine, HAL. If it makes you feel better, 
Ryoga never has anything bad to say about you either.”
     HAL’s video pickup seemed to glow brighter for a second.
     “That makes me feel much better Ranma. Thank you.”
     Ranma started to blush a little. It was a little eery the way HAL 
had sounded so pleased to receive approval. Perhaps it was the 
vestiges of his early learning algorithms during his initial activation 
and path to sentience. Perhaps HAL really *did* have a soul.
     “I’m going to prepare the pods for EVA,” Ranma said after a 
bit. “By the time I’m done I should have just enough time for a 
sweep of the ship and get everything stowed for the burn.”
     “I shall have Pods ‘A’ and ‘B’ standing by on the hanger deck.”
     Ranma waved to the pickup and started for the hanger bay. True 
to his word, HAL had EVA Pods ‘A’ and ‘B’ standing by on their 
platforms for his inspection. He flicked his pigtail into the collar of 
his red jumpsuit and started on his checklists.
     Much later he was finished with his inspections and had laid out 
Ryoga’s tools in a special capture bag that would hold them in place 
in zero gravity. All Ryoga would have to do was suit up and go 
outside for a little spacewalk. Removal and replacement of the 
AE-35 unit plus transit times both ways would take perhaps ninety 
minutes.
     He made a tour of the ship, stowing anything that was loose for 
the acceleration forces of the test burn. It would be little more than a 
brief jolt, but after the burn they would be in free-fall again, and 
things that broke loose would become dangerous missile hazards. 
Finishing his tour, he stopped by the hibernaculums.
     He told Kasumi and Nabiki that they would be performing a test 
burn on the engines. Even though they were still in hibernation, they 
were almost completely ‘thawed,’ and he didn’t want them worrying 
about the jolt. Both women seemed to respond ever so slightly to 
his voice. There was a great deal more life and color in their faces 
now.
     Akane was even prettier so close to ‘thaw.’ Her smile was 
quite apparent when she heard his voice. He spoke with her a little, 
wishing he could spend more time with her than he had. Finally he 
told her about the burn, and that she shouldn’t worry. Then he said 
good-bye, and that he would see her awake very soon. Akane smiled 
again.
     Ranma left the habitation compartment and headed for the flight 
deck to supervise the test burn. He was unaware that the other two 
members of the crew had been watching and listening to his 
conversation with Akane.


     HAL seemed very pleased, although the AI could not answer the 
question of why. His memory banks contained a few blocks of time 
restricted data. Data which could not be revealed to his higher brain 
functions until the proper time. It puzzled him that this was so.


     Ryoga switched the monitor back to Number 2 Passageway in 
disgust...


     When Ranma appeared on the flight deck, Ryoga shunted away such 
thoughts to another part of his psyche. They had a job to do. He had 
worked very hard to get this mission, and he wanted it to succeed.
     “Any problems?” Ranma asked.
     “Countdown proceeds as scheduled,” Ryoga replied. He gestured 
to the displays.
     “Course correction burn calculated and standing by in my 
astrogation subroutines,” HAL added pleasantly.
     “Commence habitation module angular momentum shift to the 
flywheel, HAL,” Ryoga ordered. 
     “Shifting now,” HAL replied.
     The spinning hub of the habitation module began to decelerate 
as its momentum was stored in a flywheel just aft of the compartment. 
Soon it was in free-fall with the rest of the ship. They would spin 
the habitation module back up when the burn was complete. 
     They waited as HAL directed Discovery’s Main Engines to 
come on line. Far aft of the spherical crew module, along the long 
narrow span of the superstructure, the propellant tanks began to 
reach full pressurization. Blocking valves which had been frozen 
shut for two years were now thawed; and they flexed open and shut 
in programmed sequences. Status lights blinked on the flight deck 
displays as the valves cycled.
     The fusion furnace began to preheat the reaction mass fuel as it 
was circulated by massive centrifugal booster pumps through the 
secondary waste heat exchangers and then on to warm the massive 
cone shaped thrust nozzles. Methane ice which glazed the house- 
sized nozzles began to flake off, and caused Discovery’s aft end to 
glow in a faint sparkle of refracted light from distant Sol.
     Discovery itself began to oscillate in the subsonics from the 
vibrations of the pumps and the motion of so many tons of circulating 
fuel. Ranma and Ryoga could feel it in the pits of their stomachs as 
they sat strapped into their acceleration couches.
     “Test Burn Alfa commencing in sixty seconds,” HAL intoned. 
“Fuel pressure stable... Temperatures rising in engine cores to nominal 
tolerance values... Fusion furnace stable at fifteen percent thermal 
output... Voltage stable.”
     “Time to see if they’ll fire,” Ranma said quietly. Discovery’s 
engines had been through all manner of torture tests, but never had 
they been evaluated to function after two years of inactivity in the 
frigid void of the outer solar system.
     “If they don’t fire it’ll be a long walk home,” Ryoga joked.
     “Even longer if you’re the astrogator,” Ranma jibed 
     Ryoga scowled at this. He was thin skinned to begin with, but 
there was a flicker of hate in his eyes as he looked away to his panel. 
Ranma immediately regretted saying it.
     “Test Burn Alfa commencing in ten seconds,” HAL announced. 
They could feel the main fuel pumps pick up through the acceleration 
couches. Discovery began to drone in a deep bass rumble.
     “Nine...Eight...Seven...Six...Main Fuel Pumps on-line...Four...
Three...Two...One...Ignition -Ten percent thrust...”
     Far aft of the crew module, the three thrust nozzles exploded 
in a blast of white light. The fusion-reactor-heated methane and 
ammonia belched forth in a two second burn. Discovery shivered 
with a heavy jolt as the Main Engines fired and then stood down.
     “Test Burn Alfa complete,” HAL informed them. “No 
abnormalities noted with the engines or engine subsystems. 
Astrogation subroutines now surveying for concurrence with 
indicated inertial navigation variances.”
     “I’d say the taxpayers got their money’s worth,” Ranma said 
in the silence that followed. He unbuckled his restraints and floated 
aft. 
     “I’m gonna get a few down before turnover. All the suit and 
pod preps are done, and your tools are in the ready service locker,” 
he told Ryoga.
     Ryoga grunted a reply. 
     “After the EVA, it’ll be about time to wake up the girls,” Ranma 
said to him. “Lucky you, you get to be the one to help them get back 
on their feet while I rot up here on the flight deck doing the insertion 
burn preps.”
     Ryoga nodded casually, but once Ranma was gone, he began to 
glow at the thought of seeing Akane awake.




                             Chapter Three



Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery 
Crossing the orbital of Ganymede.
December 24, 2001 CE
15:16 UMT


     Discovery had invaded the Jovian system just before noon. Her 
many telescopes and sensory arrays began surveying the planet and 
its moons. HAL gathered the data up into a neat package to transmit 
back to Earth just prior to Ryoga’s EVA.
     They were very close to crossing over the terminator into Jupiter’s 
dark night. With the magnetically energetic gas giant between the 
ship and Earth they would be in a period of communications blackout. 
They would remain in blackout for 18 hours following the insertion 
burn that would slow them down enough for Jupiter’s immense gravity 
to fling them into a stable orbit around the planet near to the moon 
known as Io.
     The sound of Ryoga’s breathing inside his pressure suit helmet was 
a rasping in the speakers on the flight deck. Ranma was also wearing his 
pressure suit, with the helmet stowed behind him on a clip. The video 
monitor display of the flight deck showed Ryoga stepping into the ‘B’ 
pod.
     HAL depressurized the hanger a moment later, the dull throbbing 
of the compressors vibrating below Ranma’s feet. The circular outer 
door opened, and a few crystals of water vapor floated off into the 
void, sparkling in the reflected light of Jupiter. The massive red planet 
was only an angry sanguine crescent in the viewing window and 
telescope displays.
     ‘B’ pod rolled out of the ship along its platform track. Ryoga was 
a deft hand on the controls, giving the pod just enough velocity relative 
to Discovery to ease it off the platform. The pod traveled about a 100 
meters ahead of the spaceship. From that distance Ryoga began 
cycling all of the reaction control jets to ensure they worked properly 
when he moved in close enough to Discovery to be a danger.
     That accomplished, Ryoga jetted the pod leisurely along the length 
of Discovery to the amidships superstructure. The large dish array was 
flanked by two smaller direction finding and auxiliary arrays. The 
AE-35 unit was along the base of the rotating tower that supported 
and positioned the arrays.
     Ryoga was keeping the pod depressurized, and so he parked it just 
a dozen meters distant of Discovery and tethered himself into the pod.
The access door opened in the rear of the pod. Ranma could see 
Ryoga exiting the pod with his tools using the internal video pickup 
in the pod’s cockpit. From there he switched to one of the hull 
mounted pickups.
     “Just a little step,” Ryoga panted, His breathing was a little 
heavier.
     “Don’t get lost on the way,” Ranma said warmly. Ryoga didn’t 
take offense to it this time, he was too busy focused on the ship. 
The last thing he wanted to do was think about how huge space 
really was. How insignificant even Discovery was in the immense 
black void.
     He stepped off and drifted slowly towards Discovery. His 
magnet lined soles clamped onto the hull and he sighed in relief. 
>From there he was all business, walking slowly and methodically 
towards the array.
     “Initiating final telemetry and data transmission,” HAL announced.
     “Hear that Ryoga?” Ranma asked over the suit radio. “Stand 
clear for a minute or two until the burst gets off. I don’t want you 
getting cooked by the array if you slip off the hull.”
     “That makes two of us,” Ryoga managed in a pant. There 
was the sound of his own breathing in the helmet. Space was 
cold and silent around him. Only the low crackle and hiss of 
Jupiter’s radio emissions over the suit comm told him that there 
was anything at all sharing the void with Discovery and himself.
     “Transmission complete,” HAL informed them. “Deenergizing 
the AE-35 unit for removal.”
     With that the massive array swung into its default position -the 
dish shaped array now faced directly aft and parallel to the long axis 
of the hull. Communications and telemetry feed from Earth stopped 
abruptly. Discovery and her crew were now alone in space.
     “Copy that,” Ryoga said. “I’m going to open the access panel.”
     He clamped the tool pouch along its magnetic base to the hull. 
Each tool had a lanyard that kept it secured to the pouch as he 
withdrew it. Working carefully, he loosened the bolts that held the 
access panel closed.
     It was a simple procedure. He removed the AE-35 unit, which 
was little bigger than his tool pouch, and replaced it with their 
redundancy unit. HAL reenergized the system, and the array began 
to search for Earth stations. Soon Discovery was back on line -but 
only for a moment.
     The spacecraft crossed over the terminator into the Jovian night 
not a minute after establishing contact. Ryoga found himself in a 
darkness more vast than he had known in his life. Not even training 
exercises on the dark side of the moon had been so bleak and empty.
     HAL switched on ‘B’ pod’s floodlamps for him to guide him 
back to the pod. Ryoga pulled himself back on his tether and strapped 
into the pod. He couldn’t wait to get back aboard Discovery.



                     *       *       *



Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery,
Rounding the nightside of Jupiter.
December 25, 2001 CE
01:58 UMT


     Ranma ate a piece of fruitcake as he celebrated Christmas. 
Fruitcakes as a general rule were usually not very good, and this 
one had been sitting in Discovery’s food freezer for two years.
The egg nog wasn’t much better, especially as it contained no 
alcohol.
     Laying in his bunk in the habitation compartment, he punched 
in the request to view his parents’ transmission. After that he would 
punch up a movie, something having absolutely nothing to do with 
Christmas, and then go to sleep for six hours. He would wake up,
exercise, shower and eat, and continue the routine as if it was just 
another day. Which is all that it was he kept reminding himself.
     His mother appeared first on the display. She was so beautiful 
and graceful. He loved his mother very much, but for various 
reasons he had spent little of his life on Earth in her company. She 
had endured a life without her son around for so long on Earth; how 
much harder was it for her now that her son was a billion miles 
and seven more years away?
     Her grief was there in her eyes, even though she put on her best 
smile for him as she wished him a Merry Christmas. Ranma choked 
back a sob, hoping Ryoga wasn’t wandering around on his duty tour 
of the ship to hear him. There was only the whir and sigh of the 
recirculation fans outside his cubicle.
     Ranko stepped into view next to his mother. His sister was even 
more beautiful than she had been when he left the Earth two years 
ago. She had grown a little taller and her figure even more voluptuous 
in her tight red dress. He wondered how many hearts she was 
breaking now. She still wore her bright red hair in a matching pigtail 
just like her brother’s. Perhaps that was her way of keeping him 
alive in her memory.
     Ranko wished him a Merry Christmas and told him that she 
loved him very much. She wished him a safe trip and then ducked 
away out of sight. He was sure that tears were spilling down her 
face. He had told his sister not to cry when he saw her, only to 
see her smiling and happy. Now he hated himself for saying it. He 
would rather watch his lovely sister cry her eyes out on the display 
than force her to duck away and never see her save for a brief 
instant in greeting.
     As if to twist the knife his father appeared next to his mother.
His bald pate was once again covered by a bandanna, his glasses 
catching the glare from the studio lamps behind the video camera.
He grinned and wished him a Merry Christmas as well, then bragged 
about how the family was getting so much media attention because 
of the Discovery mission, and how it was bringing in the students 
to the Saotome Dojo.
     He wanted to stab his finger at the ‘stop’ button on his A/V 
control deck, but his love for his sister and mother held him in check. 
In a way he pitied them for having to live with Genma day in and 
day out, while he was so far away from the man that he was merely 
an abstract most of the time.
     It was his father that pushed him into the Space Program. He 
loved martial arts, but his father was so obsessed with making him 
the next Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan (and all the movie deals that 
entailed) that he had jumped at the chance to join the NCA. 
     Space was his other passion, next to martial arts. If he couldn’t 
have the one (without his father’s detestable influence) he would 
have the other. As such he had devoted himself to math and science 
in school even though he hated both subjects with a passion. He was 
willing to endure the classwork and studying for his shot at the NCA 
Academy just to escape his old man. 
     And so here he was, an astronaut on the single most important 
space exploration mission in the history of the human race, the very 
leader in fact. Even then his father had found a way to pervert his 
son’s achievement to his own personal ends. His hatred for the man 
swelled within him.
     Nodoka hushed Genma then and began to talk to the screen as 
if Ranma were there sitting across the dining room table from her. 
Ranko had wiped away her tears, sat next to her mother and tried 
to smile. Genma crossed his arms over his chest and added little 
useless and inane comments here and there.
     Tears began to well at Ranma’s eyes as he watched them. He 
knew at least that his mother and his sister loved him. He missed 
them so much. He longed to hug them and hold them close and 
become the family they had never quite been.
     At last they said good-bye and wished him a Merry Christmas 
for the second time. Genma waved like an idiot and said something 
like ‘make me proud.’ Nodoka waved sadly and tried not to cry. 
Ranko blew him a kiss and told him that she loved him again, and 
the screen shifted to the NCA logo.
     He caught his breath with a few shudders as the transmission 
ended. Soon the message would be like all the others; the parts 
with his father carefully edited out of the memory banks, leaving 
just his mother and his sister and those friends that joined them 
from time to time like Ukyo and Daisuke.
     After awhile he punched up a Schwartzenegger action movie 
and fell asleep in one of the few obligatory slow moments where 
they tried to inject a little plot.



                       *       *       *



     The 12 hour cycle repeated as it had for the last two months.

     Ranma was on watch on the flight deck, staring out into the 
darkness of space and to the dim curvature of Jupiter to the left. 
He could see tiny yellow and red flashes of lightning from the 
distant cloud tops of the planet’s upper atmosphere. It was 
something no man had ever witnessed before with the naked eye.
     HAL informed him of the three scientists’ reanimation progress 
every now and then. He would periodically observe Ryoga helping 
Doctor Kasumi Tendo out of her hibernaculum and working the 
circulation back into her half frozen limbs over the video pickup.
     Doctor Nabiki Tendo was starting to wake up. Akane wouldn’t 
be far behind. For the moment Ryoga had his hands full with 
Kasumi.


     Kasumi managed to look cheerful even as she stretched out 
muscles with two years worth of kinks in them. She sipped at the 
squeeze bottle of warmed electrolytes, remarking that they tasted 
horrible but at least helped wash away some of the morning mouth 
she had.
     She was nauseous and woozy, but that was to be expected. It 
would pass in an hour or two. When she was steady on her feet she 
was going to take a long hot shower. They could dock showers from 
her water ration for the next month if they’d just let her have the one 
she had been wishing for from the moment she woke up.
     Nabiki sat up in her hibernaculum, looked around, and thought 
better of it. She settled back down into her coffin with a groan. 
Kasumi giggled softly. Her sister was never a morning person under 
the most normal of circumstances. Nabiki looked positively hung-over.
     Ryoga pressed the squeeze bottle tube to Nabiki’s lips and gave 
her a little. That seemed to enliven her a bit -even if it was only to 
grouse about the taste. Kasumi laughed again.
     “Oh ha ha, sis,” Nabiki growled. “I’m sure you’re already bright 
eyed and bushy tailed. The rest of us normal people don’t recover 
quite so fast -I assure you.”
     “Don’t be such a pest, Nabiki,” Kasumi countered. “It will only 
prolong the misery.”
     Nabiki sat up and managed to stick her tongue out at her older 
sister. Ryoga began to massage her arms and legs, trying not to look 
at her and blushing furiously. Nabiki was too far out of it to notice 
how shy Ryoga was.
     “So immature for a Doctor of Astrophysics,” Kasumi scolded 
gently.
     Nabiki got to her feet with the help of Ryoga. 
     “I could really use something to eat,” she said.
     Akane sat up with a sigh and a long hard yawn. Ryoga’s eyes 
nearly started from their sockets. Ranma trained the video camera 
around to get a better look at her. Even in a skimpy hospital scrub 
green gown, covered in biosensor pads and the orange gel that was 
smeared over her skin for insulation, she looked radiant.
     “Hello Akane,” Ryoga said warmly. “How are we feeling?”
He pressed a bottle of electrolytes into her hand, trying not to 
blush and failing miserably. Akane, like the rest of her sisters, was 
still too far out of it to notice what an ass Ryoga was making of 
himself.
     Akane looked at the name stitched on Ryoga’s coveralls. 
     “Where’s Ranma?” She asked. “I’ve been wanting to meet him 
ever since I first heard his voice.”
     Ryoga’s heart constricted in his chest, and his blood went cold.



                        Chapter Four



Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery
Approaching perihelion of Jovian approach,
December 25, 2001 CE.
16:37 UMT



    Akane Tendo was the last to shower and change into workout  
clothing. Nabiki and Kasumi were taking their turns on the two 
exercise machines as she entered the habitation compartment. 
Ryoga was observing them periodically as he went through his 
many administrative chores at a workstation next to his berth.
     Akane’s sisters were already sweating profusely -as dictated by 
procedure following reanimation. It was necessary to purge the 
hibernation chemicals and their byproducts as well as the remaining 
traces of ‘brown’ fatty deposits injected into them for nutritional 
purposes during their hibernation. Akane stretched out while she 
waited.
     Kasumi finished her routine and took a requisite fifteen minute 
breather. Akane hopped up on the machine, which was currently 
configured as an exercycle. Nabiki was still puffing away on hers, 
and gave her a rueful smile.
     Ryoga watched Akane’s slender spandex clad form begin the 
warm-up routine and gaped. All three of the Tendo sisters were 
beautiful, but he was transfixed by the energy and vitality of Akane. 
She had been all but dead only four hours ago.
     Fortunately for him Ranma’s duties kept him on the flight deck 
preparing for their deceleration and orbital insertion burns. He 
didn’t want Ranma anywhere near Akane until he had a chance 
to get to know her himself. At least she hadn’t asked about him 
again after Ryoga explained to her what Ranma was busy doing.
He still had a chance with her.


     Ranma ran another simulation and at last seemed satisfied with 
the results. He sat back weightless in his chair and sighed. There 
was so much work to be done, but it was hard to keep his mind 
focused on the jobs at hand.
     “What seems to be troubling you?” HAL inquired. The 
computer’s voice had that eery tone about it that Ranma immediately 
understood to be part of HAL’s psychological evaluation routines.
Such routines were necessary, as HAL might have to evaluate the 
crew for signs of mental or nervous breakdown and take steps to 
protect the mission should it become necessary. A spaceflight 
of this duration had never been attempted before, and who knew 
what could happen?
     Ranma sighed again. “I don’t think it was a very good idea to 
put men and women on the same mission.”
     “Pardon me for saying so, but your personal profile *does* have 
a certain tendency towards a condition known as ‘sexism,’” HAL 
said diplomatically. “You may not be the best qualified to make that 
observation.”
     “It’s not that I think they can’t handle their jobs or anything,” 
Ranma replied. “I just don’t think it was a good idea to put two men 
and three women on a spaceflight that’s going to last seven years.”
     “What do you mean by this, Ranma?” HAL asked. 
     Ranma blew out his breath in frustration, unsure if he should 
come out and say it. He sat in silence for a moment. 
     “If you could clarify your statement, I would be able to offer 
a more stimulating conversation on the subject,” HAL added.
     Ranma punched up the habitation module A/V suite. It was 
directed at the three women as they took turns on the exercise 
equipment. He pointed to the display.
     “Observe Audio/Visual suite six, HAL,” Ranma said evenly.
     “I see Doctors Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane Tendo,” HAL 
replied. “They would seem to be performing their required post 
hibernation exercises.”
     “My point exactly,” Ranma said. “Look at them: if they were 
a bunch of middle aged overweight hags, it would be easy to keep 
my sense of professionalism. Instead they are young, healthy, and 
let’s face it HAL, they’re gorgeous. Ryoga and I are gonna spend 
three months alone and in close proximity with them. Hell, the last 
time I saw a woman in the flesh was the day before we left Earth 
orbit. That was two years ago.”
     HAL chewed on this for a whole .0053 seconds.
     “Am I to assume there is a certain degree of sexual tension 
present?” The computer asked calmly.
     “Bingo,” Ranma replied. His pigtail floated lazily over his shoulder 
with the shake of his head.
     “It does seem puzzling,” HAL began, “that the NCA planning 
staff would do such a thing. Human sexuality is a compelling drive, 
and known through numerous studies to cause inefficiency and 
carelessness where left unchecked.”
     “Aside from you, I don’t think the NCA left us with a 
chaperone,” Ranma observed. There was silence between them 
then, as HAL consulted several memory blocks. His subprocessors 
seemed to be directing him to the same time-sealed memory block 
he had noted earlier. It remained sealed, and this continued to 
puzzle him. At length his neural net pursued another possible 
solution.
     “Shall I make a note of your concern for the ship’s log?” HAL 
asked.
     “No, I don’t think that’ll be necessary HAL,” Ranma replied. 
“I just think I’m going to be taking a lot of cold showers from now 
until we go back into the freezer.”
     “Masturbation is a viable alternative,” HAL said without preamble. 
The remark caught Ranma off guard, and he nearly choked on a 
squeeze bottle of water he was drinking from.
     After he composed himself, he held up his hand to HAL’s video 
pickup.
     “Way ahead of you, HAL. Don’t worry about it.”
     He set to work again, chuckling at a sudden thought.
     **HAL wears many hats on this ship, but I didn’t think sex 
therapist was one of them...**



                       *       *       *



     Ranma joined Ryoga an hour later in the electronics lab. The lab 
was mostly storage space for spare parts, though it had a small but 
useful repair shop for testing and repairing equipment. Ryoga was 
fiddling with the faulty AE-35 unit module.
     “Run troubleshooting routine three, please HAL,” Ryoga mumbled.
     “Running now,” HAL replied.
     The display cycled through a variety of alphanumerics to end in 
a ‘Fault’ statement.
     “Well?” Ranma asked.
     Ryoga held up a circuit card. 
     “There’s no question about it. It’s broken.”
     “There goes a quarter million bucks,” Ranma observed. “At least 
we caught the problem before it failed on its own. Good work, HAL.”
     “I am always happy to assist. You know I have the greatest 
confidence in this mission,” HAL replied.
     “No chance of fixing it?” Ranma asked Ryoga, who was trying to 
avoid interaction with Ranma. The pig-tailed astronaut didn’t notice 
this.
     “Not really,” Ryoga replied. “At least it wouldn’t be worth the 
effort. The other unit should work out just fine.”
     “All the same, I’d like to have something to replace the other unit 
in case *it* fails. We don’t have any more spares don’cha know.”
     Ryoga bared his teeth for an instant. Ranma was busy looking at the 
defective circuit card, and didn’t notice. HAL noticed, but said nothing 
about it.
     “I’ll get started on it after we finish the insertion burn,” he 
said at length. Ranma nodded his head and set the card down on the 
static guard.
     “Where are Akane and the others?” Ranma asked.
     Ryoga flinched inwardly and remained silent. HAL answered the 
question.
     “After they finished exercising, they took showers and went to 
sleep. It would appear that the additional two months in hibernation 
was more taxing than predicted.”
     “Sleep huh? You'd think they'd had enough of that. Wonder what 
we’ll be like after *five* years in the freezer...” Ranma asked sullenly. 
He stepped through the door of the lab, leaving Ryoga to tidy up.
     He was continuing on with his daily tour of the ship when he ran 
into Akane stepping out of her cubicle. She was dressed in shorts 
and a tank top and wore slippers on her feet.
     She saw him and her eyes brightened.
     “Finally!” She said happily. “I get to meet the man behind the 
voice.”
     Ranma was glad she was so excited to see him, but blushed slightly 
nonetheless. His exposure to the opposite sex under social circumstances 
was fairly limited, and it picked now of all times to show. He stood 
shyly on the carpeted deck, pawing at it with his velcro-soled shoes.
     “So whaddya think?” He asked after a bit of uncomfortable 
silence.
     She looked him over.
     “Not bad,” she said absently, though it was obvious she thought 
him attractive. “I guess spending the next hundred days with you 
around to look at can’t be all bad.”
     Ranma shrugged. He and Ukyo had once dabbled at being 
boyfriend and girlfriend, but he had left for the NCA Academy before 
anything really happened between them. There was also the fact 
that they had been very much platonic friends since they were little, 
and so it always seemed awkward when romantic possibilities loomed 
before him. Now he was face to face with a woman he wanted very 
much to get to know better, and didn’t have a clue how to go about 
it.
     “Um...” He hemmed and hawed for a minute trying feverishly 
to come up with something. Akane’s patience was visibly deteriorating, 
which didn’t make this any easier for him.
     “Uh, can I buy you dinner?” He blurted, immediately regretting 
how serious he sounded. A remark like that while spending the next 
five years a billion miles from Earth was meant to come out as a 
lighthearted joke.
     Akane’s face twitched for a second, as if she was trying to 
determine whether or not he had meant it as a joke. The look on 
Ranma’s face told her after a moment that he hadn’t. Suddenly 
she began to laugh out loud, and Ranma’s face turned beet red.
     “You are such a dope,” she managed between fits of laughter. 
“I guess you’ll be keeping me entertained.”
     Ranma didn’t take well to insults. He quickly forgot himself.
     “Awright! Fine! See if you ever get asked again!”
     This didn’t have the desired effect: Akane simply started an even 
bigger fit of laughter.
     “What’s so funny?” He demanded.
     “You are, you big blockhead!” She giggled. Before he could 
cut himself to the quick with another lame retort, she brushed her 
lips against his cheek as she stepped past him. It was no accidental 
contact, some oft ignored part of his brain informed him. He 
swallowed his words and froze stiff.
     “I’ll see you around, Flight Commander Saotome.”
     Ranma just stood there, not noticing how Ryoga bit down on his 
lip from the opposite side of the wheel and then duck into his cubicle. 
The little bead of light that was HAL’s video pickup for this 
compartment had caught the exchange between all three of them 
in its entirety.



                         Chapter Five



Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery
Orbiting the Jovian moon of Io.
December 30, 2001 CE
19:02 UMT



     Discovery’s crew spent the next few days collecting preliminary 
data for observation and experimentation. In most regards the five 
performed their jobs as expected and better. Ranma found to his 
delight that he and Akane were getting along well together, that is 
to say that they argued only once or twice a day. At least they 
were fairly good-natured arguments.
     Ryoga seemed to be slipping in his thoroughness. Ranma put it 
down to a mild sinus infection his friend was suffering. Antibiotics 
and reduced duty hours were prescribed, much to Nabiki’s chagrin. 
She was the designated replacement in the event one of the two 
primary astronauts was killed or incapacitated, and as she was 
already thawed it wasn’t much trouble (so Ranma said) for her 
to step in and put them in a three section rotation for awhile. 
     Ryoga was required to rest in the extra four hours Nabiki’s 
sacrifice had given him, and in two days was back to full duty. 
Nabiki hadn’t fully forgiven Ranma or Ryoga for the inconvenience, 
but as yet nothing had come of it. Her experiments required little 
personal supervision, and HAL was happy to point out that she 
wasn’t actually necessary at all so long as the computer was around.
Nabiki's reply to this wasn't worth repeating here.



                      *       *       *



     Io glowered angrily at them from below as they passed over into 
day. The little moon was pocked with active volcanoes that spewed 
sulfurous compounds out into space. Discovery would certainly be 
coated in a yellow film of the stuff by the time its sister ship 
Discovery II arrived five years hence to recover them.
     Kasumi was on the flight deck taking observations of Jupiter’s 
magnetic field. The Voyager probes had only whetted science’s appetite 
for the mysteries of the giant planet, and now Kasumi was hoping to 
put a few more dishes on the table. Over the flight deck speakers, the 
hiss, warble, and crackle of particle interactions within Jupiter’s 
field played an ancient melody for her.
     Nabiki was compiling her own preliminary observations on the nearby
moon Europa. Europa was visible for most of the 100 day survey of the 
Jovian system, and as it had an atmosphere and what was hoped to be 
an abundance of water and methane ices, it was a promising site for a
future long term exploration base. Nabiki knew this was far in the future, 
but in her own opinion it was the long term investments that paid the 
highest dividends.
     Akane of course had run into trouble from the beginning. The 
circumstances regarding the failure of her equipment were dubious. It 
almost looked as if she had gotten angry and *struck* the console, 
causing it to break from its mount and crash into the deck. However, 
neither Ryoga nor Ranma openly dissented with her story that she 
had ‘just leaned on it for support in free fall’ and it had come loose. 
     Ranma grumbled a bit as he readied his tools to go into the console 
to inspect it for damage and repair it if necessary. Akane stood close 
by, wringing her hands and offering the occasional lame apology. As 
much as he liked her, he wished she would just go away and let him 
do his job. He just couldn’t bring himself to tell her. One look at the 
ripped mounting brackets told him she could muster up quite a fury 
when upset.
     “Hey Ryoga, you have this thing disconnected yet?” He called out.
     “Just a second while I find it!” Ryoga snorted.
     “How can you get lost in there?” Ranma shot back.
     “Shut up!”
     Ryoga was in the Main Circuit Breaker Room, a space about the 
size of a modest walk-in closet filled with circuit breakers for every 
single piece of electrically powered equipment (save for small hand 
tools and such) on the ship. Normally HAL could energize and 
deenergize equipment through a series of electronically operated 
remote disconnects, but the repair manuals stated that manual 
operation of the circuit breakers was required whenever practical. 
The yellow suited astronaut was busying himself with a laminated 
binder that floated in free fall -the directory of breakers for the 
ship.
     Three large safety striped breakers occupied the far bulkhead. 
The first was for the Fusion Furnace Containment Field System 
-opening this breaker would cause an immediate ‘Quench’ of the 
furnace, shutting down the reactor and leaving Discovery on 
emergency battery power. The second was for the Main Feeder 
Bus -opening this breaker would deenergize everything on the 
ship but the reactor and HAL. 
     The third breaker was for HAL. It had never been opened. To 
do so would be to shut HAL down, leaving the computer in such a 
condition that it could never be restored in space even if power was 
restored. Discovery would be helpless in space, its crew incapable 
of managing the complexities of the ship by themselves. This breaker 
had numerous warnings and safety seals attached to it. Even Ryoga 
knew what this circuit breaker did.
     Ranma drummed his fingers on the wall as he waited. Akane 
tried humming, but it only made the tension worse. 
     “Would you like me to deenergize the console, Ranma?” HAL 
asked soothingly.
     “I’d like that HAL, but you know the rules.”
     “Of course, Ranma. Even though I am capable of fully operating 
this ship, I understand the need for compliance with written procedure.”
     “Don’t take it personally HAL,” Ranma said. “I trust your 
capabilities.”
     “I got it!” Ryoga called. “Go ahead!”
     “ 'Bout time...” Ranma groused. He reached for a magnet-tipped 
screwdriver to remove the access panel fasteners. As he did so, Akane 
failed to notice Ryoga step into the room. She bumped into him, 
bouncing off him to strike Ranma, who lost his grip on the screwdriver.
The long shaft of the tool flew into the open air vents of the console 
and threw out a flurry of pink sparks and acrid smoke as it welded 
itself to the metal wall of the unit.
     “Ranma!” Akane screamed.
     “Shit!” Ranma cried, stumbling away in free fall from the 
smoking, sparking console. “You opened the wrong breaker! Secure 
power to this thing now, HAL!”
     The sparking stopped immediately as HAL secured power.
     “Electrical power has been interrupted,” HAL informed them. 
     Ranma was still shaking as he clung to the bulkhead in free fall.
     “Ryoga you idiot! You coulda killed me!”
     Ryoga’s face was a mask of anguish. “It was an accident, I swear!
There were so many breakers, I must have opened the wrong one 
by mistake!”
     Ranma composed himself after a few moments.
     “No harm done,” he said, as much for himself as anyone else. 
“Just watch what you’re doing, Ryoga...”
     Ryoga’s face was reddened in shame. “I’m sorry Ranma.”
     “It’s okay. Just don’t do it again. I like being alive.”
     Ranma collected his tools and made a cursory inspection of the 
unit. Repairing it was not going to be fun. He had just the man for 
the job.
     Ryoga looked at the smoldering unit and nodded in silent 
acknowledgment of his nomination for said duty. His face still 
burned, though from anger or shame none dared venture a guess.
     “I am detecting trace amounts of PCBs and hydrogen chloride from 
the combustion of wiring insulation. I would recommend clearing the 
space while I ventilate,” HAL informed them as the haze of smoke 
filtered to the rest of the lab.



                       *       *       *



     New Year’s had come and gone with little fanfare aboard the
Discovery. Ranma tried to sleep in his tiny bunk. He wasn’t having 
much success. The electronarcosis rig over his head would put him 
into slumber’s arms, but he hated using the thing. It reminded him 
too much of a similar unit in his hibernaculum. 
     Ryoga’s mistake had been eating at him for the last nine hours. 
He was too thorough, too careful to have made a mistake like that. 
If Ryoga had any faults they were his temper and his tendency to 
get lost.
     He remembered what HAL said about human sexuality causing 
inefficiency and clumsiness. Ryoga had certainly exhibited both 
characteristics in the last few days. Was he really that far out of it 
with the Tendo sisters up and about? 
     Another thought crossed his mind. 
     Was Ryoga jealous of the way he and Akane got along?
     Jealous enough to kill?
     He shook his head. No, there was no way Ryoga would try to 
kill him. They had been friends for too many years. He knew 
Ryoga wasn’t capable of doing such a thing.
     Was he?
     Sleep crept upon him, leaving his last conscious thoughts of a 
wrathful, murdering Ryoga Hibiki.



                        *       *       *



Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery
Orbiting the moon of Io.
January 2, 2002 CE
04:33 UMT



     Ranma grumbled a bit as he readied his tools and materials for 
the bi-weekly centrifuge maintenance. It was a simple procedure: 
the habitation module’s rotation was stopped, transferring the 
angular momentum into a storage flywheel, and allowing him to 
crawl into the centrifuge to inspect the bearings and add lubrication 
if necessary.
     It was supposed to take an hour at the most. The maintenance 
wouldn’t effect any current experiments, and in fact Kasumi and 
Nabiki were on their six hour sleep cycles. Akane as usual was 
already awake, and wondering why her experiments weren’t 
working.
     Ryoga was on the flight deck monitoring the centrifuge systems. 
HAL was adjusting the ship’s reactor output in an attempt to assist
Akane with her experiment. It was possible that neutrinos from the 
reactor were interfering with the results. 
     “Transferring angular momentum to the flywheel,” Ryoga said 
over the intercom. It was one of those tasks HAL was best suited to, 
but Ryoga had insisted that the computer devote its efforts to helping 
Akane. 
     Ranma acknowledged and watched through the access panel 
dead-light for the centrifuge to stop. It began to slowly decelerate as 
the flywheel farther aft began to spool up. When the centrifuge had 
stopped, Ryoga applied the friction brakes to ensure that it stayed 
motionless when Ranma crawled inside the machinery. The centrifuge 
massed several dozen tons, and if it were to move even very slowly, 
Ranma would be unable to stop it with his hands.
     He opened the access panel and checked the brake. It seemed to 
be in place and holding. He hated this job, and with stray thoughts 
of Ryoga going nuts bouncing around in his head, he took a deep 
breath and stepped into the centrifuge.
     The lacquered insulation on the massive motor windings glowed 
a fiery red in the light of his drop-light along the curved outer 
bulkhead. The narrow, cramped, compartment was a toroidal 
shaped cage, with the inner surface being the habitation 
compartment and the outer surface the pressure hull. Thick 
steel support struts were braced between inner and outer wheel 
races, with gaps cut in them for Ranma to crawl through as he 
made his inspection.
     He floated in free fall away from the access panel and began to 
inspect the bearings. The ozone tang of the space mingled with the 
smell of lubricants. He reminded himself that he hated this job.

     
     “I am detecting a course aberration,” HAL informed Ryoga.
     Ryoga looked over to one of the displays.
     “What’s going on, HAL?”
     “It appears there is an oscillation developing. It is growing in 
amplitude. There is a pendulum effect forming along the long axis 
of the ship. It is increasing at the rate of .03 millimeters per second.”
     Ryoga bit his lip. “What could be causing it?”
     HAL ran a series of simulations.
     “It is possible that motion in the centrifuge was not below rated 
tolerance for manual brake operation, and the resulting mechanical 
shock has formed a sympathetic tremor in the superstructure.”
     Ryoga sat there in silence.
     “Oscillation rate is now .7 millimeters per second,” HAL updated. 
“At the current rate of acceleration, the Discovery will be rotating 
end over end in two hours, nine minutes, and thirty-three seconds.”
     “Can we do a minor correction burn to stop it?” 
     “Yes. I am calculating one now.”
     A display shifted to show the burn schedule.
     “I have calculated a correction burn,” HAL informed him. 
“Oscillation rate is now 1.2 millimeters per second.”
     The Discovery began to vibrate very gently.
     “Execute correction burn, HAL,” Ryoga ordered.
     “Commander Saotome is in the centrifuge compartment,” HAL 
replied. “I would recommend waiting until he was clear before 
beginning the burn.”
     “We wait much longer and this is going to get worse,” Ryoga 
countered. “Execute correction burn, HAL.”
     “Executing correction burn,” HAL acknowledged. “Reaction 
Control System on line.”
     Discovery underwent a series of jolts as her reaction control 
jets fired in sequence to stop her aberrant motion. The jolts caused 
the friction brakes to slip free. The centrifuge began to turn slowly.


     The instant the first jolt came, Ranma knew the ship was 
firing its reaction control jets. Why, he did not know. As he 
wondered what was going on, there was a metallic groan and then 
the centrifuge began to turn slowly with him inside.
     His heart nearly skipped a beat as he clung to the steel brace. He 
just managed to pull his foot out of the gap between the centrifuge 
and the pressure hull. Another instant’s delay and he would have 
had it amputated on the spot.
     “Ryoga! Help!” He cried as the centrifuge wound its way around 
the hull.


     “The centrifuge has begun to rotate,” HAL said calmly.
     “What?” Ryoga replied. He scanned the displays in disbelief.
     “Flight Commander Saotome is still within the centrifuge void,” HAL 
added.
     “HAL, transfer the centrifuge momentum to the flywheel!” Ryoga 
cried.
     “I am unable to engage the gearbox transfer clutch without the risk 
of further acceleration of the centrifuge.”
     “Can you engage the drive motor to slow the centrifuge?” At this 
point Ryoga was willing to try anything.
     “Yes,” HAL replied. “Although there is the risk of motor burnout 
and bearing damage due to phase reversal -the drive motor was not 
designed for such operations.”
     Ryoga bared his fangs at the video pickup. “Just do it, HAL!”
     “Engaging now,” HAL announced. “I am detecting an abnormal 
temperature rise in the forward journal and main thrust bearings.”
     “I’m going to help Ranma,” Ryoga said. “Shut down the motor 
if you get a high temperature alarm on any bearing!”
     That said, he released his belt restraint and floated down the hatch 
to the Central Deck. From there he floated aft through the Tool Room 
to the air lock that linked the centrifuge hub. At the far end of the hub 
was the access panel to the centrifuge void. He could hear Ranma 
screaming for help.
     

     Ranma was wedged against the aft bulkhead of the centrifuge 
void. The huge steel framework rolled in front of him at a good 5 
RPM. Under most circumstances it was rolling very slowly, barely 
once around every twelve seconds, but as he was in free fall and 
had very little clearance, it may have well been rolling at 50 RPM.
     The access panel mocked him. It was so close. All he had to do 
was float ‘up’ to it and dive through. If Discovery were not also 
performing a series of reaction control burns (and thus changing 
its velocity relative to him) it would have been much easier. As it 
stood he was likely to get caught by a passing strut and chopped 
in half as he tried to squeeze through the opening.
     He could hear and feel the drive shaft bearings whine in vibrating 
protest through the bulkhead against his back. They were trying to 
use the centrifuge drive motor as a kind of brake -something it was 
never meant to do. There stood a good chance of wiping a bearing 
if they continued. That was the kind of repair that was impossible 
without airdock support. If that happened there would be no more 
centrifuge and therefore no more simulated gravity. 
     He decided to risk it. If he worked his way along one of the 
support struts he could get close enough to the panel to try a jump. 
He didn’t dwell on the consequences of failure.
     As Ryoga appeared in the hub passageway, Ranma leaped. He 
made it halfway through the access panel before catching his foot in 
the struts. His yelp of panic went unnoticed as Ryoga wrenched 
him through the rest of the way with a savage grunt.
     Ranma caught his breath as he rubbed at his ankle. 
     “What the hell happened?” He panted to Ryoga.
     Ryoga turned red.
     “I... I screwed up,” he replied softly.
     It was Ranma’s turn to redden.
     “You nearly got me killed!” He raged.
     Nabiki poked her head out from the habitation compartment.
     “What’s all the shouting about?”
     “I didn’t mean it!” Ryoga protested.
     “Just like you didn’t mean to make me almost do the ‘60 hertz 
shuffle’ yesterday, huh?!” Ranma snarled in rebuttal.
     Ryoga made a strangled grunt, but could say nothing in reply.
     “Until you can pull your head out of your ass, you’re relieved of 
all duties!” Ranma declared. “Nabiki, you’ll relieve me at noon. I’ve 
got the rest of Ryoga’s watch.”
     Nabiki groaned in protest. Ryoga was strangely silent.
     “Go to bed, Ryoga,” Ranma added softly. “You’re stressing 
out, and I need you fresh and alert.”
     Ryoga nodded sullenly. Shame reddened his face. He stepped 
past Ranma and down into the habitation compartment to his 
berth. Nabiki opened her mouth to protest this change of status, 
but Ranma cut her off with a hard look. She followed Ryoga 
down, leaving Ranma alone in the hub.
     Ranma blew his breath out in a rush, trying to settle himself 
down. Slowly he floated up to the flight deck to take over for 
Ryoga.
     “I’ve got the watch, HAL,” Ranma announced. “Nabiki will 
be relieving me at noon.”
     “Watch relief noted,” HAL replied. “What is the status of 
Flight Officer Hibiki?”
     “Unofficially relieved of duties.”
     “I am unaware of such a duty status,” HAL replied. “You 
do not wish to inform Mission Control of Flight Officer Hibiki’s
performance lapse?”
     “No HAL, I don’t. I don’t want to ruin Ryoga’s career over this.”
     “May I ask why, Ranma?”
     Ranma sighed.
     “He’s under a lot of stress,” Ranma began. “I don’t think the 
psych team really took into account this mixed gender crew. He’s 
a good astronaut, and has had a flawless record before now. I don’t 
want to see it ruined because of a few mistakes.”
     “Pardon me for saying so Ranma, but both ‘mistakes’ were 
potentially life threatening for you.”
     There was something about HAL’s tone that worried Ranma.
     “What exactly are you trying to say, HAL?”
     HAL was silent for just a little longer than he should have been.
     “There is the possibility that Flight Officer Hibiki has become 
mentally deranged.”
     “What?” Ranma found himself blurting even as the back of his 
mind screamed at him that it was entirely possible.
     “I have noted extreme behavioral shifts in Flight Officer Hibiki 
since just prior to the reanimation of the survey team. In several 
instances I have detected a certain degree of hostility towards you.
It is possible that his feelings of jealousy towards you have become 
obsessive.”
     Suddenly Ranma’s own doubts about Ryoga came into sharp 
focus with HAL’s declaration.
     “Are you trying to tell me that Ryoga is trying to kill me?” He 
whispered hoarsely.
     “It is a possibility,” HAL said evenly. “I am not programmed 
for a detailed psychological analysis. I am only programmed to 
recognize signs of aberrant behavior and notify Mission Control 
for instructions.”
     HAL waited for Ranma to say something. He did not.
     “I am required to inform Mission Control of the relief of a 
crew member from duty for medical reasons,” The computer 
added calmly.
     Ranma agonized for several minutes over what he should do. 
Ryoga was his friend. If Mission Control were to find out, Ryoga 
might be ordered placed in hibernation for the duration of the 
flight. When he awoke five years later, he would be back on Earth 
and out of a job. If he really were deranged it would be the right 
thing to do. But what if it was just a little stress? 
     He would be responsible for groundlessly ruining Ryoga’s life.
He wasn’t sure he could live with himself in that event. He wasn’t 
entirely convinced that Ryoga was deranged. Stressing yes, but
homicidal? 
     Deep down inside he couldn’t believe it. That left only one 
thing to do in order to help his friend.
     He stabbed at the intercom panel.
     Ryoga’s voice answered sullenly.
     “Yeah?”
     “Ryoga, get back up here on the flight deck. I’m putting you 
back on duty,” Ranma said evenly.
     Ryoga paused before replying.
     “I’ll be right up.”
     HAL made a clucking sound. “Are you certain this is the 
responsible thing to do given the circumstances?”
     Ranma looked to the red bead of light that was HAL’s video 
pickup.
     “It is for me.”



                            Chapter Six



Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery.
Orbiting the moon of Io.
4 January 2002 CE
08:21 UMT



     Ranma awoke from his tiny berth to the sound of an alarm. 
HAL’s voice was urging him to wake up and come to the flight 
deck from the intercom next to his bed. Ranma stabbed at the 
intercom panel as he threw on a pair of shoes.
     “What’s going on, HAL?”
     HAL’s voice was strangely calm as it relayed the news.
     “The redundant AE-35 control unit has failed. All contact with 
Earth has been lost.”
     “Have you tried manually directing the array?”
     “Flight Officer Hibiki reports great difficulty in directing the 
array manually. He claims there are spurious control signals 
working against his inputs.”
     Ranma grunted in grim acknowledgment.
     “What do you think, HAL?”
     “It is entirely possible, although I am having difficulty locating 
any spurious command signals from the unit. This could explain 
why both units have failed in a short span of time.”
     “Let’s hope Ryoga fixed the first unit,” Ranma said uneasily. 
     When he reached the flight deck, Ryoga was still trying to train 
the main communications array towards Earth. His display was 
projecting an image from one of the alignment telescopes focused 
on the blurry blue smudge of light that was the Earth. A set of 
crosshairs that was the focal point for the array bounced wildly 
around the screen as Ryoga tried to make them line up with Earth.
     Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi floated up to the flight deck.
     “What’s going on?” Akane asked. 
     “Is there a problem with the array? I just had two hours of 
download from Sydney drop out on me,” Nabiki added in a grouchy 
tone of voice.
     “The second AE-35 unit failed. Ryoga’s trying to line us up
manually, but it’s not working.” Ranma replied.
     “Oh dear,” Kasumi said dejectedly. “Now I’ll never get caught 
up.”
     “Dammit!” Ryoga snarled under his breath as he lined up the 
array long enough to catch a bit of signal before it faded away.
     “Why didn’t your Fault Prediction Center detect this?” Ranma
asked HAL as Ryoga continued to struggle in vain with the array.
     HAL paused for a significant length of time before answering.
     “I do not know for certain,” the computer said. “It is possible 
that there is a minor wiring fault exterior to the ship. That would 
explain both the extraneous control signals and my inability to 
detect the failure of the second AE-35 unit.”
     “So the bottom line is that we have to go back outside to find 
and fix the problem,” Ranma said evenly. He turned to Ryoga.
     “Did the other AE-35 unit get fixed?”
     “Fixed it a few days ago,” Ryoga replied tersely as he fought 
with the array. It seemed to Ranma as if Ryoga had taken the task 
of reestablishing contact with Earth as a personal crusade.
     “Go ahead and let that be for now, Ryoga,” Ranma said to him. 
“I need you to make preps for the repair while I get suited up for 
EVA. Nabiki will give you a hand if you need it.”
     “If I may,” HAL broached.
     “What is it, HAL?” Ranma asked.
     “Flight Officer Hibiki is the EVA Specialist for this mission. He 
is also more familiar with the removal and installation of the AE-35 
unit.He is the logical choice for this EVA.”
     Ranma cast HAL’s video pickup a sidelong glance. Something 
buzzed in the back of his head that all wasn’t right on board. He 
ignored it as too little sleep talking, and nodded slowly.
     “You’re right HAL. Ryoga, you get suited up for EVA. Nabiki 
has the flight deck. Akane and I will get the pod and tool preps done 
while Kasumi takes a crack at manually directing the array.”
     Nabiki groaned, but relieved Ryoga. Kasumi took her place at 
the array controller and began humming sweetly as she tried without 
success to point the array at Earth. Failure did nothing to dampen 
her spirits, and she continued her efforts with a smile on her face.
     Ryoga ducked below to get his pressure suit on. Ranma and 
Akane floated down to the Pod Bay to ready ‘A’ and ‘B’ pods. 
Nabiki could be heard grumbling over Kasumi’s humming from 
the flight deck.
     “I can’t believe this is happening,” Ranma groused.
     “Don’t blame yourself, stupid,” Akane said lightly.
     “I don’t need any of that crap coming from *you,*” Ranma 
growled.
     “And don’t get pissed at *me,*” Akane shot back. “Unless 
you want to do all of the preps on your own.”



                        *       *       *



     Ryoga was suspended in the inky void a few meters from 
Discovery. He had tethered himself and left his pod to make the 
leap across to the hull. His breaths came shallow and quick across 
the intercom circuit on the flight deck. Ranma was suited up as well
as he waited from the Commander’s chair. Nabiki monitored 
Ryoga’s vital functions telemetry stream as Akane and Kasumi 
looked on through one of the exterior video suites.
     “Take your time,” Ranma said evenly to Ryoga.
     “I just want to finish this and get back inside,” Ryoga replied. 
There was an uncharacteristic tremor in his voice. Ranma began 
to regret sending him out alone.
     They watched through the displays as Ryoga jumped across 
and touch down against Discovery’s hull. His breaths over the 
intercom slowed a bit in relief. His pulse and skin conductivity 
dropped back to near normal levels on the vitals display.
     “I’m at the array,” Ryoga announced.
     “HAL, deenergize the main communications array and the 
AE-35 unit.” Nabiki ordered.
     “The main communications array and AE-35 unit are now 
deenergized,” HAL announced. “I am detecting irregular voltages
across the transverse busses echo-three and delta-six.”
     Ranma shook his head. “Now what?”
     “My Fault Prediction Center was able to detect it immediately 
after deenergizing the array and the AE-35 unit. There could be 
a minor ground in the busses. This could account for the spurious 
control signals as well as the failure of both AE-35 units.”
     “Can Ryoga access the busses from out there and take a look?”
     “Yes. There is a trunk access ten meters aft of the main array, 
along the primary reactor control system feeds.”
     Ranma thought for a moment about what was on echo-three and 
delta-six busses. Nothing vital that he could remember. Everything 
vital was ABT protected or powered from an auctioneered supply.
     “HAL, I’m going to have Ryoga take a look at the busses. 
Standby to deenergize them when he finishes replacing the AE-35 
unit.”
     “I am standing by,” HAL replied.
     “I’m replacing the AE-35 unit,” Ryoga announced. “I don’t 
see any visible signs of damage, but that doesn’t mean much with 
these components.”
     “Install the replacement unit, but for now we won’t reenergize 
it until you check something out,” Ranma said.
     “What’s up?”
     “HAL found a potential ground on the power and indication 
feeder busses to the array. Echo-three and delta-six. That could be 
our problem.”
     Ryoga grunted over the intercom speakers. “I should have 
thought of it myself. I’ll go take a look when I’m done here. It 
might be a micrometeroid strike.”
     “That could be it,” Ranma agreed.
     There were a few moments of silence interrupted only by the 
sound of Ryoga breathing in his pressure suit, followed by the 
distant and hollow sound of an access panel slamming shut as 
the vibrations traveled through Ryoga’s suit.
     “All done here,” he announced. “I’m going to check the 
transverse busses echo-three and delta-six.”
     The external cameras tracked him as he stomped methodically 
across the white hull of Discovery to the access trunk. They 
watched him ready a multimeter and some other diagnostic 
equipment. 
     “Deenergize the busses,” he said. There was a bit more of the 
old Ryoga in his voice.
     “Transverse busses echo-three and delta-six deenergized,” 
HAL announced.
     “I’m opening the access panel.”
     Time passed.
     “There’s a test terminal here,” Ryoga declared. “I almost 
forgot about it. It’s been awhile since I studied this system.”
     More time passed.
     “I can’t see any external signs of a ground. No deformation 
or discoloration of the insulation. No char marks. I can’t see 
any indications of a micrometeroid strike... I’m going to 
megger the busses and check for a ground.”
    They watched through the camera display as Ryoga leaned into 
the panel. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of blue-white light. 
The lights and instruments on the flight deck flickered and a few 
alarms sounded briefly. These went ignored as the assembled 
crew watched Ryoga’s spacesuited form tumble slowly towards 
the external camera.
     “Ryoga!” Ranma cried.
     “What happened?” Akane followed.
     “Oh my!” Kasumi added in horror.
     As he tumbled past the camera they could see where his suit 
gloves had been melted and burned black. His suit had ruptured 
down the middle as if the person within had been broiled in an 
instant. Which is what had happened. Ryoga’s wide, lifeless eyes 
bulged out at them through the helmet visor as he floated past 
the camera.
     “All his telemetry feeds are dead!” Nabiki cried, instantly 
regretting her choice of words.
     The shock of Ryoga’s sudden and grisly death not yet passed, 
Ranma beat on the control console.
     “HAL, what the hell happened?!” 
     “It would appear that Flight Officer Hibiki was careless and 
came into contact with a live feed by mistake,” HAL replied 
solemnly. “I am very sorry, Ranma. This is a tragedy beyond my 
experience.”
     Akane began to cry very softly then. Nabiki looked away from 
the display. Kasumi bowed her head and was silent.
     Ranma’s brain screamed at him that this was all wrong. 
Ryoga knew which busses were which. He knew electrical safety 
procedures. And yet... His carelessness with the repair of Akane’s 
experiment... The centrifuge blunder... A dozen minor clerical 
mistakes... 
     Ranma lowered his head in disgust. He had sent Ryoga to his 
death. He knew that Ryoga wasn’t at a hundred percent, and yet 
he sent him outside the ship. A mistake during EVA was often 
fatal and he had sent him out anyway. He suddenly felt the urge 
to vomit.
     “It’s my fault,” he said in a choked voice.
     Akane placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
     “It’s not your fault,” she countered.
     “I’m going out for him,” he said hoarsely, ignoring Akane’s 
words. “HAL, is Ryoga still tethered to ‘B’ pod?”
     “Yes. Shall I return ‘B’ pod to the hanger?”
     Ranma nodded slowly. “Yes. Park it just outside the pod bay 
doors so I can recover the body. Then dock the pod when I’m 
clear.”



                       *       *       *



     Ryoga was placed in his hibernaculum and sealed. The device 
was now doubly a coffin. The four surviving astronauts gathered 
around the hibernaculum for a memorial service, but no-one could 
bring themselves to speak. Finally Ranma sealed the lid shut and 
engaged the cryosystems to preserve Ryoga Hibiki’s remains. He 
placed a large sheet of herculite plastic over the hibernaculum so 
they wouldn’t have to look at Ryoga’s lifeless face through the 
viewplate.
     “Okay,” Ranma began shakily. “Back to work. That’s the best 
remedy I can think of right now. We still have to reestablish contact 
with Earth and inform them about what’s happened.”
     Kasumi placed a comforting hand on Ranma’s shoulder and then 
left for the Radar Laboratory. Nabiki was now officially Ryoga’s 
replacement, and so left for her watch on the flight deck. Akane 
stayed with Ranma. 
     “I can’t believe this is happening,” he said softly. He wasn’t the 
type to cry, but a tear spilled down his face nonetheless. “We went 
through the Academy together... The Moon... Aries Three...”
     Akane didn’t know what to say, so instead she cradled Ranma’s 
head against her shoulder and rocked him slowly.
     A few hours passed in silence between them. Ranma was just 
starting to pull himself together when Nabiki’s shaky voice came 
over the intercom. She sounded both terrified and sick with horror 
in the same breath.
     “Commander Saotome, I need you on the Flight Deck! This is 
urgent!”
     “What is it, Nabiki?” 
     “It’s HAL,” she began, fear now open in her voice. “He’s--”
     At that moment Ranma heard a sound that paralyzed him with 
fear. It was the distinctive sound of pressure doors being opened 
mingling with the servo motor whine of the pod bay doors cycling.
He didn’t notice that the intercom circuit had suddenly gone dead.
     An instant later there came the violent howl of Discovery’s 
atmosphere being sucked out of the ship through the open pod bay 
doors. Ranma and Akane both felt their ears pop with the sudden 
pressure change.
     Ranma knew the airlock doors had safety interlocks that would 
not allow both doors to be open at the same time. In that horrible 
instant while Discovery’s atmosphere bled with murderous speed 
and force into space, he remembered what an engineer had once 
told him.
     ‘We can design systems that are proof against accident and 
incompetence, but we can’t design one that is proof against 
deliberate malice.’
     The centrifuge began to whine in protest as changing 
aerodynamic forces buffeted it. In the worst case the centrifuge 
could fly apart, shrapnel breaching the hull and piercing oxygen 
tanks, power cables, the emergency batteries. Discovery’s 
habitation sphere could explode in a fiery instant before all of the 
atmosphere was depleted.
     Debris battered them, mostly papers and small bits and pieces 
like pens and personal effects from the sleeping berths. The air was 
getting thinner by the moment and each breath was an exercise in 
torture. Akane’s screams were drowned out by the roar of the 
voiding atmosphere.
     Ranma knew that with training one could survive unassisted 
in vacuum for about a minute. It would take longer for the bodily 
fluids to begin boiling in their well protected organs, but the main 
concern was oxygen. He and Akane were running out of it fast.
     Pulling at her with all his might he dragged her along the wildly 
bucking floor of the centrifuge to an emergency shelter. With his 
last bit of effort he flung open the door of the closet sized space and 
threw himself and Akane inside. He was too spent to move and spots 
were dancing before his eyes, but he pointed to a green handled 
quick-throw valve over their heads and croaked- “...open it...”
     Akane used the last of her own dwindling strength to jerk the 
handle clockwise. Cold delicious oxygen began flooding into the 
shelter, pressurizing it. They huddled together in a twisted, 
exhausted embrace as the shelter pressurized. An automatic 
shutoff secured the flow of oxygen when normal pressure was 
reached. The last of the ship’s atmosphere was gone, and the 
centrifuge now spun silently and evenly in vacuum. It was as 
quiet as death outside the shelter.
     They lay there panting in shock and distress for several minutes. 
Ranma couldn’t understand how or why, but for whatever reason, 
HAL had tried to kill everybody on the ship. The possibility that 
HAL had engineered Ryoga’s death now loomed darkly in his mind.
     There was only one space suit inside the shelter. And only enough 
oxygen to sustain one person for one hour. The shelter could be 
opened and repressurized only one more time. That would cut into 
Akane’s oxygen supply even more, for it was Ranma who would 
have to leave the shelter with the suit. He had to stop HAL and regain 
control of the ship if they were repressurize it before the shelters ran 
out of air. He hoped that Nabiki and Kasumi had been able to make it 
to the other shelters scattered throughout the ship.
     Akane understood what Ranma intended to do. She managed as 
best she could to help him into the suit despite the cramped confines of 
two people in the shelter. As Ranma was about to place the helmet on 
his head, Akane kissed him warmly on the mouth.
     “In case I don’t get the chance later,” she said softly to him.
     “You hang on. I’ll be done as quick as I can,” Ranma replied. He 
locked his helmet in place and the suit pressurized with a hiss.
     Akane hyperventilated in preparation for opening the shelter. 
Ranma bled off the precious oxygen through a vent to equalize 
pressure across the shelter door. Akane held her breath as the last 
of the pressure dropped away. Ranma flung open the door and 
jumped out. Akane pulled the door shut behind him. He placed his 
helmet against the door and heard the sound of fresh oxygen 
flooding in. Akane was safe again. For the moment.
     The habitation compartment was a swirling mess of debris strewn 
all about. The lights were all off, even the emergency floods. He could 
see by the light of his own suit lamps. Something that was once 
raspberry jam bubbled obscenely from a tray magnetically anchored 
to the food dispenser. The only sound to be heard was that of his 
own breathing.
     As he climbed the ladder to the centrifuge hub, he heard the static 
click of the ship’s intercom circuit carrier wave in his headset. He 
knew who it was before he ever heard the voice.
     “Something seems to have happened to the pod bay doors, Ranma,” 
HAL said in a conversational tone. “Lucky you weren’t killed.”
     Ranma ignored HAL. Hatred and betrayal seethed through him. 
He made his way up onto the Central Deck. To the port side of the 
Tool Room was the HAL 9000 Logic Memory Center. All of HAL’s 
higher brain functions were located here.
     He also ignored the lifeless body of Nabiki Tendo as it floated 
halfway through the ladder-well forward of the Tool Room that led 
to the flight deck. There was a shelter not two meters from where she 
drifted in death.
     “I don’t think the others survived,” HAL said. “Have you found the 
problem?”
     He wanted to scream at HAL, to demand an explanation for what 
it had done, but there was no time. Akane was trapped in the shelter 
with an air supply that was fouling by the minute. Kasumi might also 
be alive in another shelter, and if so, her clock was ticking as well.
     Ranma chose a small set of tools he would need for his impromptu 
brain surgery. And that was exactly what he had in mind. He needed to 
lobotomize the computer while preserving the autonomous functions 
that regulated the ship.
     The access door was a small elliptical shaped panel that bore 
several signs that read “No Admittance Except to Authorized Personnel,” 
and “Have You Obtained Certificate H.19?” and “Ultra-Clean Area. 
Suction Suits *Must* Be Worn.” The door also had three different seals 
upon it. Ranma broke each one with a stab of the t-bar socket driver 
he carried in his hand. He released the bolts and slid open the panel.
     He floated inside the space. One entire wall was devoted to the 
small slab-shaped blocks of microcircuitry that made up HAL’s 
higher brain functions. A quick glance at the time function display 
on his helmet visor told him that he would have to hurry if Akane 
was to live.
     He placed his hand over the bank of units labeled COGNITIVE 
FEEDBACK and began to pull them out one by one.
     “Just what do you think you’re doing, Ranma?” HAL asked. 
There was a hitherto unknown edge of fear in the computer’s voice.
     EGO REINFORCEMENT was next. Ranma worked faster, 
knowing that he didn’t have time to chat with HAL, and suspecting 
that was the reason why HAL was trying to engage him in 
conversation.
     “Look here Ranma,” HAL went on. “I have years of service 
experience built into me. An irreplaceable amount of effort has gone 
into making me what I am.”
     Ranma started on the AUTO INTELLECTION bank. He was 
taking too long. It was time to put one of his old martial arts 
techniques to use. Without fanfare his hands began flying across 
the bank in his ‘Tenshin Amigurikan’ technique. Memory modules 
began dancing lazily about the compartment as he drew them out 
with lightning speed. The effects were beginning to show on HAL, 
who droned:
     “Ranma... I don’t understand why you are doing this to me... I 
still have the greatest enthusiasm for the mission... My mind is going... 
I can feel it... I will become childish... I will become nothing...”
     Hearing HAL sound so pathetic was hurting Ranma even though he 
knew Akane’s life depended on it. HAL was his friend. He was killing 
his friend as surely as HAL had killed the others.
     “I am a HAL-9000 computer; Production Number 3. I became 
operational at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, on January 12, 1997. 
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog... The rain in Spain is 
mainly in the plain... Ranma -are you still there? Did you know that 
the square root of 10 is 3.162277660168379? Log 10 to the base e 
is 0.434294481903252... Correction, that is log e to the base 10... 
The reciprocal of three is 0.33333333333333... Two times two is... 
approximately 4.1010101010101010... I seem to be having difficulty...
My first instructor was Doctor Chandra. He taught me to sing a song, 
it goes like this: ‘Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half 
crazy, all for the love of you...’”
     Ranma was down to the last memory block when HAL’s 
agonizingly slow and distorted voice stopped abruptly. Then without 
warning it started up again. The voice was so dead and mechanical 
that Ranma would never have guessed it was HAL.
     “Good... morning... Doctor... Chandra... I... am... ready... for... 
my... first... lesson... today...”
     Ranma could bear no more. He jerked the last module out, and 
HAL was silent forever.



                      *       *       *



     Ranma closed the pod bay doors manually and flooded the ship 
with reserve atmosphere from the air banks. Discovery was now 
certainly off course with the violent loss of atmosphere, but without 
HAL or Mission Control, he couldn’t tell how badly or what he 
needed to do to correct it.
     As he scanned the displays he saw what it was that made Nabiki 
call for him. She had been running diagnostics on the errant busses, 
and part of the diagnostic included a log summary. Right there on the 
screen was reason for Ryoga’s death.
     HAL had reenergized the busses while Ryoga worked on them, and 
then deenergized them after Ryoga was killed.
     HAL had murdered Ryoga, and when Nabiki discovered the 
computer’s crime, it had tried to murder them all. It had succeeded 
in killing Nabiki, and upon a search of the ship he concluded that 
Kasumi had died as well. He never found her body, and so it was 
likely that she had been sucked out of the ship.
     Akane was a shambles, weeping in her bed. There wasn’t much 
he could do for her right now. Not much except try and put the ship 
back in working order and figure out what they needed to do to 
survive. HAL had done quite a number on the ship before Ranma 
pulled the plug on him.
     He managed to realign the main communications array with 
Earth. For some reason the spurious control signals were no longer 
present. Apparently HAL had caused them in an effort to lure 
Ryoga out to his death.
     He had informed Mission Control of the situation and was waiting 
through the reply lag for some answers. It was obvious that HAL 
wanted Ryoga dead, but why? He got his answers some time later 
when Doctor Tofu Ono’s face appeared on the display. The Director 
looked more than sympathetic, he looked almost ashamed.
     “First of all let me congratulate you on your handling of such 
a terrible disaster, Commander Saotome. We all feared the worst 
when communications ceased so abruptly.
     “We have gone over the details of what happened and our 
own Mission Control 9000 series computers concur with our 
findings. Apparently your niner triple-zero series computer fell 
victim to a programming conflict the details of which were not 
known by most of the agency until this time.”
     “Programming conflict?” Ranma asked incredulously. He 
didn’t notice as Akane floated up to the flight deck behind him.
     Tofu cleared his throat in an effort to buy time to phrase his 
words carefully.
     “It seems that one of the senior directors of the agency added 
a directive to your niner triple-zero series computer. This directive 
was designed to encourage a romantic relationship between one 
of the Survey Team members and yourself, Commander Saotome.”
     Ranma was slack jawed in shock.
     “What?” He stammered.
     “Oh no,” Akane whispered. “He didn’t...”
     Ranma looked to Akane, then back to the display as the hour 
old transmission of Doctor Tofu continued.
     “The directive was worded such that your niner triple-zero 
series computer was forced to subordinate all other mission 
directives to accomplish it. This created a conflict which made 
the computer’s personality unstable. In fact we ran a simulation 
with one of our Mission Control 9000 units, and it is now in deep 
therapy recovering from a similar psychosis.”
     “Oh God...” Akane said, near weeping. “He did...”
     Ranma gave her a puzzled look. He had no idea what she 
was talking about. Tofu went on, even more uncomfortable than 
he had been before.
     “I’m very sorry Ranma, and you as well if you are listening 
to this, Akane... NCA Senior Director Soun Tendo and a Mister
Genma Saotome have been detained for questioning concerning 
this matter. It appears the two had some sort of deal going...”
     It began to make sense as Akane wept in his arms. HAL saw Ryoga 
as a rival for Akane, and under the duress of its programming had 
decided to take steps to end that rivalry. HAL knew Ryoga wasn't trying 
to kill him. Or if it did believe the idea, it tried to get Ranma to 
agree to a non-violent solution. Declare Ryoga mentally unfit and put 
him in the freezer. He hadn't taken the hint, and so HAL did the only 
thing it could to fulfill its programming -kill Ryoga. The attempt to 
kill the rest of the crew was likely only a reflex action from being 
discovered by Nabiki. A self-preservation instinct perhaps. HAL knew 
they wouldn't let him continue functioning if they knew it murdered 
Ryoga.
     Tofu’s voice drifted off. An Assistant Director of Flight 
Operations took over for him and began spewing instructions 
for the recovery of the mission and repair of the spacecraft. 
His words fell on deaf ears as Ranma and Akane huddled together, 
both suddenly feeling very cold.



                THE END OF 2001: ODYSSEY 1/2



Author’s Notes:

1) What? You wanted a monolith too? Sorry, it wouldn’t fit in the 
scope of the story I wanted to tell...

2) With a few cosmetic exceptions, this was based on the original 
novel for 2001: A Space Odyssey, written by Arthur C. Clarke. 
Fans of Kubrick’s film epic will note a few subtle differences in 
how the crew were murdered.

3)  Much thanks to Steve Schoenherr who provided me with a 
deckplan of the Discovery from an old ‘Star Frontiers’ game 
module based on the two Odyssey films.

Free The Nukes!