"Get a little closer, Ryo-Ohki. You've almost got it."
Ryouko's orders seemed to echo through the bridge as Aeka watched the main
viewscreen, and observed the events unfolding outside. The cables from
Ryo-Ohki's docking bay had latched on to the strut that connected the port
side engine to the slender main body of the dull green Galaxy Police
cruiser. Once the cabbit had a firm grip on the drifting starship, it could
maneuver the other vehicle around and position it so that it could connect
with the smaller starship's airlock and transfer the two detectives over.
The moment everyone was on board, Ryo-Ohki would head to the nearby planet
and drop the police off so that they could begin procedures to recover
their starship.
It was the third dead Galaxy Police vessel they had come across in the last
ten hours. The first one they had stumbled upon was drifting above the
recreation planet Fantasia IX, a planet she and Ryouko had visited to look
for Tenchi. Of course they were obligated to assist the helpless spaceship,
although Ryouko had to put up at least a token protest about going out of
her way to help the Galaxy Police. To Ryouko's credit, it had taken little
in the way of cajoling to get her to agree to the rescue.
That one had gone easily enough. When Aeka inquired as to what happened,
Detective Second Class Psicolpe had told her that he wasn't sure. He had
received a Priority Alpha One emergency transmission from headquarters.
Within moments after receiving it, the power began to fluctuate on the
ship. By the time he realized what was happening, the whole thing had shut
down and he was left to drift alone in space, completely powerless. He had
been working on trying to recover power when Ryo-Ohki stumbled on him in
space.
After they safely delivered him to the planet's surface, they took off once
more, only to be confronted with the exact same situation upon entering the
next system in their search. Upon discovering yet a second Galaxy Police
starship in a similar predicament, Aeka and Ryouko became truly frightened.
After all, their beloved Tenchi (and Mihoshi, for that matter) was on a
Galaxy Police starship as well, and if what had happened to these two had
happened to her ship as well...
They had hurried and deposited the second officer on the closest civilized
planet they could find. By the time they made planetfall, transmissions
began coming in that contact had been lost with Galaxy Police headquarters,
nor could anyone seem to contact any of their spaceships either. Even
ground based facilities' systems had lost power. It seemed as thought the
entire Galaxy Police force had been rendered powerless, literally.
While Aeka and Ryouko waited for more reports to come in, seeing if there
were any about Tenchi, they were informed that there had been another
Galaxy Police ship in orbit around one of the planet's moons and no one had
been able to contact it since. Since there was a lack of vehicles that
could perform the necessary rescue, they asked if 'the Royal Princess would
be so kind as to help save that poor stranded policeman before he ran out
of air or his ship crashed into the moon?'
It was a harder task than it sounded. Every moment they spent (Aeka refused
to call the moments wasted) rescuing others was another moment Tenchi might
have been in terrible danger. Surely the same fate that had befallen the
other police ships had also happened to Mihoshi's. At that very second
Tenchi could have been plummeting to a star, or dying of lack of oxygen, or
something even worse. But at the same time neither of them could just leave
a man to die in space. Besides their own consciences, Tenchi would never
have forgiven them if he learned that they had allowed someone to die just
so he could be rescued.
Much to Aeka's surprise, it was Ryouko who tried to reassure her that
Tenchi was probably all right and that they shouldn't worry needlessly. It
was a touching gesture on her part, but even Aeka could see that it was
also something Ryouko had said to reassure herself as well. It even helped,
a little.
Every moment seemed an eternity as the police ship was slowly rotated into
its proper position. It was taking too long. Somewhere, out there, Tenchi
was waiting for them. His life was depending on it. She was certain.
"Be safe, Lord Tenchi," she whispered into the vastness of space.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vacation Days
Chapter 5
A Tenchi Muyo! Fic
This uses the OVA continuity.
Any and all C+C craved for. You can contact me at:
sommer@3rdm.net
Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Tenchi Muyo! materials
All of my stuff is now stored at:
http://angcobra.jumpfun.com/dbsommer.html
Yeesh. This thing is getting bigger than even I thought it would.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The world had been turned upside down.
No. That couldn't be right. A spaceship could be turned upside down, but
not an entire world. It had to be something else. Something that actually
made sense. What could it be? Maybe if he tired concentrating.
There were mental exercises he had been taught to focus his mind,
concentrating on an imaginary point of light in a field of darkness and
drawing it closer to himself at a steady, yet constant, pace. Using that
method had enabled him to harness and control his innate power. He no
longer needed to use the mental exercise for that, but the method was still
within him. The field of darkness was easy, the light almost as much. By
the time he had drawn it close to him, he was ready to open his eyes and
embrace world once more.
Where confusion had once held sway, now there was peace. Everything made
sense now, assuming there was sense in the universe to begin with. The
world only appeared upside down because Sa'bre Stargrave himself was upside
down. And that was because his ship was upside down as well. He could tell
from the shattered remains of the bridge around him that appeared just as
upright as he. It was an illusion. Gravity told a different tale.
The portion of the world that had seemed to be upside down was that which
could be seen outside the hole that now dominated the port side of what had
once been the bridge. Stargrave's face had been pointed in that direction
when consciousness had returned. Sunlight streamed in from the hole, which
was for the best since there was no longer any power on the bridge, not
even of a reserve to power the emergency lights. And under the
circumstances, being upside down with a big hole in your forward bridge was
preferable to hanging upside down in pitch darkness.
Fresh air, with the scent of jasmine and a hint of willow, blew in a gust
from the hole. That solved the question as to whether the planet they had
landed on had a habitable atmosphere, as the starcharts had suggested. It
seemed to be supporting life as well, if the grass that could be seen from
the hole was any indication. Two things were going for it. Now it was time
for the third: to see if it had allowed them to have a landing they could
walk away from.
His comprehension of the situation had taken less then three seconds. As he
turned his attention from the outside, he realized that he had been too
focused on discovering the reason of why the world had seemed upside down.
With all of his concentration on that one fact, he hadn't realized that
there was a woman locked in a deathgrip with his safety restraint, and that
his arms were around her as well. Ariana, he remembered. He had grabbed
onto her during the turbulence, and she in turn had held onto him. Even the
crash had not been enough to break their embrace.
"Are you all right?" Ariana asked while still upside down, keeping her hold
on the restraint. Due to both her own physiology and extensive physical
training, she could have remained in that position for another twenty
minutes before fatigue set in.
"Time to get down," Stargrave told her as an answer to her question. She
nodded in agreement. As he loosened his hold in her, she tucked her legs up
and curled into a ball. Then she extended them, spinning so that she was
now turned right side up and fell the ten feet to the bottom of what was
once a ceiling not more than five minutes ago. The maneuver was simple for
her as she landed gracefully on her feet, tensed and ready for action the
moment she touched the ground.
A few meters behind the captain's chair a similar scene occurred as Onita
released his hold on Funuyaki. She too touched down easily enough, though
she lacked the smooth motion that Ariana had possessed in her own landing.
Ariana held her hands high as Stargrave loosened his restraint. Unlike her,
he halfway fell until Ariana caught him. Only a little bit of air escaped
from her lungs despite the eighty pounds weight advantage he had on her.
She set him down as gently as a cat would a newborn kitten and looked over
him with an equal amount of concern.
"I'm all right," Stargrave assured her as he took a moment to accurately
assess the damage done to his crew and ship.
"Considerable," was the first word that came to his mind. "Complete," was
the next. There was no power. A ten foot diameter hole in the bridge. All
of the equipment ruined. The smell of burned circuitry. The rear portions
of his ship missing, if the diagnostic he had run before the crash was
accurate. Those were the mechanical resources left.
His living ones did not fare much better. Fera jumped down even more
gracefully from her pilot's seat towards the front. Her copilot, Cheng, had
been less fortunate since he had been on the part of the bridge that was
now a hole. Looking up and to his left, Sa'bre saw Onita helping Malguant
down from his seat, but his communication's officer was dead. Streen's seat
had held firm in the crash. Too bad the sensor panel hadn't as it had been
driven up (down now, actually) and into Streen. His head was still sticking
in the broken screen that had tracked Mihoshi's ship the instant it had
entered the system. Now neither man nor machine worked at all.
There were others too. Slykes was dead, as Stargrave had expected when the
ship was out of control in space. Rakham, the gunnery officer, was lying on
the floor too, his back twisted at an impossible angle. Moans of pain were
coming from Joffry's position on the newly christened floor. A closer look
showed a blackened bone sticking out of one of his pant legs. The other was
twisted just as badly as Rakham's back had been. The color of the bone was
normal: Joffry was Ankatackian after all. Their outward appearance was like
that of many bipedal races, but they were actually a great deal more
durable than most with their dense skin and internal tissues. Anyone else,
and their legs would probably have been torn off. True, he would be next to
useless in the future until his legs were repaired, but with nearly
everyone else dead, even the breathing would serve a useful function.
Angstrom, the science officer/assistant cook/number's man was alive and
appeared unharmed, save for a dark bruise at his temple. Yoost, his chief
computer programmer and hacker, was alive and without a mark on him. And
naturally, Malguant's two assistants just had to be alive and well too.
Sometimes the unworthy had all the luck.
Forty-two out of forty-seven of his crew were gone. They had been hand
picked by Stargrave himself. The best people at each of their positions in
his organization, all dead now. It would take him months, if not years to
recover and get people as good, and as relatively trustworthy, as the ones
he had just lost. Years of preparation wasted in a matter of minutes, with
so many dead-
A rectangular piece of metal that had broken off one of the consoles moved,
and a grayish lump in baggy coveralls appeared. It looked the remains of
the bridge over once and said, "I've been in worse crashes before."
Forty-one out of forty-seven then. "I should have known you'd survive."
Stargrave addressed Autolycus in a droll voice.
"Of course." Autolycus felt a tinge of disappointment at being
underestimated. "You don't get to live as long as I have without learning a
trick or two on how to survive spaceship crashes."
"A pity most of the crew didn't have your expertise," Malgaunt said as he
finished doing his own examination of the remains of the bridge. "We'd
better see if there are any other survivors."
"There aren't," Stargrave assured him. Remorse threatened to overwhelm him
looking over the ruins of his ship. "Everything towards the back,
everything that was still attached, lost atmosphere when the hull was
compromised. We need to find out what's still functioning."
Ariana and Yoost tended to Joffry's shattered legs while Angstrom placed a
couple of larger, and more solid-looking, pieces of debris on top of one
another directly under the communications console. He balanced himself
carefully, wobbling several times before finding a good spot to balance
himself on, and began dismantling one of the panels attached to the base of
the console.
"What are you doing?" Stargrave asked.
A panel came away in Angstrom's hands. "There are a couple of reserve sets
of communication equipment stored under here. Smaller rigs. ARR-80's if I
remember correctly. Slykes kept them here just in case the primary set went
down and we needed backup fast. Also, a lot of the parts are compatible
with the main console, and we could cannibalize the smaller units to repair
the main one."
"They have an independent power supply?" Stargrave asked.
"Yes." Angstrom struggled to pull a rectangular black case from out of the
niche in the console. It came free with a pop, a trail of wires playing out
from a hole in the back of the case. "So much for this one."
Angstrom tossed the case aside and repeated the process on a second panel.
This time he was rewarded with an intact unit. A quick check showed that it
was still in working order. "As it stands, this thing can send a signal up
to three systems away. But I think I can boost the signal by jury rigging
it to the remains of the primary unit so that we can get a hyperspace
signal out."
"Do it," Stargrave ordered. Now that they had a chance of communicating
outside of the system. That meant they wouldn't be stranded in the middle
of nowhere for an eternity. With that new found hope, Stargrave began
taking control of the situation. "We're going to keep looking for
salvageable equipment. I want everything we can possibly use found.
Weapons. Food. Something to make a shelter out of. Importa..."
Everyone watched as Stargrave's face grew pale and his lower lip began
trembling. He appeared to age ten years in a matter of heartbeats.
Ariana was the first to react. "What's-"
"The Shihana!" Stargrave rushed out of the hole in the bridge. Sunlight
washed over him. He was temporarily blinded by the glare of the twin suns
high in the sky, but he refused to let that stop him as he staggered
towards the rear of the ship and looked around in desperation. The area
they had landed was rocky, with tall gray stones that seemed to stick out
at semi-regular intervals next to the ship. Sa'bre's breathing was ragged,
despite what little physical exertion running outside required. He
maneuvered around two stones that stood as tall as him before he arrived at
the section of the ship he wanted.
It was only once he was outside that the damage to the Rack N' Ruin could
truly be appreciated. Over half of the ship was missing, and what remained
of it might as well not have been there either. Numerous holes, some the
size of a quarter to others five feet wide, riddled the hull where pieces
of debris from the dreadnought had struck. Scorch marks covered the length
of the ship from the burning reentry it had just undergone. And large
strips wood were peeled back, as though carpenter had come and tried to
whittle the starship down to a toothpick.
But none of that mattered to Stargrave. The only thing he cared about was
his Shihana, and the special container it had been in. It took him a moment
to piece together what was left of the ship and figure out where the
cylinder should have been. He scanned the top of the upside down vessel,
desperately trying to find the attachment.
Eventually he found where it should have been. The part of the ship it had
been attached had not been lost with the rest of the vessel. However, all
that remained of the cylinder were four small metal struts, twisted and
blackened, signifying where the container with the Shihana had been.
"NOOO!" Stargrave fell to his knees and wailed to the skies above. "It's
gone! It's gone! All of my dreams! Why?! Why?!"
The others had followed Stargrave as quickly as they could when he had
first run outside. Like him, they had been blinded. Unlike him, they waited
until their eyes had adjusted before trying to follow. They caught up to
him quickly, just in time to see him scream in rage at the skies and curse
every deity he could name. Ariana moved to comfort him, but the moment he
was aware of her presence, Sa'bre lashed out with a backhand. Her hand
blocked the blow, a reflex, but though it had not connected, it hurt her
just as much as if it had
"It was all for nothing!" Anger was now overriding the hopeless feeling in
his breast. "My dreams are finished! It's gone! The last Shihana in the
universe is-"
"- Approximately forty kilometers to the southeast," Malgaunt said calmly
as he stared at a red and green device that fit squarely in the palm of his
hand.
All eyes turned towards him. Stargrave returned to his feet and took
several slow steps towards Malgaunt, almost afraid if he approached too
fast that the man would disappear, as though he were nothing more than a
dream. "What do you mean?"
Malgaunt held up the device, displaying it for all to see, but for
Stargrave most of all. "I didn't want to take any chances on our prize
becoming 'mislocated' somehow, so I took the precaution of placing a
tracking device on the adamantine shell of the Shihana. Actually, it's
placed on the inside of the keypad locking mechanism. As long as it remains
intact, so will the tracking device. And according to this, our little
flower is located forty kilometers to the southeast. Forty point three, to
be more precise."
"How do we know it wasn't destroyed when it hit the planet?" Onita asked.
"Admantine is strong enough to withstand orbital reentry," Malguant
informed him. "The Shihana is intact. All we have to do is recover it."
"First we have to get that transmitter working," Funuyaki corrected.
"Recovering the Shihana won't mean anything if we're stranded on this rock
with no way of getting off. Hell, unless someone thought to tell someone
else where we were rendezvousing with Yagdagron, even the few people in the
universe that don't want to blow our heads off won't know where to look for
us."
Stargrave shook his head. "Myself and Malgaunt were the only ones who knew
we would be in this sector. I didn't inform Captain Yolleth until after we
had landed on the station of where the rendezvous was to take place. I
didn't want to take any chances with leaks on the Yagdagron's side. She
might have informed her fleet where she was after I sent her the
coordinates, but I doubt it. She was running under radio silence so as to
keep anyone from picking up an errant transmission and somehow stumbling
onto us."
"Meaning without that transmitter, we might as well plant the Shihana
ourselves," Funuyaki finished. That was the problem when you were trying to
maintain a high level of secrecy; you never told anyone anything, and now
they were going to pay for it.
With a reluctant nod in Funuyaki's direction, Stargrave found himself
agreeing with her. "Angstrom. Get that transmitter working. As for the rest
of us, we're going after the Shihana right now."
"Why bother?" Malgaunt said as he began to make his way back towards the
bridge. "It's not going anywhere. And I want that transmitter working now.
Once it's sending our emergency signal, then we can run off and get back
our prize."
"I'd feel better with it in hand," Stargrave said.
"If we're going to make a forty kilometer trek, I want supplies," Malgaunt
countered. "This planet hasn't been that accurately surveyed. All we know
is it has a breathable atmosphere, no known intelligent lifeforms, and no
nearby inhabited planets. There's no telling what sort of predators are out
there, or if the plant or animal life is safe to eat. We don't even know
what the weather's like. The Shihana isn't going anywhere on its own. We've
got plenty of time to gather supplies together and get to our flower in
good enough shape to bring it back."
That was good enough for Onita and especially Funuyaki. The remaining
members of the Rack N' Ruin looked towards their captain for what to do
next.
"Very well," Stargrave admitted reluctantly. "We'll get the transmitter
working, salvage what we can, then set out. Do you have an extra locator?"
"Yes," Malgaunt said a bit warily.
Stargrave walked up to Malgaunt and held out his hand. "I want one just in
case something happens to the one you have, or something happens to you."
Under a different set of circumstances, or with someone he trusted less,
Malgaunt would never have done it. But the stakes were too high not to take
risks. He and Stargrave still needed each other, and he trusted the pirate
as much as he could anyone, so he gave him the extra locator. It went into
the pocket of Stargrave's purple outfit in an instant.
Stargrave rested his hand on Malgaunt's shoulder. "We still have a chance
to win the grand prize. My thanks, my friend."
"And to you," Malgaunt returned the gesture.
Off to the side, Funuyaki's eyes narrowed slightly. For a moment there,
when she thought that Shihana had been destroyed, she held onto the hope
that she had at last been cut free of the whole disastrous situation.
Without the planet killer, their whole misbegotten mission would have been
at an end and she might have been able to salvage something of her own from
the situation. But no longer. Once again the chain on her neck was pulled,
reminding her of who she still answered to, and that she was once more
brought back into the folds of the most dangerous of games.
"I wonder what happened to that Galaxy Police officer," Autolycus said as
the party made its way back to the bridge to begin salvaging the wreck.
"She's dead. Her ship was completely gutted and she was leaking radiation.
Even if it somehow made it to the planet instead of exploding in deep
space, her ship probably broke up in the atmosphere," Ariana said. "And
even if it didn't, she wouldn't have survived planetfall."
"We did," Fera reminded her.
The thoughts were scrambled, a chaotic jumble of clashing images and sounds
that whirled through the mind at an incomprehensible pace. Only forever and
only for a moment the pandemonium lasted, then, through the cacophony, a
sort of pattern began to form. A thing that resembled coherence.
[You were thinking about something,] a little voice said at the back of a
mind.
Yes, that was right, he had been thinking of something. What was it?
The thoughts came closer together, revealing themselves from the mist. [You
were evaluating your life. People tend to do that when confronted with
almost certain death situations. Although I think it was actually a first
for you, in spite of the numerous times your life has been in mortal
danger.]
Right. That was it. His life had flashed right before his eyes. His mother
had been there. So had his father, and his little cat that had died a while
back. All of the later people that had recently entered his life had
introduced themselves towards the end as well. Sasami, Aeka, Ryouko,
Mihoshi, Washuu, even Ryo-Ohki. And carrots. There were lots of carrots. He
was starting to hate carrots. Working in the fields was hard on his back,
and he had never been wild about the vegetables in the first place. Anymore
now it had seemed that was all he did was hoe and till, and till hoe and-
[You're getting off track there, boy. Bring it back in.]
Right. He hadn't dwelled that long on the carrots in the flashback anyhow.
There had been bad guys too. Dr. Clay. Kagato. That odd couple of guys that
had wanted to lock him up on a spaceship and send him really crappy movies.
What were their names again? Dr. Forest and Francis? Frunk? Frenk?
[Forget them. They were a couple of twits anyway. There was actually one,
single, important thought in that mostly pointless little review you went
though. Towards the end. Try and remember it.]
What were the last thought that had gone through his mind? Something about
forgetting to pack extra underwear for his trip?
[No.]
Worrying about the 'B' he was getting in Home Economics?
[No.]
That time he had looked through his father's collection of films and
stumbled upon the 'special' one that had starred his mother, father,
copious amounts of whip cream, and leather? That had been a seriously
traumatizing incident. Parents weren't supposed to do THAT sort of thing,
or at least their children weren't supposed to see it.
[NOT THAT EITHER! THINK MAN! THINK!]
Ah, yes. It was coming back to him now. It was something about being
wishy-washy.
[Yes.]
Something about a choice.
[Yes. That's it.]
Something about being wishy-washy and making a choice.
[Yes. Keep going. You almost have it.]
It was about finally making a choice concerning one of the gir-
Nope didn't remember it no sir completely lost from the memory forever and
wasn't ever going to come back in any way shape or form so it would be best
just to drop the subject completely and never consider it again since he
was never going to actually think about it and that was that about that.
[Pussy.]
Shut up.
And, much to Tenchi's relief, he woke up.
"Stupid voice," he muttered to himself. It took a couple of seconds before
full consciousness returned and he was oriented enough to move. The first
thing he did was try to sit up, which he ended up regretting a moment
later. Either he had hit something, or something had hit him, in the head.
There was a large bump on the top of his skull, but no blood. His initial
confusion had passed quickly enough to lead him to conclude that whatever
damage he had taken was minor. Perhaps the blow to the head was what had
triggered that strange voice in his head. It was silent now, and that was
all that really mattered. Once the initial wave of pain and disorientation
passed, Tenchi remembered where he was and what events had lead him to his
current predicament. And that there was one other person also involved.
"Mihoshi." He began looking around the ruins of the bridge. It was a mess,
with computer banks having been ripped from their location, wires sticking
out everywhere, glass from the broken lights above scattered on the floor,
and the material from Mihoshi's normal mess thrown about into different
messes. Even part of the wall next to the rear of the ship had buckled
inward, disgorging torn metal and wiring all about that side of the room.
Mihoshi had to be all right. If anything had happened to her, when he
hadn't been able to help even though he was right there, he would never
forgive himself.
A groan came from somewhere to his left. He looked and saw a pair of legs,
encased in blue pants, sticking straight up from among a pile of debris.
They began wriggling of their own accord, and a soft voice filled with woe
said, "Ohh. It feels like I've been in a spaceship crash."
"You have," Tenchi said as he made his way over and helped Mihoshi out of
the pile. After he helping her to her feet, and she after she confirmed
that the world had stopped spinning for her benefit, they assessed the
damage to their craft even as the crew of the Rack N' Ruin were doing at
that moment a hundred kilometers away. The assessment was finished quickly,
since virtually nothing worked on the entire ship.
After failing to get any but the most basic of systems to work, Mihoshi
gave up. "I'll try to get Yukinojo back on line. He might be able to help."
It took her a few moments to hook up what little power remained to get him
running again.
The head unit that he used to communicate with the others was in shambles.
The left half of the mechanical face was torn off and a series of wires
hung down like a clump of yellow Spanish moss. One of the ocular units had
fallen out, the eye-like camera hanging like an eyeball with the optical
nerve keeping it from falling to the floor. And a greenish fluid would
occasionally spurt out the side, shooting several feet away. Both Tenchi
and Mihoshi winced at seeing him in such a way.
Static overwhelmed what little Yukinojo's audio program could get out. It
took a while for, "I don*ZKT* feel so *ZKT*ood," to come out clear enough
for the others to understand.
"You don't look too good, either. "It was hard for Mihoshi to rein in the
tears she felt coming to the fore. Yukinojo would want her to be strong. It
was her duty as a Galaxy Police officer to remain stoic and calm.
"But I can't help myself. WAAAA!"
Tenchi winced as the deluge started, waited until it hits its apex, then
relaxed as it began to subside.
"Do*ZKT* shed tears f*ZKT* me," Yukinojo told her.
"How bad is it?" Tenchi asked, feeling a surge of depression threaten to
overwhelm him. He had barely known Yukinojo, and he was only a machine, but
he seemed so lifelike that the idea of possibly losing the computer was
affecting him.
"Too dam*ZKT*d to run a *ZKT*ognistic."
Mihoshi sniffled again, then composed herself as best as she could. There
were still some options open to her, but there was something she had to
know first. "Is your main memory core intact?"
"*ZKT*nk so."
"Then I think I can save your primary neural net." She went over to one of
the computer consoles next to the control panel. She hit a button, but
nothing happened. Frustrated, she tried manually opening a compartment that
didn't have a manual lever. Digging her fingers in as deeply as she could
at a corner of the metal cover of the compartment, she braced her leg
against a side and pulled as hard as she could. The air was filled with the
sounds of her gasping and groaning, but the metal only moved a handful of
millimeters, bending slightly rather than giving way to her pressure. She
had paused a moment to catch her breath when Tenchi moved up beside her. It
was a difficult fit, but he managed to get his fingers under the corner
that Mihoshi had pried up slightly. He mirrored Mihoshi by bracing his leg
against the side next to hers. On the count of three, they pulled together,
the metal making an audible pop as it came free and allowed access to the
contents inside the compartment.
Mihoshi pulled out a box with an intricate layer of wires and a variety of
lights on the outside. At the touch of a button, the lights flashed in a
three pulse series of yellow, green, and red. Satisfied, Mihoshi went back
over to the main console, placed the box on the ground, then rested on her
back as she began to unscrew several metal panels on the bottom of the main
console.
"What was that thing?" Tenchi asked.
Mihoshi didn't pause in her work as she answered, "It's a storage
interface. Once I retrieve all of the circuit boards with Yukinojo's
primary neural net, I can transfer them to this box. We keep these around
for emergencies, like if the ship is nearly destroyed and there isn't
enough power to keep the primary net running. Now he'll be in his shut-down
stage the entire time he's in the box, but he'll be in stasis instead of
terminal shutdown. It's the only way I have of keeping him alive."
A third panel was removed and Mihoshi gave a tiny clap with her hands.
"That was easy. I can see the circuit boards now. I'm going to pull them
ouOWOWOWOW!"
The sound of a lot of electricity being funneled through a body preceded
the smell of singed Mihoshi in the air. Tenchi lunged into the prone girl,
feeling a brief surge of amperage course through him before Mihoshi's
connection was severed.
A small puff of smoke came from Mihoshi's lips as she sat up and said, "I
don't think that was the right panel."
"I'd hope not."
"The one *ZKT* the left of that boa*ZKT*," Yukinojo got out. He could feel
his systems crashing by the minute. If Mihoshi didn't hurry, he would cease
to exist.
The instructions enabled her to locate the correct circuit boards and she
began removing them one by one. There was only one left when she took
paused to take one last look at Yukinojo's damaged head. "This is it,
Yukinojo. After I pull out this last circuit, you'll be truly off-line for
the first time since you were created. I've heard other AI's compare this
sort of thing to sleep, so don't worry. I'll turn you back on as soon as I
can, I promise."
Through what higher process remained, Yukinojo managed to say. "If I go to
sleep, will I dream of electric sheep?"
Mihoshi considered that. "I don't think so. At least I've never dreamt of
electric sheep. They've always been normal ones for me, so I'd have to say
no, you won't." She gently ran her head along the intact portions of the
head. Her voice was full of emotion. "Go to sleep now. And have pleasant
dreams. You'll be awake before you know it."
It was the same thing her mother used to tell her when she was a little
girl and was being tucked into bed late at night. It had seemed appropriate
to use now, and after the words had left her mouth, Mihoshi knew she had
been right.
The last circuit board came out easily and Mihoshi placed it in the box. It
took several seconds for her to properly set the unit up. Once fully
functional, she double-checked it and made certain it was operating
correctly. Satisfied that his neural net was intact, she set the case in a
safe area of the bridge that had little else that cosmetic damage to it.
"I think he'll be all right," Mihoshi told Tenchi. "The battery system on
that can last up to two months. We'll be able to get him a new ship by
then."
"What do we do now?" he asked.
Mihoshi considered that. "Well, one of our professors at the Galaxy Police
Survival Training Course, Dr. Lector, said that when you're stranded on a
planet, always preserve dead bodies in case you're starving and need to eat
later. He said don't worry about the flavor either, since most races' flesh
tastes like chicken anyway."
A sweatdrop formed on the back of Tenchi's head. "Ah, even if there were
some dead bodies around, I really don't think we need to resort to
cannibalism. I'm sure there's plenty of food on the ship and there's
probably food on this planet too."
"I guess you're right," Mihoshi admitted. "The next thing we're supposed to
do is set up an emergency beacon so other starships can find us."
Tenchi looked at the main control panel where the communications equipment
had been. The emphasis on 'had'. "I don't think it's going to work. It
looks like it's busted up pretty badly and there's hardly any power left on
the ship."
"Not to worry. Just follow me." Mihoshi grabbed an emergency light and went
through the broken door leading from the bridge, taking the corridor to the
right. Tenchi followed close on her heels The going was difficult since the
passageway was littered with broken pieces of debris from the ceiling and
walls, leftover gifts from the crash. They had to pick their way over piles
of debris, sometimes very carefully due to the assortment of sharp objects
that protruded from the piles
As they made their way down the darkened passageway, the yellow beam
dancing across the floor as the light bounced in Mihoshi's hand, Tenchi
wondered what she was up to now. Sometimes it seemed she knew what she was
doing, but other times, like the cannibalism issue, made him wonder exactly
why he was following her lead. The truth was that sometimes being around
her was more stressful than finding himself caught between Ryouko and Aeka
when it was 'that time of the month' for both of them.
Thoughts turned briefly to that duo and he hoped they were faring better
than he and Mihoshi were, not that that would be a difficult feat.
Ultimately, he wondered if he should have been surprised that things had
gone the way they had. The duo of the princess and the pirate constantly
surprised him -plenty of both good and bad surprises- but they had a
tendency to operate within certain patterns, making them at least a little
predictable, but not Mihoshi. She was more like the personification of
chaos, so tempestuous that even Washuu could not predict her comings and
goings. Trying to anticipate what Mihoshi was going to do next was like
trying to figure out which way a leaf was going to fall when cast into a
tornado. And like the other girls, sometimes the chaos was a refreshing
change, but other times it was like being punched in the gut by a
three-hundred pound gorilla. Mihoshi was a living contradiction, like most
of the people that had somehow ended up in his life.
[Which is why you should choose one and get it over with.]
"Shut up!" Tenchi snapped at the returned voice.
Mihoshi turned, shining the light in Tenchi's eyes and blinding him. "I
didn't say anything."
"I, ah, I didn't mean you," Tenchi said as lamely as possible.
The tone of his lie made Mihoshi look at him curiously. "Are you hearing
voices? Sometimes that happens if you've taken a bump to the head, and
you've got a really big one right on the top there. Maybe you've got a
concussion. Let me check." She moved closer, taking a good look at his
eyes. "Ohh. Your pupils are all dilated. They say that's a sign of a
concussion."
"They're dilated because you're shining a bright light directly in my
eyes," Tenchi pointed out as he shielded his eyes from the glare.
"Oh, right." Mihoshi shone the light back they way they had been originally
heading and continued forward. "If you keep having auditory hallucinations,
let me know. There're some tranquilizers in the first-aid kit that'll quiet
any voices you might be hearing. Of course, they'll also pretty much knock
out all of your higher brain functions too. And make you drool a lot, but
at least the voices will stop. And I can wipe up the drool for you."
"Thanks for the offer. I'll be sure to let you know," Tenchi said,
promising that even if he heard the Lizard King himself begin whispering in
his ear and explained how to taste the color yellow, he wasn't going to say
a word. Taking heavy medication recommended by Mihoshi was a bad idea, even
under the best of times. And the idea of being nothing more than a walking
droolbucket appealed to him even less.
Eventually, they arrived at Mihoshi's destination; a plain metal door with
feathered wing emblem in the middle. It took the combined efforts of both
to pry the door open, since there was still no power to the self-opening
doors in that section of the ship either. Tenchi never thought he would
miss the 'whoosh' sound the doors made and the burst of air that usually
accompanied them opening. It was so much easier to just let the blasted
things open on their own. And since they were supposed to be powered at all
times, the designers had failed to take into account how much effort it
would take to manually open them. It was like trying to force something
with a rusty lock open.
But the door gave under their combined strength, and they saw the interior
of the room. Unlike most of the ship, the room was mostly intact, save for
the large cracks along most of the walls. Still, it had fared better than
the majority of the ship. Mihoshi began grabbing various boxes, kits, and
other odds and ends. The most curious things she grabbed were a set of
identical staves that were about seven feet tall and had a series of
multi-colored wires dangling from several points along their length. When
her arms were full, she began handing things to Tenchi to carry.
"What is this stuff?" Tenchi asked as she plopped a small box with a red
cross on the top.
More boxes were placed on top of the first one he held before Mihoshi said.
"Emergency supplies. I think this is all we can carry this trip." She
fingered her messy outfit. "There's some extra clothing here. Let me get
changed into my battle uniform, then we'll take it outside."
It didn't take long for Mihoshi to change (after Tenchi had left the room,
still holding the multitude of boxes) into her orange and black skin-tight
battle uniform. Now that Tenchi thought about it, he wondered if the male
members of the Galaxy Police had to wear outfits that were as... form
fitting as Mihoshi's was. It would be sort of sexist if they didn't, but on
the other hand, if some of the policemen he knew had to wear outfits like
that, the sight really wouldn't be pretty.
It was only once he was outside that Tenchi was fully able to appreciate
the abuse the ship had undergone. The original red coloring of the vehicle
was now scorched black. It appeared the engines had been ripped off the
vessel, one of them being deposited in the mile long furrow the ship had
left when it had made its crash landing. There were holes and rents along
the entire length of the ship. A two meter long groove rode the length of
the ship from bow to stern, most likely from that final shot that had sent
the ship on its death-plunge. Armor was peeled back, warped, or melted
outright from both near misses of laser fire and from their speedy entry
into the planet's atmosphere. It was a miracle they had walked away from
their landing at all.
Tenchi took a good look at the planet they had landed on. The area that had
fallen in was verdant with plant life. The majority of it was composed of
grasses and shrubs, with only a handful of slender tress, or what passed
for trees on the planet, that decorated the landscape. As far as emergency
landing strips went, Mihoshi had made a good choice. The land was level for
kilometers around and there were no large obstructions that would have
caused additional damage to the ship, not that the amount of damage wasn't
appalling to begin with.
Calling the plant life greenery would have been inappropriate. There were a
handful of bright reds and exotic purples scattered here and there, but by
far the majority of the foliage was a dull yellow that was identical to the
coloring of the old wooden pencils Tenchi used when he was in elementary
school. The grasses around the ship and in the distance appeared high, much
of it coming up to Tenchi's waist and reminding him of pictures he had seen
of the African Savanna. Wind made waves across the ocean of tall grass,
flowing from one direction and continuing unabated until the ripples were
out of sight. Tenchi doubted there was any place on Earth, untouched by
man, that could have 1appeared so beautiful. For a moment, a tear
threatened to form in his eye.
In the distance there was a loud squawk and a flock of birds shot out
lightning quick from out of the high grass. They took off, soaring high in
the sky and opposite the direction of the crashed ship. That seemed to
answer any questions about there being animal life on the planet. Tenchi
tried listening for other sounds that might have come from animals, but
aside from the ever fainter squawks, there was nothing. All seemed peaceful
for the moment, perhaps as some form of balance due to the loud noise the
spaceship had made when it crash landed.
Mihoshi had only given the land a cursory look before she sat her gear down
and began planting the long poles into the ground. She had a semi-circle of
them done before Tenchi asked what she was doing.
"This is a portable communications array. It's very powerful and can reach
out of the system. I'm going to set it up to transmit a continuous
emergency signal with who we are and our coordinates. That way someone can
get here quickly, I hope, and rescue us."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Tenchi asked.
"Sure. Go into that red tool box and pull out a pair of runxeterrs."
"Ah, okay." Tenchi began looking through the box Mihoshi had indicated. He
wasn't sure what a pair of ruxeterrs looked like, but he was a man, and if
it was a tool he could identify it. It was a basic instinct with men.
Locating the pair of ruxeterrs proved to be a more difficult task than he
had anticipated. There were some tools in the box that he was easily able
to identify: Pliers. Ratchet set. Duct tape (that was a universal constant,
according to Washuu), Bolts. Other items weren't so easy to identify. There
were a wide assortment of both slender and wide, long and short, one piece
and complex moving parts, items inside. His instincts seemed to be failing
him as he randomly pulled out a device that had two long cubes attached
together by a long wire between them.
Tenchi held out the item for Mihoshi to see. "Is this it?"
Mihoshi let out a gasp and closed the distance between her and Tenchi in a
couple of stride. She grabbed one of the cubes and ripped the object out of
his hands. The other cube and length of wire sailed over her shoulder.
"Tenchi! That's a hand held laser wire. It's very dangerous and not a toy.
If you aren't careful, you could end up slicing off your hand or something
more important. You've got to take care of dangerous items like this or
they'll cause a lot of trouble."
At first, Mihoshi wasn't sure why Tenchi chose to say nothing, but rather
pointed over her shoulder instead. It took a moment to realize that he
wanted her to look behind. Perhaps it was something dangerous that only
she, as a representative of the Galaxy Police, could handle. She turned and
saw nothing out of the ordinary. There were no spaceships, criminals, or
wild animals. It was just the tools she had already been using, the cotton
tail on her uniform, and the rods she had sunk in the ground, except for
the one that had been cut in half and was now lying on the ground.
"Oops," Mihoshi said as she realized what she had done. She handed the
laser wire back to Tenchi. "It's a good thing they pack spares rods."
The rest of the work went more quickly as Tenchi helped Mihoshi set up the
portable array and program it to send off a continuous SOS signal. Once
that was accomplished, they did an inventory of their other supplies. They
had about two weeks of emergency rations, a bio-analyzer to tell what
vegetation and water was safe to eat, a survival kit, a first aid kit, and
an assortment of smaller odds and ends that might be needed later. About
the only thing they didn't have was any additional weapons, and that was
because the wall to Mihoshi's armory had been the part of the ship that had
taken the last hit from the energy blast. Most of the weapons had gone
flying out into deep space, and those that were locked down tighter had
been crushed when the ship had crashed. It didn't matter that much. Mihoshi
still had her sidearm and Tenchi still had the Master Key with him. Between
those two items, they felt they had little to worry about in the form of
dangerous animals.
Both suns were still high in the sky when Mihoshi dragged out a vehicle
from out of the remains of her docking bay. Tenchi was surprised to see
that it had the outward appearance of a motorcycle, aside from the fact it
had no wheels, but instead three flat squares where they tires should have
been.
"What is that?"
"A Oxerat 200 Hoverbike," Mihoshi explained. "Generally we use them for
short range reconnaissance work. They move very quietly and can seat two."
She patted the long seat a few times, indicating where the passenger would
sit behind the pilot. "It even has an antigrav sled that can be hooked up
to the back when you need to carry extra mass. They're really quite useful.
Most patrol ships have at least one with them nowadays."
"Why did you bother to get it out though?" Tenchi asked as Mihoshi began
going over the hoverbike. He was pretty sure he didn't like the direction
conversation was heading.
The hoverbike hummed gently as Mihoshi began tweaking the engine. "I
thought we'd take a look around and get a lay of the land. That way we'll
know where we are and what resources are on hand in case we're here for a
while."
Actually, that made a great deal of sense. Tenchi nodded in approval of the
idea.
Mihoshi finished hooking up the antigrav sled, which consisted of two long
rods that could set up an antigravity field between the two of them, to the
back of the bike. Once finished, she said, "Let's get going." She hopped on
the bike and indicated that Tenchi should sit behind her.
"We're going now?" That seemed a bit abrupt. They had just crashed several
hours earlier.
"Even if there's a starship as near as only a system away, it'll still take
them at least a day or more to get here. We have plenty of time." Mihoshi
twisted the handlebar and the engine began to rev higher and higher.
The resemblance to a more mundane motorcycle again crossed Tenchi's mind.
"Well. I guess so." The reluctance in his voice matched his motions as he
slowly got on behind Mihoshi. There didn't seem to be any handholds on the
sides of the hoverbike, which meant he was going to have to grab onto
something else if he wanted to maintain his balance while they were flying.
Maybe he wouldn't have to hold on too tightly. Surely Mihoshi would go
slowly, since she had a passenger.
"Hold on tight," she said as she stared at the control panel in front of
her. How did operating the bike go? There was a switch she had to flip, but
which one was it? She randomly chose the one in the middle. She was
rewarded with the bike lifting several meters off the ground.
"Now for a little speed," she said to Tenchi from over her shoulder as she
gave a quick twist to the speed dial.
Twin screams of terror rang through the air as the hovercyle went from zero
to two hundred kilometers per hour in less than two seconds.
The crew of the Rack N' Ruin continued going over the remains of the
vessel. Yoost and Onita were looking for additional weapons amidst the
ruins of the ship. Angstrom was busy trying to put together a working
communication unit. Joffry was laying on the bridge in as comfortable a
position as could given the condition of the ship and his shattered legs.
Funuyaki and Ariana were scouting the area surrounding the ship. Autolycus
had been assigned to try to scrounge some food from the debris, and
Malgaunt and Stargrave randomly shifted through piles of wreckage trying to
find anything of use and having little success.
Fera was off to the side of the ship on her own. The first thing she had
done was to try to locate the remains of her room. Upon finding it, she
immediately began digging through the mess until she managed to pull three
large metal cases out. Once they were free, she removed all the contents,
spread them out in an open area next to the ship, and began putting them
together using some tools that had been in the boxes. When Stargrave saw
what she was building, he gave her permission to continue working on it
while the others carried on with their assigned tasks.
Malguant saw that Stargrave was beginning to pace again instead of
searching for useful items. He could have asked what was troubling the
criminal, but there was no point to it. Malgaunt already knew the answer as
sure as he was going to take another breath. It was that damned plant. All
Stargrave could do was fret about it since it wasn't on hand, and he would
probably continue to do so until he either had it or Malgaunt had him
clubbed into unconsciousness and chained him to a rock. The second
alternative was looking more appealing by the moment with the way
Malgaunt's own temper was stretched thin.
It was unusual for Stargrave to worry so. The man was usually as relaxed
and in control as Malgaunt was, though on the outside Stargrave appeared
the more easygoing of the pair. That was one of the things that had
impressed Malgaunt into agreeing to the partnership between the two of
them, Stargrave's ability to remain calm in a situation. Well, that and the
resources he had as the head of a vast criminal organization.
But now he was losing control, and getting worse, not better, in spite of
Malgaunt's continued reassurances. The marshal couldn't understand the
reason why, since they both shared the same risks if things fell through.
Maybe Stargrave was simply taking things too personally. If there had been
any alcohol that had survived the crash, Malgaunt would have given it to
his friend in a second. Instead, he was forced to reassure him again that
they could set out to recover the Shihana when the transmitter was working
again.
"It'll be over soon," Malgaunt finally said. "We'll have the Shihana in
hand in a couple of days at the latest."
Stargrave shook his head. "Sooner than that, but every second seems like an
eternity to me."
"A watched Glarph never soils," Malgaunt said, invoking the power of the
ancient proverb.
"I hate that saying," Stargrave responded as he looked at his locator and
checked on the position of the Shihana again.
Malgaunt bent down and lifted a large piece of metal. There was the glint
of something shiny underneath. "Bring that light under here. I think I've
found an arc welder." He nodded his head in towards something underneath
the metal. The directed light showed that it was what Malgaunt had thought.
"Go down and get it while I keep this up in the air."
That was just what he needed. Something to keep Stargrave busy and
hopefully more pleasant. Being stranded on the planet with only a handful
of people, some of whom had a natural animosity like ex-police officers and
criminals, meant nerves would wear thin quickly. Usually it took at least
several days for that sort of thing to happen, but in Stargrave's current
mental state, his irritation would only transfer to his crew and then the
situation would be very explosive. The sooner they got their hands on the
Shihana, the better.
After Stargrave retrieved the arc welder, they headed back to their
temporary base of operations: the bridge. It was the most intact portion of
the vessel left. From there they would build the transmitter and organize
their search for the recovery of the Shihana. Then everything would settle
down and the group would relax until they were lifted off planet by one of
their allies.
Ariana returned to the ship and located them on their way back. Once there,
she stood next to Stargrave and began informing him of what she had found.
Malgaunt felt irritated at being left out. She was directing all of her
comments towards Stargrave and pretended Malgaunt wasn't even there. He
hoped Funuyaki had found something so he could rub it in Ariana's face
later.
They were more than halfway back to the bridge when they came across Onita
and Yoost, who were looking through piles of debris in the hopes of finding
some sort of weapon. At present, all they had were the sidearms each person
had been wearing at the time of the crash. There was no telling what sort
of hostile animals were on the planet, and it was always better to have a
big gun and not use it instead of needing a big gun and not having it.
"Status?" Malgaunt asked Onita.
"Three laser pistols and a couple of vibro-knives. Nothing but crap," Onita
grunted as he stopped looking and sat down to take a rest.
"I've found something." Yoost was about fifteen feet away from the others,
at the far side of the room, when he pulled out a long black cylinder with
a trigger and scope on the top. "I thought Bereneger kept some funky weapon
in his room."
"Hey! Be careful with that," Onita warned. "That's a Retree Plasma cannon.
It's got some big firepower, but it's a real delicate instrument."
Yoost laughed contemptuously at Onita. "You GP might be tight asses about
procedures, but us here at the Rack N' Ruin play things a little faster and
looser. I'll find out of it works." He pointed the plasma cannon at the
wall that lead to the outside of the craft.
"Don't do it," Onita got up and took a half step towards him. "It might-"
The rest was cut off as Yoost pulled the trigger and the weapon blew up.
The others ducked (save Ariana who threw herself in front of Stargrave) and
shielded their eyes from the brightness of the small, yet powerful
explosion. Onita was on his feet first despite being closest to the blast.
He looked over Yoost's fallen form. "It might do that to you," he finished
Ariana moved to his side and took a closer look at Yoost. She turned back
to Stargrave. "He's still breathing, but not much."
"Sloppy fool," Stargrave muttered under his breath. Louder, he said, "Can
we?" He let the question trail off. Ariana would know what he meant.
"Not with the shape we're in. Probably not even if the ship was working
like normal."
"Take care of it then," Stargrave ordered.
Everyone watched as Ariana drew her pistol and put Yoost out of his misery.
The smell of charred flesh was overwhelming, so without a backward glance
the four people left the chamber and headed for the bridge once more.
The quartet walked a little ways before Malguant said, "Well, if there was
any one person we could have spared, it was Yoost. There isn't much use for
a hacker out here now."
Stargrave didn't bother to look at him. "He was one of my mine, not yours.
So shut up!"
Ariana sneered while Onita moved protectively towards Malgaunt. There was
no need for it; Stargrave said nothing else, and the group continued
onward.
Upon arriving at the bridge, they saw that Angstrom had indeed been busy.
Wires and batteries were strewn about the floor, concentrated mostly around
the communications console. Various systems had been gutted to use for
parts in boosting the signal of the reserve transmitter, and the effect
made the bridge look even more cluttered than before. However, the news was
good.
"I should have it up and running in a couple of hours, no later," Angstrom
assured him as Malgaunt offered the arc welder he was carrying. Angstrom
nodded in gratitude. The pocket laser he had been using was sufficient for
the job, but it took far longer to use to get the same results the larger
instrument would offer.
"Once it's up and running, I want you to send a signal on this frequency."
Stargrave ran off a set of numbers.
"That's a pretty obscure wavelength," Angstrom said. "Not much chance of
someone picking it up."
"It's the Yagdagron military channel. There should be some of their ships
listening for it, in case Yolleth wanted to contact them. Although I doubt
if they'll be nearby."
"That might mean a long wait." Everyone turned in surprise to see Autolycus
standing slightly behind the captain. No one had realized he had returned
to the bridge.
"We can't use any of our standard smuggler frequencies because they might
be monitored. And it's not like we want a private vessel coming since we'll
be carrying the Shihana with us." Stargrave shook his head. "No. It's too
risky. We can't chance someone finding us here with Shihana. We'll contact
the Yagdagron and complete the mission. Once it is in their hands, then we
can rest easy."
Autolycus began to shake his head when Fera entered through the hole of the
bridge. "The bike's complete." She directed her comment to Stargrave.
"Excellent. We can-"
"What bike?" Malgaunt asked, interrupting Stargrave's orders.
Stargrave took a deep breath, then began his explanations. "Fera had made a
recent purchase of a kit bike-"
"An Alto-Vax Retread with the supernitro-injection engine and a 1A Kolp
Sensitivity Web in the steering," Fera gushed. "It cost me over ninety
thousand space-bucks."
"It's-"
"You know it's illegal to own one of those." It was Onita who had
interrupted Stargrave this time.
"Are you going to arrest me?" Fera asked.
"Ah, no," Onita said hesitantly, unsure of what she meant by that.
"Then shut up!" Fera snarled.
Stargrave turned to Ariana and said in a voice loud enough for everyone to
hear, "Shoot the next person that interrupts me." Ariana drew her pistol,
keeping it at a ready position at her side.
Now once again in command of the situation, Sa'bre Stargrave began for the
fourth time, "Due to the fact it was a recent purchase, it was still in its
component parts in its cases. Since the cases were made of osmium steel,
and Fera's quarters were still in the part of the ship after it crashed, it
was intact. She's been building it since she dug the cases out of the
wreckage. I deemed it more important than any salvaging she could have
done. Now that it's complete, and in working order, I intend to go out with
her and retrieve the Shihana."
"Not if you want it brought back you're not," Fera said, her voice not
inviting a discussion of the matter as she crossed her arms and looked
expectantly at her captain.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Stargrave asked. Fera's insolence affected
his stressed nerves far more than it had before.
Stating it as a matter of fact, Fera said, "Even with the drag rig on,
there's no way I can accommodate a passenger as well as the Shihana. So if
you go with me, it stays right where it is."
Stargrave considered that. "I suppose I can fly it if I had to." It had
been at least five years since he had last driven a hoverbike, and he
hadn't been very good at it even then, but he thought he could manage.
"Not my bike, you don't," Fera's fur bristled and she bared her fangs in
Stargrave's direction.
Ariana leveled her pistol at Fera. "He's your captain. You'll damn well do
what he says, even if it means learning to crap in a litter box like the
rest of your kind."
Fera's muscles tensed at the derogatory insult leveled at her and her race.
Despite a superficial resemblance, Katasan's were not related to housecats
and took offense to anyone that implied it. She prepared to rush forward
and rip out Ariana's throat, unmindful of the weapon leveled at her.
A clapping near the hole on the bridge caught everyone's attention. Fera
switched targets to the newcomer, while Ariana's pistol swiveled in that
direction.
"If you shoot her, can I have the bike?" Funuyaki asked as she leaned
lackadaisically against the torn wood and metal of the hole.
"Enough!" Malgaunt said. His lieutenant's distraction had given him enough
time to assess the situation and take control of it himself. Stargrave was
obviously more stressed out than the marshal had assumed if he had this
little control over his subordinates. He needed to take a page from
Malgaunt's own book. Onita and Funuyaki were still obedient to his every
command, in spite of the stress of the situation, like true subordinates
were supposed to be.
The remaining members of the crew of the Rack N' Ruin looked suspiciously
at Malgaunt, but said nothing. Even Stargrave remained silent. That was to
whom Malgaunt directed his attention towards.
"Fera's the one that should go and retrieve the Shihana. The bike's the
fastest way to get it here, and she's the ideal one for the job. If that
bike of hers has a sensitivity web that that's high attuned, none but the
most skilled of riders could probably keep from wrecking it, and somehow I
doubt if you've been hot dogging it lately." Malgaunt saw the acceptance
start to creep up on Stargrave's face. A little more should do it and then
victory would be Malgaunt's. "She's the best flyer among us, and we really
need you here to make keep giving orders to the others." He hoped Stargrave
had a clear enough head to pick up on the all too accurate implication:
'Your crew won't take orders from me.'
After another moment of consideration, Stargrave nodded his head. "You're
correct. Fera should fly out alone and retrieve the prize. Now give her
your locator."
Malgaunt's head jerked slightly. "Why mine?"
"Because she needs it to locate the Shihana and I want to keep mine." And
to show the others that I still hold the reigns of command, was the added
implication to that order. Malgaunt picked up on the inference and went
with it. If Stargrave felt the urge to save face, it meant he was still
thinking with a clear mind.
He handed his locator to Fera, who turned on her heel the moment it touched
her hand, and exited the vessel. At last she was going to get a chance to
fly fast and be alive for the first time since she had landed on the
miserable mudball. True, it was a testament to her skills that anyone could
even walk away from the site of the crash, and it would add to her already
impressive list of deeds when she reached final judgment, but already she
found her soul wanting more. It wasn't just her skills she wanted to show
off; it was competition she desired. All Katasans knew that tests of skills
against the forces of nature, like Hell's Gate, were ultimately victories
only for one's personal spirit. One could not defeat the forces of nature;
one could only survive them.
However, when challenging other living beings, that was different. Then it
was solely a matter of skill versus skill, and only the best, or the
luckiest, survived. The more worthy the opponent, the more honor one gained
in their defeat. And the more opponents that were defeated, the higher one
was elevated into paradise when the final tally was added up and judgment
was rendered.
There had not been many that had tested Fera of late. None that were what
she considered worthy, in any case. There had been that runner that had
tried to stupidly attack the Rack N' Ruin a couple of weeks ago (the Gods
only knew why he didn't recognize the ship on sight) and had made a pretty
good run for it. It had taken Fera almost a whole two and a half minutes to
bring him into line so the gunners could take him out. And then there was
that Gippetten ship they nailed last week. Those speedy little things were
usually good prey, and their vehicles packed a nasty sting for something so
small. It had lasted almost three minutes before being shredded by the twin
threats of her piloting and the Rack N' Ruin's guns.
There had been many others before those two -too many to count- but now
there was one that had caught Fera's attention like no other. Not even the
idea of flying against any more of her fellow Katasans excited her that
much. It was all about the one who had moved so fluidly, that flight was
one of her higher instincts. The one who had so easily defied the odds that
Fera felt intoxicated at the very idea of seeing her in action again. And
unlike the other members of the crew, she felt confident that somehow, in
spite of the odds, Mihoshi had survived. And if she had survived, Fera
would find her. Then the two of them would engage in the duel that destiny
decreed they should have. And in the end, one of them would find out what
paradise was really all about.
"Would you please slow down?!" Tenchi shouted from his position from behind
Mihoshi. Almost from the instant they had lifted off the ground, Mihoshi
had chosen to fly at a breakneck speed that had given probably given Tenchi
a bad case of whiplash, if the pain from his neck was any indication of it.
The land was a blur below them, the wide fields becoming a sea of yellow,
and then of blue and green as Tenchi assumed the grass had changed color.
Their speed increased as Tenchi held onto Mihoshi even tighter than before,
praying she didn't turn too quickly and send him flying off the bike. He
was in such a panic that he barely realized that his grip had shifted from
her waist to somewhere higher and softer instead. But the new hold did
afford him a better grasp upon the driver, so perhaps he could be forgiven.
Fear intensified as he wondered what was going to happen, as the sea of
blue and green grass changed to a drier and more rocky terrain. Even at the
speed they were going at, Tenchi could tell the difference in the land. He
hoped Mihoshi could figure out some way to slow down, or else they were
surely doomed.
Mihoshi heard Tenchi's pleas and matched them cry for cry with tears of her
own. It had been so long since she had used the hoverbike that she now was
uncertain of how to stop it. There were three controls she could use. One
would stop the bike. One would activate the afterburner and quadruple the
two hundred kilometer speed they were currently at. And the other one would
do something that Mihoshi wasn't sure of.
Her mind raced with the possibilities, then eventually realized that since
she didn't have the faintest clue as to which button was which, it didn't
really matter which one was pushed. So Mihoshi opted for the one in the
center.
Windshield wiper fluid sprayed out across the windshield. Now she
remembered what the third control did. She was about to try switch number
two, when she realized she had forgotten to warn Tenchi of what was about
to happen. "Hold on tight!" she cried out over the wind.
Tenchi heard and tightened his grip.
As Tenchi tightened his grip, Mihoshi moaned and briefly forgot what she
had planned on doing. Actually, she was pretty damn happy with the way
things had suddenly turned out, and their high speed didn't seem to matter
so much any longer.
Tenchi buried his face in her back trying to keep the wind out of his eyes,
and also to keep from looking down as the land had seemed to be getting
progressively closer to the bottom of their hoverbike, and they had not
been that high to begin with. "Nothing's happening!" he shouted.
"I wouldn't say that," Mihoshi said as the pleasant feelings continued to
override her higher functions.
"What was that?!" Tenchi shouted over the roar of the wind.
"Hold tighter!" Mihoshi answered loudly enough to be heard this time.
Tenchi was going to do so anyway as he dared to look down once and saw that
the land below was coming uncomfortably close now.
Again Mihoshi moaned. It was almost as pleasant as the time she had bathed
baby Taro and he had mistaken her for his mother. As she lost herself to
the sensation, her hand fell downward, near where she was straddling the
bike, and hit a lever located right where the base of the seat met the
steering column. The lever turned out to be the emergency break.
The hoverbike skidded on air to a stop, slowing down enough so that when
both Mihoshi and Tenchi slammed into the plexi-plastic windshield on the
bike, they survived the impact. They did have a bit of difficulty peeling
their faces off the plexi-plastic, and where a bit shaken up by the impact,
but were otherwise fine.
Mihoshi shook her head clear. She had forgotten all about the emergency
break. That made things a bit easier, since she remembered which switch
would land the bike. She located the right one and flipped it all the way
to its lowest position.
And the bike plummeted like a rock, slamming hard into the ground ten feet
below.
"Oww." Mihoshi wondered if her tailbone was still there. Probably, since it
hurt so much. "I forgot. You're supposed to turn the switch slowly,
stopping at each notch, rather than turning off the landing control all at
once. If you don't you kind of-"
"-Crash," Tenchi finished for her as he shook his head a bit to clear it.
The way his teeth had slammed together when they had hit, he was sure a
couple of them had been knocked out. He was about to reproach Mihoshi about
being more careful when he realized where his hands had been located both
before the abrupt slowdown and after.
"Gah!" he removed his hands as quickly as he could. "I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to grab you there."
A small blush formed on Mihoshi's cheeks. Mihoshi didn't mind it. Tenchi
minded it. Aeka and Ryouko would have minded it violently, but Mihoshi
didn't mind it at all. She looked over her shoulder at Tenchi and said, "No
need for apologies. It was sort of, ahh..." she trailed off, embarrassment
at the slightly sexual situation overriding her body's healthy, natural,
normal impulse to jump Tenchi then and there.
Yes, while on the bike. Mihoshi's sense of balance could be quite good when
it had to be.
"I didn't bother me at all," she finally managed to get out.
Tenchi's blush was four times that of Mihoshi's. As the full repercussions
of what he had done set it, he found it hard to look her in the eye. When
he at last worked up the courage, he said, "I promise not to do it again."
Mihoshi went from looking slightly embarrassed to crestfallen.
[You're a bloody little queer, aren't you?]
"Shut-" Tenchi quit before Mihoshi accused him of talking to himself again.
[You grab a woman's tits and, instead of enjoying the cheap cop, you
apologize for it. Never mind the fact that it's obvious you weren't trying
to hit on her, and that you know damn well she's attracted to you and
probably didn't even mind it. Hell, you've hurt her feelings by saying
you'd never touch her breasts again. Way to go, Mr. Sensitivity. Why don't
we try to find out why you're such a putz, shall we?]
Tenchi repressed the urge to shout the voice down.
[HA! I knew it. Here we are, latent bi-sexual tendencies stored away really
deep in the subconscious. Darn near tripped over the things, they're hidden
so well. I bet you thought Kagato was a real cutie.]
"I'm not gay!" Tenchi shouted.
"I didn't say you are," Mihoshi said in surprise at the uncalled for
accusation. "I didn't think it either. I just assumed you were being a
gentleman and maybe, maybe you weren't really interested in me." She
blurted out the last part and ended it with a sigh.
The hackles rose on the back of Tenchi's neck and he felt put under the
spotlight. With that one statement from Mihoshi, he now had one foot in a
trap that would close on him and chew it off if he said the wrong thing.
[Just tell her you're queer and be done with it.]
A low growl rose from his throat. The anger made him know what to do. He
grabbed both of Mihoshi's hands and held them in a soft, gentle, grasp.
"It's not that I don't like you. It's just that I'm not the sort of guy
that goes around grabbing women's chests and feels comfortable about it.
That's the only reason I'm apologizing so vehemently."
The Tenchi Solution: (def.) Being evasive and dodging tough questions when
it came to women. Employed at every turn and at all costs when serious
female situations arose.
It was a technique Tenchi Misaki had developed like a pro, his mastery the
equivalent of a man four times his age and experience. It was a skill that
would serve him well once he was married. It also served to get him out of
his current predicament by working wonders on Mihoshi. She took a
non-outright agreement as a sign he might actually be interested in her and
cheered up considerably.
"Let's stretch our legs." Mihoshi rose and did so. She jogged in place for
a few seconds, then bent down and touched her toes while her back was to
Tenchi. When he realized what a view he was being presented with, he looked
away, then thought better of it and forced himself to look straight at her
rear end. He examined it very carefully, close enough to confirm that that
part of Mihoshi's body was indeed both very firm and very symmetrical. At
the first signs of a reaction from certain parts of his anatomy, he turned
away and mumbled under his breath, "See. A perfectly normal reaction to
staring at an attractive girl that way."
[Having your nose bleed is NOT a perfectly normal reaction, you twit.]
"Why you-"
[On the other hand, you admitted she was attractive without even trying, so
maybe there's hope for you yet.]
"Of course there is," Tenchi said.
"Of course there is what?" Mihoshi asked.
"Ah," Tenchi was beginning to consider asking Mihoshi for some of the
medication she had talked about earlier, when he noticed a large pile of
upturned earth in the middle of a large field of grass on the side of the
hill a considerable distance away. There was something odd about it, even
at that range. "What do you make of that?"
Mihoshi looked in the direction Tenchi was pointing. "I'm not sure. I think
it might be an impact crater. Let's take a look."
"On the bike?" Tenchi asked with a slight tremor of fear in his voice.
"Don't worry. I remember how to fly it now. We'll be safe." She hopped onto
the bike.
Reluctantly, Tenchi followed. He made certain to grasp only her stomach
this time, although he did adjust his grip a bit high so that his arms were
wrapped around right under the lower curve of Mihoshi's breasts. That would
show the voice in his head. If Mihoshi minded, she gave no indication of it
as she turned the hoverbike back on and took off once again, under better
control this time.
They didn't have to journey long, even at the decreased speed Mihoshi was
traveling at. Tenchi's original estimation on the distance from the hill
the crater had been on was off by a lot. Without an accurate point of
reference between where they had been and the hill, he had been off by
about thirty kilometers. It took several minutes for them to draw near
enough that Tenchi could see that Mihoshi's guess had been correct; it did
appear to be an impact crater. The earth around it had been kicked up in
wide circle about a hundred meters wide, showing that the ground beneath
was much darker than the brownish topsoil in the surface. The mounds of
earth were strewn loosely about, showing that the impact had been recent,
just as Tenchi had suspected. In the center of the carnage, both of them
could clearly see the object that had caused the crater so recently.
"That isn't from your ship, is it?" Tenchi asked.
"Nope." Mihoshi stared at the object as well, studying it intently.
It was a simple object; a large, intact, gun-metal gray metal sphere that
was about two and a half meters in diameter. The outer coating lacked the
scorch marks that one associated with orbital entry, despite the fact that
was obviously how it had arrived there. The surface was somewhat plain,
covered only with a series of tiny one inch protrusions of metal identical
to that of the sphere, and a single red oval near the top. A simple object,
at least from the outside.
But then, sometimes the greatest things came in the simplest of packages.
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