(continued from 19A)
******************************
Soun Tendo paused in front of the glass and steel tower of the Ministry
of Science and checked his wristwatch. Genma Saotome had called him up
out of the blue and invited him out to lunch, a curious thing. Still,
if the man wanted to be more friendly to a future in-law, that was all
right with Soun. Luckily, it had been a quiet morning, so his schedule
had allowed him the luxury of accepting Genma's impromptu invitation.
"Shall I wait here for you, sir?" asked the driver, standing stiffly at
attention next to the car in his uniform.
Soun turned and thought about it. While there were several excellent
restaurants within walking distance, storm clouds brewed overhead, and
it had been raining off and on all morning. It was a pity. A walk
would have been nice. He had been spending too much time sitting. The
lack of exercise was giving him a severe case of swivel chair spread.
"Yes, I think that might be wise," he said. "I'll be back shortly.
Wait here."
The driver executed a crisp salute. "Yes, sir."
Soun grunted once in acknowledgement of the salute and saluted back.
He then turned and trudged up the wet concrete steps to the glass front
doors of the Science Ministry. Two guards stood at the entrance, each
one dressed in Security gray and armed with a semi-automatic rifle
currently slung over their shoulder. They both snapped to attention at
his approach, one of them turning to look at him and bowing slightly.
"Your ID, sir?" the guard said respectfully.
Soun flipped open his Security Directorate badge and ID, letting the
guard get a good look at it. Seeing his name and rank, the young man
snapped to an even greater level of attention and saluted. The other
guard opened the door for Soun after saluting, holding it as he stood
at attention. Seeing that their performance was at an acceptable
level, Soun returned their salutes curtly and strode into the main
lobby.
The guard at the main desk stood up and saluted. Four other guards,
stationed around the room and also armed with semi-automatic rifles,
snapped a bit straighter, sensing an officer's presence with the keen
senses of a career soldier. "Welcome to the Science Ministry, sir."
"I'm here to see Professor Genma Saotome."
"Of course, sir. Professor Saotome has his private lab and office up
on the thirteenth floor." He quickly snatched up the telephone from
its cradle. "Shall I announce that you're coming up, sir?"
Soun waved his hand in negation. "No, no. He's expecting me. And
this isn't any sort of an official matter. Professor Saotome and I
have a luncheon appointment."
"Yes, sir." The guard put the telephone down and pointed at the back
wall. "The elevators are back there, sir. Professor Saotome's lab is
the third one on the left as you exit from the elevators. Is there
anything else I could do to be of further assistance?"
"No, thank you." Soun strolled past the desk towards the elevators.
He was pleased to see that security here was sharp. It wasn't often
that he had a chance to visit the other ministries, but it was good to
see such professionalism from these representatives of the Empire's
Security Directorate.
The ride up the elevator was blessedly brief, some piece of classical
music that he could not identify playing in the background. There was
a ding when the car reached the thirteenth floor, and the doors parted,
allowing him to step out. A rather plain hallway greeted his eyes.
Soun turned and walked down the hallway to the proper door and knocked.
After a moment, Genma opened the door to his lab. He smiled brightly
and nodded. "Tendo-kun, nice to see you. Please, come in."
Soun decided to let the overly-familiar honorific go by. He nodded
curtly, stepping into the room. He allowed his gaze to sweep the space
briefly, noting a number of computers and a fairly significant amount
of electronic gear set up. "It seems you're keeping busy, Saotome-san.
What is it that you're working on?"
"Allow me to show you," said Genma, shutting the door. When Soun took
his eyes off him for a moment, he raised a small needle gun he had kept
hidden in his pocket and fired a slim dart into Soun's back. Within a
moment, a fast-acting sedative hit his system.
Soun started to turn to face Genma, his mouth open in surprise, but
then his eyes suddenly rolled up in their sockets. He fell forward
into Genma's waiting arms, causing the heavy-set man to grunt at the
weight.
Genma hurried to carry his slumbering guest across the lab and settled
him into a waiting chair, opening one of the drawers nearby and pulling
out some package binding strips. He lashed Soun's arms and legs down
with them, tying him securely to the chair's armrests and legs. He
also bound a thick strip of cloth around Soun's head and between his
jaws, gagging him to keep him from making too much noise.
While he waited for the sedative to wear off, Genma leaned against one
of the lab's tables. Things were getting desperate, forcing his to do
something like this. He was growing uncertain how much longer he could
handle the boy on his own, especially now that Nodoka had dropped her
bombshell. To make matters worse, a representative of the government
had informed him that the Empire was exercising eminent domain on the
temple he had planned to purchase, frustrating his plans to establish
the first dojo of many he had planned for the Anything-Goes School. He
realized he needed help, and so he had undertaken a new scheme that he
was certain would work.
After a time, Soun came to. His senses were blurred, and he shook his
head to clear his eyes. What he saw was Genma Saotome standing there,
a grin on his face. Soun's expression quickly changed from bafflement
to fury. Had the man gone insane? Once he was free of this, nobody
would ever find that fat fool's body! Soun struggled against his bonds
and struggled to speak. "Mmf! MMMF!"
"Sorry about this, Tendo-kun," said Genma with some sincerity, leaning
down and looking his furious companion on the eyes. "It's just that
I've been doing some thinking for the past few weeks, and I realized
something. I've got a great life here."
"Mmf?" Soun thought quickly, wondering where this was going. This
whole situation didn't make any sense.
Genma straightened back up and looked down at his prisoner. "Yeah,
it's a great life, but there's also something missing. What's missing
is my best friend in the whole world, Soun Tendo."
"Mmf Mmf?" Best friend? They were never friends. Whatever was Genma
babbling about?
"So a while ago, I had an idea." Genma reached over and flipped on the
main switch of a power bar on the nearby lab table. A computer screen
lit up and began scrolling text. Soun saw Genma type now and then, and
he watched in helpless curiosity.
*SELF-CHECK COMPLETE
*ALL LOGIC COMPONENTS ARE FUNCTIONING WITHIN DESIGNATED PARAMETERS
*QUANTUM FLUX COIL IS FUNCTIONING WITHIN DESIGNATED PARAMETERS
*NEURAL INDUCTION SENSORS ARE FUNCTIONING WITHIN DESIGNATED PARAMETERS
*SYSTEM HAS 8 QUANTUM COORDINATES STORED IN STABLE MEMORY
*SCAN FOR NEW COORDINATES: NO
*PLEASE INPUT QUANTUM COORDINATE FILE DESIRED: 8
The screen briefly cleared as Soun watched. Then new text suddenly
appeared and began scrolling upwards.
*QUANTUM COORDINATE FILE #0000008 LOADING INTO ACTIVE MATRIX...
*PLEASE STAND BY...
*MATRIX LOADED: FILE #0000008. DETAILS? YES
*FILE #0000008 - QUANTUM DIVERGENCE POINT OCCURRED:
3,852 YEARS
9 MONTHS
06 DAYS
11 HOURS
22 MINUTES
14 SECONDS AGO.
*SET CYCLE INTO ACTIVE MODE: YES
*SET TIME DURATION FOR TEST: 10.00 MINUTES
*WAITING FOR SIGNAL FROM NEURAL INTERLINK HEADSET
Genma pointed at the information on the screen as he fumbled with and
eventually managed to unlimber a headset on a long wire. "You see that
information? That's another world, another version of Earth, and I
came from there." He smirked. "Well, not physically." He tapped his
temple with a forefinger. "Whatever it was that made up Genma Saotome
on that world came here, through this." He waggled the headset he held
in one hand. "It was the boy, you see. He did it. His father and I
accidentally swapped during an experiment, so it's been an interesting
adjustment. But the boy's difficult to manage on my own, so I thought
about getting an ally. You wouldn't believe how hard it was for me to
duplicate the boy's device, even with his detailed notes to work from."
Creating the quantum flux coil had been the hardest part, Genma mused,
and making only one that matched the specifications in the boy's notes
had used up everything he could possibly steal from the budgets of
other projects. So this gamble had to work. But at least while he had
been working on it, the dreams had finally stopped. Having that other
Genma nagging at him each night while he slept had been annoying, but
that specter of conscience had finally gone blessedly quiet a couple of
days ago. He shook his head as he stopped next to where Soun was held
captive.
Genma was insane, Soun realized with a small trickle of terror finally
breaking down his iron control over his emotions, staring at the man as
he drew closer. Other Earths? That was an utterly ridiculous notion.
There was only one world, one Earth, not this psychotic science fiction
of alternate histories that Genma apparently believed.
"Anyway," said Genma, placing the headset on Soun's head and securing
it down firmly with a strap under Soun's chin. "I've found a world
without that lecherous old pervert in it, and it would be selfish of me
to not want to share it with my best friend. Right?"
"Mmf?" Soun eyed the device, uncertain what was about to happen.
The computer suddenly spoke, "Initiating upload cycle."
******************************
*** Earth +1.612,+1.509
"<Sir, I'm detecting a resonator signal of unknown origins.>"
All movement ceased on the bridge of the Dragon Claw, currently sitting
parked at the LaGrange point just outside the moon's orbit, as all eyes
turned to the figure sitting at the center of the bridge. Slowly, the
command chair swiveled around to the front, revealing the face of a
white-haired young man of muscular build, his handsome face marred only
by a single deep and ragged scar across one cheek. Like all the others
present, he was immaculately dressed in a tailored, dark-green uniform
jacket with blue piping, black pants, and calf length, gloss black
leather boots. In addition, he also wore a white beret at a slight
angle on his head, marking his status as the ship's captain and a line
officer of the Musk Dynasty.
"<Finally,>" intoned Herb in the same guttural language as the young
officer who had addressed him, before standing up and gazing around at
his crew. He tugged his jacket down a bit and smiled. The ship had
been waiting here for many days now in this backwater, since first
detecting the tail end of a resonator signal transmitting into this
tangent's paratemporal coordinates. "<Centurion, begin tracking back
to the signal's source.>"
"<Aye, sir.>"
Herb sat back down in his command chair as the technician turned back
to his task quickly. His patience had finally paid off. Somewhere out
there across the infinity of alternate timeline tangents was the goal
he had been seeking for so long, and the fates had finally thrown him a
solid lead.
******************************
There was a moment of non-existence, and then Soun was suddenly aware
of the distinctive smell of sake when he took a breath. He blinked
rheumy eyes open, feeling them scratching at his eyeballs. He could
not remember closing them, only this odd sort of flash while he had
been helpless in that chair, before waking up here. Now he was laying
in bed with the shades of the room drawn. What had happened? Where
was he? How did he get here from Genma's lab?
Soun sat up, hearing a bottle rolling to one side as his motion moved
the blanket that had been on top of him, causing him to cringe slightly
from the pain caused by the sound. He felt awful, and his head was
starting to pound mercilessly.
A sudden kaleidoscope of memories assailed him, causing the room to
spin. With a belch, he felt the contents of his stomach about to come
up, and he barely managed to grab a trashcan before heaving. He was
too caught up in his physical miseries to be aware of much else for a
time.
When the heaving finally stopped, Soun took stock of his surroundings.
He got up and staggered to the window, carefully drawing aside the
shade covering it. He was home, and he saw the familiar walls of the
dojo outside. Then he paused, looking at the building, realizing with
a start that it was bigger than before. Why had he accepted what he
saw before him as normal so easily? He clutched his head, feeling a
fresh assault of images, memories that were not his own. What was
happening to him?
******************************
Ensign Shan Pu discovered with some slight embarrassment that she had
been holding her breath as the Artemis-Class Solnoid Matriarchy vessel
Huntress phased into existence. She ran her fingers along the touch
panel beneath her hands, adjusting ship's attitude when the stars had
finished their brief shimmering and re-engaging the vessel's cloak.
The ship was quickly engulfed by a thin film of energy that bent the
entire spectrum of light around it, effectively rendering it invisible
to all types of sensory equipment. She hoped the captain had not
noticed her hesitation. It was her first time at the helm during a
transition, where a thousand things could go wrong when phasing from
one alternate timeline into another, and she was feeling a little bit
apprehensive.
The teal blue uniform she wore was rather devoid of insignia, a plain
sort of jumpsuit which hugged her trim figure. Ankle-length gray boots
completed the ensemble, as well as a single golden pin resting on her
collar. It was in the shape of a figure eight resting on its side, the
classical symbol for infinity. In jarring contrast to the uniform, a
yellow sash was tied around her waist.
"<Captain, we have completed our trans-temporal shift,>" she said in
slightly accented Solnoid, the common language used by the Matriarchy.
"<The cloak is engaged, and our position is stable.>"
"<Well done, Ensign Shan,>" replied Captain Chow with a smile. Her
uniform was identical to the young ensign's, except that her sash was
black. "<A very smooth transition. My compliments->"
"<Captain! I'm detecting a Musk vessel twenty-six thousand li from our
present location. They are in a stationary orbit on the far side of
the moon.>"
"<Confirmed, Captain,>" said Shan Pu after a moment, staring into her
tactical display. "<It appears to be a Spatha-Class vessel. But why
would they be all the way out here, so far from the border?>"
"<Who can fathom the minds of feral males?>" Captain Chow replied,
leaning forward in her chair and lacing her fingers together, before
resting her chin there. What were the Muskys doing out here? This was
a long ways from the front lines, deep in Solnoid-controlled territory,
where the Huntress was assigned to scout out new potential supply bases
for the current campaign.
Captain Chow glanced at Lt. Ming, currently manning the main tactical
station. "<Any sign that they detected us?>"
"<No, Captain,>" Lt. Ming replied, after a moment spent staring at her
displays. "<There's no record that any active radar sweeps pinged us
before the cloak was engaged.>"
Captain Chow glanced over at Shan Pu. "<It seems that you're in luck,
Ensign Shan.>"
"<Captain?>" Shan Pu turned for a moment to look at the older woman.
"<The ink on your commission is barely dry, and you're about to taste
blood in battle already.>" A wolfish smile crossed Captain Chow's
face. She turned to Lt. Ming. "<Load all fore and aft torpedo tubes
and sound battle stations.>" As the klaxons began sounding, she turned
back to Shan Pu. "<Take us in closer, Ensign Shan. We have some feral
males to exterminate.>"
"<Affirmative, Ma'am,>" replied Shan Pu crisply.
******************************
Soun took several deep breaths as his head finally stopped spinning,
and he managed to make some sense of what was happening. There had
been some advanced work on generating virtual realities being done in
the Empire, but nothing he knew of would be this realistic. And then
there were the memories to contend with, memories of another life, one
lived by another Soun Tendo.
There was only one inescapable conclusion. This was no illusion, no
false reality. This was another world, as real as his own, and the man
he had thought was the Genma Saotome he knew had consigned him to it,
to switch him for the Soun Tendo of this other world, an emotionally
crippled man. A man that he was having difficulty accepting that he
could have ever become.
Soun felt detached as he began examining those memories, reliving them
in a sense but also holding their emotional content distant from him.
What he saw troubled him greatly, like looking at his own life through
a shattered mirror.
Kimiko was dead here, taken by the same illness that Imperial medicine
had saved her from, her vitality and strength stilled forever, years
before her death in Antarctica. He had been luckier than this other
Soun, having been allowed to enjoy more time with his wife. That event
had broken his other self, and he felt tears beginning to form in his
eyes, his own dormant feelings for Kimiko responding to these painful
new memories. With more difficulty than he was used to, he mastered
his emotions and held them firmly at bay. After a time, the sadness
receded to manageable levels. He took a deep breath when the crisis
had passed, and then he heard a gentle knock at the door.
"Father?" came Kasumi's voice, sounding worried. "I made some lunch.
Do you feel well enough to eat today?"
Soun felt shame as Kasumi's voice awoke new memories within him from
his other self's life. After falling apart like the man had, it had
required his daughters to pull together and salvage the household, a
heroic effort, especially from Kasumi. Fortunately for this family,
she had been more than equal to the task, but the effort had taken its
toll. The eldest Tendo daughter had been forced to remain here and act
as 'mother' when she had every right to be off beginning her own life.
He cleared his throat. "Lunch sounds like an excellent idea, Kasumi.
Let me get cleaned up first, and I'll join you at the table."
"Of course, Father," Kasumi replied through the door, sounding a little
surprised. A timbre of happiness had entered her voice. "I'll have it
all ready for you."
Soun began pulling clean clothes from the drawers and closet. Maybe he
was trapped here for now, but there was no need for him to continue as
his other self had done, wallowing in drunken misery like a child. He
felt sincere sympathy for Professor Saotome at that moment, recalling
his departure with his son and the Chinese girl, Shampoo.
That name was oddly familiar, and it took him a moment to recall where
he had heard it before. When it came to him, he almost smiled at the
irony. His Akane practically worshipped the amazon, and she even had a
life-sized poster of Shampoo hanging up in her room. Here, things were
different. So many things were different.
An idea occurred to him while he was gathering clothes. Professor
Saotome was apparently also trapped here. Perhaps together, he and
Saotome-kun could find a way back home. Who knew what catastrophes
could happen while he and Saotome-kun were both trapped here, and those
two fools were free to run rampant in their places?
Soun paused. Saotome-kun? That was how someone addressed a friend,
and he had never been the friend of Professor Genma Saotome. Then he
paused again, as flashes of the friendship between this world's Soun
Tendo and Genma Saotome came to mind. A slight smile lit his face for
a moment. Maybe they could be friends as well as allies. That might
be nice. He had been so involved in his work for so many years that he
didn't really have anyone he could call a friend anymore.
Besides, it had been a while since he had enjoyed a good shogi match.
******************************
"<Sir, I have completed my analysis of the signal,>" said the young
centurion, turning to face an impatiently waiting Herb.
"<Go on.>" Herb stopped drumming his fingers on the armrest of his
command chair.
The centurion looked excited. "<It comes from a region far beyond our
scanning capacity. I've never heard of a signal that could reach this
far across tangents on its own, without requiring repeater stations.
Not even our phase drives have the range to shift us to its source in a
single translation, even using the carrier wave as a beacon, my lord.>"
"<I thought as much,>" said Herb, sounding pleased. "<This is what
I've been looking for.>" He stood up. "<Centurion, you have the
bridge. Inform my personal guards to meet me in the signal room.>"
"<Sir?>"
Herb smiled coldly. "<Since we can't follow it in this vessel, I'm
going to piggyback a transmission on its carrier wave while it's still
available. With any luck, there will be an analog of mine that I can
use on that tangent, allowing me to track down the source of that
signal and use it to transmit that world's location to the Dynasty
homeworld. I sincerely doubt they'll put up much of a fight when a few
of our dreadnoughts phase into orbit over their heads. It should make
an excellent staging area for a surprise assault on the backside of
those Solnoid bitches, once we finish with pacifying it. Wouldn't you
say so?>"
The centurion saluted. "<A brilliant plan, sir!>"
"<I thought so, too,>" Herb replied with a nasty smile. "<Soon enough,
we'll teach those women their proper place in the universe, as servants
and concubines to their betters, once we have properly broken them to
the yoke of servitude. After all, it is inevitable that the Musk will
eventually rule all, for we are the one true master race.>" He paused
briefly at the door to the lift. "<This will be a day long remembered,
Centurion, as the beginning of the end for the Solnoids' perverted
philosophies of female supremacy.>"
The young centurion saluted Herb as the lift door closed, pride evident
on his young face.
******************************
Shan Pu slowed the Huntress to a halt at eight thousand li from the
Musk vessel, listening to the lively babble of electronic traffic all
around her as various sections of the ship reported in to the bridge.
A fifty-kiloton thermonuclear warhead now rested in each of the four
forward tubes as well as the two aft ones, their fuses primed. It
wouldn't be long now before the Musk vessel was turned into debris.
"<Captain, the Musk vessel is still showing no signs of awareness,>"
said Lt. Ming, finally managing to free up her board as the last ship
sections reported readiness. "<We are at full readiness to begin our
attack run.>"
"<Monitor their communications traffic,>" ordered Captain Chow. "<I
don't want to be caught by surprise if a Musky battle group is about to
join them.>"
"<One moment.>" Lt. Ming studied her console. "<Odd. I'm picking up
an incoming resonator transmission here, from a very long range. Wait.
Three signal pulses just went out.>" She looked up. "<The source of
the original transmission is somehow beyond our detection range.>"
"<That's impossible,>" Shan Pu broke in. "<There has to be some sort
of a repeater station within range. There's no way for a resonator
signal to reach this far on its own, without some kind of a boost.>"
"<The ensign's right, Captain. What I'm reading is way beyond what's
supposed to be possible for resonator technology.>"
"<Can you piggyback a standard scanning pulse back along this mystery
signal's carrier wave?>" Captain Chow looked over at Lt. Ming.
"<Easily enough done, but there's a good chance that the Muskys over
there will detect it. Why do you ask?>"
"<I don't think that's a Musk signal, and I'll be damned if I'll let a
bunch of feral males get a hold of technology like this. So I'll take
that risk. Ensign, close to five thousand li. Lieutenant Yim, charge
up the particle mounts and prepare to launch torpedoes on my mark.>"
"<Affirmative, Captain.>" Lt. Yim, a short, thin woman, held her thumb
poised over the launch button, ready to unleash thermonuclear death at
her captain's command.
******************************
*** Earth 0.000,0.000
Herb took a deep breath and smelled the freshness in the air, relishing
that unmistakable scent that no shipboard air could ever duplicate, no
matter what sort of advances in atmospheric scrubbers were made. There
was nothing quite like air made by nature. Herb inhaled deeply again
and detected something odd with this breath, an unexpected weight on
his chest. He opened his eyes and looked down.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
This was impossible! He was now a female, a lowly brood mare! Someone
was going to suffer dearly for this!
******************************
Genma was growing nervous. A handful of minutes had gone by. It was
almost time for him to reverse the signal polarity, before the recall
cycle began. This had to work. He needed help to deal with the boy,
one so much smarter and stronger than the Ranma he was used to dealing
with.
It was all for the good of the Anything-Goes School and its future
success, after all.
******************************
*** Earth +1.612,+1.509
"<I've completed my analysis, Captain. The results are interesting.>"
"<How so?>"
"<It seems that out of our entire crew compliment of eighty-two, there
is only one among us with an analog on the tangent that this mystery
signal comes from.>"
Captain Chow blinked. That was lower than she was expecting. "<Who?>"
"<Ensign Shan was the only engramatic template among the crew database
that was able to generate a positive response from my test pulse. This
isn't too surprising, since there are one hundred and two different
versions of the ensign out of the one hundred and eight member worlds
of the Matriarchy. Individuals like her are extremely rare, as you can
well imagine, Captain. I suppose it's even possible that the ensign
here might even be fairly ubiquitous across all tangents, but that's
only a theory. Regardless, it appears that she's the only option we
have at present, and we have no idea how long that signal will continue
to transmit into the tangent. This may be our only opportunity.>"
Ensign Shan turned from her console for a moment. She had not expected
to be the only possibility among the crew, but she had known that she
had a large number of analogs. She had even met a few of the other
versions of herself at various diplomatic functions she had been
required to attend with her mother, and she had been amazed at the
great variety among them.
"<I'm reluctant to order you to do something like this, Ensign,>" said
Captain Chow thoughtfully. "<So I hope you are willing to volunteer to
see what is on the other end of that signal.>"
Ensign Shan double-checked that her station was secure, and then she
took a breath and stood up, facing her captain. She saluted, her right
fist tight against her left breast. "<For the Matriarchy.>"
Captain Chow stood up and returned the salute proudly in response to
the young girl's bravery in the face of the unknown. Who knew what the
other end of that signal held for her? "<For the Matriarchy, Ensign
Shan Pu.>"
******************************
"<Report status, Centurion,>" said Herb when he returned to the bridge.
His thoughts felt a little fuzzy, an unfortunate side-effect of the
engram recording. Ever since waking up from the procedure, something
had felt wrong, a tickle at the back of his neck.
"<Nothing to report, sir. All systems nominal.>"
The centurion's words did not soothe Herb. The nagging worry did not
abate, feeling like a splinter in his mind.
******************************
"<Now just relax, Ensign,>" said Doctor Gao, who had been brought in to
monitor the procedure. "<The recording will only take a few moments.>"
Shan Pu was certain she was not scared, such a feeling was unworthy of
a soldier of the Solnoid Matriarchy, but there was a tremor of disquiet
in her midsection, like butterflies bumping around inside her. Her
thoughts turned to memories of home as the headset was fitted to her
head, and her final night of shore leave.
It was just after graduation, and her classmates had wanted to blow off
some steam and celebrate. So they had all gone down to the red light
district near the port. Peh Fum had been the instigator, and Shan Pu
smiled at the memory of her best friend and fellow officer-trainee.
Shan Pu had been selecting a 'comfort male' to celebrate the evening
with, in one of the port's many pleasure houses. A grinning Peh Fum
had been helping a blushing Shan Pu choose. She had never been to such
a place before, and the pink-haired girl had been assuring her on what
she could expect from the experience, describing the pleasures in great
detail. Several of their cadre mates had sworn that the comfort males
there were the most handsome and athletic in the port, with many that
were near their own age.
While the group had been boisterously deciding, Shan Pu had noticed a
strangely dressed girl stealing food from the table, where a feast of
celebration had been laid out. She would not soon forget that face.
She had chased the girl into a nearby alley, furious at the thief's
brazenness to steal from Solnoid soldiers like that. There she had
been astonished to see that the strange girl had opened a quantum
tunnel, and Shan Pu had leaped at her, engaging her in a furious
unarmed melee to prevent her from escaping. After a brief but fierce
struggle, the girl had managed to knock her out with a powerful kick
that slammed her into a wall.
A short time later, Peh Fum had found her in the alley and brought her
back to the pleasure house, where her friend had picked out a handsome
young man for her, and the evening had ended on a more enjoyable note.
It had been Shan Pu's first time with a man, and he had been both a
wonderful lover and pleasant company talking with afterwards. All in
all, her last night of shore leave had been memorable, before she had
to leave for her first assignment as a newly-commissioned officer.
What had been his name?
Oh, yes. Ranma.
She smiled at the memory of his name. Maybe she would look him up
again the next time they returned home. After all, unlike some of the
more radical extremist elements in the Matriarchy, which had grown more
vocal as the war with the Musk had dragged on, Shan Pu had nothing at
all against males in general, so long as they minded their place among
those of the superior gender.
Before reporting in to the Huntress the next morning, she had consulted
with one of the Sibylline Oracles about that strange girl, wondering if
she would have a chance at revenge. The white-robed figure had closed
her eyes as she held Shan Pu's hands, opening her inner vision to the
future. She muttered a few words in Old Solnoid, then told her that
she would meet that girl again. Though she didn't much believe in any
of the Sibylline Order's reputed powers of divination, it was still a
bit comforting to hear that. She was looking forward to having a
rematch with that little thief.
"<That's it, Ensign,>" said Doctor Gao, interrupting Shan Pu's musings
as she removed the headset. "<We've got a clean recording. Wait a few
moments to get your bearings back, and then you can head back to the
bridge.>"
Shan Pu watched as the fist-sized data cartridge was carried from the
room. Such a small thing to hold memories of a life, she mused. She
felt a sudden curiosity about the life that the copy of her engrams
would be able to experience, when that recording was imprinted in her
analog. What would she be like? What would she dream about?
******************************
"<Beginning transmission, Captain,>" said Lt. Ming as Shan Pu emerged
from the lift.
Shan Pu paused, feeling an eerie sensation come over her. She stood at
attention, waiting for the captain to acknowledge her.
"<Transmission complete. No irregularities detected in the carrier
wave. It was a remarkably clean transmission.>"
******************************
"<Sir! Picking up a fluctuation in the carrier wave. There's another
transmission piggybacking on to it from this end!>"
Herb felt the tickling at the back of his neck intensify. "<Raise
shields!>" he barked. "<Arm positron cannons!>"
******************************
"<They're raising shields, Captain.>"
"<Fire!>" Captain Chow then quickly whirled to face Lt. Ming. "<Raise
the shields!>" She then turned to face Lt. Aoi. "<Bring the engines
up to full and give them everything we've got as we pass over their
heads, where their shields are weaker. Begin evasive maneuvers and
reposition us for another pass as soon as possible!>"
Several decks below, the torpedo tubes belched forth fire as four very
fast-moving streaks emerged and lanced away.
******************************
"<Incoming torpedoes! Brace for impact!>"
Despite that warning, Herb was nearly thrown from his seat when all
four Solnoid torpedoes hit his vessel, ripping into the protective
gravitic shielding before they could come up to full power. Alarm
klaxons began going off loudly. He gnashed his teeth in rage.
"<Return fire with all available batteries!>" Herb shouted, furious
that he had been taken off-guard like this. "<Load port and starboard
torpedo tubes!>"
"<Unable to calculate targeting solution,>" said the weapon's officer,
ignoring a gash on his chin from when his face had hit the console in
front of him only a moment before. "<Firing in a sweep pattern.>"
******************************
Now it was the Huntress's turn to be rocked by enemy weapon's fire,
even as she flew past the Musk vessel while blazing away with her heavy
particle cannons. A loud klaxon went off as fires broke out from
systems shorting out. One of the positron streams had managed to hit
near one of the main power conduits, a lucky shot that disabled the
cloak as it burned its way through various systems. Without it, her
lighter shielding would not be able to resist a full fusillade of the
Dragon Claw's firepower.
"<Damage control reporting in, Captain,>" said Lt. Ming calmly. "<We
managed to get the shields up before they nailed us, but they've taken
down our cloak. Fore and aft torpedo rooms report fully operational.
Fire control reports fully operational. External communication are now
down. Engine room reports some damage to the main drive. We can fight
and still outmaneuver them, but we can't outrun the Muskys.>"
"<Then reload all tubes and fire all weapons!>" Captain Chow shouted, a
dribble of blood rolling down her chin. She had bitten her tongue when
the ship had been hit by the Dragon Claw's assault. She was dismayed
to see that Lt. Aoi was reeling in her seat, her face a bloody mess
from a section of bulkhead slamming into her. She saw that Shan Pu had
returned to the bridge. "<Ensign Shan! Take the helm!>"
Shan Pu hurried to obey, helping her injured crewmate from the chair
and sliding into her place even as a medic emerged from the lift. Her
nervousness was gone now as her training took over, and she wheeled the
Huntress past the Dragon Claw, noting with deep satisfaction that the
enemy ship was belching flames from several rents in its hull as it
leaked superheated atmosphere. She felt a surge as the rear tubes and
particle mounts unloaded into the more lumbering bulk of the Dragon
Claw.
******************************
This time, Herb was unable to avoid being thrown from his seat as his
vessel was struck once more, the hull scored deeply as several of the
Huntress's particle beams found their mark through the chinks in his
depleted shielding. He howled his rage at the smaller, more nimble
vessel as it turned to make another run on him.
"<Port tubes one through three are damaged, sir.>" one centurion began
to quickly rattle off a damage report. "<Communications are down. We
have hull breaches on decks three, seven, and eight. Engineering
reports that we are losing magnetic containment on the primary fusion
bottle.>"
"<Fire all weapons! Let those treacherous bitches die with us then!>"
******************************
"<Tubes emptied, Captain,>" said Shan Pu, having taken weapon's control
after Lt. Yim was killed by a shard of deck plating exploding upwards
into her. Lt. Ming had been killed on a prior pass. <Recharging the
capacitors on forward mounts one and four. No response from two and
three.> The acrid smell of burning plastics and the sound of shorting
components were all that greeted her in reply. Damage reports had been
coming in less and less often as the life and death struggle had raged
on between the two ships, and had finally stopped coming in altogether.
"<Captain?>" Shan Pu turned to see why Captain Chow had not responded,
then turned her head away from the sight that greeted her gaze. Tears
filled her eyes, and she blinked them away. The smell of death was in
the air, and she knew now that she was going to die soon.
So be it, she thought, her expression hardening. The enemy would not
win this battle. She was Shan Pu, a Solnoid warrior, and it was a good
day to die. Her only regret was that the Oracle's prediction would not
come true.
"<Tube one reloaded,>" she muttered to herself, uncertain if anyone was
still alive down there, or if it had only been the automatic systems
doing it. There was no response from any of the other tubes, fore or
aft. "<Maneuvering to fire.>"
******************************
Herb could no longer see out of one of his eyes, and his arm was now in
a makeshift sling. His bridge crew were all dead, as well as most of
his other crew, and the ship was barely operating on its secondary
fusion bottle now, which was failing. A single blinking light was on
the helm control in front of him. He had enough charge built up for
one more shot from his main positron cannon as he saw the Solnoid ship
begin its next attack run, the enemy vessel looking as fatally damaged
as his own. Their struggle to the death was coming to its conclusion.
A line from an old story he had once come across on some conquered
tangent came to his mind.
"<From Hell's heart I stab at thee,>" Herb muttered, coughing up some
blood.
Smacking the firing button with his palm, he imagined he could hear the
capacitors in the bowels of the ship discharging one last time across
the vacuum of space. No one would ever know of his glory here this
day, he mused in annoyance. There had not been a chance to transmit
their findings, so he could only hope that his distant analog could
find a way to notify the homeworld.
Herb smiled wolfishly as he saw the beam rip through the other vessel's
hull, his face a mask of blood as he muttered, "<For hate's sake I spit
my last breath at thee.>" He howled his defiance as he saw the Solnoid
vessel's torpedo heading right at him.
******************************
Shan Pu felt the Huntress rock around her as the Musk vessel's main
cannon coughed up one last blast to ravage her with. Luckily, she had
already fired her remaining functional tube before the connection was
severed by the energy tearing though the ship's superstructure, and the
torpedo was streaking eagerly away at her prey. She tasted blood in
her mouth, feeling regret that none of her sisters would ever sing of
her glory.
She had a momentary satisfaction at seeing the Musk vessel suddenly
explode into a ball of expanding debris and plasma flame, and then the
Huntress's main fusion bottle finally lost its own containment.
For a brief moment, the dark side of the moon was lit by two actinic
flares of light that swiftly faded into nothingness.
******************************
*** Earth 0.000,0.000
Shan Pu blinked as her eyes suddenly came back into focus, and she
swayed slightly on her feet before quickly regaining her balance. She
glanced down and found herself to be dressed in a sweat-dampened, dark
blue T-shirt over a sports bra, the shirt tucked into the waistband of
her light purple silk pants. Each of her hands was wrapped with tape,
and her feet were bare. A heavy leather bag was in front of her, one
that her analog had apparently been punching and kicking for some time,
judging by the feel of her shoulders and thighs.
"Hey, why'd you stop?" asked Running Deer, peeking around the bag she
had been bracing against the amazon's furious assault. Shampoo was
normally good for another twenty minutes before she needed to take a
breather like this.
Shan Pu felt a sudden rush of memories assail her, from a life that she
had never lived. Her other self was from a small village in China. A
village of amazons, actually, who followed ancient laws and customs
that went back thousands of years, almost like a miniature version of
the Solnoid Matriarchy in operation. One of the tribal laws caught her
attention, one that promoted a rather simple but practical eugenics
program on one hand, and a harsh response to defeat by an outsider
female on the other.
A blur of more images flashed across her awareness, and she struggled
to absorb them. She only managed to glean bits and pieces for now.
The rest would come later, over time.
Cocking her head slightly to one side, she was astonished at the sudden
wealth of new experiences becoming available to her. Her analog here
was a powerful fighter, a martial artist of great skill that had left
her village months ago to win glory for her people among their Japanese
conquerors. She had remained undefeated ever since, battling her way
up through the rankings to wind up here, the Imperial Arena in Tokyo.
Shan Pu set that aside for the moment and began launching punches and
kicks into the bag, quickly getting into a smooth rhythm as she dealt
out powerful blows, testing herself.
Her body responded to her with a level of fluid grace and strength that
left her feeling a bit breathless and filled with wonder. A grin grew
on her face as she pummeled the heavy bag more and more furiously, her
fists driving into it relentlessly. After a long time, feeling sweat
dripping down her body, she finally stopped and took a brief breather,
rotating her right arm and then her left in their shoulder sockets
slowly to cool down, already feeling her endurance beginning to rebuild
itself.
Running Deer watched Shampoo curiously. The amazon seemed a little out
of it today for some reason, although it hadn't diminished her power
any. She briefly noted a thin stream of sand pouring from the seams of
the bag and whistled a single note softly.
Ignoring Running Deer for the moment, Shan Pu walked over to study
herself more closely in the full-length mirrors on the walls, taking
stock as her breathing gradually slowed. She was a little startled to
realize that she seemed both a little taller and better built here.
She studied herself more intently, noting with pleasure the solid
definition of her muscular yet shapely figure. A much more detailed
inventory could wait until later, in private, but she would stack her
new physique against that of anyone back home in the Matriarchy, in
beauty or physical might. Her analog here had worked hard to build
this body to an amazing level of fitness and combat readiness.
Shan Pu turned to face the familiar girl she now recalled was named
Running Deer, her best friend here, as well as a fellow fighter in the
Imperial Arena. She smiled brightly.
"Shampoo fine. Shampoo feel great." She then suddenly felt odd as she
realized she was speaking Japanese, and not very well. Her name also
felt a little odd to say mispronounced like that, but she could adapt
to that.
It was not encouraging to her as she recalled that she had always been
slow at picking up new languages. Why couldn't the dominant language
on this world have been Solnoid, the main language used across the many
worlds of the Matriarchy; Mandarin, which was her native tongue; or
even English, her one language elective that she had taken during her
training? If it had been any one of those, then she could speak more
normally. But since it was Japanese, it looked like she was going to
be speaking this pidgin version of the language for a long, long while.
"That's good," said Running Deer with a grin, tossing Shampoo a towel.
"Could you spot me? I still need to do a few sets with the weights."
"Sure." Shampoo wiped the sweat from her face. She wondered how long
it would take before she felt at home. She could only recall a few
things from her classes on resonator technology. Over a period of time
the two sets of memories would eventually merge, even on an emotional
and subconscious level. In a sense, they evolved into a new individual
that was more or less a mixture of the two, with the more dominant of
the personalities absorbing elements of the other.
Shampoo wasn't concerned about that. The merger had already begun for
her, and it wasn't as if she was going to forget anything from either
life. She would lose nothing, and her two selves offered each other a
richness of experience that made them both more complete. In a certain
sense, she was already Shampoo, the Chinese amazon, but she was also
still Ensign Shan Pu, a trained soldier of the Solnoid Matriarchy that
had been sent here on a mission. She caught herself briefly wondering
what her original self was doing now, then decided that such thoughts
would only make her feel homesick. Besides, she had a job to do here,
and the Matriarchy would be watching for her signal, once Captain Chow
reported their findings.
What did concern her was finding the source of that resonator signal on
this world before the Muskys did. She was little more than a glorified
prizefighter here, on a world ruled by feral males. She was going to
have to give some thought to the matter and work out some kind of a
strategy. For the time being, she would simply act as her other self
would normally act and try to learn more about her new home until an
idea presented itself.
Her fervent hope was that the Muskys were even more disadvantaged by
the status of their analogs on this world than she had been.
******************************
Herb sat heavily on the cot, vaguely realizing that she was in a cell
of some sort, but that wasn't very important right now. This analog
was female! How could such a thing have happened? The white-haired
girl's attention seemed to be focussed on her breasts, having ripped
open her top to stare down at them in shame and disgust.
"<I was a prince of the Musk Dynasty, a warrior of the master race,>"
Herb muttered scornfully to herself. "<Now look at me, trapped in the
body of a lowly female.>" Somewhere, she was certain that the gods
were laughing, and rage filled her soul, a dark, seething fury at her
other self, probably now enjoying a glass of wine in his comfortable
cabin on the Dragon Claw and writing up his report. Meanwhile, a copy
of his memories was implanted in this body, a form that would be held
utterly valueless among the Musk for anything other than breeding stock
or pleasuring a male.
Herb began to laugh, a low, melodious sound, filled with as much venom
as mirth. Someone was going to pay for this, and pay dearly in blood
and pain. She would see to it.
******************************
Genma tapped away at the keyboard in front of him, even as he kept one
eye on his apparently slumbering companion. Time was almost up, and he
could not wait any longer to commit his deed. He pressed the enter key
and watched the screen.
*REVERSING COIL POLARITY
The timer ticked away its last moments, and then the computer's voice
spoke once again. "Retrieval cycle complete."
Genma watched expectantly as Soun opened his eyes.
Soun felt odd. The last thing he remembered was drinking heavily and
dreaming of how he would take his revenge on Genma Saotome for breaking
a promise between men. There was also the matter of that little punk
Genma called a son, breaking his daughter's heart and running off with
that Chinese girl.
Blinking his eyes open, Soun felt remarkably refreshed, without a trace
of a hangover. Then he saw Genma Saotome standing there before him,
and his eyes narrowed. He started to say something before he quickly
realized that he was gagged, not to mention tied to a chair.
Genma could not tell for sure which version of Soun he had, so he felt
a test was in order. He grinned and spoke one word.
"Happosai."
Soun's eyes seemed to double in size, and he glanced quickly from one
side to the other, frantically searching for the Master. Had Genma
finally gone insane? He craned his neck around.
"Welcome to your new life, Tendo-kun," said Genma with a grin, undoing
the bonds that held Soun tied to the chair. "You and I have a lot to
talk ab- urk!"
Soun surged up from the chair, his hands tightly wrapped around Genma's
throat. They grappled, Genma struggling to free himself enough to get
a breath even as Soun, with manic strength, slammed him back against
the lab table. Genma heard a crash behind him as the resonator fell to
shatter its innards on the concrete floor.
"C-can't... b-breathe," Genma managed to get out, his back feeling like
it was breaking as Soun seemed to be doing his level best to kill him.
Had the resonator driven his friend insane? Was it still that other
Soun?
"Mmf! MMMFFF!!!" was the only sound that Soun made, as all his pent up
rage seemed to explode out of him at once. His visage began to inflate
and grow horrifying as he manifested his infamous Demon Head attack.
Genma, in desperation, drove a knee into Soun's stomach, repeating it a
second time when the first didn't seem to yield much of a result. That
managed to weaken Soun's grip enough that he could take a breath and
get back some leverage. The two began trading body blows like a pair
of punch drunken prizefighters, Soun too far gone in his anger to fight
very effectively, and Genma already too winded from nearly being choked
to death.
Soun's head snapped to one side from one of Genma's punches, staggering
him a bit. His body felt like it was weighted down with cement. Had
he fallen so far out of shape so quickly? He backed off a bit from
Genma, hearing a thundering in his ears. Seeing that Genma was not
going to press him, he took a moment to reach up and removed the gag in
his mouth. It came out bloody.
"What is the matter with you, Tendo-kun?" Genma demanded, seeing that
the madness seemed to be fading from his friend's eyes.
"How dare you ask me what the matter is, Genma Saotome?" Soun growled
out, momentarily imitating Ryoga. "Because of you, I've seen Hell!"
"What are you babbling about, Tendo-kun?" Genma was bewildered now.
Had he missed and gotten the wrong world? But he had double and even
triple-checked his figures against the boy's notes.
"You broke the engagement between Ranma and Akane!"
Genma was startled. What had happened there since he had found himself
here? And why would his other self break the engagement? There was
nowhere else for them to go, since going back to Nodoka on that world
was utterly impossible, not while the boy's body was cursed like that.
Soun suddenly held his head, his rage having held back the flood of new
memories now engulfing him. They surged over him like a tsunami. He
was lost among them for several moments, remembering a life that was
not his own, but one that he suddenly was intimately aware of. He
glanced up at Genma when they briefly receded, confusion in his gaze.
"Tendo-kun," Genma said gently. "It's okay. Let the memories settle.
Take your time."
Soun started remembering things vividly, in a fractured, random way.
He remembered when he was promoted to Assistant Director. He saw the
day Nabiki was accepted by the Imperial Academy. He recalled the first
time he kissed his wife. All these moments and more washed over him.
"Saotome-kun, what-? What is all this?"
"It's a new start, Tendo-kun." Genma gave Soun a hug, then clapped him
on the back. "Welcome to a world without Happosai, for starters."
After calming Soun back down from his brief fright at the mere mention
of their old master, the two began to talk. While they were talking,
and as Soun became ever more amazed at all that he was hearing and was
remembering, his cellphone rang. He pulled it out and flipped it open.
"Tendo here," he said reflexively.
"Sir, it's been nearly forty minutes," came the voice of his driver. I
was getting concerned."
"We'll be down shortly." He then shut the cellphone without waiting to
hear the other man's response. He flashed a grin at Genma.
"It's a damn shame that only the boy knows the Anything-Goes School,"
said Genma with a shake of his head. "It would have been perfect if
one of your daughters had managed to pick them up like the boy did. I
suppose we could have run one of them through the device, if you hadn't
broken it trying to kill me."
Soun suddenly flashed on an unexpected memory, seeing Nabiki doing her
morning training, her movements showing knowledge of the Anything-Goes
School. That had been a few weeks ago. He started to chuckle.
"Saotome-kun, there's something I need to tell you." And Soun began to
describe the techniques he could recall Nabiki using, as both men began
to grin widely. When it was over, they clasped hands.
"Nothing can stop us from uniting the schools together now!" they both
shouted, and then they embraced, laughing jovially together.
******************************
*** Earth +1.612,+1.509
Soun felt odd, sitting here eating the meal that Kasumi prepared, as if
nothing was out of the ordinary. The two of them were alone, since
Nabiki was still off at school, and Akane was off on a training trip of
some sort. Soun was a little vague on the details, but he did feel a
sense of anticipation for when Akane was finished.
"How are you feeling, Father?" Kasumi ventured, somewhat shyly.
Soun glanced at Kasumi and replied in a gentle tone, "I'm fine, Kasumi.
Thank you for asking." He set his rice bowl down, feeling his stomach
gurgling slightly as it adjusted to having some solid food within it
once again. The meal had been excellent. But now that his belly was
full, he felt an intense craving for a cigarette. He held it off.
"Kasumi." He noticed the girl jump slightly when he said her name
suddenly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"It's all right, Father," she replied with a smile, one that reminded
him so much of his own Kasumi. "I've just been a little bit on edge of
late, I guess." She started to stand. "If you're finished, I can get
the table cleaned off."
Soun wasn't sure how to respond other than with a nod, watching the
girl get up and begin clearing dishes. He was a stranger in a strange
land here, and it was paradoxically made even stranger by the fact that
it all seemed so ordinary to him on a certain level. Everything around
him had changed, and even the Emperor he had sworn to serve did not sit
on the throne here, on this altered world. For a man who had devoted
his life to his Imperial Majesty's secret service, that realization was
disconcerting.
He had been giving some thought to how he would approach Genma, and a
straightforward approach was looking like his least complicated option.
Standing up, he went into the kitchen, seeing Kasumi washing dishes.
She turned to look at him.
"I'm going out for awhile, Kasumi."
"How long will you be gone, Father?" She turned off the water and
picked up a towel, beginning to wipe her hands.
"I might be late. Don't worry about holding dinner for me." He turned
and walked out.
Kasumi was troubled. It was good to see him up and about like this,
but there was something off about how he was acting. She couldn't
quite put her finger on it. After a few moments, she shrugged. With
him out of the house, it would give her a chance to clean his room.
Turning to the sink again, she turned the water back on and began to
wash dishes. There was a hidden hope within her that things might be
finally getting better. She hadn't liked the mood in the house over
the last few days. It all felt wrong to her, but she wondered how much
of her disquiet had been caused by Shampoo's leaving.
Kasumi turned the water off, surprised at the direction her thoughts
had gone. She shook her head. She was being silly. Shampoo had left
with Ranma and his father, and he wasn't- She wasn't coming back, she
quickly amended, feeling strange again. Shampoo was a girl, despite
her curse, so it was a little confusing for Kasumi to realize that she
also missed the presence of that male aspect of her friend.
The dirty dishes still in the sink weren't going to clean themselves,
she noticed after a moment. She began washing them, her thoughts going
back to more comfortable territory as she consulted her mental list of
chores that needed to be done. That made her feel better.
******************************
Genma sat and stared at the tea leaves in his cup, enjoying a quiet
moment before he headed home for the evening, half listening to the
television news report of a strange light flare from the dark side of
the moon that had been seen, and speculations on what might have caused
it. Things were slowly getting better with rebuilding this Ranma's
trust in his father, but it was emotionally draining to keep holding
the truth back from those around him. He held hope that his son would
be contacting him soon, and he could soon leave this place.
Someone slid into the seat next to his, and he froze when the man spoke
to him suddenly.
"<Hello, Professor Saotome,>" Soun said in somewhat accented German,
knowing from the man's file that he spoke it passably well. If he was
wrong about this, he wasn't sure what he would do.
Genma blinked, turning to stare at the man seated next to him, wearing
a slightly ill-fitting suit and tie, both a few years out of fashion.
"Uh, what?" He glanced around, wondering what was going on. Why was
Soun Tendo here? Was he after some kind of revenge for the broken
engagement? Then the words finally sank in.
German. Soun Tendo had just addressed him in German. Even more oddly,
he had called him 'Professor Saotome.'
"<I said hello, Professor,>" said Soun. "<Do you understand me?>" He
was starting to get a sinking feeling. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe
that other Genma had lied to him after all.
Genma wasn't sure what to do. Alarm bells were going off in his mind.
He swallowed some of his tea before speaking. "<I understand you.>"
He paused as Soun relaxed a little, deciding to play a hunch. "<It
looks like both of us are a long way from home... Assistant Director
Tendo.>"
Soun let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding in. He gave
Genma a relieved look. "<It appears so, Professor. If you have some
time, you and I should talk.>."
"<Yes,>" Genma said with growing concern. "<Is this about my son? Has
something happened to Ranma?>" He paused and lowered his voice. "<Is
that why you're here?>"
Soun picked up his fedora and tugged it down slightly on to his head.
He got up from his seat. He felt nervous talking in such a public
place. Ranma's device had caused him to wonder who else might not be
who they appeared to be. The potential for espionage was incalculable.
"<Come with me, Professor. Your boy is fine, as far as I know.>"
Genma followed Soun out into the street. They merged into the late
afternoon crowd on the sidewalk, walking together. They walked side by
side for a time, both of them lost in thought. Soun was the first to
break the silence.
"We have a common problem, Professor," said Soun, shifting back to
Japanese. "You and I are both stuck here." He waved his hand a bit at
the street scene surrounding them.
"What? How?"
"Your... counterpart," said Soun, pausing for a moment to find a proper
word. "He knocked me out, strapped me into a chair, and then he hooked
me up to some kind of device he had in his lab at the Science Ministry.
He told me who he was, and then the next thing I knew, I was here."
Genma felt sick for a moment, and he leaned against a lamppost. "I'm
so sorry, Tendo-kun. Uh, I mean, Tendo-san."
"We need to contact your son, Professor," said Soun, looking squarely
at Genma. "Without his help, you and I will probably be here for the
rest of our lives, and I don't relish that thought." He held out his
hand. "I know you have very little reason to trust me, to trust either
version of me, but I'd like to work together with you and your son to
get our real lives back. Are you with me?"
After a moment of hesitation, Genma took Soun's hand and shook it
firmly. "I'm with you, Tendo-san."
On a nearby rooftop, Ranma studied the scene in confusion. What was
Mr. Tendo doing down there with his father? Something was up, and it
left him feeling confused and more than a little betrayed. What was
going on?
"Damn you, Pop," Ranma muttered. "Just when I was starting to trust
you again, old man."
Feeling hurt and angry, Ranma turned from the scene and left quickly.
He had to think about this.
******************************
*** Earth 0.000,0.000
Genma was feeling pleasantly mellow. He grinned at Soun, the two of
them having eventually ended up in a small restaurant near their homes,
quietly discussing their plans for the future. Soun's initial doubts
over leaving his family behind had been mollified by Genma reminding
him that his other self would take care of them, and that his daughters
were still around him in a sense.
"Here's to the future, Saotome-kun," said Soun contentedly, raising his
glass of beer and clinking it with Genma's. He drank lightly, wanting
to keep his wits about him. His gaze had occasionally been drawn to
the proprietress of the establishment, a handsome figure of a woman,
and he didn't want to make a fool of himself. She seemed to be taking
an interest in their conversation for some reason, but then he decided
that he was just being paranoid. What possible interest would the
woman have in listening to two men discussing plans for uniting their
families?
Yumi poured some batter on the griddle as she glanced over at the two
men in the corner booth. She had heard the bald one mention the name
Ranma loudly, piquing her interest, and so she had been watching them
off and on while they talked together for the past hour. Ukyo would be
home from school soon, and she was curious to hear how her niece's day
went. Today had been rather dull, so spying on the two men was giving
her something interesting to do, as well as being good practice for her
lip-reading skills.
Letting his gaze drift back to the woman serving okonomiyaki behind the
counter, Soun took another sip of his beer. The food had been some of
the best he had ever tasted, and there was something about the woman
that kept drawing his eye. Maybe it was how she carried herself, he
mused, noting the easy grace in her movements that marked a skilled
fighter. It reminded him a bit of how Kimiko had been in this world.
His mouth went dry when she unexpectedly gave him a smile as his gaze
met hers. He hurriedly went back to drinking his beer.
"Anything more I can get you gentlemen?" Yumi asked, walking over to
their table after serving the beef okonomiyaki she had just prepared
for a customer at the counter. She smiled at them both, with a touch
more warmth directed Soun's way. It was gratifying to her ego to see
the interest in the man's eyes, even if he was trying hard not to show
it.
"Uh, nothing for me," Soun replied, taking another quick sip of his
beer. "The food was excellent."
"The best in town, Sugar." Yumi smiled in a friendly way at Soun, and
then moved her gaze over to Genma, her tone cooling a tiny bit. "How
about you?"
"I'm fine," Genma replied, glancing up at Yumi and then back down to
his plate again. There was something nagging at his brain about this
place, but it refused to come to him. "The beer's really good."
Yumi felt her temper flare up a little bit at that comment, her pride
stung at the man's offhanded comment on her cooking. She turned and
gave Soun another smile. "You let me know if I can do anything else
for you, Sugar." Turning, she strolled back to her usual spot behind
the counter, putting a bit of a sashay into her stride for Soun's
benefit.
"That's quite a woman, eh, Saotome-kun?" Soun reluctantly pulled his
gaze away from watching Yumi when she was back behind the counter and
her attention was now busy with a knot of customers that had come in.
"Eh?" Genma glanced over at Yumi, as if just noticing her for the
first time. "Too mannish in her build for my tastes." He took a drink
of his beer, neither of them noticing the sudden glance his direction
that Yumi cast him, her gaze frosty.
Yumi watched the pair finish their late lunch and leave, giving Soun
another smile as he passed by her. "Thank you. Come again, Sugar."
Genma received a more neutral look.
Reviewing their conversation in her mind as she went on to serve more
customers, Yumi decided that she must have been imagining things. The
family name Saotome was fairly common in Tokyo, so it probably didn't
have anything to do with Ranma. It was also pretty hard to believe
that a nice kid like her niece's fianc� could have a jerk like that
Genma guy as his father.
Still, for Ukyo's sake, she decided to investigate Ranma's family a
bit, maybe say hi to the boy's mother. They were going to be family
soon enough after all.
******************************
"I'm home!"
Ryoko slipped off her shoes and set down her backpack, leaning it
against the wall. Behind her, Ryoga kicked off his own shoes and also
slid his own backpack off his shoulders. He held it with one hand, a
bit reluctant to let go of it.
"Welcome back, Ryoko-chan," said Achika, just before she stepped out of
the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. She looked at Ryoga, not
quite sure what to make of his presence. She turned her gaze back to
Achika. "Uh, you're just in time to help me prepare dinner." She
looked at Ryoga again. "Who might you be?"
"Oh, this is Ryoga, Mom," Ryoko said quickly. "Ryoga Hibiki. He and I
met on the road while I was off training."
Achika felt a little faint. Her wayward daughter had been travelling
alone with a boy? She dried her hands a bit more, uncertain what to do
with them. All kinds of scenarios flashed through her mind, none of
them very pleasant to her.
"Is it all right if Ryoga stays here for a few days, Mom?" Ryoko eyed
her mother, uncertain what to make of the looks that she was giving to
Ryoga. "Uh, I told him it would be okay. He's looking for someone
here in Tokyo, then he'll be on his way."
"I-I suppose so," said Achika, having sudden visions of her daughter
and this vagabond she had brought home with her. She had obviously
been too lenient with Ryoko, but she couldn't find it within herself to
toss the boy out on the street, as tempting as that was.
"Great! Thanks, Mom!" Ryoko almost skipped past her mother, her pack
slung over one shoulder as she headed for her room. She turned back to
face Ryoga, a grin on her face. "Come on, Hibiki. I'll show you where
everything is."
Achika watched the pair head upstairs and thought. Now that Ryoko was
back home, a talk with Nodoka seemed like a very good idea. The girl
had been alone with this Ryoga boy for days, maybe even weeks. Who
knows what could have happened between them out on the road? As she
headed back into the kitchen, Achika decided to talk with Nodoka as
soon as possible. Perhaps Ranma would be just the stabilizing sort of
influence that Ryoko needed.
The more she thought of it, the better that idea sounded. Luckily, the
boy wasn't officially engaged to anyone yet, or Nodoka would have told
her. So she still had time to arrange something with her oldest and
best friend. That eased her mind a little, since she was fairly well
certain Nodoka would be amenable to the idea.
Besides, Ryoko Saotome had a nice sound to it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After such a long time away from writing this story, I hope to continue
at a much better pace now.
Stay tuned for the next chapter: "Of Cats and Women"
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