Previous chapters can be found at 
<http://tailkinker.contrabandent.com/macross.htm>.

                              HISTORY

Ranma sipped his tea, then set down the teacup.

"I suppose the first thing you wanna know is where I've been?"

He was seated on a cushion, a low table in front of him.  Akane,
Lisa, Miriya and Shampoo were seated in similar fashion around
the table.  Both Shampoo and Akane looked quite at home, though
Akane was steadfastly not looking at the Amazons seated on the
other side of the lodge.  Lisa looked rather uncomfortable on her
cushion;  she was obviously used to Western-style chairs, or
standing at her post.  Miriya had disdained the cushion entirely
and knelt at the table, feet tucked under her backside and both
open hands, palms down, on the table.

Lisa shifted awkwardly on her cushion.  "Actually, Ranma, I was
more interested in the exact events of August the twenty-fifth,
twenty ten.  You know...the day you vanished."

"Oh."  Ranma nodded.  "Right.  Well, I had gotten out of my
Valkyrie and run to the engine room..."


                             * * * * *


"Ranma, get out of there!"  Commander Hayes' voice was fraying,
like she was fighting off panic.  "The Fold Generator's on
buildup to jump;  you can't stop it now.  You've got twenty
seconds to get out of there.  Can you fold yourself back to the
ship?"

"I'm not in my fighter--"

Doctor Lang broke into the channel.  "Captain Saotome, there
should be enough free Reflex energy in that chamber for you to
fold;  tap it, as though you were in the fighter!"

"Free energy...yeah."  She grinned.  "I can fold the Generator
itself!"

"No--"

She clicked off the commlink and ran forward.  Both hands touched
the giant machine, and she wished herself as far away as
possible.

She found herself in glaring brilliance.  ~The Sun...it's
blinding me, and I can't breathe...~  She pushed herself away
from the Fold Generator as hard as she could.  ~Vacuum...I'm in
deep space.  Gotta fold again...~  She shut her eyes, thought of
warm sunlight and cool air, and wished herself there.

And found herself in a field of pink flowers.

"What the..."  She glanced around.  The landscape was vague, hard
to focus on, but the flowers nearby seemed solid enough.  Though
there was an odd, dreamlike quality to them as well.

"I get the feelin' I've been here before."  She glanced around.
"An' there was a person here.  A woman?"

~Not exactly.~

She whirled, and found herself facing a tall, slender, and
vaguely female form.

"Yeah.  I've met you before."

~Again, this is not exactly true.  Neither of us has physical
form in this place.~

Ranma took a step towards the...woman?  "You helped me, last time
I was here."

~And the time before, though you could not remember.  By the time
you leave here, you will remember our last two meetings.  I can
no longer manipulate your memory.~

"You...you made me forget?"

~It is one of my gifts.~

Ranma shook her head.  "What the hell are you?"

~I am one who leads.~  She shifted her gaze away from Ranma.  ~I
led my people, a long time in the past.  I permitted myself to
trust, and my people were destroyed by my trust.  Now I am alone.
My only purpose is to lead, and I have no people to lead.~

"What happened to your people?"

~We were destroyed.  I guarded the secret of the Flower, which
gave my people mutability and evolution.  I entrusted that secret
to one of my children, believing him suitable for leadership, and
he betrayed me.  He used the power of the Flower to turn his
followers into giant warriors.~

"You--"  Ranma swallowed.  "You're the leader of the Zentraedi?"

~No.  The Zentraedi are people of the Protoculture.  The
Protoculture broke away from my people, seeking their own
destiny, and in doing so, my people were destroyed.~

"Why?"

~I do not understand why.  But the day they left, they abandoned
their natures and became Protoculture.  And the warriors of the
Protoculture were those who now call themselves Zentraedi.  But
the Zentraedi turned against their creators, and destroyed them.
They came back to our home, and destroyed my people.  Now they
war among themselves, and with other people.~

"But you escaped."

~All our people escaped.~

Ranma scratched her head.  "I don't get it.  You've been tellin'
me that your people were destroyed."

~And so they have been.  We escaped, into this realm, all of us.
But we can no longer pursue our goals of evolution.  We are
locked away from the physical realm.  I, the One Who Leads, am
trapped between the physical realm and this realm.~

"I guess I see."  Ranma sighed.  "You came here to avoid gettin'
obliterated, but it ain't much better."

~We may yet be able to return to the physical.~

"And on that note...How do I get back to the physical?"

~When I decide to return you.~

"Oh, great."

~Do not despair, young warrior.  Though I find some pleasure in
your company, I cannot allow you to remain with me.  Already,
what little exposure I have had to you has contaminated my
perceptions.~

Ranma sulked.  "Ya make it sound like I'm a disease or
somethin'."

~No, my young friend.  It is I who is the disease.~


                             * * * * *


"Woah.  Jet back a sec."  Akane raised a hand.  "You met this
really powerful person, and you called her a disease?"  She shook
her head.  "You're more bone-headed than I thought."

"No, Akane," said Lisa.  "She called herself a disease."

Akane frowned.  "That makes even less sense."

Ranma leaned forward.  "Look, she was right, okay?  She showed me
some other worlds."

"Other planets?"

"No.  Other Earths."  He sighed.  "This is the really tricky
part.  See, this planet is not the only one.  There are other
Earths, from what she called timelines."  He refilled his teacup.
"Every time someone makes a really important decision, a new
timeline comes into being."

"What kind of decision?"

"What if the original pilot of the Macross never decided to come
to Earth?  What if the Zentraedi had decided to live and let
live, or just ask for the ship back?  What if the Leader had
never trusted her...offspring, or whatever, and never shared the
secret of the Flower?"

Miriya nodded.  "Such decisions could indeed reshape the destiny
of the galaxy.  Who could tell what sort of ramifications they
could have?"

"The Leader could.  She showed me an Earth invaded by her people,
where the Macross never landed and we couldn't fight them off.
That was the part she meant, about bein' a disease.  She showed
me an Earth that had been completely destroyed by the Zentraedi,
blown to a million fragments.  She showed me an Earth where the
Zentraedi killed off all the people on the planet, leaving only
the people on the Macross as survivors.  She showed me an Earth
where the Zentraedi destroyed ninety percent of the population,
which was promptly invaded by the Zentraedi creators."

"These so-called Protoculture?"

"Naw.  They were someone else, and they were still around on that
timeline.  The Protoculture, on our timeline, is extinct."  Ranma
smirked.  "Unless you count these women.  The Amazons."

Shampoo blinked.  "Amazons?  Us?"

"Yep.  That was one thing she told me.  Earth was colonized by
the Protoculture, but they've been pushed back to their original
landing place.  Here."

Lisa looked a bit stunned.  "Here?  Are you sure?"

"Yep.  Got three pieces of evidence.  Number one, their myths and
legends tell of the colonization.  It's all symbols, but you can
piece it together."

Akane shook her head.  "Ranma...I'm not trying to be rude,
but...this doesn't seem like you.  You're not usually this..."
She trailed off.

Ranma grinned.  "Not usually this smart?  It's okay, Akane.  I'm
not, really.  It's just that I've had some time to think about
this, okay?"

"Five days--"

"Nope."  Ranma took a long draught from his teacup.  "Almost two
years."


                             * * * * *


"Come on, get up."

She didn't want to get up.  She was cold, but she felt she was
getting warmer, and the snowbank was so comfortable.

"My great-granddaughter will be most upset if you die before she
can exact her revenge.  Move."

A hand pulled her over, face down into the snowbank.  She
sneezed, and started to shiver.  She forced herself up on her
hands.

"Am I back...?"

"Back where?  Back in China?  Yes."

"No, back on--"  She looked up in surprise.  "Snow."

"Yes.  That tends to happen in winter.  Now move."

"Not winter...it's summer."

"Delusions.  Not a good sign."  The old woman pulled on her arm.
"Stand.  Walk."

"Look, old ghoul--"  She stopped, and looked around her.
"Hey--I'm just outside your village!"

"Yes."

"But this isn't right.  I was just standing in a field of
flowers."

"The cold is affecting your perceptions.  We need to get you to a
warm place."

"Yeah...I need hot water."

"A hot bath is an excellent idea.  Come on, now, you're not going
to freeze to death if I can help it."  She chuckled, a sound like
dry twigs breaking.

"Old ghoul--I mean, Elder."  She forced herself to be polite.
"I'm glad you were here."

Cologne looked at her oddly.  "Glad?  With my great-granddaughter
after your blood?"

"Hot bath first.  Then talk."

"A wise choice.  Follow me."


                             * * * * *


"But how Ranma get here?  And when?"

"C'mon, Shampoo, I'll get to that part, okay?"


                             * * * * *


Ranma sipped at her tea.  She was still shivering uncontrollably,
though she'd wrapped a large woolen blanket around her.

"The blanket won't help.  You're suffering from hypothermia.  The
blanket is keeping the heat out, not in."

"I know, okay?  Is the bath ready?"

"Almost."  Cologne dumped a pot of boiling water into the tub.
"There is a faster way to recover body heat.  Simply put another
woman under the blanket with you."

"No!"

Cologne smiled.  "I would understand that you'd prefer it not be
me.  But there are others--"

"Not a good idea, Elder."  She dropped the blanket, and started
stripping off her flight suit.  The snow and ice that had caked
on the suit had melted, rendering the suit quite soaked and
useless as insulation.  "You'll see why in just a sec."

She stepped into the tub, and was immediately transformed.

Cologne's eyes widened.  "Ah, a Jushenkyou curse!  So that was
why--"  Her eyes narrowed.  "But you changed to a male with hot
water.  So that means you are really a male."

"Yep."

Cologne laughed.  "Wait until my great-granddaughter learns."

"She already knows."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, we met up almost a year ago, remember?  You were there."

"I have not left this village in ten years, my boy."

Ranma blinked.  "Yeah, you did.  Nine months ago you opened the
second Chinese restaurant in space.  Shampoo placed fifth in the
Miss Macross competition.  Then she got kidnapped by the
aliens--"

"Aliens?"  Cologne shook her head.  "The cold did more extensive
damage to your faculties than I feared."

Ranma scowled.  "And you already knew about my curse, so why are
you actin' like..."  He stopped.  "Oh, no.  Very bad idea."

"What would that be?"

"What's the date?"

"Why, it's January the fourteenth, boy."

"And the year?"

Cologne blinked.  "The year?  It's two thousand and nine."

Ranma slid down in the tub until his chin touched the water.
"Oh, man..."


                             * * * * *


"So you've been living with these Amazons for almost two
years...starting eight days ago."

Ranma nodded.  "That's right."

Lisa sighed.  "This is a gray area in military law...technically,
you've been AWOL for over five hundred days."  She stopped,
pulled out pen and notepad, and did the math.  "Exactly six
hundred days, to be exact."

"I know."

"But alternately, you've been MIA/PD for eight days."

"Yep."

"Shampoo not know terms.  What are AWOL and MIA/PD?"

"Absent Without Leave and Missing In Action, Presumed Dead."
Lisa pointed her pen at Ranma.  "You could have reported in
during any of those six hundred days."

"Oh, yeah?  So say I walked into Macross City, a day before the
invasion.  What might happen, with--"  He ticked them off on his
fingers.  "My knowledge of the pending event;  my record showing
no leave time of any sort;  my rank insignia being two pay-grades
higher than my records would have shown;  and, oh yeah, my alter
ego running around?"

"What alter--oh, right."  Lisa looked embarassed.  "You were
posted to Macross just before the invasion."

"Right.  If I'd shown up before then, the paperwork woulda shown
me AWOL from Kadena.  After then, there was no Macross to report
to, and any base on Earth would have me marked KIA."

"Shampoo guess, KIA is Killed In Action?"

"Good guess.  Remember, Commander, we were all marked as KIA due
to terrorist activity after the misfold."

Hayes nodded.  "A very good point."

"So I had to hide out here until the day I folded.  I was gettin'
ready to leave when the message that Shampoo an' Miriya were
comin' here arrived.  So I decided to hang around until you got
here."  He grinned at Akane.  "Didn't expect to see you here,
though, Akane."

"Kind of a last minute thing.  You know how it is."

"Typical military SNAFU.  They give you permanent command of Blue
yet?"

"Yes, the day after you--died."  Akane shook her head.  "I wasn't
even used to you being dead yet, Ranma.  Now I'm trying to adjust
back to you being alive."

"Crazy, ain't it?"

"Not the word."

Ranma turned back to Lisa.  "Well, Commander, that's it in a
nutshell.  'Course, there's more to the tale, but I don't think
it is relevant to the mission."

"I'd like to hear anyway, Ranma."

"All right."  He leaned back.  "Akane, you were there when Elder
Cologne promised to teach me a martial arts maneuver from her
people's style, right?"

Akane nodded.  "Yes."

"Well she lived up to that promise, but I hadda tell her that she
*would* promise to do so.  She didn't really believe me at first.
Amazon Wu Shu is a closely-guarded secret, and she didn't believe
that she'd just give away one of its techniques.  But before I
sent her to Macross--"

"Woah."  Lisa leaned forward.  "Sent?"

"Yeah.  Turns out all the problems I had with Cologne on the
Macross were my own fault, because I sent her there in the first
place."

"Sent her how?"

Ranma shrugged.  "Folded her."

Lisa smacked a fist into her palm.  "That's how she got aboard!
For the life of me I couldn't figure out how."

Miriya looked puzzled.  "But why would you send--"

"I hadda, alright?  Because she was there.  And the only way she
could be there is if I sent her.  It's a paradox, see?"  Ranma
spread his hands.  "If I didn't send her, who knows what mighta
happened?  She wouldn'ta met you, Miriya, which means she
wouldn'ta taught me no Wu Shu technique."

"Predestination paradox."  Akane nodded.  "I read about those, in
a science fiction novel.  You've done something, you go back in
time, and you find out you need to do something else to make sure
the first one happened right.  Or something like that."

Lisa cut in.  "But you couldn't have folded her."

"Why not?"

"Because you need a large supply of Reflex energy to make a
spacefold.  You've said that enough yourself."

"Yep."  Ranma nodded.

"And there's no Reflex energy here."

"Whaddaya mean, no Reflex energy?"

Lisa smirked.  "Please, Ranma.  These people are living in Dark
Ages technology.  Where would they even lay hands on a Reflex
furnace?"

"No furnace."  He stood up.  "Anyone in the mood for a hike?"


                             * * * * *


The view from the cliff was stunning.  Over a hundred small
pools, several with bamboo poles rising from them.  And
everywhere, including within the pools themselves, were large,
coral-pink, three-petaled flowers.

"My God," breathed Lisa.

"This is the place, eh?"  Akane shook her head.  "I never thought
I'd see the place it all began."

Miriya nodded.  "And behold the Flowers of Life.  Wherever the
Protoculture has been, so will they be."

Ranma led the party down the narrow, treacherous path to the
training grounds themselves.  Lisa walked with particular care,
even avoiding mud puddles.

Ranma smirked.  "'Fraida water, Commander?"

"This water, yes."

"You're right to be.  Nasty stuff."

"If you've been here this long, Ranma, why haven't you..."  Akane
waved a hand out towards the pools.

"I know what you're thinkin', Akane.  Why not find Spring of
Drowned Man and jump in?"  He shuddered.  "The curses are
additive, Akane.  I met a guy that had hit two different pools.
He was really screwed up.  I might not like my female body, but
it sure beats the alternative."

Akane considered the alternative...a cursed shemale form.  And
shuddered herself.

"Right.  I don't think our fathers would approve."

"Not even a little."  He leaned over a pool, and nodded.  "This
is a good one.  C'mere, Commander."

Lisa edged towards the pool.  "What am I looking at?"

"See the bottom of the pool?  Notice any of them pink flowers in
it?"

"No."  She leaned a little closer.  "Not at all."

"Good."  He gave her a shove.

"Ack!"

-SPLASH-

"Ranma!" gasped Akane.

Shampoo merely giggled.

Lisa surfaced, sputtering water, and turned towards Ranma, fists
raised.  "Saotome, I'm gonna--"  She paused.  "Hey...I'm still
me!"

"Yep.  No flower, no curse.  It's only the pools with the flowers
in 'em that have an active curse.  There's even one with a
flower, but no curse, 'cause nobody's drowned in it yet."  He
knelt down by the pool, and plucked one of the Flowers of Life.
"The secret's in the Flower.  This flower is what let the Leader
transform her people.  It's what goes into Reflex cells, and
gives 'em the abilities they have.  Including transforming our
Valkyries.  I guess the sap or somethin' gets in the water, and
because the water's cold, and when something sufficiently large
drowns in it - there's no spring of drowned fruit flies...Well,
maybe they leave a DNA print or somethin' on it."

He chuckled.  "I'm startin' to sound like Doctor Egghead on the
ship.  I've been thinkin' about this way too much over the last
coupla years."

Lisa climbed out of the pool.  "You could have explained that
without tossing me in the pool."

"I know.  But, I figured a demonstration was better 'n a thousand
words."


                             * * * * *


"We are here for five days, to establish a diplomatic mission and
to pave the way for the real diplomats.  After that, we return to
the ship."  Lisa sighed.  "If I take you with us, you're in for a
real paper-shuffle.  So if you want, I can leave you here."

"Are you nuts?"  Ranma shook his head.  "I've learned a few other
things on my trip here.  Things I ain't told you yet, and ain't
gonna.  But there's things I gotta do on the ship.  Like pummel
my pop."

Lisa grinned.  "All right.  I can get some of the paperwork out
of the way before we arrive.  But there's one thing I need to
do."

"What's that?"

"I need to congratulate you on your promotion...Major."

"Major?  ME?"  Ranma laughed.  "That's a good one.  They told me
that Akane would make Major before me."

"Well..."  She smiled.  "When you were declared dead, they gave
you a posthumous promotion.  And they can't really take it back
just because you were inconsiderate enough to be not dead."

"Crap."  Ranma shook his head.  "That means I'm out of
uniform..."

"Sorry, I don't have an oak leaf with me."

"They also broke up the Irregulars."

Ranma sighed.  "Figures.  Every time I get a command fully broken
in, they decommission it."

"Don't worry just yet, Ranma."  Lisa grinned.  "Your days as a
Squadron Commander are far from over.  I have plans for you just
yet."


                             * * * * *


Author's Notes and Excuses:

Okay, I know with the last chapter I said I'd try to have this
one out by March.  Oops.  But at least it was only nine months,
not thirteen, like the last gap.

This chapter is mostly exposition, I know, sorry.  But the next
four have lots of action planned.  I wanted to get some
explaining out of the way before the dramatic finale.

C&C can be sent to tailkinker@contrabandent.com.

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