[Ranma/Battletech][FanFic] Battletech: The Saotome Gambit Part 22

[Jamie and Bridget Wilde]

I never thought that I would end up making two
dedications of this nature during the course of
this fanfic, and certainly not so soon after the
disaster that befell the _Kursk._

Part 22 of "The Saotome Gambit" is dedicated
to the men and women killed or wounded aboard _USS COLE_

Sailors; rest your oars.

The Grand Hall of
Her Imperial Divinity, Azusa the First
6 May 3025

"Some gratitude," Ukyou muttered over the sounds of the wedding
reception that swirled around them. "After all my help."
"We're grateful for it," Akane assured her, glad that Ranma was busy
fending off potential suitors over by the buffet, and not present to hear
his beloved Ucchan's plea. "But the answer is still no."
"I resigned my commission with the Federated Shiratori today," Ukyou
pointed out. "After tonight, I will have no more ties to the Empress. Now
explain to me why you really don't want me coming along." She leveled a
piercing stare in Akane's direction. "It's because of Ranchan, isn't it."
Akane returned Ukyou's look.
"My reasons are my own," she answered.
"Ha," Ukyou snorted. "The truth is that you're afraid you'll lose him
to me if I come along. Admit that much, at least."
Akane seemed to tremble a moment with anger at her accusation, proving
her rival's point without saying a word.
"I don't have to explain myself to you," she said finally.
Ukyou could almost hear her window of opportunity slamming firmly shut
over the chatter of the guests and the dancing music. She shouldn't have
been so overt with her accusation, she realized, but her temper and her firm
belief that Ranchan would choose her over Akane had brought it forth.
Having resigned her commission, and knowing that Mikado would come
after her at the first opportunity, she was out of easy options for the
future. She steeled herself for what she knew she had to do.
"Let me make this easier for you, sugar," she began. "Genma Saotome
owes my family for the dowry which he took..."
"That's *his* problem," Akane returned.
"Hear me out," Ukyou insisted. "Now I'm willing to renounce my
engagement to Ranchan in exchange for a share of whatever you find at
Ryuugenzawa."
THIS had Akane's interest.
"What kind of share are we talking about?"
"Enough to cover the dowry, plus a comfortable sum leftover for me,
seeing as how I've just left my current employer, and need to make a fresh
start somewhere."
Akane eyed her dubiously. "And you'll formally renounce your engagement
to Ranma in exchange for this?"
Ukyou took a deep breath before responding. "If I get a share of the
Ryuugenzawa find large enough to cover the dowry, yes."
Akane thought it over. It would be easy to say no, but with the
_Palomino_ still on Genevieve, it would also be easy for Ukyou to expose
their crimes to the Cult of Azusa out of spite. She did not like the idea
of any more foreigners joining them on what was supposed to be a secret
mission to find Ryuugenzawa, and she did not like the idea of having Ukyou
close at hand, where she could work her considerable charms on Ranma.
All the same, if she could expunge her rival's claim on Ranma, it
might prevent a lot of hassle in the future. Her own engagement would take
precedence. After that, it was just a matter of convincing the man she
loved to grow up and come to his senses.
"All right," she said at length. "I agree to your offer, as long as
you recognize that I am in command of the expedition, and that you will
obey my orders."
Ukyou had to swallow her pride in order to accept. A lot of it.
"Deal, but we bring Konatsu along as well." She might need a loyal
ally outside of Ranchan around no matter how civil the Tendo Heir might
seem to be about the whole affair.
"Fine, but he doesn't get a share," Akane said, agreeing to accept the
stunning _bishonen_ adjutant as additional baggage if nothing else. He was a
likable sort of fellow for a cross-dresser with more gender identity problems
than even Ranma, but his usefulness to the expedition was dubious at best.
"The poor dear wouldn't know what to do with it if he did," Ukyou agreed.

___________________________________________________________________________
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:

BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART TWENTY-TWO

by J. Austin Wilde
Safety Control Rod Axe Man,
Fission Park Press
wild...@gci-net.com
http://www.gci-net.com/users/w/wildeman/

The characters and situations of Ranma 1/2 are the
creation and property of Rumiko Takahashi and
Shogakukan/KITTY/Viz Video. Battletech and its
related materials are the property of FASA, inc.
No infringement of copyright is intended nor
should be inferred by this work of fanfiction.
___________________________________________________________________________

Chapter One

League of Five Nails Army Depot
Planet Condorcet, Oroboris System
The League of Five Nails
9 May 3025

Hikaru Gosunkugi grimaced at the results of his latest horoscope, which
foretold reversal and disaster in the near future. Not satisfied with this,
he shuffled through his favorite pack of tarot cards, and flinched as the
Eight and Ten of Swords featured prominently in his reading with the
Magician, the Emperor (reversed), and the Tower. Reeling with dismay, he cast
the _I Ching_ multiple times, and received the hexagrams _Sung_ (Conflict),
_Lu_ (Treading Carefully), _Ta Kuo_ (Breaking Point), and _K'an_ (Danger)
which spoke of betrayal, suffering, and death if immediate yet cautious
action was not taken to rectify the situation.
The trouble was, he did not know what was wrong with his situation in
order to rectify it.
Survival instincts were strong with him though, and he jumped up from
his oracular queries to order his DropShip readied for immediate lift off.
As his hand fell upon the telephone in his private quarters on the depot
compound, an air raid alert began to wail.
Sweat began to pour from his brow, matting his stringy black hair as
the sounds of fusion turbojets screamed overhead to the accompaniment of
detonating bombs. The explosions rocked the depot, making his teeth ache.
Hikaru threw himself out of his quarters at a run, staggering out into
a hellish vista of destruction. DropShips burned on the landing pads as
a few of his security detachment battlemechs engaged in a futile exchange
of fire with dozens of fighters from the Furinkan Combine. His warehouses
were going up all around him, geysering massive fireballs into the sky.
The heat was blistering from a hundred meters away, and the convection
forces threatened to pull him off his feet and suck him into the inferno.
"Evacuate all forces!" he screamed to one of his staff officers. The
man ran blindly towards a bomb shelter, ignoring him.
Hikaru spun around, watching the depot burn from every corner. The
Combine fighter wings made another pass, stitching beams of coherent light
into the few surviving battlemechs that opposed them. With growing dread,
he realized that this battle was already over, and that he had lost.
He was then catapulted into the air with the shockwave of an exploding
bomb, the heat of the burst searing his mouth and throat as he screamed. He
had time for one question as the merciful blackness took him.
How had the Furinkan Combine managed to ambush him?

* * *

Hikaru Gosunkugi opened his eyes.
He was not dead, as he expected to be, but as his eyes adjusted to the
lighting and the muted droning of voices resolved themselves into coherent
speech, he wished that he was.
He was strapped down to a gurney in the sickbay of a starship, the
out-of-place tug of faux-gravity told him. His stomach could always tell
the difference between centrifugal force and real gravity. The interior of
the sickbay was not done up in the standard pastel-green paint scheme of a
League of Five Nails vessel, and the burly Furinkan Combine Marines who
watched over him confirmed his dire suspicions of where he was.
"He is awake, my lord Prince," a voice declared from out of his
restricted line of sight. The straps that held him in place also kept his
head very still.
Tatewaki Kuno appeared abruptly, strutting into view with a look of
haughty glee plastered on his handsome face.
"Ah, cher-Cousin," the Combine Prince greeted him with hollow sincerity.
The term of address he used harkened back to the days before the Star League,
when the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere had shared a common enemy in the
domineering and expansionist Terran Hegemony. It was a time when the member
of a Great House afforded his peers chivalry, courtesy, and hospitality.
Hikaru doubted he would get much of that from Kuno.
"I trust that thou art comfortable?" Tatewaki continued, all smiles.
Hikaru could not move his head, and his attempt at speech ended in a
hoarse croak that hurt his throat.
"My physicians tell me that aside from mild trauma to the mucus linings
of thy mouth and throat, thou art well," Tatewaki informed him. "Indeed,
when I hadst learned from mine own troops that thou hadst been discovered
lying hither and yon at bomb crater's edge, I was vexed with concern for
thee."
He looked him over for a moment.
"Imagine for a moment the full-measure of my relief at thy apparent
lack of serious injury," he said at length. "For taking little satisfaction
in those hurts gained by impersonal bomb and stray beam, know you that I
have many injuries to inflict upon thee with great and careful malice."
Tatewaki turned to one of his physicians.
"He is fit to be moved?" he asked imperiously.
Hikaru waited with dread for the doctor to speak.
"Yes, my Lord," a voice replied.
Tatewaki nodded in satisfaction before turning to the Marines.
"Take him to my private dojo," he instructed them.
The ranking Marine saluted at this. "What shall we do with him once we
are there, my lord Prince?"
Tatewaki Kuno had been waiting for this moment through two long months
of humiliation, reversal, and defeat. He had planned for it, and the troops
who awaited his command in the Sick Bay had been trained especially for this
event. That they asked their lord at all was merely an observation of the
formality that he demanded of all his forces.
He turned a baleful eye towards Hikaru before responding.
"Crucify him."

* * *

Hikaru Gosunkugi, keen student of both history and the occult, was well
versed with the procedure of crucifixion as practiced throughout the ages.
The Romans had been one of the first states to employ it as an inspired
combination of propaganda tool and method of capital punishment, and in the
process had created one of the Inner Sphere's enduring religions. It had
died out as a practice as that very religion absorbed the power of the Empire,
yet returned in fits and spurts throughout the ensuing centuries as tyrants
and despots of every stripe seized upon the method's effectiveness in making
a point of their power and dreadful wrath.
Tatewaki Kuno was by and large a practical man, and known to prefer
executions that were swift - beheadings with the sword for those of high rank
or social class, and firing squads for the rabble. The fact that Hikaru was
currently nailed with very large spikes through his wrists and his feet to
a pair of thick interlocking oak beams in the shape of an 'X' meant that the
Combine Prince had something truly special in mind for him.
Whatever it was, it did not seem that death was the immediate goal. For
one thing, he was not actually hanging in space as would be expected of the
condemned. His toes touched the deck, and though it was agony to put his
weight on them, he could do so quite easily. The cross he hung upon was
also tipped back slightly at an angle, allowing him further support against
slipping down to hang by his wrists - which was important when one considered
that the condemned in a crucifixion did not usually die from shock or blood
loss, but from asphyxiation caused by drooping low enough on the cross that
it interfered with the action of the diaphragm on the lungs.
Indeed, it was common practice to break a man's legs if the execution
was taking longer than was desired, for then he would not be able to push
himself back up on the cross for a frantic gasp of air.
Hikaru craned his neck around to inspect the chamber. It was empty
save for the cold eyes of a Combine Marine who watched him with impassive
silence. The crisp smell of tatami mingled with the faint tang of old
sweat, and confirmed in his mind that this was indeed the personal dojo
of Tatewaki Kuno. The fact that Kuno had a cross waiting for him indicated
that this torture had been planned for him well in advance - probably from
the day of the attack at the Capra Zenith Jump Point.
He did not know how long he had been hanging here, as the shock and
pain of the first iron spike being driven through the bones of his left
wrist had caused him to faint. He only vaguely remembered the other three
being pounded into place, and had been quite content to slip fully into
unconsciousness at the time.
Now he was awake. The only sounds in the room were the faint hum of
the dojo's recirculation fans, and the steady patter of blood on the tatami
from the wounds in his wrists. It seemed that as he wriggled on the cross,
he reopened the clots that had formed around his wounds and the supportive
wooden washers that kept his wrists and feet from wrenching free of the
impaling spikes. In spite of the hot lifeblood they drank, the spikes felt
icy cold through his limbs, numbing his extremities. His parched throat,
raw from the heat of the explosion that should have killed him, now stung
with the sensation of distilled fear.
If this was what Tatewaki Kuno had planned for him, he dreaded how
long the Combine Prince would make him hang on the cross before executing
him.

* * *

Hikaru opened his eyes. The Marine watching him was neither the first
one assigned to crucifixion detail, nor the second. Depending on how long
they went between shifts, he could have been hanging on his cross for as
few as twelve hours, and possibly as long as a full day. Sweat dripped down
from the hair matted to his forehead, and he was glad that Tatewaki hadn't
made him wear a crown of thorns to go with his cross. Blood mingled with the
sweat would have made seeing even more difficult.
It was unbearably hot within the dojo. He knew this was true, and not
some product of his tormented mind, as even the Marine who watched over him
was sweat-soaked in his uniform. Tatewaki must have ordered the climate
control set all the way up to forty degrees. His throat was dry and cracked,
a raw sensation brought on by the explosion, and aggravated by the heat and
the dehydration that he suffered.

* * *

"Enervating, is it not?"

He awoke with a start, eyelids flicking open with audible *clicks.*
He hadn't even been aware of slipping back into unconsciousness.
Tatewaki Kuno stood before him, regarding him with a critical and yet
appraising eye, as one would examine the sculpture of a Renaissance master.
He seemed pleased with what he saw. Hikaru could only imagine what he looked
like to an observer.
He croaked a response. The words came out too low and too garbled to
be understood. Tatewaki did not seem to care. He was probably speaking
rhetorically, as was usual for him.
"I wish for thee to suffer, cher-Cousin," Tatewaki continued. "That
small measure of my intent must be clear to thee by now. Aye, thou shouldst
suffer for the many woes, great and small, that thou hath put upon me,
though I must needs condense such misery into shorter span than the two
months thou hath plagued me."
Tatewaki motioned for the Marine to step forward. The soldier did so,
clutching what looked to be an oversized sponge in his meaty paw. The Marine
brought the sponge to Hikaru's lips, but the frail scion of the House of
Gosunkugi winced at the smell of cheap wine gone nearly to vinegar.
"I must confess," Tatewaki declared. "That whilst I loathe the religion
of my upbringing, and have since spurned it for the sincere purity of Shinto
and the august teachings of Confucious, I find the passion of Christ to be a
fascinating tale."
The Marine managed to squeeze some of the wine into Hikaru's mouth. The
Gosunkugi Heir was too weak and too parched to spit it out. The sour wine was
more than a symbolic gesture on Kuno's part. It would increase his suffering
as it tore at his raw throat, and serve to dehydrate him even further.
"I regret that thou couldst not reenact the march to Golgotha," Tatewaki
sniffed. "Thy wounded condition and thy already frail constitution didst not
permit such."
He studied Hikaru's pale, sweat and wine streaked face for a moment
before giving a satisfied nod. "Aye, though I mean for you to suffer, cher-
Cousin, thy death is not mine intent."
Hikaru blinked in disbelief. Kuno wasn't going to execute him?
Tatewaki raised an eyebrow, sensing Hikaru's thoughts.
"You ask thyself why it is that I, Tatewaki Kuno, do not wish for thy
well-deserved end," he observed. "The answer is as simple as it is direct;
I have need of thy arcane talents."
What?
Hikaru offered up a questioning groan, which was about the best he
could manage under the circumstances.
"Thy talents are whispered of throughout the Inner Sphere," Tatewaki
replied. "In exchange for thy life, thou shalt perform such magical services
as I require to free the beauteous Akane Tendo and the magnificent Pig-Tailed
Girl from the sorcerous grip of that foul and iniquitous archfiend, Ranma
Saotome."
He brought a hand up to his chin in contemplation.
"Though it pains me to resort to such black art, I fear that I have no
other choice. Saotome's hold over Akane Tendo and Pig-Tailed Girl may yet
linger though I send him hither to the abyss no doubt prepared for him. They
must be freed from his malignant influences, ere I slay him."
He nodded slowly in agreement with his estimation. "Do this, cher-Cousin,
and thy life is spared. Mayhap thou shalt even feel the grace of the First
Lord of the Star League upon thee in granted Pardon."
Tatewaki brushed his hands together, as if cleansing himself of a dirty
and loathesome task.
"I shall leave thee where thou art for the nonce, that thou might further
contemplate the just wrath of Tatewaki Kuno, and that thou might also come to
better appreciate his mercy when it is finally granted. For in so doing, thou
shalt know in time that the hand which doleth out pain is also the hand which
heals with a king's touch."
He left Hikaru hanging upon the oaken beams of the cross without a look
behind him.

Chapter Two

NCJS _Dragonfly_
Martina System Zenith Jump Point
Martina System, the Federated Shiratori
10 May 3025

Ranma Saotome floated in free-fall on the Bridge with his father, Akane,
Ryouga, Happousai, Doctor Tofu, Akari, Ukyou, her former adjutant and cross-
dressing pretty-boy Konatsu, and Captain Ninomiya. Much to Ranma's chagrin,
Hinako carried the pink and purple Siamese which had been adopted as the
Ship's Cat. He kept his distance from the feline, who kept her cold violet
eyes fixed upon him more often than not. Pansuto Tarou was not present on
the Bridge, as he was to be released from the ship at their next destination,
and no one wanted him to know the location of the Ryuugenzawa System - which
was about to be revealed.
"Break it out, Pop," Ranma said to his father. "Let's see what the last
three and a half years of my life have been good for."
Akane and the others present quickly agreed.
Genma Saotome produced the RADIANT-SIX quantum interference decryption
device. It was the size of a lap-top computer, with slots for up to six
decryption keys. He removed the keys from around his neck, and after some
minutes of verifying with his notes as to their proper order, inserted them
carefully into place.
"Hurry it up, already," Happousai whined.
"The data disc is next, Master," Genma announced, setting it into the
reader. The unit sprang to life a moment later, asking him whether or not he
wished to proceed with the decryption process.
Ranma watched as his father entered the command to do so. The unit
made a few muted internal noises.
Then the screen went blank.
"Huh? Oh please, no..." Genma muttered fearfully.
"Maybe it's supposed to do that," Ranma offered weakly. They could not
have suffered through so much hell just to find out that the damn thing was
broken!
"Quiet, boy!" Genma growled. "I'm thinking!"
He consulted his notes once more.
"Look!" Akane cried, pointing to the display.
The device of the Star League Defense Force pixelated into existence on
the unit as she spoke.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBL
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following documents have been classified BLACK by the Star League Defense
Force I.A.W. SLDFOPSEC 901.7, sec A; UMBRA Classifications. These documents
contain information whose existence is not recognized by public authority.
Unauthorized disclosure constitutes grave damage to the security of the Star
League, and is punishable by DEATH. Observe all UMBRA OPERATIONAL SECURITY
requirements for the handling, storage, and dissemination of this material.
Reproduction of all or part of this material without express written consent
and countersign from Star League Defense Force High Command is forbidden.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------
| ASTROGATIONAL COMPUTER AUTOMATED |
| DESTINATION AND TRANSIT SYSTEM |
| Mk. 21, Mod. 3 & Mk. 22, Mod. 1 |
----------------------------------
SHIPALTs, Revisions, and Action Change Numbers current for this data are:

SHIPALT 3021-111*
SHIPALT 3021-115*
Rev 439, ACN 36
Rev 450, ACN 39
Rev 451, ACN 40

*See BUSHIPS Directory of SHIPALTs, Vol. 38, 38-19-204.12 and 38-19-219.10
for details.

-NOTICE TO ASTROGATORS-

PURGE ALL DATA FROM ASTROGATIONAL COMPUTER,
ARCHIVES, AND SHIP'S LOG I.A.W. REV 439 OF
THE Mk.21/Mk.22 MAIN COMPUTER OPERATING
PROCEDURES IMMEDIATELY UPON MATERIALIZATION
AT FINAL DESTINATION. FAILURE TO DO SO
CONSTITUTES WILLFUL DISREGARD FOR ALL OPSEC
REQUIREMENTS APPLICABLE TO THIS -ACADATS-
DATA SET, AND WILL BE PUNISHED TO THE HIGHEST
EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY A GENERAL COURT-MARTIAL.

<ENTER> TO CONTINUE

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBLACKBL
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Get to the damn point already," Ranma groaned as he read the various
revisions, warnings, and notices.
"Put a sock in it, boy," Genma hissed back. "Can't you see that this is
the real McCoy?"
The decryption device began to beep for attention. Several error messages
appeared, demanding immediate action.
"What's it want now?" Ranma asked his father.
Captain Ninomiya answered for him. "This device is supposed to be
connected to a starship's Main Computer, translating the coordinate data set
for the ship's ultimate destination into the Astrogational System," she said.
The cat groomed herself in Hinako's arms. "The unit wants to know why it isn't
hooked up."
"Hooked up directly?" Akane asked, curious.
"Of course," Hinako replied. "By talking directly to the Astrogational
System, the ship's Main Computer is able to devise the most direct Jump route
necessary to bring the ship to its encrypted destination, and all without
telling anyone where exactly they're going. The Astrogator can find out by
making direct queries to the memory banks, of course, but it isn't going to
be something he can do without drawing a lot of attention to himself. It's
just a way of keeping the whole thing secure."
"What about taking star-sightings at the destination?" Ranma asked.
"They could figure out where they were that way."
Hinako nodded. "True, but they probably had some sort of procedure
whereby the observatory was locked down and guarded while they were in the
Ryuugenzawa System."
Akane looked at the urgent requests from the decryption device. "So
what do we have to do to take a look? Plug this thing into the _Dragonfly's_
Main Computer?"
"Essentially," Hinako confirmed. The cat bared her teeth at Ranma as
she yawned, making him cringe just enought to be noticed. Ukyou caught the
motion from him, and gave him a concerned look.
"That wouldn't make us Jump right away, would it?" Doctor Tofu asked.
He had no desire to surrender control of the ship without knowing where
they would end up.
"It shouldn't," Hinako replied. "All this will do is instruct the
Astrogation System to calculate the Jumps necessary to bring the ship to
the destination from wherever it happens to be at that time. The actual
authority to Jump comes from the Captain, and is executed from the Helm."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Ryouga asked everyone. "Let's hook it
up!"
_Dragonfly's_ Astrogator produced a length of optical line with the
necessary fittings, and inserted it where Genma directed. The decryption
device sensed immediately that it was connected to the starship's Main
Computer, and set to work.
They watched as a display measuring the Main Computer's resource
management system began to dance and jump with activity. The ship's
telescopes began to move automatically as the Astrogation System prepared
position fixes for the Jump calculations. Even the cat seemed transfixed by
the computer's function, though it could have been drawn by the flashing
colors on the display.
After twenty minutes of frantic computer activity, the unit went into
a standby mode. The Astrogator confirmed that a Jump was calculated, and
awaited execution. Attempts to review the data were denied by the Main
Computer in spite of his highest level access.
"So all we really know," Ranma observed. "Is that the ship says it's
ready to take us somewhere just as soon as we give the word, but that we
don't know where we're going."
"Correct," Hinako replied, petting the cat as she spoke. "Even though
the Jump calculated most likely won't take us to Ryuugenzawa, but to a
system on the way, we still don't know where we're going until we get there."
"What did you say about looking directly at the memory banks for the
coordinates?" Akane asked.
"We can do that," the Astrogator agreed. He looked to his Captain.
"With your permission, of course, ma'am."
Hinako nodded. "Granted."
The Astrogator began to prod at the Main Computer's memory banks using
several high-level diagnostic commands. The security around the Jump
Coordinates wasn't impregnable, but as soon as he took the Main Computer to
task, it shifted into a standby mode that sounded several audible alarms at
the Captain's Station, the Helm, and the Astrogation station itself.
"You see," Hinako pointed out. "You can look, but you can't do it
without alerting other people. The whole Bridge crew has to be in on whatever
it is you're doing, and I'm sure old Kerensky made it known that a few spies
on each ship with access to Ryuugenzawa would be among them."
It took the Astrogator half an hour of queries and calculations before
he had an answer. He posted the coordinates on the holographic chart table.
Hinako set the cat against the seatback of her Captain's Station chair,
letting her sink her claws into the upholstery for purchase against free-fall.
Ranma tensed at the sight of her talon-like claws, but kept it to himself
sufficiently that no one else noticed.
Hinako and her Astrogator studied the haze of tiny stars and gas clouds
in the chart display. Both seemed to frown as they realized where the famed
Ryuugenzawa System was supposed to be.
"Check your data again," she ordered the Astrogator in a sultry voice
that did little to disguise her unease.
"I agree," he replied, still frowning in puzzlement.
"What is it?" Akane asked them, concern in her voice.
"It's probably nothing," Hinako assured her. "Just a mistake in
queueing up the data."
The Astrogator returned several minutes later with a shake of his head.
"The data entered was correct," he declared. "The final Jump destination is
noted as displayed."
Hinako looked again. "But that doesn't make any sense," she pouted.
"There aren't any stars at those coordinates."
"Come again?" Ranma asked.
She whirled on him. "I said there aren't any stars where this damn
system of yours is supposed to be!" She threw up her hands. "You can't
go Jumping into empty space. You need a significant gravity well at both
ends of the Jump or else you're in serious trouble! No star, no gravity
well!"
Ranma looked at the tiny flashing point of green light in the
holographic chart that was supposed to be the location of Ryuugenzawa.
Sure enough, there was no star floating in the holotank anywhere near
that smudge of color.
"Where is this supposed to be, anyway?" he asked. Aside from some
glyphic astrogational abstracts that meant nothing to him, there was
little in the way of locational references.
"Not that it makes much difference at this point," Hinako snorted,
her disappointment obvious in her voice. "That's within the Magistracy
of Canopus, on the Periphery rimward of the Confederation and the
Federated Shiratori, about sixty-five parsecs from our current position,
or about seven Jumps, more or less."
"Canopus?" Akane asked. She knew the Magistracy was one of the more
populous and organized of the Periphery states. They claimed about thirty
systems with settlements, though only six had significant populations,
and of those, only three were considered to have terran-type planets. The
Magistracy had made a point of keeping itself out of the affairs of the
Successor States throughout much of its history.
"My first tour aboard the _Dragonfly_ was as the Astrogator," Hinako
told her. "We did a Special Operation in the Magistracy at your father's
behest. I can't talk about it, of course, but I have been to Canopus
before. As countries go, it's not bad, but outside the six core worlds,
there isn't much to it. There's very little JumpShip traffic out there."
"It's isolated enough to be the kind of place you'd put such a
facility," Genma insisted.
"What facility?" Hinako retorted. "I just told you, there is no
star system at those coordinates! No star system, no planets. No planets,
no facility!" She looked away for a moment before fixing her gaze upon
the elder Saotome. Her disappointment at the failure of their mission
gave way to anger. "I don't know where you got that disc, but I do know
that you were fooled into believing that it was real!"

* * *

A very quiet Akane Tendo was joined by an equally pensive Ranma Saotome
at her stateroom door.
"What is it, Ranma?" she asked him quietly.
He looked down at the carpeted deck. "I wanted to come in and apologize."
"Apologize?"
He nodded. "For me and Pop getting your hopes up about Ryuugenzawa."
She drew him into the room with a gentle hand in his and began to hug
him. As usual for him, he tensed up at first in her embrace before finally
relaxing somewhat and letting her hold him. Displays of affection, even from
Akane, were still something he was unaccustomed to. He still remembered with
a blush how tightly she had squeezed him that night on Tiber when he had
returned to the expedition.
"There's nothing to apologize about," she sniffed. "You and your father
couldn't have known better."
Ranma raised his arms from his sides and placed them around her with
nervous effort. She squeezed him a little harder as she felt him return
her embrace.
"I still feel bad," he replied. "You know, like we let you down."
"You let yourself down too," she pointed out quietly. "Don't forget
that."
"I -- I guess so," he admitted with a nod. "All this time I've been
trying to deny that I believed in the place, and here I am wishing it was
real."
"I know, Ranma," she whispered. "I know."
He closed his eyes and let himself actually hold Akane instead of merely
draping his arms around her. She was warm in his embrace, her body trembling
with tiny suppressed sobs. All he wanted was for her to be happy, but that
wasn't the kind of thing he was good at doing. Fighting was what he was good
at, and sneaking into places, and piloting a LAM. Making girls happy was out
of his league.
"If it was just something I could fight..." he muttered angrily. "I'd
do it. I wouldn't give up!"
He felt her head turn in his embrace. Her lips brushed against his
cheek, warm and with great tenderness.
"I know you would, Ranma," she whispered to him. "It's one of the things
I adore about you."
Her words made him flush hotter than her kiss.
"Y-You mean that?"
She drew back from him enough to look into his eyes. "Of course I do."
She touched the tip of his nose with her finger. "You have to have *some*
good qualities about you, and I think that's one of them."
"N-No," he stammered. "I meant the 'adore' part... You really, um...
well, you know..."
"Yes," she replied with a tiny nod. "I do."
He tensed once again. "Oh." It came out sounding far worse than he had
intended, and the warmth she had been radiating was replaced with a chill
between them that made him shiver.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing!" he insisted. "I mean... It's nothing you should get mad
about."
"Really?" she asked with mock sweetness. "Perhaps I should be the judge
of that, hmmmmm?"
"Aw, c'mon, Akane," he returned. "You're making a big deal out of
nothing." He began to squeeze her tight in an effort to take her mind off
the subject, but to no avail. She pushed him away angrily.
"If that's how you feel about me, Ranma, then keep your hands off!"
she cried.
"Wait!" he begged her. "You got it all wrong!"
"Oh?" she eyed him warily. "So how *do* you feel about me, huh, Ranma?"
"I thought we agreed not to talk about that anymore," he replied,
knowing that even as he said the words, they were the absolute worst thing
he could have said to her. "...Not 'til after we found Ryuugenzawa..." he
finished meekly.
Her eyes lit up in rage. "We agreed not to talk about the engagement!"
she countered. "How we happen to feel about each other is an entirely
different matter! And as for not talking about the engagement until after
Ryuugenzawa, I guess you're pretty safe there - considering that we'll never,
ever find it!"
She lashed out her hand at his face. He could have blocked it a dozen
ways, even dodged it outright, but she was blameless, maybe even justified,
in striking him. The blow spun him around - no one could slap a man's face
like his uncute fiancee...
He fell to the deck, brilliant stars swimming before his eyes. As they
faded away, a look of puzzlement, then of stunning realization came upon him.
"...That's it..." he muttered in awe.
Akane looked down at him angrily.
"What are you talking about?"
He bolted to his feet and ran through the open door of her stateroom.
"I got an idea!" he cried over his shoulder, the pain and humiliation
of her blow lost to the excitement of the moment. "Come on!"
He didn't check to see if she was behind him as he ran for the elevator
to the 'D' Deck hub. He barely registered her voice when she asked him where
the hell they were going, and why.
"The ship's observatory!" he replied, stabbing at the button for the
elevator. It slid open, and he stepped inside.
"Why?" she asked him again, joining him in the elevator.
Ranma took her by the tops of her shoulders as the elevator doors slid
closed, his eyes burning with great intensity. "Don't you get it?"
She shrugged him off. "No, I don't 'get' it."
"Who made all the damn charts?" he asked her, impatient that she wasn't
on the same wavelength as himself.
"What charts? Ranma, what in the world are you talking about?"
"The star charts!" he practically shouted at her. "Who made all the
computerized star charts that JumpShips navigate by?!"
Akane, clearly flustered with the intensity of his line of questioning,
blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"The Star League Bureau of Astrography!"
"Right!" Ranma returned, holding up a finger in triumph. "So if there
was a star system you wanted ships to stay the hell away from, what's the
best way to do it?"
Akane's mouth dropped open as she realized where he was going with this.
"...You take it off the charts..." she whispered. "It's just like Nabiki
said to my father the night we were engaged..."
"'There is no star system or planet called Ryuugenzawa on any charts,'"
Ranma finished for her. "She was right. All this time my Pop was convinced
that the reason there was no named system for Ryuugenzawa was because it was
an informal name for some system that only had a catalogue number on the
charts. He was wrong. The big blank spot on the _Dragonfly's_ star chart
exists because the Star League Astrographers were ordered to remove the
Ryuugenzawa System from all the databases.
"Ships got periodic revisions to their charts from the Star League, and
because the old charts were useless, they got discarded. Pretty soon, there
weren't any JumpShips left that had any data proving the Ryuugenzawa System
ever existed, and the Star League Testing Facility there was secure.
"Since it's all but impossible to calculate a Jump without a computer,
and since no astrogational computer will give you the option of plotting a
course to a star system that doesn't exist according to its database, the
only way to get to Ryuugenzawa is with one of Pop's data discs. As long as
that decrypter with the disc is plugged into the Main Computer, the ship
thinks it has a chart that includes the Ryuugenzawa System!"
Akane beamed with admiration for him.
"So," he continued. "I'm gonna go the ship's observatory, and point one
of the ship's telescopes at the chunk of space where Ryuugenzawa is supposed
to be. If I'm right, there should be a star there, about sixty-five parsecs
away, that isn't on any charts."
"And you came up with this after I smacked you one?" she asked him.
The elevator came to halt at the hub, putting them in free-fall.
He shrugged. "More or less."
"I need to slap you more often," she said huskily, and pushed off from
the elevator doors to kiss him square on the lips.
He blinked in surprise at first as she kissed him, then, his pulse
racing in his ears, he began to kiss her back. Akane made a soft cry of
surprise and delight at his show of initiative, and then the two of them
threw their arms around each other to begin a new round of kisses with
reckless abandon.
In the middle of their almost frantic embrace, the elevator began to
answer a call, and the abrupt lurch of the car broke them apart. Akane drew
away from Ranma with a shy smile, the pig-tailed mechwarrior fell back
breathless against the bulkhead, surprised and a little alarmed by what
had just happened between them. The elevator doors opened on 'D' Deck once
again, and Ryouga floated in.
A troubled look crossed his face as he saw the two looking flushed,
wild-eyed, and a little disheveled.
"I'm not, uh, interrupting anything, am I?" There was a hopeful
modulation in his voice that begged them to deny his unspoken fear.
"No!" Akane replied a little too loudly. "Of course not."
"Right. Right," Ranma managed. "What could you *possibly* be
interrupting?"
Ryouga blinked several times in silence. "Forget I asked," he said
finally, his face falling.
"Hey, ah, Ryouga," Ranma continued, eager to steer any further
conversation as far from the currently uncomfortable subject of almost
getting caught passionately kissing a certain tomboy of his acquaintence.
"Guess what? We think we might have found a way to prove the data disc was
right."
This lit Ryouga up. "Really?"
"Uh-huh," Akane confirmed. "We're going to find Captain Ninomiya right
now to test out the theory."
"That's great!" he enthused, feeling a little better.
Akane gave Ranma a smoldering look over her shoulder as the elevator
returned to the hub, making him start. "Isn't it, though?"

* * *

Captain Hinako Ninomiya gazed into the ocular for the _Dragonfly's_
Number One Telescope. Shampoo, seated in her lap, mewled in protest as she
was pushed against the cold metal of the unit in the process.
"I see lots of stars," she noted tersely. "Mister Davidge, do you
have a red-shift analysis on any of them yet?"
The Astrogator punched a few keystrokes into the telescope monitor
next to the unit. Genma peered over his shoulder as he worked, an act which
was annoying to say the least, and mitigated only by the excitement of the
possible confirmation of the Ryuugenzawa System's existence.
"We should have something in a few moments," he declared. The unit
display began to scroll datapoints and spectral analysis results. He
studied these intently for several agonizing minutes.
"Well?" Hinako pressed. Below her, in the Fo'c'sle, stood most of the
expedition's crew. There simply wasn't room enough for them to all stand
inside the little compartment near the very bow of the ship known as the
Observatory. Tensions ran high in the wake of Ranma's theory. If there was
a star where the decryption device indicated, then they had found the
Ryuugenzawa System at long last. If not, then they were homeward bound -
but returning in total failure.

There were other tensions present as well. Akane had maneuvered herself
as close to Ranma as possible down in the Fo'c'sle, cutting off Ukyou before
she could do the same. She was emboldened by her encounter with Ranma in
the elevator, so much so that she felt no regret over capitulating to her
rival's offer of renouncing her engagement - but apparently not her
affection - to Ranma.
There was also the turmoil that raged once again within Ryouga, who,
while having no actual proof that he had nearly stumbled onto a compromising
situation between Ranma and Akane, was pretty sure that it had happened. As
much as he felt for Akari, the realization that Akane was slipping further
and further from him was like a jagged hole in his heart. He felt an intense
jealousy towards Ranma, an emotion that threatened to boil over into violence
at the slightest provocation.
Ukyou grimaced at the sight of Akane snuggling up close to Ranchan. She
was laying it on thick, and that pig-tailed blockhead was just standing there
like a dolt, letting her get away with it!
Pansuto Tarou, barred from attending the data disc's decryption on the
Bridge, managed to worm his way through the airtight door enough to listen in
on the conversation. He doubted that he would learn anything useful by merely
listening, but perhaps when the Ryuugenzawa System's location was confirmed,
he could quietly interrogate the telescope log later for the answers he
sought.
Ranma, for his part, had absolutely no idea that any of this was going
on. He had a lot of things on his mind, and Ryuugenzawa occupied only a small
portion of his thoughts. The girl with the short blue-black hair whose soft,
warm hand had slipped surreptitiously into his was naturally foremost in his
mind.
He could not believe that he had kissed her like he did, and that she
had responded so enthusiastically to it. It was an experience that went far
beyond anything he had ever felt before. It was worrisome too, because his
sum total of experience with girls spanned less than three months, and he
didn't want to make a fool of himself. He needed advice, desperately, and
he knew that it would be a waste of time - not to mention being totally
embarrassing - going to his father.
Happousai was right out as well. Talking to Ryouga would not only be a
waste of time, it could prove hazardous to his health. His eyes flicked about
the Fo'c'sle, searching for someone he could trust with his questions.
He looked no further than Doctor Tofu, who stood placidly behind them,
watching up through the hatch for word of the Ryuugenzawa System. The Doc
was a pretty decent guy, and had done right by him in the past.
"Hey, Doc," he whispered to him.
"What is it, Ranma?" Tofu asked him.
"Could I talk to you later about something."
Tofu nodded. "Of course you can. What about?"
Ranma felt heat rising in his face. Akane was far too close to miss what
he was saying. "It's kinda personal. I'll tell you later."

"Analysis shows one 'G' type main sequence star at a distance of 65.12
parsecs," Davidge declared solemnly. "That fits the indicated value for the
Ryuugenzawa System, ma'am."
Hinako's reply was drowned out by the cheer from below.
"Quiet!" she finally screamed, making Shampoo wince in her lap. She
punched at the intercom button.
"Bridge; Officer of the Deck," came the reply.
Hinako scratched Shampoo thoughtfully behind the ears as she spoke.
"Officer of the Deck, this is the Captain. Commence preparations for
Hyperspace Jump."

Chapter Three

Wexford System Nadir Jump Point
Wexford System, the Federated Shiratori
10 May 3025

NCJS _Dragonfly_ materialized into realspace with a flash of hard
radiation. The Wexford System was blessed with recharge stations for
JumpShips, which dramatically cut the time necessary between Jumps. For
a nominal fee, a station would beam power over to the _Dragonfly's_
batteries via microwave emitters.
Such was Hinako's intention. Wexford-Nadir-ONE also served as a
waystation for the trade routes between Genevieve and the districts of the
Federated Shiratori that shared a border with the Confederation, meaning
that it had a functional HPG array and Comstar office, as well as facilities
for Pansuto Tarou and his battlemech where they could comfortably await
transport to wherever it was that he wanted to go. She didn't want to spend
a week waiting at the Jump Point for the _Palomino_ to ferry him all the way
to the nearest inhabited planet in the system and return.
"Captain, Wexford-Nadir-ONE reports that they are available for
Jump recharge," Communications announced. "They have granted us permission
to approach under normal drive to within ten kilometers."
"Very well," a diminutive Captain Hinako Ninomiya said while petting
Shampoo. The cat had remained near her for most of the trip from Tiber,
becoming a fixture on the Bridge. The crew loved her, and she was at least
tolerant of them, if not affectionate. There was one curious exception to
this, of course, and that exception was Ranma Saotome. "Astrogation, plot a
course for Wexford-Nadir-ONE, with a CPA of ten kilometers, while I pet this
pretty kitty."
"Plot course for Wexford-Nadir-ONE, Closest Point of Approach, one-zero
kilometers, aye," Davidge replied. "Captain, I've completed the patch to
our astrogation database that includes the Ryuugenzawa System. Once I upload
it into the database, we won't need Commander Saotome's decrypt machine and
the data disc to plot a Jump."
"It would certainly save a lot of trouble not having to rely on that
thing," Hinako agreed. She munched on a cookie from her jacket pocket. "It's
so old that if it failed, we'd be out of luck!"
"Uploading will eat into our Main Computer cycle time," Davidge added.
"With your permission, I'd like to begin as soon as we are in a stable orbit
near Wexford-Nadir-ONE. The process should take about twenty minutes to
upload and verify."
Hinako nodded. "Very well, Mister Davidge. Do so when we are taking on
power from the station." She nuzzled Shampoo, who eyed the Astrogator and the
handheld data disc with the Ryuugenzawa patch as if her life depended on it.
"You're such a good kitty," Hinako cooed.

* * *

Pansuto Tarou tucked the carefully compiled telescope data he had copied
from the Observatory into his pocket. It was just enough information for a
competent astrogator to determine the location of the Ryuugenzawa System with
enough accuracy for a Jump. He was certain the Furinkan Combine would have
someone who could do the job.
Though it was purely for the convenience of the ship, the Captain was
doing him a favor by having him dropped off at the station. It would put him
close to the merchant ship traffic, and he was confident that he would find a
ship that would take him close enough to the border with the Furinkan Combine
that he could get the rest of the way there by some other means. Time was his
only enemy now.
He had to reach the Combine and convince them of his discovery in time
for them to reach the system while there was still something left to plunder.
The Confederation's operation was far too small to carry much off with just
the _Dragonfly._ If they went directly there, and he was sure they would, it
would be solely for the purpose of scouting the planet and determining what
the real recovery mission would need to bring. That meant that a determined
Combine force had a chance of reaching the system before the Confederation's
transport fleet could haul everything away.
Tarou was confident that he could do it, but it would mean giving up the
immediate satisfaction of killing Happousai for the ultimate satisfaction of
bringing the Joketsuzoku and the Cult of Azusa to their knees.
He was willing to make that sacrifice. Happousai could wait at least
that long.
A knock at his stateroom door shifted his attention from the future
to the present. Akane Tendo was there, along with Genma Saotome and the
_Dragonfly's_ Executive Officer.
"It's time to board the _Palomino_ for the trip over to the station,"
Akane said to him.
Tarou gave her a steely-eyed grin and patted his pocket. "I just
finished packing."
They floated to the elevator that would take them to the hub, and from
there, aft down the core of the ship to the docking ring where _Palomino_
awaited him.
"I want to apologize for the change in plans," Akane said to him as he
prepared to enter the DropShip for the short transit over to the station.
"I did say that you would be dropped off on a planet."
Tarou waved her off. "This is fine," he replied evenly.
Akane gestured to the Executive Officer. "Commander Malloy has something
for you, as we agreed."
The X.O. presented Tarou with a thin attache. "Fifty-thousand C-bills,"
he declared. "Half of it is in marker notes, the other half on two certified
drafts from the Bank of Sol."
Tarou had expected a sum of money from them as per their agreement, but
not so much! It was hush-money, plain and simple, he realized. You never
heard of Ryuugenzawa, or that a ship named _Dragonfly_ was carrying the Heir
to the Confederation aboard...
Akane made this clear. "You understand of course, that we wish our
activities to remain a secret," she said to him.
Tarou bowed low for her. "Naturally, Lady Akane," he soothed. "I have
no intention of speaking of my adventures with you to anyone."
She handed him one final important item. His passport. "You understand
that I can't give you it in writing at this time, but rest assured that you
will be pardoned for any crimes you may have committed on Confederation
territory."
"Thank you, Lady Akane," Tarou said, eager to get underway. "You are a
woman of her word, let no one say otherwise."
He bowed once more, and then floated through the connector tunnel to
the _Palomino._
"I hope we're doing the right thing by letting him go," Genma intoned.
Akane turned to him. "Some of us live by our agreements, Mister Saotome,
even if we really don't agree with them."

* * *

"So, Ranma," Doctor Tofu Ono said to him as the pig-tailed mechwarrior
knocked on the open door. "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"
Ranma flushed red. "Well, ah, it's kinda personal, like I said."
"Come in and shut the door," Tofu told him. "As a doctor, you can
count on strict confidentiality from me."
"Well, that's good, I guess," Ranma muttered. Even with the door shut,
he felt exposed.
"So?"
"I was gonna ask you for some advice, actually," he began.
"Medical advice?" the doctor inquired. He cracked his knuckles. "Martial
arts advice?"
"Girl advice," Ranma corrected him, while looking down at his feet.
Tofu made a low whistle, a grin spreading slowly across his face. He
began to wipe the lenses of his glasses on his dougi.
"I think you'd better sit down."
Ranma did so, though he looked no less uncomfortable than before.
Tofu sat down on the corner of his desk next to Ranma. "Am I to assume
that the girl advice you seek is in regards to Akane?"
The pig-tailed mechwarrior looked even more ill at ease.
"You could say that," he mumbled.
Tofu slapped his knee lightly. "So what's the trouble?"
Ranma pawed at the deck with his foot, but remained silent.
"Ranma, I can't help you if you won't tell me what the problem is," Tofu
declared.
"I got so many questions, I don't even know where to begin," he finally
lamented.
The doctor took this in stride. "Well, I guess we could start with the
basic differences between men and women."
Ranma looked hopeful. "I guess so," he agreed.
Tofu leaned over and punched up some material from the medical archives,
which were displayed upon the surface of the desk.
"Well, first things first," he began. "You, Ranma, have something we
call the 'Y' chromosome, something which Akane and other females do not
have. Now on the 'Y' chromosome we find genes that express certain specific
proteins, hormones, and enzymes that are not found in the female biochemistry.
Also, certain genetic traits are passed only along the 'Y' chromosome, and
seem to predispose men to specific somatic conditions later in life..."
Ranma waved frantically at him.
"Hey, Doc, whoa! I mean, whoa... Maybe not *that* basic."
Tofu shrugged. It was difficult to tell if he had launched into his
spiel in all seriousness, or merely as a joke to lighten the mood. "Well,
you've probably noticed by now that boys and girls aren't the same. If
nothing else, your exposure to Jusenkyo has made that possible."
"I figured that one out the first time Pop made me watch one of his
pornos," Ranma groused. "I didn't need a cursed body to teach me."
Tofu blanched. "I see..." He took another tack. "So why don't you tell
me what happened between you and Akane that brought you in here so suddenly."
Ranma looked away, his face beet red and his feet tapping out a nervous
samba beat on the deck.
"I, uh, I kissed Akane," he muttered, not looking directly at Tofu as he
said it. "More like she kissed me first, and then I kissed her back, and then
we both sorta met in the middle for awhile..."
Tofu nodded slowly, trying not to grin at Ranma's explanation.
"That's it?" he asked after a moment.
"Whaddya mean, 'that's it?'" Ranma growled defensively. "That ain't
enough? I don't know what the hell I'm doing in the first place!"
"Take it easy, Ranma. I was just asking a simple question. Now I'm
going to ask another simple question: you're here to ask me romantic advice,
not a how-to on human reproduction, correct?"
Ranma nodded silently, though he was uncomfortable with the idea of
getting 'romantic advice,' and he didn't want to even think of the
implications of going down the twisted path known as the birds and the
bees. Health classes in the few years of formal schooling he had received,
plus Pop's pornos, had illustrated to him the mechanics and potential
consequences of sex, but the whole process remained somewhat fuzzy and
indistinct when applied to his own personal reality, and particularly
where that reality included Akane.
"Great," Tofu remarked. "Now we're getting somewhere. Next question:
do you like Akane?"
While the answer was never in doubt, Ranma thought long and hard about
actually voicing it aloud. Tofu mused idly on whether or not the process of
deciding would result in the triggering of the compartment's smoke alarms.
"I guess so."
Tofu pressed the issue. "Do you or don't you?"
"Okay... I--I like her," he replied. "Don't ask me why, cause she's
a violent, hypersensitive tomboy chick who's always ragging on me about
something."
Tofu smiled at Ranma's description of the girl he was so hung up over.
"Great. I think we can assume by the fact that since she kissed you first,
she likes you too."
"Really?" Ranma chirped. The thought that Akane actually *liked* him
had seemed so alien to him that he hadn't been able to come to that
conclusion himself. He supposed that she had said as much in her stateroom
shortly before their encounter in the elevator, but at the time, and with
the idea for finding Ryuugenzawa, it had all been a blur of conflicting
thoughts and emotions for him.
"Girls aren't in the habit of kissing guys they don't like," Tofu
pointed out.
"I guess so," Ranma admitted. The revelation wasn't doing anything to
ease his level of discomfort and confusion.
"Now then," Tofu continued. "You're wondering what you should do about
it."
"I sure am," Ranma grunted.
"Just do what comes naturally," Tofu said with an easy smile. He
reflected darkly upon the irony of this, since he had been unable to make
the same commitment where Kasumi was involved. It was times like this that
he wondered how the human race survived when so many of its men were weak
or clueless.
"Like what?" Ranma asked. "I mean, that's what I'm here for, Doc: some
details!"
"Well, I guess the most important thing for you to do would be to tell
her how you feel about her."
Ranma feared that Tofu would say as much.
"What if I'm not exactly sure about that?" he hedged.
"You already told me that you liked her," Tofu returned. "Go with that
for now. As the two of you become more comfortable with that, you might find
that telling her other things will be a lot easier."
Ranma seemed dubious about that.
"Okay. Then what?"
"You should probably lay off the insults," Tofu counseled. "I know
there isn't much to them, but all the same, do yourself a favor and watch
what you say to her."
Ranma cringed. He had been conditioned his whole life by his father and
by the troops in the various units they had signed with to trade fire - as it
were - with those around him. That part would not be easy, but he saw the
doctor's point.
"I'll try," he agreed. "What else?"
"I suppose it couldn't hurt if you did a few nice things for her every
now and again," Tofu observed.
"Like?"
"Well... Girls like getting flowers. I know that Akane enjoyed spending
time on the garden terrace back home on Nerima, so I think you're safe with
that one."
Ranma considered the subject the way an Explosive Ordnance Disposal tech
would contemplate his approach to a live thousand-kilogram bomb.
"Flowers," he said flatly.
"Flowers," Tofu confirmed.
Ranma looked up to the ceiling in frustration.
"Doc, we're millions of kilometers from the nearest florist," he pointed
out. "So how exactly am I supposed to do that?"
Tofu smiled. "The _Dragonfly_ happens to be an Invader Class JumpShip,"
he replied. "It has two greenhouse domes, one on either side of the habitat,
if you'll recall. You'll find an assortment of flowering plants there, and
some of them are probably ideal to present to a girl you happen to like."
Ranma remembered his time in one of the greenhouses after the misjump
and fire. He remembered lots of plants, but he never really paid all that
much attention to what they were. He *supposed* that there were flowers
there. After all, the greenhouses on an Invader Class were largely
recreational in purpose; the fresh food plants and their cleansing action
on the atmosphere were considered secondary benefits by the ship's designers.
"Okay, flowers," he conceded. "I know nothing about flowers, or how to
get them. I mean, is there a requisition form or something I gotta fill out
first, or can I just go pick some?"
"You should probably ask one of the ship's cooks," Tofu offered.
"They're usually the ones who tend the greenhouses as part of their
collateral duties."
"Sure. What else?"
"Candy is another option," Tofu noted. "But unless you have something
special tucked away somewhere, all we have at the moment is some stale
chocolate from the Ship's Store."
Even Ranma figured that this was probably insufficient to the task.
Tofu continued.
"You don't cook, do you?" the doctor asked.
Ranma looked at him as if he had grown another head.
"I can heat up a ration pack and boil water for rice."
"It was a thought," Tofu returned with shrug. "Women appreciate a man
who knows his way around a kitchen."
"I think I'm pretty much screwed there."
"Don't worry about it," Tofu soothed. "The big thing to remember here,
Ranma, is that the gifts aren't as important to a woman so much as the thought
behind them." He tapped the desk to make a point. "For example, if you were to
surprise Akane with flowers right now, she'd melt. It wouldn't matter if you
didn't know her favorite flowers, or that you couldn't get them, or that your
arrangement wasn't very neat. The fact that you of all people did something
like this for her would be all the gift she could hope for."
Ranma pondered this. It was as if the clouds of uncertainty had parted
somewhat, allowing a single ray of shining revelation into his head. "So
basically, what you're saying is that because I don't do stuff like that for
her now, there ain't no big expectations on me, so that anything I actually
do for her, even if it sucks, will totally blow her away?"
"Essentially," Tofu agreed, trying not to laugh at Ranma's remarkably
astute assesment of his situation with Akane. It was hard to screw up when
you were starting out from the bottom in the relationships department.
Ranma nodded solemnly. This wasn't going to be easy, but at least now
he had something to go on.
"Thanks, Doc."
"One last thing, Ranma," Tofu said to him.
"What is it?"
"Be honest with yourself," he advised. "If you can't be honest with
yourself about your feelings, then you can't be honest with her, and all it
will cause is problems between the two of you."
Ranma bit down on his lip at the thought.
"Sure thing, Doc. Thanks again."
He hopped up from his seat, shook Tofu's hand vigorously, and bounded
from the office like a man with a mission - which is what he considered the
advice he had been given to be.
Doctor Tofu Ono watched him go with a rueful shake of his head. As much
as he was pleased by the idea of Ranma and Akane warming to each other since
his first encounter with them back at the castle - over a leather divan and
the fact that it had been used as a bludgeon by the latter on the former's
head, no less - he found himself gripped with an almost parental concern for
the two.
He tapped at the touch sensitive keypad imbedded within the surface of
his desk, calling up Akane's medical record and a log of the Ship's Pharmacy
for the last quarter. He wasn't surprised by what he saw, but now he had
justification for his concern. He would need to speak with her about a very
important matter that she had been neglecting.

* * *

"Captain, the _Palomino_ reports a warning indication from their
Reaction Control System," Communications announced.
Hinako looked up from her petting of Shampoo, who seemed tense and
agitated to the diminutive starship captain.
"Is it serious?"
The Communications tech conferred with the DropShip before responding.
"They don't seem to think so, ma'am. Captain Grant says this happens
from time to time. They'll check it out locally, but that it's probably just
a bad position indicator on one of the thruster nozzles. They have a spare
on board to replace it."
"How long will that take?"
The tech relayed her query. "No more than thirty minutes, ma'am.
They'll let us know what they find before they detach from the docking
ring."
"Very well," Hinako huffed. She had to allow for the occasional
technical problem, she supposed.
Lieutenant Davidge approached her while she stewed in her chair. He
held up the database patch disc.
"Captain, with your permission, I'd like to upload the patch to our
astrogational database. It will take the higher functions of the Main
Computer off-line for approximately twenty minutes, leaving us with only
the automatic subsystems."
Hinako checked their orbital status at the Helm with a glance. They
were stable, and preparing to receive power from Wexford-Nadir-ONE. "Very
well, Mister Davidge. Begin the upload process."
"Aye aye, ma'am."
Shampoo watched as the Astrogator fed the database disc into a reader
at the Main Computer workstation. She needed that disc, and with the
JumpShip about to send its DropShip over to the space station, this might
present her best opportunity to steal it and make her escape. Now that the
Confederation knew the location of Ryuugenzawa, she didn't suppose they
would have any need to stop at a planet along the way. They would Jump from
system to system as fast as they could charge their batteries.
As expected, the Main Computer went dormant as it processed the data.
The ship's functions during station keeping were largely autonomous, though
in spite of this, there was plenty to keep the crew occupied. Shampoo waited
with growing anxiety as she planned her next few moves.
Success was most likely if Mousse could reach the _Palomino_ before
it repaired its technical glitch, but if push came to shove, he could always
hijack one of the Ship's Boats and reach the Wexford recharge station that
way. Once he was there, he could claim asylum, or, depending on the situation,
disappear for awhile. She was confident that they would not be too eager to
create much of a ruckus on the recharge station.

"The patch is uploaded into the Astrogational System," Davidge reported
twenty minutes later. He punched in the coordinates, and proudly demonstrated
the brand new yellow sun that floated within the chart table holotank where
there had previously been a patch of emptiness.
"Excellent work, Lieutenant," Hinako commended him.
Davidge removed the data disc from the computer, causing Shampoo to
tense in the Captain's lap. "I'll need to open the Ship's Safe, Captain, if
I may."
Hinako rose, knowing that Davidge could not open it without her portion
of the combination. As she did so, one of the oncoming watch section stepped
through the airtight door. Shampoo chose that moment to strike. She leaped at
Davidge with a hiss, and snatched the disc from his hand.
"What the--?" the Astrogator blurted, his hand bleeding from the
scratches she had raised in leaping across him.
"Kitty!" Hinako screeched angrily.
Shampoo rebounded in free-fall off the Main Computer console, the
database patch firmly set between her jaws, and twisted herself in midair
to get a push from the Captain's chair. A daring leap out the airtight door
as it slid shut cut off any immediate pursuit.

Hinako shook herself with the numbing realization that she had been
tricked. Her precious kitty cat was some kind of spy, and possibly not even
a real cat - only her recent exposure to the wonders of Jusenkyo could have
prepared her for such a line of thought.
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes..." the Helmsman remarked.
"Never mind that," Hinako snapped. "Chief of the Watch, on the 1MC:
All hands keep on the look-out for the Ship's Cat. Report her whereabouts
at once to the Bridge. Catch and detain her if possible."
The Chief of the Watch acknowledged the order. "Shall I sound the
General Alarm as well, Captain?"
Hinako folded her arms across her chest. It seemed absolutely
ridiculous to call away a full-blown security violation over a runaway
cat, and she was not entirely convinced that her kitty was anything other
than what she seemed to be.
"Not at the moment," she replied. "Have the X.O., Lady Akane, and
Commander Saotome come to the Bridge instead."

Shampoo darted for the elevator, waiting with dread for some kind of
alarm to sound. In spite of her feline body, she still thought of herself
as human, and considered the response of the ship's crew as one would
consider any intrusion by an enemy agent.
The sound of the Chief of the Watch's voice over the 1MC made her
blood freeze up.
"All hands be on the look-out for the Ship's Cat. Detain her if
possible, and make reports to the Bridge on any sightings of her."
If she were human, she would have laughed. Given the Captain's
childish nature, this was exactly the kind of order that was likely to
be ignored by the crew. She'd stay out of sight all the same, but it
certainly took some of the pressure off.

* * *

"Now what kind of lame-o announcement is that?" Ranma grouched to
the overhead.
"Really," Ukyou agreed. She had run into him shortly after his visit
to Doctor Tofu's office, and had been pleasant if somewhat cloying company
ever since. "You have the weirdest Captain I've ever known."
They stepped into the Crew's Mess for drinks. From what they could
tell, no one else on the ship was paying the 1MC announcement any mind.
A few of the off-watch Engine Room gang were even cracking jokes about
Hinako and her missing kitty.
Yuka and Sayuri were also there, and made no effort to speak to him,
though it was clear that they did not approve of him hanging out with
Ukyou. Not that he cared what they thought...
"Hey, Captain Saotome," one of the engine room crew, Petty Officer
Fitch, called to him. "You gonna go look for the skipper's cat?" Those
present around him began to chortle. It had become common knowledge among
the crew that Ranma did not like cats.
"Bite me, Fitch," he returned curtly. "If Hinako wants her kitty, she
can go get it her own damn self."
"I hear that," Fitch returned. He went back to his coffee.
Ukyou handed him a cup of red bug juice. The instant drink mix used
by the ship didn't really have any distinguishable flavors, he supposed,
only colors. "Why don't you like cats, Ranchan?" she asked him quietly
enough that no one could overhear. She knew he was sensitive about the
matter, but not the reasons why.
Ranma paled. "I'd rather not talk about it," he replied. "Let's just
say that it was one of Pop's dumber training ideas..."
"Why doesn't THAT surprise me," she snorted.
Genma Saotome appeared on the Mess Decks a moment later, making Ranma
wince at the man's timing.
"Come on, boy," he growled at Ranma.
"What's up?"
"We have to find that cat," he intoned.
Ranma gagged on his bug juice. "Excuse me?" he choked.
"It's no joke, Ranma. That cat stole the astrogational database patch
for the Ryuugenzawa System."
"Huh?" he grunted. "That's totally bizarre."
"Hey," Ukyou interjected, coming to a sudden conclusion. "You don't
suppose that cat was no ordinary cat... do you?"
"That's the idea," Genma confirmed. "Given the number of people on
this ship alone who have been exposed to the pools at Jusenkyo, anything
is possible."
"No way..." Ranma groaned.
"Look, boy," Genma returned. "I know how you feel about cats, but this
is too important to let your irrational fear of them get in the way..."
"It ain't that!" he shot back. "I was thinking about who it could be."
Genma raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well?"
Ranma swallowed hard. If the cat was a human with exposure to Jusenkyo,
then her personal animosity towards him pointed in only one direction.
"Shampoo."
Genma blanched. "Boy, you better pray we're both wrong." He left the
Crew's Mess.
Ranma followed. "C'mon, Ucchan."
Ukyou nodded, wondering where the hell Konatsu was when she needed him.

* * *

Shampoo reached 'E' Deck with little difficulty. Her jaw ached from
carrying the data disc, and she was eager to change back into her human form.
She set the disc down in a safe place, and then fought with the spigot to
one of the heated water tanks.
The cat noises and the sudden splashing caught someone's attention.
"<Shampoo?>"
Mousse was there in the darkness, looking haggard and miserable. She
could see the wispy growth of stubble on his lip and chin. He looked drawn
and weary from remaining in hiding for so long. She almost felt sorry for
him.
The water was hot enough from the spigot now to affect her change.
She sprang up in a cloud of steam, naked, and surprisingly sore - as if she
really had been cooped up in a tiny cat body the whole time.
"<Mousse,>" she returned, to set him at ease.
"<I've been waiting for days,>" he said to her. It had been longer than
simply 'days,' but she was in no mood to correct him on the matter. "<What
happened?>"
She slipped lithely past him to their packs, where she withdrew her
clothes and put them on.
"<There isn't much time,>" she answered him. "<I have the coordinates
to the Ryuugenzawa System.>" She fetched the disc and put it in his hand.
"<This is an astrogational database patch. Load it into a Ship's Computer,
and the ship will have access to the Ryuugenzawa System.>"
"<Is that what the announcement over the intercom was about?>"
"<Exactly,>" she replied. "<That's why we don't have much time. Now
there's a DropShip on the Number Three docking collar getting ready to leave
for a nearby recharging station. You need to get on board before they detach.
Take the disc.>"
Mousse blinked in astonishment. "<But what about you?>"
Shampoo flexed her hands into fists. "<I have a score to settle with
the Saotomes, and I'm also sworn to kill them to atone for my mistake on
Lightoller. Getting the Ryuugenzawa data was only half of my mission, Mousse.
I won't run from a fight with them.>"
"<You'll never be able to escape even if you do kill them!>" Mousse
protested.
Shampoo gave him a hard look. That possibility had indeed occurred to
her, and she had dealt with the gnawing fear within her as best as she was
able. "<My life is MY business, Mousse,>" she hissed at him. "<Do not
presume to think for me!>"
He turned away, his fears about her confirmed. She cared no more for
him than she would any other tool.
"<Farewell, Shampoo,>" he said to her, his voice as cold as his heart
had become.
She almost kissed him good-bye, knowing in a moment of sudden clarity
that this was indeed good-bye.
"<Farewell, Mousse,>" she returned. Then she added, "<until we meet
again.>"
Mousse nodded solemnly, and then turned a spigot of water upon himself.
Shampoo watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as he transformed
into a white duck before her eyes.
"<When did you...?>" she asked him.
He was gone in a flash of white, leaving behind only a single feather
as he soared in free-fall towards the elevator.

Pain lanced through Mousse as he stabbed at the 'call' button with his
beak. Though he bore no injuries, the pain was no less real to him. He was
leaving Shampoo forever, and even if she had never loved him, he had loved
her all too much.
His decision to become a duck had come on the spur of the moment. The
surprise value of a crewmen suddenly encountering a duck in the middle of
deep space would probably be enough to enable at least one escape from
danger. There was also the fact that he wanted to show Shampoo that she
wasn't alone with her Jusenkyo curse, that he shared the experience with her,
that they had something in common. It was a perverse pleasure at best,
because he knew that she would not escape from the ship, and so they'd never
have a chance to talk about their cursed bodies.
He didn't know why he hadn't shown her before. Shame perhaps. Or else
the fear that she might consider his Jusenkyo body to be the perfect excuse
for getting rid of him for good. After all, she could always plead ignorance
when the Council confronted her on the fact that she had eaten her companion
for supper...
It was a long ride down to the docking collars. The airtight door to the
_Palomino_ was still open pending the repairs to the ship, and he watched as
one of the _Dragonfly's_ engineering crew floated through the connecter tube
with a tool belt, having assisted where he could. Mousse remained out of sight
as the engineering type took the ladder well instead of the elevator, then
made a soaring leap for the door.
He was through the connector tube and into the Cargo Bay without notice.
Choosing a spot where he could remain hidden and still have easy access to
the door, he buckled down to wait. The _Palomino_ Roving Watch appeared as
he settled in, floating towards the connecter tube. One of the _Dragonfly_
crew drifted into view on the opposite end, carrying a frangible-flechette
'nailgun,' made especially for use aboard spaceships, at port arms.
"Seen anything unusual?" the sailor with the nailgun asked the rover.
"Like what?" the rover replied, eyeing the weapon uneasily.
"Like a pink and purple cat?"
The rover shook his head. "What'd she do," he asked, pointing to the
weapon. "Piss in your rack or something?"
"Beats me," the sailor replied. "I got racked out to stand guard down
here and look out for a pink and purple cat, or else a purple-haired Amazon
girl. I'm to shoot either of them without hesitation if they try to get on
board your ship."
"An Amazon girl?" the rover cackled. "Hell, I got something better
than a nailgun round to poke her with!"
"Ain't that the truth," the sailor agreed. "I haven't been out boozing
and whoring in months. While you and your fellow DropShip goombahs were out
fuckin' around on Tiber, I was stuck on this piece of shit getting her back
into shape."
"Them's the breaks," the rover returned with a grin. "I wouldn't sweat
this duty. We're about to leave. I was just coming down to check the hatch
shut after Cap'n Grant gives the word to shove off."
"It's a nice thought," the sailor remarked. "But as soon as you leave,
they'll just send me to guard some other damn thing." He thumped the
bulkhead with his fist. "What kinda bullshit alert is this, anyway?"
"Lotsa luck," the rover said cheerfully. "While you're stuck up here
playing wanna-be Marine, me and my 'goombah' DropShip buddies are going to
enjoy a brief shore leave on the station."
"Damn," the sailor grunted ruefully. "I'm puttin' in for a transfer to
the DropShip Command. This months-in-the-middle-of-nowhere bullshit is really
starting to suck ass."
"ALL HANDS STAND CLEAR OF THE DOCKING TUBE AIRTIGHT DOOR," the 1MC of
the _Palomino_ announced.
"Later," the rover said with a wave. He eased away from the airtight
as it slid slowly shut.
Mousse watched as the man checked the seals and made a brief phone
call to the DropShip's Flight Deck to report. Several minutes passed as
the ship was released by the _Dragonfly's_ docking apparatus. Several more
passed before the ship jolted with spurts of thruster fire from the
Reaction Control System. The brief roar of the Main Engines followed after,
and then there was only silence and free-fall.
He was away.

Chapter Four

"Let me get this straight," Ukyou began as she and Ranma floated down
one of the 'B' Deck passages. Konatsu followed behind them at a discreet
distance. "We're either looking for the Captain's pet Siamese cat, or else
an Amazon girl from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth named after a hair-cleaning
product."
"Pretty much," Ranma agreed. He was upset, and trying not to show it.
Ukyou had latched onto him from the beginning of the search, and thinking
nothing of it, he had not objected. This was apparently a mistake, for this
in turn made Akane spin-up like a turbine with a broken overspeed-trip. She
nearly dislocated Ryouga's shoulder latching onto him as a partner for the
search, and Ranma actually pitied his mechwarrior rival for once.
"So who is this Shampoo girl?" she asked him as he thought about ways
to mitigate the wrath of his overreacting fiancee. "You seem to know an awful
lot about her." She gave him a disapproving look. "Don't tell me your father
engaged you to her as well."
"It ain't like that," he replied. "If this really is Shampoo, then I
guess you could say that Pop and I are the ones who are sorta responsible
for her turning into a cat."
"Why am I not surprised," Ukyou remarked dryly. "Tell me, Ranchan,
is there any place in the galaxy where you and your father have travelled
where you *haven't* ruined someone's life?"
Ranma thought about it.
"Take your time, sugar," Ukyou added in a saccharine voice.
"I'm thinking," he protested.
"Don't bother, honey. I think the fact that you can't come up with
an answer without thinking about it is an answer in itself."
"Oh, ha ha," Ranma grumbled. It hurt because it was more or less true.
He was still thinking about this when he rounded the corner, and nearly
blundered into Shampoo.
Her eyes grew large as she recognized him, and her body trembled with
a mixture of anxiety and anticipation. She raised her mace-like bonbori to
the attack.
"RANMA SAOTOME!" she shouted at him.
"Sha-Shampoo?!" Ranma squeaked in return. The Amazon was hell-pissed,
worse than anything he had ever seen from a woman.
She charged at him as he gaped.
"For what you do to Shampoo and Commonwealth, I kill!"
The first bonbori buried itself in the bulkhead as he ducked the blow.
Ukyou blocked the second mace with her spatula before it could crush his
head.
He recovered his wits as Ukyou shouldered the brunt of the Amazon's
fury, warding off a flurry of blows with her spatula. He pushed off the
bulkhead to spring at Shampoo, catching her in a flying tackle that slammed
her against the opposite bulkhead.
An elbow from Shampoo drove down onto the crown of his head as they
tumbled in free-fall. He hadn't hit her as hard as he had hoped, and she
twisted free of his grapple with a grunt. Ukyou pressed the attack as the
Amazon struggled free, and the sound of the bonbori striking the flat steel
surface of the spatula rang in the tight quarters of the passageway.
"A little help, Konatsu!" Ukyou cried, just barely fending off Shampoo's
furious combination of bonbori strikes and knife-edged kicks.
"Coming, sir!" he called.
The former kunoichi was already leaping to the attack, darting lithely
over Ranma's shoulder as he regained his orientation in zero-gravity and
looked for a way of overcoming Shampoo's defensive advantage. The narrow
passageway negated their superior numbers against her.
Konatsu struck Shampoo across the chin as he zipped past, dazing her,
but not before she swatted Ukyou down to the deck with one of her bonbori.
The ex-brigadier yelped in pain as she rebounded off the deck, her left arm
possibly broken, and the spatula floating from her hands.
Ranma got back into the fight as Ukyou went down, springing off the
deck to barrel into Shampoo once more. Fighting in free-fall was effective
only when you had something to push against, and combat was often an
explosive series of leaps off of the scenery. He connected once more with
Shampoo's midsection, drawing himself tight as he struck to maximize the
effects of his hit. He didn't grapple this time, preferring to transfer all
of his energy to her in one solid impact.
Shampoo reeled from the check, flying across the passageway to slam
into an airtight door. Ranma could see that she was stunned by the double
hit, and swam through the empty air for purchase against his next attack.
Konatsu, hanging from the ceiling between them, was readying some kind of
bola.
"Give it up, Shampoo," he called to her. "There's three of us, and one
of you. You ain't goin' nowhere."
She caught her breath and flashed her violet eyes in anger at him.
"Shampoo never give up!" she vowed. Her body tensed once again to move,
the maces raised to catch Konatsu's bola before it could entangle her.
Ranma moved cautiously towards her, staying close to the bulkhead
to minimize the effects of any charge from her. He realized that while
her maces were nasty, her technique wasn't suited to free-fall combat.
That was something going for them, at least.
She must have sensed this as well, he saw, for she tossed the heavy
spherical bonbori aside and drew a long curved fighting knife instead. The
heavily damask'd steel of the blade was brightly veined against the dark,
cold blue base metal.
Konatsu took this as an invitation to loose his bola at her, but she
anticipated this maneuver and sprang at him before he could wind it up to
speed. The knife hissed through the air, cutting through his clothes and
drawing forth a spurt of blood from his chest that glittered like tiny red
jewels in free-fall. Konatsu did not make a sound as he threw himself away
from the blade, minimizing the depth of its cut and saving his life.
He was flat-footed against her follow up attack, having lost his hold
on the overhead. Shampoo sprang back from the paneled ceiling, intending to
gut him with her next pass. Ranma knew he had to get back into the fight
before the cross-dressing former adjutant got himself killed.
Ukyou screamed a warning as Konatsu grappled with the Amazon, the
two of them falling towards the deck with the stored momentum of Shampoo's
attack. Ranma saw that he had a good grip on her knife-hand wrist, keeping
the questing blade from his throat by scant centimeters. He pushed off the
bulkhead to kick her in the side of the head, not caring that the blow might
kill her. The maces were bad enough, but she had upped the ante when she
drew the knife, and the stakes were now too high for him to hold back.
She managed to wrest her other arm free to ward off his kick,
deflecting him just enough in zero-gravity to send him flying into the
opposite bulkhead. Konatsu responded to her distraction by landing a
glancing strike with the heel of his palm under her chin. Shampoo's head
rocked back, more surprised than hurt, and he was able to disengage.
Shampoo had enemies in front and behind her now, and she judged that
the former kunoichi was the lesser of the two foes. She sprang past him as
he tried to regain his equilibirum, sparing time for a parting kick that
sent him against the bulkhead with a grunt, and pushing her in the direction
she wanted to go.
"Damn it!" Ranma yelled, missing his opportunity to grapple her from
behind. He watched helplessly as she pulled herself around the corner he
and Ucchan had come from.
He looked to Ukyou, who was nursing her arm, her eyes a dull glaze of
pain and anger. Konatsu was hurt as well, but his opinion of the weirdo
cross-dresser went up a few notches. The guy had enough nerve and talent
to keep from getting hacked to bits by a pissed-off Amazon from the Jusenkyo
Commonwealth, and that counted for something in Ranma's book.
Reason finally took hold over the heat of the moment, and he clawed for
a sound-powered telephone unit set into the bulkhead.
"Bridge, this is Ranma Saotome on 'B' Deck!" he said breathlesly into
the receiver. "Shampoo's on 'B' Deck between the Electronics Shop and the
Radar Equipment Room, and she's got a knife."
She was cornered, he knew, for the moment. The elevator and the through-
deck hatch to the other levels were behind him, and the only way to reach
them was via the passageway she had used to escape. She had to come back to
the junction of the two passageways if she wanted to leave 'B' Deck.

Shampoo made certain that she had some distance between herself and
Ranma before stopping. She had no intention of fleeing from him, this was
only a strategic retreat to assess the situation and come up with a better
plan of attack. It was only a matter of time before a full alert was sounded,
and the crew responded with automatic weapons. She was fast, but charging a
full-auto flechette gun in a tight passageway was begging to be reduced
to a quivering pile of Amazon-hamburger, and she had no intention of going
out like that.
The General Alarm klaxon galvanized her into action. She didn't have
time for anything fancy. Ranma must die. Genma might live, and that was
regrettable, but at least she'd destroy the person who had pitched her into
the Jusenkyo Pool.
"Where the heck is the elevator? Akane? Akane, where'd you go?" a voice
asked behind her. She whirled in surprise and alarm, the man hadn't made a
sound in his approach until he spoke.
Her kick struck Ryouga Hibiki across the jaw, rocking his head to the
side. He spun in a slow circle in midair, and she was convinced at first
that she had cold-cocked him. Then, as he spun back around to face her, she
saw to her horror and amazement that he was unfazed by her blow.
"You..." he said in a low, angry voice, catching himself with a hand
to either side of the passageway.
She lunged with her knife, thrusting it into the empty gap between his
armpit and his arm as he dodged. He grappled with her extended arm before she
could withdraw, and she brought her foot up in a desperate high kick at him,
catching him across the ear and drawing blood.
Ryouga shrugged off the blow, savagely headbutting her in response. Her
eyes swam for a moment in shock before she wrenched free of his iron grip,
cutting him across the forearm as she disengaged.
The noise brought Ranma bearing down on her as she put the bulkhead at
her back. Her eyes flicked to the airtight door marked with red and white
diagonal stripes just within arm's reach - one of the ship's lifepods. Angry
with heself for even considering escape, she faced off against both men,
ready to sell her life dearly.
"Leave her to me," Ryouga growled at Ranma.
"I owe her for what she did to Ucchan," Ranma growled back. He looked
to Shampoo, who kept her knife pointed at his face. "How about it, Shampoo?"
he asked her. "What say we settle this right now, just you and me?"
Shampoo eyed Ryouga warily. "He no interfere?" she asked archly.
"Shampoo no believe that."
Ranma shot Ryouga a look. "You okay with this, Ryouga?"
"When she cuts your heart out, Ranma, I'll be the one to console Akane."
"As if," Ranma snorted in reply. He made a beckoning gesture to Shampoo.
"Let's go, sweetheart."
Ryouga edged away from them as they positioned themselves on the
bulkheads to spring into action. Konatsu and Ukyou appeared behind the fanged
mechwarrior. Both were injured, but it was clear that they would jump in if
the opportunity presented itself.
"Stay back," he warned them. "This is between Ranma and her."
Ukyou rolled her eyes.
"What do you think this is, Ranchan?" she groused. "Some kind of duel?"
Ranma didn't take his eyes off Shampoo.
"Yeah," he replied in a slow, easy drawl.
"Just hold her there until the guys with guns show up," she protested.
"There's no need to get yourself killed over this."
"Jeez, Ucchan," he returned. "Have a little faith, willya?" He flexed
his fingers as he maintained his stare-down of the Amazon. "I mean, she was
a chump back at the Jusenkyo Labs, and she ain't looking much tougher now."
That wasn't true, of course. He had a lot of respect for her as a
fighter, but her temper and her pride seemed to be her weak spots. She had
come a long way for revenge, and he was pretty sure she wasn't planning on
getting out of this alive. Suicidal people didn't always think straight.
"Shampoo make you eat false words!" she cried, taking the bait, and
springing at him with the knife.
He held his position, gripping the handholds along the bulkhead and
bringing his feet up to kick her in the knife-hand wrist as she lunged at
him. She slammed into him an instant later as the blade flew out of her
grip and embedded itself in the overhead. They rebounded off the bulkhead
in a tangle of limbs, Shampoo cursing him in Chinese as she tried to escape.
He caught her by the ankle as she forced her way clear of him to
scramble for the knife. Hooking one foot into the bulkhead handhold, he
had her trapped in midair, with nothing to push off against, and her motion
arrested by his grip. She screamed in protest, stomping futilely at his
hand, but he had her by the outside of her ankle, which made it difficult
for the Amazon to land a telling blow with her other foot.
"It's over, Shampoo," he said to her through clenched teeth. The
exertion of holding her away from the surfaces of the passageway was nearly
too much for him.
"It not over!" she protested. She squirmed and struggled against him,
but with no leverage in free-fall, her efforts were in vain. Every impulse
against him was checked.
"Face it," he returned. "It's over. You're dead in the water right
now."
Akane, Genma, Happousai, and Doctor Tofu appeared as he spoke. Behind
them was a detachment of _Dragonfly_ crew armed with nailguns.
"I say the word, Shampoo," Ranma continued. "And you get riddled with
about a bazillion flechettes." He caught her eye as he said this. "Do you
really want to die like that?"
"Put your hands behind your neck," Akane ordered the Amazon as she
considered the prospect of a thousand ceramic darts bursting apart inside
her body. "Lock your fingers together and turn so we can see it."
Shampoo could not believe that she had failed a third time. Mousse
might have been able to escape with the Ryuugenzawa data, but the Saotomes
lived. She had failed her great-grandmother again.
And yet, while she lived, there was still hope that she could kill
Ranma Saotome and his father. Her only remaining options were to make one
last futile attack and die in a fusilade of frangible ceramic darts, or
surrender and bide her time for the opportunity to strike without warning.
"You're running out of time," Akane added in a menacing tone.
Shampoo ceased her struggles. Ranma pulled her down to the deck
opposite him, gripping her by the wrists and holding her fast. She looked
into his eyes, expecting to see her hatred mirrored there, and finding only
a stern resolve that she cause no more harm. His look moved her more than
she cared to admit.
"Shampoo surrender to Ranma," she said huskily. "No surrender to
Tendo girl."
"It's all the same to me," Ranma replied before Akane could protest.
The Amazon looked him over once more.
"Man who defeat Amazon have certain privileges over her," she said
quietly, her voice as taut as her body.
"News to me," he replied, somewhat nervously. The look she was giving
him had made an abrupt shift from furious to, well, *hungry.* It was the same
look Akane had given him after their recent encounter in the elevator, which
began to worry him to no end when it came from Shampoo.
"You not know this?" she asked him.
"Like I said, it's news to me. Now are you gonna come quietly or
what?"
"As Shampoo say, Shampoo surrender to Ranma alone."
Ranma remained wary of her nonetheless. "Right, I accept your surrender.
Now if you'll just--"
She leaned over and kissed him hard on the mouth, apparently with no
intention of coming up for air anytime soon.
"HEY!" both Akane and Ukyou chorused in protest.

* * *

"She won't talk," Ranma grunted to Captain Ninomiya and the others.
His head was still smarting from the simultaneous blows he had received
from Akane and Ukyou. He had expected as much from Akane, but getting
smacked by Ucchan had really rattled him.
He had no idea why Shampoo had kissed him. Maybe it was some weird
ritual for a defeated Amazon, but he had felt real heat in her embrace.
He also felt a little guilty with himself for deciding to return it, and
now he had Akane upset with him again.
It wasn't like he had started it or anything, he grumbled to himself.
She kissed *me!*
Shampoo, her clothing torn and her body bruised from her fight with
Ranma and company, stared defiantly at them through the reinforced window
of her cell. The Ship's Brig had three cells, each large enough for one
occupant. In the centermost cell, Shampoo resembled a caged tiger; hungry,
sullen, and eager for a chance to strike back at her captors.
"She doesn't need to talk for what I'd like to do to her," Happousai
cackled, and was roundly smashed into the deck by all present before Shampoo
could even grimace.
"My question is," Ryouga remarked, nursing his sore jaw as he spoke.
"How did she find us? I mean, we misjumped to the Palatine System, and
that's almost two hundred light-years from Capra."
"We've all heard the rumors that the Commonwealth has agents within
Comstar," Genma replied. "We spent almost a month there waiting on parts
and affecting repairs. They must have intercepted our transmissions to
Nerima through the Tiber Consulate, and obviously there had been enough
time for Shampoo to catch up with us. She infiltrated aboard as a cat
while the ship was in the yards."
Hinako seethed with anger at this. Shampoo's theft of the database
patch was the worst kind of betrayal for her.
"See that's she's kept isolated," she said at length. "A few weeks
of solitary confinement might loosen her tongue. In the meantime, we'll
need to organize search parties out of the _Palomino_ detachment and the
off-going watch sections to look for that disc."
"She couldn't have hidden it that well," Genma observed. "She didn't
have time for that."
"We should start on 'B' Deck," Akane added. "That's where we found
her after her escape."
"We should be looking for the other Amazon," Ranma put in. "Don't
forget that extra pair of clothes the crew found lying around on 'E' deck,
and there was food for at least two people in their gear."
"Agreed," Hinako said. "Until further notice, all hands will carry
sidearms, and no one travels alone. We'll go Port and Starboard watches
if necessary to make that happen."
"I hate to mention this," Genma muttered. "But it's conceivable that
if Shampoo did have an accomplice, that she might have stowed away on board
the _Palomino_ with the database patch when the DropShip transited over to
the station. There wasn't much time - maybe fifteen minutes - between the
theft of the disc and the departure of the DropShip, but it's a possibility."
"I didn't want to consider that," Hinako replied. "But it seems that
I must. If her accomplice made it to the station, then there is nothing we
can do."
"We can go over there and look for her," Ranma disagreed.
Hinako shook her head. "And start a riot on the station?" she countered.
"End up getting the _Dragonfly_ seized, and all of us made prisoner? That's
Federated Shiratori territory over there, and we're a long way from our home
systems... It's a bad idea, Saotome. We're better off reaching Ryuugenzawa as
quickly as possible, before anyone else does."
"In spite of the threat of interception, we need to communicate this to
Nerima," Genma added. "We'll need to have a transport ship waiting near the
border with the Magistracy that can rendezvous with us. If nothing else, they
can deliver cargo DropShips with crews to the _Dragonfly_ so we can haul away
as much material as possible before the Commonwealth or anyone else can get
there."
"I concur," Hinako replied. "But first things first. We need to verify
that the accomplice is no longer on board the _Dragonfly._"

* * *

Mousse paused before the main offices of the station's Comstar branch.
Though he had left the _Dragonfly_ as a duck, being an adept in the School
of Hidden Weapons meant that he was not without his resources, and the
certified draft that drew upon a numbered account with the Bank of Sol would
pay for his HPG communique to General Herb, and still leave plenty for food
and lodging on the station until arrangements could be made for rendezvous.
He had a hunch that the _Domingo_ was still within the Federated Shiratori,
awaiting just such a mission.
Shampoo was lost to him, he knew with some regret in spite of their
chilly farewell. Even if she had succeeded in killing the two Saotomes, her
chances of escaping from the JumpShip were slim. She was dead by now, or a
prisoner.
It made what he had to do somewhat easier knowing that Shampoo had no
more hold over him. The Joketsuzoku as well, for he no longer considered
himself one of them. He was part of the Musk Dynasty now, at least in his
heart, and his information would see them to victory over the rest of the
clan.
He was tired of being a loser, an object of ridicule by the women of
the clan. Now it was time for a new order of things, and General Herb and
the Musk Dynasty would make that happen. With the secrets of Ryuugenzawa
behind them, how could they fail?

* * *

Chief Medical Officer's Dayroom
Nerima Confederation JumpShip _Dragonfly_
11 May 3025

Doctor Tofu looked up at the sound of his office door chime. He keyed
the door's intercom from his desk.
"Akane, please come in and have a seat."
She entered, a little surprised that he had known who it was behind the
closed door. Granted, he had been the one to summon her, but it was still
unnerving.
"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about, Doctor?" she asked him.
He waited until she was seated before responding.
"This was something I wanted to bring up yesterday," he began. "But with
the intruders and the theft of the database disc, the matter got sidetracked.
Now that things have settled down a little bit, I want you to know that I've
been going over your medical record."
"Is there a problem?" she asked, concerned.
"A small detail," he admitted. "I realize that I'm not your gynecologist,
Akane, but I am your family doctor, and at the moment the expedition's Chief
Medical Officer." He displayed a portion of her medical record for her. "Could
you read that for me, please?"
She leaned over the desk and frowned at what she saw. It was a statement
of acknowledgement in her medical record that she had signed when she had her
physical exam to become a mechwarrior. She had been fourteen at the time.
"'I understand that due to my occupational exposure to ionizing
radiation as a Mechwarrior of the Nerima Confederation, and because this
occupation requires transport aboard nuclear powered spacecraft, that I
must submit to a method of contraception approved by the Confederation
Surgeon General, and to be administered by local medical authority as
directed by OPMED 2.33.12-26 and by other regulations as appropriate.'"
Tofu nodded as she finished. "Is that your signature beneath all that
verbage?"
"Yes, Doctor," she said sheepishly.
"I take it from your tone that you now understand what this is about,"
he said to her.
"Yes, Doctor," she confirmed.
"Now, Akane, up until now, I haven't been concerned by the fact that you
haven't been taking your birth control pills. It's against the regulations
for women of child-bearing age in your position, but as far as I know, you
haven't been sexually active, either."
Akane began to splutter something in protest.
"I'm not interested in details about what you and Ranma may or may not
being doing together in your spare time," Tofu continued. "It's none of my
business, but since the two of you are starting to get along better, I
thought it would be prudent for you to begin your required contraceptive
regimen now, so you'll be in the habit of doing it should the time come
when a certain Pig-Tailed Mechwarrior corrects his current Cranial-Rectal
Inversion."
In spite of what he was proposing, she had to smile at his assessment
of Ranma's condition.
"I think we might be waiting a long time for that to happen," she
observed, somewhat ruefully.
"He's nineteen years old," Tofu pointed out, recalling his recent
conversation with Ranma. "Between his hormones and your show of interest
in him, he's going to figure it out - and probably sooner than you think."
She blushed at the thought.
"I've already taken the liberty of procuring your first month's set of
pills from the Pharmacy," Tofu added, displaying a small pink box for her.
"Do you remember having this talk with your gynecologist?"
She nodded, still blushing at having a conversation of this nature
with a man she had suffered a crush over for so long. "It's been awhile,"
she admitted.
"Take one a day, at the same time every day, without fail," he began.
"If you do miss one, take it as soon as you remember, and continue as normal.
Miss more than one, and you have to start over after your next period. You've
lost any reliable contraceptive function by that point, so if you DO end up
getting a little too physical with a certain someone, use an alternate method
of birth control."
Akane nodded shyly and accepted the pills.
"One last thing to remember about them," Tofu continued. "It takes a
full week of use for this type of oral contraceptive to become effective, so
don't go jumping into the sack with Ranma until then!"
"Doctor Tofu!" she cried in protest.
He laughed in reply. "Only a joke, Akane," he offered. "But really, I
want you to take your reproductive health seriously from now on. Like I said,
sooner or later Ranma's going to get a clue, and when he does, you had best
be ready for him." He gave her a reassuring pat on the hand. "You're both
very young, in spite of all the responsibility heaped upon you by this
engagement. You're both *definitely* too young to be having children of
your own."

* * *

Akane nearly crashed into Akari as she floated down the passageway to
the 'D' Deck elevator.
"I'm terribly sorry, milady," the young technician apologized.
"No, no," Akane returned. "It was my fault for not watching where I
was going." She looked away for a beat. "I've got some things on my mind
right now."
Akari inclined her head in acknowledgment. "Have you seen Lieutenant
Hibiki?" she asked in return.
"No, I haven't."
"A shame," Akari sniffed. "He gets lost from time to time, especially
on spaceships." She uttered a resigned sigh. "I hope he's all right."
Akane gave the technician a tiny smile. "You like him, don't you?"
Akari nodded happily. "I'm going to marry him if I can help it," she
admitted proudly.
"Really?" the Tendo Heir gushed. This was a surprise! She knew that the
two were often found together, but she never would have gone so far as to
say that there were wedding bells in their future. The two of them did make
an awfully cute couple, she supposed.
Akari began to blush as her head bobbed in the affirmative. "Someday,"
she said, sounding as if 'someday' was practically around the corner. "I
know that in my heart, Ryouga and I were meant to be together."
"Ryouga's a great guy," Akane offered, remembering her own assessment
of the man taken on the Mess Deck of the _Palomino_ shortly after their
escape from Capra. "If you can catch him, you'll have quite a prize." She
started past. "Well, good luck to you!"
"Thank you, milady," Akari returned. "Good luck to you as well," she
added as they parted. "If it means anything to you, milady, I think Captain
Saotome will make a good husband for you."
Akane nearly smashed into the far bulkhead before catching herself,
and arresting her forward motion. That was assuming some bimbo Amazon or
some long-lost fiancee didn't get him first, she thought angrily. She
righted herself and turned for the elevator.
Amazingly, P-chan was there, squealing with relief at having narrowly
avoided her impact with the bulkhead.
"P-chan?!" Akane cried. She scooped up the little black pig and nuzzled
it. "It's been over a week, P-chan! Where have you been?"
Her pet pig was known to disappear for days on end, but he always turned
up sooner or later. Though the crew rarely saw him, he seemed to never lack
for the basic necessities, for he was as plump and healthy looking as always.
"I get so worried when I don't see you," she continued in a motherly
tone. The pig grunted weakly in reply as she floated into the elevator.
Once they were safely within her stateroom, she set P-chan down on the
bed and walked over to her fold-down desk. She set a small pink plastic box
on the writing surface and browsed through the instructions, indications,
and warnings.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," she said to P-chan. "I haven't been
on the Pill since I was sixteen."
The pig nearly bowled over with embarrassment.
She popped the first pill free of its foil and plastic prison and held
it for a moment in her hand. The little blue oval looked wholly unremarkable
to her.
She filled a glass of water from the bathroom sink and used it to
swallow the pill.
"It's probably just a waste of time anyway," she said to herself. "Ranma
would never..." Her voice trailed off, thinking of their fleeting moment of
passion in the elevator. It had come without warning, and if Ryouga hadn't
been around to break them up, who knew how far they might have gone...
"Then again," she observed at length, sitting down on the bed next to
her pet pig.
P-chan grunted questioningly at her. It was funny, but there seemed to
be such intelligence and animation behind his various squeals and grunts at
times. It was almost like he was talking to her.
"What's that, P-chan?" she asked him. "Have I ever thought about
sleeping with Ranma before?"
This was definitely NOT the question he had asked her, and the very
mention of sex between his rival and the girl who now sat on the bed with
him was enough to make his head spin with dismay. He didn't want to hear her
answer, but being a pig, could find no effective way to stop up his ears.
"Oh yeah," she said in a husky voice, her eyes becoming soft with
longing. "Since we left Tiber? Oh hell yes...!"
P-chan made a whimpering noise. It was worse than he had thought. He
begrudged them a kiss, however painful the idea was for him, but for Akane
to be considering the Holy of Holys with Ranma...! Even preparing for it by
taking birth-control pills...!
He made a choking noise, and swooned to the deck, with Akane catching
him just before he hit.
"P-chan!" she cried worriedly. "What's the matter with you?" She
cradled him close, and her warmth and affection restored him somewhat. "I
don't know what I'd do if something happened to you, P-chan."
The pig grunted miserably, realizing that his dreams would remain
forever just as they were - dreams.

* * *

Ranma Saotome hovered at the entrance to the Starboard Greenhouse, his
eyes set with determination to complete his mission.
That mission: collect flowers to give to Akane.
He wasn't entirely certain why he was pressing ahead with Doctor Tofu's
advice. His feelings for Akane were still very mixed up. On the one hand, he
had to admit that he liked her, and that he wanted her to like him, too. On
the other hand, he was still very opposed to the idea of marrying her just to
please their folks - and then have the Grand Duke abdicate and dump the whole
Confederation on him. That was a definite turn-off to the whole affair.
After some consideration, he decided that his gift of flowers was more
to get back in Akane's good graces - and to ensure a measure of peace and
goodwill between them - than any concession on his part to marry the bossy,
overbearing, overheated, but definitely cute when she wanted to be, tomboy.
Having come to that conclusion, he had made a few oblique enquiries
among the ship's cooks about the process of procuring said flowers. The
replies he had received were not encouraging. While there were no specific
prohibitions against collecting flowers, there was a general ship's
regulation that forbade unqualified personnel from harvesting plant life
of any kind from the Greenhouse. If you weren't on the Chief Cook's list as
a gardener, you weren't allowed to pick flowers.
Ranma decided that it was a stupid regulation, and set out to collect
what he needed as expeditiously and as covertly as possible.
The Greenhouse was currently deserted. The light of the Wexford primary
glinted through the transparent dome and filtered down upon the wealth of
free-fall hydroponics. The air was humid and warm, and filled with the earthy
scent of growing things.
Lacking any sort of guide to tell what was what, Ranma decided to go by
looks...

Chapter Five

Eight Shining Pearls Fortress
Planet Jusenkyo, Jusenkyo System
The Jusenkyo Commonwealth
13 May 3025

Mechwarrior General Herb stamped her foot impatiently on the heated
flagstones of her personal bathhouse, waiting for her henchmen to arrive
with bathing sundries. She cursed the sudden cloudburst that had revealed
her Jusenkyo Body to the inhabitants of the fortress, and she cursed Doctor
Gaido for his monolithic incompetence by allowing her spill in the pool to
happen in the first place.
"I'm WAITING," she growled breathlessly to Lime, who appeared from
behind a painted screen with a robe, towels, and a selection of soaps and
lotions.
Lime dropped to one knee and presented the goods to his general. Herb
noticed with more than a little dissatisfaction that his imposing henchman
was ogling her heaving bosom. It had been like this ever since Lightoller;
at any time where she had succumbed to the Jusenkyo Effect, her henchmen
couldn't take their eyes off her body. She had to admit that she was pretty
stacked, but her pride ran no further than that.
"Stop staring," she growled at him. Lime averted his eyes.
She disrobed while keeping an imperious glower leveled at Lime - should
the temptation to peek overcome his better judgement. The hefty Musk Dynasty
officer refrained from any overt glances, but as she padded in the nude
across the stones to the steamy grotto of the bath, she could feel his greasy
eyes upon her. It was an unnerving experience, and she struggled to keep her
dignity as she waded into the water.
The change came swiftly, and he heaved out a sigh of relief. He was a
man once more. Lime retired behind the screen to await the call of his
general. Herb was content to sit in thoughtful silence.
He had many things to consider, many plans in motion, and plans to be
set in motion. He was constantly evaluating his situation for any signs of
weakness or error. As he was plotting the ultimate downfall of the Elder
Council, he could not afford to leave any openings or loose ends.
The hissing of whispered voices behind the screen roused him from inner
contemplations. Mint had appeared, and he caught enough of the exchange
between the small but fierce warrior and his giant companion to know that
they were discussing his female body again. He rubbed his hand against his
temple in response to the migraine headache the overheard conversation
brought upon him.
Why couldn't those two idiots visit the comfort women like everyone
else? he lamented. He had a mind to order them to do so, but knew that it
would probably be a waste of time. They were trusted henchmen - if a bit
dull - and powerful warriors, but in matters regarding women, they were
clueless.
Mint appeared from behind the screen with a dispatch. Herb looked
up through wifts of scented steam from the bath at the salmon-pink hardcopy
of a Comstar Dispatch. The public never saw the pink copies, which were
routing sheets for the HPG tech-priests who maintained the Inner Sphere's
faster-than-light communications network. This was taken from one such
station through a Commonwealth infiltrator.
"What is it?" he demanded.
"Your pardon, General," Mint demurred. "A communique from Mechwarrior
Mousse has arrived through channels."
Herb sat up straight in the bath. Mousse had very specific instructions
regarding communication. He was not to send anything unless he had succeeded
in his mission - or that his mission had very obviously failed.
"Show it to me," he barked.
"Of course, General."
The message on the dispatch was encrypted with a basic two-step keyword
substituton cypher - enough to keep honest men honest and within the limited
resources Mousse had available to him. Herb noted the freehand ink decryption
above the random characters of the message.

VITAL SYSTEM COORDINATES OBTAINED. FATE OF SAOTOMES
UNKNOWN. FATE OF SHAMPOO UNKNOWN - PRESUMED DEAD OR
CAPTURED. PRESENT LOCATION: WEXFORD SYSTEM, FEDERATED
SHIRATORI. IMMEDIATE RENDEZVOUS REQUESTED TO TRANSFER
NECESSARY DATA. ALSO: I CONCEDE THAT YOU WERE RIGHT
ABOUT SHAMPOO, GENERAL, AND I WISH TO SERVE AT YOUR
SIDE.

MOUSSE

Herb smiled as he read the final sentence of the message. Mousse had
turned, an unexpected if welcome bit of news. No doubt Shampoo had given
him the final push away from Cologne and her Joketsuzoku harpies.
He would welcome Mousse personally, he decided. The man was an excellent
mechwarrior, and his hate would make him a powerful ally in the days to come.
They would be heady days indeed.
Peony continued to undermine Cologne's influence in the council, though
it was clear now that she lacked the nerve and the resolve to depose her
enemy until there was no hope of opposition, and she completely ignored the
threat that the Musk Dynasty represented. Cologne was too busy fending off
Peony and her cronies to keep more than half an eye on him. The Commonwealth
was nearly ripe for the taking.
It would be five years or more before he would be ready to act openly
against the Council - time he needed to add to his powerbase, and to exploit
whatever technological advantages Ryuugenzawa would bring him. He had been
prepared to act sooner than this, but the subject of the Star League's fabled
testing grounds had been too compelling to ignore, and he had adjusted his
timetable accordingly. Now he had the location of the system within his grasp.
Now the countdown to the end of matriarchal rule could begin.
"Notify all my commanders to prepare for immediate departure from this
system," he ordered Mint. "Have the _Domingo_ retrieve Mousse, and arrange
for a rendezvous along the Commonwealth border."
"At once, General." Mint saluted, and dashed out of the bath to carry
out his orders.
Herb made a fist and cupped it with his other hand.
"Very soon, Cologne, the Commonwealth will fall to me."

END OF PART TWENTY-TWO