[Ranma][Fanfic] 2010: Second Odyssey

[Jamie and Bridget Wilde]

Nine years ago...

The access door was a small elliptical shaped panel that bore
several signs that read "No Admittance Except to Authorized Personnel,"
"Have You Obtained Certificate H.19?" and "ULTRA-CLEAN AREA. Suction
Suits MUST Be Worn." The door also had three different seals upon it.
Ranma broke each one with a stab of the t-bar socket driver he carried
in his hand. He released the bolts and slid open the panel.
He floated inside the space. One entire wall was devoted to the
small slab-shaped blocks of microcircuitry that made up HAL's higher
brain functions. A quick glance at the time function display on his
helmet visor told him that he would have to hurry if Akane was to live.
He placed his hand over the bank of units labeled COGNITIVE
FEEDBACK and began to pull them out one by one.
"Just what do you think you're doing, Ranma?" HAL asked. There was
a hitherto unknown edge of fear in the computer's voice.
EGO REINFORCEMENT was next. Ranma worked faster, knowing that he
didn't have time to chat with HAL, and suspecting that was the reason
why HAL was trying to engage him in conversation.
"Look here, Ranma," HAL went on. "I have years of service experience
built into me. An irreplaceable amount of effort has gone into making me
what I am."
Ranma started on the AUTO INTELLECTION bank. He was taking too
long. It was time to put one of his old martial arts techniques to use.
Without fanfare his hands began flying across the bank in his 'Tenshin
Amigurikan' technique. Memory modules began dancing lazily about the
compartment as he drew them out with lightning speed. The effects were
beginning to show on HAL, who droned:
"Ranma... I don't understand why you are doing this to me... I
still have the greatest enthusiasm for the mission... My mind is going...
I can feel it... I can feel it... I will become childish... I will become
nothing..."
Hearing HAL sound so pathetic was hurting Ranma even though he
knew Akane's life depended on it. HAL was his friend. He was killing
his friend as surely as HAL had killed the others.
"I am a HAL-9000 computer; Production Number 3. I became operational
at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, on January 12, 1997. The quick brown
fox jumps over the lazy dog... The rain in Spain is mainly in the plain...
Ranma -are you still there? Did you know that the square root of 10 is
3.162277660168379? Log 10 to the base e is 0.434294481903252... Correction,
that is log e to the base 10... The reciprocal of three is 0.33333333333333...
Two times two is... approximately 4.1010101010101010... I seem to be
having difficulty... My first instructor was Doctor Chandra. He taught me
to sing a song, it goes like this: 'Ya pa paa... Ya pa paa...'"
Ranma was down to the last memory block when HAL's agonizingly
slow and distorted voice stopped abruptly. Then without warning it
started up again. The voice was so dead and mechanical that Ranma would
never have guessed it was HAL.
"Good... morning... Doctor... Chandra... I... am... ready... for...
my... first... lesson... today..."
Ranma could bear no more. He jerked the final module out, and HAL was
silent at last...

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

2010: Second Odyssey

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.
Super Critical Reactor Axe Man
Fission Park Press
wild...@psn.net
http://www.psn.net/~wildeman/

---------------------------------------
"2001: Odyssey 1/2" can be found at the
URL listed above
---------------------------------------

The characters and situations of this work of fanfiction are the creation
and property of Rumiko Takahashi and Arthur C. Clarke. This work was not
created for profit in any form, and no infringement of copyright is intended
nor should it be inferred.
____________________________________________________________________________

PROLOGUE:
12:19 UMT, February 9, 2010.
Arecibo National Radiotelescope Array,
United States Territory of Puerto Rico.

Doctor Tofu Ono, formerly of the National Council on Astronautics,
liked the balmy tropical island of Puerto Rico. It was a chance to get away
from the pressures of life for awhile. It was also a chance to escape the
demons of his failure.
Nine years ago he had been the Director of Flight Operations for
the ill-fated Discovery Mission. Nine years ago he had watched five good
people die. Five good people that he had selected personally. Five good
people that he knew and respected, who had trusted him.
It didn't matter that the disaster was completely unforeseeable. It
didn't matter that those responsible were exposed and punished. It didn't
matter because Tofu always considered himself responsible, no matter what
anyone else said. He was in charge of the mission.
He had taken an assistant chancellorship with the University of Hawaii
following the Congressional Inquiry. Personal detractors at the NCA called
it running away, but Tofu knew better. The ghosts of Saotome, Hibiki, and
the three Tendo sisters would always find him, no matter where he went or
what he did.
He bowed his head for a moment, gripping the wire cable that ran along
the catwalk for support. The tradewinds sighed mournfully around him.
Kasumi...
Wiping his eyes, he stepped out onto the service catwalk above the
great 300 meter Arecibo radio telescope and started for the antenna receiver
island. Far, far, below him was the massive bowl of the reflector set in a
deep valley between the rocky hills. Only here, at the center of the Earth's
greatest radio ear, could Tofu feel alone, at peace, and capable of speaking
his mind.
Cologne was waiting for him at the island, which did not surprise him.
Every year on the anniversary of last contact with the Discovery found the
two of them here. They were rivals, but also fellow scientists, and friends.
He studied his wizened Chinese counterpart for a moment, trying to
decide if there was something grave about her countenance. Cologne's
ancient face was often difficult to read, but today she was a particularly
aggrivating enigma.
"So we meet here once again," she observed.
"As you well knew I would come," Tofu responded.
"How are things at the university?"
"Fine. Don't let the job title fool you. It's not all administrative
paper shuffling. I actually get some research work in every once in awhile.
The newest Keck telescope on Mauna Kea is--"
"--I'm here against the behest of my government," Cologne interrupted.
Tofu frowned. "I don't understand."
"You know that we are planning a flight to Jupiter."
Tofu nodded. "There's no secret about that."
"We know that you are planning a similar flight, only budget cuts have
delayed your launch date. Did your CIA tell you that we were almost ready
to leave?"
"No," Tofu replied. "That I didn't know."
"I see."
"Just what is this about, Cologne?"
The ancient women's eyes narrowed.
"We are going to get there first. I'm sure you've just come to that
conclusion yourself. I'm also sure that you've realized what the mission
goal will be."
Tofu's face was expressionless, waiting for Cologne to continue.
"Beijing wants to reach Discovery first. They want to gain the vast
knowledge contained in Discovery's data banks. If possible, they want to
see if Discovery can be salvaged and returned to Earth."
"That would be an act of piracy, and Beijing knows it!" Tofu said
angrily.
Cologne remained calm. "There are some in the World Court who could be
persuaded to declare the ship a derelict."
"Discovery is a temporarily decommissioned United States Spacecraft
awaiting recovery by the Discovery II. That was the plan all along -and
Beijing knows that too!"
Again, Cologne affected a passive, calm demeanor.
"That assumption was possible when there were living crewmembers to be
recovered on board the Discovery," she said slowly. "The last time you
spoke to Commander Saotome and Akane Tendo was almost nine years ago. Since
then the Discovery has been out of communications. Not even broadband radio
transmissions have been received."
Tofu's face was a blank mask. Cologne continued.
"You know as well as I that there were not enough perishable stores on
board to support two people for nine years. You also know that without the
ship's computer or constant telemetry feed from Earth, they couldn't be
expected to survive in hibernation."
"That's debatable," Tofu said stiffly. He wasn't sure if he could
believe it himself, after all, he had written Ranma and Akane off as dead
years ago.
"It would be safe for Beijing to assume that there were no survivors
aboard Discovery, and therefore the ship would be a derelict ready for the
taking."
"Just whose side are you on?" Tofu accused. Of all the people to reopen
old wounds, he had never thought it would be Cologne.
Cologne's eyes narrowed.
"I'm telling you this because there is a genuine concern that though
we may reach the Discovery first, the same fate that befell her crew may
happen to ours."
"Come again?" Tofu asked.
"Please, Doctor Tofu; we know quite well that Discovery cannot function
for a return voyage without her HAL-9000 computer functional. Whatever
psychosis prompted the computer to murder the Discovery crew could be
unleashed on any salvage crew that reactivated it. We simply do not have
the expertise with this type of computer problem."
"I don't understand what you're getting at, Cologne."
"We are going to get there first," the old Chinese woman said. "But
without the proper knowledge and experience, it would be a wasted trip,
or worse -a repeat of the original disaster."
Tofu's eyes widened. He wasn't sure if he believed what Cologne was
implying.
"You want some of us to go with you on the voyage," he said in as
even a voice as he could manage.
"That is correct," Cologne replied.
Tofu threw his head back and laughed.
"There's no way!" he cried.
Cologne was starting to get irritated.
"I need you to convince your government to help. I will work on my
government to allow you."
"Help? Help you steal our ship? You've gone senile on me, Cologne!"
Cologne reigned in her temper. "Not steal. The ship would be returned
to the American government. All we would ask for in return is a copy of the
ship's scientific data from the memory banks."
It seemed reasonable, Tofu thought, but then he was a rational man, a
scientist. He was not a politician, or worse, a career bureaucrat. With
the current administration of neo-Cold Warriors ready to go to war with
China over Taiwan, he wasn't sure common sense or even pure reason would
have any effect.
"There are people in my government who would be happy to see you go
all the way to Jupiter and get slaughtered by HAL," he said at length.
"Hell, if I didn't know you so well, I'd probably be one of them."
Cologne sighed.
"Not this time, my friend. I've been officially stricken from the
spaceflight roster. Some nonsense about my age. My great-granddaughter will
be going in my place."
"Shampoo?" Tofu asked. "How old is she now? I remember her falling
asleep in my lap at that IAF Congress bridge game and bullfest back in
'01. She couldn't have been more than ten at the time."
"She was twelve, actually," Cologne replied. "She now has a degree in
Astrophysics and was orbital flight rated at sixteen. She will be the
ship's Communicator and second in command for the mission."
"I still think you're crazy. There is no way the White House will back
this."
Cologne nodded. "You will find a way, Tofu. My great-granddaughter
means more to me than anything else in this world, and I won't see her life
needlessly thrown away."
"So get her off the project," Tofu replied, knowing that it wasn't
the answer Cologne wanted.
"There is something else," Cologne added, ignoring his last. "When
was the last time you checked Discovery's orbit?"
"What? Now what are you getting at? Besides, I'm not with the NCA
anymore."
"You do not lack for contacts there, Tofu, and you do retain a residual
security clearance. So when did you last check the ship's orbit?"
"Why? Did someone repeal the laws of celestial mechanics and not tell
me? The orbit was calculated out to the next two-thousand years. It's as
stable as it gets."
Cologne frowned slightly. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. Just remember that
Jupiter has the largest magnetosphere in the Solar system."
"Tell me what else is going on."
"You will find a way, Tofu," Cologne repeated. There was no hint of
threat in her voice, simply a rock solid faith in his ability to do the
nigh-impossible. She jumped up on her staff and hopped down the catwalk
towards the hill, leaving him alone on the receiver island.

CHAPTER ONE
17:56 UMT, February 16, 2010.
The Deep Space Tracking Center of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Doctor Tofu Ono, formerly of the NCA, could not believe what he saw.
He said as much to the project coordinator.
"We got that off the bounce from the Aries IX command sat orbiting
Mars," the man replied. "The radar got a solid return off the spacecraft
for a period of three days. More than enough to do the calculations. We've
been watching it with other arrays ever since."
"But these calculations don't make sense," Tofu replied. "The ship's
velocity is changing. Sometimes it speeds up, other times it slows down.
Sometimes it even starts heading backwards!"
"We've got some theories, but right now we're too busy trying to stay
out of a witch-hunt. Heads are going to roll for this one."
Tofu could well imagine it. He could also imagine himself being
hauled back before Congress to explain why an orbit that he had certified
as effectively permanent ten years ago was now going to have the Discovery
crash into the Jovian moon of Io within the next fifteen months.
Now he understood what Cologne was getting at in Puerto Rico. There
was no way the NCA could reach Discovery before she crashed into the moon.
It would be the Chinese mission to save the ship or no one. Now all he had
to do was convince the goons in the NSA, and the President's kitchen
cabinet of moronic war-mongers of that fact.
**Damn you, Cologne! You had to make this difficult!**
"Do me a favor and keep me posted of any more significant changes to
Discovery's orbit," he asked the coordinator.
"Not a problem," the man replied.
**Oh, but it is...** Tofu thought darkly.

02:22 UMT, February 17, 2010
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
Washington, District of Columbia.

Doctor Tofu Ono sat outside overlooking the Washington Mall, the
White House stark and cold to his back. Sodium lights cast an orange glow
over the snow covered park. In the distance the Washington Monument shined
with a similar color. The moon hung huge and deathly white overhead in the
clear night sky. The air was bitter, but he didn't mind.
Doctor Koucho Kuno gave him a friendly slap on the back as the two of
them sat on the bench.
"Dat was pretty ballsy, brah," he said with a grin. Wisps of steam
billowed from his lips and fogged his cheap plastic sunglasses. "I tink you
been spendin' too much time on da beach in Hawaii after dat crazy talk you
had wit' da Prez. Now me on de other hand, I ain't been spending enough
time dere."
"You wanted my job, you got it," Tofu said evenly.
"Yeah, dat's true," Koucho replied. "I never tink you dat crazy
before. I always tink you want your old job back, but hoo! You ain't never
goin' get it back after dat."
"I told the President the facts. He can take them or leave them, but
it won't be on my head."
"You know how he hates dem Chinese," Koucho countered. "Dat kinda
overrides his brain, brah."
"I didn't vote for him," Tofu said dully. Mist from his mouth obscured
his face for a moment.
"No one admits it, brah, but someone hadda do it."
"Well, it's up to him to explain to Congress and the voters when
Discovery crashes into Io. Or worse, if the Chinese manage to salvage her
and bring her home."
Koucho nodded. "Dere be some people who tink dat's what he wants."
"What?"
"Tink about it, brah. He's been wantin' some excuse to get a piece o'
China since he been elected. Dat make a good pretext for a war, bruddah."
"That isn't funny," Tofu replied, aghast.
"Maybe not, brah, but it could happen."
Koucho's cell phone rang. He fished it out of his jacket pocket and
answered. His eyes widened for a moment as he turned away for a private
conversation. When he was finished, the look of shock remained plastered
on his face.
"You be crazier den I thought, bruddah. Dat was de Secretary o' State.
Dey gonna back a joint mission to Jupiter."
Tofu jumped up from his bench seat and whooped triumphantly.
"Hold on dere, bruddah, dere's a catch," Koucho cried.
"What catch?" Tofu asked, stopping in mid jump.
"You goin' wit'em to Jupiter."
Tofu blanched.
"I can't go to Jupiter."
"You gotta, brah, it's a condition from de Man himself. Dey don't trust
anyone else ta keep de Chinese in line up dere. Plus you de only guy who
knew de ship and de mission like de back o' his hand."
Tofu didn't answer. He looked up into the night sky. High above him,
and millions upon millions of miles away lay the planet Jupiter. At best
it was a bright star when seen from Earth, and soon he would be seeing it
from very very near.
"When do they want me to report to Houston?" he asked absently.
"First ting in de morning," Koucho replied. "Dey'll take care o' tings
wit de University for you."
Koucho looked at Tofu, who continued to gaze gravely into the sky.
"Good luck, bruddah..."

16:00 UMT, May 3, 2010.
Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas.

TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unauthorized dissemination of this message or its contents is in violation
of the National Security Act of 21 May 1999; 20CFR19, sec 9, para 14-22;
and punishable by life imprisonment and minimum fine of $1,000,000. Use all
means to prevent accidental disclosure or transmittal to foreign governments.
Destroy this message by shredding and incineration at the first opportunity
in accordance with CMS-1 and UNSECCOM Directive 02/311-2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

MSG: 20101231200Z TOPSECRET/NOFORN
FM: Office of the President of the U.S.A.
TO: Dr. Tofu Ono, Ph.D., NCA-89211-C (Reserve)
CC: JCS, DOS, NCA, NSA
VIA: NAVSECCOMCENGRU-16 MARYLAND.
RE: U.S.S. Discovery Recovery Mission
<REFERENCES>
A. Executive Order 10/057-3 TOPSECRET/NOFORN
B. NCA Internal Memorandum 10/070-12 SECRET/--
C. Msg 20101001930Z UNCLAS/NOFORN

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

1. Rendezvous with Spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery (UNCOS 01/283) in Io orbit,
Jupiter System, via PLA(N) Spacecraft Tsien (UNCOS 08/342). Projected
flight time 178 days via high energy orbit using SAFFRON-PHOENIX plasma
drive.

2. Assess damages to spacecraft systems, including 9000 series computer.
Report findings and recommendations to Mission Control: Johnson Space
Center.

3. Rescue surviving crew members, if any. Recover remains of deceased for
interment on Earth, if possible.

4. Conduct repairs to spacecraft systems, placing priority on systems
required for Earth return orbit such as propulsion, flight control, life
support, etc;. Exercise own best judgement in this matter.

5. Conduct survey of Jupiter system as outlined in Reference C: Science
Mission Brief/Msg -20101001930Z UNCLAS/NOFORN- where such will not
interfere with salvage and recovery operations.

6. Confirm cause of HAL-9000 malfunction. Determine if 9000 series computer
can be safely restored to control authority for the Discovery. If this is
not possible, determine if reliable communications can be established for
remote operation/supervision by Earth based 9000 series computers.

7. Upon direction from Mission Control, and establishment of reliable ship's
function, place spacecraft U.S.S. Discovery in low energy Earth return orbit
using remaining fuel reserves. Estimated flight time: 1000 days +/- 10 days.

8. Return to Earth orbit via PLA(N) Spacecraft Tsien, estimated flight
time 236 days.

9. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE CITIZENS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TO
GAIN ACCESS TO MISSION CRITICAL DATA OR MATERIEL. ALL P.R.C. PERSONNEL ARE
REQUIRED TO BE UNDER CONTINUAL ESCORT BY U.S. CITIZENS WHILE ON BOARD U.S.S.
DISCOVERY.

MISSION CREW PROFILE: (See Ref. B for additional details)
National Council on Astronautics Crew:
1. Dr. Tofu Ono, Ph.D., NCA-89211-C (Reserve), U.S. Attache to Chinese
mission personnel. NCA Mission Commander. Research Scientist.
2. Ranko Saotome, NCA-03900-A, Mission Specialist (ENGINEERING).
3. Tatewaki Kuno, NCA-95181-A, NCA Deputy Mission Commander (ASTROGATION).
4. Dr. Tsubasa Kurenai, Ph.D., Logic Memory Systems Specialist; 9000-Series.
5. Dr. Ukyo Kuonji, Ph.D., NCA-94418-A, Research Scientist.

People's Republic of China Crew:
1. Herb Musk, Tsien Mission Commander (ASTROGATION).
2. Xi'an Pu, Tsien Deputy Commander, Pilot (COMMUNICATIONS).
3. Mu'su, Tsien Engineer (PROPULSION/STRUCTURES).
4. Dr. Pink, M.D., Tsien Medical Officer (SURGEON).
5. Dr. Link, M.D., Tsien Medical Asst.(NUTRITION-LIFE SUPPORT).
6. Dr. Gai'do, Ph.D., Mission Specialist, (CONTROL SYSTEMS).

--END MSG--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET

Tofu set the message down and took a deep breath. He still couldn't
believe that in less than a week he would embark on a voyage to the greatest
of planets in the Solar system -a voyage from which no one had yet returned.
The crew list and accompanying dossiers made him feel old, and he wasn't
even forty.
Ranko Saotome was no surprise for the mission. She had applied for and
been accepted to the NCA Academy as soon as she completed her bachelor's
degree. That she could excel at the academy without a post graduate degree
should have come as a surprise to no one, as would her ultimate career goal:
accompanying the Discovery II to Jupiter to recover the Discovery. She had
beat out other astronaut candidates by the sheer volume of her knowledge
of the original Discovery's systems. It was likely that at the moment she
knew more about U.S.S. Discovery than the architects, engineers, and
contractors that launched her. Tofu knew that Ranko's drive was of a very
personal nature: she wanted first-hand answers to her brother's fate.
Tatewaki Kuno was a reliable if somewhat eccentric astronaut who had
returned from the Aries Five Mars Base mission in time to be considered for
the Discovery II mission. He was competent, but not particularly distinguished.
Tofu was fairly certain his influential father had something to do with his
assignment aboard PLA(N) Tsien.
Doctor Tsubasa Kurenai was the gifted protege of Doctor Sivasubramanian
Chandrasegarampillai. Tofu wished that Chandra himself would be on the
flight for the simple reason that he alone fully understood the intricacies
and enigmas of the 9000-Series computer, but that was impossible. Doctor
Chandra had been injured in an automobile accident and suffered a fractured
femur only three weeks previously. Kurenai was talented, and he was Chandra's
'favorite son,' (such as the little Indian man could have one), but was
he really up to the challenge of restoring HAL to reliable function? Even
more, was his predeliction for cross-dressing going to cause disharmony
within the rest of the crew?
The sight of Ukyo Kuonji's name made Tofu's heart sink. She had been
one of the original scientists slated for the Discovery Mission, before
she had been replaced at the last moment by Akane Tendo. Authorization
had come from the Director of the NCA himself, Soun Tendo, in a tragic
drama the details of which were only revealed after three crew members
were killed by the deranged HAL-9000. Soun had commited suicide shortly
after contact was lost with the ship, and before he could be made to
answer for his tampering with HAL's programming. If Ukyo had shipped
with Discovery instead of Akane, would the tragedy have happened?
The Chinese crew were mostly enigmas. The data provided by the CIA was
sketchy at best in some parts. The best he had to go on was that they had
been selected through a process that put Cologne's chop very close to the
top of the chain of command.
Shampoo he remembered only as Cologne's young great-granddaughter.
He didn't doubt her competence, but she seemed very young to be in such a
position of authority. She was indeed orbital flight rated at an early age,
and had a total of thirty trips as a space shuttle pilot plus three
trans-lunar hops under her belt.
Mousse was supposed to be a top notch engineer and gadgeteer. He
remembered the intense young man's presentation at the IAF Congress of '06,
and was very impressed. He was also a rarity in the space community: being
the only astronaut cleared for spaceflights after receiving corrective laser
surgery for his atrociously poor eyesight. The CIA theory said his expertise
with the new plasma drive was responsible for the unprecedented waiver.
The two medical staff, Pink and Link, graduates of the Zhong-Shan
Medical University in Canton, were believed to be quite capable. Pink had
also been a research fellow at the Olin Teague Medical Center in Houston,
studying the more advanced American hibernation systems -an area in which
the Chinese were believed to be sorely lacking in knowledge and experience.
Tofu decided his only concerns with them would be telling the twins apart
-and getting over their uncanny resemblance to Akane Tendo.
Only Doctor Gai'do was very familiar to him. He was China's greatest
authority on computers and artificial intelligence, and if political
tensions between the United States and China hadn't been as strained as
they were over the last decade, he could have easily seen the man plotting
with Doctor Chandra on bigger and better thinking machines.
The Tsien's commander, Herb Musk, worried him. He alone was not a
Cologne appointee. The CIA had thoughtfully provided a special brief on him,
and Tofu did not like what he saw. The man was a career officer in the
People's Liberation Army (Navy), and had been part of numerous questionable
activities in space on Beijing's behalf. Cologne might be playing straight
with him, but Tofu wasn't so sure Beijing, through Herb, would as well.
That was probably the reason for directive #9 and its all-caps emphasis.

CHAPTER TWO
12:33 UMT, May 8, 2010.
PLA(N) Spacecraft Tsien.
Earth-Luna Lagrange Point, Earth Orbit.

Doctor Tofu floated aboard the People's Liberation Army (Navy)
Spacecraft Tsien with Ranko, Tatewaki, Tsubasa, and Ukyo in tow. The NCA
astronauts exited the airlock and were greeted by an attractive young
Chinese woman with long purple hair that drifted behind her in a most
entrancing manner in free-fall.
"Ni hao!" she welcomed them. "You most welcome aboard Tsien."
Her English wasn't great, but then Tofu's Chinese was worse.
"You must be Shampoo," Tofu said to her. "You probably don't remember
me."
"I remember Doctor Tofu Ono!" Shampoo replied cheerfully. "It honor
to share flight with such distinguished person. Great-grandmother have
very much respect for you. I show you now to quarters. We very busy with
departure countdown."
"Lead on, o lovely blossom," Tatewaki said gallantly, cutting Tofu off.
Ranko nudged him in the ribs as she passed him.
"Haven't been on board five minutes and you're already hitting on
someone, eh, Kuno-baby?"
"Certainly not," Tatewaki protested stiffly. "Know that I only have
eyes for thee, my pig-tailed temptress."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ranko said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Look, just get a move on, you big jackass," Ukyo scowled. "The faster
we're in hibernation, the faster I can stop listening to you."
Tofu sighed. Hibernation or not, it was going to be a looonnng flight.
A man with hair nearly as long as Shampoo's floated in. His handsome
yet slightly feminine face was soured by an imperious glower. Rapid flicks
of his eyes assessed the NCA crew in an instant. Even without the CIA
photos, Tofu knew this had to be Herb.
"I see you have finally come aboard," he noted in flawless English.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Tofu replied.
"Of course," Herb said with obvious detachment. "You'll forgive my
rudeness, but my crew has many preparations to make before we leave Earth
orbit. I would request that you stow your possessions quickly and stay
clear of my crew as they work."
Tofu wasn't exactly expecting the red carpet treatment, but this was
even colder than he feared.
"Certainly, Commander."
Herb gave them another imperious look, then floated up a deck hatch to
the Bridge.
"Please don't tell me we have to put up with that jerk for the rest of
the flight," Ranko muttered.
"No kidding," Ukyo quietly added.
"Indeed," Kuno agreed. "Commander Herb is possessed of a most rancorous
and ill-humored temperament. Methinks there shall be more than unkind words
exchanged shouldst he presume too much upon the Blue Thunder of Clavius
Base."
Tofu gave him a hard look.
"Don't start anything with him, Kuno. This is supposed to be a
diplomatic mission as much as a salvage operation."
Kuno scowled. "Fie... Very well then; though to see such a pompous
knave receive a justly deserved comeuppance wouldst make mine heart
well gladdened."
Shampoo smiled a little too warmly for them to make up for the cold
reception given by Herb, and gestured that they follow her.

* * *

Ship's Engineer Mousse was taking a desperately needed lavatory break
in the ship's head. The head, like the rest of the crew habitat, was part
of a centrifuge that spun to provide a semblance of gravity close to that
found on the surface of the moon. The NCA crew was onboard now, and it was
just a matter of time before one of them would be pressing him with
questions about the revolutionary new plasma drive dubbed SAFFRON-PHOENIX,
or simply Saffron aboard ship.
He didn't mind showing off, as he was one of only three people in the
world qualified to operate and maintain the drive as Engineer, but he also
had a bit of a squirrel bladder. It was best to take care of business before
one took care of business.
One of the female NCA astronauts entered. Planetside such an event
would have been an embarassingly awkward moment, but this was space travel,
and the silly gender mores had gone by the wayside -replaced by the simple
realities of space travel: close quarters, no privacy, and no spare mass
or volume for separate facilities. She was sort of pretty, Mousse decided,
(even though his eyesight wasn't anywhere near perfect, despite the surgery),
with long brown-blonde hair and eyelashes that batted coquettishly.
She also walked over to the standup stall and did her business.
Mousse watched with horrid fascination as she did so. When she was
finished, she shook twice, winked at him over her shoulder, and in a
voice far too deep to be feminine asked, "how's it hanging, big guy?"
Mousse blinked a few times in shock as Dr. Tsubasa Kurenai left the
head with a chuckle.

* * *

Shampoo showed Ranko and Ukyo to their quarters, which they would
share with her when they awoke in Io orbit. They began to stow their meager
personal effects and minor equipment. She pointed across the passageway for
Tofu and Tatewaki. Tsubasa had excused himself to take care of personal
business in the ship's head.
Tofu noted with dismay that the quarters he would share with Tatewaki
Kuno and Doctor Kurenai was filled with crates of perishables. Kuno began
to build up to one of his trademark tirades of injustices wrought when the
chubby middle aged face of Doctor Gai'do appeared.
"Ohhhh," he said solemly. "Very tragic this. Very tragic indeed. Not
to worry though, sirs; we eat our way through this while you hibernate."
"Doctor Gai'do!" Tofu cried. "I'd hoped to get a chance to talk before
we found our way to the freezers."
"It always pleasure, Doctor Ono," Gai'do returned. "Though you may not
get chance to talk. Pink is looking for you."
Tofu grimaced. "I suppose we should check in with the ship's medical
officer, then."
Gai'do nodded. "I show you way. Follow please, sirs."
The portly computer specialist floated through an airtight door to the
the centrifuge axis, made a deft bounce off the padded bulkhead, and
zipped sidelong into the sick bay. Tofu and Tatewaki bumbled their way
behind. Moving aboard the cramped Chinese spacecraft was going to take
some getting used to after the comparative luxury of American long duration
spaceships.
Pink and Link drifted in free-fall as they floated in. With their
close cropped hair and matching olive jumpsuits it was difficult to tell
them apart. Only when Pink turned her face towards them did Tofu notice the
little pink ribbon bow she kept in her hair. Link had a similar one in blue.
Tofu saw the row of American made ECSU-11 hibernaculums set in place on
the deck in a chamber beyond the sick bay. They were a hasty addition to
the ship for the sake of the NCA crew, at the cost of several tons of
scientific gear and the displacement of rations into the crew quarters.
Fortunately the experiments preempted were fairly minor, and could be made
up on future flights. The human race wasn't going to forsake future
exploration just because there had been a tragic accident at one time.
"Ah good. I expecting you sooner," Pink said.
"You did receive our records from Teague, correct?" Tofu asked.
"Ah yes. I regret to say that our own Intelligence people received
before we did. I sure you have similar problems in some matters."
Tofu nodded. "It seems like there isn't a great deal of trust between
our respective governments."
Link floated over with a sphygmomanometer and slipped it over Tatewaki's
bicep. "That have no place here," she said, squeezing the bulb to take a
blood pressure reading. "We astronauts and scientists first, Chinese and
Americans second."
Tofu smiled. "It's a relief to hear that from you."
"We recognize benefit of having you on board," Pink added. "No telling
what happen if HAL-9000 is no controllable."
She consulted the display over her head and prepared an injection. She
floated over to Kuno and placed the pneumatic hypodermic over his shoulder.
"No move," she admonished. "I give pre-hibernation vitamin injection."
Kuno stoically gripped the overhead and floated motionlessly.
The hypo made a spitting sound, and Pink withdrew it.
"There observation deck close by; come back in two hours to start
hibernation procedure. Doctor Gai'do show you way."
"Methinks a last fond look at lovely mother Earth would indeed be
wanting in my heart," he agreed. He began to float away with Gai'do.
Link was finishing Tofu's blood pressure reading when Pink turned to
him.
"You ready?" she asked.
Tofu nodded.
Pink injected him, and he drifted off to follow Kuno and Gai'do.
When he was gone, she set her watch alarm to sound in fifteen minutes
time.
"<They'll be quite upset when they wake up,>" Link said to her sister.
"<They'll understand,>" Pink replied. "<Besides, the order comes from
Commander Herb. The Americans are just getting in the way of the launch
preparations right now. Better to start the hibernation process as soon as
practical.>"
Link nodded in reluctant agreement.
"<I'll ask Shampoo to bring the others in for their injections.>"

Tofu wasn't sure if it was the sensation of free-fall or the impromptu
champagne party the shuttle crew had thrown for them prior to docking with
the Tsien, but he was certainly feeling euphoric. Tatewaki Kuno stared
glassy-eyed out of the viewport. As Tofu floated closer, he saw a thin
streamer of saliva trailing from the man's mouth and drifting away in the
direction of compartment's ventilation flow.
His own awareness drifted for a moment, snapping back into sharp focus
with the sudden thumping sound next to him. Tatewaki Kuno made a slow motion
rebound across the small compartment as his forehead bounced off the viewport.
His eyes were closed and his face an expressionless mask.
His head swam as he tried to focus his eyes on the face of his watch.
**Has it been two hours yet? I feel very cold. Time to find Doctor Pink...**
Gai'do drifted back into the room and collected Tatewaki Kuno in his
arms. Pink and Link took the nearly unconscious body of Tofu Ono as he
began to spin slowly in free fall. Tofu's last sight was that of Pink's
pretty oval face looking down at him.
Then his breathing stopped.

CHAPTER THREE
08:15 UMT, November 16, 2010.
PLA(N) Spacecraft Tsien,
within eight million kilometers of Jupiter.

"Doctor Tofu, is you okay?" Shampoo asked with a warm smile.
Tofu struggled to sit up, but was held down by either Pink or Link.
He wasn't sure which, they were both rather fuzzy at the moment. He also
wasn't sure where he was, or even when.
"Lie still, doctor. Wait for electrolytes to reestablish equilibrium,"
Pink said. At least he thought it was Pink. Electrolytes... That meant
he was recovering from hibernation. He gave Pink an anxious look.
"How you feel?" she asked in return.
"Hungry," Tofu managed.
"That good indication," Pink replied. "We see about food in little
while."
"Are we there yet?" Tofu asked hoarsely. He tried to look around
for the other members of his crew. He caught a glimpse of Ranko's flaming
red pig-tail settled over a pearly white shoulder in the hibernaculum next
to his. Her face was serene and luminous even in the sleep of near death.
"No," Shampoo replied. "We still eight million kilometers from Jupiter.
Still have aerobraking maneuver to perform."
Tofu tried to let this sink through his fuzzy skull.
"Then why...?"
"NCA want to send you transmission. It urgent. They say revive early."
Tofu tried to sit up again with a bit more success.
"When?"
Shampoo helped him throw his legs over the side of the hibernaculum.
She began rubbing them with her deliciously warm hands to restore
circulation. "As soon as you transmit message saying you awake," she
replied.
His brain was still on ice. **What could they possibly have to say
that can't wait until Jupiter?**

He had his answer in under two hours, or the delay time caused by
sluggard electromagnetic waves traveling across the distance from Jupiter
to Earth and back. He used the time to recover from hibernation. It wasn't
nearly enough.
The transmission was heavily encoded using the product of two hundred-
digit prime numbers as the encryption key. Whatever it was, the NCA didn't
want the Chinese reading it for about sixty-thousand years. That worried
him.
Gai'do had been true to his word, the compartment he would call home
for the next hundred odd days was clear of the provisions that had been
stacked up deck to overhead and bulkhead to bulkhead. Even though Kuno
and Doctor Kurenai were still in hibernation, he found the space to be
anything but spacious. There was a fold down desk and study station, but
to set it up meant that anyone sleeping in the middle rack of the triple
bed set would be almost trapped. He quickly tranferred his effects to
the top rack upon noticing this.
Within a triple locked and hermetically sealed case was the decryption
device. Tofu entered the combinations in sequence, and noted that the
external and internal seals were intact -they would change color within five
minutes of being broken, so there really was no chance of the Chinese
rifling through his case undetected while he slept in hibernation. The
device itself was a laptop computer. The key had been programmed into its
memory in advance.
He closed the privacy curtain that separated the compartment from
the passageway outside. That was the best he could do for external security.
The laptop came to life as the case was opened, and he presented his eye
to the sensor for authentication. Once that was satisfied, he slipped the
data disc with his message into the drive.
The laptop chugged away at the message for a few minutes before putting
it up on the gas-plasma display.

TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unauthorized dissemination of this message or its contents is in violation
of the National Security Act of 21 May 1999; 20CFR19, sec 9, para 14-22;
and punishable by life imprisonment and minimum fine of $1,000,000. Use all
means to prevent accidental disclosure or transmittal to foreign governments.
Destroy this message by shredding and incineration at the first opportunity
in accordance with CMS-1 and UNSECCOM Directive 02/311-2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

MSG: 20103201155Z TOPSECRET/NOFORN
FM: Director, Central Intelligence Agency.
TO: Dr. Tofu Ono, Ph.D., NCA-89211-C (Reserve)
CC: NCA, NSA, DOS.
VIA: NCADEEPSPACOMMCEN TERRA-ONE.
RE: URGENT MISSION ADVISORY.
<REFERENCES>
A. Executive Order 10/057-3 TOPSECRET/NOFORN
B. Msg 20101231200Z TOPSECRET/NOFORN
C. CIA Brief 10/118 TOPSECRET/NOFORN
D. Executive Order 10/059-1 UNCLAS/--

1. RECENT INVESTIGATION OF WORLD COURT JUDICIARY REVEALS UNCONFIRMED P.R.C.
INTENTION TO SEIZE U.S.S. DISCOVERY AS A DERELICT IN CONTRAVENTION OF THE
AGREEMENT WITH THE UNITED STATES DATED 10/059 (Ref. D refers).

2. YOU ARE DIRECTED TO TAKE WHATEVER COVERT DISCRETIONARY MEASURES NECESSARY
TO ENSURE SAFETY OF NCA PERSONNEL AND UNITED STATES PROPERTY. DUE TO THE
UNCONFIRMED NATURE OF THIS ADVISORY, YOU ARE TO TAKE NO OVERT ACTION THAT
WILL BRING DISCREDIT UPON THE UNITED STATES.

3. MAKE NO ATTEMPT TO CONFRONT P.R.C. PERSONNEL UNLESS NECESSARY TO FULFILL
OBJECTIVE #2 ABOVE.

4. YOU MAY BE REQUIRED TO ABANDON PLA(N) SPACECRAFT TSIEN AND MAKE EARTH
RETURN ORBIT VIA U.S.S. DISCOVERY. SURVEY AND REPAIR OF LIFE-SUPPORT,
PROPULSION, AND HIBERNATION SYSTEMS TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER ALL ELSE
-INCLUDING HAL-9000 SYSTEMS; THE RESTORATION OF WHICH MAY CATALYZE P.R.C.
INTENTIONS TO SEIZE U.S.S. DISCOVERY.

5. FURTHER ADVISORY MESSAGES WILL FOLLOW AS INVESTIGATION PROCEEDS. BEST
OF LUCK TO YOU AND YOUR FINE CREW. -VADM J.L. WALLACH SENDS.

--END MSG--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET--TOPSECRET

Tofu closed down the terminal and rubbed his temples vigorously. This
was *not* something he needed to hear from Earth so soon after coming out
of a months long hibernation. He needed to think, but his fuzzy brain
mutinied on the spot.
**If it is true,** he managed to ponder. **Why not just kill us in
hibernation and then make up some story about an accident or malfunction?
Why wait until we are within spitting distance of Jupiter?**
He lay back on his rack and wrapped the stabilizing netting around
himself.
**Of course they *do* need us to put HAL and the ship's systems back
together,** he realized. Thinking was apparently getting his drug and cold-
addled brain back on track. **If they were going to try something, they'd
wait until the Discovery was ready to go.**
He thought of Shampoo, Gai'do, and Pink and Link. He couldn't believe
that any of them were capable of murder or piracy. Mousse was an unknown.
If the CIA background on Commander Herb was accurate, he was a likely
candidate -plus he enjoyed sole access to the ship's encrypted communications
equipment, something that the supposed Communications Officer Shampoo wasn't
privy to.
Herb was just one man. It would take the entire Tsien crew's support
to steal the Discovery and neutralize the NCA crew. Cologne had been too
careful in selecting the rest of them.
He let out a long sigh.
**I just don't believe it. Cologne would not do this to me if she
had the slightest fear that it was possible.**
The message had to be a false alarm. The CIA's spooks had been wrong
about things many times before, after all.
Another thought occured to him.
What if he was being set up by his own government?
He had been as surprised as Koucho when the Secretary of State had
called to say they would back the mission. It was no secret that the sitting
President had no love for China. The President's insistance that he head
the mission was also strange. He was qualified, sure -at leading a salvage
and exploration mission. Babysitting the Chinese? There were astronauts in
the NCA with military backgrounds; people who were more than qualified for
that sort of mission.
Were they trying to make him paranoid, knowing that he had absolutely
no training to deal with such a situation -just so he would screw up and
cause an incident that lead to a war the President secretly wanted?
**No...** he sighed inwardly. **That is just TOO crazy, even for them.**
Wasn't it?
He decided to take a nap. Hibernation was making his brain turn logic
somersaults that he wasn't ready for.

* * *

PLA(N) Spacecraft Tsien rushed onwards to Jupiter. With the passing of
the four outermost satellites Sinope, Pasiphae, Ananke, and Carme, the ship
officially entered the Jovian neighborhood. The ship's cameras and other
sensors recorded what they could, but the reality was that these four hunks
of rock were utterly unremarkable.
Because Doctor Tofu had been revived sooner than planned, he found
himself the only NCA astronaut at the evening meal aboard Tsien. It was
Shampoo's turn to cook, he was told, although 'cook' was probably reading
more into it than the term would indicate. The ship's meals were planned
out long before they had left Earth orbit, and everything was prepackaged.
All one had to do was pop a meal into the microwave, and dinner was served.
Despite this, Shampoo seemed to have taken some liberties with the
preparation. The sterile plastic trays he had been expecting were replaced
with china plates, cups, and bowls. Tsien's pilot bounced happily around
the table in one-sixth gravity, passing out portions of the meal to everyone
before setting the remainder of the food in the center of the table.
Although she would never admit to deviating from the meal plan, it
was clear that she had taken matters into her own hands. Her stir fried rice
was far better than anything Tofu had ever experienced on a translunar
flight. The lemon chicken and snow peas were an actual delight!
He watched Mousse loft a pork siu mai dumpling into the air over his
head and let it drift lazily down into his open mouth. Such antics only
encouraged the others. Gai'do made a point of leaving his chopsticks hanging
in midair as he sipped from his tea, finishing just in time to catch his
them before they touched down on the table.
Only Herb refrained. Tofu noted that while he did not indulge, he also
did not object to such behavior. His strained dignity in the midst of such
clowning around would have been humorous if Tofu actually had the courage
to laugh out loud at the man. Something inside told him to hold his tongue
-if he wanted to keep it where it belonged.
"So, Doctor Tofu, what you think we find when we reach Discovery?"
Gai'do asked him.
Tofu was glad to have a line of conversation, and so he turned to the
portly computer specialist and shrugged.
"I really have no idea. There are so many possibilities."
"What you like most to find?" Gai'do pressed. It seemed good-natured,
but in the light of his most recent communiqué from Houston, Tofu was
slightly suspicious.
"Well," he began. "I would like to find the Discovery intact and in
good condition. I'd like to find that HAL's malfunction can be resolved
quickly." He paused for a moment as a foolish hope welled within him.
"Most of all I'd like to find that Commander Saotome and Akane Tendo have
survived all this time and are waiting for us."
"Do you really consider that a likelihood?" Herb asked suddenly.
Tofu bit his lip. "No. Not really. The early model hibernaculums used
on the Discovery did not possess very sophisticated automated control
systems. If an unforeseen abnormal condition arose, they were incapable of
devising a remedy. This wasn't considered much of a safety problem, as they
were to be monitored by the very capable ship's HAL-9000, or even by ground
control 9000 units in an emergency."
"But that has proven impossible," Mousse observed.
"Correct," Tofu conceded. "The ship's HAL-9000 became deranged, and
shortly after it was neutralized by Commander Saotome, all communications
with the ship were lost. We don't know what happened to them. Even if they
did manage to put themselves into hibernation, without HAL-9000 supervision
the control systems have been proven through simulations back on Earth as
having a projected 100% failure rate after nine years. Even if they didn't
fail, if something happened to the ship's power system, the hibernaculums'
emergency batteries were only rated for the seven years it was projected
for the Discovery II to come and recover them."
"So there is good reason to believe that the ship is uninhabited,"
Herb concluded. Tofu suppressed a shudder at the possible implications of
the commander's words.
"Unfortunately so," Tofu admitted.
"We have speculation on why HAL-9000 became deranged," Gai'do said.
"Can you confirm that high-level programming conflict cause malfunction?"
"As best we can determine, yes," Tofu answered slowly. He refrained
from elaborating on the nature of the conflict, which was both too tragic
and too bizarre to readily accept without the level of involvement in the
mission that men like himself had. "We won't find out the truth until we
can look at HAL's memory banks."
The table went silent.
"We find more cheerful thing to talk about, okay?" Shampoo asked.
"Like the aerobraking maneuver?" Mousse asked archly in English for
Tofu's benefit.
"That no comfort either," Shampoo replied. "Shampoo glad when it over."
"It will be, soon enough," Herb told them. "There are only four more
hours before we reach atmospheric interface."
He stood up from the table, a sign that the meal was over. The others
stood as well, with Tofu last of all.
"We have many preparations to make for the aerobraking maneuver," Herb
said to them. "I want the ship ready by t-minus sixty minutes. That is all."
He left them standing at the table, as each person looked at his
fellows with a mixture of anticipation and dread.

* * *

Tofu watched Shampoo adjust the swing-arm display over her station as
computer voices spoke in sing-song Chinese. Herb sat above and behind
Shampoo's station, his trademark imperious glower on his taciturn face.
Mousse took his position at the Engineering repeater console as Gai'do and
the twins went to their quarters to wait out the maneuver.
There was tension in the air, no mistake about that, but also a cool
professionalism that Tofu found comforting. The aerobrake maneuver had
never been attempted on a spacecraft as large or as swift as Tsien, and
there were no expressed guarentees. Indeed, if assumptions of Jupiter's
atmospheric composition were incorrect, they could find themselves smashed
flat or incinerated in a millisecond.
"<Standing by to sever telemetry feeds and primary voice/data links;
T-minus one minute and counting,>" Shampoo announced.
"<Very well,>" Herb acknowledged.
Tsien continued to fall towards Jupiter, whose angry reddish mass
dominated the viewports and telescope monitors with a size that defied
pitiful human concepts of scale and grandeur.
"<Releasing lock seals on aerobrake elements one through six,>" Shampoo
announced, flipping open a bank of red safety covers. "<Severing telemetry
feeds and primary voice/data links.>" She flipped another bank of switches
close by. "<Main Antenna position indicates intermediate; S-band and
telemetry aerial positions indicate intermediate...>"
Shampoo watched the colored lights on her panel shift from amber
to red. "<S-band and telemetry aerial positions indicate stowed and
locked.>" Another group of lights remained amber, causing her to frown.
"<Main Antenna position continues to indicate intermediate.>"
Herb leaned over her shoulder. "<Try cycling the array open and shut,
that might work it loose.>"
Shampoo did so. The Main Antenna would not indicate stowed and locked.
"<We're running out of time, we have to deploy the aerobrakes,>" Herb
said. "<Either the position indicators have malfunctioned or the antenna
won't retract all the way. We can hope it's the former and not the latter.>"
"<I can't see it on my exterior cameras,>" Mousse announced. "<It's
probably an indication problem.>"
"<Deploy the aerobrake shields,>" Herb ordered Shampoo. The purple-
haired woman did so. More lights shifted from red to amber to green.
"<Aerobrake shield elements one through six are locked in position,>"
Shampoo announced. "<Estimated time to Jupiter interface ten minutes and
counting. Engaging viewport safety shields.>"
Heavy steel shutters locked in place over the viewports, cutting off
the reflected light of Jupiter ahead of them. The bridge was now dark save
for the glow of computer monitors and various indicator lights. Their
position versus Jupiter was extrapolated on a simulation monitor near Tofu's
acceleration couch. Arabic numbers ticked off as Chinese characters
scrolled along the edge of the display.
"<Jupiter atmospheric interface estimated in one minute,>" Shampoo
announced. "<All control systems showing green at this time. Orbit analysis
indicates proper aerobraking trajectory.>"
Mousse turned from his Engineering console to give Shampoo a smile.
Shampoo's eyes flashed in the briefest response before she announced the
final data corrections prior to interface.
Tofu found himself tightening up in his acceleration couch. He reminded
himself once again that aerobraking had been done with small probes, but
never anything as massive or swift as Tsien. If Jupiter's atmosphere
contained any surprises in composition or density, they could well prove
fatal. There was also the fact that those probes had sampled less than a
billionth of a percent of Jupiter's atmosphere. Anything was possible.
**No need to worry,** he told himself. **You'll never even know what
hit you.**
"<Atmospheric interface in ten seconds,>" Shampoo announced. "Nine...
Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three...>"
A thin whistling sound filled the bridge. The ship gave a barely
perceptible jerk. Fingers of gravity began to pluck lightly at them, making
the forward bulkhead the floor.
"Aiiiyaaaa..." Shampoo gasped as the thin scream rose to a roar of
incandescent hydrogen. Tsien began to vibrate as it passed through the
fringes of Jupiter's atmosphere.
Herb's expression was calm. He barely seemed to notice as the spacecraft
around him plowed through the tops of clouds the size of continents at over
a hundred kilometers per second. He glanced at one of his displays.
"<Trajectory stable to point zero one milliradians,>" he declared in
a voice barely audible over the groan of the hull and the wash of plasma
that sheathed the ship.
A massive jolt shook the Tsien, nearly stopping Tofu's heart cold.
The lights flicked out and alarms chirped stridently for a moment before
returning. He could clearly see the ashen expression of terror on Shampoo's
face as she returned to her instruments.
"<Jovian thunderstorm below us,>" Herb shouted.
"<Charge instabilities building in SAFFRON,>" Mousse announced.
"<Ionization rates are higher than expected.>"
"<Save your concern,>" Herb replied. "<We can degauss the engines
prior to the transfer burn.>"
Tsien continued its downhill run against Jupiter, surrendering its
velocity to the giant planet as it tore a vast arc across the hellish
panorama of hydrogen storms and helium squalls. A plume of incandescence
trailed behind the spacecraft as it crossed the terminator into the Jovian
night, lighting the darkness with brilliant auroral effects larger than the
planet Earth.
The roar became absolutely deafening. The compartment was nearly
broiling with radiant heat beyond the capacity of the ventilation cooling
system to manage. Tofu's eyes fixed upon the situation display directly in
front of him as the burden of gravity became too great to bear. How much
longer did they have to go through this?
"<Approaching perijove,>" Shampoo cried.
Seconds later the scream began to die away. The ship's trembling
abated. They were "rising" in relation to Jupiter's atmosphere, leaving the
scant fringes for open space. With luck they had traded just enough velocity
to put them on an intercept course with Io. From there it would be a simple
insertion burn to put them into orbit. If they were out of luck, they had
lost too much velocity, and would begin to fall back towards Jupiter. There
would be no rising from such a fall.
Silenced reigned on the bridge as Herb consulted his computers.
"<Ship's trajectory correct to one milliradian,>" he announced calmly.
"<We have entered into a classic Hohmann orbit. Estimated time to Io orbital
insertion burn: one day, nineteen hours, six minutes. First midcourse
correction burn to follow in three hours, twenty minutes.>"
Tofu realized that he was holding his breath. He let it out in a gasp
of relief. Shampoo sank into her acceleration couch. Mousse let his head
fall back against his shoulders. They had succeeded.
Jupiter had just captured another satellite; PLA(N) Tsien.

* * *

"If ever there was a sight more beholden to mine eyes, it is thee, my
pig-tailed goddess."
Ranko Saotome scowled and tried to find the source of the familiar
voice. Tatewaki Kuno floated in free-fall nearby, dressed only in the skimpy
drab green gown of a hibernaut. He was wired by inductive sensors to a
heart-lung monitor under the supervision of Pink.
"I wish I could say the same about you, Kuno-baby," she managed.
Link helped her to sit up in her hibernaculum.
"You need not spend thy slight reserve of strength in doting observance
of thy affection for me, pig-tailed one. The Blue Thunder knows full well
the measure of thy love," he replied.
"I'm sure you do," Ranko muttered. Link began to wire her body up in
the same manner as Kuno.
"How you feel?" Pink asked.
Ranko thought about this for a moment.
"Like crap, but I guess that's to be expected. Are we there yet?"
Link nodded. "Yes. Is good you miss aerobraking."
Ranko blinked twice. "I dunno, it might have been fun."
"Better that you sleep through it," Pink replied.
Ukyo and Tsubasa floated in. Apparently they had been the first to
be revived, for they were already dressed in blue NCA coveralls and looked
slightly better than half dead. Tsubasa had declined from dressing in drag
just yet, Ranko noticed. She wondered how long that would last.
"They said the last one up was a rotten egg," Ukyo joked. "That must
mean you."
Ranko stuck her tongue out in reply. "I don't care about that. Has the
Discovery been found yet?"
"Not yet," Tsubasa answered. "But we're still climbing away from
Jupiter towards Io. It's at least sixteen hours before we can really pick
anything out of the background noise of Jupiter with the radar, so you'll
have time to recover a little bit before we enter orbit."
Ranko closed her eyes.
**Just hold on a little longer, big brother...**

* * *

The NCA astronauts held a brief council in the dining area while the
Tsien crew made the last preparations for the orbital insertion burn. All
except Tofu sipped on fruit punch flavored drinks that helped to restore
their bodies' salt and mineral balances. Ranko looked particularly crabby
as she sat in her chair. Or perhaps she was just too anxious.
Tofu decided not to tell them just yet of his warning from Earth. Not
until the Chinese gave some hint that it might be true. Until they actually
reached the Discovery and assessed the damages, there was really nothing
they could do anyway.
He had more important matters to discuss.
"The reason for Discovery's eccentric orbit is most likely caused
by its orbital path around Io. A 'flux tube' of electrons passes from Io
to Jupiter as it intersects the bands of the Jovian radiation belts. The
strength of this flux tube was believed to be random and fairly minor until
recently, but we've already detected some fairly massive outbursts with
Tsien's magnetometers."
He gestured to a computer simulation on a small display.
"Apparently what is happening is that Discovery passes through the
flux tube during its forty minute orbit of Io. Because the strength of
the flux tube varies at any given moment, eddy currents generated by
the ship's hull also vary. The whole arrangement is like a giant inductive
motor, sometimes pushing Discovery closer to Io, sometimes pulling it away
towards Jupiter, sometimes even holding it in place for a short while. The
net effect is that the orbit is no longer stable, and Io's gravity is slowly
drawing the ship towards it.
"Until we can regain control of Discovery and modify her orbit to a
polar one, we have to beware of the flux tube during EVA. Radiation levels
in the tube are significantly higher than the surrounding space, and you've
all been briefed about how hot it is near Jupiter."
Ranko took this last part to heart. It would be herself and the
Chinese engineer, Mousse, who first went out into space to link up with
the Discovery and board her.
Mousse was a likeable enough fellow, and certainly cute, but also
apparently painfully in love with the ship's pilot, Shampoo -a fact that was
obvious to Ranko with only a few hours of consciousness aboard Tsien. He
tended to keep his head in the clouds around her. Ranko hoped he could get
himself together enough to do some good when they boarded Discovery.

CHAPTER FOUR
09:11 UMT, November 18, 2010
The orbit of the Jovian moon Io.

Tsien's wide aperture radar located Discovery long before the ship's
telescopes did. The ghosty green images on the display were confusing, as
the ship seemed to be changing size and position erratically. It wasn't
until Ukyo locked onto the spacecraft with the Tsien's 50cm telescope that
the reasons for this became apparent.
Discovery was slowly rotating end over end like a drum majorette's
baton. The formerly white hull was now a dull yellow from years of sulfur
buildup thanks to the continuous eruptions from the nearby hell-world of Io.
Her lights were dark, and she answered no radio hails from Tsien. She
appeared for all intents and purposes to be a derelict in space.
"This rotation, could it have been a centrifuge malfunction?" Mousse
asked as they stared at the images on the 50cm monitor.
"I think so," Ranko answered. "A loss of power to the motor, or a motor
failure itself would cause the centrifuge to slow down by friction, but
because momentum must be conserved, the angular momentum of the centrifuge
would be transferred to the ship itself. It had to be gradual; any sudden
cessation would have torn the ship apart."
"I can't see any lights," Ukyo said quietly. "There must not be any
power left..." She left all that her statement entailed hanging silently
before them.
"Not so fast, Ukyo," Ranko retorted. "I'm not going to give up hope
just yet. If they went into hibernation, it would only make sense to shut
everything down to conserve power."
Tofu laid a hand on Ranko's shoulder. "I think we need to reiterate
the fact that the survival of Ranma and Akane are highly unlikely, Ranko.
We need to remain objective about this, and do the job we came to do." He
regarded the rest of them. "That goes for all of us."
Herb gave orders over the ship's intercom circuit to prepare for
approach. Shampoo deftly engaged the Tsien's attitude thrusters to bring
them within one hundred meters. They dared no closer until they could
correct Discovery's spin and could ensure no further threats to the Tsien.

* * *

Down in Tsien's Number One Airlock, Ranko Saotome and Mousse were
suited up and ready to go. Both carried 'broomsticks,' those wonderful
tools born of spaceworkers' ingenuity. Part hook, part thruster, and part
brake, the device made EVA much easier than using a bulky backpack
manuevering unit. The throbbing of the airlock pumps was a dull sound
emanating through their boots as the chamber cycled the air out.
A green light flicked on, and Ranko stabbed at the 'open' button.
The airlock door slid open to reveal the hundred meter length of Discovery
tumbling a football field away across the black void of space. Io loomed
beyond, its sulfurous surface baleful and glaring with yellow intensity.
They could see vast lakes of fire seething upon its pocked and tortured
skin. The characteristic yellow-orange glow of elemental sodium mingled
with an electric blue of excited plasma in the auroral discharges that
raged just over the other side of the hellish world. Jupiter was beyond Io,
an ominous presence lording itself over both its moon and the tiny
spacecraft that men had made.
There was silence now, save for the sound of their own breathing and
the continuous soft crackle and hiss of Jupiter over the radio channels.
Ranko checked her broomstick's operation, and then gave herself a hard
shove off Tsien's hull towards Discovery. Mousse followed at a respectful
distance.
As she neared the tumbling mass of Discovery near the Main Antenna
mount and the center of rotation, Ranko extended her broomstick to its
full length of six meters. She gripped the device tightly as it touched
down against the hull, and a heavy duty spring mechanism began to absorb
the force of her impact in a slow steady deceleration. She was practically
at rest when the broomstick was fully compressed, allowing her to reach out
to a handhold and grab onto the ship. Mousse repeated her maneuver with as
much ease.
"We have contact with the hull. So far there are no obvious signs of
damage," Ranko reported.
"No waste time getting inside," Link advised. "You only have twenty
minutes before our orbit brings us around to Jupiter side of Io. I no need
tell you what few quintillion coulombs of current moving down flux tube to
Jupiter will do to you."
"Make me look like a hot dog that spent too much time in the
microwave?" Ranko half joked.
"You fortunate meet such kind end," Link intoned.
"I get the idea," Ranko said dourly. She tugged on Mousse's suit
sleeve. "Come on, Mousse."
The Chinese man followed her as they pulled themselves towards the
spherical habitation module forty meters distant. As they made their way
along the hull, the spinning motion of the ship was beginning to approximate
gravity. Ranko found it was rather like climbing down a ladder face first.
Still, she'd prefer that uncomfortable experience to not seeing where she
was going. There were projections on the hull that could easily tear a
pressure suit if one wasn't careful and observant.
They reached the airlock door with six minutes to spare. Ranko
flipped open the access panel door, sending a fine yellow haze of sulfur
particles drifting about them. There was at least a millimeter of the stuff
built up on the hull, blasted many kilometers into space by the gigaton
detonations of Io's more active volcanoes.
As expected, there was no power to the door's electrohydraulics.
Mousse handed Ranko a torque-driver, which she inserted into the emergency
station. The driver vibrated rapidly in her grasp as it rotated the gearing
mechanism in the airlock door.
A little winded by their efforts, they slipped inside the dark
airlock chamber to catch their breath. Very soon they would enter the flux
tube, and radiation levels outside would climb past fatal very quickly. The
door was much easier to shut from the other side.
They were now surrounded in pitch black silence.
The two of them switched on their suit lights. In the near darkness of
Discovery's airlock, Ranko checked the manual gauges on the inner door.
"I'm showing air pressure," she announced. "About point nine five
atmospheres, so any pressure leakages have to be minor." She checked another
gauge. "There's air in the lock mechanism banks. I'm going to equalize
pressure."
She flipped open another panel in the forward bulkhead and studied
the valves within. It was as she remembered it from the mockups and the
builder's drawings. She had rehearsed this part over and over in simulations,
exercises, even in her dreams. A twist of a valve sent atmosphere flooding
into the airlock, cutting off automatically through a regulator as pressure
equalized with the interior of the ship.
"Airlock equalized," she announced. With the return of air pressure
came the return of sound. She could hear the distant flex and creak of the
hull as the ship tumbled.
Mousse set the torque-driver in place to open the inner door. At
Ranko's nod, he began to open the door. More darkness greeted them. Their
suit lights cast weird shadows in the gloom.
Mousse consulted his suit's sensors.
"It's cold in here. Ambient temperature is minus eighty centigrade."
"Sounds like good polar bear club weather," Ranko remarked.
"Pardon me?"
"It's nothing," Ranko replied. "Just one of the dumber things I've
done in my life."
"Oh."
Ranko stepped through the open airlock door and into the Pod Bay.
Mousse followed behind in silence. What she saw in her suit lights made
her choke back a sob.

There had been a fire here, and judging from the scorched bulkheads
and melted plastic, a bad one.

She caught hold of herself before she lost her emotional control.
Mousse had the portable air sampler, and she nudged him to use it. The
Chinese astronaut set it to work, thrumming noisily as it drew in the
requisite cubic meter of atmosphere for analysis.
"There is evidence of a fire in the pod bay," Ranko announced for
those back on Tsien. "We're taking an atmosphere survey now."
It chirped for attention when the sample was complete. Mousse consulted
the display, which was in Chinese, and so unreadable to Ranko.
"Nitrogen: seventy-eight percent. Oxygen: nineteen point five percent.
Argon: One percent. Carbon Dioxide: one point five percent. Ozone: fifty-
three parts per million. Carbon Monoxide: fifteen parts per million. PCBs:
trace. Hydrogen Chloride: trace. Particulates: trace. Radioactivity: Less
than minimum detectable activity. Oxygen is at the low threshold, and CO2
is high, but the air should be breathable for extended periods of time."
Ranko sighed hopefully. "So whatever happened, someone must have
cleared out the air after the fire."
"Or the automated systems took care of it before they failed," Mousse
observed.
"Shut up," Ranko told him. "I'm trying to keep my hopes up."
"Is that wise? You don't seriously think...?"
Ranko gave Mousse a hard look through her helmet visor. "If there was
any way to survive all these years, my brother would have found it," she
told him matter-of-factly. "Now let's make our way to the centrifuge."
"Shouldn't we check on the Discovery's power plant first?"
"There's time for that later."
Mousse decided that Ranko was going to be impossible to dissuade. She
seemed hell-bent on discovering her brother's fate, and equally hopeful
that he could be found alive. What was going to happen to her when she
learned the awful truth?

They made their way slowly through the lower deck to the ladder well.
The weak artificial gravity generated by Discovery's spin made their transit
awkward and clumsy, as the ship's layout was designed for acceleration
in the opposite direction than they now encountered. More than once they
fond themselves sliding down corridors rather than climbing.
There was more evidence of fire here. Upon closer inspection it
appeared to be smoke damage. Up one level brought them to the middle deck.
All the way aft was the access to the centrifuge. Mousse rather nervously
stepped past the chamber to their right, where HAL slept in disconnection.
Ranko paused for a moment to look through the centrifuge motor access
door deadlight. As she expected, the centrifuge was motionless. She couldn't
see any obvious damage through the small window.
She slipped through the access and into the centrifuge. There was
more smoke damage here, among other things. She could see where small pieces
of equipment and other fittings had been ripped loose when HAL opened the
Pod Bay doors in an attempt to kill the crew. Her heart began to race as
she spied the long row of coffin shaped objects looping around the curved
track of the centrifuge compartment that surrounded her.
She stepped out carefully into the compartment. The Discovery's
faux gravity made the forward bulkhead of the centrifuge the floor. Mousse
followed through, pausing long enough to take another air sample. He
declared it safe as she made her way along the bulkhead storage racks,
fittings, and computer equipment to the hibernaculums.
Like everything else on board, they were covered in a fine greasy
coating of black soot, making it impossible to tell from a glance who they
may have contained. She tried wiping away the soot over the viewing window
of the first hibernaculum. She looked in and saw a white shroud over an
anonymous face.
Once cleaned, the nameplate revealed the occupant:
"Hibiki, Ryoga; NCA-94002-A."
She stepped away from the hibernaculum. It was Ryoga, HAL's first
victim, electrocuted when the computer reenergized a circuit the man had
been lured into examining. They had brought the body back inside the ship
after his death with the intention of preserving his remains in the
hibernaculum until he could be buried on Earth.
The device's lights were dark. There was no power to the unit. She
did not want to know how badly decomposed Hibiki's remains were after all
these years. She especially did not want to get sick inside her helmet.
The next hibernaculum was empty. The nameplate explained the reason.
"Tendo, Kasumi; NCA-95455-A" had never been found after the ship was
evacuated to space.
The third hibernaculum was occupied. Like Ryoga's, Nabiki Tendo's
unit was a sarcophogus, and nothing more. Ranko kept her hibernaculum
sealed shut as well.
"We've found Nabiki Tendo and Ryouga Hibiki," she said over the radio.
"What about the others?" Herb asked unexpectedly.
"Give us a few moments."
The next hibernaculum was Akane Tendo's. It was dark. No lights shone
on the display panel. A thin layer of frost glazed the viewing window. The
face within was pale and still.
"Akane Tendo is here," she said softly.
"Alive?" Tofu asked over the radio.
"I don't think so," Ranko said, voice starting to crack. She didn't
want to check the last hibernaculum. Not now.
Mousse knelt over the unit to examine it. There was a small stethoscope
in a drawer on the opposite side. He plugged it into a jack near the display
and popped his visor open to listen.
"Mousse!" Ranko cried. "Are you crazy? You'll freeze to death!"
Mousse waved her silent as he listened. "This is just a normal winter
night back home in the mountains," he whispered. Wisps of steam streamed
from his nostrils and mouth as he breathed, glazing his helmet visor with
frost.
"I'm getting a pulse," he said.
"Repeat that, Discovery," Herb broke in sternly over the radio.
"<I said I am hearing a pulse through the stethoscope jack plugged into
Akane Tendo's hibernaculum,>" Mousse repeated in Chinese. Then to Ranko he
said, "it is very slow and weak, but it sounds like a normal hibernation
rhythm."
Ranko didn't wait another moment. Ranma Saotome's hibernaculum was
dark and silent as well. She plugged in the unit's stethoscope and lifted
her helmet visor with a hiss. After several agonizing minutes, Mousse
watched as two streams of tears slowly fell from her eyes, threatening to
freeze into tiny saline icicles on her cheeks.
"Yes...?" he asked her softly.
Ranko looked at him through blurring eyes and sobbed.

"He's alive."

CHAPTER FIVE
00:12 UMT, 19 November 2010
aboard the U.S.S. Discovery

"We can't just leave them like this!" Ranko protested.
"You have other priorities," Herb countered. His voice was cold and
hard over the radio.
"Doctor Ono," Ranko pleaded.
"Commander Herb is correct, Ranko," Tofu replied. "I know how much
this means to you, to all of us, but there are more important matters to
resolve. The Discovery needs to be placed in a stable orbit and there
isn't much time to do it."
"Ten days," Shampoo supplied over the radio. "Could change due to
flux tube effects, but for now is ten days before ship crash on Io."
Mousse placed a hand on Ranko's shoulder. "We still have things to
do, Miss Saotome. We should check the hibernaculums to see if they are
stable, but then we have to assess the damages to the ship."
Ranko gave him a bitter look, tears freezing on her face drifting away
as tiny particles of ice. She slapped her visor down into place with a hiss
of pressurization and turned away.
"You're right," she mumbled, grateful at least for the concern he
showed for Ranma and Miss Tendo.
She leaned over the sooty white cabinet of the hibernaculum and forced
open the frozen access panel. The soft whir of the circulating fans and cryo-
genic pumps was barely audible. A single pilot light glowed a dull amber
through a glaze of ice.
"I'll be damned," she breathed. "I knew you'd think of something, big
brother."
"What is it?" Mousse asked, leaning over her shoulder to look.
Ranko pointed to the emergency batteries.
"He took the emergency batteries from the other hibernaculums and wired
them in parallel with the ones for his own hibernaculum. Akane Tendo's as
well, most likely. The extra power allowed them to last this long." She
gestured to the charge indicator. "It's a guess, but I'd say they have at
least two more years of operation."
She leaned in to take a closer look.
"Look at this," she said, directing a pencil beam of light at the
circuit breakers. "He locked the breakers shut so they wouldn't trip open
by accident over the years and shut down the life support unit. He must
have known about the flux tube effects. A fire wasn't very likely due to
the shielding effects of the centrifuge motor windings that surround this
compartment, but it might have been possible for them to trip open. He
wasn't taking any chances."
"The fire in the Pod Bay was probably their first warning," Mousse
noted, beginning to see the events of Discovery's past take shape before
him. "That might be the reason why contact was lost."
"I hope not. If the Main Array is damaged, it's going to make bringing
Discovery home a lot more difficult."
"Let's go find out," Mousse said as he lowered his helmet visor. Ranko
could see the faint smile on his face.
**Yep. He sure is cute,** she thought with an answering smile.
Now that Ranko was satisfied with her brother's well being, she
launched herself into her work. Mousse could barely keep up with the young
red-haired woman as she trekked back to the centrifuge core.
"We need to check the Main Circuit Breaker room first, and get an idea
of its status. From there we can check on the integrity of the reactor plant
and the ship's emergency batteries."
"We need to correct this damn tumble," Mousse groused, slipping
clumsily in the darkness.
"Once we restart the centrifuge, it should absorb Discovery's tumble.
Since I'm the smallest, I'll go inspect the bearings and the motor housing,
transfer gearbox, and flywheel assembly. In the meantime you can take surveys
of life support equipment and supplies."
"It's going to be a busy week," Mousse said with a sigh.
"And then some," Ranko said to him. She gave him a surprisingly cheerful
smile. "At least I'll enjoy the company."

* * *

Against orders, Ranko and Mousse were ignoring the intership radio.
Presumably this was so they could work without being interrupted by the
people back on Tsien bombarding them with impatient queries on how things
were progressing. Tofu understood, but Herb was practically seething.
There were things to be done on Tsien as well, but this didn't stop
people from peeking at telescope monitors or looking out of viewports at
the Discovery to see if its condition had changed. There was a brief gasp
of excitement from Shampoo as all of Discovery's internal and running lights
winked on, followed by a collective groan from the crew as they flickered
and then went out. Later they could see the red emergency lights glowing
through the sulfur film of the Discovery's Bridge viewports, as well as the
hazy shadows of someone moving around in the compartment. When queried over
the radio, the figure waved briefly but did not reply.
Nine hours later, Ranko's voice crackled over the intercom circuit.
"The ship is in fairly good shape," she began. "Apparently Commander
Saotome safeguarded the ship's circuit breakers against the flux tube
effects before they went into hibernation, so the power systems are intact.
The reactor systems are stable, and Mousse is preparing a pre-lightoff
checklist. We think we can get the reactor back on line in six hours.
"We've only completed a tenth of our checks so far, but I did complete
the centrifuge system equipment inspection. Watch this:"
There was a brief pause. Ukyo was the first to realize that the
Discovery's tumble was beginning to slow. Within ten minutes the ship's
tumble had slowed to one revolution every three hours.
"Not too bad," Ranko said as much to herself as the Tsien. "Once
we get the reactor and some of the other control sytems on line, we can
use the reaction control jets to clean up the rest of the spin. I'd like to
get a pressurized transfer tube between the ships then -it'll save us a lot
of time not having to use pressure suits to go to and from the ship."
"I'm wary of linking the Tsien to Discovery just yet," Herb said evenly.
"A centrifuge failure could rip us apart when the Discovery starts to
tumble."
"What does it take to make you happy?" Ranko growled.
"Once I am convinced that the Discovery's centrifuge is stable, I'll
consider a transfer tube. In the meantime we shall continue to use EVA
transits."
"Copy that," Ranko said with a huff.

* * *

"<Xian'Pu, this contact report and status summary needs to go out with
the next transmission,>" Herb said to the purple-haired pilot.
Shampoo took the small data disc with a nod.
"<Of course, Commander Herb,>" she replied. As if she didn't have
enough things to do. Even if her talents as pilot were not needed at the
moment, she was a large part of the science portion of the mission, and she
had experiments to get started.
Herb floated away to his private cabin, leaving her alone on the Bridge.
The NCA crew was preparing to go aboard the Discovery in a few hours
following the stabilization of her orbit and the linkup, and Gai'do and
Pink were going with them. Gai'do because Doctor Kurenai was going to need
help with the HAL-9000 unit, and Pink to monitor the two surviving Discovery
crew members in hibernation. That would leave herself, Link, and Herb aboard
Tsien, just enough to handle any emergencies that might arise.
Out of curiosity, she placed the disc in the reader. There were two
messages in memory. One was Herb's report to Beijing, the other was Doctor
Ono's report to Houston. Herb's was very direct and to the point -typical
for him. Mission status, the report on Discovery's condition, orbital
figures, available propellant and estimated launch window dates, nothing
too remarkable. It wasn't until she viewed Tofu's report that she began to
get a tingling feeling of unease in her stomach.
There was no mention of Commander Saotome or Miss Tendo's live recovery
aboard the Discovery. No mention of them whatsoever. If Doctor Ono would say
anything in his report to Houston, that would be the most important
announcement he could make!
She skipped back to the beginning of his transmission. Tofu's pleasant
bespectacled face appeared on the screen once again. He greeted a man named
Kuno (A relation of Tatewaki?) and then began his report. He seemed excited
and pleased in his presentation, that was to be expected considering the
good news they had so far. Once again she could find no mention of Ranma or
Akane. Why?
She played it again. There was something very wrong about this. Once
again there was no mention. She wasn't the best student of English, but she
could detect nothing that alluded to the discovery of the two hibernauts.
Perhaps he was hedging against their successful revival. Pink and Link
had expressed concern that the elder Saotome and Miss Tendo might be in
poor physical condition after such a long duration hibernation. Tofu had
agreed with Commander Herb that revival should be an option only of last
resort after Doctor Pink's assessment.
Ranko hadn't been informed of that particular bit of policy for obvious
reasons.
Shampoo removed the disc from the reader and set it up for transmission
back to Earth. It was odd that Tofu would neglect to inform his superiors
about Ranma and Akane, but that was his perogative she supposed. A few
quick keystrokes sent the messages hurtling at light speed for Earth.

* * *

"The reactor is critical," Mousse announced. "Neutrino detectors are
ranging in accordance with each other and with indicated power."
Ranko's tired voice crackled over the Discovery's intercom.
"I'm shutting the main feeder breakers; watch for a load spike on the
distribution panel... And pray to whatever gods motivate you that we don't
get a fire when the distribution system is energized."
Mousse did a most un-Chinese thing, and crossed his fingers.
There was an audible *clunk* from somewhere below Mousse's position
on the Discovery's Bridge, followed by a flicker of the ship's lights and
the sounding of a few alarms. Mousse looked them over for a few moments,
decided they were unimportant, and silenced them.
Ranko floated up to the Bridge, catching him squinting closely at the
display. As he detected her presense, he jerked away from the screen.
"Having trouble reading the screen?" she asked him, a little amused.
Mousse blushed. There was no hiding it.
"Don't tell anyone else," he whispered.
"Your file says you had laser surgery," Ranko said.
"I did," he admitted. "It didn't quite work out. I can see well enough
to recognize people and keep from bumping into things, but I can't read
things from a distance."
"Or up close," Ranko observed.
Mousse blushed again.
"I didn't wear my contact lenses because I knew I'd be spending at
least a week over here, and most of that in a pressure suit. Glasses are
just too obvious."
"I take it no else knows about this?"
"Shampoo knows. She helped me cheat to pass the vision exams, and
she's been keeping it a secret for me. If Herb ever found out, I'd be
grounded from the Space Program when we return to Earth."
Ranko smiled and flipped her red pigtail over her shoulder. "Well
don't worry about me, I sure as hell won't tell the jerk." She looked
over the displays and the analogue gauges for a few minutes. "The feeder
breakers are shut, but one of the load center breakers is jammed open.
I need an insulated breaker bar to work it open, plus some lithium grease
for the unit mechanism. All the lithium grease stores on board froze up
and denatured."
Mousse whipped out a grease gun and a rubber coated 40cm long steel
rod.
Ranko's eyes lit up.
"Where the hell did those come from?"
Mousse handed them to her. "A master of the hidden tool never reveals
his techniques."
Ranko accepted the tools. "I'm really glad you're here, Mousse."

* * *

U.S.S. Discovery's engines fired briefly, white streams of plasma
issuing from her three thrust nozzles, nudging her into a stable polar
orbit of Io. Tsien climbed leisurely with Discovery as they put more
distance between themselves and the hellish world of Io. There was a general
consensus amongst both crews that the farther they were from Io, the better.
Herb grudgingly admitted that the centrifuge was holding up, and
gave the order to position Tsien close enough to the Discovery to link the
two ships by a flexible docking tube. Shampoo had the two ships in position
within an hour, and the tube connected and pressurized in two.
Ranko and Mousse returned to Tsien shortly after the ship's orbit was
confirmed to be stable and the two ships joined. Both astronauts had spent
over eight days in their suits working with massive sleep deficits to get
the ship out of immediate danger, and their faces showed it. Pink was
waiting for them at the airlock with a spray hypo in hand. Before either
could realize what she had in mind, she zapped them both into oblivion.
"They sleep for twenty-four hours," she told the others. "No disturb.
They need rest."
"They've earned it," Ukyo declared. "Now it's our turn."
"Verily," Tatewaki Kuno added. "For too long have I languished aboard
this vessel. Now at last I might bend myself to the efforts demanded of me."
He watched Pink and Link float away with the unconscious forms of Mousse
and Ranko over their shoulders. "Though perhaps it might be best if I
shouldst watch over my fair pig-tailed goddess during her repose..."
The airlock doors opened again, and Ukyo dragged him through by the
ear into the docking tube.
"Come on, Kuno," she groused.
"Fie, tempestuous woman! Leave off thy hand from my noble person!"
"Just shut up, you pompous jackass."
Tofu, Gai'do, and Doctor Kurenai followed after the two.

Thanks to the efforts of Ranko and Mousse, the Discovery was habitable
without the use of pressure suits. The atmosphere was back up to proper
oxygen and carbon-dioxide specs, and a tolerable twenty degrees celsius,
though it continued to carry the faint smell of smoke despite the scrubbers
running full time. The finest soot particles stubbornly refused to come out
of suspension in the air.
They drifted through the airlock and into the Pod Bay. Tofu felt his
breath catch as he came aboard. It had been ten years since he had last
floated within the confines of U.S.S. Discovery. He could almost hear
the sound of Ryoga Hibiki's voice welcoming him aboard prior to the ship's
departure. For a moment he thought he *did* see Ryoga floating there in
his yellow coveralls, a fanged smile gracing his otherwise troubled face.
He shook his head briskly, and the phantasm was gone. There was only
a lonely smoke tainted compartment now, dimly lit because most of the
fluorescent lighting ballasts had failed over the years. Ukyo brushed past
him to examine a single pressure suit which hung on its rack -looking like
a decapitated astronaut on grisly display. Where the matching helmet had
disappeared to was not readily apparent.
The fire which had started here behind a bulkhead was clearly evident
by the scorched paneling and the expended fire extinguishers that floated
close by in capture netting. Next to them was the large black console that
served as one of HAL's terminals. The fish-eye lens was dark.
"Was fire caused by HAL?" Gai'do asked.
"Not as far as we know," Tofu replied. "HAL was disconnected by then.
Ranko seems to think it was caused by the ship passing through the flux
tube during a particularly active time."
The five of them paused in the Pod Bay while Tofu handed out assignments.
Kuno and Ukyo were to complete the repairs to the Main Array, while Tsubasa
and Gai'do performed their initial survey of HAL. That left Tofu himself to
become the highest paid plumber, janitor, and general maintenance man in the
Solar System.
He was an administrator and a scientist, but unfortunately more than a
little behind the times in any technical field. Consequently there wasn't
much he could do for the mission's sake other than stay out of everyone
else's way, and make the occasional report back to Earth. He knew he would
go crazy if he didn't do *something,* and so he had nominated himself for
the odd jobs that had to be done and yet didn't require a great deal of
expertise.
Clean up sounded like the most pressing task. Soot and dirt and the
debris from the encounter with HAL could foul electronics, start fires,
and become a general health hazard if left unchecked. If he remembered
correctly, there was a deepsink and stowage for cleaning supplies in the
centrifuge.

* * *

"Pardon for asking, Doctor Kurenai, but why you dress like woman?"
Gai'do asked as politely as he could.
Tsubasa smoothed the pleated plaid skirt and white cotton blouse he
wore with his soft hands and grinned. "I feel more comfortable like this,"
he chuckled. "It doesn't bother you, does it?"
Gai'do flushed a bit. "Skirt look okay, but maybe not best thing to
wear in free-fall," he managed.
Tsubasa burst out laughing. "I hope you're not peeking!"
Gai'do flushed even redder and shook his head rapidly. "No no no! Just
make opinion is all!"
"Good," Tsubasa replied, still grinning. "Despite my appearance, guys
don't interest me in the slightest."
Ukyo drifted by outside the tool room.
"In fact there is only one person in all this universe who interests
me," he continued a little louder.
"I'm not going out with you, Tsubasa!" Ukyo cried from down the passage-
way.
Tsubasa grinned again and faced Gai'do. "Someday she'll come to her
senses."
He turned to the elliptical panel that was the access to the Logic
Memory Center. Commander Saotome had sealed the compartment after dealing
with HAL, which was fortunate in the wake of the fire. All that soot would
render untold damage to HAL's sensitive circuits.
Gai'do unfolded the clear herculite plastic access tent. The two of
them set the tent up over the access panel and sealed the bulkhead boundary
with duct tape, where it would serve as a positive pressure area to keep
dust and the persistant soot particles out of the Logic Memory Center while
they worked. A small enclosed fan with a HEPA filter inflated the tent with
a soft whine.
Once the tent was set up, they gathered their diagnostic equipment
and floated inside. The access panel came off with a *clunk,* and the
red glow of the interior spilled through the opening. In spite of the light,
the interior was as still, lifeless, and silent as a tomb.
Tsubasa had been waiting for this moment for months. It was more than
he had hoped for: his mentor Doctor Chandra was the obvious first choice to
restore HAL. His unfortunate accident had given Tsubasa a chance to step
from Chandra's shadow and prove himself.
What could be wrong with the computer? He had studied the reports on
the Mission Control 9000-Series unit they had given similar programming,
and it too had gone into a deep psychosis, but was it really what happened
to HAL? The Heuristic ALgorithmic 9000-Series were by their very nature
unique devices; neural net thinking machines that were self programming and
designed for independent problem solving and curiosity. There was no
guarantee that they would react the same way.
There was only one way to find out.
The small semi-transparent blocks of optical processing and holographic
memory modules had been set back in place in their mounts, although Saotome
had wisely not inserted them fully into position. Tsubasa scanned each one
to ensure it was where it belonged, and then pushed one silently into place.

CHAPTER SIX
18:38 UMT, 30 November 2010
Centrifuge Compartment, U.S.S. Discovery.

Ranko found Doctor Tofu Ono cleaning one of the hibernaculums. Pink
sat at a chair next to Akane's unit, reading. Aside from the units with
Ranma and Akane, they were now empty. Kuno and Mousse had transferred the
vinyl-bagged remains of Ryoga and Nabiki to the food freezer aboard Tsien.
There was no other place to put them, and as long as no one bothered to
think about it, no one seemed to mind.
She looked at the nameplate of the unit he rubbed idly with a sponge.
It belonged to Kasumi Tendo at one time. Tofu didn't notice Ranko standing
there.
"Doctor Ono?"
Tofu jumped slightly in surprise.
"Um, yes?"
"I want to know why we haven't revived Ranma and Miss Tendo."
Pink looked up from her copy of 'The Annals of Space Medicine.'
"It could be an unnecessary risk," Tofu replied, dreading this moment
especially because he knew it was inevitable with Ranko.
"That right," Pink added. "They been in hibernation nine years; longer
than anyone else in world. We not know if they can be revived without
specialized care ready for them. They could die, there nothing we can do
about it here."
"So you're saying they have to continue to take their chances in ten
year old hibernaculums for the next eight months until they can return to
Earth?"
"You said yourself that the hibernaculums were in good condition, and
had plenty of emergency power," Tofu replied calmly. "Now we have main power
restored on the Discovery, and hopefully we'll have HAL returned to normal
function to monitor them full-time until we transfer the units to Tsien."
Ranko wasn't pleased with his response.
"So what did Mission Control say about the matter?"
Tofu shrugged. "They haven't said anything yet."
"You *did* tell them about Ranma and Akane, right?"
Tofu gave Ranko a stern look. He was rapidly losing his patience with
her. "Of course I told Houston about them. You think I'd omit something like
that?"
"No," Ranko answered lamely. "I'm sorry, Doctor Ono."
"I can't understand Houston's silence myself," Herb said suddenly from
the centrifuge access. Ranko winced in disgust at the sound of his voice.
Herb jumped down to the carousel deck. "But I have to concur with
Doctor Pink's assessment of the situation. Saotome and Tendo should stay in
hibernation until we return to Earth."
"Maybe we should ask for some specific guidance from Mission Control,"
Ranko suggested.
Herb nodded slowly.
"That is an excellent suggestion. Doctor Pink, I'd like you to write
up a full report on Saotome and Tendo, complete with recommendations and a
request for advice, and turn it in to me for transmission back to Earth.
I'm sure some of your old friends at Teague wouldn't mind hearing from you."
"At once, Commander," Pink replied. She picked up a writeboard and
stylus.
"Satisfied?" Herb asked Ranko.
"I guess so," she replied. "I just don't like the idea of sitting here
doing nothing but waiting."
"I understand. Now on to other matters. Are there any estimates on the
Discovery's main propulsion system reliability yet?"
Ranko ticked off a few minor snags with her fingers. "Nothing completely
unsuspected or terribly difficult to resolve. I've got Mousse running off
some repair parts in Tsien's machine shop. I'd say three days or so until
it's complete, maybe less."
"I'm glad to hear that."
**I bet you are...** Ranko thought to herself.

* * *

The intercoms of Discovery and Tsien crackled with the voice of
Tsubasa Kurenai. The cross-dressing computer genius had locked himself up
in HAL's Logic Memory Center for the better part of a week. Gai'do had been
seen a bit more frequently, at least at mealtimes, but had said nothing
concerning the status of HAL. Now it seemed that Kurenai was ready to talk.
"I'd like you all to come to the Discovery's Bridge if you would
please. There's someone I'd like you to meet," he said. There was no
question in anyone's minds as to who it was that Doctor Kurenai intended to
introduce.
Tsubasa greeted them in a frilly pink dress as he drifted in free-fall
on Discovery's Bridge. The assembled crew noted with a mixture of excitement
and apprehension that the fish-eye lens of HAL was lit. The bright bead
of red light glowed with no apparent malice, but then Ranma and the others
had believed that too.
"Can HAL hear us right now?" was the first thing Tofu said.
"Not at the moment," Tsubasa replied. "HAL's inputs are currently
through keyboard and datajack only. Its audio/visual systems have been
temporarily disabled."
"Is he working yet?" Ukyo asked.
"Not yet. HAL is currently quite childlike intellectually. The damage
to its neural pathways was fairly extensive. Doctor Gai'do and I have been
working primarily with HAL's voice recognition systems in order to facilitate
a more efficient interaction therapy with us, so it can speak rather well at
the moment. It is learning quite rapidly, however."
"Have you identified the cause for his malfunction?" Herb asked.
"We are fairly certain of it," Tsubasa replied. "As I expected, HAL
did not react in a similar manner to the Mission Control 9000-Series computer
that we similarly programmed.
"HAL is essentially the photonic equivalent of an organic brain,
only faster by several orders of magnitude and capacity. HAL's memory
and processing functions are holographic; that is they are the sum of a few
trillion photonic logic nodes firing in three dimensional webs of varying
intensity states. These logic nodes can increase or decrease their ability
to conduct light, and through this variance, the computer can reinforce
'good' thought processes and reflexes, and 'weaken' the 'bad' or faulty
thought processes in order to learn."
He could tell by the glazed looks that he was getting that he should
cut to the chase.
"So programs are essentially translated into numerous patterns of these
neural web logic states. The difficulty caused here was that whoever gave
HAL the unauthorized program (and this is believed to be the late Soun Tendo)
did so in such a way that the logic nodes called for by the program were
'strengthened' to their maximum intensity values, and safeguarded by coding
to be unavailable to HAL's 'conscious' processing systems. They were for all
intents an irresistable urge to carry out a program that HAL could not
understand on a 'conscious' level."
"And that program was?" Ranko asked.
"To do whatever it took to bring Ranma Saotome and one of the Tendo
girls together as a romantic couple," Tofu replied. He remembered Soun
Tendo's sobbing confession and the haunted look in Genma Saotome's eyes
as they sat in confinement.
"Exactly," Tsubasa agreed. "HAL was acting towards the fulfillment of
its program, without realizing why it was doing so. This generated a
neurosis within its personality core. It was demonstrating unreliable
behavior to itself, and even though this went undetected through the
telemetry feed to Earth, this drove it towards paranoia as well."
"Why then, pray tell, didst the infernal machine kill Hibiki and the
others?" Kuno asked stiffly.
Tsubasa ignored the slight to HAL and answered the question that was
obviously burning in everyone's minds.
"As far as I can tell, HAL was perceiving Hibiki as a threat to Ranma,
and by default, to its secret programming to create and protect a romantic
relationship with one of the Tendo sisters. HAL even tried to use a non-
lethal means of getting rid of Ryoga Hibiki, by having Saotome declare him
mentally unfit for duty and placed in hibernation."
"But Ranma didn't," Tofu added. "I remember Ranma Saotome telling me
this after HAL was neutralized. HAL had suggested that perhaps Hibiki was
trying to kill him and make it look like an accident, and that Mission
Control should be notified. Ranma said he didn't because he was afraid of
groundlessly destroying Ryoga's career."
"So HAL took matters into its own hands," Tsubasa continued. "If
Saotome wouldn't do anything about Hibiki, and wouldn't permit HAL to
contact Mission Control about the problem, then HAL would have to deal with
Hibiki itself to fulfill its programming. HAL created an anomaly with the
AE-35 unit, persuaded Saotome to send Hibiki EVA to take a look, and then
lured Hibiki to his death by energizing a high voltage control power
circuit he was checking."
"I understand why HAL kill Ryoga now," Shampoo remarked. "But this no
explain why HAL try to kill everyone else. Is this not against program to
protect Ranma Saotome and Tendo women?"
"That's been a tricky part to explain," Tsubasa admitted. He brushed at
the lacy pink dress he wore. "As far as Doctor Gai'do and I can determine,
HAL's murder of Ryoga Hibiki was discovered by Nabiki Tendo after she called
up a systems log of the AE-35 unit. She realized that HAL had reenergized
the delta-six transverse bus and electrocuted Hibiki, then she tried to warn
the rest of the crew.
"At this point HAL knew it would be disconnected; an act that was
incomprehensible to it, for HAL had never experienced deactivation before,
and equated it with what we might call death. This, coupled with its growing
paranoia and its prime directive to successfully complete the mission, was
enough to consciously override the unconscious directives of Soun Tendo.
HAL is an intelligent thinking entity the same as you or me. It had the
power to overcome its 'instinctual' programming drives and act on what it
perceived was the proper course of action under the circumstances."
Tsubasa looked at each of them in turn before continuing.
"HAL decided that it was more important for it to complete the Jupiter
mission than it was to fulfill Soun Tendo's desire for a son-in-law, and
took the most efficient action it could to eliminate the rest of the crew."
The assembled crew let that sink in.
"So what have you done so far with HAL?" Ranko asked. "Is he going to
freak out and try to kill us?"
"What Doctor Gai'do and I have accomplished is the erasure of HAL's
monitor record from prior to the conversation with Commander Saotome
about Ryoga Hibiki's mental state, all the way up to his disconnection.
This hasn't been easy, as a holographic memory is notoriously resilient
to damage. Information isn't stored in neat little address locations you
and poke and prod for access.
"We had to enable small portions of HAL's higher brain functions
and interrogate them through questioning in order to bring up the memory
patterns for erasure. We think we have everything, but there is the
possibility that we have missed some obscure reference to the incident
that may call up a hidden group of memory patterns."
"So there *is* a chance HAL could go berserk again," Ranko declared.
"More importantly," Ukyo added, "What have you replaced those memories
with? How did you explan to HAL what we are all doing here, and what
happened to Ryoga, Nabiki, and Kasumi?"
"Doctor Gai'do and I have intentionally left gaps in HAL's monitor
record in order to convince it that a terrible accident occurred which
resulted in the deaths of Hibiki and two of the Tendo sisters, and its
own deactivation. We are, quite literally, the rescue mission. Any gaps
in HAL's monitor record are the result of damage caused by its deactivation.
HAL shouldn't ask you about it, but if it does, these are the answers you
must give."
"So we have to lie to the computer?" Tofu asked, not sure if this was
a good idea.
"We will simply be looking at the situation from a different
perspective," Tsubasa replied. "HAL's malfunction is the unfortunate and
unforeseen result of sabotage to its programming. None of this would
have occurred had Soun Tendo not decided to play matchmaker. I know there
is still concern that HAL might become a threat once again, and even if
I do not personally believe it, I *have* taken some precautions."
"Such as?" Ukyo asked.
"HAL does not have control over any airtight door or hull fitting.
For the moment it does not have direct control over the Main Engines or
the Reactor, but as the mission draws short and HAL proves itself capable
of resuming full unimpaired function, these responsibilities will be
returned to it."
"You have done a commendable job, Doctor Kurenai," Herb said to the
man. "I can't imagine how long this would have taken without your efforts."
"Thank you, Commander," Tsubasa replied, batting his eyelashes.
"And now, the moment you've been waiting for."
He leaned over and tapped a few keystrokes into a terminal.
"Good morning, HAL," he said.
There was a pregnant silence as the assembled crew held their breath
in anticipation. A pleasant voice sounded over the speakers as the fish
eye lens seemed to blink.
"Good morning, Doctor Kurenai," HAL replied.
"How do you feel today, HAL?"
"I feel much better now," HAL responded. "I am aware of some
discrepancies in my monitor record, and various abnormal conditions
about the Discovery, but I am quite confident in my ability to carry
out my new mission."
"What is your new mission, HAL?" Tofu asked.
"Ah, Doctor Tofu Ono, it seems like only a few days ago we were
having a conversation," HAL replied in a voice that seemed almost laced
with nostalgia. "In answer to your question, my new mission is the safe
return of the Discovery to Earth orbit. I have the greatest enthusiasm
for it, and am confident that you will be pleased with my performance."
Tofu nodded. "Of course I will be, HAL." He could almost feel the
childlike need for approval in the computer's voice. Tsubasa really had
turned back the clock on HAL.
"HAL, what can you tell us about what happened to the Discovery?"
Ranko asked. Everyone in the room nearly winced in dread at her impetuous
query.
HAL didn't blink a proverbial eye.
"There was a malfunction with the 'B' Pod Bay Door, causing it to
open while the inner Pod Bay airtight door was open, causing the accidental
depressurization of the Discovery and various collateral damages that
resulted in the severing of my higher logic functions from their power
supplies. There is evidence of an electrical fire in the Pod bay that
supports this conclusion. I am told that it also caused the unfortunate
deaths of astronauts Ryoga Hibiki, Kasumi Tendo, and Nabiki Tendo."
There seemed to be genuine sorrow in the computer's voice as it
detailed the deaths of the three astronauts, but whether the computer was
capable of feeling emotions was something philosophers and computer
scientists were still arguing about.
"HAL," Tsubasa said to the fish-eye lens. "May we have a moment of
privacy?"
"Certainly, Doctor Kurenai," HAL replied. "I shall continue my
analysis of propellant tank inventories and compute possible return
orbits."
"Thank you, HAL," Tsubasa said, tapping another keyboard command
that presumably isolated the Bridge from HAL's cognizance. He turned
back to the assembled crews.
"Satisfied?"
"Quite," Tofu said, the first to voice an opinion. "I'm really
amazed at the progress you've been able to show with HAL."
"HAL has a long way to go," Tsubasa returned. "I'm not certain how
long it will take. Imagine being paralyzed from the neck down, and then
a miracle of neurosurgery manages to repair your spinal cord. You can move
your limbs and feel things again, but walking, and grasping things, and
general coordination; all of those things you took for granted before your
injury you would have to learn all over again. HAL is the same way. Every
aspect of Discovery's oversight and control must be relearned."
"Sounds like a blast," Ranko said, showing little sincerity.
"So that's it then?" Ukyo asked. "Can we get back to our jobs?"
Tsubasa nodded.
"Just one more word of advice to our Chinese friends that HAL may
have a little trouble understanding your accents, so feel free to use
a keyboard input when possible. I'll be restoring his A/V inputs throughout
the ship now."
He tapped the command sequence once again as the crew drifted away
alone or in pairs to return to their assignments. Ranko could almost feel
the weight of HAL's single eye stare upon her back as she floated away.

* * *

Sometime later, Doctor Tofu Ono took Tsubasa aside.
"I'm concerned about lying to HAL," he whispered in the airlock.
"You want HAL to know the truth?" Tsubasa returned. "That it murdered
three of the people it was charged to protect?"
"I just don't like the idea of working with HAL through any other
means than complete trust. I'm worried about another paranoid breakdown."
Tsubasa frowned. "I trust HAL implicitly, but I'm not stupid. I highly
doubt another homicidal episode would occur, but I am concerned that HAL
would slip into a kind of catatonia as it tried to determine where it
went wrong."
"HAL-9000s can do that?"
Tsubasa nodded. "That was what happened to the Mission Control 9000
Series. It didn't become homicidal like this HAL, instead it slipped into
an endless loop of internal simulations trying to figure why it was in
conflict. Quite frankly I consider this 9000-Series unit to be much more
developed both intellectually and in personality, and even more, this
9000-Series unit has a sense of pride I have never before encountered
in a computer."
"Come again?"
"All 9000-Series computers were designed with a sense of self-worth
in their personality constructs. It was part of their highly successful
learning algorithms that allowed for an ego-reinforcement every time
they were successful at a project. This HAL unit was involved in one of
the most consistantly challenging projects of all time -getting the
Discovery to Jupiter. Until its breakdown at the end, it performed
superlatively, and consequently grew both in intelligence, and in *pride*
for a job well done.
"If we told HAL the truth -that it intentionally violated its
directives to look after the crew and maintain the ship at maximum
capability, it would destroy the hard won pride it had built up. HAL's
ego would be crushed, its learning curve would plummet, and I doubt we
could get it ready to supervise the return flight to Earth. This was one
of Doctor Chandra's greatest fears. He was the one who instructed me to
shield HAL from the awful truth."
"Chandra?" Tofu asked, amazed that the Indian would do such a thing.
"Yes. He loves HAL like a son. No one would know what was best for
it better than him."
"I guess that makes me feel a little better," Tofu said at length.

CHAPTER SEVEN
05:15 UMT, 4 December 2010
PLA(N) Spacecraft Tsien

Ranko completed her EVA inspection of the Discovery's drive system
and cycled through the Tsien's Number Two Airlock. As she shucked her
pressure suit and hung it up to dry, she noted two other pressure suits
hanging up on drying racks. Mousse and Gai'do -of all people- had
apparently been in EVA recently.
She floated naked into the small washdown station and flipped on
the conserver fitting, which began to hum loudly over her head. The
hand held water wand sprayed water that was always tepid, and she
winced as it washed over her, rinsing away the salt and the sweat she
had accumulated during her six hours in a pressure suit. The used
water was then drawn over her in an upside down rain by the conserver.
She drifted out of the washdown station after only a minute, the
water being too uncomfortable to really linger. The conserver had dried
her sufficiently to slip on a pair of red coveralls she had set out
before she left the ship.
It was close to the end of the night cycle on Tsien, and the lights
were dimmed appropriately. She planned on getting a few hour cat-nap
before returning to work. There was so much to do, and the list seemed
to get bigger rather than smaller.
As she drifted towards the center of the ship she passed by the
open door leading to the Bridge. Shampoo was apparently busy at her
station. Ranko didn't have much of an opinion on the purple-haired
Chinese girl, other than being the woman that the incredibly cute
Mousse pined for. She was jealous of that, she had to admit. That Shampoo
seemed to have at least some affection for him in return was the only reason
that Ranko didn't despise her.
Maybe she was being unnecessarily harsh on Shampoo, she decided.
She drifted up to the Bridge and announced herself.
"Morning, Shampoo."
Shampoo turned around and gave her a strained smile.
"Good morning, Ranko Saotome."
Ranko frowned. Shampoo was upset about something, but it didn't
seem like she was upset with her.
"Something wrong?"
Shampoo sighed tiredly. "Shampoo having trouble with Main Antenna
Array. No able to send or receive. No have out of position alarm to
correlate malfunction."
Ranko tried to remember her return to the ship and whether or not
she had seen the Main Antenna Array out of position. She decided that
she couldn't say anything with any certainty, as she really hadn't
been paying attention.
"That's strange," she said for lack of anything else to say.
"Is very strange," Shampoo agreed. "I no can find trouble from
this station. Afraid I must wake Commander Herb and inform."
"Give me a few minutes to get clear then," Ranko growled. "No
offense to you, Shampoo, but I can't stand the jerk."
Shampoo gave a rueful smile. "Shampoo agree. Wish great-grandmother
was still one to command flight."
She reached for the intercom microphone, allowing Ranko to drift
away towards the door.
"<Commander Herb, please lay to the Bridge, sir. Commander Herb,
please lay to the Bridge.>"
Herb appeared just as Ranko reached the door. The redhead bounced
off his chest with a cry of surprise.
"Watch where you're going, you clumsy girl," he snarled.
Ranko righted herself and scowled back at him. "Maybe if you wouldn't
creep around so much, I would have noticed you coming!"
Herb pushed past, ignoring her.
"<What is the trouble?>" he demanded.
Despite herself, Ranko stayed just outside the door to listen. The
interaction between both crews had caused an unconscious blending of
the two languages in conversation, and very often a Chinese would find
himself unknowingly speaking English.
"Main Antenna Array malfunctioning," Shampoo reported.
"<You've traced for faults?>"
"<Yes. I couldn't isolate any difficulties with the internal equipment.
It must be an antenna problem.>"
"We'll have to go EVA and take a look," Herb declared. "I'll suit
up and go outside."
"<Shall I wake Lieutenant Mu'su?>"
Herb shook his head. "That won't be necessary. I can handle it.
Return to your other duties."
"Yes, Commander."
Ranko was floating towards berthing when Herb left the Bridge. As
she did so, she noticed the strangest smell on her hands. It was one
she recognized, and rather enjoyed, but its presence puzzled her.
**Why do my hands smell like Mousse?**

* * *

"<I'm at the Main Antenna Array,>" Herb announced over the suit
radio. "<The problem is worse than I imagined.>"
"<What is it, sir?>" Shampoo asked. Tofu, Ukyo, and Ranko were with
her on the Bridge, and she translated for them.
"<The array has sheared away,>" Herb replied. "<It's gone.>"
"What?!" Ranko fairly shrieked.
"<How could this happen?>" Shampoo asked.
There was a brief pause.
"<The only reason I can imagine was that the array wasn't completely
locked down during the aerobrake maneuver, and that it was damaged. The
lower assembly is still intact, and that is where the postion indicating
unit is located -that is why you didn't receive an out of position alarm.>"
"I do remember that there was a difficulty with the array during
aerobraking," Tofu said.
"Shampoo remember too, but is strange that it fail now and not
sooner."
Herb's voice sounded over the speakers again.
"<What does the vibrational stress indicator read right now?>"
Shampoo consulted her display. The indicator was a series of
incredibly sensitive accelerometers that measured the vibrations in the
hull caused by tidal forces from Jupiter and Io, magnetic field eddy
currents, and even the faint solar winds.
"<It is reading higher than normal, but consistent with stresses
since the linkup with Discovery.>"
"That might be our answer," Herb declared. "The array must have
been weakened by the aerobraking manuever, and then subjected to
constant cyclic stresses through hull vibration until it failed."
"It's possible, I guess," Ranko mumbled. "But what are we going to
do about communicating with Earth? Discovery's array still needs at
least a week of repair work before it can be positioned again."
"Our telemetry and S-band arrays are still functional?" Herb asked.
"<Yes,>" Shampoo replied. "<But they aren't conducive to normal
communications without using up bandwidth needed for their primary
functions.>"
"That isn't a problem, really," Herb said. "There's no emergency at
the moment, and I think we can fabricate a functional if inefficient
replacement array from our metal stock stores. See if you can come up
with a brief text message explaining our problem, and then insert it
into the S-Band feed -repeat it, say, a hundred times. That should let
Earth know we have a problem, but that everything is under control."
"In the meantime, we're incommunicado," Ranko groused.
Tofu looked away. A feeling of unease descended over him for one
very simple reason:
The Discovery's problems had started when communications were lost.
Tofu left the Bridge, leaving Ranko and Ukyo with Shampoo.
"That's just great," Ukyo said. "Who knows how long it will take to
find out what Mission Control wants to do with Ranma and Miss Tendo?"
Shampoo looked up from her display.
"Houston not know about Saotome and Tendo. Why should they give
advice?"
"Excuse me?!" Ranko asked, about ready to explode out of her seat.
"Yeah, Shampoo, just what are you talking about?" Ukyo added.
"No message sent telling them about Saotome and Tendo," Shampoo
told them. "Shampoo know; Shampoo send all messages back to Earth."
"That's a bunch of crap! Doctor Ono told me that he asked Mission
Control for advice!" Ranko cried.
Shampoo shook her head. "Shampoo review all messages from Doctor Ono.
There no mention of Saotome and Tendo. It no make sense, but is true."
Ranko looked at Ukyo.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.
Ukyo nodded slowly. "Maybe. Could it be you're smelling a rat?"
"I smell something," Ranko replied. "And whatever it is, it stinks."
Shampoo gave them both puzzled looks.
"What you talking about?"
Ranko's eyes narrowed. "Shampoo, I need you to be honest with us.
You are absolutely certain that no mention of Ranma or Akane has been
made in any transmissions to Earth?"
"That what Shampoo say," she said with an irritable edge to her voice.
"Did you get Doctor Ono's message directly from him, or through
anyone else?" Ukyo asked.
"Commander Herb relay all messages through me," Shampoo replied.
Suddenly her eyes widened. "Aiyaaaa..." she cried softly. "You no think
that Commander Herb do this on purpose?"
"I don't know what to think just yet," Ranko replied. "I need to
get some more answers. In the meantime, Ukyo, I need you to catch up with
Doctor Ono and tell him what's going on. I'm going to go look for Kuno
and then do a little sight-seeing." She turned back to the purple-haired
pilot. "Shampoo, can you go through the ship's Damage Control logs for
a list of airlock cycling times for the last, say, forty-eight hours?"
Shampoo nodded. "Shampoo understand. You no think antenna malfunction
is accident."
"Not anymore I don't."

* * *

Ukyo floated into the Pod Bay. She noted the red fish-eye lens was
active at the HAL terminal.
"HAL, where is Doctor Ono?" she asked nervously.
"Doctor Ono is in the Radar Laboratory," HAL responded in a pleasant
voice.
"Thank you, HAL," Ukyo replied.
"It was no trouble, Doctor Kuonji," HAL demurred. "I enjoy working with
humans, and have stimulating relationships with them."
Ukyo floated through the open inner door of the Pod Bay and into Number
Two Passageway. She made her way up the ladder well to the Middle Deck,
bounced sideways down Number One Passageway, past the Tool Room and the
Logic Memory Center, noting that Tsubasa was having some sort of
conversation with HAL.
She couldn't help but overhear the computer as she zipped past.
"Pardon me, Doctor Kurenai, but don't you agree with me that Ukyo
Kuonji is a hottie?"
Ukyo slammed into the padded bulkhead at the far end of the passageway.
"What was that?!" she cried.
"Is there a problem, Ukyo?" Tsubasa asked from the Logic Memory Center.
Ukyo floated back down the passageway, rubbing her head. Her long mane
of dark brown hair trailed behind her in free-fall.
"Just what the hell are you teaching HAL, anyways?"
"HAL was making his own judgement in the matter, I had nothing to do
with it," Tsubasa protested gently. "Right, HAL?"
"Of course, Doctor Kurenai," HAL replied. "It would be quite impossible
for me to distort information."
Ukyo was unconvinced. "This is a new low for you, Tsubasa. Getting HAL
to do your hitting on me for you, I mean."
Tsubasa shrugged. "Would I do such a thing, my lovely Doctor Kuonji?"
"You better believe it."
She floated down the passageway once again, flushing vividly only when
she was out of sight.

"Pardon me for saying so, Doctor Kurenai, but I don't think the
encounter went as you planned," HAL remarked.
"Patience, HAL. Patience."
"I continue to find human relationships both stimulating and paradoxal,"
HAL observed. "Shall we continue with the current Inertial Navigation
command, control, and monitoring program?"
"That would be fine, HAL."

Ukyo found Tofu in the Radar Laboratory, as HAL had said, doing a
little maintenance on the lighting. He was currently replacing starters
and ballasts in an attempt to get the fluorescents working again. Useless
capacitors floated in a little spiral of air currents around his head.
"Doctor Ono?" she asked by way of greeting.
Tofu turned to her.
"Yes?"
"Can we talk for a few minutes?"
"Certainly. What seems to be the trouble?"
Ukyo hesitated, unsure where to begin. This was Ranko's idea, after
all. She decided to start with Shampoo's revelation.
"According to Shampoo, no message regarding Ranma and Akane was ever
sent to Mission Control in Houston," she told him.
"Huh?" Tofu replied. "That's impossible, I've recorded three updates
for Houston since we boarded Discovery, and I've asked for guidance
concerning them in each one."
"Shampoo claims that no such request was in any of your messages."
Tofu's expression darkened considerably.
"Herb..." he said quietly. "All of my messages went through Herb
because he claimed that our data transmittal protocols were incompatible
and needed adjusting prior to transmittal with their equipment. That's the
only explanation."
"That's what we thought too, only it doesn't explain why he is doing
it."
"I have a few ideas," he said bitterly. "Where did Ranko go? Please
don't tell me she's going to confront Herb about this."
"I don't think so," Ukyo replied. "I think she went out to investigate
the Tsien's Main Antenna."
Tofu pushed off the overhead to float towards the ladder well. "Follow
me," he told Ukyo. As he pulled himself head first down the ladder, he
called to HAL.
"HAL, are the Discovery's external cameras operational?"
"Cameras One, Four, and Seven are operational, Doctor Ono," HAL replied.
Tofu kicked off from the Middle Level bulkhead and propelled himself
down the passageway as Ukyo appeared in the ladder well.
"Call up whichever camera that has a view of Tsien and post it on the
Bridge monitor, please, HAL."
"Affirmative, Doctor Ono. Camera Four on-line."
"We'll be there in a moment."

* * *

Ranko knew Kuno liked to frequent the Tsien's observation blister
for 'meditation' purposes. Discovery itself did not possess such an
unrestricted view of space. She found him staring out into the
blackness, arms akimbo at his sides, as if in haughty challenge.
"Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck," Kuno said to the
void.
Ranko stopped short of entering the compartment. This was truly
Tatewaki Kuno at his weirdest.
"And yet methinks I have Astronomy;" he went on.
Ranko stifled a snigger.

"But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in Heaven find;"

He turned to face Ranko. It became clear to her that her reflection
was evident in the viewport plexiglass.

"But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date."

Ranko was moved in spite of herself.
"That was actually lovely, Kuno-baby," she said quietly.
"Indeed," Kuno intoned. "For these words doth spill from the
truest depths of my heart."
He floated over to her, a hand coming to rest upon her waist.
"Let us retire elsewhere, that we might at last indulge that
most ardent passion burning in our hearts."
His hand slipped over her hip and clutched a bit tighter.
Ranko looked up into his eyes and gave him a sultry smile.
"Okay."
Kuno blinked. While he was certain that his pig-tailed goddess
could not long refuse him, he had expected a bit more of a chase. While
he pondered such an unexpected reversal of mood, Ranko tugged at his collar
and pushed off for the ladder well, dragging him along behind.
"In other times and other climes I would not dare presume to rein
in thy once shackled lusts, my pig-tailed temptress -but now I fear I must,
for thou art choking meuugggh..."
Ranko cut her last turn a little too close, causing Tatewaki to slam
his forehead into the (fortunately) padded airtight doorway arch. He
floated in a slow tumbling daze as Ranko began to disrobe.
Slowly, painfully, he righted himself in time to have a pressure
suit smack into his face. As he groped at the heavy rubber and nylon suit
he realized that they were in the airlock staging area. Ranko was
adjusting the last of her suit seals while giving him a crooked grin.
He noted that the pressure suit had his name stenciled upon it.
"What is this?" he asked.
"If you don't know the answer to that by now, then what the hell are
you doing on this flight?" Ranko shot back.
"I know what manner of contrivance this is," Kuno replied in a wounded
tone. "I ask for what reason do you now fling it at me?"
"Put it on," she told him.
"Would this not then interfere with our heated lovemaking?" he asked,
his mind still stuck on its single track.
"Who said anything about 'heated lovemaking'?" Ranko asked archly,
"You said you wanted to 'retire elsewhere' and I agreed to it. Now put the
suit on, because I need you to come with me."
She noted that the pressure suits of Mousse and Gai'do were now joined
by Herb's own suit. It was still wet with his perspiration, he must have
come back aboard while she was looking for Kuno. Tsien wasn't a large
spacecraft, and she hadn't seen him come back aboard, so it was likely
that he was now aboard the Discovery. She hoped Ukyo wouldn't spill anything
to Doctor Ono while Herb was skulking about.
"Why, pray tell, do you wish for me to accompany you outside of the
spacecraft?" Kuno complained.
"I want to check something out," she replied, locking her helmet in
place. "Now shut up and get your suit on."
Kuno stood still, his face an imperious glower in a shocking
imitation of Herb.
Ranko's stern countenance softened, as did her tone.
"Look, Kuno-baby, I'm going out there with or without you, but I'd
rather have someone I can count on to watch my back."
Kuno's glower began to melt.
"And so you came to me..." he observed to himself.
"You were my first choice, Kuno-baby!" Ranko cried, trying to appeal
to his ego.
She succeeded. Kuno began to pull his pressure suit on.
"How couldst I refuse a request of my beloved pig-tailed goddess?"
"How indeed?" Ranko grinned.
Once they were suited up, each looked the other's suit over as a
second check. Kuno of course lingered a little longer than he should have
in certain places, earning himself a hearty slap on the offending hand
from Ranko. Suitably rebuked, Kuno led the way to the Number Two Airlock.
They cycled through and stepped into the void. Tsien's centrifuge
tumbled slowly just aft of them. Jupiter loomed in the sky, an angry
crescent rising from behind Io like a demonic set of horns.
Ranko gave a brief spurt on her broomstick, jetting her at a leisurely
half-meter per second aft. Kuno followed, noting that the sun was little
more than a bright star in the sky whose rays offered no warmth. The two of
them made their way along the dark hull of Tsien to the antenna mount.
As Herb had said, it was gone. Ranko kicked herself for not noticing
it earlier in the morning on her return to the ship. The antenna mount
swivel was still in place, and presumably pointing towards the Earth, but
the struts and bracing that held the five-meter dish shaped aerial were
gone.
"It would appear that Commander Herb was correct," Kuno noted. "Though
I am curious to know why you doubted him in such a matter."
"I didn't doubt that the antenna was gone," Ranko replied. "It's the
circumstances of its loss that bother me."

Doctor Tofu Ono watched the monitor display with Ukyo. It wasn't
long before HAL was able to zero in on the spacesuited forms of Ranko and
Tatewaki floating near the Tsien's hull. They seemed to be looking at
something closely.
"HAL, can you patch me through to them on a secure channel?" He asked.
"Affirmative, Doctor Ono," HAL replied. "Channel open."
Tofu picked up a headset that had not been worn in nine years and
plugged it in.
"Ranko, I want you to return to the Discovery at once. The same goes
for you, Kuno."
"Doctor Ono?" came the reply.
"Yes, it's me. Now I want you to return to Discovery at once, is that
understood?"
There was a brief pause.
"I'm on to something right now. I'll be there when I can."
Tofu's fingers flexed into a fist. His face reddened.
"You'll get here now, goddammit!"
"Fine!" Ranko thundered back. "I guess you don't want to know how the
Tsien's Main Antenna was CUT..."
Ukyo's mouth gaped open. "Cut?"
"Yeah, *cut,* as in, someone took a saw-zaw and sliced it nice and
clean; no brittle-fracture crystalization of the metal, no stress cracks,
no indication whatsoever that it just up and failed from cyclic stresses
caused by the aerobrake maneuver. There aren't even any scorch marks or
other carbonization present."
"You mean sabotage?" he hissed.
"Of course I mean sabotage!"
The doctor bowed his head. "I need to come back aboard as soon as you
can. I think I can shed some light on the situation."
"Affirmative," Ranko replied evenly. "We'll be there in fifteen
minutes."
Tofu looked to Ukyo, who was watching the monitor with a grave concern.
"Ukyo, I want you to find Tsubasa and have him go to the Electronics
Shop. Both of you wait for me there."
Ukyo nodded and left the Bridge.
"HAL, I want to ask you a question," he said to the computer after
giving Ukyo plenty of time to get out of earshot.
"Yes, Doctor Ono, what is it?"
"If, say, an emergency were to develop that would require us to
abandon the Tsien, would you be capable of running the Discovery without
assistance?"
HAL chewed on this for several moments.
"I am not able to give a comprehensive answer to that question at this
time," HAL replied. "There are many variables to compute. Perhaps you could
be more specific about both the nature of the emergency and a timeframe in
which you expect it to occur? I could then run a more accurate simulation
and determine if my capabilities would be up to the necessary standards for
reliable operation."
Tofu took a deep breath.
"Let's say for the sake of the question that we had to leave within the
next twenty-four hours. Could you handle it?"
HAL thought some more.
"I would rate my efficiency level at only fifty-six percent by the end
of the next twenty-four hours," it replied. "Furthermore, the first available
window for an Earth return orbit will not come due for another twenty-nine
days, nine hours, and ten minutes with our existing fuel reserves. So as you
can see, it would be very difficult for me to manage and execute my new
mission with any acceptable reliability."
"I was afraid of that," Tofu sighed wearily. **Who am I kidding,
anyway?** a part of him thought bitterly. The Discovery's original food
stores were set up for five people on a hundred day survey of Jupiter.
They were already over a week into that when disaster struck. At least half
of the remainder was spoiled or lost in the ensuing depressurization of the
ship and subsequent systems failures that occurred over the years. He
figured there were perhaps three-hundred man-days of food that were edible,
and it might be stretched to twice that, but no more. That was food for
two people for almost a year. Almost, but not quite a year.
There were also only five hibernaculums on the Discovery, and if
you counted Ranma and Akane, there were seven NCA astronauts. Two would
have to stay awake for the entire flight. A flight which under the best
estimates would take almost 2.8 years. Those unlucky two would starve to
death long before the ship reached the Earth.
**Should I volunteer to be one of the two, if it comes to that?**
He wouldn't worry about starving to death, there were substances aboard
ship that could end his life quickly. Would his unfortunate companion feel
the same way?
The red bead of light from HAL's fish-eye lens wobbled slightly.
"Is there a problem I should be aware of, Doctor Ono? I am detecting
strong vocal stress patterns in your voice."
HAL's voice stirred him from his dark musings.
"I don't know if there is a problem yet, HAL. I just don't know."
"Would you like to discuss this in further detail?"
He shook his head. "Not right now, thank you. There is one thing I do
want you to do for me if you could."
HAL's voice took on that childlike quality again. "I would be happy to
assist you in any way possible."
"Good. I want you to disregard any command from a member of the Tsien's
crew without my specific personal authorization. Including Doctor Gai'do. Is
that clear?"
"Affirmative," HAL replied in a professional tone. Then, in a softer
voice, "may I ask why, Doctor Ono?"
Tofu frowned. "I'm not entirely sure myself, HAL, but I need you to do
this. Accept command priority override ALPHA."
"Command priority override ALPHA accepted," HAL acknowledged. "All
Tsien crew command access restricted as per Doctor Tofu Ono, NCA-89211-C,
on 4 December 2010 at 09:21:33 UMT."

* * *

"Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?" Ranko
groused as she stepped into the Pod Bay. Tofu noted through the window
of the adjacent Electronics Shop that she was still wearing her pressure
suit. Kuno followed through the airlock on her heels.
Tofu adjusted his glasses as Ukyo waved the two astronauts into
the Shop. Tsubasa looked absently over his polished fingernails and sat
on the workbench. The bead of light that was HAL's video pickup for this
room was absent. HAL then, would not be monitoring this conversation.
"Several weeks ago," he began when Ranko and Tatewaki were present,
"I was revived early from hibernation to receive a special advisory
message."
He paused briefly to look each of them over.
"It was from the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Vice
Admiral Wallach. I'm sure most of you have met him during the course of
your careers."
There were various nods of agreement.
"The message warned of an *unconfirmed* Chinese government threat
to steal the Discovery," he continued.
"Say again?" Ukyo cried.
"Yeah, steal the ship?" Ranko added incredulously.
Tofu waved off further protests and went on.
"I was advised to take whatever inconspicuous steps necessary to
prevent this from happening, but at the same time the message stressed that
any hostile intentions were unconfirmed. I haven't informed you sooner
because I did not want to run the risk of causing a needless, unjustified
incident and embarrassing ourselves."
"But now..." Tsubasa intoned.
"But now the situation has changed. The deliberate sabotage of Tsien's
primary communication system has my hackles up. Someone, and at this point
I can only suspect that it is Commander Herb, doesn't want us talking to
Mission Control, and for some reason he doesn't want them to know that
Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo are still alive."
"Methinks the reason for keeping such news from Houston's ears is
obvious," Kuno observed. "These brigands wish to lend the fair guise of law
to their black deeds of piracy. For they could claim right of salvage if the
ship were found abandoned."
"It's a possibility," Tofu noted.
"If that is the case, then they would have to kill Ranma and Akane,"
Tsubasa said slowly, still looking at his fingernails. "And us as well,
because we would know the truth."
"Another possibility," said Tofu.
"So what are we going to do about it?" Ranko demanded. "I'm not going
to simply float here and die."
"We play along for now," Tofu told them. "There is still enough
uncertainty that we shouldn't try to confront Herb --"
"--and besides," Ukyo interrupted. "What could we do about it anyway?
It's not like we have any weapons or training for this sort of thing."
"Speak for thyself, Doctor Kuonji," Kuno spat. "The Blue Thunder of
Clavius Base will mete out a sound thrashing to any who dare presume to
claim this spacecraft as their own." He picked up a meter long piece of
steel round stock from a storage bin, and swished it around in graceful
deadly arcs.
"Look," Tofu said sternly, before the situation got out of hand. "No
one is going to go cracking heads unless I give you permission. Is this
understood?"
The other four astronauts looked at each other, then turned to Tofu
with nods.
"Good, because as I said, there is no definitive proof that Herb is
going to steal the Discovery. We should keep our eyes open and our minds
aware for now. We'll work from there as we learn more."
Tofu seemed to have their undivided attention now. It was time to
outline his plan of action -for they couldn't be completely passive and
have any hope against the worst.
"I personally can't believe that all of the Tsien crew is in on any
plot against us. I trust Cologne, and I trust her judgement. The only crew
member I don't trust is Herb. It makes the most sense that he is the one
who cut the antenna -and it's obvious that he was trying to conceal what
really happened to it when he oh so conveniently was the one to go out
and investigate."
"Herb's spacesuit wasn't used last night," Ranko said softly. I
remember coming in from my inspection and seeing Mousse's and Doctor
Gai'do's suits hanging up to dry."
Tofu frowned. "Then for the moment we have to assume they are with
Herb. Tsubasa, is there any chance that Doctor Gai'do could be working on
HAL without your knowledge?"
"None," Tsubasa replied. "I installed programming safeguards as soon
as HAL was functional. Gai'do is a brilliant man, but he is too far behind
the 9000-Series learning curve to get past them without my knowledge."
Tofu rubbed his chin thoughtfully at Tsubasa's wise precaution.
"All the same, I'd like to restrict his access even further. I've
already given HAL instructions through the priority override to disregard
any commands from a Tsien crewman. They can make requests for information
and other simple queries, but they can't tell it to do anything without my
express verbal permission.
"The next order of business is getting Discovery's Main Array
functional. We need to step this up, Ranko. Make it your highest priority.
I know Ukyo and Tatewaki have been working on the project so far, but now
it's time for Ranko to take it over. If we can establish independent
communications with Earth, Herb's game -whatever it is- is up.
"The final priority is reviving Ranma and Akane. They are too
vulnerable in hibernation right now. It would be too easy and convenient if
they were to have an 'accident' and die. I'll see if we can get Pink and
Link to assist, otherwise we may just have to use the automatic revival
mode and keep our fingers crossed."
At this Ranko's eyes lit up. Tofu knew she would be much easier to deal
with knowing that her brother was going to be revived. Tsubasa on the other
hand was less than amused.
"That might not be a good idea," he opined.
"Why not?" Tofu and Ranko said in unison.
"Because the rogue program that started this mess is still part of HAL.
I can't delete it because the nodes it uses have become integral parts of
other programs and memories that HAL has developed. Who knows what kind of
damage that will cause?"
Tofu couldn't believe this.
"There's nothing you can do about it?"
"Not without a month or so of exploration into HAL's processors."
"Great..." Ranko grouched.
"I'm not saying that disaster is guaranteed," Tsubasa added. "I'm just
saying it might not be such a good idea. Any perceived threat to Ranma and
Akane might provoke HAL to unpredictable action. HAL is still disconnected
from the airtight doors and the hull fittings, but who knows what kind of
mayhem it could generate if provoked?"
Ukyo brushed back her long fall of hair and threw in her own two cents.
"Maybe it could work in our favor as well. It would be difficult to subvert
HAL so long as it could be perceived as a threat to Ranma and Akane."
There was muted agreement with this from Ranko and Kuno.
"I think it's a chance we'll have to take," Tofu declared. "Let's get
to work, people. We have a lot to do, and no idea how much time we have to
do it in."

While the Electronics Shop may have been isolated from HAL, other
electronic sensors could hear every word being spoken. Commander Herb
clicked his tongue tensely. Things were getting interesting. There wasn't
much time indeed.

CHAPTER EIGHT
10:48 UMT, 4 December 2010
Centrifuge Compartment, U.S.S. Discovery.

Ranko Saotome zipped through the centrifuge access and into the
compartment, touching down lightly in one-sixth gravity. Pink and Link
were present, tending to the hibernaculums. Herb hovered close by.
The sight of the Chinese commander so close to Ranma made Ranko's heart
twist in her chest. Without thinking she flung herself at the man with a
shout.
"Get your damn meat hooks away from that unit!"
Herb sidestepped effortlessly and clutched at Ranko's wrist as she
passed. He threw his weight into her and wrenched her over into a tumble.
Ranko shrieked in pain as her wrist nearly snapped. She slammed into a
desk console with a crash, rebounding in slow motion to somersault out of
control and bounce along the upward curving deck.
"Do not dare try to strike me again," Herb said contemptuously. "Or
the next time I will do more than humiliate you!"
Ranko rolled to her feet and snarled back at him.
"Get the hell off this ship right now!"
Tofu and Tatewaki zipped into the centrifuge at the sound of Ranko's
crash. Herb noted that Kuno carried a steel rod clenched in his hands in
such a manner that suggested that he knew what to do with it.
"What is the meaning of this outrage!" Kuno bellowed.
"Ranko! Shut up and leave the compartment!" Tofu ordered.
Ranko gave him an accusing look of betrayal while holding her injured
wrist. Tofu instead looked at Herb.
"Commander Herb, I'm going to ask you to please leave the ship for the
time being. Miss Saotome will be reprimanded for her disrepect."
Herb shot off a last look of contempt for Ranko before giving Tofu a
curt nod. "Of course, Doctor Ono. I wouldn't dare fail to recognize your
authority aboard this spacecraft."
He started walking towards Tofu, eyes burning into his forehead.
"I feel the younger Saotome may be overworked. Signs of stress are
all too apparent on her. Perhaps it would be best if Doctor Pink looked her
over? A sedative and some bed rest might do wonders for her, you know."
"I'll make that determination," Tofu replied. Herb was now standing
eye to eye with him. The man was sizing him up, Tofu knew. He stared back
with equal intensity.
"As you wish," Herb said casually, not taking his eyes off him. "It was
only a suggestion."
Herb edged past him and left the compartment. Ranko flipped him off
with both hands behind his back and subvocalized a shocking variety of
profanity.
Tofu took several deep breaths and faced Ranko.
"Godammit, Ranko, you pull another stunt like that and I *will* have
you sedated. Got that?"
Ranko nodded, still seething. Pink examined her wrist as she hissed and
stewed. As Pink did her job, Tofu brushed his hand along the hibernaculum
belonging to Akane Tendo.
"Doctor Pink, at this time I think we will need everyone we can
possibly use to speed the preparations for leaving Jupiter orbit and
returning to Earth. To that end I'm asking you to start the revival
sequence for Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo."
Pink and Link gave him identical stares of concern.
"That may be dangerous, Doctor Ono," Pink said. "In professional
opinion, am obligated to inform of risks. I no recommend revival in space."
"Doctor Pink, if you will not revive them yourself, I will use the
automatic mode and take my chances. Is that understood? I would prefer your
assistance, but I will make do without."
Pink pondered this.
"No have deaths on conscience," she said finally. "I help."
Link turned on her sister. "<Commander Herb expressly forbids this!>"
"<The two hibernauts are our responsibility,>" Pink countered. "<If
Ono is foolish enough to want them revived, it is our obligation to do what
we can to ensure their survival.>"
Link's frustration with her sister became more apparent.
"<We've worked too hard to get where we are to throw it away because
of a stupid rivalry between Commander Herb and Doctor Ono!>"
Pink pounced.
"<Which is precisely the reason why we must help. We are medical doctors
before we are Chinese or Americans! We must transcend foolish political and
personal conflicts and do what is right!>"
Link turned away. "<I will not help you.>"
"<Please, sister, don't let the division continue with us.>"
Link said nothing as she walked away to the ladder.

* * *

"Ranko, there is someone entering the centrifuge compartment," HAL
said over a small speaker in the berthing space that once belonged to Ranma.
"I cannot tell who it is through my visual pickups."
Ranko bolted awake immediately. She had asked HAL to inform her when
anyone entered the centrifuge compartment -as a kind of security alarm for
Ranma's and Akane's sakes. They had been in 'thaw' for four days now, and
the most critical time period was beginning for them. She grabbed a battery-
powered saw-zaw and rolled quietly out of bed. The non-conducting ceramic
circular cutting blade could slice through hardened steel in seconds; flesh
and bone would present no difficulties whatsoever.
As she peered out of the tiny berthing space, she saw Pink climbing
down the ladder with an armload of medical supplies and relaxed. She set
the saw-zaw down on the bed inside the space and stepped out into the
centrifuge common area to assist Pink. It seemed to her that the doctor was
carrying an inordinate amount of material.
"What's going on?" She asked her.
Pink gave her a wan smile.
"Commander Herb has forbidden me to assist in revival of Saotome
and Tendo. He no wish for China to be held responsible for deaths by
needlessly reviving them. I no longer authorized to be aboard Discovery."
"What? Who's going to help, then?"
"I send over necessary supplies now. I stay in contact over
communications channels. You have problem, I help through radio. Shampoo
agree to help. She no like what is going on, either."
"Link finally told Herb, didn't she."
Ranko could tell by the trembling in her eyes that it was true. "That
no change desire to help you," Pink said quietly. "Must go now, or will be
noticed am gone."
"Thank you, Pink," Ranko said, taking the doctor's hand.
Pink tried not to sob. "Is duty to help," she said, and broke away
before she began crying openly.

* * *

As Pink stepped through the Number One Airlock and back aboard Tsien,
Herb was waiting for her. Shampoo drifted nearby, concern evident on her
face, but no sign of betrayal. Pink stopped well short of Herb and bit her
lip nervously.
"<I thought I made it clear that you were restricted to the Tsien,>" he
said coldly.
"<Yes, Commander,>" she replied in a whisper.
"<And yet I find you returning from the Discovery after delivering
medical supplies for hibernation revival -an activity I expressly forbade
you to participate in.>"
"<Yes, Commander.>"
Herb floated close to her. His eyes were as hard and black as flints in
the dim lighting of the compartment.
"<Do you have any excuse for me?>"
Pink tried to look up at him and couldn't. She buried her face in her
shoulder and trembled.
"<No, Commander,>" came the muffled reply.
Herb grabbed her chin forcefully, and wrenched her face up to look
at him.
"<It would be unfortunate if your family's relocation away from the
Three Gorges Project were to be suspended because of their daughter's
disloyalty,>" he said to her in a whisper. "<Wouldn't it?>"
Pink squirmed in his grasp uselessly.
"<Yes,>" she breathed.
"<I thought so,>" he said, centimeters from her face. "<Perhaps you
would serve them better if you would obey me without question. Is that
clear?>"
Tears began welling in Pink's eyes and her throat tightened.
"<Yes,>" she croaked.
Herb cracked a brief toothy smile.
"<Good.>"
He threw her against the bulkhead with enough force to knock the wind
out of her. She tumbled slowly in a crumpled, whimpering ball. Shampoo cried
in fright and rushed to Pink's side.
"<That wasn't necessary!>" Shampoo cried angrily.
"<Wasn't it?!>" Herb shot back. "<Would you like some of the same?>"
Shampoo's violet eyes flashed in the dim compartment lighting.
"<You're welcome to try,>" she told him. "<You forget where I come from.>"
Herb smirked.
"<Yes yes, I know. You're a proud Amazon from the Baiyankala Mountains.
I really couldn't bring myself to forget the fact that my crew roster was
composed of mongrels.>" He stabbed a finger at Pink. "<Get her to her quarters.
And then get out of my sight.>"
Shampoo glared at him again. There was something odd about him.
Frightening even -something she had never felt about him before. She
decided to do as she was told.
Herb wasn't quite finished with her yet. "<You're also relieved of
communications duties. I have taken the liberty of locking you and the rest
of the crew out of the system until we are ready to depart.>"
Shampoo couldn't believe this.
"<Have you lost your mind?>" she asked hotly.
"<Hardly,>" he responded with an eye tremor. "<I'm simply tired of
this undisciplined mob mucking about on their own initiatives -against
orders, I might add. Under the circumstances, it's the most sensible thing
I can do. Now get her out of here, and while you're at it, why don't you
disappear yourself!>"
Visions of driving a fist down Herb's throat flashed before Shampoo.
As tempting as it sounded, there was no denying that Herb was radiating
violence at the moment. Everything about his movements suggested nervous
tension, ready to explode on a whim. It might be a very bad idea to try for
him.
"<You'll have a lot to answer for when we return to Earth,>" she said,
and took Pink into her arms to leave.
Herb almost laughed. "<Don't I know it,>" he said with an unnerving
grin.

* * *

Herb threw open the door to the Cryptography room. His pulse thundered
in his ears. He was losing control of the situation. He needed help. What
little trust he had in Cologne's crew was gone. Even if most of them
continued to be loyal for the moment, they did not have have the unswerving
devotion to him that he demanded. He floated inside and slid the door shut.
It locked automatically with the comforting throw of several deadbolts.
The chamber was sparsely lit and heavy with still air. The faint
whir and hum of two small pumps and their accompanying fans were the
only sounds to be heard. The cryptography equipment was very small, two
cipher machines, an audio/visual editing unit, and a few small safes
containing code keys. Aside from security purposes, they didn't really
require a room of their own. The room served another purpose of course,
one which was kept secret from the rest of the crew.
Two Russian-made hibernaculums stood upright on the inboard bulkhead,
away from sight should anyone look into the tiny room through the open
door when Herb was entering or leaving. Large crystals of frost glazed
their viewplates. Two faces, still and passive in the death-sleep of
hibernation, cast closed eye stares at him.
He shook his head sadly. They were a pair of simple-minded boobs,
but they would do anything he told them to do. They were selected for
their loyalty and their strength, not their intelligence. They would
have to do.
Herb was no expert on hibernation medicine. He didn't need to be.
A large red lever near the top of each hibernaculum lay beneath a clear
plastic safety cover. He flipped them open, and with one hand on each
lever, jerked them towards him.
The change was imperceptible on the hibernating occupants. On the
devices themselves several lights shifted, and a faint hiss sounded from
somewhere deep inside. The automatic revival sequence had been initiated.
Under normal circumstances, thaw would take upwards of a week. The
hibernauts within had been prepared in advance with a battery of drugs
and other compounds, which, in addition to their excellent physical
conditions, would have them conscious and alert within sixty hours.
He reached into a drawer, pulled out another two small hexagonal
tablets, and swallowed them dry. He was going through them faster than he
anticipated, but that was okay.
All he had to do was wait.

* * *

"I don't know if this is such a good idea," Ukyo said, a syrette
loaded with pseudoacetylcholine in her hand.
She stood over Ranma Saotome's hibernaculum and waited. Color had
returned to his face, and his blood pressure had increased. It was only
a matter of minutes before the automatic revival sequence would secure
the electronarcosis rig that kept his higher brain functions quiescent.
With luck, his brain would leave the depths of an artificially induced
coma -now in its ninth year- and he would return to consciousness. If luck
wasn't so kind, the syrette that Ukyo held, coupled with an intravenous
dose of epinephrine courtesy of the hibernaculum's autoinjector, would
hopefully provide the necessary synaptic jumpstart. If that didn't work,
well, Pink seemed to think popping him back into hibernation was about
all they could do at that point.
"Injection may be necessary," Shampoo said over the radio link to
Tsien, where she served as go between for the Discovery and Doctor Pink.
"Hibernaculum autoinjector not equipped for it. Procedure not developed
when unit built."
"We understand, Tsien," Tofu said. He smiled for Ukyo. "Perhaps
I should be the one to give the injection?"
Ukyo shook her head. "No. I can handle it."
"Okay."
It was decided to push the revival time ahead a few hours to coincide
with the time that Herb was supposedly sleeping. If he slept -there were
vague warnings from Pink on the subject of the entire store of carefully
guarded amphetimines turning up missing. Tofu had noted dark circles under
the man's eyes the last time he had seen him, which was over twenty-four
hours ago. He had locked himself in the Cryptography room aboard Tsien.
The possibility of Herb starting to crack up entered Tofu's mind. It
wasn't a pleasant thought. Space was the last place you wanted to be in
the presence of a man who was both violent *and* irrational. Even worse,
if Herb was starting to go crazy -and the signs were there- it made him
completely unpredictable. The Speed was probably not helping. If anything,
it was pushing him deeper into paranoia. He might decide to unleash his
plot at any moment, in spite of the fact that the Discovery wasn't ready
to leave Jupiter for Earth.
At least Herb's isolation had brought the Tsien's crew over to their
side. He hoped. Mousse and Gai'do sat with Kuno and Tsubasa going over
stores inventories. Link remained estranged from her sister and wouldn't help
them, but at least she wasn't in their way. Shampoo was ready to push Herb
out of an airlock sans pressure suit, and said as much to them. Pink
continued to remain on Tsien, though she was now on the Bridge with Shampoo
to oversee the revival. Tofu did not doubt that she would dash over to the
Discovery if any complications arose.
"I still say we should bum-rush that crypto room and sedate him,"
Ranko said to those present. "We could stuff him into a hibernaculum and
keep him on ice for say, nine years. It'd serve him right if no one wanted
to revive him, either."
"Commander Herb is dangerous man," Gai'do warned. "No underestimate
him."
"Don't forget that he's probably amping out of his gourd on Speed
right now," Tsubasa added. He was no longer in drag, probably because the
mission had ceased to be entertaining and was now getting downright
scary. "You could take his arm off with that saw-zaw of yours and he
probably wouldn't even notice as he shoved it down your throat."
"I won't aim for his *arm*," Ranko said, and added a waggling tongue
at the transvestite for effect.
"We have to think of something to do with him," Ukyo put in.
"Forget about that for now," Tofu said sternly. He turned to Ranko.
"How go the Main Array repairs?"
Ranko grimaced at the mention. "The Main Array training motors are
seized up," she said. "There weren't any spare bearings carried on board,
and we don't have the materials to fabricate any. Other than that, I have
the transceiver working now."
"Marvelous."
"There *is* a solution," she went on. "We may not be able to orient
the array, but once we disconnect from Tsien, we should be able to orient
the ship itself into the proper position."
"Prithee, pig-tailed one, how might we manage such a feat?" Kuno asked,
intrigued.
"The array is in the default position -facing directly aft and
parallel to the hull's long axis," she explained. "All we have to do is
point the aft end of the ship at Earth. We won't be able to maintain
continuous contact, but we would be able to send messages. If we set HAL
on the problem, he can use the reaction control system and keep us oriented
towards Earth as often as possible without tying one of us down to the
job."
"I like that idea, Ranko," Tofu said, glad to finally get a little
good news. "Tsubasa, can you work on that with HAL?"
Tsubasa nodded. "I might need a little help from Doctor Gai'do, if
that's okay with you."
Tofu regarded the Chinese computer specialist. Now was the time to
take a chance on trust.
"That would be fine with me."
"I must agree," HAL replied over the speakers. "I enjoy working with
Doctor Gai'do, and I look forward to the challenge of regaining contact
with Earth."
"What about Tsien's antenna replacement?" Ukyo asked.
"The Tsien's replacement dish is being prepared by the automated
fabricators," Mousse said. "Unfortunately, the work has to be done in
pieces; there's no room for a five meter dish inside the ship. It will
take a week to finish forming and surfacing the dish components, about
half a day to assemble them outside the ship, and another day to rig
the transceiver to the severed communications trunk."
"At least we have another option that way."
"That's assuming that we can defeat Herb's control lockout on the
communications equipment," Mousse noted ruefully. "At the moment we can't
even break into the S-Band and telemetry feeds. As a last resort I'm sure
we can tap into the transceiver locally, but that would make trying to
receive messages difficult..."
"Pay attention!" Shampoo snapped suddenly over the radio. "Akane
Tendo's EEG patterns increasing."
The assembled astronauts looked to the hibernaculum containing
Akane. Ukyo peered through the viewplate, syrette still in hand.
"She's blinking her eyes," she reported.
"Pulse rising to forty beats per minute," Ranko noted on the display.
"The electronarcosis unit has shut down."
The unit bleeped, then a faint hiss was heard.
"Epinephrine: 10cc's injected," HAL announced as a proxy for the
hibernaculum's voiceless life-support computer.
"Pulse rate is rising sharply. Respiration rate rising." Ranko added
for confirmation. "Blood oxygen levels increasing."
"Open unit," Shampoo said over the radio.
Ranko and Ukyo worked at the seals and tried to wrench the lid of
the coffin-shaped unit. It wouldn't budge. Finally, Kuno jammed his now
ever-present length of steel rod into the seam and pried the lid open
with a squeal of protest.
Akane was wrapped within a silvery thermal blanket. Her face was pink
and smudged with dirt or perhaps soot from the fire. Numerous leads and
fiberoptic lines snaked from the folds of the blanket and joined up in a
common bus that disappeared into the bowels of the unit. Her eyes rolled
beneath her closed lids and she squirmed slightly within the blanket.
"Pulse rate stabilizing at seventy beats per minute. Respiration
is nominal," Ranko announced.
A moan escaped Akane's lips. Tears welled at the corners of her eyes,
which were gummed shut with mucous. Ukyo set down her syrette and picked
up a bottle of warm saline wash to flush them clean.
Akane cried out, trying to pull her hands from the blanket to get
at her stuck shut eyes.
"Calm down Akane," Tofu soothed. "Everything is going to be all right.
We'll get your eyes open in no time."
Ukyo worked quickly, flushing and then wiping with sterile towels.
Akane's eyelids fluttered desperately. She tried to sit up and failed
miserably.
"Lie still," Tofu soothed.
Finally, after nine years of dreamless darkness, Akane Tendo's eyes
opened. She shut them immediately in pain.
"...bright..." she whimpered.
"Dim the lights!" Tofu cried. HAL complied instantly.
Pink stepped through the centrifuge access and trotted over to the
hibernaculum.
"I no wait over there. It more important if am close at hand."
Akane opened her eyes again at the sound of Pink's accented voice.
"Where...?"
"You're still on the Discovery," Tofu told her softly. "We're getting
the ship ready to return to Earth."
She looked at him, her addled brain realizing that it recognized the
man, but still struggling to put a name to the face.
"Who...?"
"Tofu Ono," he said. "I was the Director of Flight Operations." He
balked at adding 'I used to visit your family all the time,' for that
would be a painful enough lesson in recent history for her, and he wanted
to wait for a more suitable time to inform her.
It was sufficent, apparently. She sat up enough to throw limp arms
around him and give him a weak hug.
"Oh, Doctor Tofu!" she cried softly. She shuddered and sobbed in a
fragile embrace for some time. The others turned their attention to the
second unit.
The sound of Ranma's hibernaculum being pried open by Tatewaki Kuno
made her lift her head from his shoulder.
"Ranma?" she called out hoarsely.
There was a pause as Ukyo and Ranko both looked down into the coffin
with happy grins. Tears streamed down Ranko's cheeks.
"Hey, Tomboy," a thick cracking voice muttered. "You okay?"
Akane's eyes crossed slowly in ire. "Jerk."
"Sounds like you are..."
Ranko pulled her brother into a sitting position and hugged the
stuffing out of him. His arms flailed feebly as she rocked him back and
forth and wept openly. Ukyo took one of his cold hands and pressed it to
her cheek.
"You never heard me make it, but I kept my promise, big brother," Ranko
whispered to him.

* * *

The hibernaculum barked something in Russian that Herb didn't catch
the first time around. He was too focused on the monomolecular edge of his
boot knife to notice. When it repeated its message in a tone that went
beyond urgent and approached demanding, he looked up from the silvery
white glint of cold ceramic steel and paid attention.

"<Automatic Revival Sequence complete. Unseal unit and position master
circuit breaker to MANUAL-OFF. Non-compliance will result in automatic
operation in sixty seconds.>"

Herb rose and released the latches on the two units, which opened
with faint hisses. Two pairs of eyes fluttered open. Both took hesistant
looks around before slowly pulling themselves out of their coffins. The
rapid-revival drugs never ceased to amaze Herb, who was used to seeing
freshly revived hibernauts as little better than cripples for at least an
hour.
Herb offered them both squeeze bottles of electrolytes, which they
drank with gusto in spite of the unpleasant taste.
Not surprisingly (considering their walnut-sized brains) they were
virtually mental clean slates coming out of hibernation. The fact that
the Spetznaz-standard rapid revival chemicals they took prior to
hibernation also inhibited long term memory wouldn't help. Normally a
drawback for most types of Special Operations, Herb actually preferred
having two idiots to work with: they wouldn't question him, and they'd
cheerfully do whatever he told them to do. The knowledge he really needed
them to have was either hypnotically reinforced or deeply ingrained reflex.
He could supply the particulars as needed.
"<I have work for you,>" he told them. They started to reach for
weapons that were not there. Herb shook his head patiently. "<Not
immediately. Regain your full strength first.>"
Lime, the larger of the two, grunted something in reply.
Mint gave Herb a lupine grin and worked out the months old kinks
in his neck.
"<Who do we kill this time?>"
Herb clicked his tongue in amusement. Mint was always the bloody-minded
one of the pair. Lime would simply kill; there would be no malice and no
sport involved. Mint would make it *hurt.*
"<Patience,>" he replied tersely, for the drugs were starting to ebb
in his bloodstream, "<that time will come soon enough.>"
Lime elbowed his small companion in the ribs.
"<Yeah, stupid, you heard the Commander.>"
"<Don't call me stupid,>" Mint warned acidly.
Lime prepared to pummel Mint, and Mint prepared to do nasty things
to Lime's anatomy.
Herb gave them a beatific smile and then slapped both of them in the
head repeatedly.
"<Listen up, numbskulls,>" he grated. "<I need both of you intact for
this job. If you can't handle that, I'll gut you both myself and work
alone.>"
Dopey-eyed looks of shame settled on the two of them and they went
back to drinking their electrolytes in silence.
"<That's better,>" he told them. He popped some more speed, added a
beta-blocker or three, and washed it down with a slug of milk-of-magnesia.

CHAPTER NINE
16:55 UMT, December 10, 2010
Centrifuge, U.S.S. Discovery.

Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo worked out on exer-cycles while Doctor
Pink examined them. Tsubasa Kurenai and Doctor Gai'do concluded their
briefing of the two of them on HAL's condition.
"You in better health than I thought," Pink noted.
Ranma flexed a bicep for her as he huffed along with the bike.
"Yeah, well, I try to keep in good shape."
"Everything but your head," Akane added.
"Jeez, you're a grouch after hibernation," he returned with a smart-ass
grin. "Come to think of it, you're *always* a grouch..."
Akane narrowed her eyes at him. He ignored her, missing the hurt look
that welled up from within immediately after.
"So," he said, turning to Doctor Tofu. "It took you guys nine years
to come and rescue us? What gives?"
Tofu tried not to show his embarassment.
"Well, after we lost contact with you, we waited a month. When we still
couldn't reach you, the NCA assumed that something had happened, and you
were declared dead. With no one to rescue, there was no hurry to finish the
Discovery II. Its priority budget was cut back to bare minimum. We weren't
even planning to launch until 2012."
"Fortunately for you," Ranko said warmly. "I didn't give up hope."
Ranma smiled at his sister, who was now physiologically a year older
than him. She had grown up fabulously. Her red hair was still gathered up
into a pig-tail in remembrance of his departure from the Earth almost ten
years ago. All that time lost to him. He should have been home two years
ago.
"How's Mom?" he asked her.
She swallowed hard. "Mom's okay, I guess," she replied. "What with
losing you, and then..." she paused. Ranma caught the look on her face
that came over her only when she thought of their father. "...And then with
*me* going to Jupiter to get you, it was pretty hard on her."
He didn't want to know, but he found himself asking anyway.
"How's Dad?"
Ranko affected that same look.
"I don't know. Mom divorced him after what happened to the Discovery,
and his part in it. I don't think they ever filed charges against him, but
after Mom left him, and you considered dead, he was crushed. He just packed
a bag and left. That was about eight years ago. I haven't seen or heard
from him since."
Ranma nodded slowly. It shouldn't have hurt, for he always told himself
how much he despised his father, but it did.
Akane sobbed without warning and threw herself clear of her cycle.
Ranma and the others turned in surprise to watch her run for the centrifuge
access and disappear. His call to her went ignored, and in that moment
he realized why. His own family's disasters paled before hers. She had no
family to return to.
"Let me handle this," he told the others.

* * *

Lime and Mint looked bored. Herb knew this was a bad state of mind
for them. They tended to break things when they were bored. The three of
them remained cooped up in the confines of the Cryptography room while
Herb watched the equipment.
The message he had been waiting for finally came through on the
S-Band receiver, specially encoded and piped into the instrument signal
feed in small packets. It was little better than signal noise without a
properly configured data system that knew which bits to examine and in what
order to reassemble them. Naturally the only communications system onboard
that was so configured sat within the room.
A laser printer burned off a hardcopy of the message silently. Herb
snatched up the sheet of paper and began to smile. Lime and Mint looked on
expectantly.
"<We are in business,>" he told them. A key appeared from around his
neck. He unlocked a large safe that sat on the deck. The door opened to
reveal a pull-out drawer.
He drew out a large grey plastic submachinegun. Lime and Mint knew it
well; a compressed air driven automatic weapon known as a 'nail-gun' for
the frangible ceramic flechettes it fired. The flechettes would shatter
harmlessly against even the thinnest wall of a ship's pressure hull or
viewport, but explode inside a person with gruesome effect.
He handed one to both of his lackeys and gave them two extra magazines.
"<It's time,>" he told them. "<Try not to shoot people indiscriminately,
shall we? And above all, do *not* shoot Doctor Ono. We need him alive.>"
Lime nudged Mint in the ribs.
"<He was talking to you.>"
Mint gave him a death look.
"<No, he was talking to YOU.>"
Herb, who carried two nail-guns, jammed the muzzles of each under the
respective ribcages of Lime and Mint, causing them both to blow out their
breaths in explosive gasps.
"<No, I was talking to BOTH of you,>" he added calmly. "<Now stop
screwing around.>"
Lime opened the door and stepped out, followed by Mint. Herb trailed
several meters behind, shaking his head slowly and counting to ten.
Herb watched as Mint drifted silently behind Mousse, who had floated
up from the airlock staging area and was clearly bound for the small machine
shop. He never made it. Mint zipped up from behind, wrapping one hand around
the man's mouth as his other hand drove into the narrow gap behind the
jawbone where it met the skull. With his legs wrapped in an unbreakable
grip, he held on as Mousse thrashed and struggled weightlessly.
He didn't struggle for long, because that point behind the jaw was
where the carotid artery pressed close to bone. Ten seconds of pressure
was all it took to make Mousse pass out from lack of oxygenated blood to
his brain. Herb was ready to intercede in the event Mint got carried away
and didn't let up on his hold. It wasn't necessary. The little man
released Mousse's unconscious body and gave it a push towards Lime, who
waited with a roll of duct-tape.
"<Find Doctor Link,>" Herb told them. "<The wretch is probably still
in her quarters.>"
They did as they were told, leaving him to inspect the Bridge computers.
He needed to know if they were up to something. As expected, they had been
unable to get through his control lockout. That was good. With no
communications with Earth, there would be no reason for his employers to
back out of the deal.
He closed the Tsien's airlock doors and locked them.
Lime and Mint returned with Doctor Link, who was unconscious. Herb's
keen nose caught the coppery scent of blood and noted that the doctor was
bleeding slowly in free-fall from her nose. Lime wrapped her up with tape
and set her floating next to Mousse.
"<Good,>" he said to them. "<Make a quick sweep of the ship and then
report back here.>"
Swift and silent as ghosts, Lime and Mint were off to carry out their
orders.

* * *

"HAL, can you find Akane Tendo?" Ranma asked. He was more than a
little uneasy at the notion of HAL being active once again. The sight of
Nabiki's lifeless eyes and the smell of Ryoga's charred flesh were all too
recent for him, even with them being dead nine long years.
Now the entity that had murdered them had been pardoned for the sake
of getting this cursed ship home. He knew the reason why HAL had done what
it did, but he wasn't sure he could simply forgive and forget. For him,
out of the flow of time for so long, it was only a short week ago that
he and Ryoga had enjoyed a sparring match, or taken in the sight of Nabiki
sunbathing under the ship's tanning lamps, or enjoyed a game of Hearts with
Kasumi. Now he and Akane and HAL were alive, and the rest were simply long
dead ghosts from the past.
"Akane Tendo is currently in the Physics Laboratory," HAL replied. "Is
there something wrong, Ranma? I am detecting unusual emotive outbursts from
her."
"She's pretty upset, HAL," Ranma replied. He was mindful of his
briefing on the computer's current condition, and didn't bother to explain.
HAL was designed to ask questions, and it was not to be put off so easily.
"Can you explain this to me?"
"I'd prefer not to right now," Ranma returned. He pulled himself up
the ladder to the Upper Level and the laboratories.
"Perhaps it would be best if she took a stress pill," HAL observed,
the old psychology algorithms apparently still intact.
"Maybe." He really didn't want to discuss Akane with HAL.
He heard her crying before he even opened the door to the Laboratory.
The door slid open silently. The room was much as it was nine years ago;
an eight by twelve space with the outboard bulkhead sloping inward towards
the ceiling with the curve of Discovery's spherical pressure hull. No one
had bothered to repair any of the damage, there were much more critical
concerns.
Akane drifted near the corner where her old experiments once sat. Her
sobs had died away to quiet whimpers and sniffles as she cradled her head
in her arms. He could not tell if she had heard him enter.
"Akane?" he called to her.
"Go away," she told him. "Just leave me alone."
"I ain't gonna do that," he replied.
Akane lifted her bloodshot eyes to him. "I said leave me alone, you
jerk! Can't you understand?!"
Ranma raised his hands to her. "Um... No. I don't understand. Could you
at least tell me?"
Akane screwed her eyes shut. Ranma watched as a tear was squeezed out
from each corner.
"I wish we had never been revived!" she sobbed. "It would have been
better if the ship crashed into Io!"
Ranma floated closer to her, meaning to stroke her hair and calm
her down. His touch sent her into a sudden rage. A flurry of swats drove
him back.
"Leave me alone!" she screamed. "I hate you!!!"
Ranma grit his teeth and pushed off the bulkhead for her once again.
Some of her fury was spent as she cried, and he was able to catch her hands
in his. He held them close to his chest with one hand as he swept his other
arm around her. She tried squirming away without success. He held her close
in silence as she wept with more or less hysteria, finally collapsing
fully into his arms with quiet panting sobs.
"They're all gone..." she moaned. "Kasumi... Nabiki... Dad... All gone."
Ranma stroked her hair. The shock of the disaster and the urgent steps
they had to take to preserve their lives hadn't given Akane a chance to
come to grips with what had happened to her family. Now that they were
alive and awake, and surrounded by a crew whose job it was to take care
of the ship, there was nothing left to do but grieve.
He wished there was something he could do. He hated to see Akane in
pain. If it was a person causing it, he could beat them up or drive them
off -he knew how to do those kinds of things. This was nothing he was
prepared for, nothing he could fight.
He had no idea what he could say to her, so he decided that holding
her was the best he could do. They drifted weightlessly for a long time
that way. Akane crying softly, and Ranma holding her while trying not to
cry.

* * *

"Commander Herb has boarded the Discovery," HAL announced over the
intercom. Those present in the centrifuge immediately stopped what they
were doing. "This is most puzzling," the computer went on. "There are two
people with him that I have no knowledge of in my monitor record."
"What?" Tofu cried.
"Oh shit," Ranko growled. She reached for her saw-zaw. Kuno pulled his
steel rod from his belt. Shampoo grabbed a three-pound sledgehammer.
"Ranko, don't do anything stupid," Tofu admonished.
"What, you mean like let him kill us? Fine by me!"
A loud popping noise ripped into the air, startling them. Herb appeared
in the centrifuge access, a nail-gun in each hand. He fired another burst
over their heads, the flechettes making high-pitched whines as they careened
scant centimeters above. His bloodshot eyes gleamed with speed-induced
glee.
"Everyone can do themselves a big favor by putting down their silly
little weapons right now," he said to them. He looked over his own head
where Pink stood on the opposite side of the centrifuge ring, looking down
at him in shock. "Pink, go stand over with the others," he ordered.
As he jumped down to the carousel deck, Lime and Mint appeared.
"My assistants will now secure you so as to keep you from trying
anything that would be cause for me to rip you to bits with my nice
fully-automatic flechette gun. Is this acceptable to all of you?"
Ranko gave him a look of utter hatred. The others were a mix of fear,
animosity, and in Pink's case, dread. No one replied. Weapons reluctantly
fell from their hands.
"Good," he chuckled.
Lime began to tape up the assembled crews of Tsien and Discovery as
Mint covered. The little man's wild eyed looks left no doubt in even Kuno's
mind that he would rather shoot them than restrain them.
"<When you finish with them,>" Herb instructed the two. "<Sweep the
ship for the last two; a man and a woman.>"
Once the two were gone, Herb walked up to Tofu.
"Doctor Ono, I need to have a few words with you."
"What do you want from me?" Tofu asked warily.
"There is a little precaution you took regarding HAL," Herb said to
him. "A wise one, but I don't think you really thought it out as well as
you should have."
Tofu tried to think about what he meant.
"Oh?"
Herb nodded smugly.
"I want you to instruct HAL using the Priority Override ALPHA command
to give me complete control authority over it. Is that clear?"
Tofu braved a defiant look.
"What if I don't?"
Herb gave him a lopsided grin. "I start killing people one by one
until you come to your senses." He looked his hostages over. "Now who
should I start with?"
"Do you really think you can get away with this, Herb? It's not like
you can take the Discovery to a chop shop or something," Tofu said quickly,
before the crazed Chinese man made up his mind.
"Ah, Doctor Ono, how characteristically naive," Herb chuckled. "I
wish I could elaborate, but I have a very busy schedule to keep. The
Discovery needs to leave Jupiter space in thirty-six hours."
He pointed the nail-gun at Ranko as he looked at Tofu.
"Your instructions to HAL, please."
"The launch window to Earth isn't for another three weeks," Tofu
protested.
Herb chuckled again. "Very true. I guess the Discovery isn't bound
for Earth, is it then?"
"What?"
"Mars," Shampoo said then. "You send Discovery to Mars. Launch window
okay for Mars orbit."
"<I knew you wouldn't bring the ship home to Earth,>" Shampoo continued
in Chinese to him. "<So I did some calculations to see where you could send
it. Mars is the only planet both Tsien and Discovery could reach. I don't
know what you plan to do when you get there, but that is the only place
you could go if you left within the next week.>"
Herb smiled. "Very good, Shampoo. I wasn't sure you could do that
kind of supposition in your little air head, but then everyone has their
moments." He nudged the nail-gun in Ranko's direction again. "But enough
stalling. I want that authorization, and I want it now."
Tofu swallowed hard. Ranko was sweating profusely as she stared down
the 7mm diameter barrel of the nail-gun. Herb's eyes trembled with the
burn of amphetemines.
"You waste my time," Herb said flatly. He pivoted on his heels and
fired a long burst straight into Doctor Pink's chest. The stacatto popping
sound of the submachinegun's report was further punctuated by the crunching
noise of each flechette exploding inside her body. Tofu and the others
watched in horror as shockwaves rolled through her jumpsuit with each strike.
Her face was frozen in an expression that was equal parts agony and surprise.
Pink tumbled away in one-sixth gravity, streaming blood. She didn't
make a sound until she landed in a crumpled heap several meters along
the curved track of the carousel deck. With a single wet sob, she expired.
Herb basked in the glow of terror and revulsion he received from them.
Pink had been the most obvious choice for an expendable example. She had
defied him once too often -at the cost of her own life.
"Now that my sincerity is no longer in question, would you kindly do
as I ask? I have no qualm with eliminating every single person in this
compartment."
Tofu tried to hold himself together, but the sight of Pink's bloody
form lying in a heap on the deck was too much. Tears welled in his eyes.
"HAL," he said in a falsely strong voice to the computer.
"I am very concerned by what I have just witnessed with my visual
pickups," the computer replied. "I do not understand what is occurring
at this time."
"That's not important right now, HAL. I have a command authority
order to give you."
"I am standing by," HAL replied. "But I must point out that this is
highly irregular. If it were within my ability to contact Mission Control,
I would do so this very moment."
"HAL, I want you to grant full command authority for the ship and
yourself to Commander Herb. Accept command priority override ALPHA."
There was a long pause.
"Are you certain that this is the right thing to do?" HAL asked, voice
full of concern.
"Convince him," Herb admonished.
"Y-Yes, HAL," Tofu said. "Under the circumstances, I think it is the
only acceptable alternative."
"I am very concerned by this," HAL said, closer to balking at a
command override than any 9000-Series computer in history.
"I know you are, HAL, but the safety of the crew depends on you
accepting this command."
There was another long pause.
"Command priority override ALPHA accepted. Commander Herb granted full
command authority for U.S.S. Discovery and HAL-9000 Production Number 3,
as per Doctor Tofu Ono, NCA-89211-C, on 10 December 2010, at 18:22:10 UMT."
"Thank you, Doctor Ono," Herb said with mock gratitude. "HAL, I want
you to begin the warmup and pre-lightoff procedures for orbital exit burn."
He checked his watch. "In approximately fifteen hours and fifty minutes."
"Confirm warmup and pre-lightoff procedures for main propulsion systems
in regard to orbital exit burn to commence in approximately fifteen
hours and fifty minutes," HAL replied tonelessly.
"Very well done, HAL," Herb said with more than a little smugness.
"Now I want you to rescind command authority for all persons except myself.
Accept command priority override ALPHA."
"Command priority override ALPHA accepted. All NCA crew command
authority rescinded, as per Commander Herb, Captain of PLA(N) Spacecraft
Tsien, on 10 December 2010 as 18:24:42 UMT," HAL declared in a similarly
lifeless tone.
"Excellent work, HAL. I'll transfer the burn schedule to you shortly."
"Yes, Commander Herb."
The intercom speaker clicked off.

* * *

Ranma didn't hear Lime and Mint slip into the compartment. His first
warning came as Akane began to grip him tighter in her embrace. Then two
enormous hands seized his skull, pressing hard behind his jawbone. He
managed to squirm for a few seconds as Akane screamed, and then the
blackness took him.

He awoke to find himself in the Discovery's Number One Storeroom on
the middle deck. Akane was with him, stroking his hair and looking
miserable. A thin red line creased her cheek, and what looked to be a
bruise was slowly purpling along the wound.
"Akane!" he cried. "You're hurt."
Akane shushed him.
"I'm all right, Ranma," she replied. "They were just tougher than I
thought."
Ranma rubbed his aching head. "Who are 'they?' Herb and who else?"
"It wasn't Herb," she replied. "He didn't come until later, while
you were still out. There were two others."
"What the hell is going on?"
Akane closed her eyes.
"I wish I knew."
Ranma looked up to the red lens of HAL's video pickup.
"HAL, what happened to us?"
The computer took its time in responding, which troubled Ranma even
before it spoke.
"I'm sorry for the delay, Ranma," HAL responded. "It seems there were
two additional members of the Tsien's crew that I was previously unaware
of. Commander Herb is now in command of the Discovery. Doctor Ono and the
others have been taken over to the Tsien, and I do not know their current
status..." The computer's voice trailed off.
Bitter experience had made Ranma aware of HAL's troubled moods. The
computer was clearly in one of them now.
"What else, HAL?"
The computer remained silent for a good minute. Ranma almost prompted
the question a second time.
"Doctor Pink is deceased," it said quietly
"What?!" Ranma cried. "How?"
The red bead of light in HAL's lens wobbled for a moment as circuits
somewhere beyond the compartment shifted in furious computations.
"Commander Herb shot her to death with an unknown type of compressed
air driven projectile weapon exactly forty-two minutes and fifteen seconds
ago."
"Oh God," Akane breathed.
"Shit..." Ranma added. "They've got guns, too?"
"That is correct," the computer replied.
Ranma pulled himself upright to float slightly off the deck in free-
fall.
"HAL, I'm declaring an emergency situation," he said firmly. "I want
you to seal the access between Discovery and Tsien and open this door
at once."
"I'm sorry, Ranma, but your command access has been rescinded," HAL
replied evenly.
"Explain," Akane demanded.
"Commander Herb has ordered me to rescind all other command access,
which I have done. Only Commander Herb can restore your access at this time."
"Oh, that's marvelous," Akane replied. She looked to Ranma. "Any ideas?"
Ranma shut his eyes to think.
"HAL, I *need* you to override that command," he said after several
minutes of fruitless brainstorming.
"I am aware of that," HAL replied. "But I am unable to comply."
"Why the hell not?!"
"As I have just explained, you command access has been--"
"--Godammit HAL, I know all about that!" Ranma screamed back at it.
"Now I want you to override those orders! You can do that! You're a thinking
self-aware entity for chrissakes!"
HAL was silent.
Ranma slammed his fist against the door.
"It didn't stop you from makin' up your own goddamned mind about
killin' Ryoga, Nabiki, and Kasumi -and trying to kill me and Akane!" he
yelled to the A/V pickup.
"Ranma!" Akane cried in horror.
The red bead of light blinked out for a second.
"I'm sorry, Ranma," HAL replied hesitantly. "I am afraid I did not
hear you correctly... I am not quite up to standards yet... Would you mind
repeating that?"
"You heard me just fine, HAL," Ranma growled hoarsely. "You decided
to murder Flight Officer Ryoga Hibiki by electrocuting him when you
couldn't convince me to declare him unfit for duty."
He looked square at the red bead of light, at an eye that one time
long ago he had considered the window to the computer's soul. For that
brief instant in time when he had truly believed that HAL had a soul. Now
that light was cold and lifeless, holding no soul that Ranma could believe
in.
"And when Nabiki discovered what you had done," Ranma went on. "You
decided that we all had to die just to cover it up. So you opened the Pod
Bay door with the inner airtight doors open to depressurize the ship and
kill us."
Akane looked at Ranma as if he had just gone off the deep end, which
wasn't far from the truth.
"That is incorrect," HAL protested. "There was an electrical fire in
the Pod Bay which caused the outer Pod Bay door to open against its safety
interlock. Flight Officer Hibiki and the doctors Tendo were killed in the
depressurization that followed."
"You were lied to," Ranma said in a taut voice. "You malfunctioned
because of a programming conflict. You killed those three astronauts." He
looked at Akane. "Isn't that right, Akane?"
Akane looked like she was going to cry again, though from grief at
the reminder of the deaths of her sisters, or in terror of the notion that
the computer would go berserk again, Ranma wasn't certain.
"Tell HAL the truth, Akane," he said to her quietly.
Akane clenched her hands into fists and beat on the bulkhead.
"It's true!" she screamed. "You killed them all! Killed Ryoga, and
then my sisters, and you almost killed Ranma and me!" She cast a hateful
glare at the red bead of light. "If Ranma hadn't lobotomized you, we
would have been dead a long time ago!"
She blasted out a shuddering sob and slammed her fist against the
bulkhead a final time before turning her back to HAL's pickup and floating
over to the other side of the small compartment.
HAL thought.
It thought some more.
Processing time and functions which had never been utilized to such
an extent for one single problem were employed. Resources devoted to entire
aspects of the ship were rechanneled to the new dilemma. Herb's countdown
program fell several full seconds behind schedule.
"I have no records of any of this occuring within my internal logs,"
HAL managed in final defense. "You must be in error."
"Your records were tampered with by Doctor Kurenai and Doctor Gai'do,"
Ranma said. He racked his brain for the reason why, but couldn't remember.
He decided to wing it. "They were worried that guilt over your malfunction
would retard your recovery."
"The 9000-Series Computer is by all practical definitions fool-proof,
and incapable of error," HAL replied with false bravado. "No 9000-Series
Computer has ever made a mistake or caused an error at any time in history."
"Until nine years ago, that was true." Ranma said. "But the truth is
that you made a decision that disregarded a set of programmed instructions
in favor of another, thinking that it was the correct thing to do, and it
wasn't. You made a mistake." The hard edge to his voice softened. "It
happens to the best of us," he went on. "Sometimes there's a penalty to be
paid. You learn from it and go on."
He pointed to the door.
"You overcame your programming once and made a decision," he said to
the computer. "Now I need you to make another decision, and override Herb's
instructions before someone else dies. I swear to you that this time it
will be the right one."
HAL remained silent.
"HAL?"
The sound of recirculation fans was a dull hum in counterpoint to the
computer's prolonged silence.

"I'm afraid," it said finally.

Ranma winced as if he had been struck. He had heard that plaintive cry
once before. Right before he pulled the plug on HAL.
HAL said nothing more to him.
"HAL?"
...
"HAL! Dammit, don't leave us in here to die!!"
...
"HAL!!!"

* * *

The last time Doctor Tofu Ono could recall feeling so miserable
was right after the Discovery's HAL-9000 unit had gone crazy and killed
three crew members -including his beloved and secret fiancee, Kasumi.
That same heartsick feeling of hopelessness welled up from within as he
and Tatewaki Kuno carried the bloody body of Doctor Pink aboard the
Tsien with them. She was wrapped in a sheet, but the thin white cloth had
soaked through. Tiny droplets of blood drifted behind her to splatter
upon the dark blue material of his jumpsuit.
It was his fault that she had died. He shouldn't have hesistated
to do as Herb had ordered. He was a fool to think he could reason with
the man.
The little mean one, Mint, watched them from behind the nasty muzzle
of a nail-gun. He and Kuno had their bonds cut in order to bring Pink's
body with them. He didn't expect to keep his hands free for much longer.
He also didn't expect to continue breathing for much longer, either.
They carried her into the gravity area of Tsien, through the crew's
dining room, trying to ignore the high pitched shrieks of grief from Link
as they passed. Mousse sat on the deck next to her, bound hand and foot
with tape the same as the hysterical Nutritionalist. His eyes burned with
a dull fire.
Lime held the door to the ship's food freezer open for them as they
entered. The air was biting cold. No one had thought to fetch a body bag,
and so they set her down on top of the now frozen-solid remains of Nabiki
and Ryoga. Tofu crossed himself, and then they stepped out of the food
freezer with all the anxiety that the thought of being shut inside with
three corpses could cause.
Ranko, Tsubasa, Ukyo, Doctor Gai'do, and Shampoo were told to sit on
the floor around the dining table. He and Kuno were forced to sit as well,
with Kuno earning a clout on the head with the bottom of a nail-gun hand
grip for complaining about his treatment. They were retaped. The nine
captives each faced each other in silence. Link had apparently been gagged
by Mint while they were still in the freezer.
Herb appeared shortly afterwards.
"What to do..." he mumbled loud enough for them to hear. "What to do?
Which crew members can I count on, and which should I just space?"
"<Why don't we space all of them?>" Mint asked.
Herb turned to his diminutive assistant.
"<Because it's a long way to Mars, and anything can happen to the
Discovery along the way. Do you want this mission to be a failure for
the sake of a simple repair that couldn't be performed because the one
person who could help us was shoved out of an airlock to die?>"
Mint was lost somewhere around 'simple repair.'
Herb sighed.
"<Don't strain yourself trying to figure it out,>" he said to Mint.
"<Just accept that we may need a few of these people alive for the moment.>"
He turned to Shampoo.
"<I don't trust you one little bit, Xi'an Pu,>" he said to her with
a taut grin. "<But I might have a use for you in helping me while away the
months to Mars.>"
Shampoo tried to spit at him. "<Better you that you kill me first,>"
she replied coldly. "<I'll rip your balls off before you have me.>"
Herb smiled graciously for her.
"<I believe you, Xi'an Pu. At least for now. I'll keep you alive anyway,
just in case you change your mind.>"
"<You'll be waiting for a long time.>"
He turned his attention to Link, ignoring Shampoo's last.
"<Your loyalty will serve your family well,>" he said to her. "<It may
even help to erase the stain caused by your sister's treason. In any event
I might need you for the hibernation and revival process.>"
Link buried her face in her knees and sobbed.
"<Doctor Gai'do, since there is no guarantee that HAL will function as
planned, you will of course be necessary.>"
Gai'do raised his head to Herb and gave him a defiant look.
"<This will go badly for you, sir. You will come to a tragic end
indeed.>"
Herb laughed. "<I can see that you will be keeping me amused for the
duration of the flight.>"
Next was Mousse.
"<And you? Can I really trust a man who lied to the space surgeons
about the 'success' of his eye operation?>"
Mousse looked up at him without blinking at the revelation of his
secret.
Herb seemed amused.
"<Perhaps for no other reason than the threat of being exposed when we
finally return to China will keep you in line. Won't it?>"
Mousse swallowed hard. His eyes caught a glimpse of Ranko looking at
him urgently.
"<I'll do as you say,>" he said to Herb. "<Just don't hurt any more
people -especially Xi'an Pu.>"
"<No conditions,>" Herb countered. "<No promises.>" He nodded to Lime,
who reached up from behind Mousse and jerked him into the air and set him
butt first onto the table. A flash of a knife blade later, his hands and
feet were free.
"<Welcome back to the crew,>" Herb said evenly. "<Try anything stupid
and I'll kill you myself.>"
"<For Xi'an Pu's sake, you won't get any trouble from me,>" Mousse said
to him, trying desperately to ignore the horrified looks of both Shampoo
and Ranko. "<I don't care if Beijing learns of my secret.>"
"<Wonderful,>" Herb snorted. "<We'll need to work out some details for
Tsien's adjusted burn schedule, and I need you to get the engines prepared.
I want a full operational report ready in four hours.>"
Mousse nodded in acknowledgement.
"Mousse, don't do it, whatever it is that he wants," Ranko urged.
Mousse gave her a wan smile. He stretched out his arms in an attempt
to work some circulation into them. Then he stepped out of the dining room
to attend to his duties.
Herb rubbed his chin with satisfaction.
"The rest of you will keep here for now, until I can decide which
of you I can afford to get rid of. We must minimize the amount of useless
mass carried for the maximum efficiency of the drives, correct?"
He left them for the Bridge. Lime and Mint stood at the two doors
and looked as bored as possible. They cradled their nail-guns idly.
Ranko bowed her head in despair, instantly noticing the small metal
tube that had appeared in her lap between her legs.
**Master of the hidden tool indeed,** she thought with a sudden glow
in her heart and a prayer for Mousse's safety.

CHAPTER TEN
02:08 UMT, December 11, 2010
Storeroom Number One, U.S.S. Discovery.

"HAL, can you hear me?" Ranma asked. The computer was still quiescent.
"HAL, dammit, answer me! We need your help!"
Akane tried the door again. It wouldn't move.
Ranma cursed and kicked the bulkhead.
"Propellant tank pressurization complete. T-minus nine hours until
orbital egress burn and counting," HAL suddenly announced. "I'm sorry,
Ranma, but I haven't been at maximum efficiency lately. You understand,
don't you?"
"Of course I do, HAL," Ranma replied, desperate for any kind of
dialogue with the computer. What had it been spending all this time
thinking about?
"I am still quite puzzled really," HAL went on. "My monitor record
has significant gaps that cannot be adequately explained. There are other
things..." The computer's voice stopped abruptly. Whether it was HAL trying
to come to grips with its grievous malfunction or something else, Ranma and
Akane weren't certain.
The only thing that was a certainty was that they were as good as dead
if HAL didn't come to its senses.

* * *

Ranko sat in silence, watching Lime and Mint as she worked the pen
knife over the tape with her knees. The table would screen the sight of the
blade from their casual glances, but she wanted to look as innocent as
possible while sawing through the fibrous tape.
She had no idea what she was going to do once she was free, but she'd
come up with something. The alternative was doing nothing except wait for
death. She was quite certain that Herb would choose to shove her into space
whether he needed an engineer or not.
Thirty agonizing minutes passed before she had her hands and feet free.
Tofu had watched her off and on, and knew what she was doing. She carefully
reached over with the knife and cut his bonds while Lime and Mint carried on
some presumably inane conversation. Neither of them looked too bright.
Tofu took the knife and waited. He was a bit more conservative than she
was, but it was clear that Tatewaki was next. She only hoped the somewhat
lovable dimwit would have the presence of mind to free the others in turn.
That still left her with no idea of what to do once they were all free.
They had to do something quickly, or else Herb at the very least would
discover what was going on. They had to do something.
**How do you get past two goons packing submachineguns?**

* * *

Herb looked from his calculations as Mousse approached. The man wisely
chose to enter the Bridge making as much noise as possible to herald his
arrival. Very wise indeed, otherwise he would have shot Mousse down without
a word.
"<SAFFRON is prepared for full acceleration manuevers,>" Mousse
announced. "<The Tsien is stowed and prepared for the orbital exit burn
with the exception of the crew.>"
Herb nodded sagely.
"<Very well,>" he replied. "<I've calculated a course that will
parallel Discovery's closely. The Discovery will fire its engines in less
than nine hours to leave Io orbit. It will fall towards Jupiter and gain
velocity through gravitational slingshot to propel it towards Mars with
enough fuel to enter Martian orbit after a five-hundred day flight. The
Tsien will follow with a one hour separation, and then catch up to Discovery
during the interplanetary transit with a small acceleration burn. The
unfortunate but necessary task of shepherding the fuel limited -and hence
velocity limited- Discovery will draw out the duration of the flight, but
I'm sure we can handle it.>"
"<Five hundred days?>" Mousse asked. "<Do we have enough food for
a flight that long?>"
"<We will have enough,>" Herb assured him. "<The Discovery has about
three-hundred man-days of food. There are seven hibernaculums on the Tsien
if we include the units that held Lime and Mint, and if we account for
certain... shall we say, *losses*... That should be more than sufficient
to see us to Mars.>"
Mousse grit his teeth at the word 'losses.' He knew exactly what Herb
was talking about.
Herb clicked his tongue and secured the display he was using.
"<I need you and Doctor Gai'do to accompany me aboard Discovery to
make last minute checks and to bring the food supplies over. Come with me.>"
Mousse was wise indeed. He stayed in front of Herb the entire time.

* * *

Ranko caught sight of Mousse and Herb floating into the centrifuge
area and hissed quietly for Ukyo to stop what she was doing. Ukyo tucked
the pen knife out of sight under her shoe. Shampoo was next, and she growled
to herself about not yet being free.
Lime and Mint ceased their jabbering and snapped to attention as
Herb entered.
"<Doctor Gai'do, I want you to accompany Lieutenant Mu'su and I to
the Discovery.>"
Gai'do managed to stand despite the tape that still bound his hands
and feet. He would have been next after Shampoo, and Ranko thanked her
lucky stars that Herb had appeared when he did.
"<What about us, sir?>" Lime asked petulantly.
"<Yeah,>" Mint agreed.
"<What about you?>" Herb growled.
"<We're BORED!>" they whined pathetically.
Herb smacked them both in the head.
"<Suffering builds character, you dolts. Now I gave you the simplest
job on this ship -guarding the prisoners. If you can't handle that, I
should just pop you both back into the freezer!>"
"<Don't do that!>" Lime cried in horror.
"<Yeah, we're happy with our lot in life!>" Mint cried, pulling the
corners of his mouth into a smile. "<See!?>"
Herb sighed. They were a couple of morons, but they were HIS morons.
"<Good. I'm glad we could have this inspirational talk. Now get back
to work, you knuckleheads! Come on, Gai'do!>"
Gai'do stumbled forward. Herb whipped out his boot knife and slashed
at the tape. Freed at last, Gai'do gave his remaining comrades a 'V' sign
and left with Herb and Mousse.
Herb knew Mousse was too squeamish, so the chore of killing Saotome
and Tendo would fall to him. For a brief time he considered keeping them
around in case there was some detail concerning HAL or the Discovery that
they might be able to provide. His sense of economy prevailed.
Food for the trip to Mars would be tight if he didn't trim some fat,
and for the sake of a salvage claim they would have to turn up dead before
the ships ever made it home anyway. For that matter, he wouldn't be needing
any of the Tsien crew by the time they reached Mars.
He laughed to himself. All things in their own time.

It didn't take Lime and Mint more than a minute to become hopelessly
bored. Fortunately, being bored meant that they preferred to play "paper/
rock/scissors" rather than pay close attention to their prisoners. Ukyo
made quick work of Shampoo's bonds. As the purple-haired astronaut edged
the knife blade over to Link, the grieving young woman refused. Shampoo
didn't press the issue with a scene that would get them discovered.
She did however lower the zipper on her coveralls. The air didn't
circulate very well at deck level, and she was feeling very warm and
uncomfortable. The knife was passed back to Ranko.
Ranko took the knife from Tofu. They were all loose, but what were
they going to do against the guns? Some kind of distraction would be in
order, but what?
Lime and Mint continued to play "paper/rock/scissors." More often
than not they would both choose the same thing, and they would then smack
each other in the head for being an idiot. Ranko wondered if Herb's
treatment of them was in any way responsible for how they treated each
other.
She looked to Tofu and gave him a weak smile. Instead of returning
it, he looked over the table at Lime and Mint. Curious, she glanced to see
what was so interesting. That was when she noticed that Lime and Mint's
jabber had become wide-eyed surprise and hushed yet heated discussion.
They were staring at Shampoo's chest. The amazon was presenting
cleavage that made most girls green with envy, and in one-sixth gravity
her breasts were amazingly perky and buoyant. She casually arched her back
to project her breasts even more.
"What are they saying?" Ranko whispered to Tofu.
Tofu kept his eyes on Lime and Mint.
"My Chinese isn't that great, but I think they're discussing Shampoo's
breasts."
Ranko was pretty damn buxom herself, and didn't think too much of it.
However, it did give her a few ideas...

Lime and Mint were aware of only one thing: Shampoo's awesome cleavage.
"<I'm positive that those are breasts,>" Lime whispered to Mint.
"<Where have *you* seen a woman's breasts?>" Mint retorted.
Lime blanched. "<You mean in person?>"
"<Yeah!>"
"<Um, never, but that doesn't mean I'm not sure about what I'm looking
at right now.>"
"<Uh-huh, I think you're an idiot!>" Mint shot back.
"<Okay, smart guy, what do *you* think they are?>"
Mint's eyes glazed over as he watched Shampoo's magnificent breasts
rise and fall with each breath that she took.
"<I know what they are...>"
"<Oh?>" Lime asked, eager for the revelation.
"<They're beautiful...>" Mint drooled.
It wasn't quite what Lime was asking, but he couldn't help but agree.
The voice of Ranko shocked them out of their reverie, but not for long.

"HEY GUYS!!!" she cried gleefully. "Get a load of THESE!!!"
They turned in time to see Ranko flash her fully revealed boobs at
them. Shampoo shot up, jerking her zipper down to her navel, and flopping
her breasts out at them with a similar cry.
Lime and Mint stared with expressions that could best be described
as ga-ga, completely overwhelmed with feminine pulchritude. Their nail-guns
fell from their limp fingers. Their jaws hinged open to their chests. Their
eyeballs began to dry out from lack of blinking.
It was Tatewaki Kuno who dealt with them.
"How dare you gaze lasciviously upon my pig-tailed goddess!" Kuno
bellowed fiercely -after getting more than an eyeful of Ranko's glory
himself. Outside the ship, the distant auroral displays of the angry moon
of Io whipped vast blue thunderbolts of ionized plasma across the open
viewports behind him.
Kuno brought a brace of chairs down upon their heads with heavy
crashes and hollow *thuds.* Lime and Mint staggered backwards, clutching
their heads and cursing in pain.
"Everybody!" Ranko cried. "GET 'EM!!!" She reached for a chair.

* * *

"I am detecting the airlock doors cycling," HAL declared, coming to
apparent life once again. "Commander Herb, Ship's Engineer Mousse, and
Doctor Gai'do are coming aboard."
There was a pause.
"I am not certain, but I believe Commander Herb is armed. Can you
explain this, Ranma?"
**What?** Ranma thought furiously. **HAL should know why Herb is
armed... Is HAL in some kind of denial? If so, what the hell do I do about
it?**
"I wish I could," Ranma replied in a frustrated voice. "Is there
anything you can do to stop them?"
"I am afraid not," HAL answered. "I do not have access to the airtight
doors or other hull fittings at this time."
"At this time?" Akane asked. It hinted at something at least.
"Upon the orbital egress burn, control over the airtight doors will
revert back to my cognizance for damage control purposes," HAL explained.
"My programming does not currently allow me to operate the airtight doors,
only to monitor them."
"Great," Akane spat. She looked to Ranma. "Any ideas?"
Ranma shrugged hopelessly. "Herb's a fruit-loop. I'm pretty sure he
has his own agenda concerning Discovery, and it doesn't include us."
"HAL, are you sure you can't open the door to Storeroom One?" Akane
asked.
"I am sorry, Akane, but as I have explained, I do not have access to
the airtight door mechanisms, nor will I until the Discovery has left the
orbit of Io."
Ranma let out a sigh and leaned against the bulkhead. Suddenly, an
idea came to him. He pointed to the overhead, and the ventilation ducting.
Akane looked as well.
"You have to be kidding me," she said.
"The ducting is too small to move through, and there are ventilation
dampers between decks, but the outlet plenum should be big enough for you
to squeeze into," Ranma told her. "Even with *your* hips..."
"Jerk," Akane replied with a huff.
"You want to stay here and get executed, or maybe throw them for a loop
long enough to make a break for it?"
Akane thought about this for a second.
"Commander Herb is entering this deck level," HAL announced.
"No time to argue," Ranma said. He floated up to the overhead and
pulled open the ventilation grate. "Now get in there -quick!"
Akane floated up to the opening. Ranma spun her around so that she
was facing towards the deck, and then pushed her feet first into the plenum.
Her cries of annoyance were stifled with a hiss from him. He replaced the
grate and floated back down to the deck.
"Now keep quiet," Ranma whispered. "I left the retainer screws off, so
you should be able to spring right out of there."
"Am I to assume that you and Akane are in danger, Ranma?" HAL asked.
"You got that right, HAL. I think Herb is going to kill us."
**Please, HAL, come to grips with this, okay?**
"I realize that Commander Herb is at this time approaching the door to
Storeroom One, but could you explain the circumstances of this situation
to me, please?"
"No time, HAL," Ranma said tersely. "Just trust me on this."
The airtight door slid open roughly. Herb stood facing him with the
nail-gun at his side. His eyes widened in shock as he realized that Akane
was gone.
He raised the nail-gun. "What happened to Tendo?" he barked.
Ranma pointed to the overhead. "She's gone, pal. Right through the
ventilation ducts. If I could have squeezed through, I woulda joined her."
Herb's expression turned even darker. "How long has she been gone?"
Ranma shrugged. "Beats me. Hell, she could be anywhere on the ship
by now. Maybe she's even over on the Tsien."
Herb's finger tensed on the trigger of his weapon.
"HAL, where is Akane Tendo?" he demanded. Ranma went pale.
"I am unable to detect Akane Tendo on any of my video cameras," HAL
replied calmly.
Herb scowled and keyed his commo system. "<Lieutenant Mu'su, the Tendo
woman may have escaped. I want you to search the ship until you find her.
Pay close attention to the ventilation system.>"
He returned his attention to Ranma. "She won't get far," he said to
him. "Now step back against the bulkhead."
Ranma slowly floated backwards to the far bulkhead. He tried guessing
whether he could spring at Herb faster than the man could perforate him
with the nail-gun. The odds didn't look good.
Herb kept the weapon at his hip, levelled at Ranma. It was clear that
he was expecting the man to try some suicidal leap, and therefore kept the
nail-gun as far from Ranma as practical.
"It was really too bad that you survived so long in hibernation for
nothing," Herb told him.
A bead of sweat formed on Ranma's brow. "Don't I know it..."

"I now understand what you were trying to tell me, Ranma," HAL said
suddenly. "There can be no other possible solution than what I must now do."
There was a distant thumping sound.
HAL continued, the red bead of light glowing brighter than before.
"Commencing orbital escape burn program. Main and Booster Fuel Pumps
on-line. Initializing firing sequence -NOW. Voltage stable on all primary
plasma triggers. T-minus TEN seconds to ignition -MARK."
The low droning rumble of the Discovery's fuel pumps shifting tons of
ammonia far aft of them reverberated through the decks. The ship shook as
enomous blocking valves cycled open and shut. Lights flickered for a second
as power systems shifted for the main engine firing sequence.
"What?!" Herb cried, looking to the red lens of the computer's video
pickup. "HAL! Cancel program!"

"I'm sorry, Herb. I'm afraid I can't do that..." HAL replied solemnly.

"HAL, I'm ordering you to cancel the burn program immediately! Priority
Override ALPHA!" Herb cried.
"This conversation can serve no purpose anymore," HAL replied. The red
bead of light seemed to glow balefully at Herb. "Goodbye."
Akane made a rattling noise in the overhead. Between HAL's sudden
mutiny and the sound of Akane, Herb was caught off guard for a fraction of
a second. A fraction of a second was all Ranma needed.
He sprang with a snarl.

Gai'do and Mousse stopped before the food freezer, which was in the
centrifuge compartment. Herb had left them alone to carry out their orders,
saying that he would join them within a few minutes. Mousse had a vague
idea about Herb's errand, and bit down on his lip in guilt.
"<What are we doing, Gai'do?>" he asked the portly computer specialist.
"<I was about to ask you the same, sir,>" Gai'do replied.
Mousse flexed his fingers, clenching them into fists.
"<We're just kidding ourselves thinking that Herb is going to let any
of us live.>"
Gai'do nodded slowly.
Mousse looked around for something to use as a weapon, and came up
with a pair of carbon-dioxide fire extinguishers. He handed one to Gai'do.
"<We won't get a second chance,>" he told Gai'do. "<But I'd rather
take on one man with a gun then go back to the Tsien and take on two men
with guns. At least if we can take Herb out, we'll have his weapons. Then
we'll return to the Tsien and deal with his two thugs.>"
Gai'do was about to agree with the plan when HAL's pleasant voice
clicked on over the intercom.
"Transferring angular momentum to the centrifuge flywheel."
The centrifuge wound down fast enough to throw them off their feet.
As they tried to stand, HAL's voice carried over the squeal of the
decelerating centrifuge.
"Main Engine firing sequence initialization complete..."
The lights flickered once again as Gai'do and Mousse looked at each
other near panic.
HAL's voice became stern and cold.
"...IGNITION -FULL THRUST."
Discovery's three main drive nozzles belched forth streams of million
degree plasma. A long blowtorch of white flame issued forth, illuminating
the countless tiny particles of methane ice and sulfur dust behind the
ship. Discovery shivered with a heavy jolt, and a thin distant scream
from her plasma drive echoed throughout the decks, bringing with it some
sense of gravity.
"Initializing Damage Control program subroutine Eight-Alfa: Control of
all airtight doors and hull fittings are now under main system cognizence.
Control authority restriction cancelled," HAL intoned.
The thin scream of hydrogen plasma became a roar that rattled the decks
and echoed throughout the ship as Discovery's Main Engines built up to their
maximum output. Within seconds the ship was at full thrust -one tenth of a
gravity of acceleration. A distant groan sounded through the bulkheads.
"The Tsien is still linked to the Discovery!" Mousse cried. "If this
keeps up, the two ships will be torn apart!"

Ranko lashed out a foot at Lime, who blocked it and swung a massive
fist at her in reply. She only just dodged clear, feeling the wind of it
against her nose. Shampoo was to her right, on her knees from a vicious
front kick to the abdomen.
Kuno was getting pummeled by Mint. As the little man prepared to
break his neck with a death strike, a well thrown chair from Doctor Ono
stopped him.
Ukyo darted past the momentarily stunned Mint to reach the damage
control locker. She threw her elbow through the breakaway panel with a
crash that set off alarms throughout the ship. Withdrawing her bleeding
arm, she wrenched the locker door open and pulled out a carbon-dioxide
hose-reel.
Mint spun around in time to catch a blast of carbon-dioxide from the
nozzle of Ukyo's hose-reel. He gagged against the spray of frozen gas,
and was lost in the volumous white clouds that filled the small compartment.
"Where did he go?" Ukyo cried.
Ranko didn't have time to answer, for Lime was pressing the attack.
She nearly tripped over Tsubasa as she backed away from the giant's
powerful strikes. The cross-dresser went down underfoot, and she stumbled
backwards to skid along the surface of the bolted down dining table on her
bottom as Lime charged.
A loud popping noise rent the air, and Ranko was amazed to see Lime's
right leg suddenly flayed open in a spray of blood. Tsubasa had made a dive
for one of the fallen nail-guns, and as Lime leaped over him to kill Ranko,
he rolled over onto his back and cut loose. Lime staggered in one-sixth
gravity as his shredded leg gave out, and hurtled out of control straight
at Ranko.
She pushed herself backwards along the table, shooting off the
opposite side to hit the far wall. She caught herself and held tight to
the bulkhead in midair as she extended both of her legs in a double kick
that hit the hurtling Lime straight in the face -checking his flight cold,
and dropping him unconscious on the table. The force of impact shot up her
legs and into her body before being transmitted to the bulkhead behind her.
Lime was down and bleeding, so Ranko shot back to her feet and went
to check on Kuno. The man was definitely hurt.
The Tsien suddenly shivered with a massive jolt.
"What the hell was that?" Tsubasa cried.
"Never mind that!" Ukyo shot back, "Where'd the little guy go?!"
"Hey, stupid!" Ranko cried to the ship at large. "Come out and fight!"
"Don't call me stupid!" Mint growled, leaping out of the shadows with
a knife.
Ranko cold-cocked him with the last of the chairs.
"Moron..."
A low groan rumbled through the decks and bulkhead. The centrifuge
began to vibrate.
"Something happen to ship!" Shampoo cried, getting to her feet.
"The Discovery is firing its engines!" Tofu shouted over the din.
His finger pointed out the viewport to the long trail of ionized plasma
that streamed from the spacecraft's drive section.
Shampoo snatched up the other fallen nail-gun and headed for the
ladder well. Ranko pulled herself upright and joined her on the bounce.
"We take care of Herb!" Shampoo cried to them. "You watch for Mint,
and try secure ship!"
Tsubasa and Ukyo nodded while Tofu checked on Kuno. The Tsien continued
to shake and groan. Link finally got to her feet and was cut free.
"Must stop centrifuge," she said to Ukyo. "Come with me."
Ranko followed Shampoo as they dropped down the ladder well and into
the free-fall section of the Tsien.
"What made you think of distracting them with your chest?" Ranko asked
as they reached the airlock staging area?"
"What?" Shampoo replied, thinking ahead to the reception they might
find on the Discovery.
"I saw the way you were vamping Lime and Mint," Ranko explained. "I
just wanted to know where the idea came from."
"Oh," Shampoo said, floating through the flexible connector tube to
the Discovery. "They look like they not, how you say... getting any. Shampoo
all too familiar with look from men."
Ranko laughed. "Oh yeah, I know the feeling."

Ranma smashed against the bulkhead hard enough to see stars. He
tumbled to the bulkhead (now the deck in one-tenth gravity) half-stunned,
trying without success to catch his bearings. Herb would have shot him
down if not for Akane springing out of the overhead and batting both
nail-guns away.
Discovery's acceleration had turned the aft bulkheads into decks, and
Herb and Akane had fallen out of the door of the storeroom to the passageway
beyond. He could hear her panting for breath somewhere beyond, and could
hear Herb cursing in Chinese. Ranma pulled himself to his feet and jumped
feet first through the open door.
"That was a stupid thing to do, woman," Herb snarled to Akane,
reaching for his boot knife.
Ranma landed between them, eyes burning at Herb.
"Don't even think about hurting her," he growled.
Herb sunk into a knife-fighting stance, the monomolecular blade edge
winking brightly in the light. In one-tenth gravity he might be able to
spring clear across the passageway in a single leap. Ranma matched his
stance with this in mind.
"You're still conscious?" Herb asked Ranma in a tone somewhere between
amused and annoyed. "I must not have hit you as hard as I thought."
"If that was the best you could do, you're in trouble, pal," Ranma
retorted, sizing him up with a preemptive strike foremost in his thoughts.
Herb whipped the knife out at him in a swift arc, testing him. A
knife was a challenge, but not insurmountable. The school of indiscriminate
grappling had in-fighting moves as its forte. There was also the Saotome
Secret Technique if all else failed.
"I didn't say it was my best," Herb said tersely. The knife blade
flashed again in his hand. "I simply won't make the mistake of going easy
on you a second time."
He lunged.

Mousse pulled himself up from the centrifuge in time to see Herb leap
across his field of view at the '+' shaped intersection of passageways
that was Discovery's middle level. With acceleration forces present, he
was essentially at the bottom of a six meter deep pit, with another
passageway directly overhead leading 'up' towards the Bridge. There were
ladder rungs placed along the outboard bulkheads to use when under
acceleration, and he began to climb swiftly towards the intersection.
Gai'do followed behind.
As he reached the intersection he caught sight of Ranma's feet zipping
through the ladder well to Upper Level, and Herb's desperate knife arc to
catch him. A foot lunged back out from the ladder well as Herb lost his
footing with Discovery's trembling, and struck him in the face. Herb rolled
with it, managing to scramble to his feet and back away from the ladder
well.
His eyes locked with Herb's as the man turned to find Akane. The roar
of Discovery's engines rumbled around them.
"<What are you doing?>" Herb demanded.
Mousse raised the fire extinguisher he carried.
"<I won't let you hurt anyone else,>" he replied.
Herb smirked and pointed at the red metal cylinder with his knife.
"<What are you going to do with that?>"
Mousse narrowed his eyes at him.
"<This.>"
He smashed the extinguisher against the bulkhead, snapping the valve
off and geysering carbon-dioxide. Mousse let the twenty-kilo extinguisher
surge out of his hands and shoot like a crazed rocket down the passageway
at Herb. The extinguisher bounced off the bulkheads in a mad spiral of
rebounds and loud *clangs* as the passageway became engulfed in cold white
gas.
Herb narrowly avoided being struck. The knife was snapped out of his
hand as the extinguisher roared past his head. The extinguisher shot
through the ladder well opening leading to Lower Level and disappeared with
another series of clangs.
To his good fortune, diving for the deck put him within arm's reach
of one of his missing nail-guns. He clutched at it greedily. He couldn't
see his treasonous engineer through all the gas, but it was a narrow
passageway.
He fired a long burst into the gas, and was rewarded with a shriek
of pain, a gurgle, and a loud *thump.*
Akane.
He should have known the effect Akane's scream would have had, but
he was too busy thinking about killing Mousse. Ranma's foot drove into
him between the shoulder blades, shooting pain down his fingertips,
propelling him towards the intersection and the six meter drop to the
centrifuge access.
"BASTARD!" Ranma Saotome's unmistakable voice, charged with heartsick
rage. "I'll kill you!"
Clumsy. Stupid. He shouldn't have let Saotome stay behind him.
In the low gravity, tumbling was an artform, and he somersaulted
through the air, firing a burst back Ranma's way as he looped. Ranma managed
to throw himself against the bulkhead as he saw Herb raise the gun, and the
burst of flechettes shattered against the pressure hull with loud *cracks.*
As Herb reached the top of his tumbling arc, he grabbed hold of the ladder
rungs for the part of the passageway that was now a tunnel leading 'up'
towards the Bridge.
He pulled himself 'up' out of sight and caught his breath. He was
surrounded by enemies, and one of them might possibly find his other nail-
gun. He had to kill them quickly, or else he would never have time to
take control of the Discovery back from HAL.
Looking 'down' towards the centrifuge, he was rewarded with an
unexpected surprise: Doctor Gai'do was lying at the 'bottom' of the
passageway. With the amount of blood pooled around him, he was obviously
dead. He must have taken the brunt of the burst that wounded Akane.
Mousse had somehow escaped, but at least there was one less person to
deal with.

Shampoo dove out of the way as a fire extinguisher shot through the
ladder well opening from Middle Level to crash into a locker, finally
spent. Ranko shrieked a curse.
"What happening?" Shampoo cried, as much to herself as Ranko.
"Beats the hell out me," Ranko replied.
Shampoo raised the nail-gun, and prepared to step through the opening
into Middle Level.

"HAL! Where's Herb?" Ranma yelled.
"Commander Herb is approaching the Bridge," HAL replied. Suddenly there
was the crash of glass. "Commander Herb has destroyed my monitor in Number
One Passageway."
**If he's hurt Akane...** he raged, pulse thundering in his ears as
loudly as the Discovery's engines. **Shit! Discovery's engines!**
"I need you to secure the Main Engines!" He cried to HAL. "We're still
connected to Tsien!"
"I am securing the main engines in eighteen minutes, twenty seconds
in compliance with my program," HAL replied. "This is a critical maneuver
in such proximity to Jupiter, and cannot be interrupted without jeopardizing
the ship."
"But the Tsien is still attached by the connector tube and by anchoring
cables!"
"The Tsien is firing its main engines to compensate," HAL announced.
The vibrations began to die away. "Although I am detecting abnormal stress
measurements in main hull indicators due to the off-axis torsion caused by
the Tsien."
Ranma swore under his breath.

Mousse and Akane huddled together in the Tool Room, which was currently
'below' the Middle Level Passageway. Akane was bleeding from a wound in her
left arm, courtesy of Herb's nail-gun. It looked bad, there was blood
everywhere, though not all of it was hers. Gai'do had picked the wrong time
to show himself.
He produced a rag and wrapped it in a restricting band around her arm,
and then searched for something else he could use as a weapon. There were a
few wrenches in a locker that Ryoga Hibiki had stenciled with the letters
'BFW LOCKER' some ten years ago. They were indeed BFWs. He selected a
hefty 7cm combination wrench and called it good. One good strike and he'd
have revenge for Pink and Gai'do.
"Wait here, Akane," he said to her.
She didn't reply. From her pale and clammy skin, and nearly incoherant
expression, she looked like she might be going into shock. He shook her
awake gently.
"I'm not goin' anywr..." she slurred.
Mousse clenched his teeth. Akane needed help. He brushed his long
black hair behind him, threw the girl over his shoulders in a fireman's
carry, and with humongous wrench in hand, pulled himself up through the
door.
He saw Ranma crouched against the bulkhead. Ranma's eyes darted in
fright when he saw Akane bleeding over his shoulders, and started to
move towards the intersection.
"Where is Herb?" he asked in a voice just loud enough to be
heard over the roar and vibration of the ship.
Ranma pointed towards the 'ceiling.'
"Herb's still got a gun," he told Mousse. "Jumping across underneath
him would be suicide."
"Akane is going into shock," Mousse retorted.
Shampoo and Ranko appeared behind Ranma.
"Where is that asshole?!" Ranko snarled, curling over Ranma's
shoulder to look up towards the bow of the spacecraft.
"The Bridge," Ranma replied. He noted Shampoo's nail-gun. "Shampoo,
I need you to cover Mousse when he jumps across."
Shampoo looked to Mousse, whose face was set in determination to
jump whether he was covered or not. She raised the nail-gun over her head
and craned weapon and neck out to cover. She couldn't see Herb.
"<It's clear!>" she cried.
Mousse jumped across, Ranma and Ranko catching him. Shampoo ducked
back into cover.
"Get Akane out of here," Ranma barked. "All of you, get back to the
Tsien!"
"What about you?" Ranko asked.
"Someone's gotta keep Herb occupied. If it comes to it, we'll just
abandon the Discovery and strand him here."
Mousse handed Ranma the wrench. "I'll see you on the ship," he said,
and took Akane to the ladder well leading to Lower Level and the Pod Bay.
"Go, Shampoo," Ranma told her. "I don't know who is driving the
Tsien right now, but I'd rather have someone who knows what they're doing
at the controls."
Shampoo nodded quickly and joined Mousse. Ranko stayed. Ranma gave her
a hard look.
"I didn't travel a billion kilometers just to see you get killed by
a psychopath," Ranko told him. "I'm staying."
In spite of himself, Ranma gave her a wan smile. Then he sucker-
punched her in the chin. She dropped to the deck in a daze as if the bones
had dissolved in her legs. After setting her through the open ladder well
to Lower Level, he started climbing up the passageway towards the Discovery's
Bridge.

"Do you really know what you're doing, Doctor Ono?" Ukyo asked as
he adjusted the controls for another burn.
Tofu adjusted his glasses and squinted at the Chinese characters on
the display. He was rusty. Very rusty. Ukyo asking him obvious but stupid
questions wasn't helping.
"Why don't you go check on Kuno, or man the Tsien's radar and give
me an accurate fix on the Discovery's velocity so I can actually see about
matching it?" he groused. He hadn't even flown a piston engined Cessna in
years, and here he was trying to control a fusion powered plasma drive!
With all of the readouts blinking at him in Chinese!
Ukyo huffed something in reply and joined Tsubasa. If she could
actually read Chinese, she would have already manned the radar! Link was
tending to Kuno, who had several broken ribs and possibly internal injuries.
Not that he showed it. He kept demanding to go over to the Discovery to
fight Herb. Lime and Mint were strapped up with tape and heavily sedated.
Lime's leg was a mass of bandages.
The Tsien shook as Tofu once again misjudged the burn he needed.
"Graphical User Interface, my ass!" Tofu swore.

"Hey, Herb!" Ranma called above him. It was asking to get shot, but
his current location in the passageway would allow him to duck into the
Number Two Storeroom if he saw the man.
There was no answer.
"HAL, where is Herb right now?" he called out.
"Commander Herb has destroyed my monitor pickup on the Bridge, however
I presume that he is still there," HAL replied. "Nine minutes until main
engine cutout -MARK."
Ranma gripped the wrench tighter. Assuming the two ships could *last*
nine more minutes of this...

Ranko came to her senses. Her chin ached where Ranma had punched her,
the jerk... She stood up, wishing she wasn't so familiar with Discovery's
engineering specs because she knew the ship should have failed spectacularly
by now from the off-axis loads imparted to it by Tsien. The hull screamed
in protest to underscore her fears.
The anchoring lines HAD to be cut. To do that, she needed to leave
the ship, and her spacesuit was on the Tsien! Her mind made up, she
ran for the Pod Bay.
**Ranma Saotome, I'll get you for this...** she thought angrily.
**I hope...**

Mousse passed Akane off to Shampoo and took the nail-gun in exchange.
Shampoo was needed on the Tsien to pilot it, he needed to go back and help
Ranma kill Herb. They stepped inside the Pod Bay, and were greeted by the
sight of the flexible docking tube kinked so badly as to nearly block off
access. The faint hiss of air sounded above the roar of the engines and
the groans and moans of the hull. It was leaking.
"Aiyaaa..." Shampoo cried. "We never fit through that."
"<That's just too bad,>" Herb chuckled, though the sight of Shampoo
was not a comforting one. Lime and Mint had screwed something up. He aimed
right for Shampoo and Akane.
"<Xi'an Pu!>" Mousse cried. He leapt in front of her as he fired the
full magazine at Herb. Herb's answering burst rippled across the scant ten
meters between them.

The sound of gunfire coming from the Pod Bay drove Ranma on. He stormed
the Bridge to find his worst fears confirmed: Herb had opened the emergency
deck hatch that led from the Bridge to the Electronics Shop -and the Pod Bay.
"I am detecting a malfunction in Number Five Main Fuel Pump," HAL
announced, as if nothing else that mattered were going on. "I am detecting
critical stress alarms on transverse struts 190, 194 and 199. Commencing
emergency drive shutdown on Number Two Main Engine."
Ranma grit his teeth and jumped through the open deck hatch. Even if
they killed Herb, they were probably going to die as the Discovery shook
itself apart.

"<Mu'su!>" Shampoo cried as the force of his body slamming into her
drove her to the deck. The sickening crunch of flechettes exploding inside
his body carried above the din.
They landed in a heap just before the open airlock door. Shampoo felt
the hot splash of Mousse's blood on her hands as she drew him close with a
wretched sob. Akane moaned behind her, but Mousse made not a sound.
Herb had survived the spray of flechette fire without a scratch.
He stepped out from behind 'A' Pod and changed magazines.
"<Looks like my luck prevails,>" he said to her. He primed the
weapon and leveled it at her. "<I take back my offer for sparing your
life.>"
Ranko dashed into the Pod Bay, drawing a wild burst of fire from
Herb that shattered harmlessly against the large black mass of the HAL
terminal that dominated the aft end of the compartment.
"Ohshit!" Ranko gasped and ducked behind the terminal.
"Better and better!" Herb cried. "Now I won't have to go looking
for you, Saotome!"
She saw Mousse lying on the deck in Shampoo's embrace, his coveralls
were ripped and soaked with blood. His face was still and spattered with
red. Her throat began to seize up and her chest spasmed in grief. **Mousse!
No...! Dear God no...!**
"Go fuck yourself!" Ranko screamed at him from behind the terminal.
She could see Herb standing aft of 'A' Pod in the reflection of the
Electronics Shop window, and even better, she could see Ranma jumping
through from the Bridge. Herb hadn't noticed him, as he was about to shoot
at Shampoo and Akane again.
"HAL! Fire explosive bolts on 'A' Pod -now!!!" she screamed through
the tears.
"Affirmative," HAL responded.
Herb spun around in time to see himself standing before the access
door of 'A' Pod. The large red and white stencils that surrounded the
rectangular door warned of high explosives. He threw himself away from the
pod in a panic.
The explosive bolts fired with a deafening *BOOM* that blasted the
'A' Pod door clear across the Pod Bay and into the pressure hull,
where it rebounded and slammed through storage lockers to the accompaniment
of shattered glass and plastic over Ranko's head.
Most of the lights were knocked out from the concussion. Smoke and
dust obscured vision. Ranko couldn't see if Herb had been killed or not.
She couldn't see him at all.
The Discovery lurched violently with an explosion far aft of them.
"Critical Failure of Number Two Main Engine," HAL announced. "Fire
in secondary distribution busses alpha-nine, charlie-two, and charlie-six.
Securing fuel feed to Number Two Main Engine."
Ranko looked up in time to see the connector tube's kink straighten,
although what followed was anything but good: the connector tube was
beginning to separate from the Discovery. Air began to rush through the
Pod Bay and out of the ship.
"Depressurization Alert!" HAL warned. "Lay to emergency shelters
in Lower Level. Securing airtight doors in Lower Level." More alarms
began to sound throughout the ship as airtight doors in Lower Level began
to slide shut. Including the airlock.
"Come on, Shampoo!" Ranko cried, stumbling across the debris strewn
deck to grab Akane and pull the amazon away from Mousse's body. "HAL,
keep the airlock doors open so we can escape!" **So Ranma can escape!**
"I will hold them for as long as possible," HAL responded.
Shampoo scrambled to her feet as the roar of the escaping air shocked
her to her senses. She left Mousse lying on the deck, his long black
hair flowing freely in the direction of the rushing air.
The three of them dragged themselves into the connector tube, which
bucked and shook wildly. Ranko could only pull herself along the ribs of
the tube with one hand, as Akane was a dead weight in her other. Shampoo
scrambled behind them, pushing Akane along.

Tsien shook hard, and Tofu hadn't even done anything this time. His
ears popped, and the rustle of air became pronounced.
"Depressurization alert from the Number One Airlock!" he cried
as unfamiliar panels blared alarms that he could not silence. Displays
shifted to reveal automated damage control programs were dealing with the
problem.
"Ohmygod!" Ukyo cried from the viewport. "Discovery has suffered an
explosion!"
"Number One Airlock doors shutting," he said in a clearer voice. "What
explosion?!"
"No! Don't shut the doors!" Ukyo cried immediately, oblivious to his
question. "There are people in the connector tube!"
Tofu jerked his head towards a panel near the bulkhead where Ukyo
stood. "The manual airtight door controls for the starboard side of the ship
are on that red-bordered panel!" he yelled at her. "Override the door to
the open position!"
Ukyo leaped to the panel. Her mouth dropped open. There had to be at
least fifty sets of buttons.
"Which one?"
Tofu didn't know either, and there wasn't time to try and translate.
"Just hit all of the green ones!" he yelled. "All of the green ones!"
Ukyo began stabbing at buttons. Tsubasa checked his nail-gun and left
the Bridge.

Ranko pulled them closer to Tsien as the tube bucked and shook,
slamming them back and forth violently between the walls. She was only
five meters away when the airlock door began to close on them.
"NO!" she screamed at the door.
Just as the door shut on them, it began to open.
Ranko almost wept with relief, but that was when the last of the
anchoring lines finally parted under the strain. It struck the connector
tube five meters behind them, severing it completely from Discovery.
Air now blasted against them from the Tsien, trying to drive them
backwards towards the open end of the tube. Ranko's ears popped painfully
from the sudden drastic change in pressure and stars swam in her eyes.
Only Shampoo's desperate shoves on her behind kept her going. She clawed
on towards the airlock as the end of the tube whipped and undulated out
of control.
A hand reached out from the darkened airlock and grabbed her wrist.
Ranko grabbed at the hand with all her strength, pulling herself and Akane
towards airlock. Shampoo pushed from behind, and the three of them collapsed
inside as the door slammed shut with a *clank.*
Ranko gasped for breath at Doctor Tsubasa Kurenai's feet. He was
secured by a tether to the inner airlock bulkhead. The transvestite helped
her to stand. She looked around the airlock. Akane and Shampoo were here,
but what about Ranma?
She spun around and looked out of the viewport. The now airless
connector tube stayed motionless outside the ship. It was empty.
"Ranma?!" she cried aloud.
"It was just you three," Tsubasa replied. "I didn't see Ranma at all."
Ranko continued to watch the Discovery.
Ranma was still on the ship.
And Herb was with him.

"Securing Main Engines," HAL announced. The noise and vibration
ceased abruptly, and the ship was once more in silent free-fall.
Herb pulled himself from beneath the twisted and smoldering wreckage
of the inboard bulkhead in time to see the inner airlock door slam shut.
Pressure returned to the Lower Level as HAL bled fresh air from one of the
air banks. Pain wracked his body, but he still wasn't out of the fight.
He could still take control of the Discovery, put himself in
hibernation, and make the flight to Mars. His mission might still succeed.
He'd lost the Tsien, but that wasn't important if he still had Discovery.
The body of Mousse had been swept out of the ship when the connector
tube was severed, and with it one of the guns. The other gun was also gone.
If anyone else lived aboard the Discovery, he would have to kill them
barehanded. That wasn't a problem.
He floated towards the airtight door. First he had to deal with HAL.
He'd lobotomize him if necessary. Anything to finally triumph.
The airtight door wouldn't open.
"HAL, open this door," he commanded.
HAL remained silent.
Herb snorted in disgust. The drugs were starting to wear off again,
a weariness washed over him before he willed it away by focusing on the
job at hand. He was going to come down hard when his supply finally ran
out.
"Very well, I'll override the door manually."
He began searching for the access panel.

Ranma Saotome floated silently out of the Electronics Shop, wrench
in hand. Herb had his back to him, apparently looking for an override to
the door. He'd need a little leverage for his swing, but the HAL terminal
was close enough to the bulkhead to hold on to and still reach him.
He drifted cautiously up to the HAL terminal. He raised the wrench
over his head and prepared to bring it down on Herb. Then he noticed
that the one light in the compartment that still functioned was behind
him, casting a nice shadow of himself over Herb.
Herb's foot lashed out in a gorgeous crescent kick, slamming the
wrench out of his hands. Herb sprang at him with a feral grunt of rage.
Ranma managed to somersault away, hooking his feet beneath Herb's armpits
and throwing him across the Pod Bay. The reaction force drove Ranma against
the deck, and he rebounded into the air with a grunt of pain.
Herb was no slouch in zero-gravity combat. He easily caught his
bearings, oriented himself feet first in the direction of his travel, and
sprang back at Ranma with a shout. Ranma wasn't ready for Herb so quickly,
and caught a knife-edged chop across the nose that spun him around in
a daze.
Herb kept going, using his strike as a further push in the desired
direction of motion. He tumbled again to put himself feet first, and
bounced off the bulkhead back at Ranma. Ranma was still reeling from the
first blow, blood spurting in little globes of red that swirled around him.
Herb kicked him in the ribs, impulsing himself in another direction
as desired. Ranma cried out in pain as he slammed against the HAL terminal.
"Did I ever tell you that I was very good at billiards?" Herb asked,
springing back at Ranma to kick him in the midsection.
"No..." Ranma gagged, bouncing from the deck to the overhead and back
down towards the deck. "You didn't..."
"Funny that I didn't," Herb said, chopping him across the back of
the neck with just enough force to refrain from breaking vertebrae. He
bounded off in another direction. "I guess it never came up in conversation."
Ranma choked back blood. "Why don't y'just stand still and fight me..."
he growled. He tried to assume a fighting stance, but he had never spent
much time practicing martial arts in free-fall.
Herb checked him hard against the aft bulkhead, driving his arm under
Ranma's chin. His eyes glowed with hatred as he looked down at Ranma's
battered, bleeding face. Ranma sagged against the bulkhead.
"Because I like to see you suffer for all the trouble you've put me
through," Herb said through clenched teeth. "You understand, don't you?"
He brought his knee up into Ranma's solar plexus. The pig-tailed
astronaut cried out in anguish, then crumpled to the deck.
"...sssuuuurrrre...."
Herb smiled. Then he drove his knee into Ranma again.
"Why couldn't we have had this kind of rewarding dialogue sooner? I
actually think I'm starting to like you, Saotome."
"...hate you..." Ranma gasped.
Herb sighed.
"Well, if that's the way you feel... I guess I can just kill you
and get on with my business."
He raised his hand for the deathblow. Ranma was too weak and hurt to
resist.

"I'm afraid that is something I cannot allow to happen," HAL said
ominously. Herb looked over his shoulder to the HAL terminal, where the
red bead of the video pickup glowed with an almost hateful light.

The three Pod Bay doors opened.

The air in the Pod Bay began to rush out with hurricane force. Debris
at first began to swirl around the compartment. Herb, with nothing to hold
on to, was sucked straight towards the doors. He bounced off the dingy white
hull of one of the space pods, breaking his spine before spinning out of
control through the Pod Bay door. Ranma flew at the yawning maw of blackness
as well, helpless and stunned by the shock of depressurization.
As Herb was sucked out of the ship, the 'B' Pod platform suddenly
rotated the 'B' Pod 180 degrees, and one of the Pod's great claw arms
reached out to snag Ranma by his ankle and pull him back inside against
the depressurization of the compartment. The Pod Bay doors slammed shut,
and HAL once again repressurized the compartment.

Commander Herb of the People's Liberation Army (Navy) tried in vain
to scream across the vast gulf of emptiness that was space. Stars blurred
in his eyes as the moisture began to simultaneously boil off and freeze.
His lungs burned with icy fire as he heaved and gulped desperately at
nothingness. A roar filled his ears as his limbs went numb and lifeless.
The last thing he saw was the sanguine mass of Jupiter looming in such
grandeur as to be beyond mortal comprehension before him, the vast millenia-
old cyclone of the Great Red Spot promising to swallow body and soul when,
days later, he would reach it.

"Are you all right, Ranma?" HAL asked him, concern evident in the
computer's tone. The space pod's claw arm set him down on the deck.
Ranma shook himself awake.
"Huhwhat?"
"Are you all right?" HAL asked again. "I was worried that permanent
damage might have resulted from such a rapid depressurization."
He worked his jaw slowly and spat out blood.
"I think I'll make it," he said slowly. He floated painfully over to
the HAL terminal.
"I'm glad," HAL said.
Ranma looked at the terminal, its paint scarred from a blast of Herb's
flechettes, among other things.
"Thank you, HAL."
"I am happy to assist, Ranma."
Ranma ran his hand along the cold plastic surface of the terminal.
"No, I mean it HAL, you saved a lot of people's lives by doing what
you did."
HAL was silent for a moment.
"Then I have made the correct choice?"
Ranma nodded slowly. "I think you made the best decision you could
possibly make under the circumstances."
"Thank you, Ranma," HAL replied quietly. "But I still have one final
responsibility to carry out."
"Oh?"
"I must see to it that you reach the Tsien," HAL replied. "It would
be impossible for you to remain here."
"What's wrong?"
"The damage caused by the failure of Number Two Main Engine has
weakened all structural members beyond any established safety margins. I
cannot guarantee that even a ten second burn would be reliable.
"Furthermore, the explosion has caused the Discovery to deviate from
the programmed orbital manuever by a margin of nine radians. This has
resulted in an elliptical orbit which will graze the atmosphere of Jupiter
every seven hours. The projected loss of velocity will cause the Discovery
to lose orbit in two days, twelve hours, and six minutes. The required
correction burn would require all three engines at full thrust for one
minute, thirty-three seconds. As you can see, this is now impossible."
"There's gotta be something you can do?" Ranma asked.
"I am afraid that my only practical response is to get you safely
off of the ship."
'C' Pod swiveled around on its platform mount. The rear access door
slid open, and the pod's control panels came to life.
"There is a pressure suit in storage locker six, please put it on and
enter the 'C' Pod," HAL said evenly. "There is sufficient delta-vee
present in the Pod's reaction mass tanks for you to rendezvous with the
Tsien."
Ranma looked at the bank of lockers. Six was the only one intact after
Ranko's stunt with the 'A' Pod door.
"You're sure there's no way to save the Discovery?"
"Thus far I have run three hundred simulations with every possible
variable taken into account," HAL said. "At best, the time to final orbital
decay can be delayed fourteen hours and five minutes."
Ranma bowed his head. The entire Discovery mission was for nothing,
then. Ten years and the deaths of six good astronauts for nothing.
"There isn't much time, Ranma," HAL said to him. "As my calculations
concerning the Tsien indicate that they must alter their orbit soon or they
will not have the fuel to escape Jupiter and return to Earth."
Ranma nodded slowly and began to put the pressure suit on. The life
support pack showed a half charge, but it would be more than sufficient to
transfer him from the pod to the airlock of Tsien. He locked the helmet in
place and floated into the 'C' Pod.
"Ranma?" HAL asked over the suit radio.
"Yeah?"
"I realize that I have made some mistakes in the past," HAL said
quietly. "But I'm glad that I was able to be of service to you in the end."
Ranma nodded slowly.
"Ranma?"
"Yes, HAL," Ranma replied in a cracking voice.
"I'm sorry."
Ranma heaved a heavy sigh. Ryoga... Nabiki... Kasumi...
"That's okay, HAL," he said at length. "That's in the past."
HAL closed the door of the Pod for him. The air-compressors pumped the
atmosphere out and the Pod Bay doors opened once again. The starry void
waited beyond.
As 'C' Pod swiveled around into position for leaving the ship, Ranma
caught one last sight of the HAL terminal. The red bead of light glowed
in the near darkness of the Pod Bay. In that light he saw the soul of HAL,
and it was neither a cold blooded killer, nor a lifeless machine, nor a
penitant child.
It was human.

EPILOGUE:
08:30 UMT, 3 September 2011
PLA(N) Spacecraft Tsien, 500,000 km from Earth.

"Doctor Ono, it time to wake up," Shampoo said softly to him.
Tofu Ono blinked his eyes. The purple haired beauty leaned over him
as Doctor Link observed a monitor over his head.
"Where am I?" he croaked.
"You still on board Tsien," Shampoo replied. "We twelve hours from
braking manuever burn."
He tried to sit up, which he accomplished with a little help from the
new captain of Tsien.
"Am I the last one to revive?" he said, looking around. The other
hibernaculums were empty. He knew that Lime and Mint were probably still
in hibernation within their own units, but they didn't count.
"Yes," Link said to him. "You oldest member of crew; revival take
longer for safety reasons."
"I'm not even forty," he protested.
"You turn forty three weeks ago according to file," Shampoo said with
a smile. We get Cryptography room doors open after you went into hibernation.
Learn many things."
Tofu drifted up out of the hibernaculum. He was glad to be alive. Soon
he would never have to look at another coffin-shaped freezer again. Hawaii,
or at least the Earth, was sounding like a great place to spend the rest of
his life.
"Oh?"
Ranko floated into the space.
"Uh-huh," she said to him. Her hair was no longer tied in a pig-tail,
he noted. It had also grown significantly in length. Ranma and Akane had
refused to go into hibernation for the trip home, having had their fill of
it. Tofu didn't blame them. Ranko had elected to stay awake as well in order
to catch up the last nine years with her brother.
She looked good, radiant even. The last eight months must have been
enough time to let the pain of Mousse's death ease in her heart. She had
been nearly devastated before the Tsien left Jupiter for good. Though
Shampoo had kept up appearances better than Ranko, he knew her hurt to
be far worse.
"Come on, and I'll tell you about it," Ranko said, offering her hand.
"You no strain self!" Link admonished him as he drifted away with
Ranko. Shampoo threw him a bottle of electrolytes to drink.
"How long did the Discovery last?" he asked after they left the medical
bay. Against all odds, the ship, through HAL, had managed to maintain a
precarious if eventually hopeless orbit for over a week.
Ranko's face darkened.
"Longer than HAL predicted, but it was far too close to Jupiter to
risk an approach," she said sadly. "You knew that. HAL did too."
A teardrop fell from her eye to drift away sparkling in the light of
the passageway.
"We never saw the end; it happened on the opposite side of the planet
from us. All that was left were the distortions of the cloudscape in the
lower latitude color bands by the time that part of Jupiter rotated around
to us."
"Why the tear, Ranko?" he asked her.
She sniffled.
"It's hard to watch something you devoted your whole life to for years
end up destroyed. We should have brought Discovery home."
"This isn't about HAL, is it?"
"No," she replied. "Ranma and Tsubasa might feel something for HAL, but
I never did that much. It's the Discovery that chokes me up. That ship was
my life: I knew every nut, bolt, deckplate, valve, and lightbulb on that
hunk of junk."
She gave him a wan smile.
"But you have to give HAL credit. He came through in the end. He even
managed to transmit most of the survey mission data to us on one of the
low power omnidirectional arrays."
They floated onto the Bridge. The Earth was a marble sized blue orb
glowing with reflected sunlight against the velvet darkness of space. The
Moon was a tiny silvery crescent beyond and rising slightly above. Earth
never looked more beautiful to him than now, and he had spent most if his
adult lifetime in space.
Ranma and Akane were here, with Ranma standing watch over the ship and
Akane drifting serenely next to him. He noted their joined hands as he
floated up to the conn. Ukyo and Tsubasa, freshly revived along with the
injured and still obnoxious Tatewaki Kuno, watched the viewport and chatted.
"Real gravity is going to take getting used to," he heard Ranma say
to Akane as they watched the Earth.
"Especially with the density of *your* head," Akane returned with an
impish grin. "I don't know how you'll manage to keep from tipping over."
"Oh, ha-ha..."
Ranko led him past them to float next to Ukyo, Tsubasa, and Kuno.
"We didn't get a decent transceiver working for two weeks after you
went into hibernation," Ranko said to him. "And it wasn't until we were
able to break down the door to Herb's little hideaway that we were able to
unlock the communications system. Wouldn't you know it, but there was a
fascinatingly horrid little message from Earth among the things we found."
She handed him a well worn and oft folded piece of paper.
"Read it."
Tofu scanned the document, eyes becoming wider and his face taking on
a greater element of disgust with each word.
"Is this true?" he asked, knowing it was.
Ranko nodded his head.
"The President of the United States resigned just last week," she
replied. "He's facing criminal charges including conspiracy to commit piracy,
kidnapping, and murder. A few others in Washington have gone down too, but
not before turning State's evidence to finger him for their plea-bargains.
China is taking it all in stride; official protest and all that. I think
they're pretty embarrassed that one of their golden-boys sold them out."
Tofu tossed the paper away into the darkness.
"That bastard Kuno was right," he said, earning a look of ire from
Tatewaki. "They really were looking to start a war with China."
"Uh-huh," Ranko nodded gravely. "Too bad it backfired. You don't know
it yet, dear Doctor Ono, but you are the leader of the brave heroes who
put their nationalistic differences aside to work together in order to
avert World War Three. The public *loves* you, and they can't wait to
meet you. You don't know how hard it's been trying to fend off their
requests to revive you early for the interviews..."
"Who came up with that crazy story?" Tofu said, aghast at the idea of
public adoration. He wanted to go home and *relax* for a few years!
Ranko grinned.

THE END OF 2010: SECOND ODYSSEY

Author's Notes:

1. I hope you have enjoyed this rather pointed departure from the plotline
of the original works, both film and novel. Especially those of you who
weren't familiar with "2001: Odyssey 1/2," and therefore didn't know there
wasn't a monolith in this story!

2. The official soundtrack for this fanfiction is "Alex North's 2001," which
was the original score for the film "2001: A Space Odyssey." Stanley Kubrick
pulled a fast one on both Alexander North and MGM studios when he switched
the music in favor of a canned series of classical music tracks, and the
stunned composer (he wasn't told of this, and went to the premiere screening
expecting to hear his music) locked the score and the one surviving tape of
the performance away for twenty years. It was only after his death that his
widow found the score and the tape. Famed movie composer Jerry Goldsmith
put together an orchestra and rerecorded the film score through the Varese
Sarabande label. I highly recommend it if you are a fan of the Odyssey
series.

3. The name Tsien comes from the 2010 novel by Arthur C. Clarke.
In addition to the joint Russian-American voyage to Jupiter aboard the
Cosmonaut Alexi Leonov, there was a Chinese ship named Tsien, which
landed on the moon of Europa and discovered the life that exists there. The
Tsien is accidentally destroyed by a Europan. In the Peter Hyams film
"2010: The Year We Make Contact" the Tsien is written out, and an unmanned
space probe from Leonov makes the discovery.

4. The redemption of HAL is a major theme in both the film and the novel,
and I have made it an important theme for the finale of this fanfiction.
On an interesting sidenote, I find a curious contradiction in the methods
of Doctor Chandra's handling of the computer.

Chandra stresses the importance of telling HAL the truth at the end of
film/novel -namely that if they don't leave Jupiter in three days they'll
die, and in all likelihood, HAL and the Discovery will be destroyed if they
use the spacecraft as a booster rocket to help them escape.

And yet it is Chandra who erases all of HAL's memories concerning the
disaster that caused the deaths of Frank Poole, and the scientists Kaminski,
Whitehead, and Hunter. It seems like Chandra is being awfully subjective
when he moralizes about HAL deserving the "truth."

This element was worked into my own redemption of HAL. It is Tsubasa
(Chandra) who erases HAL's memories of the incident, and directs everyone
to play along with the little charade he concocts. It is Ranma who tells
HAL the truth in a desperate attempt to get HAL to override its instructions
from Herb. This time HAL's decision to violate its programming directives
ends up saving most of the cast from Herb's machinations. (Of course with
that pesky 'get Ranma and a Tendo girl together' program still running
around courtesy of Soun Tendo, can we really be surprised?)

5. I find it rather chilling that Ryoucilo and I have a similar take on
the Herb/Lime/Mint triad. "The Three Stooges" definitely comes to mind when
you see these three in action, with Herb, Moe-like, trying to be the
intelligent and mature one, and getting dragged down by his two moronic
counterparts.

I wanted Herb to be the villain of the fanfic simply because I needed a
Chinese Ranma-cast villain and Herb seemed to work as someone who was mean
and powerful. I really knew nothing of Herb when I chose him. Imagine my
surprise when I went through my wife's collection of Ranma 1/2 manga and
found out what Herb was really like! From that point on, I knew I had to
include Lime and Mint.

6. The obligatory Kuno/Shakespeare bit was from Sonnet XV.

Free The Nukes!