[Ranma/Battletech][FanFic] Battletech: The Saotome Gambit Part 11

[Jamie and Bridget Wilde]

Nerima Confederation JumpShip _Dragonfly_
Near the Capra System Zenith Jump Point
Capra System, the League of Five Nails
19 March 3025

"Captain Ninomiya?"
Captain Hinako Ninomiya of the Nerima Confederation Navy looked up
from her station - where she was busy writing her Night Orders for the
evening - to the Communications Section.
"What is it?" she asked the man on duty.
"I'm receiving a burst transmission from the _Palomino,_" he replied.
"Finally," Hinako sighed with relief. Ever since the Furinkan Combine
had landed troops on Capra, she had been reduced to a nervous wreck waiting
to hear from Commander Saotome. She hopped from her seat and floated over
to the man. The condition of free fall on the Bridge allowed her to look
over his shoulder even in her currently diminutive body. "Can you get a
Direction Finder fix on them?"
"No, ma'am," he replied. "There was only one burst. I have a bearing
estimate only."
"Good," she grunted in her childish voice. "That means the Combine
can't either. Prepare to answer them with the details of our current
position and orbit. Get the data from Astrogation and send it as a burst,
repeating, oh, say, every ten minutes. Keep sending it until they
acknowledge, then go silent."
"Aye aye, ma'am." He set to work preparing the transmission.
Hinako returned to her station, and resumed where she had left off,
choosing an orange crayon this time for her Night Orders because it would
look pretty next to the pictures of the rainbow and the pink unicorn she
had drawn.

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

BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART ELEVEN

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

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

Chapter One

Federated Shiratori Battlemech Forces Mobile Command
Planet Tiber, Palatine System
The Federated Shiratori
19 March 3025

Brigadier Ukyou Kuonji of the Federated Shiratori Battlemech Forces
could barely contain her anger. "How could that idiot Genma Saotome forget
about his promise to my family!? How could that idiot son of his forget who
he was supposed to marry!?"
She clenched her fists in fury at her despicable commanding officer.
Because of General Mikado Sanzenin's skirt chasing, she was the one who
had to come to Palatine and direct the Spring Maneuvers instead of him.
She was supposed to have been on the planet Genevieve convincing the
Empress to send her on the diplomatic envoy to the Confederation. Was it
any surprise that without her prodding, no envoy at all had been sent?
If she had been successful with Azusa, she could have been on Nerima
in time to stop Genma's machinations, perhaps even browbeaten him into
making good on his promise. At the very least she could have seen her
beloved Ran-chan again. The last time was when they were young children,
and she had been in love with him ever since.
But no... Mikado found yet another conquest to woo, and so here she
was, a mere Brigadier directing most of the Federated Shiratori's armed
forces, while he ran off to get laid. Again.
As it stood, the chance of there even *being* a position available
in the near future for diplomatic duty with the Confederation was slim.
The Furinkan Combine's renewed offensive was pressing them hard, and
there were rumors circulating that Tatewaki Kuno was ready to begin a
seige of the Capella System directly.
She turned to her adjutant and sighed wearily.
"How does this always happen to me?"

Her adjutant, Major Konatsu, did not reply. The cross-dressing
mechwarrior merely set his hands behind his uniform skirt and tried to
look oblivious to Ukyou's distress. The issue of her supposed engagement
to a man named Saotome had become a sore subject with him over the last
month, as he had been experiencing a bit of romantic confusion regarding
his lovely commanding officer, and he wasn't certain whether she would
ever feel as attracted to him as he was with her.
He had yet to learn all the details of the arrangement that would
have seen his adored commander married to this Saotome fellow, but it
seemed to him that until the news had broken, she had all but forgotten
about it. Or at least put it so far out of her mind that she never thought
about it openly. This latest blow-up had come following yet another botched
attack exercise by the troops. Though the two subjects were completely
unrelated, it demonstrated how much of her attention she was devoting to
the matter of Ranma Saotome.
Ukyou slammed her fists down on the map table.
"Have the 3rd Battalion run through it again," she muttered.
"Yes, sir," he replied quietly. As soon as the troops started running
their exercises without error, his beloved commander would stop having
tantrums. It promised to be a long spring...
"Konatsu?"
He started, knowing that Ukyou almost never called him by his name,
and certainly not in public. The other staff officers in the mobile command
center pretended not to notice.
"Yes, Brigadier?" he asked her timidly.
"Sorry about the shouting," she said to him. "I should save it all
for that jackass, Sanzenin. If he doesn't get here soon, I'm resigning."
"Yes, sir," Konatsu replied, trying not to smile. Ukyou would not
give the general the satisfaction of resigning. One of the reasons his
beloved commander ended up with such trying assignments as this one was
because she had rather publicly spurned one of General Sanzenin's amorous
advances towards her. He would have cashiered her on the spot were it not
for the small amount of favor she enjoyed with the Empress.
It was funny now that he thought about it, but the very system of
Imperial nepotism that she despised for making the Army incompetent was
the thing that had saved her own career.
He too enjoyed Imperial privilege, though he was no supporter of
the Cult of Azusa. Their fanatical devotion to her had usurped the
centuries-old and nominally democratic Federated Shiratori system of
government, and turned it into a reckless cult of personality with young
Azusa proclaimed Goddess-Empress. It was a Federation in name only, and
her word was law. The Cult of Azusa had become the de facto enforcers of
Her Imperial Divinity, and woe to any who openly defied the Word of Azusa...
An idle thought jumped into his head. Did his mother and sisters, all
kunoichi as he had once been, belong to the cult? He decided against it.
The Cult of Azusa's true followers were all young people like himself, the
rest merely opportunists - or perhaps better thought of as survivors.
The appearance of General Mikado Sanzenin in the doorway to the
command center dispelled any further reflection, as Konatsu called out
"Attention on deck!"

Ukyo paused at the clear alto voice of Konatsu announcing Mikado's
arrival. She smoothed her uniform jacket with her hands, and turned to
level her best drop-dead look at him. The first thing she noticed about
him was his tan, the second was his companion. It was not the lovely
Captain Jane Curtiss, the paramour that had started this debacle, but a
brunette. Well, almost a brunette. What did you call a woman whose hair
was a deep unmistakable blue?
The Chief of Staff for the Federated Shiratori Armed Forces panned
his gorgeous eyes about the command center until he spied her. A brief
smile crossed his face, dazzling her with the sparkle of his brilliantly
white and expensively polished teeth. He started towards her, with the
blue-haired woman in tow.
She gave him her usual half-hearted salute, and he returned it in
his usual sloppy manner. It was almost an unspoken ritual between them.
"General Sanzenin," she addressed him.
"Brigadier Kuonji," he returned with mock formality, and thinly
veiled animosity.
"Did you enjoy your sabbatical?" she asked, knowing that his absence
was technically a matter of military necessity - even though it was nothing
more than an excuse for a tryst - and wanting him to know just what she
thought of his brand of bullshit.
"Quite," Mikado returned, willing to give her at least that much.
"I see things are just as hopeless here as they were before the exercises."
Ukyou grit her teeth. It didn't help that most of her subordinates
wouldn't know the wrong end of a PPC if they got hit by one.
"They *have* improved, General," she retorted, as much for her benefit
as theirs. "I have the reports from the last month's exercises."
Mikado waved her off. "No, no. You know how I hate wading through
paperwork. I'm a hands-on type of man." His eyes darted towards the blue-
haired woman, a major with the hunter green piping of one of the Federated
Shiratori's few remaining noble houses. Most of the nobles had been stripped
of their wealth and titles following the Cult of Azusa's rise to power,
which made the major either a fanatic or a realist. Ukyou wasn't sure at
a glance in which category she belonged.
"I've detailed Major Deladier with the task of bringing me up to
date," he said to Ukyou. "You can forward all of the reports to her
office."
Ukyou smirked. "What happened to Jane, I mean, Captain Curtiss?"
Deladier frowned at the mention of another woman. Ukyou decided that
she was a realist. That was something in her favor, at least. Getting
caught up with Mikado Sanzenin was big points against anyone.
"Captain Curtiss didn't work out," Mikado declared solemnly, which
was his personal shorthand for someone who didn't *put out.* Ukyou found
herself cheering for Curtiss, who was probably now a sadder, wiser girl,
with a ruined career for all her troubles.
"Well I'm glad that you've managed to recover," Ukyou offered snidely.
"After all, the entire Armed Forces depends on you."
Mikado looked to Deladier, who returned his look with one of affection.
Ukyou recoiled inwardly with disgust. So much for being a smart one...
"Major Deladier has been a blessing in disguise," he declared, which
was his personal shorthand for someone whom he thought wasn't going to
put out, but had pleasantly surprised him.
Ukyou tried to contain her disgust. Deladier was either a sycophant,
or a very dangerous woman with her own personal agenda. She resolved to
stay well clear of her in either case.
"Well, now that you're here, I stand relieved," she told him.
Mikado chuckled smugly. "Sorry, dear. I'm afraid that I'm just too
busy right now for that kind of bother."
"It's your *duty* to be here for the Spring Maneuvers!" Ukyou
protested. "I'm commanding far above my rank here, dammit! This is a
job for a Captain General at the least!"
Mikado smiled slyly. "Is that what this is all about?" he asked. "My
dear Ukyou, if this is about being passed up for promotion, I can assure
you that I can put in a good word for you with the Empress. You know how
she can make things happen..."
Damn you all to hell, Mikado Sanzenin, she thought blackly. The
last thing she wanted was to be associated with Azusa's fawning coterie
of sycophants, and he knew it!
"That won't be necessary, General," she told him, preferring to
address him by his rank rather than call him 'sir.' "What I recommend is
that a flag grade officer of suitable rank be placed in charge of these
maneuvers, and allow me to return to my previous responsibilities."
Mikado was smarter than that. "You were unattached to any unit pending
your request for diplomatic duty prior to this assignment, my dear Ukyou."
He looked her over. "I'm not giving you a free ticket to Genevieve just so
you can go cry on Azusa's shoulder about how terribly underappreciated you
are."
Ukyou turned red. Konatsu tensed nearby to spring in case his beloved
commander decided to put her family weapon to use on the general's skull.
"Go to hell," she told him curtly. "General."
"Now, now, Brigadier Kuonji. That's no way to talk to your superior
officer."

Chapter Two

NCDS _Palomino,_ 15 light-seconds from the
Capra System Zenith Jump Point,
Capra System, the League of Five Nails
20 March 3025

The sound of a privacy curtain in Berthing being whipped open was
louder in the darkness than the sounds of snoring and the muted roar of
the distant main engines.
"Wake up, boy."
Ranma squinted painfully at the flashlight his father was shining in
his eyes. He had been enjoying a dreamless sleep in his coffin-sized rack
in Berthing prior to this interruption.
"What gives, Pop?" he asked, shading his eyes with his hand.
"I'm tired of your moping around, Ranma," Genma explained. "It's time
you learned a little discipline. Report to 'Mech Bay One for an attitude
adjustment."
Ranma scowled. "You gotta be kidding me... We almost got killed on
Capra - more than once - and now you want me to get up to train?"
Genma stared hard at his son. "That's right, boy."
"What about my ribs?" Ranma pressed. "They're still pretty beat up.
What did Doctor Tofu say about exercise?"
"What the doctor doesn't know won't hurt him," Genma replied. "Now
get up."
"Yeah, but it might hurt ME..." Ranma growled. Genma padded away out
of Berthing as he said it. He was tempted to go back to sleep, but it would
only make his father's eventual return that much more painful for him.
Cursing to himself, he rolled gingerly out of his rack and onto the
cold linoleum of the deck. They had eaten all of the food that had once
lined the narrow floor space between the sets of triple bunks, and the
deck felt gritty from the cardboard that had formerly been laid down to
protect the linoleum surface from the cans.
He stepped into the Head to take a leak. The tiny space was devoid of
passengers and crew. Only the clunk and clatter of people moving around in
the Crew's Mess above him gave any sign that the ship was inhabited at this
late hour of the night-cycle.
When he was finished, he took the short ladder up to the Mid-Deck.
The Crew's Mess was dark, and he could see a handful of heads silhouetted
against the light of the television, watching a kung-fu movie that had
been filmed within the last year on Nerima. The smell of hot tempura
tickled his nose, and he drifted towards the sideboard to help himself.
Ships as small as the _Palomino_ did not have dedicated cooks, and
so meals were prepared on a rotating shift basis among the crew. Most of
the food was pre-packaged, easy to fix, and bland, but it was possible for
someone skilled in cooking to create dishes from the food on hand that made
people look forward to the next meal. _Palomino_ had one of these rare souls
on board, in the form of a Gunner's Mate Second Class, and he had graced
the off-going watch section with a selection of tempura dishes to go with
the movie.
Ranma helped himself. The shrimp wasn't fresh, but after more than two
weeks away from the fine chow from Azure Cloud Castle's kitchens, he wasn't
going to complain. He popped another one into his mouth, savoring the taste,
before taking his plate over to one of the bench-seated tables near the
back of the room.
Doctor Tofu occupied the seat next to him, and smiled at Ranma's fresh
plate of food. The pig-tailed mechwarrior sighed and offered him to help
himself. Tofu wasted no time in doing so.
"So, how're the ribs?" the doctor asked in a whisper after he finished
off one of the precious batter-fried shrimp and moved on to some vegetables.
The flick was at a point where some obligatory plot was being offered, and
his interest in it had waned.
"Okay," Ranma replied, wondering how long it would take his father to
track him down. "How's the leg?"
"I'll live."
"Hey Doc," Ranma broached. "How long was I supposed to go before I
could start sparring again?"
"Two weeks," Tofu replied. "You're a fast healer from what I've seen,
but I wouldn't push it any sooner than two weeks."
"Just checking." What the doctor doesn't know won't hurt him, my ass!
The flick shifted back to action again, and the two fell silent as
they critiqued the performance. It was something of a comfort to Ranma to
note that Tofu quietly chuckled or scoffed at the same things he did. The
guy may have taken up medicine, but he hadn't forgotten his martial arts
roots.
His eyes wandered across the various heads silhouetted in the room.
Most were members of the _Palomino's_ crew or Akari's techs. The two who
weren't part of either group made him spit out a silent curse.
Akane was sitting next to Ryouga near the front of the room. She was
giggling, probably in response to a joke, and even in the darkness, Ranma
could see the blush that was on Ryouga's face.
"'Scuse me, Doc," he said to the doctor. "I just remembered that I
gotta be somewhere."
"Are you sure?" Tofu asked him. "It's pretty late."
"Positive. Pop will kill me if I'm any later than I already am."
He slid out of the bench seat and left the Crew's Mess, leaving his
unfinished plate of tempura behind. Doctor Tofu watched him go, then helped
himself to the remainder.

Ryouga Hibiki was in absolute bliss. He had wandered onto the Crew's
Mess late for the meal, but just in time to watch a movie. He hadn't seen
any new ones for awhile, and the tempura was excellent! Even better than
the film or the food though, was when Akane sat down next to him.
She looked out-of-sorts at first, as she had for most of the trip
to the jump point. She wouldn't say what the problem was, but Ryouga knew
better. It was that idiot Ranma's fault that she was like this!
Now she was happy, and even laughed at his lame attempts at humor.
Her smile was brilliant in the light of the television screen, and her
eyes were alive. His heart began to thump loudly in his chest to see her
like this, and to know that he was the reason for it.
How Ranma had managed to become her fiance, he did not know, but it
wounded him to think that it was true. Akane deserved far better than
someone like that stupid jerk. If only he could...
He put it aside. Who was he to love a girl as wonderful as her?
Living from hand to mouth as a nameless mercenary, wandering aimlessly
across the Inner Sphere, cursed to become a pig! It was too painful to
think about.
It was even more painful to think that despite what a jerk Ranma was
to her, Akane seemed to have feelings for him. Her cry of anguish when
Kuno threatened to kill Ranma was unmistakable to his ears. How? How could
it be possible that she loved him?
Her hand brushed against his in the darkness, and he jumped in
surprise. She coyly apologized to him, her eyes alight and her quiet
voice breathy and shy. His heart turned somersaults in his throat.
She didn't love Ranma, he swore to himself. She couldn't! Who did
she kiss when they were getting ready to leave Capra? Who was she sitting
next to in the dark, watching a movie? Not Ranma... but him! Ryouga Hibiki!
He thought about what Happousai said to him earlier - about having no
experience with women. It was painfully true, but he wasn't going to let
that stop him. He'd whisper in her ear how much he loved her, how he had
loved her from the moment he first saw her in the Capra City Jail, and how
she should put Ranma aside and forget about him. She couldn't help but be
swayed by him. It would be so simple!
He started to lean over when his nerve went out, and he froze up.
Dammit! This was supposed to be simple!
She took no notice of his inner struggle, instead laughing at the hero
of the film, who pummeled his on-screen opponents with a much abused plate
of spaghetti, a length of garden hose, and a whiffle-ball bat.
Ryouga swallowed hard and tried not to think about her beautiful
shining eyes or the way her hair bounced when she laughed. He would do
this, and she would fall into his arms for a pleasant kiss in the darkness.
Right?
What if she didn't? some part of him asked. What if she said that her
heart belonged to Ranma?
His will fell apart, and he slumped back against the bench seat. If
she said that to him, his heart of glass would shatter into a thousand
pieces. He couldn't take that chance. Not until he really knew how she
felt.
The movie continued, though he drew less joy from it than he had
before.

Akane laughed at the antics of the film's hero. The guy was good,
a master of several styles of martial arts, including the famous "Drunken
Fist." She had always admired his work, especially since she hadn't been
able to repeat some of the moves.
It felt good to laugh, she realized. She hadn't done much of it in
the last few days. Instead she had spent most of her time avoiding Ranma,
which was depressing, though it wasn't very difficult considering he was
doing the same to her. Time had passed with an agonizing gait, made even
more nerve-wracking by the fact that the Combine was surely searching for
them. The longer orbit they were using to rendezvous with the _Dragonfly_
had to work, or else they were still done for in spite of their lucky
escape.
She looked over at Ryouga. He was watching the film, though he seemed
a bit more distant now than he had just a few moments ago. When she came
into the Crew's Mess to watch the movie, he had seemed lost and out of
place. It was only natural for her to keep him company. Aside from Tarou,
who apparently kept to himself a lot, she and Ranma were the only people
on the ship that he knew.
He was a really nice guy, she thought to herself. Thoughtful, polite,
considerate. Everything that Ranma wasn't. He was also pretty handsome, she
noted.
Unfortunately, that was where the attraction to him ended. He was cute
and he was sweet, but there was nothing else for her there. It was just one
of those quirks of fate, but she felt nothing more than friendship for him.
If circumstances had been different from the way they were, she might have
felt something more for him in time. In fact, she was sure of it.

* * *

"You took your sweet time getting here," Genma said to Ranma as he
stepped through the airtight door into 'Mech Bay One. His Griffin, its
chest scarred from a stray laser beam in the fight at the mine, towered
over him. "I almost went to check on you."
"Yeah, well, I'm here. So now what?" Ranma scowled.
"Ranma..." his father intoned. "Why do you do these things to your
father? Haven't I always tried to do right by you?"
Ranma's face screwed up into a grimace.
"What are you talking about, old man? You've done nothing but make
my life miserable for as long as I can remember. Always moving from planet
to planet and leaving any friends I happen to make behind, getting beat up
by masters in the martial arts in the hope that I'll remember some of it
when I regain consciousness, stealing food so we wouldn't starve to death,
risking certain death by stowing away on ships instead of paying passage..."
"You can stop now, boy," Genma interrupted uncomfortably.
"I'm just gettin' warmed up, Pop," Ranma countered. "Where was I?
Oh yeah, keeping me from Mom for the last seventeen years, losing the
family battlemech because you couldn't keep the thing in repair, that...
that... time with the cats..." Ranma shuddered in horror, and even Genma
winced at the recollection. "...And now you've engaged me to a stupid
tomboy who hates my guts and hits me all the time, not to mention the fact
that frigging Tatewaki Kuno himself wants me dead because of it - just so
you can live the good life in someone else's castle!"
His voice had grown to a shout, and when he ceased, he was left
gulping for breath.
"Did I miss anything, Pop?" he managed after several moments.
Genma pawed at the deck with his foot.
"I think that about covers it," he replied solemnly.
"So why the hell am I standing here at one in the morning instead of
lying asleep in my rack where I belong!?" Ranma demanded.
Genma cleared his throat. "I want to talk to you about Akane."
Ranma stomped his foot on the deck. "There ain't nothing to talk
about!" He started for the airtight door.
"RANMA!" Genma barked.
The force of his shout stopped Ranma short of the door. The pig-tailed
mechwarrior turned slowly, his lips curled in anger.
"It occurs to me that you've hurt her feelings," Genma continued
quietly. "I won't stand for it. You're her fiance, and she deserves to be
treated better than that."
"I've hurt HER feelings?" Ranma shot back. "Gimme a break!"
"I don't want to know the details, boy," Genma said, holding out his
hands as if to push the issue away. "That's between you and her. What I
want you to do is to apologize to her."
"A-APOLOGIZE!?" Ranma spluttered. "You gotta be shittin' me! I ain't
apologizing to her! If anyone deserves an apology around here, it's me!"
Genma frowned. "What are you talking about, boy?"
Ranma felt his throat tighten. "In case you didn't know, my *fiancee*
is up in the Crew's Mess watching a movie with Ryouga!"
Genma cocked his head. "So?"
"SO?!" Ranma shouted. "What do you think that means?"
His father shook his head sadly, and leaned over to fetch a pail of
water he had staged for this moment. "Ranma, if you can't be a man about
this, then be a woman!"
He threw the pail of water at his son, who dodged it, and charged
straight at him. Before Ranma's fists could land, a second splash of water
appeared from above, soaking him, and causing him to slip on the deck.
When she landed, coughing and spluttering at Genma's feet, the
cackling laughter of Happousai echoed from the gantry above.
"Sweet-O!" the elderly mechwarrior cried. He set down the empty pail
on the catwalk where he lurked. "You'd make an old man like me very happy,
eh, Hot Stuff!"
"You old bastard!" Ranma called to him, shaking a fist to the overhead.
"Make me an offer, Genma," Happousai called back. "I'll take her off
your hands, cheap. Hell, I'll take her for free!"
Genma gave his master an amused look, and started for the door.
"Come back here, old man!" Ranma called after him. "I ain't through
with you yet."
"Aw come on, Genma," Happousai added. "I'd take good care of Ranma..."
Genma paused, turning his head to look over his shoulder at Ranma.
"Apologize, boy. Or else."
"Bite me!" Ranma returned, but the door had shut behind her father.
Happousai took the steps down from the gantry in great leaping bounds,
homing on Ranma's bosom like a heat-seeking missile. She stopped him cold
with her fist as he made the final leap. He plopped to the deck, half-
conscious.
"Asshole," she growled, though it was unclear whether she referred to
the dazed lecher at her knees or her father.
"Is that any way to talk to your master?" Happousai replied, popping
up cartoon-like from his stupor. He smiled for her greasily. "Can't I just
cop a quick feel?"
"How about I blow you instead?" she asked coyly, while striking a
cheesecake pose.
"R-Really?" Happousai stammered, his eyes huge and dewy. "It appears
that I've misjudged you, Ranma. Can you forgive an old man?"
Her expression soured. "Yeah, how about I blow you right out an
airlock."
Happousai screwed his eyes shut tight and pounded his tiny fists on
the deck. "Damn you, Ranma, for getting me all worked up! You're nothing
but a tease!"
She slammed him down into the hard steel deck with her fist.
"You better believe it, old fart," Ranma replied.
She left him there on the deck, deciding that a quick hot shower was
in order before she went back to sleep. Genma was long gone when she
stepped through the airtight door, having probably also retired for the
evening. Thoughts of whipping *his* rack curtain open and shining a light
in *his* eyes passed through her mind.
The Head was again quiet and still. She stripped off her wet clothes
and stepped into the Ship's Laundry long enough to throw them in the dryer
for a few minutes. At this hour it was unlikely that anyone would come in
to do laundry.
She looked into one of the sink mirrors at herself. She didn't look
half bad, she decided. There were bruises all over her, courtesy of the
Furinkan Combine and the League of Five Nails, but those would clear up
soon enough. Yup, she thought with some satisfaction, not bad at all...
A curious grunting sound behind her made her jump with surprise. She
spun around to face a small black pig. His tiny hooves clicked on the
terrazzo as he approached.
"Whose pet are you?" she asked him. He must have belonged to one of
the crew, but she was surprised that she hadn't noticed him before.
The pig looked up at her, and immediately looked away, blushing.
"Pretty modest for a pig," Ranma remarked. She snatched him up before
he could scamper away. A close inspection revealed that 1): he was in fact
male, and 2): he had no collar or other identifying tag, only a vaguely
familiar yellow and black bandanna around his neck.
"What are you doing with that pig?" a voice, Akane's, asked as she
checked out the pig.
Ranma looked up at her, and realized that she was standing there naked,
and holding someone's pet pig perhaps too close to her ample bosom. The pig,
for its part, squealed miserably, and looked terribly embarrassed.
"Is it yours?" she asked Akane.
"Why would it be mine?" she returned. "Where did you get it?"
"Beats me," Ranma replied. "He just walked in here. Ewww... He's all
sticky, too..."
"Sticky? That's disgusting."
Ranma grimaced at the implications of her statement. "Don't look at
me, I didn't have anything to do with it."
"I'm sure."
"Now what's that supposed to mean?" Ranma challenged.
"Forget it," Akane clucked. "I was looking for Ryouga, not you."
"Oh," Ranma chirped. "You were looking for Ryouga. I should have
known, the way you two were carrying on in the Crew's Mess..."
Akane turned red. "You were spying on us?"
"Who needed to spy? You were right there in public."
She crossed her arms over her chest, secretly pleased by this. "Big
deal, Ranma. What do you care, anyway?"
"Who says I do?"
She narrowed her eyes at Ranma. "It's obvious, the way you're carrying
on about it."
Ranma was silent.
"I'm going to bed," Akane said finally. "If you see Ryouga, tell him
I was looking for him, but it can wait until the morning."
"Sure."
Akane's stern look softened slightly. "Good night, Ranma."
Ranma let her go before replying.
"Good night, Akane. Pleasant dreams."
Akane ducked her head back into the room. "Thank you, Ranma. I will."
Then she was gone into Berthing, leaving Ranma red-faced.
Ranma turned back to the pig. "Now what am I gonna do with you?" she
asked him. "I've heard of a Ship's Cat before, but a Ship's Pig?"
The pig squealed angrily at her, pawing and trying to bite.
"Calm down, already!" she told him. "I was kidding. Geez, you're
smarter than you look. And you're all sticky, too. What the heck did you
get into?"
The pig again tried to protest this line of questioning. Ranma ignored
him.
"Well, I don't want to turn you over to the Captain, because I don't
know if you're allowed to be here or not. But I don't know who you belong
to, either, and it's too late at night to start asking."
She eyed him dispassionately.
"It looks like you're stuck with me, at least for the moment."
The pig did not seem pleased with this at all.
"First things, first, though. You need to get cleaned up." She rubbed
at his belly. "What is this stuff? It smells like fruit punch."
She started the hot water for the shower, and then stepped in. The pig
began squealing and struggling with all its might, but to no avail.
The next thing Ranma knew, he was crushed up against the wall of the
shower by a very angry, very naked, and uncomfortably close, Ryouga Hibiki.

"Um, Ryouga?" he asked in a tiny voice.

Ryouga scowled with an intense hatred, the close quarters of the shower
stall making it impossible to punch Ranma in the face, as he so desperately
wanted to do.
"...Raaaannnnmaaaa..."
Further words failed him, and he stood there glaring.
"So you went to the Jusenkyo Labs too?" he asked the fanged mercenary.
"I don't want to talk about it," Ryouga scowled. "I just want to know
how you got there... Out on the highway I thought there was something wrong
about you, but now there can be no doubt... And on top of that you know how
this happened to me..."
"It's a long story, Ryouga," Ranma said uncomfortably. "Um, could
you step out of the shower first?"
Ryouga closed his eyes in shame and opened the door of the stall.
Ranma turned the water off and joined him outside.
"You go first, Ryouga. Tell me what happened to you," he said evenly.
What were the odds that Ryouga, of all people, had been a victim of the
Jusenkyo Labs?
"It started with Happousai," Ryouga began, and Ranma gave a snort of
contempt for the elderly mechwarrior. "He got us a Commonwealth contract
to serve as starport security on Lightoller. It was an easy job, and good
money. But one night we followed two spies to the Labs and tried to stop
them. We were joined by one of the Lab's security people in the fight. It
was dark in there, and in the confusion we never got a chance to get a very
good look at them. The next thing I know, I'm getting attacked by a girl
and some huge black and white furry beast..." His voice trailed off.
"That's when I fell in the pool... and changed..."
Ranma gave him a sympathetic look.
"We both fell in pools," Ryouga continued. "Tarou and I. We were so
scared about what had happened that we ran from the Labs and took the first
ship leaving Lightoller. We ended up getting stuck on Capra and joining the
mercenary garrison there."
"That explains why those Amazons had you locked up when we got there,"
Ranma said, piecing it all together. Unfortunately, it made too much sense,
and Ryouga was standing there, far too close for comfort all of a sudden.
"What's your story, Ranma?" Ryouga demanded. "How did you end up with
this curse?"
"Oh, it's a long story, like I said..."
Ryouga cracked his knuckles. "I told you my story, Ranma, and now it's
your turn."
Ranma began to sweat. "Um... can I get a rain check on that?"
Ryouga's eyes lit up with the truth.
"So... It was you..."
"W-What are you talking about?" Ranma asked, voice quavering.
"It was you who knocked me into the pool..." Ryouga growled. "You're
the one who turned my life into a living hell..."
"Come on, Ryouga," Ranma returned weakly. "You said yourself that
it was a girl and a furry black and white animal that knocked you into
the pool, right?"
Ryouga cocked back a fist. "So?"
"So, do you see any big furry animals running around here?"
This gave Ryouga a second's pause, proving in Ranma's mind that he
wasn't too bright. He backed slowly away from him.
Genma Saotome chose this moment to enter the Head. Ryouga turned and
saw him. The elder Saotome stared at the two naked young men, and was about
to leave, not wanting to know anything about it.
"Uh, p-pardon me..." he muttered to them.
"There's one way to find out," Ryouga snarled, and leaped past Ranma
to the sink. He threw open the valve for the cold water and pressed his
fingers against the spigot, spraying water everywhere. In the moment after
he succumbed to his own transformation, he watched with grim satisfaction
as a naked red-haired girl and a large black and white panda bear cried out
in surprise.
"You stupid jerk!" Ranma squealed. "You want the truth? Yeah, it was
me and Pop, but we didn't do it on purpose!" She snatched up the pig, who
was shaking with rage. "You think we've got it any easier than you? Huh?
Pop belongs in a zoo, and look at me! I belong on the centerfold of some
pin-up magazine, for crying out loud!"
Ryouga clamped his jaws down on the webbing of her hand between her
thumb and forefinger, causing her to shriek loud enough to wake up the
people asleep in Berthing. She let go of him, and he scampered away past
the panda, who watched him go with only a low growl.
"What are you doing, Pop?" Ranma cried at him. "You're letting the
little bastard get away!"
Genma-panda reached into his pocket and withdrew a small touchpad he
kept around for such situations. He scribbled something on it with his claw,
and held it up for Ranma to read.

[Go to bed. He's not going anywhere.]

"This ain't the time for it!" Ranma returned. "Who knows what he'll
do in this condition."

[He's a pig. What can he do?]

Ranma's mouth gaped open. "Oh. I guess you got a point there."
Genma-panda shook his head and stepped past his son to the sink. He
gave himself a splash of hot water, changing back to his human form, and
stepped past Ranma once again, leaving him alone in the Head.
"What the hell's going on in here?" the Roving Watch said to her,
suddenly appearing from the upper deck. He looked at all the water on
the floor, then to the naked Ranma. "I don't care who you are, lady. I
ain't cleaning this up." He reached into the closet opposite the door and
handed Ranma a mop and a bucket. "And put some clothes on, for God's sake."

* * *

Ryouga Hibiki was miserable. The people who had saved him from Capra
were the ones who had given him his cursed pig body. He wanted Ranma dead
for what he had done, but Akane... He had heard her wishing Ranma a good
night, and knew that she would never forgive him for it.
He passed by a viewport. The stars were cold pinpricks of light,
separated by vast distances of emptiness. He sighed sadly at beholding
them.
The universe was a dark and lonely place.
In a cruel twist of fate, he stumbled across his wet clothes in one
of the secluded forward passageways of the ship. A paper cup, once filled
with punch from the dispenser in the Crew's Mess, rolled aimlessly on the
deck with the whistling of air from a recirculation fan. He had somehow
lost track of where he was from the moment he refilled his drink, to the
point where he stumbled in the darkened passageway and spilled his punch
on himself.
Now that he had recovered his clothes, he had to get back to the head
to clean them and change himself back into a man. He grabbed the shirt and
trousers in his teeth and began to drag them slowly across the deck to the
stairwell, trusting to luck to keep his underwear from falling out. He'd
come back for his shoes and socks later.
It was a long and arduous trip, but fortunately not a very complicated
one. Anytime an airtight door loomed before him, he knew he was headed in
the wrong direction. The Head looked deserted when he stepped inside, but
he heard Ranma's voice grumbling incoherently from the Laundry.
How dare that jerk try to complain about having such a beautiful body!
What nerve! He knew nothing about the suffering and humiliation one endured
as a pig!
He steeled himself, and stepped into the laundry.
Ranma saw him immediately, his eyes flashing in the dim light.
"You gotta lot of nerve coming in here, piggy," he muttered to Ryouga.
He was still naked, but wrapped in a towel.
Ryouga grunted a curse in reply.
Ranma looked at the wet clothes Ryouga had dragged in with him. The
stains of punch were clear on the tunic.
"Well that explains why you were all sticky."
Ryouga grunted once more.
"Look, Ryouga," Ranma said to him. "I ain't here to be your enemy,
okay? Let's just let bygones be bygones, all right?"
The pig that was Ryouga did not seem convinced.
Ranma snatched up the clothes, earning himself a bite on the arm.
"Look, you moron, I was going to wash your clothes for you!" he hissed
at the pig. "You want to stand around naked in the laundry for everyone
to see while you wait for them to get clean? I've got a towel, how about
you?"
Ryouga gave him a dubious look, then relented.
"See? That wasn't so hard. Use your brain for once, Ryouga."
He applied a stain remover before putting the clothes in the washing
machine. Ryouga remained near the door that opened into the Head.
"I ain't gonna bite," Ranma said to him.
The pig ignored him.
"Look, I'm sorry about what happened to you, okay? I had no idea
what was in that stupid place. Trust me, if I did, I never woulda let Pop
talk me into going there."
Ryouga snorted with contempt.
"What's it take to get through to you, man?" Ranma cried. "Are you
still sore about that stupid duel from seven years ago?"
The pig's eyes flashed angrily.
"Whoa. I guess you are... You really need to lighten up, man..."
They sat in silence for awhile, with only the sounds of the laundry
machines and the ship's engines to mark the time. Ranma put Ryouga's
clothes in the dryer as he took his own out and got dressed.
"I'm gonna stick around until your stuff is done drying. Is that okay
with you?"
Ryouga sighed sleepily and started out the door. He was bored and
tired, and needed to take a walk to stay awake.
"Ryouga!" Ranma called after him. "Where do you think you're going,
you moron! You'll get lost again."
He ignored Ranma, turning left into Berthing when he meant to go
right, and losing his bearings in the darkness. He snuffled around the
baseboards, figuring that if he kept following them, eventually he would
find his way out. There was, after all, only one way out of Berthing.
A pair of hands seized him in the darkness, and he squealed with
dismay at getting caught. When the hands brought him up to a familiar
and beloved face, however, he went silent and ceased his struggles.
"How did you get in here?" Akane asked him quietly. "Did Ranma let
you run loose?"
He let out a quiet *oink* in response, hating the sound that "I love
you" made when spoken by a pig.
She looked at him for a moment.
"Well at least he cleaned you up first," she remarked with a yawn.
"Honestly, I don't know what to do with him sometimes..." She clutched
Ryouga close and rolled over onto her side. "I guess you can stay with me
for now..." she said, and drifted back to sleep.
Ryouga felt the warmth of Akane Tendo surrounding him, and the soft
fragrance of her hair was intoxicating. He yawned as well, content in the
fact that he was now closer to her than Ranma would ever be...

Chapter Three

NCDS _Palomino,_ approaching NCJS _Dragonfly_
10 light-seconds from the Capra System Zenith Jump Point,
Capra System, the League of Five Nails
22 March 3025

Ranma was too hungry the next morning to keep up his avoidance of
Akane, and after the previous night-cycle's encounter, it was rather
pointless anyway. The Crew's Mess was filled with the off-going watch
enjoying a last meal before the _Palomino_ reached the JumpShip. He spied
his father sitting next to Doctor Tofu, and grabbed a bowl of miso soup
and some rice from the steamer before joining them.
"Before you sit down, son, how about some more coffee?"
"Oh, me as well, please," Tofu added.
Ranma scowled at his father. Because the close quarters of the Crew's
Mess tables required that people who sat away from the center aisle had to
displace the rest of the people sitting at the bench in order to get up, it
was customary for the person sitting closest to the center aisle to fetch
drinks and second helpings for the rest of the table.
In this case, the duty fell to Ranma. He took his father's and Doctor
Tofu's mugs and walked over to the coffee pot.
"You don't even drink coffee, old man," he muttered as he accepted
the mug.
"You're never too old to start," Genma retorted.
Ranma filled the mug. "How do you want it?"
"Just like a Bierhaus fraulein," the elder Saotome replied. "Blonde
and sweet."
Ranma shook his head in disgust. "I'll remember that one for Mom."
He looked to Doctor Tofu. "Doc?"
"Black, please," Tofu replied.
Ranma prepared the coffee as ordered and returned to the table. His
father was waiting for him wide, plaintive eyes.
"Now what is it?" he asked him.
Genma offered him his soup bowl. "How about some more soup - since
you're still up."
Ranma made a growling noise and accepted the bowl. His own bowl of
soup was getting cold in the process. As he returned with the soup, his
father was holding up another bowl, empty save for a few grains of rice.
Genma read the look of aggravation on his son's face.
"Well, you can't have miso soup without rice," he explained to him.
Ranma contemplated dumping the fresh bowl of soup on his father's
head.
"Why are you doing this to me, Pop?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"Hand me the soup and I'll tell you."
Ranma set the bowl of soup down before his father and collected the
empty rice bowl.
"Well?"
"Have you apologized to Akane yet?" his father asked him.
"No," Ranma replied tersely.
"Well, now you know why," Genma returned. "And careful with what
you take, boy. I don't want any of the burned rice at the bottom of the
steamer."
Ranma turned once more for the sideboard. There was just enough left
to meet his father's demands. He returned to the table, waiting to see if
there was anything else his father wanted, because he was going to refuse
in the most vocal way possible.
Genma must have sensed this, for he accepted the rice silently, and
set about to eat.
Ranma at last set down to eat, noting ruefully that his soup was
barely warm, and that the rice had started to set into a slightly crispy
lump that defied the gentle proddings of his chopsticks. He set the mass
into the soup, hoping to soften it enough to eat without melting into a
sodden mess in his bowl.
As he ate his cold, overly sticky rice, he realized that he had fallen
victim to his hunger, and should have waited until later before appearing
on the mess deck. Was his old man going to play stupid head games like
this until he finally apologized? He decided that he wouldn't give him
the satisfaction.

Akari joined them after a while, looking as shy and demure as always.
"Commander Saotome?" she asked politely.
"What is it?" Genma returned.
"Forgive me for interrupting, Commander," she apologized. "I wanted to
inform you that the damage to your Griffin has been repaired, and that the
second coat of paint is curing on it."
Genma nodded at this, well pleased with the efficiency and dedication
of his Senior Technician.
"Very well," he said to her. "Excellent work." He went back to eating.
She waited for an appropriate moment to interrupt.
"Commander Saotome?"
He set down his bowl. "Yes?"
"About the two extra battlemechs," she began. "May I have permission
to begin repairs on them?"
Genma thought about this. While he was grateful for the assistance of
the Hibiki fellow's BattleMaster, his partner Tarou's Hunchback had been
little more than baggage on the trip. He was not running a charity here.
"What kind of damage are we talking about?" he asked her.
"The BattleMaster has some armor damage," Akari replied, and Ranma
detected the most curious affection in her voice when she mentioned its
name. "It's fairly extensive in some areas, but there was no internal
damage," she added with no small amount of pride for the war machine's
stout construction. "The Hunchback on the other hand needs actuators and
some myomer work."
"Fix the armor on both 'mechs," Genma decided. "We don't have the
time or the facilities to do any stringing or actuator work out here."
Akari was about to disagree, as she was a capable 'stringer,' or
myomer bundle technician, but the tone of his voice suggested that there
were other reasons behind his decision, and she could understand why he
might be reluctant to front the parts and labor for repairs to a battlemech
belonging to someone outside the mission. She let it drop.
"At once, Commander," she said, rising to get to work.
"Are you sure you have to leave right now?" Ranma asked her, wondering
why she was so concerned about fixing the 'mechs when they were within a
day of rendezvous with the _Dragonfly._ "Have some chow while you can."
Akari offered an apologetic smile. "It's no trouble, sir," she told
him. "I was looking forward to working on the BattleMaster." Again, Ranma
detected that note of affection in her voice when she mentioned the 'mech
by name.
She excused herself politely and left the Crew's Mess.
"Man," Ranma said when she was out of earshot. "I've never seen a
girl have it so bad for a 'mech before."
"There's nothing wrong with a little affection for a machine," Genma
noted. "Why, I knew some women who preferred appliances, er, machines over
men..." He tried not to snicker as he said it.
Ranma lowered his head to his chest in disgust, then banged it several
times on the table.
"Just when I think that you've hit rock bottom, Pop, you somehow find
a way to blast your way through to the next level."
"Lighten up, boy," Genma said with an overly hard slap on the back
that made Ranma come close to choking up his breakfast. "I knew I should
have started on the dirty jokes when you were younger, but my respect for
your mother held me back."
"Respect for Mom? That's a laugh," Ranma snorted.
Akane joined them at the table before Genma could retort. He let the
words die in his mouth as the Confederation Heir was seated. Cradled in
her arms was a small black pig, who looked at peace with the universe.
Ranma said nothing to her, preferring instead to glare at Ryouga.
"What a cute pig," Doctor Tofu observed. "Where did you find it?"
"I found him last night in Berthing," she replied, apparently content
to make no mention of the first time she saw him, in the Head. "I have no
idea where he came from. He must belong to one of the crew, but so far
everyone I've asked has said no."
"Isn't a pig a bit unhealthy to have around a place where food is
being served?" Genma asked her. Ryouga gave him a dirty look.
"He's very clean," Akane assured him.
She looked to Doctor Tofu, who added, "Most pigs are quite fastidious
animals. And it's not like he's running around in the galley or the store-
rooms."
Ranma squinted at Ryouga, who was enjoying himself in Akane's arms.
"So are you going to keep him?" he asked Akane. "I bet he'd make a
great pet." He chuckled to himself when Ryouga reacted with hostility to
the term 'pet.'
"I guess so," Akane replied. "If no one comes forward to claim him.
I even have a name for him."
Ranma laughed. "This I gotta hear."
She gave him a warning look before continuing. "I call him 'P-chan.'"
"P-chan?" Ranma, Genma, and Doctor Tofu chorused.
She gave them all defensive looks. "Yes, 'P-chan...' 'P' as in 'Pig,'
and 'chan' as in 'small and cute.'"
Ranma held back the laughter long enough to say "You're calling him
'Pig-cute?' Oh man, that's rich!" He then lost it and began howling.
Ryouga tried jumping out of Akane's arms to bite Ranma, but she held
him in place. Ranma laughed even harder, making oinking noises that
infuriated both Ryouga and Akane.
"It's not funny, Ranma!" she protested. Then in a motherly voice she
added to the pig, "No, it's not, is it, P-chan?"
This only made Ranma laugh harder, to the point where an effortless
shove from Genma ejected him from the bench seat to the deck of the center
aisle. Hitting the floor only seemed to make him worse. The rest of the
ship's crew looked on with varying degrees of curiosity and annoyance.
"Ignore him, P-chan," Akane said soothingly to the pig.
"Well, I'm not happy about it," Genma declared. "But I can't think of
any reason why you couldn't keep a pet aboard ship. I guess it's settled
for the moment."
Ranma finally recovered, drawing himself back up to the table, and
trying to avoid a relapse. His ribs ached from all the laughter, and he
hoped Doctor Tofu wouldn't have to perform any readjustments later.
"Well, P-chan," he told the pig. "I wish you the best of luck in your
new career. You'll need it."
Ryouga's little face screwed up into anger.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Akane demanded of him.
"Take it any way you like it," Ranma returned.
"So, Akane," Doctor Tofu interjected. "Where exactly do you plan to
keep him?"
"Oh, he'll sleep with me, I guess," she remarked off-handedly.
Ranma made a choking noise.
"S-Sleep with you?" he asked, dumbfounded. "HIM?"
"Of course," Akane replied. Ryouga gave him a smug look from her
sheltering arms. "Like he did last night. He's very warm and cozy."
Ryouga blushed with happiness. Ranma looked like he was about to
get sick all over the table.
"That's... That's disgusting," he grunted. "Sleeping with... with
HIM..."
"It's not disgusting!" Akane protested. "There's nothing wrong with
P-chan."
"Ha! That's what you think!"
"Would you care to explain that, Ranma?" she demanded.
"Yes, Ranma. If you know something important about that pig, then
you should tell us," Doctor Tofu added.
Ranma looked at the pig for a moment. Ryouga's eyes were huge and
full of terror at the thought of being revealed to Akane like this. It
would be so easy to spill his secret, but as he thought about it, he
realized that he owed Ryouga big time for knocking him into one of the
Jusenkyo Pools.
"Forget I said it," he muttered. He looked at the pig, and his eyes
flashed the message, We're even now, Ryouga. Got it?
He got up from the table and headed back to Berthing.
"What was that all about?" Genma asked them when Ranma was gone.
"Beats me," Akane replied. She cuddled P-chan. "That Ranma's such a
weirdo, isn't he P-chan?"
Ryouga nodded vigorously. For the first time in his brief double-
existence as the pig, he was happy in his porcine body. It wasn't much
compared to the joy that could be had in Akane's arms as a whole man, but
for the moment - who was he to complain?
The 1MC intercom buzzed with the sound of someone holding down the
microphone button. "Station the Maneuvering Watch! All hands prepare for
docking manuevers, and make reports to the Flight Deck."
"Wow," Tofu remarked as the crew got up from their meals and began to
file out past the scullery. "Aren't we a little early?"
"We are," Genma replied, checking his watch. "I wonder what's going
on?"

* * *

Pansuto Tarou smiled to himself as the order was given to station the
maneuvering watch. It wouldn't be long now before he could get his revenge
on Happousai. As soon as the JumpShip took them from the Capra System, he
would act.
He had known about his nemesis almost from the start, having stumbled
across his Locust while looking for Ryouga. The paint scheme was different
than it had been on St. Ives - when they signed on with the Commonwealth.
There was also a big fresh hole in the chassis from a PPC bolt, but it was
definitely Happousai's battlemech.
From that moment on he had been plotting his vengeance.
One thing he had learned in his quiet lurkings throughout the ship
was that Happousai was wary of him. It would have to be a quick strike
from the darkness, and the much larger JumpShip would offer many more
places for an assassin to hide than a DropShip like the _Palomino._ He
would be in his monster form of course, which also meant that discretion
was important. He did not need the ship's crew hunting him down as some
*thing* to be blown out of an airlock.
He also needed time to gloat over Happousai. It was important to him,
as he had a lot of pain and anguish built up inside that no simple murder
would exorcise. Even if it meant only a few moments talking to him through
the airlock door prior to spacing him, it would be enough just to hear him
beg.
The important thing now was to pretend that there were no hard feelings
between them. Ryouga had somehow managed to make peace with the bastard,
and so he had some precedent to take advantage of. The transfer from the
DropShip to the JumpShip would be the perfect time to feign indifference
towards him.
After Happousai was dead, he was unsure. It depended on where the
JumpShip was taking them. He would leave them as soon as possible though.
He had done a little looting in the city, and figured that between the
proceeds from that and some honest work as a mercenary, he could get his
battlemech back to full repair. He didn't blame the fat Genma Saotome for
only authorizing the repair of the armor on his Hunchback, in fact he
thanked him. It would be one less expense to deal with.
The Furinkan Combine was in the ascendant, he noted, and he knew
intimate details about one of the Commonwealth's most important planets.
They would pay him well when the time came to invade the Commonwealth,
as they certainly would once the Confederation was conquered, and his
worthless former employers in the League of Five Nails had crumbled. It
might do him some good to get in with the Combine early, to assure himself
a position of status and power when it came time to invade.

* * *

The airlock equalized pressure with a sharp hiss before the doors
slid open to link the _Palomino_ with the _Dragonfly._ Ranma could already
smell the difference in the cool clean air that blew softly through the
connector tunnel that ran through the docking ring. He floated through
to the other side, where Captain Ninomiya and some of her officers were
waiting for them.
"Welcome aboard, Mechwarrior Saotome," Hinako said to him.
Ranma looked at the eight-year-old girl in the Confederation Navy
uniform that was several sizes too big for her, and blinked in confusion.
"Hey, kid," he asked her. "Where's your mom?"
Hinako began to steam. Several of her officers winced, while others
looked on rather hopefully that something was going to happen between
them.
"What's your problem, Saotome?" she demanded of him. "Didn't you
learn any respect for your superiors?"
Genma, Akane, and Doctor Tofu floated in behind Ranma.
"What seems to be the trouble?" Genma asked.
"Beats me, Pop," Ranma replied. "It's just this third-grader here
being a brat. No big deal."
"Leave her alone, Ranma," Akane told him. "Pick on someone your own
size."
"I wonder where Captain Ninomiya went?" Genma asked, ignoring the
child who flailed her arms about for attention.
"Third-grader?! Brat!?" Hinako cried. "That does it! It's time for
your attitude adjustment!"
She pulled out a small five mark coin with a hole drilled through it,
and leveled it at Ranma. He casually flicked it aside, and floated past her
to the elevator.
"Watch where you point stuff, okay?" he said over his shoulder. "It's
rude."
Hinako scrambled after the coin as it floated away from her in free
fall. When she recovered it, the elevator doors were sliding shut with
the first load of returning _Palomino_ crew.
"Dammit!" she growled. "Someone's gonna pay for this."
Her officers began to pale with dread in anticipation of being her
next victims, before she floated for the emergency stairwell instead.
Once she was gone, they sighed with relief.

Happousai noted that Ryouga and Pansuto Tarou were behind him in
the connector tube, a tactical blunder that he might come to regret.
He stopped short and pulled himself aside to let them pass, keeping a
watchful eye on both of them, and tensing to spurt away to safety if
they tried anything. Tarou gave him a haughty look as he floated past,
but there was little malice in it. Ryouga ignored him.
He wondered at this turn of events. Ryouga he had browbeaten into
staying uninvolved, but Tarou? It was weird. He expected a bit more from
the _bishonen_ mechwarrior. Maybe he wasn't as psychotic as he had
previously believed.
He decided not to take the chance, and resolved to remain wary around
the man until he could be safely rid of him. He'd choose his moment, then
provoke him into revealing his Jusenkyo body. If he couldn't do that, then
a little cold water in a flask would accomplish the same end. The crew
wouldn't bat an eye when he blew Tarou out an airlock after that.
Akari and some of her techs passed by next, and he whistled tunelessly
as he fell in behind them. His hot-tamale in tech's coveralls had such a
sweet ass...

* * *

"I don't get it," Ranma remarked as they looked about the Bridge
for the Captain. "Where is she?"
"Captain Ninomiya went down to the docking compartment to greet you,"
the young Officer of the Deck replied. "Didn't you see her?"
"All we saw was a little girl who was dressed like her," Ranma told
the woman. "I thought it was her daughter, or a niece, or something."
The Officer of the Deck grimaced.
"No, sir. THAT was Captain Ninomiya."
Ranma's eyes bulged. "You're kidding, right?"
"I wish I was," the Officer of the Deck replied.
"I'LL handle this," a shrill voice issued from the emergency stairwell.
Hinako pulled herself through the deck hatch to the Bridge to face the
pig-tailed mechwarrior. "You are obviously a disciplinary problem,
Mechwarrior Saotome, and I know just how to handle disciplinary problems..."
She raised the five mark coin to him once again.
He flicked it out of her hands. "Come on, quit it already. Do you
really expect me to believe that this shrimp and the Captain are one in
the same person?"
Hinako swam across the compartment after the coin, cursing and spitting
with anger.
"I don't know, boy," Genma hedged. "There's something awfully familiar
about her."
"You know," Akane remarked. "I seem to recall something about Captain
Ninomiya that Dad warned me about before we left. I wish I remember what
it was, but it seemed so ridiculous at the time..."
Hinako recovered her coin once again, and from the safety of the
other side of the compartment she leveled it at Ranma.
"You can't stop me now!" she cried. "Happo-five-mark-satsu!!!"
Ranma brushed her off. "Aw, gimme a break, little girl!" He sighed
wearily. "Since your mom ain't here, it looks like *I'm* gonna have to
be the one who gives you a spanking."
He charged towards her. Instead of a look of fear, which he expected
from her, there was a look of savage glee. In the next moment, waves of
amber light rippled from his body, swirling and flowing into a spiral that
tightened into the circular hole in the center of the coin.
"--What?!--" he cried in surprise.
He felt his ki getting sucked out of him, draining him of energy and
will, and paralyzing him with its intensity. At the same time he watched
the little girl before him begin to grow at an alarming rate, filling out
her jacket and skirt with a voluptuous body he immediately recognized
before blacking out.

Captain Ninomiya stepped aside casually as the limp, almost shrunken
body of Ranma Saotome bounced off the bulkhead behind her, and floated
face-down and unconscious for the rebound trip. She saluted Genma crisply,
but the man was too busy ogling her in her skintight uniform to respond.
"I apologize for the interruption, sir," she said to Genma in a low,
sultry voice. "But disciplinary matters should be dealt with immediately,
don't you agree?"
"Huh?" Genma grunted. "Oh yes, I concur. That boy has been sorely
needing a dose of... whatever that was."
Akane floated across the bridge to catch Ranma's body in time to spare
him another bounce off the bulkhead. "What did you do to him?" she demanded.
"I drained him of his battle-aura," she responded haughtily. "No one
can attack me and succeed."
"What will happen to him?" Akane asked fearfully. He seemed so still
and empty in her arms.
"He should recover in a few hours," Hinako replied. "More than enough
time to let him think about proper behavior in front of his superiors. You
should probably take him below to his quarters, we have a lot of work to
do on the Bridge."
Akane blinked twice before responding. "Sure." She pushed off of a
console for the elevator to take Ranma below.
Doctor Tofu nudged Genma. "What an amazing technique," he said
excitedly. "I've never heard of it before. Have you?"
"Never," Genma replied. "Ranma has learned once again that the path
of a true mechwarrior is fraught with peril."
Hinako cleared her throat for attention. "Commander, the reason
why the rendezvous occured earlier than planned was that we have been
detected by the Furinkan Combine."
Genma paled at the significance of this. "How long do we have?"
She looked over at a status board. "Four hours and twelve minutes,"
she replied. "A Combine GunShip detected us, and has changed course to
intercept. We don't have the thrust to outrun it."
"But we can still Jump, right?"
"If we can reach the Jump Point in time," she agreed. "I don't think
that's possible. We docked ahead of schedule to make a maximum burn for
the Jump Point without having to worry about a last-second link up, but
it still leaves us without enough time to get there."
"What about fighting?"
Hinako shook her head. "Our anti-meteor weapons are no match for a
Union Class GunShip. Even with the fighters we couldn't defeat it."
"There's got to be something we can do," Genma said hopefully. "You
wouldn't be telling us this if you didn't have an idea... Right?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"There is one thing we can try," she said. "But it's very dangerous."
"So is getting caught by the Furinkan Combine," Tofu noted. "You
missed the close call we had with Tatewaki Kuno on the planet."
"What is it?" Genma asked, grasping at anything that would save them.
"As I said," Hinako explained in a voice entirely too sexy to convey
the gravity of their situation. "It's very dangerous, and I didn't want to
attempt it without your permission."
"Get on with it!" Genma cried.
"We can attempt a Jump outside the normal volume of the Jump Point,"
she declared. The rest of the Bridge crew went silent, even though they
knew what their options were before the docking maneuver.
"Isn't that, you know... bad?" Genma asked haltingly.
Hinako gave him a hard look. "Weren't you just saying that capture by
the Combine was something you wanted to avoid? To answer your question, yes,
it is something that is to be avoided during normal operations, but it isn't
impossible."
"What might happen?"
"We could misjump," she conceded. "It could be bad or not depending on
where we materialize. We could burn out the JumpCore of the ship, stranding
us wherever we end up, or we might not even make it out of the System.
There is even a small chance that the drive could explode and kill us all,
or that we might succumb to certain relativistic effects..."
Genma knew the horror stories as well as anyone who travelled the
stars. Stories of ships that moved through hyperspatial moebius strips of
time instead of space - killing their crews with old age. Ships that turned
themselves inside-out on arrival in realspace - instantly exposing the crew
to hard vacuum. Ships that traveled not the maximum thirty light years
imposed by the height of the Star League's Jump Drive technology, but
three HUNDRED light years. There were stories of ships that left their
ports of call on two-parsec milk runs to the nearest star, and were never
seen or heard from again.
"But if we don't try, we're screwed anyway," he said numbly.
"Essentially," she admitted. "This ship has a reputation for causing
the Furinkan Combine harm, and there is a considerable bounty placed on it
and her crew. I don't relish the thought of what Tatewaki Kuno would do to
us if we were to be captured, and I hold my orders from Grand Duke Tendo
to protect Lady Akane with the highest reverence."
"I guess we don't have much of a choice," Genma said sullenly. "Do
what you have to, Captain."
Hinako saluted. "Yes, Commander." Her severe look melted into one
that was decidedly warmer. "You and your crew had best get below and rest.
We shall get as close to the Jump Point as possible before we Jump, but it
will be at least three and a half hours."

Chapter Four

Furinkan Combine JumpShip _Imperator_
Capra System Zenith Jump Point
Capra System, the League of Five Nails
23 March 3025

Tatewaki Kuno looked up from the collection of classical poetry he
was reading as the _Imperator's_ Chief Medical Officer stepped through
the airtight door. The doctor's expression was guarded.
"My lord prince," the surgeon greeted him.
"How fares my sister?" Tatewaki asked.
"I was able to remove the bullet," he declared. "But we used a lot of
blood in the process. Your sister is very weak." His face clouded. "Well,
what I'm saying is that I can't offer any guarantees, my lord. If she
survives the next forty-eight hours, then the chances are good that she
will make a full recovery."
"She is a Kuno," Tatewaki replied proudly. "She will survive."
"Of course, my lord." He bowed for him. "If you wish to see her,
your highness, they are moving her into an intensive care suite."
"In time," Tatewaki said, nodding.
The shrill of a bosun's whistle sounded over the intercom.
"General Prince Kuno, please lay to the Executive Bridge, sir," a
voice on the 1MC requested.
Tatewaki frowned. This interruption was unnecessary. Were there not
messengers aboard ship?
He left the surgeon in the waiting room, striding imperiously through
the airtight door for the Executive Bridge. Members of the ship's crew
stepped aside for him out of both reverence and fear. He rode the elevator
up out of the Grav-Deck and into the center of the ship, feeling the subtle
tug of the _Imperator's_ artificial gravity lessen on his tall frame.
He floated out of the elevator and into the hub. The decks ran
perpendicular to the long axis of the WarShip here, for those times when
the starship was accelerating under drive. The Executive Bridge was near
the bow of the ship, a short ride by elevator away.
"General on the Bridge!" one of the crew shouted as the elevator
doors opened for him. He spied his Operations Officer, Captain Lucius Kyle,
hunched over the tactical station.
"Kyle, what is the meaning of this interruption?" he demanded.
The Operations Officer looked up from the displays.
"Forgive me, my lord prince," he began. "I know your sister is in
surgery, but something critical came up."
"My sister's surgery is over," Tatewaki informed him. "Now speak, man."
"Sir, the GunShip _Sekigahara_ has detected a JumpShip on a parabolic
orbit that will bring it within the Jump Point in a little over four hours."
"The identity of this starship?" Tatewaki asked. There were many
possibilities, including that of the ship the beauteous Akane Tendo was
aboard.
"It's a longshot," Kyle said to him, "Passive sensor data from the
_Sekigahara_ was relayed to us for analysis since our battlecomp gear is
more sophisticated..."
"There is, I trust, a point to this," Tatewaki said impatiently.
"Yes sir," Kyle nodded. "As I was saying, it's a longshot, but it
appears that the JumpShip is a Confederation Special Operations vessel,
the NCJS _Dragonfly._ It is commanded by Hinako Ninomiya according to
our latest intelligence."
"Confederation?" Tatewaki asked, more to himself than anyone else.
Akane Tendo had to be aboard that ship! "Tell me of this Captain Ninomiya.
Will she fight?"
"It's difficult to say," Kyle replied. "From what we know of her
behavior, she's, well... I guess 'erratic' would be a good word to describe
her."
"Nevertheless," Tatewaki pronounced, "We must capture yon ship ere
it Jumps. Advise the _Sekigahara_ accordingly."
"Yes, my lord prince. They are already on an intercept course. They
should reach them well short of the Jump Point."
"Excellent. They are to shoot out the jumpcore without fail," Tatewaki
ordered. "I will not tolerate the Confederation's escape."
"Of course, my lord prince."
Though his pulse pounded with the prospect of being reunited with
Akane Tendo, and of capturing the cursed Saotomes, he maintained his
composure. "What of the preparations for the invasion of the Capella
system?"
"We shall be ready to attack in three days," Kyle replied. "We've
effected what repairs we could, and the arrival of a floating airdock
ship the day before you returned from Capra should take care of all but
the most critical damage in that time."
"How many ships did we lose?" This question was critical, as it would
determine the size of the force he could use to invade Capella.
"Two JumpShips were destroyed, as you know, in collisions. Two more
suffered irreparable damage to their jump cores. Admiral Casick of the
Engineering Command has a plan to convert them into space stations for
managing the flow of troops and supplies into this theater of operations.
The mobile recharge facility was destroyed."
Tatewaki nodded grimly. Four priceless JumpShips were gone. It was a
painful loss to his fleet, but not an insurmountable obstacle to his plans
for conquest. He was the Blue Thunder of the Furinkan Combine, and his
victory was preordained.
He took his seat on the Executive Bridge and watched the tactical
display with quiet intensity. The points of light that floated within
the holotank represented the _Sekigahara_ and its quarry, the accursed
_Dragonfly._ Were Akane Tendo not aboard that ship, he would have ordered
it destroyed.

* * *

Jusenkyo Commonwealth JumpShip _Intangible_
Tau Ceti System Zenith Jump Point,
Tau Ceti System, the Jusenkyo Commonwealth
23 March 3025

Shampoo waited for the 'Clear to Stations' order as the JumpShip
adjusted its orbit above the Tau Ceti primary. Soon she would have to
take the _Jade Lotus_ to the planet, where she would face General Herb's
debriefing. Inquisition was probably closer to the truth.
Mousse was with her, quiet and moody as he had been since they had
collected him on Lightoller. She kept waiting for him to return to his
old habits of annoying affection, and when he remained cold and distant,
she came to the unlikely realization that she might have actually preferred
him the way he was before.
Pink and Link were also with her. A smile graced Pink's face, while
her twin sister kept her familiar frown. The two mechwarriors were also
quiet, although if Shampoo knew them as well as she thought she did, they
were busy plotting something.
The fact that Pink was a poisoner by hobby did not escape her, nor
did the fact that Mechwarrior Laughing Orchid of the Recon Lance had taken
suddenly ill. The backbiting mechwarrior had been the most vocal of the
company in her denouncement of Mousse. The question Shampoo put to herself
was whether or not Pink was responsible for Laughing Orchid's illness, and
if so, why?
Pink had no reason to favor Mousse. Her attitudes regarding the
inherent weakness of the male sex were much the same as those of the
Joketsuzoku in general. Unless there was some personal grudge between
Pink and Laughing Orchid, she could not imagine why she would do something
insidious like poisoning her.
Asking Link would not help. Though she disapproved of her sister's
habits, she would not betray her. The two were as thick as thieves.
Sighing, she spared a look at Mousse. He was the cause of more
trouble than he was worth, she decided. Why had he been chosen for this
mission?
She considered acceding to her battle-sisters' demands, and punishing
him, but the truth was that he had done nothing wrong under the standards
of clan battle law. She thought about what Kima might have done, and
realized that the unfortunate woman who lay cold and dead in the Ship's
Morgue would have had it no easier, having never been in a combat unit.
Shampoo's jaw tightened. The decision was hers to make, and to live with.
There would be no reprimand for Mousse. If the others wanted to take
their complaints to a higher authority, that was their right. She felt no
concern over this, as her career - and possibly her life - were likely
going to be over no matter what she did. The closer they drew to Tau Ceti's
fourth planet, the more she felt that her destiny was there, waiting.
"<Clear to Stations!>" the 1MC called. "<Set the normal Station Keeping
watch, Section Two provide.>"
She rose from her chair and floated for the door. Mousse watched her
go, and started up after her.
"<What is it?>" she asked him when they had cleared the room, and the
door was safely shut behind them.
"<I know what you're doing, Shampoo,>" he replied. His eyes were
intensely dark against the white of his robes. The effect on her would
have been powerful, had he not been facing halfway between the door and
herself when he spoke.
"<And what is that?>" she challenged him, grabbing him by the collar,
and turning him to face her.
"<You're protecting me from the others,>" he replied. "<They want to
see me punished for what happened on Capra. By not acting, you're only
condemning yourself.>"
Shampoo's violet eyes flashed in the dim lighting of the passageway.
"<That is my decision, Mousse. It doesn't concern you.>"
"<It DOES concern me,>" he grated. "<Shampoo, you mean everything to
me. Don't you understand that? I won't see you destroyed because of me.>"
It was now obvious that his feelings had not changed in spite of his
change in behavior. What had he endured on Lightoller after her escape
from Herb to turn him into this sullen, angry man?
"<You won't be destroying me,>" she replied with a touch of bitterness.
"<That honor belongs to General Herb at the debriefing.>"
Mousse's face contorted at the mention of the hybrid general's name.
"<Him?>"
"<The same,>" she confirmed sadly.
"<I don't understand.>"
"<Nor do I,>" she replied. "But it's clear that because of our failure
on Capra, I must assume responsibility and face the consequences.>"
Mousse threw up his hands. "<But it isn't your fault!>" he protested.
"<How were we supposed to know that the Furinkan Combine was going to
invade the system?>"
"<We couldn't,>" she agreed. "<But that isn't the point. I am the
commander of the mission now, so the responsibility falls upon me. It is
the way it should be.>"
"<Can't your great-grandmother...?>"
"<No,>" she replied in a soft voice. "<If she could, she would have
done so, no matter what I might feel about it.>" She sighed and looked
away from him for a moment. "<This is something between the Elders, Mousse.
I just happened to get caught in the middle. There is nothing you can do
or could have done to prevent this.>"
"<I refuse to accept that,>" he said to her.
Shampoo became angry, nearly throwing him away from her in the free
fall of the passageway. "<It's not your place to accept or deny anything!>"
she cried. "<Can't you understand that? I am not a child! I will not
continue to live in the shadow of my family, and I don't want any special
treatment because I happen to be one of the Matriarch's great-grandchildren.
I am responsible for myself and for my actions. I don't need your help, and
I don't want it, do you understand me, Mousse!?>"
He lowered his head to her.
"<I will always be there for you, Shampoo,>" he told her. "<I can't
change the way I feel about this, because I can't change the way I feel
about you.>"
"<Then you're a fool for wasting your feelings on me,>" she returned.
His eyes were filled with pain. "<I guess I am.>"
He pushed off the bulkhead, and floated clumsily away from her down
the passageway.
"<Mousse, you idiot,>" she whispered after him. "<This is my battle
to fight, not yours.>"

Chapter Five

Nerima Confederation JumpShip _Dragonfly,_
6 light-seconds from the Capra System Zenith Jump Point,
Capra System, the League of Five Nails
23 March 3025

"Conn, Sensory; Time to GunShip Contact Romeo Five-Five intercept,
ten minutes... mark!"
Captain Hinako Ninomiya nodded grimly at the update from her Sensory
Officer. They were still too far from the Jump Point, and within ten
minutes they would be at the extreme limit of the GunShip's weapons. She
had no doubt that they would fire upon them, targeting their vulnerable
jumpcore to prevent their escape.
"Conn, Sensory; new contact Romeo Eight-Four, bearing three-five-one
minus one-eight, range is approximately four light-seconds, on intercept
course. Romeo Eight-Four is classified as a troop shuttle."
"A boarding party," Hinako muttered. She turned to the Engineering
Station, where the _Dragonfly's_ Assistant Engineer monitored the ship's
systems. He gave her a brief nod of assent. The ship was nominally 'go'
for a Jump.
"Helm," she called out. "Commence countdown for Hyperspace Jump."
A brief silence filled the Bridge as the fateful order was given.
"Commence countdown for Hyperspace Jump, Helm, aye!" The Helmsman
punched a sequence of commands into the main computer. "Captain, the
Helm is slaved to the Astrogation Computer for Hyperspace Jump."
"Very well, Helm," Hinako acknowleged. In the ten minutes it would
take to energize the enigmatic chandelier guts of the jumpcore, they would
see if the _Dragonfly_ could send them safely back to the Capella System.
"Chief of the Watch, on the 1MC, Sound the Jump Alarm for the ten minute
warning."
"Chief of the Watch, aye."

* * *

"Ranma?"
Ranma Saotome opened his eyes and then thought better of it. He was
in his stateroom on the JumpShip, lying on his bunk, and Akane was sitting
next to him. She seemed to be holding his hand for some reason.
"Yeah?" he mumbled.
"Are you okay?" she asked him.
He sat up slowly. His head hurt, and he felt a little weak. He looked
around the small, spartan room, realizing that it was just the two of them.
"I guess so," he replied. "What the hell happened to me?"
"I'm not sure exactly," she said to him. "There was this big flash of
light, and then you were out."
"Man," he stewed as he thought about the brief confrontation with
Captain Ninomiya. "Who woulda thought she had such a powerful technique.
I gotta find a way to beat her."
"Listen to you," Akane scolded him. "You can't even defeat Happousai,
and now you want to fight Captain Ninomiya?"
Ranma frowned. It would be just like Akane to bring up his failure to
deal with Happousai.
"You got it," he replied.
"You're an idiot," she retorted. "If you had just apologized, this
wouldn't have happened to you."
"For your information, Tomboy," he growled. "She didn't exactly give
me a chance to apologize!"
She let go of his hand, throwing it down to the bed with a huff.
"That's right, Ranma. Just call me some more names, why don't you?"
"If you insist," he said to her. He stuck out his tongue and waggled
it at her. "Macho chick."
Akane turned red.
"Ranma, you jerk!"
She shot to her feet and grabbed the pillow from the top bunk, bringing
it down on Ranma's head with a *thud,* and wishing it was made of something
heavier.
He took it harder than she expected, for he swooned back to the bed,
dazed. In his weakened condition he was apparently not up to the abuse.
"Oh Ranma, I'm sorry!" she gushed, dropping the pillow as if it were
on fire.
He raised a finger, curling it in a gesture to come closer. She leaned
over him, wracked with concern.
"What is it, Ranma?" she asked him.
"You're uncute too," he whispered.
Her eyes crossed in response, and she began groping for the pillow as
she glared at him. Perhaps another belt would do him some good, or at least
teach him some respect. Then she realized that this was Ranma she was
talking about.
"So what if I'm not cute," she muttered, quelling the urge to continue
pummelling him. "It's not like I have to impress anyone."
"What about Ryouga?" he asked her abruptly.
She drew back from him, a smile forming on her lips. The pillow slipped
from her fingers. "There you go again," she observed. "Talking about Ryouga.
If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were jealous, Ranma."
"Ha," he retorted, though there was little conviction to it. "Why
should I be jealous?"
"Because you really do like me," she declared, though this was only a
guess. "And it bothers you to see me spending time with someone else."
"Don't forget the kiss you gave him," he added, his voice tight with
emotion. He blanched when he realized that he had vocalized his thoughts
instead of keeping them safely to himself.
She pounced.
"You ARE jealous!" she cried. She began to laugh.
"What's so funny?" he asked defensively. In that moment he felt about
thirty centimeters tall.
Her grin was wide and smugly annoying. "I just think it's funny that
the cool, self-assured Ranma Saotome can get so worked up about a little
kiss on the cheek." She looked away thoughtfully. "I wonder how bad you'd
be if I had kissed Ryouga on the lips instead?"
"Stop deluding yourself," Ranma growled weakly. "You go ahead and kiss
anyone you want. See if I care."
Her eyes narrowed in appreciation for him. "Even you?" The quaver in
voice as she asked him was faint and slightly hopeful.
He returned her look. "You wouldn't have the guts."
"Oh yeah?" she challenged. "It's more like YOU wouldn't have the guts
to do it, Ranma. All you'd do is go run off and hide in the Engine Room."
He flinched. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!" she returned defiantly.
"Well pucker up, sweetheart!"
She paused for a moment, and he thought he had her beaten. Then she
knelt down next to him on the bed, her eyes closed, and her nose just a few
millimeters from his, waiting. Every muscle in Ranma's body locked up at
the sight of her - the incredibly cute her - ready for his kiss.
"...Uh..." he remarked not so coolly.
She continued to wait for him, her eyes closed, and her lips puckered
slightly to receive his kiss.
He was blazing red with embarrassment, but he was not going to lose
this battle of wills with her! He closed his eyes and began to move slowly
towards her. Just as he was about to touch his lips against hers, he froze.
She cleared her throat gently.
"Any time now, Ranma. If you really do have the nerve for it," she
said to him quietly before returning her lips to their receptive position.
"I'm doing it," he muttered. "Don't rush me."
He opened his eyes. She was so close that he could make out the faint,
downy fuzz of hair on her nose. He could feel her breath tickling him as
he held there, motionless.
Dammit! he thought to himself. This stalling is makin' me look like a
clown... It's just a lousy kiss...
He closed his eyes again and held his breath.
The loud klaxon of the Jump Alarm sounded over the 1MC intercom
speaker outside his room, startling them both out of their dare.
"Ten Minute Warning to Hyperspace Jump," the Chief of the Watch said
over the 1MC. "All hands lay to individual Jump Stations... The ship will
execute a hyperspace jump in ten minutes."
Akane's eyes blinked open, driving him back in surprise. "Whoops!" she
exclaimed. "We have to go now," she told him. They had to report to the 'C'
Deck Lounge, where they would wait out the Jump until the 'Clear to Stations'
was sounded. She gave him a look of mock sympathy. "I guess you just didn't
have the nerve after all."
Ranma stared vacantly into space, at once relieved and disappointed
by the interruption.
Akane stood up, pulling him upright as well with a tug on his shirt
front.
"Come on, Ranma. You have to come along too."
"Yeah," he muttered, brushing absently at his mandarin style blouse
and keeping his eyes on the carpet. He had lost to her, and the shame was
all too painful for him.
She led him towards the door of the room, stopping at the threshold
and turning around to face him. One of the _Dragonfly's_ crew passed by
in the passageway behind her, carrying a fire extinguisher.
"Oh, and Ranma?"
He looked up at her. "What is it?" he asked.
"I think it's cute that you're jealous," she told him with a smile.
Then she leaned over and kissed him sweetly on the lips. She parted with
him and dashed away with a laugh before he could react.
Ranma stood there in the doorway, watching her go. He placed a hand
up to his lips, which were moist from her kiss, and held it there for a
moment in wonder.

* * *

"Contact Romeo Five-Five time to intercept three-zero seconds,"
Sensory updated.
"Jumpcore internal temperatures stable," Engineering informed.
"Inverters Alfa through India are green. Ship's Battery indicates sufficient
charge for Jump." The lights shifted for a moment as the starship's power-
plant adjusted loads for the Jump.
"Clock synchronization is green," Helm reported. "Helm remains slaved
to Astrogation. Reaction Control System in automatic. T-minus two-zero
seconds to Jump."
Hinako took these reports quietly. They were dangerously far from the
Jump Point. Had they been any further away, she would not even dared to
attempt a Jump. Even capture by the Furinkan Combine offered better odds
than certain death.
"Conn, Sensory; detecting active gun-directing radar in T-band plus
LIDAR sweeps."
She looked to the Chief of the Watch, knowing that there was little
she could do about the GunShip's weapon acquistion. They would probably
not fire at extreme range, and she was counting on those few seconds their
hesitation would give.
"Chief of the Watch," she called to him in her sultry voice. "Sound
the Jump Alarm." She stood, knowing that it was against procedure, but if
she was going to die, it would be standing up, in command of her ship.
"Helm, execute Hyperspace Jump!"
"Chief of the Watch, aye."
"Helm, aye. Executing Hyperspace Jump in five...four...three...two...
one...MARK!"
The Jump Alarm klaxon sounded three times in urgent warning for the
maneuver that lay ahead.
As the massive circuit breakers that connected the Jump Drive with
the Ship's Battery slammed shut well aft of the Bridge, plunging them into
a tunnel of hyperspace, Hinako wondered if she would live to see the other
side.

* * *

Ranma took his seat next to Akane, who offered a teasing smile but
said nothing to him. He tried to hold back his continuing blush from her
in return. Genma, Doctor Tofu, Ryouga, and Tarou were seated behind them,
each waiting with some trepidation for the Jump. Everyone knew that what
they were attempting was dangerous but him, since he had been unconscious
almost the entire wait since docking.
"What's everyone so worked up about?" he whispered to Akane, as she
was the only one he could talk to without turning around.
"We have to Jump outside the Jump Point," she returned gravely.
"Isn't that dangerous?" he asked, wondering why the hell they were
doing something so stupid.
"You missed it," Akane explained. "A Combine ship detected us, and
we couldn't outrun it. We either Jump or get captured."
"...*Damn*..." he muttered. "Talk about a no-win situation."
"I'd rather take my chances with the Jump," she whispered. "The next
time I want to see Tatewaki Kuno is through my Warhammer's gunsight."
"I hear that," he replied.
They waited in total silence for several minutes, the tension hanging
thick over the entire room. The lights shifted over their heads, and
several clunking noises could be heard below them in the Engineering
spaces.
"It won't be long now," he said.
The sound of several airtight bulkheads dropping into place echoed
through the small lounge. The tinny voice of someone using a local intercom
circuit in the next compartment followed.
Akane slipped her hand into his.
"Ranma, I'm really scared," she whispered so softly that he wouldn't
have heard her had the lounge been less quiet. He was scared too, but he
wasn't going to tell her that. Instead he gave her hand a squeeze.
The Jump Alarm sounded three times over their heads, an angry klaxon
that made a noise like a dying moose. Three twelve-ton circuit breakers
slammed shut far below them, loud and booming as Jovian thunderbolts,
shaking the deckplates beneath their feet, and bringing forth a subsonic
groan so fierce and so terrible to behold that it made Akane tense up
into a death grip on his hand.

For an instant, the Nerima Confederation JumpShip _Dragonfly_ glowed
brighter than a star, then winked out of existence.

END OF PART ELEVEN