[Ranma][FanFic][Lime] Childhood of a Modern Dynasty - Chapter 32: The Storm's End; Reunions and Good-byes
Jim Lazar
Childhood of a Modern Dynasty
Chapter 32: The Storm's End; Reunions and Good-byes
Ranma 1/2 characters/situations created and copyright by Rumiko
Takahashi/Shogakukan/Kitty/Fuji/Viz - Used without permission
Childhood of a Modern Dynasty series created, written, and
copyright 1998-2000 by Jim Lazar
An ongoing series set after the end of the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime.
<Speech text in angle brackets is thought by character.>
"Speech text in double quotes is spoken as Japanese."
E-mail comments and/or criticisms to: mailto:jiml...@animeprime.com
Make sure to check out my Modern Dynasty website for
all released CMD stories, graphics files, and other information:
http://www.animeprime.com/ff/md
=======================================================================
Inside the Buyierfei Monolith
Deedee was trembling as she looked up and watched Ranma walk away.
"Don't leave me!!"
Ranma glanced back. "Don't worry, you'll be safe there. This will all
be over soon." He turned away and added something to himself. <One way or
another.>
Deedee dropped to her knees. "But I love you, Ranma!"
"Sometimes it's better to lose the love of your life."
Deedee looked over at Rant, but saw that she was standing guard and had
not been the source of the female voice. She looked down at Ukyo's body. "I
thought you were dead?" It took her a little over a second to realize just
how bad that sounded. "Sorry..."
"Not yet... soon." Ukyo coughed violently.
"Can I do anything to help?"
"I don't think so." Ukyo studied the girl's face. "So you love Ranma,
huh?"
"Yeah... he's so cool and handsome."
"He's married now, you know." Ukyo paused to consider that she was also
married. Maybe not legally, but emotionally. <Mrs. Ukyo Saotome. Too bad I
won't be able to enjoy that for long.> She coughed up a glob of black pus.
Deedee tried not to react to the disturbing sight. "Yeah... I guess. Is
it true about Ranma and his sisters being the same person?"
"Yeah... it is. Do you see now what I mean about it being better to
lose the one you love?" Ukyo glanced down at her burned side.
"Not really. I've tried to do everything I could to keep Ranma, but it
looks like I've lost him now." She glanced at the receding figures of Ranma
and Akane. "At least I've had fun while I was with him." Deedee awkwardly
looked around. "Well, until this."
Ukyo actually managed to smile slightly. "I was like that once. In love
with Ranma and desperate to keep him no matter what I had to do."
"Didn't you have any fun with him?"
Ukyo frowned as she thought about that. Suddenly, she let out an amused
chuckle. "Yeah, I guess I did. I just never thought of it as fun while I was
chasing him."
"That's too bad. Well, you have his sister now."
Ukyo absently looked at the point where Sanma and the others had
disappeared into the heart. "Yes, but will he still have me or just a fond
memory?"
"I..." Deedee's response was cut off when the last heart exploded and
sent them all sliding across the ground. The large strands of golden
material were whipped around by the blast and caused large welts where they
hit the three women. They struggled to avoid being overpowered by the storm
that raged around them. Well, two of them were struggling. Ukyo wasn't in
much condition to do much other than flail her right arm around hoping to
grab something.
Or be grabbed by someone, Rant in this case. The Amazon managed to grab
Ukyo's arm before Ukyo was flung out of her reach. She held on while
screaming something in Mandarin.
Deedee shouted the translation. "She said they destroyed the heart and
we should be safe now!!"
Ukyo wasn't sure they were safe yet, but she smiled. She didn't bother
telling Deedee she understood enough Mandarin to get the meaning of Rant's
shout. She was content to know she wouldn't die in the nightmare world of
the Buyierfei.
***********************************************************************
January 1-2, 2000 - Canyon of the Blackness and the surrounding desert,
Middle East
A local army officer dressed in a tan uniform looked at the Third
Monolith through his binoculars. "Stay sharp. If this one explodes like the
one in America, we'll be needed to fight the creatures," he commanded his
troops in Arabic. He wiped his sweaty forehead off and looked up at the hot
mid-day sun. <I wish my commander had given me more details on the explosion
of that monolith. I have no idea what to expect here.>
He scanned the area around the small camp they had setup near the
deserted tent city and dried up lake. The later of which had dried up after
the monolith had become dormant and stopped feeding water into it. Now it
was just indentation in the sand, it's muddy bottom long since baked into a
hard crust by the harsh desert sun. Most of the followers of Shuma had
quickly fled the area after it became clear that he wasn't the Son of God
and wasn't coming back. The more stubborn followers who wouldn't believe
that Shuma was evil only left after their water and supplies ran out.
His troops looked very uneasy, as well they should be. "Sir, should we
be this close?" one of his privates asked.
The officer looked at the private who had spoken. "It's our orders."
"Yeah, but..."
"Private, you will obey your orders!!" The officer's shout quickly
silenced the private.
The squad's sergeant saluted his commanding officer and then spoke in
place of his subordinate. "Sir, those women said we should pull back and
they seemed to know what they were talking about."
The officer glared at his sergeant. "When I want the advice of a woman,
I'll ask her about how to wash my clothes, not fight a war. Now, I am in
command here and we will observe from here as our orders indicated."
"Sir, I must respectfully disag... urk." The sergeant's body fell
lifelessly to the ground with a thud. Blood poured from the bullet wound in
his chest and seeped into the sandy desert floor.
Smoke rose from the barrel of the officer's handgun as he looked at his
other men. "Anyone else want to question my orders?"
The other soldiers snapped to attention. Two soldiers quickly removed
the Sargent's body while the rest of them watched the monolith through
binoculars.
Several hours passed before a startled cry echoed down the canyon.
"Something's happening!"
An understatement, to say the least.
In the space of a few seconds, the monolith folded in on itself and
then exploded outward.
Since the monolith was at the far end of the Buyierfei-built canyon,
the towering cliffs acted as a funnel and sent tons of debris straight up
into the sky above the canyon. The tall plume looked almost like a geyser,
except it was blacker than black.
The shock wave rebounded off the sides of the canyon walls, causing
them to crack and collapse. The collapsing walls made a thunderous roar as
they followed the front of the shock wave rolling down the narrow canyon.
When the wave reached the end of the canyon, the lost hopes and dreams of
the pilgrims who had come to worship their resurrected Lord were buried
along with the rest of the canyon.
The soldiers were also at that end of the canyon, which quickly became
their graves. The rubble that buried them was too deep and heavy to ever be
removed by any manmade method. The sand would eventually bury their
gravesite and leave no trace that they were ever there.
After the shock wave was done transforming the once majestic canyon
walls into a shallow, boulder filled desert canyon, the sun gradually
pierced the thick cloud of black dust and lit up the ruins.
-C- -M- -D-
Ukyo was elated that she could open her eyes when the blast finished
scrambling her insides. She shut them again when the bright sun threatened
to burn through her eyes and out the other side of her head. "Gaaaa..."
Despite her injuries, she tried to move her arms and legs, but found that
she was being pinned down by something.
"Are you alright?" a voice asked.
Ukyo felt a shadow pass over her face, so she carefully opened her
eyes. "Deedee?"
"Yeah... that warrior woman is okay too." Deedee glanced to the side,
where Rant was searching the area. "She wants to make sure nothing came out
with us." She pushed a large rock off Ukyo's legs, knelt down and then
brushed off the smaller debris from Ukyo's body. "What a mess. Florida used
be so lush and green."
Ukyo turned her head and looked around. She was a little surprised to
see that the golden strands from inside the monolith were piled all around
the rubble they were lying on. When she saw the desert stretching out into
the distance, she realized where they must be. "It's a desert in the Middle
East, I think. I'm sure Florida is alright."
"Huh? But we..."
"It happened the last time. The monoliths are all connected, so you
can't be sure where you'll end up when they blow."
Deedee frowned. "Damn, I should have studied Arabic."
Ukyo smiled. "You're still young."
Rant walked up to Ukyo and Deedee and reported in Mandarin. "We're
safe, no sign of the Blackness." She looked down at Ukyo. "Let's see about
getting you out of here."
Rant and Deedee tried their best to carry Ukyo out of the canyon
themselves, but found it was an impossible task to do themselves without
causing Ukyo's wounds to reopen. So they reluctantly waited for someone to
come and look for survivors. Since she wasn't exactly the most optimistic
girl in the world, Deedee was worried that there might not be any by the
time help arrived. It didn't help matters any that she kept mentioning her
fears to Ukyo and Rant.
-C- -M- -D-
They waited under the hot desert sun, making rough sun shades out of
the rubble of the canyon. When the sun was low in the western sky, Rant
decided she would have to go find help. She had gotten about a hundred
meters from Deedee and Ukyo when a troop of Amazons led by Eyeliner appeared
on the horizon.
Eyeliner had some of her warriors construct a stretcher out of Amazon
bras, since they were the strongest and most elastic material available.
Normal bras might not be strong enough, but Amazon bras are made to restrain
their ample assets during the most vigorous combat and are considerably
stronger.
Rant had the rest of the Amazons collect as many of the golden strands
as they could carry. Since the strands appeared to be the same material that
the First Matriarch's armor was made out of, the Amazons wanted to take as
much of it as they could carry.
They trudged through the desert for the entire night and into the hot
daylight hours. They would have preferred to travel only at night, but they
couldn't chance delaying Ukyo getting the proper medical treatment she
desperately needed any longer. It was mid-day before they finally reached a
small desert town.
The local doctor treated Ukyo's wounds as best he could and then
arranged for her to be airlifted to a hospital in Kuwait. There she would
receive the operations needed to remove the destroyed tissue in her body and
repair the extensive damage done by Shuma's blast. Rant and Eyeliner went
with her to ensure she received the care she needed.
After resting, the other Amazon's continued their journey to the coast,
in hopes of finding a slow boat to China that could carry them and their
load of golden strands.
And Deedee? Deedee contacted the closest U.S. Embassy to find a way
home. Only to find out that 'home' wasn't there anymore.
***********************************************************************
December 31, 1999 - Florida, USA; Georgia, USA
Angela Rodriguez disappointed face looked out the window of her
photographer's car. "We should have stayed and covered the Army pulling
back."
Her photographer, an older black man with graying temples, shook his
head. "Angela, sometimes you don't see the big picture."
Angela looked at him. "What do you mean, Tom?"
"I don't know what these creatures are, but you can't get your story if
you're dead."
"I know that..."
"Do you? Being too close to that thing might get you a great story, but
it'll also get you killed. And then who'll write that story?"
"I get your point. I'm sorry I put you in danger."
Tom smirked. "I'm all for getting the story, but I'd like to be able to
celebrate my Pulitzer Prize winning photos with my family instead of
posthumously, thank you."
Angela nodded her understanding and thought about her son. <Bobby...>
She looked down at the floor of the car. "Where's your family?"
"I got them to some relatives in New Orleans as soon as I saw your
first article on that thing. I'm starting to worry that even that might not
be far enough."
"Yeah, I sent my son to New York."
Tom looked over at Angela briefly. "I didn't know you had a son."
"Bobby; my pride and joy."
"I wouldn't expect a mother to be as daring as you are."
Angela stiffened. "Are you calling me a bad mother?!"
"No... no... I just meant that... OH SHIT!!" Tom slammed his foot on
the accelerator and the car sped forward down the empty freeway.
Angela felt herself pressed into her seat. "What are you doing?!"
"Look behind us!" Tom glanced at his rearview mirror and pushed down
even harder on the gas pedal.
Angela looked back and saw a huge black cloud rolling towards them.
Black lightning bolts crackled between the advancing shock wave and the
ground around it, causing the ground to explode in huge plumes of dirt.
"Oh.... crap. STEP ON IT!!"
"What do you think I'm doing!!"
Angela started to shake as she looked at the advancing Blackness, which
was approaching faster than the car could ever go. She looked down at her
purse and came to a decision. She crawled into the back seat and pulled a
small thirty-five millimeter camera out. Pointing it out the back window,
she started snapping pictures of the approaching blackness.
"Angela!!"
"Just drive! I'm not passing this chance up." She started to roll down
the window and the inside of the car was blasted by wind.
Tom fought the steering wheel's attempts to jump out of his hands.
"Dammit, close the window! I can't control the car at this speed with it
open!"
"Just a couple shots without the window in the way!" Angela shouted as
she tried to steady the camera.
"You'll get us killed!"
Angela ignored Tom and started to take pictures.
"Is the story more important than the life of Bobby's mother?!"
That finally got through Angela's determination to get her story. She
slid inside and rolled up the window. As the window rose, she started at the
reflection in the glass, wondering who it was that stared back at her with
such haunted eyes. "Mike was right, I have let my career take control of my
life." She traced the face on the window.
"We're not going to make it!!" Tom shouted as rocks and other debris
started to rain down on them.
Angela looked back and saw the shock wave was less than a mile behind
them. Then she scanned the area ahead of them. "We're close to... Tom, take
that exit!!"
"Huh?"
"Do it!" Angela shouted as she crawled back into the front seat. She
re-buckled her seat belt as she frantically scanned the roadway ahead. "Take
that exit and stay right. Gun it when you hit the straightaway!" she
shouted, hoping that they were where she thought they were. Despite her
horror at seeing what she had become to get the story, she absently slipped
the camera into her purse for safe keeping. If asked, she wouldn't be able
to say why she put the camera into her purse. A reporter's instinct to get
the story or just putting it back where it came from, she couldn't be sure.
"I hope you know what you're talking about!"
Angela looked back at the onrushing Blackness. "So do I."
Two of the car's wheels left the ground momentarily as Tom made the
maneuver. As the wheels touched down, he floored the accelerator again. He
frowned when he saw the road divided into a 'T' ahead. "Which way?" He
released the accelerator a bit, preparing to make a very sharp turn.
"No!! Go straight!"
"But the lake!!"
Angela wasn't in the mood to argue; she had her son's mother to save.
She slammed her foot onto Tom's foot and thus, the accelerator.
As Tom cried out in pain, the car sped forward and crashed through the
barrier separating the road from the lake. The car plunged into the cold
water and started to sink.
The shock wave passed over them and blasted the surrounding land and
vegetation into burnt chunks. The surface of the water boiled and caused
huge plumes of steam to billow into the sky.
Tom swore as the shock wave rocked the car back and forth. "What the
hell are you doing!!" He looked down at the floor. To his horror, water had
already started to seep in.
"We weren't going to outrun it, were we?" Angela asked rhetorically as
she watched some water make its way around the window seal.
"Maybe..."
"My son and I have visited this lake millions of times. Any place that
made him so happy couldn't be my grave!"
Tom had no way to respond to that, so he just looked around. "Well, now
what?"
Angela shivered as the cold water rose over her bare legs. <Guess I
shouldn't have worn cutoff jeans today.> She glanced at Tom and realized he
was in the same situation with his shorts. "When the water gets too high, we
open the windows and swim to the surface and hope... whatever that was is
over." The water had reached their waists by the time she finished
explaining.
Tom raised an eyebrow. "That's... that's actually a pretty good idea."
He reached for the buckle on his seatbelt.
Angela smiled as she unbuckled her seat belt as well. "I owe it all to
you for mentioning my son. Every time I took him to Disney World he'd insist
on coming to this lake. Sometimes I wonder if he liked the lake more than
Disney."
The water was lapping at his chest while Tom tried to see something
outside the car that would indicate the storm--for lack of a better
term--had passed, but the water was dark and filling with black debris so he
couldn't tell for sure. "Is... is the water getting warmer?"
Angela nodded. "Yeah, but I'm trying not to think of why it might be
getting warmer."
"Yeah... that's probably for the best." Tom looked around as the water
touched his chin. "We'd better go."
Angela nodded, made sure Tom was ready, took a deep breath, and then
started to crank down her window. The in-rushing water blasted her, almost
causing her to open her mouth and lose the precious air that filled her
lungs.
After the pressure eased, Angela swam out her window, but then stopped
when the strap on her purse caught on something. She pulled on the strap
frantically, her air running short. Things started to become dark and she
saw her son splashing around in the shallows of the lake that she was now
drowning in.
Without any memory of doing so, she released the strap and rose to the
surface. She gasped and took a long overdue breath. She spat out some water
as she treaded water and looked around. "Bobby!!"
"Behind you."
Angela swung around and was a little surprised to see Tom and not her
son. She opened her mouth to speak, but got a mouthful of water instead. It
was then she noticed something. "It's salty..."
"Huh?" Tom replied, licking his lips. "How?" We're just south of
Orlando, the ocean is at least fifty miles away!!"
Before Angela could answer, the dark sky suddenly lit up with a huge
golden beam that soared upwards into the southern sky.
Tom and Angela silently watched the beam rise.
"We'd better start swimming..." Tom suddenly suggested when he realized
he never was the strongest swimmer and treading water wasn't going to help
his children see their father again.
"Yeah... which way?" Angela asked after she realized that she couldn't
see any land nearby.
"Away from that beam..."
Angela considered that a very good idea and started swimming away from
the golden beam that lit up the sky. After swimming for several minutes they
spotted a rock or something rising from the water.
And that's when the Moon lit up like a Chevy Chase Christmas tree.
The additional light was so sudden and so bright, that they were
compelled to look for the source. They were terrified to see the Moon
burning above them.
"I should have gone to New York with my son."
"Yeah... me too."
"And I hope New York is still there."
"Yeah... I hope New Orleans is too."
-C- -M- -D-
When the First exploded and took southern Florida with it, a husband
and wife were in a hospital turned evacuation center in Georgia. As the
tremors spread northwards from the ruins of Florida, the building shook. She
looked up from the bed her husband lay on as plaster from the ceiling
fluttered down and covered them. Some small pieces of equipment crashed to
the floor, but didn't cause any major damage to the well-built hospital.
After the shaking stopped and the emergency sirens started blaring
outside, she looked down at her husband and touched his face tenderly.
"Don't worry, dear, I'm sure Deedee is safe." She bent down and gave her a
husband a tender kiss.
She couldn't remember how long she sat there, but she clearly
remembered when the nurses pulled her away from his side and covered his
body with the sheet. "Goodbye, dear."
She walked stiffly down to one of the many evacuation information desks
and asked the question she had asked many times before. She received the
same answer.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Ledesma, we don't have any word of whereabouts her
yet."
"I hope she's not still in southern Florida," Mrs. Ledesma said
absently.
The woman at the information desk looked at her partner and frowned.
They both decided not to mention what they had just heard about southern
Florida.
Mrs. Ledesma clutched her chest. <Ranma, if you're with her, take care
of my little girl.>
-C- -M- -D-
January 1-7, 2000 - Orlando Coast, USA; JFK Airport, New York City, USA
Angela awoke to find herself surrounded by black. If not for the sun
she felt shining down on her bare legs, she would have assumed it was still
night. She used her arms to rise from the sandy surface she found herself
on. She winced as her sore body protested moving. "Ughhhhh..."
"Angela?"
"Tom?" Angela looked over and saw a mound move nearby, the black dust
falling off as it rose.
"I guess we're alive."
Angela grunted. "Yeah..." She winced in pain from her sunburned legs as
she sat up and looked around. "What the..."
Tom looked up and saw what she had just seen. The black sea lapping up
at the black shore. In the distance they could see jagged points of land
sticking out of the sea. "Where are we?" He tried to brush the black dust
off his legs, but stopped when a shooting pain flowed up his spine. He
realized that they must have been unconscious for most of the night and well
into the morning for his legs to get sunburned. A glance at Angela confirmed
that she was burned even worse than he was.
"I don't know. Maybe we were washed down to the Keys or something?"
It wasn't until a search party rescued them that they realized they
were the first people ever to get sunburned on the new Orlando Coast beach.
-C- -M- -D-
Later, Angela and Tom huddled in blankets as they were driven through
the ruins of central Florida. They sat in the front of a bus filled with
refugees.
The reporter in Angela took over. "How bad is it?" she asked the
driver.
"Bad."
"How bad?"
The driver briefly turned to them, showing his agonized face. "The
monolith in the Everglades exploded first and you see the result." He
gestured outside. The area they were passing through was strewn with large
black rocks of all sizes. Houses and cars were smashed to pieces. "Southern
Florida is nothing more than some small islands now. The other two blew
shortly afterwards.
"Damn... so much for Tokyo."
"Actually, the other monoliths didn't cause anywhere near as much
damage from what I've heard."
"Really?" Angela wondered why that was. "What about the creatures?"
"The Buggy-things? They're gone. There were billions of them all over
the Earth after the First blew, but they crumbled to dust after the last
monolith in the Middle East wiped out some cult's encampment. No one knows
why."
Angela rubbed her fingers together and watched some black dust fall
off. <There's still a big story behind all this... but where do I start?>
Despite brushing herself off several times since she awoke that morning, the
dust was everywhere on her body. <I really need a bath.>
"Damn!" Tom shouted suddenly. "We left all the cameras and film in the
car!"
Angel smiled, her thoughts of the story vanishing as she remembered why
she had left her purse and camera behind. "It doesn't matter as long as your
children's father is safe, right?"
Tom smiled and nodded.
-C- -M- -D-
Almost a week later, Angela stepped off an evacuation plane--walking a
little stiffly due to her sunburned legs, which were mostly healed, but
still made walking a bit uncomfortable--and made her way through the almost
empty terminal. Normally after New Year's the airports would be packed. But
there was nothing normal about this New Year's. She ignored the signs
leading to the baggage claim area. She had nothing with her. Her apartment
in Miami was either at the bottom of the Atlantic or vaporized. It didn't
matter to her; she would never see 'her' Florida again. It was gone.
After making a call, she walked down the concourse with a few other
passengers who had come in on her plane. The reporter in Angela pondered
what she knew about recent events. <Three monoliths appear a year before the
end of the millennium, invisible creatures that can't be stopped by bullets,
the strange women warriors who disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared,
half of Florida gone and the other half in ruins, Disney offering to help
reclaim the blackened remains of Florida, the Moon.... what... why did that
beam blast the Moon and then return to cause more damage? There's a reason
for all this, but what?>
Angela stepped onto the sidewalk outside the terminal. She sighed as
she didn't see her ride or any answers to her questions. <All that and no
reason for their disappearance. Just the black dust, the devastation, and
the human casualties they left behind. It's still early, but my sources say
that the Red Cross is expecting the casualty numbers to easily reach into
six figures and maybe seven, mostly due to the earthquakes and the attacks
by those flying things. The 'Three Harbingers' won't be forgotten any time
soon.>
She sighed at the name the more sensational newspapers were calling the
monoliths. <Those rags are already predicting a return of the 'Blackness'
next year when the Third Millennium arrives. Of course, these were the same
papers touting that two thousand was the beginning of the new millennium
just a few weeks ago.> Then she chuckled to herself at realizing something.
<Come to think of it, my paper was doing the same thing. Anything for the
advertisers, I guess.> At curbside, she rocked back and forth on her heels.
<What I really need to do is talk to someone who was closer to the action. A
witness or someth...> Her thoughts were interrupted by a long drawn out sob.
She looked over and saw a young girl sitting on a nearby bench. She
felt her heart go out to the girl and realized that there must be many more
people just like her around the world. She walked over and sat down next to
her. "Your ride late too?"
The blonde haired girl looked up with tear stained eyes. "Yeah... they
said my mom was supposed to be flying in here from Georgia to meet my
plane."
"Hmmm... I just landed on an evacuation plane from Georgia, maybe
she'll be here soon."
The girl sniffled. "I hope so. What was it like down there? All they
told me is that they aren't allowing people back into Florida."
Angela tensed. "Pretty bad."
"How bad?"
Angela found herself lost for words.
After several seconds, the girl looked at Angela. "That bad, huh?"
"Yeah... So, what's your name, kid?""
"Deedee."
Angela held her hand out to Deedee. "I'm Angela." They shook hands.
"Hang in there, kid, things will get better."
"I hope so. I lost my boyfriend and my home."
"That's too bad."
Deedee wiped her eyes. "How about you?"
"Just my home... my son is here in..." Angela was cut off as a speeding
bullet tackled her, sending her and Deedee crashing to the ground.
"Mommy!!"
Deedee pushed the ten-year-old boy away from her breasts where his face
had landed. "I'm not your mommy, you little brat."
The kid looked around and saw Angela. "Mommy!"
"Bobby!" Angela reached for her son and pulled him tight against her
chest. "There... there."
"Oh... that's your son? Sorry."
Angela looked up at Deedee and smiled. "No problem." She looked down at
her son. "Bobby, apologize to Deedee."
Bobby looked over at Deedee. "Sorry." He clutched his mother tighter.
"That's okay." Deedee ruffled Bobby's hair.
Bobby smiled and then looked at a man in his forties as he walked over.
"Angel."
Angela looked over and smiled. "Mike. Got some room in your house for
an out of work reporter?"
Mike Davidson raised an eyebrow. "You giving up writing?"
"Nope. But I figured I'd need some time to recover from this and maybe
write that novel I've been wanting to do."
Mike smiled and nodded. "My home has always been your home, Angel."
Angela walked over to Mike and gave him a deep kiss.
"Icky..."
Deedee looked down at the little boy. "You'll like it someday, kid."
"No way!!" Bobby scurried off and wrapped his arms around his mother's
legs, causing her to wince at the pain from her sunburn.
The first smile in quite some time formed on Deedee's lips. "I hope I
like it again someday." She watched the reunited family walk away towards
the car Mike Davidson had pulled up in. "Goodbye, Ranma. I hope you and that
les... woman are happy."
Deedee waited there for almost twenty more minutes before someone
called her name. "Deedee!"
Deedee looked up and practically tipped over the bench in her haste to
get to her mother. "Mommy!!"
Mrs. Ledesma wrapped her arms around her daughter and held on tight.
"Deedee... I'm so glad you're safe."
"Where were you?"
Her month tensed. "Sorry... I had to take care of something after the
plane landed." Inside she wondered how she should tell her daughter. <At
least by having Deedee wait out here she didn't have to see the casket.>
The mother and daughter held onto each other for several more minutes
until they finally separated and looked into each other's eyes. Mrs. Ledesma
brushed the hair out of her daughter's eyes. "How on Earth did you end up in
the Middle East?"
Deedee tensed. "It's a long story. Where's Daddy?"
"Um... let's go to your aunt's place and we can get cleaned up and
catch up." Mrs. Ledesma started to usher her daughter to the taxi stand, but
stopped when Deedee resisted being pulled away.
"Where's Daddy?!"
Mrs. Ledesma hadn't wanted to tell her daughter at the airport, but
knew she had to be honest with her daughter. "Deedee, you know your father
has been sick, right?'
Deedee nodded. "Yeah. What... is he in the hospital again?"
A mother put an arm on her daughter's cheek. "Deedee, your father had a
stroke."
"What?!" Deedee shuddered. "I've got to see him!"
"It's too late, dear. He passed away down in Georgia."
"No!!" Deedee dropped to the ground and started to shake. "Daddy!!"
***********************************************************************
From the personal journal of James Davidson:
November 3-5, 2057
My mom's hands shook as she held her parent's wedding photograph. "I...
caused my father's death."
"Mom, you didn't. You, of all people, know that his family has a
history of strokes," my sister insisted.
"Mary's right, Mom. It was just a coincidence that it happened then."
"That doesn't change the fact that he was only down in Southern Florida
because I ran away."
"No, but who's to say that he wouldn't have had the stroke during the
evacuation from your home in Kissimmee?" I asked, trying to calm my mom
down.
"Or that grandfather might have stayed behind since Disney World didn't
close?" Mary suggested. "Your parents' home was destroyed by the tidal wave
after all."
"I've heard all this before, kids." My mom looked at Mary and me. "I
appreciate it. I've lived with this guilt for most of my life. All the facts
don't lessen the pain of losing him."
Akane slid onto the bed next to my mom and hugged her. "No, it doesn't.
I'm sorry you had such a hard time after all you had to deal with inside the
monoliths."
My mom sighed. "I lost the first two men I ever loved to the Three
Harbingers. One to you Akane and one to death." She looked over and picked
up a photo of my late father from her nightstand. "But I also met a boy that
would later give me two beautiful children and a very happy life." She
smiled at my sister and me.
"I'm glad you found happiness," Akane said and hugged my mom again.
When the hug broke up, my mom looked at Akane. "And what about you? Did
you find happiness?"
Akane stiffened and looked over at the two Sanmas and at Yohachi. "Yes,
in between the bad times, I've had some very happy times with all of my
husbands and the family that I love dearly."
"I'm glad. I hope Ranma was happy with you until..." My mom stiffened.
"Sorry."
"That's okay. The pain is still there, but life has to go on." A long
silence followed until Akane suddenly looked at the rest of us. "Can I have
some time alone with Deedee? I'd like to talk woman to woman."
I nodded. "No dirty stuff, okay?"
Akane smirked. "No promises, now scoot."
I laughed and followed the rest of them as we filed out of my mom's
bedroom. We were in the living room for a few minutes when we heard my mom
scream. "Mom!!" We all started for the door, but stopped when my mother's
voice stopped us.
"Don't worry, I'm alright," my mom shouted.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes."
"My wife isn't making a pass at you, is she?" San-kun asked, producing
laughter from my mom's room.
Any further conversion was interrupted when the doorbell rang.
Mary looked up. "Door view." A second after she spoke her command, the
house system displayed an holo image of who was at the door. "What?"
I recognized what that crowd of people represented. "Reporters."
"Not those scum."
I looked at San-kun. "Very funny."
"That was rude, brother," San-chan scolded.
"Door connect." Mary waited for a second for the house system to open
the two-way link to the front door. "May I help you?" my sister asked the
little popup hologram showing several people pushing to get in the front. I
could hear the irritated tone in her voice that I have been on the receiving
end of more times than I care to count.
One of the reporters in front spoke. "We'd like to talk to the
Matriarch."
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about."
"We know she's in there."
"Please go away. This is a private residence." Mary turned away. "Door
off. Privacy on." Her last command would keep the doorbell from ringing over
and over. It would also put up indicators of the property line and give out
warnings if the reporters didn't vacate it.
San-kun cracked his knuckles. "Want me to go chase them off?" He
grinned.
Mary smiled and shook her head. "No, that's okay. I'm sure they'll give
up soon."
An hour later, Akane walked out of my mom's room after the crowd of
reporters started getting unruly and began knocking on the doors and
windows. "What's up?"
"The press have found us. Can I blast them, Sparky?" San-kun snapped
his fingers and formed a small chi ball.
"No... I guess we'll have to leave New York earlier than I'd hoped."
Akane sighed. "I was enjoying it here."
"You're welcome anytime," my mom said from her doorway.
"When you can travel, please come to Nerima," Akane offered as she
hugged my mom.
I looked over and saw my mom wipe tears out of her eyes. "Are you
alright, Mom?"
My mom nodded. "Yes, Akane just reminded me what it's like to be young
again."
I smiled in San-kun's direction. "She didn't hit on you, did she?"
"No... just girl talk." My mom and Akane exchanged an amused smile.
-C- -M- -D-
I awoke when someone shook my shoulder. "Huh?" I looked up and rubbed
my cheek. I must have fallen asleep on the full sized keyboard I had hooked
up to my palmtop because I could feel indentions from the keys on my face. I
looked up and saw the holo-screen was full of Ns and Bs.
"Honey?"
I looked behind me and saw my wife in a tiny see-through negligee.
"Hanaki? What time is it?"
"Ten A.M."
"What?!"
"Well, after we got back from dinner with your mother and sister, you
dug into your research and started writing something."
"You should have told me you were going to bed."
"I did." Hanaki twirled around to show off the revealing negligee. "I
even showed off my new sleepwear."
I frowned. "I don't remember that."
Hanaki harrumphed. "I'm insulted."
I pulled my wife onto my lap and gave her a long kiss. "Sorry, but
after the stories Akane told us all at dinner last night, I got a sudden
brainstorm. I suddenly realized how I could end Childhood and wanted to
write it down before I forgot it."
"What was it?"
I stared blankly at Hanaki for a few seconds. "Um... I forgot. But it's
all in my palmtop."
Hanaki smiled. "Well, let's go get cleaned up. The reporters are
starting to get real bold in trying to get to my aunt and she wants to leave
before things get out of hand." She looked at the window, just in case
another reporter was trying to scale the building with suction cups like one
did the night before.
I smiled. "I understand. How soon until we take off, Captain?" I
saluted the pilot.
Hanaki giggled. "That depends on how long it takes us to wash up." She
gracefully strolled over to the bathroom, peeling off her negligee as she
walked.
Well, I guess there's no reason we couldn't wait until afternoon to fly
back to Tokyo.
-C- -M- -D-
"So what did you and my mom talk about?" I asked Akane again as Tendo
One climbed away from New York the next morning, since we never quite
managed to get to the airport yesterday.
The grin on Akane's face showed she didn't mind having some time alone
with her twin husbands. She shook off my question as she always did. "Girl
talk." She looked out the window at the clouds flashing by.
I sighed.
San-kun opened the door to Akane's cabin and smiled. "Want to join us
in the hot tub?" He was wearing a very small towel around his waist.
Akane giggled. "If you insist." She looked over at me. "Care to join
us, James?"
I shook my head. "No thanks, I think I'll visit my wife instead."
"To each his own."
-C- -M- -D-
"Can I come in?" I asked from behind the hatch to the cockpit.
"What's the secret code?"
I smiled at Jaki's question. "John told me all about your date."
The hatch slid open without almost any hesitation and Jaki hurriedly
said, "Come in, come in."
I smirked and walked into the cockpit. Right in front of the hatch
there were eight flight seats with the usual straps, levers, and pull-tabs
you would find on many military planes. The first time I had been inside the
cockpit I was amazed at the contrast between the luxury of the rear cabins
and the military look of the cockpit.
Those eight seats were able to swivel and move down a long track that
ran along the two outside bulkheads. Those bulkheads had eight control
stations covered with keyboards, three-D displays, and controls. In addition
to various pop-up holo displays, the three-D displays were displaying
various maps and flight information, most of which made little sense to me.
Yohachi, Makato, and Naoyuki were in three of the seats, the rest were
empty.
In front of those seats were the two chairs for the pilots, which were
suspended by a series of hydraulic arms. They were currently positioned
forward to allow the pilots to see out of the windows that made up the front
of the cockpit. On the flight to New York, Hanaki had let me sit in the
co-pilot's chair briefly and I was amazed at the incredible field of view
the arrangement of the seats and windows gave the pilots.
The various flight controls were all attached to the chairs within easy
reach of the pilot and co-pilot. Hanaki and Jaki, in this case.
Various holographic displays hovered all around them, feeding the
pilots the information they needed to fly Tendo One. I could recognize
displays for altitude, airspeed, engine status, terrain maps, and other
common flight displays. Between Hanaki and Jaki, a three-D display showed a
miniature Tendo One and the surrounding airspace, which seemed to be clear
except for a couple commercial spacejets at the very edge of the display.
Ahead of Hanaki was a holographic line showing the programmed
flight-path. As my wife had explained on the flight to New York, there
wasn't much to flying a routine flight like this. That didn't mean her eyes
didn't light up when she handled the controls, proving beyond a doubt to me
that she loved flying.
"Hi, honey. Yohachi, let James sit behind me."
Yohachi smiled and slid out of the seat and into another right behind
it. His active displays followed him automatically. "Sure, the pilot's
husband always gets the good seat."
I smiled as I sat down. "I'm only trying to avoid getting pulled into
the hot tub with Akane and her two husbands."
Hanaki giggled. "I'm sure their offer was only in jest, honey, that hot
tub is barely big enough for the three of them."
Yohachi smiled. "It's not like the old woman gets as wild as the old
man."
Jaki laughed. "Don't be fooled by grandma's shy and good girl act, I
know she loves Akane."
"That's exactly what I was afraid of when I turned their offer down." I
looked at my wife. "How's the flight coming?"
Hanaki looked back at me. "We're about to burn. You can stay, but you
have to strap yourself in."
I nodded and started doing up my four-point harness.
"Jaki, will you make the announcement?"
A devilish gleam appeared in Jaki's eyes. "Yes." She looked up.
"Intercom on. Ladies, gentlemen, and my poor excuse for a grandpa; this is
your sexy co-pilot speaking. Prepare for warp speed in one minute." She
paused. "Grandpa, that means to stop doing whatever you are doing with your
wife and face forward. You too, grandma. Intercom off."
I could have sworn I heard an irritated shout from behind the hatch.
"How can there be a hot tub, anyway?"
Yohachi laughed. "It's designed with high walls to hold the water in
during acceleration. They just have to face forward or they could hurt
themselves."
"Ah..."
Jaki smirked. "They found that out the hard way."
Hanaki laughed. "So did you the last time you brought a boyfriend
onboard."
Jaki patted her chest and batted her eyes. "Who, me?" No one was fooled
by her innocent act.
Hanaki checked her status boards. "Everyone's signaled ready. On my
mark."
Jaki suddenly became very professional. "Yes, Captain. Trim at burn
level. All engines green."
Hanaki tensed and then took a deep breath. "Intercom on. Burn in five,
four, three..."
Suddenly, a good percentage of the displays turned to red from their
normally multi-colored appearance.
"Abort burn!" Hanaki snapped, her hands flying across her controls and
checking her controls. "Matriarch to the cockpit."
Jaki removed her hand from a control and toggled some other controls.
"Burn aborted."
The words 'global alert' were plastered over most of the displays,
telling me that it might not be a mechanical problem. "What's going on?" I
asked Yohachi.
Yohachi glanced up from his displays at me. "Global alert from control.
Basically it means: stop whatever you're doing and report your status to
control."
"Get used often?"
Yohachi just shook his head with a grave look on his face.
"Control, state the nature of the alert," Hanaki called out.
A second later, a female voice replied through the speakers. "Monolith
sighted. Type four or three. Your grid. What is the status of the
Matriarch?"
"She is..." Hanaki started to answer, but was interrupted by the hatch
opening and three bodies stumbling in. "Getting dressed."
Some grumbling was heard from the speakers.
Steam was still rising from Akane's wet body as she came in, pulling a
yellow gi shut around her naked chest. The gi was like the others I've seen
Task Force members wear numerous times. It was a heavy white fabric, with
strands of golden material woven throughout making it appear yellowish or
even golden if the light hit it right. Akane told me once that the material
was resistant to Buyierfei energy. Resistant, but not totally impervious to
the dark energy.
The pants had an assortment of pockets that were kept closed with
Velcro, many of them bulging with whatever assorted items they contained.
The top covered the whole arms and upper body with a padded quilted pattern,
while the lower part of the top was covered with more pockets. There was
some additional padding around the end of the arms and collar as well. The
outfit looked a little top heavy, but Akane told me it was very comfortable
and carefully made to not get in the way during combat.
San-kun, who was also wet, was pulling on his pants as he hopped in.
San-chan casually followed him in while she tied her top closed.
"Control, status," Akane commanded as she took the seat behind Jaki.
San-kun pulled me out of my chair and indicated one of the rear chairs
next to where San-chan had sat down. Another Task Force member came in and
sat down in the last free seat. "I should leave."
San-chan shook her head. "No, sit there." She indicated the same seat
that San-kun had.
A voice responded to Akane's inquiry. "Matriarch, we have a monolith
sighting at grid five, cross..."
"Shashiki, just tell us where it is without all the tech talk," Akane
interrupted, a little irritated.
So that was Shashiki's voice, I didn't know she was on the control
staff. Of course, there's a lot I don't know.
"Behind you, one hundred-twenty kilometers and closing fast."
"What?!" Hanaki snapped, scanning her displays. "Magnify rearview. Ten
times." A visual display showing the view behind Tendo One zoomed in.
"Hundred times." The image zoomed more and a black dot appeared in the
center and slowly started to get bigger. "Crap!" She adjusted some controls
and the speed of the jet increased. "Jaki, burn engines on red standby.
Team, deploy all pods. Repeat, deploy all pods. All, brace for sudden
acceleration without warning." She paused and then added one more item. "And
drain the hot tub."
San-chan trembled and reached under my seat. She pulled out a medium
sized backpack and handed it to me. "Put the outfit inside on... fast."
Then, much to my amazement and embarrassment, she started undoing my belt
and zipper. She was blushing just a little more than I was.
While she relieved me of my pants, I opened the backpack and saw that
there was a gi inside like the others were all wearing, except for Hanaki
and Jaki who were wearing their flight suits. I gulped at what San-chan
giving me this gi to wear meant: Things could quickly get real nasty. My
shaking hands pulled off my shirt and donned the gi's top. By the time I had
managed to tie the top closed, San-chan had my pants off and I quickly
slipped the gi pants on. "Thanks."
"No problem." I could hear a noticeable tremble in San-chan's voice as
she stowed my clothes in a webbed pocket on the side of my seat. "Keep that
backpack with you."
I nodded as I slipped the straps of the backpack over my shoulders.
Then I fumbled with my seat's four-point harness for a few seconds before
finally managing to secure the straps with the center buckle.
"Where did it come from, Control?" Akane asked after Hanaki had run
through her preparations. From what I understand, the pilot of a Task Force
aircraft has full command while in the air. Only the highest-ranking Task
Force member on board can relieve the pilot of command if the situation
warranted it.
"Reports indicate it appeared over Central Park, but shot off to the
south after only a few minutes hovering over the area."
"Crap... the reporters were right," San-kun remarked.
"There's a first time for everything." Akane turned towards me. "No
offense intended, James."
I smiled to show I wasn't insulted. I was amazed at how casually they
were taking having a monolith on our tail, but then this was my first time
being this close to one. Unless you counted the unfertilized egg I grew from
that was in my mom's ovary when she was inside the First, of course. I shook
my head to clear it. Talk about an odd thing to pop into a person's mind in
a stressful situation.
The rearview display showed the monolith drawing closer to us. I could
now make out that it was rectangular in shape like most of the other
monoliths.
Akane pulled an object out of her gi that looked like a small curling
iron. She grabbed a finger thick bundle of her hair from the left side of
her head and then ran the 'curling iron' down it. The bundle of hair turned
bright red, just like the streak that all the active Task Force members used
to identify themselves.
Then I noticed that San-kun and San-chan were doing the same thing,
except their highlights were black. Since their hair was already red, I
guess a red streak wouldn't be of much use to them.
I was a little humbled at the calm way that they all prepared for
battle.
Akane put away her little hair tool and then spoke. "Control, verify
that Mrs. Davidson and her daughter are safe."
I shuddered at the possibility. My mom may have survived her first
encounter with the Buyierfei without getting hurt, but at her age and
current health she wouldn't stand much of a chance now.
"We already checked with the team you left behind, no situation
reported."
"Good, keep them on high alert."
"You left..."
Akane answered my question before I could finish it. "Yes, I left four
of my best hand to tentacle fighters back in New York just in case. We don't
take chances with innocents when we can."
"Thanks."
"To tell you the truth, it was more to keep the reporters from
upsetting your family than worry about a possible attack." Akane turned back
to the front. "Options."
San-kun spoke first. "Let it catch up to us and we'll destroy it from
the inside." He cracked his knuckles.
Hanaki spoke up fast. "In my current condition, that wouldn't be an
acceptable risk."
San-kun shuddered and clutched his stomach. San-chan mirrored the
gesture in almost perfect synchronization with him.
"What?" I asked.
Akane looked back at me. "Remember what the Buyierfei do to pregnant
women?"
My heart tightened and skipped several beats. "No..." I could see
Hanaki tense at Akane's words.
"I won't let them hurt another innocent child, James, trust me." Akane
gave me a very determined look and then turned forward again. "A direct
attack is out then. Control, status of the other teams."
Shashiki replied almost at once. "Two from the East Coast, three from
the West Coast, two from Brazil. Earliest intercept with you at present
course and speed, one hour, ten minutes."
"We don't have that much time, It's already closed to sixty. Hanaki, do
a burn and see how far we can leave it behind. Vector our flight path south
to get us over water as soon as possible. Control adjust intercepts as
needed."
Hanaki checked over her displays. "Already working on the course.
Fifteen seconds. All, prepare for burn in thirteen. Jaki, stand by burn
engines in ten."
"James, do as I do." San-chan turned her chair around to face the
front, locked it, and then tightened her harness. I followed her movements,
although I had already strapped myself in very tightly.
Akane checked the entered course on her displays. "Agreed. Burn it."
"Five... four... three... two... one. BURN!" Hanaki commanded.
Jaki thrust a control forward and held on tightly as the orbit burn
engines kicked in.
I grimaced as the G-force crushed me into the seat. The sky outside the
cockpit windows blurred as we accelerated. I had experienced a full burn on
the flight to New York, but this almost seemed worse. That could be due to
the terror I felt at the approaching monolith.
It must have been three or four minutes of acceleration before someone
spoke again. "It's falling behind. One thirty. One thirty-five. One four-"
Yohachi recited.
Suddenly, Hanaki shouted. "Shit! Cut the burn!!"
Jaki responded without hesitation and released the control she was
holding. The burn engines cut out and the G-force pressing me into my seat
eased after a slight jerk forward. I could still feel the regular engines
pushing me back, but it was nothing compared to what we had just been
experiencing.
That thought had barely left my consciousness when I was pulled
violently to the side as the spacejet was put into a tight turn. I clenched
my teeth and grimaced.
My wife reeled off a series of instructions as she wrestled with the
controls. "Yohachi, track the incoming avians. Jaki, configure the engines
for battle maneuvers."
That was when I saw the hundreds of black dots coming at us from
multiple directions. "The monolith herded us into a trap," I commented to
myself, but was overheard.
"Yeah, smart little bastards, aren't they?"
I was a little amazed to hear that comment come from San-chan of all
people.
-C- -M- -D-
In the countless minutes that followed, Hanaki had tried her best to
force my stomach out my throat, but the avians stuck to us like my mom to
Ranma. Unfortunately, my breakfast didn't stick as well to my stomach as the
stain on my formerly clean gi will attest to.
"I count at least five hundred pipers and sixty large avians," Yohachi
informed us.
"Damn, I can't shake them all and the monolith is getting too closer
every second," Hanaki snapped.
"Fifty kilometers and closing," Yohachi thoughtfully informed everyone
at that point.
"Control, E.T.A. of hoverjets?" Akane called out.
"Twenty-five minutes at your current course and speed."
"The monolith will catch up before then," Yohachi reported.
Akane sighed. "We'll keep them busy. Hanaki, take us in. Keep as many
avians between us and the monolith as you can, maybe they'll slow it down.
Team, prepare to fire when the avians are in range."
"Here we go." Hanaki accelerated towards the avians in front of us. I
could see the flapping of their wings now, which almost seemed designed to
hypnotize us with their slow graceful movements.
As we neared the closest large avians, a series of red chi balls flew
out ahead of us. About half impacted and exploded, but only slowed the
avians down briefly.
"Oh no you don't!" Hanaki shouted and put the spacejet into a tight
horizontal roll. I held my breath as three closely spaced avians flew by the
cockpit windows. On a display next to me, I could see the avians just miss
the wings as they flashed by. The rearview showed several chi balls shoot
out from the pods and hit the receding avians. Pieces of black flesh fell
from the injured avians and one veered off and hit another. Then there was
less than a second for me to dig my fingers into the armrest of my seat
before the shock wave from the huge explosion hit us.
The spacejet shook under us, but Hanaki didn't have time to worry about
what was behind us, she had already started a steep dive to avoid a pack of
pipers that were coming at us. Then she spun to the left to avoid a large
avian. "Jaki, drive the forward engines to one-twenty!"
Jaki's hands blurred as she adjusted her controls. "You aren't..."
Hanaki gritted her teeth. "I am. Ready on the orbit burn primers." She
looked back at us, maybe hesitating a bit when her eyes met mine. "All, hang
on!" She pulled back on the stick and we started to rise into the sky. "Ten
second orbit burn!!"
Jaki pushed a lever forward. The whole aircraft strained for a few
seconds as we were blasted vertically past dozens of avians. And then
through a large avian.
Like their ground dwelling brethren, the avians had a tough outer skin
that covers a softer gelatinous internal structure. Ramming into one at high
speed was like dropping a brick on an egg, the insides went everywhere. The
black blood and guts of the avian streamed down the cockpit windows and slid
down as the intense speed we were traveling at cleaned the remains off the
glass.
And then the remains of the large avian exploded below us. The plane
shook and rocked as the explosion lapped at our tail.
Jaki released her engine control and the thunderous roar of the orbit
burn vanished.
Hanaki then twisted the spacejet into a horizontal path. "Damage?"
One of the Task Force members spoke up. "Some damage to the port canard
wing, some fluctuation on number two prime engine, pod five has seized up,
but Furiko is alright. No injuries."
I heard Hanaki exhale deeply. "Yohachi... how are we doing with the
avians?"
"Down to... forty-three large and about four hundred pipers."
"Not enough..." Hanaki maneuvered the spacejet around a huge black chi
ball that had been spat at us by a large avian and then checked her displays
and picked a lightly occupied area to head towards. That didn't exactly mean
it was empty of avians, just not as many as other potential headings. Of
course, one heading was completely free of avians, but there was a bigger
problem in that direction.
"Monolith is eight minutes away, lead hoverjets in twelve," Yohachi
reported on that problem.
"Four minutes difference... have to buy us some time." Hanaki muttered
as she deftly maneuvered the spacejet between the flocks of avians. "Port
pods, I'll need a spread of medium chi balls in ten. Starboard pods, I'll
need full beams along the horizontal axis in five. Everyone else, strap in
and hang on tight!"
I held on because I knew my wife had something up her sleeves. Which
usually meant that my stomach was in for a wild ride.
I was right.
She accelerated towards a large pack of avians like a glomping Amazon
to a group of single men. "Now!!" As she yelled, she put Tendo One into a
corkscrew dive. All around us chi balls flashed out from the pods and the
beams the Task Force was generating sliced through avians, big and small
alike. Exploding avians shook the spacejet and rattled my bones.
"Monolith is falling behind."
Hanaki grinned. "All the chi flying around is confusing them."
Without warning, the spacejet shuddered and buckled.
"We've been hit!!"
"Crap..." Hanaki fought her controls, trying to get us out of the
controlled dive she had put us into, but couldn't. Meaning that the dive was
now uncontrolled.
Yohachi started reciting a damage report. "Not sure what hit us, but we
have a hull breach. Starboard-rear. Number one and three engines are out,
number two is fluctuating."
Hanaki fought her controls. "Jaki, transfer engine mains to the forward
engines and balance the rears as best you can."
Jaki was frantically adjusting controls. "I'll try, but... there's a
gap in the control grid."
Yohachi continued his report. "Starboard pods are offline, Hiro is
injured, but stable. They are shutting down the starboard grid due to
electrical fires. I'll reroute what I can. And the star..."
Hanaki completed his statement. "The starboard ailerons are damaged. By
the feel of it, at least five holes."
Yohachi's jaw dropped and checked to see if Hanaki had a damage control
holo display up. She didn't. <Damn... she can feel it through her stick?>
"Yeah... six holes, but one is very small."
Hanaki wrenched her stick to the side. "It's always the small things
that'll kill you." She pulled back on her stick and we finally started to
pull out of our dive somewhat, but I could hear the spacejet straining all
around us, threatening to tear apart at any second.
The speakers came to life. "Tendo One, this is attack leader. We have
engaged the avians. Do you need assistance? Monolith is still vectored on
your tail."
"I can see that..." Hanaki gritted her teeth. "Negative on the
assistance. Take out the avians first, I'll keep the Matriarch in one piece
until you deal with the targets." When she glanced at Akane, I could see the
strain on her face and the fear in her eyes. "Matriarch, we have to..."
Akane nodded and agreed. "Understood. Do what you have to."
Hanaki snapped her head forward. "All, evacuate the rear section. No
pods or dropjets. Repeat, no pods or dropjets. Come forward and cram into
the cabins any way you can."
San-kun frowned. "With the hoverjets handling the avians, the dropjets
should be safe..."
Hanaki cut off her uncle. "The hull is buckled and half the rear
systems are down. Launching the dropjets now could..."
"But..."
Hanaki snapped her head around and glared at Sanma. "Not now, Uncle!
That's an order!"
I know Sanma wasn't one to like taking orders, but he did stop arguing.
'The pilot is ultimately responsible for his or her aircraft.' Those
words echoed in my mind as I started to worry how far that responsibility
would go.
"Attack force is engaging the avians." Yohachi scanned his displays.
"Monolith is fifteen kilometers and closing. E.T.A. three minutes, four if
we're lucky."
Akane looked over at her son. "Will it intercept the hoverjets?"
Yohachi shook his head. "No, it's headed right for us."
"Good."
I can't say I shared Akane's attitude about the monolith's course, but
I understood her concern for her friends and family who were likely in those
hoverjets. I had the same concern for the person sitting about six meters in
front of me.
Jaki scanned her displays. "All clear in the rear."
Hanaki gripped her stick and tensed. "Blow the interconnects and detach
aft section."
Jaki nodded and hit a switch.
The spacejet shuddered. The cockpit lights flickered. The sound of
steel tearing reverberated through the spacejet. Displays all around the
cockpit flashed warnings and displayed images of the spacejet. The pilot
swore worse than I ever heard her swear before, and that's saying a lot.
On top of all that, the spacejet started to drop out of the sky like a
rock.
Hanaki strained at her controls. "Rear section didn't disengage... rear
engines out completely and the fronts can't keep us aloft."
"Twelve thousand meters... Eleven-nine... Eleven-eight..." Jaki recited
as she fought with her engine controls.
Yohachi strained to check his displays. "Crap... the servos didn't
release the rear latches. We're pulling a dead rear end."
"Cycle them again!" Hanaki shouted.
Yohachi hit a couple controls, but nothing was heard from the rear.
"Negative. Trying the explosive release." More controls, more silence from
behind us. "Negative. All the data umbilicals are out to the rear section.
Looks like the sequencer was damaged when we were hit."
Hanaki swore and scanned her displays for a solution to their problem.
"Dammit... are all the forward latches released?"
Yohachi nodded. "Yeah... only the rears failed."
I saw Hanaki take a couple deep breaths. "Jaki?" she said flatly.
"Nine-fi..." Jaki turned towards Hanaki. "Yes, Captain?"
"Can you..." Deep breath. "Can you go back and blow the rear releases
manually?" My wife's voice was trembling. I wasn't sure if it was the
shaking of the spacejet or due to the situation we found ourselves in.
Jaki tensed. Several heartbeats and several hundred meters later, she
nodded. "Yes, Captain." She reached for a control on the side of her seat
and pressed a button. Her seat retracted from its position over the forward
array of windows.
Yohachi started to undo his straps. "I'll go."
"No!" Hanaki snapped. "Jaki's the only one onboard who knows those
systems." Deep breath. "Besides me."
Yohachi looked at his mother, but Akane did not return his look.
Sanma looked at his granddaughter and then at Akane. "Akane..."
"You all heard the pilot's decision," Akane said through clenched
teeth.
"Yohachi... please take the co-pilot's seat." Hanaki commanded as she
fought her controls. "I'm sorry, Jaki," she said softly.
Jaki's seat had swung around and deposited her on the deck. She slipped
her straps off and stood up. "Don't be, Hanaki. That's a decision for the
captain to make. That's what I couldn't handle, remember?"
I gasped. Hanaki had told me many stories about her time training
together with Jaki to be Task Force pilots. Jaki would consistently beat my
wife on every test, simulation, exercise, and combat exercise. Except for
command.
Whatever it was about Jaki's personality, she just did not handle
command well. Shortly after we started dating, Hanaki had told me the story
about the tests designed to gauge a person's ability to command a mission or
an aircraft. Jaki had run through the simulations dozens of times and her
instructor would fail her every time. In the end, Jaki had become so
flustered she intentionally crashed the simulated hoverjet trying to please
her instructor. Needless to say, it didn't. Jaki was taken off the command
training roster after that last test. She could still be a co-pilot, but she
could never command a mission or sit in the pilot's chair.
The chair that Hanaki had issued her order from.
Yohachi exchanged a worried look with Jaki as he passed her. He sat
down in the seat she had just vacated. The seat swung around and suspended
him in front of the windows.
Jaki spared a second to look at Sanma. "Don't worry, old man, I'm a..."
She let her statement go unfinished as she made her way up the length of the
sloped cockpit floor. I could see a tear running down her cheek.
I didn't know what to do or say, so I just watched her silently as the
others all attended to their tasks of keeping the spacejet in the air as
long as possible.
Jaki paused briefly in front of my seat. Before I knew what was
happening, she leant down and gave me a very passionate kiss. She
straightened up and the walked through the hatch. Before it closed I heard
her say, "Take care of Hanaki."
"I will," I said softly to the closed hatch.
Yohachi was adjusting controls and reading off altitude marks as Hanaki
silently struggled with the controls.
About a minute later, the spacejet bucked and shuddered. I glanced at
the nearby displays and saw the tactical displays showing an outline of
Tendo One suddenly delete the rear section, leaving just the forward half
with it's canard wings. As I felt us start to climb, I watched the holo
displays showing the wreckage of the rear half fall away from us.
There was a huge hole in the bottom side of the fuselage, extending out
to the starboard wing. Various buckled plates and twisted pieces of the
airframe could be seen.
Hanaki pulled back on her stick and glanced at Yohachi. "Balance the
four engines for a burn."
Yohachi nodded. "Yes, Captain." His hands hesitated over the controls
and then went to work.
The rearview showed the rear section start to tear apart just before it
crashed against the black surface of the approaching monolith and then
exploded. A huge fireball washed across the monolith's black surface, but
didn't seem to slow the monolith down.
Hanaki looked away from the rearview. "Goodbye, Jaki," she whispered,
but we all heard it in the dead silence of the cockpit. A few seconds later,
Hanaki initiated the burn.
We were all pressed back into our seats for a split second before the
spacejet shuddered.
"Crap!! The burn engines won't cycle! Yohachi, check the primers!"
Hanaki commanded as she toggled her controls.
Yohachi scanned his displays. "Primers... primers..."
"Engine group five, section eight!" Hanaki reminded Yohachi at the top
of her voice.
"Yeah..." I could see that Yohachi wasn't used to being in the
co-pilot's chair, but he did find the information. "Only one primer is
online."
"Shit! It's always those damn primers," Hanaki muttered.
"The monolith is gone!" Akane suddenly called out, looking at her
displays. "Control, do you have a location on the monolith?"
Everyone scanned their displays for sign of the monolith while they
waited for a response from the control center.
"Control?"
Yohachi checked his status displays. "Long range comm is out... I'm
going to bounce a signal off one of the hov... BANK RIGHT!!"
Hanaki trusted Yohachi's shout and banked hard to the right, just
barely avoiding the large black monolith that had suddenly appeared in our
path.
Hanaki checked her terrain map and grinned. "I'm taking it to the deck!
Yohachi, rig the forward terrain grid," she commanded as she pushed her
stick down and sent us screaming towards the Mexican coast.
San-kun was the first to comment on the monolith's sudden change in
position. "That's no type four!!"
"Only a type one can become entirely invisible for short periods like
that," San-chan remarked.
From what I knew about them, type ones were the most powerful type of
monoliths. They were very mobile and they were able to become invisible for
short periods of time. But they needed a lot of energy to do it. "Where...
where could it have gotten enough energy?" I asked, not really expecting an
answer.
But San-kun did answer me. "Good question... it must have found a way
to escape our notice or sucked the energy very slowly to avoid a large
dieback."
I nodded. One of the ways to find a monolith is to look for unusual
dieback of plant and animal life. That made type ones very rare these days
since the Task Force usually found them before they got that powerful.
To avoid the monolith, Hanaki had taken us down close to the ground.
The desert terrain of Northern Mexico flashed under us. I could see the
rearview showing the monolith lapping at our tail.
"It's only a hundred meters behind us and closing," San-kun reported.
Hanaki fought her controls, trying to get every last ounce of speed out
of the crippled aircraft. "Damn, we can't outrun it in this condition.
What's the status of the hoverjets?"
San-kun responded. "Still dealing with the avians. It'd take them ten
minutes or so to get to us."
"No time... Matriarch, permission to ground the monolith?" Hanaki
glanced back at her aunt.
"Where?"
Hanaki indicated a spot on the terrain map.
Akane frowned. "It's populated."
San-kun checked the displays. "Yeah... but it should be possible to
evacuate it in time. I'll notify the hoverjets." He looked at Hanaki. "But
why there?"
"Because that's what Jaki would have done."
No one dared to argue with that.
-C- -M- -D-
The spacejet screamed across the desert, dodging high hills, mesas, and
even a couple of tall cactuses. Yes, we were flying that low to the ground.
Apparently, the monolith could now catch up to Tendo One-half--as they
referred to the forward half now--in a straight contest of speed, so forcing
it to get close to the ground prevented it from overtaking us. But it was
still close enough to see its ugly black surface swallow most of rearview
image despite Hanaki having turned off the magnification long ago.
We crested the top of a mesa and saw a wide expanse of open land ahead
of us. Hanaki pushed the engines beyond their limits to gain a little
breathing room. "Hold on!!" she shouted as she aimed Tendo One-half for an
arch with a circular opening.
I grinned as I remembered the arches Hanaki had flown us through the
last time we had flown over this part of Utah during our 'honeymoon'. Come
to think of it, this was the same arch. Which means...
The spacejet shot through the first arch and then turned violently to
the left and shot through the next arch. The first arch was just wide enough
to let us slip through, the second clipped the edges of the wings and caused
the spacejet to creak and shudder.
The rearview showed the monolith slip through the first arch, hitting
the edges and demolishing the arch. Unlike Hanaki, it--or whatever was
controlling it--had no idea about the second arch and couldn't change course
in time. It plowed into the second arch and was driven into the hard Utah
ground by its momentum.
When the dust settled it was half buried in the remains of the two
arches and the land that surrounded them. Hanaki had successfully 'grounded'
the monolith. Once a monolith touches ground, it can't fly or move unless
acted on by some external force.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to celebrate just yet. The spacejet was
severely damaged after its wings were torn up going through the last arch.
Hanaki fought to keep it above ground as long as possible. "Damn, that
caused more damage than I had hoped."
"Try not to hit a casino this time," San-kun mentioned.
"Hardly... there's no way we can make it as far as Vegas." Hanaki
scanned the desert ahead of her, both visually and via the terrain grid that
was superimposed over the real terrain. "I'm going to get us as far away as
possible, but I don't exactly have a lot of control at the moment. Jak..."
She took a deep breath. "Yohachi, ready on the landing gear and keep an eye
on the fuel level. We must have punctured a tank, the level is dropping
fast."
Yohachi nodded and adjusted the controls. "Number one is dry, number
two at eleven and dropping. Do you want me to transfer the remaining to tank
one?"
"No! Tank one's gone according the damage tickler." She gestured at the
little indicators that gave the pilots information about the spacejet in a
special abbreviated form. The ticklers allowed the pilots to absorb the
information quicker and allow them to concentrate on piloting. They were
similar to the telltales and tickers they used in the old days, but were
more advanced and designed to give information in more than just a visual
manner. In addition to visual and audible indicators and warnings, the
various controls where covered with small devices that could transmit small
tactile pulses to the pilots' hands. Hence 'tickling' them and leading to
the 'tickler' name.
Yohachi gulped as he checked the display and flexed his fingers on the
controls. "Sorry... I'm not used to these pilot ticklers." He frowned as he
cycled the landing gear servos to test them. "Um... the landing gear servos
aren't responding."
Hanaki looked over at Yohachi. "That's not good."
"No."
"Try lowering them fully and see what happens."
"I just did."
Hanaki took a deep breath. "Crash positions!!" she yelled and started
pushing buttons and adjusting controls. "I want just enough power to brake
this thing when our belly hits the ground, so let me know when tank two is
at three percent."
San-chan looked back at me. "James, not like that."
I look up from my position with my head between my knees and my hands
on the back of my neck. "Huh?"
"You're in the wrong position." San-chan indicated a red pull-tab on
the right side of my seat. "Lean back against the back and then pull that
tab."
"Okay..." I leaned back in my seat and then pulled the tab on my seat
that she had indicated. Suddenly, a thick, gooey foam-like substance poured
out of tiny holes in the seat and engulfed my body. I tried to move, but
could only manage to shift a small amount. Amazingly, I found that I could
still see, hear, and breathe through the foam.
San-chan had turned her seat to face forward again and then pulled her
own tab. She was quickly encased in the same foam. All along the sides of
the cockpit, the others followed suit.
Except for Hanaki and Yohachi. I tried to call out my concern, but
couldn't open my mouth. I only managed some groans.
Hanaki must have heard my failed attempt at calling her name, because
she turned around and met my eyes. "Don't worry... no one else dies today."
She turned back to Yohachi. "Flood the cabins with the foam and then encase
yourself."
Yohachi nodded. "Cabins flooding, but I'll stick with the controls."
"No, I'll handle the landing..."
"I'm your co-pilot now, my duty is to help you land this thing!"
Hanaki flinched backwards from the outburst, but knew he was right.
"Okay... but be ready for anything."
"Anything Goes Spacejet Crashes are my specially."
I could tell Hanaki appreciated Yohachi's attempt to calm her down.
"Tell me that when you've crashed as many aircraft as I have." She looked
forward. "There's our landing field." She indicated a long stretch of desert
ahead of us.
"Just in time, tank two is at three percent."
"When we hit the ground, throw the engines into reverse." Hanaki said
as she eased her stick forward.
"Two percent. Fifty meters."
The stick started to vibrate in Hanaki's hand as the spacejet descended
towards the desert floor. "Getting some vibration, feather number two."
"Aye, Captain." Yohachi adjusted a control. "One percent, ten meters."
The stick stopped vibrating and Hanaki pushed down. "Reverse engines!
Flood the dome! Impact!"
As the belly of the spacejet scrapped the desert floor, Yohachi put the
engines into reverse and then hit a switch to retract the two pilot's chairs
and inject foam into the glassed-in area at the front of the cockpit.
Hanaki fought to keep the spacejet straight as it skidded down the
improvised landing field. "Come on... hold together... just a little
longer...."
Without warning, the left wing snapped off and sent the spacejet
tumbling across the desert.
I heard Hanaki curse and then everything went dark. The next sensation
I felt was something sharp break_ng m_ skIn a_d pierc__g my stom__####
holoprocessor_stop
holo-mem_check_error[grid_checksum_bad]
grid_445.678.343.991.ZAS
pos_GHI.022.871.334.901
hw_TendoCard_3500c
os_Tendo_PalmOS_20.56_SP3c
app_global_dictator_plus
[End - Chapter 32]
Coming soon: Epilogue: Childhood's End
=======================================================================
The real author's (Jim Lazar) notes/ramblings:
(Almost) Finished!
I'd like to thank my pre-readers Michael A. Chase, Jonathan Ng, Jyh-I Lu,
EBJ, Thomas C. Kinnen, and David Johnston for helping me find and fix
problems with this story. FFML members Rebecca Thomas, Elsa Bibat, and
Xstylus were also helpful in fine tuning this story. Thank you all. Of
course in the end, any mistakes and botched characters are my fault.
Revision 0.0 - Rough draft began (January 6, 2000)
Revision 0.1 - Rough draft finished (January 12, 2000)
Revision 0.3 - Pre-reader draft (April 9, 2000)
Revision 0.4 - FFML draft (April 27, 2000)
Revision 1.0 - Final version (May 14, 2000)
Revision 1.1 - First RAAC posting (May 19, 2000)