[Ranma/Battletech][FanFic] Battletech: The Saotome Gambit Part 2

[Jamie and Bridget Wilde]

Ryouga Hibiki was lost once again. It was absolutely humiliating, but
at least no one was about at such a late hour to notice. His barracks room
had to be around somewhere, as the fort just wasn't that big.
At least he was still in the fort, he thought with some relief. The
other night he had ended up in the middle of the Governor's Mansion lawn
facing a pack of paranoid bodyguards. It had taken a little fast-talking
to get out of that one without serious trouble.
Tarou was probably asleep, he reflected. The guy was still fuming
about having to give up on his Happousai hunt, and without coming out
and saying it, he blamed Ryouga for letting him get away rather than admit
that the very idea of Happousai being on Capra was absurd. There would be
no help from Tarou tonight.
The sight of a passing sentry was both cause for relief and for
embarrassment. He was going to have to ask for directions - for the third
time in an hour. Maybe the guy would just give up and lead him step by step
to the barracks...

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

BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART TWO

by J. Austin Wilde
Safety Control Rod Axe Man,
Fission Park Press
wild...@psn.net
http://www.psn.net/~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

Fort Dettmering, on the outskirts of Capra City,
Planet Capra, Capra System,
The League of Five Nails
1 February 3025

Happousai prowled the shadows across the unevenly paved street that
separated Fort Dettmering from the sleazy bars and topless joints that
had set up within walking distance from the garrison in order to better
part the soldiers with their money. It had taken a great deal of resolve
to wait in a place like this, and several times he had given in to
temptation in order to sample the place's wares. Fortunately for his
mission, the girls in the clubs were rather uninspiring to all but the
most neophyte of voyeurs. Happousai had seen much better in far more
enjoyable surroundings.
Somewhere on the other side of the coils of cyclone wire and the
concrete retaining walls of the fort were Ryouga Hibiki and Pansuto Tarou.
In just under ten hours a Furinkan Combine battlemech company would be
dropping out of orbit to stage a punitive raid on the League, and it was
his job to provide intelligence prior to the attack on the city. He knew
that the attack would not go very well unless the two mechwarriors were
dealt with, and he also knew that unless the attack went well, he would
not get paid.
The question was how to deal with them. He was technically under
contract with the Combine at the moment, but just prior to taking the
job, he had heard whispers out of the Jusenkyo Commonwealth that the
two mechwarriors were wanted men. Happousai went back a long way with
the Commonwealth, and he was certain that handing them over would do
well to ease the current bad blood that sat between himself and the
leader of the Amazon nation, Cologne.
He had some ideas about why they were wanted. For example, he was
the agent who had signed them up for duty on Lightoller, and he knew
to some degree about the things that went on there. It didn't take a
scientist (though there were few of those these days) to realize why
the Commonwealth might want Bad Things to happen to Ryouga and Tarou
before they could spill the beans. They might also want their guinea
pigs back in order to complete their experiments...
What to do? Kill them? No, that seemed like a waste of good material.
If they died on the battlefield, then so be it, but not underhanded murder.
The Inner Sphere needed great mechwarriors like those two in order to
remind all those other wannabes what being a great mechwarrior entailed.
Standards were slipping as far as he was concerned, and he was not going
to help them get worse. It seemed like anyone with a battlemech and access
to a training simulator could finagle his way into one of the Successor
State armies these days.
Sabotaging their 'mechs was a possibility, but kidnapping them seemed
like the best answer. That would take them out of the picture, he'd be
able to hand them over to the Commonwealth, and the possible capture of
two intact battlemechs by the Combine raiders might well convince them to
look the other way when he loaded them on board the Combine DropShip. Hell,
he might even get a bonus out of the deal!
His mind made up, he darted across the street. The wall was lit at
even intervals by security lamps, but there were gaps in the coverage
for him to exploit. There were also motion detectors in place, but he had
been observing the fort for the last few nights, and noted that just about
anything from a stray dog to a sandy gust of wind set them off, and now
they were generally ignored by the sentries.
It wasn't difficult for a man of his diminutive stature and martial
arts-imbued grace to slip past the triple coils of razor wire unscathed. A
scrabbling leap at the wall put him up and over in scant seconds. As he set
down on the firmly packed sand of the fort's parade ground, he mused that
it would have been much easier to slip through the front gate, but at least
this way he wasn't getting rusty in his old age.
He scampered lightly across the parade ground to a quonset hut,
leaving no trace of his passing in the sand. From the hut he skulked into
the shadows to let a sentry pass him by. Once the mercenary soldier had
passed, he vaulted up onto a stack of crates and from there took to the
roof of the quonset hut. The barracks was a low three story building near
the center of the fort and within a quick jog to the hangars. Only a few
lights burned in the windows at this late hour.
There would be a listing of room occupants in the possession of the
Duty Barracks NCO, whose office was likely on the first floor. A quick
scan of the building revealed a fire escape that could serve as an entry
point. He leaped off the roof and sprinted across the rows of jeeps and
light armored vehicles that separated him from the barracks. A younger
man would have been winded for certain at this point in his expedition,
but Happousai was a man who burned with a strange madness that fueled
him with almost boundless energy.
As he had expected, the fire escape door wasn't alarmed. A scattering
of cigarette butts on the ground by the door confirmed this. Residents
apparently came here to smoke out of sight.
He crept inside the barracks and turned down a hall to a source of
light, which turned out to be a lounge. A television glowed soundlessly in
the darkness of the room, playing to absolutely no one. The noise of a
drinking fountain refrigeration unit was the only sound to be heard.
Continuing on past a bank of unoccupied phone booths, he reached the
lobby. A front desk watch dozed at his post, periodically stretching out
his arms and yawning loudly. A forest of yellow post-it notes fluttered
behind him on the neglected phone message board. It would be interesting
to see if anyone called for Ryouga or Tarou, but Happousai doubted it.
They were both loners, and from what little he had seen of them, not
exactly skilled with the ladies.
A door labeled 'Barracks Officer' seemed the obvious choice. The front
desk watch turned back to dozing in his chair, and Happousai slipped past
him to work on the door. The lock was a simple single row tumbler; about
two seconds work with an automatic release gun.
The Barracks Officer's computer was already powered up. It was a new
model; clunky and slow compared to units the Inner Sphere had been able to
produce in better days, but functional in a primitive way. A few minutes
of noodling with the system produced the answer to his question. Ryouga
and Tarou shared a room on the third floor with the other mechwarriors and
techs of the mercenary unit.
He slunk out of the room and to the stairwell. The elevator was out
of the question in a place like this. A quick jog up three flights of
stairs brought him within meters of his destination. Before he left the
stairwell he produced the large sack and restraints with which he would
spirit the two away. While he could only carry them one at a time, he was
confident that he would be able to keep the other from going anywhere or
doing anything until it was his turn to go.
The door to room 301 was locked, as could be expected. It was also
of the simple single row tumbler variety, and Happousai had no sooner
produced his release gun than he was inside. The room was divided into
three sections. The living area had a small couch, two desks and standing
lockers, and a small coffee table. There were only a few personal touches
present, namely martial arts gear and weapons, and a red shamboo umbrella
that could only belong to Ryouga. Beyond the living area were two segregated
sleeping areas set off with black curtains on a curved track that reached
from floor to ceiling. A door to a bathroom lay half-way open on the far
wall, between the two sleeping areas.
The wet sounds of someone snoring led him to one of the curtained
sleeping areas. Peering into almost absolute darkness he spied a figure
lying on a bed underneath the covers. It was impossible to tell who he
was simply by looking.
The thought occurred to Happousai to take the other one first, so
that any sounds of struggle might be covered up by the snoring. This
thought was discarded in favor of shutting off the source of the annoying
noise as soon as possible, say, with a nice duct tape gag. He proceeded to
draw a fresh roll of the stuff from his sack.
As he crept into the sleeping area to deal with the snoring occupant,
the front door of the room opened behind him. He spun around as the lights
came on to see Ryouga Hibiki looking tired and thanking a uniformed soldier
with a slung assault rifle for his help. Ryouga turned in that moment to
look directly into the beady little eyes of Happousai.
Recognition set in immediately, and Ryouga's left eyebrow began to
twitch. His hands clenched into fists and trembled. Happousai was certain
that a faint yellow glow of battle aura began to flicker from the young
man.
"...YOU..." Ryouga growled.
Happousai, momentarily stunned by this setback to an otherwise
flawlessly executed plan, stood there clutching his roll of duct tape
and looking guilty.
"...I can't believe you actually had the nerve to come here," Ryouga
went on, now practically shaking with rage. "...After what you did to us..."
"Now come on, Ryouga," Happousai replied, finding his voice. "What did
I ever do to you?"
Something deep inside Ryouga's head snapped. Happousai could almost
hear it. The faint flickers of battle aura now became a fiery torrent of
ki.
"BECAUSE OF YOU I'VE SEEN HELL!!!" Ryouga screamed.
Happousai only narrowly avoided getting squashed like a bug when
Ryouga's fist slammed into the floor where he had been standing. As he
sprang to safety, the sharp report of cracking concrete snapped in his
ears. Ryouga, unfazed by an impact that should have shattered every bone
in his hand, lashed out with a spin kick that caught enough of the
airborne little mercenary to send him sprawling into the unoccupied
sleeping area curtain.
"What the hell is going on?!" Tarou demanded from his bed.
"Happousai's in the room!" Ryouga barked as he charged for the now
entangled spy.
"WHAT!?"
"You heard me," Ryouga snarled. Happousai turned his grasping hands
aside with a deft flick of his pipe and tried to squirt free of the melee.
Ryouga struck back with a desperate sidelong head butt that knocked him
back into play just as Tarou was leaping clear of his bed.
"Save some for me!" Tarou demanded.
"Come and get me!" Happousai chortled. He had his back against the
wall and was facing two skilled martial artists with murder on their minds,
but he wasn't going to lose his nerve over it.
There was only one possible escape route, and that was through the
bathroom. Ryouga and Tarou realized this at about the same time and rushed
him in order to block his exit. Happousai narrowly avoided two wall-
splintering fist smashes, and slipped into the bathroom anyway. Tarou
recovered first and charged in after him, lunging with a reverse roundhouse
kick that missed Happousai and ended up smashing the sink with an ear-
splitting crash of porcelain and tile.
A fountain of water gushed into Tarou's face, transforming him into
his hideous Jusenkyo form. Happousai had never seen anything so horrifying
in his entire life, and stood aghast at Tarou's feet, practically gibbering
in terror. A howl of agony and rage lit across Tarou's lips as he raised his
huge hairy arms over his head to crush Happousai flat.
"Kill him!" Ryouga shouted before catching a splash of water from the
ruptured sink and collapsing into the folds of his uniform with a squeal
of surprise.
The sight of Ryouga as little black pig was enough to break the spell
of horror Tarou had woven over Happousai, and he laughed with maniacal
glee at the mechwarrior's misfortune. He also managed to dodge the double
fist smash that Tarou drove down at him, and without a human Ryouga to
impede him, slipped effortlessly past the pig.
From outside the room came an insistant pounding on the door. It was
the soldier who had escorted Ryouga back to his room. When he got the door
open he was immediately bowled over by the fleeing Happousai.
Tarou was about to tear off after him when an insistant squeal from
Ryouga cut him short. Any second now the soldier was going to sit up and
see them in their Jusenkyo forms. Action had to be taken, and quickly,
lest their terrible secret be revealed.
Tarou grabbed Ryouga with one hand and with the other hand cranked
shut on the sink's shutoff valves, securing the spray of water. He then
pulled Ryouga into the shower with him. He spun the valve for hot water,
getting a blast of lukewarm water that immediately became scalding. A
twin scream of pain erupted from the now human fighting duo, followed
by a frantic rush to get into dry clothes.
The soldier was clocked a little harder than they thought, for they
actually got away with it. When the man came to, they were both dressed,
though suitably mussed, and the room around them was totally destroyed.
"What the hell happened?" the soldier demanded of them.
"There's a sapper in the building!" Ryouga replied. "Sound the alarm!"
The soldier nodded his head vigorously and fiddled with his radio. It
wasn't necessary, for the racket the brawl had raised had already roused
the entire building and caused a general alarm to be sounded. Lights were
now snapping on all over the place and sirens blared.

* * *

Happousai watched from the safe vantage of his well concealed Locust
as the mercenary garrison of Capra annihilated the Furinkan Combine raiding
party. At the center of the conflagration, indeed the cause of it, were a
Hunchback and a BattleMaster. The two 'mechs fought like raging demons,
obliterating their opponents and sowing fear in the Combine ranks.
He knew that every time they had an enemy 'mech in their sights they
were visualizing his Locust in its place, and that was fine with him. As
long as they worked off their wrath on someone else, it was all good as
far as he was concerned. Like the brawl the previous night, they would
be lucky to get in a blow, much less destroy him in actual 'mech combat.
The raid was obviously a debacle. He would be lucky if the DropShip
commander even let him aboard, and his work with the Furinkan Combine was
certainly over. Forget about the money.
It made his skin crawl to be humiliated like this, but he wasn't
about to face the two now, while they were knee-deep in Combine blood and
thirsting for more. He would have to cut his losses, and that meant getting
off Capra. After that, he wasn't certain. He wasn't likely to be welcome
in the Furinkan Combine for awhile. Of course he would have to put just
the right amount of spin on his report to shift the blame over to the
hapless raid commander. That would certainly help his cause.
He loped his 'mech away from the battle to take up a position along
the projected Combine path of retreat - assuming any of them managed to
disengage. He would deal with the survivors as they limped for retrieval,
for it was easier to lay blame elsewhere when there wasn't anyone left
alive to dispute your version of the facts. It would serve them right for
not heeding his warnings of the garrison's fighting ability. Two 'mechs
can make all the difference when the right two mechwarriors are at the
controls.
His options seemed limited. The Combine paid the best for his line of
work, although there was never a lack of demand for it in the League of
Five Nails. Perhaps he should kill two birds with stone, and go pay Cologne
a visit. She might be very interested in Hibiki and Tarou's whereabouts,
and better still, pay handsomely to get them back. At least that way he
could work without any unfortunate conflicts of interest.

Chapter Two

FCJS _Libertine,_
Wolf 142 System Zenith Point
Furinkan Combine
29 January 3025

Colonel Princess Kodachi Kuno stood alone on the grav deck of her
regimental flagship. News of her defeat on Abydos was spreading at the
speed of Jump, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Her
reputation was damaged, though not beyond repair, not yet!
She had spent the last week thinking of nothing other than revenge
against Akane Tendo. It had been stewing within her ever since her defeat,
but hadn't become an obsession until her stern dressing down at the hands
of her brother. His effrontery was galling, coming from a man who had yet
to defeat her in six separate engagements!
Now she was hearing disturbing news from the Confederation. That
treacherous snake Nabiki Tendo had made Tatewaki an offer, one that had
him firing off his entire diplomatic staff to Nerima aboard the _Acropolis,_
the Combine's finest JumpShip after the _Imperator._ What were Nabiki and
her dear brother Tatewaki up to, and how could she ruin their plans in the
most amusing fashion?
"Sasuke!" she called to the empty compartment.
"Yes, mistress!" a voice responded.
A short chameleon-suited figure seemed to step out of the wall at her
feet and bowed face down on the deck before her.
"I want you to find out what is going on with my brother and Nabiki
Tendo. You've heard a little of what's transpiring, I'm sure. I want to
know the rest in detail and immediately."
Sasuke nodded, his face still lowered to the deck.
"At once, mistress!"
He scuttled off into the shadows and disappeared. When she was certain
that he was gone, she chuckled to herself. The family ninja was useful to
her for his ability to probe into Tatewaki's plots, but she was also quite
certain that he was being used by her brother for the same thing against
her, and on top of all that was playing his own game between them. She had
to admire him for having such a zeal for intrigue, though if she ever caught
him at it she would have no choice but to see him flayed alive. She was also
certain that he knew this, which made their little games all the more
amusing.
Yes, someday she would miss her little games with Sasuke, but in the
grand scheme of things there could be only one winner, and that winner would
see the losers crushed under her stilleto heeled boots. That went for her
dear little ninja and her dear older brother, and it was doubly true for
that psychotic bitch Akane Tendo. She would definitely get hers.

Chapter Three

Army Group 'B' Headquarters,
Planet Veridian, Alpha Canaris System,
League of Five Nails
3 February 3025

Hikaru Gosunkugi had been on campaign for less than a week, and he
was already hating it. He had yet to actually launch any offensive, having
barely had time to start setting things up and organizing his forces, and
already his parents were bombarding him with demands via HPG for the status
of his operations. He had left Tetsuyama to get away from their meddling,
and he still couldn't shake them!
His cousin Tetsuo was with him at his command post in the Hotel Lyonne,
which was one of his few comforts. They shared a common view in that the
League was incapable of lasting military success against the Combine and
had managed to become a capable diplomat and intelligence operative instead
of a mechwarrior. Tetsuo also happened to share Hikaru's affectation for
black magic and astrology.
They were discussing the precession of the galaxy and its effects on
astrology at breakfast. It was usually an entertaining diversion, but a
recent development weighed heavily on both their minds and sapped their
debate of its usual delight. Nabiki Tendo of the Confederation, Akane's
older sister, had dropped an interesting proposition to their agents on
Nerima through the usual cut-outs and middle men. It seemed too good to be
true, and they wanted to know if it really was.
"I tell you, cousin, that we have nothing to lose and everything to
gain by attending," Tetsuo offered.
"That's what concerns me," Hikaru replied. He may have been frail and
sickly, but his gift for intrigue was clear. "It seems like that at first,
but the fact is that we can't possibly outbid the Combine. To even dare
would be to lay bare our weaknesses to those Furinkan butchers, and invite
them to more than just a few raids. We were lucky on Capra with a mercenary
unit - a mercenary unit! - that smashed a Combine raid of equal strength.
We won't have such good fortune a second time."
He lowered his face to his bowl of rice and scooped up a few mouthfuls
while Tetsuo considered this.
"That may be true, cousin," Tetsuo admitted. "But to let the Combine
succeed without effort would be foolish, no, suicidal. At least the threat
of competition from us would drive the price up, and perhaps we can bluff
them into paying more than they would otherwise dare. And in the meantime--"
"--We take steps to ensure that Tatewaki Kuno does not get what he
craves most from the Confederation," Hikaru finished for him. "I see your
point, cousin, but there is little time to put an such an operation as that
together."
Tetsuo wasn't put off.
"Nabiki holds the strings in the Confederation, and she's a lawyer
through and through. She won't finalize any deal without a representative
from every Great House present, just like in the old days of the Star
League. You know as well as I do how easily the Federated Shiratori can be
put off from such matters, even without a little help from us. Let me
represent the League, and I'll get you the time you need."
Hikaru began to see the merit of his cousin's proposal.
"Okay," he said after swallowing a spoonful of miso soup. "I'll send
you to the Confederation as my Ambassador Plenipotentiary. You can take
the Third Special Group along as well - the diplomatic immunity should
cover them nicely." Having a unit of Special Forces on hand could prove
valuable indeed should the opportunity arise to use them.
He began to plot out the success of their endeavor on his pocket
computer. The stars formed and whirled in their great circle of motion for
the projected dates of the operation. Hikaru studied them intently,
searching for a clue among the heavens that this was the proper path.
Tetsuo himself leaned over the display to look.
There were several signs that pointed to failure for the Combine,
which was a victory in itself, though the stars were not as clear for
the success or failure of the League. There was even a puzzling omen in
the position of the Equus Nebula in relation to the Capella System,
which was the capitol of the Confederation, and the Sagittarius Dwarf
Galaxy on the opposite side of the Milky Way's core from Sol. The triad
formed by these three important celestial bodies signified conflict - a
sure warning from the gods to tread lightly.
Tetsuo looked to Hikaru Gosunkugi and nodded solemnly. He had read
the signs and found agreement with his cousin in their portents. He would
go to Nerima, and Hikaru would prepare the way for the fatal coup against
both the Confederation and the cursed Furinkan Combine.
Once Tetsuo had gone he bent his mind towards a proper plan of action.
A full scale raid on the most heavily defended system in the Confederation
was not going to succeed without a heavy price paid. A covert action had
the advantages of being cheaper, less man-power intensive, and under the
right circumstances, plausibly deniable if it failed. He also had the
perfect man for the job.
He punched for his aide de camp, who appeared without delay to await
his instructions.
"Send for Kurenai at once," he told his aide.
"Yes, my lord," the aide acknowleged.
Tsubasa Kurenai was a man of many talents. He was a master of disguise,
including some of the most unorthodox methods of concealment. He had a good
network of personal contacts throughout the Inner Sphere. He wasn't much to
speak of in a fight, but a man like him rarely found himself in those kind
of circumstances. Hikaru empathized with him in that respect, although
Tsubasa did have one disturbing mark against him. He was an ardent
transvestite, and an uncomfortably convincing one. It was a trait that
Hikaru felt certain would allow him to get close to Akane to effect the
snatch.

Chapter Four

The Jusenkyo Laboratory
Planet Lightoller, Epsilon Indi System,
Jusenkyo Commonwealth
3 February 3025

Doctor Gaido was a rare thing in the Inner Sphere: he was a scientist.
He would be the first to admit that the one truism about being a learned
man in the 31st Century was how monumentally ignorant he actually was.
Such a declaration would mean little to the masses, for what little he
did understand about the workings of the universe was several orders of
magnitude greater than theirs.
Personally, he considered himself something of a witch doctor and a
tour guide, and given his research assignment for the last forty years,
he was probably closer to being a tour guide. The Star League Biotechnic
Research Facility - Lightoller Complex (its official title from antiquity,
although Gaido had unlocked enough of the place's secrets to know that
this was deliberately misleading) had remained essentially unchanged
throughout his tenure, as well as the tenure of his predecessors. This
was because no one, himself included, had any rational explanation for
what went on here, and rather than risk destroying the facility's
properties, they left well enough alone.
The Jusenkyo Labs, as they had been renamed since their discovery by
House Joketsuzoku over a century ago, always gave Gaido the creeps. If it
had been his decision to make way back then, he would have preferred to
strip the place for its critical lostech and then rebury it. Cologne on
the other hand saw the facility as the key to gaining the Star League
for her children, and had drafted her Breeding Program from the faltering
scraps of knowledge they had gained in studying it.
The place had been something of a bastard step-child even in the days
of the Star League, Gaido noted from ancient diaries and memoranda recovered
from the nearby ruins of the administrative section. There was no mention
of what had ultimately happened to the scientists and technicians who had
tended to the facility, though after forty years of experience with the
place Gaido could now hazard a guess. They were likely the last victims of
the facility for over two centuries.
Gaido stepped through the security doors and into the facility. Large
white and red signs were scattered about reminding staff to watch their
step at all times and to report accidents at once to the Chief of Staff's
Office. Fresh non-skid had been applied, and the adhesive smell lingered
in his nostrils as he started on his way to the office.
The facility proper was a large geodesic dome of clear polycarbonate
plates and foamed aluminum spars that had at one time long ago been painted
a dull and mottled grey-green to blend in with the surroundings. Gaido knew
this because the humidity of Lightoller had taken its toll on the exterior
in enough places to reveal dozens of coats of paint in the chunks of
material that eroded from the dome. Rather than carefully strip and repaint
the dome, his predecessors had simply applied successive coats. There were
even ragged *holes* in the dome, which were haphazardly patched as they
were discovered, but given the tangled mass of technology the dome housed,
it was easy to see how intruders could get inside without being detected.
Within the dome was an irregular series of shallow pools of water
- over a hundred, in fact. Their arrangement corresponded curiously with
the ancient practice of Feng Shui, or geomancy, and had the facility not
been discovered by the descendants of the Middle Kingdom, this fascinating
and possibly critical clue to the nature of the place might have gone
unnoticed. Gantries and catwalks criss-crossed the interior and provided
access for personnel and staging for a dizzying array of Star League era
sensors, instruments, and sampling systems (most of whose functions were
lost to the ignorance of the current era), and their supporting power,
control, and indication feeds. Large arc lamps dominated the overhead. It
had been this way when the facility was discovered, and would likely remain
so for as long as Gaido was in charge of it.
The greatest mystery of the facility, aside from its effects on unwary
living things, was why it had been built. There were disturbing indications
in the surviving documentation that the pools had been *transplanted* from
some other place, possibly even another star system. Why this had been done,
where the pools had originally come from, and what the Star League hoped to
gain by doing it were lost to antiquity. Only the original staff of the
facility had those answers, and they were long dead.
What Gaido did know about the pools were their effects. Any living
thing that fell in the pools suffered an immediate and radical alteration
of their body structure, assuming the physical matrix of a specific
organism exclusively associated with that pool. The organisms represented
by the pools seemed to be almost exclusively Earth-based, lending credence
to the idea that the pools had come from that planet. At least four of the
organisms were considered extinct on Earth at the time the facility was
constructed, which lent a possible reason for preserving the pools
elsewhere. The origin of the one exception, known as the 'Monster Pool,'
had left the Joketsuzoku researchers baffled for the last century.
The effects were from then on triggered by exposure to liquids that
were slightly below body temperature in contact with the skin, and could
be reversed with exposure to liquids at least ten degrees centigrade above
body temperature. The narrow band of liquid temperatures between these two
limits apparently did not trigger the transformative process - dubbed the
Jusenkyo Effect by his predecessors. Organisms exposed to the Effect
remained vulnerable for the duration of their lives. One of the most
curious side effects of transformation (outside of the fact that mass was
not conserved in the process!) was the preservation of intelligence and the
self-identity of the victim in physical forms that should have precluded
it, such as reptiles with their extremely primitive brain structures.
The liquid from the pools retained its properties for considerable
periods of time after removal from the pool, though a thermodynamic change
of state such as boiling or freezing seemed to permanently nullify the
liquid's ability to alter an organism's physical matrix. A detailed
examination of the liquid revealed it to be pure water, of the expected
ratio of light and heavy hydrogen isotopes, and lacking any significant
biological contamination whatsoever - a disturbing find for what were
essentially pools of water open to the atmosphere.
Gaido had spent the first decade of his forty year tenure cataloging
the pools, hence his tendency to think of himself as little more than a
tour guide for the Jusenkyo Labs. Early in the process he had discovered
that a few of the pools had either lost their properties (possibly by
mishandling during their transplantation) or else were yet 'unassigned.'
The theory of 'unassigned' pools was confirmed in at least two examples,
where the physical matrices were set by the lab staff - in one case
accidentally, and the other quite recently, under the deliberate orders
of the Matriarch.
The scant remainder of the pools considered to be 'unassigned'
represented a potential treasure to Cologne's Breeding Program, and were
sealed off as carefully as possible. Given the nature of the one deliberate
attempt to 'assign' a pool, Gaido had a few ideas about Cologne's plans
for the rest of them. He didn't approve. At least one of the 'assigned'
pools was the result of Star League fiddling, and the result was not pretty.
Who could guess what half-baked idea might unfold at the machinations of
his successors? It was better to leave well enough alone, as far as he was
concerned.
Gaido carefully traversed the network of catwalks from the locked and
guarded entrance to his office. In forty years he had managed to avoid
falling in a pool and succumbing to the Effect. Perhaps it was because he
knew and appreciated the danger of the place. He was loathe to assign
some sinister anthropomorphic force to the pools, but he had seen staff
inexplicably blunder into a pool on the first day at work. The place seemed
cursed at times, and he had overheard one staff member or another state
just as much over the last four decades.
There were almost a hundred documented cases of people falling into
the pools, each its own tragic story. Unfortunately for him, most of them
had occured during his tenure, and at least five in one night; the 11th of
January 3025 - the night of the security breach. He sat down in his chair
and studied the data collected from that night.
Two victims of the Effect were considered to be responsible for
the breach, and were probably Furinkan Combine spies according to the
Commonwealth's Intelligence apparatus. These were dispatched by Mechwarrior
Shampoo shortly after their escape. Their remains had not been recovered,
but owing to the damage sustained to their stolen vehicle and the testimony
of Shampoo, they were listed as killed in General Herb's incident report.
Two more of the victims were known to be mercenary employees on the
Starport Security Battlemech Detachment, an activity he detested, but
was considered vital to Cologne's Breeding Program. These two had managed
to escape off-world in the confusion that followed the security breach.
It was not known which pools they had fallen into, nor their current
whereabouts. It was also not known whether they were accomplices of the
first two, but an analysis of the sketchy surveillance data for the
facility pointed to their innocence. General Herb had nonetheless
requested that a reward for their capture be offered, and Gaido agreed.
They threatened the very existence of the Commonwealth with their
testimony, for outsiders would never understand.
The fifth victim was not confirmed, but Gaido had a sinking feeling
about who it was. He had yet to confront her in the hopes that she would
seek him out instead.
No sooner had he thought of her when the chime for his door sounded
and Shampoo walked into his office. Her face was wracked with worry, and
Gaido knew exactly what it was that concerned her.
"<Please pardon my rudeness, Doctor,>" she offered stiffly. "<But
this is something that can't wait for an appointment.>"
Gaido nodded. "<I understand. You wish to talk about the night of the
11th of January.>"
Shampoo's violet eyes flashed with surprise.
"<You knew?>"
Gaido offered her a seat. It did not pay to be discourteous with the
favored great-granddaughter of the Matriarch.
"<I strongly suspected,>" he replied.
A brief hint of relief showed in her face. "<Then you know what
happened.>"
"<Not exactly. Which pool did you fall into?>"
Shampoo looked away. "<I'm embarrassed to say.>"
"<I need to know,>" Gaido pressed. "<For the sake of the records.>"
"<You can't!>"
"<The records are confidential,>" he assured her. "<In any event,
what are you so worried about? You can't possibly hide something like this
indefinitely. The truth will come out when you least expect it.>"
"<I just want a cure!>" Shampoo cried. "<No one has to know anything.
Once I'm cured it will be as if this had never happened.>"
Gaido shook his head sadly. It always came down to this. Just once
he would like to meet someone who didn't mind what had happened to them.
Perhaps the transformation caused more psychological trauma than previously
considered. Psychology had always been the Achilles Heel of his research
staff.
"<There is no cure,>" he said gently. "<I thought you knew that.>"
Shampoo looked at him with horror.
"<N-No cure?>"
Gaido closed his eyes and remained firm. He did not tell her that
they did not even understand what the Jusenkyo Effect did to its victims
much less find any kind of way to undo it. Nor did he tell her that the
surviving documents from the Star League era indicated that those great
men and women were equally baffled. What chance did a scientist of the
dark 31st Century have of solving a conundrum that had stymied the
brightest minds of the Age of Miracles? "<There is no cure. The Effect is
permanent.>"
Actually one of his early contemporaries had proposed one for human
victims, for there were in fact two pools which seemed to be linked to
human gender rather than an animal species. This idea was never tested due
to the existence of the so-called 'Monster Pool,' and the alternative
theory that an organism already under the Effect might cross-contaminate
a pool other than the one it had fallen into originally. There was also the
chance that an affected organism might be forced to adopt some hideous
amalgam of the two Effect species and possibly even the original organism's
physical matrix. Like his two predecessors, Gaido had thought the idea of
testing the proposal abhorrant and completely unethical, and so had left it
to die a slow death from neglect.
Shampoo was in denial. "<Isn't there something you can do?>" she
begged.
"<Nothing, I'm afraid.>"
She slammed her fist on his desk, startling him.
"<Then I'm tainted forever?!>" she cried. "<I'm to be stricken from
the Program?>"
Gaido at last saw the nature of her distress. Shampoo feared for her
status as Favorite. He smiled for her benefit and produced a series of
flimsies from his desk drawer.
"<Not at all,>" he assured her, pointing to the data on the flimsies.
"<While the Effect does have some reaction with the chromosomes, it is a
purely somatic anomaly. You can't pass on the traits of your Effect
organism to your offspring.>"
Shampoo looked both relieved and puzzled.
"<But what about the hybrids?>" she asked.
"<Ah. A different matter. Hybrids are the result of breeding a normal
human to an organism whose Jusenkyo Effect has been fixed into human form
through a special process.>" A process so special they didn't have the
slightest idea how it worked. Neither did the Star League researchers who
discovered it, but at least they had taken good notes.
Shampoo absorbed this information quietly. Like so many Joketsuzoku,
she had never been informed of the realities of the Program. It was all
taken for granted. Those few who had fallen victim to the Effect had, for
reasons that were now clear to her, never been quick to talk about it
openly.
"<So there isn't any problem?>" she asked.
"<None that I can see,>" Gaido replied thoughtfully. "<As long as
your transformation doesn't interfere with your duties, and I'm sure you've
managed to come up with some countermeasures since your accident.>"
She nodded with a guilty grin. An insulated flask of hot water was
never far from her side these days.
Gaido was pleased with Shampoo's turnaround. Cologne would probably
not be happy with the news, but at least there was no real harm done.
Perhaps this event would provide the impetus for him to get the funding he
needed to do some significant repair work to the dome and install some
decent security measures.
"<Is there anything else I can do for you?>" he asked her.
"<No, Doctor, I don't think so. I have to go now; if I hurry, I can
make the starport in time to catch the next ship bound for home.>"
She bowed for him, and then left his office with a happy bounce and
a whirl of purple hair.
Gaido sat down to fill out the incident report and then realized that
she had left before telling him which pool she had fallen in. He sighed
to himself and set the form aside. Like he had told her only minutes
earlier, the Jusenkyo Effect could not be kept a secret for long.

* * *

Shampoo finished packing her kit bag and then sat down on the freshly
stripped bed of her semi-private quarters. Her roommate, Kima, had come to
Jusenkyo for a secret purpose, and Shampoo had been her escort. Now Kima
was gone, having shipped for Nerima aboard a Commonwealth JumpShip to
conduct Cologne's bidding, leaving Shampoo stuck on Lightoller and under
Herb's thumb.
She was restless to leave this place. Her orders were to escort Kima
and some classified cargo to the Jusenkyo Labs, and she had done that. Now
she longed for home, wishing that she could have left weeks earlier instead
of becoming the latest victim of the Labs.
She had mixed feelings regarding Gaido's pronouncement that there was
no cure for her. On the one hand, he had assured her that her status in
the Program was unchanged by her accident - and that was a welcome relief.
Great-Grandmother was unyielding when it came to the integrity of the
Program, and to be stricken from it was to assume a second-class status
within the clan.
Mousse was a good example of this, for he was an excellent mechwarrior
and in superb physical condition - except for his vision, and that was
enough. Now he was relegated to a position in the Household Garrison on
Lightoller, with no chance of command, and no future beyond what he already
had. In a way, she felt sorry for him. His poor eyesight wasn't something
he had any control over, and yet he was being forced to pay the consequences
of it.
On the other hand, her own condition frightened her. Becoming a cat,
having a small furry body, walking on four legs, the tail! Such a thing
shouldn't happen, shouldn't be possible. Now she was doomed to avoid cold
liquids at all times if she wanted to keep her human form. She loved to
swim in the oceans of her homeworld of Jusenkyo, and now she could no
longer do so. The mere sight of an icy beverage made her wary. On top of
this, it now seemed to her as if circumstances were conspiring against her
to get her wet. She had seen more drinks spilled around her in the last
three weeks than in the last three years. Any time she went outside
unprotected by her 'mech, it threatened rain.
So far, the few times she had been forced into her Jusenkyo body had
been out of sight from others. Her secret was still safe, despite what
Gaido had said about the inevitibility of discovery. More importantly,
Herb did not know. There was no telling what damage he could do among her
peers with a few carefully placed words.
All the more reason to leave Lightoller, she thought grimly. The
Commonwealth JumpShip _Gathering Clouds_ was due to leave Epsilon Indi
space within the week, and the last DropShip bound for it was lifting up
the well tonight. Exploiting her open-ended orders for an excuse, and her
natural charm and good looks as a means, she had prevailed upon the captain
of the DropShip to find a place for her and her battlemech on board.
She took a last look around the room as she stood with her kit bag
to leave. There were no happy memories here, only loneliness and misfortune.
Only when she basked in the glow of Jusenkyo's primary and felt the warmth
of the sandy beaches between her toes would she feel at home.
She left her room key on the mattress of the bed. The barracks staff
could handle the check-out process without her. Her letter to General Herb
expressing her intention to return to the capitol - unless otherwise
directed of course - had been delivered to his staff office just before
the end of normal working hours, knowing that he liked to leave his office
early and ensuring that he would not see it in time to countermand her
decision and keep her on Lightoller. Her departure would be sneaky and
underhanded, but otherwise perfectly legal.
The door chime sounded just as she was about to leave, and her heart
skipped a beat. She had made little effort to make acquaintences on the
planet in the knowledge that she would be leaving as soon as possible.
The only thing that ran through her mind as the door chimed again was that
Herb had received her letter too soon, and that he was taking formal steps
to keep her on world as one of his subordinates.
She had two choices: she could ignore the chime and hope they went
away, or she could answer the door and face the music. If Herb was on to
her, he would have taken steps to ensure that his men intercepted her at
any point along the route from the Lab Compound to the Starport. He might
even contact the DropShip captain. Hiding would solve nothing at that
point.
Taking a deep breath first, she opened the door. Mousse stood before
her, clutching a wet umbrella. His rain gear was also wet, and little beads
of moisture trickled down the impermeable plastic to puddle at his feet in
the hall.
"<There isn't much time,>" he said to her. Or almost to her, he was
speaking more to the door frame than her.
"<Time for what?>" Shampoo asked him.
Mousse adjusted his gaze to the sound of her voice. "<General Herb is
looking for you,>" he told her. "<He seems to think that you're leaving
Lightoller tonight.>"
Shampoo did not reply.
Mousse seemed shocked. Or disappointed. It was difficult to read his
face sometimes.
"<So it's true,>" he said quietly. Now the disappointment came through.
"<It's true, Mousse,>" she affirmed.
"<I'm supposed to escort you to his quarters,>" he declared. "<He's
going to read you your new orders detailing you to the garrison. I guess
he's doing it personally so that he can gloat.>"
Her heart sank. In time she could get an appeal through to her great-
grandmother for a transfer back to Jusenkyo, but that could mean weeks for
a message to get through the military bureaucracy, and possibly weeks
beyond that before a Commonwealth JumpShip passed through the system bound
for the capitol. She might have been the Matriarch's favorite, but no ship
would be diverted for the express purpose of returning a homesick nineteen
year old girl.
"<So he sent you, a mechwarrior, to fetch me?>" she asked Mousse.
One of the things about him that galled her was the way he let himself be
treated as a second-class citizen off the battlefield.
"<The General feels that I can be trusted to deliver you,>" he said
with the slightest hint of a grin.
Shampoo's eyes widened at this. Something was up with him.
"<What are you thinking, Mousse?>"
He offered her the umbrella. "<You should leave this place, Shampoo.
You don't belong here, working for Herb.>"
"<Mousse! Do you realize what you're saying? If Herb finds out that
you helped me, you'll be disciplined.>"
He nodded slowly. "<I can't let you stay here,>" he said to her,
though she could hear the heartache in his voice. It should have been a
dream come true for him, to have his beloved Shampoo on the same planet,
together in the same unit. "<If I am disciplined for it, then I accept
that as the price for seeing you free.>"
Shampoo felt a lump form in her throat. Damn Mousse for being so
sweet and selfless!
"<Come on,>" he told her as she stood still before him and tried not
to cry. "<If I don't return with you soon, he'll know something is up for
certain.>"
She followed him down the hall to the cloak room, where her foul-
weather gear hung. She could see a staff car waiting beyond the barracks
building. She donned her poncho and boots and sheltered under the offered
umbrella as they ran for the car. The rain pelted on the umbrella, making
her cringe with the thought that she would transform right in front of
Mousse and have her secret revealed.
Fortunately she was spared such embarrassment. Mousse opened the
door for her and sheltered her all the while with the umbrella. At first
she thought he was just being his usual fawning self, but as the door
closed she realized that he was acting with great care to keep the rain
off her.
He settled into the driver's seat and put the car in gear. The heat
was running, making the interior nice and toasty. The car pulled out of
the muddy parking lot and headed down the narrow paved road that led to
Lightoller's only highway - and from there, the starport.
"<I called ahead to the DropShip,>" he said to her as she watched
the rain drops glow before them in the car's headlights. "<Your battlemech
is already loaded and secure aboard.>"
She wanted to hit him, he was being so thoughtful. And stupid. If he
got caught, he was facing serious disciplinary action, perhaps even the
stripping of his mechwarrior status. At least she had an out with her
nebulous orders. Until Herb actually presented new orders to her, whether
in written or verbal format, she was still acting under her old ones and
safe.
"<Thank you, Mousse,>" she managed. There was no sense in leading
him on with anything more than that.
The rest of the drive went on in silence. It was clear that Mousse
was unhappy to see her go, but he either lacked the courage to say
something heartfelt to her, or else had the sense to realize that it
would do him no good. Finally, it was Shampoo who spoke.
"<You know what happened to me, don't you?>" she asked him.
He turned his eyes off the road for a moment. The thick glasses that
were necessary for him to see the road distorted his sad blue eyes as he
regarded her.
"<About your accident? Yes.>"
"<How?>"
"<Doctor Gaido told me. I went there first to see if I could find you,
and when he realized what I was up to, he warned me about what had happened.
I think he meant for me to use your Jusenkyo body as a way of sneaking you
on board. You know he has no love for the General, either.>"
Shampoo hadn't thought about the advantages of her new body. If things
went sour at the starport, she might still be able to use that trick. Lots
of DropShips had Ship's Cats after all...
"<It doesn't bother you?>"
Mousse smiled, almost to himself. "<Why should it bother me?>"
"<Do you even know what I turn into?>"
"<No. Doctor Gaido said that you left his office before he could get
it from you. Anyway, does it matter?>"
Shampoo turned her gaze back to the rain and the lonely road.
"<I guess it doesn't.>"

The starport was shrouded in rainy gloom. The great sodium and mercury
vapor arc-lamps of the landing pads suffused that gloom with a yellow and
blue-white haze. Two spotlights shone upon the egg-shaped hull of an
Overlord Class DropShip, a massive military transport/assault ship capable
of carrying an entire battalion of thirty-six battlemechs plus the unit's
aerospace fighter squadron and support assets. The Overlord had arrived
earlier in the week to deliver a 'mech battalion for training maneuvers on
world prior to a campaign in the periphery against a world similar in
climate and terrain, but would not be used in the actual attack. It was
essentially empty for its return trip.
Mousse pulled off the highway and onto the starport express. They
would have to pass through the security checkpoint even though they were
military traffic. He shut off his headlights in preparation for nearing
the gate, leaving the running lights on to cast their amber glow in the
rain.
"<If Herb is on to me, he'll have someone waiting for me at the
checkpoint,>" Shampoo pointed out. There was no sense in having Mousse
take the blame for this. Why couldn't he see that?
"<I'll take that chance,>" Mousse replied. "<Like I said, he trusts
me to deliver you.>"
"<That will only make it worse for you when he finds out what you've
done!>" she protested.
They were almost to the gate. Mousse closed his eyes for a moment
and let out a deep breath.
"<Do you think I really want to see you go?>" he asked her, his tone
one of exasperation. "<I'm in love with you, Shampoo! I always have been!
Having you stay here might be the best thing that ever happened to me.>"
They rolled to a stop at the gate. A man in battledress with a slung
double-barreled laser carbine - known as a blazer - came out of the
armored gatehouse to challenge them. Mousse continued, ignoring him.
"<But it wouldn't be the best thing for you,>" he said sadly. "<I'm
willing to let you go, and I'm willing to pay the price for disobeying
orders - so let me!>"
The sentry tapped on the driver's side window with his flashlight.
Mousse rolled it down and looked impatiently at him.
"<Orders?>" the guard asked him.
Mousse flashed his mechwarrior's tattoo on the back of his left hand,
earning a hasty salute from the common born soldier.
"<I'm taking her to the starport,>" he said to the guard, nudging his
thumb in Shampoo's direction. "<If she doesn't make her DropShip before it
lifts, I'll see to it that General Herb knows your name...>"
The guard saw that the car was from the Household General Staff, and
that was enough for him. He stepped back into the gatehouse long enough to
lower the armored barricade, and then stepped back out to wave them through.
Mousse wasted no time returning the man's salute, and sped through the gate.
"<You're an idiot,>" Shampoo spat softly. "<Now Herb will find out for
certain that you helped me.>"
"<We've just been through this,>" he replied. There was bitterness
in his voice. "<Don't treat me like I'm some child. I know what I'm doing,
and I'm man enough to face the consequences.>"
He pulled the car around a tank farm for liquid hydrogen storage and
past concrete blast shields to the DropShip gantry. The hundred meter tall
DropShip steamed in the rain from the heat of its warming plasma drives,
contrasting with the rime of frost from the fuel loading umbilical.
Orange-suited ground crew scurried about making last minute preparation
for gantry separation and lift off. As far as the rare Overlord Class was
concerned, nothing was left to chance wherever possible.
The ship's First Officer was waiting for them when the car came to a
stop. There was a sense of impatience on her face, but nothing to denote
concern.
"<You almost didn't make it,>" First Officer Wu said to them as they
got out of the car. The gantry sheltered them from the rain, but there
were enough drops of runoff to keep Shampoo under the umbrella. "<Follow
me, and I'll show you to your bunk. You don't have much baggage other
than the battlemech, do you?>"
"<Just this,>" Shampoo replied, holding up her kit bag.
Wu nodded with a knowing smile. "<Just like a mechwarrior to travel
light. Walk this way, please.>"
She started for the gantry elevator.
"<Wait just a moment,>" Shampoo called to her. "<I'd like a moment,
if I may.>"
Wu looked past her to the solidly built Mousse and grinned.
"<I'll wait in the elevator,>" she told her.
Shampoo turned back to Mousse, who looked absolutely miserable.
"<This is good-bye, Mousse. Good-bye and thank you,>" she said over
the rumble of the ship's idling plasma drive.
A cloud of steam occluded his face for a moment, fogging his glasses
so she couldn't see the eyes behind them.
"<Good-bye, Shampoo,>" he returned, his voice carefully lacking any
emotion.
She couldn't bear to look at him any longer, so she gave him a smart
salute and turned on her heels for the elevator. The doors closed behind
her without her ever looking back.
The ride up the elevator seemed unterminably long. Wu asked her
a few standard questions about her health and DropShip experience, as
Shampoo was a bit of a cypher to the ship's crew, and lacking a unit,
had no medical officer to forward the necessary information. She
answered them in a perfunctory fashion, and filled the gaps with
silence.
The elevator came to a stop only halfway up the massive vessel, just
above where the battlemech bay doors opened to the primary hold.
"<The main access brow has already been withdrawn for departure,>"
Wu told her. "<We'll have to take the rest of the way up from the inside.>"
Shampoo nodded and let Wu lead the way. The secondary brow was still
a good forty meters off the ground. She looked over the edge of the rail
to see Mousse's car pulling away from the pad to a safe spot opposite the
concrete blast shields. He was going to see her off whether she wanted him
to or not.
The interior of the Overlord was spartan and cramped despite the fact
that it was one of the largest military transports in the Inner Sphere. It
was clean smelling at least, something that wouldn't last had the ship
been filled to its normal capacity with troops and war machines. Wu lead
the way down a short passageway and through an airtight door to one of
the secondary holds above the primary battlemech hold.
As they were walking towards the core of the ship and the elevator
bank that would take them up to the living compartment, Shampoo spied a
curious sight. Two men in medical garb were carrying a stretcher, and
on that stretcher lay a clear plastic body bag. There was a corpse inside
the body bag, a naked young woman about her age with long blue-black hair.
Her lips were blue and her skin pale and blotched with livor mortis.
Shampoo shivered at the sight. She was a mechwarrior, and for her
death was usually seen through the protective filter of an instrument
cluster, impersonal, and something from which she could distance herself.
While she was prepared to kill in single combat as expected of one of the
Joketsuzoku, it was something she had never done.
Wu seemed to take it in stride. Or at least didn't show her discomfort
as easily. She ordered the two medics to finish up in the hold and get to
their launch stations.
As Shampoo watched the doors of the elevator close, she saw the medics
load the body into a bulkhead mounted drawer of the ship's morgue; a
facility common to warships that carried troops, and seal it shut. It
wasn't until the doors had shut that she realized the medics wore badges
identifying them as part of the Jusenkyo Labs staff. Shampoo crinkled her
nose in thought. There had been no mention of any deaths in the Compound.
Something like that did not happen without the word being spread, at least
as a reminder for caution and dilligent safety practices in the Plan of
the Day orders.
Who was that girl?

Mousse watched as the Overlord rumbled skyward on a brilliant white
column of flame. Shampoo was safe. Even Herb didn't have the authority to
recall a DropShip once it had lifted off, and it certainly wouldn't turn
around if he did. The Commonwealth Navy might have been the junior partner
in the Armed Forces, but absolute command of the Fleet's vessels would
never be in the hands of a general like Herb.
The car's phone was ringing, but he ignored it. He knew who it was.
A tap at the window took his eyes off the ascending DropShip. Mint
was looking at him through the rainstreaked glass. His burly shadow, Lime,
stood on the opposite side of the car.
Mousse closed his eyes and sighed to himself. Then he opened the
passenger door. Lime got in and looked sternly at him. Mint took the seat
behind Mousse.
"<She got aboard before I could stop her,>" Mousse offered them. "<I
was too late.>"
"<Save your breath,>" Mint replied. "<The General knows the whole
story.>"
Mousse doubted that, but it was likely that he would soon enough.
"<We would prefer it if you didn't drive,>" Lime rumbled. "<It would
look bad to be chauffered by a prisoner.>"
"<Which reminds me,>" Mint added with glee from the back seat.
"<You're under arrest.>"
Mousse nodded slowly and handed the keys over to Lime. The DropShip
was only a tiny speck in the dark sky, its blazing plasma drive shining
through even the heavy rain clouds. Shampoo was free.
"<Let's go,>" he told them. "<The General's waited long enough.>"

Chapter Five

Auxilliary Machinery Room #1, aboard
the Merchant DropShip _Belle Marle,_
transitting interplanetary space in
the Capella System, Nerima Confederation.
11 February 3025

A hydraulic valve block cycled open and then shut with a hiss and a
clunk, an indication that the DropShip's trim was being adjusted by the
pilot. Water from the ship's potable and grey-water tanks sloshed around
through their respective headers, and the spacecraft wobbled slightly
with the impulse of so many tons of shifting mass. It was a welcome sound
to Ranma Saotome, even more welcome than the Jump Alarm, for it was an
indication that the _Belle Marle_ was approaching a piece of space-time
where such housekeeping measures were necessary. In other words, they were
within hours of atmospheric interface with the planet Nerima.
Ranma looked to his father in the dim light near the overhead of the
Machinery Room. Genma had heard the sound of the pumps and the moving
water, and knew well what it meant. He nodded sagely to his son and went
back to sleep.
They had spent much of their weeks-long transit aboard the _Belle
Marle_ cooped up in the tangle of piping, cable runs, and ventilation
ducting of the Machinery Room. It hadn't been as bad as some of their
previous journeys, though, for their hiding place was close to the outlet
of the air-scrubbers, which was the cleanest and freshest air to be found
on otherwise dank and foul DropShips. AMR#1 also opened up to a passageway
only a few steps from the ship's pantry, which was convenient if you wanted
a quick bite to eat on the sly.
Such was the life of a stowaway. In the last three years since they
had become Dispossessed, Ranma and his father had travelled throughout the
Inner Sphere, and they had never paid a single C-bill for passage. It was
a mark of pride, Genma often reminded him in those few good times when
they actually had a little money to book an honest passage. They were part
of a vast star-hopping fraternity; unchecked by borders, laws, or the taxes
levied by the authorities. Ranma thought it was a bunch of hogwash, but
agreed that at least it kept their edges nicely honed.
In keeping with the ancient laws of space and the often remarkably
vicious demeanors of DropShip crews, discovered stowaways unable to talk
their way out of trouble usually found themselves hastily introduced to an
automatic rapid-cycling airlock without the pleasure of donning a pressure
suit beforehand.
It had certainly been educational. Through his father he had learned
the arts of stealth and graft; how to get past starport security, how to
slip on board a ship without being noticed, where to hide aboard ship to
avoid being discovered, and when simple bribery failed, how to tap-dance
your way out of taking that last doozy of a step out an airlock when you
eventually got caught - even if it meant washing dishes, scrubbing
bulkheads, and waxing decks for the duration of the trip.
Ranma still didn't know what his father's great idea was for coming
to the Nerima Confederation. It had taken five jumps on two separate
DropShips to get here, and that was almost too much risk at one time for
a stowaway with aspirations of living to see his twentieth year. If it
was work they needed, there were places in the Federated Shiratori near
the Sol Neutrality Zone that didn't ask too many questions and paid cash
up-front to a man with good paper.
Genma had been mum on the subject since their escape from Shampoo
on the planet Lightoller. It was kind of strange to see his father, a man
for whom the soldier's slang phrase 'Semper Gumby' (Always Flexible) was
created, become so resolute and unyielding in his course of action. Ranma
had been willing to charge right back into the Joketsuzoku labs to get a
cure for what had happened to them, but not his father, and for once it
seemed more than his usual instinct for self-preservation.
What were the odds of his father actually knowing someone important
on Nerima? Better still, what were the odds of them helping two of the
hated Dispossessed?
"Almost there, Pop," Ranma said to his father. He was bored, and with
Nerima so close, he was anxious to see why they had risked so much to get
here. The white noise of the atmosphere control machinery made it impossible
to be heard by a passing crewman, so there was no need to whisper.
Genma opened his eyes slightly, but only long enough to nod in
agreement and then go back to sleep.
The urge to pop his old man in the jaw came upon Ranma, but the sudden
announcement from the pilot admonishing the _Belle Marle's_ crew to prepare
for atmospheric insertion and landing operations quelled it. The crew would
be stirring from the rancid animal kennels some long-dead naval architect
had dubbed "Crew's Berthing," and they would be moving throughout the ship
to check on all the systems and machinery necessary to get the _Belle Marle_
down on Nerima soil in one piece. A brawl with his father, while cathartic
after so many weeks of being cooped up, would not do in such a dangerous
situation.
Within the hour the _Belle Marle_ began to vibrate. At first it was
barely noticeable, but within five minutes the DropShip's oscillations
became almost violent. The thin scream of superheated air passed over the
ship on the other side of the pressure hull, punctuated by sudden blasts
of deafening attitude thruster fire. Ranma held on to a stanchion, knowing
that the crew were securely strapped into acceleration chairs while he
gutted it out against pipes and structural supports. At least on the
aerodyne style DropShips there was some semblance of horizontal flight
prior to landing. The _Belle Marle_ was little more than a dropped rock.
After falling for about fifteen minutes there came an enormous rush
of power from the main drives, and the _Belle Marle_ settled atop a column
of superheated air upon the number eighteen landing pad. The landing gear
gave a great groan that slammed hydraulic check valves all the way to the
Bridge, and then the DropShip fell silent and still.
Ranma pried himself from the stanchion and shook the circulation
back into his limbs. Genma did the same. They would have to lay low for a
little while longer before they could make good on their escape, but if
they were caught now, at least they wouldn't face an airlock.

* * *

The announcement they had been waiting for had come. The bribes had
been paid, the Customs officials were satisfied, the cargo off-loaded, and
now it was time to grant liberty to the crew. The Captain was only too glad
to get off the ship for awhile, and quickly passed the word. Within twenty
minutes there would only be a small Duty Section left aboard, and those
unlucky few would be too preoccupied with thoughts of their liberty the
following morning to be much of a threat. If past experience was any judge
of what would come, they would probably all sit in the tiny crew's lounge
and tune in the local television stations for the rest of the night.
Ranma and Genma slipped out of their hiding spots and down the ladder
to the Engine Room. It was still fairly noisy as the machinery that ran the
ship's fusion reactor and the cooling systems for the plasma drive required
a long post-landing runtime before they could be secured. The single man on
watch sat in a closet sized control room trying not to drool as a dizzying
array of meters and displays stared at him. Slipping past the control room
brought them to the ladderwell that led down into the Ship's Service Locker,
a cylindrical chamber with a large hatch through the pressure hull where
shore power, telephone and Cable-TV links, potable water, and sewage lines
entered from the Service Bunker at the end of the landing pad and connected
into the DropShip.
Ranma poked his head out from the lower hatch and surveyed the landing
pad. It was early morning judging from the chill in the air. Most of the
starport was still waking up. The nearest occupied pad was one hundred
meters away, where an ancient Lion Class DropShip sat on unsteady legs.
It was mostly scrub grass and asphalt between pads, which would make moving
difficult if your aim was to avoid attention.
"Well, boy?" Genma asked him.
"It figures that it'd be daylight when we got here," Ranma replied.
"Moving's gonna be hard unless we can come up with some wheels. From the
look of things, I'd say that it's about two klicks to the freight terminal,
and three and a half to the passenger terminal."
"Nobody ever told you that the path of a true mechwarrior would be
easy, boy," Genma admonished him.
"Least of all you," Ranma muttered.

* * *

Trying to look like they belonged, Genma and his son stepped off the
running board of a truck belonging to one of the three Stevedore companies
servicing the starport. The truck continued on to the company warehouse,
leaving the two mechwarriors close enough to the Passenger Terminal to
blend in when the time came. They took up a vantage point behind a dumpster
as a bus load of travellers came in from one of the closer pads.
Interstellar space travel was something that most humans would never
experience - in fact the vast majority of the human race would spend their
entire lives on the world where they had been born, never leaving it even
to go into orbit. It was too expensive for most people, and the centuries
of conflict had taken their toll on the number of privately-owned starships
in existence. Consequently the only legitimate people who travelled the
starways belonged to three distinct types: Merchants and their crews, the
military, and the very very rich.
The two Saotomes weren't rich. They couldn't even look the part after
spending weeks locked up in the machinery spaces of less than hygenic
spacecraft, much less smell it. While they were Dispossessed mechwarriors,
the military usually had their own terminals at starports and wouldn't
need or desire to use a civilian point of entry. That left only one option
available to them, and one they had used many times in the past.
They waited until the powdered and perfumed elite had disembarked
from the bus and entered the terminal, then joined the mass of ship's
crew that followed once the paying passengers were safely upwind. Those
members of the crew who actually cared to notice them offered questioning
looks, but Genma and Ranma knew enough to act like they could care less
about what anyone might think. Most spacers were smart enough not to ask
too many questions on worlds where they were strangers, and they left it
at that.
They straggled through the door just ahead of a group of officers,
which was a lucky break. Customs and Immigration people knew where the
money was to be found, and didn't like to wait. Genma produced passports
for himself and his son, declared nothing, and submitted their packs for
x-ray scan.
The C&I man thumbed through the two Federated Shiratori passports,
noting the many stamps they bore. He also noted the fifty C-bills tucked
neatly inside in such a way as to suggest that their presence was in some
way accidental. The Customs man was an old hand at port of entry routine,
and slipped the grease casually into his pocket even as he stamped their
passports. He didn't even look at the two mechwarriors as he waved them
to the metal detectors, directing his smile towards the approaching ship's
officers instead.
The metal detectors were no problem, as Ranma and his father weren't
the type who bothered to carry weapons. As far as they were concerned,
anyone with a gun and an attitude problem who stood within three meters
of them was going to end up in the Hurt Locker just as fast as someone
without one. The Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling prided itself
on its in-fighting moves.
Genma stopped briefly to change some of their precious store of C-bills
into Confederation currency. The exchange rate never seemed to favor them
coming or going, but flashing a lot of C-bills was a dangerous habit for an
off-worlder. Ranma noted that despite his father's muted grumblings about
the money-changers, the Confederation currency was fairly strong. At least
any jobs they took here would pay in cash that wasn't worthless somewhere
else. Local currency in hand, they left the terminal in search of the
fastrail depot that would take them into the city.
Ranma grabbed a newspage with some of their cash on their way out the
terminal doors. He selected an edition dating back several weeks, as the
time they had spent in space had left them without any news since they left
Lightoller. The leading news stories detailed the recent victory against
the Combine forces at Port Said. Stereographs of Akane Tendo and her
battered Warhammer were prominently featured.
"Hey, check this chick out," Ranma said, grabbing his father's sleeve.
"Says here she took on the Black Rose's personal guard almost single-handed
and sent 'em all packing."
Genma noted the stereographs with a thin smile.
"Yes, she's quite remarkable, isn't she?" he replied.
"More like macho if you ask me," Ranma returned. "Any chick gung-ho
enough to take on a company of the Black Rose's heavies is some kinda
psycho. I mean what does she think she's gotta prove?"
Genma's smile became a concerned frown. "But at least she's cute,
eh, boy?" he managed.
Ranma took a second look, as if somehow missing it the first time.
"Sort of," he offered in reply.
Genma rolled his eyes. "My son, you've got a lot to learn about women."
"Yeah, whatever."
Several minutes passed between them in a silence punctuated only by
the distant screams of fusion heated scramjets from the pads. Genma
appeared to have let the matter of the Tendo girl drop, and Ranma was
content to thumb through the want-ads for something interesting to pay
the bills.
"You know, Pop. Nerima ain't so bad, so far," Ranma noted as they
waited for the next train. The sun was shining and the sky was a clear
and clean blue, with fat white clouds gathering over a range of mountains
to the north.
"It's a very beautiful place," Genma agreed. "Why I remember the last
time I was here. It was..." His voice then trailed off to silence.
Ranma waited for him to continue. After several moments it became
clear to him that his father was deliberately clamming up. The train
pulled in quietly, and they both got on board.
"Yeah?" he prompted as they took their seats. "It was how long ago?"
Genma pushed his glasses up his nose.
"Never mind that, boy," he said sternly. "We've got quite a day
ahead of us. We must prepare."
With that he lowered his head in apparent meditation, but Ranma knew
better. His father was pretending to be asleep.
"Hey, Pop, ya mind telling me what I'm supposed to prepare for?"
Genma remained silent.

* * *

"You gotta be kidding me!"
Genma ignored his son's outburst. Azure Cloud Castle sat perched atop
a gleaming white spur of solid granite halfway up the side of Mount Aeglos.
The capitol city of Gondolin lay in a half circle around the southern
foothills of the mountain, itself encircled by a wall of cunningly dressed
limestone blocks twelve meters high and each massing close to 200 tons
known as the Girdle of Melian. A wide paved-flagstone road wound its way
from a small gatehouse fortress near where they stood up an almost endless
zig-zag path to the castle.
"We're going *there?*" Ranma continued. The look on his face conveyed
the opinion that his father had completely cracked.
Genma nodded with a grunt.
"That old friend of mine..." he said to his son. "Happens to be the
Grand Duke of the Confederation."
"You're puttin' me on," Ranma replied, absolutely unconvinced.
"...The Grand Duke..."
His father shrugged. "Well, he wasn't at the time I knew him," he
admitted. "It *has* been awhile. Before you were even born. Before either
of us were married. We were training together to be mechwarriors..."
Genma's stern face softened. "Ah, those were the days... Life was simpler
then, let me tell you. More carefree."
"I'll bet," Ranma grunted.
Genma clapped his son on the back.
"Just you see, boy. I know I've been waiting for this moment for a
long time, and I'm sure he has too."
There was something in Genma's voice that bothered Ranma. He turned
his blue-grey eyes upon him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Let's go, boy. Why, I wonder if he'll even recognize me after so
many years?"
Ranma rolled his eyes.
"That's what I'm wondering."
Two Crusaders stood at attention guarding the approaches to the small
gatehouse fortress, their shadows providing some respite from the now hot
afternoon sunshine. Curiously enough, the flags of the Furinkan Combine,
the League of Five Nails, the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, and Comstar were
displayed with the Confederation flag.
"What's going on?" Ranma asked his father.
"Don't ask me, son. Why don't you look at that newspage you bought
earlier."
Ranma noted that there were only four minutes left on his newspage
and quickly requested today's edition.
"Aha," Ranma said, scanning as fast as he could. "There's some big
summit meeting going on today and the rest of the week. The government
ain't saying exactly what it's about, but everyone here seems to think
that the end of the war could be coming soon."
"Hmmmm," Genma murmured. "Could be bad for the mercenary business."
"They're probably real busy, Pop," Ranma said, gesturing up to the
mountain castle. "Let's go find someplace to eat and then check out the
guilds for some work."
"He'll see me, boy," Genma said, voice firm and full of confidence.
"Jeez, Pop, what is with you? You're acting really weird all of a
sudden."

Chapter Six

Azure Cloud Castle,
Ancestral Home of House Tendo
Planet Nerima, Capella System,
The Nerima Confederation
11 February 3025

Grand Duke Soun Tendo, middle-aged patriarch of the Great House of
Tendo, sat in his audience chamber with a troubled look upon his brow.
The Confederation was crumbling before his eyes, and there was little
he could do to stop it. Though he had inherited the Confederation from
his father, it seemed now unlikely that it would be passed on to his own
children.
The ambassadors for House Kuno and House Gosunkugi were both present
to represent their respective lords, as was an observer for the enigmatic
Jusenkyo Commonwealth, and one from Comstar. Only the Federated Shiratori
hadn't sent a representative, and Soun judged that this oversight was
probably due to Azusa's complete disregard for politics in the Inner
Sphere.
It was in his power to send them all away, but the fate of the
Confederation lay in their hands. Both the Furinkan Combine and the League
of Five Nails had encroached steadily upon Confederation territory over the
last hundred years. The very purpose of the summit was to determine whether
the Combine or the League would receive the lion's share of the Nerima
Confederation, and how they would get it.
Soun was aware that he had enough military strength remaining to
hold them off for another ten, perhaps fifteen years, and he could probably
keep the core of the Confederation for another five beyond that if he was
willing to make a suicidal stand on every remaining world. All this was
possible, his second daughter Nabiki assured him, but the end result would
be a Confederation reduced to ashes, its surviving population starving
and slowly dying. The destruction of the Confederation and the stripping
of the Tendo Clan's claim to the Star League were inevitable, she declared,
and it was hard to argue with her assessment of the situation.
It was Nabiki who had proposed a deal between the Combine or the
League. Rather than continue the fight and see the Confederation utterly
destroyed, she proposed that the Combine and the League bid for possession.
Her proposal garnered immediate attention from those two countries, for
any tenders of wealth paled in comparison to the tremendous loss of life
and (even more precious) battlemechs that would be incurred in continuing
the war to its ultimate conclusion. The Tendos could then retire to a life
of peace and luxury, free at last from the intrigues and the strife of the
Succession Wars.
Soun was a warrior, and his pride ran deep, but her plan made sense.
If the Confederation was doomed in ten years no matter what he did, how
could he possibly send his soldiers and his people to such a hopeless end?
If it were simply a matter of selling the rights to his Confederation in
exchange for wealth and a promise of safety and hospitality from his new
overlords, he would abdicate on the spot.
Unfortunately, he knew that both Prince Tatewaki of the Furinkan
Combine, and Hikaru Gosunkugi of the League of Five Nails wanted his
youngest daughter Akane for a bride, and that her hand in marriage would
be a non-negotiable item in the deal. He did not want to see his little
Akane, the apple of his eye, married off to either man.
He sighed sadly and wished that his good friend Genma Saotome were
there by his side. Genma could always find ways out of unpleasant
situations.
A gentle throat clearing in front of him seized his attention. At
a respectful distance from the raised dais where his throne sat was the
Combine Ambassador, who looked distinctly impatient to begin.
"Your Grace," the Combine Ambassador addressed him. "May we formally
convene this summit?" He waved a hand towards the sunken eyed Tetsuo
Gosunkugi, cousin of Hikaru, and Ambassador Plenipotentiary for the League.
"Even my counterpart in the League reluctantly agrees that the Federated
Shiratori delegation won't be coming."
A sultry and slightly mocking woman's voice answered him from behind
the Grand Duke. "Really, Domitian, I would have thought patience a virtue
for someone in your line of work."
Nabiki Tendo stepped from behind Soun's throne, clad in a dark green
shimmersilk bolero jacket and high waisted slacks. Her clothes were cut
to show off her narrow waist and long coltish legs, which they did quite
admirably. The various male delegates to the summit were instantly hushed
and turned their eyes in her direction. Basking in their attention, she
continued.
"The purpose of this summit was to hammer out a deal. No matter what
is said in these chambers over the next few days, nothing is final until
the principals of each of the five Great Houses, and I mean *all* of the
Great Houses, are on hand to witness the Dissolution of the Confederation
and Forfeiture of Claim. Until then, House Tendo remains a valid claimant
to the Star League, and the Nerima Confederation a sovereign nation."
She turned her sharp walnut-brown eyes to Domitian, the Combine
Ambassador, with a flick of her mahogany bob of hair.
"So a little patience would be in order, ne?"
Domitian bowed his head in deference to the Grand Duke, and returned
to the table reserved for the Combine. His bitter reply regarding the
Federated Shiratori's political apathy was cut far short of being voiced.
Looking smug, Nabiki turned to her father and patted him on the head.
"Don't worry, Daddy. I've got everything under control."
Soun nodded absently in agreement. There was a time when he had been
a formidable administrator, diplomat, and general, but that was years ago,
before his beloved wife died. He had been wandering through life in a kind
of shell-shock ever since, forcing his three daughters to assume his reign.
His eldest daughter Kasumi had become the administrator. She was
Lady Castellan, Steward, and Chamberlain, keeping the household solvent
and everything in working order. Nabiki bargained with the banks for the
capital to run the Confederation, but Kasumi determined how it was to be
spent.
Nabiki had become the diplomat and bargainer of the three. She was
shrewd and ruthless, there was no doubt about that. If Soun had been
capable of looking at his children with less than an adoring eye, he
would have noted her dangerously self-centered nature. The Tendos might
be saved from destruction with this summit, but Nabiki would come out of
it richer and more powerful than ever.
Finally there was Akane, his youngest daughter, and the one who most
resembled his wife. She had become a mechwarrior, taking Kasumi's place as
Captain of the Household Guard at fourteen. Her red Warhammer had turned
the tide of many a battle against the Combine and League forces, and was
in part responsible for their willingness to bargain for the Confederation
rather than fight for it. Akane was the Heir Apparent to the throne; Kasumi
politely declining, and Nabiki being too smart to want such a dubious
honor.
He lowered his head and sighed. It would all be over soon enough.

* * *

The crash of masonry filled the air of the family dojo. Akane stepped
back from the shattered bricks to survey her handiwork, and called it good.
She then noted that her oldest sister was standing against the wall, giving
her a concerned look.
"What is it, Kasumi?" she asked.
Kasumi gave her a weak smile.
"Are you feeling all right, Akane?"
Akane frowned. "Why shouldn't I be?"
"Because I've never seen you spend so much time in the dojo before,"
Kasumi replied. "You've always been enthusiastic about your training, but
the last two weeks you've been home from the front have been disconcerting.
Are you upset?"
"No."
Akane's reply came much sharper than she had intended. Was she really
that much on edge after all her work breaking bricks?
"Are you sure?" Kasumi pressed. "I'm worried about you, Akane."
"Don't be," her youngest sister shot back. "I'm fine. I just need
some time alone."
Kasumi nodded ruefully. It wasn't easy staring defeat in the face.
"If you want to talk about it, I'm always willing to lend an ear,"
she offered to Akane.
Akane's face softened. "It's okay, big sister. I'll be all right. I
just need to work this through. But alone."
"As you wish."
Kasumi left the dojo soundlessly. Akane felt bad about the way she
had dismissed her, as Kasumi was nothing if not completely supportive of
her. Kasumi was trying so hard to replace Mom that it hurt sometimes to
treat her as simply a sister, but she had to maintain her perspective.
Kasumi would never be Mom. Not to her, not to Nabiki, and not to Dad.
Besides, Kasumi had enough to worry about just tending to the
country. That was enough for any dozen people, and she was trying to
play the supportive parent figure on top of that.
Akane lined up another set of bricks.
"Don't worry, big sister. Nabiki will take care of everything.
You'll never have to worry about running the Confederation again when
she's done. There won't BE a Confederation anymore!"
She brought her fist down with an angry cry, shattering the bricks
and breaking the supportive plank of wood beneath them. It didn't seem
to give her any comfort. Maybe Kasumi was right, and she did need to
talk to someone. There was only one person she felt she could talk to,
and hopefully he would be there.

* * *

"Hello, Doctor," Akane said hopefully as she stepped through the door
of Doctor Tofu Ono's office. Tofu was the personal physician of the Tendo
family, and a handsome friendly-faced man in his early thirties who
typically wore a dark colored gi instead of more traditional physician's
attire. This was because Tofu was also a practicing martial artist and at
one time had been a mechwarrior in service to the Confederation.
His fighting skills rarely showed through his gentle demeanor. Looking
up from his desk with a smile, he greeted Akane.
"Hello, Akane. Did you hurt yourself again?"
Akane blushed in embarrassment.
"No, Doctor. I'm fine."
Tofu nodded. Akane was such an energetic girl, and had always been
so. It seemed like she was constantly getting a skinned knee or a sprained
ankle or something of that nature. Now that she was a mechwarrior out on
the front lines, Tofu tried not to imagine more serious injuries befalling
her.
"What brings you down here, then?"
She lowered her eyes.
"I'm depressed."
Tofu cocked his head. "Really? It doesn't show."
"I'm doing my best not to let it," she replied. "Kasumi keeps telling
me to keep my chin up."
He regarded her for a moment. To Akane, his dark eyes seemed so
penetrating and mysterious, and it was all she could do to keep from
blushing again.
"It's about the surrender, isn't it?" he asked at length.
She nodded meekly. "There's no hiding it, I guess."
Tofu offered her a chair. "Would you like to talk about it?"
She stood paralyzed with indecision for a moment before accepting the
offered seat. Tofu produced a teacup from his pocket and placed it before
her. Freshly brewed pekoe from Alshain soon filled the cup.
"Thank you, Doctor," she demurred.
"Now tell me what's really bothering you," Tofu said. He was one of
the few citizens of the Confederation outside the Tendo family and the
primary nobility who knew that the peace summit was really a meeting to
discuss the Confederation's surrender, and so he had a good idea what was
getting to Akane. He also knew that it was better for a person to face a
problem themselves rather than have it spelled out for them.
"I don't know," Akane began. "I guess I just feel like everything
I've been doing is for nothing. I just won a victory over the Combine in
my first battle ever as commander of the 1st Nerima, and if this surrender
goes through it won't mean a thing. A lot of people died protecting the
Confederation in that raid, and now their sacrifice is going to be in vain."
Tofu nodded. He felt the same way. He knew, as did almost everyone
who called the Confederation home, that the writing was on the wall, but
they had been beating the odds for years now. As he looked at Akane, he
realized that it went much deeper than the idea of disappointing all those
honored dead.
"It's more than that, isn't it," he said to her. "You're mad at
Nabiki."
Akane looked up at him, eyes blazing with guilt.
"I know why she's doing it, and a part of me understands that in the
end it's all for the best," she said defensively.
"But you're still mad at her," Tofu prompted.
"Wouldn't you be!?" Akane cried. She set her teacup down. "I'm sorry,
Doctor Tofu. I shouldn't have yelled at you."
Tofu shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Akane. You have strong
feelings about your duty to your people, and I think that's good for any
leader. This is a difficult time for us as a nation, but for you and your
family most of all."
Akane nodded in thoughtful silence.
"Do you think Nabiki is wrong for doing this?" she asked him at
length.
Now Tofu was on the spot. He took a sip of his own tea while he tried
to compose a reply.
"I really don't know," he said after failing to come up with anything
he could believe in. "Deep down inside I think that she really does believe
that what she's doing is the right thing."
"B-But how can she think that?" Akane spluttered. "She's never been
a mechwarrior. She's never put her life on the line for her people. Even
Kasumi fought the Combine once, before Mom died." Akane began to turn red
faced with anger. "How can Nabiki really know what she's doing to us by
giving up? What right does she have to be the one to make us surrender?!"
"Akane!" Tofu barked, startling her. "That's enough of that kind of
talk," he continued firmly. "Nabiki is not the one who is *making* us
surrender. She does not have the power to do anything of the kind. Your
father is the one who will ultimately make that decision, not her. You
need to give him your full support, because I know that this can't be
easy for him."
Akane sat in her seat, ashamed of herself. As usual, Tofu had seen
straight through to the heart of the matter. Was she actually mad at Nabiki,
or was she just using her as a scapegoat instead of facing the fact that
her father was no longer the man she had looked up to since childhood? She
didn't know. All she really knew was the pain and hopelessness she felt
deep in her heart. "I wish Mom were still here," she whispered. "Dad was
so much different back then..."
Tears began welling in her eyes, and she wiped at them aggressively.
Doctor Tofu stepped from around his desk and offered her his hand. She took
it and rose to throw her arms around him. Only then, with his strong arms
holding her, did the tears come with abandon.
"Oh, Doctor Tofu..." she whimpered between sobs.
Doctor Tofu held her for some time in silence, finally giving her a
squeeze and releasing her when it seemed like she had at last cried herself
out.
Akane looked up at him with red eyes and felt both utterly ashamed and
sincerely grateful for his kindness. She had acknowledged her crush on him
from the time she was fifteen for what it was; a simple crush, with no hope
of being requited. She was the Heir to the Confederation, and as such all
she could look forward to was a political marriage. Nabiki had sworn up
and down that she would never allow the likes of Tatewaki Kuno or Hikaru
Gosunkugi to get their hands on her in that regard, but how could you really
trust someone who was even now upstairs in the Grand Hall preparing to sell
out her entire country?
But that wasn't the worst pain from her crush on the doctor. The worst
pain was that he was in love with someone else; her oldest sister Kasumi. It
was as plain as day to everyone in the castle that Tofu was head over heels
for the eldest Tendo daughter. Plain to everyone but Kasumi herself, and
that was what made it so painful for Akane to bear.
"Feeling better now?" Tofu asked, startling her out of her reverie.
"I-I guess so," she said softly. She took a deep breath and let it
out with a rush. "Yep. Much better after a good cry."
She turned for the door, stopping just short of the threshold.
"I'm sorry I bothered you with this," she said.
"Nonsense," Tofu replied cheerfully. "My door is always open for you,
Akane."
Akane nodded her head and stepped through the door.
**If only your heart was, too...**

* * *

Kima, the representative for the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, excused herself
from the table, leaving the dubious honor of leading the delegation to one
of her aides. The summit was only a few hours old and it was already clear
where Nabiki's sympathies lay. The Combine would surely triumph when all
was said and done.
Unless of course someone interfered.
Tetsuo Gosunkugi was putting on a pretty good show, managing to look
sincere in his negotiations while putting up stumbling blocks to the process
wherever he could. She wondered what he was trying to gain by stalling. It
was clear that the League was every bit as interested in the Confederation's
surprising offer, but was hampered by their inability to match the enormous
resources of the Combine - to say nothing of Tatewaki Kuno's hunger for
Akane Tendo's hand in marriage. If anything could bring the summit to a
grinding halt, it would be the final disposition of Akane after the
surrender.
The palace had clearly designated areas for the visiting diplomatic
staff, and it was these boundaries that Kima now violated. She ducked into
the first lavatory she could find, and locked the door. Her wings ached for
release from the confines of her heavy cloak, as did her taloned feet from
their boots.
There wasn't time to treat them the way they needed; she would have
to make them go away. The process was still taking some getting used to,
but she was far more comfortable now with her alter ego than she was a
few weeks ago. This was something for which she had been training for
over a year, and despite the fact that she had been activated far earlier
than originally intended, she knew she could pull it off.
She stripped off her clothes and folded them neatly next to a
diplomatic pouch that she had been carrying under her cloak since she
arrived on Nerima. From the pouch she drew another set of clothes; items
sized for a woman somewhat smaller than her own Amazonian frame. Next,
she turned the valve on the sink for cold water and took a deep breath.

Kima appeared from the lavatory slightly pale, but in control. She
was getting more and more into the part with each moment, and her confidence
rose as palace servants treated her with the deference expected by her new
identity. She made her way up a grand staircase and turned left past armed
sentries who popped to attention as she passed them without breaking stride.
She was in the Tendo family wing of the palace, reserved for their private
apartments. One of the sentries she passed went back to parade-rest while
the other bent over a log book to make the appropriate entry.

16:19 - Akane Tendo entering the west wing.

END OF PART TWO