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Author of 10 Stories |
Ice Squared
by Lerris
Smith
As Nabiki stared the teal haired apparition appeared on the bridge. At first she seemed unhappy as she took note of the jury-rigged and broken mess of systems, yet as she watched Nabiki become captivated by the stars, her face too took on an expression of hope. She was brought out of her musings by Nabiki's voice. She was singing and the little laptop was playing a tune from a lyre. She sang, “I left my world to wander in this endless midnight sky, for space is just a starry night where no suns ever rise.” As the notes ended, the apparition wiped a small ghostlike tear from her left cheek before vanishing.
He was anything but ready to get married and settle down, and far from certain who that person would be when he finally did decide, yet they all seemed to have strings, or rather ropes tied to him. He had responsibilities and had no idea how to fulfill them, let alone attain his own happiness. It was just that there were moments, like just after waking and occasionally at other times when he could forget the unpleasant things and the temptation called to him. Thankfully it seemed the other fiancéeshad a sort of radar for such things, and he had so far resisted the temptations with their 'help'.
Ranma once more cursed his father for trapping him in this convoluted honor mess. Of course, now with Nabiki's new, improved, and extra cute self things were even more complicated. The reasons he chanted to himself to avoid falling prey to his hormones didn't seem to fit that girl. One thing seemed the same between her old and new self though. She still seemed distant, even when she was right next to him. Things had definitely taken an interesting turn, although he greatly feared they would insist he keep wearing that dang costume.
All of these thoughts went through Ranma's head in the moments after waking and sensing the warm body near her side. The aura she could sense was female, but was not Shampoo's, which was good. She thought it was one of the Senshi, and since she was a girl, well maybe if she continued to feign sleep everything would turn out okay.
Minako yawned quietly and looked on their newest pseudo member and once again wondered why Ranma couldn't have been a guy. She was certainly impressive, more effective than most of the other Senshi, including herself, she hated to admit. Yes, for a normal human, Ranma was beyond remarkable, and he had gotten hurt protecting Hotaru. Such actions merited a reward. Minako grinned as she looked onto the face of the red head who was obviously feigning sleep. She turned and planted a tender kiss on Ranma-chan's left cheek, the new skin still pale in the starlight.
Ranma was so startled that she instinctively twisted her head, but things just got worse, as she felt Minako's lips claim her own and give her a lingering kiss that caused Ranma-chan to blush scarlet and Minako to look on in amusement.
Minako said, “Thanks again for saving Hotaru,” gratitude obvious in her voice.
“Whaaaa,” fumbled Ranma, still blushing scarlet. Her right hand came up to trace over her lips, as if in wonder.
Minako laughed before saying, “Don't worry, I'm into guys,” which of course caused Ranma to begin worrying in earnest.
Hotaru, awakened by their motion looked on in bemusement at the pair. It had taken a long time after Mistress Nine, yet now she almost never weakened. Still, healing took a lot out of her as her yawn attested to, which caused the pair to turn to face her. A simultaneous rumbling could be heard from the three to indicate they had, at the very least, compatible stomachs.
“I wonder if there is any food,” mused Minako.
“I think Nabiki brought my pack before. There should be some ramen noodles and a few ration bars in there if nothing else.”
Hotaru looked on their newest member with a bit of wonder. “Doesn't this phase you? I mean Sailor Senshi, space ships, and other planets?”
Ranma shrugged before saying, “Should it? It is far easier than having to deal with another crazy Martial Arts challenge, or any of the loons that come by regularly to kill me, kidnap my fiancée, or settle a debt my father made.”
“Fiancé,” queried Minako. She just knew someone else had gotten a cute guy before her.
Ranma spoke in a rush, “That's a long story, and um shouldn't we see about that ramen and um,” she trailed off as she got up and fumbled with the door handle.
Minako and Hotaru looked on in confusion, just as their stomachs rumbled in unison again. Before long they were making their way into the lounge area where the others were gathering. Nabiki was being half pushed into the area by Usagi who was still in Ranma's clothing. Nabiki kept protesting that she had work to do, but the blue eyed blonde just kept pushing. They both seemed to be enjoying themselves, and Nabiki's protestations were token at best.
Mamoru looked on Nabiki, once again trying to puzzle it out, yet not voicing his curiosity. Michuru spoke, “So, do we finally get to hear what happened to you Ami? Coming back from the dead, and with a makeover is no small thing.” On the end of one of the large semicircular couches the guardian of Pluto broke out in laughter, which caused all eyes to turn to her.
Nabiki sighed and said in a sarcastic tone, “Laugh it up. Now, at least you don't have the luxury of 'pressing duties' at the Gates of Time whenever you want to avoid answering questions.” Several of the others nodded marginally at that, as if thinking that was a great improvement before turning back to Nabiki. Setsuna paled as the realization set in once more.
Nabiki repeated the story that she had told Usagi, once again somewhat polishing the details of Nabiki Tendo's mostly former lifestyle. Makoto volunteered to cook the ramen noodles while the others talked. Ranma absently took out his simple cookpot, utensils and a small bottle of water and handed them to her to go with the food that Nabiki had left out earlier. Rei transformed to heat the water while muttering something about not being a camp stove.
As the noodles finished cooking so too did Nabiki's story finish. No one who didn't already know knew quite what to make of it, but the common consensus was that they were glad that it worked. What more could you really say? Well, several were eying Setsuna as if they wanted answers, but no-one could really figure out the questions. Nabiki took the gulf of silence as an opportunity to go find the small containers of water she had found before, and more importantly, avoid any more awkward questions.
She returned a few minutes later and passed out the metal bottles. “The top unscrews and becomes a cup. Don't worry, I checked. It is just ordinary water. The cup may even work for the ramen.”
Usagi looked at the metal bottle with suspicion before unscrewing it and drinking a sip. The others quickly followed suit, and soon half the food that Ranma had was gone. While a few looks were passed to indicate their lack of enthusiasm for instant ramen, no complaints were made and their small improvised dishes seemed to be well guarded for the brief period they contained food. Ranma and Usagi stood up to eye the uncooked noodles remaining, but Nabiki cut them off with, “Right now, that is all we have left, so we'd better save it till tomorrow.”
Usagi stifled the instinct to whine, as she accidentally tripped, throwing the tiny amount of remaining hot water from the noodles unerringly at the closest Jusenkyo victim. In her attempt to try to prevent Usagi's fall Ranma ended up underneath her as the change occurred. They made a very well matched pair, with their similar sizes and matching clothes.
Nabiki and Setsuna broke out in laughter, not even attempting to hold it in. Michuru took another picture.
“She's a starlight?” queried Makoto. The same pale skin could be seen on the side of his now male face, giving him, if anything, a more rogish look. Minako and Makoto looked on with undisguised interest, while Rei was somewhat more circumspect. Haruka and Michuru just seemed somewhat confused, while Nabiki looked on with clear amusement. Usagi just kept starring into his eyes as she pushed up from the pigtailed boy, until Mamoru coughed quietly causing her to blush and hastily climb off of him.
Nabiki stopped laughing to reply, “It's a curse. Ranma was born a guy.”
“Well, if I had known earlier, I would have given you a much better kiss,” said Minako with a smoky voice. She continued in a more normal, yet hopeful tone, “So do you have a girlfriend?”
Ranma groaned and Nabiki frowned at Minako, but did not say anything. Ranma was not hers, or her sisters for that matter. Still the middle Tendo resolved to keep a close eye on the flirtatious Senshi. She made Shampoo look like a rank amateur after all.
“So how does he change back?” queried Haruka.
“Cold water,” informed Setsuna. Haruka then proceeded to test the theory by throwing her remaining water on him, instantly changing him back to a member of the fairer sex. “Much better,” commented Haruka, earning her a light jab in the stomach from Michuru.
Minako and Makoto held out their metal cups of water to the still transformed Senshi of Mars and asked simultaneously, “Could you heat this for me?” in their best persuasive voices. Mars shrugged and heated her own cup before throwing it at him with a bit of an admiring glance that she quickly tried to conceal.
Nabiki decided to have mercy of a sort as she moved over to Ranma's side. If nothing else, if she let this go on, her boy crazy friends would drive the poor boy insane, and she couldn't allow that. She whispered into his ear, “Just play along.” Some small voice in her head questioned the sanity of this plan, but she ignored it as she proceeded to make herself comfortable in his lap before turning back to glance at the others. “Ranma-kun here is engaged, promised at birth to a Tendo daughter, and I'm afraid I can't just give him up.” The last was said with obviously fake disappointment before she reached her arms around his neck and brought her face closer.
Ranma looked panicked before she pinched his arm from behind causing Ranma's eyes to widen and his mouth to open, retort on his lips, as Nabiki took the opportunity to initiate a kiss with the pigtailed youth.
“Ami-chan!” gasped Usagi.
“Ami!” exclaimed Minako and Makoto.
Rei just smiled, seemingly happy that the mousy girl had, well she was not quite sure what she had, but at least now Usagi couldn't use Mamoru to taunt them so much. Setsuna too smiled faintly, but with her, it always seemed that her smiles held secrets.
After about half a minute of this, and more than a few calls of her name and gasps of surprise, Nabiki pulled her head back from the now, apparently comatose, martial artist.
“I think you broke him,” Setsuna quipped.
“And he looked just like, no better than my old sempai,” said Makoto.
“It's not fair,” said Minako, “He was a she when I kissed her.”
Nabiki, for her part, was seriously beginning to question her sanity. This was her sister's fiancé. Why had she done that? She blamed the part of her that was Ami. That girl was just so repressed, that, well, this kind of thing was bound to happen sooner or later. All that secret yearning to have something like Usagi had, combined with more than a few interesting dreams, was wearing on the girl.
The part of her that was Nabiki had more than enough fun tormenting people to resist such impulses, most of the time anyway, and that part really wanted someone who could, at least sometimes, stand on level footing in a game of wits. Still, perhaps she was being unreasonable, and she was betting Ranma could be taught, with work, and that kiss was really nice, well up until the point Ranma stopped responding. Besides, it should spare Ranma from being hunted by the others, and Ranma would owe her, right? Having figured out a way to explain herself to Ranma, she again resumed paying attention to her surroundings as she recalled Minako's last words.
“Sorry Mina,” said an obviously not very sorry Nabiki Mizuno.
An amused Setsuna, who had seemingly recovered from her brief bout of depression yesterday, stated, “Now that we all know each other, what next?”
The ghostlike young woman walked down the hallway. As she walked, her image seemed to solidify until a casual glance would easily mistake her for a quite ordinary teal haired young woman in a pink and white maid's outfit. Her gray eyes and overall demeanor seemed to radiate a new found hope as she walked. She arrived just as Setsuna finished her question. Her resolve seemed to slip a little then as if it was a truly fragile thing.
“Hello Everyone,” said the timid woman in the maid's outfit. All eyes immediately turned to the newcomer, except for Ranma's who still seemed to be out of it. Haruka and Michuru immediately ran out of the room dragging Hotaru with them. Mars, formed a fireball in her hands, but seeing the apparently harmless woman refrained from launching it. She just continued to hold it, and occasionally toss it from hand to hand.
The woman in question eyed the fireball with interest, after glancing at where the others had departed. She noted the mostly calm acceptance or perhaps patience of most everyone in the room before saying, “My name is Canal Volfield and you are welcome here. Your arrival on my ship awoke me from my long sleep.” She seemed to focus more on Ranma as she said those words.
“You're not human,” commented a more alert Ranma as one might comment that the walls were gray.
Nabiki glanced at Ranma, wishing again that she had not had to leave her computer on the bridge. The transformed outer Senshi ran back into the room with Uranus yelling, “Get back princess! She must be one of those that invaded!” She quickly began her attack, finishing with, “World Shaking!”
Canal began to move out of the way, when Ranma jumped, trying desperately to get her out of the way of the attack. It was a bad idea though, as he fell through her now ghostlike form, right into the path of the oncoming lethal blast. The others, save Usagi, began to transform as Canal's form grew and drifted downward to envelope him. Ranma's aura could be seen to blaze yellow through Canal's now translucent form. The blast was midway there when Ranma's aura flared and was suddenly gone. Less than a second later Canal's form grew solid and she held out her hands. The blast impacted her hands and then Canal rippled for a second and the blast was simply gone.
Sailor Mercury quickly moved in front of Canal to try to keep things from deteriorating further. If nothing else, this was a spaceship, and she couldn't let holes be blown in it, since she wasn't sure what would be hit. She shot a meaningful glance at Usagi who was already turning on Uranus.
Usagi said sharply, “Stand down Uranus, right now! Whoever this is has not attacked us, and you will stand down!”
Uranus froze at the icy tone of her leader. A glance at Neptune shown that she was ready to back her up, yet the steel in Usagi's eyes was not something she could ignore. There was also the fact that who she had attacked had protected Ranma when he got in the way. Grudgingly she let the power that was gathering in her hands fade as she waited and watched. The flame faded from Mars's hand as well, cooled by Usagi's gaze as her eyes met those of the Senshi of Fire.
Ranma's unconscious form was deposited on the floor gently as Canal became points of light and vanished. Mercury quickly ran over to check on him, donning her visor as she went. Just after Nabiki reached Ranma, Canal's sad voice could be heard, seemingly from everywhere, “I'm sorry. I had intended to ask him if he would be my captain, but now the choice has been made, and he is linked to me.”
Mercury quickly held the pigtailed boy as she scanned him with her visor. “What did you do?” asked a suspicious Mercury, “His ki has been drained!” She patted the unconscious boy gently in an effort to wake him. This seemed all too familiar to her, and she did not like it, not one bit.
“I'm sorry, but there wasn't time to be delicate and I needed to recover enough to protect him and the ship from that blast. I would never harm him, would not even have taken that psi energy, without the need to protect him.” The voice faded and the others began to look around as if expecting her to again appear and wondering if they were truly safe, though most seemed to be put at ease when they saw the calm and resolute expression on their leader's face.
Mercury mused aloud, “She is right in that much. Uranus's blast would have killed a normal human, and likely would have caused even Ranma major injuries. As it is, a few hours sleep and Ranma should be fine, but I don't like the fact that she can apparently drain him. I don't like that fact at all.” Mercury spared a glare for Haruka who said, “He jumped in the way!”
Canal's disembodied voice was sad when she spoke again, “I have made a horrible mistake then. I thought he would have died so the transgression could be forgiven...” Her voice was such that those there doubted she could ever forgive herself.
Ranma's yawn was nearly inaudible from where he rested in Mercury's lap. He was truly beginning to enjoy these short naps, so he thought he would feign sleep a few moments more. The fingers running through his hair were restful after all, and a few more minutes surely wouldn't matter. He could hear Canal's voice say in a distracted manner, “I'm so sorry. I'm not like the others. They are gone now and I am the last, and perhaps the time for those like me is past.” She seemed so sad to him that Ranma opened his eyes to gain a greater idea of what was going on.
Canal reappeared among them, gathering from motes of light, resolve in every part of her appearance. She said, “I will never be like the others. If, when he finally wakes, he wishes to be free of me, well I should be able to manage to still get you home first.” She went on after a brief pause, “I will not be like the others, no matter the cost.”
Usagi stepped up to the sad girl, much to the irritation of the fellow Senshi who did not trust this stranger who could drain them like a youma and who could hold off Uranus's best attack so seemingly easily. Her resolve, even dressed in Ranma's spare clothes, seemed to radiate from her, and it was enough to silence the others as she took the young woman in her arms and hugged her gently. She said, “I'm sure it will turn out fine. You did what you thought was best and it will be fine.”
Ranma got up and stretched before saying, “I'm not sure what's going on, bit it will work out. I mean look at me, I have three fiancéesand I even had this really weird dream about the sister of my first fiancéekissing me, and then there was this blonde haired girl, but am I worried? Nah, there is not enough time in my life to bother with that.” In his flailing effort to be encouraging, Ranma was sure he had said something stupid, because everyone was looking at him now. He began to look for exits.
Canal's head twisted around and she sputtered, “Impossible! There is no way you can be awake so soon!”
Nabiki exclaimed, “Ranma, no baka!” before Canal's exclamation caught her attention.
“Fiancées!” sputtered and shouted the others.
Ranma then remembered they were on a ship in outer space, and the likelihood of finding an exit was dismal. Yep, doom was certain. He closed his eyes and waited for it to be over. He wondered why Nabiki was upset though. It was a dream right? He opened his right eye and glanced around, only to realize that the scenery of the dream was this room. This was definitely not good. Well the kiss was good, very good even, but the bill was coming due. He closed his right eye again. Nothing to do now but wait and brace for impact.
The others continued to ask questions to herself or to Ranma, almost forgetting their new arrival completely. Nabiki tuned it all out as she glared at the cowering figure. Pathetic. He really was a wimp when it came to women. Over the noise of the others voices, she said, “Get up Ranma. No one is going to hit you. Jeez.” She switched her glare to the others which caused a few of them to take a half step back. It just seemed unnatural to them for Ami, or rather Nabiki now to glare like that.
Nabiki said, “If you must know, Ranma's father promised he would be the fiancéeof about a dozen women, usually in exchange for food or supplies, sometimes for as little as a plate of rice and two pickles. Most of those have been dealt with, and the Tendo promise is the oldest.”
“You've got to be kidding!” interjected Jupiter.
“Hey, I think, um, I remember something about my dad engaging me to a Ranma!” said Minako in an voice that grew progressively more excited as she spoke.
In a deadpan voice, Nabiki said, “You weren't even in the right country at the time.”
“Oh, sorry, my bad,” said Minako in a voice to indicate she wasn't sorry at all.
“A dozen fiancées.” added a depressed sounding Saturn.
“Hey! I didn't ask for any of them. Even Shampoo was because of Pop's stomach!”
Nabiki sighed before saying, “Be that as it may, shouldn't we be sticking with the issue at hand?” Her tone was pleading, although whether because she was really concerned about the newcomer or just wanted to head off some awkward questions was unknown.
Usagi grinned at Nabiki before turning back to Canal. She said, “Tell us about yourself Canal.”
Canal was staring at Ranma as if trying to puzzle something out when she heard Usagi's words and had her focus snapped back to the others. She said, “My name is Canal Volfield, and I am the last of the so called lost ships. All that you see is me, with the exception of the garbage added to force my systems to operate manually.”
She glanced at the others, but the others just gave minute nods or simply waited for her to continue. She resumed with, “From what I can tell almost twenty years have passed since I was last awake. You see, the heart of what people now call lost technology is the dependence on psionic energy. It allows the boundaries of conventional physics to be bent, and things like this ship and myself to be created.”
“How does it work?” asked Nabiki.
Canal's expression was sad and she took a few moments before she answered, “I will not tell you and if I had to choose between destroying this ship and everyone on it or letting the knowledge of how to recreate all this be used again, then I would destroy the ship without hesitation.”
A few gasps were heard to this, but Nabiki simply asked, “But why? Surely the ability to make such ships is useful, and isn't it what you do with the technology that makes it good or evil?”
“I was created to balance the others, to give hope to those who desperately needed it. Each of the others required several hundred sacrifices to form their psionic matrix, and none of those sacrifices were willing. They were creations of evil, using and discarding their captains like batteries.” Several gasps could be heard before Canal continued with, “It took thirty six women, high ranking priestesses in their own right, and the last of their order to form my own psionic matrix, yet like a newborn baby it took me many years to grow and to learn.”
Some of the others gasped at this revelation, that people had died to build things like this. Nabiki asked, “Why were so few required with you and so many with the others?” She thought she knew of course, but wanted to be sure.
“It is because they were volunteers and trained priestesses.”
“Then what does Ranma have to do with anything?” Once again she thought she knew the answer, but it was better to ask, and the others, particularly Ranma, needed to know and more importantly understand.
“A continuous infusion of psionic energy is needed to maintain myself and all of the higher ship's functions. My linkage to Ranma can provide that. Before you arrived, the ship was jury rigged and barely operating. I've only had time to repair a little of it.” She paused for a second and shifted her focus to Ranma, “What I don't understand is how you can be awake? I have had six captains in my time, and every one was out for days after the initial link was formed.”
“What that? Bah, I get drained sometimes twice a day by our school disciplinarian. Yours was a bit worse, but nothing I can't handle,” said the smug martial artist. He swayed a bit on his feet, marking his bravado as an obvious lie.
Nabiki added, “Don't let the baka fool you, he won't be fully recovered for hours at least.”
Ranma winced a bit at the baka remark. First she kisses him, and then calls him baka. He would never understand women.
In an obvious attempt to steer the discussion Nabiki commented, “So now Ranma is bonded to a starship that happens to take the form of a young woman. Shall we call this fiancéenumber four?”
“Fiancée! You've got to be kidding.”
Canal turned to the pigtailed young man, entreaty in her eyes, as she said, “No, I'm not a fiancée. You are the captain of Swordbreaker and psionically bonded to myself, and even now, if you chose to be free of me-” Canal's voice broke, as if afraid he would chose just that, right this instant before she continued with, “then I will free you, no matter the cost.”
“What do you mean?” asked Ranma. Her words from earlier were a dim echo in his mind and he had to know.
Nabiki really didn't like this, yet she could not lie to Ranma in this, and he deserved a full answer which Canal seemed unable to form the words for. She said, “I think that if Canal broke the bond between you two, especially this soon after it was formed, then it would likely kill her. She must have been weak from all that time without a captain.”
Canal gave a half nod as she wiped tears from her cheek. For all of her age, and experience she did not want to die. She took a mental hold of herself and set the tears aside before saying, “It was my mistake, and the one crime I cannot be forgiven for. I will abide by your decision, whatever it is.”
“Oh come on. No one is dying. Besides what is the worst that could happen?”
“You could die.”
“Huh? How could I die? I mean all you did was take a little ki, I have plenty of that.”
“Of the six captains I have had, four of them eventually died from critical depletion of their life force.”
Nabiki began to wonder if she should encourage Ranma to ask her to sever the link, but knew it was a petty thought, and more importantly knew Ranma would not do it. Ranma responded with, “Oh come on! I mean, sure if I drain all my ki in attacks or what have you, it will kill me. Any decent martial artist knows that.” He said this as if stating the obvious, yet from the gasps in the room, it seemed it was news to most everyone there. Ranma continued with, “But of course I'm not dumb enough to do so. Unconsciousness is one thing, but deliberately committing suicide is just not my style.”
Minako, in a quiet yet clear tone said, “But they chose that fate for a reason didn't they?” She wasn't quite sure why she said that, yet the idea resonated with her, and she was sure of it, somehow.
“Yes, their final desperate actions gave me the power to eliminate four of the others, when hope truly seemed to be lost,” She paused before going on to say with resolve, “and I would rather die than live through the death of another captain at my hands.”
Usagi, as if sensing the need of a troubled soul, went up to the young woman and pulled her into her arms, hugging her tightly. This seemed to finally break the resolve of the teal haired woman as she broke down in sobs. The memories of the past had taken their toll on the her, and their visit was a painful one.
At Usagi's glance at the others, they departed, dropping their transformations as they went. Ranma stayed for a moment, feeling the need to be here, yet he too departed when Usagi motioned for him to do so. It would be some hours before the pair would emerge again from that area.
She was also annoyed that, while she could summon a few bits and pieces of how they must work, the bulk of the knowledge was denied her. She knew that before the change she could summon more of her knowledge and memories from her past life as Sailor Mercury but now they were as sand, and slipped through her fingers, the more she tried to hold onto them. It was a price of her cure it seemed, and at least the Mercury computer still had records of all that technology. She would just have to relearn what she had forgotten. There were so many things to do and so little time. She mused that at least Ranma had not brought up that scene she made, but then Ranma never went looking for a confrontation, since he had more than enough trouble with the ones that found him anyway. She was brought out of her pondering by Canal and Usagi joining them on the bridge where they had gathered.
Usagi asked, “Mako-chan, can you go make the rest of the food please? Since it is Ranma's energy that is helping to fix this place, I think he should have it.”
Makoto nodded and left the bridge.
“I'm okay. You don't have to do that.”
Usagi reached out and touched his left cheek with the palm of her hand, tracing the outline of the untanned skin. She said, “Yes, we do. Canal says that the more energy you can spare the faster the ship will be repaired, and the sooner we can get home, so eat your ramen.” The last was said in an amused tone. Mamoru looked on his future bride and seeing only kindness in her actions once again wondered how he could be so fortunate.
Makoto asked, “Why does this ship need repaired so much? I mean, didn't it already work?”
Nabiki replied, “I have scanned this ship, as much as I have been able to, and while I don't understand much of it, the landing is something that was concerning me greatly. I'm not sure many of the repairs and patches would hold up under the stress of reentry. I had planned to ask everyone else to teleport before we got to that point.”
“Ami!” shouted Usagi and Minako.
“It's Nabiki now,” replied Nabiki which earned her that look from Usagi.
Usagi said with irritation, “First Setsuna, and now you? Have you not been close enough to death lately? We do things together, and I will not have my friends dying on me, again.”
Nabiki stepped back, hurt by the realization that she had so upset Usagi, before saying, “I planned to teleport out if things went bad, and this ship was just so much of a prize...” This earned her that look again, and Nabiki went quiet.
Canal said, “Swordbreaker has seen better days, but given time, energy, and the required materials and I can repair anything. I am having to use a few of the walls that separate the smallest quarters for raw materials, but then I thought you wouldn't mind.”
“So we get bigger rooms?” asked Makoto.
“Yes, for now six of the small rooms will be made into three larger rooms. I can do something with the others later, if you want, but I needed the raw material for now.”
Makoto walked in holding the pan containing the remaining ramen noodles, as well as the few remaining ration bars. More than a few looked on the ramen with desire. It hadn't been that long ago since they ate, but there wasn't much food then. In the end the Senshi shared the few remaining ration bars, while at Usagi's urging Ranma ate the rest of the ramen noodles.
Ranma yawned and said, “Well if it is ki she needs to fix this thing, then I'd better go take a nap. My ki will recover faster that way.”
Usagi and the others nodded. While not being ki adepts, they were more than familiar with being drained by youma and such. An embarassed Nabiki trailed after him to the sounds of whistles. Nabiki said, “I need to talk with him, so get your perverted minds out of the gutter.” She mentally added that if they didn't hurry up and get their minds out of the gutter, they were apt to find her hiding spot.
Ranma yawned as he entered the door to the large room where he woke. He was just about to lay down when the door opened and Nabiki entered.
“Nabiki?” queried Ranma.
Nabiki said, “Ranma, we need to talk a bit. I don't know entirely what came over me then. I just panicked when I kept thinking of all of them pawing at you and that maybe you would fall in love with one of them and I would never have a chance.”
The last was rushed out, yet Ranma managed to puzzle it out. He said, “You're serious?”
“Is that so unbelievable Ranma-kun? I'm not the Nabiki you knew and, well, Ami was more than a little jealous of Mamoru and Usagi. Heck even Nabiki had feelings for you, although they were more brotherly.” Nabiki paused for breath and said, “I just wanted to let you know that I care for you, okay. I'm not asking you to marry me or anything. I'm certainly not ready for anything like that, although I will be highly annoyed if you run off with someone else without telling me.”
Ranma responded with, “You know, I think this is the first time someone expressed an interest in me without wanting to get married right away, unless perhaps you count Akane's quirks.” Ranma's head twitched slightly as he said the word quirks.
Nabiki laughed, “Yes, well Akane has interesting ways to express her feelings. Perhaps she will cook you a homecoming dinner.”
“Ack! I hope not.”
Nabiki sobered before staying, “Just be careful Ranma. She is my sister.”
“I will.”
“Well you need to get some sleep, so lets get under the covers.”
“Nabiki!”
Nabiki pulled her little canister of water out of storage space and tossed some on him. She said, “You're too easy Saotome, and yes we are keeping our clothes on.”
Ranma-chan's mouth opened at that, hentai thoughts flying through her head, before Nabiki kicked off her shoes, grabbed hold of Ranma-chan, and got comfortable. Ranma absently kicked off her own shoes a short time later. This was comfortable, very comfortable, and for once she was sure that no-one would burst a wall in or toss cold water on him. Being the captain of a spaceship was definitely a good thing, well as long as she made sure none of the others got one. The upset Ranma felt at that creepy thought was rapidly soothed away as Nabiki gently ran her fingers through her red hair.
Canal smiled at them as they approached and announced, “The major repairs are done and we are stationary at a possible phase drive point. All that is needed is for Ranma to take the captain's seat and for someone to let me know what path to take once we reach your planet.”
Nabiki nodded. She greatly appreciated efficiency and Canal was certainly that. She pulled her laptop out of storage and punched a few keys before handing the laptop to Canal and saying, “Will this work?”
“Such a course will be trivial for me, and the military radar you were concerned about will not detect me. Staying under the ocean will require a trivial psi barrier, but that too is not a problem. Of course Ranma will need to remain within about three hundred miles of the ships position, but given how new the bond is, he needs to do that anyway.” She seemed uncertain at the last, as if still wondering if he would leave her.
“Hey, don't worry. Given how crazy my life is, I might end up back aboard soon enough, just for the peace and quiet.”
Nabiki smirked at that, and wondered what, if anything, could be done to tame that mess Ranma called a life. Then again, several of them were quite strong, especially Ranma's so called friend Ryoga. With a bit of guidance, perhaps it could be arranged for them to contribute to the Senshi's battles...
Nabiki's evil thoughts were interrupted by Ranma taking his seat followed by Canal sitting in the copilots chair and saying, “Phase drive in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Phase drive activated.” Ranma could feel the pull on his ki as the stars vanished. It felt a bit like healing an injury yet it was obviously not that. His musings were cut short as the drain diminished and the Earth reappeared before them, as if by magic.
Canal said, “Psi barrier active. Executing landing sequence. Entering the atmosphere in 10 seconds.”
Ten seconds later the viewscreen began to take on the dull glow as particulate matter and gases were ionized by contact with the barrier.
“Cool!” shouted Usagi to the widespread agreement of the others. The ocean came into view seven minutes later and two minutes after that they plunged below its depths and continued on their journey to the Sea of Japan. The relatively dense ocean greatly restricted their speed, but the final leg of their journey only took an hour and a half, and about thirty minutes of that was spent watching the fish at Michuru's and the other's request. When they arrived, Canal offered the shuttle craft to bring them to dry land, but they decided to simply teleport back to the shrine in Jubaan.
Nabiki gave Ranma her original cell phone while pulling Ami's out to call her mother's house and let her know everything was okay. Ranma, called the Tendo's and was greatly relieved to get ahold of Kasumi. He let her know everything was fine and they would be home in about an hour or so.
The file Canal left behind on the little laptop told of how she went fishing for information about her new crew and even gave information about how she might be contacted in the future. Nabiki could hardly blame the young seeming woman for hacking through her computer, since she would have done the exact same thing under the circumstances, except of course that she wouldn't have admitted to it. Nabiki idly wondered if Canal was able to read her encrypted journal entries, but that seemed highly unlikely. Still, with Canal's help something should be possible, and then, perhaps, they could begin to see and to plan.
The fight they were in now made the schemes of her past a truly petty thing, yet those schemes had taught her much. Like Ranma, she intended to insure they won this battle. Ranma always claimed to hold honor and playing fair above all, yet when he got in a pinch he cheated with the best of them, and Nabiki Mizuno would do no less. There was always the chance that the attack on Pluto was an isolated incident, and that the cooling of the planet Setsuna saw would never happen. Nabiki doubted they would get that lucky though, and a part of her welcomed the challenge, and that scared her most of all. The worst part was she had no idea where to find the time, or even how much time she had.
I'm probably overdue to work on something else, so if anyone really wants to see this one kept at the highest priority and doesn't normally review you might consider doing so. Note, that this obviously doesn't apply if you do not have an account since I do not have anonymous reviews enabled. I prefer to stick with signed reviews.
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