A Note about this series of stories we are about to trek upon:
This story was originally published here on FFN back in the fall/winter of 2003. At the time it garnered rave reviews and many fans, but was eventually removed after it had been selected for attack by a series of canon-zealots who insisted that their take on Nightow's creation was the only way, and that my use of many OCs was an apparent attempt at Mary/GarySue-itis. Wow… okay, if that's what they want to think, so be it for them then.
What this is was my take on the events after the Anime series of what would happen if Earth finally arrived. It was not related to the Manga, though from what I'm reading of the now completed series, I came damn near close. My storyline does include references to other Manga/Anime series, as I like to think of the multiverse being able to touch others from time to time. Proper credit to those storylines are given at the end of the chapters. It starts off though with three prelude stories – History's Observations, which starts the plot of explaining to Vash and a healing Knives that Earth has indeed arrived, and will be making a landing soon. The Smoking Angel explains why a certain character is back (if you can't figure it out by the title who I'm referring to, then you need to see the Anime again!). The third story, Motor City Blues, sets up my take on the central characters of my story, the Plants, and where they came from. This was written prior to Nightow's explanation in the Manga, so obviously this will not be to proper Manga canon, but could still be warped and twisted into the Anime's universe. One way or the other, please know that I know that it ISN'T CANON. Ahem...
With that, I set this story free once again. Enjoy!
R.A. Stott – 05/2007
NOTE - June 2010 - I've had to re-edit the stories again due to an FFN upgrade (if you want to call it that) that removed some story bridges (lines) - without them, the story jumps at points without reason - THANKS FFN! ...sigh!
NOTE - December 2018 - And YET AGAIN... what is it with FFN's story bridge system? Every 8 years ya gotta redo them? Yeesh! Ah well... at least that allows for editing/tweaking for us unsatisfied authors.
Prelude One
TRIGUN:
MOON CHILD
History's Observations
By R. A. Stott
With References to "The Angel and the Warrior" By S. E. Nordwall
Used with permission
He landed his small ship in the soft sand near an outcropping of rock the local's called Sutter's Mesa out on the fringes of the Promontory Flats. He looked to his left at a small shack that was at the bottom of the cliff nestled in a patch of shrubs. He shrugged to himself and climbed out of the cockpit and onto the wing. He looked up at the twin suns that were blazing over his head. It was bad enough that they were there, it was worse that his fur was not helping things. He scratched an itch and grunted.
Remembering his orders, he reached back into the cabin of his ship. He slung a necklace over his head and examined the large pendant that hung from the end of it. "GENUINE DOORKNOB" was written along its door handle shaped side.
"Have this on you, and have it turned on," was his direct orders from his new Captain, and he wasn't going to forget it. The mental shielding it provided was an imperative for this new mission. He gave the device a twist. The two beeps it made as he dropped it down inside his uniform let him know that it was operational. He then reached into the ship and pulled out his gun and a pouch. He holstered the gun to his side and jumped down to the ground. He looked at the shack again.
It was a modest little house – maybe 2 or 3 rooms in size – no power to be seen, save a rickety windmill that had been made from salvaged parts of what looked to him to have been a turbine. To one side of the yard the shack stood in was an outhouse - to the other was a small corral and barn-like shed which penned in a rather large kiwi-like creature that was quite larger than he was. He felt an urge not to mess with this critter.
He looked at the house again. As he got closer, he noticed something over the door.
"R E M," he said to himself and smiled. They had been made from some heat shield tiles, skillfully chipped to form the letters. He nodded his approval and stepped onto the porch. He gave the screen door three taps and waited.
"We really don't want any visitors!" a cheery voice said from inside the house.
"I need to speak to you, Mr. Saverem," his gravelly voice said back to the cheery one. It must have done the trick, since the door swung open and a tall man dressed mostly in black stepped out to see why he had been called that name. But it was the tall man who was shocked at what he saw – when he finally looked down.
"You're… you're not human!" he queried.
The Tomassamassa planted his fists on his hips. "No, really?" he chided back, showing his row of cat-like fangs. He looked like a small white tiger with a beard that someone had stuffed into a uniform and gave a ray gun to. He pulled out a rod and waved it in front of the man and looked at a small ball on the palm end. He nodded and looked up at the man. "Neither are you… or your friend inside." He looked at the readings again. "Well, mostly…" he added. "My name is Kinza, Elb Kinza, and I've been sent by my Captain to see how you're doing, Mr. Vash the Stampede, AKA Eriks Saverem."
"Who is it, brother?" a voice inside the shack grumbled. Kinza craned his neck to see around the shocked man before him. There he saw another man haphazardly seated in a rocking chair glowering back at him.
"Ah, yes… Millions Knives," Kinza said, again looking at his probe. "As we suspected… you got him in the four corners – the points in your bodies where your energy transmits the most, and without a Plant's Containment Vessel or a Regen Unit to regenerate in, he's become…" He glanced at his probe again. "…nearly harmless," he finished.
The word 'nearly' made Vash look back at his brother. Knives was grimacing a bit from the wounds that had been taped up. But they still oozed some crimson around the wrapping seams. Vash stepped out onto the porch and leaned over to whisper to the small officer before him. "Don't you mean harmless – harmless? I was rather accurate when I did my – umm – you know…"
"When you shot him?" Kinza bluntly asked. He shook his head, and then placed his finger to his forehead and made a 'bang' movement. "You would have had to have placed one here as well, but that would have contradicted the old girl's teachings now wouldn't it?" he noted as he gestured to the name over the doorway. Vash looked at the letters and nodded.
"I've come to grips with the teachings of Rem – I've grown up I guess," the ex-gunman said. "You knew Rem?"
Kinza nodded. "In a way, indirectly – she was part of my observation duties - Our mission is to document the histories of planets and peoples, though in the case of the SEEDS Project, we're just now being allowed to make our first contacts… umm, correction, first OFFICIAL contacts, now that Four hundred years have passed."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the voice from inside the house barked. "What do you mean four hundred years? Shouldn't it only be two hundred fifty or sixty years?"
Knives could see the large furry ears shake no. "Don't forget space and time, gentlemen," Kinza noted. "The SEEDS ships were traveling at sub-light speeds – approximately point nine of light speed. What were only eighty-two years to the SEEDS crews and one hundred fifty years to local time after that was many more years back on Earth." Kinza looked in through the screen door at the wide eyed expression being given him. "This is also why this mission is so different than the ones we normally do," he continued. "Normally, we'd observe, record, and move on using our 'out of time' systems that allows us to gather our information rapidly. But in the case of this mission… the observation of the Project SEEDS operation… we were forced to do this in REAL time…"
Now Vash's eyes were wide open. "Real time? Why is that? What do you mean?"
Kinza nodded towards the door. "What was that you said a hundred fifty years ago, Knives? Humanity's attempt to push towards the stars was pathetic? Well, I hate to be the barer of bad news but that's old news, and was so even back then."
"Who is this World Federation, and of what right have they to peek down on us like bugs under a microscope?" Knives snarled.
Kinza held his hands up to settle the man down. He picked up the coffee mug that Vash had offered him as they sat around a table in the kitchen area of the shack.
"Okay, first of all, remember why SEEDS was launched in the first place," he noted.
Vash nodded. "The Earth was dying – the world was no longer able to support itself."
"Correct," Kinza agreed. "So mankind did what mankind does best – they did irrational things." Knives smiled with that remark. Vash noticed but ignored it.
Kinza cleared his throat. "Mankind decided that if the Earth wasn't able to support them anymore, then lets build fleets of ships, put our people on board and launch them off on a journey of discovery!" Kinza noticed that his audience was looking at him a bit peculiarly. He cleared his throat again.
"Earth has only one moon. Did you know that?" he pressed on. Both men shook their heads no. "They nearly took one third of that rock's mass to build all ten of the exodus fleets that left the planet, and that still doesn't include the smaller independents that went on their own."
"TEN!" Knives shouted.
Kinza smirked. "Yea, if you thought you were going to stop humanity's venture into space by just knocking out the SEEDS ships, you were wrong, big time. SEEDS might have been one of the first, but it certainly wasn't the last."
Vash sat back in his chair smiling, while Knives planted his head in his hands and rocked in his seat.
"It's like a plague!" he mumbled. "The human pestilence is now everywhere!"
Kinza cocked his head and nodded. "I can't argue with you there. That's pretty much how it occurs naturally. My own race did pretty much the same thing, though not on a scale like the humans. And WHY only one of these ten fleets headed for the nearest planets to Earth around Alpha Centauri is anyone's guess. SEEDS headed out to the moon, took a left and headed for the Megellenic Cloud…" Kinza had been using his paw as a model for a SEEDS ship, twisting it about for effect. He shook his head and picked up his cup to take another swig of coffee while still trying to figure that move out.
"Now here's the odd part… BECAUSE of the exodus, something happened back on Earth that wasn't expected by all those leaving the planet. Fewer people meant fewer problems. There were fewer wars. There was less hostility. Mankind starts to understand itself better. Science takes a new direction. Humans start taking care of their planet again after one last big skirmish that finally unites the world. And with that you finally get a World Federation that uses the United Nations as its cornerstone. Technology swings away from biological power sources to that of a more potent energy – pseudo-matter and anti-matter engines. Suddenly, ships are capable of speeds faster than light, which brings us to our current problem."
Both Vash and Knives watched Kinza pick up his mug again and sip his coffee. "Which is?" they chorused.
Kinza put the cup down and looked at them both. "These new ships were actually passing the sleeper fleets. They literally can go ahead and beat the sleepers to there destinations and report back the Earth."
Knives' jaw nearly hit the table. "How… how long has that been able to be done?" he whispered.
Kinza shook his head. "That I'm not sure of, but what I do know is a World Federation ship spotted the SEEDS fleet ten years before it landed here."
Now both men's jaws lay slack. "Then why didn't this World Federation ship STOP them?" Vash finally asked in bewilderment.
"At the time, there was a new non-interference rule," Kinza replied. "Unless the ships were TOTALLY automated - of which the SEEDS fleet never was - the orders were to sit back and observe only, hence the missions of the history and observation fleets. Seven of the other fleets were automated, and again, many of the independents were as well. Automated ships tended to not be so reliable, so they needed to be stopped or redirected before they did something nasty to themselves. So many of them were diverted to new homes on better planets, or returned to the Earth sphere. That was where many of the Martian bases started from for example. But the SEEDS fleet, with their rotating sleeper systems, was not allowed to be contacted directly."
Knives started to pound the table with his fist as he laid his head on it. Kinza quickly picked up his dancing coffee cup before it dropped on the floor like Vash's did.
"NO! NO! THIS CAN'T BE!" he yelled. "HUMANITY HAS TO BE STOPPED!"
"Hey, be careful there Knives!" Vash warned. "You'll reopen your wounds again!"
Sure enough, his brother was clutching his right shoulder as the bandage started to turn a brighter red than before. As he sat and swore, he felt a large furry hand touch his shoulder.
"Okay, let's see that wound," Kinza said as he opened the small kit pouch he had slung under his arm.
"I don't want…" Knives started, but stopped as the pain suddenly vanished. He looked at the Tomassamassa. He had pointed some device at the bandages and began moving it about.
"What you want is none of my concern, sir," Kinza grumbled. "That you are currently my patient is though, so if you'll do me the service, kindly keep quiet while I use this wound healer on you."
"Some of our illustrious lost technology?" Knives asked with a sarcastic laugh.
"No, you didn't have this back then," Kinza noted as he moved to the back side of the wound. "You guys had some strange nano-bot technology that gives me the willies. Umm… nice clean shot. And as for your 'lost technology' - most of it is now banned technology."
"Banned?" the brothers asked.
Kinza switched shoulders. "Yup – no more living power sources. Too inhumane was the verdict."
"But… what about our kind?" Knives asked. It had almost sounded sad the way he asked.
"You mean the Plantoids life form?" Kinza asked. "They've been given their own status. It seems that the modified environment that was created on Venus seems to suit them fine. When last I saw, they were flourishing quite nicely - Lean forwards please - Besides, it seems that someone lied in the past when they said they had cultivated and created the Plantoids in their report to the then military leaders…"
Knives craned his neck back to look at Kinza. It looked painful.
"What do you mean lied? You seem to know a great deal about our people," he hissed.
Kinza smirked. "Well of course I do – I'm gifted sir! I can see history! Like I said, that's the mission of our ship. There is nothing we can not see, hear or document in history, including the rash and unpredictable things that occur in secret government buildings on what old Earth used to call Area 51. On January 13, 2003, at 0:12 hours, a gene splicing experiment was started that should have never been allowed to continue. But if it hadn't, we wouldn't be talking right now, now would we?"
"Splicing?" Vash asked. "What is splicing?"
Kinza scratched his head for a moment. "Well, the easiest way to put it, say I take a tiny bit of you, then take a little bit of Knives here, cultivate the mess in an electro-statically charged vat of DNA starter material, and walla! Instant modified life form – which is exactly what some crazy scientist in an underground bunker did at Area 51 on that day. They had recovered an alien life form that had crashed on Earth. But the alien was dead, and the body was quickly decaying in their atmosphere. So, there wasn't much he could do with a dead alien, so why not try and make a living one? Hence he attempted to clone the creature. Initial attempts failed, so he decides to try it again, only this time, he uses an already living base to start with, a fresh batch of human DNA."
Knives spat at the thought. "Humans! We are not humans!"
Kinza looked him in the eyes. "Would you have preferred his alternative? He chose human DNA because it was the closest match next to the actual closest. And that was swine DNA."
"Here piggy piggy piggy!" Vash started to rattle off. He stopped when he saw the looks both Knives and Kinza were giving him.
"So anyway," Kinza continued, "the original alien life form's DNA cultivates quickly with the human base it is placed in. But there's something odd. The reaction between the two literally and figuratively begins to take on fission. Whether it has something to do with the fact that the alien was a tall humanoid shaped creature with wings on its back wasn't known, but the scientists were beginning to call it the Angel. One way or the other, it was giving off more energy than what was being put in. For the safety of everyone on the project, the newly created creature is housed within a transparent dome. The scientist uses the crazy idea of installing collection plates to gather all this free-flowing energy. He ran his lab and twelve others with the power for two years. In the meantime, the creature they now call Angel 2 shows no signs of intelligence, but is passive and simply flutters about in its domed cage like a bird."
"We are not caged birds! Ouch!" Knives winced as a section of bone was touched by the healer's beam and instantly mended itself.
"Nor were you the descendants of that particular creature," Kinza added. "Sit up – No, your line comes from Angel 5. By that time, more was known about your people, though at the time, they still considered them no better than cattle."
Anger burned in Knives eyes at the thought of his 'people' being treated in that manner. But he blinked when he noticed a large furry finger against his forehead.
"Save the rage for the end of the story son, you're not helping this!" Kinza said as he resumed his task. "Angel 5 was the first of the creatures made where they were 'mounted' within the dome, and the dome itself was shaped like the bulb we all know and love today. The reason was because it was found that the energy could be regulated better if the source didn't move about as much."
"This is sounding more and more disturbing," Vash noted as he bent down to retrieve his coffee cup from the floor. Kinza nodded.
"Every race has something to be ashamed of once in a while it seems. Humans aren't alone in doing despicable things 'for the good of the people' as they would say."
"Does yours?" Knives snapped at the Tomassamassa. Kinza shrugged and nodded a yes.
"Of course it does… as does yours." He shot a glare up as his patient. Knives was taken aback at the lack of fear in this creature beside him. He obviously knew the risks he was taking, yet continued to push his luck. Odd…
"So anyway," Kinza resumed, "Angel 5 is cultivated into many versions, each with its own identity, its own strengths, and its own weaknesses. It is the only flaw found by the scientist, yet he completely missed the reason for these discrepancies."
Kinza stood back from Knives. "Okay, your shoulders are finished. But I suggest you give them a day or two to settle properly. You'll be stiff in your joints for about a week or two. Now… where was I… Oh yes… Something happened that nearly blew the cover for the Plants. At this point, they were still only a mythical story bantered about in the stray corners of government offices. The first was the Chinese, who had launched a series of spy satellites that noticed the odd energy coming out of the Nevada Desert. The other was the head of the EPA."
"EPA?" Vash asked.
Kinza nodded. "The Environmental Protection Agency… a government agency in old Earth's United States. It seemed that someone let the EPA head know that the military had a new energy source that gave ample power, and no pollution. When the Chinese released their findings from their satellite, the EPA chief demanded the immediate release to the public of the technology called Plants. His reasoning was with the worsening pollution problems and the rapid loss of energy sources, having a system like this operational for the people was a matter of national security."
"And thus began our lives as energy slaves that they made for us!" Knives fumed.
Kinza returned to his chair and put the small wound healer away in its kit and pulled out a bigger one for Knives' leg wounds. "I can't argue with you there," he replied. "And worse yet, they came up with a cockamamie story about what was inside to bulbs. They didn't want to let on that the creature inside the Plant was anything but a human volunteer – to the military, the lie was about some medical experiment that went terribly wrong. In either case, the fact is that neither story given to either the public or the military was the truth." Kinza sat back and laughed as he adjusted the healer.
"What's so funny?" Knives bit, not seeing anything funny about this story.
"Sorry," Kinza apologized, "but there is a very strange twist of history here… you see, our mission to document histories involves more than just the history of this world, this Earth, or even just this dimension. We investigate multiple alternate histories and such as well. And in the month I've been with this ship, I've already seen two alternate histories to this one. We all know what became of this timeline – the Angel alien arrives on Earth and becomes a power source. On the level directly below this one dimensionally, the same incident is known as 'Second Impact' – the results were a near devastation of the planet… and the third one on the third level, well he's a friend of mine… His name is Chuck…" He got up and started on Knives' legs.
"So where is your Captain?" Vash asked. "It has been some time since I saw him last." Knives looked over at his brother confused. It then dawned on him who he was talking about.
"You don't mean that man who took you to the flying ship after I took your arm in July City?" he spat. "He was from your group?" he then lashed at his doctor. Kinza glanced up at him with an evil eye and continued with his work.
"Yes, the Captain has visited this world before doing advance scouting duty," Kinza noted. "He is currently at the Alpha Ship crash site – he said something about wanting to talk to your mother."
"Mother?" Vash asked. Knives was looking about as if the mention of Mother meant there was a presence in the room with them. "You mean the Plant that, well, you know…"
"Wasn't she… Didn't she…" Knives whispered. Kinza gave the healer a little surge making Knives wince slightly. He looked at the cat-like creature and saw a firm face looking back at him.
"Most of the Alpha Ship's Plants survived the destruction of the forward section," Kinza explained. "As the wreckage gathered to the rear, it shielded the aft section of the ship and cushioned the impact when it struck the ground in the dunes region of Southern December. On impact, Plant One exploded. The resulting firestorm created by the blast sealed the area around Plant Two under a three foot glaze of glass. But from what our scanners showed, she was still functional and operational. We made contact nearly a year ago." Knives watched as Kinza ground his teeth, obviously a bit agitated. "She is not very happy with you," he nearly snarled.
"Don't push your luck, furball. You're starting to make me mad," Knives hissed. But he was surprised to see that the anger in the creature's eyes failed to diminish, even with his added psychic burst he had placed in his threat.
Kinza snorted, and then gave his patient's left shoulder a slap with his palm. Knives saw a flash of light blind him momentarily as a sharp pain crashed through his body.
"Don't threaten your doctor," Kinza sniped. "Besides, you're one to talk! From what I've seen of the history data, you did most of what you did to somehow liberate your race, extinguish the humans, and make your brother suffer. How does attempting to kill your own mother explain your methods, humm?"
"You don't understand," Knives snapped. "There were necessary actions needed to be done, necessary sacrifices to be made…"
Kinza shook his head as he finished on the final wound. "Amazing – that's the same response given by all the megalomaniac dictators that I've had the pleasure of documenting, and I've only done a few weeks of this! Listen, if that's how you explain it to yourself, fine – but don't expect the Council of Plants to go for that malarkey."
Knives sat silently, his eyes wide open at the sound of that. Vash leaned into the table.
"Council of the who?" he asked. He knew his brother would have asked as well, but he seemed too petrified to move. Then a swell of thought struck him like a wave in the ocean. He looked at his brother and could have sworn that he saw his hair move as if submerged.
Kinza looked at the two and knew what was happening. He reached into his shirt and pulled out the device he had been told to wear and turned it down.
"Please wait," he thought. "Preparations are not done."
The wave subsided as Kinza returned the device to its full power setting. Knives blinked and looked over at him. He saw the Tomassamassa drop the doorknob looking item back down his shirt.
"What was that? WHAT WAS THAT?" he shouted. He was grasping the back of his chair with his hands trembling.
"That was your surviving elders," Kinza surmised, then glanced up, "and others it would seem."
"Others?"
Kinza nodded. "When SEEDS started their landings on this planet, twelve of the ships towards the back of the fleet managed to achieve escape velocity when Rem got the retro-rockets to fire. But when the Alpha ship's core computer exploded, contact was lost with their on-board systems. Since these ships were automated, there was no one to alter their courses, so the automatic systems took over and ran 'Fail Safe Protocol #1' – Safe Landing on the nearest body of land. Eight of the ships landed on the third moon, the other four on the fifth moon.
Vash sat back, his eyes wide -The fifth moon? Kinza nodded at him.
"You missed," he answered his worried stare. "Three of the ships were on the far side of the moon to your shot that put the hole in it. The forth was a close call, but they were safe… Mind you, you damn near got us, but we don't count!" Kinza picked up his kit and slung it over his shoulder. He stood up and looked at Knives.
"So, that's about it. I was sent to inform you about the pending trial. You are being held responsible for your actions starting from T-Minus 8 hours prior to planetary impact of the first ship. If you feel the need for representation, a lawyer will be provided for you. The trial will be in three months as of today. I suggest you start preparing."
Knives looked as if he was about to explode. "PREPARE! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO PREPARE FOR! I DEMAND TO SEE MY ACUSERS! I DEMAND!"
Kinza cocked his head to one side. "Okay, but you'll get the same information I'm giving you now, only in a more painful way. You see, my Captain is there right now pleading your case."
"What?" Knives whispered. "A human is pleading my case?"
"Shocking, ain't it?" Kinza smiled. "Though, Captain Strom is anything but just a human. Gentlemen, I bid you adieu. I'll leave you that com unit over there to contact us if need be, or to ask for assistance from Lawyer Services." With that the Tomassamassa headed for the door. Vash followed to let him out. Knives just sat at the table staring at the floor.
Vash followed Kinza into the yard, looking back at the shack to make sure his brother wasn't behind them. He looked back at the officer and found him standing nearby.
"He's never going to understand why they want to put him on trial you know," Kinza said in a matter-of-fact way. "It was your mother who demanded it – I think she misses her mate."
"We came to this planet to get away from war, hate and misery," Vash noted. "But we seem forever burdened by our ghosts, don't we?"
Kinza nodded. "I see that you no longer carry that gun with you. What about the one in your left arm?"
Vash reached into a pocket and tossed the cat-man a small metal rod. He examined it closely and noticed the carbon tinged end that had come from rapid explosions nearby.
"Ah," Kinza said tossing it back. "The firing pin, ea?" Vash nodded. Kinza laughed. "Well then, I'll just have to update my report – Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon is now only the Humanoid Tropical Depression!"
Vash smiled. "Listen, you said earlier, about the scientists who created our kind… something about not knowing what they had made…"
"You mean about the discrepancies in their readings on the 'offspring' of Angel 5?" Kinza shook his head. "Yea, he missed that one alright… but they did finally find out why they were off so much."
"And?"
Kinza sighed. "Call it fate, the work of the boss up there," he said while pointing at the sky, "who knows… The scientists weren't about to climb inside a Plant Containment Vessel to find out why, but oddly there were workers around the Plants that knew why. And maybe it was a big case of denial… The clones of Angel 5 were supposed to be like Angels 1 through 4, genetically inert, neither male nor female. But something happened. Genes switched. Chromosomes changed without permission. Who really knows? Even our readings aren't conclusive, and we have contacts way up there. But the Plantoids chose to be either males or females." Kinza laughed briefly. "It was finally acknowledged that they had true intelligence as well when it was found that one Plant insisted on a newspaper every morning, otherwise no power. Seems he wanted to know how the Anaheim Angels were doing."
Vash looked confused for a moment. Kinza snorted.
"They're a professional sports team," he answered Vash's perplexed puppy look. "Anyway, soon after the SEEDS ships departed, the Plants left behind became a bit erratic… there was that one in Detroit… oh, but that happened before SEEDS left… that's another story anyway… The main thing is the Plants were finally given their freedom with the Venus/Antarctic Treaty when the children came forth."
Vash blinked as Kinza started for his ship again. "Children? What children?" he asked as he followed close behind.
"What? You thought you two were the only ones?" Kinza asked the tall man. "You guys weren't even the first!"
He climbed on board the ship, removing the gun he hadn't needed and putting his kit away. He looked over towards the house, but found Vash next to his canopy.
"What will they do to him?" he asked the surprised cat-man.
"Keel-haul him I would think," Kinza let drop. "There is a massive swell of resentment in the Plantoids – many mates were lost in the bombarding of this planet with SEEDS ships. He may have wanted to wipe out the humans, but he ruined many of the Plants as well. We're trying to deal with the ones that have become rogue or wild because of the loneliness of their existence. Be it a rather odd and solo type of life, the Plantoids are quite social. But you should know that."
Vash nodded. "I was hoping that I was wrong. I have felt the pains of loss and thought they were just mine. The pains I feel in the air aren't imagination then. It is the cries of the Plants who have lost their… soul mates?"
Kinza shrugged and threw a switch. The ship started some turbines. "I wouldn't know that, but I wouldn't be surprised. Look, we'll be in orbit another day or two before we'll be heading off on our next mission. We've left a small crew at a base we've set up in the Angel's Wings section of July City."
Vash stood back and stared. "July? Why there?" he asked with near trepidation.
"There's mostly no one there to interfere with us, and in the meantime we can start some of the rebuilding needed," Kinza said while adjusting some controls. "Besides, the Captain said some of the cadets we're leaving here for the short time needs to rough it out a bit. Training exercises in other words."
Vash nodded. "So where are you off to?"
Kinza tapped on his com readout. "Looks like we hit the road on another of out dimensional history missions," he said while figuring out the notes. "Looks like a few levels down - Something about a world of monsters… ooh, scary!"
Vash smirked then got a serious look on his face. "Tell me Mr. Kinza… is there a chance that I may… see my mother?"
Kinza turned down the turbines slightly and looked at Vash. "She wants to see you very much. She told us that she had something she wanted to show you." Kinza sat back in his chair and pondered his controls a bit. When he glanced back, Vash was all weepy eyed and blubbering.
"Aw knock it off! You're getting my commander's Skat Back all wet!" he sarcastically sniped. "You take care of him now, hear? And get him properly ready for this trial. He needs you, Vash the Stampede!"
"But… but how do I do that?" the legend blubbered.
"I told you! Get a lawyer!" Kinza barked over the now increasing turbine sounds. "If you don't want to trust the ones we can provide you, maybe that cute lady that was following you can help – insurance folk know many lawyers!"
"Meryl? But I haven't seen her in almost three months!" Vash shouted over the din.
"Well you know where you left her! She's been waiting there ever since!" With that, Kinza yanked his canopy shut and waved farewell to the gunman. He brought the nose of the craft up and began the slow lifting process as to not blast Vash too hard with the dirt and sand. When he glanced down, he saw Vash standing like a statue with an odd look on his face. He wondered what that was all about, then spun the ship around to take him over the mesa.
"Skat Back 12 to Forrestal," he reported, "message delivered, two contacts made, both positive – Transmitter and disks also delivered. All is well – returning to base one."
"Roger that Kinza," the com system replied. "Negative return to base one, return to main ship instead."
There had been a change in the orders? That was interesting. Kinza brought his ship's engines up a bit and changed course into the upper atmosphere. Maybe the mission to play with the monsters couldn't wait?
Vash remained standing rigid as the remaining dust settled around him. There was a slight twitch in his face.
"She waited for… me?"
"Meow," a stray black cat said from the back of the thomas.
oOo
Next Episode
Redemption
The word means the act of redeeming or the condition of being redeemed.
Redeem
To recover ownership by paying a debt
To pay off
To turn in
To fulfill
To cash
To rescue
To save from sin
Next episode - Prelude Two of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - The Smoking Angel - The second in the Entry Trilogy
Can a man be redeemed from under a mountain of sins?
This isn't a no-smoking zone.
Tomassamassa, Elb Kinza, Roy Strom, Skat Backs, GENUINE DOORKNOB and the Starship Forrestal ©2003, 2018 Denivan Media Services – used with permission
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003, 2018 Yasuhiro Nightow
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003, 2018 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project
Edited 0309.11 - 0610.21 - 1218.06
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