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Nerima, the Miyamoto residence, Monday 12 July 2010, mid-morning...
"So it's been done?"
"Hai," Miyamoto Shigeru said as he gently drew in the soothing tobacco fumes from his pipe. Kneeling on the front porch of his home — located off the Sasame-dōri in Asahi-chō west of Hikarigaoka Park near the border with the city of Wakō in Saitama Prefecture — he gazed out at his lawn. "Given what was revealed in the news broadcasts yesterday, it didn't really surprise me. No doubt, people within the various organs of government felt that — since we wanted to 'wash our hands' of what Sōun and Genma were trying to create — anything they can do to ease the process along was proper."
Seated beside him as she enjoyed morning tea, his eldest granddaughter Kasumi giggled politely. While it was seen as grossly crass in Japanese society to expose such dishonourable acts to the general public, the idea of actually filming the final downfall of Saotome Genma in the presence of Moroboshi Negako had gained some wonderful dividends (to borrow Nabiki's words for it) for all those who had been associated with Genma or his best friend, the now-comatose Tendō Sōun. Remembering the scene the previous afternoon when the drivers of three taxis hired by the On Group (the company that managed the Yoshū Private Academy, located in the prefecture capital of Tochigi) to transport Nabiki, Akane and Karin to Ueno JR Station so they could take the Shin-kansen to Utsunomiya, Kasumi tried not to giggle again. Her sisters had been prepared to take the Toei Ōedo Line from Hikarigaoka to Ueno-okachimachi, where they would have transferred to Ueno-hirokōji and the Tōkyō Metro Ginza Line for Ueno itself, and then board the Shin-kansen; they didn't have much luggage with them and they had monetary allowances from their grandfather to purchase supplies while they were attending Yoshū. The drivers themselves had waved off such concerns when the girls got into the cabs, stating they had been TOLD by their dispatcher to get them to Ueno immediately just in case there were other monsters out there who'd want to try to replicate the actions of Kunō Tatewaki and the Hentai Horde at Fūrinkan High concerning Akane. And since the On Group was paying for it, the younger Miyamoto sisters didn't need to worry about forking out cash for the trip.
Kasumi then laughed as she remembered what she sensed from Akane on being told that, which made Shigeru gaze at her. She waved it off. "Just remembering what Akane-chan felt like when the taxi took her to Ueno," she explained.
The retired financier chuckled before he sobered. "How was this morning?"
"Mirumi-san texted me to tell me about the 'reception committees' set up for Nabiki-chan, Akane-chan and Karin-chan," she answered. "Akane-chan was able to take down all thirty freshmen fighters who were there to challenge her; it actually was so bad that some of the people complained to Kyoko-san that Akane-chan cheated." As he howled with merriment, she added, "Nabiki-chan was challenged to a snap game of go by the school's resident champion, Hanahada Yūko; we'd know her as Kōyū Bunkyo. It was a draw, which Yūko-san thought was quite acceptable for a non-tōshi. As for Karin-chan, she was challenged by Omomuro Mikiko; she was Jokan Ichō, one of the other Seven Scholars of Jiàn'ān. Karin-chan had to create a small poem right then and there, then say it to everyone." She giggled. "She did very good according to Mirumi-san. She tells me that Mikiko-chan might have undergone her time of the month with Karin-chan right there."
He nodded. Getting a new granddaughter in Miyamoto Karin — known among her fellow tōshi as the reborn Poet of Dùshì Ford, Chinrin Kōshō — had been one of the wonderful gifts his granddaughters' interaction with the fighters of the Seven Battle Schools of Kantō had given them over the last two weeks. All badly shaken when Akane's then fiancé, Hayashi (né Saotome) Ranma, had been paralyzed thanks to his would-be wife Nǚ Shānpú, Shigeru's granddaughters would have probably sunk even further into the empty emotional pit the death of their mother Kimiko years ago unleashed on them and their father. Fortunately, as Ranma was recuperating at Nerima General Hospital, he made the acquaintance of Moroboshi Tariko, a weekend nursing volunteer who was the twin sister of the most famous teenager in Japan today. Noting immediately what was going on with Akane's iinazuke, Tariko called in her adopted older sister Negako, the grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū — the sister school of Musabetsu Kakutō-ryū that Shigeru's son-in-law had claimed to be a master of — to help in getting him back on his feet via DNA-recombination therapy provoked by a blood transfusion from an Avalonian bioroid clone that would eventually become his own spiritual twin sister, Kanami.
That meeting also brought Tariko's other adopted sister Hiromi into Ranma's life. Known to her peers as "Ryūkō Kyōrei" and commonly referred to as "Reitei", she had been Liú Hóng, the Xiàolíng Emperor of the Latter Hàn Dynasty, in her first life...which effectively made her the spiritual "emperor" of all tōshi in this life. That contact between Ranma and Hiromi, coinciding with other events, would eventually see Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane become three new sisters of the Avalonians, the race of quite beautiful human-looking bioroid women that had fled to Earth in February to escape a century-long living hell of chattel slavery. That, coinciding with Hiromi's desire to see her brother and sister tōshi be forever free of the "Fate of the Magatama" — the dark future that was said to haunt all those who had been reborn from the period of the fall of the Hàn Dynasty and the rise of the Three Kingdoms — would ultimately win the Tendō sisters the favour and protection of Yoshū. Provoked by Akane's new sensei and later lover Ebisu Kyoko — now called "Koshaji Gin'yō"; Akane had been the one to propose the "style name" add-on to her beloved's battle name — and driven by Akane's understandable desire to get away from Fūrinkan High and Kunō Tatewaki once and for all, that favour saw the youngest daughter of Tendō Sōun get a virtual twin sister in Karin, a demon with a calligraphy brush whose beautiful way with words could both impress and injure in the very same sentence. Nabiki and Kasumi had benefited from such contact as well; invited to join the crews of ten starships assigned to the newly-formed United Nations Earth Defence Force on their first deep-space mission to the planet Yaminokuni, both made the acquaintance of two of the 213 plank owner crew of Her Majesty's Canadian Starship Haida, Naval Cadet Ikusawa Kyōko and Ordinary Seaman (Recruit) Sasamoto Narumi respectively.
For Narumi, a pure-born Terran-form Avalonian-Canadian modelled on a character from an adult video game from the late 1990s called Zenkoku Seifuku Bishōjo Grand Prix — her template was a first-year high school student from Kōriyama in Fukushima who was a passionate sportswoman, specializing in soccer and swimming — it had literally been love at first sight when she had met Kasumi...as it had been for Kyōko when she had met Nabiki.
Even now, after experiencing "the time of the month" — the Avalonian nickname for the overwhelming telepathic/empathic drive that could be triggered deep within their souls which would make them move to forge a psi-bond with a perfectly compatible "bond-mate" — with the tomboyish redhead with the pale green eyes and the lovely tanned skin, Kasumi still felt that she had fallen head-first into the Twilight Zone without any warning...and found herself wondering when that very nice Rod Serling fellow would finally come along to confirm that had actually happened to her.
"So when are you going?" Shigeru then mused.
Kasumi jolted. "Ojii-san!"
He chuckled. "Kasumi-chan, I've met several of the Avalonians who have settled down here in this part of Nerima," he stated. "I actually watched what happens when one un-bonded girl meets up with another un-bonded girl and that thing in their minds clicks in to make them bond-mates. You NEED to be with Narumi-chan now, magomusume-chan." At her blush at his calling her "granddaughter" in the caring way he had always done, he sighed. "I'll be alright. I've lived alone since your grandmother died. I have people who come by to help me and help keep the house clean. Much that I'm more than happy to give you a place to stay so that you can get back on your feet after being made to waste away at your father's house, it's time for you to go make a home you can call your own. That will be in Canada with Narumi-chan. Go do it."
She gazed on him, and then she took a deep breath...
A Nice Quiet Place
by Fred Herriot
A side story to Phoenix From the Ashes
Proofreading done by Rose1948, Rashaan Butler and Sonic 0704.
Based on Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura, created by Takahashi Rumiko; and Ikkitōsen, created by Shiozaki Yūji.
Including characters and references from Gunslinger Girl, created by Aida Yū; Mahō Sensei Negima, created by Akamatsu Ken; the True Love Story series, created by ASCII and Enterbrain; the Jack Ryan novels, created by Tom Clancy; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and The Last American Vampire, written by Seth Graham-Smith; Boys Be..., created by Itabashi Masahiro and Tamakoshi Hiroyuki; Sayonara Zetsubō-sensei, created by Kumeta Kōji; Girl Friends, created by Libido; Zenkoku Seifuku Bishōjo Grand Prix, created by Lyceen; Ojō-sama Express, created by MediaWorks; Little Lovers She So Game, created by NTT Publishing; Harry Potter, created by Joanna K. Rowling; the combined works of Sabashi Ren'ya; Battle Royale, created by Takami Kōshun (as also interpreted by Taguchi Masayuki and Keith Giffen); the Final Romance series, created by Video System; Dan Cooper, created by Albert Weinburg; Buffy The Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon; Highlander, created by Gregory Widen; Top Gun, created by Ehud Yonay, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr; and Doki Doki Pretty League, created by Xing.
One and Only (1980), written and produced by Burton Cummings, first released on his studio album Woman Love by CBS Records Canada Ltd.
Phoenix From the Ashes was derived from the fanfic The Bet: Crippled, written by Gregg Sharp. This story also contains characters and situations from the fanfic series Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year, created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot.
WRITER'S INTRODUCTION
This side story takes a look at some of the characters from Phoenix From the Ashes, further expanding on what happened after everyone returned to Earth in the wake of the UNEDF's first deep space mission to Yaminokuni. I also managed to take the opportunity to explain somewhat about what had happened to Redet Hensō between the "divorce" she suffered at Onishuto and when she was kidnapped by the Yaminokuni...not to mention how Miyamoto (née Tendō) Kasumi adjusts to finally being able to live her own life without the demands of caring for her family weighing down on her shoulders.
Again, many thanks to The Wandering Soul of 1014 for his private requests for more information concerning the characters in this series, thus inspiring this short story.
Her Majesty's Canadian Starship Haida, in orbit over Toronto, Sunday 11 July 2010, two hours before midnight (Tōkyō time: Monday 12 July 2010, an hour before lunch)...
"Permission to come aboard?"
"Permission granted, Miss Miyamoto. Welcome back aboard Haida."
Miyamoto Kasumi deeply bowed to the quartermaster of the watch who had been waiting for her after she had appeared on one of the pads in Materializer Room Six, serving today as the Canadian starship's "quarterdeck", the place where people coming to or going from Haida would board or step off the ship. Given that Haida was a starship and that there was no corresponding star base in the Star Trek sense of the term for the ship to be docked alongside of for personnel transfers, a lot of the ceremonial rules that had governed the Canadian Navy for a hundred years had to be radically changed to accept the new reality of operating in deep space. "Thank you for allowing me to come here," she said.
The quartermaster bowed his head in turn. Master Seaman Troy Mason was a native of Moncton, late of H.M.C.S. Protecteur, the replenishment ship that was currently based in Esquimalt outside Victoria on Vancouver Island. A boatswain by trade and an eight-year veteran of the Navy, he had been selected to come aboard Canada's first starship — along with a crew of three dozen other professional military sailors — so that they could write the new deck manual for manning such a complex craft that was both a ship in the classical navy sense...and an enormous aircraft in the classical air force sense. Troy had heard about the wild debates that had rocked National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa in February as Navy admirals and Air Force generals hotly argued how such a vessel as Haida would be manned and controlled. It had finally been decided that since Haida was a ship first and foremost, the "senior service" would take overall charge of her...but would defer to the "junior service" when it came to operating the ship while in atmosphere.
Or as ship's navigation officer Lieutenant (Navy) Michelle Anderson put it when she had been asked, "We ship drivers have to learn now how to think in three dimensions instead of two!"
"Well, since you are effective next-of-kin to one of the plank owners, ma'am, you're more than welcome to come aboard when we're not deployed," Troy said as the boatswain mate of the watch, Able Seaman Jean-Paul Bonnar, headed over to help lift the three suitcases Kasumi had brought with her from Nerima off the materializer pad. "Since you're also planning to go to McMaster in September, it just saves you a tonne of money in hotel costs before you can either get your own apartment or get a place in the dorms. Or are you and Ordinary Seaman Sasamoto planning to get your own house?"
"Well, we need to know where this rather large ship is going to be based first," Kasumi stated as her eyes twinkled with delight at the level of help her lover's shipmates were willing to give to her — a civilian from another nation! — as she transitioned from her old life into becoming a freshman pre-medical student at one of Canada's largest universities, located in the Ontario city of Hamilton at the west end of Lake Ontario where Haida's legendary namesake was docked in honoured retirement. Despite the presence of a universal translator field on the starship, she spoke English with a faint accent; she wouldn't have the benefit of such translator fields when she went to McMaster, so the more practice she could get in using one of Canada's official languages prior to her facing her IELTS test, the better. "Any news on that?"
"Not a peep, ma'am," Jean-Paul stated with a shake of his head as he took his place behind the materializer control panel, moving to cycle down the system. "Did you get checked in by Customs on Station Aurora before we beamed you over?"
"Yes, I did," Kasumi said before her eyes focused on the ship's crest over the young sailor's name tag. She was quick to notice that the centre of the badge was blue overall, a gold-and-white compass rose topped with a blue fleur-de-lis in that field, that over a mix of white-and-blue wavy horizontal lines (the heraldic symbol for water)...though the top white line melted into a zigzag pattern that might represent mountains. She could barely read the name atop the badge below the naval crown that always topped Canadian warship crests. "Excuse me, but what ship is that?" she asked as she pointed.
The native of Sept-Îles smiled. "Navire Canadien de Sa Majesté Jolliet," he answered in Français — Kasumi heard it said "Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Jolliet" — before switching to accented English. "I'm part of a naval reserve unit that's based on the north shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence at Sept-Îles in Québec. There were a whole bunch of us from all the naval reserve divisions across the country who were called out to augment the ship's crew when she deployed to Yaminokuni." He then smirked as he and Troy exchanged looks. "Can't let the mud-eaters and zoomies have all the fun, eh?"
"You can say that again...oh!"
Both men braced themselves to attention as the doors to the room swooped open, revealing a very pretty woman appearing in her mid-twenties, possessing blonde-brown hair stylishly cut short and deep brown eyes. On seeing her, Kasumi was quick to sense she was an Avalonian herself, though the feel of her soul indicated she was Terran-turned and not Terran-form; there was a noticeable aura of age and knowledge within her that people like Sasamoto Narumi lacked. The rank insignia on her shoulder boards also hinted at her true origins; an officer, she had the two thick stripes (with that cute circular loop on the upper stripe which was nicknamed "Elliot's Eye" and marked that this woman possessed the Queen's Commission) sandwiching a thin stripe of a lieutenant commander in the Canadian Navy. Kasumi was quick to note that she also had an interesting add-on to the slip-ons bearing her rank insignia beyond Haida's new "shoulder flash" badge: Instead of the nearly-black background between the stripes of her rank, she wore scarlet red.
"Doctor Cooper," Troy called out.
The doctor smiled at the two seamen, then gazed on the new arrival who had just beamed in from Japan. "Elaine Cooper," she introduced herself, holding her hand out. "I'm the ship's new chief medical officer. Just got assigned on Friday."
"On Friday?!" Kasumi gasped as she took the doctor's hand and shook it, glad to sense that the older woman's psi-shields were up so that no thoughts would leak out. The elder Miyamoto daughter had learned how to do the same thanks to Narumi. Given that doctors carried a lot of personal information in their heads about their patients, allowing such breaches in privacy to occur was grossly unethical. "Then...!"
"The same reason Admiral Thompkins wasn't assigned as commander until after the Task Force dealt with the Urusian Imperials and Ōgi." Here, the ship's new chief medical officer rolled her eyes. "Bureaucratic SNAFUs. Anyhow..."
She gestured with her hand, making Kasumi's suitcases levitate into the air. On seeing that, the younger woman croaked out. "You're magical?!" she gasped.
"Non-magical psychokinetic, natural-born," Elaine answered as she escorted Kasumi out of the materializer room, the latter's luggage floating a metre off the deck behind them. "We may not be as thick on the ground as our magical brethren, but we're there. What happened in World War Two thanks to the Übermenschen Gruppe made sure of that."
The younger woman nodded. Metahumans had begun appearing in the late 1930s all over the planet. Possessing a wide gamut of powers from the physical to energy manipulation to super speed travel to flight capabilities to the psionic and everything else imaginable, many soon adopted garish costumes to hide their identities from the general public as they went off to have all sorts of insane adventures, either breaking the law or serving as vigilantes working to keep the former group contained; doing that earned them all the moniker "mystery men" as a whole from the general public. When World War Two came, governments of various nations readily brought such people into national service to aid in the war effort. Atop that, genetic experiments done by the Germans and Americans produced more metahumans to serve directly as shock troops that could hit far behind the front lines as a way of disrupting the enemy's overall ability to fight. The Übermenschen Gruppe, Nazi Germany's most infamous primary metahuman force, were experts in such missions, causing considerable havoc across North America after America entered the war in 1941...until they ran headlong into the War Hawks, four Canadian servicemen, each representing one of the federal uniformed services, who were led by the Protector of All Life and Earth's Seeker Jewel Warrior, Major (now Major General) Dean Raeburn. In comparison to the War Hawks, the Übermenschen were ultimately found quite wanting; the group was totally destroyed by war's end.
"How were you trained?" Kasumi then asked.
"Back before she retired the first time, General Raeburn proposed the idea of creating a tri-service 'specialized warfare regiment' as a successor unit to the War Hawks. The service chiefs — since the battles between 1 CSWU and the Übermenschen was just way too fresh in people's minds — felt it would provoke a 'metahuman arms race', especially with the Cold War going on at the same time. However, knowing that particular genie was forever out of the bottle, the general created a private school for metahumans at her family home in British Columbia to train as long as students were willing to take the oath of service and joined the military or the Mounted Police." Elaine grinned. "Even if she was pulling the pin and about to become Earth's first deep space traveller in 'Fifty-four, Sensei was always thinking ten steps ahead of the game."
Kasumi grinned. "You call her 'Sensei'?"
"Wouldn't you?"
A nod in acknowledgement answered her. "True, you're right, um..."
"Call me Elaine," the doctor said with a smile. "We have a mutual friend: Stan Gossip."
Kasumi blinked. "Then why isn't Doctor Gossip a major?" Having travelled on Haida for the trip back to Earth — the Miyamoto sisters save Nabiki had been aboard the Canadian starship's British sistership, H.M.S. Hood, on the trip to Yaminokuni — she had a good idea on what the rank insignia worn by Canadian military personnel meant. Given that (until the executive curl was placed back on the rank insignia of Navy officers at the start of June as part of the celebrations marking the centennial of the founding of that service) the rank insignia design for all elements of the Canadian Forces were the same at each rank level, Kasumi knew that Elaine was the equivalent of an Army or Air Force major.
"Reserve promotions aren't as fast as regular promotions," the doctor answered as they entered a turbolift. Captain (Doctor) Stan Gossip was a medical officer now serving as part of 23 Field Ambulance in Hamilton, a reserve unit of the Canadian Forces Health Services Group; he was a general practitioner and family doctor in civilian life. He had deployed to Yaminokuni as the temporary chief medical officer of a just-reformed armoured regiment, the 2nd/10th Dragoons of Niagara Falls, with a medical platoon from his unit to provide first-line health services support; it was through him that Kasumi was recommended to attend McMaster University, his alma mater. "We graduated from McMaster in 'Ninety-eight; I'm originally from Georgetown, north of Hamilton. Wardroom Flats!" she called out.
The younger woman perked. "Why there?"
"Because you're a guest, you'll be quartered with the junior officers," Elaine explained. "Yes, you're going to eventually bond with an ordinary seaman, but Brian insists that you and your sister (when she comes here) are treated as proper guests. Which means privileges in the wardroom. And yes, you can invite Narumi in if you want."
Kasumi's eyebrow arched, noting that Elaine had just referred to her own commanding officer, Captain (Navy) Brian Gamblin, by given name. Is Elaine-san trying to be Gamblin-taisa's resident conscience, just like McCoy-sensei is to Kirk-taisa in Star Trek? she wondered to herself before asking, "Would that be proper?"
"I'm sure Chief Beaulieu would curse the blue streak about it...but he's just too professional a sailor to make his disapproval public like that." Elaine then winked. "Besides, you're going to be an in-law to a rather wonderful group of young ladies. I'm so glad Lady Negako came up with the idea of augmenting the souls of all the plank owners with those poor lost souls trapped in that magical forest on Nanban Island."
"Did you actually meet Narumi before Haida was commissioned?"
"I was part of the team that did their recruitment medical screening." Here, Elaine tried not to wince. "Dear God...the emptiness inside them back then...!"
Kasumi reached over to squeeze her shoulder in reassurance. "It's alright, Elaine. It's all better now."
A smile crossed the older woman's face. "Thank God for that," she noted as the turbolift car came to a stop and the doors opened to reveal one of Haida's would-be stewards.
Kasumi, of course, knew them all on sight. "Seina!"
"Hey, Kasumi," Yamaguchi Seina said before she reached over to take two of the suitcases in hand. "You can relax yourself, ma'am. I can take it from here."
Elaine nodded as she allowed the last suitcase to settle down on the deck, then she handed Kasumi a small pill bottle. "Here's something to help you adjust yourself to Eastern time. Take it with tea, then go to bed. Wake up is at seven o'clock and the bos'n calls can hurt your ears when they're piped through the intercom."
"Of course," Kasumi said.
The doctor went back into the turbolift to head to her quarters a deck up. The ship's wardroom was set on Deck A6 in the mid-level part of the upper forward superstructure off to the starboard of the ship's centre-line at the aft end. Junior officers quarters were set to port and various machinery spaces, sensory control rooms and weapons control stations were located forward, including the main Fire Control Room. This was also the deck the main observation lounge was sited on, though one had to descend to Deck A5 before going forward and up to the dome-line structure overlooking one of Haida's sixteen-cell anti-ship missile launchers and Turret B, not to mention four of the anti-small ship/aircraft gun mounts. Given that the creation of the Haida-class Type One space battleship/carriers had been inspired by shows as divergent as Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Uchū Senkan Yamato, it didn't surprise Kasumi that the ship named after the People of the Thunderbird on Haida Gwaii could be both as warm as a country mansion...and as cold as a military barracks in wartime.
Then again, Her Majesty's Canadian Starship Haida was a warship first and foremost.
"'I intend to go in harm's way'," she then whispered.
"You know John Paul Jones?" a strange voice then asked.
Kasumi stopped, then she turned to see an American navy captain step out of the wardroom. He was currently being escorted by Captain Jessica "Slipstream" Miller, one of the pilots of 434 (Bluenose) Space Tactical Fighter Squadron that Nabiki had befriended during the Task Force's mission. During the fight over Yaminokuni, Kasumi's sister and her would-be lover had volunteered to fly one of Haida's CSF-196 Starfires into the wrecked hull of the stealth cruiser Redemption to retrieve a materializer unit bearing the living bodies of 135 Avalonian-Niphentaxian hybrids (who had disguised themselves as pure-born Niphentaxians) that had been working to sabotage Redemption's mission from within. "Well, since Jessica's people tried to kidnap my sister and make her put on a bus driver uniform, I felt it was only wise to better understand the great naval warfare philosophers, Captain," Kasumi then answered as her eyes sparkled with amusement.
Jessica awked in mock outrage while the older officer laughed with delight. "This is Numbers' sister, Slipstream?" he then asked his escort as he moved out of Seina's way so that she could get Kasumi's luggage shifted into guest quarters.
"That she is, sir," the fighter pilot from Brandon in Manitoba said before she flashed Kasumi an I'll Get You Back for That! look. She then took a deep breath before making a face. "I still can't believe Numbers wants to be a log wog."
Kasumi smiled; she could sense that Jessica had also been flying a Starfire that day...and only felt it right and proper to encourage Nabiki to pursue such a career. No doubt, the other Starfire pilots on Haida felt the same way, impressed by Nabiki's courage in the face of doing a crazy stunt like that even if her lover had been flying the aircraft. "Well, without logistics, a military force simply can't move," she then advised. "Nabiki's understood that for a long time."
The American nodded. "Still, it's good to know that people who were trained in the traditions of one of the daughter schools of the Tensei-ryū can adjust so quickly to different situations," he stated before gazing expectantly at Jessica.
Taking the hint, the Canadian pilot smiled. "Kasumi, this is Captain Peter Mitchell, call-sign 'Maverick'," she began introductions. "One of the most dangerous flyers you will ever meet outside Captain Kazanski and Colonel Cooper. Currently the commander of Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada until next week, when he'll report aboard Arizona and become Commander Air Group of the 72nd Carrier Air Wing." To the captain. "Sir, this is Miyamoto Kasumi, older sister of Miyamoto Nabiki, call-sign 'Numbers'. She'll bond with Ordinary Seaman Sasamoto Narumi on New Year's Day morning after boot camp's done. She also intends to attend McMaster University to become a doctor."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Miyamoto," Mitchell stated as he held out his hand.
Kasumi warmly gripped it. "The pleasure's...!"
The alarm klaxon suddenly wailed to life. "Action stations! Action stations!" the voice of Jean-Paul Bonnar echoed over the intercom. "All personnel, man your battle stations! Potentially hostile alien starship now approaching Earth!"
The klaxon bonged again. "C'mon!" Mitchell called out as he and Jessica sprinted for the nearest accommodation ladder that lead up to the operations room.
Before Kasumi could wonder what she should do, Seina's hand snared hers. "This way!"
She was then pulled into the wardroom...
The operations room...
"Admiral on the deck!"
"Carry on! Report!"
"Ma'am, Station Alert has picked up an incoming vessel, bearing 140 mark 172 off galactic north," Yoshino Tomomi called out from her station at the forward end of the room. "We have the contact on sensors, designate same Blackbird Six."
"Ma'am, that's the same bearing as the Phentax system," Takanashi Naoko added from her place at the starboard side of the main plotting table.
Hearing that, Rear Admiral Heather Thompkins grimaced as she took her seat at the aft end of the table. Despite the galling lack of decent on-the-job training because of the bureaucratic circuses that began when these ships were brought to Earth in the middle of February, the determination of the crew to succeed in whatever task set before them shone like a sun, Terran and Avalonian alike. To the Québec-born arch-mage who was known more commonly as "Spitfire", it was a very good sign...even though she had aces up her sleeve in case whoever this clown coming in had some surprises of his or her own. "Commander Tai, can you get an ID on this idiot?" she asked.
Bren Tai was a handsome blond Oni-Urusian with blue-grey eyes, appearing to be a man in his late twenties; he was now seen as "Oni-adopted Avalonian" thanks to DNA-recombination therapy. One of the people who had been captured in the Dead Grove on Yaminokuni almost a week before, he had been allowed to resettle on Earth in the wake of his being effectively orphaned by his own people due to the move by the government in Onishuto to forever wipe out the Imperial Round once and for all time. That had hurt him badly; even if he was a scion of one of the noble houses of the old Urusian Empire, he was a moderate politically even if he did support the Empire's formal restoration as a constitutional monarchy similar to how Canada was governed. Now a brevet lieutenant commander in the Canadian Navy, he was administratively a member of the ship's company of H.M.C.S. Star in Hamilton on Class C operational call-out to Haida. Given his experience in the Urusian Defence Force — he had topped out as a first officer on a Kashin-class battlewagon — his knowledge about local space defence forces was as precious now to Heather Thompkins as all the gold in Gringotts.
"Ma'am, ECM shows the bandit is a Tsubasa-class destroyer," he said from his place at the combat officer's station. "Army of Lum ID. Running it through the war book now..."
"How in Lyna's name did the ship penetrate past the Ceres barrier?" Naoko wondered as she exchanged looks with Michelle Anderson. "Madame Academician specifically programmed the system to detect Niphentaxian life signs..."
"Admiral, Station Alert now reports that Blackbird Six is moving directly towards assuming Earth orbit," Tomomi announced as she tapped controls to bring up a holographic screen on the main plotting table so the people there could see what was going on. "If they're not stopped, standard orbit will be achieved in six minutes."
"Bless the Frozen Chosen," Haida's captain mused from the head of the table.
Everyone in the room chuckled on hearing that popular nickname for the personnel posted to Earth's most northerly inhabited settlement. Canadian Forces Station Alert, located thirteen kilometres west of Cape Sheridan on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut and 817 kilometres south of the North Pole, had been a military signals intelligence station since 1956. Administratively part of 8 Wing of the Air Force out of Trenton east of Toronto while operationally under the control of both the United Nations Earth Defence Force and the North American Aerospace Defence Command — and having been given official squadron status as 81 Signal Intelligence Squadron in May — CFS Alert's capabilities had been drastically upgraded by the Avalonians to make it one of the main control bases for a thick blanket of sensor drones that formed several detection lines between the asteroid belt and the orbit of Mars. Due to the equipment upgrades and the enhanced mission profile, Alert had become an attractive posting request across Canada, especially for officers and non-commissioned members of the Communications and Electronics Branch; the station was still considered a remote location, where personnel were only assigned there for six-month tours on average.
"Life scans?" Heather asked.
"Aye, ma'am," Michelle stated from her post on the port side of the main plotting table, tapping a control. "Main Sensory, Ops. What's in Blackbird Six right now?"
"Ops, Main Sensory," came a reply from the Main Sensor Control Room a deck down. "Life scans complete. Registering a total of thirty crew, all Terran-form Avalonians."
Everyone blinked as some of the people in the room nodded; the shielding system that had been put in place by Yiziba's most feared metahuman scientist to keep natives of the worlds of the Galactic Federation, the Ipraedies Empire and the Seifukusu Dominion away from Earth wouldn't react if it detected Terran or Avalonian life signs passing the Ceres orbit line. "How in the Maidens' Names is that possible?!" Tai demanded. "A Tsubasa-class needs at least six hundred!"
"Automation?"
Eyes locked on the young man in the white jumpsuit now seated at the master control board next to Tai's station; in normal sailing watches, the officer of the watch would be seated there. "Could they be automated?" Brian Gamblin asked.
Tai grimaced. "It's possible, sir," he confessed. "But not normally done..."
"Whoever these people are, they might have been out of range of the factory when the recall happened," Naoko then proposed. "There has always been..."
"The chance of stragglers," Heather finished.
"Aye, ma'am."
"Boarding party?" Gamblin proposed.
The admiral blinked before she nodded. "All Avalonians. Just in case."
"Aye, ma'am. Officer of the Watch, muster the duty boarding party."
"Aye, sir!" Michelle acknowledged...
Now approaching Earth...
"Master, we have detected our missing sisters."
A calm voice echoed over the intercom, "Excellent. Prepare to beam them aboard."
"Hai."
The Avalon bioroid factory (at Lagrange Point One between the Earth and the Moon), an observation dome over Gestation Tower #98, that moment...
"Evil swine...!"
Controller, if the sentience now piloting that destroyer achieves his mission, both Her Majesty's Canadian Starship Haida and Japanese Starship Yamato will be totally stripped of their founding crews.
A grim nod was made in acknowledgement. "That cannot be allowed. Take me to this creature."
Done.
In a flash of energy, a would-be warrior-priestess of the Wise Lord of Zoroastrianism from another dimension and ten years back in time teleported herself away from her private quarters...
Aboard Haida...
A shocked gasp escaped the young-looking veteran of World War Two at the aft end of the main plotting table. "Admiral!" Master Seaman Kelley Saunders — she was one of the starship's team of naval combat information operators that helped directly control Haida during any operational manoeuvres — called out as she moved to prevent Heather Thompkins from collapsing onto the deck as Hakaru Ayami got up from the chief engineering officer's station to help.
"Ma'am, are you okay?!" Gamblin called out.
"Casualty Clearance Team, to the Operations Room!" AB Jean-Paul Bonnar called out over the intercom. He had come up from the quarterdeck when the ship went to action stations; MS Troy Mason had gone to the steering room in the very centre of the ship to pilot her out in case she had to break orbit and intercept the target.
"On the way!" Elaine Cooper's voice called out from the ship's medical station.
As Heather was helped into her chair, Ayami reached up to touch the admiral's face and probe her mind to see what hurt the arch-mage so; the would-be middle school senior who (to tōshi) was known better as "Jun'iku Bunjaku" had become an Avalonian shortly after she returned to Earth in February. A second later, the elder of the pair who created the Haida-class star battleships blinked as she pulled her hand away. The other Avalonians in the room were quick to sense the shock and confusion now rocking Ayami; given her magical skills — which included masteries in magic-based mind arts such as Occlumency and Legilimency — Heather Thompkins was a black hole to their empathic senses.
"Onē-sama, what's wrong...?" Naoko fretfully began.
"Someone who's as powerful as Raeburn-shōshō, Naoko-chan," Ayami said, which made all the people in the room pale. "Obā-sama sensed someone appear on the target destroyer who has a device that is similar to her friend's Power Jewel."
"Can we get the general up here now?!" Michelle demanded as the thought of facing a being who could probably fight Dean Raeburn to a standstill made her heart seize up.
"No...!"
Gamblin's head snapped over. "Ma'am?!"
Heather groaned as she tried to allow her own Occlumency to restore her mind to normal after being swamped by that wave of both ungodly cosmic power and uncompromising grim purpose she picked up from the incoming alien ship. After a minute — by then, two medics from Sick Bay and two of the ship's musicians with a litter were stepping inside, they being intercepted by Ki Tsukihana (Kōgetsuei) so they could be briefed on what was going on — the admiral took a deep breath. "Have Alert scan the newcomer," she hoarsely instructed, ignoring the buzzing of a hand-held sensor being used now by Corporal Jim Woodson to scan her. "I think they'll find something very interesting there."
"Aye, ma'am!" Michelle said as she tapped a control. "Inukshuk, this is Thunderbird, do you copy?"
"This is Inukshuk, Thunderbird," came the reply from the northern tip of Ellesmere Island. "The target's come to a stop now. Current position is just inside the Moon's orbit, close to Lagrange Point Three. Confirmed your life scan readings. Terran-form Avalonians, total number thirty. There's something else there, but sensors are having a very hard time trying to lock in on it. We're trying to re-calibrate sensors now."
"Thunderbird, this is Citadel Springs," a new voice laden with a British accent cut in. "Confirm what Inukshuk just picked up from the bogey. We've seen this energy reading before. According to our magical friends, it's some strange lady with a power staff who's been appearing from time to time in various enclaves on Earth and on Nerio, too. Given past evidence, we don't think this one's hostile."
Heather blinked as she allowed Sasamoto Narumi to inject a stimulant into her neck. "Citadel Springs, this is Spitfire," she said. "Do you have a floo portal there?"
"A-a-affirmative, ma'am," came a nervous reply. Hearing that from whoever was talking to the admiral from Royal Air Force Station Menwith Hill — like CFS Alert, the signals listening post near the spa town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire was also a part of the pan-national ECHELON Network run jointly by the communications intelligence agencies of Canada, America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand; also like Alert, RAF Menwith Hill's mission capabilities had been greatly expanded thanks to the Avalonians — the people in the operations room grinned in understanding. To actually speak to one of the War Hawks would be seen as quite the privilege. "One of the people is trying to call the..."
"Hello!"
Heather blinked again. "Luna?!"
"Oh, hello, Admiral!" Luna Lovegood called in, her voice as clear as day. "Seems we have a crossed floo connection here. Were your friends trying to call Harry?"
The older woman nodded. "Yes. Luna, can you come through and have one of the people at Menwith Hill beam you up to the Haida? There's something I need confirmed right now."
"Certainly!"
"She just came through, ma'am," the gentleman who had took the call from the Canadian starship then reported. "One of the others is getting her to the materializer unit."
"Direct to the Operations Room; starboard aft quarter," the admiral instructed.
"Right away, ma'am."
Seconds later, the tell-tale ring of a materializer echoed through the space as a shower of light and energy allowed a certain blonde newspaper reporter and magical naturalist from Ottery Saint Catchpole to appear. As soon as she was free of the transporter-like beam, Luna breathed out...before she noted the pale look on Heather Thompkins' face. "Oh, my!" she gasped as she drew her wand and move to make some first aid diagnostics.
"It's alright, ma'am," Jim Woodson stated. He was an Air Force native of Cornwall in Ontario who had been assigned to Haida the same day as Elaine Cooper. "The admiral sensed a very powerful wave of energy from the alien ship we just detected coming our way."
"Luna, the people at Menwith Hill report this mysterious girl who's been appearing in enclaves on Earth and on Nerio you told me about is involved," Heather stated. "Has there been ANY attempt recently at trying to contact her?"
Luna's eyes went wide. "The Vinur Drekar?!" she gasped before shaking her head. "None. She does talk to people — usually those she saves from being hurt by things like rampaging griffin-dragons like she did Poyo Rainyday on Nerio sometime ago — but she's never given her name or revealed anything else about where she comes..."
"Thunderbird, this is Arrow Three."
Everyone perked. "Colonel Cooper?!" Michelle called out.
"That's affirmative," Lieutenant Colonel Dan Cooper, chief test pilot at the detachment of the Aerospace Engineering and Test Establishment on International Space Factory Station Sethlans at Lagrange Point Four, calmly replied. "We got the warning message from Inukshuk about the bogie. Lucky thing I was doing a test flight with Romeo-Lima-Two-Zero-Three when the call came in. I'm on approach to the bandit right now."
"Coop, please tell me you're armed!"
Eyes locked on Pete Mitchell; the future CAG of CVW 72 had come to the operations room, but kept quiet as he watched what was going. "That you, Mav?!" Cooper called back before he chuckled. "They let you free, eh?"
"Somewhat," Mitchell replied as the Canadians all grinned. "You carrying?"
"Even on test hops," Cooper coldly replied.
"Arrow Three, this is Inukshuk," the operator at Alert cut in. "We got you at six-kay klicks from the bandit and approaching. Do you have helmet targeting sensors?"
"That's affirmative, Inukshuk. I'll see if I can get some close up shots when I get in range," Cooper replied. "Bandit doesn't seem to be raising shields."
People blinked. On detecting the multiple layers of sensor nets set up inside the solar system, any competent warship captain in the local cluster would have defensive shields on-line to ensure that, if there was an accidental discharge of weapons, no one would be hurt. "EWCR, Ops," Michelle called to the Electronic Warfare Control Room.
"Ops, EWCR," Sub-Lieutenant Carol Moore called back.
"Scan Blackbird Six, Carol. Does she have shields up?"
"Wait one, ma'am," the younger MARS officer replied. As people waited, Luna gave Heather a vial of pepper-up to help the arch-mage stay awake. She never went ANYWHERE without a magical "first aid kit" which included capped vials of all the necessary lifesaving potions; said kit was, when not used, shrunk down and kept in a pocket. A moment later, Carol called up, "Negative on shields, Ops. Weapons also inactive."
"Arrogant motherfuckers, aren't they?" the chief yeoman of signals, Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathan Cotter, muttered from his post near Michelle.
"Chief, please!" the navigation officer scolded as she glared at him.
He jerked. "Yes, ma'am. Beg pardon, ma'am." And with that, he sent a crafty look at Gamblin, who was shaking his head in amusement at the subtle test the veteran naval communicator just did now to keep the younger MARS officer on her toes.
All the Avalonians tried not to grin too much on sensing that; CPO2 Cotter clearly still didn't realize that his actions were as bright as neon to their empathy. A moment after, Dan Cooper called in from the cockpit of his rebuilt Avro CSF-105 Arrow. "Thunderbird, Arrow Three. Am in visual range of the target. Taking pictures now." A pause, then he added, "I just spotted a girl in a sailor suit uniform with some sort of staff in one of the observation bubbles on the spine of the bandit."
"That's her!" Luna affirmed.
"Colonel, we need pictures of her," Michelle called out.
"Roger that, Lieutenant. She seems to be standing over some man in what looks like a scientist's smock over normal clothes. Inukshuk, are you life scanners working alright? You reported only thirty live ones on the bandit, all Avalonians."
"That's affirmative, Arrow Three. Doing systems diagnostics to confirm..."
"HOLY SHIT!"
People tensed. "Arrow Three, this is Spitfire," Heather then said as she keyed in. "What did you just see?!"
A sigh answered her. "Never mind about the diagnostic, Inukshuk. Spitfire, I just saw that girl blast the fellow with an energy attack from her staff. He's an android; saw his face fly off his head when this girl took him down. Looked to me like the hit shorted out his systems. I recommend that if Thunderbird is sending a boarding party over, they have HAZMAT gear with them to keep him under con-...oh, my GOD!"
Heather tensed. "WHAT?!"
Cooper groaned. "Spitfire, Arrow Three, recommend when the boarding party goes over, the bin rats give them jumpsuits. I just saw the crew. It's..." He sighed. "Well, I'd rather not say and offend you and every other woman on Haida, Admiral."
People shook their heads. "Bastards!" Tsukihana snarled.
No one said anything to correct the young genius' language...
Thirty minutes later...
Haida was alongside the alien destroyer. Like all Niphentaxian and Urusian craft, the Niphentaxian vessel was orange overall, with black tiger stripes painted over much of the hull; a Tsubasa-class ship was an arrow-shaped starship that looked like the Concorde supersonic transport from a distance. The only difference between this ship's markings and that of an Urusian vessel was the symbol of the "one true faith" (a gold ring compass rose with the image of the Living Goddess flying up into the air) on the upper flanks forward. Once in close range, an all-Avalonian boarding party led by Naval Cadet Sawada Minako and accompanied by Hakaru Ayami had beamed onto the bridge of the alien ship.
What they found was enough to make all of the girls who went over groan.
"Lyna preserve us!" Private Asai Mayumi groaned out as she adjusted her combat glasses before walking over to gaze sadly on one of the nude women standing very still by the pilotage station. She was the only one of Haida's plank owners to elect to become an aerospace telecommunications and information systems technician. That was an Air Force trade whose members were seen as the Forces' in-house experts on electronics systems from computers and data networks to communications networks and radars; given that Dan Cooper spotted an android on this ship, Mayumi was automatically seconded to the boarding party given her intensively programmed technical knowledge. All of those women Haida's boarding party had found possessed control collars around their necks. Even with the DNA loyalty locks that had been programmed into the very genetic code of every Avalonian birthed on the factory before February, these devices were used by Niphentaxians when it came to dealing with Avalonians; the collars came equipped with thought-inhibitor functions that could suppress the higher brain functions of a bioroid. A glance around the bridge revealed that save for a central chair for the captain, there were no seats anywhere; this would force the bridge crew to stay on their feet while on duty. "Who...?"
"I think this might have been sent by the same creep that saw you created."
Eyes locked on Ayami; the young genius from Kanagawa had plugged a portable scanner into the main systems control station to get at the computer core. "Are you sure, Onē-sama?" Minako asked as she walked over to stand close to the woman who had helped rescue her and 415 other would-be sex slaves from a very wealthy Niphentaxian merchant; said merchant had been caught by the then-unnamed U.S.S. Arizona and J.S. Yamato a light-year beyond the outer edge of the Phentax system at the same time the Noukiites and Yehisrites were liberating the Avalonians. "How could you tell that?"
"Programming code," Ayami stated as she pointed at the main screen of her scanner. "When Tsukihana and I had all of your gestation chambers beamed off his ship and brought aboard Arizona, we found devices plugged into each chamber's control mechanism not built with any sort of Sagussan technology. I took one of them apart later to analyze it. Good code...for a Niphentaxian system," she added derisively. The technology of the long-dead Sagussan Fourth Republic that had been used to build Haida and her sisterships was several thousand years ahead of anything in the local cluster. She then sighed as she looked back at her scanner. "No doubt, whoever controls this ship probably seized it before it could be destroyed by the ch'uokyek and the ib'f or captured by the Avalonians, then taken somewhere safe. As to why..."
"If these people were on the ship at the time of the Liberation, Onē-sama, it probably was seen by the Sky Lords as being seized by our sisters," Mayumi stated as she moved to get into the ship's flight recorders. "Let me take a look..."
"Watch yourself, Mayumi," Minako instructed. "Rest of you, get the jumpsuits on these girls, and then we'll get them ready for transport back to Haida."
"Hai!" the others in the boarding party chanted as they reached into cargo backpacks to pull out basic black jumpsuits; the destroyer's crew, at least, had slippers on their feet.
"Minako, go up to the observation lounge where Cooper-chūsa saw that android," Ayami then instructed. "If the girl who stopped this ship is this mysterious 'Vinur Drekar' that Lovegood-sensei and her friends know about, I think it'll be safe."
The would-be military police officer nodded. "Hai, Onē-sama. Kaoru!"
"Hai!" Takizawa Kaoru, a woman who planned to become a military policewoman after she went through basic training, affirmed with a nod as she hefted her Peacemaker rifle.
Both stepped onto the lift platform at the aft end of the bridge; like Kashin-class battlewagons, Tsubasa-class destroyers had their main control station on the keel of the hull forward of amidships. The lift immediately carried Minako and Kaoru into the main hull, stopping about half-way up to the ship's spine. Once there, both girls disembarked as they scanned around with their eyes and empathy. "It's dead here, Minako," Kaoru, a tomboyish and slender woman with shaggy blonde hair and dark grey eyes, hissed as she tried not to be overwhelmed by the sheer empathic silence of this ship.
"I noticed," the crimson-haired, chestnut-eyed kendō-ka that helped in the downfall of Kunō Tatewaki affirmed. "Let's go."
Both headed aft towards another turbolift station. Getting into it, Minako stabbed a control for the top deck, then relaxed as the lift ascended. A moment later, both would-be security specialists got off on what Urusian servicemen jokingly called the "bilge deck", which was the topmost deck in the destroyer's main hull and allowed direct access for shipwrights to get at the spine of the ship; such a structure effectively served as a keel would on a Terran vessel, even starships like Haida. Drawing out her scanner to confirm what she had seen after taking a moment to look over the detailed scans of this ship before leading her boarding party over, Minako smirked as she slipped the tricorder away. "Large discharge of meson radiation, right where the android Cooper-chūsa saw was at before it was blasted down."
"This woman's staff is meson-powered?" Kaoru asked.
"By the looks of it. Rumour has it might be a haijo-ju of some type," Minako replied as both got to the small lift leading up to one of the observation lounges; on Urusian ships, there were no lifts as Oni could simply fly up into such a space. Both women stepped onto it, then allowed the lift to bring them up to the lounge, which was no different than the main observation lounge on Haida if only smaller. Looking around, the would-be military police officer hummed before her eyes locked on a fallen form nearby. "There you are..."
Both girls walked up to the android on the deck close to one of the lounge chairs. Immediately, they were quick to notice some similarities between this person and a character from a two-part episode of The Bionic Woman televised in 1977 the title character had been forced to fight. The android's face had been literally knocked off, revealing a human-like metal skull with eyes, jaws with teeth and a nasal cavity. To ensure the face could function right, mechanical pistons and circuits were inserted on the skull; no doubt, the face mask — lying nearby — was also controlled by these leads. He was shaped like a man who engaged in very healthy exercise, though he was no bodybuilder. His clothes were Terran Western-pattern and fitted the role of a dedicated scientist: Button shirt with tie under a knit vest over slacks and Oxford-style shoes, a smock draped over his shoulders. Save for his face having been knocked off his skull, he had no visible wounds. "He's cute," Kaoru mused with an interested smile on noting that he had dark blue eyes and dark brown hair covering his head.
"He is that. I wonder what our friend did to him."
«I ensured he wouldn't accidentally cause any of you harm, Lady Minako.»
Both girls started, then they looked around. Neither of them could see where that voice came from. "Hello!" Kaoru called out. "Who are we speaking to?!"
«I cannot reveal myself at this time, Lady Kaoru,» that voice echoed from all around them. «But to assuage your fears, I am the person some of our magical friends — in a shocking display of a total lack of imagination which simply surprises me — simply call 'her'.» Both Kaoru and Minako were quick to sense the other woman's amusement. «Please understand, I seek not to cause trouble. To do so would earn me the Wise Lord's Disfavour.» Both prospective members of the Canadian Forces Military Police were quick to sense the religious emphasis on that phrase. «I do not desire same as I am also responsible for protecting my friends as well.» She then chuckled. «Our android friend is not truly evil by any stretch of the imagination...but he was trapped by set programs his mad master forced on him to ensure his loyalty. As she just surmised, he was the one the lovely Lady Ayami helped the eager Young Master Tsukihana deal with when they rescued all of you the same day the Liberation of our race occurred. Tell the ever-wise Lady Mayumi to be very careful when she gets him into her laboratory and tries to reactivate him.»
"Cleanse him of any unsafe programming," Minako stated. "Mayumi-chan can certainly do that." She then smiled. "Be safe, sister. I pray whatever has forced you to remain veiled from all of us goes away so you and your friends can join us at last."
«That is up to the Wise Lord, sister. When He makes His Will known is up to He, not we. Know I will watch over all of you with diligence, Lady Minako. Farewell for now.»
Silence fell over the lounge, then both Kaoru and Minako sighed before the latter keyed the communicator on the left strap of her web gear. "Sawada to Asai. Mayumi, have you finished analyzing the ship's central computer?"
"Just did a basic sweep, Minako," Mayumi replied from the bridge. "By the looks of what I've seen so far, that android Cooper-chūsa spotted was a sort of adopted son to the man who saw us all created. If you want to know, that fellow was killed in the fighting that broke out on Phentax Two after the Liberation. The android's name is Sunmee dai-Kohl."
"We just talked to our mysterious friend," Minako said. "She warned us that this fellow isn't really evil, but he may have surprises in his programming we'll have to watch out for when we bring him aboard Haida for analysis."
"Understood..."
To be continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
A general note: Given this story is an effective continuation of Phoenix From the Ashes, it would be advised to read that story — especially the writer's notes contained at the end of each story part — to comprehend the people, concepts and other things introduced here. If I made notes on EVERYTHING that was mentioned here which also was mentioned or appeared in PFtA, the writer's notes could potentially equal the story text in and of itself. I don't think that's necessary.
1) Translations: Dōri — City street; Chō — Suffix title for a town; IELTS — International English Language Testing System, the British-managed standard test for mastery of the English language for use in work and school; SNAFU — Literally "Situation Normal, All Fucked Up" (or "Situation Normal, All Fouled Up" for those who don't wish to be vulgar) and pronounced /snæːˈfuː/, this is the military slang term indicating a situation which is quite bad yet normal; Übermenschen Gruppe — Literally "Group of Supermen", which is my play-off on the Axis Amerika team that first appeared in the Young All-Stars comic book series that was published by DC Comics in the late 1980s; 1 CSWU — First Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit, the official military title for the War Hawks; Taisa — Navy captain, Army colonel or Air Force group captain (NATO rank code OF-5); Log Wog — Nickname applied to personnel of the Canadian Forces Logistics Branch, the military's in-house combat service support personnel; AB — Short-form for the rank of Able Seaman; MS — Short-form for the rank of Master Seaman; Six-kay klicks — Military short-form term indicating a distance of 6,000 kilometres; MARS — Short-hand term for "Maritime Surface and Sub-Surface", the trade name for operations officers in the Canadian Navy; Vinur Drekar — Friend of Dragons; HAZMAT — Hazardous Materials; Bin Rats — Nickname applied to Supply Technicians in the Canadian Forces; Ch'uokyek — Noukiite for "great dragon", this is the name applied to all spirit-dragons native to that planet; Ib'f — Yehisrite for "dragon", this is the name applied to all-spirit dragons native to that planet; Chūsa — Navy commander, Army lieutenant colonel or Air Force wing commander (NATO rank code OF-4).
2) Metropolitan Tōkyō's subway rapid transit network is run by two separate companies who work in conjunction to ensure fast and efficient service throughout the Kantō basin. The Tōkyō Metro network, which was privatized in 2004, runs nine separate lines of service — including the Ginza Line, the oldest rapid transit line in Japan's capital city, first opened in 1927 — which connects a total of 168 separate stations. The Toei Subway ("Toei" literally means "operated by the metropolitan government") is a government-run system that is in charge of four lines — including the Ōedo Line — which connects a total of 106 stations. Atop this, the Tōkyō rapid transit system is augmented by surface commuter rail lines operated by Japan Rail and other companies which allow travellers to into the subway system via transfer stations.
3) Ikkitōsen-based character notes: Kōyū Bunkyo (Hanahada Yūko) and Jokan Ichō (Omomuro Mikiko) are two people based on two of the Seven Scholars of Jiàn'ān; Akane's adopted twin sister Chinrin Kōshō (Miyamoto Karin) is, as noted above, also part of this group. Yūko is the current incarnation of Kǒng Róng (153-208 C.E.), who was a politician, scholar and minor warlord who was a twentieth-generation descendant of Confucius himself. Fans of the Dynasty Warriors series will recognize Kǒng Róng as being one of the warlords who joined the alliance against Dǒng Zhuó; this man made an appearance in one of the cut scenes concentrating on Xiàhóu Dūn in DW6. Kǒng would eventually be defeated by the forces of Yuán Shào's eldest son, forcing him to flee to Xǔchāng...where he wound up being executed for being a political opponent of Cáo Cāo! Mikiko is the current incarnation of Xú Gàn (170-217), who is best known in the West by his famous treatise on the nature of the breakdown of political systems and their causes, the Zhōnglún ("Balanced Discourses").
4) Canadian Space Agency Station Aurora (CSAS Aurora) is Canada's primary national space station, one of 506 such units that were seized by the Noukiites and the Yehisrites from Niphentaxian control on behalf of the Avalonians during the Liberation. This station orbits in roughly geostationary orbit at 35,786 kilometres (22,236 miles) above the equator at the longitudinal line of the headquarters of its parent agency, located at the John H. Chapman Space Centre in Longueuil, Québec (across the Saint Lawrence River from Montréal) at the 73rd meridian west of Greenwich. As an aside, CSAS Aurora is considered the equivalent of an airport of entry by the federal government. These are places where visitors from another nation can legally enter Canadian territory, thus it has staff assigned to it from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which handles all customs services, border security enforcement and immigration enforcement.
5) Navire Canadien de Sa Majesté Jolliet is one of the newest of Canada's Naval Reserve Divisions (NRDs) commissioned into the military. Jolliet was first commissioned in 1989 in the wave of a major expansion of the NRDs. The ship itself is named in tribute to French explorer Louis Jolliet (1645-?), the first European to map the Mississippi River basin. He was last seen in May of 1700 travelling to Île d'Anticosti near Sept-Îles; his body was never found.
6) Coloured backgrounds to the spaces between the rank stripes of officers in the Royal Navy and other affiliated navies (such as the Royal Canadian Navy) — known officially as Distinction Cloth — first came into vogue in 1863 to differentiate specialist officers from line officers. In 1955, the wide spectrum of colours was done away with, reduced to mark only those officers who would be seen as non-combatants under the Geneva Conventions.
7) The internal structure of Haida and her sisterships is influenced by 3D models made by Star Ranger. He, like I, is a fan of one of the more popular fanfic writers on the Internet today, Robert M. Schroeck, the creator of the multiple-series crossover Drunkard's Walk fanfic stories. As soon as the complete design is done, such pictures will be published somewhere; at this time, I just don't know where.
8) Fans of the 1986 film Top Gun should recognize the American Navy captain who was visiting Haida when Kasumi came aboard. As an aside, Naval Air Station Fallon (NAS Fallon), located in western Nevada eighty kilometres east of the state capital of Reno, is the United States Navy's premier air-to-air and air-to-ground combat training facility. The TOPGUN program — formally called the Naval Fighter Weapons School — moved to NAS Fallon from Naval Air Station Miramar in California near San Diego in 1996; at this time, NAS Miramar was transferred to the control of the Marine Corps.
9) The term bus driver uniform is applied these days to the service uniform worn by Air Force personnel in the Canadian Forces. This term was devised for the infamous CF Greens, a rifle-green service uniform imposed on personnel across the board after Unification; the CF greens were despised due to their plain cut and the fact that the colour of the uniform didn't match the old uniforms of either the Royal Canadian Navy or Royal Canadian Air Force. When the Distinctive Environmental Uniforms (DEUs) came into service in 1988, the Air Force DEU maintained the general cut of the old CF greens. The Navy DEU adopted the old double-breasted jacket design once worn by RCN officers before 1968. The Army DEU incorporated shoulder epaulettes for all ranks; prior to the introduction of the DEUs, the only occasions epaulettes were worn was by either general/flag officers or personnel assigned as a ceremonial aide de camp to the Governor General or members of the Canadian Royal Family.
10) Personnel in the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Forces are employed three ways. Class A service is the weekly parade at the armoury or stone frigate with one weekend training period per month. Class B service is non-operational full-time employment, where a reservist would be brought on temporary strength with a Regular Force unit due to manning shortfalls. Class C service is operational full-time employment, which would include employment overseas in potential combat zones. In the universe of this story, there is an additional form of service called Class D service, which is where personnel — always Avalonian-Canadians — are considered on-strength with a reserve unit and will do training parades like people on Class A service, but are not paid as they are supported financially by local Avalonian communities.
10) Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert) is, as noted above, the northern-most inhabited community on Earth. First established as a weather monitoring facility jointly controlled by the Canadian Department of Transport and the United States Weather Bureau in 1950, it soon attracted the attention of the military as it was physically closer to Moskvá (range of about 4,022 kilometres) than Ottawa (range of about 4,151 kilometres)! As this location made an excellent place for signal monitoring equipment, it was formally established as the "Alert Wireless Station" by the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1956. After the Unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968, the station was transferred to the administrative control of Canadian Forces Communications Command (the post-1968 tri-service signals and communications upper-level formation). Over time, equipment upgrades and defence cuts forced reductions in active numbers among the "Frozen Chosen" (as those assigned to Alert are always nicknamed) from a peak of 215 personnel in the 1970s to about 74 personnel by 1998. Due to the logistical resupply requirements for a place like Alert, the station was officially switched to the control of Air Command in 2009; as noted above, the station is an element of 8 Wing at Canadian Forces Base Trenton (CFB Trenton) in Ontario east of Toronto. It should be noted that in real life, due to the small number of operational staff at the station, the chances of it becoming an official line squadron of the Air Force is next to impossible.
As an aside, an Inukshuk is a stone landmark or cairn that is erected by travelling Inuit hunters to serve as points of reference, markers for travel routes, fishing places, camps, hunting grounds, places of veneration, drift fences used in hunting or to mark the locations of food caches. This sort of symbol is emblazoned on the flag of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, which encompasses Ellesmere Island where CFS Alert is located.
11) Royal Air Force Station Menwith Hill (RAF Menwith Hill) is, as noted above, a signals monitoring station located in the northern part of Yorkshire in England near the spa town of Harrogate. Jointly supported by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force, RAF Menwith Hill has been described as the largest electronics monitoring station on the planet. The station was first established in 1954, the property leased to the United States to allow a signals monitoring unit close to the territory of the Soviet Union to be established by the Army. Over time, RAF Menwith Hill became one of the most important units of the pan-national ECHELON Network, which is a worldwide chain of signals monitoring units — including CFS Alert and the station which remotely controls all the functions there, Canadian Forces Station Leitrim (CFS Leitrim) southeast of downtown Ottawa — that was originally geared towards monitoring communications emanating from the Soviet Union and its allied states. These days, ECHELON is controlled by the following organizations: The National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Australia's Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) and New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). While its existence has not been publicly confirmed by any of the agencies involved in it, ECHELON — even the name has never been properly confirmed — is believed to be able to tap into any form of communications, including the Internet and wired telephone calls.
12) Asai Mayumi and Takizawa Kaoru are both characters from Doki Doki Pretty League, a strategy game with dating simulation game elements that was produced by Xing in 1997. The game makes the player become the manager of an amateur girls baseball team composed of third-year middle school (Grade 9 in Canada) students; the player must ensure that the team succeeds when playing other teams by ensuring all is well with the members of the team both on and off the diamond. In the game, Mayumi serves as the second baseman while Kaoru is the third baseman. Mayumi is often depicted wearing a scientist's smock over her school uniform or baseball team uniform and experiments with robotics and other high forms of technology. Kaoru is the game's resident tomboy and the most obvious athlete on the team; it's quite obvious to me that she was modelled in salute to Ten'ō Haruka (Sailor Uranus) from Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon.
As an aside, an Aerospace Telecommunications and Information Systems Technician (ATIS TECH) performs, supervises and directs repairs and maintenance of all types of Air Force telecommunications and information systems. Personnel in this trade also manage and maintain mobile and fixed satellite communications systems, microwave systems, switchboards, cable plants and all forms of command and control computer systems and networks. Personnel in this trade are employed at Air Force bases across Canada...or as part of 8 Air Communication and Control Squadron (8 ACCS) at Trenton. This particular squadron, which was first formed in 1969 and achieved squadron status in 1993, is a unit that can rapidly deploy teams of personnel anywhere in the world who could set up equipment to support air traffic services (ATS) and communications and information systems (CIS) in support of military operations, exercises, peacekeeping missions, assistance to civilian authorities, special operations and back-up operations for fixed airfield installations.
In the universe of this story, a sister squadron to 8 ACCS will be established to provide the same sort of services as an operational element of 21 Space Wing, H.M.C.S. Haida's Air Force support formation. Asai Mayumi, after graduating from training, will become a part of this squadron, to be named 384 "Wellington Heights" Air Communications and Control Squadron (384 ACCS). This corresponds to a re-numbering of all support squadrons in the Air Force to ensure a single list could be developed for all types. 8 ACCS would be re-numbered 388 "Bay of Quinte" Air Communications and Control Squadron (388 ACCS). The squadron nicknames correspond to local geographic features near the squadron's chosen base; the Bay of Quinte is the arm of Lake Ontario where CFB Trenton sits on.
As to why 384 Squadron would be nicknamed the "Wellington Heights" squadron, that will be explained in future parts.