"Takino here."
"Hi Tomo, it's Chiyo."
"Oh hey Chiyo-Chan!" Tomo leaned back in her chair and kicked her feet up on the desk. "How's it going? What are you working on now? A space ship?"
"Ha ha. No, it's time-space mechanics, unified field theory, that kind of thing."
"Yuck, math. It's all English to me."
"You mean you still don't speak English?"
"No, I do. Just, you know."
Chiyo didn't so she went on. "Have you seen any of the girls lately?"
"Well, I saw Kagura on a Wheaties box this morning, I saw Yomi on the news yesterday, and I saw Osaka on Letterman last week." She laughed. "Man, she was so nervous!"
"I mean have you talked to any of them?"
"Oh no. Not since Yomi's birthday. She's getting so old!"
"She's two months older than you."
"Ha, I know! The old hag!"
"Well, I really need to talk to all of you in person. I've discovered something that could be really dangerous."
"Something you need all of us for? Dangerous math?"
"Well, it's not all math. I'd rather not go into detail on the phone but it's really important."
Tomo sat up and became more serious. "This is a secure line. You can tell me. Hey, it was you who invented this encryption algorithm."
"I know. And I'm pretty sure it's been compromised."
"Okay, well I'm sure everybody will come if it's that important."
"Good. We'll meet at the summer house Saturday."
"Saturday? Well, it's not much notice but okay. You call Osaka and Sakaki. I'll call Yomi and Kagura."
"Okay, good. Thanks a lot, Tomo."
*
In a smoky back room, at a meeting of a cabal of shady power brokers a picture of an attractive Japanese woman in glasses was on a large TV screen.
"Koyomi Mizukara. Youngest ever founder of a fortune five hundred company. Current net worth estimated at eight billion dollars."
The picture changed to an even taller, better endowed woman.
"Ayako Sakaki. Small town veterinarian. Until her pet cat contracted stomach cancer. She developed a cure that's been successfully adapted to treat all forms of cancer in humans."
A shorter woman with hair that was spiky in back and a confident smirk on her face.
"Tomo L. Takino. Youngest and first female head of Interpol. She's been instrumental in taking down crime syndicates and terrorist organizations around the globe. She's been uncomfortably close to our own organization on more than one occasion."
Now the screen showed a short woman with a far away look in her eye.
"Ayumu Kasuga. Wrote the incredibly successful Angelica Button series of children's books and movie adaptations. Often called the Japanese J.K. Rowling."
Finally a well built and deeply tanned woman.
"Kagura Kasuhara. In the 2012 Olympics broke Michael Phelps' record with eleven gold metals which translated into millions in endorsement deals.
"Five women who went to high school together and are still close friends all rose to the top of their fields with unheard of speed. The odds against it are astronomical. We think the connection is the sixth member of the group."
The screen showed a pretty young woman with long auburn hair.
"Chiyo Mihama. I.Q. unmeasurable. Received a doctorate in physics at 17 and another in quantum mechanics at 19. She holds several patents, most notably the zero point generator that freed the world from dependence on fossil fuels." Oil men around the table grumbled. "We believe Mihama is something more than human."
*
"Thank you for coming, everybody. I know how busy you all are. A few days ago I picked up a transmission from deep space on a faster than light tachyon wave."
"You mean like from aliens?"
"Yes, it's definitely artificial in origin."
Chiyo pressed a button on the remote and a strange creature that looked something like a bizarre floating cartoon cat appeared on the TV screen.
"I've seen that before!" Sakaki gasped.
"Me too!" said Osaka.
"Where??"
"In a dream."
"Yeah, or a daydream."
"He told me I'd find Maya." She scratched the cat's ears and he purred happily.
"He told me I'd find the lost city of Atlantis." Osaka paused. "Or a unicorn or somethin'. I forget."
"Well, um, anyway, you two have always been the most psychic of us. This being may have been trying to make contact for a long time. I translated the message and here's what it says."
The creature on the screen said, in a weird cartoon voice: "Hi Chiyo. I'm your father. It's time we met. Meet me at the attached coordinates in fifteen days. Oh, and bring your friends. If you don't come, the earth will be destroyed. See you soon."
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"Now I remember! He told me I'd find a Snickers bar. And I did the next day. Layin' right there on the sidewalk."
"Well, though it's a simple message it obviously came from an advanced intelligence. It called itself my father so I had a full DNA screening and it showed…that I'm not fully human. I have several chromosomes the average human doesn't. I think they must have modified my DNA before I was born and I'm pretty sure I must have affected all of you."
"So we're all aliens?" Kagura gasped.
"No, not aliens. Just…more advanced humans."
"So what are we gonna do?"
"Well…I don't think I have any choice. I'm going to go to the meeting. I can't ask any of you to come but-"
Sakaki squeezed her shoulder. "I'll go."
"Yeah. We're with ya, Chiyo-Chan!"
The others all agreed.
"Thanks guys." Chiyo blinked tears out of her eyes.
"So, where are these 'coordinates'?" Yomi asked.
"They're near Proxima Centauri, one of the nearest stars."
"How the hell are we supposed to get there??"
"In this." A new picture appeared on the screen.
"A space ship! I knew it!" Tomo said.
"The engines are highly experimental, of course, but everything checks out. We should be able to travel at hundreds of times the speed of light."
"Well let's go see it!! I call shotgun!" Tomo called.
Chiyo took them to the nearby caverns where the experimental ship was stored and started familiarizing everyone with the controls.
*
Everyone spent the night and they were just sitting down to a late breakfast when they were startled by a loud knock on the door.
Chiyo opened the door and let in Nyamo and Yukari. Yukari was already in her bathing suit.
"Hi everybody! We heard you were all back in Japan so we wanted to come see you." Nyamo said.
"It's so good to see you. Oh, congratulations on your promotion, Minamo!"
"Yeah, yeah. Ms. Big Shot assistant principle. Well, she's not the boss of me!"
"I am your boss, Yukari."
"Hey, what's the big idea coming to the summer home and not inviting us??"
"Well, we're not really on vacation-"
"Geez, it's thanks to our wisdom and guidance that you guys are all so successful and now you won't even take our calls."
"What are you talking about? I gave you a loan just the other day." Yomi said. "Against my better judgment." She muttered under her breath.
"That was business. I meant our social calls."
"I set you up with my cousin last month and now he won't return my calls." Osaka said.
"And I keep telling you I don't have the authority to rescind your speeding tickets." Tomo added.
Yukari was silent for a moment then burst out "I wanna swim, damn it!!"
"Fine, fine. Swim." Chiyo said.
"Yeah, we could all use a break. Let's all go down to the beach." Yomi said.
*
By early evening everyone was still hanging out on the beach.
Tomo stood and stretch. "Ahhh! It's been too long since we did this!"
"Yeah, but should we really be just laying on the beach with the world in danger?" Kagura worried.
"Relax. Chiyo said it would take most of the day to get the engines up to full power. Trust me, in a stressful situation like this grabbing some R&R whenever you can is important." She picked up the Frisbee. "Hey Osaka! Catch!"
"Dang it, Tomo! Ya gotta quit callin' me that! I ain't even lived in Osaka for ten years!" For no apparent reason the trajectory of the Frisbee changed and it whacked her in the head. "Ow!! And watch it with that thing!" She picked it up and looked at Tomo through a hole in the plastic. "What in the heck?"
Tomo's eyes widened. "Get down!!"
"Down? Like this?" She crouched down and sent the Frisbee floating back to Tomo, close to the ground.
"No! Find cover!" Tomo frantically scanned the cliffs around the beach for the shooter. There! She caught the Frisbee and threw it as hard as she could. It struck the gun barrel, causing the next shot to go wide.
Osaka, still puzzled, followed the Frisbee with her eyes and finally saw the sniper. "Hey, ya jerk! That's dangerous!" She yelled. She picked up the stick they'd used to smash the watermelon and threw it. It struck him right between the eyes and he toppled out of his hiding place.
"Whoa, nice." Tomo said, impressed.
Suddenly several men in camouflage stormed onto the beach. One came at Kagura. She kicked him in the stomach and then flipped him over her shoulder, slamming him into the ground hard.
Another made a grab for Yomi. She got a hold of his arm and twisted it behind his back. He spouted a loud stream of threats and profanity as he tried to get out of the joint lock.
"Yeah right. I'm not scared of Trump, I'm sure as hell not scared of you!" She bashed his head into the radio and the music died.
Nyamo and Yukari linked arms and swung around each other. Nyamo let go and used her momentum to clothesline one guy across the throat. Yukari sprang up and got her legs around another's neck, flipping him and driving his head into the ground.
The girls looked on, astonished.
"What? We worked our way through college as professional wrestlers." Yukari said. [blatantly ripped off from another cool story]
The last guy came for Chiyo. Sakaki rushed to her aid but Mr. Tadakichi was faster. He jumped on the guy, barking and snarling. There was a bright muzzle flash and he fell to the ground.
Sakaki howled in rage and slammed her fist into the attacker's chin so hard he was knocked out cold.
Chiyo was right behind her. She jumped on the unconscious man and started pounding on him "You killed Mr. Tadakichi, you son of a bitch!!" She screamed.
"Chiyo, Chiyo stop!" Sakaki pulled her off. "He's gonna be okay. But we have to get out of here."
Chiyo stopped struggling. "You-you're sure?"
"Positive. Here, carry Maya for me."
Sakaki wrapped Mr. Tadakichi in a beach towel and carried him with help from Kagura and Nyamo and they all made their way up the beach to the caves.
"Somebody want to tell us what the hell's going on here??" Yukari asked.
"The Men In Black are after Chiyo-Chan cause her daddy's an alien." Osaka said.
Yukari groaned. "Yomi?"
"That sounds about right." Yomi said seriously.
Yukari slapped her forehead.
Then as they came around the corner she saw the huge space ship and her jaw dropped.
Suddenly bullets pinged off the walls, showering them with chips of rock.
Tomo returned fire with the gun she'd confiscated. "Everybody get inside! Chiyo, this thing better be ready to go!"
Moments later the ship blasted out of it's hiding place and ascended rapidly through the atmosphere.
Soon they all floated in the ship's lounge area explaining the situation to the teachers as they hurled through space faster than light.
Chiyo was hugging Mr. Tadakichi, who had his shoulder shaved and bandaged. She'd put her hair up in pigtails to keep it out of the way. Sakaki also had her hair in a ponytail. Osaka stared out the window at the stars whizzing by and Tomo was bouncing off the walls chasing Maya around.
Yukari groaned and sealed her barf bag.
"I'm really sorry." Chiyo said. "The artificial gravity should be running soon."
"Eh, no hurry." Tomo said as she did a flip.
"Chiyo, do you have any other clothes we can put on?" Yomi asked.
"Oh no, we don't. I thought we'd have time to get our bags before we took off."
"Great, so we're off to save the world in our bathing suits. It's like some dumb manga."
"Oh well, at least this way all my fans can see that I almost caught up to Sakaki." Tomo adjusted her top as she floated upside down from everybody else.
Sakaki blushed and crossed her arms across her chest.
"Yeah, those pills Chiyo invented must really work." Yomi snickered.
"Hey! There were no pills! This is all me!" Tomo took a swing at Yomi, causing her to go into a slow spin.
"At least tell me there's food." Kagura said.
"Tell me there's not." Yukari moaned.
"Oh yes. We have plenty of supplies."
"Well then we're off! Six high school friends on a perilous mission to save the world. Will we find danger, adventure , romance?" The gravity came on. Everybody dropped into their seats and Tomo fell on her head. "Concussions?" She whimpered.