A/N: And we FINALLY have an update!!! Joy:-) I'm really, really sorry for the long time it took, but...y'know...
Iketani - I think the battle scene was a little lacking...though okay overall. :-) Glad you also enjoyed the manga. It was kickass:-)
Godzilla2 - Well, I think this chap was the longest...haha. Apologies for the late update...
Hyousa-Youkai - Technically, Filipinos are Asians (in South East Asia), though the country is an archipelago in the Pacific. :-) We're more of the former. Hm...I guess I was influenced by Himura in making a character...though I guess I should be more original, huh:-)
Ryu - Thanks for the review! This story's going to see its end, sooner or later...maybe later. :-)
noname z - Well, here's moremoremoremore...though not as much as even I'd like to add...thanks for the review:-) As for the pairing...well, we'll see. :-) (Note: Meia's my favorite character too)
And there we go for now...I'm currently working on this particular fic (alongside all my work...), and probably expect less time interval for the next update. Thanks and enjoy:-)
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CHAPTER 11
Names and History
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The ship's halls were bustling with activity. To keep the team spirits high and energetic, Magno had announced earlier that a contest would be held to determine the name of their 'new' vessel. As of the latest, the prize was an all-expenses paid shopping spree at Mejale.
Parfet wandered around gathering responses while the rest of the crew was scrounging up ideas. "All right! One by one! Hey, don't get all over-excited!" she yelled as she was mobbed upon entering the mess hall.
"Bloom Garden!" "Starship!" "Mejaleist!" The 'suggestions' were verbally hurled with reckless abandon until even Parfet's glasses began to swirl. "Wha...wha...wha..."
Then one voice boomed over the rest. "Settle down! All of you!" Commanding, yet without malevolence, and very clearly masculine. The speaker earned complete order and silence, as well as several annoyed frowns from the majority.
Not long afterwards, Parfet was able to collect the necessary information, in this case being the name suggestions for the ship. She made her way over to her rescuer before whispering, "Uh...thanks for earlier, doctor..."
Duero shook his head. "Just 'Duero' will do."
"O-kay, Duero then. What're you doing here?"
"I do need nourishment..."
"Oh, yeah...uh, yeah! Anyway, any suggestion for the ship's name?"
"How could a shopping spree in Mejale benefit me?" He sounded almost sarcastic, had there been a little more emotion in his voice.
"Good point. I suppose we could change the prize, if you'd win. How about...let's say...a medical...uh, upgrade, or something..."
A silent lapse followed for a few moments.
"...Polymorphism..." Duero finally mumbled.
"Eh? Pardon?"
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"A ship-naming contest?" Hibiki sounded as if the whole idea was stupid and a complete waste of time.
Dita nodded. "Yep! Why don't we all join? Who knows...you might win, Mr. Alien!"
She, along with Meia, Jai, Hibiki and Ezra, was walking to the refectory for lunch. While at first it had been just Dita dragging Hibiki along; Meia and Ezra joined them soon after; they then bumped into Jai coming out of his room about to head in the same direction.
"A contest?" Jai echoed, though more out of surprise compared to Hibiki. "And what's the prize, may I ask? Sorry, I was asleep," he queried, apparently also failing to receive the earlier announcement.
"W-ell..." Dita began, trying to remember.
Ezra answered instead. "It's a shopping spree in Mejale, though I think it's still negotiable...with the approval of the Boss, of course."
"A shopping spree?!" Hibiki snorted, with an air of his Mejale-hating side, which hadn't showed up all that much recently compared to the start of his affiliation with the pirates. "And what good would that do to us men, huh?"
"Hmm...he does have a point..." Ezra pondered out loud.
Jai interjected. "But aren't there some things there that could at least be of use for either men or women...?" He began hesitantly, as if he wasn't totally sure of what he was saying.
"Yeah? Like what?!" Hibiki retorted mockingly.
"I dunno...books, electronic devices, musical instruments, those sorts of generic stuff..."
"That's right!" Dita burst out. "There's a lot of stuff like that as well! And I'm sure even the aliens will be able to use them." To her last statement, Hibiki cringed visibly, though Dita didn't seem to notice.
Ezra giggled. "True...it's just that I tend to get this notion that 'shopping' is more for clothes, accessories, and things like that. Good observation, Jai."
"Well, I'm sure it's still something that I'm not going to like," Hibiki scoffed, still utterly irritated about the idea.
A lapse in the conversation brought a not too uncomfortable few moments of silence. Finally, it was broken with Meia's question, "What name would you suggest the ship, Jai?"
It seemed like he was expecting the query, or that he had been giving the subject some thought. "Hmm..." he looked up at the ceiling, trying to decide. "...I guess I'd call it 'Avatar', like my model jet fighter back home."
"A jet fighter, huh?" Hibiki intruded, "Sounds cool. There were war fighters during your time already?"
"Of course! I wasn't from that far back into the past! Anyway, yea...there were lots already, for several years. Actually, my model jet is of an American Harrier, the only jet fighter at the time capable of vertical lift-off. It ran subsonic, though, a tad slower than other jet fighters. It's my favorite, more for issues of reliability than efficiency."
"Such an impressive name, though...American Harrier..." Ezra said contemplatively.
"Actually, it's just 'Harrier'..." Jai then proceeded to explain about the seven continents of the 21st century Earth, how they came about from the massive Pangaea, then two consequent continents Laurasia and Gondwanaland thousands of years since...about the oceans and seas, tectonic plates and volcanic eruptions. His audience was eager and attentive, spurred on by his animated narratives. Jai was about to begin on the topics of life and evolution when he noticed they were standing outside the mess hall.
"...but that's for another time...I'm sorry, I got carried away telling stories..." he said rather sheepishly. The others, Hibiki included, insisted his stories were anything but tiresome.
They all stepped in and found Parfet in what seemed like casual conversation with Duero at one of the corner tables.
In truth, it was the mechanic who noticed them first. "Hey guys!" She yelled as she waved the newcomers over to join the physician and herself.
"That is...if you don't mind..." she whispered to her companion.
"It's okay..." he mumbled back, shrugging for added emphasis. She then resumed her waving, stopping only when Dita, who led the group while dragging Hibiki along, neared, after having already gotten their rations. Fortunately, the table was long enough to accommodate them all.
"So," Parfet began as they ate, "any suggestions for the ship's name?"
Hibiki mumbled under his breath, "Oh brother...not that again..." Even so, he barely winced as he received a deft kick to the shin courtesy of Jai. Nobody else noticed, though they silently wondered why he became rather quieter from that point on.
One by one, they gave their ideas – a polite "Avatar" from Giles, a pleasant "Merger" from Ezra, a cheerful "Happy Alien-ship" from Dita, a rather forced "Black Hole" from Hibiki, and even a placid "Duty" from Meia.
The scientist jotted down all of their names and entries. "Okay! This'll do very nicely; I really think one of these will win for sure!"
Their meal continued with random chit-chat for a while, but eventually the discussion turned to the distant past – more specifically, Jai's former present time.
"What do you guys want to know about?" Jai asked, getting ready for a rather lengthy discourse ahead.
Several suggestions were made, but Ezra gave a suggestion everyone eventually agreed on. "Why don't you start from the beginning again? We have enough time for a long story, and we're more complete now, besides."
And so from the beginning did he begin, all the way to the Big Bang theory on how the universe itself was created. He talked about the formation of planets, and, in particular, the formation of Earth and how it had once become a place suitable for life to thrive in. He went on to discuss the beginnings of life, the Darwinian theory of Evolution, and the coming of creatures that were larger than life itself, of the cataclysmic meteor rain, and the eventual extinction of almost all living beings. He then spoke of eons of rejuvenation, wherein new organisms sprang forth and inhabited the Earth, of the gradual emergence of an intelligent animal that came to be known as 'man', and how this remarkable species ultimately conquered the entire planet.
Throughout the narrative, the listeners grew in number, with other members of the pirate crew gathering around to listen. Jai didn't mind the least about having more audience; he figured it'd save him time in explaining again later on. So he merely continued on the much more salient points – not everything that happened, of course – until he had caught up with his own era, his own 'present'. This was where he stopped.
By the time he had come to the end, his voice had become a little cracked; it was only then that he realized that he had been talking for more than an hour. Before he could reach for his glass of water, he found one being offered to him...by Meia, who was seated to his right.
He gave her an amiable smile as he took the offered drink, downing it in one gulp. "Thanks," he said, sounding much better. "Though I find it a little unsettling, ranting on about the 'outer space' we knew so little about during our time, granted our...uh, primitive technology then, to you people who are so used to traveling in it all the time. I suppose the origins of the universe have finally been found out?"
Not surprisingly, Parfet answered him. "You know, it is still the Big Bang that remains the most feasible theory about the universe even until now; I'm rather surprised that it had been around during all those eons ago. Anyway, there have obviously been a lot more discoveries, I presume, since the time you come from, but I'm not really sure how much."
"Hey, there weren't any spacecraft this sophisticated back then, that's for sure," Jai quipped.
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The pirates' Boss was also listening in on the story of their guest through one of the ship's surveillance cameras. "A fascinating story, don't you think, B.C.?"
"Indeed. It seems to collaborate with the notion he's from the past..." the second-in-command answered.
"Yes, I suppose; though I was already rather convinced after his little performance at the hangar earlier. I'd wager not even a fully-trained Tarak scholar or whatever could perform like he did."
B.C. only shrugged in response.
"Oh, and by the way," Magno added, "let's have Parfet come over with the suggestions later; we're going to have that decision before the day is done."
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"The contest is over?" Jura exclaimed. She hadn't given an entry yet, and was appalled when the PA system announced that a name had already been chosen for the ship. It was close to the end of the day.
"Apparently so," Barnette concluded nonchalantly. She hadn't bothered to give an entry; and had said that she didn't mind whatever the ship was called – it would still be their ship anyway.
The announcement went on. "...and the raffle-winning name is 'Nirvana', given by the Boss! Congratulations!"
"There was a raffle?!" the blonde Dread pilot sounded even more aghast. The fact that it was the Boss' entry that won raised some doubts whether the contest wasn't entirely devoid of any bias.
"That, it would seem..." now, Barnette didn't sound as casual. Still, she shrugged the matter aside, putting it to coincidence. "In any case, we should expect a banquet sometime tomorrow..."