Azumangastar Galactica
Not-as-Thrilling-as-Advertised
7. Busy Little Bees
Rated: T - English - Sci-Fi/Humor - Reviews: 12 - Updated: 06-21-08 - Published: 06-01-08 - Complete - id:4294345
"So we're gettin' outta the system?" Osaka said as they all sat around the table in the Delicate's dining area. Shimauu yawned while Torako allowed herself a cigarette. Though she usually kept a few cartons onboard for long delivery runs, she'd have to start conserving if she didn't want to run out.
Asagi nodded and sipped her tea. "Out of Colonial space entirely, in fact. Unless you know anything we don't about the situation out there."
Osaka shook her head. "While I was floatin' out there I listened to the wireless, but I never picked nothin' up 'cept that call to meet at Ragnar."
"That was nearly forty-eight hours ago," Torako said. "How long were you out there?"
She shrugged.
"How'd you keep breathing?" Asagi asked.
"I heard you breathe slower when you sleep, so I took a nap. An' I used my ECO's air when I ran out."
"I don't suppose you know much about fixing jump drives?" Shimauu asked.
Osaka's eyes glazed over. "Huh?"
"Guess that's a no," Torako said and took a sip of her coffee.
Osaka closed her eyes and flapped her hand next to her head. "No way, I'm no good with any of that stuff. They wouldn't even let me jump my Raptor."
"Not to sound too demanding," Asagi asked, "but is there anything you are good at?"
"Hmm . . ." Osaka looked up at the ceiling as she thought. Asagi exchanged glances with her crew. "Ah! I'm good at crossword puzzles."
"That's . . . good," Torako said. Wonderful, the person who should be the most capable one on the ship now was totally useless.
"No, that was a lie," Osaka said apologetically.
"Are you sure you didn't take a knock on the head back there?" Asagi asked.
"Well," Torako said as she stood up with her coffee, "I'm gonna get up to the helm."
"I'll get back to work on that FTL," Shimauu said and got up as well.
"Guess I'll get you some quarters," Asagi said as she pushed away from the table as well. "Luckily it's just us three here, so there's plenty of room."
"They call them quarters," Osaka said, as if to herself. Her face had returned to its usual blank grin. "What are they a quarter of?"
"That's uh . . . that's a good question," Asagi said as she led her through the hatch to the rear of the ship.
"Fifteen pilots lost," Kurosawa said. "Nearly half the strike force, dead."
Yukari nodded. "I know, I read the tally." She looked gutted, but in her anger Kurosawa couldn't help but wonder if it was genuine.
She leaned across the plotting table as the command crew tried to go about their duties and ignore them. "How many of these idiotic attacks do you plan on sending those kids on?"
"We are not leaving the Colonies to the Cylons!" Yukari insisted again. "We're at war, Nyamo! People tend to die in wars, or were you not paying attention in our history classes?" Her expression turned to one of anger. "Do you think I like it when those kids die out there?"
"They don't have to," Kurosawa said.
"Yes, they do!" Yukari snapped back at her, way too loud. "We have to win, whatever it takes! And if that means I have to send every last pilot on this ship to their death, then that's what I'll do. I won't like it, but you better believe I'll do it."
Kurosawa glanced beyond Yukari at Mizuhara. She didn't look too pleased right now, and she knew she wasn't the only one on this ship that would feel that way if they'd heard Yukari just now. "Sir, permission to speak freely," she said.
"You don't have it," Yukari said. "Dismissed, Colonel."
Kurosawa fumed inside as she stood to attention and saluted. "I stand dismissed." She could feel the crew watching her as she left CIC and headed down the corridor.
Koyomi watched the XO leave and then turned back to her station. She glanced to one side at Lieutenant Mihama, staring nervously at the Commander as she leaned back against the plotting table and picked at her fingernails with the end of a paperclip. Then she turned her head and looked over at Ohyama. The Communications Officer met her gaze and she knew he felt the same way she did. They both had a pilot to worry about; Tomo was hers, and he had that crush on Handlebarz. As she looked back to the DRADIS Koyomi found herself hoping that the Colonel really would mutiny against Commander Tanizaki, and swearing that if that moment came she would do what she could to help.
Captain Kagura raised her head as the Situation Room's hatch opened and Colonel Kurosawa came storming through. "That . . . that woman!" she almost shouted, stabbing a finger back in the direction she'd come for emphasis.
"Who?" Lieutenant Takino put her magazine down across her chest and looked across the room at the XO from where she lay on her back atop the map table.
Kurosawa came to a stop at the CAG's desk. "The Commander, who else? She's determined to get us all killed for her stupid crusade!" She looked at the floor as she forced herself to calm down. Though Yukari openly hated the hyperkinetic pilot, Kurosawa knew that Takino was a supporter of her command methods, so she'd better watch what she said around her. She turned to the CAG; she knew she could count on her support.
"What's going on?" Kagura asked. The pilot roster sat at her elbows, more names crossed out. More CAP shuffling.
"Do you know what she told me?" Kurosawa asked her in a more subdued voice. "She said she'd send every last one of our pilots to die if it meant victory."
Kagura's face turned angry and bravado overtook common sense. "Over my dead body!"
"We're at war, that might become the case if you refuse her orders when she's in the wrong mood," Kurosawa said.
Tomo sat up. "Is that legal?"
Kurosawa sighed and nodded her head. "Summary executions are legal in a time of war, if it's an act of mutiny. Refusing to send pilots into combat could be seen as just that." She looked back at the hatch. "Not that legality really matters anymore. I wonder how long until Yukari realizes that."
Tomo looked back and forth from Kurosawa to Kagura. She looked like she couldn't decide which side to take. It was no secret that she wanted revenge on the Cylons almost as much as the Commander, but she obviously didn't want to be sent out to die pointlessly either. As glamorous as going out in a blaze of glory sounded, it was still going out.
"Lieutenant," Kurosawa said to her, "give us the room."
Tomo hopped down off the table and headed out the hatch.
As soon as she was out Kurosawa turned to Kagura. "We've got to do something about Tanizaki," she said. Though they were alone, she instinctively took a conspiratorial tone.
Kagura sat back in her chair. "Are you talking about mutiny?"
She hesitated, then nodded. "Yes."
"But . . ." Kagura protested. "But she's your friend! You told me you've known each other since high school!"
Kurosawa nodded again, a pained look on her face. "I know. I hate to even think it. But if this ship, this crew, is going to survive this then she cannot remain in command. We may be all that remains of humanity."
Kagura's face made it clear she hadn't really considered that.
"If Yukari continues on this way, we will all die and humanity will end with your generation," Kurosawa said. "We can't let that happen."
Kagura looked at the far wall as she rolled the idea over in her head. Finally her eyes met Kurosawa's and she nodded. "I'm with you, Colonel."
Tomo glanced back in the direction of the situation room as she rolled up the magazine and tapped it against her palm. As she passed other members of the crew they backed away, but she didn't feel like terrorizing anyone right now.
As she headed to the pilots' duty lockers she snorted to herself. Give us the room. Yeah, like she didn't already know what the XO wanted to discuss. Kurosawa wanted to talk about turning on the Commander, and she didn't want Tomo ratting her out. She couldn't help but feel insulted; how dumb did she think she was?
Tomo climbed up into her rack and sat down, leaning forward and swinging her legs in the air. Paying no mind to the other pilots in the locker, she reached back and got out the picture frame behind her pillow. Up to now she'd been concentrating on the tallest girl in the picture. Every time she thought to the future, the overriding need was to avenge her family; this photograph of her sister was all she had of them, and every time she looked at it Torako's face was all she saw.
Now she turned her eyes to the right, to look at the bespectacled girl standing apart from her and her sister. Koyomi Mizuhara. They had known each other since grade school, but their relationship hadn't progressed beyond mere friendship until after they'd enlisted, at officer training school.
She still had Yomi. She was here, on this ship. Whatever happened from here on out, wherever they went, they could be together. Assuming, of course, the Commander didn't send her out to get splashed by a toaster.
Mutiny. Though she acted as though she had a bag of sand for a brain Tomo was a lot smarter than most people, including herself, gave her credit for, and she could see plain as day that mutiny would be inevitable if Yukari's rampage was to be stopped. That woman was too stubborn and thickheaded to be made to see reason.
So which is it Numbnuts? she thought to herself. Do you avenge Torako, or save Yomi? She lay down in her rack and rubbed her forehead. Why did it have to be mutiny? She didn't want to betray her Commander. Tomo raised her head and looked at the picture. She didn't want to betray her Commander . . . but if she and Yomi were to have any sort of a future together, she didn't have a choice.
Torako was was dozing at the helm when she heard footsteps coming up the gangway and through the hatch. She opened her eyes a crack, and saw a blurry shape standing beside her. Too short to be Shimauu, and way too short to be Asagi. "Mm?" She made a curious sound in her throat as she turned in her chair and opened her eyes to look at Osaka, grinning down at her. "What is it?"
Osaka's right arm swung up, hand held straight out, and Torako was looking at her sidearm. She froze, eyes darting from the pistol to Osaka's vacant-eyed face. After a long moment she found her voice. "Wha . . . what're you doing?"
"Do you have any bullets?" she asked, lazily cocking her head to the side.
Torako looked at the gun, noticing her finger wasn't on the trigger.
"Uh . . . yeah," she finally said.
Osaka lowered the pistol. "That's good. I figured we'd want to protect ourselves wherever we end up."
Torako nodded. "I agree. You know, you really shouldn't go pointing that at people."
Osaka looked at the gun in her hand. "Huh? But aren't you supposed to?"
Torako lit a cigarette. Conservation be damned, that had rattled her. "Well yes, but only if you mean to use it."
"Oh . . . " The DRADIS beeped. "What's that?"
"Huh?" Torako turned to her console. "What the hell . . ." As she watched contact after contact appeared on her screen, until she was looking at fifteen unknown vessels. Without taking her eyes off the DRADIS Torako reached up and grabbed the comm. "Captain," she said, "you need to get up here."
