Nanashi 2
Captain Davis looked up as a person walked into the bridge.
"Captain Davis, my name is Duo Maxwell and I'm here to co-pilot and take care of mechanics."
Davis said nothing and went back to reprogramming the ship.
"You know I wasn't expecting a girl. I just assumed that you were a boy."
Davis looked up again and gave Duo a look that said, "Get to work!" and went back to the ship. A few minutes later talking could be heard outside the door. The large door slid open with a swish and two girls walked in. They both paused when they noticed the braided boy on crutches.
Duo waved at the two newcomers and went back to studying the co-pilot controls.
"State your business." Davis said without looking up.
"Well, I'm officer Kari Demask and I will be taking care of the mechanics for the ship. I also have background in computers and defense."
Davis nodded and turned toward the other girl.
"Um, officer Bria James. I'll be assisting the chef and I also work with weaponry."
"Weaponry? You mean defense?"
"Yes ma'am something like that. Weaponry is a little different than defense though."
Just as Davis opened her mouth to speak three more soldiers walked into the room.
"Captain Quatre Raberba Winner reporting for duty."
Davis expected the other two soldiers to introduce themselves next but both stood silent.
"Tell me Captain, do you know who these soldiers are?" Davis asked Quatre.
"No ma'am. I have not learned their names yet." Quatre replied.
"My name is Wufei and I am the cook. I also co-pilot."
"I am officer Heero Yuy and I work in navigations and computers."
Another young man stepped into the room.
"Officer Trowa Barton. I take care of communications, mechanics, and computers."
"Good. It looks like all of you are here. Unfortunately with a ship this size a crew this small will not be enough and now I'll have to radio for more soldiers to share this hell. Life sucks."
Duo started clapping when Davis was done. She looked at him and he promptly stopped.
"Well first things first." Davis started. "We will have order on this ship at all times. There will be certain rules you will be expected to follow. Listen closely, I hate last names so we will all use first names and rank means nothing to me except that I am the head of this ship and the second in command is Quatre over there." Davis pointed to the blond pilot. "The rest of you are all equal. Since we are going by first names you should know mine, it is Christi. Another thing, I know exactly why you were all sent here so I don't want any funny business. I want each of you to go your station where you will be spending most of your time and set the controls to best fit you. Any questions?"
"No's" were echoed throughout the bridge as each soldier made his or her way to their designated spot.
Duo cleared his throat.
"Um, captain? I think I should tell you that I have never fixed a "Z" ship and could only do the basics on a ship this old. I'm not even sure how it works."
"Then do tell why your file that I got says that you will be my main mechanic?" Christi asked, holding up a folder that was lying on her captain's seat.
"Well on the last ship I was stationed on I was the main mechanic but I have no clue how to fix a "Z" ship!"
Christi stared at Duo for a moment and then, without turning, she asked Heero,
"Heero, can you bring up the maintenance manual for this ship on that computer?"
Heero grunted and typed on the keyboard. A moment later a document showed up on the screen.
"Well then I suggest you start reading." Christi said to Duo.
Duo hobbled over to the computer and looked at the screen.
"But this is 416 pages long!"
"Then get started." Christi turned to the rest of the group. "Does anyone else have anything they would like to tell me before we get started."
"I'm not the best chef." Wufei spoke up.
"Which is why you have help. Wufei, meet Bria. Bria, Wufei."
Bria waved at the Chinese boy.
Christi rolled her eyes and as she did so she noticed Kari walk over to Duo and she started reading over his shoulder.
"Kari, what are you doing?"
"Well I'm not exactly sure how to fix a "Z" ship either so I figured I'd better read the maintenance manual too."
"Fine, whatever. Listen up people, this ship is ancient and I can't do everything. As of right now nothing on this ship works except the fact that we have electricity. It is your job to get this ship ready to pilot. I would like to start out sometime in the next few hours. Once you have made sure everything in your main area is working properly then go to your secondary area and see what you can do to help. Is this understood?"
Christi was answered with a "yes ma'am" from everyone on board.
Quatre made his way toward Christi.
"Um, ma'am?"
Christi said nothing.
Quatre tried again, "Piloting is about the only thing I'm able to do and I'm guessing that you are taking care of the settings for that. Uh, what would you have me do?"
Christi looked up at Quatre. She stood to her full height that made her a little less than an inch taller than the blond pilot. "I'm done here so you can look over the controls and get to know the ship."
"Yes captain Davis."
"Don't call me captain. Call me Christi."
Quatre nodded.
Christi started off toward the engine room and on her way she passed Duo, Kari and Bria.
"So this guy walks into a bar and he says…" suddenly Duo noticed Christi standing beside him. "uh…and…he says get to work. Witch is exactly what I'm doing!"
Duo turned in his seat so he would not have to look at Christi.
"Bria, go to the kitchen and see if Wufei needs any help."
Bria nodded and left for the kitchen.
"Kari, make sure the computers are up at your defense station and working to your specifications. Heero will help you."
"Isn't he busy? And also, I need to get to know the ship so that I can help Duo fix it."
"Heero has been done for a while and will be happy to assist you. One word of advice, he was sent here because he shot a fellow officer because he was in his way. I'd advise you not to get in his way. Just tell him what you want done and he'll do it. One more thing, I'm not sure ~you~ will be helping Duo with the ship. I'm on my way to call for another mechanic. Hopefully one who can fix this **** thing! Duo, follow me."
"Yes ma'am!" Duo replied.
Duo did his best to keep up with Christi's fast pace but on crutches it wasn't very easy!
"Duo, I want you to take a left at this next hallway and go down to the engine room and make sure this thing can at least move! I'll be there in a minute."
"Right-o captain!"
Christi clenched her teeth together and chose not to say anything. She then made her way to the communications room. When she got there Trowa was just typing out some commands on the computer.
"I just finished. It seems that when Heero got the main computer working everything basically fixed itself. This is a very smart ship."
"It's a piece of junk if you ask me! And it's only as smart as it's crew, I sure hope that Duo kid isn't going to be here much longer."
"He is here for a month, like the rest of us."
"How did you know that?"
"Well it's all in the files of the ship. All I had to do was hack into them and everything was there."
"What? Get Heero on a line for me."
Trowa punched out a few more commands and gave a little headset to Christi.
"Heero, did you input any information about the crew into the computer yet?…Are you sure?…You didn't take information from the files I left on my chair?…okay, thank you."
Christi pulled the earpiece away from her ear. "He says he hasn't touched any information. That's strange. Oh well! Listen, I need you to get me a line to HQ. I would prefer to speak to commander Spencer." Trowa nodded and prepared a line.
This time Christi put the headpiece on all the way. "Brent?…Yeah, it's Christi…Like a living hell…Listen I need another mechanic on this ship. It turns out that my little braided officer on crutches has no clue how to fix one of these God forsaken things…You're kidding me, right?…What a joy! Listen, I have another favor, can you tell me why all the info on the crew would have already been inputted into the ship?…Well that's what I was told too. The only thing is I haven't put anything into the computer and neither has any of my crew!…You'll look into it? Okay, thank you."
Christi rubbed her eyes. "I need a drink!"
"Well your file said that you can't have any alcoholic beverages for a month."
Christi looked at Trowa. "I want you to forget anything you read about me in those files, that is an order!"
"Ma'am."
Christi stood still for a moment and wondered why the information on the computer bothered her.
"What did HQ say?"
Christi looked up as if she was waking up out of a trance. "Oh, um…it just so happens that someone who actually knows how to fix this ship is in some kind of trouble and is being sent here. She should arrive in a few hours."
"Would her name happen to be, Leikela?"
Christi stared at Trowa. "That's what I was told but how would you know that?"
"Well when I was reading the files on the rest of us there was one titled, Leikela but I couldn't access it."
"Look, I have to go to the engine room but I want you to see if you can get to that file. I wish there was some way you could let me know you found it without me coming all the way back here."
"Well that is what the headset is for. I have one here for the whole crew."
"Oh, okay."
Christi and Trowa jumped when it sounded like something had hit the wall on the opposite side of the wall next to them.
"What is next to this room?" Christi asked pointing to the wall.
"The kitchen."
"Excuse me."
Christi walked out of the room and she could hear yelling coming from the next-door down. Right before she stepped into the room a frying pan came flying out. The yelling got louder.
"Injustice! You just threw a frying pan at me!"
"Well if you weren't being such a baka I wouldn't have to throw things at you."
"Weak onna! I refuse to work with you."
"Yeah well I refuse to work with you!"
Christi walked into the kitchen and found Wufei staring at Bria from across a table. Wufei was armed with a large steak knife and Bria had a large cooking pot.
"Stop it you two!" Christi yelled.
Wufei and Bria seemed to calm down. Wufei took a deep breath and started speaking.
"This onna wont let me do my job."
"Yeah well this onna wouldn't let me do MY job." Bria emphasized her point by staring at Wufei.
"INJUSTICE!!! You dare call me a woman!"
Christi rolled her eyes and left the room. She would deal with that later. Christi could still hear the yelling as she walked toward the engine room.
Christi walked through the door of the engine room and found Duo staring at one of the large engines.
"Will it run?" Christi asked.
Duo jumped with surprise. "Yeah, it'll run. But I'm just confused."
"You're not the only one!"
"No I mean the engines. Now I've never been on a "Z" ship but I do know that most of these parts aren't needed for it to run."
"What do you mean?"
"Well there are a bunch of extra parts. We could run with about half of this stuff."
"Maybe they're extra pieces incase this thing breaks. It is old!"
"No, these don't look like any of the other pieces."
"Well if we don't need them then I want you to throw them off. I hate having extra things on board my ship. If HQ didn't tell me that they were sending cargo then I'm not taking cargo!"
"Sure thing, captain."
"Good! One less thing to worry about." Suddenly Christi's headset beeped. "Captain Davis…a message…can you not tell me what this all important message is?…fine. I'll be in the communications room."
"What is it Christi?" Duo asked when the conversation was over.
"A Preventer is here to see me and has some special message that she has to tell me in person. Finish up here and find me when you're done."
"Okies!"
Bria stared at Wufei through squinted eyes.
Wufei carefully placed everything in its place while avoiding Bria's gaze.
"Excuse me?" a voice said.
Bria turned to the girl about her age and smiled.
"Can you tell me where the communications room is?"
Wufei snorted, "You mean you haven't come here to replace this sorry excuse of a chef!"
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Bria asked as she reached behind her and pulled out a knife.
Wufei moved over closer to Bria and by doing so he put himself between the girl and Bria. Wufei also had a knife.
"I was only telling the truth!" Wufei said.
"Oh yeah? Well how's this for telling the truth?" Bria pulled up her hand as if she was going to throw her knife at Wufei. Wufei reacted and threw his knife first but missed Bria's head by inches.
"I can't believe you threw that at me!!!" Bria exclaimed. "Well how's this?" Bria threw the knife but Wufei ducked and the knife went straight into the girl still standing at the door. Bria put a hand over her mouth as the body fell to the ground.
"You just killed her!" Wufei said.
"Well it's your fault too you know!"
"Well she can't stay there! Bring her in!" Bria said after Wufei and Bria stared at each other for a few minutes. Wufei sighed and dragged the body into the kitchen. He then closed the door and made sure no one was in the hallway.
"Is she dead?" Wufei asked.
"Yeah, I'm afraid so."
"So what are we gonna do with her?"
"Well she can't stay here! We have to get her off the ship!"
"How are we gonna do that? This is a body we're talking about!"
"Well, we'll just make sure no one is coming and then we'll carry her out!"
Wufei sighed, "I guess we don't have a better idea? Okay, you take the head and I'll take the feet."
Bria nodded and grabbed the head. The two chefs struggled with the girl and opened the door. Once out side Wufei looked down both hallways and after making sure that no one was in sight the two pulled the girl up between them and started walking down the hallway. After a moment footsteps were heard and Bria and Wufei panicked. When the footsteps got closer Wufei turned around and squished the body of the girl between him and Bria.
"Oh get a room guys!" Kari said as she passed. "I mean if you're gonna kiss go somewhere were I don't have to look at you!"
When Kari had disappeared down another hallway Wufei and Bria quickly backed away from each other.
"You and I know that nothing happened!" Bria said.
"Right! But this isn't going to work! We have to get her back into the kitchen."
Bria agreed and helped Wufei carry her back to the kitchen. Once inside Bria started looking in all of the girl's pockets.
"What are you doing?" Wufei asked.
"I'm looking for some kind of identification! I'd like to know who I…I mean we killed!"
Wufei nodded and started looking too. After a minute he found some.
"Uh-oh!" he said when he read the card.
"What?" Bria asked, alarmed by the tone in Wufei's voice.
"This wasn't just an ordinary Preventer, she wasn't even a Preventer, this is Vice Foreign Minister Dorlian!"
"You mean as in, Relena Peacecraft?"
Wufei nodded.
Bria stared wide-eyed for a moment and then she came to her senses, "We have to hide her! We could be killed for this!"
"Well where are we going to put her?"
"Uh…the freezer! It's big enough and you and I will be the only ones going in there!"
Wufei nodded his head in agreement and helped Bria put Relena into the large walk in freezer. When they were done Wufei and Bria leaned against the closed door of the freezer and let out a long breath. Suddenly Wufei turned to Bria and held out his hand,
"We have to make a pact! Right here, that you and I will never tell a soul! This will be between me and you!"
Bria nodded and shook Wufei's hand.
To Be Continued…