by
imortis
Ranma woke up from what seemed like an endless dream of
terror and mad nightmares, only to find he was NOT where he
exspected to be. In fact, from the strange egg like thing
full of... what ever, he thought that maybe he was still
dreaming "sir! Subject ONE just broke out of the nutrient
cocoon!" a female voice said from a speaker over his head
"thats impossible, subject one is subject one, because he's
an incurable dolt! Acording to the history chips, his body was
half destroyed by the first nano plague." a mans voice said
stuffily. Ranma looked down at himself and saw that his
limbs were all there, but couldn't figure out why he felt so
light headed. He looked into the thing he was leaning on
and half screamed recognizing the face in the tube "whats
this? Theres activity near cocoon two, who said the
administrator was to be released?!" the man exclaimed then
cried out as the cocoon was shattered. ranma looked down at
her as her body fell out into his arms. He cradled her head
for a second after pulling the tube out of her throat and
induced vomiting in a panic. After a minute she started
gasping lungfuls of air as she stared wildly around the
place. ranma, distracted from the fact that both of them
were naked, looked up to see ten or twenty men rush out and
stop on the other side of the two eggs "sir! Cocoons one
and two have been... shattered by the looks of it, we have
two, I repeat, two teens at the scene."
ranma backed away from the men still clutching at her
slippery body as she stared up at him "freeze it kid! Don't
make us stun you!" the man barked. ranma snarled raising his
hand and light flaired from it "one step forward until I
find out what the hells going on and I'll blow this place to
hell!" he yelled. The girl reached out and caught his hand
"no don't!" she exclaimed holding onto him. He let the ki
go as she looked at the man "soldier! Who are you and is
this still jusenkyo station around tendo ke? Who are you, I
don't recognize your insignia." she barked comandingly. The
man winced, this was the reason he hated working this part
of the station "control, would you please get someone in
authority down here?! Who the hell was in cocoons one and
two?"
Everyone looked up hearing running feet coming from the lift
into the room "you hurt who ever that is corptain and
you'll be cleaning ring debris from the raban wars from
every inhabited system!" a voice that sounded like kisumi,
but much older and stern, said as a graying woman in long
flowing pants and shirt came into view. She smirked and
ranma was shocked speachless as she tip toed through the
fluid and came over to them "why ranma! I just knew you
really cared about akane after all!" she said happily.
Ranma blinked at kisumi for a minute before colapsing in on
himself and akane yelped falling out of him arms. Kisumi
caught her "get these two to a recovery room, three minutes
ago!"
Akane looked at her sister in almost the same type of shock
ranma had displayed "kisumi?" she asked softly. She smiled
at her "yes dear! They woke me up four hundred years ago
having found a cure for the bio toxin the rabans used to
destroy earths biosphere. Boy I was asleep for a long time!
I hear you are a legend around here, and ranma! He was
mythic in my day! They have churches out there now, praising
him as the savior of mankind!" she said smiling. Akane
smiled laying down on the stretcher and looked over at
ranmas face as they were pushed into the medical ward "he is
sis, he saved the world when everyone gave up on him. He
stopped the first alien invasion single handed, giving us
time to prepare for next time."
Ranma grinned to himself as the shaking stopped "control,
this is saotome one, I've just broken atmosphere and not
even a fortieth of my ki fuel was used up. Thats for the
record people! Hear that akane?! The ki systems we
designed work!!" he crowed over the comm link as he zig
zagged in and about the station his wife was housed in "yes
I heard love! Don't you dare slam that roman candle into
the station!" she laughed over the comm. He crowed again
flipping the ship about and did a super tight u-turn around
the station "everythings green my huntress! I just did so
many menuvers that the shuttle systems would have broken
into peices and ran out of fuel at the same time! And I'm
not even tired! The jupiter run is ready to go, but you
know, honey, baby, if you want I can dock at the station and
take a night to rest from my exertions." he said softly
grinning into the monitor attatched to the top of the pilots
con along with all the digital read out and just plain old
line of sight i.e. the old eye ball method
akane grinned at him and held up a two year old girl "ah!
Both my babies are in my cockpit! Damn I feel like
dancing!" he said letting the pleasure of a near perfect
lift off in a ship no one said would work, and that some
violently opposed to their efforts, he felt like he could
take on the world. The girl yelled waving at him and he
touched the screen "hey baby! Hows space treating you?" he
asked looking back at his systems then grinned tilting his
ship sideward and gently tapped the part of the station he
was near. When everyone jumped looking over at him he
grinned waving at his startled wife and touched the cockpit
window, when his daughter jumped up and down and ran to the
window yelling something. He laughed blowing her a kiss.
Akane joined her at the window "get that thing in dock, I
feel like teaching you not to abuse saotome enterprises
property." Ranma looked outraged "what?! This stuff is mine
too akane! If I feel like slamming into a mountain side to
find out what happens, its an exspariment with very definite
results, so where are you going to hold this repremand?" he
asked grinning. Akane let go of the mike for a minute as
she spoke to the girl and handed the mike to her "DADDY! COME
HOME FOR THE NIGHT!!!!!!"
When ranma hopped out of the docking ring he was assaulted by
one gorgious lady and one adorable little girl. He picked
the girl up and started tickling her "you thought that was
funny huh?!" he growled in mock anger and turned her upside
down and held her that way, she squealed in joy. Ranma
pulled akane into his arms and grinned at her "I hope you
don't have an early take off planned for me, you won't believe
how wound up I am." he rumbled pulling her into his arms and
arched his eye brow suggestively. She giggled grinding
herself against him "you take off late tomarrow. Come on,
your mother and father are waiting for you." she giggled
taking the girl and skipped off "ah! Don't leave me
hanging!" he wailed bouncing after and caught up with them
at their quarters "munchken, why don't you go play with the
air in your room for a few hours." he suggested tickling her
for a second. She giggled coasting over to her grandparents
and plastered herself into nodokas arms as she willingly
took her "what are you going to do daddy?" she asked
happily. He grinned "well you know how you wanted a puppy?
How about a little brother?" he asked grinning at akane as
he pulled her into his arms. She grinned delighted with the
idea, she didn't want to admit to even herself that she
feared for ranmas safety "cool! Will I be able to dress
him?!?" she squealed happily. Everyone face faulted and
ranma chuckled braking off his exsploration if the inside
of akanes jumpsuit.
Ranma flipped on his long distance sensors and looked
longingly at the blip that was quickly resieding from the
screen "I love you family. And you can be damn sure that
god himself is going to have to slap me down to stop me from
coming back to watch my wife get all bloated and angry!" he
declaired pushing a finger into the air to confirm his
statement. Akane laughed, the fear leaving her face a little
"oh ya? And what will you do about it?" she asked looking
reasured when nodoka took her hand "well I figure I could
sit in bed all day and feed you bits of icecream and rub
your feet when they hurt, but I'm sure we can find other
more interesting things to do with our time." he said
grinning. He looked up and nodded as a smaller blip
appeared on his screen "scanners picking up the old rusty
god of war honey bunny. Thats another one for the books
family mine! Distance sprinting from earth to mars, four
hours. And I haven't even started feeling tired, fuel gauge
says I'm one tenth depleated, an hours rest will replace
that. You can't begin to understand how horny this makes
me love! Only one mars orbiting mission was done by man,
that was four years ago and they had to come right back. Oh
god this is so cool!! I'm going to places only five men
have been to, and I'm going to stay there long enough for a
nap." he stopped and looked worried for a minute then
grinned settling down "check that, I'm too excited for the
nap, ki batteries are already recharging. Am I supposed to
feel like a god?"
Ranma disengaged his main engine "main thrusters off, orbital
propulsion systems on line. You know, you never realize
how much junk it takes to make up an asteroid belt until you
look at it. Makes me feel like a fly in a hale storm." he
muttered and grinned flicking his eyes at the screen to see
akane asleep at the monitor "good, at least your sleeping."
he whispered. He smiled happily as he gently nudged his way
through the wall of rock chunks "I would like to point out
to the fuckups at plan-net, there is no way in hell they are
going to get large ships through this without major damage,
they'll have to cut away at this shit. Ah, got it, we can
start saotome asteroid mining corps, although I cringe at
the idea of some of this stuff getting back to earth...." he
threw on the brakes suddenly and looked with sickening
realization as he realized what he was seeing "akane." he
called gently. Then more loudly "hey is anyone but my wife
in the monitoring room?!?" he yelled and she jerked up and
awake "ranma! What is it?! You sound scared!" she called
rubbing her eyes, about then others came into the room.
Ranma flipped on his flood lights and iluminated the
relitively flat plan of rock with what was unmistakibly,
buildings.
Ranma yawned as he moved closer into the the valley between
the two large dome buildings and nudged to a stop near a
window "akane, what is the salvage law again?" he asked.
She blinked "ranma, that was meant for sea wrecks." she said
her reading glasses sliding down her nose "well even if it
isn't legal here goes." he cleared his throat and hit the
record button "I, saotome ranma of the prototype star ship
p-chan, here by lay claim to any and all items found in the,
what is now undenibly conclusive, remains of the planet that
once moved between mars and jupiter. i claim it by right as
the first person to have been here and not here under the
power of any government or government agency. The p-chan
and its records are property of saotome enterprises a
independent company that achieved the act of star flight first
and feel that it is my right to claim this place for
company, at least then I know those damned neo resergance
bastards won't get a chance to destroy it because it isn't
in their holy book. Got that love?"
After another day of careful navigating he stopped seeing a
moving wall of rock "now thats got to be the scariest thing
I've ever seen baby its like the worlds moving and its not
stopping." he said worried as he coasted first up then down
but found no exit "I think I may be in a dead end family
mine." he said then jumped as a proximity sensor went off
"what the fuck?! I got something moving right at me at at
least eighty nots!" he exclaimed checking his rear sensors
and turning on the camera and flood lights. He screamed
uncontrolably seeing the thing moving owards him "it looks
like a fucking shark!!" he yelled then after making a
decision he gunned his engines right at the moving wall just
as he revibrated a ki blast along his outer hull and blew a
sizable chunk of the wall out. He coasted into it as the
creature got to him and looked away as its head was sheared
off "akane, baby please talk to me." he asked but got no
answer. He cursed seeing that he was cut off from any
comunication. He turned on all his lights and his world was
knocked for a whirl. This was not a rock.
He looked up and flipped on his internal recorders "ok, in
case I do not survive this, I am going to crash the ship on
mars and hope to god someone sees and comes to find me."
He hit a few buttons and the screen flickered to show a
bunch of shiny scaled creatures moving about the cavern
floor as well as vehicals moving about on the ground and in
the air "I think that moving wall I saw is some sort of
alien ship, its monsterous in size, I've been over it for
three days and haven't reached its end yet. ok heres the mind
numbing scary part people, they breath oxygen, and they have
the same heat and cold tolerances we have. There are
billions of them in this thing... I think this is an
invasion fleet trying to manuver around the closely grouped
asteroid fragments. Akane, honey, please forgive me.
Because I have a sinking feeling they're after earth, and
I'm going to stop them, god help me, I'm going to try.
And... I don't thing I'm going to get out of it alive baby,
this ship, is three times the size of deimos, and god help
us, loaded for bear. They are here for a sinister purpose,
you don't pile that many people with that many vehicals with
weapons grade exsplosives and other things my computer says
doesn't exist into a ship this size just to say hello."
He grinned as he flipped his recorder back on "I've done
it! It took me four months but I tapped into their systems!
My ships computer went mad for a few hours until I realized
that their systems are running at light speeds while mine is
simply walking. So I exited the ship and savaged one of the
vehicals for its computer systems. damn things spotted me
from the get go. The minute the ki pulsers were off they
detected me. I had to stay lit up like a christmas tree to
walk unnoticed and I got this damned bruise on my heal thats
itching like you wouldn't believe. Its amazing, and
terrifying. These beings are doing their own version of the
americans manifest destiny. They think its there right to
inhabit every oxygenated world in the galaxy just because
they can overwelm the planets inhabitants. They love
destroying what their computer calls the insects that live
on the planets. What I find surprising, is that my computer
broke their langauge matrix and decoded it so easy, something
tells me this is the common lingo for the galaxy, a whole
bunch of racial langauges mixed together. I think I have an
idea on how to start combating these scumbags, but first I
have to find a secure place I won't be found and start
modifying my ship, akane I love you to death for making me
learn all that stuff."
Ranma hit a switch and this time the scene was outside "ok,
I've adapted the recorder sensor so I can show you the new
and Improved p-chan, I call it, the piglets revenge." he
chuckled panning the view around the once tear drop shaped
ship that had been the size of a school bus, to show the axe
head like wings on its sides "I've increased the hulls
structural systems and funny enough, the alien metal has a
harmonics a lot sounder then ours for running ki blasts off
of. This is a good thing, you will see. I've finally found
the end of this acursed ship baby, its five miles long. And
honey, when I blow it everyone on earth is going to see the
roman candle I've made for you. If the ship is still on the
other side of the asteroid barrier, like I pray it is, then
hopefully none of the debris will reach you. I... can't be
sure, but I think its been more then nine months. God I hate
the fact I missed our childs birth love, was he a beautiful
boy? Does he look like me? Do I need to haunt pop for even
thinking of arranged marrages? God I miss you." he cut the
camera off as he started crying.
He grinned viciously as the camera came back on "alright I'm
ready to go! I've rigged almost every major exsplosive they
have to blow at the same time and the stupid shits don't
even bother checking their systems! You won't believe it!
I stole a main computer bank that hold scimatics for all of
their war machines! Did ya know they have jump gate
technology? That theory kazuki was working on is in
operation here. I got a propulsions computer as well, it
maps out the monster needed to run this thing. Your going
to love me here baby, I get a corpse. I have it in cold
freeze in the tiny cargo bay in the back of the ship. I
told you I needed it! And without farther ado.... its time
to get the fuck out of here."
Ranma hit the recorder and flinched from an exsplosion "should
have known they would miss that propulsions computer. I'm
not hidden from their sight anymore, so I'm fluxuating my ki
signature in between attacks, seems to create a double image
on their sensors. So far they've missed me, oops! Got to
go, my next target is a positional changing relay, allows
this sucker to bend almost backwards to get between the
rocks, you figure that one out. Give me a kiss for luck
honey." he said then grinned as the ship spiraled to miss an
incoming missle "this is my last target! Once I blow it the
ships going to tear itself apart since its between a rock
and a hard place, and over a barrel. I got to start the
countdown and get out fast." he muttered coming to a dead
stop and glowed bright white for a minute "phase cannon!"
he roared as ki streamed out from the ship and he took off
hitting his rear camera, the one that still worked of course
"come on baby this is it! Don't wimp out on me now!" he
called as the camera went white for a minute. A great
screaming sound came from the whole ship as he sped past
"reaching my exit point.. Now!"
Ryoga sighed as he moved back from the outer frenges of the
belt wall, having learned some months ago that the shark
like things ate metals and were hard to kill "corps station
this is p-chan two, I'm picking up a strange energy flux
from the other side of the belt wall, looks like some kind
of exsplosion... hold on, my computers picking up
something..."
Ranma gritted his teeth as he arrowed from between the rocks
and winced hearing a wing get torn off and his lights
flickered "this may be it baby, I hope I get out, not that
it'll matter, the disolution of my leg continues, it'll
reach my knee in a few weeks. Lets hit the switch and see
whats playing." he said reaching to the switch he had
redecorated in bright colors and heard static for a second
"same old music, nothin good is ever..." he stopped hearing
a voice in it and scanned deeper "... I repeat! If you
can understand what I am saying please respond or I will be
forced to fire on you when you exit the rock wall!" a voice
said sternly. He hit his send button "a voice? One other
then my own and the ghosts of memories of other people?
Please tell me your not just another of my minds maddened
efforts to stem some of my loneliness!"
Ryoga jumped hearing the anguish in the voice "th- this is
comander hibiki ryoga out survaying for... wreckage..
Ranma... is that you?!"
Ranma gasped "ryoga? Is it really you?! Fuck! Can't
talk,
a got a ball of fire riding my ass and I've lost my port
side dorsal wing and the other is causing a drag. ryoga, if
you can, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!!!" he screamed as his
proximity sensors registered his ship "ryoga I'm serious
here! I'm riding just ahead of a shockwave thats going to
blow a hole in the belt wall about the size of deimos! Run
you fool!" he roared and nodded seeing his blip flip about
"ranma, you better not be joking. I'm splitting, what about
you?" he asked. Ranma chuckled "my jobs done my friend, I'm
running off of left side thrusters and no verticals, I'm
bouncing off of the rock walls as a way to turn me about,
rather dizzying I admit. But its keeping me ahead of the
exsplosion." he stopped "ryoga, I'm downloading my journal
to you, it starts five.. Or is it three, days after I came
across the alien invasion fleet. Ryoga, your not far enough
away. Thats right aliens! One of those sharks ran me into
the side of their mother ship and I only just got a viable
escape route, as bad as it is. But I did it! I stopped
them! I blew those alien bastards to kingdom come!!" he
crowed and gasped as he sailed out into the clear nights sky
and blinked seeing ryoga off his port side. He smiled at
the shocked man "my course is plotted, don't bother trying
to save me ryoga, save yourself first, I'm going to try to
land as softly as I can on mars, mount olympus is in sight,
now get the hell out of here."
Ryoga looked up as his rear sensors screamed at him and he
gunned his engines to the max seeing the wall of fire heading
towards him. He took one last look at the severely damaged
ship and blinked "ranma that damage is not done by hitting
rocks! Thats blaster fire!" he protested. Ranma laughed
at
him "do you really think a couple rocks could do this to my
little piglet?! Take my journal back to akane... I wonder
if I'll bounce?" he murmured softly as his was pulled into
mars gravity and the well of fire blocked off his view of
him.
Ranma jerked up and scrambed out of the bed clutching at his
head as he cried out in pain. He slumped to his knees
panting heavily, his body shaking hard "ranma!" a voice
behind him exclaimed and he turned about to see a face he
had dreamed of for so long he couldn't remember. He fell
back om him heals and looked wide eyed as his strangely
dressd wife slowly came towards the glass panel seperating
them. He touched the glass and gasped seeing his fingers
flow into it before jerking them back. He looked at akane
scared out of his wits "akane... whats happened to me?"
Ranma sat in the room meditating softly when the door to the
lab opened. Kisumi and akane came back with another woman
with stern eyes and a hair cut he remembered "nibiki?" he
asked softly. She smirked nodding "I see you remember
me. well! The hero of the first alien invasion has finally
awakened!" she said walking to the glass partition "thanks
to you, we humans were thrown into a thousand years of war
with the raban race. System after system we incountered, they
were there, and they all hated us." she said letting anger
creap into her voice. Ranma blinked at her "but... they
hated us anyways. They exterminate anything that isn't
their own kind, when ever they meet it! I was trying to save
us!" he yelled angry himself now. She nodded "your right of
course, your journals and the computers you salvaged were
invaluable to the on going war. They would have floored us
within minutes when they came back seventy years later, if we
hadn't taken your warning as gospel." she said anger still in
her voice. He frowned at her
"if I did so great why are you treating me like I killed
your pet?" he growled crossing his arms. She smirked at
him "oh do forgive me, I'm just a bitter old woman that saw
far too much death and lost all of her family to the wars,
you being the first casualty. Then akane quit life to join
you in those damned cocoons, to wait until you could be
healed. After your parents died in the first nano plague,
my husband and your daughter were the next to go." she said
viciously. Ranma looked ready to cry "l- siuki?" he
whispered leaning back against the bulkhead. He closed his
eyes as tears did fall. Akane touched the glass "ranma
please, siuki was eighty and had three grand kids of her
own by then." she whispered laying her head on the window.
Ranma nodded still crying "and... did we have a son?" he
said in a shaky voice. She smiled tears streaming down her
face, she pulled out a holo projector from her pocket "I
brought pictures."
Ranma looked at the small boy portrayed on the glass after
they had turned the light out and he choked back a sob "hes
my son... that he is. I looked like that at five, hes
wearing a gi?" he asked in a cracking voice. She nodded "we
trained him to be as great as his father, and he was! Look,
here he is about to enter the corps training center for
combat pilot training. That badge on his shoulder is his
membership badge for the church of the savior. He loved the
fact that his father was the churches god, they have origenal
copies of your journals, and most of our life history. They
revered him because he looked so much like you, he was like
you too. He had that same quick tongue and sharp wit. We
gauged his fighting skill to be forty times what yours was
when the third raban war started. He saved millions of
lives with that same gung ho attitude you had. He pulled
off the impossible many times, like you did."
Ranma nodded laughing through his tears seeing the young,
powerfully built lad hugging a graying ryoga who was
rubbing his head "is ryoga still alive?" he asked softly.
akane nodded "he heads the church of the savior... why
didn't you ask if ranma, we gave him your name. Why not ask
if hes still alive?" she asked. He looked at her "I know
you akane, if he was still alive you wouldn't speak of him
past tense.... how did he die?"
She breathed shakily "it was called the three day war. No
one got even a minutes sleep, let alone a chance to reload
weapons. In the end three of our frigates and one of their
comand ships survived. The frigates were dead, no way to
get out in time to avoid the ship. Ranma... had fought non
stop, never letting up on them. In the end he was out of
everything, all he had left was his ship. That was all he
needed. He said good bye to the frigate captain in the most
cavalier voice anyone but you and him would make sound silly.
You two made it sound heroic. He brought his ship upto top
speed, and rammed the alien ships bridge. He died
instantly, he didn't suffer."
Ranma sat there looking at his hands for a full half hour
before looking up at them "why am I in here?" he asked
suddenly. They blinked at him "your under observation
ranma. You were the first to be struck down by the nano
plague, and so far your the only one thats beaten it." kisumi
said smiling. Ranma blinked "you mean those things that
were breaking me down on a molecular level." he said calmly.
She nodded smiling "why yes! How did you know?" she asked.
He looked at her "do you want to know why my son was so
powerful?" he asked changing the subject. She smiled "we
know ranma, his gene senquancing was more refined and
missing all the genoms we call weak links." she explained.
He nodded "do you know why? And don't tell me genetic
engeneering, akane would never let that happen. Its because
both of his parents were using extreme amounts of ki for a
goodly portion of their life. I didn't realize that would
happen until I had been forced to use my ki every minute of
the day for six months, then things started happening to me.
For one I could hold off the nanos to some exstent, the
ship gained manuverability that defied the laws of nature...
and I started merging things."
He picked up the chair in the room and snapped its metal leg
off like a twig. He brough it to the metal table and nelt
down by it "I have the ability to merge two metals as if
they had been molded that way." he murmured pressing the leg
to the table and slowly ran his fingers through the metal
before letting it go. He leaned on it "its stronger then
any weld and makes the metal stronger the it normally was
even in its best casting. I take it from the field that
you can't get a blood sample from me. I've kind of grown
attatched to my blood thankyou. I beat the nanobites by
overwelming them, your rather stupid for not thinking of it.
I beat them, but emitting an EM pulse powerful enough to
kill them in one wave, the plagues didn't need to happen.
they're fucking machines they built to clear away the excess
skin from their hides. A strong EM pulse would have wiped
them out. So don't you dare blame any of the deaths on me
nibiki. I did good to save us from exstinction, I worked
and I suffered for I don't know how long, until my plan came
into effect. After that, nothing. I never got the big hero
coming home party, I never got to see my wife again, my
children are dead and I'm being held like some sort of
quarantined rat when all I want to do is grieve with my
wife."
Nibiki smirked ugly "I'm so sorry ranma, but until we get
that blood sample you can't be allowed to leave." she said
letting her hate show. Akane glared at her "you can't do
that nibiki!" she snarled. Nibiki smirked at her "oh can't
I? You signed all your rights to everything you owned over
to me when you went into that cocoon, akane dearest. You
left me, you were the only family member I had left and you
deserted me like the rest of them. As far as I'm concerned
ranmas a lab specimen!" She snarled. Ranma stood up and
looked calmly at her "you would stop me?" he asked. She
nodded looking at him with naked hatred. He sighed
touching the glass "then I have no choice but to destroy the
station to free myself."
Akane jumped as the three inch thick glass shattered as well
as everything else in the room to reveal the field that the
room had hid. He pushed his hand into it and it fried to a
crisp. He took a step into the field and his leg followed.
Even nibiki was taken aback by his apparent act of suicide
and shut off the field. He stepped out and held up his
blackened hand as the skin started to regrow itself so fast
you could see the bones filling out and the muscles regrow "I
reprogrammed the nano bites dear sister. They can be used
to reconstruct any damaged body part or effect drastic
changes almost instantly. Hince all the broken needles."
Nibiki backed away "ya? And whats to stop then from
infecting others and making them look like you?" she
hissed. Ranma smiled opening his arms to akane and she
gladly came into them. He kissed her hard for a few minutes
"god I missed you." he whispered holding her tight. "As you
can see nibiki, akane doesn't look a thing like me does
she?" nibiki and kisumi backed away in horror as ranmas hand
started to desolve into akanes and she moaned in pleasure
"is.. It supposed to feel so good?" she asked. He nodded
"yes. The nanos stimulate your body into its most efficient
state, running at its peek condition. All the time. I can
assure you that it is most curitive, if you have an ailment
its wiped out. If you have a case of the raban plague our
nanobites are stronger! A little discomfort is exspected
since it is a war waged in your body."
Nibikis eyes narrowed "should I even ask about containment?"
she hissed reaching into her pocket. Ranma smirked at her
as he stroked his hands down akanes back "nope, the nanos
are transmited through a touch, they start editing out the
harmful parts of the person their in three seconds later,
kisumis hair is a example of these nanos. They are
incapable of reconstructing a person by anything but their
own genetic structure."
nibiki backed away from kisumi seeing that he was right,
kisumis hair was the deep rich brown they remembered. he
smirked at her "whats your problem nibiki? your just as
infected with it as we are, you can't tell me you haven't
felt better in the last few hours then you have in a long
time. the nanos are benefial, the rabans used them to
forstall their deaths since they had the potential to live
hundreds of years, the plates of skin covering their bodies
got so large that soon enough they couldn't move after about
a hundred years without the plates breaking their necks, after
two years of sitting there the plates push so hard on
their head that it either ripped it off or snaps it. from
what i know, the nanos were a gift from a foolish race that
visted them, also their first victims."
nibiki nodded eying him thoughtfully "that fact wasn't known
to us until three hundred years ago. what else do you know
about them?" she asked musingly. he stopped kissing akane
and looked at them "many things did i learn about them and
many things did i put into my journals. look to them." he
growled. she nodded thoughtfully "we have had to do that
every now and then, you weren't too clear sometimes. like,
what did you mean when you said their ship was moving around
the rocks? we've found nothing that promotes that sort of
thing."
he stopped again and frowned in annoyance at her "do you
mind?! it was a new technology! just stolen from a victim.
it wasn't in their computers because it was exsperimental.
must have scrapped it when their colony ship was ripped
apart by the asteroid belt." she nodded frowning at him "so
the technology is gone?" she asked, not very pleased with the
idea. he shrugged "might be able to get a working model,
don't know until i get some private time with my wife." he
said deadpan making them blink, realizing just what akane
was doing. they nodded smiling weakly "i'll show you to a
room." kisumi murmured. nibiki nodded thinking hard "come
and see me later, we have to talk about a few things."
ranma walked into the office they were led to holding akanes
hand smiling cheerfully. he blinked stopping in the doorway
seeing ten men in dark red cloaks with large hoods that
covered everything of their body, beside then sat six men
and four women. ranma blinked for a minute before sitting in
the chair he was directed to. nibiki cleared her throat "as
you can see minaster, patient number one did indeed wake
earlier today, as you well know." she said bitterly looking
at the man behind the rather dressed up old man. he pursed
his lips looking at ranma "he doesn't look like him." he
grumped. ranma quarked an eye brow at him before sitting up
and pulled something from the back of his chair by ripping it
lose. he blinked at it as a few moved away shouting in fear
"bomb!" a gaurd shouted. ranma blinked looking closer at it
before pulling three wires from its top and tossed it on the
table. he smiled at akane "don't you just love those
'welcome home' gifts?" he asked smirking as it was quickly
removed from the room. "how did you know that was there?!"
one of the robed men exclaimed in shock. ranma blinked looking
at him "the same way i know that those pressure suits your
wearing won't stop the strain of nanobites the rabans are
using, the old ones weren't viralent enough for them so now
their making them so they cut away enough skin to allow for
the type of movement they had when they were but forty years
old."
everyone gapped at him "h- how do you know that?!" nibiki
exclaimed in a whisper. ranma smirked slightly "in a caccoon
i was, deaf and blind i wasn't. being in this station, i was
still able to find the closest raban signal post and listen in
on their ideas." he looked at nibiki wih a frustrated smirk
"you know, i put this in my journals, i left a refrence
about how we could use normal radio transistors and decode
their signals rather well. i was able to do that in the
first month back on that ship. if i knew you wouldn't be
able to understand them i would have carefully explained
them."
nibiki flashed her teeth at him "its not our fault you
couldn't talk in speach patterns we recognized, if it wasn't
you babbling about nonesense you were pining for your
family." she spat. they blinked as four of the robed men
jumped up "we will not allow you to disrespect the savior
thus!!" one of them shouted. ranma sighed sitting back
before looking around the room "can we please get on with
this?! i would really like to visit my daughters grave
sight."
they looked at him for a minute not speaking "do you really
think your the saotome ranma?" one of them said frowning
in contempt. ranma arched an eye brow at him "yes, i really
do." he said slowly, like he was talking to a child. the
man glared angrily at him "i believe that all you are, is a
clone miss tendo constructed from the cloning facility she
has been working on lately." he said sharply. ranma blinked
looking at nibiki "ok, its been eighteen hundred years since
i was put in that thing and you still can't clone things?!
they were working on that back in our time!" he said shaking
his head. akane smirked "well, since the first raban war all
the knowledge that wasn't stored in saotome or tendo corps
manframes was destroyed, the rabans bombed the planet
with large pulsar bombs, so if it wasn't in space or on
paper then it was gone."
ranma blinked "geez, they use it on you and you don't use it
on them?!" he exclaimed softly before shaking his head
"please forgive me... but you people are morons! was i
speaking in tongues or something that you couldn't
understand a word i said?! march tenth: 'i've figured it out,
the things eating my leg are basically robots that they use
to groom themselves, a strong EM pulse would cripple them in
moments and free me from this plague, only problem is that i
don't have anything here that can do it.' do you even
partailly remember that?!?! the cure for the nano plagues
was to bathe the victims in a strong electro magnetic
pulse!! i'm not a scientest and yet i figured it out! why
the fuck do you think i left all those messages about how i
was looking forward to seeing my children!?! because i
thought you were smart enough to help me once i got home!!"
he snarled smashing the part of the table where he was and
stalked away from it rubbing his face. akane walked over and
hugged him "please ranma... your transmeter was damaged when
you sent them to ryoga.... and your parents wouldn't let the
ones taken from your flight computer get out saying that
they belonged to them, saying it was all of you they had
left. the full recordings weren't public knowledge for
another thirty years, and.... they destroyed some parts of
it."
he nodded covering his face "great, perfect. i just.... i
would have liked.... to have known my son." he said
haltingly. she nodded hugging him. nibiki cleared her throat
softly "hes not exactly in a very good mood, i mean, almost
two thousand years have gone by and he exspected to be
revived soon after being found." she murmured softly. ranma
nodded looking back at them "i'll download the full journal
files into a data cube later. just.... if their are any
plague victims out there, just bomb them, the nanos are
inert after being hit by a pulse of two point five eight
gigahertz. all thats left is to let the system clean them
out."
ranma sighed looking out the window for a few minutes as
the group watched them closely "are you really him?" one
of the robed figures asked softly. ranma looked back at him
"do you still get lost walking down the hall?" he asked and
smirked slightly when he jumped. he shook his head "i got an
implant..." he stood up and pulled the robe off to show a
very gray ryoga wearing black. he popped the helm of his
suit off and walked over to them, to the horror of the other
suited men "is it you ranma?" he asked getting close "did
you ever marry akari?" he asked softly. he shook his head
sadly "no, she got tired of waiting for me. i married ukyo."
ranma looked pleased "did she ever forgive me?" he laughed
softly. he smiled slightly "only on her deathbed."
ranma blinked looking around the space port their shuttle
had landed in, ignoring all the floating cameras that
were filming them "mr saotome!" a man in the lead yelled over
the reporters babble. he blinked looking at him when he
walked over to him "mr saotome, what is your response to the
charge that your the one that provoked the rabans into
attacking us? some of your detractors say that the rabans
would have brought us peacefully into the galactic world if
you hadn't attacked their ship."
ranma tensed up and bored down on the man "don't you ever
say what i did was wrong, the rabans were nothing but a
swarm of galactic locusts that would have erased us from our
home planet in days of being there! because of them and
small minded fools, i'm visiting my family's grave instead of
coming home to them!! the rabans were monsters then, their
monsters now! they care nothing for those they have killed,
all they want are planets they can use to ferther spread
their filth across the universe. thats my response, and from
what i hear, if it wasn't for my family, mankind would just
be another name carved into their list of conqured races. i
did what i had to do to save my family, i wasn't going to
let some bug ruin us right when we got started."
he blinked finding akane and ryouga trying to make him put
the man down. he blushed setting him down and straitened his
coat "i'm sorry... this is very hard for me to take right
now." he looked down stepping back from the man. he took a
few deep breaths and looked back out at the reporters "it
shocked me how much of my warning never reached mankind. if
it had, the nano plagues would never have started. there are
so many things missing from my journals that i was horrified
at how many lives could have been saved if only.... in a few
weeks, the uncut files will be released for public viewing,
to the temples and the governments. i have been told... that
my parents had edited them for some reason, i would dearly
like to know why, but that answer isn't forthcoming. all we
can do, is make the best of the our situation."
akane hugged him as they got out of the car and they walked
alone up the hill to the grave sight they had had the family
moved to after earth had been laid to waste. ranma nelt down
and placed one of the roses he carried over his daughters
grave, touching the headstone sadly "hi honey, i'm sorry....
i'm sorry we never got to go.... to the park. i so much
wanted to go, i'm so sorry..." he layed his head on the
grass and cried softly, his shoulders shaking hard as akane
held him tight. he sat back up and hugged her tight, pain
making him tense "i don't know if i can do this.... i want
this to be a nightmare and i'll wake up back in our room on
the station. why the hell did they deny me my daughter!? my
cure was in those journals and they destroyed it! they
ruined my chances of being with my family! Damn them to
hell!"
akane held tight to him crying herself as she waited out his
pain. he jumped up and looked around for a minute before
running out into the field surrounding the graveyard and
fell to his knees gripping his fists. akane gasped from the
hill as ryoga joined her deeply worried about the ki around
ranma "SHISHI HOKUDAN!!!" ranma roared and they dove away
as the ground shook hard and hot air passed over them. when
the rumble died down they looked up to find police crusers
circling the pit. they gapped at the size of it before
lunging past the officers who tried to stop them and ran
down the hill to the smoking thing in the middle. ranma
looked up at them from tear stained eyes and sniffed sitting
back, his shirt ragged "do you feel better?" ryoga asked
softly. ranma shook his head "my bunny is dead, all i'll
ever know my son through is words and video. i'm far from
being alright." he stood up shakily and let them lead him
back up the hill they had gone down to get him "ranma,
please, don't leave me, i want you to give me another
child." she breathed holding him close. he looked at her and
nodded resting his head against hers. "ryoga, i want to
thank you, from what i hear, you were there for my son, when
i couldn't be."
ryoga smiled slightly "its the least i could do, your like a
brother i wished like hell i had, and it killed me that you
wouldn't know the man your son became. he loved you, you
know. he loved you to death, one of his favorate places to
be... was the stasis room where you were held, he said it was
comforting to just sit with you. i do have something for
you. ranma and i made it before he joined the space fleet."
ranma blinked sitting in the chair ryoga motioned him to,
his embarressment at having walked down the halls with
pictures of him doing verious things as well as a statue in
the middle of the main chaple of him holding his flight helm
"ranma was feeling depressed when he came to see me so i
talked him into making this to cheer him up." he murmured
dropping a data cube into the viewer. ranma blinked sitting
forward to look closely at the man smirking sardonically at
the screen "so what is this supposed to be uncle?" he asked
looking at ryoga who came on screen "well, one of these
days, they're going to figure out how to cure your old man, so
i figure, one of us might not be there to greet him."
the man looked upset at that "ya right, if one of us is
going to see him its you. no way am i going to turn into a
bag of rinckles like you." he chuckled. ryoga growled
threatening him with a hand "ya, just play along." he sat
next to the man and smiled, a beard covering his face "hello
ranma, knowing you, your going to thumb your nose at these
fools that say you'll never wake up, and do just that. you
used to love confounding those that thought they knew
better. this is your son, ranma. we wish we could have
woken you up, but they said you would spread what ever it is
thats eating you to everyone else. so i guess we gotta
wait for you to wake up."
he poked the man and he looked annoyed but sighed thinking
about it "i wish.... i wish i'd known you. everyones got
something good to say about you, some fantastic thing you
pulled off. i just wish you'd been able to save us from this
war too. but hey! if you did, then how am i to be a hero!?"
he said smirking in such a way that had ranma laughing
haltingly "my dream, is to be like my pop, i'm going to
single handedly end this war or die trying, like you. you
ended the war before it began, thats something i don't think
i could do, but you never know. i hope we met in the next
life dad. i'd really love the chance to see if your really
as great a martial artist they say you are." ranma shook his
head clearing the tears from his eyes "and... i love you
pop. its like i know you and yet i've never met you. but i
know your with me, in here." he rubbed his chest "your in
here, and i can feel you, everytime it seems i'm done for, i
feel something pass over me and gives me the strength to do
whats needed to win. i'll always be greatful for that."
ranma sat there with his head in his hands for ten minutes
before looking up at akane and ryoga "now i feel better." he
whispered and pulled both of them close and hugged them
greatfully "you don't know how much it helps that he was
so loved." he kissed akane and smiled through his tears "how
many times did you have to beat up pop before he gave up on
the idea of training him?" he chuckled. she grinned "forty.
then ryoga moved home and we told him he wouldn't be allowed
near him if he didn't stop trying. its funny, ranma beat the
shit out of genma when he disparged his skill by saying that
i trained him. i was so proud of him. it was like watching
you fight with the fool."
he nodded smiling. before shaking his head "enough of this,
i have a life to rebuild, its stupid to spend it morning for
someone who had such a good life. so ryoga, mind helping a
brother catch up on the past two thousand years?" he asked
and smiled at the surprise on his face. he grabbed his head
and pulled him close "you were like the brother i always
wished had come with me on those trips with pop, maybe it
wouldn't have been so bad for the both of us. so what do
you say? will you be my brother?" ryoga blinked at him for
a minute before hugging him tight and laughed softly "i'd
love to! come this way! i got a history computer in here for
the other temple servents children. it'll tell you
everything you need to know."
nibiki looked up and blinked at ranma and akane as they
walked into the office with a troup of the temple gaurds
behind them "what do you want?" she asked annoyed. she
rubbed at her face "do you know how much shit i've had to
handle because you desided to wake up?!" she demanded
throwing her pin on the desk. ranma sat down and smirked
"poor nibiki. you should be happy to know, we called a
meeting of the board members of the saotome corps, you know,
the one you didn't want to be bothered over?" he smirked
seeing her shock, he nodded "they voted to return saotome
corps back over to my wife and i. And you, you lucky duck,
have been named president of the company. so you still run
it, but you don't have the right to stop us from doing what
we want." he sat back looking contented. she scowled at him
"what do you want?" she hissed. he smirked "i want saotome
corps relocated to a planet with little or no industrial
worth, we'll keep all our factories and offices where they
are, i just want to move the head office to the surface."
she nodded slowly "why?" she asked annoyed. he smiled "i
want saotome corps back in the business we started out in,
space flight and exsploration. i want a devision opened up on
the planet you choose, and it better be a good one, i don't
want our child to be born on a station." he grumped. nibikis
eyes widened and for the first time in the last four months
she smiled in delight "your pregnant?!" she exclaimed
happily. akane smiled nodding "very much so, ranmas nanos
seem to have fixed that little problem." she murmured
showing her her swelled belly. nibiki smiled happily coming
around the desk and hugged her "kisumis going to go nuts
when she hears this!" she exclaimed then smirked hugging
ranma "congrats. i'll find a good one."
he nodded smiling softly at her "and i want to be trained on
the new fighters you got, i want to know them inside and
out." she nodded smirking "i was going to ask you to look at
them, we still can't figure out what you did to make the
p-chan one do what you did." she smirked. ranma grinned "its
all in the pilot sis."
