Disclaimer: I don't own Nadesico or any of the characters appearing in the television anime series or manga. This fanfiction is meant purely to entertain. So please don't sue me, I'm not worth it. I openly admit that I don't own Nadesico, and I'm not trying to pass this off as a completely original story. Also, I don't own Golden Boy or Transformers, but I do use a few lines from both and a lot of mecha from Transformers, but I do own the characters Finn Saotome, Yumi Yoshino, Sanoske/Sakura Hashima, Mr. Noda, Mrs. Noda, and I think that's about it. If you want pictures of the mecha, don't hesitate to e-mail me at soundwave100@hotmail.com  Thanks!

                             Act 6

Wakey Wakey

          'I hope I'm back in the real world,' Finn thought as he felt himself wake up. He opened his eyes and looked around. There was the heart monitor and all its companions beeping away. He sat up in his bed and yawned. As he moved, he felt every tube, needle, and electrode attached to him stretch and pull. "Anyone here?" he tried to say, but it came out as a mumble. A sleeping med officer on the other side of the room jerked his head up. He looked at Finn, not quite fully awake. The officer slapped himself, but when he still saw Finn sitting upright staring at him, he quickly opened a vidwindow and said something. Finn couldn't hear it; instead he fell back onto the bed and dozed. However, the pleasure of drifting in and out of a light sleep was soon interrupted when Inez came into the room, with ten or so nurses in tow. She stood beside Finn's bed.

          "Are you sure he was awake?" he heard her ask. The officer answered affirmatively. "Saotome," she poked him with the edge of her pen. "Are you awake?"

          "I might be," Finn mumbled, using his right had to cover his eyes. "Sleepy time."

          "I think you've had enough rest," Inez said, jabbing him in the ribs with her pen. Finn lifted his head. "You have been asleep for two weeks."

          "Just one more week," Finn said, resting his head back on the pillow. Inez forced open one of his eyes and shone a light in it. "Excuse me?"

          "Tell me, do you know where you are?" Inez asked.

          "Sleepy time." Finn tried to push her away.

          "He's not responsive. Prepare for shock treatment."

          "Alright! I'm up! I'm up!" Finn said, bolting upright and rested his back against the bed's headboard. He looked at himself to make sure all arms and legs were still attached. When he saw the arms in his t-shirt and the legs in his sweatpants, he heaved a sigh of relief.

          "Do you know where you are?" Inez asked.

          "Um…" Finn said. "Let me think…"

          "Su?"

          "Alright. The Nadesico's sickbay. Deck 14, room 22. Mars south pole. That close enough?" Finn said.

          "Patient exhibits resistance to the doctor's authority," Inez scribbled something down. This back and forth battle of words continued for some time.

          "Look, I feel fine," Finn said, a strange pop came from his back. "Ok, I feel not all that bad." He tried to raise both his arms to stretch the stiff muscles. His left hand complied with his orders, but the right one did not. He followed his right arm and saw the hand at the end of it enclosed in some kind of metal box. "What the heck is this?" With some effort, he raised the box, which was about the same dimension as a tissue box. His right hand entered the box from one end, and another arm was at the other end. He followed this mysterious arm up to the elbow, the shoulder, "Ryoko?" he asked upon seeing the face of the arm's owner. "Inez? What is this?" Ryoko stirred at the mention of her name. Finn could see that she was wearing similar garb as he was.

          "Ryoko," Inez said, gently shaking her. "Wake up."

          "Tired. Go away., Ryoko said, shifting away from her disturber.

          "Jeez, you could have tried that we me at least," Finn grumbled.

          "Bring them in," Inez ordered. The doors opened and Hikaru and Izumi came in.

          "Uh oh, Finn said to himself. Hikaru stepped up to Ryoko and took a deep breath.

          "Ryoko! I can't believe you're finally awake! It's been, like, two weeks since we last saw you. Then there was the accident and Inez said it was unlikely that either of you would ever get up!" she said, sounding as though she'd had one too many pixie sticks. Ryoko swung her fist at Hikaru, who jumped back out of the way.

          "What did I do to deserve this?" she mumbled as she rubbed her eyes. Izumi was playing her ukulele and reciting some gibberish. "Alright! I'm awake! What is it already?" Inez opened a vidwindow between the two beds.

          "Three, two, one, kaboom!" the window said. "It's time to get to know Nadesico!" Finn withheld comment and settled for a sweatdrop.

          "Over two weeks have passed since Lt. Saotome's initial incident with the alien city," Inez explained. "This caused the nanomachines from is IFS to begin to multiply again, becoming entangled…"

          "We know this part already," Ryoko said. "Fast forward. What happened after you knocked me out?"

          "Pilot Subaru," Inez said, speaking to Finn. "volunteered for nanomachine extraction in order to stabilize your system."

          "I know," Finn said, looking at Ryoko. Inez looked at Finn as if to say 'how did you know that?' "Don't ask me how, I just do. Go on."

          "Anyway," The vidwindow showed an overhead view of Inez operating. "The procedure started out fine, with very few complications. However, as we were implanting Ryoko's nanomachines into your nervous system, your nanomachines began to multiply again. From our monitors, your brain was under a great deal of stress, receiving a large amount of information at once, and was unable to regulate vital systems. It was not possible for your brain to process this information fast enough to keep up and you began to malfunction, as indicated by the brainwave monitor here." She pointed to a small subwindow that showed a monitor going haywire. There was little time to come up with a way to help relieve you of such stresses, so we ordered an IFS interface be brought to us. We connected you to Ryoko's mind through your IFS implants and used her mind to process excess information. However, due to this contact, some of Saotome's nanomachine programming made contact with Ryoko's nanomachines, causing hers to begin to multiply as yours were. Fortunately, most of Saotome's nanomachines reprogrammed themselves due to the introduction of normal implants. This information traveled from Saotome back to Ryoko, causing her nanomachines to stop their reproduction."

          "But everything worked, right? I mean, we're both still here," Finn said.

          "You are both alive and, for the most part, physically and mentally intact, yes. But there was one point where we feared neither of you would make it. You were both technically dead for a few minutes when Ryoko's heart stopped," Inez explained.

"Say what?" Ryoko asked.

"You went into cardiac arrest while your minds were connected. But a few jolts of electricity brought you back," Su said.

"So it's all ok then?" Finn asked.

"For the most part, yes. However, there are some negative side effects that resulted from the operation, which brings me to the device connecting your hands." Inez pressed a small switch on the side of the box and it opened. The top half swung open, and they both withdrew their hands. "During the operation, the data that correctly programmes your nanomachines into ceasing reproduction was split when your minds were connected. What the cause of this is, I don't know. The complexity of the human mind still prevents me from answering that question. Half of the information was stored in Saotome's system, and the other half was stored in Ryoko's. We only discovered this when we broke your IFS contact. While you two are connected through the IFS, the data is shared and everything runs smoothly. However, prolonged periods of time without connecting through the IFS will cause your nanomachines to malfunction again."

          "How long is a 'prolonged' period of time?" Ryoko asked.

          "If you're asking how long you can remain separated, the answer is about twenty-four hours, or one day. However, after twenty-four hours have expired, you must connect again for at least four hours. In a way, it recharges your systems. The file is completed and then distributed throughout your nanomachine systems."

          "How long do we have to do that?" Finn asked. Inez heaved a sigh.

          "For the rest of your lives," she said matter-of-factly. "Should you remain separated for more than forty-eight hours, both your nanomachine systems will go unchecked. You'll go insane and…"

          "And we both snuff it," Ryoko concluded.

          "Pretty much. As long as you keep your hands in physical contact inside this box for at least four hours a day, you should be fine," Inez said. "We started out with a normal IFS interface, but it was the size of a TV. Seiya rigged this miniature version up for you. He's currently working on a gel pad that molds to the shape of your hands, for extra comfort."

          "Does it come in any other colours?" Finn joked. "Does it make your teeth whiter?"

          "Anyway, I hope you two don't mind the added bother of maintaining physical contact for four hours a day," Inez said, ignoring Finn's antics.

          "I think we'll manage," Ryoko said. She couldn't help but crack a small smile in Finn's direction.

          "I suppose it could be worse," Finn said, scratching the back of his neck. "We could be two people in one body or something." No one else in the room seemed to find that particularly humorous. "Alright, I'll shut up now."

          "Can we go now?" Ryoko asked.

"Not just yet," Inez replied. "I want to make sure there are no other effects of the operation. You did, after all, just wake up." A med officer roughly pulled a line out of Ryoko's arm. As a result, he found himself embedded in the wall.

"I think she's fine," Finn sweatdropped. Ryoko shot a look in his direction, as if to say 'you wanna be next?' Finn avoided her gaze, but couldn't help the suppressed laughs that somehow managed to escape his throat.

"Hey, cool, Ryoko. How did you get your symbol to change like that?" Hikaru asked, grabbing Ryoko's arm and nearly pulling it out of the socket as she raised it closer to her face for a better look. "Hey Izumi, take a look at this. It's so cool!"

"That was caused when the deterioration spread to Ryoko's system," Inez explained. "The reason behind that particular symbol is still a mystery to me though.

"Excuse me," Ryoko wrenched her arm back. "I'm not one of your Geckigengar toys, Hikaru."

"She has light and sound action too!" Finn added. Had Ryoko been able to reach him she would have wiped that smile off his face. But settled for a glare that, amazingly enough, shut him up. Hikaru and Izumi backed off and slipped out of the room.

"If you'll excuse me," Inez got up and left. The med officers dispersed and the two of them were left alone.

"I suppose I shouldn't even try to say that this doesn't mean anything?" Ryoko said.

"Even if you did, I wouldn't believe you." Finn looked at her and smiled. They lay back down in their beds and stared at the buzzing florescent light overhead. Ryoko drifted back into the peaceful sleep she had been enjoying not long before. However, at some point during her sleep, she was jerked back into reality by a sudden noise. She bolted up in her bed and looked around. To her surprised horror, the curtain had been flung back and there stood Akatsuki, holding a smoking gun. She could smell the powder and quickly looked over at Finn, who didn't seem perturbed. She saw a small red stain over his heart, the size of a dime at first, but it steadily grew larger. She sat there, paralysed by what she saw. Everything she had just endured, everything she had worked so hard to gain, was gone in an instant. She leapt out of her bed and went for Akatsuki's throat. It didn't matter that the various lines sticking out of her arms and hands were painfully wretched out.

Ryoko woke to someone shaking her.

"Let me kill him!" she shouted, thrashing the air.

"Ryoko, calm down," came a familiar voice.

"I'll kill him for what he's done." There was a slight pain in her cheek.

"Ryoko," she recognized this as Finn's voice. "Calm down. You were only dreaming."

"What?" Her eyes opened.

"You were dreaming. Something pretty awful by the way you were acting," Finn said, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Damnit, Saotome," she said, taking in some air. "You got to quit dying on me." She dangled her legs over the side and sat up beside him. Something dripped off the side of her face. Ryoko felt it hit the material of her hospital gown. It was a small bloodstain. She felt her face, where she found a small cut. She touched it and stared at the small streak it left on her fingers. Normally she would have shrugged such an injury off, but she stared, half afraid, half confused, at the blood on her fingers. She thought back to when she was standing on the edge of the cliff, right after she had beaten Akatsuki into the ground. 'I remember tripping,' she thought. 'and I cut myself on a stick. But that wasn't real. It was all in my mind. Wasn't it?'

"You alright?" Finn asked when he saw her hand tremble slightly. He took it and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Yeah, I think so," Ryoko replied, wiping the blood away on her sleeve. "Hey, I'm getting kind of bored being stuck in here. Want to take a walk around?"

"Sounds good to me," Finn said. He carefully pulled the only remaining line, the IV drip, out of his hand and took the clip that measured his heart rate off his finger. When the beeping monitor flatlined, the curtain was immediately thrown back by a med officer.

"What are you two doing?" she asked. "It's two o'clock in the morning."

"We're going out," Ryoko said, pulling out her IV line. "Man the fort until we get back."

"Um…ok?" she said and stood blinking as Finn and Ryoko slowly but surely left sickbay. The metal floors were cold on their bare feet, but it felt good to be moving again. They moved slowly but surely down the corridor. Ryoko leaned a little on Finn, not quite feeling steady on her legs yet. Finn leaned against the wall, his shoulder sliding across it as they wandered around hand in hand. Finn's feet stopped shuffling outside a certain door. He hit the button and the door slid open. In the deserted halls, the quiet slide of the door seemed loud enough to raise even the deepest of sleepers. They stepped inside and took in the cool air of the observation deck. The room was lit only by starlight and the bright beams of the planet's twin moons. The door clicked shut and they both sat down on the edge of the small, grassy mound that served as a hill.

"Much better," Ryoko said, stretching out on the cool grass. Even inside the ship, a small whisper of dew had formed on the grass. Finn sat with his back against the artificial tree and stared out at the Martian sky and tried not to let his eyes wander too much over Ryoko's remarkably body.

"I went through…" They both started at the same time. "I went through hell to find you," Ryoko said after a few minutes had passed.

"I didn't have much of a picnic either," Finn replied. "I don't think I would have made it if it wasn't for you."

"I know what you mean," Ryoko said, playing with a blade of grass. "It feels like…I don't know," she tried to find the right words.

"That we've lived each other's lives?" Finn suggested.

"Yeah. It's like I've seen your life."

"Well, in a matter of speaking, you did," he said, thinking back to the memory tiles. He remembered seeing everything Ryoko had endured in life, but she persisted. The only reason he was alive right now was because of her. It was him that kept her going, and it was her that kept him going, two stars sharing their light with one another. Finn's eyes wandered across Ryoko's moonlit features. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't tear his eyes off of her. "Ryoko, I have a question for you."

"What's that?" Ryoko asked, sitting back up. She already had a general idea of what he was about to say. But she wanted to hear it anyway. Finn took her hand.

'Come on. Say it!' his mind screamed at him. "Ryoko, I…" 'It's now or never.' "Ryoko, I love you," he said, looking straight into her eyes, which glistened with tears.

"I know. I love you," Ryoko said, smiling back at him, their eyes locked on one another. Their faces began to draw together, and before either of them knew it, they were engaged in a long kiss, each one holding onto the other. "Took you long enough," she smiled when they broke apart.

"And my question is," he mustered up all his courage, but for some reason couldn't get those words out. A light bulb went off inside his head.

"Ryoko," He cleared his throat. "Will they bestow the honour upon me of giving my thy hand?" he tried to say that as seriously as possible.

"What the hell are you babbling about?" Ryoko laughed.

"I'm asking you to marry me."

"Hmm, I don't know," Ryoko said with an evil smile on her face. "Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, aren't we?" Finn didn't know whether to laugh or look horrified. "Oh come on, of course I will, idiot!" she said and pinned him down against the grass and kissed him again.

"I have something for you," he said and felt around his neck, but froze when he found nothing.

"What is it?" Ryoko asked, noticing his face. She got off him and sat there, looking at him going into some state of shock.

"I was sure…I had it right…" he babbled.

"Is this what you're looking for?" Ryoko said, removing the chain from around her neck.

"How did you…?" Finn took the chain looked at the ring.

"Now that… is a secret," Ryoko said smiling. Finn pondered that for a second, but pushed it to the back of his head and unclipped the chain, removing the ring. He took Ryoko's hand and gently slid it onto her finger. Ryoko pounced on him again, pinning him against the grass once again. They kissed again, this time not holding back the floodgates of emotion that over took them.

          "It's so beautiful!" the author cried as he wrote.

One Ring To Find Them…j/k

          "I have a question for you," Ryoko said as they shuffled their way down the corridor, heading back to sickbay. "How the hell did you find this thing?" she asked, examining the ring closely. She wasn't the type who was particularly interested in jewelry, but she couldn't help but stare at the sparkling gold band that he had placed upon her hand. Finn thought back to their last day on Dusty, when he returned to the ramen shop.

          "It's just a little something I picked up on Dusty," Finn replied.

          "But how? We didn't even have enough money to rent a spacesuit, let alone this."

          "Well, I didn't buy it, actually…" Finn trailed off.

          "You stole it then?"

          "Of course not," Finn said. "I made it. It's amazing how many outlet adaptors can blow out on a shuttle. And it's equally amazing how much gold you can scrape off of them."

          "That explains a lot," Ryoko said, resting her head on Finn's slumped shoulder. "How did you get it to sparkle like this though?" she moved the ring in the light, and small pieces of light reflected off the ring like a thousand tiny mirrors.

          "Now that," Finn said in a Xellos voice. "Is a secret," He remembered that part well. 'Amazing what you can do with a sprinkle of industrial diamond dust,' he thought. "I'd ask why you volunteered for the nanomachine operation, but I already have a pretty good idea what you were thinking."

          "Then you wouldn't ask such a stupid question," Ryoko answered. They stopped to rest for a moment by some vending machines. Akito rounded the corner, still in his cooking apron, looking very worn out. "Tenkawa?" Ryoko said when she saw him. "What are you doing out this late?"

          "What the? Ryoko?!" Akito said, waking up when he heard her voice. "You're awake?!" He quickly had his arms around her. "I can't believe you're actually back!"

          "Ahem," Finn cleared his throat. "Hey Tenkawa.

          "Akito!" a voice from down the corridor called.

          "Uh oh…hide me. Quick!" Akito looked frantically around for a place to hide. Finn stuffed him in the small space between the wall and a pop machine.

          "Akito? Where are you?" Yurika said, coming into view. "Akito? Oh, why won't you speak to me? Ryoko? Saotome? What are you doing out here?"

          "You try waking from a two week nap and staying still," Finn said. "Question is, what are you doing out here?"

          "Has Akito come by here?" she asked hopefully.

          "I think I saw him. What do you want him for?" Finn asked. 'Well, I can think of one thing,' he thought. 'It's that time of night…but…'

          "He's been avoiding me the past two weeks. I haven't been able to have a word with him since you came back from the dead, again," Yurika explained. "So I waited outside the kitchen until his practice session was over."

          "Well," Finn leaned against the pop machine. "If Tenkawa really cared about your feelings," He pressed his weight against it; a small noise came from behind the machine. "He would come to you and," He pushed a little more with his back. "you wouldn't have to chase him around."

          "Gerk!" was the noise that came from behind the machine.

          "What was that?" Yurika asked.

          "Anyway, good luck on your search. Did you check his room? He might be hiding in there. And with the master key…"

          "I can get in no problem!" Yurika chirped and ran off. When she disappeared around a corner, Finn pushed the machine again.

          "Ow!" Akito pushed himself out of the opening. "What'd you do that for?!"

          "Tenkawa, think about it," Ryoko said.

          "But Ryoko, I…" Akito began. "I thought…" Ryoko covered her mouth as she forced a cough. The light reflecting off her ring caught Akito's eye. "What's that?" Finn answered by moving beside Ryoko. For added emphasis, he slipped his arm around her waist. Akito looked at them, puzzled.

          'Idiot," Finn and Ryoko thought.

          "You mean…you…him…?" Akito gaped.

          "Uh huh," Ryoko nodded.

          "I don't understand…when did this happen?" Akito asked confused. Finn and Ryoko facefaulted.

          "Tenkawa, are you blind or something?" Ryoko smacked him when she picked herself up off the floor.

          "Look, Tenkawa, what about the Captain? I mean, she loves you, to start with," Finn said. "And she's not that bad when it comes to looks either."

          "She's a nutbar!" Akito exclaimed. "She's stalking me. I can't seem to loose her."

          "Maybe the reason she chases you is because you run," Finn suggested and he and Ryoko continued on their way, leaving poor Akito to ponder those words.

          The next few days passed pretty much as anyone would expect them too. Ryoko moved into Finn's room. Most crewmembers thought it was because of required four hours of IFS lock down, which they decided to log at night while they slept, which seemed reasonable to satisfy everyone. No one, with the exception of Akito, knew the true extent of the relationship between Finn and Ryoko, although, anyone and everyone who knew them suspected it. Not even Hikaru, the ship's gossip, noticed the ring on Ryoko's finger. Izumi acted strangely though, well, stranger than normal for Izumi. She made some rather odd references to 'noises' she heard sometimes at night while passing by their room. The author would like to point out that he wrote that intentionally for the readers to infer what they want from it. Was it some harmless playing around, was it something more? You'll never know for sure. Haha, dance puppets! Dance! * ahem * Sorry, I had one of my spells. Anyway, they both spent most of their days turning their heads and coughing, and other medical tests that seemed utterly ridiculous to the patients. As it turns out, Finn's remarkable ability at bouncing back so soon after being blown up, shot, beaten, what have you, wasn't so much his nanomachines as it was his own stamina. Although, the nanomachines having dulled his pain receptors helped a little. Inez concluded that 'due to the high concentration of nanomachines around all major nerve clusters, the sensation of pain is reduced. The nanomachines also help to repair broken tissues within the body.' It remained a mystery to Inez just how Finn came to be this way. Only Ryoko knew the answer to that question, and she wasn't about to tell anyone.

          "So what are we still doing hanging around here?" Finn asked Yurika in the hallway a few days after the incident with the vending machine. The Nadesico was still on Mars, and so far no residual Jovian or UF forces were found.

          "We're trying to figure out what to do with Fort Mag," Yurika replied. "Even thought almost all Jovian and UF forces were destroyed, we can't be sure that some small band of survivors might try and make a run for the fortress, and we don't want anyone to get a hold of that thing. In the wrong hands it could destroy humanity."

          "Painting a rather bleak picture there, aren't you?" he asked as they walked onto the bridge. "But still, I see your point."

          "I suppose the first thing we should do is try and contact the UF government on Earth and tell them that the war's over. The same goes for whatever government the Jovians have left. Now that the majority of their forces are gone and we have Fort Mag, there's nothing really left to fight over, is there?" Yurika said. "Which brings me to why I asked you here."

          "And what might that be?" Finn asked, taking his seat on the lower bridge. Inez and Akito came, followed by Ryoko a few minutes later. Shiratori was already there.

          "So what's going on here?" Ryoko asked. "Not that I mind having something to do, but what have you got planned?"

          "We're going to try and make contact with the remaining governments on both sides and try and negotiate a peace treaty," Yurika answered. "Shiratori?"

          "Yes," Shiratori said, stepping forward. "As you all know, the artifact containing our phase transition plant was destroyed along with Central Command and Europa, the headquarters of the military government. The municipal governments are all overseen by a separate board, which serves as a liaison between the local and federal governments, but has no military authority. Our objective is to contact this board, which is the highest remaining level of the government, and inform them of what has happened. With any luck, we should be able to work something out. The only problem is that there are several colonies on asteroids that may not be willing to accept peace. But most of these colonies are non-military installations that have little or no forces."

          "How are we going to contact them though?" Akito asked. "With the time delay it would be hours between messages. It could take months just to make the most basic of proposals." Inez stepped forward.

          "I have been working with Commander Shiratori and Seiya on this problem," she said. "Shiratori informed me that there was a form of interstellar communication possible by the boson jumping of light signals. We have done our best to duplicate this technology, but we have yet to test it." A techie rolled in a large boxlike device. It looked like some one had thrown together spare parts from a toaster to an aestivalis in some kind of unfortunate smelting accident. Inez pressed one of the few controls located on a small console and a staticy vidwindow appeared. "Commander Shiratori has programmed the proper coordinate signal for contacting this board." She hit a few more buttons. "I'll let you begin the proceedings," she stepped aside and directed Shiratori in front of the vidwindow. The window began to clear.

          "Hello? Is anyone there?" he asked.

          "Big brother? Big brother it's you!" a girl's voice came from the other end. "What happened, big brother? On the news they said Central Command had been destroyed and that the fleet had been blown up."

          "Yukina? What are you doing at the Mediation Board?" Shiratori asked confused.

          "This isn't the Mediation Board," the girl named Yukina answered. "What happened? They said the Central Command just ceased to exist a few weeks ago. The whole federation is in chaos! It's cool!"

          "No it's not," Shiratori said sternly. "Look, can you give me the MB's number, since I seem to have forgotten it." There were many a sweatdrop at that one.

          "Not until you tell me what happened," Yukina said, crossing her arms. "Spill it."

          "Maybe I should answer this one," Yurika said, stepping forward.

          "Who are you? Big brother! You're not going around chasing girls now that Central Command is gone are you? What about your honour?"

          "Excuse me!" Yurika said. "I am Captain Yurika Misumaru of the high mobile battleship Nadesico."

          "If you say so."

          "Ruri, play video records 2095 to 3902," she ordered and subwindow opened in the window containing Yukina's face.  Yukina saw the UF being destroyed and Fort Mag destroying the Jovian forces by Europa.  "What you have just seen is the only visual record of the destruction of United Earth Forces fleet and Jovian forces. We would like to speak to this Mediation Board so we can try and work out a ceasefire."

          "Ok, I'll give you the number," Yukina disappeared for a moment.

          "Thank God," Shiratori said under his breath. "Usually she isn't this cooperative."

          "Alright, I've got the book here. Let's see," Yukina said, flipping pages. "Mars Rice, Meat Ball Factory, Meteor Hut. Whoops too far. Here we are. Mediation Board. Their number is 13895-29572. Are you dialing stellar distance?"

          "We're on Mars. Better give us the code," Shiratori answered.

          "It's A3TFTM," Yukina said, closing the giant book. "Is that all?"

          "Yes, that's all for now. Thanks Yukina," Shiratori said.

          "Oh wait, the MB is making a statement. I'll move the TV over," she said and wheeled a small TV set in front of the window.

          "Fellow citizens!" an elderly man said. "The loss of Central Command and the installation on Europa has dealt a serious blow to our objective of conquering the Earth and ending their oppressive reign of tyranny! But out of the old shall come the new! The death of Central Command and the Superior Male Forces has given birth to Jovian Space Division Forces. All of our remaining Superior Male Forces are being reequipped with the latest version of technology we developed before the destruction of the Artifact. With these new weapons, we shall surely follow the path to glory!" The TV flipped to JNN, where a reporter standing outside a building by a huge crowed had gathered and were cheering on this announcement.

          "Isn't it cool, Big Brother?" Yukina asked.

          "No it's not cool," Shiratori said seriously. "I have to go now." He turned off the device.

          "If that don't take the chrome plated cookie," Finn was the first one to speak. "You mean to tell me that there're still more of these fruitloops running around?"

          "It would appear that's the case," Shiratori said, heaving a sigh.

          "I don't suppose we could persuade you to pilot Fort Mag again, could we?" Yurika suggested humorously, trying to lighten the mood. "Sorry," She said, noticing Finn's scowl. "But we're down three pilots. You don't have a ship to pilot, Saotome, and you and Ryoko can't pilot aestivalis units with your new implants." Inez nodded. "And we can't use Akatsuki, for obvious reasons. So that leaves us with only Akito, Hikaru, and Izumi. There's no way the Nadesico can hold back an entire army by itself."

          "And the UF is gone," Ruri added.

          "You're forgetting just one little thing," Finn said, before fingers began to point in his direction. "Without any chulips, they can't boson jump forces here. And their personal jump systems can only travel short distances, right?" Shiratori nodded. "Then it'll take almost a year for them to even get here. And they still have amassed all their forces yet. I'd give us close to a year and a half to prepare. That is, if we have to. Do you think a negotiated peace is still possible, Captain?"

          "I don't know," Yurika replied. "I'd like to give it a try before we try and raise another army. We'd just be going around in a circle, right back where we started. But you're right. We do have some time to think about this. The first thing we should try is to contact these Division forces and see if we can talk them out of it."

          "I'd avoid mentioning the fact that the UF is gone," Ryoko said. "If they know we're defenseless, that might just make them more eager to finish us off."

          "Right. Shiratori, why don' you give it a shot?" Yurika said, stepping away from the device. Shiratori stepped up and punched in the commands. The vidwindow flickered and began to clear.

          "Hello? You've reached Division headquarters," someone answered.

          "I need to speak to the chairman of the former MB," Shiratori said.

          "Who is calling?"

          "Commander Shiratori of the Superior Male Forces," he answered. The window was silent for a moment.

          "I'll put you right through."

          "Hello? Tatsuhiro Kanzaka here. Who's this?" the elderly man that they had seen on TV asked. "I'm a busy man, I don't have all day."

          "Excuse me for calling on such short notice," Shiratori said. "But this is urgent."

          "Tsukomo? Is that you?"

          "Yes, it's me," Shiratori replied.

          "It's been a while, how are you doing? I would have thought you'd have been killed on Mars with the rest of the fleet," Kanzaka said.

          "I escaped before it happened. But that's another story. Listen, I need to talk to you. This isn't a call to catch up on old times," Shiratori said.

          "What is it?"

          "I am currently on an Earth vessel, the Nadesico. They took me along with them when the SMF betrayed me. But anyway, the captain of this ship would like to try and avoid a second wind in this war. She wants to negotiate a ceasefire."

          "Let me speak to him," Kanzaka said, Yurika stepped forward. "I want to speak to the Captain, not his secretary."

          "Sir, I am the captain," Yurika said.

          "A woman, captain of a battleship? How comical," Kazaka laughed. "So what can I do for you, my dear?"

          "This happens to be a very serious matter. I wish to negotiate a ceasefire. I do not want another war that will cost even more people, civilians and soldiers alike, their lives," Yurika said simply.

          "Is your ship powered by a phase transition power core?" Kazaka asked, having appeared to ignore Yurika's proposal.

          "Yes, why do you ask?" Yurika asked.

          "Hmm, I find your proposal most interesting. I should like a meeting with you, in person," Kazaka said. "What section are you in?"

          "The Nadesico is on Mars, sir," Shiratori said. "A meeting in person would take months of traveling on our part."

          "We could try boson jumping the ship," Inez suggested. Finn made the 'shh-don't-say-anything' motion.' "We were able to jump the ship before, there's no reason why we…" she stopped when Finn and Ryoko tackled and gagged her.

          "Pay no attention to that," Yurika said, blocking Kazaka's view.

          "Your ship has leap capabilities too? Fantastic. Shiratori, you can give them the coordinates, can't you?" Kazaka asked. "Then it's settled. You can leap the Division's headquarters. I shall expect you in two weeks time. That should be sufficient time to prepare a leap field."

          "We can be there…" Inez piped up again, but Ryoko shut her up by stuffing corner of her lab coat in her mouth.

          "Two weeks it is," Yurika said.

          "Then it's agreed. Now if you'll excuse me." The window turned to static.

          "Nice going," Ryoko said as she and Finn released her from their kung fu grip. "Now we actually have to go there."

          "I was hoping to conduct these negotiations over the transmitter," Yurika said. "I don't have a very good feeling about all this."

          "Yeah, that guy's some blood sucking reptile if you ask me," Akito said. "And how are we supposed to jump without Saotome? I thought he needed to be plugged into the computer or something for it to work."

          "I've already taken that into consideration," Inez said. "By modifying the remains of his old suit, and having him and Ryoko connected at the same time, we can create a jump field stable enough boson jump."

          "Hurray for us," Finn said sarcastically. "But you're forgetting just one little thing."

          "And that would be?" Inez asked.

          "What if they go ape slag on us? We'd get blown into a large collection of metallic crumbs," Finn answered.

          "Is there any way for Ryoko or Saotome to pilot a normal aestevalis?" Yurika asked.

          "They can only pilot an aestivalis for a very short time, and with limited maneuverability," Inez answered. "We've been working on something what would allow them to pilot one, but so far we've had no success. Due to their nanomachine structure, the energy that would flow from the IFS into their bodies would cause them to overheat if used for an extended period of time."

          "How long are we talking?" Finn asked.

          "I'd give you both about ten minutes." Finn thought about this for a few minutes.

          "I have a suggestion," he said. "The TFs were made on L2 in a hidden complex. It's possible that there may be some other prototypes laying around." Everyone looked at him. "It's worth a shot."

          "But we only have two weeks," Akito protested. "It would take us at least a week to even get to L2. That's half our time up right there. And we don't even know if there'll be anything."

          "All flowers and sunshine aren't we?" Ryoko said sarcastically.

          "We could try a short distance boson jump," Inez suggested. "L2 is close enough that we wouldn't need that strong a jump field."

          "Before we try anything," Finn said. "I think we have one other thing to deal with first," Finn motioned with his thumb towards Fort Mag. "We don't want to leave that thing just laying around, do we?"

          "That's a good point," Yurika said. "But what are we going to do with it? I take it there's no way for you to control that thing anymore. What if we were to somehow able to boson jump it into space and let it drift out into deep space? No one would ever find it if we were to leave it on Pluto or something."

          "Someone would find it eventually, and this whole war would just begin again. It's only delaying the inevitable," Finn said. "But we can't destroy it either." Chibi Finn sat on a stump and thought. A light bulb went off overhead. "You said the Fortress was found underground at the pole, beneath the bedrock?" Inez nodded. "Than that means it must have been buried there intentionally. There's no way something of that size could just get covered over with sediment. Someone was able to move it underground."

          "What are you saying?" Yurika asked. "What we bury that thing?"

          "Exactly," Finn said. "It must have something on it that allows it to burrow itself under the surface. Only problem is how do we do it?"

          "All our scans have detected no signs of a manual control consol," Inez said. "The only way we know how to control it is by wiring you into the interface."

          "What about if we did that?" Finn asked. Everyone looked at him. "I'm not talking like before. But just a temporary connection that can be severed at any time, just enough to programme the commands into it."

          "It is an idea with some merit to it," Inez said. "We still have the gloves from your suit intact. I suppose it's possible. However, you can only do this if you are connected to Ryoko at the same time. You will need the file link."

          "That alright with you?" Finn asked Ryoko, who nodded her reply. "Great. I'll need to go with out in an aestivalis with someone to make a survey, find out exactly what needs to be done. Have you made any excursions into the fortress already?"

          "No, we moved the ship out of the hangar when we got you back. We thought it best to not touch anything," Yurika replied. "Akito, I want you to take Saotome into the fortress in your aestivalis. Hikaru and Izumi will back you up. Jun will stay behind as a backup pilot should we need him."

I Enter These Hallowed Halls…

          "Crikey," Finn said when he and Akito reached the inside of the hangar. The robot he had been attached to was still laying on the floor in a heap. "I don't remember this part."

          "You mean where you burst through the wall and ran out here?" Akito asked.

          "Yeah. I don't remember anything after the Jovians were destroyed, and even that part's shady," Finn said grimly. Akito flew the air frame further into the construct and through the hole Finn had made. He turned on his searchlights, Hikaru and Izumi following not far behind.

          "This place is creepy," Hikaru said.

          "I feel right at home," Izumi snorted.

          "Knock it off, you two," Akito said, and they began to goosestep behind him. "Ok, we're here." They stopped in front of the spot where Finn had ripped his way out. Finn took over control of the aesti. It felt strange to him, having never piloted this type of unit before. Inside was a mess of broken bits of metal and wires that had been ripped from the floor and walls.

          "It looks as though this is part of some other component," he said, sifting through the wires. "Like something jumped out of this thing."

          "That's probably what that other robot in the hangar was," Akito said.

          "Hikaru, Izumi. Can you go get that thing and bring it here?" Finn asked/ordered. They took off and a returned a few minutes later, carrying the limp robot between them. Finn examined the robot closely. Pieces of split wires and computer ports could be seen up and down the mechanism. "I'm going out on a limb here, but I think this is the plug. You stick that robot into the room there, plug him into system via those wires and exposed adaptors, and you control him." He held up a long strand of broken wires that extended from the neck. "Through the head." He relinquished the controls back to Akito. "Nadesico," he said, opening a vidwindow. "I've seen everything I need to. I think we can pull this off. But only if the technical crew is willing to pull an all nighter or two." One could have said that they heard a collective groan. "I think you can bring the Nadesico inside and ferry the crew using the aestivalis transports." He opened the channel even further, so everyone on the Nadesico could see him. "Put a pot on boys, we've got work to do."

The three aestivalis' stood inside the fort's massive hangar and watched the Nadesico lift off and head their way. "The first order of business is to repair the broken wires and fit them to be reconnected. I hope this works."

          The following twenty-four hours were spent simply examining what had to be done. All the wiring on the robot had to be figured out and matched to its mate inside the consol.

          "Saotome," a techie said. "We've got some internal problems. We need a wall taken out."

          "Alright, I'm on my way." He opened up a vidwindow. "Yo, Tenkawa. We've got work to do." Akito met him in the Nadesico's hangar and they headed out. A line of cables had been strung between the port room and the robot, which was stored just outside the Nadesico. "What's the problem?" Finn asked when he and Akito arrived on the scene.

          "We need to get inside this room," the techie said. "There's a damaged cable, but it's been broken from the other side."

          "Akito, will you do the honours?" Finn motioned to the adjacent wall. Akito stepped up to it.

          "Here goes," He drew his fist back. "Take this!" There was a loud crunch as the sound of twisting metal reverberated throughout the corridor. Akito opened his eyes and gaped in amazement. There was hardly a dent.

          "Let me try," Finn placed his hand on the IFS and reset his footing. He drew his left fist back and slammed it into the wall, and followed by doing the same with his right. Both fists went clean through the wall. Finn then made the robot back up and slowly tore the wall clean off its bolts.

          "I see…" Akito sweatdropped. Finn then tried to throw the useless sheet of metal in his hands away down the corridor, but as he did so, his fists did not retract through the holes they had made, and the aestivalis crashed to the floor into the pile of scrap.

          "Not one of my more glamorous moments," Finn weezed, having been tossed upside down inside the cockpit. Akito lost his hold on his seat and crashed into him. Everyone sweatdropped.

          "That'll do, thanks," the techie said, and crewmembers began to enter the room and string up lights.

          Once they knew which wires connected where, the rest of that part was easy, although somewhat monotonous. They spent hour after hour reconnecting wire after wire. However, Finn would have gladly taken that job over the one he had to do next.

          "Gargh!" he said to himself, examining the remains of his piloting suit under a large magnifying glass. He held a small pair of electrical tweezers in one hand and a miniature-welding device in the other. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," he said to the glove he was examining. "How's it coming on your end, Inez?" he asked across the table to Inez, surprise surprise, who was working on the left glove.

          "I'm almost done," she answered. Finn facefaulted.

          "Done?! I've only connected three parts." He picked up his tools and stared at the tiny sections he had to reconnect. There were transistors, physical damage to the structure, and biosensors that needed to be reconnected. As well as tiny damaged conduction fibers that linked the pilot's body to the interface. "Let me see that." He wheeled his stool over to the other side of the table and looked at Inez's work. Every fiber, every transistor, every little thing that had been broken on the glove was perfectly in place, as though it were brand spanking new. A little black rain cloud settled over Finn's head. Small waterfalls fell from his eyes. However, before he could do anything else a bolt of lightening struck him. He lay on the floor sizzled.

          Finally, after two days of around the clock continuous labour, everything was ready. Anyone onboard the Nadesico with any electrical or mechanical knowledge hadn't slept more than an hour, if at all. Everyone was living off instant noodles, candy bars, and coffee.

          "Alright! I give! I give! I'll put coffee in the fic if you like it so much," the author said. "We now return to our regularly scheduled programme."

          "Sleepy," Finn mumbled as he stood at by the exposed neck of the robot. An IFS had been wired into it to serve as the head, since the suit could not be fully recovered. Only the gloves had been repaired into somewhat working condition.

          "Snap out of it," Ryoko gave him a nudge in the ribs.

          "Five more minutes," Finn said, sleepily. Even though he was standing, his head was bent to one side and his eyes were almost completely shut.

          "I said snap out of it." Ryoko slapped him across the face with her left hand, which had one of the metal gloves on it. A slight ringing noise could be heard when it made contact with Finn's face.

          "Alright, I'm up, I'm up." Finn said. His stomach growled.

          "For two days did you, or did you not deprive me of vital nutrients?" it said.

          "Hey, I was…" Finn began.

          "Did you or did you not?!" his stomach said. "Answer the question!"

          "Alright, fine. Yes, you have been ill nourished."

          "The jury finds you guilty of reckless endangerment of vital organs by a vote of 99 brain cells to 1. Your sentence, a full hour of painful stomach cramps," his stomach said. Finn found himself in a painful state consciousness. Anyway…

           "We're ready to start," Inez said from the lab on the Nadesico. The ship had been moved outside, all connections were fed through a laser link. A "safety precaution', as Inez put it. Only Finn and Ryoko stood inside the fortress hangar, and were the only ones in any immediate danger. "Connect yourselves to the interface." Finn plugged his right hand into the IFS, while Ryoko did the same, only with her right. "Remember, you two have to be in perfect sync to do this. Focus only on the fortress sinking into the ground. Any noise in your nervous system could cause a malfunction. You could both be overloaded with feedback, or you could trigger the attack sequence."

          "You sure know how to paint a pretty picture," Finn said. "Ok, we start on three." He looked at Ryoko, who nodded. "Three, two, one, now." He closed his eyes and forced his mind to picture the fortress sinking into the ground. When the fortress had returned to Mars, it landed several hundred kilometers away from the ruins, in a small valley covered with ice and snow.

          "Try and picture Calgary in winter and you'll get the idea," the author said.

          "Ryoko, you have noise. Refocus your thoughts on the task at hand," Inez said, monitoring her brain activity. Ryoko concentrated and slowly they felt the fortress begin to move. From Inez's view, it looked like it was sinking into a pit of stones and snow. A small indicator told her how long the command was taking to process. "Alright, you can stop now," she said when the light blinked that the command had been accepted. "The command's been sent."

          "I just have one question," Finn said, holding onto a side rail. Inside the shaking was incredible. "Did you think of a way for us to get out of here before this thing disappears completely? I thought an aestivalis was supposed to in here to pick us up!"

          "I'll get back to you on that," Inez closed the window.

          "Why don't I like the way that sounded?" Finn asked. The fortress tilted slightly, causing Finn and Ryoko to loose their footing and slide across the floor towards the hangar's opening. The energy screen flickered as rocks and snow slid up along the outside.

          "I don't see a way in!" Hikaru said from her air frame. "The opening's been blocked." The fortress slowly sunk out of sight and a few minutes later, when the dust had settled, there was no trace of it at all.

          "Ryoko, Lt. Saotome! Do you copy?" Megumi asked from her com station. "Why do I even bother?" she asked herself. "It's not like he ever responds to me."

          "I cannot detect their communication signal," Ruri said. "The city is too far underground for a signal to reach them."

          "Don't worry," Yurika said. "They've been in worse."

          "I hope that's not the only thing you're going on right now," Ruri said, Minato and Megumi sweatdropped.

          "Gotcha!" Finn said grasping Ryoko's arm as she slid by him. His foot had been snagged in a small loop built into the floor, and he was hanging by his boots. The room was now at a sharp angle and pieces from the control consol rained down on them. "I should be able to hold on a while longer."

          "Gee, that's comforting," Ryoko said, hanging onto Finn's arm. She looked around the floor for anything she might be able to hang on to. Her eyes found themselves on the loop sticking out of the floor that had Finn's boot. There was a small series of these loops running up and down the hangar. She reached for the one closest to her but fell short. She tried swinging, but stopped when Finn's boot slipped a little.

          "I suppose this isn't the ideal time to complain," Finn said, hanging upside down.

          "No, that wouldn't help," Ryoko said as she began to climb up Finn's arm. "Don't get any ideas," She added when she grabbed hold of his belt to pull herself further up. Hanging onto Finn's ankles, she tried to grab one of the loops. However, just as she touched one with the tips of her fingers, the fortress shook again, dislodging Finn's foot from the loop. They both slid down the floor, but it felt more like a freefall. Finn, the glove still on his hand, tried to grab onto anything that might slow their decent, but his metal fingers sent sparks flying into the air as they skidded against the floor. Suddenly everything stopped. It felt like being stopped by running into a moving cement mixer, but everything was more or less quiet. Only a few pieces fell from above. However, Finn felt trapped. It was dark, and he couldn't breath. Tiny beadlike objects filled his mouth as he tried to take a breath. It was as though he were buried in an avalanche of m&ms or something. He tried to move, but his limbs could hardly carry out the instructions, but he nonetheless crawled up, or at least what he thought was up.

          "Air!" he cried as his head burst from the avalanche debris.

          "So there you are," Ryoko said, sitting a few feet away, buried up to her waist. "So which life are you on now?"

          "It's not that…" he fell short as something bounced off his head and landed beside him. It took a moment for the swirls to disappear from his eyes and he regained his senses. Picking up the object that had struck him, he made an important discovery. "I didn't know these things had real leather on them," he said, examining the boot. Ryoko sweatdropped.

          "Anyway," she said, pulling herself out of whatever she was buried in. "Where are we?"

          "I don't know," Finn said, putting his boot back on.

          "What are these things anyway?" Ryoko asked, picking up a piece of what they had been buried in. Finn picked one up and looked at it. It looked liked an oversized blue grape.

          "This," Finn said, "looks like a CC."

          "You mean those things they launched when the Nadesico jumped to Mars?" Ryoko asked.

          "Yep, and lots of them." He pulled himself out of the CCs. "But they look different. Like they're not the same ones they used." He stuffed a handful into his pocket. "At least the lights are still on. Let's take a look around." It felt as though the entire fortress had been turned upside down and shaken.

          "How the hell did anyone make this thing? Even in an aesti it looks huge," Ryoko said as the walked down one of the massive passageways.

          "Yeah, it does make you feel kind of insignificant," It was eerily familiar to Finn, even though he was sure this was his first time wandering through these halls. The lights that lit the place were not the same ones strung up by crewmen. It was as though the halls themselves emitted light. They walked for an hour or two, going in one straight line so as not to get lost. There were other hallways leading in other directions. At one of these passages Finn came to a halt and stared down the adjacent hall.

          "Why'd you stop?" Ryoko asked.

          "I don't know," Finn replied. "It's like…there's something down there." Ryoko drew her gun. "Not that way. It feels like something's pulling me in that direction."

          "Now you're just freaking me out,"

          "In any case, we might as well take a look," He put one of the CCs had had in his pocket in the middle of the floor. "A marker, so we know when to make the turn to go back." And they began down this new passageway. It was slightly narrower than the last, but to them it still felt like walking down a deserted four-lane highway. Their feet made slight tapping noises along the cool, metallic floor as they went. They continued down the corridor for a while before coming to a stop at what they presumed to be some kind of door.

          "I take it you're getting some kind of freaky vibe from the other side of this panel," Ryoko said.

          "Something like that," Finn said, stepping closer to the panel. This corridor was somewhat darker than the last, making it a little more difficult to see clearly. The panel was huge, about the same size as the one Finn had ripped off the fort's interior a few days earlier. Feeling along the panel, he came across a kind of indent in the wall that felt different. "I think I found something. You wouldn't happen to have a flashlight on you or something?" Ryoko shook her head, not that Finn really expected her to have a light-producing object on her person. "Oh well, worth a shot." He sat down and thought and the faint sound of rusty gears turning could be heard.

          "Here, I've got an idea," Ryoko said, stepping up to the indent in the panel. She opened a staticy vidwindow from her communicator. The light generated produced a small shine of light, which she held up to the panel. There, stuck in side, was a keypad.

          "What the?" Finn asked, looking at the keys. It was a standard 0-10 pad, like you'd find at a bank machine. "This can't be from the Nadesico," he said. "Could it?" Ryoko touched it and the small screen lit up, but they couldn't read what it said. "It must be some old, archaic language that no one uses anymore."

          "Bonjour," the screen read. 

          "Let's see here," Finn punched in a few random numbers. The screen blinked and displayed some gibberish. He hit a few more buttons and a small red light blinked. Ryoko could make out some word that looked like 'discipline' as a small bolt of electricity shocked Finn, who fell over, smoke rising from his body.

          "You ok?" Ryoko asked, not particularly concerned about anything. Finn made some kind of wheeze, which Ryoko took to be an affirmation. Now it was Ryoko's turn, she looked at the screen and thought for a moment. Then she brought her gloved fist back and forced it through the screen and pulled a mass of wiring out of the wall. A few sparks flew, but nothing major. She began to sift through them, pulling some apart and splicing them together. Finn regained consciousness a few seconds later, just in time to see a small section of the panel slide away, revealing a small opening.

           "What do we have here?" he asked as he took a cautious step inside. There were monitors set into the far left corner of the room, with a large computer terminal beneath them. "Interesting." As he stepped in, light filled the room as the monitors flickered to life.

          "You said the aliens supposedly built this thing, right?" Ryoko said. "But this…kinda blows that theory out of the water."

          "Maybe not. I remember reading somewhere that other life in the universe would be similar in shape to humans for some odd reason," Finn said. Ryoko moved over to the computer terminal.

          "And how do you explain this?" She held up a CDlike object.

          "I suppose coincidence would be too much of a stretch," he said, examining one of the many CDs that lay on top of the keyboard. Ryoko found a small slot and pushed her CD into it. The centre monitor went staticy for a moment and then cleared. It showed a picture of Mars from space. The camera zoomed closer in on what looked like some kind of dome; underwhich lay a small cluster of buildings. A minimap appeared in the corner and showed a countdown. It started at two minutes. An object came flying past the satellite camera and began to enter the atmosphere, glowing with heat as it fell. It looked like some kind of canister, like something you'd see from an early space station. Soon after they lost sight of the canister, the countdown reached zero. A bright flash of light blinded them both for a moment. When the spots in front of their eyes cleared, they saw a large cloud of dust where the domed city had been, a cloud rising from its centre. Four more monitors came to life and displayed similar images.

          "What is this?" Ryoko asked, staring at the screens.

          "It's nothing good, I can tell you that. Remember when we were on Dusty and looked at that history book? Remember when they talked about how the UF dropped nukes on their Mars colony?" Finn said.

          "Then this must be footage shot by an orbiting satellite," Ryoko concluded. "It could have been one of the ones they launched before the Earth colonists arrived on Mars. One of the survey satellites."

          "Could be, but then why would it show a timer counting down if it were just there to map the surface?"

          "A UF satellite then?" Ryoko suggested.

          "I don't know. They probably would have had something watching to make sure the nukes hit, but I doubt they'd keep any evidence. If that ever got out it'd probably spark a revolution or something. If I were the UF, I'd have destroyed all the evidence."

          "Getting a little overly analytical, aren't we?"

          "Think about it though. I doubt they'd want any evidence that they even knew there were people on Mars. Problem is if it wasn't the UF, then who was it?" The disk ejected. Finn slipped another one. The screen turned slightly grainy. There was someone on the other end of the grainy screen and small bits of garbled audio came through, but it wasn't enough to understand what they were talking about.

          Finally, the screen cleared for a few seconds and the audio came through unimpeded.

          "Data tracks 20051, we're under heavy fire. The Suc…" the image was lost and the audio turned to static.

          "Very educational," Finn said, tucking several disks into his breast pocket. "But still…this doesn't add up. I mean, the Jovians had a Mars colony about ninety years ago. How could someone have been on Mars before that let alone build this thing? Unless…" He kneeled on the floor and pulled apart the bottom of the computer consol. He followed the trail of wiring until it entered the wall. "Look at this," he said, halfway under the console. Ryoko ducked her head under and pushed her way to the back, where Finn held something. "See this? This is a standard wire, as we know it. But if you look over here," He held up an adaptor he had pulled from the wall. "It's different."

          "Like someone's modified it to fit existing technology?" Ryoko asked.

          "Yeah."

          "So that means that the city itself existed before human beings got to Mars. People have adapted our technology to fit with the alien stuff." Ryoko examined the adaptor. The wires entered on one end, but the other end was very odd. It was triangular in shape, and seemed to have small laser lenses attached to the three points. It wasn't until then that they realized the close proximity to each other they found themselves in. However, before either of them could get any ideas, the fortress shuddered again and all the lights went out.

          "Ow!" Finn banged his head trying to pull himself out from under the desk. "Here we go," he said as he opened a vidwindow for light. He made his way to the door and tried the keypad. It was dead. Ryoko tried to force it open, but it wouldn't budge. Finn, remembering Ryoko's earlier success, ripped the flimsy keypad from the wall. However, this time, no sparks flew from the sudden disjointing of electrical circuits. He tried reconnecting this and that, but everything was dead. Finally, he settled for kicking the door in frustration, but to no avail.

          "Let me guess, we're stuck," Ryoko said pulling at the door again. Finn added his strength to the possibility of escape by force, but it remained shut. When it was painfully clear that they weren't getting out via the door, Finn began searching the bare steel walls for an escape route. A ventalator shaft, a service tunnel, anything would do, just so long as it would get them out of there. However, he had no success and sat down with his back against the wall adjacent to the door. Ryoko sat down beside him. "No luck?" Finn remained silent.

          "The communicator will run out of power soon," Finn said after a while, staring at the static. As if on queue, the window died. Like the aestivalis, the communicators were powered by the gravitron energy feed, and only had a small battery to live off if the crewmember were away from the ship.

It was difficult to tell how much time had passed. It could have been a few seconds, a few minutes, even an hour or two. The silence was so intense that it was deafening. There wasn't even the groan of settling steel. The only sound was their slow breathing. "We're stuck in here."

          "And no way out," Ryoko added, heaving a sigh. "I never thought I'd go this way. I always thought it'd be out on the battlefield. At least that way it would have been for a cause, even if it wasn't just."

          "Yeah, life's a bitch that way," Finn said.

          "How long do you give before we starve to death?" Ryoko asked, her breathing was slightly on the heavy side.

          "There's no way we'll starve to death," Finn said confidently. "The air will give out long before we even have a chance to starve," he added, realizing his own heavy breathing. "I'd give us a few hours or so. At least it won't be painful. Kind of like going to sleep," Finn chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

          "Look at us. Two 'soldiers' thinking about how they're going to die. I know it wouldn't change our situation, but we're probably over doing the drama a bit. A little gloomy, don't you think?" he said, a bead of sweat rolled down his face and dripped off of his chin. He could hear Ryoko pulling off the top to her uniform, and did the same, considering it was getting hot. He felt Ryoko feel along the floor for him. When she at last touched him, she settled in beside him, resting her head against his shoulder. "I don't care how corny this sounds. Even if these are our last moments, I'm glad we get to spend them together." Gently, he ran the tips of his fingers down her face, relishing the feeling of her skin. Clearly in his mind's eye, he could see her. Her face, her hair, the smooth curves of her body, and he kissed her again, this time with passion he had held back until now. Their hearts raced and their breathing grew heavier. Finn ran his fingers through her hair and down her bare back. Finn kissed down Ryoko's neck and across the top of her partially exposed chest. This extracted a faint gasp from Ryoko's lips. She ran her hands down Finn's chest. However, as she stopped, there was a slight clang on the floor. Normally they would have disregarded such an insignificant noise. However, due to the intense silence that had engulfed them, the sound was distinctly heard, even through their passion.

          "What was that?" Ryoko asked, pulling away slightly. Finn, having heard the noise as well, felt around the floor. His hands came to rest on a small object around his pocket. It was small, round in shape, and very smooth, like a small piece of shaped glass. "What is it?"

          "Ryoko…" Finn said, clutching the object in his hand. "You've done it. You've really done it."

          "Done what? What are you talking about?"

          "It's a CC. I…stuffed a bunch in my pocket earlier," he said. "Oh happy day!" By now the air was very hot and almost completely spent. Every breath they took was like sucking in steam. It burned their lungs. "We can…use it to…boson jump…out of here."

          "That's…great," she panted. Finn clutched the CC in one hand and Ryoko's hand in the other. It was becoming very difficult to breath now. "But we…don't have any of the stuff."

          "I think it's worth a shot. Picture the Nadesico," he said and they both shut their eyes. The current of energy could be seen running up and down their bodies, outlining their nanomachine clusters. It was as though someone had painted sparkling silver lines on them. Finn's mind was fuzzy due to lack of oxygen, and he forced himself to ignore the searing pain in his lungs and the feeling of exhaustion that had crept up on him. There was a split second where they could clearly picture the Nadesico's bridge. During this second, the room grew from being hot and spent to be cool and clean. Finn opened his eyes. He was on the lower bridge of the Nadesico, still clinging onto Ryoko, and her onto him. Everyone blinked at them.

          "Sex fiends," Megumi said. Finn ignored the comment and took in as much air as he possibly could. He fell onto his back heaving and laughing.

          "It worked!" he laughed. "I can't believe that actually worked!"

          "Ahem," Yurika cleared her throat. "Not that it's my business, but just what was going on down there?" she asked, noticing their state of undress.

The Truth Who The Eyes Met Before

          Word spread quickly through the Nadesico. Wherever Finn and Ryoko went, people would always be watching them out of the corner of their eyes. If Ryoko didn't have her reputation as ass kicker, they probably would have said something. But for the most part, they kept their distance and their comments to themselves.

          "You two seem to be getting a-head alright," Izumi said and began to laugh her insane little laugh. She found herself stuffed into a recycling bin for that one. Even the Captain seemed to tiptoe around them. As they walked onto the bridge, everyone stopped their conversations and remained silent. Finn walked up to the panel what contained Ruri's control consol. He quickly brought his hand down hard against the side of it, the noise made everyone jump.

          "It seems to me," he said, taking a place in the centre of the lower bridge. "That there are rumours and talk going on behind our backs. And I request that this cease effective immediately."

          "In other words, knock it off," Ryoko said standing beside him.

          "But what's been going on then?" Megumi asked, looking up from her vanity magazine. Finn noticed the title of the article she was reading. It was called "How to make her man yours". He mentally sweatdropped. 'Poor Tenkawa," he thought.

          "That's really none of your business," Finn said simply in a way one might say what the weather was like. From her seat, Hikaru opened a vidwindow that showed the video record of when they boson jumped back to the ship.

          "So what are we to make of this?" she asked, giggling slightly.

          "Well, if you want to know the truth," Finn said explanatorily. "You try being locked in a sealed airtight room for a few hours and see how the temperature rises. You people don't seem to realize the severity of that situation. Inez, help me out here."

          "You two did not recover your breath for some time after your return," Inez said. "And physical activity alone could not have put you in that state of oxygen deprivation."

          "Helpful as always," Finn said sarcastically.

          "Unless you were both really enjoying yourselves," Hikaru said giggling. Ryoko gave her a swift kick to the shins for that one. "Give it up you guys, everyone knows about you." They both turned an appropriate shade of red at this remark.

          "Anyway," Yurika said, breaking up the fight. "I did not ask you to come here just to sort this out." A space colony appeared on screen. "This is our destination. It would take about a week to reach by normal methods, but Inez has suggested that boson jumping there would be better."

          "That's correct. As you know it would take over a week to reach the L2 colony with the Nadesico's phase transition engines on full. However, due to the fact that we have limited time, I propose that we should attempt a boson jump," Inez explained. "I have obtained full approval from the Captain to carry this experiment out."

          "I like how you added the word 'experiment' in there. It really shows you care," Finn said as Inez led them to the observation deck, where the jump equipment had been set up again. Akito and Yurika followed. "So what is it about us that makes it possible to jump the ship? And how come you were able to jump?"

          "From my research on boson jumping, I have discovered that only those with a special system of nanomachines are capable of boson jumping," Inez answered.

          "But neither you or the Captain has ever had nanomachine implants," Finn said. "And what about Hikaru and Izumi?"

          "Neither of them has the required system."

          "So then what makes it special to just us?"

          "The Captain, Akito, and myself were all born on Mars. Since nanomachines make up a section of the atmosphere, we all have a specialized system of them in our bodies. These nanomachines were programmed this way when they were introduced to the Mars atmosphere and Fort Mag's distortion field signal. It is a kind of mutation. However, with you it remains a mystery exactly why you are capable to jump. There is no record of your past, but we know for certain it has to do with some kind of lab accident. And since Ryoko shares your system, it's like two links of the same chain," Inez explained.

          "Lucky us," Akito said. Finn yawned. They arrived on the observation deck a few minutes later. Finn and Ryoko put their gloves on and plugged themselves into the IFS.

          "We're going to L2 this time, so picture anything about the colony that stands out to you," Inez said, taking a seat by the computer terminal. Yurika and Akito took their places.

          "Are you sure this is going to work with Ryoko here?" Yurika asked.

          "I don't see why it shouldn't," Inez replied. "You may begin." They all shut up and concentrated on the task at hand. They began to get the glowing circuits over their bodies. There was a split second where the room seemed to fall into darkness, but it was driven away as quickly as it came.

          "We have entered approximate space around the L2 colony, Captain," Ruri said from the bridge.

          "Home sweet home," Finn said in an all-too-apparent sarcastic tone.

          "Are there any remaining forces in scanner range?" Yurika asked.

          "No ma'am," Ruri replied.

          They launched two aestivalis and headed for the colony. Ryoko went with Hikaru, while Finn and went Akito. Finn guided Akito to the secret hangar where the TFs had been built.

          "This place sure brings back the memories," Finn said in a low voice as he climbed down and onto the floor. The life support system was still working, but they wore space pilot suits in case it should suddenly fail. There were bits and pieces of twisted scrap metal, some of it partially melted from fire. Finn stopped and picked something up.

          "What's that?" Ryoko asked as she jumped to the floor. She looked over Finn's shoulder and saw a screwdriver in his hand. She didn't have to ask what it was about, remembering the memory of him crossing out the Nergal emblem on his old suit.

          "It's nothing," he said and dropped the screwdriver onto the floor with a light clang. "Let's go, the lab is over here." They made their way through the debris. Both Ryoko and Finn had machine guns slung over their shoulders in the event that any grasshoppers were still around. However, when they made it to the heavy steel door that separated the hangar from the inside, they found it had been melted shut by the intense heat of the fire. Finn moved some empty crates from beside the door and exposed a window with a control centre on the other side. Ryoko didn't need any instruction here. They both aimed their guns and opened fire on the Plexiglas window. The glass shattered into thousands of tiny pieces, but still remained held together by tiny fibers built into the material.

          "What were they expecting, a war down here or something?" Akito asked.

          "They added this the first time I blew up," Finn explained, remembering an engine test on the ACF that didn't go exactly as everyone had hoped. Finn drove the butt of his gun into the glass, sending it straight through. He then began clearing it away as to make a passage for them to climb through. The main power grid was still online, barely. The lights flickered occasionally and computers beeped from time to time. "Akito, you and Izumi go down that way," Finn said, motioning down a corridor to their right. "We'll check out down here. Look for anything that might give us a clue as to the existence of any other TF frames."

          "Right." Akito nodded. Finn handed him his machine gun and they went on their way.

          "Not very cheery is it? Looks more like a prison than a lab," Ryoko said as they walked down the dim and narrow corridor.

          "That's pretty much what it was," Finn said grimly. "They had to beef up security after I escaped the first few times."

          "You broke out of here?" Ryoko asked, trying to find that memory, but she couldn't. Finn stopped outside a heavily plated door. There was a small plate beside it that read "Test Subject". The door was open a crack and Finn, with great effort, slid it back far enough for them to enter. Inside, the room was small, with a shelf of books beside a bunk. Ryoko stepped inside and shone her flashlight around the room. The ventilation ducts had heavy bars on them, and the walls were all barred, as though they were afraid someone would go straight through. "A little much, isn't it?" She moved closer and examined the steel walls. There were small indents all along the walls. Some had dried red stains on them. She didn't need anyone to tell her what the stains were. Finn sat down on the bunk and looked around.

          "This was my prison for years. 5, 10, 15, I don't know how long they kept me locked up in here. They only let me out for tests or to bandage my hands when I broke them." He touched one of the indents on the wall with his thumb. Ryoko sat down beside him. She looked at the single sheet that covered the thing mattress; it to was covered in bloodstains. Finn picked a book off the shelf and flipped through it. He picked a few objects out of the hollowed inside. They ranged from outlet adaptors to small tools.

          "How could you break out of this place?" Ryoko asked, more to herself than to Finn.

          "The first time I managed to rip the bars off the vent and crawled through there. They caught me when I came out in the hangar," Finn said quietly. "The next time I managed to fry the computer lock by splitting the wires from the inside. And the walls," He looked at his hands. Even though they were inside the tight material of the pilot's suit, he still felt a dull ach and could almost see the blood on his knuckles. The only people who had ever shown him any kindness were the flight deck crew. The scientists treated him worse than they would a lab rat. "Come on," he said as he stood up. "We'd better get going." Once outside, Finn slid the heavy door shut and they continued on their way. The sound of it closing echoed down the halls and made him cringe slightly.

          "I don't know how this place even existed without anyone knowing about it," Ryoko said as they continued down the corridor. "I mean, I lived on L2 for years and there was no sign of it."

          "It's on the dark side of the colony," Finn said. "Right underneath the dump. And you can only access it by shuttle. There are no tunnels that lead down here." They came to the end of the corridor and entered a large computer lab. There were computers, monitors, miscellaneous parts technology scattered around the place. Part of the roof had caved in, burying half the lab under tonnes of debris. Finn shoved a piece of the ceiling off a set of terminals and pulled two chairs over. "Ok, we're looking for anything that might give us a clue about any robots made here besides my old frames." Ryoko sat down and began to go through what information the computer had to offer. For some reason, the fileserver was still running, even after more than a year.

          "Hey, Finn. Does Project Armada mean anything to you?" Ryoko asked as she clicked on a file.

          "Hmm?" Finn leaned over. "Project Armada? No, never heard of it." Ryoko opened a document file. It read:

          "Test Subject 01 proves responsive to enhanced IFS implants. However, his mental capabilities have proven unstable. Due to his behaviour, he is unsuited for the dual pilot frame we have developed in Project Armada, and therefore the completed prototype will be scrapped. In addition, Test Subject 02 has successfully integrated herself with the Nadesco's core computer, furthering our reason to scrap the project."

          "'Dual pilot frame'? Finn asked. "Go back and click on anything that might look like a description of what that's all about." Ryoko hit back and clicked on a file called 'Dual Pilot System Synopsis'. It read:

          "Since Test Subject 01's failed compatibility test with the Nadesico's core computer, we assume that Test Subject 02 will have similar results. Therefore, development of Project Armada will continue unless Test Subject 02 successfully completes the computer integration and compatibility test. The principal behind Project Armada is that two human minds working in synchronization will be able to perform pilot duties at a much more advanced level than single pilots can. By utilizing the information processing capabilities of two pilots, reaction time and interpretive manoeuvres will be enhanced. Existing technology from the single pilot TF frames is being used in Project Armada's design."

          "Two pilots?" Ryoko asked.

          "For one fighter," Finn said. "Does it say when Armada was scrapped?"

          "Yeah, it was sometime in 2190." Ryoko replied. "Wait a sec, they have something here about the other test subject." She scrolled down, past blood type, height, weight, and all the physical information, until she found a picture.

          "Ruri?!" they both asked in unison. There, on the screen was a picture of Ruri. It was taken years ago, but it was obvious it was Ruri.

          "It says here that Test Subject 01, which I guess means you, was the original selection for the Nadesico's science officer. But you could not interface with the computer system after your nanomachine accident, so you were sent here as an 'experimental piloting test subject'," Ryoko said.

          "Explains a lot," Finn said bitterly, thinking back to what he remembered of his past on L2. "Does it have anything about the robot itself?" Ryoko went through some more data.

          "Here, I found some blueprints," she said and opened the file. It was obviously a TF based design, having a jet fighter mode and a robot mode. The wings were swept back, with small stabilizer fins at under the propulsion output and on either side of the cockpit. There were twin boosters on the top. In robot mode it looked similar to the aestivalis air frame. The legs came out of the engine output and the arms unfolded from two small extensions under the wing. The wings were placed as shoulder guards and twin microgravity blast cannons were put in place on either side of the head and could also be used in jet mode, extending just above either side of the cockpit. It was very sleek, and looked very fast.

          "Sweet," Finn said as he downloaded the information onto his communicator. "Seiya's going to drool at this. Now all we have to do is find what's left of it."

          "It says it was put in storage in subhangar compartment B-02. Does that mean anything to you?" Finn shook his head and sat back down at his computer. Opening a map of the complex, he began to search for the exact location of the storage compartment in question.

          "Here it is," he said, highlighting a section of the map. "It's behind the main section of the hangar. We'll probably have to blow out a wall and move some stuff around to get it out though," he opened a vidwindow. "Hey Tenkawa, we found something. Meet us back in the main hangar."

          "Alright, we haven't had any luck," Akito said. "Meet you there." Finn closed the window.

          "Let's get moving," he said and they left. Their feet made a slight metallic clinking noise as they made their way back.

          "Kind of depressing, eh Finn?" Ryoko asked as she led the way. However, she got no response. "Yo, Soatome?" She turned around, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Where'd you go?" The colony shuddered slightly and a broken grasshopper fell from the ceiling. Ryoko jumped out of the way as it came crashing to the floor in pieces. The sight of the robot even made Ryoko jump in the other kind of way. Even though it lay broken on the floor, it still looked as though it might suddenly come alive. She heard a crashing noise coming from one of the rooms. Instinct told her to arm her gun. Silence followed for a few moments but was soon broken by another crash. Ryoko inched her way towards the source of the noise. Looking into the dark room, all seemed quiet, until four red glowing eyes of an active grasshopper blinked on. Squeezing the trigger, she opened fire at the robot. When the lights faded, she stopped. 'Maybe that thing got Finn,' her mind suggested. Something in the room moved and she fired again. When whatever it was in there stopped moving, she stepped into the room and hit the light switch. From behind a chair, a small white flag was waving. "What the…?"

          "A little trigger happy?" came Finn's voice as he poked his head out.

          "Damnit, it's only you," Ryoko said as she lowered the gun. "What were you doing in here?" Finn held up a small box that used to be some component to something. "What's that?"

          "It was a hard drive," Finn said, dropping the useless piece of scrap onto the floor. "I was pulling them out of these file servers."

          "In the dark,"

          "There were lights glowing, so I knew what to get. I didn't think I'd need them." Ryoko's head cocked to one side.

          "Alright, whatever. Come on, let's go and find this Armada thing and get out of here," she said. Finn ripped a few more removable hard drives from the computers and followed.

          "We heard shooting, everything alright?" Akito asked. "Oh," he said when he saw a few grazed bullet holes in Finn's suit.

          "They like it rough," Izumi snorted. They all facefaulted.

          They reached the hangar a few minutes later. Finn retrieved some sealant foam to patch up the holes in his suit and they began to search for the entrance to the hidden storage area.

          "I can't find anything," Akito said, pushing his way along the wall, through all the debris. "Are you sure it was here?"

          "That's what the computer said," Finn replied, sitting in Akito's aesti, using radar to probe the depth of the walls.

          "Hey Saotome, I think I found something," Ryoko called from the wall opposite the hangar entrance. Finn made his way over. "Look here," she said, her hand against the reinforced steel wall. "It looks like there used to be a door here, but it's been shorn up."

          "That could be it," Finn displayed the map on a vidwindow. "And it says this is about where the entrance should be." He took a few steps back and motioned for Ryoko to get out of the way. He fired a few rounds from the machine gun, but they bounced harmlessly off. Ryoko, having removed her helmet, had a lock of hair shot off from this display.

"Watch what you're doing!" she yelled at him.

"Sorry," Finn said, "Not one of my brighter moments." And, with the aesti's fist, punched a small hole at the base of the floor, pushing through to the other side of the wall. Finn hopped down and entered this new opening. Inside he discovered what looked to be some kind of fighter jet covered by a large tarp. He tugged at it, trying to remove it, but his efforts appeared to be useless. Ryoko and the others helped and they soon, after laboriously struggling with it, succeeded in removing it. It looked pretty much like they had expected. It was about the same size as Skywarp had been and sat there in jet mode. Finn climbed up and opened the cockpit hatch. Inside there were two seats facing each other, each with the enhanced IFS ports. A screen sat between the two and monitors were placed all along the sides. The undercarriage and cockpit cover were black, which slight yellow marks around intake systems. The two pylonlike structures at the sides, which served as arms in robot mode, were painted grey. The twin multipurpose mechanisms on the top were set back, to serve as boosters.

          "Cool," Finn said, pressing a button. The boosters flipped forward into their cannon position. Looking at the controls, he was a little disappointed to find that the machine could only be controlled through the IFS, unlike his original frames, which had a manual control option. It also appeared to be powered by the gravitron beam like the aestivalis. He jumped into the rear pilot's seat, which faced forward, the other one, facing him, faced backwards. The author goes crosseyed. Sticking his hands into the IFS, he discovered that some kind of conduction equipment would be needed in order to effectively control the frame. There also seemed to be little, or no power left in the batteries after all this time. "Hey Ryoko, come take a look at this!" he called down and heard her climb up the side of the frame.

          "Nice," Ryoko said, checking out the controls and taking a seat up front. "It feels kind of strange. In the aesti's the cockpit was pretty spacious. Here it's like you're boxed in, but it's also kind of comforting at the same time. It's weird."

          "Just remember to strap yourself in, and I don't mean that just for the 'safety first' thing." Finn said, remembering a time when he had broken his nose and cheekbones when he forgot to fasten the restraints and ended up smashing his face into the front monitor of the ACF.

          "So how exactly does this work?" Ryoko asked, looking through the clear screen at Finn.

          "I guess we both have to pilot it," Finn said. "And it works by doing what we want, not what just one of us wants. I don't know really."

          "The only trouble is trying to get it back to the Nadesico," Ryoko said. Chibi Finn sat on the stump. "Come up with anything yet?" She asked when a few minutes had passed.

          "Not a thing," Finn replied. The colony shuddered slightly.

          "Nadesico!" Ryoko said, opening a window to the bridge. "What was that just now?"

          "The colony's nuclear reactor is deteriorating," Ruri answered. "Due to the extensive damage the colony has sustained over the past year, cracks appear to have formed along the reactor core. Radiation is leaking and possible meltdown conditions exist."

          "But why now?" Akito asked.

          "It would appear that until now, the colony's structure rested in such a way that it did not disturb the core. However, due to the vibrations caused by your activity there, the structure has shifted slightly." Ruri displayed a section of the colony that had broken away from the asteroid shell. "Readouts indicate you have approximately thirty minutes before radiation spreads to the section of the colony you are in."

          "Half an hour? That's plenty of time," Finn said.

          "But we also have reason to believe that structural failure will occur in ten minutes time. You will all be crushed unless you get out of there fast."

          "Ain't that just prime."

          "Should we take off in the aestivalis?" Akito asked.

          "But we can't leave this guy here!" Finn called back. "You and Izumi go ahead."

          "Please tell me you have a plan," Ryoko said.

          "I do, kind of."

          " 'kind of'"?

          "Ok, here's what we need to do," Finn said as he fumbled with the controls. Finally he hit the one he was looking for and the cockpit roof closed above them, sealing them in darkness. He then hit more controls, but nothing happened. 'I'll just have to go with my fail safe,' he thought as he punched the main console. The monitors flickered and came to life. "We're going to need something to act as a conductor in the long run for this thing. But a few minutes exposed shouldn't hurt that much."

          "Ok, I'm guessing I stick my hands in these ports here," Ryoko said.

          "Right," Finn said as they both connected themselves into the IFS. "Good thing this thing still has some battery power left." He could feel a slight jolt as he did so. The heads-up display in front of them displayed what lay in front of them. There was another shudder.

          "That last tremor was caused when a section of the colony broke away. This resulted in a change in pressure surrounding the core and a small crack has formed along the reactor shell. It will reach critical temperature in approximately five minutes," Ruri said.

          "Great," Finn muttered. "Damnit, this thing's not responding to my commands." He tried to make the machine move, but it remained motionless.

          "Three minutes," Ruri said. "At your current rate of progress, your chances of returning to the Nadesico alive are…"

          "Don't tell me the odds," Finn said. "Come on, what's wrong with you?" he asked the machine.

          "I've got an idea," Ryoko said, causing Finn to look up from his semi-transparent screen at her. "You said this thing needs two pilots in sync right?" Finn nodded. "Then we have to send the commands at the same time, idiot."

          "It's worth a shot," Finn said. "Try getting this thing's propulsion drive going first." In their eyes, there was a bright flash of light. Finn opened his eyes, recovering from the blinding light. He felt different. As though he were floating in space, not sitting inside a mecha. There didn't seem to be any up for down. He tried to raise his hand to rub the remaining spots from his eyes, but, strangely enough, his hands wouldn't comply. Looking around, he found that he was not sitting inside the cockpit of the new robot, but he was, instead sitting inside the dimly lit compartment in which it was stored. However, he couldn't see his body, he could only feel it.

          "What's going on here?" he heard Ryoko ask. "Why can't I move?"

          "Ryoko?" Finn tried to turn his head to look, but found that the only part of his body that he seemed to have control over were his eyes.

          "Finn? What the hell is going on?"

          "Wait a sec," Finn said as he began to put the pieces together. "This may sound strange, but picture moving forward a few feet, like you would in an aestivalis."

          "Alright."

          "Now," Finn pushed himself forward a little. The machine complied and slid the approximate distance. "I get it now." They moved forward again.

          "Go with what works, I guess." Some how, they were able to feel each other's presence. It was as though their two minds made up one body, and only moved when they both wanted it to. Finn could also feel Ryoko's thoughts; it felt similar to the time when they sat at the table with the memory tiles. He couldn't read her mind like a book, but could sense what she was feeling, and she to him.

          "Melt down in thirty seconds," they heard Ruri say. The machine fired a shot from its cannons and blew a hole in the wall large enough for them to escape through. They moved forward, the thrusters kicking in, and thrust out of the hangar and out into space. However, they both disagreed on where to turn next. Finn wanted to go up and around the colony's top section and then take a straight line back to the Nadesico, Ryoko wanted to head away from the colony first and take a wide turn and meet up with the Nadesico. As a result, they didn't move anywhere.

          From the bridge, they watched the timer count down, when it hit zero the colony erupted in a blinding flash.

          "So what life do you think he's on now?" Minato asked Megumi.

          "This is number seven by my count," Megumi answered.

"Captain, I am detecting collision damage on the Nadesico's starboard arm. Projecting visual." And there was the new robot, its tail end sticking out of the hull. "Idiots."

"Akito, Izumi," Yurika said to the two pilots who had just returned to the ship before the explosion. "Go pull them out."

"Back from the dead again, eh Saotome?" Akito said as they pulled the hatch open. Inside, Finn and Ryoko sat there swirlely eyed, small wisps of steam rose from their bodies.

"I feel funky," Finn said, dazed. 

Fly Me To The Moon

          The new robot, which they had named Jetstream sat in the hangar for a few days while the Nadesico continued on its way to Earth. They would have boson jumped, but two certain pilots were kind of out of it for a couple of days. 

          "How's it coming down here?" Finn asked Seiya when he and Ryoko had recuperated. Fortunately they had only piloted Jetstream for a few minutes, so damage was similar to a bad case of sunstroke. Seiya was massaging his temples.

          " 'How's it coming'?" he repeated. "I'll tell you how it's coming! First you make us bust our butts for weeks building Skywarp and then you go ahead and blow it up! And now you expect us to put this half completed piece of unknown technology together while you lay around in bed all day?!"

          "Yeah, pretty much," Finn said calmly. Seiya sat down exasperated and handed Finn a palmscreen. So far they had completed overhauling the gravitron energy converters, which were in serious need of fine-tuning after staying locked up for years. The IFS, fortunately, didn't need any repairs of completion. The only thing left was to make sure the transformation joints were in decent shape for when the machine was in robot mode. However, there was still one problem. How in the world were Finn and Ryoko supposed to pilot this thing in combat when they could barely go in a straight line?

          "Lt. Saotome, please report to the training simulator," his communicator beeped at him.

          "Keep up the good work!" Finn said as he left. A wrench collided with his skull for that one. "What's going on?" he asked when he arrived at the training simulator.

          "I have programmed the new frame's combat data into the simulator. It will allow you two to train maneuvers while the frame itself is still under repair. I have also developed these gloves to act as conductors for you." Inez handed him a pair of these new gloves. They were a lot less bulky than his last set, and fit kind of like a second skin. "They are not completely metallic in composition," Inez added. "They are standard pilot's gloves with micro conductors built into the material."

          "Can we start already?" Ryoko asked impatiently.

          "Very well, pick a simulation chamber and we'll begin," Inez said. Ryoko took the one on the left while Finn took the one on the right. "Are you ready?"

          "Yes," they both said in unison.

          "Initializing connection programme," Inez said. Finn sat the monitor go from black, to static, to the view from inside Jetstream. "Merging cerebral functions." Finn and Ryoko felt their minds connecting. The view was like it was the first time they connected. It felt as though the frame was their body, not just a mere extension of it. "First, I want you to fly to the end of these lights and back," Inez said, and a series of lights appeared in the virtual space they were in. It was a familiar feeling, even though they had only experienced it once before. Finn tried to make himself move towards the blinking lights, but his limbs wouldn't comply. "You are not in sync with each other," Inez said. "You have to act as though you were on being."

          "Easier said than done," they both said.

          "Maybe not," Inez said.

They both fell quiet and tried to feel out each other's thoughts. It felt was a strange feeling, but each one could hear what the other was thinking.

          "Alright, let's do this," they said, and began to move with the along the lights. It was a little more difficult to make the turn though. Finn's instinct told him to take the corner sharply as soon as the lights ended and use the inertia to swing the frame over, whereas Ryoko's was to make a build up speed and then hit the retro thrusters and skip off the wall of force it created. They made the corner, more or less and proceeded back to the starting point. This exercise continued for a while until they were finally able to act as one. Their next task was to weave in between the lights. The 'training', as Inez called it, lasted all day.

          "Alright, tomorrow we are going to move beyond simple two-dimensional maneuvers and go on to moves that require three dimensional perception," she said as the two emerged from the simulator exhausted. They made some sign of acknowledgment and made their way to the cafeteria for something to eat.

          "Wow Ryoko, you look exhausted," Hikaru said as the two entered.

"He must be really good," Inez said in her usual insane little way. "Training," Ryoko said as she sat down,

"You've been at it all day," Hikaru said.

"All day, all night…" Izumi stopped short as her face got to know a tray a little better. She lay on the floor laughing like the deranged lunatic that she was.

After getting something to eat they went back to their room and fell into bed, too exhausted to do anything but sleep. However, after what seemed like a few minutes, Inez was buzzing them to go back to the simulator.

"You'd think a simulator wouldn't be so physically stressful," Finn yawned as they reached the simulator. "I mean, we're not actually doing anything physical."

"That may be true, but your minds perceive it to be real and therefore tell your bodies to feel the way they do," Inez said and handed Finn a DVD of The Matrix. "Watch that and you'll get a better idea." Dual sweatdrops went around for that one. "Anyway, today we'll be working on three dimensional movements, rather than just simple left or right turns."

"Uh huh," Finn said as he began to nod off standing up. Ryoko nudged him the ribs.

"Just climb in and we'll get started," Inez ordered, taking a seat by the computer terminal. They complied and day two of Jetstream training commenced.

These 12 hour training sessions continued over the next few days. During this time, the Nadesico had reached the Moon.

"Megumi, can you put me in touch with UF government?" Yurika asked/ordered. "We'd better explain to what's left of them just exactly what's going on."

"I'll try, Captain," Megumi said, picking up her headset. The main screen fizzled for a few minutes before she finally got the right frequency.

"Who's there?" a familiar voice asked.

"Daddy?" Yurika said surprised. "Daddy? What are you doing there? I thought you'd been with the UF fleet on its way to Mars."

"Hello Yurika, dear. You seem to have grown a bit," Admiral Misumaru said. "And I mean that generally, not referring to one area in particular," he added quickly when he noticed the bridge crew staring at him. "What brings you here? I'd have thought you'd be heading for Mars with the fleet."

"The fleet's been destroyed, Daddy," Yurika said simply. "We watched them all go boom."

"How can that be? We had all our forced in the fleet! Does this mean the Jovians have won?" Misumaru asked.

"No, the Jovians are all gone to," Yurkia said. "Ruri, show him the data logs." Ruri displayed the recording of the UF and Jovian fleets being destroyed. Misumaru laughed.

"Are you disappointed your daddy's still alive?" he chuckled.

"Of course not, but this happens to be very urgent. I need to speak with whoever is in charge of the Earth government right away." Yurika said.

"But if you're still alive then it means we've won!" Misumaru said.

"No Daddy. There's a new Jovian faction in the works, which brings me to my point. We've talked with the leader of the new Jovians, called the Division forces, and he expressed interest in negotiating a peace treaty. We're going to meet him in a few days. Is the Supreme Commander of the UF government still alive? Or was he blown up with the fleet over Mars?"

"He's alive alright," Misumaru said. "But I don't know if it would be a good idea to talk to him. He still hasn't gotten over you taking the Nadesico to Mars the first time."

"Daddy, just let me try. This is something very important," Yurika persisted. "Please?" she asked with puppy dog eyes.

"Oh alright, I'll forward you. I can avoid having to go through his secretary, not that I haven't already gone through her," Misumaru said with a chuckle. Everyone sweatdropped. The window went static for a moment before it cleared and showed the desk of the Supreme Commander.

"What is it?" he demanded. "I'm not in the mood for any of your shenanigans. This had better be good."

"Commander, this is Captain Yurika Misumaru of the Nadesico. We have just returned from Mars, where we have witnessed the total destruction of the UF and Jovian forces," Yurika said.

"Our entire fleet destroyed? How am I supposed to believe this?" he said impatiently.

"Ruri?" Yurika said and Ruri displayed the logs.

"How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"Sir, why would we want to trick you into thinking the fleet had been destroyed? We're all on the same side here." Yurika said. The Commander mumbled something.

"If both forces are destroyed, what is there left to talk about?"

"While the existing UF and Jovian forces as we knew them have all been destroyed, a new Jovian army called the Division is coming together. We have made contact with their leader and have requested that both sides attempt a negotiated peace," Yurika explained. "And before we go halfway across the solar system to initiate these talks, we would like to have your pre-approval and your cooperation."

"Why should I?"

"Because if you don't, in less than one year's time, we will have a new Jovian army more powerful than the one before to deal with. I don't know about you, but I don't think another war is such a great idea and that the Earth can't move fast enough to build an army quickly enough to defend itself from such a force. The Earth is already down 99% of its total strength, and the only ship in any condition to fight is the Nadesico," Yurika said.

"You're not entirely right there, Captain," The Commander said. "We still have the Cosmos in lunar orbit as a rear guard."

"But that's still only two ships against an entire fleet! How can we possibly win when we're facing such numerical superiority?"

"Where is Chairman Akatsuki? He'll know the status of all Nadesico class ships."

"Akatsuki is currently sitting in the brig. We would like to put him on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity," Yurkia said.

"I'll only cooperate if he is released into our custody," the Commander said.

"How can you…"

"That is my only offer. Take it or leave it," the Commander said stubbornly. Yurika heaved a sigh.

"Agreed," she said, finally.

"I'll meet you at on the Moon at the UF emergency bunker," the Commander said and closed the window.

"Captain, are you sure about this?" Minato asked. "Are we going to really let Akatsuki go?"

"If it'll help us to achieve peace, we have to make certain sacrifices. I don't like the idea of letting him go either," Yurika said.

"Lt. Saotome isn't going to be happy about this," Megumi added.

"Keep us on course for the Moon, we still have a couple of hours before arrive, so that gives us a bit of time," Yurika said as the left the bridge.

Finn sat down in the cafeteria and rested his head against the table.

"Oog," he managed to say as he tried to raise his hand to take a bite out of the Mars bowl that lay in font of him. Ryoko was in a similar state. They had been training in the simulator for five days with only a couple hours of sleep between each session.

"Saotome?" Yurika said as she came into the room.

          "Uh huh," Finn replied, lifting his eyes up to see who called his name. He managed to suck one of the long noodles off out of the bowl.

          "You're not busy are you?" Finn shook his head, "Good, there's something I need to talk to you about it."

          "Go ahead," Finn said.

          "We're going to be releasing Akatsuki into the UF's custody in a few hours in exchange for peace talks," Yurika said.

          "That's wonderful, you go do that," Finn replied.

          "You're certainly taking this better than I expected,"

          "What did you want again?"

          "Um…we're handing Akatsuki over to the UF,"

          "Ok, have fun," Finn sat there for a few minutes. Slowly, the words began to register in his overworked brain. "You're going to do what?!" he shouted and as he jumped to his feet. In the process of doing this though, he inhaled a noodle. He rolled around on the floor for a minute before Ryoko stepped on his stomach. "Come again?" He asked, half of the noodle hanging out of his mouth.

          "I said we're going to be handing Akatsuki over to the UF," Yurika replied. Finn sat down.

          "Can I ask you just one question?" he said calmly.

          "Shoot."

          "Are you out of your blue haired perky voiced mind?!" he demanded. "He's dangerous. If I weren't such a nice guy I'd have killed him myself already, and now you're going to let him go free?"

          "We're not setting him free, we're just putting him in someone else's hands," Yurika said.

          "Oh yeah, like the UF will do anything. They'll probably let him go in exchange for a few more Nadesico class ships or something," Finn said. "Captain, gah! I'm choking on my own rage here!"

          "I'm afraid I have to agree with him, Captain. He's a menace to society. The first thing he'll do is seek revenge," Ryoko said, finally talking.

          "Yes, listen to Ryoko," Finn pleaded. "He's nothing but trouble, all he's got is…"

          "The resources we need to be able to fight off the Division forces if we can't achieve peace," Yurika interrupted him.

          "Couldn't the UF take control of Nergal's assets?" Ryoko asked. "If they've got what we need to fight, why don't we just take it?"

          "Because only Akatsuki would know where and what to look for, and if he's behind bars he won't exactly be all that cooperative," Yurika said. "And besides, we'd have to put up with Erina's whining."

          "Where did the snake-woman get to anyway?" Finn asked out of curiosity. "Shouldn't she but locked up along with him?"

          "No. She kept whining and complaining down there and was driving the guards nuts so I put her in charge of sanitation. Under close guard of course," Yurika said. Finn and Ryoko blinked.

          "Faster! Come on!" they heard a screechy voice scream.

          "Eh?" everyone asked

          "Harder!" The party made their way silently to the door. "Come on! Harder! Yes! That's it! Come on!" They peeked around the corner and saw Erina standing over some guy who was scrubbing the floor. "That's better!" She whacked him with the head of a mop she held in her hand. There was a collective facefault. "You're not getting paid to just sit there and idly scrub the dirt out of these floors. You're job as sanitation engineer is a vital part of this ship! So suck it up and get to work! I mean it!"

          "She's really getting into it," Finn said quietly as they shrank away from the corner and returned. "Anyway, back to the problem at hand. Let me restate my position," he cleared his throat and sat down. "Ahem, are you freaking nuts?"

Execution

          Finn slipped silently down the halls. It was well past three o'clock in the morning, and only essential crewmembers were around. The corridors were deserted and silent. The only noise that broke the stillness was Finn's soft footsteps. He had logged his required four hours connected to Ryoko and had some business to attend to.

          'Good, he's asleep,' Finn thought as he peered around the corner. The sentry was in some state between sleep and alertness. He didn't even notice Finn slip by and into the room he was supposed to be protecting. 'Security's pretty slack. I'm surprised he hasn't broken out by now.' When the door slid closed, the room was nearly in total darkness. The only light came from the screen that kept the prisoner in his cell. Finn swiped his security card and the screen faded. A small sliver of light remained around the cell's entrance. Finn withdrew his gun from its holster, slid a clip into the awaiting holder, and clicked the safety off. Walking up to the cell, he aimed the gun at the very centre and held his outstretched arm there.

          "Goodbye," he said quietly and fired three shots into the dead centre of the cell. "Consider yourself lucky I ended it for you quickly. Had I more time I would have enjoyed putting you out of my misery." He walked over to the door and flicked the light switch. "What the hell?" The cell was empty. All that lay where were three slugs embedded in the steel wall. A vidwindow appeared in the centre of the room. "Captain?"

          "Hello Saotome," Yurika said, stifling a yawn.

          "If this is a joke I'm not laughing," Finn said seriously.

          "This is no joke. I figured you might try something like this, so I had Akatsuki moved to an undisclosed location," Yurika said.

          "I can't let you turn him over to the UF. If he gets away then everything we've worked for will be in vain. He'll have won. Even without the ruins he's still dangerous," Finn said and kicked the shell casings away, sending them clicking off into a corner.

          "But he happens to be the only bargaining chip we have," Yurika said as the dozing guard came into the room.

          "I'll give you one thing," Finn said. "I didn't suspect this. Well played, Captain." The guard took Finn's gun and escorted back to the room he shared with Ryoko.

          "Just so you know, I have you under surveillance. So don't try anything like this again, is that clear?" Yurika said as Finn stood outside the door.

          "Perfectly," Finn entered the room and slid the door shut.

          That morning, they arrived at the UF base on the Moon. Finn watched as Akatsuki was led away in cuffs. Every cell in his body screamed at him to charge him and crack his skull on the floor. But Ryoko held him back with a stern look, and also having handcuffed him to the side rail of the hallway. Akatsuki sneered in Finn's direction, as though laughing at Finn's failure to finish him off while he had the chance. The Commander greeted them and oversaw the transfer of Akatsuki from the Nadesico into military custody. There were a surprising number of soldiers hanging around. There were even a few battleships in the massive hangar. The Cosmos was among them, along with another Nadesico class vessel that had only been completed the day before. It was christened the Skylinx, and looked fairly similar to the Katkitsubata. Finn wasn't all the surprised when he saw Erina led away behind Akatsuki. She didn't have the same smug expression. She almost looked scared.

          "There is also one more thing I'd like to ask before I will accept any peace treaty," the Commander said when he met Yurika. Finn and the other pilots stood behind her, along with Prospector and Hori. "Him." He pointed at Finn. "We have some questions for him."

          "But Lt. Saotome is a vital part of my crew. If the Nadesico were to come under enemy attack, we'd be defenseless without him. We only have three pilots left that can pilot aestivalis units," Yurika said.

          "Just an interview then. He might have information valuable to our cause," the Commander said. "In the interest of peace, or course." Finn glared at the Commander. He seemed like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum. He even stomped his foot and crossed his arms when Yurika protested. Finally Yurika caved and granted the UF an interview with Finn. It was to be two hours only, no more, for he still had yet to perfect the dual pilot system in Jetstream.

          "What is your name?" an interrogation officer asked when he, the Supreme Commander, and Finn were in a tiny room. Finn was tied to his chair.

          "Unknown," he said simply.

          "What function do you fill on the Nadesico?"

          "A big fish?" Finn laughed and the officer struck him across the face. "It's been fifteen minutes and you're still asking the most basic of questions. If you're going to interrogate me, at least do it professionally. I don't have time to waste with newbies like you."

          "You're not even supposed to exist," the Commander said. "That very fact makes you an obstacle."

          "Ooo, an obstacle to what? I wonder. Twenty minutes. Tick tick tick," Finn laughed. "Time's a'wasting."

          "Then we might have to punish you,"

          "Go ahead. I've been blown up, punched, kicked, torn, and beaten more times than you guys can count," Finn said. "Granted that's not difficult in your case."

          "We didn't say you would be the one physically harmed. It would be a shame if something were to happen to one of your fellow crewmembers on board the Nadesico," the Commander said. Finn laughed.

          "Man, and here I thought I'd be up against something original. You want to get to Ryoko? Go ahead and try. But don't come crying to me with your troop's medical bill." They stood in silence for a while. "Tick tick tick."

          "What is the status of the new Jovian forces?"

          "That seems harmless enough," Finn said, there was a slight clinking noise, but no one paid any attention to it. "Well, basically, they can't drop chulips on you guys anymore. I'm sure that'll make things a little easier. But as for their new forces, who knows? They said it was better than what they had earlier. So if you're going to fight them with those pieces of scrap I saw in the hangar, you might as well give up now. Oh, but don't take my word for it. Hear for yourself." Finn managed to hit a button on his communicator and it played the log of the recording of Kazaka."

          "You do realize you're going right into a trap, right?" the Commander asked. "They obviously want the Nadesico to get at the technology inside it."

          "Pretty hard not to tell. Even the Captain figured it out. But she seems to think she can make a difference, so I'm not going to burst her bubble."

          "What will you do if you come under enemy fire?" Finn made a childish sound of an explosion. "This isn't a game!"

          "Yes it is. It's just that I'm not going to be one of your pawns," Finn said.

          "He's being uncooperative," the Commander said and made some gesture with his hand. The officer picked up a box off the floor. He withdrew who metal things attached by a cord, which he plugged into the wall.

          "Ahh, shock treatment, a very reliable method of interrogation." The officer dug the two electrodes into Finn's chest. "That's good, a little higher please," Finn laughed.

          "What the hell?" the Commander grabbed the electrodes and tested them on the officer, who cursed and jumped back in considerable pain.

          "Warning, keep out of the hands of children," Finn said. "Death or injury may result. We do not assume any liability in the event of death or injury. For more information call us toll-free at 1-800…" The Commander punched Finn face to shut him up. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

          "I am the Supreme Commander of the United Armed Forces!" the Commander shouted.

          "What's left of them, anyway," Finn said.

          "Captain Misumaru," the Commander said as he came up to Yurika, who was standing by some vending machines in the hangar drinking a pop. "I'm sorry, but we're going to have to keep Lt. Saotome for a little while longer. He has more information that we first realized, so it's going to take us a while longer to get the facts straight."

          "Nah, it's ok," Finn said, coming up right behind him. "We're all done."

          "That's great, because we have to going shortly. Did everything go ok?" Yurika asked.

          "No worries here. Oh, Commander, you might want to get a medic to look at a few of your men. They must have walked into a door or something," Finn said, motioning to a pile of bodies near one of the hangar's entrances, all of whom looked like they'd just had the shit kicked out of them. The Commander stared at the pile. "Anyway, thanks, it was fun," Finn added, throwing his arm over the Commander's shoulder in a very friendly manner. The Commander fumbled for something. "Reach for your gun and they'll be scraping you off the wall with a squeegee," He said quietly when Yurika wasn't looking. As they left, Finn chucked the remains of his handcuffs into a garbage can.

          "Are you sue it's a good idea to let them go, sir?" Some other high-ranking officer asked.

          "Let them get blown to scrap," the Commander said. "Now that we have Akatsuki, we don't need the Nadesico."

          "But shouldn't we stop them?"

          "Misumaru is brilliant, but a rouge, she causes too much trouble. I have already taken this into consideration and arranged for a covert operative, you know the one."

          "If the Nadesico and her crew fall under inescapable enemy fire, what are the agent's instructions?"

          "Terminate, with extreme prejudice," the Commander grinned behind his sunglasses. On the other side of the large hangar by the Nadesico, they heard Finn sneeze. 

The Newbie

          "What an ass," Finn said under his breath as he and the Captain boarded the Nadesico.

          "What was that?" Yurika asked off handedly.

          "Looks like we're last," Finn said. All the crew had returned from their brief shore leave, and their supplies had been restocked. All that was left was to take off. "You do realize we're walking straight into a trap, right?"

"The Jovians will probably pull the same stunt they did before when we got Shiratori," Yurika said.

"Where is our little Jovian friend anyway? I didn't see him when we landed. I'd have thought the supreme whatever would want to 'have a word with him'."

"I told Minato to hide him somewhere," Yurika said as they walked down the hall, towards the elevator. "I don't think it's a good idea for the UF to know about him yet. Besides, we're going to need him when we get to Jupiter. He seems to have some kind of personal connection with this Kanzaka. I just hope he doesn't find it too awkward being on an enemy ship." Just then one of the doors slid open and a slightly disarranged Shiratori emerged. His hair was all ruffled and his uniform, which usually perfectly in order, was a slightly unbuttoned. Minato poked her head out and looked to be in a similar state. She didn't see Finn or Yurika and they both stole down a side passage.

"I suppose you didn't tell Minato to hide him there?" Finn sweatdropped and they boarded the elevator. "But getting back to my point," He said when the doors closed. "Are you sure about this? My spider sense is tingling."

"We have to pursue peace, no matter how unlikely it seems. As long as there's a chance that Kanzaka might consider peace talks, we have to take it."

"I guess there's no talking you out of it. Alright Captain, I'll see you later." Finn said as he got off at his deck. However, as he got off the lift he collided with something, which fell into him, causing them both to fall. "Eh?"

          "Oh, I'm sorry," came a perky voice. Finn looked up to see a tall woman in a Nergal uniform getting back on her feet. She had long, straight purple hair done up in a ponytail, and a sharp face with dark eyes.

          "Who are you?" Yurika asked from inside the lift, noticing the woman's uniform to be that of a pilot's. "I've never seen you before."

          "Excuse me, Captain Misumaru," the woman said. "I am Kumi Kato. I was just assigned to the Nadesico from the Skylinx." She saluted Yurika.

          "Excuse me?" Finn said. Kumi looked at him and realized she had been standing on his ribcage, not to mention the lift doors were repeatedly closing on Finn's head.

          "Oh, I'm sorry." She jumped off him. However, in doing so, she seemed to do more harm than good, for there was a loud crack. "Are you alright?"

          "I'm fine," Finn said with a hint of sarcasm as he got up. "That rib always breaks."

          "You must be Lt. Saotome, I've heard so much about you," Kumi said.

          "Really," Finn said, interested by the fact that she knew who he was.

          "Just what are you doing here, anyway?" Yurika asked

          "My superiors said it would be best if I joined the Nadesico to complete your aestivalis wing, since Pilot Subaru is out of commission," Kumi said, stepping into the lift. "From what I understand you only have three pilots. Finn narrowed his eyes a little at this one. "My aestivalis was just transferred over a few minutes ago. I was lucky because they were just about to close the entrance when I got there…" Finn heard her say as the lift doors closed.

          "Very educational," he said to himself as he made his way to the hangar to check on Jetstream's progress. When he arrived, the presence of a new aestivalis was noticeable. Upon entering, Finn was used to seeing the red, yellow, blue, and pink aestis lined up in a row. But now there was another dark blue frame, similar to Akatsuki's frame, which was restrained away from the other aestis since it didn't have a pilot anymore. Finn guessed the Jun might pilot it if need be.

Jetstream seemed to be all in one piece. "How goes it?" he asked Seiya, who was working on the aesti model diorama.

          "It's done, nearly at the cost of my sanity," Seiya said, putting down a half completed torso.

          "I thought you liked machines?" Finn said.

          "I do. But do you realize what working around the clock living off instant noodles and coffee is like? I'm used to living off inspiration, not a deadline."

          "Actually, I do know what that's like," Finn said, thinking back to the construction of Skywarp. "Anyway, how does she look?"

          "The gravitron energy converters were all shot. We had to rip them out. Problem is that this thing's shell was built before the aestivalis were made, so the converters we have aren't compatible."

          "So…what does that mean?"

          "While you were off in lala-land on Mars, we salvaged a few bits and pieces of the Katkitsubada. From those salvaged pieces we managed to coble together a miniaturized phase transition engine. It's not as powerful as the one's the Nadesico have, but it'll do just as well as your old nuclear engines did," Seiya said as he rearranged a few completed models.

          "So basically this thing's running on a self-contained PT engine?"

          "Pretty much. I don't know how reliable it's going to be, but it's the best we could do given the time and resources at our disposal."

          "Excuse me?" a timid voice asked. They turned around and saw a fairly short, blonde haired girl with glasses carrying a stack of binders in front of them. Her hair was cut just around her shoulders. She was about Hikaru's height and looked to be about the same age as well. "Excuse me for interrupting," she said again, "Could you tell me how to get to the bridge? I was just transferred here and I don't know my way around. I'm Mika Hitori. They brought me over from the Skylinx as additional administrative personnel."

          "What's your rush?" Seiya asked, taking a step forward. "There's always time to get to know one another." Mika stepped back a little.

          "Down boy," Finn sweatdropped. "You go out that door, turn to the left and take the lift up to the bridge. It's at the end of the hall on your right." Mika slipped away.

          "What'd you do that for? I think she liked me," Seiya said.

          "What have you been smoking? You sounded more like some kind of sex offender," Finn replied. Seiya shrugged and returned to his model building and magazine reading.

"Hello Thumblina." Seiya said to himself, glancing at the magazine he had lying open on the diorama table.

" 'Pigmies in Panties?' What the hell?"

"I'll tell ya, there's a lot of advantages to tiny women," Finn facefaulted. "I'll have to make her now, to complete the collection." Finn noticed a small collection of plastic figures that stood separately from the models. There was one of the Captain, Ruri, Minato, and most of the major female cast members. Finn was a little relieved to find Ryoko was not among them. However, there was a slight inaccuracy between the Captain and Ruri figures. * nudge nudge * There was a little sketch book that had a roughly drawn picture of Kumi on it, which Finn assumed to be the next figure to join the plastic crew.

"I'll leave you to your little warped, twisted world now," Finn said and moved over to examine Jetstream. It was obvious that there had been some major work done on the frame. There were scratches and flakes of paint all around it. But all in all, it looked pretty good. There was a small tag taped to the nose that said it was due for a fresh coat of radar absorbing paint, which would be applied shortly before they jumped to Jupiter. He jumped into his seat and tested what components he could by himself, such as the scanners, life support, ect. "It looks pretty good," he said to Seiya on his way out. However, the new dark blue aesti gave him a strange feeling. It was like having Akatsuki back. The frames were almost identical, except for the headpiece. Kumi's was a newer model than any of the ones they had. Also, something didn't feel quite right. Finn felt for his notebook, but it wasn't there in its usual place, stuffed in the back of his belt. "Hmm," he said to himself and scratched his chin. "I suppose it's possible."

          Finn didn't meet up with Ryoko until later for a training session. They had more or less mastered textbook combat maneuvers and were now practicing scenarios that would demand instantaneous reaction, where you had no time to think about your actions. Inez had made it 'easy' for them. They were to face a squadron of twelve grasshoppers, three heavy cruisers, and two dimojins.

They cranked up the thrusters and flew into the heart of the grasshopper formation. The grasshoppers fired their virtual missiles, but each one missed its target. Jetstream flew high above the formation and the two main cannons flipped forward. Two blasts were fired and the small robots vaporized. They then flew projected their distortion field to full forward and flew straight through two of the cruisers, the third being wiped out in the resulting explosion.

          "Now for," Finn began.

          "The dimojins," Ryoko finished.

          "Good. You're cerebral activity is 99% synchronized," Inez said as she watched from an overhead view on her computer.

          In the blink of an eye Jetstream flew in between the two robots. They made a futile attempt at swinging their massive clawed hands at it. Jetstream did a quick u-turn and fired a series of shots at them.

          "What's this?" came a voice from behind Inez. "Some kind of videogame?"

          "Who are you?" Inez demanded.

          "Name's Kumi Kato. I'm here to complete the Nadesico's aestivalis wing," Kumi said. "So what's this? It looks like fun."

          "This is a simulation," Inez explained. "Pilot Subaru and Lt. Saotome are piloting the fighter you see here."

          "I thought two manned fighters were scrapped years ago?"

          "This is not a conventional fighter," Inez said, turning back to the screen. Jetstream had now transformed into its robot mode and was engaging the first dimojin. It pulled its left wing out, which then unfolded into a long sword. With one great sweep it sliced the dimojin in two. Even though the enemy robot tried to shield itself with its massive arms, the blade went cleanly though. The remaining dimojin, seizing the momentary distraction of its foe's victory, fired a gravity blast. Thousands if tiny hexagons became visible as the blast collided with Jetstream's distortion field. However, the shock of the colossal energy blast caused Jetstream to lose its sword. The dimojin took advantage of this and thrust forward, but before it reached its opponent, Jetstream delivered a swift roundhouse kick into the dimojin's distortion field. Jetstream then reached forward with its metallic hand and literally ripped the distortion field out of existence. It grabbed the dimojin's head and crushed it in its hands before thrusting its right arm down the neck opening and fired a series of shots from the small arm-mounted machine gun. To finish off the already crippled foe, it brought its left knee straight into the chest plate of the dimojin, the sharp tail fin that was placed at the kneecap in robot mode sliced through the damaged armour and hit its engine, causing it to erupt into flames. At the centre of the blast, Jetstream stood unharmed.

          "Haha! Not too shabby, eh?" Finn and Ryoko said in unison. The way they spoke sounded kind of eerie to Kumi. Just then, a large blastwave narrowly missed them. The inertia from the blast sent the two of them spinning off into space. "That's pretty low, Inez." From their view, Inez and Kumi lost sight of Jetstream as it disappeared into the stars. However, a massive stream of bright blue light erupted from the point where they had disappeared. The enemy craft, which had been a surprise attack  Jovian capital ship, melted under the intensity of the blast and was reduced to a few pieces of loose scrap. The simulator hatches opened and a weary Finn and Ryoko emerged.

          "What was that bit and the end about?" Finn demanded.

          "In combat, you have to expect such surprises. The enemy is not going to play by a fixed set of rules. You have to be ready for anything," Inez said. "You of all people should know that.

          "But still, that's being pretty cheap," he took a seat on the steps that lead up to the simulation pods. Ryoko sat down beside him and took a drink from a bottle of water.

          "Who's this?" Ryoko asked when she noticed Kumi standing there.

          "You must be Pilot Subaru," Kumi said. "I'm your replacement pilot."

These words stung. " 'Replacement pilot'? Who are you?"

          "Kumi Kato. I'm sorry to hear about your accident with the IFS. It's such a shame to lose such an experienced pilot such as yourself," Kumi said. "But I think Pilot Tenkawa will make a fine wing commander." Ryoko's eye twitched slightly.

          "Replacement?" Finn heard her say under her breath.

          "And I've already met Lt. Saotome here," Kumi said. Ryoko began to get up, but Finn held her back. He could almost see the steam shooting out of her ears.

          "We're not useless, you know," Finn said. "We're going to be piloting Jetstream."

          "What's Jetstream?" Kumi asked. Inez clicked on an still image of the simulator Jetstream.

          "This is the dual-pilot system fighter that we've named Jetstream. It is a multipurpose, high maneuverable, transformable fighter. In fighter mode, it has an output capacity of 3000, twice as much as an aestivalis, and can perform high-speed maneuvers that would would tear apart an aestivalis due to the intense g-forces. It has twin boosters which flip forward and release PT destruction wavefronts generated by concentrating…" Inez went on to explain the technical features of Jetstream.

          'Yep,' Finn thought. 'Akito put it best. 'a dried-out walking encyclopedia'.'

          "Man, what a bitch," Ryoko said later as they were going back to their room, her hands balled into fists. "I just wanted to rearrange her face."

          "She does seem to have a bitchy quality about her," Finn affirmed.

          "Maybe she's some relation to Erina," Ryoko suggested.

          "Could be." They walked for a few minutes, pondering this thought. "You know what, she seems to be more like the female equivalent to Akatsuki. She's arrogant, self-centered, doesn't take anyone else into consideration. It's like someone made a female version of him." Ryoko agreed.

          "She said she already knew you, what's that all about?" she asked offhandedly.

          "Yes, I had a slight altercation with her when I got back onboard the ship after the 'interview'. Let me just say that our first encounter was nausea inducing. I preferred having that nut Sanoske/Sakura, whatever you want to call him/her/it," Finn still shuddered at the thought of encountering her again. "Why do all these fruitloops seem to gravitate towards me?"

          Ahead of them, there was someone standing at their door, swiping her card in the scanner trying to get it to open.

          "Can I help you?" Finn asked the would-be intruder.

          "Oh, I'm sorry," came a familiar, timid voice. Mika turned to face them. "I can't seem to get into my room."

          "This is our room," Ryoko said.

          "But I thought that Nergal employees weren't supposed to be involved in sexual relationships?" Mika said, flipping through a binder of Nergal policies and regulations. Finn and Ryoko both blushed heavily at this remark.

          "Ours is a…special case," Finn said, fumbling for words. "Who told you this was your room?"

          "Captain Misumaru told me to come here, that there was a vacant cabin," Mika said. "I'm sorry. I was just transferred here, and I have no idea how anything works yet." She handed Finn a piece of paper.

          "This says you're across the hall," Finn said, looking at the note. "406, right there." He motioned to a door with no nameplate on it.

          "Who was that?" Ryoko asked when she and Finn entered their room. "I didn't know whether to hand her a tissue or give her a good slap across the face. You've got an issue, here's a tissue."

          "I ran into her in the hangar when I was checking out Jetstrem. Her name's Mika. She said she was some kind of administrative officer."

          "What exactly is our status with Nergal?" Ryoko asked and she began to undo her uniform jacket.

          "Beats me. My card still works, so they must be paying us something." Finn removed his shirt and made his way to the shower. Even though they shared the same bed, Ryoko's face still turned a slight shade of red upon seeing him like this, and Finn looked about the same when he saw Ryoko come out of the shower with only a towel draped around herself. They were still getting used to each other's presence, not that they minded that much. The scar didn't seem to bother her anymore, and he never mentioned it again since their time on Dusty. It just seemed to be a part of him now.

          The author would like to point out that the following scene was written more for his own twisted satisfaction than for content. We know return to your regularly scheduled fanfic.

          'He said it aches, but he never shows it,' Ryoko though curiously. Her mind began to shift gears between that of embarrassed love to an itching curiosity. She moved to the shower door. Inside, she heard the water running, but knew Finn wouldn't be standing under the water yet, because it took a minute or two to warm up. Slowly, she slid the door open just enough for her to see in. Inside, she saw Finn standing in front of the small mirror that hung above the sink clad only in his boxer shorts. He was looking at the backs of his hands. With one finger, he traced the symbol the IFS symbol. He stopped for a moment and looked at himself in the mirror. She could tell exactly what he was looking at, the long jagged line had had been gouged into his body. He touched the front of the scar with his finger, and she could see him wince slightly. For a moment she wondered why he would do this to himself, but she already knew the answer. It was the same feeling you get when you have a scab over a cut. Reason tells you not to touch it, but instinct drives you to touch, poke, and pick at it. Ryoko felt a waft of warm are brush against her face, which told her the shower was hot. Finn turned around and let his hand fall under the steady stream of warm water.

          "I start charging for this in a minute," he said with a slight laugh. Ryoko, surprised by this, fell forward and onto the bathroom floor.

          "Um…woops," she said as Finn helped her up. She was very red, but then again, Finn wasn't completely without colour himself. She was about to apologize when their eyes found one another. As had happened many times before, their lips drifted towards each other and they were soon engaged in a slow, loving kiss. They broke apart, but no sooner did they separate than they were locked together again. Finn planted gentle kisses down Ryoko's neck. Since her uniform was already partially undone, he slid it back a little further and continued across her shoulders. Ryoko took his hand and led it to her partially exposed breast, while with her other hand, held onto his neck. A slight moan escaped her lips.However…

          "Yo Saotome, Subaru, the Captain wants you on the bridge in a few minutes!" came the irritated yet annoyingly perky voice Kumi. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know you were busy." The window closed.

          'I'm going…" Ryoko began.

          "…to kill her," Finn finished. Since the mood had already been killed they both took quick showers and changed. "Hey Ryoko, have you seen my notebook?" Finn asked when Ryoko came out of the shower. The sight of her in a towel was a great distraction from his other priorities. Ryoko mock-pouted.

          "Is your notebook more important than this?" She tried not to laugh at her own antics as she struck a very sexy pose and let the towel slide down a little, partially exposing the tops of her breasts. Finn had an idea.

          "Well…" he said, looking around the room. He found his head connecting solidly with a discarded shoe. "I didn't mean it like that," Finn said, laying swirlly eyed on the floor. Ryoko smiled to herself. When she dressed, they both made their way to the bridge.

When they reached their destination, everyone talked in hushed voices, Megumi and Minato were giggling over something. 'Gee, I wonder what they're talking about,' Finn thought.

          Ryoko quickly pulled her gun out of its holster and fired forty-eight shots into Kumi's head.

          Finn shook his head and snapped out of that thought. 'I suppose that's too much to hope for.'

          "What's up?" Finn asked. He and Ryoko had both learned by now to ignore the childish whisperings and gigglings of some of the less mature crew. Ruri sat there with her usual uninterested look.

          "Idiots," she, Finn, and Ryoko said in unison.

          "Ryoko, Lt. Saotome," Yurika greeted them from the upper bridge. "We're ready to jump to Jupiter." She led them off the bridge and down to the observation deck. The once peaceful and relaxing atmosphere had been transformed into some kind of computer-smelling laboratory. Finn felt hurt by the sight. The tree had been cut back to make way for thick cables that came out of the service ducts and most of the grass had been flattened. Some parts were just bare dirt that had been covered with metal sheets so they wouldn't kick up dust or track dirt everywhere.

          "This is going to be different than your jump from Mars to the L2 colony," Inez said, getting up from her computer. "Neither the Akito or the Captain have really been to our jump point. We only saw it for a few minutes when…what are you doing Lt. Saotome?" Finn was making the 'shut up' motion and nudged his head in Kumi's direction, who had followed them down. Mika stood there as well, holding onto a binder and looking very nervous, as usual. "Right, Akito and the Captain do not have a very good recollection of that event due to the jump process inside the ship. Therefore, it will be primarily up to you two to make this work. They will act more as stabilizers to ease the stress of the jump off you two, since you've actually seen in detail our destination."

          "Ok, let's get going," Ryoko said as she slipped one of the jumpgloves onto her hand and plugged herself into the jump controller.

          "This I gotta see," Kumi said to herself as Yurika and Akito took their positions.

          "Picture Europa and…"       

          "We know the drill," Ryoko said, sounding a tad snappish. They began to glow with their nanomachine circuits. There was a split second where Kumi saw nothing but black. She felt uneasy in this place. In fact it terrified her. She wasn't here, nor there. She was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. When she looked at herself, she saw nothing. It was as though she were floating in some dark abyss. But when she tried to touch her arm, there was nothing. She had no body, just her consciousness floated there in nothing. She was relieved for a second when things returned to normal, that is, until she saw what lay before them. There was the massive ball of gas known as Jupiter right there. Even though they were at a moon's distance, it was still overpowering. The size alone made everyone fall silent for a moment. On their last time here they had been too confused to notice this sight. They could see hurricane-sized storms collide with one another and combine to form even larger storms. They could see the Great Red Spot further down. From pictures taken by satellites didn't do that storm justice. It was beyond what words could describe. It was many times larger than the Earth.

          "Incredible…" Kumi said, staring outside.

          "Excuse me? Isn't it a little dangerous to be so close?" Mika asked timidly.

          "Believe it or not, we're over 1 500 000 km away from Jupiter's outer atmosphere," Inez said when they had fully materialized. "This is where Europa used to be…"

          "Used to be?" Kumi interrupted. "How can a moon disappear?" Inez looked at Finn, who shook his head.

          "In this case, it is possible. That's all you need to know for the moment."

          "Alright, everyone too your stations," Yurika ordered.

          "Here we go," Finn said.

          …to be continued in Act 7

                        End of Act 6