Five

"Hey zombie, wake up!"

The shout woke her up and her first instincts were that the Nadesico was under attack and she'd be needed on the bridge. Then gradually she realised that she was no longer aboard a spaceship and the chances of a Jovian attack here were highly unlikely. The initial relief was surpassed by the disappointment of realising that coming to this orphanage hadn't been just a bad dream.

Pale light came into the room through a slit in the curtains, but the room was still dim and Ruri could only just see the shape of Mikoto darting around the room, picking things up. She sat up and watched her.

"Miss Nishida told me to wake you up," Mikoto stated. "You'll be late if you don't hurry,"

"Late?" Ruri asked. "For what?"

Mikoto threw back her spiteful glare. "What do you think? School of course!"

"School?" Of course, how hadn't she foreseen this? All normal children between the ages of five and eighteen were required to attend school. She'd read that in Omoikane's files. She'd never dreamed of being among their ranks, but now that she was no longer aboard the Nadesico, she could not count herself as exempt anymore. But that was stupid, how an educational institution for children could teach her anything new when she'd already been instilled with more knowledge then any child had ever had? Yet she knew there was no way out. Since no-one seemed to believe her about her past, she would have to play along for now.

"I have to go to school? Oh my God, how degrading."

* * *

Forty minutes later, Ruri found herself sitting behind a desk in a stuffy classroom. The situation wasn't entirely unfamiliar – indeed taught lessons had formed most of her early life. Of course back then, the class had been a lot smaller and she hadn't been made to wear this itchy uniform which didn't fit her well at all. She sighed intensely, very much glad that her friends from the Nadesico couldn't see her now.

Around her, the room was buzzing with conversation. It gradually faded as the bell sounded to signal the start of lessons. At the front of the room a large screen appeared, displaying the image of a balding, moustached man in a revolting brown suit.

"Good morning class," he said.

"Good morning teacher," came the bland reply.

"This morning we are going to start with some mathematics. We'll begin by trying some basic questions to review last week's work. Some are quite tricky, so don't worry if you don't get them all right. If you need help at any time, push the red button next to your console."

Just as he'd finished speaking, the computer screen on Ruri's desk flashed to life, displaying a whole list of sums. Around her, children groaned but Ruri was glad for the chance to exercise her brain cells.

However, as it turned out it was less of an exercise then a formality. She'd expected the sums to be easy, but not this easy. For crying out loud, this was basic multiplication! It was an insult to her intelligence, she could solve these in her sleep!

It took her all of five minutes to complete the exercise, no longer then it took to type in the answers. Once she'd answered the final question, a colourful cartoon figure in the corner of the screen started to jump up and down happily.

"Excellent! You got 100 percent!"

There was little joy in that victory. It had been like using a sledge-hammer to swat a fly. Everyone else around her was still working, some of them looking bemused at the task, while a few were trying to sneak a glance at her answers. Looking over at the clock on the wall, Ruri saw that it was 9:08 am. She sighed again and leaned back in her chair. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

"I wish you'd tell me what you're up to! I can't believe how irrational you're being!"

Akatsuki laughed out loud. He always found it amusing when his secretary got stressed out. "You worry far too much, Erina!" he said, taking out two wine glasses out of the cabinet next to his desk.

Erina stamped her heeled foot in frustration. "I can't believe you simply sent her away! It's not like we can just hire an identical replacement for her! Her knowledge was built up over a period of a decade and we don't have that much time!"

"You should have more faith, Erina dear," said Akatsuki, pouring red wine into both glasses and handing one to her. "The child is only useful to us if she comes willingly. It's not like we can just kidnap her and force her to work on our ship." He sniggered at the thought. "I'm not about to put a prisoner in charge of the most powerful weapon in Earth's history!"

Keeping her stern expression, Erina calmed herself and forced patience into her voice. "I can see that. So where does sending her to an orphanage come into it?"

Akatsuki sat back in his seat behind his desk and motioned for Erina to do likewise. "This way we are seen to be kindly providing a life for our youngest crew-member. It also means we know where she is and can keep her under surveillance until she decides to come back to us."

Erina sipped her wine nonchalantly. "You seem pretty confident. Why should she come back? You already told me she snubbed your offer."

"She'll come back once she realises how unbearable her life has become. Miss Hoshino isn't well adapted to lead a normal girl's life, Erina. Her mind needs to be occupied, and she won't find the mental stimulus she requires living as an orphan in an isolated rural village. There's also the fact that she's far from her friends on the Nadesico now, and the Ruri I know won't make new friends easily!" He laughed unpleasantly.

"So eventually she'll become bored and lonely and her shabby surroundings will accelerate this depression. She'll turn soon Erina, she belongs here with us. She'll realise that and walk right back into her hands, grateful for the chance we're giving her!"

"That's clever," admitted Erina. "But there are three problems that I can see."

"Fire away,"

"Well firstly, she's probably seen through your little game by now. She's not stupid you know."

"So what?!" Akatsuki drained his glass. "Not much she can do about it now!"

"Secondly, what if she leaks confidential information? You told me that she knows about the Nergal Five."

"A minor concern, Erina. She's among civilians who won't believe or be interested in anything she has to say. In any case, she has no proof and the only people who'll take her opinion seriously are in detention now."

"And finally, what if she decides to run away from the orphanage, rather then coming back to us?"

"That would be a regrettable scenario," admitted Akatsuki. "In that case, we'd be forced to hunt down and eliminate her."

Erina's shock at this extremity was plain, so he justified himself quickly. "We can't have her wandering around without observation. Give her a computer and she could hack into Nergal and reveal our most secret plans to the world."

"I see." Erina still looked uneasy. "If she's not with us, she's against us and must be killed."

Akatsuki grinned slyly. "Hopefully it won't come to that. I'd hate to have the blood of such a cute girl on my hands!"

"Clearly. And who would be our new computer operator in that scenario?"

"We'd find someone else. Sure they wouldn't be as qualified, but as long as they can do the job, we'd be fine. Anyway enough about that. On to other matters." Akatsuki sat forward. "Has Ryoko replied to our offer yet?"

"Yes, but she wasn't too flattered by it. In fact she told you to shove it up somewhere."

Akatsuki chuckled, "Well, I suppose we should have expected that from that hot-head. She'll be a great loss, but not an irreplaceable one."

"Do you think we should offer the position to one of the other Aestivalis pilots? Though they're not in Ryoko's league, both Hikaru and Izumi are both considerable skilled."

"No, we must find our pilots from elsewhere now," said Akatsuki, shaking his head thoughtfully. "If we keep trying to hire members of the old crew, they'll become suspicious and suspect our real intent."

"I see," replied Erina. "Sneaking around their backs again?"

"Precisely," Akatsuki refilled their glasses. "We need to keep the Nergal Five's development as secret as possible. If the UEAF get a whiff of it, things could get ugly. But have no fear Erina, everything's gone to plan so far." He smiled at his secretary and raised his glass. "Here's to the Nergal Five."

"And to Nergal," Erina added, clinking her glass with his and drinking.

Akatsuki exhaled in satisfaction at the taste of good wine and inevitable future success. "Our future is bright, Erina. We'll be right on schedule, just as soon as a certain girl-brat comes to her senses."