Author's Notes...
Woo hoo! Chaos! Destruction! Mecha! Akito! And apparently caffeine. Hopefully less techno-babble in this chapter than the previous one. This one definitely has more language than some of the earlier chapters, but, ya know, that's how things sound when everything's going to hell in the server room. Actually, everybody who's been there knows it's worse in the server room....
// \\
Tobias sat quietly in his quarters and stared into a half-empty cup of tea. Mike had asked Omoikane after the meeting to alert both of them to any change in the port scanning against them. Omoikane had just now done that. An hour ago the port sniffing suddenly stopped, and had yet to start up again. Although the scans had been constant for the past several days, their sudden cessation would not have bothered him had it not been launch day for the vessel. However, because of that date he was sitting in his quarters ready for his day at 4:45 in the morning.
He had been debating waking the captain but was talking himself out of it when his door chime sounded. "Who is it, Omoikane?" he asked of the dimly-lit room.
"Kanchou" was Omoikane's simple reply. Tobias stared uncomprehendingly at the screen for a moment before his brain caught up, causing him to hurridly bolt for the door. He opened the portal in time to see Ruri turned to walk away.
"Gomen nasai," Ruri said quietly as she turned back around to face his entry. "I didn't intend to wake you."
Tobias shook his head. "I was already up. Um, join me for an early breakfast?"
Ruri nodded and started down the hallway with McLaren quickly behind. "I take it Omoikane alerted you as well?" Ruri asked as they walked.
"Mmm-hmm" McLaren replied half-absently. "I haven't made up my mind whether I should be worried or grateful."
"I'm the former," Ruri admitted. "For the amount of time spent crafting what we saw, I doubt that they would simply give up. Also remember that our departure date isn't known to the general public. I would not expect it to coincidentally end while we depart."
"You're leaning towards believing a fairly serious breech within Nergal or UE Spacey, then," Tobias observed, causing Ruri to pause before entering the cafeteria.
She regarded him carefully for a moment before continuing. "I spoke with Admiral Misumaru yesterday. There is a belief that the Crimson Group is, for lack of a better word, regrouping. UES Intelligence believes they're going to try rebuilding a Boson program."
"I'm not sure I follow," Tobias replied. Are you thinking the Crimson group is trying to... acquire Omoikane somehow?"
"Short of Nergal's labs, he is probably the largest single repository of Boson data."
"And I guess since the whole Successors incident, the returned jumpers are being very closely watched, leaving data all they'll get for a while?"
"I believe so, yes," Ruri replied, stepping into the cafeteria. "Relay it to Christenson-san, but Saburouta-san, Ryoko-san, and Hari-kun are the only others on the ship aware of this right now."
Tobias nodded in acknowledgement and punched at a vending machine's controls. "Mike took the drive over yesterday and had all of the install files put on it. We checked it on an offline system when he got back and everything seemed in order."
"Go ahead and return the drive to Omoikane, and bring it online after we reach orbit."
"Yes'm" Tobias returned as the two set their trays on a table and seated themselves.
"Dude!" Tobias suddenly heard Mike exclaim as a screen with equal sudden appeared beside him. "The sniff stopped!"
"Yeah," the Scotsman returned, "an hour and a half ago."
"Yeah, I slept through Omoikane's alarm. Get down here man! I want to dig through these logs!"
"Mikey, can it wait until after breakfast?"
"You know, you are out about early," Mike said, and continued to rattle on. Ruri however found herself unable to pay attention to the banter as Prospector had appeared on a screen beside her.
"Ma, Kanchou," he opened. "Last minute crew changes require your immediate attention."
Ruri sighed to herself as she watched Mike and Tobias sign off with each other. The two looked at each other apologetically for a moment before McLaren spoke for both of them. "Guess it's a good thing Omoikane got us up early, eh?"
// \\
"Are you sure?" Akito asked, slightly incredulant.
"She had Hari-kun specifically contact Akatsuki-san," Erina replied.
"That only means Ruri-chan trusts the fact that Akatsuki guards his wallet more closely than he guards his secrets. It does not mean she believes Nadesico to be the Crimson's target."
Erina crossed her arms as she stood before Akito. "Does this mean you do not intend to be there to rescue your hime-sama?"
Tenkawa glared at the woman. "In western lore, it was the night in shining armour who rescued the princess. I believe that my armour tarnished a long time ago. I believe that I have more in common with the Black Knight than any knight of the round table now."
"The Black Knight was killed by Arthur," Erina pointed out.
"He died for his ideals, right or wrong," Akito stated over his shoulder as he left Erina's office.
// \\
"Helm, clear all moorings," Ruri commanded. "Fire aft thrusters at one-half until in open waters."
"Hai, hai," the helm responded. "All moorings cleared, aft thrusters firing at fifty-percent. Forty-five seconds until we're clear of the wetdocks."
// \\
Howmei stepped out onto the open-air observation deck and was surprised to see a familiar face with flowing blue hair standing at the rail. "Ohayo, Kanchou," the chef greeted as she approached the woman.
"Dame, dame," the blue locks replied. "Ruri-chan's the kanchou now. I'm just Tenkawa Yurika."
Howmei leaned on the rail next to her former captain. "Major Tenkawa Yurika," she mused aloud. "If you don't mind my asking, Tenkawa-san, you have the rank to be U.E. Spacey's resident liason--"
"--so why am I not on the ship?" Yurika finished. "It's Ruri-Ruri's ship, not mine, Howmei-san. Besides, I'm going to wait on Earth for Akito."
"As you wish it," Howmei said, a smile on her lips which somehow reflected a saddness Yurika didn't allow to even seep into her eyes. Both silently stood and watched the bow of the Nadesico-C lift gracefully from the harbor's waters and roar towards the edge of Earth's atmosphere.
// \\
Lapis Lazuli opened her eyes and looked across the Euccharis' control core to Akito. "The Nadesico has launched."
"The Sarena is ready to fly again?" Akito asked in response.
"Hai. The Battas have finished the last round of modifications we were supplied with. It is ready to jump at any time. Should I prepare the ship to jump as well?" Lapis answered.
Akito nodded, "We don't know what exactly they have in mind."
// \\
The expected, collective sigh of relief echoed through the Nadesico as the ship escaped the atmosphere, despite being an uneventful launch. Hoshino skimmed through departmental reports as they flowed in and found nothing more serious than a few skrews shaken loose, which probably hadn't been tightened in the first place. As the C had yet to receive a proper shakedown cruise, the vessel would spend a few days in orbit running through final tests and supply pickups before embarking on a patrol route to Jupiter and back.
"Oi, Hari-kun," Saburouta opened when he noticed the Lieutenant looking over the ship's route, "ever been to Jupiter?"
Hari shook his head. "It'll be nice to see the gas giant, but... this is a long time to get there. I wish we could just Boson jump there.
"Hari, Haley, Hali," Saburouta teased, leaping over to put Hari and his chair in a headlock. "You're missing the point of patrol! Besides, you know as well as I do that the phase transistion engines haven't even broken a thousand hours yet."
"Hai," Makibi sighed as Saburouta released his hold.
"Hari-kun," Ruri interrupted, appearing on a screen, "Contact Tobi-san and Mike-san to have them begin updating Omoikane."
"Ah? Hai!" hair replied, grabbing his IFS.
// \\
"Alrighty," Christensen replied after Makibi relayed the message.
"Ano, is there anything you need help with?" Hari asked.
"Bored up there?" Tobias asked, appearing over Mike's shoulder, smiling as Hari nodded in reply. "Well, Mike has all the actual patch work, but extra hands are always useful to make sure everything comes back up okay."
"Hai!" Hari energetically replied as the three began work.
// \\
An hour passed quietly by when suddenly Mike burst out into a string of epithets. "Nan desu?" A startled Hari called through the channel as Tobias chorused with a more colorful response.
"Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" Mike yelled in response. "They got some of their code into a weapon systems patch!"
"'Shit' would be correct," Tobias replied, grabbing his IFS as heard Hari talking quickly to the Captain.
On the bridge, Ruri and Hari both dove into aiding Omoikane when suddenly Omoikane's automatic defense alarm sounded.
"Kanchou, I have three unknown mecha in range. They just boson-jumped in," the helmswoman reported.
"Raise distortion field," Ruri ordered, almost absently, as she dealt with the larger problem.
"Field stable," the helm responded. "We're being fired upon. Return fire?"
"Dame," Ruri replied, returning her attention to her screen with Hari. "Mike said we were infected through a weapon system patch, correct?"
"Hai," Hari responded.
"Helm, under no circumstances fire the ship's weapons," Ruri ordered. "Saburouta-san, launch Aestivalis."
Saburouta's face appeared as the Jovian was clambering out of his pit. "Yo-" he managed to get out before his screen and all others in front of Ruri summarily winked out of existence.
// \\
"Shit!" McLaren yelled as he pounded his desk in frustration.
"Toby, get up there and get the Kanchou down here. In five minutes the only systems that will be able to access Omoikane are our hard-wired ones," Mike said as he wrestled with his own controls.
// \\
"Kanchou!" Hari called, an edge of panic in his voice as he looked up from the hard-wired display in front of him. "Distortion field destablizing! Collapse in forty-five seconds!"
"Helm, bring us to-"
"Gomen nasai, Kanchou," The helmswoman answered, cutting off her captain. "I just lost helm control."
Everyone who had ever known Hoshino Ruri had thought that despite an intollerance for foolishness and stupidity, she otherwise had a patience unmatched and an unerringly polite and calm disposistion which never displayed frustration even if she felt it. However, she now felt a frustration rivaling when Omoikane was housed in the first Nadesico and had fired upon his U.E.S. Comrades. Ruri heard the doors to the bridge behind her open and stood to see Tobias trip his way into the bridge, and old-fashioned Motorola radio in his hand.
"Kanchou! Lieutenant Makibi! Mike requests-" he started but was cut off by a burst of static from his hand.
"Shit, dude! The air scrubbers just went offline!" Mike's garbled voice called.
"Life support systems going offline," the helm reported in confirmation.
"Kanchou!" the communications officer all but shrieked, "Aestivalis report loss of energy feed!" In punctuation, the sound of something colliding with the hull, most likely an Aestivalis, echoed through the bridge. The helm glanced at what instruments she still had at her disposal and then looked apologetically to her captain. "I suppose there's no point in reporting that without thruster control what we just heard knocked us out of orbit, is there?"
// \\