Nabiki's introduction to the real workings of X-com was sudden. The day after her late-night conversation with Doctor O'Neil she arrived to find her desk being cleared. She was politely informed that the company no longer required her services and that she should report to the board room.
In the board room were Dr. Carter and a tall well built man with grey hair. For some reason he reminded Nabiki of an old show "MacGuyver" or something. He was wearing a grey jumpsuit like she had seen amongst Ranma's gear. He had bold silver stars on his epaulettes instead of Captain's pips but otherwise it looked just as practical. Also of note was the way the two of them were holding hands. They rapidly separated when Nabiki entered. "Good to meet ya at last" said General Jack O'Neil, in heavily Americanised English.
"Nabiki Tendo meet General O'Neil, Commander in chief of Xeno-Command." Said Dr Samantha O'Neil. Nabiki bowed politely, much to the discomfort of Jack O'Neil, which in turn amused his wife.
"I take it people have been talking," Nabiki said, hiding her own amusement.
"Yeah that's Ranma alright can't shut him up." Replied the general sarcastically. "Hear you are another egghead." Nabiki just raised her eyebrow.
"Not quite, Jack," said Samantha. "Nabiki's coming into our security and logistics section."
"Oh in that case." Jack replied, as if that didn't make her an egg-head. "Well shall we get on with it?"
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Nabiki was flown out to Okinawa Command by helicopter. She had somewhat of a fright when the twin jets opened up shortly after take off and an even larger one when the helicopter seemed to fly straight into a cliff face. Soon afterwards however she was settling in to her new bunk room and changing into her own grey fatigues. As she zipped them up she couldn't help but feel a surge of pride She was finally in a position to do something important.
An hour later she was led into Jack's office, It wasn't that it was a mess so much as it needed some serious work to let anyone see the desk. AS she came in Jack was slowly swivelling his chair back and forth, with a frown on his face,
"Damn thing squeaks" he said. "Got some papers for you to sign, they were right here." Jack said searching through the piles on his desk. Nabiki handed him the file from on top of a pile by the door, he looked at it and handed it back. "Uh yeah that's the one. When you got it all signed come back and I'll see what I can give ya to do. Logistics huh?" Nabiki nodded
"Office?" she asked.
"Hey Drew, we got an office for Lieutenant Tendo?" Jack shouted. Drew, a marine in the corridor pointed next door.
"In there sir" he said
"Thanks Drew" Jack replied, ignoring Nabiki's unspoken question at the rank.
Nabiki, now in her office, opened the file. In it was a stack of papers, most of which seemed to be about keeping the command secret. One of which was a contract signing her up as a Lieutenant in Xeno-Command, she quickly scanned down to the benefits and her eyes widened. The money was way above what she had been pulling in Nerima, and with her so close to the top she knew it was only the beginning. She read through all the file thoroughly, making some notes on things that needed to be changed in future.
When Nabiki returned to Jack's office he was nowhere to be found so she sat down and started sorting his files. She made a stack for herself and two for him, one to delegate the other to attend to personally. In the process of this she was exposed to the real bureaucracy of running a multi-national, multi-ethnic, secret organisation that spanned the world. Other people would have been swamped, she just went through the personnel files to find people suitable to be drafted to help. Every so often she got up for coffee but otherwise she was lost in a world of circling information.
Jack came in for his morning coffee and found Nabiki standing at his filing cabinet. "Uh-Hum?" he asked.
"Ah General" Nabiki replied, and then bowed, only because she knew it threw him. She let him try to return the bow before pulling out his chair. He sat obediently, she put his coffee in his hands. "Delegate." She pointed at the first stack, "deal," she pointed at he second "mine" se picked up the last and moved to the door.
"When did you get in?" Jack asked.
"After I signed my papers," Nabiki replied. What she didn't realise was that had been not eight but nearly thirty-six hours before-hand. Jack had simply avoided his office the previous day. "They are in the delegate pile." Then she left, intent on getting some breakfast and then a lie down.
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She found out that she was really good at this. As long as she just dealt with the numbers she could make them dance. It was only when she took the time to remember the human faces of people like '2507 6869' Moriaka Sakumi and the family that would now be mourning her that things started to get ontop of her. As long as the drugs were supplement WX or FP she could ignore the damage they were doing to the people forced to take them just to play on an even keel with the Aliens.
When she brought it up at her psych evaluation she could see agreement in the doctor, who looked like hell himself. "what I do" he said "is try to stick to my job. And in that way I know I am doing all I can to help people like Sakumi survive." Nabiki went away with a new determination, the agents would never fall short of anything they needed, not on her watch, never.
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It was two weeks before she came across Operation Maleum Astarte, "StarHammer." It was closed with the top level security clearance and contained the files of twenty of X-Com's best operatives. It was at that moment that Jack came into her office, he could see the look on her face, to be so close to finding out the where and what of the man she loved.
"It was Daniel's fault," Jack said "Latin."
"Ranma." She said. Jack was silent. "When will we know?"
"They will get there in a couple of weeks. If they pull it off we'll know very soon after." Nabiki looked at him with such intensity, "You know cascade effect an' stuff.
" Errm I was just… we're um meeting in the briefing room, wanna come?" Nabiki raised her eyebrow.
"Sure," she said gathering a pad.
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The briefing room was full of the top figures of Okinawa base, including Dr Jackson, Head of Science and Chief Tomoko, head of Engineering. An unknown figure was standing at the foot of the table with a screen ready for projection.
"Thank you for coming General," Said the bean counter, with only a hint of reproach. Nabiki and Jack took their seats. "Ladies and Gentlemen I am here to lay out the newest threat to mankind." He started ominously.
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It took some time for Nabiki to digest, all their efforts to date had ignored the world's sea and now they were all being told that this was an oversight. A completely independent group of Aliens had started to menace the world, this time not from the depths of space but from the depths of our own ocean's. X-Com would have to design whole new set of technologies, craft and training regimens. Once again there was simply no force on the face of the planet capable of fighting on this new front. More personally Nabiki found herself somehow in the forefront of the new planning. She made a quick note to write to Kasumi and tell her that she wouldn't be home soon after all.
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The next month was hectic for Nabiki, she found herself increasingly dealing with things beyond her contract. Her security clearance level was hiked twice and she had to fly to the new secret Atlantic base nearly as soon as the office was put in.
A month after she arrived she was promoted to Captain and had been in direct correspondence with two Presidents and one Prime Minister. However still she had no word from Operation StarHammer. That all changed one day in November. Jack was suddenly at he door.
"Briefing room now." He ordered. Nabiki saw the rate he was moving and copied it. By the time she got there it was crowded. On the screen was a grainy image. It was Comms Officer Roth, Alpha Commando. His message was a series of coded numbers. An aide translated as the numbers came in.
"8901"
"reporting"
"7900"
"they
have landed near estimated LZ "
"8012"
"Avenger APC
is a bust, "
"1012"
"Casualties
light."
"2039"
"Wild
Horse leading strike team."
"6661"
"Psi-ops
active."
"3267"
"Reports
to follow as more info available."
Nabiki's heart sang, Ranma was alive, she felt like a weight that had been quietly crushing her was suddenly lifted. As the room broke into cheering she just fell quietly into a chair and clasped her hands. She hadn't seen him but nobody else would have a call sign like Wild Horse. She felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Jack, with a wan smile.
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The next ten minutes lasted a lifetime.
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Then the screen crackled again. A different face appeared, a young blond in full combat armour.
"4309"
"Complex
entry secured"
"4789"
"Psi-agression
severe"
"5550"
"Casualties
levels as expected"
"0102
"Proceeding
Below"
And that was it. The screen went blank. People held each other, held their breaths, but nothing more came. Still more minutes passed and still no further reports arrived. Somewhere in the room a girl started to cry. Somebody else moved to comfort her, whispering platitudes. It was no use, it seemed undeniable, the mission was a failure, nobody remained to tell the grievous news.
Then a doctor came bursting into the room and blurted something in German. The news spread through different languages, all incomprehensible made worse by those who received it either cheering, praying or just babbling questions. Nabiki was on her feet, hope starting to shine again.
"Shut up!" shouted Jack "will someone tell me what the sweet hell is going on here?"
The room went silent, and then exploded into noise. "Shut up!" he shouted again. "You" he pointed to a German engineer, "what is going on?"
"Jawol Oberstrumfurer," the engineer replied moustache bristling with pride, "the team has succeeded. The haf done it! The Mother-Brain ist kaput." The crowd went wild again.
Instead of rejoicing Jack just closed his eyes, a picture of relief, but also something else. "But at what cost?"