All in the Name of Love Chapter 7: Part 5, an outlaw star fanfic

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Outlaw Star: All in the Name of Love

Chapter 7: Part 5

Over the next two weeks Melfina and Jim worked as a team to find as many businesses as possible that purchased goods from planets along their route. Jim used publicly available records of transport to identify the companies and then eliminated those businesses whose products were too large for the Outlaw Star to carry. It took him a few days to put the list together, but this way the task of trying to maximize their load to maximize their earnings was made easier.

Jim grudgingly left the task of actually visiting the owners of the businesses to Melfina. It was obvious after his first attempt that these people took Melfina much more seriously than they took him. While she didn't have the level of success on a daily basis that she had that first day, on her own, over the week and a half she worked, she managed to add sixteen more businesses to their list of customers. Based on their calculations, the run would take them two weeks and earn them gross earnings of 410,000 wong per month. Expenses would vary from month to month, depending on how much pirate trouble they ran into, but Jim was being optimistic and estimated a net profit of 285,000 wong a month. Jim was so happy he could hardly contain himself.

"Okay Mel, about the only additional expense we might have is the rental of a labor-droid if moving our cargo slows us down. Of course, if Aisha were here, that wouldn't even be an issue," Jim said with a frown.

Melfina gently stroked the back of his head. "Don't worry, Jim. Aisha will be back home in a couple of months and everything will be back to normal." She smiled at her young partner. Just then, Gene came out of the bathroom, freshly showered and dressed in only his boxers. She looked up at him for a moment. She always loved stealing a look at his lean muscular body. Melfina always thought Gene was handsome, but like this he was down right gorgeous.

She smiled briefly, then realized what she was doing and wiped the smile from her face, turning her gaze back to her young partner. Jim couldn't help but notice what Melfina had done.

He smiled up to her. "You still have feelings for him, don't you?" he said softly.

Embarrassed that the young man could read her so easily, she lowered her head to hide her blushing cheeks. "I suppose I do. You can't just stop loving someone that easily, but I know I did the right thing, for both of us. I can't let my feelings cloud my better judgment. Besides, Gene seems happier now that he doesn't have me nagging him all the time. I'm sure he's moved on by now."

'Yeah, in his dreams, maybe. Can't you see it, Mel? Can't you see the pain in his eyes? The sadness in his voice? It's killing him not having you by his side, much worse than I ever imagined it would.' Jim just smiled and returned his attention to his calculations.

Gene tried hard not to look at Melfina down by the dining table, where she and Jim were working on their business strategy. As hard as it had been for Gene these past two weeks, he knew it going to be even harder once they were on the Outlaw Star. At least here, when being around Melfina became too much to bear, he could swipe Jim's keys and take the Ao Frao for a spin to get his mind off his broken heart, but where was he going to run to aboard the Outlaw Star?

'She doesn't even look over at me anymore.' Gene slowly got dressed. 'She used to glance over at me all the time after I took a shower, but not anymore.' Gene tried to shake such thoughts out of his head. He had work to do and sitting around getting depressed over Melfina was not going to help get that work done.

With only ten days left before they launched, Gene needed to practice coming out of sub-ether drive into a gravity well. Both Gilliam and Melfina assured him that the Outlaw Star was capable of this maneuver, but it wasn't going to be easy. One miscalculation, one wrong maneuver, and the ship would plummet to the planet's surface, so fast that even the Outlaw Star's heat shields would melt in a matter of seconds. Add to that the fact that Gene had only had reason to pilot the ship twice in the past nine months, and he could easily see he was in need of some serious training. Fortunately, Gilliam was able to provide the necessary simulations to get the outlaw ready.

"Shutting down sub-ether drive in three, two, one."

The cockpit lurched hard right. Emergency lights flashed all across the monitors. Multiple alarms sounded.

"Our angle of entry is 0.76 degrees sharper than what is deemed optimal for a safe decent," Gilliam reported calmly.

"Yeah, right!" Gene snapped. "Fire right thrusters!"

"Engines two and four have stalled. If appropriate action is not taken, we will end up in a flat spin."

"Grrr!" Sweat poured down the outlaw's brow. "Balance engines one and three, attempt to restart two and four!"

"Engine two has started but is operating at only 35 efficiency. Repeated attempts to restart engine four have been unsuccessful. Rebalancing engines one and three to compensate for engine two."

The room felt like it was spinning faster and faster by the moment.

"Gilliam! What the hell's happening!?" Gene screamed.

"The ship is in a flat spin and is descending to the planet's surface at an unsafe speed. Heat shields will fail in 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,..."
-

Everything turned red for an instant, then black. As the lights returned to normal, Gene sat in the captain's chair, his face buried in his hands, his breathing ragged and his eyes squeezed shut.

"That is your 16th failed attempt in a row. Perhaps you should take a break. You are actually taking less time to destroy the ship now than when you started," Gilliam observed.

"Shut up! That's because you keep throwing all these different things at me. Angle of decent, engine failures, flat spin. You're making it impossible," The outlaw fumed.

"I am merely taking into account all possible variables that could adversely effect this procedure," The ship's computer explained.

"If that's the case then we may as well quit now. There's no way we can bring this thing from sub-ether space into a gravity well. It's impossible!" Gene argued.

"According to my calculations, the Outlaw Star has a probability success factor of 6.67 percent in achieving this maneuver."

"Wait a minute." Gene's head popped up. "Did you say the chances of doing this successfully is less than seven percent?"

"That is correct."

"And you told this to Melfina?" Gene asked for clarification.

"Of course," countered Gilliam.

"Damn that little..." Gene clenched his teeth and jumped out of the captain's chair as he headed off the bridge.

"Am I to assume we are done training for today?" Gillium enquired.

"Oh yeah! We're done all right!" Gene barked as he left the ship.

Jim and Melfina were going over inventory and storage as well as supplies for the voyage. "That should just about cover it," Jim said with a smile.

Melfina nodded in agreement. "Right." She smiled, then glanced over at the clock. "Oh, I better get started with dinner." She stood up and started heading for the kitchen.

"You're amazing, Melfina."

Jim's sudden praise caught her by surprise and she stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh?"

"You've generated more business for us in a couple weeks then Gene and I have been able to get, outside of Cielo Rojo, in over a year; you work tirelessly as a partner of this company; and still you make all our meals without question or complaint."

Melfina just smiled. "I enjoy cooking for everyone. I don't mind at all."

Just then Gene came storming into inside. The force with which he opened and closed the door caught both his partners by surprise.

"Something wrong, Gene?" Jim asked.

"I'll say." He walked over to Melfina, invading her personal space, and stared down at her with as intimidating a glare as he could muster. "You said you went over the numbers with Gillium to see if the Outlaw Star could come out of sub-ether space in a gravity well. What were the odds of completing that maneuver successfully?"

Though she arched her back slightly to give herself a little more space between their faces, the young bio-android stood her ground and answered calmly. "Approximately a seven percent chance of success."

"Seven percent! That's it?!" screamed Jim as he jumped out of his chair.

"We've performed maneuvers with lower probabilities of success in the past and always succeeded. Why should this be any different?" she answered casually.

"Because I've just spent the past three days destroying the Outlaw Star in simulations trying to complete that maneuver, and I'm no closer at succeeding today than I was three days ago," the red haired outlaw informed her.

Tired of Gene barking right in her face, she walked around him towards the sofa to grab her coat.

"Where are you going?" Gene asked, not too pleasantly.

"I'm going to the ship to run through the simulation," she responded as she headed towards the door. As she opened it, she turned and asked, "Aren't you coming?" Then she walked out without waiting for an answer.

"Oh, I'm coming alright," Gene mumbled as he stormed out the door.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Jim yelled as he ran after them.

As she boarded the bridge, Melfina addressed the ship's computer, "Gilliam, initiate simulation, sub-ether drive shutdown in a gravity well. Set no less then seventeen variables for potential failure conditions." As the hatch to her navigation tube opened and she stepped onto its platform and started descending into it, she finished, "Start simulation on the Captain's order." And she was gone, only to reappear moments later in the navigation tube.

"Aye, aye, Melfina," Gillium responded.

Gene had removed his coat and taken his seat in the captain's chair. His mood was still foul, even worse now with the way Melfina assumed command on his ship. "Seventeen variables, showoff." He hadn't dared try with more than five.

"I am ready to begin the simulation whenever you are, Gene," Gillium informed his captain.

Gene cracked his knuckles and took the controls. "Alright, begin simulation."

Immediately, the control panels and monitors lit up, giving the appearance that the ship was in the middle of a sub-ether space jump. And almost as fast, problems started occurring.

"Output from the sub-ether drive has dropped 6.62, another 3.4 and we will drop out of sub-ether space approximately 300,000 kms from our destination," Gilliam reported.

"What's the cause of the ..." Gene started to ask, but was cut off by Melfina.

"Increasing thermal capacitance output by sixteen percent. Balancing dragonite energy convergence at 78," she reported.

"That did it, Melfina, sub-ether drive now functioning at optimal levels," informed Gillium.

Gene growled.

"Dropping out of sub-ether space at the desired coordinates in precisely 137.67 seconds," reported Gillium.

"Adjusting angle of entry and trim," added Melfina.

Gene tightened his grip on the controls.

"Exiting sub-ether space in 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2.."

The ship lurched forward, sending Jim, who was standing on the side watching the simulation, tumbling to the ground. "Aww!"

"We came out of sub-ether space too late. The ship is already in the planet's thermosphere. We are descending much too fast. Impact will occur in 726 seconds," Gillium announced as warnings and emergency lights flashed.

"Firing up the Manchausin Drive. Gene, turn the ship 168 to starboard," Melfina commanded.

Gene responded without hesitation. Within 60 seconds the alarms stopped and the emergency lights turned off. As the ship descended to the planet's surface, Melfina constantly made adjustments to keep the engines balanced and running, informing Gene of subtle course corrections to position them over Veritian City's spaceport. In addition, she continued to make other small adjustments for a number of minor system failures and anomalies that occurred during their decent.

"Landing at Veritian Intergalactic Spaceport in 46 seconds," announced Gillium.

"Gene, the ship is all yours. Standard landing procedures only," Melfina told him.

"Alright, here we go." Gene took full control and brought the ship down nice and easy, just as he had academic over months of practice.

"Simulation complete. Congratulations Gene, Melfina. That was an excellent bit of team work," Gillium pronounced.

"Thanks, Gillium, but what happened to the seventeen variables we were supposed to encounter?" Gene asked, not so pleasantly.

"I inserted a total of 21 variables during the simulation, Gene. Melfina simply compensated for most of them before they escalated into a serious problem," the ship's computer explained.

Gene turned around to face Melfina, who had just exited the navigation tube and was walking towards him. "So in other words, Melfina cheated by compensating for the variables beforehand."

"Ahh...." Melfina gasped, then regained her composure. "No, as the ship's navigations computer, I am able to sense variations and changes within the ship's systems at the same instance Gillium can. So I can make adjustments for them before they escalate into a real problem. I do the same thing on every flight. If I didn't, we'd never make it off the launch pad." While that assessment was probably a bit of an exaggeration, she felt a little payback was in order, but the instant she saw Gene's reaction, she regretted having said it. Gene seemed to shrink into himself, only a bit. Jim, who hadn't noticed, was still carrying on about how great Melfina was. She knew her young friend wasn't helping matters any. "Come on, Gene, let's go home. I'll make dinner and we can all go for a walk afterwards." She smiled at him for the first time in weeks.

'I don't need your pity, Melfina.' But he said, "No thanks, I've got... things I need to take care of. But I'll see you guys later tonight." He flashed his usual cocky smile.

"Oh." Melfina felt a hint of disappointment.

"Later." Gene gestured goodbye and walked off the bridge.

The raven-haired young woman stared after him till he was out of sight. "Jim, do you think I upset him?"

"Aaa, don't worry about it, Mel. Gene's a big boy. He'll get over it. Tell you what, since it's almost dinner time already, let's go out to eat. My treat." The boy genius smiled.

Melfina flashed a smile back. "Okay," she said as they proceeded to leave the ship.

With a half consumed bottle of scotch in his hand, Gene Starwind made his way up the side of a hill overlooking the lake that bordered the west end of Heifong City. Though it was a freshwater lake, it was large enough to be considered a sea. It stretched north, south, and west as far as the eye could see. Gene often stood by the shore to be alone with his thoughts, but for some reason there were large crowds gathered along the shores today, so he decided to view the setting sun from on top of this hill for a change. More than a little drunk already, he failed to notice the solitary form already at the top of the hill. His eyes were on the ground before his feet in an effort to ensure he didn't trip and go tumbling down the side of the hill. As he approached the summit, he heard a familiar voice.

"It appears stealth is not one of your strong suites."

"Huh?" He looked up and almost fell over.

Suzuka reached out and grabbed hold of his wrist to steady him.

Once Gene found his balance, he pulled his arm away roughly. "Thanks, but I don't need your help."

Suzuka just smiled sarcastically to herself.

Not getting any response from her, the red haired outlaw snapped, "Hey, what is this anyway? Its seems everywhere I go to be alone, you're always there too. Are you following me?"

"I was here first, Gene. I've been here most of the day, meditating."

"Yeah, sure." The outlaw gestured away her explanation as a wicked grin crossed his lips. "I bet you saw me down below by the shore." He gestured to the shoreline below with his bottle. "I bet you figured out that I wanted to be alone and you probably even saw me look up to this hill, so you raced up here ahead of me to make it look like you'd been here first," he slurred out as he got closer to Suzuka. "I bet you still have feelings for me and you were hoping to seduce me in my moment of weakness." He closed in on her personal space.

While her gaze was still fixated on the setting sun, the assassin raised her right hand and placed it over Gene's mouth, turning his head away from her. "It seems the alcohol has effected your mind as well as your breath, both are currently quite offensive." She gave him a small push, which sent the outlaw stumbling back a few steps.

Not giving up so easily, Gene pressed his luck once again. "Come on, Suzu."

The assassin's eyes narrowed as she clenched her jaw tightly.

"You like me, god knows, I like you. We're two attractive, mature adults. It's natural that there would be some physical attraction between us..."

'Why did I have to tell him I was ever attracted to him?' she scolded.

"Come on, babe, what do you say? We can get it on right here. There's no one around, and I even brought the mood maker." He held up his bottle.

'That's enough!' Suzuka drew her bokuto and smashed the bottle in one swift stroke, leaving Gene holding only the neck of what was once a bottle of 30 year old Scotch.

"Hey! That bottle cost me 600 wong!" he yelled.

"Consider it an expensive lesson in manners," Suzuka responded coolly.

Composing himself quickly, the outlaw tossed what was left of the bottle aside and continued his seduction. "Well, one good turn deserves another. Why don't you let me give you a lesson in passion."

The lovely assassin glared at him. 'You don't know when to quit, do you?'

Gene's wicked smile returned. "You're no older than me, and to be considered an ultra class A assassin at such a young age, you must have dedicated years to your training; no time for fun, no time for pleasure... or love. I'm willing to bet you're still a virgin." He smirked.

Suzuka's composure snapped. She swiped at his left leg, sending the outlaw to the ground flat on his back. Then she stood over him, applying pressure on his Adam's Apple with her bokuto.

Gene gasped for air but refrained from moving.

"You truly are a pitiful excuse for a man. Leaving you was the best thing Melfina ever did," Suzuka said with all cruelty.

Anger flared in the outlaw's eyes. "FUCK YOU!" he spat.

Suzuka drew back her sword and struck him across the head, rendering him unconscious.

"Not in your lifetime." She stepped away from him, returning her attention to the setting sun that held on for just a few more seconds before disappearing entirely.

The moment darkness covered the lake, it immediately lit up in bright colors of yellow, orange, and blue. The various breeds of speartail fish, a small fish that lived in abundance in this lake, spawned only one day a year. The females would lay their eggs on the surface of the water and at sunset the males would jump out of the water and spray their semen on the floating eggs. The chemical reaction when the two met resulted in a phosphorescent glow. It would only last a few minutes but it was a sight to behold. From atop the hill, Suzuka could hear the sounds from the crowds below as they marveled at this wonder of nature. She held her sword close to her chest as she enjoyed the sight of flickering colors dancing across the water's surface for miles in every direction.

"To think, I actually considered asking you to join me in watching this earlier today. Thank heaven for small favors."

"Wow!" the crowd reacted in unison.

"It's so beautiful," Melfina's gentle voice exclaimed softly.

"Yeah," agreed Jim. "I'm glad we overheard those people at the restaurant talking about this."

"Mmm hmm," she nodded in agreement. "I wish Gene and Suzuka were here to see this."

Jim smiled to himself. "With as big as these crowds are, I wouldn't be surprised if they were here, somewhere."

"You really think so?" Melfina asked, still watching the array of colors dance upon the water.

Jim grinned. "I'm sure of it." Turning back to the water, the sandy haired boy's mind began to wander as he marveled at the extraordinary display of colors. "You know... there is someone I wish was here to see this with... us." He blushed.

Melfina looked at her young friend and smiled. Putting her arm across his shoulder, she pulled him closer to her side. "I miss her too."

To Be Continued:

AN: Sorry it took me so long to post the next chapter. Real life just kept getting in the way, but I am committed to completing this story, so onward we go.

Hope you liked this one and I'm sure you'll like the next. It features everyone's favorite catgirl. I've started typing it up already and should have it posted in a little over a week, assuming my beta-reader has time to check it out. Speaking of my wonderful beta-reader, let me offer a special thanks to her for doing such an awesome job on all my stories. Thank you so much, Janice. (Hugs and Kisses)

And thank you all for taking the time to read and review my story. I really appreciate it. You brighten my day each time I read a review. Thank you all so very much.

A. Amishi