NONE OF THE REVIEWS CAN BE IDENTICAL, AND DON'T BE A SMART-ALECK ABOUT THIS!
Chapter 6 -
PLANET B1-M2 III (Kagome's home-world)
TOKYO, JAPAN
Chet Nomuri regularly visited one of the local bathhouses, where he talked about business with other businessmen. Or, rather, he listened to them talk about business, while he sat in his usual corner, making empty conversation, or commenting on the one that the other people were having. His assignment must have been the easiest that the Agency could have assigned him, made even easier by the fact the other people's tongues were loosened by the bottle of sake that was making its way around the tub. "Oriental Flush" is the Western term for the genetic condition that causes Japanese people to loosen up quickly with less alcohol. Fortunately, Chet did not have that condition.
"I wish you hadn't told me about that round-eye," Nomuri said, relaxing with his eyes closed, soaking in the heat of the bath.
"Why is that?" asked Kazuo Taoka from the far corner.
"Because now I cannot get that gaijin witch out of my mind!" Nomuri replied in good humor. "And now, you want to hear more, don't you?" Without looking Nomuri knew that the other men were leaning forward to listen better. "You were right, though. Her feet are too big, and her bosoms also, but her manners... well, that they can learn after a fashion."
"You make us wait?" asked another man in the group, feigning impatience.
"Do you not appreciate drama?" was the reply. The other men laughed.
Nomuri gradually described the girl whose photo he had received on the train. Why she was in Japan in the first place, who knew? Nomuri was not actually revealing classified information, since the details he gave could have described any number of Californian blondes. He actually intended to find out if anyone knew where she might be.
MEANWHILE, IN ANOTHER BATHHOUSE IN TOKYO...
"We have no choice," said the man. "We need your help." It was only a matter of time now. Fate had it in for this man and his company, and it was only a question of who would hit the wall first. The disgrace he faced was terrible, having to ask for help. The other men who listened shared the same emotion: fear. It had happened once, and now, it was that much easier for it to happen again. With the way the Japanese economy was teetering now, it was like a house of cards supported by a single card. With that single card moved away, all it would take was a small breeze to collapse the whole structure, though this fact was largely ignored by the business world. Until now.
All the men in this bath were friends, had been friends for years. But now that Kozo Matsuda had announced his compny's monetary complications, these men saw disaster on their collective horizon, which suddenly seemed to be much closer than they would have liked. If they gave their friend help, he would be disgraced, no longer able to be with them in their ring of friendship. If they did not help him, he would have to take his best shot by selling his offices on the market.
"Yamata-san was right," relented one of the other bankers.
The others agreed with his statement. "Hai," they said, as though in one voice.
Someone else spoke. "We need to seek his counsel on this matter."
PLANET B1-M2 III (Kagome's home-world)
NEAR LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
At one point on the assembly line, one worker did the job of removing the gas tank from the cardboard box, and attaching it to the automobile's frame. Before this part of the line, there was a worker in the storage area, where the gas tanks were kept. The worker in the storage room noted that some of the boxes were damp to her touch. On sniffing it, she noted the salty odor of seawater, and considered telling her supervisor. Being new to the job, she did not realize the significance of this situation. She could have stopped the line, but she felt selfconscious about doing that. An impatient whistle from the next station down told her to hurry-up, so she finally decided that it didn't matter.
Seven people would die as a direct result of her mistake. And that would just be the beginning...
MEANWHILE.
PLANET B1-M2 IV, NEAR HIJIRI ISLAND
USS INCURSION NX 74808DEFIANT -class variant SICKBAY
Vin's conditioned had only worsened in the past 48 hours. His hand had swollen to the size of a full water-balloon, and though he had regained consciousness, he seemed like a different person. His eyes darted around the room, as though he had no idea where he was, and occasionally he muttered something that the universal translator translated to: "Must return... report... Hell awaits..."
The comm summoned, and Sheila Thatcher answered. "He's awake now, captain, but he randomly mutters about needing to report, and he seems convinced that he has a reservation in hell."
"That is out of the ordinary," the captain agreed. "What does he say he needs to report?"
"He won't say, captain. He keeps muttering about Hell."
"How did the blood sample turn out?"
"I ran it through the lab, but the results are... odd. I think you better come down here," the doctor replied. Ten minutes later, the captain understood. The blood sample was discolored, and there were substances that the computer had registered, but shouldn't have been there. They returned to sickbay, where Sirta d'Quo reported that Vin's vital signs were still raised. Handing the doctor her medical PADD, it was clear that Vin was losing this battle: the alien pathogen would kill him before the week was up.
SLOANE...
By now, they were rebuilding the last hut. But then Sloane's commbadge chirped. "Sloane here."
"This is your captain speaking. May I ask what you've found in the past four days?"
Sloane called Major Tyres and asked for her to take over holding up a wooden post. As soon as the Bajoran officer was ready to take over, Sloane stepped away from the consruction to make her report. "On the first night, we found that the infra-red beacon was a dying campfire. We found the campers and proceeded to make conversation. One of the campers is not of this planet; rather, it appears that she fell through an Iconian Doorway and wound up here. The campers had seen the saucer crash-land, and they were already on their way to investigate. Following them, we found a village that had been leveled, apparently by our landing. We helped the villagers rebuild, and the village is almost as good as new, now."
"How, exactly, did you help rebuild that village, lieutenant?" the captain asked. He sounded concerned. Sloane explained, and the captain did not like what he heard.
"Do you realize what you did, lieutenant? They think you guys are gods, now!"
"But sir-"
"BUT, lieutenant," he cut her off, "What do you think they thought when they saw you guys had a methodology that was better than what they already had! You even showed them that you can shoot light out of your hands to put holes in things! They've never even heard of aliens, and now you show them this! What were you thinking, lieutenant?"
"Sir?"
"Yes, lieutenant?"
"What would you have done? We had only knocked down every single house in that village. I figured that we ought to apologize, at least in some way." That gave the captain something to think about.
"I'll have to think about that, lieutenant, but for now I am banning you from leading away teams for the rest of our time on this planet."
That hurt. Sloane gasped when she heard that; she was shocked that she was losing one of her leadership priviledges, and one of the funner (or more fun? Somebody correct me) ones at that! To lessen the pain of the shock, the captain explained that the bureaucrats and politicians of the Federation Council would tear him a new asshole if they found out about what she had just done, and that he took responsibility for everything his crew did. That note did lighten the load, but it still hurt a lot. Sloane would have cried, had she not been immediately called back to work. "Sloane out." She practically ran back to the house that was just being finished, if only because it was something better to dwell on than being bumped down a notch in seniority.
The house was finished moments later, and everyone sat down to a scrumptious feast. The Starfleet personnel, who were completely unfamiliar with the menu, were more than delighted to join the festivities. Someone got an idea and started playing music. Then other people began dancing! Sake was passed around and the villagers encouraged everyone to join them, and soon the food was forgotten. It was almost nightfall by the time people started going back to their huts- to bring out more food! This was like nothing any of the Starfleet officers had ever previously experienced. As the sky became darker, people began collecting materials for a bonfire. The material was gathered from the pile of wreckage and useless building materials, and from the surrounding forest. When a huge heap was set up, and as the sun disappeared on the western horizon, the fire was ready. A few prayers were said by the village chieftain, and then someone came from behind and tapped Sloane on her left shoulder, offering her the honor of lighting the fire, which she vigorously declined as a result of her guilty feelings. Ultimately, Shippo did it with his kitsune bi (fox fire). The fire caught quickly, and then people began celebrating again. This was a very happy culture, indeed!
But the joy was not a lasting one. Sloane's commbadge chirped, and she had to explain to the captain how the bonfire had been ignited by the little fox-child person who had been walking around with the other campers. It was during her explanation that a roaring noise was heard from the woods. Not everyone heard it the first time, but as the noises of celebration died down, the roar became louder, and Kagome sensed shikon shards. The village's warriors immediately donned their armor, which had been recovered from the wreckage during the reconstruction; Kagome knocked a purity arrow in her bow and waited for a target to appear; Sira Tyres and the rest of the Starfleet security detail activated their phaser rifles and prepared to receive the enemy; Kirara transformed and Sango and Shippo mounted up, Sango's hiraikotsu at the ready. Mirouku prepared his kazaana, and Sloane charged her phaser, reluctantly but dutifully. They were ready to meet the enemy. Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga and prepared for battle. No one noticed that Kouga had disappeared!
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Thanks to a review by a certain Son of Zhon, I will take into account the language differences between Starfleet and Kagome & co., and I will remember the functionality of the Universal Translator that is implanted in each Starfleet officer's ears. Because of this, Vin seems to be rambling about 'hell' rather than 'Naraku' due to linguistic difficulties. We shall see how badly each person's name get messed up as time goes on...
Naraku Hell (translated)
Evl5011, I remember what you said about the Federation Congress disapproving of the actions taken by COLUMBIA's crew, and now even her captain has questions of his own. Is this satisfactory to you?
Tearing new assholes in people seems to be a common habit among the government officials who dislike their field officers in Tom Clancy's many terrific novels. My use of this expression is a salute to Mr. Clancy, and a fellow Marylander.
It should take a lot to make a Dominion War veteran like Sloane cry. Well, I think it hurts when someone you respect, and someone who respects you, decides to punish you by confiscating a priviledge, and I think it would hurt even more if that someone did it seemingly arbitrarily.
The bathhouse conversations are based on those on pages 132-136 of "DEBT OF HONOR"; they are not original.
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UNUSED STARSHIP REGISTRY NUMBERS 13250 44209 23446 39422 32094 57822 53618 58104 40491 50111 61625
POSSIBLE JAPANESE CHARACTER NAMES
Kotohda; Motouki; Sei; Ishiyami; Tai;
Hayashi; Ikeno;
KAGOME'S FRIENDS AT SCHOOL Ayumi; Yuka; Eri Houjo
'Yob tvoyu mat!' 'fuck your mother'
(Russian) "The Cardinal of the Kremlin"
by Tom Clancy
'Domo arigato' 'thank you very much'
(Japanese) "Executive Orders"
by Tom Clancy
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