Disclaimer: The characters used within this are mostly the property of others. I have a few originals, but the vast majority are not original. Everything here is fiction. This is for entertainment only and not for profit.

-=oOo=-

Araiansu - Chapter 27

-=oOo=-

Ranma, in male form, set across from Aya. "Undoing what you did will be tricky. There isn't really an opposite for lust, or at least one that can be practical to focus so I will have to teach you something else. I'm just glad that my perverted grandmaster didn't affect anyone with his perverted ki. He would drain it from women's garments of all things."

"Weird," commented Aya

"It was, and annoying. I was his favorite target."

"Male or Female?" she asked.

"Female."

"Well he had taste at least," commented Aya.

"Moving on," added Ranma.

Aya smiled.

Ranma said, "You picked up English fast."

"Yes, that surprised me too."

"I would like to teach you something called the soul of ice. Please watch me. In a minute you can touch me to get a sense of it."

The air around Ranma immediately got bitterly cold.

Aya shivered "I don't like this."

Ranma said nothing as the room got colder. Aya hesitantly embraced him from behind, laying her hands on his arms as she tried to understand what he was doing. She got so cold. It was hard to think. It was hard to feel. She was so very cold.

Rommie appeared in the air before them, with Kasumi opening the door less than thirty seconds later.

Rommie asked, "What are you doing?"

Aya said softly, "Cold. So cold."

Kasumi gently pulled Aya away as Ranma broke his focus on the technique. It was clear that he was still affected as he said in an almost monotone, "The soul of ice is a technique where you suppress almost all emotion."

Aya blinked. "It is not nice. I don't like it, but it may work."

Kasumi said, "I felt so cold."

"So did I, and I'm a space ship!"

Ranma said, "Sorry. I don't know a better way. You have to shift either directly away with the countering emotion, or shift to no emotion. Those are the natural cures."

"They are horrid," remarked Rommie.

Sam walked in the open door. "You get used to it. I've had to do it a bunch of times to fix imbalances. Sure sometimes you can use the countering emotion, but it usually doesn't quite work right. There is usually something left to counter."

"How long will this take?" asked Kasumi.

"Months," Ranma said. "If Doctor Tofu was here he might give you a better answer, but it took you what years to get to this state?"

She nodded.

Sam said, "You don't have to go around in the soul of ice for months at a time. I usually limit it to about twenty minutes at a time. That is part of the reason it takes months. It is not a natural state."

"That is a relief. I'm not sure I could endure months of that."

Ranma added, "Sam's right and that duration is probably about right as well, though it depends on what you can tolerate. If I had to, I could go hours in the state."

"Not without a damn good reason," Sam muttered loudly.

"Of course not," he rapidly agreed.

"How could you stand it?" asked Aya even as she shivered one more time.

Ranma shrugged.

Sam replied, "He had a singular focus growing up. Skill in the martial arts and nothing else."

Aya added, "I was pretty single minded. That's how I stupidly kept trying to also master life energy, thinking I'd find a way to fix it. It made it impossible for me to be able to work with a lot of people."

Ranma said quietly, "I thought I was so very clever by using confidence to fuel my ki. A doctor I knew that had a lot of esoteric knowledge eventually figured it out and helped me. I should have figured it out. Confidence became arrogance which became recklessness. Looking back I do wonder if my ki did contaminate those closest to me. It would explain some things."

Sam said, "You couldn't have known."

"That really doesn't help."

"No, it doesn't," Aya agreed. "Fortunately, you got help and fixed it, and if I have to do this soul of ice thing for months to fix myself, I will."

"We will be with you," added Kasumi.

"Perhaps not in the same room though," added Rommie playfully.

"I should learn it too," added Kasumi.

"Oh fine," Rommie added. "I'll learn it too, if I can. It might help. You are using it when you have to focus intently in combat and not just when you want cold right?"

Ranma and Sam nodded.

"Count me in then."

Aya and Kasumi smiled.

Sam said, "We'll I'm getting back to what I was working on."

They waved to her as she left.

Kasumi smiled then added softly, "I think it worked."

"What, you aren't head over heals in love with me?" Aya complained, then twisted gracefully.

Kasumi froze with her mouth just slightly open.

Rommie smiled and shook Kasumi gently. "Perhaps, it is a work in progress."

Kasumi whined, "Mou!"

Aya smiled.

Rommie said dryly, "It does complicate things that Aya is a bit of a flirt, and that much seems unlikely to change."

"I'm just glad that for whatever reason she isn't attracted to guys. I have some defense."

Rommie asked curiously, "Is that why your quarters were locked for so long?"

Ranma blushed furiously. "I have absolutely no comment."

Aya said mischievously, "I bet he stayed a she. I remember well Sam's look."

Ranma's blush went nuclear.

Kasumi said, "That is probably enough."

Rommie said, "Sadly, your right."

Aya said cutely, "I'm sorry."

Ranma said deadpan, "You know that look isn't nearly as effective when you don't mean it."

"I am still sorry. When do you think we should do it again?"

"If you can joke like that, I think now, but this time your rescuers need to give you a bit more time."

"Shouldn't we all be doing it?" asked Rommie?

Ranma said, "Not with all three linked. That seems too much. We could try just adding you to start with I guess."

"Okay, what do I do?"

"Same thing she did. Just being near me or touching me will probably transfer the effect. Focus on how it feels or rather how it doesn't feel then try embracing it."

Ranma set down. The air quickly cooled then froze around him, and then Rommie sat in his lap, and soon it got even colder. They stayed like that for nearly an hour before Ranma reversed his affect and then minutes later Rommie reversed it as well.

Rommie said softly, "That was incredible. I could focus on a level I never focused. I think I even purified a good portion of the energy I pulled from Aya."

"Your a natural. If it wasn't for the attraction between you three…"

Rommie said, "I can probably help Kasumi, at least with a few more lessons."

He nodded before turning back to Aya. "Do you want to try again?"

"Are you sure it is safe? You have now done more than Samantha wanted you to."

"It is safe enough. Actually, well the ki you are leaking, it may not be compelling me like well perhaps it would Kasumi, but I can feel it. Our practice is balancing my own ki. We can, if you want, try something a little more daring?"

"How so?" asked Rommie.

"Kasumi what if you tried hugging Aya loosely after she is in the soul of ice. If we can keep the levels reasonable during that."

Rommie asked "I thought you were concerned with multiple?"

"Somewhat yes, but you did do well. If this works, we can try you with Kasumi, then you with Aya, then maybe all three, but I still want to approach it slowly."

Kasumi asked, "Rommie, will you be able to pull me away if?"

"I should. I'll set an alert to alert people if I fail to keep paying attention to it."

Kasumi said, "How will I know when?"

"Just wait ten minutes or so?" suggested Ranma.

"Okay, but I think this is the last time for today," said Aya. "I don't want Samantha mad at me."

Ranma smiled and nodded. He quickly fell back into the soul of ice and with it the room immediately became cold and then freezing. Aya carefully sat behind him and then before long she too was icy to the touch.

Kasumi and Rommie looked on with worry.

Rommie said, "I don't like you being alone."

"I won't be. You are here. Aya and Ranma are here."

"You won't feel them."

"I know."

"Well it is time," said Rommie.

Kasumi slowly sat down behind Aya and enveloped her in her arms. Suddenly the room began to warm, though it seemed to chill immediately afterward.

Sam came back in and asked softly, "Whose idea was this?"

"Ranma's. He didn't think having me in a bond with other people at the same time in this was a great idea, but he did those two, and since mine went well, he was suggesting that maybe…"

"This is not going well. Can't you feel it? Ranma is bringing them all down, but there is no balance."

"I can. Not well, but I can. I think they are stabilizing."

"Yah, maybe. I'm going to help Ranma, try to hurry this along."

"Are you sure that is wise?"

"No."

Sam's breath was already frosting as she sat down and enfolded Kasumi. Soon the room became bitter cold.

Rommie said to no one, "I'm giving this twenty minutes and then I'm stopping it."

Time passed far too quickly for the avatar of Nozomi. Just when she was about to try breaking them out of it Sam and Ranma quietly got up and then with more precision than romance Ranma softly and ever so delicately kissed Samantha. They then gripped hold of each other in a desperate hug.

Rommie looked closer at the other pair who were now moving. She gently pulled Kasumi away and enfolded her in her arms even as Aya stood and smiled.

Aya said, "I can tell that it helped. I'm going to go to my own room, but for a moment could I also?"

Rommie and Kasumi opened their arms and the three hugged together, then. less than a minute later Kasumi started to turn towards Aya, who smiled and slipped away before exiting the room. A few minutes later Kasumi also left, but not before hugging Rommie tightly again.

Sam said, "That was more than a bit foolish, not both at once, but going so deep into the soul of ice to force it to work."

"I know, but part of this is flat out chemistry influencing them. It resonates. If we don't start dealing with it as it is, well this may all be a waste of time."

Samantha said, "Would it be so bad to let them get it out of their system?"

"The problem is that won't work. We need to stabilize Aya well before they can do that."

"I agree," Rommie added. "You can't fix addictive behavior by giving in to it. I think you are also right about chemistry. I'm not as affected as Kasumi, but I'm most certainly affected. I've also honed my will over the centuries. Kasumi doesn't have that."

Ranma nodded.

"Would the drugs help?" asked Sam.

Ranma said, "They wouldn't solve anything. They might be needed if we run out of time, but I think we are making progress."

"I'm sure you are," Rommie added. "I'm less sure we won't end up back where we were."

Ranma said, "You were um with Kasumi without…"

"Yes, we didn't turn each other into well anything like Aya promises to turn us into. I've got nothing against the possible relationship, but I can't as a warship permit it to be unstable. Our judgment must be solid all the time."

Ranma said, "I think we should try all three together but with Rommie in the center position. If we are at either end, we might be able to keep that controlled."

Rommie said, "It will have to be Samantha, Kasumi, Me, Aya, and then Ranma, since I'm not confident that Samantha could keep control with Aya right there. She is, after all, very attractive."

"Gee thanks," chirped Sam, even as she blushed.

-=oOo=-

The next day they signed the alliance or at least as much as everyone could agree on then spent the rest of the day healing everyone they could. There seemed an endless number. They were exhausted by the time they finished, just barely managing to crawl back into their bed.

Rommie appeared by them looking down on them softly, fondly.

Kasumi came in a couple minutes later and smiled upon seeing all she knew would be there. She said softly, "I'll do what I can."

"Their link is still active," pointed out Rommie. The soft white light crawled between their bodies.

"I know." She then knelt by their bed and gently clasped her joined hands over theirs before flaring with pure white light that the unconscious pair greedily drank in. A few minutes later she stopped, swayed a bit, and stood.

"Your getting really good at that."

"I've had a lot of practice. You have been pulling a lot of energy from Aya lately. Is everything okay?"

"More or less. It would have been better if they weren't too exhausted to repeat what they did last night, but I can hardly blame them."

Kasumi nodded. She said, "I'll go to our room. You will be with Aya?"

"For an hour or so yes. The merge helps to balance her too, particularly when I pull a lot of energy from her."

"And you?" Kasumi asked. "You don't have to do it alone you know?"

"You want to merge with me while I spent what might be hours on an off fumbling with the soul of ice technique so as to balance the whole mess I took?"

"Gladly."

"Well, if you want to suffer with me, I certainly won't stop you."

Kasumi smiled.

It was a long night for all of them. They, however, fell into sleep with a smile.

-=oOo=-

One of the doctors stepped into Shamal's office, a tablet in his hands.

She asked, "What do you have?"

"The last several sets of readings you took of sleeping beauty."

"Oh? What is so interesting?"

"Her core is repairing."

"Maybe. It is too early to tell if this is going anywhere."

"I don't get why. There is some force acting on them."

"Look in the extended information, and pull up the life energy scans I've managed to take. Also add in those of Rommie and Kasumi. For that matter pull up Ranma and Samantha's."

He thumbed through them all, then did so again.

"This life energy imbalance rating you have. I'm not familiar with it."

"Aya had a huge imbalance from improper training. She basically made any female she found attractive have an out-sized reaction to her presence. They are fixing it."

"Well this is a multidimensional quantity. It looks like everyone elses balance is eroding slowly while hers is coming into balance quickly."

"That is more or less correct. They know about it and I've told them. It is mainly why they haven't left yet. Trying to fix what Aya did to herself is not easy, particularly since all of them are attracted to her, and I think she is even attracted to Ranma's male form some now, though I'm guessing she thinks of his female form when she sees him."

"Surely your not talking any crazy um.."

"No. Ranma and Samantha are faithful to each other. That is not likely to ever change. People are, however, human."

"True." He flipped through all the pages again. "Is this real about the magical linkage between them?"

"Real yes? Its tiny. Klarwind could barely measure it, but it is truly five way."

"Is that dangerous or?"

"We don't think so. I am monitoring it. Note that they all have measurable increases in their linker cores."

"You wouldn't normally even refer to what any of them but Aya has as a linker core. Sure it is there, but basically useless."

"That is not the point. Increasing the capacity like that in someone with basically no core is unheard of."

"True, but what could they do with it?"

She mind spoke in his head, "What do you think?"

He replied in mind speech, "Good point. That alone could be invaluable if they got nothing else. I assume you are monitoring all this closely."

"Of course I am. The main thing is to make sure they don't become too imbalanced. I want the others told to give them a couple days off healing."

"But."

"Yes, I know what the cost is, but they are burning the candle at both ends. They need a break of at least a couple days, then cut their hours down to no more than five. This is a medical order."

"I'll see to it."

She nodded. "Have you reviewed all the cases healed in their medical beds?"

"They all seem fine and we have doubled the rate now that the beds know to just fix only what is beyond our own skill. Once the underlying problem is fixed we can usually fix the rest."

She nodded. "We are going to try to get at least one of those. There are those that are pushing us to go ask the Asgard now, but Lindy and I have pushed back. We aren't going to ask until we have brought all their people back safe and well."

"That sounds a more realistic plan. Have you given thoughts to monitoring the healing with your device?"

"No, that seems a good way to really annoy the Asgard if we make a conscious attempt to reverse engineer how they work, or even just take enough readings where we might be able to do it."

"Good point. I'd assume they will read the logs of all the devices when they are back in range."

"You'd be surprised at how many people I had to point that out too," said Shamal half under her breath.

"How long do you think it will all take?"

Shamal said, "Another month, most likely. Lindy, General Hammond, Vivio, Daniel Jackson, and Chrono are leaving today on Lindy's ship. They aren't going to start asking the Asgard for stuff, but Vivio really misses her parents and video emails don't cut it, though I'm glad Artha is out there to receive our signals. Megumi, the woman from Earth is going too, mostly because Lindy and Vivio are. I'll remain and head out on the Nozomi. Artha is going to bring Doctor Camber and everyone but Nanoha and Fate back."

"What about the terraformer they were discussing?"

Shamal replied, "Nozomi thinks she can tow it through dimensional space. Normally we would have to escort it with a pair of warships because at over a month of travel time with its engines, it would be quite vulnerable. Since we don't really have the warships we can easily make available for a month plus, we are going to try their plan. That is another reason we are trying to get them all in good shape. That is going to be a lot of load for their crew to sustain even if they can do it a lot quicker."

"How quick?"

"They don't know. A lot will depend on the dimensional damage that towing something that large might cause particularly at speed. I'm not an expert, but I know that thing didn't have slow engines on it purely because of cost."

"I may know a bit more, but there seems a max size we can make engines to keep them safe."

Shamal nodded.

-=oOo=-

Nanoha and Fate hugged Vivio tightly even as her grandmother looked on fondly. They were in Atlantis main operational center, which included the Atlantis Stargate.

"Why are you here without the other ship? Did something happen?" Nanoha asked.

Lindy replied. "They are fine. Nozomi has a new crew member, but there were some complications."

Nanoha laughed. "We know all about complications. Which one did they have?"

Lindy went on to tell them all about it.

Nanoha giggled. "So they have been doing their best not to…" Seeing Vivio she decided to moderate her words, but there was no need to speak more.

"Yes," Lindy replied. "Since if they did that, well it would be the opposite of helping."

Fate muttered, "Well at least it is not us. That would be irritating. I wonder if Hayate had one of those."

Lindy arched an eyebrow. She added dryly, "From what I've heard, you should perhaps not be one to talk."

"Zipping it."

Lindy smiled at her daughter.

Vivio looked on in curiosity. "Play with me!" demanded the rather adorable child.

General Hammond looked on to the family fondly. He said, "My nieces have a home here. They are about Vivio's age. Perhaps she would like to see them?"

Nanoha bent down to look at Vivio in the eyes. "Would you like to meet some more children your age?"

Vivio nodded.

George said, "I'll be along in a bit, but you can just ask the transporter outside for the Hammond residence." He pointed the way.

Nanoha waved. She, Fate, and Vivio walked outside and after calling for the Hammond residence vanished in the flare of transporter light.

Daniel looked around at George and Lindy. They were the only ones left in the room.

George asked Lindy quietly, "Are you familiar with how some on Earth, see, well, certain relationships?"

"Yes, we know."

"I'm sorry to bring it up then. If you have any problems in Atlantis, please talk to me."

"We will. Now shall we be on our way?"

"Of course."

-=oOo=-

Lindy stood with Daniel Jackson by her side as she hesitantly approached Heimdall's workshop.

"Come in," Heimdall announced.

"I thank you for seeing me."

Heimdall blinked. "It is no trouble."

"Before I left, I asked Rommie to transfer all the records of our use of your medical technology to a crystal. I have a separate crystal with the technical schematics of the terraformer we plan to lend to the EDF." She pulled from her pocket a small box and opened it before handing it to Heimdall. He immediately put both in. The holder that held the logs immediately glowed a soft green color.

"It is good to know that our gift has been well used. Included in the request was a signed request from Sam, Ranma, Rommie, Aya, and Kasumi for you to be loaned one or more healing beds."

She got very quiet and did not dare breath. Seeing no answer was forthcoming she added, "We planned to respectfully ask, but wanted to wait until the others were back. I didn't know they had made a request."

"Building a new healing bed at this time in Atlantis is not feasible. The automated construction equipment is good, but not adequate for some Asgard technologies, and the time needed to construct the equipment that would be needed is prohibitive."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I will ask Thor if the council can approve one. He is preparing to take a ship to your dimension with several unused Stargates. It is assumed that considerable modification will be required, but I believe the Heimdall from this dimension has volunteered."

"You are going to let us use one, and the gates? We haven't even signed but part of the alliance treaty yet."

"Our restrictions against technology being given away is to make sure it is not abused. We will of course detail the exact restrictions on use, but as the data you retrieved did not include any prohibited behavior, I do not foresee a problem."

"A bunch of people wanted to use our best scanning tools to try to scan what was happening. We vetoed them."

"That was wise. The devices are programmed to cease functioning if any such reverse engineering attempt is made."

"Whoa that was close. We thought it would just make you mad and wreck any attempt we had to earn another friend. I see you thought ahead farther than we did."

He nodded. "Will one be enough?"

"We have a large backlog, but we found when we set the device to only heal what we could not we could double how many people we could cure. One should be enough, but it will take a few years to catch up."

"I noticed the modified parameters. It was another point in your favor. I will request two."

"How did you notice?" she asked confused.

He smiled, but didn't say anything. He just opened the other data crystal. What was displayed was not the plans she had put in there but it was clearly derived from them. "A most interesting design, but the power requirements are prohibitive as it is now."

"We use modules like the one we gave you. They are very expensive. I don't know if we can easily afford to supply all the modules you would need to use this."

"Can you provide one more?"

"Yes, easily."

"That will suffice. I already have the infrastructure built to build Asgard power supplies. If you can replace the now depleted zero point module you previously provided I can build additional supplies that should be sufficient to run this at about half its potential power level."

"You can take one of those modules and make something that produces many times as much power?"

"Of course. Your module was at a similar level of technology as the Atlantian one. We have had a long time to improve and have made significant progress there. They are considerably larger, but less trouble long term."

"Well space is unlikely to be a problem on the terraformer. It does have a conventional dimensional drive that will need to be safeguarded, but then the whole thing does really."

"You can remove the drive, either before sending it or later. Thor's ship should be able to tow it, though likely with difficulty. Nozomi might be better."

"They volunteered."

"That should work well then. I am concerned with the medical data that was embedded in this message. Does Aya or any of the others require assistance?"

"We are doing our best. We didn't think it was something you could help with."

"It is not, though the one that originally helped Ranma balance his energy could possibly be retrieved if that would help."

"Why did no one think of this?" she complained.

"I do not know."

"I could go now if you have the dimensional coordinates. My son should be sufficient protection should we run into anything."

"I have them. I will go with you."

"Okay."

-=oOo=-

Heimdall walked on the bridge of the courier ship that Lindy used. It didn't pack the punch of Artha, but still had a scaled down version of an Arcenciel. They got under way almost right away.

He said, "A most intriguing design. It may be that it was a mistake to neglect to study magical technologies."

"We are proud of our efforts. Efficiency wise they are great, but not everyone has enough magic, and your own systems were very impressive, particularly in that Earthquake relief. Did you read the logs for that?"

He nodded.

"We are going to try to build some non magitech ships. The Ion canons the Tollans use were mentioned as something we could try to ask for. We prefer magitech because it allows us to avoid killing most of the time, but there are limits."

"There always are. Do you have the technology to make such a craft?"

"For the most part yes. Obviously we don't have the ion canons, but we do have other effective weapons. The biggest issues is one of energy, but I don't suppose that surprises you with all the effort you have put into your own power sources."

"It is a difficult area. It is unlikely at this time we would offer our best power sources, but it may be that some help can be given to improve what you do have."

"That would be appreciated."

"Do you have any ready sources of Naquadah?"

"Pardon?"

He sat down at a station and pressed some buttons and soon the screen showed the element and then the place it would normally have on Earth's periodic table.

She said, "I don't believe we have identified that element."

"Curious. It works reasonably well for power at low levels. Earth has various reactor designs already that you could discuss with them. I would estimate it to take a thousand times the space of a ZPM for the same power output."

"That is still a very potent source. Perhaps we could run standby systems on that technology, and save the power modules? Just keeping the things inactive when we are not using propulsion would be a huge savings. I don't know. I would have to ask the engineers."

Heimdall brought up another ship design, along with several pages of high level analysis.

"It is interesting, but surely it is not yours? EDF perhaps?"

He nodded.

"While the idea of cooperating on a ship design is tempting, I certainly couldn't approve any such thing myself. It does, however, merit study." She paged through the design reading through the overview. "Given I know what level of technology a typical Earth should have, this is very clever stuff. A lot of compromises of course, and I'm not an engineer, though I do dabble. Off hand I do not see any significant improvements that can be made without adding technology they don't have or might require even more advanced technology just to make the pieces to make the pieces."

Heimdall nodded.

"Would you permit sending at least an overview of this design to Mid-Childa so we can get feedback on the idea of either helping them with this design or possibly working on a common design?"

"I will encrypt the files using an encryption key that Nozomi knows. Samantha Carter may review them and decide weather to pass them on or not."

"I'm fine with that."

Chrono said, "We are coming up on that Earth. We should go in cloaked stay behind the moon. I can teleport there on my own and find the one we are looking for."

"That sounds good Chrono. Just make sure you contact us if you run into any trouble."

"Of course. Durandal. Set Up."

"Yes Boss."

Heimdall watched in amazement as Chrono transformed. "That is an interesting use of technology. I wonder if we could make one that is suited to a life adept."

Lindy's eyes widened. "That isn't one of the super rare ones that long ago someone gave their life to make. That is the best we can actually make without such sacrifice."

Chrono waved and teleported down.

"I would have an interest in studying such technology."

Lindy's eyes widened again. "And that would be one of those things that can't be given away at all without an act of our congress. I have no leeway here."

"It is not surprising. I can wait."

"Thank you."

It took Chrono almost eight hours to locate Doctor Tofo, even with the covert help of Lindy's courier ship. He eventually found him in a hospital thanks to a wide area search spell. His mother went ahead and accessed the hospitals records and found why he was there. It seemed this Nabiki Tendo was in very bad shape. After teleporting nearby he dropped his transformation and walked in.

He hesitantly walked in the door.

"Who are you?" asked Nabiki. Despite having way too many broken bones, she was certainly alert.

Doctor Tofu saw him as well. "I'm sorry, but this is a private room."

"Apologies. I am officer Chrono Harlaown."

"I didn't do anything. I refused them."

"I know, but that is not why I am here."

Doctor Tofu asked, "Then why are you here?"

"I am an acquaintance of Ranma. He could probably use your help."

"I couldn't possibly leave Miss Tendo."

"You could bring her. I don't believe there is anything we can't heal."

Doctor Tofu said, "I'm uncertain if that is a good idea."

"Bring me where?" asked Nabiki. "They say I'm unlikely to ever walk again, unless it is a shamble. If there is a way to cure this..."

"How would you heal her?" Doctor Tofu asked.

"Ranma has certain skills with healing. I myself am, however, a high level mage, and know many other high level mages some of which are healers." He waved his hand and a circle of magic began sliding over the floor.

"Impressive. Well I suppose that is Nabiki's best chance. I am, however, concerned about Ranma. What is his problem?"

"He is trying to help someone who failed to learn neutral ki, but instead based hers around, well something else. There is a chance he won't be able to help her before he himself is pulled down."

"What?" Doctor Tofu asked.

"Lust."

Nabiki burst out laughing. "No surprise there."

Ignoring that, Chrono said, "Time may be important. The real questions are can she keep secrets and can you come?"

Nabiki said, "I'm not like I was. I would like to at least talk to Ranma and apologize."

Doctor Tofu asked, "How long would we be gone?"

"Hard to say. I'm guessing a couple weeks, though not much has ran to plan lately."

Nabiki said, "I have a rent bill coming up soon that I can't pay and I'm trying to finish college."

Doctor Tofu said, "You have already been here for weeks. This semester is a bust. I already talked to your college and they have agreed to allow you to take exams for these course when you ready. As for your rent, I can give you money for that. The real problem is my other patients. Are you certain this is worth me assigning them to other doctors?"

"I think it is, and you might learn something of value that will help you."

"Very well. Nabiki what do you think?"

"I don't really have a choice, at least if I want to be able to walk anytime soon, let along recover fully. I'll have to tell Kasumi at least."

"Do so, I will arrange to transfer you to my clinic and contact my patients. This is going to take me at least a day to arrange. I'll try to do it quicker, but.."

"I understand. Please arrange her movement soon, so we can begin to heal her. Waiting will not help."

Two hours later Doctor Tofu was pushing her on one of his own hospital beds into his clinic. Ten minutes later she was transported to the courier ship.

Lindy caught her when she almost fell. She then helped her into the single bed that was at the side of the small treatment room.

"Hello Miss Tendo. I am Lindy Harlaown."

"Your his mother?"

She nodded. "I'm also an admiral in my world's military."

"Leave it to Ranma to never find his way into a simpler situation."

"Quite. Do you consent to my attempting to heal your injuries?"

"I presume you know what you are doing."

"I'm not exactly one of the elite medical mages no, but I can at least get you started and maybe more."

"Go ahead."

"Sandry. Full medical scan and treatment plan for Miss Tendo."

"Yes Mistress."

Nabiki was amazed when a magical circle formed directly under her, much bigger than the one Chrono made. It was yellow and had all kinds of symbols that were rotating.

Sandry said, "Damages are consistent with physical altercation only and are well within our ability to treat. Recommend seven sessions over seven days with no exercise for first two days then slowly increasing exercise."

"That is a lot better than I was facing. It will work though. I will walk?"

"You will."

"Then let's get started."

They sat and healed in Sandry and Lindy's warm light.

Doctor Tofu beamed up the next afternoon. Lindy and Sandry projected an image of all her injuries when she got here and how they were now.

"I wish I could do that," muttered Doctor Tofu. "Had she a more developed ki system I could do more, but she doesn't."

"I could learn," Nabiki spoke without thought.

"I'm not certain you have the discipline required," admitted Doctor Tofu.

"Please, I just need a chance. I know I messed up. With my record it is going to be really hard to get a job. I promise I won't waste it or betray anyone, not anymore."

Lindy looked at Doctor Tofu carefully. He gave a small nod.

She asked, "She has the potential to be an adept?"

Doctor Tofu responded hesitantly, "I believe so. Not to Ranma's extent of course, but it is there. It will not be easy."

Lindy turned back to Nabiki, "If you truly wish to study the art of the life adept, then I will be able to find a job for you, though it will not be easy. I suspect Ranma and his people could as well."

"What? I. Will someone explain?" asked Nabiki.

"Doctor Tofu can explain what he knows. I'll leave the main monitor set on the bridge. I assume we can leave now Doctor?"

He nodded.

She waved and left.

A few minutes later they heard Lindy ask, "Heimdall, would you like us to go directly for Mid-Childa or to return you to where you were."

"I do not believe there is anything that is a higher priority than this. Please proceed directly."

She then said, "Okay, warm up the D-Drive and begin the route back to Mid-Childa as soon as you are ready. Get us there as soon as you can safely do so."

"Aye mam. Dimension drive checks are complete. All systems are operating at top efficiency. Proceeding with drive unlock. Drive unlock successful. Disabling secondary systems and powering down everything but navigational shields and nominal life support. Routing available power to the drive and drive cooling systems. We are now approaching operating threshold. Drive will engage in twenty four seconds."

In the sick bay the lights had dimmed, before reducing to one. The air seemed to be moving slower as well. The ship lurched slightly as the drive formally engaged.

"Just what have I gotten myself involved in?" asked Nabiki.

Doctor Tofu laughed. "More than you can know."

"I still can't believe how fast she healed me."

"Ranma can do better I think."

"Really?"

"I don't know a lot of details. A friend of his invited me there for his wedding."

"Oh do tell."

"It was a crazy rushed thing, and then they had to go defend Earth right afterward, but his bride, she is something else."

"Really? What is she like?"

"Thor told Kasumi and me quite a bit."

"Kasumi was with you and she didn't tell me?"

Doctor Tofu teased, "I'm sure there are many things she doesn't tell you."

"So it would seem. I'm surprised she didn't come."

"There is a version of Kasumi native to the dimension we are going to, and we are likely to be near her."

"What?"

"It would be dangerous for our Kasumi to meet or be too near to our version. It didn't matter so much when it was on a different planet, and they were in no way close, but that won't be the case now."

"I'm starting to wonder if they gave me the good painkillers."

"Let me know if you need more, though I encourage you to bear with what you can. The sooner you are off those the better."

"I haven't actually hurt since she did what she did."

"Well be careful. We don't know exactly how it works and we don't want to test it."

"I'm not going to risk my recovery."

-=oOo=-

Lindy gave Heimdall access to the drive and space telemetry. He studied it for over an hour occasionally inputting small changes here and there. An hour after that he said, "It seems that you need to authorize this update."

Lindy looked at it, as did Chrono and the ships engineer. "What are we looking at?"

"It should improve efficiency about eighteen percent. It is only a firmware update, so it is the best I can do."

Lindy said, "Okay, disengage the drive. We can float in the dimensional sea for a bit."

"Drive is disengaged."

Lindy said, "Authorize Lindy Harlaown."

"Authorized."

"Please execute the pending drive update."

"Firmware updating." Then there was nothing for two minutes. After that they heard, "Firmware update completed. Drive is re-initializing. Drive is now online."

Chrono said, "Not that I don't trust well .. Shall we start slow, just to be sure? I know I wouldn't trust any of our engineers that produced a change that quickly."

Lindy said, "Resume course slow. Return to full rate over the next hour. Abort on any anomaly."

Heimdall smiled proudly as the drive came back online without a hitch.

Chrono said, "Amazing."

Heimdall said, "It helps if you have just solved all the same problems recently."

"I guess so."

Heimdall said, "You should be able to increase speed about eighteen percent above your previous maximum."

Helm glanced at Lindy who nodded. "Increasing speed. Two hours to destination."

Lindy asked, "How are we doing as far as dimensional disturbances go?"

"Slightly lower."

Lindy asked, "I don't suppose we could, after engineering review, copy that to at least the other courier ships?"

"I would suggest delaying that till you fully understand the changes. Some won't apply to bigger drives, though I have no objections to copying it to identical ships once you do understand it."

Lindy said, "Well, if you don't want to be mobbed by engineers with questions, I suggest you choose your destinations when we arrive carefully."

"Indeed," Heimdall said with a small smile.

-=oOo=-

Author's Note: How about some kudos, or bookmarks, or comments? (On AO3, or here if you want.)