As for anyone who does wonder where my long absence was spent, it was mainly dealing with the start of senior year, new stuff, taking care of old stuff, and for the most part lazyness and tiredness. But Im on a down hill journey now to the very end of HS. No guarentees how often or soon the next chapters are going to be up, but we'll see. Be aware that most likely, the next segment after 13 and 14 here will be somewhat dark, but Ill probably add something fun in after that to lighten the mood a bit. Finally, I kinda predict 20-25 chapters in length of this fan fic. So Im over half way done already I believe. Anyways, please enjoy.
Ch 13 No need for Traps
Kiyone came back to the bridge of the Yagami. Mihoshi was still seated and looking out the window to the rickety space station quite a few clicks away from the Yagami. Washu, Tenchi, and Ryoko also filed into the bridge. Kiyone began to type on a holo key board that popped up in front of her. She carefully read the data being sent back to her, while Washu read over her shoulder.
"The distress signal is an old one, probably left on when the station was evacuated..." said Kiyone. "Even by the looks of the station itself, it seems like an old and worn down. Im kind of surprised it's still sending out a signal."
Washu looked down to the desert planet below. A disappointed look crossed her face for a moment. "Do you know which planet that is?"
"Oh?" Ryoko teased, "The great Washu doesn't know what planet that is?"
"I don't recall seeing that planet on my charts," Washu replied with a bit of agitation. "And I don't see you coming up with an answer either."
"Hmm...lemmee check what planet that is..." Kiyone said typing in more information into the computer. "...hmm lessee...huh? WHAT? NOOO!"
She banged her fists on the dash of the counsel in front of her in anger and despair. A holographic screen popped up. Zack, still tired looking but with an embarrassed expression painted on his face appeared.
"Uhh hi, guys..." greeted the Dracadian. "Would any of you happen to know where we are exactly? That battle we past through kinda shot up my nav systems, and they wont be repaired for quite a bit..."
"Wha?" Tenchi said looking at Zack, and then to Kiyone, piecing two and two together in his head.
Kiyone looked up, eyes teary, and face full of dread and sadness. "...Ours too..." she muttered. She quickly went from sad to mad in a flash, something only done when Mihoshi screws up. "This.. Is all... your FAULT! I KNEW FOLLOWING YOU WAS A BAD IDEA! I knew it I knew it I knew IT!" She yelled pointing a finger at the screen.
"Wha? Oh yeah then, what would you have done?" Zack shot back over the comm link.
"I don't know, but it wouldn't have been going through all that mess!" she glared at Zack.
"Oh yeah! Really now?" Zack glared back.
"Urg, enough you two!" Washu finally said. "Geez, your both giving me a head ache as it is. If its not one problem to fix, its another."
A 'humph' came from both Kiyone and Zack. "Well then, how do we fix this problem?" Zack finally said.
"We'll dock with that space station there and see what we can get out of its computer systems. Then we'll strip down whatever I can use to repair this ship and yours, and then get to some place to have a rest." Washu replied.
Zack and Kiyone blinked in agreement. After a few minutes of travel, the Yagami and Zenith were pulling up onto either side of the of the space station. The long docking tube extended from the Yagami and attached to the port side of the space station. An attachment bridge extended from the Zenith to connect the space station but made clanking and scraping noises instead when it tried to latch on.
Kiyone and Washu were about to leave the bridge after having a brief talk about what to do once inside the station when a holo screen popped up.
"I cant dock." Zack said sadly.
"What do you mean you cant?" came Washu's reply.
"The docking couplings don't fit with the station's couplings. So I cant dock with it easily..." Zack explained. "I can try a forced dock, but I don't know how well this station will take it."
"No, no. Thats alright." Washu said. "You can keep guard then, tell us if anything happens."
With that the communication ended. Zack sat back in his seat and stared out the view window at the old space station. He sighed. "Stupid piece of crap station..."
Everyone aboard the Yagami left it to travel with Washu and Kiyone as they explored the old space station. Sasami walked close to Tenchi and Ayeka, with Ryo-Ohki perched on her head. The happenings at Balboas still fresh in their memories, it would have probably been safer that she were with them then alone aboard the Yagami. After traveling down dark barren hallways and long corridors, they came to a heavily secure door. Juraian script was written on the door front, as a crease split it where the two panels met to make up the door.
"This is it," Washu said looking at the door. "Beyond this door is the control room. We can get all the information we need from here."
She began typing some more on her holo lap top. The lights above the door flickered a bit, then clicked on. They were dim and casted an ominous glow on the door. More typing ensued. After another moment or two, the gray door parted in two, allowing entrance into the control room. It was a large room that was circular. Its set up allowed a person to easily move from panel to panel as control consoles lined the walls and a large screen dominated the wall opposite of the door. They all stepped in. Kiyone walked up to the center console and began to type in security protocols to get the system started up again. The panels and consoles began to emit a soft glow as a hum could be heard in the small room. The large monitor lit up and displayed some script, and ran some files. As soon as things were started up, Kiyone quickly sifted through the computer's database to find out information as to where they were.
"We're on the other side of the Dracadian/Juraian Boundaries, yet this planet was also under Juraian jurisdiction." The blue green haired office said to those behind her. "Mm hmm... Ok, I know where we are now, and can get us back on track.."
"See if theres anything in this place that we can use." Washu said, behind her. Kiyone continued to sift through the computer's information banks.
"There's a large hanger compartment that seems like its being used to store supplies at the moment about four levels down." Kiyone said finally. "Why don't you guys head down there and check it out, while I see if I can get anything else out of this computer."
"Here." Washu said in agreement as she handed Kiyone a flat 'disk' no larger then dime at most. "Just copy everything onto this. Theres plenty of space on it."
Kiyone took the disk and went back to the console. The others left her as they began their small trek down to the cargo hanger.
"You know what bother's me about this place," Ryoko remarked after a few minutes of walking. "Is that even though it looks old, some stuff here seems to new to be old..."
"Maybe they were repairing it or something," Tenchi replied.
"No," Washu said, leading them down the dark hallway. "This station hasn't seen any traffic for a small time, but Ryoko is right. Some things seem out of place."
"Well I know something here that does look as old as it is," Ayeka said under her breath. Ryoko shot her a nasty glance but held her anger down. After a little while longer, they finally reached the cargo hanger. It was fairly large, maybe large enough to dock the Yagami in. Papers and crates among other debris were scattered all about.
"..Looks like someone beat us here..." Ryoko said looking at an empty crate that was lying about.
"Hmm..." Washu said, with suspicion on her mind. They searched around for a bit. Washu recovered some things that she knew would be useful to help with the repairs. Meanwhile Sasami and Ryo-Ohki explored the some parts of the hanger. Ayeka looked at some of the papers littered about and Ryoko kicked over another empty crate in boredom. All the while, Mihoshi just wandered about aimlessly.
"We done yet?" Ryoko said sitting down on top of the crate.
"Urg...Almost," Tenchi replied from across the hanger. He was given the duty of carrying all the spare parts. Even though Washu could have easily tucked em into her little box of magic that could hold infinite amount of objects, she decided it would be better if Tenchi carried the stuff, for whatever reason.
Mean while, Kiyone was sifting through a lot of the data she had found and was downloading. She contacted Washu, who was in the middle of inspecting a piece of scrap metal. "I found out some interesting information about the planet below us."
"Oh? Like what?" Washu said, now curious and handing Tenchi the piece of metal. He lost his balance and fell over in a pile.
"The planet is one of those planets that were set up for Terraforming. Unfortunately, this planet suffered worse then Balboas. Violent Sandstorms and harsh living conditions dominate the surface. The upper atmosphere is full of highly corrosive acids making ships getting down to the surface difficult," Kiyone reported. "Also, supposedly there is, or was, a settlement on the surface but the information is a bit scattered and corrupted as well as old. Though useful, that really isnt what bother's me the most."
"Hm?" Washu responded, still curious and attentive.
"There's no logs of anything that happened on this station. No communication's, Dockings, or daily life aboard the station. It's been monitoring the space around the planet and its sun, but beyond that, nothing. Also, there's a sizeable power reactor on this station, that would, if this station is as old as some of the records claim, be extremely huge, and even so, would have been much more then needed."
"Strange indeed." Washu replied. "Im also beginning to think this place isn't what it appears to be. Im pretty much done here, so as soon as you finish up whatever you need to do, lets get out of here."
"Right." came Kiyone's response and the communication ended. She continued to tap away at the console.
Back in the hanger, Washu helped Tenchi back on his feet and pick up all the parts. She was done having fun and games with Tenchi and had them stored in her little storage cube.
"Alright people," she finally called out. "Let's go."
"Aw, and I was having so much fun..." Ryoko said sarcastically as they were walking to the door.
"I bet you did. This is probably a lot like the places you'd have fun at anyways." Ayeka remarked. "Y'know, dirty and old."
"Grr..That does it 'princess'" Ryoko said clenching her fist. "Im going to forcefully remove that smart tongue of yours"
She charged Ayeka and swung as she cringed and cowered down, ready to receive the pain, but missed and Ryoko slammed her fist through the wall near the door. She pulled it out and prepared to take a punch at the princess when klaxons began to sound. The hanger lit up in a red flash of sirens and lights, and the doors to the cargo hanger slammed shut.
"Ryoko! See what you did?" Ayeka yelled as she tried to bang her way through the closed door, but to no avail.
"What I DID?" Ryoko shot back. "If you hadn't opened your fat mouth, I wouldn't have gotten angry!"
"Will you two knock it off!" Washu commanded of the two. They stopped in mid movement to hit each other.
"Ryoko didn't cause this." Washu said assessing the situation. She contacted Kiyone using her holo laptop. "Kiyone can use the main control to get the doors open."
But she wasn't met with a calm Kiyone, but one that was running and tired. "Kiyone? Where are you?"
Static cut in and out of the communication. "Da...Washu, something hap...Ge..."
A zing was heard and the communication was cut short. Washu tried again to get ahold of her.
"Kiyone. Kiyone!" Washu repeated. A new face appeared on her monitor though.
"Washu! The station is moving in a bad way!" Zack yelled over the communication. "Get out of there!"
His communication was also cut short as a laser shot barely missed Washu's head. She quickly moved for cover, the others following. Five or so flying metallic orbs had entered the hanger through some air shafts and were now stalking Tenchi and Washu and the rest. Tenchi pulled out his Master Key and Ryoko charged up an energy ball in her hands. Protective logs appeared around them.
"Damn...," Ryoko said. She stood up and fired off her charged shot. It hit one of the flying orbs dead on, destroying it on contact. "Haha! One down."
She cut her victory short as a small hail of laser shots pin pointed her position. She charged another shot up, and fired over the edge of the crate they took shelter from. The orbs gracefully dodged it and started moving about in a strange fashion. Ryoko cursed under her breath and shot another ball of energy. Ayeka charged a shot of her own and fired it off and Mihoshi discharged a few rounds. The orbs dodged both shots easily.
"Stop!" Washu yelled. "They're reading us out, planning on a method of attack."
More orbs flew in through the airducts at the far side of the room, now making the count 16 to 6.
"We gotta get out of here," Washu said. "Or we'll be over come by sheer numbers soon enough."
"We could use Ryo-Ohki and fly out," Ryoko said.
"Wont work, hanger is to large and they'd hit her before she pulled off a full transformation, not to mention we'd be left in the open while she did it. That and we may damage the Yagami busting through the hanger walls, since were on that side of the station anyways." Washu said. She noted a small floor panel some ways behind them in a corner. "Our best bet is to escape over through that metal panel and get back to the Yagami. You two give us cover while I get that metal panel open. And we can escape through there. Sasami stay here. Tenchi Follow me."
Ayeka and Ryoko complied and began to fire off rabid discharged rounds of energy over the edge of the crate. Stray lasers slammed against the protective barrier of the logs, and a few orbs became scrap from Ryoko and Ayeka's attack. More orbs came through the open ceiling vents. Washu scrambled over with Tenchi to the panel. Tenchi powered up his Master Key and cut around the panel to get it open. He cleared the panel with Washu after a moment.
"Sasami, Mihoshi, come on!" Washu said signaling. They ran over and jumped down into the crawl space, Mihoshi first, Sasami second. Tenchi followed after her. "Ayeka! Ryoko! Come on!"
"Ayeka," Ryoko said, "You first."
She nodded and ran from where they were to Washu and jumped down into the crawl space. Ryoko got up and ran to the opening where Washu stood over. She fired some shots around her, nailing a stray orb, most missing though. She jumped down into the grate, Washu following behind. Washu stopped for a second though and turned around. She stuck a small metallic object on the edge of the opening. A transparent blue force field spanned the opening to the crawl space. The orbs clustered around it but could not get through.
"Go!" Washu called from the back.. After a minute of crawling through the small crawlspace, they came up to a long corridor. Sirens still blaring and and red lights flash on and off. They ran down the hall way, weapons drawn, into the labyrinth of the space station. After a few long minutes of sirens, red lights, and running, they found themselves running down a narrow passage. In the temporary darkness between each glare of the crimson lights, Tenchi ran into something soft. A noise of pain and frustration sounded from in front of him. When the red lights came back on again, he could see Kiyone on the floor in front of him.
"Kiyone!" Tenchi said as he helped her up. After helping her to her feet, He reached down and picked up the small disk that Kiyone just dropped after being ran into and held it out to Kiyone.
"Heh! No Time," Kiyone said forcing past him and the others. "This way!"
They looked at her for a second before hearing a small familiar hum. Looking back to where they were going, they saw a small group of the orbs appear from the corner. The turned heel and ran. Kiyone was a good thirty meters ahead of them, and darted around corners fast. "This hall way should lead us back to the main corridor we came from!" Kiyone called out behind her. They raced after her to catch up. On the final turn Kiyone was ahead when a few orbs smashed through a vent opening in the ceiling near some heavy duty cabling. Mihoshi reactively shot a few rounds from her blaster.
"No! Wait!" Kiyone said from the other side. But it was to late. Mihoshi nailed the orbs dead on and they exploded. The explosion punctured the protective ceiling on the electrical tubing and caused an even bigger explosion which caused a collapse of both the wall and ceiling, cutting Mihoshi and the rest off from Kiyone. She ran back to the rubble. There was a small gap she could see through.
"Just go, Kiyone. Get the Yagami and get out of here." Washu called through the openings. "We'll get out going to the other end using Ryo-Ohki."
With that they parted ways. Kiyone got aboard the Yagami and quickly began to disengage the ship from the lock with the space station. After a few moments, a loud explosion rocked the Yagami. She looked out the view ports and let out a sigh of relief as the Ryo-Ohki bursted through a part of the lower half of the space station. She began to pull away and move to intercept the Ryo-Ohki when something caught her eye. Steam or some gas was venting out long strips along the flat top side. Within seconds, large paneling of the top of the space station rocketed off to reveal missile sites. Warning's instantly appeared over the dash board, all proclaiming eminent destruction. She quickly dislodged from the space station and raced towards the Ryo-Ohki. The Zenith could be seen powering up and flying away from the station as well. The Ryo-Ohki stopped and turned to run. Missile locks lit up the dash of the Yagami. Over both the Yagami and Ryo-Ohki, Zack's face popped up.
"Faster Guys FASTER!" Zack yelled. "Those are A-1 class missiles." The ship's sped off in space, and soon a hail of Missiles followed. Their speed was superior then any of the of the escaping ships. They began to weave and dart about in hopes to shake off the missiles. Zack shook off his after laying down some decoys and quickly raced to aid Ryo-Ohki and rid her of the missiles. The ships stalled for a moment wondering where the Yagami was. It roared over head of the two ships, 20 or so missiles in tow, close behind and gaining ground. Everyone watched some what stunned as the Yagami barreled towards the Station. When it was in close to it, Kiyone piloted the Yagami expertly around it creating tight turns that threw the missiles off into the atmosphere below or, to her better success, slammed them into the sides of the space station. The space station was a blaze with explosions and it began to fall planet ward, explosions racking its hull. A final explosion occured that would doom it to a slow descent to the planet below and the Yagami appeared above the blaze victorious. The space station fell in large chunks into the atmosphere, the smaller parts already blowing up into scrap as they reached the Atmosphere. On the Ryo-Ohki, the other's cheered in happiness that Kiyone piloted the Yagami, although damaged, managed to shake off the missiles and manage to bring down the space station. Clouds of fire below the Yagami, the ship looked like a champ.
"How's that for piloting?" Kiyone said over a communication.
"Impressive," Ryoko commented, and everyone seemed to agree.
"Kiyone! Look out!" A communication from the Zenith yelled in over the open frequencies. For a split second no one knew what Zack told her to look out for, but soon it was apparent. A missile streaked out from the clouds of fire. It hit the Yagami. A massive explosion tore away the lower left side of the red police cruiser, and it seemed to stall.
"Kiyone!" Mihoshi cried out.
"...Ah, thats going to take a while to fix." Kiyone said regaining her seating. A light flared up on her dash. She looked and fear and sadness struck her face. "...Mihoshi... Im sorry..."
"Kiyone?" she questioned, not understanding the comment. A streak of red crossed space again split seconds before the space station entered the atmosphere and gave its last final heaves of fire before breaking apart into oblivion. They all watched shocked as the Yagami burst apart. The ship was hollowed and falling gracefully towards the planet. Nothing left save the bridge and some of the top half.
"KIYONE!" Mihoshi cried. The Zenith and Ryo-Ohki raced out towards the Yagami, hoping to 'catch' it before it fell into the atmosphere. They didn't make it. It sailed into the acidic upper atmosphere. Small explosions dotted the surface of the destroyed ship and the small debris trailing it. Twinkles of light followed and the ship began to disintegrate in the atmosphere, but was ultimately engulfed by a large cold blue explosion.
"NOOOOOOOO" Mihoshi cried as the sparkling dust fell into the dusty wasteland below.