Star Trek: Ranma's Story 94
Disclaimer: Ranma ½, Star Trek, Sailor Moon and other genres belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre story.
Part 94
Two weeks ago, in the Mineralogy lab in the Enterprise-D...
"Okay, now," Science Officer Usagi Tsukino-Saotome said, as she directed Ensign Naru ("Molly") Baker to take the ore, and transfer it from the storage bin to the housing matrix for study. Usagi wanted to supervise the transfer of the ore, since it would give her an opportunity to work with her old friend.
"Yes, ma'am," Naru said. "These controls are not responding properly."
"Must be some sort of interference-
"WARNING! THERE HAS BEEN A CONTAINMENT BREACH!"
"Usagi, I found the source of the problem!"
Usagi took a look at the sensor readings. One of the minerals was different from the others, and it was causing a chain reaction.
"Molly, get out of here!" Usagi said.
"But-!"
"I need to manually reconfigure the containment unit before a breach occurs! You can help by getting help, since the communications link was down."
"Right!"
After Naru leaves, Usagi sealed the doors to the lab, and got to work.
"Okay, okay...I GOT IT-!"
BOOM!
One week later, down in Sickbay...
"Uhhhh..."
"Usagi, you're waking up," Dr. Beverly Crusher says, as she goes Usagi's bed side. "This is good news."
"I...I remember an explosion, doctor," Usagi said. "What happened, and how long was I out?"
"Well, the rare ore that you discovered was more unstable than the mineralogical scan indicated."
"How?"
"The ore itself was giving off the false reading. As for how long you were out...you unconscious for about a week. But, um, Usagi..."
"What?"
"Something happened to you..."
Usagi wondered what she was talking about, when she noticed her reflection in a nearby mirror. She got up, and realized she felt that her mass, height and weight was off.
"No..."
"The exposure of the radiation ignited the latent gamma radiated cells in your body. I'm afraid you might be permanently stuck in your 'Gammazon' form."
Usagi sighed.
Now.
With Aikiko, Ranma and Usagi's daughter, on Oa with Lianna (in order to give Ranma and Usagi much needed "quality time"), the two were attempted to deal with their present situation.
Usagi, still in her "Gammazon" form, was sitting with Ranma, eating lunch at "Ten Forward", the eatery of the Enterprise-D.
"How are you holding up?" Ranma asked.
"How do you THINK, Ranma?" Usagi replied. She had to take the equivalent of "prozac" to keep her temper in check. "Everyone thinks I've turned into an Orion female!"
"I seriously think that everyone here would mistake a seven foot behemoth for a slave girl."
"I suppose so. But I had to readjust myself to everything. My fingers are big, so I had to reconfigure the control panels of my science station, I had to get a chair big enough to sit in, and everything about me is too...big. Heck, I make Lianna look slimmer in comparison, and SHE was already a big girl to begin with!"
And then, Usagi looks at Ranma with a slight hurt look.
"And you never seem to...well..you know..."
"Usagi," Ranma said, as he held his wife's large hands. "I haven't made 'the move' because I didn't want to come off as insensitive or something. I love you, Usako, no matter what you look like."
Tears fell from Usagi's eyes.
"Can I get you folks desert?" said Guinan, the proprietor of "Ten Forward".
"Actually, we're going to help ourselves to our own 'dessert'," Ranma replies. "Check please."
"Of course," Guinan says with a smile.
The next day...
"You seem to be in a good mood," Counselor Deanna Troi said to Ranma, who was business on the bridge.
"Yeah, Usagi and I managed to work things out," Ranma replied.
Ever since Wesley Crusher decided to attend the Starfleet Academy, Ranma went back to being Helm Officer; it was less paper work involved. And besides, Worf has moved up to "Strategic Operations" specialist, while the new Yeoman was none other than-
"Captain Picard want a report on the propulsion systems check within the hour...Sir," Ensign Ryouga Hibiki says, as he stiffly hands Ranma a data pad. With a spot as "Captain's Yeoman" open, Ryouga hopes to use such a move to further his Starfleet career as quickly as possible."
"Thanks, Ensign. Oh, I need a complete manifest for the next scheduled ship-wide maintenance check."
"Yes, sir," Ryouga said, with gritted teeth.
After Ryouga departs, Ranma turned towards Deanna.
"I thought Ryouga was suppose to go through counseling?"
"He has some issues to work through. I cannot give the details of those sessions, I'm afraid."
"Understood. So...how are things working out between you and Will?"
"We're just...friends, uncle."
"Well, his lost-"
"Sir, I'm picking up an emergency beacon," Tasha Yar said. "It's from Commander Riker."
Ranma looks at Deanna with an alarmed expression.
"Saotome to Captain Picard," Ranma said, as he tapped his combadge.
"Go ahead," Picard replied likewise.
"We have a situation on Melona IV."
"I'm on my way."
Location: Melona IV.
Ranma, with Tasha, Dr. Crusher, Engineer LaForge, Usagi, Worf and a security detail beams down to the planet's surface.
"Look at this disaster..." Usagi said, nearly tearing up.
Ranma looked about, and began his examination with his Tricorder. Sure enough, he detected the familiar signs of the presence of...the Crystalline Entity. And if that was not a clue, then the lack of vegetation was."
"Yar, see if you can locate any survivors in THAT region over there; I'll take a crew over in the other direction."
"Yes, sir," Tasha says.
Ranma turns to Ryouga.
"Ryouga, what does your training tell you?"
"Ranma, I don't need to be told how to do my job!"
Ranma had to be patient with his old friend.
"Ensign, we are on a mission. Adhere to the proper protocols."
"Ah, yes, sir."
Ryouga begins looking around.
"I would use the high ground for shelter."
Ranma nods his head.
"Excellent."
He then notices something odd about his wife.
She was getting bigger.
"Usagi? Are you alright?"
"Huh?"
Dr. Crusher took a brief examine of Usagi. Usagi was absorbing the ambient energy, and was fueling her gamma-irradiated cells.
"Commander, the energy that Usagi was exposed to in her accident is the same one that has permeated the planet."
"Can something be done?"
"I have a drug that will slow down the processing rate, but-"
"But what, Doctor?" Usagi asked fearfully.
"If you do not have a way to discharge, you'll continue to expand."
After the survivors of the Crystalline Entity's attack, the Enterprise-D was officially asked to track down the entity, and to determine if there is a way to make contact. If not, then it was to be dealt with. On this mission, a scientist named Dr. Kila Marr, whose son was killed on Omicron Theta III (where Data was found by Ranma) would accompany the crew as they search for the entity.
"According to my findings, the entity needs organic life in order to survive," Marr says. "I have also discovered that we could uses specific pulses, EMPs at 10 per second, to communicate."
"Is there a way to...neutralize it, if need be?" Commander Riker says, as he was still feeling the effects of the loss of Director Carmen Davila, the person in charge of the ill-fated Federation colony on Melona IV.
"It's possible..."
"But first, we SHOULD attempt to communicate with it FIRST," Picard said.
Meanwhile, in a specially designed cargo bay...
"How're you holding up, Usako?" Ranma asked.
"I...AM...FINE...I...GUESS..."
Within a few days, Usagi's size has increased to the size of a house, which is why she was placed in a specially modified cargo bay. As a result of her increased size, she has been immobilized for her own safety, since her body can no longer support its own weight. Not that it would matter, since her muscle mass was making it difficult for her to move (including her lungs, which is why she was also on a respirator). Dr. Crusher believed that the ambient radiation from the Crystalline Entity was preventing Usagi's gamma irradiated cells from processing its own energy. The result was an ever increase in mass. At any rate, Usagi was lying in a weightless environment, covered up with a medical apron.
"The doctor believes we may have a way to help you," Ranma says. "We believe that in order for it to work, we would need to the Crystalline Entity's help."
Usagi manages to turn her head slightly.
"PLEASE...BE...CAREFUL..."
Ranma gave Usagi a kiss on the cheek, and left the room.
Soon, the Enterprise-D, tracks down the entity, after receiving a distress signal from a doomed freighter.
"Sir, we are at a safe distance," Ranma said. "Ready to begin."
"Okay, everyone," Picard said. "Let's do this by the numbers."
"Crusher to Bridge," Dr. Crusher said. "We're ready to begin."
"Dr. Marr, begin your attempt at communications"
Marr nods, as she pressed a series of buttons.
"Sir, the harmonics are...off," Data said. "And is having a negative affect on the entity."
"Sir, I see fissures in the entity!" Yar says.
Picard turns to Marr.
"Shut down!"
"I won't Captain Picard! That THING murdered my son!"
"NO!" Ranma said, as he activated his Green Lantern power ring. He emitted a makeshift power line, and jammed it into the computer core.
"What are you doing?" Marr cried, as Yar held the scientist.
"Saving my wife," Ranma said. While he wasn't suppose to, he used his Green Lantern background to create a workable language for which it could communicate with the entity.
A series of sounds pass through the ship...
"Go ahead, Doctor," Ranma said, "we're ready."
"Right," Dr. Crusher said, as she placed a modified ring over Usagi's body. This was based upon something called the Musabetsu Kakuto ogi, most famously used by Hanako Ninomiya, a fellow student in the Anything Goes Martial Arts style.
"We're all set up!"
Ranma turns to Picard.
"I've established contact. The entity simply needs to feed."
"Oh?"
"It's nothing more than an animal, sir."
"I see. Well, we can't just let it roam around."
"I know sir, which is why my next trick should work. I just need to borrow deflector grid."
"Proceed."
With the deflector grid hooked up to the ship's system, Ranma and Dr. Crusher forcefully drain-off Usagi's excess energy. This energy was then drained into a collector, and then channeled into the entity...
The entity glowed, as it beeped its response.
"What did it say?" Picard asked.
"It said, 'Thank You'," Data says. "And it will only feed on uninhabited planets, when it needs to feed again...in a million years."
And with that, the Crystalline Entity left for part unknown, never to be seen again."
"Doctor, how is Commander Tsukino?" Picard asked.
"She is fine, sir," Dr. Crusher replies. "She is fine."
Ranma sighs with satisfaction.
"Sir, may I...?"
"You may."
And with that, Ranma left the Bridge to see his wife.
As for Dr. Marr, she was confined to her quarters, but no charges were ever filled.
A few days later...
"Ah, I feel so great," Usagi said, as she gobbled her ice cream sundae. "Guinan! More desert!"
"Man, you're worse than ME," Ranma replied.
"Well, with the sudden loss of energy, my body needs to repair itself. She also said that it'll be a while before my body can maintain its 'Gammazon' form. So...it's little ol' me for a while.
Then, Ryouga shows up.
"Um, Ranma?"
"Yes, Ryouga?"
"I just wanted to...well...apologize for my actions of late. It's just that I get so mad that you have all this, while I have to start at the bottom just to compete with you."
"But Ryouga...I'm not trying to."
"Huh?"
"Look, I earned my stripes...worked damn hard to get where I am today. YOU have your own life to live. I hope we can be friends, but I'm certainly not going to be your rival."
"Hmmm..."
"Look, I got to go. We'll talk later."
"Okay..."
As the Ranma and Usagi leave, Usagi turns her husband.
"When do you have to go back on duty?" Usagi asked.
"Not for another couple of hours. Why?"
Usagi gives Ranma a mischievous smile...as her eyes turn green...
SPLURCH!
Usagi, now in her Gammazon form, had busted of her clothes.
"OOPS," Usagi said. "HOW CLUMSY OF ME..."
"Um..." Ranma said nervously.
"I'M IN THE MOOD, RANCHAN," Usagi said, as she picked up her husband. "BESIDES, ESPECIALLY WITH AIKIKO STILL AWAY...I OWE YOU ONE FOR BEING THERE FOR ME."
With that, Usagi races back to her quarters with her husband on her back. As she streaked by, neither she nor Ranma notices a perplexed Commander Data, as the couple streaked by.
"Fascinating," the android says.
Tbc.