An Empire Reborn
Ch 8: Impossibilities and Curiosities
Nabiki woke gradually to the fierce pounding of her heart and the prickly feel of fear induced sweat coating her body. It had been three days since she had witnessed the brutally destructive fight between Ryoga, the incredibly scarred and psychotic fighter who had ambushed them, and her potential fiancée Ranma on the school grounds and as she had predicted, she had not slept well since.
Half remembered dreams combined with visions of her family being slaughtered, and her home being destroyed with ridiculous ease had fuelled her nightmares and filled her days with worry. Thankfully Furinkan had been closed for the rest of the week while repairs were completed so her sleep deprived and unfocussed mind had not caused her too many problems and she had the rest of the week to sort through some of the issues that were still plaguing her.
She was half torn between confronting Ranma since he was the source of her uncertainties or as she had numerous times in the past, work through her issues herself. Still this situation seemed so big that she had found herself floundering over the last few days and as much as she hated to admit it she was intimidated by Ranma, and a little scared of him.
The fact that no one had heard from or seen Ranma since that fight only added to her fears and helped to fuel her nightmares. Ranma's disappearance worried her more than she had at first realized. In hindsight it was easy to see that Ranma had been suffering from shock and blood loss during the fight.
It had been so easy to overlook when he had displayed such prowess and confidence but she was concerned and then he had mysteriously disappeared and strangely enough his father was even less worried about his health than she was. The amount of blood she had found splashed around the school grounds was not a small amount.
It wasn't that hard to understand why he wasn't too worried either, his father was probably just as capable at facing people like Ryoga as Ranma was. Certainly he hadn't seemed too surprised by the extent of the fight that had destroyed the school grounds and damaged the school buildings.
If anything he seemed confused by the fact that the fight had lasted so long and that his son had allowed himself to be injured in it. That revelation had scared her more than the fight itself had. Hearing from Genma that his son was hugely powerful somehow added more weight than some vague hints from his companion had despite her recent doubts about the reliability of information coming from him.
No Tendo, despite her younger sister's boasting or her father's lifelong martial arts quest, would have lasted a second in a fight with that disfigured and scarred fighter. He could have played with her family as easily as it seemed Ranma had played with him and from what she had seen of his mental state she wouldn't trust him within one hundred kilometres of her family.
As much as she hated to admit it, the engagement had suddenly become much more important to her. As little as she knew about Ranma, she knew of no-one else who could, or would protect her family from such a powerful psychopath.
"Nabiki," a rugged and harsh voice whispered, sounding suspiciously like the wind over a gravel pit. It was a voice that had filled her nightmares in both daylight and night time hours. She knew instinctively that no-one was in her room with her and that it was just her mind playing cruel tricks on her but that didn't stop her from shivering in fright and nervously glancing around for a threat she knew she would never be able to counter.
When she and her sisters had first heard of the engagement from her father she had been quietly resigned to accepting it on behalf of her sisters unless there was clearly something wrong with the match. Akane had showed outrage and Kasumi shared an expression of disappointment with her leading her to promptly assume neither would accept an arranged marriage no matter how set on it her father was.
If the boy had decent prospects, then she wouldn't mind an arranged marriage so much if it would help her family, she could at least rely on the business and political skills she had been nurturing since her mother died to lead a fulfilling life, if not necessarily a happy one. Nabiki knew of more than one way in which she could manipulate and control her prospective fiancé and was already mentally tallying a list.
When Genma Saotome had turned up covered in a bloody and torn rag and looking like he had been hit by a train, she had started to get a sense that something was very wrong. Why had Genma come to the household of his potential in-laws so poorly presented, even if it was the home of an old friend and where was his son – Ranma. Already her mental list was being adjusted and counter strategies being designed for possible scenario's that would see the engagement work out best for her family.
It soon became clear when Genma started to explain to his friend that he no longer supported the engagement, an engagement that had lasted no more than a day in her mind. But even if Genma no longer actively supported the engagement, by staying in their home he was clearly hoping that his son would 'hit it off' with one of the three Tendo sisters.
Besides her father was clearly set on a match between their families, so she didn't feel comfortable with shelving her plans completely. Nabiki just quietly made some contingency plans in her plans in case he hit it off with one of her other sisters.
She had felt both relieved and increasingly nervous at that stage. Without active support for an engagement she and her sisters would no longer been put under pressure to marry as soon as possible but when Genma had admitted that his son was responsible for his bloody state a flash of fear had coursed through her. Would he be a danger to the household? Surely her father would not invite someone so violent into their home? But then her father had already admitted that he knew nothing about the son.
It was the start of what would be almost a week of unsettling and uncontrollable events. Unexplainable and as she would have said mere days ago, impossible. Her careful constructed and defined world of logic and rationality had started to collapse and Ranma had been at the centre of it. She had never felt so lost in her life and she was frantically trying to find a piece of firm ground where she could once again find her equilibrium and do what she was best at, gain control over situations.
Nabiki groaned as she crawled out of her bed shaking her head lethargically to clear it of the bombardments of random thoughts, fears and half thought out plans and clumsily climbed into her old Gi. She had never been a real morning person but then she had never had the motivation before. When Ranma had been attacked and his companion had manhandled her too safety she had never felt so powerless.
It was a blow to her confidence, even more so straight after being out maneuvered so effortlessly by Ranma earlier in an area she had considered her self without peer in.. She had not felt so lost since before her mother had died and so she had thrown herself into some old half remembered Kata's, telling herself morosely that at least they might help to escape a fight a little less scathed.
Even more than that, when she was young they had helped her find confidence that she had always been lacking and achieve a body that she had been so self conscious about when she was younger. Before her mother had died her father had always espoused the benefits of the arts and was always encouraging his younger daughters in their use, but once her mother died everything changed.
"Damn, bloody stairs, who moved them so early in the morning," Nabiki cursed as she stumbled to the dojo. Stubbing her toe and tripping over her shadow in a sleep deprived haze. Her usual strong black coffee forgotten in her rush to get to training, coffee just didn't seem to have the same effect lately. She constantly found herself depressed angry and fearful, often on the same day.
It was her hope that she would once again find comfort in the arts that she had neglected and found unnecessary for so long. After all she had seen what her sister had become after continuing them and had actively chosen not to tread down that path. Brains had always served her more than brawn in the past. But the display a few days ago had shown her how inadequate brains were in the face of directed brawn and it scared her, badly.
Her sisters were useless to talk to. Akane had been skeptical of either fighter's skills, accusing Nabiki of exaggerating their prowess even after she had seen the remnants of their fight. Besides her younger sisters pride didn't need any further encouraging before challenging either boy. Kasumi tried to understand Nabiki's worries but her perennial optimism didn't allay any of her fears.
Ranma's father was more helpful than her own father had been, certainly he seemed wiser than she initially gave him credit for when he had talked about the philosophy her son lived by and urged her to talk to him while her father was just ecstatic that she was worried about Ranma and asked when the wedding would be, entirely missing the point.
Nabiki tried to clear her mind of all the clutter that bombarded it these days as she entered the dojo, barely avoiding running the sliding door of it's rails and assumed a very sloppy stance chuckling quietly at the irony. She had for so long prided her self on her intelligence, wit and clarity of thought that it seemed that she would never need anything more. Yet her she was, desperately trying to regain a fraction of the skill she once had in her family school.
Blinking away the gauze that misted her half closed eyes she started to jerkily move through one of the more basic Kata's of her school. "That is the sloppiest, sorriest, half hearted and disgraceful attempt of that Kata I have ever seen. I could have done better at three."
Nabiki's eyes cleared instantly as adrenaline pumped all the sleepiness out of her body and focused her thoughts on the boy who casually lounged in the corner of the dojo. "I could help you with that," he continued unconcerned at her rigid stance or shocked and fearful expression.
Taking her silence as tacit agreement to his offer of help, he strode over and gently guided her movements with firm hands that she had seen demolish decades old concrete as if it were nothing but wet sand. Too shocked to do anything, Nabiki eased into the corrected stance and slowly restarted the beginners Kata even as her mind desperately tried to sort through the questions she had spent days and sleepless nights thinking about.
"How….who…where.." She croaked out hoarsely from her suddenly dry throat even as she struggled not to flinch every time Ranma corrected her stance and movements with hands that were capable of so much destruction. She felt terribly uncomfortable so close to someone who could rip her in half before she could even blink in surprise or pain.
Ranma sighed sadly as her fearful expression didn't lessen and her movements refused to ease into the smooth movements of the Kata. Stopping his guidance and stepping away from Nabiki her smiled toothily and sat down on the polished wooden boards of the dojo floor.
"I'm sorry. I am so used to the fights that I get into and the destruction that I and others with a level of knowledge in the arts can achieve that I don't think about how it can effect others. I should have stayed long enough to explain. Please, sit with me. Don't be afraid of me, my father has probably already explained that I would never hurt you or your family."
Nabiki slowly felt the panic induced daze recede from her thoughts as Ranma's confidence seemed to fill the room with a calming ambiance. As she calmed for the first time since Ranma's fight with the scarred and brutal Ryoga and felt her thoughts start to regain the focus that she had prided her self for, she noticed that despite Ranma's face being open and seemed welcoming to questions, his eyes continued to move calmly around the dojo for potential threats and were as hard as steal and sharp as diamond.
Swallowing nervously and reminding herself of Ranma's father's words, she focused on his welcoming face and avoided eye contact, they definitely made her too nervous. "Where," she started, slowly starting to build up her own confidence that had been so lacking, "where is your companion? I don't think that I have seen you without her shadowing your every move."
"Oh, Ehri is doing some odd jobs for me that require her unique perspective and expertise. She'll be back soon, I wouldn't worry too much. There is next to nothing on the planet which could harm her."
Nabiki shifted uncomfortably, he still had not really explained who his strange companion was or what she did. Was he deliberately avoiding giving her any information? It was definitely something that needed to be cleared up in light of the engagement and even if Genma thought she was a master of some lost art, Nibiki had her own suspicions of who she was and what she did for Ranma. Still, she had no way to force him to answer and really needed that information; she had never felt so powerless or frustrated in her life.
"But who is she?" Nabiki blurted out before clamping her mouth shut. She would never get anywhere blurting out questions like a novice businesswoman with more money than negotiating skills. Even though she new he already held her at a disadvantage by surprising her when she was sleep deprived, shaken and looked terrible she suddenly found herself determined to ensure that he would not be any threat to her family.
She may have lost her nerve over the last couple of days but slowly she could feel it firming and coming back.
"She works for me of course. I have several business interests that requires constant attention, which due to my schooling I have little time for. She is also very skilled at what she does and a master in her art. A lost skill I believe," Ranma seemed mildly amused by her line of questioning and his hard and ageless eyes never stopped roaming for threats.
Nabiki worked her tongue to try and moisten her dry mouth and swallowed in surprise at his revelation. Business – she would never have seen that coming. A martial arts jock to a business man, how had everyone been fooled so easily. Even as she thought about it she just nodded to herself, being no stranger to holding secrets close to her chest and projecting masks to hide even a hint of those secrets, she was well aware of how he had done it and found she unwilling to EVER play poker with him.
As she examined his answers for a hint more information than they contained, Nabiki was suddenly struck by the expression on his face, toothy smile and confident demeanor and how it acted to, along with his answers, rebuild her lost confidence in herself and to allay fears she may have had since she had watched such casual and impossible destruction. His answers may or not be true, and certainly she doubted she would be able to tell if her was lying but she found herself grateful to the boy, no man before her.
He had suddenly made her realize that the destructive powers they held had always been out there, and that the threat to her family was the same as it always had been, being a martial arts family. While her fears were certainly justified she knew that they would never overwhelm her as much as they had. She had found her anchor and regained her equilibrium and her family would as always come first.
Smiling coyly at the master in front of her, she reassumed the stance that she had started when she first came in, letting her Gi loosen slightly around her chest and taking careful note to incorporate the corrections that Ranma had shown her. "Would you mind running through that Kata again?"" I think I almost have it and I would like to get the next three Kata's mastered by the end of the week."
Ranma's toothy grin disappeared and became something much more genuine as the last of the fear in Nabiki's eyes disappeared and he started to guide her though the steps of the Kata. Neither had mentioned the engagement and judging from what she had pieced together from what her father and Genma had told her, Nabiki wondered whether he was even aware of its existence. 'Even if he isn't,' Nabiki smirked to herself, 'it hardly matters since he has sparked interest from all three Tendo daughters and since he is staying here at the Tendo Dojo, we'll just have to see what happens.'
Nabiki almost felt sorry for him.
Steven sighed; he feared he might have just made a mistake. It had all been so convincing yesterday, from the visit of a fellow scientist within his field, convincing enough to hold a highly theoretical discussion in high energy physics, to the small container on his desk. Something which was meant to convince him that the job that was offered was both legit and cutting edge.
A well-dressed gentleman of the name of Abha had dropped in unexpectedly and offered him a three-year contract on behalf of a wealthy research institute. When he left, he dropped off a number if he was interested in finding out more.
He would have immediately said no, after all he had a professorship in high energy physics at a well known American university, plenty of funding and almost unlimited access to whatever resources he felt he needed, but his family had been begging him to find something else lately. Something that allowed a little more flexibility in his hours. The professorship took up too much of his time, leaving him with none at all with his two growing sons and baby daughter.
Besides it had been a long time since he had enjoyed a conversation quite so detailed with a college anywhere. His work was little understood, even by eminent people in his own field and to the more applied oriented scientists around the world, his theories were considered nothing more than mathematical fantasy since the engineering did not exist to put his ideas into practice.
Picking up the grey cylinder, Steven started to juggle it between his hands. Abha had left the cylinder on his desk, telling him to investigate the gaseous contents before he made any decisions on the job offer. It was only chance that he had checked out the contents of the small grayish cylinder instead of putting it away until his work load cleared a little and he was glad he had checked its contents, because what he had found astounded him.
Five litres of helium – 3 with a purity of six nines. 99.9999 purity was impossible with even his labs technological facilities and know-how. Then there was what it was continued in, 0.1 of a litre of helium – 3 should never have been able to be just transported in an ordinary cylinder like the one his desk, much less five litres of the stuff. It was radioactive and unstable. The helium - 3 would have broken down to its constituent particles into a more stable mixture long before he had had a chance to check the containers contents, or it should have.
The impossibilities of it aside, its monetary value was priceless to science. Helium – 3 of such purity was a boon to not only his own work, but the work of everyone who was trying to solve the practicalities of sustainable thermonuclear fusion for use as a clean energy source.
He had immediately called the number that Abha had left him and opened negotiations with the lady who had answered. Now that he was waiting in his office for Ehri, at the allotted time he was having second thoughts. His scientific curiosity had been peaked with the technological impossibilities and theoretical implausibility's he had seen, but his families pleadings still came to mind and needed to be addressed.
Did he want to potentially move his family from where they had established themselves or even worse travel to his new job? Should he have talked to his wife first before he had made a completely rash decision about not only his future but his wife's and children's?
Ehri had seemed unconcerned over the phone about such things as work/life balance or pay and conditions. She had just seemed exceedingly pleased that he had called back at all. Some of his colleagues around the world had been a little harder to convince. That had sparked a question that had reverberated around his head for some time and still, to an extent, did.
Who had the resources to head hunt so many top scientists and the technological know-how to produce items like the 5 liters of gaseous Helium-3 on his desk? Was it legal and ethical? He had known more than one scientist who had been tempted by rogue states or large corporations before. Was it worth finding out?
Raking his hand through his thick brown hair, Steven reached for the phone. He would call it off and find something else. Nothing ever came easy and no-one threw money into science these days. Sad really… in his line of work he had access to all the technological wonders that may one day be possible but which lacked funding and vision to bear fruit.
"You will almost certainly regret that decision for the rest of your life." Steven halted, his arm still out stretched for the phone, "Always left wondering what could be possible with the proper vision and drive and how you could have been a part of it all but for one phone call."
Steven blinked at the young woman who so casually mirrored his own thoughts and frustrations of just a minute ago. 'Well,' he thought 'now she's here I may as well see what she or her mysterious benefactor has too offer.'
"The person I am representing is prepared to offer you double your current salary and accommodation for yourself and your family. We have excellent educational and health facilities so all your needs will be adequately meet. However it is a high security area so your movements will be monitored."
Steven sat back and looked at the woman before him. She wasn't as young as he first assumed, with fine lines under her eyes and large calluses over her knuckles. Still to be able to offer such a large amount straight up she was either very confident or very inexperienced in negotiating.
"Please, Ehri, take a seat," he gestured towards a cushioned chair opposite his desk. "I am curious, why was I chosen. Out of all of the skilled and eminent scientist out there, why me? And why have you knot asked about my qualifications?"
Steven watched as Ehri's face lit up in a confident smile with worry, he sensed would not like what she was going to say next. "Oh my benefactor and his advisors looked at your work and although they found a few fundamental flaws in your work they agreed that your science was top quality." He was right he thought grumpily, he didn't like what the woman had said.
At the same time however he was exited. He knew that although his theories were beatifically efficient and mathematically stable by it, when merged with other theories that were equally stable it only came up with infinities and impossibilities. That someone had read his work and understood it well enough to be able to criticize it so thoroughly, that was definitely somewhere he would want to work.
"My benefactor is fairly hands off in his approach, so unless you want or do something stupid he will most likely only set the broadest of goals and take whatever advice you want to lend. But you will have to give me a tentative answers soon because places are filling fast."
His gaze was drawn to the mysterious cylinder full of fuel that when combined with deuterium would most likely require the next step in high energy physics to control the thermonuclear reaction. Any lab that could so easily afford to leave so much priceless material lying around had to be worth taking a look at.
Steven could tell that Ehri was both aware of his thoughtful gaze and expecting his answer. With his family firmly in his mind and his curiosity bubbling away he gave the only answer he could. When can my wife and I visit the facilities?
Ehri's answer was a wide, satisfied grin.
A/N – A big thanks to daydreamsamurai for pre reading this
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