The Saotome Gambit

by Shinji Ikari7

Not writen by me but thought it would be good to have the story on FF.N

4. Chapter 4

Ukyou was standing outside her staff car, dressed in her brigadier's uniform. Several of the Palomino crew looked on from the staging around Tarou's Hunchback, hoping for a repeat of last night's craziness.

"Hiya, Ucchan," he replied. He was glad to see her, but it didn't show in his voice.

She registered his less than enthusiastic tone and frowned.

"What's the matter, honey? Aren't you glad to see me? And while I'm asking all these questions, why are you all wet?"

"Sure I am," Ranma replied, brightening a bit. It's just that everyone else can see us, too... "The wet part's a long story." A really long story. "Don't worry about it."

Ukyou cut to the heart of the matter.

"Things must have gotten pretty ugly after I left," she observed.

Ranma rubbed at his sore jaw from the fight with Ryouga. "You don't know the half of it. Look, can we talk somewhere else?"

Ukyou shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid not, sugar. I'm leaving the planet for Genevieve, remember?"

Ranma nodded. "Oh yeah. So you're gonna help us out when we get there?"

She gave him a sly smile. "I'm sure we can work something out between us. You're not gonna keep me waiting too long, are you?"

"That depends," he replied uneasily. When she looked at him like that, he felt all mushy and nervous inside. It bothered him to think that someone - especially a girl - could do that to him. Even Akane could do it to him, when she wasn't being a crabby battleaxe. "We can't go anywhere until we get our JumpShip fixed. We're waiting on parts."

Ukyou turned up the heat on her smile.

"Too bad. Just think of the next time you'll get some of this."

She gestured to the car. A rather cute and demure girl of major rank stepped out, gingerly holding a flat square-shaped box in her white-gloved hands. The girl shyly presented the box to him before returning to the car.

"Open it," Ukyou told him.

Ranma could already tell by the heat and the smell that it was food. He flipped open the box to reveal a piping hot okonomiyaki resting upon a sheet of rice paper. There were characters written in sauce on the pancake-like food - something mushy, he was sure - but Ranma wolfed the thing down before he could read all of them.

Ukyou judged by the speed at which he had devoured the okonomiyaki that he had missed her cute love note, but upon seeing him happily eating some of her lovingly prepared handiwork, she was content to let it go at that.

"It's good," he mumbled, his mouth still full with the last bite. "Thank you."

"You're quite welcome, Ranchan," she replied, leaning forward to kiss his cheek.

His face burned at her show of affection.

"Remember, sugar," she continued. "The faster you get to Genevieve, the sooner you can eat all the okonomiyaki you want."

"I'd flap my arms and fly there if it meant I could get some more of this!" he gushed.

Ukyou beamed. She wished that she didn't have to go, but the sooner she boarded her DropShip, the better. Mikado could discover her plans at any time, and if Konatsu was correct in his assessment of the general, his vengeance would be terrible.

"I have to go now, Ranchan," she told him. "Of course, you could always come with me!"

Ranma blanched. "I can't," he replied. "Pop would kill me. We'll be there soon, I promise."

Her eyes fell. At least he hadn't mentioned anything about Akane...

"Oh. Well, I guess it can't be helped." She gave him a wave, then stepped back into the car.

Ranma waved good bye as it drove down the service road towards the military side of the starport. A Union Class DropShip waited at the end of the road, probably Ucchan's. It was weird thinking of her as a high ranking mechwarrior in the Federated Shiratori Army, and only the sight of her in her uniform had made it real for him.

He needed to blow off some steam first, before taking Pop's advice and moving into town for a week or so. How long did girls usually stay mad at someone, anyway? Akane seemed to have a lot of stamina when it came to being pissed off.

He looked up at the weathered hull of the Palomino and got an idea. Perhaps it was time to take Duke Tendo's loaner out for a spin.

"What is it, Konatsu?" Ukyou asked her adjutant. Though he had not said a word, his silence spoke volumes.

"Sir?" he asked innocently.

"I've waited a long time for Ranma to come back into my life," Ukyou told him. "It's only natural for me to show a little affection towards him."

"As you say, sir," Konatsu replied uncomfortably.

Ukyou decided to let it go at that. The poor guy was going to have to get used to the fact that Ranma was an important part of her life.

Captain Hinako Ninomiya trudged sluggishly up the jetway from the shuttle to the passenger terminal, mindful under the oppressive pull of Tiber's gravity that she had been spending too much time in the free-fall of the drydock while overseeing the repairs to the Dragonfly. There were only a handful of passengers with her, most of them yardbirds on furlough, and all were similarly impaired. The acrid smell of welding fumes clung to her tight-fitting clothes, and she longed to step out into air that had not endured endless recycling. It had been months since the last time she had set foot on a planet.

Akane Tendo waited for her at the top of the jetway. Hinako noted the grave look on her face and wondered what exactly the girl had on her mind to call her from orbit. She had other business on Tiber, so the trip was necessary no matter what the daughter of the Grand Duke's was upset about, but she was nonetheless concerned.

"Thank you for coming, Captain Ninomiya," Akane said by way of greeting.

Hinako bowed slightly for the Confederation Heir. There was no need for anything more formal between them in a place like this.

"I did have other business dirtside," she replied in her husky voice. She gave Akane a penetrating look that made the Tendo girl wish Hinako had arrived in her child-body. "You were less than clear on the reasons why you needed to speak with me in person. Perhaps we can discuss the matter over lunch?"

Akane nodded in agreement. "That's fine with me," she said calmly.

Hinako took a sip of her iced tea before responding to Akane's request. "You are asking me, in effect, to mutiny against Commander Saotome," she said to Akane.

"Mutiny?" Akane chirped worriedly. The word 'mutiny' occupied a place in the military lexicon similar to the one occupied by 'cowardice,' except that 'mutiny' was a far graver offense. Fear was a fact of war, and sometimes the struggle against one's fear was lost, but mutiny was a crime against the very fabric of martial society. An army or fleet could not function if it were permissable to usurp the command of higher authority.

Hinako explained her response from her own unique perspective.

"Lady Akane, as an officer of the Confederation Navy, I swore an oath of fealty to the Tendos, and to the Grand Duke specifically. Your father has placed Genma Saotome in command of this expedition, and granted him, by a letter of marque, a rank commensurate with his position. I cannot simply ignore that fact because you wish to exercise the authority granted to you by your birthright."

"I only wanted your opinion on the matter," Akane said, her voice surprisingly meek.

"And now you have it," Hinako replied sharply. "Now would you mind telling me what made you even consider such a thing?"

Akane wasn't sure if she should proceed. Captain Ninomiya had made it clear that to return home against Genma Saotome's wishes would be the equivalent of mutiny against her own father. She could not do that, even if her father was dead wrong about the Saotomes.

Worse, her true motivation for wanting to return home was due to the shattered engagement with Ranma. How do you rationalize something like that to an outsider like Captain Ninomiya, she wondered, much less explain it?

Hinako took her silence as a cue to speak.

"Is this about the Combine's siege of Capella?" she asked Akane. "Even if we returned, one ship and a handful of battlemechs would not make any more difference in the outcome," she continued. "Furthermore, you would only be placing yourself in Prince Kuno's hands. Is that what you really want?"

Akane looked away. Had she really been that stupid? Her anger with Ranma was making her brain rot.

"No," she replied. "Of course not."

"Then why would you even consider such a thing?"

Akane remained silent.

"There's something more to this, isn't there," Hinako observed.

Akane's head bobbed slightly in agreement. It was hard to imagine a women who spent half her time trapped in the body of an eight-year-old actually possessing that kind of perception. How old was Captain Ninomiya, anyway? Sitting across from her at the table, with her enviable body shoehorned into an outfit so short and tight that it made mens' heads turn and tongues wag, she looked about thirty.

"It's complicated," she replied.

"I'm sure it is," Hinako returned. She steepled her fingers together.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's your business."

Akane decided that she did not want to talk about it. The more she thought about the situation, the more foolish her chosen course of action made her look. It was bad enough that she was defying her father by breaking off the engagement with Ranma. Did she really want to add mutiny to the list? All because of her idiotic, two-timing, ex-fiance?

The DropShip Palomino

"I'm not sure this is such a great idea."

Yuka looked her friend over. She had expected Sayuri to get cold feet a little sooner than this.

"Do you want to go home or don't you?"

"Of course I want to go home," Sayuri replied. "But not in chains."

"We aren't going to kill him," Yuka assured her friend. "We're just going to scare him a little. Put him in his place, as it were."

"But a duel?" Sayuri protested. "Just because we're not out to kill him doesn't mean he'll feel the same way. This could get out of hand before we know it."

Yuka gestured to their CSR-V8 Corsair fighters. Akari's Tech Shed had just craned them out of their launch bays in the DropShip's bow section, and set them on the tarmac for takeoff. "Come on," she returned. "What can a LAM do to one of these things? We have twice the armor and firepower, and we're faster than him too."

"I'm still not convinced that this is the best way to go about getting rid of the Saotomes," Sayuri said to her. "If we kill him, we're in big trouble. We know that Akane's angry with Ranma, but what if she still loves him?"

Yuka pursed her lips in thought. It was not her intention to kill the worthless piece of crap, but it was possible that it could happen. Akane might not take it well at first, but she would get over the loser in time. As for any legal problems they might have, she had an angle for that.

"If we kill him, then so be it. We have the right as aerospace pilots to challenge others to duels the same way mechwarriors can."

Sayuri wasn't so sure. While the Succession Wars had conferred upon mechwarriors and aerospace pilots a status approaching that of the Chivalry in the feudal periods of pre-Jump Earth, dueling wasn't exactly condoned by the Nerima Confederation the way it was in the Furinkan Combine or the Jusenkyo Commonwealth. They simply couldn't afford to waste their fighting resources the way the larger, richer Successor States could. She didn't like Ranma any more than Yuka did, but was this really the only way?

"Are you with me or aren't you?" Yuka pressed.

Sayuri closed her eyes in dread of the next few hours. Yuka would go whether she did or not, and by herself, she could get killed. Neither of them had ever fought a LAM before, and in the hands of a skilled pilot, LAMs were known to be as unpredictable as enemies came. Ranma was a total asshole for the way he treated Akane, and he also had every reason to hate both Yuka and herself. She couldn't, in good conscience, let Yuka fight someone like that alone.

"I'm in."

"Good. Let's get cracking then."

Phoenix Hawk LAM T-507

5000 meters MSL above the Sea of Aquila

Ranma opened the throttle wide on his fusion-heated turbojets, letting the Phoenix Hawk settle into the comfortable velocity of Mach Two. The silence to be had in traveling faster than the sound of your passing was a welcome relief to him. He had way too much to think about without a lot of outside distractions getting in his way.

Flying out over the ocean helped clear his mind as well. Out here there was nothing but open sky and endless sea. Blue against blue, with only the clouds to tell them apart. Out here thoughts of Akane could be put in their proper perspective.

He wished.

It would have helped his cause if he knew exactly why she was so pissed at him. He knew that Ukyou was a big part of it, but there seemed to be much more involved. He just didn't have any clue as to what it might have been...

Yuka and Sayuri weren't helping matters. Maybe he had gone a bit overboard by calling them dykes, but who made it their business to go butting in?

A tingling in the back of his mind brought him to rapt attention. There were two sets of airborne search radar dead aft of him, at the limits of his detection gear's sensitivity. There wasn't supposed to be anyone out here, which was why he had chosen this stretch of water to fly over.

He decided to play it cool for the moment. His transponder was on, and as a non-allied mercenary in F-S territory, he had filed a verbal flight plan with the authorities for this jaunt. If Tiber COAC wanted to say something about it, they would. If not, well, he'd play his cards as they were dealt.

The two sets of radar resolved themselves on his main display as they closed with him to a distance of one hundred kilometers. The Warbook established them as Ranker TA800 air-search and acquisition gear. Rankers were found on only one class of fighter, the Corsair. That meant that his pursuers were probably part of the F-S Garrison, since they used most of the Corsairs to be found in the Inner Sphere.

Unless...

On a whim, he set his commo set to the Palomino's preferred channels. He had set his radio to ignore any broadcasts on those frequencies when he left, so his father couldn't try to order him home before he was ready. He had his answer almost immediately.

"- down, Saotome," Yuka's voice said over the commo. "Do you hear me?"

He shook his head in disgust. They were hounding him even out here.

"What if I hear you and just don't care?" he asked her.

Her face appeared unbidden on his display. She looked severe in her pressure suit and neurohelmet, and her eyes had the glint of anger in them.

"What's your problem, Saotome?" Sayuri chimed in.

"I dunno," he shot back. "What's your problem?"

The two V8-model Corsairs accelerated to catch up with him. Ranma casually eased back his throttle and dropped below supersonic velocity. Within minutes the two fighters had taken up positions on either wing.

"Hey, what do you know?" he chirped. "You two really can fly in formation? I guess Pop wins the bet..."

Yuka took his barb as expected. "Asshole."

She hit her overthrust and rocketed ahead of him, snap-rolling precariously close to his radome and making him eat her slipstream. The effects were almost immediate, throwing Ranma into a sharp dive as the airflow over his fighter was disrupted and he lost lift.

He squeeze the burn studs on his throttle, dumping raw plasma from the reactor into the engines' HEPLAR coils for the thrust he would need to regain control over his stall. Yuka's laughter over the radio was infuriating.

"What the hell was that for, you crazy bitch!?" he demanded.

Sayuri accelerated away to join up with Yuka.

"We're here to challenge you to a duel."

"Both of you at once?" he barked, hastily snapping master safety switches to arm his weapons. They seriously wanted to kill him? "That's real sporting."

"You can always back down," Yuka offered contemptuously. "Only keep in mind that the condition for forfeiting the duel is that you and your father renounce the expedition, and then stay on Tiber while we return to the Confederation."

"Think of it this way, Saotome," Sayuri added. Yuka's show of bravado had her courage up. "At least on Tiber you'll have your little cupcake to keep you company."

Ranma grit his teeth. They were trying to get rid of him all right, one way or another. He was outgunned, outnumbered, and flew a fighter that was slower and far less armored than their Corsairs. He would have been smart to fly away, whether he intended to do as they said or not.

But that just wouldn't have been Ranma Saotome.

"I sure hope you chicks know how to swim," he growled. 'Cause it's a long way back to shore... he added mentally. His undercarriage heavy laser was energized. Unless he retracted the aerodynamic housing for his twin medium lasers in the starboard engine pod, it was all he had to fight with in Fighter Mode. He intended to keep this fight at subsonic velocities if at all possible, where he actually had a chance of winning. He was mindful of the fact that most of the Corsair's kills came while low and slow, but then, so did a Phoenix Hawk LAM's.

Yuka and Sayuri goosed their boosters and pulled banking turns in opposite directions. They were trying to get him to make a choice between which one to go after, knowing that the other one would come up behind him.

He decided instead to let them come to him.

"What's the matter, Saotome?" Yuka chided him as she made a wide turn back towards his direction.

Ranma let her eat static. He focused his attention instead on the data streaming into his head from the neurohelmet, and on their capabilities. They had two heavy lasers to his one, the same number of medium lasers, plus twin light lasers just forward of the cockpit for close-in work, and a set facing aft to keep chasers off their backs. The only thing going for him in this equation was that they didn't have the heat sinks to fire their heavy guns at the same time as their others.

That meant that they'd save their heavy lasers for times where they were outside light laser range, like when they were closing for an attack, and once they got close, they'd probably hit him with both lights and mediums, plus maybe a parting shot with their aft guns as they passed him.

He could offer a heavy laser blast in return while in Fighter Mode, which was a decent amount of firepower because of its range and punch, but considering their thick armor belts, it was a losing proposition to simply trade fire shot-for-shot with the two of them. If he jumped on their tails, he'd have the aft guns to contend with - a nuisance, but distracting when beams are flying at you - and with their powerful GM 200ATF engines, they could easily accelerate away from him in level flight.

Simply put, there was no way he could beat both of them at once in Fighter Mode. Unfortunately for him, that was the mode he was currently using. He needed to find out how serious they were about shooting him down, and the best way to do that was to give them a seemingly perfect opportunity.

Sayuri felt the gee forces pushing her into her ejector seat as she made a banking turn onto her attack vector. Ranma was staying in level flight, and subsonic. He was practically a sitting duck for them.

She could see Yuka well beyond and slightly above him, her own turn to attack completed. Was Yuka really going to open up on him?

Yuka's radar held the Phoenix Hawk LAM firmly in track as she energized her lasers. He was flying level and slow, which didn't make much sense from a combat standpoint. Why wasn't he doing something, like chasing one of them, or making a run for it?

"Last chance to back out," she informed him, hoping that he would, and prepared to act if he didn't.

His reply was brief and to the point.

"Bite me."

You had your chance, Saotome, she thought angrily. This is for Akane!

She squeezed her trigger.

Yuka's heavy lasers burned through the air in bright orange streaks. The beams crazed the upper hull of the Phoenix Hawk LAM, and cut through the leading edge of the port engine pod nacelle in a flash of smoke and sparks. Ranma shoved the throttles to the stops and pushed over into a death dive as the lasers struck, his wings adjusting for high-speed flight. With an eye on his airspeed indicator, he juked and banked as he dove, trying to draw them down with him while spoiling their aim. The damage to his fighter was minimal at this point, and was ignored. It was a calculated risk, knowing that his armor was more than good for what little contact she could achieve at extreme range.

It also went against basic aerial combat tactics to give up your altitude as fast as he was shedding his, but then, as a LAM pilot, his playbook and maneuver capabilities were a little different from the average fighter pilot's. He was counting on Yuka and Sayuri to follow their lessons from aerial combat school if he was going to beat them.

Sayuri watched as heavy laser beams grazed the LAM, and realized that Yuka wasn't playing around. She fired her own weapons half-heartedly, wanting to keep up the show more than to kill the stupid jerk. Yuka was going too far with this.

Sayuri was the weak link, Ranma realized. She's the one who wasn't serious about this duel. That was a relief, knowing that he had only one dedicated opponent, and so was the fact that Yuka was taking the bait. More laser beams sizzled around him from her Corsair as she followed him down at high speed. He could almost feel her sighting him in for her close-in spread of lasers as he pushed his LAM through the sound barrier. The sonic boom he generated would change the air density behind him just enough to spoof Yuka's targeting system for a moment.

"Is that the best shooting you can do?" he mocked. "I've seen repple-depple scrubs who could shoot straighter than you!"

She didn't rise to his taunt, preferring instead to blaze away with her heavy lasers. Her Corsair had to be getting toasty with all of the heat that was building up.

He continued his dive, pushing for more speed until he reached the point - where he knew from his test runs on Nerima - that the Phoenix Hawk could take no more without breaking up. His fusion-heated turbojets shrieked in the base of his spine through his ejector seat as the altimeter swam dizzyingly towards sea level.

Yuka followed him down, her Corsair's long swept wings knifing through the air and trailing streams of condensed moisture behind them. Her nose-mounted heavy lasers shot lines of radiant death at him that criss-crossed around his LAM in a glowing web of ionized air. Sayuri trailed well behind her compatriot, content to keep watch over the battle.

"Hey, Sayuri," Ranma heard Yuka grunting with the strain of her dive over the tac-net. "A little help here!"

A smile crossed his lips at that. You ain't seen nothing yet!

They were running out of sky at over two-thousand kilometers per hour as they continued their dives. Ranma watched the altimeter, knowing that his reaction would make or break him at the bottom of the dive. He wasn't going to lose to Yuka and Sayuri.

"Pull up," Sayuri found herself saying to Ranma, whose fighter was in a twisting power dive so steep that there seemed to be no way he could recover from it.

What's he up to? Yuka wondered, her guns still trying to draw a bead on the slippery LAM. That's it! she cried in her mind. He's gonna transform!

Gotcha!

At two-hundred meters above sea level, Ranma tugged at his Phoenix Hawk's transformation lever. The LAM spiralled into its bird of prey Airmech Mode as the legs dropped out of the undercarriage and fired braking thrust. For a moment he was a sitting duck for Yuka's guns, and beams of laser light burned into his upper fuselage armor.

The LAM sprang clear with an unexpected lateral thrust burn from the legs that pitched it violently to the right. The Phoenix Hawk's engines screamed above the wavetops as Ranma scooted clear by using the surface effect of the water to convert the energy of his dive into forward motion that kept him moving at high speed. Once clear, he fired his plasma drives, catapulting him straight up in Airmech Mode on a column of starflame and clouds of steam from the boiling ocean beneath him, and taking his Phoenix Hawk out of Yuka's effective plane of attack.

Yuka had to pull out of her own dive now, and in that moment she must have realized how he had used her Corsair's design characteristics against her.

The fighter could turn and roll in the atmosphere beautifully, but its narrow, straked wings and its too-far-forward center of gravity gave it a less than sterling pitch rate. The best she could hope for was to try and roll as she pulled out of her dive to stay with him. He could almost hear her frustrated scream at him as he escaped her fusillade and rose on a leg thruster-generated thermal to attack the dawdling Sayuri.

She was the weak link, the easiest target. Yuka was already out for blood against him no matter what he did, so he considered it better to take out Sayuri before she got herself motivated against him as well.

She wasn't prepared for his rapidly climbing attack, and tried a snap roll while diving to evade him. His Airmech Mode could roll better any day of the week than most fighters - including the Corsair, and he stayed with her. He continued his vertical ascent, the Phoenix Hawk's metalshod fingers splaying out like angry talons, and the aerodynamic housing over the starboard engine pod retracting to reveal the twin medium lasers.

He hosed fire from the medium lasers at her as he climbed on a near collision course. There was too little separation, and too much speed between them for her to get away. Ranma dropped into the receptive state necessary for the most minute control over his Phoenix Hawk LAM, feeling the microwaves from his radar bouncing back from Sayuri's Corsair as they tickled the phased array receivers. He knew the distance that separated them down to the centimeter, their closure rate to the tenth of a second, and how close they would come before passing within half a meter. He projected that data onto the ballistics set for his forearm-mounted SRM launcher.

At a precise launch distance his missiles would be exactly one point eight meters apart in a horizontal salvo when they reached the target. That was all he needed to know. He then trained his LAM's left arm on the diving Corsair, and spat a pair of SRMs that slammed into the engine intake ducts on either side of the cockpit.

He passed underneath her a moment later, his LAM's fingers gouging deep rents into her wingroots. He cut his thrust a moment later, rising on his stored momentum and unslinging the heavy laser to continue the attack if his calculations failed. As the Phoenix Hawk stalled at the top of its climb, he pushed over, rolling and adding thrust as he dove once more.

He saw that his SRMs had destroyed Sayuri's jet turbines and probably raised a little hell with her plasma drive. Black streams of smoke and bright flecks of burning metal gushed from her thrusters. She needed her turbines at low velocity and altitude to stay airborne - only when boosting for space at hypersonic velocity and at high altitude did the fighter shift over to the scramjets, otherwise they were almost useless for thrust. She was effectively crippled, but in a pinch she could use the plasma drive directly to get her home.

"Sayuri!" Yuka cried over the tac-net.

"You've got two choices, Sayuri," Ranma tersely informed her. "Crank up your HEPLAR drive right now and pray you've got enough reaction mass to reach the mainland, or else punch out right now."

The Corsair pulled out of its dive, but he could see that she hadn't fired the plasma drive. She was going to stall if she lost any more speed.

"Fire your drive or punch out!" he shouted at her. How hard could it be?

"Sayuri!" Yuka cried once more. Ranma kept an eye on her from twenty klicks out as she raced back into the fight. "Do something!"

"My drive's malfunctioning!" Sayuri protested abruptly.

"Punch out!" Ranma ordered her.

"I can't just abandon my ship!" she shouted, anger and panic seeping into her voice. "You're the one who did this to me!"

"Screw the fighter!" Ranma shot back. "Do you want to die? Punch out!"

"Do it!" Yuka ordered. Then, her voice meek, she added, "Sayuri, I'm sorry..."

Sayuri ejected as the crippled Corsair stalled, then tumbled into a death dive for the sea. Ranma watched her until she separated from her ejector seat, her olive drab parachute opening and filling with air. Once he was satisfied that she was going to make it, he marked her location on the map, and clicked the 'talk' button on his HOTAS to address Yuka.

"What's it gonna be, Yuka?" he asked her. Her Corsair was within ten kilometers now, the radar threat indicator warning him that he was being painted. His Phoenix Hawk was scarred by laser fire - a few more heavy laser hits from her were going to do him in. "Do you wanna join Sayuri in the drink?"

"I'll do worse than put you in the water, Saotome," she snapped in return. "I'll put you in your grave!"

He watched as her Corsair accelerated on full burn to close the distance between them, and his hands clenched the controls a little tighter than before in anticipation of her attack. If this was how she wanted to do things, then that was her decision.

"Have it your way," he replied. His Phoenix Hawk LAM transformed from Airmech to Battlemech Mode, and hovered in the sky on twin plumes of superheated air.

Above the Aquila Sea

Planet Tiber, Palatine System

The Federated Shiratori

16 April 3025

By hovering in Battlemech Mode, Ranma was making himself an easy target for Yuka's lasers. At least, that was what he hoped she would believe. The best he could hope for in a fighter to fighter dogfight would be to wear her out in the chase, and so he chose against going back to Fighter Mode just yet. He wanted a quick resolution to this duel, to draw it out played in her favor.

He watched her climb several thousand meters above him, and guessed that she planned to make a diving attack, firing at medium range and then making a break turn to get clear before he could muster a counterattack. She probably feared a repeat of his SRM attack on Sayuri more than anything else, and with good reason. Two well-placed Short Range Missiles had shot down an otherwise intact fighter.

The trick to defeating her would be to draw her closer to him than she preferred. He hoped she would take the bait he was offering, and go for a low angle pass at high speed.

She didn't disappoint. Her lasers began streaming through the air at him as he juked and dodged, his LAM's thrusters flaring in every direction, and making the fifty ton transformable battlemech a fiery midair dervish. What few beams creased his hull threw up brilliant bursts of sparks and flame, but even she had to know how poor the hits were.

Frustrated with him, she circled back, trying to bracket the LAM decisively in her sights before she made her break turn to escape.

Again he dodged her shots, the LAM pulling stunts of free-fall prowess she would have thought impossible. Most damning of all was his refusal to shoot back, as if daring her to cut her passes closer.

Biting down on her lip, she made a third attack on him, her guns erupting from all stations and sending blooms of waste heat into the turbojets for additional thrust. The beams criss-crossed around the red and black Phoenix Hawk, stitching lines of white hot fire in the sky, but never reaching their intended marks.

Ranma executed a beautiful midair veronica as she passed, his mech's left arm swirling with heartbreaking grace over the fighter as if holding a giant red cape, and goading her to still closer passes.

"Ole!" Ranma cackled over the tac net.

"Arrogant ass!" she shot back.

The Corsair screamed back at him, its lasers spitting trails of ionized atmosphere around him. The LAM seemed to melt around the paths of the beams as she approached, and she grit her teeth in even greater frustration. She would ram him if she had to!

That moment's desperate oath cost her, for with a whirling pinwheel motion, the LAM spun clear of her final attack using the daring pase de pecho, allowing her Corsair to pass as close to the Phoenix Hawk's torso as possible without contact, to hook its arms out at her fighter as he stalled.

Ranma just managed to catch Yuka's Corsair as he fell, the Phoenix Hawk's arms grappling with the fighter, its metalshod fingers digging into the armor plate for purchase. The effects of the maneuver were felt almost immediately, as the tremendous drag of the LAM forced Yuka into a stall as well. For a moment he felt as if her fighter's wings would snap, or that the myomer bundles in his arms would part, but the stout Corsair held with a tortured groan of metal and composite, and the LAM's arms stood fast with a high pitched squeal of protest.

"What are you doing?!" she screamed at him.

Ranma didn't answer her, as he was locked in conflict with his LAM's controls to gain a better hold over her as they began to plummet out of the sky. He slid the left hand over her cockpit canopy at last, and knew his work was almost done.

"I'm not giving you the same choice Sayuri got," he growled finally as the two fighters fell into a sickening dive. "You punch out now, and you'll be squashed like a bug against my battlemech's hand!"

"You'll kill us both!" she cried, aghast. Every instinct she had was screaming for her to eject, but with the Phoenix Hawk's armored hand covering the canopy, it would be certain death.

"No, only you," Ranma replied. "My LAM can always jet away, and I'll hold on to you to the bitter end to make sure you won't be able to pull out of this dive."

They began to tumble now, a twisted mass of metal that trailed streams of condensation as they fell. Ranma watched as his altimeter spiralled madly towards zero, satisfied that Yuka was doing the same. He fought against the sickening sensation of the acceleration forces acting upon him as he tried to maintain his sense of equilibrium. If she didn't crack, and soon, he doubted that he would be able to make his escape.

Fortunately for him, she did.

"What do you want?!" she screamed at him over the commo.

"I want you to call off the dogs!" Ranma shot back.

"What?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," he snarled. "I'm sick of your shit, Yuka. You don't say another unkind fucking word to me ever again, got it? And no more talking trash to Akane about me or my Dad! The same goes for Sayuri!"

They continued their fall towards the sea, acceleration forces plucking at his LAM's grasp on the Corsair. He had to hold on with all his battlemech's might, knowing that this was the most crucial moment.

"I'm waiting!" he yelled at her. "If you don't do exactly as I say - and right fucking now - I will see you die at the end of this fall! If you ever go back on your word, then I swear, Yuka, that I will kill you with my bare hands!"

Yuka made a strangled cry of exasperation.

"What was that?!" Ranma demanded.

"Let me go first!" she returned. "We'll never recover from this if you don't release me now!"

"I'm willing to take that chance," Ranma replied, his voice cold and unyielding, and his hatred for the girl flowing through every syllable. "Now swear it!"

"All right!" she screamed. "I swear!"

Ranma held on to her for a bit longer, twenty seconds from the end.

"That didn't sound sincere enough," he told her.

"Goddammit, please!" Yuka begged. "I swear!"

He reached out with his mind, seizing the myomer bundles of his Phoenix Hawk with his will, and forcing them to do his bidding. The LAM arched its back, presenting its thrusters at the desired angle, and fired. The sudden

blast of thrust threw him into his seat straps as it stabilized their fall. He released the Corsair a moment later, falling free before he rolled over into Airmech Mode and soared clear in a rush of plasma.

He watched Yuka's desperate recovery maneuver with mixed feelings, wanting to see her pull out of her dive, and yet not minding if the girl crashed. Hatred did not come easily to him, but Yuka had crossed a line that he hadn't even realized he had drawn between them until this afternoon.

It was with some regret that she managed to pull out with at least twenty meters to spare.

Perhaps her brush with death would convince her of his sincerity, he thought as he climbed back into the sky. She could always come back for him now that she was in control of her fighter again. He watched, hoping that she would do the right thing. If she didn't, then he would have no choice but to kill her.

She climbed to five thousand meters, and began to head back for the mainland.

"I'll pick up Sayuri," he said to her she made tracks for the Palomino. He was exhausted from his maneuvers, but he kept his voice fresh for her. She didn't need to know how close she had come to succeeding.

"You bastard," she grunted at him. "Don't think you can get away with this, Saotome."

Ranma felt a flash of anger well up within him. "Get away with what, you dumb broad?" he demanded. "Once I turn over my flight recorder for examination, we'll see who started this, and which one of us was out to kill the other..."

He knew he had her beat with that one. She would have to come back at him for the kill to prevent his flight recorder, with its voice channels, from exposing her as the one who had started the battle. He knew he had unnerved her with the ease at which he evaded her attacks, and didn't expect another direct confrontation.

She continued on.

"I meant what I said, Yuka," he sent after her. "Go back on your word, and I'll kill you."

She did not reply.

He found Sayuri close to where she had ejected. She was floating in an inflatable survival raft barely large enough to hold her in a supine position. A cloud of yellow-green from her dye-marker drifted in the water with the current in a long plume of color, mingling with the tangle of her released parachute and its shroud lines. Only a few bits of her Corsair floated on the surface with the waves; the rest of the starfighter had sunk to the bottom of the sea.

He brought his fighter down for a low pass. She did not wave to him, though he saw her head turn to track him warily. Did she really think he was planning on wasting her in the water?

The Phoenix Hawk transformed to Airmech Mode and flew back to the raft. He hovered nearby, the airmech's hands extended, before slowly powering down his engines. As the LAM touched the water, he quickly shut down the turbojets and closed the jet intakes. The airmech settled into the sea up to the wingroots with a splash.

Once he was certain the LAM was stable and sufficiently buoyant, Ranma popped his canopy and unstrapped himself. Sayuri watched him from twenty meters away as he pulled himself up onto the hull of his 'mech.

"Are you hurt?" he called to her.

She didn't answer him.

"Hey, look, you're a thousand klicks from land, and in the middle of nowhere," he yelled. "Assuming this planet has any kind of wet navy on hand for a rescue, it'll be at least three days before a ship could reach you. I doubt they'll have any rescue choppers with that kind of range."

Sayuri remained silent.

"I'm offering you a ride home!" he continued. "Take it or leave it - and just hope there aren't any storms coming as you enjoy a few days of starvation and exposure."

She looked down at herself for a moment, as if cursing, and then began to clumsily paddle her life raft towards the LAM.

Ranma pulled her up onto the hull of his 'mech. She was still dripping wet from her splashdown in the sea, and from the look of her, that water was cold. One good wave over the hull would have turned him into a girl on the spot. Sayuri kept her eyes away from him, and her face blazed with both shame and scorn.

"Are you okay?" he asked her again.

She whirled on him. "What do you care!?"

Ranma stepped back a pace. "Excuse the hell out of me, lady!" he retorted. "In case the shock of ejecting made you forget, you and your psychotic girlfriend were the ones who decided to come out hunting for ME. You're lucky I wasn't out to kill you, lady, or you'd be fish food right now! Hell, the way you chicks came after me, I probably should have killed you!"

Sayuri, cold and trembling inside and out, looked away.

"I know that," she muttered. "You made your point. Let's just go."

Ranma agreed with that sentiment. Now came the hard part.

"There's only one seat in the cockpit, so you'll have to sit on my lap. You gotta problem with that?"

He could see that she did, but she kept it to herself. Without another word, he jumped into the cockpit and held out his hand for her. She took it silently, and he steadied her over from the hull. Once he was securely strapped into place, he gestured for her to get comfortable.

She settled into his lap without comment. Her weight was a surprisingly pleasant sensation for him in spite of their mutual animosity towards each other, though he decided that it was best to ignore her as best he could. The outer fabric of her pressure suit was still wet, and dripped into the ejector seat padding. His cockpit was going to smell like the ocean for awhile.

He lowered the canopy and checked the engine status. Everything looked good. "Hold on," he advised her, and placed an arm around her waist to steady her.

"Is that really necessary?" she growled.

"Fine," he spat, taking his hand off of her. "Hit your head against the freakin' canopy or something. See if I care."

She dragged his hand back into place. "Just get me home."

He pulsed the HEPLAR drive, blasting the LAM free of the sea in a cloud of steam and spray. Once he was clear, he opened the jet intakes and spooled up his turbines. As the LAM picked up speed and gained altitude, he eased off the plasma drive and shifted over to the jets.

Sayuri remained silent on his lap as they transformed to Fighter Mode and punched through the sound barrier for home. Ranma knew that it was going to be a long trip.

The Phoenix Hawk LAM settled on the tarmac with a shriek of turbojets. The techs were waiting for him, as were Doctor Tofu, Akane, Ryouga, Akari, and Genma. The looks on their faces betrayed their feelings of shock and confusion over what had just taken place. Yuka was last of all to be seen, standing close to the DropShip, her face drawn and sorrowful, yet masking the turmoil she must have been feeling with her defeat.

Ranma powered down his battered LAM before raising the starred canopy to face the music. He was certain that no matter who was really to blame, he would be the one everyone turned on. The real question would be how Yuka and Sayuri would act once they were safe from his wrath. He doubted they would be anything less than his bitter enemies.

Sayuri squirmed uncomfortably in his lap as the canopy locked into the 'up' position. She turned to face him, her eyes bitter and despondent.

"Let me out," she told him. He let go of her waist and threw the yellow and black lever that extended the retractable boarding ladder.

"I'm sorry about this," he repeated to her. "But you didn't give me much choice."

She closed her eyes for a moment, then stood up in the cockpit to throw her leg over the side. "The truth, Ranma, is that you've got no reason to be sorry for what happened."

Her show of humility surprised him. "Huh?"

"I hate to say this, but you were right. If Yuka and I hadn't come after you, this wouldn't have happened," she said to him. "I can't stand you as a person, Ranma Saotome, but I can't blame you for shooting me down, either."

She clambered down the boarding ladder, ignoring the queries from Doctor Tofu about her condition. Ranma watched her walk stoop-shouldered past Akane, her shame and humiliation looming over her like a storm cloud. Yuka could offer nothing for her, knowing that she was the one who had put her friend up to this.

Ranma unstrapped himself and stood in the cockpit. His neurohelmet came off, then the 'snoopy cap' liner that contained his commo headset. These he placed carefully on the ejector seat before slipping over the side to land on the tarmac.

He faced Doctor Tofu first.

"Are you hurt?" the doctor asked him. Ranma was surprised to find that Tofu wasn't making any snap judgments about blame.

"A little beat up," he replied. "I'm okay."

Tofu grunted acknowledgement and turned to find Sayuri again. The process of ejecting from a fighter was rarely without some form of injury, and she had spent at least a little time in the water before being rescued.

Genma was next. He approached Ranma with a measured stride, his face stern and tightly drawn.

"What happened up there, boy?" he asked in a gruff voice.

Ranma faced his father. "Why don't you ask Yuka?" he challenged.

"I did," he replied.

"And...?" Ranma pressed.

"Now I want your version," Genma told him. "This is a very serious matter. An expensive piece of equipment is destroyed because of you, boy, and a pilot has been Dispossessed. You know better than most how that feels. On top of that, the morale of the crew is in the gutter, and you go off and shoot down one of your own pilots - and come near to killing the other one!"

Ranma cursed. So much for Yuka telling them the truth... He wondered how long it would take her to break her other promise.

"It seems like you've already made up your mind as to what happened," he said to his father. "What's the point of asking me at all?"

"You do what you're told, boy, and nothing less!"

"Go to hell!" Ranma shot back. He was nearly trembling as he continued. "I'm sick of listening to you, Old Man! I'm sick of getting caught up in your half-assed schemes and your bullshit philosophy on what it means to be a 'true mechwarrior'! I'm sick of being a pawn that you can manipulate to get the things you want, and I'm sick of having to live up to standards that you could never live up to yourself!"

His eyes fell upon Akane, who watched their exchange in pained silence, before returning his hateful glare to his father.

"If it was just me you were fucking over with your moronic quest to find Ryuugenzawa, that would be one thing, but no, you have to go hurting other people too. Akane should never have come with us, Pop, and you know that!" He gestured with his hand towards the DropShip. "None of these people should ever have come with us! They had lives, friends, careers, a country they actually cared enough about to fight for! Instead of leaving them alone to live those lives, you sucked them into this nightmare! You fucked them over, too!"

He took a step towards his father, his hands clenching and unclenching in nervous tension. "You know what?" he went on, looking at the crowd of Palomino crew that observed them. "I've come to a decision. One that I'm sure everyone here but you will agree with. I'm outta here. I'm leaving." He called to Yuka and Sayuri, who stood silently by the DropShip. "I give up! You win!" he shouted to them. "I've got nothing here, no reason to stay, so why the hell should I even bother?"

He threw up his hands and started walking for the distant starport terminal. Genma's meaty paw caught him on the shoulder and spun him around before he could take two steps, hostile eyes narrowing at him.

"Ranma, if you weren't my flesh and blood, I'd kill you right here and now for saying those things..."

Ranma drew back in a rage from his father and dropped into a fighting stance. "Not if I kill you first, Pop!"

He lashed out at Genma with his foot, catching the heavyset man in the stomach. It should have been a crippling blow to the solar plexus, but amazingly it didn't elicit more than a grunt from the elder Saotome. Even Ranma looked surprised at how ineffectual his strike had been.

Genma wordlessly returned with a brutal flurry of punches and chops that connected more often than not against Ranma's hastily erected defenses, and slammed the pig-tailed mechwarrior backwards to the hot tarmac - bleeding, bruised, and stunned.

"I didn't want to have to do that," Genma told his son scornfully. "I may be fat and old, but I'm more than a match for you, boy. Now get on your feet and stop feeling sorry for yourself. I raised you better than that."

Ranma pulled himself to his feet, ignoring his father's offered hand.

"This ain't over yet," he grunted. He assumed his fighting stance once again.

"Ranma, think very carefully about what you're doing," Genma advised him.

"There ain't nothing to think about," Ranma returned. "You've done all my thinking for me. Just like my duel with Yuka and Sayuri, you just assumed you knew what was best for everybody, and went ahead and did it. Well I got news for ya, Pop: it didn't work for them, and it ain't gonna work for you!"

It was Genma who made the next move, a feint with his leg followed by a straight punch to the sternum. Ranma's circular block deflected his father's blow, and he counter-punched to no effect. The two pulled back into guarded stances, each measuring the other and looking for an opening to exploit. They had been fighting each other for years, and they knew the other's strengths, weaknesses, and habits.

All things being equal, it promised to be a long battle.

"I've said it once, and I'll say it again," Genma told him as they circled warily. "You're just like your mother. All heart and no brains. Can't you see that this kind of open defiance of me will only make things worse with the crew?"

"You're blind, Old Man," Ranma countered. "Can't you see that it's already too late?" His eyes flicked to Akane, who watched them gravely from a safe distance. "Hell, I'm surprised that Akane hasn't booted you out of command already and taken over. We know who the crew would listen to if they had a choice."

Ranma's words stunned Genma like no blow could have done. In the opening he had been given, Ranma struck with vicious force, a high kick at the very limits of his extension that slammed the elder Saotome's head back and sent him spinning in a daze to the tarmac.

"Good bye, Old Man," he told his father. He stripped out of his pressure suit and left it on the tarmac as he walked away from the DropShip Palomino. He had no money, and now that Ukyou was gone, he was fresh out of friends on this planet. None of these concerns mattered to him, though, for he was finally free of his father's influence.

"Go after him, Akane," Sayuri told her, an urgent hand on her shoulder.

Akane turned in disbelief to her friend. "What are you saying?"

The Dispossessed pilot looked down at her feet. "If you feel anything at all for him, you need to go after him," she said. She looked up, her eyes brimming with tears. "I was wrong, you know," she continued. "Wrong to go taking matters into my hands that were none of my business."

"I-I thought you hated Ranma," Akane pointed out to her.

"Hate?" Sayuri asked herself. "Maybe I do. I don't know, actually, what I feel for him... Pity, anger, even a sense of gratitude to him for having the chance to kill me and choosing not to take it." Her eyes followed the retreating Ranma across the grassy field. "All I know is that I was wrong to try and take him from you, and for that I've paid dearly. I lost my fighter, Akane, and much worse; I lost my right to be your friend."

Akane blinked in surprise. "Sayuri?"

"It's true," the girl went on. "It's true, and I'm so sorry, Akane. I should never have presumed what was right for you and what was wrong. That was your decision to make. I don't know what Yuka has told you yet, but the truth is that we went out after him. Ranma only acted in what he thought was self-defense."

She took this revelation in silence. Yuka's refusal to discuss the matter in detail now made sense.

"If you love Ranma," Sayuri added while Akane pondered the implications of what she had learned. "Then I won't stand in your way. Just do something about this mess before you lose the jerk for good."

Akane turned to follow Sayuri's mournful gaze. Ranma continued walking, head held high, seemingly without a care in the world.

He had said good bye to his father, the man he had just lambasted as the most vile and hated influence in his life, but he had nothing for her. Perhaps that was because he felt she had already told him what she thought about him in the Crew's Mess that morning, and so there was nothing else to be said.

Perhaps it was better to let him go, no matter how much it might hurt.

"I-I don't know," she said haltingly to Sayuri. "I don't know what I feel for him right now..."

Ryouga watched Ranma leave. In his heart he felt conflicting emotions wrestling for control over him. On the one hand, he was rid of his old enemy from 7th Grade. On the other hand, he felt like he was losing the closest thing he had ever had to a friend.

There were other issues, but with Akari standing worriedly by his side, it was difficult to face them. He had strong feelings for the lovely young technician - the girl who wanted to marry him, no less - and yet he could not deny his attraction to Akane - a girl who was no longer engaged to Ranma, and therefore unattached.

As he pondered the miserable state of affairs that was his heart, he realized that the expedition to Ryuugenzawa might be called off, and with it, his hopes of finding a cure for his condition. The only other option was to return to the Commonwealth, and to an uncertain fate indeed. He had to have a cure. He could not ask either of his loves to marry him as anything less than a whole man.

Free Trader Don Maestro Domingo Diaz de la Vega y Martin

de Valencia y Avila el Conquistador y Gruzado la Montana,

Bangalore System Nadir Jump Point

Bangalore System, the Federated Shiratori

16 April 3025

Shampoo did not like her cat body, but it did have its uses. It had delivered her from prison on Tau Ceti, for one thing, and she could also skulk about the ship without drawing any attention to herself. Apparently the crew of the Domingo had not been informed of her Jusenkyo-altered form.

The crew were an unsavory lot, and none of them were of Chinese ancestry. She supposed that helped conceal their identities as agents of the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, but she would have preferred it if they spoke a language amongst themselves that she had a better grasp on. Spanish was not her forte.

She confirmed that the Domingo was in the Bangalore System, and that it had been tasked with making a delivery to the Palatine System some important starship components for the damaged merchanter the Saotomes were believed to be using. She wondered if their tasking for the job was the work of Providence, or had it been deliberately arranged? In any event, it would be another ten hours before the DropShip carrying the goods returned to the Jump Point. Preparations for Jump were already commencing.

Mousse had not said as much, but she supposed they would infiltrate the starship while it was in Drydock. It would be easy to get aboard then, as the crew would be used to seeing strangers and paying them little mind.Mousse had not said much of anything of late.

She was still unsure of whether or not they were in the good hands of her great-grandmother. Mousse had made a good argument from the jail cell, but now that she was free, she had been able to puzzle out the affair with a little more clarity. She needed to get him to talk.

It was possible that he had seen through her shameless attempt to seduce him in the communal shower, but was it possible that he could have that kind of willpower to resist?

With a tired meow, she decided to retire to the ship's Grav Deck. Free-fall could be disorienting enough as a human, but as a cat with a finely-honed sense of balance, it could be positively bewildering at times. As she sprang into the elevator that would take her to 'C' Deck, she was spied by one of the crew, who gave her a look bordering on puzzlement and suspicion.

The elevator doors slid closed behind her, and she waited with dread for them to open once more and admit the suspicious crewman for a closer examination of her. After some moments it became clear that the man had written off the experience as a fluke. Cats simply did not do things like press elevator 'call' buttons...

The elevator brought her down into simulated one-half gravity. Through her keen feline senses, she found that she could distinguish between the real pull of gravity upon her body over the tug of centrifugal force created by the spinning Grav Deck. Although she could not easily put the differences between the two into words, she could now understand why birds had never been able to adapt to living in space.

Mousse was waiting for her in the small stateroom they shared. His head turned to face the door as it opened, his eyes squinting at first for a sign of her before he realized that she must have been in her cat body. He looked down at the pink and purple smudge of color that meowed at him from the doorway.

"Where have you been, Shampoo?" he asked her.

She stepped inside the room silently, pausing once to groom herself before meowing a curt reply.

The nearsighted mechwarrior produced a pot of hot water for tea that he had kept going on a small electric hotplate. Shampoo tensed, wondering how hot it would be. The fact that she would return naked to her human form in front of him no longer concerned her after the shower episode. Mousse could use another eyeful of her lovely body. He simply had to break down eventually!

He poured some of the water upon her, and in a cloud of steam, Shampoo appeared on the carpet. Her long purple tresses serendipitously covered her in places demanded by modesty, and a raised thigh crossed over her other leg took care of the rest - but only just.

"That was very hot, you know," she protested lightly.

Mousse set the pot back on the hotplate.

"I'm sorry for that," he replied.

Shampoo stretched out her arms over her head, the muscles in her chest drawing tight and lifting her breasts in a way she hoped Mousse would find inspirational. As the locks of wet purple hair fell away from her bosom, she saw that even in his half-blind state, he could still appreciate her.

"You should be," she returned. "But I forgive you anyway."

She rose then, continuing to stretch out. The experience of returning to her human form always left her feeling somehow freed from restraint. Mousse looked away uncomfortably.

"This ship can't get us to Palatine soon enough," she remarked as she dried herself with a towel lying on the lowermost bed of the double bunk. She then slipped into a white silk robe embroidered with tigers, butterflies, and pastoral mountain landscapes in rich shades of green and grey thread. The cool silk against her warm bare skin gave her an electric thrill that she found inappropriate to the situation. A seduction intended to break down a man's reticence did not work when the would-be seducer was too horny for her own good. She had started this with no intention of ever actually giving in to his desire for her.

"I'm told that we'll be Jumping there within the day," Mousse said to her, his voice projecting a forced calm.

"I heard the same thing up on the Bridge," she agreed. She lay back on the bed with her legs up, her arms crossed behind her neck, and a sultry, languid expression on her face.

"So you were out spying," he remarked. There was disapproval in his voice now.

"Of course I was spying," she said with a laugh. "What else is my cat body good for?"

Mousse didn't have an answer for her. It was up to her to carry on the conversation, she decided.

"Have you given any thought to what we'll be doing when we reach the Palatine System?" she asked him.

Mousse adjusted the pair of glasses perched on his brow. "We'll infiltrate their JumpShip prior to undocking and locate the Saotomes' quarters. Then we'll steal everything relevant to Ryuugenzawa and kill them on the way out."

"Very pat," Shampoo scoffed. It was the best she had been able to come up with herself, however. "How do you plan to get anywhere near the ship, much less get aboard without being noticed?"

"I suppose you have a better idea?" he asked her, obviously upset over the ease with which she had attacked his plan.

Shampoo gave him a heavy-lidded look.

"I presume you have some form of alternate identification for us?"

Mousse nodded.

"I think I'd be better off playing the part of Ship's Cat," she told him. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but the Saotomes were bound to recognize her as is, and even if her appearance were disguised, there was no getting around her distinctive way of speaking when conversing in the hated Standard language.

Mousse nodded again. "What about me?"

Shampoo regarded him for a moment. It was possible that he could bluff his way aboard as one of the shipyard workers, but their best chance of finding what they needed and getting it would probably occur after the ship left drydock for the Jump Point. Circumstance would not permit him keep up the charade that long.

"They saw you for just a few minutes on Capra, and without any other Joketsuzoku around you, they'll probably never make the connection if they saw you again on Tiber," she told him. "Then there is the fact that your Standard is much better than mine. You could easily pass for a local if you put your mind to it.

"I'd say that your best option is to stow away and lay low until I can find what we need," she continued. "I'll have a much better chance of spying out the ship and the two Saotomes than you will. When we're ready to act, I'll come get you, we'll steal the data and kill the Saotomes, and then we'll make our escape together in a life boat."

"Life boat?"

"You don't think we can do this all while we're still in drydock, do you?"

Mousse shook his head slowly. He wasn't much of a schemer, no matter what Herb might have thought of him. Shampoo's plan was sketchy, but better than anything he had been able to come up with. The truth of this insane mission be known, he was happy just to be alone with Shampoo. The more distance they put between themselves and the Commonwealth, the more he dreamed of simply running off with her and never returning.

There wasn't much chance of that, he knew, but it was nice to be able to dream again. Shampoo was convinced that this was a ploy of Cologne's, one last chance to redeem herself, and she was going to succeed or die trying. He knew the truth about their mission's origins, having been recruited by General Herb for this assignment in exchange for sparing Shampoo from the cruelty of life as one of the evil hybrid's personal slaves.

"No, I suppose not," he said finally. Do I secretly want us to fail? he asked himself. If we fail and somehow escape with our lives, we can never return to the Commonwealth. Shampoo and I will be lost, adrift without a home, and maybe, just maybe, she'll want to stay with me in exile.

Am I sabotaging our efforts on some subconscious level because that is what I'm really hoping will happen?

"What is it, Mousse?" she asked him.

"P-Pardon?" he replied.

She looked him over from the bed, her long bare legs exposed past mid-thigh by the opening in the white silk robe she wore. "You seemed to drift off for a moment."

"I was thinking," he remarked idly.

"Oh?" she chirped. "About what?"

He looked her over again. She was absolutely beautiful lying there, naked except for the robe, and they were alone - not to be disturbed until the starship reached the Palatine System. He wanted her desperately, but her seeming forwardness since the day she had joined him in the communal shower bay had made him wary.

He had known Shampoo for most of her life, and he knew when she wanted something. Right now she wanted something, and he wasn't so sure that it was him. Before his torture at Herb's hands he would have jumped at the chance to give her what she wanted, even knowing that she was manipulating him. Now he knew better. The pain he had endured had not diminished his love for her, but it had opened his eyes to the greater truth about her. That in itself had led to pain more intense than any of Herb's tortures, but it was a pain that he was willing to face if it meant ultimate happiness with Shampoo.

"Nothing important," he replied. "Just letting my mind wander."

She gave him a coy look. "I'm not distracting you, am I?" she asked him.

"Of course not," he returned.

"Are you sure?" she pressed. She gestured to her robe, which seemed to be getting smaller and smaller on her as he looked, and continued, "I can always wear something more conservative..."

He marshalled his will. "It doesn't bother me," he insisted. "Wear whatever you want."

She rolled over onto her side, the neckline of her robe falling open to reveal an abundance of cleavage. "I never thought I was bothering you," she said to him. "I simply wondered whether I was distracting you."

"A little," he said, swallowing hard at the sight of her.

A feral gleam lit in her eyes, and he cringed inwardly upon beholding it.

"Poor Mousse," she said, clucking with mock sympathy. "It must be terrible for you to be cooped up with me for weeks on end."

"I'm fine," he tried to assure her. His quavering voice did little to sound convincing.

Shampoo looked at him for a long moment before speaking.

"Do you still love me?" she asked him.

Her question, so directly offered, shocked him more than anything else he might have felt in that moment, and he was compelled to give her the unvarnished truth. A truth that he was only just coming to terms with on his own.

"Yes," he replied. "But I'm also afraid of you."

Shampoo wasn't prepared for the powerful sincerity of his answer. Of course he still loved her, but he feared her as well?

"Afraid?"

Mousse looked away from her. "I know that loving you has only ever brought me pain," he said flatly, as if even in recognizing the truth of his feelings, actually vocalizing them was something he was still reluctant to do. "I know that you're trying to seduce me for some reason, that your sudden interest in me isn't really genuine, and I'm afraid that I'll do what I've always done - give into you, and then suffer for it..." He rose from his chair and started towards the far end of the room near the door. "I fear you for what you can do to me, Shampoo, and how easily you can do it."

She watched him bow his head toward her, and then start to step through the door.

"Mousse, don't go," she said to him. She wasn't going to lose to him like this.

He paused to look back at her.

"I have to," he replied.

She rose, surprising herself with how swiftly she did so, and caught him around the chest before he could escape. She drew close to him, and as her breasts pushed into his back, he shivered with delight. She could feel him paralyzed with anticipation, which was just the way she wanted him.

"I never wanted you to fear me, Mousse," she whispered to him, her lips brushing against his ear.

"Sha-Shampoo, I..."

"Hush," she admonished him. "This isn't a time for words."

She drew him back into the room, the airtight door closing as one of the ship's crew walked past. He followed her back into the room stiffly, seemingly frozen between the fear of being used by her, and the fear that her intentions were actually genuine.

They weren't, of course, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to enjoy making love to him. For all of his faults, Mousse was a handsome man, and she was no stranger to the joys of sex. Her coy seduction had failed to move him, indeed had nearly driven him away, and now it was time to show him what he had been ready to give up.

With her arms still wrapped around him, and her teeth nibbling gently on his ear, she began to loosen his white robes. He gasped at the touch of her teeth, and she felt his hands rest upon her own as they did their work.

"Yes, Mousse," she whispered to him. "I do want you. It has to be now. There won't be any time for this after we Jump, and the future holds no guarantees."

Once his robes were loosened, she ran her hands under the folds of cloth to caress his smooth, muscled chest. She drew closer to him for an embrace, kissing her way down his neck to the junction with his shoulder before withdrawing just enough to let the robes fall from his body.

She found herself growing excited by the heat of his skin and the smell of the faint musk that had formed since his recent return from the showers. It pleased her to know that she had driven him to such nervous tension that she could smell his sweat so soon after bathing.

One hand returned to his chest, stroking at the nipples as the other began to tug at the sash of her own robe. As the cord fell out of its loosely tied knot, she pressed up against him again, and the feel of his body heat through the silk of her robe to her breasts brought a flush of color to her face and throat.

Yes, she was going to enjoy this, she realized. That it also suited her personal goals was lost to the moment.

She kissed his shoulder now, moving up to his throat, and then drawing tight to him to place her lips against the hard line of his jaw. Mousse gasped with each tender kiss, his body trembling as he stood rigid in her embrace.

"Relax," she whispered to him. Thoughts of taking her robe off were put aside as she reveled in the feel of him moving against her through the soft cool silk.

Slowly, gently, she turned him around. He was not like the pleasure men the Joketsuzoku maintained for their female troops, the men with whom Shampoo had experienced most of her lovemaking. They were professionals, common born but handsome, and each with a certified vasectomy to preserve the integrity of the Breeding Program. Mousse was neither common born nor sterile, and he was far from experienced.

"Have you ever done this before?" she asked him as her lips sought out the depression above the point on his chest where the sternum met his collarbones.

"N-No..." he replied haltingly, his face fixed straight ahead to the far bulkhead.

"I thought so," she replied. The men of the Joketsuzoku had their own pleasure girls under similar circumstances as the women. It surprised her to think that he could have resisted the temptation to try them. "You were probably saving yourself for me, weren't you?"

"...Yes..." he replied between gasps.

"Touch me," she returned. "I want to feel those strong hands of yours on my body." She laved her tongue over his chest, lashing out at his nipples with a tender ferocity that sent shivers down his spine.

He cupped her breasts through the robe with both hands as she nibbled at his collarbone, sending a shiver of her own through her, and eliciting a murmur of pleasure that encouraged him further. The dual sensations of massage and body heat made her lose even more control over herself.

After some moments of this, she could stand it no longer, and dove without warning for his dark trousers, seeking him out behind the tightly woven cotton, and lingering for some time there while offering him the kind of stimulation her peers would have found scandalous for one of the Joketsuzoku women to employ. Mousse threw back his head in rapture, his hands stroking her long purple hair as her head bobbed and turned enthusiastically at his waist.

It took an exercise of will to stop what she was doing before the inevitable, for despite the stigma of the act imposed on her by her peers, she had always enjoyed going down on a man. She relished it for the tactile sensations such contact afforded her as much as the pleasure she derived from its effect on her partner. Looking up at him with her fiery violet eyes, she drew him down with her to the carpeted deck. Her hand clutched him tightly as he kicked his trousers off the rest of the way, and his eyes were wild with anticipation of what was to follow.

"Lay down," she whispered to him, still holding him tightly as she pushed him gently the rest of the way to the floor. He lay back as ordered, his chest rising and falling with panting breaths of anticipation. She straddled him, letting herself rub against him as she leaned over to kiss at his throat and chest. She could feel his hips moving beneath her in a desperate attempt to continue with the affair, and she placed a finger to his lips in reproach.

"Not yet," she said with a teasing smile. "Patience, Mousse. You've waited so long for this moment already. You can wait just a little longer."

She continued her cycling motions forward and backward, alternately kissing his throat and his belly as she moved over him. He could feel the intense heat and wetness of her contact with each shifting of her weight, and he gasped desperately for her to take him inside of her.

"Do you really want this?" she asked him in a husky voice. After rubbing up and down the length of him for so long, she was almost as desperate to continue as he was, though she wanted to remain firmly in command of him.

His plaintive cry in the affirmative was all that she needed.

She took his arms and placed them behind his head, holding them down at the wrists with one hand as she guided him into her with the other. She eased herself back, still pinning his arms as she did so, gasping with delight at a sensation she had not enjoyed for some time, and Mousse, never before.

She lingered for a moment, savoring the feeling of him inside her, and looking at him with hungry eyes. Then she started moving, slowly and methodically, over the top of him.

Mousse began to thrust clumsily at her with his hips, but again she protested his unwelcome interference with a touch of her finger to his lips, insisting that he lay there beneath her and let her do all the work. He relented silently, and she began to move again, easing him out of her gently before driving herself against him with growing force.

She could tell by his groans that he was close, and in truth she wasn't far behind. It had been far too long since the last time she had a man, and she had to admit that Mousse made for an excellent fuck; he was strong, handsome, and compliant. As she rode him towards climax she regretted not having the nerve to do this sooner.

His arms began to flex beneath her at the end, and with all her strength she could not hold him down any longer. He reached for her silken-robed hips, clenching them fiercely as he cried out in a hoarse, incoherent voice with her one last drive against him. She could feel an intense warmth flooding into her, compelling her to an orgasm equally satisfying.

She fell against him then, spent with exertion as he continued to spasm weakly inside her. Her brow was wet with perspiration, her hair falling over his face in purple waves. She could feel him stroking the back of her head tenderly as she tried to catch her breath.

They remained silent for awhile, each lost in their own worlds of thought and fantasy before Shampoo drew herself upright, still straddling him. They had hours before the Jump alarm sounded, and she looked forward to seeing how much stamina Mousse had. From the dreamy look in his eyes, she knew that there was already no way he could hold anything back from her now.

Nerima Confederation DropShip Palomino

Landing Pad #6, Aquila Starport

Planet Tiber, Palatine System

The Federated Shiratori

23 April 3025

Akane Tendo, youngest daughter of Grand Duke Soun Tendo and the Heir to the Nerima Confederation, found herself facing the lowest point in her nineteen years of life. Her country was all but overrun, the expedition that was the Confederation's last hope had fallen completely apart around her, and the guy she was in love with had left her for good.

She pondered this sad state of affairs over tea in the Crew's Mess, having no idea where Ranma was. It had been a week since the duel with Yuka and Sayuri, and he had not returned. He hadn't taken anything with him, not clothes, or money, or what meager possessions he had. Not even his Phoenix Hawk LAM, which had remained on the tarmac after Akari and her techs repaired the damage sustained in the duel. Akane had felt certain at first that he'd come back for that.

Since then, she realized why he hadn't come for the LAM. It had never been his to begin with. He had refused to accept it as a gift from her father, instead taking custody of the machine as a loaner to be returned when they found Ryuugenzawa.

It's only been seven days, she thought to herself. And I miss the jerk already...

She had other things to worry about besides Ranma, but the egotistical fool always remained foremost in her thoughts. There was the morale of the crew for one thing, which was also at an all-time low. Though the repair parts for the Dragonfly's Jump Drive had finally arrived, and the process of installing them begun, it seemed as if the expedition was already done for. With the siege of Capella, there wasn't even a home to return to.

Genma wasn't helping matters. Once the elder Saotome stopped looking for his son in the city and accepted the fact that Ranma wasn't coming back, he had self-destructed. He was currently passed-out drunk in his rack, a fact that wasn't doing the crew's shattered morale any favors.

She folded her hands together on the table and sighed. What could you do when you had run out of hope?

The crackle of the quarterdeck watch's voice over the 1MC echoed in her ears as she pondered this.

"Dragonfly, arriving!"

She looked up at this announcement, shocked to think that Captain Ninomiya had come on board. Didn't she have enough to do with the primary repairs to the JumpShip underway?

She had her answer a few minutes later when the Captain, in her child body, flitted up to her table in the Crew's Mess.

"May I sit down, my Lady?" she asked Akane.

Akane blinked. She wasn't used to Captain Ninomiya addressing her so formally.

"Of course!" she replied.

Hinako did so, fishing a chocolate bar out of her purse as she sat, and wolfing it down with an intensity that frightened Akane. When she was finished, her face was smeared with gooey brown streaks that Akane had to resist wiping away.

"Great news!" the starship captain said to her.

"What is it?"

"The siege is broken!" Hinako shouted triumphantly. "I just received that message from the Consulate office."

Akane's eyes widened in astonishment. "Are you certain?"

"Yup!" Hinako chirped. "Prince Kuno took most of his forces out of the system to stop a League invasion of the Combine, and I guess we were able to

break up what he had left behind."

"That's... That's..." Akane stammered.

"Amazing?!" Hinako finished for her. "Sure it is, but who cares? It means there's still hope!"

"Hope..." she said quietly. "It's been a long time since I've felt that."

"Seize that moment!" Hinako told her, her arms flapping excitedly. "It's the reason why I came down to the planet again."

"I don't understand."

The starship captain jumped up onto the table in the beginning throes of a chocolate rush. "I know how bad morale is down here - trust me, if my crew weren't busy busting their asses to get my ship operational again, they'd be the same way - and I know one of the reasons for it was because of the siege. Now that the Combine is on the defensive, we have a chance to succeed again!"

Akane looked at the eight-year-old dancing a spastic jig on the table and shrugged. "I still don't understand, Captain. Why are you telling this to me? I'm not in charge."

Hinako stopped dancing and stomped her foot in frustration. "Remember what I said about you taking command of the mission?"

"Yes," Akane replied. "You said it was a bad idea. Mutiny, even."

"I changed my mind!" the little captain cried. "You're the only one left who can pull it together."

Akane cocked her head at Hinako. "What about Commander Saotome?"

"I hear he's drunk most of the time since his walking disciplinary problem of a son skipped out on us," Hinako replied. "That makes him derelict in his duties, and necessitates his immediate relief." She tapped Akane roughly on the nose with a chocolate-smudged finger. "Tag! You're it!"

Akane blinked twice in silence as Hinako's finger rested upon the tip of her nose.

"Me?" she squeaked.

"Who else?" Hinako returned, her arms sweeping out to her sides. "Do you think I'm qualified to lead this kind of mission? I'm just the bus driver!"

Akane leaned back in her seat. Captain Ninomiya was right, who else could take charge? The question now was, what could she actually accomplish? Despair hung over her a moment as she realized the enormous gravity of her situation. Leading the 1st Nerima Guards was nothing compared to this! With the Guards she had a staff - plus the grizzled veteran, Colonel Mukaida - to look after her and help with the decision-making process. Here she would be on her own.

But who else could take charge?

"I'll do it," she said solemnly. As she spoke the words, she was filled with a new resolve. The melancholy which had afflicted her was gone, replaced by a surge of hope. "We're going to complete the mission. We're going to find Ryuugenzawa. I just have to do a few things first before we can get started."

"Such as?" Hinako asked her, proud that she had put her faith in the Tendo Heir.

Akane stood from the table, her eyes resolute. She knew what she needed to do.

"The first thing I have to do is explain to Commander Saotome that I'm in charge now," she replied. "That won't be easy, but I think I have a way to convince him."

"What else?" Hinako pressed.

"That's the really hard part," Akane admitted. "I don't know where he is at this time, but I'm going to find Ranma and drag his sorry butt back to the ship." She closed her eyes for a moment. That was definitely going to be the hard part... "I need him, Captain Ninomiya, for a lot of reasons, and I'm not going to let him run off and leave us in the lurch."

Hinako nodded happily in agreement. "You'll make a fine Grand Duchess some day," she observed.

"Get up."

Genma Saotome growled at the insistant prodding in his back. He did not register in his drunken fog, that the voice who addressed him belonged to Akane.

"Piss off," he muttered angrily.

"Don't you tell me to 'piss off,'" Akane warned him. She stabbed at his shoulder again. "Get your sorry carcass out of bed. I have some important news for you."

Genma rolled over in his rack. It was Akane, all right.

"Has the boy returned?" he asked her.

"No," she replied curtly. "I want you to get cleaned up and meet me on the Flight Deck in twenty minutes, Mister Saotome. If you don't, I'll have the In-Port Watch come down here with a fire extinguisher and blast you out of bed."

Genma blinked in a stupor at her. He was too confused by the situation to take offense at her presumptions, and too drunk to really care.

"Whatever," he mumbled, and went back to bed.

"I'm not kidding, Mister Saotome," she said to him.

Genma awoke with a start as a gout of frozen carbon dioxide gas ripped through his sheets and nearly smothered him. He coughed and spluttered, cursing furiously as he rolled out of his rack and landed hard on the deck below.

"Hit him again for good measure, Tad," he heard Akane tell someone.

A second blast from the fire extinguisher sent him howling to his feet. He faced off against Petty Officer Howard, CO2 extinguisher in hand, and a smug looking Akane Tendo. Doctor Tofu stood behind them, a loaded syringe in his hand.

"Are you awake yet?" she asked him.

"What's the meaning of this?" Genma demanded.

"It's time to dry out, Mister Saotome," Doctor Tofu added before Akane could reply. He held up the syringe.

"I asked you a question," Genma pressed. "What the hell do you people think you're doing?"

Akane crossed her arms over her chest. "As of noon today, I have officially relieved you of command. I thought you might want to sleep a bit more before I broke the news to you."

Genma's eyes crossed in bewilderment.

"W-What?"

"You're relieved," Akane told him. "In your drunken state you've been incapable of command. Doctor Tofu has attested to this in the Ship's Log, and Captain Grant of the Palomino and Captain Ninomiya of the Dragonfly stand by my decision to assume command of the expedition. They're waiting up on the Flight Deck for your acknowledgement."

"You're nuts!" Genma replied. "Does your father know about this?"

Akane wasn't going to let him squeak past with that angle.

"We've been unable to establish a direct line of communication," she lied. It was a half-truth actually, as she had not bothered to try. Genma was about as upset as she had guessed he would be, and now it was time to soften the blow. "In any event, as the ranking member of the Tendo family present, I have assumed command until such time as the man designated by my father to lead the expedition is able to return to his duties. Doctor Tofu Ono, as the Chief Medical Officer, will make that determination based on your ability to remain sober."

"This is twice in three weeks that you've been too drunk to function as the commander, Mister Saotome," Tofu cautioned him. "You've spent the last three days completely intoxicated."

"And until that determination?" Genma asked bitterly. First his son betrays him, and now the rest of the crew!

"Until then, I will remain in command," Akane told him. "You'll act in the capacity of my advisor, of course, but I'll be the one calling the shots."

"Ha!" Genma snorted. "See how well you find Ryuugenzawa without my help," he challenged her.

Akane gave him a tired sigh. "I'm not trying to make an enemy out of you, Mister Saotome," she assured him. "I'm trying to do what's best for the Confederation. If that means taking command until you can sober up and stay sober, then I'll do it."

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just walk off the ship and leave you here without a single decryption key," he said to her, knowing that it was his ace in the hole.

Akane stepped up to him, her dark brown eyes uncharacteristically hard as she looked at him. "I'll tell you why you'll stay," she began. "Because I'm the only one who can get Ranma to return, and you know it!"

Genma took a nervous step backwards. Akane was putting out a level of intensity that he had never experienced firsthand.

"I don't see how," he muttered. "The boy's probably already off the planet by now, working as a mercenary or something."

Akane had to concede that possibility, though she considered it unlikely. "Perhaps," she allowed him. "But I'm the best chance you've got of getting your son back. After that, we'll get the last key, and from there we'll find Ryuugenzawa. That's all I'm interested in, Mister Saotome. If you can stay dry for the next couple weeks, then I'll gladly give you back your command. As for the rest, you'll get your title and your share of the wealth when we find Ryuugenzawa - just like my Dad promised you."

She looked him over. "Well, Mister Saotome?"

Genma grunted in thought.

"Bring back Ranma," he said to her. "And you'll get no complaints from me."

"Hey, thanks a lot," Ranma said to his newfound friends.

"We could use a good scout," the dark haired one, Daisuke, replied. "You fit the bill perfectly."

"Besides, with moves like yours," the light haired one, Hiroshi, added. "You could probably earn a double share as the Colonel's bodyguard while in camp."

Ranma nodded with a grin. The two recruiting officers for Ryuu's Rangers were offering him exactly what he needed: a job with decent pay and a good bonus schedule, a new passport so he could get off the planet without any hassles, and most importantly, their first assignment was garrison duty on the planet Dray, although a battalion-sized detachment would be sent out of the system on a raid against a rival noble house within the F-S. The regiment would be leaving Tiber late that night.

"I must admit," Daisuke told him. "That I was surprised to hear your name. What with that other Ranma Saotome getting engaged to Grand Duke Tendo's daughter, Akane, and all."

"God, she is SO hot," Hiroshi chimed in. "That other guy is one lucky bastard." He looked at Ranma. "Almost makes you wish you were him, huh?"

Ranma blanched. "Uh yeah," he replied. "He's a lucky guy all right." He decided to change the subject. "So where do I report?" he asked the two.

"Landing Pad #25," Hiroshi told him. "You need to be there with your stuff and ready to move out no later than twenty o'clock local time. Scout Major Beauregard will be your immediate superior, but you'll be attached to the Headquarters unit. Once you check in with him, you'll get a week's advance on your pay, your uniforms, and your basic gear issue."

"I'll be there," Ranma replied. It was a newly formed regiment of mixed units that he was joining, which was always a risky proposition for a mercenary, but also promised him the greatest chance of earning a captured battlemech.

He had happened upon the two by chance, overhearing that a merc regiment was signing up recruits near the starport. Most of the guys in line to be interviewed were scrubs; farmboys looking for glory and a way off the planet who couldn't appreciate how lucky they were to live on such a lush green world as Tiber. They'd end up as grunt infantry most likely - and probably get themselves killed while being thrown up against a battlemech lance - though Ranma overheard a few who had come through the local tech school and who could get in as apprentices.

As for himself, he'd shown off a few of his flashier martial arts forms, dropped a few names of people and units he and Pop had worked for in the Federated Shiratori, and even mentioned Ukyou once or twice as an old friend. Mentioning Beauregard had been the real stroke of luck. The guy was a hard man to work for, as he and his Pop had discovered, but the guy remembered good scouts when it came time to pass out the bonuses, and he had always been friendly with the two of them. It also gave Hiroshi and his partner a solid reference on him that they could tap on-world. He knew he'd get in as something other than the poor bloody infantry.

"I don't think this will be a problem," Daisuke added, "But I'm required to tell you that the standard withdrawal clause in your contract is good until twenty o'clock tonight. After that, you're in for the full two years."

Ranma waved him off. "Don't worry about me, man," he told them. "There ain't nothing keeping me here." I'm not even going back for my stuff...

Hiroshi stood from the table at the small restaurant where Ranma had just enlisted, and saluted him. "Welcome aboard, Scout Lieutenant Saotome!"

Ranma returned his salute. He was surprised when they had offered him a commission on the spot, but he wasn't about to refuse. Ryuu's Rangers must have been short a few hands, but he supposed that was to be expected in a new unit. Again, it meant more opportunity for him to gain rank, and with his mechwarrior and aerospace piloting skills, to eventually get promoted into a battlemech or fighter slot.

He was striking out on his own, and it felt good. No more Pop to boss him around, no more Ryuugenzawa to give him nightmares, no more crazy training techniques to threaten his life, and no more stupid engagements that he wanted nothing to do with.

No more Akane, either...

He winced at the thought. As much as he couldn't stand her most of the time, he actually found himself missing her. A little.

It was better that he left, he told himself. Who do you think you're kidding, anyway? She hates your guts. All she cares about is that stupid fairy tale called Ryuugenzawa.

"Who needs her!" he said tersely.

"Excuse me?" Hiroshi asked him nervously.

He forgot that they were still at the table.

"It's nothing," he said to them. "Don't sweat it. I'll be there tonight, I just need to get my things together." It wasn't quite true, as he didn't currently own more than the clothes on his back. He just needed to take one last walk around the place to get Akane out of his head for good.

Daisuke looked to his comrade and shrugged. "Great! See you there."

He found himself in Aquila Park, watching the last of the paddleboats meander through the lake towards the rental docks as the star Palatine dipped low in the sky. It was not due to any conscious decision on his part, it was simply one of the few places on Tiber he was familiar with, and his feet had taken him there on autopilot. He still had a few hours before he needed to get back to the starport.

Two years, he thought to himself. That was how long his term of service in Ryuu's Rangers would be good for. Two years to distinguish himself and earn a battlemech. It was possible, but he'd have to work for it, and a lucky break or two couldn't hurt him.

Things in the Confederation would be resolved by then, he figured, and it might be feasible to return to Sian and see his mother for the first time in nearly twenty years. It was galling to think that she would be living in a Combine vassal state by then, but it couldn't be helped. Pricks like Tatewaki Kuno popped up throughout history. They shook things up, conquered a bunch of territory, then bit the big one. Sooner or later the dynasties they had forged would collapse under their incompetent successors, and the cycle would begin again. He didn't figure that Kuno's empire would last very long even if he managed to conquer the entire Inner Sphere.

He might even run into Akane while he was on Sian, he mused. She'd probably be trying to get some futile insurgency movement going, and getting a lot of folks killed for nothing instead. That was assuming that she wasn't busy having Kuno's babies...

He stifled a laugh at that one, trying to imagine how stubborn, arrogant, and violent the children of any union between Akane Tendo and Tatewaki Kuno would be. What a riot! The only kids who'd be worse were Akane and Ryouga's!

That wasn't nearly as funny, he realized suddenly. He brushed it aside with a grunt. Good luck, Pig-Boy, he thought to himself. She's all yours.

He still had time to kill, he realized, looking at the distant clock on a banking tower. If he had a few imperials to rub together, he'd go get something to eat. As it stood, the meal Hiroshi and Daisuke had bought for him at the restaurant had been his first good one since he left the Palomino. He had lived off what he could get on the streets for the last week, and that wasn't much. If he had been a local, he would have been eligible for a little welfare, a prospect that galled him until his stomach really started to get the better of him. Fortunately, Ryuu's Rangers had started signing people up before he became desperate enough to try his luck with the planet's bureaucracy.

I might as well report in a little early, he thought idly. At least then I'll be eligible for some chow.

Ryuu's Rangers Headquarters DropShip Lionheart

Landing Pad #25, Aquila Starport

Planet Tiber, Palatine System

The Federated Shiratori

23 April 3025

Landing Pad #25 was where the Union Class DropShip Lionheart stood. It was the regimental command ship, and home of the lead company in the lone 'mech battalion. The other two battalions were armored vehicles and infantry, respectively.

Lionheart was pretty beat up, he noted, but it looked functional. He couldn't think of too many mercenary units whose equipment wasn't a little shabby looking, and he had worked for units who looked much worse. Depending on the assignments he drew, and a lot of luck, the regiment this Colonel Ryuu guy had put together could stand a good chance of becoming successful. Ranma was willing to take that chance.

The guard at the base of the DropShip challenged him as he approached. He identified himself, and waited while the man consulted with the DropShip proper to see if he was on the access list. After a moment's pause the guard waved him through with the admonition that he was to meet with someone as soon as he came on board.

Ranma agreed, figuring it was Major Beauregard wanting to welcome him aboard and talk to him about old times.

He climbed up the ladder into the 'Mech Bay, pausing to look at the company's battlemechs in their storage cocoons. They looked good, not the patchwork of armor and bad paint jobs he had seen in other units. The bay itself was clean and orderly, another good indication that this was going to be a first class outfit to fight with.

Hiroshi met him as he walked towards the elevator bank that would take him up to the main decks.

"Hey, Lieutenant!" he called to Ranma. "I didn't expect you so soon. Most folks like to do a little last-minute partying before they start a new hitch."

Ranma shrugged. "I didn't have anything better to do, so I thought I'd come down early and get squared away."

"Fine with me," Hiroshi agreed. "Let's hook you up with the Major first, and then the Quartermaster will issue uniforms and gear. The ship's Master at Arms hasn't posted the berthing list yet, so I don't know where you'll be

sleeping, but you can check the M.A.A. Shack if you want."

Ranma called up a mental picture of the Union Class. "That's on Deck Two, all the way outboard to port, right?"

Hiroshi nodded. "You've been around, all right. The Colonel's holding Officer Call in the Wardroom at 19:00, and since you're here, you should attend. He'll probably want to see you for a few minutes afterwards. You're the only new commission to come out of Tiber."

"Is the Colonel a cool guy or a jerk?"

Hiroshi shrugged. "He's kind of moody. Your best bet is to speak when spoken to, and say as little as possible."

Ranma gave him a 'thumbs up.' "No problem. Hey, uh, Hiroshi, I was told by the guard that I was supposed to see someone when I came on board. Would that be you, or would that be Major Beauregard?"

Hiroshi turned away for a moment. "Uh, yes and no. Yes, you're supposed to see me. Yes, you're supposed to see the Major. And no, that isn't who they were talking about down on the landing pad."

Ranma became uneasy. "What's up?"

Hiroshi gave him a nervous look. "It seems a representative of your former employer is here... Is there something you didn't tell me during the interview?"

Ranma began to bristle. Not here and not now, dammit! "Describe this so-called 'representative.'"

"Well, she has short dark hair and..."

"That's enough," Ranma spat. "Dammit, Akane!"

"Akane? Yeah, I think that was her name," Hiroshi noted, his face clouded with an unnamed concern. "So... you know her?"

"Yeah," Ranma grunted. "Though most of the time I wish I didn't."

"Is there some kind of problem?" Hiroshi asked. He was paid a hefty bonus for recruiting officers, and he didn't want to lose the one he would get for hiring Ranma.

"The only problem is in her head," Ranma replied. What the hell did she think she was doing here? "Where is she?"

"Crew's Mess," Hiroshi replied. "Please tell me there isn't any problem with you joining up with us." He looked a little harder at him, knowing that there was something terribly wrong with the situation. "Oh shit," he breathed. "You really are Akane Tendo's fiance... aren't you. What are you doing here?"

Ranma knew that he couldn't give anything less than the truth at this point, as there was nothing he could say to convince Hiroshi otherwise. He also understood Hiroshi's situation, and knew that the man stood to gain some money by hiring him. "I was her fiance," he replied. "I'm not anymore. Look, don't sweat it, man. I'll meet you at the M.A.A. Shack in a few minutes, okay?"

Hiroshi nodded hesitantly. "So that's really HER sitting in the Crew's Mess?"

"Yeah," Ranma replied. "Tell anyone about it before we leave the system, and I'll break your neck..."

Hiroshi nodded again, his face pale because he understood how serious Ranma was. "Not a word," he replied. "No one would believe me anyway." He continued on his way towards the ladder to the outside. Ranma stepped into the elevator and punched for Deck Three.

The Crew's Mess on a Union Class DropShip was only a little larger than the one on the Palomino, despite the Lionheart's much larger complement. He could see Akane sitting at a table, a cup of tea before her, and an escort from the ship standing behind her at a discreet distance. Her eyes met his the moment he stepped into the room, flashing for a moment under the fluorescent lighting.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her, wanting to get straight to the point so he could send her on her way as quickly as possible. "And how the hell did you know I was here?"

"I should ask what you're doing here, as well," she returned. "Finding you was fairly easy, actually. There was only one mercenary unit hiring in the city, so when I asked if you had signed up with them, they thought I was your old employer. At first they weren't going to tell me anything, but I managed to persuade them."

"I work here now," he replied, stabbing a thumb at his chest. "Stop wasting your time and go."

He could see her holding her breath for a moment, and could almost hear

her mentally counting to ten before she finally answered him.

"Your employment hasn't been terminated with the Confederation yet," she said to him.

"Employment?" Ranma barked. "I was never employed by the Confederation. It was more like I was shanghai'd by my Old Man. Besides, I quit, remember?"

"You aren't working for your father anymore," she replied evenly. "You're working for me. I haven't let you go yet."

"Says who?"

Akane bit her lip nervously. "Ranma, I took command of the expedition from your father today. I'm running the show, and I want you to come back to the ship with me."

"You're in charge?" he cackled. "Gimme a break. Did Yuka and Sayuri put you up to that?"

"No, they did not," she said tersely. "Ranma, I'm asking you to return to the ship and continue the expedition with me." She looked around the room for a moment. "I realize that I can't make you, so don't worry about me trying." Her voice cracked slightly as she continued. "It seems as if you have a good job lined up here. I won't take you from that if you don't want me to."

"They made me a lieutenant," he replied, his voice not nearly as forceful as he would have liked it to be. "I've never had a commission of my own before." He made a sweeping gesture of the room. "I got this job on my own, Akane. No help from Pop. I'm doing this for me, for the first time in my life I'm doing something just for me, and it feels good." He offered up his hands in a plea. "Try to understand that."

Akane looked down at her tea.

"Okay..." she whispered. "I said I wasn't going to force you to come back with me, and I'm not." She looked up at him again. "Can I ask you a question before I go?"

Ranma felt his chest tighten up. "Sure."

Akane stood from the table and looked into his eyes.

"Ranma, am I the reason you left?"

He looked for a moment as if he had been struck.

"Wh-What are you t-talking about?" he stammered.

She steeled herself and repeated the question, knowing that everything she had planned to say to him in order to bring him home with her was going out the window, and knowing that she was powerless to stop it.

"I just want to know if I was the one who drove you away."

He clenched the back of his neck, sweat beginning to bead on his brow.

"There were lots of reasons why I left," he replied.

"But was I one of them?" It was almost a plea.

He looked away. "Yeah."

Her face drew tight for a moment, tiny lines forming at the corners of her eyes, her chin trembling ever so slightly.

"Good bye, Ranma," she said to him softly. "Good luck in your new unit."

She brushed past him on her way out of the Crew's Mess, the delicate smell of her hair lingering in her wake.

"Good bye, Akane," he returned, not daring to look back at her.

She kept up a brave front until she was out on the tarmac and walking towards the ship's truck from the Palomino. Then the tears started to fall, and she had to stop for a moment to compose herself before her driver, Tad, saw her. She was the leader of the expedition now, and a leader had to be strong for her people, no matter what she felt inside.

She had botched her last chance with Ranma by getting mired in a confrontation with him. She had meant to be concilliatory, but the moment she had seen him so happy in his new unit, a feeling of jealousy and resentment had come over her that she could not contain. She could only blame herself for losing him, and the anguish that realization caused her sent hot teardrops spilling towards the pavement.

The pain of loss and guilt stabbed at her as she wiped away the tears, and took the last few steps to the truck. She would move on without him. She had to go on. If Tad noticed her distress, he gave no sign of it. Managing a fresh voice, she instructed him to take her back to ship. He had the sense not to ask where Ranma was.

The Wardroom, DropShip Lionheart

The Wardroom was crowded by the time Ranma found it. The ship's officers, along with the regimental headquarters staff, the three battalion commanders and their company and lance/platoon level commanders, and their aerospace and scout detachments, were present. Ranma was surprised to see several officers from units he and Pop had been members of in the past. To his delight, he remembered them as good commanders, not necessarily bright or gifted tacticians, but dedicated men and women who looked after their people and took pride in getting the job done right.

Major Beauregard caught him before he could get too far into the room. He was a heavyset man edging past middle age now, though his jowly face and pugnacious nose were instantly recognized by Ranma.

"Saotome!" he called to him. "Come stand over here, son, where I can get a good look at you!"

Ranma made his way past the other officers to reach his new superior.

"Scout Lieutenant Ranma Saotome, reporting as ordered, sir." He wanted to make a good impression.

"Get a load of the kid," Beauregard cracked to a captain-ranked mechwarrior as he tossed back a jaunty answering salute. "Son, you sure as hell didn't learn those kind of manners from your father," he added to Ranma. "Speaking of the lying, thieving cheat, where is he?"

"I'm on my own, now," Ranma replied.

Beauregard clapped him on the back. "Glad to hear it, son. Probably the best decision you'll ever make in life." He turned back to the captain. "I remember when Saotome here was thirteen. He and his dad signed on with Ford's Regiment for the River Campaigns on New Rhodes..."

"Is this going to be another one of your 'no shit, there I was' stories?" the captain asked, only half-joking.

"Do I have any other kind of story?" Beauregard riposted. "Anyways, no shit, there I was, ass-deep in mud on the banks of the Palanquin River, just north of the city. Ford's main line of attack had stalled, and he was looking for a way around the network of defenses the Count of New Rhodes had set up to stop him from getting over the river.

"So naturally, he called for his scouts to go out and take another look. Now it was just me, the kid here, and his no-account father, and we were testing the depths of the river and how soft its banks were to see if 'mechs could get across without getting mired. Now as I said, I was ass-deep in mud at the time, and with the strong current of the river, it didn't look good. The Count must have opened up the flood control dams upstream to give us a hard time of it.

"We had already surveyed about ten klicks upstream from Ford's positions, and there didn't seem to be much chance of making a crossing. The Count's people held the bridges, and it looked like he was going to have to take them the hard way, knowing his enemy would blow them if it looked like he might be successful."

Beauregard clapped Ranma on the back again. Ranma, who was lost in the recollections of that day, nearly bowled over.

"And that's when the boy here spots something we missed," the major remarked. "There was this big, rusty flat-bottomed barge coming down the river, and sure as shit, it goes right to this little finger pier on the other side of the river which Ranma had spotted." He gestured to Ranma. "Now the way you see him here, he's got a little meat on his bones, but back then he was this stringy little fuck who looked like the wind might blow him away if he wasn't tied down to something. Strong as hell, but damn, you could play the xylophone on his ribs every time he inhaled."

Beauregard nudged him in the side as he said this, making Ranma blush uncontrollably. He certainly didn't remember himself looking like that!

"So Ranma here says to us, 'I'll swim across the river, and steal the barge. We can float downstream a bit to meet up with the regiment, and they can use it as a ferry for the 'mechs to get across the river and take the bridges from both sides at once.'

"Now Genma and I laughed, 'cause we both thought there was no way he could even swim the fuckin' river, what with the distance to the far bank being a little farther than a Wasp could jump, plus the strong current, much less overpower the barge operators and steal the damn thing. But just to show us up, he strips down to his underwear and jumps in the water.

"He's more than halfway across the river, strugglin', but hackin' it, when an infantry patrol about squad size spots him from a low hill on the opposite bank. I don't know what made them think he was an enemy, maybe they were just bored and needed to shoot something, but they started openin' up on the kid with rifles and light machine guns when he's still got about fifty meters left to reach the opposite bank."

By this time Ranma had noticed that the other conversations in the crowded Wardroom had ceased, and that everyone, including Colonel Ryuu, was listening to Beauregard's story. The major, knowing that he was playing to a much larger audience, raised his voice slightly to be heard.

"Now if'n it had been me out in the river, I woulda hightailed it outta there and swam back the way I came. But not Ranma. The little sumbitch just swims harder, bullets kickin' up big plumes of water around him where they're skippin' across the river at him. Genma gets pissed that they're shootin' at his kid, breaks out with his Twenty, and starts shootin' back. A couple APEX rounds from his 20mm catch the squad's attention, and they start tradin' fire across the water with us from about two hundred meters. A few of 'em keep taking potshots at Ranma here, but the heat's off, and he keeps going.

"So he gets to the far bank, runs down the pier, kicks the crap outta the barge operators, and drags the skipper back to the boat to make him drive the thing. Before the grunts on the hill even know what's going on, he's got that pig moving out into the river and headed downstream to Ford's lines. We kept up a little fire to keep the squad busy, then we got the hell outta there ourselves."

Major Beauregard looked at Ranma with a stern nod of approval. "The kid's stupid, stubborn, and brave. A bad combination, but I'm glad he's here. Maybe without his dad around I can teach him some sense."

"Did it all work out?" the question came from Colonel Kumon Ryuu, a man only a little older than Ranma, with a dark brooding expression on his face that spoke of a great tragedy in his past.

"Well sir," Beauregard said to his commanding officer. "Saotome here got the barge down to Colonel Ford's lines, and they were able to put a fast-attack 'mech company on the other side of the river before the Count knew what was up. We took the bridges, but in the end it didn't matter. One of the Count's men knifed him in the back while we was takin' the bridges, and our employer called us off the attack - seeing as how he was next in line for the Count's seat, he had just been elevated, and the planet was now rightfully his. It took a week or so, but the diplomats and the lawyers worked out the transfer of power, while we cooled our heels."

Colonel Ryuu nodded silently. He knew all about the power politics in the Federated Shiratori since the Cult of Azusa came into existence, and the old order of things had been turned upside down. He knew painfully well how the nobility had been split into two factions; those who opposed the Cult's malign influence and were stripped of their holdings in battles like the River Campaigns, and those who supported Empress Azusa and her rabid followers, and reaped the rewards of their loyalty.

"I'm glad to have a man like you in my service," he said to Ranma. He looked about his officers, taking them each in turn under his gaze. "You're all good men and women," he said to them. "I wouldn't have hired you if you weren't."

The officers accepted his compliment with proper silence.

"Our first assignment is two-fold:" he continued. "Our infantry and armored units are still getting up to speed, so when we reach the planet Dray, I want them to concentrate on training. We have a lot of raw recruits to work with, and I expect all of you to get them proficient.

"I know there has been talk of sending our 'mech assets out on a raid. Let me confirm this now. You'll get the full brief after we leave the system, but for now understand that this is a punitive raid, fast and hard. I'm not

looking for salvage, but if you can get it without endangering the mission, do what you can."

He gave his 'mech commanders hard looks. "We're getting paid for this, but this is also very personal. Scorched earth, gentleman. I expect nothing less."

Ranma nodded with the rest of the officers. He wanted to be with the raiding party, not training a bunch of scrubs, and figured that Beauregard would want him there too. As the Officer's Call went on, he was thankful for Beauregard's war story. It had recalled a time when he had done something important on his own, and he saw how it had placed him in good standing with the rest of the Wardroom. They knew they could trust him under fire, that he would get the job done.

His initial anxiety at finding acceptance within the regiment passed. He was in. With Beauregard's help, he was one of them, and he was determined to earn that acceptance himself at the first opportunity.

He watched the clock as it ticked towards 20:00. He would be commited to Ryuu's Rangers in just a short while.

A pang of regret bit into him at the thought, and he fought it down. He was doing the right thing by leaving the expedition. All he had ever done was cause them discord. Akane was in charge now, which gave him mixed feelings, but he decided that it was better that way too. At least she wouldn't let Pop try to cheat and steal from them anymore. My place is here, he told himself.

Now if he could only make himself believe that...

Akane Tendo watched as the DropShips of Ryuu's Rangers soared aloft on brilliant columns of plasma fire into the midnight sky. The rumble of their drives filled the air, and a hot wind blew through her hair. Ranma was gone.

Mister Saotome had been livid when he learned of Ranma's refusal to return, forcing her to have him restrained before he did something stupid like march over to the Lionheart to have it out with him. She was starting to understand that her relationship with him was going to be a rocky one, and that she might never be able to return command of the expedition to him.

The DropShips faded high above her into a constellation of bright blue-white stars. She watched them slowly dim in the sky, feeling an emptiness inside her that time itself could not seem to fill. In spite of her sorrow and regret at his departure, she wished him well, and hoped that one day she might see him again.

"He's gone, isn't he?" a voice, Doctor Tofu's, said to her.

She turned to find that he had joined her on the tarmac near the Phoenix Hawk LAM, his eyes cast up to the sky and the departing DropShips.

"I'm afraid so," she replied softly.

"I don't know what I can say to make this any easier for you," the Doctor said to her. "I know how you felt about him."

She blushed, thankful for the night to conceal it from him.

"That's not something I can afford to think about right now," she replied. "I have to put him behind me for the sake of the mission. The Confederation is depending on us."

Tofu placed a warm, reassuring hand on her shoulder. "That's all very true," he agreed. "But I know that it's hurting you. If you need someone to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, I'm always there."

Akane touched the hand upon her for a moment before turning and giving him a hug.

"I'll do that," she said quietly. "Thank you, Doctor, for all you've done for me."

Tofu nodded in her embrace. "You should get back aboard the ship," he said to her. "It's late, and we have a lot to do tomorrow."

She released him and took a step back. "I will," she returned. "But first I want to say good bye to him one more time."

Tofu bowed his head for her.

"Good night, Akane."

"Good night, Doctor Tofu."

She watched the doctor return to the DropShip. It had been through her time with Ranma that she had been able to let go of her crush on Doctor Tofu. She had lost the handsome physician as a potential lover, and gained him instead as a friend and a source of invaluable counsel. As she stood on Tiber, with the Confederation still in danger, she was glad to have him the way he was.

It wasn't easy for her to approach the Phoenix Hawk LAM as it squatted in Airmech Mode upon the tarmac. She felt that Ranma's will, which had coursed through the battlemech's circuitry over a week ago, continued to linger like a revenant. With an unsteady hand she touched the armor plate of the fuselage, the aligned crystal steel cool and unyielding, the smell of the paint still fresh in the air from the repairs, and was convinced that his fiery spirit actually was infused in the LAM, refusing to leave.

You should have taken this, Ranma, she thought to herself. I know the reasons why you left it behind, but you could do far more good with it than it will ever do sitting here without you. The last man other than Ranma to fly this Phoenix Hawk LAM had been her grandfather, Grand Duke Kentaro Tendo, a man she barely remembered from her childhood, but who had been revered throughout the Confederation as a daring mechwarrior. For all of his faults, Ranma would have been a worthy successor to her grandfather.

She climbed up the boarding ladder to the cockpit where he had sat in that fateful duel with Yuka and Sayuri. The salty smell of the sea surprised her as she settled into the ejector seat, as did the faint smell of sweat that could only have been Ranma's. Her hands closed over the throttle and stick as his would have done, the surfaces gently worn with age to the point where she could feel exactly where his fingers would have rested, and she pictured the smile he would have had on his face as he tore a path straight into the sky.

She had known of his love of flying since that first morning on Capra, when he had taken her along for a trip in the Boomerang. It was true that his father had ordered him to take her along, just as it was true that by the end of their flight he'd had no regrets about doing it. He had taught her the rudiments of piloting, and then trusted her to take the controls and show him what she had learned. She cherished those brief moments that he had given her.

It seemed that all they had together were brief moments. Most of the time they were busy with other things, and always there was the engagement that hung over them, forcing them together when they hardly knew the other.Was it any surprise that their relationship had ended the way it had? She knew the answer, and yet always in her mind she replayed their disastrous encounter aboard the Lionheart, looking for a way that she could have salvaged the moment.

Could she have stopped him from going with the Rangers if she had told him that she was in love with him?

She honestly did not know the answer to that question. Knowing him, it could have frightened him away from her that much faster. If such a confession had brought him back, would it have only been out of guilt? She didn't want him coming back out of guilt. She wanted him to choose her.

That's what it came down to, she realized. I wanted Ranma to choose me, because that would have eliminated all the doubts I have about my feelings for him. I needed him to validate my love, and he didn't. He left me.

The urge to put her fist through the cockpit display seized her, and she had to fight it back with all her will. Getting angry hadn't solved anything with Ranma, it had just made things worse. She couldn't afford to make any more mistakes like that.

She understood all the reasons for him leaving her, and they made sense. She couldn't deny that he had made valid points for his reasons, but in the end, when she had asked him if she had been the one who had driven him away, he had said yes. She couldn't escape the fact that she had pushed him away, out of anger, jealousy, and... fear.

Fear was such a powerful component of her feelings for him. She had been afraid that he would take the 1st Nerima Guards from her. She was afraid that he and his father were frauds, bilking the Confederation for all they could get. She feared that he loved Ukyou, and felt nothing for her. All of these fears had seemed so real, and yet now that he was gone, she awoke to the fact that none of them were justified. Even the fear that he felt nothing for her wasn't true, she had seen it in his eyes and heard it in his voice when she called off the engagement.

If only she had one more chance with him, she lamented. I wouldn't waste it.

"Hey, Tomboy," Ranma'a voice growled up at her from the tarmac. "You're gonna need a few more flying lessons before you're ready for that thing."

Akane turned and looked down at him, not believing her eyes.

"RANMA!"

She threw herself out of the cockpit, landing in his stunned embrace, and hugging the stuffing out of him.

"You're supposed to be gone!" she cried. When he didn't immediately respond, she realized that it was because he wasn't able to breathe. She released him reluctantly, afraid that he might vanish before her eyes if she did.

"Yeah well, I changed my mind," he replied as soon as he was able. She could feel the heat blazing from his face after their embrace. "A guy can do that, you know."

She looked away shyly, almost ashamed with her outburst of joy at his return, and yet thrilled with the way Ranma had been nearly overcome by it.

"What about your commission with Ryuu's Rangers?"

He made a dismissive gesture, but she could see how much it had cost him to let it go. "No big deal," he replied. "I told 'em what was up with you and me. Nothing about Ryuugenzawa of course, but hell, one of their recruiters had already figured us out by then. Colonel Ryuu didn't want to do it, but Beauregard persuaded him to agree. They said I'm welcome back anytime I want."

Akane didn't know who this Beauregard fellow was, but she blessed him anyway. "I don't want to know how it is that you've come back, Ranma," she said to him. "I'm just glad that you are."

Ranma hunched his shoulders in a half-shrug. "Yeah well, I gave up a lot to do it. I had a pretty good feeling about those guys. With a little luck, they're gonna be big."

"I know what that commission meant to you, Ranma," she told him. "I really do. I know how proud you were to get it."

He gave her a guarded look. "Look, let's get one thing straight: I'm back, but things are gonna be different between us from now on. I'm not doing this for Duke and Country anymore. I want to be paid for my services."

She frowned at him, her temper rising in spite of the joy she felt at his return. It took a moment for her to collect herself, and to look at the situation from his point of view. She sensed that there was more to it than what he had said. It seemed like he was looking for a way to save face for himself.

"I'd be happy to pay you," she replied with a sly smile, "but I'm not interested in hiring any more mercenaries. They're too unreliable."

Ranma blinked twice. "So what are you getting at?"

"I'm offering you a commission in the Confederation Army," she said. "Are you interested?"

He was not prepared for her offer, but he replied warily. "What kind of commission are we talking about?"

"Regular Army," she returned. If she was going to have him, she was really going to have him. No reserve commissions! "How does Mechwarrior Captain sound?"

"R-Really?" he squeaked, and then the wariness returned. "You aren't just giving me captain's rank to make me feel better about giving up being a lieutenant are you?"

"Ranma," she returned, feeling her self-confidence rise. "I'm offering you captain's rank because I think you're worth it, and for no other reason."

He relaxed slightly, then grinned. "Hell, as long as you're offering me what I'm worth, you might as well make me a colonel!"

She returned his look with one of gentle reproach. "I think 'captain' sounds about right."

"Okay," he agreed good-naturedly. He seemed to enjoy the verbal sparring between them as they hashed out the particulars of his return to the expedition. "So far so good, but what are my terms of service? These things usually carry a minimum commitment before you can resign."

"I'll make it easy on you," she replied, her eyes sparkling. She knew that she had him on the hook now, and that all she had to do was land him. "Your minimum commitment of service will be until we find Ryuugenzawa. After that, any requests to resign will be handled by the Army in the usual fashion."

"Until we find Ryuugenzawa?" he asked haltingly. "That sounds awfully open-ended to me."

"Take it or leave it," she told him with a faintly mocking grin.

He stepped back, and then circled slowly around her, his eyes cast upwards as if in contemplation. "Gee, I don't know," he said in an blustery voice as he circled her. "It sounds like I don't have much of a choice..."

"Says the man who walked out on us a week ago without a 'mech or a penny in his pocket," she returned, knowing that his protestations were mostly a sham concocted for her benefit. "You left once... If you don't like my offer, you can always look somewhere else again."

He hesitated, unsure if he should push his luck with her with another smart remark.

"I'll sweeten the deal for you," she said at length. "You'll not only hold captain's rank, but you'll also be my Lance Commander for the expedition." She gave him another sly look. "That means you'll command the Air Lance as well as the regular 'mech forces."

She could see that he approved. Her gesture had tacitly established her feelings about Yuka and Sayuri's interference, and in his favor.

"Deal," he said finally. "Except there's just one more thing we need to talk about."

"Name it," she replied, secretly pleased at how well she was handling him.

He levelled his gaze at her.

"What about the engagement."

She didn't how to respond at first. "What exactly do you mean?"

"I'd just as soon not think about it," he said to her. "It makes things too complicated between us."

Akane had to agree with that sentiment. Nothing drove a wedge between them faster than their parents' stupid promise to unite the two families. She loved the idiot, but she wasn't ready to marry him just yet. At least not until she was certain of his feelings on the matter.

"Let's agree to set it aside for the moment," she said to him. "It could be argued that we are still technically engaged, correct?"

He nodded.

"Then for now, let's just leave it that, a technicality to be resolved when we return from Ryuugenzawa, and not before, okay?"

He nodded again, apparently pleased with her line of thought.

"Deal."

She stepped up close to him again, her eyes shining. "We can do the official paperwork in the morning," she said to him quietly. "But I want you to take the oath from me right now. There's no backing out of this after you swear, Ranma."

He raised his right hand.

"I ain't gonna back outta something like this. Not to you. Now lay it on me."

Right then and there, under the stars of the Tiber sky, she swore him in as an officer of the Confederation Army, the first Saotome ever to receive a commission from the country of his birth. It did not matter that there were no other witnesses to this act, for as Ranma held his eyes with hers while he repeated the oath, Akane knew that it was not actually to the Confederation, but to her and her alone that he swore his fealty. It was an oath that would always be just between the two of them.

League of Five Nails JumpShip Seisyun

Capella System Zenith Jump Point

Capella System, the Nerima Confederation

24 April 3025

Tetsuo Gosunkugi thanked his lucky stars as the Seisyun materialized without incident at the Capella System Zenith Point. There were no guarantees that Kuno's forces would honor his safe-conduct pass from Comstar, even at the risk of a communications blackout by the enigmatic organization that maintained the Inner Sphere's HPG network.

The pass itself had been difficult to wrangle, forcing him to make a stop in the Sol System to speak with a member of the First Circuit. Comstar had remained silent on the issue of the Combine's invasion of the Nerima Confederation, and its seige of Capella. They were a neutral entity, and to openly show favoritism to one nation over another was risky. It was only after a promise by him to increase their service contract fees that Comstar agreed to issue the pass.

The side-trip proved unnecessary, he learned, as the Confederation had broken the siege - with a little help from Hikaru Gosunkugi and the League of Five Nails, Tetsuo noted proudly. They controlled the Jump Points for the moment, at least until such time as Prince Kuno stopped chasing Hikaru and decided to return. It was up to Tetsuo now to secure the alliance between the Confederation and the League - and shut out the Furinkan Combine for good.

His prize hostage was the key to success. Shogun Kuno, though he was completely insane, provided the leverage necessary to get his son Tatewaki to end hostilities against both countries. The daimyo were getting restless about his conduct of the war, and angry that he had left himself open for such a daring invasion by the League. Kuno could ill-afford to let the Shogun remain in League hands if he wanted to remain in command of the Combine's armies.

As for Tetsuo, the sooner he turned over the Shogun to Grand Duke Tendo, the better. Let the Duke negotiate the exchange with the Combine! He was sick of the Shogun's neverending luau.

"Your Excellency, we have been granted permission to depart for Nerima under armed escort."

Tetsuo looked away from the viewport to Captain Mariko Konjou, a petite blonde completely dedicated to her duty, but as his spies reported, she had a questionable affection for Combine Prince Tatewaki Kuno. If it was love, Tetsuo knew, it was an unrequited love. Mariko was otherwise a sterling example of League Navy competence - even if she had a tendency to sometimes spell out her orders in cheerleader fashion.

"Thank you, Captain," he replied. "When will the escort ship arrive on station?"

Mariko inclined her head towards the viewport.

"They're right off our starboard beam at a distance of five thousand kilometers."

Tetsuo looked out the viewport again. There was nothing out there but stars.

"Where?" he finally asked her.

She floated over to his position and pointed out the viewport for him. He followed the graceful sweep of her arm, down the tip of her extended index finger, to a spot where the stars winked out of existence for a moment before sparkling back to life.

"A WarShip?" he asked her. He knew the Confederation had a few left, all of low displacement of course, but he had never seen one of them up close. For good reason, all of the Successor States guarded their handful of remaining WarShips jealously.

"The NCWS Tautog," she confirmed. "Balao Class corvette."

He shrugged, knowing little of ship classes, but appreciative of the Confederation ship's menace.

"Make preparations for my DropShip's separation," he ordered calmly. "Have Shogun Kuno and his party moved to their quarters aboard." Let Nabiki deal with them for awhile, and see how quickly her smug look went away!

"Already done, your Excellency," Mariko replied.

Tetsuo smiled nervously. In a few days he would face the greatest diplomatic challenge of his career. He could not fail, the future of the entire Inner Sphere hung in the balance!

Furinkan Combine WarShip Imperator

Gamma Draconis System Nadir Jump Point

Gamma Draconis System, the Furinkan Combine

24 April 3025

General Prince Tatewaki Kuno found little solace in the round of morning exercises taken aboard his flagship, for he was a man suffering many indignities of the flesh and spirit.

His fleet had failed day after day to destroy the upstart Gosunkugi and his forces - who plagued the Combine border march near the Commonwealth with criminal tenacity. No sooner would he receive word of a raid on one of his systems and send his fleet hither, than the curs would flee from him, and deny him satisfaction. The conflict so close to the border had aroused the Amazons, as he had feared, and now he faced the threat of pre-emptive strikes by them to blunt an anticipated invasion by the Combine.

The shrill witches knew better, of course, but they were not going to allow this opportunity to snap at his heels pass them by. It was to their advantage to keep his army from their rightful conquest of the Confederation. He expected them to employ such base measures to check his ambitions.

"Curse you, Hikaru Gosunkugi, for the thorn thou hast been in mine own side," he muttered to himself. He knelt before his portraits of Akane and the Pig-Tailed Girl in contemplation of their beauty and charm, but his thoughts turned ever towards the destruction of his foe. The hated name of the foul sorceror, Ranma Saotome, had scarcely crossed his lips these days, as he directed his wrath towards the scion of House Gosunkugi.

His failure to succeed was all the more infuriating to him because he knew that his was the superior force, in numbers and in skill. Only through treachery had he been defeated; the treachery of Gosunkugi, of his sister Kodachi, by her ninja manservant Sasuke, he even suspected Nabiki of having some hand in this!

Tatewaki took a calming breath and continued his reflection upon the virtues of his two loves. Even as he compared the buxom delight of the Pig-Tailed Girl to the savage beauty of Akane Tendo, dark thoughts of his failures haunted him, denying him what little joy he could derive from the contemplation of the Inner Sphere's two most beautiful women.

He slammed a fist down upon the tatami matting of his personal chambers.

Damn the Gosunkugis and their hated League! A pox on them all!

Since the cur Gosunkugi would not stand and fight, he had to find some other way to drive him from the Combine. The Confederation, seizing upon his distraction, had already liberated the Capella System from his forces, and he faced another wearisome battle to occupy it. Gosunkugi could not be allowed to strike at him from the dark while he was joined in battle for Capella.

They had to be stretching their supply lines thin, he reasoned at length. To continue these incessant raids meant the expenditure of fuel, ammunition, food, and other materiel. Perhaps the solution to his problem was not to face them on every front, but to starve them until they were forced into retreat.

He visualized a chart of the local space. It would mean delaying his return to Capella, but he had the ships and the troops to heavily garrison every system within one Jump of the border with the League. If he called up reserves from within the interior, he would have enough left over to give him a mobile strike force to keep them busy.

Yes, he thought with barely-restrained glee, drive them on, yet deny them the things they need to continue. Sooner or later, Gosunkugi must withdraw his forces to the League for resupply. I shall await him in a system over the border that he thinks is safely his, and then I, Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of the Furinkan Combine, shall have him!

League of Five Nails JumpShip Impaler

Shiro System Nadir Point

Shiro System, the Furinkan Combine

24 April 3025

Hikaru Gosunkugi looked over the reports his Army Group Headquarters staff had piled up on his desk. Auguries he had cast on the subject agreed. The conclusions reached were the same no matter how many times he factored in the variables. At the present rate of materiel expenditure, his forces would become non-effective within two weeks.

The problem was his logistical support. His forces were constantly on the move, striking the Combine in lightning raids that burned reaction mass for his fighters and DropShips, expended ammunition for combat, and consumed food and medical supplies at a prodigious rate. The maintenance needs of his ships and battlemechs also used up his stores of vital spare parts, causing his troops in the field to spend precious escape time scavenging as much as they could before fleeing the battlefields.

He had requested additional stores to be sent to the border between the League and the Combine, but it would take time to assemble them, and he didn't want such a valuable stockpile of supplies sitting in one place for an ambitious general in his army to steal, or a Combine or Confederation force to raid and destroy. He would have to see to it personally that the supplies reached his fleet intact, a task he did not look forward to.

At first he had enjoyed the cat-and-mouse games he played against Tatewaki Kuno. It was a thrill to have the most powerful general in the Inner Sphere running around chasing his tail. Even his parents approved of his current campaign, and had rescinded their order for him to return to Angbad. But without his cousin and confidant, Tetsuo, around, the adventure seemed to wane for him.

It was good that Tetsuo had departed as he did, for his was the most important assignment he had ever been given. An alliance between the League of Five Nails and the Nerima Confederation would do more than guarantee the security of both nations, it would set in motion a combined series of alliances that would pit the entire Inner Sphere against the Combine. The Federated Shiratori was a strong trading partner of the Confederation as well as a foe of the Combine, and the League was the Commonwealth's ally. All four states together could check the ambitions of Tatewaki Kuno and bring a measure of stability the Inner Sphere had not known since the exhausted general truce following the Second Succession War.

Better still in Hikaru's mind, a wedding between himself and Akane Tendo would create a state nearly as large as the Furinkan Combine, and provide a measure of leverage within the combined alliance that would assure the primacy of the newly constituted Confederated-League. This was the task the stars had given him, he was certain. This was the way he would take Akane for his bride, as the oracles had foretold.

The Imperial Palace

Kawaii City, Planet Genevieve

Martina System, the Federated Shiratori

26 April 3025

Brigadier Ukyou Kuonji primped and preened herself in one of the many full length mirrors found outside the audience chambers of the Empress. It was vital to remember that there was but one law within the bounds of Azusa's demense, and that law was Beauty. Those who were beautiful enjoyed rare privilege, including, perhaps, the personal favor of the Empress. Those who were not found only derision and scorn.

Upon receiving a summons from the Empress, she could not afford to be anything less than stunning. She had meant to delay this encounter until Ranchan and his party arrived from Tiber, but Azusa had learned of her arrival on the planet, and was reputedly dying to speak to her cutest general.

"How do I look?" she asked her adjutant. She didn't like the idea of being Azusa's 'cutest,' but supposed she had better look the part.

Konatsu beamed at her.

"Fabulous, sir," the former kunoichi replied happily.

Ukyou had to agree. Konatsu's skill with cosmetics was considerable. With a deft touch of his brush, her skin glowed with the inner radiance and soft luster of fine porcelain. She had learned tricks with blush and eyeliner from him that she had never before considered possible.

"I couldn't have done it without you, sugar."

"Well sir," he replied softly. "To be honest, I did have a lot to work with."

She grinned at him, knowing that her skin was one of her best features, and still regarding his accomplishments as nothing short of miraculous.

"Flatterer."

She was decked out in her full dress uniform, with all of her medals, badges, and braid, and a gold satin ribbon bow in her hair. The ribbon was strictly non-regulation, but also a personal touch that Azusa would approve of.

Konatsu had spent a few hours with the hairdresser that morning to put his long hair up into an extravagant coiffure that was sure to impress Her Imperial Divinity, and in his own dress uniform jacket and skirt he cut a figure of grace and demure beauty that had many heads turning in his direction. Men looked upon him in awe, the women with an intense jealousy that Ukyou herself often felt, and kept closely guarded within her today.

As they waited outside the Throne Room, one of the Empress' pages approached them with the wide-eyed, even vacuous smile of a member of the Cult of Azusa.

"The Empress will see you now," she said to them.

Ukyou cast Konatsu a brief look of dismay before smiling especially brightly for the page, and following her into the place of Dreadful Cute.

The Throne Room of Her Imperial Divinity,

Azusa the First

The Throne Room was as plush, opulant, and harrowingly pink as Ukyou remembered it. The air was thick with the tittering voices of Her court, the rich sweet smells of freshly baked cookies and punch offered up in extravagant arrangements from every corner of the Federated Shiratori, and with the obnoxiously cloying feeling of being observed from all sides by the dreaded Cult of Azusa.

Ukyou and Konatsu made their way into the cavernous chamber knowing that the eyes of the Cult were upon them, appraising their looks, and judging whether or not they would be found worthy for the beloved Goddess-Empress to behold. The eyes of the Empress did not deign to look upon the common or the profane. As far as the Cult was concerned, there was no place for ugliness in Her perfect universe, and they ensured that it stayed that way.

Here there was only beauty, from the lowliest servant placing fresh sugar cookies upon trays of platinum and burnished gold, to the chief ministers to the Empress - whose vacuous stares and empty prattle emulated the sublime beauty and grace of their liege lady. Compared to the lavish garb draped upon the members of the Empress' Court, Ukyou felt rather plain in her full dress uniform.

Though her eyes did not wander as she proceeded towards the throne, she sensed with considerable relief that the court approved of her and of her adjutant. Konatsu's gender was not seen as a liability in this place, indeed, his stunning bishonen beauty was a powerful asset to Ukyou. Many in the court could only look upon the former kunoichi with a sense of heartbreaking awe as he minced gracefully towards the throne at the exactly proper distance behind his superior.

The Empress was seated upon Her throne of creeping vines, sunflowers, roses, and lilies intricately wrought out of solid gold wire and leaded crystal of many colors - looking for all eyes to be a fairy princess in Her pink taffeta and white lace gown. An array of lasers and tiny incandescent lights skillfully concealed within the gold wire backlit the throne, and cast shards of radiance from her, adding to the sense of magic and fantasy that surrounded her. Her luxurious mane of golden brown hair was fluffed up to maximum volume, and held in place with a diamond tiara and such a light touch of hairspray that it defied the laws of physics. In her right hand was a winged-heart sceptre of finely wrought gold, platinum, and gems worthy of the most revered characters from the Magical Girl comics. In her left, a demitasse of hand-blown glass was filled with sparkling fruit punch that shimmered in the light.

This nineteen year old girl, a girl the same age as Ukyou herself, was the Goddess-Empress of a star kingdom over six centuries old.

As Ukyou knelt reverently before her Empress, she thought back to the day Azusa's parents had died, and the turn of events that destroyed the old Federated Shiratori.

The Shiratoris had been wealthy even in the days of pre-Jump Earth, but it was the advent of star travel that catapulted them to preeminence in the Inner Sphere. From their bold expansion into space, coupled with their fortunes and their vast networks of influence, they had become the leading noble family among a conclave of powerful states. The Shiratoris had been the first ones to forge an alliance with their neighbors, thus creating the first of the Great Houses. While the Kunos were still a second rate family of landed sell-swords, the Shiratoris were setting in motion the overthrow of the Terran Hegemony, and the ultimate creation of the Star League.

After six hundred years of glory, it had taken a single tragic accident to reduce the power and majesty of the Shiratori family to what it was today: an overdressed and endless tea party. Azusa had been ten when her parents died in a car crash. Under other circumstances, there would have been an orderly transfer of power to other members of the family until she came of age, but instead the Cult had stepped in.

At first, the Cult of Azusa was nothing more than a glorified fan club. It wasn't even called a cult back then. Azusa, as the only child of the ruling family, had been in the public eye from the day she was born. Showered with constant attention and near religious adoration from well-wishers, afforded every luxury by parents who were often too busy with urgent affairs of state to spend real time with her, and never expected to be anything other than cute in the eyes of her people, Azusa grew up spoiled, vacuous, and fearfully pretty.

When most of the nobles agreed that the power of the Federated Shiratori be held in regency until Azusa came of age, the Cult whipped itself into a sudden, unforeseen frenzy. Student groups, her primary supporters, began to riot. Soon, general strikes were being called throughout the nation, and even the military got into the act when it looked like they were going to be ordered to violently suppress the revolution.

Initiated by what was little more than a rabid cult of personality, the uprising would have died out shortly after its inception, had not a rival faction within the Shiratori family seized upon the opportunity, and pronounced their support. With the sudden backing of these Shiratoris, the Cult found itself in command, and pronounced Azusa their Goddess-Empress. It was no doubt the intention of these nobles to rule through the puppet Cult of Azusa, and its shallow, naive, ten-year-old Empress. Even they could not have foreseen the tragic results of their actions.

By allowing the Cult to transfer all power to this haughty, spoiled child, they had sealed their own doom. The pronouncements of Azusa became Law under the influence of the Cult, and all who denounced her were dealt with harshly. Influencing this little girl - who took to her role as divine ruler of the nation with a terrible resolve - was no simple task, and though she was not clever, she was too stubborn to be swayed and too capricious to predict. By the time she was twelve, all power was concentrated in her pre-pubescent hands. Her enemies were either destroyed, or cowed into submission by the mob rule of the Cult.

Being only ten herself at the time, Ukyou barely remembered the tumult. She had studied it in school - the events carefully revised by the Cult and its supporters to cast the revolution in a positive light - and had heard it spoken of by older officers in the Army, but it was with little real understanding of what the Federated Shiratori had lost until she herself received a command. The gross incompetence the Cult had created and let fester became shameful to her, and even more so was her recognition by the Empress as a favorite.

Yet here she was, down on bended knee, offering homage to her Goddess.

"Oh, Ukyou!" Azusa squealed with uncontained glee. "You're so CUTE!"

A cold sweat broke out on Ukyou's brow as Azusa made this pronouncement before the entire Court. Whispers of the Empress selecting human beings for her Collection of Cute had been circulating for years, though none of Her Court had dared to confirm or deny them. The thought of becoming a prisoner of the palace, an object whose sole purpose for existence was to make Azusa happy with her mere presence, was beyond horrifying.

"Thank you, your Majesty," she replied, her eyes lifted to Azusa in what she hoped was an expression of gratitude, and not the abject terror she really felt.

"Come!" Azusa beckoned prettily. "Sit with Azusa! Azusa simply must have Her absolute cutest general by Her side to offer Her counsel."

Ukyou rose unsteadily to her feet as those around her oh'd and ah'd at such an honor being granted her. More than a few grimaced out of jealousy.

"Thank you, your Majesty," she repeated, wondering what the hell was going on, and incredibly relieved to find that she was still her own person - more or less.

"Bring your little friend with you, too," Azusa effervesced. "He's such a DARLING!"

Konatsu curtsied deeply for his Empress, and approached the throne with Ukyou. Plush chairs were provided for them at Azusa's feet, and trays of cookies and exotic candies were offered by servants dressed as fairies or as cute furry animals. As they took their seats, Azusa's other ministers closed ranks around them. Ukyou could tell that a few of them were miffed about the presence of the two Army officers - no matter how cute they were - but did not dare object to the whims of their Empress.

Azusa, as used to being the center of attention as she was to always getting her way, was direct and to the point.

"It has come to the attention of Azusa's advisors that She must soon marry," she declared, and there was much agreement from the sycophants who surrounded her.

Ukyou nodded silently, noting that Azusa didn't seem to care one way or the other about the issue so long as she got to wear the most beautiful, extravagant wedding dress in the known universe when it happened.

"After much thought," Azusa continued, and were it not for the fearfully dangerous position she was in, Ukyou might have laughed at this. "Azusa has decided that Her loving subjects deserve to see their Empress get married. It will take their minds off the dreadful war She wages against those nasty, icky people in the Furinkan Combine."

Again, Ukyou stifled comment. Azusa was not prepared to accept the fact that the only reason there was a war with the Combine was because she had declared one. Furthermore, the Federated Shiratori Army would actually have to fight the Combine for the war to become truly dreadful, as most of the time they were content to sit in garrison. The war was such a non-event that even an ardent hawk like Tatewaki Kuno refused to recognize its existence.

"What vexes Azusa," Azusa lamented, "Is that She cannot decide who would be worthy of becoming Her royal consort." She put on a pouty face. "Poor, poor Azusa..."

Her adoring minions clucked and sighed in chorus.

Ukyou nodded silently once more, a sloe-eyed smile lighting ever so slightly across her lips. Though instinct often coached her to be silent as much as possible in the presence of the Empress, this was one chance she could not ignore.

"Perhaps I might be able to assist your Majesty," she offered demurely.

Azusa lit up like a pachinko machine 'catching fever.'

"Oh, could you?!" she asked hopefully. "Ukyou-chan, you are the absolute GREATEST!"

Ukyou bowed respectfully at this remark. "Thank you, your Majesty... Now the way I see it, there is only one man in the entire universe who could possibly approach your sublime grace, your ethereal beauty, and your magnetic charisma..."

"Yes?" Azusa asked expectantly.

"That is, a man to whom the people could look to as the country's very own Prince Charming, right out of the fairy tales..."

"Ooo!" Azusa chirped, her excitement building. "Who-EVER could it be?"

Ukyou decided to push her luck. After all, she needed to butter him up in the eyes of the Empress and her sycophants if her impromptu revenge was to succeed. Konatsu blinked his eyes at her in disbelief, understanding almost instantly where she was going with this.

"A man of noble blood, pure heart, and sterling reputation..." Ukyou sighed. "They're hard to find, I know, but I think I can recommend one such man to my Empress."

"Please!" Azusa pleaded with unusual humility, clutching urgently at Ukyou's hands. "Ukyou dearest, Azusa-chan simply must know who this man is!"

It was Azusa's abrupt use of the diminutive for herself which convinced Ukyou that she had gone far enough. When Azusa became "Azusa-chan" about anything and was denied, it usually got ugly shortly thereafter.

"That man can be none other than Chief of Staff General Mikado Sanzenin," Ukyou declared in a solemn voice.

"YESSS!!!" Azusa shrilled excitedly, more to have an answer from her 'cutest' general after all that suspense than any true satisfaction at her recommendation.

Her response triggered an immediate reaction among her advisors, who began bobbing their heads in heated agreement. Various remarks extolling Mikado Sanzenin as the ideal mate for their divine Empress began to circulate out to the Court itself, which murmured its own heady approval.

Azusa, caught up in the moment, smiled gleefully.

"Mikado Sanzenin it is!" she chirped. "Oh, Mickie...!"

Amazingly, one of her sycophants actually offered an objection.

"But, your Divinity," the man whined. "He's such a playboy..."

Azusa whirled on the man, fire practically shooting out of her eyes. The sycophant paled with the expectation of being summarily beheaded. Almost as quickly as she had turned on him, however, the fire seemed to go out in her eyes.

"Oh, poop! That is soooo true..." she pouted.

Ukyou leaped into the breach. "But your Majesty, if I may?" she nearly begged.

"Go ahead," Azusa replied crisply.

"My Empress," she began, thinking desperately about something positive to say about marrying Mikado Sanzenin, something that might outweigh his... proclivities. "Imagine how your conquest of Mikado Sanzenin, the great lover of our age, will inspire your people to even greater heights of worship? Who alone but you, O transcendent Empress, could possibly hope to make him her own, forever more, forsaking all others?"

She could see the fires beginning to kindle once more within Azusa's vacant eyes.

"How true!" Azusa cried. "Ukyou-chan, not only are you my absolute cutest general, but you are also my smartest!" She turned to her subjects. "It's settled!" she cried triumphantly. "Azusa shall marry Her darling Chief of Staff, Mikado Sanzenin!"

Ukyou leaned back, basking in the adoration she received from Empress and Court alike for her wise resolution to the issue. She caught an incredulous look from Konatsu, and threw him a jaunty wink in return.

Come and get me, 'Mickie'...!

Aquila City, Planet Tiber

"Bless you!"

Mikado Sanzenin wiped blearily at his nose, ignoring the lovely and quite naked woman with whom he shared his bed.

"What brought that on?" she asked him as he sat in troubled silence.

"I'm not sure," he replied dully. An inexplicable feeling of dread came

over him, effectively killing his usual amorous mood. He had been sensing this strange premonition of doom ever since Brigadier Kuonji had skipped out on him with phony travel orders to gods knew where, but until now had left the subject of her desertion for his staff to handle. It was no surprise to him that very little had come of it thus far.

That would have to change, he decided.

"Pack your bags," he told her. "I need an audience with the Empress."

I'll fix you now, Kuonji, he thought darkly. You should have known better than to cross Mikado Sanzenin.

Kentaro Tendo Starport

Planet Nerima, Capella System

The Nerima Confederation

27 April 3025

Grand Duke Soun Tendo, in the company of Nodoka Saotome, watched as the DropShip Autumn Mist settled down upon the tarmac of the landing pad. It was the last of the DropShips bearing the surviving elements of Oni's garrison to touch down upon the surface of Nerima. He remained tersely silent as the convoy of ambulances approached the battered Overlord Class vessel, for his daughter had insisted upon transporting the lion's share of the wounded home aboard her own ship.

He watched from his limousine as the DropShip's crew began the ritual of bringing on shore power, each man straining to lift and carry the heavy power cables from the electrical bunker on the pad's perimeter to the service trunk at the base of the ship. 'Mech Bay doors rolled open and ramps were deployed as the first of the stretchers appeared. Men who had lived in near darkness for weeks on end squinted in the harsh light of day as they carried their own to the waiting ambulances.

When the living had been taken away, the dead followed. Soun forced himself to watch as the bundled corpses were taken off the ship and laid out in rows upon the tarmac to await the return of the ambulances. Though he had read the casualty figures with a heavy heart, it was only upon seeing them in their silent ranks that he could accept the magnitude of his nation's loss.

This is what his pride had bought, he realized. Had he chosen to surrender, as Nabiki had urged, these men and women who lay cold and still upon the hard asphalt would be alive. The Capella system was in Confederation hands, for the moment, but had their sacrifice bought the Ryuugenzawa Expedition enough time? He feared that they hadn't.

Nodoka must have sensed his deep regret in that moment, for a reassuring hand touched his shoulder.

"They served their lord to the end," she said to him. "Respect and honor that loyalty, Soun."

"I know," he replied gravely. "I know..."

When the last of the dead had been taken off the ship, the crew and the troops made their tired way down the ramps. Open-topped trucks were ready to take them to a staging area where their families waited anxiously to see them. Soun followed them with his eyes as they boarded the trucks, recognizing a few of the surviving officers among them, but none of the enlisted.

Kasumi walked down the ramp last of all. Soun started towards her from the limousine, with Nodoka and the bodyguards trailing at a respectful distance. She offered a weak smile to her father as she saw him approach.

"Acting General Tendo of the Oni Expeditionary Force, returning as ordered, Your Grace," she said to him, saluting.

Soun stopped a pace before her, and returned her salute.

"It's good to have you home," he said to her.

She nodded. "It's good to be home, sir."

A moment of absolute silence passed between them. Even the sounds of trucks and the muted rumble of the Autumn Mist's powerplant shutting down were muted by the gravity of those few seconds.

"You've done your old father proud," he said finally.

"Thank you, Father," she replied, and then fell exhausted and nearly sobbing into his arms.

The ride back to the castle was silent until Nodoka spoke.

"Kasumi, dear?" she asked her, concern in her voice.

Kasumi looked away from the window to face Nodoka. "Yes, Aunt Saotome?"

"Something troubles you, dear," she observed. "Is it all the casualties we saw at the starport?"

"It's more than that, Aunt Saotome," Kasumi replied. "I'm worried that all we did on Oni will be for nothing."

"Nonsense," Soun returned. "Between your resistance on Oni and our guerrilla actions on the other occupied worlds of the Confederation, Prince Kuno's hands are tied. And that's not counting what the League is doing to him with its invasion."

"I know," Kasumi sniffed. She wiped at her nose with a handkerchief and forced a smile. "I'm so tired," she remarked. "It's getting to me."

"It's nothing but rest for you, Daughter," Soun agreed. "I've arranged for Colonel Birch to take over day to day operation of the 1st Nerima Guards during their refit and recovery period."

"Thank you, Father."

She needed rest desperately. This war was draining her of all that was good and vital within her. Leading the 1st Nerima Guards into combat was an act that she undertook because it was her duty, not because she wanted to do it, or that she enjoyed it.

It was the reason she had prevailed upon Father to make Akane the Heir when her youngest sister came of age. For all of her misgivings, Akane was the one who was both willing and able to shoulder the burden of power. Kasumi would be there to offer her sister and her husband-to-be advice, and to help with the administrative duties, but she knew better than anyone that she was not suited to the throne.

She wanted to settle down. She wanted a quiet life and a family of her own. Ten years spent helping her father run the Confederation had dampened her search for a good man, but she was confident that whoever he might be, he was out there somewhere, waiting for her.

"It was the least I could do," he replied, interrupting her reverie. "I do have other good news as well."

She perked up. "Oh?"

"I received word shortly before your arrival from our Consulate in the Palatine System that the Dragonfly was nearly finished with its repairs. They should be underway within the next few days."

"That's a relief, Father," she said, a ray of hope returning to her. If her sister and the Saotomes could only find Ryuugenzawa a little faster. Tatewaki Kuno could not be held in check forever, and that brought to mind another concern, one closer to home than the fanatical Prince of the Furinkan Combine.

"Where is Nabiki?" she asked him.

"Living in town," Soun replied. "I get daily reports of her movements. She spends most of her time out on the town in the entertainment district."

Kasumi nodded silently. Since most of the intelligence network had been hand-picked by Nabiki, any agents Father had on surveillance duty were either low quality or else already compromised by her younger sister. She would have to make a few phone calls on her own to see what was going on with Nabiki, and pray that whatever plot her sister was nursing, it would keep until she could be found and neutralized.

Nabiki Tendo awoke with a start.

Her cell phone was ringing from somewhere under the bed, where it had been unceremoniously dumped during the rapid undressing she had received at the oafish hands of Rolf Thuringia, Count Baldur's son. The dolt was still sleeping as she fumbled clumsily with her hand under the bed for it.

She flipped open the phone, which thankfully muted the ringer, and scanned the display to see who it was that had the nerve to call her at the crack of noon, before deciding to answer it.

The number that flashed on her display gave her pause. It was the phone number of her contact with the League of Five Nails, a man who had been understandably silent since the failed summit and the subsequent siege of Capella.

What could they possibly want from her?

She decided to answer the phone, but as soon as the man on the other side started talking, she began to regret it.

Tetsuo Gosunkugi was due to arrive on Nerima under diplomatic truce in less than a day. He wished to meet with her, apparently unaware that she no longer had any authority to treat with him in an official capacity. He would quickly learn the truth from her father when he arrived, and then she would be cut out of the discussion for certain.

For whatever reason he had come to Nerima, it had to be important. She wanted in on it, if only to see what it was.

"Tell him I'll meet him," she said crisply into the phone. "Consider it a preliminary meeting before he can make his presentation to the Grand Duke. We'll meet on Oyama Station, the Promenade Hotel, at, say, fifteen o'clock local standard time... Yes, that's in less than three hours... I realize that. Good-bye."

She frowned at the agent's response.

"No, actually I DON'T think it would be very prudent for him to come down to the planet at this time," she replied. "If he wants to speak to me, that's when and where I'll see him. If Gosunkugi doesn't like it, he can go right back to the League."

She closed the phone and set it on the nightstand. Rolf stirred briefly beside her on the bed. She froze, and waited in silence until she was certain that he had gone back to sleep, then she slipped out of bed to get dressed. She needed a shower and a change of clothes, but she wasn't going to do that here.

The last thing she needed was to make small talk with Rolf, let alone try to get out of explaining why she needed to be in orbit above the planet within the next three hours.

"Leaving me already?" he asked suddenly as she slipped into her black denim jeans.

She cringed at the sound of his voice. Had he been pretending to be asleep? She hadn't thought he was smart enough to try that trick on her.

"It's daylight," she replied crisply as she hooked her bra shut. "You should probably be getting back to the Alcazar."

Rolf shook his head. "What's there that I can't get here?" he asked her.

She was in no mood for this. Just because she needed him as leverage against his father's wavering resolve did not mean that she needed to put up with him for any longer than she had to.

"Rolf, I have to be somewhere, and I don't have a lot of time for this."

He sat up in bed, the sheet draped carelessly over his nude form.

"Take me with you," he said to her.

She laughed harshly in return as she threw on her pullover sweater.

"You've got to be joking," she remarked.

"I'm not," he replied.

She gave him a hard stare. "Look, Rolf, just because I let you fuck me every once in awhile, it doesn't mean I want you around me all the time. This is business, not pleasure."

Rolf gave her a tight-lipped smile. "That's what I heard," he replied, and Nabiki felt herself grow cold. "Does your father know that you're planning on meeting with one of the Gosunkugis?" He returned her look. "I'm willing to bet that he doesn't, and that you'd like to keep it that way."

She bit down on a curse. It was likely that he was joking, but she simply could not afford to take the chance that he would go to her father out of spite. One thing she had learned about Rolf Thuringia in the last few weeks was that he was capable of just about anything when it was done for spite.

"You're a real bastard, Rolf."

He slipped out of bed. "I learned from the best, Nabs. Don't worry, I'll keep my eyes open and my mouth shut the whole time."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked him wearily.

"Because I'm bored," he replied, pulling on his own clothes. "I've been waiting here for a month now while you worry about the best time to depose your father, and now that the Combine has faced its little setback, I'm starting to wonder when something interesting will happen." He gave her a pat on the butt. "And I'm a little curious about the way you plan on handling this Gosunkugi the League has sent to us."

"I don't know how I'm going to handle him yet," she returned, removing his hand from her derriere. "First, I have to find out what he wants."

"Well, it just so happens that I'm curious about that, too."

She sighed with some relief. Rolf was just as shallow and reckless as she had supposed. He was only looking for a new thrill, since the whole coup d'etat plot had been a bust as far as he was concerned. The scent of intrigue had him anxious for the thrill of more danger.

"Okay, Rolf," she said to him. "You can come along. And if you behave yourself, I might even let you pick up where we left off last night."

He kissed her on her neck. "You won't even know I'm there."

"Somehow I doubt that," Nabiki replied.

"Why did you tell him to meet you so soon? We'll barely make it in time."

Nabiki turned her head to Rolf for a moment and regarded him. If she didn't answer his question, he'd find another way to annoy her. It was one of the reasons she despised him. If she wasn't already hip deep in trouble with her machinations and needing his help, she would have been well rid of him.

They were in the First Class section of the surface to orbit shuttle that ran between Nerima and Oyama Station. The Station's population was high enough at twenty thousand people, and its vital zero-gravity industries important enough to the war effort, to warrant a regular service in spite of the state of emergency that had come over the Capella System. Though the seats cost a thousand apiece for First Class, Nabiki had bought up all twelve of them to ensure their privacy in the cabin.

"It's simple," she finally replied. "The League doesn't know that my plenipotentiary powers have been suspended, and I'd prefer to keep it that way. By agreeing to meet them on such short notice, I keep them from making unnecessary communiques to the castle that might bring this fact to light."

"There's a chance that they already know about you," Rolf pointed out."I'm aware of that," she sniffed. "Frankly, I don't have much choice but to do this if I want to stay in the game. I have a bad feeling about the League's intentions. Their timing is too opportunistic."

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head sadly. Not only was Rolf lousy in bed, but he could be rock stupid at times. "I have the feeling that Tetsuo might be here to propose a strategic alliance."

"You're kidding?"

She closed her eyes. "Why else would he be here? Why would they warn us about the Combine's surprise attack from Capra? And why enrage Prince Kuno with a futile invasion, unless they were trying to take the heat off Capella?" She gave him a hard look. "Face it, Rolf. They want something for all of this effort and sacrifice on our behalf."

Rolf leaned back in his chair. They were weightless pending their arrival at Oyama, and he took a sip of his bourbon and coke from a squeeze pouch.

"None of which falls into your plans for the Confederation," he observed.

"Remarkable," Nabiki snorted. "He can be taught. Yes, an alliance would be a bad thing for my plans right now. It would give the people hope for an eventual truce, perhaps even a victory against the Combine, and right now, that's the last thing we need them to have."

"I don't see why," he replied. "Their opinions don't matter."

She let out a sigh of disgust. "Because, you idiot," she growled at him. "Their opinions do matter. This whole plot depends on the perception that we are beaten, and that continuing to resist will only throw their lives and property away. All it takes is one loyalist officer or noble, plus a fired-up rabble that thinks we're selling them out, and we've got a disaster on our hands. We could find ourselves overthrown just as fast as my father."

"We'll have the Army backing us," Rolf said defensively.

"We'll have most of them on our side," Nabiki pointed out. "And of those, perhaps half of them will be troops who would never support me if it looked like the Confederation could win. Furthermore, there's no guarantee that any of the troops will have the nerve to fire on their own population in the event of a riot. I'm not willing to take that chance."

Nerima Confederation JumpShip Dragonfly

Drydock Three, Palatine Yards

In orbit above Planet Tiber, in the Palatine System

27 April 3025

"Station the Modified Maneuvering Watch!"

Captain Hinako Ninomiya observed the Bridge silently as her crew went into action. The repairs had been completed early that morning, the testing of the circuit breakers performed satisfactorily mere hours ago, the ink on the closeout inspections was barely dry, and they were already preparing to leave the drydock. It cost money to sit in drydock, money Hinako was loathe to spend if she could help it.

It would take the better part of the day remaining to them just to pump out the drydock's atmosphere and tow the starship out into space, time that could be spent by the shipyard's administrative staff to close out the ream of paperwork generated by the job. When they were done, they could send it over to the Dragonfly by shuttle for her signature and her release from escrow of the payment on the remaining balance due. There was no need to pay for an extra day or two in drydock just so the bureaucrats could get things squared away, and knowing that they weren't going to collect any more income from her, they might just hurry the process.

She was eager to leave the system and continue with the expedition, knowing that whatever reprieve they had been granted from the Combine's wrath, it could not last indefinitely. Akane was in command now, which made her feel more comfortable about the situation. Akane appreciated the urgency of the Confederation's plight better than a wandering mercenary like Genma Saotome.

Her faith in the young Heir to the Confederation was bolstered by the return of Ranma. Not only had she persuaded the cocky mechwarrior to return to the expedition, but she had even managed to make him a Confederation Army Regular! Hinako had to snicker at that. With Ranma firmly in Akane's camp, his father's cooperation was practically gift-wrapped.

"Engineering reports that the Main Engines are ready to answer all bells," her Assistant Engineer announced. Hinako shook her head at how eager her crew was to leave the system. It would be many hours before the Dragonfly's drives would be needed.

"Have a little patience," Hinako said to him, smiling. The Bridge crew laughed good-naturedly at the Assistant Engineer's expense.

"We've just received word from the Dragonfly that they are commencing the pump-out of the drydock," Captain Grant of the Palomino reported. "They should be ready for rendezvous within eighteen hours." A little cheer went up in Crew's Mess at this.

Akane Tendo was pleased by the news as well. "Thank you, Captain," she replied. "What is the status of our own departure preparations?"

"Ma'am, we can be ready to lift in two hours from the time you give the word," he replied. "The last of the consumables are being loaded now, we're quared away with the hotel bills and the rental cars, and the crew is all present or accounted for."

She took a sip of her tea. "So all we're really waiting on is word from the Consulate regarding Tarou, and from Doctor Ono regarding our wounded that are still in the hospital."

Grant nodded. "Basically."

"How long will it take us to rendezvous with the Dragonfly in orbit?"

"Three hours at the most, ma'am," Grant replied.

"Very well. Plan for a reactor start-up and lift off by four o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Yes, ma'am."

Grant left the Crew's Mess to carry out his orders.

Ryouga Hibiki wandered in as the Captain left. Akane waved him over.

"Y-Yes?" he asked her. Since she had assumed command of the mission, he had hardly spoken to her.

"Hi, Ryouga," she greeted him. "I've been wanting to talk to you for a few days now."

"R-Really? About what?"

She placed a hand on his at the table, making him turn red. "I'm really glad that you came with us from Capra," she said to him. "You've been the most tremendous help to us, especially during the fire on board the Dragonfly." She laughed. "I'd give you a medal for it, if you weren't just a mercenary."

Ryouga blanched. "Just a mercenary?" Oh, Akane... is that all you think of me?

"Ranma tells me you were born and raised in the Confederation," she went on, ignoring his question for the moment. "I have to be honest with you, Ryouga. Now that I'm in charge of this expedition, things are going to be a little different around here. What I'm asking is that you join the Confederation Army as a Mechwarrior Lieutenant."

He nodded slowly. After Ranma's return, he had been expecting something like this. The Hibikis had always been independent mechwarriors within the Confederation, taking work that wouldn't put them in conflict with the country of their birth, but never actively seeking to defend it, either. It was the wanderlust that all Hibikis seemed to feel that kept them from ever settling down in one place for long.

Could he make such a commitment, knowing that sooner or later, he would feel the urge to move on? If anyone but Akane had asked him, he would have said no. He had been content to drift along with Akane and her mission to Ryuugenzawa, even if Ranma was right and the place no longer existed. Now she was making him choose.

"I don't want to sound pushy, Ryouga," she added softly. "I would never do something like that to you. But at the same time, we are undertaking a mission so important that the very existence of the Confederation depends on its success. I can't have people aboard that don't belong with us."

He understood what she meant. If he agreed to join the Army as Ranma had done, he could stay. If he said no, he would have to leave. Akari would be devastated, he thought sadly.

"Just a Lieutenant?" he asked, his voice weak as he cracked his joke.

She smiled impishly at his remark. "We've already got more chiefs than indians, you big silly!"

His heart skipped a beat. She simply did not realize what calling him that did to him. He wasn't sure what kind of relationship she now had with Ranma since his return - from what he had seen, the two were all business in public - but Ryouga knew his own feelings in the matter, and he knew that Akane held a place as dear to his heart as the place Akari now occupied.

Two women, he thought to himself. I love two women, and I can't bear to part with either of them, much less make a choice between them.

"I'll do it," he found himself replying. As if he had a choice...

"Wonderful!" Akane cried. "Oh Ryouga, I knew you wouldn't leave us!"She leaned over the table to hug him. "I'd like to swear you in before we lift off. Is that okay?"

"Um, yeah," he managed.

Akane rose from the table. "This is great," she enthused. "I've got to speak with the yeoman about this. I'll see you later, Ryouga, okay?"

He smiled weakly for her benefit, wondering how he had gotten into this mess so easily.

He waited until she was out of sight before leaving. Before he knew it, he had wandered into 'Mech Bay Four. His yellow and black trimmed BattleMaster dominated the compartment, and especially dwarfed the Locust piloted by his enemy, Happousai, who was still recovering from the knife wound that Tarou had given him. As he looked up at the cockpit, he spied a familiar pair of legs dangling from a maintenance hatch near the torso-mounted lasers.

He found himself drawn up the gantry to the cockpit. Akari appeared from the maintenance hatch as he reached the upper level, her eyes shining at having her two loves so near - Ryouga Hibiki, and his BattleMaster.

"Good morning, Ryouga dearest," she said to him in greeting. She brushed aside a lock of pink hair from her temple, a gesture which always made him blush with nervous excitement.

He bowed respectfully for her. "Good morning, Akari," he offered her. "I have some good news."

She grinned at him. "Let me guess. You agreed to join the Confederation Army, didn't you?"

His mouth fell open. "H-How?"

Akari set down the torque wrench she had been using to check the weapon mount foundation bolts for his battlemech's lasers. "Lady Akane asked me about it at breakfast this morning."

"A-Akane?"

"Of course," she replied, taking a step towards him. "Whenever she has a question about you, she comes to me first. Isn't that sweet?"

Ryouga wasn't sure what to think of it. Were he and the lovely Senior Technician that much of an item for the crew? They had only been on a few dates this whole time on the planet! He'd only kissed her once - and only after she had asked him to!

"I'm so proud of you, Ryouga dearest," she continued blissfully.

This made him take notice. "Really?"

"Absolutely," she returned. "A lady should always be proud when the man she adores does something noble and proper."

She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the lips, the effect of which nearly set off the Bay's fire suppression system from the heat of his blush.

"Congratulations, Lieutenant Hibiki," she whispered to him.

Ryouga, his brain now the consistency of mush, nodded dumbly and stared off into space with vacant bliss.

"Heya, Pig-Boy!" a voice called to him, snapping him out of his reverie in an instant.

He spun around to see Ranma standing on the gantry. He seemed to have been there for awhile.

"What do you want, Ranma?" he growled. Akari did not need to know about his dreaded Jusenkyo body, and remarks like that were bound to elicit questions.

"I knew you'd wander down here sooner or later," he replied. "Sometimes it's easier to pick a spot and wait for you to blunder by than it is to go out looking for you."

"Get to the point," Ryouga warned.

Ranma flashed him a jaunty wave. "I knew you'd crack," he said with a grin. "How long did you last before she signed you up?"

"What difference does it make?" Ryouga countered. "Akane needed me, and I was there for her." He looked away in condescension. "Unlike some people I could mention, who ran away first."

Ranma flinched. "Ouch... Not bad," he conceded for Ryouga's benefit. He leaped across the gantry to the battlemech to perch upon the upper torso deck. "At least I outrank you," he pointed out with a smirk.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, Ranma," Ryouga replied coolly. "You've only had your commission for a few days and you're already throwing your rank around."

Again, Ranma flinched.

"Jeez..." he grumbled. "You aren't making this much fun."

"You mean you came down here just to taunt Ryouga?" Akari asked him, amazed that anyone would want to give her beloved mechwarrior a hard time.

He shrugged sheepishly. "Not exactly," he answered her.

"Then what?" Ryouga demanded.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "I was just.. you know... I..." He tapped his fingers uncomfortably on the armor plating. "What I'm trying to say is that I... Well..."

"Spit it out already!" Ryouga snapped at him.

Ranma's eyes flashed at him in challenge.

"I just wanted to say that I'm glad you're coming with us, Ryouga!" he yelled. "There. Are you happy I said it?"

Ryouga was taken aback by this.

"Captain Saotome!" Akari cried, her faith in Ranma restored. "That's wonderful of you to say something like that."

"Yeah well..." Ranma muttered, his hand clenched behind his head. "It ain't what I'm good at, so I hope you appreciate it."

Ryouga remained still, his face a blank mask.

"Well?" Ranma pressed. "Do you?"

"Of course he does!" Akari answered for him.

Ranma hopped to his feet and stood before Ryouga. "Hey man, you okay?"He snapped his fingers in front of Ryouga's eyes, which did not even blink in response.

"Ryouga dearest?" Akari asked worriedly.

"I think he's lost it," Ranma observed.

Ryouga abruptly turned to Ranma, and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Tell me you weren't just saying that!" he shouted in Ranma's face.

Ranma's head bobbed up and down as Ryouga shook him.

"I ain't just sayin' it!" he replied. Ryouga stopped shaking him. "I meant it, man. It'll be good to have you with us." He looked sidelong at him. "You'll remember that I said something like this back on the JumpShip," he added. "It wasn't THAT long ago..." He clapped him on the back. "Besides, who do you think put her up to recruiting you, anyway?"

Ryouga closed his eyes.

"Thank you, Ranma," he replied quietly.

"Huh? What for?"

"For thinking of me like that," he said, his eyes still closed. "A man gets to wandering, and soon he doesn't realize what he's missing by not belonging to anything." He opened his eyes and looked at Akari. "It's good to be wanted, to be welcomed and accepted."

Ranma nodded silently, knowing exactly how Ryouga must have felt. The life of a wandering mechwarrior was a lonely one indeed, but he had always had his father for companionship. Who had Ryouga turned to? That hairy freak, Tarou?

"Hey now," he said to him. "Let's not get all mushy here. I'm glad you're coming with us and I meant it. Don't go readin' too much into this."

With that he jumped off the BattleMaster to the gantry ladder and left the 'Mech Bay.

I really wanted to pull Ryouga's chain, he thought to himself. I'm losing my touch.

As he climbed through the hatch to the connector tunnel that linked the four 'Mech Bays, he nearly ran into Yuka, who was walking forward. She spun on him, her eyes cold, but she did not say a word. He decided that was fine with him and let her go without comment.

True to her oath, she had not spoken a single unkind word to him - or even about him, as far as he knew - though that had meant that she hadn't said anything at all to him. He was at a complete loss as to how to deal with her. Short of having her come to a sudden and messy end, there didn't seem to be any solutions other than ignoring her.

Sayuri on the other hand, was a little warmer to him, though that was a matter of degrees. It helped that he and Akane had been able to procure a surplus 30-ton Sparrowhawk fighter for her from Tiber's reserve garrison. It wasn't in the best shape, but it was functional, and it kept her from being Dispossessed. She at least would say hello to him in passing.

She continued to pay the price for the duel though, having suffered some kind of personal rift between herself and Yuka, who was now totally isolated in her contempt for Ranma. It was a tough break for her, but if nothing else, splitting up the two fighter pilots had granted him a measure of lasting victory in the wake of the duel.

Pansuto Tarou watched the crew load the last of the consumables aboard the DropShip and knew that he had nearly run out of time to make his escape. His Hunchback was still outside, which left him under the impression that they were still trying to convince the Consulate to take custody of him. If they didn't, would they just let him go, or would they decide to try him for his attempt on Happousai's life once they were back on the JumpShip?

If he was going to make good on his plan, he had to do something, and now.

Slowly, he rose to his shaggy feet. The man assigned to guard him was busy talking to one of the crew as they tossed twenty kilo cans of flour and coffee in a bucket brigade up the ramp. His guard quickly received word from his fellows that the monster was moving, and spun around to place the muzzle of his rifle where it would do some good.

"Easy, big guy," the guard warned. "Nothing funny."

"Man, I'll be glad to get rid of that freak," one of the crew added.

He looked around a moment, then sat down on the deck again, apparently cowed. The guard returned to his conversation.

Tarou pulled quietly at his chains, knowing as he did that after weeks of carefully straining at them with his powerful muscles, they were close to failing. He would have to part them on the first try, as he would likely not get a second chance.

He watched the guard closely as he flexed his massive arms with all his might. The steel manacles dug into his wrists, drawing blood that soaked into his shaggy brown body hair. With a terrifyingly audible snap, the chain that linked his wrists parted.

The guard did not notice. With all of the activity in the 'Mech Bay, the sound went undetected.

Next came his leg chains. With his hands free, he could apply very carefully the force he needed to finish them off.

Tarou tensed, ready to spring into action as soon as they parted. Once the leg chains were broken, the loop of additional chain that held him in place to the deck would simply fall away. He had waited for weeks to get this chance, and with the sedatives at their lowest levels thirty minutes prior to Doctor Ono's arrival to administer more, he would not get a better one.

The leg chain parted with another snap. Ever so carefully, he slipped off the anchor chain and prepared for his next move.

The guard with the rifle was his only threat. The rest of the crew would flee in a panic as soon as it was discovered that he was loose. After that, all he needed was hot water.

"SECURITY VIOLATION!" the 1MC crackled, as the ship's General Alarm klaxon sounded. "SHIP'S REACTION FORCE, LAY TO THE FLIGHT DECK! ...RIG SHIP FOR SECURITY VIOLATION AND GENERAL EMERGENCY!"

Ranma Saotome started for the Flight Deck. It was his job as the Lance Commander to lead the ship's reaction force against the intruder(s), a drill he had observed once on the way to Capra, but had never experienced as the Lance Commander. His mind raced at the possibilities for who the intruder(s) could have been.

Unless this was just Akane running a stupid drill...

There was that possibility. She liked being in charge, and she had gone on for some time about how they had all become complacent from their time on Tiber. He agreed - to a point - but the middle of lift-off preps was no time to get everyone back into shape.

Captain Grant had already unlocked the Small Arms locker, and the ship's Copilot began issuing body armor vests, pistol-grip shotguns, and shells to the handful of crew and techs who made up the reaction force. As their leader, Ranma was entitled to carry a laser pistol, which he refused.

"What's going on?" he asked as the reaction force hastily donned their gear. None of them looked up to the task of repelling an intruder.

"Tarou slipped his leash," Grant returned. "One of my crew is down, and Tarou took a hostage."

"Did anyone see which way he was headed when he left the ship?"

Grant shook his head. "He didn't leave. He's on the Crew's Mess right now, sitting at one of the tables with his hostage. He says he just wants to speak to Lady Akane."

"Speak?" Ranma asked, surprised at this. Tarou wasn't supposed to be able to talk in his Jusenkyo form. "You mean he changed back to a human?"

Grant nodded. "Looks that way."

"Well there ain't no way Akane's getting close to him," Ranma declared."Who's he got for a hostage?"

The Captain of the Palomino tried to keep a straight face, knowing that Ranma wouldn't like it.

"Aerospace Pilot Yuka."

Ranma slapped his forehead. "Shit... It figures that I would have to save her sorry ass, wouldn't it?"

Akane stepped onto the Flight Deck, with Ryouga, Genma, and Akari in tow.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Tarou's gotten loose," Ranma answered her. "He's taken Yuka hostage, and he's sitting in the Crew Mess waiting to talk to you."

Ryouga cursed in disbelief.

"Can't we just shoot him and get it over with?" Genma asked.

"Not unless we absolutely have to," Akane replied. She looked to Ranma. "And no provoking him, just because of who he has for a hostage, okay?"

Ranma put his hands up. "Cut me some slack, okay?" He turned to the reaction force. "Let's go, people. Try not to shoot each other in the back as we go down the ladder, all right?" He followed well behind them as they went to secure the Crew's Mess.

Sayuri and some of the crew armed with fire axes, BFWs, and other makeshift weapons of opportunity held the Crew's Mess when they arrived. It looked like Tarou was in no hurry to leave, as he rested the muzzle of his captured automatic rifle under Yuka's chin, his finger just outside the trigger guard. As Ranma entered to take in the situation, he noted that Tarou's finger slipped casually over the trigger. One false move, and whatever passed for brains inside Yuka's head would be splattered all over the ceiling.

It was tempting, very tempting, but he held himself in check.

"I didn't ask for you, Saotome," Tarou greeted him tersely. "I want to speak to Akane Tendo."

Ranma pushed aside his fellows and started down the center aisle towards Tarou.

"That's far enough," the bishonen mechwarrior advised. His finger began to curl around the trigger. Yuka, already pale with fear, became absolutely terrified upon realizing that Ranma Saotome held her life in his hands once again.

"Tell us what you want," Ranma said to him. "If you want to get off the ship, that's fine with me. You want your 'mech back, that's cool too. I don't blame you." He swallowed a little bile. "But whatever you do," he continued, looking straight at the girl he had come to despise. "Don't hurt Yuka... She's a total bitch, but she doesn't deserve to get her head blown off over this."

"Thanks for your concern, Saotome," Yuka muttered sourly.

Tarou clucked at him. "I know," he said conspiratorially. "It's tempting." He edged the rifle up a little tighter against her chin. "But as you can see, I had my chance to escape, and I didn't take it."

"So what do you want?" Ranma asked him. Akane appeared at the door to the Crew's Mess as he spoke.

"I have a business proposition for Lady Akane," Tarou replied.

"I'm not interested," Akane retorted sharply. "Let my friend go."

Tarou shook his head gently. "Oooooo, so sorry. There are too many guns in the room for me to do something stupid like that. I do apologize for the rude manner in which I've garnered your attention, Lady Akane, but given that my other body doesn't permit me to speak, I had little choice but to change back to a human the hard way."

Akane slipped up behind Ranma. "All right," she said to Tarou. "Let's hear what you have to say."

"Akane..." Ranma muttered.

"Do you have any better ideas?" she challenged him.

Tarou cleared his throat to speak. "As amusing as it is to watch you two spar, please allow me to come to my proposition. Now given my vantage point in the 'Mech Bay and the fact that good Doctor Tofu underestimated the dosage of sedatives he thought would keep me under wraps, I was able to learn a great deal about the nature of your little expedition..."

Akane took this with a nod of acknowledgement.

"Go on..."

Tarou smiled graciously for her. "You don't know how happy I was to learn that you had taken over command from that fat idiot Genma Saotome. I feel much more confident in your ability to recognize a fair offer when you hear one," he said to her. "As I was saying, I've overheard many things about your mission, such as the location of this sixth crypto key that you're searching for. No doubt the fifth one was on Capra, correct?"

"Get to the goddamn point, man," Ranma growled. "What is it that you want?"

Tarou shot him a heated look. "The sixth key is in Empress Azusa's Collection, correct?"

Ranma turned to look over his shoulder at Genma, who nodded.

"Yeah," he replied.

The next part was difficult for Tarou to speak of, and it showed in his voice. "It just so happens that I have an intimate knowledge of that place." He looked away for a moment. "You see, when I was younger, I was part of her... Collection..."

Ranma paled in horror, and he was not alone. From the sound of just his voice, much less his haunted eyes, he knew Tarou wasn't lying.

"I can guide you," Tarou went on. "Since I escaped from that hellish place, I know of ways you can get inside without being detected. That's my offer, Lady Akane. I'll guide you safely into and out of the Empress' Collection of Cute so you can get what you need."

"And in return?" Akane asked him.

"A full pardon for any crimes I may have committed within the jurisdiction of the Confederation," he replied. "It's true that I could have escaped from the ship, but one phone call to the planetary authorities would have ended my bid for freedom in a heartbeat. I want a legitimate out. A clean break."

"That's it?"

"Let's make something clear," he told her. "I don't put down the gun until you, acting on behalf of your father the Grand Duke, grant me a pardon. Right here, right now."

"And then?" Akane asked him, her voice drawn and taut.

"Once you get what you've come for, I want off the ship - with my battlemech fully repaired - on the first inhabited system outside of the capitol that you come to."

"And that's all you want?"

"That's it," he confirmed. "There, I'm not asking for very much, now,

am I?"

Akane drew close to Ranma.

"What do you think?"

He looked at her as if she were on fire. "You're asking me?"

"Yes, I'm asking you," she snapped. "As my Lance Commander... No, strike that. As my friend, Ranma... What do you think? Can we trust him?"

Ranma regarded Tarou for a moment, surprised by Akane's declaration of friendship as much as he was pleased by it. The handsome bishonen watched them warily for any sign that he was about to be double-crossed.

"I don't know..." he replied. "It looks like a question of whether or not I can trust him. I was the guy Pop picked to go in and get the damn key, remember?"

"That was before I took over," she whispered.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you weren't planning on sending me anyway," he replied in a deadpan voice.

"Okay," she relented. "So, can you trust him?"

Ranma shrugged. "Honestly, I ain't got a clue."

"Well?" Tarou asked them archly. He nudged the rifle into Yuka a little harder to make his point, and she issued a frightened yelp.

"You've got a deal," Akane said to him, angry and frightened at how threatened Yuka's life was in that moment. "But there are going to be some conditions attached."

Tarou gave her a menacing look.

"Conditions?"

"Yes," she declared. "Conditions. First of all, we aren't all that satisfied that we can trust you. I believe you when you say that you've been there before. I've no reason not to believe that. You've made your point clear on why you chose to remain onboard the ship when you had the chance to escape with your battlemech, but once we leave, there's no more threat from the authorities, either."

"Your knowledge is valuable to us," she went on. "I'm willing to trade you your freedom for that knowledge, but for now, my conditions are this: you will release your hostage and surrender to my crew."

Tarou wasn't pleased with this at all.

"Furthermore," she continued before he could voice his objection. "You will remain under a form of house arrest, berthing in the forward storeroom of the Palomino as you were during the transit from Capra. You will be in human form, and not under sedation. You'll get a period of exercise in one of the 'Mech Bays for two hours every day - supervised of course, plus three breaks a day for sanitary purposes - also under supervision."

"When we have successfully recovered the key, and verified that it is the one we need, I will grant you a full pardon, your freedom, and your battlemech in addition to a modest sum of cash to assist you until you can find work."

Tarou scowled at her, but he didn't refuse her offer outright.

"Consider my position," Akane said to him. "You've injured one of my crew and taken one of my pilots hostage. You nearly murdered the master of my school of martial arts. Now I don't particularly care for Master Happousai, and I can't even say that he didn't have it coming to him, but I also can't change the fact that he is one of my subjects, and you have wronged him. I have no good reason to trust you, Tarou. Submit to my terms, and earn that trust."

Ranma blinked in admiration for Akane. He had never imagined that she could be so articulate in the face of danger.

Tarou gave her a grudging smile of approval. He lowered the rifle from Yuka's chin and set it on the table. In a flash, Ranma snatched it away, and tossed it behind him to Ryouga.

"You are a shrewd bargainer," Tarou replied. "I confess that I did not expect it from you."

"Do we have a deal?" she asked him tersely.

Tarou extended his hand with all of his usual arrogance.

"I believe we do."

Ranma watched them warily, his muscles nearly singing with tension as Akane took Tarou's hand and shook it. One false move, pal... he thought grimly, and they'll be scrubbing you off the floor with a damp sponge...

"I submit to your custody," the bishonen mechwarrior declared, and offered his hands. Ranma could see the purpling bruises from where the manacles had dug into his flesh.

"That won't be necessary," Akane told him. Ranma nearly came unglued at her carelessness, but held his tongue. Tarou offered her a gracious smile and started towards the door.

"See him down to his 'quarters,' Ryouga," Ranma told him.

Ryouga nodded grimly and took up the escort of his former companion.

Once Tarou was out of sight, Yuka slowly eased herself from the table.

"Are you okay?" Akane asked her friend.

"A little shook up," she replied quietly. "He took me by surprise in the passageway."

Her eyes flicked over to Ranma. "I know you were tempted to try something, Saotome, knowing that it would get me killed," she said to him. "I could see it in your eyes."

Ranma didn't reply to her.

"Thank you for not doing it," she added quietly. "If our places had been reversed, I don't know if I could have -"

"Save it," Ranma told her. "I meant what I said to Tarou. You're a total bitch and I hate your guts, but no one deserves to get their head blown off like that. Not even you."

Yuka inclined her head to Akane as if to say something, then changed her mind. She stalked off the Crew's Mess in silence.

He watched her go, then turned back to Akane, expecting to catch hell from her after insulting her friend. She gave him a cool, measured look instead.

"What?" he demanded. "I meant everything I said. I ain't gonna pretend otherwise."

"I know, Ranma," she returned. "But for the sake of morale, could you at least pretend to get along with her?"

He folded his arms across his chest. "Maybe."

"Would you do it as a personal favor to me?"

He scowled at her. "Dammit, Akane, don't do that, okay?"

"Why?" she asked him with a pretty smile. "Because you know you couldn't refuse me?"

"Put it that way and I might just surprise you," he retorted. He rolled his eyes at her. "Would you settle for me staying out of her way?"

"You've been doing that," she observed. "Tell you what, I'll hold her to the same standard of conduct that I hold to you."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," he groused.

"I hold you to a very high standard of conduct, Captain Saotome," she said to him dryly.

He threw up his hands. "Tell me something I don't know."

"Where's all the action?" a wizened little voice demanded, making both Ranma and Akane's blood curdle. "Everywhere I look on this pig, someone's toting a shotgun."

The two mechwarriors turned around to see Genma cringing in the corner of the Crew's Mess by the bug juice dispensers. Doctor Tofu stood in the doorway, a look of dismay upon his face. In the center aisle stood Happousai, looking as if he had never been on the very brink of death.

"Akane! My sweet!" Happousai cried joyfully. "Did you miss me?" He launched himself at her, only to be slammed down against the deck by Ranma in mid-flight.

"Lay off, old fart," he growled.

Happousai shrugged off the blow and popped up to his feet. Where Ranma had expected him to start into a furious attack, he instead made him an aside. "Heya, Hot Stuff! I'll get to you later... You bring the ice water, eh?"

"Forget it," Ranma said gruffly. "Aren't you supposed to be half-dead in a hospital somewhere?"

"Gimme a break," Happousai cackled. "I've had worse." He gestured back to Genma. "Tarou wasn't the first person to ever try and kill me. That oaf you call a father and his friend the reigning Grand Duke gave it a shot, but all they did was slow me down for a few years. Tarou's little stab in the dark doesn't even come close by comparison."

He looked around. "Speaking of the big hairy devil, where is he? The Doc and I get back to the ship from the hospital in time for your little security drill, and all we hear about is how you let him escape."

Akane stepped up to him. "He's in custody," she pointed out. "I don't want you going anywhere near him, do you hear me?"

Happousai affected a pout. "All I wanted to do was gloat a little..."

"That's the last thing we need," she countered. "I'm sure Doctor Tofu filled you in on the current status of the expedition?"

The little freak's eyes went dewy. "That you're in charge now?" he cried happily. "I'm ecstatic! Let it be made clear that I accept your gracious offer to name me as your second in command."

"What?!" Ranma and Akane chorused. "No way!"

"B-But, Akane," Happousai grovelled. "Don't you want me as your -"

"NO!!!"

"Fine," he sniffed. "After all I've done for your family... Saved your lives on Capra from Tatewaki Kuno..." He kicked at a table leg. "I see how it is..."

"We appreciate your help," Akane soothed.

"We do?" Ranma asked, earning an elbow in the ribs from her.

"Yes, Ranma, we do," she said to him with a look that dared him to defy her. He decided discretion was the better part of valor, and stepped casually out of arm's reach. "Master Happousai, we do appreciate all that you've done for us, but the position of second in command belongs to Mister Saotome."

Genma whimpered from the drink machine, certain that Happousai was going to beat him into surrendering what little power he had left to him.

"Even that's wasted on him," Happousai observed dryly. "Ah well, perhaps I should content myself with being back in the company of so many beautiful women. Where did that hot tamale in tech's coveralls go?" he wondered aloud. "Ye gods, but I'd like to break me off a piece of that action!"

Ranma was glad Ryouga was busy with Tarou, or else All Hell would certainly have broken loose at that lewd remark.

"Let me make something abundantly clear to you," Akane warned. "Unlike some people I could mention, who let you get away with doing or saying anything you want, I won't stand for it! You'll behave yourself, Master Happousai, or you'll find yourself thrown off my ship!"

Happousai nudged Ranma in the ribs, taking care to find the spot Akane had so thoughtfully tenderized for him. "Please tell me that you're getting some with her every night," he whispered to pig-tailed mechwarrior. "I can't bear the thought of a hot sweet firebrand like her going to waste."

Ranma started at the thought, his face turning beet red. "You gotta be kidding me," he replied nervously.

Happousai narrowed his eyes at Ranma. "Are you sure you aren't gay?"

Ryouga took Pansuto Tarou to the forward storeroom. It was filled with spare parts and lubricants mostly, all under lock and key. Though it was not the ideal place to hold a captive, it was serviceable.

"I never got a chance to ask why you attacked Happousai," he remarked to his prisoner.

Tarou gave him an insultingly smug grin. "Need you even ask? You know my feelings where Happousai is concerned. The question that begs to be asked is why you did not?"

Ryouga looked away, shamefaced.

"Think about it, Ryouga," he said to him. "When you come up with an answer, let me know. You know where you can find me."

"Step inside," he told Tarou. "I'll bring you a cot and some blankets in a little while."

Tarou stepped backwards into the room, so that he could keep his sardonic grin directed at Ryouga the entire time. The fanged mechwarrior stabbed at the 'door close' button, and watched as it slid shut before his former companion.

When he checked that it was locked shut on override, he stepped away from the door with a troubled look on his face. He shouldn't have let the question get to him, but it did. They had been together for several years as fellow mercenaries, and though they did not get along that well, they had always performed admirably under fire together. He felt like he was betraying his comrade yet again.

As he made his way up the ladder to the Middle Deck, his mind lost in thoughts of the past and of an uncertain future, he failed to hear the sound of triumphant laughter that pealed from the storeroom.

NCJS Dragonfly

In orbit above the planet Tiber,

Palatine System, the Federated Shiratori

28 April 3025

Shampoo's eyes adjusted to the dim light of 'E' Deck as the sounds of water from the ship's tanks shifted around her. They were safe for the moment, tucked between the nest of pumps and piping that handled the starship's potable water and sanitary sewage systems. Here they had access to both hot and cold water, and the galley on 'D' deck was only one level above them in case the supply of compressed rations they had brought with them from the Domingo ran out.

They had made their way aboard during the confusion in the last hour before the drydock was pumped down, and the various welding cables, nitrogen lines, shore power cords and other detritus were being removed from the ship. It had been a simple matter, not even requiring her to use her Jusenkyo body to do it. Once aboard, they found a suitable hiding place, and began the long wait.

She listened carefully to the announcements made over the ship's 1MC system, and learned that the DropShip Palomino had just docked. The Saotomes were probably about to come aboard. The thought of crushing Ranma's windpipe with her bare hand warmed her. Once they were dead, and the materials they had on Ryuugenzawa safely in hand, her mission was complete and she could return home in triumph.

Elder Peony's attempt to overthrow Cologne would be cut short, and General Herb would be denied. With these two enemies of the state dealt with, the Commonwealth could turn its attentions to what really mattered, namely the Furinkan Combine.

As for Ryuugenzawa, she did not care. Someone else could go investigate. If she never heard the name again after this mission, it would be too soon. Her place was in a front-line unit on the border with the Combine, or else in a raiding battalion whose exploits would become legendary in the estimation of her people.

She felt Mousse stir beside her in the darkness, his body warm and at the same time uncomfortable in its proximity. She could not deny that she had enjoyed herself thoroughly with his body, and that he had experienced pleasure far beyond his ken with hers, but that was where the attraction ended. He was still Mousse, half-blind, a little stronger of will now, but still hopelessly in love with her.

She found that his sentiments made him weak in her eyes in spite of his new-found resolve. What good was love if it made you submit to your lover the way he had so readily submitted to her? No, the man Shampoo would come to love would not be so feckless. She wanted an equal - or near equal, truth be known - not a slave.

"I love you, Shampoo," she heard him whisper.

"Mousse, how many times do I have to tell you? Don't ruin what we shared together with those words."

Her rebuke left him cold, she could feel it now, and she regretted her outburst. There were still many things she needed to know from him.

"I'm sorry," she added. "It's the stress talking."

He remained silent, and she cursed herself for a fool.

"I'm going to explore," she said finally. She pulled herself in free-fall over to a sampling sink, and ran a trickle of water from the pressurized header. Once she had converted to a cat, it would be up to Mousse to shut the valve.

She let the water splash her face, and winced at the cold and the vertigo of her change. She emitted a meow of discomfort at Mousse, then bounded away into the darkness.

Mousse watched her go, knowing that he was the reason for her abrupt departure. Their time together before the Jump to the Palatine System seemed to belong in another era. Where she had been passionate, she was now cold and aloof.

He should have known that it couldn't last. That she had used him. Sitting there in the darkness of an enemy starship, he accepted at long last that she did not love him, and never would. Even in the throes of their lovemaking, she had felt nothing more for him than she might have felt for one of the clan's comfort men.

It was a terrible realization for him.

Since the time they were children together, he had suffered countless indignities for her favor. He had felt the sting of General Herb's wrath for helping her leave Lightoller. To save her from the Fated Circle, he had forsaken his own career. Every sacrifice was for nothing. Each sacrifice had brought him nothing but pain. The hybrid general had been right all along about Shampoo.

He could endure no more pain. He would not.

There was only one course of action left to him. He would do as the General had instructed him. The secrets of Ryuugenzawa would belong to the Musk Dynasty. They would rise up to overthrow the Council of Elders, the chains of servitude and inferiority would be broken, and the natural order of humanity would be restored.

For the first time in his life, he would be proud to be a man.

Shampoo floated down a passageway on 'A' Deck. Though there were few of the crew moving about, she moved along the baseboards to keep out of sight. The ship was preparing to get underway, and soon its plasma drive would fire, granting her a measure of blessed gravity. She scampered through an open airtight door as the opportunity presented itself, and found that she was on the Bridge.

"Captain Ninomiya, Tiber Approach has granted us permission to leave orbit," one of the crew reported. Shampoo looked around for the Captain, but did not see anyone fitting that description.

"Very well," a little girl's voice replied with surprising authority. Shampoo watched as what appeared to be an eight-year-old floated into view from behind the Captain's station. She gave a nod to one of the ship's officers.

"Chief of the Watch, on the 1MC: Activating the Main Engines, all hands be prepared for acceleration," the Officer of the Deck ordered.

The Chief of the Watch acknowledged the order, and passed it on the 1MC.

"Conn, Engineering; Main Engines ready to answer all bells."

"Very well, Engineering. Helm; All-Ahead Standard."

"All-Ahead Standard, Helm aye," the Helmsman replied. He adjusted several controls at his station, and the ship lurched slightly as the Main Engines began to fire well aft of them. "Officer of the Deck; Maneuvering answers All-Ahead Standard."

"Very well, Helm."

Shampoo steadied herself under the gentle quarter-gee acceleration of the ship, grateful to have something solid beneath her paws. She crept farther into the compartment to get a good look at the Astrogation displays. Perhaps she could learn something of the ship's next destination once they emerged from Jump.

The displays were all in Standard, which she was better at reading than speaking. She was no astrogator, but she knew enough about the Inner Sphere to realize that the ship's next projected Jump would take it deeper into the Federated Shiratori.

Why did they want to go farther into the interior of the country?

"Helm; set course laid in by astrogation control," the Officer of the Deck ordered.

"Helm, aye. Officer of the Deck, the Helm is slaved to Astrogation."

"Very well, Helm."

Shampoo's tail swished in boredom. The Bridge of this ship was no more interesting or helpful than any other.

As she turned to leave the compartment, she spied Akane Tendo entering, and with her was Ranma Saotome. Her ears flattened at the sight of him, and her fur began to bristle. She waited until they had passed her, her huge violet eyes following their every move.

"Ah, Lady Akane. Captain Saotome," the eight-year-old greeted them. "You'll be happy to note that we shall reach the Jump Point in one hundred and nineteen hours at our present acceleration."

"Is there any way we could decrease that time?" Akane asked her.

"Within the limits imposed by our stores of reaction mass and what our bodies can withstand, yes. If we increase thrust to one-half gravity, we can cut our transit time by half, but we'll also consume twice the fuel." Hinako did a quick calculation. "By providing close to three quarters of a billion newtons of thrust for about sixty hours, our HEPLAR drive will use approximately a hundred and forty tons of reaction mass, or about a third of our total capacity."

Akane shrugged. "Guess it wasn't such a great idea."

"It was a fine idea," Hinako countered. "If you aren't concerned with replenishing your fuel reserves. Considering our position, we have to be a little more careful about it."

"Point taken," Ranma said to Hinako. "I guess that's why she's the Captain, huh, Akane?"

She shot him a dirty look. "I was only trying to see if we could get out of here a little sooner."

"It was a valid question," Hinako said to her. She favored Ranma with a scathing glance. "The only dumb questions, Captain Saotome, are the ones that are never asked."

Shampoo was utterly baffled by this. Was the Confederation so desperate for good officers that it recruited children? The little girl was apparently very intelligent, and her voice carried with it a maturity that did not match her tender years, but did they actually expect her to be capable of carrying out such demanding duties on her own?

"Well excuuuuse me!" Ranma retorted. He turned for the door, and froze.

Shampoo looked him right in the eyes, her ears flattened once again.

"What is it, Ranma?" she heard Akane ask him. He did not move, nor did he make a sound.

Does he somehow recognize me? Shampoo thought in a panic. Is that even possible?

"C-C-C-C-Cat..." he managed, his teeth chattering away madly. "Th-Th-There's a c-c-ca-cat here..."

She hissed at him angrily, and was amazed when he flinched in terror.Before she could press home her advantage and escape, she was scooped up with lightning speed by the little girl.

"KITTY!" Hinako shrieked with joy. She presented it to Ranma.

"Ga-ga-get it away!" Ranma moaned, covering up and quaking as if he feared it would rip him to shreds.

"Ranma?" Akane asked, worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"NO!" he screamed. "I'm not okay! Get that damn cat away from me!" He backed up against the bulkhead as the crew looked on in surprise.

"Awwwww..." Hinako pouted as she held on to Shampoo with an iron grip. Shampoo scrabbled and kicked and clawed desperately to escape, but the girl was a veteran with fussy cats, and knew how to hold one without getting hurt."You don't like her?" she asked Ranma. "I think she's cute!"

"A purple Siamese." Akane observed. "I've never seen one like that before. It must be some kind of mutant strain."

"Who cares what color it is?!" Ranma moaned, trembling mightily as he cowered away from the hissing, spitting Shampoo. "Get rid of it!"

Hinako held up the cat to Ranma's face. "But isn't she cuuuute?" she asked him. He slammed his eyes shut and began to gibber.

"Maybe you should do as he says," Akane said gently to Hinako.

Captain Ninomiya turned away from Ranma, still clutching Shampoo. "I guess," she pouted. "She's a very pretty cat," she added. "I wonder where she came from?"

"Who cares?" Ranma groaned, regaining only a little of his composure. "Throw it in the airlock and blow it already!"

"Ranma!" Akane cried, shocked that he would even think such a terrible thing.

"It's probably a shipyard cat," the Officer of the Deck pointed out. "A lot of the yardbirds consider having a cat around a sign of good luck."

Hinako began stroking Shampoo's head roughly, earning another round of irritated hisses. "Poor kitty," she simpered to Shampoo. "You're already thousands of kilometers from home... Oh well! I guess you're the Dragonfly's cat now."

Ranma took that moment to duck through the air-tight door in escape, with Akane following after him.

"I didn't know you were afraid of cats?" Shampoo heard her ask him.

"I'd rather not talk about it," he replied gruffly. "Can't we just forget that this ever happened?"

"No way," Shampoo heard Akane retort as the door started to slide shut. She laughed just to spite him. "I think it's cute."

"Oh, ha ha."

Hinako continued stroking Shampoo's fur. In spite of herself, she began to enjoy the sensation, and craned her head around in such a way as to encourage the Dragonfly's Captain to scratch her behind the ears while she was at it.

"You're a good kitty, aren't you?" she asked Shampoo.

When I want to be... she decided, purring contentedly, and wondering how she could exploit Ranma's new-found weakness to her best advantage.

Kawaii City Starport

Kawaii City, Planet Genevieve

Martina System, the Federated Shiratori

30 April 3025

Federated Shiratori Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mikado Sanzenin knew that something dreadful was afoot from the moment he and his latest paramour stepped off the DropShip. He was greeted with flowers for one thing, abundant bouquets, garlands, and wreaths of them. The silky petals of thousands of roses were showered over him and spread before his feet as he traversed the jetway from his personal spacecraft.

Accustomed as he was to the royal treatment as Chief of Staff, this was something altogether unusual and disturbing. It was the kind of reception that the Empress would receive, if she ever deigned to leave the planet for awhile - something he knew that Azusa was loathe to do. Like the Heian Period court at Kyoto a millenium before the discovery of Jump, Azusa and her fawning coterie of sycophants could not possibly imagine anything so vulgar as leaving the capitol for the dreary provinces of the Empire.

The most disturbing thing about the entire reception was that no one would explain to him why they were treating him in this way. There were no officers in the Army present to question, only a few of the more strident leaders of the Cult of Azusa, and they were bound body, mind, and soul to their Empress. If they would not talk, it was because she had commanded that it be so, and that was yet another thing to be disturbed about.

Mikado's unease at the situation was given another jolt as his staff limousine accelerated onto the elevated highway that led into the gingerbread splendor of Kawaii City. His image was everywhere, in some cases fluttering twenty meters tall on massive banners that hung from the graceful arcs of bridges and skyways, in other cases his glittering smile beamed from huge advertising displays on the sides of skyscrapers. Posters and pennants with his regal visage were everywhere. His name flashed across public-info tickers and drifted through the sky on the sides of blimps. The citizens of the city waved and cheered to him as he sped through the city towards the palace.

As his limousine approached a fantasy castle with its delicate spires, gilded onion domes, dramatic palisades, sweeping arches, and candied minarets that would have made a Bavarian king weep, he realized why he was being greeted with such pomp. Flowing from standards projecting from the castle's outer keep were two figures in wedding attire. One was of the Empress, looking vapid and blissful, the other was of Mikado Sanzenin.

He choked on his martini at the sight of them.

The Hotel Promenade

Outboard Ring, Oyama Station

Orbiting the Planet Nerima, Capella System

The Nerima Confederation

27 April 3025

"Ah, Nabiki Tendo," Tetsuo Gosunkugi said, rising to greet her. "It's good to see you again. I regret the fact that we didn't get the chance to speak to each other after the summit."

Nabiki regarded him for a moment before responding. Tetsuo was as weedy and glad-handed as she remembered him to be. The dark circles under his eyes were something of a trademark with the Gosunkugi family, and made it difficult for her to judge if he was as exhausted as he appeared to be.

"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you," she returned.

In the last minute negotiations upon her arrival at the space station, Tetsuo had agreed to meet with them in a small conference room reserved for the hotel's guests. Nabiki noted the spartan furnishings; limited to four chairs, a small table, some tasteful artwork prints on the sound-proofed walls, and a sideboard with a selection of light refreshments. She also noted the man in the nondescrept business suit who stood several paces behind Tetsuo, obviously the League Ambassador's bodyguard.

Tetsuo made a small gesture to Rolf.

"I don't believe we've met," he added, an invitation to Nabiki to explain the young noble's presence.

"Rolf Thuringia," Rolf introduced himself before Nabiki could reply. "A pleasure, your Excellency."

"Rolf's with me," Nabiki added thinly, her voice barely containing her contempt. "He's promised to keep his mouth shut," she added, as much for Rolf's benefit as Tetsuo's.

Tetsuo looked Rolf over for a moment, as if to satisfy himself that this was possible. "Shall we get started, then?"

Nabiki took a seat across the table from him. Rolf chose to stand, remaining behind her as if matching Tetsuo's own bodyguard. Tetsuo noted this and gave a brief smile of relief.

"I'm not exactly clear on the reasons why you chose to meet me in orbit," Tetsuo opened. "There is such a furtive air about this meeting, it's almost as if you have something to hide. In fact, your insistence that this meeting be conducted with such secrecy has me rather concerned."

Nabiki leaned forward in her seat. As expected, Tetsuo was suspicious. There was little reason at this point for her to add to his reservations.

"My reasons are simple enough," she replied. "If you haven't discovered it already, let me enlighten you on the matter of my personal disposition." She paused for effect. "My plenipotentiary powers have been suspended."

Tetsuo nodded slowly. Nabiki couldn't tell if it was because he suspected as much, or that he already knew, and wanted to see how candid she would be in the matter.

"If that's true, then why am I wasting my time talking to you?" he asked. His thin and reedy voice had a rhetorical quality to it.

It seemed to Nabiki that Tetsuo was not in possession of all the facts regarding the current political situation on Nerima. She sat back in her seat, trying not to show her relief. His ignorance meant that she still had a few cards in her hand to play.

"My father is insane," she replied coolly. "Certifiable. He's convinced that he can defeat the Furinkan Combine, and anyone who doesn't share that view ends up stripped of their authority. I'm sure you can agree with my assessment of him after the disastrous conclusion to the summit."

Tetsuo pursed his lips in thought. Nabiki could almost visualize the gears turning in his head as he mulled this over.

"I had thought he'd done something rather rash with that," he said, nodding. "Promising your younger sister to an unknown mechwarrior was really throwing it in Prince Kuno's face."

"He's cracked, I'm telling you," Nabiki put in.

"So who is this Ranma Saotome, anyway?"

"No one of consequence," Nabiki replied, her tone guarded. Tetsuo did not need to know about Ryuugenzawa, even if it was a fairy tale. There was no need to make the situation any more complicated by bringing it up.

"Let's get back to my question then," Tetsuo said, though whether he was satisfied with this answer was not immediately clear. "Why am I here talking to you, if you're on the outs with your father, and have no power to negotiate with the League of Five Nails?"

"Because you won't get anywhere with him," she responded calmly. "You're lucky that he even let you into the system." She folded her hands together. "As for me, well, it's only a matter of time before his dementia becomes too much for even his most devoted supporters to ignore. Someone will have to step in at that point..."

Tetsuo inclined his head to her in understanding. "I see," he grunted. His eyes flicked over her as if discovering a new side to her personality, one that he had not expected. "I never figured you for the throne, Nabiki Tendo. It seems to me that you'd rather stand behind it."

"You are partially correct," she replied with a silky smile. "If it means preserving the family's wealth, I'll take my turn on Nerima's throne, but the Confederation isn't something I look forward to ruling for long."

She gave him a coy wink. "You wouldn't happen to know someone who might be interested in a tired old Successor State, would you?"

Tetsuo flushed with surprise. It was clear by his reaction that he hadn't imagined that she would be so forward with the League after setting herself up so cozily with the Combine at the summit.

"Perhaps we can come to an arrangement that would be mutually beneficial to our two countries," he declared after a moment's consideration. "I just happen to have a powerful bargaining chip against the Furinkan Combine that you might be interested in."

Nabiki allowed herself a moment of measured silence before responding.

"I'm all ears, Excellency."

Tetsuo looked about the small conference room self-consciously. Nabiki took his gesture as an indication that he feared spies or listening devices, which meant that he had not taken such an option for himself.

"This must be kept in the strictest confidence," he began.

"Of course," Nabiki agreed.

Tetsuo looked around again before facing her. "My cousin, Hikaru, has sent me to Nerima to propose a strategic alliance against the Furinkan Combine," he began, carefully assessing Nabiki's reaction to this. She remained poker-faced. "You will note our good faith in our timely warning of Prince Kuno's would-be surprise attack from the Capra System, and in our efforts to draw him away from the Capella System."

Nabiki nodded in agreement. "I was wondering what your angle was in that regard," she replied. It was as she had feared, Hikaru Gosunkugi wanted an alliance.

"Then you are receptive to this?" Tetsuo asked, perhaps a little too eagerly for a diplomat of his rank.

She waved in abnegation. "Slow down, your Excellency," she cautioned him. "First I want to hear what you have to offer the Confederation."

"Our promise of military support is not enough?" Tetsuo asked with the proper amount of indignation.

"I'm looking for something more concrete than promises," she returned crisply. "You mentioned a bargaining chip a moment ago. I don't think that was made idly."

Tetsuo took a sip of water before answering her.

"If you aren't receptive to my proposal, perhaps I should take this matter to the Grand Duke," he sniffed.

Nabiki reined in the sudden flash of temper incurred by his threat. He was probably only bluffing, testing her to see how she would react. It was a reminder to her that while he was no Domitian, Tetsuo was an experienced horse-trader, and he knew how the game of diplomacy was played.

The slight narrowing of her eyes was the only outward indication of how close she had come to exploding in Tetsuo's face.

"Excellency, I would caution against such a move," she replied in a chilly voice. "You would not be dealing with a stable man, but a lunatic." She gave him a warning look. "Furthermore, his remaining tenure as the ruler of the Confederation is likely to be cut short. The future rests with me, your Excellency. You would do well to remember that."

Tetsuo seemed suitably chastened.

"Very well, Nabiki Tendo. In the interest of brevity, I'll come to the heart of my proposal. In exchange for a permanent strategic alliance with the League of Five Nails, among other concessions to be discussed, I am prepared to turn custody of a very important hostage over to the House of Tendo."

Nabiki's mind raced with the implications of that declaration. His choice of principals, namely the House of Tendo over Nerima Confederation, implied that this hostage was also of noble or royal blood. Ordinarily, this would mean a Gosunkugi hostage would be sent to the Confederation to ensure that the League honored its commitments. But Tetsuo had also said that this hostage would be a powerful bargaining chip against the Combine.

It could only mean one thing...

"You have a Furinkan Combine hostage?" she asked him.

Tetsuo nodded.

"Someone whose well-being Prince Kuno would have to consider?"

Tetsuo nodded again, a cheshire cat grin slowly spreading across his face.

Nabiki's curiosity was growing. She was loathe to make any deals with the League of Five Nails, and adamant against her father doing the same, but she needed to know all of the variables at work within and against her plot"Who?"

Tetsuo leaned in close.

"We captured the Shogun of the Furinkan Combine on New Hawaii during our raid of the Alpha Centauri System," he replied evenly.

"You what?" It was beyond belief that the League could get so lucky, or that the ruler of the Furinkan Combine, even a fruitcake like Shogun Kuno, could be so careless.

"He's in the hotel," Tetsuo added. "You can't imagine how happy you will make me if you take him off my hands."

Nabiki's jaw dropped open in disbelief. Tetsuo was supposed to be more careful than this. What the hell was going on?

"You brought him here?" she hissed. "He's in the hotel? THIS hotel?"

"I'm prepared to offer him up right now as a further sign of our good faith," Tetsuo added. "My cousin Hikaru would prefer that our alliance be cemented with a marriage to your sister, Akane Tendo, as I'm sure you can understand."

Nabiki could not believe this was happening to her. Taking custody of the Shogun would give the people of the Confederation exactly what she didn't want them to have: hope. She knew that it wouldn't matter in the long run that the League would assist them, or that Kuno might accept a cease fire in exchange for his father's return. The Furinkan Combine would break any cease fire as soon as practical - especially if Akane were to be promised to Hikaru Gosunkugi - and the League could barely defend itself, much less continue coming to the Confederation's aid. She knew all of that, but she doubted that the war-weary people of the Confederation would be willing to look that far ahead.

The only thing she knew for certain was that Tetsuo could not under any circumstances come into contact with her father. Not with this kind of offer to make.

"Of course," she began to say, but the words died in her throat as Rolf lunged over the table at Tetsuo, a long stiletto with a hilt of gold and mother-of-pearl inlay plunging soundlessly into the League Ambassador's chest.

Tetsuo's bodyguard was caught as flat-footed by this act as Nabiki, and fumbled for a moment with the pistol in his coat pocket as Rolf pushed off from the table to do the same. Tetsuo looked dumbly down at the dagger which protruded from his chest, the hilt throbbing from the expanding stain of red on his shirt in time to the terrified beat of his heart.

"Rolf, what the fu-?" Nabiki choked out as the bodyguard drew his suppressed automatic and fired.

She watched Rolf take the bullet in the side of his chest as the sharp hiss of a laser beam scythed from a derringer in the palm of his hand. The beam struck the bodyguard square in the nose, and carved a centimeter wide channel straight up his face to neatly bisect the top half of his skull. The bodyguard made a few wet noises, then pitched over to the floor, his brain oozing from the charnel canyon of his burned cranium and into a lumpy pinkish-grey puddle on the carpet.

Rolf crumpled to the carpet himself, a bloody hand clutching at his own gunshot wound. The stench of melted hair and cooked brains mingled with the tang of ozone from the laser and the hot, acrid smell of burnt gunpowder.

"Rolf?!" Nabiki screeched. "Why the FUCK did you...?"

He looked up at her, his eyes glazed with pain. "He was going to wreck your plan," he gritted out. "OUR plan," he amended. He tried to stand, and found that he didn't quite have the strength.

"What are you talking about?" She was close to hysteria, having never witnessed such an explosion of violence and death firsthand.

"Turning the Shogun over to the Confederation," Rolf replied. He tried once more to stand, and managed to pull himself up to the table. Nabiki could see the small ragged hole in his back, and the gleaming blue-white fragments of living bone from his shattered shoulder blade that dripped with the freely running blood and bits of cartilage out of the exit wound. "It'll ruin everything," he continued. "You know that. I saw it in your eyes."

He steadied himself, drawing a panting gasp of breath. She could see that he was in intense pain, pain that was most likely due to his collapsed left lung.

"Goddamn, this hurts," he wheezed. He gestured with his free hand towards Tetsuo, whom Nabiki realized was still alive. "At least he doesn't feel very much..."

Something snapped back into place in Nabiki's shattered mind, and she pulled her cell phone out of her purse.

"I could use some help," Rolf agreed, noting the phone.

She whirled on him. "It's not for you, you stupid bastard!" she screamed at him. "It's for him! Don't you realize what you've done!?"

She could tell by the confused look in his eyes that he didn't.

"Don't waste your time," he muttered with great weariness. "The blade is poisoned."

At this Tetsuo made a whimpering noise, the first sound he had made since before he had been stabbed. His gaze fell once more to the dagger which pulsed weaker and weaker in his chest.

"I'm surprised he's still conscious," Rolf added, his voice slurring. "It's supposed to paralyze you as it works. That close to the heart, he should be..." He began to lose his grip on the table, and toppled over onto his bottom in a sitting posture, looking like a drunk who can't remember where he is or how he got there.

Nabiki looked back to Tetsuo as Rolf hit the floor, and watched with horror as the League Ambassador's eyes began to glaze over. The dagger's motions became fluttering and erratic, and she knew the end was close.

Tetsuo Gosunkugi managed one last gasp of breath, his eyes dull and wide with disbelief, and then he was dead.

A thin scream issued from deep within Nabiki's throat. It was a sound that mirrored Tetsuo's own disbelief at his murder, modulated with equal parts of rage and grief. She didn't even realize that she was doing it, and looked around frantically for the source of the hellish noise.

"A little help here," Rolf said raggedly.

She ignored Rolf's feeble pleas for assistance, lost in hopelessness and despair. How had it all come to this? While her intentions had never been exactly trey-nine pure, she had been sincere in her desire to end the death and destruction of the Succession Wars. All of her plotting, all of her machinations, they had brought only failure and death. Tetsuo and his bodyguard were just the latest casualties in a war that seemed to be spiraling further and further out of control. There would be others. Many others.

She found herself drawn towards Rolf's gold-plated derringer. The tiny weapon glittered on the carpet, promising a swift, almost silent end to her life. It was in her hand before she realized it, the laser surprisingly heavy for something so small.

Suicide was something she had scoffed at once, an act of borne of cowardice more than anything else she could say about it. As she clutched the derringer tight and put the cold, polished quartz focusing lens of the muzzle against her breast - and right over her fluttering heart - she understood that it was possible for some good to come from the act. At least this way, she wouldn't be around to fuck anything else up. If more people died, she rationalized, at least it wouldn't be her fault.

She squeezed the firing stud.

"The thing's only good for one shot," Rolf informed her, spitting up a clot of dark, sticky blood.

The sound of his voice brought her back once more to reality. She was not dead. The derringer was depleted of its charge as Rolf had claimed. Anger controlled her now, but it was a cold and calculating rage. What the hell were you thinking!? she railed at herself. This isn't over yet. Not yet, dammit!

She wiped carefully at the weapon, knowing that it would require a more professional treatment to remove all traces of her from its surface. She let the laser fall to the carpet where she had seized it, then moved to the body of the recently departed Tetsuo Gosunkugi and turned out his pockets. There was only one way to salvage the situation, and that was to take the Shogun by force and hide him away, before his presence on the station became public knowledge.

When she had taken what she needed from Tetsuo's pockets, and replaced the rest, she dialed the number of her most important connection on Oyama Station. She needed men, competent men who didn't ask questions and were paid in cash up front, and she needed them now, while she still had the time and the freedom to act.

She could hear Rolf moaning now, his voice getting weaker, and his words punctuated by wet choking coughs. She watched him for several minutes while she waited for the first of her agents on Oyama to answer her most urgent summons, her eyes burning with contempt and loathing for him. In one irreversable act of stupidity, he may have cost her absolutely everything.

One thing was for certain, she observed as Rolf slowly expired on the carpet, her bitter relationship with Daddy was going to the next level. There was no point in playing games with him anymore. It was time to act, and to act decisively.

The stench of death was growing stronger in the room. She wanted to leave - was desperately fearful of being discovered - but at the same time she could not take the chance that Rolf's life could be saved. As far as she was concerned, she had never come to this room; Rolf Thuringia was a deranged young man who had arranged the meeting with the Ambassador on false pretexts of diplomacy in order to assassinate him, and had himself been killed in the process. It would take a lot of grease, and just the right massaging of the facts, but she could make it stick long enough to accomplish her objectives.

She hated Rolf. She had never hated anyone with such an intensity, and yet she could not bring herself to finish him off. It wouldn't have required much effort, he was close to suffocating in his own blood anyway, but she couldn't bring herself to even touch him.

His eyes opened, his breathing slow and labored, and he turned his head up to face her. She regarded him with a boreal intensity as he opened his mouth to speak, and instead fell into a fit of choking coughs that laid him out flat on the carpet, his eyes fixed upon the ceiling.

She leaned over him as he lost his agonal struggle.

"You were the worst sex of my life, Rolf."

He almost seemed to nod in agreement as his taut body relaxed in death.

Nerima Confederation DropShop Palomino

In transfer orbit above the planet Genevieve

Martina System, the Federated Shiratori

3 May 3025

"Hey, Pop," Ranma called to his father, who paced soundlessly in 'Mech Bay One. "We're almost to the planet. Are you ready for this?"

Genma looked his son over for a moment.

"You're awfully eager about this expedition all of a sudden," he observed.

Ranma shrugged. "We only need one more decrypt key," he replied. "The faster we get it and leave, the better."

"That's all, huh, boy?" Genma grunted.

"Pretty much," Ranma agreed with another shrug.

Genma pushed his glasses up from the tip of his nose. "I think there's more to it than that."

"What are you talking about?"

Genma gave his son a stern look. "Face it, boy. She's got you whipped."

Ranma cocked his head in a questioning look.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked in a surly voice.

"Do I have to spell it out for you, boy?" Genma returned, his voice taking on the stentorian quality that he reserved for reproaching his son. "You've betrayed your father and your family name, and all for a woman!" he railed angrily.

"What?!" Ranma cried in response.

Shifting gears, Genma took on an expression of long suffering, his voice cracking with emotion. "O, the misery of it!" he wailed. "Where did I go wrong? My son... My son is... is... pussy-whipped!"

Ranma's face flushed beet red, though whether this was out of anger or embarrassment was not clear.

"No way!" he choked out. "I never...!"

Genma threw up an arm to his brow in despair. "That's the worst part!" he returned miserably. "If you were actually sleeping with her, I might be able to forgive you - but you aren't even doing that! She's got you wrapped around her little finger, turning you against me, ME, your own flesh and blood!"

He fished in his pocket, eyes still averted in shame, and threw a pile of coins at Ranma's feet. Ranma, too angry and confused to make more than spluttering noises of protest, stooped to examine one of the coins. It was a gaming token - absolutely worthless where they were.

"Your thirty pieces of silver," Genma explained solemnly.

Ranma threw the coin down on the deck.

"Dammit, Old Man!" he snarled. "When are you gonna start making some sense?!"

Genma put away the theatrics and faced his son gravely.

"Ranma, you've shamed your family by accepting a commission with the Confederation. For centuries the Saotomes have been independent mechwarriors, at least until you came along. All it took was a little fluttering of Akane Tendo's eyelashes to flush all of that proud tradition down the toilet."

He continued before Ranma could offer up protest. "Not only that, but by accepting her commission, you're supporting her decision to replace me as the commander of the mission." He began to tremble with despair. "How could you, boy? I'm your father!"

Ranma looked him over. "So that's why you've been off sulking this whole time," he realized.

Genma looked away, insulted at the idea that he should be sulking at anything.

"Don't sweat it, Pop," Ranma added uneasily. "She already said that this was temporary."

"And you'd believe her, wouldn't you?" Genma returned snidely.

"Well, yeah," Ranma agreed. "She's got no reason to lie about it."

"So naive," Genma clucked. "I guess that's your mother talking."

Ranma gave his father a dirty look for even mentioning his mother at a time like this. He decided to call it quits for now.

"You're hopeless, Pop."

Still, the idea that he was somehow wrapped around Akane's finger, however ridiculous that sounded, troubled him. No girl should have that kind of power over a guy.

We'll just see how 'whipped' I am! he thought to himself.

The Imperial Palace

3 May 3025

Federated Shiratori Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mikado Sanzenin faced a choice: he could marry Empress Azusa and become her royal consort, or he could flee the Federated Shiratori. Neither choice seemed very palatable to him. To flee would mean giving up his rank and privilege to become a common mercenary; an abhorrent thought to a man who had draped himself in the mantle of so much political and military power. On the other hand, the thought of marrying Azusa Shiratori utterly repulsed him.

He despised his Empress as the spoiled rotten and vacuous little girl that she was. To even imagine the idea of sitting at her right hand and enduring her mindless prattle and her fawning, empty-headed Court made him break out in a cold sweat. The thought of sleeping in the same bed as Azusa brought forth waves of nausea, much less the act of consummating their union.

What could he do? He was screwed.

The most infuriating aspect of this affair was that she hadn't even asked him to marry her. She had simply started the wedding process without him, before he even arrived in the system. All that was expected of him was to show up.

He poured himself another drink, something he had done a lot of since his arrival. There had to be a way for him to derive some kind of advantage from his situation. Becoming a mercenary offered the advantage of freedom, but promised nothing but hard times and hard work. Mikado had a particular aversion to both of these things.

Marrying Azusa at least conferred a special status upon him. Though he would be named only as the Imperial Consort, it was possible that he could have a more direct hand in the policies of the Federated Shiratori...

He snorted laughter at this. Since when had he ever cared about the Federated Shiratori? His overriding passion was the loving of women. Could he still do that as a consort?

It wasn't like he was bound by the moral prohibition against adultery. Mikado particularly enjoyed making love to married women for the forbidden thrill it gave him to have sex with another man's wife. It certainly wouldn't matter to him that he was the one doing the cheating.

There was also the fact that he would have access to a whole slew of beautiful women - who were most likely rock-stupid and therefore easy marks for his charm - in Azusa's Court. If he grew tired of Azusa, and he knew it wouldn't take long, he was still the Chief of Staff, and would need to leave the system on inspection tours and such.

That idea began to take hold with him. It offered all of the advantages of marrying Azusa, such as they were, and few of the disadvantages. Was it his fault that his official duties always kept him from his 'beloved' wife? He chuckled a little too loudly at this, and poured himself yet another drink.

He settled back into his chair, and wondered what else he could expect to go wrong today. What he did not expect was Ukyou Kuonji and her adjutant Major Konatsu arriving in his chambers unannounced.

"What are you two doing here?!" he demanded. The booze and the stress of his predicament were not doing his normally cool temperament any favors.

Ukyou saluted. "Pardon the intrusion, General," she began, and her smug look immediately began to grate on Mikado's nerves. "I wanted to offer my formal congratulations on your engagement."

Her obviously false hail-fellow-well-met enthusiasm triggered a storm of brain activity within Mikado's head, and he rose unsteadily to his feet.

"This is all YOUR fault, isn't it, Kuonji!" he shouted at her. This is where she had gone to! She had put Azusa up to this! "This whole engagement smells of your meddling!"

Ukyou's smile melted away. She had never seen him drunk before, and certainly not belligerently drunk.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she returned. "Sir."

"Don't bullshit me, Kuonji!" Mikado thundered. He was really starting to feel his blood boiling now. "You've hated my guts for years."

She matched his hard stare. "You're drunk, General."

Mikado sloshed his martini at her in the process of waving a fist. "So what if I am?" he leered. Then, with remarkable control and poise, he brushed back his hair with a smile, his teeth gleaming preternaturally in the indoor lighting. "I've still got it where it counts."

Ukyou couldn't help but be a little impressed by his display. It was no wonder why most girls flocked to his bed.

"Sir, I should let you get back to your work," she said coolly. Konatsu began to bow for him.

"Hold it right there," Mikado ordered them. He advanced upon them both with a manic gleam in his eye. Despite his obvious intoxication, he practically glided across the carpet towards them, his charisma radiating forth in waves.

In spite of herself, Ukyou held fast. Konatsu followed her lead.

Mikado took the former kunoichi's white gloved hand and kissed it with great warmth and ardor, his soft eyes held gently with those of Konatsu. The adjutant blushed furiously, and turned away in shy defense against the Chief of Staff's magnetism.

He turned to Ukyou next, who stood stock still under his luminous gaze.

"I'll never forget the first day I laid eyes on you, Ukyou," he said, his voice deep and melodious. She quivered in spite of herself, and tried to remember that he was not only roaring drunk but an insincere womanizer.

His hand came up to raise her chin to him, the contact fleeting and causing an electric thrill to course through her. Her muscles locked up, prventing her from escaping. With gentle ease his hand caressed her cheek as he locked those deadly eyes into her own brilliant green orbs. For her it was like staring into the eyes of a cobra; entrancing, mystifying, and very dangerous. She was transfixed by him, unable to resist his next move even though her mind was screaming warnings at her.

His lips touched hers, teasing at first, and then pressing firmly into contact, kissing her deeply and sweetly. Konatsu made strangled noises at her side that went unnoticed by either of them for a very long time.

Mikado finally broke from the kiss. His soft eyes flashed into slate grey slabs of diamond hard battlemech armor.

"I'll destroy you if it's the last thing I do," he growled at her, his voice filled with hatred, and breaking the spell that was over her. "Remember that, Kuonji. You've made me even more powerful than I ever was before."

She stumbled backwards, stunned and humiliated by the ease with which he had manipulated her. Konatsu drew her away towards the door before she could come to her senses and let her anger take over. For this offense, she would most certainly kill Mikado, and in so doing, incur the Empress' undying wrath.

He watched them both go and roared laughter, throwing his martini glass against the wall. It didn't matter that his life was about to become a living hell, so long as he was able to share that experience with the woman who had done this to him.

"I'll consider it my wedding present to myself," he declared aloud.

"Are you all right, sir?"

Ukyou shook the cobwebs from her head.

"How do you feel?" Konatsu pressed.

"Disgusted," she spat out, still not believing that Mikado Sanzenin had kissed her, and that she had enjoyed it!

"The General has a certain effect on people," Konatsu said, sensing her self-loathing for being taken so easily by his seduction. "You shouldn't let it get to you."

"Easy for you to say, sugar," she growled. "You weren't in lip-lock with him." She wiped vigorously at her mouth, wishing she were close to her quarters so she could brush her teeth. "To think I was coming to gloat!" she lamented.

It was worse knowing that if Konatsu hadn't been there, Mikado might have been tempted to bed her on the spot. Wouldn't that have been sweet revenge for him! She shuddered at the thought, and resolved to keep a little more distance from the Chief of Staff in the future. Like a few hundred light-years if she could help it...

"Shall we go to the starport, sir?"

"Yes, Konatsu," she replied. "I think I'd very much like to get away from the palace for awhile."

Kawaii City Starport, Quarantine Zone

"Where the heck is she?" Ranma asked. Ukyou had left word for them through the Starport Authority that she would meet them when they arrived on Genevieve. It had been three hours since their arrival, and there was still no sign of her.

"I think you're putting too much faith in her," Akane sniffed.

"Now what's that supposed to mean?"

Akane narrowed her eyes at him.

"You haven't seen her in ten years, and now all of a sudden she's going to go out of her way to help us steal something from the Empress' Collection?"

Ranma shrugged. "Yeah. Why not?"

"Forget I mentioned it," she said, glowering at him.

"Whatever."

He jumped up from the bench seat where he sat, and started towards the Customs gate. They had been waiting for Ucchan inside the Quarantine Zone of the starport, an area of neutrality where the system's import laws were not enforced. People and freight could not leave the zone without submitting to an inspection by the Customs personnel.

"Where are you going?" Akane asked him.

"I have no idea," he returned, not looking back. "But I thought I'd take a look around instead of sitting here taking crap from you."

Akane had only been miffed at him before. Now she was angry.

"And how exactly have I been giving you 'crap'?"

He stopped a few paces short of the turnstile that led to the inspection point. "You've got something against Ucchan," he began. "I don't know what it is that's got you so uptight any time her name gets mentioned, but every time you dig on her, it's like you're insulting me for having anything to do with her."

Akane was stunned by accuracy of his accusations. She looked away from him uneasily.

"I'm right, aren't I," he observed smugly.

"Maybe," she conceded.

Ranma walked back over to her. "You wanna tell me what's going on that has you so uptight about her?"

She looked at him with accusing eyes. "I don't like the way you let her fall all over you for one thing... It's not becoming of an officer of the Confederation... And I'm not 'uptight' about it, as you so eloquently put it."

It took Ranma a moment to understand what she was getting at. When he did, his eyes lit up. "Are you... jealous?"

"Puh-lease..." she snorted contemptuously.

He wouldn't let it go. "You are, aren't you! 'Not becoming of an officer of the Confederation...' What kind of lame-o remark is that? If you're jealous 'cause of Ucchan, don't be, okay? How many times do I gotta say this? She's a friend. Nothing more."

"You might feel that way, but does she?" she countered. "I don't think you should be encouraging her like this."

The issue of Ucchan's shows of affection towards him, and her actual motivations behind them, was one he had been reluctant to cover in any sort of detail. The truth was that with her timely departure from Tiber, he had been able to sweep all thoughts of their 'engagement' under the rug of his subconscious.

"I still think you're jealous," he said at length.

"Jerk."

Ranma grinned at her. So much for being 'whipped,' huh, Pop? "Man, it's worse than I thought."

Akane's cheeks flushed. "Ranma, I don't care about it, okay?" Her tone suggested otherwise. "Can we just drop it?"

He caught the warning tone in her voice, and decided to ease up, at least a little. "Sure. Consider it dropped." He snapped a peppy salute in her direction. "Yes, ma'am!"

Akane's expression shifted from one of exasperation to profound dismay.

"Is that all you think this is, Ranma? Some kind of game between us?"

The look on her face when he gave his mocking salute made him feel lower than snail snot.

"I'm sorry," was about all he could think to say.

"Hiya, Ranchan!" a voice called. "Sorry it took so long."

Even if he hadn't recognized the voice as Ucchan's, the look of dread on Akane's face would have been all he needed to make the ID.

"Hiya, Ucchan," he replied, turning in time to receive a kiss on the cheek from her that went a hair's breadth beyond 'friendly.' He could almost feel the daggers shooting into his back from Akane's eyes. Strangely enough, he thought, Ucchan's cute-looking adjutant didn't seem to be taking it any better than Akane.

"I had some things to do at the palace that kinda got out of hand," Ukyou continued. She brushed her uniform jacket lapel uncomfortably at the thought of her encounter with Mikado. "But enough about that." She bowed briefly in deference to Akane. "I realize that we haven't really gotten off on the right foot together, Akane, but I want you to know that I'm here to help you and Ranchan get what you needed."

Akane rose and took Ukyou's offered hand. Ranma could see lines of tension in both of their faces as they shook hands in a business-like manner.

"As long as you understand that Captain Saotome has other commitments to keep at the end of this encounter, I see no reason why we can't be friends," she replied.

Ukyou blinked away the discomfort at Akane's impersonal greeting, as well as at her implied possession of Ranma. Captain Saotome? Oh, Ranma-honey, what did she make you do while I was away?

"Right," she returned. "Absolutely." Whatever, sugar...

"So what's up?" Ranma asked her hastily, eager to defuse any further conflicts between the two before they arose. "You get everything squared with the Empress?"

Ukyou gave him a friendly smile. "Yes and no," she replied. "You see, I've sort of become involved with the Empress' wedding plans while I was here. I haven't had a chance to talk to her about diplomatic duty."

"No kidding?" Ranma said. "Azusa's getting married?"

"To who?" Akane asked. Even she wanted to know the name of the person stupid enough to want such a thing.

Ukyou gave them a sly smile.

"Ah, well, you remember, Ranchan, when I said I was having problems with my job?"

"Yeah."

"You see, Chief of Staff Sanzenin was my biggest problem. So I, well, recommended him as a candidate for marriage to the Empress. Azusa thought it was a great idea." She had to stifle a laugh, and even Konatsu's cool demeanor wavered towards mirth for a moment.

Ranma guffawed. "Way to go, Ucchan!"

She bowed proudly to imaginary applause. "It took care of the one problem, and it might help you with yours as well."

"Oh?" Akane asked her.

"Yup," Ukyou returned. "I can get you onto the palace grounds as invited guests at the wedding. It's in two days. It will probably be your best and only chance to get onto the grounds, and it will be nice and legit."

"Whoa," Ranma gushed. "Really? I mean, how did you get so much pull? I'da thought the Cult people would be calling all the shots for something like this."

Ukyou blushed. "Well, it's not all wine and roses. Her Imperial Divinity wants me to be her Maid of Honor. That's one of the reasons why I've been so busy. The Cult's been doing most of the leg-work - heck, they've been planning this wedding for a year even without knowing who the 'lucky' guy was going to be. I'm just the bag-girl for the last minute stuff."

In spite of herself, Akane was pleased by this turn of events. Getting onto the palace grounds legally would be a huge advantage over trying to breach the external security, and with a wedding going on, it would be easy to move in the crowds without being noticed.

"I'm impressed," she agreed.

"Thanks," Ukyou returned. "Look, I really hate to leave just as soon as I got here, but I have to meet with the Empress again very soon. Can I set a up a dinner date with you, and we can go over this?"

"Akane and I would love that," Ranma said quickly for the two of them. The fist that clenched at the Confederation Heir's side relaxed.

Ukyou nodded, oblivious to how close she had come to setting off a firestorm with Akane. Her intention really had been to invite the two of them. "Great! If you give me the number Pier Services set up for your ship, I'll have Konatsu phone you later with the details. Ta for now!"

She blew Ranma a kiss, and spun on her heels for the Customs Gate.

Kawaii City

"Somehow, I don't think this was what Ucchan had in mind," Ranma observed, as the seven of them walked along the painfully-cheerful sidewalks of Kawaii City from the parking garage to the restaurant where Konatsu had made the reservations. The festive air of the city on the eve of Azusa's wedding was reaching a fever pitch, with street vendors hawking every manner of souvenir and trinket to commemorate the event. The banners and flags featuring General Sanzenin and the Empress were everywhere.

It was late summer on Genevieve, the air was warm and muggy, and dark clouds fought with the setting sun to dampen the gingerbread splendor of the city.

"Major Konatsu said we could bring a few friends," Akane remarked, a little overwhelmed by the city's saccharine charm. She preferred the stately architecture of Gondolin over the fairy-tale hyperbole of the Empress' capitol.

Ranma looked at Ryouga and Akari, his father, the brooding Pansuto Tarou, and the always-friendly Doctor Tofu.

"Ryouga, Akari, the Doc, and even Tarou I can understand, considering his inside knowledge of where we need to go," he said to her. "But bringing Pop along is probably like pouring gasoline on a fire."

"Stow it, boy," Genma growled. "Wild horses couldn't keep me away from something as important as this."

Ranma winced at his father's pun. "Ha ha. Fine. Whatever. The first sign that you and Ucchan are gonna go at it hammer and tongs over something, you're outta there, okay?"

"I've put the whole thing behind me," Genma replied sourly. "If she can't do the same, then that's her problem."

"All the same, Mister Saotome," Doctor Tofu added. "It might be best if you kept a low profile."

Genma grumbled something incoherent in reply. The seven of them continued on.

"You've been pretty quiet this whole time, Ryouga," Ranma observed. "What's up?"

Ryouga blinked several times as if coming out of a trance, which, considering the fact that he was holding Akari's hand as they walked, probably wasn't far from the truth.

"I'm just hoping that it won't rain," he remarked finally.

"Aw, come on," Ranma said, pointing up to the sky. "It's going to have to get darker than that."

A distant rumble of thunder punctuated his statement.

"All the same," he continued nervously. "Let's get inside, quick." He inclined his head towards Tarou and his father. "The last thing the people of this city need to see are two giant... whatever you ares..."

"And not a cross-dressing freak?" Tarou added snidely. He sipped at a can of iced tea purchased from one of the most obnoxiously cute vending machines any of them had ever seen.

Ryouga looked ghostly pale with horror at the idea that someone would add the mention of a certain little black pig, but Tarou seemed to take Ranma's cue, and held his tongue.

"Hey, at least I'm human," Ranma returned.

Tarou splashed the tea in Ranma's face.

"Why, so you are!" he laughed arrogantly. "A fem-boy, but human."

Ranma wiped at the tea in her eyes. "You just asked for a one-way ticket to the Hurt Locker..." she menaced.

"Ranma, stop it!" Akane snapped. She cast an angry look at Tarou. "And you!" she barked. "You're supposed to be showing us good faith. If this kind of disruptive behavior is what I can expect of you, then you give me no choice but to break off our agreement." She looked up into his cold unyielding eyes. "I may not be in any position to clap you back in irons, Tarou, but I still have your battlemech. Remember that."

Tarou bristled, his muscles twitching, ready to spring. The looks on the faces of the two Saotomes, of Hibiki, and even Doctor Tofu, told him that they would not hesitate in their response. More effective against him than their implied threat, however, was the fact that a confrontation now would ruin his chances of discovering the location of the Ryuugenzawa System.

"I remember," he said to her evenly. Then to Ranma. "I apologize."

Ranma didn't look like he was going to accept.

"Knock it off, boy," Genma admonished his son. "He apologized already."

"So?"

"Keep your focus on the mission," Genma said to him.

Ranma snorted. "Apology accepted," he grunted. "This time."

"Might I, ah, suggest that we get inside?" Ryouga added sheepishly. The sky seemed to be getting darker, and the street vendors were starting to pack up their wares against the approaching summer thunderstorm.

Ukyou looked up from her notes on the wedding at a nudge from Konatsu. Akane she recognized, and Doctor Tofu, and especially Ranma's less than welcome father, but the rest of their party were total mysteries.

"Where's Ranchan?" she asked Akane, who stifled a laugh.

"I'm right here," Ranma replied, brushing idly at her mandarin blouse.

Ukyou goggled at the buxom redhead wearing Ranma's clothes. She had Ranma's pretty blue-grey eyes, and her hair ended in a pigtail like Ranma's, but that was where the resemblance ended, in her opinion.

"What the hell -?"

Ranma blushed. "Remember that long story I mentioned the day you left Tiber?"

She vaguely remembered something along those lines. Like why he was all wet when he came down the ramp of his ship...

"Sort of," she hedged. The others made themselves comfortable at the remaining chairs, and a tiny part of her that maintained her reserve of sanity made a note to request a larger table from the management.

"Well, this is it," Ranma finished. "Don't ask how, don't ask why, just believe me when I say that I am the same Ranma Saotome you saw this afternoon at the starport. I just change into a girl when I get wet."

Ukyou blinked several times in disbelief. "I don't understand." She gave a desperate, questioning look to Akane, who nodded solemnly.

"You don't want to know what Pop turns into when he gets wet," Ranma added.

"I assume then," she said haltingly, "that there is a way to reverse this effect?"

"Hot water," Ranma, Genma, Akane, Ryouga, Akari, Doctor Tofu, and Tarou all replied in chorus.

This is too weird, Ukyou thought frantically.

"I-I guess it would be easier if I just accepted it, wouldn't it," she remarked, her voice quavering.

"Trust me," Akane agreed with her. "It is."

"So..." Ukyou said slowly, to keep the conversation going. "When did this happen?"

Ranma did the math. "About four and a half months ago."

"Never mind all that," Genma said to them. "We have more important matters to discuss. The boy here says you can help us get what we need on this planet. Is that true?"

Ukyou nodded slowly, a little amused by the fact that Genma Saotome continued to refer to the obviously female Ranma as his 'son.'

"I can," she replied.

"Let me handle this," Akane broke in. Genma shot her a grumpy look, but complied. "What exactly can you do to help us?"

Ukyou weighed the implications of their exchange, such as, who was really in charge here, Genma or Akane? "Well," she began. "I can get you four invitations to the wedding. That should get you onto the palace grounds with a minimum of fuss, since the invitations are naturally for exclusive guests of the Empress and Her court.

"I can also draw out for you a basic floorplan of the, ah, place, along with the details of the security arrangements. I'm not sure exactly what you have in mind to do, so I'll leave that up to you."

She didn't get much further than that, because of the sudden uproar at the front of the restaurant. Konatsu got up to take a closer look, but by the excited cries from the staff and patrons, she began to get a sinking feeling.

"Ukyou-dear!" the voice of Azusa the First, Goddess-Empress of the Federated Shiratori, cried out to the open air.

"Shit!" Ukyou spat out under her breath. "What in blazes is she doing here!?"

Tarou excused himself abruptly and headed for the kitchen.

"Ukyou-dear!" Azusa cried again. The restaurant manager quickly pointed her out.

Before anyone else could make their escape, Azusa and her entourage had them surrounded. Ranma had never seen so many beautiful looking idiots in her entire life.

"Bow, you nitwits," Ukyou hissed at all of them.

They all stood and bowed low for Azusa as she approached the table, a distraught expression on her otherwise fatuous face.

"Ukyou-dear!" she wailed. "You simply must help Azusa-chan!"

Ukyou cringed. Whatever could possibly bring the Goddess-Empress of the Federated Shiratori to her, instead of the other way around?! The pleading look on her Empress' face answered at least part of her question. In the past week she had become more than an advisor to Azusa, she had become a confidant, even something of a friend. The normal barriers between the Empress and her subjects had come down where Ukyou Kuonji was concerned. She had to respect the trust with which Azusa had granted her.

"Yes, your Majesty! Anything!" she replied.

Azusa sat down in Genma's chair, the elder Saotome being jerked away from it without hesitation by Ranma and Akane when the Empress glanced around for an empty seat.

"Azusa simply cannot find enough bridesmaids!" she wailed, a sound so whiney, pathetic, and frighteningly intense that Ranma jumped at the sound of it. "Azusa-chan absolutely MUST have twenty-five bridesmaids, or else Azusa-chan's wedding is RUINED!"

Her entourage clucked sympathy for their Empress. Ranma tried not to gag.

"I-I don't understand," Ukyou cried. "I thought that was all worked out? We had everyone selected and their gowns fitted and everything."

Azusa made an incoherent whimpering sound.

"NO NO NO!" she cried out. There was an element of rage in her voice. Terrible rage. Ukyou wondered what the hell had gone wrong. "Three of them are so... so... POOPY that Azusa refuses to have them as Her bridesmaids!"She sniffled loudly. "Oh, what is Azusa-chan to doooo...?!"

Ukyou bit down on her lip, reeling with disbelief. This whole mess smelled rotten, and she suspected that at least one petty rivalry within Azusa's court had brought this disaster to pass. Who could say how three handpicked bridesmaids had been discredited so close to the wedding?

"Ukyou-dear!" Azusa wailed once more. "You must help Azusa-chan!"There was no mistaking the hard edge in her Empress' voice. If she didn't think of something, and soon, more heads were going to roll - perhaps even literally. Azusa could get downright homicidal in moods like these, and no one in the Cult was going to refuse her.

"Your Majesty, I have a solution," she began, knowing that she was about to get in over her head. WAY over her head...

"You do?!" Azusa spluttered, her lower lip trembling expectantly.

Ukyou gestured to Ranma, Akane, and Akari. The third girl she didn't know from Eve, but those pink streamers of hair running from her temples were exactly the kind of thing the Empress went to pieces over.

"Your Majesty, allow me to introduce three very intimate friends of mine from the, ah, Palatine System; Ranma, Akane, and..." She shot an intense look at Akari, who blurted out her name by reflex. She then made a subtle cutting gesture at the other two before they could protest, just in case they were stupid enough to try it in front of Azusa.

Azusa looked them over, Ranma first, who smiled back vacantly, turning pale with hastily-suppressed horror and shock.

"Oooo!" Azusa squealed, tugging happily at Ranma's pigtail. "How cute!"

She turned next to Akane, who by dint of nineteen years as a daughter of Grand Duke Tendo, curtsied with poignant grace.

It was Akari's pink streaks of hair that settled the matter.

"They're PERFECT!" Azusa squealed. "They absolutely MUST be Azusa-chan's bridesmaids!" She kissed Ukyou's cheek. "Ukyou-dear, whatEVER would Azusa do without you?"

Oh, I don't know... Ukyou thought darkly to herself. Hopefully fall off a cliff or something...

Empress Azusa, convinced that all was once more right with the world, skipped away without so much as a 'good evening,' leaving her entourage to scamper off after her. Ukyou caught a few dark looks from recently acquired rivals among them as they left, and she knew that no matter what, she had to get out of the system after the wedding. She enjoyed untouchable favor now, but with powerful members of the Cult slowly dripping poison into Azusa's ears, it could not last. Her fall would be hard indeed.

Only when the Empress and her sycophants were long gone, and the envious looks from the restaurant's patrons had given way to a return to normalcy, did Ranma and the others dare speak.

"What did you just do, Ucchan?" Ranma growled with surprising ferocity at her. Akane could only seethe. Akari and the others gaped in shock.

"I just did you a huge favor," she returned, the wheels turning in her head.

"How's that again?" Ranma shot back. "You just volunteered me to be one of her bridesmaids!" she hissed. "ME! I'm a guy! I ain't wearing no stinkin' bridesmaid dress!"

"First of all," Ukyou hissed back. "No bridesmaids, no wedding. No wedding, and you guys just lost your best chance to break in and get that stupid key. Second of all, you are all now, by royal decree, trusted members of her court. If you do get into a compromising situation, at least you'll have some leverage to get out of it. Third, now I can get more of your group into the palace without a fuss, since I've just freed up three of the four invitations..."

She blew out a sigh that lifted her bangs. "Look, I was kinda on the spot there, in case you hadn't noticed. You simply don't understand how dangerous she can get when she's in these kinds of moods."

"Ukyou's right, boy," Genma muttered.

"Pop!" Ranma protested. "How can you say that?"

"Focus on the mission, boy," his father returned. "What's more important, getting that last crypto key, or your macho pride?"

She clenched her fists tight. "I can't believe this," she said between clenched teeth.

"Okay," Akane said to Ukyou. "I don't like this, but I see your point. We can work this to our advantage."

Akari nodded. "It might even be a little fun," she said softly.

"Fun," Ranma snorted.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," Ryouga barked at him. "We have a lot of work to do between now and..."

"The day after tomorrow," Ukyou supplied. "You're right, we don't have a lot of time. I have to get the three of you fitted for gowns and shoes, get hairdresser appointments, accessories, makeovers, the list goes on and on."

"Allow me, sir," Konatsu demurred.

"Thanks, honey," Ukyou said to her adjutant. "I wasn't going to ask, but..."

"But you have far too much to do already," the former kunoichi finished for her. "I understand, sir."

"I'm glad someone does," Ranma harrumphed. She got up from the table. "I'm gonna go look for Tarou. After what he told us about his connection to this place, I don't blame him for wanting to split when he saw who was coming."

"I don't know about the rest of you," Tofu added. "But I think we had better take this planning session somewhere else." He gestured about to the patrons and staff who continued to chatter about them.

Ukyou saw the doctor's point.

"Agreed. How about going back to your ship?" she asked Akane. "It's probably the most secure place going on this planet."

"Fine," she said, nodding. It was going to be an interesting working relationship with her rival, she decided. Her only misgivings lay in Ukyou's supposed altruism, which she didn't buy for an instant. What was she going to want for all of this so-called cooperation?

Bridesmaids' Dressing Rooms

The Imperial Palace

6 May 3025

"I can't believe that I'm actually wearing this," Ranma groused. She was dressed in a frilly peach colored gown of taffeta, silk, and lace that dripped with gold beads and seed pearls. Her shoes were too tight, her boobs hurt because the gown didn't give them any support, and her crimson hair was piled up into an extravagant coiffure that was glossy with hairspray. Akari, similarly dressed and coiffed, was helping her with the final touches to her wealth of satin ribbon bows.

"You look cute," Akane teased her. Her own gown was a little too tight in the hips for comfort, but given how little time they had available for fitting prior to the wedding, she supposed it was a minor inconvenience. It could have been much worse.

Ranma shot her a dirty look. "Right now, 'cute' is the last thing I feel like looking." The fact that they had spritzed her with perfume was not helping her mood.

Ukyou stepped into the dressing room, her own gown swishing sibilantly at her feet. In addition to the skillful application of makeup from Konatsu, the skin on her face, throat, shoulders, and arms was lightly dusted with a touch of glitter, as per the wishes of the Empress for her Maid of Honor. She stopped short upon beholding Ranma in her bridesmaid attire, still not used to the fact that her beloved's gender was subject to change with a little cold water.

"Twenty minutes until showtime," she announced to the assembled party. She turned then to address Akane specifically. "How's Ranma-honey holding up?"

Akane rolled her eyes in Ranma's direction. "He'll make it," she replied. "I think."

"How do you girls walk in these stupid things?" she complained, trying to mince about without breaking her ankles. "No one can see our feet in these dresses, so why can't I wear my black slippers instead?"

"At least he'll be at the end of the dais," Ukyou observed, ignoring Ranma's question for the preposterous thing it was. Men! "Konatsu and I will be right up by the altar, in the middle of the action."

Ranma nodded sullenly. She was to be the last of Azusa's twenty-five bridesmaids, which would put her near the very edge of the cathedral and practically out of sight with the audience's attention focused on the bride and groom.

The plan was for her to slip out of the ceremony and into one of the chapels located in the transepts set to either side of the cathedral's nave, and from there doff her gown and join up with Tarou. Then they'd hit the Collection of Cute while everyone was busy with the wedding.

It was supposed to be simple, but Ranma knew better.

"I can hack it," she told the assembled women. "So when do we have to be in place?"

"Ten minutes," Ukyou replied. "That will give us just enough time to get there." She gave them a vacant smile, having been practicing for the sake of the moment. "Shall we?"

Ranma nodded once more, cringing at how easily Ucchan could emulate the vacuous followers of the Cult of Azusa. She felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach, putting them down to the pre-mission jitters and not the fact that most of the planet would soon be seeing her in a dress.

The file of Bridesmaids stretched and snaked from the entrance of the cathedral proper to the entrance of the nave. Ranma craned her neck around the mill of press, well-wishers, and hangers-on, to see a line of tall, tuxedo-clad Groomsmen standing opposite them. The rustle of so much lace, frill, and starched linen was a sound unto its own in the close confines, forcing everyone to speak just a little louder to be heard. There were so many people present with no apparent justification for being there, that Ranma wondered how necessary the security passes Ukyou had obtained for them really were.

She could see Ukyou standing pensively near the entrance with the Best Man. The Groom's carriage would arrive first, and he would await his bride just outside the cathedral. Once they were together, the groomsmen would escort their opposites among the bridesmaids down the central aisle two-by-two, until at last General Sanzenin and Empress Azusa followed, arm in arm, with their flower girls and ringbearers and other personal retainers. She heard the other bridesmaids whispering about how long and extravagant Azusa's bridal train was, and how many girls it took to tend the thing. All Ranma knew was that as the last bridesmaid, she would be the first to walk down the aisle.

She cast Akane and Akari furtive looks. They were chatting together about other weddings they had attended, what the bride wore, the reception, and crap like that. For a couple of girls who didn't know either the bride or the groom, they seemed to be awfully into this wedding. She wondered if it was just one of those things that made girls different from boys.

A cheer was raised outside the cathedral, where most of the castle's population was watching from the inner keep and from the balconies and windows of nearby towers and minarets. Ranma watched as General Mikado Sanzenin, resplendent in his ceremonial full dress uniform with cape, gloves, plumed tri-corner hat, knee-high boots and brilliantly polished sabre, strode proudly up the steps of the cathedral with his honor guard, waving to the crowds as he awaited his bride.

He did not wait long. Azusa's carriage was drawn by twenty-four white stallions, each bedecked in shimmering gold and mirrored tack and harness. The carriage itself was something out of a fantasy movie; all baroque curves and sweeping lines, the pale exotic hardwoods handrubbed with rare scented oils. Gold and platinum-iridium trimming, dripping with Russian-cut faceted beads of leaded-crystal, blazed with the faerie light of thousands of tiny solid-state lasers. Hussars on white destriers with checquered red and gold tabards, and white baldrics festooned with medals and decorations draped across their chests, clutched long lances tipped with pennants of the Shiratori white and gold, their naked dress sabres glittering in their wide black belts. Their horses were specially shod with flint inserts that flashed and sparked on the cobblestones as they cantered proudly to the cathedral, and a hundred silver bells on their saddles, reins, and stirrups jingled merrily in the afternoon sunlight.

In the courtyard beyond, battlemechs in pristine condition stood at attention, the ones with hands carrying enormous battle-standards that snapped and fluttered in the breeze. A flyby of aerospace fighters was planned for after the ceremony, she had heard mentioned.

Ranma watched all this with equal parts curiosity and distress. Was all this pomp really necessary? If he did end up marrying Akane someday, their wedding might end up looking very similar to this one. It was enough to gag a maggot.

The carriage doors were opened by the footmen, and an older gentleman dressed in a Federated Shiratori Army uniform stepped out. He turned and offered his hand to the Empress, who stepped with forced grace upon the red carpet that led to the cathedral. Ranma could see that her difficulty was caused by the enormous pile of white lace stacked up behind her in the carriage. As she and the older man - who was obviously a relative of hers by his resemblance to the Empress - walked, the bridal train unfurled from within the carriage. A flock of young girls waiting in the wings of the procession appeared a few at a time to tend the monstrous swath of white as it spilled from the carriage. Ranma watched in disbelief as the thing only finished issuing from the carriage when Azusa had mounted the steps of the cathedral, a distance of some thirty meters!

The Empress was in white, layers upon shining layers of it, silk and satin in a luxuriant brocade bodice and skirt exquisitely embroidered with lilies, clouds, and doves in platinum thread, and inset with seed pearls, quarter-carat diamonds, and tiny silver hearts. Her veil was set with a cloissone enamel comb studded with diamonds and topazes, inlaid with lapis lazuli, and trimmed with laser-etched gold. Her golden brown hair fell in plaited waves from her temples to her waist beneath gauzy layers of lace. What Ranma marvelled at the most about her were her eyes, which were as blue as cornflowers, and as vacant and huge as saucers.

The older officer graciously handed Azusa over to Mikado at the top of the steps. He bowed for the general, and then withdrew to the side. Mikado whispered something to Azusa, who brought a shy hand to her lips before waving excitedly to her worshipful subjects. Mikado waved once more as well, and then they turned to enter the cathedral.

That was their cue, Ranma realized. The music had already started, supplemented with a hundred voices from the Imperial Choir.

Ranma minced up to the center of the foyer as her escort held out his arm for her. She accepted it with a forced smile, noting that the man's infuriating pretty-boy looks could give Tarou a run for his money. The man led her gracefully towards the open doors of the cathedral nave and the crowd of thousands who waited within. Akari joined up with her escort several paces behind them, she noted with one last backwards glance. Akane offered up a teasing wink.

She remained tense in her escort's arm as they walked with stately precision towards the altar at the far end of the cathedral. In that moment, in the arm of a man, she felt as if it would take a week to get there. It did not help that her father, along with Doctor Tofu, Happousai, and Ryouga, had managed to find seating along the center aisle.

The urge to smack her father upside the head as he made faces at her was difficult to quell. Doctor Tofu's bemused smile was only a little better. Ryouga, fortunately for the sake of his continuing existence, was too busy staring in awe at Akari several paces behind, and Happousai had already reached some kind of pretty-girl overload, and merely watched the procession with wistful, dewy eyes.

At last they reached the altar. They bowed briefly, then she and her escort went their separate ways to the ends of the dais. Akari followed several seconds behind, then Akane. Both gave her tiny smiles and then resumed their required eyes-front positions, bouquets clutched to their breasts.

As the Wedding March began to swell from the high vaulted ceilings it was time for Azusa and Mikado to walk down the aisle together. The first glimpse she got of the two was when they stepped up onto the dais to receive the benediction. Azusa's train extended more than halfway down the center aisle, she imagined.

Ukyou and Konatsu stood near the Empress' side, both looking radiantly happy, which Ranma supposed was normal for Ucchan, being a girl and all, but downright weird for her adjutant. As Ukyou was still getting used to the Jusenkyo Effect, so Ranma was having a hard time adjusting to the idea that Konatsu, the girl who had been so helpful in getting her squared away as a bridesmaid, was really a GUY beneath the long hair, makeup, and the pretty dress!

And people think I'm a freak!

It promised to be a long service. She hoped it would.

"Are you ready, fem-boy?" a voice hissed at her side.

Her eyes narrowed to slits as she regarded Pansuto Tarou. Who was a bishonen guy like him to talk about being a 'fem-boy'? The mercenary mechwarrior was dressed in a white tie and jacket cut short bolero-style in the front, and full-backed with tails behind. A broad white sash trimmed with gold thread wrapped his trim abdomen, and Ranma could make out the thin silhouette of a stiletto tucked within, above the left hip. White trousers with a high waist to complement the bolero jacket and white shoes buffed to a shine completed the outfit.

"That depends, monster-boy," she returned, remembering Ryouga's unflattering sobriquet for him. "Are you?"

Tarou snorted with contempt. "I'll be waiting."

He slipped into the transept, which had been cordoned off from the cathedral nave with a large hanging tapestry. Few observers paid him any mind, their attentions fixed upon the wedding of their beloved Empress.

She cast a glance towards Akane, who seemed to be waiting for her to make a move. As the assembly was beckoned to be seated, she ducked purposefully beneath the tapestry, and into the transept. Tarou stood near a door leading off from the small candle-lit chapel, a kit bag in his hand. The sound of the priest's voice echoed over the cathedral's sound system beyond the tapestry. No one had followed her to see what was the matter.

The first thing Ranma did was take off her shoes, setting them beneath one of the pews near the candles. She'd go barefoot for this heist before trying any kind of physical activity on those blasted heels.

"There's a storage room through here," Tarou informed her. "We can get changed there before we proceed."

"Did you bring the hot water?"

"What for?" Tarou asked. "You're going to have to change back into a girl anyway when we finish."

Ranma bristled, but decided not to push the issue. There were no guarantees that they could pull this off in time for the closing processional.

The storage room was clean, indicating that it was used frequently. That was good in that their clothes wouldn't get dirty sitting there, but it raised the slight possibility that someone might come along and discover them. Tarou began to strip off his white tuxedo as Ranma fumbled with the zipper in back of her gown.

Gods, I hope no one walks in on us right now, Ranma thought darkly as they undressed. This would be difficult to explain...

Tarou undressed first, and slipped into a stretchy black bodysuit of synthetic weave.

"Didn't remember the bra, eh, Saotome?" he asked her.

Ranma self-consciously covered her bare breasts. "Even if I wanted to wear one, which I don't, they wouldn't let me. Something about the bra-lines showing through the dress."

"A pity," the bishonen mechwarrior grunted with mock sympathy.

"Eyes front, jerk," Ranma growled back. "Just because I happen to be a girl right now doesn't mean that I want to swing the other way."

Tarou flipped her a matching black bodysuit. It was sized for her, meaning that he had never intended to bring the hot water. Ranma put it on, glad for the support it gave her sore breasts. Maybe there was something good to be said about bras after all.

A winding stairwell stretched up from the storage room to a service landing that allowed access to the cathedral's ceiling for cleaning and maintenance. They would need to make their way across that access. From there, they could gain access to the cathedral's spire.

"Is this the way you escaped?" Ranma asked Tarou.

"Don't be an idiot," Tarou retorted. "Why would I have taken such a convoluted way out of the tower? The only reason we're going this way is because our access to the palace was limited to the cathedral for the Empress' wedding."

"I was just askin'," Ranma grunted. "You seem to know your way around here pretty well, is all."

Tarou laughed bitterly. "This planet is my homeworld," he replied. The door to the service catwalk opened, letting the sound of the wedding ceremony roll into the landing. "I still remember what they used to call this world, before the Empress changed everything to suit her whims."

"Oh yeah?" Ranma chirped "Do tell."

"New Avalon," Tarou replied. "My family were part of the nobility here."

"I can see that," she agreed. "You've got the snotty noble attitude in spades."

Tarou ignored the remark with a soft curse, and stepped out onto the catwalk. Fortunately for them, the television cameras the networks had set up to cover the wedding were all controlled by remote, meaning that there was no one to encounter as they crossed.

"Our mechwarrior family at first supported the Empress and the Cult of Azusa," he continued. His voice was barely audible over the blaring from the speakers, and collective sounds of the huge audience below. Ranma spied Ukyou casting a questing look towards the ceiling for them, and waved.

"Go on," she pressed, when Tarou paused in irritation at her antics.

"So I used to come to the castle with my family a lot when I was little," the bishonen mechwarrior continued. "I came to know the place very well."

His voice drifted off as they scuttled across the catwalk.

"Then Azusa got you," Ranma observed.

"It wasn't her, per se," Tarou corrected. "It was the Cult." He opened the far access door and slipped through. "Azusa merely remarked on how 'cute' I looked once. Then one day during a visit, I was taken by two of them from my parents before they could leave the castle, gift-wrapped, and sent to her tower."

Ranma grimaced at the image conjured up by Tarou's words.

"She was surprised at first to see me," Tarou continued, his voice growing heavy with emotion. "But she quickly got used to the idea of having me around. I was better than a pet, you see. I could talk. I could play with her - at least, in as much as I was a toy." He shuddered at the memory of things Azusa had made him do and say.

"You let this happen to you?" Ranma asked in disbelief.

Tarou gave a bitter grunt. "I didn't have a choice," he replied. They were at the stairwell leading up to the spire. "The caretakers were all Cultists, people who thought that giving Azusa everything she desired was the most important thing they could do in the entire universe. There was no right or wrong for those people. They would say or do anything to make their Empress happy.

"To keep me in line, they threatened to have bad things happen to my parents. I was just a child, and having seen what they had done to me, and how easily it had happened, I believed them. I played along, thinking I was protecting my family. I was proud of myself for enduring."

"So then what?" Ranma asked as they climbed the endless series of steps.

Tarou looked away for a moment. "One day I received a message from one of the servants whose devotion to Azusa wasn't as strong as the Cult believed. She said that my parents had been stripped of their titles and property for demanding that the Cult return their son. My father escaped the system with the family 'mech to join the counterrevolutionary movement, and my mother and some of my cousins were imprisoned for his treason. She died there, six months after I was taken. Poison is what I was told, but no one knew if she was murdered or had committed suicide."

Guilt crept up within Ranma for giving Tarou a hard time.

"So I escaped," he went on. "There was nothing holding me there any more. Not after five years of hell. Once I was free of the castle, I took a chance and visited some old friends of my family. They were smarter than my own kin, deciding that it was better not to make any waves. They were able to smuggle me out of the system to rejoin my father. I didn't, of course, since he had died in the sporadic fighting during the first two years of Azusa's reign, but the family's 'mech was still there, being held for me or someone else in my family who might yet escape."

"By the time I claimed my family's 'mech, it was too late to overthrow the Cult. I became a mercenary instead. Three years ago I met up with Hibiki, and the two of us became partners of a sort."

He stopped near the top of the spire. "So now you know my tale of woe. Repeat it to anyone, and I'll cut your heart out."

Ranma brushed him aside. "Relax," she returned, eyeing him warily. "So you're doing all this for us out of some kind of revenge against the Empress?"

Tarou's countenance darkened. "I have my reasons. One of them is to honor the bargain I struck with Lady Akane. The rest are my own business." His fists clenched tight for a moment before he continued, as if coming to a decision within himself that he did not happily embrace. "And as for the Empress... No matter what she did to me or put me through, I know that it wasn't her fault. She's a spoiled little child, Saotome. A child who doesn't know any better... Can you really hold her accountable for wrongs she can't possibly realize she has committed?"

"I guess not," Ranma replied.

"No," he said, mostly to himself. "You cannot."

He reached into the kit bag and withdrew a pistol. Protruding from the muzzle was an expanding hook tied to a coil of thin-gauge aramyd-weave line.

"It's a bit overly dramatic, I know," he offered. "But no one will be looking up at us if we cross over to the donjon proper from the cathedral."

He leaned out of the spire's window to look around. Ranma watched the huge bronze bells above them for a indication that they might begin to toll. The numerous signs printed on the walls warned of what happened to people without proper hearing protection when the bells started ringing.

Tarou took aim and fired. The pistol made a coughing sound, and the grapnel dug into hard stone. He pulled taut on the line with the pistol, then detached the spool from the pistol and carefully anchored it to the spire with a contact adhesive. The line was barely visible to them from where they stood. Ranma doubted that anyone on the ground could see it at all.

Tarou then produced hoods, gloves, and calf-length soleskins for their feet.

"Aramyd weave," he declared, handing Ranma a set. "Don't touch that line with anything other than this stuff unless you want to experience the joy of becoming a traumatic amputee."

"I've worked with this type of gear before," Ranma grunted, pulling the hood over her head. Her hair was going to look like hell after she took it off, she noted ruefully, but a splash of bright red color was bound to attract unwanted attention. Once they were fully clad, the two of them resembled ninja. "You first or me?"

"You," Tarou said. "You don't weigh as much."

Nothing the two of them could do would cause the line itself to part, but there were no guarantees with the grapnel or the adhesive base on the spool. By all rights, both ends should be able to support their weight. She hoped.

Ranma sighed and took a deep breath. She let it out slowly to cleanse herself before checking that the line was still secure. She then pulled herself out onto the line, hanging by her hands and crossed ankles. It was easy going with a gently rising grade that would pay off handsomely on the return trip if they were in a hurry.

She was on the roof of the castle within minutes. The various minarets, domes, and towers that gave the structure its fantastic look were easily accessible to two motivated and well-equipped burglars like she and Tarou. It was almost laughable that her years spent as a Scout had better prepared her for this moment than all of her battlemech and aerospace combat training combined. Akane's admonition that she no longer steal for personal gain came back to her.

This wasn't just for herself, she knew. This was for the Confederation. For Akane. And no, she wasn't 'whipped,' as her father put it. She was doing this because it was the right thing to do!

Tarou followed, the line and its two anchors holding steady under his weight. When he was across, he unslung the kit bag, and handed Ranma a small pouch with her tools and gear.

Azusa's tower was naturally the tallest. It was also centrally located, projecting up out of the lower six levels of the castle, and festooned with ubercute carved stone creatures out of mythology who perched at various points from the structure. It would be an easy climb if their first method of entry failed, but it would increase the chances that they would be noticed.

"At least we won't have to worry about most of the security alarms during daylight," Ranma replied. She had spied several video camera arrays mounted on the roof, but for the most part, they were directed down at the vast courtyard. They could avoid the others, and even if they missed one, she knew from experience that few camera displays were manned by an attentive operator.

"They've changed a few things," Tarou noted. "There weren't so many cameras up here before."

"Knee-jerk reaction to your escape," Ranma returned. "They didn't plan them out very well, or they'd have some pointing up instead of down towards the courtyard."

They made their way across the roof. Ranma noted that Azusa's palace had a lot in common with Azure Cloud Castle in regards to security. Namely, that it was weak and poorly arranged. No one had caught him in his free-climb up to visit Akane in the South Tower, and it didn't look like anyone was going to catch her here.

The roof access to the castle was shut from the inside. The mechanism was a standard latch, meaning that you had a little leeway with the access itself. After verifying that it had no security system contacts, Ranma wiggled at it for a moment to discover how much play she had to work with, then had Tarou hold the thing up as far as it would go while she looked inside with a folding mirror and a penlight.

She removed one of her slim-jims from the kit bag, and slipped it into place. The latch sprang a moment later, and the hatch popped open to reveal a storage closet below. The smell of cleaning products was stong.

Ranma was the first one down, examining the door while Tarou joined her. There were no contacts on the door, and no one seemed to be outside as she listened. She opened the door a crack, to peek out into a carpeted hallway.

She called up a mental picture of the sixth floor as detailed by the floorplan Ucchan had recalled for them. There was an elevator equipment room at the end of the hall, their next destination.

She crept out into the hallway, with Tarou close behind. This level of the castle seemed deserted with the wedding going on. Most of the staff were on the lower levels, putting the finishing touches on the reception.

The equipment room door was locked with a non-contact cardkey system, which was a very important detail that Ucchan had neglected to mention.

"Can you get through?" Tarou hissed. "If we have to climb the tower, we need to start now."

"Gimme a second," Ranma returned. Most non-contact cardkeys were little more than very short range radio interrogation systems. Inside the cardkey was a bundle of simple electronics and a coil of copper wire that acted as the transceiver antenna. Much like the IFF transponder in an aircraft, they were inert until they received an interrogation signal from a reader, then used the energy of that signal to send back a low power reply with the correct passcode.

Ranma had a programmable dummy card in her kit bag of burglary tools, but she didn't know if they had the time to go through every possible code sequence, even on the limited string of bits the cards were capable of handling. As with most things of this nature, however, there was a bypass - in this case, the Fire Service code. In the event of a fire, the cardkey system went inactive and unlocked the door to allow swift access out of the affected building. Normally, this set off alerts within the security system, but you could accomplish the same thing locally without making a fuss.

"Well?" Tarou asked.

"I said gimme a second." She fished through her kit bag for a small yet powerful electromagnet, and ran it carefully along the lower left edge of the flat scanner plate. There was an electrical contact for the Fire Service release in that general area for that make of system, and she needed to pull it closed with her electromagnet to activate it.

She was rewarded with a halting series of clicks as the contact alternated between open and shut. She narrowed down the precise location, then had Tarou pull open the door. It opened silently for them.

"A lady of many talents," Tarou observed dryly.

"Watch it, bub. Don't let the tits fool you. I'm all guy," Ranma growled.

"Touchy, too."

She crept inside. The elevator equipment room was mostly empty. A few control panels on the wall drew Ranma's interest.

"What are we looking for?" Tarou asked her.

"An SCM," she replied, dusting off a laminated sheet of tech's crib notes near one of the units.

"A what?"

"System Control Module. Most of these elevators are arranged in banks. Something's gotta tell them which car answers which calls." She found one that looked promising. "I think this one is it."

"How can you tell?" Tarou asked, curious.

"Azusa's tower is too tall for a hydraulic elevator system," she replied. "They're only good for five or six floors, which is fine for the lower part of the castle. This control unit is for a winch and cable system."

She studied the schematic for a moment, trying to remember what Major Beauregard had taught her about control protocols for that particular make of elevator system. Like most Scouts, Beauregard had a little larceny in his heart, and had taught her a few things about security systems and related equipment, and most importantly, how to get around them.

She opened the panel with a stubby barrel key on a ring of similar keys from her burglary kit, and set a few internal switches accordingly.

"Great," Tarou grunted. "What was that for?"

"The west elevator for Azusa's tower now only answers call requests from the sixth floor. Anyone on another floor who pushes the call button will have to wait for the east car to answer."

"Supposing someone on the sixth floor calls for an elevator while we're busy?"

"I can take it out of service for as long as we need to once we get there," she replied. "We'll have our straight shot right to her Collection."

They left the elevator room just in time to avoid a passing security guard check. Ranma watched from the shelter of the cleaning supply closet as the guard tugged at the door to the equipment room, then yawned and continued on his rounds. Apparently no one cared about supply closets, even ones with roof access...

Doctor Tofu nudged Genma awake.

"I don't see Ranma yet," he said to the elder Saotome. "Do you think something has gone wrong?"

Genma rubbed the sleep from his eyes. The ceremony dragged on with no clear end in sight. "It's too soon to worry," he replied. He pointed to the Empress and General Sanzenin. "When those two are finally married, and Ranma isn't back yet, then we'll start to worry."

Akane wished for a moment that she was with Ranma and Tarou. The bouquet she clutched to her chest was becoming tiresome, and the ceremony itself dragged on and on without end. There was no way that she would stand for this exhausting level of ceremony in her own wedding.

She coped with the boredom with little daydream fantasies, projecting herself into Azusa's place before the altar, and substituting Ranma's cocky grin for Mikado's studied expression of contentment. It was a little ridiculous, she admitted, considering her reluctant fiance's feelings regarding marriage, but she was swept up in the moment. She was in love with him, the feeling becoming more and more comfortable with her every day, and where was the harm in hoping that he felt the same?

She didn't think that this was an unreasonable hope, but the fear of his rejection lingered in spite of this. He was such a study in opposites that it made reading his heart nearly impossible. Still, the one question remained which gave her that sense of hope: why else would he have come back to the expedition, if he didn't feel something more than duty for her?

He had to feel something more for her.

She considered telling him how she felt about him later that evening, at the wedding reception - assuming of course that they didn't have to make tracks for the starport. Ukyou was still a threat to her, and maybe if she told him that she loved him, he would...

Yeah, right, she groused to herself. Now you're really dreaming, Akane... If there was one thing she had learned with absolute certainty regarding Ranma Saotome, it was that you didn't back him into a corner. Not in war, and not in love. Pinning him down with a declaration of love before he was ready for it was asking for the thing she feared most: rejection.

Azusa's Tower

"It figures that she'd have a special key for this," Ranma groused. They were in the west elevator serving Azusa's tower. The standard barrel key that handled access to restricted floors for most elevators had been replaced by something much more formidable: a magnetically-encoded lock.

"You can get around it, right?" Tarou asked, his confidence high after watching Ranma's high-tech burglary skills at work.

Ranma knew better. The key was a piece of treated stainless-steel with carefully delineated bands of magnetic permeability encoded with data bits. Dummy-keys similar to the ones used to bypass cardkey and magnetic swipe readers existed, but they were extortionately expensive and difficult to find. It was one of the tools she did not possess in her kit.

"Right?" Tarou pressed, getting irritable.

She opened the panel with her electric-driver, and studied the interior. Her frown gave her away to Tarou.

"You can't get around it," he grunted.

She prodded at the wiring around the key reader mechanism. There were no schematics printed inside the panel for her to examine. If she played and probed with the internals long enough, she could probably find out which contacts unlocked the proper floor, but it would also involve having someone back in the elevator equipment room looking at the SCM.

Tarou might have possessed some rudimentary electronics skills, since all mechwarriors needed a little technical knowledge if they wanted to do basic maintenance on their 'mechs, but this was specialized gear, and they had no means of communicating back and forth even if he did know what he was doing.

"I could," she replied. "But not in the time we have to do this." She pointed to the ceiling of the elevator. "It looks like we climb from here."

He shook his head at her in disgust.

"Don't give me that crap," she growled at him. "I got us this far, didn't I? This kind of stuff happens when you pull a job like this practically on the fly. You deal with it, and move on."

She searched the interior of the elevator for the trapdoor. There was a section of decorative soft-ceiling that needed to be pulled first, and she made short work of it with her driver.

The elevator shaft was dimly lit, and had a refreshing breeze blowing down from above.

"Punch for the highest floor you can get without using a key," she told Tarou as she pulled herself up through the open hatch.

Tarou did so, and the elevator started to move, smoothly and silently. Ranma inspected the positioning contacts for the elevator's leveling circuits as it moved. When the elevator stopped, she poked her head down to regard him.

"Now take the elevator out of service." She tossed him a barrel key. Tarou inserted it in the proper lock and turned the service switch to 'off.'

They had two floors to climb to reach the forbidden level of Azusa's personal apartments. It was easy going, though the ladder rungs were thick with dust that made Ranma's nose tickle. The locking mechanism that held the shaft doors shut when there was no elevator car present was released, and the two of them pulled the doors open just wide enough to take a look.

Two soldiers stood at sloppy attention on the opposite side of the small elevator lobby, looking sleepy and bored. Ranma could tell by the amount of pink in the decor that they had come to the right place. The doors slid shut with a bump, making her cringe. The two guards, sleepy though they looked, might have noticed it.

"What's wrong?" Tarou asked with a whisper.

"We've got a welcoming committee on the other side," she replied.

"Armed?"

She tried to remember what she had seen of them in that brief instant. "Pistols, I think. There are two of them."

"We can handle them," he returned.

"Yeah, but can we do it without sounding an alarm?"

"Are you suggesting that we turn back and try to climb up from the outside?" Tarou said, his eyes hardening in challenge. "There's no time for that."

Ranma blew out her breath with a snort. "There's gotta be another way. How did you get out of her Collection in the first place?"

"There is a dumbwaiter that services her apartments," Tarou replied. "It leads to a pantry kitchen on the floor below her Collection. I climbed out a window there, and then down to the roof of the castle."

Ranma looked down. The elevator was stopped on that floor. "Why didn't you say so before?" she complained. "We could have gotten off on that floor and taken the dumbwaiter up!"

"But you were the one with the plan and the nifty thief's tools," Tarou returned. "I thought you could handle it."

"Never assume," Ranma said, starting back down the ladder. "Get moving."

They slipped back into the elevator. Ranma replaced the decorative soft-ceiling, and hoped no one would notice the tiny paint chips she had dusted the carpet with in the process of removing it.

Ranma unlocked the elevator long enough to open the doors, then took it back out of service. The pantry kitchen was deserted with all of the staff preparing for the reception.

Tarou led her to the dumbwaiter, which would prove to be a tight fit for her, let alone the much taller mechwarrior. Still, it was serviceable.

"Send me up," Ranma declared, climbing into the cramped compartment.

"What about me? I can't get into this thing and then push the button."

"Then tell me where I need to go."

Tarou grit his teeth. "When you're out, I'll send the car all the way down to the main kitchen, and climb up the shaft."

"Suit yourself."

The private apartments of Azusa the First were not as gaudy as Ranma had been expecting, but not by much. Pink still seemed to be the dominant color in use, and the decor could best be described as Barbie Rococo. The dumbwaiter opened on an airy dining room with tall, French-style doors that led to an intimate balcony facing away from the castle, and graced with a stunning view of the distant mountains.

She waited for several minutes, making observations about the room and trying to orient herself within it with respect to the rest of the tower while Tarou labored up the shaft. When he finally appeared, he shot her a dark look and heaved himself through the service door.

"Now where?" she asked him.

It took a moment for him to remember. "That way," he replied, pointing to a door.

Ranma listened carefully at the door before opening it. The room beyond was Azusa's bedroom. A large brass four-poster bed with curtains dominated the room. Dozens of stuffed animals were neatly arranged atop the pillows. The rest of the room was cluttered with various bric-a-brac, and the decor continued along the Barbie Rococo theme.

"You sure?" she asked Tarou.

"Positive. That first door over there is the bathroom. The second one leads to a spiral staircase down into the Collection. Every morning when she gets up, so goes down to say hello to all of her treasures, and at night she wishes them all good night."

Ranma shot him a questioning look. "You're kidding me, right?"

"I wish I was, Saotome."

A glint of metal caught Ranma's eye, and she snatched up a tiny metal key with a gilded, heart-shaped handle. It was a magnetically-encoded key, she realized, but it was far too small to have operated the elevator. She decided to keep it for the moment, in case it opened anything useful.

As Tarou had stated, the second door led to a spiral staircase. They took it down one level, with Ranma feeling as if she were descending into the Abyss itself. This was forbidden territory, the stuff of awful legend and terrible nightmare. The stairs opened up into a large chamber that was filled with the objects of Azusa's affection.

They beheld her dreaded Collection of Cute.

"What a bunch'a junk!" Ranma remarked, holding up a plastic toy that looked like it had come from a fast food kid's meal. A collection of worthless plastic rings likely recovered from gumball machines was carefully spread out on a shelf next to the toy. More baubles and gewgaws were piled up on other shelves. Stacks of collectable trading cards featuring famous mechwarriors of the Inner Sphere were piled up elsewhere, though some, like the card for Tatewaki Kuno, had been defaced with a metallic silver marker - presumably by Azusa herself. It was the most tacky, tasteless assemblage of consumer trash she had ever seen, and there were even weirder trinkets. A pair of pliers, the cap to a tube of lip-balm, what looked like a hairy rubber ball attached to a key chain, a collection of singularly unremarkable rocks that had been plucked off the ground, a ratty bird feather, some seashells in varying degrees of repair, a napkin with some scribbles on it, and dear god... was that a... a fishcake sitting on a blue china plate?

The larger items, like the giant plastic statue of a cherubic boy in checkered coveralls clutching a hamburger, a 1:10 scale Orion battlemech model painted in a camouflage scheme suitable only for a firefight on the planet of wasp-waisted and big-bosomed amazon supermodel dolls, a Totoro traffic sign pilfered from the Ghibli System, and a two-meter tall stuffed Godzilla with a top hat and a black bow-tie, occupied the available floor space.

"You were expecting treasure out of Aladdin's Cave, maybe?" Tarou commented snidely. All the same, there was a haunted look in his eyes as he looked over the chamber where he had spent five miserable years of his life as a prisoner. The chamber itself gave no sign that he had ever been here before. All traces of his captivity had been swept away.

"You said it yourself, she's a magpie," he muttered.

Ranma was aghast. "A pack rat's more like it. How the hell are we going to find the sixth crypto key in the middle of all of this stuff?"

Ukyou Kuonji was starting to get nervous. The rings were being exchanged, and still there was no sign of Ranchan. They were running out of time!

The fact that Mikado gave her menacing looks over Azusa's shoulder every now and again was not helping her case of nerves. She had really bungled things by doing this to him. Her only chance to escape his wrath was to resign her commission as planned, and then browbeat her way on board Ranchan's ship. With Akane calling the shots now, that would prove difficult. If that idiot Genma had still been in charge, she could have guilt-tripped them into it.

There was another way, she reflected sadly. If she demanded a share of whatever they could find at Ryuugenzawa in exchange for the dowry owed her family, she could probably prevail upon Akane to allow her to come along. Though it would mean giving up on her ironclad claim to Ranchan, it didn't mean that she would stop working on him. It just meant that his engagement to Akane took precedence, until she could get him to renounce it and elope with her.

That shouldn't be too hard, right? she asked herself. There doesn't seem to be all that much between them anyway...

"What does this key look like, Saotome?" Tarou asked her.

"It looks like a flat piece of polished rectangular metal, probably colored gold," Ranma replied, remembering Chance G. King's description of the treasure Azusa had stolen from him. Her voice took on a hopeful lilt. "Why, did you find it?"

"Apparently not."

Ranma sighed wearily, and started through another shelf. They were pushing the limits of their time with this search, but even if Azusa herself walked in on them, she was not giving up. It had to be here somewhere!

"We're out of time," Tarou remarked, checking his chronomter. "The wedding has to be about over by now."

"You wanna leave, go ahead," Ranma returned, her voice taking on a hostile edge. "I'll find my own way out of here when I get what I came for."

"I was merely making an observation," the bishonen mechwarrior said to her.

Ranma started on the next shelf, wondering if she hadn't passed over it by mistake.

"You've honored your bargain with Akane," she said at length. "You got me in here, and I thank you for your help. Don't feel like you have to stick around on my account."

"Idiot," Tarou grunted. "Do you think that I will get anything out of this deal if you get caught?"

"Then shut up and watch the stairs."

She kept searching, trying to puzzle out some kind of pattern to the way Azusa presented her junk. There was none. None at least that a rational mind could discern. Who knew what drove the candied mush that Azusa called a brain?

"If we find this key, will the location of Ryuugenzawa be revealed?" Tarou asked idly. He watched the stairs, expecting someone to come along at any time.

"Once we plug it in to the decrypt machine with the others, yeah, I guess so."

Tarou nodded slowly in thought. Though he could not bring himself to blame the Empress for what had happened, he could blame the Cult. He would destroy them, and he would end their stranglehold over the Federated Shiratori in one bold stroke once the Furinkan Combine possessed the secrets of Ryuugenzawa. At the head of the advancing Combine armies, he would see both the Joketsuzoku, AND the Cult of Azusa annihilated.

"Sonofabitch!" Ranma cried triumphantly. It was always vaguely shocking to hear her curse so proficiently, Tarou mused.

Ranma Saotome looked down at the gold plaque that would finally bring an end to their search. It was laying on a bed of white velvet, and encased in a clear plastic box, sitting apart from everything else in the collection. She didn't know why, but she almost felt like crying. For more than three years she and her father had been searching for the six keys. Three hard, lean years, times when they didn't have two C-bills between them.

She opened the box gingerly, and withdrew the plaque. It looked no different from the others, except for the color. From her kit bag, she pulled out a piece of gold-anodized flat stock that had been machined on board the Dragonfly during the transit from Tiber. It looked close enough to the real thing to fool an airhead like Azusa, especially since she had no idea what the real thing was.

She placed the fake key on the velvet and carefully closed the box. Turning her back to Tarou, she tugged open her bodysuit and slipped the real crypto key into her cleavage, the metal cold against her skin.

"Do I want to know where you're putting that?" Tarou asked her sardonically.

"No."

"Fine. Let's get the hell out of here. I had my fill of this place years ago."

Ranma had to agree with that. Twenty minutes was way too long for a place like this.

Akane watched as Mikado drew back Azusa's veil and kissed her with the kind of tenderness that made every woman in the cathedral sigh, herself included. The moment didn't last for her though, as Ranma was still not back.

Where is that idiot? she wondered fearfully. The wedding had perhaps five minutes left to it, and then they would have to file out with their escorts. If Ranma didn't show up, and soon, there was going to be a groomsman without a bridesmaid, and people were going to start asking questions...

Ukyou tried not to gag as Mikado kissed his blushing new bride. While the collective sigh from the ladies in attendence threatened to overpower the rising level of the music and the smattering of polite applause from the men, she glanced up to the catwalk. A flash of movement caught her eye, and she saw Ranchan and her accomplice dashing pell-mell across the cathedral.

Hurry it up, you jackass! She winced at the thought of how little time Ranma would have to get back into her bridesmaid gown.

"Okay. NOW it's time to start worrying," Genma remarked to Doctor Tofu. He tugged at the starched collar of his rented tuxedo nervously.

"Keep your shorts on," Happousai replied. He gestured idly with his unlit pipe at the tiny figures of Ranma and Tarou dashing across the service catwalk. "I see 'em."

"Do they have it?" Genma asked excitedly.

"How should I know?" the wizened mechwarrior snorted. "Who do I look like, superman? Find someone with telescopic x-ray vision, why don't you?"

The bridal couple began their triumphant march down the aisle and to their waiting carriage. The small army of young girls tending Azusa's train assembled with military precision, Ukyou noted. Too bad the real military couldn't function like that...

Being the Maid of Honor, she would be among the first to leave the cathedral after the Imperial Couple and their handlers. She would not be around to see if Ranma made it until after she was outside.

Konatsu cleared his throat gently, reminding her to step up and take the arm of the Best Man, a man drawn from Azusa's court, and who didn't really know Mikado from Adam, she thought with a smirk. If it wasn't for the fact that her nemesis was already making plans to use his new-found proximity to the Empress against her, she would have laughed out loud at how he had been so thoroughly railroaded into this.

Come on, Ranma! Akane thought, gritting her teeth as she turned towards the center of the dais to be escorted from the cathedral. She took the offered arm of her designated pretty-boy, and spared one furtive glance back towards Akari, who was beginning her turn. There was no sign of Ranma.

"Your shoes!" Tarou hissed at Ranma, as she wriggled the rest of her way into the gown and zipped up on the run.

"No time!" she hissed back. I hated the damn things anyway...

Her hair was a mess, as she had expected, and as she burst through the tapestry to the cathedral nave, she knew she looked pretty disheveled. The pretty-boy she was supposed to be with was already making his way towards the center aisle, his eyes opening wide in surprise at her hasty appearance.

She caught him just in time, drawing a chuckle from those in the front of the cathedral who could see what was happening, and clucks of reproach from obvious vac-head members of the Cult.

Screw 'em, she thought to herself. If they only knew where I've been...

Her groomsman looked mortified at having to walk with someone so unkempt, and he tried to maintain as much distance from her as possible while still remaining arm in arm. Ranma put on a huge and mindless grin to compensate.

As she passed by her father, Ryouga, and the Doc, she made a tiny wiggle of her bosom at them. She nearly snorted with laughter as Ryouga got an eyeful of her cleavage and blinked in shock. Genma noted the thin sliver of gold tucked carefully between her breasts and gave her a silent thumbs up.

Happousai vaulted from the pew with a cry of glee, and was dragged down in midair by Doctor Tofu before he could cause more of a scene.

Once they cleared the doors to the foyer, her groomsman broke from her with a snooty look of disgust and embarrassment.

"Same to you, pal," she growled back at him. The foyer was filled with the wedding party, press, and guests who had ducked out a little early to watch the Imperial Couple come through. It was a mad house of noise and celebration. Through the great windows of the cathedral foyer, Ranma could see the Empress' carriage pulling away under full honor guard escort to the castle.

She ran into Ukyou and Konatsu first.

"Cutting it awful close, aren't we, Ranchan?" she said to her.

"Hey, I got what we came for," she replied.

Ukyou threw her arms around Ranma in a very unsisterly hug. "Terrific!" she cried. She was kissing Ranma's cheek just as Akane and Akari appeared.

"Ahem... I hope I'm not interrupting anything," the Confederation Heir said to the two of them, red-faced.

"Just celebrating, sugar," Ukyou replied sweetly. "Ranchan did it."

Akane's expression changed in an instant.

"You did?"

Ranma nodded smugly.

"Can I see it?"

Ranma produced the plaque from her cleavage, and was about to hand it to Akane when Genma suddenly snatched it up from behind.

"I'll take that, thank you," he replied.

"What's the big idea?" Ranma asked her father.

Genma slipped the sixth key onto the chain with the others, and put it around his neck, tucking it back under his shirt and buttoning up his tuxedo front once more.

"As long as I'm holding the other keys, I might as well keep this one safe. Unless you want to carry it around the rest of the night the way you brought it in here." He gave his bow tie a final tug. "We've got all six keys, boy. I'm not going to lose them now."

He brushed past. "I'm returning to the Palomino," he told them. "Have fun at the reception for me."

Ranma put her hands on her hips, her mouth hanging open in surprise. "Man, now I've seen everything. Pop actually turning down free food and an open bar...?"

"Let him go, honey," Ukyou said to her. She brushed a hand at Ranma's touseled hair. "My, you look like hell. We've got a massive wedding party photo shoot to do after this." She pulled Konatsu over to them. "Konatsu, honey, see what you can do with Ranchan. I have to get the rest of the wedding party over to the castle."

Ranma looked agog. "You mean there's MORE of this crap?"

Akane playfully brushed back a lock of Ranma's hair from her ear.

"I can tell how many weddings you've been to in your life."

"Yeah, ONE." She made an exaggerated sigh. "Let's just get this over with so we can get off this planet, okay?"

The Private Apartments of

Her Imperial Divinity, Azusa the First

7 May 3025

Mikado Sanzenin awoke with a start. He was in a soft, very large brass bed; a four-poster bed with gauzy curtains to isolate its occupants from the rest of the room. He blinked several times at the offending daylight that streamed through the drapes, his mouth dry and cottony.

It took him several moments to realize that he was in Azusa's bed, but when he stretched out and knocked a plush stuffed-unicorn toy off the mattress, it came to him in a rush. He had done it. He had married theGoddess-Empress of the Federated Shiratori, and as his lack of clothing affirmed, he had consummated their union.

As his power of recall slowly came into focus, he remembered that making love to her hadn't been as bad as he had feared. It was actually quite enjoyable - aside from her childish squeals and her over-the-top desire for role-play prior to and during the act. The twelve or so double martinis, the magnum of champagne, and the three cognac nightcaps he had consumed at the reception probably also had something to do with the favorable assessment of his wedding night. He had taken his pre-nuptial bliss preparations quite seriously.

He sat up in bed. The sound of his new bride humming sweetly in the adjoining bathroom gave him a sense of satisfaction.

Azusa appeared a moment later, wearing naught but a short peekaboo nightie that left nothing to the imagination. Mikado raised an eyebrow appreciatively at her. There was nothing childish or immature about her body, he noted. Nothing at all.

She gave him an adoring look, and skipped over to the side of the bed to sweetly kiss him good-morning. Something had changed within her overnight, as if the act of their union had really made her into a woman, and not the overgrown child of yesterday. It was a thought that gave him more than a little satisfaction.

Perhaps being married to her won't be so bad after all, he mused. If she does a little more growing up, she might even be tolerable...!

"Good morning, Mickie darling," she chirped at him, all smiles. She looked extremely good in that nightie, Mikado mused. He let her irritating pet name for him pass without comment.

"Good morning, love," he returned with relaxing charm. "You look ravishing."

Azusa smiled prettily and fluffed at her hair. "Would Azusa's darling husband care for breakfast?" she asked him. She might have done a little growing up, he realized, but her speech patterns hadn't changed. His eyes fell upon her lovely body once more.

Damn, she looked good...

He gazed at her, his eyes hungry, but not for food. He reached out a hand for her, pulling her with gentle urgency into the bed. "Let's skip breakfast and go straight to dessert."

Azusa giggled, falling over on top of him, and straddling her long bare legs at his hips. "Oooo, Mickie," she cooed in his ear. "You're so naughty!" By the look in her eyes, she wasn't objecting to a little slap-and-tickle before breakfast.

That was when he noticed that something did not feel right beneath the sheets and comforter that separated them. He reached underneath the bedcovers to straighten himself out, as it were, figuring that Azusa was simply sitting on him funny. When his hand reached his loins, he stopped cold, his eyes lighting up with dread.

"Ooooo!" his bride squeaked. "Azusa almost forgot!"

She fumbled around on the bed for something as he lay there, paralyzed with cold terror. Not finding what she was looking for, she whipped off the bedcovers, exposing him. He did not want to look, but his eyes drifted down his torso to his groin anyway.

His manhood was trapped within an elegantly crafted cage. The cold slate gleam of the metal told him what it was made of: aligned-crystal steel, the hardest, toughest substance known to humanity. The cage was fixed to his waist by a slender strand of the stuff sheathed in soft silk to prevent chafing, which was good considering that it fit him tightly - so tightly in fact, that he'd have to have the ends of his pelvis shaved down if he wanted to wriggle out of it. A tiny magnetically-encoded padlock, also made of aligned-crystal steel, kept the arrangement locked into place. The final insult, however, was the blue satin ribbon bow someone, presumably Azusa, had tied upon it.

"Now where did Azusa put that key?" she asked herself, digging through the bedcovers. She gave him a puzzled look, trying to remember if she had even seen it recently. The key had not been necessary when she had rigged him up early that morning...

"Never mind that!" Mikado yelled. "Why am I in this... this... thing?!"

She popped up from her fruitless search under the bed.

"It's a chastity belt!" she chirped, apparently unaffected by his strident tone, nor the fact that the key was missing. "Isn't it cuuuuute?"

"It's not cute!" he protested. "What made you think you could put this damn thing on my penis!"

Azusa drew herself up haughtily. "No no, Mickie," she reproached him gently. "We're married." She patted the cage affectionately. "That means Little Pierre now belongs to Azusa!"

Mikado purpled. His hands wrenched at the chastity belt in desperation, forcing Azusa to draw back from him in dreadful anticipation.

"Ah ah," she warned him. "That's dangerous."

An electric shock lanced through him, biting into his hands as well as other, more sensitive portions of his anatomy. His yelp of anguish nearly shattered the windows.

"See?" she said to him, a bemused grin on her face.

Mikado groaned in agony as he lay back on the bed, little wisps of grey smoke drifting up from his scorched fingertips and his... well, never mind that.

Azusa, sensing that her darling Mickie was no longer in the mood, bounced off the bed and went back into the bathroom, the missing key obviously no longer a concern to her.

The Grand Hall of

Her Imperial Divinity, Azusa the First

6 May 3025

"Some gratitude," Ukyou muttered over the sounds of the wedding reception that swirled around them. "After all my help."

"We're grateful for it," Akane assured her, glad that Ranma was busy fending off potential suitors over by the buffet, and not present to hear his beloved Ucchan's plea. "But the answer is still no."

"I resigned my commission with the Federated Shiratori today," Ukyou pointed out. "After tonight, I will have no more ties to the Empress. Now explain to me why you really don't want me coming along." She leveled a piercing stare in Akane's direction. "It's because of Ranchan, isn't it."

Akane returned Ukyou's look.

"My reasons are my own," she answered.

"Ha," Ukyou snorted. "The truth is that you're afraid you'll lose him to me if I come along. Admit that much, at least."

Akane seemed to tremble a moment with anger at her accusation, proving her rival's point without saying a word.

"I don't have to explain myself to you," she said finally.

Ukyou could almost hear her window of opportunity slamming firmly shut over the chatter of the guests and the dancing music. She shouldn't have been so overt with her accusation, she realized, but her temper and her firm belief that Ranchan would choose her over Akane had brought it forth.

Having resigned her commission, and knowing that Mikado would come after her at the first opportunity, she was out of easy options for the future. She steeled herself for what she knew she had to do.

"Let me make this easier for you, sugar," she began. "Genma Saotome owes my family for the dowry which he took..."

"That's his problem," Akane returned.

"Hear me out," Ukyou insisted. "Now I'm willing to renounce my engagement to Ranchan in exchange for a share of whatever you find at Ryuugenzawa."

THIS had Akane's interest.

"What kind of share are we talking about?"

"Enough to cover the dowry, plus a comfortable sum leftover for me, seeing as how I've just left my current employer, and need to make a fresh start somewhere."

Akane eyed her dubiously. "And you'll formally renounce your engagement to Ranma in exchange for this?"

Ukyou took a deep breath before responding. "If I get a share of the Ryuugenzawa find large enough to cover the dowry, yes."

Akane thought it over. It would be easy to say no, but with the Palomino still on Genevieve, it would also be easy for Ukyou to expose their crimes to the Cult of Azusa out of spite. She did not like the idea of any more foreigners joining them on what was supposed to be a secret mission to find Ryuugenzawa, and she did not like the idea of having Ukyou close at hand, where she could work her considerable charms on Ranma.

All the same, if she could expunge her rival's claim on Ranma, it might prevent a lot of hassle in the future. Her own engagement would take precedence. After that, it was just a matter of convincing the man she loved to grow up and come to his senses.

"All right," she said at length. "I agree to your offer, as long as you recognize that I am in command of the expedition, and that you will obey my orders."

Ukyou had to swallow her pride in order to accept. A lot of it.

"Deal, but we bring Konatsu along as well." She might need a loyal ally outside of Ranchan around no matter how civil the Tendo Heir might seem to be about the whole affair.

"Fine, but he doesn't get a share," Akane said, agreeing to accept the stunning bishonen adjutant as additional baggage if nothing else. He was a likable sort of fellow for a cross-dresser with more gender identity problems than even Ranma, but his usefulness to the expedition was dubious at best.

"The poor dear wouldn't know what to do with it if he did," Ukyou agreed.

League of Five Nails Army Depot

Planet Condorcet, Oroboris System

The League of Five Nails

9 May 3025

Hikaru Gosunkugi grimaced at the results of his latest horoscope, which foretold reversal and disaster in the near future. Not satisfied with this, he shuffled through his favorite pack of tarot cards, and flinched as the Eight and Ten of Swords featured prominently in his reading with the Magician, the Emperor (reversed), and the Tower. Reeling with dismay, he cast the I Ching multiple times, and received the hexagrams Sung (Conflict), Lu (Treading Carefully), Ta Kuo (Breaking Point), and K'an (Danger) which spoke of betrayal, suffering, and death if immediate yet cautious action was not taken to rectify the situation.

The trouble was, he did not know what was wrong with his situation in order to rectify it.

Survival instincts were strong with him though, and he jumped up from his oracular queries to order his DropShip readied for immediate lift off. As his hand fell upon the telephone in his private quarters on the depot compound, an air raid alert began to wail.

Sweat began to pour from his brow, matting his stringy black hair as the sounds of fusion turbojets screamed overhead to the accompaniment of detonating bombs. The explosions rocked the depot, making his teeth ache.

Hikaru threw himself out of his quarters at a run, staggering out into a hellish vista of destruction. DropShips burned on the landing pads as a few of his security detachment battlemechs engaged in a futile exchange of fire with dozens of fighters from the Furinkan Combine. His warehouses were going up all around him, geysering massive fireballs into the sky. The heat was blistering from a hundred meters away, and the convection forces threatened to pull him off his feet and suck him into the inferno.

"Evacuate all forces!" he screamed to one of his staff officers. The man ran blindly towards a bomb shelter, ignoring him.

Hikaru spun around, watching the depot burn from every corner. The Combine fighter wings made another pass, stitching beams of coherent light into the few surviving battlemechs that opposed them. With growing dread, he realized that this battle was already over, and that he had lost.

He was then catapulted into the air with the shockwave of an exploding bomb, the heat of the burst searing his mouth and throat as he screamed. He had time for one question as the merciful blackness took him.

How had the Furinkan Combine managed to ambush him?

Hikaru Gosunkugi opened his eyes.

He was not dead, as he expected to be, but as his eyes adjusted to the lighting and the muted droning of voices resolved themselves into coherent speech, he wished that he was.

He was strapped down to a gurney in the sickbay of a starship, the out-of-place tug of faux-gravity told him. His stomach could always tell the difference between centrifugal force and real gravity. The interior of the sickbay was not done up in the standard pastel-green paint scheme of a League of Five Nails vessel, and the burly Furinkan Combine Marines who watched over him confirmed his dire suspicions of where he was.

"He is awake, my lord Prince," a voice declared from out of his restricted line of sight. The straps that held him in place also kept his head very still.

Tatewaki Kuno appeared abruptly, strutting into view with a look of haughty glee plastered on his handsome face.

"Ah, cher-Cousin," the Combine Prince greeted him with hollow sincerity. The term of address he used harkened back to the days before the Star League, when the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere had shared a common enemy in the domineering and expansionist Terran Hegemony. It was a time when the member of a Great House afforded his peers chivalry, courtesy, and hospitality. Hikaru doubted he would get much of that from Kuno.

"I trust that thou art comfortable?" Tatewaki continued, all smiles.

Hikaru could not move his head, and his attempt at speech ended in a hoarse croak that hurt his throat.

"My physicians tell me that aside from mild trauma to the mucus linings of thy mouth and throat, thou art well," Tatewaki informed him. "Indeed, when I hadst learned from mine own troops that thou hadst been discovered lying hither and yon at bomb crater's edge, I was vexed with concern for thee."

He looked him over for a moment.

"Imagine for a moment the full-measure of my relief at thy apparent lack of serious injury," he said at length. "For taking little satisfaction in those hurts gained by impersonal bomb and stray beam, know you that I have many injuries to inflict upon thee with great and careful malice."

Tatewaki turned to one of his physicians.

"He is fit to be moved?" he asked imperiously.

Hikaru waited with dread for the doctor to speak.

"Yes, my Lord," a voice replied.

Tatewaki nodded in satisfaction before turning to the Marines.

"Take him to my private dojo," he instructed them.

The ranking Marine saluted at this. "What shall we do with him once we are there, my lord Prince?"

Tatewaki Kuno had been waiting for this moment through two long months of humiliation, reversal, and defeat. He had planned for it, and the troops who awaited his command in the Sick Bay had been trained especially for this event. That they asked their lord at all was merely an observation of the formality that he demanded of all his forces.

He turned a baleful eye towards Hikaru before responding.

"Crucify him."

Hikaru Gosunkugi, keen student of both history and the occult, was well versed with the procedure of crucifixion as practiced throughout the ages. The Romans had been one of the first states to employ it as an inspired combination of propaganda tool and method of capital punishment, and in the process had created one of the Inner Sphere's enduring religions. It had died out as a practice as that very religion absorbed the power of the Empire, yet returned in fits and spurts throughout the ensuing centuries as tyrants and despots of every stripe seized upon the method's effectiveness in making a point of their power and dreadful wrath.

Tatewaki Kuno was by and large a practical man, and known to prefer executions that were swift - beheadings with the sword for those of high rank or social class, and firing squads for the rabble. The fact that Hikaru was currently nailed with very large spikes through his wrists and his feet to a pair of thick interlocking oak beams in the shape of an 'X' meant that the Combine Prince had something truly special in mind for him.

Whatever it was, it did not seem that death was the immediate goal. For one thing, he was not actually hanging in space as would be expected of the condemned. His toes touched the deck, and though it was agony to put his weight on them, he could do so quite easily. The cross he hung upon was also tipped back slightly at an angle, allowing him further support against slipping down to hang by his wrists - which was important when one considered that the condemned in a crucifixion did not usually die from shock or blood loss, but from asphyxiation caused by drooping low enough on the cross that it interfered with the action of the diaphragm on the lungs.

Indeed, it was common practice to break a man's legs if the execution was taking longer than was desired, for then he would not be able to push himself back up on the cross for a frantic gasp of air.

Hikaru craned his neck around to inspect the chamber. It was empty save for the cold eyes of a Combine Marine who watched him with impassive silence. The crisp smell of tatami mingled with the faint tang of old sweat, and confirmed in his mind that this was indeed the personal dojo of Tatewaki Kuno. The fact that Kuno had a cross waiting for him indicated that this torture had been planned for him well in advance - probably from the day of the attack at the Capra Zenith Jump Point.

He did not know how long he had been hanging here, as the shock and pain of the first iron spike being driven through the bones of his left wrist had caused him to faint. He only vaguely remembered the other three being pounded into place, and had been quite content to slip fully into unconsciousness at the time.

Now he was awake. The only sounds in the room were the faint hum of the dojo's recirculation fans, and the steady patter of blood on the tatami from the wounds in his wrists. It seemed that as he wriggled on the cross, he reopened the clots that had formed around his wounds and the supportive wooden washers that kept his wrists and feet from wrenching free of the impaling spikes. In spite of the hot lifeblood they drank, the spikes felt icy cold through his limbs, numbing his extremities. His parched throat, raw from the heat of the explosion that should have killed him, now stung with the sensation of distilled fear.

If this was what Tatewaki Kuno had planned for him, he dreaded how long the Combine Prince would make him hang on the cross before executing him.

Hikaru opened his eyes. The Marine watching him was neither the first one assigned to crucifixion detail, nor the second. Depending on how long they went between shifts, he could have been hanging on his cross for as few as twelve hours, and possibly as long as a full day. Sweat dripped down from the hair matted to his forehead, and he was glad that Tatewaki hadn't made him wear a crown of thorns to go with his cross. Blood mingled with the sweat would have made seeing even more difficult.

It was unbearably hot within the dojo. He knew this was true, and not some product of his tormented mind, as even the Marine who watched over him was sweat-soaked in his uniform. Tatewaki must have ordered the climate control set all the way up to forty degrees. His throat was dry and cracked, a raw sensation brought on by the explosion, and aggravated by the heat and the dehydration that he suffered.

"Enervating, is it not?"

He awoke with a start, eyelids flicking open with audible clicks. He hadn't even been aware of slipping back into unconsciousness.

Tatewaki Kuno stood before him, regarding him with a critical and yet appraising eye, as one would examine the sculpture of a Renaissance master. He seemed pleased with what he saw. Hikaru could only imagine what he looked like to an observer.

He croaked a response. The words came out too low and too garbled to be understood. Tatewaki did not seem to care. He was probably speaking rhetorically, as was usual for him.

"I wish for thee to suffer, cher-Cousin," Tatewaki continued. "That small measure of my intent must be clear to thee by now. Aye, thou shouldst suffer for the many woes, great and small, that thou hath put upon me, though I must needs condense such misery into shorter span than the two months thou hath plagued me."

Tatewaki motioned for the Marine to step forward. The soldier did so, clutching what looked to be an oversized sponge in his meaty paw. The Marine brought the sponge to Hikaru's lips, but the frail scion of the House of Gosunkugi winced at the smell of cheap wine gone nearly to vinegar.

"I must confess," Tatewaki declared. "That whilst I loathe the religion of my upbringing, and have since spurned it for the sincere purity of Shinto and the august teachings of Confucious, I find the passion of Christ to be a fascinating tale."

The Marine managed to squeeze some of the wine into Hikaru's mouth. The Gosunkugi Heir was too weak and too parched to spit it out. The sour wine was more than a symbolic gesture on Kuno's part. It would increase his suffering as it tore at his raw throat, and serve to dehydrate him even further.

"I regret that thou couldst not reenact the march to Golgotha," Tatewaki sniffed. "Thy wounded condition and thy already frail constitution didst not permit such."

He studied Hikaru's pale, sweat and wine streaked face for a moment before giving a satisfied nod. "Aye, though I mean for you to suffer, cher-Cousin, thy death is not mine intent."

Hikaru blinked in disbelief. Kuno wasn't going to execute him?

Tatewaki raised an eyebrow, sensing Hikaru's thoughts.

"You ask thyself why it is that I, Tatewaki Kuno, do not wish for thy well-deserved end," he observed. "The answer is as simple as it is direct; I have need of thy arcane talents."

What?

Hikaru offered up a questioning groan, which was about the best he could manage under the circumstances.

"Thy talents are whispered of throughout the Inner Sphere," Tatewaki replied. "In exchange for thy life, thou shalt perform such magical services as I require to free the beauteous Akane Tendo and the magnificent Pig-Tailed Girl from the sorcerous grip of that foul and iniquitous archfiend, Ranma Saotome."

He brought a hand up to his chin in contemplation.

"Though it pains me to resort to such black art, I fear that I have no other choice. Saotome's hold over Akane Tendo and Pig-Tailed Girl may yet linger though I send him hither to the abyss no doubt prepared for him. They must be freed from his malignant influences, ere I slay him."

He nodded slowly in agreement with his estimation. "Do this, cher-Cousin, and thy life is spared. Mayhap thou shalt even feel the grace of the First Lord of the Star League upon thee in granted Pardon."

Tatewaki brushed his hands together, as if cleansing himself of a dirty and loathesome task.

"I shall leave thee where thou art for the nonce, that thou might further contemplate the just wrath of Tatewaki Kuno, and that thou might also come to better appreciate his mercy when it is finally granted. For in so doing, thou shalt know in time that the hand which doleth out pain is also the hand which heals with a king's touch."

He left Hikaru hanging upon the oaken beams of the cross without a look behind him.

NCJS Dragonfly

Martina System Zenith Jump Point

Martina System, the Federated Shiratori

10 May 3025

Ranma Saotome floated in free-fall on the Bridge with his father, Akane, Ryouga, Happousai, Doctor Tofu, Akari, Ukyou, her former adjutant and cross-dressing pretty-boy Konatsu, and Captain Ninomiya. Much to Ranma's chagrin, Hinako carried the pink and purple Siamese which had been adopted as the Ship's Cat. He kept his distance from the feline, who kept her cold violet eyes fixed upon him more often than not. Pansuto Tarou was not present on the Bridge, as he was to be released from the ship at their next destination, and no one wanted him to know the location of the Ryuugenzawa System - which was about to be revealed.

"Break it out, Pop," Ranma said to his father. "Let's see what the last three and a half years of my life have been good for."

Akane and the others present quickly agreed.

Genma Saotome produced the RADIANT-SIX quantum interference decryption device. It was the size of a lap-top computer, with slots for up to six decryption keys. He removed the keys from around his neck, and after some minutes of verifying with his notes as to their proper order, inserted them carefully into place.

"Hurry it up, already," Happousai whined.

"The data disc is next, Master," Genma announced, setting it into the reader. The unit sprang to life a moment later, asking him whether or not he wished to proceed with the decryption process.

Ranma watched as his father entered the command to do so. The unit made a few muted internal noises.

Then the screen went blank.

"Huh? Oh please, no..." Genma muttered fearfully.

"Maybe it's supposed to do that," Ranma offered weakly. They could not have suffered through so much hell just to find out that the damn thing was broken!

"Quiet, boy!" Genma growled. "I'm thinking!"

He consulted his notes once more.

"Look!" Akane cried, pointing to the display.

The device of the Star League Defense Force pixelated into existence on the unit as she spoke.

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The following documents have been classified BLACK by the Star League Defense Force I.A.W. SLDFOPSEC 901.7, sec A; UMBRA Classifications. These documents contain information whose existence is not recognized by public authority. Unauthorized disclosure constitutes grave damage to the security of the Star League, and is punishable by DEATH. Observe all UMBRA OPERATIONAL SECURITY requirements for the handling, storage, and dissemination of this material. Reproduction of all or part of this material without express written consent and countersign from Star League Defense Force High Command is forbidden.

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ASTROGATIONAL COMPUTER AUTOMATED

DESTINATION AND TRANSIT SYSTEM

Mk. 21, Mod. 3 & Mk. 22, Mod. 1

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SHIPALTs, Revisions, and Action Change Numbers current for this data are:

SHIPALT 3021-111

SHIPALT 3021-115

Rev 439, ACN 36

Rev 450, ACN 39

Rev 451, ACN 40

See BUSHIPS Directory of SHIPALTs, Vol. 38, 38-19-204.12 and 38-19-219.10 for details.

NOTICE TO ASTROGATORS

PURGE ALL DATA FROM ASTROGATIONAL COMPUTER, ARCHIVES, AND SHIP'S LOG I.A.W. REV 439 OF THE Mk.21/Mk.22 MAIN COMPUTER OPERATING PROCEDURES IMMEDIATELY UPON MATERIALIZATION AT FINAL DESTINATION. FAILURE TO DO SO CONSTITUTES WILLFUL DISREGARD FOR ALL OPSEC REQUIREMENTS APPLICABLE TO THIS ACADATS DATA SET, AND WILL BE PUNISHED TO THE HIGHEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY A GENERAL COURT-MARTIAL.

ENTER TO CONTINUE

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"Get to the damn point already," Ranma groaned as he read the various revisions, warnings, and notices.

"Put a sock in it, boy," Genma hissed back. "Can't you see that this is the real McCoy?"

The decryption device began to beep for attention. Several error messages appeared, demanding immediate action.

"What's it want now?" Ranma asked his father.

Captain Ninomiya answered for him. "This device is supposed to be connected to a starship's Main Computer, translating the coordinate data set for the ship's ultimate destination into the Astrogational System," she said. The cat groomed herself in Hinako's arms. "The unit wants to know why it isn't hooked up."

"Hooked up directly?" Akane asked, curious.

"Of course," Hinako replied. "By talking directly to the Astrogational System, the ship's Main Computer is able to devise the most direct Jump route necessary to bring the ship to its encrypted destination, and all without telling anyone where exactly they're going. The Astrogator can find out by making direct queries to the memory banks, of course, but it isn't going to be something he can do without drawing a lot of attention to himself. It's just a way of keeping the whole thing secure."

"What about taking star-sightings at the destination?" Ranma asked. "They could figure out where they were that way."

Hinako nodded. "True, but they probably had some sort of procedure whereby the observatory was locked down and guarded while they were in the Ryuugenzawa System."

Akane looked at the urgent requests from the decryption device. "So what do we have to do to take a look? Plug this thing into the Dragonfly's Main Computer?"

"Essentially," Hinako confirmed. The cat bared her teeth at Ranma as she yawned, making him cringe just enought to be noticed. Ukyou caught the motion from him, and gave him a concerned look.

"That wouldn't make us Jump right away, would it?" Doctor Tofu asked. He had no desire to surrender control of the ship without knowing where they would end up.

"It shouldn't," Hinako replied. "All this will do is instruct the Astrogation System to calculate the Jumps necessary to bring the ship to the destination from wherever it happens to be at that time. The actual authority to Jump comes from the Captain, and is executed from the Helm."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ryouga asked everyone. "Let's hook it up!"

Dragonfly's Astrogator produced a length of optical line with the necessary fittings, and inserted it where Genma directed. The decryption device sensed immediately that it was connected to the starship's Main Computer, and set to work.

They watched as a display measuring the Main Computer's resource management system began to dance and jump with activity. The ship's telescopes began to move automatically as the Astrogation System prepared position fixes for the Jump calculations. Even the cat seemed transfixed by the computer's function, though it could have been drawn by the flashing colors on the display.

After twenty minutes of frantic computer activity, the unit went into a standby mode. The Astrogator confirmed that a Jump was calculated, and awaited execution. Attempts to review the data were denied by the Main Computer in spite of his highest level access.

"So all we really know," Ranma observed. "Is that the ship says it's ready to take us somewhere just as soon as we give the word, but that we don't know where we're going."

"Correct," Hinako replied, petting the cat as she spoke. "Even though the Jump calculated most likely won't take us to Ryuugenzawa, but to a system on the way, we still don't know where we're going until we get there."

"What did you say about looking directly at the memory banks for the coordinates?" Akane asked.

"We can do that," the Astrogator agreed. He looked to his Captain. "With your permission, of course, ma'am."

Hinako nodded. "Granted."

The Astrogator began to prod at the Main Computer's memory banks using several high-level diagnostic commands. The security around the Jump Coordinates wasn't impregnable, but as soon as he took the Main Computer to task, it shifted into a standby mode that sounded several audible alarms at the Captain's Station, the Helm, and the Astrogation station itself.

"You see," Hinako pointed out. "You can look, but you can't do it without alerting other people. The whole Bridge crew has to be in on whatever it is you're doing, and I'm sure old Kerensky made it known that a few spies on each ship with access to Ryuugenzawa would be among them."

It took the Astrogator half an hour of queries and calculations before he had an answer. He posted the coordinates on the holographic chart table. Hinako set the cat against the seatback of her Captain's Station chair, letting her sink her claws into the upholstery for purchase against free-fall. Ranma tensed at the sight of her talon-like claws, but kept it to himself sufficiently that no one else noticed.

Hinako and her Astrogator studied the haze of tiny stars and gas clouds in the chart display. Both seemed to frown as they realized where the famed Ryuugenzawa System was supposed to be.

"Check your data again," she ordered the Astrogator in a sultry voice that did little to disguise her unease.

"I agree," he replied, still frowning in puzzlement.

"What is it?" Akane asked them, concern in her voice.

"It's probably nothing," Hinako assured her. "Just a mistake in queueing up the data."

The Astrogator returned several minutes later with a shake of his head. "The data entered was correct," he declared. "The final Jump destination is noted as displayed."

Hinako looked again. "But that doesn't make any sense," she pouted. "There aren't any stars at those coordinates."

"Come again?" Ranma asked.

She whirled on him. "I said there aren't any stars where this damn system of yours is supposed to be!" She threw up her hands. "You can't go Jumping into empty space. You need a significant gravity well at both ends of the Jump or else you're in serious trouble! No star, no gravity well!"

Ranma looked at the tiny flashing point of green light in the holographic chart that was supposed to be the location of Ryuugenzawa. Sure enough, there was no star floating in the holotank anywhere near that smudge of color.

"Where is this supposed to be, anyway?" he asked. Aside from some glyphic astrogational abstracts that meant nothing to him, there was little in the way of locational references.

"Not that it makes much difference at this point," Hinako snorted, her disappointment obvious in her voice. "That's within the Magistracy of Canopus, on the Periphery rimward of the Confederation and the Federated Shiratori, about sixty-five parsecs from our current position, or about seven Jumps, more or less."

"Canopus?" Akane asked. She knew the Magistracy was one of the more populous and organized of the Periphery states. They claimed about thirty systems with settlements, though only six had significant populations, and of those, only three were considered to have terran-type planets. The Magistracy had made a point of keeping itself out of the affairs of the Successor States throughout much of its history.

"My first tour aboard the Dragonfly was as the Astrogator," Hinako told her. "We did a Special Operation in the Magistracy at your father's behest. I can't talk about it, of course, but I have been to Canopus before. As countries go, it's not bad, but outside the six core worlds, there isn't much to it. There's very little JumpShip traffic out there."

"It's isolated enough to be the kind of place you'd put such a facility," Genma insisted.

"What facility?" Hinako retorted. "I just told you, there is no star system at those coordinates! No star system, no planets. No planets, no facility!" She looked away for a moment before fixing her gaze upon the elder Saotome. Her disappointment at the failure of their mission gave way to anger. "I don't know where you got that disc, but I do know that you were fooled into believing that it was real!"

A very quiet Akane Tendo was joined by an equally pensive Ranma Saotome at her stateroom door.

"What is it, Ranma?" she asked him quietly.

He looked down at the carpeted deck. "I wanted to come in and apologize."

"Apologize?"

He nodded. "For me and Pop getting your hopes up about Ryuugenzawa."

She drew him into the room with a gentle hand in his and began to hug him. As usual for him, he tensed up at first in her embrace before finally relaxing somewhat and letting her hold him. Displays of affection, even from Akane, were still something he was unaccustomed to. He still remembered with a blush how tightly she had squeezed him that night on Tiber when he had returned to the expedition.

"There's nothing to apologize about," she sniffed. "You and your father couldn't have known better."

Ranma raised his arms from his sides and placed them around her with nervous effort. She squeezed him a little harder as she felt him return her embrace.

"I still feel bad," he replied. "You know, like we let you down."

"You let yourself down too," she pointed out quietly. "Don't forget

that."

"I - I guess so," he admitted with a nod. "All this time I've been trying to deny that I believed in the place, and here I am wishing it was real."

"I know, Ranma," she whispered. "I know."

He closed his eyes and let himself actually hold Akane instead of merely draping his arms around her. She was warm in his embrace, her body trembling with tiny suppressed sobs. All he wanted was for her to be happy, but that wasn't the kind of thing he was good at doing. Fighting was what he was good at, and sneaking into places, and piloting a LAM. Making girls happy was out of his league.

"If it was just something I could fight..." he muttered angrily. "I'd do it. I wouldn't give up!"

He felt her head turn in his embrace. Her lips brushed against his cheek, warm and with great tenderness.

"I know you would, Ranma," she whispered to him. "It's one of the things I adore about you."

Her words made him flush hotter than her kiss.

"Y-You mean that?"

She drew back from him enough to look into his eyes. "Of course I do."She touched the tip of his nose with her finger. "You have to have some good qualities about you, and I think that's one of them."

"N-No," he stammered. "I meant the 'adore' part... You really, um... well, you know..."

"Yes," she replied with a tiny nod. "I do."

He tensed once again. "Oh." It came out sounding far worse than he had intended, and the warmth she had been radiating was replaced with a chill between them that made him shiver.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing!" he insisted. "I mean... It's nothing you should get mad about."

"Really?" she asked with mock sweetness. "Perhaps I should be the judge of that, hmmmmm?"

"Aw, c'mon, Akane," he returned. "You're making a big deal out of nothing." He began to squeeze her tight in an effort to take her mind off the subject, but to no avail. She pushed him away angrily.

"If that's how you feel about me, Ranma, then keep your hands off!" she cried.

"Wait!" he begged her. "You got it all wrong!"

"Oh?" she eyed him warily. "So how do you feel about me, huh, Ranma?"

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that anymore," he replied, knowing that even as he said the words, they were the absolute worst thing he could have said to her. "...Not 'til after we found Ryuugenzawa..." he finished meekly.

Her eyes lit up in rage. "We agreed not to talk about the engagement!" she countered. "How we happen to feel about each other is an entirely different matter! And as for not talking about the engagement until after Ryuugenzawa, I guess you're pretty safe there - considering that we'll never, ever find it!"

She lashed out her hand at his face. He could have blocked it a dozen ways, even dodged it outright, but she was blameless, maybe even justified, in striking him. The blow spun him around - no one could slap a man's face like his uncute fiancee...

He fell to the deck, brilliant stars swimming before his eyes. As they faded away, a look of puzzlement, then of stunning realization came upon him.

"...That's it..." he muttered in awe.

Akane looked down at him angrily.

"What are you talking about?"

He bolted to his feet and ran through the open door of her stateroom.

"I got an idea!" he cried over his shoulder, the pain and humiliation of her blow lost to the excitement of the moment. "Come on!"

He didn't check to see if she was behind him as he ran for the elevator to the 'D' Deck hub. He barely registered her voice when she asked him where the hell they were going, and why.

"The ship's observatory!" he replied, stabbing at the button for the elevator. It slid open, and he stepped inside.

"Why?" she asked him again, joining him in the elevator.

Ranma took her by the tops of her shoulders as the elevator doors slid closed, his eyes burning with great intensity. "Don't you get it?"

She shrugged him off. "No, I don't 'get' it."

"Who made all the damn charts?" he asked her, impatient that she wasn't on the same wavelength as himself.

"What charts? Ranma, what in the world are you talking about?"

"The star charts!" he practically shouted at her. "Who made all the computerized star charts that JumpShips navigate by?!"

Akane, clearly flustered with the intensity of his line of questioning, blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"The Star League Bureau of Astrography!"

"Right!" Ranma returned, holding up a finger in triumph. "So if there was a star system you wanted ships to stay the hell away from, what's the best way to do it?"

Akane's mouth dropped open as she realized where he was going with this.

"...You take it off the charts..." she whispered. "It's just like Nabiki said to my father the night we were engaged..."

"'There is no star system or planet called Ryuugenzawa on any charts,'" Ranma finished for her. "She was right. All this time my Pop was convinced that the reason there was no named system for Ryuugenzawa was because it was an informal name for some system that only had a catalogue number on the charts. He was wrong. The big blank spot on the Dragonfly's star chart exists because the Star League Astrographers were ordered to remove the Ryuugenzawa System from all the databases.

"Ships got periodic revisions to their charts from the Star League, and because the old charts were useless, they got discarded. Pretty soon, there weren't any JumpShips left that had any data proving the Ryuugenzawa System ever existed, and the Star League Testing Facility there was secure.

"Since it's all but impossible to calculate a Jump without a computer, and since no astrogational computer will give you the option of plotting a course to a star system that doesn't exist according to its database, the only way to get to Ryuugenzawa is with one of Pop's data discs. As long as that decrypter with the disc is plugged into the Main Computer, the ship thinks it has a chart that includes the Ryuugenzawa System!"

Akane beamed with admiration for him.

"So," he continued. "I'm gonna go the ship's observatory, and point one of the ship's telescopes at the chunk of space where Ryuugenzawa is supposed to be. If I'm right, there should be a star there, about sixty-five parsecs away, that isn't on any charts."

"And you came up with this after I smacked you one?" she asked him. The elevator came to halt at the hub, putting them in free-fall.

He shrugged. "More or less."

"I need to slap you more often," she said huskily, and pushed off from the elevator doors to kiss him square on the lips.

He blinked in surprise at first as she kissed him, then, his pulse racing in his ears, he began to kiss her back. Akane made a soft cry of surprise and delight at his show of initiative, and then the two of them threw their arms around each other to begin a new round of kisses with reckless abandon.

In the middle of their almost frantic embrace, the elevator began to answer a call, and the abrupt lurch of the car broke them apart. Akane drew away from Ranma with a shy smile, the pig-tailed mechwarrior fell back breathless against the bulkhead, surprised and a little alarmed by what had just happened between them. The elevator doors opened on 'D' Deck once again, and Ryouga floated in.

A troubled look crossed his face as he saw the two looking flushed, wild-eyed, and a little disheveled.

"I'm not, uh, interrupting anything, am I?" There was a hopeful modulation in his voice that begged them to deny his unspoken fear.

"No!" Akane replied a little too loudly. "Of course not."

"Right. Right," Ranma managed. "What could you possibly be interrupting?"

Ryouga blinked several times in silence. "Forget I asked," he said finally, his face falling.

"Hey, ah, Ryouga," Ranma continued, eager to steer any further conversation as far from the currently uncomfortable subject of almost getting caught passionately kissing a certain tomboy of his acquaintence. "Guess what? We think we might have found a way to prove the data disc was right."

This lit Ryouga up. "Really?"

"Uh-huh," Akane confirmed. "We're going to find Captain Ninomiya right now to test out the theory."

"That's great!" he enthused, feeling a little better.

Akane gave Ranma a smoldering look over her shoulder as the elevator returned to the hub, making him start. "Isn't it, though?"

Captain Hinako Ninomiya gazed into the ocular for the Dragonfly's Number One Telescope. Shampoo, seated in her lap, mewled in protest as she was pushed against the cold metal of the unit in the process.

"I see lots of stars," she noted tersely. "Mister Davidge, do you have a red-shift analysis on any of them yet?"

The Astrogator punched a few keystrokes into the telescope monitor next to the unit. Genma peered over his shoulder as he worked, an act which was annoying to say the least, and mitigated only by the excitement of the possible confirmation of the Ryuugenzawa System's existence.

"We should have something in a few moments," he declared. The unit display began to scroll datapoints and spectral analysis results. He studied these intently for several agonizing minutes.

"Well?" Hinako pressed. Below her, in the Fo'c'sle, stood most of the expedition's crew. There simply wasn't room enough for them to all stand inside the little compartment near the very bow of the ship known as the Observatory. Tensions ran high in the wake of Ranma's theory. If there was a star where the decryption device indicated, then they had found the Ryuugenzawa System at long last. If not, then they were homeward bound - but returning in total failure.

There were other tensions present as well. Akane had maneuvered herself as close to Ranma as possible down in the Fo'c'sle, cutting off Ukyou before she could do the same. She was emboldened by her encounter with Ranma in the elevator, so much so that she felt no regret over capitulating to her rival's offer of renouncing her engagement - but apparently not her affection - to Ranma.

There was also the turmoil that raged once again within Ryouga, who, while having no actual proof that he had nearly stumbled onto a compromising situation between Ranma and Akane, was pretty sure that it had happened. As much as he felt for Akari, the realization that Akane was slipping further and further from him was like a jagged hole in his heart. He felt an intense jealousy towards Ranma, an emotion that threatened to boil over into violence at the slightest provocation.

Ukyou grimaced at the sight of Akane snuggling up close to Ranchan. She was laying it on thick, and that pig-tailed blockhead was just standing there like a dolt, letting her get away with it!

Pansuto Tarou, barred from attending the data disc's decryption on the Bridge, managed to worm his way through the airtight door enough to listen in on the conversation. He doubted that he would learn anything useful by merely listening, but perhaps when the Ryuugenzawa System's location was confirmed, he could quietly interrogate the telescope log later for the answers he sought.

Ranma, for his part, had absolutely no idea that any of this was going on. He had a lot of things on his mind, and Ryuugenzawa occupied only a small portion of his thoughts. The girl with the short blue-black hair whose soft, warm hand had slipped surreptitiously into his was naturally foremost in his mind.

He could not believe that he had kissed her like he did, and that she had responded so enthusiastically to it. It was an experience that went far beyond anything he had ever felt before. It was worrisome too, because his sum total of experience with girls spanned less than three months, and he didn't want to make a fool of himself. He needed advice, desperately, and he knew that it would be a waste of time - not to mention being totally embarrassing - going to his father.

Happousai was right out as well. Talking to Ryouga would not only be a waste of time, it could prove hazardous to his health. His eyes flicked about the Fo'c'sle, searching for someone he could trust with his questions.

He looked no further than Doctor Tofu, who stood placidly behind them, watching up through the hatch for word of the Ryuugenzawa System. The Doc was a pretty decent guy, and had done right by him in the past.

"Hey, Doc," he whispered to him.

"What is it, Ranma?" Tofu asked him.

"Could I talk to you later about something."

Tofu nodded. "Of course you can. What about?"

Ranma felt heat rising in his face. Akane was far too close to miss what he was saying. "It's kinda personal. I'll tell you later."

"Analysis shows one 'G' type main sequence star at a distance of 65.12 parsecs," Davidge declared solemnly. "That fits the indicated value for the Ryuugenzawa System, ma'am."

Hinako's reply was drowned out by the cheer from below.

"Quiet!" she finally screamed, making Shampoo wince in her lap. She punched at the intercom button.

"Bridge; Officer of the Deck," came the reply.

Hinako scratched Shampoo thoughtfully behind the ears as she spoke. "Officer of the Deck, this is the Captain. Commence preparations for Hyperspace Jump."

Wexford System Nadir Jump Point

Wexford System, the Federated Shiratori

10 May 3025

NCJS Dragonfly materialized into realspace with a flash of hard radiation. The Wexford System was blessed with recharge stations for JumpShips, which dramatically cut the time necessary between Jumps. For a nominal fee, a station would beam power over to the Dragonfly's batteries via microwave emitters.

Such was Hinako's intention. Wexford-Nadir-ONE also served as a waystation for the trade routes between Genevieve and the districts of the Federated Shiratori that shared a border with the Confederation, meaning that it had a functional HPG array and Comstar office, as well as facilities for Pansuto Tarou and his battlemech where they could comfortably await transport to wherever it was that he wanted to go. She didn't want to spend a week waiting at the Jump Point for the Palomino to ferry him all the way to the nearest inhabited planet in the system and return.

"Captain, Wexford-Nadir-ONE reports that they are available for Jump recharge," Communications announced. "They have granted us permission to approach under normal drive to within ten kilometers."

"Very well," a diminutive Captain Hinako Ninomiya said while petting Shampoo. The cat had remained near her for most of the trip from Tiber, becoming a fixture on the Bridge. The crew loved her, and she was at least tolerant of them, if not affectionate. There was one curious exception to this, of course, and that exception was Ranma Saotome. "Astrogation, plot a course for Wexford-Nadir-ONE, with a CPA of ten kilometers, while I pet this pretty kitty."

"Plot course for Wexford-Nadir-ONE, Closest Point of Approach, one-zero kilometers, aye," Davidge replied. "Captain, I've completed the patch to our astrogation database that includes the Ryuugenzawa System. Once I upload it into the database, we won't need Commander Saotome's decrypt machine and the data disc to plot a Jump."

"It would certainly save a lot of trouble not having to rely on that thing," Hinako agreed. She munched on a cookie from her jacket pocket. "It's so old that if it failed, we'd be out of luck!"

"Uploading will eat into our Main Computer cycle time," Davidge added. "With your permission, I'd like to begin as soon as we are in a stable orbit near Wexford-Nadir-ONE. The process should take about twenty minutes to upload and verify."

Hinako nodded. "Very well, Mister Davidge. Do so when we are taking on power from the station." She nuzzled Shampoo, who eyed the Astrogator and the handheld data disc with the Ryuugenzawa patch as if her life depended on it. "You're such a good kitty," Hinako cooed.

Pansuto Tarou tucked the carefully compiled telescope data he had copied from the Observatory into his pocket. It was just enough information for a competent astrogator to determine the location of the Ryuugenzawa System with enough accuracy for a Jump. He was certain the Furinkan Combine would have someone who could do the job.

Though it was purely for the convenience of the ship, the Captain was doing him a favor by having him dropped off at the station. It would put him close to the merchant ship traffic, and he was confident that he would find a ship that would take him close enough to the border with the Furinkan Combine that he could get the rest of the way there by some other means. Time was his only enemy now.

He had to reach the Combine and convince them of his discovery in time for them to reach the system while there was still something left to plunder. The Confederation's operation was far too small to carry much off with just the Dragonfly. If they went directly there, and he was sure they would, it would be solely for the purpose of scouting the planet and determining what the real recovery mission would need to bring. That meant that a determined Combine force had a chance of reaching the system before the Confederation's transport fleet could haul everything away.

Tarou was confident that he could do it, but it would mean giving up the immediate satisfaction of killing Happousai for the ultimate satisfaction of bringing the Joketsuzoku and the Cult of Azusa to their knees.

He was willing to make that sacrifice. Happousai could wait at least that long.

A knock at his stateroom door shifted his attention from the future to the present. Akane Tendo was there, along with Genma Saotome and the Dragonfly's Executive Officer.

"It's time to board the Palomino for the trip over to the station," Akane said to him.

Tarou gave her a steely-eyed grin and patted his pocket. "I just finished packing."

They floated to the elevator that would take them to the hub, and from there, aft down the core of the ship to the docking ring where Palomino awaited him.

"I want to apologize for the change in plans," Akane said to him as he prepared to enter the DropShip for the short transit over to the station. "I did say that you would be dropped off on a planet."

Tarou waved her off. "This is fine," he replied evenly.

Akane gestured to the Executive Officer. "Commander Malloy has something for you, as we agreed."

The X.O. presented Tarou with a thin attache. "Fifty-thousand C-bills," he declared. "Half of it is in marker notes, the other half on two certified drafts from the Bank of Sol."

Tarou had expected a sum of money from them as per their agreement, but not so much! It was hush-money, plain and simple, he realized. You never heard of Ryuugenzawa, or that a ship named Dragonfly was carrying the Heir to the Confederation aboard...

Akane made this clear. "You understand of course, that we wish our activities to remain a secret," she said to him.

Tarou bowed low for her. "Naturally, Lady Akane," he soothed. "I have no intention of speaking of my adventures with you to anyone."

She handed him one final important item. His passport. "You understand that I can't give you it in writing at this time, but rest assured that you will be pardoned for any crimes you may have committed on Confederation territory."

"Thank you, Lady Akane," Tarou said, eager to get underway. "You are a woman of her word, let no one say otherwise."

He bowed once more, and then floated through the connector tunnel to the Palomino.

"I hope we're doing the right thing by letting him go," Genma intoned.

Akane turned to him. "Some of us live by our agreements, Mister Saotome, even if we really don't agree with them."

"So, Ranma," Doctor Tofu Ono said to him as the pig-tailed mechwarrior knocked on the open door. "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Ranma flushed red. "Well, ah, it's kinda personal, like I said."

"Come in and shut the door," Tofu told him. "As a doctor, you can count on strict confidentiality from me."

"Well, that's good, I guess," Ranma muttered. Even with the door shut, he felt exposed.

"So?"

"I was gonna ask you for some advice, actually," he began.

"Medical advice?" the doctor inquired. He cracked his knuckles. "Martial arts advice?"

"Girl advice," Ranma corrected him, while looking down at his feet.

Tofu made a low whistle, a grin spreading slowly across his face. He began to wipe the lenses of his glasses on his dougi.

"I think you'd better sit down."

Ranma did so, though he looked no less uncomfortable than before.

Tofu sat down on the corner of his desk next to Ranma. "Am I to assume that the girl advice you seek is in regards to Akane?"

The pig-tailed mechwarrior looked even more ill at ease.

"You could say that," he mumbled.

Tofu slapped his knee lightly. "So what's the trouble?"

Ranma pawed at the deck with his foot, but remained silent.

"Ranma, I can't help you if you won't tell me what the problem is," Tofu declared.

"I got so many questions, I don't even know where to begin," he finally lamented.

The doctor took this in stride. "Well, I guess we could start with the basic differences between men and women."

Ranma looked hopeful. "I guess so," he agreed.

Tofu leaned over and punched up some material from the medical archives, which were displayed upon the surface of the desk.

"Well, first things first," he began. "You, Ranma, have something we call the 'Y' chromosome, something which Akane and other females do not have. Now on the 'Y' chromosome we find genes that express certain specific proteins, hormones, and enzymes that are not found in the female biochemistry. Also, certain genetic traits are passed only along the 'Y' chromosome, and seem to predispose men to specific somatic conditions later in life..."

Ranma waved frantically at him.

"Hey, Doc, whoa! I mean, whoa... Maybe not that basic."

Tofu shrugged. It was difficult to tell if he had launched into his spiel in all seriousness, or merely as a joke to lighten the mood. "Well, you've probably noticed by now that boys and girls aren't the same. If nothing else, your exposure to Jusenkyo has made that possible."

"I figured that one out the first time Pop made me watch one of his pornos," Ranma groused. "I didn't need a cursed body to teach me."

Tofu blanched. "I see..." He took another tack. "So why don't you tell me what happened between you and Akane that brought you in here so suddenly."

Ranma looked away, his face beet red and his feet tapping out a nervous samba beat on the deck.

"I, uh, I kissed Akane," he muttered, not looking directly at Tofu as he said it. "More like she kissed me first, and then I kissed her back, and then we both sorta met in the middle for awhile..."

Tofu nodded slowly, trying not to grin at Ranma's explanation.

"That's it?" he asked after a moment.

"Whaddya mean, 'that's it?'" Ranma growled defensively. "That ain't enough? I don't know what the hell I'm doing in the first place!"

"Take it easy, Ranma. I was just asking a simple question. Now I'm going to ask another simple question: you're here to ask me romantic advice, not a how-to on human reproduction, correct?"

Ranma nodded silently, though he was uncomfortable with the idea of getting 'romantic advice,' and he didn't want to even think of the implications of going down the twisted path known as the birds and the bees. Health classes in the few years of formal schooling he had received, plus Pop's pornos, had illustrated to him the mechanics and potential consequences of sex, but the whole process remained somewhat fuzzy and indistinct when applied to his own personal reality, and particularly where that reality included Akane.

"Great," Tofu remarked. "Now we're getting somewhere. Next question: do you like Akane?"

While the answer was never in doubt, Ranma thought long and hard about actually voicing it aloud. Tofu mused idly on whether or not the process of deciding would result in the triggering of the compartment's smoke alarms.

"I guess so."

Tofu pressed the issue. "Do you or don't you?"

"Okay... I-I like her," he replied. "Don't ask me why, cause she's a violent, hypersensitive tomboy chick who's always ragging on me about something."

Tofu smiled at Ranma's description of the girl he was so hung up over. "Great. I think we can assume by the fact that since she kissed you first, she likes you too."

"Really?" Ranma chirped. The thought that Akane actually liked him had seemed so alien to him that he hadn't been able to come to that conclusion himself. He supposed that she had said as much in her stateroom shortly before their encounter in the elevator, but at the time, and with the idea for finding Ryuugenzawa, it had all been a blur of conflicting thoughts and emotions for him.

"Girls aren't in the habit of kissing guys they don't like," Tofu pointed out.

"I guess so," Ranma admitted. The revelation wasn't doing anything to ease his level of discomfort and confusion.

"Now then," Tofu continued. "You're wondering what you should do about it."

"I sure am," Ranma grunted.

"Just do what comes naturally," Tofu said with an easy smile. He reflected darkly upon the irony of this, since he had been unable to make the same commitment where Kasumi was involved. It was times like this that he wondered how the human race survived when so many of its men were weak or clueless.

"Like what?" Ranma asked. "I mean, that's what I'm here for, Doc: some details!"

"Well, I guess the most important thing for you to do would be to tell her how you feel about her."

Ranma feared that Tofu would say as much.

"What if I'm not exactly sure about that?" he hedged.

"You already told me that you liked her," Tofu returned. "Go with that for now. As the two of you become more comfortable with that, you might find that telling her other things will be a lot easier."

Ranma seemed dubious about that.

"Okay. Then what?"

"You should probably lay off the insults," Tofu counseled. "I know there isn't much to them, but all the same, do yourself a favor and watch what you say to her."

Ranma cringed. He had been conditioned his whole life by his father and by the troops in the various units they had signed with to trade fire - as it were - with those around him. That part would not be easy, but he saw the doctor's point.

"I'll try," he agreed. "What else?"

"I suppose it couldn't hurt if you did a few nice things for her every now and again," Tofu observed.

"Like?"

"Well... Girls like getting flowers. I know that Akane enjoyed spending time on the garden terrace back home on Nerima, so I think you're safe with that one."

Ranma considered the subject the way an Explosive Ordnance Disposal tech would contemplate his approach to a live thousand-kilogram bomb.

"Flowers," he said flatly.

"Flowers," Tofu confirmed.

Ranma looked up to the ceiling in frustration.

"Doc, we're millions of kilometers from the nearest florist," he pointed out. "So how exactly am I supposed to do that?"

Tofu smiled. "The Dragonfly happens to be an Invader Class JumpShip," he replied. "It has two greenhouse domes, one on either side of the habitat, if you'll recall. You'll find an assortment of flowering plants there, and some of them are probably ideal to present to a girl you happen to like."

Ranma remembered his time in one of the greenhouses after the misjump and fire. He remembered lots of plants, but he never really paid all that much attention to what they were. He supposed that there were flowers there. After all, the greenhouses on an Invader Class were largely recreational in purpose; the fresh food plants and their cleansing action on the atmosphere were considered secondary benefits by the ship's designers.

"Okay, flowers," he conceded. "I know nothing about flowers, or how to get them. I mean, is there a requisition form or something I gotta fill out first, or can I just go pick some?"

"You should probably ask one of the ship's cooks," Tofu offered. "They're usually the ones who tend the greenhouses as part of their collateral duties."

"Sure. What else?"

"Candy is another option," Tofu noted. "But unless you have something special tucked away somewhere, all we have at the moment is some stale chocolate from the Ship's Store."

Even Ranma figured that this was probably insufficient to the task. Tofu continued.

"You don't cook, do you?" the doctor asked.

Ranma looked at him as if he had grown another head.

"I can heat up a ration pack and boil water for rice."

"It was a thought," Tofu returned with shrug. "Women appreciate a man who knows his way around a kitchen."

"I think I'm pretty much screwed there."

"Don't worry about it," Tofu soothed. "The big thing to remember here, Ranma, is that the gifts aren't as important to a woman so much as the thought behind them." He tapped the desk to make a point. "For example, if you were to surprise Akane with flowers right now, she'd melt. It wouldn't matter if you didn't know her favorite flowers, or that you couldn't get them, or that your arrangement wasn't very neat. The fact that you of all people did something like this for her would be all the gift she could hope for."

Ranma pondered this. It was as if the clouds of uncertainty had parted somewhat, allowing a single ray of shining revelation into his head. "So basically, what you're saying is that because I don't do stuff like that for her now, there ain't no big expectations on me, so that anything I actually do for her, even if it sucks, will totally blow her away?"

"Essentially," Tofu agreed, trying not to laugh at Ranma's remarkably astute assessment of his situation with Akane. It was hard to screw up when

you were starting out from the bottom in the relationships department.

Ranma nodded solemnly. This wasn't going to be easy, but at least now he had something to go on.

"Thanks, Doc."

"One last thing, Ranma," Tofu said to him.

"What is it?"

"Be honest with yourself," he advised. "If you can't be honest with yourself about your feelings, then you can't be honest with her, and all it will cause is problems between the two of you."

Ranma bit down on his lip at the thought.

"Sure thing, Doc. Thanks again."

He hopped up from his seat, shook Tofu's hand vigorously, and bounded from the office like a man with a mission - which is what he considered the advice he had been given to be.

Doctor Tofu Ono watched him go with a rueful shake of his head. As much as he was pleased by the idea of Ranma and Akane warming to each other since his first encounter with them back at the castle - over a leather divan and the fact that it had been used as a bludgeon by the latter on the former's head, no less - he found himself gripped with an almost parental concern for the two.

He tapped at the touch sensitive keypad imbedded within the surface of his desk, calling up Akane's medical record and a log of the Ship's Pharmacy for the last quarter. He wasn't surprised by what he saw, but now he had justification for his concern. He would need to speak with her about a very important matter that she had been neglecting.

"Captain, the Palomino reports a warning indication from their Reaction Control System," Communications announced.

Hinako looked up from her petting of Shampoo, who seemed tense and agitated to the diminutive starship captain.

"Is it serious?"

The Communications tech conferred with the DropShip before responding.

"They don't seem to think so, ma'am. Captain Grant says this happens from time to time. They'll check it out locally, but that it's probably just a bad position indicator on one of the thruster nozzles. They have a spare on board to replace it."

"How long will that take?"

The tech relayed her query. "No more than thirty minutes, ma'am. They'll let us know what they find before they detach from the docking ring."

"Very well," Hinako huffed. She had to allow for the occasional technical problem, she supposed.

Lieutenant Davidge approached her while she stewed in her chair. He held up the database patch disc.

"Captain, with your permission, I'd like to upload the patch to our astrogational database. It will take the higher functions of the Main Computer off-line for approximately twenty minutes, leaving us with only the automatic subsystems."

Hinako checked their orbital status at the Helm with a glance. They were stable, and preparing to receive power from Wexford-Nadir-ONE. "Very well, Mister Davidge. Begin the upload process."

"Aye aye, ma'am."

Shampoo watched as the Astrogator fed the database disc into a reader at the Main Computer workstation. She needed that disc, and with the JumpShip about to send its DropShip over to the space station, this might present her best opportunity to steal it and make her escape. Now that the Confederation knew the location of Ryuugenzawa, she didn't suppose they would have any need to stop at a planet along the way. They would Jump from system to system as fast as they could charge their batteries.

As expected, the Main Computer went dormant as it processed the data. The ship's functions during station keeping were largely autonomous, though in spite of this, there was plenty to keep the crew occupied. Shampoo waited with growing anxiety as she planned her next few moves.

Success was most likely if Mousse could reach the Palomino before it repaired its technical glitch, but if push came to shove, he could always hijack one of the Ship's Boats and reach the Wexford recharge station that way. Once he was there, he could claim asylum, or, depending on the situation, disappear for awhile. She was confident that they would not be too eager to create much of a ruckus on the recharge station.

"The patch is uploaded into the Astrogational System," Davidge reported twenty minutes later. He punched in the coordinates, and proudly demonstrated the brand new yellow sun that floated within the chart table holotank where there had previously been a patch of emptiness.

"Excellent work, Lieutenant," Hinako commended him.

Davidge removed the data disc from the computer, causing Shampoo to tense in the Captain's lap. "I'll need to open the Ship's Safe, Captain, if I may."

Hinako rose, knowing that Davidge could not open it without her portion of the combination. As she did so, one of the oncoming watch section stepped through the airtight door. Shampoo chose that moment to strike. She leaped at Davidge with a hiss, and snatched the disc from his hand.

"What the -?" the Astrogator blurted, his hand bleeding from the scratches she had raised in leaping across him.

"Kitty!" Hinako screeched angrily.

Shampoo rebounded in free-fall off the Main Computer console, the database patch firmly set between her jaws, and twisted herself in midair to get a push from the Captain's chair. A daring leap out the airtight door as it slid shut cut off any immediate pursuit.

Hinako shook herself with the numbing realization that she had been tricked. Her precious kitty cat was some kind of spy, and possibly not even a real cat - only her recent exposure to the wonders of Jusenkyo could have prepared her for such a line of thought.

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes..." the Helmsman remarked.

"Never mind that," Hinako snapped. "Chief of the Watch, on the 1MC: All hands keep on the look-out for the Ship's Cat. Report her whereabouts at once to the Bridge. Catch and detain her if possible."

The Chief of the Watch acknowledged the order. "Shall I sound the General Alarm as well, Captain?"

Hinako folded her arms across her chest. It seemed absolutely ridiculous to call away a full-blown security violation over a runaway cat, and she was not entirely convinced that her kitty was anything other than what she seemed to be.

"Not at the moment," she replied. "Have the X.O., Lady Akane, and Commander Saotome come to the Bridge instead."

Shampoo darted for the elevator, waiting with dread for some kind of alarm to sound. In spite of her feline body, she still thought of herself as human, and considered the response of the ship's crew as one would consider any intrusion by an enemy agent.

The sound of the Chief of the Watch's voice over the 1MC made her blood freeze up.

"All hands be on the look-out for the Ship's Cat. Detain her if possible, and make reports to the Bridge on any sightings of her."

If she were human, she would have laughed. Given the Captain's childish nature, this was exactly the kind of order that was likely to be ignored by the crew. She'd stay out of sight all the same, but it certainly took some of the pressure off.

"Now what kind of lame-o announcement is that?" Ranma grouched to the overhead.

"Really," Ukyou agreed. She had run into him shortly after his visit to Doctor Tofu's office, and had been pleasant if somewhat cloying company ever since. "You have the weirdest Captain I've ever known."

They stepped into the Crew's Mess for drinks. From what they could tell, no one else on the ship was paying the 1MC announcement any mind. A few of the off-watch Engine Room gang were even cracking jokes about Hinako and her missing kitty.

Yuka and Sayuri were also there, and made no effort to speak to him, though it was clear that they did not approve of him hanging out with Ukyou. Not that he cared what they thought...

"Hey, Captain Saotome," one of the engine room crew, Petty Officer Fitch, called to him. "You gonna go look for the skipper's cat?" Those present around him began to chortle. It had become common knowledge among the crew that Ranma did not like cats.

"Bite me, Fitch," he returned curtly. "If Hinako wants her kitty, she can go get it her own damn self."

"I hear that," Fitch returned. He went back to his coffee.

Ukyou handed him a cup of red bug juice. The instant drink mix used by the ship didn't really have any distinguishable flavors, he supposed, only colors. "Why don't you like cats, Ranchan?" she asked him quietly enough that no one could overhear. She knew he was sensitive about the matter, but not the reasons why.

Ranma paled. "I'd rather not talk about it," he replied. "Let's just say that it was one of Pop's dumber training ideas..."

"Why doesn't THAT surprise me," she snorted.

Genma Saotome appeared on the Mess Decks a moment later, making Ranma wince at the man's timing.

"Come on, boy," he growled at Ranma.

"What's up?"

"We have to find that cat," he intoned.

Ranma gagged on his bug juice. "Excuse me?" he choked.

"It's no joke, Ranma. That cat stole the astrogational database patch for the Ryuugenzawa System."

"Huh?" he grunted. "That's totally bizarre."

"Hey," Ukyou interjected, coming to a sudden conclusion. "You don't suppose that cat was no ordinary cat... do you?"

"That's the idea," Genma confirmed. "Given the number of people on this ship alone who have been exposed to the pools at Jusenkyo, anything is possible."

"No way..." Ranma groaned.

"Look, boy," Genma returned. "I know how you feel about cats, but this is too important to let your irrational fear of them get in the way..."

"It ain't that!" he shot back. "I was thinking about who it could be."

Genma raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well?"

Ranma swallowed hard. If the cat was a human with exposure to Jusenkyo, then her personal animosity towards him pointed in only one direction.

"Shampoo."

Genma blanched. "Boy, you better pray we're both wrong." He left the Crew's Mess.

Ranma followed. "C'mon, Ucchan."

Ukyou nodded, wondering where the hell Konatsu was when she needed him.

Shampoo reached 'E' Deck with little difficulty. Her jaw ached from carrying the data disc, and she was eager to change back into her human form. She set the disc down in a safe place, and then fought with the spigot to one of the heated water tanks.

The cat noises and the sudden splashing caught someone's attention.

"Shampoo?"

Mousse was there in the darkness, looking haggard and miserable. She could see the wispy growth of stubble on his lip and chin. He looked drawn and weary from remaining in hiding for so long. She almost felt sorry for him.

The water was hot enough from the spigot now to affect her change. She sprang up in a cloud of steam, naked, and surprisingly sore - as if she really had been cooped up in a tiny cat body the whole time.

"Mousse," she returned, to set him at ease.

"I've been waiting for days," he said to her. It had been longer than simply 'days,' but she was in no mood to correct him on the matter. "What happened?"

She slipped lithely past him to their packs, where she withdrew her clothes and put them on.

"There isn't much time," she answered him. "I have the coordinates to the Ryuugenzawa System." She fetched the disc and put it in his hand. "This is an astrogational database patch. Load it into a Ship's Computer, and the ship will have access to the Ryuugenzawa System."

"Is that what the announcement over the intercom was about?"

"Exactly," she replied. "That's why we don't have much time. Now there's a DropShip on the Number Three docking collar getting ready to leave for a nearby recharging station. You need to get on board before they detach. Take the disc."

Mousse blinked in astonishment. "But what about you?"

Shampoo flexed her hands into fists. "I have a score to settle with the Saotomes, and I'm also sworn to kill them to atone for my mistake on Lightoller. Getting the Ryuugenzawa data was only half of my mission, Mousse. I won't run from a fight with them."

"You'll never be able to escape even if you do kill them!" Mousse protested.

Shampoo gave him a hard look. That possibility had indeed occurred to her, and she had dealt with the gnawing fear within her as best as she was able. "My life is MY business, Mousse," she hissed at him. "Do not presume to think for me!"

He turned away, his fears about her confirmed. She cared no more for him than she would any other tool.

"Farewell, Shampoo," he said to her, his voice as cold as his heart had become.

She almost kissed him good-bye, knowing in a moment of sudden clarity that this was indeed good-bye.

"Farewell, Mousse," she returned. Then she added, "until we meet again."

Mousse nodded solemnly, and then turned a spigot of water upon himself. Shampoo watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as he transformed into a white duck before her eyes.

"When did you...?" she asked him.

He was gone in a flash of white, leaving behind only a single feather as he soared in free-fall towards the elevator.

Pain lanced through Mousse as he stabbed at the 'call' button with his beak. Though he bore no injuries, the pain was no less real to him. He was leaving Shampoo forever, and even if she had never loved him, he had loved her all too much.

His decision to become a duck had come on the spur of the moment. The surprise value of a crewmen suddenly encountering a duck in the middle of deep space would probably be enough to enable at least one escape from danger. There was also the fact that he wanted to show Shampoo that she wasn't alone with her Jusenkyo curse, that he shared the experience with her, that they had something in common. It was a perverse pleasure at best, because he knew that she would not escape from the ship, and so they'd never have a chance to talk about their cursed bodies.

He didn't know why he hadn't shown her before. Shame perhaps. Or else the fear that she might consider his Jusenkyo body to be the perfect excuse for getting rid of him for good. After all, she could always plead ignorance when the Council confronted her on the fact that she had eaten her companion for supper...

It was a long ride down to the docking collars. The airtight door to the Palomino was still open pending the repairs to the ship, and he watched as one of the Dragonfly's engineering crew floated through the connecter tube with a tool belt, having assisted where he could. Mousse remained out of sight as the engineering type took the ladder well instead of the elevator, then made a soaring leap for the door.

He was through the connector tube and into the Cargo Bay without notice. Choosing a spot where he could remain hidden and still have easy access to the door, he buckled down to wait. The Palomino Roving Watch appeared as he settled in, floating towards the connecter tube. One of the Dragonfly crew drifted into view on the opposite end, carrying a frangible-flechette 'nailgun,' made especially for use aboard spaceships, at port arms.

"Seen anything unusual?" the sailor with the nailgun asked the rover.

"Like what?" the rover replied, eyeing the weapon uneasily.

"Like a pink and purple cat?"

The rover shook his head. "What'd she do," he asked, pointing to the weapon. "Piss in your rack or something?"

"Beats me," the sailor replied. "I got racked out to stand guard down here and look out for a pink and purple cat, or else a purple-haired Amazon girl. I'm to shoot either of them without hesitation if they try to get on board your ship."

"An Amazon girl?" the rover cackled. "Hell, I got something better than a nailgun round to poke her with!"

"Ain't that the truth," the sailor agreed. "I haven't been out boozing and whoring in months. While you and your fellow DropShip goombahs were out fuckin' around on Tiber, I was stuck on this piece of shit getting her back into shape."

"Them's the breaks," the rover returned with a grin. "I wouldn't sweat this duty. We're about to leave. I was just coming down to check the hatch shut after Cap'n Grant gives the word to shove off."

"It's a nice thought," the sailor remarked. "But as soon as you leave, they'll just send me to guard some other damn thing." He thumped the bulkhead with his fist. "What kinda bullshit alert is this, anyway?"

"Lotsa luck," the rover said cheerfully. "While you're stuck up here playing wanna-be Marine, me and my 'goombah' DropShip buddies are going to enjoy a brief shore leave on the station."

"Damn," the sailor grunted ruefully. "I'm puttin' in for a transfer to the DropShip Command. This months-in-the-middle-of-nowhere bullshit is really starting to suck ass."

"ALL HANDS STAND CLEAR OF THE DOCKING TUBE AIRTIGHT DOOR," the 1MC of the Palomino announced.

"Later," the rover said with a wave. He eased away from the airtight as it slid slowly shut.

Mousse watched as the man checked the seals and made a brief phone call to the DropShip's Flight Deck to report. Several minutes passed as the ship was released by the Dragonfly's docking apparatus. Several more passed before the ship jolted with spurts of thruster fire from the Reaction Control System. The brief roar of the Main Engines followed after, and then there was only silence and free-fall.

He was away.

"Let me get this straight," Ukyou began as she and Ranma floated down one of the 'B' Deck passages. Konatsu followed behind them at a discreet distance. "We're either looking for the Captain's pet Siamese cat, or else an Amazon girl from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth named after a hair-cleaning product."

"Pretty much," Ranma agreed. He was upset, and trying not to show it. Ukyou had latched onto him from the beginning of the search, and thinking nothing of it, he had not objected. This was apparently a mistake, for this in turn made Akane spin-up like a turbine with a broken overspeed-trip. She nearly dislocated Ryouga's shoulder latching onto him as a partner for the search, and Ranma actually pitied his mechwarrior rival for once.

"So who is this Shampoo girl?" she asked him as he thought about ways to mitigate the wrath of his overreacting fiancee. "You seem to know an awful lot about her." She gave him a disapproving look. "Don't tell me your father engaged you to her as well."

"It ain't like that," he replied. "If this really is Shampoo, then I guess you could say that Pop and I are the ones who are sorta responsible for her turning into a cat."

"Why am I not surprised," Ukyou remarked dryly. "Tell me, Ranchan, is there any place in the galaxy where you and your father have travelled where you haven't ruined someone's life?"

Ranma thought about it.

"Take your time, sugar," Ukyou added in a saccharine voice.

"I'm thinking," he protested.

"Don't bother, honey. I think the fact that you can't come up with an answer without thinking about it is an answer in itself."

"Oh, ha ha," Ranma grumbled. It hurt because it was more or less true.He was still thinking about this when he rounded the corner, and nearly blundered into Shampoo.

Her eyes grew large as she recognized him, and her body trembled with a mixture of anxiety and anticipation. She raised her mace-like bonbori to the attack.

"RANMA SAOTOME!" she shouted at him.

"Sha-Shampoo?!" Ranma squeaked in return. The Amazon was hell-pissed, worse than anything he had ever seen from a woman.

She charged at him as he gaped.

"For what you do to Shampoo and Commonwealth, I kill!"

The first bonbori buried itself in the bulkhead as he ducked the blow. Ukyou blocked the second mace with her spatula before it could crush his head.

He recovered his wits as Ukyou shouldered the brunt of the Amazon's fury, warding off a flurry of blows with her spatula. He pushed off the bulkhead to spring at Shampoo, catching her in a flying tackle that slammed her against the opposite bulkhead.

An elbow from Shampoo drove down onto the crown of his head as they tumbled in free-fall. He hadn't hit her as hard as he had hoped, and she twisted free of his grapple with a grunt. Ukyou pressed the attack as the Amazon struggled free, and the sound of the bonbori striking the flat steel surface of the spatula rang in the tight quarters of the passageway.

"A little help, Konatsu!" Ukyou cried, just barely fending off Shampoo's furious combination of bonbori strikes and knife-edged kicks.

"Coming, sir!" he called.

The former kunoichi was already leaping to the attack, darting lithely over Ranma's shoulder as he regained his orientation in zero-gravity and looked for a way of overcoming Shampoo's defensive advantage. The narrow passageway negated their superior numbers against her.

Konatsu struck Shampoo across the chin as he zipped past, dazing her, but not before she swatted Ukyou down to the deck with one of her bonbori. The ex-brigadier yelped in pain as she rebounded off the deck, her left arm possibly broken, and the spatula floating from her hands.

Ranma got back into the fight as Ukyou went down, springing off the deck to barrel into Shampoo once more. Fighting in free-fall was effective only when you had something to push against, and combat was often an explosive series of leaps off of the scenery. He connected once more with Shampoo's midsection, drawing himself tight as he struck to maximize the effects of his hit. He didn't grapple this time, preferring to transfer all of his energy to her in one solid impact.

Shampoo reeled from the check, flying across the passageway to slam into an airtight door. Ranma could see that she was stunned by the double hit, and swam through the empty air for purchase against his next attack. Konatsu, hanging from the ceiling between them, was readying some kind of bola.

"Give it up, Shampoo," he called to her. "There's three of us, and one of you. You ain't goin' nowhere."

She caught her breath and flashed her violet eyes in anger at him. "Shampoo never give up!" she vowed. Her body tensed once again to move, the maces raised to catch Konatsu's bola before it could entangle her.

Ranma moved cautiously towards her, staying close to the bulkhead to minimize the effects of any charge from her. He realized that while her maces were nasty, her technique wasn't suited to free-fall combat. That was something going for them, at least.

She must have sensed this as well, he saw, for she tossed the heavy spherical bonbori aside and drew a long curved fighting knife instead. The heavily damask'd steel of the blade was brightly veined against the dark, cold blue base metal.

Konatsu took this as an invitation to loose his bola at her, but she anticipated this maneuver and sprang at him before he could wind it up to speed. The knife hissed through the air, cutting through his clothes and drawing forth a spurt of blood from his chest that glittered like tiny red jewels in free-fall. Konatsu did not make a sound as he threw himself away from the blade, minimizing the depth of its cut and saving his life.

He was flat-footed against her follow up attack, having lost his hold on the overhead. Shampoo sprang back from the paneled ceiling, intending to gut him with her next pass. Ranma knew he had to get back into the fight before the cross-dressing former adjutant got himself killed.

Ukyou screamed a warning as Konatsu grappled with the Amazon, the two of them falling towards the deck with the stored momentum of Shampoo's attack. Ranma saw that he had a good grip on her knife-hand wrist, keeping the questing blade from his throat by scant centimeters. He pushed off the bulkhead to kick her in the side of the head, not caring that the blow might kill her. The maces were bad enough, but she had upped the ante when she drew the knife, and the stakes were now too high for him to hold back.

She managed to wrest her other arm free to ward off his kick, deflecting him just enough in zero-gravity to send him flying into the opposite bulkhead. Konatsu responded to her distraction by landing a glancing strike with the heel of his palm under her chin. Shampoo's head rocked back, more surprised than hurt, and he was able to disengage.

Shampoo had enemies in front and behind her now, and she judged that the former kunoichi was the lesser of the two foes. She sprang past him as he tried to regain his equilibirum, sparing time for a parting kick that sent him against the bulkhead with a grunt, and pushing her in the direction she wanted to go.

"Damn it!" Ranma yelled, missing his opportunity to grapple her from behind. He watched helplessly as she pulled herself around the corner he and Ucchan had come from.

He looked to Ukyou, who was nursing her arm, her eyes a dull glaze of pain and anger. Konatsu was hurt as well, but his opinion of the weirdo cross-dresser went up a few notches. The guy had enough nerve and talent to keep from getting hacked to bits by a pissed-off Amazon from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, and that counted for something in Ranma's book.

Reason finally took hold over the heat of the moment, and he clawed for a sound-powered telephone unit set into the bulkhead.

"Bridge, this is Ranma Saotome on 'B' Deck!" he said breathlesly into the receiver. "Shampoo's on 'B' Deck between the Electronics Shop and the Radar Equipment Room, and she's got a knife."

She was cornered, he knew, for the moment. The elevator and the through-deck hatch to the other levels were behind him, and the only way to reach them was via the passageway she had used to escape. She had to come back to the junction of the two passageways if she wanted to leave 'B' Deck.

Shampoo made certain that she had some distance between herself and Ranma before stopping. She had no intention of fleeing from him, this was only a strategic retreat to assess the situation and come up with a better plan of attack. It was only a matter of time before a full alert was sounded, and the crew responded with automatic weapons. She was fast, but charging a full-auto flechette gun in a tight passageway was begging to be reduced to a quivering pile of Amazon-hamburger, and she had no intention of going out like that.

The General Alarm klaxon galvanized her into action. She didn't have time for anything fancy. Ranma must die. Genma might live, and that was regrettable, but at least she'd destroy the person who had pitched her into the Jusenkyo Pool.

"Where the heck is the elevator? Akane? Akane, where'd you go?" a voice asked behind her. She whirled in surprise and alarm, the man hadn't made a sound in his approach until he spoke.

Her kick struck Ryouga Hibiki across the jaw, rocking his head to the side. He spun in a slow circle in midair, and she was convinced at first that she had cold-cocked him. Then, as he spun back around to face her, she saw to her horror and amazement that he was unfazed by her blow.

"You..." he said in a low, angry voice, catching himself with a hand to either side of the passageway.

She lunged with her knife, thrusting it into the empty gap between his armpit and his arm as he dodged. He grappled with her extended arm before she could withdraw, and she brought her foot up in a desperate high kick at him, catching him across the ear and drawing blood.

Ryouga shrugged off the blow, savagely headbutting her in response. Her eyes swam for a moment in shock before she wrenched free of his iron grip, cutting him across the forearm as she disengaged.

The noise brought Ranma bearing down on her as she put the bulkhead at her back. Her eyes flicked to the airtight door marked with red and white diagonal stripes just within arm's reach - one of the ship's lifepods. Angry with heself for even considering escape, she faced off against both men, ready to sell her life dearly.

"Leave her to me," Ryouga growled at Ranma.

"I owe her for what she did to Ucchan," Ranma growled back. He looked to Shampoo, who kept her knife pointed at his face. "How about it, Shampoo?" he asked her. "What say we settle this right now, just you and me?"

Shampoo eyed Ryouga warily. "He no interfere?" she asked archly. "Shampoo no believe that."

Ranma shot Ryouga a look. "You okay with this, Ryouga?"

"When she cuts your heart out, Ranma, I'll be the one to console Akane."

"As if," Ranma snorted in reply. He made a beckoning gesture to Shampoo. "Let's go, sweetheart."

Ryouga edged away from them as they positioned themselves on the bulkheads to spring into action. Konatsu and Ukyou appeared behind the fanged mechwarrior. Both were injured, but it was clear that they would jump in if the opportunity presented itself.

"Stay back," he warned them. "This is between Ranma and her."

Ukyou rolled her eyes.

"What do you think this is, Ranchan?" she groused. "Some kind of duel?"

Ranma didn't take his eyes off Shampoo.

"Yeah," he replied in a slow, easy drawl.

"Just hold her there until the guys with guns show up," she protested. "There's no need to get yourself killed over this."

"Jeez, Ucchan," he returned. "Have a little faith, willya?" He flexed his fingers as he maintained his stare-down of the Amazon. "I mean, she was a chump back at the Jusenkyo Labs, and she ain't looking much tougher now."

That wasn't true, of course. He had a lot of respect for her as a fighter, but her temper and her pride seemed to be her weak spots. She had come a long way for revenge, and he was pretty sure she wasn't planning on getting out of this alive. Suicidal people didn't always think straight.

"Shampoo make you eat false words!" she cried, taking the bait, and springing at him with the knife.

He held his position, gripping the handholds along the bulkhead and bringing his feet up to kick her in the knife-hand wrist as she lunged at him. She slammed into him an instant later as the blade flew out of her grip and embedded itself in the overhead. They rebounded off the bulkhead in a tangle of limbs, Shampoo cursing him in Chinese as she tried to escape.

He caught her by the ankle as she forced her way clear of him to scramble for the knife. Hooking one foot into the bulkhead handhold, he had her trapped in midair, with nothing to push off against, and her motion arrested by his grip. She screamed in protest, stomping futilely at his hand, but he had her by the outside of her ankle, which made it difficult for the Amazon to land a telling blow with her other foot.

"It's over, Shampoo," he said to her through clenched teeth. The exertion of holding her away from the surfaces of the passageway was nearly too much for him.

"It not over!" she protested. She squirmed and struggled against him, but with no leverage in free-fall, her efforts were in vain. Every impulse against him was checked.

"Face it," he returned. "It's over. You're dead in the water right now."

Akane, Genma, Happousai, and Doctor Tofu appeared as he spoke. Behind them was a detachment of Dragonfly crew armed with nailguns.

"I say the word, Shampoo," Ranma continued. "And you get riddled with about a bazillion flechettes." He caught her eye as he said this. "Do you really want to die like that?"

"Put your hands behind your neck," Akane ordered the Amazon as she considered the prospect of a thousand ceramic darts bursting apart inside her body. "Lock your fingers together and turn so we can see it."

Shampoo could not believe that she had failed a third time. Mousse might have been able to escape with the Ryuugenzawa data, but the Saotomes lived. She had failed her great-grandmother again.

And yet, while she lived, there was still hope that she could kill Ranma Saotome and his father. Her only remaining options were to make one last futile attack and die in a fusilade of frangible ceramic darts, or surrender and bide her time for the opportunity to strike without warning.

"You're running out of time," Akane added in a menacing tone.

Shampoo ceased her struggles. Ranma pulled her down to the deck opposite him, gripping her by the wrists and holding her fast. She looked into his eyes, expecting to see her hatred mirrored there, and finding only a stern resolve that she cause no more harm. His look moved her more than she cared to admit.

"Shampoo surrender to Ranma," she said huskily. "No surrender to Tendo girl."

"It's all the same to me," Ranma replied before Akane could protest.

The Amazon looked him over once more.

"Man who defeat Amazon have certain privileges over her," she said quietly, her voice as taut as her body.

"News to me," he replied, somewhat nervously. The look she was giving him had made an abrupt shift from furious to, well, hungry. It was the same look Akane had given him after their recent encounter in the elevator, which began to worry him to no end when it came from Shampoo.

"You not know this?" she asked him.

"Like I said, it's news to me. Now are you gonna come quietly or what?"

"As Shampoo say, Shampoo surrender to Ranma alone."

Ranma remained wary of her nonetheless. "Right, I accept your surrender. Now if you'll just -"

She leaned over and kissed him hard on the mouth, apparently with no intention of coming up for air anytime soon.

"HEY!" both Akane and Ukyou chorused in protest.

"She won't talk," Ranma grunted to Captain Ninomiya and the others. His head was still smarting from the simultaneous blows he had received from Akane and Ukyou. He had expected as much from Akane, but getting smacked by Ucchan had really rattled him.

He had no idea why Shampoo had kissed him. Maybe it was some weird ritual for a defeated Amazon, but he had felt real heat in her embrace. He also felt a little guilty with himself for deciding to return it, and now he had Akane upset with him again.

It wasn't like he had started it or anything, he grumbled to himself. She kissed me!

Shampoo, her clothing torn and her body bruised from her fight with Ranma and company, stared defiantly at them through the reinforced window of her cell. The Ship's Brig had three cells, each large enough for one occupant. In the centermost cell, Shampoo resembled a caged tiger; hungry, sullen, and eager for a chance to strike back at her captors.

"She doesn't need to talk for what I'd like to do to her," Happousai cackled, and was roundly smashed into the deck by all present before Shampoo could even grimace.

"My question is," Ryouga remarked, nursing his sore jaw as he spoke. "How did she find us? I mean, we misjumped to the Palatine System, and that's almost two hundred light-years from Capra."

"We've all heard the rumors that the Commonwealth has agents within Comstar," Genma replied. "We spent almost a month there waiting on parts and affecting repairs. They must have intercepted our transmissions to Nerima through the Tiber Consulate, and obviously there had been enough time for Shampoo to catch up with us. She infiltrated aboard as a cat while the ship was in the yards."

Hinako seethed with anger at this. Shampoo's theft of the database patch was the worst kind of betrayal for her.

"See that's she's kept isolated," she said at length. "A few weeks of solitary confinement might loosen her tongue. In the meantime, we'll need to organize search parties out of the Palomino detachment and the off-going watch sections to look for that disc."

"She couldn't have hidden it that well," Genma observed. "She didn't have time for that."

"We should start on 'B' Deck," Akane added. "That's where we found her after her escape."

"We should be looking for the other Amazon," Ranma put in. "Don't forget that extra pair of clothes the crew found lying around on 'E' deck, and there was food for at least two people in their gear."

"Agreed," Hinako said. "Until further notice, all hands will carry sidearms, and no one travels alone. We'll go Port and Starboard watches if necessary to make that happen."

"I hate to mention this," Genma muttered. "But it's conceivable that if Shampoo did have an accomplice, that she might have stowed away on board the Palomino with the database patch when the DropShip transited over to the station. There wasn't much time - maybe fifteen minutes - between the theft of the disc and the departure of the DropShip, but it's a possibility."

"I didn't want to consider that," Hinako replied. "But it seems that I must. If her accomplice made it to the station, then there is nothing we can do."

"We can go over there and look for her," Ranma disagreed.

Hinako shook her head. "And start a riot on the station?" she countered. "End up getting the Dragonfly seized, and all of us made prisoner? That's Federated Shiratori territory over there, and we're a long way from our home systems... It's a bad idea, Saotome. We're better off reaching Ryuugenzawa as quickly as possible, before anyone else does."

"In spite of the threat of interception, we need to communicate this to Nerima," Genma added. "We'll need to have a transport ship waiting near the border with the Magistracy that can rendezvous with us. If nothing else, they can deliver cargo DropShips with crews to the Dragonfly so we can haul away as much material as possible before the Commonwealth or anyone else can get there."

"I concur," Hinako replied. "But first things first. We need to verify that the accomplice is no longer on board the Dragonfly."

Mousse paused before the main offices of the station's Comstar branch. Though he had left the Dragonfly as a duck, being an adept in the School of Hidden Weapons meant that he was not without his resources, and the certified draft that drew upon a numbered account with the Bank of Sol would pay for his HPG communique to General Herb, and still leave plenty for food and lodging on the station until arrangements could be made for rendezvous. He had a hunch that the Domingo was still within the Federated Shiratori, awaiting just such a mission.

Shampoo was lost to him, he knew with some regret in spite of their chilly farewell. Even if she had succeeded in killing the two Saotomes, her chances of escaping from the JumpShip were slim. She was dead by now, or a prisoner.

It made what he had to do somewhat easier knowing that Shampoo had no more hold over him. The Joketsuzoku as well, for he no longer considered himself one of them. He was part of the Musk Dynasty now, at least in his heart, and his information would see them to victory over the rest of the clan.

He was tired of being a loser, an object of ridicule by the women of the clan. Now it was time for a new order of things, and General Herb and the Musk Dynasty would make that happen. With the secrets of Ryuugenzawa behind them, how could they fail?

Chief Medical Officer's Dayroom

Nerima Confederation JumpShip Dragonfly

11 May 3025

Doctor Tofu looked up at the sound of his office door chime. He keyed the door's intercom from his desk.

"Akane, please come in and have a seat."

She entered, a little surprised that he had known who it was behind the closed door. Granted, he had been the one to summon her, but it was still unnerving.

"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about, Doctor?" she asked him.

He waited until she was seated before responding.

"This was something I wanted to bring up yesterday," he began. "But with the intruders and the theft of the database disc, the matter got sidetracked. Now that things have settled down a little bit, I want you to know that I've been going over your medical record."

"Is there a problem?" she asked, concerned.

"A small detail," he admitted. "I realize that I'm not your gynecologist, Akane, but I am your family doctor, and at the moment the expedition's Chief Medical Officer." He displayed a portion of her medical record for her. "Could you read that for me, please?"

She leaned over the desk and frowned at what she saw. It was a statement of acknowledgement in her medical record that she had signed when she had her physical exam to become a mechwarrior. She had been fourteen at the time.

"'I understand that due to my occupational exposure to ionizing radiation as a Mechwarrior of the Nerima Confederation, and because this occupation requires transport aboard nuclear powered spacecraft, that I must submit to a method of contraception approved by the Confederation Surgeon General, and to be administered by local medical authority as directed by OPMED 2.33.12-26 and by other regulations as appropriate.'"

Tofu nodded as she finished. "Is that your signature beneath all that verbage?"

"Yes, Doctor," she said sheepishly.

"I take it from your tone that you now understand what this is about," he said to her.

"Yes, Doctor," she confirmed.

"Now, Akane, up until now, I haven't been concerned by the fact that you haven't been taking your birth control pills. It's against the regulations for women of child-bearing age in your position, but as far as I know, you haven't been sexually active, either."

Akane began to splutter something in protest.

"I'm not interested in details about what you and Ranma may or may not being doing together in your spare time," Tofu continued. "It's none of my business, but since the two of you are starting to get along better, I thought it would be prudent for you to begin your required contraceptive regimen now, so you'll be in the habit of doing it should the time come when a certain Pig-Tailed Mechwarrior corrects his current Cranial-Rectal Inversion."

In spite of what he was proposing, she had to smile at his assessment of Ranma's condition.

"I think we might be waiting a long time for that to happen," she observed, somewhat ruefully.

"He's nineteen years old," Tofu pointed out, recalling his recent conversation with Ranma. "Between his hormones and your show of interest in him, he's going to figure it out - and probably sooner than you think."

She blushed at the thought.

"I've already taken the liberty of procuring your first month's set of pills from the Pharmacy," Tofu added, displaying a small pink box for her. "Do you remember having this talk with your gynecologist?"

She nodded, still blushing at having a conversation of this nature with a man she had suffered a crush over for so long. "It's been awhile," she admitted.

"Take one a day, at the same time every day, without fail," he began. "If you do miss one, take it as soon as you remember, and continue as normal. Miss more than one, and you have to start over after your next period. You've lost any reliable contraceptive function by that point, so if you DO end up getting a little too physical with a certain someone, use an alternate method of birth control."

Akane nodded shyly and accepted the pills.

"One last thing to remember about them," Tofu continued. "It takes a full week of use for this type of oral contraceptive to become effective, so don't go jumping into the sack with Ranma until then!"

"Doctor Tofu!" she cried in protest.

He laughed in reply. "Only a joke, Akane," he offered. "But really, I want you to take your reproductive health seriously from now on. Like I said, sooner or later Ranma's going to get a clue, and when he does, you had best be ready for him." He gave her a reassuring pat on the hand. "You're both very young, in spite of all the responsibility heaped upon you by this engagement. You're both definitely too young to be having children of your own."

Akane nearly crashed into Akari as she floated down the passageway to the 'D' Deck elevator.

"I'm terribly sorry, milady," the young technician apologized.

"No, no," Akane returned. "It was my fault for not watching where I was going." She looked away for a beat. "I've got some things on my mind right now."

Akari inclined her head in acknowledgment. "Have you seen Lieutenant Hibiki?" she asked in return.

"No, I haven't."

"A shame," Akari sniffed. "He gets lost from time to time, especially on spaceships." She uttered a resigned sigh. "I hope he's all right."

Akane gave the technician a tiny smile. "You like him, don't you?"

Akari nodded happily. "I'm going to marry him if I can help it," she admitted proudly.

"Really?" the Tendo Heir gushed. This was a surprise! She knew that the two were often found together, but she never would have gone so far as to say that there were wedding bells in their future. The two of them did make an awfully cute couple, she supposed.

Akari began to blush as her head bobbed in the affirmative. "Someday," she said, sounding as if 'someday' was practically around the corner. "I know that in my heart, Ryouga and I were meant to be together."

"Ryouga's a great guy," Akane offered, remembering her own assessment of the man taken on the Mess Deck of the Palomino shortly after their escape from Capra. "If you can catch him, you'll have quite a prize." She started past. "Well, good luck to you!"

"Thank you, milady," Akari returned. "Good luck to you as well," she added as they parted. "If it means anything to you, milady, I think Captain Saotome will make a good husband for you."

Akane nearly smashed into the far bulkhead before catching herself, and arresting her forward motion. That was assuming some bimbo Amazon or some long-lost fiancee didn't get him first, she thought angrily. She righted herself and turned for the elevator.

Amazingly, P-chan was there, squealing with relief at having narrowly avoided her impact with the bulkhead.

"P-chan?!" Akane cried. She scooped up the little black pig and nuzzled it. "It's been over a week, P-chan! Where have you been?"

Her pet pig was known to disappear for days on end, but he always turned up sooner or later. Though the crew rarely saw him, he seemed to never lack for the basic necessities, for he was as plump and healthy looking as always.

"I get so worried when I don't see you," she continued in a motherly tone. The pig grunted weakly in reply as she floated into the elevator.

Once they were safely within her stateroom, she set P-chan down on the bed and walked over to her fold-down desk. She set a small pink plastic box on the writing surface and browsed through the instructions, indications, and warnings.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she said to P-chan. "I haven't been on the Pill since I was sixteen."

The pig nearly bowled over with embarrassment.

She popped the first pill free of its foil and plastic prison and held it for a moment in her hand. The little blue oval looked wholly unremarkable to her.

She filled a glass of water from the bathroom sink and used it to swallow the pill.

"It's probably just a waste of time anyway," she said to herself. "Ranma would never..." Her voice trailed off, thinking of their fleeting moment of passion in the elevator. It had come without warning, and if Ryouga hadn't been around to break them up, who knew how far they might have gone...

"Then again," she observed at length, sitting down on the bed next to her pet pig.

P-chan grunted questioningly at her. It was funny, but there seemed to be such intelligence and animation behind his various squeals and grunts at times. It was almost like he was talking to her.

"What's that, P-chan?" she asked him. "Have I ever thought about sleeping with Ranma before?"

This was definitely NOT the question he had asked her, and the very mention of sex between his rival and the girl who now sat on the bed with him was enough to make his head spin with dismay. He didn't want to hear her answer, but being a pig, could find no effective way to stop up his ears.

"Oh yeah," she said in a husky voice, her eyes becoming soft with longing. "Since we left Tiber? Oh hell yes...!"

P-chan made a whimpering noise. It was worse than he had thought. He begrudged them a kiss, however painful the idea was for him, but for Akane to be considering the Holy of Holys with Ranma...! Even preparing for it by taking birth-control pills...!

He made a choking noise, and swooned to the deck, with Akane catching him just before he hit.

"P-chan!" she cried worriedly. "What's the matter with you?" She cradled him close, and her warmth and affection restored him somewhat. "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you, P-chan."

The pig grunted miserably, realizing that his dreams would remain forever just as they were - dreams.

Ranma Saotome hovered at the entrance to the Starboard Greenhouse, his eyes set with determination to complete his mission.

That mission: collect flowers to give to Akane.

He wasn't entirely certain why he was pressing ahead with Doctor Tofu's advice. His feelings for Akane were still very mixed up. On the one hand, he had to admit that he liked her, and that he wanted her to like him, too. On the other hand, he was still very opposed to the idea of marrying her just to please their folks - and then have the Grand Duke abdicate and dump the whole Confederation on him. That was a definite turn-off to the whole affair.

After some consideration, he decided that his gift of flowers was more to get back in Akane's good graces - and to ensure a measure of peace and goodwill between them - than any concession on his part to marry the bossy, overbearing, overheated, but definitely cute when she wanted to be, tomboy.

Having come to that conclusion, he had made a few oblique enquiries among the ship's cooks about the process of procuring said flowers. The replies he had received were not encouraging. While there were no specific prohibitions against collecting flowers, there was a general ship's regulation that forbade unqualified personnel from harvesting plant life of any kind from the Greenhouse. If you weren't on the Chief Cook's list as a gardener, you weren't allowed to pick flowers.

Ranma decided that it was a stupid regulation, and set out to collect what he needed as expeditiously and as covertly as possible.

The Greenhouse was currently deserted. The light of the Wexford primary glinted through the transparent dome and filtered down upon the wealth of free-fall hydroponics. The air was humid and warm, and filled with the earthy scent of growing things.

Lacking any sort of guide to tell what was what, Ranma decided to go by looks...

Eight Shining Pearls Fortress

Planet Jusenkyo, Jusenkyo System

The Jusenkyo Commonwealth

13 May 3025

Mechwarrior General Herb stamped her foot impatiently on the heated flagstones of her personal bathhouse, waiting for her henchmen to arrive with bathing sundries. She cursed the sudden cloudburst that had revealed her Jusenkyo Body to the inhabitants of the fortress, and she cursed Doctor Gaido for his monolithic incompetence by allowing her spill in the pool to happen in the first place.

"I'm WAITING," she growled breathlessly to Lime, who appeared from behind a painted screen with a robe, towels, and a selection of soaps and lotions.

Lime dropped to one knee and presented the goods to his general. Herb noticed with more than a little dissatisfaction that his imposing henchman was ogling her heaving bosom. It had been like this ever since Lightoller; at any time where she had succumbed to the Jusenkyo Effect, her henchmen couldn't take their eyes off her body. She had to admit that she was pretty stacked, but her pride ran no further than that.

"Stop staring," she growled at him. Lime averted his eyes.

She disrobed while keeping an imperious glower leveled at Lime - should the temptation to peek overcome his better judgement. The hefty Musk Dynasty officer refrained from any overt glances, but as she padded in the nude across the stones to the steamy grotto of the bath, she could feel his greasy eyes upon her. It was an unnerving experience, and she struggled to keep her dignity as she waded into the water.

The change came swiftly, and he heaved out a sigh of relief. He was a man once more. Lime retired behind the screen to await the call of his general. Herb was content to sit in thoughtful silence.

He had many things to consider, many plans in motion, and plans to be set in motion. He was constantly evaluating his situation for any signs of weakness or error. As he was plotting the ultimate downfall of the Elder Council, he could not afford to leave any openings or loose ends.

The hissing of whispered voices behind the screen roused him from inner contemplations. Mint had appeared, and he caught enough of the exchange between the small but fierce warrior and his giant companion to know that they were discussing his female body again. He rubbed his hand against his temple in response to the migraine headache the overheard conversation brought upon him.

Why couldn't those two idiots visit the comfort women like everyone else? he lamented. He had a mind to order them to do so, but knew that it would probably be a waste of time. They were trusted henchmen - if a bit dull - and powerful warriors, but in matters regarding women, they were clueless.

Mint appeared from behind the screen with a dispatch. Herb looked up through wifts of scented steam from the bath at the salmon-pink hardcopy of a Comstar Dispatch. The public never saw the pink copies, which were routing sheets for the HPG tech-priests who maintained the Inner Sphere's faster-than-light communications network. This was taken from one such station through a Commonwealth infiltrator.

"What is it?" he demanded.

"Your pardon, General," Mint demurred. "A communique from Mechwarrior Mousse has arrived through channels."

Herb sat up straight in the bath. Mousse had very specific instructions regarding communication. He was not to send anything unless he had succeeded in his mission - or that his mission had very obviously failed.

"Show it to me," he barked.

"Of course, General."

The message on the dispatch was encrypted with a basic two-step keyword substituton cypher - enough to keep honest men honest and within the limited resources Mousse had available to him. Herb noted the freehand ink decryption above the random characters of the message.

VITAL SYSTEM COORDINATES OBTAINED. FATE OF SAOTOMES UNKNOWN. FATE OF SHAMPOO UNKNOWN - PRESUMED DEAD OR CAPTURED. PRESENT LOCATION: WEXFORD SYSTEM, FEDERATED SHIRATORI. IMMEDIATE RENDEZVOUS REQUESTED TO TRANSFER NECESSARY DATA. ALSO: I CONCEDE THAT YOU WERE RIGHT ABOUT SHAMPOO, GENERAL, AND I WISH TO SERVE AT YOUR SIDE.

MOUSSE

Herb smiled as he read the final sentence of the message. Mousse had turned, an unexpected if welcome bit of news. No doubt Shampoo had given him the final push away from Cologne and her Joketsuzoku harpies.

He would welcome Mousse personally, he decided. The man was an excellent mechwarrior, and his hate would make him a powerful ally in the days to come. They would be heady days indeed.

Peony continued to undermine Cologne's influence in the council, though it was clear now that she lacked the nerve and the resolve to depose her enemy until there was no hope of opposition, and she completely ignored the threat that the Musk Dynasty represented. Cologne was too busy fending off Peony and her cronies to keep more than half an eye on him. The Commonwealth was nearly ripe for the taking.

It would be five years or more before he would be ready to act openly against the Council - time he needed to add to his powerbase, and to exploit whatever technological advantages Ryuugenzawa would bring him. He had been prepared to act sooner than this, but the subject of the Star League's fabled testing grounds had been too compelling to ignore, and he had adjusted his timetable accordingly. Now he had the location of the system within his grasp. Now the countdown to the end of matriarchal rule could begin.

"Notify all my commanders to prepare for immediate departure from this system," he ordered Mint. "Have the Domingo retrieve Mousse, and arrange for a rendezvous along the Commonwealth border."

"At once, General." Mint saluted, and dashed out of the bath to carry out his orders.

Herb made a fist and cupped it with his other hand.

"Very soon, Cologne, the Commonwealth will fall to me."

The City of Gondolin

Planet Nerima, Capella System

The Nerima Confederation

27 April 3025

"- the diplomatic implications of this shocking assassination are as yet unknown," the talking head on the television set declared, his facial expression suitably grave for the event. Nabiki had one of her bodyguards increase the volume as her limousine sped up the roadway from the starport to the city proper.

"There has been no official comment from Grand Duke Tendo," the news anchor continued. "But in a bizarre twist of events, your Forty-Four News Team has received information linking the assassin, Lord Rolf Thuringia of Tikonov, to the Duke's inner circle of advisors."

Nabiki smiled. The beauty of modern journalism for her was that it was so hungry for 'breaking news' that it would swallow just about anything to be the first to broadcast, and that meant little or no research of its own for independent verification.

"Again, this breaking development," the anchor intoned. "League of Five Nails Ambassador Tetsuo Gosunkugi was assassinated shortly before Sixteen O'Clock Gondolin Mean Time, on the Oyama Commerce Space Station. The Ambassador was rumored to be in the Capella System to broker an alliance against the Furinkan Combine with Grand Duke Tendo, and was murdered by a lone assassin in a station hotel conference room. The assassin was himself killed by the Ambassador's bodyguard immediately after the attack, leaving his motive for the brutal slaying unclear at this time."

"Go on," Nabiki urged the screen. She and her staff-in-exile had been working frantically for the last four hours since her return to the planet to set this in motion, and she had greased all the right wheels with the media to make it happen.

"There are, however, unconfirmed reports that the murder was not simply the act of a lone assassin, but a well-orchestrated execution sanctioned from within Azure Cloud Castle - again for motives that are unclear at this time."The anchor looked away from the camera for a moment as he received something important off the TelePrompter.

"We've just received word from the Castle. Grand Duke Tendo's Press Secretary has vigorously denied any involvement by His Grace in such an act."

Nabiki watched as her father's Press Secretary took the rostrum in a hastily prepared press conference called as the first of her carefully planted news leaks began to spill.

"His Grace, Grand Duke Soun Tendo, categorically denies any involvement in this terrible tragedy, and furthermore denounces the rumors that any of his advisors or staff were responsible. This is a grave moment in the history of the Nerima Confederation, and His Grace is even now ordering an official investigation into this incident to show his sincere goodwill towards the League of Five Nails."

Nabiki stifled a laugh. The personal DropShip of Tetsuo Gosunkugi was speeding back to the Jump Point that very moment - without Tetsuo's remains, thanks to her behind-the-scenes meddling. The gung-ho Navy had unwittingly helped her in her plot by threatening to destroy the ship if its crew made any unsanctioned attempts to take the Ambassador's body off the station. The League of Five Nails was going to get her version of the story first, and they would not be inclined to listen to any of her father's waffling rhetoric and apologies.

She felt confident about herself for the first time since the death of Tetsuo. It had taken an act of near-divine inspiration to turn Rolf's incomprehensible act of stupidity to her advantage, and she was rolling on the momentum of her decision to act. The nobles had fallen in line almost at once - though Count Baldur of Thuringia was understandably shaken by the death of his son, and of Rolf's culpablity in the murder of the Ambassador.

It was vital for her that they never know the true details of the murder. She was playing it up as another sign that her father was insane - that he was throwing away every opportunity for the Confederation to survive the war against the Combine - and even the nobles whose support was lukewarm and skeptical at best were lapping it up.

The Grand Duke's Personal Chambers

Azure Cloud Castle

28 April 3025

"I'm here," Nabiki announced, stepping through the doors of the Duke's chambers with her escort. Soun was there, along with Kasumi, some of his most loyal supporters, and an attractive woman of middle-age whom Nabiki did not know. It was just past midnight, and the atmosphere in the room was grim. Riots had started in Gondolin as her rumors and dark innuendo continued to grow - fueled by the seeming futility of the war in spite of their daring victory at Oni - and further implicating the Duke as a man insane, who had ruined the country's only chance at victory over the Combine by ordering the death of Tetsuo Gosunkugi. It was most certainly the act of a man who had lost his mind when the League was lending such dramatic support to the Confederation war effort these past few weeks.

"And I want to make something immediately clear, Daddy," she continued. "I'm here because I choose to appear before you, not because I've been commanded to come."

Soun was livid. He whirled on her, eyes flashing.

"What have you done, Nabiki!?" he demanded.

She brushed his accusation aside.

"From what I'm hearing, it's what you've done, Daddy," she returned coolly.

Soun was having none of it. "You've murdered the League Ambassador!" he shouted. "Murdered! On Confederation territory, right before he could meet with me! Do you realize that he was here to propose highest level talks that would aid us in the war?"

She motioned for one of her bodyguards to fetch her a drink, ignoring most of his tirade.

"So why did you have him bumped off, then?" she accused in a dry, faintly mocking tone.

Soun reeled, speechless. Kasumi stood from the divan to approach the two of them.

"Look, Daddy," Nabiki said in a business-like tone. "Let's get down to brass tacks. I've been authorized to act for the Confederation's Peer Circle in this matter." She produced a crisp parchment document whose ink had barely dried, and showed him the menagerie of seals and signatures affixed to it. "By near-unanimous consent, it has been determined by the Peers of the Confederation that you, Grand Duke Tendo, are mentally unfit to rule, and that you are to abdicate immediately to me as Confederation Regent, pending a formal investiture of the Confederation Heir - assuming of course that my little sister ever returns from that misadventure you sent her on."

"Arrest her," Soun ordered his men. They took a hesistant step forward.

Nabiki waved them off. "Arrest yourself," she returned. "You should realize that it's all I can do to keep the people of the city below this castle from storming the gates," she said to him. "They want your head for this, Daddy. As far as they're concerned, you're a deranged lunatic who will sacrifice all of us for some foolish pride in your war against the Combine."

Her bodyguard brought her the drink as the household troops remained where they were. She sipped at it as her father seemed to fall back upon himself. After watching him writhe for a moment, Nabiki pressed home the attack.

"If you don't abdicate, you will only further convict yourself in the eyes of the people, and the Peers will be obligated to remove you forceably from the throne. You should also know that Count Thuringia's regiment has already moved to secure the castle and the starport against the mob, and Counts Stark and Tarrega have mobilized the reserves to declare and impose martial law."

Soun read the deeper implications behind her statement. Three of his senior nobles were already in position with their units to depose him, while on the surface appearing to act in the name of restoring order to the city. He had failed to take her seriously as a threat, and she had completely outmaneuvered him.

"You have one hour to make your decision," she added. "Naturally, you and Kasumi, as well as your senior advisors, will have to be removed to a secure location - for your own safety against the mobs, of course."

Kasumi gave her a bitter look, knowing exactly what her younger sister had in mind.

"I won't abdicate," Soun declared. "This is nothing short of High Treason against me."

Nabiki made a tsk-tsk sound. "Then you give me no choice but to remove you." She made a subtle sign with her hand, and her bodyguards produced submachine guns, keeping them visible, if not directing them at anyone. Soun's own personal guard reached for weapons of their own, and a standoff ensued.

"Call them off, Daddy, before someone gets hurt. You know that I wouldn't have come here if I hadn't already won."

The middle-aged woman rose from the divan where she had been sitting with Kasumi. Nabiki watched her coolly as she approached Kasumi and the Grand Duke. There was something about her appearance that was vaguely familiar.

"Soun," the woman said in a calm voice. "I don't think that this will solve anything."

He remained resolute. "Nodoka, I..." His voice tapered off. Finally, he directed his wounded eyes toward his middle daughter. "You'll have to murder me the way you murdered the Ambassador."

Nabiki shot Kasumi a penetrating look. "If you have any influence over him, sis, I suggest that you exercise it."

Kasumi also remained resolute. "No, Nabiki. What you are doing is wrong. I'll have no part of it."

Nabiki sighed wearily. "Kasumi, you will never understand the sacrifices I've made for this country. If I thought for a moment that we could actually defeat the Furinkan Combine, I would have been behind you a hundred percent.

"But the fact is that the country is about to be overrun in a matter of weeks - if not days - and the only one who seems to be willing to prevent even more bloodshed and destruction is me."

Kasumi bowed her head. She had wrestled with that very issue on Oni. "Do the Peers know that you intend to surrender the Confederation to Prince Kuno?" she asked her.

"Of course they do," Nabiki replied. "It's the only option that not only saves lives, but allows them to keep their titles and their wealth. Don't worry, I've thought about our family too. I intend to have us remain rulers of the Confederation - we'll just have a liege lord over us like any other noble."

"Tatewaki Kuno," Kasumi spat. Nabiki was unaccustomed the venom in her older sister's voice. "The one man responsible for so much of the Inner Sphere's violence and ruin. You want to make him our liege."

"He's the one person who can unite the Inner Sphere," Nabiki countered. "It's true that he'll do it by conquest, but was there ever any doubt that he would be the one to do what two centuries of Successor Lords couldn't?"

She looked to her father again. "Last chance, Daddy. Do the honorable thing, and abdicate."

Soun closed his eyes and silent tears began to spill down his cheeks.

"I will not abdicate," he declared. "But it seems that I am in no position to resist my removal." He made a dismissive wave to his troops, who lowered their weapons grudgingly.

"So be it," Nabiki replied. She snapped her fingers, and a covey of lawyers, minor nobles, and a High Justice of the Court appeared to act as witnesses. "As of this moment, I, Nabiki Tendo, acting under the authority of the Peers of the Confederation, and in the best interests of the Nerima Confederation, do hereby strip you of the title of Grand Duke of the Confederation." She paused. This was all theater, of course, the Peers having little real power over the Ducal Throne save outright revolt, but as long as the right people were willing to play along...

"Furthermore," she continued. "I, Nabiki Tendo, under warrant from the Peers of the Confederation, do hereby assume the title of Sole Regent of the Confederation, to execute the duties and responsibilities of the office pending the return and formal investiture of the Confederation Heir, Akane Tendo, as Grand Duchess."

She looked to the witnesses, who nodded their assent.

"My first act as Regent is to place the royal family in protective custody, pending the restoration of order and as their physical and psychological conditions dictate."

Which was to say that her father would be declared completely insane, and therefore unfit to be released from guarded psychiatric care, and that Kasumi would suffer an emotional collapse from the stress of her battles on Oni, and require extensive rest and therapy somewhere far removed from the seat of power, and somehow never quite recover. All nice and neat. She could almost see the mountains of sympathy mail from their loyal subjects rolling in...

She motioned for her men to take the former Grand Duke and his retinue away. The South Tower seemed appropriate for the moment, at least until she could reestablish order and consolidate her power. Removing her father had been the easy part. Now she had to face Tatewaki Kuno head on in a struggle for the fate of the Confederation.

There was never any doubt that the country would become a vassal state, the challenge for her would be to arrange the most favorable terms for its surrender. Shogun Kuno would be her most valuable weapon against Tatewaki taking the entire country by force. She would trade him for her concessions, as well as the hand of her sister, Akane, in marriage.

She could see why Tetsuo had been so eager to get rid of the Combine Shogun. He was a total nutcase. The lunatic father of Prince Tatewaki Kuno was currently on his way to a remote seaside estate on the other side of the planet, where he and his entourage would be looked after by her personal staff. They had been cashiered out of hand by her father, and they were only too willing to showcase their loyalty to her and her alone.

She eased herself down into a chair as her father and his people were taken away to exile in the South Tower. Count Tarrega assured her that he could have order restored by sunrise, and with minimal violence once it was announced that Grand Duke Tendo had abdicated. She wasn't due to appear on television for another hour, and she wanted to rest up to appear fresh for the people.

Nerima Confederation JumpShip Dragonfly

Wexford System Nadir Jump Point

Wexford System, the Federated Shiratori

11 May 3025

Ranma Saotome knew that he was no florist, but as far as he was concerned, the selection of flowers and flowering plants he had chosen looked pretty good. He had even thought far enough ahead to have a vase with water ready for them in the stateroom he shared with his father, though the vase was a bit of an improvisation on his part - it was the plastic shipping tube for an electromagnetic decoy countermeasure, cut down with a hacksaw borrowed from the ship's tool crib from its original one meter length. All in all, pretty impressive, he thought.

Getting the flowers was the easy part. Actually delivering them to their intended recipient was going to be the challenge. Was there some kind of strategy involved in the process, or did he simply go up to her, thrust out the vase, and say something along the lines of 'this is for you'?

He had a mind to pay a quick visit to Doctor Tofu and get a little more advice on the subject, and quickly cast it aside. The Doc was giving Shampoo an exam in the Ship's Brig, to make certain that their latest prisoner wasn't hurt worse than she appeared to be. He wasn't sure what to think of Shampoo, since she had wanted to kill him for close to five months now, and had nearly killed Ucchan and Konatsu in the process. That wasn't even considering the fact that she had stolen the database disc with the Ryuugenzawa System on it.

And then there was that kiss she had given him, the kiss that had him on this florist's errand to get back in Akane's good graces.

He was disturbed by the matter, especially given her homicidal intentions where he was concerned. Why a kiss? Was it some kinda kiss of death? And that weirdo remark about guys defeating Amazons having, er, 'privileges' with them? Part of him just didn't want to know. The other part was all fired up to find out.

The door to the stateroom opened as he put the finishing touches on the arrangement. Ranma turned guiltily to see his father stepping through the door in his panda body. The panda stopped short at the sight of his son arranging a bouquet of flowers, and fumbled for his signboard.

Good idea, boy, the sign read. The room could use a little a little color.

Ranma relaxed, realizing that there would be no interrogation forthcoming.

"What's up?" he asked his father. "Why don't you turn back into a human?"

Sometimes it's just easier this way, son, Genma replied. No one bothers me when I'm like this.

"Yeah, well, I can see why."

I'm going to take a nap for awhile. Wake me before dinner.

Ranma shook his head. "Whatever. Sleep 'til you're hungry, eat 'til you're tired, eh, Pop?"

The panda gave his son a penetrating look.

The path of a true mechwarrior is fraught with peril, boy. Ranma could almost hear his father's voice as he read the sign. You should understand better than most the importance of sleeping and eating whenever the opportunity arises.

"It still sounds like a dodge to me," Ranma threw back. He stepped out of the room, resolving to come back in twenty minutes to get Akane's flowers. His father would be asleep by then.

No sooner had the door closed behind him then he was accosted by his pint-sized nemesis, Happousai.

"You've been avoiding me, Ranma," he intoned ominously.

"Well, DUH," Ranma returned. "Who wouldn't?"

Happousai was not amused. "It's been weeks, months even, since the last time we trained. I'm concerned that the heir to my Anything Goes School of Martial Arts won't measure up to the challenges before him."

"It's more like you're lusting after my girl body, and you haven't had your grope fix since Azusa's wedding," Ranma countered, even less amused than his so-called 'master.'

"We could skip the preliminaries, and go right to the part where I splash you," Happousai wheedled, confirming Ranma's suspicions. He nudged the pig-tailed mechwarrior in the arm. "How about it, eh, Hot Stuff?"

"Howsabout I beat the living daylights out of you, stuff your shattered carcass in a TDU can, and shoot you with the rest of the trash tonight before we Jump?" Ranma counter-offered. The thought of stuffing Happousai into a sheetmetal Trash Disposal Unit can just thirty centimeters in diameter and a meter long, and then shooting that can out into deep space, made him feel warm and fuzzy with satisfaction.

Happousai looked him over.

"I don't know..." he replied in a speculative tone. "I don't think you've got what it takes. Frankly, Ranma, I'm not very impressed with you. Why, your father was a better martial artist at your age than you are now."

"Him?" Ranma snorted, casting a thumb to the door of the stateroom. His father was already asleep within, and snoring loud enough to be heard through the door. "Gimme a break."

Happousai tsk'ed. "It's true that he's gone to seed since then, but back in the day, he was quite a fighter. Soun Tendo, too, if you believe it."

"Which I don't," Ranma retorted. "Duke Tendo, maybe - at least he can still see his toes every morning, but Pop? Don't make me laugh. The only people he intimidates are the owners of all-you-can-eat buffets."

"I understand, Ranma," Happousai remarked casually. "You're just afraid of being proven wrong. I know how that goes - I was your age once - thinking that I had all the answers."

"Hey!" Ranma protested. "Who says I'm afraid?"

"If you aren't afraid, then meet me in the gym in half an hour, and prove to me that I'm wrong about you," Happousai returned.

"I'll be there, freako!" Ranma growled, stabbing a thumb at his chest.

Happousai nodded with some satisfaction, and then turned away.

"I couldn't lead him along any better if I dragged him by his nose," he observed quietly. "Sucker..."

Ranma watched him go, suddenly getting the feeling that he had been had.

He walked with flowers in hand along the curved race of 'D' Deck, resolving to give them to Akane in time to keep his appointment with Happousai in the ship's gym. In spite of his apprehensions at facing the perverted old goat in what was certainly a set-up to change him into a girl and then grope him, he wasn't going to back down from a fight. It was possible that he might even win.

Ukyou stepped out of her stateroom as he approached, her eyes lighting up. Ranma cringed in spite of himself, knowing that he was just two doors shy of Akane's room. He liked Ukyou, and thought that she was pretty darn cute, but her possessive attitude towards him since she had joined the expedition was really getting on his nerves. It was almost as if she was in love with him or something.

He decided that he would rather not think about that. His life was complicated enough.

"Hiya, Ranchan!" she called to him.

He thrust the flowers behind his back.

"Hiya, Ucchan," he returned in a friendly, if somewhat neutral, voice.

She stopped short of him, eyes flicking to his hip.

"What's that?" she asked, all smiles.

"What's what?" he returned uncomfortably.

She chuckled. "What are you holding behind your back?"

"Uh, nothing," he said lamely.

"It's a very pretty bouquet of nothing," she observed. "Is it for me?"

"...uh..."

She leaned in close. "It was very thoughtful of you."

Now Ranma was starting to turn red. She had backed him into a corner, because he could not bring himself to tell her that the flowers were meant for Akane.

"Uh, well..." he muttered. "Not, er, exactly."

She laughed. "So shy," she said warmly, sidling up to him uncomfortably close. It was uncomfortable in that she was in fact extremely cute, and even he noticed it.

"How's Konatsu doing?" he asked, desperate to change the subject.

She gave him a sidelong glance. "He'll be okay. He needed some stitches, but nothing serious." She cuddled up closer to him. "So, about that bouquet of flowers...?"

"How's the arm?"

She gave him an exasperated look. "Fine. A hairline fracture from that Chinese bimbo's mace. I've had a lot worse." She tried to sneak another look at the flowers. "So... Flowers for an injured friend?"

"Hey, um, aren't you making okonomiyaki tonight for the crew?" he asked, trying for a third time to steer the conversation away from his gift of flowers for Akane.

She huffed in frustration, but played along.

"Sure am, Ranchan," she replied. "I'll be sure to make a special batch of them, just for you." She fluttered her eyelashes at him. "You be sure to come into the galley tonight, and I'll whip them up right there. We can eat them together, just the two of us."

"Sounds great!" he enthused, a little too hastily. "Oh jeez, I'm supposed to be in the gym right now, getting my ass kicked by Happousai. I gotta go."

He started off in the opposite direction, cupping the bouquet close to his chest.

"Happousai?" Ukyou called after him. "That little satyr? Tell me those flowers aren't for him!"

"Of course not!" Ranma replied indignantly.

"Then who are they for?" she demanded.

He decided that it was better not to say anything. Worse, his hands were starting to itch.

The ship's gymnasium was a small affair, a compartment slightly larger than the average living room. Its purpose was to provide a place for the crew to work out, since their prolonged exposure to periods of free-fall and the meager artificial gravity provided by the Grav Deck meant waging a war against muscle atrophy and bone deossification that exercise helped forestall. The exercise machines folded out of the bulkheads for use, leaving the room empty when they were stowed. Padding along the walls, deck, and overhead made a decent, if small, dojo for martial artists to practice.

Happousai was there, standing in the far corner as he entered the room. Akane was there too, dressed in a shimmering white bodysuit, and peddling furiously on one of the exercycles. Ranma could tell by the look of irritation on her face, and by Happousai's greasy countenance, that he had been ogling her in silence the whole time.

"You're here early," Happousai said to him. "Hey, nice flowers," he added, cackling. Akane looked up, surprised to see Ranma holding a makeshift bouquet of them in his hands. "Not exactly what I'd select to put on your grave, but at least you were prepared," the tiny mechwarrior finished.

"Bite me," Ranma returned curtly. "You'll get these from me the hard way, I promise."

"You mean they're for me?" Happousai gushed, his eyes dewing. "Ranma! You shouldn't have!" He leaped over to the pig-tailed mechwarrior, reaching for them. "Why, no one's given me flowers in ages!"

"Back off, freak!" Ranma retorted, slamming Happousai to the deck. "They ain't for you!"

"Who are they for?" Akane asked from the exercycle. Her hopeful look made him weak in the knees.

Happousai popped up in full recovery, catching the look that passed between the two young mechwarriors with a low whistle.

"Say..." he opined. "Do my eyes deceive me? Is my star pupil actually growing a pair of cojones?" He leaped at Ranma's chest, catching a handful of red mandarin blouse in his tiny hands and bawling. "Oh, happy day!" he wailed. "You really aren't gay! Oh, how I'd been worried about you, but you've vindicated my faith that one day you'd actually figure out what girls are for!"

Ranma, his face reaching a previously undocumented shade of red, stood trembling, his free hand clenching and unclenching furiously.

"Are those really for me, Ranma?" Akane asked him, her voice shy and cute, and... And he was about to lose it with Happousai standing there making wet kiss-kiss noises at him.

"Answer the lady, smart-guy," Happousai reproached.

"Shut up, you!" Ranma roared, lashing out with a kick that utterly failed to connect. Happousai bounded clear, cackling laughter at him.

"Ranma's in love with Akane!" Happousai taunted him in a schoolyard voice. "Ranma's in love with Akane!"

"Shut up!" Ranma howled. "Stop sayin' that!"

Happousai waggled his tongue at him as he bounded around the room with the pig-tailed mechwarrior in hot pursuit. "Get a load of this, Akane," he called to her. She was just as red-faced as Ranma in that moment. "Your mighty fiance, laid low by a school-boy's taunt!"

"Leave him alone," she admonished him.

Happousai grabbed the bouquet of flowers out of Ranma's hand in a flash, and dumped them on his foe's head. "You don't deserve a girl like her, Ranma!" he cried jealously. He then clouted Ranma on the head with the plastic vase for good measure, and bounded out of the gym, bawling miserably.

Ranma stood stock still, soaking wet, her face turning purple because she had decided not to breathe.

Akane stepped off the exercycle and padded quietly over to her. She knelt over the ruined flowers at Ranma's feet, eyeing them dispassionately.

"They did look nice," she said to her.

Ranma said nothing in reply.

Akane picked up the plastic countermeasure tube and looked at it. In spite of herself, she smiled at his ingenuity. "They were for me, right?"

"I was just trying to apologize for lettin' Shampoo kiss me," Ranma finally grumbled. She was really starting to itch now, and not just on her hands.

Akane gave her an appraising look. "What's to apologize for?" she asked her. "She caught us all by surprise with that one."

Ranma's face fell. "You mean that all this time you weren't angry?"

"Of course I was angry," she returned. "At first. Then I got over it."

All this hell for nothing! Ranma cursed. She wiped at her eyes, which were starting to sting, and wondered if there wasn't something seriously wrong with her.

"Still," Akane added. "It's the thought that counts."

"That's what the Doc said," Ranma replied.

Akane grinned at him. "You went to Doctor Tofu about this?"

"Gimme a break," Ranma snorted. "I don't know the first thing when it comes to apologizing to girls!"

"I never would have guessed," she deadpanned. "Thank you, Ranma. It was a very nice thing for you to do for me."

"It was a disaster," Ranma countered. "Nothing turned out the way it was supposed to, and, ow, jeezus!"

"What is it, Ranma?" Akane asked her worriedly.

Ranma squirmed painfully in place.

"My face and neck, my hands... God, they itch!"

Akane looked him over closely. "Wow," she intoned. "You've got these tiny little welts all over your skin..." She looked at the flowers again. "Some of these aren't poisonous, are they?"

"How should I know!" Ranma barked. She began to itch in spite of herself.

"Yup," Doctor Tofu said gravely as he consulted the ship's greenhouse inventory. "They're poisonous. A genetic analogue of poison sumac; indigenous to St. Ives, actually."

Ranma, her face, throat, and hands smeared with pink dabs of ointment, made a choking sound. "What the hell is something like that doing on board a starship?!"

Tofu read the detailed description. "They counteract the tendency of one of the volatile organic atmosphere contaminant-fixing plants to turn the hydroponic solution acidic," he replied. "They secrete a tiny amount of a strong hydroxyl group into the solution, and the two plants strike a fairly neutral pH balance."

He gave the ointment-smeared mechwarrior a look of disapproval. "You didn't get the cooks' permission to do this, did you."

Ranma cast a brief look to Akane before answering.

"They wouldn't let me," she replied. "So I went ahead and did it."

"Well, I'd consider this a lesson learned the hard way," Tofu sighed.

"How long will he be like this?" Akane asked him.

"Two or three days," the doctor replied. "He'll need to take cool showers twice daily, with a mild soap that I'll provide out of the Pharmacy in a moment, and he'll need to keep using that ointment to stop the itching."

"Marvelous," Ranma groused.

Tofu shook his head sadly. "Trust me, Ranma. I can tell you that at least one person on this ship has a much bigger medical problem to deal with." He set a bar of the soap down on the examining table for her, and then started for the door. "Excuse me, please, I have some important news for the Captain."

Ranma eyed the soap, then Akane, as the doctor left Sick Bay. "What the heck was that about?"

"She's what?" Captain Hinako Ninomiya cried in disbelief.

"Shampoo is pregnant," Doctor Tofu repeated. First Ranma's mildly poisonous plant encounter, and then this!

"You're certain?"

He nodded. "I'm afraid so, Captain. Both the urine and blood specimens I took during the physical exam I administered following her capture seem to confirm this."

"How pregnant?" Hinako pressed.

Tofu shrugged. "Barring the results of a more detailed exam, and then allowing for the fact that I'm not exactly trained for obstetric medicine, I'd say not very, but 'not very' is still just enough."

"Terrific," Hinako spat in her sultry bedroom voice. "This makes her final disposition a bit more delicate."

"To say the least," Tofu agreed. "I haven't told her yet. It's so soon that it's possible that she doesn't even know."

Hinako thought about it for a moment. "I don't know. On the one hand, if Shampoo knows that she's pregnant, she might be more inclined to behave herself. On the other hand, she might use the fact that we'll be reluctant to get overly physical with her, against us."

"True," Tofu said, nodding. Both of them were enlightened enough to feel that while Shampoo was guilty of trespassing, attempted murder, and espionage, any unborn child of hers was an innocent, and deserved to be protected.

"I guess we can't execute her, either," she sniffed. She hadn't looked forward to spacing the Amazon, but after Tarou, she had learned her lesson when it came to potentially dangerous prisoners, and in this case, Shampoo was guilty of a crime - espionage - for which the death penalty was most certainly indicated.

"What are the chances that we can turn her over to someone?"

Hinako shook her head. "That's part of the problem. After Tarou, I have little faith that even one of our frontier worlds will want to take over the case, and her legal status is dubious. We aren't at war with the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, so she isn't technically a P.O.W., and this criminal matter would normally fall under my jurisdiction as Captain, since it happened aboard my ship. On the other hand, the crime of espionage is one that falls under the High Justice of the Confederation, and isn't a matter for a local planetary court."

She shrugged her shoulders absently.

"I guess the best thing we can do is hold her in the Brig until we return from the Ryuugenzawa System."

Tofu nodded. "I suppose that means that I'll be hitting up the medical library for some prenatal care procedures." He paused, his distaste for the subject clear. "There is one final option."

Hinako looked up from her review of the day's logs.

"I'm listening, Doctor."

"I hesitate to present this, but Shampoo could always opt to abort," he said. "The procedure for terminating a pregnancy this early is very simple, and we have the necessary drugs on board."

"This would have to be her choice," Hinako declared. "I won't sanction anything else, and I certainly won't order it."

"I understand, Captain," Tofu replied, wiping the lenses of his glasses uncomfortably. "I don't think that she'll be interested, considering that she has to be aware of the penalty for espionage, but it is an alternative that would make handling her more convenient."

Hinako gave him a surprisingly cold look. He realized that because of her unique metabolic condition, she could never have children of her own, and almost certainly envied someone who could.

"I'm repulsed by the thought, Doctor, that terminating the unborn should ever become a matter of convenience."

Shampoo lay face down and away from the clear polycarbonate door of her cell in the brig, her tattered clothing replaced with a simple shipsuit coverall that was bereft of the usual insignia and nametags. Doctor Tofu swallowed hard at the sight of her, for the Amazon looked good even in drab ship's blue. The off-watch crewman detailed to Brig Duty looked up from his book at him.

"She's been real quiet, Doc," he said to him.

"That's good," Tofu returned. "I'm going to speak with the prisoner, if that's okay with you."

The sailor shrugged. "As long as it's business, I suppose there's no problem. You wouldn't believe how many of the guys have been trying to get in here to talk to her."

"It's a medical matter," Tofu confirmed, understanding how the single, male, portion of the crew might feel about the exotic looking Amazon. "A private medical matter."

The sailor lifted his book to his face. "So who's listening?"

Satisfied that the sailor would at least keep up the appearance of not eavesdropping, he stepped over to the cell, and tapped on the transparent door. Shampoo ignored him.

"Shampoo, it's Doctor Tofu Ono. Do you remember me?"

She continued to ignore him.

"Shampoo, I have something very important to discuss with you."

"Go away," she growled.

"I can't do that," he returned. "This is a medical matter, and at the moment, I'm your doctor."

"Doctors no matter," she said, staring at the blank wall opposite the door. "Not when Shampoo to be executed."

"That's not going to happen, Shampoo."

"Shampoo not believe you," she retorted. "Shampoo know what is penalty for spying."

Tofu sighed. "That might be true," he said at length. "But as you are currently pregnant, there is no chance of that happening."

She stiffened on the sleeping pallet.

"Yes, Shampoo," Tofu told her. "Pregnant."

She sat up, turning about to sit on the pallet, facing him.

"You lie," she said curtly. "Is not possible. Shampoo have implant. No can have babies unless removed."

Tofu pulled up an extra chair and sat down across from her, with only the centimeter thick wall of transparent polycarbonate separating them. He opened up the thin manilla file he had started on her, and showed her the results of the automated analysis unit on her blood and urine samples.

"The machine found traces of certain chemical breakdown products in your bloodstream," he said to her. "The breakdown products detected are related to a certain class of antibiotics. Have you been sick recently? Say, in the last two months? Did you take anything for it?"

Shampoo thought about it. She had contracted a nasty upper respiratory tract infection on the outbound trip from Tau Ceti - no doubt due to the less than savory conditions aboard the Domingo. But she had been over it by the time she and Mousse had sex!

"Shampoo have bad cough," she replied. "Take antibiotic for two weeks."

Tofu nodded. He had suspected as much. "Some antibiotics interfere with contraceptive function," he replied. "Even with contraceptive implants, there can be some complications."

She took this in. What had passed for a doctor aboard the Domingo had said nothing about that when he prescribed her the medicine!

"Shampoo really pregnant?" she said in a tiny voice.

"I'm afraid so," Tofu confirmed.

She was speechless. This was simply not possible! To be carrying Mousse's child - the child of a man who had been removed from the Breeding Program - within her!

"I can tell that this was unexpected," he said lamely.

"Shampoo no wonder when she miss period," she said in a soft voice. "Sometime stress make period come few days late. No worries."

Tofu offered her a sympathetic look. "Shampoo, I want you to know that I'll be looking after you and the baby for the foreseeable future. If you have any problems, if you experience any pain or discomfort, a little morning sickness, whatever... I'm available to help. Just ask the guard to have me come down, and I'll be there."

She nodded numbly.

"I'm also going to start you on a prenatal care diet," he said. "That includes vitamin supplements. It's hard to provide everything you and the baby need with the food stores we have on board - even counting what we might have available in the Greenhouses - so I want you to take them without fail. The first trimester is critical to the baby's health."

Shampoo remained silent, eyes downcast in despair.

"What if Shampoo no want baby?" she asked at length. It was a painful thing to say, because her clan had always celebrated life, and considered children the Joketsuzoku's greatest asset. There was also a long-held Chinese objection to abortion - a holdover from the dark days of pre-Jump Earth, when the state had dictated how many children a woman could have.

"A-Are you saying that you want to terminate your pregnancy, Shampoo?" He had hoped that she wouldn't ask.

Her eyes closed. "Shampoo not know." Bear a worthless man's child, or throw away every personal and cultural value she held dear to get rid of it?

Tofu nodded, understanding the terrible choice she faced.

"You've got a little time to think about it," he said to her. "Three or four weeks maybe, before surgical intervention becomes necessary. I'm not trained or certified to do anything about it after that point; you'll have to wait until we reach civilization, if it comes to that."

Shampoo nodded ruefully.

"In the meantime," he said, trying to lighten the mood. "You're going to eat, and you're going to take your vitamins, because I'm willing to bet a year's pay that your baby will be one the most beautiful in the Inner Sphere."

She tried to smile for him, for he was treating her with far more compassion than she would have expected from an enemy, but the expression simply wouldn't come.

NCJS Dragonfly

Sagrada Familia System Nadir Jump Point

Sagrada Familia System, the Federated Shiratori

Near the Federated Shiratori - Confederation border

17 May 3025

Akane Tendo floated near the Captain's Station as the Dragonfly completed sending its coded transmission to the MV Eastern Star, a Merchant Class JumpShip of the Confederation's Merchant Marine returning from a six month trade run throughout the Federated Shiratori.

The Eastern Star was a ship Hinako and the rest of the crew of the Dragonfly knew from encounters while they were undercover as merchants, and their Confederation Merchant Marine crew was trusted with and cleared

for vital dispatches to the Grand Duke.

"We're taking a chance with this," Hinako warned her.

"I'm aware of that," Akane countered. "But in all fairness, the country most likely to intercept this data through Comstar is the country most likely to already have it. We're in a race against time, and we need a transport fleet to rendezvous with us at Ryuugenzawa."

Hinako chewed on her lip. They had been over this several times, and every other alternative seemed inadequate to the necessity of getting ships to Ryuugenzawa quickly, before the Commonwealth could reach them.

"Captain Ninomiya," the Communications tech called to her. "Eastern Star acknowledges receipt of our transmission, and will relay it to the Capella System via the Sian System HPG station as soon as they materialize from Jump."

"Very well," Hinako replied. She licked at a lollipop absently. "Send Captain Avgerinos my regards."

"Yes, ma'am." She did so.

They watched as the Eastern Star glowed with brilliant light several minutes later, and then winked out of existence.

"Conn, Sensory; Contact Romeo Two has Jumped," the Sensory tech announced - unnecessarily, Akane thought, as they had all watched it leave with their own eyes.

"Our turn next!" Hinako said happily, flapping her arms with excitement, and lifting herself out of her seat in zero-gravity. "Helm, commence the countdown for Hyperspace Jump!"

"Commence countdown for Hyperspace Jump, Helm, aye. Captain, the Helm is slaved to the Astrogation Computer for Hyperspace Jump."

She licked at her lollipop contentedly.

"Very well, Helm."

"Jumpcore internal temperatures stable," the Acting Assistant Engineer informed them. "Inverters Alfa through India are green. Ship's Battery indicates sufficient charge for Jump." The lights shifted for a moment as the starship's powerplant adjusted loads for the Jump.

"Clock synchronization is green," Helm reported. "Helm remains slaved to Astrogation. Reaction Control System in automatic. T-minus twenty minutes to Jump, mark."

Akane watched the activity on the bridge. Counting this one, they had just three more Jumps to make before they reached Ryuugenzawa, a period of over two weeks allowing for recharge time, and yet there was a growing sense of anticipation within her. The crew was feeling it too, and morale was the highest it had been since the expedition left Nerima.

Azure Cloud Castle

19 May 3025

Nabiki Tendo pored over the morning reports as she had done evey day since she assumed the throne of the Nerima Confederation. The riots had been quelled as expected, but the public was still anxious about the outcome of the war. She had been obliged to tread lightly over the subject of outright surrender to the Furinkan Combine, instead warming the people gradually to the subject, and couching it in terms of an alliance.

In truth that was what she was after all along, but perception was all too often equated with reality - an axiom she had put to good use in deposing her father, and she had to be careful. There were indications that public opinion was in a state of flux regarding the subject, a volatile mixture of war-weariness and national pride. Few within the Confederation had any more illusions of outright victory, and she planned to capitalize on this in her latest address, knowing that Prince Kuno was nearing the planet with a small escort force to discuss the terms of surrender.

He had answered her call for another surrender summit with glee, and particularly when he had learned what she had available in trade. The daimyo were getting extremely restless back home in the Combine, and there were muttered rumors of replacing the Kuno family outright as the rulers of the Furinkan Combine for a family that inspired more confidence in the people. Recovering the Shogun and gaining the Confederation as a valuable ally would put Tatewaki beyond all reproach, and he knew that.

Kuno was also salivating over the prospect of having Akane Tendo for his bride, no doubt, she mused as she read a communique from a distant outpost near the Federated Shiratori marked MOST URGENT, and at the highest security classification.

She almost dropped the paper. It was a dispatch from the NCJS Dragonfly, the JumpShip detailed to carry her sister and the damned Saotomes on their fool's errand to find Ryuugenzawa. She read on, not believing her eyes.

"I'll be damned," she muttered, taking an absent sip of her coffee. "They actually think they've FOUND it?"

One of her aides cocked his head at her questioningly. She ignored him. The rest of the dispatch was a series of astronomical computations that supposedly revealed the location of the Ryuugenzawa System. According to them, the star system had been removed from the astrogational charts centuries ago, and with the computations provided, a database patch could be derived that would allow for a Jump to the system.

They were on their way there even as she read the dispatch, and they were requesting that JumpShips loaded with DropShips be sent immediately to the system to carry off whatever they could recover from the place.

"Son of a bitch," she added, taking another sip, and nearly spilling it in her distraction.

She had a mind to destroy the paper that very moment. She had a very personal prejudice against the idea of Ryuugenzawa, and to find that it might actually exist was infuriating. To say nothing of the fact that a fat fool like Genma Saotome might be right about something where she had been wrong.

"Your Grace," one of her staff called softly to her. Though she was not the Duchess - yet - she had not been adverse to such a form of address from the staff.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"General Prince Tatewaki Kuno has arrived in orbit."

She steeled herself. "Very well. Send his Highness my regards. I'll be adjourning to my quarters in preparation to receive him."

They had arranged to meet in orbit, ironically, at Oyama Station. It was the closest thing to neutral territory available in the Capella System that wouldn't put either party to much disadvantage. Kuno was close to his ships; Nabiki had the planet at her back. The fact that the last diplomat to arrive at Oyama had died with a stiletto in his chest was quietly put aside. The League was still raging about the death of Tetsuo, but Tatewaki Kuno's defeat of Hikaru Gosunkugi had rendered their military non-effective as a striking force for some time.

She wondered idly about what had become of Hikaru. His fate was unknown at the moment, even to the League of Five Nails. It was likely that he had been killed on Condorcet. Kuno was keeping mum on the subject.

Nabiki put it aside for the moment. She had other concerns, and the Confederation military was one of them. They were chafing under the general cease fire that had been arranged to allow this bit of diplomacy, a cease fire that extended to the guerrilla operations on the occupied worlds. The armed forces had paid a heavy price for their victory on Oni, and the fact that it was swiftly becoming public knowledge that the Confederation was due to submit to the Combine was salt in their wounds.

The nobles and the more tractable flag rank officers were keeping them in line, but it only took one over-zealous moron like Rolf with his finger on the button of a torpedo launcher to ruin everything.

"Greetings, your Highness," Nabiki offered Tatewaki Kuno. She did not bow or curtsy to him, making it clear to everyone present that she was treating with him as an equal. They were in much more luxurious settings than the furtive and tragic meeting with Tetsuo, and there were soldiers, functionaries, and diplomats of every rank present in the gilded grand salon of the Oyama Palace Hotel.

Tatewaki Kuno was resplendent in a formal kimono, his family swords tucked into his sash. He was flanked by Ambassador Domitian - apparently brought out of exile for this occasion - and curiously enough, a subdued and silent Hikaru Gosunkugi. Nabiki caught sight of the grisly wounds on his wrists as he adjusted his plain if expensively tailored attire, and shuddered at the thought of what had clearly happened to him in Kuno's custody.

"Nabiki Tendo," the Combine Prince returned curtly. "I am a man possessed of little time for pleasantries. Let us sit at table and discuss these matters, that we might settle once and for all the conflict that lies betwixt us."

Nabiki inclined her head in concession. "Agreed, Kuno-baby," she replied, determined not to let him control the summit. He flushed angrily at her in return, but said nothing. "I see that Domitian has returned to favor with you."

Tatewaki's jaw clenched. "Do you have my father, the Shogun, or do you not?" he demanded.

She smiled, amused by the ease with which she had set him off. This was going to be less of a challenge than she thought.

"Patience, Kuno-baby," she replied. "Yes, he is in my custody as Royal Hostage. We have a long way to go, I think, before you can have him returned, and as you have said, there is little time for pleasantries. Let us retire then to our respective positions at the table."

Angry and impatient, Tatewaki Kuno stormed past her with his entourage, and headed straight for the table prepared for the principal diplomats.

"Fine fine fine," Tatewaki snapped at the Confederation side of the table. "Methinks it is clear to all that we are in agreement with the forms and measures of this treaty. Let us then proceed!"

Nabiki pursed her lips in thought. They had been at the table for four hours, and Domitian had said very little, other than to parse the various phrases and clauses of the treaty with her phalanx of lawyers. Even that had been unnecessary, since the agreement was nearly a carbon copy of the one she and Domitian had worked out prior to the arrival of the Saotomes. In spite of this easy arrangement, the Combine Prince had taken a personal hand in the affair, and brooked no interference with the presentation of his demands. Most of the delay was in fact due to his boorish interruptions.

She wondered at the purpose of Hikaru's presence at the table, for the frail and beaten looking Heir to the League of Five Nails had hardly stirred in his seat, and had said nothing, even to the servants who offered them refreshments. Perhaps it was to demonstrate to her what Tatewaki Kuno did to people who crossed him. Perhaps he meant to carry the Gosunkugi Heir to Angbad, and bargain the surrender of the League the way he was bargaining the surrender of the Confederation. With the Commonwealth mustering for total war, he would need all the troops he could get if he wanted to conquer them.

"Agreed," she declared. "But first, let us recap our positions." Tatewaki nearly exploded with exasperation at this, and for a moment she expected him to leap across the table at her in a blind rage.

"The Nerima Confederation shall recognize the Furinkan Combine as its rightful and lawful overlord," she began. "Furthermore, the Tendo Family shall renounce all claim to the Star League throne as First Lord, and shall swear personal fealty to the Shogun of the Furinkan Combine, as shall all of the lords holding Confederation titles, and all commissioned officers of her Armed Forces; active duty, reserve, and retired. The ranks of Grand Duke and Duchess of the Confederation shall remain in perpetuity, to be held by a member of the Tendo Family by blood or by marriage, as shall the titles and grants of land established by the Confederation for their respective holders, provided that the oaths of fealty - to be renewed with each succession to the ducal or lesser seat - are upheld.

"All regular Armed Forces of the Nerima Confederation, to be defined as the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Guard, Merchant Marine, and their associated reserve components, shall revert to immediate control of the Furinkan Combine, known henceforth as the Furinkan Combine Mustered Soldiery. The rank and grade of all members of the above-named forces shall carry over to equivalent rank and grade within the FCMS hierarchy, as shall all benefits conferred by time in service, time in grade, disability, pension status, and grant of land.

"Levies and duties imposed upon the Nerima Confederation shall be not more than ten percent of the Gross Domestic Product, to be established annually by independent review of auditors with the Bank of Sol and confirmed by the fiduciary agents of Comstar. Levies of troops for the Furinkan Combine Mustered Soldiery shall not exceed those demanded per capita of marches within the Furinkan Combine proper.

Nabiki went on, her voice adopting a nasal singsong that was annoying to all but career attorneys, politicians, and diplomats. Essentially, the treaty established the continued autonomy of the Nerima Confederation so long as it paid its taxes and provided troops for the Furinkan Combine military. It was a very good deal for both parties, as it meant that very little changed in the lives of the ordinary people of the Confederation, the nobles not only had their titles, but had them guaranteed, and the Tendos remained as their rulers. For the Combine, it meant an increase of territory and tax base without having to wage a costly and tiresome campaign against any Confederation insurgents, and freed them to continue their prosecution of the war against the League of Five Nails and the Jusenkyo Commonwealth.

Nabiki was very proud of the document.

"We have heard this before, Nabiki Tendo," Tatewaki sniffed. "Let us then come to those recent measures which are of most interest to me."

"Of course, Kuno-baby," she grinned at him. "In exchange for the granting of the aforementioned terms by the Furinkan Combine, the Nerima Confederation shall release their Most Royal Hostage, the Shogun of the Furinkan Combine, and shall pledge the troth of its Most Sublime Daughter, Akane Tendo, to General Prince Tatewaki Kuno. Akane Tendo shall forfeit all claim to the Ducal Throne of the Nerima Confederation upon her marriage. The Ducal Throne of the Nerima Confederation shall then pass to Nabiki Tendo, and then through her to other heirs designated by future decree, and in keeping with the terms above - defining the rule of the Confederation."

Her arrangement as Regent was contingent upon the investiture of Akane Tendo, but if her sister was married off to Kuno before such could be arranged, the power of the Confederation would remain in her hands throughout the entire surrender process and beyond.

Tatewaki Kuno nodded imperiously. At last, he was getting what he most desired. Akane Tendo as his bride, and, quietly, the Pig-Tailed Girl as well once he was made Shogun.

"Now we come to the hard part, Kuno-baby," Nabiki said to him, breaking the spell of rapture that had come over him. "The turnover process."

"I do not see how such trivia would be cause for concern with thee, Nabiki Tendo," he returned.

Nabiki pushed a slip of paper over to him. He picked it up and looked it over, frowning as he did so.

"What manner of gibberish is this?" he demanded.

"The location of the greatest treasure in the Inner Sphere," she replied with a catlike grin. "Akane Tendo."

Tatewaki clearly did not understand.

"Refrain from such nonsense and riddle, Nabiki Tendo," he cautioned her. "I am not a man to be trifled with. Explain yourself."

"That's an astronomical abstract," she told him, having been briefed on the subject by one of her naval attaches. "It gives the location to a star system that you won't find on any of your charts. It's located, I believe, within the Magistracy of Canopus."

Tatewaki looked it over once again. "And what, pray tell, hath this to do with the arrangement of Akane Tendo as my bride?"

"You'll have to go there to get her," Nabiki replied. "You'll probably have to fight the Saotomes first, though," she added. "After all, they do seem to have a claim on her. This fair treaty might make your betrothal all nice and pretty, but I do seem to recall that possession is nine-tenths of the law."

"They are in this system, you say?" Tatewaki snapped, crinkling the paper in his fist as he clenched up in ire at the mention of the hated Saotomes.

"They're either already there, or else they're headed that way," Nabiki replied. This was one way to get rid of those two meddlers, and ensure that Akane did not escape to start some damned revolution once she got word that Daddy had been deposed. "Once you get my sister away from those two jerkoffs, my nobles and I will sign the treaty, and hand over your father as a wedding present." She looked over the table at him. "Not before."

"Outrageous!" Tatewaki thundered. "Thy assurances of a peaceful exchange of power are what brought me forth!"

"And you have them," Nabiki returned. "Once you eliminate the Saotomes and return Akane to Nerima, you'll get everything that's coming to you."

"Placing conditions upon the Blue Thunder of the Furinkan Combine?" he raged, spraying spittle upon the table in his fulminations. "Madness!"

Nabiki eyed him warily. "Look, Kuno-Baby, right now you are not in much of a position to dictate anything to me. One word from me turns your little escort fleet out there to ashes, and then the Combine is fresh out of rulers. Furthermore, as I continue to hold your father as my hostage, you are under an enormous amount of pressure to get him back." Her voice lowered an octave, and a chill spread through the room. "Do you think you can manage it by making threats to me?"

Tatewaki returned her glare, but said nothing.

"Now I'm not really making demands for anything that you wouldn't already want for yourself, Kuno-baby," she continued, her voice sweetening considerably. "After all, I know that you'd probably be happy to see those upstart Saotomes dead, and I know my sister won't come home quietly."

Tatewaki relaxed somewhat. "Perhaps, Nabiki Tendo." He offered a subtle glance towards the silent Hikaru Gosunkugi. "But perhaps I have yet found a way to break the sorcerous hold over her."

Huh? Nabiki wondered to herself. What the hell is he talking about? Sorcerous hold? Oh well, you knew he wasn't all there upstairs when you first tried to cut this deal with him...

He whirled away from the table with the astronomical abstract in his hand. "Come!" he barked to his retinue. "Make haste! We sail for yonder shores, and Akane Tendo!"

Nabiki watched him go as Domitian made apologies and scooped up the armloads of documents. She hadn't expected him to pull up stakes like this, but supposed that he was a man on a mission, after all.

Goodbye, Saotomes, she offered to the ceiling of the grand salon. Hello, peace and prosperity for the Nerima Confederation. And especially for me...

Provisional Headquarters

Black Rose Terror Regiment

Planet Mansveldt, Mansveldt System

The Federated Shiratori

24 May 3025

"Tell me, Sasuke," Kodachi purred absently. "What news of my brother?"

The diminutive ninja manservant bowed for his mistress.

"I have received reports that he has at last captured Hikaru Gosunkugi, and put the League Army to rout," he replied.

Kodachi admired her nails. "A pity," she sniffed. "I owe the little man much for the disaster he wreaked upon dear Tachi. No doubt he was put to a swift death."

"No, Mistress," Sasuke countered. "It is reported that your brother keeps him for some purpose related to Ranma Saotome."

Kodachi raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh?"

"I have no hard information at this time, Mistress," Sasuke apologized. "I regret that in the wake of your brother's purges following your escape, that my remaining agents are few and far between within Prince Kuno's fleet, and those that remain active are naturally being very cautious."

"Naturally," Kodachi returned, clearly bored with the direction the conversation was taking if Sasuke wasn't going to discuss Ranma. "And what is this I hear that Grand Duke Tendo was deposed?"

Sasuke brightened. He had more information in this regard to offer.

"The middle daughter, Nabiki, had her father declared mentally incompetent, and took the throne as regent. Most of the nobles backed her, as did the civilian population, apparently, but there is something about the whole affair that stinks of deception."

"That would be Nabiki Tendo's perfume, Sasuke," Kodachi observed dryly. "She's a snake in the grass after my own heart."

"It's believed in some loyalist circles that Nabiki was responsible for Tetsuo Gosunkugi's assassination," Sasuke added. "The League is certainly angry enough about it, but after the disaster at Condorcet, they aren't in much of a position to do anything about it."

"Murder doesn't seem like her style," Kodachi said thoughtfully. "But then, I could be mistaken." She cast a pointed look towards Sasuke.

"Never, Mistress," he replied on cue.

"You're right," she chuckled, and sipped from a tumbler of iced sangria through a gilt-edged straw. "Enough gossip, Sasuke. What is the status of our deployment preparations?"

Sasuke consulted a small digital notepad that he kept secreted on his person.

"Mistress, the regiment is currently in the final stages of outfitting for our first assignment. We should be ready to depart within two days. Our battlemech strength is at sixty-five percent, and we've organized into three rump battalions of two companies apiece."

"That will change as we continue to recruit," Kodachi declared. They were receiving new mechwarriors almost every day as adventurers and freelance mercenaries from the Furinkan Combine and the Federated Shiratori flocked to her banner. Though her Black Rose regiment was now a renegade unit of deserters from the Combine, her fearsome reputation remained untarnished, and many of her recruits were eager to get a piece of glory and wealth under her command.

"We do have another mechwarrior to interview, Mistress," Sasuke said to her. "I can send for him if you wish."

"Dispossessed?" Kodachi asked. Lacking spare battlemechs, she was very choosy about bringing on board mechwarriors from the ranks of the Dispossessed. They had their uses, however, and most of them were willing to take foolish risks to distinguish themselves enough to earn a captured 'mech.

"Mounted," Sasuke replied. "Hunchback. Very good condition, if I may be so bold, Mistress. I had scheduled him for an interview tomorrow morning."

Kodachi nibbled on her finger. "Hmmmm... We are rather short on close-in firepower, and a 'mech is a 'mech." She took another sip from her sangria. "Yes, Sasuke, send him in. I've nothing better to do today."

Pansuto Tarou was a man who was running out of options. He had been unable to find passage to a system close to the Furinkan Combine border, and as the days ticked away, he knew that the information he possesed was becoming less and less valuable as a bargaining chip. When he heard that the Black Rose regiment had surfaced on Mansveldt, he spent the last of the cash the Confederation had given him to reach the planet.

It was true that the Black Rose regiment had gone renegade, but at the very least its commander would have a personal interest in finding the whereabouts of her rival, Akane Tendo. If Kodachi Kuno showed no interest in Ryuugenzawa, his chances of realizing the destruction of the Joketsuzoku and the Cult of Azusa dwindled away to nothing. He had to play on her hatred of the Tendo girl if he was to succeed.

One of the regiment's soldiers showed him to a luxurious pavillion that Kodachi used during the day. As he was led past the open flap, he noted the expensive rugs at his feet, the fine antique furniture for guests, and the sweet smell of incense burning near the chair where Kodachi sat.

He was breathless for a moment as he looked at the Combine Princess. She was dressed in a black leotard with embroidered roses of the deepest purple upon her breast. Her long pale legs were crossed at the knee, and she affected a look of detached ennui for him from beneath bangs of dark brown hair.

"You didn't tell me that he was handsome, Sasuke," she purred to her ninja manservant, while keeping her coal-black eyes fixed upon Tarou. Sasuke, knowing better than to respond, remained silent.

Tarou came to a halt at what he felt was a respectful distance, and stood at self-conscious attention. Kodachi rose from her velvet upholstered chair, taking up a riding crop from its place by her side. Tarou kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, determined to put on his usual haughty expression of disdain for her.

She stopped before him at a distance just inside what might be considered his 'personal space.' Her eyes flicked over him appraisingly, lingering here and there as she assessed him. Then, satisfied for the moment, she turned and began to walk behind him for a more extensive inspection.

The sensation of her riding crop touching him just above his tailbone made him start, and his face burned red with humiliation as she gave an amused chuckle at his expense.

The riding crop began to tickle along his hip as she completed her circle. She drew it up along his lean flank, then over and across his chest to play gently with the sweep of his collarbone.

"Tall," she remarked with a smile that was regal and aloof. She brought the riding crop down his sternum. "Handsome." The crop dipped down to his belly. "Mysterious." She caught a length of the pantyhose sash he kept tied at his waist with her riding crop, and lifted it up to eye level for him to see.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

He cleared his throat. "Tarou."

She gave him a toothy grin.

"Just Tarou?"

The intensity of her look was confounding to him, and he found himself answering her.

"Pansuto Tarou."

Her approving smile was both immediate and striking. "Pantyhose?" she asked him teasingly, leaning in close to whisper the word in his ear. "I like pantyhose..."

He did not reply, a little unnerved by her obvious come-on, and the fact that he was finding the Black Rose of the Furinkan Combine to be more desirable than he had ever imagined her to be. Certainly not after his last encounter with her on the streets of Capra.

Kodachi stepped close to him, so that as much of her lithe body as possible was in contact with his. He fixed her with a look of crushing arrogance, his trademark weapon in battles of will. She seemed to eat it up like candy, flushing visibly at her bosom and throat as she returned his glare with one of equal disdain.

"Sasuke!" she barked, keeping her eyes upon Tarou.

"Yes, Mistress?" the ninja replied. Tarou caught a hint of weary resignation in the manservant's voice.

"That will be all," she said, dismissing him. "I won't be receiving any more visitors today."

"Yes, Mistress."

Sasuke bowed and scuttled out of the pavillion, muttering something that Kodachi chose to ignore - having found a source of distraction and amusement for at least a few hours.

She took up the pantyhose sash in her hands, remaining close to him as she did so, and displayed it once again for him.

"There are so many things you can do with pantyhose," she remarked to him, giving him an incendiary look. "But I'm certain that you're well aware of that."

Tarou nodded for her, the corners of his mouth turning up in what passed for a sly smile with him. Ryuugenzawa could wait just a little longer, he supposed.

"Tell me how you came by your name," Kodachi whispered in Tarou's ear.

She watched as the muscles of his bare chest tensed and rippled in agitation.

"I'd prefer not to talk about it," he replied.

"A shame," she sighed, laying her head upon his shoulder once more. She traced her finger absently along the washboard lines of his stomach. "I find your name to be quite intriguing." She sat up, kissing his throat. "Not as intriguing as you are when you're naked, mind you," she added, kissing him once more on the throat - this time close to his ear. "But very intriguing."

Tarou remained silent, his eyes falling upon the thin neat scar that ran from the base of her sternum and down the hard, flat stomach to a point just above her navel. He found the scar's silvery white tracery against the cool ivory of her belly to be surprisingly attractive.

"So you wish to join the Black Rose regiment," she said at length, amused by the distance he wrapped himself in.

"Such was my intention," he returned.

"I think I could find a place for you," she replied. Her hand drifted down his torso to his groin. "The headquarters detachment, I think." She found something down there that interested her, and chuckled. "I feel the need to keep you close at hand."

Somewhat distracted by her attentions, he cleared his throat to speak. "I can be of much more use to you than as a bodyguard," he said to her.

"You already have," she returned dryly.

"I'm serious. I know the location of the Ryuugenzawa System."

Kodachi laughed softly. "And I know every position in the Kama Sutra, my dearest Pantyhose. Why should I care about the mechwarrior's myth when I have my own legend close at hand?"

"It's not a myth," Tarou retorted, growing annoyed now instead of aroused. "I was recently aboard the Confederation JumpShip carrying Akane Tendo and the Saotomes."

Kodachi's grip tightened reflexively, eliciting a hiss of pain from him.

"What was that, did you say?" she said through clenched teeth.

"I know where the Tendo girl is going," Tarou said, biting back the pain. "The Saotomes found the Ryuugenzawa System, and they are all on their way there. If we leave immediately, we can catch them before they finish their search, and the secrets of the place will be ours."

"That harridan," Kodachi hissed, thinking black thoughts about the Tendo Heir. She reined in her fury with an act of will. "You came here specifically to tell me this, didn't you. You aren't simply looking for employment."

"Correct," he said tersely, his look of disdain returning.

She leaned over him to reach for her riding crop, her temper cooling though her breaths came in pants, and her bare breasts flattening against his chest.

"Have I mentioned that I find your arrogance terribly erotic?" she said to him, tracing the riding crop down the inside of his thigh.

Musk Dynasty JumpShip Invictus

Eta Carinae System Nadir Jump Point

Eta Carinae System, the League of Five Nails,

near the Nerima Confederation border

29 May 3025

Mechwarrior General Herb looked up from his desk as Mousse entered his stateroom. Mousse was dressed in flowing indigo robes which swallowed the sound of his passing and concealed the movements of his limbs. Combined with his luxuriant mane of straight black hair which fell to his waist, his appearance mirrored his dark mood. He stopped short of Herb's desk, and presented himself with a crisp salute.

Herb approved of the new Mousse. The man had changed considerably from the fawning, lovesick fool he had been on Tau Ceti. He had grown, in hatred and in presence, since then. Herb valued both qualities in his officers.

"Welcome aboard," he offered him. Mousse had only just arrived from the JumpShip Domingo, the spy ship having journeyed across much of the Inner Sphere for the rendezvous. Herb had taken the chance of discovery by ordering Mousse to transmit the database patch via Comstar through the guise of a mercantile report of the dummy company the Domingo operated under, and having the location of Ryuugenzawa, he decided to press ahead - and meet Mousse on the way. There was no telling how much time he had before the Confederation looted the place - and especially with a greedy opportunist like Nabiki Tendo ruling the beleaguered country.

He was now well away from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, leaving Peony and Cologne to scratch their heads and wonder. He had claimed to be carrying out a campaign in the Periphery, but it didn't matter to him if they believed him or not. If they became paranoid at his absence, so much the better.

Mousse inclined his head towards the general.

"The Star League was most clever," Herb continued. "Not only did they put the Proving Grounds out in the Periphery, but they even removed the star's location from the charts." He steepled his fingers together. "Even back then, few would have thought to check every star against an astrogational database."

He motioned for Mousse to sit. The nearsighted mechwarrior did so silently.

"You've done tremendously well, Mousse," he said to him. "Mechwarrior Colonel Mousse," he amended.

Mousse reacted immediately to his abrupt promotion.

"Colonel, sir?" he asked, surprised.

Herb made a absent gesture with his hand. "I have a very important place for you within the Musk Dynasty, Mousse. Rank commensurate with your value to me, and for what will be expected of you. A Crusader in mint condition also awaits you aboard my personal DropShip."

Mousse nodded quietly. He was no longer one of the Dispossessed.

Herb then fixed him with a basilisk stare. "So tell me, Mousse, at what point did you finally come to your senses? I'm very curious."

The mechwarrior looked away.

"When she fucked me, sir."

Herb raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I presume by your remark that you mean literally as well as figuratively."

Mousse looked back at him, the blue of his eyes growing colder.

"I realized then that everything you had said to me about her was true. Shampoo never loved me. I had hoped that someday she might warm to me, but even as we made love together, she was only using me." His jaw set against his anger. "I'm tired of her, General. I'm sick of her."

In spite of himself, Herb felt a pang of jealousy towards his new subordinate. Shampoo had been the object of his own personal desire for many years, and while he was intelligent enough to realize that there would never be romance between them, he was content to settle for lust.

But now, Shampoo was likely no more.

"What can you tell me about her end?" he asked Mousse.

"I don't know, sir. She gave me the database patch, but by then she had already been exposed. She intended to find the Saotomes and kill them before she could be killed or captured by the crew, but I don't know if she was successful, or what has become of her."

"Of course," Herb replied. Mousse's communique had said as much, but he had been hoping for more details than the mechwarrior was willing to provide over an HPG dispatch. He made a dismissive gesture with his hand, then reached over to pour brandy into two glasses prepared for the moment.

"Enough of her," he said to Mousse. He handed him a glass. "To our success at Ryuugenzawa," he toasted.

"To the end of the Joketsuzoku," Mousse added, his voice tremulous with hate.

Herb gave his subordinate a smile of approval. He would drink to that indeed!

Nerima Confederation JumpShip Dragonfly

Ryuugenzawa System Zenith Jump Point

Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus

3 June 3025

The NCJS Dragonfly materialized into realspace at the Ryuugenzawa System Jump Point with a shudder and a flash of light.

"What was that all about?" Hinako asked, referring to their shaky reentry.

"Engineering reports no damage," the Acting Assistant Engineer responded. "Jumpcore powering down as normal. No apparent malfunctions detected."

"Main Computer operational. Star-finding position trackers are aligning normally."

"Helm is green. Reaction Control System responding normally."

"Sensors operational. Scanning for close contacts."

"Communications operational. No transmissions or hails detected."

Hinako took the reports from the various stations. Everything seemed all right. Perhaps it was just an anomaly.

"Make a full sensor sweep," she ordered. "Go active on the main radar."

"Sensory, aye."

The Dragonfly continued its adjustment burns as it aligned itself into a stable orbit above the Ryuugenzawa primary. No further malfunctions were noted.

"Conn, Sensory; Contact designated Romeo One, bearing zero-four-eight, minus four-nine. Range, four-two thousand kilometers. Contact Romeo One appears to be a recharge station."

Hinako consulted the main holotank, which projected a representation of local space around the Jump Point based on sensory data.

"A bit out of position, don't you think?" she asked the sensor techs aloud. Recharge stations were supposed to be out on the edges of the Jump Points to prevent an accidental collision. 42,000 kilometers was considered close range in deep space.

"We're starting a track on Romeo One now, ma'am. We should be able to calculate an orbit within a few minutes, but yes, it does appear that they've drifted some from their expected position."

"And that's all that you've found?"

"Yes, ma'am. Romeo One remains the only contact at this time."

Odd, she thought absently. No defensive emplacements?

"I guess they were counting on secrecy," she said to herself. Several minutes passed as the Dragonfly completed its maneuvers with no other difficulty.

Still, she had expected more than this.

"Conn, Sensory; we've detected a bit of an anomaly."

Hinako floated over to the Sensory station, almost relieved to find something else out of the ordinary.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We're detecting some unusual sunspot activity on the Ryuugenzawa primary," the operator replied. "In addition, it seems as if this star has a companion."

"We'd have spotted it in the telescope surveys before we jumped here, I think," Hinako sniffed her disbelief.

"It's not a very luminous object," the operator countered. "Given the way it's drawing off plasma from the star's surface, though, I'd almost say it was a neutron star, or possibly even a small black hole."

"That might explain our bumpy reentry," Lieutenant Davidge said, approaching them. "An unaccounted for gravity vector from a dense, massive object like a neutron star or a black hole would certainly shake up the space around the Jump Point."

"How close is this object?"

The sensor operator fiddled with his instruments, taking sightings, and comparing them against his Target Motion Analysis system for an answer.

"Approximately fifteen million kilometers," he replied.

"I don't like the idea of being even that close to a black hole," Hinako declared.

"It's probably a neutron star," Davidge soothed, observing it through the passive EMS scope, which offered data on the object throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. "I'm not detecting enough x-rays from it to be a black hole, even a small one."

"All the same," Hinako said, uneasy about something she did not fully understand. "What other effects could this neutron star, or whatever, have on us?"

"Well," Davidge opined. "We'll probably be better off keeping the JumpSail stowed. High energy particle flux and other radiation is a lot higher here than for most G-type star systems. There's also a greater potential for a damaging solar flare with that neutron star shaking things up."

"Wonderful," Hinako snapped. "I can see why so few ships ever came here. Would you say that we might be better served by taking the Dragonfly deeper into the system rather than keeping it here?"

Davidge shrugged. "We have the fuel for a transit. I can't think of any reason why we should tempt fate by staying here."

"I'm convinced," Hinako declared. "Plot a course for the planet Ryuugenzawa. We can detach the Palomino for a landing when we approach within a half-million kilometers."

"So what do we really know about this place?" Captain Ninomiya asked Genma. The elder Saotome was seated at the wardroom table with the other principal members of the expedition.

Genma thumbed through his notes.

"Very little," he replied. "From what Chance King was able to dig up about the Proving Grounds, there should be a space station in orbit above the planet, with drydock facilities and a recharging station. There is some mention of an extensive system of satellites - probably for global position indication, weather monitoring, and communications. On the planet, the main area was supposed to be a primary facility with a starport, and a handful of outlying test areas."

He set down his notes. "That's all I know."

"In other words, we don't really have a clue," Ranma remarked.

"I'm all for continuing on as quickly as possible," Akane added. "We really should get an idea of what is there before the transport fleet shows up."

"Agreed," Genma grunted. He looked to Hinako. "How long will it take us to reach the planet if we use the Dragonfly for transit?"

"Four days," she replied.

"It's do-able," Genma nodded. "Any time we lose getting there will be made up when the transport fleet has to do the same. I don't think they'll want to stay at the Jump Point either."

"The fact that they had a recharge station in orbit above the planet is telling," Hinako concurred. "No Star League ship probably ever spent much time at the Jump Point. The recharge station we found there looked through our telescopes like it had spent the last two hundred years getting blasted apart by solar flares."

She put her hands on her hips.

"From what I've seen so far, Commander Saotome, the Ryuugenzawa System isn't very friendly."

Nerima Confederation DropShip Palomino

In low orbit above Planet Ryuugenzawa

Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus

7 June 3025

Sensor Technician Third Class Thaddeus Howard chewed absently on his lip as a flicker of color appeared on his passive EMS scope. He observed it for a moment, deciding if it was something worth pursuing or just a random anomaly to be ignored. He tapped a few controls on the touchpad by his hand out of boredom, activating several automated analysis routines.

What he saw surprised him. He punched at the flight deck intercom controls as he trained the Palomino's main telescope over to the contact.

"Conn, Sensory; possible contact bearing three-five-one plus two-eight."

Captain Grant turned around in his chair to face Howard directly.

"What are we talking about, Tad?" he asked his Sensor Operator.

Tad studied the data as it streamed in.

"I'm detecting an energy source at that bearing, sir," he began. "Infrared and visible spectrum emissions are consistant with an active maneuver drive, but whatever it is, it's..." He frowned as some new data posted itself.

"It's what?" Grant asked, growing concerned. There wasn't supposed to be anyone here.

"Well, sir," Tad replied. "Pardon my French, but whatever it is, it's fucking BIG."

A strident tone sounded at his station. Lines of red and amber colors and alphanumerics popped into the corner of his display.

"Active radar sweeps," Tad announced. "Point of origin along contact bearing track. X and S-Band track-while-search and range-while-scan arrays; very high power output."

Grant consulted the repeater display at his command station.

"Orbital detection satellite?" he asked himself aloud.

"Not with a maneuver drive," the DropShip's Pilot corrected ominously. "Coming up on final burn for atmospheric entry in two minutes, mark."

"Contact fading," Tad replied. "The curvature of the planet as we descend is obscuring us from whatever it is."

"Any ideas?" Grant asked him.

"Warbook's chewing on it, sir," Tad replied. The DropShip's Warbook was a database of Inner Sphere technology dating back to the end of the Terran Hegemony. If there was sufficient sensor data available, the DropShip's computer could eventually identify the contact's classification.

Grant reached over his panel to tap the Co-Pilot on the shoulder.

"Contact Dragonfly and tell them to turn their sensors towards the direction of the contact. They're farther out; they might have a better angle to look at it than us."

"Yes sir," the Co-Pilot replied. He tapped at the commo panel to open a channel with the starship.

"Goddamn," Tad spat in distress.

Grant whipped his head around. "What?"

"Sir, the Warbook says it's a Yamato-no-Orochi Class Automated Orbital Battlestation!"

"Sweet Baby Jesus Cookies on Christmas!" Grant cried, his colorful reply getting the better of his sense of command decorum. The dreaded Orochi Class Automated Battlestations represented the very acme of the Star League's technological achievement. They were a cluster of fully automated, mobile, orbital defense satellites. The primary unit was the size of a battleship, and the seven autonomous auxillaries it directed were light cruiser class. The automation system was the closest thing the scientists of the Star League could create to approach true AI, and while the Orochi was not by any means intelligent, it was programmed to be very clever in its tactics and very aggressive in their execution.

It was believed that the last remaining examples had been destroyed in orbit above the planet Earth by General Kerensky's loyal Star League Defense Force fleet during the Reunification War against Stephan Amaris, although Comstar currently had several smaller defense systems of a similar nature in place to maintain the Sol System's neutrality during the Succession Wars.

"The Warbook's gotta be wrong," Grant said hopefully. "Run it through again."

Tad nodded and began to scrutinize the data for signs that pointed away from such a frightening conclusion. "No dice, sir. It still says the contact is an Orochi."

"Let's get the hell out of here," Grant advised his pilot. "Adjust our descent course to a full Combat Drop."

"I heard that," the Pilot replied. He began tapping at his computer to calculate the maneuver change from a liesurely descent to a full-bore battle insertion.

"Signal the Dragonfly," Grant ordered the Co-Pilot. "Tell them what our Warbook says about the contact, and see if their computers concur."

"Course adjustment calculated and the clock is running," the Pilot announced. "Manuever burn in nine-zero seconds, mark."

Grant checked over the Palomino's engineering status. The ship was rigged for a combat drop, and the powerplant indicated that it was ready to give its all.

"Execute course adjustment," he ordered. He thumbed the 1MC intercom, and spoke into the microphone. "All Hands prepare for Combat Drop!" He then set the microphone down and stabbed at the General Alarm switch.

Akane Tendo's voice echoed over the 'white rat' intercom speaker on the Flight Deck. She was mounted within her Warhammer pending their arrival on the planet Ryuugenzawa.

"What's going on, Captain Grant?" she asked.

"Ma'am, we may have spotted some kind of orbital defense system," he hedged. He did not want to cry wolf and tell her they had possibly detected something like an Orochi Battlestation before his fears were absolutely confirmed. "I judged it prudent to avoid any possible confrontations, so we're making for the surface in an expeditious manner."

"Very well," she replied. "Lance Commander!"

"Yo!" Ranma's voice crackled over the speaker.

"Deploy your fighters for an escort drop," she ordered.

"Sure thing," Ranma replied. "You heard the lady," he continued to Yuka and Sayuri over the tac-net. "Launch when ready and maintain a standard screening separation."

"Aye aye," Sayuri acknowledged him. Yuka made a noncommittal grunt.

The Palomino continued its descent towards the planet, all signs of the contact lost.

"Fighter Bay Doors One and Two indicate intermediate," the Palomino's Co-Pilot announced as the two Air Lance pilots prepared for launch. "Fighter Bay Doors One and Two indicate open."

The Palomino trembled as the two aerospace fighters launched from the DropShip on either side of the bow.

"Commencing maneuver burn in one-zero seconds," the Pilot called out. Grant watched as his two Gunner's Mates finished strapping in to their stations within the 'gunnery pits' set below deck level on either side of his command station. Fire Control panels came to life as the two ran preliminary status checks.

"Set lasers fore and aft to 'preheat,'" the first gunner commanded his partner.

"Fire Control boards indicate ready. Target Motion Analysis system online and receiving feed from Sensory. Lasers fore and aft set to 'preheat'; autocannons and missile launchers indicate loaded."

"Burn in five," the Pilot announced. "Four...Three...Two...One...Mark!"

The Palomino lurched as its Main Engines fired, increasing their velocity and putting them into a much steeper angle of descent.

"Stow all nonessential detection and commo gear arrays," Grant ordered the Co-Pilot. They would be coming up on Ryuugenzawa's atmosphere within minutes, and at their steep angle of descent, their entry into the atmosphere was going to be a hot one - hot enough to burn away anything not protected by a few centimeters of aligned crystal steel armor plate.

"I'd like to keep the Passive EMS array extended for as long as possible, sir," Tad called out.

"All right," Grant agreed. He was all in favor of keeping an eye on that contact - should it reappear.

"Captain Ninomiya," Communications called to her. "Palomino reports detecting a contact in orbit above the planet." He paused. "It's tentatively identified as an Orochi Class Automated Battlestation. They want us to confirm their observations."

"They must be kidding," Hinako said to herself. "Sensory, go active with our radar. I want some answers."

"Aye aye, ma'am."

Hinako watched the sensory holotank as it projected yellow points of light against the blue sphere of the planet. The space station was there, as expected, as were a constellation of small satellites in varying orbits.

"I don't see anything," she protested.

She spoke too soon, as a large object resolved itself near the curvature of the planet.

"There's something there," Sensory declared.

"Run it through the Warbook."

"Running now."

"Where the hell is it, Tad?" Grant asked tersely.

"I've lost it, sir," Tad replied. The Palomino bucked as it began to make contact with the planet's atmosphere.

"I see nothing on my scopes," Yuka added over the tac-net from her fighter.

Akane chimed in from her Warhammer in Mech Bay #3. "Captain Grant, what exactly are we expecting to find?"

"I'm still not certain," Grant replied.

The DropShip made deeper contact with the atmosphere, slowing down as friction forces converted kinetic energy to heat. They had to stow the passive EMS array, leaving them blind on sensors and communications until they had slowed down sufficiently in the atmosphere to redeploy their antennae.

The DropShip began to shake with a steady vibration as they bit deeper into the atmosphere, a wash of bright plasma from the superheated air engulfing them. The Pilot kept a steady hand at his station, letting the computer handle the drop, but ready to assume control at a second's notice. Palomino fell further into Ryuugenzawa's embrace.

Minutes passed before they lost sufficient velocity to end their fiery pass through the dark Ryuugenzawa sky. Grant checked his displays, noting that were still moving at twelve times the speed of sound, fifty kilometers above the surface of the planet.

"Commencing first braking S-turn," the Pilot announced.

Gee-forces pulled at them as the Palomino went into a wide slaloming turn intended to bleed even more speed from the ship. The altimeter ticked away the meters as they fell to thirty-five kilometers. Their speed was still hypersonic, at eight times that of sound.

"Commencing second braking S-turn."

Again, the crew of Palomino felt the tug of gravity pulling them towards the bulkhead.

"The hull's cool enough to deploy the sensors and antennae," the Co-Pilot declared. "Velocity: one point five klicks per second."

"Do it," Grant ordered him. He turned back to Howard. "Okay, Tad, tell me what you see."

Tad scanned his scopes, searching for a sign of the contact. There was nothing that he could see with his passive instruments. His radar's efficiency was too limited in the atmosphere to reach very far - perhaps five hundred kilometers at best for their altitude.

"I've got nothing so far," he replied.

"What about below us?" Grant asked tersely.

He scanned.

"No radar, no beacons, no overt signs of civilization," he replied. "A big zero."

"Commencing final braking S-turn."

Tad's radar warning board lit up like christmas morning.

"GUN-DIRECTING RADAR!" he shouted. "BEARING: ONE-SEVEN-SIX, PLUS EIGHT-NINE!"

"That's right above us!" Grant cried. "Evasive man-"

A particle beam of incredible power lanced through the side of the Palomino, striking from the darkness in front of them like the wrath of God. The bolt blasted through the starboard side of the DropShip, hitting them amidships in a cloud of plasma and flying shrapnel.

The DropShip slewed across the sky, streaming smoke and fire from its wound. Alarms screamed on the Flight Deck as the crew fought to keep their hold on the ship.

"Fire in Starboard-Aft Main Engine!" the Pilot cried. "Losing power!"

"Main Reactor coolant breach!" the Co-Pilot added. "Starboard Heat Exchange Loop indicates isolated."

"Sensors down!" Tad called out. The particle beam hit had ionized the surface of the hull, blinding his radar and his passive instruments.

"Can you keep us in the air?" Grant yelled above the din.

"I think so," the Pilot replied, his hands full with the controls. "Another hit like that last one though, and we're well and truly fucked."

"Get us the hell down," Grant ordered. "We're a sitting duck up here."

"Aye!"

Grant turned to his Co-Pilot as the alarms continued to wail. Damaged systems were still reporting in as he watched the boards. The particle beam's radiance glowed before them in the sky where it had ionized the thin air.

"How bad?" he asked.

"Major hit on the starboard side, amidships to aft," the Co-Pilot threw back. "We've lost some power output when part of the cooling system ruptured, and the starboard side atmospheric maneuvering engine is off-line."

"I can manage on one maneuver engine," the Pilot assured him.

"What the hell was that?" Ranma asked over the tac-net.

Grant didn't have an answer. The radar beam that had fixed them for the particle bolt had come from above and just behind them, but the bolt itself had come from in front of them, striking them along almost half the length of the ship. One satellite spotting for the other?

"Break!" Sayuri's voice cried out over the tac-net. "Emergency!"

"What is it?" Grant demanded, having no time for this. The Palomino continued to zig-zag across the sky, but thus far, no finishing bolt of charged particle fury had come.

"Akane's Warhammer has fallen overboard!" Sayuri cried, her voice strangled with desperation. "She's falling!"

Grant's eyes flicked back to the Damage Control boards. There was a depressurization alert for Mech Bay #3 - which hadn't concerned him at first as the Warhammer within was sealed against vacuum. His blood now ran cold.

"Open Mech Bay #2 Door!" Ranma demanded, hearing this over the tac-net.

Ranma was fighting his seat straps in his agitation to get the Mech Bay Door open. He didn't know what had happened, and at that point he didn't care. He just wanted out.

The Bay was pumping down to equalize pressure, and he slammed a fist from his Phoenix Hawk LAM against the door in frustration. The hard metal door yielded slightly to his blow, a feat considering its thickness.

Ukyou's Hatchetman occupied the bay with him, the slender battlemech braced in the close-quarters of the bay on the inboard side of him. At least he wouldn't have to squeeze past her to get out.

"What are you doing, Ranchan?" she asked him.

"I'm going after her!" he replied angrily. "Come on, goddammit!" he yelled to the bozos on the Flight Deck. "Open the door, already!"

The Mech Bay Door began to roll up even as he said it. The sky outside was black and starless at an altitude of thirty kilometers, and his viewport frosted over with the sudden biting cold. The curvature of the planet was starkly beautiful this high up, though Ranma was in no mood to appreciate this.

He dove out of the open Mech Bay Door, engines firing as he cleared the ship, and fell out of sight.

"Ranchan, be careful!" Ukyou called after him, her Hatchetman gripping the edges of the open door and watching the LAM spiral down, transforming to Fighter Mode as it fell.

Ryouga Hibiki had never felt so utterly helpless in his life. Here he was trapped within the confines of his mighty BattleMaster, while Akane was in mortal danger. He could do nothing, lacking jump jets of his own to control his fall, let alone hers.

"Save her, Ranma," he intoned, over and over again, like a mantra.

Phoenix Hawk LAM #T-507

Thirty km above Ryuugenzawa

She was a tiny smudge of computer-generated light boxed in green on his HUD.

Range counters ticked off the intercept time as he poured on the speed. She was falling at close to three times the speed of sound, and he was closing at the upper limit of his velocity envelope, main engines raging behind him with blue-on-blue shock diamonds lighting the dark heavens. He had to reach her before aerodynamic forces in the lower atmosphere ripped her battlemech apart.

Without jump jets or a special high altitude Drop Kit, her Warhammer was a seventy ton falling rock. She was too high up to eject; the air was so thin and so cold up here that it was more of a statistic than a warm, comforting envelope of life, and unlike himself, she had no pressure suit. Even if she were down in the troposphere, she was falling too fast for an unprotected human to survive the experience.

He shoved the throttles forward, past the stops, trying to squeeze out just one more newton of thrust from his engines.

A glint of reflected sunlight caught his eye far below. It was Yuka's Corsair, circling helplessly around the falling Warhammer. He noted the distress setting on her transponder, and thanked her for having the sense to do something to mark their position. Sayuri's Sparrowhawk wheeled farther below.

He made a hypersonic diving pass to assess the situation. The battlemech was scorched black in places, but apparently intact, tumbling as it fell. He eased off on the throttle and pulled up into a climb, rolling out into a Cuban-Eight maneuver, and racing back to reengage the falling battlemech.

"She won't answer me!" Yuka cried over the tac-net.

If she was still alive within the cockpit, the acceleration forces from her tumble had probably rendered her unconscious, a part of him was saying. The other part was trying not to panic at her lack of response.

He matched velocity with her, still in Fighter Mode, and eased as close to her Warhammer as he could. Saying a prayer, he tugged on the transformation lever, knowing that he was well above rated speed for such a maneuver, and not having any other choice.

Phoenix Hawk LAM T-507 screamed in protest as it pinwheeled through the black sky, its arms and legs clearing the protective aerodynamic fuselage as it took on its armored Battlemech Mode. If the air had been thicker, the effect would have sheared all four limbs off. He was fighting for stability as it was, his LAM's thrusters flaring wildly as he maneuvered in free fall at three times the speed of sound to reach the tumbling Warhammer.

He finally caught her in his mech's arms, the added aerodynamic drag altering their tumble into a sickening end over end somersault that pulled at him in his ejector seat, and threatened to submerge his own consciousness. He rallied against the gee-forces as his pressure suit inflated with an angry hiss around his abdomen and thighs. He forced the LAM with his will to fire its thrusters and stabilize their fall. The Phoenix Hawk's gyro groaned in protest as automated systems tried to cope.

"Find it yet?"

"No sir," Tad lamented, forcing himself not to think about Akane falling through the empty sky to her certain death. "It's throwing up some hard core jamming." He pointed to the radar display, which was awash with multicolored static. "I can't see a damn thing up there."

"Jamming on the radio bands too," the Co-Pilot added. "I lost line-of-sight track with the Dragonfly when we got hit, so nothing on the tightbeam lasercomm, either."

A second bolt of particle beam fire punctuated his statement, narrowly missing the Palomino, but coming close enough to make her instruments squawk in protest.

"Goddamn!" Grant swore. "It's shooting at us again! Put us on the deck!"

The Pilot forced the control column forward, and the DropShip went into a steep dive. A third beam lanced into them in a glancing blow that careened off their dorsal armor and threw up a cloud of blinding motes.

"Whatever it is, it's shooting from the other side of the planet at us!" Tad yelled. "The atmosphere is refracting the beams just randomly enough to keep it from drawing a good bead on us."

Captain Grant did not want to think about the kind of particle beams that could travel hundreds of kilometers through the upper atmosphere and still hit them as hard as they were hitting. There was no longer any doubt in his mind that their assailant was an Orochi Battlestation.

Ranma's Phoenix Hawk LAM was in Battlemech Mode, clutching Akane's red Warhammer from below at the waist. His main engines streamed fiery blasts of white hot plasma in an attempt to slow their fall. He could not hope to lift her battlemech - not seventy tons of it in addition to his own fifty. He was barely making a dent in their velocity as it was, and they were quickly running out of sky.

The battlemech's limbs groaned in protest under the load as aerodynamic forces increased. He was stressing the myomer bundles close to their limits to keep the Warhammer stable and upright. Tiny flashes of thruster fire from his verniers added to the glow from his engines, illuminating the Warhammer, and allowing him a better look at it.

The cockpit appeared to be intact. That was all he cared about. The cockpit visor was tinted against the glare of his engines, so he could not look inside to see if she was okay.

"Akane!" he called to her over the tac-net. There was some radio jamming present, but not enough to affect them when they were so close. "Akane, answer me!"

There was no reply. If he had a free hand available, he would have slammed his console in frustration at her silence. He had to wake her up, because no matter what he was doing for her benefit as they fell, only she could pull the ejection lever. They were dipping into the troposphere now; at twenty kilometers the air was getting thicker, and they were running out of time.

"Dammit, Tomboy!" he yelled. "Wake up!" He squinted away tears. "PLEASE!"

The two battlemechs continued to fall at almost twice the speed of sound.

Yuka watched the two falling below her. Ranma was trying everything he could to save her, but if she didn't wake up...

Particle beam fire raged around her as she contemplated the inevitable. It was the same hellfire from out of nowhere that had struck the Palomino, and was now directed at her and Sayuri.

"It's shooting at us!" she screamed, throwing her fighter into an evasive snap-roll. One hit, even a near miss, from one of those beams, would utterly incinerate her.

"Get out of here!" Ranma answered suddenly.

"What about -?"

"We'll be all right!" he shot back over the harsh static caused by the proximity of the weapon fire. "Get out of here before you both get fried!"

"Yuka!" Sayuri called to her.

"Dammit!" she yelled back hopelessly. "Let's go!" She dove for the planet's surface, and, she hoped, safety.

Whoever it is that's attacking the girls, it don't seem to care about us, Ranma thought as he fought to keep his hold on Akane's 'mech in the wildly bucking atmosphere. I guess that's something to be thankful for...

"Ranma...?"

The voice lifted him up out of his despair.

"Akane...!?"

"Ranma... What's... What's going on?"

He could barely hear her over the rush of atmosphere and the howling dirge of his engines.

"Are you all right?" he asked her, keeping an eye on his engine status displays. He was running out of reaction mass for the plasma drive, and soon he would have to shift over to his less powerful turbojets.

"I don't know," she replied. "I hit my head or something, and -" She screamed in terror, realizing at last that they were falling through the air from almost fifteen kilometers up.

"We're falling!" she wailed.

"I was gonna tell you about that part," he managed tersely.

"How...?"

"No time for that!" he barked. "Akane, you gotta get ready to eject. I can't do much more right now than slow down your fall."

"But -?"

"No arguments! Your Warhammer is about to make a hole in the ground big enough to park a DropShip in. You don't want to be there when that happens!"

An alarm warbled in his cockpit as his reaction mass tanks ran dry. The plasma engines sputtered out and were replaced by the rush of superheated air from his fusion turbojets.

"What was that?" Akane asked him.

"Nothing!" he snapped. "Are you ready to punch out?"

Another alarm wailed, and the two mechs suddenly whipped through the air in a tumble. Ranma wrenched at the controls as Akane yelped in fright. The left arm elbow actuator was starting to fail under the load, and had slipped enough to disrupt the stability of their fall. He fought back with compensating blasts of thrust, and barely managed to arrest their tumble.

"Ten klicks!" he called out their altitude. "Too high for you to punch out. We'll try for three, but if I tell you to go, you go, okay!?"

"Okay," she replied in a whisper.

His engines shrieked in protest behind him, trying to put out a level of thrust they had not been designed for. More red lights winked on in his cockpit as the rest of the LAM's myomer bundles began to overheat. They were still travelling just above the speed of sound in spite of his efforts to slow their fall.

He closed his eyes, reaching out through his neurohelmet as he had done so many times before. He needed to know his LAM on an intimate level of control if he was to estimate how much longer he could hold her steady. The muscle bundles were straining into the red, overheating, and stretching beyond the snap-back tolerances. His airframe shook with a subsonic bass tremor, rattling the stress-gauges and loosening connections. The engines howled miserably in the pit of his stomach against their load.

"Five thousand meters!" he called out. She could probably survive an ejection from that altitude, though they were still moving too damn fast.

The left arm elbow actuator failed, making the arm flop uselessly at his LAM's side. He wrenched up with the right arm to compensate, but it was too late.

"NO!" he screamed as they tumbled once again. His thrusters sputtered ineffectually without reaction mass, making him unable to correct their fall."I can't stop it!"

"Ranma," Akane cried to him. "Don't kill yourself because of me! Let go!"

"I ain't lettin' go!" he retorted. "How can you even say somethin' like that!?"

"One of us has to live, you moron!" she begged. "Let go!"

The right arm actuator began to fail. He could feel the myomer bundles singing in protest like piano wire about to snap. An ominous vibration from the engines rattled him in the base of his ejector seat. More warning lights flicked on as the main engines started to overheat.

"I AIN'T LETTIN' GO OF YOU, AKANE! NOT NOW! NOT EVER! GOT IT!?"

The vibration from the engines grew louder, drowning out her reply.

Desperate for an idea to stabilize their fall, he fully extended the wings of his LAM. The shock of their extension wrenched him in his seat straps, but did little to stop their tumble at first. He flexed the control surfaces in response, hoping that they had enough bite against the air to do some good, and was rewarded with a sudden cessation of their reckless somersaults.

He had his hands full trying to keep them stable by using the wing's control surfaces, and still the engines' vibrations grew louder, their pitch suddenly increasing to a banshee keen.

"The turbine bearings...!" he said to himself, realizing what was about to happen, and powerless in that instant to act.

The fusion turbojet bearings flashed, upsetting the micrometer-fine tolerances that balanced the high-speed ceramic turbine rotors within the engine mounts. Turbine blades spinning at ten-thousand RPM contacted the edge of the induction venturi and disintegrated, throwing hypervelocity shrapnel from the engines with two dull, rapid-succession booms.

Phoenix Hawk LAM T-507 began to explode; bits of armor plate, myomer bundle, and structure flying out in brilliant fiery clouds. The useless left arm sailed clear of the falling battlemechs. The wings splintered and snapped like balsawood.

"AKANE - PUNCH OUT!" he yelled as his LAM came apart around him.

He watched the cockpit roof of the Warhammer separate, as his controls failed and his instrumentation crashed to static, and then saw the flash of an ejector seat launching from within, before part of his cockpit structure came loose and struck him on his helmeted head.

Nerima Confederation WarShip Tarpon

Capella System Zenith Jump Point

Capella System, the Nerima Confederation

24 May 3025

The Balao Class corvette Tarpon glided silently through the void, passing undetected within five hundred meters of the flagship of the Furinkan Combine fleet - the formidable Imperator. They were so close that they could make out the individual lights of the battleship's viewports against the blue hull. The corvette's sensors and signal detection gear were fully deployed as the ship carried out its mission of monitoring the cease-fire. Any hostile act against the Confederation's defensive battlestations anchored at the Jump Points would result in an immediate and point-blank launch of the six Barracuda antiship missiles loaded in Tarpon's tubes. Not even the mighty Imperator could weather such a salvo and escape drydock.

The Bridge was abuzz with muted voices as the crew monitored the ships of the Combine fleet. They were technically in violation of the cease-fire for their proximity to the Imperator, but this was a game they were used to playing, and it did not concern them. The Tarpon, and her sister ship in the 777th Squadron, Trepang, had seen extensive use during the Third Succession War as spy ships carried to distant star systems aboard larger JumpShips for the purpose of signal intelligence and reconnaisance.

"Conn, Communications," a tech called to the Conn over the intercom. "We're picking up some radio traffic from the Imperator. They're using an omnidirectional antennae, so we presume this is a general message to the fleet."

"So why are you bothering me with it?" Captain Okuda grouched. He was hunched over the Fire Control station, keeping an eye on the Imperator through the station's data feed with Sensory.

The tech stood his ground. "It's mostly computer code from the look of it, Captain," he returned. "And the transmission itself is rather lengthy. Unless it's Prince Kuno giving a speech to the fleet, I hazard the opinion that this is something important."

Okuda considered this. His crew were first rate, and he trusted their opinions, but the decision to act on this bit of informaton was still his to make.

"Are we recording?" he asked.

"Yes, Captain," the tech replied.

"Once you've got it all, send a copy to Squadron - mark it Priority."

'Priority' wasn't the highest level of precedence for communications, but at least it would receive attention before those marked as 'Routine.'

Corvette Tender NCJS Mare Island

in orbit above the planet Nerima, Capella System

The Nerima Confederation

25 May 3025

Captain Hauptmann waited impatiently outside the office of the 777th Squadron's Commodore. He was furious, and though he was doing his best to keep his temper, it was showing through enough to keep the Commodore's secretary visibly nervous around him. The reason for his anger was no secret about the administrative spaces of the corvette tender.

They were taking his ship from him.

The repairs planned for the Tang had been cancelled. As its usefulness as a stealth ship was over, the Tang was to be scrapped for repair parts for the remainder of the squadron to use. He and his crew were now Dispossessed. Their ship had been a part of their families for centuries, and now they had nothing.

The order had come from someone much higher on the food chain than the Commodore. Hauptmann knew that, and he also knew that he had to start with the man directly over his head if he was going to protest. He could do nothing less for the sake of his crew.

The secretary approached him nervously as he stewed on the sofa.

"The Commodore will see you now," she said to him.

Hauptmann stood and marched forcefully past the girl and into Commodore Tanaka's office.

"Ah, Johann," Tanaka said as he stomped through the door. The Commodore was a short man, squarish and possessed of a wiry strength. He could see the look on Hauptmann's face as he entered, and his expression shifted to match his subordinate's mood.

"I'll spare you the tea and crumpets B.S., Johann, and come to the point," he added. He produced a bottle of scotch and two large tumblers. "Wanna drink?"

"Go on, sir," Hauptmann replied, stopping short of the desk. "And yes, thanks."

"The order to scrap the Tang came from Admiral Darland," Tanaka said evenly as he poured four fingers neat of the honey-colored imported Terran scotch. "I fought it as best I could."

"What about Barber?" Hauptmann asked tersely, taking a sip of the scotch and grimacing appreciatively. Admiral Barber was Tanaka's boss, and oversaw all of the Confederation's special warfare spacecraft, from tiny stealth shuttles to the Balao Class. His opinion technically carried a lot of weight with Darland, who was Deputy Chief of Naval Operations - the number two man in the Confederation Navy, and in light of his boss's unfortunate loyalty to the deposed Grand Duke, the defacto Head Honcho.

Tanaka shook his head. "Barber rolled over, of course."

"Seems like most of the brass hats have been rolling over lately," Hauptmann snorted. Nabiki's treaty with the Combine assured the flag-rank officers of their positions - an assurance they welcomed, as they would have been the first to be replaced after the Confederation military shifted over to the Furinkan Combine Mustered Soldiery. No one wearing starbursts on his collar was too eager to rock the boat in light of that guarantee.

Tanaka took a deep gulp from his tumbler that made Hauptmann wince, and further confirmed the Commodore's reputation as a hard core drinker. In a peacetime navy, he would have been cashiered for his alcoholism, but he was simply too valuable to the Confederation in wartime. Hauptmann knew the FCMS would have no place for him in their future, however, and that treaty or no treaty, this would be Tanaka's last command.

"The official explanation is that given the Tang's extensive hull damage, it no longer has any viability as a stealth warship."

"No stealthing? So what?" Hauptmann protested. "Throw some more armor on her and she'll be a Superheavy GunShip! Isn't that what those Regular Navy jackoffs have wanted from us all along?"

Tanaka sat down in his chair and took another gulp.

"You know as well as I do that Darland is just the hatchetman," he said evenly. "This is coming straight from the Regent. Nabiki doesn't want to spend money to repair the Tang. All the repair money went to reinstall the Tautog's Jump Core."

Hauptmann tried to contain his surprise. He had known that Tautog went into drydock shortly after the Grand Duke was deposed, but the whole affair was kept hush-hush. Not even her skipper, Captain Olivera, had mentioned anything to Hauptmann in the few times they had run into each other since then.

"The Tautog can Jump again?" he asked.

Tanaka nodded. "You didn't hear it from me. Nabiki wants an escape hatch in case Prince Kuno decides to break the terms of the treaty after he gets what he wants from her. The Tautog has been detailed to carry her out of the system in that event."

Hauptmann nodded. It sounded like something she would do. How had the Confederation come to this, laid low by a daughter of the Grand Duke who was only looking after the self-interests of an elite few?

"I want you to understand something, Johann," Tanaka said to him at length. "The reason we're having this conversation is not to allow you a chance to vent your frustration over losing the Tang. I've got something for you, a mission so important that it could change everything in one bold stroke."

Hauptmann looked up from his drink. The look on Tanaka's face was grave.

"Sir?" he asked.

Tanaka rose from his desk, walking over to a side door in his office that led to a private conference room. He rapped twice on the door and opened it, saying something to someone inside that Hauptmann couldn't make out.

"His Excellency will see you now," Tanaka said, turning to face Hauptmann. "Listen to what he has to say, Johann. If you're in, great. If you want to pass, fine, but you don't breathe a word of this afterwards."

Tanaka then stepped aside for him as he entered the conference room. Count Baldur Thuringia of Tikonov was waiting for him, along with a covey of mid-grade officers, army, navy, and even a Marine.

In spite of himself, he broke out into a sweat. This had the uneasy feel of a counter-coup in the making. He had no love for Nabiki and what she had done to the Confederation, but no desire to start a revolt, either.

"Sit down, Captain Hauptmann," the Count said to him. "I can see by the look on your face that you think we're here to discuss a coup d'etat against the Regent." He levelled a penetrating look at Hauptmann. "Far from it."

"What exactly do you have in mind, then?"

The Count wiped at his red-rimmed eyes. "We mean to set things right, Captain. To put the Heir on the throne before Prince Kuno can get his hands on her. We need your help, and the help of your crew to make that possible."

"I'm not in if it means an insurrection," Hauptmann replied tersely. "Otherwise, I'm listening."

Baldur inclined his head in acknowlegement of Hauptmann's sentiment.

"The Regent rules the Confederation with the understanding from the nobles and the military that she does so in Akane Tendo's absence. We accept that as legally binding in principal, if not precisely valid within the accepted jurisprudence. By returning Akane Tendo to Nerima as quickly as possible, we force Nabiki to step down as Regent, and perhaps end this sham of a treaty with the Combine."

Hauptmann gave him a guarded look.

"Pardon me for saying so, your Excellency, but weren't you one of Nabiki's main allies in deposing the Grand Duke? Don't you stand to lose your county if the Combine takes the Tikonov System by force?"

"Those are fair questions," Baldur replied. His voice took on a bitter tone. "Would it appease you to know that I have discovered a few things about Nabiki Tendo that have forever estranged me to her?"

Nerima Confederation Intelligence Agency Safehouse

27 May 3025

Kasumi Tendo stared out into the dark night sky, wondering where Akane was, and if she was getting along with Ranma. The silhouette of the roving security agent moving below her second story window distracted her for a moment, and served as yet another reminder that she was a prisoner of her sister, Nabiki. They had been here for two weeks now, after having spent a miserable time in the South Tower of Azure Cloud Castle.

The safehouse was somewhere near the equator, she knew, judging by the warm and balmy climate at a time when Gondolin was starting to feel the first chills of autumn. She had been blindfolded at the time of her transfer from the tower, along with her father and Nodoka Saotome. Given her sister's contempt for the Saotomes, she could only imagine how Nabiki must have felt upon discovering who the Grand Duke's guest was. In any event, they were a long way from the capitol, and completely cut off from help.

They had received absolutely no news of what was going on in the Inner Sphere, a precaution taken by Nabiki to keep them passive and subservient. Fortunately, she had not felt it necessary to keep them under sedation for long. About the only thing they had received was sympathy mail from the people of the planet, each carefully examined and censored where necessary. They were not allowed to reply - that was being taken care of by the newly reinstated NCIA. Apparently, Nabiki was playing up the removal of Father in the most positive light, not seeking to demonize him, but to portray him as a man who had given his all for the Confederation, and had been broken by his struggle. Kasumi had to admit that it was a wise strategy.

She withdrew from the window, turning to see Nodoka offer a supportive smile from the sofa. One of the security agents had brought them tea while she was wool-gathering before the window.

"You're thinking of Akane again, dear?" Nodoka asked her.

Kasumi smiled wanly. Mrs. Saotome was something of an enigma to her even after their month of confinement together. She was a woman of great patience and understanding, and yet she was married to a man like Genma Saotome. Perhaps those qualities were necessary to tolerate him, she supposed, but then, Genma Saotome hadn't exactly been around much to test Nodoka. She couldn't imagine how painful it had been for her to live most of her life having never seen her son grow to manhood.

Somehow, Nodoka endured it, though she revealed her emotional scars from time to time. In spite of this, Kasumi admired her a great deal. She had been something of a spiritual anchor for them, keeping them together and sane through their bitter confinement.

"I worry about her," Kasumi admitted. "I always have."

Nodoka sipped daintily at her teacup. "I remain hopeful that she and my son are all right."

"I admire that optimism," Kasumi returned. "Of late, I find that I've lost some of mine."

"You're still feeling guilty about letting Nabiki get the best of you," Nodoka pointed out. "Don't torture yourself over it, dear."

Kasumi frowned. "I do feel guilty," she admitted. "I knew that she was plotting against Father, and I didn't do more to stop her."

Nodoka nodded. They had been through this many times without final resolution since their imprisonment.

"And what, I ask for not the first time, could you really have done?"

"I should have had her arrested," Kasumi snapped. She blushed in shame at having lost control over herself, and looked away from Nodoka.

"That is what Nabiki would have done," Nodoka pointed out quietly. "What you need to ask of yourself is whether or not arresting her before she had the chance to betray you would have been lawful and just."

"I know the answer to that, Mrs. Saotome," Kasumi returned. "But it doesn't change how I feel right now."

Nodoka offered her a cup of tea, which she accepted absently.

"I understand, dear. The heavens know what I might do differently in my own life if given a second chance." Her eyes fell upon the tiny wisps of steam from the teapot's spout. "For one thing, I would never have let my husband take Ranma away from me for so long - an oath to make him a man among men or not."

A tear welled in her eye, which she brushed away with as much grace and dignity as she could muster.

"Seventeen years," she sighed sadly. "I'd give anything to have them back."

Gunnery Sergeant Tran Minh Ky watched through his nightglasses as one of his men neutralized the perimeter rover. As the Intelligence Agency thug went down, he trained his nightglasses over to the kitchen door. Two more commandos appeared from the hedgerow that screened the house from the distant paved road that led to the seaside resort town of Paraiso Aqui.

They were all survivors of the Fifth Brigade. The unit was shattered after the battle of Oni, and faced imminent deactivation. Like so many of the other participants in this desperate operation, they were men and women who had little to lose.

Gunny Ky watched as the commandos entered the kitchen, the signal that the remainder of the team was to proceed. He clutched his autoloading shotgun in hand as he and the others scrambled into the open. A flashbang grenade went off as he drew close to the house, followed by a brief crack of a medium caliber handgun that could only belong to one of the security agents, as all of his men inside the house carried nearly silent laser weapons. The handgun did not fire a second time.

"First floor clear," a voice hissed over the commo net.

Ky shook his head. If the snipers didn't get the two agents on the second floor, things could get ugly. He hoped like hell the team assigned to kidnap the Combine Shogun was doing a better job.

"Second floor clear," a second voice added. One of the snipers.

"Move in, you apes," Ky growled into the radio. As long as their dustoff appeared on schedule, things just might work out.

"What was that?" Nodoka cried fearfully.

"It sounded like a grenade," Kasumi replied. She pulled Nodoka down to the floor, keeping the sofa between them and the door.

A pistol shot rang out, followed by the sizzling crackle of a laser weapon, and a wet shriek cut short before it had hardly begun.

"A counter-coup?" Kasumi said aloud, trying to puzzle out what was happening. A ray of hope began to well up within her.

The sound of breaking glass nearby caught her attention, followed by a wet thumping noise against the door. She watched as the doorknob turned, and one of Nabiki's NCIA agents fell through the opening door, a large portion of his forehead splattered down his face and the front of his clothes to his knees. In the moment before he toppled over, Kasumi could see right through the hole in his head to the wall opposite the door.

The sounds of footsteps stomping up the stairs made her duck back behind the sofa, where Nodoka trembled silently and waited for the end.

"Lady Kasumi," a voice called to her. "I'm with what's left of the Fifth Marines. We're here to evacuate you and the Grand Duke."

She considered this for only a moment. If Nabiki decided to liquidate them, she would not have resorted to such heavy-handed theater.

"I'm here," she replied, standing slowly. A Confederation Marine in blackout camouflage clutched a blazer in both hands, the narrow beam of a barrel-mounted flashlight playing across her as he swept the room. "My father is in the next room," she added.

"We've got that covered, ma'am," he replied.

She watched as a pair of Marines helped her groggy father past the fallen yet still twitching corpse of the NCIA agent as he said it.

"Are you hurt?" the Marine asked her.

"No."

The Marine said something into a commo headset. "We don't have much time," he told her. "If you and Mrs. Saotome would please come with me."

Kasumi looked down at Nodoka, who nodded and stood slowly. She cupped a hand to her mouth in horror at the sight of the pool of blood slowly spreading from the twitching body of the dead agent.

"He's still alive," Nodoka gasped, pointing to the dead man. "Aren't you going to help him?"

"No, ma'am," the Marine replied. "Trust me, he's dead. Folks twitch like that sometimes when you shoot 'em in the head."

Another Marine appeared as Nodoka gasped in disgust at his comrade's frank reply, clutching two heavy body armor vests in his free hand. "You'll need to put these on," the Marine told them. "For your safety until we can get you into orbit."

Kasumi led Nodoka gently past the dead agent, brushing aside the Marine offering them the body armor and trying to keep from losing her lunch. She had seen the horrible aftermath of violence before, but the casual way in which these men killed and handled death was unnerving to her.

There was a second corpse on the stairs, his body nearly cut in half along a diagonal wound trench from a laser that stretched from his shoulder to the opposite hip. Nodoka made a retching sound, but managed to keep herself together. Kasumi kept a tight grip on Nodoka's arm as they went down the stairs, ignoring the hasty salutes from the commandos who had come to rescue them.

Once they were downstairs, a short and stocky man of Vietnamese descent presented himself and saluted. Kasumi could see by the subdued insignia on his collar that he was a Gunnery Sergeant. More Marines from the Fifth Brigade were stacking up the bodies of NCIA agents in one corner of the living room. Most of them had been thoroughly lasered, several were dismembered in various places, and the air stank of ozone and burnt flesh.

"Ma'am, I'm Gunny Ky," the Marine announced. "And I'm gonna have to insist that you and your companion wear the body armor my men offered to you. There aren't any guarantees that one of your sister's agents won't attempt to kill you rather than let you escape."

The Marine with the vests followed them down the stairs. Kasumi reluctantly allowed him to dress her in the body armor, while another Marine assisted Nodoka.

"Gunny Ky," she said to the stocky Marine. "May I ask what is going on the capitol right now?"

"Nothing, I hope," was his curt reply. His attention was taken by something he heard over the commo. "Dustoff in two minutes, people!" he called to his troops.

Kasumi turned to see her father standing near the kitchen, dressed in a body armor vest and listening intently to what a Marine major in blackout gear had to say. In spite of the horror of what she had witnessed, she had to smile at the sight of her father regaining some of the stature and dignity he had lost with his capitulation to Nabiki.

The distant sound of jet engines rumbled in the sky above the house.

"Stay in the house until you're told otherwise, please," Ky advised them.

Kasumi waited in silence with Nodoka, though she had a thousand questions to ask. Her father was too busy it seemed to approach at the moment, which only made her wonder even more about what was going on. Was this a counter-coup against Nabiki, or was this simply a rescue mission that would see them living out their lives in exile somewhere?

The sound of the jet engines grew louder, until it was a piercing scream from outside the kitchen. Kasumi watched through a window as a black shuttle craft touched down forty meters from the house. Flares burned red on the grass outside, and the draft from the engines kicked up clouds of white smoke that obscured the ship from view for a moment.

"Your ride's here," Ky declared. "Awright, you apes!" he said to his men. "Let's pack 'em up and move 'em out. We've gotta be back in the barracks in two hours!"

"You aren't coming with us?" Kasumi asked him.

Gunny Ky smiled. "Ma'am, as far as the official record is concerned, me and the boys spent a quiet night restricted under guard to the base for drunk and disorderly conduct." He thumped one of the Marines upside the helmet and reproached him for his sluggish performance before turning back to Kasumi. "That's my story, ma'am, and I'm stickin' to it."

"Kasumi!" Grand Duke Tendo called to her. "Nodoka! We must be going now."

"Coming, Father," she replied. She and Nodoka were led by a small contingent of Marines to the shuttle as Gunny Ky and the rest of the commandos filtered into the darkness of the hedgerows. A man in a drab blue shipsuit was waiting for them at the ramp, along with several sailors. She recognized him even without the braid-encrusted ballcap on his head which read 'NCWS TANG SVT-721.' The sailors also wore Tang ballcaps, though the shuttle itself was clearly from the NCWS Tautog.

"Captain Hauptmann!" she cried.

"Your Grace, Lady Kasumi," he said to them as he welcomed them up the ramp. "There isn't much time for explanations at the moment, but once we rendezvous with the Tautog, I assure you that I will tell you everything I know about what we hope to accomplish."

NCWS Tautog

in low orbit above the planet Nerima

Capella System, the Nerima Confederation

28 May 3025

Grand Duke Soun Tendo nodded slowly at what Captain Hauptmann had to say.

"I see," he said at length. "So this isn't a counter-coup after all."

"No, your Grace," Hauptmann confirmed. "The remaining Loyalists in positions of authority feel that a rebellion against your daughter would be counterproductive. We wish to avoid a civil war by removing Nabiki in as lawful a manner as possible. Once Akane returns to Nerima, Nabiki will have to step down as Regent. Her support among the nobles is based largely on that premise, and as you have seen, Count Thuringia has set himself completely against her now."

"Would that I could have counted on him a month ago," Soun sniffed."This nightmare wouldn't have happened."

"I understand your feelings, your Grace," Hauptmann demurred. "But the truth is that he has sacrificed most of his fortune and possibly his seat to free you. We couldn't have located you in time to put together a rescue without hefty bribes to some of Nabiki's NCIA mercenaries." He shrugged. "Now I'm just a corvette skipper, your Grace, and I don't pretend to understand half of the politics involved in this mess, but I do know what the Count has done to set things right."

Soun was silent a moment. "I see... What about taking the Shogun from my daughter's custody?"

Hauptmann made an absent gesture with his hands. "Call it insurance against Prince Kuno, and it also weakens your daughter's position with the other nobles to be without him."

Soun nodded silently in agreement with the captain's estimation. "I think I should like to speak with his Eminence. Perhaps we could reach a mutual understanding where we've failed to do so with his son."

"I take it then, Captain Hauptmann, that you know where Akane is?" Kasumi asked him, returning the conversation to its original topic.

"Several days ago we intercepted a transmission from the Furinkan Combine fleet prior to their Jump from the Capella System. The transmission was a database patch for their astrogational systems that included the Ryuugenzawa System. We already had the abstract in our possession, but the fact that the Combine has been given the data by your daughter is the reason we were forced to act quickly to free you."

"They found it?!" Soun blurted. "Saotome, you genius!"

Nodoka blushed with pride at this revelation.

"They apparently did, your Grace," Hauptmann agreed. "Unfortunately, as I said, your daughter gave the data to Tatewaki Kuno, and told him that he could find Akane there. Kuno is on his way to Ryuugenzawa to seize Akane for his bride, as per the treaty Nabiki arranged with the Furinkan Combine."

"Are we too late then?" Kasumi asked.

"We don't think so, ma'am," Hauptmann replied. "A ship as small as the Tautog doesn't need nearly as much time to recharge her Jump Batteries as does a battleship like the Imperator. We should actually be able to beat them to the Ryuugenzawa System in spite of their lead."

The 1MC crackled for attention above their heads.

"All hands prepare for acceleration."

Several moments passed in silence before the distant rumble of the corvette's drive signalled their departure from orbit.

"Assuming we can escape the system," Hauptmann said to them. "We'll be home free."

"What are our odds?" Soun asked.

"Chances are that Nabiki hasn't realized your escape yet. The Tautog leaving orbit unannounced will cause a stir, but the only ships who can hope to find us are the other ships of the 777th Squadron." He smiled and brushed back his thinning hair. "I can reasonably assure you that according to Commodore Tanaka, they'll have a very difficult time of it."

Furinkan Combine WarShip Imperator

Betelgeuse System Zenith Jump Point

Betelgeuse System, the Nerima Confederation

5 June 3025

Weeks after the fact, Hikaru Gosunkugi could hardly accept that Tetsuo was dead.

The news had come with their arrival in orbit around Nerima. His cousin had been murdered by a man acting under orders from the Grand Duke. At least, that was the official story. Though he took anything from Nabiki Tendo with a grain of salt, the pain within him at the loss of his friend and confidant made a thorough examination of the evidence impossible at the moment.

For now, he would accept her story, and vowed to make the Grand Duke pay, and pay dearly for his treachery. If the nagging suspicion within him that she was lying about Tetsuo's death for her own reasons was proven correct, he would add her to the list. There were other matters that required his attention now, and he could ill afford to be distracted if he wished to have his revenge upon all of the parties who had wronged him.

He studied the wound scars on his wrists where iron spikes had fixed him upon Kuno's cross. Though advanced medicine had been able to close the holes, the damage done to his tissues and bones had left him with very little strength in his hands. Physical therapy had helped some, but the prognosis of the Imperator's medical staff was that he might be better off opting for cybernetic replacement of both arms below the elbow.

He did not like that idea in the least, and in any event, there was no guarantee that Kuno would authorize the expense for his hostage, even if Hikaru was acting in the capacity of the prince's retainer.

He had to laugh at that, though the sound that spilled from his lips was bitter and despondent. Prince Kuno had spared his life in order to procure his occult services in severing whatever bond had formed between the nonpareil Akane Tendo, and the hated upstart, Ranma Saotome. He had reviewed the sketchy battlemech flight recorder video logs from Capra at Kuno's behest, and it did indeed seem that she had feelings for the cursed Saotome.

That wasn't all that he noticed. He had watched, stunned, as Ranma transformed from a man into a busty red-haired girl with a dousing of water from an unknown source above the cliffs where Kuno had captured him. Kuno was convinced that the buxom redhead that he refered to reverently as The Pig-Tailed Girl was a different entity from Ranma. Hikaru wasn't so sure of that.

He wished that he had access to his library, for an answer to the mystery might be found within the many dusty tomes of forbidden lore in his possession. That was impossible, however, as his personal JumpShip had been forced to flee the system when he was captured, and Kuno had no intention of returning him to Angbad to secure his research materials. The best the Combine prince could come up with was a handful of material, hastily gathered, and most of it popular tripe from ancient charlatans such as Aleister Crowley and Anton LaVey, a book of fraudulant mystical formulae that owed much to Lovecraft's obviously fictitious Mad Arab, and most surprisingly, Sir James Douglas Frazier's magnum opus of anthropology-cum-the-White-Man's-Burden, 'The Golden Bough,' a work that touched upon so many fundamental aspects of magic and yet missed their significance out of staggering Victorian arrogance.

Despite these dubious works, there were a few gems to be had in Kuno's collection. There were scrolls from the Chinese esoterics that had scholarly occult value. In particular there was a translation - with a commentary by Carl Jung - of an essay by Confucius regarding the study of the Book of Changes. There were the dabblings of a few famous 2nd Century Kabbalists, including Rabbi ben Akiva. Not to mention a stunning treatise on Astrology compiled by an islamic mystic from 11th Century Baghdad that Hikaru had been searching out for years without success. Nothing, however interesting these works were, that shed light on this particular enigma.

If the redhead in the flight recorder logs really was Ranma Saotome, he would have to be careful in executing any kind of magical attack against him. There was the possibility that Saotome was in fact a sorceror, as Kuno had claimed. Hikaru practiced a form of sympathetic magic that did not call upon the Dark Powers, and the last thing he needed was some demon breathing down his neck and no useful way to deal with it.

Of course, the shortcoming of his preferred system of magic was that lacking anything personal from Saotome, he could not do anything harmful to him either. Kuno didn't seem to grasp that crucial fact no matter how many times he had explained it to the numbskull, and had refused to press Nabiki for hairs, articles of clothing, or personal effects belonging to Saotome while they were in orbit around Nerima. He could not work with nothing and expect results, and yet Kuno was pressing him daily for progress.

Naturally, he had lied through his teeth about the matter to his jailor. Tatewaki Kuno was not the kind of man who countenanced failure, and the alternative to glowing reports of his magical attacks on Ranma Saotome was an assuredly grisly death. He shuddered at the thought of being nailed to that cross once again.

If there was one thing his captivity aboard the Imperator allowed him, it was access to his mortal enemy. If he had nothing with which to use against Ranma Saotome, he had plenty to use against Tatewaki Kuno. His spare time had

been spent preparing a host of straw effigies of his erstwhile host, and he had yet to miss an opportunity to procure hairs, clothing fibers, even a few flakes of Kuno's dandruff for raw material in his spells.

He would have his revenge on the Combine prince. Somehow, someway, he would see him cast down from on high. He would destroy Saotome in time, the Grand Duke as well for the death of Tetsuo, and perhaps even Nabiki to boot, but first he must concentrate on bringing down Tatewaki Kuno.

Black Rose Terror Regiment Flagship

New Syrtis System Zenith Jump Point

New Syrtis System, the Federated Shiratori

6 June 3025

Sasuke waited until the bestial grunting and groaning subsided before sounding the door chimes to his mistress' bed chamber. He did not want to see the two of them together - was disgusted in fact by the way that Pansuto Tarou had seduced his mistress - but as they were never far from each other's company, he resigned himself to the inevitable.

"Yes?" Kodachi's voice trilled sweetly over the intercom.

"Mistress, I have urgent news," he said wearily, hoping that she would demand that he speak from the other side of the door and not enter.

"Enter," she commanded, and he hung his head in exasperation.

The door slid open, and the heavy, musky scent of rut washed over him, making him wince. Fortunately, the lighting was dim, and so his mistress did not see his expression of dismay. He could not stand to be mocked again by her so soon.

There were pairs of pantyhose strewn everywhere; draped over chairs, the settee, hanging from the lighting fixtures on the walls, and especially the bed. His mistress maintained a four-poster bed aboard her personal JumpShip, and from the look of things, she had put its stout construction to the test. Again, he winced. They were like crazed weasels in heat!

Kodachi lay upon the bed, her head and shoulders propped up by a red satin pillow against the carved cherrywood headboard, with one long bare leg crooked decadently at the knee in a pose that some would argue provocative, and others - like Sasuke in that moment - mildly obscene. The matching red satin sheets were twisted and mussed, and covered the rest of her body with only the barest deference to modesty. Her skin glowed with the sheen of pleasant exertion, and her eyes burned with their usual coal black intensity, though her sly smile hinted at her enormous satisfaction.

Tarou had his head in her lap, his perpetual look of disdain directed now at Sasuke. He was naked as well, lying in a supine pose like a sleeping David carved by some Florentine Renaissance master, covered only at the waist by an almost accidental placement of a corner of the sheet. A pair of beige pantyhose was wrapped loosely around his neck, the ends of which were gripped lightly in Kodachi's left hand.

"Yes, Sasuke?" Kodachi purred to him. "What news do you bring me that is so urgent?"

"I bring news of your brother's dealings with the Confederation Regent," he began.

Her expression darkened at the mention of her brother.

"Go on."

Sasuke collected himself and plunged on. "It seems that Nabiki has given him the coordinates to the Ryuugenzawa System as part of their surrender deal, Mistress, and he is making for the system at best speed."

"Dammit," Tarou cursed. "This so-called secret is spilling out all over the place."

Kodachi stroked his temple. "Pay it no mind, my lover," she told him.

How quickly her ardor for Ranma Saotome has faded in light of her passionate exchanges with her current bedmate, Sasuke noted dryly.

She yawned fetchingly to show them how little concern she felt over the matter. "It seems that once again I must reach a star system ahead of my brother if I wish to kill that horrid Tendo girl."

She stroked again at Tarou's temple.

"Leave us," she commanded her ninja manservant.

Sasuke bowed low for her, though his displeasure with her was clearly evident, and retreated quickly and silently from the room.

"I'm going to have to have him killed," Kodachi remarked dryly. "Alas, sooner than later, I should think."

Tarou turned to face her.

"I don't understand why you even bother to keep him in the first place."

She gave him a taut smile. "He amuses me," she replied. "And he does have his uses as a source of intelligence. In the many games I play with my brother, it pays handsomely to have someone of Sasuke's resourcefulness available."

"Are you certain that Sasuke wouldn't try to do the same to you?" Tarou asked.

She chuckled, full of mirth at the notion. "Assassinate me? Of course not! My lover, there is one thing you must understand about Sasuke. No matter how much he becomes upset with me over my choice of bedmates, he is still utterly devoted to me." She ran one finger along the side of Tarou's jaw, tracing down his neck and across the sweep of his collarbone. "If I commanded him to commit suicide, he would do so without hesitating."

Tarou thought about this. "Then why all the fuss about having him killed?" he asked. "If you want him dead, just order him to slit his throat and be done with it."

She laughed at this. "My dear Pantyhose," she purred. "So simple and direct in your ways. Though you are without a doubt the most exquisite lover, there is much that you do not understand about me, nor could you hope to know in the brief time we have shared together."

She arched a leg over him, caressing his flank with her toes. "I play games with Sasuke as well, my dear. One of my favorites is keeping him guessing about which of my hands is holding the knife. No, he would not raise a finger against me, dear Pantyhose. There are other ways in which he seeks to destroy me."

Tarou snorted. "Is everyone in your life just a source of amusement to you?"

Kodachi ran her fingers down his arm.

"Yes," she whispered, leaning close to him. "I particularly enjoy the games I play with you."

He kissed her hard on the mouth, surprising both of them with his sponteneity. He did not understand the nature of the spell she held over him, but he knew that he belonged body and soul to her. It was more than just the sex. Kodachi Kuno's attraction to him lay deep within the folds and recesses of his being, arousing him on a primal level that he could not name.

Perhaps it was because she reveled in who he really was as a person, that he did not have to be anything other than himself around her; amoral, arrogant, even a little hedonistic. It was more than refreshing to live free of the restraints and mores imposed by society, it was invigorating, and in her, he had found a woman who filled him with a passion that he had never known before. He was hungry for life and all its pleasures with her, and she understood that revenge was one of the sweetest of all.

Nerima Confederation DropShip Palomino

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

7 June 3025

"Tell me you can set us down in one piece," Captain Grant asked his Pilot.

"I can set us down in one piece," the Pilot assured him in spite of the many red alarm lights on his control panels. "Just as long as nothing else goes wrong," he added, rapping on the main console so as not to jinx them.

The Palomino sank through a layer of clouds, revealing a rolling expanse of woodlands below. The treetops were textured black against the lighter color of exposed hilltops and scattered meadows at night.

"Anything on radar?" Grant asked Tad.

"Two aircraft at high altitude bearing one-nine-nine, range two-zero klicks. IFF says they're the Air Lance. I hold no other contacts at this time."

Grant frowned deeply.

"How about word from Captain Saotome or Lady Akane?" he asked the Co-Pilot.

"All frequencies are silent," he replied. "I can't even raise the Dragonfly."

"Silent? You mean the jamming has stopped?"

The Co-Pilot nodded. "The radio bands are deader than a politician's conscience right now. Same with the microwave bands. Lasercomm has so far failed to reestablish the link with Dragonfly. The array is searching, but it isn't finding their signal."

Grant didn't want to think about the implications of that. Nothing from the Dragonfly, and no word from either Ranma or Akane spelled total disaster.

"I'm getting a metallic return on radar," Tad chirped. "Bearing three-zero-zero, at ground level. Looks like a structure of some sort."

Grant studied the data on his repeater display. "Mark it on our INS board. It might bear checking out once we find a place to land."

"I just passed a clearing on our starboard side that looks big enough for us to set down in," the Pilot noted. "Want me to try for it?"

"The sooner we land, the sooner we can examine the damage we took," Grant returned. "Take us in."

The Pilot was as good as his word, setting them down with as much care as his lack of a maneuvering engine could provide. The Palomino settled down in a meadow clearing, surrounded on three sides by forest, and the fourth side bounded them with a low windswept hill that was bare of trees.

The Mech Bay doors began to roll open as Yuka and Sayuri made low passes overhead to observe the area. Happousai's Locust was the first to touch down, having been nearly shoved out of the bay by Ryouga's massive BattleMaster.

"Where did Akane fall?" Ryouga demanded over the tac-net. "I'm going out to look for her."

"It's about a hundred klicks from here, at least," Yuka replied from the sky above. "We were going to go back and take a look once you landed safely."

"Did you see what happened?" Ukyou asked, her Hatchetman stepping down onto the grassy meadow and walking towards the BattleMaster.

"No," Sayuri replied. "Whatever it was that zapped the Palomino the first time started taking pot-shots at us. We couldn't stick around."

"So you left Ranma to die?" Ukyou asked her hotly.

"We didn't have a choice!" Yuka snarled back. "Besides, it was your sweetheart, Ranma, who told us to go!"

"Enough of this bickering!" Genma yelled. His Griffin stomped around the bow of the DropShip to confront Ukyou. "Since neither Ranma or Akane is here to give orders, I'm assuming command of the Lance. Yuka and Sayuri will alternate searches over the area where we lost Akane. One looks while the other stays here to protect the LZ."

His battlemech made a sweeping gesture with its arm. "The first thing we need to do is secure this area. Ryouga and Ukyou, you two take opposite sides of the DropShip and spiral out from there to a distance of one klick, then spiral back in. The Master and I will stay here as the rearguard, and as reinforcements in case one of you is attacked.

"We don't know what exactly happened to us up there, and there are no guarantees that we won't be attacked on the ground as well. I know that you all care about what happened to Akane and my boy, but we aren't doing them any good by setting ourselves up to be attacked while we search."

"Fair enough," Yuka said in reply. "I'll make the first search effort. How long do you want me out before I switch with Sayuri?"

"No more than an hour," Genma replied. "After that, you come back and land. We shouldn't push the fighters too hard."

"Copy that."

Yuka waggled her wings and screamed off in the direction of Ranma and Akane's last known position.

The mechwarriors watched the Corsair go. Ryouga marked the direction on his battlemech's INS computer. Air searches were fine, but in darkness, he didn't count on them having much success. The best they could hope for was to receive a rescue radio transmission from Akane.

"We should set up a radio beacon for Ranma, in case he returns," he pointed out over the tac-net.

"Good idea," Genma agreed. "For all we know, the boy has already picked up Akane safe and sound."

"I'm hesistant to go transmitting any long range signals until we get a better idea about this place's defenses," Captain Grant jumped in over the tac-net. "But I don't see any other way of letting Captain Saotome know of our position."

"What about word from the Dragonfly?"

"Nothing," Grant said dully. "We've lost all communications with them."

"That isn't good," Genma growled worriedly. He had not expected such a hostile welcome from the planet. Other Star League depots weren't this well protected. "Where exactly are we on the planet?"

"From our observations in orbit, Ryuugenzawa has only one major continent. We're on the northeastern end of that land mass, about forty degrees north latitude from the equator, and about two-hundred klicks from the sea."

"Did you spot any structures?" Genma asked hopefully. Thoughts of exploring the famed Proving Grounds were already taking precedence over concern for his son and future daughter-in-law. Besides, the boy knew what he was doing. They'd be okay...

"We spotted something on radar not too far from here, a structure, but there was no sign of any life."

Genma nodded slowly. "Perhaps we should investigate."

"I'm all for it, but in daylight if you would please, sir," Grant demurred. "We've got a lot of work to do tonight, starting with a damage assessment of the Palomino."

"I'd like to take down our reactor plant, seeing as how it suffered the loss of half it's cooling system, but without a source of shore power, I don't know how feasible that will be. We've only got a few hours on our batteries, and if we can't restart the reactor, we're dead in the water."

Genma thought about the problem. The Palomino was currently the only source of civilization they could count on at the moment. If they lost power for good, their stay on Ryuugenzawa was going to take a decided turn for the primitive.

"Would it be possible to run your hotel loads through the shore power feeds from one of the battlemech reactors?" he asked finally.

Grant shrugged on the display. "I'll ask my Engineer. It'll probably have to be either yours or Lieutenant Hibiki's mechs that does it, though. I don't think a Locust powerplant could provide enough juice, and the Hatchetman is iffy."

"If it's all the same to you, Genma," Happousai broke in. "I'll take Hibiki's place so he can come back and get hooked up to the DropShip."

"I don't know about that, Master, I -"

"Good," he cackled. "I knew you wouldn't mind."

The Locust stomped off in the direction of Ryouga's BattleMaster.

Genma watched his master go, taking comfort at least in the idea that he would be out of his hair for awhile. Captain Grant was right. One look at the scarred and blackened starboard side of the DropShip was enough to realize that they had a lot of work ahead of them.

Nerima Confederation JumpShip Dragonfly

Approaching the planet Ryuugenzawa

Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus

7 June 3025

"Captain Ninomiya," Communications called to her. "Palomino reports detecting a contact in orbit above the planet." He paused. "It's tentatively identified as an Orochi Class Automated Battlestation. They want us to confirm their observations."

"They must be kidding," Hinako said to herself. "Sensory, go active with our radar. I want some answers."

"Aye aye, ma'am."

Hinako watched the sensory holotank as it projected yellow points of light against the blue sphere of the planet. The space station was there, as expected, as were a constellation of small satellites in varying orbits.

"I don't see anything," she protested.

She spoke too soon, as a large object resolved itself near the curvature of the planet.

"There's something there," Sensory declared.

"Run it through the Warbook."

"Running now."

Hinako waited for the data to come through, worried that Grant's estimation of the unknown contact was correct.

"Conn, Sensory; the Warbook confirms contact Romeo Two-Five as an Orochi Class Battlestation."

"Sound General Quarters!" Hinako ordered. What had Genma Saotome gotten them into?

The ship's General Alarm klaxon rang throughout the ship. She watched the contact begin to slide behind the planet's curvature, and hoped that it had not noticed them.

"Conn, Sensory; detecting search and acquisition radar from contact Romeo Two-Five."

Hinako ordered the ship to alter course to remain in distant support of the Palomino. Given the starship's meager armament of two PPCs, there wasn't much else that they could do except observe.

"Conn, Sensory; detecting energy weapon fire from contact Romeo Two-Five!"

"Conn, Communications, we've lost radio and lasercomm contact with the Palomino."

Hinako paled. Were they destroyed?

"Astrogation, plot an escape course back to the Jump Point," she ordered. "Helm, be prepared to execute course change. Sensory, locate the Palomino."

"I've got them, ma'am," Sensory reported. "The ship appears to be intact on my radar. They are descending in a controlled fashion."

"What about that Orochi?"

"It's sinking behind the planet. The shot was a massive particle beam that passed through the upper atmosphere to hit the DropShip."

Such power! Hinako thought with dread.

"Course change plotted," Lieutenant Davidge reported.

"Helm standing by."

Hinako was gripped with indecision. What could she really do? The Dragonfly was no match for a GunShip, let alone an orbital battlestation with technology dating back to the height of the Star League! They were too far away for a rendezvous, and in any event, the Palomino was trying to reach the surface of the planet to escape the beams.

A bolt of blinding power ripped through the Dragonfly as she pondered this, shaking them in their acceleration chairs.

"Damage report!" she cried. "Sensory, where did that come from!?"

"Conn, Sensory; new contact Echo Two-Six bearing zero-five-nine, plus zero-two. Range, indeterminate but distant!"

Hinako watched as the holotank updated. Another Orochi satellite was above and to their starboard beam, hanging in high lunar orbit!

"Another one!" she lamented.

"Engineering reports heavy damage to the Jump Core," the Acting Assistant Engineer declared. "No possibility of repair at this time."

Hinako shook her head in disbelief. My ship! I just got finished putting it back together again! "Helm, execute course change! All-Ahead Flank!"

A second bolt blasted through the ship. The lights flickered off for a moment and displays crashed to static.

"Port Greenhouse destroyed! Emergency airtight seals deployed and holding!" the Acting Assistant Engineer cried. A third bolt slammed into them, rocking the ship violently and causing small fires to break out on the Bridge. "Engineering reports heavy damage to the Main Engines and the Main Reactor!"

"Loss of Helm Control!" the Helmsman added. "Main Engines and Reaction Control System not responding."

Power failed completely for a moment, leaving the Bridge Crew in darkness. A fourth bolt blasted apart the lower docking compartment, nearly severing the habitat from the shattered Drive Section.

"Loss of all primary power! Depressurization alerts on 'C' Deck port side and 'F' Deck starboard! Fire in Engineering on 'H' Deck!"

Hinako pulled herself upright in her chair as the emergency lights came on. Tears were in her eyes as her beloved ship was being blasted apart around her. One more hit on the habitat, and they were done for.

"Pass the word to abandon ship!" she ordered. She looked to Davidge. "Make certain a copy of the Log makes it to the Nymph."

A fifth annihilation bolt vaporized the aft section of the Jump Core, severing the Main Engines and the JumpSail completely from the ship. Dragonfly began to tumble slowly, end over end, as its hull glowed a dull orange from the heat of the particle beam strikes.

"Assuming that we live to abandon ship," Davidge observed gravely.

Shampoo heard the General Alarm sound and wondered what was going on. There was no provision for a guard during Battlestations, and she watched as her current jailor leapt up from his seat to respond. She was alone after that, just her and the tiny baby growing within her.

Her time was running out if she wanted to terminate her pregnancy. Doctor Tofu hadn't mentioned it ever since he broke the news to her, in fact he had been more focused on ensuring that she ate right and took her vitamins. She humored him in this regard, glad at least for his compassion and his humanity. To the rest of the crew, she was at best a sex object, and at worst, an enemy of the state, deserving only of a swift trial followed by a swifter execution.

Ranma had never once come to see her, even to gloat. She felt a little disappointed by that. Her kiss was meant to seduce him, or at least to sway him to her advantage.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sudden hammering of the ship by a distant orbital battlestation. Shampoo could only brace herself against the walls of her cell, and await the moment when the compartment was blasted to atoms or vented to space.

She counted five bolts against the hull, and then silence. The lights were out, leaving her only a single battle lantern to see by, and the fans had stopped. The centrifuge that was 'D' Deck was slowly winding down, and the ship was tumbling slowly end over end.

Shampoo did not know what had happened, but whatever it was, the ship was in serious trouble, if not crippled beyond all repair.

"All hands abandon ship!" the 1MC ordered the crew. "All hands abandon ship!"

She watched the airtight door to the passageway beyond the Brig. After what seemed like fifteen minutes had passed, she realized that no one was coming for her. Everyone was too busy trying to save their own lives. She didn't blame them, but she didn't want to die like this, trapped in a tiny cell while the air grew slowly foul around her and the light from the single battle lantern faded and left her in total darkness.

The light from the battery powered lamp failed abruptly, confirming her worst fears.

Shampoo sat on her sleeping pallet, drawing her knees up to her chest, and prepared herself for death.

The airtight door opened as she considered this, and a flashlight beam played across the clear polycarbonate wall of her cell.

"Shampoo?" Doctor Tofu asked to the darkness.

She stood up. "I here!" she cried.

"I'm here to let you out," he said. "The crew is abandoning the ship."

"What happen?" she asked.

"I don't know," Tofu said, thrusting the key into the cell door's lock. "I don't want to stick around and find out. Captain Ninomiya is only giving us ten minutes to make it to the Boat Bay before they leave, and if we start getting hit again, I don't think she'll wait even that long."

The door opened, and Shampoo bounded out to glomp Tofu in a fierce embrace, her lips pressed against his for what seemed an eternity to him.

"I no forget this!" she assured him. "You no have to come rescue Shampoo, but you do anyway."

"Well, ah," Tofu stammered, his face blazing with heat. "We should, er, be, ah, going."

Shampoo smiled prettily.

"Lead way."

Captain Hinako Ninomiya scowled in the dimly lit Ship's Boat, Nymph.

"Where is that crazy sawbones?" she complained from the Boat's flight deck. The ship was starting to fail structurally, its creaks and groans becoming more torturous with each passing moment. Fires raged in Engineering, which had been abandoned even before her order, as the surviving crew down there remembered vividly the horrors of the last inferno to hit those spaces, and knew by the pounding they were taking that the ship was beyond help.

Tofu appeared with Shampoo as she said this. The two pulled themselves aboard the Nymph, while one of the Bridge crew sealed the airlock door.

"You almost missed the boat," Hinako groused. "All the other lifeboats left."

Tofu strapped himself into a seat as the Dragonfly trembled, its main bulkheads near collapse.

"I came as fast as I could."

"You and your altruism," Hinako snorted as the Boat Bay was evacuated with an emergency vent valve. The Bay door would not open without power, and they were forced to blow the explosive bolts. "You risk your neck and everyone else's on the Nymph just to save the life of a prisoner we'll probably end up executing anyway."

"I'm a doctor," Tofu protested. "My job is to preserve life. If you had a problem with it, why did you give me permission to go? Why did you wait?"

"Forget I said it, Doctor," Hinako snapped. The Nymph pulsed its reaction control jets, scooting free of the Boat Bay. "In case you hadn't noticed, I've just lost the most important thing in my life!"

She gestured out the viewports to the blackened and rent hull of the Dragonfly, and knew that she had been correct in giving her order to abandon ship. There was no saving a starship so badly damaged. To attempt it would have been throwing lives away. As it was, they were extremely fortunate that most of the hits had been to unmanned portions of the ship, such as the Jump Core, Greenhouse, and the Drive Section. They had suffered no fatalities - all hands had escaped.

She glared at the distant moon of Ryuugenzawa, knowing that her ship's destroyer was out there, and vowed to get even.

"Captain," her Helmsman reported. "I'm detecting a low power radio signal from the Palomino. It's their emergency beacon, I believe."

Hinako observed the tiny cluster of life pods and the other Ship's Boat, Sylph, that hovered in empty space a safe distance from the dying starship. "Tell the others to home on the Palomino's beacon. We'll make planetfall there and link up with any survivors." She huffed in resignation for the disaster that had befallen them. "After that, I don't know what we're going to do."

Without the Dragonfly, they were marooned in the Ryuugenzawa System.

The discontinuity in Akane Tendo's consciousness between the moment she yanked desperately on her ejection handle, and the moment seconds later, when she was kicked loose from her ejector seat was jarring enough for her, but the fierce cold that bit into her limbs and the horror of watching Ranma's Phoenix Hawk LAM disintegrate in midair before her eyes was absolutely numbing. She rotated in her parachute straps as her eyes scanned the skies. Her falling Warhammer was lost against the darkness of the ground far below her, and only dull fingers of smoke and fire spread into oblivion from Ranma's LAM.

"...Ranma...!" she choked out into the freezing air. She could not see a parachute that would confirm his escape from the falling machine.

Please, no! she begged.

The high-altitude wind whipped into her in a powerful gust, swaying her from side to side in her straps, which dug into her bare legs and made her shiver with cold. She was almost four kilometers high, an altitude far above anything she had ever considered before as a mechwarrior.

When she finally landed - assuming that she didn't die of exposure first - it would be a long way from the final impact point of her Warhammer. If Ranma had been able to escape, and she wasn't willing to admit yet that he hadn't, he too would scatter with the wind. Hopefully they would land close enough together that she could find him quickly. She didn't want to spend any more time alone on this miserable planet than she had to.

As she descended she put away fears of Ranma's death and thought about what had happened. She could hardly remember their descent through the upper atmosphere, and had no recollection of the explosion that had thrown her battlemech clear of the Palomino. Her first distinct memory was of Ranma, struggling against nigh-impossible odds to save her life.

"Idiot!" she spat to the dark and silent skies around her. "Ranma, you... You... Idiot!" She began to sob. "I told you to save yourself...!"

But against her protestations, he hadn't let go of her, had even screamed back in defiance of the idea that he should save himself and let her die. The stupid jerk didn't even realize that she couldn't bear to live a life without him!

She hung in her straps, shivering with cold and shaking with sobs of grief as she fell at an agonizing pace through the night sky. She almost missed the rapid approach of the ground at the end of her fall, and hit hard, rolling into soft muddy soil and tangling up in her shroud lines.

When she got her breath back, she was covered in freezing cold mud. She began to pull at the shroud lines of her parachute, trying to free herself before collapsing into exhaustion. Her last act before she passed out was to draw the remains of her parachute canopy over herself for warmth.

Akane awoke to the stark fingers of dawn low in the eastern sky. She was still bitterly cold beneath the thin nylon of the parachute canopy, though the mud seemed to have dried itself to her skin. She pulled herself painfully into a sitting position. With a little daylight to aid her, she was able to untangle herself from the shroud lines, and took her first halting steps on the alien world of Ryuugenzawa.

She saw that she had landed in some swampy mire, and that a thick grove of trees a hundred meters away represented the only appreciable shelter from the elements. She shrugged off some of the disorientation she felt, and rummaged about for her survival kit. A clean pair of coveralls was there, to be donned once she had scraped off most of the mud. There was food as well; compressed rations and two liters of water. The most important items were the flare gun and its three starshells, and the short-range rescue radio. If the Palomino had survived the attack, they would be looking for her and Ranma.

She switched the radio on. Ranma would have his radio as well, and if they were within ten kilometers of each other, they could communicate!

"Ranma?" she called to the ether. "Are you there?"

The radio sputtered static in response. It was possible, she conceded, that they had touched down too far apart to be within the relatively short range of their radios. The alternative was unthinkable.

She tried again, this time hoping to reach someone, anyone, who could help her.

"Palomino, this is Akane Tendo. Do you read me?"

Again there was nothing.

She set the radio to standby to conserve battery power. Yuka and Sayuri would come looking for them, and she would be able to hear their radio calls when they came near. They could also home on her rescue beacon, but until she knew they were close by, she did not want to transmit more than she had to. Whoever had attacked the Palomino might be listening.

Standard ejection procedure dictated that a mechwarrior in hostile territory bury her parachute, but Akane was unwilling to do so right away. There didn't seem to be anyone around that could threaten her, and she was reluctant to do away with something that would make her easier to spot from the air.

The afternoon was growing long, and still there was no sign of any help. They must have been looking in the wrong place for her, she realized. Even worse, her rescue radio had conked out, and she could not get it to work again. Any radio transmissions being sent to her could not be received.

Akane didn't know what to do. Her best chance for rescue meant staying close to where she had landed, but if they hadn't found her yet, did that mean that no one was left alive to look? Whatever had blasted a hole big enough in the DropShip to make her Warhammer fall out of the bay could have easily destroyed the Palomino.

If that was true, and Ranma... hadn't made it... then she was the only one left alive out of the expedition. Her heart clenched at the thought of it. Hope might remain with the Dragonfly, but they were probably still a hundred thousand kilometers out in space, and whatever had attacked the Palomino would annihilate any shuttle launched by Captain Ninomiya in a rescue effort.

If she was truly on her own, then she couldn't stay here in this swampy mire. She had to find dry ground, locate a reliable source of water, then food. Her rations wouldn't hold her for more than three days, six if she stretched them, but she might need every calorie right away if she was going to exert herself with a survival trek.

She packed up her meager belongings into the survival kit. She could see a hill in the distance, and figured that she could use it to find a suitable place for shelter. Perhaps she could spot the impact crater of her Warhammer, and wait there for a rescue.

Akane began to trudge through the mire, which had thawed during the day and was now warm and squishy beneath her feet. Her legs were filthy, covered in grime and muck up to the knees as she walked, and she found herself wishing for a hot shower followed by an equally hot soak in a big bathtub.

The scraggly woods at the edge of the mire offered a little shelter from the sun, and the ground was a little drier, but there was a feeling of gloom and dread about the place. The planet seemed to have a fairly sophisticated ecosystem, including small vertebrate mammals and several species of birds, but once she reached the woods, her surroundings became quiet and still.

She reflected on the necessity of self-defense. She was confident that her martial arts could carry her through any kind of predatory confrontation long enough to run away, but after twenty minutes of picking her way through the dreary woods, she found herself reaching for the 10mm autopistol in her survival kit. It might not do much against a large animal, but the noise and the smell of the burnt propellant might be effective in scaring it away. She tucked the weapon into the waistband of her shorts. Knowing that it was quickly available to her did a lot for her morale.

She brightened further at the sound of running water. There was a small creek running parallel to the animal trail she was using, and the empty canteens rattling on her hips reminded her of the need to replenish them. She detoured off the game trail to the creek, stepping carefully over mossy stones, and hunched over the water.

It was surprisingly cold to the touch. She filled both canteens, and dropped in purification tabs, mindful that while the water looked good, she couldn't afford to come down with a case of dysentery before her survival efforts had even begun. After shaking thoroughly and waiting the requisite time period, she sipped at the first canteen, wrinkling her nose at the aftertaste from the purification tablets. Satisfied that she could drink without gagging, she drank down half the canteen in one go, paused for a moment at the cold-headache it gave her, then finished it off.

A lowing sound full of vibrato behind her made her freeze up with fright. It sounded like the warblefrogs she used to catch as a little girl back home on Nerima, only much, much bigger. She turned slowly towards the sound, but did not see anything that could have made such a sound. A swarm of tiny gnat-like bugs was the only thing around.

She watched the roiling cloud of gnats for a moment, wondering if they had anything to do with the noise.

The lowing sound was louder this time, to her left. She spun towards the source, and felt something big whip buzzing past her ear. She shrieked out of reflex, batting whatever it was away, and screaming once again when she realized how big it must have been by how solidly it had resisted her blow.

She crouched down as a segmented insect with three pairs of shiny wings spaced along its full meter of length flew past. It made the lowing sound once more, and dove through the cloud of gnats. More of the giant flying worms began to appear, their lowing sound becoming frightfully loud as they whirled around her.

Akane caught a glimpse of their twin sets of clacking jaws, each as big as lobster claws, and screamed once more. One of them nipped at her hair, and she spun around, swatting at them to keep them away. Her screams only seemed to draw their attention, and they began to buzz around her in earnest, their long segmented bodies glistening in the shafts of sunlight that filtered through the treetops, and highlighting their fierce green, ochre, black, and red colorations.

Close to panic now, she pulled the handgun from the waistband of her shorts and began firing wildly at the things. A splatter of yellow gore stained her tank top, disturbingly warm as it soaked through the thin cotton material, and she watched one of the horrible bugs go down as if it were a puppet with its strings cut. The noise of the gunfire infuriated the rest, their lowing reaching a deafening intensity as they renewed their attacks. She felt a set of jaws scrape her arm, then her leg, while another nipped at her ear.

She unloaded the rest of the magazine at them, killing at least two more, before dropping into the icy water of the creek and drawing her arms and legs up into a ball to protect herself. Her screams of terror competed with the awful sound the bugs made.

A battle cry broke over the din, the voice of a human coming to her rescue. She did not dare to look up as the bugs whipped around her, but she could hear the sound of something clubbing them to the ground, and the man's voice growing more and more triumphant as he drove them away.

Finally, the bugs were gone, either dead or driven off, though she didn't care which.

"Are you okay?" the voice asked her.

She looked up through the gaps of her fingers at him. He was tall, with a headband and a broad jacket of coarse black homespun cloth. He clutched what looked to be a pushbroom in both hands, and Akane could see by the yellow gore dripping from its worn bristles that he had used it as a weapon against the bugs.

"I- I think so," she replied. She looked herself over to note that the bugs had been more of a frightening annoyance than any real source of injury to her.

"The dragonworms are attracted to loud noises," he supplied for her. "They eat bugs most of the time, but I've seen 'em eat small animals and birds before."

He gestured to the empty pistol in her hands, the slide locked back to indicate an empty magazine.

"Was that you doing all the shooting?"

She looked at the pistol as if for the first time. "Um, yeah..."

"I thought so," he replied. "It's pretty rare that you hear a gunshot these days, let alone a whole bunch of them at once. I decided to come take a look."

Akane released the slide and tucked the depleted weapon into her survival kit. "I'm sure glad you did."

He helped her to her feet. "I don't think I know you," he observed.

She smiled shyly. "No, I don't think that's possible," she agreed.

The man bowed for her. "My name is Shinnosuke. I'm pleased to meet you."

"I'm Akane." She pawed at the mossy stones with her toe. "Boy, am I glad to see you. Is there a settlement or something close by?"

Shinnosuke gave her a quizzical look.

"You aren't from around here, are you?"

"No," she replied, wondering how much she should tell him.

"I thought so," Shinnosuke remarked. "You have a funny way of talking."

He must think that I have an accent, she realized.

"I'm from another star system," she admitted.

"Really?!" His excitement was clear. "I've never met someone from another star system! My grandfather remembers a time when people from space came here, but that was when he was a boy." He looked away thoughtfully. "Sometimes I would sit up at night and wonder if it wasn't just wishful thinking that people lived on other planets than this one."

She gave him a sympathetic look. "They do, Shinnosuke. There are hundreds of other worlds where people live."

He looked her over. "Grandfather should know about this," he declared. "Do you mind coming with me? It's a couple days walk from here."

She shrugged. What else was she supposed to do?

"I was hoping that you would ask," she replied. "But could you do me a favor?"

He took on a childlike look of reverence that she had only seen on one other face, and that was Ranma. "Anything, Akane."

"Someone else was with me," she began. "We were separated. I'm trying to find this person."

He frowned. "You're the first person I've come across in a week."

"I know," she returned. "But we arrived late last night. We were attacked high in the sky, and... Well, I managed to bail out, but I don't know if my friend was able to."

His face lit up in recognition. "I saw that!" he cried. "Huge lines of fire lit up the sky. I didn't know what to make of it at first. I mean, the Orochi hasn't attacked us in years - not since before I was born."

"The what?" Akane asked, certain that this 'Orochi' was what had shot them out of the sky.

He cocked his head at her for a moment. "The Orochi. Grandfather says that it was supposed to protect this planet, but whenever it wakes up, it just starts blasting everything in sight."

"That must have been what it was," she conceded. "So you say that you saw this?"

Shinnosuke nodded gravely. "I saw something fall from the sky last night. It was as bright as the sun, and when it winked out with a big flash, I thought it was just a meteor. This morning, I saw where it hit, only..."

"It wasn't a meteor, was it," Akane finished for him.

"Not unless meteors are made entirely of metal and plastic," Shinnosuke agreed.

"Could you take me to see it? My friend might be somewhere nearby."

He shrugged. "It's in the wrong direction from Grandfather's house, but I guess so."

She smiled. "Good, because your meteor was really my battlemech falling from the sky. My friend was in another 'mech trying to save me." Her face clouded with concern. "It started to explode... I don't know if he was able to eject."

"You're a mechwarrior?" Shinnosuke asked reverently.

Akane nodded silently for him.

"I'll take you to where your 'mech crashed," he said at length. "But I think I should tell you now that I don't think your friend escaped."

Her heart sank. "How do you...?"

He looked away, unable to meet her wounded eyes.

"You'll know when you see."

Hours later, it was getting towards sunset when they left the woods behind and crested the hill that Akane had made her objective for the day. As the sun hung low in the west, she could see a vast grassy plain beyond the forest, littered everywhere with thousands, perhaps millions of glittering objects, and in the center of them was a deep crater gouged into the ground, still smoldering with heat.

It was far worse than she could have imagined, and she choked back a sob as she ran headlong down the hill towards the crater, passing thousands of bits of scorched metal, most of them no larger than coins. A few larger chunks were scattered about, and she spotted the half-melted ruin of the Phoenix Hawk's nose landing gear. The LAM's head, buried halfway into the ground in its own crater, lay cracked wide open, the sensors and other equipment spilling out like cybernetic grey-matter. Wispy threads of myomer fiber were strewn about, their normally bright pink strands melted and discolored to a lifeless biege.

She found bits of the HEPLAR drive pods; these mostly shredded by the exploding turbines in the legs that had torn the rest of the LAM apart, but there were no easily recognizable pieces of the main body to be found. The most intact part of Phoenix Hawk LAM #T-507 was its rifle-like Anderson 2000 Heavy Laser. The weapon was impaled muzzle-first and nearly upright into the ground, its 'mech-sized black nylon shoulder sling flapping absently in the early evening breeze.

"Do you understand what I mean, Akane," Shinnosuke said to her. "It looks like the thing blew itself into a million pieces in midair. You saw how far the debris field is spread out - it has to be at least three kilometers in radius."

"I know," she groaned. She felt weak in the knees, and collapsed to the ground as her head swam with grief. The touch of Shinnosuke's hands on her shoulders felt distant, as if she were in an entirely different place from her body.

North of the DropShip Palomino

Happousai wasted no time in stomping his Locust through the light woods that screened the Landing Zone. Ukyou's Hatchetman was on the opposite end of the LZ, meaning that no one was close enough to see him slip away from his appointed patrol area.

He was headed for the structure located by the DropShip's radar, a structure confirmed by those lovely ladies of the Air Lance, Yuka and Sayuri. In their brief passes, they had discovered more than a simple building or two, but the ruins of a small starport. There was bound to be something of value there, he figured.

The planet was turning out to be something of a disappointment so far, but he had the feeling his luck was about to change. He knew that he needed to seize upon that feeling, and especially before that ingrate Genma got around to scrounging up a search party to take a look at the place.

"First dibs!" he cackled to himself.

He crested a low rise, coming upon a broken paved road overgrown with weeds and a few trees. Beyond was the remains of a fence and an entry gate. He slowed his pace to a walk, crunching the trees underfoot as he approached. The gatehouse was well weathered, and missing a portion of its roof.

Paying it no further mind, he stepped over the gate and onto the worn and cracked concrete of the tarmac. Most of the surface was overgrown with weeds and a kind of creeping vine that covered the tarmac in a verdant carpet. It was easy to see why the Palomino crew had missed the extent of the place during their descent.

Most of the hangars were intact, if overgrown with vines and other plants to the point where they resembled regularly spaced mounds more than buildings. The only places that had escaped the greenery were the pumping stations for liquid hydrogen and helium fuel, which were lined with a plastic spill containment that was apparently capable of surviving intact through the centuries. The vines and other plants simply couldn't force their roots through the material.

The control tower appeared to have fallen over at some point, which was disturbing given its apparent reinforced concrete construction. Where the vines had not completely covered the ruins of the tower, Happousai could see the tell-tale scorch marks of a fire. He could not determine the true cause of the tower's collapse without dismounting first, but this was something that he was prepared to do.

After all, Fortune favored the brave.

"What is it, Konatsu?" Ukyou asked her former adjutant over the external speakers of her battlemech. He had scrambled up her walking Hatchetman unnoticed until the point where he had waved his hands in front of her cockpit viewport.

"Pardon me, sir," he began. "But is there any word of Captain Saotome and Lady Akane?"

The Hatchetman came to halt, and the cockpit hatch sprang open. Konatsu drew back in surprise to see Ukyou pull herself up onto the sloping rise of the Hatchetman's head, her eyes red and her face puffy.

"No, Konatsu, there isn't," she replied gruffly.

"Forgive me, sir," Konatsu begged. "I did not mean to upset you."

She shook out her chestnut fall of hair, letting it float for a moment in the breeze as she took deep cleansing breaths. "I'm not upset because of you, Konatsu," she told him. "I'm upset because of HIM."

"Pardon?"

"Ranma," Ukyou clarified. "If anything happened to that jackass, it's because he chose her over me."

Konatsu scratched his head. "I don't understand, sir."

"What's to understand?" Ukyou asked bitterly. "When Akane was blasted out of the ship, he nearly ripped off the door trying to get outside to save her." She bowed her head. "I just finished speaking with Sayuri over the tac-net. She told me how he wouldn't leave her falling Warhammer, even though he couldn't lift it with his engines."

She looked away for a moment. "I almost wish that it had been my 'mech that had fallen."

"Sir!" Konatsu cried in horror at the idea.

"At least then I'd know for certain where I stood with him," she added. "If he did the same for me that he did for Akane, then I could be happy. If he didn't, well... At least it wouldn't matter for long."

"Ranma wouldn't let you die," Konatsu insisted. "I've only known him these last few weeks, but I'm certain that he cares enough about you to come to your rescue."

"Maybe," Ukyou replied, unconvinced. "But does he love me?"

Now it was Konatsu's turn to look away.

"I know," Ukyou sighed. "You don't have to say it. I do have eyes, you realize." She brushed at her hair distractedly. "It just isn't fair. How could he be in love with her, and not me?"

Konastsu bit down uncomfortably on his lip. "You don't know that he loves her, sir," he offered.

"Ha," she snorted. "That's a good one. If that was true, then why does he always get so uptight whenever I try to show him a little affection? Why does Akane get flowers and not me?" She shook her head ruefully. "So what if the doofus didn't know that some of them were poisonous, the fact remains that he picked them for her."

Konatsu had nothing to say to this. He hated to see his beloved Ukyou like this, and yet, knowing that Ranma was no threat to his dream of someday winning over her heart, he could not help but feel a little pleased as well.

"I've been in love with him since I was little," she cried without preamble. "When he left me the first time, I was shattered, unable to open up my heart to another man!" Fresh tears began to flow from her eyes. "My life has been nothing but loneliness and heartache for ten years, and then suddenly he comes back into it."

She pounded a fist on the hard armor of the Hatchetman's head.

"Was it too much to ask that the two of us could fall in love?!" she lamented. Her face fell, and she seemed to collapse in on herself just a little.

Konatsu watched her, helpless to do or say anything, and knowing that this was something she had to work out for herself.

"Why the hell can't I get a little break now and then!?" she whispered.

Konatsu scuttled close to her, touching her gently with a forwardness that he would not have dared a year ago.

"You're very tired, sir," he soothed. "We all are. Perhaps you should return to the Palomino for awhile. Commander Saotome did say that he would keep himself available for relief."

She shook her head ruefuly. "That would be the first time that he's ever done me any favors. If the lying bastard hadn't left me behind ten years ago..."

"You can't say that for certain, sir," he replied, his voice losing some of its falsetto to become more masculine. "You don't know how things would have turned out between you and Captain Saotome if his father hadn't left you behind."

She gave him an accusing look. "Go to hell, Konatsu. For even thinking something like that, go to hell."

He bowed low for her, scraping his forehead against the armor plate in his devotion.

"As you wish, dearest Ukyou."

With that, he leaped down to the ground and dashed off into the trees.

Ukyou watched him go, now feeling even more miserable for the way she had treated him.

The DropShip Palomino

8 June 3025

Ryouga Hibiki sat disconsolately atop the shoulder of his BattleMaster. The 85-ton battlemech's powerplant was plugged into the Palomino's shore power trunk, supplying electricity to run the stricken DropShip while the crew assessed the damage and gauged their ability to repair it with what little they had on hand. The war machine rumbled quietly for him, the pitch of its turbogenerators changing almost imperceptibly as the electrical demand from the DropShip's systems changed. While they depended on his battlemech for power, he was stuck at the Landing Zone, unable to join in the search for Akane.

And Ranma, he admitted to himself. Neither of them had been found yet. Yuka and Sayuri had been looking for over twelve hours, rotating back and forth as per Genma Saotome's orders. While he doubted that either of them were eager to find Ranma, he knew that they would spare no effort to find Akane.

The two pilots' frustration over their failed search was growing, to the point where they no longer even trusted their search areas. Anything was possible, he figured. In the confusion of the drop, with some monstrous orbital construct trying to blow all of them out of the sky, it was more than just possible that they should be unable to relocate the likely crash site of the Warhammer, it was highly likely. He didn't know what to make of the failure of both Ranma and Akane to call for help on their survival radios.

What could not be denied was Sayuri's bitter insistence to Ukyou that Ranma had been doing everything in his power to help Akane at the time when the two fighter pilots had been forced to flee. The former F-S brigadier had a hard time reconciling that Ranma had most likely sacrificed his life for his fiancee. Ryouga no longer doubted it. He had to concede that, like himself, his pig-tailed rival would do anything for Akane's sake - even die if it meant that she could live.

"Hello, Ryouga dearest," Akari said gently to him from the cockpit boarding ladder. He looked over his shoulder and offered a tired smile for her.

She had brought him a thermos of hot tea from the Crew's Mess, a rice ball loosely wrapped in wax paper, and what appeared to be cup ramen, the steam wafting from the peeled back paper lid.

She set the food down by his side, and joined him quietly where he sat. Their legs dangled over the top hull of the BattleMaster's shoulder as they sat, their feet just above two of the torso-mounted medium laser projectors. He looked at her for a moment and knew that she was exhausted from spending the last half day with the Palomino's Engineer trying to find a way to repair some of the damage to her V84 StarDrive engines and her Main Reactor.

He picked up the cup ramen, having little appetite but determined to see that Akari's effort on his behalf, and in spite of her own weariness, was not in vain.

"Have they found Lady Akane and Captain Saotome yet?" she asked him after he had slurped up some noodles.

"No," he replied.

She closed her eyes in grief, expecting as much. Ryouga shared her feelings on the matter, but he wasn't ready to give up hope for them yet.

"When do you think the Palomino will be ready to start up its reactor again?" he asked her.

Akari sighed. "I don't know. Tomorrow afternoon, maybe, if they can cut away enough of the wreckage around one of the starboard radiators to get at the damaged coolant loop by tonight."

Ryouga, having no idea what the interior of a Leopard Class DropShip's Reactor Compartment looked like to understand the nature of the problem, merely nodded his head. As he did so, he realized that Akari was looking at him with a mixture of sympathy and apprehension.

"You want to go looking for her, don't you?" she asked him.

Her question cut deep.

"Yes," he finally replied.

She nodded knowingly. "I understand." Her feet kicked idly above the BattleMaster's lasers. "You love her, don't you. I can see it in your eyes when she's around you."

He swallowed hard, not expecting such a biting and yet emotionless accusation from her.

"I do," he said quietly. He could not pretend to her any longer. She deserved the truth from him, just this once. "I can't help it, Akari."

She tried to smile, but her mouth wouldn't quite obey. "I don't hold it against you, Ryouga dear." A tear began to well at the corner of her eye in spite of her glib remark. "Really, I don't."

He set the ramen down on the warm hull armor. The styrofoam container shook with the subtle vibrations of the active powerplant. "Akari, I..."

His hands clenched nervously over and over into fists before relaxing.

"I know that my feelings for Akane can never be more than idle dreams. She loves Ranma, and I'm... I'm pretty sure that he feels the same way about her." He stood, eyes cast to the horizon. "I accept that. I accept that my love for her will never be returned in the same way."

Akari nodded mutely.

"I should go," she said to him at length, her sorrow evident in her tiny voice. "There's still so much work to do."

Ryouga, his face wracked with indecision, watched her turn away.

What was he doing standing there like a fool? he tried to ask himself. Didn't he have feelings for her too? Wasn't he breaking her heart with this terrible confession? Didn't he care too much about her to ever let her get hurt like this?

His anger with himself struggled with his shame and his anxiety at laying bare his feelings for her, the tendons in his arms creaking with tension as he wrestled with his very soul.

What kind of a man was he that would allow such a thing to happen to the woman he loved?

No man at all!

"Akari -" he called to her. She stopped at the base of the cockpit ladder and turned her wet eyes towards him. If he didn't say something to bring her back, it was going to be all over with her. "Could you, ah, stay here for just a few more minutes?"

He wanted to hit himself as the words spilled out. Was that the best he could do?

She wavered for a moment. "I'm sorry, Ryouga," she replied softly. "I'd love to, but I--" She wiped at her eyes, trying to hold herself together. "I have a lot to do."

She started down the ladder, her descent drawing him towards her reflexively. His heart of glass trembled in his chest, ready to shatter into a million pieces.

"Akari!" he cried. "Please..."

She paused in her descent, keeping her face carefully averted from his.

"There's something that I, ah... I have to t-tell you," Ryouga continued, his voice weak and tremulous with apprehension. "It's too important to wait."

She hung there on the ladder for a moment, locked in an inner battle of her own, before slowly pulling herself back up to the shoulder of the BattleMaster where he stood.

"Akari," he said, his body trembling and his hands shaking as he tried without success to look at ease with himself. "There's something else you should know. You see..." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Y-You see, th-there's this other g-girl that I'm..."

He swallowed hard, cursing inwardly at his failing nerve, and closing his eyes to steel himself. "That I'm in... in lo-lo-love..." His eyes opened, meeting hers in that moment. "That is, um... Th-that I'm in love with..." Akari's soft gasp nearly melted him. "And... and... Well, lucky me, she wants to m-m-marry me s-someday, I guess, and..."

She looked up at him, face filled with hope.

"Ryouga?"

His face was nearly purple with embarrassment, but he held out his hand to her.

Akari took his hand, the tears in her eyes finally set free and spilling down her cheeks in hot streaks to fall upon the BattleMaster's thick armor plating.

"You don't have to say another word," she whispered to him as his arms closed tightly around her. She lay her head against his chest and sighed softly into the folds of his tunic.

Ryouga Hibiki felt strangely weightless as he held the girl with the long streaks of pink hair in his arms. Perhaps it was the feeling of vertigo from standing high atop his mighty BattleMaster, perhaps it was the feeling of joy within him that made his heart flutter at a hummingbird's pace. He did not know. What he did know was that he loved the beautiful Senior Technician in his arms, and that she loved him. On a hostile planet where everything else had gone wrong, the two of them together seemed to be only thing that had gone right.

He could feel the wind as it rushed over his wings at close to seven hundred kilometers per hour, could feel the lift generated by the warm air rising from the blistering hot pavement of the deserted two-lane freeway a few meters below. The shriek of his fusion turbojets rebounded from the macadam, filling his ears with its hollow keen. He was in Airmech Mode, an armored bird-of-prey bristling with weapons as it raced across the scrub desert, and he was just sixteen years old.

The feel of the old LAM in his hands and in his mind was an unconscious comfort to him, having learned the skills and nuances of both aerial combat and close quarter land battle with this formidable machine. Since he had been old enough to care about such things, the LAM had been an imposing and inticing mystery, a thing that he must conquer and control if he was to make his father proud and carry on the family tradition. In time, he had mastered the LAM, and at sixteen, tradition didn't mean as much to him as the chance to fly, fight, and prove himself in battle.

As the Phoenix Hawk LAM raced along the deserted freeway that linked the contested planet's two major cities, he reflected on his role in the conflict. He and his father had contracted with the planet's lords to defend them against the predations of one of the Periphery's many bandit kings, one of whom had felt sufficiently ambitious to invade the world and add it to his holdings. This was no major set-piece battle, but a series of small, fast engagements, as neither the bandit king nor the petty lords who contested for possession of the planet had a large army, and had only a handful of battlemechs between them.

He questioned his father's insistence that they remain merely scouts in the conflict, in spite of the fact that a 'mech like the LAM could have a significant effect on the battle's outcome. His father had overruled him, declaring that the LAM was too important to risk damage - given its rapidly deteriorating condition and the dearth of critical replacement parts that were available. He was under strict orders not to fight the enemy unless it was absolutely necessary, and then only as a means to escape.

The Airmech sped along the highway, adjusting its leg thrusters to slalom through gentle curves as the flat expanse of desert gave way to arid hills. He was looking for a fight, heedless of his father's wishes. The 'mechs of a bandit king were frequently in bad repair, and the chance to knock off a beat up Warhammer or Thunderbolt single-handedly had great appeal for him - as well as provide them with bonus cash from the sale of the salvage.

He was looking for a fight, but with the majority of the action consisting of isolated raiding actions for water and other spoils that were over practically before the word could get out, he was having a tough time of it. His best chance was to find a bandit group moving into position for the next raid, or else catch one as they made their escape.

Plumes of dust rising on the horizon stirred his hopes.

He vectored for an intercept, confident that he could catch them by surprise. As his LAM cleared a low dusty hill, he spied his quarry; a column of beat up trucks and 4x4 wagons that looked like props from some post-apocalypse video - which he supposed parts of the Periphery, this world included, resembled. Escorting the column was a red Warhammer.

Show time! he thought eagerly, and pushed his throttles over to maximum.

The aerodynamic housing retracted on his starboard engine pod, revealing his twin medium laser projectors, and he made a low level strafing run down the length of the column. Trucks exploded at a touch from the twin beams, bursting apart in oily black clouds of smoke. Gasoline and high energy coherent light did not mix well, he noted with a laugh, and banked into a turn for another pass.

The Warhammer reacted slowly to his first attack, but now it was bringing its tube-like PPC arms to bear on him. Bolts of lightning ripped from the muzzles in alternating blasts of fire as it tried to shoot him down, but he was flying low and fast against the rolling hills, and narrowly avoided the fusillade as he charged back to attack.

A beam from his heavy laser set off another huge explosion, catching one of the trucks he had missed in his first pass. The heat and the smoke obscured him from the Warhammer's sights for a moment, and he swooped overhead to land behind it.

His own heat levels were high thanks to a few defective heat sinks, and he was forced to resort to the twin 20mm machineguns in his left forearm. He hammered on the thin rear torso armor with the guns, the shell casings flying from the ejection ports in a torrent of brass. Sparks and bits of metal cascaded from the host of hits he had scored, though his burst had not penetrated the armor.

The Warhammer pivoted at the torso, twisting completely around to face him. On the battered red hull was the white and purple fishcake device of the Nerima Confederation, and the voice of his fiancee cried out in anger over the tac-net.

"Ranma, you jerk!" she screamed at him. "What do you think you're doing to me?"

He froze up in his ejector seat. What was SHE doing here? he wondered.

The Warhammer brought one of its massive Donal PPC arms down on his fuselage, smashing armor and breaking off both medium laser tubes. His LAM buckled at the knees, and the bird-of-prey Airmech pitched forward, burying its radome in the sand.

"Akane!" he shouted back. "Stop it! I just made a mistake, that's all!"

She pounded him again, starring the canopy and nearly knocking him senseless with the force of the impact. The other PPC arm fell, smashing him up even more.

"RANMA, YOU JERK! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"