(chapter 17)
Oborozuka, the O'Reilly apartment
"It has been several days since the fire at the Oborozuka Power Plant, and repairs are already under way."
The television shows construction crews bearing uniforms from various companies, plus those of the JSDF Engineering Corps, removing debris from the burnt-out buildings. The camera pans over to the 'typical' image of construction foremen and government officials at a table, holding papers and gesturing to different parts of the buildings.
The door opens, and Freya's voice rings out "I'm back! Damn, some of those royals can be stubborn. Anyone would think I was trying to give the dragons free-reign over their little dominions."
"Mama!" called a voice, before a small arachne suddenly latched onto her leg. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, Midori-chan. Did you get up to anything interesting while I was away?"
"I helped Aunt Lucoa in the big garden. And I got to eat strawberries until I was nearly sick. And then I saw a buncha fairies."
"Fairies, really? What were they like?"
"They were all tinkly and sparkly. They wore clothes made out of flowers."
"That's nice," replied Freya. "Who's Aunt Lucoa?"
"She's Grandma Quetza's sister. Just like how you and my old mummy are sisters."
"Lucoa is one of the local dragons," said Erika. "A few things have happened while you were gone."
"Anything Important I need to know?" she asked.
"Quite a few things, actually," said a voice from behind her.
"Good morning Miss Smith," said Midori. "This is my other mama."
Freya turned to face the ICEP coordinator.
Smith looked at the woman in front of her. She looked to be in her mid-twenties. It was hard to believe she was as old as her daughters said she was.
"You look familiar," said Freya. "Ahh... You have your Grandmother's eyes. Are you Hiroto-kun's or Shizuka-kun's daughter?"
Smith was mildly surprised. "How do you know my family?"
"Ask your Grandmother about 'the Canadian mechanic' next time you see her," she replied. "Just don't ask her while Hiroto is around."
"Ooh!" replied Smith. "Did something happen between you and my father?"
"What brings you back this way?" asked Erika, changing the subject.
"As your ICEP coordinator, I still have to check up on you. I'm also supposed to check up on Astrid, since she's still suspended for that fight."
"She's helping her girlfriend rebuild the barriers around the fairy colony," replied Erika.
"I don't know," said Freya. "I go away for a few days, and I find out my little sister picks up girls faster than I do."
"Not as fast as your son," said Harmony, as she walked in from the adjacent apartment. "Ten years old, and he already has two girlfriends hanging off him."
"Just the person I came to talk to," said Smith.
"Who is this?" asked Freya.
"Remember that TARDIS Hikari found?" said Erika. "She upgraded it. There were ...complications.""
"Hi," Harmony introduced herself to both Smith and Freya. "I'm Harmony, Hikari's wife."
===/===
A few hours later
"I'm home!" said Hikari and Kuroko, shortly before Hikari's armour is snatched up, and embraced by Harmony.
"Harmony!" protested Hikari. "There are children present."
"They're too occupied playing games." Noises could be heard from both apartments, with both consoles in use.
"This place is way too crowded for this many people, even with you spread between both apartments," said Smith.
"About that," said Kuroko. "Hikari and I found an unoccupied property close to the fairy colony. We just have to find a workaround to get past restrictions on under-aged foreigners buying property in Japan."
"It's an old mansion," continued Hikari. "Once we acquire it we can get Argent and Azul off the ship, and also act as accommodation, temporary or otherwise, for other liminals."
"Who are 'Argent' and 'Azul'?" asked Erika, Freya, and Smith simultaneously.
"Do you want to field this one, Harmony?" asked Hikari.
"We've recovered more of the corrupted data-logs from Val Sturmdrachen's ship," said Harmony. "Those are the real names of Stormcloud and Deathbolt. When the security system on your mother's ship activated, it was too damaged for the SHIP programs to activate, so it used the on-board fabrication facilities to create 'crew' to repair the systems, and provide emergency medical aid, using DNA samples it scanned from an 'intruder' and its captain. Because its subroutines were malfunctioning, it 'grafted' the emergency medical subroutines into one body, and the emergency engineering subroutines into the other. Unfortunately, the reactors lost power during the process, and the emergency back-up generators 'decided' to pause the fabrication. When Freya and Erika found the wrecked ship, they accidentally repowered the fabrication systems."
"If the medical and engineering programs were overlayed into their neural networks, why weren't they like Hikari?" asked Freya.
"Simple," said Harmony. Because the procedure was interrupted, their brains can be thought of as one of those computers that come with preloaded software on a separate partition, but you don't have the access key. Hikari is similar, but your being present when the gene-loom made her activated her partition."
"Anyway," said Kuroko. "If we can get this property, one of the uses we can put it towards is as an emergency shelter for any humans or liminals that require it, seeing as Director Nakahara has agreed to keeping Oborozuka as a designated liminal population centre. Plus he doesn't feel like the world is ready to know about off-world life so soon after announcing Earth has its own secret population."
"Speaking of secrets,"Hikari said, facing Erika. "Now that mother is back, you two have a trip to Okinawa to plan."
"How much paperwork do I have to fill in?" asked Smith.
"It depends on what Uncle Roshi is willing to do for you, Aunt Kuroko," said Kuroko. "Mother and Mum have to go visit Grandma and Grandpa face to face, in Naha. We're staying here, as transporting over twelve liminals would be a logistical nightmare right now. The only 'major' requirement is clearing a space for two planes at the local airbase."
"Good point," said Smith. "I do know the ICEP coordinator down there needs a kick in the pants. He can do that end's part of the job." She pulls out her phone.
===/===
Naha Airbase, a few days later
The gate guards at the JASDF military base section of the airfield were warily eyeing the black van parked nearby. In front of it, the base's Duty Officer was talking to two people, claiming to be ICEP agents. One was a human. The other was a kobold. If they really were agents, they would have to be rookies. Both looked like they were fresh out of high school.
"Coordinator Jones contacted you guys a few days ago," said the young woman. "We were told to come here to collect two liminals and escort them, for a family visit.
"I'm sorry," said the duty officer, "but you're probably supposed to be meeting them at the commercial terminal, further up the road."
Just then the alert sirens sounded throughout the base.
===/===
a few seconds earlier
It was Corporal Ichiro's turn monitoring RADAR traffic from the secondary control tower attached to Naha's shared airport/airbase. Everything was routine, until two unknown blips appeared at the airport's outer marker.
"Unidentified aircraft. Unidentified aircraft. You are entering controlled airspace. You have five seconds to activate your transponders, or we will consider you hostile." As per procedure, he then pushed the button, to put the base on alert.
Within a few seconds, the base's commanding officer, who happened to be talking on the phone to his counterpart at the civilian tower, came running over. "What have you got, Corporal?"
"Colonel Smith, sir, we've got two unidentifieds at the outer marker. Correction," he replied, as transponder-codes appeared on the blips. "two unknowns."
"Let's see who this 'DREADWING' and 'EmeraldAngel' are," said the Colonel, as he picked up the radio's hand-piece. "Unknown aircraft. Unknown aircraft. Using false transponder codes is a criminal act. You have ten seconds to show your correct codes, or we will scramble fighters."
"Hiroto-kun, are you still mad about what happened in '68?" said a vaguely familiar voice.
"You still haven't told me about that," said an unknown voice.
"Maybe you could tell me about it, Dad," said a very familiar voice.
"Cancel the alert," said the Colonel. "I don't know why, but my daughter Kuroko is on one of those aircraft."
===/===
Officer's mess, shortly afterwards
Colonel Hiroto Smith greeted his daughter. "Good morning Kuroko-chan. I see you've already found the coffee urn."
"Good morning Father," she replied. "Allow me to introduce two of the liminals I work with. This is Erika Kobayashi, and I believe you've already met Freya O'Reilly."
Col. Smith spat out his coffee. "Oh my god," he spluttered."I was fifteen when I last saw you. Why do you still look 25?"
"Like I said," commented Smith. "Liminals. You don't have clearance for what Erika is, but I was told you've seen Freya's wings before. They have family here, and Uncle Roshi let me accompany them, so I could visit you, while still technically being on duty."
"Always finding ways to bend the rules, I see," he replied. "So are you going to clue me in as to how and why I have two big-ass fighter jets turn up on my tarmac without warning."
"Jones must have contacted the wrong people," replied Smith.
Two ICEP agents walked in, accompanied by the Duty Officer. "Sorry we're late. Coordinator Jones called the airport instead of the airbase. There are currently some annoyed local officials, who were hoping for photo opportunities, en route."
"How annoyed will they be, when they find out we can both look like 'regular' humans?" commented Erika.