Chapter 8: The Necessary Evil.
"So," Lieutenant Commander Kalinin said, as he reclined in a chair in his small office, three members of Urzu group in front of him. "A radio malfunction?"
"That's right, sir!" Kurz said, crisply, trying to conceal the fact that he was sweating profusely, and only keeping himself from shaking due to his years of sniper training.
"A radio malfunction that happened to clear up just as you found the rest of your team, as I understand it," the grey haired man said, looking over the communication logs from the mission.
Kurz was about to open his mouth and try to explain that, when Mao spoke up instead. "I repaired the antenna array when he got to us, sir."
"You do know that the malfunction was rather convenient, and came from no obvious damage suffered during the extraction, correct?" Kalinin asked, levelly. "Also, if I should happen to order a diagnostic on Urzu 6 and find that its radio is working perfectly..."
"The radio wasn't functioning, sir," Sousuke abruptly interrupted his commanding officer, earning a raised eyebrow from the older man. "I saw Sergeant Major Mao working in the M9."
"I see," Kalinin reached up and rubbed his forehead. "That is all, and I will be expecting full reports by 1800 tonight, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir!" all three Urzu group members replied, before turning and leaving the office. Kalinin looked at the closed door for a long moment, before retrieving a piece of paper from beneath the radio transcripts with the heading "Urzu 6 equipment briefing" and dumping it into the shredder.
"Bunch of idiots," he grumbled, before another file caught his interest, and he picked it up to see the image of a man whose smirk was irritating even from a picture. He couldn't really do anything about the blatant disobedience to orders that Kurz had just gotten away with, especially since he would now have to punish half of his teammates for collaboration, but Ranma, there was someone he could deal with.
Opening the file, he flipped through it to the report the medical staff had made when the pigtailed Intel officer had been stabilized about an hour earlier, and winced. He wasn't entirely sure the other would even be conscious, given the injuries displayed, even with his ridiculous ability to heal from a near miss by a mortar shell in only about half an hour.
As he was just about to put off rebuking Ranma for a day or so, the computer on his desk chimed, and he reached over to deactivate the screen saver. The message that appeared then was from medical, about Ranma, and stated that she was awake, though indicated that she didn't want to get out of sickbay as quickly as possible, which they judged as a bad sign given her usual behavior.
This was something that just made de Danaan's ground forces commander's eyebrow rise again, until he saw the last few lines of the message. "DNA Sample analysis complete. Samples B and D are identical, and samples A, B, C and D relation confirmed."
Kalinin sat in stunned silence for a moment, before he looked up to see the names attached to the DNA samples. "...what?" he asked, in a perfect deadpan, before standing from his desk, grabbing Ranma's record under his arm and walking out of the room, letting the door slam on the way out.
He was half way down the hall, preparatory to questioning the martial artist, when he realized that a probably unconscious person in a hospital bed wasn't inclined to answer any questions, and he diverted to the ship's practice range.
HR.
"How exactly did you end up doing this to yourself?" Ranma really wanted to tell the blonde woman who was sitting next to her bed to shut up, but was slightly too doped up on pain killers to really bother. This was saying something, as they had to use something rather similar to horse tranquilizers to break through the chemical immunity she'd built up over the years. "Seriously, you look like you lost a fight with Wolverine." It should be noted that the woman was flipping through the most recent issue of The X-ilerating X-Men.
"Could beat that idiot, easy," the redhead finally responded.
"Right," the blonde rolled her eyes, before putting the book aside. "Maybe I shouldn't be asking you about this sort of thing when you're higher than a kite."
"That's probably a good idea." This comment didn't come from Ranma, but de Danaan's chief physician. The black woman shook her head. "I've seen that bo... girl," she shrugged, "come back with some pretty bad injuries, but this is the first time I've ever had her sit still long enough for us to get a good look at them."
"Yeah, but this is Ranma, he'll be up again in a few days, right?" the blonde asked, worriedly.
"Miss..." the doctor asked, glancing at the woman's name tag. "Hikari, this is bad enough that we'll probably have to transfer Ranma to another facility, just because we don't have nearly enough replacement plasma, and the sickbay's not exactly intended for long stays in intensive care."
Ranma's mission controller gulped as she heard that, turning back to the redhead, who had gone back to staring at the ceiling. "Never mind Wolverine, it was probably the Hulk," she muttered, sourly.
HR.
"Would you stop pacing around?" Nabiki grumbled, as she and her younger sister stood in the waiting room of one of the largest hospitals in Chofu, the latter intermittently glowing a shade of green that would challenge Ryoga's better Shi Shi Hokodan attempts.
"What if she isn't one of the ones who made it?" the blue-black haired woman asked, wringing her hands, and Nabiki was pretty sure she'd heard a cracking noise the last time.
"Then you working yourself up to a stay in the psych ward isn't going to help," the former middle Tendo responded, practically. "Besides, the news report said they all made it."
Akane let off an explosive sigh, before slumping down in a seat next to her sister. Of course, unlike Nabiki, she'd forgotten to bring anything to keep herself occupied, and she'd been here since early this morning, when someone had finally called to tell her where her daughter 'probably' was.
"Mrs. Chidori?" a voice cut in on various horrific situations that Akane's subconscious was busily dreaming up, just about at the time when she was getting to the ones about gruesome dismemberment. "Your daughter is awake, and you may see her now."
Nabiki looked up at that statement, about to thank the doctor who'd said it, when a gust of wind abruptly blew her short hair, and the door at the end of the waiting room flew open with a loud crash. Looking over to her side, she wasn't terribly surprised when she saw that Akane wasn't there, and her chair was tipped over. "I bet she forgot to get the room number," she muttered.
HR.
"Kaname!" She rolled over, trying to get away from the loud noise. Her head hurt, and there was a searing pain running down her arms and legs, but the voice sounded familiar and very scared. "Kaname, where are you?"
She reluctantly lifted her head, cracking open her eyes to wince at the light, and looked around for the source of the voice just as it called again, and there was a loud crashing noise. "Kanam... Ranma?"
Her vision cleared slightly, and she saw a woman standing at the door to her hospital room, a surprised look on her face. "Hey Akane," she croaked, and suddenly, for no apparent reason, finished with "Fancy meeting you here, of all places."
Akane blinked. The last time she'd seen Ranma, he'd barely said a word, and the gist of things was 'No offense, but I'd rather not talk to you.' Well, it would have been, aside from the fact that Ranma was never capable of saying anything without giving offense.
Now she found him, in cursed form, and laying in a hospital bed with at least three needles stuck to various parts of her arms. "What happened to you?" she found herself asking, her worry for Kaname put aside for a moment.
"Lots of people keep askin me that," Ranma replied. "Turns out diving out of an aircraft 'n then fighting a giant robot's a bad idea."
"If you didn't want to tell me, you could have just said so," Akane said, crossing her arms and remembering exactly why she'd decided to move on after high school.
"Huh?" Ranma asked, unable to figure out why Akane had reacted like that, especially since her head was still fogged with pain medication.
As Akane was about to snort, turn around and exit, she was interrupted by a nurse with black hair walking in with an envelope. "Oh, I didn't know you had a guest," the younger woman said, surprised.
"I'm just leaving," Akane said, as the nurse set the envelope on Ranma's side table.
"Sorry but they wanted you to know how horribly disappointed they were in you as soon as you could read it," Mao whispered into Ranma's ear, and the pigtailed martial artist groaned. "We'll try and cover for you, but we're already dealing with Kalinin probably firing Kurz."
"Yeah, well, at least he probably won't use actual bullets on him," Ranma retorted, bringing a chuckle from the sergeant major, before she turned to exit the room, and ran straight into a blue glowing Akane.
"Um... yes?" she asked, somewhat nervously.
The youngest Tendo bit back her irrational jealousy over some nurse and a guy, currently girl, she'd gotten over eighteen years ago, and asked her question. "Do you know where Kaname Chidori is?"
"Oh, yes," Mao said, deciding that she would charitably dismiss the blue glowing as a result of her sleep deprivation. "I'll take you to her."
HR.
"You're just like your mom, you know that?" Nabiki Mihama drawled, as she sat at Kaname's bedside, shaking her head slowly.
"I've noticed," Kaname grumbled, staring off through the window at the morning sun. "So you don't know what happened to Sousuke and the others?"
"No idea," Nabiki confessed. "Akane and I were here, waiting for you to be ready for visitors, but she sort of ran off when she heard and I haven't seen her since."
"She left?" Kaname asked, looking somewhat hurt.
"No, I mean, she ran off through the hospital, yelling for you," the brown haired woman explained, a sweat drop rolling down the back of her neck. "She's been worried sick about you all night."
Kaname nodded, not sure how she was supposed to feel about that. On one level, it was good to hear that her mom was concerned about her, but making someone worry so much wasn't exactly a good thing. "Oh," she muttered, looking down at her hands clasped in the covers.
"Well, it's probably a good thing," Nabiki admitted, as the door began to creep open behind her, unnoticed. "Your mom would probably have a heart attack if she found out you were experimented on, chased through the forest by Russian Arm Slaves, and watched Ranma almost kill himself out of his usual idiotic heroics."
"Wait..." a voice came from behind the brown haired woman's back, and she reached up to rub her forehead as she recognized it. "You mean he was telling the truth?"
Turning as Kaname smiled nervously at her mother, Nabiki saw Akane gaping at the two of them, while a dark haired nurse behind her was looking distinctly nervous. "I bet'cha heard all of that, huh?" she asked, resigned.
Akane just numbly nodded, before recalling exactly why she was there and rushing in past Nabiki to look intensely into Kaname's eyes. The older and younger women with varying shades of blue hair looked at each other for a few moments before Akane abruptly threw her arms around her daughter, hugging her tightly. "Are you all right, Kaname-chan?" she asked, worriedly.
"I... I think you're crushing my ribs," the Chidori girl gasped out, her arms flailing from under her mother's hug.
"Oh, whoops," Akane muttered, stepping back from her daughter and looking her up and down, letting out a sigh of relief when she reassured herself that there was nothing visibly wrong with her.
Mother, daughter, and aunt turned when they heard the distinctive click of a door closing. "I'm sorry," the nurse started, "but I am sure there must be some mistake." Taking a step further into the room, she continued, "Miss Chidori was not experimented on, nor was she rescued by a Ranma or any Arm Slaves."
"Sergeant Major Mao?" Kaname asked, confused.
Melissa Mao groaned, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling. "Why did they send me to do this?" she complained, irritably.
As Akane and Kaname still looked confused, Nabiki cleared her throat. "Let me guess, she's to deny everything?"
"Well, um, yes, actually," Mao responded. Deciding to drop the charade, she continued, "We've put measures in place to convince the people who took Kaname that she isn't a viable target anymore, but if she talks about this, they could come after her in order to stop her from talking about them."
"Oh, I get it," Kaname said, her eyes lighting up. "Like a James Bond movie or something."
"Pretty close," Mao agreed, getting rather exasperated by the whole situation.
Kaname nodded, before the presence of the dark haired mercenary reminded her of something. "Hey, if you're here, are Uncle Ranma and the others?" she asked, hopefully.
"I saw Ranma a few minutes ago," Akane admitted, looking sheepish and hoping that Kaname wouldn't ask any more about him.
"How was he? Was he all right?" Kaname asked, as her mother winced, not wanting to admit that she hadn't paid much attention, getting irritated at what she thought was an obvious lie, and then apparent flirtation that was now looking like something else.
"Well, um," she started, praying for something to save her, when the door abruptly issued a loud click, swinging open to reveal a brown haired boy in Kaname's school's male uniform, holding what looked like a set of lock picks.
"Hello, Chidori-san," the boy said, brightly as he slipped the picks into a pocket. "How are you feeling?"
"Sousuke?" the Chidori girl asked, blinking at the boy oddly. "I'm fine."
"I am glad to hear that," the boy started, and Nabiki noted that he seemed to tense up, delivering the next few words as though he were delivering a memorized speech. "I've been worried about you since you fainted on the plane." Relaxing, he looked around. "Also, was the door locked for a reason?"
"Sousuke?" Mao asked, nudging the door closed behind him.
"Yes Ma'am?" the boy replied, quickly.
"They know," she returned, wincing.
"Wow, you're about as bad at lying as Ranma-kun," Nabiki said with a smirk. "Let me guess, this is the guy who turns into a girl?"
"Yeah," Kaname said, as Sousuke looked around, confused, and wondered if he could give Kaname the first aid kit he'd brought yet.
HR.
Captain Tessa Testerossa and Commander Mardukas strode quickly through the corridors of the Tuatha de Danaan. As they walked, the young captain kept muttering quietly, with only her companion able to hear her. "How could I have forgotten?" she berated herself.
Also speaking softly, Mardukas replied, "Don't be too hard on yourself, Ma'am. You were occupied with a major operation that pressed you to your physical limits." He left a pause before continuing, "It is only natural for something as non-critical as this to slip your mind."
"But it's my responsibility as captain, and I should have seen to this as soon as I had finished with the after action reports," the grey haired girl insisted.
"Had you attempted to handle this matter then, without taking any time to prepare, we wouldn't have been able to find a... palatable way to deal with it," the older man reminded her as they neared the brig.
With a slight lessening of her worried frown, Tessa said, "I suppose you're right. I just hope she can forgive me."
As the two came up to the hatch leading into the brig, the guard posted next to it snapped to attention with an audible crack as joints popped from the sudden movement. With a salute he barked, "Ma'am, Sir! What can I do for you?"
"There was a prisoner brought in around twenty-three hours ago," Mardukas began.
"Oh, you must mean Miss Hibiki," the guard cheerfully cut in before remembering who he was talking to. "My apologies."
"That's quite all right," Tessa decided. "We would like to speak with Miss Hibiki, please."
"Of course, Ma'am," the man said, hurriedly opening the hatch. "Sergeant Smith is watching her now."
"Thank-you."
As the captain and the commander entered the brig, they were caught off guard by the lively voice of a young woman. "And it's always fun watching Dad spar with the pigs, especially Katsunishiki."
"From what you've said, I can only imagine," the rather amused voice of Smith replied. She added, "If I'm ever out that way, I'll have to try to catch a peek."
"Yeah," Ino agreed, "but it has nothing on when Dad and his friend, Ranma, spar."
"You know Sergeant Ranma?" Tessa asked, stepping into view.
"Ma'am!" Smith all but yelped as she shot to attention from where she was reclining.
"Sergeant," Mardukas said as he followed Tessa into the brig, "Please leave us."
"Yes Sir," Smith said, snapping a salute before she left the brig.
"Does this mean I can go home now?" Ino asked plaintively from behind the bars of her cell.
"Unfortunately," Mardukas began, immediately causing the girl to visibly wilt, "there are a few complications."
"I really am sorry about all of this," Tessa insisted. "But we really can't just let you go home. the de Danaan is a highly classified vessel, after all. At the very least, we would have to have someone follow you and ensure that you do not talk about anything you have seen."
Ino barely held back a snicker at that idea. "Trying to follow a Hibiki is like trying to catch snowflakes," she smirked. "It never works for long."
"Yes," Mardukas agreed, "we are aware of your family's... tendency to get lost. As such, an alternate solution would be advisable."
"Let me guess," Ino deadpanned, "you already have everything set up."
"Indeed. Except for certain highly unusual circumstances, civilians are not to even know of the Tuatha de Danaan's existence, let alone be privy to anything you have seen while aboard."
"I'm sorry," Ino interrupted. "I just want to get out of this cell. Can you get to the point, please?"
"Very well," Mardukas assented with a brief nod. "Our proposal is for you to sign on with Mithril, specifically on the de Danaan, so that we are capable of assuming that you had the security clearance to see what you've seen."
"You want to hire me?" Ino asked, her voice tinged with disbelief. "What, as ship's pet pig?"
"I was assuming more as an assistant," Mardukas said, earning a surprised look from Tessa. "The captain stays aboard this ship for long periods of time, and I'm aware that she has little friendly companionship, since everyone aboard is both older and lower ranked than she is."
"Commander Mardukas..." Tessa started, fidgeting with her hands.
"Captain, do you disagree with this course of action?" the commander asked, looking down at the grey haired girl in concern.
"I suppose not," Tessa said, considering. "It would be easy to get Ino-san out of trouble, if she's willing to do it."
"I suppose it's okay," Ino said, rather confused. "If you don't mind that I might randomly get lost or something."
"I'm afraid that would constitute a breach of contract," Mardukas said, with a straight face, "However since you haven't agreed to a payment contract, there would be no monetary consequences."
"I'll do it," Ino finally agreed, after several seconds of thought.
"Understood," Mardukas said, before turning to Tessa. "Captain, since this has been mostly taken care of, perhaps you would like to return to the bridge while I handle the logistical side of things?"
"Thank you, Commander," Tessa nodded, before turning and leaving the room.
"So, um, does this mean I get let out of here?" Ino asked, hopefully.
"It does," Mardukas nodded, "just as soon as I arrange quarters for you." As the girl was sighing and slumping down on the bench inside of her cell, the older man continued, increasing the volume of his voice slightly. "However, I should inform you that this incident has put you in a position to be very close to the captain. If you should use this position in any way to hurt or betray her, let me assure you that no matter how lost you get, Mithril is fully capable of tracking you down. Is that understood?"
Ino gulped. "Um... yes, sir!" she said, instinctively managing a sloppy salute.
"Good," The commander said, leaning back and giving no impression that, just a moment before, he was doing a good job of emulating the Tendo demon head technique. "Now I'll begin processing your paperwork and you'll have quarters within the hour."
"Thank you, sir," Ino said, still a little off balance from before, but recovering quickly as the brown haired man turned and exited the brig. As she looked at the bars, she suddenly yelled, "Saotome Ranma, this is all your fault!" She stopped for a moment, blinked, and shook her head. She didn't care what her father said, that phrase didn't seem to relieve any stress at all.
HR.
"I can't believe it's taken me this long," Ranma grumbled, as he forced himself off of the edge of the hospital bed, turning and dropping heavily into a wheel chair.
"It's only been three days," Sousuke replied, from where he was standing next to the door to the hospital room. "Major injuries I've sustained or treated usually took much longer to heal than that."
"Yeah," Ranma winced, looking down at the cast that still covered one leg, along with bandages which were hidden under the rest of his clothes. "It's just irritating, that's all. You and Kaname settle back into school all right?"
At that question, Sousuke's expression darkened. "I would rather not talk about it," he mumbled, quietly.
Ranma's eyebrow rose as he began slowly pushing his chair away from the bed. "That bad, huh?"
"Miss Chidori's mother is... very worried about her safety," the younger Mithril operative said, not having to explain as Ranma nodded. Seeing the difficulty the older agent was having in movement, he walked over, grabbed the handles at the back of the chair, and began pushing Ranma out of the room.
"Hey," the martial artist objected, before sighing, realizing that he probably needed the help for once. "Thanks."
"Not a problem," Sousuke replied, before looking back inside to ensure that nothing had been left, and noticing a white envelope sitting on the bedside table. Walking back inside to get it, his eyes widened. "Ranma," he said, surprised. "There appears to be a set of orders from Mithril here which you haven't opened."
"Oh, right," the pigtailed man winced. "Sergeant Major Mao delivered them, but I wasn't really up to reading and forgot about 'em."
"The orders inside may have been important," Sousuke said, worriedly.
Ranma rolled his eyes. "If they had orders for someone who spent the better part of the last couple days in a medication induced sleep, Mithril's more nuts than the last outfit I worked for." Seeing Sousuke's steady look, he sighed. "Just open it, okay?"
The young Sergeant was considering objecting on the grounds that Ranma's orders may contain need to know information, though he had to admit that the older man had a point about Mithril likely not using him as a combat asset. Slipping a knife from where he kept it tucked into one sleeve, Sousuke slit the message open, withdrawing several pieces of paper.
"One of these is your current operational orders," he read. "You've been assigned two months of mandatory sick leave."
Ranma winced. "Yeah, Kalinin's pissed at me," he grumbled. "It should only take a couple weeks for me to heal from this."
Sousuke briefly wondered if the other man was still somehow delirious, but continued reading regardless. "The second sheet allows you to continue living in the apartment that has been set up as a forward monitoring base for Miss. Chidori, in order to support me as her bodyguard, and the third..."
"What about the third?" Ranma asked, looking back to see Sousuke looking at a sheet of paper, the other two having fallen from his fingers. After a few moments of staring with an indecipherable look on his face, and right before Ranma was going to ask what was wrong with him, Sousuke dropped the paper he'd been reading on the older mercenary's lap.
Most of the sheet contained pretty standard medical information, however there was a section at the bottom which was rather unusual, as he was pretty sure genetic testing wasn't on Mithril's usual post-combat examination list. As Ranma read the results of the test, his eyes widened as Sousuke's had.
"I should be much more surprised than this," Ranma muttered, after regaining the ability to talk.
"Indeed," Sousuke replied.
"We're probably in shock," Ranma offered.
"Most likely," Sousuke replied.
"Want to go back home?" Ranma asked, and was only answered by Sousuke picking up the papers he'd previously dropped and grabbing the handles at the back of his wheelchair, beginning to push him out of the room.
END.
Hope this chapter was an interesting read. Sorry for the lack of action and such, but, well, next chapter will be sort of the same, actually... Behemoth is coming up soon, though.
Omake.
"What about the third?" Ranma asked, looking back to see Sousuke looking at a sheet of paper, the other two having fallen from his fingers.
"He... He died, fighting Orochimaru!"
Note: This Omake began a discussion of a fic that Weebee, the spoil sport that he is, refuses to even consider writi... Airstrike No Jutsu!
Ah, damn it!