Back Home – The Dual War

by Warringer

Chapter 42

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Ryoko didn't really know what to think, through she was definatly happy about all this. She couldn't tell why, but the talk with Pope John Paul II and that 'confession of her past sins' had greatly helped her. It seemed that the humans were right in their belief that it helped to talk about things.

"Please follow me," one of the Tibetan body guards of the Dalai Lama said and mentioned her to follow.

Ryoko nodded and followed the man. She had been surprised when the Dalai Lama had invited her to Geneva, where he was on a long planned visit to talk and help people with his wisdom. Ryoko knew enough about every day politics and religion to know that the Dalai Lama was a man much like the Pope, through the Dalai Lama was the head of a slightly larger nation than the Vatican.

The bodyguard opened a door and mentioned her to enter. Through the door, she could see the Dalai Lama sitting on the ground, pouring tea into a cub, while smiling at her. Ryoko couldn't help but smile back at the man.

As she entered the room, she noted that she wasn't alone. The Minbari Ambassador, Delenn was sitting slightly to the side, staring at her in disbelieve. The disbelieve changed into a barley concealed fury within moments. Not that Ryoko could blame the Minbari woman for that. Neither could she blame the Minbari for demand her to be extradited to their nation, so that justice would be served. Ryoko hadn't any doubts that this justice would involve being killed immediately after being delivered to Minbar.

"Welcome," the Dalai Lama said, smiling his large smile," you must be Ryoko Habuki."

Ryoko bowed in front of him.

"I am."

The Dalai Lama continued to smile and mentioned her to sit opposite to Delenn.

"Please sit down."

As Ryoko sat down, she could see that Delenn's eyebrow started to twitch slightly.

"What is this... person doing here," Delenn asked, her fury just barely supressed.

Normally Ryoko would stuff the Ambassadors mouth here and now, but two things were restraining her. One of them was sitting with next to her, the Dalai Lama. She had heard quite a bit about the man and the fact that he was a man of peace. The other reason was the fact that she was now a citizen of the United States and as such she simply couldn't strike at anyone anymore. It might get her into more trouble than it was worth.

At the moment she was also glad that Ryo-Ohki was at the growing TIT with Washuu, who they had visited just prior this talk with the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama just smiled and poured some of the tea into a cup that was standing in front of Ryoko.

"I wanted to hear her story," he said with a relaxed voice." And I think that it couldn't hurt if you hear this story too."

Delenn looked at the Dalai Lama as if he had grown a second head and Ryoko couldn't help but shudder. A good part of her didn't want to tell her 'story' to just anyone.

"You have done many things for our planet," the Dalai Lama said and turned towards Ryoko." I want to thank you for that."

He sat up to bow in front of her. Of cause it was awkward for her, but she did likewise. As they had both sat down again, Delenn was staring at them, speechless.

"Now, please tell us your story," he finally said with a wide smile.

Ryoko couldn't help herself and began to speak.

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Delenn couldn't help herself but feeling bad. Part of her wanted to shrug off the story of Ryoko as lies, but the way she had told the story was more than enough to tell her that it was in fact the truth.

When Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki had ravaged through the galaxy and destroyed planets, ships, even whole civilizations, they had skimmed large parts of Minbari controlled space on their way towards Jurai. Large parts of the fleet had been destroyed as had been the populations of a number of colonies.

Now she had heard the other side of the story. Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki hadn't been themselves, but rather robots under the command of Kagato. She had fought against her will and she had already been punished by it.

Ryoko had talked about a number of dreams or rather nightmares.

She looked over towards the Dalai Lama. He was an alien to her and her culture, but she couldn't help but see something of Dukhat in him.

She breathed in deep. She wouldn't purchase or support the extradition of Ryoko anymore. Neroon could walk up the wall for all she cared.

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"NO!"

She shot up from where she was laying. Breathing had her eyes darted around in the room. Sweat poured over her brows and down her face.

She breathed in deep and closed her eyes. It had been the dream again, her nightmare. The nightmare that had started off this whole hell of a life about five or so years ago. And the same nightmare hunted her every night.

Her life had been good before it had happened. She used to be working as assistant of the Cultural Attaché of the Russian Embassy in Washington, one of the good jobs the SVR and the KGB before that. The best a analyst for military history could get.

But that she had been abducted, by aliens of all things. Greys the Americans called them, Vree they called themselves. Sadistic little monsters that had been abducting humans from Earth for decades of not centuries, to perform experiments on them. And they had performed one of their experiments on her.

They had called it splicing. Combining the genetic informations of her body with the genetic information of another species. They had chosen to use the genetic material of a Siberian Wolf. Than they used some sort of dimensional technology to speed up the change to see what would happen.

As result she had been transformed into a humanoid wolf. Than they had performed more of their humiliating experiments. At first she didn't know why they had been mostly of a sexual nature.

She had found out very fast why. After performing their experiments they had sold her as a a slave to a member of a race called 'Doranians', cat like creatures, through her 'owner' was a hybrid. A half Doranian with a quarter 'Jurian' and 'Narn' thrown in. A very nasty one at first anyway.

Senkal was his name. A son of a high ranking Doranian, he had been spared from the life of being a slave, but had to work harder and be more ruthless to survive and move up in the Doranian military.

She hadn't really been able to do anything to get away or even fight against him. A seamless metal collar around her neck prevented that. It had shocked her every time he wanted it, every time she tried to fight back. She had stopped to fight him when he wanted sex, sometimes she even enjoyed it.

Eventually she had stopped to fight him, but she hadn't been broken by him. At least not completely. She hadn't stopped looking for a way out of this hell of a life. She couldn't go very far while she was his private slave on the space ship he commanded. Only last month she had tried to get to the shuttle bay again and tried to steal ma shuttle, but like so many times before guards had found her before she had been able to make it to a shuttle. She had managed to get further than the other times through.

It was ironic. The Vree had changed her to a wolf and now she was the bitch of a cat.

And what she hated much more was the fact that Senkal all but pampered her, ever since he had gotten this new ship two years ago. And he was getting more and more interested in her in many other ways.

She breathed in deep. At least she could go out of the cabin without fearing to be caught up and raped by one of the other Doranians. Most of the ship was closed to her through. Sometimes she wondered if an agent would be able to get through the computer security better than she did.

For a moment she fantasized about coming home to Vilinius and visit the grave of her uncle Marco, who had died twenty years ago, when his submarine had rammed another Soviet Submarine.

She stood up and looked down her body. The light gray fur was all that covered her body, she hadn't seen any piece of clothing in the last five years, the only thing of her old life was the mechanical watch around her left wrist.

Leaving the room that was specially for her, through Senkal could open it any time, she stepped into the main room of Senkals quarters, easily as large as the presidential suite at the Washington Hilton. Breathing in deep, she concentrated on her enhanced sense of smell. Senkal wasn't in the suite, most likely he was on the bridge.

She shook her head for a moment. She could bet that he was drilling his crew much harder than before. Not really surprising after the big loss to the Dilgar some time ago. Walking towards his desk, wanting to see if she could find out who the strange helpers of the Dilgar were, she noted something that hadn't been there yesterday.

She stopped as she discovered what it was. Books, real books, real books printed on real paper. She Doranians and as far as she knew most other races didn't know or use books, rather data crystals and some sort of PADD.

"Govno," she cursed in her motherlanguage as she looked at the first book.

'Naval Warfare of the Second World War', she read from the cover. The book was coming from Earth and was written in English. She looked into the pile of books and noted that they were all about Earth warfare of one kind and another. She even found a copy of Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' and one or two 'Jane's' books.

But there was also a book left open. She put a finger into the side to keep it while she looked at the cover.

'Naval Warfare of the First World War', was printed on the cover. Looking at the page she had kept she noted that they described the operation of the SMS Emden on the Indian Ocean.

Only than she noted a rather large hardcopy from a video that must have been made during the battle with the Dilgar.

The hardcopy showed a massive rather blocky dark gray ship. But what she noted most specially was the large Union Jack on the hull and two words that could be the name of the ship, printed in Latin letters. HMS Daring.

"Maybe there is hope for you yet, Alina Ramius..."

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Makoto was in thought, sitting on one of the benches of the Transmitter Portal, a large geodetic dome of glass and steel. For the last few weeks she and the others were getting used to the atmosphere of the CERN and the future TIT. It was strange. Everyone knew about their identity as Sailor Senshi, but no one had ever batted an eye about them. Even when they had announced it in the Japanese TV, it hadn't made the big news, through maybe it was because of the larger battle fought in Vega.

Washuu and Amy were working on those bio-implants all Senshi had, trying to find out where they came from and how they could maybe copied. As far as she knew Amy had talked with a few of the Geek Brigade at Edwards AFB, especially with the group of three authors, William King, Dan Abnett, and Eric Nylund.

As hard core fan of Halo, she knew Nylund of cause, as he had written the Halo novels. King and Abnett seemed to have written novels about a game names Warhammer 40k or something.

The result was a talk that had rapidly become something Amy had dubbed fanboygasm, and had sparked the idea of 'SpecOps Jedi' on one side and something they had called 'Space Spartans'. And now Amy was actively working on the Jedi part. As far as Mokoto knew Amy had talked about unlocking the same genes that were unlocked in the Senshi but repressed by the implants while not-transformed. After that she hadn't understood anything.

And than there was this strange knowing grin Washuu directed at Luna and Arthemis every time she saw the two and Luna began to rant about how the Senshi shouldn't do this.

She was shaken from her thoughts as she heard the sounds of heavy footsteps coming from the Transmitter Portal.

"I think you might like her," she heard the very familiar voice of a man who now donned the mantle of the Master Chief, Jack O'Neill." Carter and Daniel certainly do."

"Not really surprising considering that she is one of my creators," said the also familiar voice of Daniel.

"Oh hush..."

Than she blinked. She had seen Jack in his Mjolnir armor, a heavily modified version of the suit that would enter series production, enough times before not to become the Halo fangirl she was in front of him. However she was not prepared to see a blue suited being following him who looked basically like a winged version of the Arbiter.

"I once again say that I don't yet wish to be returned to my original state," she heard him speak with a dark, sowhat monotonous sounding voice." I can fight the Doranians better in the state I am now."

Jack shook his head.

"I'm not talking about getting out of that armor and getting back those organs. I talk about getting rid of those short duration powercells and getting a personal shield, maybe some tweaks on your armor. I bet its easy for Washuu to get you back to normal in under a day."

"I see..."

She could see how Jack shook his head.

"You need to loosen up, 'ryuu," he quipped." I know that you got a hard shell, but don't let it stiff you."

Daniel groaned very audibly over the external speakers of the suit.

"Bad pun, Jack. Very bad pun. If I had a stick, I would beat you with it."

Mokoto couldn't quite put a finger on why, but she could sense Jack smirking even through the golden visor.

"By the way," Daniel continued," PO Coates informed me that Admiral Chagwidden granted your request for getting Shugoryuu into the team."

"Well, that nearly makes up for the fact that I forgot to program my VCR for the last Simpsons episode..."

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"... the first prototype of the Microsoft/General Electrics M244 Mjolnir Medium Powered Armor, worn by Master Chief Jack O'Neill. Admiral A.J. Chagwidden, current Commander of the US Navy SEALs, announced that Ghief O'Neill would be a real life version of the 'Master Chief' from the Microsoft game 'Halo', however he isn't expected to advertise the game or any Microsoft products. Admiral Chagwidden also announced that the Mjolnir Armor worn by Chief O'Neill any any successor of will be the only armor of a green color..."

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"...capitulated yesterday. With that the war between North and South Korea, initiated by several nuclear armed missiles fired by North Korea at Seoul, is officially over. It is expected that the now united Korea is to join the GDI..."

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"... Hyundai Heavy Industries shares have gone up twenty points after they announced the design and the production of their own class of space going warships designed with the help of the Earth Force Files. The Devastator class Partol Vessels is going to be smaller than the Monsoon class and is expected to be build in large numbers in a new factory area that is going be build close to the existing Hyundai. Several nations, like Thailand and Malaysia have already placed bids on several of the first Devastator class vessels to..."

zap

"Much like Switzerland and the reunited Korea, Norway has joined the GDI after their UN ambassador had left the UN meeting that is still talking about the formation of a united Earth Defense..."

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"... has been opened by Infineon near Hannover, Germany. It is the first completely AI-controlled factory that was build with the help of the Earth Force Techfiles. The factory is controlled by just fifty engineers and support technicians, instead of the common 300 for a factory of this size. The shares of Infineon have also raised by ten points after they announced the production of advanced computer systems and semiconductors and that they are going to rebuild two of their old factories with the new AI-control systems. All personal working in those factories are going to be transferred to a new R&D facility near Berlin, where..."

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"...has simply collapsed. The 'government' of the Islamistic Nation of Aceh was unable to fully control their militias, nor have enough real backing with the population. Without the backing of the population, they are unable to field the manpower to fight against the Indonesian Army and Navy. However, it is awaited that the Indonesian Armed Forces will be dealing with Guerrilla warfare over the next years..."

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"... confirmed several more Doranian Crimes against Sentient Rights. US Marine forces have liberated several Doranian slave labor camps as well as a Shin'bi. 'The crimes done against the Shin'bi are worse than anything done by Dr. Mengele,' according to Dr. Martin Mertin of the University Hospital Zürich. According to Dr. Mertin, they removed several essential inner organs of the Shin'bi and tied him into the life support system of a Heavy Power Armor tailored to his body. He was than sealed into the Armor and largely controlled by a primitive AI system tied into his brain. The Shin'bi, his name is Shoguryuu, was freed from the AI controlling him by Master Chief Jack O'Neill during an attack on the Vegan moon Rustoner. After being offered to replace his removed organs with clones ones by Washuu Habuki, he refused on the grounds that he was better able to fight against the Doranians the way he is. The US Navy has announced that he volunteered to help fighting the Doranians and will be working with Master Chief O'Neill..."

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"... is the first prototype of a Zubrin Colonization Module build by Scaled Composites. The first permanently manned lunar station is going to be a test ground for the colonization of the planet Mars by the Mars Society. Scales Composites are going to build four more Colonization Modules and deliver them to Mars with their Mayflower carrier ship. But the Mars Society isn't the only organization interested in the Zubrin Colonization Module. Several private as well as governmental organizations have announced buy options for the Modules. The GDI is also interested in a military version of the Module for building up bases on other planets ..."