Oysters and Pearls
Chapter 6
You'll Never Work in Dis Bidness Again
Nadesico and Jimmy Buffett are not mine. The song, "Desperation Samba" is the property of Jimmy Buffett. Macross, likewise, does not belong to me.
Hideki Amano ran his fingers through his long, dark hair and once again questioned his decision to come here. New Kimberly was the largest city on Io, carved out of long-dormant magma tunnels and volcanoes. Being from Callisto, he was more used to ice floes and water.
But the best engineering school in the Jovian Union was on Io, so he had moved. After spending the first three weeks of school studying, his friend, Jonah, had dragged him into the city.
"I'm not so sure about this," he told his friend. "We could get into trouble."
Jonah gave him a wicked grin. "Come on! You said you wanted to see them!"
Hideki bit his lip. He HAD said that, hadn't he?
"Besides, they're harmless," Jonah assured him. The two were working their way through the sizable crowd of people who had gathered in this abandoned tunnel.
"I gue..." Before Hideki could finish, there was a commotion up front. "What is it?"
Someone nearby heard him and answered. "It's her," the woman whispered. "Yuriko Akagi."
"Who?" Hideki asked. In front of them, several men in replicas of UN Spacy uniforms were leading someone through the crowd.
The woman he was talking to looked at him as if he had asked if the sky was green. "Yuriko Akagi," she said again as if that were supposed to answer everything. "She's the direct descendent of Marii Ijima. She's one of the high priestesses."
"They say she's a seer," Jonah snorted. "Macrossians will believe anything, I guess."
"It's true!" the woman replied with exuberance. "She can see the future! She's predicted a war with the Earthers!"
"Sure she did," Jonah replied snidely.
Hideki was so enthralled by the conversation, he didn't notice that the entourage had come up on them and was passing by. The engineering student saw a woman in her thirties with short, black hair surrounded by the uniformed men.
Just as they were passing, the woman raised her right hand, motioning the men to stop. She turned, and her eyes locked with Hideki's.
"Jonah," Hideki hissed as the woman walked towards him.
Jonah did nothing but watch as the Macrossian leaned forward and took Hideki's face in her hands. Moving close, she kissed his forehead and whispered to him.
"You will..."
Hideki's eyes shot open as the alert klaxon went off, interrupting his dream.
"GENERAL QUARTERS!" he heard Megumi's voice announce. "All sections set Condition One!"
Grabbing his pants off the back of his chair, Hideki bolted out the door and ran to the engineering section.
When he arrived, he spared half a second to pull his pants on before taking his station in front of the main engineering interface.
"What's going on!" he asked.
An Earther engineer turned to him as two grasshoppers ran up and down the ceiling of the main corridor, accessing jeffries tubes. "We're about to duke it out with three alien ships!"
Hideki nodded. "All right, watch the coolant balance and start funneling power to the distortion field power reservoir." As he turned to his work, the seer's final message to him reverberated in his ear, reminding him once again of his true mission.
He was close, and he knew it.
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Megumi covered her earpiece and turned to Jun. "All Aestivalis and Gekigangars have launched," she announced. "Ryoko is holding on Alpha Channel."
Jun put his earpiece in. "Pit Boss, this is Nadesico Actual. Intercept Caregiver fighters and engage. Protect the Waiter vessels and give them time to escape."
"Rules of engagement?" Ryoko asked.
"Arm and fire at your discretion."
"Roger that!" He heard Ryoko link to the other robots in her wing. "Listen up! Engage Caregiver fighters at two-one-five! Attack pattern 'Razzle-Dazzle!'"
The bridge crew watched on the viewscreen as the two robot squadrons took off for the Waiter fleet.
"Kanchou," Ruri spoke up. "Caregiver capital ships at one-five-zero coming about. I'm detecting energy build-ups in their bows. Could be weapons charging."
"Distortion field to full," Genechiro ordered. "Power gravity blast cannon."
"Gravity blast charging!" Ruri replied. She turned to Jun. "Kanchou, there's no evidence to suggest our weapons will have the same effect as back in our solar system."
"They don't need to know that," he replied. "Rack the shotgun, Ruri. Chase, move the ship around their port side," Jun ordered. "Give us a firing solution that won't strike our fighters or the Waiter fleet."
Chase's hands danced over the con. "Coming to two-two-zero, all ahead flank," he announced.
"They're firing!" Ruri announced.
Pink lines of energy lashed out from the three ships, striking the Nadesico dead on. Unlike lasers and gravity blast cannons, the Caregiver weapons weren't deflected off, but absorbed by the field, causing the deck to lurch beneath Jun's feet.
"Direct hit, deck six," Ruri announced, not looking up from her screen. "Distortion field at eighty-five percent."
"Do we have a firing solution on the Caregiver ships yet?" Genechiro demanded.
"We're in position," Chase told him. "Let it rip!"
"Fire!" Jun ordered.
"Firing," Ruri repeated.
The bridge crew watched as the mammoth gravity blast that had become Nadesico's hallmark during the Jovian War leaped at the three gemstones hanging in space. Smoke plumes engulfed the ships...
And cleared a moment later to find the ships virtually undamaged.
"Uh... oh..." Chase said softly.
"Minor damage to all three targets," Ruri announced.
"We might have a problem," Genechiro declared.
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Ryoko grunted and flexed the muscles in her thighs(1) as she brought her Aesti into a sharp climb. Behind her, pink laser blasts shot past her cockpit. Hissing, she kicked her robot's right leg out and hit the thruster, bouncing her craft into a vertical climb. The Caregiver fighter shot beneath her, and she straightened out again.
She watched the diamond-shaped vessel try to turn and matched it. The alien ships were faster than Aestis, but lacked the maneuverability. Switching to guns, she lined the reticule of her cannon up and depressed the trigger. The twenty-millimeter slugs ripped into the ship, most of them bouncing off, but a few making good hits. She swore and lifted her finger off the trigger, wary of melting her gun.
Jamming on the retros, she dropped back far enough for a missile hit and switched to Cottonmouths. Her weapons systems blared a tone, and she fired, the ship to ship missile dropping out of the compartment in the robot's upper arm and streaking forward.
The diamond ship exploded spectacularly. At least something worked. As long as they had enough missiles, they should be okay.
An Aestivalis came up beside her, taking up a wingman position, but a moment later, one of the Caregiver's pink lasers struck it. Ryoko blinked, dumfounded. Rather than explode, the entire robot was ... changed. Instead of metal and composites, a crystal statue in the shape of an Aesti floated by.
"Shit," Ryoko swore. Rolling right and pulling up hard, she went in search of the alien fighter that had just done that.
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The deck lurched again.
"Distortion field at sixty-two percent," Ruri called out. The Caregiver ships, sensing their own invulnerability, didn't bother breaking formation, content to sit there and pound away at the Nadesico.
"What about another blast from the gravity cannon?" Chase asked.
Aurora shook her head as she quickly adjusted a small, stainless steel calculating wheel in her fingers. "The crystal lattice structure of the ships is too dense," she said. "Another blast won't... Ah ha!" she finished. She ran over to Ruri's station.
"Ruri, tighten the diameter of the gravity blast cannon to two meters and aim for this point on the ship to the left!" she ordered, pointing at a section on that ship's bow.
Ruri didn't waste time asking why's and wherefor's. "Diameter adjusted. Gravity blast ready," she announced.
"Fire," Jun ordered.
A concentrated line of energy shot out and struck the Caregiver ship dead on.
"Gravity blast emitters are approaching red line temperature," Ruri announced.
"Don't stop!" Aurora called out.
At first, nothing seemed to happen, then small, glowing cracks started to appear on the gem's bow, spiderwebbing across the entire ship.
"She's going to overheat," Chase announced as his monitor started beeping.
"Just a few more seconds," Aurora urged.
The cracks glowed brighter, and finally, fire spread through them, engulfing the entire ship.
"Target one destroyed!" Ruri announced.
Off to the side, almost forgotten until now, Barkrarak struck the wall in triumph and gave a happy bark. A Caregiver warship in flames was something no Waiter had ever seen before and until now was sure could never be.
"Well, I hope you liked it," Hideki said, his face appearing in a comm window next to Jun. "Because the GB is overheated. I can't give you another shot like that for at least an hour."
The ship lurched to the right.
"Looks like they're still willing to fight," Jun muttered. "Chase, right full rudder! Twenty degree down angle on the bow thrusters. Firing crews prepare to fire."
The ship lurched again.
"Kanchou, we're losing the distortion field!" Ruri announced.
Aurora backed away from Ruri's station, her mind racing to find another way to help. Without realizing it, she backed into something furry.
"Eep," she squeaked. Turning slowly and looking up, she saw Barkrarak standing there. Without a sound, he put a translator on her head.
"You will assist I in leaving this space vessel," he told her.
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"Razor! Torch! Turn to zero-two-five!" Izumi ordered, leading the element around. Three of the Caregiver fighters were making missile runs on one of the Waiter capital ships. Coming around behind them, she listened for the tone, and sent two Cottonmouths at the ships. The other Aestis did the same, and the three alien ships exploded.
All in all, the Aestis and the Gekigangars were holding their own. The Earth robots were having some trouble getting their cannons to do any serious damage, but the more heavily-armed Jovians were tearing into Caregivers with a fury Izumi hadn't seen before. Izumi had a feeling that fighting on behalf of escaping slaves appealed to the Jovians' more self-righteous impulses.
Her radio crackled, and she heard something she couldn't quite make out.
"This is Blackjack One," she announced on that channel. "Identify yourself."
A few more crackles, then a voice she never expected in a million years. "I is Barkrarak," she heard. "Preparing to depart."
Ryoko's face appeared in the comm window. "What the fuck?" she demanded.
"Northern Lights Large Red Dog has supplied me with a pinprick of sub-cellular mechanical devices designed..."
"Okay, I get it!" Izumi declared, jinking sharply right to avoid a crystalline blast. "Where are you now?"
"Cocooned within a man-shaped device."
"HE'S IN A GODDAMN AESTI?" Ryoko screamed. "ARE YOU SHITTING ME!"
"Green lights are plentiful," the Waiter declared. "This bodes well, correct?"
Izumi licked her lips and made a decision. "Correct," she told him. "Wait until all the lights are green, then stand on the bright 'X' in front of the launch tube."
"Are you nuts!" Ryoko screamed.
"I am in the correct position," Barkrarak announced.
Megumi's face appeared in another comm window. Judging by the people rushing around in the background, Izumi knew they were in the fight of their lives over there.
"Blackjack One, who is in that Aestivalis?"
"I am Barkrarak," the canine announced. "Second Officer of the Rufara Battalion, requests authorization to launch and combat!"
"Absolutely no..."
"Launch him out, Megumi!" Izumi told her over Ryoko's objection.
"Uh..." The young woman looked unsure, looking to her right to get orders from someone off camera. The deck lurched beneath them. "Um... Roger! Permission granted to launch from Tube Two... um... Blackjack Thirteen." She shrugged.
Barkrarak howled as the catapult launched him from the Nadesico. Izumi turned left and kicked in the afterburner. "Razor, let's give him some cover until he gets his feet wet."
"Roger that!"
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"Ruri, channel auxiliary and emergency power through the forward distortion field emitter," Jun ordered. "Chase, full rudder left, ten degree down angle. I want our nose pointed right at that Caregiver ship! All ahead flank!"
"We're going to RAM them!" Genechiro asked, aghast. "Have you lost your mind?"
Jun ignored him as the starboard side of the crystal ship filled the viewscreen. "Order port gun crews to stand by." Pink energy lances shot out, striking the distortion field in front of them.
"Caregiver ship, six thousand meters and closing," Ruri announced. "Forward distortion field at sixty-four percent." The deck lurched again. "Fifty-two percent, and five thousand meters!"
"Captain, this isn't the way!" Genechiro hissed at him. "We can withdraw and regroup! Or... Or... Order the Gekigangars to attack!"
Jun ignored him. "Chase, increase speed. Fifteen percent above flank."
"Aye aye," Chase cried, gritting his teeth. The Nadesico shot ahead.
"Three thousand meters and closing REALLY fast!" Ruri shouted over her shoulder.
Chase cringed and wondered what, "HOLY SHIT, THEY'RE GOING TO RAM US!" sounded like in Wei-Hu's musical language. He imagined there were a lot of people on that crystal frigate screaming it right now.
"TWO THOUSAND METERS!" Ruri cried.
"YOU'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL!" Genechiro screamed.
Jun bit his lip, watching the crystal ships lasers strike the distortion field.
"KANCHOU!"
"ONE THOUSAND METERS!"
Jun waited half a second, then shouted, "RIGHT FULL RUDDER! ALL BACK ON THE STARBOARD THRUSTERS!"
Chase hurried to comply with the commands. The Nadesico started skidding , turning to the right. All of the guns on the left side of the ship, now faced the crystal ship point-blank and unmolested.
"PORT BATTERIES FIRE FOR EFFECT!" Jun shouted. "FIRE!"
Every gun on the left side of the Nergal vessel opened fire. While the gravity blast and transpositional cannons had seen more use in the Jovian War, the Nadesico's conventional armaments, the ten-inch particle cannons, the five inch rail guns and the Mongoose and Redhawk missile launchers, were nothing to laugh at either.
As a matter of fact, fired all at once, the guns recoil moved the Nadesico to the right, away from the crystal ship, which was practically shredded by the concentrated blast fired so close to them. Although officially still in one piece, the fires raging through the ship's hull could be seen on the viewscreen.
"Wow," Chase breathed.
"Target two destroyed," Ruri announced, regaining her composure. She smiled. "Target three is turning away and moving at flank speed."
Megumi spoke up from her station. "Ryoko says the fighters are breaking off. Do you want them to pursue?"
"No," Jun breathed, trying to get control of his heartbeat. "Where are the Waiters?"
Ruri shook her head. "They're moving away at flank speed," she said.
"Guess they don't want to thank us," Chase muttered.
Genechiro, up until now his mouth hanging open in shock, finally got control of himself. "Where did you learn to do THAT?" he asked.
Jun actually smiled. "The Academy," he said. "I saw Yurika do it in a combat simulation. She called it a Misumaru Kick Stand."
Megumi chuckled softly. "Sounds like something she'd do."
Jun allowed himself a nostalgic moment before turning back to the bridge crew. "Set condition two throughout the ship," she said. "I want a damage report from all sections, and send out the SAR(2) birds to pick up our ejected pilots and wounded robots."
"Then what?" Genechiro asked.
Jun shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
"I got a feeling we're going to want to BLOW UP that bridge when we get to it," Chase muttered under his breath.
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The feet of Izumi's robot finally touched the flight deck, and she maneuvered it toward her assigned holding rack. Looking up as she powered down, she saw the crew chiefs directing Barkrarak's robot to its own rack. She shook her head in mild shock. She had had a feeling about Barkrarak's piloting ability from the moment they first engaged, but the fact that he was able to land safely AFTER making two kills on his first flight in a robot astonished her.
The hatch popped open, and she climbed out, heading toward Ryoko's office where she KNEW the teal-haired woman would be waiting. As if on cue, the canine alien dropped into step beside and slightly behind her.
Ryoko, still in her flight suit, was speaking to Jun on the comm window when they walked in.
"Lost Scorch and Stifler from our guys and Flight Lieutenant Rhoodie from the Jovian side," she told him. "I need some time to go through the gun cameras, but it looked like the Jovian robots had a better time of it. I think until we have a better handle on things, Rikari's boys should pull alert duty."
Jun nodded. "Keep me updated." The comm window went blank, and Ryoko took a breath.
"Where should I start?" she asked herself with a wiry grin. "Oh wait, I know," she said suddenly turning to face Izumi. "How about by asking, 'WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!'"
"I don't know, Ryoko," Izumi said tiredly.
"What on earth made you think for a moment that letting an alien prisoner pilot an Aestivalis into combat was in any way acceptable?" she asked, genuinely stunned. "He can't even read the HUD(3)!"
"He can't cook either, but not everyone's perfect," Izumi replied.
It was the wrong thing to say. Just like any other even vague mention of Akito Tenkawa was the wrong thing to say.
Ryoko bit her lip. Turning her head, she saw Barkrarak standing at attention and for the first time realized what she was looking at. "And you!" she cried. "Why are you standing there like you're one of my pilots instead of sitting on your ass in the brig!"
Barkrarak didn't understand a lot of what the wing king said, but it didn't deter him. "Leader of warriors," he rumbled. "I offer this pilot's skills to you and yours in continued aggression against the Consumers."
Ryoko, not wearing a translator, turned to Izumi. "What did he say?"
"He wants a job," Izumi said simply.
"This warrior will combat and terminate himself if called for in the service of mammals aboard this propeller," Barkrarak swore.
Ryoko looked to Izumi expectantly.
"Said he'll work for tips," Izumi translated.
"Well, I'd finally be able to pay a pilot what they're actually worth," Ryoko said snidely. "Fortunately, what happens to him isn't my decision. He's Jun's problem."
"He made two kills," Izumi told her.
Ryoko arched an eyebrow. "He was only out there ten minutes," she noted.
Izumi only nodded.
"Well, I'm sure Jun has better things for him to do. Get him back to the brig." She sat down behind her desk.
Izumi said nothing for a long moment, then saluted and turned on her heel. The Waiter followed her.
"I am not to battle on this propeller's behalf then?" he asked her.
"Give it time," she told him as they entered the lift. "This ship has a habit of pulling pilots in off the street."
Barkrarak bobbled an affirmative. As the lift stopped at the brig level, Barkrarak made to step off the lift. Izumi stopped him.
Reaching across her chest to her left arm, Izumi pulled the 45th SCS patch from her flight suit. She handed it to him.
Looking down at the image, the canine wondered at the historical or religious significance of a bipedal, black and white cat wearing a coon-skin cap and holding a rifle(4). Perhaps it was one of the humans' gods?
"As far as I'm concerned," Izumi told him. "You're Blackjack 13 until Jun says otherwise."
Barkrarak bobbled an affirmative and stood straighter. Lifting his right paw, he imitated the salute he saw in Ryoko's office as best he could. Izumi smiled.
"Okay," she said. "Back in the brig before the SFs get nervous."
The Waiter stepped off the lift, and Izumi continued to smile.
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Kim Tencza sat behind her desk and tapped her pencil on the desktop. Sitting in a chair that was deliberately too small, Jun waited for her to speak. After all, she had been the one to "invite" him down to speak with her.
"So," she said finally. "Blowing up alien ships. That's how you peacefully explore the galaxy, is it? Killing aliens... That's really going to spur trade, huh?"
Jun was uncowed. "I don't think you see the big picture here..."
"No, what I see is the prelude to an intergalactic war," she bit out. She tapped her pencil harder.
Then it broke, and she stood up, turning to look out the window at the wreckage that surrounded the ship. "Your mission was to explore Epsilon Eridani, make peaceful contact with its inhabitants and begin negotiations for diplomatic and commercial ties! Instead, you went on the warpath!"
The captain was about to bring up the obvious moral complications but stopped himself. He had never met a Nergal proctor who didn't worship the bottom line. That was her primary concern.
"PR," he said.
She turned. "Pardon?"
"PR," he repeated. "Unless you see Nergal stock going up when word got out that your interstellar trading partners were slavers."
Kim thought for a moment, and he egged her on.
"How much do you think you could sell that tennis shoe for when people learn it was sewn together by an oppressed race struggling to be free?"
She sat down again. "You are going to make this right," she told him simply.
"I thought I was," he said deadpan.
"If we can't have relations with one, we'll settle for the other," she told him. "You need to make contact with these primitives, these Waiters."
Jun arched an eyebrow. "They're pretty low-tech," he warned her.
It was her turn to smile. "Never underestimate the primitive world," she told him. "Sometimes the simple things are the most valuable. Hell, the cure for AIDS turned out to be a weed growing in some backyard in South Africa."
His eyes narrowed wearily. "Does Nergal ever get tired of exploiting people?"
She snorted. "You should have seen what the company got away with back when we were still called 'Umbrella.'" Grinning, her anger seemingly forgotten, she slapped the desktop. "Besides, you want to make contact with them too, right? Two birds, one shotgun!"
Jun sighed wearily and rose from his chair. "We'll go look for them, but only because it's the right thing to do."
"Of course! Of course!" Kim told him happily. "Good luck!"
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"Sure enough," Ryoko sighed. "That's how Scorch and Stifler(5) bought it." Standing up, she turned from the crystallized shoulder of Scorch's Aestivalis and faced Hideki. "They melted their cannons and used up all their missiles. They were sitting ducks."
The two were in one of the hangar bays, going over the wreckage for clues to just how the two Aesti pilots and Gekigangar pilot had died.
Hideki nodded. "The hulls of those fighters are extremely dense. They literally don't need distortion fields."
Ryoko started for the lift. "We need a way around that," she told him. "If the Vulcan doesn't work, you can bet the fifties won't."
Hideki smiled. "I have a couple of ideas," he said mysteriously. "Let me and the girls work on it for a bit."
The wing king entered the lift. "If you can make it happen, I'll owe you," she said. The lift doors closed.
"Yes you will," Hideki murmured.
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Jun had just enough time to flop into the chair at his desk before his wife's face appeared in a window before him.
"Jun chan, Wei-Hu is here."
"Could you bring her in, please?" he requested, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. He picked up a translator off his desk and fixed it to his ear. The door to his office opened, and Megumi entered, holding Wei-Hu's hand.
Jun put a smile on and stood up, walking around his desk and kneeling in front of the alien girl.
"Wei-Hu, I need to tell you something that's going to be hard to understand, okay?" he said.
The girl looked at him with apprehension. Megumi stood behind her, resting her hands on her shoulders reassuringly.
"Captain Haa-Lu and I had a fight," he said, trying to keep things simple. "We're very angry with each other, and his ship left."
The girl's eyes widened in fright as the translation went through.
"It's all right," Jun said quickly. "We're not going to hurt you. You're going to be our guest until we can find one of your ships to take you home. Until then, nothing is going to change. Do you understand?"
"Will I continue to be permission to listen to the harmonic vibrations in your gathering place?" she asked.
Jun muddled through the translation and smiled. "Yes, Wei-Hu. I think we can arrange that." He stood up. "And I'm sure Ruri would like to keep talking with you, okay?"
Wei-Hu gave him a short curtsy. Jun gave Megumi a nod, and the comm officer took the alien girl out.
Taking his seat again, Jun let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. He hated seeing the innocent set adrift by war. He'd certainly seen enough of it. He resolved to make certain the little girl got home one way or another.
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"So now what?" Genechiro asked, taking his seat at the conference room table. "Somehow I doubt we'd be welcome at the Caregiver homeworld."
"We have a course already," Jun announced, taking his own seat nonchalantly. The rest of the bridge crew looked at him stunned. Jun wasn't the kind of commander to issue decrees without hearing counsel from his senior staff.
"Uh... Okay, where to, Skipper?" Chase asked.
The captain clicked on the smartboard behind him. "The SWACS has been tracking the Waiter fleet and has projected a course to this moon in orbit around a gas giant."
"We're going to make contact with a Waiter world, then?" Ryoko asked.
Jun nodded. "We can't just sit here and wait for the Caregivers to muster up another task force and come after us. And we still have a mandate to explore this system." He turned to Chase. "How long at ship's standard?" he asked.
Chase chewed his lip for a moment in thought. "Three weeks, give or take."
The captain turned to Hideki and Ryoko. "That should give you plenty of time to come up with a solution to our ammunition problem."
"I may already have one," Hideki told him. "Ask me again tomorrow."
"I'll hold you to it." He stood up. "In the meantime, there's someone I have to talk to. I'm told there's a get-together in the Club tonight. Go have some fun."
The bridge crew smiled and stood to go.
"You going to come?" Megumi asked him.
"Eventually,' he said, taking his wife's hand. "There's something I have to do first."
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Barkrarak studied the patch in his hand again, thinking hard on his decision. What he was considering was a huge gamble, one with no sure guarantee of success. But that was nothing new. For years his people had fought with no hope of success. Only a few colonies out of dozens spread throughout the system had any success at all in keeping the Consumers at bay.
The Consumers had the edge in technology, a technology the Waiters were physically incapable of using or imitating, and their own war machines were all but useless against them. Consumer harvest ships plundered Waiter moons at will, while fewer and fewer warriors stood against them.
But these people, the Strangers, their weapons were far more advanced. Even the Consumers failed to stand against them, despite having greater numbers. They were technologically advanced, well-trained, disciplined, motivated...
They COULD beat the Consumers. The Waiters could NOT.
As the Beta of his battalion, Barkrarak was privy to information the rest of his people were not. He had seen the reports that were hidden from the others, heard the words from their own generals.
Six months.
His people could fight for six more months. After that, there would be literally nothing left to fight with and no one left to try.
He snapped out of his thoughts as the brig door opened and the Stranger in the white uniform stepped inside. Waving the guards away, he opened the door to his cell and seemed to hesitate for a moment before finally stepping inside and sitting across from him.
Handing Barkrarak a translator, he spoke.
"Izumi told me you want to help us."
The canine bobbled his head. "My edged weapon is placed to your service for the duration of the Strangers' combativeness with the Consumers."
"You are willing to give us information about the Caregivers?" Jun asked.
"If knowledge is purposed toward battle against the Consumers," he rumbled. "Offer it freely I will."
"Why?"
Barkrarak was taken aback. "I will battle," he said. "Because battle is needed." He leaned forward, snout to nose with Jun. "I am abled to fly, to fight. I will battle on your behalf if you will battle on mine."
"There is a Caregiver child on this ship," Jun told him. "You will not harm her if I release you?"
Barkrarak snorted indignantly. "Murdering young is Consumer work."
The captain looked at him seriously. "We are not here to fight your war for you," he said straight out. "We want peace."
"Peace is what?" the canine asked. "For Consumers to recognize peace is for Waiters to be subjugation."
Jun shook his head. "We want your people to be free and the Consumers to be free. For there to be no more fighting, no more reasons to fight."
Barkrarak was silent for a moment. "We wish only to be left alone."
Jun thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright." Standing, he opened the door again and gestured for the canine to precede him.
He stood up. "I will battle alongside the Blackbird?"
Jun smiled. "Not yet. Right now, we need information. Come with me."
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The atmosphere in the Nadesico Club was happy and electric as alcohol of every form and from every world in the Sol System was passed around. Up on stage, Chase was playing guitar with someone from Services who played keyboard.
Sitting at a table near the stage, Wei-Hu looked around in frank interest. "They are different in coverings," she noted to Ruri.
Ruri took a sip of her strawberry soda and nodded. "Do your people not change clothes?"
"Our coverings change daily," she said. "I was simply unsure if yours did."
The door opened and Ruri arched an eyebrow. "Often to extremes," she noted.
Following her glance, Wei-Hu saw Ryoko walk in wearing her blue, tropical dress. "She appears as flora. Does those coverings have purpose?"
Seeing the eyes of the men in the room follow the teal-haired robot commander, Ruri couldn't help but acknowledge the purpose.
Also noticing the colonel's entrance, Megumi waved her over. "Trying to impress someone?" she asked coyly.
Ryoko looked around the room. "You could say that." Her eyes came to rest on Rikari, standing with a group of Jovians on the other side of the room.
Megumi followed her gaze and shook her head. "Don't tell me you're still trying to prove there's something wrong with Colonel Rikari!"
"If this doesn't get his attention, nothing will!" Ryoko told her, holding a fist up. She stormed over to the stage where Chase was getting ready for another song.
"Hey, dillweed!" she called up. "Play something we can dance to!"
Chase whistled. "If you're dancing in that, you've got it!"
Ryoko shot him a lead-melting look.
"Ma'am!" he added in response. Ryoko stalked off and Chase started to play something faintly Latin.
Ryoko reached out and grabbed Rikari's hand, pulling her onto the dance floor.
"Halloween in Tijuana, full moon in my eyes,
I wonder how the hell I got here, without a disguise,
Should I take this last step, or turn myself around,
Or follow my intuition, into that border town."
"What is she doing?" Aurora asked Megumi as Ryoko whirled the other colonel around the dance floor like a rag doll.
Megumi sighed. "Something brash and stupid," she replied.
"Yo quiero a bailar Mexico!
Do the Desperation Samba con nos amigo
Yo quiero, a bailar Mexico!
Do the Desperation Samba con nos amigo"
"Colonel Subaru," Rikari began, "I'm not sure..."
"Come on!" Ryoko shot back. "Even Jovians dance, right!"
He's got to show a little interest this time, Ryoko thought. If not, he might really be an android like Jun said. She grabbed Rikari's hands and put them square on her hips, well within striking distance of her ass.
Rikari did her best not to react. Part of the price of pretending to be a man was sometimes being placed in situations that at best made her uncomfortable. Realizing what was expected of her, she took the lead, spinning the wing king around and dipping her.
Taken by surprise, Ryoko gasped.
Watching from their table, Wei-Hu tapped Ruri's shoulder. "The beginning endeavour of primitive mating customs?" she asked.
"No," Ruri told her nonchalantly. She pointed at a man and a woman at a nearby table, drinking heavily. "That is the beginning of a mating ritual." She pointed back at Ryoko and Rikari. "That's two uncoordinated bakas pretending to dance."
Time to kick it up a notch, Ryoko thought. She brought her right leg up, wrapping it around Rikari's waist.
"Oh my!" Aurora noted. "You know, Miss Megumi, this reminds me of that great scene you did in 'Valiant Vixen Trampsy' where..."
Turning bright red, Megumi clapped a hand over the scientist's mouth. "YesIthinkIrememberthatone!Haveanotherdrink!"
Ryoko leaned back, her head nearly touching the floor, her leg tightening on the Colonel's waist.
Then the song ended.
Ryoko hit the ground with a thud as the crowd applauded. She felt Rikari's hand take hers and help her to her feet.
"Well, that was fun," Rikari noted blandly. "We'll have to do that again some time. Excuse me." Without giving her a chance to reply, Rikari was blending back into the crowd.
"Yeah," Ryoko said...
... almost wistfully.
----------------------------------
Jun was jotting down notes at the desk in their quarters when he felt hands rest on his shoulders. Reaching up to take one of them, he heard Megumi ask him where he'd been.
"Taking care of a few things," he said with a smile.
"You missed a good party," she said.
"Hmm," he replied.
Seeing his distraction, she looked over his shoulder to see what he was doing and sighed. "Jun chan, you don't have to write those now. It's late, why don't you come to bed?"
Jun didn't turn away from the three letters he was trying to simultaneously write. "Scorch had a wife," he said simply. "Stifler's mother lives in Detroit, and Lieutenant Rhoodie has parents on Io."
"Jun, with the translight transmitter out of whack, even if you sent those letters tonight, they wouldn't get to Earth or Io for thirty years," Megumi told him quietly. "They can wait a day."
He turned to her as if he hadn't heard what she said. "Do you think their families will understand?"
Megumi took a sad breath.
"I mean, I'm trying to tell them their deaths meant something, but no matter how I phrase it, it sounds so hollow."
"I'm sure they would," she said, just trying to reassure him.
He looked straight into her eyes. "If it were me out there, would you?"
Her breath caught in her throat as a flood of bad memories jumped to the surface. "Once upon a time," she whispered hauntingly. "It WAS you."
Jun realized his mistake and turned away. "I'm sorry," he said.
"And I DID understand," she continued. "I understood and I hated you for it." Her voice grew angrier as those old memories surfaced in force. "And I hated Yurika for letting you go, and I hated Ryoko for not taking Izumi and Hikaru to look for you, and I hated everyone on this goddamn ship for trying to pretend you never existed so it would be easier for THEM!"
Jun took her hands and pulled her into him as she started to cry. As a rule, she never spoke about what happened during the time he was missing. She didn't want to add to his own pain. She never told him how difficult it was for her to hold onto hope when the rest of the crew considered him dead. Or how she sat at his funeral and watched as the UE honor guard gave a folded flag to his mother, how she couldn't bear to introduce herself because she couldn't think of what to say.
"Shhh," Jun cooed. "It's okay. I'm sorry."
"But I always understood," she said. "You've always had that devotion."
He reached over and turned off the desk light. "Let's go to bed," he said.
She wiped her tears away and smiled. "Okay."
------------------------------------
Scarf adjusted her cowboy hat and winked. "Tomorrow night, 'kay?"
Chase smiled. "Don't be late."
The RJ pilot turned and started off. Chase returned to the task of putting the sound equipment away.
"Exactly how are you going to make that date with your extra duty?" Ruri asked.
The musician jumped in surprise and turned to see Ruri and Wei-Hu standing there. "Jesus Herbert-Walker Christ, Ruri!" he said. "Don't sneak up on me."
"I thought you were peeling potatoes," she continued.
Chase grimaced. "Yeah, the Potatomatron 8000 malfunctioned and tried to make war on mankind, but I figure maybe Houmei will let me go early."
"Don't count on that," Ruri told him. "Ms. Houmei doesn't even let the cooks she LIKES leave work early."
Thoughts of the blonde RJ pilot saving a horse and riding a cowboy began to wash away like potato peels down the garbage disposal. "Crap," he muttered.
"Perhaps I can be of assistance?"
"Holy...!" Chase cried turning again. "You people trying to give me a heart attack!"
Hideki smiled. "I was just thinking I might be able to help."
"How?" Ruri asked.
"Well, I could put the Potatomatron repair work order on a high-priority list," he mused. "Probably have it repaired and working by tomorrow morning."
Wei-Hu said something in her own musical language. Ruri translated for her.
"She wants to know what's in it for you," she said.
"Wow, didn't take long for you to turn her into a cynic, did it?" Chase asked.
Hideki only smiled. "I admit, there is something you can do for me, Mister Warren," he said. "I need someone to play my anime viewing this week. Think if I managed to shake you free, you'd be up for that?"
"Sure!" Chase said, genuinely enthused. "You know my motto! No gig too geeky!"
The bald engineer slapped him on the back. "Excellent! I'll put that work order in." He turned to go.
Yes, very close indeed...
End Notes:
1. High G turns in fighters can cause blood loss to the brain. Pilots of modern fighters make use of "G suits" which have bladders at certain points that inflate with air when the plane detects high-g turns. Even so, the technology requires a little help, and fighter pilots will flex different muscles at different points, often starting with the legs, in order to force blood into the brain. It's this reason that civilians who receive rides in high-performance fighters are often drop-dead tired at the end of the ride despite not having actually done anything.
2. Search And Rescue
3. Heads Up Display
4. The 45th Reconnaissance Squadron on which Izumi's squadron is based boasts Looney Tunes' Sylvester the cat on their squadron patch. A picture can be found here. http/www.offutt.af.mil/55thWing/55OG/45rs/45rs.htm
5. Stifler is the callsign of a fighter pilot in the 27th Fighter Squadron, Langley AFB, VA. He received the callsign because his pilot friends think "his mom is hot."