Disclaimer: I don't own Nadesico.
Nadesico: Oysters and Pearls
Chapter 8: Survive
Aurora Dayne grumbled. She had a killer headache, she was stuck at this blinking red light, and her car radio was getting nothing but static.
She looked right and left, but it was so dark and foggy, she couldn't make anything out, and that static was LOUD.
Leaning forward in an attempt to see better, she was brought up short by her seat belt. Grumbling again, she reached down and undid the latch...
... and cried out as she fell, coming to full-blown consciousness when she stopped, something digging into her back.
She blinked and groaned, her hand going to the back of her head as she slowly opened her eyes.
The face of a dead man stared back at her.
She screamed and kicked her legs out, striking something else.
Someone groaned to her left. Her panic starting to subside, things started to come back to the scientist. Looking to her right, at the dead body there, she swallowed back bile as she remembered the name of the man hanging in his safety restraint, blood seeping down from under his helmet.
"Chief Aragon," she whispered. The blinking red light was coming from the Datahawk's overhead light, which was now no longer overhead. Climbing up to a sitting position, she realized the thing digging into her back was the ship's throttle handles. The Datahawk was somehow sitting on the tip of its nose.
She heard the groan again and looked left at the copilot's station.
"Captain!" she cried, reaching out and touching him. She looked down and found that his station had smashed inward, crushing his legs against the seat. Blood seeped from under his helmet.
What little medical training she had kicked in, and she started taking mental notes on his condition. Reaching out, she gently removed his helmet, pausing momentarily to ask herself if that was the right thing to do.
She looked behind her and found only darkness outside the windshield. She couldn't remember a lot of what had happened before she blacked out. Something had hit them, and the ship began spinning. Then a jarring impact and nothing.
Snap out of it, she thought!
Radio!
Turning, she picked up Jun's helmet again and started speaking into the microphone. "Hello! Hello! Can anybody hear me! This is Aurora Dayne! Is anybody out there!"
"It's dead."
She screamed at the voice.
Jun's head rolled toward her as his eyes opened. "Comm array was in the nose. It's crushed," he told her painfully. "Chief?"
She shook her head.
He took a labored breath. "Damn. So much for our first look at Ford Festiva, huh?"
"Captain, look at me," the scientist ordered. "Can you feel your legs?"
"Yes, and they hurt like hell," he mumbled through the pain.
"Good, that means your spine is still there," she told him as she searched the cockpit for a box with a red cross on it.
"Behind the pilot's seat," he told her, sensing her purpose.
She choked back nausea as she reached behind the dead pilot. "How long until they come for us?" she asked, trying to divert her attention to something else.
Jun's hand went to his forehead. "They're probably looking now, but it'll take time. The last good message we got is that lidar couldn't track us in that storm."
She found a pre-filled squeeze-syringe of morphine and turned back to him. "Captain, listen to me very carefully. It's a good bet that you have a concussion, so you have to stay awake. I'm going to give you just enough to take the edge off the pain, but you have to stay awake, okay?"
"No problem," he muttered.
"What do I do now?" she asked.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
While Aurora was trying to approach her problem in a calm, collected way, it could not be said of the rest of the Nadesico crew trying to solve the same problem.
"They can be anywhere inside this circle," Ruri told them as she walked onto the video-mat. A red circle appeared covering a section of the rogue planet, Ford Festiva.
"That circle is the size of Nebraska, Ruri," Chase told her.
"Our last lidar contact was here," the girl continued, marking a spot on the floor with a red X. "Given their course, speed, altitude and wind velocity, factored with the force of gravity, that gives us this circle."
Genechiro listened carefully as Ruri went on.
"With the weather conditions known to be unpredictable, a search will take a lot of time and be very dangerous," she said. "Thick cloud cover makes Nadesico's optical sensor array useless, and thermal imaging will be unreliable."
"We need to send Aestis," Ryoko broke in. "Start along the final course and spread out."
"Visually? That'll take weeks!" Chase told her.
"Well, we can't..."
Genechiro chose this moment to interrupt. "I don't want to hear about what we can't do," he said steadily. For the first time in weeks, the Jovian officer didn't sound sour and ticked off. Rather, he was calm, almost serene. "I want to hear about what we CAN do."
"Recall the SWACS and the Rivet Jack," Rikari suggested. "Their scanners can cover more ground."
"I'd say half that," Ryoko said honestly. "Recall the SWACS, and have the RJ watch our backs. The Caretakers are still out there. I can have two squadrons of robots scouring the surface in about an hour."
"Get on it," Genechiro ordered.
"What about the Starhawks?" Chase asked. "We could use the SAR birds to..."
Ryoko shook her head. "No, not until we know more about what brought the Datahawk down."
"But it would mean four more planes sea..."
Ryoko snapped at him. "Aragon flew with the Hurricane Hunters before coming aboard! If weather brought HIM down, it can bring ANY Starhawk down."
"Starhawks stay onboard until the survivors are ready for extraction," Genechiro told them, careful to use the word "survivors." "Get to work."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The meeting broke up, and Ryoko left the conference room, stepping onto the bridge. She had a search to coordinate, but she wanted to brief the only Nadesico officer who wasn't at the meeting.
She found her right where she expected her to be.
"Delta Charlie One, this is Nadesico. Come in. Over," Megumi repeated again. "Delta Charlie One, this is Nadesico. Come in. Over."
Ryoko sat on Ruri's unoccupied terminal. "Your shift ended an hour ago, didn't it?" she asked.
"So did yours," Megumi told her without looking up. "Delta Charlie One, this is Nadesico. Respond on this frequency. Over."
"We're going to recall the SWACS and start a search pattern with the robots," she told the commo. "We're going to find them."
Megumi paused, and Ryoko knew what she wanted to say, what Ryoko deserved to hear. The comm officer wanted to say, "What? Like you did before?"
Instead, she said, "I know."
Then repeated the hail.
Ryoko stood up and went off to arrange the search.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
"How do you think we ended up... like this?" Aurora asked, more to keep Jun awake than out of any real curiosity.
"We belly-landed," Jun told her. "Then we fell into some kind of crevice. Probably filled with snow by now."
Aurora digested this sullenly. "Then it'll be even harder for them to find us," she surmised.
Jun bit his lip painfully as he tried moving again. "Yeah," he answered quickly.
"There's got to be something we can do to make it easier for them!" she declared. "What if we try going outside?"
"It's sixty-two below outside," Jun reminded her.
"What if we fired some of the rear weapons?"
"This is a scientific model," he told her. "No weapons."
"And we have no radio?" she asked, losing hope.
He didn't answer. He was drifting again.
"HEY!" she shouted. His eyes snapped open. "Stay awake," she ordered.
"Maybe," he muttered.
"Maybe what?"
"The comm system was in the nose, but the IFF(1) transponder system is in the tail," he told her.
"And?" she prompted.
"Well," he said, buying a few moments to gather his concussed and addled thoughts. "It's basically a low-level transponder designed to send data at a certain frequency. We couldn't send a voice transmission, but maybe a tap code..."
"We'd have to reconfigure it, right?" she asked warily. She looked up. If it was located in the tail section, she'd have to climb fifty feet in the air.
He knew what she was thinking. "'Fraid so," he told her with only the hint of a smile.
"I don't know any codes," she told him. "How..."
"I know a couple," he told her. "You reconfigure the transponder to send, and I can tap the code."
She found herself shaking her head, her eyes still at the top of the world. "Captain, I don't think I can do that."
"Sure you can," he said tiredly. "The system is basic enough."
"No, I mean... Climb all the way up there."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ryoko performed the final checks on her equipment before powering up. The mini-transpositional engines roared and breathed life into the onboard electronics. Lights started as red and turned green in rapid succession.
"Nadesico, Search Lead, radio check," she said into the bone mic nestled against her throat.
"Search Lead, Nadesico. Loud and clear," she heard Megumi's voice come back. "Good hunting."
"Roger." A holo-window opened in front of her, showing the progress of the robot's start-up sequences. While she waited, she opened another channel.
"Search Two, this is Search Lead."
"Search Two, go ahead," she heard Rikari respond.
"Hey, Rikari, what's the deal with Genechiro? Usually I can't stand him, but if I didn't know better back there, I'd say he was acting like a captain."
"Commander Tsukuomi is a member of the Superior Male Forces," Rikari told her. "That means more than just getting to call yourself superior all the time."
Ryoko paused. "I'm not quite following you..."
"Every member of the SMF undergoes gene therapy injections to make themselves superior," Rikari explained. "Originally, it was to make sure troops didn't die during boson jumping, but it didn't stop there. The higher in rank you go, the more injections you get."
"Wait," Ryoko stopped her. "Are you telling me Tsukuomi is genetically engineered to suppress his prick impulses in a crisis?"
She could almost see the colonel's smile on the other end. "Precisely."
"And you?" Ryoko asked. "Did they make you a 'superior male' in other ways?"
"I don't like to brag," Rikari replied. "Nadesico, Search Two. Ready to depart."
"Roger," Megumi replied. "Right on Four-Four, ready to copy."
Rikari's robot disappeared.
Ryoko muttered to herself in self-loathing. "'Superior male?'" she quoted herself as she fastened her helmet. "Slut."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Aurora made sure she had a firm hold on the headrest of the seat above her and good footing on the one below before scampering up a little higher. She was about twenty feet up now, climbing past the series of five seats that lined the right bulkhead of the Datahawk. Each seat was for a sensor operator, but was mostly automated now. She pulled harder, not only carrying her weight, but the weight of the emergency took kit hanging around her neck. Bared in her teeth was a green light stick.
Grunting, she pulled herself to the next chair. Only two more to go, then she could start on the lidar terminals. Past that, the crew rest cot. Then it was just a short climb past the toilet, and she was there.
Then her foot slipped.
The light stick fell from her mouth as she cried out. She felt a sharp pain in her back as she hit the forward control terminal...
Again.
"You were gone longer this time," Jun told her weakly.
"Oh yeah, I'm making GREAT progress," she bit out as she checked herself for injuries. "It's hopeless," she said.
"Nothing is hopeless," he said softly. He swallowed painfully. It was getting harder to concentrate.
Aurora looked at him worriedly. "You can't sleep," she whispered desperately. "If you sleep, you can fall into a coma."
"I'll try to stay awake, if you try to get up there again," he promised her.
She growled. "Fine," she told him in mock petulance. She bit her lip in worry a moment later. "What if they're not even looking?"
"They're looking," he promised her. "If you can hold onto that, you can make it through anything."
Aurora took a deep breath and stood up, grabbing hold of the frame of the cockpit door, she pulled herself up again.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"We have pilots rotating search patrols, with each patrol hot-pitting(2) twice before landing," Ryoko reported. "Sectors Two and Seven have been tapped out. That's progress of a sort."
Genechiro stared up at the map on the viewscreen. Green pie slices in the circle Ruri marked earlier indicated areas that had been searched. Red slices indicated areas to go. Unfortunately, the pie was more cherry than key lime at this point.
"Could we use some of Colonel Taggart's ground Aestivalis?" Genechiro asked.
Ryoko shook her head. "Moira's groundpounders wouldn't be able to cover as much ground and would still need the same amount of support as the flying units."
He nodded. "Very well. Keep it up."
The wing king nodded. "Where did Megumi go?"
Ruri spoke up in answer. "Ms. Megumi's shift ended eight hours ago, but she refused to leave. Her voice gave out about two hours ago."
"I see," Ryoko said.
The woman who took Megumi's spot suddenly turned to them. "Commander Tsukuomi! Snoop One is reporting in."
"Put her on."
The map disappeared and was replaced by Scarf's familiar cowboy hat and white scarf. "Nadesico, Snoop One," she greeted. "I'm afraid I have some bad news."
At the helm, Chase huffed. "Well, THERE'S a switch!"
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Megumi sat in front of the meal Houmei made for her and forced herself to eat. She knew from experience she wasn't any good to anyone if she didn't keep her strength up, it was just very hard to find an appetite.
It took an hour and three lozenges before her voice finally came back. She thought about returning to the bridge, but knew it wouldn't do much good. Ensign Tsubata could speak into a microphone just as well as she could.
Pushing a carrot around her plate with her fork, Megumi glanced to her right and paused. There was a Jovian sitting at the next table...
Doing the exact same thing.
He looked miserable, tired and depressed. His name suddenly came back to her.
"Hideki Hataro?"
The Jovian looked up. "Ah, Lieutenant Aoi," he greeted. "Any word yet?"
She shook her head.
"I see," he said dejectedly.
It took a moment to realize why the Jovian was taking her husband's disappearance so hard. Then it came back...
"A woman was going to do that to him eventually," Rikari had told them. "And if not, I'm sure now there will always be a special place in Hataro's heart for you, Miss Dayne."
"I'm sure she's fine," Megumi told him.
"I was out there searching," he said. "It's so much ground to cover. How..."
"She's fine," she repeated firmly. "If you want to find her, the first step is believing that with everything you've got. Because if you don't, there's no point in looking!"
Hataro looked down at his plate. "You're very wise for a woman, Lieutenant Aoi."
She let the culturally incorrect statement slide. "I know firsthand..."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Megumi chan?"
Megumi looked up from the daily incident reports and saw Yurika's worried face.
"Anything today?" the captain asked softly.
Megumi Reinard shook her head. "No." Before she could continue further, a comm window opened, and a technician's face appeared.
"Lieutenant Reinard, we have a network issue down here," he said. "Don't suppose we could get you to look at it?"
"Hai," she said woodenly. "I'll be right down."
"Megumi chan," Yurika spoke up again as Megumi stood up. "Don't give up."
"I'm not the one who gave up," she bit out quietly as she marched to the lift.
It was a short ride down to the hangar deck. Stepping off, she made her way past Robot Country towards the hangar. As she was passing the operations desk, she froze.
It was as if a ice cold hand had suddenly grabbed her spine and squeezed. She swallowed hard and turned, walking at first, then marching angrily to the far wall. She choked back an angry sob as she reached up...
"Hey! What are you doing!" the ops tech demanded, coming out from around the desk.
She didn't stop. She reached out and ripped the framed photo from the Memorial Board.
"HEY! What do you think..."
"HE'S NOT DEAD!" she screamed at him, clutching the photo of Jun to her chest. "It's only been three weeks! He still counts as missing!"
"Look, lady, I don't know who you are, but you better hand over that photo before I..."
Before he could finish, rough hands grabbed him from his right and pushed him against the wall.
"Back off!" Akito Tenkawa growled.
The man's feet finally touched ground again as Akito released him. The man sputtered for a minute before coming back with, "I'm telling Major Subaru!"
Megumi held the photo desperately, tears flowing freely down her face. Akito regarded her for a long moment before reaching out and taking her arm, pulling her into an empty briefing room.
Out of public for the moment, Megumi collapsed into a chair and started crying in earnest.
Akito sat next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Megumi chan," he said softly.
"He's not dead," she breathed. "How can they... How can they just write him off? He's not dead!" She sniffled. "It's like they don't even care. It's like no one cares but me!"
She sobbed again. Then said something she didn't want to.
"Akito, what if he really is dead?"
Akito sat back and took a breath. "Remember the first time you and I talked?" he asked. "In the observation room?" He waited for her to nod before continuing. "I thought I was the only one who cared about Gai. I thought everyone was just so callous they couldn't feel bad about it. After awhile, I realized that it wasn't that they didn't care, it was just easier to pretend they didn't."
Megumi sniffled again.
"But Jun's not dead," he told her. "I know it, and you know it. And if we're going to find him, then the first thing we have to do is believe that with everything we've got! Otherwise there's no point in looking."
"Thank you, Akito," she said.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"How many?" Genechiro asked.
"Our scanners aren't as advanced as the SWACS," Scarf told him. "But we're picking up chatter from AT LEAST six capital ships. Sector Two-Two-Eight."
"Ruri?" Ryoko prompted.
"That would put them off our charts, but if they are capable of similar speeds to Haa-Luu's frigate, they could be here in two days."
"Maybe they're not looking for us," Chase suggested hopefully.
"Could you tell me what else six Caretaker battleships are going to be looking for?" Ryoko asked snidely.
"This changes things quite a bit," Genechiro growled.
"We can't..." Ryoko began to argue preemptively.
"We're not leaving," Genechiro announced, interrupting her unexpectedly. "Jovians DO NOT leave men on the field of battle uncontested. Colonel Subaru, do everything necessary to speed up the search!"
Ryoko didn't wait for more. She rushed to the lift.
"Mister Warren, plot an escape route that will keep us out of weapons range of those battleships and allows us to leave no sooner than absolutely necessary."
"Aye aye, Sir!"
"Ruri," the XO continued. "Start getting creative."
"Hai."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
As Aurora struggled up past the lidar terminals, Jun could only hang in his restraint harness and struggle to keep his eyes open. He knew what might happen if he slept, but the darkness crept into his body bit by bit, like a cauldron of water slowly being heated. Before he knew it, it would be boiling and it would be too late.
He concentrated on the sounds above and behind him, Aurora struggling up into the tail section of the broken research shuttle. She was persistent as well as brilliant, a combination he had always seen in Inez.
Tap.
He blinked and shook his head painfully.
Tap-Tap... Tap.
It was coming from the right bulkhead.
Tap-Tap-Tap... Tap... Tap.
Now from the left.
His breath quickened. "No," he whispered inaudibly, shutting his eyes.
Tap-Tap... Tap-Tap...
His blood pounded in his ears. "There is no one tapping," he whispered to himself. "There is no one tapping."
It came from all around him now.
Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap... Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap!
He reached up and covered his ears. "There is no one tapping!" he hissed.
TAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAP!
"THERE IS NO ONE TAPPING!" he cried.
"Captain?"
The tapping was gone.
"I'm coming down!"
"No!" he shouted back. "Stay up there! It's all right!"
"What's wrong!" she called back. "Is it your wounds?"
He took a breath. "No," he replied, more softly this time. "No, I'm okay. Where are you?"
"Just past lidar stat...WHOOP!"
He leaned to the right, and half a second later she landed in the usual spot.
"OWIE!" she cried.
"You got pretty far this time," he noted.
She started to stand again.
"Rest for awhile," he ordered. "Drink some water. You need to stay hydrated."
"You drink it," she told him. "You need it more."
"I could have internal bleeding," he argued tiredly. "Besides, it might be a waste to give it to me."
"Stop talking like that," she ordered harshly. "You're supposed to be the optimistic one here, remember?"
His eyes drooped.
"HEY!"
They snapped open again.
She took his advice anyway and took a swallow from a canteen. "Talk to me," she ordered. "Otherwise I can't risk climbing up there again."
"Talk about what?"
Aurora searched for some subject. "Tapping," she repeated. "Who was tapping?"
He regarded her for a moment. "Tap code," he told her. "It's how we communicated with one another in the camp."
"Camp?" she asked. "Like you mean training camp where you march in little circles and learn to fold your underwear into little cubes?" She smiled.
"No," he said deadpan. "The POW camp where they beat you a few hours a day and don't give you enough light to see your own hand."
Aurora shut up.
Jun realized he had embarrassed her. "We would tap the walls of our cells to communicate with one another," he finished quietly.
"I... I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"It's no secret," he said.
"Um, yes it is," Aurora told him straight-up. "Is that what Ms. Megumi was so angry with Chase about?"
He gave her a puzzled look. "I wasn't aware they had a fight," he said.
She nodded. "I think he asked her about it, and she shut him down pretty quick."
Jun grunted. "She thinks she needs to protect me," he told her. "Yurika thought the same, I think."
"May I ask how long?"
"Ten months," he replied quietly.
"Wow," she whispered. "So... You heard someone using that tap code here?"
He shook his head. "No, I..." Humiliation stopped him short. "I'm... not very good... in small, dark places," he confessed.
"Why not?"
He took an exasperated breath at the woman's dim-headed question, but something compelled him to speak. Maybe it was the thought that this time, he really was going to die the way he should have all those years ago, in the dark.
"If I tell you," he said. "You have to promise not to tell Megumi. She doesn't know the details. I think it would... scare her."
Aurora crossed her heart and held up two fingers. "Mountie Scout promise!"
He turned away as he spoke, staring at the dark bulkhead to his right. "The Jovians had a POW camp on Phobos," he began. "After nine months there, the UEAF started their big offensive to retake Mars. Phobos was a staging area, and the Jovians couldn't hold it, so they abandoned the camp, thinking it was only a few hours away from being liberated."
The captain took a tired breath. "What they didn't know was that UE Intelligence wasn't as good as they gave it credit for. The UE had no idea the camp was there. The Jovians pulled out and left us in our cells, leaving a hundred and fifty of us in the dark."
"We laughed and swore at them when they left. We figured we'd be rescued soon." He took another breath. "Then a day passed. And another. And another."
Aurora listened in growing horror, swallowing nervously, like a girl at a horror movie who suspects the next plot twists and hopes it isn't so.
"We were already weak, and it didn't take long for dehydration and starvation to set in," he continued. "I lucked out. There was a coolant pipe running through my cell. I was able to... lick the condensation off it for hydration, but the others..."
Aurora covered her mouth in horror.
"Ten days in, and I knew I was the only one left," he said quietly. "The coolant system stopped working, and my water source was gone. I started to dehydrate like the others. I could still hear them tapping, though. I would hear them tapping, and I'd shout through the bars in my door for one of them to answer, and none of them ever did."
Tears were rushing down the scientist's face by this point, silently wishing the captain would stop but knowing he had to finish.
"Two days after that, I heard an explosion and people walking through the prison," he said. "I tried to call out for help, but my throat was too parched to make sounds." For the first time since the story began, he turned to her. "You know... that was the moment I was most scared," he continued. "Listening to them as they found body after body. I was so afraid they'd just assume everyone was dead and leave."
He started shaking.
"And through it all, I could still hear them tapping at the walls. Finally, one of the Marines broke open the door to my cell and found me. When they found me, I weighed sixty-five pounds."
He turned back to the wall. "One hundred, fifty-three people were alive when the Jovians left. The Marines pulled out one survivor. They called it a miracle," he finished hauntingly.
"I'm so sorry," Aurora told him. "I can see why Ms. Megumi would be so angry."
"I'm not going to go through that again," he said, some of his firmness returning. "So you have to go back up there and..."
His eyes fluttered.
"Captain?"
Jun's head fell forward.
Aurora reached out and checked his pulse and respiration. "Oh, damn," she whispered. He was alive, but unconscious.
And she wasn't sure she'd be able to revive him.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Barkrarak found her outside the Aerospace Physiology office, popping a yellow pill and downing it with a paper cup full of water. The pharmacist on the other side of the counter was speaking as she knocked it back.
"That'll keep you up and alert for twelve hours, but you'll crash hard, so be sure you're back by then."
She nodded. "Thanks, Doc." Seeing him approach, she walked up to the alien.
"Is it true that the leader of ships is unaware of present location?" Barkrarak asked.
"He's on the surface of that rogue planet somewhere," she told him. "We've got robots scouring the surface now."
"To assist I must be permitted," he argued.
She started down the hall toward the lift. "Ryoko says you don't fly until Jun signs off on it." The lift door started to close.
He reached out and stopped the door, leaning toward her. "Then to obtain the leader's signature, within credibility it is for I to fly to the planet and obtain."
Izumi cracked a smile. "I guess so. Come with me, do as I say, and don't say a word."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The crew chief looked up and did a double-take at the sight that met him.
Izumi pretended not to notice, looking at the maintenance report as Barkrarak stood next to her. The alien werewolf was in full flight suit, helmet, mask and visor. It had taken some work, but not one shred of fur was peeking through.
"You get that fuel pump issue resolved?" Izumi asked, sounding bored.
The crew chief was still staring up at Barkrarak's eight-foot frame.
Izumi snapped her fingers at him. "Psst! Hey!"
"Oh! Sorry, Ma'am! Yes, Ma'am!" he replied quickly. "I just..."
"What, you never met Captain Hightower before?" Izumi asked.
"Uh... No," the chief said. He held a hand out. "Nice to meet you."
Barkrarak looked down at him through the visor but did nothing.
"He's obsessive-compulsive," Izumi shared conspiratorially. "Once he gets in his gear, he can't touch anything but the robot."
"Oh," the crew chief said. "Sure."
"He's in Three-Two today," she told him. She pointed. "Over there."
Barkrarak lumbered over to the waiting robot while Izumi mounted up. Clipping her bone mic to her neck, she whispered into it. "Blackjack Thirteen, Blackjack Lead, radio check. How are you doing over there?"
She smiled at Barkrarak's irritated bark. "Respiration is difficult while mine beak is cocooned within this polymer masking."
"You can take it off when we're in the air," she assured him. "I'm in Sector Four, you're covering Sector Five. If you see anything, call it in, and I'll be there in ten minutes."
"Compliance."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"You want to save the captain... by shooting at him with the gravity blast cannon," Chase summarized. "Well! Why didn't I think of that!"
Ruri was standing on the floor display again, facing the assembled bridge crew. "Hai," she said simply.
"Ruri chan," Megumi began with a bit of concern. "Could you explain how that actually helps RESCUE Jun, Aurora and Chief Aragon?"
A map of the planet appeared at her feet. "We know the Kanchou is somewhere in the search zone. By targeting an area of the planet on this vector..." A line appeared bisecting the circle but ending well beyond the outside edge. "... we can effectively eliminate eighty percent of the cloud cover and spatial debris without risking harm to them."
Megumi nodded. "That WOULD cut out the majority of the sensor and communications interference."
"Do it," Genechiro ordered. "Lieutenant Aoi, warn the Aestivalis conducting the search. Tell them to get clear." He looked up at Ruri. "How much time before the Caretakers are in weapons range?"
"Twelve hours," Ruri told him.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Aurora lost her footing and reached out, grabbing at the headrest of one of the lidar stations as a sharp squeal found its way past the light stick in her mouth. She jerked to a stop and hung for a moment.
Sighing in relief, she pulled herself up. "At least things can't get worse," she thought.
That's when the emergency lights went off.
"Don't every say that again!" she thought angrily to herself. "You remember all of the anime Ms. Megumi was in? Every time she said 'At least things can't get worse,' things got WORSE!"
Finding her footing, she started up again.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Barkrarak felt the turbulence around his Aestivalis edge off as they entered the lower atmosphere. Clouds filled the sky below them as they continued to descend. Hideki's modifications to the space frames allowed for a transformation into an atmosphere frame, making the Nadesico's space frames the first that could act as aero-space craft.
Izumi's face appeared to his right.
"All right, I know you still can't read our language, so the sensors are set up to work visually," she said. "Basically, if you see anything, call me."
"I..." Before he could finish a block of ice the size of a basketball hit the armor on his left shoulder. "Higher Being condemnation!" he swore.
"Yeah, I should have warned you about the hail," she said. "We think that's what brought the Datahawk down. Our armor and distortion fields should keep us safe, though."
"That is well," he agreed.
"Search Lead to all search elements," they heard Ryoko's voice announce. "The Nadesico is going to try to clear the cloud cover. All robots climb above thirty thousand feet or descend below three thousand feet. You have two minutes!"
"Let's go," Izumi told him, descending to two thousand feet above the snowy surface.
"What actions will ship's crew take?" Barkrarak asked.
"I guess we'll see in five...four... three... two ... one..."
The sky above them lit up, blinding them for a moment as the gravity blast cannonade crossed over their heads. The two pilots braced for the shockwave and wind blasts that would occur as a result.
When the wind buffeting their robots subsided, nothing but a soft green sky remained above their heads.
"Well," Izumi said. "That should make things easier."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Getting the panel off was the easy part. Trying to figure out the wires' different colors when the only light you had was green was trickier, but Aurora started in with grit teeth. Braced with her back against a locker and her feet against the far bulkhead, she hung suspended forty feet in the air.
She knew resetting the transponder would be easy, masters degrees in communications technologies from MIT and Columbia would see to that. No, what was bothering her was something else.
The fact that the only person who knew anything about military codes was in a coma forty feet below her.
She'd cross that bridge when she came to it. Right now she had to focus.
She found the transponder box and removed it from the housing case. Opening it, she nodded in approval. Simplistic and made to understand easily.
In fact, reprogramming the transmitter turned out to be the easiest thing she'd done all day, taking all of ten minutes of her time. Hooking up the transmitter to its power source, she held two connections in her hands. Assuming this worked, every time she tapped the leads together, the transmitter would send an audible click. But what to send?
She had it!
Putting the two leads together, she started tapping.
Tap.
Tap tap.
Tap tap tap.
Tap tap tap tap tap.
Congratulating herself, she continued to tap prime numbers, something anyone with a scientific mind would know.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Anything?" Genechiro asked.
Megumi bit her lip, her headset pressed against her ear with urgency, making sure not one stray decibel could escape unnoticed.
Finally, she had to shake her head. "Just some background radiation being reflected off the planet." She pulled her headset and allowed the noise to come in over the speakers.
Genechiro shook his head. "Blast. Keep scanning!" He turned to Ruri. "Time to intercept from my mark?"
"Four hours, twenty-two minutes."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
She finally had to rest. Moving her legs but being careful not to lose her place, Aurora shifted herself.
"Scientific mind?" she asked herself bitterly. "And who on the ship exactly is that?"
Her head struck the locker in thought. "Think, Aurora, think! Who would be listening?"
"Megumi!"
Leaning forward again, she began to tap out a new pattern.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Come on," Megumi whispered, her earset cutting into the circulation of her ear. "Please, Jun, just talk to me."
She adjusted the gain on her panel, trying to cut out natural radiological phenomenon.
Clicks. Lots of clicks.
She looked up as a slender hand rested a steaming cup on her desk. "Ruri chan?"
"Megumi san," she said simply.
"Thank you, Ruri chan." She drank gratefully.
Click-click... click... click...
"Is there anything I can do?" the girl asked.
Megumi shook her head. "No, Ruri chan. Thank you."
"This would not be the first time the Kanchou has come back from the dead," she told the older woman reassuringly. "He proved a lot of people wrong last time. This time, I think, everyone honestly assumes we'll find them."
Click click...
This made Megumi smile. "Thank you, Ruri. I..."
There was a sudden volley of fast-paced clicks that made Megumi pause in her tracks.
"Megumi san?"
The commo wasn't paying attention. She was listening to the clicks she heard. Her lips started moving to the rhythm.
Ruri blinked. "Megumi sa..."
"Shhh! Listen!" She pulled the headset out so the transmission came over the bridge speakers.
"I hear clicking," Ruri noted.
Megumi started speaking, her words corresponding with the clicks.
"TLC and kiss-es will ta-ake your pain a-way! Naut-y Nurse Ai will sa-ave the day!"
"Are you on drugs?" Chase asked from the helm.
"It's the theme song from my first anime role!" Megumi told them as the clicks repeated. She turned to her panel and isolated the signal.
"Um... Megumi, are you sure? Maybe you're just..." Chase began to say.
Megumi ignored him. "Who do we have in this area?" She asked Ruri.
Ruri ran back to her terminal and checked. "Blackjack Thirteen," she said.
Chase raised his hand. "We don't HAVE a Blackjack Thirteen."
"He can be the Ghost of Christmas Past for all I care," Megumi told him quickly. "Blackjack Thirteen, Nadesico! Investigate possible transmission from crash site one! Vector 184! Two-two miles magnetic south from your position! Acknowledge."
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Barkrarak had a little trouble interpreting Megumi's orders at such a rapid rate, but the big green arrow pointing to the right was clear enough.
"Yes," he replied, knowing that speaking more than that would give him away. He turned his Aestivalis south.
"Blackjack Thirteen," he heard Izumi's voice over the radio. "I'm moving to your position."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The battery finally gave out, and Aurora choked back a sob. That was it. She had been tapping the songs for every one of Ms. Megumi's animes for an hour, but so far nothing.
She tried to readjust again, but had lost circulation in her legs. The scientist cried out as she fell, her back striking the back of one of the lidar terminals as she went. When she landed in the cockpit, she heard a sickening snap and felt a sharp pain in her left arm, then numbness spreading through her left side.
Cradling the wounded appendage, she pulled her knees to her chest and started to cry. Hanging in his harness next to her, Jun gave no sign of life, his face bathed in sickly green light from her dropped light stick.
"Gomen nasai," she said tearily in his language. "I tried my best."
She felt her eyes grow heavy and knew her wounds were getting the better of her. She was going into shock.
"I don't want to die here," she whispered to everyone and no one. "Anywhere but here."
She imagined the air was growing thin, the taste of blood filled her mouth. She just wanted to sleep.
The ground moved beneath her as her eyes were closing. She was rising from the earth, she could feel it. This was it.
Oh, God, she was dying.
A light filled the room around her, and she dared to open her eyes one last time.
"Huh?"
The light came from the cockpit window, and instead of the face of God meeting her, another face peered through the plexiglass, a steel, robotic face.
"Oh, thank you, God," she whispered.
And lost consciousness.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Megumi met the Starhawks on the launch deck. As the hatches opened, medical teams rushed in, placing Jun and Aurora on gurnies. One of the orderlies held her back as they rushed the two toward sickbay.
Izumi and Barkrarak stood nearby, helmets in hand, watching. The alien watched the violet-haired woman storm up to him. He braced himself and was surprised when the human female wrapped her arms around him.
"Thank you," she said, tears in her eyes. Before he could think to respond, she rushed out behind the gurnies.
"I... accomplished acceptfully?" he asked.
Izumi smiled. "Yeah," she told him. "You accomplished pretty acceptfully."
Before any more kind words could escape, Ryoko was in front of them. "Well," she said darkly. "It looks like you 'accidentally' found yourself in the cockpit again."
Barkrarak swallowed nervously, fully aware that he might have just risked his chances of piloting again.
"It looks like I'm going to have to take some drastic steps to control you," she said.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Megumi sat in the chair next to Jun's bed, her hands folded in front of her. She heard a knock and turned.
Aurora stood in the doorway, a chemical cast on her left arm. "Am I disturbing you?" she asked timidly.
The commo shook her head. "No, of course not. Come in."
Aurora stepped cautiously inside. "What did the doctors say?" she asked.
"He has to come out of it on his own," Megumi told her. "They've done all they can."
"I see."
"He's come back from worse," Megumi said hopefully.
"I know." Megumi looked at her as Aurora continued. "He... He told me about what happened on Phobos."
"I see."
"He's a remarkable man."
"When they found him, he was changed," Megumi told her. "It was like a part of him died in there, and another part was born. I don't want to lose any more of him."
Aurora reached over and put her arm around the woman.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"We're maintaining our lead over the Caregiver ships," Ryoko told Izumi on the flight deck. "But we need to make sure there's nothing ahead of us that will slow us down."
Izumi held her helmet under her arm as she watched Ryoko circle a part of the chart. "Just sweep this grid," Ryoko ordered. "Make sure there are no surprises."
The pilot nodded. "Right."
The two looked up as the hangar door opened, and Barkrarak stepped through, helmet under his arm and a 45th SCS patch on the arm of his flight suit. He stood up straight in front of Ryoko and saluted.
"Barkrarak rahpording fur duudry, Sur," he recited in the Earther's language.
Ryoko's face darkened.
"'Ma'am,'" Izumi corrected. "She's a 'Ma'am.'"
The alien straightened his shoulders and corrected himself. "Ma'om."
"Just go," Ryoko grumbled, storming off.
"Not bad," Izumi told him as they started for their robots.
"I repeated efforts all this early day," he told her.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Aurora removed her shirt over the bulky chemical cast and turned the lights out in her bedroom. She walked to her bed, pausing to kiss her fingers and pat the Naughty Nurse Ai poster hanging on her wall. Sitting on her bed, she paused, reflecting.
She knew, intellectually, that there would be danger involved in crossing the galaxy and exploring a new solar system complete with possibly hostile aliens, but she had assumed that the danger would mostly be up to the military to handle. The scientists, such as herself, would be insulated from it.
Now that she had a taste of that danger, she wasn't sure what to do. It might be all clear sailing from here, or it could just get worse.
Aurora wasn't a daredevil, a soldier or even a free-spirit. She wanted nothing to do with danger. She came on this expedition as Ms. Inez's assistant.
Sighing, she flopped back onto the bed, her eyes closed.
Tap... Tap Tap...
She opened her eyes.
"Oh, shut up," she said.
Author's notes:
1. Indentification Friend or Foe. Transponders on aircraft allow friendlies to ID one another, even on stealth aircraft.
2. Hot pitting is where an aircraft lands, refuels, rearms and takes off again without the pilot leaving the aircraft or the engines even shutting down.