DISCLAIMER: Many of the characters and situations described in the following fic are owned entirely by Takahashi Rumiko, a woman I have the greatest respect and admiration for. (In fact if she were willing, I would have her love child. A neat trick since I am a male kinda guy and not built to bear children.) Her creativity has even inspired the creation of a whole new branch of the Trek Universe. Therefore, any mentions of historical moment from Trek, Trek-Tech and characters and ships, which I shall endeavor to keep at a minimum, is entirely intentional. Within this story are characters who are from the Trek Universe, but not of Trek. These are my creations. All other characters that are integral to this story are her property, apart from the characters from AMG. This is a work intended to share a concept, and perhaps my story telling abilities. There is no money to be earned by me or by anyone else from this work. I might also add, Paladin, Team Paladin, the Starship Percheron and her crew, and Miss Kitty as she is here, ARE my property, and not to be used with out express consent from myself. I have worked hard to develop these characters and hope to use them in published works eventually. I choose to share them and their attitudes with you here. The character from OH! My Goddess belong to who ever owns them… sorry but my copies of this series (as well as Ranma ½) mysteriously disappeared during a move
I would also like to add the following. NO the character of Jerrod Randolph Macon, A.K.A. Paladin is in no way related to T.N.G.'s Silver Paladin. That character was little more than a pirate, my character is intended to embody the true spirit of the word paladin.
Also, for the Trek nitpickers out there. I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but. There is no such thing as a society that doesn't use some form of currency. Roddenberry's vision of the future is a wonderful vision, but impractical as far as money is concerned. It is a socialist utopia, and it cannot work. Any historian or economist can tell you that. Even the most primitive cultures on the planet barter with each other for goods and services, and that is the earliest form of currency. Let's face it, even the People's Republics around the world, (Read as oppressive communist governments, where if you speak out against anything, you wind up run over by a tank.) Even they have currencies that the civilian public uses for internal trade. It has been postulated that the Federation has solved the issues of limited resources thereby removing the need for any form of currency. I disagree with this. Not that the resource problem has been addressed, but that currency will be done away with.
In the Federation future, most of the actual trade where currency is used to make a purchase will be of the 'intellectual properties exchange' forum. The reason why currency will always exist is because of the inherent need of humans for an incentive to improve. It wouldn't be worth your time to be a clothing designer or civilian engineer if you weren't given concrete evidence of your value. Payment of some form of currency will be much easier to keep track of fifteen hundred credits than twenty goats and fifteen sheep and three chickens from the buyer in China who really loved the new spaghetti strap, plunging to the ankles neckline evening gown.
Capitalism may not be perfect, but it's better than anything else around is right now.
Most likely the currency used in the world of Trek is closely related to various forms used in much of Sci-Fi, a credit system, there may be no hard currency, but there is a form of monetary exchange.
Internally to this story, there are some glaring examples, (to some) of extreme OOC, as well as outright character revision. As this is intended to be an original telling with some new characters with a minor twist here and there to aid in making the whole thing insensible… inchoate? …to the world of Rumiko's vision. There has been some comment that her characters aren't the way I have them here. And why would Ranma have a crush on Nabiki?
Okay, think about this. You live in a house with three very pretty girls. One of them you can't bring yourself to look at in any way other than as a big sister/mother figure. Then there are the other two, the youngest that you happen to be engaged to is violent, quick tempered, never lets you answer any question be fore she belts you and you are forcing yourself to love her.
And there is the third one, she isn't very nice to you, but you think you know why. She was also the only one that seemed excited when you arrived, and she doesn't hit you, ever.
I'd have a minor crush on her myself if I were Ranma.
Let's face it, Nabs, if she were a real person, would be a major babe.
The timeline for this story is just about there. Meaning there aren't going to be any of the big events that occurred in the manga and anime. The story makes an assumption that events alter somewhat with each restart by the Norn. So Herb and Saffron may exist but won't be part of the story.
And finally, for convenience sake. ( ) author's commentary.
Sound effect
Chinese
Japanese usually spoken planetside
English generally spoken aboard ship
And now for sumpin' gnu.
On with the tale
PALADIN ½ - SHE'S THE ONE
Chapter 2 – Of Wishes and Wild horses.
Paladin took in all that Bell said and digested it for a moment and then asked. "And what does that have to do with you appearing here, through my mirror?" This was asked with gentle curiosity in his voice. Kitty had been entranced by the story so far, it was pretty good for a bedtime story. She'd be happy with the story and the rest of the talk, but she really wanted to know how to get a mommy! (Kitty knows what is really important.)
Bell, receiving those all-important desires from the smaller Macon, gave Kitty a small smile then turned to Jerrod. "That was in answer to your question. As to why I am here, that has to do with the Destined One. I must apologize about this beforehand, the Destined One, known now as Ranma, has already done much for the universe we live in. But no matter how many times he succeeds in the assigned battles he has. His life almost always seems to degrade into one mass of chaotic despair and destruction or another. As to what I must apologize for, The Universal Computer I mentioned earlier is capable of altering reality and even splitting off segments to experiment with other possibilities. To demonstrate what I mean, look here!"
Waving her hand over the table, a holographic image representing all time to the present as gracefully twining multi-layered threads showing lives that had been lived. And this was only this single aspect of this multi-verse. The only reason the Macon parent and child could tell what it was because Jerrod had a similar representation of it in the control system for the portal they had used. His wasn't as well defined as this, but then his wasn't part of a control matrix intended to alter reality. The scale and view focused in on a specific locus in the tapestry of reality they were being shown, the scale showed a period of between twenty to fifty years. All of them on earth, and all of them constantly returning and wrapping around back on themselves, and tangling with one another. Someone from the Heaven plane without much knowledge of how the system worked would swear it might have been more because of system bugs than any other source of problem.
The sheer number of restarts of time surrounding Ranma caused what the ones whose job it was to grant Wishes knew as The Tangle.
"This is the History Tangle of the Life of Ranma! The wishes the threads represent are all centered upon him. And out of them all, he has only made two of these wishes. True to himself his wishes aren't selfish. The others are selfish to the degree that each person who made a wish has always been meant by the wishmaker to improve the life of Ranma, in one way or another. By making Ranma their own, as if he were a possession, or in controlling his life, thinking they were wiser than he was in how he should live it. And still these foolish mortals are selfish in these wishings; their desire to improve Ranma's life invariably begins with making their lives better! Far, far more than his, because he still dies too early or strays from his best path.
Sadly in each of the cases you see here, Ranma has met an early death or was swayed from the path that was truly best for him. In each instance, his wishes and desires were overlooked for what others wanted from him, instead of what was actually best for him.."
Looking up to see that Paladin was following everything she said, and to see if he had a question. She noticed that he only motioned to go on. The look on his face was indefinable; something of near anger was there, but not quite. Perhaps a sad anger with mild frustration about the tale he was told.
"Because of this nearly four thousand individual cases of wishing, Real Time, the time that my people and the rest of the immortals of this multi-verse exist in, and apparently, your reality as well, is out of sync with Bet Time. Because of this, the reality that you came to, while being the one you intended, you arrived much earlier than you had planned. Over three hundred years too early."
At that, Paladin leaned back in his chair and sighed, with a mild frown on his square aquiline features. "That explains why we haven't picked up any communication in the anticipated frequency ranges! But it still doesn't explain why you are here talking to us." He finished with a slightly stern quality to his voice.
Bell blushed in embarrassment about the reason she was there. "We have wrapped your colony in a pocket of Real Time so that I may speak with you concerning Ranma. This event is special; there have been three things unexpected in this run of events. First, it was a group wish made by the majority of the people in his life. Second, he has made his second wish. And finally, you and your people are here.
My sisters and I have decided that our continued failures at protecting the life of Ranma, may be because of intervention from the Hell plane, or possibly another kami seeking to improve their own entertainment, or just simply the chaos that seems to be drawn to him. Because of these failures, we would like to try something different?"
The last was said as a plea tinged with hope and fear as well as in the form of a question. Fear that Paladin wouldn't help because he felt cheated of his reason to come here. Hope that he could succeed where everything else had failed.
"We will grant one specific wish, and unlike other times, we will not allow the wishmaker to remember the prior timeline. The cycle will be reset with a new addition. You and your people, if you would please help us?" Bell finished her dissertation with a mildly begging tone.
There was no way the new people could be made to help. They had to agree to help. Paladin had to agree. He had to! Otherwise it would be another cycle of inconclusive actions and reactions to the same events.
"Alright, I'll help! I may as well, I don't expect I'd be able to even locate the correct time to travel to. Travel to the future is nearly impossible, because it hasn't happened yet, unless it's returning to your personal present, from the actual past. And we can't return to our home reality in any case. We might as well do some good. Is there some way you can inform all my people of the facts?" Paladin asked
'Oh My! I didn't expect such an immediate affirmative to help' thought Bell. "Of course. I can have that done immediately!" A small gesture brought up a floating monitor and keyboard with which she sent a message to Peorth to send the required information out to the various people in the bubble of Real Time.
"So what was the wish?" Paladin asked.
Bell looked expectantly at him and asked "Which one?"
"Ranma's wish," Paladin replied.
Bell, looking a little uncomfortable at the question said. "Actually, his wish isn't the most important one. Someone else's wish is."
"Bell, you seem like a very sweet girl, but you don't strike me as being very skilled at avoiding a direct question. Very well, what was this other wish?"
"This wish was for Ranma to have a real, true friend." Bell said, and then went on, "It won't matter the wish you are concentrating on most. You will be answering every wish that had been made! The strongest individual wishes were made at a party, most of them complimented each other in one way or another thereby converting them into a group WISH." Bell saying the word in such a way as to pass on the importance of it. "Other wishes from the surrounding area that Ranma lives were also in some way connected to him. These were used to further generate the impetus behind my visit and plea for your aid."
"Of course there a couple of the wishes that are totally irrelevant and completely selfish and have no bearing on what you will be doing!" She said with a smile, "Particularly the wishes of Ranma's acquaintances Hiroshi and Daisuke." Bell finished up
Paladin grinned and said, "I take it Ranma is a teen and those boys are as well."
"Well, yes, they are teens. But Ranma has had a very difficult life and…"
"No, don't tell me any more about the kid in specifics! I'll get it from him when he's ready to tell me!" Jerrod proclaimed, excitement evident in his demeanor, a look of mischief glinting in his eyes at the prospect of this new endeavor.
At this Bell was astonished. She would have thought he would want as much information as he could be given regarding the case as possible. And asked much the same.
"Because, that would be gossipy. Really though, it isn't right to speak about someone without their knowledge concerning things they want kept private. Let me become his friend and he'll tell me what he wants me to know. That will work best in earning his trust! Besides, it just wouldn't do to slip up and let on that I know more about him than I should. Friends should learn about each other over time, not know everything immediately when they meet! I can keep the fact I know his name quiet, but anything only his family or just he would know wouldn't be fair to him." Paladin explained with a pleasant and friendly smile.
Bell was amazed at this. She knew of the honor that Ranma possessed, but didn't expect to find it in someone from a completely different multi-verse. She had certainly not expected to hear the reasoning so well thought out. It was pleasant to find. She would later discover that the attitude was shared by most of the new people, and not just in their leader.
"There is some small help I could provide for you anyway. It would be best for this to be done. Firstly, in order to be in a position to help Ranma to the greatest degree, I would recommend that you take up residence where he is living. I'm at a loss to figure out how to accomplish this without restarting time for you as well." Bell offered and asked for an idea.
"Alright, let me think for a moment, while I put Kitty to bed." Paladin noticing that the girl had fallen asleep far before Bell had. And Bell didn't know when Kitty had slipped into sleep. Bell watched as he gently lifted Kitty in his arms, a cute ragdoll of gray white and pink, and carried her to another part of the large cabin while she sipped at her tea that she had reheated with a gesture.
It was very good tea, Bell decided she'd have to ask what kind it was. Sometime later.
Paladin returned and leaned back in his seat taking a large drink from his iced tea. He furrowed his brow in thought for a moment and then said. "Alright, the best thing I can come up with is for you to give me the minimal information for me to do this favor for you. So, tell me, what is the least amount of information you can provide?"
"The name of the family he is staying with is Tendo, they live in Nerima, zu, Tokyo, Japan."
"I'm going to need a lot of latitude in that case. I can't be just a guest! Nor can I be a neighbor. How about a wealthy philanthropist on an extended vacation, wishing to emerse his daughter in the culture of Japan? That being the case, the best way to do this would be to take room and board in the same home as my project child." Paladin suggested.
"That sounds like a very good idea, I shall have it placed in the collective memory of the family you will be staying with that this is exactly who you are. Are you ready to go?" Bell asked.
"No, no, no! You aren't following me! Let's try it this way. Don't reset the period as you had planned to do! Don't worry, I said I would help, and I never back out of a promise. Even if it hurts. What you can do, since you are able to affect reality, is to establish an identity for my daughter and myself. If you can wait around for a little while, I can give you the information I'd like to use for that. I was thinking of hacking into the earth data-net and setting up some income streams for this, but it might be best if you were to do your reality warping on that score as well. That way I won't feel guilty tapping into other peoples funding." Paladin explained more clearly.
Bell sat back with some surprise. This mortal had already come up with a plan on how to achieve the goal of protecting Ranma! Of course she wasn't able to see what this plan was, his mind still unreadable by the Yggdrasil, she'd have to remind herself to watch the unfolding of the plan of Jerrod Macon to see. While she pondered the man before her, Jerrod twisted the terminal display and controls to himself and began to pull up information.
Paladin thought he understood the actual reasons that the number of times the Norn had failed in their self appointed task of keeping this Ranma person on a designated path. They actually had no real plan, relying on the 'wishes' various individuals had made in this regard. And since they had approached him to try for them. He had begun formulating one, a far ranging, but fairly simple plan. Jerrod intended to do something these 'gods and goddesses' had failed to do, save a life so that it might extend to it's natural end.
Jerrod already had the idea to use his ancestor's data to set up his identity. 'Let me see, Jerrod Randolph Macon. Born: November 11, 1948. No, it'll be better to be 1966. Academic career: graduated high school June 1967, no that will not do it! I'll just have to provide part of my own academic history here, with some minor alterations here and there. No one has heard of Vulcan here, so the Science Academy is out!' His own history being a bit more elaborate than his ancestor, The Progenitor had.
Paladin's history was very different from his namesakes. Because of his inherited genetic enhancements, Jerrod had actually begun his academic career in the Federation equivalent of high school progressed to several universities and studied off-planet on Vulcan. He entered Star Fleet Academy at an age when most boys his age were wondering what color that pretty girls panties were. And left that bastion of specialized learning a Lieutenant at the age of seventeen.
Paladin, frowning a little, began altering pieces of his ancestors' history. When he reached the point of children, he replaced the actual birth of Robert Macon with the birth of Kitty, and the death of his wife 'Karen' while giving birth. The death caused by complications due to the rather mutated offspring. The explanation for Kitty being that she was an extremely rare genetic hiccup where the embryo had continued to develop from the feline aspect and only altering into humanoid instead of full recognizable human appearance. Human fetus progressing through nearly every known lifeform on the planet to its final stage being an established fact.
It helped to explain the rather mutant appearing child that would be in the company of her father, and why she had no mother. As to the evident wealth of Jerrod Macon, the new information was that he was born to old money, and inherited the family business on the death of his father. This was even true to the extent that it had really happened back home in the reality he and his extended family had left. In this case the business was an aeronautics firm called Macon AeroSpace.
Forty-five minutes later, Paladin had saved the new data to a storage chip and handed it to Bell. She had been standing behind him as he altered information and added new to the identities he was building. She saw how skillful he was at this, and was amazed at the rapidity of his thought processes and implementing the needed changes. She was taken by how he managed to convey the birth of his daughter in the information he was developing. She was also a little appalled at the ease with which he created that fiction. "Why explain her that way?" she asked. "You could use the excuse of 'The Springs of Sorrow' and that she was locked instead."
Paladin looked to her and just said, "This has a touch more legitimacy than anything else to my mind."He had no idea what she was talking about anyway. He preferred his own explanation.
Shaking her head in wonder, Bell took the iso-linear chip and held it in her palm and it disappeared, to be replaced moments later by the needed papers, credit cards, banking information and other documentation.
"Bell, let's set it up so that the person that actually controls the finances around the home calls me. Try putting a full page ad in the morning paper, that would be sure to get their notice." Paladin said, a mischievous light in his eyes. He even typed out the ad for Bell to see what he meant. The idea here was to be invited into the home by the occupants. He then explained the device he had in mind for the eventual contacting by this person he didn't know.
Understanding the intent, Bell smiled at the brilliance of the plan. The simplicity of it amazed her. After all, another way to make the money needed to keep her family off the street was something Nabiki Tendo was always looking for. That and a way to get the money without having to do anything really illegal, a secret desire of Nabiki that only the Norns of Fate knew about. In moments Jerrod had a device that looked like a cell-phone, of course it had a somewhat greater range than any that it might resemble.
"Paladin, there is something else I should let you know about." Bell said.
"This earth is very different from the one you know. Magic works on this one, and can be very dangerous." She explained
Paladin just sighed, "Is that all? I thought you would tell me something about the possible eventual invasion of earth by Romulans. Leave it to us."
With nothing else to speak of, Bell followed Jerrod to another mirror, a full length one this time and bid him farewell and good luck. He smiled and shook her hand in parting and said "We make our own luck."