I'm Back! OK, so the last episode saw our young Captain giving the woman of his dreams a massage to calm her down.
Ranma: Bite Me, Matt!!
Down, boy. Anyways, I've drank a half dozen red bull, and continued the madness from where it left off. Things are gonna start heating up now, and you'll get to see some combat action going on in this one.
Read on, and I hope you like it!!
MattSaotome
Chapter 4
First Strike
Ranma stirred in his bed uncomfortably. The night had come to a very quick close for him, yet he felt no closure from the events of the day before. He quickly ran an open hand over his face, and small traces of clammy sweat clung to his palm. He grunted in disapproval as he sat up. The covers fell from his body, revealing that he was shirtless, but still wearing his uniform pants. Well toned muscles flexed uncontrollably as Ranma's body attempted to flush the sleep from his bloodstream.
"Computer, time?" Ranma asked in a low whisper. The computer took the obvious next course and replied at a low level of volume.
"23:52"
"Christ…" Ranma cursed. He'd only been asleep for a little over an hour. He looked groggily around the room. Nothing had changed, of course. He wasn't sure why he had expected it to until his eyes rested upon the stretch chair in the other corner of the room where Akane lay sleeping, still in full uniform. Slowly, the events of the evening came back to him, and he remembered how Akane had come to him, distraught and needing a friend.
He threw the covers the rest of the way off the bed and turned to sit on the edge. He rubbed his face again and stifled a yawn. As tired as he was, he couldn't seem to get to sleep. He remembered massaging Akane to help her relax, and quickly recalled her falling asleep in the stretch chair as he did so.
Talk about adding a new one to the strange and very freaky department! Ranma thought to himself. Akane coming to ME over the counselor is one thing, but actually letting me massage her to calm her down??
Ranma shook his head to clear his mind and stood up slowly. He went over a bunch of different things that he could do in the dead of night. He could go to the bridge, but that lot was probably so bored that they wouldn't let him leave after he arrived. He could go to Engineering, but Vegeta's men probably still thought he was gonna castrate them one at a time if they screwed up. He didn't need to be walking around a bunch of people that were afraid of him. He thought about going to check up on the Wildcards and see their 'Battle Ops' for himself, but once again, he decided that this could wait until tomorrow.
He moved to the other end of the room and grabbed his com badge off his tunic. He quickly slapped it onto the hip of his uniform pants and exited his quarters. Perhaps he just needed to wear himself out. Giving a small nod to himself at his latest idea, he looked down the corridor in either direction, shrugged, then picked one and took off in a jog. He reached down and tapped his com badge.
"Computer, track the distance this badge travels every half kilometer and notify me at each increment."
There was a bip from his badge before the computer responded.
"Confirmed." Then, in true 24th century computer fashion, it made a guess. "Do you wish your heart rate and speed to be monitored as well?"
Ranma nearly tripped over his feet. What?!
"Uh… no, that's… OK." Ranma answered.
"Affirmative." The computer replied. Within moments his badge bipped at him again. "First marker. Distance traveled: half a kilometer."
Ranma mentally acknowledged the badge and continued to run. He flew past a couple of night shift crewmen. They regarded him a bit strangely before recognizing him as the captain.
"Uh…Evening, Captain." The woman said.
Ranma waved a 'hello' to them and just kept on going. He rounded the next junction and slowed down at the next door he saw. He came to a stop but continued to jog on the spot, staring at the panel beside the large doors. The screen flashed back at him the words he was so sure he had seen.
'Running Training Program Goku 1'
A small smile appeared on his face as he realized he wasn't the only one still awake from the day shift. He stopped his jogging and turned to face the holodeck entrance. The doors spread open to welcome him.
Inside, he could see Goku… sort of. He was moving so fast that he would occasionally blur right out of ordinary sight, and Ranma found himself startled when he'd reappear half way across the room as he slowed back down. Goku was obviously training his mind for reaction time as there was no holographic sparring partner anywhere in sight. Ranma chuckled for a second, and then began to step onto the holodeck.
The simulation waited for him to be completely in the room before allowing the scenario to affect him. As the doors closed and vanished into the simulation behind him, Ranma was suddenly slammed to the floor hard, all the air being forced out of his lungs upon impact. At first, he thought that Goku had attacked him, but when he heard the sound of Goku still moving through the air, he came to another conclusion.
"Wow!" He huffed, fighting hard as he slowly refilled his lungs. He put both his hands palms down on the floor and pushed hard as he slowly but surely rose up, then began to pull his knees in under his body to try and stand. "What a bad case of gravity!"
Goku heard the sound of another person in the room and stopped in mid air, just hovering there as he looked down at Ranma.
"Oh…" he was impressed as he watched his captain slowly stumble to his feet.
"What is this, Commander?" Ranma asked hard as he finally staggered into a standing position. "Ten times gravity?"
Goku slowly shook his head with a smile as he came back to the floor. "Heh, I think you're a lot stronger than you either realize or give yourself credit for, Captain. Computer, current gravity setting?"
The computer chirped back, "Gravity intensity at thirty two times norm."
The color faded from Ranma's face, and he had second thoughts about walking over to where commander Goku was now standing.
"Jesus," he mused. "The skin should be peelin' off my bones!!"
Goku laughed. "Like I said, you're a lot stronger than you think you are!"
Ranma almost painfully brought up his left arm to scratch at the back of his head. 32 times gravity was itchy. "Really?"
"Computer," Goku called again. "Reduce gravity level to ten times norm and continue simulation."
There was a chirp of confirmation, and suddenly, Ranma was standing tall. It wasn't until that moment that he realized just how hard he had still been fighting to stand up as his muscles stretched a bit and he grew nearly four inches.
"Wow," Ranma breathed. As a tester, he began to give the open room swings and kicks, jumping around almost as easily as Goku had been just moments before. Goku just stood there and watched him with a look of pride on his face. None of his previous captains had ever been able to even set foot into his training sessions without being rushed to sickbay, but here was Ranma, jumping around the room like it was nothing! Granted it was only ten times norm, but no one else save for a handful of his friends and the only other Saiyan alive, Vegeta, had ever been able to even handle five times norm without turning and leaving the room in exhaustion.
"Captain," Goku called to him across the holodeck. Ranma was quickly back at Goku's side.
"Yeah?"
"You do realize that you're defying the laws of physics for over 99 of humanity, yes?"
Ranma went a little red before giving a small nod. "I uh… kinda noticed that, yeah."
"It amazes me that you had no idea of the magnitude of your strength." Goku praised him. "How would you like to be my new sparring partner in the evenings?"
Ranma thought carefully about this, and then decided that there would be no harm in it.
"Sure, Commander!" he replied.
"Alright!!" Goku cheered. Ranma could tell that he had been wanting of a sparring partner, and that burned a new question in him.
"Um, commander? Why don't you and Vegeta spar?"
Goku nearly lost his smile, but kept a small hint of it at the corner of his lips.
"Well… there's really only one way to answer that." He replied. "Vegeta can do everything that I can do. Keep that in mind. Computer, place a titanium bulkhead piece in the center of the room. Five feet high, starship hull thickness. Exclude Captain Saotome from the control environment and increase gravity to five hundred times norm."
Ranma was about to bark out objections to his Commander about the intensity of the gravity level, but before he could get a word out, the computer beeped confirmation. The room around him began to glow a deep red as the gravity increased.
Ranma could tell that Goku was starting to struggle with it, and he watched as his first officer was brought to his knees by the new intensity. Still, the skin did not tear from his bones as Ranma had expected. Instead, Goku just stayed on his knees and put his arms out to catch his upper body as it fell to the floor as well.
"Remember," Goku was grunting. "What I showed you in the ready room?"
Ranma nodded, and then followed it with a quick "Yes" when he realized that Goku couldn't look at him.
"That's what Vegeta and I call becoming a Super Saiyan!" With those words, Goku let out a cry and that same golden battle aura surrounded him. What happened next nearly made Ranma faint. Goku hopped to his feet like a two year old skipping down a paved road!
Ranma recovered his jaw from the floor.
"Now to answer your question," Goku smiled. He turned to face the piece of titanium bulkhead. He slowly brought his arm up and held his hand out in front of him, opening it fingers up to aim at the metal. With nothing more than a slight grunt, a massive ball of energy leapt from Goku's hand and made almost immediate contact with the metal. There was a wild explosion, and Ranma watched Goku just stand there as tiny bits of the metal flying around the room now bounced off him like nothing to fizzle into non-existence against the environmental force field that surrounded Ranma. When the smoke cleared, there was clearly nothing left of the titanium bulkhead.
"If Vegeta and I spar, there'll be no ship left when we're done. I need to spar with someone who knows how to control themselves, and that's not Vegeta!"
Ranma just nodded slowly, still amazed that there was nothing left of a Titanium bulkhead! Sure, he had cracked the stuff before, but he'd never EVER blown it up!!
"Computer, return environment to its previous settings." Goku instructed. The red-ish glow of the room faded back to the normal colors, and the bits of titanium vanished along with Ranma's safety field. Ranma stepped up to Goku, who was still in Super Saiyan form.
"Remind me never to piss you off," he laughed.
"No problem," Goku laughed as well. "Although I would like to see where you stand in strength and all that."
Ranma shrugged. That was easy. "Computer, another titanium bulkhead, please."
Before them, a new piece of bulkhead materialized, matching the proportions of the one Goku had blown up exactly. Ranma stepped up to it, reeled back and punched it as hard as he could. A slight pain shot up his arm, but the results he'd expected to happen did. The metal spider-cracked from the impact of his fist. He turned back to Goku.
"I also know several Ki energy attacks, but definitely nothing as intense as yours. Oh, and I can't fly."
Goku nodded his extreme approval with a grin to his captain. "It's a good place to start from! Ready?"
Ranma wasn't sure what for, but he just nodded instead. Whatever Goku had in store for him, he'd figure it out and learn from it! As far as he was concerned, if it was a fighting style, he could learn it! He always did!
"Bring it on, Commander!"
"Sir!" The nameless officer approached behind him.
"What is it, Lackey?" the man's voice was thin, yet powerful. His impatience was growing all too apparent.
"We've been monitoring the Orion Syndicate's borders as you instructed. A federation starship is approaching them now."
"Ah," The man's voice sounded triumphant. "A response. Excellent. What kind of starship is it?"
Silence greeted his question. Grey wings long and slender like a cockroaches flitted in aggravation at the lack of an answer, making a dull buzz as they rubbed together.
"I asked you a question, subordinate!" He hollered out.
"We… we don't know, sir. It's not in the library computer."
"You… Don't… Know…" he grit his teeth and forced the words out. The only warning that an attack was coming was the sudden surge of muscle under his green skin, and the nameless officer's throat was in his grasp. Slow seconds ticked by as the underling made gurgling noises, followed by a sickening crack and his body going limp.
The man tossed the now dead officer to the side of the room.
"I do not seek excuses," he spat out at the two officers that had been standing behind the first. "Get me a schematic of that ship NOW!"
"Y-y-yes, sir!" The two stammered in unison before turning and fleeing in fear.
The man turned back to the readouts before him and went back to pondering whatever it was he had been before he was interrupted. Without much of a second thought, he quickly glanced over at the dead officer's corpse. It began to smolder and quickly ignited in flames at the man's stare.
"Come, Starfleet…" he mused, turning back to the monitor. "Show me what you're truly made of!"
The sound of the doors to Ranma's quarters opening at two in the morning made Akane stir. She rubbed her eyes for a second, and then slowly sat up on the stretch chair.
"Did I wake you up, 'Kane?" Ranma asked. His breathing was hard, and as Akane's blurry vision began to clear, she could see scrapes and bruises on his body.
"R… Ranma? What… happened?" She yawned now, unable to help herself. Her arms sloughed back to her sides, and she took a minute to enjoy the fact that she could stare at the shirtless Ranma without him thinking it was any more than sleep draining from her system.
"I was sparring with Commander Goku," Ranma answered as he removed his com badge and placed it on his nightstand. "Have you been asleep all this time?"
Akane nodded slowly and let out another yawn. "Which is what I think I should go back to."
Ranma chuckled. "It's only 0200. I think you should too. What time should I wake ya up?"
Akane shrugged meaninglessly and slumped back down on the stretch chair.
"Akane?" Ranma questioned. She didn't answer him.
She's back asleep already! Ranma mused.
"…Unbelievable…" He shook his head as he made his way back for his bed. Time to get some sleep of his own.
Ryouga tossed and turned uneasily. He was having a nightmare. In his dream, he was on the bridge, and the ship was engaged in battle. The ship was struck by blast after blast, and consoles were exploding all around him. The most horrible part of it all was when the fires broke out and the suppression systems activated, spraying water everywhere. True to his Jusenkyo curse, Ryouga turned into a little black piglet at the helm station. Suddenly, the rest of the bridge officers were hovering over him.
"Awww… What's wrong, P-chan?" Ranma taunted Ryouga.
"Poor little piggy can't handle it?" Mousse was over him as well.
"Definitely too cute to fly a starship!" Goku was laughing hard.
"Ryouga…" there was Akane. She hovered over him larger than anyone else. "You pervert! You have no honor!!"
"NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" Ryouga shot up in bed, sweat pouring from him. As he gasped for air, only one thought ran through his brain. As always, the same thought that had gotten him in trouble countless times in his life.
"Computer, locate Akane Tendo." He started to relax his breathing.
"Akane Tendo is in Captain Saotome's quarters," the computer replied.
Ryouga's pupils shrank to pin marks.
"WHAT!???"
He shot out of bed, quickly donning his uniform. That done, he leapt for the exit to his quarters and smashed the doors off their hinges without even waiting for them to open. He screeched straight out across the corridor before starting to run down it.
"Ranma, you Cad!!!" He hollered as he ran.
"Sir!" another nameless officer got his attention. This one's voice seemed much more confident than the last.
"Yes, what is it?" he replied.
"I have the schematics that you asked for." The officer handed him a computer chip, which he inserted into the station before him. A readout of the Wildstar appeared on the screen before him, and he began to study it as the officer began to speak again.
"She's a full hundred meters longer than a sovereign class. We've ascertained that she holds a crew compliment of 1600. All officers, no civilians. We were unable to penetrate her defensive systems with our scans due to heavy shielding in the ships more sensitive areas. I apologize for this failure."
This officer impressed him. Not only had he brought him the schematics regardless of their incomplete nature, he had also assumed responsibility for their inadequacy.
"Very well, I accept your apology. What is your name and rank?"
"Lieutenant Tomerand, sir." The officer replied, just as confidently.
"Very well, Lieutenant Tomerand. Since you seem to show the most promise and have taken full responsibility for your actions, I am making you my second. You may take your place, number two."
Tomerand stood proud. He knew that words meant little to his commander, so he simply kept his thoughts to himself and took his new station on the bridge with nothing more than an "Aye, Sir!"
A moment passed as the man looked over the schematics in thought. Tomerand wondered what was going through his mind, but before he could announce his curiosity, an action that might have cost him much more than his new post anyways, the man pointed a finger back at him.
"Order the raiders to attack," he said simply.
Without delay, Tomerand punched a few commands.
"It is done."
"Time to see what the Federation's new face yields…"
Ranma pulled the glass of warm milk from the replicator and quickly downed it with satisfaction. He made his way over to his bed and sat on it hard, thoroughly exhausted. In his mind, he went back to the training he had been going through with Goku. It had been hard, to say the least. Mind you, the easiest part of it all was learning to fly…
"Now, Captain. I want you to sit cross-legged here." As Goku instructed Ranma, he followed his own instructions as well. He sat cross-legged across from Ranma.
"Every living thing has energy inside them. The first thing you have to do before I can teach you to fly is learn how to control that energy instead of just focusing and releasing it."
That said, Goku brought his hands together in a wide open cup in front of himself. He closed his eyes and continued to speak.
"Search for the energy deep inside yourself, almost a slight pulling feeling… I assume you already know how to do that."
Ranma followed suit and closed his eyes, and a moment passed between the two in silence.
"I found it," he breathed, opening his eyes and focusing on the feeling to keep it there. Goku opened his eyes as well.
"Excellent! Then just bring it out." As he said the last words, a light began to glow in the center of the hand cup Goku had made. It radiated bright, and Ranma was almost too fascinated with it, nearly losing the tugging feeling. He'd seen Ki energy released in large volumes before, but he'd never seen anyone literally holding a palm-full of their life energy out in front of them. He quickly steadied his mind and focused on bringing the pull out of his body. He watched in awe as a light began to surge in his palms, and was soon glowing bright, though nowhere near as bright as Goku's was.
"…Amazing," Goku was astonished. "You learn so fast…"
"So this… tiny shiny ball… is gonna help me fly?" Ranma said carefully. Goku chuckled.
"Yeah. Now that you know not only how to direct your energy outside of your body, but also take total control over it, it's as simple as placing the energy under yourself and using it to propel you."
"I see," Ranma mused, hardly able to contain his enthusiasm at continuing.
As Ranma came back to himself, he sighed with content. He giggled internally as he remembered flying around the holodeck as if he had always done it. Before he could continue his train of thought, however, he looked down and realized that he was floating a couple of inches off his bed.
"Heh… cool!" Ranma chuckled. His joy was short lived, however, as the ship rocked violently, and Ranma could hear the sounds of an explosion. The lights in his quarters shorted out for a brief second before coming back on.
Akane sat up groggily. "What… What's going on?"
Ranma was on his feet the moment the ship was hit. Short seconds flew by when another impact occurred. This must have been right beside Ranma's quarters as the ceiling exploded.
Directly above Akane.
"AKANE!!" He hollered as a large fragment of bulkhead plummeted towards her. Ranma was beside the stretch chair in an instant with outstretched arms, holding the piece of bulkhead up by his palms.
Damn! When did I get THAT fast?!
"Shit!" Akane breathed, realizing suddenly that she had come a mere second away from her death. She looked at Ranma with awe. His upper muscles were strained outward, and he was grunting hard to hold up a piece of the roof that she guessed must have weighed well over two tons!
"A-kane, m-move!"
It only took her a moment to understand the pain he was in, but before she could move, the roof piece he was holding sparked with an electrical short, sending glowing embers onto her uniform. She gave a cry and quickly bolted to the other side of the room, ripping the uniform off just as it began to burn. She stomped it out in a hurry. Ranma breathed out slowly as he lowered the bulkhead piece as close to the floor as he could before flipping it off his hands to come crashing down on the chair, crushing it under it's weight.
Ranma breathed hard as he stood back up.
"Bridge, Status!" He nearly hollered.
"We're under attack by Orion Raiders," Matt Hummer's voice sounded over the com. "They caught us a bit off guard, but shields are in place and holding. I've ordered evasive maneuvers to the helmsman until you get up here!"
"Understood." Ranma replied quickly. He looked over to Akane, keeping his eyes on hers as he quickly noticed she was shirtless. "Are you OK?"
Akane was still a little shook up, but she nodded. "I should be."
"Listen, I have ta get to the bridge. You can replicate yourself a new uniform here, then get ta sickbay! All hands, red alert! Senior officers report ta the bridge!"
As Ranma finished his sentence, he dashed out the door, grabbing his tunic from the chair as he left. Akane went straight for the replicator to request a new uniform shirt and tunic.
Ryouga staggered in the corridor as the explosions hit. He bounced off the wall a time or two before regaining his footing.
"We're under attack…" he mused. They must have raised shields, the explosions are subdued now!
He looked around the corridor, realizing something that always happened to him had just happened again. His face slowly melted into panic as he looked from doorway to doorway.
"Where am I now!??" He shouted in frustration. Then Ranma's voice came over the com system. "All hands, red alert! Senior officers report ta the bridge!" Almost on cue, the doorway closest to Ryouga opened, and to his surprise, a shirtless Ranma came running out, slapping a com badge to his uniform pants, a scrunched up tunic in his other hand.
"Ranma?" Ryouga was a little confused. Ranma turned to look at him.
"What, Ryouga?" Ryouga turned his head slowly to look inside Ranma's quarters. A stunned expression settled on his face as he saw Akane pulling a new uniform top over her obviously naked upper torso. He shook his head from side to side before his expression gave way to anger and he grit his teeth.
"RANMA!!!" He hollered, intent on throwing himself at his captain and beating the life out of him. Akane heard Ryouga's voice and turned to see him leap at Ranma.
"Ryouga, you stupid!" Ranma shot back, dodging the lieutenant commander's punches like they were child's play. "We're under attack by Orion Raiders! I realize you wanna beat the shit out of me but CAN'T IT WAIT?"
Ryouga stopped his assault, yielding to Ranma's logic.
"You're right," Ryouga was breathing hard. When did Ranma get so good!?
Ranma took a second to straighten out before shooting an annoyed look at Ryouga. "Of course I am. Now let's go."
Ryouga kept looking back and forth between Ranma and Ranma's quarters.
"Y.. Bu… I… Ranma, wait up!!" His captain had already taken off in the direction of the turbolift. At least if Ryouga followed him, he wouldn't get lost.
The deck under Lieutenant Nick Chesterton shuddered a little again.
"Maintain evasive maneuvers, Mr. Hummer," He instructed. A simple "Aye, sir" came from the helm station where Ensign Matt Hummer was seated. The turbolift doors on the left side of the bridge opened to reveal Ranma and Ryouga, who both made beeline's for their posts. Ryouga relieved Ensign Hummer and quickly took his seat. Ranma stepped over to the command chair and looked to Lt. Chesterton quickly.
"Report." Ranma quickly threw on his tunic as Nick answered him.
"Enemy attacks aren't having any real effect on our shields, Captain. I figured it best to just avoid them until you got up here."
"Thank you." Ranma said plainly, not taking his eyes off the viewscreen as Nick got out of his chair and he sat down.
"What's our current pattern, Ryouga?"
"Helm is locked on evasive pattern Riker Omega."
"Good. Run the Riker series 'til we know where we stand."
"No problem!" Ryouga cheered. What the hell's a Riker Series? …Aah, I'll just do cool barrel rolls and stuff!
The turbolift doors on the right side of the bridge opened, and Mousse, Goku, Dana and Shampoo poured out, heading for their posts.
"Tactical analysis, Mousse." Ranma instructed. "Commander Jorgensen, just keep the shields cyclin' for now. Shampoo, reinforce structural integrity. Those first couple of shots blew some deck plates loose between decks seven an' eight."
Three 'Aye, sir's in a row floated Ranma's way, and he continued to face the viewscreen, waiting for Mousse's tactical analysis. He watched as one raider passed and fired green phaser shots at them. The Wildstar bucked lightly underneath him, but he could feel the natural reactions happening such as the inertial dampeners kicking in and the shield generators hum as they absorbed the phaser fire with ease.
"Four raiders, Captain," Mousse spoke up. "All of them Jar'bin class and armed to the teeth for Orions. Their current attack pattern poses no threat to us, nor do their weapons." Mousse looked up from his console with confusion. "Less annoying than mosquitos, really…"
Goku turned in his seat to face Ranma. "This doesn't make any sense, Captain. I know that we are to expect Romulan involvement, but sending four Jar'bin class raiders to attack us is suicide on their part. It will gain them nothing."
Ranma leaned forward a little.
"What will it gain them…" he mused to himself. He thought hard, trying to remember everything that Vegeta had told him about the ship's systems. Every weakness or soft spot or sensitive area… wait, that was it!
"Tactical information!" Ranma crowed.
Mousse looked at Ranma with confusion. "I… I just gave it to you."
Ranma shook his head in mild annoyance. "No, no, Mousse, I didn't mean you, I meant them!"
Shampoo was equally as confused, and was regarding Ranma like a three year old Bolian holding a plasma torch. "Shampoo no understand either."
"They're pea shootin' us up so we fire back and they get to find out what our tactical capabilities are 'cause their sensors can't penetrate the shieldin' around our sensitive areas!!" Ranma nearly hollered in explanation. Mousse and Shampoo slapped their foreheads. Goku 'Ahhh'ed in understanding. Ryouga just turned slowly to face the rest of them with a look plastered across his face that seemed to say 'you were all born yesterday, weren't you?!'
"I knew what he meant." Ryouga winced and turned back to his station as three separate voices sternly replied with a "Shaddup!"
Mousse just shrugged. "Well, shall we give 'em what they want? Please? Huh? Can I shoot something now? Huh? Please? Please?"
Ranma sighed with a laugh as he turned to Mousse. "Okay, Mousse. But only the abridged version, got it? Don't use full power."
"HAHAH!!" Mousse laughed as he went to work pressing buttons. He'd wanted to do this ever since he'd heard the weapons compliment in the briefing room!
On the viewscreen, green phaser light was responded to with the bright blue power of the type seven phaser banks' replies, and the twinkle of several quantum torpedoes. Before them, the first raider blew apart rather effortlessly. As the debris floated in different directions, Ranma found himself turning his head to the side slightly. The debris field appeared to be… rotating clockwise!
"Hey, Mr. P! Keep it level, will ya?" Ranma shot out to his helmsman. "I mean, I know there's no up or down in space and all that, but do ya have ta do barrel rolls?"
Ryouga turned to face him. "I'm trying, dammit!" Then he turned back front. "This isn't as easy as it looks, ya know."
Ranma sighed with a bit of a smile as the ship 'leveled' and took off after the second raider. The screen wavered to and fro as Ryouga struggled to match the raider's trajectory.
"Shit…" Ryouga cursed as he fought. "Rrrgh! Screw this! Computer, access manual steering column!"
The computer chirped, and his panel opened as a joystick rose from it. He pressed the appropriate keys to transfer the controls and wrapped his hand around it.
"Ahhh," he sighed. "Much easier!"
Ranma laughed out loud. "Must be all the video gaming eh, P-chan?"
Ryouga turned quickly in his seat.
"Don't call me that!!"
"Watch it!" Ranma sat straight up and pointed at the screen. Ryouga had bumped the joystick the wrong way and veered them almost directly into the side of the raider.
"Oops!" Ryouga clumsily regained control and eventually put them back on the Orion's tail.
"Keep 'er there, Ryouga!" Mousse hollered happily across the bridge as he went to work. A second barrage leapt forth on the viewscreen, and the second raider went up in flames.
It was about this time that the ship rocked hard and fast, blowing out a few control circuits. Ranma was on his feet in an instant.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!??" he hollered.
"TRICOBALT TORPEDO!" Mousse yelled over the hiss of a ruptured coolant line. Within seconds, Shampoo had the line redirected and the hissing stopped.
"Tricobalt torpedo!?" Ranma was dumbfounded. The Orions had never fooled around with tricobalt technology before! The last report had their most advanced weaponry listed as a low yield quantum torpedo.
"We don't wanna get hit with too many of those puppies!" Dana called out from the back of the bridge. "That blew out a couple more control circuits around the ship!"
"Shields holding at 88." Mousse informed Ranma.
"Minor damage to structural integrity!" Shampoo reported.
Another explosion rocked the ship. A side station exploded, sending the crewman at it flying back out of his seat. He slumped to the ground, obviously unconscious.
"Bridge to Sickbay! Medical emergency!" Goku called out, rushing to the crewman's side to check for a pulse.
"They're on their way, Commander!" Akane's reply came.
"Shields at 76!" Mousse called out.
"Minor damage to inertial dampeners, Captain!" Dana spoke up. "Nothin we can't handle yet!"
"Structural integrity holding." Shampoo seemed to be calming down a little.
Ranma shook his head and looked to his first officer. "We have ta assume that, if their weapons have improved, so have their shields an' defensive systems…"
Goku stared at Ranma for a quick second before following his train of thought and leaving the crewman's side, heading for his chair.
"Ryouga, get us back on their tails! Mousse!" He hollered as he sat down. "Read 'em the riot act!"
An evil grin split Mousse's face.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH!!!!"
Ryouga had them chasing after the third raider with intense difficulty. It seemed their maneuverability had also increased dramatically, but it still wasn't anything the Wildstar couldn't handle. However, Ryouga's singular talent for not knowing north from subway meant that it took them almost five minutes to find the next raider. Pleased with himself to no end, Ryouga smiled and called back to Mousse.
"They're all yours, Mousse!"
Further evil cackling came from the tactical station, and within seconds an assault nothing like the last two came pouring out of the Wildstar. Photon torpedos mixed with quantum torpedos reigned in succession with the blue glow of type 7 phasers and the red glow of type six phasers. A sound of awe went up from most of the bridge crew, and each well aimed weapon smashed into its target at full power.
The raider, however, was still there at the end of it.
"Shampoo, report!" Ranma spun to look at the Amazon. After a quick second, she looked back at him.
"Their shields almost gone, they no have any more power to weapons."
"Mousse!" Goku signaled.
"Aye, aye!" Another smaller barrage was thrown at the raider, and it glowed for a brief second before exploding madly. A shock wave swept over the Wildstar, causing her to yaw heavily.
On the bridge, a few panels were spitting sparks, but there was minimal damage all round.
"Analysis, Shampoo!" Ranma looked to her again.
"That prove it!" Shampoo nearly crowed. "That explosion caused by breach of Romulan style warp core! Orions must have waited to activate them until combined with new weapons!"
The turbolift doors opened, and McCoy ran onto the bridge, followed closely by another medical officer. He moved to the side of the fallen crewman and went to work.
Ranma slapped the arm of his chair with satisfaction.
"That proves the Romulans're involved!" he crowed.
"Not quite." Ryouga looked back from the helm. "That just proves that they managed to get hold of a Romulan warp core. It doesn't necessarily mean the Romulans gave it to them!"
Ranma stopped short for a second. My God, he's right! "Shit!"
"Nice try though," Ryouga finished.
McCoy turned to Ranma. "We've stabilized him, Captain. We can't move him around much, though, so we'll be beaming down to sickbay from here."
Ranma nodded, and seconds later, the doctors and the crewman vanished in a transporter flurry that quickly faded away to nothing.
"Captain," Dana turned to face him. "We've repaired the damaged control circuits that were toasted when the Orions first attacked us with our shields down. Things should be returning to normal in about two seconds here."
Ranma was a bit confused. Returning to normal? What did she mean by –
"Captain," Mousse looked stunned. "Shields are back up to full power and are holding!"
"Ranma," Now it was Shampoo's turn. "Structural integrity returning to normal!"
Ranma couldn't believe his ears, and he turned slowly to face commander Jorgensen.
"This is normal…? They've been takin' chunks out of us!"
Dana grinned. "Oh, don't give 'em too much credit, Captain. They just got lucky when they shot at us with our shields down. Those were major control circuits they blew out!"
Ranma was amazed. All the damage they had been taking on had been because of faulty shielding from damage sustained in the first two volleys of the battle. Volleys that he hadn't even been on the bridge for!
"Fu!" Ranma spat as he turned to Mousse. "Figures. Well, may as well finish what they started, Mousse."
Mousse grinned again. "With pleasure, Captain! Ryouga, find me somethin to shoot at!"
Ryouga chuckled and turned back to his console. "Piece of cake, dude!"
The reality of the situation, however, was that they would have had to travel all the way to Tibet for their cake! The Wildstar turned this way and that, and just when Ranma thought Ryouga had no idea which way was up, the last raider slid into view from the right side of the viewscreen.
"Commander," Ranma gestured to Goku, who gave a quick nod.
"End it, Mousse." He ordered.
Mousse's hands flew over his console again, and once more, a plethora of shots flew at the raider. It took on heavy damage, and one of the weapons ports exploded, taking half the raider's starboard wing with it.
"And to top it all off…" Mousse hit buttons now like he was composing a song, giving the last one a quick flick and snapping his fingers as he pulled back. The Wildstar gave a little buck as a very bright yellow ball shot towards the raider and blew it sky high.
Several 'Wow's lifted into the air on the bridge, but Mousse stood tall with his hands behind his back and the most adorable smile on his face.
"Right back atcha!" He finished.
Ranma looked over at Mousse. "Heh?"
"Tricobalt torpedo, sir." Mousse explained.
A couple of seconds floated by in silence, but soon everyone on the bridge began to chuckle. Their chuckles grew into laughter, which gradually petered out as Ranma turned his chair around to face Mousse.
"You certainly know how ta clean house, don't ya?" Ranma was still a little giggly. Mousse just held on to his chuckling in reply. He was interrupted, however, when his console beeped at him. He frowned down at it.
"What is it, Mousse?"
On the viewscreen behind Ranma, space began to waver. Ryouga just watched the shape form as his eyes went wide, his pupils shrank and he let his jaw fall a bit.
"…Big…"
"…ROMULAN WARBIRD, CAPTAIN!!!" Mousse barked suddenly. Ranma whipped around to face the viewscreen in surprise.
"K Kalax class!" Shampoo complimented Mousse's report as Ranma hopped out of his chair and jogged the couple of steps to the front of Shampoo's console. "They really bring out big guns now, Ranma!"
"What's a K Kalax?" Ranma turned to Goku. "I'm a little behind in Romulan warbird development."
Goku just looked at Ranma seriously. "One big bad mother of a ship!"
"How bad?" Ranma looked up at Shampoo again.
"Shield output estimated 330,000 terraquad. Lots of quantum torpedo on board, type six disruptor banks all over ship!"
"Very bad!" Ranma acknowledged. He quickly returned to his chair. "Well, number one, here we go again. Slow ta thrusters, Ryouga. Prepare evasive maneuvers."
As the helm responded, everyone faced the viewscreen in silence, waiting for something to happen. The minutes ticked by in total silence, save for the occasional instrument beep and the faint yet flighty sound of the alert panel under the viewscreen chirping. Ryouga shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"Mousse?" Ranma almost whispered.
"Their shields are up, captain. They're armed to the teeth and ready. I don't know why they aren't doing anything…"
Ranma slowly stepped up behind Ryouga. Goku stood as well and came up beside his captain.
"All stop, Mr. Hibiki," Ranma said slowly.
Ryouga did as he was told without a word. Ranma only used last names when he meant business, unless you didn't have a last name. The Wildstar came to a shaky, almost hard stop, but no one really noticed. Instead, all eyes were on the unmoving Romulan Warbird on the viewscreen.
"What are they doing…" Ryouga mumbled cautiously, not wanting to jinx the lack of deadly weapon swapping.
Ranma just shook his head.
"Captain," Mousse sounded surprised.
"Yeah?" Ranma answered, still not turning away from the viewscreen.
"They're hailing us."
Ranma almost lost his footing. He took it in stride, however, and just ended up swaying back a bit.
"…Put 'em on screen." Ranma said.
The viewscreen flashed over to the inside of the Romulan vessel's bridge. A growl immediately passed through Goku's lips, and the Wildstar shuddered violently. Beside Ranma, Goku went Super Saiyan with a shout.
Ranma just stared at him. "Goku?"
Goku's eyes never left the screen. There was absolutely no mistaking that grey face… the green spotted skin and double-spiked head! Goku bared his teeth as he spat a single word through them. Ranma quickly realized that it was the creature's name.
"Cell!"
::Lets out held breath:: I think I've finally lost it! Mwahahahahahahaaaahh!!!
No, but seriously, I don't know what posessed me to throw him in here. It just seemed to fit, I guess!
Well, let me know what you thought!
MattSaotome