Well, there's a couple of die-hard Akane fans out there (two in particular that I'm thinking about), that have pointed out to me my horrible mistake in excluding Akane's discovery of Ryouga's curse. And they are SO right!
So, I haven't changed much about this chapter from it's original posting, but some of it is re-written or added to, in order to bring to light the upcoming problems that our favorite helmsman and his... owner... are gonna be having!!
So about those two that I mentioned above... cheers, guys! This Bud's for you!
MattSaotome
Chapter 5
All Good Things…?
"You still remember me, Goku." Cell sounded oh so happy. "Of course, how could I forget you in return?"
"Still?!" Goku nearly spat. "You tried to kill my friends! You tried to destroy earth! How could I ever forget your face, you monster!"
Cell looked offended. "Such harsh words!" His hurt was obviously sarcastic.
Ranma was thoroughly confused now. He watched the exchange between this… man bug and his first officer without a clue. Ryouga was sitting uncomfortably at his station. He tried so hard to keep himself focused on his duties. At first, he'd thought they were going to engage in immediate combat, but now that it was obvious this guy just wanted to taunt them a bit, it was hard to keep his thoughts from drifting back to about twenty minutes earlier.
"What's goin' on, Number One?" Ranma asked, not taking his eyes off this 'Cell' character.
"This man is evil, Captain." Goku held nothing back from the image on the screen. "A few years back he launched a one man assault on earth and nearly took the planet out! Not before trying to humiliate and murder my closest friends and family, however!"
Ranma stood in silence. He knew in the back of his mind that the best man to deal with this new face was Goku. They obviously had past history, and Goku's personal experiences with Cell more than likely meant he knew what to expect from him.
"…The floor's all yours, Commander." Ranma said.
Ryouga was in another place entirely. He could see it all again as if he were still outside Ranma's quarters looking in. Akane, topless, slowly pulling her clothing down over her upper body. He remembered how she'd put the tunic on, looking exhausted from… God, he didn't even want to think what from! He remembered how she'd began to fix her hair as quickly yet carefully as possible.
"Thank you, Ranma." Goku replied. "What is it you want, Cell? Why are you here?"
"I'm not so sure I want to tell you that." Cell grinned. "But if you'd care to speculate, I'm listening!"
Goku growled again, and the Wildstar shuddered a little once more. "I'm not playing your mind games today, Cell!" Goku hollered at the viewscreen. "I want answers from you, not riddles and insults!"
"Ha hah!" Cell laughed. "Answers? Answers to what? Would you like to know if I'm involved in the Orion's little game with your Chief of Staff? Or are you more curious as to whether or not they acquired their new technology from me? You should already know that the Romulan senate would never be involved with such petty weaklings!"
Ryouga snarled in impatience. He'd completely lost focus on what was happening in the real world around him, and as he came to, he slapped a button on his console that closed the transmission, cutting Cell off in the middle of his evil laughter.
"But now I AM the senate! HAH HAHAAHHAA-"
Ryouga swung round in his chair to face Ranma.
"Ranma! We have to talk about this!!"
He stopped short at the look on Ranma's face. He was staring at Ryouga as if the helmsman had just committed murder right before his eyes. Taking a second to look around the room, Ryouga realized that EVERYONE was staring at him like that!
"…What…?" He asked in a small voice.
Ranma forced his words out as carefully as he could.
"You… do realize… you just… Hung Up… on possibly THE… Baddest… Bastard… In The Whole GALAXY!??? HOW DO YA THINK HE'S GONNA TAKE IT!???"
Ryouga shrank back under Ranma's words, just looking down at the deck plating in silence.
On the Warbird, Cell was still rambling on to a now blank viewscreen that he wasn't even looking at.
"I know that it's hard to come across beings of my level of genius in this galaxy, but what can I say?" Cell shrugged. "I am a product of the greatest criminal mind in existence, the late Dr. Gero! His dream of galactic domination shall be realized through ME, as I take my rightful place as the ruler of this whole pitiful galaxy!! AAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHH!!!!!"
"Umm… sir?" Tomerand sounded a little sheepish now.
"TOMERAND!" Cell shot to him. "Don't interrupt me when I'm praising myself in front of these inadequate fools!"
"B-but sir, the screen is blank. They… hung up on you…"
Cell stopped in his tracks and twisted his head slowly to face the viewscreen. It was black, as Tomerand said. He snarled deep, and the Warbird rumbled under his feet.
"They… hung… Up… On… ME??????? HOW RUDE!!!" He hollered. With no warning whatsoever, Cell threw his arm out in Tomerand's direction. His new number two screamed as his body was ripped to pieces by Cell's thoughts. A few agonizing seconds later, what was left of him fell to the deck, gave a little twitch, and died.
"NO ONE HANGS UP ON MEEEE!!!!!!" Cell was still hollering. "NAMELESS IDIOT!" He pointed to the person that ran up to take Tomerand's post.
"Y-y-yes, sir?" the new officer stammered.
"SHOW THEM WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY HANG UP ON ME!!"
"A-aye, sir!"
The turbolift doors to the right of the bridge swooshed open, and Akane came out onto the bridge. She stood beside Ranma's chair and looked around at all the faces pointed in a single direction. She followed their lines of sight, and laid her eyes on Ryouga.
What had he done? Why was everyone staring at him?
"Captain!" Mousse spoke up. "Some activity from the Warbird now!"
On the viewscreen, Cell's ship moved away, then swooped around and began to fire on the Wildstar.
"SHIT!!" Ranma hollered, just before the first volley hit. The ship rocked hard, and the only person who wasn't braced for it hit the deck hard, slamming her arm into the side of the step going up to the tactical station. She cried out.
"AKANE!" Two voices chorused.
Ryouga leapt from the helm station at full speed, but came to a sudden halt when he felt his knee impact against something. He looked down quickly, and his eyes doubled in size at the sight of the destroyed Manual Steering Column.
"Medical team to the bridge!" Ranma called out as the Wildstar began doing barrel rolls in odd loop de loop combinations. Ryouga swore under his breath and began trying to put the pieces of the manual steering column back together.
"Mousse!" Shampoo called out. "Shoot back, Mousse!!"
Mousse was hitting buttons frantically, not a good thing to be doing on a ship of war! Torpedos and phasers shot out in every direction but the right one, and Mousse finally gave up and slapped his console.
"It's no good, Shampoo My Love!" He replied. "I can't get any kind of a lock while we're doing barrel rolls and stuff!"
Shampoo snarled loud. She reached beside her console and grabbed her phaser, shooting Mousse with a heavy stun setting. "SHAMPOO NOT YOUR LOVE!!!" She retorted. Mousse collapsed to the deck, unconscious, just as Dr. McCoy ran onto the bridge.
Alarms began to blare everywhere in response to the unauthorized phaser blast on the bridge, and the fire suppression systems activated. Sprinklers threw water all across the room, soaking everything and everyone it hit. McCoy reached Akane's side and inspected her arm.
"I'm OK!" Akane said quickly. "I only broke a nail. It just surprised me a little, is all!"
True to their curses, Mousse, Shampoo, Ranma and Ryouga all began to change.
On the viewscreen before him, Cell watched in confusion as the Wildstar did some crazy flips and twists in space. He hadn't hit them that hard… had he?
"Nameless idiot," he recited. "How hard did we hit them?"
"Just an angry punch on our part, really, sir…" the officer replied. His fear of Cell had given way to his bewilderment at the sight before him.
"Hmm…" Cell thought to himself. "How strange…"
"No no no no NOO!!!" Ryouga screamed, still trying to repair the column he had broken. Soon, he was a little black piglet in his seat, trying hard to keep two halves of a joystick together long enough to insert them back into… SHIT! He had forgotten to reassemble the base! Goku saw the trouble he was having and quickly ran over to the piglet's side.
"Here, Ryouga. Let me help! What can I do?"
"WHEEEE!!!" Came the outraged reply. He felt a strange burning at the back of his neck, and took only a small second to think about it before it was quickly dismissed. If little P-chan had turned around at that exact moment, he would have seen Akane's wide eyes boring into the back of his head!
Shampoo, now a Persian cat, meowed loudly from her console. Mousse flapped his wings hard and landed on the top of his control station with a quack. Ranma just stood in the middle of it all with her eyes half shut. She hadn't been quick enough, and her pants lay down around her ankles. Her top tunic was barely long enough to cover the more sensitive areas as she turned her head slowly to look at Akane.
"A nail…?" she looked extremely not impressed!
McCoy looked around in shock, seeing a cat, a duck, a woman and a piglet where four officers used to be. He couldn't wrap his head around it at first, but then came to one inescapable conclusion.
They're all changelings! He thought to himself. Sure, the dominion threat had ended, but perhaps this was some new insurgency on their part. He had to bust them while he could! He reached slowly and carefully into his med kit to find something sharp…
The turbolift opened again, and four security officers poured onto the bridge.
"Who Fired The Pha-"
"QUACK!" Mousse-duck said, flapping his wings hard.
"MEOW!!" Shampoo-cat cried, trying to hide under her chair from the sprinklers.
"WHHEEEEEE!!!!!" P-Chan complained, still trying to hold together a control box with his nose and insert the joystick with his arms.
"Aw, swell…" Ranma sighed, turning to face the flabbergasted security personnel.
From her station at the back of the bridge, Dana was laughing her ass off harder than she ever had in her life!
The opposite turbolift opened, and Vegeta ran out onto the bridge. He screeched to a halt at the pandemonium before him, an expression of shock on his face. Security guards were unmoving by the first lift, still too confused to know left from right. There was a duck at the tactical station that Vegeta assumed was Mousse as it turned to him and quacked frantically with many a flap of its wings. A cat hiding under the chair at the Ops console must have been Commander Shampoo, judging by its hair color and whiney attitude! Akane was on the floor in front of Mousse's console with a broken nail, Doctor McCoy was holding a sharp surgical knife inches from Ranma's arm, who was now a girl with no pants on, and there was a little black piglet with a bandana that could only belong to Ryouga trying desperately to fix a mutilated manual steering column with the help of a Super Saiyan!!
"…WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!????" He hollered. Everyone came to a complete stop and turned to face him. Vegeta blinked for a moment before turning to the security officers.
"Get off the bridge!" He yelled. The security men jumped back in the turbolift like there was no tomorrow and were quickly gone.
"McCoy!!" He hollered next. "They're not founders, you fool, they're cursed!!! The woman on whose arm you're about to perform surgery IS Captain Saotome!!"
McCoy shrunk back a bit. "…Oh…" He quickly hid the knife behind his back and stepped away from Ranma carefully to put the instrument back in his med kit.
"Computer, shut off these damned suppression systems!!" Vegeta yelled. There was a chirp, and the sprinklers shut down, leaving everything very, very wet!
"Disable manual steering controls and set course for Orion prime, warp 14." he continued to instruct the computer. "When we're out of the Warbird's sensor range, engage the cloak."
The computer let out a series of chirps again. On the viewscreen, the star field came to a halt, just before flying past the ship with increasing speed as the Wildstar jumped to warp.
Vegeta went to the nearest replicator and spoke into it. "One jug of hot water." He instructed.
"Specify temperature." The computer replied.
"HOT!!! DAMMIT!!! WHY IS EVERYTHING A DEBATE WITH YOU STUPID ELECTRONIC GADGETS!??? JUST GIVE ME HOT WATER!!!"
The replicator beeped again, and a jug of steaming water appeared. Vegeta went around individually. He came to Mousse-duck and poured the water on him first. As Mousse sprouted up into his old self, Vegeta doused Shampoo-cat next. He walked past Ranma to the piglet and let him have it as well, then stepped up to Ranma.
"What a team of misfits you all are," he chuckled, then threw the remainder of the water at Ranma, who quickly picked her pants up as she began to change back.
Moments passed by quickly, and before long, most of the water had been cleaned from the bridge by low yield AUTHORIZED phaser fire. As Ranma gave off the last few shots, he turned to face Vegeta.
"So what brought ya up here, anyways, Commander?" He asked.
"Oh, you know," Vegeta replied sarcastically. "Spinning star fields, phaser alarms and scrambling security. The usual."
Ranma looked at him with a 'very funny' expression. "Oh, har, har, Vegeta!"
"Commander Jorgensen signaled me." He chuckled.
"Ah," came the reply.
Finally, Ranma turned to face the front of the bridge where both Shampoo and Ryouga were now standing. Akane had already recovered herself off the floor and was now over talking with Dana at the back of the bridge.
Ranma scowled a little as he stepped towards Ryouga and Shampoo.
"Lt. Commander Hibiki. Commander Shampoo. The two of you displayed reprehensible behavior today. I dunno where ya get off cutting off communications without authorization, and I dunno why you would be close enough to a manual steering column ta destroy it when ya stand up, Ryouga. Needless to say that I'm not very fuckin' impressed."
Shampoo was smiling a little at the fact that Ryouga was getting in shit. Ranma saw this out of the corner of his eye and flicked his head to face Shampoo.
"Somethin' funny, Commander? Or did ya forget that ya pulled out a phaser and FIRED IT ON A FELLOW OFFICER! Without authorization, ta boot!!!"
Shampoo lost her smile immediately and shrunk down, folding her hands together in front of her.
"You both… ya just make me so… so… RRRRR!!!!!!!!"
He turned away from them for a quick second before coming to a conclusion and whipping back around.
"You're both confined ta quarters 'til we reach Orion prime. Now get the fuck off the bridge!"
The two slowly and somberly walked away, heading for separate turbolifts. Shampoo left the bridge first, but Ryouga steeled his courage and stepped over to Akane before he left. Ranma took a second to watch at the front of the bridge, wondering if Akane had even noticed when Ryouga changed right in front of her. Suddenly, Ryouga's talking was interrupted with the loudest open-hand slap he had EVER heard ring out across ANY room! Akane hadn't even hit HIM that hard EVER! Ryouga turned his eyes away from Akane's and slowly but surely left the bridge, a bright red hand print throbbing on his cheek. As he left the bridge, Ranma stepped back to his chair and sloughed down in it with exhaustion. All he had wanted was sleep. All he had needed was some time to relax. The only thing that would make him feel any better now was…
"Number one," he looked over at Goku with pleading eyes. "Could you please, please bring me a cup of tea…"
Cell watched the viewscreen with mild confusion barely apparent on his features. He couldn't put together in his head what had just happened. They fired off a volley that did minimal damage, yet for some reason the Wildstar displayed a loss of attitude control and inertial stabilization. Then, it suddenly righted itself, and took off at a speed that his computer had deemed impossible to achieve.
"I don't like not knowing things…" Cell growled to himself. Behind him, one of the bridge entrances opened. He could hear hard and confident footsteps walking onto the bridge.
"I see something is bothering you, My Lord." A voice said. "Shall I come back another time?"
The man behind Cell began to turn for the exit.
"Wait," Cell instructed. The footsteps stopped. "You would not have beamed over from your ship for nothing, so you may as well tell me what you came to say."
The footsteps began again, coming up behind Cell now.
"Very well." His voice had always been strong, and maybe that was why Cell respected this man enough not to kill him if he aggravated him.
"The Wildstar is en route to Orion Prime as we speak. We plotted her heading about two minutes ago. I was going to suggest that we use the portals to reach the planet before they do."
Cell nodded with a grunt of agreement as he turned to face the man.
"Always out to impress, aren't you!" Cell approved. The portals were stolen technology from their closest neighbors… when they still existed! Once Cell had risen to power in the Romulan Senate, he overthrew their 'friends', the Ardinas. He took from them the only useful piece of technology they had ever invented; the stable subspace 'Waverider' portals.
Not three feet in front of him, Captain Tomolak smiled that same devious smile he always did.
"You have no idea!"
Akane rubbed her temples in her sickbay office. She'd left the bridge well over two hours ago now. Unable to get back to sleep, as the case was with the entire day shift, she had come down to sickbay to go over some reports from the day before.
"Day before," she mused with spite. "Hah! Until I get six hours of sleep under my belt it's still yesterday!"
McCoy knocked on the glass.
"Wanna join in the midnight moping?" Akane asked, looking up at him slowly.
"Actually," McCoy said. "I have a question… or some questions… well, just one really, but… kinda about more than one person…?" He sounded totally lost and confused.
Akane sighed heavily, kicking the chair on the other side of her desk out a bit as she reached for her Rachtagino.
"Have a seat!" She sounded non-enthused. "I assume you wanna know why we have the only captain in all of Starfleet who's both a man and a woman, right?"
"Yeah!" McCoy looked way to cheerful for five in the morning! "I mean, that and the Duck chief of security, the Cat chief of operations and the funny little black piglet with a bandana running the helm…"
Akane took a very big gulp of her coffee, glaring hard at McCoy for his last statement before quickly averting her eyes. It wasn't the doctor's fault, after all. He didn't need to hear about her life's story, even if it DID involve a little black piglet that she had just today found out was their helmsman all that time! No, she would get her revenge against the lost boy herself, at a more opportune time! As if a simple slap could make up for all the years he'd been in her b-be…be… she shook her head quickly. It was just too disgusting to think about!
"Well, it's like Commander Vegeta said. They're all cursed. See, on earth, there's a training ground in China that has a whole bunch of springs. Well, long story short, something drowned in each one of them, and now whoever falls into a spring turns into the animal that drowned in it whenever they get hit with cold water. Only hot water turns them back."
McCoy followed with a furrowed brow and a very estranged look on his face.
"Soooo…." He trailed off. "Lemme get this straight. Lt. Commander Ryouga fell into a stream where a little black piglet drowned, Lt. Commander Mousse fell into a duck spring, and Commander Shampoo fell into a Cat spring?"
Akane nodded, "And Captain Saotome fell into a spring of drowned girl."
McCoy looked off to the side with eyes that were miles away. "Yeah, but a damned hot girl, for sure!"
He turned back to face Akane and nearly dropped his jaw. A grin slowly and slyly spread across his face as he realized something. Akane was staring at him with eyes that could drill a hole in solid Uranium!
"Oh!! Oh, oh, oh, OHH!!!! HAHAH!!! You LIKE Captain Saotome!!!"
Akane immediately went on the defensive. "What!?? I do not!"
"Don't even try to hide it! I've seen that look on too many women to not know what it means! I said I thought that Captain Saotome in girl form was Major Hot…" he emphasized his last two words, and then pointed at Akane with wild eyes as she repeated the glare.
"AND YOU DID THAT!!! I KNEW IT!!!"
Akane stared at McCoy with those eyes again as she took another huge gulp of her coffee.
"Shut up!" She muttered.
The Wildstar flew gracefully under cloak in the direction of Orion Prime. On the bridge, Ranma paced back and forth in front of his chair. He'd been doing it for the last two hours, as well as something else that had been majorly pissing off his helmsman.
"Are we there yet?" Ranma muttered.
At the helm, Ensign Hummer sighed heavily. "Not yet, sir. Two more hours."
"Dammit." Ranma knew they had to get there before Cell did, since Cell was flying the only other big bad Romulan… thing he'd ever seen in existence.
Vegeta came onto the bridge with speed. He made a beeline to Ranma and Goku and simply nodded in the direction of the briefing room exit beside the tactical station. Goku stood and they all walked off the bridge.
Mr. Hummer slumped back in his chair with a deep breath. "Thank God!"
As the briefing room doors opened before them, Ranma had one thing and one thing only sitting at the front of his mind. He hadn't been able to sway the thought that Section 31 was behind everything that was happening, and he had become bound and determined to prove it.
"But how…" Ranma mused out loud as he walked to the front of the conference table and took his seat. Goku sat to his right and Vegeta sat to his left. They both eyed him a little suspiciously, wondering what he was thinking about.
"How what, Ranma?" Vegeta went straight to the point, folding his hands together on the table in front of him, a mirror Saiyan across the table from him repeating his actions. Ranma was silent still for at least a handful of seconds before taking in a deep breath.
"Computer, seal the room." He said quietly. "Disable audio/visual recorders for the observation lounge for the next… thirty minutes."
The computer chirped a couple of times. "Authorization required to disable surveillance systems."
"Computer, this is Captain Ranma Saotome. I authorize the surveillance shut down. Recognize security clearance Alpha, code 1-1A."
Ranma turned to look at Goku. He said nothing as his first officer searched his complexion for any hint as to why Ranma was doing what he was doing. When he found none, he gave a small shrug.
"Computer, this is Commander Goku. I concur with the shut down. Recognize security clearance Alpha, code 1-1A-2B."
Goku turned to Vegeta. He crossed his arms as he cocked his head a little to look back. Without moving his eyes from Goku's, he spoke.
"Computer, this is Commander Vegeta. I concur with the shut down. Recognize security clearance Alpha, code 1-2A-3B."
The computer beeped a couple more times, and then replied. "Observation Lounge surveillance equipment will be disabled for thirty minutes."
"Alright, Ranma, you've peaked my curiosity." Vegeta said, coolly before gaining a grin. "Now speak up, the suspense is a killer!"
Ranma looked from Vegeta to Goku quickly, and then stared straight ahead.
"I… need ta know…" Ranma ran a hand down his face. "This conversation stays between the three of us. Unless I decide otherwise. I need to know how ta prove Section 31's involvement in this crapheap of a mission we've been sent on."
Goku flashed Ranma a look that seemed to say 'Watch that thin ice you're slamming a five ton mallet on, Captain!' Vegeta just whistled in astonishment.
"…Well, I think a good place to start is to be careful what you ask for, Ranma." Vegeta intoned.
"Listen," Ranma sighed. "I know what Section 31's policy is on themselves. It's the only rule the bastards have period! 'Section 31 does not exist, and is considered ta be a forbidden subject.' I really don't give a damn! The bastards are screwin' with my ship on her maiden voyage, and I wanna know why!!"
Goku nodded. "There's a long list of stuff pointing towards section 31. But what we don't have is evidence of any kind."
"Then let's get some." Ranma made it sound so easy.
"Where would we even begin to look?" Vegeta wasn't so easily convinced.
Ranma stopped short, going completely silent for a moment. Then, he looked back forward again, as if staring at a face at the other end of the table that wasn't even there.
"Admiral Tendo."
Both Vegeta and Goku shot their gaze towards Ranma. He was serious. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had convinced himself that Section 31 had planned this whole thing.
But this was a theory that Vegeta, at least, was more than happy to run with.
"Alright, so where do we go with that?"
Ranma leaned back in his chair now. "Let's dig up the surveillance videos of his office, as well as a list of any incomin' and outgoin' transmissions between his office and… anywhere. Go back about a month. I don't care if it's text documents or imagery. If it came to or left his office, I wanna see it."
Vegeta and Goku both grabbed pads from the table and started to work while Ranma stood and went to the viewscreen at the front of the room. Fifteen minutes passed by them slower than a turtle before someone finally broke the silence.
"I've gathered a list of all his incoming and outgoing transmissions from the last month." Goku said.
"I've finished compiling office recorder visual logs." Vegeta added.
"This is interestin', you guys." Ranma said from the viewscreen. "Over the last month, there've been over two dozen unexplainable security blackouts at Starfleet Headquarters, and at least a half dozen in the president's office at the United Federation of Planets Embassy. Not one of them goes over ten minutes before the blackout ends like nothing' was ever wrong with the recorders."
Vegeta and Goku frowned and stood, walking up to Ranma.
"That doesn't make any sense…" Goku mused.
"Not from the standpoint of system failure's it doesn't." Vegeta agreed. "But if we're looking for any sign that Section 31 may have been involved, I'd say we just found the first.
"I've got another for you." Goku grinned, surveying his pad again and comparing it against the times displayed on the viewscreen. "During each one of these blackouts, there's a transmission either coming to or going from Admiral Tendo's office, and each blackout is immediately followed by Admiral Tendo calling a major briefing of the chiefs of staff."
"More than I've got." Vegeta snarled. "The blackouts affected Admiral Tendo's office surveillance equipment as well. The only thing I have to add to the pile is that the office recorder visual logs for ten minutes after each blackout have been erased with Admiral Tendo's clearance level."
Ranma was actually starting to smile. He turned quickly and sat at his chair, quickly followed by Vegeta and Goku. "OK, here's the theory, then. Section 31 knew that Starfleet was lookin' for a way ta regain some control in the Alpha quadrant. They met with Admiral Tendo, and arranged for the CinC ta be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He gets captured, and the Wildstar is launched ta rescue him after bein' outfitted with the only registered cloaking device in the fleet. On top of it, we're armed ta the teeth. Starfleet gets their excuse, and Section 31 gets a quadrant wide war."
Goku was lost. "Why the hell would Section 31 be interested in starting a war?"
Vegeta said nothing, but his expression held the same question.
Ranma waived Goku's question off quickly. "They aren't all that interested in the war. They only set all this up ta give the federation a more powerful stance. If the war comes as a side effect of legalizin' Starfleet's use of cloaking technology, then so be it. They're only actin' ta preserve the Federation."
"You can't be approving of this, Ranma?" Vegeta looked surprised.
"Hell no!" Ranma shot back. "I'm just statin' the situation from their view point. Section 31 knew that Starfleet needed ta be rewritten, and maybe the best way ta do that is to fuel war and know, somehow, that the Federation would come out on top."
"You're saying they predict success in this war to be handed to Starfleet?"
Ranma looked a little surprised at hearing his own words so easily simplified back to him. "…I guess I am. Somehow, Section 31 knows somethin' that will turn the tides in an all out war to favor the Federation. I… have no idea what that could be, though."
Silence floated between them again. Long moments passed quietly before Vegeta sighed heavily.
"There's no use in trying to determine that now. The surveillance will be firing back up any minute. Let's just concentrate on the here and now. We have to rescue the CinC, and we're just under two hours from his probable location."
"Alright, Vegeta, what have you got?" Ranma asked quickly, almost embracing the opportunity to give his brain a break.
"All the info you'll ever want about Cell and his rise to power within the Romulan Government." Vegeta answered.
"Spill." Ranma's impatience at the situation he had been put in by his superiors was showing just a bit too much.
"He came to Romulus shortly after his failed attempt to take over earth. He found a species after his own heart. Deceitful liars with no military moral ethics. Shinzon had just been killed by Captain Picard and the Enterprise, so their government was without structure. Cell applied for a position on the senate and rose to Praetor by way of insurrection and assassination. Shortly after coming to power, he ordered the invasion of the Ardinas, and gained the Romulans the use of their subspace portal network."
"Wait," Goku stopped Vegeta. "If he has access to that network…"
Ranma's eyes grew a little. "He might make it there before we do!"
The three of them immediately jumped out of their seats and headed for the bridge. They stormed onto it with meaning, Goku and Ranma moving straight for their seats, and Vegeta going right to the engineering station.
"Helm!" Ranma's voice became powerful and worried. He looked around for a second before catching a nod from Vegeta and turning back to the viewscreen. "Increase speed ta warp 14.."
Mr. Hummer turned in his seat with a gawking expression on his face. "Sir, the engines have never been pushed past 14.5!"
Ranma looked over to Vegeta once more before turning back to the helmsman.
"You heard the order, Ensign. Warp 14.."
Mr. Hummer turned back to his console with a worried look as he cocked his head a bit. "Aye, sir."
Underneath them, the Wildstar began to shudder under the pressure of the static warp field being pushed beyond its stress-tested limit. Ranma felt the new vibrations grow, and soon the ship was shuddering hard. He turned in his chair to face the engineering console.
"Vegeta…" he said with a worried tone.
"Stand by, Captain!" Vegeta's powerful voice said that he knew exactly what he was doing, and Ranma watched as Vegeta punched in commands without even looking at his fingers, his eyes fixed on the intermix ratios.
"Helm!!" Vegeta hollered. "Route static warp field integrity through the holodeck power matrix! There's plenty of juice to spare there."
Mr. Hummer did as he was told without a word, and within seconds, the ship stabilized, the shaking disappearing entirely! A grin graced Goku's expression as he looked at Ranma. Ranma chuckled to himself, and Vegeta stood from his console and made his way to the second officer's chair to sit down.
"It's not much in the grand scheme of warp travel," Goku laughed. "But it'll get us there that much faster!"
Ranma and Vegeta nodded together.
"Now," Ranma said, leaning forward in his chair a little bit. "We need a plan of action for rescuin' the CinC. We'll enter the system under cloak and assess the situation from orbit of Orion Prime. Once we know everythin' we need to for the rescue operation, we'll hold a briefing ta decide on a plan of action."
"And Cell?" Vegeta growled.
Ranma shrugged. "We'll have ta deal with him when he arrives."
OK, as I said at the top, this is a re-post to fix some small problems (mostly centered around my accidental exclusion of Akane discovering Ryouga's curse)! Still, there's not much changed, so I don't expect you guys to re-review this chapter. Just soak up the changes so the new stuff makes sense!
MattSaotome