WWWEEEEEEE!!!!! Here I go again!! Things definitely appear to be progressing much more... Hmm... Ranma-like in this one!

MattSaotome

Chapter 2

Gaucheness

The desk before him was illuminated only by a small arm-lamp that glowed over the blueprints he was studying. Several sheets of paper scattered over the desk bore the obvious sketches of a starship layout, detailed down to the control circuit.

Steven reached for his mug of coffee and took a large gulp. Letting out a satisfied 'Ahh', he lifted one of the pieces of paper and began to survey it again.

So similar… he thought to himself. There was no mistaking where the ship in the blueprints had found its origins. For Steven, it was common knowledge. Anyone high in the ranks of Section 31 would be able to tell at only a glance. The blueprints he surveyed detailed every structural and engineering detail of the U.S.S. Wildstar.

And to think… we had no idea when we had starfleet build her that we'd be blowing her up shortly afterwards. Doesn't change the fact that it's still nice to look at. Damned similar…

But, of course, it was the similarities that had Steven worried. Since the Wildstar had been constructed using only slightly modified blueprints of… but that was why he had to find it. A weakness to exploit. Some way to slow the Wildstar down, so the Leviathan could make the kill.

Was he worried that he was still on board? Heh, not really. Extraction under fire had been done FAR too often by his people for him to worry. Of course, it helped that Phillip and Matt had been dropped off at the starbase while they were docked. No sense in risking THREE people's skins. Especially not operatives so closely knit to the security of Section 31.

He took another swig of his coffee, and picked up a different sheet of paper.

Gotta be something… Gotta be somewhere… It was a real pity, too. For what it was worth, he liked Captain Saotome. He seemed to be headstrong enough for the captaincy, which was what made him even more surprised to learn that he hadn't even served a tour as a COMMANDER on any ship, much less had any command experience.

Hmm… then there was the CMO, Akane Tendo. Admiral Tendo wouldn't be too happy with him if he discovered that Section 31 had destroyed the Wildstar with his little girl on board. He chuckled a bit at the thought. That man could be so over-protective. Too bad that he had every right to be in this case. He'd make a note of contacting the Admiral shortly. Thank technological advancements that allowed long-range holo-communications possible. Mind you, all the over-worried moron saw was a black silhouette, anyways!

THERE IT IS!!! Steven quickly brought the schematic that he was looking at closer to his face to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Slowly, a little bit of a grin appeared, and he chuckled once more. Man, if the boss knew that this weakness existed, the Leviathan would've never been launched! Of course they'd be stupid enough to repeat the mistake here…

He dropped the blueprint back on the desk and, downing the rest of his coffee, dashed out of his quarters.

It was time to pay a visit to Auxiliary Control!

Sickbay loomed around him like a large cave, both dangerously inviting, and easily confusing. At least, for HIM it was. Ryouga glanced around carefully from his position at the door.

Let's see… nurses, male doctor, other unmentionable medical staff… He let the flowers in his hand sag down a bit. She wasn't here. Figured. He'd come to apologize, and she was nowhere in sight. He sighed and turned to face a doorway.

Guess I'll just go, then. He began to walk sulkily to the door.

"I wouldn't go in there, if I were you." McCoy's voice floated over to him. "Unless you're a corpse that doesn't mind being dissected for all he's worth by the laser cutters and micro-tractors, that is."

Ryouga stopped short, glaring at the door in front of him with a new sense of fear.

"Th-thanks, Bones." He breathed, turning to face another doorway.

"Of course, we could always change his current physical status!" a bitter female voice shot in his direction. Ryouga winced, turned slowly, and did his best to put on a smile at the seething woman that was stealthily approaching his position.

"Uh… Hi, Akane… Umm… can we talk?"

The scowl on Akane's face deepened. She'd come out of her office just in time to see the directionally challenged dimwit trying to walk to his certain doom. While deep inside, a part of her thought that it would have been kinda funny, her conscience was wrestling with her furiously. She'd been muttering something about shoving him in there herself when she walked over to him, but now seemed satisfied that he'd make a good wall ornament. She came to a halt not a foot away from him, her hot breath tickling at the short stubble growing on his chin.

"So talk, pig-boy." She didn't even pay attention to the flowers in his hand. He stuttered and muttered for a few seconds before suddenly shoving the flowers in her face.

"Akane I'm REALLY sorry that I never told you but I didn't get much of a chance to before you made me your pet and then it just felt SO good to have someone caring for me again even if it wasn't really me well it was but just not in that sense but YOU didn't know that so I wentandIgotyoutheseflowerstosayI'msorry!"

Akane's glare didn't shift one bit. Looking Ryouga straight in the eyes, she reached to the counter beside him and grabbed a small vial. Opening it, she dumped the contents into the flowers, which immediately withered and died.

Ryouga went white, just as Akane grabbed him by the collar and threw him into her office all the way across sickbay.

"WAAAAUUGGHGHHH!!!!!!" Ryouga hit the far wall and slumped to the ground.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in my office!" Akane growled through gritted teeth.

Everyone in sickbay had learned VERY quickly over the last couple of days not to mess with her when she was in that state. As such, there were several audible gulps that went around the room. No one seemed able to tear their eyes off her as she practically glowed with anger.

McCoy looked around the room at the staff, and cleared his throat quickly.

"Alright, everyone. Back to work." He sighed. "Oh, Nurses, could you prepare the emergency room, just in case? Thank you."

Akane entered her office and pushed the panel button to close and lock her doors. Once inside, she walked right up to Ryouga, who had slumped down the wall upside down. She stood inches from the top of his head and knelt down to him with a low, throaty growl.

"So you wanna apologize, huh?" She mono-toned. Ryouga barely had enough of his scared wits left to nod dumbly. "You really think an apology can make up for it?!"

Ryouga's mind went on automatic now. "It's all Ranma's fault!!"

"Don't you DARE blame this on HIM!" Akane hollered. "From my perspective, YOU'RE the one I should have been calling a pervert all this time! Imagine… Ranma had been trying to tell me for so long about you and your curse! I don't know what you said to him to keep his mouth shut about it, but you'd better SPILL IT!!"

Ryouga began to babble uselessly, realizing just how pissed off Akane was with him. Before he could form coherent words, however, the monitor on Akane's desk started talking!

"It's because his being cursed is MY fault, Akane."

Ryouga nearly fainted. Akane whipped her head back towards the monitor.

"What?" Ranma's face looked oddly humored. "Didja forget that you were talkin' ta me before you so rudely up and left the office?"

Akane blinked a couple of times. She HAD forgotten. Then she registered what Ranma was saying, and slowly stood up to walk back to her desk.

"What do you mean, it's your fault?" She asked, her tone now calm and curious.

Ranma sighed and held his forehead between two fingers before looking back up at Akane as she sat down.

"When Pops and I went to Jusenkyo, Ryouga followed me there to try and get that fight over with. He was standin' on an overhang above the springs when Pops came rushing out of the bushes behind him, being chased by me. We'd already fallen in, so I was too pissed off ta notice when I accidentally kicked Ryouga over the edge and into the springs."

Akane's eyes went wide, and she turned to look at Ryouga's near unconscious form. Poor Ryouga… her mind instantly said. She shook her head just as quickly, allowing the anger to take back over.

"Well, accidental curse or not," she held up a fist, still staring at the lost boy. "That doesn't mean he can use it to get in cheap feels, or to see me naked and sleep in my bed! No wonder he's so MAD at you all the time, Ranma! He knows EXACTLY how I feel about y-"

Her fist quickly opened, and she covered her mouth with both hands, eyes wide. On the screen, however, something completely different was going on.

"So he knows you think I'm a pervert and a jerk. So what?! It's no secret what you think of me, Akane."

Her hands fell, and a snarl covered her face now. "You IDIOT! That's not what I meant!"

"C'mon, Akane. You shouldn't lie like that. God only knows it's impossible for you ta pull off when you can't even make a good poker face, ya stupid tomboy!"

"RANMA NO BAKA!!!"

"Look, just be ready to leave for Risa as soon as we debrief Kuno, Alright?"

"FINE!!!"

She slammed her hand down on the terminal, and Ranma's image disappeared. She turned in her chair and stood again, walking back over to Ryouga to stand above him.

"Now where were we?" She began to crack her knuckles.

From outside the sickbay office, the staff cringed at the sound of Ryouga's cries of pain.

Ranma rubbed his temples furiously at the now blank monitor. What the hell was he thinking? Things could have finally started looking up for him and Akane, but as usual, he just stuck his foot in his mouth and regretted it later.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID "Stupid!!" He chastised himself. The door buzzer went off, and Ranma moaned in anticipation of who was on the other side of it.

"Come!" He exclaimed angrily.

The doors swept open, and Goku walked in with Kuno in tow. As the doors closed behind them, and Goku stood to the side, Ranma watched Kuno's face fall from a giddy lovesick expression to one of outright rage.

"Saotome!" He spat. "What have you done with my love, the pig-tailed girl?! SHE is captain of this vessel!"

Beside him, Goku stifled a chuckle. "Yes, SHE is." He finally choked out.

Kuno glared at the first officer. "But Saotome is wearing the captain's uniform!"

"That's cause I'm the captain, ya hopeless moron!" Ranma spat.

Kuno glared at Goku, who just shrugged. "Ranma IS the captain."

"But you just said that… RRRRGGHH!!! Saotome, you wretch! You've hidden her away again to satisfy your baser lusts and fulfill your evil will! Where have you put her?! I shall free my love so she may take her rightful place as Captain of this vessel, and stand by my side once more!!"

Goku had been slowly losing control all the while. At Kuno's last words, he couldn't hold back a second more, and hung over himself as he bust a gut with fits of horrendous laughter. Ranma closed his eyes with a deep sigh, and shook his head from side to side.

"If ya would, Number One?" he said quietly. He didn't like it, but trying to wring the information out of Kuno in his current state would be a moot point. As Goku recovered and headed for the replicator, Ranma opened his eyes and looked up.

"Computer, erect a level ten force field 'round the captain's desk in the ready room. Set so only me or the first officer can lower it."

The computer beeped a few times, and a forcefield buzzed to life around the desk just as Goku reached his captain's side with a glass of water.

"So ya want the pig-tailed girl, Kuno?"

Kuno nodded his head furiously, still glaring pins and nails at Ranma.

"Fine." Ranma up-ended the glass over his head and transformed. Kuno's expression changed instantly to one of joy and victory.

"Ah, my pig-tailed goddess! The lecherous Saotome has released you at last! Come, my love. Let me take you in my arms!" Kuno bolted forward, just to get the shock of his life and bounce backwards to fall on the couch when he impacted the forcefield.

Goku bust another gut helplessly, and Ranma let out a bit of a laugh in her now musical tone.

"Alright, Kuno." She said, shooting a look at his stunned form on the couch. "Spill. Why were ya floatin' around in an escape pod, and sayin' your station was blown up? What's goin' on?"

Kuno gave his head a good shake, recovered, and leaned forward on the couch, all to eager to speak now.

"I see that the vile sorcerer Saotome has enlisted methods of making sure we share no physical contact. Fear not, my beauty! Soon, I shall find a way to overcome him."

"Bla bla bla." Ranma sighed. She glared daggers at him now. "Just tell me what happened to your stupid station, already!"

Kuno sighed some lovesick sound, and then slowly nodded his head. "Very well. Since I know that YOU will have the heart to do something about this injustice. Less than six hours ago, my station was studying a near-by nebula. We took some passive scans of a launch that took place inside. It appeared to be a federation starship, but the likes of which I have ne'er laid eyes on before. Hmm… actually, come to think of it, it did look a good amount similar to your ship! But no matter!"

Goku went all business-like now. "So this ship that you saw launched. It attacked you?"

Kuno nodded. "We had no time to send a distress call. The ship emerged from the nebula at speeds I did not think technologically possible and immediately began its assault. I had barely enough time to call for transport to an escape pod and eject before the station was blown apart. I watched on in horror as the ship began to swoop around and target the station's primary reactor core, which had somehow miraculously survived the initial explosion. They destroyed it, and the resulting shockwave obliterated every pod launched from the station! I, Tatewaki Kuno, the blue thunder of the Alpha quadrant, was skilled enough to escape the blast and hide in the nebula until it was safe."

Ranma pondered on this in her mind, and quickly came to another conclusion.

"So ya were on the other side of the ship when it blew up the reactor, sparin' ya from the shockwave. Is that right?"

Kuno's face fell ashen at the insinuation, but he quickly turned away a little and nodded once.

"Kuno," Ranma leaned forward. "This is really important. Did ya get ANY of the scan data from the station 'fore it went sky high?"

Kuno nodded furiously again, quickly producing a tricorder. "Of course, my goddess in pig-tails! I have the record of our last few scans stored here!"

Ranma's face visibly brightened. "Awesome!"

Kuno placed the tricorder down on the end table beside the couch.

"Now if the foul sorcerer would but release his barrier around you, perhaps I could show you the data myself!"

Goku giggled like a moron for a few seconds. Ranma's eyes flashed dangerously at Kuno, and a look of smug self-absorption graced her features.

"I got a better idea, 'Kuno-baby'!" She coined Nabiki's nickname for him. "Not that you've really done anythin' ta deserve this… yet… but hey! Computer, beam Kuno to the brig, and lower the forcefield surrounding this desk."

The computer beeped a few more times, and the forcefield vanished as a transporter beam snagged Kuno. His expression barely had time to change into shock before he vanished.

"Pig-tai-"

Goku let loose with the rest of his gut, going quite red as Ranma giggled, shook her head and stood up.

"He's such an idiot!" she breathed, stepping over to the tricorder and collecting it. She turned with it in hand to face Goku.

"Hey, calm down, Goku! Gees. I don't wanna hafta cart your ass ta sickbay if ya lose consciousness, ya know!"

"I'm s… I'm s… sorry, ca-ca… Ranma! He's just… AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH!!!!"

Ranma gained a smug grin. "Yeah, tell me about it! But right now, I really need ya ta straighten up, 'kay?"

Goku huffed a few more times, took in some fast breaths, and finally sighed his laughing fit away. He cleared his throat a bit, and stood straight again.

"Heh heh… sorry, Ranma. God, I never knew he was so dense!"

"You don't know the half of it!" Ranma snorted. "Anyways, listen. Me'n the doc hafta head out right away here. Take Kuno and this data back to the nearest starbase and get on it. Okay?"

Goku nodded, going serious again. "Not a problem, Captain. You don't want to cancel the Risa mission then?"

Ranma shook her head quickly. "No. There're lives in danger there. We gotta carry out the Risa mission! But a triage center in a runabout is just as easy ta do. You take command, and get ta the bottom of this mess Kuno got himself in."

"One thing did strike me as odd during the debriefing, captain."

Ranma blinked a few times, a confused look passing quickly across her face. "Something stood out weirder than the rest of that crap?!"

Goku nodded. "He said that the ship that was lunched looked a good bit like the Wildstar. Remember?"

Ranma nodded back. "Oh… yeah, that's right. Hey, ya don't suppose they built us a sister ship, do ya?"

Goku frowned. "If that's the case, why'd it destroy Deep Space Three?"

Ranma thought for a moment, then quickly shook her head. With a bit of a grin, she tossed the tricorder underhand to Goku and turned to leave.

"That's YOUR problem now, Cap! Catcha later!"

A grin slowly spread over Goku as he watched Ranma leave the ready room.

Cap! He thought.

"Captain, we've got a system's failure!" The voice of his female ops officer came quickly to him at his command chair. Will swore under his breath.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Junction C has failed. There's a malfunction in the bio-neural circuitry… Claok is failing!!"

"WHAT!??" Will was on his feet in an instant, heading over to her console. He stared at the readouts in confusion.

"What the hell?"

Out in space, the leviathan shimmered back into visual reality, the usually beautiful cloaking effect shimmering hard in its efforts to be maintained.

"Fuck!" The lieutenant spat. "We're visible!"

Will quickly crossed the bridge to the tactical station.

"Monitor the Wildstar. If they show any signs of detecting us, let me know!"

"Aye sir." The tactical officer replied.

"And get that Damned cloak working!!"

Alright!! Sorry about the lack of updating there, folks! I just had ta rewrite a bunch of my plot line to make certain... allowances in the future!

Well, lemme know what ha think!

MattSaotome