Wow, I sure left this one hanging for a while!! Guess I need to get back at it! Anyways, here's the next installment of 'Wildstar'! Time for things to get a bit more... complicated!!

MattSaotome

Chapter 3

Mercury Rising

The runabout flew gracefully at warp towards its destination. Inside, Ranma was at the controls, trying very hard to keep a straight face as he recalled his debriefing session with Kuno only a few short hours before. Behind him, Akane heard a little chuckle escape his throat, and she turned to face him. His good mood was rapidly becoming contagious, and she found a small smile growing on her face.

"What?" she giggled.

"Oh, not much." Ranma replied. "I've just been achin' ta throw Kuno in the brig for a really long time!"

A wide grin settled over Akane's expression as she took the co-pilot seat and swiveled around in it once.

"I know exactly what you mean!" Then a thoughtful look came over her expression, and she turned to Ranma. "So what happened to him, anyways? I mean, after he went to the brig."

Ranma shrugged. "Oh, he's still in there."

"What?!" Akane's face displayed a look of goofy shock.

"Yeah, I left Goku with instructions ta keep him locked up 'till they reach a starbase or somethin'."

"Ranma!" She smacked his arm playfully.

""Ow! Hey, what'd I do?" Ranma laughed back.

"Mousse?"

"The runabout has entered warp, sir." Mousse responded to Goku's unspoken question. A smile that gave away his inner joy was plastered on his face. Ranma and Akane were taking off in the runabout together. That meant that Ranma wasn't here for Shampoo to pine over, nor was Akane around for her to threaten. As far as he was concerned, things couldn't be better right at that moment.

"Then it's time we got to work." Goku rose from the command chair. "Shampoo, Ryouga, Mousse, you're with me. Goku to Vegeta, report to the briefing room."

"On my way, Kakarot." Came the growled reply.

"Risa ground Control, this is the runabout Pacific. Requesting permission to land." Akane's musical voice made Ranma close his eyes for a brief instant. He loved it when she talked. If she wasn't upset or shouting about something, her voice had the most incredible effect on his insides.

"Runabout Pacific, you are cleared for landing at port nine. Welcome to Risa."

"Copy that."

"Beginning descent." Ranma informed her.

"So what do you think we'll find once we're there?"

Ranma shrugged again. "Feh. How should I know? I still don't see the wisdom in my bein' on this stupid run when one o' your staff woulda been a better pick."

Akane scowled. "What, am I not good enough for you now? Is that it?!"

Ranma went defensive. "No! That's not what I meant, Akane! Geez, let me explain things 'fore ya get all riled up!"

"I'm not getting 'riled up'!" Akane snapped back.

"Calm down, tomboy!"

Akane went rigid. "I AM CALM!!!"

Ranma became angry. "LIKE HELL YA ARE, YA MACHO CHICK!!!"

"Ranma, you JERK!!!" Akane's mallet came down on his head. Bad timing took the unfortunate opportunity presented it, and at the second right before Akane's mallet made contact, the runabout bucked hard on atmospheric entrance. The extra momentum went straight through Akane's arms, and the end result was a very loud 'crack'. Her mallet split down the middle over Ranma head, dissolving back into its dimensional pocket. Ranma collapsed on the console, completely unconscious, his slumped form locking up some of the controls.

"Oh, shit! Ranma! Ranma?!" Akane began to panic as a few alarms started whining in the cockpit. Outside the runabout, the atmosphere flared red hot. On the trajectory display beside her, she could see the new path the runabout was taking; a nose dive right into the planet! She began to shake Ranma furiously.

"Dammit, Ranma! Wake up!! RANMA!!!!"

"Is the cloak back on-line yet?" Will's impatience was growing steadily.

"just a few more minutes, sir," the lieutenant answered. "The damage to the control junction was a lot more extensive than we previously thought. It must have been on the verge of frying for weeks now."

Will nodded. "Very well. Is there any indication whether or not the Wildstar has detected us yet?"

His tactical officer looked down at the console in front of him, then back at Will, shaking his head. "Doesn't look like it, sir."

Will took in a deep breath and let it back out with a huff. Hold off, or start now? He tossed the question around in his head for a moment in silence, and then looked back over at the lieutenant at the ops station.

"Begin jamming their communications."

Everyone took their seats around the observation table, while Goku stood at the front by the display screen.

"We've analyzed the data on Kuno's tricorder." Goku began. "As he stated, he was able to download the last few seconds of the stations sensor logs. I'm afraid that what I have to show you is more than a little unsettling."

Vegeta grumbled in his seat. "Well, get on with it, then."

Goku pushed a few buttons on the control panel, and the screen came to life. Static took the display every now and then, a definite sign that something was attempting to jam the stations sensors. The starfield on the screen had a medium sized nebula at the center. A ship swept into view.

"Oh, sweet mother of God…" Ryouga breathed. On the screen before them was a near spitting image of the Wildstar. The only visible differences were that the nacelles were laying back to back with each other on what appeared to be two horizontal mounts, and the neck to the saucer section was roughly half the height of their ship's.

"It's… us." Mousse babbled.

"No it is not us, you blind buffoon!" Vegeta snapped. "There are several differences. I thought you wore glasses to help you see!"

Mousse growled at the comment, but sat back in his chair anyways and continued to watch the screen. The ship had some obvious markings that seemed to label it as Starfleet in origin, but with some strange deviances. It swooped in on the station and began to fire. Several torpedoes burst from launchers all over the ships surface.

"Computer, freeze image." Goku instructed. The image came to a halt.

"Triphasic torpedoes." Vegeta stated calmly. "Interesting."

"The ship appears to be federation," Goku said. "I think. The triphasic torpedoes mean that it most likely has similar armaments to us. I won't deny that this ship looks quite a bit like ours."

"A sister ship, perhaps?" Ryouga asked, voicing an idea Ranma had already presented to the first officer.

Goku shook his head. "It's not likely. Too many subtle differences. It is, however, likely that one of our two ships was built based on the designs of the other."

Mousse suddenly shot forward in his seat. "What the hell?! Computer, enhance grid 4C!"

Everyone looked back at the monitor again as it complied with Mousse's command. A section of the ships hull was grabbed by the computer and zoomed in to near ten times magnification. After a couple of cleaning sweeps, the restored image shone out at them. Plastered against the side of the ship was the fleet logo and its designation. Instead of the all-too familiar starfleet com badge design leading to the fleet initials, there was a very recognizable planet image with a dagger through it.

"I.S.S Leviathan?!??" Everyone in the room exclaimed. It was at that moment that the com system came to life.

"Bridge to Commander Goku."

Goku stood straight and leaned his head to the side a little. "Go ahead."

"Commander, I've lost track of the runabout. Also lost contact with Starfleet command, sir. There appears to be some jamming in effect."

Goku's look became serious, and he shot glances to everyone around the room. They all had the exact same thoughts going through their minds. They were being hunted.

"Bridge, set course for Deep Space Three. Maximum warp!" Goku stressed the 'maximum warp', intent deep down on outrunning whatever it was that was chasing them. He sighed heavily and looked around at the crew again.

"I think it's a safe bet that we're being followed," he explained. "We need to get to Deep Space Three and try to piece together exactly what the hell is going on. If this ship was launched from inside that nebula, as Kuno said, then our answers may be there. Any questions?"

Ryouga cleared his throat, looking a little sheepishly at Goku. "What, uh, do we do if they catch us first?"

Goku looked immediately towards Vegeta, making eye contact for a heartbeat. An evil grin came across Vegeta's expression, and he swiveled in his chair to face Ryouga as he leaned over the table and folded his hands together.

"Then we beat our answers out of them, instead!"

"Ugh, my head…" Ranma moaned as he came to, sitting up with more than a little difficulty. It only took him a second to realize that this was because an unconscious Akane was sprawled over his back. A hissing noise gradually came to his ears, as well as the sounding of the runabout's alarm klaxon blaring. He quickly regained his senses and looked around the destroyed craft.

The medical supplies were still neatly bundled up in their crates, which had, however, been thrown around like dice. Since they weren't dead or otherwise poisoned yet, Ranma reasoned that all the supplies had to still be somewhat intact. He looked over at the warp relays and groaned. Black smoke spewed from the relay cover, signifying that the circuitry was fried beyond repair. The flashing on and off of the console controls in front of him told him there was computer core damage, and one quick look down at the impulse control battleship revealed that it was a mangled hulk of metal and destroyed circuit panels. Ranma snorted at his last discovery.

"Feh! Can't even lift off, much less limp back to the Wildstar!" He looked once more at Akane's form that was still sprawled across his back somewhat, his previous head motions notwithstanding. "Hey, Akane. Y'ok?"

"…Mmmmmnnn…" came the moaned reply.

"Akane, ya gotta get off my back."

"Bu-but Ran…ma, I di-didn't… say… anything…"

Ranma groaned again. "Not THAT kinda 'off my back', 'Kane! I mean you're lying ON my back and I wanna stand up!"

Akane quickly became more coherent, and gradually slipped herself into a standing, albeit wobbly, position.

"Oh, God!" she moaned again. "I feel like I was just sucked through a bad transporter trip!"

Akane took a second to look around the destroyed runabout. Her expression quickly became one of massive relief.

"Oh, thank GOD! It worked!"

Ranma raised an eyebrow at her. "What worked, tomboy?"

"After I… uh… oh shit…"

Something dawned over Ranma's expression as he remembered why he was unconscious in the first place. He shot a look over to Akane, one that seemed to scream at her for hitting her captain, while at the same time managing to look emotionally hurt about it. "…'Kane. You… you knocked me out! With your mallet!?"

She looked a little sheepishly at the ground. "It's never happened before…"

Ranma rolled his eyes. "No kiddin'!" he exclaimed. "So… what worked?"

Akane looked back up. "After you passed out-"

"Got knocked out," Ranma corrected.

"I started trying to wake you up-"

The bump on Ranma's head started to ache. "Started hittin' me some more ta see if I'd wake up," he amended again. Akane started flushing brightly.

"Because you landed on the controls, and we started doing a nose dive right into the planet. When I couldn't wake you up or get at the navigation controls, I… I blew out the nacelle relays and the venting plasma leveled our descent."

Ranma blinked twice, his eyes going wide. "Geez, Akane, that's… that's brilliant! How the hell Didja come up with THAT?"

Akane glowed with pride. "I heard Commander Vegeta and Commander Jorgensen talking about the procedure in engineering the other day. They were arguing about who had been in a more dangerous one, I think…"

Ranma chortled. "Yeah… that sounds 'bout right." He looked around once more. "So, uh… what do we do about all this?"

Akane also inspected the useless runabout. "Well… we are here to do a job. We might as well get it done."

Ranma nodded. "First things first. We'd better let the Wildstar know about the crash."

Akane flushed bright red again. "Do, uh… do we have to?"

Ranma looked at her like she'd just stuck her tongue on frozen steel. "No, but they might kinda suspect something when they see a crashed runabout, ya know?"

Akane lowered her head. "Oh… right."

"Saotome to Wildstar," Ranma tapped his com badge. A few seconds ticked by in silence. Nothing happened. Ranma tapped his badge again. "Saotome to Wildstar, respond."

Once again, there was no reply. He looked over at Akane worriedly.

"Here," Akane said. "Let me try it. Tendo to Wildstar, come in." she tapped her badge. Silence once more greeted them. "Tendo to McCoy… Tendo to anyone on board, please respond…"

Ranma was right worried now. "I don't understand… they're on their way ta Deep Space Three… Risa's communication towers an' satellite network should mean that we're still in comms range."

Akane was equally as puzzled. "I… I don't know, Ranma."

He thought to himself quietly for a moment. Understanding dawned on him all too quickly, and he looked at Akane with those large eyes he always wore when he'd figured out something he didn't want to.

"Kuno said the station was destroyed," he began. "What if whatever destroyed it… took out the Wildstar?"

Akane shook her head furiously. "Ranma, don't even think that!!" she took another step towards him. "There are good people on that ship, and they know how to get the job done! No way would it be that easy to take them out!!"

Ranma digested her words carefully, then slowly gave a weak smile and a nod. "Okay, you're right, 'Kane. So should we get to work, then?"

Akane nodded slowly, glad that she'd deterred his mind from that particular track. "Yeah. They'll contact us when they're done beating the crap out of whatever destroyed the station. Besides, it's not like we can do anything else. Seems to me that we're somewhat stuck down here."

Ranma nodded. "Deserted on a pleasure planet that's gone an' had a bad case of the flu or somethin'… go figure!"

Akane giggled beside him as they began to ruffle through the medical supplies together.

"This is a travesty of justice!!" Kuno's voice echoed through the halls of the cell area. "I DEMAND to speak to the pig-tailed girl! Surely it was Saotome who caused her to take such measures as these! I MUST make him pay for his evil sorcery over my two loves! GUARD!! Are you even listening to me??!"

The guard snorted at the cell with little remaining patience. "Not like I can help but hear anything else!"

"Then you must realize that the vile Saotome has to be brought to justice for his crimes! He hath ensnared my hearts desires, and is using them for his own twisted evil desires!"

The guard shook his head, long since over the laughing fits Kuno had given him at first. "Look, buddy. The Captain says you stay in here until we reach space dock. That means you ain't going anywhere.

It was at that moment that Steven rounded the corner of the hall. Seeing the guard there, he quickly dove back around the corner. Pulling out his type III phaser pistol, he slapped a gadget onto the side of it and pressed a button. The small object began to beep softly, and then a green light appeared on it. He came back around the corner with the phaser leveled at the guard. As the guard noticed the armed man, he drew his own phaser, only to be stunned in his tracks when Steven opened fire. The guard slumped to the floor.

Kuno watched the exchange from his cell, and as the guard lost consciousness, he had only one question floating around in his limited brain.

"Why are there no alarms? That was unauthorized phaser fire!"

Steven was walking past Kuno's cell, and pointed quickly at the gadget affixed to the side of the power pack on his weapon.

"Silencer." He replied, intent on continuing in the direction he was originally heading.

"Wait!" Kuno hollered. "Thou must release me! I must serve justice upon the foul jester Saotome!"

Steven slowed in his tracks a bit before finally coming to a stop. He slowly turned and cast a sideways glance at Kuno once more. On the entire ship, he'd thought there would be no one to help him. This man's apparent personal vendetta with the Captain could mean that he would be the help he needed. He grappled with the idea for a bit, then finally turned the rest of the way and took slow, precise steps back towards Kuno's cell.

"You need to deal out justice?"

"That is correct, good sir."

"To Captain Saotome?"

"That CRETIN is NOT the captain! He but uses the pig-tailed girl's position to further his own devious desires! He MUST be stopped!"

Steven almost dropped a gut right there. He managed to hold it in, however, keeping the humor of the situation to a grin that plastered itself across his appearance. The man in the cell was apparently not all there, but that didn't really matter to him. The uniform he was wearing meant that he had some level of intelligence, at any rate. Just because he didn't know that Ranma was both male AND female… and just because the lack of that knowledge meant that he had apparently fallen for the Captain's female half… he stopped his train of thought, afraid that he would bust out laughing if he let it continue. He cleared his throat loudly.

"What's your name, Lieutenant?"

"I am the blue thunder of the Alpha quadrant, Tatewaki Kuno. And you, sir?"

Steven reached a hand over to the panel beside the forcefield and pressed a few buttons. The field vanished, and he grabbed the cricket-phaser from his belt and tossed it to Kuno.

"I'm your new boss."

"Whadda ya mean, there's no medical emergency?!" Ranma asked incredulously. Here he and Akane had traveled all the way to Risa, crash-landed (leaving them with no way to leave), the Wildstar wasn't answering ANY communications attempts, and now the government official stands there and says there's no problem?!?

"I'm sorry that you traveled this distance," the official apologized once more. "As you can see, there is no medical situation on Risa."

Akane was lost for words. Ranma and herself were seated across the desk from the government official, having entered the nearest populace only ten minutes ago to find everyone walking around like nothing was wrong. She tried to comprehend how such a mistake could have been made. Had they been sent to the wrong planet? Ranma began to growl beside her, his scowl deepening as the official continued.

"I fear that you may have been the victims of some elaborate hoax."

Understanding washed over Akane's expression, and she quickly began to seeth, tossing a look in Ranma's direction. His fists were already clenching and unclenching in rapid succession, his snarl growing in intensity. Suddenly, he shot to his feet, holding his shaking fists out in front of himself.

"OYAJI, YOU ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!"

::snickering furiously:: THIS could get interesting! The story has officially taken on a life of its own, and I'm only aware, now, of the general direction the plot is going, nothing more!

Let me know what ya think, folks!

MattSaotome