Ramen Doodles
By Andrew Gillespie
Disclaimer: I do not and probably never will own Naruto or any other copyrighted works mentioned in this story. I am not writing this for profit.
Author's Note: When I have writer's block, I often write a lot of random snippets of ideas, omakes, and continuations of other author's ideas that kind of petered out. As I'm afflicted with a bit of writer's block regarding Key Through the Heart (again), I've decided I'm not going to leave you guys in the lurch. Therefore, enjoy some writing I've been doing over at The Fanfiction Forum.
Interstellar navigation was not difficult if you had the tools, even at relativistic speeds. The stars ahead of you shifted hard into the blue spectrum, and the stars behind you shifted far into red. You kept on course, because even with the increased radiation and relativistic effects, light was light and motion was motion. Even a trip of centuries required only minor adjustment to arrive at your destination on time.
So, the Hail Mary came to the solar system designated HD 146233-Better known as 18 Scorpii. Metallicity level 1.04 times that of Sol, which was over 45 lightyears behind them. Ten planets circled the star: Four were massive gas giants, supporting swarms of moons with several Earth sized or around that. Five were rocky, terrestrial planets-Four of them huge, rocky worlds with massively abundant resources but no breathable atmosphere. In just the right spot though, there sat the blue point of light telescopes in Sol had sighted over 50 years previously-A second Earth.
A solar system like this, with humans packing the latest technology as of the 2100s, turning it into a major hub of humanity's efforts to colonize and explore space seemed likely. Gas giants and water-ice and liquid-offered hydrogen isotopes for fuel, the rocky worlds and numerous moons and asteroids offered metals and other elements for construction, the habitable world could provide food and shelter. The Hail Mary was a beast of a ramscoop starship, designed to get thousands of colonists there at 90 percent cee, opening the way for further colonization. More ships followed over the centuries.
No response was received. At first it was expected-The transmissions were bound by the laws of physics, they would take time to arrive. But nothing ever was received. Not from the first ship, not from the last. Over the next six centuries humanity expanded, grew, made first contacts, and gained the ability to travel faster than light.
Finally, after peace was won and prosperity became the order of the day, Earth and her colonies began to send ships out with FTL drives to find out the fates of lost ships and colonies-Including 18 Scorpii.
Meanwhile, on the world 18 Scorpii (known by it's inhabitants now as Nihongo), a young boy with dreams of becoming an Hokage discovers a strange vehicle, centuries old, hidden in a temple and damned as an abomination to the Sage of the Six Paths. And from this shuttle, he learns of the starship, long abandoned by his ancestors, that still orbits overhead. A starship that, with it's arrival, signaled to refugees hundreds of years ago that someone was here.
Naruto Uzumaki discovers the legacy of his ancestors, and the unimaginable wonder and terror that it brings...
The shuttle came to a stop, shaking slightly. Naruto didn't know what had brought his sudden journey to a stop, but he wasn't complaining. Maybe now he could figure out where this crazy thing had brought him. He'd been stuck in here for at least an hour, and all his fiddling hadn't gotten him any further.
Might be a trap, Naruto thought aloud, as he looked over at the back hatch of the shuttle. All sorts of mechanical whirs and clanks sounded behind it, and finally, the doors opened. Naruto felt himself be pushed down onto the deck, gravity reasserting himself. He looked around in a bit of shock-The windowless vehicle hadn't had any gravity on the way up, he'd had to stick to the walls with chakra.
Now though, he felt properly heavy.
Very weird, he thought. A ladder slid down from above, and Naruto looked into the darkness. He shook his head.
Well, I'm not going to get answers here, he decided. Using chakra to stick to the ladder, he ascended, moving up into whatever the ship had stopped.
The interior was light gray and blue, he thought. It was bathed in a low green light, making it hard to tell, and the air felt old and stale. Naruto took slow breaths and looked back and forth. There was a sign in front of him, written in simple letters he could just make out-"Bridge".
"Hmm..." He'd read enough scifi comics to know what that was. So, in the interest of figuring out what the hell was going on, he climbed up and followed the sign along the curving corridor. He noted all the handholds and velcro on the walls, as well as compartments.
He made it to a larger room, with a dome in front of him, ahead of various control panels and seats, arranged kind of like a boat's bridge. Two chairs were in front of the dome, and the panels in front of them included levers and a few joysticks. Naruto, curious, sat down in the right-side chair and looked it over. He then tapped the control panel.
Everything immediately lit up, and Naruto jumped as a blue-haired girl appeared in front of him.
"Ack!"
"Hello. Please identify yourself," the girl asked, her blue eyes staring intently into his.
"Naruto Uzumaki?" He said. The girl processed this for a moment, before nodding and smiling.
"Hello, Naruto Uzumaki. I am Mary. How may I be of assistance?"
"Ah... Well... Where am I?" Naruto asked. "And who are you?"
"One moment," Mary said. Over her head appeared a solar system, like the models Naruto had seen at the Academy on occasion. Sakura had done a science fair project once of the solar system, which is how he remembered it.
There were ten planets, all orbiting one star. The fourth planet was expanded, until it was the size of one of Naruto's Rasengans. The moon of the planet remained in sight, about a eighth the size of the planet. To the side of the moon (placing the moon between it and the planet) was a spear-shaped object with a round shield at the end and a cylinder in the center. A red path was mapped out, indicating what Naruto assumed was the course of the ship.
A spaceship...
"This is the ESS Hail Mary, a ramscoop starship launched from Earth AD 2289," Mary said. "Mission was to colonize 18 Scorpii system. 10 planets, one Earth-type. Five gas giants, four-hundred and ninety moons. Ample resources for further expansion of colonization and exploration missions."
"Earth?" Naruto asked. Mary frowned. Naruto shook his head. "How long ago was that?"
"Six-hundred and fifty Earth years," Mary reported. Naruto's eyes bugged out.
"That long?"
"Near-light transit to 18 Scorpii from Earth required 47 Realtime years," Mary reported.
Naruto shook his head. "You... You've been up here for that long?"
"Yes," Mary said. "I have been in sleep mode for six hundred and twenty-eight years. Programmed to maintain orbit around the moon of 18 Scorpii C."
"Why?"
"To follow user Sage's last orders."
Naruto's jaw dropped.
"Sage?" He shook his head. "What were those orders?"
"To maintain orbit behind the moon and prevent colonists and their descendants from learning about Earth or origin of humanity."
"Why?"
Mary tilted her head. "To prevent further conflict."
Naruto stared in disbelief. Mary stared back. She blinked.
"I take it the Sage was unsuccessful?"
"... Damn straight!" Naruto said.
"Ah. And what are your intentions, Naruto Uzumaki?"
Naruto smiled grimly. "Make sure it happens."
Naruto was a fairly fast learner, when it came to ninjutsu. Starships were a little harder to work out. The practical stuff, like how to pilot the Hail Mary, came pretty easily. A matter of directing force. At least, that was the theory.
"Okay, so... This is the throttle for the main drive," Naruto said, holding the lever in question. Mary nodded with a cheerful smile.
"Yes! And that is the joystick for the main drive."
"Well then, let's start this baby up!" Naruto said cheerfully. He threw the throttle to full, and the entire ship hummed with power as her stardrive went online for the first time in centuries.
Naruto did not expect the intense acceleration, and was pressed back into his seat. "OOF!"
"Please note, maximum acceleration rating on this starship, manned, is six gees. You are rapidly passing 7," Mary warned calmly.
Naruto did not speak, only watching out the forward dome as the Moon began to move out of his way, leaving only a bright blue orb in front of the Hail Mary. Naruto gasped, seeing this, his home. Shadow, Mary had called it. He couldn't see a shadow now...
"Please, Naruto Uzumaki! De-throttle!" Mary warned. Naruto did so, throwing the lever back. The acceleration quickly died, and Naruto felt thrown forward.
"Gah...!"
"Velocity increased to 21,000 km/hr," Mary said. "We are entering a wider orbit around Shadow, possible Impulse Orbit. Calculating..." Mary shook her head. "Insertion possible for slingshot around 18 Scorpii B in two months..."
"I don't want to slingshot around anywhere!" Naruto shouted. "How do you slow this thing down?"
A rapid number of instructions appeared in front of Naruto's eyes. "Please take the RCS controls and reverse orientation. Then fire main stardrive for ten seconds at full burn."
Naruto grabbed the indicated joystick and fired the RCS thrusters, a bit haphazardly. All the same, Mary's holographic cues got him back on track, and Naruto went full burn once more.
"Urgh...!" He gritted his teeth.
"Wow, 10 gees!" Mary said, impressed. "Please stop now!"
"Nngh... Urgh... GAH!" Naruto pulled the throttle back, and the gees returned to normal. He took deep breaths, managing to feel less like he'd been squished into a can and more like normal.
"Geez... How'd they stand this?" Naruto asked.
"Well, the Hail Mary left Earth at a continuous acceleration of 1 gee, rather than 10 gees. 10 gees was for emergencies only," Mary explained. "It is impressive you withstood such force. My records indicate most of the colonists would have died from such acceleration."
"Good... For me..." Naruto said with a grin.
"I advise not starting up the stardrive in the solar system again," Mary said. "The plume from the fusion drive was used to carve roads in the surface of Shadow. That, however, was before the colony was settled. Using it now would result in many deaths," Mary said.
"Roads?" Naruto asked. "Show me?"
Mary directed Naruto on how to use the RCS thrusters to put Shadow back in his view. Mary zoomed in, and Naruto saw Konoha, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, all the great ninja villages. In addition, he saw the great cities of the Elemental Countries-Hikyo, the Flame of the West and capital of Fire Country. Kaminawa, the Northwestern City of the Storm. Even Wave Country was visible.
All of them connected by perfectly straight lines. Naruto shook his head. He'd never seen these before, not from this height. It looked as though every country was linked together, united.
Was this what his ancestors intended? A new home...
"Mary...?"
"Yes?"
"... Tell me about the colonists. And about... Earth," Naruto said.
Random plot bunny, free to a good home. I encourage you to read Larry Niven's works or some other really great hard scifi writers before embarking on it. Review please.