Nadesico Fan Fiction ❯ Chasing the Darkness ❯ [02] Twists in Time ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Yada yada yada, MBN doesn't belong to me, Santa refuses to give it to me, so does Kia Asamiya, the usual. Don't sue me, I'm a student and I'm about as broke as you can get.

PART TWO: Twists in Time

*Note* This is where the confusing time stuff begins to happen. For the rest of the story, normal timelines are like this, and screwy timelines are like this.Normal, screwy, normal, screwy. Got it?

Ruri's log:

We've successfully managed to jump the Nadesico C and are currently orbiting the dark side of Earth's moon, hidden from Mars by Earth's shadow and hidden from Earth by the moon. We have approximately one hour to find out what the meaning of last episode's attack was before the UE fleet will discover our location and can boson jump to our position. As of now, the damage to the Nadesico is of an unconfirmed caliber; however, it is certain that the ship cannot stand another attack of the force we just encountered. The idiots down in engineering haven't stopped complaining yet-- as if their whining is going to make the hull fix itself. Adults are so stupid sometimes.

The chaos on the bridge was mind-boggling. Windows displaying confused and angry crewmen were popping up everywhere. Harry was swatting them away from his dome frantically while Minato stomped on a few that annoyed her too much. Yukina, who had shown up just after the jump, and Megumi had stationed themselves on either side of Ruri's chair and were both asking more questions to no one in particular than could possibly be heard, much less comprehended and answered, while dancing around nervously. Prospector was doing a damage report, and the cost was apparently causing him enough distress that he ran his hand through his hair every few seconds and sighed. The Aesti pilots were making a general nuisance of themselves, windows flying about with outraged faces demanding to know why Akatsuki's robot had blown a hole through the Nadesico and who the hell did that guy think he was, anyway, and jeez, Ryoko, you're really excitable... Well, that from Saburota.

Ruri wasn't paying attention; she was hooked up to Omoikane and was using the IFS to analyze the Nadesico's situation. They calculated that the fleet which had attacked them was made up of over one hundred war ships and at least a thousand drones and lower level Aestivallis, all either Jovian or UE origin except one: The first Nadesico, which had been thrashed almost to destruction during the Jovian War. From what Ruri could tell, though, not only was the Nadesico A acting as well as it had on its first mission, its power output was several times greater than usual.

That wasn't the only strange thing-- Omoikane had identified at least forty ships that were either in indefinite dry-dock, had been reported missing or captured during the war, or were currently undergoing repairs or missions far from the coordinates of the ambush.

Like the Sunflower. Ruri thought. Just as Megumi had claimed, the UE battle cruiser was resupplying in the New York spaceport. She didn't have the time to speculate on Megumi's uncanny knowledge of the subject, but stored the question away for later debate. Forty misplaced ships seemed like and awful lot. And these were only the UE ships--the Jovians had their own records.

Harry broke into her link with Omoikane as tactfully as he could.

"Nagare Akatsuki is trying to open communications." he reported sheepishly. "Should we answer him?"

Since no one but the people on the ship knew of the Nadesico's position, Nagare's presence meant he had a mole on the ship-- and one other than Erina, who had been relieved of duty and sent back to Earth in a comatose condition. But there wasn't time to deal with that now. Ruri nodded her assent, and was almost instantly bombarded with the general ruckus on the bridge, compounded by the contrast to the unearthly silence she had enjoyed in Omoikane's presence. As soon as Akatsuki's face appeared on the main screen, however, everyone fell silent to hear what he had to say. Everyone except the Aestivallis pilots, that is, whose complaints doubled in number and in volume. The chairman of Nergal cheerfully told them all to shut up, in not such polite terms. When he had everyone's complete attention, he began.

"I've been informed that there's been an attack." he said. Ruri quieted the immediate rush of angry comments with a wave of her hand.

"There has."

"Casualties?"

"None, but the ship has taken a beating."

Nagare raised an eyebrow. "And you chose to boson jump to the remotest spot on Earth's moon that you could, when a simple jump to the Utopia colony would have seen ample opportunity for repairs."

Ruri didn't even blink. "We couldn't be sure what the intent of the attack was, or who the enemy was."

Akatsuki frowned. "That should be obvious. The Successors must have planned it."

Before anyone could say a word, a voice unfamiliar to the bridge broke in. "That's where you're wrong, Sir." Everyone turned to see a man in his late twenties, dressed in the blue of the engineering officers, standing with hands on hips just behind Ruri. Most recognized him as Lieutenant James Shizuka, an ambitious Japanese-American man with a spotless record, who had signed on just recently as Seiya's personal assistant (and in Hikaru's latest doujinshi, lover). "The Successors had nothing to do with ambushing the Nadesico with a space fleet. However," at this, Shizuka pulled away the collar of his uniform to revealed a beige and red outfit underneath, "We do have everything to do with this."

The bridge doors flew open and men dressed in Successor livery rushed inside, armed to the teeth. Shizuka pulled out a small revolver, placing the barrel loosely at Ruri's temple while he wrapped his left arm around her neck.

Cries of protest rose throughout the room, and Harry would have leapt at Shizuka if Minato hadn't grabbed his arm.

"I would suggest that you keep your hands where I can see them." Shizuka smiled cruelly, "Or there will be unnecessary bloodshed." He turned to address Akatsuki. "The Nadesico is ours, fool." he said cheerfully. "Along with the A-class jumpers and, incidentally, our ticket to unlocking the Artifact." He glanced down at Ruri. "And a new electronic fairy to play with. What say we hook you up to the Artifact with the 'admiral' and see what happens?"

"Let her go, you sicko!" Harry yelled, and Minato clapped a hand over his mouth just as Yukina elbowed him in the stomach. Shizuka ignored them. At his nod, one of the Successors cut the communication line and Nagare's face vanished. With that, Shizuka's men began to herd the group on the bridge together and then march them out into the hallway. Harry, with Minato's smothering hand still over his nose and mouth, fought the whole way out.

******

Akito destroyed several drones and quite a few Aestivallis to cool the hard rage building in his heart before he answered the call from the Nadesico A. The fact that static was the only thing he saw didn't surprise him too much. A quick signal to Lapis and she hacked into Omoikane, using the Nadesico's own system to establish contact.

"Akito?" Yurika's face, full of hope and disbelief, appeared in front of him. Akito kept his face emotionless. Her outfit was different, but she didn't look any older than the last time he had seen her. Not that he was surprised. She was still only twenty-three, because the last three years hadn't existed for her. It was as if the whole universe had tried to pass her by-- but it had fallen apart without her. It made him sick to think about it. It made it even worse to know that he could miss anyone that badly. And to know that she was so close and yet he still couldn't reach out to her.

"Go back," he ordered, his voice like ice. "You've made a mistake."

"Akito!" she began again, her eyes going wide with hurt and surprise. "What...?"

He cut the transmission.

******

The first Ines knew of their situation was when the Successors came to take Yurika away. Drained emotionally and physically, the other woman had passed out. Ines had brought them back to her room and was watching over her so she wouldn't have to be alone when she woke. Not that her intentions would have mattered. The man who picked up the admiral wasn't concerned with her mental welfare. And the ones who took Ines's arms and led her away could care less what the blonde woman wanted.

Apparently, they also didn't care who heard their conversation. Ines picked up several useful tidbits of info while listening to their banter on her way to-- well, wherever they were taking her. The Successors wanted the Artifact. That was pretty much a given. But Ines found out that there was something, something very large and much too big to jump using chulip crystals, that the Successors wanted to move. For that, they needed the Artifact and someone to control it-- Yurika preferably but Ines would do if the admiral screwed the operation like she had the last time.

Ines shuddered. Judging from her analysis of Yurika's mental state, being hooked up to the Artifact had the tendency to blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Yurika was a hopeless romantic who lived in her dream world anyway, which was why she hadn't gone crazy or developed any of the most dangerous side effects that could have been generated from close contact with the alien technology. Ines doubted she could stand losing her rationality like that.

******

"Captain?" Eri asked worriedly, turning to Yurika. "What are we going to do?"

"If we had more time I could trace the jump." Jun offered faintly.

Erina, seeing the glazed "I'm-about-to-cry" look in Yurika's eyes, took the opportunity to break in. "Our mission is to destroy the Nadesico C." she reminded everyone sharply. "And Akito jumped at exactly the same time as the Nadesico. He knew you'd be distracted by him, Captain, so you couldn't trace the ship. And now he tells us to back off. Why is that? Well?"

Yurika didn't move. Erina, eyes flashing, slammed her hand down on the console. "It's a trick. He's with them. There's no other explanation. Captain, I've held my tongue for a long time..."

"Ten minutes hardly counts as long..." Mikako commented dryly. Erina shot her a death look.

"...But I don't think your method of trusting gut instincts is a good one! I realize that you have feelings for him, and so do the rest of us, but you can't disregard the circumstances!"

"Wrong." Yurika said flatly. "You're wrong. I know Akito." She paused for a moment, pieces of the puzzle falling into place. "The Successors want the Artifact, but they obviously haven't got it yet." she said. "The Artifact is in the Osaka spaceport. That's where we'll go."

"Captain!" Erina snapped, but Yurika turned on her with equal determination.

"Osaka spaceport." she repeated. "Now. We'll use the chulip in Serandala. And Jun, patch me through to Akatsuki. He should be able to tell me what I want to know."

Akito... she thought as she exited the bridge and swept angrily down the hall, That was unnecessarily cruel.

******

Ever since Amaterasu colony had been destroyed, Mayumi had been out of a job. Not that it would have mattered anyway, since she didn't really believe in the Hisago Plan any longer. Besides, that stupid pink wig had made her head itch like crazy. And children were not her thing.

And since Nergal did not require a) belief in the Hisago Plan, b) pink wigs and pink vinyl outfits, or c) annoying, screaming children, as part of their job description, Mayumi decided that Nergal was the place to be. The secretary at the service desk had politely turned her away, however, saying that new standards for officers had been enacted since their merger with the United Earth forces, and all tour guide positions had been filled.

Mayumi thought her line of work in space was finished, but at that moment the man standing behind her said, "Wait just a moment..." His nameplate said "Misumaru," and Mayumi realized that she was standing next to a very important person.

The very important person wasn't looking very important at the moment, though. He was stroking his mustache thoughtfully and muttering "Mayumi, Mayumi..." under his breath. Then, suddenly, his face brightened in understanding. "You were on Amaterasu, weren't you?"

"Yes, sir." Mayumi bowed as low as she could in her tight black miniskirt.

"Yes, yes, I remember now," General Koichiro Misumaru said pleasantly. "Ruri--that is, Captain Hoshino-- wrote quite a nice little paragraph about you in her reports."

"She did?!" Mayumi asked in astonishment. Koichiro nodded.

"Well of course. It was thanks to you that she escaped Amaterasu and got to the Nadesico in time to save my daughter." He started to tear up.

Mayumi didn't know quite what to say, but apparently, she didn't have to say anything. General Misumaru turned to the secretary and picked up Mayumi's resume. "You have an IFS and an interspacial license?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"Everyone on Amaterasu had them so they could operate machinery." Mayumi explained. "And driving tour carts was part of my job. I had to be licensed."

Koichiro read over the rest of the sheet quickly, then smiled at her reassuringly. Follow me." he said, and Mayumi found herself with a job.

******

Shinjou Aritomo closed the message from Shizuka on the Nadesico C and prepared to implement the second part of his plan. Kusakabe-san had been in prison much too long, he decided.

******

"Can't anyone ever design hotel rooms any differently?" Eri cried, tossing her duffel bag on the flowery coverlet. "I swear, I don't even know where we are anymore!"

"Tokyo Hyatt Regency." Harumi supplied, grabbing a Snickers from the minibar.

"Oh, get out of my way!" Eri retorted, bumping Harumi with her hip and going straight after the beer.

"You know..." Mikako began, but stopped as Eri and Harumi got into a fight over the minibar. Sayuri pushed them both out of the way and took a bottled water from the tiny refrigerator, glaring in mock-anger at the other two until they shut up.

"What were you saying, Mika?" Junko asked, looking up from her manga obliviously.

"It's just that-- don't get me wrong, I love doing shows and all-- but it's just that..." Mikako picked up their tour poster from the bed next to Junko. "...We're Howmei Girls!" she exclaimed. Everyone was silent for a moment.

"I miss Howmei." Junko sighed finally.

"I miss cooking!" Harumi said, making a face at her slightly stale candy bar.

"I wonder how Howmei is doing?" Sayuri asked. The was another pause as all the girls stared at each other.

"Let's find out!" Eri shouted gleefully, already grabbing her things.

And that was why the five Howmei girls missed their seven o'clock concert and were spotted by a group of rabid fanboys on the fastest train to Kyoto (which is the Bullet Train, if the author isn't mistaken...).

Two days later, the girls' manager held a press conference in which he announced that their next album was being postponed while the Howmei Girls served a tour of duty for Nergal UE. What happened to Eri, Junko, Mikako, Harumi, and Sayuri in those two days is anyone's guess.

******

Ruri surveyed the brig calmly, her face a mask of impassive blankness despite the leers and rude comments she received from the guards who patrolled periodically.

Minato envied her. That kind of control would be useful at times. Times when she let her mind wander too far; back to days that she wished never happened. Times like this, when she realized that people who were supposed to be dead kept popping back into her life, but the one person who she really wanted to come back never could.

She shook her head. There was no point drowning in self-pity right now. But what else was there to do? Hope that a lucky break got them out of prison? Depend on someone else to make an escape? Minato had thought about escape-- nothing she could come up with would get everyone off the ship safely. First of all, Yurika and Ines were nowhere to be found. Ruri was in the cell across from her, isolated completely. The Aesti pilots were in a cell a little ways down the corridor, and Megumi, Harry, Yukina and Prospector were in the room on her right. Minato was stuck with Gort and Seiya and the only two engineers who hadn't turned out to be Martian Successors. Who hired those new crewmen, anyway? Akatsuki must be slipping. Seiya was fuming about not being stuck in a cell with that cute new cook until Gort informed him that she was Shizuka's second-in-command. After that, Seiya began fuming that Akatsuki's Aesti had gotten upgrades that no one had informed him of and that it had gone and swept all of his toys out into space after it blew up his hangar. Minato didn't care-- Howmei had been a much better cook, anyway, and she was completely uninterested in Aestivallis.

And that was their situation-- pretty dismal. Well, looking at the bright side, they hadn't been ejected into space yet. That was pretty much the only bright side. Minato hoped Yukina was giving the guards as much trouble as she could and then sat back and started fuming with Seiya.

******

Ruri, on the other hand, was extremely busy. Apparently, Shizuka didn't know all of Omoikane's capabilities, or if he did, he didn't know what to do about them. He wasn't the Captain, so he couldn't remove the Nadesico's master key, and Omoikane had a firewall created by the best hackers in the business. So he'd just locked her in a room devoid of anything computerized. Except that Harry had taught Ruri a nice little lesson about converting basic wiring into terminal uplinks not two weeks ago. It had taken her a little time, but she'd managed to open the panel behind her and turn the air conditioning unit inside out-- she was currently having a conversation with Omoikane via what was once the input/output cable for temperature command. And, being Ruri, she had remembered to set the temperature to a comfortable sixty degrees before she'd disabled the circuit. She didn't understand why adults tended to think of her in condescending terms because she was only sixteen. How stupid of them. They'd figured that their surveillance cameras would display anything she might try to pull; she wondered if it ever occurred to the Successors that Omoikane had been jamming their system for hours.

But Omoikane couldn't provide her with a plausible escape plan, and Ruri was drawing the same blanks Minato had. She had no way to guarantee everyone's safety, especially since she couldn't locate Yurika or Ines anywhere. But this wasn't like the time they'd recaptured the Nadesico, when she'd had weeks to prepare. The Nadesico would reach Osaka within hours. The city had already undoubtedly been taken by the Successors, otherwise Shizuka would never have bragged to Akatsuki about taking over the Nadesico. Once there, the crew would either be put to death or end up like Akito. She couldn't allow that to happen, but could not find a way to take back her ship within that time. That left her with no choice other than to leave Ines and Yurika behind and trust them both to be able to get away on their own. Who knows? Perhaps they had already gotten away and that was why there was no trace of them on the ship. She left an encoded message with Omoikane to deliver anyway and then started to put her plan into action.

******

"What the hell are you doing?" Shizuka demanded. Yamasaki Yoshio looked up from the lab table, looking slightly sheepish.

"Waiting." he responded simply, nodding at Yurika's prone form.

"Have you fixed the sensors?" Shizuka asked, looking at the wires that crisscrossed overhead. Yoshio nodded again.

"As long as the bionet isn't disturbed, the ship's sensors won't be able to pick up any organic life forms in this area at all."

Shizuka paused, looking around. He was trying to think of something to complain about, but at the moment he couldn't think of anything else.

"I've never seen her awake, you know." Yoshio commented to no one in particular, turning his attention back to Yurika. "I hear she has a quite captivating voice."

Shizuka thought Yoshio's little obsession with the woman was creepy; twisted, to say the least, but refrained from saying so as the balance of this operation rested solely on this man's knowledge of the workings of the Artifact. But that didn't mean that he had to like the man.

"Do you have the...uh...supplies?" he asked, shifting slightly.

Yoshio nodded and picked up a stack of comic books. "Ururun. Ironic, isn't it?" he asked, flipping through the manga. "In this issue, the heroine is kidnapped and the hero has to save her."

Shizuka shivered. "Don't use that one." he ordered, turning to leave. "That's too strange. Now if you're done here, come and help the idiots on the bridge break down the computer's firewall. We're already several hours behind schedule."

"I wouldn't worry too much, sir." Yoshio commented as the doors closed behind them. "If our Princess's knight in shining armor was going to show up to save her, he would have done it by now."

(Oh ye of little faith... the author sighs.)

******

Ines watched Yoshio and Shizuka's conversation through the plexiglass panes in her cell. Even though she couldn't hear a word they said through the walls, the whole episode made her skin crawl. She resolved to turn her mind to other matters.

She had, of course, already formulated a plan of escape. However, it only allowed for Yurika and herself, seeing as the brig was on the lower decks and Ines was being held on the opposite side of the ship, in the medical center near the Aestivallis Hangar. She glared angrily at what was once her office and workroom, which had been transformed by the mess of wires covering everything and the presence of some large scale jumping equipment. And her operating table had apparently been turned into an altar of some sort, judging from how Yurika's body had been arranged on it with her arms folded across her chest and hair cascading over the sides. At least they hadn't seen the thin chain under the collar of Yurika's uniform. Ines' whole plan depended upon the fact that Yurika was wearing a TC around her neck, and could therefore transport them both safely all the way to Earth with little tax on her strength. If Yoshio got his hands on that crystal, they would have to depend on one of them getting worked up enough to trigger a jump. Ines preferred not to take that risk. The only thing left to plan was how to get out of her prison when she was under constant surveillance. Ironically, she was depending on something straight out of Gekigangar-- any old school anime, for that matter. The idea that villains had to gloat to someone was her only hope for escape.

Ines stood up and started pacing, trying to come up with something better than that. The pure ridiculousness of her schemes set her teeth on edge. She finally gave herself a little peace by rationalizing that she couldn't do anything until Yurika woke up, anyway.

******

Hikaru was in a reflective mood. She didn't know why-- the three of them had never been in prison before, and especially not with Saburota. But she just couldn't help thinking about the first Nadesico, and the Jovian War, and now the Nadesico C... She had joined Nergal because everything about her old life had reminded her of her ex-boyfriend. When she found she had a knack for piloting, she had signed on under Ryoko with no hesitation. And she had never regretted that decision. Even though they were sitting in the brig of their own ship waiting for... well, waiting for something bound to be less than pleasant. She still didn't regret signing on.

While her thoughts had brought Hikaru some peace, Ryoko's were driving her and everyone else crazy. She was pacing and muttering to herself, every now and then coming up with a ridiculously complicated escape plan that would never work. Izumi was sitting in a corner in shock, unable to believe that the Successors had been as callous as to take her ukulele away. In fact, Saburota seemed to be the only one completely at ease. He was lounging across the bench in the back, next to Hikaru, with one leg crossed over the other and arms behind his head so his elbows stuck out. Hikaru thought that Jovians were very strange, but no one else seemed to take any notice of his behavior until he began to whistle "Yellow Rose of Texas."

At that point, Ryoko snapped.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she yelled, punching his shoulder as hard as she could. "Aren't you even worried? Don't you care about what happens to any of us? Don't you care about what happens to the Captain?! What the hell are you thinking?!"

"Ow..." Saburota began as Ryoko kept right on yelling about how stupid he was, and emphasizing each statement with a punch. Finally, he clamped one hand over her mouth and wrapped her in a headlock just to get her to shut up.

"If you don't stop pacing, you'll wear a hole in the carpet." he informed her as she futilely tried to break his grip. "Don't you trust the Captain?"

Ryoko stopped struggling, eyes wide. Hikaru's mouth dropped and Izumi uncurled from her ball as all three pilots stared at the blond Jovian.

"What kind of ship did that Yurika woman run, that you don't have any faith in your captains?" he asked, still holding Ryoko (who was turning a little purple). "The Captain has always done a good job before. We just have to wait for her to think up a plan, and then we'll be out."

He released her, and Ryoko sank to her knees, gasping for breath. She didn't really have an answer to Saburota's accusation. She had thought Yurika was a very good captain, and she had always pulled through in the end. And she did trust Ruri with her life, but she just couldn't wait around...not that there was any choice.

"Out, out and about..." Izumi was getting a little louder each time she spoke, and with each word unwound herself a little more. Within no time, she was well on her way to returning to her unusual self. "But not with trout..."

"I hate doing nothing." Ryoko growled, settling angrily on the floor. Saburota sat down next to her primly.

"Who said we were going to do nothing?"

******

The two guards were passing by on their normal rounds when one noticed something strange about Ruri's cell.

"Hey!" he cried, peering in the small window. "The fairy's glowing!"

"What?" his companion shouted. "What's she doing?"

The first one shrugged and struggled with his keys. When they got the door open it was clear that Ruri was, indeed, glowing.

"Crap!" the second guard cursed. "She's hooked up to that damn computer of hers!"

At that moment, Ruri opened her eyes. The door to her cell slammed shut, locking the guards in as well.

"Please don't move." she said tonelessly, staring off into space. The guards smirked, raising their guns, and stepped forward. The walls suddenly became magnetized, ripping the weapons from their hands and plastering the guards themselves to the walls by their metal shoulder pads, armored plating, and belts. Down the entire hallway, the sound of locks undoing themselves echoed like death tolls in their ears. Windows began to pop up, slowly at first but gaining speed until there were hundreds of them in Ruri's cell alone.

Scatter, each window read in bold letters.

******

The strange thing about being a member of a crew is that the crew members learn to communicate with minimal words. No one had to question what the single-word order meant. When the doors began to open, everyone took a different way out. The final destination for all of them, though, was Tokyo. Nergal protocol required them to return to headquarters in case of an abandon ship.

The escape pods were three levels above the brig-- Harry suspected that Ruri had somehow managed to secure the area from the Successors, so the only problem would be how to get there. Most knew the ship well enough to find back ways through piping and things, and those who didn't were guided by those who did.

But Harry didn't leave. He had noticed that Ruri's door remained locked and shut tightly, but there were still people inside. Upon closer examination, Harry realized that Ruri had no intention of leaving with the crew. A memory of the pain on the admiral's face surfaced unbidden, and filled him with a sense of terror. There was no way he was going to sit around and let that sort of thing happen again, especially not to the Captain. Reaching out a hand, he began to tap at the lock mechanism, the IFS on his hand linking up to the computer.

Omoikane, let me in. he ordered.

Request denied. Came the answer. Access blocked.

We'll see about that. Harry retorted, opening the panel and plunging both hands inside. Hacking was his specialty, not the captain's.

******

Ines decided that if she spent another three minutes locked up she would lose her mind. Luckily, Shizuka's second in command, Nina, showed up to begin the gloating.

"Right this way, miss!" she chirped, and Ines decided that her smiles were as sugary as her food. It was disgusting. "Miss Misumaru is awake, and as soon as Mr. Yamasaki gets down from the bridge, we're going to jump to the rendezvous point."

"Mind if I ask what you want with the Artifact?" Ines questioned. Nina shook her head, her dark curly hair whipping across her face.

"That would take all the fun out of it, wouldn't it now?" she said quite cheerfully. "You'll just have to see what happens when we get there. Oh, and I wouldn't try anything funny." Still smiling, she held up a small revolver. "I used to be a cop-- my aim is top-notch."

"How wonderful for you." Ines replied in tones of boredom. They entered the wire-strewn medical area. "What do you want with us?"

"Ines?" Yurika asked immediately at the sound of her voice. Ines was surprised. She had known that many scientists did heartless things, but Yurika was hyperventilating again and the three men who were standing by with various elements of jumping equipment couldn't seem to care less.

"I'm here." Ines moved to stand next to the operating table. Yurika turned her head as much as she could in the restraints.

"Where am I?" she asked, eyes darting about the room in near panic. "I've been here before-- Ines, I don't want to be here again! Where's the ship?"

"We're on the ship." Ines said soothingly.

"I don't want to be here!" Yurika protested again. "Please let me out!" Her face began to shine with white lines.

"You're going to upset her and then there's no telling what will happen!" Ines snapped at the four Successors, pushing her way to Yurika's side. "Yurika, calm down." she ordered, shaking the other woman, but to no avail.

"Get her a hypo!" Nina ordered, shoving one of the doctors. ""Now!"

"We can't sedate her or..." one of the remaining two began timidly.

"If she damages the equipment then we're all in hot water." Nina replied harshly. "Where the hell is Yoshio?"

******

Yoshio was, at the moment, running down the stairs. Apparently, the elevators had been shut off-- he didn't have time to wonder why.

******

Ruri didn't look the least bit surprised when Harry burst into the room.

"Captain...!" he began, but she cut him off.

"Don't move please, Harry-kun."

"What?" Then he noticed the guards, struggling to pry themselves away from the wall. He wondered briefly if it had been Omoikane's idea to magnetize a strip across the center of the room, but that wasn't the matter at hand. "Let's go, Captain." he said.

"I'm not leaving." Ruri said simply. "I'm going to keep the ship from reaching Osaka."

Harry stared at her open-mouthed for a second. "That's not wise."

"Nevertheless," Ruri answered over renewed shouting from the guards, "I will stay."

"You can't." Harry said stubbornly. Ruri still didn't move. They stared at each other for a moment, Harry fuming, Ruri indifferent. Then Harry tore the gun away from his hip and tossed it to his left, where it promptly attached itself to the magnetized wall. The guards were shouting expletives and other things that didn't matter since no one was paying attention to them anyway. Harry hesitated for a moment, touching the plates at his shoulders. Ruri continued to observe him, unresponsive. Harry grit his teeth in irritation with her, then stripped off his shirt and stepped through the magnetic field unhindered.

"Let's go." he said, and his tone did not imply a request. Ruri's eyes widened as he took her elbow and tugged her to her feet. She was too surprised to resist when, wrapping both arms around her waist, he yanked her back through the field and out the cell door, the force of his pull sending them tumbling to the ground.

"Harry-kun..." she said finally as they both stood.

"Look, they have Ines-san and the admiral, don't they?" Harry asked shortly. "Even if you blew the Nadesico C to smithereens, they could find another ship to jump them to Osaka. There's no point in staying here to get yourself killed or worse."

Ruri just stared at him. Harry opened his mouth to say something else, then shook his head. A sudden shout from down the passage alerted them to the fact that the escape had been discovered. The guards coming to relieve the ones who were still stuck to the walls had spread the alarm, and men in red and beige uniforms were coming down the hallway at top speed. Harry knew if they waited any longer they would both be caught. Reaching out, he took Ruri's hand and dragged her at a run down the corridor.

Ruri, who had been hit with the realization that Harry was right, was busy coming up with something new. Rough plans were forming in her mind, and she was grateful that Harry was leading or else she wouldn't have those precious seconds to figure out a plan of action. She looked up to tell him her idea when it suddenly occurred to her that he was taller than she was. And stronger, too, if the tense muscles in his back were any indication. Saburota must have made good on his periodical threats to subject Harry to a Jovian fitness program. The hand that gripped hers now was much stronger than it had been when he had first shook her hand during the christening of the Nadesico B.

She realized that her mind was wandering in directions she wasn't comfortable with it going and snapped back to attention, ignoring the heat that rose to her face. Right now, escape, and a rendezvous with the crew in Tokyo. After that...

After that what? the nasty little voice in the back of her mind asked her.

Baka. Ruri thought back to it, as she and Harry reached the maintenance tunnels that wove in an intricate pattern throughout the bulwarks of the ship. Here Harry let Ruri take over, since it was her ship and she knew every bit of it in her sleep. Ruri decided that she was much more comfortable in the front, where she couldn't see him.

******

"What's going on?" Yoshio demanded breathlessly, rushing into the room with his lab coat flapping behind him.

"She's flipping out!" one of the scientists exclaimed as another brushed past him with a syringe in hand.

"What the hell took you so long?" Nina yelled, but before Yoshio could answer, a window popped up and Shizuka's furious, mottled face appeared.

"Get them out of here now!" he ordered, his voice so angry and his presence so unnerving that everyone knew at once that something had gone horribly wrong.

Ines didn't care about that, however. All she cared about were the windows popping up behind Shizuka, on the bridge. Signs with bright, bold lettering.

Scatter.

That was all she needed to see. Whirling back to Yurika, she grabbed the medic's wrist before he could give Yurika the shot. Pressing her thumb to the bones in his palm in a technique she hadn't been forced to use since med. school, she forced him to let go of the needle, and promptly gave the shot to him, instead. The sound of the man's body crumpling to the floor caught Nina's attention, and she turned on Ines with gun in hand.

Ines was busy leaning over Yurika, trying to envision things to calm her down. "Get us out of here now, Captain." she said, falling back into the old habit of referring to Yurika as the captain of the Nadesico.

Yurika took a deep breath, ceased shining momentarily, then started again as she and Ines were bathed in a white-gold glow. At that exact moment Nina pulled the trigger, and smoke mingled with the white light. When the spots in everyone's eyes faded, the only sign of Yurika or Ines were the droplets of blood on the floor.

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