Professor Ranma Saotome looked around the faces of those in the council room as he reported the facts he had gathered about their home-world. He was one of those few Ranmas which was blessed with the concept of knowledge is equal to power, and had chosen the path of a scholar over that of a warrior, (which over ninety-five percent of the planet was known to follow).
“My fellow Ranma’s,” Professor Ranma said as he looked around the auditorium. “As you know, Planet Ranma is situated within the Horsehead Nebula; a dark nebula in the Orion constellation. The nebula is located just below Alnitak, or ‘Zeta Orionis’ the easternmost star of Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.”
“Yes, yes, we know about all this, Professor, Saotome,” Elder Ranma Saotome said as he scratched his long black beard as he sat on a larger ornate chair with a female Ranma attendant at either side. “What does that have to do with the weird reverberations of the planet’s life force we’ve been seeing around the atmosphere as of late?”
“True,” another elder Ranma spoke up from his seat in the auditorium. “The constant flashes of light and darkness aren’t all that comforting.”
A female Ranma spoke up. “I have to agree with Councilor Ranma on this. Many of the Ranmas who are in the Planet Ranma Defense Forces are very superstitious about such events which have been taking place in the skies as of late.”
Another female Ranma spoke up. “Councilor Ranma and Councilor Ranma are both correct in events, Professor Ranma.” She looked over at the man on the floor. “And it’s not just the soldiers who, because of their constant practice in the arts, are vigilante and worry about the populace’s safety. And although they won’t admit it aloud, they also worry about their own...”
Moving his hand to a chart, Professor Ranma explained, “The red glow we’ve been seeing is originating from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, hydrogen gas that is being ionized by the nearby bright star, ‘Sigma Orionis’.” He pointed out the star on Orion’s belt on his chart. “The darkness of the Horsehead which is streaming over into Planet Ranma’s atmosphere is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead’s neck casts a shadow to the left.”
A Ranma who, oddly enough, had a mustache, stood up. “So that explains the near perpetual darkness over one half of the planet, and the red haze over the other. What about the flashing lights all over?”
“That,” Professor Ranma started to explain, “Are streams of gas leaving the nebula. They are funneled by a strong magnetic field, causing the bright flashing spots in our skies, similar to the ones in the Horsehead Nebula’s base which are young stars just in the process of forming.”
“Wait,” The Elder Ranma spoke up, sitting up in his throne-like chair. “Those flashes in our atmosphere are like the flashes of young stars?”
Nodding his head, Professor Ranma told their planet’s leader, “That is correct.”
“Could that lead to danger for our planet?” The elder Ranma asked point-blank. Ranmas were never known for tact.
Slowly, Professor Ranma nodded his head. “I see two possible dangers... the first is that such a flash may take on intensity like a solar flare, and it would be worse than a volcano eruption, possibly worse than a flash-bomb going off.”
There was much murmuring amongst the gathered Planet Ranma Council, but it was the elder whom kept the talk on focus. “What is the other possibility?”
Licking his lips, Professor Ranma told the elder, “The complete destruction of Planet Ranma as we’re replaced by a new star.”
There was much shouting and chaos, screams of denial, of woe, and threats all focused towards the Ranma who had become the bearer of bad news. However, it was the Elder Ranma who quieted everyone with a scream of, “QUUUIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!”
Silence reigned in the auditorium for a long moment before the elder continued speaking. “Professor Ranma, what do you suggest for a course of action?”
“Well, Elder Ranma,” the scientist started, bringing down the charts and putting up new ones. “I have been looking over the data and we only have one course of action. We must abandon Planet Ranma.”
“Preposterous!” A male councilor shouted. “You are out of line, Professor Ranma!”
“I have to agree with Ranma here, Ranma,” Elder Ranma said slowly. “You say we should abandon the planet, but to what end?”
“Elder Ranma,” Professor Ranma began, the tone of his voice conveying how serious he was. I have discovered a planet fifteen-hundred light-years away which could support life. It is the third planet from Sol, the center of the Milkyway Galaxy. The inhabitants simply refer to their world as ‘Earth’.”
“Wait, wait!” A male councilor Ranma spoke up. “Inhabitants?”
“You want us to go to an already inhabited world?” A female Ranma asked.
Nodding his head, Professor Ranma said, “With the time we have allotted to us by the course of the nebula reshaping itself, we have to make small, less powerful space ships if we’re to have enough for everyone to get off in time. The ships I’ve designed won’t be able to go far, however, the planet Earth IS within the range of their travel path. We can save everyone!”
“Professor Ranma,” the Elder Ranma said as he stood from his chair. “I have heard enough of this.”
Blinking his eyes, the scientist asked, “Elder Ranma? What do you mean?”
Looking down at the man on the main floor, the elder explained, “I have heard enough of doomsday and exodus theories. I propose a different course of action.”
“What is that, Elder Ranma?” Professor Ranma asked.
Looking around the entire room, the elder shouted, “My fellow Ranmas. We must gather all available resources and intellectual Ranmas we can and bring them together to avert this disaster. Surely, if we have enough time to make little ships to run off in, then we have enough time to make one large machine to help pull our planet’s atmosphere together. Am I right?”
There was much applauding and cheering from the gathered council, also the Professor still tried to speak up. “High Elder Ranma!” He cried out. “We can’t just change the course of a galaxy!”
“We won’t have to,” the elder said. “Surely, we are the Ranmas! We are the god-slayers, we are the most physically-inclined species in all the universe. When we put a hundred percent of our effort to anything, it WILL be done. It has before, and it will again. Are you all with me?”
The cheering from the auditorium was deafening. However, Professor Ranma was less than ecstatic...
(------)
“Those idiotic bureaucrats!” Professor Ranma shouted as he entered his lab, his wife behind him and cradling their week-old son in her arms. “They doomed us all!”
“But dear,” Ranma tried to appease her husband. “Surely it can’t be the end of the world. The others are doing what they can to stabilize out atmosphere.”
“That’s just it!” Ranma shouted at his wife. “They act as though planet Ranma is the center of the Nebula. It’s not! Just because we start taking precautions for the planet, doesn’t mean it’s going to effect the rest of the galaxy!”
The redheaded Ranma nodded her head. “What should we do, Ranma?”
Sighing, Professor Ranma placed a comforting hand on his wife’s shoulder. “There’s only one thing we can do, Ranma. Send little Ranma here away.”
“WHAT!?” She shouted, feeling as though her husband had lost it. “Are you mad!? Why would we send our dearest Ranma away like some outcast? The scientists and greatest minds and laborers are toiling away as we speak to get everything ready to try and settle what is wrong with the planet!”
“Because they won’t finish in time... and our Ranma deserves a future...” Professor Ranma said slowly.
Ranma blinked her eyes slowly, the sincerity in her husbands words cutting through her quick-forming anger like a hot knife through butter. “Do you really think planet Ranma is doomed?”
Nodding his head slowly, Professor Ranma said, “I’ve been calculating everything for weeks now... planet Ranma has seen its last sunrise.”
Ranma’s eyes widened. “But if that’s so... how did you plan to get everyone off safely?”
“I had used my time in the past weeks not only for trying to figure out what was going on... but seeing and preparing for the worst, I started to design and calibrate how escape ships would work; everything was already planned out and if we went to work, we would have been done in possibly three, four hours...” he turned and started walking into the lab. “I even have a working prototype made, so I know it will succeed...”
Ranma followed her husband to the lab. “So we’re doomed to extinction?”
“No,” Ranma told his wife. “I won’t have time to make a full-scale one, or even another prototype...” he said slowly. At his wife’s questioning look, he explained, “But the one I do have works, and can serve as a life-raft for out little son...”
Tears starting to well in her eyes, Ranma had to turn away from her husband. Darn it! She couldn’t let herself cry! Crying wasn’t manly!
Seeing the state his wife was in, Ranma hugged Ranma gently from behind, trying to ease his woman’s suffering. “If you want, I may have enough time to recalibrate it... I could set it so I could send you and our son.”
Shaking her head, Ranma told Ranma, “No, Ranma. As much as I love Ranma, I won’t leave you or our home-world of Ranma.” She hugged her baby close. “I love our Ranma so much, but I cannot be greedy as to have him stay here with us. I understand that I have to let him go...”
Nodding his head, Ranma realized his wife was staying with him. “So you’ll let me send the boy to safety?”
Ranma slowly nodded her head. “Because I love him so much.”
Ranma hugged his wife tighter, this time trying to keep himself from crying, as it was one of the greatest taboos of their people. He had to be strong, not only to give his wife strength, but to have the courage and love to send his son away.
(------)
A small ship hurtled out of the Horsehead Nebula just as a huge flash shone behind it; the planet Ranma becoming no more...
Although the ship was bombarded by the radiation of the new star being created, its cargo was kept safe by the shielding. The ship of young Ranma, last son of Ranma, continued to rocket through the expanse of space and towards the planet Earth, where it would come down for a crash landing in...
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Red Priest of the 17th Order
(Posted Tue, 05 Sep 2006 04:06)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.