The cell phone chirped and clicked several times as the signal went out from the bathroom of the Tendō home to the nearest cell site, and then from there to the nearest grid hub in downtown Nerima, where the computers were quick to identify the call as being meant for an overseas number. Once that was done in the flash of a microsecond, the signal was then pumped straight up into orbit, relaying off several satellites before the signal would come down somewhere in the Niagara peninsula of south-central Ontario, not far from Niagara Falls itself.
Remembering where Ranma's wife currently resided, Akane could only smile as she waited for the other side to answer, her mind drifting back a year or so…
Near the border with Tomobiki…
"RANMA-SAN, LOOK OUT!"
Hearing that shouted warning from Kasumi, Ranma tensed as he sensed a small concentration of ki energy flying at him, consistent with a well-aimed punch from someone who only had mediocre training in the martial arts. As he moved to allow the blow — it was just too close to duck fully clear of it — to glance off his skull, focusing his own ki into absorbing what impact it would make on him…
KK-KRACK!
A shocked yelp of surprise escaped the street thug that had been trying to blindside him, causing Ranma to spin around and watch as he collapsed to the ground, a dazed look on his face as his hand seemed to fall over a smoking burn wound in his lower chest. As he took that in, another set of shots echoed through the evening air, eliciting a pair of angry cries from the other thugs that had tried to ambush the Tendō sisters as they were walking back to their home after a night at a local restaurant to celebrate another year free of financial problems due to their father not using the family dōjō to attract new students. As silence blissfully and finally fell over the scene, the sisters and Ranma then turned to where the shots had been fired from.
And they stared…
Stared LOTS!
"Are you people alright?" the brown-eyed, brown-haired teenage girl in the dark blue button shirt over the nearly-black work pants — her head topped with a black baseball cap with gold letters in two rows on the front — then asked as she lowered what appeared to be a pistol straight out of Buck Rodgers!
And that wasn't all that was unusual about the lady before them.
One glance to the black epaulette slip-ons on her shoulders — and the two gold stripes there, the upper one looping into the executive curl common to officers of the navies of the United Kingdom and the nations of the British Commonwealth — was enough to make all the Tendō sisters blink as the number of questions echoing in their minds began to multiply with the speed of breeding jackrabbits.
And Ranma…
"«Thanks for the save, Lieutenant,»" he said in very passable English as he walked over to the strange woman, his hand out in greeting.
As the stranger gazed at him for a second, her cheeks then began to flame as she holstered her weapon before she took his hand in her own. "«It was my pleasure, sir,»" she said as her free hand reached to the back of her head in embarrassment.
"Miyake-taii!" Everyone blinked as running footfalls echoed from nearby as the young lieutenant turned just as a quartet of policemen came up to her. "Ah, gentlemen!" she called out in Japanese. And with a mixed Kantō-Kyūshū accent to boot! "Sorry to bother you tonight."
As the policemen came up to take her statement, the Tendō sisters all exchanged confused looks…
Akane grinned as she heard a series of clicks over her phone's speaker indicating that the signal had finally switched over from the civilian grid into the Canadian Armed Forces' internal telecommunications network. Within a minute, the duty officer — or petty officer or whatever; even now, Akane had really no idea how the military of the Great White North ran things so early in the day in south-central Ontario — at the formation headquarters where Shinobu was currently employed would pick up the phone.
And then…
She smirked as she remembered the time she, her sisters, Ranma and Shinobu had spent at a local coffee house as the former Tomobiki native — and former Terran! — explained who and what she was and how she had come to become that way.
Avalonian.
The name of the bioroid humanoid race with their fantastic psionic powers and quite great longevity was still fundamentally unknown to the vast majority of the people of Earth. That would probably change within the next half-decade or so, once the initial construction of the many starships required by the various elements of the Earth Defence Force was complete and the leadership of the United Nations would be comfortable with full disclosure. Until that time, those who were directly involved with the E.D.F. worldwide were keeping VERY close-mouthed about it, practicing a strong and strict form of self-censure that would ensure that only the wildest of rumours would escape from various military bases to be gobbled up by the tabloid press.
On learning that from their new friend, Nabiki then recalled some of the fantastic headlines in some of the trash magazines she had seen at local stores. Hearing that, Shinobu had gladly confirmed what she did know of the Japanese efforts to create their own division of the E.D.F. — the Uchū Jieitai the Japanese Space Self-Defence Force — and how she had been assigned from the Canadian Forces (as she was Japanese-born despite her now being a Canadian citizen) to help the first group of Japanese Terran-form Avalonian officers adjust to working aboard the Kaze-class space destroyers soon to be commissioned into the J.S.S.D.F. After she explained how easy it was to become an Avalonian and how many young girls in Japan now were being sought out to join up, Akane expressed an immediate interest in joining up. That had been shot down by Kasumi: "Akane-chan, if you did something like that, I don't believe Otō-san would survive it."
As Akane muttered something about behind-the-times lazy fathers who couldn't see that they were now in the Twenty-first Century, Ranma then asked how Shinobu what she herself had to go through to get where she was now.
And the story that followed THAT…!
Akane then perked as an automated system came on. "«Welcome to the automated reception system for Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Star, the Naval Reserve Division for Hamilton, Halton, Wellington, Kitchener-Waterloo, Brant, Haldimand-Norfolk and Niagara,»" a polite female voice then declared in English before repeating that greeting in French as was common with all Canadian military units. "«Please choose one of the following options to indicate which language you wish to communicate with.»"
Akane then pressed the code for Japanese. The voice then changed to clear Japanese: "Where do you wish your call to be forwarded to?"
"Unit Six-Seven-Zero, Miyake Shinobu-taii," Akane responded.
"One moment, please." A second later, "Please be informed that the individual in question has now been promoted to lieutenant-commander." Hearing THAT nearly made Akane fall off the toilet seat as she gaped at her cell phone. "Sending a message now to the duty officer of H.M.C.S. Fort Erie. Please stand-by."
A second later, a man's voice then answered, "Fort Erie wardroom, Fujinami here."
Akane perked. "Ryūnosuke-san?! It's Tendō Akane."
A surprised laugh. "Hey, Akane! What're you doing calling here?!"
A smirk. "Well, what's this about Shinobu-san getting promoted?!"
A chuckle. "Ikusawa Kyōko's on pregnancy leave right now, Akane, so they needed someone to take her place while she's assigned to the dockyard here. Shinobu was the first one on the list. We've been celebrating all day because of it." The chief engineer of Fort Erie then sighed. "Wish to hell that Shinobu's husband was here. Why the hell did he HAVE to go off on that stupid training trip…?"
"He's actually coming to the dōjō today."
A pause.
"Your place?!"
"Hai," Akane affirmed with a nod. "But there's a problem."
"What?"
As Akane explained the issue to Shinobu's friend, we now…
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(Posted Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:56)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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