"At least that fellow was willing to let me take the Windrider with me to serve as a base ship..."
Moroboshi Ataru relaxed in the central chair of his private star-barque, constructed as a reward for his assistance in the recent war between the Onis and their ages-old foes, the Noukiites. Two of the Windrider's android crew manned the helm and navigation stations. The beautiful ship, a vessel the size of the average Terran jumbo jet, had been transported from its home dimension to the spacial nexus where his other-dimensional counterpart had set up his base of operations. On the viewscreen on the forward bulkhead of the pilotage, the image of a Class L planet orbiting a A type star was projected.
"Venerable, we're on orbital approach," the android at the helm reported.
"Sir, ECM is detecting scanning waves emitting from the planet surface," navigation added. "It appears to be the target zone where your venerable sisters were absconded to. Further, there is another starcraft in orbit over the planet."
Ataru blinked. "Activate the cloak. Put the other ship on the viewscreen."
"Hai!" both androids replied as they flipped controls.
The viewscreen wavered, then cleared up to dispay the image of a sleek, silver-hued starcraft about twice the size of the Windrider. Wedge-shaped, it had two matter/antimatter warp drive nacelles on its quarters. Ataru blinked several times as a surge of unreality flowed through his mind, then he whispered, "The Voyager...?"
"Perhaps these people are those from other dimensions that the Most Venerable One sought out to deal with the other you, Venerable," the helm ventured.
"I guess so," Ataru mused with a grim nod, then he rose. "Maintain cloak. Keep a respectable distance from the Voyager. I'm going to prepare myself, then head down."
"Good luck, sir," both androids called out as he stepped off the pilotage...
"Lum..."
In his private quarters in the aft end of the star-barque's main hull, Ataru quickly stripped off his Stargazer West College's uniform, then moved to slip on the butternut gi-like pants and tunic he had worn when fighting with the Noukiites against the Onis on a dozen planets all within fifty light-years of Earth. The Onis...
Lum's people...
Taking a deep breath, he reached into a drawer to draw out a cloaking cape to sling over his shoulder. He had no real idea about what capabilities the other him had at his beck and call, so he wasn't taking chances. Especially since all twelve of his sisters -- even little Hinako (age eight), Aria (ten) and Kaho (twelve) -- were now the other him's prisoners, soon to be brainwashed into becoming part of the other him's harem.
Harem...
Ataru stopped, squeezing his eyes shut as the wild typhoon of emotion that had begun to rage in the pit of his stomach moved to overwhelm him. Rage, hate, fear, disbelief, embarrassment, shame, a weary tiredness...! Lowering himself to one knee, he took several deep breaths to calm himself.
Damn...
Damn it all, if this had been a year ago, it might've been him...
It might've been him...
Sensing his decorum reassert himself, he rose back up, then walked over to his bed. Underneath it was his personal weapons locker, carrying other, darker momentoes of the last year -- in real time -- of his life. Recalling that, he stopped as images from the "Tomobiki pseudo-war" (when the entity called Memory had taken Lum hostage in a pocket dimension under the Tarouzakura tree in one remote corner of the Mendou estate) came back to him. The words he had said to Shinobu-chan...
No, no.
Not Shinobu-chan.
Miyake-san.
He had no right to call her anything else but that these days.
Much less any of the others...
Oh, how would they react to him now?
Reaching into his locker, he drew a Kamahanite Range Hunter battle rifle and four magazines. He slipped one magazine into the loading slot, then chambered a round in the firing bed. The other magazines went into the big pockets of his tunic. Gazing at the huge grey weapon, created by a reptillian humanoid race from a planet hundreds of light-years from Earth, Ataru shuddered as all the technical details about the Range Hunter came back to him. One hundred rounds in each magazine. Able to shoot in single-shot, three-tap or full auto "rock and roll" fire. Capable of dropping someone dead a kilometre away...
Oh, how much had he changed in just a year's time...
Rising, he closed the door to his weapons locker with his foot, then headed out.
It was time to bring his sisters home...
"A counterpart to the man who kidnapped the Captain and the others? From another dimension?"
"Yes, Commander," the Being replied, staring at Chakotay from the viewscreen on Voyager's bridge. "I realize this might cause you some confusion, but I assure you, he will gladly help you free your shipmates."
"What is the difference between this Ataru Moroboshi and the one who absconded with our shipmates?" Tuvok asked.
"The differences are many, Lieutenant-Commander." A wry smile crossed the Being's face. "He is a year older than your opponent. His twelve half-sisters were kidnapped by your opponent straight from a family picnic on the island they call home. And in the year between his equivalent of the time your opponent hails from and his present time, Mister Moroboshi had endured things few mortals can endure." A pause as his eyes focused on Chakotay, then he continued. "Tell me, Commander Chakotay, how would you thing a man like Mister Moroboshi would react after witnessing the mass slaughter of three billion sentient beings first-hand?"
Silence fell over the Federation starship's bridge as...
(Posted Sun, 08 Feb 2004 13:08)
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