"Status report?!"
"Shields are up, weapon armed and ready, Venerable," the android manning the helm replied. "ECM is detecting some type of transmission emitting from the Cylon basestar, aimed at ourselves and Voyager. It appears to be an attempt to make us drop our shields."
Hearing that, Marie grimaced. "Just like they'll try to pull on the colonists when they launch their attack on Kobol," she muttered under her breath, then she glanced over her shoulder at Rinrin's station. "Are they getting into the computers, Rinrin-chan?"
"Nope," Ataru's super-genius sister replied with a laugh, then she tapped controls on her console. "I'm trying to force-feed them a virus in return, haze up their command and control systems so they'd have a harder time directing their attack."
"Keep trying," Marie ordered.
"Venerable, the ship that just arrived is launching fighters and engaging the Cylons," another android, this one at sensory, reported.
Marie gazed on the viewscreen to see tiny darts of light leap from the Galactica's launch bays, racing like a storm at the oncoming Cylons. "Rinrin-chan, how many fighters does a battlestar like the Galactica carry?!"
"Since this is from the new series, forty," Rinrin replied. "We better get in there and help out, Marie-chan."
The bespectacled, raven-haired teenager took that warning in, then she sighed. "Agreed. Signal the Voyager..."
"Venerable, more ships arriving!!" the android at sensory cried out. "Two Federation starships and another Colonial battlestar!!"
"On screen!!"
The image changed to reveal three ships racing clear of another wormhole-like apeture. One of them was a virutal near-twin to the Galactica. At her station, Rinrin used a cursor on her personal viewscreen to magnify the name written on the port-side landing bay. "The Pegasus!" she called out, then focused on the two Federation starships. "The Defiant and the Enterprise-E, too?!"
"Thank Heavens!!" Marie breathed out in relief...
"Cain, you old warhose! Where've you been these last few yahrens?!"
"I've not been slumming, Adama! I assume you received the same message I got!!"
The bespectacled, middle-aged commander of the Galactica, William Adama, grimly nodded. "From a mysterious Entity concerning a Cylon thrust not only against humanity in our own home dimension, but in dozens of others?"
"I assume the other ships here are from those other dimensions," the Pegasus' commander mused.
"I assume the same...!"
"Commander, look!!"
Adama's eyes spun to the main viewscreen in the battlestar's combat information centre. It now showed the smallest of the alien ships, an ovoid-shaped craft with thrusters mated to its sides and a sensor-like probe on the bow, leap into the fray, high-powered weapons shredding the Cylon attack flights into scrap. "Looks like our friends from elsewhere are jumping into it right now!" Adama declared.
"I'm launching my Vipers now!" Cain warned.
"Right!"
"No organic lifesigns whatsoever within these fighters OR their mothership?"
"Negative, Captain," Data replied. "However, sensors do indicate that the attacking fighters and their base ship are currently crewed by very advanced forms of artificial life. If indeed these are the 'Cylons' the Entity warned us of..."
"Then everything else that being told us is also the truth," Jean-Luc Picard finished for his second officer.
"Affirmative, sir. A spectrographical analysis of the two larger ships now launching interceptor craft do indicate many strong similarities in technology between themselves and the Cylons."
The Enterprise's veteran commander considered that, then grimaced. Compared to the Cylons, even the Borg and the Founders had their redeeming qualities. "Signal the Defiant," he ordered. "Captain Sisko?"
"Go ahead, Captain Picard," the commander of the U.S.S. Defiant and Deep Space Nine replied.
"We'll go after their mothership. Keep those fighters off our backs."
"Acknowledged."
The Enterprise surged headlong towards the giant Cylon basestar...
Planetside...
"Is this normal for his universe?"
Sweat poured down Karen's hair. "Pretty much so, Janeway-taisa. Maybe we should just..."
"HOW DARE YOU TURN RANMA AGAINST ME, YOU HUSSY?!!"
Eyes spun on Tendou Akane as she slowly got back to her feet, her fists quaking and her battle aura starting to flare as she glared lethal daggers at Moroboshi Haruka. The raven-haired, German-raised sister of Moroboshi Ataru blinked, then sighed. "And what, may I ask, Tendou-san..." she wondered, the syrupy emphasis on the honorific the equivalent of a vicious slap to the face to the youngest Tendou sister, "...did I supposedly do to turn Ranma-sama against you?" She crossed her arms contemptuously.
Akane shuddered on seeing that this witch wasn't backing down an iota. Standing nearby, Ranma's other would-be lovers exchange looks, then turn on the target of their affections. "She didn't do anything to you, did she, Ran-chan?!" Kuonji Ukyou asked.
Ranma blinked, then a muscle twitched on his forehead. When once, he would have done anything, anything at all, to avoid these damned confrontations -- even if it meant that he would suffer for it in the long run -- right now, he was just not in the mood. Damn it all, the one thing resented about all his fiancees -- and yes, this included Akane! -- was being treated as a prize and not a person. "No. She did not," he replied, glaring neutrally at Ukyou, then he turned to Kathryn. "Janeway-taisa, why don't you take the others and go on ahead? There's something I need to do here and I don't want to delay the rescue of the other hostages while my four so-called 'fiancees' are behaving like a pack of spoiled brats instead of responsible martial artists."
Hearing that, Akane, Ukyou, Shampoo and Kodachi awked. "Alright," Kathryn acknowledged with a nod. "Everyone!"
The others in the group quickly headed down a side hallway. Ataru notioned Karen to go with the Voyager's commander, then shifted himself to stand close to Haruka, who had elected to remain behind. As soon as they were relatively alone, Kodachi moved to touch Ranma's shoulder. "Ranma-sama, surely you can't possibly..."
SLAP!!
Kodachi dropped to the ground, her hand reaching up to feel her now-bruised cheek. "Do not ever presume to touch me again, Kunou-san," Ranma snarled, glaring the gymnast down as his own battle aura flared to life, making his other fiancees take several hesitant steps away from him. "You do not, have never and will never have any right to claim any sort of relationship with me! Anything you might have tried to trick my fool father into agreeing to, I will not acknowledge! Do I make myself clear about that, Kunou?!"
Kodachi shuddered as Ranma's harsh words washed over her, then she collapsed, sobs escaping her. Ranma breathed out, surprised with himself for not feeling any sort of sympathy for the woman, then he turned to Ataru. "Do you mind getting rid of this idiot?" he asked, tossing a contemptuous thumb towards Kodachi. "You got some place on your ship she can be put into so she don't cause trouble?"
Ataru smirked, then drew out his communicator. "Moroboshi to Windrider."
"Yes, Aniue-sama?" Marie called back.
Ataru was quick to sense the tension in her voice. "What's the situation in orbit, Marie-chan?!"
"It's bad, Aniki!" Rinrin replied. "We've got a Cylon basestar launching fighters at us right now! The Voyager and we've been reinforced by the Galactica, the Pegasus, the Enterprise-E and the Defiant, but it's a hard one to call right now! We've got our shields up, so we can't bring anyone aboard at this time."
"Acknowledged," Ataru called back. "We'll try to neutralize things down here. Call if something changes."
"Hai!"
The link was cut, then Ataru shrugged. "Sorry about that, Ranma-san. Much that I can guess that you've got more than enough reasons to be rid of these morons, I can't help you that way." He rose a finger in objection. "However..."
Before the others could react, Ataru twirled his Range Hunter to bring its solid-metal buttstock plate around...
THWACK!!!
Akane collapsed to the ground, an arc of blood showering from her nose and mouth after they were nearly crushed by his blow. Before Ukyou or Shampoo could react to what Haruka's brother just did, they found themselves facing the business end of Ataru's rifle. "If any of you ever threatens any of my sisters in any way, shape or form..." Ataru's left eye glowed a brilliant gold as his voice turned into a metallic durge that sent chills down even Ranma's back! "I will kill yo-...!"
"ANIGIMI-SAMA!!!"
"Hinako-chan, what's wrong?"
"A-ri-ri?" Hinako muttered, she gazing confusedly around the Windrider's spacious galley. In the background, the cross-dimensional culinary staff under Shirayuki's, Neelix's and Mihama Chiyo's direction was busy preparing snacks for the hostages and their rescuers.
A hand touched her shoulder. "Hinako-chan?"
"Ah!!" the youngest of Ataru's sisters cried out, then she gazed quizzically at Chiyo. "Chiyo-chan...?"
"You just blanked out, Hinako-chan," Kurosawa Minamo declared as she and Tanizaki Yukari walked up to join Chiyo and Hinako. "What's wrong?"
Hinako blinked several times as she tried to remember what just happened, then a familiar chill warped through her. "Onii-tama..."
"What about your brother?" Yukari asked.
Hinako slowly breathed out. "It felt like Onii-tama was about to put his armour on..."
Chiyo, Yukari and Minamo exchanged confused looks...
Ataru jolted, then confusion crossed his face as the glow in his eye faded. Watching him as he turned to gaze on Haruka, Ranma was quick to sense the massive surge of chi -- not the emotional type of chi he or Hibiki Ryouga used for fuel to their signature attacks, but raw, PURE chi energy -- rise and fall deep within the other man's body. What the HELL was going on here?
"Haruka...?" Ataru asked in a perplexed whisper.
Sensing that the monster within him was not about to blaze through every pour in his body, Haruka relaxed. "Anigimi-sama, be careful!" she urged, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You almost lost control and let it out! Please, be careful!!"
Ataru blinked several times as he tried to interpret what was going on, then he sighed. "Sorry..."
"Don't apologize," Ranma assured him. "It was Akane-san who provoked it. Without cause or reason, which is normal for her." He fired a contemptful look at Akane, who was now being helped by Ukyou. "You were defending your sister."
Ataru gazed on the woman he had struck down, then breathed out. "The sooner you dump these fools, the better! Let's go!"
"Hai," Ranma acknowledged.
With that, Ataru, Ranma and Haruka raced off to catch up to the others of their group as...
(Posted Mon, 23 Feb 2004 13:32)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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