"Captain Marvel! Welcome aboard the Galactica, sir."
"It's a pleasure to be here, Commander Adama," the tall, broad-shouldered man in the gold-trimmed, lightning-embossed red bodysuit and gold-trimmed white cape replied as he took William Adama's hand in his own. Gazing on the veteran battlestar commander, Marvel was somewhat shocked to see the awed look in the older man's eyes. Then again, after dealing with the Cylons in a more "normal" fashion years ago when they rebelled against their creators, to watch Captain Marvel and Superman rip apart a Cylon basestar with their own hands -- not to mention watching what Thor and the Silver Surfer had done to the other basestar...! "And I have to confess, even with my experiences dealing with the curious and the unusual, the idea of meeting people I believed were characters in various television shows is quite disorientating."
"Unfortunately, Earth is just a legend to us in the Colonies, but to know it exists in other dimensions might make us go forth to try to locate the Thirteenth Colony in our own," Brendan Cain added as he came up to take the hand of the World's Mightiest Mortal.
"I wish you luck, then, sir," Marvel said. "I only hope that this time, you won't have to do it because you were driven off your home colonies by the Cylons. If you need help towards that end..."
Adama waved the offer off before the Captain could finish "We'd prefer to deal with that matter on our own. After all, the Cylons are of our own creation, so we do have a responsibility towards dealing with them."
"They would've targetted us as well if we didn't come here to nip them in the bud, sir," Marvel replied. "Unfortunately, because of that, your problem has now become our problem." A reassuring smile crossed his face. "Don't worry, though. My friends and I, plus our counterparts from the Marvel universe, are very adapt towards solving problems like that."
"I'm sure you all are, Captain," Kathryn Janeway spoke up as she, Jean-Luc Picard and Benjamin Sisko come up to greet their guest. "And we're involved in this as well, since the Cylons targetted our dimension as well."
Marvel nodded; as Billy Batson, he was a hard-core Trekker and knew all the storylines by heart. "Especially if they tried to forge an alliance with the Borg Collective. I doubt they'd like the Dominion, though. Still, all the help we can give is there for the asking."
"We'll keep it in mind, then," Janeway assured him, then sighed. "I hope you wouldn't mind, Captain, but if you can spare some time to visit the Voyager -- with some of your friends, of course -- one of my officers would be very glad to meet you. He's an expert of sorts on popular culture from late twentieth century Earth, including 'comic books.' To actually meet those characters..."
Marvel held up a hand. "I understand that, ma'am. I assume that's Lieutenant Paris you're talking about."
Janeway was nonplussed on hearing her subordinate's name mentioned, then remembered that to the Captain, her crew's adventures were also the subject of an old 2D visual -- "television" as it was known back then -- fiction entertainment series. "It is," she said, nodding.
"In the meantime, you came here for a reason, sir," Picard spoke up. "May we ask what brings you here?"
"Certainly," Marvel replied as everyone took their seats, then he noticed the two young Japanese women seated between Cain and Sisko. "Who...?" he began, giving Adama a curious look.
"Ah!" the Galactica's commander spoke up. "Siress Sakuya and Siress Rinrin are two of the sisters of Ataru Moroboshi, the fellow who owns the solar-sail yacht off the Voyager's port quarter now. He was instrumental in dealing with the Cylons and that Largo entity before you and your friends came here, Captain. They were invited to the meeting on their brother's behalf."
Marvel blinked, then nodded understandingly. "Oh, that's right. J'onn told me about that."
"J'onn J'onzz?" Rinrin asked, pronouncing the Martian name as it sounded in Terran English, John Jones. "The Martian Manhunter?"
"The same," the Captain confirmed with a nod. "I hope your brother's alright. The psionic backlash of his transformation..."
"We know," Sakuya confirmed. "Picard-taisa told us what happened to Troi-sensei when Onii-sama transformed."
"So what does bring you here, Captain?" Adama said, moving to put the conversation back on track.
The World's Mightiest Mortal sighed. "Put simply, sir, we have at most three weeks to a month, Earth time, to vacate this dimension. If we remain here longer than that, we risk our own destruction."
That declaration surprised everyone. "What do you mean?" Sisko asked...
"My son..."
Megan reached over to draw Nodoka into her arms. "It's alright, ma'am," the crimson-haired 33-S soothed, reaching up to rub the older woman's head in reassurance. "Everything's all fixed up now. We subjected him to the brain scanner when we got the chance. Fortunately, even though the damage looked pretty bad at the start, the scanner was able to use your son's recuperative skills..."
"To heal him from the damage that infernal Neko-ken training my fool husband subjected him to," Nodoka finished, pulling herself away from Megan as she wiped her eyes clear of tears.
"Hai." Staring at Ranma's mother, Megan felt herself grin inside on seeing the icy rage in Nodoka's eyes. No doubt, when she returned back to Nerima, Saotome Genma was going to be in for a very rough time. Not that the abusive, selfish bastard didn't deserve it, of course; he certainly as hell did. But it wasn't Megan's place to suggest what Nodoka should do in that instance. Still, she could say some things. "Ma'am, I realize that you do have a right to influence how your son's life will turn out, but..."
"You feel that my son deserves much greater say as to how his life should be lived," Nodoka finished for her.
Megan jerked, then chuckled embarrassingly, rubbing the back of her head. "Um, y-yeah..."
"You fancy my son, don't you?"
A lump the size of Genaros appeared in Megan's throat as Nodoka's question sank in. "Well..."
Nodoka smiled. "It's alright to admit that, Megan-san."
Megan stared at her. "The truth?"
Ranma's mother beckoned her with a nod. "Well," Megan began. "You what I am, ma'am. Literally put, I was constructed to be an intimate companion to an organic human. Male or female, there's no difference at all in my eyes. A fair amount of my core programming is keyed to allow me to look at someone and admire his or her physical looks. Even someone who is overweight, anorexic or simply not 'handsome' or 'beautiful' becomes so in my eyes. Still, even with that, I do have some control -- especially now that I've come here and the various programming and other restrictions imposed on my by Genom's technicians have been removed -- over who I'd like to pursue as an intimate companion." Another pause. "I will admit this, ma'am. The instant I looked on your son, ALL my sexual programming snapped on just like that!" She snapped her fingers in emphasis. "That has never, ever, happened to me before, Mrs. Saotome! Never!!"
"Even when you were still on that space station?" Nodoka wondered, her eyes widening as the meat of Megan's admission sank in.
"Even then."
"Oh, dear..."
Megan took a deep breath. "Because of that, I'm willing to respect whatever you decide concerning your son. At the same time, though, I hope and pray that you'd be willing to allow Ranma to go forth and seek out his own destiny. Not anything imposed on him by outside forces, especially by his father. It's Ranma's life to live in the end, ma'am. Not his dad's. And not yours, either."
Nodoka gazed on the crimson-haired cyberdroid before her, then slowly nodded. "You are quite correct in that regard, Megan-san. And I must admit, especially now after learning about what Genma's training unleashed on my child, that I myself certainly bear some of the responsibility because of my son's several shortcomings. I..." She paused, then took a deep breath before continuing, "I would prefer that Ranma does come back to Nerima to live with me. And certainly, I'd like for him to get married as soon as possible. To someone he loves and cares for, of course. I do look forward to becoming a grandmother sometime soon. But..." She paused again, then breathed out. "Megan-san, what do you think is wrong with the situation Ranma is in right now? And if you had the power, how would you change it?"
Megan closed her eyes. "First and foremost, Ranma needs all the engagements linking him to his current crop of fiancees ended. He needs -- No, excuse me, he deserves! -- the right to choose who will be his lifemate. Thanks to his dad -- and to a lesser extent, Tendou Akane and the other fiancees, but especially Akane -- he has had no positive experience when it comes to interacting with the other gender. Given that he himself transforms into a woman with a splash of water -- and given that his father always cast a pretty negative light on women as a whole during the training trip, that influencing your son right to this day -- the fact that he doesn't have any sort of emotional 'anchor' for him to develop a more positive attitude towards his peers is going to hurt him really bad in the future."
"Do you think he's happy?"
"As things are now?" Megan asked in turn, then shook her head. "No. Only when he's in the midst of a fight is he truly happy, ma'am. Only when he's in a fight does he feel in control of himself. Again, this is just my opinion on the matter. I could be wrong, of course. You'd have to talk to Ranma about that. But when you do, ma'am, I strongly suggest that you make it clear to him that you'd be willing to accept whatever he has to say. Even if that means he leaves Nerima once and for all time. Because with his ability now to fully think things through, to use all the brainpower he was blessed with at birth -- and yes, to finally experience what boys his age experience when it comes to dealing with girls -- he's going to feel even more trapped because of the demands his engagements to Akane, Kuonji Ukyou and Shan-pu forces on him. What if he finds he doesn't like them? What if he finds that he actually hates them? Don't you want your son to be happy in the end, ma'am? Don't you think that all these demands of honour are just too much?"
Nodoka considered that for a moment, then she sighed. "Honour is important, Megan-san..."
"True, it is. But it's not the be-all and end-all of life, ma'am. And what's worse, in Ranma's case, honour has been used against his better interests, against his own wishes, time and time again. Back before he came here, it didn't really bother him that much. But right now, it's going to start bothering him a lot. Why? Because now that he's breaking out of the emotional box his upbringing forced on him, he's going to realize very soon that concentratining his heart and soul to only answer the demands of honour is just not enough."
Nodoka blinked, then she asked, "If Ranma doesn't choose you, Megan-san, what would you do?"
"Acknowledge his choice, of course. Unlike those Ranma has dealt with before, I truthfully have no real claim on him. And I won't try to convert my actions concerning the brain scanner into forcing a claim on him by making him think he owes me something. That's wrong, Mrs. Saotome. Plain wrong." Megan held up an objecting finger. "But, because I do consider myself Ranma's friend, I will want to make sure that he doesn't find himself in the situation he was in before he came here. Because he doesn't deserve that anymore, ma'am." A light smile crept across the Sexaroid's face. "And I think that deep down, you realize that Ranma doesn't deserve it, either."
"No, he doesn't," Nodoka acknowledged that with a shake of her head, then she hummed. "Well, then..."
"Meg?! You here?!"
Megan and Nodoka turned as Louise walked into the space. "What is it, Lou?" the former asked.
"Sorry to bother you," the blonde 33-S apologized to Nodoka, then stared at her crimson-haired friend from Genaros. "I just got some bad news from Mary Marvel. According to her, this dimension's gonna disintegrate on us within three weeks to a month because of all the holes the Cylons punched through the dimensional barriers to get Ataru-sama's 'harem.' In other words..."
"We got to start switching everyone into their new bodies as quick as we can," Megan finished.
"'New bodies?'" Nodoka asked.
"Yeah," Megan replied with a smile. "When we first came here from our dimension, Ataru-sama allowed us to use the D-hopper to craft a new type of body for all of us to use. Granted, the body I have now has its several strengths, but it also has a lot of weaknesses. It's something Ataru-sama didn't want for us even though Genom effectively couldn't touch us anymore. And after the Cylons and Largo came..."
"Our switching to new, better bodies became more important," Louise cut in, then she gazes knowingly on her face. "And given that Meg's got the hots for your son right now, ma'am, I think that the sooner she gets a body that'll allow her to bear children finally'll be much better when she makes her move, ne?"
Louise gave Nodoka a knowing wink. "Lou..." Megan growled, a muscle on her forehead twitching.
"Yes, that would be nice," Nodoka responded, reaching over to give the crimson-haired 33-S a reassuring squeeze on her knee...
"Welcome back aboard, Venerable."
"Thank you," Haruka responded to the android technician's greeting, then turned to wave Ranma and Washuu, the latter carrying the D-hopper, with her out of the Windrider's transporter room. "This way."
"Rustic ship," the self-professed "Greatest Scientific Genius of the Universe" mused, taking in the detailed woodwork around her.
"Hai, it is, isn't it?" Haruka mused. "But then again, the Noukiites consider starships to be no different than a mobile version of a nobleman's home. To not provide some sort of familiar decor to the ship's crew is wrong in their eyes."
The three step out of the transporter room to find themselves in a square room three metres in size. In the middle of this space is a beautiful shrine similar to the kamidana normally found in most traditional Japanese homes. Haruka stopped before the shrine, then clapped her hands once before bowing and offering a quiet prayer. Ranma and Washuu remain silent as Haruka performed her ceremony, then tensed as she turned to face them. "This is the shrine to the Windrider's house angels, the guardian spirits that are asked to protect Noukiite starships as much as they do a person's home planetside. All those who work or use this ship have to pray to them whenever they come back aboard from spending time ashore. Anyhow, let's get over to Rinrin-chan's laboratory to see what's wrong with the D-hopper."
"Fair enough," Washuu said.
From the shrine room, the three headed aft to where the work and living quarters were located. As they moved to pass by the galley, the door opened to reveal Shirayuki. The three were quick to see the steaming danishes in the tray the young chef now held in her hands. "Ah, Haruka-chan! Ranma-san! Washuu-chan! Are you three hungry?! Hime made some of her special danishes!"
"So we can smell," Ranma replied, his nose twitching excitedly.
"You must've been quite busy preparing food for everyone, Shirayuki-chan," Haruka noted.
"Hai!" Shirayuki replied, a touch of fatigue in her voice. "Even with all the help Neelix-san, Saki-san, Taeko-san, Multi-chan, Serio-san and Chiyo-chan gave Hime, Hime's never cooked so much in all her life. Hime hopes she didn't burn anything."
Ranma reached over to take a danish in hand, then he took a tentative taste. As the cinnamon and vanilla exploded in his mouth, he grinned. "These are great, Shirayuki-chan! Heck, you're an even better cook than Tendou Kasumi."
Hearing THAT compliment, Shirayuki blushed. "Hime's not THAT good..."
"Oh, no, ma'am," Ranma disagreed. "Even with something simple like a danish, you put artistry in your cooking. You ENJOY cooking, Shirayuki-chan. That's not true with Kasumi-san, though I can understand why."
Haruka and Washuu stare at him. "Because she basically had to fill her mother's shoes when she died, right?" the latter asked.
"Hai. And the fool panda and I didn't help matters when we came in and started to freeload at that place," Ranma admitted.
"Ranma-sama, you didn't know much better, remember?" Haruka reminded him. "And your father and Tendou Souun didn't encourage it."
"True, they didn't," Ranma acknowledged as Haruka and Washuu took their own danishes from Shirayuki's tray. "Still, I should've realized that we had a responsibility to help out since we were going to be living there for a while."
"You didn't want to be seen as acting 'girlish,'" Washuu noted.
Ranma gazed on the crimson-haired, near-immortal scientist, then he slowly nodded. "Yeah, that's true. But..."
"You should be given time to sit back and consider what's wrong and what's right in your life," Washuu added. "And it should be done in such a way that your would-be paramours, your parents and everyone else won't have the opportunity to interfere."
"I'd like that," Ranma admitted, then stared at the device in Washuu's hand. "Pity that can't be replicated."
"It can," Washuu admitted. "If I had the tools and the time to make such replicas. Anyhow, let's leave Shirayuki-chan here to her cooking and get to Rinrin's laboratory so I can take a good look at this thing."
"Hai," the others replied with a nod...
"Picard here. What is it, Number One?"
"Sorry to disturb you, Captain, but Data and Professor Richards has discovered something very important about the Cylons. They want to come see you right away to brief you and the Colonial commanders."
The Enterprise's commander took that in. "Alright, then..."
Now what?
(Posted Fri, 05 Mar 2004 04:47)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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