Minagi had a slight smile on her face as Mitsuki came onto the
large bridge. "Hell of a ship, isn't she?" she said with a great deal
of pride, sitting there in the command chair.
"From what I saw of it, it's pretty impressive," Mitsuki
quickly agreed with Minagi, looking around her curiously.
Sasami, Masaki and Funaho stood to one side of the chamber,
out of the way of the members of the bridge crew. She didn't recognize
most of the crew who were sitting at the different stations, and
wondered if they were a group specially assigned to the Swordbreaker
itself. However she noted that the bridge layout itself was pretty
typical, with a central command chair and several crew stations spread
out around the circular bridge.
"You ain't seen nothing yet," Minagi grinned. She turned to
the young lady at one of the consoles, "Ayanami, open communications
with the Ryo- Ohki."
"Yes, ma'am," Rei Ayanami said coolly, activating a series of
controls on her panel with smooth efficiently.
The bridge of the Ryo-Ohki appeared on the monitor screen, and
Mitsuki quickly made note of those standing there. Ryouko and Ayeka
were front and center, Washu and Yume to one side, and nearby Kiyone
was standing waiting.
"Ready to move out?" Ryouko asked with a grin.
"The last of the stragglers are on board," Minagi shot a
impish look at Mitsuki.
"Hey!" Mitsuki protested.
Ryouko chuckled softly at that before smiling at Minagi,
"We're moving out. Let's keep the ships down to the lower hyperspace
bands, we're not in that much of a rush to get there. And it'll give
us a chance to discuss our strategy."
Minagi pouted, "Aw, but I wanted to see how fast this thing
could go!"
"It'll just have to wait," Ryouko shrugged, then she seemed to
be hit with an inspiration, "we'll race or something later, OK?"
"I'll even give you a lead, old timer," Minagi grinned.
"Oh, yeah? Ryo-Ohki can take Swordbreaker any day!" Ryouko
shot back.
Washu sighed and muttered to Yume even as the two siblings
continued to fight, "I swear, they're like a pair of overgrown
children."
"Be strong, m'love," Yume pattered her on the arm.
Ayeka was shaking her head, but a little smile was teasing her
lips.
Kiyone shot all three a scolding look, then said to Minagi
seriously, "The Swordbreaker will be carrying the fighters along with
it through hyperspace. That means if we run into anything hostile, let
the Ryo-Ohki take point until you can disengage them."
"Got it," Minagi nodded firmly.
"Then let's do this," Ryouko nodded firmly.
"Mothers, sister, I look forward to seeing you on Earth,"
Ayeka said quietly just before the communications line closed.
"Get me Yamamoto Yohko," Minagi next ordered Rei, and a few
moments later the face of the intense captain of all the fleet's
fighter squads was up on the screen. "Move the fighters into
position," Minagi ordered her.
Outside in the airless depths of space a flight of seven
fighters moved in a delicate dance, taking up their positions all
around the Swordbreaker. Six of them were silvery strike fighters, and
one was a larger, almost blood red craft.
"Fighters ready," Yohko reported from the red fighter's
cockpit.
"Extend transit field around the fighters," Minagi turned to
the silver haired figure sitting at the navigation console.
"Done," Ruri answered her simply, an odd light dancing across
both the backs of her slim hands and her wide blue eyes.
"Tactical, extend the ship's shields around us and the
fighters," Minagi ordered the young woman with fiery red hair.
"The shields are in place, ma'am," Asuka Langley reported back
after a moment.
"Yohko," Minagi said, "I want communications links maintained
with Swordbreaker at all times. This is the first time we've tried
this stunt with this many fighters, so if any of your systems start
behaving oddly, I want to know."
Yohko nodded, her expression grim, "Understood."
The link closed, and outside, they saw Ryo-Ohki moving into
position in front of them. "All right," Minagi smiled, "looks like
it's time to go."
Ruri worked her controls, smoothly bringing them directly in
line behind Ryo-Ohki, There was a slight shudder, then Ruri softly
declared, "Main drives engaged. Countdown to hyperspace transit in...
five... four... three... two... one... go."
Outside all of the viewports, space itself seemed to disappear
into pure darkness as the ship left normal space and began to move
through a very different sort of reality. Hyperspace, the shortcut
between any two places in the universe, was utilized by most of the
great spacefaring races. But Washu had taken that technology one step
better, cutting down transit times by an incredible factor. And
Swordbreaker might just be her best design yet.
"Estimated time of arrival for Earth, two standard days," Ruri
reported coolly.
Mitsuki did a fast metal comparison of roughly how long a
typical Galaxy Police cruiser could have crossed that sort of distance
and whistled softly. "That's incredibly fast," she murmured to herself
quietly.
Minagi chuckled softly, "Not really. Both Ryo-Ohki and
Swordbreaker are taking it easy. We could finished this trip in less
than a day if we wanted to."
"Remind me not to challenge either ship to a race then,"
Mitsuki blinked. She looked over at Minagi thoughtfully then with a
sly grin asked her, "When you do race against Ryo-Ohki, who should I
put my money on?"
Minagi had a good laugh at that, "Damned if I know." She got
up out of her seat and said to the navigator, "Ruri, you're in
charge."
"Of course," the silvery haired girl answered coolly.
"Asuka," Minagi turned to the tactical officer, "keep an eye
on the fighters for me. You pick up anything unusual, let me know."
"Yes, ma'am!" Asuka threw a salute.
Minagi took Mitsuki in tow before walking over to Sasami,
Funaho and Masaki and saying, "We'll have someone show you to your
quarters. They won't be luxurious as the Washu's Revenge, but they
shouldn't be too bad, either."
"Thank you," Funaho said with a bow.
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Misaki beamed. Quietly to Funaho she
said, "It'll be just like that time we stowed away on that freighter
and had to spend the entire trip in a little cabin."
Funaho didn't say anything, but she blushed faintly.
"Sasami," Minagi started, but trailed off looking a bit
uncomfortable.
"Yes?" Sasami asked curiously.
"We don't have a ship's cook just yet," Minagi admitted. She
looked entreatingly at Sasami and asked, "Would you mind helping out?"
Her pleading glance was quickly joined by Mitsuki's, Sasami's mothers,
and then several bridge crew.
"All right, all right," Sasami laughed, "I'll cook for you."
"Thanks," Mitsuki smiled happily. She chuckled softly, "I'm
sure that none of you would want to try my cooking."
"Is it that bad?" Funaho asked her curiously.
"There's an standing order to shook me if I go anywhere near
the galley of a Galaxy Police vessel," Mitsuki answered jokingly.
Soft laughter was her general reply. They escorted the ladies
to their rooms, then Minagi said to Mitsuki, "Anything you need to do
to prepare for our arrival on Earth?"
"Not much I can do in advance," Mitsuki admitted. "I'll have
to see how the situation there is and then play the investigation by
ear," she explained. She hesitated a moment, then looked over at
Minagi to ask, "You seemed especially concerned about the fighters. If
there some unusual danger involved with bringing them along?"
"Not exactly," Minagi said gravely. "We tested this out a few
times and it's worked fine, mostly. But one time..." she trailed off.
"Something went wrong," Mitsuki quickly concluded. She quietly
asked her, "Did you figure out what happened?"
"From the transmissions we recovered the pilots were goading
each other on, seeing which one could get the closest to the transit
field's event horizon," Minagi explained quietly. A grim little smile,
"They managed to rupture the field."
"A catastrophic re-entry into normal space," Mitsuki murmured,
"there's no way they could have survived that."
"Even worse," Minagi said grimly, "they impacted a planet."
"Ouch," Mitsuki winced, thinking the kind of explosion that
could trigger.
"Dixon and Fokker got a memorial plaque in one of the fighter
hangers," Minagi shrugged, "because we couldn't recover a body."
Minagi shook her head and forced a smile, "Such a gloomy topic! Sorry
I nattered on so long."
"Hey, I asked," Mitsuki shrugged. She smiled, "So how do we
kill two days?"
Minagi smirked, "I can guess how Ryouko and Ayeka are going
to."
Mitsuki snickered, "Even with Ryouko's mothers on board?"
"Wouldn't stop Ryouko," Minagi said thoughtfully, "but it
might slow Ayeka down a bit."
Just ahead of them aboard Ryo-Ohki, Ryouko looked out into the
blackness of hyperspace with Ayeka standing close by her side. "You
know what I'm going to miss the most while we're on this trip?" Ryouko
asked.
"Our bedroom?" Ayeka asked with a little smile.
"Heh. That, too," Ryouko admitted. With a slightly sheepish
smile she admitted, "I'm going to miss Sasami's cooking."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Ayeka shrugged.
"Hmm?" Ryouko looked at her curiously.
From behind her back Ayeka produced a giant lunch box. "I had
Sasami prepare us two bento boxes for today and tomorrow," she said
cheerfully.
Ryouko began to laugh even as she hugged Ayeka close, "You
think of everything, m'love."
Back to Conquest Index - Back to Tenchi Muyo Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction