The cold light of the stars lit up the sleek craft, a silvery
needle in the darkness of space. From the rear powerful engines pushed
it forward, while along the needle's length modules for weapons and
other purposes dotted the smooth hull. At the bow, a large opening was
visible, clearly a powerful weapon of some sort.
But while it was all seemingly peaceful on the outside, within
it was anything but. Ruri leaned forward in her command chair, her
twin ponytails of blue hair swinging as she asked pleasantly,
"Tactical status?"
"I can't find them," the young man growled out.
"Calm yourself," the young lady on the left firmly advised
him. The redhead bent over her own set of engineering controls before
quietly reporting, "All our sensors appear to be functioning within
normal limits, ma'am."
"Thank you, Miyuki," Ruri smiled slightly. She turned back to
the young man, "Matthew, is there any way to check the blind spot?"
Matthew scowled fiercely, "As the representative of the
manufacturer, I must once again assure you that there's simply no way
that an enemy ship could get through the sensor web into our blind
spot completely undetected."
"You're certain?" Ruri said, keeping her voice perfectly even.
"Yes, ma'am," he said proudly.
"Communications, use the encoding number 223, then send the
signal out, 'Sit still.' please," Ruri smiled at Kei, then as the
redhead bent to her work she turned and nodded to her temporary
navigation officer Yuri, "Helm?"
"Yes, ma'am?" Yuri smiled eagerly, the black haired young
woman's hands hovering just above the control surfaces.
"Use the maneuvering thrusters," Ruri smiled, "bring us
about."
A feather light touch on the controls and the silvery ship,
the prototype of the Nadesico class gracefully turned in space. The
crew in their stations bent forward slightly as on the viewscreen the
space outside shifted. The bow of the other vessel appeared first,
then the entire ship rotated into view, a sleek wooden Juraian
starcraft.
Matthew was bone pale, gazing in pure shock at the ship that
had, indeed, been hiding in their blind spot only moments before.
"How.." he stammered it out weakly, turning to look up at where Ruri
sat calmly.
"It doesn't really matter how they did it," Ruri said to him
crisply, "it only matters that she was able to get into our blindspot
and exploit it, something that your company had repeatedly assured us
was utterly impossible."
"Understood," Matthew accepted his defeat with surprising
grace, "I'll contact the company, and authorize the instillation of a
sensor node to cover that blind spot, as well as add the node to the
vessel's standard plans."
"Thank you," Ruri said gravely. She looked over at Kei,
"Communications link, please?"
The image on the screen shifted, and a smiling young woman
appeared there. "Hey Ruri, how's tricks?" Minagi said. The former
space pirate wore her typical bodysuit, a form fitting number in red
and white, her face marked by the scars on each cheek.
"They're going well," Ruri smiled slightly. "I want to thank
you and your ship, Hinase, for your assistance in this test run."
"Buy us a drink?" Minagi grinned.
"Why not," Ruri answered, "I'll meet you back on Selene
Station, we'll get something there." A short pause, "Did you say us?"
A young woman, looking to be in her twenties, appeared on the
screen beside Minagi. Just like Ruri her blue hair was tied up in two
tails, but an odd symbol was on her forehead. "Hi, Ruri," Princess
Sasami of Jurai beamed, "nice to see you!"
Ruri couldn't help but smile back, "Nice to see you, too,
Princess."
The trip back to the docks at Selene was mostly quiet, as each
of the crew was occupied with their own thoughts. Ruri found herself
considering how much she had in common with Kei and Yuri, the last
surviving clones of the original Lovely Angels.
Like them, Ruri was a clone, mass produced back when Nergal
was attempting to get into shipping in a big way. Her legal status at
the time was still unclear, so for a long time her various clones
served as virtual slaves of the corporation. It wasn't until a clone
got in to Arisugawa's Locket and appealed for sanctuary that the brown
stuff hit the fan.
Kei and Yuri were even worse off than she was, in some ways.
Resurrected again and again by the managers of the World Welfare
Workers Association, they were the ultimate expendable agents, sent
into the very worst of situations, to pull a miracle or die trying. It
was astonishing how often they were able to actually save the day, but
more often they failed, the gory details spread all across human
colonized space.
'No wonder they got the nickname Dirty Pair,' Ruri thought
grimly.
After the 3WA finally collapsed under it's own weight, the Kei
and Yuri of that era were both slain. It wasn't until a few years ago
that an archeological team discovered the 3WA cloning vault, and after
some debate a new clone of each person within was created, then the
tissue samples and personality recordings were all destroyed.
"Approaching dock," Yuri's voice interrupted Ruri's thoughts.
Recovering her poise nearly instantly Ruri commanded, "Bring
us in, please."
"Aye, aye sir," Yuri worked the controls gracefully, bringing
them forward to gently slip into the dock with a soft thump.
The Selene space station was the maintenance dock for the
entire Earth fleet, situated directly between the Earth and Moon.
Large enough to service dozens of vessels it was miles across, like a
metallic snowflake hanging in space.
"Secure latches," Matthew ran through the docking checklist,
"connect to station feeds, switch over internal oxygen to station
management."
"We're home at last," Ruri smiled slightly. She activated the
shipwide communication systems from the terminal on the arm of her
command chair, "Nice job, ladies and gentlemen. Shore leaves are
authorized, standard rotations."
Matthew unhooked himself, standing in front of Ruri's chair to
offer her a perfect salute, his expression oddly respectful. "I hope
that next time we'll end up being on the same side, more or less," he
smiled wryly.
Ruri returned the salute gravely and said, "Let us hope." As
he left she let the remaining members of her normal bridge crew leave
before smiling over at Kei and Yuri, "Thank you for filling in on such
short notice."
"No problem," Kei pushed her red hair back, "it makes a nice
change from spending all our time out on assignments in the Lovely
Angel."
"Not to mention helping ruin that guy's day," Yuri added with
a sly smile.
Ruri lead the two out of the ship and into the sprawling
station itself before asking, "Would you care to join us for that
drink?"
"Not this time," Kei smiled, taking Yuri's hand, "I promised
my partner we'd spend some time alone on the Lovely Angel."
Yuri actually blushed, and Ruri had to fight the urge to
laugh. Instead she gave them a cheery wave and, "Have a good time!"
"They're not coming along?" Sasami sounded just a bit
disappointed as she and Minagi joined Ruri at the access way.
Ruri shrugged, "Personal business."
Minagi chuckled softly as they set off together. She reached
out, taking Sasami's hand, "Just like that last long trip we took
together, love."
Sasami blushed slightly before changing the subject by asking
Ruri, "So will they fix the problem you found?"
"Thanks to your able assistance," Ruri directed a smile to
both her and Minagi. Quietly, "How are things on Jurai?"
"Tense," Minagi replied tersely.
Ruri's eyes narrowed in worry, "Did something happen to the
twins?"
"Tenchi's children are fine," Sasami quickly reassured her,
"but the nobles are getting surly that Tenchi won't agree to any of
their expansionist policies."
"They don't dare oppose him openly," Minagi complained,, "but
there's plenty of ways to undermine him covertly."
"And Tenchi's not ruthless enough to deal with them as
needed," Ruri sighed. She fixed Minagi with a serious glance, "If he
needs backup, let me know. I still owe him personally."
"I'll do that," Minagi smiled.
To be continued...
Characters in this Episode: Ruri is From Martian Successor Nadesico.
Kei and Yuri are from Dirty Pair. And finally, Minagi, Sasami and
Hinase are from Tenchi Muyo.
Author's Note: Miyuki's name and description are from Miyuki-chan in
Wonderland, but it couldn't possibly be her. ^_^ I made up Matthew,
thankfully. The Dirty Pair's background comes from the comic book
series, and is how I explain Dirty Pair Flash, too. I don't know if
Nergal would mass produce Ruri's, but it wouldn't surprise me.
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