Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Doctor and the Debutante ❯ Journey's End ( Prologue )

Chapter 1 - Journey's End

By Time Lady

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Author's notes: This is a futuristic alternate reality story set in about the year 2300. The digidestined range in ages 19 to 26.

Ages:
Jyou: 26
Mimi: 23
Taichi: 24
Yamato: 24
Sora: 24
Koushirou: 23
Jun: 24
Miyako: 22
Ken: 21
Takeru: 21
Hikari: 21
Daisuke: 21
Iori: 19

Miscellaneous other Digidestined - ages 18 to 27

---

"I hate long trips," thought Mimi Tachikawa as she brushed her hair out of her face. "You would think by now space travel would be faster." The first class lounge was rather empty. Not that she was surprised. Few people of means traveled to the God forsaken part of the universe where she was supposed to meet her fiancé. And those who did probably had their own private ships. Unlike her family. They were borderline. Wealthy enough to afford hired help, fancy personal transports, jewelry, and designer clothing. . .the luxury items that separated them from the lower classes. But not wealthy enough to own a space ship.

Hopefully her engagement to the heir of Ishida Mining would change that. Yamato was handsome, charming, wealthy. . . everything a girl could want. He showered her with expensive and rare gifts. But there was something lacking in the relationship that she couldn't put her finger on. Maybe if they got to know each other better. She had only met him face to face about a dozen times since the marriage had been arranged. Her and Yamato's aunts had gone to the same private schools and were still good friends, though long distance friends.

Mimi bit her lower lip when she thought of her aunt - the woman who had been her guardian for the last 10 years. When her parents died, her mother's sister was Mimi's only living relative. Though the woman gave Mimi the best, Mimi often felt as if she were unwanted, her only value coming in this arranged marriage (her aunt had three sons). Mimi had learned early on not to talk about her father, whom her aunt deemed unsuitable as a husband for Mimi's mother. Her aunt spent the last 10 years drilling into her niece that Mimi now owed her living to her, so she shouldn't complain about the arrangement. "If she cared so much about me marrying her friend's nephew, why isn't she coming with me?" thought Mimi, even though she knew the answer. The old woman hated traveling long distances on passenger liners as much as she did, and the old woman was too proud to ask her niece's fiancé to send their own transport.

She saw her shadowy reflection in the glass of the viewing dome. "I hope I have some time to rest before we meet. Space travel just does not agree with me," she thought.

To distract herself, Mimi looked around the first class lounge. An older woman reminding Mimi of her aunt sat at a table attempting to argue with a serving droid while an older man looked on. Across the lounge sat a young man she had seen there regularly. His nose was always pressed against the screen of a book reader. No wonder he needed glasses she thought.

Not many people were in first class on this particular ship. The rest were probably in their rooms or on one of the activity decks. Mimi was tired of being alone at that point. The older couple was still arguing with the droid. She stood and walked over to the table where the young man sat. As she drew nearer, she noticed his hair had a bluish tinge, rather than being totally black. On the table beside him were more book cartridges for the reader. All of them were long titles of medical journals. "Mind if I join you?" she asked. Startled, he looked up at her. She realized his eyes behind the glasses were about the same color as his hair.

"Ah. . . um . . sure. . ." he stammered. Pretty young women never seemed to speak to him. But then, there was virtually no one else in the lounge at this time. She was probably just bored.

"So what brings you on this long, tedious trip?"

"I just finished attending a medical conference on Betarius. You?"

"I'm on my way to join up with my fiancee," she replied.

"Oh." Jyou realized he was right. Who was he kidding? Attractive women were never interested in him. She was bored and looking for someone to talk to on this long trip. "Getting married soon?"

"Yes." Mimi glanced at the engagement ring Yamato presented her with on his last visit to her homeworld. The diamond was almost like a chunk of ice on her finger. "I should be able to finalize the arrangements once I arrive. Our families have given us 2 months after my arrival to hold the ceremony." She felt the young doctor's eyes studying her.

"Pre-wedding jitters, huh?"

"You could say that."

Jyou stared off out the viewing port. He had one week before reaching his homeworld. As much as he loved being a doctor, there was something lacking in his life. Or somethings. He just didn't know. The trip to Betarius had been out of necessity. Two weeks going there, a week at the conference, two weeks to get back home. He needed a long vacation to try and get his head together. It didn't help. Neither did sitting across from an extremely attractive young woman who was already engaged.

"Thinking about someone back home?" prompted Mimi.

"Not really." Jyou gathered his book cartridges. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go check messages. The doctor who has been covering my patients has been having difficulty with one particular patient."

"Maybe I'll see you later."

"Maybe." Jyou beat a speedy retreat.

"Interesting young man," thought Mimi as she watched him go. "I didn't even get his name though," she realized when he was gone.

---

Jyou collapsed onto his bed. With one careless comment, the woman had hit the problem on the head. There _was_ no one waiting for him when he got home. Well, no one other than a load of patients. Sighing, he began checking his messages. Mrs. Matsumoto was complaining about her nerves. Mr. Shingo had fallen and sprained his ankle. Nothing major. He began following up on about 2 dozen messages left for him. Travel in deep space made it inconvenient to send live messages except in emergencies, so pre-recorded vid-mail messages had to do. Most of the messages were from patients and from the doctor handling his load. A couple of messages were from his brothers. He finished just about time for dinner.

Lying back on his bed, his hands behind his head, Jyou considered ordering room service. "Who am I kidding? I can't spend the next week here in my room," he told himself. "Besides, this is a big ship. I'll probably never see her again."

As he walked into the first class dining room, he found he was totally wrong. She was sitting alone at a small table studying a menu. All of the first class passengers had apparently decided to dine at the same time. Not a single table was available. He scanned the room for another empty spot at a table, but she saw him and waved him over. Jyou swallowed his nervousness and approached her table. "Good evening," he said.

"Good evening," she returned with a smile. "After you had left, I realized I didn't get your name."

"Jyou. Jyou Kido."

"And I'm Mimi Tachikawa," returned the woman. Jyou noticed her hair was pulled up into a chignon and fastened with glittering clips. "Won't you join me?"

"Thank you," returned Jyou as he pulled out his chair. He sat down and reached for a menu, very aware of Mimi's eyes on him.

Jyou spent the next hour eating in a nervous silence. Mimi, however, talked up a blue streak. In fact, she didn't stop, except for bites of food. Everything she talked about appeared. . . superficial to Jyou. Fashion, jewelry, celebrities, gossip. . . he found himself rapidly becoming disinterested in conversation. He soon began wondering if there was anything else here to this woman besides high society. After another few moments, he was contemplating how to make a polite exit.

Then, without warning, the spaceship shook. Murmurs spread throughout the first class passengers. "What was that?" asked Mimi, pausing in her discussion of a particular celebrity marriage.

"I don't know," returned Jyou, thankful for the pause. "Perhaps something happened with the ship's stabilizers."

Another tremor rocked the ship. This one shook the chandeliers and the seats. One or two of the passengers fell out of their seats. The room became eerily silent. The loudspeaker cut through the silence like a laser. "Attention all passengers. This is your captain speaking. We are experiencing some technical difficulties. While we endeavor to get things under control, we ask that you please return to your cabins. I repeat, please return to your cabins. Thank you for being patience with this inconvenience."

Grumbling and complaining, most of the first class passengers began to depart the dining room. "Well, at least we finished our meal," commented one of the older men.

"How disgraceful!" complained the old lady from the lounge earlier as her husband escorted her out of the room. "I shall most certainly complain to the corporation about this."

"We should go," said Jyou.

Nodding, Mimi stood and followed him out of the dining room. As they walked down the corridor towards their cabins. Occasionally, the ship rocked beneath their feet. "Do you think it's a malfunction somewhere?" she asked.

"No. If it were a malfunction, the rocking would be constant. Maybe it's a meteor storm," returned Jyou. Instinct told him otherwise. He'd traveled through meteor storms before. This didn't really feel the same. If you listened carefully, the impact didn't sound quite the same either. . . . Suddenly, the ship lurched sideways. Jyou grabbed Mimi's arm to keep her steady. "I'll walk you back to your cabin," he offered.

"Thank you," returned Mimi, a tremor in her voice. As they walked down the corridor towards the first class cabins, the ship rocked and lurched.

Jyou kept pushing the thought that this was more than a meteor storm out of his mind. He didn't want to worry Mimi. The ship lurched again. Mimi fell into Jyou, knocking him into the wall. "OW!"

"Are you okay?" asked Mimi.

"Yeah. Just banged my shoulder." They made it down to Mimi's cabin.

"Thank you," said Mimi again. Then she looked right into his eyes and said "This isn't a meteor storm or technical difficulties, is it?"

"I don't know," admitted Jyou. "But the way the ship is rocking, I'd suggest you have all your most important belongings packed into a case, just in case of emergency." Mimi's eyes went wide. Before she could ask Jyou anything else, he was gone.

Jyou made it back to his own cabin a few moments later and began packing those things he felt most urgent into a carryall. As he put his medical equipment in, he could hear his brothers admonishing him for being a fatalist. "That's your problem Jyou," Shin would say. "You always think things are going to turn out worse than they are."

"That's why all the hypochondriacs love him," Shuu would return.

He never cared. Things weren't always as bad as he would expect, but at least he was prepared for the worst if it came about. He fit his book reader and cartridges in the bag, along with some instant food packets he brought, just in case he didn't like the food he found on the trip. Once all the things Jyou felt were essential were packed, he threw in a few articles of clothing. The carryall was stuffed to the limits, but he knew he was better off having one small bag in an emergency. Besides, new clothing could always be bought or found.

Inside her cabin, Mimi paced. "What if he's right?" she was thinking. "If we have to evacuate, I'd lose _everything_. Auntie would be furious with me if I lost the jewelry, or the fur stole, or. . . ." Her mind began contemplating a dozen different things she knew she didn't want to lose. In fact, she didn't want to lose any of her belongings. . . .

---

For a half hour the ship tilted, lurched, rocked, and shook. Jyou was certain he heard explosions. All of the viewers were cut off and the portholes darkened. Something was going on and the ship's crew didn't want anyone to know about it. Then the lights began flashing on and off.

"Attention passengers," announced the captain. "Please remain calm. We request that you advance to the nearest escape pods. . ." The rest of the announcement was lost to Jyou as he picked up his bag and walked to the door of his cabin, which was now open. Dimly over the panicked screams of the first class passengers he heard something about space pirates, failing engines, reduced life support.

He was jostled about while he tried to remain calm amidst the mayhem. His mind flashed back to his emergency room training. "It does the patients no good if you panic. Even if the whole hospital is coming down around you, stay calm," said the instructor. Taking a deep, cleansing breath, he forged ahead, praying he'd make it to an escape pod in time.

"Someone help me please!" he heard a soft, female voice cry out. The masses of people struggling through the corridor seemed to ignore it. "Please," she pleaded.

Jyou forced his way towards the voice. He found Mimi on the floor, one of her suitcases open and being trampled. "Come on," he said. "There isn't time."

"But my clothing. . . my makeup. . ." protested Mimi as he helped her up. Jyou scooped up a couple of pieces of her clothing, pushed the smaller, closed case into Mimi's hands, then grasped her arm.

"There's no time," he hissed. The crowd began to sweep them along the corridor. "We have to get to the escape pods."

Each floor was equipped with a certain number of escape pods, which could fit a maximum of six people. Jyou and Mimi found themselves overcrowded into a pod with the old couple from the lounge, a young woman with blonde hair, a teenage boy with short brown hair, and two humanoid-appearing, blue skinned beings of a species Jyou and Mimi didn't recognize immediately. Jyou knew they didn't breathe air, as the globes around their heads seemed to contain some sort of gas that went to exchangers on the aliens' belts. Despite being overcrowded, more people were trying to squeeze in. A portly human man squeezed into the already tight space just as the door slid shut.

"We must strap in," said one of the aliens.

"There's not enough seats," complained the old woman.

"Some of us are going to have to double up in seats," said Jyou as he stuffed his and Mimi's packs into the storage unit.

"I refuse to share my seat," returned the woman. "My husband and I were here first!"

"My biomate and I are slender enough to share one of the safety chambers," said the other alien. The two sat closely enough in one glass-covered chamber so that it encompassed both of them.

"Good idea," said Jyou. He studied the two younger people. "I think you and I can squeeze into a chamber," he said to the teenage boy.

"All- all right," he returned. It was a tight fit, but both he and Jyou managed to squeeze into the chamber.

"We might as well do the same," said Mimi to the blonde woman. She didn't appear much younger than Mimi herself.

"Oui. I agree," said the woman in a French accent. She was very petite and easily fit into the chamber beside Mimi. The portly man began squeezing into a chamber, as did each of the older couple.

The last thing any of them remembered was their safety chambers closing, then dropping in temperature and putting the inhabitants into stasis.

---

On a planet a long distance from the last known coordinates of the space liner, a young secretary walked into a plush office of the Ishida Mining corporation. She was rather surprised to find the office still occupied after hours

Jun Motomiya entered the office, then paused. Smiling, she shook her head and sighed. Her employer lounged back in his executive chair, his feet propped on the desk, watching a zero-G soccer game on 3-D holovision. "So what's the score?"

Startled, Yamato Ishida sat up abruptly and muted the sound. "I thought everyone else had gone home."

"Your father wanted reports on the quadrant 4 mines by tomorrow morning," she returned with a shrug. "And what are you doing here?"

He grinned sheepishly. "I tuned in the game and lost track of the time."

Jun glanced at the holovision. She instantly recognized one of the teams. Yamato turned the sound back on. ". . . And the Comets are certainly burning bright this evening," said the announcer. "Particularly their lead scorer, Daisuke Motomiya. He already has two goals and we aren't even at the break yet. . ."

"Looks like Daisuke's aiming for MVP," mused Jun. "He's always. . ." Jun paused when a news bulletin suddenly interrupted the game.

"We apologize for the interruption," said the newscaster. "We will return to the zero-G soccer playoffs in a moment. Our station has received this late breaking report. Space pirates attacked an interplanetary space liner. The ship, a space liner belonging to Unica Transport, broadcast a SOS signal. Authorities are proceeding to the last reported location. We will bring you details as they are revealed. To repeat. . ."

"Unica Transport?" said Jun. "Isn't that the liner company your fiancee was traveling?"

"Yes," said Yamato. "But we don't know if that was Mimi's ship."

"Do you want me to start making inquiries?"

"Not yet. Let's see what other information comes up first." Yamato stared thoughtfully at the holovision and listened to the sketchy details available.

---

"Are they awake yet?" said a strange, white creature.

"It looks like a few of them are waking up," said a creature with a flower for a face. "The ones over here are, at least. I don't know about those others."

"I don't know," said a yellow creature with a hard carapace. "The chests on the ones over here seem to move. The other ones don't."

"Hey," said a green creature with a flower on top of its head, "the one with the funny thing on his face seems to be waking up!" Her three companions bounded over and gathered around.

"Unnngggghh. . .," groaned Jyou. Obviously he wasn't in the safety chamber anymore. Under his fingers he felt grass. His eyes flew open. The young doctor found four faces staring down at him. "GAAAAHHH!!!" he screamed. He tried to get away, but his body was very lethargic after the stasis.

"He's awake," said the white creature.

<to be continued>