Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman Fan Fiction ❯ The Timepiece ❯ Lost in time ( Chapter 22 )

Chapter 22

The spinning and vibrations finally subsided, entailed by an eerie silence that enveloped the three still forms lying on the floor of the now completely darkened cockpit. For a long while, the only motion in there was the slow blinking of the green light from the LCD on one of the panels.

Nobody knew exactly how much time had gone by before a moan escaped from one of the three still forms.

Joe stirred slightly, he could feel the curves of the soft body through his birdstyle. For a moment, it puzzled him as to how he could have fallen asleep with a babe in his arms when he was in his birdstyle. Then everything came back to him, the team's setting off to rescue Yuki, his going into the ship while they took care of the gang outside, his rage on finding Scorpio on top of Yuki, his fight with Scorpio and the sudden spinning and vibration of the ship. The last thing he remembered was his wrapping himself around Yuki in an attempt to protect her as they were thrown against the walls of the cabin.

Realizing that Scorpio could be lurking in the darkness of the room, waiting for a chance to attack, Joe held his breathe in an attempt to detect any movement in the surrounding. He scanned the surrounding carefully with his cybernetic hearing and infrared vision. Failing to detect any other live form in the cabin or to catch any sound other than Yuki's soft even breathing, Joe came to the conclusion that they were quite alone. He wondered when and how Scorpio could have left. Could he have escaped before the spinning began? Did he wake up before Joe did? Joe discarded the second theory, cause if Scorpio did wake up before he did, he definitely would not have the chance to wake up.

Joe slowly untwined himself from Yuki's soft body and got up to his feet. He tried to feel his way over to where the control panel should be, hoping to find a light switch or something to turn the lights back on.

CRASH!

Joe fell to the floor and landed on top of a soft heap of something. Joe quickly rolled off. Pulling out his pocket flashlight, he quickly switched it on and shone it on what had tripped him. A gasp escaped him as he stared into the face of Scorpio.

The surprise almost made Joe jump and drop his flashlight. However the anticipated attack never came. For a quick glance at the twisted angle of his neck, confirmed to Joe that Scorpio could no longer post a threat to them.

Joe uttered a sigh of relief and continued to make his way over to the control panel. After fiddling around for a short while, he found a button marked `Light'. He pushed it and finally the lights came back on.

The sudden brightness caused Yuki to stir. Joe quickly made his way back to her and gathered her into his arms.

"Are you okay, Yuki?"

Yuki slowly blinked and opened her eyes. The nightmare of the past few hours was hitting her with a blinding force. In her highly emotional and confused state, she could not even recognize Joe. With horror and confusion reflecting in her dark green eyes, she tried to struggle out of Joe's hold.

"Let me go! Let me go! Please…" She burst into broken sobs.

Joe could feel his heart being ripped apart by the look on Yuki face, he tightened his hold on her and pulled her against his heart. "Yuki! It's me, Joe! It's okay now, Yuki! It's all over now! You are safe!"

"Joe?!" Yuki murmured, pushing herself off him so that she could look at his face. "Joe! Thank goodness, Joe! Thank goodness!" She exclaimed. Having fully recognized him, she relaxed and buried her head in his chest.

"Are we really safe?"

Joe nodded, "Yes, we are. The bastard is dead." Joe gently smoothed her hair back from her face.

Yuki uttered a sigh of relief. "Is he really? I must say I am glad. Did you kill him?"

Joe sighed, "No, I didn't. Though I must admit that I would love to have done it. He probably had his neck broken when he was thrown against the wall when that spinning occurred."

Yuki nodded. But after a short while, she sat up alarmed again, "Spinning? Oh darn, I've forgotten the spinning!" she exclaimed, struggling to get up.

"What's the matter, Yuki? You looked alarmed."

"Oh Joe! I am! Aren't you surprised that nobody has come for us as yet? We must have passed out for a while. You did not come to rescue me alone, did you?"

It was Joe's turn to look alarmed. "Hot damn! I have not thought about that! You don't mean that the others are hurt, do you?"

Yuki shook her head vigorously, "No! Lord help us but no! What I think happened was that some controls got hit accidentally during your fight with Scorpio and we got transported to another era."

Joe uttered a sigh of relief and grinned, "Well, isn't that easy? If it can transport us here, can't it just transport us back?"

Yuki looked at Joe earnestly, "Maybe, maybe not. I am not the pilot of my ship, Chris is. Plus this is a different vessel."

Joe looked back at her with shock, "You mean you don't know how to work this thing?"

Yuki bit her lips, "I am afraid you are correct there."

Joe shook his head and laughed a small laugh, "Well, looks like we'd be here for a while then. Let's check out where..um…when…we are, shall we? Might not be a bad idea for a short vacation."

Joe sprang up from the ground and reached over to help Yuki up. Together they made it over to the control panel.

Joe leaned against the wall, arms folded, watching Yuki check the various panels and displays on board. After laboring for a while, Yuki looked back over at Joe and sighed. For some particular reason, Joe did not like the look in her eyes, nor did he like her sigh.

"So? When are we?"

"Don't know!"

"What?" Joe asked frowning.

"Well, can you see that green blinking LCD?" Yuki asked, pointing to the green blinking light.

"Yes, so? It's reading 00000000AA. What does that mean?"

"It is supposed to show the year we are in." Yuki said blankly.

"You mean we are in the Year of the Lord?" asked Joe unbelievingly.

"Worse. Cause if so, it should say 0A.D."

"Then what does it mean? Come on, Yuki. I don't have much patience for guessing games."

Yuki sighed again, "Joe. I am afraid that there's something wrong with this device. And we really don't know WHEN we are."

Joe stared back at her mouth agape.

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