Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman Fan Fiction ❯ The Timepiece ❯ Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Hinotori effect finally died down, so did the turbulence inside the Timeless Phoenix . The Timeless Phoenix finally rested herself in Orbit 21 and everything inside her returned to normal.

"Mission accomplished!" Pepsi grinned and looked back at Yuki.

"Not so fast, Pepsi, we still have to contact their base and transport them back there and provide any necessary medical care in the meantime." Yuki replied.

"I know. I know."

Yuki took a few minutes to calm herself down after the excitement. She then let herself out of her seat and made her way over to the Medical lab onboard where the rescues are automatically placed by the onboard tele-transportation system.

"You need me to come with you?" Doberman shouted after her.

"Nope, Dobby. I'd be surprise if they could move a finger. They all seemed to be in a rather poor state when they were picked up. I don't think they would wake up so soon." Yuki turned at the door and smiled at him.

"As you wish, Madame"

She placed her palm onto the palm-reader and the door slid open. She could see the five rescues lying on their back on the beds inside. The guy in the blue and white uniform was lying on the left-most bed, followed by the girl, the young boy, the big guy and then the tall guy. All of them seemed to be unconscious. They uniforms comprised of a helmet with a variety of visors and a cape over tightly fitted bodysuits. Their wristbans were beeping and emitted a hazy glow. But both the beep and the glow were fading.

Yuki started walking over to the one in White and Blue.

Just as she reached him, a glare of blinding light shone forth. By the time she could see again, the rescues were no longer in their uniforms but were lying there in their civilian clothing, which comprised of a funny looking numbered t-shirt and bell-bottomed pants. The hazy glow from their wristban had ceased to emit and the beeping had died down. So, they must have run out of energy and could no longer support their birdstyles.

Yuki walked back up to the one who was in White and Blue but had since then changed into a red and blue number 1 t-shirt and white pants. She was about to check his vitals when the shock of recognition almost knocked her out.

"DAD!!!" She screamed, her eyes bulging out in disbelieve and her heart racing. "Could it really be that she was sent back to save her own parents?" She reasoned with herself, trying to calm herself down.

She quickly turned around to look at the girl beside him and sure enough, there lied her mom, barely older than herself.

It was with luck that her years of medical training did not fail her even in a shock such as this. She could hardly believe that she had just saved her own parents in another era and she dared not imagine what would have happened if she had decided to abort the mission. For if she had decided so, her parents would have died some twenty-four years ago, which was before she was born. She had no idea what would have entailed from that change of events. For though time-travelling had been made possible for over a decade, the study of the effect of time-travellers interference on history was still in an infantile stage.

Yuki quickly did a preliminary examination on them and found them all pretty badly injured, especially her dad and the tall dark guy in the Number 2 t-shirt who had sustained a bad shot in his chest area. She quickly set them up for emergency life-support. She then set them up on the diagnostic system and turned it on to do a thorough check up on them.

Ten minutes later, she had a thorough report on their physical well-being. She was seething when she saw the advanced stage of Cancer that was allowed to have developed in her daddy's body. In her era, a cure for Cancer had long been found and diagnosis extremely simplified. She could not quite understand why his cancer would have been allowed to go full-blown nor why had they not cured him yet. She also found out that the tall guy in the far-right had cybernetic enhancement and was literally a cyborg.

"D'Oh, how could I forget, the Cure for Cancer did not have any significant breakthrough until the year 2036 and we are only in the year 2035 now. No wonder." She chided herself.

She started to understand why she had been selected for the mission since cancer cure was her specialty in her Medical Training. However, Cancer treatment is not a regular type of treatment required by time travellers and most cancer patients are transported back to their originating era for treatment. So, Yuki had no idea if her cancer treatment kit would have been included in the ship's supplies. She hurried over to check for it. She was glad to find an ample amount of supply on cancer cure onboard. However, with the advanced stage of Ken's cancer, she would have to stay behind for months to cure him. She wondered if that was a viable option.

Shaking off the non-immediate concerns, Yuki quickly injected the team with healing enhancement medications. Then she proceeded to hook up Ken for his first round of treatment.

"Hands Up. Don't move" a deep gruffly Baritone growled out behind her. Yuki jumped and almost dropped her equipments. She could feel the hard barrel of a gun on her back.

"Cool it, man. I meant to help" Yuki tried to keep her voice calm.

"Keep you hands up and move over to that chair, then sit down".

Yuki complied. As she sat down, she came face to face with her assailant. Both parties gasped inwardly his ice-blue eyes met her sea-green ones. Time stopped for a moment. There was something in his eyes, something akin to deep hurt and loneliness mixed up with a wild predatory stance, that made her heart skipped a bit. Joe, for it was Joe, on the other hand, almost choked when he saw came face to face with this pony-tailed green-eyed girl in a pure white uniform that is hugging her perfectly-shaped body like a second skin. He would swear that it was Jun he was looking at if not for the height difference, for Yuki was way taller than her mom.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed before both parties recollected themselves enough to speak.

"Who are you?" Joe managed to bellow out finally.

Before Yuki could answer, Doberman had chosen to come into the Medical Lab, he was surprised to see Joe standing across Yuki with his gun drawn. Doberman quickly drawn his gun and aim it at Joe. Joe at the same time had moved the aim of his gun at Doberman as well.

"It's okay, Dobby, he is a friend of Colonel Washio. Put your gun away and leave us alone." Yuki quickly stepped in.

Doberman obligingly put his gun away but was quite reluctant to leave the room.

"Dobby, please, I can handle this." Yuki pleaded. Doberman sighed and stepped back outside.

Yuki turned back to Joe and apologised. "Sorry sir, that's my bodyguard."

Joe raised his brows, "So where are we right now? And who are you? How many of you are there all together?"

"You are on the Timeless Phoenix right now and I am Lieutenant Yuki Washio, ISO Medical Officer, Time Travellers Rescue Squad from year 2059. The Timeless Phoenix is our floating medical centre and rescue ship. There are 4 of us on board. Dobby, you have just met. Pepsi and Chris, I will introduce to you and your team-mates as soon as they wake up."

Yuki took a deep breathe in to recollect herself. She then showed him her pass. "I was sent here for the rescue of you guys by Colonel Jordan of my era." She handed him the reference letter from the Colonel.

"Washio? 2059? Interesting! Well, at least you are not some aliens or darn robots." Joe raised his brows as he took the letter and skimmed through it.

Yuki nodded. "I am related to Colonel Ken Washio of my era, and eventhough I am human, my crews are humanoids. So, I would request you to kindly not mention terms such robots or humanoids around them, since it could hurt their feelings ".

Joe looked surprised, "You mean the guy who just come in was a … a humanoid? And your humanoids have feelings? You sure you are just 24 years later than we are?"

Yuki smiled and nodded, "Yes sir, he is. It's amazing how fast science can advance, isn't it?"

Joe had to nod. Then, he whistled and smirked. "Colonel? Did you say Colonel Ken Washio?"

Then he stopped, his face animated with emotion, he grabbed Yuki by the shoulder and shook her. "You mean Ken didn't die from his cancer? They said he would not live past end of this month. Are you sure it's the same Ken Washio we are talking about. Definitely sure?"

Yuki smiled politely, "Yes sir, I am one hundred percent sure."

"Really!" For a moment, Joe's features relaxed into a half-smile.

Yuki could sense that he was extremely pleased. It looked like he and her Dad were very close friends, she wondered why she had never seen him before though. She could not have missed somebody so overflowing with muscularity should she had met him before. But then again maybe circumstances had turned him into one of her Dad's pot-belly friends which she had never bothered to pay any attention to. There also existed the possibility that they had grown apart from one another. A snicker escaped Yuki as she started imagining how Joe would look with a pot-belly.

Joe raised an eyebrow at her impertinence and let out a cough.

"Sorry, Sir. I was just wondering how come we had never met before…um…I mean in the future." Yuki tried her best to stop her snicker which ended up making her face into a funny grimace.

Joe was about to start scowling at her but the look on her face was so funny that he couldn't help but softened into a smile. He put away his cable-gun.

"Don't keep calling me `sir', I have a name - Joe Asakura, the Condor, Second in command of the KNT"

"Nice to meet you Un… um ..Mr. Condor," Yuki extended her hand, blushing a bit for almost letting slip and calling him Uncle. Somehow, she just knew that letting Ken and know that she is their daughter would be too weird and anyway it was within their code of conduct to avoid mentioning people's future to them. Thus, they should not know their relationship, meaning this God of a Man should not know as well.

"Mr. Condor?" Joe smirked. "Nevermind the `Mr.' part, Lieutenant Washio, it gives me a shudder. Just call me Joe, okay?"

Yuki could not help but blush again, "Sure, Joe, that is if you would call me Yuki instead of Lieutenant Washio."

"Deal," Joe shrugged and they shook hands.

"By the way, what were you doing to Ken when I..eh…interrupted you" Joe asked.

"Oops…Gosh, I have totally forgotten about it, I was going to start administering his first treatment."

"His first treatment? For?"

"His cancer. If I don't start soon, it could be too late"

Joe raised his brow again. "You mean you are the one who's going to cure him of his cancer? Come on, kid, you are hardly out of High School."

Now it was Yuki's turn to smirk. "Condor, the education system in my era had been totally revolutionised. Classroom tuition had been cut to a minimal and the time that children spent in school had been cut by a great deal with the help of the successful utilisation of psychic impression. I am in fact a fully qualified and experienced Medical Doctor. And for your information, Cancer is not much harder to cure than Bronchitis in my era."

Joe looked at her with disbelief since she looked more like a school girl to him than a doctor. "You a medical doctor?"

Yuki nodded seriously.

Joe raised his hands in surrender, "Alright, doctor. If so, just go ahead with your treatment." Joe could not help but being amused with himself for actually trusting the life of his precious brother in the hands of this pony-tailed school girl who appeared out of nowhere into their lives. But there was a familiarity and a feeling of something special about this girl that he could not resist. He wondered if it has anything to do with the fact that she looked like Jun.

***********************************