Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ The Goddess Dilemma ❯ Six ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: See other disclaimers about disclaiming that I disclaim to have anything. Deal with it.

 

Rant: Several people have apparently missed the point here. Get Ranma get a boost? Yes. Does he know how to use it? NO. What good is knowledge in anything if you don't know how to apply it? That and again, this is not a serious fic . . . even though part five felt emotional when I wrote it . . . at least parts of it . . . I have lost my mind . . . Bah, makes this interesting!

 

For peace of mind, Animes/games/shows/movies used are or will be:

 

Ranma 1/2

Tenchi Muyo!/TM GXP

Oh! My Goddess

Soul Calibur 2

Shadow Hearts Covenant

Evangelion

Star Wars (Episodes I-VI)

Star Trek (Post Dominion War, Pre-Nemesis)

 

The Goddess Dilemma, part six

 

By: Jim Ohki

 

It was pure bedlam. Ranma found himself in a bad way after having laid his cousin out. His entourage, that consisted mostly of women, didn't take to the idea that Tenchi was just handed his ass. Even though he had returned to his normal state, Ranma was dodging for all he was worth.

 

Then part of his entourage entered the fray, evening the odds a little bit. Xian and Ukyo came out, weapons swinging. They each caught one of the opposing females off-guard, pulling them off of Ranma. From the house next was the ever quiet ninja Taki, stealthily attacking what many would call a bubble head.

 

While all of this was happening, the oldest of Tenchi's group had maneuvered himself close to Ranma to truly test his skill. Tenchi had already come to, but appeared to be too dazed to do anything at the moment. The old man himself noted who was fighting who, in what sector of the yard.

 

Yard (Front Gate): Ukyo Kuonji versus Ryoko Hakubi

 

Ukyo was not as hard pressed as she feared she would be with this one. Her opponent had gotten sloppy after about a minute of trading blows without much success. Ukyo's Battle Spatula was holding up to the energy sword of Ryoko, mostly because of the sloppiness. They danced back and forth around the area just inside the front gate, neither truly gaining the upper hand.

 

Yard (Dojo): Xian Pu versus Ayeka Jurai

 

Ah, the match made in heaven. Nothing like having a young woman with purple hair do battle with a young for her species woman with violet hair. Xian was using her trusty bonbori's while Ayeka was doing something that did earn the attention of Ranma: using her fists. It is little known throughout the galaxy that Ayeka has always been the scrapper of the family. An added bonus was her energy shield, which deflected some of the attacks from Xian that would have connected. Just like the battle at the Front Gate, neither combatant was gaining the upper hand.

 

Yard (House - backyard entry): Taki versus Mihoshi Kuramitsu

 

What the hell is this? Mihoshi is still on her feet? Yep, and there's one frustrated Taki to boot. Mihoshi had donned her Galaxy Police battle suit, and was trying to avoid using her gun for such a weird fight like this. Ever thankful that her opponent was only trying for a knockout instead of a fatality, Mihoshi ducked, dodged, and counter-attacked at random. She too had earned the attention of Ranma, as he could tell that once the blonde was focused on something she was damned good at it. Taki on the other hand, was just trying to clock the blonde across from her on the nugget and hopefully lay her out. Again, just like the other two battles, neither were able to gain the upper hand.

 

Street (Front Gate): Ranma Saotome versus Katsuhito Masaki.

 

Before being coerced into the street by the old man, Ranma added two more to his mental list. Well, three if he could convince Taki to fight without swords. Filing that away for latter, Ranma took a quick stock of the surroundings before returning the attack of the old man. He noticed the redhead from before talking to a seventeen year old girl. The `older' girl had twin tails on hair going straight down her back. Noting the current threat level from those two as zero, Ranma focused completely on the man that claimed to be his Grandfather.

 

Placing Excalibur in subspace, Ranma switched styles back to his most familiar turf . . . beating the snot outta the opponent. Both became blurs of arms, legs, and clashing energy shields. They would separate, stare down the other, then start all over. The other three fights ended in a stalemate, and the combatants from those battles watched the two strongest fighters of the two groups do battle.

 

Tenchi, being himself, was at the forefront of those watching. He knew he still had things to learn from his Grandfather, but this was ridiculous. So hypnotized by the battle was he that he failed to notice when they moved in his direction.

 

“That's enough!” declared Ranma, noticing that the fight was about to ensnare the group of worn-out onlookers. The fight instantly stopped, Ranma in his traditional battle stance and Katsuhito in a most bizarre stance. He was twisted at the upper body, with his right arm going under his left leg.

 

“BWAHAHAHAHA!” laughed the NWC and company, not understanding what that stance was supposed to be for. Quite frankly, even the TMC had no idea what that stance was supposed to be. Katsuhito was the only one, and he wasn't about to share his secrets.

 

“How did you do that?” asked Tenchi of Ranma once they both could get their laughter under control.

 

“Do what?” responded Ranma, looking confused since that was such a general question.

 

“All of that!” retorted a despondent Tenchi, wanting to know more about the trials and tribulations that his cousin had undergone since last word had arrived at the shrine. That last word was the last time Genma had sent word to Nodoka, before the Cat Fist training.

 

“Inside,” ordered Nodoka, who had come outside to see what all of the commotion was about. She glanced around at the few neighbors that had stayed put during the melee, and noticed them watching with interest. After all, the resident chaos magnet had yet another upgrade . . . and more family members crawling out of the woodwork.

 

Once the assembled mass had gotten inside, Ranma plopped down at his original spot and noted with a mix of satisfaction and fear that the women took their original seats as well. This of course left no room even close to Ranma, keeping the Tenchi Masaki Crew at a distance. Nodoka, Lucia, Ivy, her male companions, and a father-daughter pair of groggy Tendos left the house, a sign that Ranma was in charge.

 

Reality came crashing back to Ranma, as he was having too much fun sparring with rediscovered family. Sleeping arrangements had yet to be made, and with the sun having just set, there was no way that Tenchi or his family could get back to Okayama.

 

“Okay Ranma,” started Tenchi, “Clue me in as to what happened since the last word we received about you was when you were five.”

 

“Five eh?” replied Ranma, knowing exactly what happened when he turned six. `It must have been before my birthday.' He paused for a few moments, then dived head long into the details of his life. And details it was, nothing was held back since it would either come out when least wanted or somebody else would spill the beans. By the time Ranma had finished, making certain that the details were true to life (read: gory as hell), everybody present and eavesdropping from outside wanted to vomit.

 

Noboyuki was the first to recover, and extracted a cell phone from his coat. While still green around the gills, he dialed his own parents number. As the remaining folk minus a reflective Ranma were coming around, they caught the sounds of shouting. Not from Tenchi's father, but from the phone. Conveniently held as far away from his ear as possible.

 

(Due to massive threats, swearing, more threats combined with swearing and graphic death promises, the following section has been censored for the public's sanity.)

 

“Holy God,” mumbled Karin, as she keeled over. This resulted in a domino effect, as when she went down she bumped Hild who fell forward into Urd, Bell and Peorth. They in turn fell into Kasumi, Nabiki, Xian and Ukyo. As the carnage spread, the women of the NWC toppled into not only Cassandra, Taki, Xianghua who's been silent for far too long, but also into Ayeka, Ryoko, Sasami, Washu and finally Tenchi.

 

Meaning when the dust settled, Ranma was blinking owlishly as the mass of arms and legs around him.

 

“I need a vacation,” deadpanned Ranma to the groaning mass of bodies. That's when he realized in all the excitement that the introductions of Tenchi's followers had not yet been made. Well, everybody had an idea of who Tenchi, Katsuhito and Washu were, but they didn't even know the names of the others.

 

“Yo Tenchi,” he said, “who're your friends?”

 

“Where to begin?” responded Tenchi. Then he launched into the story of the later part of his life, since before freeing Ryoko was so bland. Like his cousin, Tenchi didn't just gloss over anything. He went into details, thoughts, and feelings to bring his story to life. (At this point, I'm gonna say this: the reader should already know the anime of Tenchi Muyo. I don't like repeating what is already known.)

 

“Wow, that's deep man,” sympathized Ranma, “But I guess we have a trade-off. We've both done things that the other hasn't, and probably won't, experience.”

 

“Well, perhaps we could take you up in Ryo-Ohki someday,” suggested a mellow Ryoko. Well, perhaps it was the promise rings on the TMC females left hand ring finger that had her mellow.

 

“Take me up where?” asked Ranma, the meaning of the statement lost on him.

 

“Up into space,” answered Tenchi, seeing where Ryoko was going with her train of thought. Now, anybody that knows anything about Juraians and their ships, plus a thing called `speaking of' knows that they have a tendency to lurk in subspace. They even have a tendency to lurk in the atmosphere of planets while in subspace. That's why, directly over the soon to be Saotome Dojo, opened a controlled subspace rift as soon as Tenchi said the magic word.

 

The rift attracted the attention of the residents and the people mingling in the back yard. Since the ones indoors had exited the house via the back door, everybody was gathered to witness the latest event. Two ships descended from the rift. One was plainly obvious to the Juraian Princesses and Princes present.

 

“Oh no, not the Mikagami,” deadpanned Ayeka, drawing looks of confusion from everybody else not already in the Tenchi Masaki Crew.

 

“Lady Seto!” shouted a happy Sasami. “Maybe she brought Grandma Airi with her!”

 

“And if she did,” warned Tenchi, from a bad experience, “don't call Airi anything remotely related to age.”

 

“Hmmm . . . wonder if that's the Mizuki?” thought Washu out loud to nobody but herself as she eyed to second ship with the Mikagami. Bringing up the Mizuki reminded the TMC about a certain young native of Earth that had a tremendous bad luck streak.

 

“Somebody want to explain this to me?” demanded Ranma while waving his arm in the direction of the ships now hanging over his home. One on one physical issues he could handle. Two apparent warships? Yeah right, not in this or any lifetime. Maybe the smaller of the two, that didn't look like a giant circle with another offset circle sporting the `face' of a demon. But even then that was a long shot.

 

All thoughts were put on hold as two groups of people appeared in the yard. One group was obviously from the Mikagami, as the humanoid partner to that ship stood as tall as Ranma. She had green hair that framed her face, giving her the look of evil. Or perhaps it was the grin she was sporting? The type that could even get Ranma to shudder in fear.

 

The other group was the infamous Seina Yamada and his entourage. It wasn't the usual full house that followed the Earth-born boy around. Missing were Gyokuren, Haruken, Surien and Karen from the Renza Union. They had to make a side trip home.

 

Those that didn't know Lady Seto, or for that matter anybody that had just appeared from the ships overhead, remained in the background as those that did stepped forward.

 

“Lady Seto,” greeted Ayeka with a bow, ever proper in her manners.

 

She was shocked when Seto ignored her in favor of the resident chaos magnet. As she breezed through the Masaki family, they were intercepted by Airi.

 

“So, you must be Ranma Saotome,” began Seto, having settled in front of said person. “Tsunami herself didn't do you justice. Come, we must have a talk.”

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” backpedaled the pigtailed man, “What are you going on about? Who are you?” Those were the first two questions fired off, basically starting the Saotome Brain. Meaning Ranma went into ten thousand rapid fire questions mode, leaving no time in-between them for an answer. The noise of his jet-propelled questions drowned out Airi's reunion with her Grandson and family.

 

Seto herself looked like Akane right before she produced her Hentai-Mallet. She even lost count on which question Ranma had asked due to the sheer volume of them. She was getting a headache, not good for anybody else around the Devil Princess of Jurai.

 

“That is enough,” was the sound emitted from her mouth, but apparently shields had gone up around Ranma's ears. Those that knew better started backing away, while those that wanted to be on Ranma's good side came closer.

 

“I said that's enough!” roared Seto, still with no effect. A vein appeared on her forehead, a scowl marring her face. Ranma, with his martial arts training, had yet to pause for air in the last five minutes. He had yet to even break a sweat from using oxygen so fast. Seto turned after getting tapped on the shoulder, to see one of Ranma's friends presenting her with a megaphone. Arching one eyebrow in confusion, she took it and thumbed the switch.

 

“HEY! PAY ATTENTION!” she quite literally hollered directly next to Ranma`s ear, although it was greatly amplified by the `phone. Ranma stopped, looking at Seto like she had lost her mind. High frequency forced feedback emanated from the megaphone, making all present cringe. Seto quickly turned it off, and threw it into a subspace pocket for future use with a certain Emperor.

 

“That's better,” she said.

 

“HUH? WHATDAYA SAY?” shouted Ranma, trying to get the ringing out of his ears. “I CAN'T HEAR YOU! GIMMIE A FEW TO GET THIS NOISE TO STOP!”

 

THUD!

 

Yep, face vaults abound for everybody present. Ranma, being himself, decided to go raid the fridge since everybody else had decided it was nap time. Meaning by the time the others (and there are a LOT of them) stood back up, he was no where to be found.

 

“So . . .” began Ukyo, not wanting to incur any wrath from anybody. This started the rounds of introductions again. The Soul Calibur team went first, glossing over their past. Then the duo from Shadow Hearts came next, followed by the Ranma crew, then the O!MG people and finally the new arrivals of GXP.

 

Ranma had paid attention, noting the evil look from Seto the entire time. He just shrugged it off, the highest insult to be given to Seto Masaki Jurai . . . the SNUB. It took the efforts of Tenchi, Airi, Katsuhito, Seina and the goliath known as Nightmare to hold her back. Well, all that Nightmare had to do was lift his sword with its crusted blood, not actually touch her.

 

“I invite you all to the Mikagami,” declared Seto in an obvious tactical maneuver to get what she wanted.

 

“I'm there,” answered Ranma from somewhere inside the house. “But who all wants to come with?”

 

THUD!

 

“Well, that was unexpected,” deadpanned Tenchi, with a mouth full of dirt. “Though he does bring up a good point.”

 

There was an immediate showing of hands from those on the Certificate, unsurprisingly. That meant the elder sisters Tendo, Ukyo, Xian, Urd, Peorth and Hild were in. Xianghua, Cassandra and Taki raised their hands after some quick glances. Karin wasn't too far behind them, something compelling her to remain at Ranma's side at all costs. Lucia shook her head in the negative, along with the remainder of the Soul Calibur crew.

 

Unnoticed by them, Ranma had appeared in the door to the house, giving very slight nods to Seto. She had a very good idea that the pig-tailed martial artist didn't want unwelcome elements screwing around with any aspect of his life. Seto would look at a person with an arm raised, and very subtly look in Ranma's direction.

 

“We'll follow in the Mizuki,” stated Tenchi for his and Seina's group, knowing that there was really no choice when it came down to Seto. Ranma shrugged at that, not really caring since he hadn't had the time to bond with Tenchi. As the Juraian equivalent to transporters began moving people from the ground to the two ships, Ranma approached Seto, giving his thanks for a reprieve from the life of Nerima. As the last two on the ground that were going, they both looked around to give any late-comers the opportunity to `climb aboard'.

 

Akane, in another fit of impishness, tried to join them before they left the surface of Earth. Ranma shook his head in the negative only once, but it was all Seto had to see.

 

“Sorry, full up,” exclaimed Seto with false cheer, taking Ranma with her. Akane's rage boiled, being denied the chance at redemption . . . or to totally FUBAR the rest of her life, depending on the point of view. She quickly charged her Baka-Mallet, and flung it at the Mikagami as she lifted into the controlled subspace rift. Just before the ship disappeared, the ki-mallet made contact . . .

 

--- (Onboard the Mikagami) ---

 

“LADY SETO!” shouted one of the many people on sensors for the second flagship of the Juraian Navy. Second only to Tsunami of course. “Lady Seto, we have a severe disruption of the subspace matrix! Somebody on the ground launched an energy weapon at us, and the sensors say it was life-force type. The rift won't damage Earth, but our exit point is now going to be somewhere way away from Jurai.”

 

“Damn it Akane,” muttered Ranma, just loud enough for Seto to hear, “Why do you have to do stupid stuff like this when you don't get your way? I rue the day I met you . . .”

 

“Send a message to the nearest Juraian ship,” began Seto, knowing that the subspace exit was about to close, “The Mikagami and Mizuki were attacked by one Akane Tendo, intentions unknown. Retain for punishment until I return.”

 

“Message away,” answered another of the crew, this one on the communications array, “Status: received. Ma'am, the subspace gate has closed, we are cut off from the rest of the galaxy.”

 

“Estimated time to subspace exit?” barked Seto, in full command swing. She had noticed that the Mizuki was still with them, and made preparations for the people on the smaller ship.

 

“ETA five hours, fifty minutes,” came a reply from somewhere.

 

“Dock the Mizuki with the inner ring and shield her, bring everybody to my private meeting garden,” ordered Seto, them led Ranma away from the bridge. They headed to the meeting garden in silence, both thinking about a certain girl on Earth.

 

One that was in a HEAP of trouble.

 

Ranma and Seto were the last to arrive, everybody else that was along for the ride had been gathered by the security detachment floating around the interior of the ship. The people that knew him flocked to his side, all attempting to hug Ranma at once. He stared at them with his left eyebrow raised in confusion, but didn't protest. Everybody else associated with Ranma, namely Xianghua, Cassandra and Taki, hovered a little farther back.

 

Kiriko Masaki, one of Seina's followers, was called upon by Seto for a briefing on their current situation. Not that the present of past Earth people could follow it since a lot of it was technical mumbojumbo, but she was nice enough to break it down to brass tacks for them. Washu gave one of her technical spiels, then `dumbed' it for everybody else. It all boiled down to the same thing: for the next three hours (yes, the mumbojumbo had eaten THAT much time) they were on course for nobody knows, and would hopefully exit subspace in space, not a star's core.

 

So, for the remaining time in the trip, people mingled. The Goddesses were having a bit of fun teaming up on Hild, especially since Tsunami made her appearance. Tenchi and Ranma rekindled their friendship at long last, each trading stories that they hadn't when Tenchi had arrived at the Tendo Dojo. The massive, and quite literal, ocean of women surrounding them stayed silent, listening to the two men relate to what the other had gone through.

 

Seto herself had told them to remain in the meeting garden, then disappeared to some other part of the ship. She had reappeared to herd the mass of bodies toward the bridge, time to exit subspace and figure out where the hell they were.

 

“SHIELDS! Get the Light Hawk Wings open!” roared Seto as soon as the gate opened.

 

They had entered a battlefield . . .

 

--- (Near the Cardassian Border, Bajor System) ---

 

Many a battle had been fought recently. From several Borg incursions to the Dominion's xenophobic ways, not to mention the other elements of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants vying for power, people and equipment were in short supply everywhere. Training was being as rushed as it could be, but not so much to have fatal errors occur. Not since the schmuck decided to turn hard port at warp eight and ripped a ship in half. The stardrive section was never found from that one . . .

 

Even with the shortages, the Federation has managed to persevere through it all. Not that a shortage was going to stop the numerous enemies that had somehow been acquired over the years. Take the Cardassians for example; they had their collective asses handed to them by the Federation Alliance, and their `partners' the Dominion. But yet, here they were, conducting raids like pirates of yore for raw materials. Most of their shipyards were gone, but that didn't mean squat to them. They had lost too much, including Cardassia Prime, to really give a damn anymore.

 

Which brings the current situation to light: the Cardassians decided to perform raids of the various cargo ships that went through Deep Space Nine. The Federation, in hopes on quelling the raids on their side of the border, had dispatched the Enterprise-E and two Akira-class ships to Bajor . . .

 

Needless to say, the Cardassians weren't going to go down without a fight. There was even more bad blood present since the Chain Reaction Pulsar was something they had nearly completed before the outbreak of the war . . . only to have it disappear along with all of the research and relevant materials. To hear the Federation had built the Akira around the CRP weapon angered those that remembered the project.

 

A fight had erupted, most of the Cardassian firepower directed at the Enterprise. The Akira-class ships, the USS Denver and the USS Hendrix, were running interference as best they could without deploying the Pulsar. The weapon technology had been perfected, yes, but the internal targeting system still had a glitch in it.

 

It would bounce off of all ships in the battle before dissipating into nothing. While the Chain Reaction Pulsar was indeed supposed to bounce off of the enemy ships, gaining strength as it did, it wasn't supposed to find allied ships.

 

In the midst of the battle opened a subspace anomaly, scaring the life out of both sides. They both backed away from it, fearful of what might emerge.

 

After all, it did have the signatures of a transwarp conduit exit.

 

“Analysis, Mr. Data,” ordered Captain Picard, noting as usual were every ship was from the battle. While the Enterprise herself was minimally damaged, the Denver was trailing plasma from the port nacelle and the Hendrix was missing a small section of the starboard-fore saucer section. Two of the Galor-class vessels hung dead in space, fire reaching into the vacuum. The remaining Galor and the two Keldon-class ships were watching with the same trepidation as their enemy.

 

“Sensors indicate that this rift is artificial in nature, Captain,” replied the only surviving member of the Android race. “There is movement within the anomaly, but sensors cannot penetrate the event horizon.”

 

“Helm, back us off other ten thousand kilometers, have the Denver and Hendrix follow our lead,” came from Commander Riker, the ever-present and all around best First Officer in the fleet.

 

“Aye,” came from Ensign Slocavich, a recent addition straight from the Academy. She had proven her skills in a roundabout way: even in the Academy, somebody had to run covert ops missions. She had flown and survived several incursions into Dominion/Cardassian space during the war, gathering intelligence that proved useful. That had earned her the literal driver's seat on the flagship.

 

“Sir, sensors detect a ship emerging,” reported a recently returned Worf from tactical. Being an Ambassador clearly wasn't his cup of tea. The good old Klingon motto `Fight first ask questions after heavy dosages of Bloodwine later' applied to him. The warrior within would not be denied.

 

“On screen,” returned Picard, noting that the Cardassians were assuming attack formations around their wounded ships.

 

“What in the hell is that?” barked Riker, seeing but not believing that a ship made out of wood was entering realspace. Of course, his wonderment had caused Data and Worf to point every forward sensor at the, for the moment, mystery ship.

 

The Cardassians, however, weren't in a scientific mindset. Their repairs as complete as they could get, shields sprang up and weapons became hot with hostile intent.

 

“High energy readings from the unknown vessel, sir,” sounded Data from his Ops console. Worf confirmed with a nod of his head, not having to say anything. Whatever had just appeared could obviously shield itself from danger, but the attack power was unknown.

 

“Sensor readings are muffled by the composition of that ship,” continued the android, “but it is indeed made out of a highly compressed wood surrounding a core of some sort.”

 

“You have got to be kidding me,” deadpanned Riker as the semi-expected happened. The Cardassians opened fire with little preamble, especially since the ship that had appeared had unintentionally crushed one of the wounded Galor's. A lot of the phaser fire seemed to bend in space.

 

“Sir, two more ships just appeared,” spoke Worf, “One was apparently docked with the first, the second decloaked a thousand meters port of the . . . monstrosity out there. Sensors estimate diameter of the first ship at half a kilometer, the third to be about our size and the second to be the size of a Defiant-class vessel.”

 

“Capabilities?” wondered Picard, taking great pleasure in knowing that his senior staff could do their tasks with minimal instruction from him.

 

“Intensive shielding for the bigger ships, none of the enemy fire is getting through,” answered Data, “The smallest one is simply flying too erratic for the Cardassian weapons to maintain a lock. Sir, they are returning fire from hidden weapons ports.”

 

The entire bridge watched as the smallest ship opened fire on a strafing run, using what appeared to be a Multi-Vector Assault mode. At least, the number of shots coming from it gave the illusion. The one the size of a Sovereign-class capital ship just hung there, shielding the behemoth behind her with ten wings of light.

 

Then the biggest one opened fire from no less that three thousand weapons ports across the bow plane, obliterating shields and the three enemy ships in seconds. The one surviving Cardassian ship was still dead in space, and was no threat.

 

“Definitely analyze the sensor data on those weapons,” said Picard after regaining his faculties, clearly making this a top priority. “Include data on their shields.”

 

As Worf and Data began their task at one of the science stations in the back of the bridge, noting that the relief officers were in place, he issued his next command.

 

“Hail them.”

 

--- (Onboard the Mikagami) ---

 

“Bring the Mizuki back into the central ring,” ordered Seto, “And tell the Tsunami thanks for the assist. Those were highly focused and phased energy weapons. No to mention the torpedoes used.”

 

“Messages received, Lady Seto,” was the immediate reply, even though the bridge was in chaos. The flagship of the Juraian Navy had reappeared to save the day, not that the Mikagami couldn't have shielded herself. Just that there were too many shots being fired by the enemy for three Light Hawk Wings to block simultaneously.

 

“Thank you, Sasami,” whispered Tenchi to the Second Princess, succeeding in not drawing unwanted attention to her.

 

Everybody had taken note of the other ships from the previous battle that had backed off and not engaged. Luck was with them as they had stumbled upon another place -galaxy?- that used Galactic Standard, more commonly known as English.

 

“Lady, sensors are just barely strong enough to read the markings on the hulls,” came from somewhere in the massive command structure. “NCC-1701-E USS Enterprise, NCC-751672 USS Denver and NCC-584658 USS Hendrix.”

 

“Earth ships?” wondered Tenchi, just loud enough for all to hear. This caused an immediate uproar from all the bodies present, which was quickly quieted by Seto.

 

“What do you mean, `Earth ships'?” came the demand, not a request.

 

“The United States, at least in our time, used the USS designation on their naval vessels,” answered Kasumi, who had kept tabs of world affairs throughout her tenure as Substitute Mother of the Decade. After all, before Ranma, she had to have something to do in her down time.

 

“Ah, so it could just be a tradition handed down through the ages,” proposed Amane Kaunaq, Seina's number two GP officer . . . and second wife.

 

“We are being hailed,” came another voice from the direction of communications.

 

“Open,” barked Seto, turning to face the communication window as it appeared.

 

“This is Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise to unidentified vessels. We have no hostile intentions and wish to open a dialogue between our peoples.”

 

Onboard the ship in question, there was a collective dropping of jaws as the situation left all sanity behind. The crew of the Enterprise watched, completely dumbfounded, as what could only be assumed as a bridge fell into disarray. Numerous people tried to cram into the video feed, all speaking at once in utter confusion and panic.

 

“Mute,” ordered Picard, wanting to get opinions from his staff while watching the carnage unfold.

 

“Is that a tree?” demanded Riker instantly while pinching the bridge of his nose, “This is one of the more bizarre things I have ever witnessed.” He turned back just in time to see a body go flying from an Aikido toss, crashing into several others.

 

“They act like Klingons, only with no respect for the command chain,” offered Worf, who watched as several of the people knocked down sprung to their feet and produced weapons to attack with.

 

“There is great confusion and fear over there, and one sense of intense anger that is growing,” offered Counselor Deanna Troi, speaking for the first time since encountering these . . . weirdoes. Not the best professional name that could be applied, but the best one that fit the description.

 

“Anger? Just who over there is getting mad?” wondered Picard with heavy sarcasm, since on the viewer they could see the one with lime green hair had produced a . . . megaphone? “Audio on, twenty-five percent volume.”

 

“STOP IT RIGHT NOW!” she roared, causing extensive feedback. Several speakers exploded from the overload, sparks rained upon the bridge of the Enterprise. And not a shot was fired.

 

“AAAHHH! MY EARS!” screamed somebody three decks down from the bridge, even though they heard it. Apparently the low frequency forced feedback had resonated off of the hull, and somebody just happened to be in the right spot to be blasted by sound.

 

“Injury reports coming in from all decks, Captain,” came the voice of Dr. Crusher over the intraship communication line. “What the devil is going on up there?” Ah, just more than the one had been sonically attacked unintentionally.

 

“You tell me and we'll both know,” answered Picard in a fit of impishness, much to the surprise of his command staff. He glanced at the viewer, and noticed that the brouhaha had stopped. Mostly because many of the participants were holding their heads in pain. Over one of the few surviving speakers on the bridge came a soft voice.

 

“Enterprise, our delegation would like to come aboard.” It was hard to tell who had spoken, but the effects of a sonic weapon such as that apparently didn't phase them for long. Many were moving about, and the guessed leaders of smaller groups were having words with their people. Seeing that they were finally serious enough about the situation, Picard gave his answer.

 

“Granted.”

 

--- (Enterprise briefing room) ---

 

It had not taken more than ten minutes to gather the new arrivals to the Alpha Quadrant into the conference room attached to the back of the bridge. Under heavy guard.

 

Picard and his staff took the port (left) end of the table while the delegation from the Juraian ship Mikagami took the starboard end. Looking out of the windows, they could see the two other Federation ships affecting the best repairs possible outside of spacedock.

 

“. . . and that is our situation.” concluded Seto, the `speaker' for the small assembly. She had allowed only Ranma, Seina and Tenchi to accompany her to the Enterprise, since they were the leaders of their respective groups. Of course it had caused an uproar on the Mikagami, not that it mattered.

 

Her ship, her rules. Her airlock too . . .

 

Picard, Riker, Troi, Worf, Data, Crusher and LaForge were digesting the condensed version of the happenings and causes to their arrival. After all there wasn't much need for the command staff to know of say, Ranma's numerous problems. Some of those problems were also applied to Tenchi and Seina.

 

MWS, Multiple Wife Syndrome . . . yikes.

 

“Captain to the bridge,” came the voice of Slocavich, right before the red alert klaxons sounded. Everybody present was irked that the meeting had essentially gone nowhere fast, but put that on the shelf in favor of the newest problem.

 

“Report,” said Picard as he walked through the door onto the bridge.

 

“Transwarp conduit opening, bearing one-five-two mark seven, distance twenty thousand kilometers. Something is emerging . . . it's gigantic!” responded Slocavich, a lot of fear in her voice.

 

Without having to give the order, the viewer was tuned to that location. All present, even on the other ships, had a feeling of grave danger ahead.

 

The Borg had decided to pay a visit, with a Fusion Cube . . .

 

TBC

 

Holy God, done at last. Took me bloody long enough, kept losing my place on this fic. That, and life's been busy. So I shrug my shoulders and keep plugging along. Also, dun flame too hard . . . I'm experimenting with the fic.

 

For those that don't know what a Fusion Cube is, it is Eight standard or Tactical Cubes melded into a single ship.

 

Ja Ne!

 

Bai-Bai!

 

Pffft, whatever. Hehehehe . . .