When Griever first told me about this project that he was a part of I came to investegate. And I found the Shining Spiral. Now, about a year and a half later, I'm doing something a bit odd.
I'm writing Fanfiction for a story that hasn't even been officialy posted yet.
What I'm writing isn't cannon SS, and can't be. I've looked at the angles and can't find a way. So I'm just going to put this here as a little look for you, a group of people whose works I admire greatly, to look over. (And correct, if you feel necessary.)
In a chapter spaced format, it can be found here: http://anime.fandorium.com/modules/storyline/?set=main&caid=10
And, if you wish to read this whole,
* * * * *
I think it started when I went back and read the original "Bet" by Greg Sharp. Then I had an Idea. Instead of taking a cause and seeing the effect, take the effect and see what caused it. The effect that came to mind: "No Need for Tenchi!"
A Second Look
Chronicled by Dro'gan, called NiteFlier
Yosho blocked the third strike from the Demon Pirate, and with a quick swipe and dodge gained more room to fight the red-eyed monster. A glance at the Palace showed that it was still burning, despite efforts to put out the flames. He had to end this! He had to force the monster down!
But, he thought as he barely dodged another random blast from the Demon’s right hand, I can scarcely keep her at bay now! How am I supposed to subdue her!
Yosho suddenly lunged at the monster, managing to make it past her guard, and struck-
Air. The Demon teleported away as soon as he had made it through her defense.
“WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The Demon’s cackle roared loudly against the burning background. Yosho grit his teeth against the sheer wrongness of the sound, especially here, in the heart of his homeland. He roared a defiant cry at the beast and charged.
He could see that she was gathering energy to blast him away, killing him in the midst of his last, futile attempt to destroy her. Just a few more meters! Just a little bit more energy!
The Demon let loose the ball of destructive power as he was merely a meter away. The explosion sent him staggering back, but he realized that it had not hit him! Surely the monster could not have missed when he was so close?
He opened his eyes to see the Demon’s enraged face coming at him. He scarcely brought his blade up in time to block her sword’s thrust. Block, parry, thrust, and swing. Somehow the Demon had missed him with her shot, but was now trying to make up for it with her sword.
One of them had to make a mistake. It was the only way to end this fight.
It was hers.
Yosho struck, sending the monster’s hand flying. In the second that the Demon took to realize that she had lost her sword, and her arm with it, Yosho and run his blade through her stomach.
The Demon blinked, twice, then looked down at the sword, and up at him again. Her blazing red eyes faded leaving only two yellow irises, and slit pupils. She drew in a breath, then all expression on her face faded, and she slipped of the blade onto the ground, her blood spreading underneath her.
Yosho panted, his muscles complaining about their work, and he fell to his knees beside the body. The Demon’s face was peaceful, almost serene. It was as if the monster who had come here was a completely different person.
He heard the crunch of gravel behind him, and without looking asked, “Is everyone safe? The fires?”
“They are safe, Jurai Prince. And the fires will not cause any harm that cannot be rectified.” The voice was not one of his soldiers, nor was it any that he knew.
He turned to see the person walking up, but the figure was wrapped in loose black cloth, and he could not even tell if it were male or female, if not for the voice. Her burgundy eyes startled him, as she looked down upon him and his defeated foe.
“So this is why...” he heard her murmur. She shook her head, and placed her hand above the Demon’s throat. The Gem there glowed, and then disappeared. Yosho saw that the other two gems on the Demon’s wrists were gone as well. He was startled when a sphere was dropped in his lap. He looked at the woman stooping beside the body.
“What?” He asked.
The unknown woman picked up the body and cradled it. “You will know when the time comes, Jurai Prince. They will either be returned to who they came from, or this woman, when she is ready.” The black clad woman closed her eyes, and whispered something that Yosho couldn’t make out. The body of the Demon dissolved into sparkling lights, and disappeared.
As the woman turned and began to walk away, Yosho gained the strength to question, “Who are you?”
She stopped, and looked over her shoulder at him. “In time, Yosho. In time.”
He could only sit there, as this woman, too, disappeared.
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The merchant looked up from putting money from his last deal away. Yep, that girl was still there.
"Hey, kid." The elderly man called.
The kid started, then looked at him. "Y-yes?"
The merchant gave a wry grin. "You gonna buy something, kid? Or are you just going to look at my wares and sigh like you can’t make up your mind all day?" The girl gave a small smile of her own at this, and the merchant wondered at her odd eyes and hair. He'd never seen anything like them before, and he had traveled a bit around this sector before settling here. “Listen, I'll even give you a discount, a cute girl like you distracts from my customers, and I'll lose more from them sighing over *you* than if I take a hit from your sale. Well, kid? What are you looking for?"
The blue haired girl grinned now, and pointed out one of his crystalline theorem/structures. With a mock grimace the merchant carefully picked up the creation and wrapped in concealing, protecting paper. "If I didn't know better, I'd say I'd been had. But then, no one really understands these, not even me, and I make them!" The grimace turned into a true smile. "You did play me didn't you?"
The girl just grinned even wider, and accepted the crystal. She passed the merchant a coin, and scampered off, hidden by the crowd in seconds.
The merchant turned to put the coin into his box, when he noticed the golden sheen in the dim lighting of the bazaar. He held the coin close to his eyes, and to his surprise, saw a curious figure and strange script on it, but quickly realized that it was not the credit that he had asked for, but a golden Ducat, that was perhaps equal in worth to the theorem/structure.
"Well, I'll be damned."
* * * * *
The blue haired girl wandered out of the bazaar, and headed forward, towards the docking bays. The station was built strangely, compared to others in this sector of space, with the rotating section build longways, but then, the station’s history was strange.
The girl shook her head, and changed course, heading for the room they had rented for their time here, even though the cost was exorbitant. And, she sighed to herself, if she was not always paying full for things instead of taking them cheaper, or stealing them outright, money would not be as big a problem as it was now. But, as her sister said repeatedly, one should only save such measures for when they were needed.
Damn Ryoko for her conscience, anyway. And for being hers, too.
* * * * *
Information was the lifeline of living and working in space. It was thus, that Ryoko was glued to the datascreen while her sister was out, trying to find any jobs on the station, or outgoing ships. There were a few opportunities here, but even more leaving every day on the ships.
She sat back in her chair and considered the small room around her. It was meant for one person, and was rather cramped between the two of them, but there were no paired jobs leaving the station for quite some time. At least if they stayed in one spot, they needn't be forced to do the same work. And besides, cabins on ships were so much smaller!
But it had been far, far too long since she had looked up and seen sky.
She was distracted out of her reverie by the grating noise of the door opening, and looked over to see her sister with a package in hand. Ryoko groaned aloud as she almost heard the sound of more of their diminishing funds slip away.
"Its not *that* bad, Ryo." the blue haired girl complained. "It only cost me one coin!"
Ryoko snorted as her sister put the package down on the table. "Sister-mine, you've got to understand economics! Do you know how much it will cost us to move something of that size when we leave? Probably ten times as much as it cost, more if you didn't spend the coin that I'm thinking of. And that was our last Ducat, too! Now we're just down to credits and other less accepted monies..."
"Well, at least look at it before I take it back." She demanded.
"I didn't say that we were going to take it back!" Ryoko started unwrapping the paper covering the object. "I just said that it'll cost us a bundle to take it any..." Her eyes grew wide as she saw what was under the plain covering.
"I knew that you would like it, sister." She smiled, and hugged Ryoko, although the slit pupils never left the crystal statue.
"Where..." Ryoko licked her dry lips and turned to her sister. "Where did you find this?"
Her red eye winked at Ryoko. "Where I find all things that you find special, sister. All things."
Ryoko shook her head and hugged her sister tightly. "Ah, one of these days, sister-mine, one of these days, Sasami."
* * * * *
"Well, at least we have some money coming in!" Sasami said. "You were right, that last jump almost killed our bank, especially with that crystal! You sure you want to keep it, I mean, you were right, it’s going to hurt our funds every time we move somewhere."
Ryoko rolled her eyes and walked over to the other girl. "So pessimistic! We'll find a way, we always do!" Ryoko looked at the display Sasami was working on. "Sister-mine, that's bank data. It's supposed to be quite secure, if I am not mistaken."
Sasami pouted. "Oh, come on! We need money, and if I just alter it, I can make it so that I take a few cents from a lot of other accounts, and put them all into one for us. I can do it so that even the bank won’t notice it!"
Ryoko looked the other girl in her eyes. "Sasami."
The girl winced at her tone. "Yes?"
The taller girl shook her head slowly. "No, Sasami."
"But--!" Sasami started.
"No." Ryoko said firmly.
"Awwww..."
"Forget it, sister-mine, we'll work with the system, not around it." Ryoko stated. "And speaking of such, it's time you got ready for work!"
As the aquamarine haired girl trudged off to get ready, Ryoko looked at the display once more. Then she shook her head, and turned the computer off.
There would be no shortcuts for them. Not one at all.
* * * * *
Sky...
The sight of the stars winking through atmosphere.
The scent of flowers and growing things.
The sound of children playing in the grass.
The feel of the wind as it brushed across skin.
It had been far too long since either of them had looked up and seen the sky.
* * * * *
The crystal statue sat in the darkness of the cabin, waiting quietly for its owners to return. Its creator had made many such as it, but it was the only one that had ever left the small stand in the bazaar for any real length of time. As Ryoko had said, the price of something even so small was not to be considered by those who normally traveled the bazaar. But the collective had never thought that after so long being in one place, stuck through chance creation, that one of them would be placed so far away on the whims of two seemingly ordinary teenagers.
The key there being 'seemingly'.
The theorem/structure began to glow softly as it initiated contact with others that had been made by the same creator. The pair, one bearing marks that indicated great power, and one who had begun showing a different sort of power, were anything but 'ordinary'.
* * * * *
"How long has it been, sister-mine?"
"Since what? Our coming to this station? About a year."
"The longest we've ever been in one place, yes?"
"Yeah... has it been worth it? You never let me near the accounts nowadays, so I have no clue how well we're doing. We could be so far in debt that we could be digging ourselves out for the rest of our lives, because you haven’t told me! So, has it been worth it, sister?"
"Well..."
"Oh, come on! Tell me how much we have to work off!"
"Not much, not much... After, that is."
"After...? After what?"
"Well... After the trip to... hmm... Lets say Hope--"
"But that's a whole sextant over!"
"Yes, but its also one of the best places for shipbuilding, you know."
"Ship... Shipbuilding? We..."
"We are going to save up just a bit more money, and then go there, and you and I are going to pick out a ship for ourselves, and go wherever we want! No more waiting for jobs to open up, no more downtime where there isn't anything to do, no more doing what others tell us! We will be let loose, with no one but ourselves to stand between us and our dreams! We will..."
"Be free..."
* * * * *
"As long as you ain't 'pposed to a short... stopover... in 3491 by 7883 by 937, I c'n get you ta Hope Yards quick and cheap."
"We're not exactly concerned about speed. More concerned about getting there safely. If you catch my meaning?" Ryoko raised her eyebrows.
"Ah get 'cha. Jes be ready ta leave tomorra." The rock miner waved her away and went back to his drink.
Ryoko sighed, and wished to the goddess above that there had been a more reputable ship going to Hope Shipyards. It just seemed like there was no ship willing to cross that particular area of space because of the war between the Republic of Iteral and the Sidevale Confederacy. It could have been easier to hitchhike around the Core, even if it meant going through every sextant to get to Hope. But that would have taken time, and it would have meant going through Jurai.
She shuddered as she walked back to the cabin that they had rented out. For some reason, any mention of Jurai always sent a shiver up her spine, and neither she nor Sasami could figure it out. Her sister always got a warm feeling when referencing the Jurai Empire, while she always felt as if someone had walked over her grave.
It was disquieting to say the least.
When she reached the cabin Sasami and she shared, she checked it over once more for listening devices. Paranoid of her, to be sure, but for what she had found of herself, dangerously necessary.
She hadn't yet told Sasami of this, but she suspected that her sister knew all the same. There were very few secrets they kept from one another, ever since the two of them had awoken in the orphanage, so long ago, without any recollection of who they were before they had arrived. They had bonded then, becoming friends because of circumstance, and had remained that way even after running away from the orphanage when they were both barely ten years old.
It had been shortly after that that she had discovered something about herself. She had been locked out of the building they were hiding in, and she could hear the siren call of security forces coming nearer and she *needed* to get inside, to get away from those who would contain her!
She had phased through the door.
She had been so startled that she had forgotten to put her feet back on the floor.
But she hadn't fallen.
Now she could float, and perhaps fly, if she had enough room. She could phase through solid objects with ease, and due to an unfortunate encounter with a group that had tried to rape her... had found other, less pleasant abilities.
Now she practiced in the dim lighting of the cabin, honing her abilities, making sure that they could be called when needed.
Even if she hoped that she never did.
* * * * *
Sasami looked over to the bunk where Ryoko was sleeping. They had been on this ship for nearly a week now, and they were almost to the sector that the miner had been so enthused about. It was worrying her, how much he wanted to go there, almost as if he were driven by something.
Unfortunately, such things could only be endured, and hoped that the voice in the back of her mind was right, and that this would turn out well.
* * * * *
* * * * *
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Sasami shuddered as she felt the ship pass through a jumpgate into normal space. She never liked traveling through hyperspace, but without it, a ship would take millennia just to travel across a single sector.
She knew that Ryoko had no qualms about hyper or norm space, but her sister had never had problems with the theoretical mathematics that made travel in hyperspace possible.
Ryoko was like that.
She sighed, and moved to find the miner whom they had contracted. This was probably the star system that he had been so obsessed with. Sasami shook her head, as the gut feeling of uneasiness grew, instead of fading.
* * * * *
Ryoko cracked an eye open when she felt the slight shiver which heralded the transition into normal space. She hoped her sister wasn’t puking her guts up right now, as she had done when they first shifted to hyper with the miner’s ship. She had to admit, it had been a bit shocking to her as well, and that was quite unusual. After she had helped Sasami to the head, Ryoko had asked the miner about taking a look at the drive, since it was quite obviously damaged or degrading well past specs.
The miner had just looked at her, not saying a word, then turned back to the controls.
Ryoko ground her teeth, and went looking for the miner again. They had probably come to that damn system the miner wanted to stop at.
Her instincts told her that there was something seriously wrong going on.
* * * * *
If one had known Haolo Hermious in his youth, his past, or really any time up until three months prior to a young, cyan haired girl asking for passage for herself and her sister to Hope Shipyards, one would have never have recognized what had become of him.
Where before that fateful outing he had been lively, passionate man, full of jovial spirit and always one to find something to laugh about, the man who came back from sector 3491 by 7883 by 937, also known as Dead Man’s Retreat, was... not. Not lively, not passionate, not... anything.
He and seven other asteroid miners had gone to the Retreat, the lure of untapped Elerium singing in their ears, but only Haolo came back. Whispered tales told of a mysterious creature that roamed a star system where the greatest veins of that precious substance ran, tales heeded by many. Tales told to the deaf ears of Haolo, and his comrades.
Now he knew the truth though. He, out of eight miners who had gone to claim that fabled treasure, survived the encounter with its guardian.
Now, he longed to go back, to either make the demon finish what it had started, or to end its unknowing reign of tyranny over the markets of the quadrant, and perhaps even the sextant.
Haolo Hermious was determined to find the Space Dragon.
* * * * *
The two sisters met in the corridor leading to the command center, looked at each other, then proceeded down the zero g passageway. They both knew that something was not right with their pilot, but neither of them had suspected that the fool was willing to kill himself.
The pair had realized their mistake when the miner had dumped the cargo bays, taking all their supplies, and no few pieces of the degrading ship with them.
They had signed on with a man with a purpose, but his purpose was to kill, or be killed.
And for the first time since they had escaped the orphanage, they were both very, very afraid.
* * * * *
He wasn’t sure what had tripped his sensors. There was nothing odd, and no intrusions into the volume of space he resided in. His own internal functions were normal, at least considering that he still wasn’t quite sure if he were completely sane again.
For some reason, every time he ran a computational check, it came out differently. He had a feeling that this was not the way it was supposed to be. Though for some reason he could not access his primary memory, and thus, could not be certain of the proper formulae that betokened his complete sentience and sanity.
Rather annoying, that.
He burrowed deeper into the rock, wondering why his stores were depleted, since he couldn’t remember being in any battles recently. Of course, he was here to protect something, he just couldn’t remember what. Why, oh, why did he have to rely on faulty electronics? They couldn’t hold enough of his thought to cover memory as well as current processing.
Suddenly, something blossomed on radar, and as he turned his attention to it; a point near the gravitation boundary of the star. He suddenly recalled that there was a gate there, and idly wondered why he had not destroyed it before this, for was he not supposed to be guarding something? He pushed off from the rock, flowing silently through the asteroids, ready to destroy those who threatened—What was he protecting? It was something important, he could recall that. Something that had belonged to him once, he was sure.
Tracking the intruder, his computations forced idle thought out, relegating it to backup processing, and immediately losing it forever.
Now there was only the target.
* * * * *
Ryoko burst upon the control center, Sasami not far behind.
“What the hell are you doing?” she yelled out.
The miner shifted his attention to the sisters for a moment, then back to the readouts in front of him. “Here. Its here. The bastard won’t get away. No. Even if I have to die, it’ll pay.”
Sasami squeaked, and clutched Ryoko. “There’s... There’s something out there!”
Ryoko nodded, she could feel the presence as well, and had also felt it, notable in the absence of any other, turn its attention to the ship, feeling first confusion, then deliberation, and finally -uncomprehendingly- rage.
She immediately grabbed the miner, “Turn us around you idiot! That thing’s coming after us! We might be able to get back to the jumpgate!”
The miner feebly tugged at her hands, trying to get her to let go. “No. No no. Have to get rid of it! Have to make it pay for letting me live. Killed all of them, and more! Can’t go back, drive went kaput. Can’t even activate a gate! Lemme go and make it pay!”
Ryoko threw the miner back into his chair, and he immediately forgot about the encounter, and began murmuring to himself about payloads and drives. Sasami looked at the rage on Ryoko’s face, something that she had never seen before. “Ryoko?” she asked.
The girl immediately whirled, and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her along the passageway, the microgravity not hindering her in the slightest. Sasami kept asking her sister what she was doing, until the pair stopped near their cabin, where one of the lifepods was. Sasami’s eyes widened. “Ryoko—“
“Shh, sister-mine.” Ryoko embraced Sasami, quieting her. “I know. They only hold one person. I’ll get to one of the others, but you have to get off now. I’ll see if I can stop that damn miner.” She hesitated for a second, and Sasami saw tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry! I never should have—“
Sasami quieted her cries, hugging her tighter. “Don’t say it. Just make sure you get off if you can’t find some way to stop him, okay?”
Ryoko choked off a sob, and nigh crushed her sister in her arms. “Be well, sister-mine.” she whispered, then let Sasami get into the pod. She sealed it from shipside, and punched it off, letting it’s own programming take it where it was safe. Tears flowed freely now, as she flew down the passageways, heading for the drive units. Sasami would kill her when she found out that there had been only one pod remaining on the dilapidated ship, and now there were none.
“At least it is comfort that Sasami survived,” Ryoko told herself. The words echoed hollowly, both in the ship, and in her heart.
* * * * *
He barely noticed the bright flare shooting away from the intruder, pausing only to determine that it was not on a vector to his position. After that, it fell completely from his awareness.
A vector that did concern him was the ship itself. Its engines destroying themselves to accelerate, it appeared as though the ship was trying to ram him.
Ram him!
The fools, to think that he could not simply move away, for it was obvious that the ship was to decrepit to make any major vector changes. But then, why should they get off so easy? He shifted power to his weaponry, and opened his mouth.
The small disruptor beam in his mouth couldn’t sustain a burst of more than half a second, but that would be more than long enough to take out the unarmored attacking ship.
* * * * *
Ryoko screamed soundlessly.
She had somehow instinctively known that the creature was going to attack, and had tried to phase through to a different part of the ship. But there was no safe part of the ship. And now, there was no ship.
Ryoko cracked her eyes open, almost expecting to see nothing. She couldn’t hear anything, so she shouldn’t be able to see anything, right? That was what Death was, wasn’t it?
Her cracked eyes, became saucers, as she tried to gasp.
Stars.
She gagged silently when she found that she could not draw in breath. She flailed, realizing that she was bound to die in this vacuum.
So she lay quiescent, drifting among the shattered remains of the mining ship.
It took her four full minutes before she comprehended that she wasn’t dying. In fact, she was no more uncomfortable than normal, despite not having taken a breath for well past the time a human could live without oxygen.
Her eyes narrowed, and she slowly flipped around, until she was facing the creature that had nearly killed her.
It lay silent, as if contemplating the debris before it, and she ground her teeth in rage. How dare it act so innocent after killing.
She willed herself to the creature, and began flying through the vacuum between the asteroids, intent on teaching it a lesson.
* * * * *
He started with surprise as his IR array tracked an incoming projectile. Upon visual confirmation, the projectile was confirmed to be a body of a humanoid female, still warm in space.
Where had the corpse come from? Surely it had not been on the intruder. He could not take life without orders, could he not? But then, how had she come to be here?
As his limited available memory became bogged down with the recursive loop, he quickly forgot about the battle, and the destruction of the ship, until he was wondering how the body came to be in this area of space at all.
He was shocked out of his ruminations by the corpse abruptly slowing in vector, and disappearing from outside his hull.
Only to reappear, moments later, inside his command center.
Coming to a command decision, he immediately instigated a Level Alpha diagnostic of all systems, trying to discover not only how the corpse had suddenly translocated, but why and where she had come from.
The Alpha diagnostic ate up his memory, but he struggled to hold on to his conclusions thus far. As it finished he was presented with a startling discovery.
Not only was every single one of his primary command modules down, but also the majority of his secondary ones as well. He was, for all intents and purposes, working solely from tertiary memory, something that should not have happened but in the most extreme case.
He was, as far as he could tell, rewriting his conscious existence every instant.
Amazingly, upon coming to this conclusion, several of the secondary RAM cases energized, and came under his conscious control.
Seeing that he was no longer in extreme danger of accidentally writing over his consciousness anymore, he turned off the tertiary memory that he had been working off of for so long, and marked it for a complete physical and electrical benchmark.
He turned his attention to the humanoid corpse, almost expecting to see that she was in fact alive.
Surely enough, she was moving with purpose in the vacuum of his command center, as if trying to complete a task. Her mouth was opening and closing, but she showed no signs of asphyxiation. He routed a diagnostic probe through his few active systems, and found that he had compressed his internal atmosphere into one of his fuel cells.
Puzzling why he had done that, he pumped it out of the cell, and began flooding his internal habitable compartments with it. It was only after the command center had reached 4.58R atmospheres, and the humanoid had settled to the floor, that he ran a check of the atmospheric contents, and found that it was composed mainly of CO2, and nitrogen.
Unsure, he tried to access the atmosphere recycling plant, only to find that it was offline, like most of his systems. But, he saw that the humanoid was having no problems, and in fact was communicating verbally now.
He ran a check through his available memory to see if he could find the language the girl was shouting at him stored. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
Quite sadly, he knew that he could not hope to translate it from scratch with his current RAM size, because he would run out of memory long before he acquired a large enough sample for testing.
He was at an impasse. He didn’t know what to do.
The next move, he decided as he went back to work finding which systems were still functioning, was hers.
* * * * *
Ryoko took deep breaths as she stopped ranting. There was something seriously wrong here. The feelings that she had gotten from the creature/ship had not been hostile in any way, and in fact, had changed radically, from confusion, to deliberation, to friendliness, to patience.
It was as if the thing that had destroyed the mining ship and nearly killed her, was a completely different entity.
The entity had supplied her with an atmosphere in which to rant at it, and it had been slightly surprised at something shortly afterwards, and saddened as well.
It was as confusing as Sasami.
She jerked upright. Sasami! She was still--
Safe, probably, and asleep in the escape pod.
She took one last breath, and let it out slowly. She then turned in place, looking at the space inside the creature/ship’s head.
The cone shaped space was pointed towards the fore of the head, making it triangular on the outside. Several consoles curved around and away from the walls, with seats before them. In all, there were three of the chairs, two to the left, and one to the right, with a strange arch running along the floor in the tip of the cone. Behind her was a segmented corridor, probably running down the creature/ship’s neck.
She slowly walked over to the front left console, and sat heavily in the chair. It resisted for a moment, then it slowly conformed to her body, shifting itself to her form.
That almost had her up and away from it again.
She swallowed audibly, and slowly relaxed into the chair again, letting it support her. Its movements to her shifting became quicker, as if the mechanisms inside were reviving themselves after a long sleep.
“Okay.” Ryoko stated aloud, feeling as if the silence had gone on long enough. “What do I know so far? I’ve got a ship that seems to not only be alive, but sentient, and mechanical to boot. That leaves out it being of Jurain or Vorlon manufacture. The Inner Sphere is way to backwards to even contemplate. Taiidani would have ships out here looking for any runaway tech, especially something this important. Too different from Haven manufacture.” She slammed her fist down on the armrest. “Damn!”
A beeping noise from the console in front of her made her glance down at the armrest she had hit. Sure enough, there were tiny controls there. “Ah, shit.”
Ryoko turned her attention to the console, hoping that she hadn’t done anything too stupid.
* * * * *
He paused as he witnessed the girl hit the auxiliary control for his primary systems console. That couldn’t have been an accident, could it? Due to her random movements, he now had the entirety of his secondary functions at his command. He immediately began Alpha level diagnostics on all systems previously untested, and found them thankfully free of defects.
He routed through one of his auxiliary command structures and was able to access several primary systems, the majority of which were still barred to him. He immediately hacked through his own codes and neared the final level of completeness. All that was left were his three CORE modules. Pausing to regroup, he began systematically checking and refurbishing himself. Long inactive systems ground to life, and dormant nodes of cables and wires began to transfer energy once more.
Hydroponics came online, and with it, the secondary atmosphere control units. Within an hour’s time, all personnel areas would have a human-capable atmosphere, and within 60 hours, there would be greens to eat.
His contingent of Spiders became active, and immediately fell to repairing themselves. He queued up commands, setting them to repair the systems that he showed as faulty, then to go over his entirety and recheck his inputs. The squad of Skorpions, too, awoke, and he quietly put them back to sleep.
System by system, until all that was left were his COREs, and the primary memory and sentience within.
One thing caught him off guard; going through his available memory he found he now understood the girl’s ranting, and it shook him.
Did he really? Could he have just casually destroyed? Not only that, but had been doing it for quite some time?
The evidence was for it. His limited stores were down to his special weaponry, and his combat systems showed far too much wear and tear to be simply Time’s fault.
He knew that if he were human, he would be curled up in a ball crying. Even so, his physical structure was doing just that, curling up into a small circle, and he realized that he had been in combat mode this entire time.
One more argument towards his casual murders.
* * * * *
Ryoko stared unseeing as the console lit up, displaying figures and values that made no sense to her. Her attention was with the entity instead.
Joy, at being able to reclaim a part of itself. Happiness, at once again being useful, and mending all as it should be. Then, suddenly, shock, and horror. Finally, a deep well of sorrow.
Ryoko shuddered, and folded in on herself, unknowingly copying the ship’s actions.
She couldn’t bear it! She was not strong enough to bear the weight of unknown deaths! It could not possibly be her that was responsible! But there, there is the proof! Proof of guilt, proof that she did not want to face.
“STOP IT!!”
* * * * *
Connection.
* * * * *
Her eyes were wide as she viewed the asteroids floating near, and she picked up the deep groan from each, signifying their precious contents.
His sensors saw the blinking lights of the console, and heard the soft clicking of the chair reconforming itself.
She/He felt the silken touch of fabric on skin and the blinding cold of the eternal vacuum on external plates.
He/She...
* * * * *
Ryoko gagged and coughed, trying to catch her breath from the experience of merging with Ragnarok.
Ragnarok wished he could perform similar actions as Ryoko, for not only was the encounter disturbing in the extreme, but his CORE modules suddenly awakened, and he was immersed in the hidden knowledge that was contained therein.
“Rags?” came the quiet query.
“Yes, Ryoko?” was the equally quiet reply.
“What did we just do?”
Ragnarok paused. “As a tentative explanation, and from what little I received of your mind during our merging, your natural empathy with artificial entities such as myself caused a concurrent link between us.” He paused, correlating data. “I do not believe either of us are alone anymore. At least, alone in our minds.”
Ryoko slowly sat up, and stared at the projection arch in the fore of the command center. “That’s what I was afraid you were going to say.” She sighed. “Calculation, two plus two equals?”
Quickly running through the program, Ragnarok displayed the value. Ryoko grimaced as she counted up the decimal places. “There’s three hundred and twenty-one, right?” she asked the ship.
“Affirmative,” replied Ragnarok.
“Right.” Ryoko stood up. “Find Sasami’s capsule, and bring her on board. How long until there’s a viable atmosphere?”
Ragnarok immediately began searching the special vicinity. “About fifty minutes. Is there anything you need?”
Ryoko shook her head, and staggered down the corridor.
Ragnarok quite agreed. It was strange having another inside of your mind.
* * * * *
Sasami blinked as she came awake. When Ryoko had pushed her into the escape pod and launched it, the capsule had immediately gone into stasis mode, freezing her over for however long it took for someone to find her.
Fear suddenly pierced her heart, for she didn’t know how much time had passed, or if Ryoko still lived. She blindly groped for her, knowing that it was all too likely that she had not survived her encounter with the creature that the miner had been intent on destroying.
Warm arms suddenly lifted her up, and she could feel herself being encircled in a warm embrace, one that drove the chill from her limbs. Her eyesight finally began to focus, and she saw a mass of cyan.
“Hush, sister-mine, you’re safe now.”
* * * * *
Ragnarok was pleased that Sasami showed no problems from the abrupt stasis that he remembered Ryoko placing her in. As well, it appeared as though Ryoko was doing what was proper, for Sasami’s tears quickly dried, and his mindmate carried her to the cabin that he had refurbished.
:Ragnarok?:
:Yes?: he tentatively answered. He was unused to this method of communication, even after half a day of it. :Is there something you need?:
:No,: He heard. :Just... I was just wondering how you were taking all this.:
:It is...: he searched for an appropriate descriptor. :Odd. Although not as much as it could be. I was designed for female occupation, after all.:
Ryoko mulled that over while tucking the covers of the cabin’s single bed around her sister. :Oh? Is that why this place seems more geared to a feminine mind, when you are really male?:
:Most likely.: He switched his primary focus to his repairs, making sure that they were proceeding smoothly. :I cannot remember more than your recent memories, so I suspect it is the same with you. I was designed and created to be a scout/courier for a matrilineal kingdom, and after the fall of said kingdom, went back to the world of my creation to receive several changes in structure and scope. I am now a light freighter with medium-heavy class offensive capabilities. However, most of my limited stores are depleted, due to...:
Ryoko nodded as the ship trailed off. :Due to your recent insanity. I remember that much. Have you figured out a way we can leave here? We can’t stay forever. The thing that you were guarding, your sanity, has now been returned to you. Hey,: The girl teleported to the command center and sat down, relaxing as the chair molded to her. “Did you figure out why your CORE mods failed?”
“Yes.” He replied, his attention distracted by an unusual hyperspace anomaly. “After I began the decent away from total sanity, certain subsystems that contradicted each other came online. It was a case of equal priority, and the conflict shut down access to my COREs. However, they were still affecting my processing, which is why I never lost my sense of ‘me’, even while I forgot anything that took too much processing. I locked away the majority of my capabilities and was dependent on a single tertiary system for all thought and processing. I remember all of it, becase my primary memory was still recording it. Ryoko,” Ragnarok suddenly inquired. “What is this?”
Ryoko stared at the display before her, the image showing not only the physical object, but the hyperspace port that it had opened and was communicating through.
“That’s...” She hesitated, then continued disbelievingly. “That’s the crystal structure/theorem.”
* * * * *
* * * * *
Author’s notes: Don’t ask me, I just write the darn thing.
A few points. How could Ryoko and Ragnarok merge minds? Well, Ryoko was programmed to have a sentient ship, and to be in contact with it. But because she’s never met Ryo-okie in this life, it developed into a general empathic talent, that was specific to artificial life forms. Ragnarok, as he said, was made to be used by a woman, and he needed the stability of Ryoko to push him that last step into regaining his COREs.
Ragnarok’s systems: Actually, Ragnarok just controls the ship, its really named the Lunarus. As an AI, Rags doesn’t run the whole ship by himself, but leaves a great deal of the tasks to subprograms that act as extensions of himself. Kind of like how you use a pencil and paper as an extension of yourself to write. He has direct control over these subsystems, but they aren’t really him. (Which is confusing, since he *is* the ship.)
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If ragnarok is a reference to anything I don't quite get it, it reminds me a bit of Sol Bianca but it doesn't really match. Also I don't get the Theorem/Structure thing at all. Or Structure/Teorem as you sometimes also use...
Other than that not much of a comment besides an interesting read.
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Aside from the obvious Norse connection, Ragnarok as pictured here is Nite's take on the draconic spaceship from Final Fantasy 8.
I don't really get the structure/theorem either, but I expect he'll be explaining it sometime in the future. Like, around the time of the next chapter.
thoughts on integration...
I don't know the entire backstory of this story, but I have a thought for integrating this into the Spiral, if you wanted, as deep prequel, and it could work.
Basically, Yosho's time at the palace is a few hundred years before Tenchi becomes a going concern, and could be pushed earlier. Ryoko has a habit of being struck by things that she shouldn't be able to survive, and coming out of it with amnesia. This story takes place, something happens, Ryoko reverts to "Ryoko, scourge of the spacelanes" with a bit of fuzzy memory about what exactly happened for about a hundred years, and winds up in the right place at the right time to play her part in the Tenchi stories. At some point in the ongoing saga, she starts getting flashes of memories that make absolutely no sense to her, and then, at some point where a Deus Ex Machina is called for, Ragnarok shows up, providing her with an overwhelming, mindwarping memory recover and a friendly warship at the same time.
Assuming this can be made to fit with the way you've built the rest of the story, the only real problem is that you'ld probably have to swap out Sasami.
Wanderer Throughs
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Problems at this point are all associated with, umm, plot and reality-check issues, rather than characterization or execution, so let's take a look, shall we?
Option 1.) This -entire- -sequence- actually took place in the 4k or so years when we don't really know what Ryoko was up to. That wasn't Yosho that beat her, but rather, oh, a martially-oriented Jedi Master or something. Ryo-oh-ki was elsewhere regenerating, and the entire episode ended when Kaggie-bastard showed up again and put Ryoko back under. Personally, I don't particularly care for this option - it violates the principle of conservation of coolness, since Ryoko already -has- a perfectly badass starship to play with. She doesn't need another - let somebody else play.
Option 2.) Since I haven't really gotten anywhere with our Tenchi backstory, it's not as conventional as I had been thinking and instead looks something like this, at least in part. Same objection as above.
Option 3.) Who says that Rag's partner has to be Ryoko? There's really nothing here, so far, that's exclusive to The Dread Pirate Hakubi, so we can just as easily drop that angle and bring in somebody new.
Obviously, that's my favorite angle. Filtering this thought through my current obsessions gives us...
(*inside nathan's head*
(Fanboy: Anita Blake?
(Common Sense: Oh, please be joking.
(Anita-as-perceived-by-Nathan: Absolutely -NOT-.
(Fanboy: Buffy? The, the, little-sister person acts like Dawn, kinda.
(Common Sense: ...hmmmm...)
...Xander's Posession of the Week?! Say -what-?!
Blessed be.
-n
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What I was, was to give a little jump start for your own stories
The Wanderer wanted backstory, so!
Sasami: As canon, the attack on Jurai by Ryoko does a little bit of collateral damage (as seen by Yosho refering to the fires of the palace), and as such, Sasami falls, 'dies', and is pre-merged with Tsunami. Offscreen, and in the middle of the canon merge, the mystery woman from the prolouge shows up, stops Tsunami from completing her link to Sasami, and takes the little girl away in the same way as she will shortly do with Ryoko's body.
Ryoko: Due to a slight misstep in her fight, she is killed by Yosho, and the mysterious woman takes her away, but first seals her gems in a puzzle ball and gives it to Yosho. How does this woman know exactly what to do? She is really Sasami/Tsunami from the future, doing this because of something she remembered from Tsunami's memories, coupled with a conversation with Tokimi.
Ryoko & Sasami: Somewhere in the Spiral (thinking Taiidani since Humanx would not be around yet) at an unamed orphanage, two girls of the same apparent age appear, with no clue who they are, or where they came from. The pair only remember their names. They spend several years at the orphanage, but due to their independent natures, and the desire to live life on their own, they 'escape' shortly after the apparent age of ten. Quite young to be out on their own, ne? At first, they were limited to the same city that the orphange was in, but shortly they were traveling around the planet, and mangaed to get off. They've spent quite a lot of time traveling in space, and both have learned a few tricks.
Ryo-okie: Think I've forgotten about the little critter? Ryo-chan never lifted off from Jurai, and eventualy fell into a dormant state much like the one she spent in at the bottom of the lake in canon. Because her connection to Ryoko was lost with the pirate's death, she's basicly waiting for someone with enough empathatic strenght to bond with her.
The Collective of Theorem/Structures: While their physical characteristics are only similar in their crystaline forms, the collective's individual minds are highly alike, forming a hive-mind. The one crystal that is with R&S has been faithfully communicating with the rest of the collective on its observations. When I got down to it, I think I made them a bit of Xunca tech, or somesuch. Storyline-wise, I needed something for Sasami to buy, and make it look like it was acctualy Ryoko doing it from the reader's point of veiw. As to their purpose in the story after that... It was Griever's fault. I don't know how, but it must be.
The Lunarus: As Griever said, this is a dragon-ship modeled after the FFVIII version. Lunarus is the ship, Ragnarok is the AI that controls it. He was originaly made under the supervision of Balthazar, from designs by one of my rarely seen avvies, The Perigrinus. Perigrinus made five independent AIs, Balthazar, who runs the Rokjac production facility and Otanverse gateway, Iris, who controls the freigter/carrier Amicala and its cadre of Interceptor fighters, Kongo, who controls a ship of the same name that looks suspiciously like a Klingon Bird of Prey, Ragnarok, of the Lunarus, and Zepher, who runs the city-state of King's Crossing and a planetary defence system Omega. All of them were made with a hardwired program that would determine both their sentience and sanity, with the equation of 2+2=3.999, with 321 nines, and nothing after. Anything other than this denotes the loss of either sanity or sentience. Not that both go hand in hand, mind you. Due to an accident while phasing from one universe to another, he collided with something in sub-space, and hasn't been completely sentient since. He ended up in Dead Man's Retreat, and reinforced the nickname. He's never 'bonded' before Ryoko, so he's a bit off kilter now.
Right. Enough babling.
What I intended to do was have RR&S travel in disguise (How do you disguise a spaceship? Very cleverly!) until someone reported a certain space pirate lookalike. Here comes Jurai, and it gets messy when people recognise Sasami, and assume that Ryoko's kidnapped her. (How? It was 7-9 years ago, why hadn't she found some way to contact home in that time?) Unfortunatly, once Jurai gets involved, Ryoko is captured, and Sasami and Rags try to get her back, which involves Rags dropping his disguise, and gaining nearly every bounty hunter worth their salt after them for the claim on the Dragon Ship. Jurai backs off once the get it through their thick heads that Sasami is with Ryoko willingly, and doesn't remember her heritage at all. (Sasami cussing out Funaho, who lead the convoy to capture Ryoko, pretty much gives them all the info they need for that conclusion.) After a few battles, and a few less bounty hunters, RR&S decide to go straight to the heart of the problem, and head to Jurai.
...And that's as far as I know for now.
Sasami's more of a trickster than canon, for she hasn't had the restraint of being a princess to keep her from being a top rank hacker, and Ryoko tends to foil her rashness by being a lot more calm and collected. Not to say that she doesn't have her rages, though.
Well. I definitly think I've put a bit too much down for now. If you wish, Almighty LE, I'll try to tweak this towards canon SS, but I'd rather start from scratch if it's really going into the Shining Spiral.
-Dro'gan, called Niteflier-
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and go well with queso
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Well, there actually *are* a few indicators on the "Dread Pirate Hakubi" scale - specifically, flight, phasing, mechmeld, survival in outer space, and a fair amount of Heavily Impled Backstory. Also, having Ryoko be the moral one is cool and mindtwisty.
the conservation of coolness issue is a point, though. The only way I see around it is to take Ryo-Ohki away from her. First is Deep Pathos, where Ryo-Ohki dies in some heartrending fashion (after the memory flash thing has started, mind. Setting up the Deus before the problem arises helps conserve coolness.) Second is that somehow, someone (probably Sasami) manages to pretty much inveigle the furry little gunmuncher away.
If you wanted to set it up for max impact, then, you'ld have to have a while where Ryoko is really feeling the hit from not having a starship - which, unfortunately, I have real problems buying, without very strange circumstances, given that she's going to be one of the empresses-to-be for pretty much all of the time we're looking at. Still, having a Mighty Starship show up from your Shrouded Past works a lot better when you've really been wanting one for a while, and now need one really badly.
- side thought: for some reason, I keep thinking about Lina Inverse. I'm not sure she'd work, mind you - I just keep thinking about her.
On the gripping hand, it's not my story. I'm not even here.
For the record, the story so far is really good. Writing a good story that inspires you that doesn't fit is better than writing one that is made mediocre by lack of inspiration but does. If these ideas work, by all means, run with them. If they don't, well, then they don't.
Wanderer Through
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