ON> ASF-57d DN Minicruiser "Julie"
Iseki had fallen asleep against Chi's bosom, and was startled when the man called down through the metal grating into the cargo area's claustrophobic darkness. "Is that your ship?" the man was asking them. "I think that's her!" he yelled. The two ships darted past each other, and the old pilot swung the ship around to follow the destroyer.
Chi awoke with a start as she jumped up hearing the Old Man's voice. "I don't know, I can't really see it. " She moved to push the grate off so she could get a better look.
There was about a foot and a half of space above the grate, or less, and no windows up there. There was, however, a small opening in the side of the shaft, just under the grate, leading out into the main deck's corridor.
Chi looked at the grate curiously, could she fit through the space. She decided that she wanted to try to get through it to get into the corridor. She moved towards the opening and tried to crawl through it
It was small, but manageable. Chi found herself (or her torso, so far) in a miniature hallway on the starboard side of the minicruiser. The small hall was about 4 feet wide and 4 feet tall, in the shape of a square with the outer top corner cut off. The opposite "wall" was an air forcefield, and the vaccuum was in her arm's reach.
Chi frowned and bit and tried to keep herself as near to the actual wall of the hallway as she could as she army crawled through the hallway trying to find her way to the pilot's seat. ~This sucks.~ She tried to plug her brain's memory banks for a blueprint of the ASF-57 DN Minicruiser to figure out where she was.
The pilot's seat, and their middle-aged benefactor were only a couple feet towards the front of the ship on the walled side of the hall. Ahead of the opening to the pilot's pit, there was a small bayfor launching...something small. and out directly ahead, the tail end of the GSS Yui.
Chi's eyes widened as she noticed the ship and got closer to the pilot's pit. "Mister, I think that's my ship! Could you hail them? " Chi looked back at the grating were Iseki was and quickly tried to think up a plan to take Iseki with her and still leave the pilot a slave..
"Yeah. Why don't you, though?" Figuring the GSA ship would respond better to one of their own, he clicked on the microphone.
Chi spoke aloud, hoping that this was indeed her ship. "GSS Yui, this is Taisho Ketsurui Chiharu, do you read me? over." She crossed her fingers and was strangely reminded of the Kaeru frog..
Onboard, Arume got up and walked over to Aya, who was asleep at the communications station. Taking ahold of one of the unsuspecting neko's nipples, she pinched it and twisted hard, sending Aya into a screaming fit that Chiharu could hear over the intercom. "It's Chiharu, you twit. Answer the transmission."
Chiharu winced a bit at the screaming, "Hello, is everything all right over there GSS Yui?"
Aya blushed crimson and nodded to Arume. "You didn't have to do that. You're so mean to me Arume." Aya tried to regain some dignity as she spoke again, "This is the GSS Yui. Is that really you Sempai.. err.. Taisho Ketsurui? What's your location?"
Chi chuckled a bit, that explained it, it was the Yui alright. "It's really me Aya. We're right on your tail. We'll come alongside." Chi looked to the pilot, "Sir, there's a place to dock above the Yui and along the sides."
The man circled the Yui, checking for a port that was compatible, but not finding away. Eventually, he settled for just putting the ships roof to roof at the rear lift and spreading a plastic adapter thing in the gap. After a few minutes, it was airtight and ready to go. The man looked to Chi and tugged on her arm, pulling her into the pilot's area with him, and guiding her hands to handholds, helping her get to the lift shaft.
"Watch out." he told Chiharu. "The gravity is the opposite way once you're through the door."
Chi nodded and stopped for a moment and looked at the pilot, "Right. Hey, since we're here, would you like a different Neko for your ship? Iseki is pretty badly damaged and I'm pretty sure that I have a spare Tech Neko aboard ship that you could use. She'll be just as pretty as Iseki though." She looked at the pilot with a hopeful look in her eyes, she didn't want to abandon Iseki after they'd come all this way.
"Damaged? What do you mean? If she's a neko, too, won't she self-heal?"
Chi shoke her head no. "The Angels damaged her psychologically, the damage is all mental and cannot be self-repaired. In order for her to work like she's supposed to, I'd have to send her back to PNUgen to get fixed."
"PNUgen doesn't fix defective nekos, they kill them and send a replacement." the man said, looking up at her. "It's true."
Chi shrugged a bit, "So are you intersted in trading a broken Neko for a fully functioning one? This one will just start crying and won't stop among other things."
"Why's she so special to you, eh?" The man asked, wondering what extra value this particular neko had that would make her worth more than a new one. "I held up to my end of the deal." he grumbled angrily, upset that she was trying to change things on him now that she already had the ride she wanted.
"She helped me escape from the Angel's ship and I don't want to abandon her. I also figured that it wouldn't be fair to leave you with a defective Neko after you did hold up your end of the deal." Chi sighed a bit and looked over in the direction of the grating where Iseki was.
Iseki listened to the two, all alone in the dark cargo area. She whimpered quietly, but didn't say anything. Finally, the man asked, "Well, do you have a neko to trade right now?"
Chi nodded. "I do, before I was captured 3 Neko techs were cloned. If you want to pick which one you want you can come aboard with Iseki."
"Okay." The hardened traveler agreed. Iseki crawled out of the ship very slowly, avoiding getting too close to the man, and entered the Yui. She kissed the walls, starting to cry again. It looked so much like her home, and yet it was not. None of her sister or friends would be here to greet her... Well, one friend. Iseki looked at Chi and tried to manage a smile.
Chi smiled softly back at Iseki as she went into the Yui, glad to be home. And she stretched a bit and walked towards the lifts, sending a message to the crew on the bridge, "Aya, Arume, do me a favor and get the 3 Tech Clones to meet me in the uppermost dock's lift."
Aya's reply was a short but happy, "Aye Aye Taisho, welcome home!" The 3 Tech Neko clones walked from the Megami's room to meet them at the designated lift. They all had blue eyes and dark green hair. One had the same warm red brown skin as Kuru, while another was a fleshy pink and the last was a pale pink.
The man took Iseki by the arm, and pulled her out of the lift shaft. He wasn't sure if the crew understood what Chi meant, and he wasn't going to take any chances that the lift they were all standing on was going to go up and squish them into the door. Although the man didn't know, it made a lot of sense, since Megami was gone.
Chi stepped off the lift and looked to the nekos in the tech uniforms. "Ok, ladies, one of you will be going with gentleman here onto his ship to serve as his assistant." She quickly told them via telepathy that she was sorry for singling them out. But the techs just smiled with a soft shrug. ~It'll be ok Taisho Ketsurui..~
"What are you girls' names?" the man asked, sizing them up.
The techs shrugged a bit. They hadn't chosen names for themselves yet, but they figured now would be a good time. The brown neko spoke first after thinking for a moment, "I'm Izumi." The fleshy pink neko was next, "I'm Kikyo" and the then lastly the pale pink tech spoke, "And I'm Shira." Then they all bowed to him, "Dozo Yoroshiko."
Shira stretched a bit, it was nice to get out of the Megami room for a break. Kikyo looked at the man curiously, "What's your name sir?"
Kikyo smiled brightly, it felt nice to be wanted. "Nice to meet you Mr. Harrison. It'll be my pleasure to be working with you." Chi blinked a bit at the realization that she never asked the pilot hi s name. Chi spoke, "I wish you luck Mr.Harrison. And thank you for the ride home." Chi looked at Iseki. Kikyo walked over to Harrison and Izumi and Shira waved to her. "Have fun sis."
"Ok. I'll take you, Kikyo." The man paused. After all this time he was wondering when someone would ask. "I'm Harrison."
Commander Harrison plucked off Kikyo's shiny rank pin and threw it on the floor. "We'll be leaving now."
Chi nodded as she took Iseki from him. "Hopefully, we'll never meet again Harrison."
"Nice to meet you too, bitch." he grunted gruffly, before taking the bewildered Kikyo by the wrist and back to his ship. In a moment, the ASF-57 broke away from the GSS Yui and disappeared into hyperspace.
Chi just shoke her head again, the man hadn't liked her since he found out that she wsa GSA. Oh well.
Iseki looked to the two remaining neko technicians nervously, not knowing how to express herself, or even what to express. She almost didn't want to meet anyone new, because of the risk that they would be killed or captured just like she was. Attachments were dangerous. So, she merely stood tucked against the wall behind Chi, holding her crossed arms tight to her chest.
Chi sighed a bit. "Thanks you two, you can go back to whatever it was you were doing.." The techs nodded but, as they turned to leave, Izumi stopped. "We are repairing the Megami right now." Chi blinked, "What?"
Iseki looked at them oddly. "You're trying to fix a megami??"
Izumi nodded, "She was damaged recently by an intruder. We're still recooping." Chi looked to Iseki curiously, yes fixing the Megami meant something really messed up went down. "Do you remember what the Megami is Iseki?"
"Megami is a complicated quantum computer." Iseki replied, knowing it from her studies of the new one on the GD-37. "The Mentafexal ElectroGravitationally Accelerated Memory and Intelligence type Q3, built by SARA. You're going to have to return to a major port or depot to get her replaced."
Chi smiled despite the fact that the Megami being damaged was a really bad thing, "I guess we'll have to do that then before we have to return to our mission."
"That might not be possible. The Yui seems to be headed in the direction of the refueling station. Without the computer, none of the engine systems will work. Nor will our shields." Iseki explained. The ship systems were so complicated, that they needed the computer to regulate them. With that vital part gone, the ship was effectively crippled.
Chi sighed, "Ah hell.. maybe we could get another ship to get us. It would be bad to end up at the refueling station again. Any suggestions as to what we could do?"
"Use the ablative armor system and torpedos." Iseki mumbled absently. Most of the rest of Chi's half of the first fleet was busy massing for an attack on the main angel base that the Yui was supposed to find, leaving the scout alone for all practical purposes. The GSS Ender might be close enough to render assistance, though.
Chi frowned, well hell, it looked like the powers that be really hated the GSS Yui for some reason. "Crap, we are in real deep now.." What a home coming, barter a crew member into slavery and find out your ship is flying without the main computer system. "Do you know if they could fix the Megami enough to get her partially running, is there even the slimmest chance we could at least get ourselves redirected?"
Iseki, who seemed to be electronically knowledgeable, said, "We could create a backup computer system using one or two of the laptops. There should be some in the armory. The computers could control the sublight ion/graviton engines, enabling us to turn around. But one of the problems is that we can't cloak. At this range, they're probably already watching us."
"You're probably right Iseki, but we have to do something." She smiled, "And again you are a truly a life saver Iseki, let's get that done. It'll be better than nothing right now."
Iseki nodded, sliding her back against the corner until she was sitting on the floor. She had started shivering again. "I...I don't to lose another ship and crew."
Chi knelt down and hugged the girl. "You won't Iseki, we'll fight it tooth and nail, let's get you something to eat and a place to sleep." The techs had decided it would be best for them to leave the two alone because they had to break it to the other Techs that their work so far has been for their own amusement.
JP By

GSA no Taii Hisô Iseki
Starship Pilot, GD-37 [Destroyed]

&
Iseki had fallen asleep against Chi's bosom, and was startled when the man called down through the metal grating into the cargo area's claustrophobic darkness. "Is that your ship?" the man was asking them. "I think that's her!" he yelled. The two ships darted past each other, and the old pilot swung the ship around to follow the destroyer.
Chi awoke with a start as she jumped up hearing the Old Man's voice. "I don't know, I can't really see it. " She moved to push the grate off so she could get a better look.
There was about a foot and a half of space above the grate, or less, and no windows up there. There was, however, a small opening in the side of the shaft, just under the grate, leading out into the main deck's corridor.
Chi looked at the grate curiously, could she fit through the space. She decided that she wanted to try to get through it to get into the corridor. She moved towards the opening and tried to crawl through it
It was small, but manageable. Chi found herself (or her torso, so far) in a miniature hallway on the starboard side of the minicruiser. The small hall was about 4 feet wide and 4 feet tall, in the shape of a square with the outer top corner cut off. The opposite "wall" was an air forcefield, and the vaccuum was in her arm's reach.
Chi frowned and bit and tried to keep herself as near to the actual wall of the hallway as she could as she army crawled through the hallway trying to find her way to the pilot's seat. ~This sucks.~ She tried to plug her brain's memory banks for a blueprint of the ASF-57 DN Minicruiser to figure out where she was.
The pilot's seat, and their middle-aged benefactor were only a couple feet towards the front of the ship on the walled side of the hall. Ahead of the opening to the pilot's pit, there was a small bayfor launching...something small. and out directly ahead, the tail end of the GSS Yui.
Chi's eyes widened as she noticed the ship and got closer to the pilot's pit. "Mister, I think that's my ship! Could you hail them? " Chi looked back at the grating were Iseki was and quickly tried to think up a plan to take Iseki with her and still leave the pilot a slave..
"Yeah. Why don't you, though?" Figuring the GSA ship would respond better to one of their own, he clicked on the microphone.
Chi spoke aloud, hoping that this was indeed her ship. "GSS Yui, this is Taisho Ketsurui Chiharu, do you read me? over." She crossed her fingers and was strangely reminded of the Kaeru frog..
Onboard, Arume got up and walked over to Aya, who was asleep at the communications station. Taking ahold of one of the unsuspecting neko's nipples, she pinched it and twisted hard, sending Aya into a screaming fit that Chiharu could hear over the intercom. "It's Chiharu, you twit. Answer the transmission."
Chiharu winced a bit at the screaming, "Hello, is everything all right over there GSS Yui?"
Aya blushed crimson and nodded to Arume. "You didn't have to do that. You're so mean to me Arume." Aya tried to regain some dignity as she spoke again, "This is the GSS Yui. Is that really you Sempai.. err.. Taisho Ketsurui? What's your location?"
Chi chuckled a bit, that explained it, it was the Yui alright. "It's really me Aya. We're right on your tail. We'll come alongside." Chi looked to the pilot, "Sir, there's a place to dock above the Yui and along the sides."
The man circled the Yui, checking for a port that was compatible, but not finding away. Eventually, he settled for just putting the ships roof to roof at the rear lift and spreading a plastic adapter thing in the gap. After a few minutes, it was airtight and ready to go. The man looked to Chi and tugged on her arm, pulling her into the pilot's area with him, and guiding her hands to handholds, helping her get to the lift shaft.
"Watch out." he told Chiharu. "The gravity is the opposite way once you're through the door."
Chi nodded and stopped for a moment and looked at the pilot, "Right. Hey, since we're here, would you like a different Neko for your ship? Iseki is pretty badly damaged and I'm pretty sure that I have a spare Tech Neko aboard ship that you could use. She'll be just as pretty as Iseki though." She looked at the pilot with a hopeful look in her eyes, she didn't want to abandon Iseki after they'd come all this way.
"Damaged? What do you mean? If she's a neko, too, won't she self-heal?"
Chi shoke her head no. "The Angels damaged her psychologically, the damage is all mental and cannot be self-repaired. In order for her to work like she's supposed to, I'd have to send her back to PNUgen to get fixed."
"PNUgen doesn't fix defective nekos, they kill them and send a replacement." the man said, looking up at her. "It's true."
Chi shrugged a bit, "So are you intersted in trading a broken Neko for a fully functioning one? This one will just start crying and won't stop among other things."
"Why's she so special to you, eh?" The man asked, wondering what extra value this particular neko had that would make her worth more than a new one. "I held up to my end of the deal." he grumbled angrily, upset that she was trying to change things on him now that she already had the ride she wanted.
"She helped me escape from the Angel's ship and I don't want to abandon her. I also figured that it wouldn't be fair to leave you with a defective Neko after you did hold up your end of the deal." Chi sighed a bit and looked over in the direction of the grating where Iseki was.
Iseki listened to the two, all alone in the dark cargo area. She whimpered quietly, but didn't say anything. Finally, the man asked, "Well, do you have a neko to trade right now?"
Chi nodded. "I do, before I was captured 3 Neko techs were cloned. If you want to pick which one you want you can come aboard with Iseki."
"Okay." The hardened traveler agreed. Iseki crawled out of the ship very slowly, avoiding getting too close to the man, and entered the Yui. She kissed the walls, starting to cry again. It looked so much like her home, and yet it was not. None of her sister or friends would be here to greet her... Well, one friend. Iseki looked at Chi and tried to manage a smile.
Chi smiled softly back at Iseki as she went into the Yui, glad to be home. And she stretched a bit and walked towards the lifts, sending a message to the crew on the bridge, "Aya, Arume, do me a favor and get the 3 Tech Clones to meet me in the uppermost dock's lift."
Aya's reply was a short but happy, "Aye Aye Taisho, welcome home!" The 3 Tech Neko clones walked from the Megami's room to meet them at the designated lift. They all had blue eyes and dark green hair. One had the same warm red brown skin as Kuru, while another was a fleshy pink and the last was a pale pink.
The man took Iseki by the arm, and pulled her out of the lift shaft. He wasn't sure if the crew understood what Chi meant, and he wasn't going to take any chances that the lift they were all standing on was going to go up and squish them into the door. Although the man didn't know, it made a lot of sense, since Megami was gone.
Chi stepped off the lift and looked to the nekos in the tech uniforms. "Ok, ladies, one of you will be going with gentleman here onto his ship to serve as his assistant." She quickly told them via telepathy that she was sorry for singling them out. But the techs just smiled with a soft shrug. ~It'll be ok Taisho Ketsurui..~
"What are you girls' names?" the man asked, sizing them up.
The techs shrugged a bit. They hadn't chosen names for themselves yet, but they figured now would be a good time. The brown neko spoke first after thinking for a moment, "I'm Izumi." The fleshy pink neko was next, "I'm Kikyo" and the then lastly the pale pink tech spoke, "And I'm Shira." Then they all bowed to him, "Dozo Yoroshiko."
Shira stretched a bit, it was nice to get out of the Megami room for a break. Kikyo looked at the man curiously, "What's your name sir?"
Kikyo smiled brightly, it felt nice to be wanted. "Nice to meet you Mr. Harrison. It'll be my pleasure to be working with you." Chi blinked a bit at the realization that she never asked the pilot hi s name. Chi spoke, "I wish you luck Mr.Harrison. And thank you for the ride home." Chi looked at Iseki. Kikyo walked over to Harrison and Izumi and Shira waved to her. "Have fun sis."
"Ok. I'll take you, Kikyo." The man paused. After all this time he was wondering when someone would ask. "I'm Harrison."
Commander Harrison plucked off Kikyo's shiny rank pin and threw it on the floor. "We'll be leaving now."
Chi nodded as she took Iseki from him. "Hopefully, we'll never meet again Harrison."
"Nice to meet you too, bitch." he grunted gruffly, before taking the bewildered Kikyo by the wrist and back to his ship. In a moment, the ASF-57 broke away from the GSS Yui and disappeared into hyperspace.
Chi just shoke her head again, the man hadn't liked her since he found out that she wsa GSA. Oh well.
Iseki looked to the two remaining neko technicians nervously, not knowing how to express herself, or even what to express. She almost didn't want to meet anyone new, because of the risk that they would be killed or captured just like she was. Attachments were dangerous. So, she merely stood tucked against the wall behind Chi, holding her crossed arms tight to her chest.
Chi sighed a bit. "Thanks you two, you can go back to whatever it was you were doing.." The techs nodded but, as they turned to leave, Izumi stopped. "We are repairing the Megami right now." Chi blinked, "What?"
Iseki looked at them oddly. "You're trying to fix a megami??"
Izumi nodded, "She was damaged recently by an intruder. We're still recooping." Chi looked to Iseki curiously, yes fixing the Megami meant something really messed up went down. "Do you remember what the Megami is Iseki?"
"Megami is a complicated quantum computer." Iseki replied, knowing it from her studies of the new one on the GD-37. "The Mentafexal ElectroGravitationally Accelerated Memory and Intelligence type Q3, built by SARA. You're going to have to return to a major port or depot to get her replaced."
Chi smiled despite the fact that the Megami being damaged was a really bad thing, "I guess we'll have to do that then before we have to return to our mission."
"That might not be possible. The Yui seems to be headed in the direction of the refueling station. Without the computer, none of the engine systems will work. Nor will our shields." Iseki explained. The ship systems were so complicated, that they needed the computer to regulate them. With that vital part gone, the ship was effectively crippled.
Chi sighed, "Ah hell.. maybe we could get another ship to get us. It would be bad to end up at the refueling station again. Any suggestions as to what we could do?"
"Use the ablative armor system and torpedos." Iseki mumbled absently. Most of the rest of Chi's half of the first fleet was busy massing for an attack on the main angel base that the Yui was supposed to find, leaving the scout alone for all practical purposes. The GSS Ender might be close enough to render assistance, though.
Chi frowned, well hell, it looked like the powers that be really hated the GSS Yui for some reason. "Crap, we are in real deep now.." What a home coming, barter a crew member into slavery and find out your ship is flying without the main computer system. "Do you know if they could fix the Megami enough to get her partially running, is there even the slimmest chance we could at least get ourselves redirected?"
Iseki, who seemed to be electronically knowledgeable, said, "We could create a backup computer system using one or two of the laptops. There should be some in the armory. The computers could control the sublight ion/graviton engines, enabling us to turn around. But one of the problems is that we can't cloak. At this range, they're probably already watching us."
"You're probably right Iseki, but we have to do something." She smiled, "And again you are a truly a life saver Iseki, let's get that done. It'll be better than nothing right now."
Iseki nodded, sliding her back against the corner until she was sitting on the floor. She had started shivering again. "I...I don't to lose another ship and crew."
Chi knelt down and hugged the girl. "You won't Iseki, we'll fight it tooth and nail, let's get you something to eat and a place to sleep." The techs had decided it would be best for them to leave the two alone because they had to break it to the other Techs that their work so far has been for their own amusement.
JP By

GSA no Taii Hisô Iseki
Starship Pilot, GD-37 [Destroyed]

&

