Mirrors Multiplied

Part Nine

Something Unexpected

by Jared Ornstead

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Stealth Disclaimer (load decoding sequencer now)

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    Lisa's eyes swam so she could no longer see her monitor. A flash of
heat had replaced her husband's face on the screen and now the remote
feed from his veritech was gone.
    "Vermilion group." Claudia took over for her friend. "Proceed to
sector G, delta quadrant. Ghost squadron, prepare for takeoff."
    The bridge girls looked up from their boards in sympathy for their
grieving commander.
    General Henry Gloval stepped onto the bridge, ducking his head under
the low entryway. "Report." He commanded, taking his seat in the command
chair.
    Claudia answered without batting an eyelash. "Sir, we've got an
enemy recon unit in sector G, with one alien mother ship coming in for
what looks like a pickup. Vermilion group and ghost squadron are
preparing to intercept."
    "Hmm," Gloval saw his first officer, Lisa Hayes, was obviously
wrestling with something. He decided to let her be and addressed
Claudia. "And what happened to our scout patrol?"
    "Lieutenant Ranma Saotome reported a mechanical malfunction before
engaging the enemy." Lisa answered, bent over, suppressing her sobs. "He
was shot down just moments ago."
    The general nodded. A man would have to be blind and a fool not to
have noticed how those two felt about each other. But it would deprive
her of much of her ability to cope to ask her to stand down right now.
    "Carry on."

    Battle screens lit up in Ranma's remodeled cockpit and he looked
down through them at what could only be hands. His veritech's reflection
in an oncoming missile revealed that what had been a fighter jet was now
humanoid in form.
    He dodged out of the way of the missile without even thinking about
it.
    Ranma had a flash of inspiration as his craft nimbly side skipped
the missile. This plane detected thought patterns! He'd been messing
himself up, analyzing what he'd do as himself, then reacting as a pilot.

    Unfortunately, he didn't know the controls in this form very well. A
blast shook his veritech, piercing the cockpit and creating a laser hole
*through* the pilot's chair over Ranma's left shoulder. Self sealant
plugged the leak.
    "Okay, that's it!" He hauled out the Silver Crystal.
    "Earth Disguise Power! Make me into a totally hotshot veritech
pilot!"
    It didn't work *quite* like he'd hoped. He'd been wanting nothing
but to counterfeit a few skills. Instead it seemed to open up his mind
to the entire life of the Ranma he'd replaced. Even as he did it he knew
he'd never learn a life this way again. The pain and confusion of
remembering a whole life all at once were just too terrible.
    But his veritech was now dodging with an ease that mirrored what he
could do himself, his hands stroking the controls with amazing
proficiency and skill, while his mind poured through combat moves his
previous self could never have contemplated. Ranma also felt himself
grow a sort dual awareness. One, a kind of silent one, was his ordinary
self. The other, the veritech fighting machine that was hanging in
space.
    The combat mecha cracked it knuckles, Silver Imperial energy flowing
into otherwise destroyed systems, bringing them online with shuddering
power.
    With a grin and a grimace Ranma settled into this battle anew.

    Lieutenant Rick Hunter led the two companions that, with him,
comprised vermilion group toward the enemy's known location.
    "How far is ghost squadron behind us?" He asked Claudia on his left
screen. Lisa appeared on the right view of the three part display.
    "Less than three minutes, vermilion leader. Just keep on your
present heading and slow the enemy until reinforcements arrive."
    "Roger that, commander. But I thought it was the scout's job to do
that for *us*. Did Ranma fall asleep in his veritech again?" He wasn't
bitter about being called back from his date, he just wanted to get some
friendly digs in.
    "Lieutenant Saotome was destroyed." Lisa answered coldly. "Watch
yourself out there Hunter." Her face vanished from his screen.
    Rick Hunter felt himself sweat cold. Oh, man! Something that could
get Ranma really *could* get anyone! He hunched his shoulders. "Max,
Ben, you heard?"
    "Roger that, vermilion leader."
    "Hey, Rick." Max Sterling called. "We're coming up now, and it
doesn't look peaceful over there."
    Rick Hunter raised his eyes to the battle. "SDF-1, this is pilot
Rick Hunter. We're going in, but you ought to know that it looks like
our boy Saotome isn't out of the fight yet. Over."

    Lisa keyed her monitor in wonder, hope surfacing with a shuddering
blast. "Roger, vermilion leader. See if you can offer some assistance.
Over."
    "Roger that." Rick's voice crackled over the speakers.
    Lisa keyed in the long range optics, bringing the battle scene to
the bridge with greater clarity than enjoyed by the three veritechs who
were providing the input.
    Everyone leaned forward in their seats to stare at the monitor. What
they saw was amazing.

    Ranma vaulted through a screen of missiles with nary a care. Eleven
fighter pods had attacked him from the enemy side, but they couldn't
hold a candle to Kuno's pilots, or any of his usual foes. He grabbed one
of them as they passed, ripped open the canopy, ripped the pilot out of
his seat, and turned the craft's own missiles and firepower against the
scout ship that he'd been fighting in the first place.
    He'd emptied the missile tubes and was overheating the cannons by
the time they got a lock on him. The weapon expired and so he launched
the whole craft at the hulking scout, rocket boosters turning the
unmanned fighter itself into a missile.
    Ranma spun his veritech free and wheeled to face two new foes,
punching open hull plates and ripping apart engine housings. Both
fighters exploded. Ranma vaulted away and used his piddling head lasers
to tickle the side of another fighter while diving for the surface of
the scout. The big guns on the monster toad had just finished silencing
the threat posed by the unmanned fighter.
    Ranma's veritech flew through an airlock in a flying kick, catching
on the side as the atmosphere evacuated, then running into the center of
the ship. Three pilots were in the command chairs. Ranma disabled them
all with swift blows to their pressure suits, then turned the scout's
guns against the fighter escort that was trying to protect it.
    Two expanded in gaseous clouds before they reacted to the new
threat.

    "I don't believe what I'm seeing." Rick's voice echoed through the
speakers. Lisa was watching the monitor with swimming eyes and clasped
hands, her cheeks tracked with tears of joy.
    "Believe it, lieutenant. That's my *husband* you're talking about
there." Lisa said, realizing that she no longer cared who knew.

    Ranma turned the ungainly toad toward the SDF-1. Running out of the
busted airlock he addressed the oncoming planes.
    "Here, catch!" He called, using his suit radio. His veritech's was
busted, along with about half his plane, but he was getting mad. He
disliked people who made him feel scared, and these aliens had made him
feel very frightened indeed.
    He rocketed off to grapple another fighter pod in hand to hand
combat. The fighter lost.

    "Bring that vessel under tow immediately!" General Gloval ordered.
He leaned back into his seat. "Our scientists will want to have a look
inside that thing. A nearly intact alien scout could have a great deal
of information."
    Lisa gave the order, her singing, teared face brimming with pride
and triumph. Then she caught a closer look at Ranma's veritech through
the optics.
    "Rick! Relay orders to Ranma Saotome that he is to retreat
*immediately!* His craft is far too heavily damage to continue in this
battle!"
    "Roger, Lisa. I'm going to have to catch up with him, though. His
suit radio is the only contact we've had with him."
    "Hurry, Rick." Lisa pled.

    A blast nearly tore the left arm off of Ranma's veritech. But he had
discovered an amazing thing. He didn't feel any pain. He could keep
fighting and not *worry* about how beat up he got. Everything functioned
regardless.
    He skipped past a soaring fighter. They were all steering well away
from him now, and he didn't have the speed in this form to catch them.
Well, no matter. There was an alien mother ship approaching. It didn't
look to be more than a thousand feet long. It couldn't hold more than a
few hundred, maybe a thousand, of these fifty foot aliens.
    Corridor fighting suited his mood excellently.

    Rick poured on thrust as he saw Ranma's veritech dive for the
approaching alien cruiser. "He's got to be crazy!"
    "Crazy or not, we've got to go after him." Max replied.
    Swallowing their collective fear vermilion group followed the
distant veritech into battle.

    "He's crazy!" Lisa cried, flinching back from what she'd seen on the
monitor.
    General Gloval found himself playing umpire. "He may have discovered
something inside that scout that led him to this course of action.
Relax, Lisa. Your husband is a capable fellow. I'm sure he knows what
he's doing."
    He began tapping tobacco into his pipe. I sure *hope* he knows what
he's doing, he thought to himself.
    "General Gloval!" Sammy cried urgently, causing an adrenaline surge
that flung the commander inches into air.
    "What is it, Sammy?" He turned, expecting an enemy fleet had climbed
up on their flank.
    "There's no smoking on the bridge!" She reminded.

    Vermilion group landed on the hull of the Zentraedi cruiser, near a
big gaping hole where an airlock used to be. Ben covered Rick and Max as
they jumped into the pit from opposite sides. They covered the hallways
as he followed them in.
    "How are we going to find him?" Rick asked, having his veritech look
down the corridors.
    "Just follow the bodies, I guess." Max wisely replied, pointing to a
trail of dead aliens.
    The trio began to race down the hallway.

    Ranma grinned in feral delight. No one could tell how his veritech
was holding together, but it was holding. And, as the fifty aliens in
the last hanger could attest to, it wasn't slowing down for anything.
    The cramped quarters on board the alien ship proved ideal for his
favorite kind of fighting. They couldn't get away, and they sure had
nothing they could face him with. Bullet and laser holes scarred his
mecha, but Ranma raced through the passageways with an alien rifle in
each arm and another slung over his back.
    He zipped into another flight hanger. The enemy mecha squatted in
rows, cramped even in the vast space available.
    Ranma didn't care. He *liked* cramped. He could whiz and zig between
alien forms all day and not feel the least bit worried. Besides, their
wild shooting in all directions caused half of them to destroy the other
half, then do it again. He added his own share of fire to the equation,
but a packed hanger bay was not the place for tank equivalents to be
fighting.
    Through a bloody hail of fire the occupants of the hanger managed to
almost extinguish themselves. Ranma finished the survivors off and leapt
through another opening.

    A blistering explosion rocked the alien cruiser.
    "Sensors confirmed a huge explosion aboard the alien vessel." The
girl on sensors  alerted. "It was preceded by a storm of contained laser
fire. Occupying the location where one of their main hangers used to be.
Estimated capacity of half their ship's mecha force."
    Sensors trilled again. "A similar but smaller explosion is occurring
within their forward launch bay. That makes the third hanger to blow so
far."
    Everyone stared disbelievingly at the monitors.
    "It's not *possible!*" Gloval sputtered, forgetting for a moment
whose feelings he might be hurting. "How could ANYONE cause that kind of
damage and survive? It can't be done! He HAS to have died by now!"

    "ANOTHER one!" Max cried disbelievingly, and they stepped into yet
another blown out hanger.
    "Look out, Max! Behind you!" Ben blasted an alien that had somehow
survived the devastation.
    Rick stepped out into an area where blown hull plates allowed a view
of the far distant SDF-1. "This is Lieutenant Hunter calling SDF-1, do
you copy? Over."
    "This is SDF-1. Go ahead, Rick." Lisa's voice answered, spotted with
static.
    "You have to *SEE* this place! It looks like the main gun went off
in here. I'm sorry that we haven't been able to find Ranma, but he's
been destroying everything faster than we can run through the carnage."
    "I understand, Rick. Do what you can. Over."
    "Yeah, we'll guard his back as best we can." Max supplied. With a
nod the group ran into another corridor.

    On only one leg and using a rifle as a cane Ranma's veritech limped
into the command bridge of the Zentraedi vessel. The crew screamed and
began to run away from him.
    The captain reached for the self-destruct sequencer, but the
battered and ugly human machine raised a rifle and pointed it directly
toward his chest. The captain wavered, then realized there wasn't time
to initiate the program and fled.
    Ranma sat in a smoke-filled pilot's compartment in the midst of
shorting controls and a small equipment fire. Well, the thing *had*
finally locked up. He'd begun to think it might not have *any* limits.
His anger drained away and Ranma curled up on his pilot's seat,
shuddering in aftershock.
    He didn't get upset often, and fear bound up with anger tied up on
top of the previous strain had just wiped him out.

    "Ghost squadron reports the alien scout secured, sir. Apparently,
Ranma left three prisoners on board. The pilots of the craft have all
been disabled."
    Gloval nodded to Claudia. "Good. Have the aliens restrained and
transferred aboard a cargo shuttle. We'll put them in the Daedelus
section while Dr. Lang looks over their ship. Any word from the
cruiser?"
    "None, general." Lisa answered. "Though escape pods are continuing
to fire."

    Max Sterling's veritech climbed out on the surface of the warship.
    "Hey, commander Hayes." He called. "It looks like we'll be needing a
med-evac and a huge tow truck. We've found your husband. He was standing
alone in the bridge of the alien vessel. His veritech looks like Swiss
cheese, and it's systems are frozen, but he has captured an enemy
warship singlehanded!"
    "Is he alright?" Came the concerned reply.
    "Well, some minor burns when his controls exploded. Frankly, I can't
imagine how he made it. But your husband is one tough man, and he seems
to be just fine. Rick and Ben are standing guard over our young hero
while they wait for your reply." Max grinned into his pickup. "Mrs.
Saotome."
    "Red, Green and Skull squadrons should be there any time now. I'll
dispatch a medical shuttle to meet you halfway." Lisa's smile could be
heard through the speakers.

    Ranma was brought aboard the SDF-1 on a medical gurney. Cheering met
him in the hanger as the shuttle doors opened up. Doctors wheeled him
down a ramp cleared by military police, while above and around him every
available surface was crammed with military personnel cheering their
lungs out for him.
    The crew had felt like the underdog since this war had started. It
made a *huge* difference to have a battle go so differently.
    Human losses: None. Alien losses: Over a thousand. Any soldier would
be giddy with the news. Especially soldiers who were used to battles
where they usually lost friends.
    Commander Lisa Hayes met the gurney at the lift. Flinging herself
bodily onto her husband's chest before the doors had even fully closed.
"You FOOL! You brave, brave fool! Don't you EVER frighten me like that
again! I felt sure that you'd get yourself killed!"
    One of the doctors tried to remove her. "Excuse me, miss Hayes. The
patient's wounds are..."
    She lifted her head and neck to glare venomously at the physician.
"My name is SAOTOME. This idiot of a bone-brained, courageous young fool
is my *husband!* And I'll want a full report on his progress."
    "Of course, miss... Mrs. Saotome. We'll do everything we can. But
you're going to aggravate his condition. His chest area has been
severely burned."

    The Zentraedi cruiser was brought alongside the SDF-1 and secured.
Teams of mighty destroids prowled the corridors prepared for pockets of
enemy resistance. They found none.
    "Well, Dr. Lang." General Gloval addressed his chief engineer on the
monitor. "What are your estimates to repair the enemy vessel?"
    "General, most of the ship's systems are fully operational. Poorly
maintained, but functioning. You must congratulate that pilot for me, he
kept most of the fighting near the outer hull, and to be honest it's
quite a mess there now. But he took the bridge without a single round
being fired. The wealth of computer and alien information is really
quite a find."
    Gloval digested this. "Hmm, so how soon can she be ready? It would
be quite pleasant to have an escort for a change."
    The doctor glanced away, then back again. "I'm sorry, general. But
just because primary systems are functioning doesn't make this a piece
of cake, you know. To get her fighting we'd need a great deal more in
the way of supplies than we've presently got. Her outer hull looks like
Swiss cheese. And most of her guns went up when the hull underneath them
did. So she's really not in fighting shape. Add to that the difficulty
of conversion for a human crew... Well, we just haven't got enough spare
plating or materials."
    General Gloval nodded. "I see."
    The chief engineer decided to risk something. "General, if you would
listen to a small suggestion. From my point of view we have two options.
First, we can take the ship and cannibalize it for parts, parts we're
greatly in need of just now. Or..."
    Gloval interrupted him. "Or we could take the ship as it is and send
it back to Earth with a skeleton crew. That's what you're thinking, yes?
Vot." He tipped his hat back and leaned back in his chair. "I really
don't see how we can take any other option. With Earth's resources they
should be able to retrofit the vessel faster than *we* could, and they
could send it back to us loaded with reinforcements and some much needed
supplies."
    The engineer bowed. "That was exactly my suggestion, general."

    Breeti, commander Zentraedi forces in the Earth quadrant, finished
interviewing a survivor over the monitor. He terminated the connection,
turning to his advisor.
    "Well, Exedore, what do you think of it?"
    The shorter alien addressed taller. "*Very* intriguing, my lord. A
whole battle cruiser lost to no more than four units."
    Breeti nodded. "Yes, the scanners were very clear on that."
    "If I might suggest, my lord. We have the records from earlier parts
of this fight and they reveal nothing unusual. It would seem that if
this were some kind of new fighter its performance would have been
obvious even then."
    Tall looked down at short, quizzically. "What you're saying then is
that this might be some kind of battle rage inherent to the species?"
    "Either that or stimulated. If you'll remember we've fought many
races already that could use a berserk rage to great effect."
    "That's true. Exedore, I would like a great deal more information on
this species before we proceed further. I would like a trio of spies to
be placed aboard that battle fortress."
    "*Very* unpleasant duty, sir. Whom shall we assign?"
    "Hmm," Breeti, tall even for his giant species, rubbed his chin.
    "If I might make a suggestion, sir. None of our men are particularly
suited to such an assignment. But Azonia's squadron is just a few light
years away..."
    Breeti snapped his fingers with a knowing smirk. "Call Azonia's
group. Have them send over a ship to provide and recover spies from the
alien vessel."
    Exedore bowed. "It will be done, sir."

    Roy Fokker entered the hospital room and tossed a bunch of flowers
on the foot of the bed. "How ya feelin, kid?"
    Ranma, propped up on pillows and swathed in bandages, nodded toward
his IV. "If it weren't for this I'd feel alright. Doctors don't spend
much time listening, do they?"
    Fokker found himself a chair. "No, they don't. But listen here, you
do what they tell you and you'll be up and fighting in no time. Which
reminds me." Roy grinned. "Next time I ask you for a favor remind me to
quantify it. I don't remember asking you to take on a *battlecruiser*."
    Ranma shrugged. "It was there."
    They both laughed.
    "Oh, and Ranma. Congratulations are in order. Lisa's asked for your
belongings to be transferred to her apartment, she's telling everyone
about the wedding. Word's got over the whole ship. You're a lucky man."
    Ranma blushed, but played along. "Hey, *I* knew that a long time
ago."
    "Well, no more sneaking around corridors for the two of you anyway.
*And* there's going to be an award ceremony. You're a hero, kid. The
only thing we could do to make this better is to have Miss Macross drop
by to give you a kiss. What do you say, should I find her? Apparently
she's quite a mystery girl."
    Ranma laughed. He hadn't known this Roy long, but it was obvious he
was the mentor type, never happier than when helping other people out.
There were worse ways to get your satisfaction, he might as well play
along.
    "Sure Roy, you do that. I'd love to see her, just make sure that a
kiss is *all* she wants. I'm married, you know." And with luck he'd be
out of here before anyone established the connection.
    Roy smirked, standing up from his chair. "She'll be pure as the
driven snow. I promise you. Now you start feeling better." He fired an
imaginary pistol at Ranma. "That's an order."
    "Sure, and tell Rick that I'm sorry he got called away from his
date."
    "*You're* sorry? Ranma, *she's* sorry she held him up! That story
about your fight has been all over the news. In fact the reporters at
first wouldn't believe it, so the general released several clips from
your flight recorder to back it up. There's a whole sensation going on.
I believe Lisa even has a letter for you wanting to make your story into
a movie. Between you and that mystery girl the press are having a field
day."
    He cocked a hand, pointing a finger at Ranma. "And if I have to
field one more question about why you and she have the same last name I
think I'm going to forget about coming back."
    "Coming back? Where are you going?"
    Roy sat back down. "Oh, that's right. You've been doped up these
past few days. We're sending that ship you captured back to Earth for a
refit. I'm provisionally put in charge. The general first offered it to
Lisa, but she practically tore his head off. Said she wasn't leaving you
for *any* reason."
    The door chimed and opened. Lisa walked in.
    Roy unwrapped himself from around the chair. "Well, that's about it.
I have to be going. Say, why don't you capture another? That way you can
join me on Earth for some tequila. See ya around!"
    Lisa straightened the chair and resumed her place in it. She'd spent
alot of time on those cushions of late.
    Ranma sat up.
    "Don't, Ranma, you'll aggravate your injuries!" She cried, holding
her hands out to him.
    He obediently lay back down.
    Lisa shrank in on herself. "Please, Ranma. I don't have very much
time with you..."
    He cocked an eyebrow. That chair knew her backside better than he
did. The cushions had a permanent imprint of it. Something was up if she
wasn't able to be with him now that the doctors deemed he was allowed to
be awake.
    "Lisa. Don't lie to me. I know you've been here while I was
sleeping. Why can't you be with me now that I can enjoy it?"
    She looked away.
    "I'm sorry, Ranma. The general needs me on the bridge. We're sort of
short handed."
    He sat up again, ignoring her protests. "Short handed? Lisa, the..."
He thought for a fast second, running symbols he'd seen through his
mind. "Robotech Defense Forces allow leave don't they? Look, the only
reason you couldn't..."
    She flinched.
    "...is a battle. Isn't it?"
    He threw off the covers, standing up. "Underway or in progress?" He
asked.
    Lisa stood and tried to push him back down. "Please, Ranma! You
don't have to do this! There are plenty of other pilots..."
    He did not allow her to move him. "Plenty of other pilots? With the
bridge crew short handed? Lisa, please. Here, let me show you
something." He lifted his arm to one shoulder and tore the bandages open
down his side.
    His chest, smeared with medical goop, was whole and healthy.
    "What? How?" Lisa was backing off.
    He was peeling the bandages from his skin. "I only wish they'd let
me wake up sooner. Part of my training is to deal with injuries. When
I'm awake it doesn't matter how much pain I'm in. I heal fast."
    She looked at him in wonder, reaching out a tentative hand toward
his chest. He stood and let her touch the unburned skin. She almost
flinched, but he held himself unwavering. Her hand sought out the
smoothness of his ribs, then she was in his arms.
    "Oh, Ranma!" She cried, tears moistening his chest. "I was *so*
afraid! They told me... Oh! I was so worried!"
    Ranma held her, allowing her to release a torrent of emotions in the
safety of his arms. He raised his head to the sky. There were times when
he was very glad to be himself. No matter who that happened to be.
    A medical orderly knocked and then entered. "Excuse me, Mrs.
Saotome. The general wants you on the bridge."
    Lisa straightened herself, drying tears, trying to ignore the
medical goop that had stained her uniform. "Thanks, I'll be right
there."
    "Brewing." Ranma concluded, looking down at her. "You wouldn't be
off the bridge in a battle, not even for this."
    She nodded, collecting her jacket. "I really should be going. The
general has been trying to hold the enemy off while we get a prize crew
aboard the captured cruiser. It doesn't help that only men in battloids
are large enough to pilot her. There's been some aliens pressing our
flanks and with our mecha forces low..."
    She kissed him on the cheek. "You won't go, will you?" Her eyes
begged him.
    He reassured her. "There are times when a guy has to, Lisa. But I'll
stay alive for you."
    She smiled, tears restarting. "You'd better Saotome. I'm not about
to let you die before I find out what *real* married life is like."
    "It includes alot of this." He kissed her, then patted her on the
bottom. "Now go. I'll be seeing you soon enough."
    She went.

    Ranma adjusted some controls as the lift brought his veritech to the
surface of the flight deck. Automates rotated his plane into position.
    "All clear!" The crewman informed him over the radio.
    Jets warmed and then roared to full life. Thrusters catapulted him
across the flight deck and into space. That odd sense of duality
returned to him, making him feel like a bird soaring through an endless
sky.
    "Blue leader." Lisa's voice and image interrupted his thoughts. "You
may join up with your squadron at point three-four-two mark one. Over."
    For once Ranma was totally at a loss.
    "Um, I don't know where that is, Lisa."
    She looked ashamed. "Oh, I'm sorry. You weren't here when we issued
the new code books, were you? Here, let me find an old one..."
    He cut her off. "No, Lisa, don't. I'm sure our enemy is monitoring.
If we give them a tie-in to the old codes then that defeats the purpose
of changing them. Why don't you just feed me a navigational track?"

    She blushed, then turned to the general. "Can we *do* that?"
    Gloval tilted his cap. "I don't see why not. It should be a good
exercise for you, Lisa. And your husband has a point. What is he doing
out of bed, anyway? I had understood that he was not to be released for
some while yet."
    Ranma's voice came over the speaker. "Lisa, you can assure the
general. I had a doctor check me out thoroughly and approve me as ready
to fly. I almost didn't even have to hit him."
    "Ranma!" Lisa blazed at the speakers. "Why would you *do* such a
thing! Why!" She caught herself, noticing that everyone except her was
laughing.
    "Roger, blue leader, transferring new information now."
    "I love you, Lisa."
    "Military communications only, blue leader. And I love you too,
Ranma."
    "Roger that, commander."

*
    Scene of Ranma leading blue squadron through packs of enemy mecha,
encountering the deadly female powersuits for the first time.
*
    Scene of three small female Zentraedi spies being delivered secretly
aboard the SDF-1. Joining the RDF and getting introduced to the
mysteries of shopping, music, movies and video games.
*
    Scene of a Zentraedi command cruiser blowing apart the sensor tower
of the SDF-1, forcing Lisa to fly out in a recon unit so the ship won't
be totally blind. Ranma and vermilion group fly her escort.
*
    Scene aboard the Zentraedi flagship. Ranma, Lisa and Ben from
vermilion group are trapped in a science chamber, confined to a specimen
table by force fields. Rick and Max prowl the corridors in search of
them while Breeti recovers from injuries sustained in his battle with
Saotome.
    Scans of the captive humans reveal that Lisa is slightly pregnant.
*
    In the Zentraedi high command ship, a vast space station hundreds of
miles across, Ranma, Ben and Lisa are interrogated by Dolza, the
Zentraedi ultimate high commander.
    Dolza threatens to crush Lisa in his grip unless she explains the
`parasite' she has aboard her. Ranma kills the Zentraedi high commander
with a Dragon Fist, then explains to a startled Breeti and Exedore that
human males may learn these powers to defend the ones they love.
    Leads to a discussion of love and a demonstration of the kiss, with
its shocking and debilitating effects on the Zentraedi who have never
seen anything like it.
*
    Rick and Max, still in their veritechs, rescue their friends from
being executed. Ranma gets splashed, revealing his dual identity, but
allowing him to wreak fearsome slaughter among the enemy as Sailor
Earth. Using several of her Earth Cataclysms and Earth Cataclysm Waves
to work vast damage on small portions of the station, covering their
escape into a small cruiser returning to the front.
*
    Ranma, working together with Rick and Max, kill the crew of the
cruiser and lead the captured ship back into human space. The small
group keeps Ranma's secret.
*
    The female spies aboard the SDF-1 see the very first Ranko movie, an
instant sensation. One of them meets the young Ranma, but gets politely
but firmly rebuffed, leading to their researching marriage and it's
customs.
*
    Ranma and Lisa stand on the outside deck of the SDF-1, floating
somewhere in the Pacific ocean, holding a small baby in their arms.
*
    The SDF-1 is ordered back into space. There they are ambushed by an
alien force of considerable size and power. They fight bravely, losing
several of their pilots, then Roy Fokker returns in the newly
refurbished and commissioned Earth heavy cruiser Bismark, using his own
ship's resources to even the odds and beat back the enemy.
*
    On board the SDF-1 the three female spies, now working stations on
the SDF-1 bridge, confront General Gloval privately and reveal
themselves as foreign agents, requesting political asylum and to be
allowed to continue working with the crew of the SDF-1.
    Gloval, conferring with his closest advisors, decides instead to
employ them as double agents, going back aboard the Zentraedi fleet and
attempting to corrupt the aliens with a liking toward earth culture.
    The attempt is a 100% success. Using Ranko dolls and music, plus
copies of videos and earth cuisine, the spies find vast success in
intriguing their own commander, then later Breeti and Exedore. Further
inquiries are made into earth culture, and the attacks are scaled back
while this new thing is investigated.
*
    Breeti and Exedore, along with the Zentraedi main armada, defect
over to the side of the SDF-1. Fights with renegade fleets are swiftly
put down by the might of the main armada coupled with the hauntingly
powerful effect of Ranko's singing.
    Ranma introduces the Zentraedi to sports and games, while their huge
fleet is being micronized. Soon there aren't enough beaches to hold the
giants playing watersports, and the phrase "When a Zentraedi hates
volleyball" comes to be synonymous with "never."
    Mass colonization efforts of other planets begin.
*

    Ranma guided his veritech effortlessly around the bulk of one of the
orbital shipyards. He didn't get much of a chance to fly the veritechs
anymore, but he relished the opportunities he got to do so.
    He keyed communications.
    "Lisa, I love the controls on these new planes. The movement is
really much smoother."
    "I'll show you smooth, Ranma." She replied throatily over the
private communications link.
    His eyebrows rose. "What, aren't five children enough for you?"
    "Nothing is enough for me as far as *you* are concerned, darling.
I'm aiming for a round dozen."
    He smiled, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "Well, I can see that I'm
going to be busy. I'd better head back."
    "Roger, commander SDF-2, you can land on the heavy cruiser
Richthofen and proceed through the docking link to the main ship." She
smiled seductively. "Your quarters await you."
    Ranma senses noticed something. "Wait a minute, Lisa. I've got a
strange light appearing over my left shoulder."
    "Can you describe it, Ranma?"
    "It looks to be expanding, holding a steady course and speed." His
veritech changed direction. "No, wait a minute. It appears to be
tracking me!"
    "Is it hostile?" Lisa's voice was instantly concerned.
    "No way to tell for certain, why don't we just assume it is enough
to..." Ranma got a startling flash of memory.
    It had been fourteen years. This had to be a gate. His home universe
was calling.

    He realized that just as it claimed him.

*****
Universe B, Home Universe

    Ranma wrestled his veritech through an uncontrolled atmosphere
landing. Power had cut out momentarily and before he had it back on
again he was deep in atmosphere and flailing in the wind.
    Well, he might have appeared deep in atmosphere. It was a moot
point.
    Wind screamed around his hull and the veritech bucked and power cut
back on. Ranma desperately applied braking thrusters, reconfiguring to
guardian configuration to swivel both main engines forward to stop his
spin and slow his fall.

    Belldandy crossed her arms, brow flaring with energy as the cyborg
renewed the assault upon them.
    "Die!" Cross commanded, bringing lightning around her fist and
blasting it against the shield erected by the young goddess.
    Nodoka remained in prone position, protecting Kasumi with her body
and attempting to steady the gauss rifle for another shot at the cyborg.

    So far they hadn't penetrated her defense field, but you never knew.
If Cross' control were to slip for even an instant Nodoka would be ready
for it. Belldandy focused all her energy into maintaining her shield.
    "You can't win!" The cyborg yelled, blasting once more against their
barrier.
    Belldandy's face was calm yet stern. "We have no need to win, evil
one, to know that you will receive your just reward!"
    Cross cocked her wrist, preparing another blast. "My reward? Your
FEAR is my favorite source of psycho energy. What greater reward could I
ask? Be afraid for me, be very afraid. If you do, I will let you be the
last to live. I will kill all the rest before you."
    Belldandy frowned in anger. "Do you think I would *accept* such a
bargain? I could *never* agree to such a plan."
    Cross reaimed her blaster arm. "Suit yourself."
    The screaming howl of a too fast descent cut off into the roaring
blast of braking thrusters, and Cross received a boot to the body from a
fifty foot tall combat mecha.
    A foot came down, crushing one of the trees of the Saotome estate.
Looking up the leg revealed a giant fighting machine in peak condition,
bristling with newness and armaments.
    Loudspeakers blared.
    "Now you may deal directly with me, Ranma Saotome of the Robotech
Defense Squadron!"
    Cross reacted with some surprise. "A void?" She assumed, relating
the creature to one of her brother's bodyguard androids. Sparks of gauss
rifle fire spattered off her shield. She tossed her head in contempt.
    "No, matter. I can deal with you anyway."
    As Cross said that she was swiftly sent flying by a kick with
hundreds of tons of force behind it. Laser fire spattered her screens
and Ranma's veritech kicked off the ground, flying after her while he
unslung his main projectile rifle.
    Cross stabilized herself in the air, amazed. Her eyes, one normal,
one just a point of red light in a socket, narrowed in calculation. "You
are no ordinary android."
    In response she nearly lost her left arm as her defense shield
wavered and kicked under the relentless pounding of thousands of slivers
of hyper-velocity, anti-armor, penetrator rounds from his monster rifle.

    Laughing cut across the field of battle. "Perhaps, dear sister."
Chaos' voice echoed across the roofs of the suburb. "You should consider
this foe almost worthy of you. May I be permitted to help?"
    Cross reacted with uncanny disgust.
    "The voids would like to fight. May I let them, dear sister?"
    Cross was too afraid of her brother to say otherwise.
    "Until next time then, android." Cross faded from view while her
brother's laughter wafted out over the rooftops. Then both were gone.

    Ranma parked his fighter on the Saotome landing bay and allowed the
help to move it to a hanger. He rushed up to the house, pulling off his
flight helmet. Replacing it with the white uniform cap that went with
his blue military tunic and white dress slacks.
    His shoes had a mirror shine.
    Kasumi, Belldandy and Nodoka were huddled together in the kitchen.
The servants were staring about themselves at the devastation, but were
staying out of the way.
    Ranma tossed his helmet to Priory, who managed to catch it and hand
it off to a maid.
    "What happened?" He asked, kneeling next to the trio and putting a
hand out on one. Nodoka was swiftly controlling herself, and Kasumi was
unflapped by anything, but Belldandy was in tears. She clung to him.
    "Oh, Ranma! We were attacked by a vicious creature. That woman and
her brother spend their time destroying worlds! It was all I could do to
hold her at bay. I *tried* to defend us!"
    "There, now." Ranma patted her shoulder and stroked her cheek,
giving her the reassurance she needed just then. "You *did* defend us.
You did just fine. If you hadn't been here I could never have arrived in
time."
    Nodoka was perplexed by her son's uniform. "Son, where did you get
that? And what's happened to you? What was that robot?"
    He released Belldandy long enough to snap his mother a salute.
"Ranma Saotome, commander of the Northern Flight and the
Super-Dimensional-Fortress Two, at your service ma'am." He dropped the
salute and snickered. "Well, at least I was. Sheesh, back to high school
again. Say, Bell-chan. This is the universe I'm thinking of, right?"
    Belldandy had recovered herself, finding solace in her ability to
help another. "Yes, Ranma, it is. Here, let me help you. We can't have
your girlfriends seeing you this old." She placed a glowing hand on his
forehead and Ranma lost seventeen or more apparent years, restoring him
to his original sixteen.
    He shook himself. "Someday, Bell-chan, you are going to have to
teach me how to do that."
    Kasumi suddenly glomped him, weeping.
    Nodoka was nodding firmly. "Son, I don't know what your schedule is
like. But I think I deserve the full explanation you promised me a while
ago."

    Out in space a massive de-fold operation commenced.
    "...And so I've lived something on the order of three hundred
lives." Ranma finished explaining, helping bandage Belldandy's arm. "But
I've got this nasty habit of getting flung into other dimensions. How
long was I gone this time, Bell-chan?"
    The goddess looked up at him. "About fifteen minutes, Ran-chan.
Ucchan and Rae had only just left to muster their own forces when that
alien attacked."
    Ranma was about to nod and say something more when Priory
interrupted them.
    "If you will excuse the interruption, I believe there is something
on the television that you ought to see."
    The quartet looked at each other, and followed Priory to the nearest
intact TV set. On it Lisa's face filled the screen, speaking in English
with subtitles running in the local languages.
    "Message repeats. This is the SDF-2, leader of the Robotech Assault
Squadron Northern Flight. You have wrongfully abducted General Ranma
Saotome of our defense forces. You have exactly 24 hours to return him
unharmed to our armada or the entire inhabited surface of your planet
will be destroyed. Message ends."
    The television tube returned to its original programming.

    Claudia Grant looked up from her sensor board. "I've got him,
commander. There is a veritech power plant active in the region of
Nerima Japan. What should I do about it?"
    Lisa got up from her command chair. "Launch all veritech squadrons
and prepare to charge up the main gun. Call Colonel Fokker over from the
Bismark, tell him to assume command. I'm taking a shuttle down there."
    Lisa Saotome left the bridge.

    Everyone, even Ranma, stared in shock at the screen. Nodoka was the
first to recover. She turned a curious eye to her son.
    "General? You inspire a curious brand of loyalty, son."
    He shook himself out of his daze. "As far as they're concerned, this
is just an ordinary colony world. They really do mean what they say.
Anyone foolish enough to have actually abducted me would have incurred
this kind of wrath."
    "Ranma, why are you so important to them?" Kasumi asked, clinging to
his chest as the one solid piece of her world.
    Someone had blown up a kitchen!
    He shook his head, trying to clear it. "I more or less saved the
human race from total annihilation. People have sortuv been grateful to
me for that. Then there was the singing career."

    Unfortunately, people at the Kuno estate did not watch TV.

    Lisa's shuttle landed on the grounds of the Saotome mansion, two
veritechs were riding escort, both switched to battloid mode to more
effectively guard the terrain.
    The hatch undogged and the boarding ramp came down. Lisa exited
wearing an envirosuit and with a sidearm strapped to her left hip. Which
Ranma *knew* meant that she had to have a palm transmitter concealed in
her right.
    Ranma was standing at the foot of the ramp, still in fleet uniform.
    "Lisa! Hi, and welcome to my home!"
    She looked over him carefully, then frowned. -Been visiting a youth
clinic lately?- She asked him in Zentraedi.
    He shook his head. -Nothing like that.- He replied in the same
language. -But something much, much weirder. First I suppose that I
ought to tell you that this is not your dimension of origin.-
    She took off her helmet, shaking out her long hair. "I already know
that Ranma," she said, switching to English. "It took Dr. Lang four
months of pouring over sensor records to be able to piece together what
happened to you. By that time it was clear this was a one-way mission.
So alot of us old war heroes, as well as a heap of Zentraedi who *still*
admire you, volunteered to see that you were going to be kept safe
regardless of where we found you."
    Nodoka had been listening to this exchange.
    Ranma introduced her, switching to Japanese. "Lisa, I would like you
to meet my mother. Mother, this is Lisa. She and I are married."
    Lisa saluted her mother-in-law, then smiled and bowed. "Pleased to
meet you. You'll have to understand how odd this is for me. I remember
my husband as being an orphan."
    The whistling of shells cut off further conversation. Lisa tackled
her husband, shielding him with her body as one of her veritech escorts
was reduced to scrap in a tremendous explosion.
    "Claudia!" She screamed into her computer comm link. "We're under
heavy attack! We require *immediate* assistance!"
    In space above them one hundred and forty four veritechs pulled out
of the cloud of fighters surrounding the SDF-2, splitting up into
squadrons and driving at maximum allowable velocity toward the planet,
their nose cones glowing bright in the friction heat.
    A twin pair of assault dropships separated from formation and began
to rocket toward the surface. The main gun of the SDF-2 deployed and
began to whine with the buildup preparatory to firing.

    Arisa stroked the firing controls of her Golem-2000 combat  mecha.
The giant battloid that had been firing in defense of the Saotome estate
was reduced to a pile of slag.
    Four more Golem-2000's around her. Each bearing the Kuno emblem,
they closed on the Saotome mansion.

    In space Claudia turned to her husband. "Roy, sensors are reading
multiple missile launch from the planet's surface. Estimate two thousand
nuclear-tipped warheads with multiple intercept capability!"
    Colonel Roy Fokker lounged in the command chair with one leg draped
over the arm. He gestured languidly. "Well, fall back until we can get
them within the firing cone of our big peashooter. Can you give me a
location?"
    Claudia turned back to her boards. "Most of the launches come from
an area corresponding to communist China."
    "When then, when we fire the main gun make sure that their capitol
is under the beam. I don't want to have to do this twice. We'd better be
clear about our firepower from the start."

    Scores of veritechs whipped over Tokyo with ear-splitting velocity,
switching to guardian configuration to bleed off heat and speed.

    Blows like hammer strikes rained down on the Saotome estate,
pulverizing buildings and turning Lisa's shuttle into ruin.
    There wasn't anywhere Ranma could run.
    If anything were different he could have grabbed vital members of
his family and gotten them out of harm's way. But there were too many of
them to carry, and where could he go? Kuno's men could find him, and it
was all he could do to fight them on his own. He *couldn't* do that with
a relative in tow.
    Nor could he run and hope they would follow him and avoid
pulverizing the Saotome mansion and all it contained. Everyone here
would die.
    Lisa was screaming into her communicator. "SDF-2, we need support
*now!* We won't *be* here in thirty seconds!"

    Roy, now alert in the chair, looked over to Claudia. "Well, what are
you waiting for? You heard the lady." He keyed the chair communicator.
"Gun commanders, target all mecha within two mile radius of target and
fire. Subsidiary plasma beam weapons only."
    On the surface of the battle fortress thousands of gun turrets
oriented on target.

    The sky above Nerima lit up like night becoming day. Since it had
already been day the change was quite impressive.
    Beams and licks of plasma fire lit up and mushroomed from the
ground. The Golem force from the Kuno estate was utterly obliterated, as
well as subsidiary artillery and a good deal of reserve powersuits.
    Veritechs screamed into the explosions out of nowhere, transforming
as they went. A squadron pounced on one of the remaining Golems,
miraculously unhurt by the blast. They leveled it instantly. A second
group of twelve tore through the grounds of the Saotome estate, ripping
into turf as they came to land in hunkered down guard positions. Four
more squadrons spread out to lay down a withering covering fire that
ripped and tore up tanks as they approached the Saotome mansion.
    A veritech shouldered aside a two story building, then leapt into
the fray. Diving through rubble and grappling with an engaged spider
tank, holding it helpless while two of its squadron mates riddled the
tank with hyper velocity shells. All three veritechs kicked off into the
atmosphere to avoid a huge explosion of counterfire, but a dozen other
veritechs were already engaging the source of the fire.
    Ranma grabbed Lisa's communicator.
    "Assault group, this is General Saotome. The origin of this attack
is the Kuno estate. Claudia, access property files and download the
information to the battle group!"

    A squadron commander flying combat air patrol over the engaged
ground forces smiled as the information began to appear on his computer.
"Scarlet and Green squadrons, remain to cover the transports. All others
follow me!"
    Four squadrons of fully armed veritechs peeled off to descend on the
Kuno mansion.

    One veritech wearing Blue squadron markings did a forward roll
through a building of brick and concrete, coming to bear with his
thirty-foot long tri-barrel rifle. He sprayed defensive turrets on the
Kuno grounds with merciless skill.
    Three other veritechs descended on a combat unit, an old style
powersuit that one frightened gardener had donned when the fighting
started. They left behind them explosions and scattered debris.
    Then the transports landed.

    To truly understand terror, one has to stand by while four hundred
tons of articulated armor and weapons walked through buildings while the
earth itself quaked and shuddered under their feet.
    The ground shook and trembled under the might of seventy of these
monsters splintering the ground under their mighty strides.
Individually, each carried no less that three times the firepower of a
standard veritech. Collectively, there was not a nation on Earth with
the power to oppose them.
    They began to wade through all resistance, blowing apart anything
with the merest hint of a Kuno emblem. The Kuno estate deployed laser
turrets of staggering number and variety. Having built up to this day
for a long time.
    Only that many more targets for the mecha to destroy.
    A destroid with massive particle beams for arms destroyed the
primary defense tower with a single, off-handed beam. Artillery units
began to rain down battleship shells, each shot a supersonic ton of
explosive capable a leaving a crater forty feet across.
    The first ripple of these shells washed over the Kuno estate like
acid over styrofoam. Second and third ripples followed the first.

    A veritech from indigo squadron hunched over the huddled figures of
the Saotome family, not only *willing* to sacrifice its life shielding
them with its body but prepared and ready to do so.
    "General Saotome, are you alright?" Its loudspeakers blared. Four
other veritechs crouched around them, their guns traversing for the
barest hint of an outside threat. A ninety foot tall destroid with more
armaments than a conventional battleship, or indeed a small country,
parked above them.
    Ranma waved that he was fine.
    The sky above them turned orange with the reflected outrage of an
atmosphere being pierced by a main gun blast. In that instant Peking
ceased to exist.

    The silence that followed was deafening.

    Priory lifted the telephone, somehow immune to all that had gone on.
"Yes, of course." He lowered the receiver from his ear, turning to the
family. "The Emperor is on the line. Shall I tell him to hold?"
    Ranma rubbed brick dust out of his face with the back of his arm.
"Take a message. We'll call him back."
    Priory went back to the phone, his muffled voice the only sound in
the ensuing silence. Shortly he replaced the receiver. Accepting a tea
service from one of the maids Priory went to serve the family, speaking.

    "The Emperor sends his earnest wishes for your good health and
wishes to find an appropriate time convenient for you in accepting his
surrender of all Japan. Would you like a crumpet with your tea anyone?"

To be continued...

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

Author's Notes:

    Hello all you insane and greedy people who won't get off my back
about getting you more Mirrors, you know (Yes, I *do* secretly love it).

    YES! I _AM_ on an energy high at the moment. _No_, you may *not*
know the reason. Suffice it to say that it is nothing chemical. Not even
a decent sugar rush.

    HELLO! All you dirty, pig-snorting animals that have the brains of
one duck, don't you know. I am sending this out casually and without
even a shred of revision. Expect it to change alot when the rewrite
catches up with it.
    Yes, the rewrite is alive and kicking. Everyone important has
already seen it, which tells you where you stand.
    Probably not in the top ten.

    As for this part, it is just a build-up. Yes! You HEARD me! This is
going to get *WAY* more interesting, and probably less expected, from
here on in. It will involve strange and unusual things involving ducks
and inebriated weasels hanging on out on clotheslines, don't you know.
There *may* even be a fish or two thrown in for good measure and
probably weirder stuff, even than that.
    Hey, if Lucas got away with the Rebels being saved by an army of
vicious, tool-weilding teddy bears you can expect me to get just as bad.

    And as for the stuff I didn't cover, you'll see.

Love, and may the paternal care of ten thousand Genmas look over you
always

Skysaber