All Anime World

Glad you like Arisa........ so do I.

Well, back with Chapter 47........... I thought this was a thread for short stories?? ...... Blame Dinky, she started the long story bit. Well, in this chapter, things are heating up again, in more ways than one. Not that they didn't get warmed up a bit in the last chapter. The plot thickens........

Chapter 47


Colonel Hellwind led Aiden onto the bridge of the Krikav. The pilot-controller sat in her
chair, keeping watch over the complex instruments, her mind wirelessly bonded to the powerful
computers that operated the ships functions. She may look like a child, but Dan knew, from the
age of the Krikav, that she was quite a bit older than she looked.

“Yuki, I need to talk with you,” Dan told her.

Yuki stood and faced the colonel, “Yes sir, what is it you wish to know?”

“Who came onto the bridge during warp drive, aside from myself?” The colonel
questioned.

“First officer, Kirk Ashford, in the performance of his regular duties.” She answered.

“No one else?” Dan asked. “Did he open the panels at all?”

“No sir,” was her short reply.

“Then it had to be some freak coincidence,” Aiden said.

“Maybe, but it still seems too strange,” Dan said, shaking his head. “Yuki, diagnostic
mode, general George Parker, authorization, zulu, echo, romeo, alpha, tango, uniform, lima, two,
kilo.” Yuki stood ridged, her eyes unfocused. “Search timeline data during warp drive, are there
any anomalies?”

“One, fourteen point two minutes do not exist,” She answered in a monotone voice.

“What do you mean, doesn’t exist?” Dan asked the girl.

“The mission clock and the system time do not agree, there is a difference of fourteen
point two minutes. Therefore, that space of time does not exist in the system.” Yuki tried to
explain”

“How could there be a difference between mission time and the system time?” Aiden
asked. “I thought those clocks were perfectly accurate.” .

“They are,” Yuki told him, “Someone would have had to erase that portion of time from
my systems.”

“Who could have done that?” Dan asked her.

“Only a few top generals and controller psychology specialists have the necessary
clearance to know the controller diagnostic codes.” Yuki informed them.

Aiden looked at Dan. “So, how do you know the diagnostic code for Yuki?”

Dan frowned. “The general sent it to me, in an encrypted message. He suspected there
might be trouble. Yuki, cancel diagnostic mode, return to your duties.” Yuki relaxed, then
returned to her pilot’s chair. “Aiden, there’s a big problem, someone else on board know’s
Yuki’s diagnostic code.”

“Sir, you have received a message from central command.” Yuki spoke up. “You have
been ordered to proceed to the planet Mar Sara and establish diplomatic relations.”

“What?” Dan said surprised, “What did they say about the attack?”

“Nothing, sir,” Yuki replied.

“Damn, that makes no sense,” Dan said, agitated. “I’m no diplomat, and they could talk
with them themselves once we repair that com satellite. Something isn’t right.” He looked at
Aiden.

“Well, it’s orders, I guess you need to follow them,” Aiden told his friend, “But, it would
be better if we had the mechs repaired by the time we got there.”

The colonel smiled, “Yuki, proceed to Mar Sara, minimum impulse power. They didn’t
say how fast we had to get there.” Dan and Aiden left the bridge heading back to Dan’s office.
“Fourteen minutes,” he mused, “that would be enough time for someone with knowledge of the
system to short out the power supplies. There’s a saboteur on board.”



John followed the rest of the guys to the hangar. He stopped at the door and looked
around the room. Rose was in front of her mech, showing something to Megumi, they were both
laughing. Arisa was up on the platform by her Lancer. Several techs were working on various
mechs. Yes, he thought, this was really a dream mission, four good looking women, all
unattached. He checked out Arisa, cute as a pixie, and about as small as one. Not quite his type.
Then there was Megumi, a bit taller and better built than Arisa, lean and supple, like a dancer,
with that lovely oriental face. Still a bit small for his taste. Now Rose, there was a woman who
needed a warning sign for dangerous curves. The same height as Megumi, and with a real “girl
next door” kind of beauty. She was definitely his type. Then he thought of Georgianna, she was
more than just his type............ tall, athletic, firey, and oh so............. John sighed, and so
unattainable. This wasn’t a very good mission for old Johnny boy, not good at all. He looked up
at Roses’ mech as he walked by. Rose was already inside, checking the systems. If Dominic
didn’t start noticing her soon, she was going to give up on him. Maybe then good hearted John
would be there to comfort her.

Rose checked out the main systems on her Thunderbird. Everything on the board was
green, She ran through the checks of the hydraulic solenoids, then switched on the thruster fuel
system. There was an odd thump, more felt than heard. Rose scanned the control board, nothing
was amiss. Perhaps she had just felt some movement of the mech in the bay mounts. She went
back to checking the systems, but hesitated. She got a very uneasy feeling, something just wasn’t
right.

John heard a muffled thump from Roses’ mech as he looked up at it. He frowned, he
hadn’t seen any movement. John had a bad feeling, he thought he could see heat waves in the air
behind the mech. John hurried to climb to the service platform and looked into Roses’ cockpit.
“Rose, is everything alright?” John leaned into the cockpit and looked over the readouts.
“I thought I heard some odd sound up here.”

“Everything’s just fine,” Rose assured him. “You don’t have to.......... no, everything
isn’t........ I don’t know what, it just feels wrong.”

John reached in and with a bit of trouble, working upside down, entered a series of
commands on the main console, he searched through several test pages. John swore as he backed
up and pulled an emergency handle. He looked back at the screen and swore even more as he
grabbed Rose and pulled her out of the cockpit. “Get out of here,” he yelled at her as he pushed
her toward the stairs. John turned and quickly pushed the alarm button on the wall.

Rose turned back toward John, she didn’t understand what was going on. There hadn’t
been any indication of a problem, all the indicators were green. What had he seen on those
screens he ran through so quickly? Rose jumped between John and her mech. “What are you
doing?” She demanded. “What’s wrong? I didn’t see any problem.”

John grabbed Rose again and turned toward the steps, “Get out of here, before you get
hurt.”

Bob had been only a few meters away when the alarm went off, he rushed up the steps to
Roses’ Thunderbird. “What is it?” He yelled.

“Fire, in panel four.” John told him as the tech hurried past him.

John pushed Rose very hard. She screamed as she flew from the top step on the platform
toward the hard floor of the hangar.

Oh, did I leave you hanging again? Sorry about that.......... not really. So we have a fire in Rose's Mech, that could be a bit dicey. Can they get it out before it ruins the Pink Rose........ or maybe worse? Also, how bad is Rose going to get hurt when she hits the floor? Well, read on all will be revealed........ or maybe not.

Chapter 48

Chad put the test equipment back in the storage room. As he headed back out into the
hangar, Greg stopped him. “Got that Lancer repaired already?” Greg asked. “That was fast.”

“Darn it, I should have been the one to fix that Lancer,” a young tech that was in the room
complained.

“Oh? Ah.... sorry....... Why?” Chad fumbled.

“I really would have liked to be the one that little pilot thanked,” the young man said,
grinning.

“Ah..... ya, she was..... um, well, I guess she got sort of excited.” Chad stammered,
turning several shades of red.

Greg laughed, “so what was the problem?”

“Someone stuck a piece of paper in the fiber connector.” Chad told them. “Once I pulled
that out it worked fine.”

“Damn, that means there’s someone on board sabotaging the mechs,’ Greg said,
worriedly. “I thought that all the sabotage had been done at the moon base. We just had to find
it. Now we have to worry about someone on board.”

“Maybe not... um, Arisa thinks she knows who did it.” Chad told them. “There’s a guy,
one of the ships officers, that she knows from back home, he seems to think he owns her or
something. He said he wasn’t going to let her fight.”

“Hey, was that the guy that she popped in the nose?” The tech asked. Chad nodded.
“That’s the funniest thing I ever saw.” The tech laughed. “You don’t want to get that little lady
mad at you.”

Chad looked at Greg, “You said sabotaged mechs. I know someone messed with mine,
were others messed with too?”

“They sure did,” the young tech broke in. “That Lancer shield, it didn’t come off because
of battle damage, the mounting straps were cut. He didn’t have a chance. And, that burgundy
Firefly, there’s something wrong with the thruster fuel, it’s to slow to ignite, and there’s some
foreign substance in the hydraulic oil.” He picked up a jar of black looking oil. “That’s why I
came in here, to show this to Greg.”

“That looks like damper fluid.” Chad claimed.

Greg took the jar and looked through it. “That’s right, kid, magnetorheological fluid,
changes viscosity in a magnetic field.” The young tech looked confused. “As the magnetic field
increases the fluid gets thicker. It’s used to magnetically adjust shock dampers. In the hydraulic
system, every time a solenoid valve opened it would thicken and slow the fluid. It’s a wonder that
pilot could even fight in that machine. So that’s four mechs, counting that run away power unit
on captain McFarlaine’s.”

Chad looked surprised, “I thought that was from when I fired on her in practice.”

Greg shook his head, “think about it boy, those tracer shells barely dented her mech. You
think they could break a control rod. Come over here and look at this.”

Chad felt a bit foolish, he hadn’t thought clearly about the event. The control rod was a
lot tougher than that. Greg picked up a heavy rod, the control rod from Georgianna’s power unit.
It was a bit less than a meter long and thirty millimeters in diameter. Chad took the metal rod and
examined it. “The end of it looks like it was cut off with a grinding wheel.” Chad remarked.

“You win the prize,” Greg told him. “Someone cut it off so it would come out of it’s hole
at full power and hold the mechanism open. Sabatoge, no doubt about it. I just worry that there
could be more........”

He was cut off by the loud jarring sound of an alarm.

Didn't have time to write a lot right now, so this is only the first part of Chapter 49, I'll post the rest as soon as I get time to write it. What do you think? Was the fire caused by battle damage? Perhaps a blow ruptured a fuel line, or worse, the fuel tank. How bad will Rose be injured, falling from the high platform? So many questions.



Chapter 49


Chad sprinted out the door when he heard the alarm. The alarm came from the hangar bay
of Blue Dragon two, that was Rose's mech. He looked up in time to see John push Rose off of the
platform. She screamed as she fell.

Ben’s big Lancer was docked next to Rose's Thunderbird and when he heard the alarm, he
rushed over to her mech. Ben easily caught Rose as she fell, then looked up. He saw John give
him a thumbs up before the heavy blast door came down and sealed the bay off from the rest of
the hangar.

Dominic heard Rose scream as he rushed over to her bay. He got there just as Ben lightly
set her down. “What’s going on?” He questioned. “Are you alright? What happened?”

“There’s a fire. John said there was a fire.” Rose told them. “He’s in there with one of the
techs. He pushed me out.”

Chad stopped short as he ran up to the group gathering in front of the blast door. “A fire!
Did he say where?”

“I don’t know,” Rose answered, “a panel....... four, I think....... yes, panel four.”

“Oh s**t,” Chad breathed as he looked up at the blast door.

Dominic grabbed Chad’s arm and turned the tall boy to face him. “What is it, what’s
panel four?”

“It’s where the main thruster fuel feeds and valves are,” Chad told him. “If there’s a
major leak and they open the panel............. “ Chad looked back up at the blast door.


John hurried down the steps to the lower level. He picked up the fire suppression hose
from the floor where Bob had laid it. “Ready when you are doc,” John said trying to sound at
ease.

Bob snapped around from where he had been attacking the fasteners on the panel with a
power tool. “ What the hell are you doing here? You should have gotten out and taken the girl
with you.”

“Ah, don’t worry, I got Rose out. Wouldn’t want a sweet thing like that to get singed.”
John replied as Bob turned back to the panel. “Couldn’t let you have all the credit for putting this
out. I need all the points I can get with the girls.......... Besides, you can’t really handle this alone.

“This panel could be half full of fuel, if there’s a big leak,” Bob told him. “Do you know
what that could do.”

“Ya, I get the picture,” John answered. He could easily imagine it. Open the panel and the
fuel would pour out, the fire would get an inrush of oxygen from the air in the room and you’d
have a major conflagration. If that happened, the ship’s fire suppression system would open the
room to the vacuum of space to put out the fire. If you hadn’t roasted to death, you’d die a
horrible death from the vacuum. “Hey, if the oxidizer lines burn through, we won’t have to worry
about it, we’d just be red spots on the wall,” John told him, joking mirthlessly about the real
possibility of an explosion.

Bob redoubled his effort to loosen the panel. “I’ll have to try to shut off the manual valves
at the tanks. If the tank itself is ruptured, we’re screwed.” When the final fastener was almost out
he looked at John. “Ready?”

John nodded and watched as Bob spun the last fastener loose. He slammed open the valve
on the fire hose as the panel sprang open, then held his breath as a ball of fire blasted out of the
open port, surrounding him.

As promised, the rest of Chapter 49


49-b


Captain Aiden left the colonels office and set out down the starboard corridor, through the
ship, toward the hangar at the rear. He felt he should help with the work on the mechs, even if he
wouldn’t be able to pilot his again. Perhaps one of the other pilots would be able to use his
Thunderbird. It was a good mech and there had been little damage from the battle. Maybe captain
McFarlaine would need it, or..... Crichton, if his firefly wasn’t repairable. They might need all the
units they could get.
Aiden stopped as he passed the starboard life pod bays. He looked through the port on the
door to pod three and saw just empty space. Aiden keyed his communicator, “Yuki, when did life
pod three launch?”

“No life pods have launched,” she replied moments later, “indicators show all pods in
their bays.”

“Well, pod three is gone,” Aiden told her, “I’m looking at an empty bay.”

“That is an annomaly, sir,” Yuki returned. “There is no record of a launch, and the
sensors show the pod is still in it’s bay. The systems must have a fault.”

Aiden tapped his communicator again, “Colonel, I think you better come and see this.”


Megumi looked up at the massive blast door closing off Rose’s mech from the rest of the
ship. “Isn’t there some way we can get them out of there? “

”No,” Greg told her as he waited by the communication panel next to the blast door. “We
can’t open the door till they set the release from inside...... The controller could open it, but Yuki
wouldn’t until there isn’t a chance of fire or explosion.......... The longer we wait without hearing
from them, the less likely it is they survived.”

John stood his ground as the fire ball blew out around him. He played the foam from the
hose from the bottom of the opening to the top. After the initial fire ball, the foam fire
suppressant began to get the upper hand. As the flames rapidly died out, Bob got up from where
he had ducked under the panel door and quickly reached for the manual fuel shut off. Bob yelled
in pain when he grabbed the blistering hot handle and pulled the valve closed. He tried to ignore
the pain as he grabbed the handle for the oxidizer valve and pulled it closed.

John played the cool foam over Bob’s burned hand, “hey, are you going to be OK? Man, I
bet that hurts.”

“I guess I’ll survive....... hey, maybe I’ll get some time off.” Bob tried to grin. “Damn,
why didn’t I think, and use my left hand.” Bob grimaced and wrapped his left arm aver his right
hand. “You better go hit the release and tell them to open the door.”
Colonel Hellwind looked through the port to life pod bay three. He shook his head and
looked back at Aiden, “and you say Yuki didn’t have any record of the pod launching?”

“Nope,” Aiden assured him, “according to her sensors, the pod is still in the bay.”

Dan didn’t question Yuki, he knew he would only get the same replies that Aiden had
gotten. Could there have been some malfunction that launched the pod? If so, the problem had to
be resolved, you never knew when you would need those pods. The colonel touched his
communicator, “Yuki, send a ships tech to life pod bay three, right away.”


The whole group of pilots and techs jumped when John’s voice boomed from the
communication panel. “Alright, you can open the door any time now, Johnny boy saved the day
again..........” John laughed, “Well, with a bit of help from Bob, but it’s safe to open up.”

Greg quickly hit the door control, the massive door rapidly pulled back and up to open the
bay. The group saw John and Bob standing at the top of the steps to the service platform. “Get a
med team up here,” John called out. “Bob got the valves shut, but burned the hell out of his hand
doing it.” Two med techs, who had come at the sound of the alarm, quickly mounted the steps.
Greg followed the two, and after they began to work on Bob’s injury, John descended to the
hangar floor.

Rose intercepted John at the foot of the steps, staring at his singed hair and eyebrows,
“John, are you alright? Did you get burned?”

“I’m ok, but thanks,” John told her, “I just got a bit singed. I was due for a haircut
anyway.” John Laughed, then became more somber. “There was a pretty big fuel leak. If Bob
hadn’t shut those valves, we could have had the fire restart, bigtime. That would have been the
end for us. He got burned pretty badly shutting those valves.”

Greg watched the Med techs bandage Bob’s hand. “Damn, that looks bad, Looks like you
won’t be working on anything for a while.”

“You mean I finally get some vacation,” Bob laughed, then grimaced.

“Don’t worry, I’ll find something to keep you busy,” Greg said jokingly. “What was it,
battle damage? I didn’t notice anything that looked critical.”

“No,” Bob told the chief, “There wasn’t a mark on that area, someone left the main fuel
fitting loose. Fuel was spraying out of it. It looked like the oxidizer line nut was loose too.
Damned lousy work....... or.”

“Ya, I know, or more sabotage.” Greg frowned.

“And more incriminating,” Bob continued, “the cover was left off of the solenoid relay,
just right to make a spark for ignition.”

“We have to go over the rest of the mechs with a fine tooth comb, like we did Ross’s
Dragonfly. How much more sabotage was done to the mechs? We’ve been lucky, so far. Now we
have to be smart. When these med boys get done with you, you’d better come back, we’ll need
your brains.”

Finally a bit of time, got another chapter ready. The pilots are all drafted to help with the repairs on the mechs. This should be good, since when is a pilot any good at tech stuff. Well, maybe they can do something. It's a bit longer chapter so hang in there.

Chapter 50


The colonel and Aiden watched as the ships tech opened the panel to the door mechanism
and checked the circuits. “The circuit’s been tampered with, sir,” the tech told them. “There’s a
board wired in with clips to the sensor circuits.” The tech reached in and unclipped the small
circuit board.

“Sensors now show that life pod bay three is empty, colonel.” Yuki called in.

Dan took the board from the technician. “Damn, someone was planning on jumping ship.
Yuki, Check the personnel on board. Who’s missing?”

Yuki answered several seconds later. “All personnel accounted for, sir. No one has left
the ship.”


Greg looked up from the list of jobs he had been checking off. Outside the window of his
office he could see the activity around the mechs. He had checked off more of the jobs than he
had hoped to, with his small group of techs. The pilots had been a real help. Greg had served
with many pilots over the years, but most pilots would never lower themselves to do maintenance
on their mechs, much less another pilot’s mech. This was a unique crew. A pilot, who was also a
tech had to be pretty much unique, and Chad could see things from both points of view. The kid
was a good tech too, they should never have made a pilot out of him. Crichton had proven to be
true to his boasts, he did know just about all there was to know about his Firefly, and pretty much
about the Thunderbirds too. The big guy, Ben, was a godsend. Not only was the guy a human
forklift, his experience with mining machines made him as good at welding the special alloys of
the mech frames as Bob was. And with Bob injured, Ben did all the welding on Crichton and
McFarlaine’s mechs before he even checked his own Lancer. The two small girl pilots had been a
great help. Arisa could fit in places in the cockpit that would be hard for his techs, and she knew
what she was doing. With Megumi helping her, the girls had rewired and repaired the cockpit
systems in captain McFarlaine’s mech faster than his techs could have. The others all had been
working hard, doing everything they could to assist the techs. Greg had estimated at least
seventy-two hours to repair and service the mechs, now, he figured they would be battle ready in
less than forty-eight. Greg smiled, the colonel was going to love this.

Georgianna woke up, she hadn’t intended to fall asleep. She was a bit upset with herself,
but then, she hadn’t slept much since this mission started. Her nightmares had returned to haunt
her. First that gang member had brought back the memories of her parents murder, then the
colonel brought up the specter of Tarsonis. Georgianna was surprised she’d slept at all.
Georgianna quickly showered and dressed, then went looking for her companions. In the
cafeteria, she found only a med tech, eating lunch. He told her he’d heard the pilots were ordered
to help work on the mechs. He thought it seemed a bit strange, an order like that, but it was what
he heard. Georgianna headed for the hangar.

Bob came into the maintenance office after checking on parts compatibility for captain
McFarlaine’s Thunderbird. “Say, Greg, did you know that Ross is messing with the new power
unit they installed in McFarlaine’s bird?” He asked as he stopped by Greg’s desk.

“Yup,” Greg answered without looking up, “he said he was going to get a bit more output
out of it.”

“Ahhh, are you sure that’s ok?” Bob said, a bit surprised. “They taught us never to mess
with those things, that you’d just screw things up, or worse.”

“That’s what they teach, at least that’s by the book.” Greg looked up and sighed, “Chad
trained under old man Ernhardt, and the old guy doesn’t believe in the book. That’s why the top
pilots take their mechs to him to get them tuned up. Chad doesn’t quite follow the book either.
He listened to the old man.......... I wish I had.”

Georgianna walked through the hangar, amazed at the progress that had been made on the
mechs. John’s wreck was almost back together, other damaged mechs were back in fighting
order. She looked up at Reina, she couldn’t believe it, her mech looked nearly ready to go. She
could see the places that the armor had been replaced. She’d have to repaint those panels. She
wondered if the controls were repaired, she didn’t think they could be, not yet. When she looked
in the cockpit, she was surprised to see Megumi in the pilots seat, operating the controls.

“Hi captain,” Megumi smiled, “We’ve just about checked everything out.”

Georgianna almost laughed when she saw Arisa’s head poke out from under the main
console. “Hi captain,” Arisa called out, “they got the new power unit in, so we can get the
systems checked out. You’ll be ready to go pretty soon now.”

Georgianna was almost choked up, she didn’t know what to say. “Ah.... good, thanks.......
I’ll just take a look around........ thanks.” Georgianna felt elated, Reina was almost ready, almost
as good as new......... Her mood quickly changed when she saw Chad leaning into the open casing
of the new power unit. “Ross! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Georgianna didn’t
know much about mechs, but she knew they didn’t mess around with power units. What was
Chad up to? More sabotage?”

Chad backed out of the panel, bumping his head on the top edge. “Oww..... Oh, hello
captain, I’m just tuning up your new unit.” Chad looked back into the compartment and fitted a
long wrench to an adjusting screw. As he slowly turned the adjustment he watched several
gauges. “This new unit is a series H, it’s already more powerful than the old D series you had,
but I can get more out of it. The manufacturer figured they should have a safety factor, so they
built in a fifteen percent safety factor. When the military got hold of it, they decided there should
be a safety factor, so they had a ten percent safety margin added. Well, you can re-tune that ten
percent into the unit, if you know how to do it.” Chad concentrated on the gauges for a moment,
ever so slightly moving the wrench. “There, that should be it. You should have about twenty five
percent more power now. I figured that you could use it with that shield.”


Georgianna just stared at Chad for a moment, “You can really do that?”

“Ya, master tech Ernhardt taught me how when I was a tech.” Chad told her. “I also took
the reserve cells out of that wrecked Lancer and fit them into your Thunderbird. It’s a tight
squeeze but I got Ben to weld in some mounts and rigged them up. It’s another trick I learned. It
will more than double your reserve time. That should almost triple the time you can run that
shield, or the Minovsky drive.” Chad smiled, proud of his work.

Georgianna really was speechless now. It didn’t seem right. Why would Chad do all this
for her? He was a gang member, they only looked out for themselves...... Didn’t they? And she
hadn’t done anything for him, in fact, she’d been a real bitch. Georgianna stammered,
“good.....that.... that’s great. I mean, thanks.......... it’s just...... why........” Georgianna was cut off
when she heard Ben’s voice boom out across the hangar.


Bob pushed back from the desk on the opposite side of the room from Greg’s desk. He
rubbed his eyes, he’d been staring at the computer screen, checking through the maintenance
records of the group’s mechs, making sure they were using the right parts for each mech.
Something else had jumped out at him, where the mechs were last serviced.

“Greg, I’ve been looking at the service records, and the mechs weren’t all serviced at the
same facility before they shipped to the Krikav.” Bob told the chief. “There were two depots, and
the ones serviced at Tycho base were Ross, Crichton, McFarlaine, Kerlav, Harcourt, and
Wolfman. Two Fireflies two Thunderbirds, and two Lancers, those are the mechs that were
sabotaged.”

Greg looked at the screen of Bob’s computer, “you’re right, those mechs all had
problems....... except, one Lancer........ Ben’s. Greg looked at Bob. “We’ve been lucky so far,
we’ve gotta check out that mech, before our luck runs out.” Greg turned quickly and headed for
the door, Bob was right behind him.

Ben saw Greg and Bob hurrying out of their office as he walked down the steps from his
Lancer’s service platform. “Hey, look what I found,” He called out. Ben waved a large cylinder,
ten centimeters diameter by two meters long. He walked over to the men and dropped the
cylinder onto a work table. “It was the next round in the rail gun. Looks like some kind of bomb.
Damn, If I’d tried to fire at those black mechs as they ran off, that would have been the round I
fired.”

Arisa pushed her way through the crowd gathering around Ben. She stopped and looked
at the cylinder, bending close to check a numbered tag. “It’s the warhead from an old Hellfire
mark sixteen, an obsolete anti-ship missile.”

Ben shook his head, “if I’d tried to fire that thing, I’d be dead.”

“You and anyone within a couple kilometers,” Arisa added, “that’s a tactical nuke, around
thirty kilotons. You’d have been an instant star.” Everyone stepped back a bit.

“Ok,” Ben said as he reached for the cylinder, “I’ll just chuck the thing out an airlock and
Yuki can blast it with a beam cannon when it’s far enough away.”

“NO DON’T,” Arisa yelled as she grabbed Ben’s massive arm. Ben stopped with Arisa
hanging on his arm. “That fuse has already set. Probably when you dropped it on the table.” Arisa
let go of Ben’s arm and looked at the end of the weapon. “These have a mechanical fuse, with a
fifty millisecond delay for penetration. This fuse has already triggered, it’s stuck on the delay.
There’s no telling how much it would take to set it off. Just a small bump might do it.”

Ben paled and backed away, maybe he shouldn’t have dropped it so hard. Greg stepped
closer and looked at the fuse end. “Are you sure, lieutenant? How do you know so much about
this thing?”

“My family’s companies made these,” Arisa answered, still examining the fuse. “They
were supposed to have been destroyed when they were decommissioned, twelve years ago...... I
need some small tools, needle nose pliers, small screwdrivers and wrenches, and an adjustable
spanner.”

“I’ve got a set of precision tools,” Bob told her, “I’ll get them........ and a spanner.” Bob
headed off toward the tool room.

Greg watched Arisa start to work on the fuse of the weapon. “So you have experience
with one of these?” He asked, hopefully.

“Nope, never saw one,” Arisa answered, “but I’ve read the manuals.”

Greg didn’t feel very well.

Well, I'm back again with another chapter. This is getting to be a long story, a lot longer than the RPG. I might give my little girl a run for the longest story yet. Ok, is little Arisa going to get that fuse out of the nuke........ The story could end here..... or. I can't believe she seems happy about this. Is she having fun yet? Can everyone else hold their breath that long? Will the Krikav be attacked again? Will Georgianna punch out John? So many questions, so few answers, at least, I haven't thought of many yet.



Oh, Sakura, I haven't forgotten, I will take the spaces out of the files and send them to you, ......... someday. ((champion procrastinator))

On to the next thrilling episode


Chapter 51


The base on Mar Sara was built deep in side of a mountain, in the tunnels of an
abandoned mine. Edward Geraldine looked up as a soldier entered. The soldier didn’t show much
respect as he flopped down in a chair and put his feet up on the desk.
“I thought that ship was supposed to be damaged, out of commission, like the others,” the
soldier accused. “They not only weren’t damaged, they were ready for us. I thought you said that
cloaking was foolproof, they fought like they knew where we were. I lost more than half my
mobile suits.”

“They can’t be seen, your men are just to slow. They must have been watching for your
men to uncloak when they attack.” Edward replied angrily. “I thought you had a foolproof
backup plan if the ship came out of warp undamaged.”

“Hey, you don’t have to get all hot with me. It was foolproof, a nuke in a life pod, but
who’d have thought they had someone insane enough to fire on a pod.” The soldier made his
excuses. “Maybe they were psychics or something. Well, we did get the mechs from that other
ship. Now we have those to add to the fourteen we salvaged from the ships at Tarsonis. I brought
you something else. When we picked up a life pod, that launched right after the battle, we found
this guy.” The soldier yelled out for the man to be brought in.


Captain Pryde stood at the back of the group gathered around the bomb. He’d spent the
last several hours helping the other pilots repairing and rearming the group’s mechs. It had been a
bitter feeling, knowing he would never pilot his mech, Barock, again. Now he wondered if any of
them would get a chance to fly again. Aiden keyed his communicator and spoke into it, softly.
“Colonel, I hate to bring you more bad news, but we have a situation here. Ben found a nuke in
his rail gun, they have the thing setting here and the fuse has already triggered. Any kind of bump
might set it off. Lieutenant Higgens is attempting to remove the fuse. Keep your fingers crossed,
Dan.”

Greg watched Bob hand the girl tools as she carefully removed the covers. He looked at
his two munitions men. “Don’t either of you know how to defuse one of these?”

Both men shook their heads, one answered, “Not something like that...... mechanical. If it
were an electronic fuse, no problem, but they don’t even give us any training on a mechanical
fuse.”

Bob watched Arisa, “I thought everything had electronic fuses. Why would they have
made something without electronics?”

Arisa answered without looking up, “This design goes back a long way, from before the
consolidation, when the three earth governments were fighting for domination.” She smiled,
“actually, I’m kind of proud of this design, it started the empire. Way back then, my family’s
companies developed it for the Russo-European alliance. It was designed to overcome the
problem of the electronic jamming that rendered most electronic fuses unreliable. These were
deadly reliable against the slow ships of the early space navies. There was one major flaw
though, if the ship you fired at happened to turn as you fired, you might miss, then you would
have a dangerous weapon running rogue. That’s what brought the last of the great wars before
the consolidation to an end. A Russian battle cruiser fired on one of the American States carriers,
but the carrier turned and the missile missed by inches. The run-away missile kept on, all the way
back to the earth, it destroyed the Russian’s own space colony, tens of thousands died. There was
such an uproar from the people, not only theirs, but the rest of the earth too, that the governments
signed the first of the consolidation treaties. So, our little missile had a direct connection to the
forming of the empire. The military kept them around, they were to good to just get rid of. They
used a few in the first colonial war, to take out hardened underground bunkers, but they were
really dirty nuke’s. They leave a place unusable for a long time. Beam weapons and rail guns
have become good enough to make antiship missiles obsolete, so they were disposed of. ” Arisa
looked up and smiled, “But right now, I’d rather this one didn’t go off. I need someone to hold
these pliers while I unhook the damper springs.”

Chad had been standing closer than the others, fascinated by Arisa’s skillful work on the
bomb. He took hold of the tool, steadying the fuse, even though he felt like he was shaking to
much. Chad couldn’t understand how Arisa could be so calm and steady as she worked on the
nuke.

Arisa stood up and adjusted the spanner to fit the large ring around the fuse. “Ben, take
hold of the back end and keep it steady while I turn the lock nut,” she said as she fit the wrench to
the ring.

Ben’s eyes got big and he waved his hands in front of himself as if trying to ward off an
evil spirit. “Not me...... nope, I’m not getting near that thing,” he told her as he backed up a step.

Arisa looked up at him, then stood up and put her fists on her hips. “So, you think
standing that far back is going to give you an extra nanosecond to live when this thing blows
up?” She barked at him.

Bob groaned, “Don’t say ‘when’.”

Arisa looked down at Bob, “Sorry, I’ll say ‘if’ next time,” she assured him. Arisa looked
back at Ben, “now hold onto that cannister and don’t let it move.” She went back to fitting the
wrench to the large nut.

For a moment, Ben felt like he was back in school, looking down at miss Rathman as she
scolded him. “Yes mam,” he answered sheepishly as he stepped up to the table and took hold of
the bomb.

Arisa attempted to turn the retaining nut, but it didn’t budge. She frowned as she leaned
into the wrench and tried harder. The big nut refused to come loose for the small girl. Suddenly
she felt arms reach around her and take hold of the handles with her. Georgianna had been
standing behind Arisa and decided the girl needed some help. Georgianna added her considerable
power to Arisa’s and suddenly the nut came loose with a jerk. Everyone held their breath for a
moment.

Arisa looked over her shoulder, to see who had helped her. “Oh, thanks captain. That
retainer was really tight.” She turned back to the fuse and removed the lock nut and reset the
spanner to fit notches in the end of the fuse. “Ok Chad, let go of it, I have to turn the fuse to
release it. Keep your fingers crossed, this might be a bit of a jar. Don’t let it move, Ben.” Arisa
slowly applied force to the fuse and it began to move. She tried to keep it from jerking as the fuse
turned ninety degrees. “That’s it,” Arisa beamed. She took hold of the fuse and slowly started to
pull it out of the bomb. “It can’t set the nuke off now.”

The whole group visibly sagged, after having been tense for so long, then erupted into
cheers. Arisa pulled the fuse free from the bomb and stood in the middle of the milling group,
“Hey, careful!” She shouted over the noise, “this thing is a high explosive, and it could still go
off. That would make a lot of people really unhappy.” The group instantly stopped moving. “Is
there someplace safe I can set it?” She asked.

One of the techs quickly rolled over one of the woven metal boxes made to handle
unexploded, live ammunition. Arisa gently set the fuse in the big crate and the tech locked down
the top. Everyone began to breath again, all trying to thank and congratulate Arisa for defusing
the nuke.

Greg gave a sigh of relief, he told his munitions tech to take the fuse away and get it
safely stored. “Everyone,” he called out, “I think you’ve earned a break. Get something to eat and
get some sleep. Pilots, the techs can finish things here, but if you feel like coming back, when
you’re rested, we’d be glad to...............” Even muffled by the bomb disposal box, the explosion
sounded loud. It almost gave some of them heart failure.

Arisa looked at the tech sitting on the floor by the box, where he had landed when the
fuse went off. “It really was about to go off, wasn’t it.” she said smiling.

I really have problems getting ahold of the originals

Hugs Sakura, ....... I'm the problem sweetheart. I need to get it together and send the chapters, after fixing them. Time, all I need is more time....... and more money, sigh.

I took out all the extra breaks in the story chapters 32-51 and sent them, hope they got there all right.

Finally, I have chapter 52. Bet you thought I'd gone and quit on you. ....... Well, no such luck. I plan to keep at this till I get to the end. You're going to have to suffer through for a while yet if you want to know how things turn out.

This got to be a marathon chapter. I had several ideas to put in here, I hope you enjoy it. Things are going to heat up a bit, so read on and let me know what you think of it.

Chapter 52


Edward looked at the disheveled looking officer that entered the room. He stood up,
surprised, “Kirk! What are you doing here?”

“I shouldn’t be,” Kirk growled, “I should have been off that garbage boat before the went
to warp. Some welcome your men offered. I thought they were going to kill me”..........”Damn
woman, next time I see her, I’ll make her regret every bit of this.” He muttered, then looked back
up at Edward. “I thought you were supposed to capture that ship, Ed, or destroy it. What’s the
problem?”

Edward looked down at his officer sitting at his desk. “You’d better make sure that Kirk
receives the best of treatment, or I’ll have you shot. Kirk’s family has been one of our major
suppliers. They supplied the Nightmares your pilots are using.” Ed looked back at Kirk. “Sorry
for any mistreatment you got form these men.”

The soldier looked up, “Hey, sorry about the treatment, we didn’t know who you were.
We just got beat up pretty bad by that EDF ship, and, well, the guys were a bit upset. I don’t
know what happened, but that ship should have been disabled before it got here. And they
seemed to know we were coming. It’s like they could see us or something.”

Kirk frowned at the soldier, “I was told that cloaking system we installed was foolproof.
They couldn’t see those mechs. Even if they could, those units were just as good as anything the
EDF has. There shouldn’t have been any question of you defeating them.”

“Hey, the plans were good,” The soldier said, angrily, as he stood up. “My men are the
best there are.” He glared at Kirk.

“Enough,” Ed barked, “Whoever is commanding that ship must have some kind of
voodoo charm or something. He has to run out of luck sometime though. Is our man still on
board?”

“Ya,” the soldier said, stepping back, “He didn’t launch any pods, so he’s still there. If
none of the traps get them, he’ll still have a chance to disable them.”

Ed smiled, “good, We’ll take the ship when they get into orbital position. Make sure your
men are in position.”


Arisa walked into the lunch area, she looked around but didn’t see Chad in the room.
Most of the pilots were gathered around a couple tables, so after selecting a light lunch, she went
to sit down with them. She found a seat next to Megumi and started to eat her lunch. Strange
thing, when she sat down, everybody got rather quiet, and a few seemed to be trying to hide a fit
of giggles. Arisa looked at Megumi, “Did something funny happen?”

Megumi couldn’t answer, she broke down in a fit of giggles, so Ben broke in. “Well, the
captain and I were kind of wishing we could have fixed that Lancer of yours.”

Arisa was a bit confused, “huh? Why would you want that? Chad got it working just
fine.”

Ben reached across the table and took the picture viewer that Rose was holding. He
scrolled the pictures then handed it to Arisa. It was a very nice shot of the little pilot kissing the
tall boy.

Arisa’s eyes grew wide as she looked at the picture. “Oh....... did I do that? I guess I
wasn’t even thinking, I was just so happy that Kion was working again.”

Dominic chuckled, he noticed Arisa hadn’t blushed at all. Time to add a bit to the game.
“Scroll back a couple pictures,” he told her.

Arisa did as she was told and came to the pictures of Chad leaning over the console to
work underneath. “That’s when he found the problem, when he fixed................” Everyone was
starting to laugh. “Oh,” Arisa giggled, “That does look a bit suggestive, doesn’t it. Caught in a
compromising position?” She looked up and handed the viewer back to Rose, “ just don’t let my
dad see those pictures, or we WILL have a war on our hands.” If anyone had hoped to see Arisa
turn red with embarrassment, they were sadly disappointed. “Do you know where Chad is?” She
asked. “I thought he would be here.”

“He was here,” Rose told her, “but when he saw the pictures, he turned red as a tomato,
got some things from the vendors, and took off. I guess he’s a bit touchy about it.”

“About that?” Arisa wondered. “Well, I guess he could be the shy type....... maybe.” She
got up, “I’ll see you later, I want to get some rest.” As Arisa walked out, Rose watched her and
thought, now that was interesting. I wonder if she’ll get any rest.


General Parker looked out over his battle group, he was troubled, this seemed far to much
like the Tarsonis affair. He was going to make sure, this time, it turned out differently. The
general returned to his seat and called his chief investigator. “Tom, the battle group will be ready
to move out at eighteen hundred hours tomorrow. What have you found out?”

Tom was glad the general called. He’d been about to call the general and always worried
he might be interrupting something important. “We’ve kept tight surveillance on Mr. Ashford.
He made several calls to his home and they sent a ship for him. It has been harder to keep track of
him since, but we know he did communicate with someone. It was highly encrypted, and routed
through several proxies. We couldn’t make an accurate trace, but the techs are certain the call
went to someone at the OMI.”

“Damn, I was afraid of that,” George told him. “I didn’t want to believe it, but I’ve had
my suspicions. Keep your men on it, tell them to break that encryption, if they can. I want you to
head over to Victorville, Have a talk with that R&D man. If he knows anything, or even has
suspicions, I’d like to know before we warp out.”

“Yes sir,” Tom acknowledged, “I should be able to see him by tomorrow afternoon at the
latest. I’ll be sure to report to you before eighteen hundred.”

The general looked back at the view screens. He had to have any scrap of information he
could get. There was no way he was going to let this get out of hand. That was why he insisted
on accompanying the battle group. He was going to find out who destroyed those ships, and if
there was an order to attack, he was going to know where it came from.


John stopped at Georgianna’s door. He hesitated, this might not be such a good idea, but
it was his best chance. John rapped on the door and after a few moments, the door opened.
“Captain, I need to talk to you.” He told her.

Georgianna stepped back and let John into the room. “I know...... Look, I’m sorry. I
wasn’t thinking very straight right then. I misread what you meant. I shouldn’t have snapped at
you like that.”

John gave her a knowing smile, “don’t worry about it, things have been hard on you,
especially bringing up the Tarsonis mission. But that’s not why I’m here. I need your help. You
were always a better hacker than me, and being a captain, you should be able to get more
information than I can, to start with.”

Georgianna frowned, now what was he trying to get her into. If he wanted her access to
the ships files, she wasn’t about to get herself in trouble for him. “Alright Crichton, what is it?
I’m not sticking my neck out so you can get something on one of the girls.”

“It’s nothing like that,” John sighed. “Don’t you think this whole mission seems like a
setup? Something’s just not right. From what I overheard, someone onboard messed with Arisa’s
mech. Maybe there is someone messing with the others too. I’ve checked what I can. Arisa said
those black mechs were built by BAE-MIG. It just so happens that Forward Mining company, the
ones who own most of the operations here, are a subsidiary of a corporation that has a large stake
in BAE-MIG.”

“You think that corporation put guards out here to protect the mine?” Georgianna
questioned. “That wouldn’t make sense, it’s illegal for a corp to have weapons like that.”

“It must go a lot deeper than that.” John replied. “They just wouldn’t put that kind of
expense into a mining colony. And they certainly wouldn’t attack an EDF ship. What I’d like you
to do is get into the ship’s personnel data. I just want to see if anyone looks suspicious. If we can
connect anyone with that company.”

“You know, I don’t have the clearance to look at anyone’s files, except my own
command,” Georgianna said as she sat down at her keyboard. “I’d need the colonels password to
get into the personnel files, and I could get court-marshaled for that.” Her fingers moved quickly
over the keys, in seconds she had opened the files, the same ones she had hacked before the
mission. “So, who should we check first?”

John smiled, he knew she’d been in the files before. Georgianna wouldn’t go on a mission
if she hadn’t checked the personnel. “Since you’ve already gone over the pilots, how about we
start with the ships officers.”

Georgianna smiled, John still could read her like a book. She opened the ships personnel,
and scanned down the file.

“Wait a minute,” John stopped her scrolling, “go back to the top.” The second name on
the list was first officer Kirk Ashford. “What’s this? The parent company is Ashford industries.”

Georgianna opened his file, “let’s see who he is then........... Oh damn, he’s the son of the
owner of Ashford industries. What the hell is he doing here?” She looked up at John, “people
from rich families don’t serve on little boats like this, and we have two of them. Something really
isn’t right.”

“We’re going to have to find out what he’s doing here.” John told her. “There must be
some connection, the mechs, the mine, somehow it has to come back to him. Ashford has to
know something.”

The com sounded, the colonel called the captains to meet him in the ready room.
Georgianna quickly stood up, to quickly, she felt dizzy and stumbled into John. John wrapped an
arm around her and held her. “Whoa, take it easy there girl. I figure you’re still running on
empty. You need to get some food and rest.” John couldn’t help but reach up and gently push
back her hair.

Georgianna relaxed, she looked up at Johns blue eyes. He still felt so right, strong and
gentle. She laid her head on his shoulder for a moment, “I know, you’re right, but I have to go to
the meeting first.” Georgianna stood up and they walked out. She started to leave, then turned
back to John and quickly kissed his cheek, “thanks John, for caring.............. Maybe...... maybe
we can talk later, maybe we can try again.” She turned and walked off.


Arisa looked into the observation lounge, the ports were open now but Chad wasn’t there.
She crossed the room and stood next to the empty seats looking out the port. Arisa sighed, she’d
hoped Chad might be there, he must have gone to his room for some sleep.

Chad’s soda bottle stopped halfway to his mouth when Arisa walked in. She hadn’t seen
him, sitting with his back to the wall opposite the ports. Chad finally took a swallow and put the
bottle down. What was it about her that made him feel this way. Why did his heart rate speed up
and make him feel weak. He couldn’t stop looking at her, The way the sun from Mar Sara was
shining through her soft blond curls, her perfectly smooth skin, those clear blue eyes. Chad
looked down and frowned, thinking of how the pilots had laughed at him. He was not a “loli”
lover. Just because she got excited and kissed him........... and, she wasn’t a little girl........ just
because she was a bit small......... He looked back up at Arisa, backlit by the system’s sun. Again
he caught his breath. She had all the right curves, just like the other women, just, sort of in
miniature.

“It’s not quite as pretty as warp space,” Chad quietly told her.

Arisa jumped, then spun around, “Oh..... Chad, I didn’t see you there........ Umm, no, it
isn’t as nice as warp space. I was just wondering if we could see the planet from here.”

“I don’t think so, we should be spiraling in on the orbit so we’re probably nearly on the
other side of the sun from the planet.” Chad said, sounding like he knew what he was talking
about. Arisa walked over and sat next to Chad, his heart rate picked up a bit more. She was not
only really pretty, she was impossibly brave. He still couldn’t believe she had disarmed a nuke,
and acted like it was nothing at all. “You’re really amazing, Arisa. I couldn’t have worked on that
nuke like you did. It was all I could do to keep the pliers still that I was holding.”

Arisa pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. She smiled.
“I never thought I would get a chance to work on a real nuke, and a Hellfire on top of it.” She
looked at Chad with bright eyes.

Chad looked surprised, “You wanted to work on one? Weren’t you afraid at all?”

“Oh, I guess so, but I was to excited to think about it.” Arisa beamed. “I’ve always liked
explosives, since the first time I saw one of the tests at the lab. They let me study all the
information our companies have on explosives and munitions. I suppose the scientists thought it
was cute. I learned everything I could. I was making and testing explosives and fireworks before
I was in secondary school. The only thing I never got to work with was a nuke....... now I have”

“Oh,” Chad sat back, “you really are something, with what you know about mechs along
with bombs.............”

“I’m not that good, not with mechs anyway,” Arisa said, sitting back. “I just know the
basic stuff. You’re the one who’s amazing with the mechs. I heard you talking with the captain.
The techs at the lab told me never to mess with a power unit. That only the factory computer
equipment should align the sync ratios. That aligning them is almost like black magic.”

Chad fidgeted, “Well, it is kind of touchy. The master tech I trained under showed me
how. The power units aren’t always quite set right, and the sync tends to go off a bit as they’re
used. You can use gauges to set the power levels, but you have to, kind of, feel if the sync is
right. I guess a lot of guys can’t do it.”

Arisa rocked back and forth a bit, “Chad, could you check Kion’s power unit? It seems to
work just fine, but, I think I need any advantage I can get. I still don’t know......... I haven’t been
in combat, and......”

“Sure, no problem,” Chad told her.”I’ll look into it, but you won’t have any trouble.
When you get in a combat situation, you’ll find you just react, like instinct. That’s why we
trained so much.”

Arisa stopped rocking and sat still for a moment, “Ya, I guess so.” She looked at the
floor around Chad, there were a couple candy bar wrappers and an empty bag of chips. “I bet
you’re hungry, it doesn’t look like you had much to eat. Want to go to the cafeteria and get
something?”

Chad turned a bit red, “Ah... no, I’m ok, really. I don’t need anything right now.”

Arisa smiled, it was those pictures, she was sure of that now. What could she say to him?
“It’s those pictures Rose has, isn’t it.” She looked at Chad, he turned even redder and looked at
the floor. “I thought they were kind of funny. Just so my dad doesn’t see them.” This wasn’t
working at all. Chad seemed even more embarrassed. He was twisting his soda bottle and not
looking at her. She wanted him to say something. Arisa sat back and tried to look relaxed. “Was
that the first time you’ve been kissed?”

Chad stopped worrying his bottle, “well..... ah......... no, errr, yes, I mean, I’ve never
kissed any girls. No girl would have, not when I was back home, not even my mother, and, since
I was sent to the military......... “ Chad sighed, “I’d never kissed a girl before.” Chad was really
red now, looking back at the floor.”

Arisa smiled, she was right, he’d never been kissed.........a virgin boy, and he was all hers.
Well maybe, if she just played this right. Not that Arisa had much experience herself. The small
girl hadn’t exactly been a highschool boys dream girl. Most of the boys were arrogant idiots
anyway. Sure, she’d had a few dates, mostly with losers who could barely get up the courage for
a quick goodby kiss. Then there was the boy, two classes her senior, he was smooth and
experienced, and only took her out because he thought he could get whatever he wanted from the
younger girl. She’d had to, literally, fight him off. Arisa was left to call home, for someone to
come get her, when he dumped her. Her parents were waiting when she got home, her mother
was kind and understanding, her father just watched her angrily. The boy had never returned to
her school............ Yes, she had some experience, most of it bad. Now was her chance to do it
right.

“And you still haven’t, not yet,” she told him, “a quick thank you like that doesn’t count
at all.”

“Oh?” Chad said quietly. “It doesn’t? Ya..... I guess”

Arisa could hear the disappointment in Chad’s voice. “No, not at all.” Arisa turned and
faced Chad, sitting on her knees. “For it to be a real kiss, someone has to intend it to be a kiss,
not just a thank you, or a hello or something........... And, it has to last longer than that.”

There was a mischievous sparkle in Arisa’s eyes and a devilish smile on her bright red
lips. Chad didn’t know whether to say something, or try to run away........... He just stayed there,
feeling a bit like a mouse cornered by a cat......... Arisa leaned forward and wrapped her arms
around Chad’s neck and softly kissed him. Surprised for a moment, Chad didn’t know what to
do, but instinct took over and he wrapped his arms around the girl and deepened the kiss.

It was long moments before Arisa backed away. She sat back on her heals and looked at
Chad, a soft smile on her face. “Like that,” she breathe, then turned and sat next to him again.
“Now you can say you’ve kissed a girl.” Arisa wrapped her hands around Chad’s arm and lay
her head against him. Not bad, she thought, not bad at all. With some practice, he could be really
good........ She intended to be the one he practiced on.

Chad felt like jumping up and pumping his arms and yelling “YES!!” He didn’t, he just
sat there grinning, feeling the small girl next to him. This is crazy, he thought, I would never
have imagined some girl would be interested in me, especially someone like her.