All Anime World

Sorry, took a while to get back at this. Now that Chad is cleared, is he going to fit in with the group? What are they going to do when he meets up with Georgianna? Say, they still haven't found out where their going. More fun and adventure coming up, stay tuned.


Chapter 20


Arisa stopped by her room before she joined the others in the cafeteria lounge. She was
hungry she picked up a tray of food at the counter and joined Megumi who was eating a bowl of
ramen.
Georgianna saw Arisa come in and sat down by her. “You must have had a lot to tell the
colonel. You sure took your time getting back.” She commented.
“I had a little trouble...........” Arisa stopped, she shouldn’t have said that. “Um, I met
Chad, he was going to see the colonel.”
“I told you to stay away from him,” Georgainna broke in, “What did he do to you?”
“No, that wasn’t it,” Arisa told her. “He wasn’t the problem, in fact, I was lucky he came
along, he helped me out. I just hope the colonel lets him off. I don’t think he did anything.”
“HA,” Georgianna laughed, “you don’t know anything about him. Chad doesn’t belong
here, he’s not one of us. He’s a criminal. I don’t know how he got to be a pilot, but he doesn’t
belong with us. When things get tough, you’ll see, you can’t depend on his type.”


Chad couldn’t believe his luck, the colonel had only kept him a few minutes, then told
him to go back to duty. No reprimand, no lectures........ what’s with that? Or was there something
more? Was he being set up for something? Maybe, the logs in the Firefly had proved his case.
Chad sighed in relief as he wandered to the cafeteria....... he stopped outside the door. He heard
captain McFairlane’s voice. He didn’t want to meet up with her. Then he heard what she said.
Chad turned away, frowning. So, he didn’t belong, they wouldn’t accept him. Just like the others
he’d been with, they’d reject him because he was from the wrong end of society. Chad wandered
into the hangar, he felt at home among the mechs, at least he understood them. Well, most of
them, he walked up to the platform in front of his Firefly. That mech had ghosts in it.
Bob came down the elevator from Chad’s mech, wheeling the cannon on a cart. “Well,
looks like you got off easy. The colonel must have been in a good mood.” He grinned at Chad. “I
guess the stuff we found wrong convinced him. We got that mech fixed up. Should be good to
go, ah, except for the cannon, I’m gonna clean and check it over. That’s one strange mech
you’ve got there.”
“Ya......Ah, thanks,” Chad replied as Bob pushed the cart away. Chad looked up at the tall
mech. It did have some special abilities, but it sure was scary to use. If he could just learn to use
it, if he could make himself valuable to the group, maybe then he would be part of the gang. Chad
climbed onto the platform and picked up the helmet, others must have learned to use it, so he
should be able to. He thought about the training, when he was busy, he had almost forgotten
about the fear. Maybe you just needed time to get use to it. He had come on it rather
unexpectedly.


Greg was connecting some odds and ends of communication and test equipment when
Bob came into his office. Bob plopped down in a chair by the desk. “That Firefly is a lot stranger
than I thought,” Bob said as he watched Greg patch wires together. “I figured I’d check out the
sensors on it, I had the helmet on and was checking down the list when I found an odd one, said
full field, I turned it on and about had to change my shorts.........” Greg looked up at him. “It was
like the whole mech disappeared,” Bob continued. “I was sitting in mid air, near scared the crap
out of me. I ripped the helmet off, and there I was sitting in the mech cockpit. I put the helmet on,
and I was back sitting in mid air. It’s unreal, you can see all around, like the whole mech is made
of glass. I’ve seen a lot of recon mechs, but this is something new. Where the heck did that thing
come from?”
“Geeze,” Greg replied, “I haven’t a clue on that one. I’ve never heard of a mech with that
kind of capabilities. No wonder the pilot was so wound up. Can you imagine turning that on in
space? It’s got to be a bit frightening....... I get my com rig running, I might be able to find out
something.”
“Well, I have to get the cannon cleaned up,” Bob sighed, “they aren’t supposed to fire
that many tracer shells at a time.”


Greg worked on his collection of parts, he got it hooked up to the ship’s auxilliary
antenna just in time,. He had a set time to chat with his friend at Victorville AFB, back on earth.
It wasn’t really going against regualtions to use the com gear this way, at least there wasn’t
anything in the book against “testing” one of the units. His friend was a tech at Victorville, and
often worked on the mechs that the R&D boys were developing. If anyone would know about
that odd Firefly, it would be his friend, Jack. The com system they used was subspace, so no
audio, but it was almost instant. Greg typed a greeting and almost instantly got a reply.
“How’s it feel, getting back in space again? Everything going smoothly? Got a good
crew? “ Was Jacks first message.
Greg smiled, If only Jack knew. He typed in, “Seems like more than the usual mix of goof
offs. The Colonel decided on a bit of training and we had some real action.” Greg explained the
live fire incident and the apparent sabotage.
“Wow,” Jack sent back, “that’s a bit scary. Good thing it happened in training. There’s
some strange things going on. There’s some suspicious stuff happening at HQ. People are getting
pretty testy. We have are own mess going down here. Seems the R&D boys lost a mech, one with
some very classified new stuff. It was supposed to be shipped back from the moon, but they got
a new Firefly instead..”
“Oh?” Greg sent, “Can you tell me, what it was like?”
“An old recon firefly, we put in a ton of sensors, and a very advanced computer. It’s
supposed to be a big advance in recon and battle control. Project was called dragonfly. There was
a big problem with it though, Nobody can pilot it in space, for some reason it drives the pilot
nuts. They lost three pilots, one had heart failure, other two are in the hospital, catatonic. Word is
they were going to scrap the project.”
Greg stared at the screen a moment. Drives pilots nuts........ but that’s Ross’s Firefly. It
scared the kid, but he wasn’t insane........ at least not yet. Greg started typing, “I think we
have.......”
Bob slammed open the office door, “It’s gone!”
Greg looked up, “What’s gone?”
“Ross’s Firefly,” Bob answered, “I was going to put the cannon back, and it’s not there.
Greg hit the com button, “Yuki, where is lieutenant Ross’s Firefly.”
“Lieutenant Ross took his Firefly out of the ship to do some training.” Yuki replied. “He
is no longer showing on any sensor sweeps.”
“Damn,” Greg said, “contact the colonel, we’ve got a lost mech.” Greg typed, “hang on,
we have a problem.”
Jack looked at the last message. “I think we have hang on, we have a problem.” He
scratched his head, now what. He hoped they were alright.
Greg had Yuki put him on the long range com. The ship was accelerating at a tremendous
rate. If Chad went out and wasn’t secured to the ship, and had drifted away from the Krikav,
there was no way he could have kept up, he could be thousands of miles away by now. Why
hadn’t the kid called in if he was falling behind? “Lieutenant Ross, where are you?” He called
into the com........... “Answer me, Ross.” What if something had gone wrong with that old mech?
Or what if what Jack said about the pilots was true?
.

Time for the next thrilling chapter. Kid I leave you hanging sufficiently there Hiki? Are we going to find out Chad's fate in this chapter? Well read on.



Chapter 21

At moon base Tycho, a tall blond man meets a dark haired woman in a corner of a bar.
“Do you realize what you sent them?” She asked. “R&D has the security boys searching all over
for it.”
“Don’t sweat it, sweetheart,” He replied, “I heard, I erased all traces of it. They won’t
find a thing.”
“Don’t be so sure, fool,” she growled, “they stopped to do some unofficial training. They
ended the training early, what if they found what it is? They’ll bring it back to the R&D people,
security will be all over it. It was my clearance you used, if this comes back to me, you’re going
to hell with me.”
“Don’t be such a drama queen, babe,” he said smoothly as he wrapped his arm around
her. “They’re set to warp out any minute, there’s no time to return it. You’ll get what you want
anyway, seems that mech has some new technology that’s frying the pilot’s brains, making them
go insane. The kid’s gonna end up a vegetable, isn’t that good enough?
“You better be right,” she whined. “ That would be fitting for that gang member,
spending the rest of his life in a padded cell.”


Daniel lay in his bunk, thinking. A special recon mech, maybe he could use that. If he
could send Chad in cloaked, they could make sure there weren’t any surprises for the team when
they went in to repair the subspace transmitter. Yuki called and informed him of the missing
mech. Dan jumped out of bed and headed for the hangar. Ross again, he thought, the kid’s trying
to drive me crazy. They were only minutes from making the jump to warp speed. Dan called on
his communicator, “Yuki, hold off on the warp jump.”

Dominic found a com terminal and got clearance from Yuki to open a message session.
He sent a message to a friend on moon base. His friend was in R&D and he thought he might
know something about Chad’s mech.
At the moon base, Dom’s friend, Gustav, sighed as he sat down at the terminal and started
typing. “How’d you con them into promoting you to captain?” He sent. “Well, it’s about time,
congrats.”
“Thanks,” Dominic returned, “But that’s not what I called about. I wondered if you might
know anything about a special recon mech?”
“And what’s so special about it?” Gustav asked.
“Looks like an old Firefly but has more sensors than most ships, lot’s of extra computer,
and cloaking.”
It was a bit of a pause before Gustav answered. “That sounds like the Dragonfly project.
Look, you didn’t hear anything from me, got that? The Americans have been working on a highly
advanced recon and battle command mech. They had it up here, but there’s a big problem with it.
There were a lot of medical people around, the thing is messing up the pilots. Rumor has it
they’re going to abandon it. It’s highly classified, how the hell did you hear about it.”
“Just heard some rumors going around, Gus,” Dom sent back. “Have to get going, thanks
for the info, that I didn’t hear from you.” Dominic headed to the hangar. So, somehow they got a
classified R&D mech, but it causes problems with the pilots. He’d have to talk with the techs
about that, and warn Chad. He sure didn’t want to lose a pilot. Captain Torres got a bit of a shock
when he got to the hangar and found his pilot was already lost.

In Washington D.C., a special investigations officer entered the office of general George
Parker. At the general’s gesture he sat in a chair across the desk from the general. George looked
up at the young man, Tom had a thin face with short dark brown hair. His eyes were brown and
had the sharpness of a predator.
“We haven’t been able to locate it yet, sir,” Tom told the general. “We have uncovered
the fact that the clearance of a colonel Marge Brooks was used to gain access to the system.”
The general looked up, “Brooks? She was the one involved with that court marshal She
didn’t seem like one who would turn traitor.”
“She has been observed meeting with one of the men we have been investigating,” Tom
answered. “They seem to be having a romantic affair. It’s possible she is involved, or is being
used. We are looking into it.”
“Damn,” George said, “if she turned that mech over to them, it could be bad. We have to
find that mech.”
“I thought the system was dangerous, a dead end. The R&D department told us the
program was being canceled. If it’s that bad, why would it be so bad if the enemy took it?” Tom
questioned.
“It’s flawed, that’s an understatement, but there’s no way we can cancel that program, it
has too much potential.” The general told him. “It’s just rumors we planted, that it’s being
canceled. We’ve got to perfect that cloaking system, and the sensors they developed. If the enemy
gets a chance to learn those secrets, and discovers why it’s so dangerous, we could end up losing
to our own technology. Damn, with the conspiracy, the trouble at Mar Sara, the incident at
Tarsonis, and now this, something very big is going down.”

Greg was getting worried. Why hadn’t Chad answered? They couldn’t be out of com
range. Even with a delay he should have answered. He turned the volume up on his microphone
and called again. “Lieutenant Ross, this is maintenance command, answer me.”
After a moment he heard a sleepy voice. “Huh....... ahhh, who........ what’s going on?”
Greg was relieved. “Alright, don’t worry boy, we’ll send out a shuttle, just turn on your
emergency transponder.”
“What? Why would you do that?” Chad questioned.
“You’re to far out to catch up, we’ll have to bring you in.” Greg told him.
“Huh? I’m right outside the launch door,” Chad said.
“You can’t be, Yuki can’t pick you up on the sensors,” Greg insisted.
“That can’t be right, I’ve got a safety line on, I’m right by................... Oh........ Just a sec,”
Chad came back.
“Blue four, Lieutenant Ross is now six point three meters from the launch bay door,”
Yuki declared over the com link.
Greg was startled, “What?....... But how could.......”
Colonel Hellwind, smiling, reached past Greg and pushed the com button, “Ross, get
your mech inside and stowed. Yuki, proceed with the warp jump.” He stood back and looked at
Greg, “Cloaking, Greg, he has a real working cloaking device.”
“Yes sir,” Chad quickly answered.

Nice, things seem to be going right for the group for once. Then again, what awaits them is way more interesting than what has happened so far :D

Yes, it's been quite a while, it's a busy time of year. I finally got another chapter done. Chad's back on board, but is he in for a dressing down for his action? How will the colonel handle this one. What's happening with the rest of the group? Did they all just head off to bed? Read on to find out.

Chapter 22

Chad climbed down from his mech. Might as well get this over with, he saw the three
men waiting for him, the colonel, his captain, and the master tech. Chad figured he was in for it
this time.
Dominic was the first to speak up. “What the heck were you doing outside?”
Chad stood stiffly in front of the men. “I was training, sir.”
Dominic scratched his head, “the training was over long ago. What more did you think
you were going to do?”
Chad visibly sagged, feeling defeated. “I know captain McFairlane told you where I’m
from......... what I am. I thought, if I could learn to effectively use my mech, that you might accept
me. I can’t use it if scares me that bad every time. If others can use that machine, I have to be
able to. I thought that maybe, I would get use to it if I just used it more. If I could just master it, I
could fit in with the squad.”
He must have heard Georgianna’s rant, Dom thought, so that’s what’s going on. “I don’t
give a rat’s ass what captain McFairlane says, Chad,” Dominic told his pilot. You’re a Blue
Dragon, don’t forget it.”
Chad looked at Dominic and half smiled, at least his captain was on his side.
“Were you actually sleeping out there?” Greg asked.
Chad looked down, turning a bit red. “It wasn’t very scary at all this time. Actually it was
kind of quiet and peaceful, like laying out under the stars at night.” He turned even redder. “I
guess I was more tired than I thought.”
“Sleeping?” Dominic questioned, “Chad, I found out that thing’s dangerous, it’s been
messing up pilots.”
Greg was laughing, “Don’t get up tight, Dom, I heard it was scaring the pilots out of their
mind. Seems your pilot just doesn’t scare that easy. Wait till the R&D boys hear this one.”
“Alright,” Colonel Hellwind broke in. “We can’t have a pilot falling asleep on a mission.”
Chad stood up straight when the colonel addressed him. “Get to your room and get some sleep,
and that’s an order this time, lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir,” Chad replied and headed toward the door.
“I’ll make sure he does,” Dominic told the colonel as he followed Chad. He found Rose
had been standing by the door listening, and she joined him.
Dan looked at Greg, who was still chuckling. “What do you know about Ross’s mech?”
Greg answered, “I found out from a friend, it’s a classified R&D project called
Dragonfly. The mech disappeared from the moon base. I’ll come up and tell you more about it in
a while, I have something to finish now.”
As Chad walked with Dominic and Rose, he turned to look at them. “I know what call
sign I want to go by. It’s the name I gave my mech....... Ghost.

Arisa was getting more than an earful about the evils of gangs from her captain.
Georgianna was doing more than her share of venting after Arisa told her she shouldn’t use
generalities about gangs to apply to one person.
Finally Arisa got up to go get some sleep. “I’ll just have to talk to Chad and find out what
his life was really like.”
“You stay away from him,” Georgianna told her, “That’s an order.”
Arisa looked shocked, “you can’t tell me who I can associate with, even if you are my
captain.” Arisa turned and stalked out of the room.

Aiden realized he was sitting holding a cold cup of coffee. He’d been gone again, spaced
out. Where did his mind go at those times? It was right at the edge of awareness, but he couldn’t
bring it out. He felt, if he could just remember, that he could break away from this. Aiden heard
the last of the exchange between Arisa and Georgianna. He watched Arisa stalk out.
“You know, she’s right, captain.” He said quietly to Georgianna. “We don’t have the
authority to control their personal lives. Even If we’re trying to protect them.”
Georgianna put her head in her hands and leaned on the table. “She doesn’t understand.
She doesn’t know what those people are like.”
“Oh, I’m not so sure,” Aiden replied. “I don’t think she’s as naive as you think. Kids from
her type of family learn a lot more than you know. She’s old enough to take care of herself.
Besides, I’d worry a lot more if it were Crichton she was interested in.”
Georgianna groaned, “Oh lord, don’t even mention him.”

After Dominic left, and Rose followed him, Ben got to feeling kind of lonely. He was
happy when the little asian girl came to sit at his table. He knew she just ate a bowl of some kind
of noodles, but he offered her some of his large pizza.
Megumi had quickly gotten bored with the discussion going on between Arisa and
Georgianna. It was too bad John wasn’t there, he’d be pretty funny. Megumi decided to move
over and talk to the big guy, Ben. Besides, he had a large pizza that looked really good.
Ben was fascinated by the small girl. She ate nearly as much pizza as he did, and she’d
had that bowl of noodles. He was impressed that her family owned a fighting school, one of those
dojo things. She’d been learning how to fight ever since she was a little girl. He had seen several
of those old martial arts movies and he wished he could do that ninja stuff.
Megumi was interested in Ben’s stories about his mining life. He’d lived out among the
asteroids since he was a child. She’d thought of miners as being in holes in the ground and
digging with pick axes, she didn’t know how high tech asteroid mining really was. Ben awed her,
he was by far the largest man she’d ever met. That liter bottle of soda almost disappeared in his
huge hand. They were the last to leave the room.
“Maybe you could teach me some of that kung-foo stuff sometime.” Ben said, hopefully,
as they left the room.
Megumi couldn’t quite suppress a giggle at the image of this huge bear of a man
attempting a spinning kick. But gosh, if he learned to do it, he could knock down a cement wall.
“I’d love to show you how it’s done. I think we might need more room than we have in this ship
though.”
Ben liked her smile. They said their goodnights and headed to their rooms.


Greg typed a message into his clandestine transmitter. “You still around, sorry about that,
I found your lost mech.”
Greg waited a few minutes and finally a reply came through. “You have it? Are you sure
it’s the R&D boys mech? Whatever you do, don’t let the pilot out in it.”
“To late,” Greg typed, “He was just out training in it. I thought we lost the thing.”
“Oh crap,” Jack came back, “how bad is the pilot.”
“He’s just fine,” Greg laughed as he typed, “just a bit tired. He fell asleep out there, we
had to wake him up to find him.”
“HE WHAT?” Was jack’s reply. “You’re kidding me, right? You haven’t had a pilot in it
yet. Just keep them out of it.”
“I’m not kidding.” Greg sent. “He actually was asleep. He said it was scary as hell the
first time, but once he got use to it, it was quiet and peaceful. You can tell the R&D boys their
mech works.”
“I’ll tell them when I see them.” Jack answered. “They’re going to want that thing back,
and that pilot. They’ll want to take him apart and find out what makes him different.”
“Well, they’ll have to wait till we get back from this mission.” Greg told him. They
finished their conversation and signed off.

It's taken me to long to get back to this. So many thing going on in my life at the time.
Well, people are sleeping and all's well............ or is it? Lot's can go wrong in warp drive, and we've seen some plots against them already. Well, here we go, the next exciting chapter.


Chapter 23

Daniel got back to his room, he was tired, it had been one hell of a day. He sure hoped
Greg could explain to him what was with that old Firefly...... or Dragonfly, he’d called it. With
this bunch, he just hoped his sanity would survive this mission. Oh well, they were just
transporting a repair crew, nothing to worry about.
“Colonel Hellwind,” Yuki called, “You have a message from General Parker.”
Dan smiled, the general had been a good friend of his father. When his Father’s ship had
been lost on a mission, George Parker had become like a father to Dan. He was probably
congratulating him on his promotion and new command. “I’ll look at it after I get some sleep,
Yuki.” Dan replied.


General Parker looked up from his desk as his head of special investigations came in and
sat down. The young man looked tired. There were just to many things piled on him right now,
but he was doing a good job. The general didn’t know anyone else he would have trusted with
such important work.
Tom sighed and looked out the window. “There’s worse news sir, we’ve lost contact with
the Krikav.”
General Parker sat up, “Damn!.... When?”
“We haven’t been able to contact them since they went into warp drive.” Tom told him.
“We tried all the emergency channels too, nothing.”
The general put his head down in his hands. “Damn, damn, damn....... I should have
stopped the mission. It’s happening just like the Tarsonis incident.”
“More than you think,” Tom told the general, “The OMI lost contact with the ship they
sent in to gather intel. We’ve lost two ships, just like Tarsonis.”
“I have to stop this,” Parker said, “We can’t have that happen all over again.”
Tom shook his head, “I’ve heard there is already a push by the OMI to send in a task
force. It may already be to late.”


Ian Higgins looked at the paper that Damien Ashford had handed him. He had an evil
smile on his face. So, that fool Kirk Ashford had gone after Arisa, and now wanted off the ship
they were assigned to. The Ashford’s had been “friendly” rivals of his business empire for
generations, but now things were going just like he’d planned.
“They wouldn’t listen to me,” Ashford told him. “You’re friends with Parker, you could
get them pulled off this mission. You don’t want your daughter on a little tub like that, she should
be on one of the Jupiter class.”
The paper hissed slightly as Ian threw it into the desk’s incinerator.
“What are you doing?” Damien cried, “You have to get Kirk....... get Arisa off that ship.
They’re engaged, you have to get them off so they can be married.”
Ian laughed, “I know all about your plans. Your son isn’t very good at this. He didn’t
cover his tracks very well.” Damien looked startled. “Yes, I’ve had him watched, and he’s
reacted just the way I knew he would. My men caught his assassin, and my son is safe and well.
Your plot to make your son heir to my business was just what I needed. I’m claiming the right of
vendetta against your family. I’ve already filed with the courts. I’m going to take everything you
own.”
Damien sat, white faced, “You can’t. Your, daughter......... you promised her to my son,
our families will be.......... You have to talk to Parker, you have to get the off.”
Ian pressed a button on his desk, “There’s no engagement to scum like your son. They
can stay where they are. Arisa wanted this, now she has to live with it.” Two large men entered
the room. “Get this garbage out of here.”
As the men dragged Damien out, he called back, “You don’t understand, they’ll be killed.
That ship is going to be destroyed.........” Damien gasped, he’d said to much.
Ian stood up, “What do you mean? Why would it be destroyed?”




Oh, no........ What happened to the Krikav? Will the general be able to find it? What's going to happen with Arisa and Kirk? Who is going to survive? Or is this the end of the adventure?

Did I leave enough suspense for you?

Well, I've been trying to write this chapter for a long time. I guess It's been hard to make it say anything I wanted it to say. It's mostly just some character development and filler stuff, sorry. I won't be able to write more till I get back on Feb 20. I just hope I can think up some good stuff while I'm away. So on to Chapter 24, I promise more action is coming.



Chapter 24


Georgianna smiled as she wrapped a towel around her neck. It had been a good workout,
and she was feeling a lot better than yesterday. Time to hit the cafeteria for some breakfast.

Colonel Hellwind finished his breakfast and sat down at his desk. “Yuki, let me see that
note from general Parker.” The message quickly popped up on the screen. Dan frowned, this
wasn’t the message he’d expected. His fist tightened as he read. This wasn’t just a repair run, the
miners at Sar Mara were in open revolt. The communications that were included with the
message made it clear. This should have been handled by a battle group, not a single carrier. He
read the last paragraph. “I wish I could have recalled you, Dan, but that might have tipped off
whoever arranged your mission. There are problems in the EDF, and we can’t risk compromising
the investigations. Good luck Dan, don’t let this be another Tarsonis.” Dan slammed his fist on
the desk, Tarsonis! It was a damned suicide mission.

Chad looked around the cafeteria area, he was the first one there. Chad looked over the
choices on the dispensing machines. He took two bags of chips, a couple candy bars and a large
soda. He smiled as he turned around, then almost ran into captain McFairlane. “Oh....... ah, sorry,
I didn’t see you.”
Gorgianna stared at what Chad was carrying. “You aren’t going to eat THAT, are you?”
“Well...... ya, I’m hungry and ......... ah.” Chad stepped back from the shocked look on the
captain’s face.
Suddenly, Georgianna laughed. “Oh lord, you don’t need enemies, that stuff’s going to
kill you.” She selected an orange and banana, some yogurt and granola. “I’ll have to teach you
something about good nutrition some day.”
Chad headed for the door as Georgianna went to sit down. He was looking her direction
when he ran into a solid block in his path. Ben looked at Chad, “Hey, great, let’s get something to
eat........... You weren’t going to eat that stuff?” Ben dragged Chad back to the machines and
picked out eggs, pancakes, ham, bacon, hash browns, juice, coffee. Ben insisted that Chad get
some eggs and bacon, at least. Chad wasn’t that interested in eggs, but the bacon and juice were
pretty good, so he choked the eggs down with it. Chad couldn’t believe Ben could eat all that
food, even if he was such a big guy.

Georgianna stiffened when she heard the voice. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a good day
after all.
“Hey, hot stuff how about a little company. Can’t let a babe like you sit alone, now can
I?” John laughed.
“Just go away, Crichton,” she told him, “these seats are all taken.”
“Hey, I don’t see anybody.” John looked around. “Must be you have imaginary friends.”
John spotted Megumi choosing her breakfast. “I’ll just wait till you’re in a better mood, sweety.
There’s always plenty of old Johnny to go around.” John went and followed Megumi as she sat
down at a table.
“That’s the problem, John,” Georgianna whispered.
Ben saw Megumi come in, and kind of hoped she might come sit by him. When John
walked off to a different table with her, Ben felt a disappointed. He knew he couldn’t compete
with a guy like John.
Megumi sat down with John, she thought it was funny the way he was trying to pick her
up. It was funnier yet watching him deal with his hangover and still try to be the “cool” guy. She
would have liked to sit with Ben, he was such a nice guy, but he was sitting with Chad, and she
wasn’t so sure about him. Oh well, maybe she’d get a chance to get together with the big guy
later.
Aiden came in with Geofrey, he frowned when he saw John with Megumi. He picked up
his food and went to sit next to John. He’d meant what he said when he told Georgianna he’d be
more worried about the girls if it were John after them......... John behaved himself.


Chad spent some time checking over his mech. It looked like Ghost was ready for action,
Bob had done a good job repairing the systems. Chad didn’t find anyone around so he borrowed
some tools and did a bit of adjusting to the power generator and hydraulics. Satisfied with his
modifications, Chad headed out to the observation ports. Chad had never seen the strange look of
the universe of warp space.
Arisa was wandering around the ship, there was more than fifteen hours left till they came
out of warp at their objective and she was a bit bored. She found herself at the observation lounge
and was drawn to the amazing rainbow of colors outside the ship. She was staring out the port,
and jumped, startled by a voice.
“Incredible, isn’t it,” Chad said from behind her. “I know we learned about the color shift
in training, but the descriptions don’t come near the reality.”
Arisa spun around and stepped back. Was he following her? But she saw that Chad was
sitting on the floor across from the port, with his back against the wall. “Geeze, you startled me.”
“Sorry,” Chad replied as he got up, “I was just watching the stars when you came in.”
Chad walked over to the port. “It’s kind of hypnotizing.”
Arisa felt a bit wary as Chad walked up to her. She remembered what Georgianna had
said, though, she still didn’t think the young man was as bad as the captain said. Arisa had better
sense about people than Georgianna suspected.. She wasn’t as naive as the captain thought,
Georgianna didn’t know her family.
Chad unfolded one of the observation port seats and sat down, Arisa leaned against the
far edge of the observation port facing Chad. She notice that he was taller than her, even when he
was sitting down. He didn’t look like a dangerous person to her. She liked his steel grey eyes.
Arisa looked out the port, “I don’t think captain McFairlane is right about you, I don’t think
you’re that bad of a person.”
“Maybe I am,” Chad replied, .......... “or, maybe not.”
Arisa shook her head, “No, I don’t think you’re the type. I know you aren’t from the same
class as the other pilots. Georgianna told us where you’re from, that you belonged to a gang. I
guess the other pilots would have a hard time accepting you.”
“Humph........ You got that part right,” Chad grouched. “I don’t belong, I’m not good
enough to mix with the rest of you. You want me to go back with my kind, the brainless ground
pounders.”
Arisa sighed, “That’s not what I meant. I guess I’m just curious, what your life was like.
It must have been so much different than the rest of us. The hardest thing in life for most of us
was exams in school............. But, maybe I shouldn’t ask about..............”
“Na, it’s ok,” Chad told her, “it’s not a life I’m proud of, but it’s my life. Probably the
best thing that happened to me was when that judge sent me to the military. It’s a tough life, in
the lower cities. If you aren’t part of a gang, you aren’t going to make it. My mom had seven
kids, I was the youngest. The more kids you had the more money the welfare gave you. I don’t
know who my dad is. Mom had different men a lot. She got money from them.
“Doesn’t sound as if you liked your mother much.” Arisa observed.
“Hmmph.... She didn’t care about me, or any of us.” Chad growled. “She only cared
about money......... My older sister, Eileen, took care of me. She was the leader of the Midnight
Rocker gang. There is nothing for you, if you come from the lower city, all you can do to live is
illegal. I was best in the gang at jacking cars, till there was trouble, and they left me behind.
Military is the best thing I’ve had. I was one of the ground pounders, till a general saw me racing
the obstacle course. I ran an old SA-2 Hawk against one of their pilots’s Thunderbird. The
general must have been impressed that I beat the guy, he stuck me in pilot training. She’s right,
you know, I don’t fit in, I’m not your kind, and most of the other pilots made sure I knew it.
“It sounds like a really hard life,” Arisa replied, “but I don’t think anyone has a right to
say you don’t belong with us. We might have had things a lot easier, but I’m sure most of the
pilots have some story they keep hidden. I joined to get away from my family. The class of
people I come from sees women as something to be used.” She saw Chad’s shocked look. “No,
not the way you’re thinking. We’re bargaining chips, to cement family ties, and loyalties, or to be
sold off to gain some advantage or some way in to another family’s business. I didn’t want to be
tied down to someone like Kirk, I had to get away...................... Wait a minute! You beat a
Thunderbird with an old SA-2? You can’t do that, we developed the Thunderbird to overcome
the weaknesses of the Hawk.”
“It was a bit hopped up,” Chad confessed. “The guy who did it was really the best, and
the other pilot wasn’t all that good..........” Chad had turned a bit red faced, but his mind caught
that statement, “we developed the Thunderbird” It suddenly came to him, where he’d heard the
name, Higgins, before. They owned the largest industrial group in the empire. She couldn’t be???
“Um...... Are you one of the...........” Suddenly a message came on the intercom.
Georgianna had been wandering the ship, just wasting time when she spotted Arisa at the
observation port with Chad. She was about to step in and break them up, but remembered
Aiden’s words. Georgianna waited and watched, ready to step in, but found she didn’t have
cause. It was interesting hearing the stories of the two pilots. Arisa was right, most of the pilots
had stories of their own, she frowned thinking of why she had become a pilot.
“All captains are ordered to report to the ready room in ten minutes,” Yuki’s voice blared
over the intercom.
Georgianna walked into the observation room. “Well, isn’t this cozy. Be careful not to get
a starburn.” She laughed, then walked up to Chad and said in a low voice. “You cause her any
trouble and I’ll cut your nu............” She looked back at Arisa then at Chad again, “let’s just say
you’d regret it.” Georgianna smiled and walked off.
“She’s as scary as Eileen,” Chad said.

Character development is good :3
Good luck with writing the next chapter C:

I really wanted to get in another chapter before I left for vacation, but, to many problems, with selling the business, Crisis Girl's car breaking, SHE,, got sick, then I got sick. I'm not ready to go!!!!

Wow, that sucks... hope it all turns out for the better so you can go back to finishing this :D

I'm working on it......... I promise. I have grandkids here for a week and a half.