Author: Ran
Date:Dec 6 1997
This book written by Ran. It is the 13th day of the 11th month of the year
1997. It's Thursday.
"You know you don't fool anyone.", insisted the green-haired girl. I shook
my head.
"Fool?"
"Yah, that cute act of yours. You've been acting that way ever since we
came here.", she insisted.
"So? Is that wrong?", I demanded.
"W-", said Emiko as I interupted her.
"If I stop, I may not be able to start again."
"You mean being cute?", she asked. She took a step back and ran a hand
through her hair.
"Mhmm!", I replied, chuckling. She paused. She seemed to be pondering
something.
"We'll, I can be cute too. I can use this, and wear this...", she asserted
while pointing at her old outfit.
"And practice dates?", I asked, remembering something.
"Those too, I can do those also." Again, she paused. "But really, Lan,
what's the point? No one here knows you, you don't have a reputation or
anything."
"It's us. And me. Hehe.", I smiled.
Emiko quickly shrugged, and pretending to be nonchalant walked away.
When I walked into the other room, she was practising her kicks. "You
too?", I asked.
"It's hard to fight with anyone here. I have to [dress up] just to fight."
"Ya'mean...", I asked. When desperate, we'll do anything.
"Mhmm. The culture here isn't the same." I just nodded, walked out, and
got some food to eat. After getting something to snack on, I went back to the
control room.
"[Video On]", I said, waiting a second. Looking at the screen, I yelled,
"This is Lan! It's okay! You can come down now!"
As the little baby hovered onto the screen, he quickly said "Weih! It's
Lan! We can come?!"
"Yup. It's perfectly okay."
"I'll tell! I'll tell! Weih!", he said, hovering off the screen.
"[Video Off]", I said, causing the screen to flash.
After that, I went to my bed to rest.
It was peaceful for a few minutes. Then everything shook for about a
second, so I got up. Okay, I thought, that must be her and friends. So I
jumped up and walked to the front room. I sat down on the couch and yelled for
Emiko. She came after a short delay.
"Finally. You get kinda lonely.", she admitted.
"Mhmm!"
We had to wait another few minutes before everyone finally came.
"Weih!", greeted the hovering baby as we opened up the door.
"Just you?!", I demanded, "Where are your- my friends?!", I demanded.
"She said not to tell Lan this, but 'dey went somewhere else. She was
afraid to meet you, Lan. Oopsie, I wasn't supposed to tell you that." The
hovering baby shrugged, and hovered in.
Understandably upset, I made a face and that made him back off. "Don't
worry, Ten, Lan isn't upset at you. You were a good boy."
"I came! I'm a good boy!", replied the baby, slowly landing on the couch.
I walked into the pilot room, turned, and yelled at the screen to come on.
"[uplink] to [Machine Professor]."
The screen flashed, and then a robotic figure appeared. "Hello, Lan. This
is [Doctor] speaking. Input your question, please."
I turned and yelled for Ten and Emiko, who came shortly. The robot seemed
confused.
"Am not sure I understand. Could you state that as a question, please?", it
asked.
"Doctor, this planet.", I said once Emiko and Ten were here.
"Overview: X73-3 is the third planet in the X73 system. It is lightly
inhabited. X73-3 is listed as a travel advisory. Exercise caution."
The image paused, but then continued. "X73-3 is a size 2 [Rock and Water]
planet. All environmental factors are within acceptable limits for
operations."
"Inhabitants.", mumbled Emiko, waiting for an answer.
"Not much is known about the inhabitants of X73-3. The eco-system appears
to contain a number of predominantly [highly-developed / mammalian] life
forms. The only culture on the planet is called 'Human'. There appears to be
estimated 5 bil-"
"Human, description.", inquired Emiko.
"Not much is known about this race. While it does appear to show some signs
of being [sentient], it the are debatable and questionable at best. Encounter
with humans should be treated with extreme caution. All that is known is that
they are experts at developing highly destructive weaponry."
"Destructive Weaponry...", echoed Ten, almost melodically.
"Despite their [lack of technical know-how], reports indicate the
development of several sophisticated and highly destructive weapon systems.
Outside intervention by [non-humans] is suspected, but not proven."
We all paused, not having much else to ask. Finally, I asked "[sub-races]
and [sub-cultures]?"
"No information avaliable on that topic.", replied the figure on the screen.
"Previous expeditions to planet.", I continued.
"None have been noted.", replied the doctor. I yawned as Emiko ordered the
screen off.
"Emiko, you can go out with Ten. I'm getting some sleep.", I told her,
wandering into the bedroom.
I slept about 5 hours. When I woke up, I was a tad hyper so I got up and
walked out of the room. I walked around my ship yelling "Hello?! Anyone
here?! Emiko? Jariten?" No answer. So I walked up to the front door,
yawned, stretched, and ordered it to open. It was dark outside. I looked
around but didn't see anyone. So I went back inside and back into the pilot
room. "[navigational] screens.", I mumbled.
We were on a small island in the middle of a large ocean. I was getting a
bit hungry. "Population density.", I ordered.
The system echoed "no information avaliable."
I yawned, still a little groggy. But I forced myself to become attentive
when I heard some weapons fire and distant explosions. At first, it sounded
like Emiko and Ten playing around, but when the ship announced "[defensive
weapon]'s activated", I jumped into the chair and quickly began the emergency
takeoff countdown. About 5 seconds later I heard the buzzing noise which
signals it's okay to lift off, so I made the ship rise for about a second and
then went to maximum thrust. I ordered the navigational system to mark the
landing location so I could find Emiko and Ten again and then accelerated the
ship as fast as I could in some random direction. Once I got to a nice speed
I just yawned and evened out the speed. There was some more weapons fire and
a few objects disappeared from the [tactical] screen. After a few minutes of
silence, I did a half loop and then then ordered the ship to approach and land
at the same spot.
As I was crusing back, I got some video-mail from Ten's mom. She basically
said she was too busy to be his mom.
"Why'd you have a kid, if you don't want to be a mom?!", I demanded.
"He was an accident. I just don't have time for him. I'm a [career]
person."
"We'll, I'll do my best to look after him."
"Please don't be to soft on him, Ran. I want him to be a good kid."
"Of course not.", I replied.
"Do you mind?", she asked.
"No. Good practice. Bye.", I answered. The ship landed itself in the
exact same spot a while later.
Emiko and Ten showed up at the door a little concerned. "What?!", demanded
Emiko.
"I was just exercising my thumbs. If you don't want to get left behind, get
on.", I ordered. They both consented.
As the door closed, I grabbed Ten and made a nasty face. Since I'd grabbed
him by the back of the neck, I kept his face away from me and ran him over the
prison room. He tried to attack me but it was too late, he was too suprised.
"Weih!", he yelled, pounding on the door and breathing fire, trying to look
menacingly. "How was I bad?!"
"Your mommy gave you away to me! You're mine now! All mine!", I yelled and
then turned my back. Emiko shrugged as I returned to the front room.
"What was that all about?!", she asked.
I yawned again. "I promised Ten's mom I'd look after him like a parent and
wouldn't be too soft on him. I'm tired and I don't have time to deal with him
now.", I admitted.
"Oh. Mind if I play with him a-", asked Emiko, but I quickly cut her off.
"No. He's mine. Lan's. Don't go near him.", I ordered.
"If you say so.", Emiko replied.
I made faces at the perturbed Ten through the cell door, and then went back
to sleep.
I woke up in the middle of the night. The ship warned, "Prisoner
containment system has failed." Shit. I grabbed the electric whip I kept
nearby my bed and yelled.
When I got to the cell door, holes had been burnt in the door and Ten was
trying to fit through one of them. "Hah! Yer too fat!, you big baby!", I
yelled, charging the whip and hitting the metal door with it. JTen's body
tensed up and went limp for a short while. Once the stun had worn off, he
quickly breathed a line of fire at me. I jumped to avoid it, but it did push
him back outside the door and into the cell room. I raised the cell door and
stepped inside.
"If you can beat Lan, then you can leave. Otherwise you're mine.", I
ordered. Holding the whip, I advanced on him again.
I sensed he was about to break down, but he wasn't giving up yet. He turned
away and began to cry. Anticipating a suprise, I got ready to jump and held
the whip back.
After five seconds, neither one of us had moved. It was a standoff. Aside
from his whimpering and the quiet noise of the whip, there was nothing.
Just as I pulled the whip back in the final motion to swing, he quickly
turned and breathed fire. Not caring particularly, I began the stroke, aiming
for his face. We both got each other. He lit my gown on fire before I
knocked him aside and sent him spinning, breathing all over the walls. I
didn't particularly care to put out the gown, it was fireproof and would go
out on it's own.
I felt my [nature] acting on it's own, I just just kept going after Ten with
the whip. After about a minute he fell to the ground exhausted.