Ion 417: Raiju

by James Darcey

  Hiro interjected, "I knew you were a Martian!"

  "I don't know what a Martian is, or even what a movie is for that matter. The story of my mother being born in Sendai is true, and I really am just trying to find her family. Today at the crowd, I was anxious when Sakura was pushed down and kicked. I tried not to hurt anyone, but I had to stop them from hurting her. So, I tried something I wasn't sure I could do, and spread the shock out to catch everyone."

  I held up my hand like I had shown Sakura earlier, and let a charge dance along the fingers. The coloring powdered and fell off leaving my hand and lower arm its natural color. I heard the gasps from everyone. It felt a bit odd showing off what came naturally for me, and had it been Teyrn watching, he would have simply made a few notes in his record as though the whole show was just what he'd planned for.

  "I could have walked into that police station and knocked everyone unconscious before rescuing Panzo. They would have had a difficult time stopping me, but they hadn't really hurt me or Panzo. They were simply doing their job."

  Hiro's enthusiasm was in high gear, "You went to the police station? Did you help them fight bad guys?"

  The children were excited to see the things I could do. Hiro was talking about taking me to school for his class to see, and Sai was arguing with him that she got to take me first. After the fear I'd seen from others, their enthusiasm was a welcome relief. Akita still wasn't going to give his approval, and the children pressing him just added to the exhaustion I could see etched around his eyes. Sakura stepped in to give him a break.

  "Children, it's time for baths and bed. It's late and you still have school in the morning."

  They moaned and slowly walked up the stairs to prepare for the night. The reluctance to end the excitement made it look as though they were being sent off for execution. One slow plodding step up, followed by a sigh, and then repeat for the next step. With them out of the room, Mr. Masema fairly exploded with concerns. One of his men had thought he was doing the right thing when he gave the images to the news. Akita had fired the man for acting without authorization.

  I started to object, but he waved it aside, "Discipline is critical. Many lives depend on my men doing exactly what they are told, without question. Such actions put a strain on the team that I cannot have."

  When his security team had examined the images a lot closer than even what the news had done, it became obvious to them that a handful of people had used the crowd to cause the entire riot. The consensus from the video experts was that one of the terrorists must have used a device to create the electrical surge, and it had backfired upon them. They had assumed that the green arm was some suit designed to create the electrical burst.

  Akita had recognized Sakura in the images, "I knew that it wouldn't take long before someone else recognized her, so I bumped the erase button. If they connected her to the trouble, there would be several people trying to find her to get information on the green figure. That would be you. Such people probably wouldn't care if my family were in their way."

  "By green figure you mean me. I already told you that I would not harm her."

  "There are many people who wouldn't stop to wonder if you minded whether they sliced you open to look inside! That type of person would go through anybody or anything to get what they wanted, including my family!"

  "They can't cut her open! We like her, and she saved mom!"

  We hadn't noticed Saiyuki standing there drying her hair. She came over to cling to my arm. I raised my arm, and she went up with it; her fuzzy, pink feline slippers dangling in mid-air. She was giggling as she kicked her feet.

  Hirohito came down the stairs a moment later to see his sister dangling, "Can you do that with me?"

  He was a little heavier than her, but not enough to unbalance me. I alternated which one was up and dropping the other one lower for a few minutes. The way that Akita was staring at me told me that I had done something wrong, or at least beyond what I should have done.

  "How can you lift them so easily? Hiro must be at least thirty kilos."

  I realized I had just added another notch to the alien concern he had, when he asked how I could do that. To me it seemed normal, but then again, so had throwing bolts of electricity across the room. Thinking back it had taken three men to lift Sakura to the examination bed at the hospital.

  "Normally I practice with a few hundred kilos, but this gravity is somewhat less than I'm used to. It makes it easier to do things like this, and pick Sakura up to run her to safety."

  Akita clapped for attention, and explained to the children that I was special. A wave of his had quieted the comments about them already knowing that. He continued with telling them that it was extremely important that they not tell anyone who I was or what I could do. He went on to tell them how he understood that they might want to tell friends or even bullies, but that wouldn't be good. If other people found out about me they could try to take me away and hurt me. They might also hurt the family to get to me.

  "Think what happens with those rangers when someone finds out who they are."

  I don't know if he was talking about Yellowstone Rangers, but the children knew what he meant without clarification. They seemed to understand his words, but they were disappointed that they couldn't even share with friends. They slowly climbed the stairs amid yawns and parting words. It was late and we all needed to rest. I promised them I would still be around tomorrow. I cast a glance at Akita for confirmation, and he gave a tired nod.

  Sakura showed me where the bath was so that I could wash off the mess of the day. That's when I discovered another difficulty. The dress wouldn't come off! I had to go to their door and gently call her. She followed me back to the bath where she tried to undo the zipper. We finally resorted to cutting the zipper out. It had apparently started to melt. So much for my new dress; melted zipper and bullet holes.

  I filled the bath with water and added half the water I'd brought with me. Not perfect, but much better that just bland water. I lay back letting the water soak in to ease the stress. I'd forgotten to get any of the other sanitation essentials from the ship. I had to look around before finding a small bottle of soap.

  After I found a towel and dried off I realized I had nothing to wear. My dress lay ruined on the floor where it had fallen. It was dirty and bloody as well, making me really not want to put it back on. I wrapped the towel around me and quietly walked to the end of the hall. Hanging on the door to the room I was using was a fancy dress. Sakura had thought of it. Leave it to her to be one step ahead with planning things, like using the currency to convince Akita to let me stay.

  TOC

  JU NI

  I woke to the sound of buzzing. An incessant, pulsing buzzing, that had dragged me from the depths of a black oblivion of unconsciousness. I wasn't even sure of where I was for a moment. The confusion brought me fully into the realm of knowing that I was awake, but only just beginning to know where. It took close to five seconds for my tired mind to fill in the blank with Tsukune's room. When I realized that it was still black even with my eyes open I knew it was only hours after I had lain my head down. Still, where was that pulsing buzz coming from? From the wrist comm that had slid under the sleeping mat.

  I pulled it out, and for about half a second contemplated testing both the aerodynamics and durability of the device. Instead, I tapped the screen to be rewarded with Panzo glaring at me. He was still wearing the same coverall, so I doubted that he had even had the two hours of rest that I had. His eyes were very bloodshot from fatigue, so my guess was that him and the un-sleeping Lafiel had been hard at work digging through the information storage of this world's internet system.

  "Captain, finally. I've been trying to reach you for oh, four minutes now. Are you safe?"

  "Let me guess. You found something more exciting than fish on this information network, and need an interpreter to figure out what it says?"

  Lafiel's voice broke into the link, "That's the hard part. It's as bad as when
we tapped into that satellite. Too many languages. We've had to rely on videos and images."

  Panzo came back on the screen, which dutifully split to show them both, "We aren't the first outsiders to visit this world. I've found images of three species, and a couple others that I've never seen before. From what I can gather it seems there are entire government organizations devoted to tracking down aliens for capture. Captain! They actually resort to shooting down ships they find, just so they can get at the crew."

  "I've heard a few clues about a race I'd never heard of before; Martians. Supposedly greenish skin like me."

  "Their term for these aliens is to call them little green men. Green! Green apparently is not a normal color for Humans; they'll take you away thinking that you're an alien. They have pictures of Selstlaks, Indigal, and even Goynin. We are not the first to be here, nor was Teyrn Elon the first. He just managed to get away before they caught him."

  Lafiel sounded worried, "What's going to happen when they find this ship? It isn't a question of if, but when, they do."

  A bright blue ship sitting in an open courtyard would only go unnoticed for so long. There was enough fuel in the ship to reach about fifteen parsecs. That wasn't quite enough to get them back into the civilized galaxy. That wouldn't even get them to the nearest habitable world. From what I'd seen so far, Earth hadn't progressed much in terms of space travel yet. That could change rapidly if they got their hands on a ship that hadn't been blown up.

  Akita had said there were people that wanted to study me, if they could find me. He knew about this. Just how much more of this didn't I know about my own people? Most of them were really good, but some were beginning to sound as bad as Teyrn Elon.

  I remembered back to all the times I had been strapped to a table and tested. I had been cut open, stretched, pressed, and a hundred other tests he had dreamed of. I couldn't bear the thought that that same treatment might happen to my friends because of me, and by my own people. Akita had even warned me about it. He knew the dangers I faced from the governments.

  I had kidnapped Traxel, and bound Panzo to me with an oath. Lafiel was stuck wherever the ship was. They were all my responsibility to protect until I could find a way to get them home again. The weight of responsibility was feeling rather heavy on my shoulders. The only way that Panzo and the others was ever going to see home again would be to either signal a visiting ship before they were captured, or find a way to create the plasma infused fuel needed to power up the zeta field.

  I had to hide the ship before any more people wandered up that path and found it like the children had. My only idea was to procure enough fabric to drape over the ship so that it would be obscured until something more solid could be constructed surrounding it.

  I knew how much I had paid for that dress that now lay ruined on the sanitation floor, and creating a dress big enough to fit the ship would take a lot more currency than I carried. Probably more than all the gold in that box would cover.

  I also needed more clothing to wear, since the clothes I had purchased might take another day to arrive. I had a few things on the ship, but with this new information those clothes might mark me as an alien. Sakura had made sure I was dressed in local attire before we went out shopping yesterday.

  "Thank you both for letting me know about this. I'll do whatever I need to do to keep them from cutting up you or the ship. After all, I promised to get you home. Lafiel, can you shut down the information link so that Panzo goes to bed? He's ready to fall over."

  "I've been telling him that for hours. He hasn't slept in two days. Oops, I just shut down all power to the lower deck."

  I could see the lights in the common room going out one after another, and then the yell from Panzo when she shut down the terminal screen in there. I bid her good night and tapped off the comm. I tapped off my comm link and did my best to clear my mind for sleep once more. Counting with my mother helped. Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, raku, shichi...

  It seemed like just the blink of my eyes, but already the sun was shining brightly through the open window. I still held the comm in my hand from last night; that panicked call from him had really happened. Silently I vowed that I would find a way to dress the ship. They wouldn't cut open my friends.

  The house seemed quiet; there weren't any hushed whispers and running feet as they listened to the door. A better glance out of the window told me that the sun was well high in the sky. I'd slept much later than usual. I wasn't accustomed to using as much energy as I had yesterday. My guess told me it had been nearly nine hours since I lay down for sleep.

  Now it was time to get busy protecting my friends. They couldn't really cut up Lafiel the same way they could Panzo, but if they cut open the ship it would bust up her core, where a very real brain resided. The same thoughts let me realize that my friends now included the family that had taken me in.

  I had a choice between the dress that she'd left out for me, or a few things in the closet. They all seemed to be either top half or bottom half. I slipped on the dress and went down the stairs to see what the day would bring. It was almost the right size, save for being a little tight in the chest.

  I found Sakura kneeling and trying to push a cloth along the wooden floors to clean them. I gently scolded her for ignoring the doctor's instructions, and she tried to laugh. Doctor's orders or no, the chores never ended. Akita supported the family with his work, and this was how she supported them as well. I helped move things out of the way, and took up the cloth. I could almost run as I pushed it ahead of me, and it didn't take long to cover the entire floor.

  With the floors done, there were only a few other spots to touch up before she was satisfied with the look. One thing had puzzled me as I cleaned where she pointed, "If Akita works at a place that builds robots, why don't you have one to clean the floors?"

  "The robots his company makes are meant for places that build things. They cost more than he earns in a year."

  "Don't they have any small ones for doing things like this?"

  "Even the small ones cost money, and I don't mind cleaning the floor."

  "Except when you've been injured. I had a thought. Why don't we go up the hill to visit my friends? I need to discuss some things with them, and Lafiel wants to meet you. I'm sure Panzo would like it as well, but he's probably still sleeping."

  "You brought us food last night so now it is my turn to bring them lunch. We can make it an outing."

  I tapped the comm, and Lafiel answered right away, "Good morning Captain Ion. I'm sorry about waking you last night, it's just Panzo gets worked up trying to sort through the information systems without a clue to know what the images are about."

  "I can come translate some more, but I'm finding out that my mother didn't list all of the words either. I understand enough to talk to people, but there are just so many things I've never heard of. I'm bringing Sakura with me, and maybe she can help."

  "Just so long as she isn't a government agent, it should be fine. We really aren't equipped to take on people who shoot down ships just for the pleasure of slicing up the occupants."

  "If she were a government agent, don't you think she would have told the authorities to keep Panzo in that cage? She knew he wasn't wearing any disguise the moment she saw him and said nothing."

  "Good point. Maybe by the time we get there Panzo will be awake enough to say hello."

  "He's been awake for a few hours, Captain. He's decoded enough to find the word for crystal, or gem, and started looking for information on places that make them."

  "Why does he want gemstones?"

  "Not gemstones as such, but crystals. Our fuel is basically micro-millimeter silica crystals that have been pumped full of energy until they turn into plasma. Artificial gem producers seemed the best chance for creating plasmatized sub-micron crystals."

  "I should have been the one thinking about fuel for the ship."

  "He's an engineer. He needed a project, and short of my finding random items to break, this seemed the
best way to keep him busy."

  "Ok, we'll be up there shortly. Then I can translate what he's been able to find."

  Sakura had been patiently waiting while I talked to Lafiel. As soon as I tapped to end the call, she was ready with a can of the spray tanning that we'd purchased yesterday.

  "It might be easier if you took off the dress so that I can reach all the spots. What language was that you spoke?"

  "We're only going up the hill to where the ship is landed. Are you sure I need to spray that stuff on now?"

  "Outside is outside. The moment that you think nobody will see you, is the moment they will not only see you, but have a camera. So, unless you want that pretty midori face of yours to be seen on every television set in Japan, better be ready to use this stuff. And speaking of that ship of yours, how do you plan to keep it from being seen?"

  "I don't know for sure. I thought maybe make a dress big enough to cover it. Do you know where to get fabric?"

  "A dress? Oh, I see. Cover it in fabric to hide it, but that won't really fool anyone that gets close to it."

  "It's the only idea I had. I had no idea that I'd have to be hiding it from other Humans."

  "Perhaps when you find your mother's family, they will have a better idea. For now, hold still."

  The spraying went a little easier this time. With her help I soon had the wig in place, and looked just like the rest of the people I'd seen on the streets of Sendai. My feet wouldn't quite squeeze into the pair of shoes that she had to match the dress, so I was left with my boots once more.

  From one of the cabinets in the kitchen she pulled out a woven basket with a flip open top. While I was trying to figure out what this had to do with meeting my ship mates, she folded a couple of cloths into the bottom. I finally realized her intent when she pulled out a pot to fill with water for cooking.

  I reminded her of the doctor's orders, though I still had my doubts about such people. She actually listened when I told her to sit on the stool and I took over the preparations. Salt in the water, and wait until it was boiling steam from it before dropping those dried rice kernels into the pot. So that's the secret!